November 15, 2021

Man in Florida Keys dies jumping off boat to catch football

Sheriff’s officials said the California man jumped off the boat to catch a football and landed in shallow water.

A California man died after diving off a boat to catch a football and landing in shallow water in the Florida Keys on Saturday, authorities said.

Witnesses told Monroe County Sheriff’s officials that 46-year-old Liam John Daly took a diving leap into the water, but was facedown and unresponsive when he resurfaced.

The Sun Sentinel reported that authorities met the pontoon boat back at the docks and transported the San Diego resident to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2021/11/15/man-in-florida-keys-dies-jumping-off-boat-to-catch-football/

Wonder if he made the catch...

November 15, 2021

Lawyer: Man with Florida address missed court because he's dead

The death certificate for the man charged in a scam was written by hand.

MILFORD, Conn. — A man who had a Florida address and was charged with running a scam that cheated a woman out of $83,000 missed a recent court date and was supposed to be rearrested, but his attorney says that will be impossible because his client has been dead for months.

Johnny Masesa’s attorney told state’s attorneys in June that he received a death certificate saying his client died from complications of malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has family. The Connecticut Post reported police and federal authorities have been unable to confirm the authenticity of the death certificate.

Masesa and others are charged scamming a Connecticut woman out of money by posing as representatives of the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes. The woman told authorities someone called her and said she was in the running for a prize but needed to transfer money in order to claim it. Some of the money wound up in an account under Masesa’s name, according to authorities.

The 45-year-old Masesa was arrested in 2019 and pleaded not guilty, and posted a $25,000 bond using a Florida address, the Post reported. He was scheduled in court Nov. 4 but didn’t appear. Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Howard Stein told the newspaper the death certificate was written by hand and appeared to have several spots where corrections were made with correction fluid.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2021/11/14/lawyer-man-with-florida-address-missed-court-because-hes-dead/

Nothing suspicious here...

November 15, 2021

How Republicans Are Distorting Inflation and Supply-Chain Problems

Prices are surging for reasons largely beyond Joe Biden’s control, but that won’t stop G.O.P. cries of “Bidenflation.”

Like virtually everything else in America, the Consumer Price Index has been politicized. Last week, after the Labor Department announced that prices rose by 6.2 per cent in the twelve months to October, the biggest jump in thirty years, the Republican National Committee tweeted, “Bidenflation is hurting working Americans all over the country.” It’s abundantly clear that Republicans now see inflation as a winning issue going into next year’s midterm elections. “The entire Republican ecosystem is united on this fact because it’s a leading issue amongst voters,” one G.O.P. strategist told the Hill. Moreover, there are signs that the Republican strategy of pinning responsibility on the President is working. On Sunday, the Washington Post published a poll indicating that almost half (forty-eight per cent) of Americans believe that Biden deserves “a great deal” or “a good amount” of the blame for rising inflation.

With some economists predicting that the inflation rate could rise even further over the next few months, the Republican onslaught on Biden will only intensify, but it can’t stand unchallenged. Many of the factors contributing to the inflation surge are beyond the immediate control of any President. Sticker shock at the gas pump is primarily a result of a decision by the opec oil cartel to restrict production at a time of rising demand. Higher prices for new and used vehicles, which have been one of the biggest drivers of the rise in the C.P.I., stem largely from a shortage of new cars caused by a lack of computer chips imported from Asia. Higher rental costs, which contributed to the most recent jump, can be traced to spiking real-estate prices and rock-bottom interest rates.

The so-called supply-chain problem, which lies at the heart of the broader inflation surge, is a global phenomenon rooted in a faster rebound from the worldwide coronavirus shutdowns than many people had expected. “As the global recovery gains traction, demand for raw materials, intermediate inputs and logistical services has outstripped available supply leading to rising and volatile prices, and delivery delays,” the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (B.I.S.)—the central bank of central banks—notes in a new report. Shipping costs have soared, cargo vessels have been forced to queue for days to gain access to ports, and the situation has been made worse by “precautionary hoarding at different stages of the supply chain,” the report goes on.

This global logjam is leading to higher inflation in many countries. In Britain, in August, consumer prices recorded the biggest one-month jump on record. In Germany, the inflation rate topped four per cent, the highest figure since the nineteen-nineties. In the nineteen-country eurozone, the inflation rate in October was 4.1 per cent, according to a preliminary estimate. In Russia, inflation is running at more than eight per cent, while, in Brazil, it’s nearly eleven per cent. These figures bear further inspection. If the Biden Administration’s spending policies have been a major factor in driving prices higher—as Republicans claim—you would expect the inflation rate to have jumped a lot further in the United States than in Europe, say. That hasn’t happened. Between January, 2020, and October, 2021, the U.S. inflation rate increased by approximately 4.7 percentage points, and the eurozone’s inflation rate increased by 3.7 points. The U.S. jump is bigger, but the figures are roughly in the same ballpark.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/inflation-and-the-great-global-logjam

November 15, 2021

3G shutdowns could leave most vulnerable without a connection

Older phones, emergency alert devices and alarms are set to lose service in 2022

The wireless networks that underpin an assortment of devices, including life-alert alarms, older cellphones and tablets, are about to shut down, an action that consumer advocates say will leave some of society’s most vulnerable people without critical communications tools.

When they were rolled out nearly two decades ago, 3G wireless networks served as the bedrock of an explosion in cellphones and connected devices. Many devices have moved to 4G networks and newer phones are now moving onto 5G.

But a motley assortment still relies on the more rudimentary 3G service — ranging from location sensors that track school buses to connected breathalyzers police use to monitor convicted drunk drivers — and consumer advocates are urging the Federal Communications Commission to slow the change, which is set to start in February.

Older and low-income Americans are more likely to be affected by the shift, these advocates say. If they don’t upgrade in time, their phones and life-alert devices won’t be able to call 911 or other emergency services, government regulators warn.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/13/3g-service-ending-fcc/

November 15, 2021

Fox's highest rated new series The Anti-Mask Singer

LOS ANGELES – Fox’s viewership has reached astronomical new heights with its smash new television hit, The Anti-Mask Singer.

“This show really speaks to our core audience,” says Fox spokesperson Braeden Donnelly. “Specifically, Republican morons who would rather chug horse dewormer and essential oils than wear a tiny piece of cloth over their stupid faces.”

The show is a spin-off of Fox’s series The Masked Singer, which sees mystery celebs don outrageous masks and belt out Top 40 hits while the judges attempt to guess their identity. In contrast, The Anti-Mask Singer throws all that hint-dropping and guesswork out the window when the singers step onstage sans mask. The judges shout out the person’s name, and then watch them awkwardly sing 45 seconds of a Tom Petty song. The singers work their way through the Americana catalogue until one of them wins the coveted $10 000 prize, which can be applied towards either a visit to a hospital or Trump rally of their choosing.

The Anti-Mask Singer also pays homage to its predecessor with a special “Who’s behind the rasp?” round, during which judges must identify COVID-positive singers disguised by hoarse voices, bloodshot eyes, and D-list celebrity status.

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2021/11/foxs-highest-rated-new-series-the-anti-mask-singer/

November 14, 2021

It Follows Earth Around the Sun. Just Don't Call It a Moon.

New data suggest an object known as Kamoʻoalewa was shorn off the moon by a meteor impact before becoming a quasi-satellite of our planet.

Space is vast and lonely. It is perfectly understandable, then, that a little rock would decide to tag along with Earth and the moon on their yearly circumnavigation of the sun.

Said rock, 165 feet long, was discovered in 2016 by Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid-hunting telescope. This eccentric entity’s Hawaiian name, (469219) Kamoʻoalewa, means “wobbling celestial object.” As it repeatedly loops around Earth, this shy body never gets closer than 9 million miles, which is 38 times farther out than the moon. It gets as distant as 25 million miles away before swinging back around for a closer encounter.

Calculations of its orbital waltz indicate that it began trailing our planet in a relatively stable manner about a century ago, and it will continue to pirouette around Earth for several centuries to come. But where did Kamoʻoalewa come from? It is difficult to study the object with telescopes because of its tiny dimensions and its tendency to hide in the shadows.

But in a paper published Thursday in Communications Earth & Environment, a team of scientists reported that they might have solved the mystery. By observing Kamoʻoalewa during brief moments when it was illuminated by the sun, astronomers worked out that it appears to be made of the same sort of frozen magmatic matter found on the lunar surface.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/science/moon-kamooalewa-asteroid.html

November 14, 2021

Schiff Says Jan. 6 Committee Will 'Move Quickly' To Refer Meadows For Criminal Contempt

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who chairs the House intelligence committee and serves on the Jan. 6 select committee, on Sunday said that the committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 will “move quickly” to refer Trump former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for criminal contempt after his refusal to meet with congressional investigators last week.

“I’m confident we’ll move very quickly with respect to Mr. Meadows also, but we want to make sure that we have the strongest possible case to present to the Justice Department and for the Justice Department to present to a grand jury,” Schiff said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Schiff added that means ensuring that the committee “bends over backwards” to reach any agreement it can with witnesses that are willing to engage.

“But when ultimately witnesses decide, as Meadows has, that they’re not even going to bother showing up, that they have that much contempt for the law, then it pretty much forces our hand and we’ll move quickly,” Schiff said.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/schiff-january-6-committee-refer-meadows-criminal-contempt

November 14, 2021

Tucker Carlson Cites "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" as Early Example of Cancel Culture

WASHINGTON — Fox News host Tucker Carlson used the 1981 Dead Kennedys song “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” as one of the first examples of cancel culture and bias against traditional conservative views, multiple aging viewers confirmed.

“Hearing this grotesquely un-American song filled me with shock and horror I haven’t experienced since Barack Hussein Obama entered our White House,” the Republican standard-bearer said with disgust. “Viewers of this program know the left is obsessed with cancel culture, and this song uses expletives to disenfranchise people who like to start fights at shows. If they can cancel Nazis, they can cancel you, kidnap your children, and drink their blood. This song might appeal to AOC and her social justice warriors, but those of us who love this country have authentic punk bands like Brutal Attack on our playlists.”

And if the Democrats know what’s good for them, they should remember what made a band name like Dead Kennedys possible in the first place,” Carlson added before cutting to a commercial break for blood pressure medication.

Tucker’s fans applauded his defense of their right to say and do whatever they want without any consequences.

https://thehardtimes.net/culture/tucker-carlson-cites-nazi-punks-fuck-off-as-early-example-of-cancel-culture/

November 14, 2021

Battle among Ecuador prison gangs kills at least 68 inmates

Source: AP News

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A prolonged gunbattle between rival gangs inside Ecuador’s largest prison killed at least 68 inmates and wounded 25 on Saturday, while authorities said it took most of the day to regain control at the Litoral Penitentiary, which recently saw the country’s worst prison bloodbath.

The killing erupted before dawn at the prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil in what officials said was the latest outbreak of fighting among prison gangs linked to international drug cartels. Videos circulating on social media showed bodies, some burned, lying on the ground inside the prison.

The shooting lasted around eight hours, officials said, and then new clashes were reported in part of the prison in the afternoon.

Presidential spokesman Carlos Jijón finally announced after nightfall that “the situation is controlled throughout the penitentiary.” He said about 900 police officers had taken control of the situation.

In the initial fighting, inmates “tried to dynamite a wall to get into Pavilion 2 to carry out a massacre. They also burned mattresses to try to to drown (their rivals) in smoke,” said the governor of Guayas province, Pablo Arosemena.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/guillermo-lasso-ecuador-guayaquil-violence-crime-5ae3283e86d3f5326e9b598dc80c9d21

November 14, 2021

Stop Telling Me Trust-Fund Kids Are Financial Wizards

Millions of poor folks have ambition, intelligence, and drive. But they did a much shittier job of choosing parents wealthy enough to grease the slide to success.

Elizabeth Holmes might be regarded as a privileged, entitled fraud now, but for a few years there she was mostly identified as the world’s “youngest female self-made billionaire.” The chattering classes damn near wore themselves out fawning over Holmes as a model of indefatigable rise-and-grindism, whose “dues-paying,” “honesty, hard work, self-reliance and perseverance” had taken her—a “college dropout” they kept reminding us— from child “prodigy” to tech “wunderkind.” (“She only pauses in her work to run—seven miles a day,” The New York Times gushed in 2015.)

No one’s charging that everyone who ever said anything nice about Holmes, who is currently facing several federal criminal charges, should have known the Theranos founder was allegedly swindling rich marks for their untaxed millions.

But what is definitely worth noting is that Holmes, whose congressional staffer mom and ex-Enron vice president dad reportedly used their connections to hook her up with the same megarich investors she would later reputedly defraud, was never a “self-made” anything. All the endless hailing of her as such was as much a part of the con as the rest of her now debunked story.

Holmes was breathlessly and repeatedly compared with very rich entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, all of whom I only bring up because none of them are self-made, either. For all the boot-strappin’ mythologizing of their supposed backstories, not a single one turned rags into riches, billionaire messiah-style.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stop-telling-me-trust-fund-kids-are-financial-wizards