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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:25:00 GMT -8
The Only Thing Flat Earthers Have to Fear is Sphere Itself.
America's Worst Export
Five people have died after a 73-year-old gunman opened fire at a block of flats in Toronto, Canada.
Police responded to reports of the shooting at the building in Vaughan, about 30km (19 miles) north of Toronto, at 19:20 (12:20 GMT) on Sunday, shooting the suspect dead there.
Another injured person has been taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Authorities are investigating the motive, including a possible connection between the gunman and the victims.
York police chief Jim MacSween said attending officers were met with a "horrendous scene", with numerous deceased victims found in different flats of the building.
"We're in the process right now of doing notifications to those families, so at this point I can't share any information on the victims or the subject," he said.
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which probes police-involved deaths in the region, said in a press statement that the dead is a 73-year-old man.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:31:22 GMT -8
What Could Be More Scientific Than a Poll of Your Own Twitter Followers?
Twitter users have voted in favour of Elon Musk stepping down as the platform's chief executive after the billionaire ran a poll on his future.
A total of 57.5% voted "yes" after Mr Musk asked his 122 million followers whether he should stand down.
Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn), said before the poll closed that he would abide by the result.
The technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.
Mr Musk is yet to comment since the poll closed. Even if he were to resign as chief executive, he would remain as Twitter's owner.
More than 17.5 million users voted in his poll on Monday, with 42.5% voting no to Mr Musk stepping down.
How About Asking the Capital Markets?
While much of Elon Musk's attention seems to be wrapped up in Twitter as of late, Tesla stock is enduring its worst sell-off since it debuted in public markets in 2010.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker are down roughly 62% since their peak in November 2021, and have shed more than 22% in December.
The recent slump is steeper than the 60.6% plunge Tesla saw during a month-long stretch in February to March 2020, which was the prior worst drop ever, according to Compound Capital data compiled by Yahoo Finance.
On Monday, Oppenheimer was among the first major analyst firms to issue a downgrade for Tesla's stock, CNBC reported, rating it at "perform" from "outperform" before.
The South African entrepreneur has sold nearly $40 billion worth of his Tesla shares to help fund Twitter, even as an estimated $1.2 billion interest payment comes due over the next year. His personal fortune has dropped by about half, to $156 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, which tracks real-time net worth of the world's richest people.
Maybe Ask Car Buyers. All Those "Woke" People Who Buy Teslas
The last straw for Heather was Elon Musk's vitriolic attacks on Anthony Fauci, one of the world's most respected immunologists and the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. For Logan, it was when Musk, days after taking over Twitter, ordered employees to stop paying bills to vendors for services they'd already rendered.
For Tom, Musk's corrosive and erratic leadership of Twitter since he bought the social media site at the end of October was just too much.
And when each of them called to cancel their Tesla car preorders or to terminate their car leases over the past few months, saying Musk's toxic behavior was the reason, they were told pretty much the same thing from the Tesla salesperson on the other end of the line: "We're hearing a lot of that."
"I'm reluctant to say anything out of line," said Logan, a Tesla Model 3 lessee from southern California who works in real estate services. He was drawn to Tesla and its battery-powered cars because he didn't want to support oil companies and also because he really liked the car. "It's comfortable and it drives great."
"His personality is absolutely tanking the Tesla brand."
It Sounds Unanimous To Me
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:35:39 GMT -8
Got a Feelin' 23 Is Gonna Be a Good Year
Why Democrats Feel Surprisingly Good Heading Into 2023
President Biden’s polling has ticked upward. Gas prices are down. And Republicans are at loggerheads.
One of the most telling insights about Biden’s popularity, to me, came in a recent memo by John Anzalone and Matt Hogan of Impact Research, one of the polling companies that do work for Biden. The memo noted that in the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, voters who “somewhat disapproved” of Obama and Trump voted against their party by more than 20 percentage points.
Not this year, the authors wrote, “with those who somewhat disapproved of President Biden favoring Democratic congressional candidates by a 25-point margin.”
Democratic strategists are also closely watching the jockeying between DeSantis and Trump in the (very) early stages of the Republican presidential primary. Many see DeSantis as potentially formidable, but also vulnerable on three main fronts in a general election matchup.
As he seeks to outflank Trump, DeSantis is taking positions that could haunt him later. This week, he insinuated that vaccine manufacturers had misled the public and called for prosecutions of any potential wrongdoing.
That might be good politics for him in a Republican primary, but it’s potential poison among most voters. Although anti-vaccine sentiment has grown on the right, that’s not true of the public as a whole. And, as one Democratic strategist noted to me, anti-vaccine language tends to attract all sorts of fringe characters whose support could pose problems for DeSantis down the road.
Also this week, DeSantis endorsed a six-week abortion ban in Florida after months of hesitation. That could lock him into a position that proved anathema to voters in swing states this year, especially suburban women. How would DeSantis fend off Democratic attacks suggesting that he would join a Republican Congress in pushing for a federal ban in states like Michigan, where 57 percent of voters just enshrined abortion rights into the State Constitution?
Democrats think DeSantis’s record on kitchen-table issues gives them ammunition to work with, too. In a special legislative session, Florida just passed an overhaul aimed at addressing a worsening property-insurance crisis in the state. The average annual premium for home insurance in Florida has soared to $4,231, the highest in the country.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:37:54 GMT -8
The Ball Is Heading Into Your Court, Jumping Jack Smith
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:41:19 GMT -8
The Joys of Life in Russia. It's Only Going to Get Worse.
You have to be a real ghoul to prey on grieving families.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:46:01 GMT -8
Who Is George Santos?
Five weeks ago, 34-year-old Republican George Santos was elected to represent the 3rd Congressional District in New York, an open seat on Long Island that he had previously sought in 2020. Santos 8 point victory was noteworthy as it marked a Republican pickup by a Trump supporter in a redrawn district that Joe Biden had won by 10+ points. Santos is also somewhat noteworthy as he was reported to be the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican to be elected to Congress. He has since gained some additional notoriety by attending a Republican gala with MTG and a cast of white nationalists. It seems that Mr. Santos notoriety is now likely to increase exponentially.
Earlier today the New York Times published an astonishing review of Mr. Santos resume and biography — and their research shows that almost nothing Congressman elect Santos has claimed about himself is true Santos resume is apparently a work of bold fiction — far exceeding Herschel Walker’s and rather more like The Talented Mr. Ripley
Herschel Walker claimed to have graduated from the University of Georgia — but Walker was actually enrolled there. Santos claims to have graduated from Baruch College where he supposedly earned degrees in finance and economics, but when NYT investigative reporters had the college search its records, they could find no record that Santos was ever a student there. Santos also claimed to have attended N.Y.U. but once again there are no school records to substantiate that claim.
Santos claimed to have worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup where his bio says he was “an associate asset manager” in the company’s real estate division, but when the NYT asked about his past employment there, both firms denied that they had ever employed him.
Congressman elect Santos claims to have founded a charity, Friends of Pets United, which he supposedly ran for five years beginning in 2013. However neither New York or New Jersey has ever had a charity registered in that name and the I.R.S. was not able to find any record showing that the group held a tax-exempt status.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:49:14 GMT -8
A QOP Candidate Accuses His Daughter of Voter Fraud
A local Republican elected officeholder from New Jersey is looking to throw out the absentee ballot of his daughter who voted for his Democratic opponent, according to a recent report.
On Friday, the Observer-Tribune reported that Tom Baio, an incumbent member of New Jersey’s Mendham township committee, lost his bid by three votes to Laura Spirig, his Democratic challenger during the 8 November midterm elections.
The local Republican party of Morris county, New Jersey, which contains Mendham, is planning to file a lawsuit in an attempts to challenge the election result, according to the Observer-Tribune. The committee claims that several young Democrats who voted via mail-in ballots failed to meet the state’s residency requirements, affecting the outcome of a race that Baio lost by three votes.
Baio had lost by two votes before a recount.
In a statement to the outlet, he revealed that one of the voters who allegedly did not meet those residency requirements is his daughter, a New York City-based journalist. Baio said his daughter voted Democratic during the election.
“Like many parents driven by a sense of duty, we were wrong to advance the [vote-by-mail] to my daughter, Ariana,” he told the outlet. “My daughter did answer the call of duty and did vote by the mail-in ballot.
“We all need to correct this behavior,” Baio’s statement added. “As parents, and as citizens of towns as great as Mendham, I call on all Mendham residents next year to heed this example. As shameful as it is, we need to correct this behavior. I know I will.”
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 19, 2022 9:51:12 GMT -8
This Bud's For Messi
Budweiser has announced details of the victory celebrations the company is hosting for World Cup winner Argentina.
World Cup beer sponsor Budweiser, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev had promised to give a large quantity of beer to the nation that won soccer’s showpiece. On Sunday, Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory over defending world champion France in a pulsating final in Qatar. Argentina clinched its third World Cup in a penalty shootout after the game ended in a 3-3 draw.
The victory celebrations in Argentina cap an eventful few weeks for Budweiser. In an abrupt reversal just two days before the soccer showpiece kicked off last month, Qatar World Cup organizers banned beer sales in the tournament’s eight stadiums. Budweiser quickly shrugged off the beer ban and promised “the ultimate championship celebration” for the World Cup winner, promoting its campaign using #BringHomeTheBud on social media. Widely interpreted as a reference to the surplus beer from Qatar, “Bring Home The Bud” is now the company’s largest ever global campaign.
Since launching the campaign, Budweiser has been tweeting images of red shipping containers bearing the hashtag in cities around the world, including Cordoba, Argentina, Rio de Janeiro and New York.
“The celebration kicked off after the official watch party in Buenos Aires, with the opening of the #BringHomeTheBud crates,” Budweiser said in a statement released on Monday. On Thursday, the victory celebrations will continue at Fan Fest locations in Buenos Aires and in the cities of Rosario and Cordoba. “These celebrations will feature musical performances, surprises in the red Budweiser crates to be revealed for fans at the party, partner activations and access to exclusive collectible merchandise to commemorate Argentina’s win.”
As part of the celebration, Budweiser will also screen the music video for “The World Is Yours to Take” featuring rapper Lil Baby, the first ever music video shot at the World Cup. The video includes footage of Argentina lifting the trophy.
“We brought the BUDS,” tweeted Budweiser Argentina Sunday, with aerial footage of a massive crowd celebrating at the National Flag Memorial in Rosario. In the footage, fans can be seen celebrating atop a crate emblazoned with #BringHomeTheBud.
Argentina’s team captain, Messi — regarded by many as the greatest soccer player of all time — participated in Budweiser’s “The World Is Yours to Take” advertising campaign during the World Cup. Brazilian star Neymar and England’s Raheem Sterling also took part in the campaign.
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