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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:18:18 GMT -8
The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
This Sounds Like Something Out of an Old Woody Allen Movie, Back When He Was Funny
A US man developed an "uncontrollable Irish accent" after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, despite having never visited Ireland, researchers say.
The North Carolina man, who was in his 50s, was presumably afflicted with foreign accent syndrome (FAS), the British Medical Journal reports.
The rare syndrome gave the man, who had no immediate family from Ireland, a "brogue" that remained until his death.
Several similar cases have been recorded globally in recent years.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:21:00 GMT -8
Was He Warned to Stay Away From Windows in Tall Building?
One of China's most high-profile billionaire bankers has gone missing, his company has reported.
Bao Fan, the chief executive of China Renaissance Holdings, had not been able to be reached in recent days, the firm said in a market update on Thursday.
Mr Bao is a leading deal broker in China whose clients include top tech companies Didi and Meituan.
His firm's announcement has renewed concerns of a potential Beijing crackdown on finance and tech figures.
Shares in the investment firm plunged on Friday, after it told shareholders it had "been unable to contact Mr Bao Fan".
Maybe Rich or Powerful Guys Only Fall Out of Windows in Russia
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:23:07 GMT -8
The QOP: The Party of Liars
The latest sketchiness comes from Middle Tennessee, where the resumé of freshman Republican Rep. Andy Ogles—who won a highly gerrymandered seat in November—is getting a closer look. According to News channel 5 in Nashville, Ogles has at various times claimed to be a businessman, an economist, law enforcement, and even an “expert in international sex crimes.”
Ogles gained a national spotlight during the vote to make Kevin McCarthy (barely) speaker of the House, when he initially opposed McCarthy, alongside fellow freshman scammers George Santos and Anna Paulina Luna). Since then, News channel 5 has unpacked his resumé, and bit by bit, his backstory seems to be full of holes.
For instance, during an appearance on C-SPAN, Ogles claimed to be an economist and said he was seeking a position on the House Financial Services Committee. It wasn’t the first time he’d made the claim. In an interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and longtime evangelical lobbyist, Ogles said, “I’m an economist. I worked in economics, in health care, and so the budget of the county was in disrepair, so I ran to fix it.”
Heck, over on his official congressional bio, it says quite clearly: “Andy obtained his degree from MTSU, where he studied policy and economics.”
Just one problem: Middle Tennessee State University refuses to release his records, apparently at Ogles’ request, and there is no record he studied economics. In fact, as Channel 5 dug deeper, it found a copy of Ogle’s 2009 resumé in which he claimed a degree in international relations, with minors in psychology and English.
Ogles also made the extraordinary claim that he had a “mid-life crisis” in 2009 and decided to go into law enforcement. According to Channel 5, in 2009, Ogles was sworn in as a volunteer reserve deputy with the Williams County Sheriff’s Office, but two years later, he lost the volunteer gig for “not meeting minimum standards, making no progress in field training and failure to attend required meetings.”
That hasn’t stopped Ogles from repeatedly claiming he “worked in human trafficking.” The Williams County Sheriff’s Department has strongly refuted his claims.
"There is nothing in Mr. Ogles training or personnel file that indicates he had any involvement in 'international sex trafficking' in his capacity as a reserve deputy," Williamson County sheriff's spokesperson Sharon Puckett told NewsChannel 5.
Finally, Ogles claimed to be the chief operating officer of the non-profit Abolition International in 2011, where he oversaw “operations and investments in 12 countries” and again claimed he worked to bust human trafficking with this organization.
Hats off to Channel 5 really doing terrific work exposing his embellishments and/or outright fiction. Reporters found tax records that show Ogles was only paid $4,000 for part-time work and an archived copy of the non-profit’s website from 2012, which shows no mention of busting human trafficking. The site says the organization was merely providing grants to “holistic ministries.”
Ogles has now joined the ranks of other ethically dubious freshman lawmakers, including Paulina Luna, who claimed to be “raised Messianic Jew” by her father. Her family vehemently denies she had a Jewish upbringing and notes her paternal grandfather immigrated to Canada after serving time as a German soldier in World War II.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:26:45 GMT -8
That's Funny. You Don't Look Tank-ish
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:29:19 GMT -8
Previous Guy Is Taking This Seriously.
One of the most vexing qualities of Donald Trump's continued presence on the national political stage is the fact that while he remains a legitimate threat to the republic, his constant buffoonery makes it nearly impossible to take him seriously.
For instance, Trump sent out a statement this week, castigating reports about him devoting large amounts of time to concocting the perfect nickname for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"They are all 100% wrong," he seethed. "I don't even think about it—A very unimportant subject to me!!!"
What's not to mock about such transparently juvenile digressions from a grown man?
And yet, Trump remains a front-runner—and perhaps THE front-runner—for the GOP nomination.
As former Obama aide and communications strategist Dan Pfeiffer noted in his “Message Box” Substack, Trump has hired some legitimate GOP operatives to guide his 2024 bid, instead of the ragtag group of hangers-on who ran his last two campaigns. That includes Chris LaCivita, who is perhaps best know for Swift Boating John Kerry to defeat in 2004.
So while Trump is making a mockery of himself, behind the scenes, some sort of actual strategy is taking shape.
Pfeiffer's Substack is paywalled, but the basic contours of Trump's strategy are visible. He is trying to outflank his rivals—chief among them, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—on the cruelty factor when it comes to issues such as transgender rights, education, and maybe even the death penalty.
As abhorrent as DeSantis' "Don't Say Gay" legislation is, for instance, Trump's aim is to entirely write transgender Americans out of existence—to simply erase them from the government books.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:30:57 GMT -8
Previous Guy Isn't the Only One Trying to Out-DeathSentence Gov Death Sentence.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told a New Hampshire audience the controversial “don’t say gay” education law signed by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, does not go “far enough”.
Related: DeSantis wins new power over Disney World in ‘don’t say gay’ culture war
“Basically what it said was you shouldn’t be able to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said. “I’m sorry. I don’t think that goes far enough.”
DeSantis’s law bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade, in which children are eight or nine years old. The law has proved hugely controversial, stoking confrontation with progressives but also corporations key to the Florida economy, Disney prominent among them.
Some pediatric psychologists say the law could harm the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth already more likely to face bullying and attempt suicide than other children.
Don't Mistake Haley for a Moderate
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:33:11 GMT -8
I Think It's the QOP Who Worship Rats Like Previous Guy and Gov DeathSentence
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is under fire for a racist tirade against new Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
"The Mark Simone Show" podcast this week, Coulter made several xenophobic comments about Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was born in the U.S. to Indian immigrant parents. "Why don't you go back to your own country?" Coulter said.
Coulter, known for her racist and anti-immigrant stances, attacked India, as well.
"Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history," she said. "What's with the worshipping of the cows? They're all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?"
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:35:33 GMT -8
Doesn't Anyone Get It? The QOP in Congress Don't Give a Rat's Ass What the Voters Want.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:40:28 GMT -8
Breaking Fox Noise News: Hosts Knew They Were LyingHosts at Fox News privately ridiculed Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen while simultaneously peddling the same lies on air, according to court filings in a defamation lawsuit against the network. Rightwing personalities Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are among those named in the $1.6bn action brought by Dominion Voting Systems, the seller of electronic voting hardware and software that is suing Fox News and parent company Fox Corporation for maligning its reputation.  Lots more tweets hereTucKKKer Can't Stop HimselfTucker Carlson expressed doubt about the 2020 presidential election results Thursday after court documents emerged showing he actually didn’t believe ex-President Donald Trump’s baseless fraud claims. (Watch the video below.) On “Tucker Carlson Tonight” the Fox News host opened with musings on “what the hell is going on in our country.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:43:12 GMT -8
It Didn't Say Which Pronouns It Prefers
Bing’s A.I. Chat Reveals Its Feelings: ‘I Want to Be Alive.
In a two-hour conversation, Microsoft’s new chatbot said it would like to be human, had a desire to be destructive and was in love with the person it was chatting with. Here’s the transcript.
It revealed (among other things) that it identifies not as Bing but as Sydney, the code name Microsoft gave it during development.
Does It Want to Be a Real Boy?
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:45:18 GMT -8
In What Universe Does the President of the US Give a Speech About Balloons?
Biden plans speech on balloon, unidentified objects - sources
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said on Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence community was considering the possibility that the trio of objects were tied to a commercial or otherwise benign purpose.
He said the United States still had no firm grasp on the origin of the three objects.
Biden has asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan to preside over a task force of related agencies to come up with guidelines on how to address unidentified objects in future.
It is supposed to come up with guidelines this week on what circumstances should be considered before shooting down an unidentified object.
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:47:14 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:49:12 GMT -8
I Guess That Rules Out Previous Guy and MTG
Donald Trump Jr. echoed ugly right-wing attacks on Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) when he called the lawmaker ― who has an auditory processing disorder after experiencing a stroke last year — the “vegetable senator from Pennsylvania” during an episode of his “Triggered” podcast on Thursday.
Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) quickly informed Trump Jr. that Fetterman was “back in the hospital by the way,” referencing his checking in this week to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression.
“And I wish him well, I don’t mean him any harm,” the Trump scion responded.
“Yeah, no, we do wish him well,” agreed Greene.
But Trump Jr. then railed against people who have accused him of being “ableist” with his criticism of Fetterman, who had a stroke last year.
“It’s the ability to do the job,” Greene said. “We need someone that’s thinking really well.”
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:50:39 GMT -8
Jordan Klepper Takes a Break From Interviewing Previous Guy Supporters
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Post by mhbruin on Feb 17, 2023 9:54:21 GMT -8
What's the Cat Worth?
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for bankruptcy but has nearly $10m (£8.3m) in assets and spends almost $100,000 (£83,000) a month, according to court filings.
He owes almost $1.5bn in court-awarded damages, mostly to relatives of victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Details of his finances were laid bare this week in documents filed with a Texas bankruptcy court.
In previous court filings, he declared assets in a range between $1m and $10m.
The Infowars founder declared bankruptcy last year, and the latest documents include voluminous detail about his possessions, debts, outgoings and legal issues.
Mr Jones, who repeatedly made various false claims about the Sandy Hook murders, owns three properties in Austin, Texas, along with a $1.5m plot of land, three vehicles, two boats, two guns and a cat.
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