The Disturbing Truth About Hurricane Milton, Pokimane, Ziklag Exposed, & Today’s News
PDS Published 10/8/2024
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With Florida bracing for another “potentially catastrophic” hurricane, we’re still trying to correct the lies spread by Trump with the last on
PART 1
We gotta talk about how Tampa Bay is bracing for what could be its strongest storm in a century.
And that’s Hurricane Milton.
Which, of course, is on its way than two weeks after Helene devastated parts of Florida, as well as Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia.
And in fact, some of Helene's victims are reportedly in the path of this new storm, which at one point intensified from a Category 1 to a strong Category 5 within 24 hours.
With the National Weather Service saying it was the third fastest-intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean.
And with the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay writing on X that if the storm stays on its current track, “it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years.”
Though, with that, the National Hurricane Center has predicted that the storm will weaken to a Category 3 by the time it hits land.
Plus, even small shifts north or south in its course have a dramatic impact on how much damage communities suffer.
But at the same time, meteorologists said a storm stronger than a Category 3 couldn’t be ruled out.
But either way, we’re talking about big or bigger.
Right, category 3 is the level at which a storm is considered a “major hurricane.”
And with that, Milton is due to become only the tenth major hurricane to make landfall along the US’s Gulf coast since 2017.
And Tampa? It hasn’t been directly hit by a major hurricane since 1921.
But scientists, they’ve been warning for years that the city and the surrounding area are especially vulnerable to rising seas caused by storm surges.
And of course, with all, experts say climate change probably has something to do with all this.
And with that, we gotta take a look at this viral clip of a veteran meteorologist being moved to tears while giving the latest update on Milton:
“It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped…It has dropped 50 millibars in ten hours. I apologize, this is just, horrific.” (BYTE: 0:00-0:20)
And with that, you had him going on to emphasize the role of climate change.
With him then posting on X, writing “extreme weather driven by global warming has changed me.”
And going on to say: “Frankly, YOU should be shaken too, and demand #ClimateActionNow.”
But in the meantime, of course, the focus is on what can be done immediately.
And with that, Floridians have been partaking in the state's largest evacuation effort in years.
Right, Governor Ron DeSantis has issued a state of emergency for 51 counties, with more than a million people being told to flee.
And with that, you had the city’s mayor issuing this shocking statement on CNN on Monday:
“This is literally catastrophic, and I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die.” (BYTE: 1:37-1:46)
Of course, the evacuation has also led to massive traffic jams and gas shortages (BROLL 0:24- 0:35)
And that’s something to keep an eye on, but experts say it might also be a good sign.
With a FEMA spokesperson, for example, telling the BBC he’s “encouraged by the amount of evacuation that’s going on right now."
But of course, there are still a lot of concerns about dealing with Milton, especially as Florida has been one of the states most at odds with the federal government when it comes to dealing with Helene.
Right, Desantis has reportedly spoken to Biden about Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But, according to NBC, he has refused to take any calls from Kamala Harris.
With Harris saying this week:
“...people are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment, in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish."
Desantis, for his part, he’s claiming he was unaware of Harris calling him, responding to her latest comments by calling her delusional, and saying she’s the one who’s trying to politicize the storm.
And of course, this talk about politicizing natural disasters? It’s been a discussion with Helene too.
PART 2
Right, in general, people say natural disasters were less politicized in the past.
You have a Republican strategist who worked with Bush during Katrina telling The Washington Post, for example:
“Historically, hurricanes are a time where politicians like to put partisanship aside and show they’re focused on the greater good.”
With him going on to say: “Trump does not have that instinct at all and he’s so controversial that Democrats don’t have that instinct with him either.”
And to that point, while speaking in Florida on Monday, Trump said the response to Helene “has been very weak, unbelievably weak,” adding, “nobody’s ever seen such a weak response.”
And he’s also claimed the Biden-Harris response had received ‘universally…POOR GRADES.”
And that’s a key thing, right, because it’s not just criticism from Trump, it’s lies.
Right, I’m not saying Biden-Harris response is above criticism, but notably, contrary to Trump’s statement, some Republican governors have praised the administration for its response.
Right, the South Carolina governor, for example, said federal assistance had “been superb.”
And the Virginia Governor said he was appreciative of the rapid response and the cooperation from FEMA – with him specifically thanking Biden and other officials.
But with that said, the lies around Helene go way beyond just vague criticism.
Samantha Montano (Mon-tan-oh), for example, is an assistant professor of emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and you have her saying:
“I have been doing disaster work for nearly 20 years, and I cannot think of another acute disaster where there has been this much misinformation.”
Right, I mean, you have Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming some mysterious “they” can control the weather…
There’s this whole conspiracy theory about the government trying to seize land in North Carolina to mine lithium.
And then, there’s been a lot of lies directed at FEMA and the federal government specifically.
For example, the agency has been forced to deal with claims that it is stealing donations, diverting disaster aid to Ukraine or refusing help from others, which is actually a lie Elong Musk has helped spread.
And of course, Trump’s been helping spread some too.
I mean, it’s not his first time lying about a hurricane.
While president, he once showed a fake hurricane map altered with a Sharpie to retroactively justify a previous incorrect tweet he’d shared about the storm’s path.
But now, the lies are more insidious and more obviously meant to appeal to voters.
Right, he suggested that Democrats were withholding hurricane aid in “Republican Areas” of North Carolina.
And he also falsely claimed that disaster relief funds were being diverted to house undocumented migrants.
And with that, we’ve had Harris calling Trump’s role in the spread of misinformation “extraordinarily irresponsible.”
And we’ve also had the head of FEMA warning that these lies affect the disaster response, with her saying:
“...the fact there are a few leaders having a hard time telling the difference between fact and fiction is creating an impedance to our ability to actually get people the help they need.”
And to that point, as one example, there have reportedly been calls for residents to form militias to defend against FEMA staff members, as well as antisemitic and misogynistic threats against them.
And that’s a problem considering that many places, such as in western North Carolina, are still without a water supply, electricity, navigable roads or vital supplies.
And as we’ve seen in Springfield, Ohio, for example – when the lies start affecting their own communities – many Republicans themselves are trying to set the record straight.
One Republican mayor in Tennessee, for example, dispelled the rumor that government agencies were confiscating supplies, writing:
“Please quit spreading those rumors as they are counterproductive to response efforts.”
And in North Carolina, one Republican state representative pleaded on Facebook, identifying some of the conspiracy theories, and saying:
“PLEASE help stop this junk.”
And so, where I’ll end it is we have another major storm about to hit, and little reason to think we’re not gonna see the same types of lies continuing to spread.
And ultimately, it’s literally people’s lives that are being put at risk because of that.
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Pokimane
Imagine picking up a call from a friend but instead of their voice, you hear a stranger threaten to rape you.
Right, in a recent episode of her podcast, Pokimane and her co-host lilypichu were talking about phone leaks. [B Roll 18:20-18:40]
And Poki shared her own experience - saying that at one point, both her personal number and the personal number of her friend Rae were leaked online.
Then, according to Poki, someone who got ahold of the leaks spoofed their number to call her.
So on Pokimane’s phone, it looked like her friend was calling.
But it was absolutely not Rae on the other end - with Poki saying that the caller started threatening her,
“So I pick up the phone, I’m like, ‘Hey, like, what’s wrong?’ And I hear this deep, weird voice go, ‘Pokimane, I’m coming to rape you right now.’” (25:28-25:39)
And this is just the most recent horror story Poki has shared regarding phone calls.
Back in September, in the second episode of her podcast, Poki shared another story of a stranger calling her. [B Roll 12:15-12:40]
Saying that one night, she got a weird text from an unknown number - which she ignored.
Then 2 days later, she got a phone call from an angry wife because, as it turns out, that weird message Poke received was from a married man.
Poki says this woman just laid into her, adding,
“And she just starts going off. She’s like, ‘You have no idea how bad of a person he is. Are you a prostitute? Are you a whore?’ Yeah, she just starts going in on me.” (12:00-12:12)
And she insinuated she’s gotten even more phone calls like these, adding:
“Frankly, all things phone related. It’s gotten to the point that like, even when I meet someone and like, start talking to them, I have to tell them like, ‘Please don’t call me.’ I have trauma from phone calls.” (26:00-26:12)
But I would love to know your thoughts here - whether you’re a fan of Pokimane or not.
Cause more and more it feels like we’re seeing celebrities and public figures speaking out about harassment or begging not to be harassed.
Let me know in those comments down below.
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Saying Logan Paul is in hot water is like saying the sky is blue but we should talk about what has him in headlines this time.
Right, over the last several days, Logan Paul and Minecraft YouTuber TommyInnit have been going back and forth on X.
It starts with an episode of Logan’s podcast from back in June - he was interviewing Trump and, at one point, they were discussing the war in Gaza.
But it then immediately switches to Logan plugging Prime - his drink company he founded with KSI.
“Trump: I got 58 people out, we never paid any money. 58 people, 58 hostages. We never paid money. Because once you pay money, you’re gonna be doing a lot. In other words, you’re gonna keep doing it. So you can’t do that. Logan: This episode is sponsored by myself - I sponsored it myself. Prime X, guys.” (30:04-30:20)
Tommy pointed this out a few days ago, tweeting out “right im done,”
And then Logan responding by posting screenshots of text messages Tommy sent him a year ago.
Offering support for Logan’s boxing match with Dillon Danis.
Many people jumped into the replies on that one, ripping Logan apart - saying things like,
But it doesn’t stop there - yesterday, Tommy responded to the leaked messages by saying,
“If the same week I had a daughter I also lost to a beef with TommyInnit I would kill myself.” []
And the bad reaction the first time didn’t stop Logan from leaking even more old, private messages of Tommy reaching out to him, trying to hang out or chat, and saying,
“Tommy is lashing out because I’ve been neglecting him. Sorry I didn’t chill with you buddy.” []
To which Tommy replied,
“Why do you keep posting private messages of me being kind to you. Are you stupid?” []
And many have dogpiled even further on Logan for sharing even more private messages - which mostly just feature him blowing off Tommy at every opportunity.
But let me know your thoughts about this in those comments down below.
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FTX is now a “model” for how to handle chapter 11 after saying it has 98% of user funds and they’ll be getting it back within 60 days
--I’ve reached out to Coffeezilla for an opinion about this. Waiting on a response. He follows so I’m hoping it’s not lost in the ether--
FTX was one of the biggest frauds in history, but in a twist they’re now being praised by the legal system for being "a model case for how to deal with a very complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding."
[]That’s because yesterday its proposal to repay upwards of $16 billion to creditors and customers was approved by the court.
[]If you don’t remember, the short version is that FTX was a crypto exchange owned by Sam Bankman-Fried. (PRONUNCIATION More like Benkman-Freed)
Alongside it, he also had a failing hedge fund called Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison because he was using customer deposits at FTX to fund Alameda Research and lied to customers about it.
Since then, US courts have put new people to lead FTX as it navigated the bankruptcy process.
Yesterday’s deal means that 98% of its customers -- so anyone with $50 grand or less on the exchange -- would be getting money back.
[]On top of that, they’d be getting back at least 118% of their accounts within 60 days of the plan’s start date.
(That hasn’t been determined yet)
This entire thing was only possible because of a series of deals with both the US government and creditors.
For example, federal regulators agreed to deprioritize their fees and penalties against FTX so that customers could get paid first.
[]And deals like this aren’t common.
Right, usually in bankruptcy proceedings like this its the customers with deposits who get royally fucked.
It’s not just customers who are getting some relief.
FTX is also trying to make a deal with the US government over $1 billion it seized from Bankman-Fried.
[]If successful, upwards of $230 million of that could be used to pay shareholders back at least some of what they gave the company.
[]One thing that stands out is that if FTX had $16 billion -- or even more if they can get the money seized from Bankman-Fried -- how the hell did they go belly up?
Well, it ends up that most of their cash was tied up in illiquid investments that it has since taken the time to cash out.
Not to mention that customers were depositing crypto, which FTX did not have on hand.
Right, when it died the exchange only had 0.1% of the bitcoin customers had deposited.
[]Which brings us to one of the controversial things about this plan: it’s paying customers back in cash instead of crypto.
On top of that, it’s valuing their crypto as of November 2022, which was a particularly low point in the market because of all the massive exchanges dying over the prior year.
Since, prices of things like Bitcoin have skyrocketed from about $16,000 in 2022 to about $63,000 right now (which is even less than its peak of well over $70,000).
[][]That has left some creditors and customers upset, pointing out the claim that they're getting “118%” of their acocunt’s value back isn’t true since things have changed so much since November 2022.
It’s a major reason why some creditor groups are asking to be repaid in crypto, but FTX pointed out that buying crypto on the open market would’ve wasted billions of dollars since they don’t have any on hand.
[]And the judge agreed, pointing out that many customers' crypto accounts held FTT -- FTX’s own token -- which hasn’t been worth anything in years and would leave them worse off.
[]What do you think?
Should customers have been paid in kind, or are they just demanding that because the market has been high?
Like do you think there would be the same demands if crypto just fell off a cliff after 2022?
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British doctor poisons mother’s partner with fake vaccine script
Some people will do literally anything just to kill their in-laws, even a Mission Impossible-style heist.
So let me introduce you to the Tom Cruise of this story: 53-year-old Thomas Kwan. [Image, crop out right side]
Right, he is, or was, a doctor in England who was really looking forward to inheriting his mother’s home in Newcastle.
Thing is, though, she revised her will so that her partner, 72-year-old Patrick O’Hara, would get the house before Thomas did, assuming she died before him.
So Thomas did the logical thing: he devised an elaborate plan to make sure Patrick died first.
Right, here’s how police say he did it.
First, he forged fake medical letters telling Patrick he was eligible for an at-home covid vaccine. [Quote, find “fake medical” and Image]
Then, after the old man accepted, Thomas checked into a hotel under a false name, drove to the home in a car with fake license plates, and showed up in disguise. [Quote same link, find “fake name” and [B roll, 00:26]
Right, you can see it here; it’s so ridiculous; he’s wearing head-to-toe protective clothing, a face mask, tinted glasses, a wig and fake facial hair. [Image]
I mean, this genius may as well have just gone with the classic fake mustache-nose-glasses combo.
But impressively enough, he remained there without blowing his cover for a full 45 minutes, even using a fake voice. [B roll, 00:32]
Though reportedly Patrick did get a little suspicious after his partner commented how the nurse was the same height as her son. [Quote, find “same height”]
So Thomas conducted a fake medical questionnaire, took Patrick’s blood pressure, and then injected his arm with the “vaccine.”
Except it definitely was not a vaccine; in fact, we still don’t know what the fuck was in that needle, but it was nothing good.
Because Patrick complained of pain in his arm, prompting Thomas to reassure him before gathering his things and hurriedly leaving the property. [Quote, find “hurriedly”]
With Patrick’s injection site only getting worse, developing burns and blisters. [Quote, find “burns”]
So he went to the hospital, and doctors diagnosed him with a fast moving, life-threatening, flesh-eating disease known as necrotising fasciitis [Pronounce 00:54]. [Quote, find “necrotising”]
Which required weeks of intensive care, with doctors cutting flesh from his arm to combat the disease, leaving him with life-changing injuries. [Quote, find “cut”]
But thankfully, he survived, and he showed hospital staff the fake letters Thomas had sent him, prompting police to get on the case. [Quote, find “showed”]
And after some investigating, they arrived at Thomas’s front door, where they found totally normal stuff any law-abiding citizen would have.
You know, a “poisoner’s handbook,” guidance for murder investigations, as well as files on deadly poisons and poisons to use when evading detection. [Quote, find “deadly”]
Now in court, he initially claimed that he was trying give Patrick “no more than mild pain and discomfort.” [Quote]
But yesterday he pled guilty to attempted murder and other crimes, so he’s set to be sentenced this month.
Links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/08/uk-doctor-thomas-kwan-fake-covid-murder/
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notes NA
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Supreme Court declines to hear X appeal that would shield Trump’s DMs while in office from prosecutors
Elon Musk’s X just tried to white Knight for Donald Trump at the Supreme Court and lost… let me explain.
X has been fighting a battle on behalf of former president Donald Trump against special counsel Jack Smith over a search warrant to grab Trump’s presidential-era DMs.
X initially tried to say “no,” but was fined $350,000 and eventually handed them over.
But the biggest issue they had was that Smith’s team also included an order that barred X from letting Trump know that they complied with this warrant.
They argued that this violated X’s free speech rights and also prevented Trump from even claiming that the contents of the DMs were privileged.
[]Right, normally Trump could try to claim executive privilege over such communications, but if he didn’t know the records were being sought then -- as X argued -- it was effectively a work around for prosecutors.
[]They made the analogy that it would let prosecutors get things like patient info from doctors… although the difference there is X is under no obligation to protect Trump’s privilege, unlike a doctor and patient.
Their alternative was for the special counsel to appoint a representative who could look over the DMs and determine what would be privileged or not, which is how it works with official documents under the Presidential Records Act.
[]Their lawyers also made it seem like they were doing this for an altruistic reason, claiming that a similar situation wouldn’t happen to other companies in the future.
To be fair to X, their claims weren’t entirely unreasonable and unsupported.
The Electronics Frontier Foundation agreed with them, writing in a supporting brief that the government has "far too much authority to shield its activities from public scrutiny."
They went on to say: "Even a meritless gag order that is ultimately voided by a court causes great harm while it is in effect.”
And that a disclosure "ensures that individuals whose information is searched have an opportunity to defend their privacy from unwarranted and unlawful government intrusions."
But Smith’s team argued to lower courts that:
“The Fourth Amendment permits the government to obtain a warrant to search property belonging to an innocent third party as long as the warrant is supported by probable cause that ‘evidence of a crime will be found.’”
And in the end multiple DC and DC circuit courts agreed with him, not to mention that the Supreme Court declined to hear about it.
One thing that definitely hurt X is that Trump isn’t claiming executive privilege on the DMs.
So X is trying to fight a fight that he’s not even interested in, which Smith’s team pointed out, writing, "no executive privilege issue actually existed in this case."
"If review of the underlying legal issues were ever warranted, the Court should await a live case in which the issues are concretely presented.”
[]
But what do you think?
Do you think there’s a good argument to be made that blocking X from disclosing the search is essentially a work around to things like privilege?
And possibly more importantly, is it something that should be decided on even though Trump doesn’t seem interested in bringing a case because it’s obviously something that could happen again?
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notes NA
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