MrBeast's Gross New Scandal is Crazy, Nightmare Roblox Mom, The Private Equity Hospital Problem
PDS Published 10/23/2024
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Lunchly Responds After Rosanna Pansino Finds Mold
Lunchly is trying to defend itself amid claims that Rosanna Pansino found mold in a meal she purchased.
Right, Lunchly is the Lunchables competitor that MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI launched together, it was immediately criticized by people who disagreed with its “better for you” marketing.
And over the weekend, Rosanna posted a video of a Lunchly with mold, writing:
“This is disgusting. I was filming a video comparing Lunchables to Lunchly and was shocked when I opened ‘The Pizza’ Lunchly. The cheese had MOLD! The expiration date was still 2 months away!”
And after people accused her of putting the mold there herself, she shared another video that showed her unsealing the product and seeing it for the first time:
“Alright, so let’s open these up. Oh man, this packaging.” (0:00-0:05)
“We’ll break it down, we’ll see if these are epic ingredients. Oh wow.” (0:16-0:21)
“Okay…*rips open* yeah, yeah…these are molded!” (2:00-2:10)
“I’m opening this and this is molded, like that’s mold.” (3:00-3:08)
And this obviously went massively viral, people talking about it everywhere, others also claiming they have heard of or seen Lunchly products having mold.[][]
With all this prompting Lunchly to respond, with a representative telling Newsweek:
"All Lunchly products go through a stringent review process to ensure the quality and safety of its products. That process consists of multiple inspections and approvals, including that of the USDA, before any product can even leave the manufacturing facility."[]
You also had another person talking to the outlet about Rosanna’s posts, they were simply identified as someone “familiar with the product,”
And regarding Rosanna’s comments, they said to “consider the context and the source.”
Right, seemingly referring to the fact that Rosanna has a history of being critical of these creators, specifically of MrBeast and his Beast Games show.
And so now, Rosanna is slamming this source for using that angle, writing:[]
“Did someone from MrBeasts team seriously just try to imply that I faked the mold in the Lunchly I bought? Is their PR move going to be smearing me when there are dozens of other reports of mold in their food? Is this their mysterious spokesperson who always downplays serious allegations on Jimmy's behalf?”
“Its unbelievable that MrBeast's PR team says to 'consider the source' (apparently implying I'm not a valid source)...I'm not the type of person to fake videos. That's more MrBeasts thing. Are they going to actually do something about this, or keep gaslighting people?”[]
Though, it is worth noting that while she keeps saying it's MrBeast’s PR team, Newsweek did not specifically identify the source who said that.
But that is where we are on this right now, we will have to see if KSI or Logan or MrBeast say anything directly about this, if anything comes of these mold complaints, or if there is another round of Lunchly backlash still coming.
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Trump Praised Hitler and Said He Wanted Generals Like Hitler’s
We are two weeks out from election day and we’ve got reports that Trump is a bit of a Hitler fangirl.
That is what we learned from articles that were published yesterday in The Atlantic and the New York Times.
And of course, the idea that a man who was president and is running to be president again would ever praise Hitler is troubling, but his remarks are probably even worse than what you might be imagining.
Because two sources who heard a private conversation in the White House told the Atlantic that Trump previously said:
“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had…People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”
With Trump apparently being especially obsessed with the “loyalty” he felt these generals displayed.[]
You also had Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, telling the New York Times that on more than one occasion, Trump spoke positively of Hitler, with him adding:[]
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’ And of course, if you know history, again I think he’s lacking, but if you know what Hitler was about, it would be pretty hard to make an argument that he did anything good.” (0:00-0:17)
And according to Kelly, that’s really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to concern about Trump regaining power:
“Q: If he was left to his own devices, would he be a dictator? If he didn’t have people around him?
K: Oh, I think he would love to be…I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.” (0:00-0:23)
And Kelly even went so far as to say that Trump’s ideas about the way he should be able to run the government are akin to fascism:
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.” (1:20-1:43)
Spokespeople for Trump denied these remarks to both The Atlantic and The Times.
But these are just some of the awful things Trump is accused of saying, right, another quote that’s getting a ton of attention comes from The Atlantic,
Because sources said that at one point, he asked if he had gotten a bill for Vanessa Guillén’s funeral, who if you remember, was a 20-year-old soldier who was killed by another soldier at Fort Hood.
And when discovering the cost, Trump allegedly said:
“It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!...Don’t pay it!...Can you believe it?...Fucking people, trying to rip me off.”
Though, Vannessa’s sister pushed back on this reporting and said Trump showed respect to her family and she even voted for him in this election.[]
I will link both articles down below so you can read more of the just insane things Trump has apparently said, and maybe you can send them to the swing voters in your life and remind them that this is part of a pattern.
Right, this is not the first time Trump has been accused of praising Hitler, saying nasty things about veterans, or of having dictator-like tendencies.
And I don’t mean to be too brave here, but those are just qualities I think a president should not have, brave I know, but someone had to say it.
Defending Hitler is just pretty disqualifying stuff.
And to all the people on the right who like, got mad at the left for comparing Trump to Hitler and even blaming the assassination attempts against him on those comparisons…
Maybe if Trump were not so fucking obsessed with Hitler no one would say it! But here we are, your candidate wants Hitler’s generals! That’s just the reality of what you have going on!
But of course, I would love to know your thoughts on this doozy.
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Mother accused of manipulating 10 year old child in temporary care of attempting to kill baby and foster parents using Roblox
Experts say you should spend quality time with your kids, but I think Tara Alexis Sykes out in Florida should probably ignore that advice.
That’s because she’s been accused of attempted murder and aggravated child abuse after using Roblox to manipulate her 10-year-old child into nearly killing a 2-month-old, and that’s just the start of it.
It probably won’t be a shock to hear that Sykes didn’t have custody of her kid, who was temporarily removed from her care and sent to the Gulf Coast Kid's House, which is a child advocacy center that handles this sort of thing.
During that time, Sykes used Roblox to maintain contact and that’s when, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office:
"Sykes instructed the 10-year-old to drown the infant in the bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the infant on the floor to kill the infant.”
They seemingly settled on the last one late last week, with the 10-year-old picking up the baby "after he became fussy and was walking into the kitchen with him to find an adult" before dropping him.
[]The mixed news is that the two-month-old is expected to survive albeit with severe injuries.
Regardless, once questioned, the little girl made it clear that her mom was involved, telling police that she had done all of this because she was “terrified of her mother and felt that if she did not follow through with the instructions, Sykes would harm or kill her as well.”
[]What’s crazy is that things could have easily escalated from here because Sykes also explained to her child:
"how to kill the adults the 10-year-old was temporarily living with by cutting their throats with a knife while they slept and burning their house by dousing bed sheets with aerosol spray and setting them on fire."
And apparently this disaster was averted only AFTER the 10-year-old dosed the bed sheets with aerosol but couldn’t carry out the rest of the murder plot.
Sykes is being held without bond and officers don’t expect that any charges will be brought against the 10-year-old.
[]All in all I rate this story a Florida-out-of-ten.
It’s just true that the craziest headlines come from there.
Just go to Vessi for 15% off your first order.
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Tim Walz is the subject of multiple disinformation attacks traced to Russia, also calls Elon Musk dipshit
Let’s talk about Tim Walz, both him going on the attack against Elon Musk, and also these troubling lies being spread about him by Russia.
Right, starting with the Musk stuff, you had this clip from a rally in Wisconsin yesterday making the rounds.
“Look, Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dipshit, on these things. You know it.” (BYTE: 27:10-27:18)
And of course, I know what you’re thinking, how could we allow this kind of vulgar language into our politics?
To that, I’d like to remind you that a few days ago, shortly after spending ten minutes talking about Arnold Palmer and his allegedly massive golf club, Trump described Kamala Harris as a shit vice president.
Right, and yesterday, he also called her slow, stupid, insinuated she was drinking or on drugs, and said she was “lazy as hell” – which, notably, is an attack that’s long been used against Black people in racist terms.
But notably, with Walz’s comments, it wasn’t just name-calling.
Right, Walz criticized Musk’s growing influence in the Republican party, jokingly calling him Trump’s real “running mate” and also saying this:
“Think about that. That guy is literally the richest man in the world spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election. Now look, they're saying the quiet parts out loud now because Donald Trump has already promised that he would put Elon in charge of government regulations that oversee the businesses that Elon runs. That's a hell of a buy he could spend billions to make more than 10 billion on the back end. So in other words Donald Trump in front of the eyes of the American public is promising corruption, that's what he's promising.” (27:28-28:16)
But with that, Walz actually has another reason to be mad at Musk.
And that’s that some of the lies being spread on his platform are actually part of a viral disinformation campaign specifically targeting the Democratic VP pick.
Right, and more precisely, Russian disinformation groups have reportedly been behind baseless accusations that Walz sexually abused students while he was a high school teacher.
With a report this week from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, for example, saying:
“...Russian influence actors manufactured and amplified inauthentic content claiming illegal activity committed by the Democratic vice-presidential candidate during his earlier career.”
And with that, at least four separate claims have spread since early October, racking up millions of views on social media platforms including X.
It started on October 5th, when an anonymous man claimed in a Rumble live stream that Walz abused him when he was an exchange student in Minnesota from 2004 to 2005.
And notably, the man was interviewed by John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff's deputy living in Moscow and a known source of Russian disinformation.
And on top of that, both the State Department and the exchange program say they have no record of a student matching his description.
But of course, that didn’t stop it from spreading, it was just the beginning.
Right, there was also another Rumble video posted on X, this one accusing Walz of acting inappropriately with students during trips to China.
And then, another X account posted grainy screenshots of supposed emails alleging Walz's misconduct with a minor at a concert in 1995.
Of course, there was no evidence of any of this, and the emails appeared to be doctored.
And the latest effort, it was a video of a man claiming to be Matthew Metro, a former student, alleging Walz sexually assaulted him in 1997.
And Matthew Metro? He’s actually a real person.
That just wasn’t him.
Right, The Washington Post interviewed the real one, who not only said Walz never abused him, but said they’d never even met (Screenshot: 0:19).
And with that, according to researchers at Clemson University, at least two of these four claims seem to be directly linked to a Kremlin-aligned troll farm known as Storm-1516.
That’s the same group that spread a video with a woman falsely claiming to be the victim of a hit-and-run accident by Kamala Harris.
And while this Walz stuff has been gaining traction, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
A recent NBC investigation, for example, found that the group has been behind at least fifty false narratives launched since last fall.
Right, these have also included efforts to lower support for Ukraine, increase support, Trump, and spread other lies about Harris.
And of course, that’s just one small part of the overall effort by foreign powers to interfere.
And with that, intelligence officials are now warning that Russia, as well as Iran and China, may be planning to create chaos even after the election…
Including by encouraging protests and even violence.
But of course, it’s not just foreign powers we have to blame.
Republicans, for example, have in many cases successfully pushed companies to stop fighting election misinformation.
With Meta, for example, we saw Mark Zuckererg announcing a change in the company’s policies this summer.
Saying it would no longer temporarily demote US content while waiting for fact checkers.
And then, Musk?
Some say his takeover of Twitter is “Perhaps the single biggest factor in today’s disinformation landscape.”
Right, he took apart the platform’s teams that flagged false or hateful content and reinstated users who had been banned for violating company rules.
And he’s also been spreading misinformation himself.
Just last week, for example, he echoed the debunked claim that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the count in 2020.
And notably, a recent study also found he played an outsize role in amplifying content promoted by Tenet Media.
Which, if you remember, was accused last month of covertly using $10 million in laundered funds from Russia to pay right-wing media personalities like Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool.
In fact, at least 70 times from September 2023 to September 2024, Musk responded to or shared accounts linked to Tenet to his followers on X — many of them relating to this year’s election.
And of course, speaking of this year’s election, I can’t say it enough.
Get out there and vote, now if you can, later if you have to.
And if you need any information you can head to vote.org.
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American Airlines
American Airlines has mistreated disabled people and now they are paying the price - literally.
Right, yesterday the federal government slapped American Airlines a $50 million fine after an investigation by the Transportation Department and DOJ found many serious violations of disabled passenger rules between 2019 and 2023. []
We’re talking unsafe physical assistance resulting in injuries, generally undignified treatment of people in wheelchairs, and a repeated failure to provide prompt wheelchair assistance. []
Not to mention the thousands of wheelchairs American Airlines mishandled by either delaying or damaging them. [B Roll 0:00-0:07]
And the impact that this mistreatment has on people is substantial - earlier this year, dozens of disability advocates were brought to Washington to talk about how airlines need to up their game regarding passengers with disabilities. []
With Thomas Braddy, the director of the National Council on Independent Living saying,
"The reason I didn't fly anymore and I gave up flying was because too much damage to my chair.” []
Adding that not being able to fly has prevented him from traveling with his wife and held him back in his career. []
And Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth added that her wheelchair is like part of her body - saying,
"If this is broken, you've broken my legs." []
And when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the fine against American Airlines today, he said,
“One traveler with a disability told us in her words, ‘I was made to feel like a piece of luggage, so I do not fly anymore,’” []
Adding,
“The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over. With this penalty, we are setting a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate the civil rights of passengers with disabilities. By setting penalties at levels beyond a mere cost of doing business for airlines, we’re aiming to change how the industry behaves and prevent these kinds of abuses from happening in the first place.” []
Now, reportedly, American Airlines will pay half this hefty fine to the US Treasury while the other half will go to passenger compensation and upgrades to systems and equipment in order to minimize wheelchair damage and delays. []
They also said in a statement that they’ve already spent $175 million this year on, quote, “services, infrastructure, training, and new technology” - leading to a 20% bump in their wheelchair and scooter handling rating. []
And their statement went on to say,
“Despite these improvements, there are instances where the service the airline provides is disrupted, untimely, or results in harm to the passenger or their equipment. American takes all these complaints and claims seriously and works hard to remediate them.” []
We’re going to have to wait and see what the ripple effects will be from here.
But I would love to know your thoughts - especially if you’re a traveler with a disability.
Let me know in those comments down below.
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Private for-profit healthcare isn’t new in the US, but private equity ownership is its latest and probably worst iteration. With the healthcare facilities owned by private equity growing rapidly – and the quality of care going down – newly formed groups of physicians are pushing back, a Senate investigation is underway, and legislation is being crafted.
We gotta talk about how private equity firms are making a killing in the healthcare sector, they may be making a killing in a more literal sense.
Right, the basic idea with private-equity firms is that they take control of a business for a relatively short time, make some changes, and resell the company at a profit.
And to do that, they cut costs wherever they can.
With the result often being job losses, lower-quality products, and worse customer service – and probably even higher prices despite all that.
Plus, unlike publicly traded companies, private equity firms do not sell shares and are not required to report as much information.
And with all that, the absolutely insane growth of private equity across nearly every sector of the economy is something a lot of people see as a problem.
But in the healthcare sector, of course, the stakes can be life or death.
And with that, for-profit ownership has long been part of the American system.
And while lots of for-profit models are a bad fit for health care, private equity is perhaps the worst one.
That’s according to Eileen O’Grady, from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, with her saying:
“It basically takes the for-profit model and makes it so much more extractive and so much more harmful and risky.”
But despite that, private equity firms have been snatching up medical facilities at an alarming rate.
Right, private equity firms have reportedly invested nearly $1 trillion in the healthcare sector since 2012.
And notably, this really picked up during the pandemic, when many doctors were having a hard time getting by and ended up selling their practices to larger groups.
But of course, even as we started recovering from the pandemic, the trend continued.
In 2022 and 2023, for example, corporate entities including private-equity firms acquired 5,300 physician practices.
That’s an 11 percent increase in just two years.
And notably, we actually have research now showing that private equity acquisitions of medical practices result in more lengthy and costly care for patients as well as reduced access to services.
And we’ve seen similar findings across the board.
For example, nearly 500 American hospitals are now owned by private equity firms.
That’s around 30 percent of all for-profit hospitals in the country.
And a study published last year showed patients at private equity-owned hospitals fell more often and contracted more infections.
With a study published this year showing that after private-equity firms acquire hospitals, the facilities’ assets and resources diminish significantly, leaving the facilities less equipped to care for patients.
And then, nursing homes?
They’ve been getting scooped up too.
And a 2021 study found that entering a nursing home owned by private equity increases your chances of dying by 10 percent.
But with all, we’ve maybe had the most attention on private equity’s assault on emergency care.
Right, at least 40 percent of the country’s hospital emergency departments are overseen by for-profit healthcare staffing companies owned by private equity firms.
And when these companies take over, the way these ERs are run? It can change virtually overnight.
Right, one doctor speaking with Vox said he’d worked in multiple ERs that had been taken over by private equity firms.
And he said after the takeovers, doctors would be docked pay if they didn’t evaluate new arrivals within 25 minutes of them walking through the door.
In one case, he said, he was rushing to evaluate a patient on time, and he missed the fact that the man had an extensive history of alcohol abuse.
This apparently led to the patient spending hours getting tests directed at the wrong diagnosis.
And in the end, the man died in the intensive care unit two days later.
With the doctor telling Vox patient care was suffering “from the toe sprains all the way up to the gunshot wounds and heart attack.”
And adding: “All of my colleagues were experiencing the same thing.”
And then, besides being rushed, doctors are increasingly being replaced by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Right, because they can perform many of the same duties and bring in the same amount of money for less than half of the pay.
And of course, on top of all that, patients may be paying more.
One study from a few years ago, for example, found that costs to emergency room patients went up more than 80 percent after a corporate interest took ownership.
Though, thankfully, that is something that’s been at least somewhat addressed.
Right, in 2020, Congress passed the “No Surprises” Act.
And when the law took effect in January 2022, it meant that patients who receive emergency care can’t get billed for out-of-network care, even if the care is from an out-of-network facility or doctor.
It also protects people from higher bills if they get non-emergency care at an in-network facility from an out-of-network doctor without their knowledge or consent.
But notably, we’ve been seeing a lot of discussion about how providers have been finding ways around the law.
And then, of course, as we’ve talked about, there’s a lot of other issues yet to be addressed.
And with that, more and more doctors are saying enough is enough.
Right, there’s reportedly seen an uptick in people joining organizations opposing corporate influence in American healthcare.
Mitchell Li, for example, he’s an ER doctor who has worked and trained under private equity-owned practices.
And three years ago, founded the advocacy group Take Medicine Back, with him saying:
“We see on a daily basis that physicians are just rising up against corporate involvement in medicine.”
And to that point, his group is just one of several old and new groups opposed to private equity in healthcare (1, 2, 3)
Notably, though, the American Medical Association, which is the nation’s largest doctors’ organization with over 270,000 members, it still hasn't taken a position on private equity in healthcare.
But some AMA members have been pushing for it though.
At its annual meeting last year, for example, a resolution to seek a federal ban on corporate medicine generated intense debate but ultimately fell short.
And then, on the flip side, there are even groups backing private equity, like The American Independent Medical Practice Association, for example.
Right, that’s a group founded last year with the support of private equity-backed physicians’ groups and others.
With them arguing that taking on investors is one of the few options remaining for physicians who don’t want to work for a big corporation or hospital group.
But still, most doctors disagree.
RIght, according to one recent study, almost 61 percent of physicians have a negative view of private equity.
With less than 11 percent having a positive view according to one study this year.
And notably, that’s also translated into more attention from Washington.
Earlier this year, for example, Senator Gary Peters initiated an investigation into private equity’s effects on the quality of emergency care.
And actually, even more recently, Democratic lawmakers led by Elizabeth Warren released a revamped version of something called the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act.”
With them adding in provisions specific to healthcare.
And notably, there, you had Warren saying the bill was motivated in part by the collapse of Steward, which was actually the largest privately owned hospital network in the U.S.
WIth its majority owner being a private equity firm called Cerberus Capital.
Right, you may have heard, last May, Steward filed for bankruptcy and put its hospitals up for sale.
And the company has also been under investigation by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Right, long story short, CEO Ralph de la Torre (day luh Tori) and other execs were allegedly living the high life while the company’s hospitals were being bled dry, and patients and employees were living through horror story after horror story.
And with that, the Senate unanimously voted to hold de la Torre in contempt in September after he defined a subpoena and skipped a hearing.
The unanimous vote marked the first time since 1971.
And so can only hope the bipartisanship we saw there translates into something actually getting done.
But of course, don’t hold your breath.
Not to mention, dealing with this private equity, it’s just one piece of the puzzle.
Right, some people say private equity can only really do what they do because so many other parts of American health care are so dysfunctional.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy for them to make money if insurance companies weren’t jacking up your premiums, if pharmaceutical companies weren’t inflating drug prices, and if all of these industries didn’t have so much lobbying power.
