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Alleged CEO Shooter Nabbed in PA - The Tuesday AM Quickie 12/10/24

By Jacob Silverman —

I'm still a Havana Syndrome skeptic. -Jacob

ON THE SHOW TODAY

12/10/24: It's News Day Tuesday!

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Today you'll read about the arrest of a suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the latest Syria developments, the acquittal of Daniel Penny, and more Trump-world appointments.

THE BIG NEWS

Alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooter Nabbed in PA

Yesterday the NYPD, working with local police in Altoona, PA, arrested a 26-year-old man named Luigi Mangione, who allegedly shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan last week. Mangione is a computer programmer who comes from a prominent Maryland family. He was high school valedictorian and studied computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. He appears to have bounced around a bit, living in Los Angeles and in a surfing "co-living community" in Hawaii.

Mangione has the prolific digital trail one might expect of a gen z computer programmer. Together his various online profiles paint a picture of an almost typical center-right tech dude who lifts weights, travels, listens to a lot of podcasts, like video games, rates self-help and pop nonfiction books on Goodreads, and reposts videos of Peter Thiel talks. Despite some sympathy for the writings of Ted Kaczynski, Mangione doesn't exhibit many signs of extremism.

Mangione's motive remains unknown. But he deals with chronic back pain and had a surgery over the summer that may not have been successful. A manifesto circulating whose authorship hasn't been confirmed describes his own pain along with the suffering and frustration experienced by a sick mother trying to get United Healthcare to cover her treatments. Police claimed that Mangione had on himself a handwritten document expressing disgust with health insurance companies.

Mangione was initially charged with crimes relating to his possession of fake IDs and an unregistered "ghost gun" made partly out of 3D-printed materials. He was then charged in New York with Brian Thompson's murder. He was supposedly identified by a patron at a McDonald's – one of many strange details (Mangione seems to be a health nut; the photos released of him didn't show much of his face) of a still evolving story.

Syria Revolutionary Roundup

  • The Russian government publicly confirmed that it granted asylum to deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. via Al Jazeera.
  • Syrian rebels and volunteers are trying to free 1,500 prisoners trapped in an underground portion of Sednaya prison, which has long been known as one of Assad's deadliest facilities, where people were tortured and crushed to death, among other barbaric measures. The guards at the labyrinthine complex have fled, and now ordinary people are trying to find and free their missing loved ones while preserving evidence of the horrific crimes that occurred there. via The Guardian.
  • Israeli forces launched at least 100 air strikes in Syria yesterday. Israel, which has moved some troops into Syrian territory, claims that it's bombing chemical weapons facilities and other sensitive sites to prevent militants from getting a hold of them. via BBC News.
  • Russia had important naval and air bases in Syria that it desperately wants to keep. The Russian government has already contacted Syrian rebel leaders, who it previously described as terrorists, and started the courtship process. via The Guardian and Bloomberg.

Daniel Penny Acquitted Of Homicide In Jordan Neely Death

Daniel Penny – another 26-year-old who killed a guy on camera in Manhattan – was found not guilty yesterday of criminally negligent homicide. Last year, Penny held Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man, in a chokehold on a subway for minutes while bystanders warned that Penny might kill him. Penny claimed that Neely was threatening subway passengers. In court his lawyers claimed that Neely died from some kind of toxic combination of schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, and having a sickle-cell gene – but likely not sickle cell anemia. Apparently the jury, which had previously deadlocked on a manslaughter charge, bought it.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • Boeing Is Laying Off 17,000 Workers Dealing with financial losses related to an extended strike and its products' occasional tendency to murder their users, Boeing has been laying off employees for the last month. Meanwhile, yet another Boeing whistleblower has come forward to describe shoddy production practices. via AP News and 60 Minutes.
  • Lara Trump Resigns From RNC To Prep For Next Job Lara Trump, who's married to Donald Trump's son Eric, is stepping down from her position as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. "The job I came to do is now complete," said Trump, without describing her future plans. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may appoint her to replace Sen. Marco Rubio after he is confirmed as Secretary of State. via NYT and X/LaraLeaTrump.
  • Loyal Lawyer Alina Habba Will Join Trump In the White House Donald Trump announced that Alina Habba will be counselor to the president, a role occupied by Kellyanne Conway during Trump's first administration. Trump also announced that right-wing zealot and clothes horse Michael Anton will be the State Department's director of policy planning. via ABC News.
  • China Launches Investigation Into Chip Giant Nvidia The Chinese government is investigating whether Nvidia, the developer of graphics cards and specialized AI chips that's ridden the artificial intelligence boom to become the most valuable company in the world, broke antitrust laws. The US has worked hard to limit Chinese access to advanced chip technology (with little success), and this latest move by the Chinese government seems to be a bit of blowback. via Bloomberg.

SOME NUMBER

700,000

That's how many Haitian people have been displaced in an ongoing crisis driven by gang violence in the capital Port-au-Prince and a nearby region. In a recent massacre, a gang leader reportedly led an attack that killed more than 100 elderly people in a slum.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Trump Says He'll Deport US Citizens

The President-elect and his circle of ghouls want to chip away at the very definition of citizenship.

These Guys Are SO Out Of Touch On Healthcare CEO Shooting

Anger at health insurers is deeply bipartisan, but MAGA elites refuse to understand that.

PARTING WORDS

"Because you have to be the voice that she doesn’t have. Because you have to be the hands that she doesn’t have.”

-- A member of an indigenous Mayan organization explaining why she and her colleagues have sued to have the Mexican Yucatan's cenotes – gorgeous underground blue lakes and water-filled caverns – granted legal personhood. Mayans consider cenotes to be sacred, and the popular tourist sites are threatened by trash and pollution by pig farms and other local industry.

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