Latest news with #Leatherface
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Now that Musk has turned his chainsaw on Trump, what happens to all the government data he accessed?
For anyone who's seen the quintessential slasher classic 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' the destructive power of a man wielding a chainsaw is the indisputable stuff of nightmares. But the same could easily be said about this year's remake featuring Elon Musk, where the dancing chainsaw slasher reenacted, for Conservative Political Action Conference theatergoers, a scene eerily reminiscent of the original. I'm thinking, specifically, of that unforgettable final scene, where Leatherface fades to black swinging his gas-powered murder weapon wildly through the air as he helplessly watches his last potential victim make her last-minute daring escape, dangling from the back of a stranger's pickup truck. Social Security? Gutted. Veterans programs? Gutted. Alzheimer's, cancer and climate research? Gutted. School lunches, Head Start, the entire Department of Education? All gutted. Air safety, food safety, consumer protections? Gutted. Gutted. Gutted. Museums, libraries, hospitals, childcare? You get the drift. And what about all those thousands of federal workers whose jobs were cut? It'll take us years to recover from these self-inflicted wounds. Not to mention the generational damage wrought to our standing in the global community by what is possibly Musk's proudest personal achievement: the decimation of America's foreign assistance programs feeding starving children, combating human trafficking, fighting malaria and reducing the transmission of HIV. All summarized, of course, by the heartless tweet: 'We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.' While the long-term consequences of these actions may be difficult to gauge, conservative estimates are measured in the tens of thousands. But now, apparently, our modern-day Leatherface has turned his power tool on the guy who gave him the chainsaw in the first place. Even implying that his former boss was involved in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking conspiracy, and has since conspired to bury the evidence that would expose Trump's connections to Epstein's decades-long criminal activities — sort of hard to put that toothpaste back into the tube, wouldn't you say? At first glance, this appears to have all the makings of an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout, fought in the middle of a monster truck rally. This calls to mind the 1990s Claymation TV show 'Celebrity Deathmatch,' where preposterously paired big-name personalities (Hillary vs. Monica? Prince Charles vs. Prince?) fought to the death. Promises to be one hell of a show! What America may be in danger of losing sight of in the ensuing spectacle is the real threat to our national security posed by the world's richest man, who, until quite recently, enjoyed unfettered access to everything the government knows about you. Never before has the data your federal government collects about every American been consolidated into a single database. It has always, religiously, been 'siloed' into disconnected data systems — some at the Treasury Department, some at the Education Department, some at the Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, among other agencies — but always carefully stored and guarded by the separate entities collecting the data. The New York Times, for example, recently published a comprehensive story detailing 314 specific personal details your government potentially knows about you. I suggest giving that a read. A week ago, this casual observer would have assumed these two men, Trump and Musk, were acting with a single motive. Assembling the master data that could make possible Trump's ambitions for sweeping dictatorial powers, and for Musk's ambitions. The sheer volume of data, of course, far outstrips anything that social media titans like Mark Zuckerberg or Musk could legally monetize. And, in any event, certainly not the quid pro quo one might expect for a $288 million campaign contribution. Musk seemed, instead, to be carving himself a unique role in a near-future authoritarian oligarchy, as the undisputed Richelieu to Trump's Louis XIII. But, alas, that was not to be. What is to be, is the shocking revelation that a man who just days ago was given the ceremonial key to the White House — and in the weeks prior, the key to just about every federal government data base — has now cut all ties, and who we know talks regularly with Vladimir Putin, with whom he enjoys a reportedly friendly relationship, is now a free agent. Did Musk take the data with him? To me, the answer seems obvious. The way his pot-smoking 'college dropouts' sauntered into agency after rarified government agency, enjoying open access to virtually anything they wanted — and then they were called out by a whistleblower for uploading huge troves of data to an unsecured server. Within minutes, after Russian hackers had apparently been tipped off, they tried to download it using the correct passwords. We are told that in the end, the Russians were unable to access the data. Whether or not that denial is accurate and truthful, however, again, what should be obvious is that Musk's team successfully spirited your personal information from secure government databases to god knows where. That is the reality to which we wake today, and now every day. Let's hope that after those two Claymation figures have beaten the clay out of each other, someone comes up with a plan to clean up the mess they made. Before it's too late. Brett Wagner, now retired, served as professor of national security decision making for the U.S. Naval War College and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Final Destinations: Bloodlines' Review: Born to Die
It's no surprise that the 'Final Destination' franchise — a schlocky, spectacularly gory series of horror films that kicked off in 2000, spawning a total of five movies — has staying power. Unlike most horror properties, there's no big baddie (à la Jason Voorhees or Leatherface) — or at least not one capable of getting old and seeming played out. The villain is Death itself, and both onscreen and off, it's coming for us all, though in the 'Final Destination' movies this unseen force is a shameless showboat. That's no exception in the new, sixth installment, 'Final Destination: Bloodlines,' which begins with a terrifically tense set piece in and around a Space Needle-style glass tower in the 1950s. Iris (Brec Bassinger) is on a date with her beau on the building's opening night when she experiences a vivid hallucination of their imminently brutal deaths by towering inferno. The vision allows Iris to escape her grisly fate and save everyone around her. In this regard, 'Bloodlines' follows the template of all the 'Final Destination' movies (the first movie saw its characters escaping an airplane explosion, the second film a highway pileup and the third a roller coaster malfunction). But as things go in the 'Final Destination' universe, Death doesn't like being cheated — and it'll take its lives, one by one, in what has become the franchise's claim to fame: ingeniously choreographed kill scenes that turn everyday settings and objects into potential murder weapons. Consider some of the series's greatest hits: death by tanning bed; by head-mashing weight machine; by, uh, slipping on spaghetti and getting your eyeball pierced by a falling fire-escape ladder. 'Bloodlines,' gleefully directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, offers a compelling tweak on its predecessors by introducing — with a wink and a shove — the element of inherited trauma. The opening glass-tower tragedy, it turns out, happened decades ago and the premonition takes the form of Iris's granddaughter's nightmares. Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is flunking out of college because of these recurring visions, leading her to return home and reconnect with her long-estranged grandmother (Gabrielle Rose). Of the dozens of people who were supposed to die that night, Iris was nearly the last. Death proceeds in the intended order of the original blood bath, meaning it has taken years to work through all its victims — including the children those people were never supposed to have. Iris is now something of a doomsday prepper, having single-handedly fended off Death's wrath by sheltering in a remote cabin. Her family thinks she's nuts, but it's not long before Death works its way down the family tree, making conspiracists out of all of them. 'Bloodlines' might be the most self-consciously silly installment in the series, poking fun at its own improbable scenarios with meta-humor and Looney Toons-style gags (the boatloads of mushy, digitally-rendered blood add to this caricature effect). There's an obligatory sob story about Stefani and her mother (Rya Kihlstedt), who abandoned her and her little brother (Teo Briones) when Stefani was 10, but the emotional stakes are held well enough by the cast's charisma. Tony Todd, the franchise's only mainstay (who died last year), makes a soulfully spooky cameo; and Richard Harmon, who plays one of Stefani's cousins and whose multiple piercings and rogue demeanor make great playthings for Death, is a comic standout. But, most important, the deaths are weird and surprising; and their lead-ups are expertly paced. There's not much more a 'Final Destination' fan could ask for, but 'Bloodlines' — which at times feel more like a dark satire than a straightforward horror movie — reminds us we're powerless against the world's morbid whims. Best we can do is laugh about it.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Yahoo
Portland man who stole from Milwaukie Lowe's 3 times gets 13-month sentence
PORTLAND, Ore. () — A prolific thief of home improvement stores in the greater Portland metro area was sentenced to 13 months in prison Wednesday in a Clackamas County court, authorities said. Portland resident Manuel Kaneala Hernandez, 46, pleaded guilty to multiple theft charges from two separate cases. As part of a plea agreement, other charges were dismissed, according to the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office. Man accused of hijacking TriMet bus to remain in jail 'In May 2023, Hernandez walked out of a Lowe's store in Milwaukie with a $399.99 item and drove off in a stolen U-Haul truck,' the DA's office said in a release. 'Surveillance video helped police identify Hernandez from old booking photos which showed his distinctive tattoos on both sides and back of his neck and on the top of each hand.' The next month, Hernandez stole a utility trailer from a Lowe's in Vancouver, officials said. He was later convicted in Clark County for being in possession of the stolen trailer as well as resisting arrest. Then in August 2023, Hernandez stole $1000 worth of merchandise from the same Lowe's in Milwaukie, broke the rear security door and got away. He stole multiple eclectic items, including an animatronic Leatherface and other Halloween decorations, a chainsaw, a portable tabletop stove and a leaf blower. In November of 2023, Lowe's loss prevention officers once again saw Hernandez shoplifting. La Center Schools ordered to revise pronoun policy For the Milwaukie thefts, Hernandez pled guilty to one count of first-degree theft and two counts of second-degree theft related to two separate incidents. Hernandez had previously been convicted in Washington County and given a 24-month sentence for thefts at Home Depot and Lowe's stores and other crimes, officials said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
