Thousands of Chase Bank Customers Panic as Transactions Multiplied by 100

Hundreds of thousands of people were shocked to see wildly incorrect spending alerts from Chase Bank today that were 100 times the amount they actually spent. The problem began between 12:30 PM and 2:30 PM (Central Time).

Like many Americans, I have my banking set up to send me alerts whenever I make a debit or credit card transaction over a certain amount I have mine set to anything over 10 cents. 

I did some shopping today, and everything seemed normal – for a while. At 12:22 PM, I made a debit card purchase of $36.49. Seconds later, tah-ding! A text alert to my phone. Cool. Five minutes later, a $5.94 transaction. Another ding to my phone. All was right.

But at 2:36 PM, I made a $6.85 purchase at a grocery store. My phone dinged, but I was busy with a shopping cart and getting home. However, when I got home I checked my text messages and was astounded to see that I'd just made a $685.00 purchase at that store! I checked my email, and it also reported a $685.00 purchase. Hold on, I thought, let me log on to my Chase Bank account.

The incorrect email alert

On the Chase website, the $6.85 purchase was correctly noted. All looked right. But just to be sure, I phone Chase Customer Service. The efficient lady who helped me explained that yes, the system was misplacing decimal points on alerts, making purchases appear to be 100 times their actual amounts. "It just happened," she said, "and they're working to fix it right now." 

"People must freaking out," I said.

"The call volume is very high right now," she chuckled.

I thanked her and was satisfied with the explanation. 

At 5:43 PM, Chase sent me an email that duplicated the previous, incorrect grocery purchase albeit with the correct amount of $6.85. 

I can only imagine the panic that many Chase customers must have felt when they received text alerts and/or email telling them they just spent 100 more than they actually did. I was lucky to be able to immediately check my account from my desktop computer. But think of all the Chase customers who were not able to do that, and stressing for hours.

The Chase website was correct

To Chase's credit, they did fix the issue quickly. But there might still be people out there who are fearing that this month's rent money just disappeared.

Woman at top: Image by rawpixel.com

My Primary Care Provider is a Science-Denying Mask Freak – So I Fired Them

HOUSTON, 23 Jan 2023 – This morning I walked out of a doctor's appointment. Why? Because they insisted I put on a useless blue surgical face mask. The cheap kind that we've all seen (and probably worn) a million times by now.

A year or two ago, I probably would have complied while grumbling under my breath. But three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, and after it's been shown repeatedly that those popular blue masks are not effective against the virus, I questioned their request for me to don one of them. 

There was only one other patient in the IORA Primary Care waiting room when I entered. I immediately noticed that he wore a mask, but it was lowered beneath his chin. He might has well have not had it on at all. He was sitting right in front of the masked receptionist, who told me to put on a mask. Why didn't she tell him to pull his mask up to cover his mouth and nose?

The omnipresent, useless face mask.
Photo: Juraj Varga, Pixabay

This hit me the wrong way. "If I do," I said, "can I wear it below my chin like that guy is?" She immediately told him to pull his mask up, which he did. I was now in a room with two people wearing loosely fitting, ineffective masks. I protested.

"The masks are ineffective," I said. "Even the CDC has admitted as much."

"It's just our policy," the masked receptionist at IORA Primary Care said, "and we follow CDC guidelines." They might think so, but they seem to be ignoring the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has stated that "The surgical mask is a bad fit for risk reduction." The CDC itself has said that a blue surgical mask "Does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection," and "Leakage occurs around the edge of the mask when user inhales." In other words, useless – perhaps even dangerous.

Then something very telling happened. The man who had his mask below his chin when I entered piped up and said his wife died of COVID.

"I'm sorry for your loss," I said, "but was she wearing a mask?" Mr. Below-The-Chin said his wife must have caught COVID when "it slipped down one day." 

"How do you know that's when she caught it?" I asked.

"It had to be!" he exclaimed. Of course, there's no way to know for certain when or where she became infected.

Remember that this guy was, moments earlier, was wearing a mask below his chin. Not wishing to argue with a man who recently lost his wife, I didn't point out his idiotic contradiction. I can only attribute his belief that his wife caught COVID because her ineffective cheap mask slipped below her nose momentarily to an utter lack of critical thinking. I know that's harsh, but this guy swallowed the mask propaganda with big cup of ignorance. 

The clinic's health care "coach" entered the room. She was masked, of course, and told me to mask up. I replied that I could no longer trust a doctor who is a science denier and tells me the cheap masks they were wearing – and wanted me to wear – are required even though shown to be useless, and while other doctors and medical facilities in Houston no longer require them.

It was clear by now that I was talking to people who were brainwashed or ignorant. More likely, they were following orders from people who are brainwashed, ignorant, or think they have to virtue signal to their staff and clientele. I'm now searching for another primary care provider.

Some of you may think it odd that I, who refused to wear a mask, called those who do "science deniers." Many called those of us who said masks are ineffective "science deniers." The irony: We were right and the mask pushers were wrong.

Face masks are no longer required at any of the other doctors' offices I visit. That includes my cardiologist, my dermatologist, my skin surgeon and others. I recently had a four-night stay in a major hospital here in Houston (I'm okay now), and while all of the staff wore masks there was no requirement to wear one to enter the building. I didn't wear one for my entire stay, and none of the paramedics who transported me to the hospital wore masks in the ambulance or in the emergency room wore masks. Most of the other patients I saw did not wear masks.

How not to wear a face mask

I should point out that all of the hospital staff were wearing those cheap blue masks that nearly everybody was wearing at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have to wonder if nurses and doctors are really unaware of the fact that those masks are nothing more than face adornments, as they are ineffective against COVID-19. That's especially true for the COVID variants.

By now, many of us realize that those ubiquitous blue face masks are pretty much useless for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told us that way back in early February 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. 

Here's an excerpt from an email Fauci wrote back then, nearly three years ago:

"The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you." - Source: Newsweek

A lot of us knew this early on in the pandemic, back in early 2020. "A cloth mask or face covering does very little to prevent the emission or inhalation of small particles," according to an article written by experts published on April 1, 2020 by the University of Minnesota.

Not long after that, on June 11, 2020, an article by Denis G. Rancourt, PhD noted this:

"The present paper about masks illustrates the degree to which governments, the mainstream media, and institutional propagandists can decide to operate in a science vacuum, or select only incomplete science that serves their interests. Such recklessness is also certainly the case with the current global lockdown of over 1 billion people, an unprecedented experiment in medical and political history."

Rancourt's article went on to say:

"In light of the medical research, therefore, it is difficult to understand why public-health authorities are not consistently adamant about this established scientific result, since the distributed psychological, economic, and environmental harm from a broad recommendation to wear masks is significant, not to mention the unknown potential harm from concentration and distribution of pathogens on and from used masks. In this case, public authorities would be turning the precautionary principle on its head."

Some of you will consider the authors quoted above to be "science deniers" or even "conspiracy theorists," or "right wing nuts." If you do, you should know that you are actually the science deniers, and you bought into the propaganda that promoted useless masks, economy-killing lockdowns, spikes in suicides worldwide, and psychological trauma that will stay with people for the next 70 years. 

But the (discredited) U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has essentially admitted that cloth masks are ineffective...after promoting them even while knowing they were useless. (See graphic to the left.)

Some will say this post is just the ranting of a right-wing conspiracy nut. Well, okay, but "nuts" have been vindicated. The following excerpt is from the New York Times on February 21, 2023:

"But when it comes to the population-level benefits of masking, the verdict is in: Mask mandates were a bust. Those skeptics who were furiously mocked as cranks and occasionally censored as “misinformers” for opposing mandates were right. The mainstream experts and pundits who supported mandates were wrong....And the people who had the courage to say as much deserved to be listened to, not treated with contempt. They may not ever get the apology they deserve, but vindication ought to be enough." [Emphasis added]

My now-former primary care provider, IORA Primary Care, still insists on face masks that have been shown by experts – including their holy CDC – to be ineffective even as nearly every other medical facility and doctor's office in Houston doesn't. If they insist I wear a mask while another guy sits right in front of them with his mask below his chin, then to heck with them. If IORA is putting virtue signalling and political propaganda ahead of actual science, I can no longer trust them....and they owe everyone apology.

Related:

• The scientific case against face masks - Jan 13, 2023 - UnHerd 
• The "Conspiracy Theorists" Were Right - Feb 28, 2023 - Mark Dice on YouTube
• CDC no longer recommends universal masking in health facilities - Sep 26, 2022 - The Hill
• Fauci Said Masks 'Not Really Effective in Keeping Out Virus,' Email Reveals - Jun 2, 2021 - Newsweek
• Masks-for-all for COVID-19 not based on sound data - Lisa M Brosseau, ScD, and Margaret Sietsema, PhD  Apr 1, 2020 - University of Minnesota
• Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers at Serious Risk - April 28, 2020 - Scientific American 
• The surgical mask is a bad fit for risk reduction - May 17, 2016 - Canadian Medical Association Journal
• Masks Don’t Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy - Jun 11, 2020 - River Cities' Reader
• Blue surgical face masks are only 10% effective in preventing COVID infection, new study finds - Aug 21, 2021 - Daily Mail UK
• Cloth Masks Are Useless Against COVID-19 - Jan 12, 2022 - Infection Control Today
• Masks Still Don’t Work: More than two years on, the best scientific evidence says that masks don’t stop Covid—and public health officials continue to ignore it. - Aug 8, 2022 - City Journal

The Sickening Problems With Fiesta Mart in Texas

Graphic by Tom Eats Houston

We've all run across items in a supermarket that are past their expiration date. It doesn't happen very often, and when it does (in my experience) the product is only a day or two past the date recommended by the manufacturer. Many grocery stores will mark items down when they get near their "sell by" date to move them out quickly. 

However, our friends at Tom Eats Houston found a supermarket that chronically keeps long-out-of-date food items on the shelves. Not just a day or two, but weeks out of date. That's beyond gross, it's potentially dangerous for the consumers who aren't careful about checking those dates. It could, possibly, lead to food poisoning or even death. 

The supermarket in question here is a store belonging to the chain Fiesta Mart, based in Houston. They have over 60 stores in Texas.  

The chain, reports Center Daily Times, "has been cited 13 times since 2015, according to an Aug. 15 news release from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration." 

“Despite painful and permanent injuries suffered by a half dozen of its employees since 2015, Fiesta Mart repeatedly ignores required safety standards,” OSHA Regional Administrator Eric S. Harbin said in the release. “The company now faces penalties of more than $1 million for their disregard of the law. Fiesta Mart must change the way it operates before more workers suffer serious injury.”

Given that apparent disregard for the safety of their own employees, it should not be surprising that Fiesta Mart shows no concern about their customers' safety by continuing to sell long-expired food items. 

In a blog post titled "Expired Food Too Common at Fiesta #39 in Houston," Tom Eats Houston (TEH) details a couple of times that food was left for sale on the shelves long past the time it should have been removed. Excerpts: 

Today [Jan. 11, 2023] I was in Fiesta Mart in Houston's Sharpstown neighborhood and found six cartons of liquid egg whites that expired weeks ago. 

This is their Store #39, at 8710 Bellaire, Houston, Texas. This store, in my opinion, is the worst supermarket in Houston and one of the worst I've seen anywhere in the United States. 

Five of the liquid egg cartons I found at Fiesta were marked "Use by 26 Dec 22," and one was marked "Use by 28 Nov 22" (six weeks and 2 days past safe usage). As with the expired sausages I found in August 2022 (see below), I took the expired cartons up front and left them with a clerk and when I asked for a manager I was told they were all in a meeting. I asked her to tell the managers that they're doing a lousy job of keeping expired food items off the shelves.

Over the past four years, I've come across numerous products at this Fiesta that are long past their "sell by" and "use by" dates. Do they want to be sued for food poisoning?

In the same post, TEH detailed a previous bad experience at the same Fiesta Mart in August 2022:

I found seven packages of sausages on August 30. Each had a "sell by" date of July 31. A month out of date. How did the staff miss this?

I've often found perishable items that are way past "sell by" dates at this store. Dairy, packaged meats, and other items. Do they not care? Are they lazy? Stupid? Do they put profit ahead of customer safety? I don't know. 

A couple of years ago, I found a packaged seafood item on a non-refrigerated display. The package clearly said, "Keep Refrigerated," and not just after opening. It was perishable. I pointed this out to a manager. His response shocked me. "Well, we don't refrigerate those in my country." Yes, well, ahem, we're not there.

You've been warned. Check those "sell by" dates, especially at Fiesta Mart #39 in Houston. It might keep you from getting sick – or maybe even from dying. 

If you're in Houston, you might rethink shopping at Fiesta Mart. Or, at the very least, carefully check expiration dates on the items you choose. That's good advice no matter where you buy your food.

In Debate, Mandela Barnes Dismissed Union Members in 49 Other States (Analyzing the Lie)

I couldn't let this go without comment. In last night's election debate (October 13, 2022) between U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R) and challenger Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (D), Barnes began his opening statement with a lie. 

"My story is a Wisconsin story, only possible here, being raised in a union household."  (Emphasis mine; video below.)

Mandela Barnes: "Only in Wisconsin"

WAIT, WHAT? Let's get this straight. NOWHERE ELSE in America, but "ONLY IN WISCONSIN," can someone be raised in a union household? Really? Is it possible that there are no "union households" in other states? Well, no, it's not.

Barnes's lie might seem like an innocent exaggeration. But it's not, really. It shows a willingness on his part to distort the truth, to fabricate his own version of reality, and to knowingly mislead voters. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about it is that some Wisconsin voters heard that lie, raised their clenched their fists in the air over their couches, and screamed, "Yeah, man, only in Wisconsin!"

According to a January 2022 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

"In 2021, the number of men who were union members, at 7.5 million, changed little, while the number of women who were union members declined by 182,000 to 6.5 million. The unionization rate for men decreased by 0.4 percentage point over the year to 10.6 percent." 

(Source: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf)

Biden's Biggest LIES From The Last 2020 Debate (Updated with 2022 Lies!!!)

UPDATE, Oct. 7, 2022 - Here we are, two years after this post was originally posted and (surprise!) Joe Biden is still lying. He can't help himself, and never could. Biden is a serial habitual liar, always has been, still is, always will be. To demonstrate this (do you really need proof?), I'm adding a video posted to YouTube today by "Don't Walk, Run! Productions" that covers a bunch of recent Biden fibs.



The original post from Oct. 22, 2020:

Six of Joe Biden's biggest lies from the final presidential debate on Oct. 22, 2020:

1) Biden said Trump never condemned white supremacists. FALSE: Trump has condemned white supremacists, racism, and intolerance many times.

2) Biden insisted he never said he would ban fracking. FALSE: He did, numerous times.

3) Biden said he never called black people "super predators." MOSTLY FALSE: Although technically true, he DID call them "predators" repeatedly. He just didn't add the word "super," as Hillary Clinton infamously did.

4) Biden claimed he and his family never got money from China. FALSE.

(Update Nov 2021: Biden lied when he denied knowledge of Hunter’s businesses deals)

5) Biden said he never called Trump "xenophobic" for COVID-related travel bans. FALSE.

ALSO SEE: 

11 of Joe Biden‘s Biggest Debate Lies - Breitbart News, 23 Oct 2020

Queen Elizabeth Dies at 96, Royal Family in Mourning

The longest reigning monarch in British history – indeed, in the world – has passed away. Queen Elizabeth II sat on the throne for 70 years. Buckingham Palace said she "died peacefully" this afternoon at her Balmoral residence in Scotland. Just hours earlier, international media were reporting that the royal family was concerned about her failing health.

The Telegraph reports this:

Buckingham Palace confirmed on Thursday lunchtime that Her Majesty had been under medical supervision at Balmoral after her doctors had become "concerned" about her health. 

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

All of the Queen's children, as well as  the Duke of Cambridge, travelled immediately to Balmoral. The Queen was last pictured formally appointing the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, at Balmoral on Tuesday, her final public duty. She postponed a virtual Privy Council meeting the following day after being advised by doctors to rest.

Her eldest son, Prince Charles, will now become King, while his eldest son, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, assumes the position of heir to the throne. 

According to the BBC:

Queen Elizabeth II's tenure as head of state spanned post-war austerity, the transition from empire to Commonwealth, the end of the Cold War and the UK's entry into - and withdrawal from - the European Union.

Her reign spanned 15 prime ministers starting with Winston Churchill, born in 1874, and including Liz Truss, born 101 years later in 1975, and appointed by the Queen earlier this week.

She held weekly audiences with her prime minister throughout her reign.

QEII's reign was truly monumental. According to britroyals.com, "Her reign of over 69 years has seen 14 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, and numerous Prime Ministers in the Commonwealth Realms of which she is (or was) also Head of State; between them she has had a total of over 170 Prime Ministers including 12 Canadian and 18 Australian Prime Ministers during her reign. There have been 14 US Presidents during her reign."

RELATED: What to expect when Queen Elizabeth II dies - britishheritage.com

70 Secrets About Queen Elizabeth II That Are Royally Fascinating - eonline.com 

Timeline for Queen Elizabeth II - britroyals.com/kings

Twitter Censored Me For Advocating US Legal Code

On September 14, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted that Gen. Mark Milley had worked "to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China," and that "He should be court martialed [sic] if true."

Sen. Paul was referring to Milley subverting the chain of command by effectively attempting to omit the Commander In Chief (Trump at the time) from the decision-making process, and by phoning a top Chinese general to promise advance warning should Trump decide that an attack on China or Chinese forces was necessary.

If Milley did "subvert the military chain of command and collude with China," he could be guilty of treason, mutiny, and/or sedition as defined by US Code. (More on that below.) Sen. Paul did not say what kind of punishment he would wish for Milley if he is ever court-martialed. So I replied to Sen. Paul's tweet by suggesting that Milley should be "executed if convicted." US Code allows for execution as a punishment for treason. But the fools at Twitter HQ don't care.

Note that I wrote, "if convicted." That's important because I was not advocating the unjustified killing of anybody. 

By writing that Milley should be executed if convicted I obviously meant after a legal trial (court-martial). If convicted, US Legal Code also calls for execution as a possible punishment. In other words, I was advocating the application of federal law.

Nevertheless, Twitter accused me of violating their rules of "abuse and harassment." I did neither.

I don't want to make this post about whether or not Gen. Milley is guilty of anything (although he is, in my opinion). Rather, this is about Twitter limiting my account for, in their flawed opinion, advocating the killing of somebody. (Note: It's also possible that some idiot at Twitter misinterpreted my reply to Sen. Paul as a threat.)

Twitter limited me on September 14 for saying that Gen. Mark Milley should be "executed if found guilty." They demanded that I delete the offending tweet.

I appealed it. Three times. No response.

That was no real surprise, of course, but I decided to wait it out just to see if I was wrong. After 13 days of waiting, I decided to delete the tweet and get back fully into the Twitterverse.

It's well know that Twitter is inconsistent with enforcement of their own rules. Just for fun, go to Twitter and search for "milley should be executed" or "execute milley" to see a ton of tweets still posted.

As I said earlier, I merely advocated federal law as defined by U.S. Code. Many say that Milley went rogue, and may have even committed treason. U.S. Legal Code offers some distinct possibilities for severe punishment, specifically:

10 U.S. Code § 894 - Art. 94. Mutiny or sedition (my emphasis added):

(a) Any person subject to this chapter who—

(1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny;

(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition;

(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.

(b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

Keep in mind that the Commander In Chief is a civilian and, therefore, embodies civil authority.

18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason (my emphasis added):

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

It is plain that the US Code (federal law) says that Milley should (or could) be executed if found guilty of treason, mutiny, or sedition. All I did was echo that.

How NOT To Do a Conspiracy Theory Video

This TikTok video is so mind-numbingly stupid that it begs for deconstruction.

Conspiracy theories have been around for centuries, but the explosion of social media has amplified them exponentially. Some conspiracy theories, of course, have proven to be true. But many, if not most, are nothing more than paranoid people expounding on things they don't understand.

@lovemycountry32, TikTok
We don't know her real name. 

As in this TikTok video, made by a woman who insinuates that the major renovation project of a Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C. is proof of sinister goings-on by mysterious nogoodniks. In short, she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about.

The  building is the William McChesney Martin, Jr. Building (the "Martin Building"), dedicated in 1974. It's been undergoing a multi-year modernization, and the outside of the structure is full of construction equipment and fencing. There is nothing strange about it.

The woman who made the video and posted it to TikTok on Sept. 8, 2921 calls herself "lovemycountry326." While she technically qualifies as a "citizen reporter," she has no idea how to be a citizen journalist. 

Let's watch the video and then break it down into all of its gloriously inept elements.

"So," she said, "this is [zooms in] you can see right there, this is the Federal Reserve." [zooms back out] 

Note: She never tells us which city this Federal Reserve is in. There are 12 of them around the U.S.

"Okay, so I've showed [sic] you guys pictures of this before, uhm, but it's interesting because I got a nudge to come back and do a live to show you and I'm glad that I did because I just met one of the guys here and sat and had like a 15-minute conversation with him. And it was a very good conversation, uhm, and he is going to get me some information."