Overnight Underground News May 11th 2020

The Overnight Underground Podcast, now the headlines:

Obama and Trump sling mud. China and the WHO sling BS. Covid has eyes for you. Chicago keeps the rate up. Iran blows up its own warship and Alaska is having a beaver boom.

These stories & more coming up on today’s Overnight Underground News. I’m John Ford.  

Former President Obama had a private conversation with his former staffers, which turned out to not be so private, seeing that everyone now knows about it. The talks were engaged specifically to help drum up support for Joe Biden’s campaign. With an election creeping closer and closer, Obama is taking off the gloves and starting to swing hard at Trump. During the call, Obama called the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic "an absolute chaotic disaster". Uncle Joe responded, of course, with something that sounded like this. The White House retorted that President Trump's "unprecedented" action had "saved Americans' lives" and later lambasted the Obama response to  swine flu during his administration. I say, lock them all in a room, and the enlightening confabulation between these two warring factions would sound something like this. Me, I’m voting for bullwinkle. 

China and WHO collusion?

And while everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else, a new report dug up by the German magazine of record Der Spiegel and reported now by numerous sources, says that China pressured the World Health Organization to delay a global coronavirus warning. The report cites intelligence from Germany’s federal intelligence service that Chinese President and all around great guy Winnie the Xi Jinping urged the WHO chief to “delay a global warning” about the pandemic, and holding back data on human-to-human transmission of coronavirus. Not to be outdone, the World Health Organization has called the allegations “unfounded and untrue.” 

The eyes have it for Covid-19

Oh great, now they’re saying you can catch coronavirus through your eyes. The Daily Mail reports that scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that Covid-19 can latch onto receptors in your eye balls. If Covid droplets land on your eye, the virus can begin running riot through your wretched and infected body.  Wait, does this mean we’ll have to start wearing eye patches along with face masks? 

Shopping with Nazi’s

Last week in Santee, California we had the man shopping at the grocery store with a KKK hood. This week, it’s a pair of shoppers with Nazi swastika on their masks shopping in the same California town. KUSI San Diego reports the couple were spotted and photographed by shoppers at the Food 4 Less in Santee. According to the article, Diego Sheriff’s deputies arrived and forced the shopper to remove the swastika from his mask. Look, these people are either idiots or attention whores, but wearing a swastika isn’t against the law. Honestly, you may not like it but what right do the police have to tell you what kind of sticker or tee-shirt you can wear or have on your car? Do they have the right to tell you you can’t wear a tee-shirt that says “f*ck Trump” or “the white man is the devil”? No. You may have to deal with the consequences of wearing such attire, but your right to wear it is your own damn business and my responsibility. But how is it people are allowed to walk around with this kind of offensive crap and not get arrested? I believe it has something to do with the first amendment of the US constitution. I know, you were offended. 

Chicago keeps murder rate up

The Covid-19 lockdown hasn’t stopped Chicago from keeping that stellar murder rate up. Yea, even though the streets are supposed to be barren, there’s still plenty of gun fire in the windy city. So much so that even the French have noticed.  France 24 is reporting that fifty six murders were committed last month, despite stay-at-home orders in the city, and just last weekend, four people were killed and forty six others were shot and wounded. On the West Side of the city, there’s not a lot of social distancing taking place, with crowds gathering on the streets to dance to the music and of course shoot each other. A senior research director at the University of Chicago Crime Lab is stating that most of the shootings and the subsequent murders have occurred outdoors and both shooters and victims have ignored stay-at-home orders. 

Iran blows up own warship

Worry over war with Iran has faded into the background with the advent of the global pandemic. Now it appears that the US and its allies probably have even less to worry about from the autocratic islamic state. It seems they are doing just fine waging war on themselves. Forbes and other sources are reporting that Iranian state media and the army say nineteen are dead in a friendly fire incident in the Sea of Oman. The Iranians were conducting live-fire exercises with anti-ship missiles when one of the missles slammed into one of their own warships. Well, at least they know their missiles work, command and control, not so much.

Alaska booming with beaver

Alaska is booming with beaver. Up in Northwest Alaska they are indeed experiencing a massive beaver boom. In the last couple of decades the Baldwin Peninsula has seen a massive increase in beavers, and that means more dams. To make a long story even longer, more dams mean big impacts on everything from fish populations to permafrost. University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Ken Tape tells KOTZ radio that there are so damn many dams, you can actually see them from space. You heard that right, beavers in space. OK, that’s enough of that. 

Little Richard dead 

One of the last of the original rock and rollers had passed away over the weekend. Little Richard’s family have confirmed to Rolling Stone magazine that the eighty seven year old rocker has died. The cause of Richard’s death has not been released. 

Jerry Stiller, father of Ben Stiller and husband of Anne Meara, with whom he formed the married comedic duo of Stiller and Meara, died over the weekend at the age of 92. Jerry Stiller may be best known these days as the frenetic father of Frank Costanza on the “Seinfeld” show. 

Toilet frogs invading England

In England residents of Derbyshire are being invaded by toilet frogs. Nope, it’s not a new species, at least we don’t think so, the frogs in question seem to be coming up through the pipes and are quite often, found doing the backstroke in the toilet. Yea, having to head the call of nature in the wee hours of the morning and having a slimy frog hop up and whack your rectum, I don’t think so. One resident told the Derbyshire Telegraph that she now has to, “stand and squat now." Still others are taking the latrine amphibians in stride. One retired pensioner said, "I saw two of them, one on the wall of the toilet, the other on the seat. I put them in a plastic container and took them into the garden." Thankfully, no one has croaked yet.