The Daily Valet. - 10/13/22, Thursday

✔️ Cheating Is So Hot Right Now

October 13, 2022

Thursday, October 13th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Well this is a wild ride of a newsletter. Buckle up.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Is Everyone Cheating Now?

Maybe they always did ...

Cheating is so hot right now. No, I’m not talking about the Try Guy or Adam Levine. I’m talking about cheating to win. Skirting the rules to get ahead. Have you noticed how many schemes, plots and dirty strategies have been brought to light lately?

It seems like the landscape of niche competition has reached its peak cheating era. Seriously. Things you wouldn’t think you could rig are being marred by cheaters. The highbrow world of chess was just rocked by allegations of cheating via sex toys. An Irish dancing group was recently accused of trying to fix competitions in their favor.

Competitive fishing is now dealing with a champion who was discovered to be stuffing his prize-winning fish with smaller fish filets and lead weights. The moment he was caught was captured on camera and several now-viral videos show the crowd of competitors getting understandably pissed.

And an ongoing investigation into an alleged poker cheating scandal has taken a turn nobody ever expected. Now an employee of Hustler Casino Live (who ran the event in question) has been fired after allegedly stealing $15,000 in chips from Robbi Jade Lew on the same night she allegedly cheated. That’s the thing about cheating though, once you see (or think) someone’s done it, you think “Well, if they’re doing it, why can’t I?”

Which is actually one of the primary reasons why people do, in fact, cheat. No one wants to be a chump, right? Buzzfeed News puts it this way: Cheaters defy the rules. They do what they want. After so many years of worrying and trying to do the right thing, there’s something darkly appealing about not caring about anyone else.

But maybe things have gone too far. Because now cheating has sullied one of America’s most pure delights: Fat Bear Week. The competition, where people vote on the Alaskan bear that will be the plumpest before hibernation season, just crowned a new champion. But not before voting irregularities—meant to skew the results of a pivotal semifinal—were discovered. Is nothing sacred?

↦ FYI: Cheaters are everywhere, especially in business. To survive, Entrepreneur magazine says you must stay one step ahead.

This Doesn’t Look Good for Trump

Employee told FBI that Trump personally directed the moving of Mar-a-Lago records

A Trump employee has told federal agents about moving boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago at the specific direction of the former president, reports the Washington Post.

The employee has told the FBI about being directed by Trump to move boxes out of a basement storage room to his residence at Mar-a-Lago after receiving a subpoena for any classified documents. And a long-serving aide to former President Trump was captured on security camera footage moving boxes out of the storage room.

The Department of Justice has previously alleged that classified documents at the resort were “likely concealed and removed” as part of an effort to “obstruct” the FBI's investigation into Trump's potential mishandling of classified materials. Prosecutors said in August that that some documents were likely removed from a storage room before Trump's lawyers examined the area, while they were trying to comply with the subpoena.

According to the Post, the employee is now cooperating with the DOJ and has been interviewed multiple times by federal agents. “The witness is now considered a key part of the investigation, offering details about the former president’s alleged actions and instructions to subordinates that could have been an attempt to thwart federal officials' demands for the return of classified documents.”

↦ Meanwhile: The Jan. 6th panel is back tonight. The hearing will take a sweeping view of the “entire multipart plan to overturn the election,” a committee aide said.

Jury Orders Alex Jones to Pay Nearly $1 Billion

He denounced the judgment and urged his viewers to send him money to appeal

A Connecticut jury on Wednesday ordered far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $965 million to the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims and an FBI agent who responded to the attack for the suffering he caused them by spreading lies on his platforms about the 2012 massacre.

Jones faced liability for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the state Unfair Trade Practices Act, for creating a fake narrative that the mass shooting was a hoax. The families claimed Jones profited off the lies while they were harassed and abused by those who believed him.

As former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman said after the mammoth awards to the plaintiffs were read in court, Jones will be “basically broke” for the remainder of his life. Jones has, of course, vowed to appeal. So he may be able to delay the inevitable for a little time longer. He scoffed live on his show: “Do these people actually think they're getting any money?”

Instead of attending Wednesday's court hearing, Jones was broadcasting a livestream, trying to convince his audience to send him donations for an appeal. According to the New York Times, he's placed his company into bankruptcy, which the Sandy Hook victims' families have challenged in court as merely an attempt to avoid paying damages. (He certainly didn't look bankrupt flying in on a private jet to testify.)

↦ FYI: The judgement comes on top of the $49.3 million in damages a separate Texas jury ordered Jones to pay to the parents of another boy killed in the shooting.

Made in America Is Making a Comeback

But the boom is leaving some U.S. factories scrambling to find workers

Here's some good news: InsideHook reports that American-made clothing is seeing something of a renaissance. As you might remember, the summer of 2020 was particularly tough on American garment manufacturing (which had long been on the ropes). Within the space of a month, three iconic factories—Gitman Bros. in Ashland, PA; the Garland Shirt Company in Garland, NC; and Southwick in Haverhill, MA—announced their permanent closures.

Some blamed the pandemic, others were due to bankruptcies of parent companies and the shifting winds of retail. But this summer, Gitman had enough orders to reopen their 90-year-old factory in Pennsylvania.

And some of the former Southwick workers are employed by a new company called Southwick Social Ventures, sewing a new line of Japanese cotton chinos under the label, Lawrence Trousers.

According to CNN, American factories have become so busy that manufacturers are scrambling to find workers as the pace of hiring hits levels not seen in decades. Since April, manufacturing employment has been growing at about a 4% annual rate, the fastest sustained pace of growth since 1984, when the sector had more than twice as large a share of US jobs.

↦ Meanwhile: There’s a new director of the government’s Made in America Office, which Biden created just days after taking office.

In Other News

↦ How Chinese Citizens Use Puns to Get Past Internet Censors

↦ There’s a New Menace Stalking Suburbia. Meet the McBasement.

↦ Ligers, Zorses and Pizzlies: How Animal Hybrids Happen

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Hotel room upgrades

Ozempic

Swear words

Strength in Numbers

The benefits of working out in a group

Do you work out solo or with a group? Do you like to put on headphones and get down to business or prefer a class where you can get instruction and motivation from others? Our own Jordan Taylor makes a pretty strong case for group fitness.

“I joined a local gym focused on HIIT group classes where I regularly worked out with the same group of people every morning,” he writes. And you know what? The difference in his results was huge. “That's because it's a whole lot easier powering through the last round of squats when I can see the others around me struggling but succeeding.”

Group fitness isn't a new concept, but it has certainly seen a massive upswing over the last decade or so with rapidly rising numbers in spin cycling, yoga and dance classes, along with the emergence of HIIT bootcamps, CrossFit and other pack-like workouts. After taking a substantial dip during the early days of the pandemic, the tribe trend is making a comeback because it makes such a big difference in our overall health. Here's how.

↦ Read: Why you should try to workout with others.

What We’re Eyeing

Is this the perfect white T-shirt? Well, it's definitely one of the best. Because not only is the fit perfected (thanks to designer Christophe Lemaire, who oversees UNIQLO's U line), but all the little details are just right. The jersey fabric is heavyweight yet flexible, the cut is generous as it drapes on the body beautifully while the crew neck, inspired by the neckline of vintage military T-shirts, has a special binding to help the collar keep its shape. All for less than twenty bucks? Get outta here.

↦ Get It: $19.90 by UNIQLO U

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