It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel State didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida. Yet, that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of Western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water per hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November. There is no such thing as a 'perfect response,' but the one following Helene teaches important lessons. As residents in Asheville, Chimney Creek, and other smaller communities continue to pick up from the carnage, after-action reports indicate government agencies at the federal and state levels were slow to react. Interviews with several private relief groups that sprang into action after Helene, along with statistics provided by congressional sources, indicate that Cooper’s office and the Biden administration were slow to activate military personnel and assets like helicopters that were critical in the days after the storm. In addition, budgetary moves and internal communications have also drawn questions about how the Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending its money and how it envisioned its purpose in a Biden administration suffused with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” mandates. FEMA is also wrestling with revelations that politics had influenced some of its relief efforts. The agency fired a staffer who told crews to avoid houses in storm-damaged parts of Florida that displayed Donald Trump campaign signs. The dismissed worker said this week her orders were not an isolated incident and that FEMA avoided “politically hostile” zones in the Carolinas, too. “There seems to have been a priority shift, period,” said Eric Eggers, the vice president of the conservative Government Accountability Institute. “It seems impossible to separate its mission creep and its ideological pursuit of an agenda when its duties are to fix that bridge or clear that road.” As devastating and increasingly expensive natural disasters continue to be a fact of life in the United States, FEMA’s halting response, especially in the early days after Helene, when lives were in jeopardy, suggests both the capabilities and limits of state and federal responses. Communication breakdowns In the first days, survivors told RealClearInvestigations that the impact of governments’ slow-footed efforts was countered by the heroic efforts of private citizens and groups who rushed to provide help. As FEMA and others began to assert themselves, some conflicts arose between government representatives and volunteers, although everyone RCI spoke with agreed that such disasters inevitably spawn chaos. There is no such thing as a “perfect response,” but many people said the one following Helene teaches important lessons. Helene didn’t slam into Western North Carolina the way hurricanes typically do but instead squatted like an angry demon over the region in which the economically vital fall tourist season was just swinging into gear. In Avery County, a parks and recreation gymnasium had been set up as a shelter with approximately 40 beds and generators for backup power, according to Jamie Shell, the editor of the weekly Avery Journal-Times and a lifelong Tar Heel. “On the day prior to the storm, we were in touch with the county emergency management office and county manager to get a feel for where they were in terms of initial response,” he said. “I remember a number of generated auto-calls and emails from the county to the county residents informing them of the historic and potentially devastating nature of the event, warning people to make plans to seek higher ground and evacuate as needed due to the torrential rains and damaging winds that would arrive.” By Friday morning, Shell said people were fending off the elements as best they could. “It was a case where most everyone who were not necessary (emergency) personnel were pretty much sheltering in place, as roads were being littered with fallen trees and high water, with the worst damage along creeks and rivers,” he said. Power soon went out, making communication difficult for both survivors and potential rescue efforts, and creeks crested, complicating overland travel. Shell said some roads remained passable, but without power or an aerial view, it was impossible for people to find shelter if their homes were damaged or lost, and for relief efforts that didn’t have small planes or helicopters to get to wrecked spots, and even then potential landing zones were unclear. Here, too, politics has emerged to cloud the relief picture. Shell said he relied on a Starlink hookup, the satellite company launched and owned by Elon Musk, and that county officials were also reliant on Musk’s system. Private relief agencies told RCI that Starlink provided thousands of Starlinks, which they distributed via helicopter after Helene, offering torn-up zones their only method of communication. Between them, the United Cajun Navy and Operation Helo, two of the private groups that operated rescue and relief operations with helicopters, distributed nearly 1,000 Starlink hookups to powerless homes. Musk trumpeted the fact that Starlink’s services would be free in the remainder of 2024 for Helene and Hurricane Milton victims, although there are reports users are still being hit with hardware starter costs. Such assistance from Starlink might have been greater, according to some congressional sources, had the Federal Communications Commission not canceled an $885.5 million deal with Starlink to expand rural broadband access. Instead, the Biden administration sunk $42 billion into a rural broadband access program that has not hooked up any customers — a failure that dogged Vice President Kamala Harris in her failed presidential campaign, as Harris was the point person on that project. Some Republican officials in Washington have grumbled that Cooper and the Biden administration moved too slowly in terms of activating the National Guard or the huge U.S. Army assets at Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, in North Carolina. Information provided by the state to Congress and shared with RCI shows the state’s “rotor and fixed-wing aircraft” made available rose from fewer than 10 in the storm’s initial 48 hours to 20 by Sept. 30, but it stayed at that number for three full days. North Carolina Highway Patrol provided fewer than five helicopters through Oct. 9. Congressional sources also provided information showing there were fewer than 1,000 troops available for relief efforts until Oct. 3. ‘None of us were prepared’ Private relief agencies, untangled by orders, swung into action more quickly. “When I got there, all I heard was, ‘Where’s FEMA? Where’s FEMA?’” said Brian Trascher, a leader of the United Cajun Navy, a private disaster relief outfit that formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “In fact, FEMA moves fairly quickly once they know where the problem is but otherwise everything was a clusterf***. They didn’t have anything prepositioned and so for about four or five days, most of the search and rescue was done by private people.” But Trascher offered praise to FEMA, too. He had been meeting with FEMA officials in Washington as Helene approached, part of an ongoing effort by the feds and the Cajun Navy to cooperate better in response to disasters. It is not true that FEMA was invisible in Helene’s immediate aftermath — Trascher said he ran into a top official he knows within hours of his arrival in North Carolina — and FEMA staff on the ground were committed and hard-working, he said. That take was echoed by others deeply involved in the first few days of Helene’s response. Of the four private relief groups that discussed the situation with RCI, all agreed FEMA officials in Western North Carolina were earnest but said both the federal bureaucracy and the military response proved creaky. The air over the Helene-ravaged landscape was wide open in the first few days, and the private helicopters were free to go wherever they could. That began to change once federal agencies came into the picture. The Federal Aviation Agency did give out some “squawk codes” to the flyers working with private groups, Trascher said, but more codes and a better-coordinated response with the FAA are needed going forward, according to Trascher and Eric Robinson, a co-founder of Operation Helo. The private relief executives also expressed doubts that FEMA had the most experienced hands on deck. In addition, although many National Guardsmen in the area are native Tar Heels and were champing at the bit to help, they were repeatedly snarled by delays in orders, according to several people familiar with the first days of response. “We ran it like a military op,” Robinson said of Operation Helo, a group based in North Carolina that was born in Helene’s aftermath. “But the strength of the storm, the amount of water, I don’t think anyone anticipated that.” Robinson described whole towns annihilated, saying there were lakes “that it looked like you could walk across, there was so much debris floating.” His team distributed more than 517 Starlinks and was also assisted personally by Ivanka Trump in the week after Helene struck. At one point, Robinson said there were people marooned on a hilltop, and his group asked the National Guard to handle the job. Though more than willing, the guardsmen had to wait more than three hours for their orders. “We just went and got them in the meantime,” he said. Another group distributing emergency aid and Starlinks was Samaritan’s Purse, the international relief agency whose Boone headquarters left it literally at Helene’s ground zero. “We all knew the storm was coming, and we were ready,” said Franklin Graham, the group’s president and chief executive. “But none of us were prepared for the infrastructure’s collapse.” Like other private officials involved in relief efforts, Graham was far from biting in his criticism of FEMA and North Carolina agencies. Similarly, he acknowledged, as Trascher and Robinson did, that private groups enjoyed freedom from the red tape that customarily snarls government bureaucracies. “I do think FEMA might be better if it wasn’t run by a political appointee,” Graham said. “It was working in our favor initially that there were no rules, and what we saw was a true example of neighbors helping neighbors.” Budgetary woes As of early November, FEMA said it had spent “approximately $4.3 billion on Hurricane Helene response and recovery.” Of that total, some $213 million went in direct assistance to 126,000 North Carolina households, with another $202 million “for debris removal and reimbursement of emergency protective measures for the state.” Helene also brought new attention to FEMA’s budgeting. Even as it pushed money out to storm victims, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees FEMA, and other Biden administration officials began raising alarms that the agency could run short on hurricane relief money. But along with those calls came revelations from Homeland Security’s watchdog inspector general that the agency was sitting on $73 billion in unliquidated funds committed to previous disasters — including $8.3 billion for those declared in 2012 or earlier. The agency has also spent nearly $4 billion on COVID relief in September, the same month as Helene — including for funeral expenses, vaccination and testing sites, and personal protective equipment. That spending was paused in September to shift money to its Immediate Needs Funding, FEMA said, but it acknowledged $3.8 billion was “obligated” for the virus that peaked in 2021. Gov. Cooper’s office also pushed back against reports it may have been tardy in calling up the National Guard or responding to hard-hit zones. “The North Carolina National Guard was activated and on the ground before, during, and after the storm, and we believe this was the fastest and largest integration of active-duty military soldiers under Title 10 working with the National Guard in North Carolina history,” said Jordan Monaghan, a spokesman for the governor. “Immediately following the storm, staged equipment and personnel began moving into Western NC, using Asheville’s airport as a staging area where supplies were flown in, loaded onto helicopters, and flown into counties that couldn’t be reached by road. Where roads were passable, supplies were delivered by truck.” On Sept. 30, Cooper asked Biden to “make all necessary federal resources available,” and that so-called “Title 10” request was approved by the Defense Department on Oct. 2, according to Monaghan. At that point, helicopters and other key assets took to wing. Both FEMA and Cooper’s office stressed the unprecedented nature of Helene, and that view was echoed by Trascher, who said some of the areas the Cajun Navy serviced were “the worst I’d seen since Katrina.” As of early November, power outages had fallen from more than 1 million to fewer than 900, while roughly 1,000 of the 1,300 closed roads have been opened, according to Cooper’s office. All told, there have been “2,024 FEMA workers and thousands of Department of Transportation workers, utility workers, law enforcement officers, and volunteers on the ground.” ‘Disaster equity’ and government failure Yet, under the Biden administration’s “whole of government” emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, there are indications FEMA has moved away from a broad-based relief template. In the past two weeks, FEMA also became embroiled in the scandal surrounding the orders of the now-dismissed staffer that Hurricane Milton relief crews should bypass homes displaying Trump campaign signs. The former supervisor, Marn’i Washington, told the Black Star Group’s digital platform that her orders were not an isolated incident. Instead, they reflected long-standing agency policy that calls for avoidance of areas or homes it considers “politically hostile.” “FEMA always preaches avoidance first and then de-escalation, so this is not isolated,” she said. “This is a colossal event of avoidance not just in the state of Florida, but you will find avoidance in the Carolinas.” In an in-house 2023 Zoom meeting that has received renewed attention, FEMA and other federal officers focused on how disasters allegedly hit the LGBTQ community with special fury. In that meeting, FEMA Emergency Management Specialist Tyler Atkins said LGBTQ people and others who have been disadvantaged “already are struggling,” and natural disasters compound their struggles. Maggie Jarry, a senior emergency management specialist with the Department of Health and Human Services, then chimed in, saying emergency management in the U.S. must shift from prioritizing “the greatest good for the greatest amount of people” to “disaster equity.” “We have to look at policies and understand to what extent they have disadvantaged communities that have less assets, communities that have pre-existing vulnerabilities in accessing disaster-related recovery supports,” Jarry said. A FEMA spokesperson told RCI that any notion the agency has lost touch with its core mission is false. “FEMA’s mission remains clear and unchanged — to help people before, during, and after disasters,” he said. “We are fully committed to ensuring that all communities have the support they need to prepare for and recover from disasters. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and recovery programs are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, which is a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other, non-disaster related efforts.” FEMA’s Helene response enjoyed considerably better coverage than it received during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when media accounts blistered the agency and the Bush administration for weeks. This time around, there were many stories outlining what FEMA does and does not do, with the former primarily involving reimbursement to state and local projects for debris removal, reconstruction, and the like. It also provides cash to survivors in the immediate aftermath of declared disasters. Many media outlets also magnified FEMA’s attempt to combat “misinformation,” and these reports frequently blamed the Trump campaign for spreading unfounded rumors. At one point, FEMA even paused relief operations in parts of North Carolina over unfounded rumors that vigilantes were “hunting” FEMA workers. Those pro-FEMA slants lost considerable traction days after the presidential election, however, when the story broke about FEMA relief teams in Florida deliberately bypassing homes that displayed support for Trump’s campaign. All of these threads — the Biden administration’s “Justice40” for diversity, equity, and inclusion; the spending on matters unrelated to natural disasters or tied up in endless projects going nowhere; federal contracts to help rural America canceled — add up to an unsavory “politics of disaster relief” according to the Government Accountability Institute. Eggers and Peter Schweizer, GAI’s leader, examined the problem in a recent podcast by that name. What happened after Helene is further evidence of that problem, Eggers said. “In some ways, it’s a triumph of the human and American spirit, but in other ways, it seems like a failure of the American government,” he said. Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

When I woke up on Nov. 6, I knew I would see a lot of disappointed and angry people posting online. Still, the sheer volume of unhinged and hysterical videos surprised even me. Coming, as I do, from the Bosnia of the 1990s — an actual war-torn country where people, in fact, had reason to fear political outcomes — it is difficult to understand these posts as the activity of serious people. It is impossible to avoid secondhand embarrassment for those engaging in it.Did you know that when people are actually scared, they don’t post videos of themselves screaming and threatening “the other side” for public consumption?These contrived pieces of performance art are not products of fear. They are vile propaganda.I was 17 during the first multiparty election in Bosnia. The media was already spreading fear prior to the election, and it became evident early on that the three nationalist ethnic parties were the favorites. I wasn’t eligible to vote at the time, but even if I had been, none of the three ethnic parties would have had a home for me, the child of a mixed marriage.I don’t remember who won, but I do remember that when I woke up, there was neither a celebration nor an angry mob. Instead, there was a sudden shift. No one from the outside would have noticed it. People went to work. They went grocery shopping. The kids went to school. But there was an unbearable quiet. When fear settles over a town, it becomes quiet.People don’t talk about fear. The conversations become shorter; the jokes are fewer. People become emotionally disengaged.I remember there was no talk of anyone leaving because of the omnipresence of fear. They might mention in passing about going on a “short trip” to visit family, but most simply left, and most simply knew what was going on when this was mentioned. This is when I yielded to fear.The weirdest thing I learned about fear is that it makes you act normal, maybe too normal. This kind of fear is not what people feel when their lives are in imminent danger and the threat is easy to recognize. Our bodies and our instincts are designed to deal with that kind of fear. But in the situation I describe, the very system designed to protect you from threats becomes a threat. Instinctively I knew I had to signal to the system that I was not a threat to those operating it. Opinions became too expensive and insults to myself or those I loved nonexistent.In short, I became invisible, but that was easy. The harder part was that I couldn’t show my fear. Acting fearful is a threat in itself. I learned to measure my speech and my gestures. My answers were short and vague, and I was the smallest person in every room. Every interaction was exhausting.The social media performance actresses need to learn something important: Anger is not fear. Disappointment is not fear. Openly threatening people is not what people do when they are in the grip of fear. In other words, they are not coping with fear. They are coping with the reality that they did not get their way. There’s a world of difference.Disappointment is easy to understand, too, and people who have been indulged by a system that permits them to believe reality is something they can escape — that a man can be a woman; that we can live peacefully in a world without borders; that other people will work so that you can eat; that silence is the same thing as violence — these people are going to lack fully developed skills of communication and self-awareness. When confronted, as they always are, with reality, they will act out their frustration in ways that are not constructive.Unmet emotional needs will also cause some people to seek validation from those who are screaming the loudest. But if you are setting up a camera to record yourself screaming and crying and then taking the time to edit and upload it, then you are not afraid. You are ignorant and self-indulgent.Memes like those I am seeing on the bluest parts of my social media feeds include numbers for suicide prevention hotlines, women shaving their heads and vowing celibacy, and people pretending to seek escape routes from the country to which frightened people have been escaping to defy tyranny for centuries. These contrived pieces of performance art are not products of fear. They are ridiculous tantrums designed to provoke strong emotions and galvanize people for political purposes. They are vile propaganda.Real fear, as I have experienced, is isolating and anonymous. In this digital age and in this largely (thank God) still free country, almost nothing is hidden or anonymous.I am not impressed with the attempts to gaslight me into believing I am facing danger again.Editor’s note: This article appeared originally at Chronicles: A Magazine of Culture.

Throne and Liberty publisher Amazon Games is warning players about an unintended strategy in Castle Siege events, before the PvP mode has even been added to the MMO. These colossal server-wide showdowns will pit guilds against each other in long conflicts, and they’re supposed to incentivize working with your teammates to emerge with control of the game’s castles. That said, it looks like the attackers are going to start with an advantage, so Amazon hopes sharing their strategy ahead of time can help defenders properly prepare. Continue reading Throne and Liberty issues warning about new PvP mode before it’s even out MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best MMORPGs, Throne and Liberty codes, Throne and Liberty weapons

Chuck Schumer's Asking GOP to Play Nice but Here's What He Had Planned if the Dems Won

Have you ever played a game that just didn't have any respect for your time? Whether it's terribly long quests with little payoff, endless grinding, or another annoying gameplay trait, we've all been there.

Joe Rogan Can’t Stop Laughing as He Theorizes Over Who Biden Voted For: ‘Look at His Smile, Dude!’

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge So, you’ve finally decided to give Bluesky a shot. The social network has come a long way since the early bare-bones days of invite-only signups and recently grew past the 15 million user mark. Along the way, it’s gathered a lot of familiar posting platform features, like direct messages, pinned posts, and the ability to post videos up to 60 seconds in length. But there’s a lot more to it than that, and I’m not only talking about lore. (Yes, Bluesky has lore, and that’s probably the most classic Twitter thing about it.) It’s also got a number of features and settings you won’t find on X or Threads, like the ability to choose your own algorithm or moderation tools. These serve not just as a fast lane to getting the platform to feel... Continue reading…

By Cassidy Delamarter A University of South Florida professor found the first-ever physical evidence of hallucinogens in an Egyptian mug, validating written records and centuries-old myths of ancient Egyptian rituals and practices. Through advanced chemical analyses, Davide Tanasi examined one of the world’s few remaining Egyptian Bes mugs. Such mugs, including the one donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984, are decorated with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god or guardian demon worshiped for protection, fertility, medicinal healing and magical purification. Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, the study sheds light on an ancient Egyptian mystery: The secret of how Bes mugs were used about 2,000 years ago. Understanding the Gods of Egypt: In Unison With Nature Bes, The Protector Deity: Exuberant Harbinger of Health, Happiness and Vitality “There’s no research out there that has ever found what we found in this study,” Tanasi said. “For the first time, we were able to identify all the chemical signatures of the components of the liquid concoction contained in the Tampa Museum of Art’s Bes mug, including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties.” Read moreSection: ArtifactsOther ArtifactsNewsHistory & ArchaeologyMyths & LegendsAfricaHistoryAncient TraditionsRead Later 

Making a Pancake in a Mug is insanely easy and only requires a few common pantry staple ingredients. Enjoy a light and fluffy pancake in no time! A FIVE MINUTE PANCAKE RECIPE Sometimes, you just want a quick, delicious, homemade breakfast without all the fuss of mixing bowls and flipping pancakes. And sometimes you just want a late night snackie. That’s where this Pancake in a Mug comes in! In less than 5 minutes and with a microwave safe mug- you can make a warm, fluffy pancake right in your microwave. It’s perfect for busy mornings or when you have a craving for a sweet snack! FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:  Who should make a Pancake in a Mug? I think this is a wonderful recipe for younger kids to get a little action in the kitchen. No hot griddle to worry about but they get the satisfaction of having made something for themselves (with mom and dads help of course!) Also, this is a fabulous alternative for singletons or couples who just don’t want to make a whole big batch of pancakes. This satisfies that pancake craving without being too much trouble or dirtying up the whole kitchen.  What can I use in place of butter? If you don’t have butter or don’t feel like melting it you can just use 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in it’s place, I’ve been doing that in a pinch. Can I make the mix ahead of time? I think if you wanted to have this premade – you could mix all the dry ingredients and add to a Ziploc bag to keep in the pantry when ready to use. Then just add milk, vanilla extract and melted butter when mixing it all together in the mug. Can I add anything to this pancake mixture? Oh, you know what might be fantastic to add? Cooked and crumbled bacon or sliced cook sausage (or cooked and crumbled ground sausage.) You would just need to make sure you are using a large enough mug to compensate for the extra ingredient. How to store leftovers? So since this makes just one serving, there really isn’t much leftovers to be had. Besides, this pancake is best enjoyed right when you make it. INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE) all-purpose flour granulated sugar baking powder milk vanilla extract salted butter– melted. HOW TO MAKE A PANCAKE IN A MUG In a large mug, stir together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. Add the butter, stir to combine until most of the lumps are gone and there is no dry flour left. Microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds, a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. If it doesn’t, microwave for an additional 15 seconds. Let cool for 1 minute, it is extremely hot. Serve with butter and maple syrup on top or with your favorite toppings. CRAVING MORE RECIPES?  Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug Pumpkin Mug Cake 3-2-1 Microwave Mug Cake Blueberry Pancakes Sheet Pan Pancakes Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Chocolate Chip Pancakes Denny’s Pancake Puppies Dutch Baby Pancakes Buttermilk Pancakes Pancake Sausage Muffins Print Pancake in a Mug Add the seasonings to each side of the turkey tenderloins. Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey tenderloins. Course Breakfast, Brunch, SnackCuisine American Prep Time 2 minutes minutesCook Time 2 minutes minutesTotal Time 4 minutes minutes Servings 1 Calories 383kcal Author Brandie @ The Country Cook Ingredients⅓ cup all-purpose flour2 Tablespoons granulated sugar¾ teaspoon baking powder4 Tablespoons milk½ teaspoon vanilla extract1 Tablespoon salted butter, melted InstructionsIn a large microwave-safe mug, stir together ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar and ¾ teaspoon baking powder. Add 4 Tablespoons milk and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and stir to combine. Add 1 Tablespoon salted butter, melted, stir to combine until most of the lumps are gone and there is no dry flour left. Microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds, a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. If it doesn’t, microwave for an additional 15 seconds. Let cool for 1 minute, it is extremely hot.Serve with butter and maple syrup on top or with your favorite toppings. Notes Please refer to my FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) and ingredient list above for other substitutions or for the answers to the most common questions. Use the dip and scoop method of measuring the all purpose flour. You don’t want to pack your measuring cup or you’ll end up with way too much flour and a dry, crumbly pancake. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup (do not push it down) then when it is full, scrape off the excess with the flat end of a butter knife. This will ensure you don’t get too much flour in your batter. NutritionCalories: 383kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 13g | Sodium: 122mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g

U.S. — In what turned out to be an incredibly lopsided match, buffering handily defeated Netflix last night by technical knockout.