memfree

joined 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This surely varies by state, but in Alaska, for example, I'm told Japanese vacationers LOVE to try out guns. So, if you can rent a gun on a range, shooting off weapons is the most American thing I can think to do before you leave.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

When I hear 'government bloat', I think $500 hammers and fat cat contracts where big companies get huge contracts that mostly go in the pockets of a handful of rich owners while little goes to the actual project.

I do NOT think it means randomly removing workers. Salaries cost little and are the support structure of the government. I might not want to buy a 'bridge to nowhere' but I certainly don't want to take out 10% of the supports on each bridge.

Everything DOGE has done seems destructive and none of it seems to reduce government waste. In fact, the opposite. p.s. I know there's more to the hammer story, but -- like transgendered instead of transgenic mice -- the public mostly only heard the price tag.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I think Germany is known for serious police. In fact, I half remember a joke about that... something about the perfection of a British Cop, a German car, and an French Chef -- compared to the misery of a German Cop, a French car, and a British Chef.

Obviously not funny in the mangling, but the joke wasn't that German cops were bad, just not the generally pleasant 'fair cop' stereotype of Brits.

Personally,. the stereotypes that have stuck in my head are: that low-level officials in India (including cops) can be bribed to look the other way for minor things, Nordic cops are well trained in de-escalation and restraint techniques where no one gets injured, Brit cops might be fair or might be racist, but the laws give better protection to citizens, and that German cops are stern, and will rigidly follow and enforce all laws and rules... generally. Not sure if it is true or not, but I've also heard that German cops will fuck you up if you give them reason, but you'd really have to give them reason.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The vast army of Georgia poll workers report for duty only about three days a year and get paid about $7.25 an hour. Every time we come in, the rules have changed, so we train for eight hours to learn the new protocols. Election day itself, including set-up and break-down, starts at 5:30 am and ends at 9:00 pm, two hours later if you’re a manager delivering the ballots to the regional office. Most of us are retired, and many are elderly (read: not tech-forward).


And poll workers are not perfect. One of them puts on a sweater and inadvertently obscures her name tag (not allowed). Another shows a new person how to work the check-in station (not allowed). Another tells a nonprofit they can set up their food hand-outs inside the building so as to stay out of the rain (not allowed). And at some point during the 15 hour work day, all of you find yourself accidentally socializing with one another (also not allowed). Likewise, the clerks are socializing with the voters (you guessed it: not allowed), which, worst case, is akin to being smothered in grandmas.

This sounds very like my experience back when I used to work the polls. We all did the best we could and we all knew a fair chunk of the voters, so chatting was frequent.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Are you trying to greenwash fracking??? Industry never cleans up. There's no profit in it. You would hear them advertise their 'commitment to nature' if they rescued one tree or bunny from their own contamination. When you hear nothing, they are continuing to wreak havoc.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's because of the electoral college. Most states give all their electoral college votes to whomever wins the state rather than dividing the votes equitably. This means Pennsylvania -- a swing state -- will go either all-red or all-blue. The state has a lot of fracking, and a lot of people making money off it, so Democrats are trying to appease pro-fracking to get votes.

The people getting harmed by fracking are stuck without anyone on their 'side', but will presumably be more likely to vote blue because that side favors more regulation and pro-environment stuff. Note that all Harris said was she wouldn't ban fracking. She didn't say she wouldn't make it difficult to do. My guess is any attempts to make it cleaner will get crushed by Congress and the Corrupted Supreme Court that has sided against Unions, workers, citizens, and the planet -- all to favor of their sugar daddies. So even if the next President wants to do something about fracking, it would be a hard to actually do anything.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

Well, yeah, but that'd take a government not captured by Corporations.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

This should be addressed by fixing the software, but it seems to be easier or cheaper to instead further burden the workers.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Does this archive version render any better for you? https://archive.ph/xIOUo

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I saw 'ants are everywhere' and thought it was going to be a nature story about the secret lives of ants -- something like this: https://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/02/24/weekend-diversion-down-the-ant-hole

The actual story was a much sadder read. :-(

 

Before you read that, see also: Choreographed celebrations in Venezuela as Maduro claims win

There are some things that are indisputable. Some which I, as an observer on the ground, was witness to.

There were the huge queues at polling stations, but only tiny amounts of people being let in at one time.

This led to accusations of deliberate delays, perhaps in the hope some people would give up and go home.

When our BBC team arrived at one polling station, the organiser of the station took a call saying the international media were there. 150 people were then suddenly allowed to be admitted.

There were some poll stations that didn’t open at all, leading to protests and clashes with the authorities.

There were allegations that some of those who work for the state, including police students, were told how to vote.

The protest coverage says:

The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro's declaration of victory as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote.

A heavy military and police presence, including water cannons, was on the streets of Caracas with the aim of trying to disperse protesters and prevent them from approaching the presidential palace.

In some areas, posters of President Maduro were ripped down and burned while tyres, cars and rubbish have also been set alight.

Armed police, military and left-wing paramilitaries who are sympathetic to the government clashed with protesters and blocked off many roads around the city centre.

See also similar coverage from Al Jazeera: Protests break out as Maduro declared winner of disputed Venezuela election (archive)

 

the director of Project 2025, Paul Dans, told the hundreds of RNC attendees ...

“We have to take the vitriol down” — seconds before he suggested that Biden’s amped-up rhetoric around Project 2025 created the climate for an assassination attempt.

The Republican Party line that it’s now time for national unity — and that this week in Milwaukee is about asking America what’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding — is clearly carrying the day. Never mind that most GOP calls for toning down the rhetoric are followed with an attack that blames Democrats for all the toxic political speech.

Just like the days after 9/11, Americans need to watch what they do, watch what they say — or so we are told. We continue to obey in advance.

“The more we as a society bow to the pressure and self-censor — the dream of autocrats is for you to silence yourself, doing their job for them — the more arrogant and lawless the enemies of democracy will become,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the New York University historian and author of the book Strongmen on modern dictators, posted on Monday.

 

Thanks to [email protected] for this gift link

 

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/12136649

politico archive: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/PS7WH

see also: https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-politics/ap-supreme-court-moving-quickly-will-decide-if-trump-can-be-prosecuted-in-election-interference-case/ | thehill archive: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/W6bFe

Excerpts (politico):

In Wednesday’s order, the Supreme Court granted Trump’s emergency request to maintain that pause while the justices hear Trump’s immunity appeal.

But the court’s decision to keep the pretrial proceedings frozen is a blow to special counsel Jack Smith’s effort to bring Trump to trial this year. Smith has charged Trump with four felonies stemming from his bid to subvert the 2020 presidential election.

If they deny the immunity bid by the end of their term in June, it may still be possible for the trial judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, to schedule a trial to begin in late summer or fall.

The timing of the justices’ eventual ruling could be critical since Chutkan has vowed to give Trump roughly three additional months to prepare for trial if the case is returned to her courtroom.

That hypothetical schedule would guarantee that much of Trump’s general election calendar is consumed by his mandatory presence in the courtroom, perhaps overlapping with the Republican National Convention or even Election Day itself.

Chutkan had originally intended to begin the election-subversion trial on March 4, but she nixed that start date due to the delays caused by Trump’s immunity claim. The trial, if it happens, is expected to last several months.

Excerpts (thehill):

That timetable is much faster than usual, but assuming the justices deny Trump’s immunity bid, it’s not clear whether a trial can be scheduled and concluded before the November election. Early voting in some states will begin in September.

In the end, the timing of a possible trial could come down to how quickly the justices rule. They have shown they can act fast, issuing a decision in the Watergate tapes case in 1974 just 16 days after hearing arguments. The decision in Bush v. Gore came the day after arguments in December 2000.

By taking up the legally untested question now, the justices have created a scenario of uncertainty that special counsel Jack Smith had sought to avoid when he first asked the high court in December to immediately intervene. In his latest court filing, Smith had suggested arguments a full month earlier than the late April timeframe.

Though their Supreme Court filing did not explicitly mention the upcoming November election or Trump’s status as the Republican primary front-runner, prosecutors described the case as having “unique national importance” and said that “delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict.”

 

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/10115569

Norman Lear, the television writer and producer who introduced political and social commentary into situation comedy with “All in the Family” and other shows, proving that it was possible to be topical as well as funny while attracting millions of viewers, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 101.

His death was confirmed by Lara Bergthold, a spokeswoman for the family.

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