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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:09:07 GMT -8
Sweet dreams are made of cheese. Who am I to diss a brie.
Mini-Previous Guy Opens Himself Up to Discovery
Elon Musk's new lawsuit against a media watchdog has been largely written off by legal experts as a clumsy attempt to bully a critic into silence, but if the complaint isn't dismissed in court it could open the X boss and his company up to potentially ruinous scrutiny.
The suit filed in federal court in Texas accuses Media Matters for America of creating an X account following only fringe content and refreshing the website over and over until it generated ads for major companies juxtaposed with pro-Nazi content, but the watchdog's president Angelo Carusone said they would probably pursue discovery if a judge doesn't dismiss the case first, reported the Washington Post.
"The lawsuit might get dismissed," wrote Post columnist Greg Sargent. "But if not, Carusone said, Media Matters would probably pursue discovery, seeking to learn whether Musk and X executives 'knew internally' that these juxtapositions were happening, what they communicated with advertisers about this, and how Musk internally discussed procedures for handling extremist content."
Musk's suit doesn't deny the juxtapositions occur but claims they're “extraordinarily rare" and were deliberately engineered to harm X and drive off advertisers, but Carusone said his organization would seek evidence related to the social network owner's viewpoints on Jews and other minorities.
"Discovery would also seek communications about Musk’s public antisemitism, Carusone said," Sargent wrote. "Musk recently endorsed a posting that some Jewish communities are pushing 'hatred against whites,' resulting in 'hordes of minorities flooding' into Western countries — classic white genocide theory. Carusone noted that discovery could establish whether Musk’s 'seeming endorsement of the white genocide worldview' was a major reason for 'advertisers to reassess.'"
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:11:14 GMT -8
When It's Cheap and Easy to Put Carbon Into the Air, and It's Expensive and Hard to Remove It, Which Side Will Win? Duh!Technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions to keep them from the atmosphere are central to the climate strategies of many world governments as they seek to follow through on international commitments to decarbonize by mid-century. They are also expensive, unproven at scale, and can be hard to sell to a nervous public - making unworkable, at the moment, the model envisaged worldwide of capturing carbon and storing it for money. Why carbon capture is no easy solution to climate change
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:16:32 GMT -8
He May Have Worked for Obama, But This Man is Despicable. He Call For Murdering Children.
A former senior US official is facing a backlash after harassing a halal food vendor in New York.
Stuart Seldowitz, who previously served as deputy director of the United States Department of State’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was captured on video taunting and threatening the vendor in Manhattan. Amid the apparent argument over the ongoing Gaza war, he told his adversary that more Palestinian children should die.
“If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough,” Seldowitz says calmly in one exchange captured on video and posted on the social media platform X.
In other exchanges, he’s heard casting slurs against Prophet Muhammad.
He also threatens to use his government connections to mobilise Egypt’s secret police against the vendor, who he accuses of being a “terrorist”.
“The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? They’ll take them out one by one,” Seldowitz says smiling.
The vendor is heard repeatedly asking him to leave and telling him he does not speak English.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:20:03 GMT -8
Casino Workers Found the Right Formula
When Formula One came to Las Vegas, it brought a level of glitz and glamor rivaled only by Monaco. It also seems to have inadvertently empowered tens of thousands of hospitality workers to secure better wages and benefits with the city’s famous casinos.
Five days before the F1’s opening ceremony on the Strip last Wednesday, the Culinary and Bartenders Union finished inking five-year contracts with MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts, which control 18 casinos in the heart of Sin City.
The pacts ended a months-long standoff and defused the threat of a mass worker strike timed to clash with race weekend, thus avoiding a nightmare scenario for casinos and hotels as thousands of tourists and high-rollers from across the world were arriving. Now, as they aim to ratify the last of the deals on Wednesday, union leaders are hailing it as “the best contract ever” for some 40,000 workers, touting the largest-ever wage hikes, new limits on workloads, recall rights and even labor protections from AI technology.
Ted Pappageorge, the Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer and chief negotiator for contracts, said the addition of a Formula One race this year gave workers “leverage” in the negotiations.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:23:25 GMT -8
The Women of America Are Far From Done
Abortion rights groups seek ballot measures in 9 more states in 2024
Seeking to extend their unbroken winning streak, abortion rights supporters are already deeply entrenched in efforts in at least nine states to put the issue on the ballot in 2024. Groups have begun collecting signatures to let voters in these states decide on similar initiatives.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:25:07 GMT -8
The QOP's Efforts to Screw Up Universities Expands
Republican Rep. Bill Johnson announced Tuesday that he would resign from the House next year to become president of Youngstown State University, a move that will set off a special election to replace him in an Ohio seat that shifted from purple to dark red over the last decade. Donald Trump carried the 6th District, which is based in southeastern Ohio and the Youngstown area, 64-35 in 2020.
Johnson's new contract stipulates he'll begin his new job on March 15, and the Republican said he'd remain in the House "for several more months." However, anyone who wants to run for a full term has only until the Dec. 20 filing deadline to decide if they'll compete in the regularly scheduled March 19 primary.
Last week, the university's Board of Trustees unexpectedly announced that it had offered its top job to Johnson in an emergency meeting that it had called just two hours earlier. The congressman, who responded at the time that he was still considering whether to accept, does not appear to have even been publicly discussed as a potential candidate for the presidency before then. The Vindicator's David Skolnick adds that the board "failed to disclose why it considered the offer to Johnson an emergency when plans have been to have a president in place by mid-2024."
Unhappy students, alumni, and faculty members quickly responded by focusing on Johnson's hard-line views, his lack of academic qualifications, and the process involved in his selection. One letter from alumni objected to Johnson's opposition to same-sex marriage, his support for Donald Trump's Muslim travel ban, and his vote against recognizing Joe Biden's win in 2020. The school's faculty union also argued that no faculty, students, or staff were allowed to formally make their case about Johnson or anyone else considered for the presidency.
However, the Board of Trustees, which includes members connected to major Johnson donors, nonetheless voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve a formal contract for the new president. The vote, reports WKBN, "was met by boos and yelling from the full crowd in attendance," but Johnson quickly announced he'd accept his new role.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:26:49 GMT -8
Could the Cheese Heads Emerge from the Darkness?
Wisconsin supreme court appears poised to strike down legislative maps and end Republican dominance
Decision from four liberal justices in lawsuit could eliminate some of the most gerrymandered districts in the United States
The four liberal justices on the court all seemed ready to embrace an argument from challengers in the case, Clarke v Wisconsin elections commission, that the maps violate the state constitution because they include more than 70 districts. It was unclear, however, how the justices would handle the redrawing of a map and whether it would immediately order elections for the entire legislature next year in new districts. Wisconsin voters elect 99 assembly members every two years, but only about half of the 33-member state senate would normally be up for election next year.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:28:22 GMT -8
Competitive in Mississippi?
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:30:28 GMT -8
Cassidy Shows How It's Done
That’s how everyone who says Donald Trump was unfit (I’m looking at you, Bill Barr and Peter Meijer) should talk. None of this “but I’d still vote for him ...” Country before party.
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:31:40 GMT -8
Make Up Your Minds, Already!
Sam Altman has been reinstated as the chief executive of OpenAI after a whirlwind series of negotiations and the threat of an exodus of nearly all of the company’s employees.
“We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the company wrote on X. “We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.”
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:32:58 GMT -8
Reports of the End of COVID are PrematureCoronavirus is unfortunately still going strong in the U.S. as we head into the winter months. COVID-19 deaths are ticking upwards in certain parts of the country ahead of the holiday season, according to new data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this week. COVID-related hospitalizations rose by 8.6% the week ending Nov. 11, while deaths attributed to COVID increased by over 9% during that same period, the CDC said. Maryland and Colorado were the two states with the highest percentage of deaths due to COVID-19 in the week ending Nov. 11, data showed. The health agency also released data showing positive COVID test results have roughly remained unchanged during that week, while emergency department visits diagnosed as coronavirus rose by 7.1%. Six states — Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and Hawaii — all have counties with what the CDC considers high levels of reported COVID-19 new hospital admissions in the week ending Nov. 11. Still, the majority of the country had low levels of new COVID hospitalizations during the same period. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has announced more free COVID tests for those that didn’t take advantage of the kits made available in September. Specifically, Americans will be able to order up to eight at-home testing kits online through covid.gov/tests and get them delivered for free by the U.S. Postal Service. NO! We Don't Want Them Infected!“We want them infected” is part of a message Dr. Paul Alexander, a science advisor in Trump’s HHS, wrote on July 4, 2020 to the HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo and six other senior officials. The full quote is: “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…" Jonathan Howard, MD used this quote for the title of his book, We want them infected, How the failed quest for herd immunity led doctors to embrace the anti-vaccine movement and blinded Americans to the threat of COVID. I wrote this story in cooperation with Dr. Howard. Dr. Howard is the Chief of Neurology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he worked throughout the pandemic, including during the worst of the COVID, when 800 people a day were dying in the city. “Overall, I saw more people die in a few weeks than I had my entire career,” Dr. Howard wrote. We Want Them Infected shows in horrifying detail that “herd immunity” was based on a foundation of deadly false beliefs held by many of the doctors and others advising the Trump administration in the early stages of COVID. These beliefs included: 1. Young and healthy people were not at risk from the virus 2. The elderly and sick could be shielded from risk by separation from the rest of the population. 3. Pursuing herd immunity would minimize illness and death from COVID Each of these presumptions was wrong and fatal. 1. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YOUNG, MIDDLE-AGED, AND HEALTHY PEOPLE DIED AND WERE SICKENED BY COVID-19 2. THE ELDERLY COULD NOT BE EFFECTIVELY SHIELDED FROM THE REST OF OF THE POPULATION. 3. THE HERD IMMUNITY STRATEGY INCREASED DEATH AND ILLNESS FROM COVID "We want them infected:" The Deadly COVID Policy:
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:38:39 GMT -8
These Super Pigs Sound Like the QOP, But They Are a Different Species. At Least I Think They Are.An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate “super pigs” in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion. In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a “super pig” that's spreading out of control. Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, “the most invasive animal on the planet" and “an ecological train wreck.” "an ecological train wreck"? Sounds Like the QOPA population of hard-to-eradicate ‘super pigs’ in Canada is threatening to invade the US
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Post by mhbruin on Nov 22, 2023 9:43:03 GMT -8
Is is Possible Musk Is Even Worse Than We Think?
A Florida judge found "reasonable evidence" that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and other managers knew the automaker's vehicles had a defective Autopilot system but still allowed the cars to be driven unsafely, according to a ruling.
Judge Reid Scott, in the Circuit Court for Palm Beach County, ruled last week that the plaintiff in a lawsuit over a fatal crash could proceed to trial and bring punitive damages claims against Tesla for intentional misconduct and gross negligence. The order has not been previously reported.
The ruling is a setback for Tesla after the company won two product liability trials in California earlier this year over the Autopilot driver assistant system. A Tesla spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
The Florida lawsuit arose out of a 2019 crash north of Miami in which owner Stephen Banner's Model 3 drove under the trailer of an 18-wheeler big rig truck that had turned onto the road, shearing off the Tesla's roof and killing Banner. A trial set for October was delayed, and has not been rescheduled.
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor, called the judge's summary of the evidence significant because it suggests "alarming inconsistencies" between what Tesla knew internally, and what it was saying in its marketing.
But Wait! There's More!
Musk went into the auto insurance market.
His reason? Insurance companies were charging sky-high premiums for Tesla policies, citing their high repair costs and higher than average claims. People were walking away from buying Tesla cars because the insurance was too high, and Elon didn’t like that. So, he started an insurance branch, which would be “much more compelling than anything else out there.” Sound familiar? That’s pretty much what he says about everything he pitches, which far more often than not turns out to be complete bullshit.
No surprise, the customers who were foolish enough to buy their insurance from Tesla and tried to make claims were gobsmacked to discover that their premiums entitled them to little more than months of waiting for payments that rarely materialized, if they were fortunate enough to reach a claims adjuster in the first place...
Even customers that haven’t had to make claims are underwhelmed, as Tesla uses monitoring tech to adjust their premiums, apparently with about as much success as their FSD technology is known for — i.e. not much.
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