Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Cygnia]

Study finds a quarter of bosses hoped RTO would make employees quit

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A study claims to have proof of what some have suspected: return to office mandates are just back-channel layoffs and post-COVID work culture is making everyone miserable.

HR software biz BambooHR surveyed more than 1,500 employees, a third of whom work in HR. The findings suggest the return to office movement has been a poorly-executed failure, but one particular figure stands out - a quarter of executives and a fifth of HR professionals hoped RTO mandates would result in staff leaving.

 

[Dr.Device]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Study finds a quarter of bosses hoped RTO would make employees quit

 

The (okay, one of the many) problems with C-suite level execs is that they seem to truly believe that employees are fungible. They don't seem to get that when they do things that make employees want to leave, the first ones to go are going to be the ones that find it easiest to get other jobs, which will include some of their best, most capable, employees.

 

Other evidence of this is the way companies are handling layoffs these days. When my company did layoffs last January, no one below senior VP level (and I'm not sure even senior VP level) was consulted as to who to lay off. They picked 10% off a spreadsheet with no regard for critical positions on projects, performance, or any other detectable factors other than salary. It was stunningly stupid.

[DShomshak]

I cannot speak from personal experience, but a friend who's worked for decades as a hospital pharmacist has often fumed about managers who seem to believe there's no difference between running a hospital and running an automobile factory or any other business. As my friend puts it: If your just-in-time delivery scheme to keep inventory costs low fails at an auto plant, production is held up a day and some money is lost. If a hospital's just-in-time delivery fails for medicines or other critical supplies, people die.

 

Humans are so pesky that way, refusing to get sick or wounded in predictable numbers, in standardized ways.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Cygnia]

https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/justice-alito-exposed-in-undercover

 

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Today journalist Lauren Windsor released damning audio of Justice Alito that leaves no doubt about his Christian nationalist bias and inability to be an impartial justice.

In the first recording, Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito admits he can’t be impartial with the Left: “One side or the other is going to win … There are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.”

Hearing Alito talk like this is horrible. Even for him.

Windsor, posing as an Alito supporter, said “we” couldn’t negotiate with the Left to end polarization in the US saying: “that it’s a matter of like, winning.”

Alito agreed: “I think you’re probably right.”

Windsor continued by saying: “people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness.”

Alito: “I agree with you. I agree with you.”

The recording was made last week inside of the Supreme Court building at a dinner for the Supreme Court Historical Society.

In stark contrast, Chief Justice John Roberts could be heard in a separate recording by Lauren Windsor who asked Roberts if the Supreme Court had a role in putting the US on a more moral path. Roberts replied: “No, I think the role for the court is deciding the cases… would you want me to be in charge of guiding us toward a more moral path? That’s for the people we elect. That’s not for lawyers.”

 

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/justice-alito-exposed-in-undercover

 

 

 

Not telling us anything we didn't already know, but maybe it'll sway some other opinions.

 

Massive props to Ms. Windsor, though.  Posing as a conservative journalist and secretly recording interviews with two Supreme Court justices?  That takes some serious balls.

[L. Marcus]

Gonadial fortitude.

[Cygnia]

https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/06/07/publication-of-abortion-amendment-canvasser-list-is-intimidation-ballot-question-committee-says/

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Supporters of a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would allow a limited right to abortion denounced a conservative advocacy group’s publication of a list of paid canvassers, calling the move an intimidation tactic.

The right-wing Family Council posted Thursday on its website a list of 79 people that the Arkansans for Limited Government ballot question committee is paying to collect signatures from across the state. The committee needs 90,704 signatures from registered voters by July 5 for the proposed amendment to appear on the November ballot.

The Family Council obtained the list of paid canvassers and their home cities via an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request, according to the post. Ballot question committees do not have to submit lists of unpaid or volunteer canvassers to the state.

AFLG released a statement Friday in response to the post.

“The canvassers working tirelessly to collect petitions in support of the Arkansas Abortion Amendment are proud of the work they are doing to promote reproductive liberty in the state and to engage in direct democracy — they aren’t hiding,” the group stated. “But when the Family Council releases lists of their names and whereabouts to their network of anti-choice protestors who vehemently, and sometimes violently, disagree with our work, it puts our team at great risk for harassment, stalking, and other dangers. The Family Council’s tactics are ugly, transparently menacing, and unworthy of Arkansas. We won’t be intimidated.”

The Family Council’s post is the second instance of alleged intimidation of abortion amendment supporters in less than two weeks.

On May 30, canvasser Veronica McClane filmed an interaction between herself and Little Rock police, in which Officer Christopher Tollette told her that both Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission did not want her and others canvassing at the intersection of 9th and State streets.

 

[unclevlad]

Alito/Roberts story also popped up on NYT.  

One thing I do have to agree with:  the organization behind the event wasn't happy with what she did, and there was criticism of her means, as a violation of journalistic ethics.  OTOH, I gotta admit...the Justices on this Court can be viewed as having brought this onto themselves by refusing to abide by any ethical reporting standards.

[Lord Liaden]

Police do this sort of thing all the time as part of their investigations. The journalist's conversation was at a public event she was not connected to which Alito voluntarily attended, so there was no entrapment and no expectation of privacy or confidentiality. I don't see how journalistic ethics would have been violated.

Edited June 11 by Lord Liaden

[unclevlad]

Misrepresentation of her position...in a clear effort to get exactly what she got.

[Old Man]

2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Alito/Roberts story also popped up on NYT.  

One thing I do have to agree with:  the organization behind the event wasn't happy with what she did, and there was criticism of her means, as a violation of journalistic ethics.  OTOH, I gotta admit...the Justices on this Court can be viewed as having brought this onto themselves by refusing to abide by any ethical reporting standards.

 

This.  These justices are openly corrupt and literally gloating about it, anyone complaining about this journalist's ethics needs to be slapped down hard.

Edited June 11 by Old Man
Language!

[BoloOfEarth]

2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Alito/Roberts story also popped up on NYT.  

One thing I do have to agree with:  the organization behind the event wasn't happy with what she did, and there was criticism of her means, as a violation of journalistic ethics.  OTOH, I gotta admit...the Justices on this Court can be viewed as having brought this onto themselves by refusing to abide by any ethical reporting standards.

 

Seems to me the word "reporting" toward the end of the sentence above could be removed and it would still be accurate.

[Lord Liaden]

3 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Misrepresentation of her position...in a clear effort to get exactly what she got.

 

That's a valid consideration. My admittedly summary research into journalistic ethics has uncovered dispute in the profession over the use of deception. Some hold that it's not allowable under any circumstances, and its use tarnishes public trust in the profession. Others maintain that while it should generally be avoided, deception is allowable if the information sought is in the public interest such that it outweighs the normal restraint; if the information can't be obtained any other way; and if the journalist clearly informs the public of their identity, their motivation and their method for obtaining the information.

 

I won't get into a debate as to which side is justified, or whether all that applies in this case. The points are too fine for my very limited expertise.

Edited June 11 by Lord Liaden

[Cygnia]

In the rough: Felony convictions could cost Trump liquor licenses at 3 New Jersey golf courses

[Asperion]

Texas is showing how important they think people are,  especially pregnant people. What is even more troubling is that I see this as the direction the entire country go especially if Trump becomes president. 

 

 

[Cygnia]

Warning: The Wonkette is NSFW.

Secret Recordings Of Alitos Reveal They Are Nuttier Than A Forest Of Acorn Trees

[Iuz the Evil]

 

Interesting changes in the 2024 European Elections. Whenever they report on “far right” European parties, I think of America saying “hold my beer”…

 

Big change in direction though.

[L. Marcus]

Sweden bucked the right-leaning trend, I'm happy to say. But as with all other European Parliament elections, participation was low, about 50% -- and here, less than 80% in a national election would count as abysmal.

[DShomshak]

2 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Warning: The Wonkette is NSFW.

Secret Recordings Of Alitos Reveal They Are Nuttier Than A Forest Of Acorn Trees

Actually, I would have no problem with Ms. Alito responding to rainbow Pride flags with a Sacred Heart flag expressing her Roman Catholic convictions. Free speech is free speech. And it would be just as wrong for any LGBTQ+ zealots to tear down her Sacred Heart flag as it is for far-right zealots to tear down Pride flags (as they sometimes do).

 

Dean Shomshak

[unclevlad]

From NYT climate newsletter...

 

Last month was the hottest May on record.

 

What's even more scary is...that's the 12th consecutive month where that's the case.  One month might be an aberration, but a solid year...?

[wcw43921]

Russian Propagandists' Hopes For America

[Lord Liaden]

I follow several Russian social media contributors who are now outside of Russia, hence not under the immediate oppressive weight of state propaganda and censorship, and who have access to more open sources of information. Most of the above tracks with what they tell us. The prospects for Russia's internal situation are even worse than most of us are aware of, but Russian state media aggressively push a combination of propaganda and selective obliviousness; and Russian security are swift and draconian in clamping down on the smallest signs that the regime consider detrimental to their image.

 

Russia's government has been trying to keep the economy functioning relatively normally in their biggest cities by injecting state cash reserves, particularly into the military/industrial complex; but that money is nearly exhausted. Signs of the strain are showing up everywhere: a recent broad tax hike, biggest in decades; complaints of shortages of labor, with so many having left Russia or being sent to fight in Ukraine; collapsing infrastructure without people and money for maintenance; failing machinery due to lack of foreign-made parts and servicing; retail prices held artificially low under penalty of law; business owners arrested on spurious charges, their holdings confiscated and sold to Putin's wealthy cronies.

 

What's happening in the cities pales beside the third-world conditions in rural areas, which are also never reflected on state media.

[unclevlad]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/12/us/ivf-vote-southern-baptists.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zE0.O8fs.uhIpedszIa9q&smid=url-share

 

Having won the abortion battle for now, it's time to move to the next one.  It's widely unpopular right now...but the crusader types that overturned Roe, have great experience in playing the long game.

[unclevlad]

All from NYT just now:

 

1.  Supreme Court Maintains Broad Access to Abortion Pill

Unanimous.  Kavanaugh wrote that access restrictions should be handled through regulatory or legislative processes, so this leads to \

 

2.  Abortion rights groups celebrate the win, but fear ‘we are far from out of the woods.’

 

and 

 

3.  Anti-abortion activists press ahead after the loss: ‘We’ll be back.’

 

One can argue #3 was a given...therefore, #2 is implicit.

[Lord Liaden]

Kavanaugh's trying to leave a back door for anti-abortion without pissing off the majority of Americans any more than the SCOTUS already has. Not the bravest tack.