Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 401: Haley's Vomit

(+) Yeah! (+)

Its also a really bad time to be looking for a job in tech; all of the big tech companies have currently frozen hiring and all except Apple had a ton of layoffs.

Thorn posted...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-disney-reedy-creek-house-vote-thursday-20230209-npncgjqvbfhdzokto5b2ww5fzu-story.html

DeSantis seizing control of Reedy Creek (Disney's district) because they had the gall to speak out (kinda) about Don't Say Gay.

I know we talked about it when they floated the idea but now the votes are happening.

Florida's House voted today to make it so that DeSantis appoints all the members of the board as well as changing the district name to "Central Florida Tourism Oversight District." Efforts by Democrats to amend it so some of the board was appointed by the full Cabinet and the rest by local officials from the surrounding districts were all killed.

I believe I heard somewhere that, by doing this, the state is actually going to come out worse fiscally than they would if they kept things as they are. Does anyone know if there's truth to that.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Its also a really bad time to be looking for a job in tech; all of the big tech companies have currently frozen hiring and all except Apple had a ton of layoffs.

Still tons of openings in non tech development roles.

its just the ridiculously over paid tech companies who are cutting at this point.

scarletspeed7 posted...

I believe I heard somewhere that, by doing this, the state is actually going to come out worse fiscally than they would if they kept things as they are. Does anyone know if there's truth to that.

I know they restructured the district to prevent the state taking over the bonds.

The funny thing is if it wasnt for the rationale I imagine most leftists would salivate at the idea of the government stopping a corporate mega giant from owning its own government

scarletspeed7 posted...

I believe I heard somewhere that, by doing this, the state is actually going to come out worse fiscally than they would if they kept things as they are. Does anyone know if there's truth to that.

The original plan, IIRC, was to simply dissolve the district which to my understanding means the state would have assumed all the debts and financial obligations that currently Disney holds there and that indeed was going to massively burden the state and taxpayers.

The version just voted on keeps the district in place, but essentially puts it under the governor's control, and has language in it that basically reads, "Oh and Disney 100% still holds all the debt and shit" so I'm not sure there'd be an impact on the rest of the state.

Edit: nvm I was beaten to it.

masterplum posted...

Still tons of openings in non tech development roles.

its just the ridiculously over paid tech companies who are cutting at this point.

Well yeah, but usually people are going to be reticent to take a massive pay cut (let alone move industries) just because a narcissist bought the company they work for.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Well yeah, but usually people are going to be reticent to take a massive pay cut (let alone move industries) just because a narcissist bought the company they work for.

Realize we are talking pay cuts from $300k to $200k here. Sure its a lot, but at a point your quality of life matters a ton.

Im in tech and its approaching that time to start looking for another job so I casually have been throwing around resumes here and there. Only took 15 or so applications to get an interview. Dont let layoffs at big names fool you into thinking its heading to an industry contraction.

Some people are international and locked into a work visa or else they can't stay here. Otherwise, yeah lol.

masterplum posted...

Realize we are talking pay cuts from $300k to $200k here.

Big Lucille Bluth energy here.

Yeah it doesn't help that transferring a visa sponsorship between companies effectively means reapplying, which means that you stand a chance of getting rejected even if your previous visa had no issues.

Also if you're applying for a greencard and sponsored by the company, changing companies resets the amount of time you have to wait. For people from India, that amount of time is now over a decade if you're just entering the system now.

It's basically indentured servitude, and it's pretty fucked.

KamikazePotato posted...

Some people are international and locked into a work visa or else they can't stay here. Otherwise, yeah lol.

They can still look around for another job its just harder I believe.

But yeah that's the only person I would ever imagine staying there

VintageGin posted...

Yeah it doesn't help that transferring a visa sponsorship between companies effectively means reapplying, which means that you stand a chance of getting rejected even if your previous visa had no issues.

Also if you're applying for a greencard and sponsored by the company, changing companies resets the amount of time you have to wait. For people from India, that amount of time is now over a decade if you're just entering the system now.

It's basically indentured servitude, and it's pretty fucked.

Oh I had no idea it was that ridiculous

Huh

Yeah "just become a citizen the 'right way'" is the thing people tell themselves when they don't realize the 'right way' isn't actually a feasible option anymore for just about anybody.

Forceful_Dragon posted...

Yeah "just become a citizen the 'right way'" is the thing people tell themselves when they don't realize the 'right way' isn't actually a feasible option anymore for just about anybody.

Oh I know citizenship is silly.

But I thought green cards were easier for skilled workers

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream

Seymour Hersh, the reporter responsible for uncovering Abu Ghraib and the My Lai Massacre says the US sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline.

Still havent heard a single decent theory why it would have been Russia in the first placeespecially because they are fixing it themselves, but I remember the same people asserting it was an inside job insisting I was the conspiracy theorist on this one, lol.

Hersh is also 85 years old now and not the same guy who reported on the My Lai Massacre.

In 2018, Hersh told an interviewer, "I don't necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. We really don't have an ending to the story. Ive known people in the [intelligence] community. We don't know anything empirical about who did what."

Seems more plausible than an inside job!

He also had an anonymous source claim the Russian government wasn't responsible for the Novichok poisoning incidents.

If it was found out that everything he said in that article was the truth, I can't say I'd be super surprised especially with the history of the US government.

But Hersh is a kook and he published that to his substack because no one of repute would publish it. I know this is very boring and "BOTH SIDES" of me but I can't say I find him trustworthy enough to believe that story at face value. Like I'm not any more or less suspicious than I was before.

I was unaware of his recent kookery, but its shockingly detailed and extremely plausible, is all Im saying.

All Im saying, I legitimately havent seen 2 sentences worth of believable motive for it to be a Russian conspiracy.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

But Hersh is a kook and he published that to his substack because no one of repute would publish it.

And as jaded as people might be about the media, there are no shortage of outlets that would love to run this if they could verify any of it.

kevwaffles posted...

And as jaded as people might be about the media, there are no shortage of outlets that would love to run this if they could verify any of it.

I dont think this is true, theyd basically be sacrificing their access to the White House to post this.

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I dont think this is true, theyd basically be sacrificing their access to the White House to post this.

CBS News broke the Abu Ghraib story based on his findings.

At least that's my understanding on order of events.

Thats fair, although I think times are different now.

That being said, I would imagine Right Wing outlets would run with it if they could verify. But I also wonder if they love this sort of shit so much that theyd rather not give Joe props.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Hersh is also 85 years old now and not the same guy who reported on the My Lai Massacre.

There's a lot of conspiracy holes he went down in his later life.

-That the US staged the killing of Bin Laden
--He alleges Pakistan and Saudi Arabia captured him in 2006, tried to sell him to us in 2010, but then they insisted we fake the raid and multiple diplomatic incidents to cover the staging despite it being humiliating to them to make it look like we went in and killed him without their approval when they could have just like... dumped in Afghanistan in the middle of US Troops or something. The story that he was dumped at sea was a lie - he was actually torn apart by machine gun fire and what little remained was tossed from the helicopter.

-Syria's use of chemical weapons was actually a false flag and it was Turkey
--This was after he changed his story from saying it was AQ terrorists that Obama intentionally looked the other way on to justify intervention.

-That the top military brass in the Pentagon formed a secret alliance with Assad and Putin to undermine Obama's policy in Syria, and he approved of this! (Biggest red flag IMO wrt this story since it's approving of Putin)
--He bases this all off a single anonymous sources and quotes people like Gabbard to assert that Assad and Putin were really just trying to fight ISIS and we should join them.

Like the only reason to believe him here is because "he was right about My Lai and Abu Ghraib!" when everything points towards him falling into conspiracy nonsense after that.

Im sorry, are you taking the position that its not conspiracy theory to say it was a Russian inside job?

I wasn't talking about the pipeline at all so it'd be weird if I said anything at all about it. I was discussing Hersh's descent into chasing baseless conspiracies with conflicting internal narratives and based on threadbare sourcing and how it suggests he is absolutely no longer a credible source these days.

I thought it was plausible it was the US blowing up the pipeline before, but plausible is just that. Plausible. This guy doesn't seem to have evidence to move it from that.

I don't think he really addresses why the US would wait 3 months well into the Ukraine conflict to detonate planted charges, either. He's tying it to a publicly known Navy exercise in the area, but if the sabotage was done by divers planting charges I don't think US (or anyone) would even need to use a marked military vessel in the first place.

Back to politics that hopefully isnt so heated!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/asia/japan-elderly-mass-suicide.html

Probably pay walled, but an Ivy League professor is catching heat for suggesting the solution to Japans impending demographic crisis is mass euthanasia.

Curious what everyone thinks about that

Really looking for any alternative to increasing immigration I guess!

US immigration is up - apparently that's a big reason for the super strong jobs report.

Actually laughed out loud at this nickname

https://twitter.com/metzgov/status/1624843635421315073?s=21

Tony, for the thousandth time, the pipeline was not active when it was attacked, the USs gas exports to Europe are already at full capacity, it was NATO member-state property in different NATO member-state waters, and Russia has a credible motive ie further threatening Europes energy supply. Hersh is engaging in full-on crankery and conspiracy theorism as are you.

Trump really thinks he looks like those cartoons of him, huh

Also Tony you keep saying inside job but it wouldnt be an inside job at all as Germany I believe owns the pipeline and it happened in Danish and Swedish waters, so it would not be an inside job at all but a Russian attack on two NATO member-states which is a very different thing. You are obsessed with conspiracy theories about this but miss the basics of what happened.

Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch sitting together at the Super Bowl...

I rolled my eyes when the announcers referred to them as "brilliant minds" but not surprising they're together.

LightningStrikes posted...

Also Tony you keep saying inside job but it wouldnt be an inside job at all as Germany I believe owns the pipeline and it happened in Danish and Swedish waters, so it would not be an inside job at all but a Russian attack on two NATO member-states which is a very different thing. You are obsessed with conspiracy theories about this but miss the basics of what happened.

Very weird of you to attack me for missing the basics when the pipeline is literally owned by a Russian state energy company. Other European entities invested in it, but its owned by Russia.

And the pipeline being inactive makes it even more pointless for Russia to do it. We already discussed all this last time, what are you doing?

LightningStrikes posted...

Tony, for the thousandth time, the pipeline was not active when it was attacked, the USs gas exports to Europe are already at full capacity, it was NATO member-state property in different NATO member-state waters, and Russia has a credible motive ie further threatening Europes energy supply. Hersh is engaging in full-on crankery and conspiracy theorism as are you.

Yeah Russias motive was threatening Europes energy supply by blowing up something theyre paying to rebuild instead of just never turning it on.

Hersh is a crank, but youre full-blown conspiracy brained on this.

Sabotaging part-owned property in foreign waters is an effective threat, yes. That would be a display of capability to cripple the gas supply. Poland were opening a pipeline I believe the sane day. It makes a lot more sense than the US and Norway doing it. Of course other actors are available.

Didn't energy prices spike temporarily because of the uncertainty caused by the explosion? I feel like that's an outcome you don't get if it's "merely" the pipeline never turning on.

Though I have no idea who is responsible or even if it was intentional instead of just incompetence like a botched maintenance.

LightningStrikes posted...

Sabotaging part-owned property in foreign waters is an effective threat, yes. That would be a display of capability to cripple the gas supply. Poland were opening a pipeline I believe the sane day. It makes a lot more sense than the US and Norway doing it. Of course other actors are available.

Your conspiracy theory requires downplaying that theyre part owner, when they have majority stake and control it.

Also, the US stated early last year one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not open if Russia invades Ukraine. It makes the most logical sense for the US to have followed through on literally what they said they would do.

And if it was someone else, precedent says the US would know about it/have given support in some way.

If none of that makes sense to you, were just going to have to disagree to disagree here.

You're both going to look silly when it's revealed it was a dolphin.

Russia trained the dolphin.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

Russia trained the dolphin.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/27/russia-black-sea-military-dolphins-crimea

holy shit

It doesnt even have to be Russia like I said, though they do have a credible motive as discussed. The only thing I think is clear is that its not America, who have no reason to do this at all. As for the US saying Nord Stream 2 would not open it didnt and was not going to as the EU is now moving away from Russian gas entirely. The sabotage would make no difference either way as it would be repaired before the war ends.

Also lol at you calling any possibility that doesnt agree with your extremely narrow evidence-free version of events a conspiracy theory. I dont know who did it and I have never claimed to. There is however no evidence implicating the US and they dont have a motive. Even geographically it makes no sense which is why Hersh saw fit to get Norway involved.

So again, given that the sabotage had no impact on whether Nord Stream 2 would ever open or not (it wasnt going to) what evidence and motive do you have that the US would attack its allies?

LightningStrikes posted...

Even geographically it makes no sense which is why Hersh saw fit to get Norway involved.

I'd like to point out that Norway involvement was the initial Russian accusation. I don't think he's coming up with this story on his own, but his "anonymous source" for this and several stories is probably a Russian state source.

LightningStrikes posted...

It doesnt even have to be Russia like I said, though they do have a credible motive as discussed. The only thing I think is clear is that its not America, who have no reason to do this at all.

Also lol at you calling any possibility that doesnt agree with your extremely narrow evidence-free version of events a conspiracy theory. I dont know who did it and I have never claimed to. There is however no evidence implicating the US and they dont have a motive. Even geographically it makes no sense which is why Hersh saw fit to get Norway involved.

My extremely narrow view of likely US based on our history of foreign policy/intervention, could be another country, based on our global standing the US would likely know who.

My narrow position is that Russia is the least likely culprit.

So again, given that the sabotage had no impact on whether Nord Stream 2 would ever open or not (it wasnt going to) what evidence and motive do you have that the US would attack its allies?

Like I said:

Your conspiracy theory requires downplaying that theyre part owner, when they have majority stake and control it.

The state department has always said Nord Stream is Russian, and even after it wasnt going to open, they drew an explicit line in the sand that they wouldnt let it open if Russia invaded Ukraine.

Whether thats the US taking action themselves, or an ally taking it, you cannot say theres no motive.

Also if the sabotage had no effect on whether it was going to open, what logic is there in Russia sabotaging themselves and then repairing it? To threaten EU oil supplies, they could just say theyre not going to turn it on if theyre demands arent metanonymous sabotage gives them no leverage.

https://twitter.com/joshuaphilll/status/1624549858911698945?s=46&t=xmeq4VeLUzPHVyv0ZEFccg

What the fuck