Random News not worthy of own thread

[CBJ]

I do get your point, Chips. It's pretty standard behaviour for large companies to hire and fire on the basis of financial constraints that are more about squeezing every possible ounce of profit out of their operations, rather than out of necessity to keep the company running. And from the employee's point of view, losing your source of income is losing your source of income. Nobody should be fooled into thinking that any of these companies give a damn about individual workers in the big scheme of things.

But, that said, there is still a right and wrong way to go about firing people. US employment law is notoriously skewed in favour of the employer compared to, say, UK or EU law. With that in mind, Facebook/Meta are most likely following the rules that apply in any given jurisdiction; what Musk is doing almost certainly wouldn't be legal in the UK or EU, and might not be even in some US states. But even putting legality aside, being told formally that you're being let go for financial reasons is still less unpleasant than finding yourself locked out of your office and/or laptop without warning, told that you need to sign up for "extreme" working conditions when you are already working a 70 hour week, or any of the other horror-stories coming out of Twitter at the moment.

[Gavrushka]

I can't believe Trump has been reinstated on Twitter... I'd not appreciated just how far you could fudge the words 'free speech' to incorporate 'hate speech.'

In other news I've opened an account on Mastodon!

[CBJ]

I'd not appreciated just how far you could fudge the words 'free speech' to incorporate 'hate speech.'

That boat sailed a long time ago. You must not have been paying attention.

[matthewfarmery]

I think this could end up been a bad decision, Musk has more pressing issues to resolve rather then reinstate a former president.

Also if Trump does come back, it will mean his own platform was a total failure, (but that was bound to fail anyway) Now it will be interesting to see if advertisers and celebs leave twitter. As some have said they will if Trump is reinstated. So maybe then, Musk might end up losing even more money on twitter.

[clakclak]

I do get your point, Chips. It's pretty standard behaviour for large companies to hire and fire on the basis of financial constraints that are more about squeezing every possible ounce of profit out of their operations, rather than out of necessity to keep the company running. And from the employee's point of view, losing your source of income is losing your source of income. Nobody should be fooled into thinking that any of these companies give a damn about individual workers in the big scheme of things.

But, that said, there is still a right and wrong way to go about firing people. US employment law is notoriously skewed in favour of the employer compared to, say, UK or EU law. With that in mind, Facebook/Meta are most likely following the rules that apply in any given jurisdiction; what Musk is doing almost certainly wouldn't be legal in the UK or EU, and might not be even in some US states. But even putting legality aside, being told formally that you're being let go for financial reasons is still less unpleasant than finding yourself locked out of your office and/or laptop without warning, told that you need to sign up for "extreme" working conditions when you are already working a 70 hour week, or any of the other horror-stories coming out of Twitter at the moment.

Your comment basically hits the nail on the head even though I do not agree with your conclusion that there is a difference between the two.

This issue is political. Both Meta's and Twitter's (or Musk's if you will) way of dealing with employees are only possible because the laws allow for it. It is a bit of fruitless effort to think about who or what company is behaving "immorally" as that is pretty much down to personal political leanings and what one thinks is "moral".

[Vertigo 7]

I do get your point, Chips. It's pretty standard behaviour for large companies to hire and fire on the basis of financial constraints that are more about squeezing every possible ounce of profit out of their operations, rather than out of necessity to keep the company running. And from the employee's point of view, losing your source of income is losing your source of income. Nobody should be fooled into thinking that any of these companies give a damn about individual workers in the big scheme of things.

But, that said, there is still a right and wrong way to go about firing people. US employment law is notoriously skewed in favour of the employer compared to, say, UK or EU law. With that in mind, Facebook/Meta are most likely following the rules that apply in any given jurisdiction; what Musk is doing almost certainly wouldn't be legal in the UK or EU, and might not be even in some US states. But even putting legality aside, being told formally that you're being let go for financial reasons is still less unpleasant than finding yourself locked out of your office and/or laptop without warning, told that you need to sign up for "extreme" working conditions when you are already working a 70 hour week, or any of the other horror-stories coming out of Twitter at the moment.

Your comment basically hits the nail on the head even though I do not agree with your conclusion that there is a difference between the two.

This issue is political. Both Meta's and Twitter's (or Musk's if you will) way of dealing with employees are only possible because the laws allow for it. It is a bit of fruitless effort to think about who or what company is behaving "immorally" as that is pretty much down to personal political leanings and what one thinks is "moral".

It certainly is hypocritical, if anything, at least ol' Elon's behavior. Mr champion of free speech and destroyer of "cancel culture" is firing anyone who ever sent someone else a private message that said something mean about him or disagreed with his "hardcore" vision for Twitter employees. Literally, that's the priority given to the remaining employees - scrub messages for anything related to Elon and go tell on them if they're still employed there. Certainly a lesson that children should never be given money.

[CBJ]

It is a bit of fruitless effort to think about who or what company is behaving "immorally" as that is pretty much down to personal political leanings and what one thinks is "moral".

My conclusion wasn't supposed to be about morality. I tried to make it clear in the first part that I acknowledged that both companies were essentially doing the same thing from that perspective. The second paragraph was about a) the legality of it and b) the personal experience from the perspective of the employee.

I can say from experience that you can deal with a corporate HR department that is "behaving itself" legally, and potentially even negotiate a little around your legal minimal severance entitlement. The same is probably not true if you're summarily fired by a capricious new owner, who has very little understanding of your value to the company and more than enough money to keep throwing lawyers at you until you have no option but to just walk away.

And personally I still think I'd rather hear that I was let go because of corporate restructuring (or whatever euphemism they happen to be using for wanting to make more profit) than because the new boss didn't like me disagreeing with them about something, or didn't think my already-long working hours were good enough for them. Maybe that's just me, though.

[matthewfarmery]

Seems some advertisers have paused their ads on twitter since Trump has been reinstated.

https://fortune.com/2022/11/22/civil-ri ... mp-return/

“Musk either changed his mind or lied to civil rights leaders and advertisers,” Gonzalez said. “He is a reckless and erratic billionaire who puts his whims ahead of concerns for the welfare of the online community.” She urged advertisers that care about brand safety to join the exodus of companies that have already pulled their ads off Twitter.

And

A number of brands, including Balenciaga SA, General Mills Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Volkswagen Group, have paused their ad spending on Twitter as the company undergoes significant changes under Musk. Some of the platform’s top advertisers, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., have yet to make any public announcements about whether they will cease advertising. 

I say Twitter could be in even more serious trouble. It very well could be the end of Twitter if more advertisers pause their adds.

[chew-ie]

Strrrrr-ik-e!

Hate to interrupt the Musk'ing but having yet another blow for Trump@court is just as good: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ress-house

[Vertigo 7]

Oh it is indeed wonderful but he's also facing criminal indictments from New York and Georgia and now there's a special council for the DoJ jan 6 investigation and stolen documents, which will likely also be bringing federal indictments against the Oompa Loompa king. And the GoP has all but turned their back on him after a boat load of his endorsements lost reelection in the midterms. Don't see him weaseling his way out of prison.

[matthewfarmery]

Strrrrr-ik-e!

Hate to interrupt the Musk'ing but having yet another blow for Trump@court is just as good: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ress-house

While Trump has won some cases, but now it seems the tide is turning, also the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals has heard the DOJ argument to shut down the need for a special master, who is overseeing the classified document case, (when Trump home was searched) and Trump went Judge shopping.

Trump's lawyer did a very poor defence,

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/23/poli ... index.html

I think the court will overturn the need for a special master, and if that happens, the case against Trump will be in full swing. I bet Trump will be fuming!

And about time with his tax returns, he should have revealed them when he first announced he was running for president.

All in all, I think Trump is increasing likely, he is finished. Another thing, He now having to pay his lawyers, the RNC will no longer be footing his legal expenses. So those lawyers will have to watch their pay checks, as Trump may stop paying them.

[felter]

And another Trump headache arrived today, it looks like E Jean Carroll who is suing Trump for defamation after he accused her of telling lies when she accused him of raping her. Well today a new law came into effect in New York called Adult Survivors Act where...

The state law allows a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in New York over claims that would have otherwise exceeded statute limitations.

Which means he is now going to be in court over not just defamation, but he will also have to answer against the charge of rape. It's not a good year to be Donald Trump, and I think with the way things are going it is going to be an even worse year next year.

[matthewfarmery]

It would be interesting on how he will try and wiggle out of trying to answer questions? I mean, if he does answers questions under oath, can be plead the 5th? or will the judge force him to answer? and if he does answer with lies, with the judge hold him in contempt? Also will be interesting what evidence the lady will have? and hope that she doesn't settle out of court. And sticks to her guns and make sure he gets humiliated in court.

But overall, not a good day to be Trump, and next year, he has some nasty loans to pay off, and he already lost nearly 1 billion in 2 years. So he losing a lot of money, and even more soon. I think going for president again, and this soon will be a huge blunder.

[Warenwolf]

Meanwhile in India:

Rats eating 600 kg of weed in the evidence room. Also in neighboring state they drink 1 million liters of impounded alcohol which, again, was stored in the evidence room.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2 ... storeroom/

Yep, totally legit explanations...

[felter]

Well, Trump should quit running for President now, as Kanye West he is putting himself forward in the 2024 presidential race. Trump will not stand a chance against him, as you could not get a better person to be president as ye would be, he is a totally mentally stable person, unlike Trump, not to mention he was once married to Kim Kardashian, you just can't get anyone more qualified than that.

[felter]

Meanwhile in India:

Rats eating 600 kg of weed in the evidence room. Also in neighboring state they drink 1 million liters of impounded alcohol which, again, was stored in the evidence room.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2 ... storeroom/

Yep, totally legit explanations...

The other week there it was elephants stealing 30 litres of wine (sorry for using the mail). That's all you need, stoned rats chasing drunk Elephants.

[chew-ie]

@felter I always suspected an elephant to be in the room ...

---

World goes nuts part #56917

- Chinese people rebel & demand XI to step down (happy invading Taiwan if some measly lockdowns already trigger these kind of unrest in a former pacified & surpressed population) @source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... d-strategy
- North korea aims for the stars / being nuclear super power (could someone tell them how many depts that'll entail? They should prolly have a talk with Russia or the US (:D)) @source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... lear-power

All in all kind of a normal sunday these days.

[felter]

I really don't get China why are their vaccination levels so low, especially seeing as they are in the perfect position to get everyone vaccinated, it's not like let's say America where idiots go "there are microchips in the vaccine, so I'm not getting it," even if there was in China you still wouldn't have the option of saying no, so why haven't they been vaccinating their population. There has also been demonstrations going on for some time now, just not on the scale that is currently happening. The one troubling issue is the ones in charge have covered up and hidden the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre that most in China either don't know it happened or have conveniently forgotten it ever happened, so it will probably happen again.

Have you seen videos of that fire the other day, there the fire engines couldn't get close enough to the fire that the spray from their hoses was fallen short by about 5 feet, seemingly due to fencing to stop people from leaving the lockdown area, the powers that be said it was because of parked cars, but I have never heard of park cars being an issue for the fire brigade, I mean this is what normally happens when cars get in the way, it's also not unknown for them to use their engines to move cars out of the way here.

You also should have mentioned Iran in the countries that is going to be interesting to watch in the next year, as their population is having parties with police every day.

[clakclak]

I really don't get China why are their vaccination levels so low, especially seeing as they are in the perfect position to get everyone vaccinated, it's not like let's say America where idiots go "there are microchips in the vaccine, so I'm not getting it," even if there was in China you still wouldn't have the option of saying no, so why haven't they been vaccinating their population. [....]

There is an anti-vaccine movement in China though (edit: article I had in here seems to be locked behind a paywall, basically there is a lot of distrust when it comes to public healthcare in China, especially after the heavy handed anti Corona approach) and it is one of the major reasons as to why so many people did not get the vaccine yet. On top of the idea of forcefully vaccinating the entire population may seem easy on paper in a tightly controlled dictatorship like China, but the shere scale of such an operation is rather extreme. In fact pulling something like this off is allready very difficult when it is something people want to participate in like India's elections. Those take around 3 months to conduct.

[felter]

I really don't get China why are their vaccination levels so low, especially seeing as they are in the perfect position to get everyone vaccinated, it's not like let's say America where idiots go "there are microchips in the vaccine, so I'm not getting it," even if there was in China you still wouldn't have the option of saying no, so why haven't they been vaccinating their population. [....]

There is an anti-vaccine movement in China though (edit: article I had in here seems to be locked behind a paywall, basically there is a lot of distrust when it comes to public healthcare in China, especially after the heavy handed anti Corona approach) and it is one of the major reasons as to why so many people did not get the vaccine yet. On top of the idea of forcefully vaccinating the entire population may seem easy on paper in a tightly controlled dictatorship like China, but the shere scale of such an operation is rather extreme. In fact pulling something like this off is allready very difficult when it is something people want to participate in like India's elections. Those take around 3 months to conduct.

I don't buy that in the least, if it was nearly any other country in the world then maybe yes but China a country that put down a demonstration by its population using tanks and machine guns with live bullets, and you think their people can just say no while comparing them to India, that's a definitive chalk and cheese comparison. And three months, China can shut down a city of millions in a matter of hours and that's a generous time frame, not just that they have had years to do vaccinations not months, they could easily have told their population you want out of the city then get vaccinated, and they would have had no other choice than to do so. You cannot treat or even think of China in the same way as any other country, the CCP can pretty much do whatever they want and there is not much anyone can do about it. Right now those demonstrations are not happening because they want them, it's solely because the CCP are allowing them, and they are already shutting them down, so I doubt they will last for much longer.