I thought the post you were responding to was made in jest and good fun and your take was a bit preachy. I understand mine sounded mean and I apologize for the offense caused. I’ve used a real shovel twice in my life to end a suffering animal’s life and both occurrences left an indelible mark on my soul. I’m sure that when my life flashes before my eyes, they will be part of it. I will gladly eat a bag of tacos and sincerely hope you have a nice holiday.
2 Likes
I was just pissed you thought I was a fucking millennial…
1 Like
Boy, that sure is a weird pardon, luckily former governer fuckface explained his reasoning
He said he didn’t believe that a 9-year-old girl was raped, because her hymen was intact.
“There was zero evidence,” Bevin told talk-radio host Terry Meiners of WHAS.
Asked Thursday by Meiners how he could stomach pardoning a child rapist, Bevin responded, “Which one?”
Defending his decision on Thursday, Bevin divulged additional details about the case that were not previously made public. The victim, who is related to Schoettle, accused him of raping her over a period of two years, often when her sister was in the room, he said. Bevin said that Schoettle was also accused of sexually assaulting the victim’s sister, who has denied that any wrongdoing took place.
“Both their hymens were intact,” he told WHAS. “This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me, if you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically.”
I’m just going to assume Matt Bevin is super into raping kids based on that.
1 Like
I know the French get crap for being cowards, supposedly, but their work laws are pretty damn good. Things like kidnapping bosses on the regular
Sucks that this stuff happened and I had no clue it was going on
For people who want the vastly more interesting real history of America’s misbegotten meddling in Bolivia – just one chapter, of course, in a much larger global story – Boynton’s film is out there, and so is what happened later. Goni was in effect the candidate of the “Washington consensus,” the guy who would bring a small, fractious and deeply divided country into the established international economic order. As president in the mid-‘90s, he had pursued a controversial two-level strategy, extending constitutional rights and policy reforms aimed at Bolivia’s large indigenous population while also embarking on a widespread campaign of privatization that sold off state-owned industries and natural resources to foreign capital. As it happens – and I’m sure all this is coincidental – Bolivia contains immense natural gas reserves, the second-largest in South America after Venezuela, whose national resources had been rendered largely off limits to outside investors by the rise of socialist president Hugo Chávez.
Carville’s troops were dispatched to La Paz in ’02 to consolidate the great victory of “liberalism” and “democracy” – as they and their sponsors and benefactors understand those things – and to resist the rising tide of Latin American leftism represented in Bolivia by the indigenous political leader Evo Morales, Goni’s leading opponent. Exactly who decided that a widely disliked candidate in such a small country merited such attention, alongside such star GCS clients as Tony Blair, the Israeli Labor Party and the Canadian Liberal Party? That remains a question shrouded in mystery, but we could probably come up with some decent guesses. Who paid for it? Well, that would be you and me – both before and after.
Carville and Greenberg won that election for Goni, after shifting the entire theme of his campaign to the “crisis” mantra, but maybe they should have vetted their candidate a little better. Goni’s second term as president barely lasted a year, after his plans to allow an international consortium to build a pipeline and ship Bolivian natural gas to North America at dirt-cheap prices sparked a massive popular uprising. Facing a general strike and a series of confrontations between soldiers and protesters that left at least 67 civilians dead, Goni imposed martial law in October 2003, and the U.S. State Department issued a statement offering its full support. Have they learned nothing? That was almost certainly the final straw. Goni fled the country five days later, and now lives in exile in the U.S., which has refused to extradite him to Bolivia to face trial for extrajudicial killings and other crimes against humanity.
Since 2006, Bolivia has been governed by Evo Morales, the indigenous leader whose protest movement led to Goni’s downfall. As one of his first moves as president, Morales unilaterally reversed the terms of Bolivia’s natural gas contracts with foreign corporations: Instead of the investors getting 82 percent of the profits and the Bolivian state getting 18 percent, it was suddenly the other way around. The corporations whined and complained, but ultimately decided that 18 percent was a lot better than nothing. Morales’ government has dramatically reduced poverty and inequality, and presided over one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, right through the crash of 2008. Maybe Carville and the Clintonocracy were empowering democracy after all, even if it wasn’t quite the variety they intended.
5 Likes
Landmark ruling in France, three former bosses of France Telecom (Orange) have been convicted of ‘Institutional Harassment’. It’s for a restructuring in 2007-2008 which caused at least 19 suicides. From reading about the experiences it seems they embarked on a very aggressive constructive dismissal drive - transferring people 100s of km away with little notice, deliberately leaving people almost empty locations with no actual work to do etc.
The penalties aren’t much to write home about a 75 grand fine for the organisation and 1 year sentences for the three executives (with 8 months of it suspended). Though prosecutors are saying they brought this case in part to demonstrate that the crime exists - that management can be held responsible for the effect of their decisions, even if they don’t deal directly with the people affected. (On that note I don’t think the translation below of “workplace bullying” really captures what the conviction is about.) Also, that the penalties might need to be looked at again by the politicians.
Not sure how hopeful to be by it. I deliberately hadn’t read much about the case as I assumed they would not be convicted and I’d get sad. I doubt that, with neo-liberal par excellence Macron in charge, we will see corporations targeted with excessive zeal, but you never know. No guillotines, either.
Edit - My pony also got convicted
4 Likes
Driven to suicide imo
2 Likes
6ix recently posted something about focusing the blame on something else when the real source was Capitalism that would be appropriate here.
If I understand you correctly I think I agree with the sentiment of your post, but France does still have significant protections for workers from dismissal, and also strong unions that can organise effective industrial action and have the ear of poiliticians. It is effective for the people who can to fight individual, limited battles here, in my opinion, perhaps in a way it isn’t elsewhere.
Not sure how long that will continue to be the case for, and I certainly admit I might be wrong, and, even further, I’m not convinced this case is one of those instances.
Germany has laws about workers being on the board of directors and the bigger the company the higher the percentage. Obviously there could still be corruption, just like unions can be corrupt, but that’s a structural thing that I imagine is pretty effective. Employees owning a minimum percentage would be the next step.
1 Like
I thought I saw somewhere that the brother of the convicted guy threw a fundraiser for Bevin but it could be one of the other people he pardoned
1 Like
“How could you stomach pardoning a child rapist”
“Which one?”
Man, my mom thought I was joking when I told her about that exchange
Agreed, I didn’t mean to imply France was a world leader. It’s just coming from the UK where unions were broken decades ago, and where everyone has long accepted that jobs are privileges, then there is a genuine difference here - both in law and attitude - that jobs should give a decent standard of living and have some duty of care to employees, and that the government has a role in regulating all of industry (at least to some extent) to ensure that.
It’s also under attack here, and widely ignored or skirted round in lower paid employment (which, obv, is disproportionately non-white and / or non-French) - so I do honestly wonder if I’m just a dupe in admiring it to some extent.
I had to go to one of WaPo’s sources to figure it all out but the fundraiser family guy was helped out more by a random Republican megadonor:
Bevin went on to defend his pardon of convicted killer Patrick Baker.
Baker was sentenced to 19 years in prison, convicted of reckless homicide, robbery and impersonating a peace officer when he and two accomplices invaded the Knox County home of Donald Mills.
The Courier Journal was the first to report that Baker’s brother and sister-in-law hosted a political fundraiser for Bevin at their Corbin home on July 26, 2018, where they raised $21,500 to retire debt from the governor’s 2015 campaign.
Baker’s case also got the attention of GOP mega-donor Terry Forcht.
The founder of Corbin-based Forcht Bank has given more than $1 million to Republican candidates, committees and super PACs over the past decade, state and federal campaign records show.
Letters show Forcht twice recommended Baker for a pardon and Bevin obliged, over the advice of former state Rep. Denny Butler, an investigator looking into Baker’s case on Bevin’s behalf, The Courier Journal previously reported.
In Thursday’s radio interview, Bevin acknowledged that Forcht’s opinions carry more weight because of the money he contributes, but said Forcht gives to non-political causes, as well, and shouldn’t be vilified for having an opinion in favor of Baker.
1 Like
This is definitely one of those stories I need to stop following as it makes me sad.
A statement from the lawyer for Anne Sacoolas came after the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was bringing charges over Dunn’s death in August. Amy Jeffress said the potential 14-year sentence was “not proportionate” for what was “a terrible but unintentional accident”.
Jeffress said they had been talking to the UK authorities about how Sacoolas could “assist with preventing accidents like this from happening in the future, as well as her desire to honour Harry’s memory … But Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident.”
Just add extra spice, when the base her partner worked at was created the US government agreed with the UK to waive immunity automatically for all employees, it’s just that the agreement didn’t mention their families.
1 Like
Definitely enjoying the “well actually…” lawbros re: Bevin
Quite the song for the UKer’s for 2019…As it will be our only fast food after brex sorry that words now banned. Forgive me😔
