Archive link: https://archive.is/Qsioy
Re: Fascism, Mussolini’s full explanation/description is a very good read. Here’s a version that a search turned up:
https://sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/The-Doctrine-of-Fascism.pdf .
Another: http://media.wix.com/ugd/927b40_c1ee26114a4d480cb048f5f96a4cc68f.pdf (Soames).
Got to hand it to the guy, he was well-educated and could write, which is more than you can say for his modern-day imitators, especially the loud, orange one.
Sorry, just ate a grape, I can’t think right now.
Yeah, and I’ve gotta wonder if the women this pathetic loser was preying on got any say on the deal and on the faux-punishment that was handed out? If I was a victim and the AG came to me and said “hey we can skip the trial, the dirtbag will get a slap on the wrist, but he’ll never work as a cop around here again, whatddya say?” I imagine I’d say “duck no, I want to see this bastard do time and pay six-figure restitution, preferably to us victims”.
The AG’s press release is an infuriating read.
[WA attorney general]Ferguson filed a lawsuit in February 2022, accusing Providence of billing and aggressively collecting money from low-income Washingtonians without determining if they qualified for financial assistance.
Ferguson’s Consumer Protection investigation started in 2020, following complaints about collection practices at Swedish. It revealed Providence engaged in numerous practices between 2018 and 2022 that prevented patients from accessing financial assistance. Providence trained employees on aggressive and deceptive collection tactics. Their script included:
The lawsuit asserted that Providence knew many of its patients were likely eligible for financial assistance and not only failed to inform them, but also kept collecting payments from them. In fact, Providence sent thousands of patients it identified as “presumptively” qualified for financial assistance to debt collectors. Internal emails revealed Providence did this because it knew those patients were more likely to pay their bills if collection attempts continued.
Moreover, starting in 2019, Providence sent thousands of Medicaid patients to debt collectors. Medicaid enrollees are among the lowest income Washingtonians, and are deemed eligible for financial assistance under Providence’s own policies. Providence staff caught the issue early and raised concerns to leadership. In fact, according to internal records, one employee warned: “We are sending the poor to bad debt and not treating them the same as other patients.” Providence did not correct the problem for more than two years.
selection bias
He’s not doing a formal study that requires random sampling. This is his blog - opinions & thoughts.
He makes the claim that nothing is done about right-wing protesters
I’ve read the article and I don’t see him making this claim anywhere. The closest I can see to it is one of his opening sentences where he writes “actual terrorists (especially on the far right, and especially in the US) often remain unmolested by the law”.
One of his topics here is the disproportionate punishments handed out to left-wing protesters (esp. peaceful ones). He talks about what he calls “extrajudicial punishments” that don’t even require convictions to cause massive harm to the protester. The UK gov’t seems to be pioneering these techniques to dissuade and crush public left-wing protest, but if the techniques are successful it’s just a matter of time before they’re employed here in the US too.
Ragebait? I guess, but given that the topics are legitimately rage-inducing, that’s to be expected. While right-wing domestic terrorists in the US continue to ramp-up their threats, and acts, of violence against those they dislike (including insufficiently MAGA-loving elected officials and judges ), with very few of them being caught and punished (never mind having their terrorist networks broken-up), following the UK recipe, we have (source):
Protests against the proposed training center — dubbed “Cop City” by opponents — have been going on for more than two years. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr obtained a sweeping indictment in August, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to target the protesters and characterizing them as ”militant anarchists.”
Demonstrators and civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have condemned the indictment and accused Carr, a Republican, of levying heavy-handed charges to try to silence a movement that has galvanized environmentalists and anti-police protesters across the country.
Mr. Putin, meet Lieutenant Columbo, from the LAPD. He’d like to have a few words with you Sir. Just a few questions about this tragic accident involving an acquaintance of yours, a Mr. Prigozhin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyfywQ98dIU
You’re in the running for a BoneAppleTea Prize, so that’s something. There’s also the Nobel Prize but that’s overrated IMO. The real glory is with the Ig Nobel, you should consider submitting your work there.
Rouge: noun, A red or pink cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips.
You want that stuff all over the net? And just who is going to clean it all up when you’re done? The bot surely won’t - it’ll just claim that it hasn’t been trained on cleaning.
I think the controversial bit was that when queried about various aspects of admittance to “heaven”, the Google AI assumed that the question had to do with, specifically, the Christian idea of “heaven”, going so far as to make reference to some “Jesus” entity. Christianity doesn’t own the concept of heaven or an afterlife, but, apparently, the AI has been trained such that it responds to such questions from a seemingly Christian perspective. That was my take on it - the discussion is in the article, best have a look at it yourself.
I donated a truck to these MFs about five years ago. Nice to know now how they waste donation $ on frivolous homophobic legal BS. Needless to say they’ll never see another penny from me.