Interesting News, Articles & Stuff
- Thread starter Summer
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florduh
Well-Known Member
A while ago, I posted a few articles about Steven Donziger, the lawyer who won a massive settlement against Chevron for poisoning thousands of people in Ecuador. Chevron launched a horrific counterattack against Steven. They were able to get him locked up for the past 993 days, both house arrest and actual prison. All for the "crime" of trying to hold one of these monstrous oil companies responsible for their actions. This article discusses the entire saga:
www.esquire.com
Posting about it today, because after damn near 1,000 days of confinement, Steven is finally about to be released!
'I've Been Targeted With Probably the Most Vicious Corporate Counterattack in American History'
Steven Donziger has been under house arrest for over 580 days, awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge. It’s all, he says, because he beat a multinational energy corporation in court.
Posting about it today, because after damn near 1,000 days of confinement, Steven is finally about to be released!
Summer
Long Island, NY
^^^ https://iadllaw.org/2020/09/more-th...ing-of-human-rights-advocate-steven-donziger/
The last paragraph sums it up:
The last paragraph sums it up:
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, “The Chickenshit Club,” and Spiraling Corporate Crime
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 6, 2018 ~ Last year Simon & Schuster released The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to
wallstreetonparade.com
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ugotmale
Well-Known Member
Disney tells investors state can’t dissolve special district without paying debt
As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off. Disney, however, noticed and quietly sent a note to its investors to show that it was confident the Legislature’s attempt to dissolve the special taxing district operating the 39-square mile parcel it owned in two counties violated the “pledge” the state made when it enacted the district in 1967, and therefore was not legal. The result, Disney told its investors, is that it would continue to go about business as usual.The statement, posted on the website of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on April 21 by the Reedy Creek Improvement District, is the only public statement Disney has supplied since lawmakers unleashed their fury over the company’s vocal opposition to the “Parental Rights in Education” law, also known as the “don’t say gay” bill.
The statement, first reported by WESH 2, quotes the statute which says, in part, that the “State of Florida pledges...it will not limit or alter the rights of the District...until all such bonds together with interest thereon...are fully met and discharged.”
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florduh
Well-Known Member
Yeah, if I was an attorney, this whole Donziger saga would be absolutely terrifying to me. He was locked up for refusing to turn over his laptop, not to Federal Prosecutors (the Government refused to prosecute), but to a private Chevron law firm. The laptop contained tons of information on his Ecuadorian clients.
What do you think Chevron would do to people in a poor country they owe 9 billion dollars to if they knew exactly where to find them? Much cheaper to pay goons to harass them or worse. Poor people who might have cancer, or children with cancer or birth defects. Because Chevron poisoned them.
Steven tried to appeal to the court. Let's have a truly neutral third party look at the laptop and determine the relevant information. The Chevron Lackey Judge refused and locked him up for nearly 1,000 days. This is something that has never happened to an attorney in America before.
One definition of fascism is "the merger of state and corporate power". That's basically what happened here. And it's not just the judicial system. Every (or almost every) politician left Steven high and dry as he became the first corporate political prisoner in American history. Doubt he'll be the last.
This sets my mind at ease a little. But our legislature could just pass an amendment requiring Disney to pay down the billion before the transfer. I could be wrong, but even besides the debt, Orange and Osceola counties will almost certainly still need to raise taxes on homeowners to cover what Disney used to pay for.
Yeah that's the insane thing. This is almost the perfect political move for Desantis. Look like you're going after a corporation your base hates, while actually giving them a tax cut.
florduh
Well-Known Member
Dudes Rock!
Electrified Smart Skin Could Help Amputees ‘Feel’ Again
This ultra-stretchy, sensitive material might be the next best thing in bioengineering.
www.thedailybeast.com
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florduh
Well-Known Member
This might be the most cursed headline I've ever read.
www.theguardian.com
US egg factory roasts alive 5.3m chickens in avian flu cull – then fires almost every worker
US egg factory roasts alive 5.3m chickens in avian flu cull – then fires almost every worker
Laborers worked for a month disposing of birds killed in a gruesomely inhumane manner. Then they found they too were disposable
www.theguardian.com
vapviking
Old & In the Way
This might be the most cursed headline I've ever read.
US egg factory roasts alive 5.3m chickens in avian flu cull – then fires almost every worker
US egg factory roasts alive 5.3m chickens in avian flu cull – then fires almost every worker
Laborers worked for a month disposing of birds killed in a gruesomely inhumane manner. Then they found they too were disposable
A "factory" of sentient beings seems an unfortunate development in the first place.
Imo the chickens are the 'winners' here, liberated from caged insanity.
Cheebsy
Microbe minion
Battery breakthrough will make ‘millions of homes gas-free’
Pilot tests of ‘game-changing’ salt batteries are set to take place in homes in France, Poland and the Netherlands this year
One is pot, the other is not, but the effects are similar: Delta 8 vs. Delta 9
Delta 8 is the legal version of pot. 2 Wants To Know investigates how similar the two drugs are.
The revival of a forgotten American fruit
Across large swaths of North America, an ancient fruit is growing wild but largely forgotten. However, a community of foodies, farmers and scientists is eagerly trying to change that.
vapviking
Old & In the Way
Me either, but the guys on Moonshiners used some a couple of years ago, I knew they were on to something there.
He Was 5'7". After Surgery, He’ll Be 5'10".
Originally designed to correct mismatched length in legs, limb-lengthening surgery has become more popular for men looking to permanently increase their height.
florduh
Well-Known Member
The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, made a pretty stunning prediction.
Unlimited intelligence and unlimited energy...by 2030? Normally, I'd say grand predictions by tech CEO's are just bullshit designed to defraud investors. But my man here is literally talking about global capitalism being dealt a fatal blow this decade. Not exactly investor friendly talk.
This is both terrifying and exciting. If the advent of Artificial General Intelligence breaks our way, we could live in a Star Trek utopia. If it doesn't break our way... well. We either all die in the Skynet Wars, or we have an Elysium situation, where the rich and powerful live in a miracle world, while the rest of us are cordoned off into refugee camps.
I thought/hoped that inflection point was decades away. Not within the next few years.
Just to show OpenAI's bonafides, in the last few months they've stopped "Graphic Designer" from being a viable career path for kids.
techcrunch.com
Unlimited intelligence and unlimited energy...by 2030? Normally, I'd say grand predictions by tech CEO's are just bullshit designed to defraud investors. But my man here is literally talking about global capitalism being dealt a fatal blow this decade. Not exactly investor friendly talk.
This is both terrifying and exciting. If the advent of Artificial General Intelligence breaks our way, we could live in a Star Trek utopia. If it doesn't break our way... well. We either all die in the Skynet Wars, or we have an Elysium situation, where the rich and powerful live in a miracle world, while the rest of us are cordoned off into refugee camps.
I thought/hoped that inflection point was decades away. Not within the next few years.
Just to show OpenAI's bonafides, in the last few months they've stopped "Graphic Designer" from being a viable career path for kids.
New OpenAI tool draws anything, bigger and better than ever
Early last year OpenAI showed off a remarkable new AI model called DALL-E (a combination of WALL-E and Dali), capable of drawing nearly anything and in
techcrunch.com
cybrguy
Putin is a War Criminal
florduh
Well-Known Member
Jesus Fucking Christ is that bleak.
Glancing through that Twitter account though, they seem to have totally missed the point. Every one of those local news bots is employed by a bunch of Right Wingers called The Sinclair Group.
Sinclair Broadcast Group Faces Backlash Over Scripted Promos: ‘This Is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy’
Sinclair Broadcast Group is facing backlash on social media after a video showing local anchors reading the same script went viral.
variety.com
That conspiracy Twitter account posts shit tons of libertarian memes. So what's their fuckin problem with that video? The Magical Free Market has selected the Sinclair Family for success. Now they get to buy every local news station in the country. Now they get to convince scared suburbanites they're on the same side as the billionaire class every night. This is the exact world libertarians want to live in. So what's the problem here exactly?
Archaeologists Unearth Ancient ‘Underworld’ Art With 3D Tech
The art is more than 1,000 years old—and it’s jaw-dropping.
www.thedailybeast.com
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