Delaware Liberal

DL Open Thread: Thursday, November 17, 2022

Musk Demands Pledge Of Love From Twitter Workers.  By end of day today:

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees Wednesday morning: Commit to a new “hardcore” Twitter or leave the company with severance pay.

Twitter is shifting to an engineer-driven operation — one that “will need to be extremely hardcore” going forward, according to the midnight email, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Employees were asked to click an icon and respond by Thursday if they wanted to stay.

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity,” he said. “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

By mid-Wednesday, members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety team — who are responsible for keeping hate speech and misinformation off the site — were discussing a mass resignation, according to three current employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

I could have posted ‘Musk-Rat Love’, but I think I’ve subjected you to that one before.

So:

Musk Sued Over Firings At SpaceX.  One thing Musk is not: A free-speech absolutist.

“I Spent $100 Million Of My Own Money, And All I Got Was This Lousy Runner-Up Trophy.”  Karen Bass defeats zillionaire Rick Caruso to become LA’s new mayor.

Rethugs Win House–Courtesy Of Gerrymandering.   This is a solid primer as to how it happened:

In a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2019, every GOP-appointed justice voted over the opposition of every Democratic appointee to prohibit federal courts from curtailing partisan gerrymandering. Chief Justice John Roberts disingenuously argued that judicial intervention wasn’t needed partly because Congress itself could end gerrymandering, at least federally. But following the 2020 elections, every Republican in Congress voted to block a bill supported by every Democrat to ban congressional gerrymandering nationwide, which failed when Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin refused to also curtail the GOP’s filibuster to pass the measure.

After Republicans blocked Democrats from ending gerrymandering nationally, Democrats largely refused to disarm unilaterally and gerrymandered where they could, just as the GOP did. Republicans, however, had ma​​​​​​ny more opportunities, in large part because state courts struck down a map passed by New York Democrats and replaced it with a nonpartisan map.

By contrast, the Supreme Court and judges in Florida allowed GOP gerrymanders to remain in place for 2022 in four states even though lower courts found that they discriminated against Black voters as litigation continues. Had Republicans been required to redraw these maps to remedy their discrimination, Black Democrats would have been all but assured of winning four more seats, possibly enough to cost the GOP its majority on their own. And in Ohio, Republicans were able to keep using their map for 2022 even though the state Supreme Court ruled it was an illegal partisan gerrymander, potentially costing Democrats another two seats.

Dog Bites Man: Rethugs To End Jan. 6 Committee.  May investigate it.  Along, of course, with Hunter Biden.  I don’t think Americans want this shit.

Escaping Scientology.  Apparently it’s more difficult than avoiding a Marriott sales pitch:

Mike Rinder was so entrenched in the “aristocracy of Scientology” that Tom Cruise gave him birthday presents – a fancy watch and a set of Bose headphones. He earned promotion after promotion within the Sea Organization, a sort of executive order, was flown around the world and entrusted with taking Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley on a private tour of the Los Angeles museum devoted to Scientology’s founder, L Ron Hubbard. But after more than 45 years in the notoriously secretive church – which he now regards as “a mind prison” – he broke out.

Before Scientology took up all his time and energy, Rinder enjoyed reading Wilbur Smith novels, and his own book starts like an adventure story. In 2007, he walked out of the church’s office in central London and ducked into a doorway. He was 52. He carried £200 in cash, a credit card and his passport. As a church executive he had pursued people who tried to leave, so he knew what to expect. “I needed to get out of sight, remove the batteries from my phones, use only cash and stay on the move,” he says.

When he was certain that he wasn’t being followed, he caught the tube to the National Portrait Gallery, where he sat on the grass outside and let his heart rate slow to its regular beat. “I went OK, now what? What am I going to do? For the first time that I could remember, I wasn’t answerable to anyone.”

Highly-recommended.

Memo To Long-Term Care And Memory Task Force: First, demand that the law be enforced.  Delaware already has on the books one of the best nursing home reform packages in the country.  The problem is that a series of supposed regulators with undue sympathy to the nursing home operators have kept the laws from being enforced.  You can begin by requiring that the following provision be enforced: Minimum staffing by shift, including the overnight shift. 

That provision was specifically included because patients with dementia do not have the same sleep cycles as long-term care patients without dementia.  It has never been enforced, which is shameful.

I’m sure there are likely some adjustments that need to be made to the legislation, however, enforcing the laws that are already on the books would be a significant improvement.  Memo to John Carney: Appoint a true regulator to oversee nursing facilities, not lobbyists for the industry as you, and other governors, have done previously.

What do you want to talk about?

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