What's in the News? 2.0

[Kurogane]

https://www.cbs58.com/news/republicans-vote-to-allow-18-year-olds-to-carry-concealed-weapons-on-school-property

What could possibly go wrong....

It's fine. Everything's fine. 18 year olds have the maturity and control of their emotions to only use lethal force when absolutely necessary.  It's fine, folks. Nothing to see here.

Wait for it...

[Missy]

https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2022/01/21/what-we-know-ascension-thedacare-court-battle-over-employees/6607417001/

TL;DR: An injunction is preventing at-will employed healthcare workers from leaving their old jobs at ThedaCare and starting their new ones at Ascension.

So the workers can't be compelled to work for ThedaCare (the workers opted to stay home rather than go to work, I think), but they are forbidden to start their new jobs right now. So now the seven healthcare professionals aren't working anywhere while this injuction is up.

I am in shock the judge did this; this feels wildly wrong and unethical as hell. The employees got better offers, ThedaCare declined to match those offers, and now ThedaCare wants to force them to continue working for them until "replacements" are found. If ThedaCare wanted to keep them, they should have matched the offers made by Ascension. When the fuck would that even be, given how many healthcare workers are leaving the field? And given this, I can't imagine workers are going to line up at the door to work for a company that does this to employees. :/

Healthcare workers deserve better than this.

So basically Capitalist laziness and greed in action, also known by it's shorter name: "Capitalism"

[Missy]

https://www.cbs58.com/news/republicans-vote-to-allow-18-year-olds-to-carry-concealed-weapons-on-school-property

What could possibly go wrong....

Absolutely nothing, we don't need more accountability, we need more concealed carry vigilante's

[Shekinah]

https://www.cbs58.com/news/republicans-vote-to-allow-18-year-olds-to-carry-concealed-weapons-on-school-property

What could possibly go wrong....

Wait, so they are deemed to be not old and wise enough to handle alcohol officially until they are 21. But yeah let's allow them to carry guns, why not, 18 year olds are so stable emotionally, what could ever happen.

[Shekinah]

Also from that article=

With gun violence on the rise in Wisconsin and across the nation, Republicans believe more residents should be able to carry a gun legally to protect themselves.

So more gun violence and the solution to it is: we need more weapons out there...

[ShadowFox89]

Wait, so they are deemed to be not old and wise enough to handle alcohol officially until they are 21. But yeah let's allow them to carry guns, why not, 18 year olds are so stable emotionally, what could ever happen.

You can join the military when you're 17 and conservatives love giving little kids guns. It's a religion of violence and insecurity.

[Valerian]

This is why I'm very glad Wisconsin has a Democratic governor (Tony Evers) with a brain in his head.  He's already getting his veto pen ready.

[Lilias]

Athens buried under snow

(Despite the tourist stereotype that it never rains, never mind snowing, in Athens, both do happen. This kind of snow, though, is a once in a decade occasion, or was, before the climate was irrevocably buggered.)

[Mechelle]

Another day and there are even more crises for Boris Johnson.

Yesterday, we had the story of Nusrat Ghani, a former Conservative minister, who was sacked, she says, after being told by a party whip that she was too Muslim. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, has said that this was him, but he did not say it! She complained to Boris Johnson at the time, who was not interested, but now it has gone public, he will organise an inquiry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60108377

There is another inquiry going into Downing Street's lockdown breaking parties, which is headed by Sue Gray, an senior and well-regarded civil servant who will, however, present her findings to her boss, er, Boris Johnson. She was taking Dominic Cummings' evidence today, and now there is a tale of a birthday party being organised for Boris Johnson in June 2020. There seems to be an attempt to portray this as a work event, but his interior designer, who is not a member of staff, was present. Other people were fined for similar parties at the time.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-24/boris-johnson-had-birthday-bash-during-lockdown-itv-news-understands

The cunulative effect of all these events makes me think that his time in power is now coming to its end,

[Missy]

You can't tell me the Republicans plans to resolve the gun violence pandemic isn't working . . . you can't!

[Missy]

Newt Gingrich openly displays himself as a Nazi

[Missy]

I honestly think it really displays the failure of the duopolic system, there's a significant spectrum of political views within the fabric of American society and that's not represented by the base and simplistic ivory towerisms of the American political landscape. The Republicans are little more than a thin veneer for a very crude form of governance tying up an entire branch of American ideologies to invariable binding with something none of those ideologies really are. Political Duopoly is little better than the single party state, just granting the veneer of choice and freedom, ultimately serving only to press forward the agenda's of the few, often in stellarly fascist form.

[Vekseid]

For a week if the opposing counsels can work something out. Otherwise until the case is decided. Simple obstinance will reward ThedaCare if their goal is punishing employees.

While the case isn't decided, the injunction was lifted this morning.

As the were supposed to start today, it seems they only missed a day of work.

ETA They are going to be fully compensated for their lost time.

[Missy]

Americas youth likely to tip the scales in the coming election

[Beorning]

In Poland, the PiS government cannot do anything right:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2022/01/23/the-polish-deal-how-a-landmark-tax-reform-has-turned-into-a-pr-disaster-for-the-government/

In short: until recently, Poland already had one of most complicated tax systems in Europe. This year, PiS introduced a major tax reform (the biggest one in decades) which... complicated the system even more. The reform was introduced so hastily that nobody (tax advisors, business owner, even the tax authority themselves...) had the time to educate themselves on it. Also, the reform's development was so rushed that, currently, all kinds of incongruities and unforeseen side effects are cropping up...

The whole thing is such a mess that the government is releasing a patch after a patch to the system. Also, last week (brace yourselves...) they annouced that most tax payers will be offered a choice to use the new system or *the old one*. Depending on which one would be more beneficial. Oh, and that means that the employers will now be oblicated to calculate the monthly wages for the employees *two times* to cover the rules of both tax systems...

This would be hilarious, if it wasn't about people's earnings and businesses...

[gaggedLouise]

Another day and there are even more crises for Boris Johnson.

Yesterday, we had the story of Nusrat Ghani, a former Conservative minister, who was sacked, she says, after being told by a party whip that she was too Muslim. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, has said that this was him, but he did not say it! She complained to Boris Johnson at the time, who was not interested, but now it has gone public, he will organise an inquiry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60108377

There is another inquiry going into Downing Street's lockdown breaking parties, which is headed by Sue Gray, an senior and well-regarded civil servant who will, however, present her findings to her boss, er, Boris Johnson. She was taking Dominic Cummings' evidence today, and now there is a tale of a birthday party being organised for Boris Johnson in June 2020. There seems to be an attempt to portray this as a work event, but his interior designer, who is not a member of staff, was present. Other people were fined for similar parties at the time.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-01-24/boris-johnson-had-birthday-bash-during-lockdown-itv-news-understands

The cunulative effect of all these events makes me think that his time in power is now coming to its end,

I laughed so hard when I heard that Boris was now being investigated by Scotland Yard for illegal partying...

He had it coming for sure, and there's even a kind of poetic justice to this. Boris' bumbling, chummy, heigh-ho public persona has been a huge factor in his career - it made him appear accessible and unstuffy, even as he was evading or dodging questions from the mieda. And it made it difficult to pose questions to him about his memes and slogans without appearing  like a "boring, uptight old fart". Now his chummy sense of partying risks becoming his undoing, and it's really hurting his credibility even with his fans. :)

[Missy]

Word is Fascism is alive and well

[Missy]

Policy favored by redhats is also dangerous to police, who redhats also "favour"

[ShadowFox89]

I love how crime is always on the rise..... except statistics show they aren't.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/

From 1998 to 2020 crime fell from 458 per 100k pop to 398. It hit its low in 2019 and started rising again with the qanon movement.

[Missy]

Opinion on the future of the pandemic and it's inevitable 'end'

[Beorning]

So, uhm... does anyone know what the heck was this about?

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ezra-miller-ku-klux-klan-video-1235166041/

Was this particular chapter of KKK known for doing something awful lately (aside from being KKK and all)?

[Oniya]

Based on half-a-dozen articles that I just paged through, doing a search on that particular chapter's name, it appears that no one is sure a) if this particular chapter even exists (there are supposedly three 'chronically fragmented' chapters in North Carolina) and b) why Ezra Miller has made this video.  Every hit I got was regarding this particular incident.

The closest thing I found - and this is tenuous at best - is that Ezra claims biological Jewish descent.  They do admit that this claim is without having done a DNA test, and is based on their family history.

[Missy]

Winter Olympics will not be the next step in Xi's new reach for power

[RedRose]

I never thought I'd see FEWER girls learning maths in my own country.

https://www.parents.fr/actualites/enfant/scolarite-les-filles-font-de-moins-en-moins-de-maths-pourquoi-902491?fbclid=IwAR3NuIOE4cmo5nM9svl7ICim0fm3IchnONdCeQLYcjDBOvY5k1-CpAxsRWM

The 2019 high school reform is not without repercussions on the teaching of mathematics. This reform took mathematics out of compulsory education, and reorganized the baccalaureate into “specialties”, to choose from, from the first. Result: while before 2019, 90% of students did math in the final year, only 59% choose this specialty. And it is especially the girls who neglect this option.

Very marked inequalities between girls and boys
This disaffection for mathematics affects girls more than boys. In a joint press release, learned societies and associations of mathematics teachers warn: "Only 25% of girls in 2021 have a mathematics education of more than six hours per week compared to 45% before the reform", deploring "the worsening of inequalities girls-boys in mathematics in high school”. In question according to the head of the association “Woman and Maths”, Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau: “In the collective imagination, maths is a masculine discipline. The choice to abandon math from the first is therefore regrettable, according to Sébastien Planchenault, president of the Association of Mathematics Teachers in Public Education, who explains: "By abandoning math at the end of second, we close the access to scientific studies and their numerous and remunerative outlets".

SIGH. I remember hiding in the toilet at uni, because I was so hated by the boy only comp class. Then it went better. Then, this.

[Missy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf-G6TUv3ck