Yeah, I’m a volunteer firefighter in Catalonia, we only really do maintenance work or fill up gopher roles and damping down in the event of a serious fire … proper firefighting is in no way fun, people need to be paid for it (and you can’t just drag anyone in off the street to do it, lots of my fellow volunteers can’t hold a hose for long and would panic in an emergency … that’s not a criticism, it’s just how people are)
Oh of course. Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m talking about, it seems like such a difficult and dynamic job it seems absurd for any governing body to essentially depend on volunteers to perform any essential part of that job.
Thank you very much for doing way more than your part, and especially at this point where every year there’s more wildfires than there ever have been before in larger wildfires than there ever have been, governments better take the hint and start paying people.
Yeah, the firefighters here are well supplied, it’s amazing that places like Canada and Australia don’t have this sorted out already … and don’t get me started on the lack of upkeep of electricity infrastructure causing fires in the US!
Oz has long relied on the Rural Fire Service, which is almost completely volunteer. Not saying that’s the way it should be, only that there is precedent.
The sad thing is that there is no political incentive to have a paid rural fire fighting service - there’s not enough votes out there to buy. We’ll face more and worse summers of fires but it’s not until a major town is threatened that anything will actually change.
There is zero downside for Democrats to insist Menendez to go, or force him to resign. If he refuses, defeat him in the primary. He should not be on the ballot in Nov 2024.
Uh… there’s the Senate majority getting further thinned. Pretty sure this would result in a two party tie if he resigned at least until he could be replaced … and that’s assuming he’s replaced with a Democrat.
That in turn means all kinds of potentially compromised confirmations.
It’s disappointing that to avoid giving republicans more power, democrats might have to tolerate having someone corrupt stay in office. We know that the Rs would never get rid of someone who might be replaced by a democrat as power is their #1 objective. Clarence Thomas, for instance.
Dems would still maintain their majority. To me it is worth it to take out the trash. But if you want to get realpolitik then I think it’s still worthwhile to not tolerate a prominent corrupt politician in your ranks. That could have electoral consequences for the party as a whole.
Sure, ideally they'd boot him out. Someone taking overt bribes doesn't belong in congress (the dumb thing is, there are so many ways to take non-overt bribes, which 95% of them do - have a family member hired by a lobbyist or foundation, for instance). It's just unfortunate that Republicans get an advantage since they'd never boot one of their own who was found guilty of corruption. They'd just ignore it or deny it, and their voters would either deny it or just not care also.
Alright, fuckers, we get it, you have a hard-on for ads. Fuck’s sake.
Here’s your TL;DR courtesy of ChatGPT:
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a tentative agreement with studios and streamers after a historic 146-day writers strike. The deal, subject to ratification by WGA members, covers a provisional three-year agreement. Details of the agreement affecting around 11,500 WGA members will be disclosed soon. The strike may end pending approval from WGA’s leadership. This development follows several days of negotiations and represents a significant milestone for the industry, which has been affected by both WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. However, the strike could continue if the agreement is not ratified by WGA leadership or its members.
And here’s the full article if you… prefer…:
Writers Guild Reaches Tentative Agreement With Studios and Streamers
In a significant development that could bring an end to a historic writers strike, the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced a provisional deal on Sunday.
After several long consecutive days of negotiations, the Writers Guild of America and the labor group representing studios and streamers have reached a tentative deal on a new contract in a major development that could precipitate the end of a historic, 146-day writers strike. The Writers Guild of America emailed strike captains the news on Sunday night, and shortly after, its negotiating committee informed all members. “We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language,” the latter message stated. “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers confirmed the news in a joint statement with the WGA about the deal on Sunday.
The parties came to terms on a provisional three-year agreement — which will need to be ratified by WGA members to take effect — on Sunday after studios responded to last-minute union asks that day. Specifics of the deal affecting around 11,500 WGA members weren’t available as of press time, though they will emerge in the next few days as the union seeks to sell its members on the pact.
In its message to members, the union’s negotiating committee asked for patience on disclosing the fine print of the deal. “What remains now is for our staff to make sure everything we have agreed to is codified in final contract language. And though we are eager to share the details of what has been achieved with you, we cannot do that until the last ‘i’ is dotted,” the email stated. The deal will first go to the union’s negotiating committee for a vote, then to the WGA West’s board and the WGA East’s council for approval; both referendums are tentatively scheduled for Tuesday. If rubber-stamped by those leaders, board and council will also vote on whether to end the strike “at a certain date and time (to be determined) pending ratification,” the negotiating committee said. Once these leadership votes have taken place, members will receive a summary of the agreement and a memorandum of agreement (a more detailed and lawyerly accounting of the provisional contract) prior to their own ratification vote. In the meantime, the WGA has suspended picketing while reminding members that “no one is to return to work” until the union gives the green light.
During the final weekend of negotiations, lawyers huddled before the studios presented their alleged “best and final” offer on Saturday night. Later that same night, the AMPTP and the WGA issued a joint statement that they would be meeting again on Sunday. And indeed, despite the supposed finality of the studios’ previous proposal, union negotiators returned to their bargaining counterparts on Sunday afternoon with some additional asks before the sides ultimately wrapped up the negotiations.
Hollywood applauded the news on social media. And hundreds of filmmakers attending the Burbank International Film Festival’s awards gala on Sunday broke into cheers when the deal was announced from the stage. The mood among writers on Friday’s packed picket lines was one of cautious optimism as union members anticipated the end of the historic work stoppage might come soon. “The fact that they’ve been talking for three days straight is terrific,” showrunner Marc Guggenheim (Legends of Tomorrow) told The Hollywood Reporter at Disney. Studio-side sources familiar with the progress in the room also projected positivity over the past several days as management made moves on issues including AI, TV staffing and residual compensation tied to streaming show performance. That buoyant mood dipped on Thursday night when studio sources claimed the WGA came back late in the night with new asks on items that management believed to be already settled — but it returned on Friday as the sides nailed down compromises.
The momentum in talks over the course of the past week was a welcome change in pace from the monthlong standstill in negotiations that occurred after a meeting between WGA leaders and several CEOs plus AMPTP president Carol Lombardini in late August, which ended in mutual recriminations. The AMPTP released its Aug. 11 offer publicly, and the WGA slammed the meetup, saying its leaders were subjected to a “lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.” The pause in talks was lifted on Sept. 14, when the AMPTP announced that the WGA had reached out to resume negotiations and both sides were working on scheduling in the following week.
On day 146 of the ongoing WGA strike, the work stoppage was closing in on being the longest in the union’s history. The current record was set in 1988, when the WGA struck Hollywood companies for 154 days. Though still tentative in nature, the agreement is a momentous development for an industry that has been hobbled by the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the first time both have occurred at once in over 60 years. The WGA strike, which began May 2, had an immediate impact: According to FilmLA, the quarter that started in April and ended in June saw a total of 6,566 shoot days, a roughly 29 percent decline from the same period last year. A wide array of major projects were halted in their tracks and/or postponed, including Netflix’s Stranger Things, Apple TV+’s Loot, and Marvel’s Blade 2 and Thunderbolts. When SAG-AFTRA joined the stoppage, a number of additional projects including Venom 3, Gladiator 2 and Deadpool 3 followed.
A tentative agreement does not eradicate the potential for the strike to continue, as WGA leadership could still vote against lifting the union’s restraining order. And in terms of the contract, members could still reject the deal in an upcoming ratification vote. The stakes and expectations are high, given how long the work stoppage has gone on so far. However, in the coming days the WGA leadership will undoubtedly work hard to persuade their members of the deal’s merits. Negotiations for the agreement began on March 20 and broke off the night of May 1, resulting in a strike the next day. The two parties reunited on Aug. 11 but reached a standstill in late August, then resumed on Sept. 20 and concluded their negotiations on Sept. 24. The writers had been advocating for greater compensation in the streaming era through higher wage floors, regulation of mini-rooms and residuals tied to the performance of their shows. Meanwhile, studios and streamers — who have been feeling pressure to cut costs ever since Wall Street turned on unprofitable streaming operations in 2022 and amid an uncertain economic climate in general — were seeking to rein in spending on labor. It remains to be seen how both sides managed to reach a compromise that will satisfy their constituents. The writers were led in their negotiations by WGA West assistant executive director Ellen Stutzman, who stepped up to the plate after the western branch of the union’s executive director, David Young, went on medical leave prior to the start of talks. Lombardini, the AMPTP’s chief negotiator since 2009, led the talks for producers.
Now, it’s up to the WGA’s members to determine whether the deal resolves the workplace issues that their peers have been raising for months. All eyes are on the union’s ratification vote for the deal, a date for which has not yet been announced.
I also don’t think human should pet animals and keep them in there homes, history has told us how many virus and disease human had caught due to domestication of animal, dogs are loyal but they are always ready to attack strangers who come near their owner/family. Cats are major problem for nature they are unbalancing the biodiversity, they are hunter/predators after all!, even Australia is going to ban pet cats from going outdoor source, from npr. Due to domestication of cattle we got cow pox and now cow are exploited for their milk and meat by big cooperation which is not good at all and that why i became vegan, covid 19 also came from animal. Sheep are exploited for their wool they are kept in thousand in small places. Watch this video. Birds are kept trapped in a cage for decorating owns home, they should be kept free, they like to fly.
So they aren’t giving up on trying to find an eco-friendly production method, they just found one way that doesn’t work out. It is nice to hear that they’re trying though.
Why are we not running as fake conservatives in every race? Conservative voters are profoundly unintelligent and are bound to occassionally vote for us.
We could make running as a republicant a trendy hobby. We could “take the challenge” to see who can can fuck the GOP the hardest.
There’s a standard playbook. Just say the same things as Don or Ron. Talk about woke pineapple slices or something and you’re in. Just commit. Like Chris Rock said, Republicans don’t let “sense” fuck up their argument.
I’ve thought about doing it. For a while, I was in an area so ‘red’ that getting even 10% D votes was horrifying to the population. Trust me, you cannot keep up with the outrage porn and virtue-signaling required. Any critical thought will have you being looked at like an alien that just popped out of the moon.
Plus, remember that the parties are private organizations. The people at ‘the top’ of those organizations, in the local and the state and the federal sense, are the people who decide who will be the next candidate. Unless you have Trump’s money, ‘charisma,’ and luck (read, being able to get free press from media because they’re all, gasp, horrified by what you said), you can’t break into politics as a R candidate without already knowing / rubbing elbows with those people.
Consider this…pythons were introduced to the Everglades by idiots throwing their pets away. A few years ago a python ŵas found dead from trying to swallow the alligator it killed. Alligators are no longer the apex predator in the Everglades.
No big cats. The Florida panther is almost extinct and lives in grasslands not swamp. Besides, if I had to bet, I’d put money on the gator…or python now.
Anywhere there is water, and lorida has a lot of water, there is a potential for alligators. Central Florida has a big population of gators. Its only a matter of time.when their predator will come to meet them.
I just checked planned parenthood in my province (of Canada) and they typically offer services for medical (pill) abortion up to 11 weeks GA (gestation age) and surgical abortion up to 25 weeks GA.
Hmm…I wonder why it happened so late? I’m sure it couldn’t be that they were completely restricted from being able to access those services earlier in the pregnancy when it would have been better, easier, and safer. I’m sure they just overlooked those conveniently available, necessary medical abortion services that are so easy to find in Oklahoma.
You get downvoted hard, but I’m not sure why. I think we all agree that putting someone into prison for an abortion is controversial at best. However, 20 weeks into pregnancy… that’s only 2 weeks before it’s considered to have a chance of survival at a premature birth.
At one point does it become murder? What if you kill your child right after a premature birth? I’m sure we all agree that’s bad. So it’s okay to kill the child if it’s inside the womb, but not once it gets out? You have to put a limit somewhere, and you have to enforce that limit or you might as well not set it.
Again, I’m not against abortions, but 20 weeks… man… that’s rough.
“At the time, Nebraska law banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Celeste Burgess’s pregnancy was well past that point, according to court records.”
Not just 20 weeks, but “well past” the bar that was 20 weeks. However you look at it, this was a pretty grim situation.
Twenty weeks is a whole half of a month to a full month before it considered to have a CHANCE of survival, and a premature birth at 5 months, is only survivable with extraordinary medical interventions and is likely to result in Life long complications.
So it’s okay to kill the child if it’s inside the womb, but not once it gets out?
You nailed it. It’s not a child when it’s inside the woman, so it’s not murder. Women get to decide what they do with their own body. I don’t know why that’s so goddamn difficult.
It’s the only morally justified position. There’s no arbitrary point in time when a person should lose control of their body and be forced to undergo a potentially life-risking event. It’s their body and you have no business telling them what they can do with it.
Who is pro-censorship? I haven't seen that at all on here. In fact, the moderation tools are so bad a lot of hate gets left up until it gets reported a ton. Always with the pathetic victim complex.
Give me your kidney. I need it to live so you have to.
No? I can’t force you to use your body to keep mine alive?
Then why do the same to women? Because we want to imagine some “responsibility” for “their actions”. And as soon as rape and coercion never happen we can have that conversation. Until then, let’s leave it to the ladies to decide what they do with their organs.
You say “would be alive tomorrow”, but that’s false. They do not, ever, abort something that is completely viable outside the womb. The process for aborting that late is basically induction, and when you do that, now you have a living baby that you can’t murder.
Read what the person who I replied to said. They said as long as the baby is in the womb, it’s ok to kill it. Hence, they believe it’s ok to kill a baby that would be born the next day. Unless I’m misunderstanding something.
Let’s ignore this case for a moment due to how problematic it is (no doctor consulted for her, done at 28 weeks, burning the stillborn, etc). 20 weeks is not rough. The chance of survival at 22 weeks is about 15% and most of those will have a hard road ahead if they even make it past the first year.
At what point it is okay for the abortion should be figured out between the woman and her doctor, not you or me. Your other questions are not worth responding to since that answer takes care of all of them.
Considering the article states that she didn’t have enough money to have a funeral for the fetus, I don’t think she had the means to raise a child. It’s impossible to “get around to” doing something that isn’t offered easily and affordably. I don’t think giving her child abortion pills when she was over 20 weeks pregnant was her first choice, I think it was a move of desperation.
From the article: “her family could not have afforded a funeral for fetal remains, according to Courthouse News. (In a financial affidavit obtained by Vice, Jessica Burgess said she had $400 to her name.)”
I think some states have laws that if you have an abortion you have to have a funeral as a way to shame the mother for having the abortion. www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/…/482688/
You are ignoring a fuck ton about that 15 weeks. The measurement of weeks is different in those countries. I the US we count from the last period which is different than most other countries which is closer to 17 weeks here in the US. It is also much easier to get an abortion on those countries since you can just go to damn near any hospital and have it done for no charge. It’s also not like that 15 weeks is a hard line in most of those countries either. It is very easy to get exceptions.
There is no comparison and just stating the difference in weeks is horribly ignorant.
I generally feel quite negative about this news. I’ve had two dream synths for the last decade; Access Virus ti2, and Moog Voyager. Fortunate enough to own the former, never been well off enough to afford the latter (£2500 - £4500 second hand, depending on version).
In tough economic times, the Moog business model was bound to struggle. Only wealthy or very-successful musicians could afford the upper-tier models, and the ‘entry level’ models were quite limited compared to cheaper offerings. But what always made a Moog special was… the sound!
Every synth has its own distinct character / sound. There’s just something very ‘fat’ and ‘rich’ (ironically) about the sound of a Moog synth, especially in the low end, which is where cheaper synths don’t compare so well. Switching production to cheap components is almost certainly going to mean that ‘special Moog sound’ will no longer be created, and only available via second hand market.
I’m still waiting for the opportunity to strike where I can get a Grandmother. Especially in light of the buyout. Get the good stuff while it’s possible to. Cherish it and build a good relationship with a repair shop.
For sure, the OG models are only going to appreciate in value from now on. Even before this news there were some pieces I just couldn’t seem to find at a reasonable price (really wanted a pair of MF Drive but like everything Moog they’re insanely expensive, and no opportunity to try before buy so a pricey experiment)
IATSE’s contract is up next year and unless the AMPTP is willing to kowtow to them too, they’re going to be in the same place they are this year, except worse, because even game shows, soap operas and the like won’t be on the air. IATSE basically represents everyone who works behind the scenes.
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