Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalBoeing's problems were as bad as you thought
Boeing went under the magnifying glass at not one, but two Senate hearings on April 17 examining allegations of deep-seated safety issues plaguing the once-revered plane manufacturer. Witnesses, including two whistleblowers, painted a disturbing picture of a company that cut corners, ignored problems, and threatened employees who spoke up.
The hearings were convened just four months after a door plug blew out of a Boeing-made Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight in January, sparking further concerns about a precipitous downslide in Boeing’s reputation for safety and quality in recent years. The first April 17 hearing, held by the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned aviation experts who put together an FAA report published in February. It concluded that the company had not made enough strides in improving its safety culture since the deadly 2018 and 2019 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people.
“There exists a disconnect, for lack of a better word, between the words that are being said by Boeing management and what is being seen and experienced by employees across the company,” said witness Javier de Luis, an aerospace engineer and lecturer at MIT.
The FAA report conducted hundreds of interviews with Boeing employees across the country, and the authors found staff often didn’t know how to report concerns or who to report them to. “In one of the surveys that we saw, 95 percent of the people who responded to the survey did not know who the chief of safety was,” said Tracy Dillinger, manager for safety culture and human factors at NASA.
The second hearing put the spotlight on two whistleblowers — Boeing quality engineer Sam Salehpour and former Boeing engineer Ed Pierson — alongside aviation safety advocate and former FAA engineer Joe Jacobsen and Ohio State University aviation professor Shawn Pruchnicki. The whistleblowers slammed Boeing for allegedly knowing about defective parts and other serious assembly problems, and choosing to ignore or even conceal them. Such problems could slow down production and be expensive to fix — and internal and external critics say that Boeing’s priority was maximizing its profits.
https://www.vox.com/money/2024/4/17/24133324/boeing-senate-hearings-whistleblower-sam-salehpour-congress
Yeah, I thought so.
Domestic violence victims are often criminalized. A California bill wants to change that
In 1995, on the day before Kelly Savage-Rodriguez planned to flee her abusive husband, she ran some final errands while her children, ages three and one, napped. She hoped to take them on the early morning Amtrak from Porterville, California, to Los Angeles and stay with her brother, but when she returned, she said, she found that her husband had beaten and killed her three-year-old son, Justin. She called 911. The police arrested her along with her husband.
Savage-Rodriguez was jailed as she awaited trial, and said her lawyer did not have training in advocating for clients who suffered domestic violence. The judge used her history of abuse against her, she said, and said she was equally at fault for her son’s death under California’s “failure to protect” charges that can criminalize the non-abusive parent in a domestic violence case because she had not fled. She was later convicted and sentenced to life without parole, same as her abuser.
In the United States, survivors who are criminally charged often do not have their history of abuse taken into account during court to help judges and juries understand the circumstances, and they can face scrutiny or disbelief when they do share their stories.
“It didn’t matter what I did or didn’t do, it didn’t matter how much I was trying,” said Savage-Rodriguez, who was released in 2018 following a pardon and is now a coordinator for California Coalition for Women Prisoners. “None of it mattered. They wanted a conviction and that’s all that they were concerned with.”
Across the country, advocates are pushing for sentencing reforms that would provide a more trauma-informed approach to survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. In the past five years, lawmakers in New York, Louisiana, Georgia, Virginia and Wyoming have passed legislation to vacate the sentences of survivors.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/04/california-domestic-violence-legislation
This should be federal law, not state.
Canada police charge three with murder of Sikh leader Nijjar, probe India link
Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
Nijjar, 45, was shot dead in June outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population. A few months later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited evidence of Indian government involvement, prompting a diplomatic crisis with New Delhi.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police named the three men as Karanpreet Singh, 28, Kamalpreet Singh, 22 and Karan Brar, 22.
"We're investigating their ties, if any, to the Indian government," Mandeep Mooker, an RCMP superintendent, told a televised news conference.
The Indian mission in Ottawa did not respond to requests for comment.
Nijjar was a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India. The presence of Sikh separatist groups in Canada has long frustrated New Delhi, which had labeled Nijjar a "terrorist".
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-police-have-made-arrests-case-killing-sikh-leader-nijjar-says-cbc-2024-05-03/
You can argue that Nijjar was a separatist, but I will argue that Modi is a Hindu nationalist and would-be dictator.
Why are US campuses facing an orgy of state repression in the 'land of the free'?
Cas MuddeAcross the world people have been shocked by social media footage of heavily armed law enforcement officers arresting peacefully protesting students and professors at university campuses around the United States. The so-called “land of the free and home of the brave” looks neither free nor brave – except for the brave protesters who continue to stand up to state and university repression.
Although government repression of student protests is not unique to either the US or this particular period, the current orgy of state repression is very much an illustration of the current crisis of liberal democracy as it is squeezed by both illiberalism and neoliberalism.
But let’s take a step back. Ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, many university campuses have been on edge. As Israel’s retaliation in Gaza reached what the United Nations has called genocidal levels, student protests started to appear at some university campuses. Although there were troubling incidents of antisemitism – and Islamophobia – the protests, overall, are neither antisemitic nor violent. This notwithstanding, the far right has jumped on them to intensify its attack on universities.
The far right has portrayed universities as “hotbeds of terrorist sympathizers” and “wokeness” that threaten core “American values” like freedom of speech. In far-right propaganda, universities are the dystopian future of the whole country, where women, non-whites and LGBTQ+ people oppress “real Americans”, ie white, Christian conservatives. And their propaganda has paid off. When Donald Trump launched his campaign, the public image of universities in the US was already not in great shape.
In 2015, a modest majority of 57% of Americans had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. Since then, it has plummeted to just 36% in 2023. Although the biggest drop was among Republicans (-37%), confidence also decreased among independents (-16%) and Democrats (-9%). This is not that surprising, given how far-right talking points are feverishly amplified by “liberal” media like the Atlantic and the New York Times.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/30/us-campus-peace-protests-overreaction-gaza
Echoes of the Nixon years....and even before....
Cop Slammed Emory Professor's Head Into Concrete, Then Charged Her With Battery
An economics professor at Emory University whose needlessly violent arrest was captured by a news crew on Thursday at the school’s pro-Palestine protest, is now facing charges for battery against a police officer.
In a disturbing video captured by CNN, Professor Caroline Fohlin approached several police officers as they wrestled one protester to the ground, forcefully shoving their head into the concrete sidewalk. “Oh my God, what are you doing?” Fohlin asked, horrified.
Fohlin yelled at the officers to “get away” from the student. She leaned down closer to the student, but did not touch them, or any of the officers.
One cop raced up to her, grabbing her wrists. “Get on the fucking ground,” he yelled, pulling her away from the student. “Get on the ground, I said,” he repeated.
Fohlin opened her mouth to protest as the officer kept his grip locked on her wrist. “Do not, I’m a ...” she said, before the cop violently flipped her onto the ground, smashing her head into the sidewalk.
“Ow my head, you just hit my head on the concrete!” Fohlin yelled. Another cop joined to help press her into the ground. The two pinned her hands behind her back, as they proceeded to secure her hands with zip ties.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cop-slammed-emory-professor-caroline-fohlins-head-into-concrete-then-charged-her-with-battery
Echoes of 1968....deja vu all over again
Utah 'Karen' in Viral Video Is Charged With Sexual Battery
A woman in Utah who was dubbed a “Karen” after video of her losing it over a young woman wearing a miniskirt went viral has been charged with sexual battery in connection with the incident.
Ida Ann Lorenzo, 48, allegedly pulled down the woman’s mini skirt as she complained that it was too small and threatened to call child protective services.
In a video with over 3 million views on TikTok, Lorenzo was filmed defending her decision to pull down the skirt, moments after the encounter in the lobby of the Sakura Japanese Steakhouse in St. George, Utah.
“I happen to work for the state and if I have to watch your ass cheeks hanging out again, I will call CPS,” Lorenzo said. According to the caption of the TikTok, the veritable “Karen” “aggressively” grabbed the skirt before yanking it down, and commented that the girl was probably underage.
Several young women jumped to their friend’s defense. “She’s over 18,” one said, and the woman filming confirmed that she was 19 years old.
“You do not get to touch her,” said another one of the women. “Really?” Lorenzo asks incredulously. Lorenzo then whispered something inaudible, before saying, “No, it’s not appropriate.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/utah-karen-who-pulled-down-teens-skirt-charged-with-sexual-battery
Damn Karens.
US court upholds R Kelly's 20-year prison term for child sexual abuse
The singer R Kelly was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions in Chicago, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
Jurors in 2022 convicted the Grammy award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly argued that Illinois’s former and shorter statute of limitations on child sexual abuse crime prosecutions should have applied to his Chicago case rather than current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Federal prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, identified only as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/26/r-kelly-20-year-prison-sentence-chicago
He better be glad he's not in Tennessee. They just instituted the death penalty for pedophiles.
Bogus Furry Panic Overtakes Utah School District
Last Wednesday, dozens of students skipped class to gather outside a Payson, Utah, middle school for hours and chant, “We the people, not the animals!”—a protest launched over the dramatic accusation that their classmates were running wild as “furries” and attacking other students without consequence.
Much of the hysteria, however, has been blown out of proportion.
Footage from the scene showed them hoisting signs declaring, “Compelled speech is not free speech,” “We won’t be compelled,” and “We just want to learn.” A fourth sign read, “You can’t ignore us,” with a drawing of an animal print covered with a prohibition sign.
“They’re sitting on all fours in class,” one student told conservative livestreamer Adam Bartholomew as the kids (and some parents) lined the road to Mt. Nebo Middle School. “They’re wearing animal costumes. They’re growling at us, barking at us in class, it’s very distracting.”
“It’s very sexual and inappropriate,” the pupil added of their tween classmates accused of being “furries,” a subculture that dresses up as anthropomorphic animals and which has become a conservative bogeyman.
“They’re wearing butt-plug tails underneath skirts. They’re wearing dog collars to school with leashes hanging off. It’s not OK.”
In the small city about 58 miles south of Salt Lake City, “furry” panic has taken over.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bogus-furry-panic-overtakes-utah-school-district?ref=home
and nothing of the sort is even happening....
Trump's New Legal Bills Are Hiding an $8 Million Mystery
Donald Trump’s legal payroll is easily the largest and most diverse of any political figure in modern U.S. history. But while most of the attorneys that Trump’s various fundraising committees have paid over the years are a matter of public record, one of the top recipients still poses a mystery—with more than $8 million in legal costs going to an unknown firm, or firms, through what appears to be a corporate intermediary.
Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the arrangement masks the true recipients of a significant amount of Trump’s legal bills, depriving the public of that information while possibly running afoul of federal law. And the unprecedented structure of those payments, the experts said, potentially violates the ban on corporate contributions.
For the last 15 months, five of Trump’s political committees, including his 2024 campaign, have paid about $8 million in combined legal costs to a curious recipient: Red Curve Solutions, the firm that handles their political accounting.
That total makes Red Curve, a prominent Republican compliance firm, the largest single recipient of Trump’s legal payouts since he left office, receiving more money than die-hard defenders like Alina Habba, Stefan Passantino, John Lauro, and Jesse Binnall.
The Red Curve payments, however, are not described as being for legal services that the firm provides directly. In fact, Red Curve’s website does not advertise legal services, and Federal Election Commission filings show that only one other federal committee has ever paid the company for legal work—and that was more than a decade ago.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-new-legal-bills-are-hiding-an-dollar8-million-mystery?ref=home
Typical crooked Slobfather enterprise. Of course we knew all along that his calling others "crooked" was simply projection.
The "feminist" case against having sex for fun
In February, America’s most prominent conservative activist declared his opposition to having sex for fun.
In a post on X, the “anti-woke” crusader Christopher Rufo wrote, “‘Recreational sex’ is a large part of the reason we have so many single-mother households, which drives poverty, crime, and dysfunction. The point of sex is to create children—this is natural, normal, and good.”
Much gawking at Rufo’s grimly utilitarian take on sex ensued. Yet the firestorm largely ignored the woman whose anti-birth-control tirade had ignited it.
Rufo’s remarks were sparked by a video of a 2023 Heritage Foundation panel. In that clip, a bespectacled British woman details the supposed ravages of both oral contraception and the sexual culture that it birthed. She claims that the normalization of birth control has condemned women to higher rates of mental illness while offering them little in recompense beyond the freedom to endure “loveless and sometimes extremely degrading” sex. Therefore, she continues, the world needs “a feminist movement” that is “against the Pill” and for “returning the consequentiality to sex.”
That woman, the writer Mary Harrington, is an unlikely spokesperson for fundamentalist Christian morality. A onetime leftist, Harrington remains a fierce critic of free-market economics and an opponent of abortion bans. Yet her 2023 book, Feminism Against Progress, won her an avid following among American social conservatives, receiving adulatory notices in the Federalist and the National Review and earning her bylines at the conservative Catholic journal First Things.
https://www.vox.com/politics/24134852/feminist-case-against-birth-control-casual-sex
Whatever Rufo says is wrong, to start with. And the rest of them, well, consider the sources.
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