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California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

propublica.org

121–130 of 275 posts

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#121
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She uncovers incompetence and gets fired. The article makes no allegations that she stepped on Newsom's toes, but it sure seems like it. She deserves a medal, not to be fired. The article doesn't say who hired her in the first place, just: > Stebbins was hired as the agency’s executive director in February 2018 to bring fresh scrutiny to its finances and operations. Who hired her? Also: > “I find this outrageous!” Ba…

> I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've used an exclamation mark professionally. What does your preferred language use for the logical negation operator?

Python uses `not`, `and`, and `or`

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've used an exclamation mark professionally." I feel self conscious now.

In use exclamation marks in professional communication every day. It's not unusual at all.

I think gendering language is dumb, but women do tend to use more expressive language like exclamation points to “soften” our communication. Not that men never do, but I do think there are different standards of “professionalism” depending on how you are perceived to fit into the social order.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#123
It feels like I live in a country where every level of government is unbelievably corrupt, but also completely unfixable. How are you supposed to address the sorts of issues that lose $200,000,000 of state money if the people who try to do so get fired? I don't see a way out of this mess, and it makes me want to move somewhere... better.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European I ask myself why there’s no proportional voting system at all in the US. The states should be independent enough to introduce one for themselves, and there are also referendums.

We have the system that made sense to the people in 1792. It’s a system that is practical with their technology, and it responds to the very specific political problem they had at the time: getting 13 independent countries to surrender their sovereignty to a federal government. That system mostly worked, but it still required a civil war to prove the Union was really was sovereign and states could not leave. When you…

Isn't that the point the poster is making? States have enough independence that they could introduce proportional representation themselves. The only voting reform that I know of in the United States is Maine introducing ranked choice for Governer. Other changes of voting system such as everyone votes for every city councillor seem more designed to keep certain groups out of power.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#126
Reminds me of this story I read yesterday. You can't question the system. Or the system questions you. So illiberal.

"Michigan’s Democratic attorney general vowed Tuesday to pursue legal punishments against attorneys who have challenged the state’s election results"

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/22/dana-nessel...

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#127
post #123

It feels like I live in a country where every level of government is unbelievably corrupt, but also completely unfixable. How are you supposed to address the sorts of issues that lose $200,000,000 of state money if the people who try to do so get fired? I don't see a way out of this mess, and it makes me want to move somewhere... better.

Systems tend to break down over time. This is normal. People getting fed up and trying to fix it is normal too.

"Hard times create strong people. Strong people create good times. Good times create weak people. Weak people create hard times."

We only get the leaders and government we deserve.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However you want to see it, half the country thinks Trump was an illegitimate president, elected thanks to external manipulation of the Russian government. This is a fact that has consumed all of media and good chunk of the population for 3 years. It's true it's not an exact mirror copy of the current election predicament. Nevertheless, the outcome of questioning the election and democracy in general is the result of…

There is a difference between difference of opinion and difference of facts. And yes it’s true popular opinion affects things irrespective of their factual basis, yet having a factual basis does play a strong and often determining role. Trump lost the election, objectively. Elections are the basis of democracy. if you do not accept their outcome, you do not support democracy. The vocal left did not LIKE the outcome o…

> Trump lost the election, objectively.

Prove it.

I’ve yet to have anyone even try to factually address the irregular vote tallies in PA and other states — numbers so suspect, I’d report them as a financial auditor.

There’s unusual temporal, spatial, and similarity discontinuities that strongly indicate cheating occurred, particularly in battleground states. These are the same techniques we use to address fraud in industry.

- Temporal discontinuities are sharp spikes in the rate of vote tallying. There’s many of these, and huge ones in battle grounds after the media blackout.

- Spatial discontinuities are when adjacent precincts are wildly different (in a way unlike similar nearby differences).

- Similarity discontinuities happened in two forms: 1. similar races didn’t have similar voting patterns; 2. similar precincts behaved differently.

All three occurring together, and in “critical” races like Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, is a very strong indication of fraud.

I think you’re asserting your opinion as objective fact.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#129
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In use exclamation marks in professional communication every day. It's not unusual at all.

It's basically required in real estate. Everybody needs to sound nice and cheery!

And everyone, literally everyone, must own fish-eye cameras.

Re: California Public Utilities Commission fired director who exposed missing $200M

#130
post #123

It feels like I live in a country where every level of government is unbelievably corrupt, but also completely unfixable. How are you supposed to address the sorts of issues that lose $200,000,000 of state money if the people who try to do so get fired? I don't see a way out of this mess, and it makes me want to move somewhere... better.

The problem with California is that they tend to keep putting all their eggs in the same broken basket.
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