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

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

#191

Post by humanlion87 »

cosmodisk wrote: post #154
Kapura wrote: 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 is there is no better. Countries,names and organisations may differ, but it's more or less the same everywhere

Completely agree with this statement. It's just human nature. I come from a third world country where bribery and corruption is a way of life and everyone just accepts it. When I moved to the US I thought that problem doesn't exist since it's a developed country and things seem to function smoothly. It took me a few years to realize how mistaken I was. Corruption and bribery just happen in a more "legal" (ex: lobbying), "organized" and "clean" manner :)

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

#192

Post by runamok »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #168
GavinMcG wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's factually incorrect. The vast majority of voters on both sides viewed Trump's election as legitimate. [0] There is a substantial difference between claiming that you lost for reasons that are problematic (i.e. propaganda and the structure of the electoral college) and claiming that you didn't lose at all, despite being behind by 7 million votes, because of a massive conspiracy so powerful as to make our democr…

> The vast majority of voters on both sides viewed Trump's election as legitimate In 2018, 66% of democrats believed it was “probably true” or “definitely true” that Russia “tampered with vote tallies” to help Trump win the election. That’s a majority of voters on one side. Note this poll was taken a year and a half after the poll you cited. This emphasizes the point that the media drove this issue as a wedge through…

That seems like a bit of a leading question but that is scary. Though the fact that so many Republicans don't believe the DNC hacks is scary too.

"Tampered with tallies" might be misinterpreted by those with poor comprehension.

Very interesting so thanks!

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

#193

Post by dmix »

tomcam wrote: post #13
dmix wrote: post #11

Nice to see the US slowly learn to grift on a whole new scale. [1] Even AOC (who ironically also pushes for ton s of these grifting opportunities via her party). > This is why Congress needs time to actually read this package before voting on it. > Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours. > This isn’t governance. It’s h…

That’s an offensive comparison. I believe it is clear that the US is by far the world leader in bureaucratic grifting.

Youre right I should probably not make a direct comparison only with India. There's plenty of other examples.

The reason I used India is that those houses full of millions in cash/rupees. It's basically as shameless just through much more sophisticated layers of indirection.

Like starting a network AI infosec contractor for DoD and making millions while your product sucks, but your team has some gov connections and knows how to fill out the right forms.

It's still far from the rampant corruption in India.

But I'd love for someone to read all 6000 pages and list out where its going, then reverse the authors to the receiver of the money. But MOST importantly whether the money went to anything close

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

#194

Post by AsyncAwait »

bennysonething wrote: post #178
Kapura wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, I am blessed with friends who have already made the jump, in many different directions, so I have firsthand testimonies of the pros and cons of moving to a variety of different countries. Japan sounds nice.

Just don't get arrested if you move to japan: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51129580 There was a piece on BBC radio 4 about this. Stuck in a cell and not allowed to lean on walls had to sit up right the whole time horrendous. Usa has its problems, it also has a constitution and the first amendment. Sadly here in the UK we do not.

At least there's universal healthcare in the middle of a global pandemic, unfortunately there's a push to remodel it after the U.S. private insurance model, but also a string opposition to that idea.

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

#195

Post by gotoeleven »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #169
zbrozek wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what GP had in mind either. But if I were trying to build on that statement, I'd say that a single party political landscape hasn't been good. Having at least three or four healthy competitive parties and a need to build coalitions seems like it would be really helpful. But that isn't the American way.

Fixing the voting system wouldn't solve the American Populism problem (where promising to “pull the ladder up” is a guaranteed win among most people who've already climbed it, and even some who haven't), but it would render that possible.

Did some new NPC software update go out recently where populism is now supposed to mean "pull the ladder up"? Im seeing this all over the place now.

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

#196

Post by specialist »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #172
specialist wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To your point, in my state, reformers have been able to change our laws to allow RCV, a much easier lift. > ...we really need ... approval/score/range voting Agreed. That's been my long time position. That said, per The Democracy Nerd podcast, I'm newly curious about multi-member seats. Which might be a smaller lift in a lot of places. https://xraypod.com/show/democracy-nerd/saving-democracy-in-... "... Kristin Eberh…

The purpose of a bicameral legislature is to have a process for placing them in office that sufficiently differs as to allows the bodies to represent distinct interests in the legislature. The US Senate was originally appointed by the state legislatures and intended to represent the interests of the state governments at the federal level -- representation that they no longer have, leading to a massive federal takeove…

Does this mean you support bicameral?

In your future perfect PR world: Still bicameral? PR just for House? Replace House & Senate with a parliament?

Or do you still want to preserve the vetocracy with a Senate (House of Lords)?

What do state, county, city governments look like?

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

#197

Post by dv_dt »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #169
zbrozek wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what GP had in mind either. But if I were trying to build on that statement, I'd say that a single party political landscape hasn't been good. Having at least three or four healthy competitive parties and a need to build coalitions seems like it would be really helpful. But that isn't the American way.

Fixing the voting system wouldn't solve the American Populism problem (where promising to “pull the ladder up” is a guaranteed win among most people who've already climbed it, and even some who haven't), but it would render that possible.

Actually changing the voting system from first past the post to some form of ranked choice could change things for the better by opening they way to a larger variety of candidates and parties.

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

#198

Post by ncmncm »

minot wrote: post #48
ardy42 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sad part is that CA remains a one party state and this will just get swept under the rug. The power is too unchecked. And I'm guessing the reason for that is that politics has gotten too nationalized, and the state-level opposition is too unwilling to distance itself from its national party to make itself competitive.

Corruption isn’t a partisan issue. California Republicans are just as if not more corrupt than California Democrats. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/23/editorial-santa-clara... Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25190668

One party pretends not to be corrupt; the other seeks to legalize corruption. Which is worse?

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

#199

Post by ncmncm »

twblalock wrote: post #46
Justin_K wrote: post #18

The sad part is that CA remains a one party state and this will just get swept under the rug. The power is too unchecked.

I've got my signature form to recall the governor printed out, but what is holding me back from mailing it in is the fear that we could end up with someone even worse in charge if the recall succeeds.

It happened last time.

Drew Davis was recalled when he refused to pay $80B in enbezzled utility costs, and started an investigation of the embezzling. Arnold had the state just pay the $80B.

Somebody got every penny of that $80B.

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

#200

Post by gautamcgoel »

5tefan wrote: post #153
Kapura wrote: 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.

Where should that be? Same in Germany. Corruption seems a noble crime and goes unpunished.

Er, what do you mean by a "noble crime"? Seems like a very ignoble crime to me...
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