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

propublica.org

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

#111

Post by boomboomsubban »

greeneggs wrote: post #102
boomboomsubban wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every senate election I can recall in California has been Democrat v Democrat by the general election Which is the point of the system. Republicans only have a shot if they don't compete with each other, and no third party candidate ever has a chance.

The point of the system is to encourage moderation, and it does well at this. Sometimes you get two Democrats, as in recent Senate elections, and sometimes one Democrat and one Republican, as in the 2018 governor's race.

"Moderation" is just another word for the establishment.

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

#112

Post by AlexTWithBeard »

29athrowaway wrote: post #60
hnruss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that more money probably means more backroom deals. This seems simple to me: One party wants to regulate, the other de-regulate. Which of those platforms attracts the most money?

Deregulate the environment and you will be drinking polluted water, and breathing polluted air. Your food will be likely exposed to pollution too. Deregulate labor and you'll have exploited workers working 100 hours per week, being constantly harassed by their employers, people being discriminated at the workplace, as well as people exposed to poor safety conditions where they can get injured or killed. Deregulate co…

> Deregulate consumer rights and now anyone can scam you and sell you something that doesn't work with no right to a refund.

Is the right to refund really regulated? Or it's that exact case where competition and market forces do work for the mutual benefit of seller and consumer?

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

#113

Post by cloverich »

yostrovs wrote: post #100
nkrisc wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's arguing the last election was a fraud? I can't recall any major Democrat who claimed, continually without evidence, that Russia or Republicans engaged in voter fraud. The argument was that Russia interfered and/or colluded with the Trump campaign to spread misinformation and hack the DNC. No one was claiming the votes themselves were fraudulent. There have been investigations into allegations of voter fraud in…

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 of the last election, and did not approve of the electoral colleges role. But they did not at any poin reject that the democratic process was valid . They are arguing very different things ultimately.

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

#114

Post by burlesona »

legulere wrote: post #20
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.

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’re baffled by things happening over here, remember that the United States is less analogous to France or Germany and more analogous to the European Union. The individual states are more analogous to EU nations. It’s not a perfect comparison, but it’s helpful.

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

#115

Post by sgc »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #25
jasonboyd wrote: post #14

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.

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

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

#116

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

forgingahead wrote: post #32
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like in many accounting controversies, the fundamental problem here is how to account for future expectations. If you’re owed a big sum of money but you know for sure payment is coming soon, your accounting statements should show you as much wealthier than the actual money you have on hand, because receiving a payment you already knew you’d get shouldn’t change how you measure your financial status. The commission sa…

How to account for this isn't controversial -- you put the expected money to be received on your balance sheet, either under "Accounts Receivable", which is listed as an asset, or another similarly related account that shows the money is due. Of course, you can't have "Accounts Receivable" for eons with no update, at some point an auditor will say the money should be collected, or you have to write it off as a bad de…

its worse.

money is going from people to utility coffers, where it stays, and it gets divvied up by CPUC salaries and utility CEOs, like loot.

then govt increases taxes because there is no money coming from people.

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

#117

Post by dEnigma »

jasonboyd wrote: post #14
js2 wrote: 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." I feel self conscious now.

Don't worry! I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of exclamation marks I see on a typical work day. It's perfectly alright, at least here in Austria.

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

#118

Post by gedy »

rangoon626 wrote: post #16

Between this and the "pork" that was recently scrutinized, I am completely disgusted that local, state and federal government thinks that they have a blank check care of tax payers. Of course it's been this way forever, but this is getting out of hand. 200m missing, and the state is having massive forest fires, electrical outages and way too many people living in tent cities. What an absolutely disgusting waste.

It's the 5th largest economy in the world, ahead of even India, and with 2% of the population to take care of. Must be all Prop 13's fault, no waste here behind the curtain. /s

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

#119

Post by mikelward »

logicchains wrote: post #26
legulere wrote: post #20

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.

Funnily enough, California's system did used to be slightly less one-sided, but an amendment introduced that was claimed would make it less one-sided actually ended up making it more.

The CVRA (and subsequent rulings) has also forced adoption of single-member districts. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Voting_Rights_Act

Sunnyvale just switched to single-member districts because of this.

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

#120

Post by CyberDildonics »

ashtonkem wrote: post #21
CyberDildonics wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not part of the problem, it is a symptom of it.

With a positive feedback loop, trying to determine which thing came first is a waste of everyone’s time.

How would becoming jaded to corruption come before corruption?
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