- blerk -
I'm curious about how long it took to build the original. Not sure what if any significant time-saving innovations have been made in major bridge construction since the original.
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I'm curious about how long it took to build the original. Not sure what if any significant time-saving innovations have been made in major bridge construction since the original.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
The real question is whether or not construction can restart before a lot of the legal issues are resolved. That could take years and, until those issues are resolved, who is going to pay for the reconstruction.
Indeed.
Not impossible to imagine the legal prerequisites may take more time than the bridge reconstruction.
Competent government decision-makers should understand that span was not merely an inconsequential / aesthetic decoration. It catalyzes the economy by lowering the cost of transportation of workers and products. Every tick of the clock signals loss of $$$. So there's both public sector, and private sector incentive to not dawdle.
What I do not know:
- Could investment $capital buffer this on contingency with the understanding that government will underwrite the construction loan, and separately attempt to recover $some from the bad boat people.
- Is such investment capital available for this purpose, at affordable interest rate?
- If so, will that happen? And how much time would it save?
Bitter Whining:
New York State voters were offered a bond issue for funding construction of the New York / Thomas E. Dewey Thruway limited access highway.
My understanding:
Voters were assured: vote to fund this construction, and New York will operate tolls on this highway, BUT !! only until the bond / highway construction spending is paid off. After that the toll plazas will be demolished, and the Thruway will be toll free.
Nope !
Reports indicate that debt has been paid in full long ago. Instead of toll plazas New York transitioned to EZ-pass, electronic toll collection, and now reportedly to license plate scanner toll collection.
Not difficult to imagine a similar swindle replacing the Frank S. Key bridge.
Perhaps we should migrate to somewhere a little more civilized. Ukraine is lovely this time of year.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Company vows to sue over damages after New Mexico authorities destroy cannabis crops
By Susan Montoya BryanState police have destroyed tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana plants at greenhouses in northwestern New Mexico, marking what regulators say is the largest seizure and destruction of cannabis in New Mexico since new possession and cultivation laws took effect in 2021.
Authorities announced the operation Monday, saying dozens of agents were assigned to eradicate the plants in October. The state Cannabis Control Division had started the process of revoking the license of NNK Equity LLC, having filed a noncompliance order and a default order earlier this year.
The company was accused of not posting its licenses on site, failing to obtain water rights for cultivation, not having cameras that could monitor certain areas of its operation and violating sanitation and health requirements.
“The organization involved showed a blatant disregard for the laws of this state and we will prove that once this investigation is over,” New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a statement.
Jacob Candelaria, an Albuquerque attorney who represents NNK Equity, disputed the state’s claims and accused regulators and state police of violating his client’s civil rights. He said the state failed to ....
CONTINUED
Why does this sound like the regulators watched "Reefer Madness" once too often?
I'm not sure I have the entire story here. As presented in #304 it seems like the government action was confrontational, combative, needlessly destructive. OTO
public safety standards exist for a reason.
It would be comforting to believe these two parties could synchronize before the next harvest, resulting in government assurance that all requirements have been met, and that the legal commerce will not be interfered with.
Worth noting:
#304 presents the impression the government/s responsible for this destruction either don't understand $markets well enough to understand the consequence, or are relatively indifferent to the fact that the black-market will provide for the shortfall. That's what "supply-&-demand" means.
If the policy makers responsible for this raid / bust / destruction were serious about public safety, PARTICULARLY during this lethal fentanyl crisis, they might have been more practical.
So as a result, how many New Mexicans will succumb to fentanyl, thereby never becoming old -Mexicans ?
And the death-toll quite likely to climb higher because of this.
Vote Harris / Walz !
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Didn't take long after the election for the religious whack jobs to come out of the woodwork ...
Oklahoma schools superintendent mandates students watch announcement of new religious department
Oklahoma’s education superintendent has sent an email to public school superintendents requiring them to show students his video announcement of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism within the state Department of Education.
Ryan Walters, a Republican, announced the new office on Wednesday and on Thursday sent the email to school superintendents statewide.
“In one of the first steps of the newly created department, we are requiring all of Oklahoma schools to play the attached video to all kids that are enrolled,” according to the email.
Districts were also told to send the video to all parents of students.
In the video, Walters says religious liberty has been attacked and patriotism mocked “by woke teachers unions,” then prays for ....
Here Walters uses the term "woke" derisively, not uncommon among MAGAs.
Walters has done the math. Such authoritarian ideology doesn't get much consideration, even if it gets more than deserved.
Thus the Walters' are contemptuous of consideration. They don't earn it, so they don't accord it.
woke (wōk)
adj. wok·er, wok·est
Slang
Aware of the injustice of the social system ...
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
Prior practice has been to infringe or usurp such Constitutional standards as 1A. Its promoters know law courts can strike it down, BUT ! before they do, the advance their agenda unConstitutionally.
The unknown here, the Roberts court. If lower courts uphold this, the Roberts court needn't rule in favor. They can simply decline to hear the case, letting the lower court approval stand.
Martial Law declared in South Korea
South Korea Martial Law Live: Yoon pledges to eradicate "shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces"
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television.
Americans may not fully grasp Asian geo-political realities.
A declaration of martial law in South Korea is as serious as it would seem in Western Europe, or North America.
The United States Civil War killed more Americans than any other U.S. War, including either of the World Wars.
Some dame yankees have observed, when a Southerner talks about "the" War, they're not talking about Vietnam.
The Korean civil War is technically not ended, hostilities subsided by armistice, not truce.
And while China may be perceived as a formidable but remote threat to Americans, Koreans can walk there. Many have.
South Korea is not listed as a NATO member nation. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm
But South Korea remains a valued U.S. trading partner, and home to tens of thousands of U.S. military troops helping to guard the DMZ.
South Korea Martial Law Live: Yoon pledges to eradicate "shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces"
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television.
Americans may not fully grasp Asian geo-political realities.
A declaration of martial law in South Korea is as serious as it would seem in Western Europe, or North America.
The United States Civil War killed more Americans than any other U.S. War, including either of the World Wars.
Some dame yankees have observed, when a Southerner talks about "the" War, they're not talking about Vietnam.
The Korean civil War is technically not ended, hostilities subsided by armistice, not truce.
And while China may be perceived as a formidable but remote threat to Americans, Koreans can walk there. Many have.
South Korea is not listed as a NATO member nation. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm
But South Korea remains a valued U.S. trading partner, and home to tens of thousands of U.S. military troops helping to guard the DMZ.
That was yesterday.
Today:
South Korea's Yoon faces impeachment after martial law debacle
The main opposition Democratic Party called for Yoon Suk Yeol, who has been in office since 2022, to resign or face impeachment.
That might seem to be the end of the story.
But the danger North Korea continues to pose to South Korea continues. There's no denying the seriousness of declaring martial law within a democracy.
Was Yoon's declaration excessive executive over-reach? Or visionary preemption of severe danger to the State? We don't know
yet.
- grim -
meanwhile -
Syrian rebels topple President Assad, his whereabouts unknown
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari / December 8, 2024 6:03 AM GMT-5 UpdatedInsurgents gained control after only a day of fighting, leaving President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule dangling by a thread as rebels marched on Damascus.
Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that Assad's rule had ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters.
But the military later said it was continuing operations against "terrorist groups" in the key cities of Hama and Homs and in the Deraa countryside.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Suspect identified in UnitedHealth executive's murder, New York Post reports
Authorities have identified the man suspected of killing UnitedHealth <UNH.N> executive Brian Thompson and are closing in on him, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was quoted as saying on Saturday by the New York Post."The net is tightening," Adams told reporters at a Police Athletic League holiday party in Harlem, according to the Post. He declined to name the suspect.
Thompson, 50, who became CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit in April 2021, was shot in the back around 6:45 a.m. ET (1145 GMT) on Wednesday in what police described as a targeted attack by a masked assailant lying in wait.
The murder occurred just before the company's annual investor conference at the Hilton hotel on Sixth Avenue.
The shooting sparked a massive manhunt for the gunman, who fled on foot wearing ....
CONTINUED
- ok -
They say they know who.
Do they yet know why?
- Disgruntled insurance policy holder?
- Disgruntled investor?
If it were personal such murder might more likely be committed in a more personal location, the exec's driveway.
Suggests it's connected to UnitedHealth. gunman holds Thompson responsible for the death of gunman's mom?
Didn't get the $refund he wanted?
S2, did you know Thompson? We may have retired before Thompson got the corner office.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
From another board
Are the indoctrinated progressives, seriously applauding the execution of the healthcare CEO? Would you agree these are some pretty sick people?
You mean like how indoctrinated Conservatives applauded Kyle Rittenhouse, lauded him all over Social media, and offered him government jobs?
“That was different!!” screams the Conservatives.
“How?” I ask.
“He was shooting poor people. Not rich, Republican CEO’S.”
“Ah, got it.”
BTW, have you noticed none of those people who offered him jobs in Washington (MTG, Lauren Boebert, etc), actually followed through?
You know why?
Rittenhouse turned out to be an EXTREMELY toxic asshole, who cannot get along with anyone.
Who woulda thunk??
Are the indoctrinated progressives, seriously applauding the execution of the healthcare CEO? Would you agree these are some pretty sick people?
You mean like how indoctrinated Conservatives applauded Kyle Rittenhouse, lauded him all over Social media, and offered him government jobs?
“That was different!!” screams the Conservatives.
“How?” I ask.
“He was shooting poor people. Not rich, Republican CEO’S.”
“Ah, got it.”
BTW, have you noticed none of those people who offered him jobs in Washington (MTG, Lauren Boebert, etc), actually followed through?
You know why?
Rittenhouse turned out to be an EXTREMELY toxic asshole, who cannot get along with anyone.
Who woulda thunk??
Quibbling about where on the political spectrum murder lies legitimizes murder.
There are extremists at both ends of the political spectrum.
Is the issue here not murder?
A murderer may find a home on the political spectrum. But murder as a political tool? Isn't that rather more Vlad Putin territory?
No.
Progressivism (promoting change) is the counterpart to conservatism (promoting tradition, resisting change).
But to consider murder as a legitimate tool of progress is incorrect.
There are problems aplenty with the U.S. healthcare system. Reportedly we pay more per capita, have poorer healthcare outcomes, and lower life expectancy.
Murdering Thompson isn't going to fix that. Neither did Trump. Not the last time. Not the next time.
"It'll be repeal and replace. It will be essentially simultaneously. It will be various segments you understand but it will most likely be on the same day or the same week but probably the same day. Could be the same hour." President Elect Trump 17/01/11 @NYC News Conference: source - FNS 17/07/02
"If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now (Trump / McConnell-care), they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!" U.S. President Trump 17/06/30 03:37 tweet
“No body knew that healthcare could be so complicated.” President Trump
Obama did.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Having been "McKinseyed" in the past this does my heart good ...
Brian Mann
The global consulting firm McKinsey and Company Friday agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal probe into its role in helping "turbocharge" sales of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin for Purdue Pharma, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday.
Federal officials said the influential consulting company - which often advises governments and powerful corporations around the globe - committed crimes while trying to aggressively boost opioid sales.
"It was a strategy, it was executed and it worked," said U.S. attorney Christopher Kavanaugh during a press conference on Friday. "McKinsey's strategy resulted in prescriptions for Oxycontin that were unsafe and medically unnecessary."
According to Kavanaugh, former McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling "personally deleted various Purdue related electronic materials from his McKinsey laptop with the intent to ...
CONTINUED
McKinsey & Company to pay $650 million for role in opioid crisis
Brian Mann
The global consulting firm McKinsey and Company Friday agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal probe into its role in helping "turbocharge" sales of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin for Purdue Pharma, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday.
Federal officials said the influential consulting company - which often advises governments and powerful corporations around the globe - committed crimes while trying to aggressively boost opioid sales.
"It was a strategy, it was executed and it worked," said U.S. attorney Christopher Kavanaugh during a press conference on Friday. "McKinsey's strategy resulted in prescriptions for Oxycontin that were unsafe and medically unnecessary."
According to Kavanaugh, former McKinsey senior partner Martin Elling "personally deleted various Purdue related electronic materials from his McKinsey laptop with the intent to ...
CONTINUED
a) Better than $zero, BUT
b) seems like a slap on the wrist in context of the opioid crisis itself.
What little I've read of it suggested opioids were knowingly inflicted on U.S. populations, for $profit.
$650 $M may seem a $lot to lottery-crazed innumerates.
By my math it's less than $one $thousand per fatality. Seems to me McKinsey's getting a $bargain here.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Thing is McKinsey wasn't the only guilty party here. So the obvious question is, who else is being fined and how much are they paying.
As an aside, if you're not familiar with McKinsey they are a management consulting firm (one of the biggest in the world). And they're a partnership - one that runs on an "in, up, or out" model. That means that, if you're hired (the "in" part) after a few years you'll be called into one of the senior partner's offices and told that either (i) "you're on your way up and will potentially be promoted down the road" - that's the "up" part or (ii) you have to find another job (that's the "out" part). However McKinsey works very hard to place those people into senior positions (which is why they've been called one of the largest executive recruiting firms in the world). And they never let those individuals forget who they owe for that new job.
And McKinsey's consulting contracts make it almost impossible to sue them - I once had to review their standard contract when I was approached about insuring them and had my corporate general counsel review it - he was "impressed" (his actual words were, this is almost obscene) because it would be almost impossible for a client to sue them - that's important because in this case it wasn't their client (Purdue Pharma) who sued them.
To protect themselves even farther they regularly update the client on their work - meet with the client's executive board and get that body to sign of at every stage.
- nope -
Lesser mortals might have themselves rendered judgement-proof?
Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to TikTok ban
The law is set to go into effect on Jan. 19, and the court will not block it while the case is being considered.Dec. 18, 2024, 11:17 AM GMT-5 / By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would take up TikTok's appeal challenging a federal law that could ban the popular social media app by next month.
The court acted just a day after TikTok filed its appeal and will hear oral arguments on Jan. 10 before issuing a decision on whether to put the law on hold.
Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to TikTok ban
The law is set to go into effect on Jan. 19, and the court will not block it while the case is being considered.
www.nbcnews.com
TikTok is a wildly popular social media app in the U.S.
- BUT -
U.S. cyber-experts believe the Chi-Comms are using TikTok as a spy tool, collecting information from those that use it.
Thus the competing interests are:
a) Free Speech, a Constitutionally enumerated right. VS
b) privacy, and perhaps U.S. national security.
Which dotted line shall we choose to split this baby equitably?