[Tubby Isaacs]

There's a referendum in Virginia on redistricting. Democrats are responding to the explicit, Trump ordered gerrymandering in other states, and want to do be able to do the same in Virginia.

It's quite astonishing how the state legislature in lots of states gets to redraw maps to the advantage of their party. Virginia requires a bipartisan commission to set its maps, but can overrule that with a referendum. Hence this.

Same situation happened in California, which voted Yes by a bigger margin that the general political slant of the state. Hopefully that happens in Virginia too.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Virginia’s new map passes. Looks closer than I expected.

[mattomac]

I was called a Nazi for asking someone why the Democrats are fascists when there seemed no issue with the Republicans doing it? And why are they planning on putting ICE agents on polling stations.

I wished the Russian bot a very unsuccessful year in war with Ukraine.

[Spoonman]

What in the fuck... I say, what in the fuck is this late stage capitalism bullshit?

‘Uber for nurses’: gig-work apps lobby to deregulate healthcare, report finds

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... rk-ai-apps

Billion-dollar tech platforms are aggressively pushing for deregulation of the “Uber for nursing” industry in an effort to expand gig work in the healthcare sector, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The report from the AI Now Institute, Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Companies Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare, examines the use of artificial intelligence to staff hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The report warns that growing use of the technology comes at the expense of workers’ rights, protections and pay.

As has increasingly become the case with ride-share companies, the “Uber for nurses” model relies on artificial intelligence to set pay rates for work shifts, to surveil performance metrics, and to use that data to determine a worker’s future access to gigs and pay rates. The industry also allows nurses to bid on work shifts, with the lowest pay rate winning the shift.

Only 'murica for now, but don't rule out something similar over here if Reform get a whiff of power.

[Bones McCoy]

We already have an alarming proportion of NHS hospital nurses doing agency work.

It's expensive for the NHS.
It diverts NHS resources making last minute staffing reshuffles.

At present the agency nurses are getting paid well.
But the agencies have it in their power to alter that.

[Bones McCoy]

I suspect they're employing Star Wars stormtroopers as assassins, these days.

[Abernathy]

The Americans have really declined in so many ways in recent years. I mean, they used to be really great at assassinating their presidents. And now ?

[Boiler]

Colleague of mine was comparing the recent piss-poor attempts with that of Kennedy.

[Bones McCoy]

The Americans have really declined in so many ways in recent years. I mean, they used to be really great at assassinating their presidents. And now ?

Even Mexicans only need to re-fry beans once.

[Andy McDandy]

Colleague of mine was comparing the recent piss-poor attempts with that of Kennedy.

Just getting the CIA, FBI, Cuban exiles, the Mafia, Castro, the Nation of Islam, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Krushchev, Howard Hughes, several angry husbands of Hollywood actresses, Lee Harvey Oswald, Rafael Trujillo, Nixon, LBJ, Edward "The Comedian" Blake, several CEOs of military equipment manufacturers, Ho Chi Minh, and a pissed off Jckie Kennedy in the same room for the planning meeting was a logistical nightmare, but they managed it!

[Samanfur]

Colleague of mine was comparing the recent piss-poor attempts with that of Kennedy.

I'm thinking they're more akin to Gerald Ford in terms of competence.

[Bones McCoy]

Overheard in an Amsterdam Hotel Lobby.


American tourists:

Oh man, this city has more than one Railway station.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just getting the CIA, FBI, Cuban exiles, the Mafia, Castro, the Nation of Islam, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Krushchev, Howard Hughes, several angry husbands of Hollywood actresses, Lee Harvey Oswald, Rafael Trujillo, Nixon, LBJ, Edward "The Comedian" Blake, several CEOs of military equipment manufacturers, Ho Chi Minh, and a pissed off Jckie Kennedy in the same room for the planning meeting was a logistical nightmare, but they managed it!

That's uncannily like a passage in Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugilosi, which I'm reading. Have you read it? I've just read the bit on the various conspiracy theories (bit? it's about 500 pages). He does a list of all the people put forward, and I think you've covered most of them there.

I can only think of the Corsican Mafia that you haven't listed. They weren't conspirators but were said to have taken out the contract to kill Kennedy. This was alleged in the Central TV programme The Men Who Killed Kennedy, which made a big impression on me and lots of others in 1988.

Sadly, I and lots of others missed what happened next. The French Government got in touch. The 3 suspects weren't in Dallas at all. They were respectively in hospital, in prison and in the French Navy. The IBA made Central make another programme where people who knew what they were talking about could respond. Central were deeply embarrassed but nonetheless managed to offload the series to the History Channel, who took it and ran with it, adding a load more episodes to it.