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ToaKraka

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joined 2022 September 04 19:34:26 UTC
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User ID: 108

ToaKraka

Dislikes you

1 follower   follows 2 users   joined 2022 September 04 19:34:26 UTC

					

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User ID: 108

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An earlier AP article provides more details.

The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called National Front at the time.

The European Parliament’s suspicions were further heightened when a 2015 organizational chart showed that 16 European lawmakers and 20 parliamentary assistants held official positions within the party — roles unrelated to their supposed duties as EU parliamentary staff.

A subsequent investigation found that some assistants were contractually linked to different MEPs than the ones they were actually working for, suggesting a scheme to divert European funds to pay party employees in France.

Investigating judges concluded that Le Pen, as party leader, orchestrated the allocation of parliamentary assistance budgets and instructed MEPs to hire individuals holding party positions. These individuals were presented as EU parliamentary assistants, but in reality, were allegedly working for the National Rally in various capacities.

The European Parliament’s legal team is seeking 2.7 million euros in compensation for financial and reputational damages. This figure corresponds to the 3.7 million euros allegedly defrauded through the scheme, minus the 1 million euros already paid back.

Le Pen, whose party has softened its anti-EU stance in recent years, denies wrongdoing.

“Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition,” she previously said. “You ask me if I can define the tasks I assigned to my assistants; it depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination.”

Despite her denial, her party has already paid back 1 million euros to the European Parliament, the Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said. Of that amount, 330,000 euros were directly linked to Marine Le Pen’s alleged misuse of funds.

Is there a better way to do spoilers on TheMotte?

There's a "formatting help" button right under the text-input area.

My firm plan for retirement is to die alone and unloved.

WHEREAS the real property generally known as 123 Main Street, Townsville, KS costs approximately 500 k$; and

WHEREAS the person generally known as Mihow wishes to buy the property; and

WHEREAS Mihow has liquid wealth amounting to approximately 40 k$; and

WHEREAS the person generally known as Elongated Muskrat has liquid wealth in extremely large amount;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that, not more than seven days after the signing of this agreement, Muskrat shall send to Mihow, by wire or by cashier's check, 460 k$, creating a debt owed by Mihow to Muskrat; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, not more than 60 days after the signing of this agreement, Mihow shall purchase the property; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, on the first day of every month after the signing of this agreement, the debt shall accrue interest at an APR (annual percentage rate) equal to the prime rate most recently published by Everytown Bank, NA (compounded monthly); and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that at least N/30 of the debt shall have been repaid by Mihow not more than N years after the signing of this agreement, for every integer value of N from 1 to 30; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if Mihow fails to repay the debt, then it shall be secured by the property first, and by the remainder of Mihow's property second.

In witness thereof, Mihow and Muskrat affix their signatures below.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is a shitpost.

under [obscure legal technicality]

Reuters:

Imamoglu has faced legal challenges throughout his career, being sentenced in 2022 to 2-1/2 years in prison for insulting public officials, though an appeals court has yet to rule in the case.

Another case last year accused him of tender-rigging. His supporters view these charges as politically motivated attempts to sideline him, a claim Erdogan and the AKP deny.

The latest charges are the most serious. The Istanbul prosecutor's office has said 100 people, including journalists and businessmen, are suspected of involvement in corrupt municipal tenders.

Another investigation accuses Imamoglu and six others of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.

Adding to the pressure, Istanbul University annulled Imamoglu’s degree this week. If the decision is upheld by a court, it could block him from running in the 2028 presidential elections.

Trust me that's the very last of your worries. Two of my best school friends, then college age, went backpacking there for several months with very mediocre English and no knowledge of any local language.

That doesn't sound very enjoyable to me.

IMO getting a serious gf is a much more sensible option and very realistic for a well-earning westerner now matter how much you struggle with western women

I am not seeking a romantic partner. After around a half-dozen attempted friendships in college, I concluded that friendship was not worth the effort—and romance is just deeper friendship, so it would be even worse.

Also living expenses are quite low, so even apart from any dating a great place for young retirees to stay or travel indefinitely.

My calculations indicate that I will have enough money to retire in the US two years from now, so I have no need to move to the jungle.

Article

Willandra is therefore a pivotal place in human history. And yet, as you read this, those human fossils are being reburied. Mungo Man and Lady are already gone; around a hundred other remains are following. All are being destroyed, like medieval books burned in a pyre.

Why? Politics and guilt. At the behest of some Aboriginal groups, the precious bones of the ‘first peoples’ are being reburied. This is occurring in the traditional way and in secret. The locations will then be willingly forgotten. As one Aboriginal elder, Ivan Johnson, has put it: ‘It’s been a long wait: 50 years to bury our ancestors.’

Some opinions issued by the US Supreme Court have been fairly long. But have you ever devoted any thought to the International Court of Justice?

The ICJ's opinion on the legality of the secession of Kosovo from Serbia (penned by President Judge Owada of Japan, for a majority of nine against a minority of five) is 54 pages—far from outrageous. (Compare the US Supreme Court's recent 42-page majority opinion regarding Trump's presidential immunity.) But there also are nine other opinions from individual judges. Of those, the longest (a concurrence from Judge Cançado Trindade of Brazil) is 95 pages by itself, and the other eight (three concurrences and five dissents) take up 78 pages in total. And you can add to that both a 31-page summary of all the opinions and an eight-page press release super-summarizing the majority opinion. That's a total of 266 A4 pages—easily enough to make a book! (The aforementioned US Supreme Court stuff has only 64 pages of separate opinions and 8 pages of summary, for a total of 114 letter-size pages. Note also that the US Supreme Court uses significantly larger margins than the ICJ does.)


Programmers love semantic versioning.

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

  1. MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes

  2. MINOR version when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner

  3. PATCH version when you make backward compatible bug fixes

Additional labels for pre-release and build metadata are available as extensions to the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.

Can this be applied to fiction writing?

Given a version number MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, increment the:

  1. MAJOR version when you make a retcon

  2. MINOR version when you add information in a backward compatible manner (e. g., a new chapter)

  3. PATCH version when you make backward compatible fixes (e. g., to English or continuity errors)

Additional labels for pre-release (e. g., Patreon-exclusive vs. public) and build (e. g., HTML/EPUB vs. Word/PDF, or fanfiction.net vs. archiveofourown.org) metadata are available as extensions to the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH format.

Source (from last week)

Sounds expensive either way.

My signature is merely my name (first, abbreviated middle, last) in ordinary cursive. I personally like how the capital letters look, but it does perhaps take a few seconds longer to write than would be ideal.

Flying to the brothels of Nevada would cost me next to nothing. But it's my understanding that the extremely low supply of (legal) prostitutes in Nevada results in high prices and low quality. If this is the only sex I will ever have, why not go to a proper free market in order to buy it at low prices and high quality, rather than rewarding the Nevada government for its stupid policies?

Wikipedia indicates that, other than the US, Australia is the only English-speaking country where brothels are legal. (In Britain, prostitution is legal, but brothels and advertising prostitution are not.)

It appears that brothels are illegal in Thailand (1 2). Randomly walking the streets of a country where I don't speak the language in order to look for women of widely-varying hotness at opaque prices (and, if this is the only sex that I will ever have, why not go for the hottest ones?) does not sound very enjoyable, in comparison to being able to pick from a lineup of brothel-curated employees at transparent prices that are posted on an English-language website.

They don't speak much English in Southeast Asia.

Australian brothels advertise prices around 200 Australian dollars (130 US dollars) for 45 minutes of time. The majority of the cost would be the plane tickets, which I agree probably are not worth it.

The evidence he provided doesn’t to date confirm that.

He has now provided evidence.

A person who is not interested in sports will not spend time (1) looking at top-tier athletes and (2) comparing their musculature in detail.

Mike Walz

Note: Waltz (Michael) ≠ Walz (Timothy)

Yes, at age 31 I have fucked exactly zero hawt gurls. Unfortunately, the rumors of magical wizard powers are greatly exaggerated. (I may spend five kilodollars on a trip to the brothels of Australia after I retire two years from now, but I probably will not be able to justify that expense.)

I think his account is perfectly reasonable. I personally was not aware of the huge strength differences between men and women until around age 25, when I stumbled across this transcript of a Senate hearing on the topic of adding women to combat units in the US armed forces. I watched exactly zero sports on television.

Did his school never do the Presidential fitness tests?

I don't think my high school did.

Associated Press: UN judge from Uganda is convicted in the UK of forcing a woman into slavery

A British jury on Thursday convicted a United Nations judge of forcing a young woman to work as a slave after tricking her into coming to the U.K.

Prosecutors said Lydia Mugambe made the Ugandan woman work as her maid and provide childcare for free.

Mugambe, who is also a high court judge in Uganda, was studying for a doctorate in law at the University of Oxford when the offenses occurred. According to her United Nations profile page, she was appointed to one of the global body’s international courts in May 2023.

Prosecution lawyer Caroline Haughey told jurors during the trial that Mugambe “exploited and abused” the victim, deceiving her into coming to the U.K. and taking advantage of her lack of understanding of her rights.

Prosecutors said Mugambe arranged for a contact in the Ugandan High Commission in London to get the woman a visa, under the guise that she would be working in the household and office of the diplomat. Once she arrived in Britain, she was taken to Mugambe’s home and made to work as an unpaid nanny. Her passport and visa document were taken away from her.

The victim eventually sought help from a friend, which led to police becoming involved.

Mugambe, 49, denied the charges. Jurors at Oxford Crown Court convicted her on all four charges she faced, including an immigration offense, forcing someone to work and conspiracy to intimidate a witness.

There were gasps from the public gallery as the verdicts were read out, and the court was cleared after Mugambe appeared unwell. She is due to be sentenced on May 2.

“Lydia Mugambe used her position to exploit a vulnerable young woman, controlling her freedom and making her work without payment,” said Eran Cutliffe of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division. “Thanks to the victim’s courage in coming forward it has been possible to bring Ms. Mugambe to justice and be held accountable for her actions.”

Reuters: Ugandan UN judge convicted in Britain after 'slavery' trial

Lydia Mugambe was appointed in 2023 to be a judge of the U.N. International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which performs functions of previous tribunals relating to war crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Canadian territories are too small in terms of population to be reasonable states. The three Canadian territories combined have only 130,000 people, despite their huge land area. That's significantly fewer than the least populous Canadian province's 180,000 people, and far fewer than the least populous US state's 590,000 people.

Prosecutorial discretion is a bad thing. If all laws were enforced to the hilt 100 percent of the time, then legislators would be very quickly incentivized by public outcry to make the definitions and the penalties for those crimes more reasonable.

Crystal Cafe is the female (femcel?) equivalent to 4chan's /r9k/ (incel?) board.

So am I. You don't need to be a lawyer in order to find interesting court opinions.