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demmiblue's JournalFired by Bot at Amazon: 'It's You Against the Machine'
Normandin says Amazon punished him for things beyond his control that prevented him from completing his deliveries, such as locked apartment complexes. He said he took the termination hard and, priding himself on a strong work ethic, recalled that during his military career he helped cook for 250,000 Vietnamese refugees at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.
“I’m an old-school kind of guy, and I give every job 110%,” he said. “This really upset me because we're talking about my reputation. They say I didn’t do the job when I know damn well I did.”
Normandin’s experience is a twist on the decades-old prediction that robots will replace workers. At Amazon, machines are often the boss—hiring, rating and firing millions of people with little or no human oversight.
relates to Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’
Amazon became the world’s largest online retailer in part by outsourcing its sprawling operations to algorithms—sets of computer instructions designed to solve specific problems. For years, the company has used algorithms to manage the millions of third-party merchants on its online marketplace, drawing complaints that sellers have been booted off after being falsely accused of selling counterfeit goods and jacking up prices.
Increasingly, the company is ceding its human-resources operation to machines as well, using software not only to manage workers in its warehouses but to oversee contract drivers, independent delivery companies and even the performance of its office workers. People familiar with the strategy say Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos believes machines make decisions more quickly and accurately than people, reducing costs and giving Amazon a competitive advantage.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out
Brent Terhune: I am a Toyota owner and I have something to say
https://twitter.com/BrentTerhune/status/1409408492797059073More men were abused by former Ohio State doctor, new lawsuit says
Source: ESPN/AP
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Twenty-nine more men are suing Ohio State University over its failure to stop sexual abuse decades ago by team doctor Richard Strauss, who died in 2005.
One plaintiff in the federal lawsuit filed Monday alleges Strauss abused him during more than 10 medical exams in the 1980s, starting when he was a 16-year-old high school wrestler whose team competed on the Ohio State campus. He said he was also later abused by Strauss during required medical exams while playing football and wrestling for OSU.
A different wrestler in the lawsuit alleges that Strauss fondled him during more than 50 medical visits.
More than 400 alumni have raised similar allegations in lawsuits against the university, alleging abuse throughout the doctor's two decades at OSU. A law firm investigation conducted for Ohio State concluded employees were aware of concerns about Strauss as early as 1979 but didn't stop him.
Read more: https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/31732060/more-men-were-abused-former-ohio-state-doctor-new-lawsuit-says
Walmart Unveils Low-Price Insulin as More Patients With Diabetes Struggle to Pay for Dr
Source: NBC New York
Walmart said Tuesday it will offer a less expensive version of insulin that could better fit into the budgets of millions of Americans who don't have health insurance or struggle to pay for the lifesaving diabetes drug.
Starting this week, the retailer will sell an exclusive private-label version of analog insulin, ReliOn NovoLog, to adults and children who have a prescription. The drug will be available at its membership-based Sam's Club in mid-July. The insulin will cost about $73 for a vial or about $86 for a package of prefilled insulin pens.
The insulin is the latest addition to Walmart's private brand of diabetes products, ReliOn. It already sells a low-price version of insulin for about $25 as part of the line, but that is an older formulation that some doctors and advocates say is not as effective at managing blood sugar swings as newer versions of insulin, called analogs.
With the move, Walmart will bring its longtime focus on "everyday low price" to a drug that is a medical necessity for a growing number of Americans. More than 34 million people in the U.S. — or nearly 11% of the population — have diabetes, and about 1.5 million Americans are diagnosed every year, according to the American Diabetes Association. That percentage is about 14% among Walmart shoppers, said Warren Moore, Walmart's vice president of health and wellness, on a call.
Read more: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/walmart-unveils-low-price-insulin-as-more-patients-with-diabetes-struggle-to-pay-for-drug/3130120/
https://twitter.com/WalmartInc/status/1409845360592396290
Jill Biden on the cover of August's Vogue (EDITED to add the cover story):
https://twitter.com/Kevinliptakcnn/status/1409841243383808000
When Jill Biden visits community colleges, which is a lot these days, she is received in highly choreographed settings by a governor, say, or members of the public as the nation’s first lady. But to administrators and teachers, she is Dr. Jill Biden, college professor. At Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, there were pink and white flowers set out everywhere, befitting her visit; they even matched her white dress and pink jacket. But there was also a “Welcome Dr. Biden” sign so huge that the period on the Dr. was as big as her head. It felt like a subtle rebuke to that scolding she was subjected to back in December for using the title she has every right to.
Indeed, in all the places she goes lately she is honored as a woman with several degrees who has worked really hard her whole life at the most relatable job there is. Everyone has a favorite teacher, after all. On her visit to the Navajo Nation in April, Dr. Biden was introduced by someone I came to think of as the Ruth Bader Ginsburg of Indian Country: chief justice of the Navajo Nation Supreme Court JoAnn Jayne, a tiny woman with hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, wearing Doc Martens: “Dr. Biden, millions reap inspiration from your quote ‘Teaching isn’t just what I do; it is who I am.’?” In Birmingham, Alabama, she was introduced by a lawyer, Liz Huntley, a sexual-abuse survivor whose parents were drug dealers. “I want to thank Dr. Biden from the bottom of my heart for the role that she plays not just as the first lady…but for her heart for educating. She told me she’s grading papers on the plane, y’all! What? Who does that?! You know, they say being an educator is a calling…in your life that you can’t resist, and she just won’t let it go.”
The December debate over titles seems awfully small in the face of all of this: Jill Biden opening schools, visiting vaccination sites, traveling to red states to sell the American Rescue Plan, telling folks that “help is here.” The role she’s fulfilling on these visits is, in many ways, neither first lady nor professor but a key player in her husband’s administration, a West Wing surrogate and policy advocate. “An underestimated asset,” as Mary Jordan, the Washington Post reporter who’s written a book about Melania Trump, put it to me. “It’s hard to imagine Joe doing this without her.”
Which is not to say that Dr. Biden, who is constitutionally shy, doesn’t take special delight in these visits. She becomes looser, goofier, and more expansive. You generally hear her before you see her because she is often laughing. She is, quite simply, a joy multiplier. As part of her elevator pitch for free community college—part of the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan President Biden proposed to Congress in April—she likes to talk about one of her most dedicated students, a military interpreter from Afghanistan who came to America to start a new life. “A few semesters ago...I got a text from her—it was like six o’clock in the morning. ‘On my way to the hospital to have my baby, research paper will be late.’ To which I replied, Excuses, excuses.” It gets a big laugh, even from the jaded press corps.
https://www.vogue.com/article/first-lady-dr-jill-biden-profile
Breaking: Maricopa County announces it will not use any of the voting equipment that has been...
County was required under subpoenas to give most of the $6 million in equipment it leases from Dominion to the Senate for the audit.
https://twitter.com/JenAFifield/status/1409643127166541828
Former Congresswoman Tweets Bizarre Image Stating That 'Zionists' Did 9/11
The Final Piece of the Puzzle . . . pic.twitter.com/OCmpB9d6A0
— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) June 28, 2021
The tweet repeats a favorite claim of some 9/11 conspiracists, who believe Israel perpetrated the attacks to lure the U.S. into a Middle Eastern war and destroy rival countries. A corollary to this theory stated that no Jews died during the 9/11 attacks because those who worked in the towers had foreknowledge. This is also wrong.
McKinney has a history of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Last year, she misrepresented the contents of the article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which referred to a database that identified 4.8 million victims by name, while the rest “have yet to be discovered, and may never be known.” But that’s not how McKinney described the data.
So, the figure wasn’t six million after all?? What about those punished and even imprisoned for saying so?? Is this a “You can’t say, but I can” kind of thing?? https://t.co/14bHxV0hOX
— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) May 16, 2020
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/former-congresswoman-tweets-bizarre-image-stating-that-zionists-did-9-11/
Documents Show Ivanka Trump Didn't Testify Accurately in Inauguration Scandal Case
The Trump family has trouble with depositions. In 2007 testimony, Donald Trump was repeatedly shown to be a liar. In February, Donald Trump Jr. was deposed in the Trump inauguration scandal lawsuit, and on several key points, under oath, he provided false testimony. A review of documents filed in that case and other material obtained by Mother Jones shows that Ivanka Trump also testified inaccurately during her deposition in this lawsuit.
The inauguration probe was launched last year by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC. He has alleged that Trump’s inauguration committee misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family. As Racine put it, the lawsuit maintains “that the Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with the Trump family to grossly overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel… The Committee also improperly used non-profit funds to throw a private party [at the Trump Hotel] for the Trump family costing several hundred thousand dollars.” In short, the attorney general accused the Trump gang of major grifting, and he is seeking to recover the money paid to the Trump Hotel so those funds can be used for real charitable purposes.
During a December 1 deposition—in which she swore to tell the truth—Ivanka Trump, the eldest daughter of Donald Trump who was an executive at the Trump Organization before becoming a White House adviser to her father, was asked if she had any “involvement in the process of planning the inauguration.” She replied, “I really didn’t have an involvement.” Ivanka testified that if her “opinion was solicited” regarding an inauguration event, she “would give feedback to my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion.” And that was as far as her participation went.
But this wasn’t accurate, according to the documents, which indicate she was part of the decision-making for various aspects of the inauguration, including even the menus for events.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/documents-show-ivanka-trump-didnt-testify-accurately-in-inauguration-scandal-case/
Supreme Court won't hear dispute over bathrooms for transgender students
Source: NBC
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the issue of whether the nation's schools must allow students to use the bathroom that match their gender identities.
The court declined, without comment, to hear the case of Gavin Grimm, who has been at the center of a long legal battle with the school board in Gloucester County, Virginia. Grimm was born female but identified as male after his freshman year in high school, legally changing his name and beginning hormone therapy.
The principal at first gave him permission to use the boys' bathroom, but the school board later adopted a policy saying restrooms were "limited to the corresponding biological genders."
"For school officials, as for parents, the question how best to respond to a teenager who identifies with the opposite biological sex is often excruciatingly difficult," lawyers for the school district told the Supreme Court. But the privacy rights of millions of students are at risk if their transgender classmates are allowed to use bathrooms matching their gender identities, they said.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-won-t-hear-dispute-over-bathrooms-transgender-students-n1272513
McConnell: "Unless Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi walk-back their threats ... then President Biden
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1409499497386885120
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