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Norwegian PM fined after breaking Covid rules with birthday party

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rules-birthday

What is intriguing is the police's reasoning for the fine:While police would not have issued a fine in most such cases, they said the prime minister had been at the forefront of the government’s work to impose restrictions. "Though the law is the same for all, all are not equal in front of the law,” the police chief, Ole Saeverud, told a news conference, justifying the fine. “It is therefore correct to issue a fine in order to uphold the general public’s trust in the rules on social restrictions.”

Basically one of the reasons for issuing was the fine was that the PM is held to a greater personal responsibility, which I found to be an interesting tidbit for a politics forum.

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04-10-2021 , 05:37 PM

#77

corpus vile

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The old what's good for me but not for thee doctrine, something similar happened over my way recently enough.

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04-10-2021 , 05:38 PM

#78

tame_deuces

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Originally Posted by corpus vile

The old what's good for me but not for thee doctrine, something similar happened over my way recently enough.

Sure, it's not unusual. What I found interesting is that the fine was issued (partially) because she was the PM, a "normal" person could have gotten off with a warning.

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04-10-2021 , 05:44 PM

#79

Luckbox Inc

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Sounds like the issue is with the law and not the application of it.

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04-10-2021 , 05:45 PM

#80

corpus vile

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The politician over my way had to resign but normally Irish politicians simply brazen it out so his resignation was unusual and definitely due to the importance of curbing the pandemic. Brazening it out for once wasn't an option, happily.

As you said it's because of the position that the highest example must be set and made

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04-13-2021 , 01:18 PM

#81

lozen

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04-13-2021 , 02:57 PM

#82

Cuepee

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It is such an easy problem to fix and I think it absolutely fair to assume the reason they don't is that they want to cash in.

Simply make it a requirement to be completely hands off on all your investment decisions when serving. You simply make it a law that you hand off your decisions to a Money Manager, and the law says it is illegal for you to direct or advise on any trades while in office and that is illegal and a reason to lose the license of the Money Manager if they are caught getting such info.

it is not perfect. They could obviously talk over coffee but at least the risk is there.

And this requires so much less than setting up a blind Trust. You just pick a Money Manager you trust and go hands off until you leave office.

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04-17-2021 , 02:59 PM

#83

Jimmy Proffett

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It would look good on the surface to eliminate stock trading for members of congress. It may curtail insider trading a touch, but you can't stop Pelosi's husband or any significant other of a Congress member from making deals with or without inside knowledge. The element of deniability will always exist.

I guess the interesting thing to look at would be how many members of Congress have suffered losses in the market. Or better yet how their profit margins stack up against top firms.

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04-17-2021 , 03:12 PM

#84

John21

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Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 3,558

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmy Proffett

I guess the interesting thing to look at would be how many members of Congress have suffered losses in the market. Or better yet how their profit margins stack up against top firms.

https://insidertrading.procon.org/vi...stionID=001034

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04-17-2021 , 03:29 PM

#85

Jimmy Proffett

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Damn those Senators are geniuses!

But they're only showing the Senator years during the boom vs a 20-year period for Corporate Insiders. A shame all the x-axis years don't match.

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04-18-2021 , 05:06 AM

#86

lagtight

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Originally Posted by corpus vile

Too bad "Gruesome Newsome" didn't resign as governor here in California after his maskless fund-raising dinner at a fancy restaurant.

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04-18-2021 , 09:51 AM

#87

Cuepee

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Originally Posted by Jimmy Proffett

The same thing applies to Insiders of Companies, but gov't law prevents them and anyone they communicate with from benefitting from that inside knowledge.

Sure we know it happens all the time, but not so directly. Few want a spouse or family member getting caught and going to jail. So it does reduce it quite a bit.

I hate hypocrisy. They should either get rid of all insider trading laws or apply them to themselves. This just reeks of 'rules for thee but not for me'.

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04-20-2021 , 07:07 PM

#88

Luckbox Inc

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68 year old President of Chad dies after injuries sustained fighting rebels on the front line

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno has died in combat after three decades in power, the army said Tuesday, opening a period of uncertainty in a country that is a key strategic ally of the West in a troubled region.

His son was immediately named transitional leader as head of a military council and both the government and parliament were dissolved, but the army vowed "free and democratic" elections after an 18-month transitional period.

The army said Deby had died from injuries sustained as he led his troops against rebels who launched an offensive against his regime from Libya last week.

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04-21-2021 , 02:04 AM

#89

nutella virus

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90 year old hong kong woman scammed out of $32 million by phone. I've heard of these chinese scammers contacting mostly chinese students abroad in a similar fashion, but this is a massive one

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-in-phone-scam

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04-21-2021 , 04:51 AM

#90

tame_deuces

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Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc

[...]
His son was immediately named transitional leader as head of a military council and both the government and parliament were dissolved, but the army vowed "free and democratic" elections after an 18-month transitional period.[...]

If that doesn't fill one with confidence in the democratic process, I don't know what will.

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04-21-2021 , 04:59 AM

#91

tame_deuces

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Originally Posted by nutella virus

Ouch.

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04-21-2021 , 09:56 AM

#92

corpus vile

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Italy's former populist Pm Matteo Salvini to go on trial for migrant kidnapping
https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post...ant-kidnapping

I already predict an acquittal due to his almost certainly Mafia connected lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, who has a knack of getting suspects acquitted in very dodgy circumstances and in the face of absolutely overwhelming evidence.

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04-21-2021 , 12:51 PM

#93

chezlaw

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The convicted terrorist Usman Khan threatened to set off a suicide vest as a bystander confronted him with a narwhal tusk at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall, an inquest has heard.

Darryn Frost, a civil servant, poked the tusk into Khan’s stomach after he had stabbed Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, at a prisoner rehabilitation event in the hall on 29 November 2019.

Giving evidence at an inquest into their deaths, Frost described the subsequent standoff with Khan. He said: “He still held the knives above him, but he glanced down at the narwhal tusk, and he glanced back up at me, and he kind of paused for a while. He seemed puzzled or a bit defeated by having this long object pointed at his belly.”

At this point Khan threatened to set off a suicide vest that later turned out be a fake device. “He said to me: ‘I’m not here for you. I’m here for the police,’” Frost recalled. “The attacker motioned downwards with his head and he said ‘I’ve got a bomb’. I could see what looked like an explosive device around his waist.”

Moments later Steve Gallant, a former prisoner, threw a heavy mahogany chair at Khan, Frost said. Still holding the tusk to Khan’s stomach, Frost then passed the makeshift weapon to Gallant.

Frost went to fetch a second tusk while Gallant used the first tusk to “whack” Khan until it broke into pieces, the inquest was told.

Later, Khan was chased out of the building and towards London Bridge by Frost, Gallant and John Crilly, another former prisoner who had been helped by Learning Together, the organisation hosting the event.

Khan stumbled and fell after Frost hit him with the second tusk, and Crilly sprayed him with a fire extinguisher, the inquest heard. Crilly then hit Khan in the head and hand with the extinguisher and managed to take one of the knives from him, the inquest jury was told.

Frost said he tried to pin down Khan by lying on top of him and tried to prevent his hands from reaching the vest.

“In my mind the police arrival was his trigger to blow everyone up. I shouted something to the effect of ‘I’ve got his hands, he can’t kill anyone else’. I just kept trying to hold his hands away from the belt and away from me,” he said.

Frost said he also wanted to prevent the police from shooting Khan. “I didn’t want him to be shot because his statement made me believe that he wanted to die. And I had seen the chaos he had caused in the hall. And I didn’t want him to have the satisfaction of his choice when he took away others’.”

Frost said he eventually got off Khan when he had doubts about the suicide vest. “I had a moment of hesitation thinking that maybe the bomb is fake. And maybe I should let go … I thought I was risking getting shot in the head.” Moments later Khan was shot dead by the police.

The coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, thanked Frost for what he called his “amazing bravery”.

Crilly, in a statement to the police read to the inquest, described seeing Khan standing with two large knives, shouting and jumping about. “He was going nuts, he was shouting Allahu Akbar,” he said.

Crilly said the struggle with Khan was like a comedy sketch as he used a lectern, an ornamental chair and a fire extinguisher to fend him off. “Obviously it was a lot more serious, but it was bit like Benny Hill. I was just running around trying to distract him. Trying to stay out of the way of the blades, because he kept coming for me.”

He said he tried to distract Khan from stabbing Lisa Ghiggini, an administrator with Learning Together, by discussing his suicide belt. Crilly said: “I’ve got out of a few sticky situations in the past just bluffing it. I got Lisa out the way.”

Stephen Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, read out Crilly’s police statement about the encounter. “You said: ‘What the **** you got there?’ Usman said: ‘I’m going to blow you up.’ You responded: ‘It’s ****ing fake, blow it.’”

Lucraft also thanked Crilly and Gallant for their bravery. The inquest continues.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-tusk-standoff

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04-23-2021 , 02:22 AM

#94

nutella virus

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13 covid patients die after fire breaks out in icu unit near mumbai
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56855387

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04-27-2021 , 05:12 PM

#95

Cuepee

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You better check that old bookcase and return any over due BlockBuster VHS movies!!

Woman Hit With Embezzlement Charges for 20-Year-Old Overdue VHS Tape Rental

My how we’ve forgotten what a big deal late fees used to be. In 1999, an Oklahoman woman rented a VHS tape of the then-hit sitcom, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. About two decades later, that VHS tape has come back to haunt her, after her failure to return it ended up branding her record with felony embezzlement charges.

Caron McBride, now living in Texas, first learned about the charges after heading to a local DMV to change her name on her driver’s license after getting married. She explained to KOKH, a local Fox News affiliate, that the DMV alerted her about an “issue” she had back in her home state: charges accusing her of felony embezzlement of rented property back in 2000. McBride would later tell the station that she (understandably) didn’t even remember renting the movie in the first place.

“I mean, I didn’t try to deceive anyone over Samantha (Sabrina) the Teenage Witch. I swear,” McBride said...

...Thankfully, there is a happy ending here. The Cleveland Court where McBride’s case was initially filed was ordered to drop the charges and expunge her record..

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04-27-2021 , 06:08 PM

#96

tame_deuces

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Originally Posted by nutella virus

13 covid patients die after fire breaks out in icu unit near mumbai
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56855387

That is horrendous.

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04-27-2021 , 11:48 PM

#97

Jimmy Proffett

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuepee

“I mean, I didn’t try to deceive anyone over Samantha (Sabrina) the Teenage Witch. I swear,” McBride said...

...

That is horrendous

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04-28-2021 , 08:46 AM

#98

Cuepee

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^I almost supported throwing the book at her over that alone!

I mean, at least make it a VHS classic like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Old School or Stripes or Eddie Murphy Delirious, back then!

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04-28-2021 , 09:33 AM

#99

lozen

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Originally Posted by Cuepee

^I almost supported throwing the book at her over that alone!

I mean, at least make it a VHS classic like Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Old School or Stripes or Eddie Murphy Delirious, back then!