@spruce112358 said
Agree. The Swiss version of Democracy is excellent in a lot of ways.

The main complaint I've heard from the Swiss about their society is a funny one: 'so damn perfect, it's boring!' I've especially heard this from younger people...

Fiscal responsibility is essential, but thorough-going across-the-board direct democracy, as in Switzerland, is not scale-able. Wouldn’t work in country with 300 million inhabitants. Switzerland has a Population roughly of the size of Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg (combined), so direct democracy works here.

@no1marauder

And that happened after he was sworn into office?

@no1marauder said
Actually, they were committed while he was in office from February 14, 2017 to December 5, 2017. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-indictment-34-felony-counts-charges-new-york-read/

This case is being prosecuted by the County of New York DA, not the DOJ.

Weren't the hush money payments made during the campaign, in 2016, before he was in the WH?

@Russ

TU from me, Russ. It's tedious work, ... I do know a little bit about coding.

@anglian said
Can we have a check flag to prevent non-subscribers from accepting new challenges?

Despite setting the game name to 'for subscribers only' I still get nonsubscribers accepting ..... is that something about nonsubscribers that they can't read English?!

If there was a check flag that excluded non subscribers that would be most helpful

I don't understand what the issue is. You do not have to accept any challenge; any game can be unilaterally terminated with the first three moves.

@wajoma said
Could be construed as a racist remark, Haiti being the first country to gain independence from the colonisers. SA is heading the same way.

Well, that speaks volumes about you and says nothing about me or Haiti.

@no1marauder said
There's a table in this article covering dozens of recent cases where people were charged with violations of NY Penal Law sec. 175.10. https://www.justsecurity.org/85605/survey-of-past-new-york-felony-prosecutions-for-falsifying-business-records/

Many pled guilty to lesser charges, others had multiple convictions of other sections of the Penal Law. The closest case to ...[text shortened]... f Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree only after trial but his sentence isn't mentioned.

Quoted from your second link:

<<
§ 175.10). Although the jury acquitted defendant of insurance fraud, which is the crime the People alleged that defendant intended to commit or conceal by falsifying business records, the jury could "convict defendant of falsifying business records if the jury concluded that defendant had intended to commit or conceal another crime, even if he was not convicted of the other crime" (People v McCumskey, 12 AD3d 1145, 1146 [4th Dept 2004]; see People v Crane, 87 [*2]AD3d 1386, 1386 [4th Dept 2011], lv denied 17 NY3d 952 [2011]).
>>

My emphasis. Well, that is the clincher, isn't it?

@no1marauder said
Actually, they were committed while he was in office from February 14, 2017 to December 5, 2017. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-indictment-34-felony-counts-charges-new-york-read/

This case is being prosecuted by the County of New York DA, not the DOJ.

OOps, sorry, I'm confusing two separate cases. There are so many ...

😆

@no1marauder


On topic: are people convicted of falsifying financial records of this magnitude sometimes imprisoned, or are fines the usual sentence ?

@averagejoe1 said
Sorry. But a simple question, for you. Do you think the chargfes against Trump are politically motivated, or, NOT politically motivated?

The alleged crimes were committed before he assumed office. The court cases were put on hold while he was in office because a sitting president cannot be indicted. He would have been prosecuted whether or not he had ever held office. Ergo, not politically motivated. Of course, his political opponents are pleased that he is finally being prosecuted, but that is not the motivation of DoJ.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/20/africa/nigerian-chess-champion-breaks-world-record-for-longest-chess-marathon-intl/index.html



Kudos.

@KellyJay

We are all creatures who live by faith, and no matter how you view the world and its history that will not change.

Yeah, we get it: you think science is just an alternative belief system which has a god-shaped hole in it. You don't understand how science works, although this has been explained to you numerous times, with the patience of saints.

Scientific truths are all in principle revisable, given evidence to which we may someday have access. This means that a hypothesis, in order to be scientific, must be falsifiable (under some conceivable testable or experimental conditions).

That God (any god, yours or some other) created the universe, or anything in it, is not a falsifiable hypothesis. There is no test or experiment which could establish this or its contrary.

For example, in order to establish that God (some god or other) was necessary to get life started, we would have to have access to a statistically significant sample of alternate universes, 1,000 of them let us say, half of which had been created by a god (some god or other) and half not, wait until each universe collapsed back into a Big Crunch or dissipated into cold dark nothingness, and then see whether a) life occurred spontaneously through mindless processes in any universe not created by a god, or b) life existed only in those which had been created by a god. That is how science works.

What you claim to be evidence for the existence of a creator God is not evidence in any sense relevant to science. What you offer is speculative, but not testable. It evidently seems compelling to you, but it isn't falsifiable, and therefore not scientific.

@divegeester said
Man kills himself by setting himself on fire outside of Trump trial … and throws conspiracy leaflets into the air while doing it.

One less Trump supporting loon I suppose.

Any of you guys here thinking of dying for your Fat Orange Jesus?

https://news.sky.com/story/man-who-set-himself-on-fire-outside-trump-trial-has-died-13119017

This is what it takes to steal the limelight, if only for a few seconds, from the acknowledged master of mendacity.

@rookie54 said
a man reveals a bottle of liquid flame
and cackles in a language nought yet heard by human ears
as he brandishes the ignition source the anticipation of the crowd grows

as one entity, they train their video cameras upon the spectacle
one spoilsport calls for help

This is what it takes to steal the limelight, if only for a few seconds, from the acknowledged master of mendacity.

@mott-the-hoople said
cant wait till they produce the victim of this horrible crime 😂

The 'victims' are all the corporations which did not falsify their records and were thereby unfairly disadvantaged by the cheater.

That is why a chess player who cheats with an engine is barred from an entire tournament, instead of having merely his one cheated-game result annulled.

The 'victim' is the integrity of the system.