#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
I’ll admit it, I did find this SJW’s take on the limits of the acceptable to be amusing.
Boy oh boy! Today is a good day for some Chuck Dixon comics! Like his legendary Nightwing series.
I wish president Donald Trump the best.
Oh, never mind. I will read something else….
Truly unacceptable.
DK wants to know why an unlimited number of people from different nations should not be permitted to immigrate even if they accept Western Civilization Values:
I am trying to understand how to take the leap intellectually from a Civic Nationalist to a Nationalist. My view thus far has been that as long as people from different nations immigrate, take on and accept Western Civilization Values that there is no reason that we should not accept them into the country. Do you have a particular blog or video posted that would give me more insight into why my view is incorrect.
Thank you for all the free information you have provided. I was a JBP and Ben Shapiro fan before you and you have open my eyes to how deceitful they actually are so thank you.
Go ahead. Demonstrate what you’ve learned here over the years. Seeing as I’ve already co-written a book on the subject, I’ll leave this one to you all.
The 2nd Commandment of SJW: Thou shalt not hold the Diverse to account, for they are innocent of evil and devoid of all responsibility for their actions. Do not violate it, lest you be discredited, disemployed, disavowed, deplatformed, and depublished.
Jordanian-American journalist and writer Natasha Tynes faced Twitter wrath after she alerted the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to a black woman in a Metro uniform eating on a train presumably on her way to work. Tynes, who has since deleted her tweet, reportedly wrote: “I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope @wmata responds.”
“When I asked the employee about this, her response was, ‘worry about yourself,’” Tynes said.
It did not take long for WMATA to respond. The transit authority asked Tynes to provide the exact time and location of her encounter and thanked her for helping to “make sure all Metro employees are held accountable.”
But that was only the beginning of the story, as Twitter erupted with outraged posts accusing Tynes of being a snitch. The backlash mostly focused on the race and gender of the employee, with many calling out Tynes for contributing to the oppression of women of color.
Shortly afterwards, Tynes locked her account – but the Twitter evisceration was not the end of the story for her. Rare Birds, the publishing house that was supposed to distribute Tynes’ novel, said it considers the author’s behavior “horrible” and has “no desire to be involved with anyone who thinks that it’s acceptable to jeopardize a person’s safety and employment in this way.”
In a statement on Friday, her publisher, California Coldblood, said it was discussing “appropriate next steps” with their distributor. With the backlash showing no signs of waning on Saturday, the company announced that it was “halting all shipments from the warehouse, and postponing the book’s publication date” while working on the “next steps to officially cancel the book’s publication.”
The 1st Commandment of SJW, of course is this: The Narrative is the truth and the reality. Thou shalt have no other truths before it.
You can now preorder David the Good’s latest in the Good Guide to Gardening series, Free Plants for Everyone, from Amazon.
Do you want to grow apples from seed? Or learn to graft? Or germinate seeds from that awesome old honey locust tree in your Grandpa’s backyard?
In Free Plants for Everyone, you will learn tried and true methods of plant propagation that will allow you to grow pretty much anything you like without giving your hard-earned money to plant nurseries. Gardening expert David The Good takes the mystery out of plant propagation and shares propagation secrets from the nursery business as well from his many years of experience.
Whether you’re interested in starting a plant nursery, saving money on gardening, saving old fruit tree varieties or simply want lots of plants to give away, this book is for you. Start plants from cuttings, seeds, division and more. Includes information on propagating and saving seeds from 101 different species, as well as pen and ink illustrations by the author.
This settlement of a series of arbitrations might prove educational for some readers here:
Uber Settles ‘Majority’ of Arbitrations for at Least $146M
Total settlements are between $146 million and $170 million A “large majority” of the more than 60,000 Uber Inc. drivers filing arbitration claims for employment misclassification will receive settlement payments as part of agreements reached by the company, Uber said in a regulatory filing May 9.
12,501 arbitration claims filed out of a potential 60,000. The filing fees alone could have cost Uber $75 million. Since the arbitrators can get paid as much as $9k a day, well, it’s not exactly hard to figure out why Uber quickly decided to settle for 2x the amount of the filing fees.
Interestingly enough, Uber initially tried to avoid paying the filing fees for the very process they contractually required. Check out this article from December 2018.
Uber fought as hard as any company in America in the past few years to assure the enforceability of its contractual arbitration provisions. When drivers who had signed contracts with Uber attempted to sue the company for wage and hour violations, Uber and its lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher won key rulings from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that effectively ended the drivers’ quest to litigate their claims in court – or even to arbitrate their claims as a class. For Uber drivers, the only way to go after the company for alleged state and federal employment law violations was to file an independent arbitration claim.
Amazingly, thousands of Uber drivers did just that. Between August and November of this year, about 12,500 drivers, many of whom had been class members in cases in which Uber successfully moved to compel arbitration, served individual arbitration demands on Uber, claiming the company failed to pay them the federally-mandated minimum wage and failed to pay overtime wages. These thousands of drivers filed their arbitration demands at JAMS, as mandated in Uber’s contracts.
But nothing has happened in almost all of the drivers’ cases. Of the 12,500 arbitration demands filed by Uber drivers, the company has paid the requisite JAMS initial filing fee in just 296 cases, according to a newly filed petition by drivers seeking to compel Uber to pay the fees JAMS requires to launch arbitration. So far, arbitrators have been appointed in only 47 of the cases drivers have brought against Uber – and Uber has paid the arbitrator’s nonrefundable $1,500 retainer fee in a mere six cases.
In other words, Uber caved after paying out $67,750, then doing the relevant math and realizing that they were already on the hook for an absolute minimum $34,375,000, which would almost certainly have exploded into at least $318 million even if every single arbitration was kept to three days or less… not including legal fees.
More interesting information, courtesy of an exhibit that quotes the JAMS general counsel and explicitly points out that corporations can’t avoid playing by the rules they impose on their employees and users.
In a Jan. 23 notice to Uber and the drivers, JAMS general counsel and national arbitration committee cochair Sheri Eisner noted Uber’s request that JAMS review the role of the drivers’ firm Keller Lenkner in a consolidated proceeding, before Uber is required to pay initiation fees in all of the cases.
Eisner said that’s not how JAMS procedures work. “While it is not our preference to force the parties to litigate these issues seriatim, our policies and procedures, absent party agreement otherwise, require that we collect a filing fee in each case to be pursued,” she wrote. “Further, the parties’ arbitration agreement appears to clearly prohibit collective determination of any issue absent party agreement … Therefore, absent party agreement otherwise, JAMS must proceed in the normal course, following receipt of filing fees by commencing and appointing an arbitrator to each case.”
As Eisner said in the notice, JAMS had put a hold on arbitration demands for about 8,500 drivers in California while a single arbitration weighed Uber’s opposition to the post hoc vice admission of Keller Lenkner in 40 cases in which Uber has already paid initiation fees. The hearing officer, according to the JAMS notice, has determined that his decision on the pro hac vice application will apply only in the 40 cases before him, not across all of the 8,500 arbitration demands. The JAMS GC said that the hold on thousands of other California arbitrations is now lifted.
Eisner’s notice ended with language that’s extremely important for the future of mass arbitration. “JAMS is mindful of the significant resources (both in time and expense) expended by all parties and counsel in determining the best path forward to resolve these matters in multiple jurisdictions,” she wrote. “JAMS strongly encourages the parties to consider engaging a third party (whether a mediator, arbitrator or administrative representative) to assist the parties in addressing the variety of process issues presented by numerous cases proceeding in multiple jurisdictions.”
JAMS, in other words, isn’t going to help Uber out of the jam it’s facing as a result of imposing mandatory individual arbitration agreements on its drivers. Based on Eisner’s notice, Uber can’t rely on a consolidated JAMS proceeding to decide even recurring threshold issues, such as whether the drivers can rely on the law firm that filed their arbitration demands. For Uber – and any future mass arbitration defendant – hoping to cut the cost of litigating thousands of individual arbitrations by resolving across-the-board concerns in one proceeding, the JAMS letter makes it clear that the arbitration service isn’t going to bend its rules and overlook contract language to allow that.
The lesson, as always, is this: even if you write the contract and stack everything in your favor, you’d better not break it with thousands of people or you’re going to pay a lot of money for the privilege.
Check your email. Please follow the directions, do NOT ask any questions here and do NOT email any questions to me. All the relevant questions will be addressed in detail at the proper time later this month.
UPDATE: I will be sending out an email Thursday night to the hundreds of respondents. The entire team is blown away by the strength of your response. Thank you all.
UPDATE: There are now 50 40 10 5 0 slots left. Thanks to everyone who is participating. Please follow the emailed instructions to get registered and approved ASAP.
WordPress, which recently deplatformed Chateau Heartiste, really needs to hire better lawyers. Consider the two following sections of its Terms of Use.
15. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.
Except to the extent any applicable law provides otherwise, the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions. The proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County, California.16. Arbitration Agreement
Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under the Agreement shall be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules. The arbitration shall take place in San Francisco, California, in the English language and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court. The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce the Agreement shall be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees.
So, WordPress requires arbitration through the JAMS system, and they require the arbitration to take place in California. Not only that, but they declare that whoever wins can claim costs and attorneys’s fees. This, of course, is meant to dissuade people like Heartiste from taking them to arbitration.
But not so fast. JAMS enforces the following standards, which are based on California law.
Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards
JAMS will administer arbitrations pursuant to mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses between companies and consumers only if the contract arbitration clause and specified applicable rules comply with the following minimum standards of fairness.
The consumer must have a right to an in-person hearing in his or her hometown area.
With respect to the cost of the arbitration, when a consumer initiates arbitration against the company, the only fee required to be paid by the consumer is $250, which is approximately equivalent to current Court filing fees. All other costs must be borne by the company, including any remaining JAMS Case Management Fee and all professional fees for the arbitrator’s services. When the company is the claiming party initiating an arbitration against the consumer, the company will be required to pay all costs associated with the arbitration.
In California, the arbitration provision may not require the consumer to pay the fees and costs incurred by the opposing party if the consumer does not prevail.
In other words, Chateau (or any of his readers) can bring an arbitration against WordPress for $250, can do it in his hometown area rather than on WordPress’s turf, and cannot be forced to pay costs or legal fees even if he loses.
Always read the fine print.
Ben Shapiro is the famous, fast-talking pundit who regularly ‘owns’ aggressive campus students with his quick wit and rapid repartee. Alas, Shapiro isn’t so ‘crazy smart’ when he comes up against difficult questions from a real interviewer. Yesterday he just couldn’t cope with an interrogation from the BBC’s Andrew Neil. He decided that Neil must be a typical BBC leftist and had an epic tantrum. Oh dear — should have done your research Ben. The idea that Andrew Neil, who just so happens to also be chairman of The Spectator, is some sort of rabid leftist is hilarious to anybody who has a clue about British media. As Cockburn knows, he is often attacked for being too unacceptably un-left for the BBC. He was just doing what interviewers should do: challenging his guest to justify his views.
Check your email. Please follow the directions, do NOT ask any questions here and do NOT email any questions to me. All the relevant questions will be addressed in detail at the proper time later this month.
UPDATE: I will be sending out an email Thursday night to the hundreds of respondents. The entire team is blown away by the strength of your response. Thank you all.
UPDATE: There are now 50 40 10 5 slots left, so if you want to be involved, this is the time to jump in. Also, assuming that everyone follows through, the light just flashed green. There is no need to email asking for further instructions. They will arrive in due course.
The fifth episode of Barcelona Life is now available on UnauthorizedTV. Farley and Elizabeth go in search of a Michelin-starred restaurant in an extremely unlikely location. Disclaimer: several bottles of wine were harmed in the making of this program.