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Cake day: March 29th, 2025
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15·1 day agoUSAID spent $38.1 billion in fiscal year 2023. (1)
Sounds like a lot of money, right? Well, actually no. It’s less than 1% of the US budget. In 2024, total federal spending was $6.8 trillion. (2).
To give you a perspective:
Since October 7th, the United States spent $17.9 billion dollars on military aid to Israel (3). Israel is a rich country with universal healthcare (4).
US millionaires and billionaires evade more than $150 billion a year in taxes, according to the head of the IRS. (5). Gabriel Zucman, a highly respected economist (6) came to a similar conclusion. In a recent paper, Zucman found the richest americans evade taxes on 25% of their income (7)
According to leaked tax returns, in 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. And he paid no income tax at all in 10 of the last 15 years. (8) (9).
The US is not in financial trouble because of vaccines to kids in Africa. Period.
Elon Musk claims USAID employees are thieves/scum. He keeps accusing them of fraud on his social media X. That’s another lie.
In 2024, the Office of the Inspector General audited USAID at the request of Congress. The 70 page audit report found no evidence of fraud.
22·1 day agoVery good journalism from The Guardian.
If I wanted to hurt the NHS, I would do everything I can to make sure people are unhealthy.
After the guidance was dropped, the Food and Drinks Federation boasted about its lobbying success, hailing the victory in a “key wins” section of its website, the Guardian found.
“The FDF’s engagement with Department of Health and Social Care officials … resulted in the removal of the reference to ‘minimally processed’ in the HFSS promotions guidance.”
Imagine being paid to attack public health.
Of course, the top executives of Unilever or Coca-Cola UK do not give a shit about this. As far as they are concerned, the only things that matters is their own compensation.
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Bill Gates is probably one of the best billionaires. But it is very important that we all remember how he ended up with $200 billion dollars. Predatory monopolistic behavior.
Everyone should carefully read this 1999 article that I found in the archives of the New York Times.
How Microsoft Sought Friends In Washington - Nov. 7, 1999
Twenty months ago, Representative Billy Tauzin walked into the office of William H. Gates 3rd, chairman of Microsoft, bearing a 10 inch by 10 inch white box and a warning.
Mr. Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana and the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the telecommunications industry, placed the box on Mr. Gates’s desk. Inside was a lemon meringue pie, a reminder of another pie that had been thrown in Mr. Gates’s face several weeks earlier by a Microsoft critic. The message to Mr. Gates, the richest man on earth and the leader of the digital world, was blunt: You need to make friends in Washington.
Mr. Gates apparently took Mr. Tauzin’s message to heart – with a vengeance. While Microsoft and its executives contributed a relatively modest $60,000 to Republican Party committees in 1997, those contributions shot up to $470,000 as part of the company’s overall political contribution of $1.3 million in 1998. The 1998 figure included donations to political candidates, with the bulk of the money going to Republicans. This year, the company’s contributions of nearly $600,000 have been more evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Mr. Gates and his top lieutenants have made dozens of trips to Washington, cultivating powerful figures in both parties and hiring some of the city’s priciest lobbyists. Microsoft has retained Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee; Vic Fazio, a former Democratic congressman from California; Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota; Tom Downey, a former Democratic congressman from New York and a close friend of Vice President Al Gore; Mark Fabiani, former special counsel to the Clinton White House; and Kerry Knott, former chief of staff to Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the House majority leader.
Microsoft has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to research groups, trade groups, polling operations, public relations concerns and grass-roots organizations. It has financed op-ed pieces and full-page newspaper advertisements, and mounted a lobbying effort against an increase in the Justice Department’s antitrust enforcement budget.
In June, Mr. Gates met for lunch with the Republican leaders of the House in the small whip’s room off the House chamber. They discussed Microsoft’s public policy agenda, ranging from exports of encryption software to Internet privacy to antitrust actions, said several participants at the meeting. Mr. Knott, now a top official in Microsoft’s Washington office, attended the session.
Eight days later, Mr. Armey introduced what he called his ‘‘e-Contract,’’ a list of Republican legislative initiatives that pointedly adopted Microsoft’s view of the role of government antitrust actions, like the one that now threatens to dismantle Microsoft.
Microsoft has hired as two former heads of the Justice Department’s antitrust division and a dozen or more prominent academics and writers, who publish articles and give interviews advocating Microsoft’s position.
Among them are Charles Rule, director of the Justice Department’s antitrust division in the Bush administration, and Paul Rothstein, a professor of law at Georgetown University and frequent network and cable-television commentator.
Another Microsoft move on Capitol Hill drew criticism for heavy-handedness. Its lobbying to trim the antitrust division’s budget brought a flurry of editorial condemnation. The Washington Post said Microsoft’s actions were ‘‘a comical caricature’’ of a company trying to bully its way through Washington.‘’
One Justice Department official said, ‘‘Even the mob doesn’t try to whack a prosecutor during a trial.’’
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Update.
I was searching for information about this case. Well… things changed fast 🤦
Paul Walczak just received a Presidential Pardon.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/media/1397931/dl?inline
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/trump-pardon-walczak-ashley-biden-diary.html
As much as I dislike Windows and smartphones the current nature of the world is that that are all necessities for most people.
I was told Linux is incredibly difficult to use, Windows is so much safer/better.
Honestly, I used to believe this, until I installed Linux. Well, I was just lied to. I very easily installed everything that I need. My Linux distro works just fine. I can even play my favorite games. To this day, I haven’t moved back to Windows. The Microsoft empire is based on aggressive lobbying and advertising, not on superior product quality.
Billionaire-owned multinational corporations spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on advertising. They have entire teams that study consumer psychology. The goal of advertising is to undermine human rationality.
If humans were purely rational, why would they waste billions on advertising ?
They would just say “here are our products. Here are our prices. Buy them if you want to”.
Smartphones are also the easiest way to access your banking services with plenty of banks offering online banking now.
I don’t need to access my banking services 24/7. I have cash and a debit card that does the job. If I need to see my bank account, I just use my computer.
What you need and what you think you need are not the same things.
Wonderful news. That means less electronic junk to recycle, much less pollution.
I’m actually quiet happy to own a dumbphone and no smartwatch. Having a powerful Linux laptop is great, but I came to the conclusion humans need low-tech for their mental health. Not having tech around me helps me focus, go on nice walks, write what’s on my mind and read books. I just feel happier.
If you aren’t careful, the things you own can end up owning you.
“Extra Verification steps”
I know how large social media companies operate. This is all about increasing the value of Reddit users to advertisers. The goal is to have a more accurate user database to sell them.
Zuckerberg literally brags to corporations about how good their data is on users:
https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/performance-marketing
Here, Zuck tells companies that Instagram can easily manipulate users into purchasing shit:
https://www.facebook.com/business/instagram/instagram-reels
Always be wary of anything available for free.
There are some quality exceptions (CBC, VLC, The Guardian, Linux, PBS, Wikipedia, Lemmy, ProPublica) but, by and large, “free” means they don’t care about you. You are just a commodity that they sell.
Facebook, Google, X, Reddit, Instagram… Their goal is keep people hooked to their smartphone. The recipe is very simple. You give them small dopamine hits (likes, upvotes) followed by a small break with outrageous content/emotional content. Then another dopamine hit.
Keep them hooked, gather their data, and sell them ads.
The people who know that best are former top executives :
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/business/addictive-technology.html
https://www.today.com/parents/teens/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-rcna15256
There is a guy named Cal Newport.
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the highest grades.
He is now a tenured Professor of Computer Science.
Cal Newport says using a pen and paper is incredibly important. It helps him focus.
He also avoid social media. I highly recommended his book “Digital Minimalism”.
512·23 days agoOn February 8th, 1943, Lepa was captured by the 7th SS Prinz Eugen Division.
She was interrogated, tortured and beaten for 3 days, but she refused to say anything.
On February 11th, they publically hanged her. She was 17 year-old.
A local photographer took several pictures. Here is another one:
https://i.ibb.co/wNLbpvBL/aaz.jpg
She was born in 1925, in the small city of Gašnica.
Today, the town built a bust in her memory:
https://seesrpska.com/en/kultura/ckud-lepa-radic-obiljezava-veliki-jubilej-15-12-2024
Society moved so far to the right that the simple idea water should be publically owned is now considered socialism.
The FT is still a pretty-right wing newspaper. They simply can’t afford to offend their CEO readers. However, I doubt the average FT journalist is neoliberal.
They are all unionized:
Philosopher Noam Chomsky says he likes to read the FT.
They once interviewed him.
"My impression in general is that the business press is more open, more free, often more critical, less constrained by external power and external influences” he tells beyondbrics.
“I guess that’s also true for the reporting in the Wall Street Journal and Businessweek, although the range of opinion that appears is different. So, for example, in the Wall Street Journal – and there are exceptions – but overwhelmingly the coverage is constricted and very reactionary, and the Financial Times has a much broader range, more terse, and I find it more instructive.”
The business press has a different incentive to get the facts right, Chomsky says, which is why the Financial Times is his regular read. ''Those who Adam Smith called ‘the masters of the universe’ have to understand the universe. They have to have a tolerably realistic understanding of the world that they are managing and controlling. That’s true of political elites as well, but the business world particularly. Also, the business press essentially trust their audience. They don’t have to impose propagandistic illusions to keep the rabble under control.”
https://www.ft.com/content/bcdefd38-3beb-3506-b24c-82285ac87f6c
244·23 days agoThis is the logical outcome of two things.
1. Their silly campaign finance rules. British campaign finance laws are literally the worst in the Western world, only after the United States. It’s just embarassing.
2. Their First-Past-The-Post voting system. It is a voting system that is designed to create a 2-party duopoly on power.
Show me the incentives of any political system. I will show you the outcome.
Look the recent British elections. Keir Starmer won 65% of seats in Parliament with only 35% of votes. It’s his country now. He can do whatever he wants for 5 years. Greens, SNP or Reform received millions of votes. They get very few seats.
Under the Danish voting system, here is what would happen in Britain.
The Reform Party would tell Starmer : “You don’t have a majority Keir. We can allow you to form a government. But in exchange, we want to reduce immigration. And we want a law banning cousin marriage. Do we have a deal ?”
The Green Party would tell Starmer : “You don’t have a majority Keir. We can allow you to form a government. But in exchange, we want to nationalize water companies. And we a law banning all gambling ads. Do we have a deal?”
This is how it works in Denmark. I feel the overall result is just better.
Getting a dumbphone was one of the best decisions I took in my life. It helps me focus better and read books. I don’t actually need the internet with me 24/7. If you really need me, you can call.
Try it. Some people will call you crazy. Just ignore them.
This is not surprising at all.
I was recently reading an article in the French newspaper Le Monde.
In Britain, corporations are increasingly using a special system called zero-hour contracts.
These contracts are designed to offer maximum flexibility for business owners, in order to reduce his risks. The employee is guaranteed nothing and must always be available.
« They send my hours on Sunday, but nothing is sure. Sometimes, they cancel the same day » says Yana Petticrew, a young Glasgow Scottish worker who has been on zero-hour contracts for nearly 10 years. « Life is hard. I can’t even plan a meeting with my friends next week, because my boss could call me at any time » Yana says. She can’t refuse, or her boss will get rid of her.
Labor unions say workers on zero hour contracts earn on average less than those who are not. In 2010, 168 000 british workers were on zero hour contracts. In 2024, 1.1 million british workers were on zero hour contracts.
Here is another things that stuns me. I learned that in Britain, employees have no boardroom representation. In France, all companies publically listed on the stock market are legally required to have union representatives on the board of directors.
For instance LVMH :
https://www.lvmh.com/en/our-group/governance
Why can’t british employee have board representatives?!
The UK system is rotten. Brits need to fight for change. They deserve so much better.
San Francisco is the city with the most tech engineers and software developers. It’s the US city with the most tech entrepreneurs. The roads are full of robot cars. You see people walking around with tech glasses and weird devices. You could throw a rock in the street and it will probably land on some tech guy.
It’s a complete disaster. Homeless people everywhere. Families unable to see a doctor or a dentist. Desperate men in the streets, injecting themselves with drugs. Luxury private schools where smartphones are banned and professors give tips to get into Stanford. Poor public schools for ordinary kids.
What kind of Utopia is this? This is not utopia. It’s a nightmare.
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Elon Musk is from of Africa. He grew up in a wealthy african family.
His massive cuts will impact war refugees and some of the poorest people in Africa. People who, for no fault of their own, were born in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is how he gives back to Africans.