Starting my journey to Düsseldorf for @btconf soon!
Thanks to the DB Navigator app I already see the train is a little delayed and apparently packed full of people. Hopefully I will be able to get to my reserved seat... 🙏
The Far Right’s Campaign to Explode the Population >>
"The threat, we are told here this weekend, is existential, #biological, epoch-defining. Economies will fail, #civilizations will fall, and it will all happen because people aren’t having enough #babies.
“The entire global #financial system, the value of your money, and every #asset you might buy with money is defined by leverage, which means its value depends on growth...." >>
>> "...#corporate employers,” which Dolan says is “in obvious competition with starting a family.” These #systems, he believes, have created a consumer-driven, #hedonistic society that requires its members to be slavishly devoted to their #office jobs, often at the expense of starting a #family. But over the course of the conference, the seemingly novel arguments for having #children fade and give way to a different set of concerns. >
Congressional Republicans call my Affordable Connectivity Program – the plan responsible for getting 23 million households affordable internet – 'wasteful.'
Tell that to the mom who used to park outside a restaurant so her child could get online and do homework.
I've blocked threads.net because I don't want #zuck or any other #corporate#socialmedia selling my data.
I don't allow my cellphone provider to sell my #data either.
Opt out!
Break is over in courtroom. I've caught you up on most everything in previous toots, so go to my feed for details.
Press:
Prosecutor: Michael Cohen accepted responsibility. So we should be allowed to bring that out on direct and that he lied on Defendant's behest. That changed, when Michael Cohen decided to accept responsibility. So evidence about the plea is essential
#ISDS#PoliticalEconomy#Capitalism#Neoliberalism#Globalization: "ISDS settlements are truly grotesque: they're not just a matter of buying out existing investments made by foreign companies and refunding them money spent on them. ISDS tribunals routinely order governments to pay foreign corporations all the profits they might have made from those investments.
(...)
Governments, both left and right, grew steadily more outraged that ISDSes tied the hands of democratically elected lawmakers and subordinated their national sovereignty to corporate sovereignty. By 2023, nine EU countries were ready to pull out of the ECT.
But the ECT had another trick up its sleeve: a 20-year "sunset" clause that bound countries to go on enforcing the ECT's provisions – including ISDS rulings – for two decades after pulling out of the treaty. This prompted European governments to hit on the strategy of a simultaneous, mass withdrawal from the ECT, which would prevent companies registered in any of the ex-ECT countries from suing under the ECT.
It will not surprise you to learn that the UK did not join this pan-European coalition to wriggle out of the ECT. On the one hand, there's the Tories' commitment to markets above all else (as the Trashfuture podcast often points out, the UK government is the only neoliberal state so committed to austerity that it's actually dismantling its own police force). On the other hand, there's Rishi Sunak's planet-immolating promise to "max out North Sea oil."
But as the rest of the world transitions to renewables, different blocs in the UK – from unions to Tory MPs – are realizing that the country's membership in ECT and its fossil fuel commitment is going to make it a world leader in an increasingly irrelevant boondoggle – and so now the UK is also planning to pull out of the ECT."
Back in the 1950s, a new, democratically elected Iranian government nationalized foreign oil interests. The UK and the US then backed a coup, deposing the progressive government with one more hospitable to foreign corporations:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
"corporate profits account for more than 50% of our current #inflation. Egg & meat producers, dominated by a handful of multibillion-dollar companies, have engaged in or are alleged to have engaged in price fixing..
So if we just say Boeing has problems, but don’t actually work there, are we subject to Boeings not-suicide-whistleblower-policy?
And should we leave our doors unlocked to save our loved ones the repair costs for them being broken down in advance of our non-suicide by Boeing’s “concerned” contractors?
Or can we rely on Boeing’s contractors to be able to get through a locked door without damaging it?
On another front, I am now in the process of setting up our new #thai#company together with my wife. The #lawyer is already at work. 🥰️
The name is set, the #logo and a minimal #corporate design are made (I used an #opensource font and did all the work in #inkscape), the #domain is bought and set up, the #website is in the works (with #grav) and our thai #friends are on board as shareholders as well. 😃️
Unfortunately I can't share the details yet, but I'm still really excited. 🥳️
The exquisite skewering of the intersection between #webdevelopment , #antiwork , #corporate bullshit and parody is at the level of The Office (UK) and the IT shop (UK).
Does the US #television industry somehow discourage innovation in this area?
The rule is one of the most highly anticipated in the #SEC’s history, generating some 24k comments from #business, #trade grps, investors & #climate#activists.
“This is going to impact a lot of different companies. People will be able to track them based on what they are required to report, not just the co’s own #spin on data. You will …be able to see which companies are doing a better job at dealing w/ #ClimateChange,” said Doug Chia, Rutgers Ctr for #Corporate#Law & #Governance fellow.
You can say the #First#Amendment only applies to the #government, not #private entities—which is undeniably true—and therefore #social#media sites have no obligation to provide a platform for speech the owners of the site don’t like. This is a reasonable and defensible position.
Or you can say social media sites are the new #town#squares, and therefore the owners have a moral if not legal obligation to allow anyone to say practically anything using their platforms. You can even point out that the government charters corporations, and is responsible for a lot of #telecom#infrastructure, so by allowing censorship in that particular environment, the government is at least complicit in interfering with free speech rights. This is also a reasonable and defensible position.
Maybe you can even try to find some kind of well-articulated middle ground between these positions, although I have to say I don’t remember ever seeing anyone do so. I think most people do hold opinions somewhere between the two, but they don’t tend to spell it out.
What they do instead is argue either side as it’s convenient, which is irritating as hell. And yes, this is a rare bit of “both sides” on my part. I see a whole lot of leftish folks, who are generally not big fans of corporate power, deploying the first position against right-wing types—while complaining about the arbitrary and often clearly biased way #Facebook et al. censor left-wing statements.
The complaints are justified. Hypocrisy is not.
Just pick a position, be honest with yourself about what that position is, and stick to it. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, you have to be aware that the mechanisms of speech, and by extension the press, have changed dramatically over the last thirty years and will continue to do so. Knowing where you stand is important.
Just remembered I worked with an "architecture" team once that didn't believe in using foreign keys in their database. Devs were explicitly forbidden from using them. Because having foreign keys would stop them from dumping prod data directly into other environments. Oh, and "speed". :very_funny: :absolute_zozzle: :pepe_g:
Opinion: Why the birthplace of the Western #Apache religion shouldn’t be destroyed by a #CopperMine
by Luke Goodrich
February 6, 2024·
"A federal court is poised to decide whether a #NativeAmerican#sacred site will be destroyed by a massive #copper#mine. Mining proponents claim that destroying the #SacredSite is necessary for the development of #GreenEnergy. That claim is both factually wrong and morally repugnant. And recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans agree with what the constitution requires: #Native sacred sites deserve the same protection as all other houses of worship.
"Since before European contact, #WesternApache and other Native tribes have lived and honored their #Creator at #OakFlat, or 'Chi’chil Bildagoteel.' The site is the birthplace of Western Apache religion and the site of ancient religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Because of its religious and cultural significance, Oak Flat is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been protected from mining and other destructive practices for decades.
"That changed in 2014, when several members of Congress, supported by #corporate#mining#lobbyists, slipped an amendment into a must-pass defense bill authorizing the transfer of Oak Flat to a foreign-owned mining giant. That company, #ResolutionCopper, announced plans to obliterate the sacred ground by swallowing it in a mining crater nearly two miles wide and 1,100-feet deep, ending Apache religious practices forever. That was no surprise given the company’s sordid history dealing with #IndigenousPeoples. The majority owner of Resolution Copper is #RioTinto (the world’s second largest mining company), which sparked international outrage in 2020 when it destroyed a 46,000-year-old rock shelter with some of the most significant #Aboriginal artifacts in all of #Australia.
"The Apache and their allies, represented by my firm, the #BecketFundForReligiousLiberty, have been fighting in court to ensure that such an atrocity won’t repeat itself at Oak Flat. After initial court rulings against the Apache, a full panel of 11 judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reheard their appeal last spring. A decision on whether the government can execute the land transfer is expected any day.
"Resolution Copper and its backers want the public to believe that building the mine is essential for developing #renewable energy. Extracting the copper beneath Oak Flat, they say, will help to build batteries necessary for powering #ElectricVehicles and thus fight #ClimateChange. In other words, we have to destroy Oak Flat in order to save the planet.
"These claims, however, are false — and they are specifically designed to obscure the physical and cultural destruction the project would wreak on the land.
"The mine will destroy the #environment, not save it. It is undisputed that the mine will swallow the ecologically diverse landscape of Oak Flat in a massive crater, decimating the local #ecosystem. It will also leave behind approximately 1.37 billion tons of '#tailings,' or #MiningWaste, which, according to the government’s own environmental assessment, will pollute the #groundwater and scar the landscape permanently. And the mine will consume vast quantities of water at the time it is most needed by drought-stricken towns and #farmers.
"Supporters of the mine are also at odds with the majority of Americans. According to this year’s Religious Freedom Index, an annual survey conducted by Becket, 74% of Americans believe that Native sacred sites on federal land should be protected from mining projects, even when the projects are purportedly pro-jobs and pro-environment.
"That conclusion is both sensible and humane. America can transition to renewable energy without blasting the cradle of Western Apache religion into oblivion. And it should. For too long, our nation has made excuses for taking advantage of #IndigenousPeople and their land. Indeed, our nation drove the Western Apache off Oak Flat and surrounding lands in the 1800s precisely to make way for #MiningInterests. It shouldn’t repeat that #injustice again.
"It is past time to protect Indigenous sacred sites from further destruction. Basic fairness and our constitutional commitment to religious freedom require no less. And, happily, most Americans agree."
VICE Ran Out of Money (For Everyone Except Its Executives) By Katie Way
"For instance, the company's Chief Operating Officer Cory Haik, who came to VICE by way of Mic, took home $726,068 between May 2022 and May 15, 2023, the date of VICE's bankruptcy filing. Folded into that sum was a $45,000 bonus on April 28, a little more than two weeks before VICE declared bankruptcy."
"The #UK is pulling out of a treaty that lets fossil fuel firms sue governments over their #climate policies.
The [#EnergyCharterTreaty] allows fossil fuel investors to sue states for lost profit expectations in an opaque corporate arbitration system set up to protect fossil fuel investors in the former Soviet economies in the 1990s."
Here is a primer on the "investor-state dispute settlement" (ISDS) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). It's not the only primer out there but when Doctorow writes it, it makes you laugh even as you're horrified, and you remember it.
I don't like the term #neoliberalism (its imprecise use renders it a weak criticism), but the UK's malaise is clearly linked to the domination of a mindset dominated by the construction of #markets as a general social panacea, the instrumentalisation of public life, the privileging of #corporate interests & the domination of a thin understanding of the good life....
if this is neoliberalism, then that is the the problem.
Whatever; the UK needs a major rethink about its socio-economic model(s)