The GOP is simply reprehensible. I don't understand how any citizen can vote for any GOP candidate. The entire party is claiming the Trump fraud trial was a political hit job. The "law and order" party wants neither. (1/6)
Given the choice between two genocidal candidates versus diminishing the #corporate#duopoly’s bifurcating, #echochamber grip on the electorate, I choose the latter.
But go on: vote for deliverers of #death all you want. 🙈 🙉 🙊
"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.
Nothing is funnier than a company telling a friend of mine that they are launching a diversity guide next week after firing the only black guy there (him).
How you gonna be diverse when you're letting all the diversity go. You can't even make this shit up.
Corporate support centers are remote locations to isolate the customer from the corporation. That way the management doesn’t have to deal with customers or be held liable for what the customer center says…
I’m not on TikTok but this account alone is almost enough to make me want to join. This dude is giving a real, unvarnished look at what truckers go through and the ridiculous wages they are being asked to work for. Fascinating, infuriating, hilarious: https://www.tiktok.com/@truckershaderoom
Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.
Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.
Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.
Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
#Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
#Fraudulent#Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."
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..
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. 🥳️