“The idea that ‘fascism = strength’ is just a piece of propaganda unwittingly reproduced by critics of the fascism thesis.” #JohnGanz https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/lets-get-real
austerity is not the same thing as efficiency.
in fact, often the correlation is inverse.
This post is valid for 24 hours.
why does Microsoft "deactivate" your Skype credit if you don't use Skype for 180 days, but let you (and force you to) reactivate it to get it back? what good does this extra flow and hassle do anybody?
without comment.
Chart of gold futures, which are at an all-time high.
once a coup has proceeded to a certain degree, it becomes difficult to distinguish putting down the coup from a coup on behalf of different interests. once control of the state is up for grabs, what faction can claim to be above factions? all, of course, will try.
“A power-mad president possessed of radical theories of executive authority and convinced of his own royal prerogative has given de facto control of most of the federal government to one of the richest men on the planet, if not the richest, whose own interests are tangled up in those of rival governments and foreign autocracies as well as the United States.” @jbouie https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/trump-musk-federal-government.html ht @hilzoy
“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once” https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/04/elon-musk-government-legal-doge/
@Phil https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/16/elon-musk-government-security-clearance
his kids don’t have anything.
@landley i don't think social-democracy-ing harder is the same as capitalismism-ing harder, though i agree everything looks very hard right now.
was today seriously or literally?
@landley we have new tools. back then only King George and the billionaires could levy taxes.
so i'm confused now. were the people who believed he would do what he repeatedly and forcefully said he would do get it right, or did the people who presumed he was bullshitting?
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen we'll disagree that that's the best way to go. i still want a state that can, say, participate credibly in alliances. tbf, we've fucked it up pretty badly already.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen truly a pleasure! i think so well of you too, my dear interlocutor who is fine with people who worked with USAID in good faith getting tortured so Elon can play USAID files, thinks that would serve a larger, noble purpose.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen if players are rogue, i think the accountability has to be imposed on those players, rather than the people they dupe.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen if you say so. you are really a delightful person to share a discussion with.
@Phil @freemayonnaise @Harald_Korneliussen my view i'm not so optimistic... i agree we'd be better off with a new regime that made administrations budget their secrecy more carefully, made it scarce. but that again would be work for Congress, if it is to outlast an administration.
@freemayonnaise @Phil @Harald_Korneliussen i agree secrecy is overused and abused by the bureaucracy.
that doesn't mean secrecy never has a role, or that it's legit and not evil to undo it basically randomly.