I’m not sure they’re all compromised. The ones who aren’t are just cowards and go along with everything even though they know it’s wrong.
Honestly, I don’t know which is worse, the compromised ones doing bad things to help their masters or the cowards who can’t muster enough courage to publicly call the first out and in so doing become accomplices.
And so begins the new isolation of the United States, the end of Pax Americana, and the end of American empire and hegemony. Hopefully, Europe can take over as the leaders of the free world and setters of norms.
Or ever again.
It will take severe work for anyone to trust the US ever again. It was hard enough after Trump the first time, but now American contrition will take much longer and require more. I’m talking like impeaching and removing a broad swath of this administration, rejoining international organizations (like the WHO, etc.), and joining others we hadn’t been in before (like the ICC).
American leadership is trashed for a generation at least, possibly forever.
This is a start, but there needs to be more and for longer. This first one is just to get our feet wet and get people into resisting. The second blackout should last a week. Amazon Blackout 2 should be 1-3 months, with Amazon Blackout 3 being of indefinite length. Same for Walmart.
If the world isn’t comfortable taking action by now
The sad fact of the matter is most Americans aren’t. So, we have to meet them where they are and start small and low-threat to get them comfortable.
Personally, I find a one day blackout super easy. I don’t buy a lot as is, and when I do, I go out of my way to not engage with big companies. I know companies don’t feel my actions, and I know they wouldn’t feel my actions if there were 100 of me doing this. So, we need to use this as an opportunity to get people on board as “baby’s first social action.” Get people comfortable with doing something so that bigger, more impactful actions can be taken down the line.
After the 28th, we need to then organize the next one and make it longer, say 3 days and ask that people get their friends to do it, too. It will take successive action with the awareness that this is all connected.
It only fades away if we let it. So, don’t let it fade away but rather ratchet up and start attaching specific demands to it like “Elon out of government, DOGE disbanded, and all dismissed federal workers reinstated.”
You’re right, but it’s a start to get more people involved and comfortable with taking action. One day is easy and manageable for anyone, but longer periods seem scary. Starting with just one day gives people a foot in the door to try more acts of resistance. When the next call comes for a longer period, it will be easier to get people on board because how much worse is seven days from one?
So, you’re right. One day won’t save us. One day won’t solve the problem. This is not the end, but a beginning, just a first step.
I don’t think it’s much of a problem. People taking part want to do something to combat Trump and Elon, but many don’t know how. And let’s face it, it’s kinda scary to try to go up against powerful people. This is an easy, low-threat way to get started. It’s for Jim and Jane down the street who want to do something but don’t know what and are afraid of going all in right now.
So, if they boycott for just a day as a symbol, they see it’s not so bad. Hell, they may even make it two or three just on their own. Then the next call to blackout comes a month later, but this time it’s for a week. Easy. Now, this time, they find alternative local businesses who align with their positions to get “emergency” supplies from. Then the next call comes for a month’s blackout, and they realize that they haven’t been buying from the big companies at all, so that’s easy.
But, they still feel like they aren’t doing enough. Isn’t fighting supposed to be harder? So, they decide to attend a small protest. Then a bigger protest. Suddenly, Jim and Jane realize that they are going to city hall meetings, protests, etc., which they never thought they’d get involved in. And it started with just taking a day off from buying things.
Obviously, this won’t happen for everyone where they get hyper-involved. For most, it’ll probably just be doing the economic blackouts for however long at a time or just finding alternate places to do business so they feel like they’re helping. And you know what, that’s fine. If people turn away from the big businesses, even just 20%, that will start to show up.
The key thing to remember is that a one day blackout won’t have an effect on the corporations. What it will do is get more people comfortable with taking action. If you can go one day without buying from Amazon, two days isn’t much more, and then a week, and then a month. The idea is to ratchet up the action.
Just like how fascism has a progression to slowly “boil the frog,” collective societal action does, too. This isn’t an end but a beginning.
Easier and more painless to just pay another company to do that and not have to worry about server security, spam, the endless SSH requests for ‘admin’, etc etc
Definitely. I do it for fun though. I’m kind of a masochist 😂
Rolling your own email is a pain. That said, I use a VPS and host my own server with domain name and site for $5/month. Setting it up was a pain, but once you get all the records right so you’re not considered spam, it works really well. That said, I haven’t done anything with webmail; I strictly use IMAP and SMTP.
I love my governor! I was really skeptical of him at first (being a billionaire and all)*, but he has really pleasantly surprised me. It looks like he’s starting the soft campaign for president with this, and all I can say is that I am sad that if he gets elected, the loss of Illinois’ best governor of my lifetime will be the entire country’s gain.
*I wanted to add that his wealth still bothers me, but he’s proven that he’s the exception that proves the rule that billionaires are bad. He’s really put his money to work for people and “can’t be bought.” With the amount of good he’s done, it makes one wonder why the others haven’t done anything similar.
Even a flat tax is progressive. If I make 10 times as much money as you, I pay 10 times as much in tax.
…He clearly doesn’t understand what “progressive” and “regressive” taxation means. To break it down Barney-style, if you’re poor and make $1000/month, and I’m better off and make $10,000/month with a flat tax of 10%, then you end up with $900, and I end up with $9000. With $900 you might be able to get food and gas for a month. With $9000, I can pay a mortgage, save a bit, and get gas and groceries. This isn’t even taking into account that most of the obscenely wealthy take a tiny income and rather live off of investments, which are taxed differently and lower.
tl;dr: Whoever wrote this is clearly too stupid to be taken as a serious person.
You do not want a coup. This needs to be the people dethroning Trump and Elon. Individual people in the military can help by not executing illegal or immoral orders, but the military should be not be the one to end this nightmare. It’s on us.
So you, yes that bag of flesh reading my comment, you’re only worth $50 to the richest fuckwad on the planet.
Hey, your math is a bit off. He’s a racist apartheid apologist, so there’s definitely a race coefficient in there somewhere.
If Bezos doesn’t want to get paid to run it, let’s run it ourselves and post it all over. Even better if it gets posted all over federal buildings.
Damn, don’t go giving them ideas!
Alternatively, the easier sign (since a good chunk of the courts are complicit) is when we started being ruled by decree. The second easiest is when language is getting policed.
After checking my notes, that started January 20, 2025, when sweeping Executive Orders were decreed that are being treated as the force of law when they most certainly are not. The removal of “T” from LGBTQ, and enforcement of the stupid, unilateral renaming of the Gulf of Mexico is the other.
Congratulations, we live in a dictatorship.
Hell, they probably used this as a time to do some quick stock buybacks on the cheap.