#melvin capital
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
byler-alarmist · 1 year ago
Text
If I said that Eddie's "I love you" to Dustin in the same episode as Mike's monologue was a reminder that not all love confessions are romantic.....
275 notes · View notes
something-in-your-walls · 1 year ago
Text
Tumblr media
im feeling like a trans sk mood today.
11 notes · View notes
byler-alarmist · 2 years ago
Text
Lowercase (E)l
never getting over this actually
Tumblr media
787 notes · View notes
scullysexual · 2 months ago
Text
We'll Meet Beyond The Shore.
Somewhere beyond the sea, she’s there watching for me, and if I could fly like a bird on high, then straight into her arms I’d go sailing.
Tags and Warnings: Major character death, enemies to friends (to lovers), doomed lovers.
n/a: People seemed interested in this so I thought I would make this official and give it a go writing it. I have four chapters written already so hopefully I'll stay on top and keep writing more. Please read the warnings and tags carefully; you'll probably hate me for this (and this fic) so I'm very sorry in advance but I'm evil and this is literally my playground. Anyway I hope you read and enjoy :)
Chapter One: The Reaping.
Fox Mulder awakens from his nightmare in the dank, dark basement he has called home for the last year. Skin clammy, heart hammering against his rib cage, he swings his legs off the bed and breaths in and out slowly, counting to 10 each time, willing his heart to slow down.
It was just a nightmare, he repeats to himself.
But it wasn’t just a nightmare.
A memory. Old but still as fresh in his mind as it was two years ago. District Seven’s town square, the smell of wood and sweat as the sun beamed down on him, a bowl full of names- girl names- and one called out.
Samantha Mulder.
In his dream he teleported, in the way one does in a dream, and he was right there, helpless, watching as his 12 year old sister was bludgeoned to death. She didn’t even make it past day one’s bloodbath.
He watched as his mother sunk away, a shell of herself, his father leave not 3 weeks later.
Mulder left himself, eventually, vowed to kill the Capital as they had killed his sister but he was just one boy, grief-stricken and angry, and his cries for an uprising went unheard. Mostly. The Peacekeeper’s had come down on him hard, punished him severely for it, but not executed, not as Mulder wished to be, his father’s influence was far too strong.
So Mulder left completely, snuck away in the dead of night with a band of merrymen. They had a boat and a dream to get far away from Panem as they could.
Their boat and their dream capsized on day 5, a strong wave knocking their tiny boat to pieces. Only Mulder survived, clinging on to a plank of wood, drifting unconscious for 3 days, into the territory of District Four.
A ship found him.
At first Mulder thought they were Peacekeepers but upon closer inspection he found they were dressed as simple fishermen. He was pulled aboard, introduced to the captain, the father of the boy who helped him up, who introduced himself as William Scully and his son, Bill.
Captain Scully took him to a pub, fed and watered him, and didn’t ask where Mulder had come from.
The pub became his job, the basement his bedroom. A week later he registered as a resident of District Four and his name was entered five times.
He hadn’t escaped. The hadn’t destroyed the Capitol. He never would.
Mulder shakes the dream, and memories of another life, from his brain. He puts on the clothes he wore yesterday and climbs the staircase leading to the pub.
He finds Wade at the bar, pouring drinks for the old sailors who have nowhere better to be. Mulder nods once at Wade who nods once back, a mutual good luck said between them. Wade is 18- the same age as Mulder- but his name sits waiting in that bowl 35 times to Mulder’s meagre 5.
Mulder bypasses the bar and heads towards the kitchen. He almost smacks into Kehlani, hands and arms full carrying three plates food. She knows exactly what he is here for.
“You’ll have to get in line, Mel’s backed up and it’s only half 7,” she tells him before she’s rushing towards her table. Mulder looks around the near-empty pub before he pushes on the kitchen door.
Melvin is frying fish in a pan. It stinks and Mulder resists the urge to cover his nose.
He really, really hates fish.
“Get lost 7,” Melvin shouts over his shoulder. “I’m backed up in here, you’re gonna have to wait.”
“Yeah, Kehlani said,” says Mulder. He throws the fish in the pan a distasteful look. “You got anything other than fish on the menu?”
Melvin smiles at him and Mulder counts one less tooth from yesterday. “This your first time in Fish District?” He cocks his head towards the door. “Saw a tree on my way in, maybe you can eat some bark?”
“Ha-ha maybe you should’ve been a comedian, Frohike,” Mulder says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He nabs the bowl of fruit sitting on the counter and leans against it.
Frohike and Kehlani were the only ones who knew where Mulder came from. Sat in the basement, the expensive bottle of whiskey between the three of them, Mulder finally told them he had been born in District Seven after their constant prodding. More questions and he told them what it’d been like living there. They stared at him in awe, soaking in every bit of information. They’d asked him which he preferred, Mulder hadn’t answered, keeping that one to himself.
“Hey,” Melvin calls, a sudden seriousness looming over them. “How’re you feeling today?”
Today.
“I’m good. One more year, right?”
Melvin nods. “One more year.” Then. “I found Kehlani crying this morning. I didn’t know what to say to her.”
“What did you say to her?”
“Nothing. What do I say to her? This shit’s fucked.”
Mulder looks towards the door, conscious of who could hear them, then quietly whispers. “Yeah…”
Kehlani bursts in then and looks at the two of them.
“Slacking off, Mel?” she admonishes , hands of her hips, the perfect imitation of Laguna the landlady.
“No!” yells Frohike turning bright red. “Just waiting for the fish to fry.”
Kehlani turns her attention onto Mulder and her eyes narrow, staring at the bowl of fruit.
“That was my fruit Mulder,” she tells him with a pout, dropping the imitation.
“Shit, sorry Lani.” Mulder holds the fruit bowl out to her. As her hands touch it to take it, Mulder says, “Good luck today, yeah?”
Kehlani looks to Frohike who quickly casts his eyes away. She turns back to Mulder and gives him a small smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah, you too.” Mulder lets go of the bowl and she steps back. “I’m gonna go eat this,” she says to Melvin. “Mulder can be a waitress for a bit.” Then with a smile backed by a memory. “Don’t drop the plates this time, yeah?”
“I’d forgotten about that,” says Frohike with a laugh.
Mulder tosses him a glare and watches Kehlani leave wondering if this could be the last time he ever sees her.
.:.:.:.:.:.
The gulls caw, flying overhead. Dana watches them, committing them to memory. Her bare foot grazes the water, committing that to memory also, along with the breeze and the smell of seawater and sand. A ritual each year because what if it’s the last?
“Dana!”
Dana sighs and turns her head down the pier. Melissa approaches slightly out of breath.
“Mom’s looking for you. She wants us to eat before we go.”
Dana turns away to look back out into the ocean. “I’m not hungry,” she says.
Missy sits down opposite her. They used to do this all the time, sit out here together. Dana found her one time, when Missy had just turned 12 two days before the reaping, her eyes red from crying. It became tradition, each year 11 and 13, 12 and 14, 15 and 16…all the way up to last year when they were 17 and 19, when Melissa was free but Dana was still stuck with her name in the bowl 14 times, double the amount it should be.
“You have to eat,” says Melissa with concern.
“I’ll eat after the reaping.”
“Dana—”
“I’ll eat after the reaping,” Dana repeats louder and harsher. If she eats now she’ll throw up and that’ll be a waste, not when Melissa, Charlie, their mother can have more servings.
Melissa sighs, resigning herself. She looks out towards the ocean.
“I hate it,” she says.
“What?” asks Dana.
She points to beyond them. “That. The ocean. I’ve hated it for 3 years.”
“I love it.”
Melissa looks at her. “Only because Dad loved it.”
Dana shrugs. “You should come out with me and Billy on a ship some day.”
Missy shakes her head. “I’d just get in the way.”
That was true, Melissa wasn’t made for ships. But still…Dana smiles at her.
“What are you smiling at?” Melissa asks her, weary.
“If I’m not reaped, you have to join us on the ship.”
Melissa looks at her, aghast. She frowns, conflicted, and then relents.
“Fine…” And Dana smiles some more. “But only because I really don’t want to wish you were reaped.”
They both look out towards the ocean again, their smiles fading.
“I’ll see it again, won’t I?” Dana asks quietly.
“Yeah,” says Melissa with so much confidence Dana actually believes her. “And who knows, maybe Isla will finally be reaped.” Missy’s smile is cruel.
“You’re really going to hold that grudge forever, aren’t you?” Dana asks, shaking her head.
Melissa nods. “Yep, never letting it go.”
They smile at each other once more before movement on the other side catches their attention, hoards of people making their way towards the town square.
Dana’s stomach twists. It is time.
.:.:.:.:.:.:.
People flood in like waves. Mulder navigates his way to where the cluster of 18 year olds stand. He finds himself next to Wade who’s eyes are down and he is white as a conch shell. His eyes meet Kehlani’s across the way standing with the other 15 year old girl’s. He smiles, she smiles back. He pulls his eyes away and looks down.
One more year.
.:.:.:.:.:.
She holds onto Charlie’s hand for as long as she can, until the Peacekeeper blocks their path and pulls them apart. She watches as Charlie walks towards the other boys before she is gently shoved towards the direction of the girl’s. Dana glances at them only briefly before she is staring straight ahead, eyes on the bowl, a bowl that holds 14 pieces of Dana Scullys.
One more year.
.:.:.:.:.:.
The Mayor, Walter Skinner, Monica Reyes.
The Mayor, Walter Skinner, Monica Reyes.
The Mayor, Water Skinner, Mon—
“The boys!” Monica Reyes calls out, as she does every year. She always starts with the boys. Mulder clenches his fists, tries to tamper down his nerves. Wade is shaking beside him, Mulder can feel it rolling over him in waves. Reyes places her hand into the bowl, searches around. Mulder glances at Wade, the other boy is…crying? Reyes pulls her hand out, unfolds the piece of paper. It’s Wade, Mulder thinks. That piece of paper has Wade’s name written on it.
“Fox Mulder!”
It’s Wade Firth—Wait. Mulder freezes. All eyes on are him.
Did she just say Fox Mulder?
.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
It’s not Charlie. Thank god it isn’t Charlie.
Dana releases her breath, one of two she holds.
It isn’t Charlie.
Instead it is Fox Mulder.
Dana had heard of him, a strange boy. It was rumoured he was the boy her father had found out at sea the year before, the boy from another place. His surname was familiar. 6 years ago a girl with the same last name had been pulled from the bowl, 12 years old, she had died almost immediately, everyone around her was just thankful it wasn’t their own.
Fox Mulder was the boy tribute but who would the girl be?
Monica Reyes places her hand in the right-hand bowl. Dana holds her breath, watching. She wants to close her eyes, hold her hands over her ears and be anywhere but here; sat on the pier watching the waves in the water, sailing on the ship pulling up nets of a hundred fishes, anywhere but where she was standing right now.
Monica pulls her hand out, unfolds the piece of paper. The name is said crisp and clear, there was no mistaking it. Somebody familiar cries out just as it all sinks in.
Dana Scully is the girl tribute.
.:.:.:.:.:.:.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully stand on the stage. Mulder looks towards Dana, she can feel his eyes on her, she stares ahead. Scully, is all Mulder can think as he stands there, like William Scully? He wants to know but Dana gives him nothing, she can’t.
Reyes tries to get the crowd to clap but there is nothing but dead faces staring back at them. This isn’t District 1 or 2 where celebrations are held. District Four might not be the worst of the Districts but one will still find no jumps for joy here. All are still scared. All are still angry.
The doors close and they are all submerged in darkness.
32 notes · View notes
anhed-nia · 2 months ago
Text
BLOGTOBER 10/8/2024 PART 3: ABBY
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: October 8 was another rabbit hole day of my Blogtober program, and I have managed to refrain from slapping a snarky nickname on this little marathon of American race-centric horror movies that raise some uncomfortable questions. Can white guys make compelling movies about Black anxieties? Can Black directors get away with making white actors say things white people shouldn't get away with saying? The answer is…it depends on who you ask!
And if you want to know why I'm capitalizing one word and not the other, it's because I generally agree with the AP statement about the lack of meaningful cultural commonalities between white-skinned people--other than generalized privilege, of course. In my mind, it is useful to talk about whiteness in political contexts, but it is not so useful to talk about a "White" ethnic identity unless you are into white pride, which I would prefer not to validate. I understand that this is not a perfect solution, and many people feel that the lowercase "w" supports the delusion of whiteness as the universal default for humanity. I do not want to invite a big heavy debate on my silly little movie blog, but you should feel free to comment with links to worthwhile discussions on this subject, as long as you are doing it in good faith and you are not a white supremacist asshole. END STANDARD DISCLAIMER
Tumblr media
Due to Warner Bros' litigiousness, this poor movie is only available as a version pulled from a badly damaged print--but if you can make it through the fuzz and the scratches, it's pretty entertaining! The great William Marshall plays an archeologist-cum-exorcist who witlessly frees a Nigerian deity to possess his daughter-in-law Abby (Carol Speed), a pious suburban housewife. Abby soon transforms from a devout, hardworking preacher's wife into a sadistic sex maniac, and it will take more than the usual power of Christ to exorcise her.
ABBY is one of those films that reminds me to question what exactly is meant by "blaxploitation". There is a tendency to put that label on any all-Black genre film made between the 1960s and 1980s, though this is misguided. Blaxploitation is actually sort of hard to define. I tend to think of it as primarily describing movies that exploit Black stereotypes to entice audiences--Black or otherwise--who find them appealing; examples are BLACULA (great!) and BLACKENSTEIN (pretty dire). Such movies may be made by Black or white filmmakers. Blaxploitation can also describe exploitation movies made by and for Black audiences; Melvin van Peebles combined exploitation-style entertainment with sharp political messages, and Rudy Ray Moore made delightful vanity projects for himself and his friends from the Chitlin Circuit. You couldn't fairly say that either of those guys mainly exploited stereotypes and the audiences that enjoyed them, even though they did capitalize on them. On the other hand, I always bristle when people call GANJA & HESS a blaxploitation movie; I guess if the only older Black films you watch are in the blaxploitation category then that's what it looks like, but it is way too posh, intellectual, and experimental to participate in any exploitation category.
Tumblr media
ABBY was made by William Girdler, who is white, and an interesting character in exploitation history. He turned out nine films in six years, including the incredible terrestrial JAWS knockoff GRIZZLY. Even when he was making a cash grab, he didn't skimp on entertainment value, and ABBY succeeds with its strong characters played by an absolutely stellar cast. This is certainly a blaxploitation film, as an African-flavored coattail-rider of a mainstream hit, replacing THE EXORCIST'S Pazuzu with a horny Yoruban Orisha. However, the main characters are all hardworking, upstanding suburbanites; even the nightclub scenes are full of regular folks having a good time, not insulting caricatures. Those scenes are actually the weakest of the film since they break up the movie's core cast with a bunch of extras.
William Marshall, best known as Blacula and also the King of Cartoons, is fabulous in this...although he also has a tendency to slow things down just because of his flamboyant style of speech-making. Carol Speed gives a gleefully perverted performance as Abby, though the Orisha is voiced by Bob Holt, who in 1972 voiced the Lorax and the Onceler. I know I shouldn't say "the Onceler" on this website, but the freaks who react to that could really stand to watch something as good as ABBY instead of continuously beating off to children's media. Uh anyway, the actual biggest star of this movie is Juanita Moore, who may not have much to do here, but she was nominated for a fucking Oscar for fucking Douglas Sirk's remake of fucking IMITATION OF LIFE. She is no fucking joke. And there's also the great Austin Stoker, famous for ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. This movie may be a typical exploitation picture in many respects, but it is full of talent and made with care.
With all that said, just so I don't run the risk of making ABBY sound like more than it is, I should note that William Marshall expressed dismay at the loosely-handled African elements of the story. It sounds like he recommended some more respectful revisions, and was ignored. However, Carol Speed defended the film, for all that it misrepresents and rips off, as a terrific piece of entertainment. What she said could be applied to any number of exploitation classics: "There are no (new) stories since the Bible."
Tumblr media
12 notes · View notes
misfitwashere · 1 month ago
Text
November 21, 2024
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
NOV 22
Today, former Florida representative Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for the office of attorney general. He did so shortly after CNN told him that they were going to report that the House Ethics Committee had been told there were witnesses to yet another sexual encounter between Gaetz and a minor in 2017. There was already evidence that he had sent more than $10,000 to two women who later testified in sexual misconduct investigations. The notes explaining the payments said things like: “Love you,” “Being my friend,” “Being awesome,’ and “flight + extra 4 u.” 
Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told Will Steakin of ABC News that discussions of Gaetz’s payments “are meant to undermine the mandate from the people to reform the Justice Department.” 
Gaetz’s withdrawal turns attention to Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. As host of the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, Hegseth has no relevant experience to run a crucial United States government department, let alone one that oversees close to 3 million personnel and a budget of more than $800 billion. 
According to Heath Druzin of the Idaho Capital Sun, Hegseth has close ties to an Idaho Christian nationalist church that wants to turn the United States into a theocracy. 
Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic did a deep dive into Hegseth’s recent books and concluded that Hegseth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.” Hegseth’s books suggest he thinks that everything that does not support the MAGA worldview is “Marxist,” including voters choosing Democrats at the voting booth. He calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left” and says that without its “utter annihilation,” “America cannot, and will not, survive.” 
Like Gaetz, Hegseth is facing stories about sexual assault. Yesterday, officials in Monterey, California, released a police report detailing a 2017 sexual assault complaint against Hegseth. The report recounts chilling details of a drunk Hegseth blocking a California woman from leaving a hotel room and then sexually assaulting her. A nurse reported the alleged assault after the woman underwent a rape exam. Hegseth says the encounter was consensual, but he paid the woman a settlement in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement. He was never charged.
Trump’s pick for secretary of education, Linda McMahon, is also short on experience in the field of the department she has been tapped to oversee. She once incorrectly claimed to have a bachelor’s degree in education when she was trying to get a seat on the Connecticut Board of Education and is known primarily for her work building World Wrestling Entertainment. And she, too, has been entangled in a sex abuse scandal. In October, five men filed a lawsuit claiming that she and her husband, Vince McMahon, were aware that former ringside announcer Melvin Phillips was assaulting “ring boys” who were as young as 13.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition said of McMahon’s misrepresented credentials: “These types of politically motivated attacks are the new normal for nominees ready to enact President Trump’s mandate for common sense that an overwhelming majority of Americans supported two weeks ago.”
But Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence makes McMahon look like a prize. As military scholar Tom Nichols points out in The Atlantic, former representative TulsI Gabbard is “stunningly unqualified” to oversee all of America’s intelligence services, including the Central Intelligence Agency. Nichols notes that her constant parroting of Russian talking points and her cozying up to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad make her “a walking Christmas tree of warning lights” for our national security.  
Former Republican governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley suggested that Gabbard is “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” who has no place at the head of American intelligence. A Russian state media presenter refers to Gabbard as “our girlfriend” and as a Russian agent.
And then there is Trump’s tapping of Robert Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has no training in medicine or public health and, in addition to being a prominent critic of the vaccines that have dramatically curtailed disease and death in the U.S., is an outspoken critic of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.
There are a number of ways to think about Trump’s appointments. The people he has picked  have so little experience in the fields their departments handle that Erin Burnett of CNN suggested that he is simply choosing them from “central casting”—a favorite phrase of his—to look as he imagines such officials should. Indeed, as Zachary B. Wolf of CNN pointed out, while President Joe Biden vowed to make his Cabinet look like America, Trump’s picks look “exactly like Fox News.” Trump has actually tapped a number of television hosts for different positions. 
That so many of his appointees have histories of sexual misconduct is also striking, and underlines both that they share his determination to dominate others and that they do not think rules and laws apply to them. 
But there is another pattern at work, as well. In a piece he published on November 15 in his “Thinking about…” newsletter, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder explained that destroying a country requires undermining five key zones: “health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence.” The nominations of Kennedy, Gaetz, Hegseth, and Gabbard, as well as the tapping of billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to destroy the administration of the government, are, according to Snyder, a “decapitation strike.” 
“Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States,” Snyder writes. “How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective,” he explains, “Trump's proposed appointments—Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard—are perfect instruments.  They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done.”
But that destruction of the United States is so far still aspirational. The constant references to Trump’s supposed “mandate” are misleading. He did not win 50% of the vote, meaning that more voters chose someone other than Trump in the 2024 election than voted for him, and even many of his voters appear to have misunderstood his policies. 
According to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Trump’s loyalists have tried to shore up support for his nominees in the Senate by threatening the Republican senators: "If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary. That is all. And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” 
That threat is a direct assault on the Constitution, which gives to the Senate the power to advise the president on senior appointments and requires their consent to a president’s choices, and one that also hands the U.S. government over to an international billionaire. Forcing a leader’s political party to get into line behind that leader is the first task of an authoritarian, who needs that unified support in order to attack political opponents. 
But, so far, the threat hasn’t worked: it could not save Gaetz in the face of public outcry. 
Almost as soon as Gaetz withdrew his name, Trump presented former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as his replacement for the attorney general post. In March 2016, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to support Bondi at a time when she was considering joining a lawsuit against Trump University. Her office ultimately decided not to join the lawsuit. 
Bondi defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, during which she was a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel. She supported Trump’s campaign to insist—falsely—that he won the 2020 presidential election. She is also a registered lobbyist for Qatar. 
Meanwhile, Republican perceptions of the economy have changed abruptly. As Philip Bump of the Washington Post notes, since Trump’s election, there’s been a 16-point drop in the percentage of Republicans who say they were doing worse a year ago than they are now. 
While that change is due to Trump’s election, in fact Biden’s policies continue to deliver. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today that for the second year in a row, the average price of a Thanksgiving dinner has fallen. According to the American Farm Bureau, that price fell 5% this year, with the cost of turkey down 6%. Gasoline to travel for the holiday is also down to its lowest point in more than three years, by about 25 cents per gallon since this time last year, falling to below $3.00 a gallon in almost 30 states. 
Tonight, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggested that Americans should keep scorecards of the country’s economic numbers, “charting where inflation, unemployment and GDP were at the end of Biden’s term and regularly updating it with Trump’s latest numbers.” He noted that “the country is now covered with embryonic factories, businesses, economic redevelopment projects and more courtesy of Joe Biden’s CHIPS act and the Inflation Reduction Act,” and predicted that Trump will claim credit for all Biden accomplished. 
Keeping track would help preserve those projects in the face of threatened Republican cuts and at the same time prevent Trump from being able to claim more credit for his administration than it has earned. 
3 notes · View notes
maitredorsia · 2 months ago
Text
i feel like the Gamestop short squeeze of 2021 has mostly been forgotten? like. it was insane. Wall Street was in disarray.
it drove Melvin Capital into declaring bankruptcy within the space of almost a year, and at one point MC was losing more than a billion dollars A DAY during the squeeze, all because a bunch of people on r/wallstreetbets got together and decided to fuck around to try and get rich quick and then it escalated even further when it became international news.
in the end it ended up benefiting hedge funds anyway
and now there's like an online cult-like community around Gamestop stocks that has destroyed families and livelihoods and it's grown to encompass Bed, Bath & Beyond stocks... which no longer exist. BB&B is bankrupt. Caput. Gone.
James Jani on Youtube has some great videos on it. Ik stock stuff is boring as all shit but he makes the situation fairly easy to understand and its so interesting.
2 notes · View notes
pinkeoni · 2 years ago
Text
Initially I was gonna make a post saying melvin had potential, but when I thought more about it I think getting them together early is what doomed their relationship.
Regardless of whether or not you believe they had legitimate romantic attraction in early seasons, and for the sake of argument let’s say they did, it doesn’t negate the fact that El literally grew up in a lab and is being pushed into a romance with the first boy she meets.
Furthermore, getting them together early, at the tail end of season one (even if they don’t officially get together as a couple until season two) is even more proof that they aren’t meant to last. Just from a storytelling perspective, it would make more sense to save the main couple getting together until closer to the end. That way, you can capitalize on the dramatic tension between them until they finally get together. This is why so many popular couples are victim to slow burn, even within the same show we did not see Hop and Joyce get together until late this most recent season, even when it seemed obvious they would eventually be together. When a couple gets together early, there’s not many places to go but down.
This ultimately put a hinderance on El and Mike’s personal development. This goes back to what I said earlier about El’s backstory. Personally, the only way I could see milkvan actually working as a ship from both a character and a story standpoint is if they held off on getting them together at all until the very end. That way, not only could the story build tension between them, but both of them would be allowed to grow and go through their own arcs seperate of each other. El could become her own person outside of the lab before choosing who she wants to be with, and in a world where Mike is straight, he would most likely go through an arc where he learns that he is more than just a “pathetic nerd” and that he’s more than deserving of being with this girl that he fell in love with. But that’s not how their stories are written.
Quite literally by setting them up together early, this is meant to indicate that their individual arcs are meant to pull them in different directions. El’s arc isn’t meant to be confined to Mike, she is meant to find herself outside of Mike and the influence of men. Similarly, Mike’s arc is not confined to El, and likely in season 5 we will see him discover himself outside of his relationship with El. (You know, before he gets into the relationship he actually want to be in at the end)
124 notes · View notes
brookstonalmanac · 2 years ago
Text
Events 4.3
686 – Maya king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' assumes the crown of Calakmul. 1043 – Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. 1077 – The Patriarchate of Friûl, the first Friulian state, is created. 1559 – The second of two the treaties making up the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis is signed, ending the Italian Wars. 1721 – Robert Walpole becomes, in effect, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, though he himself denied that title. 1851 – Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand after the death of his half-brother, Rama III. 1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins. 1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. 1882 – American Old West: Robert Ford kills Jesse James. 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler is granted a German patent for a light, high-speed, four-stroke engine, which he uses seven months later to create the world's first motorcycle, the Daimler Reitwagen. 1888 – Jack the Ripper: The first of 11 unsolved brutal murders of women committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London, occurs. 1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. 1920 – Attempts are made to carry out the failed assassination attempt on General Mannerheim, led by Aleksander Weckman by order of Eino Rahja, during the White Guard parade in Tampere, Finland. 1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1933 – First flight over Mount Everest, the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston. 1936 – Bruno Richard Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh. 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. 1946 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March. 1948 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries. 1948 – In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins known as the Jeju uprising. 1955 – The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges. 1956 – Hudsonville–Standale tornado: The western half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan is struck by a deadly F5 tornado. 1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech; he was assassinated the next day. 1969 – Vietnam War: United States Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort. 1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. 1974 – The 1974 Super Outbreak occurs, the second largest tornado outbreak in recorded history (after the 2011 Super Outbreak). The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured. 1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Babylift, a mass evacuation of children in the closing stages of the war begins. 1975 – Bobby Fischer refuses to play in a chess match against Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the title of World Champion by default. 1980 – US Congress restores a federal trust relationship with the 501 members of the Shivwits, Kanosh, Koosharem, and the Indian Peaks and Cedar City bands of the Paiute people of Utah.[16] 1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. 1989 – The US Supreme Court upholds the jurisdictional rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in Mississippi Choctaw Band v. Holyfield. 1993 – The outcome of the Grand National horse race is declared void for the first (and only) time 1996 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States. 1996 – A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. 1997 – The Thalit massacre begins in Algeria; all but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas. 2000 – United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust law by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. 2004 – Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves. 2007 – Conventional-Train World Speed Record: A French TGV train on the LGV Est high speed line sets an official new world speed record. 2008 – ATA Airlines, once one of the ten largest U.S. passenger airlines and largest charter airline, files for bankruptcy for the second time in five years and ceases all operations. 2008 – Texas law enforcement cordons off the FLDS's YFZ Ranch. Eventually 533 women and children will be taken into state custody. 2009 – Jiverly Antares Wong opens fire at the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York, killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide. 2010 – Apple Inc. released the first generation iPad, a tablet computer. 2013 – More than 50 people die in floods resulting from record-breaking rainfall in La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2016 – The Panama Papers, a leak of legal documents, reveals information on 214,488 offshore companies. 2017 – A bomb explodes in the St Petersburg metro system, killing 14 and injuring several more people. 2018 – YouTube headquarters shooting: A 38-year-old gunwoman opens fire at YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California, injuring 3 people before committing suicide.
2 notes · View notes
yourreddancer · 29 days ago
Text
Heather Cox Richardson
November 21, 2024
Nov 22
Today, former Florida representative Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for the office of attorney general. He did so shortly after CNN told him that they were going to report that the House Ethics Committee had been told there were witnesses to yet another sexual encounter between Gaetz and a minor in 2017. There was already evidence that he had sent more than $10,000 to two women who later testified in sexual misconduct investigations. The notes explaining the payments said things like: “Love you,” “Being my friend,” “Being awesome,’ and “flight + extra 4 u.” 
Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told Will Steakin of ABC News that discussions of Gaetz’s payments “are meant to undermine the mandate from the people to reform the Justice Department.” 
Gaetz’s withdrawal turns attention to Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. As host of the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, Hegseth has no relevant experience to run a crucial United States government department, let alone one that oversees close to 3 million personnel and a budget of more than $800 billion. 
According to Heath Druzin of the Idaho Capital Sun, Hegseth has close ties to an Idaho Christian nationalist church that wants to turn the United States into a theocracy. 
Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic did a deep dive into Hegseth’s recent books and concluded that Hegseth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically.” Hegseth’s books suggest he thinks that everything that does not support the MAGA worldview is “Marxist,” including voters choosing Democrats at the voting booth. He calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left” and says that without its “utter annihilation,” “America cannot, and will not, survive.” 
Like Gaetz, Hegseth is facing stories about sexual assault. Yesterday, officials in Monterey, California, released a police report detailing a 2017 sexual assault complaint against Hegseth. The report recounts chilling details of a drunk Hegseth blocking a California woman from leaving a hotel room and then sexually assaulting her. A nurse reported the alleged assault after the woman underwent a rape exam. Hegseth says the encounter was consensual, but he paid the woman a settlement in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement. He was never charged.
Trump’s pick for secretary of education, Linda McMahon, is also short on experience in the field of the department she has been tapped to oversee. She once incorrectly claimed to have a bachelor’s degree in education when she was trying to get a seat on the Connecticut Board of Education and is known primarily for her work building World Wrestling Entertainment. And she, too, has been entangled in a sex abuse scandal. In October, five men filed a lawsuit claiming that she and her husband, Vince McMahon, were aware that former ringside announcer Melvin Phillips was assaulting “ring boys” who were as young as 13.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition said of McMahon’s misrepresented credentials: “These types of politically motivated attacks are the new normal for nominees ready to enact President Trump’s mandate for common sense that an overwhelming majority of Americans supported two weeks ago.”
But Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence makes McMahon look like a prize. As military scholar Tom Nichols points out in The Atlantic, former representative TulsI Gabbard is “stunningly unqualified” to oversee all of America’s intelligence services, including the Central Intelligence Agency. Nichols notes that her constant parroting of Russian talking points and her cozying up to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad make her “a walking Christmas tree of warning lights” for our national security.  
Former Republican governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley suggested that Gabbard is “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” who has no place at the head of American intelligence. A Russian state media presenter refers to Gabbard as “our girlfriend” and as a Russian agent.
And then there is Trump’s tapping of Robert Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has no training in medicine or public health and, in addition to being a prominent critic of the vaccines that have dramatically curtailed disease and death in the U.S., is an outspoken critic of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.
There are a number of ways to think about Trump’s appointments. The people he has picked  have so little experience in the fields their departments handle that Erin Burnett of CNN suggested that he is simply choosing them from “central casting”—a favorite phrase of his—to look as he imagines such officials should. Indeed, as Zachary B. Wolf of CNN pointed out, while President Joe Biden vowed to make his Cabinet look like America, Trump’s picks look “exactly like Fox News.” Trump has actually tapped a number of television hosts for different positions. 
That so many of his appointees have histories of sexual misconduct is also striking, and underlines both that they share his determination to dominate others and that they do not think rules and laws apply to them. 
But there is another pattern at work, as well. In a piece he published on November 15 in his “Thinking about…” newsletter, scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder explained that destroying a country requires undermining five key zones: “health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence.” The nominations of Kennedy, Gaetz, Hegseth, and Gabbard, as well as the tapping of billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to destroy the administration of the government, are, according to Snyder, a “decapitation strike.” 
“Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States,” Snyder writes. “How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective,” he explains, “Trump's proposed appointments—Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard—are perfect instruments.  They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done.”
But that destruction of the United States is so far still aspirational. The constant references to Trump’s supposed “mandate” are misleading. He did not win 50% of the vote, meaning that more voters chose someone other than Trump in the 2024 election than voted for him, and even many of his voters appear to have misunderstood his policies. 
According to Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Trump’s loyalists have tried to shore up support for his nominees in the Senate by threatening the Republican senators: "If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary. That is all. And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” 
That threat is a direct assault on the Constitution, which gives to the Senate the power to advise the president on senior appointments and requires their consent to a president’s choices, and one that also hands the U.S. government over to an international billionaire. Forcing a leader’s political party to get into line behind that leader is the first task of an authoritarian, who needs that unified support in order to attack political opponents. 
But, so far, the threat hasn’t worked: it could not save Gaetz in the face of public outcry. 
Almost as soon as Gaetz withdrew his name, Trump presented former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as his replacement for the attorney general post. In March 2016, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found that the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to support Bondi at a time when she was considering joining a lawsuit against Trump University. Her office ultimately decided not to join the lawsuit. 
Bondi defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, during which she was a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel. She supported Trump’s campaign to insist—falsely—that he won the 2020 presidential election. She is also a registered lobbyist for Qatar. 
Meanwhile, Republican perceptions of the economy have changed abruptly. As Philip Bump of the Washington Post notes, since Trump’s election, there’s been a 16-point drop in the percentage of Republicans who say they were doing worse a year ago than they are now. 
While that change is due to Trump’s election, in fact Biden’s policies continue to deliver. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today that for the second year in a row, the average price of a Thanksgiving dinner has fallen. According to the American Farm Bureau, that price fell 5% this year, with the cost of turkey down 6%. Gasoline to travel for the holiday is also down to its lowest point in more than three years, by about 25 cents per gallon since this time last year, falling to below $3.00 a gallon in almost 30 states. 
Tonight, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggested that Americans should keep scorecards of the country’s economic numbers, “charting where inflation, unemployment and GDP were at the end of Biden’s term and regularly updating it with Trump’s latest numbers.” He noted that “the country is now covered with embryonic factories, businesses, economic redevelopment projects and more courtesy of Joe Biden’s CHIPS act and the Inflation Reduction Act,” and predicted that Trump will claim credit for all Biden accomplished. 
Keeping track would help preserve those projects in the face of threatened Republican cuts and at the same time prevent Trump from being able to claim more credit for his administration than it has earned. 
0 notes
mostlysignssomeportents · 3 months ago
Text
This day in history
Tumblr media
On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.
Tumblr media
#20yrsago EFF suing the FCC over the Broadcast Flag! https://web.archive.org/web/20041009183059/https://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_10.php#001968
#20yrsago Sun endorses software patents, then loses 50% of profits to one https://slashdot.org/~Sanity/journal/85891
#15yrsago Royal Mail uses legal threats to shut down service that provided postcode lookups to charities and nonprofits https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/royal-mail-closing-job-search-over-data-dispute-while-sacking-workers/
#15yrsago Conservapedia proposes de-liberalized Bible https://newrepublic.com/article/70008/fixing-the-bible
#15yrsago FBI file on Aaron Swartz, US court-record hacker http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/fbifile
#15yrsago Melvin Monster, Volume 1: classic monster comics from Little Lulu’s creator https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/05/melvin-monster-volume-1-classic-monster-comics-from-little-lulus-creator/
#15yrsago Marseille Figs’ JUMBO: sinister circus music, drunken ballads, C&W apologies with accordion and sarcasm https://memex.craphound.com/2009/10/05/marseille-figs-jumbo-sinister-circus-music-drunken-ballads-cw-apologies-with-accordion-and-sarcasm/
#10yrsago Great ideas that changed the world, and the people they rode in on https://memex.craphound.com/2014/10/05/great-ideas-that-changed-the-world-and-the-people-they-rode-in-on/
#10yrsago Dutch IT contractor lays out the case for spying on everyone’s wearables, always https://draadbreuk.nl/wearables/bizarre-video-pinkrocade-big-brother/
#10yrsago BC Pastafarian fights for right to wear colander in Driver’s License photo https://web.archive.org/web/20141007083120/http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=10260910
#5yrsago CBP officer refuses to allow American journalist into the country until he admits he writes “propaganda” https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/10/us-customs-officer-harasses-defense-one-journalist-dulles/160380/
#5yrsago US prosecutors say the “bankrupt” Sacklers still have billions hidden away https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purduepharma-bankruptcy/sacklers-reaped-up-to-13-billion-from-oxycontin-maker-u-s-states-say-idUSKBN1WJ19V/
#5yrsago Hong Kong bans makeup and masks so facial recognition cameras can identify protesters https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3031483/anti-mask-law-protesters-would-be-tough-enforce-streets-and
#5yrsago Where would you put the word “fuck” in William Carlos Williams’s “This is Just to Say”? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJTO4Ult1ovJJUlXXq4iq3uyWeXOUc56YLvx6BMg3xMTxb_g/viewform?sfns=mo&fbzx=1286119606992296332
#1yrago Union pensions are funding private equity attacks on workers https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/05/mr-gotcha/#no-ethical-consumption-under-capitalism
Tumblr media
Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.
Tumblr media
1 note · View note
geezliberia · 4 months ago
Text
Senator Edwin Snowe Calls for Urgent Action to Clean Up Monrovia
Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. has voiced serious concerns about the deteriorating condition of Monrovia, describing the city as filthy and hazardous to the health of its residents. Speaking during a Senate session on Thursday, September 5, 2024, Senator Snowe stressed that the capital’s state is unacceptable and unbefitting of Liberia in the 21st century. Senator Snowe urged his…
0 notes
brookston · 5 months ago
Text
Holidays 8.8
Holidays
Abbey Road Crossing Day
Agricultural Worker Health Center Day
Anjin Matsuri (Ito City, Japan)
ARDS Awareness Day
ASEAN Day
Bā bā Day (Father's Day; Taiwan)
Bonza Bottler Day
Bubble Wrap Day (Japan)
Bullet Journal Day
Burry Man Festival (Scotland)
Colorism Awareness Day
Ceasefire Day (Iraqi Kurdistan)
Dalek Day
The Date To Create
Digital Nomad Day
D23 Day (Disneyland)
Dying to Know Day (Australia)
Eleanor Roosevelt Day
Emancipation Day (Kentucky; Tennessee)
Father's Day (a.k.a. Bā bā Day or 爸爸節; Mongolia, Taiwan)
Five Night’s at Freddy’s Day
Flag Day (Sweden)
Global Infinite Possibilities Day
Global Sleep Under the Stars Night
Happiness Happens Day
Horticulture Day (India)
International Allyship Day
International Cat Day
International Character Day
International Consensual Spanking Day
International Female Orgasm Day [a.k.a. 7.31]
International Mountaineering Day
International Ophthalmologist Day
International War Folly Day
Karkidaka Vavu Bali (Kerala, India)
Kranti Diwas (a.k.a. Freedom Day or Quit India Day; Mumbai, India)
Lion’s Gate Portal Day
Mar-A-Lago Search and Seizure Day
Moon Bear Day
Mount Vesuvius Eruption Anniversary Day (1767)
Namesday of the Queen (Sweden)
Nane Nane Day (Farmers' Day; Tanzania)
National Africa-US Rising Cashew Day
National Anne Day
National Assistance Dog Day
National Boundaries Awareness Day
National Braiders Day
National CBD Day (a.k.a. National Cannabidiol Day)
National Clog Dancing Day
National Dollar Day
National Garage Sale Day
National Infinite Possibilities Day
National Liam Day
National Love Your Inmate Day
National Melvin Day
National Perler Day
National Pickleball Day
National Reporter’s Day (Iran)
National Tarantula Appreciation Day
National Taxi Day (Japan)
National Vaping Day
Nixon Resignation Anniversary Day
Odie Day
Panda Cares Day
Peace Festival (Augsburger Friedensfest; Germany)
Safe Sport Day
Salt Water Day (Uruguay)
Scottish Wildcat Day (UK)
Severe ME Awareness Day
Signal Troops Day (Ukraine)
Silver Dollar Day
Stakeholder Appreciation Day
Tendong Lho Rum Fiat (Sikkim, India)
Thistle Day (French Republic)
Top 8 Challenge Day (Australia)
TR-808
Universal and International Infinity Day
Vore Day
Wakulima ya Nane Nane (Peasants’ Day or Farmers’ Day; Tanzania)
Wear Your Mother’s Jewelry Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Frozen Custard Day
National Africa-US Rising Cashew Day
National Fried Chicken and Waffles Day
National Mochi Day
National Oatcake Day (UK)
National Spam Musubi Day
National Whataburger Day
National Zucchini Day
Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors Porch Night
Independence & Related Days
Batavia (a.k.a. Duchy of Batavia; Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]
Cote d'Ivoire (a.k.a. Ivory Coast, from France, 1960)
Delhi (Becomes Capital; India; 1947)
Karachi (Becomes Capital; Pakistan; 1947)
Majerówka (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
Montosh (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]
Poulo Wai (Declared; 1995) [unrecognized]
2nd Thursday in August
August Thursday (Anguilla) [2nd Thursday]
Crayfish Festival (Kräftpremiär; Sweden) [Date Varies]
Miracle Treat Day (Canada) [2nd Thursday]
Weekly Holidays beginning August 8 (1st Full Week of August)
Fardagar (Iceland) [Thursday of 7th Week of Summer thru Sunday]
National Hobo Week (thru 8.10)
Festivals Beginning August 8, 2024
Edmonton Folk Music Festival (Edmonton, Canada) [thru 8.11]
Fairport’s Cropredy Convention (Cropredy, United Kingdom) [thru 8.10]
Gone Wild Festival Norfolk (Wells-next-the-Sea, United Kingdom) [thru 8.11]
Grand Tasting Alpharetta (Alpharetta, Georgia)
Henry County Fair (Napoleon, Ohio) [thr 8.15]
Hope Watermelon Festival (Hope, Arkansas) [thru 8.10]
Illinois State Fair (Springfield, Illinois) [thru 8.18]
Iowa State Fair (Des Moines, Iowa) [thru 8.18]
Key West Lobsterfest (Key West, Florida) [thru 8.11]
Melbourne International Film Festival (Melbourne, Australia) [thru 8.25]
Mendota Sweet Corn Festival (Mendota, Illinois) [thru 8.11]
Missouri State Fair (Sedalia, Missouri) [thru 8.18]
Mozamboogy (Lopes, Mozambique) [thru 8.12]
National Blueberry Festival (South Haven, Michigan) [thru 8.11]
Northwest Washington Fair (Lynden, Washington) [thru 8.17]
Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival (Goshen, Connecticut) [thru 8.11]
Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) [thru 8.10]
Skowhegan State Fair (Skowhegan, Maine) [thru 8.17]
State Fair of West Virginia (Fairlea, West Virginia) [thru 8.17]
Sweet Corn Festival (Oakland City, Indiana) [thru 8.10]
Sycamore Steam Show & Threshing Bee (Sycamore, Illinois) [thru 8.10]
The Upstage Music Fest (Clearfield, Pennsylvania) [thru 8.10]
Way Out West (Gothenburg, Sweden) [thru 8.10]
Worldcon (Glasgow, United Kingdom) [thru 8.12]
Feast Days
Altmann of Passau (Christian; Saint)
British Thermal Unit Day (Church of the SubGenius)
Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, and companions (Christian; Martyrs)
Dominic de Guzmán, founder of the Dominican Order (Christian; Saint)
Festival of Venus Eve (Ancient Rome)
Finest Fairy Finals (Shamanism)
Four Crowned Martyrs (Christian; Martyrs)
Fourteen Holy Helpers’ Day (Christian)
Friedrich Georg Weitsch (Artology)
Godfrey Kneller (Artology)
Happiness Happens Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Hormisdas, Pope (Christian; Martyr)
International Cat Day (Pastafarian)
International Goat Day (Pastafarian)
Jan Pieńkowski (Artology)
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (Artology)
Jostein Gaarder (Writerism)
Károly Reich (Artology)
Mme. de Lafayette (Positivist; Saint)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Writerism)
Mary MacKillop (Christian; Saint) [Australia]
Rye Day (Pagan)
Sara Teasdale (Writerism)
Season of Bureaucracy begins (Discordian)
Smaragdus and companions (Christian; Martyrs)
Spaghettini (Muppetism)
Triskal Day (Celtic Book of Days)
Venus Festival (Ancient Rome; from sunset to sunset)
Virgin Mary Nativity (Christian)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Unluckiest Day of the Year (India)
Premieres
Alice the Beach Nut (Ub Iwerks Disney Cartoon; 1927)
Another Side of Bob Dylan, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1964)
The Boss (Film; 2016)
Bully for Bugs (WB LT Cartoon; 1953)
Cardigan, by Taylor Swift (Song; 2020)
Eleanor Rigby, by The Beatles (Song; 1966)
Farewell, My Lovely (Film; 1975)
Folklore, by Taylor Swift (Album; 2020)
Forty Pink Winks (Pink Panther Cartoon; 1975)
Gangsta’s Paradise, by Coolio (Song; 1995)
Heavy Traffic (Animated Film; 1973)
An Innocent Man, by Billy Joel (Album; 1983)
Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, recorded by Les Brown (Song; 1941)
Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain (WB Animated Film; 2017)
Lookin’ Out My Back Door, by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Song; 1970)
The Old Oaken Bucket (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)
One Crazy Summer (Film; 1986)
Ozark Lark (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1960)
Pest Pilot (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1941)
Pictures at an Exhibition, completed by Modest Mussorgsky (Piano Suite; 1874)
Pink Plasma (Pink Panther Cartoon; 1975)
Revolver, by The Beatles (Album; 1966)
The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner (Novel; 1972)
She’s Gotta Have It (Film; 1986)
Stand By Me (Film; 1986)
A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin (Novel; 2000) [A Song of Fire and Ice #3]
Straight Outta Compton, by N.W.A. (Album; 1988)
Sunday Go to Meeting’ Time (WB MM Cartoon; 1936)
The Wee Men (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1947)
Welcome to the Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Short Stories; 1968)
Whiplash, by Metallica (Song; 1983)
The Wizard of Arts (Animated Antics Cartoon; 1941)
Xanadu (Film; 1988)
Yellow Submarine, by The Beatles (Song; 1966)
Today’s Name Days
Cyriak, Dominik, Elgar, Gustav (Austria)
Emil, Emilian, Emiliya (Bulgaria)
Dinko, Dominik, Nedjeljko (Croatia)
Soběslav (Czech Republic)
Ruth (Denmark)
Silva, Silve, Silvi, Silvia (Estonia)
Silva, Sylvi, Sylvia (Finland)
Dominique (France)
Cyriak, Dominik, Elgar (Germany)
Triantafilia, Triantafilos Triantafyllos (Greece)
László (Hungary)
Domenico, Emiliano (Italy)
Gotlibs, Mudite, Vladislavs (Latvia)
Daina, Domas, Dominykas, Elidijus, Gustavas, Tulgirdas (Lithuania)
Evy, Yvonne (Norway)
Cyprian, Cyriak, Cyryl, Emil, Emilian, Emiliusz, Niezamysł, Olech, Sylwiusz (Poland)
Oskár (Slovakia)
Domingo (Spain)
Silvia, Sylvia (Sweden)
Amelia, Amillian, Emil, Emily, Fedir, Leonid, Theodore (Ukraine)
Dustin, Dusty, Merrill, Meryl, Muriel, Myron, Myrta, Myrtle, Vic, Vick, Vicki, Vicky, Victor, Victoria (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 221 of 2024; 145 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 4 of Week 32 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 6 of 28]
Chinese: Month 7 (Ren-Shen), Day 5 (Jia-Chen)
Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]
Hebrew: 4 Av 5784
Islamic: 2 Safar 1446
J Cal: 11 Purple; Foursday [11 of 30]
Julian: 26 July 2024
Moon: 16%: Waxing Crescent
Positivist: 24 Dante (8th Month) [Mme. de Lafayette]
Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 1 of 15]
Season: Summer (Day 50 of 94)
Week: 1st Full Week of August
Zodiac: Leo (Day 18 of 31)
Calendar Changes
As (Gods) [Half-Month 16 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 8.22)
0 notes
kapitaali · 6 months ago
Photo
Tumblr media
Teknologian poliittinen talous
Tumblr media
Bill Janewayn arvostelu Daron Acemoglun ja Simon Johnsonin kirjasta Power and Progress
Kokemamme taloudelliset vaikutukset eivät ole koskaan olleet täysin seurausta siitä, että markkinat ovat jakaneet resursseja tehokkaasti niiden optimaaliseen käyttöön. Päinvastoin se, miten teknisen kehityksen kustannukset ja hyödyt jakautuvat, on yhteiskunnallisten valintojen tulosta, vaikkei se aina siltä näytäkään.
CAMBRIDGE – Daron Acemoglun ja Simon Johnsonin uusi kirja Power and Progress liittyy moniin muihin suuriin narratiiveihin, jotka käsittelevät nykyp��ivän maailmantalouden kannalta keskeistä kysymystä: Miten Yhdysvallat — ja hieman samaan tapaan Britannia — joutuivat nykyiseen sotkuunsa? Muita kiinnostavia tekstejä ovat Jonathan Ira Levyn Ages of American Capitalism, J. Bradford DeLongin Slouching Towards Utopia, Gary Gerstlen The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, Helen Thompsonin Disorder: Hard Times in 21st Century ja Martin Wolfin The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism.
Kaikki nämä teokset käsittelevät perustavaa laatua olevaa jännitettä teollistuneen länsimaisen maailman kahden vallanjako- ja vallankäyttöjärjestelmän, poliittisen demokratian ja markkinatalouden, välillä. Jokainen teos dokumentoi omalla tavallaan, miten kapitalismin dynamiikka on keskittänyt taloudellista ja rahoituksellista valtaa, jota sitten käytetään vaikuttamaan poliittiseen prosessiin ja jopa hallitsemaan sitä.
Power and Progress -teoksen erottaa tekijöiden oma ammatillinen elinympäristö. Molemmat ovat MIT:n taloustieteilijöitä — Acemoglu taloustieteen laitokselta ja Johnson Sloan School of Managementista. Acemoglu on yksi sukupolvensa johtavista taloustieteilijöistä. Hänen panoksensa talousteoriaan ja empiiriseen analyysiin ovat laajuudeltaan, monipuolisuudeltaan ja laadultaan poikkeuksellisia, ja hän on tehnyt merkittävää työtä teknologian erilaisista vaikutuksista, kun se lakkauttaa olemassa olevia työpaikkoja ja luo uusia. Johnson on Kansainvälisen valuuttarahaston entinen pääekonomisti, joka tunnetaan hyvin analyysistään siitä, miten Yhdysvaltojen talouden finansialisaatio loi pohjan vuoden 2008 maailmanlaajuiselle finanssikriisille.
Molemmille on myös ominaista ilmeinen halukkuus julkaista kirjoja ei-akatemialle suunnattua yleisöä varten. Heidän aiemmat työnsä talouskehityksen poliittisesta taloudesta (Acemoglu) ja finanssipolitiikan ja valtionvelan poliittisesta taloudesta (Johnson) olivat askelia tiellä Power and Progressiin ja edustavia esimerkkejä taloustieteen kehityksestä vuoden 2008 jälkeen.
Nyt neoklassisen taloustieteen linnakkeesta käsin he ovat ottaneet tehtäväkseen osoittaa, että kokemamme taloudelliset tulokset eivät ole koskaan olleet täysin seurausta siitä, että markkinat jakavat resurssit tehokkaasti optimaaliseen käyttöön. He väittävät päinvastoin, että teknologisen kehityksen kustannusten ja hyötyjen jakautuminen on yhteiskunnallisten valintojen tulos, vaikkei se aina siltä näytäkään. Siksi heidän kirjansa otsikolla on toinenkin merkitys: valta käsitellä tätä aihetta on rohkaiseva osoitus taloustieteen edistymisestä.
Ei-neutraalia
Edesmenneen historioitsijan Melvin Kranzbergin ”teknologian ensimmäinen laki”, jonka mukaan ”teknologia ei ole hyvä eikä paha, eikä se myöskään ole neutraalia”, voisi hyvinkin olla Power and Progress -teoksen esikuva. Se abstrahoi siististi kirjoittajien keskittymistä ”automaatioteknologian ja uusien tehtävien luomisen väliseen tasapainoon sekä vuokranjaon institutionaalisiin perusteisiin”. Juuri tämä kehys jäsentää Acemoglun ja Johnsonin tarkastelua talous- ja poliittisesta historiasta keskiajalta nykypäivään.
Talouskasvua edistäneet peräkkäiset teknologiat ovat sekä ”syrjäyttäneet” työvoimaa nykyisistä tehtävistä että ”palauttaneet” työvoiman uusiin tehtäviin. Kirjoittajat tukeutuvat lukuisiin julkaisuihin (joista Acemoglu on ollut monien toinen kirjoittaja), joissa tätä prosessia on sekä teoreettisesti selvitetty että empiirisesti validoitu. Sikäli kuin uudet teknologiat lisäävät tuottavuutta, ne lisäävät käytettävissä olevaa ylijäämää. Tämän ylijäämän jakaminen määräytyy kuitenkin markkinoilla ja poliittisessa prosessissa vallitsevan voimasuhteen mukaan, mikä voi aina lieventää tai jopa kääntää markkinoita.
Acemoglu ja Johnson etsivät 1300-luvulta asti esimerkkejä innovatiivisten teknologioiden — tuulimyllyjen ja vesimyllyjen — tuomasta tuottavuuden kasvusta, jonka maallinen ja uskonnollinen eliitti otti kokonaan omakseen. Euroopan katedraalien rakentamiseen käytetyt resurssit tulivat suoraan talonpoikien selkänahoista. Kirjoittajat iskevät väärää nuottia väittäessään, että ”talonpojat saatiin suostumaan”, mutta he korjaavat nopeasti tämän vaikutelman korostamalla pakkokeinojen merkitystä. Vuoden 1381 englantilaisen talonpoikaiskapinan johtajat teloitettiin nimittäin pikaisesti.
Acemoglu ja Johnson siirtyvät sitten teolliseen vallankumoukseen ja keskittyvät sen jakamiseen liittyviin seurauksiin havainnollistamaan teknologian epäneutraaliutta. He osoittavat, että sen ensimmäinen vaikutus oli Englannin työväenluokan köyhtyminen pitkän sukupolven ajan. Kangaspuukutojan näkökulmasta tekstiilitehtaan teknologia oli yksiselitteisesti huono. Mutta kirjoittajat olisivat voineet myös todeta, että työvoiman hyväksikäyttöä vahvisti ”verinen laki”, jonka mukaan koneiden rikkomisesta ja yli sadasta muusta teosta rangaistiin kuolemalla tai kuljetuksella Australiaan.
1800-luvun jälkimmäinen neljännes toi mukanaan syvällisiä muutoksia Britannian poliittiseen voimatasapainoon, mikä näkyi aluksi vuoden 1832 reformilaissa ja 14 vuotta myöhemmin viljalakien kumoamisessa, joilla oli asetettu tuontiviljalle tulleja maanomistajien vuokrien suojelemiseksi. Edistyksellinen uudistus ei kuitenkaan ollut mikään lahja rikkailta keskiluokalle, saati sitten köyhille, vaan se voitettiin aggressiivisella julkisella painostuksella, joka ilmeni sekä rauhanomaisissa kokoontumisissa ja vetoomuksissa että kapinallisissa mellakoissa. Poliittisen uudistuksen myötä tuottavuuden paranemisesta saadut voitot jakautuivat huomattavasti laajemmin.
Kirjoittajat laajentavat tarkastelunsa 1900-luvun ensimmäiselle puoliskolle ja esittävät todisteita työmarkkinoiden ja politiikan voimatasapainon kehittyvästä vuorovaikutuksesta, kun massatuotannon ja sähköistämisen uusia teknologioita kehitettiin ja otettiin käyttöön. Kahden maailmansodan ja suuren laman aikana taloustieteilijä John Kenneth Galbraith kutsui ”tasoittavaksi voimaksi” sitä, joka syntyi ammattiyhdistysten ja sosiaalilainsäädännön muodossa pääoman rajoittamiseksi ja työvoiman voimaannuttamiseksi. Tuloksena oli eriarvoisuuden radikaali, vaikkakin vain hetkellinen väheneminen kaikkialla kehittyneessä maailmassa.
Tässä yhteydessä on syytä pysähtyä toteamaan, kuinka paljon Acemoglu ja Johnson ovat poikenneet uusklassisen taloustieteen keskeisestä väittämästä. Uusklassisen tuotantofunktion mukaan kilpailuolosuhteissa tuotannontekijöiden — työvoiman ja pääoman — saama tuotto määräytyy niiden tuottaman tuotoksen marginaalisen osuuden mukaan. Näin ollen työntekijän palkka määräytyy työvoiman tuotantoon antaman lisäpanoksen mukaan ja samoin pääoman tuoton mukaan. Voisi kysyä, mikä voisi olla oikeudenmukaisempaa?
Itse asiassa uusklassinen tuotantofunktio sulkee nimenomaisesti pois vallan roolin tulonjaon määrittelyssä tuon satunnaisen lauseen ”kilpailuolosuhteissa” avulla. Kuten Acemoglu ja Johnson osoittavat tyhjentävästi ja yksityiskohtaisesti, reaalimaailman markkinoiden tuottojen jakautuminen ei ole koskaan johtunut pelkästään tuotannon teknisistä edellytyksistä. Keskeistä on kyky projisoida tasoittavaa valtaa tasapainottamaan valtaa, jonka pääoman omistus antaa johtajille. Tämä on ”kiistelty tie”, jonka kautta moderni poliittinen taloustiede on kehittynyt.
Motivoivat ja vangitsevat visiot
Power and Progress -teoksessa annetaan erityinen, muokkaava rooli niiden yrittäjien ”näkemyksille”, jotka ovat johtaneet peräkkäisiä teknologisen innovaation aaltoja ja jotka muodostavat ”näkemysoligarkian”. Tämän päivän ”visio-oligarkia” on:
“… joukko teknologiajohtajia, joilla on samanlainen tausta, samanlainen maailmankatsomus, samanlainen intohimo ja valitettavasti samanlaiset sokeat pisteet. […] Ryhmän vaikutusvalta ei johdu panssarivaunuista ja raketeista vaan siitä, että sillä on pääsy vallan käytäville ja se voi vaikuttaa julkiseen mielipiteeseen. […] Vision oligarkia on niin vakuuttava, koska sillä on ollut loistava kaupallinen menestys.”
Tämä syvästi merkityksellinen huoli selittää sen, mikä saattaa vaikuttaa kirjassa tuskin merkitykselliseltä sivujuonteelta. Kirjoittajat kertovat ”varoittavan tarinan” Ferdinand de Lessepsistä, ranskalaisesta yrittäjästä, joka johti Suezin kanavan rakentamista mutta epäonnistui sitten katastrofaalisesti yrityksessään rakentaa kanava Panamaan. De Lessepsin menestys Suezissa oli lukinnut hänet suunnitelmaan, joka oli täysin sopimaton Panaman hyvin erilaisiin maantieteellisiin, geologisiin ja ympäristöolosuhteisiin. Lopulta de Lesseps jäi oman näkemyksensä loukkuun, eikä Lessepsin Panaman kanava koskaan valmistunut.
Acemoglu ja Johnson olisivat voineet rikastuttaa de Lessepsin hulluutta koskevaa kuvaustaan liittämällä sen selkeämmin muihin vastaaviin esimerkkeihin peräkkäisten teknologisten aikakausien aikana. Yksi silmiinpistävä esimerkki on Henry Ford, massatuotannon sankarillinen pioneeri. Ford esiintyy kirjassa lähinnä pomona, jonka on pakko parantaa työntekijöidensä hyvinvointia pitääkseen heidät palveluksessaan. Liukuhihnan epäinhimillisen ankaruuden vuoksi Fordin Highland Parkin tehtaan työntekijöiden vaihtuvuus nousi 380 prosenttiin vuonna 1913, minkä vuoksi yritys reagoi siihen suurilla palkankorotuksilla, jotka nousivat tuolloin ennennäkemättömään 5 dollariin päivässä.
Kirjoittajat unohtavat mainita, että lisäpalkan saamisen ehtona Fordin työntekijät joutuivat kattavan ja tiukan valvonnan kohteeksi yrityksen sosiaaliosastolla, joka seurasi kaikkea heidän henkilökohtaisesta käyttäytymisestään aina perhe-elämään asti. Detroitissa oli jo sukupolvia ennen digitaalista aikakautta käytössä ”valvontakapitalismi”.
Suoraan de Lessepsin epäonnistumisen kannalta merkityksellisempää oli tapa, jolla Fordin oma näkemys ensin ohjasi ja sitten vangitsi hänet ja hänen yrityksensä, kuten David Hounshell kuvaa tyhjentävästi vuonna 1985 ilmestyneessä kanonisessa kirjassaan From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932. Ford keskittyi monomaanisesti tuottamaan mahdollisimman halpaa autoa, ja puolen sukupolven ajan hänen T-mallinsa oli hallitseva. Mutta edullisuus saavutettiin yhtä lailla äärimmäisellä keskittymisellä standardointiin — ”Kuka tahansa asiakas voi saada autonsa minkä värisenä haluaa, kunhan se on musta” — ja tuotantoprosessin erikoistamisella. Fordin tuotantolinjan käyttämät työstökoneet oli suunniteltu nimenomaan T-mallien valmistusta varten, eikä mitään muuta.
Kun General Motorsin Alfred P. Sloan osoitti, että tuotteiden eriyttäminen oli menestyksekästä kilpailussa valtavasti laajentuneilla automarkkinoilla, Fordin oli pakko luopua visiostaan. Vuonna 1926 GM:n Chevrolet myi Yhdysvalloissa enemmän kuin T-malli, mikä osoitti, että markkinoinnin mestaruus oli voittanut tuotantotekniikan mestaruuden. Koska Ford seurasi GM:ää ja otti käyttöön erilaisia malleja eri taloudellisille ja sosiaalisille kerroksille, sen oli suljettava tehtaansa puoleksi vuodeksi siirtyäkseen A-mallin tuotantoon.
Tuoreempi osoitus siitä, miten voitokas tekninen visio voi saada markkinajohtajan ansaan, on IBM:ltä 1900-luvun viimeiseltä vuosikymmeneltä. IBM:n hallitseva asema maailmanlaajuisessa tietokoneteollisuudessa perustui keskitetyn tietojenkäsittelyn kehittämiseen ja käyttöönottoon: mainframe-tietokoneet olivat vuorovaikutuksessa käyttäjien kanssa ”tyhmien” päätelaitteiden kautta. Kun suurtietokoneet kehittyivät, ne tarjosivat kaikki ne ”-uvuudet” (luotettavuus, skaalautuvuus, tietoturvallisuus), joita yritys- ja viranomaisasiakkaat halusivat.
IBM oli saanut aikaan sankarillisen yritysmuutoksen luomalla System/360:n — teknisen saavutuksen, joka oli yhtä suuri kuin de Lessepsin Suezissa tekemä saavutus. Acemoglu ja Johnson antavat tunnustusta omapäisille teknologeille, jotka kyseenalaistivat IBM:n vision ja vaativat vaihtoehtoista hajautetun tietojenkäsittelyn mallia (joka alun perin toteutui henkilökohtaisen tietokoneen myötä). Heiltä jää kuitenkin huomaamatta IBM:n myöhempi romahdus, joka heijasteli lyhyen aikavälin taktista siirtoa ja pidemmän aikavälin strategista virhettä.
Kun Apple ja muut osoittivat edullisten, yhden käyttäjän koneiden houkuttelevuuden, IBM luopui tiukasti integroituneesta, omasta teknisestä perinnöstään. Se perusti erillisen PC-yksikön Boca Ratoniin Floridaan — yli 1200 mailin päähän yrityksen pääkonttorista Armonkissa, New Yorkissa — ja antoi sille luvan ulkoistaa kaksi kriittistä komponenttia: prosessorin Intelille ja käyttöjärjestelmän Microsoftille. Näin syntyi ”Wintel”-duopoli, joka myöhemmin horjutti IBM:n omaa määräävää asemaa, vaikka tietotekniikkamarkkinat laajenivat valtavasti.
Ennen PC:tä IBM oli tehnyt strategisen sitoumuksen, joka osoittautui vieläkin vahingollisemmaksi — ja toisti de Lessepsin epäonnistumisen suoremmin. Yrittäessään toistaa System/360:n voittoa IBM oli käynnistänyt vuonna 1971 Future System -hankkeensa, jonka tarkoituksena oli tehdä vanhentuneiksi kaikki nykyiset tietokonejärjestelmät, myös IBM:n omat. Keskeinen periaate oli maksimoida laitteiston ja ohjelmistojen välinen integraatio, jotta voitaisiin hyötyä laitteistokustannusten laskusta ja sitoa asiakkaiden sovellukset ainoaan laitteistoon, joka voisi tukea niitä.
Hanke lopetettiin vain neljä vuotta myöhemmin katkerien sisäisten riitojen ja kilpailujen sekä tietotekniikan jatkuvan kehityksen vuoksi. Visio jäi kuitenkin elämään ja tuli markkinoille 1980-luvun lopulla AS/400:n muodossa. Tuote oli lyhyen aikaa erittäin menestyksekäs, sillä se tuotti noin 14 miljardin dollarin vuositulot ja 10 miljardin dollarin vapaan kassavirran. Kriittistä oli kuitenkin se, että IBM PC:n täysin suljettu arkkitehtuuri eristi IBM:n vallankumouksesta, joka muutti koko alaa: siirtyminen vertikaalisesti integroituneesta laitteistosta horisontaaliseen, hajautettuun ja verkottuneeseen tietojenkäsittelyyn, jossa arvo siirtyi samanaikaisesti laitteistosta ohjelmistoon, kun laitteisto muuttui hyödykkeeksi. Vuoteen 2000 mennessä IBM:llä ei ollut enää mitään merkitystä tietojenkäsittelyn jatkuvassa kehityksessä.
Acemoglu ja Johnson ovat huolissaan siitä, että nykyisten Big Tech -yrittäjien visiot hallitsevat sitä, miten nykyistä uutta teknologiaa sovelletaan. He pelkäävät perustellusti, että Big Techin käyttämä koneoppiminen mikrotägättyyn mainontaan perustuvan liiketoimintamallin luomiseksi muuttuu vielä sosiaalisesti tuhoisammiksi emergenttien generatiivisen tekoälyn sovelluksiksi. He korostavat myös, että automaatio voi poistaa tehtäviä ja työpaikkoja, mikä siirtää voimatasapainoa edelleen työntekijöitä vastaan ja lisää tulo- ja varallisuuseroja. Teollisen vallankumouksen ensimmäisten 50 vuoden pitkä ja tuskallinen historia on suuri. Kirjoittajat eivät kuitenkaan lopeta tähän.
Silloinen teknologian uudelleensuuntaaminen
Acemoglu ja Johnson tiivistävät kirjansa myönteisen viestin käsitellessään Ison-Britannian työläisille ensimmäisen teollisen vallankumouksen aikana aiheutuneita seurauksia: ”Teknologian suuntaaminen työväestöä vastaan on aina valinta, ei ’edistyksen’ väistämätön sivuvaikutus. Tämän vinoutuman kääntämiseksi on tehtävä erilaisia valintoja.”
Kuvaillessaan toisen maailmansodan jälkeistä yleisen vaurauden aikakautta he ottavat asianmukaisesti huomioon ammattiliittojen rakentavan roolin, jota puolestaan vahvisti New Dealiin sisältynyt vuoden 1935 kansallinen työsuhdelaki (National Labor Relations Act, ”Wagner Act”). Sekä Detroitin United Auto Workers -ammattiliitto että länsirannikon International Longshore and Warehouse Union -ammattiliitto auttoivat muokkaamaan sitä, miten automaatiota käytettiin ja miten sen edut jaettiin. Laman aiheuttama muutos poliittisen vallan tasapainossa oli siis aiheuttanut muutoksen myös työmarkkinoiden voimatasapainossa.
Kun juuri republikaanien hallitsema kongressi yritti kumota suuren osan New Dealista, yksi sen harvoista merkittävistä onnistumisista oli vuoden 1947 Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley Act), joka sisälsi kaksi säännöstä, joilla heikennettiin ammattiliittojen taloudellista valtaa. Toisella säännöksellä valtuutettiin yksittäiset osavaltiot säätämään niin sanottuja ”oikeus työhön -lakeja”, joilla lopetettiin suljetut työpaikat, joissa enemmistön ääni liiton puolesta velvoitti kaikki työntekijät maksamaan liiton jäsenmaksuja. Kesti lähes sukupolven, ennen kuin tällaiset lait saatiin laajalti voimaan koko eteläisessä Amerikassa, mutta kun näin oli tehty, amerikkalainen teollisuus — erityisesti autotehtaat — siirtyi sinne ammattiyhdistyksiin kuuluvasta Keskilännen teollisuudesta.
Toinen säännös oli hienovaraisempi, mutta Acemoglu ja Johnson pitävät sitä erityisen opettavaisena. Saksassa ja Pohjoismaissa neuvottelut käydään toimialatasolla, eikä ammattiliittosopimuksella ole suoraa merkitystä toimialan muodostavien yritysten välisessä kilpailussa. Taft-Hartley-laki kuitenkin edellytti, että kaikki ammattiliittojen neuvottelut johdon kanssa käydään liiketoimintayksikön tasolla, mikä tarkoittaa, että jokainen neuvottelu on osa yritysten kilpailua markkinaosuuksista. Ammattiliittojen hajottamisesta tuli näin ollen kilpailuedun, ellei jopa yrityksen selviytymisen väline.
Tämän politiikan makrotaloudellinen merkitys käy ilmi ”ammattiliittotiheyden” — niiden kotitalouksien prosenttiosuus, joissa on vähintään yksi ammattiliiton jäsen — ja tuloerojen käänteisestä korrelaatiosta. Acemoglu ja Johnson ovat hyvin tietoisia tästä historiallisesta kaaviosta, ja he pitävät ”työntekijäjärjestöjen” laajaa kehittämistä välttämättömänä ensimmäisenä askeleena kohti tasapainottavan vallan uudelleenrakentamista ja teknologian uudelleen suuntaamista.
Ennen toimenpidesuositusten antamista kirjoittajat antavat asiantuntevan ja vivahteikkaan kuvan siitä, miten koneoppimisen ja suurten kielimallien (generatiivinen tekoäly) teknologia on valmis muuttamaan työelämää. Kirjoittajat tarkastelevat laajasti tekoälyn menetelmiä, sovelluksia ja rajoituksia, erityisesti vaaraa, että laajoista harjoitusaineistoista luotavat tilastolliset mallit ”ylisovittuvat”. He korostavat, että tämä vaara korostuu erityisesti silloin, kun tekoälyä käytetään sosiaalisissa tilanteissa, joissa ihmisten reaktiot tekoälyn tuloksiin muuttavat refleksiivisesti tietoja niistä, joiden perusteella tekoäly on koulutettu.
Acemoglu ja Johnson kritisoivat työntekijöiden ja tehtävien digitaalista hallintaa ja tukeutuvat näin huomattavaan ja nopeasti kasvavaan kirjallisuuteen. He antavat myös luovan panoksen tarkastelemalla uudelleen kolmen teknologisen edelläkävijän työtä: Norbert Wiener, J.C.R. Licklider ja Douglas Engelbart.
Wiener, joka keksi termin ”kybernetiikka” kuvaamaan ihmisen ja koneen välistä vuorovaikutusta, keskittyi tuottavaan yhteistyöhön tietokoneiden kanssa. Licklider oli johtavassa asemassa DARPA:ssa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) 1960-luvun alussa, ja hän loi pohjan vuorovaikutteiselle henkilökohtaiselle tietokoneelle ja itse Internetille. Lickliderin vision innoittamana Engelbart muistetaan ”kaikkien demojen äidistä” vuonna 1968, jolloin hän esitteli tietotekniikan tulevaisuutta seuraavien 50 vuoden aikana.
Kirjoittajat kehottavat näitä kolmea visionääriä määrittelemään ”käyttämättömän tien”, jossa etusijalla on kehittää tietokoneita täydentämään, ei korvaamaan ihmistä, ja jonka otsikkona on ”koneen hyödyllisyys”. Ensimmäinen ja välittömin mahdollisuus on laajentaa menestyksekkäiden tietotekniikkasovellusten pitkää linjaa työntekijöiden tuottavuuden lisäämiseksi nykyisten tehtävien suorittamisessa. Toiseksi digitaalitekniikka on jo luonut lukuisia uusia tehtäviä samalla kun se on automatisoinut vanhoja (makrotaloudellisella tasolla tämä näkyy selvimmin laajassa siirtymässä teollisuudesta kaikenlaisiin palvelutehtäviin). Kolmanneksi, jos tekoäly koulutetaan oikein kuratoidulla datalla, se voi toimittaa ihmispäätöksiä tekeville henkilöille paljon tehokkaammin merkityksellistä tietoa kuin tyypillinen Google-haku (varsinkin kun mainokset pilaavat jälkimmäistä yhä enemmän).
Lisäksi uudet digitaaliset välineet luovat uusia foorumeita ja markkinoita erityisesti kehitysmaissa, joissa vanhat instituutiot eivät estä innovointia. Kirjoittajat mainitsevat kaksi esimerkkiä kasvavasta määrästä: yhtenäisten kalamarkkinoiden luominen matkapuhelinten avulla Etelä-Intian Keralassa ja Kenian erittäin menestyksekäs mobiilivaluutta- ja rahansiirtojärjestelmä M-Pesa.
Kuten Acemoglu ja Johnson myöntävät, nämä saavutukset ovat kuitenkin marginaalisia verrattuna siihen, että tekoälyn avulla pyritään saavuttamaan ”inhimillinen tasavertaisuus”, mihin on investoitu valtavasti rahaa ja aivokapasiteettia. Tekoäly ei suinkaan voimaannuta työntekijöitä, vaan se uhkaa toimia ”kaikkien sopimattomien teknologioiden äitinä”, koska yritykset keskittyvät liiaksi automatisointiin eikä lisäämiseen. Kysymys kuuluukin, mitä asialle voidaan tehdä.
Teknologian uudelleensuuntaaminen nykypäivänä
Acemoglu ja Johnson ehdottavat erilaisia, toisiaan täydentäviä keinoja, joilla voidaan rajoittaa ja muokata uusien teknologioiden vaikutusta. He aloittavat siitä, että tarvitaan työntekijäjärjestöjä, jotka ovat sopeutuneet nykypäivän työmarkkinoille, jotka ovat paljon hajautuneemmat kuin ne, joilla 1900-luvun puolivälin teollisuusliitot menestyivät.
Yksi toive on, että työntekijät voisivat käyttää samoja teknologioita, jotka mahdollistavat työn algoritmisen hallinnan Walmartissa, uudenlaisen solidaarisuuden rakentamiseen. Acemoglu ja Johnson viittaavat menestyksekkäisiin, joskin rajallisiin ammattiyhdistysprojekteihin joissakin Amazonin ja Starbucksin toimipaikoissa. Ja vaikka heidän kirjansa kirjoitettiin ennen kuin Teamsters neuvotteli UPS:n kanssa uuden sopimuksen, jolla voi olla merkittäviä kerrannaisvaikutuksia järjestäytymättömiin FedExin kuljettajiin, se tarjoaa runsaasti todisteita siitä, että näennäisesti yksittäisillä tapahtumilla on usein systeemistä merkitystä.
He tunnustavat toki, että teknologian käyttöönoton todellisten jakovaikutusten tunnistaminen on erittäin haastavaa ja että vielä haastavampaa on muotoilla toimenpiteitä, joilla käyttöönottoa voidaan siirtää kohti koneiden kannalta hyödyllisiä sovelluksia. Loppujen lopuksi tällä alalla toteutettavien toimien tahattomia seurauksia on tuskin mahdollista tietää etukäteen. Acemoglu ja Johnson kuitenkin huomauttavat, että havaittavissa olevat muutokset työn osuudessa arvonlisäyksestä voidaan mitata luotettavasti yrityksen, toimialan ja kansakunnan tasolla, mikä tarjoaa barometrin teknologian vaikutuksista.
Tässä yhteydessä he suosittelevat, että teknologian käyttöä kokeillaan ”monin tavoin” ja että lupaavimmat sovellukset palkitaan. He kuitenkin torjuvat tiettyjen käyttötapojen ennalta ehkäisevät verot, koska politiikka on tehtävä epävarmassa ilmapiirissä. Heidän lähestymistapansa vastaa näin ollen presidentti Joe Bidenin hallinnon strategiaa, jolla Yhdysvaltain taloutta ohjataan kohti vihreää teknologiaa. Se perustuu lähes kokonaan porkkanoihin eikä keppiin.
Yksi ala, jolla Acemoglun ja Johnsonin ehdotukset ovat erityisen tarkkasilmäisiä ja teräviä, on kilpailuoikeuden sääntely. Ne täydentäisivät kilpailunrajoitusten valvontaa erilaisilla täydentävillä aloitteilla, kuten 230 §:n kumoamisella — pahamaineinen laki, joka suojaa suuria teknologiayrityksiä kaikelta vastuulta siitä, mitä käyttäjät julkaisevat alustoillaan — ja uusilla digitaalisen mainonnan veroilla.
He vaativat uudistuksia, joilla tasapainotetaan liittovaltion verotusta. Liittovaltion verotus suosii hyvin merkittävästi pääoman tuottoa työn palkkojen sijaan. Kun sosiaaliturvamaksut on otettu huomioon, he toteavat, että 100 000 dollarin lisäys, jonka yritys käyttää työvoiman palkkaamiseen, aiheuttaa 25 prosentin verolaskun työnantajalle ja työntekijälle, kun taas samoihin tehtäviin käytettävien uusien laitteiden verot ovat alle 5 prosenttia.
Työmarkkinatoimenpiteiden tasapainon muuttamiseksi ne suosivat tukia työntekijöiden koulutukseen sekä yrityksessä että sen ulkopuolella. Mutta he torjuvat jyrkästi vetoomukset yleisen perustulon (”UBI”) puolesta, jota he pitävät täysin vääränlaisena myönnytyksenä joidenkin teknologiavisionäärien unelmalle automatisoida ihmistyö pois olemassaolosta. Sen lisäksi, että UBI riistää ihmisiltä tunteen siitä, että heidän ponnistelunsa on ansaittu, se myös ohjaisi yhteiskunnan resursseja pois julkishyödykkeiden, kuten teiden ja kirjastojen, tarjoamisesta. Se on itse asiassa jälleen yksi osoitus ”metodologisesta individualismista”, joka sai aikaan Britannian pääministerin Margaret Thatcherin kuuluisan väitteen, jonka mukaan ”sellaista asiaa kuin yhteiskunta ei ole olemassa”.
Tarve uudenlaiselle ajattelulle
Lopuksi kaksi muuta erillistä ehdotusta voidaan yhdistää tuottavasti. Acemoglu ja Johnson vaativat ensinnäkin, että valtiovallan olisi aktiivisesti tuettava innovatiivista teknologiaa. Tällä he eivät tarkoita ”voittajien valitsemista”. Pikemminkin heillä on mielessään rooli, joka Yhdysvaltain armeijalla oli ensimmäisenä yhteistyöhön perustuvana asiakkaana tieteellisille saavutuksille penisilliinistä mikroelektroniikkaan. Erikseen he kiinnittävät huomiota myös sellaiseen yritysrahoitukseen, joka uhkaa vääristää akateemisia kannustimia, ja tunnustavat akateemisen maailman ”keskeisen roolin yhteiskunnallisen vallan viljelyssä ja käytössä”.
Kaksi viimeaikaista myönteistä viestiä osoittaa, että kirjoittajien väitteet pitäisi ottaa hyvin vastaan. Ensinnäkin Bidenin hallinnon kahden viime vuoden aikana hyväksymä merkittävä lainsäädäntö — infrastruktuurilaki, CHIPS- ja tiedelaki sekä inflaation vähentämistä koskeva laki (IRA) — osoittaa, että Amerikka on jo kehittelemässä hallitukselle aktiivisempaa roolia pioneeriteknologian kehittämisessä ja käyttöönotossa.
Toiseksi innovatiiviseen lainsäädäntöön on liittynyt älyllistä innovointia, ja akateemisen taloustieteen uudelleenrakentaminen on auttanut määrittelemään uudelleen ja laajentamaan poliittisen päätöksenteon vaihtoehtoja. Esimerkkinä mainittakoon Nobel-palkittu taloustieteilijä Michael Kremer, joka on perustanut kehitysyhteistyön innovaatiolaboratorion, johon kuuluu ”markkinoiden muotoilun kiihdyttämö”, joka sijaitsee juuri Chicagon yliopiston Becker Friedman -instituutissa, entisen markkinafundamentalismin äitikirkossa. Tämä aloite perustuu Kremerin onnistumisiin ”kehittyneiden markkinasitoumusten” suunnittelussa, jotta rokotteiden kehittämiseen ja jakeluun saataisiin resursseja maailmanlaajuisesti, erityisesti COVID-19-pandemian aikana.
Kaikissa tämän esseen alussa mainituissa kirjoissa kuvataan yksityiskohtaisesti uusliberalistisen järjestyksen epäonnistumisia ja tuhoa sen seurauksena. Mutta ne jättävät lukijan miettimään, mitä seuraavaksi tapahtuu. Power and Progressissa Acemoglu ja Johnson ryhtyvät rakentamaan uutta kehystä inklusiivisemman tulevaisuuden luomiseksi. Tätä varten he määrittelevät tehokkaan toiminnan kolme osa-aluetta: narratiivin ja sen myötä kulttuuristen normien muuttaminen, vastavoiman rakentaminen ja asiaankuuluvien poliittisten ratkaisujen luominen.
Kuten kirjoittajat tekevät selväksi, olemme tehneet tämän ennenkin. Britannian muutoksesta 1800-luvun puolivälissä 1900-luvun alun edistysliikkeeseen ja Franklin Rooseveltin New Dealiin asti kansan mobilisointi on muokannut valtarakenteita ja politiikan sisältöä. Nykyään haaste vaikuttaa pelottavalta, kun otetaan huomioon puolueiden polarisoituminen ja oikean laidan suorananinen hyökkäys demokraattisia instituutioita vastaan. Todellista edistystä on kuitenkin näkyvissä, jos tarkkaan katsomme.
Acemoglu ja Johnson eivät mainitse Bidenin hallinnon hyväksymiä keskeisiä lakeja: CHIPS- ja tiedelakia sekä IRA:ta. Molempia on kritisoitu siitä, että ne ovat vaikeuttaneet ensisijaisia tarkoituksiaan — kotimaisen puolijohdeteollisuuden elvyttämistä ja vihreän teknologian investointeihin kannustamista — sisällyttämällä niihin monia vaatimuksia, jotka koskevat ammattiliittojen työvoimaa, elämiseen riittäviä palkkoja, lastenhoitopalveluja ja muuta vastaavaa. Mutta juuri nämä ”kaikenlaista pullaa” koskevat säännökset, kuten vastustajat niitä kutsuvat, ovat juuri se tapa, jolla poliittiset johtajat voivat toteuttaa tämän erinomaisen kirjan keskeisen väitteen: teknologian jakovaikutuksesta on tehtävä yhteiskunnallinen valinta.
    Lähde: https://www.billjaneway.com/the-political-economy-of-technology
https://kapitaali.com/bill-janeway-teknologian-poliittinen-talous/
0 notes
lboogie1906 · 6 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
Pastor M. Gayle Dickson (June 27, 1948) known as Asali, was the only woman graphic artist for the Black Panther Party Newspaper (1972-74). She was born in Berkeley, California to James and Madeline Stowers. She began a pattern of drawing that was nurtured in the Oakland Public Schools. She graduated from Fremont High School and attended Laney Community College where she studied painting, she transferred to Merritt College.
She married Melvin Dickson (1966) they traveled to Seattle and joined the local chapter of the Black Panther Party. She painted a sign for the Sydney Miller Free Health Clinic and worked with the survival programs. She attended the University of Washington where she received additional art training and joined the Black Student Union. They relocated to Oakland in 1972 to work for the BPP Headquarters.
She was assigned to the graphic arts department where she met Emory Douglas, BPP Minister of Culture. She integrated more political and social commentary into her artwork which appeared on the back of the Intercommunal News Service. Her images focused on women and children to critique capitalism and urban poverty. They promoted the BPP’s 10-point program and the political campaigns of Elaine Brown and Bobby Seale. In 1974, she transferred to the Oakland Community School and was responsible for designing the letterhead, teaching pre-school art classes, and administrative duties. She left the BPP in 1976.
She graduated from Holy Names University BF. She worked for the City of Berkeley as an office clerk and was promoted to Assistant Analyst. She graduated from San Francisco Theological Seminary, graduating with an MDiv. She pastored the South Berkeley Community Church. where she fused her art and preaching as a way to minister to people. She introduced a Friday Night's Arts Dinner and sponsored a youth art exhibit. She maintained a full-time job as the Assistant Administrator for Sister Thea Bowman Manor/ Percy Abram Jr. Senior Apartments. In 2016, she retired.
She continues to paint, and teach and is a sought-after speaker in the Bay Area. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence
0 notes
disco-cola · 8 months ago
Text
also been seeing a lot about lockheed martin again (they are delivering jets and missiles to the IOF) and it reminded me about what this absolute devil company did in the 60s and 70s. i saw a movie and documentary about it years ago. when germany was still divided the us-aligned imperial west germany bought hundreds of fighter jets called "starfighter" from lockheed martin (with tax money of course) even though this type of jet has not been fully tested yet. the armed forces of west germany put them in use too and 1/3 of them crashed and all those crashes were filed under "pilot error" even though many formerly considered "great" pilots crashed and died in them (116 died in total). again, those jets were not even fully tested yet when they were sold and lockheed martin knew fully well about the lack of security and some people have been saying the company also bribed western german government officials with millions to stay silent while paying off widows and brainwashing them into silence. then in the late 60s, one killed pilot's pregnant widow, gerlinde hippel, stood up against it and refused to be "bought and lied to by the army" - of course all while being threatened and surveilled by the state. she tried getting other widows to follow the legal action she wanted to take because she refused to believe the crash was her husbands fault but at this point many of them had already been intimidated and paid off by the army. she met us-lawyer melvin belli through a mutual friend and told him her story and he decided to help her. she was only in her mid-20s, widowed with 2 small kids and a sociology student and barely had any money for her and her children to get by after her husbands death. he took her to the united stated to sue lockheed martin for faulty construction of the jets. only with a big american lawyer on their side a few other widows eventually decided to come along to file a class action lawsuit against lockheed in the us. a few years into the 1970s, lockheed eventually caved in and paid 32 widows 3 million dollars in total as "compensation" - which at that point in their homeland of west germany was the highest amount of compensation ever achieved in a lawsuit, so they took the offer. she still never got an apology or full clarification about her husbands crash, however. in the documentary from 2015, it was said that the crew tried filming on the grounds still used by the german army at this point where one crash had originally taken place but they were refused to be let in because "we should let old things rest." lockheed martin still operates as a rich and successful arms supplier in the united states, most recently coming back into the spotlight for supplying israel amidst its genocidal attack on gaza. earlier this year in april, a lockheed martin employee attempted driving his car into pro-palestinian protesters in california and threatened them with a knife. the way this criminal company is still deeply connected to the us government and the rest of the imperalistic west and israel (like it was with west germany and the rest of west europe after ww2 when the starfighter affair happened) until today tells you everything you need to know. its all about militarism, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. palestine is not! an isolated! issue!
1 note · View note