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  • "Does there have to be any pain for rich Americans, like yourself, or companies like Goldman Sachs?" we didn't ask but should have.

    "What? Of course not. That's not how we've rigged things to work," she would have responded if she were capable of honesty.

    All of the owner-class and their supportive media are telling us how much pain the rest of us are going to have to go through because their cost to borrow capital is going up. And it sounds more and more like a threat every time they do.

  • If anyone isn't familiar with this here's the Wired article

    Here’s how it works. Say you search for “children’s clothing.” Google converts it, without your knowledge, to a search for “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear,” making a behind-the-scenes substitution of your actual query with a different query that just happens to generate more money for the company, and will generate results you weren’t searching for at all. It’s not possible for you to opt out of the substitution. If you don’t get the results you want, and you try to refine your query, you are wasting your time. This is a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape.

    Why would Google want to do this? First, the generated results to the latter query are more likely to be shopping-oriented, triggering your subsequent behavior much like the candy display at a grocery store’s checkout. Second, that latter query will automatically generate the keyword ads placed on the search engine results page by stores like TJ Maxx, which pay Google every time you click on them. In short, it's a guaranteed way to line Google’s pockets.

    It’s also a guaranteed way to harm everyone except Google. This system reduces search engine quality for users and drives up advertiser expenses. Google can get away with it because these manipulations are imperceptible to the user and advertiser, and the company has effectively captured more than 90 percent market share.

    It’s unclear how often, or for how long, Google has been doing this, but the machination is clever and ambitious. I have spent decades looking for examples of Google putting its enormous thumb on the scale to censor or amplify certain results, and it hadn’t even occurred to me that Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better.

  • Of course it's based on money and not need based or a lottery system or anything like that because fuck the non-rich, amirite? I mean, if you don't have a net worth in the seven figures are you even a person?

  • “We’re making propaganda for fun. Join us, it’s comfy,” the 4chan thread instructs. “MAKE, EDIT, SHARE.”

    It's just some random fun, guys; it's not at all a coordinated campaign by white supremacist fascists to inundate people with racist and fascist propaganda.

  • Some real anger from temporary speaker bow-tie on that gavel.

  • Well, Kevin... at least you outlasted a head of lettuce.

  • To avoid a First Amendment fight. Generally speaking, gag orders are on less sure footing than most people realize; they really do run up against prior restraint concerns. There's actually a fair amount of legal debate over them but the vast majority of defendants don't have the wherewithal, or a compelling reason, to really fight them; Trump does. So judges are likely leery of issuing too broad a gag order on him for fear of being overturned, which they never want anyway, and thereby setting a precedent that weakens all judges' ability to issue future gag orders.

  • [Oversight?!? We haven't even subpoenaed a private citizen with literally nothing to do with the government!]

  • American patriot here: Screw your false idea that you have "freedom" to callously endanger others because you didn't like wearing a mask during a global pandemic.

    • Next step might be to add some ads to paid version?

    Yup. Add "a few" "unobtrusive" ads "relevant to your interests" to the $14 dollar tier while offering a new $18 ad-free tier.