dwazou

Getting a dumbphone was one of the best decisions I took in my life. It helps me focus better and read books. I don't actually need the internet with me 24/7. If you really need me, you can call.

Try it. Some people will call you crazy. Just ignore them.

San Francisco is the city with the most tech engineers and software developers. It's the US city with the most tech entrepreneurs. The roads are full of robot cars. You see people walking around with tech glasses and weird devices. You could throw a rock in the street and it will probably land on some tech guy.

It's a complete disaster. Homeless people everywhere. Families unable to see a doctor or a dentist. Desperate men in the streets, injecting themselves with drugs. Luxury private schools where smartphones are banned and professors give tips to get into Stanford. Poor public schools for ordinary children.

What kind of Utopia is this? This is not utopia. It's a nightmare.

Microsoft essentially created a private sales tax on every computer sold in the world. This is how Bill Gates became extraordinary wealthy.

If you want to understand how Gates saved Microsoft from being dismantled, read this 1998 investigation that I found in newspaper archives

HOW MICROSOFT SOUGHT TO GAIN ALLIES AND INFLUENCE IN WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON -- Twenty months ago, Rep. Billy Tauzin walked into the office of Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, bearing a 10-inch-by-10-inch white box and a warning.

Tauzin, R-La., the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the telecommunications industry, placed the box on Gates' desk. Inside was a lemon meringue pie, a reminder of another pie that had been thrown in Gates' face several weeks earlier by a Microsoft critic.

The message to Gates, the richest man on earth and the leader of the digital world, was blunt: You need to make friends in Washington.

At the time of Tauzin's visit in early 1998, the Justice Department was contemplating filing its antitrust suit against Microsoft.

"I told him he was being demonized," Tauzin said in an interview. "I said he had to win the antitrust case in court, but there was also the court of public opinion."

Gates apparently took Tauzin's message to heart -- with a vengeance. While Microsoft and its executives contributed a relatively modest $60,000 to Republican Party committees in 1997, the company's contributions in 1998 shot up to $470,000 as part of its overall political contribution of $1.3 million. The 1998 figure included donations to political candidates, with the bulk of the money going to Republicans.

This year, the company's contributions of nearly $600,000 have been more evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Microsoft's lobbying, focused on swaying Congress and creating a generally friendlier climate in Washington, has had little if any effect on the current antitrust litigation in U.S. District Court, where the company was dealt a major setback on Friday by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's initial findings that it had used monopoly power to stifle competition.

Rather, the lobbying campaign is a long-term strategic push intended to alter the political terrain where future power struggles will be fought.

Campaign donations were just one element of Microsoft's multimillion-dollar effort to win allies in Washington. The company also poured millions of dollars into an aggressive public relations and political offensive, hiring an armada of well-connected lobbyists and underwriting the work of research groups, academics and consultants who have made arguments sympathetic to Microsoft's defense in the antitrust case.

The company's lobbying budget nearly doubled in 1998 from the previous year, to $3.74 million, according to the company's lobbying disclosure reports, and is on pace this year to significantly surpass that figure.

Gates and his top lieutenants have made dozens of trips to Washington, cultivating powerful figures in both parties and hiring some of the city's priciest lobbyists.

Microsoft has retained Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee; Vic Fazio, a former Democratic congressman from California; Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota; Tom Downey, a former Democratic congressman from New York and a close friend of Vice President Al Gore; Mark Fabiani, former special counsel to the Clinton White House; and Kerry Knott, former chief of staff to Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, the House majority leader.

Microsoft has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to research groups, trade groups, polling operations, public relations concerns and grass-roots organizations. It has financed op-ed pieces and full-page newspaper advertisements, and mounted a lobbying effort against an increase in the Justice Department's antitrust enforcement budget.

In June, Bill Gates met for lunch with the Republican leaders of the House in the small whip's room off the House chamber. They discussed Microsoft's public policy agenda, ranging from exports of encryption software to Internet privacy to antitrust actions, said several participants at the meeting. Knott, now a top official in Microsoft's Washington office, attended the session.

Eight days later, Armey introduced what he called his "e-Contract," a list of Republican legislative initiatives that pointedly adopted Microsoft's view of the role of government antitrust actions, like the one that now threatens to dismantle Microsoft.

"When federal agencies use heavy-handed tactics to target specific companies," the Republican document states in language that echoes Microsoft's own, "the real message they send to the market place is this: You could be next."

Armey's aides insist that the release of the document was just a coincidence and that Republicans had long opposed aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws. Microsoft officials also denied that they had influenced Armey's priorities or his language. The package of Republican proposals is still before Congress.

Another Microsoft move on Capitol Hill drew criticism for heavy-handedness.

It is lobbying to trim the antitrust division's budget brought a flurry of editorial condemnation. The Washington Post said Microsoft's actions were "a comical caricature" of a company trying to bully its way through Washington."

One Justice Department official said, "Even the mob doesn't try to whack a prosecutor during a trial."

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/07strategy.html

The reason why Apple displaced Microsoft as the richest company in the world? Billionaire Tim Cook is using tactics that are even more predatory. If you make any purchase with an app, Apple takes a 30% cut. And if the app makers refuse, Apple murders their business by kicking them out of the App store.

These businessmen are economic tyrants. They want to use technology in order to enslave consumers and workers. They want only 1 product, 1 supplier, 1 employer.

Only idiots kiss their ass.

I'm not British. There are many things that I admire about the United Kingdom.

This is the nation that produced Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, George Orwell, JK Rowling, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, David Attenborough. Led Zeppelin, Aldous Huxley, JRR Tolkien.

But the one thing that disturbs me is the unbelievable level of corruption.

In Britain, political parties can raise millions of pounds from one single individual. Private corporations, including foreign corporations, are allowed to give large amounts of money to political parties. Several members of the UK parliament currently work as consultants and lawyers for large corporations such as Thames Water or HSBC. This is all legal.

Compare this to France.

In France, no individual is allowed to give more than 7000 pounds to a political party. Corporations are banned from giving money to political parties. Members of parliament are all banned from having second-jobs. And if you break these rules, an independent agency (HATVP) has the power to criminally prosecute you.

Why did France pass these tough rules ? Huge corruption scandals

France had one President (Nicolas Sarkozy) sell access to his donors

We also had one powerful MP (Francois Fillon) taking a second-job as a lavishly paid consultant for huge corporations

When the French media revealed these scandals, the French political class was so embarrassed that it actually forced them to take action.

The British had similar corruption scandals.

David Cameron was caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/mar/26/david-cameron-private-dinners-tory-donors

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9168388/Cash-for-access-David-Camerons-private-dinners-for-donors-revealed.html

Boris Johnson was also caught selling access to Downing Street in exchange of money:

https://www.ft.com/content/8c6041ff-a223-43e9-9e45-53c3f7cf47f7

Yet the British political class did... absolutely nothing !!! No reform...

Similar scandals have led to completely different legislative outcomes.

In Britain, the rot runs deep.

Unfortunately, there are millions of dumb people who are still kissing his ass.

Microsoft, Apple, Exxon, Meta, Amazon, JP Morgan or Saudi Aramco are the most powerful corporations in the world. They are empires more powerful than many nations. Their CEOs always travel with armed men. They have the personal phone number of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

It's healthy to scrutinize them. Steam is a problem, but Valve is nowhere near as powerful.

Getting really tired of these super-rich motherfuckers claiming they are victims of society

They own the following :

• Atlas Hotels, a hotel real estate and operating company with 46 hotels across the UK

• David Lloyd Leisure, a gym and health club company with 85 locations across the UK and Europe

• London Hilton on Park Lane

• The Trafalgar St. James London

• The Lensbury

• The Panama Pacifico, a US$700 million mini-city on the banks of the Panama Canal[3]

• General Healthcare Group, the UK's leading private health provider with 67 hospitals

• 90 private care homes

• Crowne Plaza hotel in Cambridge

• The Empire, Leicester Square

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_%26_Regional_Properties