Christ tae fuck. This sounds inhumane.

https://nebula.tv/videos/simon-clark-pros-and-cons-of-doing-a-phd/

It doesn't need to be like this. They need to increase stipends to AT LEAST *actual* living wage in that area FOR THOSE HOURS. And hazard pay, if they keep the stupid fucking working conditions.

Update: now with youtube links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKUu--wnWtE
https://www.youtube.com/@SimonClark/search?query=phd

A coalition of First Nations has offered to purchase the struggling Hudson’s Bay Company in exchange for tobacco, blanket

“We may be willing to go as high as a copper kettle, but that’s about it.”

#HBC #Colonialism #Capitalism #Indigenous #Irony

https://walkingeaglenews.com/2025/03/17/first-nations-offer-to-buy-iconic-hudsons-bay-store-chain-for-tobacco-blanket/

It turns out billionaires like Bill Gates care more about themselves and their money than about maintaining a livable planet for the rest of us.

Are you surprised? I’m not.
___________________________

In decades past, as the effects of climate change slowly became undeniable, some people looked to the super-rich for solutions. By the early 2020s, a few billionaires had positioned themselves as masters of climate change policy, taking advantage of their great fortunes to become indispensable to environmentalism.

Now, however, many of those same billionaires are pulling their support at an alarming rate. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the sixth richest man in the world, is the latest among them. Breakthrough Energy — Gates' climate change nonprofit — has locked the doors on its policy and advocacy office, laying off dozens of employees throughout Europe and the US.

Ever since billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump won his second presidential election, tech barons like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and of course Elon Musk have made no bones about shedding their progressive skin and embracing the new administration.

Gates, too, is cozying up to the returning president. In early January, the Microsoft founder spent three hours dining with his fellow billionaire, telling the Wall Street Journal he was "frankly impressed" by Trump's grasp on the issues dear to him.

Though many no doubt feel betrayed by what seems like a sudden rightward turn, billionaires like Gates have always behaved like wolves in sheep's clothing, prioritizing their fortunes above all.
___________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- https://futurism.com/bill-gates-gives-up-climate-change

SEE ALSO -- “Bill Gates Is Giving Up on Climate Change”
https://gizmodo.com/bill-gates-is-giving-up-on-climate-change-as-trump-drains-the-woke-out-of-washington-2000576270

Trump and the tools of the old world order

https://hamishcampbell.com/trump-and-the-tools-of-the-old-world-order/

I’ve been posting weekly reminders about Business As Usual every Monday morning for about two years now.

But you know what? I could legitimately have been doing it each week for the past 30 or 40 years! Because that’s how long the ‘elite’ rulers of our society have been fully aware of what they are doing and yet continued pushing non-stop in a destructive rapacious exploitative colonial capitalist frenzy — completely ignoring the science and dooming the rest of us to a disastrous ecological breakdown.

All in the name of profits.
__________________________

It's time for another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, sponsored by Toyota, Comcast, and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

"Keep driving, keep flying, keep shopping, keep buying!
We've got this, everything's fine."

Money is just a convenient system for exchanging goods and services. I want to make it difficult to get rich running this exchange system. And easier to get rich producing goods and services.

𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝒍𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝑪𝒂𝒈𝒆

"The private companies in control of social-media networks possess an unprecedented ability to manipulate and control the populace."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/trump-administration-voter-perception/681598

"Amazon has a sky-high price/earnings ratio – about triple the ratio of other retailers, like Target. That scorching P/E ratio reflects a belief by investors that Amazon will continue growing. Companies with very high p/e ratios have an unbeatable advantage relative to mature competitors – they can buy things with their stock, rather than paying cash for them... Being able to buy things with stock instead of money is a powerful advantage, because money is scarce and exogenous (Amazon must acquire money from someone else, like a customer), while new Amazon stock can be conjured into existence by typing zeroes into a spreadsheet.

But the downside here is that every growth stock eventually stops growing... That's where "AI" comes in. The hype around AI serves an important material need for tech companies. By lumping an incoherent set of poorly understood technologies together into a hot buzzword, tech companies can bamboozle investors into thinking that there's plenty of growth in their future."

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/15/altering-the-deal/#telescreen

What a world. #Capitalism "externalizes" costs to the point where the costs are "externalized" into our own bodies.

You know what?

Why do you need a thing like that?

Just stay unconnected, off-line, off grid and be yourself with your real flesh-and-blood friends around you.

Wouldn't that be nicer?

I think so. Certainly reading things like:

"Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28"

Amazon is killing a privacy feature to bolster Alexa+, the new subscription assistant. "

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

Ukraine is the front line in battle against #OligarchicCapitalism

War in #Ukraine not just fight for national sovereignty, it’s a battle at crossroads of collapsing global order

#War exposed an #economic system that has concentrated #wealth, #power, decision-making into the hands of a few

Will this war serve as yet another chapter in story of #oligarchs & corporate elites profiting from conflict while ordinary people #suffer?

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-is-the-front-line-in-the-battle-against-oligarchic-capitalism/

"To the Rural Poor" (1903) by Vladimir Lenin. Audiobook.
#socialism #communism #capitalism #anarchism

https://youtu.be/G86kjBqaz1c