Today's Extortion: $10 Billion To Trump Regime

 

With his allies in the tech world ready to take over TikTok, the corrupt Malignant Fascist's regime is collecting a $10 billion "fee" for brokering the deal with China.  From Newsweek:

"A federal law required TikTok to either shut down in the United States or be sold to domestic owners at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in 2025.

However, the president issued a series of executive actions extending the deadline, while the White House helped broker a sale to a group led by cloud-computing tech giant Oracle Corp. and private-equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC. [snip]

The new entity, called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will oversee content moderation on the platform and safeguard the data of U.S. users.

The fee is to be paid by investors involved in the TikTok transaction, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. [snip]

The payment is part of a broader agreement that transferred control of TikTok’s U.S. operations from ByteDance to a group of investors seen as friendly with the administration, according to people familiar with the matter. It comes on top of investments used to establish the new company that now operates the app in the U.S.

Those investors include Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi–based investor MGX. The group and its backers paid about $2.5 billion to the Treasury Department when the deal closed in January and are expected to make additional payments until the total reaches $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports." (our emphasis)

Of course, oligarch billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle fame is going to benefit from this payoff to the MF, much like the MF's regime rigged his son David's Skydance purchase of Paramount, and subsequently the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery which was facilitated by regulatory favoritism. CBS, CNN, TikTok and other outlets are now under the control of a right-wing Trumper, who has suggested he'll fire those who are critics of the MF.  Let's hope this latest venture goes south on them.

(photo: The MF and his ally Ellison / Andrew Harnik, Getty)

 

What Resistance Looks Like, Cont. -- Blackout Today

 

We heard about this earlier this week through a neighbor:

A grassroots organization is encouraging U.S. residents not to spend any money Friday as an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group's founder sees as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.

The People's Union USA calls the 24 hours of spending abstinence set to start at midnight an “economic blackout,” a term that has since been shared and debated on social media. The activist movement said it also plans to promote weeklong consumer boycotts of particular companies, including Walmart and Amazon.

Other activists, faith-based leaders and consumers already are organizing boycotts to protest companies that have scaled back their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and to oppose President Donald Trump's moves to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Some faith leaders are encouraging their congregations to refrain from shopping at Target, one of the companies backing off DEI efforts, during the 40 days of Lent that begin Wednesday. [snip]

The planned blackout is scheduled to run from 12 a.m. EST through 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday. The activist group advised customers to abstain from making any purchases, whether in store or online, but particularly not from big retailers or chains. It wants participants to avoid fast food and filling their car gas tanks, and says shoppers with emergencies or in need of essentials should support a local small business and try not to use a credit or debit card...

Some of you might not believe in actions like this since they could have an impact, however slight, on the labor market, or because the impact is likely to be limited.  It's also likely the blackout will be felt more in bluer parts of the country.  Here's one viewpoint:

Anna Tuchman, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, said she thinks the economic blackout will likely make a dent in daily retail sales but won't be sustainable.

“I think this is an opportunity for consumers to show that they have a voice on a single day," she said. ”I think it’s unlikely that we would see long-run sustained decreases in economic activity supported by this boycott.”

Tuchman's point about giving voice to "the resistance" is the more compelling one for us. You don't need to support all the positions of some of the organizers to participate (it's a broad left coalition, so "it's complicated"), or believe it's sustainable.  But if you do decide to take off one day from spending money (or later to boycott some of the more egregious knee- bending companies), maybe you'll be making a difference, like dropping a pebble in the water.

QOTD -- The Oligarchs' "Tech Industrial Complex"

 

"... Today, an oligarchy is taking democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. We see the consequences all across America, and we've seen it before more than a century ago. But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts. They didn't punish the wealthy; they just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had to. Workers want rights there and it helped put us on a path to building the largest middle class, the most prosperous century any nation in the world has ever seen.   [snip]

"... [P]owerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we've taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interests for power and profit. We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren. We must keep pushing forward and push faster.

"There's no time to waste. It's also clear that American leadership in technology is unparalleled, an unparalleled source of innovation that can transform lives. We see the same dangers of the concentration of technology, power and wealth. In his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the of the dangers of the military industrial complex.

"He warned us then about, and I quote, the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power, end of quote. Six days -- six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.

"The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing, social media is giving up on fact checking, the truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power..."  President Biden in his farewell address, January 15, issuing a needed warning about the oligarchy -- the "tech industrial complex" -- about to assume power in Washington, DC.  At the conclusion, he said it's our turn to stand guard.  May we do it with even greater strength and resolve, and clearer eyes about the evil we face. 

In other parts of the address, he covered the many accomplishments of his Administration before they're memory- holed by the MAGAts and big media, always eager to please the powerful.