dagon comments

Posted in: Trump unable to post $464 mil bond in New York civil case: lawyers See in context

The judge ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest while his sons Eric and Don Jr. were told to hand over more than $4 million each.

Another irony about this is that the Trump admin was responsible for the rollback of Obama admin. reforms to limit civil asset forfeiture.

https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/civil-forfeiture-trump-resurrects-an-ugly-practice-for-no-reason-14237541

That was often abused by the police in the case of non-violent drug offenses.

If this is applied with full force on Trump assets, I'm all for some judicial overreach as many with far fewer assets than Trump have experienced.

It would almost make an atheist believe in karma.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump unable to post $464 mil bond in New York civil case: lawyers See in context

"Defendants have faced what have proven to be insurmountable difficulties in obtaining an appeal bond for the full $464 million," Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten said in a filing to the court.

Musk pays it with his pocket change?

MBS? Putin ? The "brilliant" Xi? It is not much for these leaders to get a President.

There are a lot of "angels" in Trump's corner that can come through for him in his time of need.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/us-election-trump-paula-white-house-prayer-b1616014.html

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Posted in: Controversial 'Civil War' movie prompts debate over U.S. schism See in context

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was recently criticized for seemingly joking he would be a "dictator" on "day one" if he wins a second term as president. He faces charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Looking forward to the film, anything by Alex Garland.

I have heard this film is apolitical, but for a more overtly political film "Bushwick" was decent.

Texas militias launch an assault on NYC, thinking it will be a lib pushover and find out there are a lot of well-armed lib activists and gang-bangers there as well.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Elon Musk defends ketamine use See in context

He said he was "leaning away" from Democratic President Joe Biden, but said that did not mean he would support Trump, adding: "A lot can happen between now and the election."

Maybe Musk will pay his bond with some of his spare change?

Even Musk's drug use tends to the exotic, cribbed as usual from his inspiration the anarcho-communist SF writer Iain Banks.

https://www.tbsnews.net/feature/panorama/culture-sci-fi-series-shaped-elon-musks-ideas-133537

Banks himself did a fair amount of drugs but usually came back to his native Scotch, which he wrote eloquently about.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan considering legally binding regulations for AI developers See in context

Japan will soon release guidelines listing 10 principles, including "human-centeredness" and safe AI use.

If the AI does away with that "labor-shortage" because those pesky humans want a living wage and does away with all that payroll and taxes, is that "human-centeredness" ?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Posted in: Under the influence of alcohol, people tend to realize the damage later, and it is also often difficult to pinpoint the time and place of the theft. See in context

A senior investigator for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. A growing number of intoxicated people are having their pockets picked after falling asleep on the street or in a train, with over 3,000 such cases reported nationwide last year, up 30% from the previous year.

The ole lush roll, very retro, big with the Beats.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Bernie Sanders wants U.S. to adopt a 32-hour workweek See in context

Oh in socialist heavens people don't need to work at all. Don't you see that young people in China are lying flat? America should follow suit.

Chinese labor is being drained by oligarchs and Marxists are being vilified in China just like the US, so you are paradoxically right.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/12/ten-student-activists-detained-in-china-for-supporting-workers-rights

Strange for the shills how Sanders can be in opposition to capitalist oligarchs defrauding labor East and West, That is why he is exceptional for his integrity, full stop.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: Bernie Sanders wants U.S. to adopt a 32-hour workweek See in context

In fact, apart from a brief stint as a carpenter when he was a young man, he's never had a private-sector job in his life.

Maybe what is needed is an elate top-tanked business man who had a reality TV show to show how to bring broad-based prosperity to working Americans without being cheated out of the fruits of their labor?

https://www.news-journal.com/opinion/foster-the-case-of-trump-and-the-polish-workers/article_07a1bdf0-ec85-11e9-aaf4-cf549bb509f5.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/28/i-sold-trump-100000-worth-of-pianos-then-he-stiffed-me/

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/donald-trump-taj-mahal-hotel-deal-cheated-builders/

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/27/nyregion/judge-says-trump-tower-builders-cheated-union-on-pension-funds.html

That did not happen.

I trust Bernie Sanders more to enrich the case of labor, as anyone not beholden to a papist pre-logical would.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Trump says he favors abortion ban after certain number of weeks See in context

In the minds of the left.

having any say on women's reproductive rights?

Hmmm, but the left want to challenge the constitutional rights on every American citizen as to whom to vote for, and your point?

More ignorant bleating about "the left,the left, the left" from individuals taking opinions on localized, siloed message forums about subjects like abortion.

Trump noted bans on abortion after a certain number of weeks do exist elsewhere, notably in France and other European countries.

A real leftist, socialist opinion looks at the the solutions available now and sees that technology is increasing apace and a fetus that is viable outside the mother's womb given the bio-technological advances should not be aborted.

There are multiple contraceptive options if readily available , before and after.

And the post-birthed and their support system must be as well defended as the pre-birth.

https://jacobin.com/2023/01/abortion-economic-justice-personal-choice-reproductive-rights-working-class

With easily affordable health care, education and welfare.

But there is the rub for the evangelical GOP innit?

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Posted in: Will AI save humanity? U.S. tech fest offers reality check See in context

Ben Goertzel, a scientist who heads the SingularityNET Foundation and the AGI Society, predicted the advent of general AI by 2029.

Their is a lot of chatter that the oligarch class fears AI disruption of the mechanisms of socio-economic control built up by the neo-liberal order.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-we-should-fear-tech-oligarchs-not-artificial-intelligence/

On the other hand many hope for a hard take-off scenario of ASI.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan business lobby chief hopes for gov't efforts to end deflation See in context

*In a speech at the annual convention of Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation known as Keidanren, said the nation's economy has been on an *upward trend on the back of robust wage growth.

Without a doubt Kishida's LDP and Tokura-san and his Keidanren big wigs have seen robust growth in their assets.

https://eastasiaforum.org/2022/06/26/kishida-retreats-from-new-capitalism/

The problem is the LDP and Keidanren refuse to see this does not apply to the vast majority of Japanese residents.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Posted in: Bernie Sanders wants U.S. to adopt a 32-hour workweek See in context

Given advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits.

Bernie ahead of the curve as usual and addressing this issue unlike many younger pols.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/17/bernie-sanders-workers-should-reap-benefits-of-ai

One of the most crucial issues facing labor and humanity, and he has long seen that productivity has been orthogonal to pay for nearly 40 years, with the lion's share of the gains going to investors and not labor.

https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

With the real possibility of astounding gains from automation, this must change.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Posted in: Japanese table tennis star reaches agreement with ex-husband in high-profile battle over custody of 4-year-old son See in context

Former Japanese table tennis player and Olympic medallist Ai Fukuhara prepares to make a brief statement during a news conference 

Ai has accomplishments in her chosen sport but has skated by a lot on her cuteness.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Member of LDP's biggest faction says he doesn't know when slush fund scheme began See in context

Member of LDP's biggest faction says he doesn't know when slush fund scheme began

Maybe because it has always been, continues to be, and will persist after the LDP finishes with the pantomime of investigating itself and finding scapegoats for SE nominal penalties.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Posted in: Ex-LDP lawmaker gets suspended sentence for vote buying in mayoral election See in context

A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced former ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mito Kakizawa to two years in prison, suspended for five years, for an illegal campaign finance offense related to a Tokyo ward election in April last year.

Way to go Japanese justice for upholding "the rules based order, a society based on equal application of the law, and the sacredness of the democratic process".

I suppose those sentiments are only for certain sectors of foreign consumption and do not apply domestically.

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Posted in: Biden opposes plan to sell U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, citing need for 'American steel workers' See in context

By opposing the merger, Biden has chosen to support unionized workers in a critical election year at the risk of upsetting the business community and an essential ally in Japan. Thursday's announcement, coming as Biden is campaigning in the Midwest, could have ripples in his race against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

Biden has demonstrated real support for unionized labor.

The United Steel Workers recognize this, and know a scammer, like Biden's predecessor, who purports to support blue-collar labor and ends up cheating it.

https://www.usw.org/blog/2016/billionaire-trump-fleeces-workers-small-businesses

6 ( +22 / -16 )

Posted in: Biden's fraying coalition and Trump's struggle with moderates See in context

Meanwhile, Trump, who has perennially struggled to broaden his appeal beyond his base, won his party’s nomination with limited support from moderates and independents. That shortcoming wasn’t an issue for the conservative GOP primary electorate, but it could turn into a bigger problem as Trump looks to November when those voters could play a pivotal role in deciding the election.

This is Trump's big problem. People still remember when he was attacking Hilary's Goldman Sachs ties and banker bailouts as part of his populist message in 2015. It probably caused many to abstain from voting at that time for the neo-liberal Clinton.

Not this time and of course that was all lies and Trump is a swamp creature of the corporatocracy and Wall Street financialization of the economy that is self-evident.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/retirement-private-equity-trump-administration-wall-street-1047576/

That is why he is leaning into more of the evangelicalism and xenophobia this time.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Posted in: Hunter Biden rebuffs Republicans' invitation to appear for public hearing See in context

Comer said the hearing set for March 20 will move forward regardless and Republicans “fully expect Hunter Biden to participate.”

He added, "The American people demand the truth and accountability for the Bidens’ corruption.”

But on the right..

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/06/nepotism-corruption-handmaiden-trump-presidency

Comer: Move along, nothing to see here.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Kishida questioned over scantily clad dancers at LDP party See in context

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was grilled by lawmakers on Wednesday about a gathering of ruling party members at which scantily clad female dancers were reportedly told to use their mouths to receive cash tips.

This is a tired, and all too prevalent tactic of the corporatocracy.

The LDP is guilty of tax evasion on a massive scale that would get the commoners fined, arrested or destitute.

But some were at a party with sexy ladies in what was basically swimwear!

An old marketing/propaganda tactic from Edward Bernays to use sexual peccadilloes to distract from the endemic theft going on by those in power.

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Posted in: Major Japanese companies offer large pay hikes, fueling hope of beating deflation See in context

It is very stable and comfortable to work for a large company.

Those benefits should be a given for one of the world's largest profit makers, not in exchange for poverty wages.

Otherwise only an insignificant percentage of population gets those wage hikes and nothing changes.

Exactly..228,000 yen per month for each new university graduate exerts massive downward pressure on wages on all labor in Japan.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Posted in: Major Japanese companies offer large pay hikes, fueling hope of beating deflation See in context

The world's biggest automaker, which currently offers 228,000 yen per month for each new university graduate, will decide on how much to increase it by later.

When people with no degrees or specialized skills can get the same working at a convenience store or izakaya that is not a good sign for the health of Japan Inc. and its' so-called "labor shortage".

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Posted in: Biden, Trump clinch nominations, kicking off bruising presidential rematch See in context

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both clinched their parties' nomination on Tuesday, kicking off the first U.S. presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.

A victory for a corporacratic duopoly, and that is about it.

I really don't want a third party candidate to throw the election to Trump but I am getting the feeling that is what the corporacratic duopoly wants.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/06/politics/biden-trump-alternatives-what-matters/index.html

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan's Space One Kairos rocket explodes right after lift-off See in context

Tokyo-based Space One was established in 2018 by a consortium of Japanese companies: Canon Electronics, the aerospace engineering unit of IHI, construction firm Shimizu and the state-backed Development Bank of Japan.

"Fail and fail often" is a pretty good ethos if you have state backing and will get bailed out, and another state-backed venture Musk's Space X shares a similar ethos.

Instead of replicating decades old achievements in aerospace with private ventures, I wonder why they just don't cut out the middle man and instead of backing private state ventures go the old NASA route of funding real scientists and engineers into making ground-breaking discoveries and achievements.

11 ( +16 / -5 )

Posted in: U.S. lawmakers say TikTok won't be banned if it finds a new owner See in context

to take a position that a campaign donor wants you to do now means you are….“bought”?

If they are a corporate interest then you have basically defined it ,so yes.

So all the leftist who were fir banning TikTok are now against it.

cause Truuuuuump! (2024)

So the "leftists" are against the Chinese Communist controlled TikTok, and also against Trump who has a bromance with authoritarian Xi.

And this "left" wants to ban TikTok which is a fountain of "woke" content from lefty youth.

Just want to make sure I have all the MAGA terms in order because the train of logic is not making a lick of sense to me. But I suppose that is the point.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Led by Musk, Silicon Valley inches to the right See in context

This is because the political left have switched from supporting speech free of state restrictions and an open internet that empowers people in oppressive societies to demanding censorship and state regulation of the net in the West. Woke activist tactics are poisoning the political left.

Nah that is the fake Musk/MAGA narrative to pivot from the actual leftist goals of opposing a neo-feudalist agenda that wants to cement oligarchic capital as the ultimate recipients of all rents, fruits of labor and taxes and have the rest as serfs.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/susan-neiman-left-is-not-woke-1.6799887

The actual left, which was embodied by Musk's inspiration Iain Banks, knows such rhetoric as Musk's and yours' is a distraction.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Posted in: Led by Musk, Silicon Valley inches to the right See in context

Long considered non-identifiable ideologically, Musk's politics are now hardline right wing as he uses his platform (now called X) to stoke the themes cherished by Fox News, conservative talk radio and far right movements across the West.

Musk is a venture capitalist, who got a little head start from an African blood emerald mine legacy. He is not an Edison or Tony Stark, the advancements at his companies are all thanks to the real engineers and scientists.

And he cribbed too many ideas from his professed inspiration, the socialist Scottish writer Iain M. Banks.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/does-elon-musk-really-understand-books-claims-inspired/

Another PayPal veteran is investor Peter Thiel, a German-born arch conservative who associated himself with Trump when he entered the White House.

Also likes that vital fluids from the young for life extension.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ways-rich-invest-in-living-forever-young-blood-cryonics-2019-8

Last year, in a 5,200-word "techno-optimist manifesto," Andreessen laid out a techno-utopian vision for the future that listed co-opted government, regulation and worries about discrimination or equality as enemies.

Andreessen's version of acceleration is based on maximal capital exploitation but there are other competing ethos competing now in Silicon Valley, like the effective altruists.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Posted in: Biden meets with Teamsters as he seeks to bolster his support among labor unions See in context

“The Biden-Harris campaign is proud to have the support of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, UAW and many other unions,” said Hitt. “We hope to earn the support of the Teamsters as well.”

Of course. If they are not cognitively challenged labor and small business know that Trump has a proven track record of cheating contractors and small businesses.

https://www.usw.org/blog/2016/billionaire-trump-fleeces-workers-small-businesses

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: How to enjoy living alone – it's the coming thing for many of us See in context

How to enjoy living alone – it's the coming thing for many of us

Not everyone can be a Bukowski.

“Isolation is a gift. Everything else is just a test of your endurance. You will be alone with the Gods. Your nights will flame with fire.”

― Charles Bukowski

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump's team slashing Republican National Committee staff amid takeover See in context

“MAGA is now in control of the Republican Party!!” Greene wrote on X, referencing Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement. “We will continue to need everyone’s help all the way across the finish line! Do not grow weary.”

Don't mention the words "putsch" or "night of the long knives" or "brown shirts".

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-i-have-not-read-hitlers-mein-kampf-2023-12-20/

I have to say fascism American-style is lacking the cool swag and historic-mythical narrative.

Staffers were notified of the cuts in an email Monday afternoon from the committee's new chief operating officer, Sean Cairncross, who offered people an opportunity to reapply for their jobs.

I am sure they are drafting the loyalty tests now.

11 ( +19 / -8 )

Posted in: Biden's budget proposal for second term offers tax breaks for families and lower health care costs See in context

But I get it. Liberals hate job creators, they shouldn’t have any money but at the same time they want their employees to have a $20 raise just for flipping burgers,

If the 'job creators" need their workers to be on food stamps and medicaid they should not be in business and are using "socialism" to prop up their business operations.

And defrauding the taxpayers of America.

Commonsense really.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-walmart-mcdonalds-food-stamps-medicaid-minimum-wage-2020-11

3 ( +3 / -0 )

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