Lmst

#Chinabuilt #airport in #Nepal ‘littered with #corruption’
🤦‍♂️"parliamentary committee’s #investigation into #Pokhara airport found #China #CAMC Engineering, construction arm of SOE #Sinomach failed to pay taxes, didn't finish project to specifications & used #poorquality construction, all bec of corruption & lack of oversight.. airport was built w 20-yr loan fr e Export-Import Bank of China.. #corrupt #bureaucrats & #politicians involved in tis #scam must be punished" #BRI
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/3006432/china-built-airport-in-nepal-littered-with-corruption

"Goldstone doesn’t use the abstract language of structural violence, but his story is full of #landlords, #bureaucrats, and #politicians insulated from the pain they inflict by distance, resources, and power." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/working-homeless-in-america/

📌 "The Little-Known Bureaucrats Tearing Through American Universities:

A new task force formed to combat antisemitism is using funding threats to force broader changes on campus"

🎁 🔗 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/anti-semitism-task-force-who-247c234e?st=vzuR1u&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

🏷️ #Trump #Bureaucrats #Universities #Education #FreeSpeech #Politics #Government #FederalFunds #Censorship

“The story of automation in the US is that it has mostly impacted on manual workers in manufacturing. For example, factory employees — such as carmakers — performing routine tasks have lost their jobs to robots — or lower-cost Asian competitors.

#IndustrialAutomation has tended to affect lower-skilled, #BlueCollar jobs in the “#rustbelt” heartlands and small-town, less-educated communities in the south and midwest.

But a recent study from the #BrookingsInstitution suggests that the communities most exposed to AI-driven job dislocation will be #WhiteCollar information workers. The researchers studied the usage of #OpenAI’s #GenerativeAI tools across more than 1,000 occupations and mapped this against where those jobs were most commonly located.

Their analysis suggests that many #coders, #lawyers, #FinancialAnalysts and #bureaucrats in cities such as San Jose, San Francisco, Durham, New York and Washington DC might want to rethink their futures. But #NonOffice-bound #workers in places such as Las Vegas, Toledo, Ohio and Fort Wayne, Indiana may be less exposed to AI disruption.”

My observation since 2022 when #ChristopherHohn an influential shareholder decided to *speak out* about “reducing its head count and paying (hi-tech) workers less”. [1]

This is the decade where extreme (cost) pressure will be forced on White collar workers by the introduction of AI.

<https://archive.md/YqF03> / <https://www.ft.com/content/04343a69-8204-493c-b8c6-edfbd4057199> (paywall)

[1] <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/11/15/billionaire-hedge-fund-investor-urges-alphabet-to-cut-costs-no-justification-for-salaries-that-are-too-high/>

Like many, I have to limit my intake of news but this morning I learn about cuts at #HHS and Kennedy saying that Americans aren't healthy so things need to change in the government. Are Americans not healthy because of statisticians at HHS? What about food policy and food deserts? What about poverty and inequitable access to #healthcare? What about #opioids and the Sacklers? It's easy to blame #bureaucrats but is that where the problem lies?

"There are very good reasons that the federal faucet has always been controlled by apolitical #bureaucrats." https://www.liberalcurrents.com/personal-discretion-over-the-treasurys-payments-system-means-the-end-of-democracy/

Read an article on we can support mid-level #bureaucrats who are #resisting on the inside. If it helps even one person #HoldTheLine, it is worth it. Here's my effort today. #Boost for more responses.

Email to AskUSDA@usda.gov

Hi USDA --

For the health and safety of all of us, I am asking you to do whatever it takes to get data on bird flu released. I noted in the news today that you announced "Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds over the last year. Your finding indicates that the virus, known as H5N1, has spilled from birds into cows at least twice — leading to these two sets of infections — and that it could continue to do so."

The D1.1 form of H5N1 has also shown itself to be dangerous to people. Of the 67 Americans known to have become ill with H5N1 so far, the only one who died was infected with this version.

Bird flu also has affected 126 flocks in Ohio over the past 30 days, representing a total number of 22.95 million birds on infected premises.

We all deserve to know the full truth of the spread of bird flu in the US.

Thank you for all the essential programs that you run. The American people stand with you!

#USDA #Resist #ResistEverywhere #BirdFlu

"the #Trump administration never realized how much money the #OMB memo would hold up... the number of civil servants working in the administrative state today is about the same as it was in the 1950s & 1960s... Federal spending has grown tremendously... but that growth has been managed not by federal #bureaucrats but by federal #contractors, who outnumber federal employees more than two to one... we need more civil servants... not fewer."
https://newrepublic.com/article/190838/trump-funding-crisis-chaos-shutdown

#GOP #Politics #US #News #USA

Text from article (edited for length):
the Trump administration never realized how much money the OMB memo would hold up. It is, after all, committed to the paranoid fantasy that the federal government is managed by an out-of-control Deep State. In fact, the number of civil servants working in the administrative state today is about the same as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. (According to Axios, Trump is offering them all a buyout to quit, though where the buyout money would come from is anybody’s guess.) Federal spending has grown tremendously since the mid-twentieth century, but that growth has been managed not by federal bureaucrats but by federal contractors, who outnumber federal employees more than two to one. Indeed, as Donald F. Kettl argues in the current issue of The Washington Monthly, we need more civil servants to supervise or replace these contractors, not fewer...

According to the Government Accounting Office, the federal government spent $759 billion on contracts in the 2023 fiscal year, $478 billion on services, and the rest on goods (mostly military hardware). Most if not all of that $478 billion likely constitutes federal financial assistance and is therefore now frozen. About half of the $478 billion purchases services for a single federal agency, the Pentagon, which makes it likely the OMB memo would bring a great deal of defense spending to a halt.

A near future where all sci-fi authors are bureaucrats harnessing their imaginations for the government while the bureaucrats write novels using machines. That's my meta risk scenario. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... #dystopian #scifi #bureaucrats #threatcasting #foresight #scifiprototyping

UK Ministry of Defence enlists...

"The #Canadian #Food Inspection Agency says it didn't need to visit any Loblaw stores because the grocer reported it had fixed the error."

Have rhese #bureaucrats failed to understand their job? Or are they sabotaging it on purpose?
https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7440150

My #fedivision (#vision inspired by the #fediverse): Within the next 20 years people will begin to transfer the structure of the fediverse and how it is managed to the real world.

Citizens will be able to choose the country they wanna live in just the way they today choose the software (#friendica #mastodon #misskey ...), the server and the app they use to socially interact with each other. If they don't like how their server (formerly known as country) is governed they can pack their things and move to another one with close to zero transaction cost.

Today users can voluntarily give money to admins to pay communication infrastructure like #servers and cost's for #administration & #moderation. Today we all are obliged to pay #taxes (except for clever antisocial actor's) in our countries. In the future we can decide where (if at all) our money goes to. There will be admins and servers that have special real world agendas (green energy, strengthening local communities, raising awareness for minorities, air taxis ...) And there might even be servers that pay their users for being there. This money will be demanded from #companies or other non-social actor's like #billionaire's for not de-federating them. They will pay the fee's as it will be their only way to socially interact with or show commercials to others.

In 20 years admins and moderators will be what #politicians and #bureaucrats are today. Servers are what countries are today. Just like #Wikipedia is today what the Encyclopædia Britannica was 20 years ago.

#EncyclopaediaBritannica #moderator #Politics #future #utopia

♥∞♪☮☯☭Ⓐ☆ 🏴‍☠️🇵🇸🏴🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌻❤️☀️💚🌿😍💚😍🍃🍉

I don’t sing because I am happy; I’m happy because I sing.

— William #James

"All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I #know? 2. What #ought I to do? 3. What may I #hope?"

— Immanuel #Kant

[67] Κάθε τμήμα της ύλης μπορεί να συλληφθεί σαν ένας κήπος γεμάτος φυτά ή σαν μια λίμνη γεμάτη ψάρια. Αλλά κάθε κλάδος ενός φυτού, κάθε όργανο ενός ζώου, κάθε σταγόνα των σωματικών του υγρών είναι επίσης ένας παρόμοιος κήπος ή μια παρόμοια λίμνη.

— Gottfried Leibniz - #Μοναδολογία

[67] Each portion of matter can be conceived as like a garden full of plants, or like a pond full of fish. But each branch of a plant, each organ of an animal, each drop of its bodily fluids is also a similar garden or a similar pond.

— Gottfried #Leibniz - #Monadology

He that begins to #live, begins to #die.

— Francis Quarles, Hieroglyphics

#Death, like #birth, is a #secret of #Nature.

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV, 5

🇬🇷 Ζήσε και άσε τους άλλους να ζήσουν.
🇬🇧 Live and let live.
🇩🇪 Leben und Leben lassen.

“People ‘have an effect upon’ one another: Not by virtue of their nature, but rather by virtue of motivations brought forth through mutual understanding.”

— [Edmund Husserl, Basic Problems of Phenomenology, p. 172]

#Law is concerned with #freedom, the worthiest and holiest thing in man, the thing man must know if it is to have obligatory force for him.

— [#Hegel’s Philosophy of #Right, § 215 – Ethical Life / Civil Society / Administration of Justice / Determinate Law] [at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/pr/prcivils.htm]

“No #morality can be founded on #authority, even if the authority were #divine.”

— A. J. #Ayer, Essay on #Humanism

All #punishment is mischief. All punishment of itself is evil.

— Jeremy #Bentham, Principles of #Morals and #Legislation

Έτσι γίνεται φανερό, ότι τα προβλήματα της πολιτικής επιστήμης είναι και προβλήματα της
πολιτικής αγωγής και των πολιτικών και πολιτισμικών αξιών του κάθε #πολίτη.

— Κοσμάς Ψυχοπαίδης – Εισαγωγή στην Πολιτική Επιστήμη (παραδόσεις)

#Κομμουνισμός - «μια ένωση στην οποία η ελεύθερη ανάπτυξη του καθενός [ατόμου] είναι η προϋπόθεση για την ελεύθερη ανάπτυξη όλων».

— #Marx & #Engels, Manifesto (1848)

#Communism - “an association in which the free development of each [individual] is the condition for the free development of all.”

— #Marx & #Engels, Manifesto (1848)

“Στην #αναρχία δε θα φτάσουμε ούτε σήμερα, ούτε αύριο, ούτε ποτέ. Στην αναρχία θα πορευόμαστε σήμερα, αύριο και για πάντα.”

— Errico #Malatesta

“#Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established , an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.”

— Friedrich #Engels & Karl #Marx - The German Ideology, 1845

Σήμερα η αναρχία είναι θυμός, θανάσιμο μίσος και αιώνιος πόλεμος ενάντια σε όλους τους καταπιεστές και τους εκμεταλλευτές που υπάρχουν πάνω στη γη• είναι η απαράγραπτη διεκδίκηση των καταπιεσμένων, είναι το σύμφωνο συμμαχίας τους, η πολεμική κραυγή τους˗ ανελέητος πόλεμος όσο στη γη θα υπάρχει ακόμα έστω και ένα αφεντικό, έστω και ένας εκμεταλλευτής. Αναρχία σημαίνει ακατάπαυστη, αδιάκοπη εξέγερση, ενάντια σε κάθε κατεστημένη τάξη• πόλεμος ενάντια σε κάθε κρατική αρχή, που διεξάγεται με όλους τους δυνατούς τρόπους και με όλες τις δυνατές μορφές: με το γραπτό λόγο και κάθε άλλο μέσο έκφρασης, με τις πράξεις περιφρόνησης και εχθρότητας και προπάντων με τα όπλα.

— Είναι από το κείμενο του Ιταλού αναρχοκομμουνιστή Κάρλο #Καφιέρο “Επανάσταση”, Αναρχία και Κομμουνισμός.

«Το κεφάλαιο είναι νεκρή εργασία, που σαν βρικόλακας, ζει μόνο ρουφώντας το αίμα της ζωντανής εργασίας. Και όσο πιο πολύ ζει, τόσο πιο πολύ αίμα ρουφάει.»

— Karl #Marx

Αρθρον 1. - Ο σκοπός οπού απ’ αρχής κόσμου οι άνθρωποι εσυμμαζώχθησαν από τα δάση την πρώτην φοράν, δια να κατοικήσουν όλοι μαζί, κτίζοντες χώρας και πόλεις, είναι δια να συμβοηθώνται και να ζώσιν ευτυχισμένοι, και όχι να συναντιτρώγονται ή να ρουφά το αίμα τους ένας.

— #Ρήγας #Βελεστινλής, “Τα Δίκαια του Ανθρώπου”

«ΑΝΑΡΧΙΑ ΣΗΜΑΙΝΕΙ ΜΗ ΒΙΑ, μη κυριαρχία ανθρώπου σε άνθρωπο, μη επιβολή βιαίως της βούλησης ενός ή περισσοτέρων στους υπολοίπους. Είναι μόνο μέσω της εναρμόνισης των συμφερόντων, μέσω της εθελούσιας συνεργασίας, της αγάπης, του σεβασμού, της αμοιβαίας ανοχής, είναι μόνο με την πειθώ, το παράδειγμα, τη μεταδοτικότητα και το αμοιβαίο όφελος από την επιείκεια που μπορεί και πρέπει να θριαμβεύσει η αναρχία, δηλαδή μια κοινωνία αδελφών ελευθέρως αλληλέγγυων, η οποία θα εξασφαλίζει στους πάντες την μέγιστη ελευθερία, τη μέγιστη ανάπτυξη, τη μέγιστη δυνατή ευημερία»

— Ε. #Μαλατέστα

"The consistent #anarchist, then, should be a #socialist, but a socialist of a particular sort. He will not only oppose alienated and specialized labor and look forward to the appropriation of capital by the whole body of workers, but he will also insist that this appropriation be direct, not exercised by some elite force acting in the name of the proletariat."

— Noam #Chomsky - In Daniel Guérin, #Anarchism: From Theory to Practice, 1970

"[…] Την δήμευσιν δεν την φοβείται αυτός που δεν έχει τίποτε, εκτός εάν έχης ανάγκην από αυτά τα σχισμένα κουρέλια μου και τα ολίγα βιβλία μου, που αποτελούν όλην την περιουσίαν μου. Την εξορίαν δεν την εννοώ, εγώ που δεν περιορίζομαι εις ένα τόπον, και δεν έχω ιδικόν μου ούτε το μέρος που τώρα κατοικώ, και κάθε μέρος είναι ιδικόν μου όπου και αν ευρεθώ ή μάλλον, κάθε μέρος είναι του Θεού, όπου εγώ είμαι ξένος και περαστικός. […]"

— Μέγας Βασίλειος

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of #patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble #war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

— Albert #Einstein

Ο κομμουνισμός όπως τον έμαθα από τον Μαρξ: 1) "ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΚΑΘΕΝΑ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΑ ΜΕ ΤΙΣ ΙΚΑΝΟΤΗΤΕΣ ΤΟΥ, ΣΤΟ ΚΑΘΕΝΑ ΑΝΑΛΟΓΑ ΜΕ ΤΙΣ ΑΝΑΓΚΕΣ ΤΟΥ" 2) Συνεργασία των παραγωγων/καταναλωτων με σκοπο να καλυψουμε τις αναγκες μας και να ευημερησουμε ΟΛΑ με τον ΜΙΚΡΟΤΕΡΟ δυνατό μόχθο (και χρονο) ...ετσι ωστε να εχουμε αφθονο ελευθερο χρονο για να καλλιεργησουμε τις ΑΙΣΘΗΣΕΙΣ μας, το νου μας και τις (διαπροσωπικές) σχεσεις μας.

Communism as I learned it from Marx:

1) "FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITIES, TO EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR NEEDS" 2) Cooperation between producers/consumers with the goal to meet our needs and for ALL of us to prosper with the LEAST possible toil (and time)... so that we have plenty of free time to cultivate our SENSES, our mind, and our (interpersonal) relationships.

Der Kommunismus, wie ich ihn von Marx gelernt habe:

1) "JEDER NACH SEINEN FÄHIGKEITEN, JEDER NACH SEINEN BEDÜRFNISSEN" 2) Zusammenarbeit zwischen Produzenten/Konsumenten mit dem Ziel, unsere Bedürfnisse zu decken und dass WIR ALLE mit dem GERINGSTMÖGLICHEN Aufwand (und Zeit) gedeihen... damit wir ausreichend Freizeit haben, um unsere SINNE, unseren Geist und unsere (zwischenmenschlichen) Beziehungen zu pflegen.

«Η ανακάλυψη, η δημιουργία και η ικανοποίηση νέων αναγκών που προκύπτουν από την ίδια την κοινωνία· η καλλιέργεια όλων των ιδιοτήτων του κοινωνικού ανθρώπου, η παραγωγή αυτών σε μια μορφή όσο το δυνατόν πιο πλούσια σε ανάγκες, επειδή είναι πλούσια σε ιδιότητες και σχέσεις—παραγωγή που είναι το πιο ολικό και καθολικό δυνατό κοινωνικό προϊόν, γιατί, για να λάβει την ικανοποίηση με πολύπλευρο τρόπο, πρέπει να είναι ικανός για πολλές απολαύσεις, επομένως να καλλιεργηθεί σε υψηλό βαθμό - είναι επίσης μια συνθήκη παραγωγής που βασίζεται στο κεφάλαιο . . . Η ανάπτυξη ενός συνεχώς διευρυνόμενου και πιο ολοκληρωμένου συστήματος διαφορετικών ειδών εργασίας, διαφορετικών ειδών παραγωγής, στο οποίο αντιστοιχεί ένα συνεχώς διευρυνόμενο και συνεχώς εμπλουτιζόμενο σύστημα αναγκών». #Grundrisse, σελ. 409.

"The discovery, creation and satisfaction of new needs arising from society itself; the cultivation of all the qualities of the social human being, production of the same in a form as rich as possible in needs, because rich in qualities and relations—production of this being as the most total and universal possible social product, for, in order to take gratification in a many-sided way, he must be capable of many pleasures, hence cultivated to a high degree—is likewise a condition of production founded on capital . . . The development of a constantly expanding and more comprehensive system of different kinds of labour, different kinds of production, to which a constantly expanding and constantly enriched system of needs corresponds." Grundrisse, p. 409.

“Freedom
[in the sphere of necessity] can consist only in this, that socialized
man, the associated producers, govern the human metabolism with nature
in a rational way, bringing it under collective control instead of being
dominated by it as a blind power” (Marx, [1894] 1981:959).

The capitalist gives back to the worker a part of his own surplus
labour in the form of an /avance, /for which he must reimburse the
capitalist not merely with an equivalent, but with surplus labour.
[MECW 29: 37]

“The power that each individual exercises over
the activity of others or over social wealth exists in him as the owner
of /exchange values/, of /money/. He carries his social power, as also
his connection with society in his pocket” (Marx 1986:94).

“It is a characteristic feature of labour which posits
exchange-value [value] that it causes the social relations of
individuals to appear in the perverted form of a social relationship
between things” (Marx 1970:34).

...υπάρχουν δομές βίας που λένε στους ανθρωπους να σωπάσουν...

...there are structures of violence telling people to shut up...

— David #Graeber

Έτσι: Η #αστυνομία είναι #γραφειοκράτες με #όπλα. Αν το καλοσκεφτείτε, αυτό είναι ένα πραγματικά έξυπνο κόλπο. Γιατί όταν οι περισσότεροι σκέφτονται την αστυνομία, δεν τη θεωρούμε ως #επιβολή των κανόνων. Τους θεωρούμε σαν να #καταπολεμούν το έγκλημα και όταν σκεφτόμαστε το «έγκλημα», το είδος του εγκλήματος που έχουμε στο μυαλό μας είναι το βίαιο έγκλημα. Παρόλο που, στην πραγματικότητα, αυτό που κάνει κυρίως η αστυνομία είναι ακριβώς το αντίθετο: ασκεί την απειλή της βίας σε καταστάσεις που διαφορετικά δεν θα είχαν καμία σχέση με αυτήν.

“So: #Police are #bureaucrats with #weapons. If you think about it, this is a really ingenious trick. Because when most of think about police, we do not think of them as #enforcing regulation. We think of them as #fighting crime, and when we think of "crime," the kind of crime we have in our minds in violent crime. Even though, in fact, what police mostly do is exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it.”

― David #Graeber

But what can function as an archetype in a fragmented society?

― [Raoul Vaneigem - Basic Banalities: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/all/all/display/10]

It should not be forgotten that hierarchical power is inconceivable without transcendence, without ideologies, without myths.

― [Raoul Vaneigem - Basic Banalities: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/all/all/display/10]

"All becoming is a criminal revolt from eternal being and its price is death."

― #Nietzsche

[...] Privative appropriation and domination are thus originally imposed and felt as a positive right, but in the form of a negative universality. Valid for everyone, justified in everyone's eyes by divine or natural law, the right of privative appropriation is objectified in a general illusion, in a universal transcendence, in an essential law under which everyone individually manages to tolerate the more or less narrow limits assigned to his right to live and to the conditions of life in general. [...]

― [Raoul #Vaneigem - Basic Banalities: http://library.nothingness.org/articles/all/all/display/10]

#cannabis #SanFrancisco #bureaucrats

"Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law legalizing the establishments in California.

(. . .)

San Francisco will have to change its municipal codes before dispensary owners can even begin to think about opening consumption lounges.

To make cannabis cafes a reality, the city’s Planning Department and Office of Cannabis are awaiting guidance from the Department of Public Health. Health officials said Thursday that health codes won’t have to change but other requirements may be needed. The mayor’s office said it is working on legislation surrounding cannabis cafes but has not set a timeline for completion."

https://sfstandard.com/2024/10/03/san-francisco-weed-cafes-wont-open-long-time/

#PeterSinger
"climate protesters blocking 1000's of people fr driving their kids to school or going to work is more ethically worrisome than disrupting e routine of those w power to reduce #greenhousegas emissions.. #politicians & #bureaucrats in their official capacity .. #Unethical #activism, even when nonviolent, can easily spur counter-protests tt spiral to violence. The principle of #proportionality can serve as a useful guide to factors tt protesters shld consider"
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2859761/protesting-ethically-for-the-planet

#Censorship is bad, and don't let the #techbros and #bureaucrats gaslight you into thinking otherwise.

The #corrupt revolving door of #vaccine #bureaucrats is worse than you think. https://chaunceyibrowniii.com/chaunceys-blog/f/the-corrupt-revolving-door-of-vaccine-bureaucrats

If you toil for a ~democratic government's paycheque you are either a fascist plant, or a socialist.

You get paid by the people to serve the people, how is that not socialism?

The people own your 'means of production', just like any employer in the private sector.

If you fail to serve the people, all of them, at best you are acting in breach of your contract, and should resign or be let go. At worst, you are a fascist plant.

#socialism #police #pols #bureaucrats
#publicworks
#fascism