daniel_callahan @ daniel_callahan @jlai.lu Posts 29Comments 6Joined 5 days ago
Neoliberalism. The belief that owners of corporations should be able to do whatever the fuck they want, because corporations always create the best outcome possible for society.
The result is stuff like the US Opioid Crisis. Purdue Pharma knew that opioid pharmaceuticals were extremely addictive. For decades, they lied and said it was not addictive. In private, they laughed about their victims.
They bribed doctors and dentists to overprescribe it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html
https://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/
They also paid think-tanks to defend them and aggressively challenged negative media coverage:
The tobacco companies used the same techniques before western governments cracked down on them.
In the 90s, they tried to prevent governments from acting by bribing politicians:
An NPR review of McConnell's relationship with the tobacco industry over the decades has found that McConnell repeatedly cast doubt on the health consequences of smoking, repeated industry talking points word-for-word, attacked federal regulators at the industry's request and opposed bipartisan tobacco regulations going back decades.
Soon after McConnell won a U.S. Senate seat, he was invited to the Tobacco Institute's boardroom to give a speech in January 1985. The documents also reveal that McConnell and his Senate office frequently accepted gifts from tobacco industry lobbyists
The gifts included tickets to NFL and NBA games, a production of Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment, a Ringo Starr concert, "top-quality brandy," and what McConnell called a "beautiful ham."
When McConnell has sought re-election, tobacco company employees and PACs have typically donated to McConnell more than to any other member of Congress, according to data from the Center For Responsive Politics. Since 1989, he has received at least $650,000
One of the most striking episodes revealed in the tobacco industry documents came in October 1998. Just a few months earlier, McConnell helped defeat major tobacco legislation championed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The McCain bill would have ratified and strengthened the proposed settlement between the tobacco industry and attorneys general from most of the states. It would have also allowed FDA regulation of nicotine and penalized companies that failed to reduce teen smoking.
McConnell, who had repeatedly clashed with McCain over campaign finance legislation, helped lead the opposition. "We know, of course, that only 2% of smokers are teenagers," McConnell said.
(In fact, nearly 90% of all smokers begin before they turn 18 years old.)
"That to me is the most egregious incident that I have seen about the appearance of corruption since I have been a member of the United States Senate," McCain later said of McConnell
In many countries, tobacco corporations are still using mafia methods:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/12/big-tobacco-dirty-war-africa-market
For neoliberals, the corporations should decide what is acceptable or not. If there is a profitable market for something, then it means it should be legal. Period. They don't give a shit about selling addictive poison to kids, destroying the environment or underpaying workers. Corporate profits are their religion.
Neoliberals believe citizens or lawmakers should never try to fix injustice, because corporations can't create injustice. And if they want to be involved and threaten corporate profits, you have to punch them in the nose.
In 1951, Jacobo Árbenz was democratically elected President of Guatemala. He wanted to tax rich banana companies and ensure they didn't own all the land. So the United Fruit Company lobbied the CIA to overthrow him. Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA, accepted immediately. His brother, wealthy businessman John Foster Dulles, was chairman of United Fruits International. So the President Árbenz was violently overthrowed. At least 9000 people were killed.
That's extreme neoliberalism.
Musk DOGE associate fired after interview where he said "The government works. It's not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest"
Musk DOGE associate fired after interview where he said "The government works. It's not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest"
This is how Uber is manipulating americans. They sent an emergency message to everyone in the city, telling them to protest. The tax is $1 to improve public transit
In a dramatic incident captured on video, Homeland Security police invaded a Congressman's office and handcuffed his aide
Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri calls 2-month immigration detention a ‘nightmare, like a hell’
Trump nominates official with ties to antisemitic extremists to lead ethics agency
Businessman Accused of Orchestrating Attacks on New Hampshire Journalists
This bill follows an investigation by ProPublica that showed state towing laws have come to favor tow companies at the expense of drivers:
https://www.propublica.org/article/connecticut-dmv-tow-companies-car-sales
Connecticut Legislature Passes Bill Overhauling Century-Old Towing Laws
‘Empathy is a kind of strength’: Jacinda Ardern on kind leadership, public rage and life in Trump’s America
YSK that Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said powerful corporations conspired to undermine his elected government
Daily reminder that Paul Deighton is the chairman of The Economist.
https://www.economistgroup.com/esg/board
This individual has stolen millions of pounds from taxpayers through PPE fraud.
From the New York Times:
Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending
To shine a light on one of the greatest spending sprees in Britain’s postwar era, The New York Times analyzed a large segment of it, the roughly 1,200 central government contracts that have been made public, together worth nearly $22 billion. Of that, about $11 billion went to companies either run by friends and associates of politicians in the Conservative Party, or with no prior experience or a history of controversy. Meanwhile, smaller firms without political clout got nowhere.
The procurement system was cobbled together during a meeting of anxious bureaucrats in late March, and a wealthy former investment banker and Conservative Party grandee, Paul Deighton, who sits in the House of Lords, was later tapped to act as the government’s czar for personal protective equipment.
Lord Deighton helped the government award billions of dollars in contracts –– including hundreds of millions to several companies where he has financial interests or personal connections.
Dozens of companies that won a total of $3.6 billion in contracts had poor credit, and several had declared assets of just $2 or $3 each. Others had histories of fraud, human rights abuses, tax evasion or other serious controversies. A few were set up on the spur of the moment or had no relevant experience — and still won contracts.
Lord Deighton, who was once a Goldman Sachs executive, remains involved in business and has financial or personal connections to at least seven companies that were awarded lucrative government contracts totalling nearly $300 million, the Times has learned.
Many companies and business people, often better qualified to produce P.P.E. but lacking political connections, had no access.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/17/world/europe/britain-covid-contracts.html
Why is he still chairman of The Economist?
The issue is that americans vote on identity. They don’t vote about policies.
Look at Arkansas.
A freaking Nuclear Engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came up a solid plan to improve Arkansas. He visited all 75 counties.
He lost by double digits against Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She barely campaigned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Arkansas_gubernatorial_election
The issue is that many americans simply vote on identity. They don’t vote about policies.
The issue is that americans vote on identity. They don't vote about policies.
Look at Arkansas. A nuclear engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came up a solid plan to improve Arkansas. He visited all 75 counties. He lost by double digits against Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She barely campaigned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Arkansas_gubernatorial_election
The issue is that many americans simply vote on identity. They don't vote about policies.
Sure, they might agree with individual policies. But when it comes to voting for candidates, (most) americans ultimately vote based on their perceived identity.
Dem Governor Vetoes Ban on Surprise Ambulance Bills in Shocking Move
I said "Jared Polis. Colorado." without even even opening the article.
Then I opened the article.
It was actually Jared Polis.
I'm not surprised at all...
https://prospect.org/labor/2025-05-19-democrats-union-busting-governor-polis-colorado/
He is a pretty smart guy. I agree with many of his policies. But electing a filthy-rich businessman wasn't perhaps a great idea. He has vetoed some good bills.
The Nation Endorses Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander in the New York City Democratic Primary
Trump says he will look into possible pardons for the men convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
‘My stomach just dropped’: foreign students in panicked limbo as Trump cancels visa interviews
The global right wants to own ‘pro-child’ rhetoric. It doesn’t care about actually helping children
Prime Minister Farage? He’s serious about that – it’s time the country was too
