This post is a skill check for how terminally online you are.

And I passed. Fuck.

One extra thing a lot of articles haven't pointed out is that the mod was locked behind a patreon paywall. Sticking mods behind paywalls has been a hot subject (to put it gently) in the community for a while now. Not to rush to the defense of the most profitable franchise in the world, but yeah that's absolutely gonna get you shut down.

Curious how it'll perform in real world conditions. Sodium batteries are supposed to have much better charging times and don't degrade the way lithium batteries do, both of which would be huge. Fingers crossed they live up to expectations.

(Also obligatory "expand and improve public transit damnit!")

Is this article AI generated? It's absolutely awful. Ending with youtube-style engagement bait is just embarrassing, you're the journalist, you should be the one to reach out to a lawyer and get an opinion.

Yakuza/Like a Dragon sidequest.

Honestly this is one of the things I appreciate about Trek. Things don't just automatically get better and better throughout human history. But in both Trek and real life, people want things to get better and will fight to make them better if given a chance. Past Tense might be my favorite episode of TV in general because while things might still get worse before they get better, the Bell Riots are one of the things that spurs people into action.

I think there's a lot to be hopeful for in that respect. We're seeing a resurgence of unions and labor action after they collapsed in the 90s, the development of an incredibly large anti war movement, and people are realizing things only change if we force them to.

Anyways, there will always be bad things happening in a capitalist society, but there will always be people fighting to make things better, and right now a lot of people are realizing they want to be a part of that group.

So yeah, shit sucks but there will always be people who want to fix things.

OP linked the Politico article (it should be under the title/image on most clients) but having read it, this is one of those rare headlines that's actually worse in context. As OP mentioned it's about a recent controversy that was stirred up when Canada's parliament honored Yaroslav Hunka for fighting against Russia in Ukraine, despite his history as a volunteer for the Waffen-SS (an armed paramilitary group that played a major role in the Nazis seizing power and combat throughout WWII).

The article defends Hunka with the absurd claim that joining the muscle of the Nazi party doesn't make you a Nazi, maybe you just really didn't like the USSR! Even if you buy that excuse, the article provides no evidence whatsoever that it actually applies to Hunka, they don't even attempt to make that case. It then tries to draw an incredibly bad-faith equivalency between the USSR and Nazi Germany (and while I'm not going to say that Stalin was anything resembling a platonic ideal of leadership, there's a pretty big gulf between the USSR and Nazi fucking Germany). After that we get some nitpicking of the claims against Hunka (bringing up the fact that his unit was never convicted of war crimes, which completely glosses over the fact that his unit was, again, part of the Nazi's armed paramilitary). It then dismisses any criticism of Hunka or the Canadian Parliament's ovation for him as people being fooled by Russian propaganda through a series of absurd logical leaps. I think things are best summed up by this little nugget towards the end of the article:

However, any further discussion of the error has to be carefully phrased, as any suggestion that Canada is showing contrition for “honoring a Nazi” would acquiesce to the rewriting of history by Russia and its backers, and concede to allegations of Hunka’s guilt that have no basis in evidence.

Again, they are talking about a volunteer for the Waffen-fucking-SS. The muscle for the Nazi party.

Bad move by the WGA boards. While I hope the TA is good and meets all demands, the workers literally haven't seen it yet, let alone voted on it. You always want to have the strongest strike possible, and part of that is that no work gets done until a new contract is delivered, approved, and put in place. This puts the union in a weak position if the TA gets voted down.

Capitalism defines success as profits increasing at an ever-increasing rate. During the height of the pandemic, tech companies tended to fare better than other industries because they were better able to handle the switch to remote work (among other things). This wasn't lost on investors, who smelled money in the water, and went all in on tech. Like, seriously, colossal amounts of money, and they expect returns on those investments. Problem is, we've hit the point where the easy profit sources for these companies have more or less dried up, and now they're having to squeeze whatever they can out. This is why we've seen massive layoffs, quick money making schemes, and things like this that will be disastrous in the long run, but stand to make some short-term profits.

It's a boneheaded move, but when all you care about is pleasing the investors right now, it's the logical way to operate.

Never assume the courts are going to side with the workers. Not to be overly cynical but legal processes take lots of time and money even in the best cases, which corporations are going to have more of ten times out of ten. And that's assuming the rulings will be fair.

Having this option isn't bad, but the best, most consistent way to actually win victories is with strong, worker-led union campaigns with strong demands and escalating tactics that engage the workers and don't back down in the face of union busting.

Alright as someone who has seen this happen... Don't. Fist off, if the employee doesn't already know what the benefits of a union are and how to go about organizing one, this does nothing to change that. Second, it puts them in a dangerous position with management. Obviously, any good Union drive should be fully prepared for union busting tactics, but ideally you want to keep that shit secret from management for as long as possible. And imagine how frustrated you'd be if a customer pulling a stunt like this got you fired.

Instead what you want to do is talk to your family, friends, and coworkers about what a union can do for them and talk about how to effectively organize a union drive. Make sure that shit is led by the workers, and puts forward strong demands and escalating tactics. They should also absolutely get community support, but in organized, meaningful ways - think things like mailing lists to get the word out about rallies, boycotts, etc.

Unions are hell of a tool and they should be organized in the most effective possible ways.

I mean I dunno why you'd want to preserve capitalism. It's not like the parts outside of climate change are going super well either.

(This comment brought to you by a hospital attempting to charge me $4,000 after telling me to eat a banana).