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Desperate Acts of Capitalism Podcast

@desperate-acts-of-capitalism / desperate-acts-of-capitalism.tumblr.com

a podcast about rich idiots with bad ideas / new episodes every monday at 3pm pacific / header by @l0st-vegas
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An update:

We are so sorry to say this everyone, but we are putting the show on hiatus.

The reason being that Evan has decided to brutally murder me in cold blood. We got into a healthy disagreement about Alton Brown, and something about it just caused Evan to snap, causing him to beat me to death with a hammer. This was, needless to say, pretty problematic of him, so for the moment Evan is cancelled. 

Evan and I are both incredibly busy with our normal jobs, and unfortunately, the show was the only thing we could cut. We can’t say for sure when the show will come back, but with our current workload continuing is just not possible. We both love doing the show and are genuinely sad that we are too busy to ensure every episode is the quality y'all have come to expect.

CT will continue to run this tumblr and post updates should anything change!

Thank you all for an amazing run of episodes so far! Hopefully we can see all of you again soon.

#update#hiatus announcement
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accelerationist-king-piccolo
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grimmbros1214

Why is amazon treating its employees like teachers treat students

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working-class-worm

Because infantilizing your underpaid workers is the best strategy to instill feelings of inferiority and fear, while also encouraging them to want to please middle managers for better treatment while not actually improving their situation at all. Its very effective.

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theculturedmarxist
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professorsparklepants

Everybody needs to take a good, hard look at the history of West Virginia, so they can understand just how badly companies will sink their claws into your life, and how to stop them from doing it again.

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thunderboltsortofapenny

We are really gonna replay the 1920s all over again

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becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys

Happened in the 1800s in Wales. They were called “truck shops”, and the English coal barons paid the miners in coupons that could only be used in their own shops, where goods were massively overpriced. The Merthyr Uprising was, by some accounts, the first place the red flag of worker’s rights was raised, and it was in part because of this.

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anarchistmemecollective

reminder that the state joined the war on the side of the corporations

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antifataylorswift

Some specific facts about this from the Battle of Blair Mountain:

  • The US Army fires over 1 million rounds of ammo at striking coal workers
  • around 100 workers were killed, nearly 1000 were arrested over the strike, some were tried and imprisoned for years
  • the bombs dropped on the workers by the state were the first time aerial bombs fell on US soil
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bogleech

If you’re not keeping up, Cartoon Network sold off most of its original programming over the last few years to run exclusively on HBO Max, but after a merger with Discovery, HBO has taken them all down, including those that were still in production, for what is long story short a big tax write-off. And it’s not a simple matter of them just airing or streaming somewhere else now. It’s a very complicated issue of rights and contracts and money but essentially it’s very possible that these shows will never be available again in official capacity and their creators will never see another penny from them again, either. Some completed episodes may also be lost media, indefinitely. For a couple of series, such as Mao Mao and Infinity Train, Cartoon Network has gone back and scrubbed all tweets, youtube clips or other mention of the series existence, confirming they likely no longer have the rights to take them anywhere else. The tweet today by the creator of Tig N’ Seek made me saddest.

A lot of people this week have simply given up on their industry careers, seeing years of their life’s work just vanish into a corporate vault overnight. Being able to point to your work on a streaming service had apparently even become a pretty critical part of the portfolios they now rely on to get new jobs.

Streaming media went from an optimistic new frontier to even worse than cable TV so suddenly.

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officialfist
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chillyfeetsteak

i mean i can tell you why. it’s because marvel abuses their VFX artists. they give them footage that’s almost impossible to make look good, they make enormous story and design changes right before release dates, they have their artists work overtime for months because they are not in a union and they blacklist workers who try to unionize. you can read more about it here.

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spaceshipsandpurpledrank
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zwoelffarben

Actually, it's worse than just what this guy thinks: A lot of the components necessary to make touchscreens work are super heat-sensitive; if your touchscreen phone gets to hot it turns of everything it can to try and cool off because, if those components get too hot, no more touchscreen.

That toaster's got a lifetime of two, maybe three, years of regular use max before it burns its own interface out and all you have is a pile of electronics and plastics that used to be a toaster; for reference, toasters from the fifties and sixties still work.

Furthermore, bread is bread: The maillard reaction which give toast it's toastness is a one-variable function of tempature (technically, it's a two function variable of tempature and time, but tempature is much more important than time). You don't get differnt maillard ractions from an english muffin compared to texas toast. It's the same chemical reaction opperating on fundementally the same stuff.

So, not only is this 350$ toast built to fail, but it's apparent primary feature (the ability to select what type of bread you're toasting) is a complete and utter non-feature shame. It's a toaster.

It's a shit toaster.

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justinspoliticalcorner
Image
California could transform how fast food workers are treated
The restaurant industry is fighting hard against a labor bill making its way through the California legislature.
www.vox.com|Rachel M. Cohen

Rachel M. Cohen at Vox: 

Ten years after the launch of the Fight for $15, fast-food workers nationwide are still grappling with low and stolen wages, unsafe workplaces, and rampant sexual harassment. California lawmakers now are considering a bill to address those problems, aimed at improving conditions for the more than 550,000 fast-food workers in the state.
The bill, known as AB 257 or the FAST Recovery Act, passed the California Assembly in January, and is coming up for a full vote in the state Senate this month. “There may be no more consequential measure for labor rights in Sacramento this session,” said LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik. Its impact though, might not be limited to California.
The legislation would establish a new state council with the power to set minimum working standards for fast food restaurants across California. It would also create a means to hold companies like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut legally responsible for any labor violations at individual stores, even if those individual stores are owned by franchisees. Right now, big corporations are generally not liable for their franchisees breaking labor laws.
In many European countries, unions negotiate working standards that apply to workers across an entire industry, not just one company. This approach, known as “sectoral bargaining,” is particularly useful for protecting workers toiling in industries that rely heavily on part-time staff, contractors, and subcontractors. Sectoral bargaining is prohibited by federal labor law in the US, but the bill in California is a similar idea, and a step that a labor-friendly state can take on its own.
Food industry and franchise trade groups certainly recognize the threat the FAST Recovery Act presents to their business model, and the national implications if it becomes law.
“If passed, also expect to see similar legislation in states like New York, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and more,” warns lobbying materials from the National Restaurant Association. “The greatest chance for defeating this legislation is in the California Senate, making it imperative for the industry to focus its efforts there.”
Unions and labor allies, in turn, have been advocating hard for the bill — organizing worker strikes, petitions, and lobby trips to Sacramento and Washington, DC.
In June, presidents from America’s largest national unions sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to “support and champion” the FAST Recovery Act. “This bill is an opportunity to connect policy with your progressive values and demonstrate that California knows how to lead the nation with innovative solutions that tackle rising inequality,” they wrote.
Newsom, who is rumored to have 2024 presidential ambitions, vetoed a big labor bill last year that would have made it easier for California farmworkers to unionize. Omar Rodriguez, a spokesperson for Newsom, told Vox they don’t typically comment on pending legislation: “The governor will evaluate the bill on its own merits if it reaches his desk,” he said.
Kate Andrias, a labor law professor at Columbia University who has written about sectoral bargaining, told Vox that she sees the FAST Recovery Act as “a significant step forward.” “There are ways in which workers can influence wages and regulations already, but what this bill does is create a focal point for workers to be a more empowered part of the administrative system,” she said.

How the FAST Recovery Act would work

The law would establish a 13-member council that includes political appointees from state health and labor agencies, as well as food industry officials, fast food workers, and union representatives. The council would “promulgate minimum standards” for things like wages and working conditions for restaurants where workers aren’t unionized. The bill would also clarify joint liability for the franchisor and franchisee, and establish protections for workers who exercise their rights.
The standards would apply to any chain in California that has at least 30 stores nationwide that share a common brand.
Only six votes from the council are required to issue a rule, which means even if all four direct representatives from the business community reject it, the measure could still pass. The California legislature would have an opportunity to reject or change the council’s proposed standards, as would the state’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

California’s AB257 could be a game-changer for how fast food workers are treated in the workplace.  The fast food industry’s workers, who are often women and/or people of color, face unsafe workplace conditions, wage theft, and rampant sexual harassment.

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bearcatta

Wait industry unions are FORBIDDEN in the US????

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natalieironside

Yup, good ol’ Taft-Hartley Act. Fortunately a lot of unions just ignore Taft-Hartley in practice; mine even has “industrial” in the name.

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vague-humanoid
captain-price-officially
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kesslersymbolic

to be clear while this is direct and effective activism that will have a positive impact on the world it is illegal and so you should be on the look out for anybody attempting to do this by bringing postcrete cement and water to a golf course where they plan to pour water into the hole till it's 1/3 full of water, then add the postcrete to the hole till they can see a layer of powder on top of the water, and finish by covering it over with a layer of dirt (postcrete does not require mixing).

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cummunismmm

Fundamental life advice: never trust a product from a youtuber/influencer sponsorship

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cummunismmm
  • Raycons - overpriced repackaged cheap bullshit
  • Hello fresh - last years workers were on strike for shitty work conditions and there’s reports of union busting. Never have i seen a youtuber acknowledge this at all
  • Adam and Eve - the dildos aren’t all from body safe materials. Don’t risk it with cheap dildos it can fuck your body up
  • Audible - owned by amazon
  • Idk which one but one of the vpn ones mined bitcoin from ur computer and they’re useful but generally falsely advertised, not a big tech person but this guy talks about it
  • All the fit teas and shakes etc are bullshit that just makes you poop and loose water weight short term
  • Raid shadow legends - lol do i even need to explain this one
  • All the loot crates - filled with cheap junk they’re getting wholesale
  • The online coupon thingies are a data harvesting scam. Just google the shop name + coupon when shopping
  • The online therapy better help was a whole big controversy and i still see this shitty company being promoted

Idk maybe the learning platform ones are the exception but i never looked into them

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highly--distractible

Adding on to this. Skillshare is hard to cancel. There’s a slight chance this has changed but when I looked into subscribing, there was a lot of people complaining about having to email the company multiple times to cancel.

Since Squarespace is templets, they legally own whatever you make. If you decide to change providers, you can’t take it with you. You’re stuck with them forever or have to rebuild your website from the ground up. You at least own the domain name so there’s that, but for me it’s not worth the work if I have to restart should I ever decide I hate the company.

I want more people to know this because every time I’ve looked into something advertised by youtubers, it’s never been good.

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badgraph1csghost

Time to talk about SponsorBlock again.

This is a Firefox extension that automatically skips sponsorship messages in Youtube videos. The fact that these small-time corporations feel the need to make Youtube creators behave like trained animals for a tiny contribution is stupid in the first place.