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18·6 days agoMicrosoft has an entire team whose only goal is to prevent European governments from switching to Open Source. They distribute gifts to politicians.
Remember, this is exactly how Microsoft operates in the United States:
Twenty months ago, Representative Billy Tauzin walked into the office of William H. Gates 3rd, chairman of Microsoft, bearing a 10 inch by 10 inch white box and a warning.
Mr. Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana and the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the telecommunications industry, placed the box on Mr. Gates’s desk. Inside was a lemon meringue pie, a reminder of another pie that had been thrown in Mr. Gates’s face several weeks earlier by a Microsoft critic. The message to Mr. Gates, the richest man on earth and the leader of the digital world, was blunt: You need to make friends in Washington.
Mr. Gates apparently took Mr. Tauzin’s message to heart – with a vengeance. While Microsoft and its executives contributed a relatively modest $60,000 to Republican Party committees in 1997, those contributions shot up to $470,000 as part of the company’s overall political contribution of $1.3 million in 1998. The 1998 figure included donations to political candidates, with the bulk of the money going to Republicans. This year, the company’s contributions of nearly $600,000 have been more evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Mr. Gates and his top lieutenants have made dozens of trips to Washington, cultivating powerful figures in both parties and hiring some of the city’s priciest lobbyists. Microsoft has retained Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee; Vic Fazio, a former Democratic congressman from California; Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota; Tom Downey, a former Democratic congressman from New York and a close friend of Vice President Al Gore; Mark Fabiani, former special counsel to the Clinton White House; and Kerry Knott, former chief of staff to Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the House majority leader.
The company also poured millions of dollars into an aggressive public relations and political offensive, hiring an armada of well-connected lobbyists and underwriting the work of research groups, academics and consultants who have made arguments sympathetic to Microsoft’s defense in the antitrust case.
Microsoft has hired as consultant-spokesmen two former heads of the Justice Department’s antitrust division and a dozen or more prominent academics and writers, who publish articles and give interviews advocating Microsoft’s position.
Remember, Trump no longer prosecutes U.S. firms involved in bribery:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c391ml9x878o
Microsoft earns nearly $30 billion annually from Office.
$30 billion dollars are at stake. You think their marketing department doesn’t bribe reviewers to harshly criticize LibreOffice?
The switch to Open Source isn’t going to happen magically.
It’s going to be a long and bitter battle.
614·7 days agoYes. I’m sure the Iranians are angels.
That’s why they gave thousands of drones to Vladimir Putin to bomb Ukrainian civilians
962·8 days agoIt gets worse. His brother lied. His father tried to cover up the victim’s injuries by propping him up. His mother hid the knife.
Name 3 Indian people right now?
Narendra Modi. Raoul Gandhi. Gina Gopinath.
Name 3 Russian people right now?
Vladimir Putin. Dimitry Medvedev. Oleg Deripaska.
Name 3 Argentinian people right now?
Lionel Messi. Mauricio Macri. Cristina Kirhsner.
Nice try. Jackie Chan is from Hong Kong, not mainland China
8·10 days agoThey are social-liberals. They believe a competitive market economy is required to have a sustainable healthcare and welfare system. They believe in climate change but they don’t want extreme measures. They prefer slow measures such as banning plastic or encouraging electric cars. They support Ukraine. They sent aid to Palestine and imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers but don’t believe the problems of the Middle East can ever be fixed by outsiders. They support nuclear technology. They support legal abortion. They oppose death penalty.
Leftists see Renaissance as right-wing / extreme-right.
The extreme-right sees them as leftists.
1411·10 days agoHere she is next to Zuck.
Now he is trying to destroy her.
If you want to know what it’s like to run a social media empire, I highly recommend reading her book. It’s terrific and entertaining.
In fact, everyone should buy her book
3·12 days agoThanks. I fixed it.
Holy shit…This is HUGE.
The Guardian doesn’t mention it because these victims rarely get any attention, but Mohammad Baqr is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Syrians. His men saved Bachar El Assad from the opposition. He was the most powerful militia commander in the region.
He is the dude next to Iranian General Qassem Soleimani :
Baqer recently resurfaced in Moscow.
Ukrainian intelligence accused him of organizing the recruitment of Iraqi young men to fight for Russia
Isn’t this the guy who praises China and the CCP?
Most polisaring figure on the French left.
There are two kind of people in France. Those who really like him. And those who don’t.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Mélenchon#Controversies
This is about revenge.
Syria was the only ally of Iran and Russia in the region. They have literally no other ally.
The overwhelming majority of Syrians HATED the Assad family. I have yet to meet a single Syrian who likes him or respects them. When people protested against Assad, he started shooting. Mass protests quickly turned into an armed uprising. He killed thousands of people. It didn’t matter. You can’t stop an entire nation against you. Bachar El Assad was in real trouble, so he begged his natural allies for help. Iran and Russia.
Vladimir Putin bombed entires cities. Entire cities were destroyed. The Iranian fought hard for him. They started sending Shia militias to fight for Assad
https://syriaaccountability.org/syrian-victims-of-iranian-crimes-should-not-be-overlooked/
https://aljumhuriya.net/en/2020/01/06/soleimani-in-syria-a-legacy-of-death-and-devastation/
10 years of fighting. 500,000 people were killed. 10 million Syrian fled the country.
But the Syrian people didn’t give up. At the end of the day, they still won. Syrian people around the world celebrated when Assad fled the country. Iran and Vladimir Putin were publically humiliated.
Now, Bachar El Assad and his cronies live in exile in Moscow. They stole billions of dollars before leaving. Average wage in Syria is less than $40. They can use their immense wealth to corrupt officials, hire thugs and destabilize the country. Many of them dream of plotting their return:
Meanwhile the new Syrian President wants closer relationships with arab states like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar.
Iranian propaganda described as a crazy terrorist but turns out he is a ruthless pragmatic. He put on a suit and was welcomed by Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump. He promised to protect minorities. He allowed a dance festival. He even invited Jews to pray in Damascus.
The Iranian are extremely angry. They fought 10 years for Syria and ended up losing their only ally.
For both Assad henchmen and Iranian rulers, the attitude is now "Fuck. If we can’t control it, we are going break it".
I hope Syria becomes a thriving country.
Daily reminder that Hezbollah actively supported the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
An occupation that lasted longer than
Because Al Akhbar literally is.
What part of “this is a war crime” don’t you understand ?
I will not apologize for my comment. She was a civilian, but certainly no journalist.
When the scale of atrocities had become so extreme that teenagers were mass-raped, Al Akhbar was full of Assad apologists claiming he is a great man who respects human rights.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should be arrested and sentenced to jail.
Nothing, NOTHING justifies targeting a civilian.
However, I would not use the word journalist. Al Akhbar is basically Hezbollah’s official mouthpiece.
Al Akhbar praised Iranian security forces for their bloody crack down on students. They denied the human rights abuses of Bachar El Assad, calling them “fake news”. In 2008, the Government tried to dismantle Hezbollah’s communication network. Violent clashes broke out. This paper congratulated Hezbollah for attacking police officers.
If Ukraine bombed Russia Today, I would call this a disgusting war crime. But I would not call RT journalism.
This politician is a tankie nutjob who happens to be a pro-palestinian activist.
She voted against every single EU resolution condemning Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She shared on social media a picture of a politician with this message :
“He is a friend of genociders. He sleeps well at night. That will not last long”
Then he received this message :
“I see your empty eyes in the halls of the European Parliament. You should be afraid. It’s just the beginning”
He ended up going to the police :
More recently, the French writer Boualem Sansal was jailed on bullshit charges in Algeria.
He did not have a fair trial. He didn’t even get access to a lawyer.
The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to condemn his arrest and demand his release.
Rima Hassan was one of the only MEPs to vote against his release 🤦
One week ago, the European Parliament issued a warning against her:
The President had decided to impose a penalty on Rima Hassan for having recorded during a plenary session a Member of the European Parliament without his consent, and having subsequently disseminated the video on her social media accounts, accompanied by a personal comment.
Her behaviour had harmed Parliament’s reputation and the principle of mutual respect among Members.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/PV-10-2026-03-10_EN.pdf
The kind of people who vote for her don’t do that kind of deep research.
On the 3th of october 2023, the newspaper Le Monde published an extremely well-writen investigation about her behavior. Because she is the girlfriend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, her party boss, she doesn’t hesitate to humiliate people:
On the 6th of october, 3 days later, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was visiting Morocco. Believing he was far from any french journalists, he made this confession to Moroccan students:
I don’t care about what’s in the press. Who reads newspapers? People prefer to watch our viral videos. We are in the amazing age of social media
Chikirou is not left. She is a tankie nutjob.
🔴 She is know for screaming on her assistants
🔴 In parliament, she voted against aid to Ukraine, arguing “This would be bad for peace”
🔴 She said China isn’t a dictatorship
🔴 She paid tribute to the leader of Hamas
🔴 She compared socialists to insects that must be crushed
Last but not the least, she is criminally indicted for financial fraud:
This is a woman so toxic that nobody wants to associate with her.
When she joined the race, she said her main goal is to make sure the socialist loses:
Why do they have to report on Texas politics?
Shouldn’t they report primarly on US States such as Maine, Washington, or Montana ?