Google is the latest California-based tech giant to make a major donation to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, which will take place on Jan. 20, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    6 hours ago

    Anybody who thought any corporation is going to “do the right thing”: Exhibit A why we’ve been telling you that’s fucking wrong all this time.

  • blattrules@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    6 hours ago

    This many billionaires and big companies grouping together doesn’t seem like it’s going to be good for us.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      6 hours ago

      always has been.jpeg

      I am wondering why they are getting this brazen and in our face about corruption as if they are seeing how far they can push and how much the pedons can take

      Narrator’s voice:

      The peasants took a lot and then said this is fine, and got even more

      • MysticKetchup@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        I am wondering why they are getting this brazen and in our face about corruption as if they are seeing how far they can push and how much the pedons can take

        Because they know they can get away with it. Trump got elected and even won the popular vote despite being the most obviously incompetent and corrupt president we’ve ever had so now they know there are no consequences

      • blattrules@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 hours ago

        I think they’re seeing trump as a tool they can use if they play his game, so they’re all falling in line. They’re too big that it’s not going to hit their bottom line much and no one in government is going to stop them, so maybe they’re just going to grab as much as they can while they have the opportunity and that requires them to be brazen.

      • Disaster@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Because they are scared, and hiding behind the skirts of a paper-thin layer of incompetent fascists prior to facing the music from everybody they’ve hurt.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      ·
      edit-2
      9 hours ago

      The Supreme Court, who are corrupt and take bribes, ruled that bribes are legal. Also that even if they weren’t, the law doesn’t apply to the President.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        8 hours ago

        This still doesn’t fall within their rules. The bribe has to be paid after service for it to be legal.

        So for example, if you’re a purchasing agent for the army and you have to buy new canvas tents. A manufacturer could tell you if you make the award, they will personally pay you $20 per tent purchased. But they supposedly can’t come with 20k in hand and say here you go! Now I get the award for 10,000 tents.

        • kautau@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          8 hours ago

          You’re correct, this is the even better kind of legal bribery: lobbying. “Donating” to a cause for favorable rulings later

    • aleq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Seems this is a common thing. Found this and also Claude (the LLM) tells me it goes very far back and kinda got very big around Reagan’s time. Allegedly Obama had some restrictions on his first term, but these were lifted on second term, but I haven’t bothered to verify that.

      However, the answer is yes. Just that it seems to be nothing new.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Hey, at least some people are citing their sources.

          How often do people say stuff like that without telling others where it came from? It’s easy enough to accept things as true if they sound reasonable. Having a source means that grain of salt is already there.

          • snooggums@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            14
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            6 hours ago

            Giving a LLM as a source is like giving your hair dresser as a source for things not related to hair dressing, because LLMs are trained on random people’s online posts mixed in with actual knowledgeable people’s posts.

            Saying they got info from a LLM makes them less credible that someone who might actually know what they are talking about. They basically admit they don’t have the ability to think for themselves and are just trying to promote using LLMs.

    • latenightnoir@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      ·
      10 hours ago

      In Ye Olden Days, minor Lords used to pay tribute to anyone who took up the crown/took over the lands, to get on their good side. That’s actually where the Romanian word for “tip” (bacșiș) comes from, it’s what they called tribute payments to the Ottoman Empire.

      Why should this be any different? I mean, it’s Trump…

        • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          6 hours ago

          They’re purchasing influence over the POTUS. The event itself doesn’t matter to them or Trump; it’s just one many pathways to get their bribe into his pockets.

          Completely legal, cuz our laws are made by folks who are also for sale.

        • Signtist@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          7 hours ago

          It’s America. One of the most common reasons for something to exist here is because it makes money, and this is making a lot of money.

        • latenightnoir@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          9 hours ago

          Yyyep… I sure wanted to think the XXIst Century would look different, but humans gonna hume, I guess.

          I mean, other than improving education just enough to bring workers up to speed with industry requirements, the Powers That Be haven’t really changed things around. Those who own rule, the rest of us are just serfs…

      • mEEGal@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        10 hours ago

        huh, nice to learn a little etymology once in a while !

        any idea how the expression “nebunii ăștia chiar nu mai știu cum să-i sugă pula omului portocaliu” came to be ?

        • latenightnoir@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 hours ago

          From what I can remember (and I may be wrong, it’s been aeons since then), there was a time when Democracy failed and a massive orange prick got elected as head of state for one of the most powerful nations on the planet.

          Fun times, those were!

  • latenightnoir@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 hours ago

    I miss the lockdowns, life was easier back then… Now the big picture just looks like a planet-wide dumpster fire…