Cultural events removed from Google Calendar
In the American war against DEI – currently defined as anything not intended for straight white male Americans – Google has removed Black History Month as well as Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hispanic Heritage, Women’s History months and others not listed here. And that’s from calendars outside the United States too.
The city is planning to replace 54 American outfits with which it does business, with locals or with partners in other countries.
Blork 12:48 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
If anyone in the U.S. thinks the Canadian boycotts amount to just a handful of people buying Canadian ketchup instead of Heinz, they should look at things like this. This movement we’re seeing is not just a short-term hissy fit until the tariff threats die down. Trump has thoroughly tarnished the U.S.’s reputation as a reliable and trustworthy business partner. That stain will stick for years, if not decades; well beyond Trump’s term as President. This isn’t just a few people getting mad and soon getting over it; Trump is ruining the U.S. for business the same way he ruined his own businesses.
Tim S. 14:24 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
I worry that that’s the point, Blork. I’m increasingly convinced that what we’re seeing is the wholesale destruction of the current post-industrial capitalism – or whatever the current set up is – so it can be replaced by Silicon-valley techno-capitalism – defined as whatever the tech bros want. The scary part is, I strongly suspect they think they don’t need us, as workers and possibly even as consumers, just as generators of data, much of which has already been harvested. Hence the complete contempt with which literally everyone is being treated. The current social contract may be flawed, but at least ordinary people had a place in it.
Kate 14:32 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Surely they still need people to buy stuff? And if you expect people to buy stuff, you have to make them work to earn the money to buy stuff. Even if the work is often bullshit jobs that aren’t needed, and you could pay everyone a living wage for nothing – you have to grind them down, otherwise people will have the time and energy to organize and rise up.
Speaking of rising up, there’s a demo planned Saturday at 1 pm starting at Mont‑Royal metro against Amazon’s strike‑breaking actions.
Kevin 15:04 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
There are too many dropouts among the techbros to realize that they need well-paid customers to act as justification for the money they get from government grants and Venture Capitalist donors.
Tim S. 15:09 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
But Kate, the thing is Silicon Valley doesn’t make stuff. Crypto is not a physical thing! AI is not thing we can buy off a shelf or that needs an industrial workforce to produce. I’m not a deep theorist on this stuff, but if your vision of the future is some combination of crypto wealth, AI workforce, and Mars as your survival bunker, there’s no need to keep the rest of us even somewhat onside.
MarcG 15:34 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Haven’t watched all of this video but I think it tries to explain the world they’re creating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no
Kate 15:35 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
They may not make stuff, but they certainly sell stuff. Musk sells cars, solar panels and I don’t know what else. Bezos sells vast amounts of Amazon stuff. Zuckerberg doesn’t sell physical objects but he’s sitting on one of the biggest advertising systems in the world. This also applies to Musk as owner of X. Facebook and X both exist because businesses want to sell stuff.
I admit I may be way off base. I am not an economist.
Blork 15:57 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
I think a lot of you are overestimating Trump and the level to which he thinks things through.
The tariff situation is just an extrapolation of how he ran things as a real estate developer in New York. He makes a deal with a partner or a contractor, they do the work, and then he tells them he’ll only pay half. When they complain or try to negotiate, he doesn’t pay at all.
That is on record as the SOP for Trump real estate development.
That’s how he runs business, like a bull(ly) in a China shop. The little guy loses, he wins, nobody learns, and the cycle repeats. Now he’s just doing the same on an international level, with no regard for anything other than him winning.
Blork 15:57 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
BTW, the tech bro stuff might also have some validity, but that’s not Trump; that’s Silicon Valley riding the wave of the Trump chaos.
Tim S. 16:42 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
We’re all trying to figure this out in real time, but I think the important point is that individual abilities or intentions don’t really matter right now – not even POTUS. What matters is the cumulative effect of all these moves, and the way some people are exploiting the chaos created by others. I don’t think these guys are all sitting in a cigar-filled room figuring things out step-by-step, but I’m sure they’re all being advised by relatively anonymous people who truly believe some far-out stuff. Anyways, the way I see it today is that Trump is providing a patriotic, chest-thumping distraction while the tech bros dismantle the US Government and with it, the capitalist economy that it created and supports. Trump and Vance will pretend to be acting in the interests of the US economy – the version that actually has workers and makes (some) stuff – until it’s too late. Don’t forget Vance is Peter Thiel’s guy.
Kate, the valuations of all those companies are much, much higher than can be justified by selling advertising alone.
Kate 18:29 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Where does their wealth come from?
Steph 19:06 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
(Maybe put on your tin hats for this one ) They want closed off North American Technicracy, closed off from the rest of the world. The tech bros think their silicone software/AI will hand them the wealth and absolute control.
Ian 19:37 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
To take that a step further, If capital represents value generated by workers in excess of their wages & the means of production, then profitable AI would essentially be pure capital. No wonder it’s the tech broligarch wet dream.
Tim S. 20:29 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Kate, I really dunno where their wealth comes from, hopefully somebody else has an informed answer. My guess is that they use the data collected to establish AIs which are super-highly valued. I suspect it’s a bubble, but if you can reshape the whole economic structure around a bubble, is it still a bubble? Ditto crypto.
Ian: yup. At which point workers are unnecessary.
dhomas 20:53 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
They also took out St-Jean-Baptiste and
Journée Nationale des Patriotes…
Kate 21:00 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
OK, nothing that isn’t for straight white American males counts for shit any more.
Also the map says “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” now. How long till the old name is dropped, do you think?
Blork 22:22 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
It’s already dropped if you’re viewing Google Maps from within the U.S. Confirmed from multiple sources.
Uatu 10:54 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
The Associated Press has been banned from the presidential press pool because of their refusal to accept this change. Trump is such a snowflake lol
dwgs 11:17 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
They might want you to believe that AP got the boot because they insisted on Gulf of Mexico but it was just a convenient way of dumping one more credible source of information to be replaced by another of their friends (Newsmax etc)
dwgs 13:46 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
https://bsky.app/profile/sethabramson.bsky.social/post/3li7m4rzbn22k
Kate 16:12 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
good one, dwgs