DNC-Controlled social media worked with Biden officials and Ukraine officials to censor Americans not carrying the acceptable pro-Ukraine, pro-U.S.-support of Ukraine narrative coming out of the White House. Some of those targeted were American journalists. One target was the U.S. State Department itself.
The 27-page document shows FBI efforts to censor and remove Americans’ posts and accounts in cooperation with Meta, Google, and other Pro-DNC (or DNC-controlled) social media outlets. They worked with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to identify the “problematic” posts and accounts. One such account turned out to be @usaporusski, a Russian-language version of the U.S. State Department.
“The new information highlights the FBI’s unconstitutional role in enabling the SBU’s censorship regime and raises grave concerns about the FBI’s credibility, reliability, and competence as the nation’s premier law enforcement organization. The FBI facilitated censorship requests to American social media companies on behalf of a Ukrainian intelligence agency infiltrated by Russian-aligned actors In so doing, the FBI violated the First Amendment rights of Americans and potentially undermined our national security,”
There are very few machines in the world, today, that can claim to have been designed over a hundred years ago. There are some railroad engines, for example, that are still run as “living museums”, ferrying the curious around closed rail circuits, allowing modern riders to experience some of the feels and smells of bygone eras. In other places, there are hydroelectric dams that have changed little in the near-century since they were built; Hoover Dam comes to mind, as it nears its own century mark, with only minimal updates to its internal design.
Series of massive electrical generators beneath the Hoover Dam. CCA/4.0
This is equally true of firearms. The Browning Machine Gun, in both .30 and .50 calibers, and the Colt 1911 (also designed by John Moses Browning) all date from over a century ago, yet remain in both first- or second-line service around the world. The Mosin-Nagant rifle, and its 7.62x54mmR cartridge, in contrast, date all the way back to 1891, and while the Mosin rifle may no longer be in common service (aside from a few WW2-era examples turning up in Ukraine), the 7.62x54mmR remains the cartridge of choice for the PKMGPMG, one of the most widely deployed machine guns of the early 21st Century.
7.62 mm PKM machine gun used by Finnish military. 2012. Public Domain.
But one weapon stands apart from all of these: the Maxim Machine Gun.
Swiss Maxim Machine gun Model 1911, cal 7.5 mm. CCA/3.0
First invented in 1884 by an American inventory, Hiram Stevens Maxim, and first offered for sale in 1886, the Maxim Gun has been used in every part of the world, in virtually every conflict of note since that time. The Maxim was the first true “machine gun”, in the mechanical sense that we understand the term today. Unlike most machine guns of today, the Maxim is recoil-operated, meaning that it only uses the recoil impulse of the cartridge firing, to retract, extract, and eject spent cartridges, then chamber and fire a new cartridge. In contrast, most modern automatic weapons use some form of gas-operated piston – very similar to the piston in a car engine – to operate their cycle.
An Australian soldier manning a Vickers machine gun during the Korean War. Date Unknown. Public Domain.
Similarly, the Maxim typically use a large, cylindrical water jacket to cool and protect the barrel from the heat of firing, unlike modern weapons which rely on the flow of air and “quick-change” barrels to accomplish the same task. While very good at cooling barrels, the water jackets were very cumbersome, and prone to damage, both in and out of combat, which could cause catastrophic damage to the weapon if no immediately repaired.
With a cyclic rate of about 600 rounds per minute, the Maxim is – by modern standards – heavy, clunky, and awkward. As well, it is certainly nowhere near to modern standards of reliability in the field…and yet, the gun refuses to quietly disappear into a museum, because it continues to soldier on in the 21st Century.
Twin-mounted Maxim Guns with a modern optical sight. Ukraine. Author Unknown.
The Maxim was tweaked and fiddled with by every state operator who bought copies. But Maxim wasn’t done with his design: in the early 1890’s, he released a much larger version of his machine gun (YouTube link) that fired 37mm explosive shells, at a rate of c.300 rounds per minute, to about 4,500 yards. Versions of this “pom-pom gun” (so-called, because the sound it made while firing) would be used as secondary and tertiary armament on ships, as well as early anti-aircraft weapons, until the end of WW1.
U.S.S. Vixen, Maxim machine gun and gunner Smith. The gun appears to be a Maxim-Nordenfelt 37-mm 1-pounder autocannon, known to the British as a “pom-pom”. Public Domain.
British QF 1 pounder Mk II 37 mm “pom-pom” gun, World War I era, on display at the Imperial War Museum, London. CCA/2.0
The Maxim would be used as a frontline weapon through the war in Korea. By then, though, it was showing its age, as better materials and designs produced lighter, more reliable and more portable weapons. The surviving weapons, around the world, were mostly placed in storage…but the Maxim’s legacy continued: the PKM and its successor, the Pecheneg GPMG, both use ammunition belts that are backwards-compatible with the PM1910, the Imperial Russian version of Maxim’s design, dating from before WW1.
Photo of a 1910 Maxim Machine gun. CCA/4.0
But again – Maxim’s design refuses to gently go into that good night.
As the world exploded in the aftermath of the so-called “Arab Spring”, many citizen rebels and resistance fighters overran government armories, and found Maxim’s old guns in storage crates. Those guns were broken out and cleaned, training and maintenance manuals were sourced from online repositories, and the century-old weapons went back into action. They may no longer be the best guns available, but old and creaky guns are better that harsh words and rocks.
Captured German Maxim machine gun. Malard Wood, 9 August 1918. Imperial War Museums. Public Domain
Firearms – of all categories – are very recent additions to Mankind’s arsenal, as they have been effective combat tools for considerably less than 1,000 years. They are one of the most – if not themost – decisive “force multiplers” in human history. Learning about firearms makes no one “evil”, nor is it “glorifying” weapons – it makes them well informed and productive members of the societies…who should REALLY be wondering just whose side they are really on.
Don’t go gently into the night – because it may not be as gentle of a night as you think it to be.
The workers at the Amazon Staten Island site were successful in voting for a union, but now the union is accusing Amazon of using intimidation and fear tactics to try to stop workers from voting for a union. Accusations include threats to reduce salaries should the union vote win. Amazon accused of threatening workers during union vote
The workers at the Staten Island warehouse secured the first successful union election in Amazon’s history on April 1. Amazon immediately challenged the results of the election, accusing both the Amazon Labor Union and the NLRB itself of breaking labor laws before the election. The NLRB will hold hearings on those challenges before the union win can be officially certified.
“Our focus remains on working directly with our team to make Amazon a great place to work. The allegations in NLRB complaint are without merit, and we look forward to showing that through this process,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, wrote in an email to Protocol.
The Great Resignation initially started with people who could make more money on the dole than working, then spread to people who could earn more doing less somewhere else, and has now spread to longtime employees that are retiring early to escape the ‘new normal’ offered by the new corporations.
“The Great Resignation is almost like a train, where it’s built all this momentum and it’s hard to slow down, but certain workers are getting off the train and new workers are coming on,” said Luke Pardue, an economist at Gusto, which provides payroll, benefits, and human resource management software to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Rates of quits are always highest among younger, less senior workers — those who tend to be less invested in their jobs and whose lives are less stable. This was true during the early stages of the pandemic when these workers quit their jobs amid heightened demand to eke out better wages and conditions elsewhere (though those gains are unlikely to be permanent). But those quit rates have been declining. Data from Gusto, which typically works with companies that have around 25 employees, shows that the average tenure of people who quit has grown in every age group and in nearly every industry. In other words, older people who’ve worked at a job longer are also quitting.
Amazon has been caught, again, and again and again, doing business in China with firms that do business with Chinese Forced Labor Camps. Some of these Forced Labor Camps are Uyghur labor camps. In addition to Amazon, Apple also was found to have ties to many of these same labor-camp-powered Chinese manufacturing firms. The report comes from the Tech Transparency Project.
According to Tech Transparency Project, two of these companies were Luxshare Precision Industry and AcBel Polytech, who also do business with Apple. Both Apple and Amazon have fully embraced the woketarian corporatism also reflected politically in the DNC, yet while they preach moral supremacism at home, equality, social justice, they make products for the world from the labor of political prisoners and victims of genocide.
In response to the report, Amazon Inc issued this vague statement, “Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates, and expects suppliers to adhere to our Supply Chain Standards. We take allegations of human rights abuses seriously, including those related to the use or export of forced labor. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action…”
A number of Amazon’s Chinese suppliers are linked to from China’s Xinjiang region, according to a new from the Tech Transparency Project. The organization found that five of Amazon’s suppliers have been directly accused by watchdog groups and journalists of relying on workers from China’s many , which it uses to detain Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities. The suppliers produce Amazon devices and Amazon-branded products, such as the line of home goods and tech accessories.
“The findings raise questions about Amazon’s exposure to China’s repression of minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang—and the extent to which the e-commerce giant is adequately vetting its supplier relationships,” wrote the authors of the report. “Amazon says that its suppliers ‘must not use forced labor’ and that it ‘does not tolerate suppliers that traffic workers or in any other way exploit workers by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, or fraud.’ But its supplier list tells a…
It appears Jeff Bezos’ progressive-powered Amazon is having problems living up to the full code of social justice. Efforts to unionize Amazon workers have been met with failure, but no one has come closer than the Alabama facility in pulling it off. A recent election where Amazon got the result the wanted (union vote failed) has been declared null and void by the NLRB and will have to be run all over again.
See, folks, sometimes people cheat to win elections. It’s true.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (Reuters) – A regional director for the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued a decision ordering a re-run of a union election at an Amazon.com facility in Alabama, a spokeswoman for the NLRB said on Monday.
It appears Amazon is getting a new enemy, and that name is Teamsters. Unions have been dwindling in America, and the power of Teamsters has decreased with it. Amazon has a workforce of over half a million in the US alone. Worldwide, Amazon is set to cross 1,2 million employees within the next 6 months if their additional hiring plans follow form.
That’s a lot of Union dues, and Teamsters is tasting that dollary due dough. And those numbers, hundreds of thousands of union members, that would add tremendous political capital to the teaamsters’ DC lobbyist offices. There’a lot at stake, and a small number of people will gain to the tune of tens of millions of personal dollars if the Teamsters can unionize Amazon.
The assault on the new institutions of the 2010s and now 20s is coming from Unions, and union activists, who will use the moral claims of these new institutions against them. Do you dare disadvantage the less fortunate and deny them their ability to negotiate with you on equal footing? If you’ve embraced the new morality code, the end racism and bigotry bit (that does little to end either using its preferred tactics of fear and intimidation to simply silence bad thoughts), if you’ve used your market monopolistic advantages to yeet the unorthodox from the market square altogether, well, the chickens have come home to roost and their name is Unions.
I say it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of new rich kids.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – In June, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the nation’s largest and most influential unions, vowed to make organizing the Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) workforce a top priority.
Two months later, details of the Teamsters’ ground game are starting to take shape, Reuters has learned from interviews with local union leaders. While organizing workers is the ultimate aim, the short-term strategy is one of disruption.
Over the past year, the Teamsters have raised concerns about Amazon at local government meetings in at least 10 communities, leading to the scrapping of projects and the rejection of a tax break, as well as resolutions calling on the company to meet local labor standards, according to a Reuters tally.
From Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Oceanside, California, the Teamsters are popping up in city halls around the country, joining forces with community groups as they seek to persuade local officials to ask more of the tech giant or reject…
Amazon is one of the new international corporate powers that has budgets that rival some nation-states. The pushback by nation-states to try to reign in these unaccountable leviathons is going on across multiple fronts. In California, a legislature seeks to tilt the balance of power back in the favor of the state by passing new regulations that would require Amazon track the workflow of each person to assure Amazon is not working their people to death.
As far as workers are concerned, this might be a win for them, though, to be sure, it is the incidental fruit of a win for the state to keep Amazon aware of the power balance, at the end of the day, between the state and the international corporate leviathon.
An Assembly-passed bill is expected to reach the Senate floor this week or next to crack down on the opaque, algorithm-led and harsh warehouse work conditions often attributed to the Seattle technology behemoth.
The bill, the first such legislation in the nation, would require warehouses to disclose quotas and work speed metrics to employees and government agencies. It would ban “time off task” penalties that affect health and safety, including bathroom use, and prohibit retaliation against workers who complain.
Amazon dominates online shopping across the nation amid a surge in e-commerce fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. With 950,000 U.S. employees and $368 billion in revenue in 2020, it is the nation’s second-largest employer after Walmart, and is under growing pressure to address worker injuries in its supply chain.
Parker Davis- Amazon and Instacart might have a new headache to deal with if some workers have their way. Delivery drivers for both of these companies are not happy with a number of employment conditions these two companies impose on them and they are moving to strike to get what we they want.
On Monday Amazon workers and Instacart shoppers demanded both companies increase protections and pay—or the workers will strike. Spokespeople for Amazon and Instacart both tell Motherly both companies remain operational.
Instacart’s shoppers want the company to provide hand sanitizer and wipes for the gig workers, as well as better compensation for those taking on the risky task of shopping during a pandemic.
Amazon employees want warehouses to be closed for deep cleanings and want access to paid sick leave. Right now they only get paid sick leave if they are placed on a mandatory quarantine by medical providers or have tested positive for COVID-19.
So far, 14 employees at multiple Amazon warehouses have tested positive…..
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