News / political
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1 min read
Zuckerberg Laid Off 8,000 People to Pay for Servers
Read more . . . →The number is $135 billion. That’s Meta’s AI infrastructure spend this year — Zuckerberg just raised the forecast again because apparently $115B wasn’t enough silicon for the guy who already owns your attention span. To cover the difference, he’s cutting 8,000 employees starting May 20, plus cancelling 6,000 open roles. Fourteen thousand positions, gone. Meta posted record profits last quarter. The budget isn’t tight — the priorities are. He told them at a company town hall. To their faces. “The layoffs are a direct consequence of the AI budget.” The company restructures into AI “pods,” which sounds like a sci-fi...
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1 min read
Roaring back: 98,000 manufacturing jobs gone since the tariffs hit
Read more . . . →The promise was simple: slap tariffs on everything, factories come back, workers win. Trump said it enough times it started to sound like gravity. Twelve months in, the U.S. has shed 98,000 manufacturing jobs. Not some. Ninety-eight thousand. Since April’s tariff escalation alone, 72,000 more. The factories aren’t roaring back. The workers are just gone. He just announced 25% tariffs on EU cars and trucks. More factories coming, supposedly. Except supply chain managers surveyed by CNBC are now reporting double the layoffs compared to last year — 32% reporting job cuts, up from 16% in April. The tariffs didn’t bring...
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The Ghost of Spirit Airlines
Read more . . . →Spirit Airlines is gone. Not “restructuring,” not “emerging stronger” — actually gone. Yellow planes parked in the Mojave, gates absorbed by Delta and United, flight attendants told to file unemployment claims via a QR code on the breakroom wall. The closest thing America had to a working-class national carrier just bled out in bankruptcy court while everyone pretended this was inevitable. It wasn’t. The DOJ blocked the JetBlue merger to “protect competition,” which sounded reasonable right up until competition turned out to mean letting hedge funds peck at Spirit’s bones for two years until the carcass collapsed on its own....
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1 min read
Jack Dorsey Fired 4,000 People and Called It Innovation
Read more . . . →Jack Dorsey laid off 40% of Block’s staff — 4,000 people — and told the world it was because of AI. Said the business was strong, profits were up, growth was good. Just… didn’t need those people anymore. Specifically didn’t need the policy team. Specifically didn’t need DEI. Fascinating which roles the machines replaced first. Here’s the part that should make you furious: he then went on record saying most companies are “late” and will make similar cuts within the year. He turned a mass firing into an industry announcement. A roadmap. Every CEO in America now has their script...
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3,000 Rallies Today Because the Tariff Revolution Was a Scam
Read more . . . →Three thousand May Day rallies across the country today. Five hundred labor unions marching. The National Education Association — three million members — calling a national walkout. The slogan is “Workers Over Billionaires,” which is apparently still a controversial position in 2026. Trump said tariffs would bring the factories “roaring back.” A year later, 100,000 manufacturing jobs are gone. A Kearney report confirmed the tariffs didn’t drive reshoring or reduce import dependence. What they did was hand every American household a $1,500 tax bill — the largest tariff increase as a share of GDP since 1993. The factories didn’t come...
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1 min read
Tomorrow Is May Day. The Company Already Replaced You.
Read more . . . →Tomorrow is International Workers’ Day. This year, corporations are celebrating by laying off 882 people a day. Tech alone has cut 95,000 jobs in 2026 — Meta starts firing another 8,000 on May 20, Oracle just eliminated 30,000 people to fund $156 billion in AI infrastructure. Not to survive. To accelerate. You were the cost they were looking for an excuse to cut. The framing is always the same: “toward AI,” “efficiency,” “long-term value creation.” What that means is they found the machine that does your job for less. No benefits. No vacation. No back-talk. And the record profits keep...
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Violet Hill turns 18 and it still can't pull off being angry
Read more . . . →18 years ago today, Coldplay released “Violet Hill.” It still sucks. The idea was a war protest song — guitar distortion, Chris Martin attempting something like a growl. What they delivered sounds like someone who found out they were double-charged at Starbucks. Pouty and vaguely betrayed. The Iraq War was still going and Coldplay’s big political statement involved mumbling about priests with poison while being exactly as threatening as a passive-aggressive Post-it note. 2008 was a great year for music. Here’s what you should have been listening to while Coldplay was practicing their frowns: Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire - Ghosts...
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"Tariff Relief" Means Pack Up Your Workers and Leave
Read more . . . →Trump dropped his “tariff relief” offer to Canadian steel companies yesterday: move your production to the US or keep paying 50%. The United Steelworkers — the union representing the people actually doing the work in Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie, and across the country — called it blackmail and extortion. Not metaphorically. That’s the actual terminology for “relocate everything or face consequences.” They chose a precise word and they meant it. The workers on those lines are already being laid off under the current tariff regime. Trump’s offer doesn’t save them — it gives their employers an offramp to close up...
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Your gas bill is Trump's war tab
Read more . . . →The Strait of Hormuz has been closed since February. Used to carry 25% of the world’s seaborne oil. Now it doesn’t, because Trump and Israel bombed Iran and the Iranians shut the door. Gas is up 27% since the war started. Brent crude crossed $107 this morning. Trump canceled peace talks this weekend. Iran says it won’t negotiate under threat. Trump says they can “call us.” The standoff holds — and the cost lands at the pump, the utility bill, every week, no ceiling in sight. Delivery drivers and small shop owners are eating the tab for a war they...
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Joe Rogan feels 'betrayed.' Millions of workers felt it first.
Read more . . . →Joe Rogan says he feels “betrayed” by Trump over the Iran war. Tucker Carlson went on air and apologized for “misleading” his audience. Eight of the fourteen bro-podcast hosts Trump campaigned with have turned against the war. Day 56 of a conflict the no-more-wars candidate started — he’s blockading Iranian ports and just cancelled peace talks because the flights were “too long.” These are the guys who handed Trump the keys. Rogan gave him three hours of softballs. Carlson gave him months of uncritical coverage. They sold the no-more-wars line to millions of people and now they’re doing the confused...
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