Robin Monks 
Shocked by how many large company websites are just forever broken now. Companies no longer care if anything works.
Mar 18 at 11:10pmWeb
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

@rpm

Wondering if the attitudes of the Epstein Class contaminate the mainstream.

"Distributed income" is the new euphemism for employment precarity.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/henriktotterman/2026/03/22/from-lifetime-employment-to-distributed-income/

Rich folk want to only pay for labor when they need it.

The training, the logistics, the wait times, the preparation & planning -- they don't want to pay for any of it.

They ignore what happens in crisis when there's not enough talent ready to go & available in a crunch, crisis, or peak period.

1/

From Lifetime Employment To Distributed Income

Professional stability is shifting from single-employer careers to portfolio-based models. Leaders now manage multiple roles, income streams, and networks.

Forbes
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

2/

They ignore proven practices for resilience like redundancy.

They just see it as paying people to loaf around, not as paying fire fiighters between 911 calls.

Paying a medical specialist for their 10 years of preparatory training is viewed as a waste.

Their attitudes towards labor have pernicious impacts on business.

Web sites that aren't maintained is just one example.

Cory Doctorow describes the huge waste of Uber drivers constantly driving around the downtown core waiting & unpaid

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

3/

The wealthiest hold attitudes towards labor & workers that have global impact.

Example: Trump's megadonors are dynasties with long legacies of anti-labor practices.
https://zeteo.com/p/billionaire-oligarchs-project-2025-trump

Bradley, Koch, Coors, Scaife Mellon, Seid, Uihlein

https://www.desmog.com/2024/08/14/project-2025-billionaire-donor-heritage-foundation-donald-trump-jd-vance-charles-koch-peter-coors/

https://www.levernews.com/dark-money-just-got-darker-wall-street-helped-fund-project-2025/

https://www.desmog.com/2024/10/25/project-2025-trump-mapped-how-6-billionaire-family-fortunes-fund-climate-denial/

https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-project-2025-the-policy-substance-behind-trumps-showmanship-reveals-a-radical-plan-to-reshape-the-world-227161

The most corrupt arose from Andrew Mellon & set the stage for WW2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mellon

The same elite tax evasion & "blame the poor" philosophy.

The Billionaire Oligarchs Funding Project 2025’s ‘Unpopular, Self-Enriching Policies’

Fmr. Adviser for Bernie Sanders Campaign David Sirota explains to Mehdi how Project 2025 has been in the making for years now.

Zeteo
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

4/

Andrew Mellon, Tim Mellon's grandfather, advocated for the same self-dealing corruption of today's MAGA faithful.

"critics of the Harding administration saw the Mellon appointment as a sign that Harding would "reseat the power of special privileged interests, the powers of avarice and greed, the powers that seek self-aggrandizement at the expense of the general public."

"Mellon believed that economic recessions, such as those that had occurred in 1873 and 1907, were a necessary part of...

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

5/

... the business cycle because they purged the economy.

In his memoirs, Hoover wrote that Mellon advised him to "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. ... enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people."

Social darwinism "Purging the economy" attitudes towards the labor force laid the groundwork for disastrous policy like...

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 22

6/

... Smoot-Hawley, directly attributable to the onslaught of empire building in Italy, Japan, & Germany and then WW2.

"Half-court tennis" policies with global impact as historian S.C.M. Paine describes it.
https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/sarah-paine-japan

In the 1920's a small number of self-serving corrupt oligarchs set in motion policies that would domino & trigger WW2 and caused 90 million deaths.

All because of elite attitudes towards the 99% as 'undeserving' of good jobs & stable employment.

Sarah Paine — Why Japan lost WWII (lecture & interview)

Continuing our WWII series: the ideas and economics behind Japanese imperialism and the fatal flaw in their military culture that cost them the war

Dwarkesh Podcast
Show threadRightSprung will not complyMar 22

@Npars01

This is a great talk. Thank you for this...

Show threadWoozle HypertwinMar 23

@Npars01 'recessions are good because they purge the economy' -- this puts "drain the swamp" in a whole new light: to them, we are the swamp. The government programs they destroy, which keep the world stable and prosperous, are the swamp.

The corruption we think of as "the swamp" is, to them, the goal of the entire system: personal wealth (victory) for the "winners" who played the game right, which means making the right "friends".

Making the world more chaotic just makes the game more interesting, to them.

Show threadWoozle HypertwinMar 23

@Npars01 They don't understand how "the swamp" is necessary for their wealth.

They're like a parasite that hasn't figured out it needs to not kill the host -- a cloud of mosquitoes that will bleed us dry because they can, believing that their "success" at "making blood" proves they should.

Cancerous manifest destiny.

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@woozle

Andrew Mellon, like his allies & descendants, had eugenics belief systems.

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/12/05/how-epstein-channelled-race-science-and-climate-culling-into-silicon-valleys-ai-elite/

https://slate.com/technology/2026/03/jeffrey-epstein-files-dna-eugenics-transhumanism.html

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/epstein-emails-eugenics-chomsky-altruism-billionaires/

https://jacobin.com/2019/08/jeffrey-epstein-billionaire-sex-offender-elite-eugenics

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html

https://www.ms.now/news/epstein-emailed-with-silicon-valley-elites-about-racist-eugenicist-ideas

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/01/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-report

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/john-tantons-private-papers-expose-more-20-years-hate/

The Tanton Network, Clairemont Institute, Scaife Foundation, Colcom Foundation
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/24/capitalism-is-smartphones-and-eugenics/

https://www.fastcompany.com/91490280/epstein-files-how-ultra-wealthy-peddle-climate-denialism

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/03/14/eric-fassin-sociologist-the-epstein-case-reveals-the-absolute-power-of-men-who-by-flaunting-their-transgressions-declared-themselves-above-the-law_6751426_23.html

https://newrepublic.com/article/140951/trump-gets-fuzzy-border-math

https://americasvoice.org/press_releases/millers-support-for-white-supremacist-groups-puts-spotlight-on-the-foundations-and-donors-who-fund-them/

1/

How Epstein Channelled Race Science and 'Climate Culling' Into Silicon Valley’s AI Elite

The Epstein files expose how racial hierarchy, genetic “optimisation” and even climate-driven population culling circulated inside Big Tech circles

Byline Times
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

2/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/pioneer-fund/

https://www.sierraclub.org/pennsylvania/blog/2022/10/drop-colcom-campaign

https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/eugenics-border-wars-population-control-the-tanton-network/

https://humanlifereview.com/the-long-road-of-eugenics-from-rockefeller-to-roe-v-wade/

https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017-10-2-which-funders-are-working-against-immigration

The entire Epstein Class shares these beliefs about "overpopulation" and dehumanization.

It's why they oppose vaccination, public health, school nutrition programs, clean water regulations, and a fossil fuel phase out.

Trump's billionaires are wannabe aristocratic Nazis.
https://www.jezebel.com/the-eugenicist-doctor-and-the-vast-fortune-behind-trump-1827322435

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/16/revealed-international-race-science-network-secretly-funded-by-us-tech-boss

https://nursingclio.org/2025/05/08/rfks-ideas-about-wellness-farms-for-young-people-are-eugenic-and-unconstitutional/

Pioneer Fund

Started in 1937 by textile magnate Wickliffe Draper, the Pioneer Fund's original mandate was to pursue "race betterment" by promoting the genetic stock of those "deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original thirteen states prior to the adoption of the Constitution."

Southern Poverty Law Center
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

3/

As the Hapsburgs amply demonstrated, wealth doesn't mean superior genes or intelligence, no matter what faux religious white supremacist agenda Andreessen proposes.
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/chilling-inbreeding-led-incurable-defect-35196694

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/distinctive-habsburg-jaw-was-likely-result-royal-familys-inbreeding-180973688/

The UK was replete with inbred upper class twits that caused disastrous losses in WW1.
https://www.techpolicy.press/tech-oligarchs-and-the-rise-of-silicon-valley-pronatalism/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-are-elon-musk-and-marc-andreesen-obsessed-with-birth-rates/

https://www.tni.org/en/article/the-rise-of-the-techno-tyrants

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636/11599

Chilling inbreeding led to incurable defect in royal family

Researchers examined historical portraits of these monarchs to study their unusual facial quirks and trace familial ties through genetic analysis, attempting to establish whether or not their features were in fact the product of inbreeding.

Irish Star
Show threadKyle Memoir 🍉🐧Mar 23

@Npars01

Prince Gerhardt Habsburg (aka His Royal Highness the Duke of Thuringia, the Earl of the Duchy of Westphalia, Prince Gerhardt Messerschmitt Rammstein von Hoppe)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MayVkJt28tA

Paul Reubens' Iconic Guest Star Role in 30 Rock | Comedy Bites

YouTube
Show threadNazaniMar 23
@Npars01 Remember what those "Georgia Guidestones" said about population?
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@Nazani

Does anyone want to live in a post-apocalyptic world possessed by racist mini-Musk's?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

Georgia Guidestones - Wikipedia

Show threadNazaniMar 23
@Npars01 No to the Musklings. But, I am probably the wrong person to ask about a post-apocalyptic world. What I watch for stress relief:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVI-MVWBgqw&list=PLob1mZcVWOaioqL7walgL9p5tPhyYYem0
Life After People: Bodies Decay After Mankind's Annihilation (Season 1) | History

YouTube
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@Nazani

I remember watching that series.

I was amused by the idea of a stainless steel sink lying in a stream being the last remnant of the human species.

Not buildings. Not some monument to a tyrant. A kitchen sink.

Show threadNazaniMar 23
@Npars01 I was touched by parrots being the last species to speak human words. But mostly I loved seeing vegetation cover everything.
Show threadKoen Hufkens, PhDMar 23

@woozle @Npars01 The unimaginable amounts of money made by Trumps TACO politics are eye-watering I think. But, we'll never know.

The market was going down the drain over the past week into early trading hours, then he back tracks with a wild statement (bumping the market) only to do god knows what by the end of the week.

Pump and dump, or the reverse as the direction doesn't matter for investors only the magnitude.

Show threadAndrocatMar 23

@koen_hufkens @woozle @Npars01
Well, that's only if you're in on it.

Total unpredictability is just as likely to wipe out money than earn it.

Like, take all those tech bastards who have sunk money into gold to wait out the LLM bubble crash.

Their money just got wiped out because the Emirates had to liquidate their gold reserve because of the war.

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@androcat @koen_hufkens @woozle

Not a good sign.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/23/gold-and-silver-in-freefall-as-investors-flee-safe-haven-metals-trade.html

https://continent.substack.com/p/tigrays-plundered-gold-is-being-laundered

The movement of gold preceded WW2

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/31/bank-of-england-and-nazis-stolen-gold

https://www.crisesnotes.com/the-first-cause-of-stability-of-our-currency-is-the-concentration-camp-central-banker-solidarity-on-the-road-to-hitlers-czechoslovakian-gold/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/documents-reveal-bank-of-england-sold-stolen-gold-for-nazis-8738805.html?test_group=lighteradlayout

https://gulfnews.com/business/retail/dubai-gold-prices-rebound-after-sharp-sell-off-unsettles-global-markets-1.500429836

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/dubai-gold-prices-crash-22k-drops-below-dh490-after-global-sell-off-eid-buyers-rush-in/articleshow/129744446.cms

Show threadAndrocatMar 23

@Npars01 @koen_hufkens @woozle

Yeah, this is all like a goddamn kaiju brawl.

The big bad guys are hurting each other, but the buildings turning into confetti will fall on us normal people.

Show threadKoen Hufkens, PhDMar 23

@androcat @woozle @Npars01

They are in on it.

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/post/3mhq66o7bos2n

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social)

The real story… under any other president this would be jail time…

Bluesky Social
Show threadAndrocatMar 23

@koen_hufkens

Oh, for sure some of them are.

But also, this stuff isn't exactly mathematics. It's unpredictable.

Like, his best trick was pumping up a stupid crypto, sell it and immediately just let it collapse. They could barely keep it up long enough to profit.

They are dumbasses, greedy little monkeys.

And their stupid tricks are interfering with other stupid people's stupid tricks.

Someone's gonna punch his ticket, I wager.

@woozle @Npars01

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@androcat @koen_hufkens @woozle

In the meantime, people die as billionaires squabble & scramble

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@koen_hufkens @androcat @woozle

The insider trading & public corruption of MAGA world...

Wondering what Trump's up to now. Another profitable housing crash for Wall Street?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-22/fannie-freddie-place-large-bids-for-mortgage-backed-securities

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/fannie-freddie-place-large-bids-for-mortgage-backed-securities

Show threadKevin RussellMar 23

@Npars01 @koen_hufkens @androcat @woozle

A constant glow of useful information, arranged in aptness to events.

Hat tipped

Show threadJanet FraserMar 22
@Npars01 @rpm I call multi-millionaires and billionaires "wealth hoarders". They have a mental illness just like anyone else who hoards and they don't really care about anything else. Don't let the sick person drive the bus.
Show threadWoozle HypertwinMar 23

@Npars01

So... how about a Union of Itinerant Workers (anyone in the workforce but not formally employed full-time)... I'm thinking if enough people joined it, then the union could threaten something close to a general strike if employers didn't agree to pay in enough to support basic living expenses for all members, currently employed/contracted or not -- but I'm not sure how the numbers work out.

@rpm

Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 23

@woozle @rpm

Protections for the most vulnerable workers would be excellent!

Show threadBebadefaboMar 24
@Npars01 it's happening right now with TurboTax and HR Block. Both are massively understaffed during peak season. Employees are burning out and Customer wait times are measured in days not hours
Show threadTC Won't Give In To LiesMar 22

@rpm

Peak enshittification.