Michael Vilain

@mvilain@sfba.social
153 Followers
150 Following
8.6K Posts
recovering sysadmin
Certified Advanced Rolfer™
Alternate Mastodon@mvilain
Twitter[nobody goes there any more...it's to crowded]
Rolfing™ Home pagehttps://www.vilain.com/wp
Michael Vilain1h ago
Show threadStevan15h ago
@nixCraft It's so that the applicant can find out whether the COO is a dickhead.
(Narrator: The COO was a dickhead)
Michael Vilain1h ago
The Funny Pages11h ago

New comic strip found:
Adult Children by Stephen Beals for Fri, 30 May 2025 https://www.gocomics.com/adult-children/2025/05/30

#comicstrip #adultchildren #retail

Michael Vilain1h ago
Flowermob14h ago
The #Republican Health Care Plan #GOP #GOPKillsAmericans
Michael Vilain1h ago
Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀10h ago
Michael Vilain1h ago
Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀10h ago
Michael Vilain1h ago
Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀10h ago
Michael Vilain1h ago
The Funny Pages9h ago

New comic strip found:
Adult Children by Stephen Beals for Sat, 31 May 2025 https://www.gocomics.com/adult-children/2025/05/31

#comicstrip #adultchildren #retail

Michael Vilain1h ago
Show threadRoy -- the dull one10h ago

@Osteopenia_Powers @Eetschrijver @flexghost

Perfect! "Dividing by Zero" - now we know the replacement for "E Pluribus Unum".

Michael Vilain1h ago
KellyAnn Romanych (she/her)7h ago

Zukes: shared one, kept one
Tiny harvest day

#GrowAndShare #gardening

Michael Vilain2h ago
𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight"6h ago
Once again Scottish Twitter is undefeated.
×
George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽May 24
Does he have any idea how much iPhones would have to cost if made here?!
Show threadTony “Abolish ICE”Arcieri 🌹🦀May 24
@georgetakei like many things, he does not
Show threadchrisp4d ago
@bascule He does not, he could afford it, and Tim Apple probably sends him a free *every Apple device* every 3 months anyway.
Show threadChristian GudrianMay 24
@georgetakei He has way too many ideas. Alas, the wrong ones.
Show threadDario GreggioMay 24
@georgetakei :D
Show threadLady Homealot 🖖will not complyMay 24
@georgetakei That idiot seems to think it would only take a week or so to accomplish. Stupidest creature to ever exist.
Show threadTor Iver WilhelmsenMay 24
@CrushingFlightoftheOwlbear @georgetakei This is why none of his non-property businesses have succeeded, he has no understanding of it.
Show threadLady Homealot 🖖will not complyMay 24
@toriver @georgetakei Apple could probably take their factory in Austin that manufactures the Mac Pro where tRump visited during his first go-round, pile up a bunch of iPhones everywhere and tell him that’s what they’re making, then give him a lab coat, hard hat, and a seat on a forklift, and he’d be happy. 😆
Show threadEpistomaiMay 25
@toriver @CrushingFlightoftheOwlbear @georgetakei I don't understand how he has done his entire life avoiding being broke
Show threadLady Homealot 🖖will not complyMay 25
@epistomai IKR. Probably close to it with 6 corporate bankruptcies and why he never showed his financial records like other presidential candidates.
Show threadPaulMay 24
@georgetakei I take the point, but we're opening up a whole can of worms about labour and pay in the countries in which these devices are currently made. Arguably iPhones (and basically every other electronic device) *should* cost a lot more, wherever they are made, so the people making them are fairly renumerated. Although you could offset that by reducing executive pay, maybe.
Show threadJanuschka AbroadMay 24

@paulbottomley42 @georgetakei

and so they are replaced less frequently and get repaierd!!

Show threadAudrey WinterMay 24
@paulbottomley42 @georgetakei Thank you for saying it openly. A lot of people are forgetting that these beloved cheap products of theirs are exploiting and killing people in other countries.
Show threadPaulMay 25
@audreygwinter @georgetakei it's easy to forget the exploitation happening far away, out of our sight :(
Show threadGrovewestMay 24
@paulbottomley42 @georgetakei You can't have reciprocal trade with a multi-national without strong multi-national labor unions. That will never ever happen. The leaders and controlling interests of every country on earth will murder anyone who even tries.
Show threadPasswordsarehard4May 25
@paulbottomley42 @georgetakei the problem is if they were made here they would cost $10,000. Increasing the tariff so it costs $1,800 is still saving buyers $8,000. It’s a stupid business decision to build them here in every way.
Show threadJenkins. Tom Jenkins. 🤮🤢🤮May 24
@georgetakei no, he doesn’t. And he doesn’t care. As all monarchs do.
Show threadLillyLyle/Count MelancholiaMay 24
@georgetakei Can't imagine Steve Jobs would have gone along with all this nonsense the way Tim Cook is. Jobs had integrity.
Show threadRycochetMay 24
@georgetakei Give it 6 months and he will be proposing the asylum seekers he's rounded up and prison labour be used to assemble iPhones.
Show threadDianeMay 24

@georgetakei

Well there's one company that's tried for something much bulkier and much smaller batch than apple iphones.

Purism 5 $799
Purism 5 USA $1999

Show threadHelix May 24
@georgetakei
Trump is an equalist. He wants the consumer to see the real costs of an #iPhone. 🙃
Show threadAdeptVeritatisMay 24

@georgetakei

But wouldn't it be fabulous, if you have to pay the price, they are really worth?

Without the exploitation of other countries.

Show thread𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕜𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕝May 24
@georgetakei he doesn‘t need to.
he‘ll get them as a gift …
Show threadRigsbySivMay 24
@georgetakei Does he have ANY idea?
Show threadmossyruaMay 24

@georgetakei

Aging boomers eh?

Show threadFrank JMay 24
@georgetakei well also the fact the country he would tariffs on is the United States because tariffs can not be placed on corporations by matter of federal law and if that law changes then white people need to know the system of white supremacy they so closely hang on to will inevitably go after them as well
Show threadDunkle McPhee (Metalboy) ☠️May 24
@georgetakei No. He doesn’t understand now tariffs work. He doesn’t understand how to make deals. He’s just a racist piece of trash.
Show threadjmhtMay 24
@georgetakei So much for free enterprise, eh?
Show threadkryphosMay 24

@georgetakei maybe, but why should he care. He's the king. When the king says "the sky is green", everybody obeys. Not because they believe it, but because the king has said so.

Trump demands Tim Cook to bend the knee, kiss the ring and praise the king. Or else, he will trash Apple.

He might still trash Apple despite Cook eating crow. Just for the lulz. Trumps followers love him exactly for that.

Show threadPino CarafaMay 24
@georgetakei and Apple is already obscenely overpriced.
Show threadSir Politick Killjoy 🇵🇸 ☮️May 25

@rozeboosje @georgetakei

Exactly - an enormous markup on the cost of production. Apple also has a long track record of aggressive tax avoidance - owes the EU through Ireland $13bn.

Show threadPino CarafaMay 25
@linuxgnome @georgetakei Yeah, and not Ireland's finest hour when it fought tooth and nail on Apple's side. So afraid to lose Apple's business that it would rather forego a 13 billion tax windfall. Thankfully our government was forced to accept the extra spending power and guess what.... the Apple offices are still here in Dublin. Just like other Apple business will stay in China and India. They will just ride out these 4 years of insanity and hope for better times after Lord Dampnut.
Show threadFloreanaMay 24
@georgetakei
Fast way to get everyone off their phones?
Show threadSchroedingerMay 24

@georgetakei Does he care? I mean, obviously, it would destroy the business, but not this week, so it is fine. He will probably be dead before they are.

He wants to pretend to be the consumate businessman, but has has no idea how to run business. Obviously Apple will manufacture wherever it is financially appropriate to.

Trump has no concept of global business.

Show threadWilliam B PeckhamMay 24
@georgetakei I would never own one of those little fruit phones. I had to use one for about two years because it was mandated by an employer and I had the iPhone 4. One of the best music players I've ever owned, but it really sucked as a phone. The thing is, there are people that love and depend on and count on their little fruit phones. They already cost too much for half the population, and there is no reason they should have to pay two or three times more to get one, except Trump's ego. I will be happy to see the day when he can pack up his ego and put it into his shoreline property and sit back and wait for the water to rise and we won't have to read or hear his words ever again.
Show threadSuperDuckyMay 24
@georgetakei Yes for americans it will be expensive, but because the dollar looses value and for the rest of the world...it get cheaper? ;-)
Show threadMichael T OvertonMay 24
@georgetakei He has no idea or ideology about anything except enriching himself.
Show threadCasper 👻May 24
@georgetakei
Does he realize that  doesn’t build their phones?
Show threadSergeMay 24
@georgetakei No. He has the business sense of a potato.
Show threadMerry ChristmasMay 24

@georgetakei

Apple funding Trump I| believed, if they did then more fool them.

Show threadMax Lee ​May 24
@georgetakei
It would cost a much more real price without all the exploitation that way.
Show threadBarry May 24
@georgetakei First of all, it would take at least a couple years to build a factory that could handle production, but secondly, trump has already begun deporting anyone that would work there.
Show threadMichael VilainMay 24
@georgetakei Make them wherever and only sell them in Canada and Mexico but fully US compatible. People will make such places tourest destinations and secretly purchase them there.
Show threadF4GRX SébastienMay 24
@georgetakei as a bilionaire, he doesnt care.
Show threadMikeMay 24
@georgetakei He has no idea about anything.
Show threadOrdovicianMay 24

@georgetakei Yeah, there was that whole Foxconn thing too which entirely stunk of Trumpiness.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/foxconn-mostly-abandons-10-billion-wisconsin-project-touted-by-trump.html

Foxconn mostly abandons $10 billion Wisconsin project touted by Trump

CNBC
Show threadmanchickenMay 25
@georgetakei even if we manufactured them here we’d still need to import parts and materials.
Show threadderHinekMay 25
@georgetakei So he ist producing his merch completely in the US now, right?
Show threadIlkaMay 25
@georgetakei well, they can really "eat the tariffs". iphone production costs ~5.00USD - not only are the tariffs insignificant, they also have an incredibly unique sky rocketing profit margin.
They are one of the companies in the position to change the FOTUS course but they decide to duck and botch.
Show threadSh1gg1May 25
@georgetakei It’s absolutely ridiculous especially considering his shit (caps, etc) is MADE IN CHINA! 🙄🤡
Show threadCleanair AvatarMay 25
@georgetakei A communicator for the entire galaxy. At wholesale prices.
Show threadNoortje Van LeeuwenMay 25
@georgetakei he doesnt care...
Show threadTall SimonMay 25

@georgetakei No.

The answer to the cost may be in the Purism Liberty Phone. It is 100% made in the USA and starts at $1,999.

Now, if only we could trust the US more than we trust China.