Mark L

Live for the times you wont remember with the friends you wont forget

[Mr. Keynes @TyKeynes]

Late stage capitalism:

A supermarket throws perfectly good food in the dumpster, pays its workers so little they can barely afford groceries, then asks customers to donate to the food bank at checkout.

And we're supposed to admire how fucking efficient this system is.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

U.S Minimum Wage in 2009: $7.25/hr
U.S minimum Wage in 2026: $7.25/hr

U.S. Billionaire Wealth in 2009: $1.27 trillion
U.S Billionaire Wealth in 2026: $9.15 trillion

Our job: Pass a billionaire wealth tax & raise the minimum wage to at least $20 an hour.

No more excuses.

[Mark L @Cubsfn8888]

@XMoney $5 isnt going to convince me to give you all my credentials, and access my bank. Give me $50k USD. Then maybe I will join your oppressive network of crappy tech. If you fall for this, I hope you enjoy your distopia. May it be everything you asked and nothing you expected.

[Azuren — NO DISC 💿 NO BUY @AzurenTheGamer]

Having second thoughts yet, @Sony?

#NoDiscNoBuy

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

Sony has suffered a massive data breach affecting around 2.58 million So-net and plala customers.

Sony Network Communications says hackers accessed its member database on October 19. Leaked information includes:

• Names
• User IDs
• Email addresses
• Other customer information
• 16 bank account records, including account numbers and bank names

The company says it has not found any leaked credit card numbers or expiration dates, and it does not store customers’ bank PINs.

Sony says the affected servers have been shut down and the unauthorized connections blocked, while internet services continue to operate.

[wantripman @wantripman]

@Pirat_Nation How many times does Sony get hacked in less than 12 months?

And they want to go full digital? They've exposed pur data to everyone and they never compensated us.

But when we tell them about our own interests, they punish up by locking us out.

They need to go out of business.

[Bad Leroy Brown @Levonaxper]

So Sony is now blocking all access to the PlayStation Store and to play your games (your rented games) unless you install the latest system update. They just keep giving people more reasons to jailbreak their consoles 😂
#NoDiscNoBuy

[Rino🚀 @RinoTheBouncer]

Every generation, they took away a privilege you had for free, and made you pay for it🚀

✅They took away backwards compatibility, and made you either repurchase games digitally, buy their remasters or through PlayStation Plus, even though it’s been proven recently that PS2 and soon PS3 games can run from disc on jailbroken PS5

✅They made you pay for PS+ to be able to play online and to seamlessly transfer saves, even though you could do that with USB before and you can play online for free on PC

✅They normalized games being $70 to justify their fishy hundreds of millions budgets and 7 years bloated development cycles for games that are graphics first; everything else later; even though many $50 games or even $70 with $60 to 100m budgets that were even higher in overall quality and shipped every other year from the likes of Capcom games and Clair Obscur

✅Now they’re trying to gaslight you that discs don’t sell, even though data PROVED them wrong

✅And they’re trying to gaslight you into thinking you don’t need to own your games, so you can stay at the mercy of their store policies and eventually be tied forever to their subscription services

Just because a company makes a “statement” doesn’t mean it’s true.

They CAN lie. They DO lie. For their own benefits, as that’s the only thing that matters to them, while you don’t.

So speak out! Vote with your voice/wallet

NO DISC 💿 NO BUY

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

A gallon of diesel and a pound of beef are both now more than the federal minimum wage. But at least we’re getting a billion-dollar ballroom, right?

[Elizabeth Warren @ewarren]

A teacher earning $60,000 pays Social Security taxes on every dollar she earns.

A worker earning $184,500 does too.

But someone earning $10 million pays tax on just the first $184,500.

That doesn’t make sense. We can protect Social Security if everyone paid their fair share.

[Def Noodles @defnoodlesreal]

HUGE Israeli flag and not one American flag in the office of a US Senator.

Our government is occupied, and they’re not even hiding it anymore.

[Jamison Daniel @AntiquarianMuse]

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Fool me 4 times…. I’m an idiot.

[Mark L @Cubsfn8888]

Make this make sense. Because it's raining, amd someone else has to work today, means I dont get to sleep in on my day off, and they do. Brilliant.

[Mark L @Cubsfn8888]

Don't let females control your life. You will do things all day that make zero sense.

[Tech Ultimatum @TechieUltimatum]

A gamer finally turned on his PS3 after years to replay Metal Gear Solid 4 - only to discover that Sony had deleted his PlayStation account after 36 months of inactivity, leaving him unable to access his digital game library. 💀🎮

This is exactly why digital “ownership” is becoming a serious concern. If your games are tied to a revocable license rather than permanent ownership, what happens when your account is deleted?

Sony has previously argued in court that digital purchases are licenses, while legal challenges are now emerging around digital licensing, physical games and what consumers actually own.

With Sony reportedly moving toward a more disc-free future by 2028, these concerns are only getting bigger.

If you already support #PSBlackout, keep pushing. And if you haven’t joined, now may be the time.

You shouldn’t lose access to games you paid for simply because you stopped logging in. Physical media suddenly looks a lot more valuable. 👀

#NoDiscNoBuy #PhysicalGamesMatter #OwnershipOverLicense

[Uzi @UziCryptoo]

Amazon: “We made $470B but spent $469.9B so we only owe taxes on $100M”

IRS: “Perfectly legal.”

You: “I made $61,000 and spent $59,200 keeping my kid alive and my lights on.”

IRS: “That’s not a business expense.”

You: “Rent isn’t a business expense?”

IRS: “Correct.”

You: “Insulin isn’t a business expense?”

IRS: “Correct.”

You: “Then what am I running here?”

IRS: “A household. File by May 15.”

You: “Amazon runs a household too. It’s called ‘reinvesting in the business.’”

IRS: “…”

You: “So if I call my rent ‘reinvesting in my ability to show up to work,’ we’re good?”

IRS: “No.”

You: “Why not?”

IRS: “Because you’re not a corporation.”

You: “Right. I’m just the guy the corporation depends on to survive on less than it spent on legal fees to pay less taxes.”

IRS: “File by May 15.”

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

The Trump White House has put into place a series of mechanisms to fix or invalidate the midterm elections. Congress will not save us. The courts will not save us. Our only hope — should the election be rigged or stolen — is nationwide strikes. Our only hope is to cripple the machinery of commerce and government, although this militancy will be met with savage state repression.

Otherwise, we are doomed. There will be no exit.

If the measures advocated by the Trump administration are implemented, emergency powers will be invoked to assert unprecedented federal control over voting. Federal agents will seize election materials. They have already seized ballots from previous elections.

The U.S. Postal Service will only send ballots to those included on federally approved eligibility lists drawn from state voter rolls. These rolls, subject to citizenship checks, will deny election-mail services entirely in states that refuse the administration’s demands for voter data.

Federal troops and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — with $113.5 billion in additional funding allocated by Congress through September 2029 — will be deployed to or near polling stations which have a traditional Democratic Party majority. Those branded as “anti-capitalist” and “anti-Christian” or charged with belonging to antifa will be intimidated or blocked from voting.

Trump told The New York Times in January he regretted not directing the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. Trump not only wants to abolish mail-in ballots – Democrats vote by mail in higher numbers than Republicans – but voting machines and tabulators which allow election boards to post results on election night.

Trump and his supporters in Silicon Valley are acutely aware that the level of their corruption and disdain for democracy — unlike anything seen in U.S. history — makes them vulnerable if they lose power. They have no intention of allowing this to happen no matter how egregious the constitutional violations. They seek to extinguish the last vestiges of democracy. They believe, as PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel wrote in 2009, that “freedom and democracy” are not “compatible.”

Theil is sweeping up all our information gleaned from government tax, medical and law enforcement records. This information is being delivered to databases that can be exploited for state control and profit. Thiel and his coterie of technocratic billionaires are implementing the agenda he envisioned 16 years ago: to make technology an “alternative to politics.”

Read my full column, "The Next Election May be Our Last", at Substack — link below.

[Mark L @Cubsfn8888]

Tyson has a net profit this year alone of approximately 527 million dollars. New contract talks stalled over summer. This is not about beef prices, its about corporate greed and not wanting to pay living wages with benefits, shutting down instead. https://t.co/Q7d8I5kd3H

[Bad Leroy Brown @Levonaxper]

It’s been almost a month since Sony officially announced that it would stop producing physical discs in several markets.

Most people only look at short-term success. I’ve seen this pattern before.

When I said Game Pass wasn’t a sustainable longterm strategy, people laughed because all they saw was “$10 a month for hundreds of games.” When I argued that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision would create more lonrterm problems than benefits, I was told I had no idea what I was talking about. Not long after Microsoft laid off more than 10,000 employees.

Yeah PlayStation will most likely have a record breaking year thanks to GTA VI. But that’s not the point. The real question is whether Sonys current strategy is built for the next decade or just the next financial report.

A huge portion of PlayStation’s revenue comes from players who mainly play Call of Duty, EA Sports FC, NBA 2K, GTA or Fortnite. These players are overwhelmingly digital and often stick to the same few games for years. They’re not necessarily loyal to PlayStation they’re loyal to the games they play. If another platform offers a better deal or a better ecosystem, many of them will switch without much hesitation.

The people who truly built the PlayStation brand are the hardcore fans: the collectors, enthusiasts, and long-time supporters. Ironically they’re also the group Sony seems most willing to alienate. Many of them already own multiple platforms, making it easier than ever to stop buying PlayStation hardware and software altogether.

A company can ignore its core audience for a while, but not forever. The consequences won’t appear overnight. They’ll accumulate slowly, year after year, until one day everyone wonders what went wrong. We’ve already seen PlayStation learn this lesson once during the PS3 era.

Success can create confidence. But when confidence turns into arrogance, history has a habit of repeating itself.

#PSBlackout #NoDiscNoBuy