Yes, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly clear that even in the EU, billionaires and their companies are above the law. The legal situation should be clear here and there should be consequences - but there apparently aren’t any.

Unfortunately, this applies not only to Twitter, but to most US tech giants in particular, to meta, for example. I have already stopped counting the massive violations of the GDPR that meta and others are constantly committing, because nothing happens anyway. If anything, the fines are so low that violating the law brings these companies far more revenue than it costs them.

So unfortunately, the same major issue that brought the US to the brink of a straight up dictatorship also applies in Europe: even the most blatant violations of the law have no serious consequences for the richest of the rich – and that is why billionaires are becoming more and more powerful.

The situation may be better in the EU for now than in the US, whose legal system obviously no longer even maintains the appearance of fairness, but even in the EU, the enforcement of the law is miles away from anything that could even remotely be called justice.

The reason seems to me to be the same as in the US: concentration of power in a tiny billionaire class that asserts its influence through corruption.

I think that if things continue like this, and I see no indicators that they will not, it will not be long before even the appearance of justice is abandoned in the EU as well.

Edit: Here is an example of how this is possible - it’s just plain old corruption, but in the highest ranks of our institutions: From Meta to the EU Parliament: Former chief lobbyist negotiates data protection (German article)

Aura Salla was Meta’s chief lobbyist in Brussels for many years. Her task: to convince politicians to weaken EU digital rules such as data protection in order to generate even higher profits with Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.

I vote and regularly attend protests, but lately I’ve also been pointing out to people on social media that whataboutism is not very effective.

Please explain it to me. And by that I don’t mean a general explanation of how journalism works, because I probably know a whole lot more about that than you do, but an explanation of why you believe that the US, together with Israel, should not be held responsible for the murder of innocent children. And then I would also like to know what your motivation is for defending the current US regime, because I don’t understand it.

Yes, I’m simplistic when it comes to this: I wouldn’t accept being ruled by organized crime that covers up its heinous crimes by starting a war. But hey, it’s nice that you know the names of two renowned psychologists.

I have given up hope that the US population can be counted on. They have allowed too many atrocities to happen, and it is equally obvious that they will not even act for their own sake.

I simply do not accept arguments such as “there is no evidence,” because only the worst can be expected from the US - the evidence is the president who leads the US.

Looking at the comments here, even here in the Fediverse, it’s quite easy to understand how the US regime is possible despite its completely obvious depravity.

I didn’t want to start a discussion about the pros and cons of megathreads, I just wanted to ask whether this is common practice in the Fediverse. That doesn’t seem to be the case - and for good reason, given the decentralized nature of the network. For the sake of simplicity, it would be welcome for some topics, but I’m sure we’ll manage just fine without it.

I’m on Piefed(.social). However, the discussion is still mainly taking place on Lemmy. If there is such a megathread on the war in Iran on .world, for example, I can’t find it.

Thank you very much for the explanation :)

Can someone explain this to me? I’m out of the loop when it comes to mainstream social media, and I suspect that’s what this is about…

Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll definitely take a look at that. It’s remarkable how the US has managed to maintain an image of “freedom” for years, even though it uses autocratic surveillance methods not only only on any other country but on its own citizens - and also for years and years. You almost have to be grateful to Trump for revealing all this in such an incredibly stupid way, just to enrich himself.

In 2020, the European Court of Justice declared the Privacy Shield agreement, an agreement on data exchange with the US, incompatible with European law and thus effectively terminated it, not because of the activities of any corporations, but because data stored on US servers is not sufficiently protected from access by the US government (Schrems II ruling). The reason for this is the absurd legislation in the US, such as the Patriot Act, which, although it has been weakened, still allows the state to force any company or private individual to hand over all data processed on servers physically located on US soil, even without any suspicion or a court order.

As a result, all US companies doing business in the EU were forced to operate servers on European soil in order to continue their activities legally. European companies that used US providers that did not comply had to switch to providers that do not operate servers in the US.

Unfortunately, it took only 21 months for US lobbying to undermine the European Court of Justice’s decision: in 2022, a follow-up agreement was adopted, the “EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework,” which is no different from its predecessor at all. The legal situation remains the same in the US, and once again there is no protection of data from the US government.

In short, anyone who uses services that are processed on US servers is not protected from arbitrary access by the US - and this also applies to EU citizens.

I don’t feel sorry for anyone sitting there.

The US regime has already committed so many serious crimes by now that I would be surprised if it did not try to establish a dictatorship. If it did not do so, all members of the government would risk prosecution as soon as they were voted out of office, even in a legal system as corrupt as that of the US.

I think it’s fair to say that pretty much all the dystopian visions of the future from literature and films have now become reality. Brave new world…

Yes, that is certainly a motive for many of these monsters. However, the effect on the “lower ranks” or even pf all those caught in the act remains the same: because they commit a crime, and a most repulsive one at that, they are vulnerable to blackmail and manipulation if there is proof (pictures, videos,witness statements).

So the motive hardly plays a role as long as it is treated as a “proof of trust” that every co-conspirator must provide as a “ticket to join the club” of these degenerate criminals.

As I said, this is a classic strategy of organized crime. And since the current US system is essentially organized crime, just on a unprecedented level, I don’t see why the same methods shouldn’t be used here.

For the US, the fact that the president’s father had proven ties to the mob and that the president’s mentor, Roy Cohn, was the go-to lawyer for various underworld figures in the 1970s and 1980s only makes this more likely.

I suspect that child abuse in these circles is something like murder or other serious crimes for less influential forms of organized crime like the classical mob (Cosa Nostra and so on): these heinous crimes serve as proof of loyalty and at the same time as a bargaining chip that the mob boss can use against his “soldiers.” That would explain why there are disproportionately more pedophiles in the GOP, for example. That may not be the only reason, but pedophilia is clearly the common denominator among those who support the authoritarian-fascist regime in the US.

In any case, Epstein was also obviously used by Mossad to collect blackmail material against influential people.

It seems to me, especially given the proximity of the US regime to the equally fascist Israel, that this is a fundamental strategy to prevent co-conspirators from going public with their knowledge.

Regardless of their nationality, billionaires largely pursue the same interests in order to strengthen their position of power in the political system in which they are most involved.

This is, of course, a conspiracy theory, but the Epstein files, for example, certainly suggest this - as does the fact that billionaires’ companies are all multinational and that it is almost impossible to trace where the incredible amounts of capital in the international economic system actually come from (such as the massive concentrations of capital managed by asset managers like Black Rock).

In short: I suspect that the biggest problem facing people worldwide lies in the power of the respective so-called elites, and I think that they coordinate among themselves in order to remain in power or to expand it further.

This is how I explain the resurgence of Nazi ideology, which is actively promoted by billionaires in very different countries.

Has the Dow fallen enough now for the DOJ to start prosecuting pedophiles?

/s, but in itself almost not, because Bondi apparently was serious about her absurd statement in front of the the House Judiciary Committee.

The Drifters (“Under the Boardwalk,” “Save the Last Dance for Me,” “This Magic Moment”) have been more of a product than a band since the mid-1950s, when manager George Treadwell bought the name. Since then, there have been several incarnations of the Drifters with different lineups, and at times, different lineups have toured under the name at the same time.

The Drifters had three “golden” periods: the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s (after the Atlantic label period).

The lineup included more than 60 musicians in total. Nevertheless, the band is in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - with different lineups:

The first lineup (founded by Clyde McPhatter) and the second lineup (with Ben E. King) were inducted separately into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame - once as “The Drifters” and once as “Ben E. King and the Drifters.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee package includes members from several incarnations: four from the first lineup (Clyde McPhatter, Bill Pinkney, Gerhart Thrasher, Johnny Moore), two from the second (Ben E. King, Charlie Thomas), and one from the post-Atlantic phase (Rudy Lewis).