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cohostunionnews
@cohostunionnews

Released this morning by the union:

WASHINGTON, DC – Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Mary Kay Henry released the following statement today:

“SEIU’s almost two million members believe that wherever violence, fear and hatred thrive, working people cannot. We condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and hate in all its forms around the world. Our union includes many members and their families—Palestinian and Israeli, Jewish, Muslim and Christian—who have been impacted by the recent violence. As a union family strongly committed to justice and democracy, we believe all people across the globe deserve to live safely and free of fear, with dignity and respect for their human rights, as well as access to food, water, shelter, medicine and other necessities. SEIU members understand that working people often feel the impact of war most deeply and bear the brunt of its terrible consequences.

We condemn the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7th, which included the killing of over 1,200 Israelis and others, unconscionable acts of sexual violence, the abduction of over 200 hostages, and other atrocities.

We also condemn the widespread attacks on innocent civilians, including the bombardment of neighborhoods, healthcare facilities, and refugee camps, by the Israeli military. Months of assaults on Gaza have killed over 20,000 Palestinians, and led to the displacement of more than 85% of the Gazan population. Palestinians face an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis, threatened by starvation and disease as well as by violence, and desperately need aid.

We call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving food, water, medicine and other resources to the people of Gaza.

Our call for a ceasefire is a call for peace, rooted in the pain that SEIU members are feeling, from the Jewish member concerned for her son’s safety in Tel Aviv, to the Muslim member who immigrated to this country from the Middle East to escape war and violence, to the hundreds of thousands of SEIU healthcare workers who see themselves in the healthcare workers in Gaza who have been killed trying to save lives.

We call on elected leaders to come together to bring an end to the violence and demand a peaceful resolution that ensures both lasting security for the Israeli people and a sustained end to decades of occupation, blockades and lack of freedom endured by the Palestinian people. This war must end, as it is expanding into a regional conflict. It is time for long-term solutions that will bring safety, peace, democracy, and justice to all in the region.”



Sheri
@Sheri

i'm sure some of you heard about sweet little business baby Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus, dancing on the grave of Waypoint on bluesky alternative Twitter

Palmer Luckey Tweet reading: "VICE is shutting down games media division, Waypoint, and laying off the entire staff. I wish I could be magnanimous, but no, good riddance. Those assholes spread nasty lies about me for years in official and non-official capacities. "Fuck Capitalism and Go Home" has been their podcast signoff for years now, guess they finally got what they wanted. I am sure most of them will find a home at one of the many outlets from the 0% Interest days that doesn't care about ethical journalism practices or making money, but sometimes you have to appreciate the little wins."

i assumed he was just mad because they accurately reported the things he said and did, but against my better judgment, i wrote up a response. cuz i don't think enough people know this about Pluckeyboy:

My quote tweet, reading: "if you don't want honest criticism then fine we'll just do it directly: go fuck yourself! though with all the donations you give to the republican party from john carmack's fat stack i'm sure you can work something out with one of them, pluckey"

"Creator" of Oculus VR Palmer Luckey still donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to republican candidates in the united states, including Ron Desantis, Ted Cruz, and, uh, Doctor Oz, apparently

Records of political donations from Palmer Luckey, linked above in more detail.

obviously, there isn't anything by default illegal about donating to candidates who threaten college campuses to turn over teenagers with suspected gender dysphoria, weird man-children who are too angry screaming about wokeness to remember what grocery store they're in, and Ted Cruz

but hey, ANDURIL industries, eh? that's right he started another company after he sold oculus to facebook at some point, didn't he? i wonder what they're up to-

Anduril "mission statement" landing page. It reads: "Transforming US & allied military capabilities with advanced technology."

ANDURIL is a private for-profit defense company that makes war machines and virtual reality simulators for said war machines, founded by Palmer Luckey among other war profiteers. although, luckey would take issue with me calling this war profiteering according to an article he wrote for maritime-executive earlier this month

Quote from the Maritime Executive article written by Luckey, reading: This dangerous world is why Anduril exists: because the West must have critical tools to preserve our way of life, uphold the values of free and fair societies and deter powerful adversaries from dominating weaker nations. You can’t credibly deter war without superior technology. If the Ukrainians had an arsenal of technologically sophisticated weaponry from the start, if they were a prickly porcupine that nobody wanted to cross, then this conflict likely never would have started."

Palmer "If I was in Ukraine I woulda handled it" Luckey

incidentally, since then he stepped up to the plate and send autonomous drones to bomb people, but it's okay, since, according to Palmin' Luck...

More words written by Luckey in Australian Defence, reading: "The 600M’s modular nosecone can carry a variety of payloads including ISR and signals intelligence sensors, radio frequency decoys, communication relays and electronic warfare assets, and now can also be configured as a kamikaze loitering munition to attack high-value targets with a 3kg warhead. 'Now they have warheads and they’ve been equipped with autonomy – previously a guy would steer it around using a remote control and a screen but we’ve made it where one person can manage one or two dozen of the drones on his own,' Luckey explained."

oh cool, one person now has the power to bomb people using up to twenty four autonomous drones! specifically, these ones:

ALTIUS 600 info sheet. Linked above.

i've told you before why we shouldn't be trusting so-called "AI" with basic research tasks, let alone bombing populations, but clearly i'm just not as smart as The Incredible Mr. Luckey, am i?

how did he build up net worth so high, anyways? i mean, there was the $2,437,439 he made on kickstarter for the early version of the rift, but that's all well and good, investors paying for a product, right? before the $2 bill sale to facebook, where did the money to grow his empire of nightmares come from?

Pic and caption pulled from Computer Gaming World, July 1994. John Carmack stands in front of one of his two Ferraris. The caption reads: "TESTOTEROSSA - 'My mom stopped hassling me to get a real job when I bought my first car,' Carmack says. His other car is a Testarossa, too."

JOHN CARMACK??

as in, doom, quake, commander fucking keen? damn, what a pull. good thing they bumped into one another, then. oculus already had a couple financers, but carmack brought along legitimacy. and, more money

john's since resigned from meta by the way, which i can't blame him for- though i will dunk on him for going all in on AGI in 2023 lmao

this aint a post about libertarian judo practitioner john carmack, though, it's about Wonderboy Luckey

on that note- there's nowhere else to include this here, but while researching i really enjoyed seeing a post on the ycombinator forums, which they apparently HAVE??, with one guy defending Luckey to absolutely nobody:

Post on the ycombinator page reading: "How Fake News Happens: The Reporting of Palmer Luckey and Nimble America, 2017." He replies to himself twice with further links.

what did Luckey do that this Brave Poster is talking about here? i actually hadn't heard about this- thankfully, Palmer was happy to reply to my Tweet and fill me in:

Another Palmer Luckey tweet, reading: "This is, at least, criticism based on something that actually happened.  That is totally reasonable. Claiming that I paid people to attack Clinton supporters online or create racist and anti-semitic memes, on the hand, is bad because it never happened. The lying is the problem."

buddy, if you're so mad about this: you should probably be talking to all the different papers who continue to report that you were making pro-trump memes using the pseudoname 'nimblerichman' on reddit

why are you taking this to the quote retweets? wait- big War Crimes fan 'nailer' on ycombinator linked a tweet explaining:

Yet another Palmer Luckey Tweet, reading: "Defamation laws in the United States are very limited when it comes to public figures, which is a good thing on the balance.  It isn't illegal to make false claims about public figures.  This is also why you can't get in trouble for falsely claiming I make child-killing drones."

oh, i "can't get in trouble" for it, can i? alright then:

Palmer Luckey makes child-killing drones. see you round, warmonger 💋