Lauren Weinstein@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
"So ya' wanna sell your AI chips to the commies in China, huh? Looksee, that's OK by us, it's all about the green stuff, right? But uh, you're not gonna be selling anything unless we get our cut! If ya' don't wanna play ball that's your choice, but ya' know those are nice multi-billion dollar chip fabs you got there. So, we're going cut the Organization in for 15% of your sales to the commies. For now. Cause you know the big boss changes his mind a lot and is really bad at math, so next month it might be 1500%, ya' know!"
C.@cazabon@mindly.social
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
I couldn't believe when I first saw this reported - as you say, it makes no sense whatsoever. If the argument is security, then they're either okay to sell to China, or not okay, and that can't be changed by tithing.
And the news bits I saw about it just reported it matter-of-factly, like it was a normal or sane thing to do. Do your job, MSM!
But the part that puzzled me most is that it's a tithe to (presumably) the US government. I can't figure out why Trump would do this if he couldn't get the grift to go to himself personally, or at least his family. See also: cryptocurrency et al.