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Dave Johnson
Dave Johnson
@dcjohnson.bsky.social
Former US living in the UK. Retired Sr Fellow, Campaign for America's Future. Silicon Valley: Atari, Imagic, Working Software, Be, and various executive positions. seeingtheforest.substack.com seeingtheforest.com
5.5K followers4.1K following8.2K posts
Dave Johnson reposted
AI is entirely stolen from the public, to sell back to the public.
you can't be serious. This reads Meta/Facebook/Insta is looking to grant itself the rights to scrape websites across the open web - and train Meta's AI - if a company after Oct 30, 2026 uses Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or other Meta services. So every biz. Read that again. Outrageous. 1/5
Dave Johnson reposted
Another story impossible to imagine in any other administration: the president's son goes hunting with a Russian criminal who is part of Putin's security entourage
The remote rendezvous in August highlights the remarkable relationship between a son of the US president and a businessman with ties to the Kremlin. ft.trib.al/9g7wnme
AIs can be very useful and they're getting better. But almost everything an AI tells and shows you was stolen. From artists, writers, musicians, historians, scientists ... from the public. Stolen from US! They stole from the public and are selling it. bsky.app/profile/dcjo...
AI could be a great thing for humanity, but only if humanity can find a way to take governments back into public control! Even moreso than the internet, AI was developed thanks to public investment. Government-funded education, science, research, infrastructure, tax breaks, you name it! /1
But if you tax them they'll leave!
CEO of scandal-ridden Deloitte gets 45% pay rise to £7.1m, 1,360 jobs cut. CEO pay = 93 times median employee pay. Firm doesn't pay employer NIC on profits shared by partners, worth £150,000 for £1m profit shared. £899m shared. 108 govt contracts in 2026, worth £650m. Friends in high places.
Dave Johnson reposted
FOX News attempts to convince its viewers Democratic Socialism is bad www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform...
Trump, Hegseth & Republicans tried to hide how bad it was. Get the word out before the election. meidasnews.com/news/so-much...
Dave Johnson reposted
House Judiciary Democrats have just released a 50-page report that pulls together years of assault allegations against Trump and his reported connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The report calls for a special counsel to investigate Trump's ties to Epstein.
Dave Johnson reposted
The new HJC Report on Epstein describes the uncertainties around Paolo Zampoli's role in introducing Melania to Trump. democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
Replying to @owillis.bsky.social
i got into this whole industry thinking (wrongly) that the mainstream press just had to systematically be corrected and nudged in the right direction after decades of right-wing bullying. no. the right has a noise machine. the way to combat that noise machine is to out-shout it. period.
Dave Johnson reposted
hm. lula succeeded by out-shouting the right and not begging for the press to do the lift for him and his supporters? wow, wonder who has been saying something like that in america for almost 20 years?
And credit to him, it worked. A sort of digital levee en masse, literally raising an army to counteract the forces that artificially amplify far-right messaging. He did that through organizing and messaging, both on the streets and online, that was so relentless that he put himself in the hospital.
Dave Johnson reposted
Replying to @brunodias.dev
What's striking to me are the rules of engagement and the methodology of action here, which more or less is predicated on burying liberal delusions about "debate" or the "marketplace of ideas". The rules were ultimately very simple: amplify your own message and suppress your opponent's.
"An army to counteract the forces that artificially amplify far-right messaging, both on the streets and online."
And credit to him, it worked. A sort of digital levee en masse, literally raising an army to counteract the forces that artificially amplify far-right messaging. He did that through organizing and messaging, both on the streets and online, that was so relentless that he put himself in the hospital.
Dave Johnson reposted
Replying to @brunodias.dev
I don't know that there is a template or a "secret sauce" or a clear-cut lesson to take from this. But if there is one it's the idea of treating social media as the hostile territory that it is, of actually acting like you are a participant in propaganda warfare and not like a consumer.
Dave Johnson reposted
Replying to @brunodias.dev
The mobilization itself was already not something I ever expected to see, but to actually win? Hell, to double the winning margin from the 2022 runoff? Genuinely surreal. Maybe child raping billionaires *don't* have to run the world with a shit-eating grin. Maybe that can stop.
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
What is stunning about this piece is that that none of the pollsters and pundits offered even a caveat about election suppression and the possibility of Trump going all out to steal the election Is a Blue Wave Coming? 6 Pollsters and Pundits Offer Their Best Guesses. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
I'm letting ChatGPT speak for itself here. It said “A product like this should not have been released without much clearer safeguards and warnings about its reliability.” seeingtheforest.substack.com/p/chapgpt-6-...
Dave Johnson reposted
Trump's not special. This is standard Republican campaigning. Reagan talked about "welfare Cadillacs". Nixon had the whole "Southern Strategy." Bush 1 had Willie Horton. His son won the primaries spreading rumors that McCain had an illegitimate black child.
Trump: "Somalia -- 98% of the people here now from Somalia don't work. They don't have to work because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes Benz. Low IQ and they live better than you do."
Dave Johnson reposted
The UK government spends up to £39 billion each year supplementing people who work for low pay. This is a subsidy to companies that refuse to pay people enough.
UK: Audit companies with over £100 million in sales looking for employees receiving public assistance. Add up the cost and send the bill to the company. The company can choose to pay either the employees or the govt. Govt can stop subsidising the companies that pay too little.
Dave Johnson reposted
Imagine the reaction if brown-skinned people did this, instead of fossil-fuel companies! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
If they do this, same old story of capitalism. Sacrifice everyone's future for the short-term benefit of a few. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Dave Johnson reposted
In 2012 Republicans blocked cybersecurity rules. This is a very good time not to forget this. Protecting cyber infrastructure costs companies MONEY. So they didn't. Instead they paid Republicans to block regulations & legislation that would have protected the public. Explanation in reply.
I'm so old... www.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/u...
Dave Johnson reposted
Dave Johnson reposted
Understanding Trump voters - A LOT of Americans believe that "Foreign Aid" is a huge part of the US budget. 35% believe it is at least 20% - as much as Social Security. 8% believe it is half of all govt spending. igc.fsu.edu/sites/defaul...
Dave Johnson reposted
NEW: Trump is a Russian asset. And the UK government is finally waking from its decade-long slumber Read this. And order a wind-up radio. broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-dark-t...