Who Really Drives Profits

United Auto Workers Strike Begins

As of today, the United Auto Workers in America are striking against the "big 3" automakers in the country: Ford, GM and Stellantis (Jeep/Chrysler)

Quoting the announcement posted on the UAW website:

This fight is our generation’s defining moment. Not just at the Big Three, but across the entire working class.

Be cautious: many corporate media outlets will be pushing the classic owning-class-centric narrative of "the striking workers are causing economic turmoil which will hurt innocent people." This is tricky rhetoric to shift the blame to the workers, who are asking for a fair cut of profits to be able to afford rent and groceries, rather than the executives, who have seen gargantuan pay raises while hoarding record profits and using them for stock buybacks instead of any real re-investment in the lives of the people who make their company work in the first place.

Solidarity. Always.

A Sever Lack of Unity

The shitstorm around popular game engine Unity has continued over the past few days, possibly even worsening. Yesterday, Unity chose to close their SF and Austin offices due to "credible death threats" they received. (Capital-G Gamers and making death threats at the drop of a hat go hand in hand)

As a super quick reminder: Unity is a popular game engine, and recently announced a new pricing structure so ridiculous that the entire gaming industry has been clapping back at them. I talked about it in the previous issue of Stuff Keeps Happening.

However, Unity is not really getting sympathy from me here, aside from saying "don't send death threats to random employees of a company because they almost certainly are not the one to blame." Unity put out a few "clarifications" which really did nothing to fix the situation, and in some cases, worsened it.

This who debacle shows how dangerous it can be to buy in to software such as Unity, where all it takes is a change of leadership to upend everyone's ongoing projects. It takes years to produce full games. People began working on projects years ago, only to learn that the very foundation of their game is now pulling this bullshit on them. Some developers have even said they'd abandon Unity regardless of being multiple years into development.

Also, we've learned that Unity executives sold stock in the company right before the DEEPLY unpopular announcement dropped. So uh. Jail, please.

It's Probably Not Aliens, But It's Probably Aliens Somewhere

I haven't talked much about some of the alien-related news that's been going around these past few months. I stayed mostly quiet on the US UAP hearings and whatnot, and have yet to really talk about the "alien bodies" shown in Mexico recently.

The "alien bodies" in Mexico have already been disproven, as the bodies appear to be an elaborate hoax, with the presenter being a dude who has made a name for himself in the past for making huge claims that turn out to be nothing.

However, NASA recently also put out a report on some investigations into UAPs (UFOs) and what they believe some of the most famous UAP sightings could be. Spoiler: mostly its boring. The majority of the UAPs were misinterpreted aircraft, incorrectly measured speeds, or otherwise mundane. However! Some of them remain a mystery, which mostly just means "we don't have enough information to say conclusively what this is, but we also don't have a reason to say it's aliens."

However however however, they specifically left that door open. NASA is basically saying, "look, y'all, these are probably not aliens, but that doesn't mean we're saying aliens aren't a thing. Please allocate more resources to this project so we can like, actually find some aliens"

So the hope is still alive, dear reader. One day, you may still find yourself clapping alien cheeks.

Bill Maher Sucks Too (But We Knew That Already)

Joining the scab Drew Barrymore is now-scab Bill Maher, who will be taking his show back on air despite union leaders from the writers strike expressing "disappointment" with his decision.

Maher—whose whole vibe I truly just don't understand the appeal of—is already well understood to be a jagweed. But now he's bringing his show "Real Time with Bill Maher" back to HBO, solidifying himself as a scab, and thus, a piece of shit.

Like Barrymore, Maher claims this is totally chill and okay because he won't do a monologue or whatever. "Trust me guys, it's cool that I'm doing this don't think too much about it."

On This day…

On this day in 1916, tanks were deployed in battle for the first time in history at the Battle of Somme in the first World War.

I should note that it was the first use of tanks, not the best use of tanks. They were still pretty new at the time and didn't quite operate as well as they probably were hoping they would.

Here's the Weather

More Stuff

• The author of the Fables comic books has put his work into the public domain in response to some legal bullshit that DC comics are trying to pull
• Hunter Biden has been formally indicted with three charges, including charges for lying about drug use when purchasing a firearm
• This one just says "dude had 20 rattlesnakes in his garage" so, idk if that is news, but like damn son
• Elon Musk has finally budged and acknowledged the legal claims from thousands of ex-Twitter employees he fired and promised severance to but never actually paid out. His lawyers will meet with lawyers representing the former employees.
• Mitt Romney will not be seeking re-election
• A gay couple in Kentucky who were famously refused a marriage license from a piece of shit clerk have been awarded $100,000 in damages from a court. Unfortunately another couple who were also refused a license were not awarded damages.
• MGM and other Vegas resorts have been brought to their knees at the hands of hackers who used basic social engineering to take down large swaths of internal systems
• TikTok is leaning in to people using their search to ask questions and are starting to include Wikipedia results in searches