back to article In farewell speech, Biden rails against the tech industrial complex, disinfo dismantling democracy

US President Joe Biden gave his final address to the nation on Wednesday, and said America was visibly sliding into an oligopoly aided by a flood of online disinformation. In a farewell bid, he cited President Dwight Eisenhower's famous 1961 speech warning of the "military industrial complex," and said today we face an "tech …

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  1. abend0c4 Silver badge

    They didn't punish the wealthy.

    Not a mistake we'd make now, right?

    1. Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck

      Re: They didn't punish the wealthy.

      No mention of the military industrial complex that hoovers trillions from the national budget, though... gotta keep those pork barrels going to pay for the donations we received!

      1. JoeCool Silver badge

        Re: They didn't punish the wealthy.

        Please groo, don't embarass the canadians Read as far as the second sentence before speaking

    2. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: They didn't punish the wealthy.

      The definition gets moved about to fit the narrative. Somebody (not in government) making $250,000 a year in Silicon Valley is at the point where they can move out of their van and into a 4th floor flat (without parking for their van).

  2. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

    I'm surprised he mentioned Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex, considering the fact that he, as well as all other presidents (and congress) have been ignoring that same warning all along.

    1. veti Silver badge

      "Ignoring" is a bit unfair. Say rather that none of them have figured out what to do about it. Which you could also say of Eisenhower, he didn't have the answer either.

      1. DrkShadow

        This is the Commander in Chief. The military is literally theirs to control.

        Disband units. Limit their budget. Cancel development projects. The options are endless. The fallout is minimal, when the public doesn't even know what secrets are being pruned. Keep budgets the *same* rather than ever-expanding, and you'll *still* achieve reduction - expenses will lessen in value with inflation.

        1. scrubber

          Worked it well for Kennedy

          I don't think you understand the hierarchy of power.

        2. MachDiamond Silver badge

          "Disband units. Limit their budget. Cancel development projects. The options are endless."

          Yes, but it's like being "the man of the house" when the Mrs. controls the purse strings. You "could" do a lot of things, but funding them is another kettle of sturgeon. The agency funding these projects, Congress, have a vested interest in those projects being funded through kickbacks, campaign support and jobs when they fail to achieve another term. A quiet word will be had with the Commander in Chief that to have any further ideas of theirs move forward, they will need to reconsider those changes.

      2. Yankee Doodle Doofus Bronze badge

        < "...none of them have figured out what to do about it."

        Gee, I don't know, maybe start by ending this crap:

        https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/defense-sector-spent-101-million-lobbying-during-first-three-quarters-of-2022/

        https://www.opensecrets.org/industries//summary?cycle=2022&ind=D

  3. 45RPM Silver badge

    After all the bitching that the alt right has done against some weird cabal of George Soros, the illuminati and a fictional global elite supposedly controlling the world, a conspiracy that seems to have hooked the hard of thinking and lead to Brexit and Trumpism, it does seem fairly ironic that that’s pretty much exactly what has been built.

    So if you voted for it, I hope you’re happy. If you didn’t vote for it, my condolences. Either way, if you aren’t ultra rich then you’re fucked. Mind you, the way things are going, if you are ultra rich then you’re fucked too. It just might take you a little longer to realise it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It certainly doesn't help that Sleepy Joe gave George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom and that many dems have posted pictures of themselves with either George or his son.

      At least Elon has not actively crashed an economy... so far.

      1. LBJsPNS Bronze badge

        Are you really implying Biden crasned the economy? Really?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          No, George Soros, and he did in a way that makes Liz Truss look truly amateurish.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wednesday

          He made about $1bn, crashed the UK out of the ERM and spiked interest rates.

          So far Elon has just been shitposting about stonks and memecoins.

          1. 45RPM Silver badge

            Yes. I know about Black Wednesday. I used to work at a stock broker a long time ago. I also know that Black Wednesday wasn’t caused by Soros - he was merely a figurehead for the woes.

            Poor fiscal policy by a right wing Tory government, trying to recover the country from a recession (the inevitable crash following the sugar high UK economic boom of the 1980s caused by selling off national assets) by unilaterally aligning with the ERM (and, by extension, the DM - not in itself a bad idea necessarily, but one which needs to be done in close collaboration with and consultation with European partners to get the best rate) managed to get itself pegged at a bad rate. The chum bucket was then well and truly in the water. As the situation worsened, and interest rates rose, the speculators pounced. What else would you expect them to do?

            Bad fiscal policy created the situation - speculators like Soros merely exploited it. If you saw a £20 note on the pavement would you just leave it there?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              "Black Wednesday wasn’t caused by Soros"

              Are you sure? Lots of people disagree.

              https://www.npr.org/2024/12/04/1216966368/george-soros-british-pound-bessent-johnson-druckenmiller

              https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/when-soros-decided-to-go-for-the-jugular/

              His 10bn short on the pound, which he openly talked about at the time causing more speculators to pile on, was the final nail in the coffin for the admittedly extremely stupid ERM. He might not have been the root cause but he certainly shoved it over the edge in spectacular style. It is unlikely that any other speculator with enough resources to bet that much would have actually done so. And this is long before the days of social media where you can get an army of bedroom investors to pile on memestonk style.

              It certainly worked out better than all those traders who got burned on FCOJ thinking the Duke brothers knew what they were doing!

              "If you saw a £20 note on the pavement would you just leave it there?"

              Technically its illegal to pick up money found on the street and keep it in the UK. But Soros did not 'find' 1bn on the pavement.

              1. 45RPM Silver badge

                I don’t dispute that he made a bad situation worse - but he wasn’t the cause of the situation in the first place.

                I expect someone will make hay from the upcoming US recession, caused by tariffs and poor governmental policy from the incoming administration. In the worst case scenario, they may give it such a kicking while it’s down that the economy suffers lasting damage and they end up on the front page of the papers. But it still won’t be their fault - the root cause will still be the Trump administration.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  And German recession, UK recession...

                  But anyway, so we can blame Black Wednesday on Germany as their monetary policy dominated Europe at that time. Europe is still suffering to this day as the ERM and eventual Eurozone has hamstrung economies and kept Europe subservient to the USD.

            2. Bebu sa Ware
              Coat

              If you saw a £20 note on the pavement would you just leave it there?

              Twenty quid is rapidly becoming chump change so probably decline to stoop to acquire it and in any case heaven only knows where it might have been.

              1. 45RPM Silver badge

                Re: If you saw a £20 note on the pavement would you just leave it there?

                Fair

      2. 45RPM Silver badge

        See my early point about hard of thinking. The thing is that, deep down, you know you’re wrong - and you’re also somewhat ashamed. That’s why you’re Anonymous Coward.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          It is well documented that George Soros' foundation has donated millions, often by indirect routes via PACs and other non-profits, to the campaigns of Democrat politicians and officials. He, along with his son Alex and other billionaires such as Larry Fink (Blackrock), Bill Gates, Tim Cook, Bloomberg, the guy who runs Starbucks et al are welcomed with open arms by the political ruling elite.

          Alex Soros courted all the Democrat high rollers over the summer, Kamala Harris, Timmy Walz, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi.

          Heck, Sir Beer Korma had Larry Fink at a meeting at no10!

          Now we have ONE meme billionaire on the right and you're losing your shit over it.

          And lets not forget it was the tech industrial complex along with the media industrial complex who in 2020 where tasked to supress anything that might shine a bad light on the WHO, the Democrats or their faithful.

          1. Casca Silver badge

            Wow, just wow. Go back to twitter

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            ahh, anti-vax right wing loon I see...

            think you forgot the space lazers and rain making

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Ah resorting to insults when you've lost the argument.

              1. 45RPM Silver badge

                To have an argument both parties need to present coherent points. You’re still dribbling into your bib.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  "present coherent points"

                  "space lazers"

                  I'm not sure you understand the words you type.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    not sure you understand anything!

                    especially people obvously taking the piss out of you for shouting loony conspiracy bollocks in here!

                    1. Anonymous Coward
                      Anonymous Coward

                      Here is the problem, "loony conspiracy bollocks" is when something doesn't happen. What I described actually happened, is on record, has video evidence etc.

                      Your "loony conspiracy bollocks" is things like the Bergdorf changing room thing or the falsifying of business records or the wet market at Wuhan.

            2. Jellied Eel Silver badge

              think you forgot the space lazers and rain making

              If those are what's occupying your mind, perhaps you should write to Starmer? He's currently desperate for ideas (and clue in general). Don't forget to mention AI and you could soon be tweeting 'funding secured'. Or you could try Rachel from accounts-

              https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgmm3ye713o

              "I still do," the chancellor confirmed, recalling an incident a few days ago where there had been leftovers from a work breakfast: "I'm not sure if the health secretary would approve of this, but I had a pastry for breakfast and a pastry for lunch.

              "I think that's very good value for money" she said, "but might not be very good for my waistline".

              VFM would be not wasting our money on pastries. But let them eat cake and all that. Also

              Asked about the criticism she had faced, Reeves said: "I haven't taken it personally".

              Therein lies the problem. Perhaps she should be listening to criticism more carefully.

              1. Ace2 Silver badge

                You forgot to click ‘post anonymously’ again

            3. Bebu sa Ware
              Coat

              think you forgot the space lazers and rain making

              Remember S for stimulated.

              laser = Light Amplification by †Stimulated† Emission of Radiation,

              Lazers would presumably be persons who laze viz to act or lie lazily with space lazers easily applying to a number of American plutocrats with Space going ambitions who are given to uttering the lazy lie.

          3. Tilda Rice

            Biden, who manipulated Facebook + Youtube and the legacy media to suppress stories about his crime family and involvement with Burisma?

            Now wants to whine about tech oligarchs? LOL, cry me a river.

            Like Starmer having the bare faced cheek to say the media coverage of the grooming gangs scandal is people seeking to gain political capital when we literally had months of their "party gate" nonsense.

            Boris had a sandwich in the back garden, and he is comparing that to thousands of girls being sexually abused? The hypocrisy of lefties is breath-taking.

            Biden, same ilk.

            Jog on melts. Taste of your own medicine. A great day for the world and common sense.

          4. Tilda Rice

            Hilarious you are downvoted.

            Biden whinging about tech billionaires LOL do me a favour. Look at their donations and backers.

            Gates $$$ rolling in for Harris:

            https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-donated-50-million-223354093.html?guccounter=1

            83 Billionaires contributed to Kamala campaign as opposed to 53 for Trump:

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/10/30/kamala-harris-has-more-billionaires-prominently-backing-her-than-trump-bezos-and-griffin-weigh-in-updated/

            Plenty of tech super rich donated to Kamala this campaign:

            Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn)

            Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook)

            Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)

            Reed Hastings (Netflix)

            Eric Schmidt (Google)

            Melinda French Gates (Microsoft)

            Mark Cuban (“Shark Tank” investor)

            And our old frieds Soros of course:

            George Soros (Soros Fund Management)

            Stop with the boring whiny hypocrisy.

      3. ecofeco Silver badge

        Yer trollied AC. Time to head home.

  4. Sora2566 Silver badge

    It's nice that he knows about all these problems, but it would have been nicer if he'd actually done something about them.

    1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

      It's nice that he knows about all these problems, but it would have been nicer if he'd actually done something about them.

      But he did. He and his party ruthlessly exploited them-

      "The free press is crumbling," he said. "Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

      Hunter Biden's laptop was really 'Russian misinformation', Covid started in a wet market, and of course Biden himself wasn't in cognitive decline. The 'free press' had column-miles of text telling us this, and who can forget-

      https://nypost.com/2022/04/29/biden-disinfo-czar-nina-jankowicz-ripped-over-tiktok/

      The person tapped to head President Biden’s new Big Brother-like disinformation board drew fresh disdain Friday over her flippant attitude toward misinformation — and her own history of spreading it.

      Nina Jankowicz’s ability to be taken seriously in her role on Homeland Security’s new Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board” was thrown into question after a cringeworthy TikTok video resurfaced of her adapting the Mary Poppins tune “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” to be about fake news.

      Or other government's efforts to impose their own versions of Minitrue. The 'free press', ie the MSM is crumbling under the weight of their own lies. They are the ones who gave up on 'fact checking', and Biden wasn't ranting about 'tech oligarchs' when Zuckerberg gave around $400m to his campaign. Of course now he's given $1m to Trump's inaugaration, it's a crisis. Oh, and of course Biden also decided to ban (or try to steal) TikTok, because the US didn't control it.

      Irony is an independent free press and some social media is about the only place where 'fact checking' can actually happen, because it doesn't have the Dorsey-era army of Twitter's 'fact checkers' and moderations censoring any discussion that might involve inconvenient facts.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Hunter Biden's laptop was really 'Russian misinformation',"

        Ah no, they said it had all the 'hallmarks of' roosky misinformation. They are oh so careful to craft their words such that when it, completely unsurprisingly to anyone not infected with TDS, turned out to be true they could say 'we never actually said it WAS'. Despite all the media bleating on with the 'russia russia russia' narrative.....

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV6_ZX5nhQ8

        It actually scares me that ANYONE welcomed the idea of a Disinformation Governance Board. The very notion that government will somehow be an overseer and arbiter of the truth is so completely backwards that it is painful. I think it was Jacinder Ardern or potentially one of her minions who said that the government is the only source of 'the truth'.

        1. veti Silver badge

          I think it was Jacinder Ardern or potentially one of her minions who said that the government is the only source of 'the truth'.

          In the words of the immortal poet, horseshit. She didn't say that, and - calling you out now - you don't believe she did. What she did say is on the record, and it was specifically in the context of the government response to COVID in New Zealand.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jacinda-ardern-truth/

            She said that the government is 'the single source of truth'. It does not matter what the context is, covid or not. And time has shown that what the WHO was saying and other governments were parroting was not really quite 'the truth'.

            I'm not sure if this is the exact quote but:

            "If One Person Says It’s Raining and Another Says It’s Not Raining Then the Journalist Should Look Out the Window and Report the Truth"

            What we've had for many years now is the so-called journalists not actually bother to research or investigate and just regurgitate what they've been told from their masters. The speed at which the media, especially Joe 'Joe Biden is as sharp as ever' Scarborough, did a reverse ferret when Joe Biden crashed at the debate was just hilarious. Did these media pundits really believe what they were saying?

            1. veti Silver badge

              What are you on? Of course context matters. Far, far more than content, which is why taking content out of context is considered to be FUCKING LYING, you fucking liar.

              No, nobody was telling "quite" the truth. Nobody knew it. But the government knew as much of it as anyone, and way more than a million and three online trolls at the time, and they shared it as honestly as they could. Compare with what Trump was doing in the US at the same time. And compare the outcomes.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                And here go the insults as you've lost. You're all too happy to take Trump out of context. Remember 'fine people on both sides'?

                "Compare with what Trump was doing in the US at the same time"

                1) Trump is not an authoritarian like Ms Ardern.

                2) the vast majority of the covid response in the US was the responsibility of the states, not federal govt. Thats sorta how the US works.

                3) at every turn the Democrats hampered Trump by blocking his proposed flight restrictions claiming them to be 'racist' and state health officials said that 'there was nothing to worry about'.

                The NYC health commissioner said in early 2020 that NYers should keep using the subway and not to worry and in Louisiana Mardi Gras went ahead as 'The chance of us getting someone with coronavirus is low,' Oh, the mayor of Nola at the time, was a dem. The Louisiana state governor at the time, a dem.

                "And compare the outcomes"

                Ms Ardern is out of a job as is Joe Biden and Trump is back!! Heck YEAH!

          2. Tilda Rice

            She literally did say those words though.

            Here is the context, and her exact words. Those words being: "We will continue to be your single source of truth."

            https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20200902_050580000/1-question-no-1-prime-minister

            Literally from the New Zealand parliament transcripts.

      2. codejunky Silver badge
        Joke

        @Jellied Eel

        I hear the LA fires have now claimed millions of dollars of expensive artwork their culture will never recover from. Hunter Bidens paintings. How will the world cope?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @Jellied Eel

          There goes the neighborhood.

        2. Jellied Eel Silver badge

          Re: @Jellied Eel

          I hear the LA fires have now claimed millions of dollars of expensive artwork their culture will never recover from. Hunter Bidens paintings. How will the world cope?

          I guess that's some good news to have come out of that catastrophe. I hope the insurers are looking closely at any claims given the value of Hunter's 'art' will have tanked this week given buying one is no longer a ticket to the 'big guy'. Hunter might be able to take a tax loss on anything he still owns. Well, if he ever paid tax. I guess he'll have to this year now Papa Joe's free pass has expired, but a big paper loss is a good start. But that was a very shady story. Most of the 'art' was bought by this chap-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Morris_(businessman)

          Who allegedly just paid Hunter's dealer (art that is) commission rather than the sale price, and promptly dumped the great works. Then again, the art world being what it is, dealers will probably argue that surviving works will have greatly increased in value due to their current scarcity. I also wonder if Morris 'invested' in Hunter in exchange for rights to his story. Coming soon to Netflix or Amazon.. Hunter:My Struggle

          But Papa Joe once described Hunter as 'the smartest man I know'... Which doesn't say much about Biden's cabinet or advisors I guess.

          And jokes aside, one of the sad things about the fire will be both the loss of a lot of people's personal effects, along with more culturally significant stuff like artworks, movie memorabilia etc. One of the buildings I saw on fire was a public library, and no idea what works might have been in their collection. The Getty Villa was also threatened-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Villa#Collection

          But luckily well protected and only suffered light damage.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No mention of the influence of AIPAC? No mention of lobbying? No mention of corporate and individual greed pushing up the cost of living?

    Absolutely not. There is misinformation over there you need to see as misinformation. Are we in the age of misinformation misinformation to deflect from the real misinformation? My head hurts thinking about this.

  6. Howard Sway Silver badge

    Leaders all mysteriously wish they'd taken on the vested interests

    just as they leave the job that actually gave them the power to take on the vested interests.

    1. Lazlo Woodbine Silver badge

      Re: Leaders all mysteriously wish they'd taken on the vested interests

      The problem with the US, is that Government is set up in such a way that it's alomost impossible to get any real work done.

      1. Kane
        Joke

        Re: Leaders all mysteriously wish they'd taken on the vested interests

        "The problem with the US, is that Government is set up in such a way that it's alomost impossible to get any real work done."

        That's a feature, not a bug

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