Bonum Certa Men Certa

Donald Trump's Trash Against China Helps Prop up Microsoft Monopoly and Distract From All the Microsoft Layoffs

The Coming War on China (John Pilger) | Full Documentary



Trump Microsoft

Summary: Microsoft as a surveillance giant of the United States government isn't a myth; it was first in the PRISM programme of the NSA (Bill Gates is a loud proponent of NSA surveillance), it took over European Skype under mysterious circumstances, and now it might be getting TikTok as a 'gift' from Donald Trump's friends and the imperialists, in effect confiscating Chinese assets for full-spectrum dominance

THE Microsoft monopoly is still a problem. The Microsoft monopoly may be eroding/slipping away, but it is still harmful. Yesterday in Daily Links we included this article entitled "Microsoft’s Edge browser is crashing if you have Google set as default search" and to quote some sentences from the leading paragraph: "Microsoft’s new Edge browser started randomly crashing when users typed into the address bar tonight. The issues appear to have affected Edge users who have selected Google as the default search engine." (This publisher is close to Microsoft, so this is followed by face-saving spin)



"The Microsoft monopoly may be eroding/slipping away, but it is still harmful."Microsoft has a long, long history breaking and sabotaging things if they're configured in a way Microsoft doesn't like (e.g. AARD). Microsoft's monopoly abuse has often been downright criminal, not merely abusive. This is why many people still dislike and distrust Microsoft.

Donald Trump, being the con man that he is, probably sees eye to eye and can relate to Microsoft. They have no moral leverage over one another and Bill Gates said or at least publicly insinuated he'd be willing to back Trump in 2020. Whatever makes him richer...

"Microsoft's monopoly abuse has often been downright criminal, not merely abusive."Gates isn't a techie. He's not educated as a techie and he never even graduated from college (where he studied law -- something he became good at breaking). Gates is a politician. He acts like one; he is one. Trump reportedly offered Gates a job at his cabinet (top adviser) and Gates declined; he declined not because of Trump but because, according to him, it would not be good use of his time. Remember that Gates is not against Trump. He never was. Criminals in positions of power are less likely to enforce the law against other criminals (instead they focus on silencing if not arresting those who expose their crimes).

As a side note, earlier today I watched the whole film above (highlighted to me the other day because it had become freely accessible); its producer has a long track record of making films about issues strongly suppressed by the Western powers. I learned a lot from his films over the years and they partly shaped my views on world affairs. In the last few minutes of the film Pilger concludes and remarks on what Donald Trump is hoping to achieve. This is important and very relevant to the subject named below.

This brings us to a difficult subject because it is almost purely political (and we prefer to avoid 'pure' politics; they can distract from the underlying issues through partisan slant). It was all over the news yesterday and it will be in our next Daily Links. An associate of ours collated and picked the following excerpts:



This neatly relates to a subject we wrote about in the past, namely the Pentagon/"JEDI" contract, which seemed to us like a form of Microsoft bailout in 'military' clothing (as we note in our series about IBM, making one's military dependent on your aging and even inferior technology makes you "too big [or essential] to fail/fall").

"The purchase rumors for Tiktok are likely a distraction from Microsoft layoffs or similar bad news," our associate noted this morning and Ryan cited two articles in IRC some hours ago [1, 2]. It was past midnight, so tomorrow's IRC logs will include that. Long story short, this morning the Bill Gates-funded BBC reported on it and it's as shallow as Microsoft wants it. There's no discussion about the Microsoft-Trump relationship, the Microsoft layoffs (about 5,000 of them this summer), and 'bailout'-like aspects, which merit discussion.

"Gates is a politician. He acts like one; he is one.""Trump wants to give TikTok to Microsoft," Ryan said. "Could explain why it [Microsoft] wasn't at the "antitrust" grilling the other day."

"One of the individuals confirmed Microsoft was in the lead to acquire the popular platform’s U.S. service," Ryan quoted. "Another attempt to prop Microsoft up" is what he called it, adding that "Skype fell out of favor after they spent way too much money on it and now they're working closely with the administration to get TikTok in a forced sale."

"The "China" excuse doesn't pass the sniff test," Ryan said, "in my opinion. We know that Microsoft is a PRISM/Five Eyes collaborator, so handing it off to Microsoft would immediately make it much easier to spy on everyone who uses TikTok, whether they are in the US or not."

"This neatly relates to a subject we wrote about in the past, namely the Pentagon/"JEDI" contract, which seemed to us like a form of Microsoft bailout in 'military' clothing..."Of course the media was totally hypocritical about privacy aspects of TikTok. Pretty much all of TikTok's big competitors are in the surveillance business and are vastly worse than TikTok. The last article above (from TechDirt) is one of several that repeatedly highlight this very simple fact.

TikTok has been blasted by Trump and his sidekick Pompeo, who are of course happy to ignore all the surveillance that benefits themselves.

"PRISM pretty much makes your Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook accounts an NSA trap. Any low level analyst can punch in your account name and start copying over your files and email and stuff," Ryan noted. "The fact that TikTok has lured a lot of fools into using it heavily means that the US government wants to control it so that it can put hooks into it. You wouldn't just have to be crazy to put anything sensitive on any "service" like that. You'd have to be bonehead stupid."

Quoting another article, Ryan spotted this: "Microsoft does not have a creative social media company to sow brand recognition with younger users, though the Redmond, Wash.-based company does own professional networking site LinkedIn."

"TikTok has been blasted by Trump and his sidekick Pompeo, who are of course happy to ignore all the surveillance that benefits themselves."Ryan responded: "Doesn't mention anywhere that LinkedIn is falling apart and that Microsoft just sacked almost 1,000 people that were working there. Off to the next thing. People should recognize the Microsoft brand. It's a warning sign. "Warning, company packed with pedophiles that makes shitty bloated software with government backdoors ahead. Run!"

"I can scarcely believe that Microsoft's Fake Google has 27% of any market in search, much less the US. Everything they've done to "promote it", like hijacking your Windows 10 defaults and "search bribery" ("Hey kid, want some XBOX Gold and Rick Jones?") has failed. I can think of various reasons Microsoft wants TikTok. None of them good. The article keeps repeating that Microsoft wants "Young users." Just over and over again. Probably wants to incorporate their faces into the databanks that it sells to the police and Trump's unmarked van thugs. Lots of bad things. Probably the most naked reason is another platform for their advertising though. The police keep complaining that the facial recognition software they use or tap into (Ring and such) doesn't know how to tell one black person from another, and then also says they regularly use it as evidence in court. How does that work? Right?"

"Recall what we wrote about the "JEDI" contract; the award came under investigation and the investigators could not rule out foul play by Microsoft and Trump."MinceR then asked Ryan, "are they paying twitler [Trump] for this or is it just out of the evilness of his heart?"

Recall what we wrote about the "JEDI" contract; the award came under investigation and the investigators could not rule out foul play by Microsoft and Trump.

"With Trump and corruption, " Ryan responded, "it's like the Joker said. When you're good at something, never do it for free."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Defeating LLM Abuse (State-of-the-Art Plagiarism) in the Area of Linux and GNU, Free Software, BSD, Security and So On
The aim is to get them to stop using LLMs to rip off other people's work
Digital Sanitation Good Practices
leave behind Microsoftism
10 Days Ago Richard Stallman Gave a Long Interview in French (linuxfr.org)
English translation
Science, Not Fast Food/Junk Food
The commercial exploitation of users won't stop until users exercise full control over their software or - more broadly - their computing (including data)
 
All the Latest Half Dozen Articles by Mehedi Hasan (UbuntuPIT) Only Admit at the End That He's Using LLM Slop
Disclosure is OK, but the practice of using slop is not
The 'Modern' Web of Fake Security and Easy Censorship of Whole Domains
Each year it gets worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 18, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 18, 2025
The Term "AI" is Not New and What Today's Media Calls "AI" Isn't Even AI
Only the hype was new... and totally artificial
Gemini Links 18/10/2025: "Planetary Rings", Steam, and PSU Replacement
Links for the day
Links 18/10/2025: Russell Vought in Charge, US Government Leans to Russia Again
Links for the day
Credit Where It's Due: LinuxConfig.org Quit Doing LLM Slop, Back to Original and Real Articles
We waited for a while to say this, now it seems conclusive
Of Note: UbuntuPIT Aware of Critics of Slop, Adds Disclosure of Use of LLMs
We appreciate the honesty
Links 18/10/2025: Madagascar's President Flees and ICE Arrests Protest Comedian Robby Roadsteamer
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Near the European Patent Office (EPO) in 3 Days From Now
It'll be a good opportunity for patent examiners to listen, ask questions, and maybe greet him in person
From Scholar to Booster of Slop (and Even Slop in His Own Blog)
We're going to keep an eye on future posts of his
End of Vista 10 Also Good News for the BSDs
There are many news sites that recommend trying GNU/Linux this month
What's Wrong With Liking Parrots or Birds as Pets?
They'd demonise people for speaking about freedom, no matter what they say or do
The Free Software Foundation, Which Has Appointed a 43-Year-Old President, is Looking to Add Another Board Member (or Treasurer)
expect the FSF to add more people
Richard Stallman Confirms Next Week's Talk at Technical University of Munich, We Urge EPO Staff to Attend
That's probably late enough for EPO staff to attend after work
Gemini Links 18/10/2025: Notifications and Geminaut
Links for the day
Many Red Hat People Are Leaving, But It'll Be Framed Publicly as Leaving IBM
Similarly, IBM layoffs (or "RAs" as they're called) include Red Hat layoffs
Expect More Waves of Microsoft Layoffs This Month (at Least Two Rounds Confirmed Already)
From what we can gather, assuming the recent rumours about XBox are true, there will be at least 3 waves of Microsoft layoffs this month alone
Security Issues in Cisco and Jenkins Passed Off as "Linux" Problems
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) tactics
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 17, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 17, 2025
[Video] Dr. Richard Stallman at Technické Univerzitě v Liberci
New/via libre-liberec.cz
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal (Slashdot Media), UbuntuPIT, and Google News (Noise)
egregious plagiarism
Links 17/10/2025: Better Answers Sought After Air Crashes, "China Fans Patriotic Sentiment as Trade War With U.S. Heats Up"
Links for the day
Security is Desirable, But Not When the Term Security is Misused to Imply Centralisation of "Trust" (Whose?)
'Security' is not an excuse for vendor lock-in
Links 17/10/2025: Fentanylware (CheeTok) Causing Problems, Japanese Government Blasts Slop
Links for the day
The Linux Foundation Seems to Have Turned Linux.com Not Only Into a Spamfarm But Also LLM Slopfarm
it's polluting the Web, even important domains like Linux.com, with spam and LLM slop
Links 17/10/2025: UK’s Largest Breach Penalty and Windows TCO Examples
Links for the day
Go Watch Video About Librephone, Get Microsoft Ads
Very ethical company...
Campaign of Defamation Against the People Who Built NixOS (and Are Now Pushed Out From Their Own Project)
We've already grown familiar with - and resistant to - such tactics
Links 17/10/2025: Nestlé Crisis, Canada Post Versus 'Gig Economy' [sic] and Vista 11 Breaks Itself
Links for the day
Tux Machines Has Helped Separate Opinions/Analysis From News
In September 2023 we decided to split things apart and not repeat links in both sites
Tux Machines Has Improved Navigation of GNU/Linux and BSD News
Some more 'wiring' work
What a World Would Look Like If Everyone Used Free Software Only
Freedom is what matters, not "Open".
The Media Helps Microsoft, Amazon and Others (GAFAM and Beyond) Lie About Mass Layoffs Amid Valuation Bubble
The media, instead of saying that there's an "AI bubble" crashing the economy might instead choose the narrative of "jobs replaced by AI"
Bad Tempered? You Might Have Just Given Away That You're Losing the Argument
Brett Wilson LLP is fully aware that it is being investigated
Richard Stallman (RMS) is a Target of Defamation Campaigns Because of His Views on Software (But Politics Are the Excuse for Defaming Him)
Here in this site we try to refrain from politics, except in Daily Links
End of Vista 10 and Rise of GNU/Linux as Client Side Operating System
It seems certain GNU/Linux will grow in popularity over time
Taking Stock of a Week's Worth of EPO Leaks
We remain committed to exposing EPO corruption as long as it keeps happening
Mathieu Parreaux claims FINMA knew since day one
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Calumny, Libel, Joerg Jaspert & debian-private untouchable cyberbullies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 16, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 16, 2025
Techrights Turns 19 in 3 Weeks
coverage of suppressed topics and protecting all sources/whistleblowers
International E-Waste Day Same Day as End of Vista 10
message from Akira Urushibata
The EPO's Central Staff Committee Presents Evidence That Staff Compensation Lowered While the Office Increases Income by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents
These people become millionaires by doing illegal things
Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
Links for the day