Maybe I’m wrong but the one thing that feels really different this time is how many institutions and individuals are just kind of… softly rolling over for this administration. Giving into its worst demands. Obeying sometimes in advance, as the saying goes. - ThreadSky

chuckwendig.bsky.social • 91 days ago

Maybe I’m wrong but the one thing that feels really different this time is how many institutions and individuals are just kind of… softly rolling over for this administration. Giving into its worst demands. Obeying sometimes in advance, as the saying goes.

Reposted from Lora Kolodny

uhhh - www.cnbc.com/2025/01/27/g... Google. Maps will show "Gulf of America" after Trump insists...

Comments

munkymind.bsky.social•91 days ago

I’m reminded if T.S Eliot’s words (which appropriately were also written in King’s The Stand, if I recall right):

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”

brentbradshaw.bsky.social•91 days ago

everyone with money seems very aware of how to get trump to reward them.

ricardorios.bsky.social•91 days ago

It is because a lot of them were on his side the entire time. Many of them even worked to get him into power.

samanthamclark.com•91 days ago

Yes. It's very disappointing

jlp2024.bsky.social•91 days ago

If anything, you're underplaying it

klippenstein.bsky.social•91 days ago

Trumptember.
He’s going to bully Big Tech to change the 9th month to Trumptember.
Like the Emperor freaking Commodus.

ampersine.bsky.social•91 days ago

Commodus, a name befitting Donnie 🚽

emoontxwriter.bsky.social•90 days ago

Google's being a damned fool. Trump cannot change the names of things he does not own, and he does not have title to the Gulf of Mexico. We're enough of a laughingstock thanks to Trump already. Trump can't change the name of my child, my spouse, my husband, my town...or the Gulf of Mexico.

smudgiesmom.bsky.social•91 days ago

Capitulating. It’s awful.

priyachand.bsky.social•90 days ago

it's disturbing as fuck. Like...DEI programs actively make companies money and the majority of twits cut back on them because politicians *they bought* did some whining.

mesosuchus.bsky.social•91 days ago

Think of their billions

alisonspeaks.bsky.social•90 days ago

I am so disgusted with everything.

chimaera.bsky.social•91 days ago

Gah. Remember how many Alt accounts sprang up from agencies?

Guess years 5-8 seem overwhelming for dissent.

chuckwendig.bsky.social•90 days ago

I don’t think most of those were real.

darkest-timeline.bsky.social•91 days ago

Also the sheer volume is ideas. Last time he had a list of judges, but this time he's got a whole instruction manual from Nazis.

ellenmgregg.bsky.social•90 days ago

Unfortunately, you aren't wrong, Chuck. It's tremendously disturbing.

damienvanpraag.bsky.social•90 days ago

It’s exactly the behaviour that is expected, and rewarded/supported, in dictatorships. People think tyranny is explicit, but implicit control - and displayed here - is vital for dictatorships to exist at all. Those in control cannot be everywhere or do everything and hence rely on exactly this shit.

amylouna.bsky.social•91 days ago

Exactly.

lylescout.bsky.social•91 days ago

That's the price of a front row seat at the inauguration.

chaddb.bsky.social•91 days ago

One word: ANTITRUST!

jlmauthor.bsky.social•90 days ago

For posterity...

janiceroisl.bsky.social•90 days ago

Here in Austria it’s still Gulf of Mexico. Took this 10 seconds ago.

mcnase.bsky.social•91 days ago

It really shows how much money these entities make from the government and how scared they are to lose it.

austenlied.bsky.social•91 days ago

It makes me sick. I don’t understand why they don’t push back. Like it’s not hard. Just tell him no.

ladarnell.bsky.social•90 days ago

Seriously? Don't Do it @googlesearch.bsky.social

lordmyric.bsky.social•91 days ago

Google and other companies are a long, bootlicking way from “don’t be evil.”

schooley.bsky.social•91 days ago

The rare act of defiance, such as the Washington Bishop, is justly celebrated because it seems like standing in front of a tank compared to the rest of the nation's civic and business leaders.

ddramone.bsky.social•90 days ago

It will always be gulf of MEXICO. For me

darthburkie.bsky.social•91 days ago

What til the camps - “Sponsored by Google and Meta!”

pfcass.bsky.social•90 days ago

You’re not wrong. But, in 2017, I still admired companies like Google. I hate them now.

jayhawk88.bsky.social•91 days ago

It really does feel like "We know they're going to make a play for full-blown Authoritarianism and are making sure we're left alone."

drunkandcoding.bsky.social•91 days ago

These idiots fold like paper dolls

jasonbock.net•91 days ago

Interestingly, Bing Maps is still doing the right thing:

kathybowds.bsky.social•91 days ago

Until the govt updates GNIS...

jasonbock.net•91 days ago

People will made add-ins and extensions to fix it :)

rodhillen.com•91 days ago

They're not laughing this time. They're either scared shitless or happy to be vichy nazis

jabloczynski.bsky.social•90 days ago

So fucking stupid.

samcaldwell.net•90 days ago

This is what happens when companies have so much revenue from government contracting.

...Ask my former employer, AT&T.

dave-duggins.bsky.social•91 days ago

I am trying to keep in touch with the angels of my better naturewith

elledi.bsky.social•91 days ago

It's called money.

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

To be clear, I am not expecting tech companies like Google to be noble — just shocked at how fast and how easy they’re jumping into the pit. Along with so many other institutions.

ianrosewrites.bsky.social•91 days ago

I never thought they were noble, but I thought *they* at least thought they were stronger than this. More powerful. These are supposed to be the modern day titans of industry, and they're begging for scraps at the leader's table. It's remarkably weak.

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yes, that — seeing the sort of global nightmare companies bend the knee is actually sort of scary that they feel they have to?

ianrosewrites.bsky.social•91 days ago

I don't know. I guess how scary it is depends on what you think their motivation is. Maybe they think it's existential. Maybe they just want to pay a tiny bit less tax. I'm honestly not sure. Either way, it makes less seem so much smaller to me.

ianrosewrites.bsky.social•91 days ago

Ugh, them, not less. I'm so used to an edit button.

julianlepke.bsky.social•91 days ago

They're staring down the barrel of antitrust lawsuits, that's not the entire explanation but lol

ljndawson.bsky.social•91 days ago

They are not gently rolling over. They are rolling with alacrity.

blueismycolour.bsky.social•91 days ago

It will always be Gulf of Mexico to me n the rest of the world so we look like the idiots again

ahaberlach.bsky.social•91 days ago

Has anyone checked to see what the Gulf is named if visited from outside the U.S.?

There are many "geopolitical hacks" in Google Maps, like the name of Taiwan or Hong Kong depending on who is looking. Apparently the border of Pakistan is a variable.

ahaberlach.bsky.social•91 days ago

I'm not sure about the "nobility" of this particular battle. I'd be more on the lookout for signs that Google is breaching customer confidentiality, although even that is subject to the laws of the countries in which it operates.

ahaberlach.bsky.social•91 days ago

But changes so the names or locations of landmarks, or even the names of countries, are so routine that there's a process for it.

snythe.bsky.social•91 days ago

I don't think that, over even the relatively short term, that's going to work out like they expect. This administration is going to be as popular as radioactive waste in a matter of months.

hormiga.bsky.social•91 days ago

8 years ago everybody would just laugh and move on at this dangerous silliness. But now they’re obeying this clown like Simon Says. It’s terrifying.

jencross.bsky.social•91 days ago

Part of me leans toward, "wait for the dust to settle, see what sticks, see who gets angry, see who takes up the fight," but yeah everything is very ominous.

The majority of elected Dems aren't inspiring much confidence either. 🙁

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yeah, the hope is it just takes a little while for the engine to get warm. It’s just shocking because we’ve been here before and this time it seems like the lessons have been forgotten — willfully, forcefully, in some cases.

jencross.bsky.social•91 days ago

Right, is the shock part of "shock and awe" working? He's taking a sledgehammer to the entire federal government and we're getting milquetoast social media posts and a media mostly stuck in normal mode. If the country ends up wrecked it affects everyone.

400trix.bsky.social•91 days ago

I would say the country is wrecked already. Regardless of the dubious legality of all of these executive orders, suits will have to be won to restore order, and that will take a long time.

jencross.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yeah, I'm trying not to be a doomer, we've got a long road ahead, but the outlook doesn't seem great right now.

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

Right I could use more shock tbh! Hello! Be shocked! (Not you, obvs. Our institutions.)

jencross.bsky.social•91 days ago

lol, I watched an interview with AOC and she basically said most elected Dems were stuck in decorum mode. Uh, have they watched Trump? Time to throw decorum out the window. Maybe a few shocks would help. ⚡

zenmuppet.bsky.social•91 days ago

And the Democrats ran for three months on how Trump was a threat to democracy. Like, where did that urgency go?

jencross.bsky.social•91 days ago

I think they're hard wired into responses like, "well, this is what the voters wanted.. maybe we need to find common ground." I suspect this might be what's going on with Fetterman. (Fetterman also seems to have forgotten Dem Josh Shapiro won the PA governor's race by 15%.)

martijaxn.bsky.social•91 days ago

i get a strong feeling that the people playing ball now think they will be able to easily retract and redact later... if there is a later...

julianlepke.bsky.social•91 days ago

I like to think they're patiently waiting for Trump to die of old age, but then what? Can Vance convincingly go back to pretending to be normcore & hope everyone buys it?

eldritch48.bsky.social•91 days ago

I wish I was shocked. Human nature tends to only want to fight a battle once. We shot our bolt against Trump…we just didn’t get the stake through the heart.

eldritch48.bsky.social•90 days ago

You’ll notice the lack of violent protest last week at the inauguration.

grueproof.bsky.social•91 days ago

Bootlickers all.

billstewart.bsky.social•91 days ago

There are enough Google stockholders around some of them should do a shareholder resolution to fix this.
(At least the ones who are ex-employees, but there are plenty of those around.)
"Stop Being Evil"

mirgray.bsky.social•91 days ago

It isn't a stretch to expect tech companies like Google to follow the international bodies. The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is the United Nations body responsible for encouraging national and international geographical names standardization.

dragovian.bsky.social•91 days ago

He's their candidate, of course they're going to give him whatever he wants on his path to becoming god-emperor.

terripray.bsky.social•91 days ago

They’re obeying in advance…

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

Our media companies are all too happy to spin the administration’s most dimwitted and vile efforts into candy floss. We can’t find five Democrats to stand up and say “boo” about anything. So much soft, eager acquiescence to encroaching fascism. It’s not great!

kalsdavian.bsky.social•90 days ago

From what i heard, the Google CEO was at the inauguration right the other rich bastards. They are all in his pocket because he will make them richer.

edwardfrancis.bsky.social•90 days ago

My theory is that the 🍊🤡 has Jeffrey Epstein level dirt on all these CEOs and politicians. He’s a mobster, and he’s using mobster tactics to make everyone fall in line.

kalsdavian.bsky.social•90 days ago

Either or, honestly.

popezebbidiexii.bsky.social•90 days ago

nah, just the prospect of backing their bank accounts up to the Treasury

ewiggins66.bsky.social•91 days ago

At least the Inspector Generals who were fired by letter refused to leave their posts.

heidisaid.bsky.social•91 days ago

Did they show up? Was just looking for news on this and to see if Congress doing what they are supposed to do in this exact situation …

ewiggins66.bsky.social•90 days ago

They did. They returned letters stating "um, no" or something like that. Congress will be put to task at least.

heidisaid.bsky.social•90 days ago

From Newsweek, “John Choon Yoo, a law professor at University of California at Berkeley, told Newsweek in an email on Saturday: "President Trump is well within his power to remove members of the executive branch at will.” In Seila Law v. CFPB (2020), “ and continues to explain why. Loopholes.

vectan.bsky.social•90 days ago

Change it all they want, I’m just going to keep saying “the what?”, “what/where are you talking about?”, and “where is this now?” when I hear some say that.

jlucianblackwell.bsky.social•90 days ago

They want some that money stack, which means gurgling Trump's balls for it. The real whores are the politician/big business class elites. The real prostitutes provide a service that's been around since the dawn of human civilization.

aschray.bsky.social•91 days ago

It's terrifying. If you wrote this, I'd think it was even too scary for you

gaogaigirl.bsky.social•91 days ago

It's like a race to see which of them can lick boots the fastest.

chrisgustafson.bsky.social•91 days ago

Blaming Google is wrong here. The name changed legally according their source. I don't think I've heard one Dem say "That's dumb, and it'll be changed back in 4 years".

It's the D leadership that is to blame. They are failing us.

johnhoyabembe.bsky.social•90 days ago

The Republicans literally control all of the government. Even if some Democrats didn't jump at every opportunity to suppose the Khmer Douche, what can they actually do besides write a very sternly worded letter?

popezebbidiexii.bsky.social•90 days ago

They're powerless when they have a majority, and they're powerless when they don't.

Something doesn't smell right.

chrisgustafson.bsky.social•90 days ago

Shut down the government by not passing a spending bill. Withhold all possible nominations.

Get on TV and start yelling.

I don't accept their defeatism and neither should you.

johnhoyabembe.bsky.social•90 days ago

And how are they going to shut down the government or withhold nominations when Republicans have a majority in the HoR and Senate? What is yelling on TV going to do when most Americans don't care, and any actual message will be cut out by the media, who is subservient to the Trump administration?

jodiwrk.bsky.social•91 days ago

Craven, feckless, obsequious, sychophants.

daniellaurison.bsky.social•91 days ago

Especially since so much of what's happening seems likely to be bad for them too. I don't think chaos and economic crashes are likely to be good for Google, right?

garrett-ruley.bsky.social•91 days ago

Recognizing it's an oversimplification, it's hard for me not to read it as the oligarch class controlling these companies making the fascist bet - seeing the additional power they could gain (over labor, other markets, etc) as being worth a few years of turmoil.

daniellaurison.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yeah, or slightly less awful maybe - seeing avoiding the trouble of being in Trump's crosshairs as worth caving over. But yeah, the scary thing is that they clearly think this is good business and I really hope they're wrong.

garrett-ruley.bsky.social•91 days ago

Ironically I wonder if the contemporary business obsession with short-term profits could be helpful here - markets aren't exactly friendly to long-term planning! Maybe the first really bad quarterly report or general market plunge could flip the "good business" calculus.

daniellaurison.bsky.social•91 days ago

I sure hope so!

sarcher.bsky.social•91 days ago

I’m totally flummoxed.

froregon.bsky.social•90 days ago

Shouldn't we? Didn't their mission statement used to be "Don't be evil?"

bobdunkin.bsky.social•91 days ago

Any city that has any Google Office, or Google affiliated site should change the name of the street it's on to "Roll-Over Drive". A few other names come to mind, but probably wouldn't be suitable in naming conventions...

zem42.bsky.social•91 days ago

I have to wonder how many of them were secretly maga-leaning and just waiting for it to be safe to show it

froregon.bsky.social•90 days ago

The amount of ass-kissing amongst billionaires at the moment is astounding. What has he got on them?

culturedropout.bsky.social•90 days ago

You're not wrong. Far too few people are willing to stand up to this insanity. It's become "every man for himself." I hope those "good" family men (and women) who roll over have to look their children in the eye and justify their inaction when the dust settles.

mels-b.bsky.social•91 days ago

Really, really depressing.

desertortoise.bsky.social•91 days ago

Still remember this from 15years ago after deep water spill.

desertortoise.bsky.social•91 days ago

I think he used the funds to help hurricane Katrina victims but now satire is becoming reality

drjaninascarlet.bsky.social•91 days ago

💯 it’s so true. I see it too

jesswestbrook.bsky.social•91 days ago

Hideous dark times, absurdity absolute absurdity

jvmguy.bsky.social•91 days ago

Of course they'll do it. It's the reich thing to do.

zenmuppet.bsky.social•91 days ago

I knew there would be people going along but I didn't anticipate how *many* people and organizations would just GALLOP gleefully into complying with this.

madhominem.bsky.social•91 days ago

I'm genuinely concerned what will get "renamed" once he figures out he can do it

cdraivpipds.bsky.social•91 days ago

Trumplandia

madhominem.bsky.social•91 days ago

it'll happen

cdraivpipds.bsky.social•91 days ago

beccapodos.bsky.social•91 days ago

This is what’s been really weighing on me

tdawry.bsky.social•90 days ago

There's an important distinction to be made between rolling over and having aligned goals.

troutish.bsky.social•90 days ago

You are not wrong. This time is nothing like last. Many big for profit institutions are actually not fans of democracy to be honest. They'll agree to topple it as long as the fascist promises them rivers of gold / no taxes.

jodiwrk.bsky.social•91 days ago

It fucking sucks & is totally depressing that this is happening.

spherulitic.bsky.social•90 days ago

These “institutions” by and large are owned by the guys sitting in the front row of the inauguration. They’re not rolling over softly, they’re active participants in running the country in the direction we see.

eleighbutler.bsky.social•91 days ago

The stupidest things, too.

jdonohue56.bsky.social•90 days ago

Don't look now, but I think he might have just shut down Medicare by freezing Federal funds.

bextraordinary.bsky.social•91 days ago

I've just finished up reading your Wanderers and Wayward (which were wonderful, thank you) and though they left me reeling at the realistic horror of it all, this week made me think "If anything, he didn't go far enough." 🫠

chuckwendig.bsky.social•91 days ago

Yeaaaaah. Yeah.

williamfrancis.bsky.social•90 days ago

warned you that Google denied they ever said "Don't be evil."

mrreciprocity.bsky.social•90 days ago

Wasn't one of the Google guys front-row at the inauguration? Seems maybe less like giving in and more like signing on.

applesnail.bsky.social•91 days ago

You aren’t wrong. This is terrifying.

kelliawise.bsky.social•91 days ago

History will not be kind to them. Nor should we when this all breaks apart.

kathybowds.bsky.social•91 days ago

Actually I kinda chuckled at Google's tweet re this... they make it VERY clear that only Americans will see Gulf of America 🤢 and everyone else on the planet will see Gulf of Mexico ...

kermitology.bsky.social•90 days ago

Mexico is the only place that will see it only as Gulf of Mexico. The rest of the world still gets to see (Gulf of America) along with Gulf of Mexico.

kathybowds.bsky.social•90 days ago

Which is unfortunate, but still hasn't erased Gulf of Mexico- which was what the ego maniac wants 😀

ampersine.bsky.social•91 days ago

Thanks to Trump we're becoming more like China every day.