RSH 116 -- Whole Bunch of Bullshit (2.11.2023)

Recorded February 4, 2023. In this episode, Adam and Peter talk about Burkina Faso kicking out French troops from the country in the context of Africa standing up to the West, the massive tech industry lay-offs, and the police murder of Tyre Nichols and how people are becoming desensitized to the ritual of Black death.   Links:   Burkina Faso kicks out French troops

• Burkina Faso ends ties with French troops https://apnews.com/article/politics-france-government-burkina-faso-8ac1a1cb6e065a588719cfa61ba232b2
• Blaise Compaore arrested, charged, and found guilty for assassination of Thomas Sankara https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/13/burkina-faso-ex-president-blaise-compaore-charged-thomas-sankara-murder; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/burkina-faso-ex-president-blaise-compaore-guilty-thomas-sankara
• Compaore apologizes to family of Sankara https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/26/burkina-ex-leader-compaore-apologises-to-family-of-slain-sankara  ; https://www.africanews.com/2022/07/27/burkina-mixed-reactions-as-blaise-compaore-apologises-to-family-of-slain-thomas-sankara//

Tech lay-offs

• All the big tech lay-offs of 2023 https://www.engadget.com/tech-layoffs-183005204.html
• Tech’s bust delivers blow to hollowed-out San Francisco https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/san-francisco-s-feeling-the-pain-of-big-tech-s-troubles-remote-work
• What’s going to happen to Big Tech’s laid off workers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsGAoFlw20
• How low interest rates helped tech startups and how rising interest rates are raising fears in Silicon Valley https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2022/05/08/tech-startups-feel-the-pinch-from-rising-interest-rates; https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/27/will-rising-interest-rates-scupper-the-startup-surge/ ; https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/07/as-interest-rates-rise-startups-and-vcs-are-playing-a-new-game/ 
• Kenyan workers at ChatGPT https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/?fbclid=IwAR21XvtWvl1BuAvVZdB8nfahD6W6gVIJ3pzZlIIBR5WS-5FjO0CoRpjTlPs 

Tyre Nichols and police killings of Black people

• Support for BLM declined since George Floyd’s death but unchanged since September 2020