Microsoft's Highly Profitable Layoffs

In July Microsoft announced intentions to layoff 14% of it's global workforce.  This equates to 18,000 employee pink slips.

Since then:

1. The company increased shareholder dividend payments by 11% 
2. Wall street has boosted it's total stock market value by 7%  
3. Steve Ballmer* and Bill Gates equity holdings gained $2,019,000,000

"I Knew I'd Make That $2 Billion Back Somehow",
Steve Ballmer thought to himself

The software giant has accomplished all this just halfway through the layoff binge.  Just imagine how profitable it will be when thousands more of their people are shown the door.


*Ballmer bought the NBA franchise Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion this summer.  Since he purchased the team, the value of his stock in Microsoft increased $1 billion. 

Human Rights for Some of Us

A man was convicted in Saudi Arabia for committing the crime of "insulting Islam".  The Saudi court sentenced him to ten years in prison plus 1,000 lashes.  This is what hosting a website about religion will get you when you live under a totalitarian regime.

Have you heard outrage from the west about this violent crackdown on freedom of speech?

Harry Truman with Crown Prince Saud (1947)

In case you weren't aware the U.S. has been selling weapons of mass murder to Saudi King's for six decades.      

Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon with King Saud (1957)

The shipment of weapons from the U.S. to the House of Saud continues to this day.  Textron Inc. is in the process of filling an order for 1,300 cluster bombs to be sent to the Islamic regime by next year.  

In short, the relationship between the owners of the U.S. and the owners of Saudi Arabia is very profitable for them.  If people start spreading ideas that question the Islamic regime the lashing will begin.

Don't expect a feel-good ad campaign to come out of the west about protecting free speech in the mid-east kingdom.  They couldn't care less about "democracy", "freedom" or "human rights" when it comes to the 20,000,000 citizens of Saudi Arabia.