Aceticon

joined 4 months ago
[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Unless the new Treaty properly covers Services and hence includes Freedom Of Movement (which is required for suppliers in one country to freely provide services which cannot be remotelly provided in other countries), not really.

One of the biggest arguments of the Brexiters was to be able to get rid of Freedom Of Movement so that they didn't have to accepts all immigrants from the EU (all of which with time ended up with the funny outcome that now Britain still gets as many immigrants coming in as they did when part of the EU, only now they're almost all non-white something which the Brexiters - who are almost invariably racist - find even more distasteful).

I very much doubt that the current, New Labour, government who are maybe the most rightwing Labour government ever and have even been blowing a couple of far-right anti-immigration dog-whistles will be accepting the return of Freedom Of Movement.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 14 hours ago

Yeah, that's exactly what they've been doing - I have a windup radio and some electric network expert was explaining it.

Power has been back up were I live since about an hour ago but before I was listening on the radio as they kept announcing places coming back up during the afternoon and evening.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's the same here, but what's interesting is that the rest of the infrastructure for Internet connectivity to the rest of the World beyond that is still up.

At the very least the routers and the top level network cables connecting us to the rest of Europe (Portugal is pretty peripheral) and/or the underwater cables to the US are still powered up and working.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Curiously, we still have mobile internet ;)

We're I am now (small city in Portugal) the water on the taps is already almost down to a trickle (guess the pumps use power from the grid).

Already cooked two meals worth of fast perishables (i.e. meat) from the fridge just in case the power is down longer than just today and in the expectation that the pumps for the natural gas network also run from the grid.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I would say the contradiction you're showing in that hint at how you cannot genuinelly fight Discrimination by keeping on discriminating people on some characteristic they were born with but changing which "group" gets benefited and it should be instead done via fighting against any Discrimination (i.e. fighting explicitly for Equality for all).

It's funny that the only place in the UK I worked in which had gender quotas was the most sexist of them all and women working there were assumed and treated as implicitly less competent than men and even, in some cases, as de facto little more than eye-candy for management (something which was fair for some but unfair for others). Meanwhile my experience in The Netherlands which is way more equalitarian than the UK was very different when it comes to gender discrimination (or discrimination of trans people or of people with minority sexual orientations).

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, that's not so bad then as this case can still be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights then.

I distinctly remember how one of the "benefits" Brexiters claimed for leaving the EU was not having to be a member of the Euopean Convention of Human Rights anymore (which is mandatory for all EU members), so I'm pleasantly surprised the UK hasn't left it yet (I was an EU immigrant in Britain and left the country just before Brexit and didn't really keep up with British politics since).

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

From having lived in several countries in Europe, including the UK, I would say that Britain is the closest we have here to the US when it comes to being a deeply flawed Democracy, possibly worse than the US since unlike it, Britain doesn't even have a written constitution, so just about everything can be changed with a law passed by a simple parliamentary majority (of 50% + 1) and as the UK has a First Past The Post electoral system said majority can be had with a mere 34% of votes cast (the current government has such a parliamentary majority with only 33.7% of votes), which given the typical level of Parliamentary Elections abstention over there is less than the votes of 1/4 of voters.

Britain has wonderful propaganda helped by some really weird elements like the local elites sending their children to schools were they learn the fine arts of "managing apperances" (learned behaviours which in many other countries would be considered dishonest and deceitful) plus a media industry which is World class (probably the best Theatre industry in the World, IMHO) often used to project a very good image of the country (its almost a joke how every couple of years, almost like clockwork, out comes a new film about WWII portraying Britain as a great country), so from the outside most people have a good impression of of that country, but if you're living there and get involved in Politics and really learn about their system, the more you learn the less Democratic it seems.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The UK doesn't even have a written constitution, so everything, including "Rights" is really just one parliamentary majority (which with the country's First Past The Post system can be had for as little as 34% of votes cast, which taking in account the typical levels of abstention means the approval of less than 1/4 of the population) or one Supreme Court decision away from being nullified.

Back when the UK was still a member of the EU (to be an EU member one MUST be a member of the European Convention Of Human Rights), this kinda stuff ended up in the European Court Of Human Rights (which is not an EU court, but instead is the court of last resort for members of the European Convention Of Human Rights), but nowadays maybe that's not so (I'm not sure if the meanwhile after Brexit the UK has already left the European Convention Of Human Rights, but being able to leave it was one of the things the Brexiters claimed was a "benefit" of leaving the EU).

(Edit: it turns out the UK is still a member of the Council of Europe and hence the European Convention Of Human Rights, so maybe this can still be appealed to the European Court Of Human Rights)

I've lived in a couple of countries in Europe, including the UK, and found the UK the be the least Democratic of all (frankly I'm not even sure what they have is a real Democracy rather than a "managed" Theatre Of Democracy to keep the riff-raff thinking they have real power).

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The sheer perfidy of the Norwegians, with their dastardly scheme to lure researchers away from US universities ... by not treating them like shit.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I think it's more that the British Press in general is pretty political, heavy on the spin and hence one of the least trusted in Europe by the locals themselves.

When it comes to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine - which is very politically and geostrategically significant for the UK government - the level and direction of the bias of the BBC is no different from the Euromaidan Press hence for those who think the latter is not a "serious source", the former is also not a "serious source".

Mind you, on different subjects which are not related to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine (such as the Israeli Genocide in Gaza) I fully expect the Euromaidan Press is often less biased (on this specific example, significantly so) than the BBC.

Just because the BBC is posh doesn't mean they're honest (in fact from my own experience living in the UK, posh more often than not means fake. manipulative and dishonest)

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Whilst you're absolutelly right that not everybody outside the US follows what's going on in the US, it makes sense to expect that the universe of people who have the money and inclination to go spend a whole month travelling in the US AND are not at all aware of what's going on in the US, is miniscule - if you're a middle class person in a wealthy enough country (hence you can afford the plane ticket and the costs of 1 month worth of accomodation and travelling around the US), who can speak English and who is interested in the US that you want to spending a whole month travelling there, you're almost certainly paying attention to all things America and since what's has been popping up in the news all over the World, you're almost certainly aware of that.

I mean, I can understand how poor people in Latin American who would want to immigrate to the US by walking all the way there might not be up to date with what's going on in the US or at least fully understand the implications, but that doesn't make sense for actual European tourists who can afford to and chose to fly there and spend an whole month there.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Those holding the Power Of Money will keep on using it as long as it has value to make sure they are alright (and screw the rest) hence they'll keep on propping-up and buying out whomever controls Force and when those lose that control they'll directly prop-up and buy out the yielders of Force.

Sure, they would've preferred it for the many to pay the full costs of formal yielders of Force whose main jobs is protect the holders of the Power Of Money and their assets from the rest - the way the system still works right now - but they can easilly afford to pay the yielders of Force directly if they have to.

Further, even if Money loses its value and hence its power, they'll fall back to using what's produced by the Assets they own (for example, food produced in fertile land) to pay the yielders of Force: in a total societal collapse (which, frankly, is unlikely) you can bet that the moneyed classes will use whatever power their money has left to either flee to places were society is not collapsing or setting themselves up as the Warlords of the subsequent age.

Anyways, the point anchoring my free thinking about this is that they'll try to keep the very same ownership, dependency and control loops going, just at smaller and smaller sizes (i.e. instead of the society-wide "people have no option that directly or indirectly work for the owners of everything to pay for the place they live in and the food they eat who cost what they cost because just a few own everything" you'll have a smaller sized version of it with a landowner whose land produces food and who uses that food and living areas in that land to pay a couple of armed people to stop the rest from taking the land and the food, so a smaller version of the societal loop we have now were the very people being exploited by money are the ones indirectly giving money the power to exploit them).

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