Banned for 5 years: https://ground.news/article/french-court-bans-national-rally-leader-marine-le-pen-from-running-for-office-after-embezzlement-conviction

Behind the Bastards had a Christmas special non-bastard episode on the Tupamaros of Uruguay and Pepe Mujica. It does seem like they have some decent politics there.

I get the premise, it just seems silly. If a foreign company wants to give you steeply-discounted stuff, it seems like you ought to take the cheap stuff and enjoy it rather than worry about being unable to sell the same stuff as cheaply.

Why would you want to reduce imports anyway?

“China is sending us cheap cars! What are we gonna do?!”

Idk man, drive the cars and use the money you saved for something else? Seems like a good deal to me.

Guys, not cool! You don’t do this part publicly. You have each company petition privately.

If Trump likes them, they get an exemption and get to raise prices anyway while going “Hoo boy, those tariffs, huh? Real shame. But what can you do?”

thousand’s*

Wind of change: did the CIA write the cold war’s biggest anthem?

Aaaand he went back on it already.

https://ground.news/article/trump-will-not-impose-50-canadian-steel-aluminum-tariffs-tomorrow-says-top-trade-adviser

Curtis Yarvin “joked” that we should turn poor people into biofuel, so…

The dichotomy of “freedom to” and “freedom from” is pretty well-worn territory in philosophy, although there are many different formulations of it (including options beyond just these two), but the simplest model is this:

“Freedom to”: The protected right to do something, like fire a gun in the air.

“Freedom from”: The enforced guarantee that you will not be impacted by the actions of others, like your neighbor’s falling bullets.

An egalitarian society can’t grant “freedom to” all actions to all people while also guaranteeing them “freedom from” the consequences of all others’ actions.

If I have the freedom to drive a monster truck on any public motorway, I necessarily lose the freedom to walk those streets without worrying about monster trucks.

The only way around it is to have a privileged class that has extra “freedom to” do things when the consequences mainly impact the underclass, and extra “freedom from” the actions of the underclass.

Like, most states allow you the “freedom to” openly carry a firearm, but also employ police to protect your “freedom from” people being an immediate threat to your life.

In theory, you can’t have both. So in practice, this means that only white people get to openly carry guns. Black people get disarmed or shot.

—

That said, I’d disagree that labor freedom reduces economic security in general, but if you got more specific I’m sure there are some instances where that’s true.

Just specifically don’t take an employer’s word when they say “if you unionize we can’t protect you anymore”.

Doctorow likes to put it as “hitting them right in the dongle”.

(Copy-pasting from another thread)

I like Cory Doctorow’s plan.

The reason Canada got tariff-free access to sell to the US in the first place? Canada agreed to enforce penalties for tampering with digital locks, following the premise of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act.

If the US is going back on the deal, then Canada should too. Make it legal to jailbreak all US tech.

Doctorow advocating for this plan:

• On Democracy Now
• On his blog
• On his podcast
• In the Ursula Franklin lecture at the University of Toronto’s Innis College (I especially enjoyed this one, but it is the longest)

Yep, I caught that one too. He’s a fantastic orator. He’s got an endless arsenal of one-liners.

I added a link to that and some other instances where he’s made this argument.

I like Cory Doctorow’s plan.

The reason Canada got tariff-free access to sell to the US in the first place? Canada agreed to enforce penalties for tampering with digital locks, following the premise of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act.

If the US is going back on the deal, then Canada should too. Make it legal to jailbreak all US tech.

Doctorow advocating for this plan:

• On Democracy Now
• On his blog
• On his podcast
• In the Ursula Franklin lecture at the University of Toronto’s Innis College (I especially enjoyed this one, but it is the longest)

So many great opportunities for light rail around here, especially because of the geographical constraints. If there were big subsidies for doing it, I think the city would get interested.

Bob’s Burgers

I like how every single character is incredibly weird in at least one way, but their weirdness is usually a source of joy and hardly ever used as the butt of a joke.

Except for the last season. There are some lines that really feel like the writers talking to themselves about how they painted themselves into a corner.

Crazy idea:

If copyright was invented to prevent printers from scooping authors’ work and out-competing them for sales…

Maybe copyright should only apply if you’re trying to compete with the author?

So like, not if you’re just a lowly individual trying to keep up with the references all of society is making, or understand the world you live in.

A cheap ARM laptop.

Pinebooks have been sold out for ages, and then it’s a massive leap up to MNT Reform or Copilot+.

I just started watching eBay for used Pinebooks, but nothing has popped yet.

Edit: Actually, there are some decent options for Snapdragon 7/8 refurbs on Amazon. Mass market brands can be so hit or miss by model, so this’ll take some research, but it looks like there are 20-30 results to consider.