politics

  • Idiocy in public office

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Politics, Social Media

    There are still over 3 weeks until the disgraced president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump, (also known as the Felon of the Year. Ed.) is inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States.

    However, that has not stopped the so-called Tangerine Tyrant from upsetting other countries around the world, firstly in respect of trade tariffs and more recently in the field of territorial claims and a revived offer to purchase territory.

    As regards the latter, two instances are prominent: Panama and Greenland.

    As regards the former, Trump is of the opinion that Panama is charging US shipping ridiculous fees to use the Panama Canal, and in his usual bullying and bombastic manner, has threatened to seize control the canal if Panama does not reduce tariffs. Furthermore, he has intimated that China could exert increasing control over the canal. In response, Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino has called the claim of increased Chinese influence ‘nonsense‘.

    Even though the US largely built the canal in 1914 and administered territory – the Panama Canal Zone – either side of the passage for decades, Washington finally handed over full control of the canal to Panama in 1999 under treaties signed two decades earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.

    When it comes to Greenland, this is a long-term obsession of Trump’s. He first suggested the USA purchase this Danish autonomous territory during his first term pf office and has recently resurrected the idea. The Greenland prime minister has replied by stating categorically that it is not for sale.

    In both his election campaigns, Trump’s leading slogan has been to Make America Grate Again (or something akin thereto. Ed.) and as has been seen above, this has not gone down well outside the 50 states of the Union.

    Moreover, Trump’s bullying tactics have also not gone down well with the more progressive elements of American society, as can be seen by what some individual has done outside the orange one’s eponymous tower in New York.

    Chalk graffito reads Dear Panama and Greenland - Apologies he's an idiot - America

  • Musk’s Rothermere moment

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics, Social Media, Tech

    Controversial is perhaps too polite a term to describe the political pronouncements of rich man-baby Elon Musk, particularly as he seems to favour marching on his right foot.

    Not content with being best buddies with his latest pal, the disgraced president-elect of the United States, disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump and having a major influence on US politics before the Felon of the Year has even been asked to swear his oath of office, Musk is also now turning his attention to foreign policy.

    This was recently illustrated by his recent cosying up to the far right of British politics in the shape of talks about a significant donation to Reform UK, the private fiefdom (and fan club. Ed.) of the mountebank known the world as Nigel Paul Farage that masquerades as a regular British political party.

    Musk has now shifted his attention to the eastern shores of the North Sea and more specifically to Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently lost a vote of confidence, with a general election due to be held in February.

    Yesterday, Musk posted the following on his increasingly right-wing pretend social media platform.

    Post reads Only the AfD can save Germany

    The AfD (Alternative für Deutschland is described in Wikipedia‘s understated manner as a far-right and right-wing populist political party in Germany, although terming it Neo-Nazi would be more accurate given its rampant nationalism and racism.

    If one accepts that social media today has as much influence now as newspapers had in the decades after the first war, then a clear parallel can be seen between Musk and one Harold Sydney Harmsworth, also known as ‘Lord’ Rothermere, the proprietor of the Daily Mail in the 1930s, a decade when a disgruntled WW1 veteran was making political waves in Germany.

    Following the 1930 German federal election, in which Hitler’s Nazis won 107 out of 577 seats, Rothermere wrote in the Mail that Hitler’s party “represents the birth of Germany as a nation”. This was after the erstwhile Corporal Hitler had made clear his hatred of Jews and belief in racial supremacy in his book Mein Kampf.

    In 1934 fascism had spread to establish roots in Britain in the shape of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, which was founded in 1932 and otherwise known as the Blackshirts on account of their uniform.

    In 1934 Rothermere attached his name to what is doubtless the most notorious headline ever to appear in the Mail, which then as now was telling its gullible readers what to think in the form of a outpouring of praise for Britain’s then nascent fascist party.

    Daily Mail from 15th January 1934 with headline Hurrah for the Blackshirts written by Lord Rothermere

    Rothermere’s support for the Nazis and their policies were evident right up to the outbreak of war in 1939. When persecuted Jews started fleeing Germany after Kristallnacht in 1938, Rothermere’s Mail responded in typical racist fashion.

    Headline - German Jews pouring into this country

    Fortunately, Musk will not be able to distort German politics as he is attempting to do in the Untied Kingdom by waving large amounts of cash beneath politicians’ noses. Foreign political donations are expressly forbidden under German law. What is more, Section 25 (2) no. 6 of the Political Parties Act requires political parties to identify donors paying sums exceeding €500. Party statements of accounts must list donations and contributions paid by elected representatives/officials to an amount exceeding €10,000 euros per calendar year, stating the donor’s name and address and the total amount of the donation received. Furthermore, Single donations in excess of €50,000 euros must be reported immediately to the President of the German Bundestag, who will then give notice of the donation and the donor’s name, online and in a Bundestag printed paper as soon as possible.

    The time has long since past when the UK should have tightened up on political finance to be as rigorous as Germany.

    In the meantime, what effect will Musk’s endorsement of fascists have on the German election in February? One German commentator on social media has already remarked that, apart from financial power being equated with political power, one thing that is not happening in Germany is any discussion that these circumstances are inherently undemocratic and that this influence does not just start with party donations, does not end with the ownership and direct influencing of journalism and the media and thus represents a problem.

    Any thoughts? Leave a comment below.

  • Rotten Apple claims DMA’s interoperability violates fundamental rights

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) writes that interoperability – a key enabler of software freedom – is under serious threat in the EU from vested US technology interests.

    Apple, rotten to the core.Apple has initiated a legal battle against the European Commission to prevent third-party software developers from accessing essential software and hardware functions of Apple devices. The FSFE believes that control of interoperability should not at the discretion of companies like Apple.

    Consequently the FSFE is taking action, intervening in the EU’s action against Apple to defend interoperability and software freedom. The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes anti-monopoly obligations on very large companies like Apple (they are termed “gatekeepers” in the law. Ed.), forcing the likes of Apple to allow interoperability and granting access seekers (app stores, browsers, payment systems, etc.) free-of-charge access to its APIs. The law mandates the same level of interconnection enjoyed by Apple to third-party software developers – something which Apple is trying to avoid. Apple claims preposterously that interoperability in the DMA violates fundamental rights.

    In contrast, the FSFE argues that interoperability is a cornerstone of public interest in digital markets: interoperability ensures that users and developers have the freedom to choose and create solutions that best meet their needs, rather than being locked into a single environment controlled by a dominant market player like Apple. Free software solutions cannot compete with Apple ‘services’ without effective interoperability, as they are denied access to essential functions on Apple devices, resulting in poorer performance and functionality.

  • Amateur human being vs. a real person of the year

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

    This is a time of year when those in the media like to look back over the previous 12 months and come to conclusions about what and who is worthy of remembrance.

    One of these media organisations that does so is Time magazine. Time has been running its Person of the Year featuring a person, group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse … has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

    This year Time’s Person of the Year for the second time (the first being in 2016. Ed.) is none other than the waste of food and oxygen variously described as the disgraced president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump.

    Time Person the the Year, disgraced president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump.
    A man who should be disqualified from the human race for cheating.

    The selection of Trump is not without precedent as far as authoritarians are involved: past persons of the year have included both Adolf Hitler (1938), Jospeh Stalin (1939 and 1942, Chiang Kai-shek (1937 – shared with his wife, Soong Mei-ling) and Vladimir ‘the Invader’ Putin (2007).

    Move across the Atlantic and there’s a clear contrast. The British periodical The New European, which launched in 2016, also selects a person of the year. However, the difference between The New European’s choice and that of Time could not be more pronounced as the former has chosen rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, a survivor of repeated rapes and sexual abuse (as opposed to the sexual predator chosen by Time. Ed.).

    Cover of The New European featuring mass rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot
    Gisèle Pelicot has spent over three and a half months attending hearings of her former husband’s trial and that of 50 other men accused of abusing her.

    Revelations about the mass rape of Mme Pelicot came to light as follows: in September 2024, Dominique Pélicot, a 71-year-old from Mazan in south-eastern France, testified in court that he repeatedly drugged his wife, raped her and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious. Over a period of nine years, from July 2011 to October 2020, Gisèle Pélicot, who was unaware of the abuse being perpetrated against her, was raped 92 times by 72 men while her husband filmed them. The crimes only came to light in September 2020 when Dominique Pélicot was arrested for taking upskirt photographs of women in a supermarket and the ensuing police investigation discovered thousands of images and videos of men raping Gisèle Pélicot on his computing equipment. For three and a half months Gisèle Pélicot, who waived her right to anonymity, has attended court to confront her former husband and her abusers, stating that the story of all these men and their alleged sex crimes must be told in order to end what she called “rape culture”, where sexual violence is so commonplace in society it is almost shrugged off, as well as because Pelicot and the men got away with it for so long.

    Mme Pelicot’s actions have raised her to a feminist hero in seeking justice for the harm done to her, whilst over the pond The Felon continues to evade justice, hiding behind the fig-leaf of his election win.

    Do you have a person of the year or a preference out out of the above two. If so, leave a comment. 😀

    Update 21/12/2024: Prospect magazine has revealed the Felon of the Year has also been named as the Financial Times‘ person the year.

  • Two fingers versus the iron fist

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

    Yesterday Rachel Reeves, a woman whose start-free talents include doing poor chancellor of the exchequer impressions, announced she would use an “iron fist” to squeeze out waste to achieve expenditure savings of 5% in government departments.

    Lisa 'Two Fingers' Nandy, DCMS Secretary of StateHowever, it appears that Ms Reeves’ iron fist has started to show signs of rust and of being ignored by Whitehall departments as the Department for Digital, Culture and Sports (DCMS) has already stuck two fingers up at the chancellor, as shown by revelations concerning its stationery supplies.

    As reported by Scotland’s National today, the DCMS has recently bought two ministerial folders from luxury leather goods manufacturer Barrow Hepburn & Gale at a cost of £594 each. The government is a regular customer of the company, as is the Mountbatten-Windsor family and its hangers-on.

    Nandy’s folders cost a grand total of £1,118. The National helpfully points out that similar leather-bound document holders are available in the House of Commons shop for just £30. The excuse for spending the amount demanded by Barrow Hepburn & Gale is to “enhance“. This enhancement would appear to be at the root of a well-known old adage: a fool and his money are soon parted.

    In a clear case of government by gaslight, a spokesperson has stated it is “entirely focused on ensuring every pound of spending represents the best value for taxpayers, while also increasing investment in our public services and delivering on key growth projects”.

  • Shropshire news – a century behind

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities, Politics

    The impression is frequently given that these modern times are the era of 24 hour news coverage, but that itself can be very misleading, as can what is and how it is reported.

    Evidence for this comes from today’s Shropshire Star website, which features the following headline under the UK News heading.

    Headline reads Unofficial tallies in Irish election suggest some trouble for big figures

    Whilst it is encouraging to see coverage in the regional press of matters of more than local importance, one has to ask the following question of the Star’s editor: what is this doing under the UK News heading?

    When I was a lot younger, I recall being told in school that news of Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 took three months to reach settlements in northern Scotland.

    It seems that news of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 and the subsequent foundation of the Irish Free State in December 1922 has yet to reach Hollinswood Road in Telford where Salopia’s Ministry of Truth is situated.

    NB: The paper does have a separate World News section.

    Update: 17.00h, 30/11/24: In a textbook case of (lack of) editorial perspicacity, there is now a second Irish election story filed under the UK News heading.

    Headline of story on extreme right reads: ‘A positive day for us’ – Social Democrats look set to make gains in Dail

    Update: 01/12/24: There seems to be no end to the paper’s political and geographical ignorance as this morning a third story was posted as UK News.

    Headline to Irish election story Counting to resume in Irish election as focus shifts to coalition permutations

    Additional research has since revealed that the Shropshire Star routinely files Irish news under its UK News heading. Neo-colonialism and ignorance are therefore alive and well in the newspaper of record in my home county.

  • Schleswig-Holstein wants to continue switch to open source

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    Schleswig-Holstein coat of armsThe government of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein is doing further work to implement its aspiration “to consider digital sovereignty holistically” and to switch extensively to free software for its administration, German news site heise reports. Furthermore, it published a strategy (PDF) for “Open Innovation and Open Source” last Monday. The starting signal was the change to LibreOffice as the standard office suite from some 25,000 workstations in April. The new strategy describes the additional measures towards the envisaged “digitally sovereign IT workstation”. This accordingly includes switching to the +1.Linux operating system. This is described as a “suitable and professionally supported” distribution for public sector with a modern, easily adaptable interface.

    In its strategy paper, the government describes the switch to the open ODF (Open Document Format) file format, an open co-operation platform based on NextCloud, as well as Open Xchange groupware with email, calendar and address book as additional measures. In addition to these the plan for “digitally sovereign basic services and specialist services” and a suitable telephony system called Oskar (Open Source Communications Architecture).

    “As frictionless as possible”

    Microsoft Windows, Office, Teams & Co. will be a thing of the past. “The prerequisite for the widespread use of open source products is that the usual functionalities at least function reliably at the same quality,” emphasises Digital Minister Dirk Schrödter (CDU). “We will make the transition as smooth as possible for employees and support the well-planned migration process with training.”

    “Public administration would not be able to function today without smoothly working digital systems,” says Schrödter, promoting the migration. Authorities need “reliable IT components, the purchase of which guarantees freedom of choice, customisation options, competition and control over their own digital infrastructure.” Ensuring digital sovereignty is “at least as important as energy sovereignty”. It is also important to avoid a heavy dependence on proprietary providers.

    “Fundamental change in work culture”

    The state government also hopes for improved IT security, lower costs, more data protection and easier interaction between different systems. An earlier government had set a goal of “completely replacing” Microsoft & Co. in 2017, whilst the previous coalition backed off a bit in 2022, but stuck to the plan in principle.

    The conditions for a switch could hardly be better now, says Schrödter: “The clear trend towards collaborative, location-independent collaboration in the cloud offers a unique opportunity to take the path to digital sovereignty at a time when a fundamental change in work culture is already imminent.”

    Schleswig-Holstein sees the promotion of the regional digital economy as a modern form of industrial policy. “Instead of investing our IT funds in licence fees, we use them to finance development and support contracts,” explains Schrödter. Overall, this strengthens Schleswig-Holstein as a location.

    Other areas of action include the establishment of an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) in the state administration, a strengthening of the DigitalHub.SH, which is intended to connect offices and companies and a stronger focus on more participation via open government with independently verifiable hardware and software. The state also wants to participate in the German Administrative Cloud in order to join the German Centre for Digital Sovereignty (Zendis). The federal government is also pushing ahead with its own open source office suite, openDesk.

  • EU Commission fines Meta €797 mn.

    Steve WoodsPolitics, Privacy, Social Media, Tech

    Meta logoUS technology giants are finding out the hard way that their usual anti-competitive stateside business practices are frowned upon on this side of the Atlantic, particularly in the Berlaymont building in Brussels, headquarters of the EU Commision.

    A few months ago, X, the failing social media site formerly known as Twitter, was notified by the Commission that the latter was in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers (posts passim).

    This week it was the turn of Meta, the parent company of Facebook

    This week the Commission announced it had fined €797.72 million for breaching EU ant-itrust rules by tying its online classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and by imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified advertising service providers.

    The Commission’s investigation found that Meta is dominant in the market for personal social networks, which covers at least European Economic Area (‘EEA’), as well as having national domestic markets for online display advertising on social media.

    In particular, the Commission found that Meta abused its dominant positions in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) by:

    • Tying its online classified advertising service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook. This means that all Facebook users automatically have access and get regularly exposed to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not. The Commission found that competitors of Facebook Marketplace may be foreclosed as the tie gives Facebook Marketplace a substantial distribution advantage which competitors cannot match; and
    • Unilaterally imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified advertising service providers who advertise on Meta’s platforms, in particular on its very popular social networks, Facebook and Instagram. This allows Meta to use ad-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace.

    The Commission has ordered Meta to bring the conduct effectively to an end and to refrain from repeating the infringement or from adopting practices with an equivalent object or effect in the future.

    The fine of €797.72 million was set on the basis of the Commission’s 2006 guidelines on fines.

    In setting the level of the fine, the Commission took into account the duration and severity of the infringement, as well as the turnover of Facebook Marketplace to which the infringements relate and which therefore defines the basic amount of the fine. In addition, the Commission considered Meta’s total turnover, to ensure sufficient deterrence for a company with resources as significant as Meta’s.

    Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of competition policy, said: ” Today we fine Meta €797.72 million for abusing its dominant positions in the markets for personal social network services and for online display advertising on social media platforms. Meta tied its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers. It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match. This is illegal under EU anti-trust rules. Meta must now stop this behaviour.”

  • Badenoch talks sh*t

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Politics

    Kemi Badenoch, official portraitYesterday, newly elected Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch took part in her first Prime Minister’s questions in that role.

    However, the session did not necessarily turn out to her advantage and The Guardian’s political sketch writer John Crace took full advantage of her failings to mock her performance unmercifully.

    However, her lack of political guile was not Badenoch’s only failure at the despatch box yesterday. Her failure to understand the English language was also revealed.

    As reported by Sky News, KemiKaze (as Mr Crace terms her. Ed.) challenged Keir Starmer on remarks made by current Foreign Secretary David Lammy in 2018 about the present president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump.

    The prime minister and the foreign secretary met him [Mr Trump] in September.

    Did the foreign secretary take that opportunity to apologise for making derogatory and scatological references, including, and I quote, ‘Trump is not only a woman-hating Neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath, he is also a profound threat to the international order’, and if he did not apologise, will the Prime Minister do so now on his behalf?
    The remarks in question by Mr Lammy appeared in Time magazine in the year in question under the headline I’m a British Lawmaker. Here’s Why I’m Protesting Trump’s Visit to the U.K.
    Donald Trump balloon in Parliament Square protest in 2018
    Donald Trump balloon in Parliament Square protest in 2018

    Whilst Mr Lammy’s remarks could be regarded as derogatory if one’s politics tend towards the (extreme) right, like Ms Badenoch’s, there is nothing your ‘umble scribe could find in what Lammy wrote for Time that could in any way be described as scatalogical, as per her question from the despatch box.

    Is it possible Kemi Badenoch does not understand the definition and usage of that particular adjective?

    Your correspondent believes this is definitely the case. As anyone with access to a dictionary – be it online or analogue – will confirm, the adjective scatalogical has two meanings, i.e.:

    1. characterised by obscenity or preoccupation with obscenity, especially in the form of references to excrement; and
    2. of or relating to the scientific study of excrement.

    Whilst Mr Lammy condemns Trump in the strongest terms for his racism, misogyny, religious bigotry and other shortcomings, the language used is not peppered with obscenities relating to bodily functions or faeces, so how Ms Badenoch can characterise Lammy’s language as derogatory (it was honest. Ed.) let alone scatalogical is beyond the mental abilities of your ‘umble scribe, unless as intimated in the title to this post, she was using her anus as her major organ of speech. which only serves to emphasise her ignorance.

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