That’s exactly how I do it. I enjoy reading DRM-free epubs on my Kobo, and whenever I finished a book I enjoyed, I buy it from the local sci-fi bookshop. I buy about 90% of all books I read.
You have a SciFi bookshop? Where is it?
Readit NewsIdesmi commented on Anna's Archive: An Update from the Team annas-archive.org/blog/an... · Posted by u/jerheinze
Idesmi commented on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/Y... · Posted by u/cft
von der Leyen is neither experienced nor faceless. She's famous throughout Europe for her gross incompetence, especially having led the German military to ruin. Given that she failed at running a single department in a single state she has no identifiable characteristics that make her qualified for her current role.
She is however notable for being a terrible negotiator and constantly being at the center of corruption scandals. Wikipedia has a sample.
But that is how the EU rolls.
There's no similarity to the US. Congress is the supreme power and originates all law. They might take suggested drafts from the executive branch, but outside of carve-outs where Congress lets the executive branch pass its own regulations, the civil service can only make suggestions for legislation. The EU is backwards: only the civil service can change the law, and the so-called Parliament is reduced to suggesting changes.
I applaud you for being someone who finally talks about European Union institutions with apt knowledge of them, unlike even most news providers.
The structure of the Union is grim. I wish it was different, but how to change it now? It would have to be the Commission itself that suddenly decides that most of its powers need to be delegated to the Parliament.
Idesmi commented on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/Y... · Posted by u/cft
The Commission can ignore amendments from MEPs by simply withdrawing the legislation and trying again, and it does. In theory the Parliament can force the entire Commission to resign at once (not change course), but then it'll just be re-appointed by whatever secret process was used the last time around. The power is hardly useful which is why it's only been used once, IIRC.
In practice the EP doesn't matter. The MEPs rubberstamp everything because they aren't serious politicians with serious ideas. They can't be, because they can't change the law, which means they can't have party positions or campaign on policies. It's fake DDR style politics that pretends on the surface to be democracy, where there appear to be parties and politicians, but they can't actually do anything so the only people who bother to turn up are those who already agree with everything the government is doing and just want to get paid to cheerlead. The EU Parliament is like that: the death of ambition, full of apathetic losers who drift into politics without any real idea of why they're there, or people who are using it as a springboard to national parliaments where some power is still allowed to exist (only in specific areas the Commission hasn't yet taken control of).
So it's all a dummy process designed to look democratic enough to confuse people whilst actually turning Europe into a unified dictatorship.
And it's designed to confuse people. Don't take my word for it. Take the word of the EU's own former leaders who routinely boast about deceiving and manipulating the public:
When people ask politicians today “What will become of Europe?” or “Where is European integration heading?”, we usually give an evasive answer. “We don’t want a super state” that is generally the first thing we say. I must admit that I have in the past often resorted to this kind of thing myself. (Viviane Reding)
Europe's nations should be guided towards the super state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation. (Jean Monnet)
We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided we continue step by step until there is no turning back. (Juncker)
Super democratic attitudes right there.
I sadly agree with what you wrote, but on this point
> The EU Parliament is like that: the death of ambition, full of apathetic losers who drift into politics without any real idea of why they're there
I have to disagree. There are many (or, "at least a few I know personally"? [1]) people who sit in the Parliament with a real intention of making good. Their power is simply null, though.
1. David Sassoli (deceased, ex president), Guy Verhofstadt (Renew), Patrick Breyer (Pirates), to name a few I follow.
Idesmi commented on EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/Y... · Posted by u/cft
> leads straight into the dystopia that Stallman warned us about
IMHO, the push for age verification is just a stepping stone towards requiring a mandatory ID for all social media posts made from EU. Given the current trends against freedom of speech, it's not unreasonable to think that by the end of the decade any site, including HN, might need to link usernames with their respective eIDs in case posts come from EU IP addresses.
> officially sanctioned hardware and software
Right now, if you want to run an alternative OS, it's already an uphill battle to use tons of member state services, as well as to do banking. Even if you have microG available, the situation is terrible. I imagine it's going to become harder. I cannot understand why the European Commission wants to reduce our reliance on FAANG services, and at the same time they make Google Play a de facto standard, reinforcing the mobile duopoly. In this context, free alternative mobile platforms, such as Sailfish, cannot flourish.
> I cannot understand why the European Commission wants to reduce our reliance on FAANG services, and at the same time they make Google Play a de facto standard
You'll be surprised, most of the time it's simple ignorance: the people making decisions don't know everything about everything. Hence democracy comes to rescue.
But the way the European Commission takes decisions is anti-democratic (secret draft documents, undisclosed lobbying, overlooking the role of the Parliament…)
Idesmi commented on Graphene OS: a security-enhanced Android build lwn.net/SubscriberLink/10... · Posted by u/madars
Idesmi commented on Huawei targeted in new European Parliament corruption probe ftm.eu/articles/huawei-ta... · Posted by u/suraci
I believe people fundamentally misunderstand what the EU is and how it works.
Here is what I have learned from people who know the system very well and after working with it myself:
- The EU is designed to be influenced and run by lobbies. And it is in the open and assumed.
- The Parliament is a joke. And you can partially blame the member countries who really do not send their best there, because they know it is joke.
- It used to be that corruption was not a thing in the EU. Just because none of those Commission people would risk their career and benefits, and it was severely punished. So they wouldn't even accept a cup of coffee from you.
Now it does seem things got out of control, at least in the Parliament.
> The Parliament is a joke. And you can partially blame the member countries who really do not send their best there
The European Parliament is not made of countries, nor it is meant to represent national interests. National governments don't "send their best there", because it is the doing of each party in each nation. Sometimes parties that are represented in the EU Parliament are not represented in a member country's parliament.
Idesmi commented on Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance world-nuclear-news.org/ar... · Posted by u/geox
National stereotypes...
Italy's the 3rd largest economy in the EU, and 8th in the world, with an advanced technology sector to boot.
And if they somehow cannot figure it out, their French neighbors most assuredly can.
I am Italian and currently live in Italy, and don't trust my government with building nuclear plants.
As long as the people in power are famous for lying and twisting reality, we should not touch nuclear.
Best thing we can do to influence it is probably to use and fund forks such as LibreWolf, hoping that they are in a position to continue development once Google decides to tell the manager of Mozilla to finally destroy it completely.
(Yes, that is a joke I hope, but if I compare what I think a puppet controlled by Google would do to destroy the Mozilla brand to what Mozillas CEO has been doing, I think there is a lot of similarities.)
Librewolf merely applies a few patches on top of Firefox. It is in no position to maintain Firefox without Mozilla.
Idesmi commented on An update on Mozilla's terms of use for Firefox blog.mozilla.org/en/produ... · Posted by u/ReadCarlBarks
Na, Mozilla will die and Firefox and Thunderbird will get transferred to a community project, Thunderbird survived without Mozilla so will Firefox.
Pretty sure that community project will get overwhelmingly big donations from all over.
A web browser is much more complex software than an e-mail client, though.
Idesmi commented on An update on Mozilla's terms of use for Firefox blog.mozilla.org/en/produ... · Posted by u/ReadCarlBarks