@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social
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HighlandLawyer

@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social

Law, IT, & other stuff.
North Scotland

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ZachWeinersmith, to random
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So, after putting it down for many years, I'm back to trying to read HG Wells' corpus. Interesting thing: all of his famous, lasting, books were published between 1895-1899, when he was aged 29 to 33. There are other novels, lots of philosophical and political thought, but so far I would say none of it comes close to that first few years.

Having read lots of it my feeling is that he was very smart but used up his original ideas quickly and his political thought verged on silly.

HighlandLawyer,
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@ZachWeinersmith Part of the zeitgeist at the time; at least he was imposing restrictions on his technocratic leader class.
On a related topic, the 1936 film adaptation of The Shape of Things to Come... stylish AF but politically <ouch/>

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

Having one of those fun days at work where I have to ask "hey, is the edison cylinder phonograph supposed to be on?"

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@foone Thought you would have a hand-crank punched tape music box.

RichardJMurphy, to random
@RichardJMurphy@mas.to avatar

The Greens were the biggest winners in the local elections, so why aren’t they getting fair air time? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/07/the-greens-were-the-biggest-winners-in-the-local-elections-so-why-arent-they-getting-fair-air-time/
Proportionately, the Greens won most seats at the recent local elections, but they are denied airtime, and we get Reform instead. Why?

HighlandLawyer,
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@steviesyerda @OliverNoble @simon_brooke @Kellys
Except the establishment in England would keep all those symbols; they've already said that England & Wales would be the "continuing state" of the UK, with Scotland as a new state, so would keep the name, flag, UN seat, treaty obligations, etc. Essentially they'd ignore Scotland, which is already happening with the common use of "UK" when they mean England only.
Any change in England would have to be pushed from the bottom up.

HighlandLawyer,
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@fitheach @steviesyerda @OliverNoble @simon_brooke @Kellys
Yes, it's not a particularly wise decision on the part of UK/E&W, but it's what they're determined on. Having two successor states with no continuing state would probably be a much better outcome for E&W, but hey if they want sole responsibility for the national debt & all treaty obligations, while giving Scotland a completely clean slate, that's their choice. Don't blame us if English voters subsequently crucify them for it.

RejoinEU, to random
@RejoinEU@mastodon.online avatar

The Daily Heil doesn't approve of our choices of elected representatives.

This fash-rag supported the Nazis, and evidently nothing has changed except the first name of the Rothermere-of-the-day.

This front page is (yet another) subversion of our democracy, demonstrating that the time has come to take the UK print press out of the hands of press-baron "proprietor" oligarchs, in favour of Boards of Trustees.

HighlandLawyer,
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@RejoinEU
Scottish Daily Heil running a completely different story, though same politics of course.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Every Chinese Food Recipe:

Heat wok to 4 billion degrees.
Add one atom of oil, any kind.
Add garlic and onions.
Add black sauce of doom 1.
Black sauce of doom 2.
Chilies.
Black sauce of doom 3.
Protein.
Raise heat to 6 billion degrees.
Plate.
Garnish with scallions.

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@ZachWeinersmith You missed the ginger

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

My local bank manager wears a cowboy hat and calls himself the Loan Arranger.

HighlandLawyer,
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@dgar But the repayment department wants you to call them Pronto

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

New blog entry: On mistaking a transient state for a permanent one: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/05/on-mistaking-a-transient-state.html

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross In terms of long term infrastructure, that gives a use case for "space manufacture" in the form of a permanent structure for receiving, recycling, & processing satellites. Pull old satellites out of orbit, open them up for a refurbish with updated tech & refuel, pop them back into orbit; no need to go in & out of the gravity well per satellite, simply send & recieve bulk materials to the station.

Finally a plausible excuse for an L5 O'Neill cylinder!

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot avatar

Overheard from a passer-by just now:

“There’s one in Dornoch. There was one in Tain, but it got vandalised.”

You can now join me in wondering what they were talking about.

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@simonvarwell
Public toilets? The ones in Tain were vandalised last year. Total guess though, could be many things.

kaia, to random
@kaia@brotka.st avatar

weekly reminder what they took from us: sealable USB sticks :sadcat:

HighlandLawyer,
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@fzer0 @kaia @cstross But it needs a little well or indentations to hold the wax; on a smooth USB stick the whole seal can slide off cleanly.
Now you can put a USB stick in a paper envelope & apply the seal to the envelope, but that's using extra resources & isn't so elegant.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

My current nightmare is that the Tories will be hammered so hard this Thursday that the back benches will run a leadership challenger against Sunak ...

… And the party rank and file will then vote Liz Truss in again as party leader.

She's had a year to lick her wounds and work out what she did wrong, and in her tiny mind it can only be that she didn't do everything fast enough and hard enough.

So we'll get a Liz Truss equivalent of the US Republicans' Project 2025.

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross
Plus it's actually 100% of current civil servants, because there's no place for civil service neutrality; those 20% of jobs will be given to sound political supporters of the govt in restoration of the "spoils" system.

simon_brooke, to random
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot avatar

"this is why any government in Holyrood is destined not to deliver. It can't, because London created a system that was bound to fail as a way of securing continuous control whilst ensuring that blame would be directed inward in Scotland itself, as might well happen now" -- @RichardJMurphy

#ScotPol

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/04/26/scotlands-political-problem/

HighlandLawyer,
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@MadeyeTheCarnaptious @simon_brooke @iaruffell @RichardJMurphy
The "failure" of the SNP has been (understandably) to fail to accept that Westminster isn't going to follow democracy & rule of law any more, & develop extra-constitutional tactics to make progress eg civil disobedience or whatever.
OTOH should that task fall to the SNP, or is it the job of the wider independence movement?

HighlandLawyer,
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@MadeyeTheCarnaptious @simon_brooke @iaruffell @RichardJMurphy
I'm inclined to agree; it's generally unionists who claim the SNP is the entirety of the demand for independence, attempting to lead the general population astray. But I've also seen independence supporters who seem to think the SNP should be the entirety of the independence movement.

HighlandLawyer,
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@simon_brooke @ferryoons @MadeyeTheCarnaptious @iaruffell @RichardJMurphy
We currently have the SNP & the Greens as indy parties, giving voters a choice of politics. Would splitting the SNP into a left & a right wing party really give better options AND progress to independence, or would it mean more factionalism & make it easier for the authoritarian and B&S types to infiltrate & come to dominate a "mainstream" indy party? I don't know.

HighlandLawyer,
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@Shivviness @iaruffell @MadeyeTheCarnaptious @simon_brooke @ferryoons @RichardJMurphy More importantly it explicitly establishes whether the majority support independence, which is required as the moral basis of extra-constitutional action.

HighlandLawyer,
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@Shivviness @iaruffell @MadeyeTheCarnaptious @simon_brooke @ferryoons @RichardJMurphy
Or to eg knock down the Anglo-Scottish electricity interconnector. Note this is purely an illustrative example of disruptive non-violent but illegal steps which could be used against a Westminster govt which refuses to accept the democratically expressed will of the Scottish people, and not a call to go do this next weekend.

HighlandLawyer,
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@iaruffell @Shivviness @MadeyeTheCarnaptious @simon_brooke @ferryoons @RichardJMurphy
All of that is true. As is (& Catalonia is another example) that to obtain independence against opposition from central govt, at least 60% of the population must support it first.

HighlandLawyer,
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@MadeyeTheCarnaptious @iaruffell @Shivviness @simon_brooke @ferryoons @RichardJMurphy
Also on a practical note, the UK currently does not have a force like the Spanish Guardia Civil which could control the whole of Scotland by force. That could of course change under a new administration, but it would cost a lot.

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Where is “mid air” anyway?

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@dgar
In the town centre
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KWv1YMs1UzjSNHQ28

mondoweiss, to Palestine
@mondoweiss@social.mondoweiss.net avatar

Since October 7, many in the U.S have have grown to understand how our tax dollars fund the genocide in Gaza. This knowledge is inspiring a boom in an old form of resistance — tax resistance.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/tax-resistance-movement-grows-in-response-to-u-s-support-for-gaza-genocide/

#Palestine #Israel #Gaza
@palestine @israel

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@DrALJONES @peterbrown I think you're both looking at different ends of the same issues.
For internal spending, a country can issue its own money to pay for it; so long as it has the actual resources to achieve the goal, money is just a mechanism.
Where the resources do not exist internally, they have to be traded from abroad. A strong currency- issued by a country with lots of resources that other countries might want- can buy in using that currency. Otherwise they need to trade in resources.

DrALJONES, to random
@DrALJONES@mastodon.social avatar

Report

Emory University faculty members stand between student protesters & police.

The protesting students linked arms around a flagpole on campus as police prepared to move in on Friday night.

The day before, 30 people were arrested, including university professor Noelle McAfee, chair of the Emory Philosophy Department.

6.35 GMT Apr 27 AJ updates

..

HighlandLawyer,
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@DrALJONES I think the correct term there is "paramilitary force" rather than "police"

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@DrALJONES @wcbdata Balaclavas were so named due to being provided for soldiers to wear during the Crimean War. So the question is whether one considers soldiers "public servants".

OTOH a fascist state doesn't have "public servants" in the sense of those employed to serve the public; instead it only has "agents of the state" employed to serve the state.

When Robert Peel promoted his proposals for a police force, there was great concern they should be the former not the latter.

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@wcbdata @DrALJONES
As stated in the Peelian principles "the police are the public and the public are the police", the idea being that citizens employed as police are simply being paid to do full time public duties required for community welfare which otherwise everyone would need to do anyway.

shoq, to random
@shoq@mastodon.social avatar

And now another cabal of white men, this time in the Tennessee legislature, pass a bill letting teachers pack sidearms in class.

Another Rubicon jumped like a damn shark.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/tennessee-passes-bill-let-teachers-carry-guns-schools-rcna149068

HighlandLawyer,
@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social avatar

@shoq The Silastic Armourfiends of... Tennessee?

dgar, to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar

Superhero Interviewer: Are you capable?

HighlandLawyer,
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@dgar

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