LeFantome

joined 2 years ago
[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

First of all, how were the “specific Republican states” chosen as targets by Canada? Are these the states where data shows the greatest malice for Canada to be focussed? Is Canada trying to target individuals in fairness. No, it has nothing to do with that.

The retaliatory tariffs are chosen to cause pain in the US without too much pain for Canadians (where Canadians can easily find substitutes). Mostly, they were chosen in the hopes that the individual States will apply pressure on the US administration to change policy. In other words, the most effective tariff targets will be States that actually like Canada and hope federal tariffs get dropped but where Canada can do immediate economic harm too. It is not Canada targeting only the bad guys like you seem to be implying. Do we target individual States to drive changes in their individual policy? No. Talk about an “overly simplistic take”.

Trump did not win because of his popularity. He won with the support of 31% of the voters. It is largely a story of people not bothering to show up to stop him.

So, while I do not vilify any particular individual American and do claim to know their mind, I also don’t have a lot of sympathy for the “it is not the people” talk either. This shit has a real impact in my world and 2 out 3 Americans are directly implicated in the result. As a group, they are absolutely culpable.

In addition, saying “people did not understand” is a weak argument. Trump was pretty vocal and explicit. At best, this is just a “I could not be bothered” argument. I could not be bothered to be informed means “I could not be bothered to defend my democracy”. Not a great defence.

But that is not even what matters. What matters is that they are, collectively, attacking me and mine. I am supposed to ignore that?

If you go to war and you find yourself engaged with enemy troops, you do not pause to consider the possible philosophical positions of each individual enemy soldier. The opposing military is either at war with you or it isn’t. It is attacking you or it is not. It does not matter if it is composed of hundreds of thousands of human beings. You need to treat it as a singular entity with the strategic, tactical, and policy goals of the leadership. You do not choose targets based on the ideology of the people being targeted. You choose targets that do damage to the enemy, to apply leverage against them in the hopes of driving them to capitulation. This is not some sort of “simplistic take”. I am not writing an academic paper identifying underlying causes. I am defending against aggression. A real attack. One with consequences.

Many of my friends in America do not like Trump and did not vote for them. That is nice. They can come visit me and some have. Good people. That does nothing to protect me from the government that acts in their name. So, I will absolutely boycott and act in opposition to their economy and their county at every opportunity. If the administration changes or radically changes their current policy of aggression, my position could change. Until then, it is not that complicated.

Should I let my country fall to the invaders because some of them might not agree with the invasion? In my view, that would be the truly naive position.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

There are already areas where you pick-up at the post office (nearby) and super mail boxes already mean a huge fraction of delivery is no longer door-to-door.

We do not need to reduce coverage more than we have. Postal service is essential.

I think it is viable to ask about frequency. So no thing like 3 days a week works just as well for what postal service is used for in this day and age while costing quite a bit less.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

Do we really need daily door-to-door delivery?

I think you could go down to 3 days a week.

Physical mail delivery is still vital but we have many, many communications alternatives available to us now.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I agree with you about what Americans think. However, Canada must deal with the United States as a single entity. At the moment, the United States is acting as an enemy. Until that changes, how some Americans think about it is not what matters.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 11 points 1 month ago

They have two arguments:

  • congress has the power to tax (tariff), not the president

  • congress has previously granted the president “limited” powers for “targeted” tariffs in an “emergency”. The current situation is none of those things.

  • combine the above two and Trumps across the boards tariffs are unlawful and therefore void

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

I am a happy Wayland user but I do have nostalgia for some of these window managers.

My very first UNIX experience was on Sun workstations running Open Look. And my first moment getting X working on Linux at home allowed me to apply the TWM config from these machines and feel like I had my own Sun. Many people cut their teeth on CDE (MWM). The versions on Linux are not just look-alike but the “real deal”. This is the actual code that was running on big iron all these years ago.

Perhaps the biggest loss is FVWM. People still use it and it is the base for other stuff (like NsCDE).

I have no doubt that somebody will make an FVWM Wayland compositor at some point. No doubt there will be something like NsCDE available too.

Some of these experiences are available on Wayland already. Wayland Maker for example: https://github.com/phkaeser/wlmaker

Sadly, I doubt there will ever be another Open Look.

But so few people use these environments that it is effectively zero. The article says Open Look will not run on 64 bit. The reason NsCDE exists is that, even for fans, CDE is not practical. You will always be able to “run” them, even if only in a VM. So, they will not be gone.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 8 points 1 month ago

Totally agree with this.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

That happens to me constantly

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

That and every Stargate planet is Vancouver

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Capitalism is fine with it actually.

The issue is that there will be too many old people and not enough young people to support them.

But old people have most of the money. So, lots of money will still be spent. Capitalism will be fine. Sure, some old people will have no money and bankrupt their children. But capitalism does not care about that.

It would have been a bigger problem before AI and robotics. But capitalism will shrink the workforce faster than birth rates.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 17 points 1 month ago

Watch a bear do it and repeat what they do

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not according to the Free Software Foundation.

Also, Red Hat contributes more GPL code than Debian does.

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