speak easy

speak easy's Journal

June 10, 2021

Today, Lorde released new music as hippy as anything that has been released

and it is not being ridiculed. (amazing)

Lorde’s new song ‘Solar Power’ is a gorgeous, sun-kissed rebirth
https://www.nme.com/reviews/track/lorde-new-song-solar-power-review-2966226

Come on and let the bliss begin
Blink three times when you feel it kicking in

There must be something in the air down in New Zealand ... Oh yeah ... an enlightened, progressive government.

June 8, 2021

WaPo: Amazon is about to share your Internet connection with neighbors

Amazon is about to share your Internet connection with neighbors. Here’s how to turn it off.

There’s an eyebrow-raising technology buried inside millions of Amazon Echo smart speakers and Ring security cameras. They have the ability to make a new kind of wireless network called Sidewalk that shares a slice of your home Internet connection with your neighbors’ devices.

And on Tuesday, Amazon is switching Sidewalk on — for everyone.

I’m digging into my settings to turn it off. Sidewalk, which is built into Amazon devices dating back to 2018, raises more red flags than a marching band parade: Is it secure enough to be activated in so many homes? Are we helping Amazon build a vast network that can be used for more surveillance? And why didn’t Amazon ask us to opt-in before activating a capability lying dormant in our devices?

I recommend you opt out of Sidewalk, too, until we get much better answers to these questions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/07/amazon-sidewalk-network/

How to turn off sidewalk, open the Alexa app, and go to settings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/07/amazon-sidewalk-network/#HOWTO

June 6, 2021

The U.S. president could be the Queen of England?

Actually yes. Very, very, very unlikely, but theoretically, yes

Meghan and Harry's daughter was born on Friday in California. She is Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, 8th in line for the English throne., Barring some unimagnable catastrophe, Lili will not be queen, but as a natural-born U.S. citizen she would be eligible to run for the presidency if she meets the age and residency requirements.

Meghan and Harry welcome baby girl, Lilibet Diana
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/06/europe/meghan-harry-baby-girl-news-intl-scli/index.html

June 5, 2021

G7 nations reach historic deal to tax big multinationals

Source: Reuters

A group of the world's richest nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to close cross-border tax loopholes used by some of the world's biggest companies.

The Group of Seven said it would back a minimum global corporation tax rate of at least 15%, and put in place measures to ensure taxes were paid in the countries where businesses operate.

"After years of discussion, G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age," British finance minister Rishi Sunak told reporters.

The accord, which could form the basis of a global pact next month, is aimed at ending a decades-long "race to the bottom" in which countries have competed to attract corporate giants with ultra-low tax rates and exemptions.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/g7-nations-near-historic-deal-taxing-multinationals-2021-06-05/

May 29, 2021

Is this America?

https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1398372966640013315
As Chris Rock said - this train is never late.

May 24, 2021

Dropping this one here : 'Hope ur ok'

A song released a few days ago by Olivia Rodrigo

Well I hope you know
how proud I am you were created
With the courage to un-learn
all of their hatred

May 20, 2021

The GOP's Big Lie is not a means to an end - it is the Destination - it is Totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism is a lie. Totalitarian regimes don't use lies - they are a lie - the biggest lie - that the leader is always right, was always right, and will be proven right in perpetuity: It is a lie that has nothing to do with truth or facts. It is the assertion of unconstrained power. Whatever the leader does, he was/is/will be proved right. Nothing must stand in his or her way. That would be wrong / criminal / treasonous.

The Origins of Totalitarianism
Hannah Arendt, 1951. pp 499-500.

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds.

Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

What had been a demonstrable reaction of mass audiences became an important hierarchical principle for mass organizations. A mixture of gullibility and cynicism is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements, and the higher the rank the more cynicism weighs down gullibility.

The essential conviction shared by all ranks, from fellow-traveler to leader, is that politics is a game of cheating and that the ‘first commandment’ of the movement: ‘The Fuehrer is always right,’ is as necessary for the purposes of world politics, i.e., world-wide cheating, as the rules of military discipline are for the purposes of war. The machine that generates, organizes, and spreads the monstrous falsehoods of totalitarian movements depends again upon the position of the Leader.

To the propaganda assertion that all happenings are scientifically predictable according to the laws of nature or economics, totalitarian organization adds the position of one man who has monopolized this knowledge and whose principal quality is that he ‘was right and will always be right. To a member of a totalitarian movement this knowledge has nothing to do with truth and this being right nothing to do with the objective truthfulness of the Leader’s statements which cannot be disproved by facts, but only by future success or failure.

The Leader’s statements ... cannot be disproved by facts, but only by future success or failure And here is where Totalitarian regimes closes the circle. Failure is success. The chocolate ration was increased from 4 ounces to 3 ounces. Trump won the election in a landslide. These are not individual lies but expression of the Big Lie: The leader is right, everything else is wrong because anything else would constitute a constraint on his power - which totalitarianism denies as rule number one.