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Links 14/2/2021: Debian 11 "Bullseye" Freeze, Lots of KDE Developments



  • GNU/Linux

    • 5 reasons why I love coding on Linux

      In 2021, there are more reasons why people love Linux than ever before. In this series, I'll share 21 different ways to use Linux. Here I'll explain why so many programmers choose Linux.

      When I first started using Linux, it was for its excellent multimedia support because I worked in film production. We found that the typical proprietary video editing applications couldn't handle most of the footage we were pulling from pretty much any device that could record an image. At the time, I wasn't aware that Linux had a reputation as an operating system for servers and programmers. The more I did on Linux, the more I wanted to control every aspect of it. And in the end, I discovered that a computer was at its most powerful when its user could "speak" its language. Within a few years of switching to Linux, I was scripting unattended video edits, stringing together audio files, bulk editing photos, and anything else I could imagine and then invent a solution for. It didn't take long for me to understand why programmers loved Linux, but it was Linux that taught me to love programming.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

      • Crypto Currency Rates From The Command Line

        As more and more people are buying crypto currency and trading them, the more there is a need to keep with the current rates for these digital assets. Especially since the price of these currencies are on a meteoric rise in the last few months.

      • VibreOffice: Even LibreOffice Gets Vim Emulation

        When you get into Vim, you will want Vim keys everywhere, even in places where it doesn't always make a ton of sense. This is one of those times, today we're looking at a LibreOffice plugging which add Vim emulation albeit fairly redimentary.

    • Kernel Space

      • Linux 5.10.16
        I'm announcing the release of the 5.10.16 kernel.
        
        

        All users of the 5.10 kernel series must upgrade.

        The updated 5.10.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.10.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-s...

        thanks,

        greg k-h
      • Linux 5.4.98
      • Linux 4.19.176
      • IDMAPPED Mounts Aim For Linux 5.12 - Many New Use-Cases From Containers To Systemd-Homed - Phoronix

        Ahead of the Linux 5.12 merge window expected to open at end of day tomorrow, assuming Linux 5.11 is out on schedule, there is already a pending pull request with a big feature addition: IDMAPPED mounts.

        Kernel developer Christian Brauner has sent in the pull request looking to land IDMAPPED mounts functionality as part of the imminent Linux 5.12 merge window. Here is his summary on this big ticket feature that will be part of the next Linux kernel, assuming Linus Torvalds is in agreement with landing this code.

      • IO_uring Will Be Even Faster With Linux 5.12 - Phoronix

        IO_uring has been one of the greatest Linux kernel innovations in recent times. IO_uring for more efficient asynchronous I/O has continued getting faster and introducing new features over the past two years and for the upcoming Linux 5.12 cycle will be even faster.

        Linux block maintainer and lead IO_uring developer Jens Axboe has teased that this I/O interface for Linux 5.12 is becoming even faster with a number pegging it at about 10% faster compared to the prior kernel. A 10% speed-up is sizable considering how much faster already IO_uring has evolved on prior kernels for yielding greater performance not only for disk I/O but of growing interest for network I/O and also experimenting with new ioctls being built over IO_uring.

      • Did Linux Kill Commercial Unix?

        When Dave McKay first used computers, punched paper tape was in vogue, "and he has been programming ever since," according to his biography page at How-To Geek. It adds that "His use of computers pre-dates the birth of the PC and the public release of Unix."

    • Applications

      • Best Media Center Applications for Linux

        This article covers a list of open source media center / home theater software installable on Linux. Media centers can play audio, video and other media files, but they are much more advanced than typical video players. They pack numerous additional features like library management, metadata downloading, streaming server and file sharing. Note that this article only lists media center applications that can be installed on Linux distributions either in client or server form. It doesn’t cover dedicated media center operating systems.

      • Best free alternatives to Photoshop in 2021

        One of the most well-known free alternatives to Photoshop, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP — that’s what it stands for, so get your mind out the gutter) is ideal for photographers looking for something that can keep up with their edits, no matter how simple or complex they are.

        GIMP is overflowing with features, provided you can look past the inability to edit RAW photos, and can invest some time in getting acquainted with the complicated UI, this software will cover all your bases.

        [...]

        And finally, we turn our attention to another free alternative that is highly recommended by photographers. Krita shares a similar look and feel to Photoshop, supports rulers and grids, comes with pre-installed templates, and has a deep set of features and effects to choose from.

        The text feature is far more limited than on Adobe’s paid option, there is no history function, and the app is a little slow at times, but look past those and you’ve got a great editor that won’t set you back any dollars or cents.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Self Hosted forum with phpBB and Raspberry PI

        King of self hosted forum platforms, phpBB has a strong story and is spreadly used. As its name suggests, it is based on php and is so light that you can run your self-hosted forum with phpBB on Raspberry PI

        In this tutorial I’m going to show you hot to install phpBB and configure your very first topic on a cheap Raspberry PI Zero W.

        phpBB is an open source (Licensed under the GPLv2) forum software, built with a bulletin board logic, that can link a group of people or can power an entire website. Its features can be extended using extensions that can be installed and configured with few clicks.

      • MySQL 8.0, change root password | LibreByte

        The root user does not have a password since the authentication mechanism is auth_socket, in this post we are going to set a password for the root user.

      • How to Import and Export Bookmarks in Google Chrome?

        When you find something interesting, the first thing you would probably do is save it. So, the bookmark option makes these things easier for us since we can save some important web pages. Unfortunately, there are instances when we lost our bookmarks. Good thing is that we can actually import or export them as well.

      • How to Remotely Log Out from Google Chrome?

        Chrome is just a web browser. If I tell you about Chrome, then, I describe it as just a sphere of green, red, yellow, and blue colors. But let me give you a short introduction about chrome and how it works as well.

        If you want to search for anything, simply open chrome and write on its search bar. All the related articles about the specific topic you are seeking, within one second, is before you. You are just one search away from knowing about anything, and this makes our work so much simpler.

        Searching is even easier due to its Google voice icon. By just clicking on that mic icon and speaking about a particular thing through it, everything will come in front of you.

      • How To Get A Real Google Search Box In Chrome?

        You might think you are searching on a real search bar in chrome but you’re wrong because it is not real, it’s fake. It will only redirect you to the different browser that you are using. How to get a real search bar? It’s hidden in your settings. But in this article, I will tell you a few simple steps on how to get it. It is so easy to turn on the real search bar icon.

      • Implementing a scheme for system-wide automatic Suspend to RAM in Lubuntu 20.10 | Fitzcarraldo's Blog

        Lubuntu 20.10 is installed on my family’s desktop PC (single-seat, multi-user). This version of the distribution uses the SDDM display manager and the LXQt desktop environment. Previously the machine had Lubuntu 18.04 installed, which used the LightDM display manager and the LXDE desktop environment.

        In Lubuntu 18.04 each user could configure the power manager in their LXDE session to make the machine suspend to RAM if that user was logged-in but had not used the keyboard and mouse for a user-specified number of minutes. The problem with that approach was that, if two or more users happened to be logged-in simultaneously because a user did not log out and another user used ‘Switch User’ in LXDE to log-in, the power manager in a logged-in but unused session would eventually suspend the machine even though another user was still active in a different session. Very annoying. Secondly, if nobody was logged-in and the LightDM greeter screen was displayed, the machine would not suspend to RAM automatically after a period of inactivity; the only way to get the machine to suspend to RAM if nobody was logged-in was to suspend it manually from the greeter screen. I implemented my own fix for both problems in Lubuntu 18.04 (see my previous blog posts How to make LightDM suspend to RAM automatically from the login screen and lock screen in Lubuntu 18.04 and How to stop inactive user sessions triggering Suspend to RAM in a single-seat, multi-user installation of Lubuntu 18.04) but I had to use a different approach in Lubuntu 20.10 because it uses SDDM and LXQt.

      • How to start Firefox Kiosk Mode Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - Linux Shout

        Firefox browser’s Kiosk Mode on Ubuntu or other Linux platforms such as Windows and macOS is a feature that provides the ability to run firefox with a single webpage or site in fullscreen mode so that the user can only interact with what is there on the browser set by the Admin.

        Earlier to enable a Kiosk mode on Firefox we needed some add-ons, however since Firefox 71 that has been changed because Mozilla has integrated this function into its browser. The kiosk mode is intended for use at public information terminals and allows operators to hide menus and controls. In contrast to the full-screen mode, the control elements of the browser cannot simply be shown nor can the mode be exited the user.

        Here we will see the command to activate Mozilla Firefox Kiosk and how to turn off the Super or Win key and other shortcuts in Ubuntu to make sure, the user couldn’t exit the Kiosk accidently.

      • How to Use Bangs in DuckDuckGo (to Search Other Websites) [Ed: But DuckDuckGo does not actually respect privacy]

        DuckDuckGo is a search engine that respects your privacy by not selling your search history or tracking you across the web. It also has a few nifty features, including bangs, which let you search other websites right from DuckDuckGo. Here’s how.

      • How to open Firefox with URL in Linux via command line - Linux Shout

        Do you want to run firefox using a command terminal along with some URL? Follow the given steps on Ubuntu, CentOS, Linux Mint, Kali, Manjaro, or on any other GUI Linux distribution.

        Firefox browser is the default one in almost every Linux operating system because of its open-source GPL license. As we know it it is a graphical user interface browser that can be started with just one click of the mouse. However, for those who want to start Firefox without leaving the command line terminal along with some URL, here is the tutorial on it.

      • How to Install XWiki on Ubuntu 20.04 with Let’s Encrypt

        In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to install XWiki with Tomcat 9, MariaDB, Nginx as a reverse proxy, and Let’s Encrypt.

        XWiki is a powerful and robust wiki open-source software. You can learn more about XWiki on their website.

      • How I print my text documents with fancy colours | Hund

        I often read my plain text documents using cat. For the most part that works just fine, but for some larger documents—especially documents with documentation that contains a lot of headers, lists and folds—it can be somewhat difficult to read the document.

        That’s why I’m using Supercat for things like this. It works just like cat (hence the name), but it also supports colours using regular expressions.

      • How to make Hazelcast’s cluster replication more resilient |

        Hazelcast is an open source in-memory data grid. It is written in Java and naturally it is popular for Java applications but not only.

        In simple words, Hazelcast is like a shared map which you can use across different web applications, each of which might be situated on different network nodes and use this map to share information.

      • How To Install KDE Plasma on CentOS 8 - idroot

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install KDE Plasma on CentOS 8. For those of you who didn’t know, KDE is a well-known Desktop environment for the Unix-like techniques designed for users who wants to have a nice machine environment for their machines, It is probably the so much used computing device interfaces out there.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step by step install of KDE Plasma Desktop on CentOS 8.

      • Ubuntu: search file [Guide]

        Are you trying to find a file on your Ubuntu PC? Want to search for it but don’t know the first thing about searching for files on Linux? We can help! Follow along as we go over various ways to search for files on Ubuntu!

        [...]

        The Ubuntu file manager that comes included with the Gnome desktop is the most efficient way to search for files. It has a robust search that can find pretty much any file or folder, even if they’re in system folders.

        To search for a file using the Ubuntu file manager, start by launch the file manager. You can launch it by pressing Win on the keyboard, typing out “Files,” and launching the app with the “Files” name.

        Once the Ubuntu file manager is open and ready to use, follow the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to search for files.

      • How to reset WordPress password using MySQL CLI - nixCraft

        So bizarrely, I forgot my WordPress admin password, including my login name. I did not add my login details to my password manager either. The container image that I built lacking outgoing email support (SMTP) too. I got stuck. Fortunately, I have full root access to my MySQL/MariaDB server hosted at AWS EC2, and here is how to reset a forgotten WordPress password using MySQL command-line.

      • How to Install and Configure MySQL in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

        MySQL, which stands for My (co-founder Michael Widenius’ daughter name) Structured Query Language, is an open source relational database management system. This RDBMS is supported by Oracle and runs on almost all platforms such as Linux, UNIX and MS Windows. MYSQL is usually the first choice for online publishing and web-based applications. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all use MySQL as their RDBMS. MySQL is part of the very popular LAMP stack: Linux, Apache, MySQL and Python/PHP/Perl.

      • How to Install and Use Putty (SSH Client) on Linux desktop

        Putty is a free and open source ssh & telnet client. Putty is available for Windows, Linux, Unix and macOS. Using putty, we can access the remote servers and switches over ssh protocol. It can also be used to take serial console of remote systems.

      • ADB: How to use it on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, or even in a browser

        The script also works for the latest Macs with the M1 chip, Linux on Chromebooks (here's how to enable Linux on Chrome OS), and Bash for Windows. However, the Windows subsystem for Linux doesn't support USB, so you'll have to rely on a wireless connection. That's only really feasible if you have Android 11 or a rooted phone, and even then, there are some limitations.

      • How to Work with Tables (Select, Update, Delete, Create Table, Alter Table, Drop Table) in MySQL

        MySQL is one of the most commonly used relational database management system (DBMS). It allows you to work very efficiently with large bulks of data. The most important entity of any database is a table and there are multiple different operations associated with this entity with which you can manipulate your data. Therefore, today we will learn to work with tables in MySQL and MariaDB in Ubuntu 20.04.

      • Decision Tree Regression With Hyper Parameter Tuning In Python
      • How to Make a Custom Linux Desktop

        This is the start of New Video Series. Making Custom Desktops and installing them from stock settings.

      • Install Kube State Metrics on Kubernetes

        We are going to deploy a kube-state-metrics service to generates metrics about the state of our Kubernetes objects. The metrics are exported on the HTTP endpoint /metrics on the listening port TCP 8080.

      • Install and Configure Alertmanager with Slack Integration on Kubernetes

        We are going to deploy Alertmanager to handle alerts sent by our Prometheus server. We will also configure Alertmanager to send alert notifications to our Slack channel using Incoming Webhooks.

      • How to Install Google Chrome in Arch Linux and Manjaro

        In this quick beginner's guide, we explain the steps require to install Google Chrome in Arch Linux and Manjaro.

    • Wine or Emulation

      • Wine-Staging 6.2 Drops Down To 669 Patches

        Two weeks ago with Wine-Staging 6.1 it was at nearly 800 patches atop the upstream Wine code-base while for Wine-Staging 6.2 it has fallen to just a 669 patch difference.

        Why did Wine-Staging lighten up so much? Fortunately, the ~100 patch loss is largely due to Wine 6.2 having upstreamed much of the work. Wine 6.2 picked up many patches around WinRT, NTDLL, and WIDL especially.

      • Wine 6.2 Released with Mono 6.0.0 & NTDLL debugger APIs

        The wine team announced the new wine development version 6.2 with a few new features and various bug-fixes.

        According to the release note, Wine 6.2 updated Mono engine to version 6.0.0, with DirectX support.

    • Games

      • Resource distribution puzzle-strategy Mini Countries is out now | GamingOnLinux

        Do you enjoy setting up elaborate production chains and resource management tycoon style gameplay? Mini Countries offers up a very curious take on it all. Note: key provided by the developer.

        Each level offers up, as the name suggests, a mini country. Over time new cities pop up all over the map, and it's your job to satisfy their resource demands. Functionally, it feels quite a bit like Train Valley 2 in the way you're drawing up networks across the map. Here it gets just as complicated with you needing to setup the production, then transport the goods to a city and then deal with the cities that don't have direct connections to resources as you then begin to ferry resources between cities.

      • Crusader Kings III System Requirements

        Take a little looksie below to see the minimum and the recommended requirements for Crusader Kings III on the PC, Mac, Linux and Steam OS.

      • Stadia to see more than 100 games through 2021 | GamingOnLinux

        Despite the rising amount of people believing Stadia won't be around for long, we're into another year and Google have announced that more than 100 games will release for Stadia through 2021.

      • Proton 5.13-6 Released With Better PS5 Controller Handling, More Cyberpunk 2077 Fixes

        The changes appear to be basically the same as what was found in the Proton 5.13-6 RC earlier this week. This Proton 5.13-6 update continues with fixes around the game Cyberpunk 2077, improved controller support for DOOM and other games, better support for PlayStation 5 controllers, the game Nioh 2 is now playable, the VR mode for No Man's Sky is now working, Need for Speed (2015) is now working on AMD graphics, and fixes for game input being active while the Steam overlay is up, among other fixes.

      • Steam Play Proton 5.13-6 is now officially out

        After a rather short testing period with the release candidates only being announced a few days ago, Valve has now pushed out the official release of Steam Play Proton 5.13-6.

        If you're not clear on what Proton and Steam Play are, be sure to check out our constantly updated dedicated page. It's a special compatibility layer for running Windows games and apps from Steam on Linux.

      • Valve’s Proton 5.13-6 Lets You Play Nioh 2 on Linux, Adds More Cyberpunk 2077 Fixes

        The biggest news for Linux gamers since Proton 5.13-5 is that with Proton 5.13-6 they can now play the recently launched Nioh 2 action role-playing game on their GNU/Linux distributions via Steam Play.

        The new Proton release also improves support for Cyberpunk 2077 by addressing more world sound issues, restores VR support in No Man’s Sky, repairs voice chat support in Deep Rock Galactic, fixes sound issues in Dark Sector, and adds better support for AMD systems for DOOM Eternal and Need for Speed (2015).

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • This week in KDE: Plasma 5.21 approaches!

          There are just a few days left before Plasma 5.21 is released, so get ready! And check out all this cool stuff too. Train doesn’t stop!

          Kate’s project plugin now offers you the ability to switch git branches right there in the main UI (Waqar Ahmed, Kate 21.04)...

        • Plasma 5.21 Continues Seeing Lots Of Fixes Ahead Of Next Week's Release

          Plasma 5.21 is due for release on 16 February and as such developers have been busy working on bug fixing for the final stretch of development.

          Many Plasma 5.21 fixes were taken care of this week in time for Tuesday's Plasma 5.21.0 debut. But it's not only been about bug fixing but Plasma 5.22 as well as KDE Applications have been seeing plenty of changes this week too. KDE developer Nate Graham continues providing his concise weekly round-ups of KDE changes for the week.

        • KDE Frameworks 5.79 Released with More Dolphin Improvements, over 300 Changes

          Highlights of the KDE Frameworks 5.79 release include a much-improved Dolphin file manager that now better handles files containing non-ASCII characters, supports displaying of thumbnail previews for .ANI animated Windows cursor files, and no longer crashes when skipping the copy or move operation of a large amount of files in quick succession.

          In relation to the Dolphin file manager, it’s now possible to undo the deletion of a file or folder without unexpectedly overwrite an existing item that has the same name as the undeleted file or folder. Furthermore, when opening a file in a KDE app that was accessed from a web browser and then access the Open dialog again, you won’t see the file’s parent website anymore.

        • You Can Now Run KDE Plasma 5.21 on Your PinePhone with Manjaro Linux ARM

          If you own a PinePhone Linux phone and you’re running Manjaro Linux ARM, you should know that you can now use the upcoming KDE Plasma 5.21 desktop environment for mobile devices by installing the latest Manjaro ARM build featuring the superb Plasma Mobile UI developed by the KDE Community.

          The Manjaro Linux ARM team already updated their Plasma Mobile builds for the PinePhone to KDE Plasma 5.21, the next major of the popular and widely used desktop environment which will be officially announced for the Linux desktop next week on February 16th, 2021.

        • KDE Frameworks 5.79.0

          KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 5.79.0.

          KDE Frameworks are 83 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.

          This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.

        • KDE Plasma 5.21 - New look, new menu, and Wayland 100% usable

          Plasma 5 continues its release cycle, and we are days from the release of Plasma 5.21, a pretty big release if we compare it to the ones that came before. On the menu, we have a bit of a redesign, a new application menu, manu, many wayland improvements, and a whole new system monitor.

    • Distributions

      • BSD

        • FreeBSD 13 BETA2 Released With Working 32-bit Builds, Kernel TLS Offload

          Following last weekend's release of FreeBSD 13 BETA1, the second beta is now available for testing this big BSD operating system update.

          New to the FreeBSD codebase this week has been fixing of issues around their 32-bit builds, updated Ncurses, support for kernel TLS offload is now added and turned on by default, the Mellanox ConnectX-4 MLX5EN network driver is now included by default for the AMD64 generic kernel builds, a null pointer de-reference bug resolved, and other general bug fixes.

      • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

        • Getting Ready to Deploy OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 "Argon"

          Yesterday, the release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 was announced.

          I already downloaded the .ISO and right now I am putting it into a USB drive (with ROSA Image Writer, which makes the task very easy).

        • OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Released For This Linux Distro Built By The Clang Compiler
          One year after OpenMandriva Lx 4.1 released, OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 is now available. Continuing to make OpenMandriva Lx rather unique among Linux distributions is its use of the LLVM Clang compiler by default rather than GCC. Another unique "selling point" of OpenMandriva is its AMD Zen optimized version where the entire package set is rebuilt with Zen optimizations.

          OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 continues with using Clang as the default C/C++ compiler and is shipping with the latest stable LLVM toolchain. New with OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 is its AArch64 (64-bit ARM) port being considered complete. Meanwhile a port of OpenMandriva to RISC-V remains a work-in-progress.

        • OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Linux distribution now available for PC, Raspberry Pi, and more
          As more and more computer users sour on Windows 10, they are increasingly turning to Linux as an alternative. They aren't just choosing traditional desktop Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Manjaro, but Chrome OS too. Yes, folks, Chromebooks run a Linux-based operating system. Make no mistake, Linux is a threat to Microsoft's desktop stranglehold.

          Unfortunately, there are way too many Linux distributions nowadays, making it hard for curious Windows users to pick one. My advice to Linux newbies is to start with Ubuntu -- or a variant of it -- such as Mint or Pop!_OS. As you get more comfortable, you can then begin distro-hopping, starting a quest to find the best Linux-based operating system to meet your needs.

        • Mageia 8 Promises Better Support for AMD and NVIDIA Systems

          The Mageia 8 Release Candidate comes six months after the first beta version and ships with a newer kernel from the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel by default, thus offering better support for recent hardware. Most importantly, this new development release paves the way to better support for AMD and NVIDIA systems.

          To achieve that, the development team enabled the newer AMDGPU open-source graphics driver by default for AMD graphics cards based on the Southern Islands family, such as Cape Verde, Hainan, Oland, Pitcairn, and Tahiti, as well as Sea Islands family, including Bonaire, Hawaii, Kabini, Kaveri, and Mullins.

      • Fedora and IBM/Red Hat

        • Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2021-06

          Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)! Fedora 34 has branched from Rawhide. All changes should be in a testable state.

        • Fedora 33 : Can be better? part 017.



          Today I will show you how Fedora distro Linux can be better in terms of the LXDE environment. Fedora team come with Fedora LXDE on Spins, see this intro: LXDE, the "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment", is an extremely fast, performant, and energy-saving desktop environment. It maintained by an international community of developers and comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard shortcuts, and additional features like tabbed file browsing. Fedora does not have a defined environment because multiple work environments can be set. Today, I will show you how to use the LXDE environment with Fedora can be improved.

        • Ben Williams: F33 updated Live isos Released 20210212

          The Fedora Respins SIG is pleased to announce the latest release of Updated F33-20210212-Live ISOs, carrying the 5.10.14-200 kernel.

          This set of updated isos will save considerable amounts of updates after install. ((for new installs.)(New installs of Workstation have about 1.1GB+ of updates savings )).

        • Survey: Open Source Cloud Technologies Fit Devs Like a Glove | IT Pro

          IBM and O'Reilly conducted a survey that indicated that IT pros favor using open source cloud technologies over proprietary solutions.

        • AI Is Mostly About Business Value, Not Technology [Ed: IBM emeritus promoting hype and buzzwords, not technology]

          A few months ago, Babson College professor Tom Davenport convened a virtual meeting of chief data and analytic officers (CDAO) from a variety of industries to discuss how to best achieve a return on investments (ROI) in AI. “We wanted to learn to what degree these senior leaders shared our perspective that AI faces an important economic return issue, and what, if anything, their companies were doing to address it.” Many participants said that a decent ROI remains a critical issue for AI projects.

      • Debian Family

        • [Debian] bullseye froze softly
          Dear all,
          
          

          Soft Freeze ===========

          Following our release calendar, we have frozen bullseye a bit [1]. That means that from now on we expect all uploads to be small, targeted fixes and no new source packages are allowed into bullseye. Source packages must also no longer add or drop binary packages. All packages will have to age at least 10 days in unstable before they are eligible for migration (including those having autopkgtests). Quoting from the policy:

          """ Starting 2021-02-12, only small, targeted fixes are appropriate for bullseye. We want maintainers to focus on small, targeted fixes.

          [...]

          Please note that new transitions, new versions of packages that are part of (build-)essential or large/disruptive changes remain inappropriate.

          [...]

          Packages that are not in testing will not be allowed to migrate to testing. This applies to new packages as well as to packages that were removed from testing (either manually or by auto-removals).

          [...]

          Dropping or adding binary packages to a source package, moving binaries between source packages or renaming source or binary packages is no longer allowed. Packages with these changes will not be allowed to migrate to testing. These changes are also no longer appropriate in unstable.

          Please note that packages that are in bullseye at the start of the soft freeze can still be removed if they are buggy. This can happen manually or by the auto-removals. Once packages are removed, they will not be allowed to come back.

          [...]

          Don't upload changes to unstable that are not targeted for bullseye. Having changes in unstable that are not targeted/appropriate for bullseye could complicate fixes for your package and related packages (like dependencies and reverse dependencies). """

          State of bullseye =================

          That said, we currently believe the state of bullseye is pretty good, so we're aiming for a record short freeze However, not all is fine. We're pretty concerned about a couple of known RC bugs which need the proper attention of people familiar with upgrade paths as there's potential to leave upgrading systems unbootable and/or without a working apt.

          https://bugs.debian.org/953562 / libcrypt https://bugs.debian.org/974552 / libcrypt https://bugs.debian.org/972936 / libgcc-s1

          We ask everybody to work on fixing the other RC bugs too. http://deb.li/rcbugs has the list we should drive down to zero together. Please try out upgrading your buster systems to bullseye now and report issue you encounter.

          General =======

          As always, talk to us, preferably via the bts, if you experience issues that we need to be aware of or where you need help. Please be aware it's now a very busy time for us, so bear with us.

          Our freeze policy is at [1].

          On behalf of the release team, Paul

          [1] https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html#soft

        • Debian 11 "Bullseye" Begins Its Soft Freeze

          Debian 11.0 "Bullseye" is now under its soft freeze, one month after starting its build-essentials freeze.

          With the Debian soft freeze beginning, all uploads to the Debian archive are to be small, targeted fixes with no new source packages permitted for Bullseye. Existing source packages also cannot add or drop binary packages.

        • Data Suggests CoC + Outreachy Hasn't Helped Increase Female Participation In Debian

          An informal case study suggests that since Debian enacted its Code of Conduct and began participating in the Outreachy internship program hasn't helped in increasing female participation within the open-source project but is actually trending lower compared to the early years of this original GNU/Linux distribution.

          Daniel Pocock who is a former Debian Developer, O'Reilly author, and Fedora/EPEL packager, carried out a "case study" to see if embracing the Code of Conduct (CoC) and participation in the Outreachy internship program has helped increase female involvement with the Debian GNU/Linux project.

          Surprisingly, the data from Pocock points to there actually being less women (including trans) involved in Debian in the more recent years since the Code of Conduct was enacted and Debian's ongoing participation in Outreachy. Pocock looked at the women participation rate (including trans developers) from 2004 through 2013 against that of 2014 through 2020. It was in 2013 that Debian started Outreachy/OPW for the first time and has continued since while their CoC was formalized in 2014.

        • Things Most People Do After Installing Debian

          Debian is a rock-solid distro of choice for many Linux users, both new and skilled alike. It has a reputation of not breaking very often, and because of that, it’s used as a base for many other Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint Debian Edition, Kali Linux, Devuan, Deepin, Raspberry Pi OS, BunsenLabs Linux, Qubes OS, Tails, SteamOS, and many others.

          It’s one of the more mature Linux distros, with its first public release (version 0.01) on 1993-09-15, and its first stable release (version 1.1), named “buzz”, on 1996-06-17.

          Many people know the core Debian tools quite well, although often because they are using a Debian derivative such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint (which is in fact an Ubuntu derivative). The popularity of these derived distros is mostly due to their creators’ small amount of effort making fancy-looking desktop themes, and their large marketing budgets. These distros are not much different than Debian itself, and they all have mostly the same free software available to install in their official online package repositories as Debian.

          Other notable differences include the decision of which of those packages should be installed by default, and which Debian “update stream” they choose to base themselves off of. Debian has three main update streams, each with their own software repositories, which are known as “Stable”, “Testing”, and “Unstable (a.k.a. Sid)”. Stable is regularly audited by security researcher volunteers and other software experts, and any safety or stability issues found in any of the packages available in this update stream are promptly fixed.

          For anyone who doesn’t need that level of safety and stability, it’s usually fine to use the Testing update stream. It can be beneficial in some cases, for example, if you want newer Windows games to work properly with Wine or Proton, sometimes you’ll need the newer Xorg or GPU drivers from the Testing stream for those games to run properly.

    • Devices/Embedded

    • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

      • 9 Best Free and Open Source Key Value Stores for Big Data

        Big Data is an all-inclusive term that refers to data sets so large and complex that they need to be processed by specially designed hardware and software tools. The data sets are typically of the order of tera or exabytes in size. These data sets are created from a diverse range of sources: sensors that gather climate information, publicly available information such as magazines, newspapers, articles. Other examples where big data is generated include purchase transaction records, web logs, medical records, military surveillance, video and image archives, and large-scale e-commerce.

        In the past decade, the world of computing has been transformed. Oceans of data are now not only found in large companies; even some small companies accumulate terabytes of data. Organisations of all sizes therefore have an increased need to handle large amounts of data, and relational databases are stretched to their limits in terms of scalability. We need a solution which helps to achieve scaling and higher availability.

      • How open source provides students with real-world experience

        In the movie The Secret of My Success, Brantley Foster (played by Michael J. Fox) expresses the exact thought that goes through every new graduate's mind: "How can I get any experience until I get a job that gives me experience?"

        The hardest thing to do when starting a new career is to get experience. Often this creates a paradox. How do you get work with no experience, and how do you get experience with no work?

        In the open source software world, this conundrum is a bit less daunting because your experience is what you make of it. By working with open source projects sponsored by open source software (OSS) companies, you gain experience working on projects you like for companies that make you feel important, and then you use that experience to help find employment.

      • Messaging Overload - Alan Pope's blog

        Internal company chat is Mattermost, and a couple of other projects use it. I have the Mattermost client open all day every work day, then close it outside those hours.

        [...]

        One open source project I am part of uses RocketChat. I peek into that periodically to catch up, but it’s low traffic, and almost nobody ever directly messages me there.

      • FSF

      • Programming/Development

        • Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppFastFloat 0.0.2: New Function

          The second release of RcppFastFloat is now on CRAN. The package wraps fastfloat, another nice library by Daniel Lemire who showed in a recent arXiv paper that one can convert character representations of ‘numbers’ into floating point at rates at or exceeding one gigabyte per second.

        • Comparisons in Javascript

          Not sure what is the difference between the different JavaScript comparison operators ? When to use ==, ===,!= Or !== ? Follow this article and you will hopefully have all the information you need.

          JavaScript has two ways of comparing values. One form is more rigorous (===), while in the other, a type conversion occurs (==). Example: 1 == ‘1’ (true). 1 === ‘1’ (false).

          Although it is a simple concept, understanding some details about JavaScript comparisons can save you a lot of time.

        • Build a PyQt Application by Example

          PyQt is a very useful library of Python used to develop graphical applications. It uses the Qt GUI framework of Python that is developed using C++ language. The graphical user interface of the application can be developed by importing the PyQt library in a Python script or using the Qt Designer module of PyQt. If you don’t want to write code to implement the GUI of the application, then it is better to install Qt Designer and create a graphical user interface using it. The way of creating a PyQt application in Python is shown in this tutorial, step-by-step.

  • Leftovers

    • Ode to February

      Notwithstanding this conditional single day, February is a downer. Can’t blame it on Covid; February is always a nothing-28 days, so arrogant it demands we endure it for an additional 24 hours every four years. I’m speaking not politically, not ecologically but weatherwise. Weather is what demands almost all my energy after two months asserting itself indoors and outside.

      February is an utter vacuum that sucks up everything delightful about winter and obliterates any hint of sweet fragrances that might follow. I glare at spindly, brown branches crowding the hillsides daring them to sprout a single leaf again.

    • The Needed Breakthrough to Commons Consciousness
    • Introducing My New Column: ‘From the Left Coast’
    • Opinion | Connecting the Shots
    • Opinion | Pierre L'Enfant Did It
    • Heeding Germany

      I looked at my phone this morning upon waking up, never a good idea.€  As is the case pretty much every day for me, among the various emails, posts, comments and messages I’m notified about, there are always a couple of disturbing things to read, though most of it is usually friendly.€  This morning’s disturbing message reminded me of a film some folks I know are working on which will be out soon, called€ Time of the Slanderers€ (trailer here), about a German phenomenon known as the Anti-Deutsche, or Anti-Germans.€  Knowing that I have had a lot of personal experience with the Anti-Deutsche, one of the filmmakers made sure to show me the trailer, in case I thought it was relevant to share with people outside of Germany.

      I do, as people who have read much of my writing already know.€  I’d say that unfortunately the Anti-Deutsche phenomenon continues to be more relevant here in the US than it has ever been in my lifetime.

    • Science

      • What If Oumuamua Is the Real Deal?

        Just imagine alien engineers 10.5 light-years away at “Aegir, aka: Epsilon Eridani b” fueling Oumuamua with cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen (the fuel that powers Elon Musk’s SpaceX Raptor) for its big trip to the Milky Way galaxy and expeditions through Solar System Sol with its nine planets, including its exposure to a telescopic view by Earthlings.€ Hmm… wondering what fuel aliens actually use?

        Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object in our solar system. It’s estimated to be between 330 and 3,280 feet long and between 115 and 548 feet wide and dark red in color, and it tumbles.

      • 75th anniversary of ENIAC on 15 Feb, the first all-electronic programmable computer

        Although ENIAC was completed in 1945 and first put to work for practical purposes on December 10, 1945, Wikipedia states "ENIAC was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania on February 15, 1946 and was heralded as a "Giant Brain" by the press."

    • Education

      • Thank You Ingrid Seyer-Ochi

        Take this brilliant subversion of the popular narrative by our teacher: “I don’t know many poor, or working class, or female, or struggling-to-be-taken-seriously folk who would show up at the inauguration of our 46th president dressed like Bernie. Unless those same folk had privilege. Which they don’t.”

        I don’t think we don’t need to spend too much time on why people were triggered by identity politics because I actually think there’s something new going on in this example. But a brief reminder of what continues to resurface. A teacher has the opinion that women and men are treated differently and there is immediate outrage over the “weaponized identity politics” or something. In reality the outrage against the teacher is the best proof that she is tapping into the dynamics of power in a way most of the anti-woke opinion makers don’t get.

      • Opinion | Karen Lewis Lit the Spark That Inspired a Generation of Teachers and Union Organizers

        When you see fire in educators who are standing with students and community to demand justice, look in those flames for her unwavering determination—and her wide smile.

      • Teachers Are Fighting Back Against Bipartisan Push to Reopen Schools
      • Opinion | After Threatening Strike, Chicago Teachers Set "New Standard" With Safer School Reopening Plan

        Hard-fought negotiations and a strike threat led to Chicago teachers reaching the "most comprehensive agreement for reopening schools" in the country, potentially setting a model for other districts nationwide.

    • Hardware

      • Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm Protest Nvidia’s Acquisition of Arm Ltd.

        Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. are among companies worried about the $40 billion deal and are urging antitrust officials to intervene, said people familiar with the process who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. At least one of the companies wants the deal killed. Nvidia shares fell as much as 3.1% in New York trading on Friday.

        The acquisition would give Nvidia control over a critical supplier that licenses essential chip technology to the likes of Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Amazon.com Inc. and China’s Huawei Technologies Co.

      • Microsoft, Google, and Qualcomm are reportedly nervous about Nvidia acquiring Arm

        Nvidia’s rivals argue, however, that keeping Arm neutral and not using its tech to Nvidia’s own gains isn’t what the company would be incentivized to do — especially not after paying $40 billion for it. Restrictions on licensing, however, would hurt the companies that benefit from having the ability to license Arm’s technology. Google and Microsoft are reportedly working on their own Arm-based chips, and Qualcomm’s processors are based on the architecture.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • Biden Plans to Rescind Trump-Era Medicaid Work Requirements
      • Biden Indicates Americans May Need to Wear Masks Throughout 2021
      • Venezuela: an Example of Struggle for Food Sovereignty and Food Security

        A nation is truly sovereign when its people are protagonists in shaping their own destiny, when they are the real rulers that govern their country, and the working class controls the means of production and the production itself.

        We believe that full uncompromising sovereignty is the ultimate goal of a socialist society. That is the kind of society that Venezuela is trying to achieve with the Bolivarian Revolution; one where sovereignty is not only a statement on paper but translates into security in all aspects of life of its citizens. Food most essentially.

      • Super-Spreader Bowl

        The order of the Super Bowl service has long begun with the pre-recorded presidential interview. This time around the game plan called for reassurance. The new Commander-in-Chief lamented the lack of Super Bowl parties and empathized with the impoverished masses, even as he informed them that he wouldn’t be able to get them their promised minimum wage.€  Having spat in the guacamole, affable Joe laughed endearingly at his youthful dreams of becoming a “flanker back” in the NFL.

        Now resting his weary bones in the locker room that is the White House he refused to commit a bet to one team or the other, though he nodded in the direction of the “young guy”—quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs—rather than the Republican ex-Patriot, Tom Brady, now of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.€  While Biden punted on the minimum wage, he took a knee on maximum wage. His man Mahomes, hoping to secure his second Super Bowl title in a row, is the second most highly paid sportsman on the planet, his ten-year contract extension surpassing half-a-billion dollars. There was no risk for the Old Flanker of getting blindsided by questions about income inequality. In contrast to the in-your-face coverage Tampa cornerback Antoine Winfield used to neutralize Kansas City wide receiver Tyreek Hill, Joe knew he would get a comfortable cushion from CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in the first network television interview of his presidency.

      • Fauci Says There Could Be "Open Season" for COVID Vaccines by April
      • The City of Toronto’s Dangerous Game and the Covid-19 Outbreak at Seaton House Shelter

        In April 2020, Brian Cleary (pictured above) developed symptoms consistent with what he knew of Covid-19 symptoms. Brian told staff at the City of Toronto run 100-bed Junction Place homeless shelter, where he was staying, that he felt he should get a test right away. Staff, as Brian recalls, told him not to worry, it was probably just a cold. Junction Place had just opened the November prior (2019) as a way to ease the burden on Seaton House, which formerly had over 500 residents in various programs. That number has been reduced to around 200 due to Covid-19 and as the City had already begun a “George Street Revitalization” project.

        Prone to anxiety and understandably worried, Brian called Telehealth Ontario and was told he most definitely should get a test. He says he requested a mask to make the journey – staff were wearing them at the time already – but was told that it was his responsibility to procure one on his own. “I had chalked little rainbows on my walls, which staff had seen and were okay with, but now it didn’t really seem like that was so true,” Brian told me by phone on Thursday.

      • People Over 75 Are First in Line to Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19. The Average Black Person Here Doesn’t Live That Long.

        MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rosalyn Campbell and her husband, Calvin, are waiting for what may be the most in-demand item on the planet: the COVID-19 vaccine. They both caught the virus in November; Calvin Campbell tested positive just days after he’d been released from the hospital following open heart surgery.

        After a weeklong stint in the hospital, he returned to his job as a buildings and grounds engineer, where he’s on light duty. But Rosalyn Campbell, who also has a heart condition, remains anxious.

      • Applause as Biden Plans to Rescind Medicaid Work Requirements, Targeting One of Most 'Cruel' Policies of Trump Era

        "We celebrate this win—this win that we made happen—even while mourning the loss of every person who relied on Medicaid and didn't survive the calamity of Trump's disastrous administration."

      • Cuomo Still Underreporting the Total Count of COVID Nursing Home Deaths

        Hundreds of COVID-19 deaths among New York state’s nursing home residents still have not been formally acknowledged by the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to the Empire Center, a public policy think tank in Albany.

        Bill Hammond, an analyst with the Empire Center, said recent state disclosures of all deaths of nursing home residents, whether they perished in their facilities or at local hospitals, to date failed to include more than 650 deaths of people presumed to have died of COVID-19.

      • An Eight-Story Fish Farm Will Bring Locally Produced Food to Singapore

        The high-tech facility will produce up to 3,000 tonnes of hybridized grouper, coral trout, and shrimp each year—with an efficiency, measured in fish per tonne of water, that is six times higher than established aquaculture operations in the Southeast Asian city-state, says spokesperson Crono Lee.

        In doing so, the company hopes to become a major contributor to an ambitious plan to boost the food security of the small island city-state, which currently imports 90 percent of its food.

      • Sputnik V Vaccine: NPR's Moscow Correspondent Rolls Up His Sleeve
    • Integrity/Availability

      • Proprietary Software Shoehorned Into the Free Software World

        • Molly de Blanc: Proprietary (definition) – 02 [Ed: Towards openwashing; What happens when you put nontechnical people in positions of power somewhere like the GNOME Foundation]

          I included “copyright and licensing” in hopes that a reader would understand at least one of them. I also wanted to take into account that communities may have other policies (e.g. community guidelines) that might in some way restrict how software is used, shared, and changed. I don’t like “retain control” as a phrase, but it was suggested to me (thanks! If you want credit, just ping me). I think it’s pretty clear about the intention and consequence of proprietary licensing.

          A potential criticism I see is that it’s not clear enough that you must be able to do all three (use, share, and change) in order for software to be FOSS and that restrictions on any of them renders software proprietary.

        • Visual Studio Code comes to Raspberry Pi [Ed: Microsoft now speaks on behalf of Raspberry Pi]
        • Stratodesk One of First Providers Worldwide to Support Windows Virtual Desktop Linux Client on both x86 and Raspberry Pi

          Stratodesk, a leader in delivering VDI, Cloud, and IoT endpoint solutions, today officially announces support for the Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop Linux Client on Stratodesk software for both x86 and ARM/Raspberry Pi devices. Available since the end of 2020, Stratodesk is one of the first technology provider worldwide to support the Windows Virtual Desktop Linux client on both architectures, making it easier and more affordable than ever for enterprises everywhere to connect workers with Windows 10 desktops in the Cloud.

        • Security

          • Hacked Florida Water Plant Found To Have Been Using Unsupported Windows 7 Machines And Shared Passwords

            By now, you have likely heard about the recent hack into a Florida water treatment plant which resulted in the attacker remotely raising the levels of sodium hydroxide to 100 times the normal level for the city's water supply. While those changes were remediated manually by onsite staff, it should be noted that this represents an outside attacker attempting to literally poison an entire city's water supply. Once the dangerous part of all of this was over, attention rightfully turned to figuring out how in the world this happened.

          • The Turris Omnia Security-Focused Open Source Router



            I recently bought the Turris Omnia router. It’s a security-focused router developed by the Czech NIC, a non-profit organization that controls the .cz TLD. It started as a research project for securing home networks. The organization has since launched a variety of hardware devices for secure home networking. At EUR 300, this router is not cheap, but it is indeed quite capable hardware, easy to setup and manage, and comes with the promise of automatic regular updates for the lifetime of the routers.

            Thanks to the generous hardware specs, in addition to being a router, it can also work as a NAS server - running NextCloud, or making file systems available over the network via SMB/CIFS and NFS. It can also run LXC containers to host custom server workloads.

            The OS in the router is based on OpenWrt, with custom UI options in addition to the LUCI interface for management. Both, the hardware specs, and the software are open and easily customizable.

            Setting up the router was very easy. Setting up an external hard disk via the two USB3 ports, or via the mSATA interface is straightforward - and also recommended - to not wear out the internal eMMC chip. Even getting openvpn client as well as server configurations set up was a breeze via the ReForis WebUI.

          • Privacy/Surveillance

            • Bug Smash Fund, Year 2: Progress So Far!
            • After nearly two years, Bloomberg revives tale of doctored Supermicro hardware

              Claims that servers, built by US company Super Micro Computer — known as Supermicro — have been tampered with and found to be sending data to China for many years, have been aired again by the news agency Bloomberg, nearly two years after it made similar claims that were short on proof.

            • Privacy Talks | Interview with TheCyberMentor

              Timestamp Links & Questions:

            • Virginians Deserve Better Than This Empty Privacy Law

              EFF has long advocated for strong privacy legislation. Consumer privacy has been a growing priority for legislatures across the country since California in 2018 passed the California Consumer Privacy Act—a sweeping, first-of-its kind piece of privacy legislation in the country. Since then, several states have considered broad data privacy laws; California amended its privacy law in 2020.

              But not all privacy laws are the same. While California’s law is itself not perfect, a bill in the style of the Washington Privacy Act is a step in the wrong direction—particularly the version of the bill under consideration in Virginia. Bills that follow this model allow companies to appear to be doing a lot to protect privacy but are full of carveouts that fail to address some of the industry’s worst data privacy abuses.

              A strong privacy bill would protect people’s privacy by default

            • Facebook is secretly building a smartwatch and planning to sell it next year

              The smartwatch would have messaging, health, and fitness features, the report says, and would join Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality headsets and Portal video chat devices as part of the social network’s growing hardware ecosystem. Facebook is also working on branded Ray-Ban smart glasses to come out later this year and a separate augmented reality research initiative known as Project Aria, which is part of the company’s broader AR explorations it’s been working on for some time now. Facebook declined to comment regarding any planned smartwatch projects

            • Facebook building smartwatch with health features: The Information

              Facebook's smartwatch will work via a cellular connection, letting users send messages through its services and also connect to the services or hardware of health and fitness companies, such as Peloton Interactive, according to the report.

            • PSA: eBay might not let you sell items without a bank account starting Valentine’s Day

              In 2002, eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, turning it into the way you’d buy and get paid for items you sell on the ginormous auction site. But the once-happy couple has been breaking up for years — and on Valentine’s Day, some sellers may no longer be able to sell items on eBay at all without connecting an old-school bank account instead.

              This morning, I received a final warning that I would need to add a bank account by February 14th or else “your ability to revise or relist existing listings, or create new listings will be disabled.”

            • Google partners brace for hit as search giant threatens Australia exit

              Google and Facebook are fighting the first-of-its-kind "News Media Bargaining Code" as other countries consider similar efforts to aid publishers that have lost ad sales to the tech companies. In a sign of the Australian effort's potential to shake up the industry, Microsoft Corp - whose Bing search engine stands to benefit from any Google retreat - on Thursday called for the United States to adopt a similar law.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • 'Ending US Complicity in the Yemen War Is NOT Ending the War,' Says Ro Khanna

        "The bombing continues. The threat of famine for 16 million continues... We must call on all foreign parties to stop the bombing, funding, and intervention. Only then can we resolve the civil war."

      • Biden’s Half Measures to End the War in Yemen are Not Enough

        Even more important is that the southeast corner of Yemen sits at the point where the Red Sea flows into the Arabian Sea through a very narrow passageway. This would enable the Saudis to control shipping through the Red Sea.

        Furthermore, Yemen has oil that generates revenue from contracts with private producers. Yemen also has natural gas as well as fish, rock salt, marble and small deposits of coal,€ gold,€ lead,€ nickel, and copper. Also, the soil in the west is very fertile.

      • 10 Key Points on Ending Wars

        When a ruler, like Biden, finally announces the end of a war, like the war on Yemen, it is as important to recognize what it does mean as what it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean the U.S. military and U.S.-made weapons will vanish from the region or be replaced by actual aid or reparations (as opposed to “lethal aid” — a product that’s usually high on people’s Christmas lists only for other people). It does not mean we’ll see U.S. support for the rule of law and the prosecution of the worst crimes on earth, or encouragement for nonviolent movements for democracy. It apparently does not mean an end to providing information to the Saudi military on whom to kill where. It apparently does not mean the immediate lifting of the blockade on Yemen.

        But it does mean that, if we keep up and increase the pressure from the U.S. public, from activists around the globe, from people putting their bodies in front of weapons shipments, from labor unions and governments cutting off weapons shipments, from media outlets compelled to care, from the U.S. Congress forced to follow through, from cities passing resolutions, from cities and institutions divesting from weapons, from institutions shamed into dropping their funding by warmongering dictatorships (did you see Bernie Sanders yesterday denouncing Neera Tanden’s corporate funding, and Republicans defending it? what if he had mentioned UAE funding?) — if we increase that pressure then almost certainly some weapons deals will be delayed if not stopped forever (in fact, they already have been), some types of U.S. military participation in the war will cease, and potentially — by protesting all ongoing militarism as evidence of a broken promise — we’ll get more than Biden, Blinken, and the Blob intend.

      • Can Washington Think of Cuba’s Government as Something Other Than Needs to Be Overthrown?

        The “all of them” is the series of decisions that Donald Trump€ took€ in the last four weeks of his presidency including the€ bundle€ of sanctions on Cuba as a poisoned gift for Joe Biden. The€ sanctions€ by the Trump administration against Cuba that began in the spring of 2017 under the€ pretext€ of sonic attacks on U.S. diplomats in Havana—which no one has been able to prove to this day—were escalated just before the end of Trump’s presidency, with dozens of unilateral measures and the inclusion of the Caribbean country in the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

        U.S. Against the Cuban Revolution

      • The Guardian Revealed Its True Face in Sacking a Columnist for Criticising US Military Aid to Israel

        In the tweet below, I have listed a few of the more prominent – and public – examples of journalists who have suffered at the Guardian’s hands over their coverage of Israel. The thread can opened by clicking on the tweet:

      • Opinion | The Guardian Reveals Its True Face by Sacking Progressive Columnist Nathan Robinson for Criticizing US Military Aid To Israel

        We need to understand that old corporate media like the Guardian are not an ally to the left, they are the enemy.

      • Ending the Forever Wars: Phyllis Bennis on Afghanistan, Hyun Lee on Korea

        This week on CounterSpin: Media are soberly reporting a congressional panel’s warning against an “abrupt” or “precipitous” withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, because that might lead to “civil war” in the country. If “spinning in the grave” imagery were real, George Orwell will have screwed himself to the Earth’s core by now. The rest of us can try and puzzle out what’s behind the “more war will lead to peace” argument with Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism project at the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author of Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer.

      • Atlantic Council Braces for Opportunities of Potential Bioterror Attack

        Less than a month away from the one-year anniversary of the pandemic’s official declaration, policy wonks at the Atlantic Council together with former and current government officials are dissecting the “lessons” of the Covid-19 epidemic to advise the Biden administration on the steps to take in order to avert the next disaster.

      • This Is Yemen After Biden Declared An End to American Support for the War

        SANA’A, YEMEN — Seated next to his 13-year-old daughter Hakimah’s bed in al-Thawra Hospital, S. al-Hanishi watches a breaking news report on a small TV screen announcing that the president of the United States has announced an end to U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war on his country.

      • 'Yet Another Cry for Help': UN Report Warns Millions of Yemeni Children Face Acute Malnutrition

        "The increasing number of children going hungry in Yemen should shock us all into action. More children will die with every day that passes without action."

      • Ending the Other War in Yemen

        Stating an intention is not fulfilling it and considering Biden’s further pledge, “to continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people,” his use of the word “relevant” to modify “arms sales” could indicate a convenient loophole. Still, it is refreshing to hear a U.S. president at least recognize that the Yemeni people are suffering an “unendurable devastation” and this is due to the hard work of grassroots peace activists around the world.

        Whether Biden’s proclamation will mean much in the real world beyond a temporary hold on the weapons deals Trump made just before leaving office is yet to be seen. The Saudi kingdom welcomes Biden’s announcement and the U.S. arms sellers who have profited from the war seem unruffled by the news. “Look,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes reassured investors anticipating this move, “peace is not going to break out in the Middle East anytime soon. I think it remains an area where we’ll continue to see solid growth.” The prospects for peace in Yemen probably depend more on sustained international pressure than on a kinder and gentler administration in the White House.

      • To End 'Blank Check' for Saudi-UAE Assault on Yemen, Coalition Demands Biden Permanently Cancel $37 Billion in Arms Sales

        "Permanently canceling these transfers is an essential step toward ending the cycle of impunity that U.S. policy has helped create."

      • V-Day: Poet Aja Monet & V (Eve Ensler) on the Movement to End Violence Against Women & Girls

        Amid a global rise in domestic violence during the pandemic, we speak with the founder of V-Day, a day of action to fight violence against women. V, the award-winning playwright of “The Vagina Monologues,” formerly known as Eve Ensler, says organizers around the globe are finding ways to fight back. “I’m so moved to see our grassroots women movements around the world finding ways to rise in spite of people being locked in and shut in and in spite of COVID,” she says. We also speak with blues poet and organizer Aja Monet, V-Day’s VOICES artistic creative director, who says Black women are particularly at risk. “For every Black woman who reports rape, at least 15 Black women do not,” Monet says. “We can go down the list and see the impact that sexual violence and harm and abuse has had on Black women primarily, but on women across the world.” VOICES is a new interdisciplinary performance arts project and campaign grounded in Black women’s stories by V-Day to unify the vision of ending violence against women: cis women, trans women, and non binary people across the African Continent and African Diaspora. VOICES goal is to use art to embody and inspire solidarity-making in our collective imagination.

      • Myanmar’s Army of Darkness

        The coup d’état in Myanmar has restored the powerful armed forces, or Tatmadaw, to full control of the country, after a decade of nominally civilian rule. The carefully constructed 2008 Constitution constrained the ability of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to challenge the privilege of the military politically, economically, or legally, despite an overwhelming electoral victory in 2015, and an even more sweeping victory in November 2020, with mass public support.

    • Environment

      • 500+ Scientists Demand Stop to Tree Burning as Climate Solution

        "Companies are shifting fossil energy use to wood, which increases warming, as a substitute for shifting to solar and wind, which would truly decrease warming."

      • Why Some Men Reject Environmentalism

        Why? Some researchers argue it has to do with masculinity.

        A recent Huffington Post story raised the issue of whether fossil fuels could be called a “cultural issue.” The article details a theory that the U.S. fossil fuel industry “serves as an avatar for a certain kind of cultural worldview, one that resonates with tough-guy masculinity.”

      • Climate Emergency
      • Come Dream With Me: Environmental Justice, Colorized, 2021

        I bang on the sliding glass door and wait in a puddle of sweat until my dad grunts up from his post-dinner CNN binge and opens the door. “Girl, you break this glass, you better have the money to fix it.”

      • Climate Change Isn’t the Only Fire We Should Be Worried About

        If you live in California, you’re likely to be consumed on occasion by thoughts of fire. That’s not surprising, given that, in the past year alone, actual fires consumed over 4.25 million acres of the state, taking with them 10,488 structures, 33 human lives, and who knows how many animals. By the end of this January, a month never before even considered part of the “fire” season, 10 wildfires had already burned through 2,337 more acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

      • Stormwater Could Become an Important Water Source — If We Stopped Ignoring It
      • Energy

        • Solar power’s future could soon be overshadowed

          Despite its recent runaway success, solar power’s future as a key way to counter climate chaos could soon be at risk.

        • Biden’s EPA Nominee Must Act on Forests to Be an Environmental Justice Champion
        • Go read this article about how we got duped into cooking with gas

          Gas stoves actually unleash indoor air pollutants like soot, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Beyond that, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels like natural gas drive climate change. That’s why there’s a push now to electrify homes; electric stoves can run on clean energy.

          The history of how “cooking with gas” campaigns have made a source of fossil fuel combustion in our homes seem completely innocuous gets pretty ridiculous. Leber dug up a rap video from 1988 that spends an entire four minutes hyping up gas stoves in rhyme. “Gas is so hot, it’s not on when it’s off / it’s the only way to cook, that’s what I was taught,” the rap starts off.

        • Investors flee Big Oil as portfolios get drilled

          Hopes for climate action are most commonly pinned on election outcomes and public policy successes, but investment banks and fund managers are growing more wary of fossil fuels after pumping more than $2.7 trillion into financing fossil fuel, exploration, production, and infrastructure in the five years since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, according to data compiled by the Rainforest Action Network and other advocacy organizations.

          Financial support for fossil fuel projects has waned for both environmental and financial reasons. The return on investment of carbon-intensive fuels is no longer the guarantee it once was.

      • Wildlife/Nature

        • It's Time to End the War on wildlife

          Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services—the federal animal damage control agency—released three environmental analysis documents of its latest plans in Montana, Washington, and Oregon, in which the agency aims to kill more of the West’s iconic carnivores. That’s more mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, and other wildlife that will die needlessly and suffer senselessly.

          We can’t let them carry out these brutal plans, ignoring the best available science and compassion to appease the wishes of the agriculture and ranching industries. To stop this war on wildlife we need you to€ raise your voice and spread the word. The only reason this agency has a “license to kill” is that not enough people even know of their existence. Wildlife Services operates in darkness and our job is to shine a spotlight on their brutal practices and demand they adopt an ethic of coexistence by using non-lethal tools.

    • Finance

      • Corporate Decision
      • Neoliberalism and Its Discontents

        Because of the primacy of the U.S. in conceiving and promoting neoliberalism, the alleged problem of being overtaken by external forces, e.g., China, Russia, joins a long history of externalizing internal dysfunction to deflect attention away from its sources. Neoliberalism is a post-War liberal project premised in pre-Great Depression economics— as if the Great Depression never happened, that is untethered from history, basic social logic, and its own facts. That the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) and Great Recession did nothing to diminish the hold that it has on official logic is testament to this untethered nature. Its idea holds more sway than the facts it produces on the ground.

        List: the first principle states that the Washington Consensus is relevant to ‘developing’ economies. And yet it has been applied to the rich countries of the West much as it was forced onto poor nations by the IMF. It is a program of political reform put forward as economic reform. The political program is austerity, the immiseration of people to render them politically pliable to the whims of capital. Source: https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/washington-consensus.

      • GameStop, Capitalism and Freedom

        But what happens when all doesn’t go as planned? The amateur traders who mobilized on the WallStreetBets forum threw a wrench in the gears for institutional investors who wanted to short GameStop, effecting what’s called a short squeeze. Through their spontaneously organized effort to shore up GameStop, these individual investors drove the price of the company’s stock to highs that virtually no one expected—least of all the hedge funds shorting the stock. The “squeeze” here is the decision thus faced by those in the short position: do they cut their losses and cover by buying back the stock (which, of course, also drives the stock price higher), or do they double down on their short position, which comes with risk and would require a significant amount of capital on hand. The success of the Reddit army meant staggering losses for many hedge funds, last week witnessing, according to Goldman Sachs, “the largest active hedge fund de-grossing” since the financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the housing market more than a decade ago.

        In a controversial response to the flurry of activity around GameStop’s shares, the trading platform Robinhood abruptly imposed new rules specifically addressed to GameStop—a move that has drawn criticism from both the right and the left. Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, has raised questions about the extent to which Robinhood’s decision was motivated by its relationships with powerful players like hedge funds. Other progressives, among them Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, see the case of GameStop as an example of a system failure that suggests the need for further regulations. Yellen has called a meeting of regulatory agency heads, including those of the Fed and the SEC, to discuss the broader implications of the GameStop episode.

      • 'Beyond Outrageous': Big Pharma Using Loophole to Get Taxpayers to Fund Billions in Fines for Fueling Opioid Crisis

        "The tax code is so rigged for the rich that even when they kill people they get a tax break."

      • Ralph Nader on Corporate Crime, Holding Boeing Accountable for 737 MAX Deaths & Biden’s First Weeks
      • Ralph Nader on Corporate Crime, Holding Boeing Accountable for 737 MAX Deaths & Biden’s First Weeks

        Legendary consumer advocate Ralph Nader says the U.S. is experiencing a “corporate crime wave,” and that the Trump administration’s $2.5 billion settlement with Boeing over the manufacturer’s faulty 737 MAX jets amounts to a “slap on the wrist.” Boeing’s faulty planes were involved in two fatal crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, including Nader’s 24-year-old grandniece Samya Stumo. Nader says the Biden Justice Department should reopen the previous administration’s settlement and hold Boeing fully accountable. “This is just another example of giant companies getting away with their corporate criminality — a shocking sweetheart deal, an insult to the memories of the lost ones, and further endangering the safety of air travelers in the future,” he says.

      • Ralph Nader: Biden Must Hold Boeing Accountable for Deaths Due to Faulty Planes
      • End the Subminimum Tipped Wage

        For Tanya Wallace-Gobern, getting rid of the subminimum wage for tipped workers is a matter of racial justice. “Passing a living wage bill for tipped and non-tipped low-wage workers is essential to reducing inequality,” she said in a recent briefing.

        As the executive director of the National Black Worker Center Project, Wallace-Gobern oversees a network of eight centers across the country that aim to build power and transform working conditions for Black workers. The subminimum federal wage for tipped workers, which has been stuck at just $2.13 since 1991, is a clear barrier to their goals.

      • Bernie on the Budget Committee

        If Sanders can prevent the Dems from reneging on hiking the minimum wage this will be a stupendous flex of working-class muscle. Raising the minimum wage is wildly popular, especially with people who toil for less than $15 per hour. If it does get raised – and on February 8 Nancy Pelosi, among others made sure to include it in the House reconciliation bill – it will be because Sanders is on the budget committee. This will not please Republican donors.

        In 2016, former speaker of the House and radical right-winger Paul Ryan warned his colleagues of exactly this scenario for the GOP: “If we lose the senate, do you know who becomes chairman of the senate budget committee? A guy named Bernie Sanders. Ever heard of him? That’s what we’re dealing with here if we lose control of the senate.” Ryan’s remarks, Vox reported, “ricocheted around the web and national media” and backfired, boosting Sanders’ fundraising.

      • What Americans Think About The GameStop Investors

        Regardless of the winners and losers in the GameStop trading frenzy, however, the episode did spark a rare moment of bipartisanship in Congress (albeit short-lived), with both Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York calling for investigations into what happened — specifically, why Robinhood, a popular stock-trading app at the center of the Reddit-fueled trading, banned its users from purchasing additional shares of the stock when trading was at an all-time high. (Congressional hearings are scheduled for Feb. 18.)

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

      • Opinion | The Right Devolves From J.S. Bach to Skinhead Rock

        How conservatives fell in love with trash culture, and why it reflects their rage.

      • Live Free or Die: How Adamantios Koraes Turned Greek Thought Into Power for the Benefit of the Greek Revolution of 1821

        The first time was on the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. European governments, including that of the Ottoman Turks, went into alert about subversion from within and without. Patriarch Anthimos of Jerusalem launched a campaign on behalf of the Sultan among the Orthodox. In late 1790s, he published€ Paternal Teaching, a shameful and demeaning defense of Turkish tyranny, telling the Orthodox they had to put up with oppression as their ticket to heavens.

        The news reached Koraes in Paris, and, immediately, he trashed the ludicrous and awful propaganda of Anthimos. But Koraes was too embarrassed to bring the dirty Christian laundry out for all to see. In 1798, he published anonymously in Rome his€ Brotherly Teaching,€ a vigorous denunciation of the clerical lies praising the rule of the Ottoman Turks over the Orthodox Christians. Anthimos said that Jesus raised the Ottoman Turks from nothing to heights of power in order to protect the Orthodox from the scheming Western Christians. Koraes argued that such a slander could not have been written by a patriarch.

      • Stealing the Vote, Building a Wall

        One recent and shocking – but hardly surprising – piece of news is the huge scramble in legislatures, especially the Republican-controlled ones, all across the country to draft and pass legislation restricting the ability of Americans (some of them, anyway)€ to vote. It’s as though there’s a national effort going on to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and return to a happier time: Let’s make America great again!

        But all this is only one manifestation of the spew of hate and fear unleashed by the recent ex-president, who claimed control of his party thanks to a stunning willingness to blather unmitigated racism in his public utterances, rather than merely serve it in secrecy. In so doing, he made a place for the Proud Boys and their ilk in the American mainstream and replanted a vision of antebellum greatness in the minds of worried white people.

      • The Lukashenko circus Why the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly matters and what it means for the opposition

        The All-Belarusian People’s Assembly is taking place in Minsk on February 11 and 12. President Alexander Lukashenko (Alyaksandr Lukashenka) announced the event on September 9, 2020 — against the backdrop of the largest opposition protests in the country’s independent history. The authorities have described the assembly, which takes place every five years, as “one of the most important forms of direct democracy.” But this year, the opposition fears it could mark the beginning of a constitutional coup. Meduza breaks down what the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly is and how it might impact the country’s future.

      • Opinion | Jeep Ad Featuring Bruce Springsteen Emblematic of Lazy Obsession With the Mythical Political "Center"

        Sorry, but there is no "seeking the middle ground" with the GOP. It has gone way off the deep end.

      • Where Are the Witnesses? Ralph Nader Says Democrats’ Impeachment Case Is “Prescription for Defeat”

        As the historic Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump continues, we speak with longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who says Democrats have set themselves up for defeat by rushing proceedings and failing to call witnesses — including Trump himself. “The narrow approach of the articles of impeachment keep the Democrats from having a full hand,” says Nader. “They have like 10 arrows in their quiver and they’re using one or two.”

      • 'End... This Human Rights Atrocity,' Says Amnesty After Biden Admin Signals Goal to Close Gitmo

        Asked whether the president will shutter the prison, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "That certainly is our goal and our intention."

      • Opinion | Trump's Guilt Clearly Demonstrated During Senate Trial

        The Democrats are now presenting a "slam dunk" impeachment case in the Senate. And it will almost certainly "lose" in "court." What's next?

      • Opinion | We Must Expose the Insurrection Financiers

        The January 6 assault on our democracy should lead to greater accountability for future political leaders—and their wealthy financial backers.

      • Biden Should Stop Payment on U.S. Funds to Sisi’s Egypt

        The pro-Cairo lobby team includes a number of former politicians, including former Republican congressman Ed Royce, who chaired the influential Foreign Affairs Committee from 2013-2018. The most shocking PR agent for the Egyptian regime, however, is Nadeam Elshami, former chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “It’s inconceivable that a man who spent his younger years in Egypt, comes from a Muslim family that supported the 2011 Arab Spring and was a key Democratic staffer in the U.S. Congress would end up lobbying for a regime that jails, tortures and murders tens of thousands of Egyptians,” says Mohamed Ismail of€  Egyptians Abroad for Democracy Worldwide.

        Brownstein boasts many accomplishments, including pushing Congress to obtain compensation on behalf of the hostages held in Iran in 1979, recovering artifacts plundered during the Armenian Genocide, securing compensation for housing developers who had to mitigate asbestos from former U.S. military sites, and securing increased funding for cancer research. Representing Egypt under President Sisi is unlikely to be something Brownstein Hyatt Schreck will brag about.

      • It's Not That Biden Is Too Slow. It's That He's Going Too Small.

        Biden’s base is his centrist supporters, those who backed him against Bernie Sanders during the primaries on the grounds that his moderate demeanor and years of wheeling and dealing would allow him to find common ground with Republicans who would probably continue to control the Senate. Centrists’ response to criticism of Biden is that Donald Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, the shattered economy and the deep wound to our national psyche caused and embodied by the January 6th€ Capitol insurrection will require a long time to fix. Impatience, they say, is unrealistic and unfair.

        The same principle applies to Biden’s response to longer-standing policy issues that predate Trump, like climate change and the healthcare system. They say, he just moved into the White House. Chill.

      • Impeachment Trial: Democrats Warn That Trump Would Use Political Violence Again If Not Convicted

        Democratic House impeachment managers have wrapped up their case against Donald Trump, saying the former president remains a threat and should be convicted of inciting the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The trial now moves ahead to Trump’s legal team presenting their defense. We air highlights from the third day of the impeachment trial, including lead House impeachment Manager Jamie Raskin’s reiteration of Trump’s long history of inciting violence prior to January 6. “Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?” Raskin said. “President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate. So if he gets back into office and it happens again, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.”

      • When Poisons Curdle: Beyond Donald Trump

        In that regard, the ensuing decades have filled a void in my education. I long ago concluded that Dr. King was then offering the essential interpretive key to understanding our contemporary American dilemma. The predicament in which we find ourselves today stems from our reluctance to admit to the crippling interaction among the components of the giant triplets he described in that speech. True, racism, extreme materialism, and militarism each deserve — and separately sometimes receive — condemnation. But it’s the way that the three of them sustain one another that accounts for our nation’s present parlous condition.

        Let me suggest that King’s prescription remains as valid today as when he issued it more than half a century ago — hence, my excuse for returning to it so soon after citing it in a previous TomDispatch. Sadly, however, neither the American people nor the American ruling class seem any more inclined to take that prescription seriously today than I was in 1967. We persist in rejecting Dr. King’s message.

      • WATCH LIVE: Defense to Deliver Rebuttal on Day 4 of Impeachment Trial After Dems Dub Trump 'Inciter-in-Chief'

        Over three days, House impeachment managers shared graphic footage of the U.S. Capitol attack and compelling testimony alongside arguments that conviction is essential to thwarting future insurrection attempts.

      • Opinion | It’s Time To Resurrect a Global Anti-Fascist Consensus To Name, Shame, and Throw These Guys Out of the Game

        Beating back the far right globally.

      • Trump: How is He Possible?

        What “it” is depends on historical, structural and contingent circumstances. There are many possibilities, some more noxious than others.

        The basic idea, however, is always the same: that, when they feel they must in order to maintain their power, capitalist poohbahs with authoritarian inclinations will fund and otherwise encourage political entrepreneurs to organize susceptible persons into illiberal and violent fighting forces that can be and typically are deployed in ways that advance the interests of those elites.

      • Lying Lawyers and Butt-kissing Senators: The First Days of Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial

        The Washington Post had a feature about Trump’s latest lawyer in Monday’s edition. He’s an egocentric fool from Philadelphia who likes to wear a cowboy outfit to court. That sounds about right. Another ultraright buffoon. Perfect for the one he’s defending. While I question the point of the impeachment trial at this date, I am looking forward to the show. The real meat when it comes to Trump’s prosecutable crimes will hopefully come later when New York gets its financial crimes case together against the crook. This impeachment thing is just one more chance to kick the jerk while he’s between scams. I would like to get a couple good kicks in myself, but I guess it’s going to be up to a couple Senators to do that.

        Apparently, a primary defense of the Trump team is one that’s not really trying to defend the bum, but one that challenges the jurisdiction of the Senate. My question is, if the Senate can’t try him on the impeachment charges, who the hell does the Trump team think can? In other words, their position is another challenge to the idea that Trump should be answerable for anything he has done. When is hurricane season in Mar-al-Lago again? Leaving it up to nature to deal out justice is not my game, but I would be okay with it here.

      • The Russian Alternative: How Moscow is Capitalizing on US Retreat in Palestine, Israel

        Indeed, a political shift is taking place on both fronts: the US away from the region and Russia back to it. If this trend continues, it could only be a matter of time before a major paradigm shift occurs.

        The Israelis are rightly worried at the potential loss of the unconditional support of their American benefactors. “There are 195 countries in the world, and … Biden has not contacted 188 of them,” Herb Keinon wrote in The Jerusalem Post on February 2, adding, “but only in Israel, people are concerned about the significance of this delay”.

      • Biopolitical Prognosis for Homo Sapiens € Multiverse

        It€  commensurate€  a humble recognition of the vastness of potentiality which Homo Sapiens represents as under€  aforementioned ponerology arising being manifestly€  reduced ontologically to€  physical extinction, sense of as Burns proposed colloquial :

        – ‘Ecocide’ being a phenomenon whereby ‘collateral damage’ figures large such the fog/silver mist as ‘descends’- under ‘War’?

      • Impeachment Trial Is Not About Convincing GOP Senators—Many of Whom Were Trump’s Co-Conspirators

        A recent New York Times headline (2/11/21) announced: “House Managers Rest Their Case Against Trump, but Most Republicans Are Not Swayed.”

      • American Tech Giants Are Partnering with India's Strongman Leader to Crackdown on Dissent

        The far-right government of Narendra Modi is attempting to silence dissent online amid enormous national farmers’ protests — and it is finding willing partners in Silicon Valley social media giants.

      • States Have No Inherent ‘Right to Exist’—but It’s a Media Fixation on Israel/Palestine

        No state has an intrinsic “right to exist.” As international relations scholar Scott Burchill points out, there is no abstract “right to exist” in international law, or in “any serious theory of international relations.” Nor is it customary, Burchill explains, for states or sub-state groups to recognize a state’s “right to exist.”€ 

      • Political Shirt-Tails
      • “I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection

        The riot squad defending the embattled entrance to the west side of the U.S. Capitol was surrounded by violence. Rioters had clambered up the scaffolding by the stage erected for the inauguration of President Joseph Biden. They hurled everything they could get their hands on at the cops beneath: rebar, plywood, power tools, even cans of food they had frozen for extra damage.

        In front of the cops, a mob was mounting a frontal assault. Its members hit officers with fists and baseball bats. They grabbed at weapons slung from the officers’ waists. They unleashed a barrage of M-80 firecrackers. Soaked in never-ending streams of bright orange bear spray, the officers choked on plumes of acrid smoke that singed their nostrils and obscured their vision.

      • Roaming Charges: Scene of the Crimes

        + For most of the country’s history, the incitement of government violence has served to unite the political classes of the United States.

        + The question I’m waiting on an “impeachment manager” to ask:€ What did the FBI know and when did it know it?

      • 'History Is Watching and So Is The Nation': As Impeachment Trial Wraps Up, Senate Urged to Convict Trump

        "It is time for every member of the Senate to do their duty, to put our country first, and safeguard our democracy not only from the former president but from any future autocrat who would trample on our Constitution."

      • Biden Says He's "Anxious" to See If GOP Senators "Stand Up" to Impeach Trump
      • Presidents’ Day Memories

        My family always celebrated Presidents’ Day, which is really supposed to be Washington’s Birthday. We were ahead of the curve and always honored all Presidents, calling it All Presidents’ Day, which to a Catholic boy sounded like All Saints Day. My brothers and sisters and I knew that early in the morning, President Abraham Lincoln would slide down the chimney. My parents said he flew like Santa in in a stagecoach pulled by angel-ghosts of Union soldiers in dark blue uniforms with real gold buttons and landed on the roof. President Lincoln delivered gifts and mail as he had delivered the US from evil.

        When we woke at dawn we would giddily gather round in a big oval and open our mail that my parents said was delivered by President Lincoln (to give postal workers a day off). Children from other countries wrote us letters saying they wanted to be American and have a President. I wonder now if most of the letters were written by my parents. Also, these kids didn’t have last names. I assumed their parents could afford only one name. I started using used my first, middle, and last names; it was like eating all the food on my plate to help the starving kids in other countries, which were all poorer than America.

      • Even If He’s Acquitted, History Isn’t on Trump’s Side
      • How Brexit Won

        In a similar vein, German anarchists used to say, die regieren und wir protestieren – they govern while we protest against their government. In any case, with Brexit, British conservatives have created their reality. We are left to analyse it (Rove) and to protest against it. Looking back, there is a clear reason why Brexit won. Brexiters had three ingredients that assure that right-wing populism wins. It wins from Brexit to BoJo (Boris de Pfeffel Johnson), from Modi to Duterte, from Orban to Bolsonaro – the list goes on. What makes them and Brexit win are three things:

        Brexit had plenty of all three. It had right-wing politicians like David Cameron promising a Brexit referendum, Theresa May pushing Brexit, and BoJo’s Getting Brexit done! Pro-Brexiters also created a strong, highly targeted and very strategic campaign using social media rather aggressively. Finally, pro-Brexit lobbyists ran a sophisticated campaign featuring the accidental misinformation but mostly focusing on deliberate disinformation, outright lies, fibs and falsehood. In short, the Brexit campaign had almost everything the right-wing propaganda playbook offers.

      • Republicans Won’t Convict Trump—Because They Won’t Convict Themselves

        To Lindsey Graham, who said Donald Trump could “count me out” after the Capitol attack on January 6 but has spent the last month scurrying back to him, is apparently offended by the impeachment case presented by the House managers. “I think most Republicans found the presentation by the House Managers offensive and absurd,” he tweeted. And he’s probably right: Reporters in the Senate chamber are saying that some Republicans are engaging in performative disinterest, reading books or refusing to look at the videos of the violence, like they’re a bunch of Judd Nelsons who are too cool for school. Some are even refusing to sit in the chamber, as they are required to do.

      • To Republican Senators, Donald Trump Is Still the Boogeyman

        In a 1994 episode of The Simpsons, the bumbling patriarch Homer tries to shirk jury duty by wearing trick glasses that make it look like he’s wide awake during the trial while he’s in fact enjoying a nap. Homer is meant to be an oaf, albeit a sometimes lovable one. But even in his buffoonery, Homer still took his responsibilities as a juror more seriously than many Republican senators, who are being singularly cavalier about the solemn duty of weighing whether to convict an impeached president.

      • Opinion | Biden Should Stop Payment on U.S. Funds To Sisi's Egypt

        Sisi's reign of power has caused vast human rights abuses and a large-scale breakdown of civil society.

      • 'It Is Not a Budget Item,' Democrat Kyrsten Sinema Falsely Says as She Joins Joe Manchin in Opposing $15 Wage

        "She is incorrect. It has a budgetary impact, and it was verified by CBO. Let's get it done now."

      • If Impeachment Managers Want Witnesses to Trump’s High Crimes, Start With Lindsey Graham

        South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is a juror in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump—and a witness with firsthand knowledge of one of the highest crimes committed by the former president on January 6.1

      • Bolivia’s First Three Months of Pro-Socialist Electoral Victory

        Luis Arce, President Evo Morales’€ (2006-2019) minister of economy and public finance, and David Choquehuanca, Morales’€ foreign minister, won the presidency and vice-presidency with 55% of the vote (3.4 million). The closest opposition candidate was former conservative president Carlos Mesa (2003-5), with 28%, followed by rightest coup-maker Luis Fernando Camacho, with 14%. Coup dictator, Jeannie Áñez, dropped out of the campaign when polls showed her with a possible 8%.

        MAS also regained control of both houses of parliament: 75 of 130 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and 21 of 36 seats in the Senate—the Senate now has a female majority. MAS did not, however, accomplish a two-third majority as occurred during Morales tenure.

      • On Some Bad House Manager Language

        That said, there are four problems with the language the House Managers are using in their expert evisceration of the MFR. First, they have been unwilling to use “the F-word” – fascism – to describe Trump, his most fervent backers, and the January 6th Attack on the Capitol. That’s a shame because the word richly applies.

    • Censorship/Free Speech

      • Russia’s censorship agency orders Meduza to delete article about the official reaction to planned pro-Navalny demonstration

        Meduza’s editorial office received a notice from Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, ordering the removal of an article about the “flashlight protest” Alexey Navalny’s supporters are planning to conduct on Sunday, February 14.

      • Cancel Culture’s Latest Victims

        Support independent cartooning: join€ Sparky’s List—and don’t forget to visit TT’s€ Emporium of Fun, featuring the new book and plush Sparky!

      • CNN Declares BBC 'Banned' but CGTN 'Withdrawn' as UK and China Fire off in Propaganda Battle

        Chinese regulators announced yesterday that they are banning British government-funded media outlet the BBC from broadcasting to its population of 1.4 billion people. The decision to block the 98-year-old corporation entirely elicited a storm of condemnation in the West. “China’s decision…is an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom. China has some of the most severe restrictions on media and internet freedoms across the globe, and this latest step will only damage China’s reputation in the eyes of the world,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

      • Dissenter Weekly: What Biden Could Do To Support The First Amendment

        In this edition of “Dissenter Weekly,” host and Shadowproof editor Kevin Gosztola highlights a story in Texas involving a whistleblower who warns of safety hazards at a construction site for an Amazon fulfillment center.

        Kevin also covers a snippet from OMB Director nominee Neera Tanden’s Senate confirmation hearing, where she was asked about the problem of nuclear waste. The show concludes with some consideration of what President Joe Biden’s administration could do if it truly wanted to support the First Amendment. For starters, Biden could abandon the political prosecution against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

    • Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

    • Civil Rights/Policing

    • Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

    • Monopolies

      • Patents

        • The Polish Patent Office changes its policy on patentability of software, biotech and pharma [Ed: Following the example of corrupt EPO, which distorted patent law and breaks all the founding principles of patents in order to pocket and steal money]
        • SeaTwirl Granted Patent in Japan

          The wind technology developer was granted the same patent in Sweden in 2017, and in the U.S. and China in 2019. In January 2020, SeaTwirl was granted the patent by the European Patent Office (EPO).

        • New EPO Guidelines now published regarding amending the description: what’s all the fuss about? [Ed: Guidelines that are unlawful, but corrupt management gets away with it because it is above the law]



          In October 2020, CMS published an article ‘New EPO Guidelines expected regarding amending a description: what’s all the fuss about?’, which has been the catalyst for discussion in the profession about the potential impact of the expected Guidelines. Since then, the discussion has gathered momentum and the new practice now is being considered by a number of key professional IP-related groups, particularly in the life sciences area where much of the concern has originated. Since the description is used to interpret the claims, how the description is amended can have a significant impact on claim interpretation in post-grant opposition and national litigation proceedings, and so this change clearly has importance to Patentees.

          Whereas, at the time of our earlier article, our review was based on information from the EPO Legal Division and a change in observed EPO Examiner practice, the EPO has now published a draft of the new Guidelines and so the previous expected changes can now be confirmed. As anticipated in our earlier article, ‘take-home’ messages are that...

        • EPO and EUIPO add Technical University of Munich to trainee programme [Ed: Complete and utter puff piece, not journalism]
        • Implementors must be given access to FRAND agreements: Delhi High Court, Part 2

          The decision overlooks the catastrophic damage that SEP owners and their third-party licensees will suffer, if a Defendant’s employees have access to their FRAND agreements.

          First, Xiaomi is in direct competition with InterDigital’s licensees. License agreements with InterDigital include not just royalty related terms, but other information which is unique to the licensee’s business; the scale of its operations; the estimated sales of devices in future, pricing structures etc. Access to such information will confer Xiaomi will irreversibly advantage in the market over its competitors. Certainly, such advantage should not be secured upon being sued in an action for patent infringement.

          Second, it is very likely that the third-party licensees of SEP owners will refuse to give consent for their agreements to be made accessible to their competitors. In this situation, SEP owners will need to breach confidentiality obligations of their contract, in order to file the agreements in Court, which will have disastrous consequences.

          Alternatively, the inability of SEP owners to file such agreements, will result in their failure to establish that the offer made to the Defendant in the suit was FRAND compliant. This will in-turn, lead to failure to establish a claim for infringement.

          Third, this decision affects those entities who have negotiated FRAND agreements at arm’s length, and in good faith, without having seen agreements executed with other entities.

      • Copyrights

        • Afraid to Lead: Canadian Government Launches Timid Consultation on Implementing Copyright Term Extension

          Further, notwithstanding the consultation document claims that registration “do not appear to be the norm internationally”, that is a feature, not a bug. Canada has the opportunity to lead with a balanced copyright approach to term extension that mitigates harm, provides creators with protection, complies with international law, and sets a standard for others to follow. The consultation document does not inspire confidence, but there is an opportunity to ensure that those seeking a progressive, innovative implementation to term extension such as registration are heard. Canadians have one month to tell officials they expect better before their government enacts reforms that will exact a significant cost on the public and lead to two decades of a lost public domain.

        • Meet CC South Africa, Our Next Feature for CC Network Fridays!

          The Creative Commons Global Network (CCGN) consists of 48 CC Country Chapters spread across the globe. They’re the home for a community of advocates, activists, educators, artists, lawyers, and users who share CC’s vision and values. They implement and strengthen open access policies, copyright reform, open education, and open culture in the communities in which they live.

        • Deezer Targets Pirate Apps "Maliciously" Retrieving & Publishing Encryption Keys

          After previously filing DMCA takedown notices of a more general nature against tools such as Deezloader and Deemix, Deezer has now tweaked its language to directly accuse similar tools of "maliciously" obtaining its private encryption keys and publishing them on Github, in order to defeat its "effective technical measures."

        • Parliament to consider news media code legislation beginning next week

          The news media code will be considered in Parliament in the week beginning 15 February after the Senate Economics Legislation Committee submitted its report on the bill to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Friday evening.

        • Information Interruptus: Bing, Google and the News Media Bargaining Code

          The Code aims to remunerate news media businesses for content they generate that is subsequently found through searches on digital platforms.€  The body behind its drafting, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, states that it would “address the fundamental bargaining power imbalance between Australian news media businesses and major digital platforms.”€  Such an imbalance has led to news outlets “accepting less favourable terms for inclusion of news on digital platform services than they would otherwise agree to.”

          The Code encourages tech giants and news outlets to engage in commercial negotiations outside its remit and establish a framework for negotiations where the parties bargain in good faith in coming to binding agreements.€  Arbitration is available to determine the remuneration in question should the parties find themselves unable to reach an agreement.

        • Epic Games' Case Against Teenage Fortnite Cheater Finally Settles

          As you may recall, back in 2017 Epic Games went on something of a crusade against cheating in its online hit game Fortnite. While much of Epic's attention was focused on websites that sold cheating software for the game, the company also set its sights on individuals who were actively promoting the use of cheating software in online videos. One of those Epic sued was a 14 year old who, if I'm being frank, sounds like a bit of a jackass. While the teen, identified in court documents only as "C.R.", was having his own mother defend him in letters to the judge in the case, he was also then going around uploading still more videos advocating the use of cheating software and taunting Epic Games. Epic's lawyers defeated the teen's mother, which, real feather in their cap for that I suppose. And so the trial continued.

        • Announcing The Winners Of The 3rd Annual Public Domain Game Jam!

          It's that time again — the judges' scores and comments are in, and we've selected the winners of our third annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1925! As you know, we asked game designers of all stripes to submit new creations based on works published in 1925 that entered the public domain in the US this year — and just as in the past two jams, people got very creative in terms of choosing source material and deciding what to do with it. Of course, there were also a lot of submissions based on what is probably the most famous newly-public-domain work this year, The Great Gatsby — but while everyone expected that, nobody expected just how unique some of those entries would be! So without further delay, here are the winners in all six categories of Gaming Like It's 1925:



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