Well said.

It's almost as if France, instead of capitulating to whichever corporation throws the most money at them, instead listens to ordinary people who exercise their democratic voice.

Also (I know, going for the jugular a bit here) do you want me to talk about Comcast? Cos I can talk about Comcast.

Yes, France's public transport system, for example is an example of the sort of failure that we, for instance in the UK, shudder at.

Cheap fares, efficient operation, a boon to the country and its people.

Ours in the UK, meanwhile engages in double-dipping (making shareholder profits while receiving public subsidy), has terrible roling stock and fucking high ticket prices that rise regardless of the economics of the country, all along with local monopolies(!!!!)

Those bloody French socialists and their incompetence!

Again, I find myself agreeing with you largely, and would merely add that the President is mostly a figurehead (albeit one with *some* clout) and there are a body of people behind the scenes, who are not elected that run the show. And that includes corporate and wealthy power outside but with access. The US isn't a dictatorship, but the people who control what happens are just as unconcerned with the little people as any dictator.

It's worth remembering that during the Edward Snowden revelations, the Independent tried its hand at a bogus leak, lying to make it appear as if it had come from the Snowden documents and leaking the sort of information that could have had serious implications for people's safety (which the Guardian/Greenwald had taken care not to do). Greenwald at the time revealed that no such information had come from them, and the Independent were exposed with their pants round their ankles and their cock in the family dog (so to speak).

I view them as a newspaper that's quite happy to whore iteself out to spread black and grey propaganda for the UK/US powers that be.

I feel what you say is entirely true, and yet am compelled to add ...

NSA (mass surveillance proven), CIA (torture, kidnapping, coups against democratic countries, assasinations, propaganda, funding of insurgents/terrorists/narco terrorists proven), America being instrumental in creating Al Qaeda, ISIS, etc (blowback) and ... Microsoft, Google, Apple, all the American tech companies who have a cosy relationship with their government.

At a certain point the difference between Russia under Putin and America under any number of presidents is largely that the USA has a more polished public relations strategy.

If true ... fuuuuuuuu .... My SONY TV just updated about an hour ago.

Um ...

Should I be worried? [Serious answers only, plz]

>A private entity cannot enforce anything upon the populace

You need to watch This Film Has Not Been Rated, buddy, and learn all about that private, non-governmental ratings board from the MPAA that ABSOLUTELY controls what films get seen and made and how.

Exactly.

I actually only clicked to come here to state for the record that I will never fucking "keep reading to see what Bennett has to say" again.

Motorola's last two or three android phones were flipping amazing. So maybe they also have that going for them?

There seems to be an easy end-route around Gmail's filters that I get hit with. Someone sends me spam from "royalwatches[nn]@gmail.com" and has done for years now. Every time Gmail blocks royalwatches19@gmail.com, they start sending out spam from royalwatches20@gmail.com. And so on. And on. And on.

I don't know whether the reserved royalwatches up to 100 or 1000 or 1,000,000 or beyond, but if they have, it looks like Gmail is never going to figure out that they're all bloody spam before the heat death of the universe kicks in.

The post doesn't even pretend to be balanced, which is a shame as this may possibly be /.'s one and only Scottish Independence post.

Of course there are risks involved and uncertainty, but the English Tories, champions of the NO vote (do not split) are the ones demanding a split from Europe, using the same arguments that the YES campaign (for an independent Scotland) are using to rally their cause! They're also the ones who decry "dependency" and act as if the entrepreneurial spirit is chief among all human traits, while trying to shut down such blooming attitudes in the Scottish people who wish to set out on their own and make a go of things.

The Right wing English part of the NO campaign seem to want soverignty above all else for themselves (with regard to Europe), while telling everyone else (the Scottish 'splittists') that's a bad idea!

Here, let me pour some gasoline over your strawman and strike a match.

When have people from Africa appeared at the borders of any country "cap-in-hand [...] demanding their 'rights'"?

People do try to escape violent, torturing, oppressive, corrupt murderous regimes though. We call them asylum seekers; fleeing to escape persecution from their fucked-up governments. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? Or maybe knee-jerk xenophobia is more your cup of tea?

Oh yeah, I did this with one guy. I played him for about half an hour just making stuff up - I wasn't at my computer at all - and then I turned on him and asked him how he slept at night and what his mother would think if she knew how he spent his days stealing from little old ladies, etc.

He did not like that. Hung up on me and then, still enraged I guess, rang me back and tried to have a go (which didn't work, naturally). I hope what I said got to him.