Aceticon

I'm just running Linux with an always on top Kodi on an N100 mini-PC.

Works fine with a wireless remote for the purpose of being a TV Box that I just have on my living room and use in the same way as I would a commercial TV box.

Granted, I also use that as a homeserver (its seriously overpowered to just be a TV Box) but that side of things I manage remotely via SSH.

You don't really need access to the full desktop to run Linux apps if you just want a TV Box.

It's only insane if one still believes that the people in charge of prestigious institutions in the West are honorable and honest rather than posh grifters who will do whatever it takes to get money and influence if they think they can get away with it.

There was maybe a time where Honor was celebrated and valued as one of if not the top human quality, but now is not that time, now is the "Greed is good time" when the greatest measure of the quality of a person is how wealthy they are and most people naturally respond to what the society around them incentivizes them to do.

It's my impression that it's mainly the "center"-left parties (aka the larger ones) which got infiltrated, especially in countries with power duopolies thanks to Mathematically rigged voting systems like First Past The Post.

If you think about it, it makes total sense that Greedy Posh Salesmen-types with no principles whatsoever who want to get rich quick would be drawn to the two parties in power duopoly systems, were they will sell themselves to those who can reward them the best for their services, and those people certainly aren't the Poor or the Working Class.

I've concluded some years ago that the secret for Democracy to actually do what it says on the tin is constant change (the very opposite of those voting systems mathematically rigged for "stability") - rotten politicians must genuinely fear that if they sell themselves, they WILL end up out of power and the next ones in aren't going to be just "mates with a different pin on their lapel" so they are more likely than not to end up in jail for it.

I first saw that shit when I lived in Britain a decade ago, already at the hands of he who Thatcher called her "Greatest Achievement" (Tony Blair, who pivoted the Labour Party hard to the Right and away from a party representing the working class) and later directly at the hands of the Tories (Conservative Party).

Now that I'm back in my native Portugal (which also has a National Health service), the current rightwing government here is trying to do the same thing, tough not quite yet at the same point as NHS sneaky privatization was in Britain over a decade ago.

By the way, Mark Carney, now PM of Canada, was placed by and served as head of the Bank Of England for the Tories back when I was there, during which he was a great friend of bankers and presided over an economic period when in real terms the income of the lower 90% by wealth of the population was falling at about 1% per year, whilst that of the top 10% was growing at around 23%.

So, yeah, it does not surprise me at all, in any way form or shape, that Carney is working to make the fatcats fatter - same as he did in Britain - not for the good of most Canadians.

It's totally understandable: they need the lebensraum.

It's going to be a wonderful time to be a Freelance Senior Developer and above in a few years.

Well, in all fairness, Kissinger got one first, so by the time Obama got one it was already pretty obvious that the Nobel Peace Prize was no prize for Peace.

Exactly.

You can just look at the experience of creating the National Health Service in the UK (there's a bunch of documentaries floating around) to see how it's an overall positive for Society by a large margin, not just directly but also indirectly because for example when people can go see a doctor for free they are far more likely to end up being treated for sickness early on (which its cheaper and easier) or to get treatment for debilitating but not life threatening conditions which in turn even gets reflected in higher Economic outcomes because healthier people are more productive.

Universal Healthcare Systems only "don't work" for those who are fatcats getting a slice of that sweet sweet 13%+ of national GDP (about 18% in the US) that goes into Healthcare in the average country.

By this point in time, after Alderaan and a couple more planets have been blown up, you should probably have figured out that being an Engineer for the Empire's Death Star makes you one of the baddies even if you're not the one pressing the red button.

This stands out even more because we're in an era when even countries with Universal Healthcare have been walking back on it (as well as Social Security, Unions and other earlier Leftwing conquests) by privatizing them piecemeal through things like forced outsourcing of some services and public-private initiatives.

I remember when the BBC digitally altered a picture of Corbyn to wear a Soviet cap on his head and used it as a background for a news program and spread the "anti-semitism" slander against him (which was so extreme that at one point a Jewish Holocaust Survivor was accused of anti-semitism for the words he said in a Conference For Palestine to try to taint Corbyn by association) to bring him down from the Labour Party leadership.

I remember when British politicians and press gleefully spread the "Weapons Of Mass Destruction" lie justifying British military participation in the Iraq War,

Also the idea that Tommy Robinson is only funded by Russia and thus controlled by them and not by American fatcats (given that some years ago Steve Bannon came to Europe with money from the Koch Brothers very openly to "fund far-right parties" as well as it was Americans who were funding Cambridge Analitica to do Social Medial manipulation in favor of Leave), and local rich cunts, is very much the whitewashing I was talking about.

I'll wait for the results of an inquest led by a Senior Judge to make up my mind about Russia having in fact supported that cunt Tommy Robinson in this.