This post title is completely misleading. Kallas explicitly says that international law and the UN Charter must be respected - nothing about endorsing any invasion. She is saying the opposite.
From the UN Charter (Article 2(4)):
All Members shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
Not sure what the problem with the numbers is. Piracy = 0% to artists, Bandcamp = around 80% after fees and Visa, Spotify = pays rights holders around 70% of gross revenue, and artists often see 20% or less from labels. Blaming Spotify misses the real problem: labels control the payouts, not the platform.
I get that you promote your business a saviour, but how do people find the artists they want to go see without streaming or distribution platforms?
I agree, competition for YouTube is hard to see as anything but positive. And I’m also struck by how one-dimensional many of the comments are.
Spotify has effectively been turned into a stand-in for the structural failures of streaming, while other Big Tech platforms escape serious scrutiny. That kind of selective critique is revealing.
At a cultural level, it’s fascinating: drop a few well-worn trigger terms into the conversation and bots barely need to do anything - humans complete the loop themselves. I suspect this period will be looked back on as an object lesson in narrative engineering.
So let me get this straight: Anna’s Archive taking 100% from artists = good, Bandcamp taking ~20% = good, but Spotify taking ~30% = bad? That suggests the issue isn’t artist pay, it’s just which platform you’ve decided to hate.
And Anna’s Archive’s framing around ‘free access to culture’ seems to mean free for scraping and ideological cover, but for-profit when it’s packaged and sold to AI companies. That’s not anarchy - it’s anarcho-capitalism.
Isn’t that just stealing royalties from the musicians?
Spotify often gets bad press, some probably promoted by competitors. Its payouts look lower mainly because it offers a free ad-supported tier and serves markets with lower subscription fees - if it were subscription-only in high-fee markets, payouts would be similar to Apple, Tidal, or Qobuz. Also, I haven’t seen Spotify play me any AI-generated tracks, unlike some other platforms.
I’m not so sure. Last time I looked for an album it was cheaper on Qobuz than Bandcamp - also Qobuz had a Hi-Res version. Bandcamp I think takes 15% + payment handling which seems a lot for being a shopfront. I went to record label to get it in the end as I thought that was probably the best way of getting the money to the artist.
Proton has a free tier for email, calendar, Drive, password manager. They may do other things too but those are the 4 that I use.
You would have to move to Italy and live there for a certain number of years. For you it is probably 10 years continuous residency although as your ancestor was Italian it might be much shorter. To go and live there you would need a visa - a work visa or maybe something like an elective visa (private income so you’re not a burden on the sate), or an investor visa (buying residency).
If you were to have a child while there I don’t know what that would mean. It probably means they would be eligible and you would have the right to stay and look after them. But you would need to carefully assess what that would mean for the child’s statehood and identity.
Depends on how committed you are to the change.
Here’s the Reddit sub on the issue of citizenship by ancestry: https://www.reddit.com/r/juresanguinis/
Italy has just changed it’s rules on citizenship. You now need to prove you had an Italian parent or grandparent in order to be eligible. Before, there was no generational cut off.
Trump isn’t fascism, it’s authoritarian sure but he’s in it for his own criminal financial gain. For his self enrichment he mobilises the fascist tools of nationalism and division but it isn’t the rigorous ideology of state and society of fascism that he promotes: It’s more of a kleptocratic autocracy. Trump will destabilize the U.S. economy for his own profit, likely shifting reserves into $Trump crypto while China and Russia pick up the pieces. So moving to Italy is an excellent idea. It’s beautiful, the weather’s good, you might well have problems finding well paid work but you’ll eat well - what more could you want!
A general strike isn’t the end goal - it’s just one tool in a larger movement for a fairer society. Without deep structural change, any victory will be temporary, and moderates will be swept aside just like in the Russian Revolution.
The real fight is against a system that: • Turns housing into feudal lodgings • Keeps workers powerless through debt, low wages, and job insecurity • Uses healthcare as a profit engine instead of public infrastructure • Pushes every aspect of life toward privatization and financialization
A successful movement won’t just demand small fixes - it will challenge the entire system that allows exploitation to continue.
U.S. capitalism has hijacked basic needs like housing and healthcare, and these problems aren’t accidental—they’re built into the system. Housing is unaffordable because banks and financial institutions treat it as a commodity, locking people into debt. To fix this, we’d need to devalue real estate as an asset and limit speculative loans. The same goes for healthcare: the system isn’t broken, it’s designed to profit off human need, so true reform means nationalizing healthcare and removing corporate control.
The demands for a successful strike should include: • Housing as a right: End the financialization of housing and limit speculation. • Universal healthcare: Nationalize the healthcare system and eliminate private insurers. • Living wages: Set a living wage for all and drastically reduce the pay gap. • Job security & union rights: Real worker protections and job stability. • Progressive taxation & wealth redistribution: Tax the ultra-wealthy and corporations fairly. • Environmental justice: Transition to a green economy that prioritizes workers.
Real change requires systemic transformation, not reforms that merely patch up the existing system.
If I understand this correctly this is not about not giving Ukraine munitions it is about not giving the EU money to buy munitions to give to Ukraine. Each country in NATO is sovereign and pays for its own military. Each nation gives equipment and ordinance to Ukraine. There’s no change here (apart from the US saying they’re no longer supporting Ukraine). For the EU the future pooling resources will be developed within a sovereign framework so giving money to the EU for equipment now is like removing military sovereignty. Given that military procurement is rife with corruption and inflated costs, and the EU have no framework, or military strategy, or mandate for a EU army, you can understand why countries are reluctant to give money to the EU rather than giving to Ukraine directly.
In US English Ground is used to signify Earth. But if you said Ground in England people would understand what you meant.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve used Ubuntu a few times in the past on old computers it worked well although I do remember some headache trying to get the sound card to work well. But this was 10 years or so ago so I will look at Mint thanks.
I found the desktop was much nicer in Ubuntu compared with Windows. I find it bizarre that Windows still only has a very rudimentary, token option for multiple desktops.
Each country developed its own plug system in Europe. This looks like a French CEE 7 type plug - its asymmetrical fixed earth point creates wiring compatibility problems where the poles are wired differently in different countries. A lot of domestic appliances now use the German Schuko plug type as an answer to this problem (the earth is on the circumference edge pins)
I have an Asus Zenbook I bought when Windows 10 came out 10 years ago. Dropped, dented, scratched etc. still works great, runs all programs, though not Windows 11 - so I’ll either have to use a 3rd party antivirus or change the OS to Ubuntu or something.
The EU has repeatedly stated that Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. A “peaceful transition” is not a military operation. In EU language it means elections, negotiations, and constitutional processes. Illegitimacy does not equal a green light for foreign force.