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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
My intention is to make links only to publicly accessible, stable URLs. If you find a link to a page that requires subscription, please report that as you would report any other broken link.
*Beyond Extinction Rebellion: the [specialized] * protest groups fighting on the climate front line. *
Senator Burr is suspected of giving his brother-in-law a secret warning to sell stock because Covid-19 was on its way.
* Nothing and everything and not nearly enough has changed in the six years since the Paris climate summit and agreement. The four players in our climate future –- climate chaos, climate activism, climate solutions and climate finance –- are still on a playing field filled with floods, flames and false solutions.*
*The US should cut the military budget to fund Build Back Better programs.*
The UK has convicted climate defense activists for painting "lies, lies, lies" on the office of a denialist lobbying organization.
Compare this "criminal damage" with inundated cities and burning forests.
An FBI thug rushed into a store in Oakland and seconds later shot Jonathan Cortez dead. The family demand to know why, and have been met with harassment.
The Sudanese military rulers are arresting people who supported democratic government people who supported democratic government, as well as journalists, and holding them incommunicado.
Censorship and repression in India reach a lunatic extreme: Indian Muslims were arrested for celebrating Pakistan's cricket victory over India.
*Banks Lobby Against Biden Proposal to Crack Down on Ultra wealthy Ultra wealthy "Tax Cheats."*
*Net zero is not enough -– we need to build a nature-positive future. *
*World is failing to make changes needed to avoid climate breakdown, avoid climate breakdown, report finds.*
*The make-or-break climate summit: here’s what’s at stake at Cop26. *
Everyone: call on Mastercard to rules that effectively impose censorship about sex on web sites. Using the word "adult" as a euphemism for "involving or referring to sex" is misleading as it attempts to deny the fact that adolescents are naturally fascinated with these matters. perhaps we should call them "adolescent" instead of "adult".
Please do not use "content" to refer to works of authorship or art -- Not even the ones you have a low opinion of, for whatever reason. Because that usage inherently disparages all works, or all publications.
US citizens: demand elimination of state laws that restrict abortions.
US citizens: call on Congress to regulate collection of data and of algorithms to make decisions with it.
US citizens: call on Congress to end gouging on prisoners' phone calls.
* Oil and gas companies should be treated like the tobacco industry and denied routine meetings with EU officials. *
Edtech companies are already developing great power over the students in the schools where they operate, and it will get worse. They use their surveillance power to manipulate students , and to direct students into tracks towards various levels of knowledge, power and prestige.
They also structure their relationships so that they are never held responsible for the consequences.
The article argues that these companies should need to have licenses to operate. I am not against that, but I would go further. I say that the data acquired in a school about any student must not leave the school's control: whatever computers it gets onto must belong to the school and run free software. That way the school district and/or parents can control what it does with those data.
*European Investment Bank to end all loans to oil and gas firms.*
It will no longer help oil companies develop wind farms, and that is a good thing, because those projects help the oil company greenwash its continued fossil fuel operations. The same funds could go to a wind farm project that is not connected with an oil company.
Facebook says it will build a "metaverse". (Or is that "made it worse"?) That buzzword is not very precise about its meaning, so if something does get built, we concretely know hardly anything about what it might do.
What rhymes with "meta"? "Data". That's what Facebook wants, and that's what we should refuse to give it. Don't be a zucker!
I won't prejudge it just because Facebook is doing it, but we must suspect it will mistreat its users. We should pose these questions about it:
A Tennessee Republican state senator, who is one of ALEC's leaders , has been charged with violating campaign finance laws.
Alabama Republicans have made it illegal for schools to teach that any illegal action is a legitimate option.
If interpreted in an evenhanded way, this excludes the American Revolution from the curriculum, not to mention the civil rights movement. I expect Republicans to apply the law selectively.
Proper judges would declare it unconstitutional, not because of the specifics but rather on general principles, but we cannot count on today's judges to defend academic freedom.
Discounting the value of your own future earnings is economically rational. But when this is applied to economic models of the future of civilization, it has the effect of discounting future generations down to insignificance.
It is valid to discount our own future income, but it is not valid to discount someone else's future income as if it were going to be yours.
Background to the coup in Sudan.
Famine will affect half the population of Afghanistan this winter.
A low-profile right-wing lobbying group guided the bully's "populist" tax cuts.
to help them benefit the rich more.
Presenting emissions reduction goals in terms of reducing "emissions intensity" of energy use, for a growing economy that uses ever more energy, is a scheme to disguise failure That's what India is doing.
We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fast. To hold emissions steady while using more energy won't save our climate.
The US, in order to get its hands on Julian Assange and subject him to an unfair trial, has promised the UK that it won't imprison him in brainwashing conditions at the outset.
But it reserves the right to change that decision later. Wrong as it would be to imprison Assange for journalism, the worst thing that has happened so far is the UK's decision that it will in general extradite journalism suspects to the US, agreeing to the US claim that journalism is "espionage".
Europe's refugee crisis from 1946, with which to compare that of the present day.
US Citizens: call on the house investigation to demand testimony from the representatives accused of helping to plan the attack on the Capitol.
The Brazilian Senate recommends charging Bolsonaro with crimes of recklessly exposing Brazilians to Covid-19, and being responsible for as much as 300,000 deaths.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch jointly condemned Israel's labeling of Palestinian human rights defenders as "terrorists".
*World’s chief scientists urge Cop26 attendees to step up low-carbon policies.*
*Long Beach school safety officer who shot teenager charged with murder.*
It's rare that school thugs actually kill a teenager, but quite common that they send students to prison. That's the real reason why schools should not have them.
(satire) *Construction Finally Complete On Canal Connecting Chemical Runoff With Mississippi River.*
China will put limits on constructing very tall buildings. They divert resources in a direction that isn't useful.
In Honduras, climate disasters rain down on the poor and there is nowhere for them to go.
When I think about this situation, I cannot escape the conclusion that, in the long term, any solution to the problem of people with nowhere to go must include limiting the population.
This article argues that oil extraction will collapse in the 2030s, because the fraction of oil extracted that will have to be burned so as to extract oil will increase to a level that won't be profitable to continue.
I don't have the knowledge to judge whether this is true. But if it is, that may provide the necessary extra impetus to move the world quickly to renewable energy.
US citizens: support the Stop Wall Street Looting Act.
*Sudan coup: US condemns military takeover as protests rage overnight.*
China has an agency dedicated to expats from China, including Tibetans. Its mission is to spy on them, pressure them, and occasionally threaten, attack or kidnap them.
I wonder: When the US catches Chinese agents stalking exiled Chinese dissidents, what sort of crimes are they charged with, and what sort of sentences do they serve? Are the sentences long enough to discourage Chinese from trying such violence, or do they consider it a slap on the wrist?
Mexico is passing a law to impose government regulation on traditional medicine.
*‘Conditioning an entire society’: the rise of biometric data technology.*
Some islands between Australia and New Guinea will be inundated unless we curb global heating fast. Inhabitants are suing Australia to demand this.
US citizens: call on senators to pass the PRO Act, to help workers unionize.
Half of US Democrats don't want to "hold the fossil fuel companies accountable" for putting Earth's climate on the path to global disaster.
More info about the survey results.
I think that "holding those companies accountable" for the fire they have started is a secondary issue. What's most important is to push them aside, and incapacitate them if necessary,. so they can't interfere as we try to put it out.
*Toxic fracking waste is leaking into California groundwater.*
*How the US fails to take away guns from * domestic abusers.*
*Another Struggle for Long Covid Patients: Disability Benefits.*
*Half a Million South Korean Workers Walk Off Jobs Walk Off Jobs in General Strike.*
It would be great to see American workers do that.
A big Dutch pension fund has decided to divest from fossil fuel companies.
In February 2019 a Facebook employee in India created a test account to see what Facebook would recommend to new users. Perse saw the site recommend a flood of violent hatred Pakistan and against Muslims.
Over 20% of women in the UK military report (in a survey) receiving sexual harassment, and a like number report receiving emotional bullying.
The Democratic Party in Congress has a secret committee in charge of committee assignments. Its rules and its membership are secret. All we know about its operations is that it seems very responsive to interests with lots of money.
An FBI document explains how it gets tracking data from US phone companies.
The issue here is not whether phone companies should answer subpoenas. Rather, it is what data they accumulate.
To track everyone's movements this way is not merely unjust to each person tracked. It threatens good government by facilitating the identification of whistleblowers. It threatens democracy itself, by facilitating the identification of dissidents.
Therefore, I contend that phone companies should not be allowed to retain tracking information about any person without first receiving a specific court order.
As someone once told me, in what kind of state is the job of the police easy? In a police state.
Rolling Stone says that participants in the attack on the Capitol told reporters (and the government) that they were in planning meetings with Republican members of Congress.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez called for expulsion of any members of Congress that collaborated with the attack on the Capitol.
I agree, but I fear that Republicans lack sufficient patriotism to expel Republicans for trying to overthrow the government.
I wish it were possible for me to support the campaign, Stop the Money Pipeline, which aims to get banks to stop investing in fossil fuels. I can't, because its web site depends on nonfree Javascript code to the point where I cannot ethically refer anyone to it.
I would like ask them to change this, but the site shows no way to contact them — no email address, no phone number, no postal address, nothing.
Can anyone tell me a way to reach them?
In the mean time, they make one concrete recommendation that I can state here: move your money (and organizations' money) out of Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America.
The military have taken over Sudan and arrested some or all of the civilian government.
Funded right-wing groups are encouraging anti-maskers to bully school board meetings.
*Doctors and medical experts say private equity firms and profiteering corporations are putting American lives at risk and compromising the practice of medicine.*
Manchin may have doomed civilization by killing hope of adequate US climate action. Years before that, the first consequence could be a big economic gain for China at US expense. Perhaps some businesses and investors, too hard-nosed and short-signed to care about the future of civilization 40 years from now, will care enough to try to prevent that.
A campaign aims to clear the name of the thousands of European women (and some men) who were executed for imagined witchcraft.
We should not allow fantasy about magic and witches, whether good or bad, to distort our idea of reality. In reality, there is no such thing as magic. There is advanced technology which can appear "indistinguishable from magic", but it isn't really magic, and doesn't involve devils.
There are real poisons, and are occasionally used for murder or attempted murder, but they are physical substances and always administered by non-magical means.
West Virginia has problems due to global heating: floods often block roads and cut towns off from travel. They also often cause long power outages. It needs both infrastructure improvements and a curb on global heating.
Thus, Manchin is serving his state badly.
How can you trust that an app really won't send some company your location data, when you tell it not to?
The only way you can trust a program not to do something it isn't supposed to do is if it is free software, so that the user community can check it.
Our awareness of what the world has done to deal with Covid-19 leads us to envision, for the first time, a global medical system capable of dealing properly with a global pandemic. Alas, today's global medical system is far from sufficient.
It won't be ready for the next pandemic either, unless we make it a lot more capable.
How can you trust that an app really won't send some company your location data, when you tell it not to?
The only way you can trust a program not to do something it isn't supposed to do is if it is free software, so that the user community can check it.
Our awareness of what the world has done to deal with Covid-19 leads us to envision, for the first time, a global medical system of dealing properly with a global pandemic. Alas, today's global medical system is far from sufficient.
It won't be ready for the next pandemic either, unless we make it a lot more capable.
Nigeria's population growth has taken up the land where herders
used to move their herds.
DeSantis gave Florida a surgeon general that aims to spread Covid-19. "Ripper general"
would be a more fitting title for him. The ripper general went to a meeting in a state senator's office and refused, by ideology, to wear a mask. The senator told him to leave.
The article doesn't explicitly say so, but I think he did leave. The fact that this senator has cancer, and therefore is extra vulnerable to Covid-19, doesn't actually change the moral issue. If she did not have cancer, she would be no less entitled to have people wear masks when in a room with her.
*[The corrupter]'s judges will call the shots for years to come. The [US] judicial system is broken [as a result].*
Remember that Republicans in the Senate prepared to do this, by blocking Obama from appointing any judges for years. [pol note]
Anthropic emissions have raised Earth's CO2 concentration to a level not seen for the past 3 million years.
Rare heavy rains in California caused caused floods and mudslides, but may not leave enough in the soil to end the deep drought.
*Banning anonymous social media accounts would only stifle free speech and democracy.*
I post a reference to that article because it is well-argued, but I don't agree with it 100%. I think that banning the posting of "disturbing" language goes too far. Also, it repeatedly refers to an unspecified hypothetical individual as "them", and I find that quite annoying.
Dutch right-to-die activist Wim van Dijk announced that he has sold a suicide powder to 100 people, and calls for a national debate about assisted suicide.
This manner of distributing means for suicide has a drawback: the same chemical might well serve for murder. It is surely possible to craft rules that will enable people to commit suicide if they firmly and persistently want to do that, while making other effects unlikely.
US citizens: phone your senators to support taxing the rich more.
Here's a suggested script to say.
Hello, my name is _____________ and I'm a constituent of the senator's. I am calling to urge Senator _________ to support the tax reform plan being put forward by Senator Wyden and Majority Leader Schumer. It will raise the revenue needed to fully fund the Build Back Better plan by making the rich and corporations begin paying their fair share of taxes. Senator Wyden's tax plan includes the Billionaires Income Tax, which I strongly support. It is critical that billionaires start paying taxes on their investment gains each year the same as workers like me pay taxes on our wages each year. Again, I urge the senator to support Senator Wyden's tax plan and his Billionaires Income Tax. Thank you.
A US court recognized hippopotamoses in Colombia as "legal persons". The article explains that this means much less the it sounds like, but also calls it a "milestone victory".
If hippopotamoses are treated legally as persons, there is no telling what might be next to receive that privilege. Corporations???
China promises a substantial decrease in fossil fuel use by 2060. However, it may not be as much as it sounds like. If China doubles its power output by 2060, 20% of that power amount would equal 40% of the current power output. That would still be a substantial decrease compared with today's fossil fuel use, but China can and must do more.
*Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds.*
The capture of one cocaine gang leader is not likely to make any important change in the drug smuggling industry. There may be a temporary increase in violence as gangs reshape their power relationships, but nothing fundamental.
Similarly, when the leader of a guerrilla organization or terrorist organization is killed, don't expect that to change much.
Car-tracking license plate cameras are now being sold aggressively to cities and neighborhoods around the US. Even individuals can buy them and set them up.
The article inexplicably presumes that there's nothing dangerous about letting thug departments run these cameras. I think that's the most dangerous mode of operating them. However, allowing individuals and businesses to run them is almost as bad, because some business will start collecting and correlating the data.
Deleting all the data after 30 days is useless as a precaution if it is practical to copy all the data to another server before it gets deleted.
To make these cameras safe, getting the data out of the camera should require physical access to the camera. That will make them security cameras rather than surveillance cameras. The inconvenience of this will assure that people do it only in the case of real need.
It is ok for the camera to read a list of vehicles being sought and alert someone when one of those vehicles passes by.
Plastic generates a considerable amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and it's increasing.
Comparing the increase of plastic's emissions with the decrease of coal burning emissions seems beside the point. We need to decrease them both.
A hundred thousand suckers reportedly gave out iris scans to get a little of a new cryptocurrency.
Ethiopia is attacking Tigray by air.
Ethiopia says it attacked military targets. Tigray says a bomb hit a hospital. I have no way of telling what the truth is, because I know of no source of information I can count on. Even on bigger questions, such as what the various armies are doing and with what amount of success, we have very little information compared with (for instance) Syria and Libya.
Google claimed privately that it had succeeded in slowing down the European Union's efforts to regulate online services (and dis-services) for users' privacy.
In Canada, an ethnic group with mixed ancestry has applied for (and been granted) the same legal entitlements that indigenous groups get, and this has created a conflict between them and the "pure" indigenous groups.
Anti-vaxxers now spread the questionable claim that recovering from Covid-19 gives more immunity than vaccination.
I don't know whether there is a systematic difference between the levels of immunity that result from Covid-19 infection and from vaccination, but it's clear that the former is much more risky — the chance of lasting disability after an infection seems to be more than 10%.
Given the choice between getting vaccinated now, or waiting to catch the disease, it is far better to get vaccinated.
*The White House released a report on the financial risks associated with the climate crisis — a document critics say would have been promising at some earlier point in history but that falls "pitifully" short given the urgency of the crisis.*
Salafi Arabia says it will achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2060, even more late than the Paris agreement.
The details hardly matter, given that this refers only to Salafi Arabia's direct emissions, and does not include the emissions that result in other countries from using the petroleum that Salafi Arabia sells to them.
By contrast, the commitment to cut methane emissions by 2030 will be significant, if it really happens. Planting billions of trees could do some good…if they survive global heating.
Russia has installed censorship boxes in many Russian ISPS and gatewys. It can block specific pages of sites, and it can also slow them down.
In the last days of filming the movie Rust, people in the crew complained of violations of safety rules. Eventually some union members walked out, and the prouction replaced them with non-union workers but did not fix the safety problems. This seems to be related to the death that occured on the set.
Plastic pollution in waterways is projected to double by 2030 and triple by 2040.
Friends of the Earth has denounced "carbon offsets" as a cheap excuse for avoiding the expensive task of really reducing greenhouse emissions.
Biden has acknowledged the need to eliminate the filibuster
*'World conflict and chaos' could be the result of a [climate] summit failure.
Ireland is considering making contraception gratis for women of age 18-25, and later perhaps for other age ranges.
There should be no lower age limit for gratis contraception.
This article argues for denying people help for suicide on the ground that inadequate support for sick people would drive them to choose death.
It does happen that some people choose suicide because their options for living are lousy. It must already happen that, in some cases, their options for living could be better if they could have certain kinds of help. I agree it would be good to give them more help. If this leads more people to choose to stay alive, that's success.
But the question here is whether we should force people to suffer longer when they would rather die. The article implicitly assumes that we can compel governments to improve aid for the sick and disabled by making them people keep suffering. This approach has not been very effective so far.
Here's a subtle discussion of the disagreement over assisted suicide.
*Sen. Joe Manchin Has Been Fighting to Keep Billions in Subsidies for Fossil Fuel Industry.*
*Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public.*
*Luxembourg first in Europe to legalise growing and using cannabis.*
Republicans are passing laws to reduce the powers of public health officials.
This has a specific short-term goal, to prevent Americans from protecting themselves from Republican Covid-spreading policies. Also, they have a pattern of shifting powers away from local or statewide officials (safe from gerrymandering) to state legislatures (where the Republican Party maintains power with a minority of votes via gerrymandering).
*Self-Proclaimed Pro-Climate Corporations Have Been Giving Thousands to Manchin and Sinema.*
The prevalence of guns in Hollywood movies has tripled since 1985. This can influence people (especially children) who see the movie to play with guns.
Alleging that the UK-New Zealand business-supremacy treaty would cause economic losses and undermine climate defense. That's in addition to imposing a sort of race-based censorship.
*Iranian women journalists, imprisoned journalist’s mother jailed arbitrarily.*
*ICE Review of Immigrant's Suicide Finds Falsified Documents, Neglect, and [use of solitary] Confinement.*
*Fate Of Anti-War Journalism Lies in Upcoming Assange Hearings.* Not directly in what happens to Assange himself, but in whether the US can prosecute journalists and news publishers for "espionage" and entirely disregard the public's right to know.
Taliban are seizing land and homes from Afghans because of political and religious disagreements.
Australia and Japan are lobbying to weaken the world's climate defense plans, alongside OPEC countries such as Salafi Arabia.
If we had all known in the 1970s how dangerous Middle East oil would be to the Earth's ecosphere, maybe world powers could have made an agreement to keep most of it in the ground.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reminds Americans not to give up on the fight for a real climate/relief bill. It's not over yet.
*New analysis has suggested that unvaccinated individuals should expect to be reinfected with Covid-19 every 16 months, on average.*
US citizens: call on world leaders at COP26 to adopt a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Covid is increasing in the UK despite most people's being vaccinated. UK unions and medical officials call for strict enforcement of mask requirements and distancing, to protect their workers.
Israel has labeled prominent Palestinian human rights organizations as "terrorist", claiming that they secretly work for the PFLP.
It could perhaps be true that there are people in those organizations that secretly work with some PFLP activists. It might be difficult for the organizations to prevent that, or even find out about it.
But given Israel's history of distortions and lies in regard to Palestinians, and its contempt for their human rights, I don't consider it plausible. I have more confidence in B'tselem.
The UK and New Zealand have agreed on a business-supremacy treaty that also imposes race-based censorship.
UK governments do not hesitate to censor, so the Tories probably consider this an insignificant concession. But it is an injustice nonetheless. We must defend the right to mock anyone whatsoever, or soon we won't be allowed to mock anyone at all.
The idea of "Cultural appropriation" as wrong is a misguided concept, so analyze real situations based on better concepts.
Increased heat in some regions is causing an increase in kidney disease.
While Manchin demands to eliminate climate defense from the Build Back Better bill, the chair of House climate panel recognizes that it's already inadequate.
UK radio broadcasters have noticed that dis-services such as search engines, especially voice-controlled ones such as Alexa, can manipulate users into not listening to UK radio broadcasts.
*Oil and coal-rich countries lobbying to weaken UN climate report, leak shows.*
Democrats are offering Manchin "compromises" that would effectively vitiate the climate parts of the Build Back Better bill.
That would give Manchin a total victory that costs him nothing.
It would be better to say that Manchin has blocked passage of the bill. Then he would receive the blame for that.
*Amazon workers in Staten Island to file for union vote.*
New Zealand will require the larger banks to report on the climate risks to their investments.
Billionaires use special kinds of trusts to hand billions to their heirs with no inheritance taxes.
*US Judge Rules Guantánamo [prisoner]'s Imprisonment Illegal.*
I expect this will be appealed up to the Supreme Court. If it affirms the decision, I am not confident that will result Asadullah Haroon Gul's release. That's because the US treats continued imprisonment as the default, even if it is illegal, unless all the conditions combine to make the prisoner's release an option.
That is clearly unjust. If the US has no legal basis to keep someone in prison, it must release per, even if that means releasing per into the US as an immigrant.
If US officials didn't want that, they should have treated him justly.
After Virginia ratified the Equal Rights (for women) Amendment, the bully's lawyers declared that it was too late, because the deadline had passed. A congresscritter says that that was mistaken, and that Biden should reject that conclusion and allow the ERA to enter the Constitution.
I support the ERA. I am not an expert on the legal question of whether it is still possible for it to be adopted under the law from the 1970s.
Asylum officers, who interview asylum-seekers, are told of long lists of crimes committed against them by US border thugs.
These include beatings, threats of rape, rape, and tricking them into signing away their legal rights.
*Internet Service Providers Collect, Sell Horrifying Amount of Sensitive Data, Government Study Concludes.*
ISPs should be forbidden to install equipment to examine packets to learn anything about the people talking on the internet.
The Burmese military government released some political prisoners, then almost immediately arrested them again. It was apparently just a cruel mind game.
Research has discovered that Twitter's algorithm for promoting tweets results in a large right-wing bias. Twitter says it does not know what causes this.
*After Getting 'Stealth Bailout' During Pandemic, US Corporations Try to Kill Proposed Tax Hikes.*
US citizens: call on the Justice Department to prosecute Bannon without delay.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency.
Biden can personally block 24 large fossil fuel projects, achieving an enormous reduction in future greenhouse gas emissions.
US citizens: call on Biden not to retain Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve.
US citizens: call on John Deere to give fair pay and benefits to its workers (some of whom are now on strike).
Jurists are concerned that expanding the US Supreme Court could undermine the court's legitimacy.
Indeed it could, but Republican manipulations, and the decisions that result, are doing exactly that.
Biden should endorse expanding the court.
Expansion may not be the best solution. I read an article proposing instead to reduce the size of the court, which would kick the most recently elected justices down to appeals courts. However, we don't need "the best solution" — any solution is better than none.
Meanwhile, any such plan will run into Manchin running interference for the Republicans.
*House Progressives to Pelosi: Reject Divisive Means-Testing in Favor of Universal Benefits.*
I sympathize completely with those who say that wealthy people should be paying more, not receiving more. But the amount we would get from rich people by denying them these benefits would be minuscule, not enough to justify the future weakness that would result from limiting these benefits to poor people.
Instead, we should make the rich pay taxes on all their income and property. That would bring in far more funds. However, Manchin specifically opposes that too.
Why does the spending in the Build Back Better bill have to be specifically "paid for"? It's not something the US needs to do for economic reasons. Deficit spending is entirely possible, and economically desirable now. Congress doesn't trouble to make sure increases in military spending are "paid for" by savings or taxes.
The reason is that plutocratists adopted an arbitrary "pay as you go" rule for spending on things that will help Americans, and that applies to the Build Back Better bill.
*Assange: A Threat to War Itself.*
Antivax fanaticism is now splitting the right wing.
Bolivia accuses the alleged assassins of President Moïse of having tried to kill Luis Arce in Bolivia, before he was elected president.
*If the US could get on a war footing in 1941, we can tackle the climate emergency.*
Some congresscritters always treat proposals to help the non-rich as dangerous traps to be avoided. Strangely, they don't say the same about military plans.
MIT invited climate scientist Dorian Abbot to give a talk, then uninvited him under pressure from a mob who disapprove of some of his political views.
I support affirmative action. Experiments show that judging individuals' scientific work is systematically biased by racism and sexism, and they affect people's chances in other ways too. Affirmative action is a way of trying to counteract those effects.
At the same time, I defend freedom of speech, including the freedom to state views that disagree with yours or mine. It is wrong to exile people from the scientific community over of their views about affirmative action, or other issues. Universities should resist attempts to force people into conformity by bullying dissenters. No one in a university is entitled to be "protected" from encountering expression of "inappropriate" views. If you don't like them, argue with them.
What about "citational justice"? It stands to reason that racism and sexism will affect how much any particular person's work gets cited, since it affects how people judge that work. Some kind of "citational affirmative action" could be a good countermeasure, but it needs to be limited, just as affirmative action in admissions is.
Perhaps, "when we cite A, let's also cite B or C."
The article linked to above displays the New York Times' usual symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some important articles. Usually, they are articles that give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. This article gives important information about the threat to the freedom to maintain heterodox views about anything that many people want to censor.
*Ivory poaching has led to evolution of tuskless elephants, study finds.*
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators marched in Sudan.
This shows that the people are not on the side of the protesters that want a coup. But even though the military don't have enough support to make a coup look like "back by public demand", they still might have a coup.
*House [of Representatives] holds Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress.*
I am relieved that the House did not shrink from this confrontation, because the trumpets believe they can get away with anything by bluffing.
US citizens: phone your senators at 1-833-497-4273 and say to get rid of the filibuster.
Especially if you live in West Virginia or Arizona.
*The United States Must Rejoin the Global Biodiversity Conservation Community.*
*The future of Europe is at stake in the fight for Germany’s finance ministry.*
The world needs deficit spending, both to help the people rendered poor by Covid-19, and to curb global heating. Politicians that oppose this commit mass murder, and that's what the "Free Democrats" advocate.
The US must establish a national medical system, and not only to give Americans better health and longer life. There will be many secondary benefits for the non-rich.
(satire) *Experts Warn Everything That Will Happen Between Now And November 2022 Could Spell Trouble For Democrats In Midterms.*
It's only mildly an exaggeration over what I have seen in CNN.
Some congressional Democrats have asked Biden to investigate whether he has the legal authority to seize and publish the recipes for making Covid vaccines, saying it could be so.
The US has been reelected to the UN Human Rights Council, but it still needs to change policies so as to respect human rights.
The UK and the EU have once again blocked a patent waiver for Covid-19 vaccines.
That article is based on total acceptance of the twisted concept of "intellectual property". That term is an over generalization and misrepresents the laws it purports to describe. It also embodies a perverse choice of values. The term was adopted, a few decades ago, to make unjust rules seem inevitable and to make patent waivers seem radical and shocking.
We would help the chances of implementing patent waivers, now and in the future, by rejecting that term and the premises it promotes.
As for the TRIPES agreement, it implements bogus trickle-down economics. We should abolish it.
Advances among low-income voters were crucial for Biden's victories in several swing states.
The US deportation thugs have a new torture device with which they tie a victim up in a painful position in which perse almost can't breathe.
They used this to deport victims before their asylum hearings determined whether they were entitled to remain in the US.
Farmers and tractor factory workers should realize they are all in the same boat against an exploitative company such as John Deere.
Extinction Rebellion protested the headquarters of the US Chamber of Commerce, a plutocratist lobby group that helps fossil fuel companies continue procuring the death of millions of people around the world.
The US is suspected of inviting Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO.
That's a foolish strategy now, just as it was earlier in this century when the US and Russia still had a mostly friendly relationship. Indeed, the two might still have one, if the US had not encouraged Georgia's belligerence toward Russia.
Having buffer zones between powers is important for peace between them.
Manchin proposed a weakened "compromise" voting rights bill, but he could not find ten Republicans to support it. They are determined to rig the next election.
There's only one question left for Manchin and Sinema: will you let the Republicans rig the election, or will you support that?
I've seen a rumor that Manchin is threatening to become a Republican. That somehow doesn't surprise me. But it is a dangerous threat, as it would be considerably worse than what he is already doing.
Quebec announces the plan to put a end to fossil fuel extraction.
Ecuador's new president is a hard-line plutocratist and extractivist, who has declared the intention to flood the world with disastrous quantities of fossil fuel.
Since global heating will kill hundreds of millions, or perhaps even billions, we should think of fossil fuel extraction as a form of war. Eventually we will need to threaten retaliation with war to stop the extraction.
The French oil company Total knew in 1971 that its extraction of fossil fuels would lead to global disaster.
(satire) *Biden Scales Down $2 Trillion Climate Plan To Single Reusable Grocery Bag.* However, that was still too much for Manchin.
Senator Warren and others have proposed a bill to protect real businesses from "private equity".
An extreme example of how US hospitals prioritize money over human health.
Meeting in support of Julian Assange, Monday Oct 25 2pm-4pm First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden St, Cambridge Mass.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to call for closing the carried interest loophole. This is explained in a previous pol note.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Pfizer uses its control over vaccine supply to bully governments into giving it special privileges.
Please keep in mind that "intellectual property" is a bogus concept which misrepresents the various laws it pretends to refer to, and causes confusion every time it is used.
Hungary's opposition alliance now faces the ultimate test: the election for parliament, in which Orbán will either hold or lose control over the government.
Texas Republicans have twisted new census figures to concentrate the increased fraction of Latins into a smaller number of congressional districts.
*Toxic algae blooms are multiplying. The [US] government has no plan to help.*
The UK is going to spend millions to pay for building two large facilities for CO2 capture,
CCS may eventually work, but we need to remember that (1) it will take many years to finish these facilities, (2) it can't capture all the CO2 produced in the factory or power plant it is attached to, and (3) building solar and wind power will avoid a lot more CO2 emissions for the same amount of energy. It might ultimately be useful, especially for making concrete, since clean electricity won't help with that.
The UK's plan to fund replacement of 90,000 home boilers with heat pumps is at the same time a substantial step forward, and totally inadequate.
That happens often because the efforts so far to defend the climate are several orders of magnitude less than what is needed.
I've also read claims that these heat pumps are not very efficient.
*‘Some call it a circus’: dictator’s son, boxing icon and former actor vie to lead Philippines.*
New Zealand is passing a law that will increase housing construction and promote denser housing.
Arguing that paleolithic humans in many parts of the world had a wide range of social organizations, and that it was quite usual for a people to switch during the year between various forms of social organizations — even between nomadic bands and farmers.
If it was common during hundreds of thousands of years to gain the status of chief by success in leadership while alternating annually between two levels of social organization with two different relationship requirements for success, this would have been a selective force towards ever greater emotional intelligence.
In London, a last protest against the decision that Julian Assange committed a crime that justifies extradition.
Even more important than whether Assange is punished for publishing important news about government crimes is whether the UK gets away with a series of lies and crimes designed to railroad Assange.
Even more important than that is whether this case establishes a principle that publishing important news about government crimes is a crime.
*"Religious exemptions" threaten to undermine US Covid vaccine mandates.*
The reason to require vaccination against Covid-19 is because being vaccinated protects everyone, not only yourself. For the same reason, there should be no exceptions for any reason other than medical.
*Let her finish: interruptions of female justices led to new supreme court rules.*
(satire) *BREAKING: Concern Mounting Over Nothing In Particular.*
How the War on Drugs represses Americans in regard to work.
(satire) *Study Finds Big Bang Result Of Last Universe Blowing Itself Up With Fireworks.*
The Hindu-supremacist party (BJP) has convinced Indian Hindus (84% of the population) that they are being oppressed by the Muslims (14%) and must make violent attacks to avoid being wiped out.
BJP's elected officials legitimize murder of Muslims, while the former state of Kashmir suffers under a semi-occupation.
(satire) *Florida School Revises Covid Guidelines To Reflect Latest Misinformation.*
As Manchin demands to cut climate defense from the Build Back Better bill. threatening to kill it, other Senate Democrats say they will kill it if Manchin gets his way.
If Manchin thought he could cut whatever he likes and the bill will go through, maybe seeing that this would actually kill it will make him accept a compromise. At least, I hope so.
After the murder of an MP, there is pressure in the UK to move MP meetings with the public to Zoom! People who defend freedom in their computing would be excluded.
Perhaps it would be wise to move to online meetings, but they must not limit these meetings to use of nonfree software. Britons, please tell your MP this ASAP.
*Poland: Thousands protest against migrant pushbacks at Belarus border.*
*Biden Faces Deadline for Release of More JFK Assassination Papers.*
* Five years to the day after a family of Syrian refugees were bundled on to a plane and deported to Turkey despite having lodged asylum claims in Greece, they are taking their case to the European court of justice.*
Many countries make a habit of deporting people before they have a chance to apply for asylum and get to the end of the court process to judge the claim. That cheats them out of their legal rights.
I've see countries including the USA, the UK, Greece and Poland accused of this.
This Saturday, Oct 23, Richard Stallman will be giving an online talk for the 8dot8 conference, titled Software libre, tu libertad, y tu ciberseguridad (Free software, your freedom, and your cybersecurity).
US citizens: call on Congress to hold Bannon in contempt for refusing to testify about the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
The protests in favor of a military coup in Sudan are linked with a troll farm.
The UK is investigating the thugs that infiltrated various protest movements under false identities decades ago, and had sexual relationships with women participants, but is questioning them in secret to conceal their identities.
The witness that lied to the US government about Julian Assange is now in jail in Iceland for engaging in a long series of business crimes.
A few UK schools will participate in a pilot project to identify students for school lunches using face recognition. This is wrong, but so is using fingerprints to do the job.
Schools should not identify students for lunch; they should simply give lunch to every student in the school.
*Naming Climate Villains as the World Burns.*
"Femcels" are women who have given up on ever having a sexual relationship.
Unlike the male "incels", these women don't blame or hate men for not being attracted to them. They see that as an inevitable a fact of life. I understand their feelings.
The UK government is aching to respond to the murder of an MP with — of course — censorship (details to be defined), plus surveillance (putting an end to anonymous communication).
The Supreme Court upheld the principle of "qualified immunity" for thugs. This means that thugs can't be convicted for any sort of violence unless court cases have already established that it wasn't constitutionally protected.
I've supported campaigns to legislate to change that.
Members of Congress accused Amazon of giving misleading or dishonest testimony about unfair competition.
Fossil fuel companies plan to extract fossil fuels at an increasing rate, rather than diminishing it. And governments are funding this expansion more than they are funding renewable energy.
The Taliban have agreed to restart polio vaccination in Afghanistan.
*Apple’s plan to scan images will allow governments into smartphones.*
High-tech methods of producing coffee are far more efficient, in terms of water use and greenhouse gas emissions, but some oppose using these methods because today's coffee farmers would no longer have a livelihood.
We must eliminate most greenhouse gas emissions, because the cost of failing to do so can easily include the collapse of civilization and billions of deaths. We can't take the risk of continuing dangerous pollution to make work for people.
Everyone: call on Bank of America not to finance a toxic plastic factory in Louisiana's "cancer alley".
After some cities and counties in California sued oil companies over the damage that sea-level rise will cause them, the oil companies alleged a "conspiracy" between the city officials.
In the long term, the only affordable way to cope with the damage that global heating will cause if it continues is to stop the heating.
Georgia has undermined the system of tenure in its universities by allowing university administrations to fire tenured professors.
This will have the effect of censoring professors who might have considered endorsing, or even investigating, an idea that lots of people condemn.
Modern-day prudery is so strictly opposed to exhibitionism that museums can't use their famous nudes to advertise their exhibitions.
The saddest thing is that the "solution" they found uses TikTok, which requires people to run nonfree software which will make them identify themselves.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to visit a food bank and see what poverty is doing to millions of Americans.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel student debt, as he promised.
The global campaign to reduce methane emissions has failed to win support from some of the biggest emitters.
The US has passed a law to set national standards for computer security in schools.
I expect the standards will disregard the main security threat in school computing: the widespread use of dis-services run by companies, including Google, Microsoft, Zoom and others, that collect personal data about students, starting with their names.
*Labour spending more on legal battles than campaigning, say sources.*
This supports my impression that the main goal of Labour's current plutocratist leaders is to kill off the idealism of Corbyn and his supporters.
*Climate crisis poses ‘serious risks’ to US economy, Biden administration warns.*
*UK to push plan to ‘halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030’ at Cop26.*
Everyone: call for protecting the shortfin mako shark.
The migrants who drive boats across the Mediterranean are not part of the people-smuggling gangs that run the migration; they are passengers who do this work in lieu of paying the usual fee. But Italy prosecutes them as if they were part of the gang.
Vulture capitalists are buying US newspapers — some prestigious, some not — and converting them into bargain basement aggregators.
*Factory farms of disease: how industrial chicken production is breeding the next pandemic.*
The EPA has announced a plan to regulate PFAs more strictly.
Accusing Colin Powell of intentionally lying, when he publicly insisted that the US had evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
*Women on reality TV shows get far more abuse online than men — study.*
"This is our last chance": Biden urged to act as climate agenda hangs by a thread.
A California law, that regulates how much space pigs being raised must have to move around in, might make pork a little more expensive.
With luck, that will reduce Americans' meat consumption a little. That would be good for our health.
Inhabitants of Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory are systematically attacking Palestinians' olive trees. Often soldiers join the attack.
This practice has happened every year for many years. The government almost never tries to protect Palestinians from this mob violence.
Parents describe giving their child one day of being in charge of the household.
As usual, the companies that have lent money to poor countries intend to squeeze their inhabitants to death.
The Burmese military government is putting Aung San Suu Kyi on "trial" and gives almost no information about this supposed "legal process". However, her lawyer has given a little information about her, mainly about her health.
Now he has been forbidden to communicate with the media.
Over a thousand US women have been prosecuted for having miscarriages, or for taking drugs (even prescribed by doctors) while pregnant.
The US government wants to develop telemetry to monitor stress and stress effects, in agents that have high-stress jobs.
I don't see anything wrong about this proposed use of the technology, but I have a hunch that if this system works, the government will also try to use it as a 24/7 lie detector (whether it is reliable or not). Private businesses will impose it on their staff too.
British propaganda agents in Indonesia helped bring about the 1965-1966 massacre in which the army and its supporters murdered 500,000 or more Communists and people thought to support them.
*The debilitating effects of long Covid have just begun to hit economies.* A study of soccer players shows the effect is substantial.
Those who aim to profit by gentrifying a neighborhood find it useful to bring in interesting food options, as a first step. That makes wealthier people interested in moving there.
Protesters in Sudan are demanding military dictatorship.
I have to join those who suspect that this is organized by a military faction aiming to seize power. Others are planning to rally in favor of civilian government.
That government has surrendered to oppression by the IMF. If these protests really mean, "Break the IMF deal," I share the feeling. The civilian government may have concluded that the loans are necessary to avoid even worse suffering than the IMF dishes out. However, if the government doesn't acknowledge what damage the IMF will do, people will consider it self-serving.
Would a military government reject an IMF "rescue"? I tend to doubt it. Dictators are generally happy to borrow money that the people will have to pay back.
Russia and other repressive regimes use Interpol as a system to trigger repression without trial against dissidents, protesters, and people who only fail to follow orders.
It is strange that the US doesn't make it standard practice to question what Russia says about people.
(satire) *Remington Introduces Ammunition For Sensitive Skin.*
British expat Billy Hood made the mistake of living in Dubai. A friend visited him and then sent him a message about having left behind some CBD vaping fluid. The thugs of Dubai saw the message, arrested Hood, and tortured him into signing a confession he could not read.
Why torture and lie to imprison someone for what they knew was unintentional possession? Is it that the emir of Dubai set them an example of sadistic brutality? Is it that they have to meet a quota of convictions per month?
Research found that TikTok responds to users that demonstrate interest in antitransism by showing them right-wing extremism.
This gives some confirmation to the idea that the recommendation algorithms are what we should demand to regulate and control.
Antitransism is a kind of bigotry — please don't call it a "phobia".
Please don't call publications "content" — that disparages all publications.
The cable company Charter is making veiled threats against ex-customers — threats to harm their credit ratings by alleging unpaid imaginary debts.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop future presidents from bullying the Department of Justice.
Supposedly China needs coal mining to provide employment in future decades.
Supposedly, China needs to encourage more births to avoid a shortage of workers in future decades. These predictions directly contradict each other, so at least one is false. But I think that both are false.
If China remains prosperous, and doesn't need everyone to work, it will have the resources to support everyone with jobs in taking better care of the old, the young, and the sick, and entertaining each other.
On the contrary, if China has an insufficiency of workers, it will be able to accelerate the use of robots, delay retirement, and make do with less conveniences.
What China cannot do is remain prosperous while beset increasingly by extreme weather, crop failures, and rising seas. The rice-growing areas of South China are close to sea level and will be inundated, including major cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nanjing and Hangzhou. To the east of Shanxi is the North China Plain which will encounter fatal weather. China had better focus on avoiding the catastrophe it is creating with fossil fuels.
*The case for minting a $1tn coin to deal with America’s debt ceiling.*
This would be equivalent to abolishing the debt ceiling: it would deprive Republicans of a recurring opportunity to hold America hostage and demand real concessions that do real harm. Why give them any more opportunities?
*Privacy fears as Moscow metro rolls out facial recognition pay system.*
Supposedly this is safe for passengers because only the state's repression ministry will have access to the records.
These cameras join almost 200,000 surveillance cameras on the street, which have already been used for face recognition for purposes of repression.
A call for regulating the use of tear gas in the US.
Many US judges have personal or family conflicts of interest, which may have corrupted the outcome of many cases.
The US legal system rarely if ever punishes crimes committed by corporations.
I love the quote from Robert Reich: "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."
*Tropical wetlands reduce storm impacts and save thousands of lives and $600bn each year, study suggests.*
*Hawks on all sides ready to swoop if Iran drags feet on nuclear talks.*
*Hollywood strike averted after union and producers reach last-minute deal.*
(satire) *Similac Introduces New Ghost Pepper Infant Formula.*
(satire) *Intergalactic Animal Rights Groups Condemn Use Of Brutal, Unsanitary Planet To Raise Human Meat.*
The Huntington Beach oil spill that poisoned wetlands was only 25,000 gallons, much less oil than previously thought. Despite the smaller quantity, I don't think the damage to wetlands has got less.
Modeling says that the Marshall Islands will be essentially wiped out by global heating effects. Some islands will cease to exist. Others will be greatly reduced. The capital of the country will become mostly uninhabitable. even the buildings that are not permanently flooded.
Novelist Sally Rooney expressed support for Palestine by refusing to allow a Hebrew translation of her latest book, and is being criticized with distortions.
As I recall, the BDS movement calls for a boycott of Israeli institutions, particularly those that support or take advantage of the occupation of Palestine — not individual Israelis. So I don't think it suggests refusing to publish in Hebrew.
However, implicit in publishing a Hebrew translation of her book would be to license that to an Israeli publishing company. The movement would ask people not to do that.
I myself don't support the Palestinian BDS movement. What I do support is the boycott, started by Gush Shalom, of products made in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
US citizens: call on Congress to prohibit Facebook's approach to data collection.
Note that "collecting, purchasing or otherwise acquiring user information beyond what is needed to provide the service" is often interpreted in a weak way. If an organization can justify collecting certain data because its way of implementing the job requires that data, it can easily make any data "necessary".
Bangladesh is moving thousands of Rohingya refugees to a low-lying island where they could all drown.
Memorial, a Russian NGO, defends human rights and teaches about Stalin's crimes against humanity. It showed a movie about the mass starvation of the 1930s, and a gang attacked the showing, apparently with state backing.
Putin is teaching Russians to admire Stalin, perhaps figuring that if they admire one tyrant they will be happy with another.
Many organizations are working to convince the UK to tax petroleum-burning vehicles less tax and electric vehicles more.
If the government seeks to promote electric vehicles, this tax change is foolish.
The construction of a pipeline — even if its contents will be gas — can cause lasting ecological damage even before anything flows through it.
If these were the only problems of pipelines, they could be prevented by building it in more expensive ways. But they aren't the only ones, of course. We can't afford the existence of more fossil fuel infrastructure.
Refugees trapped between Belarus and Poland are dying from hunger and cold.
*Tory austerity caused misery — and now they want to make it worse.*
Republicans are attacking the Build Back Better bill with lies about what it says.
*NYPD Lawyer Who Oversaw Violent Arrests of Legal Observers Should Be Disciplined, Watchdog Says.*
*Chicago mayor files complaint against [thug] union for defying vaccine mandate.*
The latest Republican pretext for sabotaging public school is the demand for parents to control the curriculum.
I would guess that they demand this only where the parents are white and right-wing.
A judge in England ruled that using an Amazon Ring snooping device that watched and listened to a neighbor's property violated her privacy, so he awarded her substantial damages. (She had actually moved to another home to avoid the surveillance.)
As I see it, what makes these "security" cameras in fact surveillance cameras is that they can transmit the video and audio over the network. That capability makes them surveillance cameras rather than security cameras.
(satire) *Trump Testing 2024 Waters By Inciting Iowans To Burn State Capitol To Ground.*
*Welcome to the Great Inflation — Or, Why We Have to Pay for the Hidden Costs of the Industrial Age.*
The article argues that inflation is going to run fast for quite a while. Alongside increasing poverty.
This argument seems plausible to me. If you know of a reputable counterargument, I'd like to see it. No conspiratorial explanations, please — I am very skeptical of them.
I don't think this explains all of what is happening — for instance, although some jobs have disappeared, that doesn't explain why millions of job offers are unfilled while millions of people need work.
The perverse and dangerous concentration of industry over the past few decades has exacerbated the problems we face now. For instance, if we produced chips in 50 places rather than a handful, most of them would not have problems at once.
Merck wants to charge Americans $700 for a drug that costs $18 to produce.
That is a ratio of around 39.
The fact that the US government paid for the development of this drug adds a second kind of unfairness to the issue, but we should not hammer too much on that, lest people suppose it is OK to gouge on a life-saving drug in countries that didn't fund its development.
The US should do what more advanced countries have done: set up a national medical system, fund it well, and empower it to negotiate the price per dose.
*The five biggest threats to our natural world … and how we can stop them.*
In Syria, the Kurds of Rojava are still fighting the underground remnants of PISSI, with some help from the US and France.
John Deere exploits its workers as well as the farms that buy its tractors full of nonfree software. Now the company's US workers are on strike.
The fires that burned a large part of the fires of Euboia (pronounced Evia) led the way for another disaster: mudslides on the slopes that no longer have trees to absorb the water and hold the soil in place.
Uber and Lyft hope the citizens of Massachusetts will vote to reduce the drivers' rights. If Proposition 22 passes, they will be paid effectively 4 dollars per hour while on the job.
(satire) *White House Warns Supply Chain Shortages Could Lead Americans To Discover True Meaning Of Christmas.*
(satire) The founders of PISSI reminisce about starting in a bombed-out garage, confident they could outdo the competition.
The freedom to leave children unsupervised for a while is especially important for single parents.
US disaster relief preferentially aids wealthier households. Poor families are likely to lose big.
A prisoner in the Washington, DC, jail had to sue to get needed surgery.
The story has a fillip of superficial extra interest because the prisoner in question was in jail for participating in the attack on the Capitol. But That shouldn't matter. No prisoner should be denied needed medical care.
The EPA plans to reform the departments that deal with chemical pollution and pesticides, so that they won't be pushovers for business.
In the face of public criticism, the University of Cambridge has backed off from the proposed deal with the UAE.
The UK is allowing creditors to garnish the welfare benefits for poor people, which are inadequate to start with.
Los Angeles is clearing all the homeless people out of its parks, one by one. It gives housing to some of them, but what are the rest supposed to do?
*Leaked documents reveal [Amazon]'s private-brands team in India "secretly exploited internal data" to copy products from other sellers, and rigged search results.*
This direct anti-competitive behavior is on top of all the other unjust things Amazon has done to everyone that it comes in contact with, including customers.
UK cuts to various systems that protect people's health seem to kill around 10,000 people per year.
This doesn't count cuts to welfare support, although those cuts make people hungry or homeless.
Some Maori activists are trying to impose a moral imperative that no one is allowed to do research that pertains in any way to Maori without having Maori in the team.
No group is entitled to demand control over all studies of topics that relate to it. Rather, every human being is morally entitled to investigate any subject.
For some kinds of studies, it is important to have an expert on Maori culture. Most of those experts are Maori. But that doesn't apply to chemical testing of ice cores.
WHO will make a new effort to pin down the origin of SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Biden said he will bring back the bully's "remain in Mexico" requirement for people that ask for asylum at the border with Mexico.
The rapid increase in the value of cryptocurrencies and the suspicion that people are borrowing money to invest in them makes them a source of financial instability. The value of a bitcoin could drop by 10 or 100 in a day.
*EU calls for Arctic’s oil, coal and gas to stay in the ground.*
It is encouraging to see governments propose the measure that is obviously correct, even if they propose it just for one part of the globe.
The US Food and Drug Administration aims to reduce the amount of salt in many kinds of widely eaten foods.
This could save many lives. And it could set a crucial example of defending people from "market forces" that predictably do harm.
*Chile president Piñera faces impeachment after Pandora papers leak.*
I don't know what Piñera actually did, but if he is caught in crime I will rejoice at his punishment.
This article, like all Guardian articles about the Pandora papers, equates "do something wrong" with "break a law". Let's take care not to incorporate that assumption into our thinking. I agree that tax evasion by the wealthy is unjust, as a general principle. But when they find lawful ways to dodge taxes, that is not to assume it isn't wrong.
*The Former Democratic Senators Now Lobbying Against Medicare Drug Price Negotiations.*
I don't know any way to campaign against ex-senators. We can't vote them out of office.
(satire) *Atlanta In Chaos After City Changes Names Of All Streets To "Maple Drive" To Distance Itself From Confederate Past.*
(satire) *Unhappy Nation Wonders If It Just Projecting 45% Approval Rating Of Itself Onto President.*
*Is America experiencing an unofficial general strike?*
Truck drivers blocked by Insulate Britain activists tried to break through barricades with their trucks.
It is clear that this method of protest is backfiring. It is impossible to win a democratic political conflict by causing pain for the public, because that alienates them instead of winning their support. Protesters need to find a method of demanding government funds to insulate homes that wins the support of people who live in homes.
The UK is planning to address the problem of hate-spreading antisocial media by censorship based on substance, rather than by fixing the algorithm.
I am not surprised, given the many levels of censorship that the UK already applies.
They take advantage of Frances Haugan's testimony as an excuse to disregard what she said and install the repression that they have always sought.
The EPA continues letting manufacturers of ethylene oxide deny the toxicity of that substance in EPA events, without correcting them.
Millions of Americans can't pay their gas or electric bills and are facing shutoffs.
Dominic Cummings, who was Bogus Johnson's imperious advisor, claims that the terribly flawed deal about customs duties and Northern Ireland, was a political trick all along, intended to fail.
The British people would be far better off with Corbyn as prime minister. His basic sincerity is the first of various reasons for this.
US citizens: call on Congress to repeal the Hyde amendment and allow use of federal funds to pay for abortions.
This is all the more important because the federal government could pay to help women in Texas get abortions.
US citizens: call on Congress to end US support for Salafi Arabia's war in Yemen.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
*Poor housing harms health of 20% of renters in England, says Shelter.*
*Serious financial problems afflict 40% of US households in recent months.*
Google and Amazon employees condemn those companies contract to operate server activities for the Israeli government, which reportedly uses them to surveil Palestinians.
I don't call them "cloud services" because there is no "cloud". That term is designed to cloud users' minds.
Facebook maintains three levels of blacklists to restrain the tendency of its recommendation/polarization algorithm to promote terrorism and hate. The blacklists don't prevent the tendency to polarize, only a fraction of the situations where it does so.
The New York Thug Department, ironically, uses Chinese drones that the US government considers a surveillance threat.
For most people in New York, surveillance and tracking by the NYPD through these drones is a bigger danger than surveillance and tracking by China through the same drones, but a few people will be exceptions.
Why the well-known US billionaires don't appear prominently in the Pandora papers.
Gaggle surveillance of students means an omniscient idiot is ready to get a student in trouble with the school system or the law at any time, based on details of what the student says.
Don't be a fool — don't talk when the school is listening!
The trouble is caused when alerts from the system trigger other systems that repress students in the name of "protecting" them.
Those other systems are generally intended to protect students from real dangers of life. If they could reliably tell when a real danger exists, and if they were designed to "at least do no harm", they might be helpful. But that's easier said than done. Perhaps we should fix these systems, and make sure they are not overprotective and harmful, before we impose them on all children and adolescents.
The UK will be required to allow victims of trafficking to stay and work, if and while they are making a claim for asylum.
Given the systemic incompetence of the agency responsible for such issues, I wonder if this ruling will be carried out, in practice. Based on previous experience, I suspect that the agency will require each individual to apply for these rights, and will forget to grant 20% of the requests.
*The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money.* Stated without hyperbole, Britain and its territories are operating tax-dodging schemes that hide a large fraction of the world's misappropriated wealth.
The world's main producers of cement have committed to eliminate their greenhouse gas contributions by 2050.
If they carry this out, it will make an important difference. I do wonder how they plan to achieve it. Also, I think they should commit to achieve a big fraction by 2035.
The governor of Texas claims to have forbidden companies in Texas from exercising a vaccine mandate.
I suspect that the governor has no legal authority to impose this by executive order. Maybe companies can simply ignore it.
Another reason not to fly Cryin'air. During the pandemic, it refused refunds to passengers who were forbidden to travel, and they got their credit cards to refund their payments. Now they had bought new tickets, and just as they arrived to board those flights, they received a last-minute demand to return those refunds.
An experiment with Polis, a democratic discussion system, found that it helped people find points of agreement and did not magnify polarisation. Of course, it could not eliminate points of real political disagreement — nor was it intended to — but it seems to avoid artificially magnifying them or producing them.
This shows what a corrected Facebook might be like. If it does not fit Facebook's business model, we should abolish Facebook's business model.
*Mothers sue after children catch Covid at Wisconsin schools with no mandates.*
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support bills to break up tech monopolies.
I've found information on five of them:
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which prohibits the use of a dominant platform to discriminate against rivals by giving preference to its own products.
Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, which bars the use of acquisitions to smother competitive threats.
Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which restrains dominant platforms from using their power across multiple types of business to give themselves unfair advantages.
The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act, or Access Act, which promotes competition by making it easier for businesses and consumers to move data when they want to switch to a new provider.
The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, which amends filing fees and provides the government with funds to pursue antitrust actions.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
A curious series of gaps in evidence about whether Kwamena Ocran did or did not shoot a gun at a group of plainclothes thugs had the ultimate effect of protecting them from charges for killing him.
Tory supporters are starting to say that the hardship they are now imposing on millions of poor people will be good for them — it will build their character.
The people with the worst character are the rich people that lobby to impose more hardship on those who already suffer it. Perhaps they could use some character-building too.
(satire) *Woman In Giddy Honeymoon Stage Of Hating Someone New.*
For 150 years, the British Museum has kept Ethiopian altar tablets hidden and has not allowed them to be studied or photographed. Ethiopians demand the return of these tablets.
Regardless of where the tablets end up, it would be a damned shame if they don't get photographed and studied in the mean time.
*25% of all critical infrastructure in the US is at risk of failure due to flooding,*
Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is especially important for the pregnant.
The shortage of labor is pushing wages up in the US. This will be a big help for many low-paid workers, despite the increase in prices that will result.
The author is mistaken in claiming that wage increases can never be taken back. Since the 1990s, we've seen companies impose pay cuts and painful working conditions.
Jurisdictional rules make make it hard even to try to overturn the Texas abortion-assistant bounty hunter law, even if the Supreme Court upholds Roe v Wade. However, there are other things Biden could do to defeat it.
The fact that the law has found a loophole for states to effectively abolish a constitutional right, with no recourse from federal courts, indicates that this loophole is a threat to the idea of constitutional rights in general, and absolutely must be closed.
Brazilian activists asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Bolsonaro for the crime of mass deforestation.
Since deforestation endangers the survival of humanity, it ought to be a crime. But is there any law against it? Could the ICC have legal grounds to prosecute anyone for this?
A poll found that over 3/4 of the UK public support eight strong measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A carbon tax should increase year by year on a preannounced schedule, to give the vice a turn every year. This way, investors will be able to estimate what the carbon tax will do to the value of any proposed investment, ten years or 20 years in the future.
*Living with Covid is not an option in New Zealand — we need near universal vaccination.*
None of the arguments made in the article are specific to New Zealand, as far as I can see.
It could be that new techniques can reduce the rate of infection from indoor activities. For instance, using UV light to sterilize indoor air might be helpful.
* The [London thug department] shelved plans to reform its unit dedicated to protecting politicians and diplomats [to avoid sexism and racism] because of "resistant and uncooperative" officers.*
*US schools gave kids laptops during the pandemic. Then they spied on them.* The laptops were full of nonfree software, so the spying was done by various companies as well as by the school.
It might make sense for parents to permit a counselor to monitor a child's digital communications, one that has a medical professional's commitment to confidentiality and normally cannot tell anyone about what perse finds in them. However, when the child becomes an adolescent, at some point that should not be allowed with out per approval.
If the counselor behaves in a way that earns trust, the student may choose to continue this, seeing that it is not dangerous and may be helpful.
A village in India reduced strife by eliminating dowries.
Tory supporters are starting to say that the hardship they are nowimposing on millions of poor people will be good for them — it will build their character
The people with the worst character are the rich people that lobby to impose more hardship on those who already suffer it. Perhaps they could use some character-building too.
A curious series of gaps in evidence about whetherKwamena Ocran did or did not shoot a gun at a group of plainclothes thugs had the ultimate effect of protecting them from charges for killing him.
For 150 years, the British Museum has keptEthiopian alter tablets
Regardless of where the tablets end up, it would be a damned shame if they don't get photographed and studied in the mean time.
US citizens: call on Treasury Secretary Yellen to stop Wall Street from fueling the climate crisis.
US citizens: call on AT&T and DirectTV to stop funding the right-wing channel OAN.
US citizens: call on Secretary Haaland to ban the sale of single-use plastics in national parks.
*Blame the erosion of trade union power, not migrants, for poor wages.*
Immigrant workers would not help business drive wages down if those workers belonged to strong unions.
*The Tories have persuaded voters [that "woke" is] a threat worse than fuel shortages.*
Republicans are using the same approach in the US: using imaginary or exaggerated bugaboos to distract Americans from the real threats such as Covid-19, racism, climate mayhem, and starving the poor.
A Singapore journalist says that Singapore's new law, allowing the government to restrict anyone by calling per a channel for "foreign interference" based on ungrounded suspicion, and giving the target no chance to object in court, will make it very hard to operate.
*Halt destruction of nature or risk "dead planet," leading businesses warn.*
Every day, advertising urges us to do the opposite of what climate defense requires, and tries to reshape our values to make "more consumption" paramount.
The shortages due to "supply-chain problems" are due to "just-in-time" processing. The article mentions other shortages of goods that have the same cause.
In addition, we have seen a similar problem due to reducing the number of hospital beds to the level that tends to be needed in a normal year. That too is an example of optimizing the efficiency in the usual case by reducing the slack needed to handle unusual cases.
I suspect that the delay in shutting off the Huntington Beach oil leak was due to optimizing for the usual case — the "no leak today" case. Why pay for the extra equipment and staff just to save a few hours, in some case, in detecting a leak and shutting it off?
Relatives of Philippinos killed in President Do-Dirty's war on drugs are suing for damages.
The underwater cables that bring electric power from offshore wind farms generate magnetic fields that trap one species of crabs. Engineers will look for ways to protect the crabs.
There is no reason to assume that other species of marine life are immune to this effect.
New humorous article : the berry torture.
*COVID-19 could nudge minds and societies towards authoritarianism.* High levels of diseases that are contagious between humans tend to make societies more authoritarian.
Nobelist journalist Maria Ressa says Facebook is "biased against facts." I never thought of it that way, but that fits what we know about it. It does indeed "prioritize the spread of lies laced with anger and hate over facts."
Explaining Critical Race Theory: Alan Singer explains that it is the study of how racism influenced the development of the laws, institutions and structure of the United States and its precursors, and how those in turn influenced (and often perpetuated) racism through the present day.
This is a meaningful and important field of study, and shines a useful light on history. However, it does not include trying to prejudge any individuals — how we judge people and their conduct is another matter. I do not feel guilty because I was born white; I don't think anyone should feel guilty about the conditions and circumstances of per birth. However, I do include the elimination of racism among the changes I think are important for society.
Singer's article also explains how right-wing disinformationists have distorted the idea of Critical Race Theory in order to mislead people into supporting their extremism. As usual, their statements have a relationship to the real situation, but it is complex and indirect. It is a mistake to presume that any specific thing they say is actually true. So don't try to understand the real situation based on their statements!
Everyone: call on GM, American Airlines, UPS and other companies not to fund the campaigns of Republicans that voted to overturn the election.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Prison Phone Justice Act.
This would stop the price-gouging on prisoners' phone calls.
The University of Cambridge has resorted to gig labor for tutoring students.
A used of Facebook developed a browser add-on to make it easier to unfollow everyone and make one's newsfeed empty. Users loved it, until Facebook threatened an absurd lawsuit that he could not afford to defend.
If the client software for Facebook were free, users could probably make the newsfeed disappear by modifying that software.
"A used of Facebook" is not a typo. Facebook does not have users, it has useds.
* Enq has a giant phone bank that floods the IRS help-line with simultaneous calls, so no one else can get through. Then they sell the right to take over a mature on-hold call — one that is near to being answered by a human being — to busy tax professionals.*
US textbook publishers are colluding with universities to bill students for a subscription to each class's textbooks.
This precludes any chance of avoiding their price gouging. But there are more important issues at stake than money. This scheme surely continues the usual injustices of e-books: DRM, identifying the user, and a contract promising to act like jerk.
The first article linked to above advocates "open access". That term is weak — it asks for too little. We should insist on free/libre educational resources, because most "open educational resources" are not free/libre.
It also uses the misleading term "intellectual property", a bogus concept that spreads confusion every time it is used.
A campaign asks the users of non-libre apps to report which ones report the user's location. There is no other straightforward way to make a list of those apps, and their developers can change their behavior at any time.
A nonfree program gives its developers power over its users, which makes it an injustice. I hope you don't use any non-libre apps, but if you do, it would be useful to report on them. You can do that and stop using them too.
Fires this year have burned hundreds of giant sequoia trees.
That would be around .1% to .2% of the total. Given their life spans, this many per year, continued in the long term, can easily wipe them out. Along with hundreds of other species.
If civilization collapses, humans will no longer be able to fight the fires very much, and they will sweep large parts of the American west unchecked.
*University defends ‘academic freedoms’ after calls to sack professor.*
The sad thing is that a university's defending the freedom to state ones' opinions in a university should constitute news.
Crown Prince Bone Saw earlier demoted Saud al-Qahtani for his involvement in organizing the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, but is now rehabilitating him. Apparently three years in the cold is long enough punishment.
The developer of the Pegasus spyware package has commanded the program — for all users, purportedly — to refuse to snoop on phone numbers of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Israel. Furthermore, these changes seem to have been imposed on preexisting users of the program.
That would imply that either the program has a back door, or it has a SaaSS component.
We might consider that the proper solution is to take further steps in the same direction, until the program is deactivated for all phone numbers. The manufacturer surely won't do that, though. So let's put that question aside and consider this from the standpoint of a user of Pegasus.
Would you want your country's intelligence agency to be limited in targets by a company that might obey other governments? Should governments accept being controlled by companies in this way?
Will the countries that are not thus protected start pressuring the company to protect them, too? For instance, what will France think of this? French ministers have been snooped on this way.
People who may be targets for spying can easily arrange to get US or UK phone numbers. If they do, will the company rescind this protection? If it can remotely protect certain phones, I suppose it can likewise remotely unprotect certain phones.
The US and UK have a deal: when the US wants to snoop on an American, since this would be illegal, the UK snoops on per and sends the US the information. And vice versa. Is there a tweak in Pegasus to allow the US and UK to continue doing that?
*Fast track to disaster? Brazil’s Grain Train plan raises fears for Amazon.*
Hong Kong is establishing a new court specifically for repression.
*The Amazon rainforest is losing 10,000 acres a day. Soon it will be too late.*
"Not 200,000 acres, as the article previously said. But it is still a very rapid rate of destruction."
US Citizens Urge Biden to move for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Everyone: call on GM, American Airlines, UPS and other companies not to fund the campaigns of Republicans that voted to overturn the election.
Review of the book Hot Air, by climate scientist Peter Stott, which describes the battle against global heating denialism.
*When others stay silent about the ills of British capitalism, liars like [Bogus] Johnson rush in.*
*Dmitry Muratov: the Nobel winner shining light on Russia journalist murders.*
Progressives need to find a clear symbol to represent the purpose of the Build Back Better bill.
The name "Build Back Better" is itself so vague that it fails to say why that bill should be passed. But I don't like the term "freedom" as a description for it, because defining "freedom" as "more options" is a fundamental mistake.
Perhaps "American Dream bill" would fit, because many of the provisions would make the former "American dream" a plausible hope for most Americans once again.
Daniel Foote, US envoy to Haiti who resigned in protest, says that Haiti is so unstable and dangerous that it is dangerous to deport people there.
Senator Menendez represents Big Pharma, and intends to torpedo plans to let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Other advanced countries have national medical systems which do negotiate in this way. In the US, the power of plutocracy has blocked this, and with Menendez's help, may block it again.
However, the underlying problem is the existence of patents that governments have bound themselves to respect even at the cost of people's lives.
The argument for medical patents would lose much of its apparent force if we took the tests for approval of medicines out of the hands of the drug manufacturers. That way of organizing them makes them susceptible to corruption. The funding for these tests should not have a direct interest in whether the drug is approved or not.
Why the UK's asylum system takes ages to decide and makes horribly wrong decisions — explained by someone who was employed to interview people and decide.
Since the situation for deciding benefits for disabled people is basically the same, I think this also explains why that system mistreats people so badly.
To start with, they were told to judge cases on the curve — more refusals than approvals.
Contrast that with what I say to guide the volunteers who look at sites and recommend articles to me. I may say, "From these sites, please aim to send me around 5 articles per week — on the average." But if a recommender who understands what I am likely to find interesting finds 10 interesting articles one week, and only 2 the next week, perse should send me 10 or 2, as it may be.
Of course, there's less at stake here, because articles don't have rights the way human beings do. If a recommender decides not to show me an article. The article won't suffer pain or injustice.
The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to two journalists who have persisted against government repression:
Maria Ressa in the Philippines, and Dmitry Muratov in Russia.
Video evidence shows that thugs in Minneapolis talked about shooting indiscriminately with their plastic-coated metal bullets, before actually doing so.
They also dismissed and ridiculed the warning that white-supremacists from out of state were trying to provoke violence. We now know that really happened.
Artist Shilpa Gupta still celebrates freedom of speech and poets who were imprisoned by tyranny.
Although I revile what people wish to say nowadays, I don't believe censorship can lead to anything but tyranny. Frances Haugen's explanation of Facebook's damage shows that the remedy for the harm that Facebook does is not in censoring specific categories of vicious things, such as QAnonsense, anti-vax, hatred and "Biden stole the election", but rather in prohibiting the recommendation algorithm that multiplies and propagates whatever gets the most response. As long as we allow that to continue, it will polarize society with irrationality along new dimensions.
140,000 minors in the US lost a parent or caregiver to Covid-19.
Some of those minors were children; others were adolescents. The article lumps them together, so we can't tell how many were in each age range. Please do not call adolescents "children"; that tends to infantilize them.
I expect that such loss tends to hurt children more than it hurts adolescents. I also expect that the parents of adolescents were more likely to die from Covid-19, because they were likely to be older. But this is just guesswork.
Like so many other woes, this woe tended to fall more heavily on marginalized and disprivileged demographic groups. Why so? Some of those people may have suffered from bias in the medical treatment they received. I would guess that many were deterred from seeking treatment by worries about how they would pay for it. We know how to eliminate that problem. Surely the comorbidities that are more common among those who are poor and/or marginalized also had an effect.
The article linked to first in this note displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism and its effects, or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.
Poland is headed for a confrontation with the EU about whether the EU courts are superior to Polish courts, as the EU requires of member countries.
I think the EU have to expel Poland rather than allow it to act as a member only in the ways that it finds convenient.
The EU has fundamental shortcomings: its lack of democracy and the Euro banking system which forces countries into depressions by denying them deficit spending.
However, what the Polish government wants is not improvements, but rather the chance to make things worse.
2/3 of the European Parliament voted for a resolution calling for stronger action against tax-dodging via foreign countries. It is not clear to what extent European countries will follow this. The EU is not really very democratic, and its role in adopting real directives is rather weak. However, a 2/3 majority could at least override pressures from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Arles, France, on October 14.
Everyone: log out of Facebook on Nov 10.
The organizers of that campaign aim to send a signal of displeasure. That may do some good, but I suggest that you do more than that. I suggest that you refuse to be used by Facebook ever again.
You probably already know why we should refuse to be useds of Facebook, but in case not, here is a list of lots of reasons.
US citizens: call on support the Hollywood non-actor workers' strike.
I hate Hollywood for several reasons including DRM and unjust copyright laws. Nonetheless I will defend workers from exploitation.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand federal funds for gratis meals for schoolchildren.
US citizens: call on Gov. Newsom and President Biden to block new oil and gas wells and other fossil fuel infrastructure.
US citizens: call on your Senators to block the proposed arms sale to Salafi Arabia.
US citizens: call on the CFPB to regulate disguised payday loans like explicit payday loans.
"Election audits" that find no wrongdoing do not convince the fanatics who are positive that the wrecker really won in 2000. They react by demanding more investigation. The "steal" has become an article of faith for them, and "audits" have become a barbaric ritual that they use to propagate the faith.
The "audit" in Arizona confirmed that Biden did win that state, and with a slightly bigger margin. It appears that the Republicans who did the auditing were compelled, somehow, to judge each ballot by impartial standards.
I predict that if Republicans do more of these "audits" they will try to eliminate whatever factor had that effect. They will look for ways to report arbitrary, bogus results.
AT&T decided to start the extreme right-wing network OAN, and has been its main impetus.
It is noteworthy that the CEO of OAN refers to mainstream media as "the other side" from Faux News.
(satire) *Watchdog Group Enjoys Rare Night Out After Getting Sitter To Look After Telecom Industry.*
Republican legislators in Michigan have passed laws to cut the funding of school districts that require people in schools to wear masks, or require quarantine of people that have Covid-19.
Republicans control the Michigan legislature is that they rig the elections using gerrymandering. A majority of the votes are always Democratic, and a majority of the legislature always Republican. Now that Republicanism means spreading disease, maybe it will be possible for Michiganders to overcome the intentional unfairness of the electoral system.
The natural inclination in responding to Facebook's amplification of hate and disinformation is to propose to censor specific forms of hate and disinformation. However, that is a bad approach, because it would bring the government into regulating which opinions are acceptable.
I suspect it would also fail to eliminate the opinions it is intended to eliminate. As long as Facebook continues with its business model which specifically favors provoking hostility, it will design its algorithm to promote hatred-provoking postings as much as it can get away with. It will encourage people to probe the official limits on how to present hate. They will find ways, just as they have in the past.
Frances Haugen's testimony confirms my earlier conclusion that the wrong of Facebook is not in specific nasty statements posted there, but in the algorithm that promotes statements for being nasty. That algorithm is what it is because of the fact that spreading nasty statements is profitable for Facebook.
So let's regulate that algorithm, not the kinds of points people can post on Facebook.
*House Capitol attack panel subpoenas key planners of "Stop the Steal" rally [on Jan 6].*
*Police killings of civilians in the US have been undercounted by more than half in official statistics.*
Australia's court ruled that the trial of Bernard Collaery, the lawyer who represented Witness K, can be public. They are on trial for whistleblowing about Australia's spying on East Timor's government while it was negotiating with Australia about ownership of the sea bottom between the two companies and its resources, including fossil fuel.
As for the fossil fuel itself, the world must not allow either Australia or East Timor to extract it. Civilization's survival requires it to stay in the ground.
Strange that all coverage of this dispute
Various ways the wrecker tried to pressure officials to undermine the 2020 election last December.
Estimating deaths from Covid-19 from statistics on excess deaths seems to be more accurate than following various governments' statistics. It leads to figures from 7 million to 18 millions.
California has prohibited companies from using NDAs to stop employees from talking about harassment or discrimination at work.
Is this really limited to employees only? What about other workers, such as temps, gig workers, and other "independent contractors"?
The other unjust kind of NDA is that which covers generally useful technical information. My experience with MIT's Xerox laser printer taught me that it is wrong to sign a nondisclosure agreement covering generally useful technical information such as software. and I determined never to agree to them. I have never made an exception for any software or knowledge I have.
Occasionally I have agreed to a nondisclosure agreement for software knowing that I would never get a copy pf that software, so the agreement would be void. After all, it's nonfree software, so I do not want to run it!
US marshalls beat up and whipped prisoners who were handcuffed.
The thugs also knocked down, handcuffed and beat up a middle-aged woman, a house-sitting friend of the family, whom one of the prisoners called to for assistance.
The prisoners face grave charges, and arresting them may have been just. However, gratuitously hitting and whipping them in the process, and injuring them, was not excusable. Nor was beating up the house-sitter.
Thousands of homes in Ireland were built with stone that crumbles. The state, typically plutocratic, is offering the victims who built the homes only partial compensation. They can't afford the rest.
Covid-19 restrictions could exclude some poor countries from the coming Cop26 climate conference.
Even new, "low pollution" wood stoves emit enormous amounts of pollution.
Given the intention to phase out fossil fuels, companies will try to run the existing facilities with the smallest possible investment, including investment in keeping them running safely. That will tend to mean more frequent spills.
The House of Representatives has subpoena'd Ali Alexander, who helped organize the saboteur-in-chief's rally on Jan 6 and then led people toward the Capitol.
(satire) *"Can You Help The Scab Get Into The Cereal Factory?" Read Instructions On Back Of Kellogg's Box.*
(satire) *Creepy Old Man Has Book Filled With The Home Phone Numbers Of Everyone In Town.*
I wonder how he gets new editions nowadays. I thought they were no longer published. I can phone directory information to look up a number, but I'd much rather be able to do so privately in a book.
*Only noisy protest makes politicians take action to avoid climate catastrophe. From the Suffragettes to the anti-apartheid movement, people taking disruptive action have been on the right side of history.*
2/3 of the European Parliament voted for a resolution calling for stronger action against tax-dodging via foreign countries. It is not clear to what extent European countries will follow this. The EU is not really very democratic, and its role in adopting real directives is rather weak. However, a 2/3 majority could at least override pressures from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.
Everyone: Thank President Biden for expanding vaccine requirements to 100+ million Americans.
Everyone: rebuke companies that support insurrectionists in Congress.
Now that Interpol has accepted Syria as a member, Assad can use it to harass and perhaps even seize exiled Syrian dissidents.
A former Uber driver is suing because Uber deactivated his account when face-recognition software did not recognize his face. Perhaps he just wasn't himself that day. More likely the software made a mistake and Uber took it out on him.
The driver is black and alleges that the software has a racially skewed pattern of error. Such racially skewed errors of face recognition have been measured.
As long as face recognition systematically fails for certain people, more accurate face recognition would avoid harming them. However, if face recognition gets more accurate and recognizes blacks as accurately as it does whites, that will not make face recognition acceptable. The harm to human rights caused by accurately tracking everyone will get worse.
South Dakota has made itself a place to park hidden wealth, rivaling Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
Merck Sells Federally Financed Covid Pill to U.S. for 40 Times What It Costs to Make.
This is the result of the Bayh-Dole Act, which allowed companies and universities to have monopolies (patents and other kinds) over work they did under federal contracts. Its harmful effects are seen in the software field, too.
The supposed reason was to encourage "technology transfer" to manufacturers, but the harmful effects of that monopoly power were not considered.
Women in Kabul continue to defy the Taliban by working, and even protesting.
Global heating effects have caused the Earth to reflect .5% less light back into space, for the past 3 years.
That excess light may be absorbed by the Earth. Or it might be reemitted in another frequency range that would not have been measured by the technique used here.
*Instagram promoted pages glorifying eating disorders to teen accounts.*
After an undersea oil pipeline near Los Angeles started leaking oil, there was an unexplained 12-hour delay before the owner started efforts to keep the oil out of nearby wildlife areas. One way or another, the company did not give sufficient attention to the matter of leaks.
The company has had many safety violations: over a hundred in 11 years. It was fined for them, but the fines do not seem to have convinced the company to do adequate maintenance. Not maintenance adequate to prevent big leaks, that is.
The general standard of discipline for pipeline maintenance is inadequate. Some other pipelines have a history of repeated violations.
What is clear is that the standard pipeline owners are expected to meet is too low. It assumes that a leak once in a while is ok. Regulators will shut down a pipeline until a specific flaw is fixed, but they won't make management learn to proactively detect and fix problems before inspectors see it.
If the owner leaves it to inspectors to inform it about small problems, it is effectively leaving it to the world press to inform it of a disastrous leak. If a pipeline has problems every month that the company doesn't detect first, its chance of a spectacular problem is much too high.
Does anyone know how to do maintenance to a level that would assure no significant oil leaks? Do oil pipelines need to be double, one pipe inside another, like the double hulls of some tankers? If they were checked and maintained as carefully as the pipes inside a submarine, would that be sufficient?
It will take decades for the coastal ecosystems to recover, and they may not come back the same.
The Philippine government has investigated Do-Dirty's killer thugs and has found around 150 who it may charge with murder.
200 members of the Oath Keepers identified themselves to the organization as cops or retired cops.
A black sports star calls on US blacks to do the rational thing: get vaccinated, to protect themselves and others.
*The drowning man doesn’t ask if a racist made the life preserver keeping him afloat, only that it works to save his life.*
(satire) *Patriotic Billionaire Only Invests In American-Made Tax Havens.*
It turns out that the London thug recently convicted of raping and murdering a woman was accused, six years ago, of driving a car while wearing nothing below the waist. If he did so, does that matter?
As far as I can see, lack of pants while driving has no significance at all. People a few feet away form the car generally cannot see the absence of pants. To call this "exposure" is exaggeration of the facts.
His misogynist communications may well be connected with his crime, but let's be careful not to demonize every unusual thing he did in connection with sex. You can't tell that someone will rape or murder based on quirks, and we risk oppressing people if we suppose you can.
Frances Haugen accused Facebook of "fanning ethnic violence" in Ethiopia.
(satire) *Imran Khan Explains Money Saved In Offshore Tax Haven Was To Buy Pakistani People A Big Present.*
(satire) *Mark Zuckerberg Vows Employees Responsible For Facebook Outage Will Be Bullied To Suicide.*
US officials are trying to conceal how the US tortured Abu Zubaydah, and the Supreme Court will decide the case.
Enbridge, the company building the Line 3 pipeline, paid thugs in Minnesota over 2 million dollars to crush protests against its construction -- often in especially thuggish ways.
*Utilities cut power to US customers while taking huge Covid tax credits.*
The customers whose electricity was cut off were broke because their income had disappeared.
The Scotland thug department has been convicted of pervasive sexual harassment against females.
The wrecker has told his former officials and advisors to refuse to testify in the congressional investigation of the Jan 6 insurrection.
Fossil fuel subsidies, world-wide, amounted to 6 trillion dollars in 2020. This includes the damage done by heat waves, floods, and fires, and the harm done to human health, because they are not held responsible to pay for that. These are not directly "subsidies", but letting them off the hook for the damages is a form of subsidy.
*Fossil fuel industry gets subsidies of $11m a minute, IMF finds.*
Even in Singapore, people are bothered by an increase in the already-pervasive surveillance.
Singapore's government says the robots will not try to identify people during the trial of these robots. Perhaps it's true, but so what?
I am in favor of reminding people to keep their distance and wear masks. Identifying them is another matter — it moves towards a society in which unsurveilled activity is impossible.
Global heating disasters will cost Australia an enormous amount, estimated at 73 billion dollars (Australian dollars, I am guessing) per year by 2060, even in the scenario where we curb global heating.
Since global heating often goes faster than was predicted, we should take that as a lower bound.
Legal effects of cultural wrinkles exclude the property of some black families in the US from the aid that might repair flooded their houses.
This is a short-term issue, because most of those houses cannot be kept operational in the long term. As floods get worse, eventually the house will succumb.
*Occupy Wall Street swept the world and achieved a lot, even if it may not feel like it.*
I felt sympathy with Occupy Wall Street, but was disappointed that it didn't lead to campaigns of a form that I could effectively support.
To shut down the international system of wealth-hiding and tax evasion would not be complex. The difficult part is not the writing of new laws, but to get them adopted.
I usually group lawful tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion together under the term "tax dodging" because, morally and structurally, they are very similar. They often function through the same intermediary countries.
The Pandora Papers show the inaequacy of the EU's action against countries that aid in disguising property.
Since 2019, Instacart has reorganizde how it computes workers' pay, to pay them much less. Now the workers ask users to stop dealing with the company and delete its app.
I support their demands, as far as that goes -- but in addition to how the company treats its workers, we must look at how it treats its customers. It requires them to run nonfree software! And it collects personal data about them and puts that in a database!
I won't let anyone do that to me. Instead, I go to the store, pick up what I want, and pay cash.
An investigation of the corrupter's attempt to alter Georgia's election results could result in criminal charges against him.
The Pandora papers show, *Money from "world’s biggest bribe scandal" invested in UK property.*
*Stop Calling the [US] Military Budget a "Defense" Budget.*
Burma has jailed 100 journalists since the coup. As a result, we get very little news about what is happening there now.
*Can we move our forests in time to save them?*
With most regions becoming too dry or too wet, as well as hotter, there is no reason to assume there is any place an existing forest ecosystem can go to.
Senator Graham was booed for suggesting to Republicans that they merely think about getting vaccinated.
Anti-vax has become their core ideology.
*Access to the Tory party is being bought by a new class of tycoon funders.* The Pandora Papers show how British billionaires use the British government against Britain.
Britain shows that it's possible to be a banana republic without actually being a republic.
The G7 tax plan to tax multinational companies taxes them far too little.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Claret, France, on October 16.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange on Oct 11 from 4pm to 5:30pm in Boston Common, at the top of the main entrance to Park Street Station.
The leaked "Pandora papers" show how many rich people have set up international structures of shell companies to disguise what property they own.
For instance, the leaks show that King Abdullah of Jordan has disguised his owning properties, in various countries, worth 100 million dollars.
These article make a moral assumption which we should reject:
Has everyone named in the Pandora papers done something wrong? No. Moving money offshore is not in or of itself illegal,
The invalid assumption is to equate legality with moral legitimacy. That equation abdicates all moral judgment to the legislature of whichever country has jurisdiction.
This is what plutocrats want us to assume. If we accept it, then when they have set up tax laws to assess them little tax, we will conclude it is right for them to pay little tax. This balderdash helps plutocrats maintain their dominion, at the expense of everyone else.
King Abdullah is a slightly unusual case because, in Jordan, he is a monarch, more powerful than a plutocrat. Internationally, though, he is a plutocrat like any other. So this applies to him too.
In the US, the tax on a building is charged by local government. Disguising the owner's identity won't avoid that tax. But if selling the building brings in a profit, the owner may avoid paying taxes on that capital gain by not reporting it.
Disguising the "beneficial owner" of a business can enable the owner to dodge taxes on the income of the business.
What the Texas abortion-restriction law does to women in Texas that need an abortion.
Brazilians living in penury search for food in a heap of animal carcasses. This reflects the deep poverty that has struck Brazil.
This was partly caused by Covid-19, and the government could not have prevented that. But I expect that the Workers' Party would have done a better job of protecting the poor from hunger.
The Tories want to put climate defense protesters in prison for 6 months for blocking highways.
This is, apparently, higher priority than insulating millions of houses, which is the highly efficient way of reducing greenhouse emissions that the protesters demand.
When floods block highways, will the Tories put the flood waters in prison? If a flood continues for a week, they could sentence the water to 4 years.
The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana is a museum of what life was like for the slaves on plantations.
San Jose, California, has apologized for acts of racism against Chinese-Americans, which included burning down the whole of Chinatown where they lived.
California has passed a law to decertify thugs convicted of serious crimes, so that they can't jump over to another thug department elsewhere in the state.
A scientific experiment demonstrates hiring bias against minority racial groups in the UK. All the applicants sent the same résumé, so there was no reason to treat them differently except bias.
The amount of bias has not decreased since the 1960s.
Female cops in London say the male cops hit them with persistent sexism, and support each other in doing so.
Mobs of Hinduismists in the state of Chhattisgarh, India, are accusing Christians of forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity, and using that as an excuse for violent repression of Christians.
There have been times and places where Christians forced people to convert. This happened in Spain in 1492 and after: the Spanish monarchy forced all Jews and Muslims to become Christians. But it is absurd to imagine that Indian Christians would try to do this today, since they are a minority surrounded by millions of Hindus. This is typical right-wing false accusation.
The real threat to religious freedom in Chhattisgarh is from the state law that requires state approval for changing your religion. I expect that this was passed for repression against Dalits that want to become Buddhist, following Dr. Ambedkar.
Abu Zubaydah, prisoner in Guantanamo, is suing to demand testimony of agents that tortured him, to prove that the US had a torture site in Poland.
Arguing that the police departments of today are fundamentally bad and harmful.
I find that plausible, but that doesn't necessarily mean that "no police" would be better. More likely, a gang would take over the role of "keeping order", whatever order it prefers.
To replace today's thug departments with something better, we need to have a clear idea to make a replacement that is indeed better.
*In plain sight, Boris Johnson is rigging the system to stay in power.*
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the National Security Reforms and Accountability Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
The Tories continue to dump the costs of replacing flammable cladding — and fire prevention in the meantime — on many apartment buildings on the residents, who can never pay it.
They rescued the residents of tall buildings but stubbornly refuse to rescue shorter buildings. I guess they feel a need to avoid giving people the expectation that the government will help them in adversity.
Global heating effects will hasten the decay of America's dilapidated schools, and make classrooms too hot for children to study in.
Many schools already dismiss class when it gets to hot. By 2025, 26,000 schools will need to install or upgrade air conditioning. Republicans will surely oppose funding for this.
Research into use of Twitter, and mathematical modeling, show that its structural tendency is to encourage polarization and formation of camps that are hostile to each other.
*Coffee bean price spike just a taste of what’s to come with [climate mayhem].*
The "Council for National Policy" secretly brings together Republican officials with rich right-wing donors and leaders of hate groups.
Studying the possible side effects of geoengineering designed to reduce incoming sunlight.
Uyghurs report on the cameras in their homes and prison cells. These cameras now do face recognition and more general ethnic group recognition.
Any system that tracks people's movements is prepositioned repression equipment, waiting only for a government to dare to turn it on.
China lends millions of dollars to non-state entities in many non-rich countries, to conceal the loans from the World Bank. 42 countries now owe more than 10% of GDP to China in this hidden way.
Israel has kept Mohammad El Halabi in jail for five years without trial.
Israel accuses him of giving aid money to Hamas, but it should either give him a fair trial or let him go.
*Belarusian [repression] forces [arrest] 50 people over social media posts on Minsk shooting: rights group.* The shooting killed a repression officer and someone they say "resisted" repression officers.
The mayor of Riace was admired for his efforts to integrate immigrants and keep the town from fading away; but now they have been construed as aiding illegal immigration and he has been sentenced to prison.
Republican's phony "audit" of Arizona votes failed in its ostensible goal, but it achieved two things: it spread distrust for official election results, and it will undermine real audits and recounts in the future.
Sooner or later they will hold another "audit" and lie about what they find.
As Texas demographics swing Democratic, Republicans are redrawing the districts to retain control with a minority of votes.
Apple, Amazon, Disney, Google and Microsoft give support to right-wing organizations that lobby against the Build Back Better act. Some want to make the poor poorer; some aim to continue global heating at full speed.
Other companies that support these groups include medical companies AstraZeneca, Bayer, Johnson&Johnson, plus Deloitte, Dow, Exxon, FedEx, Goodyear, Intuit, United Airlines, and Verizon.
Mergers, deregulation and "free trade" made the economy vulnerable to today's supply-chain problems and shortages.
US citizens: call on Congress to eliminate the debt ceiling. All it does is give Republicans a hostage once in a while.
US citizens: call on various big US companies to stop donating to insurrectionists in Congress.
US citizens: sign this letter calling on Treasury Secretary Yellen to dial down investments in fossil fuels.
US citizens: call on big US banks to stop funding climate disaster.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Montpellier, France, on October 22.
YouTube blocked two RT TV channels for posting anti-vax propaganda. In return, Russia threatened to block YouTube entirely, and then threatened to block German TV channels unrelated to Google unless YouTube relents.
The first threat can be thought of as "retaliation in kind." The second threat is nothing like that — it is more like hostage-taking.
Putin has concluded that giant tech companies will surrender to any demand whatsoever rather than lose a big market. That seems to be true if the market is China. Can Putin get this most-favored-market status too?
(satire) *Scientists Unlock 47 New Editable Genes After Purchasing CRISPR Expansion Pack.*
*Settlement forces Amazon to tell workers they can't be fired for organizing.*
*Poor countries must not be forced to take on debt to tackle climate crisis.*
It all comes down to whether we can overcome the power of the plutocrats who seek to own the world regardless of the harm this does to the rest of the world.
*Yanis Varoufakis: Angela Merkel Was Bad for Europe and the World.*
I don't think she was solely responsible for the Euro zone decisions that drove Greece into suffering, but she surely helped.
The Tories insist that everyone working in a care home (US: nursing home) be vaccinated by November 11, while critics say it will be hard for those workers to get vaccinated that soon.
Right-wingers do not seem to appreciate how hard it is for low-paid workers to make arrangements for medical appointments around their work schedules, which often they cannot control or even know in advance.
There seems to be an obvious win-win solution — to bring vaccination teams to these institutions and vaccinate the workers there. Why don't Tories do this?
Is it a basic preference to punish the non-rich rather than help them?
*Drier heat waves threaten crops in Iowa.*
Global heating threatens agriculture in many parts of the US, in different ways. We hear about some of the local threats occasionally, but the overall danger is more than what we hear.
As workers in advanced countries reject low-paid grueling work, businesses seek to replace them with robots rather than give them a raise.
We still face the question of how to give the people who can't earn more than a pittance a way to live a decent life, instead of starving on the street. Meanwhile, climate mayhem threatens crop failures and empty seas — and thus much higher food prices. Other forms of resource depletion and pollution threaten too.
Ralph Nader presents a long list of evils which get bipartisan support from the Democratic and Republican parties.
We should acknowledge and applaud the progressive Democrats that challenge many of these policies.
The UK government warned Britons who have called for sanctions against Hong Kong's government that Hong Kong might accuse them of violating the new "national security law" and have them extradited from various other countries they might visit.
Several countries have suspended or cancelled extradition agreements with Hong Kong.
Wikipedia lists the countries that have such agreements with Hong Kong.
Normally, extradition treaties are conditioned on "dual criminality": country C won't extradite anyone for an act unless that act is a crime according to the laws of country C. What the Hong Kong "national security law" prohibits, disloyalty to Hong Kong, is surely not a crime according to the laws of countries such as Portugal, nor surely India or Indonesia. Does that mean this danger is not real?
Governments that regularly trash human rights, such as Malaysia and Singapore, might not respect the human rights stated in their laws and treaties. But India and Indonesia are getting involved in anti-China alliances, and if they have a political decision to make about critics of China's oppression, will surely seek opportunities to frustrate China.
Can anyone find out more about this issue?
*Mass protests in Brazil call for Bolsonaro's impeachment.*
AI language models often respond to embarrassing questions with falsehoods.
Right-wing Democrats in Congress tried to sabotage the House plan to insist on passing the Build Back Better welfare bill before considering the badly compromised infrastructure bill. But progressive Democrats stood firm and blocked this.
Those right-wing Democrats could kill the bill straight out — but they would draw lots of ire, and it would harm their chances of reelection. We have to hope they decide not to do that.
Biden proposes a system to make rich people report all the income that they receive through bank accounts.
This would not fix the problem of tax evasion by rich people that get the income in other countries and hide it, nor that of tax dodging by corporations that shift the profit to countries which charge no tax on it.
"Toxic positivity" says that if anything goes wrong for you, it was because you did not have a positive enough mindset. So have faith in a good future, or whatever bad things happen to you will be your own fault.
This is reportedly one of the ingredients of Covid-19 denialism, too.
A UK court investigation has ruled that the use of undercover thugs to infiltrate protest groups by forming sexual relationships with the sincere participants violated their rights in many ways, and was planned to do so.
Best of all, it concluded there was no justification for investigating those nonviolent campaigns at all.
US citizens: call on Biden to remake the Postal Governing Board and fire Louis Dejoy.
Two Colorado thugs attacked a man for not obeying their commands. They knocked him down, tased him, and put him in jail for 4 months, while he only asking "Why this happen?" He is deaf.
This illustrates the pattern that thugs are willing to get violent very quickly, not checking for misunderstandings.
Crackers attack school computer systems to steal students' personal identification data, so as to use it for financial fraud.
How about if schools were not allowed to ask for such data from students? Indeed, why do they collect it nowadays? What do they use it for? Do they use it to give it to companies that should not get it either?
The US government will raise the price of flood insurance to match increased flood risk.
Subsidizing flood insurance encourages people to live in houses that are likely to flood. After each flood, people will repair them and continue living there. For society, having houses in those places is repeated wasteful expense.
Once flooding becomes likely, it would be better for society to rescue the homeowners by buying the flooded houses for what they would have been worth in the absence of flood danger, and hold that land to ensure no house is built there again.
The London thug department has hardly bothered to keep violent misogynists out.
Two other thugs that joined the murdered, Couzens, in racist and misogynist conversations are being investigated but continue working.
We should not imprison people for their opinions, but if cops are racist or misogynist, they are unfit for their jobs.
The London thug department has warned women to distrust any single non-uniformed individual that claims to be arresting them.
For the reasons described in the article, it will be difficult to follow this advice. People will be afraid of prosecution for "resisting arrest." Would you have confidence that citing this announcement would get you cleared instantly of such charges? I would not.
Moreover, cops can't do their legitimate job if people distrust them. They have to win trust — and not just from women, but also from blacks that expect to be harassed frequently by thugs that are not insane, merely racist.
(satire) *Ways To Apologize Without Saying Sorry.*
Former right-wing French president Sarkozy has been convicted of campaign funding violations.
He was famous for launching prosecutions against people who spoke sharply about him, including someone who said, "Sarkozy, I see you!" to criticize a state action that resulted from Sarkozy's decision, and someone who repeated to Sarkozy an insulting phrase that he had said to a member of the public.
Bristol University fired Professor David Miller for what it calls "antisemitism". He says that it was criticism of Zionism and its propaganda.
I can't judge from the limited quotes in the article whether his statements include anti-semitism or are limited to politics.
The US must stop thinking of its wars as sacred.
A London thug arrested a female stranger for no reason other than so he could rape her and kill her. This shocking incident has threads running to other, more frequent forms of injustice to women.
Lots of thugs engage in violence towards women.
Calling for a thorough investigation of this.
Putin is seeking to imprison editor and investigator Roman Dobrokhotov, who works with Bellingcat.
*More than half of killings [by official thugs] are mislabelled or not reported, study finds.* Killings of blacks and hispanics are more likely not to be properly reported.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.
The Oath Keepers' association with attacking the Capitol was an effective recruiting tool.
We saw this a year ago as the corrupter's supporters became increasingly violent in their attacks on Democrats. The more violent they got, the more they excited people who wanted violence.
How to make the infrastructure and aid bill combo better by getting rid of plutocratist spending.
(satire) *‘Bon Appétit’ Publishes Blank Issue After Nothing Sounded Good.* *The U.S. needs to make its asylum policy clear. It needs to define who it will allow to seek asylum and apply that standard without discrimination.*
If we do this, we should not expect the same results for Haiti and Afghanistan, because there objective differences between the two situations.
Afghanistan has been taken over by a government that seems to be trying to kill people for having worked with the US. That gives many Afghans a claim for asylum under international treaties. Although many Haitians have suffered greatly, and part of the cause is due to US wrongdoing, they are not facing murder or torture if they remain in Haiti.
The US should do something to help the destitute people of Haiti, but giving some of them asylum is not the only way, or necessarily the best way. Perhaps aid to poor people in Haiti would do a better job.
US citizens: call on Democratic leadership to strip the $25 billion taxpayer giveaway to Big Oil from the infrastructure bill.
Ecuadorians' lawyer against Chevron, Steven Donziger, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for refusing to give Chevron all his confidential communication with his clients.
This is part of Chevron's long scheme to avoid paying its fine of ten billion dollars for poisoning part of Ecuador.
Australia has driven the regent honeyeater almost to extinction, and it is pushing hard to finish the job.
Arizona Democrats are very angry with Senator Sinema and are threatening to vote her out.
*EPA Officials Exposed Whistleblowers Three Minutes After Receiving Confidential Complaint.*
The corruption seems to be very deep.
Local opposition has defeated construction of the Penneast fracked-gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.
Everyone: call on Facebook to treat a person's political campaign ads as if they came from that person.
*Section 51, part 6 of the Tennessee law makes lesson plans illegal if students "feel discomfort, guilt, or anguish."*
Children have no reason to feel personally guilty about events that happened before they were born. But they might well feel discomfort and even anguish when they read about American slavery, Jim Crow, the Vietnam War, the conquest and occupaton of Iraq, the Holocaust, the Great Depression, or the Chinese cultural revolution. Indeed, if the lesson is clear, and students grasp what anguish people suffered during those events, they will surely feel some anguish in sympathy.
The law, if applied generally, would be absurd. But I don't think it is meant to be applied generally. I suspect it is meant to be applied selectively in a racist way.
Where is the outrage over the civil war in Ethiopia? In my case, it is stymied by my lack of understanding of what's happening.
The information I've seen in the press is fragmentary. I don't understand what's occurring, nor why, nor the actions and motivations of the belligerents. Is Ethiopia intentionally starving Tigray? Is Eritrea doing so? Are world powers doing so?
Did Ethiopia really more or less occupy Tigray, or was that Ethiopia's lie? If it was true, how did Tigray bounce back from near total defeat and start attacking other regions? If Tigray is now militarily successful, how come its army cannot open a channel for food aid to flow?
In the past, we would have seen reports from foreign correspondents covering the events. Are there any now? If so, where can we see their reporting?
Now Ethiopia has expelled UN aid officials. The article does not clearly state the motive for expelling them. Is this because there is no known reason? Or does the article refrain from stating it?
19 of the top 20 Facebook pages for American Christians are run by Eastern European troll farms, according to a Facebook internal investigation.
What this amounts to is that the troll farms have developed channels of mass influence in the US -- for elections, for instance. Most of the time, they will imitate what their target Christians would say. On occasions, they say what some powerful entity tells them to say.
*Corporate Lobbyists Are Going to War Against the Build Back Better Plan.*
Rep Ro Khanna: Congress should end the special tax deductions for fossil fuels.
Some propose to use a carbon tax instead to raise tax revenue. I am in favor of a carbon tax, but not as a way to raise tax revenue. The way to raise revenue is to end the special tax deductions. The income from the carbon tax should be redistributed to people with low incomes so that the carbon tax does not ruin them.
(satire) *WASHINGTON—In a maneuver that experts suggest could represent a significant setback for the legislative ambitions of Democrats, the GOP reportedly stalled an upcoming government funding bill Tuesday by detonating fifty tons of C-4 explosives inside the Capitol building.*
The UK accuses the biggest social media of advertising financial scams.
*Progressives Warn Democrats Against Means-Testing Reconciliation Bill [Build Back Better] to Death.*
The US talked about the rights of Afghan women when that was useful as a justification for war, but has paid little attention to what Afghan women said about the issue. Here's a group that is trying to work with Afghan women in defending their rights.
Ukraine is taking an interesting approach to Putin's seizure of the Crimea: treating residents of Crimea as Ukrainian citizens and giving them various sorts of aid.
The Taliban arrested journalists who covered women's protests in Afghanistan. One of them has not been heard from for a month.
Chinese women are very worried that China will restrict abortions to force them to have babies.
In China, as in many other parts of the world, life for people born now is going to get very hard in a few decades. People in North China will have to deal with fatal weather.
Much of South China, a large region around the Yangtze River, will face sea level rise. Coping with the inconvenience of a falling population will be easy by comparison.
Culture is for appropriating. But we still see people condeming the failure to maintain the racial purity of cultural practices.
Kwame Anthony Appiah demolished the condemnation of "cultural appropriation", and said it better than I could say it. He also explains the correct understanding of certain situations where people perceive offense and conceptualize the issue as "cultural appropriation."
I did not appropriate this position from him -- I'm proud to have thought of it independently. But if I had learned it from him, I'd be grateful.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.
US citizens: call on the Federal Reserve to break up Wells Fargo. Specifically, to split its banking activities from its investment activities.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 1-888-516-5820 and say to pass the Build Back Better Act, the bill to spend 350 billion a year on aid and jobs for non-wealthy Americans.
If you call, please spread the word!
New York City prosecutors and judges work hard to generate reasons to demand bail, even from people who are very likely to return to court for trial. This means putting them in Rikers Island jail, which is a dangerous place to be.
If a person is homeless, that is an indication of bad government. If a homeless person needs to steal blankets, that is an indication of even worse government.
A chain of charter schools tells students and teachers to put a lot of time into entering their feelings (and life stories) into a computer system connected with Facebook.
I suspect that Facebook uses this to learn general patterns of associations so that it can improve its deductions about all the useds of Facebook. Students already habituated to trusting untrustworthy companies with sensitive information are easily induced to hand in more.
The CIA investigated kidnapping or assassinating Julian Assange in 2017.
It even got legislative approval for a new concept, "non-state hostile intelligence service," which it used to justify an operation of "offensive counterintelligence."
The wrecker seems to have hated him intensely.
Contrasting the diffuse tyranny of an oligarchy with the personal tyranny of an autocrat, and how that relates to America today.
I disagree with the criticism of the "Liberal class". If by Liberal the author means defense of human rights, that is a principle, not a class. Human rights are vital for everyone, except an autocrat and per servants.
If he refers to the broader political movement that we called Liberal, which included government aid for the poor, civil rights and ending racial segregation, women's rights and equality, environmental protection, and peace, people now use "Progressive" to refer to more or less the same thing.
It is only natural that questions arise of how far to go in fighting fire with fire, and at what point we must refuse to match the enemy in arson.
The US should eliminate the debt ceiling, which serves no good purpose but provides plutocratists with an opportunity for bullying.
*EU lawmakers vote to prolong fossil fuel gas subsidies until 2027.*
Note how the use of hydrogen is being treated as "low emissions", even if it is made the cheap way by burning fossil fuel. Likewise, "biofuels" are treated as "low emissions" even if they are made from crops that require fertilizers and pesticides, and wood chips are treated as "low emissions" even if made from trees cut in another continent. The fallacy of these decisions is widely reported, but politicians disregard it.
Greta Thunberg says that world leaders are giving little more than lip service to the need to cut greenhouse emissions.
Ken Loach condemns the Labour Party's purges of Corbyn's supporters, and those (including himself) who took a stand against purges. Meanwhile, antisemitism in the party is no longer treated as a big concern, now that Jewish Corbynites are the targets. This confirms that it was exaggerated as an excuse.
I suppose the plutocrats don't care whether Labour is tamed or crippled, as long as it can't won't make trouble for them.
Loach calls on those who have been driven out of Labour to start a new party.
Biden continues the bully's excuse for denying people the right to come to the US border and ask for asylum.
The excuse is that Covid-19 is a medical emergency, and any immigrant who has Covid-19 is a threat because perse might be infected. We can imagine situations where that would be a valid position, but not at the border of Republican dominated Texas. Border-crossers are hardly significant, as a source of Covid-19 in Texas, compared with Republican US citizens.
We can understand why the bully did this: it offered him a way to use a scapegoat for distraction. But unless Biden is no better, he should stop using the excuse.
George Monbiot: it makes no sense to think of climate, biodiversity loss, pollution, soil loss, and resource overuse as unrelated issues, since they drive each other and may even potentiate each other.
He argues that the only way to avoid ruining the ecosphere is to reduce economic activity.
The referendum vote to seize some housing in Berlin could inspire important changes.
However, what is crucial is to eliminate the obstacles to building denser housing near public transit.
Some argue that eliminating precarious, unpredictable work schedules would be more effective than increasing the minimum wage.
Why argue about it — let's do both!
*Nigerians could see justice over Shell oil spills after six decades.*
Sewage and fertilizer runoff from farms seems to be responsible for the enormous increase in the area of Sargasso Sea seaweed.
Chinese-language newspapers in Australia use translators in China to translate Australian news stories into English, and they translate in accord with China's censorship rules.
It would be wrong to try to fix this by ordering those newspapers how to do their translation. But it would be legitimate for Australia to require newspapers that publish in foreign languages to state prominently either that all the translators live in Australia, or that they do not.
US citizens: call on Biden to shut down the Line 3 pipeline and stop local thugs from using "pain compliance" against protesters
US citizens: call on the Senate to eliminate the filibuster and pass the Freedom to Vote Act.
A study of around 270,000 Americans after they had Covid-19 found that 37% of them had a symptom over three months later.
Some fraction of them may have developed the symptom from some other cause by coincidence, or already had it before catching Covid-19. It may be hard to distinguish those cases.
Kylie Broderick, teaching assistant at the University of North Carolina, has published criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. An Israeli diplomat, and a US congresscritter, both pressured the university to remove her from teaching.
The diplomat cites the IHRA definition of "antisemitism", which was not designed for judging individuals or their views, to erroneously construe Broderick's criticism of government policy as antisemitism.
A hundred Mayan children were massacred in 1988 by the Guatemalan army. A survivor reported the crime this year and the government planned to exhume their skeletons, but unidentified "protesters" came in and blocked the action.
The protesters may be some of the soldiers who killed them, or their relatives or associates.
*Cutting methane should be a key Cop26 aim, research suggests.*
New Zealand made it a crime to plan or prepare for a terrorist act.
I wonder whether the law criminalizes impossible fantasies of terrorism — the sort of imaginary danger thing that the FBI loves to protect Americans from.
However, this law seems to be less bad than the UK's law criminalizing possession of information "likely to be useful for terrorism," as in the recent case of someone who was convicted in Britain of possessing material presenting hateful opinions, plus a page about how to make a bomb.
Convicting people for having copies of some publication, no matter what publication that might be, is repression.
The bomb page could be useful for terrorism, but just having it doesn't prove he was planning to make a bomb. I think the New Zealand law would require something to show that the accused was specifically considering using them for a terrorist act, and would not in practice criminalize mere possessing copies of publications.
However, there remains some danger of unjust convictions because conclusions about intentions are hard to demonstrate conclusively. It will be easy to convict someone based on stereotypes about what people in per demographic group are assumed to want to do.
Violence against US medical workers is increasing in states dominated by Republican anti-vaxxers. So hospitals are taking various steps to protect them.
A survey of English students and school staff who had Covid-19 found high levels of continuing symptoms and substantial levels of continuing disability.
Artificial limits on housing density in major cities make housing expensive. It's obvious how this hurts the non-rich who live there. This article explains unobvious consequences that harm many aspects of life and business.
There are a few points I disagree with. I don't think innovation is such a good thing, now that businesses choose which innovations to foist on their customers. And I think a lower birth rate is beneficial. Nonetheless, there are so many harmful effects that I think the overall conclusion is valid.
Explaining the financial arrangements that create shortages in all sorts of medical products in the US. Long ago, hospitals set up purchasing collectives; then in 1987 Congress legalized kickbacks for them.
Pelosi promised that the House would not pass the reduced "bipartisan" infrastructure bill unless it first passed the budget reconciliation welfare bill. Yet she is now yielding to plutocratist Democrats in the House who want to separate them (and thus kill the latter one). But progressive representatives refuse to let that happen.
*Democrat's Inept Messaging: It's Not a $3.5 Trillion Bill But $350 Billion a Year.*
The fashion for stating the amount of money that a program or law would control, spend, collect, or whatever, in terms of multiple years always exaggerates, and it always interferes with comparing one sum with another. Good journalism calls for normalizing those figures to a per-year basis.
Rebuking Senator Manchin's rejection of poor West Virginians with a protest at his boat in Washington DC.
I expected to find a link to a video showing the boat, but I don't see one in the article. Have the protesters posted a video in a place it could be accessed without running nonfree Javascript code? If so, I would like to link to it.
In or near Boston: rally on Saturday Oct 2 to defend abortion rights.
An supporter that Starmer recruited to help him "unite the Labour party" denounces Starmer's treachery and explains precisely how it will maintain plutocratist domination of the party.
The government of Alberta promised to eliminate Covid-19 precautions and give everyone a delightful summer. Instead they spread disease and filled the hospitals.
Drought could shut down hydroelectric power from Lake Powell and Lake Mead. This would be a big loss in US non-fossil-fuel generating capacity.
As the years go by, this will become more and more likely.
This is an example of the sort of positive feedbacks that can lead to global heating worse than models have predicted.
Arguments that humanity does not need to collect metals from the ocean bottom and could do ok banning that process.
The hard part is how to get Nauru to cancel its demand to permit this.
Meat processing in Europe uses subcontracted workers so as to pay them scraps and subject them to offal working conditions.
Since meat production harms the Earth's climate, and eating a lot of meat endangers a person's health, it would be good for meat to get more expensive.
*Unions are calling for a Europe-wide ban on the use of subcontracted workers.*
Hooray! This should not be limited to meat packing. Consider Amazon warehouses, cleaning of businesses, delivery work, and many other fields.
Subcontracting's reason for existence is to permit mistreating workers, so let's limit it to small amounts of work, for which full time workers are not feasible.
People urinating in a river after the Glastonbury music festival put so much cocaine into the water that it endangers the eels that live there.
US citizens: support the Fossil Free Finance act.
* El Salvador women march against abortion laws amid planned Latin America-wide protests.*
If you send me a URL for a site that states the time and place of future protests (either for one country or for Latin America generally), and it functions adequately without running nonfree JS code, I will link to them.
"Functions adequately" means you can find the list of planned future protests in your country, with the time and place, so you can participate. It isn't useful to post details about protests that have already taken place.
*Cop26 climate talks will not fulfill aims of Paris agreement, key players warn.*
What is needed to put civilization on a path to saving itself? Would 10,000 people blocking streets and gluing themselves to airplanes do the job?
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of Labour, called Tories "scum". Now half the scum in Britain are distracting attention from their policies of cruelty by rebuking her crude language.
What Rayner said was totally justified, but the way Aneurin Bevan (also working class) said it was more effective and harder to attack superficially: "The Tories are lower than vermin." Be using a less common word to condemn them, and putting it inside a comparison, he made it sound incisive rather than crude.
Rayner should not even hint at apologizing, but rather than defending her insult, she should press the attack with varieties of brief but substantial condemnations.
US citizens: call on Congress to fund the IRS and stop billionaire tax dodging.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
--
US citizens: call on Biden to stop deporting Haitians.
Those who come from South America via Mexico and have no claim to asylum should be released back to Mexico so they can return to where they lived.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court, because the wrecker's right-wing members are corrupting it by deciding cases without even hearing them.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: tell Congress that we need to invest in our communities, not in the military-industrial complex.
US citizens: call on Congress to end fossil fuel tax giveaways.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*U.S. plans projects in Latin America countering China's Belt and Road.*
More information about the International Seabed Authority, largely controlled by mining companies, that is the only accepted way to regulate stripping the seabed.
If all else fails, the US could occupy Nauru and carry out regime change in the name of preventing ecocide.
A Covid-19 vaccine booster dose gives much stronger immunity than after just two doses.
*Berliners vote to expropriate large landlords in non-binding referendum.*
Starmer succeeded in implementing part of his plan to make it hard for the left to beat the plutocratists in the Labour Party.
This comes after dropping part of the plan.
In a few years, if the "centrists" (plutocratists) have gained a bigger share as a result of this, they can propose the other part again.
Senator Sinema received a campaign funds from a private equity tycoon after being an intern at his California winery.
The bizarre part is that she did the internship in 2020, while already a senator. She was paid for the internship. Is this not a conflict of interest for a senator?
Anyway, this is part of why she is committed to keep taxes low on those tycoons.
Sinema describes herself as having a nonstandard sexual preference. In my opinion, that is neither good nor bad, it is just a neutral personal characteristic, like one's hair color. I think what's important about Sinema is that she developed politically from progressive to right-wing.
Please don't be led astray by identity politics!
What are Congress's spending priorities? An added $768 billion for one year of added military spending passed easily. An added $350 billion per year to help civilians has met with fierce opposition.
This comes out of the Reaganite ideology that government should never try to help ordinary people.
US mainstream media coverage of the end of the US war in Afghanistan was extremely slanted. Most people interviewed for their views were current or former officials or soldiers. Of the fewer Afghans interviewed, most were not identified of asked for expertise.
*Fraudulent ivermectin studies open up new battleground between science and misinformation.*
*Pfizer CEO — Biden's 'Good Friend' — Is Privately Working to Tank Drug Price Reforms.*
Perhaps Biden can remain friends with people despite their being politically opposed to him. People used to consider it a virtue to be able to separate personal friendship from political work. I can do this for minor disagreements, but not major ones.
The EPA is doing its job for at least one important pollutant: hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration systems.
*Iran fails to fully honour agreement on monitoring equipment, IAEA says.*
Facebook now intentionally puts positive stories about Facebook into its useds' Facebook news feeds.
Some US senators think that better enforcement of the weak existing rules on use of businesses' collections of personal data would eliminate the problem of misuse of that data.
Even if the US had rules as substantial as the EU's GDPR, and enforced them as well as EU countries do, that would not be sufficient.
US citizens: call on Democratic leadership to support the Bowman/Khanna amendments to end endless wars in Yemen and Syria.
Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Montenegro, Sri Lanka, and the U.K. signed an agreement to build no new coal plants.
Germany is an important case because it uses a lot of coal. Now to convince Australia, China and the US to sign it,
How Georgia's new election law enables Republicans to remove local election officials and replace them with Republicans that have made up their mind to rig the election.
The EPA is being sued for reapproving the pesticide paraquat, which it says is "highly toxic".
The US deported at least 41 children to Haiti although they are citizens of other countries.
They were deported with their parents, who are of Haitian origin but were living in South America. I think it was wrong for the US to send the parents to Haiti.
*'Groundbreaking' Win as Court Rules USFWS Can't Ignore Climate Impacts on Joshua Tree.*
*‘White feminists’ are under attack from other women. There can only be one winner — men.*
I agree with the article's point and its values, but I must dispute a detail of its title. The inevitable winner is not all men, but rather patriarchy and the men who align with it. Patriarchy with its idea of masculinity hurts many men, though it hurts women more.
The US is facilitating the reintegration of Syria's dictator Assad, which includes handing Syria power once again over collapsing Lebanon.
Syria was torn apart between the Assad and the Sunni Islamists that took over the anti-Assad rebels. For a while, the US sent military aid to the rebels but it all fell into the hands of the Islamists.
As Assad's men tortured rebel prisoners, the Islamists persecuted everyone who wasn't Sunni, which drove all those other groups into Assad's camp.
Then PISSI exploded, and Assad got support from Russia and Iran.
If Assad gains more legitimacy, I fear for the survival of Rojava, which is the only state in the region that deserves much support.
Influencers are trying to organize to demand more pay for manipulating the public.
Influencers are one part of the harm Instagram does to the world. Body-shaming is another. Why let that into your life?
In addition, it makes you run non-free software and collects personal data about you. Unless you turn it off.
Zuckerberg wants to convert Facebook into a virtual reality world, which we could call the "zuckerverse".
Most of the places and things would be designed by other designers, but access to all of them would be controlled and tracked by Facebook's non-free software. Many designers would get a little money from this, while Facebook would let the most successful few have a million or two out of Facebook's billions so as to inspire the rest with unlikely hopes.
I expect this system to be built on the internet. But unlike the internet and the pre-2000 World Wide Web, whose protocols anyone is allowed to implement, this one will be restricted. Free implementations will not be allowed.
The VR headsets of today are based on non-free software, and since the headsets can talk over the network, we must expect them to have surveillance and other malicious functionalities.
Will we ever be allowed to make a free VR headset?
"Corporate social responsibility" is a term that businesses and their PR agencies use to pretend they will voluntarily treat the public better — to dissuade us from passing laws that could compel them to do so for real.
Vanuatu will ask the International Court of Justice to state an opinion about what rights a country has when other countries are causing it to be inundated through their greenhouse gas emissions.
*Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company that scrapes public images from social media to aid law enforcement probes, has subpoenaed internal documents from some of the groups that first exposed its activities.*
The article suggests this is nothing but an attempt to cause trouble for those NGOs.
Use of several forbidden mind-affecting drugs for therapy is now getting clinical trials.
Ralph Nader: Please teach your children about plutocracy and domination by corporations.
The article's title uses the term "corporate criminals", but that is too narrow, since it limits the issue to violation of existing laws. The article's text shows that Nader understands, of course, that the existing laws are inadequate and the problem is much broader than that.
*Tennessee banned teachers from teaching anything that instructs that "an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously."*
What can we say, morally, about that requirement?
It is absurd to claim that you are racist or sexist merely by virtue of your race or sex. Indeed, such a claim is bigotry.
What if the social system around you displays systemic racism or sexism? That may well be so, but it's a different question. That social system is not your personal responsibility. You can't easily opt out of it or change it individually (though you can join in efforts to change it).
However, you may indeed be privileged (or disprivileged) simply by virtue of your race or sex.
Why the difference? Being racist, sexist or oppressive is a matter of what you think and do. Bring privileged (or disprivileged) is a matter of how other people treat you. If people treat you better (or worse) because of your race, or your sex, you're privileged (or disprivileged) simply because of your race or sex.
It is a mistake to think that saying you are privileged (or disprivileged) is a moral judgment about you. It states a factual point about society, that's all.
Thus, the Tennessee law in regard to privilege forbids teaching how society really functions.
3.5 trillion dollars for aid to non-wealthy Americans, spread over 10 years, is not a large amount. It is 1.2% of the US economy.
Naturally, it's less than we could really use.
Starmer has abandoned part of his plan to keep future Corbyns out of Labour's leadership. But not all of it.
(satire) *EU Honors Angela Merkel's Tenure By Giving Her Greece.*
US citizens: call on the NYC Police Foundation to release all information on its donations to the New York Thug Department.
US unions that represent fossil fuel workers are starting to reconcile the the short-to-medium-term needs of those workers with the overriding requisites for saving civilization.
In the past, those unions have lobbied against decarbonization. I hope they are now changing their positions. I support helping those workers get through decarbonization and avoid poverty.
I think this would be a lot easier if the US adopted progressive policies to help all poor people.
*Germany points to reports on "massive irregularities" in Russia's Duma elections.*
The president of El Salvador seems to be overriding the country's constitution by corrupting its supreme court.
The unions that support the Labour Party stated they will fight against Starmer's plan to give the party's right-wing control over the leadership.
The Tories, since 2015, have undermined the UK's decarbonization plans on many different dimensions.
Major US accounting companies use the "revolving door" to get their lawyers into the Treasury Department, where they alter US policies to benefit the big companies those accounting companies work for.
The article explains that this can be illegal, but the facts would be hard to prove.
In addition to the measures mentioned in the article, I think that breaking up each of the large accounting firms into many smaller ones could reduce the effectiveness of this corruption.
An apology alone is not enough for the US to do after killing an Afghan family in a drone attack.
I think the US needs to consult with Afghans about the Afghan ways to make amends for unintentional killings. Following Afghan culture is likely to satisfy Afghans' sense of justice.
A rally for the wrecker and his Big Lie was widely announced, but under a hundred people joined in.
Author Greg Palast points out that larger rallies by progressives are often ignored.
Sanders still refuses to cut the 3.5 trillion wealth-redistribution compromise any further.
Canadians: call on the NDP to push the Liberal Party for hearings on adopting a wealth tax.
That's part of what needs to be done to compensate for rich Canadians' long campaign to spread poverty in Canada.
But don't limit your resentment only to the well-off who can afford a second home. Really rich people deserve it a lot more.
(satire) *Moscow Debuts New Citywide Bike Sharing Program For Circus Bears.*
A campaign of lawsuits against polluters aims to curb pollution in various countries. The first two lawsuits are in Chile and Colombia.
The US has gone on a world-wide paroxysm of violence for 20 years, and naturally the effects reach the US as well as other countries.
There is a lot of violence in the human world (though humans are less violent than apes, and modern society is less violent than it was before). It is unfair to judge yourself as others as "complicit" in all that violence. Just having something in common with those responsible is not enough grounds to deduce complicity.
But it does mean we should try to reduce the violence.
The Chinese real estate company Evergrande described as something like a pyramid scheme, obtaining loans by means of overvalued real estate assets valued at bubble-inflated prices.
The House of Representatives voted to end certain continuing forms of support for Salafia Arabia's war in Yemen.
A new New York City law protects a few basic rights for gig workers that do food delivery. However, the companies will continue mistreating those workers in other ways, as the article says.
The food delivery companies do other nasty things. They mistreat their customers by insisting on identifying them via digital payment, and make them run nonfree software. Some of them exploit restaurants, which feel compelled to surrender to the exploitation because customers demand it.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, there are signs on the street urging people to pick up take-out themselves rather than use food delivery companies. Hear, hear!
The Jan 6 attack investigation has sent subpoenas to some of the corrupter's supporters:
*White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former adviser Steve Bannon, and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller…*
The urban segregation of 1960 persists in US cities, though it has shifted around to some extent. Partly this is maintained by the desire of the wealthier to use their influence and political power to create advantages for their children. They take advantage of many political systems to do this.
Chinese Wikipedians seem to be campaigning systematically and sneakily to slant and censor what it says about recent Chinese history.
Ironically, the article emphasizes the term "open source" whose purpose was and is to draw attention away from freedom (too controversial a topic). In a second level of irony, in this specific case the correctness and quality of articles is about freedom.
My 1998/1999 proposal for a universal encyclopedia dealt with this by rejecting the idea that there would be one official article about a topic. Rather, it allowed for different articles written by different authors and presenting different points of view.
Thousands of Haitian expats who live in Central and South America have headed for Texas, wishing to live in the US instead.
They are not (in general) fleeing persecution now, so not eligible for asylum, and probably not eligible for immigration. Nor for temporary protective status, which has been granted to Haitians who are already in the US.
Denying them entry to the US may be correct, but that doesn't justify sending them back to Haiti now, especially if they didn't recently come from Haiti.
Freedom House's annual global survey reports that internet freedom declined in 2020, in the US and globally.
Biden has the power to make Covid-19 vaccine companies cooperate with expanding global production, and should do so promptly.
Over a million Americans are now "internally displaced" -- forced out of their homes -- by global heating effects.
As these effects get worse, the number will increase. When will it reach ten million?
US oil companies reduce their taxes by about $60 billion via two loopholes created in 2017.
This is in addition to a comparable amount in older tax breaks and subsidies.
The D. R. Congo (Kinshasa) has charged a journalist for possession of video evidence of an assassination, and is demanding he reveal his sources.
Changing laws or cops' budgets in an attempt to reduce sexual violence or harassment against women has a history of backfiring: women suffer increased crime.
If you think a country needs more births in order to prosper, have you considered the alternative of spending more on giving all the country's children, regardless of their background, a kind and helpful upbringing?
The UK is suffering from multiple crises in parallel, generally related to leaving the EU.
With Corbyn in charge, the consequences of leaving would have avoided these crises.
There was a big global climate strike on Friday. I didn't see news about it until Friday, which was rather late. I wish I had learned about it well in advance, so I could publicize it, and perhaps join in.
It is not simple for me to do either one. Their web sites require running nonfree software to see where the actions are. For me to publicize them requires getting a scraping system updated. That calls for a week of advance notice, ideally more.
I wish they would post events in a freedom-respecting site. Then I could simply link to it.
Russia plans to develop AI for censorship purposes.
Arizona Republicans' "audit" of the vote in one highly Democratic county found 360 more votes for Biden.
But they don't need proof -- insinuation is sufficient.
The Taliban won because of their way of thinking, one that the US Congress and officials could not understand.
One can understand it as commitment, or as fanaticism.
Donations to help poor countries take action regarding global heating lumps emissions reduction together with short-term protection from global heating effects.
It is a fundamental mistake to treat curing the disease and alleviating the symptoms as equivalent. The inhabitants of countries receiving aid will want to use the funds for alleviating the symptoms, and so will fossil fuel companies. But alleviating the systems will provide only a temporary benefit -- 30 years from now, its effect will be gone.
If we don't direct these funds to the long term reduction of greenhouse emissions, they will do nothing to save civilization and the ecosphere.
Libya will test a fairly new cease-fire by trying to hold an election.
*U.N. rights chief urges Belarus neighbours to protect asylum-seekers.*
*Tunisia labour union calls president's moves danger to democracy.*
Nauru will serve as Australia's press-excluded immigration prison forever.
Karnataka proposes to ban online games that involve gambling.
I have no moral objection to the proposed ban as regards businesses that offer gambling. However, if the law prohibits individuals from privately making a bet using digital communication, that would be oppressive.
*Canadian Catholic bishops apologize for role in indigenous residential schools.*
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou made a deal with the US that permitted her to return to China. China then released two Canadians that it had held hostage for almost three years to pressure for Meng's release.
I have no way of knowing whether Meng was guilty of a real crime, and I can't be sure that the charges against the two Canadians were not valid, but the bogus trial they received demonstrates that China was using them as pawns.
Misguided comparison: is it more effective to insulate large numbers of homes, or to block a highway as a protest?
If you're the government, it is more effective to insulate homes.
If you're a band of a few dozen citizens with no particular power, only willingness to make a sacrifice to increase the pressure on the government, blocking a highway could help. At least people will notice.
When the government starts taking real and effective action to reduce greenhouse emissions, your job will be done. That has not happened yet.
*‘Low-hanging fruit’: Insulate Britain’s message makes sense, say experts.*
Alaska, dominated by Republican Covid-spreaders, has filled up its hospitals and now has to choose which patients will get treatment.
China denies expat Uyghurs information about their disappeared relatives in China.
*New Zealand: rushing anti-terror law could lead to surveillance overreach, minor parties say.*
Attacks like the one that occurred recently are desirable to prevent if that can be done without harm to society. But it is a mistake to overestimate the importance of such attacks compared with other problems of society. I would guess that the shortage of housing in New Zealand kills a lot more people each year than terrorism.
Also, keep in mind that any new anti-terrorism law will prevent only a fraction of the actual terrorism. It won't make you "safe". And there will surely be opportunities later to propose further cuts to human rights.
*The world's largest technology companies have snapped up smaller rivals at a record pace this year in a buying spree that comes as US politicians and regulators prepare to crack down on "under the radar" deals.*
The US government is starting to throw off the bizarre spell that was put on it by plutocratists in the 70s and 80s, which weakened antimonopoly law almost to the point of nullity. I hope that some day we can un-merge the giant drugstore chains and the giant supermarket chains. (Typically a supermarket chain will operate under many different names, creating a false appearance of more competition than really exists.)
Texas passed another abortion-restricting law, making it harder to get abortion drugs.
This is something that can be corrected from outside Texas. A state, or a federal agency, must set up a system to mail abortion drugs to women in Texas without insisting on seeing them physically first.
Can Texas really prosecute someone for mailing something from another state into Texas if it is lawful in that other state?
I seem to recall that in some other responsible countries abortion drugs do not require a prescription, and that there was a push to make them available without prescription in the US too.
George Monbiot: *It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories.*
*Top Ad and PR Firms Exposed for Helping Big Oil Greenwash Their Climate Destruction.*
(satire) *Hospital ICUs At Capacity With Reporters Covering Anti-Vaxxers Dying From Covid.*
"Green capitalism" sounds great, but when you look at what it means in practice, it comes down to this: "Governments must not directly take the strong climate-defense actions that only they are likely to take. All they can do is set up incentives for companies."
A carbon tax can be a very strong incentive to companies -- if the tax is large enough and is prescheduled to grow substantially each year. However, a small incentive is likely to have small effects.
Deadly DeSantis has appointed an anti-vaxxer as head of Florida's public health. He opposes requirements, too. His position can be summarized as, let's all breathe in the virus and accept whatever happens.
I wonder if he is against requiring seat belts in cars, too.
People with these views describe themselves with the word "skeptics", but that is misleading -- it implies there is a rational doubt. The mainstream media use that word because they don't want to take sides. The correct term is "denialists".
Make a Republican cry -- get vaccinated!
Evidence is accumulating that the wrecker was serious about trying to set aside the election results and seize continuing power.
Tennessee's Republicans have given the unvaccinated priority for one of the few immediately protective treatments for those who catch Covid-19.
The overall Republican policy is to increase the spread of Covid-19 in various ways. This is a variant of that policy.
Afghan women who studied taekwondo are practicing in secret.
Are martial arts useful for real fighting?
The European Union wants to require small electronic devices to have a standard USB-C charging port. Apple is against it, because it profits from imposed incompatibility.
Naturally, Apple cites "innovation" as a reason to sell incompatible power adapters. Our society systematically overstates the importance of innovation, because many businesses find that a useful excuse for mistreating users in various ways.
*Four Tunisian parties say president has lost his legitimacy.*
I don't know any specifics about these parties, but the majority party, which the president considers an enemy, is not one of them.
Wild boars are proliferating in parts of Italy to the point that they endanger people.
I suggest increasing the hunting of wild boars, including trapping them in cities, and thus managing their population at a stable level.
*US envoy to Haiti resigns over ‘inhumane’ decision to deport migrants.*
Explaining the situation of the violence against Haitian asylum-seekers at the Texas border, and relating it to past acts of violence against slaves who had fled to Mexico.
Earlier in this century, the US allowed Haitians to stay in the US temporarily even when they could not justify asylum, because conditions in Haiti were very bad (due to a hurricane or an earthquake on top of political instability).
Now Haiti has had a hurricane and an earthquake on top of political instability. Why not let them stay temporarily now?
California has passed bills to protect the privacy of people getting abortions, or going to abortion clinics for any reason.
The bill prohibiting making videos recognizes that real privacy protection requires restricting the collection of identifying data, because regulating its use is insufficient. But I wonder why the law does not cover still photos also. Aren't those usable for intimidation too?
Privatization of electric supply in the UK requires every electric customer to have to make an account with an electricity supplier. This market is badly regulated and unstable.
An appeals court in Italy ruled that it was not a crime for Italian officials to make a deal with mafia leaders in which the latter agreed to stop a series of killings.
One of the killings targeted a judge and his family.
I don't know enough to agree or disagree with the decision, legally.
*Low-lying nations implore faster action on climate at U.N.*
*House committee on Capitol attack subpoenas Trump’s ex-chief of staff and other top aides.*
US citizens: Phone your senators at 1-888-751-2787 and call on them to support the Make Polluters Pay act.
New Zealand seems to be abandoning the effort to fully eradicate Covid-19.
The lockdown to end the current outbreak has gone on for many weeks, and yet it keeps trickling along. It appears that transmission occurs, just enough to defeat eradication, along routes that public health has been unable to identify.
If everyone got a Covid test every week, perhaps eradication would succeed.
Salt-tolerant vegetables will allow farmers in some parts of Bangladesh to keep farming a few decades more.
Once the land is underwater a substantial fraction of the year, I think these methods will cease to work.
The UK's NHS app uses computerized face recognition. Since it is implemented by private companies, those companies as well as a state agency are involved in the process
The app is also nonfree software, and runs only on nonfree operating systems. Imagining that I lived in Britain, if I were ever tempted to run it, I could not. Which is a good thing, because nonfree programs is generally malware (and so, arguably, is this one).
The US proposes to put an immigration prison in Guantanamo. This is a bad thing to do, and not only for symbolic reasons. The reason Dubya put the torture center and prison there was to take advantage of a legal loophole which reduced the rights that prisoners could claim there.
The same will apply to any immigrants sent there.
We have already seen difficulty in making sure that all unauthorized immigrants get their legal rights even when imprisoned in the US itself. No immigration prison should be in Guantanamo.
Using private contractors to run an immigration prison is also wrong, for similar reasons.
*The delay to New Zealand’s emissions reduction plan is embarrassing – we need action now.*
Thugs in Melbourne attacked pro-spreading protesters with unjust force.
Even though their cause is unjust, they still should not be brutalized when their own actions are nonviolent.
Starmer's plan, as head of the Labour Party, is to change the system of internal voting that enabled the party members to put Corbyn in charge of it.
The reason Starmer offers no vision for Britain's future that can bring support is that the the vision that can inspire strong support is Corbyn's vision (more or less), and Starmer's mission is to oppose that.
On Monday, September 27, 2021, 16:15pm Richard Stallman will be giving a talk titled "Free Software and its Political, Ethical Implications for Medicine" in Fundacja Rozwoju Kardiohhirurgii im. prof. Zbigniewa Religi, POLAND, ZABRZE UL. WOLNOSCI 345A.
This is a RMS dedicated event for medical students, professionals and scientists, Richard's lecture will be preceded by one by prof. Zbigniew Nawrat who will give a short intro speech on Automation and its implications on Freedom and health care/medical services.
This event will be limited to Membership of International Society for Medical Robotics, invited guests. Due to covid restrictions any extra people interested in participating should contact the Foundation
Today's intense fires can destroy a forest permanently. Animal species can be rendered extinct.
Taiwan has asked to join the TPP.
This may seem like a good strategy for competing with China, but the TPP is still a business-supremacy treaty, so signing it would be bad for everyone in Taiwan except rich people.
A progressive slate campaigns to replace Rhode Island's plutocratist Democrats.
WHO has cut the safe limits for some pollutants made by vehicles.
*Most infants in 91 countries are malnourished, warns Unicef.*
Some Xiaomi phones have a malfeature to bleep out phrases that express political views China does not like. In phones sold in Europe, Xiaomi leaves this deactivated by default, but has a back door to activate the censorship.
This is the natural result of having nonfree software in a device that can communicate with the company that made it.
Ten ways to reduce the carbon emissions from global shipping.
*China promises no new coal-fired power projects abroad.*
This is a significant step forward -- and the fact that China has already made that step, practically speaking does not reduce its significance. However, it is not enough.
The president of Tunisia is jailing members of parliament arbitrarily.
* If presidents do not get to replace justices in an election year, then Coney Barrett’s confirmation is illegitimate; if presidents do, then Gorsuch’s is illegitimate.* One should resign.
Republicans define "legitimate" as "boosts Republican power."
The European Court of Human Rights concurred that Russia sent agents to murder defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Everyone: call on climate negotiations to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on the Pentagon to investigate civilian casualties from the Pentagon's drone attacks in Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Right-wing talk radio hosts are very influential as they tell their listeners not to get vaccinated. When a host dies from Covid-19, the station finds another host.
Thai rail workers union leaders have been sentenced to prison for a campaign where they refused to drive trains with broken safety equipment.
Bias causes US women and blacks to get worse medical care. For some kinds of problems, the crucial responsibility of bias has been scientifically proved by adopting systems that eliminated the possibility of bias.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.
Meat and dairy industry campaign groups threaten to withdraw from discussions intended to achieve global food sustainability, if those discussions seriously confront the need to reduce greenhouse emissions from meat and dairy production.
If they are participating only as sabotage, it is better to show them the door. It is better in general to make adequate environmental standards and confront business with them, than to make weak and useless standards that business will give lip service to. The former may eventually overcome business resistance, but the latter achieves only greenwashing.
Scientific research directed at reducing the methane emissions per cow or per chicken are fine, but we must not count those low-emission chickens until they hatch. In the mean time, we must make plans that will avoid disaster if those technologies do not eventuate.
*Joe Biden promises UN an end to "relentless war" and the start of "relentless diplomacy."* If truly carried out, this would imply returning to the approach from before Dubya, not only before the bullshitter.
He also commits to increased aid to help poor countries address global heating; but it is not clear whether than means reducing greenhouse emissions (curing the disease) or coping with extreme weather and sea-level rise (treating the symptoms).
*Global wildfire carbon dioxide emissions at record high, data shows.*
Australia spends money on "avoided deforestation" projects which consist of paying farmers not to cut down forests. The potential for these to be bogus is obvious. A study claims that 20% of them are bogus.
How long will it be before another farm gets paid to preserve the same forest another time?
How long will it be before a fire eliminates those trees?
*Iran wants resumption of nuclear talks that leads to lifting U.S. sanctions.*
It's a reasonable goal; however, I think Iran would need to offer more than just a non-nuclear deal. There are other disputes between the US and Iran. In principle, they could be resolved, and it would be great if they were, but Iran as well as the US will need to offer concessions. Each country has done wrongs to the other, as well as wrongs to some of its own people.
Are those two governments up to the challenge?
*Conservatives Only Care About the Incarcerated When It Comes to the Capitol Rioters.*
The Taliban say they will let girls go to school some day -- after they institute a "secure transportation system" for female students.
"Buy now, pay later" is becoming more popular as a way to lead you to spend even more money that you can't afford.
The US has used its influence to prevent other countries from banning the toxic pesticide dechlorane. Biden could put a stop to this.
*Sanders Denounces a Pentagon Budget System Found 'Inherently Susceptible to Fraud'.*
(satire) *Relieved Ecologists Announce Rising Sea Levels Were Due To Clump Of Hair Clogging Drain At Bottom of Ocean.*
Using Google and Microsoft software Minneapolis schools came with intense 24/7 surveillance and monitoring of all kinds of communication.
*Rich countries not providing poor with pledged climate finance, analysis says.*
*Political gestures can be inspiring. But let’s not mistake them for victory.*
Black Lives Matter has brought about scattered examples of real change, but not much -- not yet -- compared to the magnitude of systemic racism.
*Climate crisis leaving "millions at risk of trafficking and slavery."*
As Bolsonaro calls for his supporters to attack other branches of government, his support is dwindling.
Maybe Brazil will survive him.
Four Kenyan thugs face charges for killing a human rights lawyer.
More problems with the notional city of the future that a billionaire wants to build in the US southwest.
These are in addition to the problems of water scarcity and wildfires.
Three Democrats in the House have blocked giving Medicare the power to negotiate bulk purchases of medicines. They all have close ties to Big Pharma.
Arguing for a wealth tax in the UK on the wealthiest 1%.
And a windfall profits tax for businesses that profited from Covid-19 and lockdowns.
Climate protesters glued themselves to highways near London. The government called this *irresponsible and dangerous*.
If you want to see something irresponsible and dangerous in Britain, look at the government's inadequate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The standard to judge by is not whether other governments are worse. Nature sets an absolute standard, and even though we have not determined exactly how much reduction is needed, we know that humanity overall is on track for failure.
*Big tech's pro-climate rhetoric is not matched by policy action, report finds.*
The EU has condemned the execution of Yemenis tried by the Houthis and convicted of spying.
I join the EU in condemning the death penalty, and I'm entirely ready to believe that the Houthis can hold unfair trials in death penalty cases. After all, the US has often done so.
Salafi Arabia carries out many official executions. I expect that the EU condemns them, too, but does that get the same amount of press coverage?
Communications training for parents while a potentially autistic baby is one year old helps many of them to a milder form of autism.
*Gordon Brown calls for urgent action to avert "Covid vaccine waste disaster."*
It seems that the production rate is about to be over a billion doses per month, this fall. 100 million is therefore around 3 days' production. That is not "staggering." At the same time, if they could vaccinate 50 million people, it would be a great shame to waste them.
12 billion doses is enough to vaccinate just about everyone on Earth who can be vaccinated and is willing to be vaccinated. (Covid-19 vaccines are not approved as safe for children, under 12.) That forecast, if it occurs, will be very good news.
But we can't vaccinate everyone without an effective channel for the vaccines to reach people in countries that can't pay for them. Will greedy vaccine tycoons flog them as boosters, and keep poor countries unsafe?
Americans don't live as long as Europeans. Even rich Americans don't. Part of this is due to poverty in the US. Part of is due to racism. But they can't explain all of it.
Construction of the Line 3 pipeline has used so much water in Minnesota that it has caused a drought which is harming agriculture.
Another example of why we should not allow companies that do business with the public to set their own rules.
*Texas doctor protests abortion [ban] law by admitting he carried out [an abortion].*
A Labour MP who disagrees with trans-activists on the definition of "woman" has received abuse and threats, and has been driven out of attending the Labour Party conference. In response, another Labour MP says the party must discuss the matter civilly so that no one is afraid to attend the conference.
Australian doctors tend to give women with heart attacks less and worse treatment than they give to men with heart attacks.
More about the Freedom to Vote act's provisions that will hurt the Green Party and any other party except the principal two.
*US and EU pledge 30% cut in methane emissions to limit global heating.* The commitment is to achieve that cut by 2030.
That is impressive by comparison with the general level of government commitment, but we need to do more. We are in a race against natural phenomena that won't be addressed by sincere effort.
The plutocratist Democrats' tax plan increases taxes on the rich just a little. *Working people in America will continue to pay almost twice the tax rate of millionaire investors.*
(satire) *Study Finds Virus Frequently Fooled By Fake Vaccine Card.*
The Legacy Museum presents the history of slavery and racism in America. Its founder aimed to compensate for the numerous monuments to the Confederacy throughout Montgomery, Alabama.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make exceptions for some articles which give important information about racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.
The main Hungarian opposition parties have formed a united front to try to defeat Orbán despite his rigging the elections.
*Nike and Amazon among brands advertising on Covid conspiracy sites.*
I wonder which adtech companies implement those ads, and how hard an advertiser has to work to keep its off those sites.
Extinction Rebellion protested in NYC at the headquarters of big banks which support increased use of fossil fuels.
On the legitimacy of rebellion against oppression, for blacks as well as whites.
When the protests began against the murder of George Floyd, they were nonviolent. That was the disciplined response, the one more likely to achieve a victory over racism. Let is not forget that the violence was started by a right-wing white provocateur, "umbrella man."
Vandalism of shop windows, in and of itself, is not a major crime, but he surely intended indirectly to destroy more than shop windows. Have charges been brought against him? If not, why not?
Maybe violent criminal acts designed to provoke a riot, or to falsely put the blame on a racial group, should be classified as a federal hate crime. Hmm, is that already so?
Republicans conducting an "election audit" in Pennsylvania wish to subpoena personal information about every voter in Pennsylvania.
I think this would violate the Fourth Amendment, but we cannot trust courts to object these days when Republican-run governments violate people's rights.
Their aim is to gin up something they can cast as fraud by individual voters, at least a handful of them. If not actual fraud. Then some sort of doubt. Then they would tell credulous Republicans that this supports the big lie, that the corrupter won the 2020 election for president.
A charity is delivering 8000 more food batches per week.
This represents a failure on the part of the government, which has the duty to take care of poor people when they are suffering due to necessary precautions.
The primary cause of the worsening situation [of global heating] is not the combustion of fossil fuels, but the massive political dereliction that has allowed the bonfire to go on after we knew that it posed a potentially lethal threat to humankind.
We have no precedent for malfeasance at this scale therefore we have no law, no accountability—and so far—no remedy.*
Queer people in Afghanistan are hiding, expecting the Taliban to hunt for them to murder them.
(satire) *Tucker Carlson announced Thursday that he would be putting his life on the line by getting a booster shot for a Fox News investigation into the Covid-19 vaccine.*
(satire) *Fourth-Grader's Report On Anacondas Largely Rehashes Established Research.*
Everyone: call on delegates to the Cop26 climate conference to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on Congress to prohibit shutoffs of water, power, and broadband utilities.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel the Line 3 pipeline.
*Lack of Trusted Authority Is Why Covid-19 Is Kicking Our Butts.*
Alas, this doesn't give us a clear guide to what to trust. But we can reject those who we can see are being sloppy. Those who spread conspiracy ideation, adopting a different "truth" every day, are being sloppy, so don't listen to them or those who trust them.
*Shamima Begum says she wants to prove innocence in UK courts.* The UK has exiled her without a trial. Whether she is innocent or guilty, punishing her without a trial is unjust.
How Rep. Barbara Lee described her refusal to vote to authorize the US war in Afghanistan.
Her speech reflects deep moral concern, and I honor her for that. Her expectations were generally valid.
However, if No Good Men Among the Living is accurate, it says that her prediction that the US would create a much worse situation did not have to be true — that the US could have won in 2001. All it had to do was accept surrender when the Taliban offered it.
Thugs in California are suing over the new vaccination requirement, and some have threatened to resign.
In the specific case of thugs, the threatened resignations are a great opportunity to get rid of right-wingers, many of whom would be inclined to violate the human rights of blacks, protesters, and homeless people. Maybe not all of them would do that, and many of them will not have done anything that would be grounds to fire them. But if they resign, no grounds are needed to accept their resignation.
It would, however, be useful to make it more difficult for anyone who has quit in protest against public safety to rejoin later.
There should be no religious exemptions from precautions for public safety. Your right to practice your religion does not include activities that endanger other people.
China wants to join the TPP.
China often does not really obey trade agreements it signs. I suspect that China thinks this one would be beneficial only because it expects to disobey. China may also protect Chinese workers from the full harm of the treaty, by disobeying it.
*Koch Network Fights to Stop Medicaid Expansion in Remaining States.*
Almost a thousand women are running for seats in Iraq's legislature.
The new Israeli government is taking pragmatic steps to ease the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank, despite having no internal agreement on an ultimate goal.
I wonder what Uri Avnery would think about this.
Massive cultivation of a single variety of a species makes the species vulnerable to extinction.
The Taliban reopened high schools for boys, but apparently excluding girls.
The Pentagon acknowledged its last drone strike in Kabul was targeted by mistake at a civilian family. The military personnel believed they had seen people loading explosives into the car, but what they saw was not explosives. It was perfectly innocent.
The US stubbornly denied established facts about civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq and other theaters of its "global war on terrorism", to the point of becoming famous for denialism. I hope that the admission of this mistake represents the start of a new US policy of honesty about civilian casualties.
It is impossible to avoid accidental casualties in war. But it is possible to avoid compounding the error by lying about them. Also, once the US starts being honest about them, it will tend to be more serious about considering the reasons to end end a war.
Many indigenous groups that are entitled to participate in the Glasgow climate conference will be excluded by the fact that they can't get vaccinated against Covid-19. They have no access to vaccines. They call for postponing the conference.
Many of them are being harmed by global heating effects of by the side effects of extracting fossil fuels, and they want to bring this up at the conference.
*Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency [showed] that senior staff have made chemicals appear safer by minimizing the estimates of how much is released into the environment.*
Protesters demanded the resignation or termination of the US Ambassador to India for publicly showing support for the violent Hinduismists of the RSS.
Hinduismists are to Hinduism as Islamists are to Islam.
A House committee has asked fossil fuel CEOs and lobbyists to testify.
At the moment they are asking for voluntary testimony, but I think the idea is to give them subpoenas if they refuse.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to call for elimination of three items in the Freedom to Vote Act that would further disadvantage parties other than Democrat and Republican.
(satire) *Democrats Face New Hurdle After Republicans Gerrymander All Left-Leaning Voters Into Single House District.*
(satire) *Night-Shift Janitor Leaves Behind Brilliant Solution To Israeli–Palestinian Conflict On U.N. Chalkboard.*
If only disputes could be resolved so easily.
Big Oil is continuing to lie to lead us into accepting climate defense solutions that are too small to save us.
Sanders continues to refuse to make a second "compromise" starting from the first compromise.
*The Moral Case for Resisting Evictions Amid a Pandemic.*
*Waste from one bitcoin transaction "like binning two iPhones."*
Apple and Google have obeyed Putin's order to block installation of Navalny's tactical voting advice app.
Apple and Google can't simply refuse to obey, as long as they want to operate an app store doing business in Russia, and program phones to report where the user is located.
If the app is free software, it could be put on F-Droid for use on Android.
The UK government condemned Extinction Rebellion for disrupting a major highway, in a small foretaste of what future global heating will do to Britain if the UK does not try harder to prevent it.
The Burmese army suggests that the rebels are bombing cell towers.
It is not clear to me why they would do that. What could they gain?
England plans to put an end to gratis rapid coronavirus tests. This is very dangerous.
Low-paid workers and unemployed people in the UK are desperately poor. They can't afford to pay for tests — they will have to do without them.
A Texas Republican admits that banning abortion is meant to convince women not to have sex.
*Global coral cover has fallen by half since 1950s, analysis finds.*
The New York City school system, and many others in the US, will reduce the number of cops that work inside public schools. The system will try to retrain them to implement restorative justice, but I have doubts about whether people who have lived in the cop culture can easily change to that.
Supermarket shelves are empty in the UK because decades of union-busting and letting employers work drivers into the ground have made the life of a driver unlivable.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for suspending the sale of dangerous AI technologies.
(This means those whose use would imperil human rights.)
I don't believe that any kind of usage limits could prevent face recognition from endangering human rights.
Progressives in Congress have launched a bill to require US banks to phase out lending to fossil fuel companies.
A medical patients' interest group is campaigning against three congresscritters that voted to keep Medicare drug prices high.
In principle, making cars detect a drunk driver and refuse to start is legitimate in my opinion. However, it is unjust for the car to record data about these events.
If the car gets it, insurance companies will get it.
Facebook sent troll farm output to 140 million Americans users each month. 100 million of them had not expressed any interest in those things -- Facebook sent it to them spontaneously.
(Those figures are from 2019.)
Facebook did not seen to consider it urgent to put an end to this.
US nurses are quitting because they are forced to work too long hours. I see the potential for a catastrophe as the retirements increase the pressure on remaining nurses to quit.
Everyone: tell General Motors, UPS, American Airlines and other companies to stop funding insurrectionist politicians.
Everyone: call on AT&T to stop donating to anti-abortion Texas politicians.
Climate experts fear that China's next cold-war move will be a form of doomsday machine: threatening burn lots of coal unless the US and allies back down from plans to strengthen military forces.
There is no inherent link between the two issues, just a stratagem. Surely China's leaders will think better of this linkage once they see the stratagem won't work.
Thousands of Americans have died from conspiracy ideation. Here are descriptions of two of them.
I will not claim there are no conspiracies, because politics is full of them. For instance, politicians in the same party often make plans about achieving political goals; they do not deny this, because that is what a party is supposed to do. Many other conspiracies take the form of, "You will stick something in that 500-page bill to give us hundreds of millions, and in return we will give you a 500,000-a-year salary after you leave office." That kind of conspiracy is not a crime, but it ought to be.
The horrible mistake of conspiracy ideation is not that it alleges conspiracies, but that it sets ridiculously low standards of evidence for them. Most alleged conspiracies are absurd. If you don't try hard to separate the few valid allegations from the thousands of bogus ones, you will believe mostly nonsense. And since it is often hard to get to the bottom of the matter, there are many cases where you will not be able to be certain.
On the other hand, the internet of today is full of alleged conspiracies that are total bullshit, baked fresh every day. So the first step in rejecting them is to see which sources are careless with the truth, and stop listening to them. Big Lie Republicans and QAnonentities are not worth taking seriously, except as dangerous lunatics.
Studying the details of their bullshit is a mistake, unless you need that to take action againt them. That will waste your time and can't do any good.
The Pegasus spyware facilitates injustice on the part of repressive or corrupt governments. It is used against dissidents and investigative journalists. We would be better off if it did not exist.
Would prohibiting the sale of that program make the problem go away? Not necessarily. Users both authorized and unauthorized might continue using it.
Pegasus exploits a problem inherent in the nature of Android and iOS: they are nonfree software, so users cannot do anything to strengthen the system. Instead, they are helplessly dependent on Google or Apple.
*Glasgow climate summit at risk of failure, U.N. chief warns.*
The current plans to mine metal nodules from the sea bottom would destroy the habitat for many deep-sea species, and it would take untold ages for that habitat to regenerate.
I can see possible solutions for some of the problems. Instead of using robots that roll on the bottom and suck nodules off with pipes, maybe the robots could float a little above the bottom and pick off some nodules with hands, then put them into pipes whose openings are kept a couple of meters off the bottom. This might do much less damage. (That would have to be tested.)
For the animals that live on nodules, it might work to send down hollowed-out shells of nodules, each with two holes so it will fill with water once in the ocean. With some care in design and production, they could serve the same animals.
This would raise the cost of mining the nodules, but the world economy can afford it. Protecting so much wildlife will be worth the cost.
US citizens: phone your senators to support the Freedom to Vote Act (which is a modified version of the For the People Act), and call for eliminating the filibuster to pass it over Republican opposition.
Common Cause said,
It will end gerrymandering along partisan or racial lines by requiring fair maps for congressional districts. And, it will take important steps to curtail secret money in elections and encourage small-dollar donors to reduce the influence of big money.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Massachusetts residents: call on your Massachusetts state rep to support H.135, which would regulate the use of face recognition to track people.
Here's the personal message I sent.
Please support H.135 so as to prohibit using face recognition to identify people and track people in Massachusetts. Whatever your skin color, you deserve privacy in your movements.China has already shown how face recognition serves the purposes of regimentation and repression. People who want to be tracked should move to China — please don't let them bring China here.
US citizens: call on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to advance the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, which would forbid governments from tracking people by buying data about them from companies that track people.
Really we should stop companies from collecting data to track people at all.
A new "compromise" voting rights bill has the ostensible support of all 50 Senate democrats, including Manchin and Sinema.
Despite not being as strong as the For the People Act, it will make a big difference.
There are many problems with US elections that this bill will not fix. It is not enough.
Will Manchin and Sinema turn around and kill the bill they just agreed to support, by insisting it needs to win 10 Republican supporters to avoid a filibuster? Or will they agree to eliminate that obstacle?
The author grew up with national ID cards and doesn't understand how they increase government power for repression. In addition, the existence of national ID cards leads to indexing all sorts of person data by them, so that all databases are automatically cross-indexed by default.
We must reject the idea of seeing wars as opportunities for Americans to bond with each other.
It is difficult to avoid killing civilians in a war, but how difficult depends on the way the fighting is done. When fighting with swords, it's not hard to see whether someone is a soldier. With air strikes, it is not easy to avoid mistakes, as Nigeria has discovered.
War without a front line (that civilians can keep away from) is especially likely to mean killing them. And we saw, a few weeks ago in Kabul, that this is still true for the US military.
France has suspended some workers in the medical system for not being vaccinated.
Requiring their vaccination is important to reduce the risk of Covid-19's spreading in clinics and hospitals. If the fraction suspended is around 5%, the system can cope, and many will get vaccinated and resume work in a couple of months.
Having all staff vaccinated could reduce the number of staff that at any time must stay home due to detected or possible Covid-19 infection. It will also contribute to reducing the country's general level of infection.
Grassroots democracy is thriving in Europe.
US thug departments can get, from tracking companies such as Google, a list of everyone that was in a certain area in a certain period of time.
Then they can cite that as grounds for investigating anyone and everyone who was there.
That obtaining the list requires a warrant is a step forward, but there needs to be other limits on launching a "fishing expedition" against people simply for being on the list. Either some limit on the data they can get, or some other grounds to suspect an individual, or both.
Replacing gas stoves with induction stoves increases efficiency, so it can reduce energy use even if the electricity is itself made from fossil fuels. In addition, it reduces toxins in the indoor air.
*Exxon helped cause the climate crisis. It's time [for the company to] pay up.*
Production of PFAS releases extra-powerful greenhouse gases.
The UN rapporteur on extreme poverty says that the UK's planned welfare cuts would violate the human right to an adequate standard of living.
The strict Covid-19 regulations in Sydney properly do not allow people to mingle at funerals. A number of people tried to participate in funerals in a safe way, by remaining in their cars and watching from a distance. Thugs came and ordered them to drive away.
Is there a reason to think they might spread Covid-19 this way? The article doesn't show one. If they parked side-by-side, with open windows, there could be a danger; did they do that?
I tend to think that the official regulations have loopholes that have thwarted the effort to end the outbreak there. But increasing strictness has to be designed with care. Random rigidity in enforcement won't correct the problem, it will only cause pointless hurt, or worse.
* Zalmay Khalilzad says [the Taliban] agreed not to enter Kabul and to discuss future government before president [Ghani]’s swift departure.*
I accidentally typed "Talkiban" when writing the line above. That's what they might have developed into.
Eritrean civilian refugees that had fled to Tigray were attacked both by Eritrean soldiers and by Tigray's fighters.
*Aurora police have a pattern of racially biased policing, Colorado AG says.*
New York City wants to require everyone attending the UN session to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
I am surprised that the diplomats are concerned with what the city government says, because of their diplomatic immunity. The city can't make them pay parking tickets, much less get vaccinated.
However, I am concerned for the diplomats themselves. The vaccines are effective but not perfect, so the presence of unvaccinated diplomats in the meetings increases the danger that vaccinated diplomats will get infected.
*Google workers demand back pay for temps company underpaid for years.*
They are doing the right thing, standing up for better treatment of other workers.
However, the wording of their petition was careless. It calls for paying the unjustly withheld pay to all the temps "who were knowingly underpaid by Google." That means, all those who knew they were being underpaid. But I suspect that none of then knew it, at that time.
I think the employees meant to say, those "that Google knowingly underpaid."
*Venezuela uses judicial system to suppress dissent, U.N. investigators say.*
The International Criminal Court has decided to investigate Do-Dirty's campaign of "fighting crime" by murder on the streets of the Philippines.
Brazil's Federal Electoral Court will investigate Bolsonaro's campaign for possible illegal fundraising and for campaigning outside the allowed campaign period.
New algorithms enable universities to compete successfully for students by offering more loans and less in scholarship grants. This increases what students will typically have to pay — a burden already unbearable for most Americans.
(satire) *Police Officer's Wife Still Dreads Getting Phone Call That Her Husband Has Been Vaccinated.*
*2,180+ Scientists Worldwide Demand 'Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty'.*
This includes no new expansion of fossil fuel extraction.
Federal "intelligence" funds are going to militarist think tanks that in effect do PR for more military spending.
*Governments falling woefully short of Paris climate pledges, study finds.* This dilatory approach is leading to 3C of global heating.
*Thailand's parliament on Wednesday started debating draft legislation outlawing torture and enforced disappearance.*
*Singapore reports biggest spike in Covid cases in a year despite 81% vaccination rate.*
This is disappointing news, because it indicates that current vaccines alone are not enough to make Covid-19 disappear, even vaccinating 90% of adults, without taking some additional measures.
However, New Zealand seems to be on the home stretch of eradicating an outbreak.
A California wildfire is running straight towards the remaining giant sequoia trees.
For the first time, Bogus Johnson presents a serious plan for dealing with a problem. Specifically, for Covid-19 in the UK this winter.
Whether he will set another first, by keeping a promise, remains to be seen.
The leading Republican in the California governor recall election started complaining about "fraud" even before he lost.
Robert Fisk on 16 Sep 2001 wrote that the invasion of Afghanistan was a trap for the US.
It turned out more or less that way, though if it is correct that the Taliban tried to surrender in December 2001 it implies that the US chose to be trapped.
Ray DeMonia of Alabama had heart trouble and needed intensive care. None was available nearby, because covidiots had filled the hospitals in his region. Doctors sent him to a hospital 200 miles away, but he died.
The article doesn't assert that he died specifically because he couldn't get an ICU bed quickly, but we know that some cardiac patients will die from such delay.
Forecasting advancing climate mayhem will compel 200 million people to leave their homes (but not flee to another country) by 2050.
I expect additional millions will be compelled to flee to other countries — if they get permission to enter those countries.
WTO patent and secrecy rules are a matter of death for poor countries.
The WTO treaty allows a country to issue "compulsory licenses" permitting production of life-saving medicines for use within the country. But many countries are not capable of supporting the sophisticated production needed to make RNA vaccines, so they need a more advanced country to make vaccines for them. (Often this would be India.) The treaty offers no escape hatch to allow that.
That is one of many changes called for in the TRIPES agreement (Trade-Restricting Impediments to Prodiction, Education and Science).
There is hope that the next German government will change position on this.
Meanwhile, some of Pfizer's secrets have leaked, which could be a step in teaching the rest of the world how to make equivalent vaccines.
Such information should never be secret.
(satire) *Study Finds Processing Power Wasted Mining Bitcoin Only Thing Preventing Sentient Computers From Wiping Out Humanity.*
China is reportedly trying to discourage Chinese from learning and using English.
This might reduce the influence of foreign philosophical and political views in China, though with a practical cost.
*So-Called Democratic "Moderates" Are Actually Right-Wingers Who Have Always Thrown Up Roadblocks to Social Progress.*
That may be the underlying reason why Covid-19 caused more financial difficulties for old people in the US than in other wealthy nations.
(satire) *Democrats Sick Of Being Blamed For Cowardice On Issues They Actually Just Don’t Care About.*
I think this is unfair to Senator Schumer. He has little leverage to pressure the plutocratist Democrats in the Senate, including Coal Magnate Manchin and Semi-Republican Sinema.
*Investigations of US Drone Attack That Killed 10 Afghans Find No Evidence of Explosives in Vehicle.*
MIT geneticists' singing group.
Abortion providers in Texas, and their lawyers, are afraid of being ruined by lawsuits even if they win.
Afghanistan's central bank is no longer trying to prevent money-laundering there, according to people that work or worked there.
It is not clear to me whether the Taliban wanted this to stop this activity, or the staff fled pre-emptively and brought it to a halt.
Facebook is trying to manipulate us to treat it as acceptable to wear cameras (and microphones) on one's face when spending time around other people.
I suggest insist people put them away in an opaque container that insulates sound pretty well, before we agree to talk with them.
Biden's vaccine requirement mandate shouldn't be controversial, with Covid-19 killing a thousand people per day in the US.
Encountering other people without vaccination is like driving a car without learning how to drive safely: it endangers oneself and others. Everyone who can get vaccinated has a duty to do so.
CVS is offering workers a raise of 5 cents per hour.
I think the workers deserve more.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to commit to voting No on any bills that fund military spending at over 90% of the current level
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call for a new, progressive, social contract in the U.S.
*Leaked EU anti-deforestation law omits fragile grasslands and wetlands.*
*Four in 10 young people fear having children due to climate crisis, The poll covered Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Portugal, the UK and the US.*
Rebecca Solnit: *Congress is on the cusp of passing the most pivotal bill in years — if we make them.*
The UN's commission for Syria says that Syria is not safe for returning refugees to.
*Biden to propose target of vaccinating 70% of world in a year.*
This is somewhat of a speedup over current targets. Any speedup in vaccinating the world is an improvement for all of humanity, but what we really need is to vaccinate nearly everyone so that the virus will more or less disappear.
*90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN.*
The harmful subsidies are generally for producing meat and dairy products. The harm includes damage to health, global heating, destruction of wildlife habitats, and ruin of small farms.
*Haiti chief prosecutor calls for [Prime Minister Ariel Henry] to be charged in [President Moise]'s killing.* The reason is that Henry had phone calls with a suspect who is on the lam.
Strangely, President Moise appointed Ariel Henry as prime minister a few days before he was shot.
Facebook concealed its own research which found that Instagram makes teenage girls feel more anxious about their body image.
*Philippines' Duterte accused of stifling scrutiny in senate probes.* Specifically, he prevents the Senate from questioning executive branch officials.
The bullshitter did this too.
Church of England bishops condemned the proposed law that would constitute "criminalisation of Good Samaritan."
The US has prosecuted people for giving food and water to unauthorized immigrants and to homeless people.
*Moratorium on Deep Sea Mining [endorsed] at Global Biodiversity Summit.*
This was not a binding decision, but may help lead to a real decision.
*Vaccine-hesitant people are dying -– and their loved ones want the world to listen.*
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demands an investigation of the UK's use of undercover thugs to infiltrate it in the 1980.
Preserving endangered languages calls for encouraging everyone to use them. This means rejecting the idea of "cultural appropriation" or that these languages are off-limits to some people.
*U.S. [reportedly] to hold $130m of Egypt's military aid over human rights.*
It is good that the US is making an effort. Getting a government to stop torturing and killing dissidents and journalists is not easy, though.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say to fully fund the Build Back Better act, at 3.5 trillion, and increase taxes on rich people and corporations.
It wouldn't hurt to add that there should be no increased funds for the military and no subsidy for climate destruction.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
*Australia burying ‘head in the sand’ on security risks of climate change, former defence official says.*
Michelle Bachelet of the UN says that environmental threats are
the biggest challenge to human rights.
65 environmental defenders were murdered in Colombia in 2020,
setting a new record. World-wide there were 227 murders, also a record.
I think that increased awareness that environmental destruction is
tantamount to delayed murder the reason for this.
A large British union has started to give up on the Labour Party.
Its members no longer believe that the party would do much for workers
if it won.
I suspect that is a consequence of how it treated Corbyn.
(satire) *Fraternity Cookout Raises Over $10,000 To Pay Medical Bills
Of Pledge They Put In Coma.*
Not surprisingly, universal camera surveillance has been useful for
catching various sorts of criminals. That is true in New York City,
as it is (I'm sure) true in China. The danger of this surveillance is
not so immediately visible, but every time we read about the damage
done by US wars based on lies, the cameras played a role in stopping
people from blowing the whistle on those lies.
It's possible that as much as 1/4 of the people who have had Covid-19
still have some amount of long Covid. In the US, that could be
millions of people.
And the medical system, with its hands full with serious acute cases,
cannot yet focus on them. And it doesn't know a lot to do for them,
either.
Millions of Americans are being gratuitously infected by right-wing
extremist Republicans as a political gesture of "drop dead" arrogance.
All those who have a disability afterward should know that the
extremists did it to them.
*Men are inventing new excuses for killing women and judges are
falling for them.*
Scientist Ruth Etzel was director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s
Health Protection. She was out of the EPA for insisting that it do
its job and apply its standards.
The Republican Party is now the party of intrusive, repressive government.
Facebook told a subcontractor to pull the union representative (of
subcontracted janitors) off work on Facebook's building.
That was because he organized a protest against Facebook's demand to
work so fast that it made people work overtime unpaid. This is likely
to be tantamount to firing him, though perhaps with a legal loophole.
This is one more reason why subcontracting should be limited by law to
small numbers of workers doing small total amounts of work.
Not every business is nasty to workers like this, but no business
deserves rights the way humans do. Subcontracting generally gives
workers less power over their work (pay, schedules, working
conditions), even as it reduces the accountability over the business
in regard to the work they do for customers. It benefits the business
but harms everyone else. So let's forbid it, except for small cases
where a full-time employee would simply not make sense.
Iran has agreed to let the IAEA resume monitoring its nuclear
sites.
Maybe it was bluffing to show the US it has to take the non-nuclear
deal seriously. I hope the US does so.
*Rain fell on Greenland’s ice sheet for the first time ever known.*
Vast areas of land, home to half a billion people, may be inundated
in this century by the melting of Greenland and Antarctic ice.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 1-202-559-1155 and say to
pass the full budget reconciliation spending bill, but replace any
parts that subsidize fossil fuels or the Pentagon.
Also call on them to close the "billionaire's loophole".
*How mass killings by US forces after 9/11 boosted support for the Taliban.*
Harvard has agreed to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.
I supported this campaign in small ways.
*The Unlearnt Lessons of [September 2001], Twenty Years Out.*
*Poor countries say lack of vaccines may exclude them from climate talks.*
*At least four killed in Taliban crackdown on protests, says UN.*
*Human rights official says group conducting house-to-house searches and
threatening journalists.*
*‘Tomorrow they will kill me’: Afghan female police officers live in fear of
Taliban reprisals.*
*The lesson we failed to learn from 9/11: peace is impossible if we don’t talk
to our enemies.*
US national parks are getting overcrowded.
That is a microcosm of the whole world.
A disabled kea with a broken beak figured out how to use pebbles as
tools.
See what I've written about keas before.
*Forget plans to lower emissions by 2050 — this is deadly procrastination.*
The California legislature has passed a law to require warehouses to
publish the algorithms they use to determine how much work each worker
has to do.
Some sorts of nasty practices, such as retaliation for worker complaints,
are prohibited too.
Governor Newsom has not decided whether to sign it. How can he have
any doubt about what to do?
About several trans men who were reported on in the 1700s in England.
The article is impaired in clarity by using "they" to refer to
some of these individuals. Since they declared themselves male,
the article could have used male pronouns for them to make
it clearer to read.
Sri Lanka, ruled once again by a Rajapaksa, is torturing Tamil
prisoners again.
*If President Biden believes this is an actual 'code red' situation, he
should treat it as such by declaring a climate emergency immediately
through an executive order and stopping all fossil fuel projects.*
*Addressing those who call [vaccine mandates] attacks on personal freedom,
one doctor said that "people also have a right to be able to go to work
and not get infected and not get sick and not die."*
Hear, hear. We all have a duty to get vaccinated, except for the
small fraction that medically can't do it.
*Putin’s crackdown: how Russia’s journalists became ‘foreign agents’.*
Iran refuses to show the IAEA what it is doing with uranium.
I fear this means that the old non-nuclear deal is dead, and that
the wrecker has gifted the world with a nuclear-armed Iran.
Almost no writer is safe from cancellation attempts.
Even if you're not actually racist, or XYZist, people can present
you as such.
The US military sent a drone to attack a car that supposedly had
seen people load it with explosives. But they were not explosives,
they were water canisters. And the driver was an aid worker,
not a terrorist.
*Tunisia's labour union seeks elections before constitution change.*
I agree — hold elections before deciding on such an important question.
*Tunisia's president indicates he will amend constitution*
using the constitutional pathways.
The Tories are cutting back on spending on decarbonizing.
This will cause big job losses, even as support for people to stay home
is removed.
Climate defenders are calling out the advertising agencies that protect
fossil fuels.
Note the contrast between fighting companies for preparing to kill
millions and fighting individuals for views you disagree with.
Governor Newsom has instituted a large program to provide and adapt
housing for California's homeless people — though it isn't as big as
the problem requires.
The crucial need is to encourage dense housing construction near transit
hubs. The voters defeated a referendum to permit that.
(satire) * Study: Majority Of U.S. Population One Disappointing
Sandwich Away From Complete Mental Breakdown.*
Painful surprises like these cause me small mental breakdowns every
day. Fortunately, they last only a minute.
The UN says that Taliban are harassing the Afghan staff that work in UN
establishments in Afghanistan.
Anti-vax disinformation posters in London have been found to contain
razor blades intended to wound anyone taking them down.
*Earth’s tipping points could be closer than we think. Our current plans won’t
work.*
*Death threats sent to participants of US conference on Hindu nationalism.*
"Hindu nationalism" means the antidemocratic movement that Modi leads,
which represses Muslims in India and, more generally, people who are
not Hindus.
The Tories want China's trade enough to disregard China's repression.
Arguments for eliminating "Medicare Advantage" insurance plans.
I've read that Massachusetts, and a few other states, have legislated
that medigap insurance plans cannot reject new subscribers because of
preexisting conditions. Maybe that means I'm safe from this problem.
Perhaps legislation like this nationwide would eliminate the danger of
Medicare Advantage plans to the subscribers.
Nonetheless, it would still be good to eliminate the profiteering and
overbilling described in the article.
*UK criticized for ‘dropping Paris climate goals in trade deal with Australia’.*
* California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah faced historic heatwaves,
which were made possible by human-caused global heating, a study found.*
*U.N. chief urges China, US to keep bilateral spats out of climate fight.*
Tunisia's president says he will "suspend" the Constitution. That's not very different from a coup.
*Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers across dozens of
countries.*
(satire) *Birds Demand Natural History Museum Return Dinosaur
Skeletons Plundered From Ancestral Resting Place.*
(satire) *Horrified Anti-Vaxxer Discovers Every American Who Got
Smallpox Vaccine In 19th Century Now Dead.*
*Biden Nominates Fossil Fuel 'Crony' to head the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.*
(satire) *CEOs Give Advice To Millennials About Saving Money.*
Self-styled "libertarians" in politics fail to stand up for the
freedom to have an abortion.
I argue that they are not entitled to the term "libertarians", because
their principal goal is to eliminate taxes and have a laissez-faire,
laissez mourir economy.
The right term for them is "antisocialist".
The Guantanamo prison "military tribunals" are unfair trials, rigged
for injustice. The US must eliminate them,
so as not to put itself in a class with the Soviet Union and other
purveyors of bogus trials.
Once the US admits that it cannot give any of those prisoners a fair
trial, it will have to let them go. And then it can close the
Guantanamo prison.
To cleanse its name, the US should prosecute all those involved in
torture in Guantanamo, starting with Dubya.
*We Wasted 20 Years Fighting the War on Terror Instead of [global heating].*
(satire) *Taliban Criticized For Failure To Include Diverse Array Of
Extremist Perspectives In Government.*
Taliban attacked female protesters with whips and sticks.
Children are no longer basically safe from Covid-19.
The US recently had 252,000 new infected children in one week.
Since the vaccine has not yet been approved for children — because it hasn't
been tested for them — we need to protect them by requiring masks in school.
Everyone: on Sep 14, join a protest against Apple and its plans to
insert snooping software in SpyPhones.
US citizens: Sep 19/20, join actions in favor of climate defense.
A court has rejected Deadly DeSantis's ban on mask mandates in schools,
allowing schools to require all the students to wear masks.
Vaping tobacco often leads to smoking cigarettes.
For the Boston preliminary municipal election for mayor,
I narrowed down the choices to Kim Janey and Michelle Wu.
Michelle Wu had answered Ballotpedia's questions with copious
information about what she stands for. I agreed with most of it.
Kim Janey hadn't answered those questions. The cards her campaign
mailer me told me about a few important issues, but no way to ask about
other issues. No phone number, no email address, only addresses on a
few online dis-services and a web site that told me, "Please enable
Javaascript." I'd have had to run nonfree softwsre to talk with
her campaign.
I voted for Michelle Wu.
Louisiana state thugs show a pattern of beating and maiming black
motorists, then lying about it.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
Vaccine production is accelerating but the wealthy western countries are
hoarding it.
Taliban thugs beat up Afghan journalists that they had arrested
for covering a protest in Kabul.
*Big oil's delay tactics are the new climate science denialism.*
The UK is about to follow Australia in towing boats of unauthorized
immigrants back to France.
The UK does have a legitimate argument for saying, "If you'd like
asylum, ask France. You're already there."
Designating armed rebel groups as "terrorist" does not magically
defeat them, but it gets in the way of making peace with them.
*France to give free access to contraception for women aged up to 25.*
This should be the case in every country; for poor countries, the
world's rich should pay the cost.
*Hong Kong police raid Tiananmen massacre museum.*
China suppresses any attempt to talk about the huge protest and the
subsequent massacre at Shā Xuésheng Mén (Kill Students Gate).
Where suicide is criminalized, the effect is to deter people from seeking
therapy if they are thinking about suicide.
*Abortion Bounty Hunters in Texas Are Not "Whistleblowers" — They're
Cruel Vigilantes.*
Whistleblowing means reporting on abuses of power and authority.
With that point understood, we can recognize misuse of the term.
The Christian right-wing organized in the 1970s to demand the right
for churches to practice racial discrimination.
Later, in the 80s, it took a stand against abortion rights as a political football.
Los Angeles thugs ask each person they talk with for per social media
accounts.
I wonder what happens when someone says, "That's private."
Do they arrest per on some pretext? Beat per up?
Estimating the carbon budget: 90% of coal reserves and 60% of oil and gas
reserves must stay in the ground, and that only gives us a 50-50 chance
of remaining below 1.5C of global heating.
The article apportions these excluded reserves among countries.
A Chinese PR campaign blames the US for Covid-19.
This is about as stupid as the wrecker's campaign to blame China
for Covid-19.
Governor Abbott combines factual falsehoods with his religious
fanaticism.
Anti-vaxxers threatened violence against a scientist who criticized
the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
I don't know enough to reach any conclusions about the use of
ivermectin, but threatening scientists for stating their conclusions
is violent and puts people in danger.
Legal observers at a protest in 2020 have sued the New York Thug
Department because thugs that beat them up.
The Taliban have banned protests, and banned all protest slogans
without explicit approval.
*"Incredible fear" among women across Afghanistan — U.N. official.*
There is uncertainty about what policy the Taliban will actually implement
and how repressive that will be.
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, September, 18, titled
Free Software and the GNU General Public License.
*Gulf Drilling Condemned as Hundreds of Hurricane-Related Spills
Investigated.*
(satire) *Inmate Granted Parole After Court Determines Release Poses
No Threat To Prison's Bottom Line.*
Russia has chased a lawyer into exile, for defending persecuted
opposition figures.
Should sculptors and other artists that worked for the Nazi regime
have been cancelled? Should the non-Nazi work that they have done since
the fall of Hitler be scorned and removed?
I don't think the fact that they made art for the German
government when it was in Nazi hands implies they should be
blacklisted.
Uganda has charged opposition political leaders with murders
that may not have anything to do with them.
The collapse of a metro train overpass in Mexico City has been traced back
to specific improper construction. Given the level of corruption in Mexico,
I suspect that this was fraud.
It should be possible to identify the companies responsible, and maybe
even the individual inspectors responsible.
*Mexican Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion in historic shift.*
Hooray for the women of Mexico!
And for the women of southern Texas, since Coahula is right across the
middle of the Texas border. They will be able to get an abortion in a
closer place.
Except for the women who are unauthorized immigrants, since they don't
dare visit Mexico and return. They need abortion rights in Texas.
More about the court's reasoning.
Australia plans to subsidize a large fracking project.
Businesses seem unable to destroy civilization fast enough with
their own resources.
*Hong Kong: police arrest senior members of group that organised Tiananmen
vigils.*
They decided to face prison rather than identify their members for further
persecution.
*[The September 2001 terrorist attacks] militarized law enforcement and made
every American a suspect.*
I use a year when I refer to those attacks, rather than a month and
day, to present them as an event that happened some years ago rather
than as a part of the eternal present. I hope that will help Americans
throw off their influence.
Texas Republicans' example of disregarding constitutional rights by
inciting vigilante lawsuits can be turned against Republicans in other
areas of law.
The Department of Homeland Security disregarded plentiful evidence that
fanatical supporters of Trump were planning violence on Jan 6,
because
its political guidance, coming from Trump, was to focus on imaginary threats
from immigrants and from Antifa.
Everyone: Stand with striking Nabisco workers.
Virologist David LV Bauer recognizes that vaccination is crucial protection
against Covid-19. He explains how anti-vaxxers took a statement out of context
and used it to misrepresent him as an anti-vaxxer.
When I see people arguing for an implausible conclusion and showing
signs of willingness to distort, I stop reading it. That approach
doesn't converge on truth; rather, it leads to auto-expanding myths.
*California bill seeks to halt prison-to-ICE deportation pipeline.*
Prisoners who risked their lives fighting wildfires now face
deportation.
Many species of animals are evolving slowly to cope with higher
average temperatures.
That's fine as long as they can keep up. But as global heating speeds up,
more and more species will lag behind and die out.
Meanwhile, there are hard limits to cope with. Small adaptations may
not enable humans to survive a fatal heat-humidity combination. As
long as we depend on evaporation to cool our bodies, it will be
effective only when the ambient air causes evaporation.
* Wild relatives of some of the world’s most important crops, including
potatoes, avocados and vanilla, are threatened with extinction.*
Breeding crops with their wild relatives is a crucial method
for adapting them to cope with diseases, pests or environmental change.
Those are spreading a lot right now, so we should not allow
our resources for coping with them to be lost.
*Heather Bresch, [Senator] Joe Manchin's Daughter, was CEO of Mylan, the drug
company that artificially increased the price of Epipens.*
Republicans' "Happy Labor Day" card to unemployed workers: "Your
unemployment benefits have ended."
A US "press freedom" bill would protect journalists facing persecution
in other countries.
But not journalists such as Julian Assange facing persecution in the
US.
*EU "seeking to turn migrant database into mass surveillance tool."*
Idaho's hospitals are overwhelmed with sick unvaccinated patients.
The state has formally declared that it can't properly treat all of them.
*From climate crisis to Brexit, [so-called] alarmists have been proved
right. It's time to start listening.*
Since 2002, right-wing terrorism has killed more Americans than
Islamist terrorism.
What's more, Islamist extremism has never threatened the US's freedom
or democracy. Right-wing extremism has been threatening the US
freedom and democracy ever since the PAT RIOT Act.
*DHS Division Failed To Analyze Intelligence Ahead Of Capitol Violence.*
The Tory election bill is designed to wipe out Labour's union
campaigning.
The demand for fish oil is leading to overfishing of krill.
In addition, the many animals (including whales) that feed on krill
will starve.
A union is pressuring Hollywood movie companies to raise the pay for
most workers above minimum wage.
*Ecuador’s government is considering creating a new marine reserve near the Galapagos Islands to protect migratory species [of ocean life].*
Human Rights Watch says that Egypt's suppression forces have murdered
hundreds of dissidents and said they were killed in gun battles.
Amnesty International says that Syrian refugees sent back to Syria
have been tortured, even disappeared.
Supporters of Bolsonaro used trucks to try to drive through lines of
cops to attack Brazil's Congress.
If he tries to overthrow democracy, the cops may help defend it.
30 years before Jefferson thought about freeing his slaves and
didn't, Robert Carter freed 500 slaves.
*More global [foreign] aid goes to fossil fuel projects than tackling
dirty air.*
A climate scientist reports on being stunned to watch climate disaster
cover New York City so soon as 2021.
Jurist Laurence Tribe suggests ways for the US government to prosecute
those who try to use the Texas anti-abortion law to persecute people
that help women get abortions.
A billionaire wants to build a city of the future for 5 million people
— in an arid area where there isn't enough water for the current
inhabitants.
According to one model, the climate impact of a transatlantic flight
could cost global economy $3,000 over the course of this century.
That number embodies assumptions which may not be true. If
civilization collapses by 2060 with or without the flight, the
flight's ultimate impact might be zero. If civilization survives
enough to talk about the impact of any specific act, that impact could
vary depending on other details.
I wonder what the likely impact of having a child would be. According
to the study which estimated the expected impact of one child as 2880
translatlantic round trips, it would be 2880 * 2 * 3000, which is
17,280,000.
Rounded to one significant figure, that is 20 million
dollars. But I suppose that could be off by a factor of 5 or 10 in
either direction.
*Republicans in crosshairs of 6 January panel begin campaign of intimidation.*
They are trying to intimidate phone companies that the House investigation
has given subpoenas for the phone records of officials that worked for
the coup leader.
The Taliban have for a week blocked charter flights from evacuating
people from Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.
Remote work for many companies requires workers to use computers
supplied by the company, running software designed to snoop on them.
A rural village in Taiwan set an example for fast and firm reaction to
an outbreak of Delta.
It seems clear from the article that there were cases outside
Fenggang. What happened to the outbreak outside Taiwan.
Half a million Indian farmers protested against Modi's farm laws, which are likely to enable big middleman companies to dominate food
distribution in India, as they do in the US. In the US, the result
has been to push farms into bankruptcy so that bigger companies can
buy up their land.
*The six problems aviation must fix to hit net zero [greenhouse
emissions].*
*More than 200 [scientific medical] journals call for urgent action on
climate crisis.*
Texas women are planning to defy the anti-abortion law.
Russia has jailed 45 Crimean Tatars, including their elected leader.
They strongly condemn Putin's seizure of the Crimea.
The SpaceX launch site is next to wildlife sanctuaries. When a rocket
crashes, the debris (including fuel) can poison the wildlife.
Bolsonaro is rallying his supporters to prepare a coup.
*Taliban break up Afghan women’s rights march with gunfire.*
And tear gas.
*‘Lost generation’: education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse.*
Lukashenko has ordered 11 years' imprisonment for opposition leader
Maria Kalesnikava.
Russia targets opposition candidates with decoy candidates that
have the same name. Now they even look similar.
Venice tracks everyone in the city from camera to camera. Now it
plans to force everyone in the city to identify perself to enter.
This is associated with a plan to collect a fee from non-residents,
but I don't object to that. Maintaining Venice is expensive, and so
is protecting it from sea level rise. I would not mind paying, if I
could do so anonymously.
I will not go to Venice again if that practice goes into effect. But that
doesn't mean I will be safe from it — because it might spread.
Overfishing is driving 1/3 of all shark and ray species to extinction.
Vietnam sentenced a man to 5 years in prison for breaking the general quarantine rules and spreading Covid-19 as a result.
One of the people he infected died from it.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the mass transit funds in the
budget bill, which were removed at last minute from the infrastructure
bill
US citizens: call on your Congressperson to support the demand for
clemency for 4000 medically vulnerable prisoners that have been released
to house arrest.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand Medicare benefits and extend them
to a lower starting age.
Everyone: sign the letter rebuking Apple's snooping plans.
If we convince Apple to back down, this time, we will have beaten off
one threat of massive surveillance.
But real protection from insertion of malicious
functionalities into proprietary software
will come only from
rejecting proprietary software. We need to learn that no convenience
is worth the price if the price is using proprietary software.
Residents of Massachusetts: call on your state legislators to pass the VOTES
Act.
US citizens: call on the FCC to require phone and internet companies
to prepare adequately for hurricanes.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection
Act.
Everyone: call on Bell County District Attorney to drop the
charges against Marvin Guy.
US citizens: call on Congress to make top fossil fuel executives
testify, even if it requires a subpoena.
The Afghanistan Papers: *after eight years ... US and its allies were
unclear on what they were doing and who they were fighting.*
It was even more confused at the start.
Officers' internal military reports, obtained later using FOIA, showed
that fighting was achieving nothing, showing that the encouraging
public statements made by the same people were deception.
*As the Taliban overran Afghanistan, Australia told asylum seekers
they should expect to return there.*
This includes people who would very likely face persecution for
well-known reasons.
A package of bills would help reduce the monopoly power of
Big Tech.
This would not address the core injustice of their collection of
personal data, much of which would also get into the possession of the
US government. However, with more competitors we might someday find
one that offers anonymous purchase, etc.
*[Big Pharm] is trying to leverage its role in successful coronavirus
vaccine development to sink a "once-in-a-generation" chance to
slash drug costs.*
The vaccine companies are gouging on vaccines,
so we should see the importance of vaccines as one more reason for
laws to curb Big Pharma's ability to gouge.
*It’s Time to End Religious Exemptions During Public Health Emergencies.*
You must have the right to practice your religion (if any), but that does
not excuse you from the duties of all citizens.
*Guatemala top court eliminates prison sentences for corruption crimes
by public servants [including judges].*
US citizens: call on Congress to legalize abortion in all states.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act.
US citizens: call on Congress and Biden to demilitarize the police.
*German Groups Sue Major Carmakers for Fueling the Climate Emergency.*
For fun, let's name hurricanes after oil companies.
For justice, let's make them pay for the damages.
(satire) *U.S. Responds To Rising Sea Levels By Patting East Coast
With Towels.*
(satire) *Optimistic Researchers Say There Still Time To Head Off
Climate Change Before It Starts Killing Rich People.*
Greg Palast: *Power outage in New Orleans: Is Ida or Entergy to blame?*
Some construction companies in New York City make special arrangements
to hire ex-cons and pay them a pittance to work in unsafe conditions.
The next step in Texas Republicans' repression of women will be to
prohibit administering abortion pills or mailing them.
It seems absurd to think that a state could prohibit mailing something
there via US mail from another state where it is lawful, but with
radical Taliban on the Supreme Court, there is no telling what they
might do.
Texas women should get abortion pills in advance in case they become
pregnant.
American businesses are giving no support to the women of Texas
against Republican repression.
*The Texas Taliban wing of the Republican Party.*
(satire) *New Texas Law Allows Private Citizens To Hold Pregnant Women
Hostage Until Birth.*
Modeling now explains how the heating of the Arctic, in winter,
occasionally directs a large burst of cold air south, causing extreme
winter weather
in what we used to call the temperate zones.
People who worked at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center in
2001 are suffering from diseases of old age, including dementia, in
their 50s.
I recall that officials said the air around the site was safe to breathe,
though this was not true.
Hurricane Ida caused leaks of oil and toxic chemicals on the Louisiana
coast.
Cancellation as mob rule: the article
compares
it with the Puritans of old New England.
To me, it resembles the Red Guards that I read about in Life and
Death in Shanghai (Nien Cheng).
Although people
attempted to cancel me two
years ago, what has happened to me is not as bad as what happened to
those described in the article. I was fortunate.
People from disprivileged groups were particularly likely to die in
and near New York City from Hurricane Ida's flooding, because the
shortage of housing had pushed them into living in basements that were
not safe.
*[Climate crisis] deniers are as slippery as those who justified the
slave trade.*
When one fallacious argument ceases to be believed, they fall back
to the next line of delusion.
*Europe to miss 2030 climate goal by 21 years at current pace — study.*
*Komodo dragon in danger of extinction as sea levels rise.*
Along with 38,000 other species.
The Department of Homeland Security, or shall we say Committee for
Public Safety, has interrogated 180,000 US citizens trying to enter
the US in a two-year period, 2017 to 2019.
14 were stopped from entering the US, effectively exiling them, and
without a trial too — though exile is unconstitutional even as a
sentence, since a US citizen has an unconditional right to enter the
US.
During the French Revolution, the Committee for Public Safety was
responsible for terror. For inflicting the terror, that is.
*Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida.*
Hadley Freeman: When a friend asks, *what will happen to her
when she’s old? Will she be all alone? So should she have a baby now? I
look her right in the eyes and I tell her what I always tell women in
these circumstances: don’t bother.*
*‘Panic made us vulnerable’: how 9/11 made the US surveillance state — and the
Americans who fought back.*
US citizens: Support the Grand Canyon Protection Act.
*As China woos the Taliban, Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear for their lives.*
Developing technology that could make air conditioners more efficient,
or replace them with passive technology.
*[Senator Manchin] Reaps Big Financial Rewards From a Network of Coal
Companies With Grim Records of Pollution, Safety Violations, and Death.*
Afghanistan had 250 female judges who now fear that men they sentenced
will murder them.
London thugs have developed new tactics to defeat
Extinction Rebellion protests.
Partly this operates by keeping most
of the activists away from those they are directly attacking.
Meanwhile, they have worked out a plan to avoid talking about the
protests, or the issue of defending our climate.
To ask whether Extinction Rebellion has "lost momentum" is foolish,
shallow journalistic habit. This is a conflict, not a race. The
protesters are valiantly trying to pressure politicians to try to save
civilization, while those politicians prefer to serve the short term
interests that profit by bringing chaos, disaster and violence. The
thugs use violence when convenient that end, while the protesters
carefully remain non-violent.
State barriers to abortion exist in many parts of Europe.
Malta's ban is even more absolute than that of Texas.
The former Georgia prosecutor who shielded the killers of Ahmaud
Arbery from arrest now faces charges of acting from personal prejudice.
One of the killers had worked for her.
Philadelphia-area cops seem to have killed an eight-year-old by
firing into a crowd.
They wounded three others.
Persons in or near that crowd were shooting, sometimes perhaps at the
thugs. But if the cops could not identify the shooters and aim
carefully at them, they were far more likely to hit bystanders than
their targets. What they did may not have been evil, but it was
spectacularly incompetent.
Fictional cops know not to shoot at someone in the middle of
bystanders. Why didn't these real cops know it?
Extinction Rebellion activists protested against British
banks by nonviolently carrying signs near the Bank of England.
A few dozen carried signs saying they were violating bail conditions
imposed on them after they were arrested for other nonviolent protests.
A common technique for crushing protest movements to arrest protesters
(maybe without there being any crime) and put them under pressure to
agree to "I won't protest again" bail conditions.
A protester pointed out that global heating effects are obstructing
roads around the world, and will do so with increasing frequency.
Shouldn't the British government arrest global heating first?
Douglas Rushkoff analyzes QAnonsense as a kind of addiction.
*Almost 6,000 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered, Nigerian army says.*
Afghans who worked for peace campaigns, or to aid refugees, and did
not support either the US-backed government or the Taliban, fear
Taliban repression now.
Deadly DeSantis is once again trying to conceal facts about Covid-19
in Florida. Now he has altered the way records are kept so as to
undercount deaths.
*North Atlantic right whales critically endangered by climate crisis, new
study finds.*
NOAA has made a rule to protect North Atlantic right whales, but it's
insufficient and the population will probably continue to decrease.
(satire) *New Texas Abortion Law Offers $10,000 To Private Citizens
For Names Of Anyone They Heard Was A Slut.*
Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill to establish abortion rights
in case Republicans on the Supreme Court abolish Roe v Wade.
To pass this will require the Senate to abolish the filibuster.
I don't see a way to put more pressure on Manchin and Sinema.
I hope people find a way.
*Climate Groups Target Congress With 'Gas Is Not Clean' Campaign.*
*The Long-Lasting Consequences of the War on Terror.*
The US government may not use that term any more, but the surveillance
and assassination systems remain in operation.
The lead producer says that the last drone strike in Kabul targeted a
car filled with explosives and destroyed it, and the explosion also
killed ten members of an Afghan family who were near it at that
moment.
If that is correct — I don't have any other source of information
about this point — then I won't criticize the US Army for firing a
missile at those armed terrorists. Indeed, if they had not been
stopped, they might have killed a hundred Afghan civilians instead of
ten. The fact that bystanders were near them at that moment was
something random and uncontrollable.
Rather than a war crime, it is an example of what war implies.
Fighting a war sometimes kills civilians. Sometimes because a soldier
vents hatred, sometimes by an accident that everyone regrets.
We should keep this in mind when we consider whether to start a war,
and whether to end one.
*Let's Open the Books: We Need a Truth Commission for the Afghan War.*
The legacy of past segregation in housing often manifests itself
in racist allocation of pollution.
The plan for an oil pipeline running through black neighborhoods
illustrates systemic racism. However, it is an atypical example
because an additional oil pipeline is bad no matter what path it
takes. If we allow fossil fuel extraction to continue unchecked,
no one will be safe.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
*Estimated Cost of Post-9/11 US Wars Hits $8 Trillion With Nearly a Million
People Dead.*
I am pretty sure that the total of one million is based on an
underestimate of the number of Iraqis killed — for instance,
the figure from Iraq Body Count, which counted only the deaths
which could be individually verified.
*Republicans seethe with violence and lies. Texas is part of a bigger war
they’re waging.*
The ultimate goal is to put an end to freedom of thought, freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, and democracy. Calling them the American
Taliban is a good comparison.
A PISSI terrorist stabbed people in a store in New Zealand. Muslims
and non-Muslims there joined to condemn the attack.
In response, some stores are ceasing to sell knives and scissors. What lunacy? Where are people supposed to buy them? It is absurd
to crack down on every household item that could be used as a weapon.
Afghan military pilots that fled to Uzbekistan are now treated as
prisoners and fear Uzbekistan will hand them over to the Taliban,
perhaps to be killed.
The US should bring them to safety.
In theory, the Taliban respect women's rights, but women say that the
practical limits preclude exercising any rights.
The Taliban want two things that can't be reconciled. How they
respond to this will determine what sort of relations they can
have with the rest of the world.
Italy is considering requiring everyone to be vaccinated against
Covid-19.
I hope there will be an exception for those who have a specific
medical reason why they should not be vaccinated. The article did not
mention this, but I expect that there will be an exception for them.
That aside, it is everyone's duty to get vaccinated so as to help
eradicate the disease.
Tories want to make the non-rich pay the extra costs of the NHS.
Canadians, get advice from a local climate defense group on who to vote for.
If the group clearly says, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel,"
then it has enough courage to tackle the issue squarely, so it will
try to give you good advice on who is best to vote for in your area.
50,000 attended the Boardmasters festival in the UK, and 5,000 caught
Covid-19.
The festival required proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test, but no
other precautions against transmission. The photo shows that people
were packed close together.
This shows that vaccination verification alone does not ensure
people's safety. Other precautions are still needed. Vaccination
verification can make it possible to hold events and open venues which
otherwise would have to be kept shut, but they do need masks and
physical distancing,
Also, since people under 12 cannot be vaccinated, perhaps this must
be limited to places and events where few children will go. Those
that attract children may still have to be shut.
Apple has made a concession to pressure against its anticompetitive
practices by allowing other companies to restrict users of their apps
through their web sites, rather than through the Apple Store.
The anticompetitive behavior that most restricts users
is that they can't use alternate app stores with free software.
In other words, that there can't be an F-Apple like F-Droid.
*Hurricane Ida Makes a Mockery of Big Oil’s Philanthropy.*
As the US mainstream media cover Hurricane Ida, they mostly ignore its
cause: global heating.
Of the few stories cited as not ignoring this, a couple did use terms
such as "climate crisis" and "climate change-driven disaster" that put
this "change" in its deadly context. Let's call on the media to do
that, rather than "say 'climate change'."
Americans blinded by thugs at Black Lives Matter protests are meeting
up and organizing.
It is no accident when a thug blinds someone with a rubber-coated metal
bullet. If thugs followed their official rules, they would not hit
anyone in the eye. They are supposed to aim below the torso.
Thugs shoot to maim anti-racist protesters because the thugs
are racist, or right-wing, or both.
The article linked to in the first paragraph displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I object to bigotry, and
normally I decline to link to articles which promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
India preemptively cut off the internet in Kashmir to prevent protests
expected after the death (from medical problems) of a separatist leader.
London thugs punched and bashed Extinction Rebellion protesters who
had locked themselves to a bus.
It sounds like the thugs broke some windows too.
The protest was nonviolent but mildly disruptive. I say "mildly" in
comparison with the category 6 hurricanes, tornadoes, fire clouds and
sea inundations that global heating will cause in England if
Extinction Rebellion does not achieve its goal.
Later information showed that it was the thugs that broke windows
in the bus. The protesters remained steadfastly nonviolent.
Increased farming, which often implies deforestation, is the main cause
of the possible coming extinction of half the species of trees.
One easy way to help avoid this is to help the human population
decline, but having fewer or no children.
*Black surgeons ‘promoted far less than white colleagues in England’.*
Systemic racism affects people in many different areas of life. A
Massachusetts study found
that, on average, blacks convicted of crimes got longer sentences than whites convicted of comparable crimes in comparable circumstances.
The right-wing extremists on the US Supreme Court chose to do nothing
as Texas prohibits abortion using a crushing new method that would put
anyone who helps someone get an abortion in danger of bankruptcy.
The horror of this method is that you can't have a trial that would
decide, once and for all, whether you committed a crime. You can't
even call for a trial in advance to determine the answer. Instead you
face an endless series of lawsuits from people that were not involved,
which don't give you the safeguards of a criminal trial.
The use of this method amounts to nullification of the constitutional
rights of the accused — for anything whatsoever. The method itself
is tyranny, and it is supposed to be unconstitutional, but the US
Supreme Court of today doesn't care.
I was not surprised they decided to allow prohibition of abortions,
but I was shocked that they allowed this.
*It’s time to brace ourselves for a world without Roe v Wade. Here’s what we
must do.*
*Women can continue working in Afghan government, say Taliban.*
If they put this into practice, it will confirm an advance that
was only partially implemented by the previous government.
However, the fighters they recruited may take out their fanaticism
to stop this.
It looks like Tunisia's president sent an exiled Algerian dissident
back to Algeria for prosecution, without even a hearing.
Colorado has charged three thugs and two paramedics of killing Elijah
McClain. They stopped him, injected him with ketamine, and put him in a choke
hold. He never did anything that was grounds to bother him, but someone
in the neighborhood called and said he was "suspicious".
*Ninety-nine percent of people arrested by Beverly Hills "safe streets" unit
were black, suit says.* You might as well call it the "white streets" unit.
(satire) *Final U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan Do Some Last-Second
Nation-Building On Way To Plane.*
If Republicans set up a repressive state based on minority voting,
would they ask the Taliban for advice? Or would they ask China?
*WHO opens pandemic intelligence hub to look out for future crises.*
Shell plans to have 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the UK.
How many of these permit paying cash?
Hurricane Ida rained so fast on New York City that it caused floods
in the streets and the subways.
The storm drains were not designed to cope with such a flow of
water.
It will get a lot worse in the next few decades. It is no use trying
to keep up with this — we have to slow it down by curbing global
heating.
Laurence Tribe explains the Soviet-style society of persecution that
the Texas abortion ban law has created.
Virginia will finally be able to remove a statue of Robert E Lee in
the state capital.
Tories want to ruin people's lives for using the basically harmless drug,
nitrous oxide.
I can only suppose they want to get their supporters high on
persecuting those despised young people.
Greg Palast says that the lasting blackout of much of New Orleans was
the result of malingering by the power company, Entergy. He says that
the company profits from the losses caused by hurricanes, so it has
stubbornly refused to take the necessary precautions to reduce damage.
*Texas schools are surveilling students online, often without their
knowledge.* School-provided computers read students' email.
The article adds "or consent" to the first sentence, but I don't think
that consent can excuse a system of massive surveillance.
What if a school finds that a student plans to travel out of state for
an abortion. Will that make the school vulnerable to lawsuits by the
dozen? Will the school protect itself by reporting her and sticking her
with a baby that will keep her poor for life?
Children often catch Covid-19 nowadays, and since vaccines are not
ready for them, when they go to school they tend to spread it to each
other.
It was recently announced that 1/7 of the children who catch
Covid-19 have disability months later.
Some US right-wing fanatics hate the US government so unthinkingly
that they love the Taliban simply for defeating the US.
I don't suppose the right-wing fanatics are put off by the Taliban's
intention to force their religion on others, or their repression of
women.
*Desertification is turning the Earth barren — but a solution is still within
reach.*
Desertification is another form of the same process of drying up that
is causing the fires in California and so many other regions of the
world.
The centrist leadership of Labour has not decided whether to allow Corbyn
to attend the party conference this year.
If they do not, I hope he arranges speeches of his own in non-party venues.
*Jordan's water crisis deepens as climate [heats up], population grows.*
President Moise's widow asks foreign powers to help figure out who arranged
his assassination.
* Iranian prosecutors have opened criminal cases against six guards at
Tehran’s Evin prison after footage showing widespread abuse of
[prisoners] at the facility leaked out last week.*
The US isn't usually so quick to investigate the crimes of prison
thugs.
50 House Democrats (the progressive ones) demand removal of fossil
fuel subsidies from the Reconciliation Bill.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: we should be investigating possible
future paths of nuclear arms development and (we hope not!) use,
to try to choose better paths and avoid the worst ones.
(satire) *New VA Initiative Helps Get Homeless Veterans Into Bigger Tents.*
*Two decades after 9/11, the real threat to the US is our own far right.*
Republican politicians, both minor and prominent ones, are fomenting
violence against school boards with the aim of intimidation, so they
won't require masks in schools.
When right-winger bullies win a victory through intimidation, they
call it a victory, and they vaunt it to whip up more bullies. We must
give them, instead, failures and defeats.
It would make sense for school board meetings to bring more than 20
strong men they can trust, perhaps some armed, to maintain security at
the entrances and inside the room. Plus a few cops, chosen for being
police officers,
rather than thugs, to arrest anyone that unmasks or threatens.
A Spanish hotel cleaners' union has developed a reservation app that rates
hotels on how well they treat their staff.
That is good — but does that app treat the customer any better than
the other reservation apps? Does it work without making the user run
nonfree software? I doubt it.
I am sure it requires users to identify themselves, which is one of
the reasons I hate staying in hotels in most of the world.
George Monbiot explains why infrastructure development tends not
to help reduce global heating. The first step is, even good plans
get distorted to prioritize profit for the construction industry
over actual benefit.
*Air pollution is likely to reduce the life expectancy of about 40% of Indians by more than nine years.*
The problem affects other large populations, too.
It is caused mainly by burning coal.
Visible signs of the start of the climate crisis have made many
Canadians dissatisfied with the proud planet-roasters of the
Conservative Party, and the foot-draggers of the ruling Liberal Party.
The Caldor wildfire in California is threatening the city of South
Lake Tahoe,
which has been evacuated.
Right-wing anti-vaxxers in LA have repeatedly attacked journalists
that cover their protests.
Uniformed thugs are sometimes present, doing nothing. Journalists
have accused specific people of attacking them, but the thugs say
nothing about arresting the attackers.
It appears to me that the thugs are actively supporting the right-wing
violence.
On one occasion, leftist counter-protesters attacked a journalist and
stole his phone and backpack. But that sounds like a panicky
reaction.
The right-wing, like Nazi brownshirts, attacks aggressively to show
strength. And they brag about it afterward, because it demonstrates
their strength.
The sooner the state demonstrates it is more powerful than they,
the less the problem will grow.
One case shows how far the FBI will go to track and surveil a single
person — without a warrant.
Hong Kong's court sentenced several democracy activists to around a year
in prison for a protests for democracy, using a "national security" law
passed after those protests took place.
It's valid to criticize Beyoncé for promoting the diamond business,
but we should direct that activism more broadly — at that business.
The article is correct that being manipulated by the diamond business
is not morally equivalent to promoting it commercially. But why be
had?
Aside from specialized industrial or research activities, nobody needs
a diamond. To mark engagement with diamonds is one of many cultural
practices set up by commercial PR so as to make people feel compelled
to purchase something they can't really afford, and could perfectly
well do without.
Often the people who would be most harmed by diverting money to this
folly are the ones who feel least able to resist it. Yet surrender
means that they start their life together on the wrong foot.
I suggest putting the money that they would have spent on diamonds
into a reserve bank account for the new couple. This will help them
cope with the challenges of life together. They could extend it into
a history of resisting business pressure to fritter away money on
other things PR teaches people to want, including a fancy, expensive
wedding. More savings will reduce the harm done by many kinds of
crises, and reduce stress.
Our economy is stacked against the poor, and against disprivileged
groups. Saving more by avoiding luxuries of only symbolic value may
not be enough to overcome that. But it will certainly do some good.
*Make historic campaign to ban leaded petrol "blueprint to phase out coal,"
says UN.*
World-wide, 1/3 of the known tree species are now threatened.
I would guess that 1/3 of the tree species yet to be identified
are also threatened.
US citizens: call on the Senate to reject Rahm Emanuel as ambassador
to Japan.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on Congress to strengthen and expand Social
Security.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to transfer the 3 billion dollars
earmarked for the Afghan army into aid for Afghans, in Afghanistan and
evacuating from there
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
*In Guatemala, two ex-generals ordered to stand trial for genocide.*
One was part of the high command, and lead the campaign of
atrocities.
President Obama expanded US war by turning it into a system of
assassination via drones.
It solved the immediate political problem.
Radio stations and stores across Afghanistan are self-censoring by
eliminating music.
In Kandahar, the local Taliban have prohibited female announcers.
By forbidding western culture and Afghan music,
the Taliban will teach young people to yearn for them.
Of the 700 women journalists in Afghanistan, 600 have been compelled
to stop working.
80% of Israeli adults are fully vaccinated, but Covid-19 is spreading
nonetheless. A mask requirement may turn this around.
Distancing requirements may be necessary too.
South Korea is reforming the military justice system to remove command
influence.
Command influence
enables the commander of a unit to protect favorites from punishment
for crimes. It is particularly harmful when it protects them from
punishment for rape, which it often does.
South Korea is moving all sex crimes to civilian courts.
This would be a good reform for the US to adopt.
The air inside buildings, including homes and schools, is polluted with
toxic PFAS chemicals that seeps out of carpets and other products.
The article shows that we must not allow the companies that produce
these chemicals, or have any commercial involvement in them, to have
any influence in the task of studying their medical effects or their
prevalence.
A study finds that adolescents are fairly likely to get long Covid.
The article says "children", but in the group of people of age 11 to
17, only a small fraction are children. Please do not refer to
adolescents as "children".
(satire) *Elizabeth Holmes Arrives To Trial With Prototype For Black
Box That Will Prove Her Innocence.*
The US sells military training to many countries for their soldiers and thugs.
Because it's done by companies whose highest priority is income, the supposed
safeguards against training fascists who will be hired to torture or murder
are easily bypassed.
The propensity of US "precision" drone strikes to kill civilians who were
not the intended target reminds people that Daniel Hale is in prison
for telling us this.
Taliban murdered an Afghan folk musician. This is alarming because,
when they ruled, they prohibited nonreligious music and enforced the
prohibition harshly.
They say they won't impose that by force now. But that isn't much good
unless the Taliban gets control over its zealot wing.
(satire) *U.S. Airstrike Sends Tough Message To 4-Year-Old Afghans Not
To Mess With America.*
The disaster which Hurricane Ida is causing in Louisiana was
preventable. If we had taken the climate defense action 20 years ago
that climate scientists called for, we would not have had such a
strong hurricane now.
* The U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan should force a reckoning
with a long history of military intervention.*
Tunisia's president, who has deactivated the parliament, says nothing about
his long term plans for how to govern Tunisia.
A Chicago thug violently attacked a woman for walking her dog in a
park after sundown.
The woman was black, and he did not attack the whites in the park, so
it appears to be racism at work. However, this violence would have
been wrong regardless of the victim's race.
People inclined to violence and/or racism should not be allowed to
carry guns.
*What a story to tell the world: Britain values dogs more than Afghan
people.*
We need to put stand more firmly for human rights.
I think some animals should have some limited rights,
but human rights should be the priority.
The US and the UK were stingy in accepting refugees from Afghanistan.
They rejected many Afghans whom they had a moral obligation to save.
Only after the Taliban's victory did they realize how wrong this was.
By that time, there was no longer a way to get those people out.
Thus, the reluctance turned into a possibly irreparable failure.
Why was this? I think that both the US and the UK governments were in
the habit of acting two general prejudices: against immigrants in general,
and against Muslims in particular. For these reasons, they sought grounds
to reject whichever Afghans they could.
The Taliban said that rejected Afghan asylum seekers would face some sort of
trial if sent back to Afghanistan.
It is not clear from the article whether this refers to all rejected
Afghan asylum seekers, or only some — perhaps, those rejected based
on accusations of having committed crimes in Afghanistan. That makes
a big difference. The latter would be a legitimate policy; the
former, no.
*Texas abortion providers ask supreme court to halt unprecedented
abortion law.*
Instead of directly punishing people who get abortions, it would allow
anyone and everyone to sue anyone that plays any role in an abortion
— even driving the patient to a clinic. Most people would be bankrupted
by legal expenses before the end of the trial; they would lose by default.
This kind of law is oppressive regardless of what it is about. Israel
passed a similar law to repress advocacy of Gush Shalom's boycott of
products made in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory,
because
even people prepared to go to jail for freedom of speech did not dare
expose their families to this risk.
Georgia's prisons are so understaffed that they don't even notice when
a prisoner is dead. The result is an increase in murder in the prison.
I wonder what is causing the understaffing.
Militarists, "addicted to war", don't want to allow the US war in
Afghanistan to end. They want the US military to fight "terrorism"
there.
The Taliban's victory could be a big step forward towards eradicating
PIS, if the US cooperates with the Taliban for this. Above all, the
US must not mess it up by provoking friction with the Taliban. For
instance, drone strikes in Afghanistan that kill civilians would be
extremely counterproductive, even if the target is a real terrorist.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what is happening.
(One thing not clear in the article: were the civilians killed the
people in the car, or were they bystanders the vicinity?)
All US troops are now out of Afghanistan. The US should adopt a
policy of no air strikes in Afghanistan except in cooperation with the
Taliban.
China has put tight limits on how much time minors can spend playing
online (networked) games.
I can't tell whether it is 2 hours per week, or 3 hours per week.
Part of this legal restriction is that every player will have to prove
identity. Digital systems to protect minors tend to have this
byproduct, which oppresses everyone.
WHO says that a "booster" third vaccine dose may be a necessity
for people who have medical vulnerabilities.
That does not imply they would be a necessity for most adults,
only for a minority.
*US judge revokes mother’s right to visit son over her refusal to get
Covid vaccine.*
Given that she has had a medical recommendation not to get the
vaccine, her resistance is not mere obstinacy. So I am not convinced
that it is correct to require her to do so.
The Afghan state was corrupt in every activity — here are details.
Thus, hardly anyone wanted to fight (or do anything whatsoever) for
that state as such — only to get in on the graft.
A school board rejected gratis lunch for all children,
because that way some children who are not quite as poor as others
might receive help.
*Contrasting US Withdrawal From Afghanistan With Trump's Abrupt
Departure From Syria.* A spectacular example of double standard.
*When Military Contractors Fund Their Own Pro-War Think Tanks.*
*If labour shortages are driving up the wages of low-paid
workers then what is wrong with that?*
Harvard University's chaplains have unanimously selected a new chief
— the Atheist/Humanist chaplain.
Everyone: call for dissolving the National Rifle Association.
For decades it has linked itself to white supremacism.
Nowadays it is simply a marketing agency for guns.
US citizens: call on Biden to nominate a climate leader as Chair of
the Federal Reserve.
The largest generic drug plant in the US recently closed. The government might
have been able to stop this.
Was it really possible to invoke the Defense Production Act. There
may have been some legal barrier to doing so — I don't know. To form
an organization to buy the plant and keep it operating might have been
another method. So why wasn't this done?
I wonder if this has something to do with placating Senator Manchin.
If so, I think the public got the short end of the deal, since he still
refuses to eliminate the filibuster.
Sanders refuses to negotiate a "compromise" to make the family aid
bill smaller, saying that he's already done that negotiation and the
current bill is the deal that was agreed on.
It's a standard tactic of right-wing politicians, whether Republican
or Democrat, to demand we meet them half-way, starting from a deal in
which we met them half way. The result is to meet them three-quarters
of the way.
Then they may try it again and demand another eighth.
Usually Democrats go along with that, but progressives today
won't do it.
If we can't help renegotiating, we should start from our original
starting proposal — the whole of what we really ought to do for
non-rich Americans.
David Werking stayed in his parents' house for 10 months, then later
discovered that they had thrown out his collection of porn while it
was there. He sued them and won about $30,000 plus his legal fees.
The parents seem to have believed that, despite David's being 42 years
old and formerly married, he was still their little baby and they were
entitled to dictate his sex life. Most parents don't take this sense
of entitlement to the point of being ridiculous, but many try to
control offspring that have already developed their own idea of
sexuality and desires.
Afghanistan was never a "breeding ground" for terrorism against the
US, so disregard attempts to distract you with that fake concern.
The article refers to Dubya's dubious claim to have won the 2000 election,
but it's much worse than that. We know that the election was rigged by
Republicans, by voter suppression.
And they're at it again now.
Afghan feminists — the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan — have said all along that US intervention in Afghanistan
was wrong and would not help Afghan women.
I first heard of RAWA when I read about its opposition to the coming
attack on Iraq.
But I learned a lot of background about RAWA from this article.
(satire) *Nation Stunned That 20-Year Catastrophe Could End So
Catastrophically.*
The EPA has acknowledged that neonicotinoid pesticides endanger
wildlife. Each of these pesticides is expected to harm over a
thousand endangered species.
(The precise number affected by each pesticide varies.)
The EPA should take quick action, especially since some of those
species are important pollinators.
(satire) *DeSantis Locks Down Florida After Spread Of Covid
Vaccination Gets Out Of Hand.*
*Dental, Insurance Lobbyists Quietly Target Democrats' Medicare
Expansion Plan.*
Mexico's retail, especially food, is being colonized by multinational
chain stores.
In some cases, foreign companies bought Mexican supermarket and
restaurant chains. I think they are nearly all foreign-owned. The
banks, too. A decade ago I posted a joke about Ban-comer and Bananamex —
nowadays, young Mexicans may not get the joke because those banks
have been swalloped up by multinationals.
There is also in Mexico a Japanese retail store chain, Mikasa.
Mexicans who see that name may think it is an intentionally misspelled
version of "mi casa", my house. It is actually the name of a famous
battleship used in the war with Russia in 1905, which was itself named
after a mountain.
The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans with foreign visas to travel.
That is good news.
The Taliban don't have full effective control over Afghanistan. There
may be hateful factions who are trying to find and beat up or kill
women who they consider too "uppity", as well as PIS supporters.
To the Taliban, they will be terrorists and criminals. The Taliban
is in a much better position to vanquish them than the US was.
Many Britons are showing hostility towards NHS doctors and nurses, which
is increasing the pressure on them and causing them PTSD.
I speculate that many frustrated Britons are using NHS personnel as a
whipping boy for the pain and frustration caused by Covid-19. They
are not to blame for it. But the Tories are, for cutting and
undermining the NHS for so many years in accord with their ideology
that the state should never help individuals.
*Extinction Rebellion protesters target [London] Science Museum over
Shell sponsorship.*
This deal was as corrupt as we could have imagined: the museum let
Shell explicitly limit what the exhibit could say.
After rigging the next Russian election in several ways, so he can't
really lose, Putin still needs to give out handouts to make people
want to vote.
Caleb Wallace, an anti-masker who organized protests for "freedom"
from protecting others, caught Covid-19 and died at the age of 30.
I am sorry for him, because I don't see him as a rational being who is
responsible for what happened to him. I won't despise him for having
acted in a way that brought this on himself.
Rather, I think he was sucked into a contagious and deadly collective
insanity, and it killed him. It is killing others, too, and I think
that is very unfortunate.
It will kill many more Americans in coming months. Dr Fauci predicts
around 100,000.
But its deadliness is not limited to the people who believe it.
Greece's right-wing government aims to privatize everything that the
state owns, including the forests. Varoufakis explains the local
history that led to such large fires, and the new threat.
Some alleged "terrorists" in the US are in prison solely because of a
prediction, without having even imagined any specific act.
They would probably have been totally harmless if they had not been
stimulated by people working for the FBI.
The UK has a painful shortage of truck drivers because businesses have
given them no raises in 35 years — and impose painful working
conditions too.
An anti-apartheid activist slept with a South African official to get
information for use in campaigning to end apartheid.
Is this morally different from the British undercover spies who
infiltrated activist movements? If so, why?
It may make a difference that the South African regime worked for the
state, and tortured and killed anti-apartheid activists. The British
activists that UK thugs infiltrated were part of civil society, and
nonviolent by principle.
That is a big moral difference, but does it relate to this particular
kind of question? I am not sure.
The history and the myth of the Alamo: were the gringos fighting for
slavery?
US citizens: call on P&G's investors to vote Angela
Braly and James McNerney out of the board.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose any federal bill to
"get tough on crime."
I've seen an email that specifically mentioned the danger of laws that
would offer additional funds for hiring cops, or punish local
governments for prioritizing gentle and helpful ways of reducing
crime, such as housing, violence prevention and jobs, rather than
policing and incarceration.
You can mention those points in your phone call, if you wish.
I got this from a petition which I cannot sign or recommend, even
though I agree with what it says, because signing requires running
nonfree Javascript code.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
(satire) *Humanitarian Organization "Doctors Without Dimensions"
Phases Into War-Torn Nonlinear Universe.*
I wonder whether a "doctor without dimensions" is a single mathematical point,
or a nonmeasurable set.
*Unvaccinated teacher infected half her students with Covid.* She went
to work despite having symptoms, and read to the students without a mask on.
This was triple disregard for the safety of others.
Houses in parts of California are becoming uninsurable.
For the people who own and live in those houses, that is a disaster;
most Americans don't have money to put a down payment on a new house
if they can't sell the old one. However, insuring those houses so
that they get repeatedly rebuilt would be unending waste, like trying
to fill a leaky bathtub.
The right solution, I think, is for the US government to buy their houses
for what would have been a fair price when they were insurable.
I wonder if it is feasible to build underground houses that usually
won't be damaged by wildfires. The inhabitants will still have to
evacuate as fire comes, but with luck the house will be unscathed
after the fire passes.
Controlled burns are clearly a good thing to do, but there is a lot of
political opposition to that, partly because there is never a safe
time for it nowadays. When people see the danger of not doing them
exceeds the danger of doing them, they will start.
The US is not to blame for the PIS attack at Kabul airport, but it is
to blame for being so slow to evacuate Afghans who were in danger
because of working with the US.
The main consequence of that failure is that tens of thousands (at
least) are now unable to get out. If indeed the Taliban persecute
some of them, that could be fatal. It could be fatal for far more
people than the bombing.
Anti-vaxxers are tearing families apart.
Most anti-vaxxers are also subject to conspiracy ideation, which is in
itself a reason to limit contact with them. Communication with
someone who has lost contact with reality, outside of purely practical
topics, is sure to feel like pressure to tolerate the delusion.
*The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks.*
What gives them this power is (1) making users run nonfree software
and (2) being able to set their terms and conditions arbitrarily
within a very broad range.
The nonfree software enables them to collect data secretly. We need
to require that all client software be free, so users can have control
over what it does. In particular, so they can fix it not to spy on
them, regardless of what the platform owners wish.
The rest of their power comes from imposing whatever terms and
conditions they like. There are some legal limits, but not enough.
We need to limit what platforms can require, just as we (in some
places) limit what conditions a landlord can require in a lease
for a residence.
Laws are not invariably good. Indeed, OnlyFans's plan to kick off the
core of its clients was triggered by a law whose purposes is
repression (sexual and legal). But at least we have a chance, to the
extent democracy functions, of changing the law.
*Brazil's Indigenous Groups Mount Unprecedented Protest Against
Destruction of the Amazon.*
Today's step-by-step deforestation hits them first, and will hit
everyone over decades.
Fusion power continues to make progress. Recently one experiment came
to 70% of break-even, using a somewhat academic standard of
break-even.
Fusion may someday work, but considering the number of advances still
needed for it to make a useful contribution to replacing fossil fuels,
I don't think 30 years is enough time. And that's how much time we
have to finish saving civilization. So we can't do that with fusion
power; we need to do that with the forms of generation that already
function at commercial scale.
Fossil fuel companies probably hope we will convince ourselves that
fusion will save us, so we will let them keep on burning ever more oil
for another decade or two. But if we do that, it will be too late.
The Taliban are blocking people from reaching Kabul airport.
Prices have been rising in the UK, so the Tories are planning to cut
welfare benefits.
*"Use your £11bn climate fund to pay for family planning," UK told.*
As a way to reduce future environmental damage, and curb greenhouse
emissions, this is tremendously efficient.
Proposing a way to take some of the private profit motive
out of US war and military spending.
*The west has to ask itself: if IS is the enemy, does that make the Taliban
our friends?*
We must hope so. It would snatch a peaceful success (better than mere
"victory") out of the jaws of defeat, and provide a chance for thoughtful
diplomacy to advance women's rights a little.
Everyone: Remind Lululemon, Under Armour, and Athleta to carry out the
commitment to get fossil fuel out of their supply chains.
A UN report says that North Korea hits prisoners with wooden boards and
forces them into hard labor, while starving them.
Texas Republicans have passed their voter-suppression bill.
If a few more Democrats had had the courage to stay away,
they could have prevented this. Sometimes it's clear what
your duty is, and you must do it even if it hurts.
As Canada heads to an election, the power of Big Oil is suppressing
discussion of climate mayhem. *It's Not Human Stupidity That Is
Blocking Climate Action, It's Big Oil.*
The article recommends voting for the NDP because it advocates a wealth tax.
That would not directly address the problem, but it could weaken the power
of the rich. Is this better than voting for the Green Party?
I don't know what the Canadian Green Party is like.
How can you love any artistic work, if discovering an alleged or
real bad aspect of its author makes you feel disgust for it?
*Atmospheric CO2 Levels Haven't Been This High in 800,000 Years: NOAA.*
*According to US Supreme Court, Right to Buy an Election More Protected Than
Right to Vote in One.*
(satire) *Vaccine Skeptic Does Own Research By Enrolling 45,000
Friends In Double-Blind Clinical Trial.*
A Louisiana state thug was caught on video beating a black motorist's
head with a flashlight. The thug now faces charges of second degree
battery.
The dialog between them suggests that the thug perceived the motorist
as fighting him, though in fact the motorist was helpless and saying
"I'm not resisting." It seems that racists often get carried away in
this fashion
We can't tolerate people in a police department who will let rage
blind them to reality such that they beat people up.
*Colombians march to urge Congress to back social reform package.*
*Capitol police officers sue [the wrecker] and far-right groups over 6 January
attack.*
The chief of a Thai thug department has been arrested and accused of
torturing a suspect to death while trying to extort money from him.
As the UK hurried to rescue as many as possible of the Afghan human beings
who had supported its forces and diplomats, an animal lover pushed to divert
effort into rescuing some dogs.
I understand that it is possible to love a dog very much, but any human
being's life is more important than any dog's life.
*Seven Months In,
Avril Haines Shows No Appetite for Investigating CIA War Crimes.*
Haines is the Director of National Intelligence, and is above the head
of the CIA, so she has the power to make this happen.
*Mexico seeks to convince U.S. to invest in Central America,
not just migration curbs.*
That would be a good step 1, but first should come step 0: to stop
investing in repression that makes it hard for people to survive in
some countries of Central America.
*XR protesters tell UK government: ‘stop the harm’ of fossil fuels.*
Samsung TVs have a back door with which Samsung can brick them remotely.
(satire) *Apologetic Nurse Informs Man Having Heart Attack There's
About An Hour Wait Until Next Covid Patient Dies.*
Ilhan Omar called on Biden to pardon drone attack whistleblower Daniel Hale.
The Poor People's Campaign in West Virginia is trying to pressure
Senator Manchin over his support for the filibuster.
The US Supreme Court has been lax in using the Constitution to limit
violence by uniformed thugs.
Uber and Lyft are fighting with their drivers about how
drivers can specify which kinds of rides they will take — and whether
company control over this means the drivers are not independent
contractors.
Meanwhile, the companies hope the public will vote to let the companies
exploit the drivers. The customers are invited to assume that more
exploitation must mean lower fares — but even if that were true,
would it be just?
Sad to say, there is no motion in the direction of preserving
customers' anonymity or respecting their software freedom.
The Delta variant of Covid-19 is twice as likely as the Alpha variant
to put an unvaccinated person in the hospital.
The Supreme Court eliminated the federal eviction moratorium in a
hasty way, not bothering to listening to the arguments.
It seems to be a matter of right-wing ideology, pure and simple.
*Taliban say Afghan women health service staff should go back to work.*
I'm sure they will still deny women the rights they deserve, but it
may not be much worse than the previous government of Afghanistan.
US citizens: call on the White House to push harder to sweep away the
artificial obstacles for producing Covid-19 vaccines.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
An AI-controlled autonomous ship is being tested.
I wonder what systems they will use to notice people signaling for
help using low-tech methods — or to rescue them. It would be
unacceptable to design ships to motor on by and not stop to save
people in distress.
A court ruled that the bully's construction of the beginning of a
border wall was illegal because it did not take account of
environmental harm.
The question is, will this make it possible to stop such a president
in the future?
Lithuania recognized Taiwan, so China has cut off trade with Lithuania.
This is meant as a threat to other EU countries.
The US should recognize Taiwan and let China to make whatever trouble
it likes. That may be uncomfortable for the US in the short term, but
it will ultimately weaken China.
Navalny says that Putin is trying to brainwash him by making him watch
Russian State TV for 8 hours every day.
Six years in prison for one member of a right-wing plot to kidnap
Governor Whitmer of Michigan.
Under today's circumstances, others are likely to talk each other into
trying violence against her.
A study finds that bigger corporations tend to lobby more, and this
lobbying gives them increased power over government policies.
It follows that making regulation effective requires making big
companies much smaller.
The famine in Madagascar is caused by drought. The drought is caused
by global heating.
A court ruled that the New South Wales environmental regulator
had failed in its duty to protect the state from dangerous wildfires,
and ordered it to reduce emissions.
Global heating has heated up part of the Pacific Ocean in a persistent
way, and it is causing a lasting drought in Chile.
Terrorists (presumably not working for the Taliban) shot at a military
plane that was evacuating civilians from Kabul airport.
The agreement to drop garment companies in Bangladesh that endanger
workers will soon expire, but a new agreement is stronger.
Outsiders are gentrifying Montana at amazing speed, so it has become
like San Francisco: people who do working-class jobs can't afford
to live there.
*Qatar has failed to explain up to 70% of migrant worker deaths in past 10
years – Amnesty.*
The total number of deaths was 6,500, and each one passed a medical
exam before going to Qatar. This suggests that Qatar allows unsafe
working conditions.
New South Wales is beginning to abandon its battle to put an end to
the outbreak of Delta variant.
Could it have succeeded if it had tried harder? China seems to be
approaching success. Taiwan is not a pertinent comparison, since its
outbreak is of the Alpha variant.
Idea: turn London's golf courses into parks and housing.
Giving prisoners work, along with workers' rights and good wages,
is good for everyone.
*Analysis: Islamic State attack signals West's least bad option for
Afghanistan — the Taliban.*
I've been saying this for a while.
In addition to fighting the local branch of PISSI, there is the issue
of preserving some of the improvement in women's rights. With a good
relationship with the Taliban, western countries could support the
leaders that can be convinced to allow women to leave the house alone,
study, and work.
*EPA is falsifying risk assessments for dangerous chemicals, say
whistleblowers.*
Sometimes the managers bow to pressure from companies by deleting
scientists' reports of hazards, without informing them. Or forbid
employees from talking with other EPA personnel. "Managers seem to
think their job is to get as many new chemicals on the market as fast
as possible," said a whistleblower.
This started before the corrupter was elected.
* From relying on outsourced contractors to failing to tackle corruption,
the west's military presence was not fit for purpose.*
*Minnesota Law Enforcement [gave] Intelligence on Protest Organizers [to]
Pipeline Company.*
(I object to use of the positive term "sharing" to refer to
private redistribution of unpublished data bass of personal data.)
*Local law enforcement has become the brutal arm of a Canadian corporation.*
Burma's military government has decided to let Rohingya get Covid-19
vaccination.
The Burmese suppression forces have killed over 1,000 people who were
protesting or fighting the coup.
Let's not apply the term "security forces" to an army that is fighting to
subjugate people rather than to make them secure.
The major US media ignore the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan
except when they can use it to argue for war.
Massachusetts residents: call on the state legislature to pass the Work and Family Mobility Act.
This would allow anyone living in the state to apply for a driver's license
without proving permission to be in the US.
Immigrants in jail in the US are charged much higher bail than citizens.
Afghans advocating education for girls made great progress in
providing primary education for girls, even including getting the
Taliban to compromise and tolerate it.
The outside world can help support this, if it is not ham-handed about it.
Taiwan is coming close to eradicating its latest Covid-19 outbreak.
It made the initial mistake of trying steps that were insufficiently
airtight.
Biden is looking at trying to break up the four big meatpacking companies
that control 80% of US meat production.
How about also breaking up the big grocery store chains?
After Reagan handed over control of the US government to big business,
subsequent presidents, including the "moderate" plutocratist Democrats
Clinton and Obama, continued to encourage concentration that increased
business power. We see this in a wide range of industries, and it's
generally harmful wherever it is found.
If the only way to undo the concentration is with a lawsuit or specific
policy change for one industry, progress in undoing the concentration
will be slow and limited. My tax scheme
could pressure all these businesses
to break themselves up.
A bird feeder doesn't help all species of birds equally. Sometimes it can
give one species an advantage over another, and wipe the latter out.
*Black people [in the UK] more likely to be Tasered for longer, police
watchdog finds.*
OnlyFans has found way to continue hosting material that treats sex
and still get paid.
*Why has so little been said about the Afghan casualties of the past 20 years?*
London thugs rushed to attack Extinction Rebellion protesters.
Since protesters often bring a band of musicians, the thugs arrest
the musicians too.
25 would-be immigrants sent by Belarus, and stuck at the border
with Poland (which won't admit them), are getting hungry and sick;
one needs treatment urgently.
It appears that each country refuses to allow the responsibility for
feeding and treating them to fall on it, and each refuses to allow
food or medicine to come from its side.
Perhaps Poland could allow a helicopter from another country to travel
along the border to that point, and land to provide food and medical
care. That way, the aid would not come from Poland.
The helicopter could also, conceivably, evacuate them to a ship which
could take them to countries willing to accept them.
*Little-Known Federal Software Can Trigger Revocation of [US] Citizenship.*
LED streetlights are more harmful to insects.
Human activities are harming insects so much that their populations
have crashed in the past few decades. This is called the "insect
apocalypse."
Since many animals eat mainly insects, we are putting entire
ecosystems in danger.
California's Orange County sheriff's department explicitly trains
deputies to misuse force, according to an official investigation.
For instance, trainers told deputies to memorize the locations of the
jail's security cameras so as to cover up quick but painful violence.
*Breathing toxic wildfire smoke during pregnancy increases risk of premature
birth, study finds.*
If we can only lead people to follow the steps from "This smoke is
horrible" to "Down with the oil companies!"
The House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights
Advancement Act, which updates the existing Voting Rights Act to restore
the pre-clearance requirement for voter suppression laws.
This would be an important advance, but it does not go as far
as the For the People Act.
To pass either of them would require the Senate Democrats to eliminate
the filibuster.
China is gravely threatened by global heating disaster. By 2050,
it may be too disaster-wracked to continue building up its military.
Perhaps by that time, the idea of conquering and enslaving Taiwan will
have become a pipedream for China instead of a real possibility. But
we can't count on that now.
It is vitally important for China to cut its greenhouse emissions, and
fast. If the Zhengzhou flood, and the newly discovered likelihood of
fatal weather in the North China Plain, convince Xi to push China into
rapid efforts for climate defense, that will be good for the whole
world. It may help us convince other countries do likewise.
Maybe the US and China could negotiate limits on some sorts of arms,
in particular nuclear arms.
However, the need to strengthen Taiwan's conventional defense so that
China doesn't starts a war there will remain.
The main national central banks are still investing in fossil fuels,
doing nothing to slow global heating.
US military veterans support removing troops from Afghanistan by 63%
to 24%.
Plutocratist Democrats on Buffalo's city council propose to eliminate
the office of mayor, if democratic socialist India Walton wins the
election for mayor (as is likely).
*Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy.*
The ruling is not about the substance of the policy. It is about
following the procedures for government agencies to make a change in
policy. What I do not understand is why the wrecker didn't have to
follow those same procedures when he introduced this policy. That
seems fishy.
(satire) *CDC Warns Going Unvaccinated Not Worth Risk Of Losing
Ability To Taste Wings.*
For me, this is HHOS. I live to eat, and while I have no special love
for chicken wings, to lose the joy of delicious food would be crushing
for me.
The New York Post requires its staff to wear a mask in the office.
Nonetheless, it publicly derides use of masks to prevent Covid-19.
The publisher knows what is right, but doesn't want you to know.
(satire) *‘Let’s Take It To Our Afghanistan Experts,’ Says Anchor
Throwing To Panel Of Dick Cheneys.*
(serious) For the US to overcome its addiction to violence in Afghanistan
was an act of strength.
A third dose of vaccine is defeating the Delta variant in Israel.
Australia said that the prediction of 25,000 deaths from Covid-19 is
an overestimate, because Australia would continue some anti-Covid
measures even if it ends lockdowns.
In any case, it will be a significant number. However, around 300,000
people die per year in that country. On the other hand, tens of thousands
of people (including young people) disabled by long Covid may be even worse.
The San Onofre nuclear power plants have been shut down, but the
nuclear waste is buried nearby.
The article provides some examples of a general problem with nuclear
power plants: the tendency to do a bad job of maintenance, ignoring
their problems.
To find a place for nuclear waste that will be safe for tens of
thousands of years is a real engineering challenge, but finding a
place that is safe for 25 years from well-known threats is surely much
easier. I think that the people who selected a place near a beach on
the Pacific ocean, an earthquake fault, an important transport artery
and a major metropolitan area were not being careful.
Anti-mask fanatics are besieging US school boards demanding that they
not require people in schools to wear masks. When a board does so,
some of them call the board members "Nazis", while others threaten
like Nazis.
Bahrain used the Pegasus spyware to crack the phones of Bahraini activists.
Thailand has pulled out of the War on Drugs. Drug users will be given
treatment rather than punishment.
Eritrea is sending troops back to Tigray, in alliance with Ethiopia.
Perhaps they never entirely left.
Yanis Varoufakis praises Star Trek's Prime Directive.
How to avoid overprotecting your child: make a list of the horrible things
you're afraid will happen, and you'll see they are too unlikely to deserve
so much concern.
Scientific papers that present astounding results attract more
attention. They are also more likely to prove to be unreproducible and
probably wrong. Moreover, they continue to be cited despite evidence that
they are wrong.
Perhaps we could set up a system that enables journalists and
commentators to more easily find out that the result proved
unreproducible. Then maybe it could become standard practice
in reputable publications to check this.
I hope it functions without nonfree JavaScript so that I could use it
myself.
(satire) *Jane Goodall Returns From Latest Expedition With Annoying
Chimp Accent.*
* More than two dozen advocacy groups launched "extreme weather
ads" … to pressure right-wing Senate Democrats to stop giving
taxpayer money to the oil, gas, and coal companies most responsible
for the climate emergency.*
*Right-wing media pushed a deworming drug to treat Covid-19 that the FDA says
is unsafe for humans.*
New York City will require all public school employees to be
vaccinated.
The teacher's union pointed out the need for medical exceptions.
However, there are no grounds to allow a personal preference exception.
A small town in Texas has been overcome with Covid-19. Its schools
and most activity are shut down.
Many teenagers in the US are overcome with anxiety or depression due to
the treatment they have experienced in school, and refuse to go there.
*Taliban issue death sentence for brother of Afghan translator who helped US
troops, according to letters obtained by CNN.*
US citizens: call on the Army Corps of Engineers to cancel the Line 3
pipeline.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the Child Tax Credit permanent now.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Florida school districts are defying Deadly DeSantis and requiring masks,
after seeing many Covid cases among the students in just the first week.
The Pfizer vaccine now has full approval (not experimental approval),
so it is easier to require vaccination.
Record-breaking rain in Tennessee has killed people and destroyed
houses.
I hope this makes some Republicans aware of the urgency of curbing the
global heating, which has already progressed so far as to cause
disasters like this around the world.
Poland plans to build a wall on the border with Belarus to block
unauthorized immigrants, some of whom would ask for asylum.
Aside from the treaties about asylum, and the moral duty to offer
asylum, I am not sure an 8-foot wall would actually stop able-bodied
migrants. Belarus would surely equip them with ladders.
*Extinction Rebellion occupy Norway's oil ministry as part of 10-day protest.*
In London they only occupied a busy junction.
The UK's Minister of Love wants to label Extinction Rebellion
as "extremist".
This would open the door to extreme repression of Britons who are not
content to wait quietly while global heating destroys their country.
The same government is meanwhile dreaming up excuses for greenwashing
the expansion of fossil fuel use.
California thugs picked up disinformation talking about "Antifa" and
ran with it.
We cannot afford to have people with a right-wing bias in positions
where they can bias the administration of justice.
The concept of an individual's "carbon footprint" was invented by
Billionaire Polluters' PR company, to distract people from demanding the big changes that can only be made with the help of governments.
I wish the Guardian would stop publishing articles that focus people's
attention on reducing their individual contributions to greenhouse emissions.
Especially since they almost always omit the most important thing an individual
can do is to have fewer children.
When Lukashenko considers people "enemies of the state" and places criminal
charges against them, lawyers are not supposed to defend them against the
charges. The "trials" are for show only.
The Canadian Conservative Party is driving away voters by sending unvaccinated candidates to knock on voters' doors.
Sad to say, Trudeau's Liberal Party is rather conservative too.
Sexually aroused sea snakes seem to mistake divers for sea snakes.
Male dolphins do try to have sex with humans, but that doesn't imply they
are mistaken about anything.
*In Latest Yes Men Prank, 'Paul Wolfowitz' Says Afghanistan War 'Failure From Day One'.*
But it was worth all the cost and suffering, according to the
imitation Wolfowitz, because Americans can always be proud of fighting
a war.
Here is a transcript.
Bravo for the Yes Men!
200 of right-wing extremists, presenting themselves as "Proud Boys",
held a rally in Portland, Oregon, many carrying weapons. Some 30
antifascist protesters came by to object. The fascists attacked them
(and other people) physically, and appear to have hurt some people
badly.
The city thug chief had announced in advance that the thugs would not
try to prevent the violent intimidation that right-wing extremists
crowds go in for.
So it went on one fascist started shooting at the antifascists. One
antifascist was also armed, and shot back.
The fascists took advantage of the impunity they had been awarded
to form gangs that attacked vehicles and their drivers.
Last year, thugs at similar rallies showed their support for
right-wing violence.
Portland's officials had better take action to prevent that from
happening again.
The leader of the Proud Boys has been sentenced to 5 months in prison
for bringing high-capacity magazines to Washington, DC, plus
vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a church.
The magazines were preparation for possible violence on Jan 6,
though he didn't actually carry it out.
The vandalism demonstrates that white supremacy is the base of the group's ideology.
Interventionists in the US are pushing for bitter recrimination about
Kabul's surrender, as distraction from the needful recrimination about
the US conduct of the war.
Tunisia's president extended his suspension of parliament.
The longer this goes on, the more we must worry that he intends
to become a dictator.
The US War on Pain Sufferers has launched a new method of choosing its
targets. It has put all prescriptions into a nationwide database
which uses a simplistic algorithm to classify each patient as "real
patient" or "drug addict." If you get a negative judgment, you can
be cut off instantly from your painkillers.
I can imagine that as driving people to suicide, or rendering them
unable to confront the needs of staying alive.
Officially, the algorithm never makes an actual decision. Rather, it
reports a score, which could be called the "patient social credit
score". That determines doctors' decisions; they don't dare disregard
it.
More casualties of the War on Drugs: the US government continues
seizing people's money based on vague suspicion, without charging
them with any crime.
Afghanistan will need food aid soon.
Modelling suggests that ending Australian lockdowns when 80% of
adult Australians are vaccinated could cause 25,000 deaths, over time,
plus 270,000 cases of long Covid.
That is one death per thousand people, and one long Covid case per
hundred.
Waiting till 90% of adults vaccinated, and all children vaccinated,
the number of deaths would go down to 10,000. The article does not
say how many long Covid cases would accompany them.
I wish I could ask for more information about this model.
US hospitals and medical insurance companies play bizarre games with
prices. Neither the insured nor the employers that usually pay their
bills can find out in advance what a procedure will cost at this or
that hospital.
A law now requires hospitals to post this information, but most hospitals
ignore it with impunity. Furthermore, a hospital can send one price,
then charge a higher price, and say "We sent you a wrong estimate."
We need a law that makes it impossible for a hospital to get away with
not posting prices or not sending estimates. In addition, we need a law
by which every hospital is bound by whatever advance prices it states.
Also, that the hospital is forbidden to charge for anything
that didn't have an easily found published price.
Noncompliance should get the hospital cut off from business until it
sells to new owners with new management.
However, even that may not be enough. So what we really need is a
national medical system — what most advanced countries have.
Ukraine is dividing its population by turning the use of two similar
languages into a point of political dispute.
*Ilhan Omar's Genuine Progress Indicator Act: An Important Step for
Sustainability.*
It will also encourage planning to making life better, rather than to
increase the churn and production.
Americans support by a landslide the withdrawal of US troops from
Afghanistan.
The military-industrial complex is pushing hard to convince us that
the fall of the US-established government was a disaster. I don't
think it will be worse than unending war; but I also think I won't be
as bad as the Taliban's rule was before.
The new Afghan government, which will include other power groups, will
have many reasons to want peace and cooperation with the US. Many
reasons, that is, to keep the pledge not to allow Afghanistan to be a
base for terrorism. The Taliban may even appreciate US intelligence
help for fighting PISSI.
They will also have very strong interests in allowing women to do the
many kinds of skilled work that Afghan women have trained to do. I
think they will end up adopyin a policy resembling Iran's.
Compared with a western country, that is horribly sexist. But it
would be a big step forward compared with the way most of Afghanistan
has been in recent years (outside of a few cities).
Global heating is drying Iran, and much of the Middle East, for the
long term.
*4 Major Environmental Treaties the U.S. Never Ratified — But Should.*
China will reduce the income of the rich, in order to make the rest
wealthier, and to eliminate the political power of the rich.
How paradoxical that the state that crushes freedom of thought for everyone
will eliminate this other menace to freedom. But is there a path from there
back to freedom?
Australia shows no mercy for churches that hold spreader ceremonies.
Biden just demonstrated that he can order the cancellation of college loan
debt, by cancelling the debts of permanently disabled students.
Now he should cancel the rest of college loan debt.
The campaign to drive sex underground on the internet
just conquered a site that became successful for being a place
you could publish images of sex.
This campaign for "women's rights" is backed mainly by right-wing
Christians that advocate general repression of sex.
I consider the site OnlyFans unacceptable because it requires visitors
to run nonfree software, and makes them identify themselves (through
the payment system). (Of course, they are not planning to fix
that.) But that is a side issue. What's dangerous is not specifically
the change in that one site's policies, it is the overall campaign of
sexual repression.
The first article contains the phrase "share adult content", which is
a triple series of debasements of language.
We should not weaken the word "sharing" by using it for commercial
distribution of works. Not that I'm against commercial distribution,
but we should not discard the distinction between cooperation in
society and commercial activity.
We should not refer to works as "content", either,
because that disparages all works.
As for "adult", that's a euphemism. As a founding member-at-heart of
the Anti-Euphemism League, I object to it.
The Taliban are maintaining safe and orderly queues outside Kabul airport.
I gather that they are not trying to stop would-be evacuees from
entering.
Right-wing extremist radio personality Larry Elder could become
governor of California with around 10% of the overall votes cast
unless > 50% vote to keep Governor Newsom in office.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange
August 30 from 4:30pm to 6pm in Boston Common, next to the entrance
o
US citizens: call on Congress to fix SSI in the Reconciliation Bill.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
How to find *A Thoughtful Response to the Tragedy in Afghanistan.*
(satire) *Production Delays Cause Film Reboot To Reach Theaters Before
Original.*
Radio host Phil Valentine, who ridiculed Covid-19 vaccination,
changed his mind to advocate vaccination after he caught the disease.
If he had lived, and returned to his show, he could have done a lot of
good.
Between Covid-19 and low wages for nurses, the Philippines have a
shortage of nurses.
*When power thrives on unspoken fear, bravery is in saying "I am afraid."*
The Taliban is finding it difficult to establish in Kabul the
nonrepressive order that it says it stands for.
We Americans are aware that right-wing enemies of our government are
often responsible for provoking violence to blame on the government
and/or the left. Nonetheless, the state has the responsibility to
maintain order while respecting freedom, even if that is difficult.
It is the same for the Taliban.
The Taliban have said they will do so.
Since they took power in Kabul only one week ago, we need to give
them time. If they reject fanatic violence, they need to make this
rejection effective and visible.
This includes the responsibility to demonstrate that the people
searching for journalists to kill are lawbreakers, and to protect the
journalists from them.
Perhaps the US should give the Taliban lots of police uniforms and
badges, so that people can distinguish between them and unaffiliated
terrorists.
*Beware state surveillance of your lives — governments can change for
the worse.*
An Alabama thug who needlessly killed a man who was threatening suicide
has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The man was threatening suicide, but a police officer was talking him down,
and believed things were on the mend.
What is the urgency of shooting a person who holds a gun to per own
head?
The hypocrisy of California's Democratic Party leader makes it likely
that he will be replaced by next month's recall election with someone
much worse.
The most likely winner is a Republican death cultist.
I urge people to vote in part 1 to keep Governor Newsom.
A bill proposes to cut US military spending to pay for vaccinating poor countries.
That would be money well spent, not only in terms of the general good
of humanity, but also specifically in terms of US security against
threats to Americans. It would reduce the chance of the evolution of
more deadly variants of Covid-19.
The US could use more deficit spending, so it doesn't actually need to cut
some other spending to fund this.
A US intelligence official says that the US could have prevented the Taliban's
quick victory by keeping certain intelligence teams going.
However, Biden could not do this while keeping the agreement (made
by the wrecker) to withdraw all the US troops.
If Biden had kept those teams going, would that have prolonged the
war? I don't know, but I have a feeling that that could only have
occurred if the US had continued pouring in money. There would still
have been no chance to defeat the Taliban.
The US will probably not talk about a "war on terror", but many of the
operations against terrorist organizations will continue. So will the ominous Department of Homeland Security, with its massive surveillance
capabilities that could be turned against anyone.
The most dangerous source of terrorism in the US in the near future
will be the millions of right-wing fanatics, detached from reality.
They are killing thousands of Americans now, by crusading against
masks, vaccination, and anything that would retard the spread of
Covid-19.
Will the DHS be of any use against that?
Extinction Rebellion aimed protests against the City of London, the small
district that protects banks from many laws, and lobbied against laws that
would limit their ability to promote climate mayhem.
The City of London has the form of a representative, democratic body.
Except that few people actually live in its territory, and they
are almost all banksters.
Republican anti-vaxxers at the wrecker's rally in Alabama bood him when he advocated vaccination.
It seems that the monster he started has become too powerful and crazy
for him to restrain.
One MD in Alabama refuses to treat unvaccinated patients with Covid-19.
He says it is because he can't bear watching them die.
I don't think that is a valid reason. Medical doctors should try to
treat all sick people, even if the chance of saving them is small,
because the chance is more than zero. In this case, the chance is not
really so small. Treatment for severe Covid-19 does save many of the
patients.
However, a doctor can only do so much, and a hospital can only handle
so many patients in its ICU.
When there are more sick people than the doctors and the hospitals can
handle, so that they simply cannot treat everyone, it makes sense for
them to publish a policy of giving first priority to the patients who
took proper precautions to reduce the chance of getting sick —
meaning, those who got sick despite vaccination. After those, they
would treat as many of the unvaccinated patients as they can fit,
to the extent they can.
*Denser cities could be a climate boon — but nimbyism stands in the way.*
Higher degrees of education — outside the fields important for
technology — are like a pyramid scheme. You pay a lot and get in
debt, then probably don't get a job in the field except as a low-paid
"adjunct professor." But degree inflation pushes more and more people
into doing this.
Biden has greatly increased the level of food stamp benefits ("SNAP")
for poor families.
(satire) *Afghanistan Falls To Taliban Couple Hours Earlier Than Expected.*
Nabisco/Mondelez bakery workers are on strike. *Workers have been
forced to work 12 to 16 hour shifts, six to seven days a week,
during the pandemic, while the company seeks to eliminate overtime
pay by altering employee schedules so that weekend shifts become
part of the 40-hour work week.*
The strike is spreading to other plants.
Medea Benjamin: *Will Americans Who Were Right on Afghanistan Still Be
Ignored?*
*A Viable Human Future Depends on Living With Less.*
Humanity in total needs to live with less. But if the decrease falls mainly
on the rich, that may be acceptable. If nobody eats a lot of meat, we may all
have fine and enjoyable diets.
*We Need to Urgently Regulate Global Meat and Dairy Companies to Cut Methane
and Avoid Climate Breakdown.*
Cows generate a lot of the world's methane emissions.
The mainstream media's false equivalence between the progressives in
Congress and the trumpets has the effect of legitimizing right-wing
efforts to overthrow democracy in the US.
Even with the older Republicans, who did not aim to overthrow
democracy, this false equivalence was misleading. Because the second
fallacious step was to find the place midway between the two views,
and call that the "center" — even though the overwhelming majority of
Americans rejected that as too right-wing.
A report says that the Taliban want to arrest the high officials of
the previous government, and will threaten to use their families as
hostages.
The US has also been accused of using people's family members as
hostages.
It is a vile practice.
*Cable News Military Experts Are on the Defense Industry Dole.*
This includes Faux News and CNN.
Enough Texas Democratic legislators returned to the session that the
Republicans were able to pass their voter suppression law.
I am very disappointed with the Democrats who wouldn't continue the
resistance.
Bolsonaro wants to build a pipeline to buy natural gas from Argentina.
I presume some of the methane would leak, and the rest would be burnt.
This would accelerate the loss to the ocean of the historic Brazilian
cities on the coast. The name of that fossil fuel deposit is "vaca
muerta", but "civilización muerta" would be more accurate.
*EPA Bans All Food Uses of Neurotoxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos.*
It sounds like farm workers tending crops that are not meant for
eating, including cotton, hemp, and most tobacco, may still be
exposed to chlorpyrifos.
(satire) *Disappointed Taliban Realizes Taking Over Afghanistan More
Fun Than Running It.*
There are reports that the Taliban offered unconditional surrender
in December 2001.
This is so shocking that I can't accept it as unquestioned truth
without further substantiation. Anand Gopal heard the story in
Afghanistan some time after 2008. That was plenty of time for
distortion to set in. I took a quick look at his book, but that part
doesn't say where he got the information; can anyone tell me whether
that is stated elsewhere in the book?
I won't accept it as unquestioned truth, but I won't say it must be
false, either.
Dubya had previously rejected an offer by the Taliban to surrender
Osama bin Laden and break off with al-Qa'ida.
Accepting that offer would have satisfied the supposed purpose for
the invasion of Afghanistan.
US citizens: call on Congress to Tax billionaires to fund the
Green New Deal.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights
Act.
This is a companion to the For the People Act; we want both.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on legislators to protect the freedom to own and
preserve books, whatever format they are released in.
This addresses part of the injustice of typical commercial e-books.
I won't accept an ebook if it has any of those injustices.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the child tax credit permanent.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to ban members of Congress from trading
stocks.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
A US appeals court has ordered the border thugs to return to the "wait
in Mexico" system that the bully set up.
Biden tried to end it, but the court decided that ending it requires
an official procedure that takes time.
Is Biden working on that procedure?
An former Afghanistan war profiteer is now in Congress and pushing for
the US to invade again. He does not mention, in his publicity, that he
profited from the war.
UK thugs plan to go all-out to crush coming Extinction Rebellion protests.
They warn that thugs may be so busy protecting plans to commit ecocide
that they won't have time to deal with lesser crimes.
Rain fell on the summit of the Greenland ice cap for the first time
ever recorded.
Mexico drops unauthorized Salvadoran, Honduran and Nicaraguan
immigrants penniless just across the border in Guatemala. They can't
cross Guatemala to their home countries, so all they can do is try
again to enter the US.
The Texas supreme court authorized local school mask mandates.
Many Afghans who worked for foreign governments or armies were
subcontracted, so the governments don't know about them and don't try
to save them.
Subcontracting workers commonly facilitates abusing them, and the practice
should be eliminated, but this case is especially bad.
Chris Jackson was head of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association.
He has resigned, saying that he *believes [oil] companies promoted
"unsustainable" [blue hydrogen] projects to access billions in
taxpayer subsidies.*
The article supports my impression that the Tories' hydrogen project
is basically a plan to help fossil fuel companies greenwash. It
presents hydrogen as a way of reducing greenhouse emissions, focusing
on the "green" hydrogen made from renewable energy, then invests in
"blue" hydrogen made by burning fossil fuels.
A robot nursing aide and companion might be very useful, if only it weren't reporting on you for some company — and, in China,
certainly for the state as well.
While Deadly DeSantis discourages masks and vaccination, he promotes
an antibody treatment that does reduce the chance of catching Covid-19
for a few days.
The big drawback of that approach is that you'd need to know when
you've been exposed to Covid-19, and ask for the treatment. In
Florida, you will have lots of opportunities to get exposed, so you'd
need to request it often. More likely, you would ask for it only
occasionally, leaving yourself unprotected most of the time.
The antibody treatment is currently gratis, but I'm sure the company
will start charging some day.
I wonder if DeSantis makes money somehow from that treatment.
Laissez-faire laissez-mourir economists claim that wages in a "free"
market are controlled by productivity, and that they will naturally
rise when workers' productivity rises. But it does not happen.
This article explains some of the changes which have pushed the income of most workers down over recent decades.
On the danger of Facebook's censorship.
(satire) *Biden Responds To [Haiti's] Aid Request By Deporting Haitian
Doctor [to Haiti].*
Proposed carbon capture systems have fundamental flaws — even if they
work, in a narrow sense, they can't enable us to curb global heating
very much.
The Tories want to redefine teacher education so as to train trainers.
Cambridge University says it would sooner cease involvement than go
along with that.
US citizens: call on the Jan 6th Select Committee to subpoena the wrecker and insurrection-supporting Republicans.
Everyone: call on T-Mobile and other companies to stop advertising on Fox.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster.
*Iran accelerates enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, IAEA says.*
It will be a setback for world peace and safety if we cannot resurrect the
non-nuclear deal that the wrecker destroyed. However, I criticize Biden
for not offering enough concessions to bring it back
when he had a chance. Since breaking the deal was the US's fault, it was proper for the
US to apologize for that and act accordingly.
Some similarities between the Vietnam war and the Afghanistan war: US
officers had no idea what winning would mean, or how to achieve that,
and they systematically generated lies to give to their superiors an
impression of constantly making progress. The book, The Afghanistan
Papers, presents the details.
* While many [in Pakistan] are celebrating, others fear Taliban
victory will embolden Islamic militant organizations operating in
Pakistan.*
Islamists, right-wing trumpets, now incels … it looks like
society has become prone to camps of violent extremism of hatred
against whatever target it may be.
The Taliban carefully planned a strategy to win the war.
*American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one.*
It is a mistake to use "percentage increase" to describe a large
change. Instead of saying that average CEO pay increased 1,322
percent since 1978, the clear thing to say is that it has grown by a
factor of 14. (To say 14.22 is excess, pointless precision.)
I would guess that this figure does not include everyone that is the
CEO of a company, but only large companies. It would be interesting
to see what that company was.
I criticize those details but I don't think they are very important.
The article demonstrates its point. I support Sanders's economic
program cited at the end of the article.
Garment factories in Los Angeles make workers work 60 hours a week,
pay them less than the minimum wage, and often steal their wages.
Naturally they exploit unauthorized immigrants, who don't dare report
the employer's crimes since they are not allowed to work. But these
abusive practices harm all workers.
No surprise that many businesses lobby to keep them going.
To avoid a disorderly (sometimes chaotic) transfer of power
to the Taliban would have required negotiating an orderly one.
But that would have entailed admitting defeat. For the US, that
was unthinkable.
*Rightwing lobbies and dark money funders backing assaults on voting rights.*
Senator Paul encourages people to spread and catch Covid-19. His wife owns stock in a company which makes a treatment that helps with severe cases.
Is that a conflict of interest?
I don't claim that he has encouraged the spread of Covid-19 in order
to profit from that stock. I expect that he is motivated mainly by a
callous political strategy. But this does show he knows that the
disease is dangerous and likely to spread.
His wife bought the stock in February 2020, showing attentiveness to
investment opportunities. It also means that they concealed the
purchase for about 18 months. If he reported it now for an "annual
disclosure", wasn't there a similar annual disclosure in 2020?
A judge invalidated a ConocoPhillips plan for extracting oil from
Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.
The company claimed that the extraction would not endanger the
survival of polar bears. That was false: global heating and the
consequent melting of Arctic ice endangers their survival, and any
project to extract additional fossil fuel will exacerbate that.
Dunleavy's statement is based on an implicit defeatist premise: that
we will fail to cut down the use of fossil fuels and suffer catastrophe,
so why not compete to sell more oil now?
Alaska's coasts are being eroded rapidly by the loss of ice, and
residents are losing their homes, but I guess he does not care.
*Polish appeals court overturns ruling against [Polish] Holocaust historians.*
The judged said that the "courtroom was not the right place for a
historical debate." Bravo!
I know almost nothing about my ancestors, before my grandparents; but
I expect that if you could identify them and their families, and watch
them in a time machine, you'd see someone commit a grave wrong. I
expect that is true of everyone, and it is not something to get worked
up over. I wonder why Ms Leszczyńska is so concerned about it.
The US is trying to block the Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline,
but not for the obvious reason: that it will encourage global heating.
Rather, the motive is to make that gas travel through Ukraine and thus
provide income to Ukraine.
I wouldn't say that goal is bad, but it misses the point. No matter
how that gas gets to Europe, it will be burnt there and contribute to
global heating. And some of it will leak, and since it is mainly
methane, that leak will contribute even more to short-term global
heating.
In addition, it will give Putin income. Putin is not as dangerous
as global heating, but he is dangerous nonetheless.
Al Qa'ida is jubilant about the Taliban's victory, but PISSI and its
offshoots condemn and hate the Taliban.
*Investors in US Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War.*
A Taliban representative accepted an interview with a female journalist
on Afghanistan television.
This doesn't conclusively demonstrate anything about what they will do
in the future, but it shows an openness.
Malala Yousafzai talks about protecting Afghan women's access to
education.
The government that took power through the coup that ousted President
Morales is now accused of torturing and executing political opponents.
*Residents block road near Peru's Las Bambas copper mine after two-week truce.*
They blame the mine's heavy truck traffic for spreading toxic dust.
In Kansas City, mothers of men killed by uniformed thugs
have formed a support group.
Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer has been sentenced to four years in prison
for implausible charges.
*New Cuban decree tightens controls on social media, sparking outrage.*
*Multibillion-dollar Louisiana plastics plant put on pause in a win for
activists.*
South Korea may legislate that animals are "beings" and therefore
deserve "protection and enhanced welfare."
In the US, I would respond by suggesting that we give human beings a
right to protection and enhanced welfare, first. But maybe South
Korea has already done that. If so, that is admirable.
However, this law is problematical.
The article doesn't say which kinds of "animals" the law covers.
Dogs, apparently, are included. Does it cover mice?
Cockroaches? Mosquitoes? Ticks?
If you see a cat about to eat a mouse, what protection is the mouse
entitled to? If you find a mosquito trapped in a spider web, what
protection is the mosquito entitled to? And how to prevent the spider
from starving?
Abandonment of pets is a serious problem, not only for the pet,
but often for ecosystems too. It is not good at all to release pets
into the wild. However, the enforcement of such a law would be
problematical.
*Biden Treasury Guidance Fails to End US Support for
Fossil Fuels Abroad.*
Everyone: call on Facebook to stop permitting the bullshitter to post
by buying ads.
Sahraa Karimi, Afghan film director, is safe in Ukraine.
I hope that the Taliban will allow women to study and work,
but I am sure she is right that they will not let women make movies.
They may not let men make movies, either.
Building construction releases lots of CO2. We need to build to last,
not to replace.
Women's rights under the Taliban may be decided by a very conservative group,
the council of Islamic scholars.
It won't be easy to convince them, but at least they are used to
considering ideas. Convincing old warlords could be harder.
Taliban patrolling Kabul have told at least one woman, at home, to
resume going to work.
Another went to the office and was told to go home.
Panjshir province of Afghanistan, inhabited mainly by Tajiks, has not
surrendered to the Taliban.
The conflict could lead to continued localized fighting, or to some
sort of compromise than might involve a less strict government.
Xi said he will "adjust excessive incomes" of rich Chinese.
A good, strong democracy will be able to do this, and respect civil
liberties too. A plutocracy, by contrast, can't be counted on to do
either one.
*Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to
bypass ban.*
Ordinarily I resent the idea of a dress code; I have resisted them all
my life. However, on this special occasion it is being used for
something good.
A proposal for how the UN Security Council might lead Afghanistan to
peace and stability.
* The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter
protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to
disrupt and discourage [the protests].
The orders came from the highest officials: Attorney General Barr,
and the bully.
Thugs bent over backwards to tolerate right-wing anti-mask protests,
and this made a visible contrast with how they treated Black Lives Matter.
*What lessons should the West learn from the defeat in Afghanistan?*
The first article is right about what happened in Vietnam, Laos, Iraq,
Syria, and Afghanistan. Its overall point is valid.
However, it is utterly mistaken in one small point: classing the
Korean war with those others. That was a conventional war, most of
the time with a front; the South Korean army fought hard. The US
forces arrived barely in time to prevent North Korea's tanks from
completely conquering the south,
and ultimately achieved a partial victory by restoring (more or
less) the pre-war frontier. The result today is that 51 million
Koreans do not suffer under the repression of the Kim dynasty.
The US intervention in Libya was much smaller and not comparable
to those wars.
Shadi Hamid's article makes the mistake of supposing that the Afghan
government forces were fighting for something that they were committed
to. I don't know what efforts Biden tried to make for the Afghan
government to continue the war, but it is clear now that no such plan
could have made any difference.
*Formaldehyde Causes Leukemia,
According to EPA Assessment Suppressed by [the poisoner].*
*France, Germany, UK very worried about Iran's uranium enrichment.*
A federal appeals court upheld Texas's law banning the dilation and
evacuation method of abortion.
The supposed reason is based on confusion, but this happens to be
the usual method for a second trimester abortion. Note: in the US,
second trimester abortions are permitted only deal with some medical
problem or danger.
Two Hong Kongers have been convicted of calling for other countries
to put sanctions on Hong Kong.
*Consumerism, Inequality, and the Climate Crisis.*
"Is it possible to build a society where people have enough to live well
and also feel that they have enough?" The article argues yes, in
a society with less inequality.
(satire) *Desperate California Home buyers Locked In Bidding War Over Charred Remains Of
Ranch House.*
Individual big oil companies have now been rated for methane
emissions.
*The U.S. architects of the ruinous war [in Afghanistan] are getting
the last word on its "lessons,"* in the mainstream media.
Governor Abbott is getting the best of medical care for his Covid-19
infection, but he won't let school students be protected.
*Progressive Caucus Urges US Diplomacy With Taliban.*
According to modeling, by the end of this century the North China
Plain will suffer fatal weather, before even the Persian Gulf and
India.
The UK government plans a massive shift to using hydrogen as a fuel in
vehicles. The crucial issue is how to produce that hydrogen.
The inconvenience of making hydrogen by electrolysis is that it takes
a big investment. We can be sure that the Tories will try to use
"blue" hydrogen as much as possible, as an excuse to include fossil
fuel despite pledges to decarbonize.
My opinion is, if survival of civilization requires this investment,
we must do it.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan is causing irrational blowback in
South Korea.
The argument being made is, "If the US will give up on propping up a
government against a guerrilla after 20 years, maybe it will refuse to
support a bona-fide ally against an external invasion." It seems
wildly irrational to me, but the fact it is being made is one aspect
of damage caused by the occupation of Afghanistan.
I have no opinion on the specific policy question being discussed.
Right-wing ministers are risking spreading Covid-19 in the UK Parliament
by not wearing masks.
Black Lives Matter protesters who engaged in vandalism are being charged
with a federal felony, "domestic violent extremism".
*Pope Francis urges everyone to get COVID-19 vaccines for the good of all.*
I agree with him on most issues, the exception being those that relate
in some way to sex or children.
* Taliban promises of “safe passage” to the Kabul airport for Afghans
trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and
children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through
checkpoints set up by the militants.*
If the Taliban leaders sincerely mean those promises, they need to exert
control quickly over their followers.
The US border thugs hold migrants outdoors underneath the Anzalduas
International Bridge. They have to sleep on hard ground, subject to
whatever temperature there is, and have no communication or medical
attention.
(satire) *Critics Warn Withdrawal From Afghanistan
Paints Entirely Accurate Picture Of U.S. Government.*
Ralph Nader: *"Nobody Is Above the Law" — Except the Biggest Corporate
and Government Criminals.*
They expect impunity and they generally get it, even when they kill
hundreds, or thousands.
Nader presents examples such as Dubya, DeSantis, Abbott and Boeing.
Governor Abbott of Texas has got Covid-19.
Since he is vaccinated, he probably won't have grave symptoms.
Too bad, because his death could save the lives of many other Texans
who will catch Covid-19 due to Abbott's pro-spreading policies.
If Abbott dies from Covid-19 (though that is not likely for someone
vaccinated), will the death cult adulate him as a martyr, someone to
imitate? Or will it scorn him for being vaccinated?
If he recovers, will his example be touted as proof that "Covid-19 is
not dangerous," or presented to show that vaccination reduces the
danger?
*The Taliban Have Seized U.S. Military Biometrics Devices.* They can be used
to check people against the biometric ID cards that the US handed out.
Perhaps the Taliban will be able to use this system to identify Afghans
that worked for the NATO military.
*Taliban Spokesman Accuses Facebook of Stifling Free Speech by Banning Group.*
This is hypocritical, since the Taliban censor other religions, and Atheism.
Rep. Jayapal denounced the idea that right-wing Democrats are "moderate".
*One month after Cuba protests, hundreds remain behind bars.*
*US officials still cannot find the parents of 337 children separated at
the Mexico-border by the [bully's] administration.*
The UK has eliminated many dimensions of freedom in recent years.
Rather than aiming to reverse these changes, defenders of liberty
should aim for more.
The reason why the Taliban took over Afghanistan so fast is that the government
forces and Taliban forces in each area had negotiated deals in advance.
They had been negotiating for someday surrender for a year or so.
Something similar happened when the US conquered Afghanistan in 2002:
local warlords switched sides.
This was well reported at the time; had US generals and
leaders forgotten this?
It is interesting that the Communist government held out much longer
without external support than the US-supported government did. I know
of several factors that could have contributed to this. For instance,
the Taliban are more united than the mujahideen were in 1992. But I
wonder if one factor is that the Communists were fighting for
something they believed in. The Afghan army was fighting only for
graft, and that graft was about to disappear.
Protected marine reserves benefit everyone, even fishermen, but the benefits
for them do not come immediately.
Poor people and descendants of disprivileged groups are much more
likely to die if they get Covid-19, but not for directly biological
reasons. It is because social factors cause them to be less healthy
and get worse medical care.
So many wildfires, so hard to put out, are causing firefighters to
burn out.
* By 2050, nearly 60% of [US] outdoor workers could experience at least one
week [in each year] when extreme heat makes it too dangerous to work.*
*In the post-9/11 era, our greatest threat isn't jihadist terrorism
any more.*
The major threat to US national security in the short term is the
Republican attack on democracy and truth.
In a medium term, China is one major threat. Others are plutocracy and
repression in the US, including mass surveillance.
In a longer term, the main threat is global heating.
Biden: *I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years I've learned the
hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw
U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there.*
I agree. The various things that may change for the worse
are not as bad as continuing the war that would have been.
Gorbachev: *They (NATO and the United States) should have admitted
failure earlier. The important thing now is to draw the lessons from
what happened and make sure that similar mistakes are not repeated.*
*More than 40,000 war-wounded treated in Afghanistan since June* — Red Cross.
Exxon is building a massive offshore oil extraction project which
could poison the local ecosystems, and the company is not properly
planning to deal with disastrous leaks. Even worse, the resulting
increase in available oil will make it harder to save civilization.
By contrast, an energy company is cancelling plans for natural gas
exploration in Australia, because there is no room in the carbon budget
to extract and burn the gas that may be found there.
*Let's heed the UN's dire warning and stop the east African oil pipeline now.*
Poland yielded to the EU on an issue of judicial independence.
Shi'ites of the Hazara ethnicity may face persecution in Afghanistan.
There was no way to avoid injustices like this in Afghanistan.
Propping up continued war was not a way — it caused other gross
injustices.
I wonder if there is a way to convince the Taliban through diplomacy
to respect the rights of Shi'ites, Hindus, and other religious minorities.
For the Republican Millionaires Caucus, nothing is more important than
keeping millionaires' taxes down.
*Twitter reinstates accounts of India's Rahul Gandhi, other opposition
leaders.*
5 years after release from Guantanamo prison, student researcher
Mansoor Adafyi who was treated by the US as a terrorist, is treated
now by Serbia like an unwelcome immigrant being pressured to leave,
except that Serbia won't let him leave.
Serbia does not allow him to work, and does not give him medical care.
I suspect that Serbia does this as part of a commitment to the US.
* Census data shows that Americans are shifting
from safer areas of the US to the regions most at risk of heating and
flooding.*
George Washington ordered that all soldiers in the Continental Army
be inoculated against smallpox.
Inoculation was the predecessor of vaccination, and it was somewhat
dangerous — though not as dangerous as smallpox itself.
That same reasoning is why everyone who has no medical reason not to be
vaccinated against Covid-19 has a duty to get vaccinated.
*Coronavirus has created the perfect conditions for a full-scale war on truth.
Some politicians are siding with lies.*
Canada is rushing an extreme censorship law, which would in practice require
automatic AI filters to block anything that seems questionable.
All the usual problems, including precluding competitors with the Big
Tech companies, are present here.
Uber continues to operate at a loss, disguised by accounting maneuvers,
and uses distractformation so people will not notice.
The first article says that Uber rides now often cost more than taxi
rides used to cost — which means that the supposed benefit for the
public is gone. Apparent advantages for riders turn out to have
been a temporary loss-leader that could not continue.
Does this give us the ability to wipe out Uber and its surveillance?
It is possible to use taxis anonymously, but you need to do it the
right way. You must (1) not use an app to call the taxi, (2) not
identify yourself by calling with your own phone or giving your own
name, and (3) pay cash.
Every time you leave the house, make sure you have enough cash
for your expected purchases, plus a sufficient amount for other
opportunity purchases.
*We Know What to Do on Climate. We Know How to Do It. Only Question: Will We?*
*UK can’t fight climate crisis with austerity, warns expert.*
Conjecture: Republicans adore the bully because they see him as the
Antichrist. They are proud of being a death cult.
Juan Cole describes how US troops occupying Afghanistan turned the
people against them and built support for the Taliban. He also asserts that
the whole thing was a continuing swindle, and that it had to end some day.
*Taliban surge exposes failure of U.S. efforts to build Afghan army.*
(satire) *New Ford F-450 Promises To Make Driver Look Ever So Tiny.*
Three ex-thugs in Philadelphia are being prosecuted for coercing an
innocent man into signing a false confession for rape and murder.
Global heating effects is making penguins overheat; when it gets worse
it is likely to kill them. If there are any left — because heating is
reducing the krill that the penguins eat.
Modi plans to spend the next three decades converting India to
different ways of using fossil fuel.
He plans to switch to natural gas, which leaks methane (which is the highest
priority to stop emitting),
plus hydrogen, which I expect he plans to generate from fossil fuels,
perhaps using carbon capture and storage to reduce the CO2 emissions
if that technology ever works.
The people of Los Angeles are fighting to prevent Olympic Games from
afflicting their city.
"Olympics Kill the Poor", yes, but they oppress lots of people they
don't kill.
The Taliban have captured Kabul and announced victory.
The fighting seems to have ended.
The statement that they won't allow Afghanistan to be used to attack
other countries suggests that it will not let al-Qa'ida conduct
attacks from there. I hope that the US and Afghanistan can make
peace.
More information.
I expected the Afghan government to fall, when left to itself, but not
this fast. The rapidity of the conquest may mean that many Afghans
who worked for the government or the NATO armies are trapped there.
Foreigners, too. However, the Taliban seem to have said they will let
foreigners leave, and accept the service of the men that worked for
the old government, and even for foreign armies.
They say they will allow women to study and work.
Maybe they are starting to value the prosperity of the nation as a
goal, and appreciate that this depends on the contribution of women.
That would be repressive by our standards, but less so that the
Taliban of the 1990s.
I expect that these official Taliban statements are sincerely meant
by the leaders, but they will have to work hard to make Taliban
soldiers obey them. (We see the same thing in the US Army.)
The news that the US has kept its embassy open is a good sign.
Vietnam and the US are allied now against the empire that Vietnamese
have fought for 2,000 years.
(This does not make Vietnam a free
country, not the slightest little bit.)
It won't surprise me if someday I see
the Taliban and the US allied against that same empire.
As Germany's economy recovers, it is headed for more fossil fuels, not
conservation.
Many animal species, including vertebrates and invertebrates, depend on
cultural knowledge to survive in the wild.
Preventing species's extinction sometimes requires helping the species
recover lost cultural knowledge.
Impecunious parents in the UAE can't get a birth certificate for their
baby until they pay the hospital bill, which is impossible. (They lost
their jobs.) This renders the baby effectively stateless.
Speculation about how the Taliban will treat al-Qa'ida after taking
control of Afghanistan.
Mexico is deporting migrants to Guatemala without asylum hearings,
under pressure from the US.
*The Arctic
remains a place we barely understand. "We are starting to understand it
better, but by the time we do it will be gone."*
I wonder, would it be possible to make portable solar-powered freezer
units to generate and maintain floating ice pads for walruses?
US citizens: call on Congress to cut the new Navy nuke from the
Pentagon budget.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Zuckerberg to allow the NYU Ad Observer team to
study Facebook once again.
Meanwhile, as always, don't be a zucker — don't be a used of
Facebook.
US citizens: call on Biden to fire DeJoy now.
*WHO seeks to take political heat out of [SARS-COV-2] virus origins debate.*
I am in favor of this. To determine the origin of the virus will be
useful for science, and may teach us some important precautions for
future research, but it surely won't inculpate any government of anything
worse than a mistake.
* Analysts and experts are warning of many years of instability across
Africa, possibly leading to wars and political upheavals, as the
economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic deepens across the continent.*
Other likely causes of instability in Africa include climate
breakdown, Islamist guerrilla movements, and in some places population
growth. They all work together.
Giving booster vaccinations to millions of people in wealthy countries
will slow the vaccination of the rest of the world.
The main cause of this problem is that each kind of vaccine is a
monopoly and that the manufacture of the best vaccines is being
artificially held back.
It is surely no coincidence that the vaccine companies are taking
advantage or raise prices
because charging more is the whole point.
Using more doses for people vaccinated people, aside from special
cases, would exacerbate this effect.
The one factor that might override this is if a third dose will
make it almost impossible for a vaccinated person to contract Covid-19.
If so, the third dose might be necessary for a country to become
Covid-free and thus protect its unvaccinatable population.
I do not use the word "jab" to refer to an injection.
To me, "jab" means a kind of attack.
The misogyny of Afghanistan is horrible; the Taliban make it even worse.
It might have been possible to defeat the Taliban by supporting a
radical secularist movement and army like Rojava. But there was no
way to do that after putting Afghanistan in the hands of the
not-quite-so-radical anti-Taliban rulers.
*The problem isn't "inflation." It’s that most Americans aren’t paid enough.*
This reflects the political power of the rich, who use their influence
to set up systems to concentrate wealth. Concentrating wealth works
by directing more of the total income to rich people and companies
(whose shares are mainly owned by rich people), and that means less of
the total income to the non-rich.
Some chemicals in sunscreen kill coral (and various other animals
found in reefs) even in minuscule amounts such as 60 parts per
trillion. However, if we want to save coral reefs, the main thing we must do
is curb global heating,
and specifically the emission of CO2, which makes the ocean more
acid and will eventually kill all coral.
*Fears over lax US standards prompts bill on chemical safety of beauty
products.*
Here's some information on political obstacles to humanitarian aid in and near
Tigray.
Turkey planned for zero forest fires this year, and failed to carry out
the insufficient preparations and purchases it had budgeted for.
Powerful rifles that can fire very fast, and penetrate bulletproof vests,
are sold to civilians in the US. Smuggled into Mexico, they enable drug gangs
to outshoot most cops.
US guns, including powerful rifles that can fire very fast and
penetrate bulletproof vests, are sold to civilians in the US.
Smuggled into Mexico, they enable drug gangs to outshoot most cops.
Mexico is suing the manufacturers.
It probably can't win such a lawsuit,
but it would be good for the US as well to prohibit their sale to
anyone but the military and SWAT teams. And even the latter should be
carefully limited.
The CDC has stopped collecting information about Covid-19 infections
in vaccinated people. This means we can't measure that danger any
more.
UK libel law makes it too easy to intimidate journalists around the
world into silence. Even a case that can't win is too expensive for
any defendant to oppose.
Hungary has legislated indirect censorship of books that deal with
homosexuality or transgenderism, because they could be judged to
"promote" them, and then many book stores will be forbidden to sell them.
Mexicans anachronistically and misguidedly judge as "traitors" the
soldiers of Tlaxcala, who joined with the Spaniards to overthrow the
hated Aztec empire.
The Mexica rulers periodically ordered Tlaxcala to send some of its
finest young men to fight a rigged ceremonial battle against young
Mexica. The Mexica men had real weapons, the Tlaxcalans imitation
weapons. After the latter almost inevitably lost, the Mexica killed
them by cutting out their hearts. The lords of Tlaxcala were forced
to sit and watch the whole proceedings.
After the Spaniards conquered, they enslaved most of the indigenous
peoples of Mexico and worked them harshly; they intentionally killed
some people, and unintentionally killed a great many.
Which empire was worse? I can't judge. But Mexicans today have no
reason to feel a loyalty to the Mexica empire of 1520.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's opposition Congress Party, accused Modi
of making Twitter lock his account.
Protecting crime victims' privacy is proper when that's what they want;
however, blocking them from communicating to the public in the name of
their privacy is absurd.
The Labour Party is expelling its left wing, including many supporters
of Corbyn. Some are being purged for not supporting the purges.
Apparently it aims to become a timid party that fusses about small
disagreements.
Russia's repression of the press more and more resembles the Soviet Union's.
*The Most High-Profile Al Qaeda Plot Foiled After 9/11 Was an FBI Scam.*
And so were many others — I've covered a number of them here.
Whenever the FBI claims to have caught terrorists plotters, I think
of this pattern and I wonder whether the supposed terrorists were really
going to do anything.
Daniel L Davis, formerly a US Lieutenant Colonel who served in
Afghanistan, writes that it was clear 10 years ago that the Afghan
government forces had no chance of defeating the Taliban, and the US
military and government persistently covered this up.
(satire) *Real Estate Developers Decide Colorful Bench Enough To Deem
Area "Arts District."*
*The Tennessee Department of "Safety and Homeland Security" kept
secret files on civil rights protesters, as if they were some sort
of threat to society.*
Unfairness in access to medical care in the US was so great, before
the pandemic, that "going back to normal" is not a good goal.
Koch and his right-wing supporters are operating a long-term plan to eliminate
public schools and replace it with "whatever education you can afford."
Americans use to believe that a well-educated citizenry was crucial
for good government, and establishing good public schools was
fundamental to that.
*Once it is built into phones, Macs and even watches, Apple's new
system could scan for whatever else — or whoever else — a government
demands..*
We can see Biden's priorities by his decision to ask OPEC to pump more
oil, to stimulate "economic recovery", rather than to use the high
gasoline prices to stimulate reduced use of fossil fuels.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange
August 16 from 4:30pm to 6pm in Boston Common, next to the entrance
of Park St Station.
The enormous "Bootleg" fire did little harm to one area of forest that has been
managed by prescribed burns.
Afghan women are fleeing in terror of the Taliban's violence,
which includes rape and worse. But they have nowhere to go.
You don't hurt the Taliban by jumping off a roof. If instead you run
out and shoot them until they kill you, you might do them damage, and
you'll have a faster death. Taliban might be dissuaded from forcing
women into "marriage" if the women stabbed them in the night.
If the Afghans who don't want Taliban rule had been motivated to die
fighting, they could have won the war. The sad fact is that they were
not generally so motivated.
*"This Was Avoidable," Climate Activists Say About Apocalyptic UN
Climate Report.*
Scientists call on Biden to expand US capacity to make RNA vaccines
to 8 billion doses per year.
That's enough to vaccinate half the world each year. Of course,
other countries should make vaccine factories too.
Many big wildfires are started by arsonists, but that's nothing new.
The reason fires get so big nowadays is global heating.
Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change said that Canada
needs to build the Trans Mountain Pipeline in order to get revenue to end the use of fossil fuels.
* Just £145m of UK budget went on environment, with £40bn spent on
emissions-increasing measures*.
(satire) *"Rise Up, Patriots!" Rand Paul Calls To Intubated Patients
Lying Unconscious In Hospital ICU.*
(satire) *Cuomo Scandal A Somber Reminder That Leaders Bad At Job Can
Have Dark Side Too.*
*Groups to Congress: Include $34 Billion for Global Vaccine Production in $3.5
Trillion Budget Plan.*
Lessons from World War II for the war against greenhouse gases.
Despite Tigray's military victories, the people there still lack food.
I am curious about the cause. Are foreign powers choosing not to aid
Tigray? Are Ethiopia and Eritrea blocking transport of food aid?
(satire) *Latest Climate Change Report Just Heartfelt Farewell Letter
Telling Humanity To Remember The Good Times.*
Brazil's Congress has passed a law to suspend vaccine patents and require
cooperation with local manufacture.
I am not confident that Brazil could make US and European vaccine
monopolists comply, but if there is a chance, bravo for trying.
The UK government says it will eliminate many civil service positions.
Supposedly this is to reduce the number of workers, but I think that they
can't do it. The jobs need to be done.
I predict that the state will replace these well-paid positions with
subcontracted workers. That will make the work get done worse, but
cost less.
Taliban leaders say that their soldiers respect civilians and do no
violence to them.
The US government denies and covers up harm done to civilians,
so it is not impossible that the Taliban leadership does likewise.
However, it is likely that there is a disconnect between the official
policy of the Taliban and what Taliban soldiers actually do. This
tends to happen in all armies. To order soldiers not to kill, rape or
rob civilians is easy; actually stopping them is difficult.
The incoming governor of New York says she will eliminate the "toxic
culture" that Governor Cuomo created, and used to pressure women for
sex.
That is the right thing to about the point. However, I wonder where
Governor Hochul stands on issues of plutocracy and confronting
business power.
Various large banks plan to buy coal power plants in Asia and
shut them down — in 15 years!
15 years is too late. The purchase could easily backfire, as these
new owners would have an interest in operating the plants as long
as they are profitable.
Chemical manufacturers have undermined the integrity of the EPA. They
can apply so much pressure to approve a chemical that the agency does
not dare disobey or even hesitate.
We must make sure that the EPA can do its job. As a first step, the
EPA should eliminate all promises of confidentiality to manufacturers.
Such commitments give the companies too much power. Instead, the EPA
must always reserve the right to show the public all that it knows
about a chemical's effects.
The only kind of confidentiality that it has a duty to respect is
about the individual subjects in a medical experiment.
*Colombian top general Mario Montoya faces murder charges in "false
positives" scandal.*
When California legislated to treat gig workers as employees, the
gig-work companies spent enormous sums to mislead the public into
override that decision. Now they are preparing to do it again in
Massachusetts.
These companies mistreat passengers as well as drivers.
The food delivery companies mistreat restaurants, too.
It would be great if making them pay decent money made those
companies disappear, but I don't expect that to happen.
I think they are exaggerating for effect.
Particulate pollution from giant wildfires seems to be promoting
Covid-19 infections, and making the symptoms worse so that more
patients die.
July was the hottest month since record keeping became sufficient to
measure.
Alberta's right-wing government dropped the plan to eliminate the main
Covid-control measures, as Covid is surging there.
*California considers human composting as a greener [corpse disposal]
option.*
One concern is to make sure that germs remaining the corpse don't get a
chance to infect anyone later.
*Is Biden serious about climate? His 2,000 drilling and fracking permits
suggest not.*
*Biden-backed "blue" hydrogen may pollute more than coal, study finds.*
"Blue" hydrogen means it is made from fossil fuels, and produces
greenhouse gases. The subsidy for this is a subsidy to the
planet-roasters.
The Tories pushing that same climate evasion scheme.
Fake climate defense seems to be the latest fallback of the planet
roasters, succeeding climate delay.
Acheleke Fuanya says that deportation thugs knelt on his neck and
suffocated him to try to force him to accept his own deportation.
He also accuses them of giving him Covid-19, by refusing to wear masks.
The CDC assumes that Covid-19 infections in vaccinated people,
if they don't need hospitalization, are mild. But we don't know
whether they cause "long Covid" disabilities. To find out, we need
to keep track of them.
Monitoring people's sweat chemically could be a tool for repression.
*Philippine court dismisses libel case against journalist Maria Ressa.*
This case was started for purposes of repression.
Pakistan dropped blasphemy charges against the eight-year-old Hindu boy.
Pissing in a library is wrong, but threats of death or prison are not
the way to teach a child decorum.
Amnesty International accuses the Ethiopian army of enslaving,
torturing, raping and mutilating Tigray women.
*Once you understand the terrible cost of doing nothing, climate action is a
bargain.*
What doing nothing could cost us — or not doing enough — may include
technology and civilization. It may include your life and the lives
of everyone you know. There is nothing you can count on not to be
included in that cost, nothing you can assume will survive.
If there is anything you value, its survival depends on climate
defense.
In a world of climate breakdown, there is no such thing as "getting
back to normal."
It may look that way, but it won't last.
The plastisphere is a new basis for ecosystems in the ocean.
I wonder if we will someday need to make plastic substrates to put
in the ocean to preserve these ecosystems.
*EU lowers limits for toxic metals in baby food, vegetables.*
Ideally there would be no lead at all in any food, but that would be
prohibitively difficult. The question is where to put the best tradeoff
between that goal and other goals, such as feasibility of making food.
A neighborhood group in London writes about defeating a plan to
gentrify their neighborhood with public funds.
*Climate delayers are to blame for Britain’s lack of urgency in creating a
green plan.*
Fanatical anti-vaxxers in France have vandalized vaccination centers,
and in a few cases actually sabotaged them.
(satire) *"I'll Wait Until It Passes The CDC, DCC, CCD, FAD, AFD, FDA,
BIA, AIB, BFI, FIB, FBI," Announces Vaccine Skeptic.*
Republican fanatics are trying to forcibly expose children to Covid-19
in school.
*The Eviction Crisis Is a Rental Assistance Crisis.* The US offers
to pay poor people's back rent, but the system to get the benefit does
not function.
*Democrats Pressure US Justice Department to
Stop
Seeking Death Penalty.*
Finally, I'm not alone in saying I am "pro-abortion."
Young Americans are now organizing for this cause.
Certain businesses will get anyone's Instagram account banned for
a small fee.
Other businesses will get the account unbanned again,
for a much larger fee.
Big businesses (and other organizations) in the US can choose a
bankruptcy judge who will let the business get out easy.
Drivers went on strike against Doordash, which combined low pay
with manipulative uncertainty about how low it would be.
I urge people to refuse to buy from any of the food-delivery gig companies.
US companies outsource customer service to companies that subcontract
workers in Colombia, and force them to allow surveillance of their
homes (and their family).
It should be illegal to subcontract workers, and illegal to require them
to submit to video surveillance at home.
China has announced censorship of karaoke.
*Chile's record-breaking drought makes climate [mayhem] "very easy" to see.*
*FBI offer to release some Saudi files not enough, 9/11 families say.*
*On Eve of Hearing, Amnesty Again Demands US End Effort to Extradite Assange.*
Princess Latifa was photographed in Iceland with a cousin, who said
that he had seen her looking happy and well.
I do wonder why she doesn't present unquestionable proof — for
instance, by dropping in at a TV station, showing her passport, and
giving a brief interview.
Sanders published the draft plan for the budget resolution, which will
aid the poor in many ways.
However, I see nothing significant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Since climate defense was omitted from the infrastructure bill too,
this is disaster. We need to act boldly and urgently,
and the budget resolution is one of the few opportunities
to stop Republicans from filibustering it.
Less than half of Britons 16 and older are part of an official couple.
One of the few exceptions is in Clitheroe.
It seems that only clit heroes can stay married, nowadays.
*Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible.*
*Only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade
can prevent such climate breakdown, with every fraction of a degree of
further heating likely to compound the accelerating effects.*
The IPCC presents seven possible scenarios for future development
of the Earth's climate.
It also says that cutting methane emissions must be the immediate priority.
That means emissions from cows, and from the extraction and transmission
of natural gas.
Pakistan has charged an eight-year-old boy with blasphemy.
He may be executed for this.
It is evil to punish anyone for blasphemy.
However, regardless of the crime, it never makes sense to punish
children as criminals. They have not had the chance to develop the
sort of responsibility which laws could operate through.
The repression in Belarus has hit massive numbers of people.
*Harder borders are a legacy of Covid we should reject.*
It is rational to restrict travel into your country if it has a low
level of Covid-19. If it has a high level, such restrictions are
pointless annoyance. Thus, I am amused by the US's prohibition on
visits by Europeans. With millions of Americans you can catch
Covid-19 from, what difference would a few Europeans make?
The UN report shows the climate crisis in which no one is safe for long.
Google, Facebook, and General Motors helped fund the Republican State
Leadership Committee, which supports voter suppression.
Those companies say they are against voter suppression, but apparently
not against it enough to stop donating.
The UK "police bill" will impose so many restrictions on protests
that protesting in a way that people will notice will be effectively
illegal.
The damage caused by the fires near Athens was exacerbated by funding
cuts to the fire departments.
These funding cuts were imposed by the Euro-banksters
as a consequence of the Euro-zone rules that stopped Greece from
doing the necessary deficit spending in 2010 and following years.
With 4C of global heating, what used to be extreme once-in-50-years heat waves
will happen in most years.
Greece promises to replant the forests that have burned, but that
seems futile.
Whatever trees might grow in drought will burn up again.
Compensation for the destroyed property will be good provided that
people are not allowed to use it to rebuild in areas vulnerable to
fire. Such areas should be designated as uninsurable.
*Protesters block roads across Guatemala, urging president to step down.*
Secretary-General Guterres: *"The alarm bells are deafening," he said
in a statement. "This report must sound a death knell for coal and
fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet."*
*I covered Hong Kong for decades. Now I am forced to flee China’s "white
terror."*
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the Green New Deal for Public
Schools.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to confirm Myrna Pérez for the US
second circuit court of appeals.
*In Burma, more than 190 health workers have been arrested and 86
raids on hospitals carried out since the coup — Physicians for Human
Rights and others.*
*India's chief justice has said the most dangerous places in the
country for threats to human rights are police stations.*
This is true in many countries. I admire an official who is willing
to admit it. Bravo!
Now the task ahead is to change that situation.
The government of Ethiopia is calling on people to join the army and militias to fight Tigray.
To recruit soldiers without training them is an act of desperation.
This suggests that the Ethiopian army has collapsed. That the
Tigrayan forces have captured places outside Tigray itself supports
the idea. But it is very surprising, a priori. What in the world is
happening there?
Governor Abbott of Texas begged for aid so Texas can cope with all the
people hospitalized with Covid-19.
Abbott is famous for fighting against all the measures that could have
avoided so much spread of Covid-19. The aid Texas needs is to undo
Abbott's harm. Thus, other states should offer Texas masks and
vaccination teams, plus a Democrat who could take over as governor of
Texas.
*Six [European] countries urge EU not to halt deportations of rejected
Afghan asylum seekers.*
*Heat, drought and fire: how climate dangers combine for a catastrophic
"perfect storm."*
Allowing wildlife to grow between grapevines or olive trees turns out
to benefit production and the soil.
Australian protesters are going all-out to pressure the government
to cooperate with climate defense.
(satire) *Woman Puts Off Going To Doctor Until Disease Bad Enough For
Him To Believe Her.*
The private boarding schools where the British elite educate their
sons are designed to teach them contempt for their own pain and loss,
and therefore contempt for anyone else's pain and loss.
They also learn never to show they care about anything or anyone. The
writer argues that this is why the ruling class educated there is so
bad at ruling.
*Animal and Climate Justice Coalition Calls for Carbon Pricing on
Meat, Dairy Products.*
I support this. I don't intend to cease eating meat or dairy, but
when I do so, I should pay the real cost, and so should everyone else.
This will help encourage everyone to cut down.
We must establish the right for poor people to have legal
representation in civil cases.
The UK used to have a system called "legal aid" which did this,
but the Tories cut it, and cut it again, and I don't think there is
much left of it now.
*Young people in West Virginia look to push Sen. Joe Manchin in hopes
of passing federal voting rights legislation.*
Thank you, the country needs this.
*Top Scientists to Biden and Congress: 'Go Big on Climate… Do So Now'.*
*IPCC to Say Drastic Methane Cuts Necessary to Avert Climate Hell.*
7.5 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits on Labor
Day.
Many low-paid US workers can't afford to miss work even one day to get
vaccinated.
How about offering them three days' pay for each injection?
That will cover one day to get the shot, and two for side effects.
If they don't have bad side effects, this will be a nice bonus.
Meanwhile, I think that the proposed vaccine mandates for federal workers,
military personnel, medical personnel and the work force of some businesses
will help. They are a small fraction of the population, but in the
delusional states they will help break through the anti-vax pressure.
If you have recovered from Covid-19, get vaccinated. Vaccination makes
it less likely you will get infected again.
It also reduces the likely severity of a subsequent reinfection.
Biden must choose a climate defender as commissioner of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
*How in the world is Louis DeJoy still the postmaster general?*
*In Burma, more than 190 health workers have been arrested and 86
raids on hospitals carried out since the coup — Physicians for Human
Rights and others.*
US citizens: call on Congress to ban employers from requiring overtime work.
The Yale researchers who reported how frequent surprise enormous
medical bills are in emergency rooms got support from a big insurance
company, United Health Care,
and this support came with strings that were morally unacceptable.
For instance, excluding the insurance companies a priori from criticism.
Ironically, Lithuania is building a wall on its border with Belarus
because Lukashenko is bringing migrants from the Middle East to direct them
into Lithuania, as well as into Poland and Latvia.
Belarus is now an ally of Russia. The way to put real pressure on
Russia is to stop buying its fossil fuels. As it happens, this fits
perfectly with what Europe needs to do anyway — use less fossil fuel.
Germany needs to bite the bullet and cut its fuel imports from Russia,
temporarily buy them from somewhere else, and tax fossil fuels enough
to make the total usage decline quickly.
European countries could also cut off ground and air traffic between
the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and the main bulk of Russia.
That is a somewhat aggressive move, though nowhere near as aggressive
as seizing the Crimea or stirring up rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
*Greta Thunberg: ethical fast fashion is "pure greenwashing."*
It's obvious: the way to avoid wasteful clothing consumption is to buy
clothing a lot less often, and make each garment last. That's what
I've always done.
*Mexican cartel threatens to kill TV news anchor over "unfair" coverage.*
The Pentagon will require everyone in the US military
to get Covid-19 vaccination.
The military already requires other vaccinations.
This policy should have been adopted months ago. Last year there was
a Covid-19 outbreak on a navy ship which would surely have diminished
its combat capability. This alone is enough reason to require
vaccination, even without the point that it will advance the US towards
herd immunity, which means that Covid-19 outbreaks will die away on
their own.
Detailing some of the accusations against Governor Cuomo of New York.
Because these descriptions are detailed and clear, they give us a
basis for judging his actions. I think he was trying to pressure and
bully women into having sex with him, and that is very bad.
Previously I had seen statements formulated in terms of "appropriate".
Those are statements of opinion, not fact. We should judge people's
actions (or possible actions) based on the actions, not indirectly
based on other people's opinions of actions not concretely described.
Lacking the basis to judge, I decided not to judge them — not then.
The news today is that Cuomo has resigned.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Better Care Better Jobs Act.
For people that start, as children, in harsh circumstances, punishing
them for using drugs is often one additional stage in a series of
cruelties.
Plutocratist rule has no interest in helping the non-rich at any
stage.
The UK's system for auditing large companies is untrustworthy; this
has been known for years. But there is no effort to fix it.
The Tories
find no difficulty making life painful for the poor and weak (though they will
pretend it isn't happening), but they haven't got the stomach to give the rich
and powerful any bad-tasting medicine.
* Widespread devastation and extreme weather is likely to become
inevitable within the next two decades thanks to human behaviour
causing rising temperatures, the International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) has warned.*
*The IPCC report is clear: nothing short of transforming society will
avert catastrophe.*
Thunberg: *'Massive public pressure' needed to galvanize climate fight.*
Mendocino, California, is running short on water. Importing water has
become very expensive.
They may need to invest in solar-powered desalination.
Old, damaged trees must not be destroyed — many animals need them
for survival.
Anti-vax radio host Dick Farrel has died of Covid.
Reportedly he repented
of his folly while on his deathbed in the hospital.
Low-tech "saeklon" houses, with beams fastened with vines instead of
nails, stood in Vanuatu when the cyclone tore apart modern buildings.
Africans who adopt "modern" farming that requires expensive chemicals
become in effect prisoners of those needs.
An overall look at how to reduce hunger in Africa over the long term needs
to factor in population growth, and reducing it.
The delays in medical treatment caused by Tory underfunding of the NHS
could cause thousands to die of various treatable problems.
Rhode Island has authorized supervised places to take illegal
recreational drugs.
The aim is to reduce the harm that results from taking the drugs,
including overdoses.
It would be additionally helpful if they could analyze the user's
drugs for toxic impurities and strength. It would be even more
helpful if these centers sold drugs of known potency and without
impurities, to registered addicts.
Many children are now being hospitalized with severe Covid-19
infections.
Union of Concerned Scientists: why Biden's electric car policy is too weak.
The "fusion center" (surveillance hub) of Minnesota refuses to tell
how thugs have been surveilling the pipeline protesters.
The thugs go beyond surveillance — they attack protesters
in illegal ways.
When Bogus Johnson has no serious answer to a serious question, he
insults a group of people as a way of changing the conversation.
US new cases of Covid-19 are running about 100,000 per day again, a level
last seen in February.
Conor Lamb is running for the Senate in Pennsylvania and asks people
to disregard his right-wing voting record in the House.
The crucial question to ask any Democrat running for the Senate
is, "Will you vote to abolish the filibuster?"
*Senate Infrastructure Bill Would Invest $500 Million in “Smart City”
Surveillance Technology.*
Personal data, once collected, will be misused.
To speak of
"privacy protection" in regard to tracking data is a lulliby for the
gullible.
*9/11 families tell Biden to skip [the 9/11] memorial [event] if he
does not declassify files [about the possible involvement of Salafi
Arabia].*
Australians living abroad, who visit family in Australia, will not be
able to return home.
As long as Australia was keeping Covid-19 out, its strict quarantine
policies were justified and necessary. But if Covid-19 spreads and
Australia abandons the effort to keep it out, but may as well permit
travel as much as other countries do.
Several congressional leaders have called on Biden to close the
Guantanamo prison.
Starting with the "easy" prisoners is natural, but if the goal is to
close the Guantanamo prison rather than just reduce the number of
prisoners, that requires tackling the hard problem: the 10 prisoners
who have somehow been charged. It will take decades for this problem
will go away on its own, and that is too long, so let's get moving on it.
Some of them can be put on trial. One approach would be for Biden to
demand, of Congress, "Authorize bringing them to the US for a real
trial, or I will have to let them go. You've got six months to do
it."
However, there are some who can't ever be put on trial because the US
beat confessions out of them using torture. Those confessions are not
valid proof of anything, because they are likely to be false. Indeed,
one prisoner told the lies Dubya would want to hear, and thus tricked
the US into attacking the wrong enemy.
Since the US can't try them, the US will have to let them go. If the
US doesn't like this outcome, well, it should have thought about this
before torturing them.
Why we should get rid of corporate landlords, and an easy method.
US citizens: tell Biden to stop issuing new oil and gas leases on
public lands and waters.
We need to stop them on private lands and waters, too, but the president
cannot do that by executive order.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to stop the predatory capitalism of
private equity.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the NLRB to overturn Amazon's rigged
union-busting election.
UK courts gave especially harsh sentences to people charged with minor crimes during the 2011 riots, compared with people charged with similar crimes
before and after.
It takes time to build vaccine production capacity — so countries
should have pushed it in 2020. But vaccine companies have been
standing in the way.
Here are practical proposals for how to sweep away the obstacles to increasing
the production of the most effective Covid-19 vaccines.
I support all these recommendations, but I urge people not to use the
term "open source" to describe this, because it doesn't fit. The
trade secrets that need to be published are not source code. A
vaccine is not software; it is not made from "source code". There is
no source code involved.
"Open source software" was coined as an amoral substitute for the idea
of "free software". This distortion of the idea was harmful. Applying that term to
things that don't even have source code is a gratuitous further
distortion, that would be harmful again.
David Lidstone wants to live out his life as a hermit in a cabin in
the woods of New Hampshire, bothering nobody. He is up against the
weight of the state government, which has put him in jail.
If a lot of people tried to live in those woods, it would cause
unacceptable environmental damage, and it would be necessary to stop
them. However, given that it is just one person, who probably won't
live another two decades, there is no need to fuss.
As for the landowner, surely he can give Lidstone a lifetime lease
for the area around his cabin.
(satire) *Juilliard Opens Business School For Students Who Realize Acting Thing
Probably A Long Shot.*
A Senate bill would impose large fees on companies that emitted lots of
greenhouse gases from 2000 to 3019.
If I take those words seriously, it would not apply to the fossil fuel
companies that supplied the fuel, but rather to the companies that used
lots of the fuel. I am not sure that is wise.
*More Than Two-Thirds of US Adults Support Mask Mandates as Variants Spread.*
(satire) *Study Finds Falsehoods About Delta Variant May Spread Twice
As Easily As Original Covid Misinformation.*
The son of assassinated President Moise distrusts all official statements about who was responsible.
Pakistani exiles who have criticized the power and brutality of
Pakistan's army face a threat of assassination.
Protecting the last few wild golden-shouldered parrots by putting a small piece of Australian land back as it used to be.
This is admirable, but I think it will require continual human effort to
keep that land in its retrotransformed state. The climate crisis could
put an end to that.
The combustion of so many trees near Athens in the past week's
enormous wildfires will cause persistent problems: when it does rain,
the water will run off and cause floods.
People tend to focus on the short term and ignore the long term. Now,
"mitigation", coping with the consequences of global heating for the
next decade or two, is the short term. The long term is curbing
global heating. If people don't focus on that, 2050 will bring
short-term consequences that there is no way to cope with.
Burma's military rulers seem to have sent assassins to kill Burma's
UN ambassador, who was appointed before the coup.
The alleged assassins have been arrested.
The Taliban are capturing provincial capitals.
I think this means they are close to winning the war.
Tens of millions of Americans suffered from medical problems caused by heat,
last summer. It will keep getting worse.
The CDC urges everyone in school to wear masks. Florida governor
Deadly DeSantis has threatened to cut funding for public school
systems that require masks. Some districts are deciding to do it
anyway.
Apparently they consider that protecting their students, and whoever
those students come in contact with, is more important than the funds
that DeSantis might deny them.
Biden calls for 40% of cars sold in 2030 to be electric.
That's about 40% of what we need to aim for.
However, in order for it to be possible to charge cars without their
being tracked, we need chargers that accept anonymous payment —
preferably cash and GNU Taler.
The UK government said it would not deport Jamaicans brought to the
UK decades ago as children, but it is about to start doing so anyway.
The deportation department seems to have no regard for commitments of
any kind. It will take half an excuse, pretend that is a justification,
and deport, disregarding both fairness and people's legal rights.
Minnesota thugs relish maiming protesters that oppose the Line 3
Pipeline. They fire rubber-coated metal bullets at people's heads.
The bully pushed hard to corrupt the Department of Justice
into endorsing his lies about election fraud, just before the
end of 2020.
Many senior officials said they would resign in protest, and this may be
what convinced him to back down.
* Facebook cut off accounts of researchers examining its political ads and misinformation on the platform.*
(satire) *Cuomo Increasingly Desperate To Shift Focus Back Onto
Nursing Home Deaths.*
I hope to write seriously about Andrew Cuomo tomorrow.
If the US continues fighting wars around the world, they can kill a large
fraction of humanity through their greenhouse gas emissions alone.
Nina Turner was defeated by a plutocratist Democrat
who was backed
with endorsements from other plutocratist Democrats, plus lots of
money from plutocrats, and some lies.
I hope Turner will try again in 2022.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP: *I visited the migrant [prison] in
Dover. What I saw was unacceptable.*
It's not as bad as what the wrecker did in the US, but that's no
standard to judge by.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra fired flutist Emily Skala, partly
because she advocated right-wing politics, but also because she
refused to wear a mask.
Wearing a mask is an important safety precaution, and firing people
for refusing to do that is entirely justified. They should have
offered her some other way to hand in her tax document, but I don't
think she could have done her job without wearing a mask.
What she said is another issue. I disagree completely with her
views, and I condemn her reported bigotry. However, it is harmful to
society for employers to impose political limits on what employees say
outside of work, unless their job is to speak for the organization.
We see an increased tendency to restrict employees' political
expression. This does not violate the First Amendment, but freedom of
expression goes beyond the First Amendment. Restricting employees'
freedom of expression makes society less free.
*Labour calls for ‘hard-edged’ end date for oil and gas exploration.*
That date should be last year, if not today.
Research on comparative genetics of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang
could be used by China for repression.
*Millions more people vulnerable to flooding in next decade, study shows.*
Discrimination in employment against blacks and other minorities
operates on job applications sight-unseen: employers reject them
because the applicant's name sounds like a black.
This article reports on the UK situation, but I expect it is the same
in the US.
I wonder if it is possible to do something about this by preventing
the application from showing the applicant's race. But would that
make a real difference in who gets hired, or would it only postpone
application of the bias?
There is evidence of applying bias against women in a similar way.
China is finding that the Delta variant is too transmissible to eradicate
with the strict lockdown measures
that were successful in the past. This is the same as what Australia
is experiencing.
Some of the people quoted in the article assume that this will remain
the case even after nearly everyone is vaccinated; but that does not
follow. Transmission between vaccinated people does occur, but the
R-value will be less.
Germany will make the unvaccinated pay to get Covid tests so as to
enter restaurants and other dangerous sites for transmission.
I think this is justified, provided it does not become a system of
tracking the movements of vaccinated people.
Moreover, I agree with Mr Holetschek: the system must not charge for
Covid tests for the people who for medical reasons cannot be
vaccinated. It would be absurd to punish people for doing something
that they must not do.
Western news outlets call on governments to give visas to the reporters
that are likely to be killed by the Taliban.
It is the least we can do.
The OSCE says that Russia won't allow it to properly observe the coming
election, so it will not try.
Mexico is suing US gun manufacturers, claiming that they marketed guns
to the market of people who would smuggle them into Mexico.
Giving some old people in rich countries a third, booster vaccination shot
may be bad for everyone if it slows down the vaccination of everyone else.
It could encourage the evolution of another strain that might resist
the vaccine.
That danger exists when there are lots of vaccinated people and lots
of unvaccinated people. To eliminate it, we need to vaccinate everyone as
fast as we can.
That requires doing everything possible to increase production. The
first step is to eliminate the patent obstacles.
Disinformation in the DR Congo is convincing many to leave themselves
vulnerable to Covid-19.
US citizens: call on minor league baseball to stop exploiting players,
pay them a fair wage, and allow the formation of a union.
New Zealand has developed intensive dairy farming to the point where
it is a major contributor to global heating.
The government encouraged this, and that was not necessarily a bad thing
as long as it caused no grave problems. But now it does cause one.
Fossil fuel companies paid Facebook around 10 million dollars in 2020
for ads to discourage adequate climate defense action.
Let's prohibit spraying chemicals in road borders and urban areas, to allow
insects to come back.
Australia will pay about 300 million USD as reparations to the
indigenous children that it forced to go to assimilation boarding schools.
In most Western democracies, politics has become a contest between two
elites: the well-educated, and the wealthy.
The major parties don't do much for the non-elites, but try to
manipulate them through distractions (left-wing identity politics and
right-wing scapegoating). Often they give up on politics.
I couldn't have described things as clearly or with as much
basis as the article does, but I did dimly perceive the situation
(as do many), and that is why I have supported Sanders and Corbyn.
One Hong Kong political defendant was acquitted of "corruption".
The charge was perhaps too far-fetched for even China to swallow.
Pakistan is putting extremely strong pressure on people to get vaccinated.
I wonder why Pakistan now has such quantities of vaccine available.
Apparently that was not the case before.
The mayor of Miami Beach called governor DeSantis the "Pied Piper of
Covid-19, leading everybody off a cliff."
DeSantis can be described as a metaspreader: instead of spreading the
disease directly from his own breath, he has pressured thousands of
Floridians to do it for him.
California has made new emergency water use regulations to keep
enough water flowing in the Sacramento River.
Some farms may lose their crops due to this drought. But then,
farming in California has been operating on borrowed water for
decades, borrowed from aquifers that could take millennia to refill.
Farmers even planted water-thirsty almond trees there.
The Russian news site Open Media published the list of web sites
labeled as "extremist activity", and was blocked, apparently in
response to that.
Russia isn't the first country to censor journalism about state
censorship policy. Sweden did this many years ago.
*‘Mega-drought’ leaves many Andes mountains without snow cover.*
As the anthropogenic drought deepens, subsistence farmers may be
unable to subsist.
Biden faces the issue of what to do with Guantanamo prisoner
al-Qahtani, who confessed to a terrorist plot under torture
and cannot therefore have a fair trial.
In my view, this case is simple. Imprisonment without trial is an injustice.
Torture is a vicious evil.
It is more important, morally, for the US to accept the guilt for its
own crimes and take the moral and legal consequences, than to do
punish al-Qahtani any further.
Crown Prince Bone Saw is trying to ruin or kill a former intelligence
official of Salafi Arabia, perhaps because the official was a protege
of the prince's rival. Biden acted to interfere with a US lawsuit
that the prince ordered filed making accusations against the official.
It is noteworthy is that Biden is not giving the prince full support
against his rivals. It is a form of pressure on Salafi Arabia that does
not reach the point of outright hostility, and might be more effective
because of that.
Boston's Mayor Janey endorsed the exaggeration that compares
vaccination certificates to the manumission certificates that freed
slaves in the US needed to show to prove they were not slaves.
In the US, stores check a buyer's ID before selling alcohol.
Does Janey say this is the same as slavery?
The real issues I know of regarding checking vaccination
certificates are
*Haiti requests U.N. commission to probe president's killing.*
Rich countries pushed the other countries to pass new laws to fight
money-laundering, but several governments have distorted this into a way
of punishing critics and dissidents.
*US ranks last in healthcare among 11 wealthiest countries despite
spending most.*
*Russian opposition activist to run for parliament from jail.*
Tigray seems to be conquering substantial parts of other regions of Ethiopia,
and the opposition to this seems to be ineffective.
I am very curious about the explanation for Tigray's military success.
The Gulf stream is starting to weaken. Further global heating, which we cannot now avoid, could cause it to shut down. This would make the US east coast
and the Atlantic coast of Britain, Ireland and France considerably colder.
The bipartisan "compromise" infrastructure bill proposes to have the
government track all car travel.
Regardless of the purpose, tracking people's movements as the method
is unjust. But the purpose stinks, too. The stated purpose is to tax
cars based on the distance they travel, rather than the amount of fuel
they use. Who would prefer that?
Fossil fuel companies would prefer that. I suspect this is really
is meant to hamper emissions reduction.
There are other things in the bill that subsidize fossil fuels.
If you think of this as "infrastructure construction", but might appear
that a smaller amount is better than none at all. But with these harmful
measures, the bill can be worse than none at all.
A wildfire destroyed the historic old town of Greenville, California.
Wildfires in Turkey failed to damage a coal-burning power plant enough to prevent it from making worse wildfires in the future.
1/3 of Republican old people will consider voting for a Democrat who
supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Israel is trying to take Palestinians' homes near Old Jerusalem, and
kick them out. Some were just offered a deal — they can stay in their
homes, for the time being, provided they agree to surrender title and start
paying rent.
They rejected the deal, recognizing that, to first order, it is simply defeat.
Apartment rental companies donated a million dollars to a Democratic Party
PAC, not long before Democrats had to unite to extend the eviction ban.
Perhaps it was not a coincidence that they failed to do that.
This sort of thing is tantamount to bribery. Rep. Tlaib demands that
the PAC return that money.
(satire) *Senate Loses Congress Contract To Upstart Private Legislator Firm.*
Activists call on Congress to permanently ban oil development in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I agree, but they should not stop there. Congress should prohibit all new
fossil fuel development. There is no room in the carbon budget
for any additional fossil fuel development.
Call on Ted Cruz to stop blocking many State Department appointments.
*Is Biden Doing Enough to Fight Off the GOP's Relentless Assault on Democracy?
I Fear Not.*
A woman tracked down her father, then had him prosecuted
and convicted for raping her mother.
*Democrats Considering Major Cuts to Future Pandemic Preparedness.*
Is it so long since they experienced a pandemic that they don't
remember how bad it can be?
Disney is reopening and rehiring old workers — for less pay, no
benefits, and worse conditions.
This URL uses the Invidio.us proxy network to view a Youtube video
without running Youtube's nonfree Javascript code. I would not have
linked to the video on Youtube, but I can link to it on Invidio.us.
Invidio.us will show you a choice of proxy servers to choose from.
Click on Go for your choice of proxy server to view the video there.
*Six Sudan paramilitary officers sentenced to death for killings of
student protesters.*
I am glad that Sudan has been able to try and convict such criminals,
but the death penalty is never justified.
Some people will take offense because you protect others from death or
disability by wearing a mask.
Just because someone takes offense at something you do, that doesn't
imply you shouldn't do it. Just tell them you're proud to help
protect other people, as well as yourself.
A surprising fraction of violent terrorists have a history of violence
against women —
usually as perpetrators, but sometimes as victims or as witnesses.
Bottled water is enormously wasteful. In resource use and in environmental harm, it's a factor of thousands.
France has a law that restaurant must offer customers tap water. A
law like this makes it a lot easier to shun bottled water in restaurants.
Other countries should adopt it.
Nearly all Republicans in Congress are working together to boost the
wrecker's backwards version of history, in which all Republican wrongs
are attributed to their opponents.
The presence of female elders in a family of giraffes helps the
family survive.
This may have to do with why giraffes evolved menopause.
The reason this concerns grandmothers and not grandfathers is that
adult male giraffes do not stay in families with their offspring.
They form separate groups consisting of adult males only.
The only elders that can help lead the family are female.
Elephants are similar, except that the adult males are generally
solitary.
Orca pods include male and female adults, but the males may have grown
up in other pods.
Bolsonaro claims there was election fraud in recent Brazilian elections
and threatens to cancel the next election if Brazil does not switch to
paper ballots.
Brazil should switch to paper ballots, because the current system
cannot be properly audited.
I have not seen any plausible claims that
there has been election fraud, but there could be, and it would be well
to eliminate that risk. However, I would not trust Bolsonaro to attempt
to make elections honest, and his threat would imply an autogolpe.
Members of the UK Parliament continually accept gifts which are
tantamount to bribes.
Members of Congress in the US are not allowed to accept, and do not
accept, gifts of nonzero value. Barnie Frank did accept the
zero-dollar bill I gave him, but then he voted for the DMCA anyway.
*U.S. diplomat Sherman backs moves to end 'forever war' authorizations.*
*Biden to announce new 60-day eviction ban protecting most of US population.*
Five Miami Beach thugs chased Daltona Crudup into a hotel (they claim
he hit one of them), handcuffed him, then started kicking him and
slamming his head into the ground.
Then they grabbed a videographer and beat him up too, then charged
him with some invented crime. But then some good news: the thugs face
criminal charges for these attacks. The charges against videographer
have been dropped.
I have a feeling that thug departments are coming to understand that
they can no longer tolerate brutal behavior by their employees.
That's an important step on the road to changing the brutal behavior.
We must also systematically punish thugs for making bogus accusations.
As my button says, "Jail cops for frame-ups."
The UK police departments have accepted a new oversight board, which
will be headed by a black lawyer who doesn't hesitate to tell them
that their hostile behavior has made blacks afraid of cops.
Italy, Greece and Turkey are overcome with wildfires.
I hope they learn to unite against the tempting deadly money of
fossil fuels.
*Insulated From Patent Waivers, Pfizer and Moderna Hike Vaccine Prices.*
Oil companies invented the ISDS clause ("I Sue Democratic States")
decades ago, and are now using them to make countries pay dearly for
their climate defense actions.
If the fossil fuel companies insist on destroying civilization, the
victims should not go down without a fight. To save millions of lives,
war is justified.
(satire) *Congress Advises Newly Evicted Americans To Just Relocate To
Second Home.*
*Lawsuit Initiated Against Trump for 'Illegal' Deportations Resumes
Against Biden.*
(satire) *Researchers Discover Galaxy-Sized Goldfish Astronauts
Discarded From Space Shuttle In 1988.*
Counties and cities in Colorado are suing oil companies for the expected
costs of coping with global heating for just the next few decades.
103 Thai protesters face charges for insulting the king.
*Siberian heatwave led to new methane emissions, study says.*
This means it is a real positive feedback loop. As global heating proceeds,
it will increase the amount of cuts we need to make to stop the heating.
Nassau County (next to NYC's borough of Queens) is passing a law to
punish people who harass "first responders", which includes cops.
Just as thugs typically say, "He was running toward me and I felt
threatened," after they shoot someone, they will find it easy to say,
of a protester, "He was harassing me," to ruin someone.
Blacks, hispanics, protesters … whoever thugs detest.
A Belarusian opposition activist living in Ukraine was found hanged in
a park.
One must suspect that Lukashenko's agents killed him.
The "Lord's Resistance Army" continues to act as pirates, kidnapping
and enslaving teenagers.
Females who escape then face cruelty from their own families,
due to the condemnation of women who have been raped.
To me, that cruel reception is even nastier than what the pirate army
does. I suspect that the expectation of this reception must inhibit
captives from trying to escape. Perhaps the pirates' continued
existence depends on it.
Bravo to Ms Nyanjura for working to change that.
New Zealand will investigate the causes of its housing shortage.
The problem has been growing for many years, but the pandemic
may have made it worse.
The leaders of the Belarus Olympic team were ordered to send athlete Krystsina
Tsimanouskaya home, but they could not force her onto the plane.
(It is hard to force someone onto a commercial flight departing
from a foreign country.)
Now she is seeking asylum.
Hong Kong: *Anthony Wong accused of breaking law by singing at a pro-democracy
rally three years ago.*
This is China's Humpty-Dumpty understanding of law: it means just what
the authorities choose it to mean, no more and no less.
Climate protesters in Switzerland targeted two large banks for their
continued funding of fossil fuel projects.
*Biden Isn't Withdrawing Troops From Iraq, He's Relabeling Their Mission.*
AOC reproaches the Democrats that wouldn't vote to ban evictions.
Indeed, Biden should have brought thus up earlier. But Democrats
didn't have to wait helplessly for him to do that.
A cluster of 900 cases of Covid-19, most of whom were vaccinated,
shows that defeating Delta requires masks as well as vaccination.
Biden's very flawed infrastructure compromise was a distraction from
the crucial issue of stopping Republicans from rigging future
elections. The same sort of mistake, in the 1870s, led to Jim Crow.
I agree completely. However, that assumes that fixing voting rights
is not already hopeless. What approach could possibly succeed?
Pinochet justified his coup in Chile by accusing President Allende
(falsely) of planning mass murder. Pinochet's party believed this,
and considered his coup justified. The supporters of the bully's cult
are trying to do that here. What can straighten them out?
I think putting the bully on the witness stand under oath can help
correct his lies. If he lies on the stand, he could be charged with
perjury. If he tells the truth, some of his followers may wake up.
Biden has done nothing to make non-medical workplaces protect workers
from Covid-19.
Restorative justice can be more effective than punishment,
for avoiding future harm and future crime.
US citizens: call on Congress to write the budget reconciliation bill
to follow the INVEST Act — raising taxes on the rich and investing
public transit.
The US could spend that money on public transit without any increase
in taxes; it can handle a larger deficit.
But taxing the rich more is a good thing to do, just as investing
more in public transit is a good thing to do.
* We [Britons] feel besieged and imperiled, and the Johnson government is seizing
the chance to weaken our most fundamental liberties.*
Various countries take different approaches to increasing Covid-19
vaccination.
I agree with this position:
I see two moral issues about the details of the system:
Salafi Arabia has launched campaigns of demonization (on antisocial
media) against Arab democratic dissidents, and US journalists whose
investigations make the regime uncomfortable.
The same sort of campaign was used against Jamal Khashoggi, so that
people in Salafi Arabia would endorse the murder of Khashoggi.
Perhaps these campaigns prepare for the murder of journalists and
dissidents, or perhaps it is meant to intimidate and silence them.
Either way, it is a hostile act towards the US.
The president of Tunisia has used constitutional emergency powers
to take drastic actions: dismissing all the ministers and canceling
the immunity of members of parliament.
That last is in effect a threat to prosecute them.
Opponents argue he has not properly followed the constitution.
His supporters rallied on the streets in large numbers,
and so did his opponents. But then he prohibited rallies entirely.
I don't know enough to judge the right or wrong of these actions, but
I think there is enough information to see who the real evildoers are:
the IMF, which demands to increase the price of bread while many
Tunisians fear having no food.
Perhaps there is a more efficient way to make sure that the poor have
bread, rather than a general subsidy for bread. Would the IMF permit
establishment of an alternative support for the poor?
The UK is keeping convicts in brainwashing conditions, basically
solitary confinement.
India increased its repression in Kashmir in 2020, arbitrarily jailing
the main human rights defenders in that former state, which it has
converted into an occupied territory.
People have been imprisoned for criticizing any act of the Indian
government. It sounds like Hong Kong.
The Burmese military rulers say they will hold elections.
Their willingness to have elections could mean an opening for
returning to democracy. They should not be trusted to run the
elections, but through diplomacy they might be led to agree to let
some trusted neutral party do it.
In June, the UK promised not to deport UK-resident EU citizens if they
had made an application for continued UK residence. Now its staff
are doing just that and show no concern for either these promises or
the law.
The UK government has done things like this so much that I must conclude
that the deportation office simply does not care what it does wrong.
President Castillo's administration proposes small and tentative steps
to tax some foreign mining companies more.
Afghan witnesses testified that they saw an Australian soldier murder
a farm worker they knew. But the soldier is not on trial — rather,
he is suing newspapers that accused him. The witnesses are needed
simply to defend the right not to accept his version of what happened.
If the witnesses are right, he ought to be on trial. Furthermore, it
should not matter whether the victim was a farm laborer or Taliban
fighter. Isn't it a war crime to kill a prisoner?
Some House Democrats refused to support extending the eviction moratorium,
and they didn't have the courage to hold a vote to get everyone's position.
Instead they adjourned and left town with no decision.
* Following the killing of President Jovenel Moïse, Haitians are hesitant
to seek aid from the United States, due to the West's long history of
intervention…*
The subcontractors that hire customer service workers treat them like
dirt. Miss a shift, even because of a power outage in your neighborhood
or because your child broke a hand, and you're fired.
The nastiness also includes making them listen ad infinitem for any
sort of abuse that customers give them — while reproaching them
for not handling customers faster.
Abusive customers are personally to blame for what they say, but what
makes it so painful for the worker is the company's rule that the
worker can't hang up. We should not allow these subcontractors to
shift the blame for their system onto individual customers.
We need laws to protect these workers' rights. For instance,
no subcontracting! All these workers must be employees of the
company that the customers are calling. And all but a fraction
should have half-time or full-time work, with overtime pay
for any shift that wasn't scheduled a week in advance.
Sometimes the customer is angry at the company's practices and
policies, and punishes the customer service worker, who is compelled
to follow those practices and policies robotically. If the customer
makes a reasonable demand because of something bad that the company
did, the worker cannot grant it. It is not fair for the company to
use the worker as a shield. There should be a way for the caller to
send a message to people who can vary from the script.
Curtis Crosland spent 30 years in prison after a false conviction
because the Philadelphia thug department concealed evidence.
The new district attorney, Larry Krasner, set up a systematic effort to
correct such injustices, and this exonerated Crosland.
The London Science Museum accepted funds from Shell to make a
presentation about global heating, and made a commitment to avoid
saying anything that might make Shell look bad.
In effect, Shell corrupted the museum. The museum's officials that
accepted the deal are culpable and ought to resign; but let's not let
the small fry distract us from Mr Big. The principal culpability
falls on Shell, and we should not let it evade condemnation and
punishment.
Perhaps companies involved substantially in fossil fuel extraction,
shipment, processing or use should not be allowed to advertise,
or sponsor activities in a visible way.
Billionaires can effectively liquidate assets without paying capital gains tax
by borrowing against the assets at very low interest rate.
* [Researchers] said people need to wear masks and take other steps to prevent
spread until almost everyone in a population has been vaccinated,*
and get vaccinated ASAP. to prevent evolution of more resistant strains.
Texas decreed special harsh treatment for refugees in the name
of protecting the state from Covid-19.
The fundamental dishonesty and contempt show in the pretense that the
government of Texas seeks to reduce Covid-19 infection in the state.
US citizens: call on Wall Street & President Biden
to stop funding climate chaos.
US citizens: call on Biden to lead the way for voting rights.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness
Act.
US citizens: call on your Senators to cosponsor the National Security
Powers Act.
Covid-19 has led many countries to move to a kinder form of
capitalism, instead of the cruel poverty-spreading form that has
dominated since the 1970s.
If this is because the rich feel they can't get away, now, with being
quite so cruel, we will need to keep up the pressure to stop them, or
they will grab back whatever power they have ceded.
The government of Uganda proposes to put trackers in all cars to
surveil everyone's movements.
This would be grounds for a revolt, because tracking people's
movements is the basis for crushing repression.
You'd expect that from Uganda; but I have heard that the European
Union has a similar plan. I would be glad to hear from an expert
who knows how to explain the situation clearly.
British unions call for banning use of subcontracted workers in public
agencies.
I think no employer should be allowed to use subcontracted workers more
than a little bit.
*Major protests swell in Guatemala as calls grow louder for president,
attorney general to resign.*
A Republican wore body armor while he spoke at the wrecker's Jan 6 rally and encouraged people to attack the Capitol.
Dr Faisal Khan, director of public health for St Louis County in
Missouri, spoke in a packed and dangerous county council meeting to
defend his advice to adopt a mask mandate. The room was full of
right-wingers and they responded to him with racist bullying.
St Louis County does not include the city of St Louis,
but does include Ferguson.
*NYPD Reforms Are Failing, Say Plaintiffs Who Won Landmark
Stop-and-Frisk Case.*
*Abolishing online anonymity won’t tackle the underlying problems of racist
abuse.*
Anonymous speech is an important freedom in itself,
since criticism of the powerful is also something that people
will often be intimidated from saying once they know they will be
identified and punished.
Here is a suggestion: social media conversations platforms should not
be allowed to support direct messages. Instead, they could allow
person A to inform person B "I'd like to talk with you — please
contact me at [phone number/email address/other contact channel]"
using fixed wording. That can't be used to carry an insult, but it can
be used to start conversations.
*Trump pressured DoJ officials to falsely claim election corrupt,
memos show.*
Biden is adopting the wrecker's innovation of deporting refugees without
a proper hearing of their claims for asylum.
*73 Major Corporations Paid Just 5.3% Federal Tax Rate Between 2018 and 2020.*
Thanks to increased government aid, there are 45% fewer Americans in poverty
now than there were in 2019.
We can do even better than that if we decide to try.
The UN has received new greenhouse gas pledges from 110 out of 200
countries. Still far from what is needed.
*Covid-19 Vaccine Corruption Implicates Top Bolsonaro Allies.*
Guatemala's indigenous people went on strike in response to the firing
of anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval.
Guatemalans accuse the attorney general of firing him to protect
corrupt cronies of the president.
Arguing that the UK cases against Julian Assange, and against Craig
Murray, both distort the law for a purpose: to criminalize journalists that are not on a leash to large companies that will keep them in
check and protect the dirtiest official secrets.
This is not 100% true: big journalistic organizations sometimes do
help reveal these secrets. But I think it is partly true.
*Eviction crisis looms after Biden and Congress fail to extend Covid ban.
More than 3.6 million [Americans] at risk of eviction after Covid relief ends.*
*Hong Kong man arrested for allegedly booing Chinese anthem while
watching Olympics.*
*Foreign control of North Sea oil licenses threatens UK’s net zero goal.*
*The Select Committee Investigating January 6, like the two
House impeachment efforts that preceded it, appears to have no social
media strategy and no strategy of public outreach and public education.*
The US sanctions on Cuba are intended to make Cubans rebel by causing
them misery and starvation.
This was the intention from the beginning in 1960.
The UK's censorship is broad and repressive: posting something people
are likely to consider "grossly offensive" is a crime.
(The criterion is stated more precisely in the article.)
Meanwhile, black musicians were convicted of singing a prohibited song.
More generally, the institutional racism of the thugs has got worse
since the report that showed how bad it already was.
After 7 months of 2021, humans have used the full amount of what Earth's
ecosystems offer per year.
US citizens: call on Congress to end arms sales to Egypt because of
its atrocious contempt for human rights.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Department of Labor to make businesses pay their
interns.
Everyone: sign a pledge against Amazon.
Call on Wall Street & President Biden to defund global heating.
It is very easy for a human being to become stuck to a piece of
misinformation. Many sorts of misinformation can do this.
To get unstuck requires taking a scientific attitude towards the
possibility that a claim was wrong.
Arguing against the widespread assumption that demanding "informed
consent" from users is an adequate solution to various injustices
of online dis-services.
Explaining the "section 702 backdoor surveillance loophole",
part of the surveillance imposed by the PAT RIOT Act 20 years ago.
Congress is considering whether to shut the back door.
If the average male (in developed countries) causes 16% more greenhouse gas emissions, due to typical male spending preferences, what does that imply?
16% difference in the average does not mean that the typical male
causes 16% more emissions than a comparable female. It could instead
be that 20% of males emit 80% more each, and the rest act just like
females. Averages over groups are meaningful for certain purposes,
but judging individuals is not one of them.
If civilization survives to 2100, it may be a good idea to reduce
pollution on Earth by moving polluting industry to the Moon, where
solar energy is plentiful in the sunlight and undesired waste products
will be stable forever stacked in the shade.
But that issue will not arise at all if global heating destroys
civilization first.
If Biden doesn't wake up to the fact that Republicans oppose by reflex
almost anything he does to help Americans in general, he will be sunk.
The Supplemental Security Income aids 8 million very poor Americans,
either old or disabled, but the amount of aid is set based on the
economic conditions of 50 years ago. As each year goes by, it becomes
less effective.
Cuba is holding very hasty trials of people who helped organize
protests.
(satire) *DaBaby Apologizes For Leaving Jews Out Of Offensive Rant.*
The campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage has won a total of $150 billion in
raises for 25 million low-paid US workers.
In China, even a billionaire can be sentenced to prison for
criticizing the government.
One Republican wise guy is using a financial trick to stop the House
from collecting fines for his defiance of the mask rule.
This is a game Republicans use to appear powerful to their followers.
If the game had no real stakes, the best thing would be to overlook
it. Therefore they have decided to put other people's lives and
health at risk, and their relatives' too. "I can put you and your
family in danger, and you can't stop me, nyah nyah."
The House should adopt measures that are not possible to defy. For
instance, to eject violators from the House space (part of the Capitol,
and House office buildings) and exclude them for 48 hours.
The US should actively promote more vaccine capacity, as well as
waiving patents, to get the world vaccinated faster.
The US should legislate that corporations must consider the interests
of customers, workers, and the public, not only making the most
possible Profit For Owners.
There are still countries which require this.
Members of Congress call on Hilton hotels to refuse to license its name
to a hotel built over a demolished mosque in Xinjiang.
Hilton has various excuses, such as that it licensed the name to a
Chinese company, as if that could eliminate its responsibility.
Bayer will stop selling glyphosate for home use.
It won't happen for 2 years; I hope this isn't a plan to wait and hope
people forget.
The success in protecting wolves in the US west was enough to remove
them from the endangered species list. This allowed some states to
operate plans to wipe them out again. So the Fish and Wildlife Service
has been asked to protect them again.
Australia imprisons some refugees in hotels, which are set up to be
more or less solitary confinement, perhaps 24 hours a day. This can continue
for years.
One refugee is suing, claiming that Australia did not lawfully authorize those hotels as prisons.
A Colorado thug is being prosecuted for a violent attack on
Kyle Vinson, who was unarmed and not threatening anyone.
Another thug who tried to cover it up is being prosecuted too.
This seems to be a serious effort to change the violent and dishonest
behavior patterns of thugs in Aurora, Colorado. I hope it is
effective. No matter what Vinson might be accused of, it was no
justification for attacking him once he had surrendered.
The Scottish parliament has passed laws to cover landowners, but the
Queen lobbied secretly for royal estates to be exempt.
AMLO will free all federal prisoners that have been tortured.
That is a step towards putting an end to torture.
*Our biggest enemy is no longer climate denial but climate delay.*
Tunisia's president arrested an MP who called the president's actions
a "coup".
Whether that is right or wrong is a matter of judgment.
I don't know enough to judge. But arresting the opposition
gives more reason to consider it a coup.
4/5 of the original shipment of chemicals that arrived in Beirut
may have been moved elsewhere by the time the explosion occurred.
That may have avoided a far bigger explosion. It may have been part
of a legitimate effort to protect the city. Or it could have been
a terrorist plot. Or both at once.
Thailand has prohibited reporting bad news; government lies must not
be challenged and cover-ups must not be revealed.
Medicaid home care workers are now required to carry "smart"phones
with a specific nonfree app which tracks them.
Bolsonaro's logging railway would push the Amazon rain forest over the
tipping point, and more or less get rid of it.
*The British government’s Covid strategy was never designed to manage
the virus.* Bogus Johnson projected an air of bumbling,
*using the facade of incompetence to
narrow the political choices available to the public.*
*Millions of destitute Britons rely on charity handouts, yet ministers
feel no shame.*
What Tories feel is pride — they have been working towards this
result for a decade.
Some Americans get vaccinated secretly to avoid showing that they
disagree with the trumpets around them.
It is good to get vaccinated, but we need you to stand up and say so,
to help weaken the intimidatory power of the Republican death cult.
Whatcom county in Washington has banned all new fossil fuel
infrastructure.
That county has refineries and other fossil fuel facilities, so the
refusal to construct more could have a direct impact, as well as
setting an example.
Steven Donziger has been convicted of withholding his Ecuadorian
peasant clients' privileged communications from Chevron, and he has
been sentenced to 6 months in jail.
He will appeal, in the hope that a judge that wasn't selected by Chevron
will overturn the decision.
*Australia can’t dump zero-Covid strategy until 80% of people vaccinated.*
Three-four average Americans' lifetime CO2 emissions are roughly
enough to cause the death of one additional person from global heating
effects.
Supporters of pipeline resistance in Canada are sabotaging trains in
ways that can derail them.
I oppose the pipeline, and I admire support nonviolent civil
disobedience in that cause. However, to risk causing a disaster
cannot be called "nonviolent"; it is going too far.
Alla Mousa, a Syrian doctor, is accused in Germany of torturing
prisoners for Assad.
President Castillo will encounter powerful opposition in Peru's congress,
which is dominated by plutocratist parties.
President Saied of Tunisia seems to be taking action against
broadcasters.
It is not clear how far that will go or whether it calls for condemnation.
*Alabama Miners Take Strike to BlackRock's NYC Headquarters.*
New Zealand is considering breaking up the two large supermarket
chains. With just two competitors, they can both gouge.
I suggest having at least six competitors.
US citizens: state your support for various measures to weaken Amazon's power.
See also the reasons to refuse to buy anything from Amazon.
I stubbornly refuse. When friends want to buy something for me,
I always say, "Please don't get anything for me from Amazon!"
*Elites Profit From "Nonprofit" Charter Schools.* The nonprofit
organization contracts with a profit making company to really run the
school, and really do the skimping, profiteering, and sometimes
cheating.
*Failure to help poor countries fight Covid "could cost global economy
$4.5tn", says IMF.*
That in addition to providing opportunity for more dangerous variants
to evolve. To stop that, we must speed up the production of vaccine
as much as possible, removing all obstacles.
(satire) *BP Launches Environmental Campaign Pledging To Clean Up Oil Polluting Earth's Interior.*
(satire) *Improv Theater’s Corporate Workshops Help Employees Realize Things Could Always Be Worse.*
*Critical measures of global heating reaching tipping point, study finds.*
*Justice Department opposition kills major insurance merger.*
Yes! Block all mergers of large companies!
Unvaccinated state employees in California will have to be tested each week,
and wear N95 masks while on the job.
Biden is considering a similar rule for US government workers.
I am very much in favor of this.
Facebook will do more to ensure that promotion of drinking alcohol
does not reach teenagers.
This increased exception to the usual functioning of Facebook is a
change for the better, but I suspect that Facebook will retain the
data collected from teenagers, and from children, and use it to
profile them once they reach 18. And perhaps use it in other ways
than advertising.
*Top security official for slain Haitian president arrested by police.*
Many in Latin America are recognizing that bringing a child into the
world we are headed into is not a blessing or a gift.
Please take the long view. The Covid-19 situation might get better
for you in a year or two, but it will take a struggle to win humanity
and the ecosphere a tolerable future 20 years from now.
Western companies' dependence on Chinese markets makes them pawns of
China. The more dependent, the worse.
We saw this before with internet services
and computer companies such as Apple.
* We have zero years before climate and ecological breakdown, because
it’s already here. We have zero years left to procrastinate.*
The IMF has bullied Ukraine into "opening the land market",
which I think means that foreigners will be able to buy up the country.
China is finding it difficult to stamp out an outbreak of Delta in
Nanjing.
It seems that Delta is considerably harder to get rid of than earlier
variants. Various experienced countries that knew how to suppress
outbreaks are finding it difficult now. Nonetheless, it is much
safer to push for the goal of zero-Covid than to give up as the US
and most European countries have done.
Australia has repeatedly found that its quarantine and arrivals
procedures left small loopholes that Covid-19 could sometimes slip
though.
If the world switches to artificial meat, it needs to ensure that the
new system does not harm workers, consumers and the environment as the existing system does.
Apple farms out repair of Macbooks to a sweatshop company, CSAT
Solutions, which treats workers abominably.
Apple bears the responsibility for the mistreatment of workers, and so
do Dell and Lenovo which also use CSAT.
If companies such as Apple don't want the responsibility for treatment
of workers by subcontracted companies, they should establish a system
which protects workers' rights universally.
Burning most of the known fossil fuel reserves would cause 16 C of
global heating.
This would be worse than the heat that caused the end-Permian extinction
which wiped out almost all species in the ocean. Humans might hang on
in some polar regions.
350.org calls on the Federal Reserve to stop financing of fossil fuel
projects.
The CDC now recommends people wear masks in indoor public places even
if they are vaccinated, in most parts of the US (those with infection
rates above a certain threshold).
The complexity of the condition will make this recommendation less
effective. Even some of the states that try to prevent Covid-19 have
rates that are increasing fast. Vaccinated people should wear masks
in indoor public places everywhere in the US, and other countries
where Covid-19 is circulating.
Nina Turner is running in the Democratic primary for a
congressional seat in Ohio. Her opponent is a plutocratist,
getting campaign funds from Republicans.
The opponent faces an accusation of criminal corruption: using her
office as Cuyahoga County commissioner to steer contracts to a
business owner by long-term friends and supporters.
A preliminary review found the accusation plausible enough to refer it to
the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Activists responded to Bezos's space joyride with a rally to tax the
rich more.
Capitol police — *for once in this nation's history the good guys* —
testified about being attacked by trumpets, a fact which trumpets now
lie about.
The US National Football League has decided that if a team can't play
due to players sick with Covid-19, that team forfeits the game.
Tories propose to reduce crime by increasing the systematic harassment
of blacks on the street.
*Student Data Used to Tag Kids as Potential Criminals* in Florida.
The unfortunate families selected get persistent harassment and
surveillance, as well as minor criminal charges that can bankrupt and
jail the parents.
(satire) *Olympics Under Fire For Human Rights Violations After
Forcing Athletes To Exert Themselves.*
The investigation of the murder of Moise has encountered strange obstacles
that look like a cover-up.
The committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, Jan 6, has
started meeting, and Republican saboteurs in Congress are trying to
distract attention from it.
Jesse Jackson and William Barber are charged with trespassing
for holding a sit-in outside Senator Sinema's office.
(Barber is the leader of the Poor People's Campaign.)
They could be jailed for 6 months.
I hope Senator Sinema realizes how bad that would look.
*Labor Movement: We Need a Big National Strike Fund.*
Morocco arrested exiled Uyghur activist Yidiresi Aishan when he arrived
from Turkey, and plans to send him straight to China for prosecution.
Extraditing Aishan to China would be like extraditing Julian Assange
to the US: a shameful disrespect for human rights. There is no reason
to trust China's criminal accusations against dissidents. Construing
dissent as "terrorism" is a widespread practice.
The UK's electoral system suppresses minor parties almost as hard as
the US electoral system. This prevents real politics and saddles the
country with fantasist manipulators like Bogus Johnson.
Whistleblower Daniel Hale was sentenced to almost 4 years in prison
for revealing that US drone attacks were killing lots of civilians,
which the US had tried to cover up.
Shame on the US government for prosecuting heroes such as Hale.
A new method of measuring the status of endangered wildlife is based
on how far it is from returning to its previous population, before
anthropic damage.
*Ex Rio Tinto chief Walsh joins Aboriginal group's board.*
A former mining executive probably owns lots of stock in mining
companies. He might perhaps be able to give useful advice to this
organization, provided they remain alert to the danger of being led
into a trap.
But there is something fishy about putting the mining executive on the
board, where he could vote to make it decide to "compromise" by
letting the mining company have its way. Thus, I am skeptical that
the organization truly intends to protect those lands. It could
decide that the best way to "benefit" the Banjima is to pay the
organization to permit more mining.
I wonder which of the Banjima would actually benefit from some of that
money, and how that relates to the board of the organization.
US citizens: call on Biden not to let the wrecker and his officials
off the hook of criminal prosecution.
Mass tourism on Zakynthos is wiping out the sea turtles. They have to
stay far out to sea to avoid swimmers and boats, and it is hard to
come in to lay eggs.
A woman in Alabama faces a felony charge for taking a painkiller while
pregnant.
Pregnant women will be scared to talk to doctors when they realize that
doctors might be required to turn them in.
Explaining the details of how gerrymandering fits through loopholes in
the rules for legislative districts.
A proposal: to end tobacco addiction by prohibiting the sale
to anyone born after 2005.
Tobacco is very dangerous, and I urge everyone never to use it.
However, prohibiting an addictive drug is asking for unrest, crime,
and corruption. Let's not start a War on Tobacco!
Tanzania has charged an opposition party's leaders with planning terrorism.
This is over the top, and basically says that the president doesn't care
how transparently false the accusations are.
Heat waves in the next few decades will get hotter an accelerating rate,
so they will set new records more often.
Labour has made an important campaign promise: workers rights will
cover to all kinds of workers, starting from the first day of work.
Biden has not even started on most of his environmental campaign promises.
He has started reversing only 1/4 of the wrecker's environmental sabotage
measures, while supporting another 1/4.
Hungarians protested against the government's use of Pegasus to spy on
dissidents.
They compared this with the Communist regime's surveillance, and repression.
Powerful entities — governments and rich businesses — want to track
people to get more power over them. In systems of universal
surveillance, future dissidents will be surveilled in advance.
The most sensitive personal data are metadata:
For the sake of democracy, we must forbid the existence of systems
that can collect these data about people.
*California and New York City to mandate vaccine for government
workers. Department of Veterans Affairs becomes first major federal
agency to require healthcare workers to receive Covid shot.*
The requirement is not absolute — each worker can choose to be tested
once a week, instead of vaccinated. I support this in principle, but
I think the tests should be more frequent; perhaps twice per work week.
Factory farms pollute rivers, lakes and oceans, drive global heating, and make
so much meat that people in many countries make themselves sick.
Some senators support a bill to eliminate factory farms in the US, over a
period of two decades.
(satire) *Boston Dynamics Unveils New Robots Able To Realistically
Behave Like They Under Researchers' Control.*
Over 30,000 Australians can't go home. They may have to wait years,
and may be ruined by debt, including the high cost of the "subsidized"
flights.
I disagree with the writer on one point. Given the world-wide
shortage of vaccine, I think it was proper of Australia to rest behind
its wall of quarantine and suffer occasional shutdowns to keep people
safe, making vaccination unnecessary. If Delta makes that cease to be
effective, so that Australia needs to compete for the scarce vaccines,
it will be an unfortunate setback.
But that is a separate issue. Australia should spend more on
quarantine facilities so that it can bring its people home sooner.
Australian officials reviled anti-lockdown protesters in Sydney for
"filthy, risky behavior", as well as fining them.
I disagree with the protesters' position; I'm convinced that Sydney
needs a more complete shutdown in order to suppress the outbreak
faster. ("Shutdown" is not quite the same thing as "lockdown".)
However, their right to protest is another matter. Prohibiting
protest is repression. The right to protest is sacred to democracy.
There are clearly things that protesters could do which risk spreading
Covid-19 — for instance, failing to keep their distance from each
other and everyone else. Protesters must obey rules like that, to
keep the protest safe for each other and everyone else.
However, the article does not report that most of these protesters did
things that endangered anyone. What officials call "filthy" appears
to be simply a matter of breaking a rule about travelling more than
5km away from home.
It is not more dangerous to travel 6km than 4km. The rule is clearly
meant as a rough approximation to reduce the overall level of travel
and social intercourse.
That might be a helpful measure in general, but they should make an
exception for a protest now and then.
To call an individual "toxic" is to essentialize per behavior.
It is misguided to put all the blame on one person, disregards the
point that perse is responding to the structure of the situation,
and denies the possibility that people can learn to act better.
China is suffering a disaster of extreme rains and flooding. Will this convince Xi to give higher priority to decarbonization?
We must hope so.
A former NHS nurse is telling people that vaccination is comparable to
Nazi war crimes, and encouraging in a vague way threats against NHS
staff.
Shemirani's absurd claims are indeed reprehensible and dangerous. Not
surprisingly, there are calls to criminalize them now if that has not
already been done.
However, we cannot make a free society by jailing people for expressing
hostility and saying things the government designates as reprehensible
and dangerous. It is not merely possible that this will lead to
repression, it is virtually certain given the censorious spirit that
rules in the UK. Here's an example in Fiji.
The UK must refute Shemirani's raving falsehoods with truth,
not with a gag.
The Tories have recognized that the privatized bus lines of the UK
(outside the London metropolitan area) are a useless subsidy for
businesses, but their proposed solution won't change much.
A former Australian soldier is on trial for the murder of a handcuffed
prisoner in Afghanistan.
*A record number of companies
are making climate pledges, but experts warn the pace of action remains
glacially slow in the face of a barreling climate crisis.*
*Afghanistan civilian casualty figures at record high, UN says.*
The Taliban and PISSI are killing and wounding most of those
civilians. They have been responsible for a large amount of the
civilian casualties before.
A report from Iraq claims that the Sh'ite militias are too powerful
for either the Iraqi government or Iran's agent (the replacement for
General Suleimani) to keep them under control.
Old people often felt more lonely and depressed with only digital communication with friends and family, than being entirely alone.
Oil companies are using ISDS clauses to demand huge penalties from
countries that limit fossil fuel extraction.
These treaties are not merely the enemies of democracy, they can
destroy human civilization and the ecosphere. Allowing those
companies to get what they demand would be worse than fighting a war
to defeat them.
*End the 'National Security' Excuse for Racial and Religious
Profiling.*
UK thugs regard Extinction Rebellion as a threat to the "UK way of
life", and try asking supporters to turn informer about the group's
supposed crimes. They don't seem to understand that XR is trying to
stop a far bigger real threat.
The History of FAIR — correcting the gaps in mainstream media.
Tens of thousands joined a rally in Hungary to defend queer rights against
Orbán's censorship law.
The law ostensibly prohibits "promoting" transgenderism or homosexuality,
but just talking about them or instances of them seems to be interpreted
as "promoting" them.
The striking workers at the Frito-Lay plant accepted a new contract offer
which somewhat reduced their overtime.
However, when you see that one of the things they won was a 6-day work week,
it shows how far in the wrong direction US labor law has been driven
in the 40 years since Reagan attacked unions.
*Indonesia loosens Covid restrictions despite record deaths.*
The new case rate is supposedly falling, but that may be because
they are testing fewer people.
US citizens: call on Congress to pay/cancel Americans' utility debts.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the PRO Act,
which will protect the right to organize unions.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection
Act.
Canadians plan painstaking analysis of the bones of deceased
indigenous children, buried next to the schools they were forced to
attend. This could determine what killed some of them.
Direct physical evidence of mistreatment of specific people will make
it hard to disregard the horror of those schools.
The UK uses a dumb automated contact-tracing app which tells the user
to stay home for 10 days when it detects a possible contact. Just now
it has told so many people to stay home that many of society's systems are
failing, including trains, hospitals and food distribution.
Contact tracing is a very important method of keeping Covid-19 in
check, but it is usable only when the infection rate is low enough
that the burden of isolating the contacts is bearable. The UK has too
high a level of infection.
Contact tracing in the UK never worked as well as it should have,
because the Tory government applied its usual bad management
and its usual corrupt contracting.
This problem is one of many consequences of the underlying bad
approach: allowing Delta to run almost unimpeded through the population
by ending nearly all measures to hold it back.
A recent analysis finds the global economy following paths forecast
in 1972 by The Limits to Growth.
Resource scarcity has not been a big problem thus far, but we do face
challenges in resources for making batteries. Population growth has
not caused a disaster, but it is still heading for one.
Bogus Johnson talks about "levelling up", meaning to raise the
standard of living in the poorer areas north of London, but the
measures he proposes are nowhere near adequate to achieve that.
Tories propose inadequate measures because they are not really interested
in helping anyone that is poor. If Britons really want to reduce poverty
in the UK, they need to make Corbyn prime minister.
A UK citizen, prisoner in Somalia, says he is being tortured with UK
connivance to pressure him to work for the CIA.
He says that FBI agents questioned him in the prison where he is
being tortured, including by waterboarding.
Japanese officers were executed for waterboarding US prisoners of war
during World War II.
I condemn the death penalty, but we must
punish torture, including torture by Americans.
China, Russia, Brazil and Australia have energy policies aiming for 5C
of global heating
(or more, due to possible positive feedbacks not properly modeled).
US citizens: call on Biden to end the trade sanctions on Cuba.
US citizens: call on the Senate to examine the FBI's sham Kavanaugh
investigation.
More information on the cover-up.
Human activities are wiping out insects overall (with a few species,
such as cockroaches and mosquitoes, as exceptions). Insects are
crucial in almost all land ecosystems, so we could not even try to
survive if we continue to reduce insect populations.
Cuban socialists now criticize the state for cracking down on
protests.
Perhaps this offers a chance to make Cuba respect human rights while
continuing to resist capitalist colonization. I hope the US will
respond to this by dropping the sanctions. But if they are really
driven by plutocracy, it won't be quick to drop them.
In Italy, local scandals about political corruption are followed by an
increased rate of theft of products by customers in supermarkets.
Canada has accorded a river the false status of "living entity".
This concept carries a practical danger that most activists do not
recognize: it will be hard to fight the idea that corporations are
"persons" if we tolerate the idea that rivers are "persons."
An ecosystem is not a person, not even an organism. It can't exercise
rights, but it can be worth protecting.
Let's put aside this absurdity. We can make laws to protect rivers,
in whatever way we determine is needed, without endorsing flagrant
irrationalism.
UK health minister Sajid Javid tried to use the standard Republican
manipulation, "If you are scared of catching Covid-19, your a sissy.
We don't need any precautions here!" But people responded with anger.
This has to be won gradually. The bully built up his US death cult
step by step, getting his followers to push each other along one step
further into fanaticism, then waiting before the next step.
Russia has blocked a popular opposition candidate from running for
parliament, based on accusations that are strange and hard to believe.
When debating with short-termers who would trade survival of
civilization for more jobs this decade, it is useful to know
that decarbonization would provide increased employment
as well as helping civilization survive.
(satire) *Dozens Of Athletes Incinerated After Being Attracted To
Sight Of Glowing Olympic Flame.*
Calling for an end to the standardized tests that the US requires of
schools.
*150 Voting Rights Groups Warn Biden Against Attempting to 'Out-Organize Voter
Suppression'.*
Sam Barton has a valid point, but I don't think it alters what we
ought to do: support the campaigns of progressive candidates. What
about Biden, then? He started out more progressive than I expected, but
he is too willing to throw in the towel rather than go to the mat
with Manchin and Republicans.
Republican state legislatures want to restrict the emergency powers of
state medical officials, so that they can't protect people from
Covid-19 or future diseases.
The lunatic Republican death cult has taken sickness and death as its
emblem.
Ghana is considering a law to imprison homosexuals for 10 years,
along with anyone who aids homosexuals or defends equal rights for them.
Spyware called Pegasus, sold to governments by a company called the
NSO Group, cracks mobile phones to spy on their usage. Amnesty
International was given access to a list of 50,000 alleged
surveillance targets. Not all those numbers were in fact targeted,
but many of them were. This demonstrates that Pegasus is regularly
used for purposes of spying and repression.
*At least 180 journalists in 20 countries have been targeted,*
or at least are on the target list.
Also lawyers and activists.
Morocco considered spying on French President Macron's phone.
Likewise some French ministers. One minister provided his phone for
examination; it showed signs of spying.
In India, it seems that Modi's right-wing antdemocratic party BJP used
Pegasus against the Congress Party,
including apparently against its leader, Rahul Gandhi.
One of his
supporters calls for banning Amnesty as punishment for revealing the
BJP's wrongdoing.
That's Modi for you.
Speaking of Modi, there is evidence that the Emir of Dubai used Pegasus to find
Princess Latifa on a boat
so that Modi's soldiers could grab her.
In Hungary, Orbán's repressive government is spying on his opponents.
Current Mexican president AMLO says that the previous Mexican
president spied on many people's phones, including perhaps AMLO's own
phone.
The country that spied on Britons seems to be the UAE.
The NSO Group says that it tells its clients to use the spying
software only against "crime and terrorism," then takes on faith that
they are sticking to that rule.
The company emphasizes that it does check not what client countries
actually do with it, but we are supposed to have faith in them too.
As we know, unjust governments often make dissent a crime,
and/or call it terrorism.
Other methods have been used for over 20 years at least to use mobile phones
as listening devices.
To put a stop to this, and other means of spying through portable
phones, we need phones that are designed for real security and in
which all the software is free, including the software in the modem
processor.
Everyone: state your support for the Belarus branch of PEN.
Lukashenko may shut it down.
Republican truth haters persistently lead Americans to risk death and
disablement. Are they guilty of murder by means of "depraved
indifference to human life"?
After checking the definition in Wikipedia, that seems plausible to me.
* Our entire political system is designed to let corporate money
speak, through campaign contributions and corporate lobbying.* This
is especially true in West Virginia, which may be why things are
run so badly there and the people are so poor.
The US is very much concerned about Poland's plan to suppress a TV
news channel owned by Discovery Inc. The US government is more
concerned about protecting US businesses' investment in Poland than about possible Polish censorship of news.
*Reform unemployment, US workers say, as Covid reveals chaotic systems.*
Hong Kong has sentenced people that attacked protesters in 2019 to
years in prison.
This is at least a little bit of even-handed law enforcement.
However, it cannot overcome the repression.
Australian lobbying of various countries prevented UNESCO from designating the Great Barrier Reef as "endangered".
We all know that it is endangered by CO2 emissions, both because
of global heating and because of the ocean acidification caused by CO2.
For UNESCO to acknowledge this would have helped the cause of curbing
those emissions.
A new proposed agreement to slow the destruction and extinction of wildlife
is inadequate, like the Paris agreement on climate defense, because it only
calls for nonbinding targets.
It should be noted that if we don't curb global heating, it will cause
extinction of lots of species, regardless of whatever other measures
we take to protect them. Ecosystems depend on relationships of
species, each of which is adapted to the conditions created by the others,
and to aspects of the climate (such as, the typical temperature in March).
Global heating messes it all up.
*Bust of Klan leader is removed from Tennessee state capitol after decades.*
It is interesting that it was installed in 1978. Like the monuments installed
in the early 20th century, it celebrated slavery and racism.
Science is the method for being rational when it is impossible to
be certain. Dealing with Covid-19 is an illustration of this.
Lebanon's water systems will fail soon for lack of money to pay for running them.
A New Zealand museum has "returned" bones that were dug up in 1949.
What can we say about this?
This article pervasively uses language which treats the dead as if
they were alive.
A person who died no longer exists; what does exist are remains. The
remains are not a person, not alive; things can happen to them, but
they cannot actively do anything. They cannot "come home." They
cannot "rest." They cannot truly be "welcomed," since that word
refers to making a person aware of one's feelings towards per, and a
corpse cannot be aware.
Remains can be stolen, like any other objects that are property. Was
digging up the skeletons in question really "stealing"? Were they
property? I don't know the specific circumstances, so I have no
opinion.
I disapprove of fetishizing corpses, regardless of which ethnic group
they are from. Nothing matters to a dead person. The only valid
reasons to care what happens to a corpse are (1) what science can
learn from studying it and (2) to cater to living people's feelings
about it.
Which of those concerns is more important in any given case depends on
details. The article does not give those details, so I have no
opinion. I do see that the article aims to inculcate the assumption
that (2) is the only possible concern.
*Mystery Group Promoting Infrastructure Privatization Boosted by Toll
Road Lobbyists.*
"Public-private partnerships" generally indicates corruption — it means that
the government helps put a company in a position to squeeze the public.
Athens will look for measures to make the city a little cooler.
This is short-term palliative treatment for global heating. What the
world needs is a long-term cure.
Sierra Leone has abolished the death penalty.
Calling for an end to the Olympic games.
All the supposed social benefits offered as reasons to hold them —
local economic growth, better physical fitness, convincing repressive
host governments to allow freedom — have proved to be false promises.
What the games really do is hurt local poor people
and boost repressive "security".
I've long urged people to campaign to defeat their city's bid
to hold the games. To end them completely would be a full solution
for this problem.
(satire) *Opening Ceremony Depicts Olympics’ Time-Honored Tradition Of Destroying Local
Communities.*
After Simon Akam wrote the history book he had contracted to write,
about the British Army in Afghanistan and Iraq, Penguin Random House
demanded he let his sources and the British government revise it.
Then it broke the contract and demanded he pay to be allowed to
publish elsewhere.
Fishermen assume, without evidence, that oceanic wind farms will
reduce the amount of fish that they can catch.
One way or another,
it has to screw them, they believe.
It might have the opposite effect. In general, protected marine areas
increase the fish population, Some of the fish move from the protected
areas to other areas where fishing is allowed. The result is to
increase the total catch that is sustainably possible.
If the effect of wind farms is to protect areas from fishing, it might
have this same beneficial effect on total fishing.
Anyway, fishermen are comparing against an fictitious future in which
global heating does not occur. Continued global heating will
devastate the ocean, and it could destroy technological civilization.
The remaining fishermen might have to carve canoes out of trees, if
they can find any trees left standing.
Line 3 protesters got a court to order the county sheriff's thugs to stop
blocking entrance into their land.
This was the right thing for the court to do, but it is not enough.
When uniformed thugs intentionally harass people for their lawful political
activities, that calls for more than just ordering them to stop.
It requires a punishment stiff enough to make sure they never do it again.
6 million US households are likely to face eviction at the end of this
month unless Biden extends the protection against eviction.
(satire) *NASA Returns To Home Planet After Completing Mission On Earth.*
(satire) *Bat-Wielding Jim Jordan Bursts Through Capitol Window
Demanding To Be Allowed Onto January 6 Committee.*
Republican states are rushing to end the boost in unemployment
payments, claiming that this would pressure low-paid workers to rush
back to low-paid jobs. It did not have that effect.
*Marijuana farmers blamed for water theft as drought grips American west.*
I wonder what fraction of total water use this amounts to.
Is it enough to be a significant factor in the shortage?
It seems to amount to be around 1.5 billion gallons per year.
What is California's total water usage per year?
Theft might cause a real problem to specific houses which
had water stolen under their own accounts.
Naomi Klein: billionaires still think they can move to escape global
heating effects, but most people in wealthy countries are starting to
realize there is no safe place to move to.
US citizens: call on Senator Sinema to meet with the Texas Democrats.
Bernie Sanders explains how the new budget will make most Americans
less poor.
MIT's advice to vaccinated people about dealing with the Delta variant.
Biden imposed sanctions on some Cuban officials involved in repressing
protests.
These sanctions are acceptable. The US should relax the old sanctions
that cause the suffering that Cubans are protesting against,
and replace them with these and other new sanctions that hardly affect
anyone but the elite.
The US has charged a Chinese official (and some hired Americans) of
working to bully Chinese expats to go to China to face prosecution.
Mexico wants Israel to extradite a former high official accused of
corruption and undermining the investigation of the kidnaping and murder
of 43 students. But Israel may be being uncooperative to punish
Mexico for supporting Palestinians' rights.
Japan has pledged to move rapidly to renewable electric generation.
Now Australia will find its coal and gas export markets disappearing.
Hooray! Australia's truth-despising planet-roaster government deserves
this slap in the face.
It deserves three more slaps in the face, for (1) unending
imprisonment of thousands of boat people without trial, (2)
prosecuting whistleblowers, and (3) threatening to imprison free
software developers who don't add back doors on command.
* A group of US Democratic senators on Thursday said that newly released
materials show the FBI failed to fully investigate sexual misconduct
allegations against US supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when
he was nominated to the court in 2018.*
Investigative journalists now face high-tech surveillance carried out
by teams that combine multiple methods, including spying on smartphones.
*Tax raids target Indian paper that criticised government over Covid.*
President Nixon made an "enemies' list" and ordered the IRS to
investigate the people on it. This seems like similar corruption
on Modi's part; but it is no surprise, since he has already done
much worse things, including putting a whole state under martial law
and preparing to exile Muslims without proper papers.
The US demands extradition of a Venezuelan government representative
to Iran, who was arrested in Cape Verde when his plane was refueling
there.
His "crime" was arranging trade between Venezuela and Iran.
The US can make rules about its own trade with other countries, but it
cannot legitimately have jurisdiction over dealings between two other
countries.
Tigray's militia/army, the TPLF, is attacking neighboring regions of
Ethiopia and trying to conquer disputed territory.
I am astonished by Tigray's military successes in fighting against so
many enemies. I wonder if there is an explanation. Could it be that
Sudan is supporting them? Sudan (along with Egypt) has a big dispute
with Ethiopia about use of water from the Nile. This is speculation,
a shot in the dark, but I wonder if anyone knows.
1/6 of American workers are stuck in a job and can't leave it because
they would lose their medical coverage. Others are stuck in a
marriage that for the same reason they can't leave.
We need a national medical system that covers everyone and is not tied
to employment or family.
Haiti is a battleground between powerful elites, and the killing of
President Moise was an example of how they contend for power.
That is all we actually know — details such as who was fighting
whom over what remain a mystery for now.
Bogus Johnson claimed he could magically satisfy conflicting goals at
once, regarding Northern Ireland's trade. He promised the EU
frictionless trade with Northern Ireland. He promised Northern
Ireland unionists frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and
Britain. He promised his British supporters not to have frictionless
trade between Britain and the EU. There is no way to keep all three promises.
Pelosi's decision not to include Republican saboteurs in the Jan 6
Capitol attack investigation means the committee can actually try to
do its job.
It was very important to deal Team Sabotage a visible defeat.
Low traffic neighborhoods in London cut the rate of road collision
injuries in half.
Extreme rain is causing flooding in more areas of China.
I hope this wakes up the Chinese government to the urgency of
curbing global heating. China is only starting to slow its increase
in greenhouse emissions, and it will suffer greatly if the world does
not unite to lower emissions and quickly.
*UK faces legal action over North Sea oilfield exploration plans.
Greenpeace threatens to take government to court as approval risk[s]
undermining climate targets.*
The large "Bootleg" fire in Oregon has burned 90,000 acres of trees
that were sold as a carbon offset.
The assumption was that they would keep growing and keep on taking
CO2 out of the air. However, all the carbon in those trees has been
converted back to CO2.
I've warned since 2007 that this is a risky assumption
in a world of global heating.
*Airlines need to do more than plant trees to hit net zero, MPs told.*
The opposition to freeing the manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines is now
coming mainly from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
The vaccine waiver is vitally necessary, but what we really need is
much more. The TRIPES agreement (Trade-Restricting Impediments to
Production, Education and Science) was designed to elevate business
over people; it is an implementation of trickle-down. We should get
rid of it.
Arguing that Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory are a war crime
in and of themselves.
They also act as bases for more specific war crimes against
Palestinians.
Large banks are abandoning their own computer systems and switching to
Big Tech's servers. That could be asking for trouble.
The article uses the nebulous term "the cloud", so it does not
distinguish between renting virtual servers and running the bank's own
choice of software on them, and using Google services. However, the former
gives a bank the option of having control over the software it runs,
while the latter does not.
Tanzania's new president is as repressive as the old one.
*US workplace injuries caused by heat severely undercounted, study shows.*
The study says they may be undercounted by more than a factor of 100.
*Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I've gone from being an ecologist to a
coroner’.*
Small dairy farms in Wisconsin can no longer survive — a few large farms
are taking over.
The large farms seem to be more efficient, if you don't count finding
some way to support all the unemployed ex-farmers. I fear they will
be dumped on America's human trash heap.
The committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol will
investigate the actions of the House minority leader and the wrecker,
who participated in instigating the attack.
Behrouz Boochani: who are the interests that profit by Australia's
keeping boat people in prison forever without trial?
Fracking injects nonbiodegradable toxins (PFAs).
No wonder frackers worked so hard to protect their supposed "right"
to conceal these "trade secrets".
Businesses have many reasons to want to keep secrets about their
actions, but what they want is less important than what the public
needs. We should never hesitate to force exposure of their secrets
when there is a public need to do so, and we should reject their demands to
"compensate" them for the public's investigations.
Gig workers in many US cities went on strike on July 21.
*Secret NYPD Document Teaches Cops to Illegally Raid Sealed Records.*
A bill introduced in the Senate would tighten restrictions on fighting
and deploying troops without specific congressional authorization.
It would also cancel all existing congressional authorization for combat.
Explaining some of the extreme weather that global heating is starting
to cause.
*China rejects WHO plan for study of COVID-19 origin.*
*Deadly coral disease sweeping Caribbean linked to wastewater from ships.*
*From China to Germany, floods expose climate vulnerability.*
*After Covid, the climate crisis will be the next thing the right says we
"just have to live with".*
Indian farmers continue protesting Modi's laws that give big companies
more clout over ordinary farmers.
This shows who Modi is really working for.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the expanded child tax credit permanent.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to vote on the American Dream and
Promise Act of 2021.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The consequences of limiting social contact and travel are not worse than
letting Covid-19 spread.
Lithuania is resisting Chinese pressure and opening a "representative
office" in Taiwan.
A taxonomy of possible pandemic response strategies.
Exclusion (when possible) and eradication generally give
the best results, both in terms of the fewest deaths,
the fewest people with disabilities, and the least harm
to the economy.
Suppression (try to keep the number of cases down) and mitigation
("flatten the peak" so hospitals don't get full) lead to more harm
of every sort.
Ralph Nader presents a list of major, deadly problems which the US
government should have addressed decades ago, but interested
businesses blocked action until the present.
Each "smart"phone (for "smart" read "spy") has a unique "mobile
advertising ID" number which supposedly makes it possible for
surveillance capitalism to profile the user without knowing per
identity. It sounds nice, but businesses that link that ID to the
user's name and address etc. are in use on an industrial scale.
Given the powerful incentives to make nonfree apps malware, and make
online services into dis-services, I think schemes like this are
unlikely even to be effective.
I advocate going back to the World Wide Web of 2000, in which users
sent a web site only the limited data they actually wanted to send.
(satire) *Hesitant Man Just Waiting To Observe Long-Term Effects Of
Vaccine Over Next Several Eons.*
Congress is trying to help people escape from abusive
conservatorships that have been imposed on them by states.
I have not followed the Britney Spears case, but I think these reforms
are good changes. They, and can help protect people from abuse by
heir conservators, and I don't see that they are likely to do facilitate
any sort of wrong.
(satire) *FBI Warns Oregon Fire Had Been Plotting Violent Takeover Of
State For Years.*
TikTok and Youtube have collected data about users, including users
that are children, and used it for abusive purposes such as to figure
out how to get them hooked. Maybe they still do.
In my view, we should not allow online dis-services to do this to
children. Or to adolescents. Or to adults. Respecting users'
privacy and well-being should not end when the user gets to be 13
years old.
*Critics Note Blinken's Vow to Support 'Independent Journalists' Does
Not Apply to Julian Assange.*
Biden's "Plan for Security and Prosperity in Central America" turns
out to be more of the same old same old: economic domination with
military backup.
Four Mexican states have now decriminalized abortion.
If Mexican states on the US border legalize abortion, they
could provide abortions to women fleeing oppression in Texas.
Labour has plans to become a "safe space" for "all its members", by
expelling certain leftist groups of members.
Surely it is not a coincidence that these groups organized to support or
defend Jeremy Corbyn.
West coast wildfires are poisoning the air over New York City and
other east coast cities.
A lawyer working for Alaska's department of law anonymously advocated
violence and repression against Black Lives Matter protesters and
others on the left.
Under the constitution, he has the right to advocate such views, but
they make him unfit for his job.
A disappointing outcome regarding the Nord Strea 2 gas pipeline from
Russia to Germany: Ukraine will be protected from Russian pressure,
but Europe will increase its dependence on Russian gas — and, even
worse, extend its overall dependence on fossil fuel.
In every decision about use or non-use of fossil fuel, reducing that
dependence should be the primary consideration.
*Covid-19 antibodies detected in 67% of India’s population.*
It looks like most people have already caught it. The total deaths
are estimated at 3.5 to 5 million. If it spreads to the rest,
that could mean 2 million more deaths.
The UK government's general repression bill proposes to make reporting
on whistleblowing a crime, and give officials the power to impose
arbitrary restrictions on individuals suspected of planning acts of
journalism.
Banks are only just waking up to the need to consider sea-level rise
when deciding about making mortgages.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to kill the Hyde amendment
which limits federal funding for abortion.
Here's the text I used:
I am writing as your constituent to tell you that I support ending the
Hyde Amendment and all legal impediments to abortion.
Abortion is basic health care, and no person should be denied access
because of where perse lives, how much money perse makes, or anything
about per medical insurance.
Therefore, I support ending all barriers to abortion, including the
Hyde amendment. Ideally all medical plans should be required to cover
100% of the cost of an abortion. The usual argument that patients
should pay a copay so they have "skin in the game" does not apply to
abortion.
Uganda jailed activists that worked for the opposition presidential candidate.
*Climate envoy John Kerry has rejected notion that Beijing could buy US
silence on human rights as price of cooperation on climate.*
I think that is proper.
Haiti's elections minister says that the two suspects accused of
organizing the murder of President Moise were probably not the
ringleaders of the plot.
He did not speculate about who the ringleaders might be.
As for whether those two suspects were actually involved in the plot,
I have seen no information shedding light on that.
G20 countries provided 3 trillion dollars of subsidy to fossil fuels
since 2015 despite their stated intention to defend the climate.
Perhaps directed that intention into preparation of targets for 2050,
so far in the future that it is purely an excuse. We need action,
not targets.
US employers want to use prisoners and pay them a pittance
rather than give their employees a raise.
India officially acknowledges 400 thousand deaths from Covid-19,
but the actual number could be as high as 5 million.
Governments that don't respect truth feel a temptation to minimize the
extent of death and sickness that Covid-19 causes. Republicans are the
ultimate truth-disrespecters in the US, and indeed Florida officials
understated the casualties in 2020.
Hundreds of refugees in Brussels have been on hunger strike for two
months, demanding permission to live in Belgium.
Manchin's profits with fossil fuels go beyond the usual (stock,
campaign support). He owns a coal company and gets $500k per year
from it.
This shows why Manchin is so determined to sabotage the survival of
civilization. Unfortunately it does not show us a way to overcome his
opposition.
Global shipping has no way of changing crews in East Asia. Crew find
them stuck on ships for too long, with no way to go home; so they are
thinking of quitting that work. This could cause a crisis for
shipping.
US veterans of the war in Afghanistan are becoming aware that fighting
there was a waste.
The war Afghanistan is unwinnable, but that was not clear at the
start. Most of Afghanistan rejected the Taliban immediately in 2001
and allied with the US. But it morphed into an unwinnable war over
the next few years as the Taliban regrouped. The Afghans that
supported the national government were not motivated to fight to win
as the Taliban were. Given that situation, the Taliban were sure to
win eventually unless they ran into some unforeseeable problem.
It was visible by 2006 that the war was going badly.
A few years later there it was clear that victory was impossible.
Why did the US deny the situation and waste more American and Afghan lives?
It is always hard to accept defeat; in the US government, which
believes itself unbeatable, it is hard to acknowledge that defeat has
happened.
Then there is the bizarre idea that American soldiers' lives lost were
not wasted as long as American soldiers continue being killed
ineffectively in the same war.
Climate mayhem includes putting fisheries in danger.
Many fish won't be able to thrive because global heating effects
will disrupt the food they eat.
Accusing ALEC of illegal campaign contributions.
Tories dislike raising taxes on the rich, so they propose to raise taxes
on the poor instead.
Spain is planning to do more to educate the public about the former
dictator Franco's mass murder.
The rebellious military, led by Franco, executed some 100,000 to 200,000
people during and in the years after the civil war, which the military won
in 1939.
Right-wing extremists such as the Vox party thrive on fake history.
This law may weaken them.
Large wildfires in Siberia are generating smoke full of toxic pollution.
People in Yakutsk have been warned to stay indoors.
I am no expert, but I'll make a rough guess than 3,000 to 10,000
people in Yakutsk (of the 320,000 inhabitants) will die eventually
from this summer's smoke.
Colombia is considering a revised version of the tax plan that
inspired the protests.
Some bad aspects have been removed. I am interested in seeing the complaints
against the revised version.
Keiko Fujimori, of the Fujimori conservative/corruption political
dynasty, has conceded defeat in the presidential race.
Authorities refused to accept her baseless claims of voter fraud.
However, she plans to continue gnawing away at democracy
by insisting on those baseless claims. That is really dangerous,
as by constantly repeating their lies, they do convince more people
to believe them.
Perhaps President Castillo can damage her by pointing out her
resemblance to antitruth US Republicans.
Biden said that Facebook was killing people with misinformation,
but now he says he didn't mean for Facebook to "take it personally."
It's true that Facebook does not originate the disinformation. What
Facebook does is tune its algorithms so that many useds see the
disinformation after the 12 originators post it.
Facebook can't take anything personally, since it is not a person. A
corporation is not a person, whatever the right-wing Supreme Court may say.
But since it is clear that Facebook is controlled personally by
Zuckerberg,
we could say that Zuckerberg is personally responsible for
the decision to boost that disinformation. Zuckerberg ought to take
it personally.
Ben & Jerry's announced plans to stop the sale of its ice cream in
Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
Most Israelis favor colonization and many will boycott Ben & Jerry's
if it continues to sell in Israel but not Israel's occupation
colonies. Israel's new prime minister, a right-wing extremist, has
threatened retribution for this.
I don't think the direction of Ben & Jerry's will be intimidated.
However, it is now owned by Unilever. I hope that conglomerate does
not impose a "profit über alles" mindset.
Ben & Jerry's will continue to be sold in the colonies
until the present license terminates.
Instagram intensely promotes thinness to teens that bring it up
in conversations.
Bogus Johnson's scorned ex-favorite, Cummings, said that Johnson
opposed measures to reduce spread of Covid-19 a year ago because "the
people who are dying are essentially all over 80."
There are situations where you can't save everyone and it is
inevitable to prioritize who to save. We have seen some such
situations during the pandemic, such as when hospitals did not have
capacity to treat everyone who was gravely ill.
But Johnson gives
nearly everyone's life too little priority.
An NHS hospital doctor reproaches Bogus Johnson and the British government
for shirking responsibility now to protect Britons from Covid.
Doctors Without Borders has campaigned effectively to influence
Canada to stop letting Pharma companies privatize drugs developed
with public research funds.
The campaign is very good, but ought to go further. Canada ought to
take the control of studies that test the effects of medicines away
from the Pharma companies, and run them with public funding under
public control — and tax the companies to pay for them.
A blemish in the article is that it uses the propaganda term
"intellectual property," which opposes the goal and spreads confusion.
Please help end the confusion by refusing to use that term.
A new version of the Wi-Fi standard, 802.11bf, is planned to standardize
their use as spy devices to track people's movements through walls.
The designers have reportedly not yet turned their minds to the
questions of "privacy and security" for this capability.
When they do, if they follow the usual bad conceptions, they will
interpret "privacy" as "protecting the collected data from use
unauthorized by the business that controls them", and "security" as
meaning "security against third parties, not against the manufacturer
or ISP."
And if they implement any way to turn this capability off, I fear that
it will be under software control — and that it will be an excuse to
to require nonfree software in every Wi-Fi interface, just where you
really shouldn't trust it.
What the standard needs is a way to build Wi-Fi interface hardware
that is hardware-limited to communication and can't do any tracking.
Every ordinary Wi-Fi device should be hardware-limited to
communication.
The devices that are not hardware-limited to communication should be
special models, which you won't have in your house unless you know
that's what you want. They should not do any communication
themselves. That way, if you do have one, you'll be able to control
who it communicates with.
It would be good to require these devices to have a geofence: no
tracking anything outside of a certain boundary. It should be legally
required for the installer of such a device to configure the geofence
at the boundary of your own apartment. Installing them such that they
can track outside of a private place should be a crime as well.
Or perhaps it would be better not to approve this standard and not make
such tracker devices.
Morocco is imprisoning journalists based arbitrary accusations.
"Sexual assault" is so vague that it makes no sense as a charge.
Because of that term, we can't whether these journalists were accused
of a grave crime or a minor one. However, the charge of espionage
shows this is political persecution.
An investigation reports that privatization of UK bus service (outside
London) was a disaster and left many people cut off from work, school,
and medical care.
Privatizing public services generally makes them worse,
but this case seems to have been a real doozie.
Bogus Johnson has proclaimed "freedom day", on which he gave Covid-19
freedom to spread unrestrained among the unvaccinated people of
Britain.
And occasionally infect the vaccinated as well.
The hospitals are already filling up, while a badly designed automatic
contact tracing system almost randomly orders the NHS staff to
self-isolate. Johnson's solution to that is to order the staff to
keep it secret.
Johnson and another minister were told to self-isolate at just the
most inconvenient time, so they said they didn't have to do that
because they were part of a "pilot study". It appears that they
invented this on the spur of the moment, because they had not worked
out the full story. So they dropped it and actually did self-isolate.
One small victory for practicing what you preach.
One small bit of sense: only fully vaccinated people will
be allowed into nightclubs.
They should make some sort of exception for the few who can't be vaccinated
for medical reasons.
US citizens: call on Biden to ban autonomous killer robots.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
Everyone: call on social media CEOs to reject Big Oil's ad campaigns.
Foreign powers have chosen Haiti's new prime minister. This continues decades
of nondemocratic rule imposed from outside.
*Republicans, so called party of family values, do not support needy
families.*
This has been true since the 1960s; back then, the Democratic Party
was the party of Liberals, who supported the same causes that
Progressives support today, and the Republican Party opposed them (but
did not oppose environmental protection and abortion rights the way it
does today).
Various countries have accused China of utilizing a bug in nonfree
software, specifically Microsoft Exchange, to spy on email of many
companies and organizations.
The problem with these accusations is that they don't show us the
reported proof, so we can only take the claim on faith (or not). I
see no reason to doubt that China would engage in such digital spying,
nor the US, the UK, or Australia.
The article spreads confusion by referring to "intellectual property."
From the context, I know it must refer to trade secrets, because
nothing else makes sense — but most people don't know that it can't
refer to copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical product names,
or any others of the long list of disparate laws that the term refers
to. Most people confuse these things with each other, and
"intellectual property" encourages that confusion.
Please join me in shunning that term.
One more prisoner in Guantanamo has been freed. That is 2.5% of the
way to closing the prison. However, Biden still has no plan for how
to finish the job or to put an end to the injustice of imprisonment
without trial.
The US should never have taken prisoners of war out of Afghanistan.
If it called someone a criminal it should have given per a fair trial.
Some major oil companies say they now recognize the danger of global
heating and aim to move to renewable energy — while continuing to
donate millions to the American Petroleum Institute, which uses the funds
to block government action for climate defense.
When companies say they support climate defense, we should challenge
them to publish the list of their donations.
After several decades of letting rich people and rich businesses
corrupt our laws, look at the damage they have done.
Arguing that Haiti is trapped in a web of ruling elites that are dependent
on foreign support and foreign aid money.
*Came to fight, stayed for the freedom: why more Kurdish women are
taking up arms.*
*New Zealand farmers’ demands are unrealistic — but they are suffering and
deserve support.*
I suspect that planet-roaster companies have funded efforts to
mislead the farmers and use them.
Reducing the use of plastic is important, but it is difficult for
individuals to do this if what they eat comes packaged in plastic.
The government can achieve this by requiring companies to change
how they package those foods.
I don't agree with veganism, but I enjoy eating vegetables.
Right-wing bullies attacked Wi Spa in Los Angeles
for accepting trans-women in the women's section.
Counterprotesters came to support the business. The
bullies attacked the counterprotesters, and then the
uniformed thugs did too.
The right-wingers are displaying their usual contempt for truth and
honesty, because they are only pretending to care about women's
rights as an excuse to attack.
*The Department of Justice … formally
adopted policies sharply restricting the instances in which prosecutors
can seek records or testimony from reporters.*
This is the right thing to do, but the next president could revert the
change. It needs to be a law rather than a policy.
Mainstream media have exaggerated the protests in Cuba while
downplaying the contribution of US sanctions to Cuba's problems.
Cuba represses dissent. It punished dissident Oswaldo Payá by putting
him into a menial job and harassing him; it punished some of his
supporters with prison. Some years later, the government arranged to kill him.
But Payá did not want to hand Cuba over to the empire of
multinational business. I expect that that's what the US government
aims for with its sanctions.
Counting the cost of environmental damage (including global heating)
and the medical harm to the people that produce the food and eat the
food, food in the US costs three times what we actually pay for it.
If this were simply a matter of having the state pay part of the cost
rather than individual consumers, that might not be a bad thing. But
these costs are not mere money. They are damage that we can't
sustain.
Here's some propaganda intended to convince you that having a tattoo
that is a copy is theft and you should be terribly ashamed of it.
You can tell it is propaganda from its use of the propaganda term "IP".
That is a bogus concept that spreads confusion whenever it is used.
Copyright really exists, but "IP" does not.
Having a copied a tattoo is no more shameful than having a copied
book, video or music recording. Copying is not theft!
I can't understand how anyone could do something so rash as to get a tattoo.
Don't you understand your tastes will be different a few years from now?
If you like a design, put it on paper, not on your skin.
US sanctions' real effect on a country tends to be harsher than the
nominal rules. Sanctions on Cuba permit delivery of medicine, but DHL
returned a delivery of insulin citing "US sanctions."
US sanctions on Iraq, before 2003, caused a shortage of medicine there,
even though nominally medicine was permitted.
I think sanctions blocked Iraq from paying for medicine.
* Following the leak of IRS documents that shed additional light on
the prevalence of tax dodging among the wealthiest Americans, a group
of House Democrats on Thursday said President Joe Biden must swiftly
appoint a new Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division if he
hopes to crack down on unlawful evasion tactics.*
The Republican death cult is killing Americans — its believers, and
people who come in contact with them. It is doing its best to
endanger anyone it can.
Greenland has banned oil extraction, and preparatory exploration for
oil extraction, for the sake of stabilizing Earth's climate.
It has also banned uranium mining.
Let this be an example that all countries follow.
Minority rule is built into the governmental structure of the US
at every level.
Republican efforts exacerbate the imbalance, but they start
with what is naturally there.
I disagree with one secondary point in the article.
I reject the idea that it matters what fraction of the GDP
is produced in the areas that voted for any particular county.
Deciding by a majority of the GDP would not be democratic
nor legitimate.
(satire) *NordicTrack Recreates Outdoor Running Experience With
Treadmill Covered In Dog Shit.*
South Africa has accused individuals of instigating rioting in
response to the imprisonment of former president Zuma for corruption.
Zuma's corruption was well known, but he was backed by a large party
of supporters who excused his corruption and are willing to defend him
with violence. I fear that supporters of the wrecker would do
likewise if he is sentenced to prison. But we must not let that
intimidate us, for then he would be truly above the law.
UK plainclothes thugs used lying to get into Katie McGoran's bedroom.
They did not give her a chance to put on clothes before they handcuffed her
for 20 minutes.
Circumstances suggest that the motive for this was to punish her
unofficially for having been at a protest.
The thug department said, in effect, "We're sorry it made you feel
bad, but we would do it again."
US insurance companies have not grasped how climate mayhem will affect
their insurance payouts.
It is important for them to learn this, so that they can take the
selfish steps that will discourage misguided projects that are likely
to be greatly damaged by climate mayhem or exacerbate it.
The partisan "audit" of ballots cast in Maricopa County, Arizona, has
generated a bogus appearance of irregularity by lumping in early
voting ballots with mail-in ballots. The list of people who were
mail-in ballots does not include the early voting ballots, and this
has been cast as a "mysterious absence".
This supposed discrepancy is an example of how Republicans leap from
one falsehood to the next falsehood. When enough truth-despising
Republicans repeat the falsehood, other people can be swayed by the
sheer number of people and web sites repeating it as the truth, and
Republican officials can use that as the basis to draw false
conclusions officially.
Right-wing extremists are picketing a trans-friendly spa, claiming to
be concerned about customers that might be in danger from trans-women.
Since they are right-wing, they don't feel sincere concern for women's
rights. Their "concern" is bogus, dishonest.
Thus, instead of letting them make their falsified concern be the
issue, we should make their dishonesty the issue.
Turkey plans to encourage the torture of Kurds to be forgotten by
converting Military prison 5 in Diyarbakır into a "cultural center".
An Ugly Truth is a book about Facebook's wrongdoing, written by
award-winning journalists.
*The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And the question posed by this
splendid book is: what are we going to do about him?*
The first step is, don't be a zucker — don't be a used of Facebook.
Your doing this will not eradicate Facebook, but it will exert one
person's worth of influence against its power, and it won't take much
work.
If you are in an organization that insists on having a "Facebook
presence", you could exert a little more anti-Facebook influence by
suggesting that the organization use that only as a way for people to
find it and make initial contact.
Almost all food in the US is sold by a few giant companies.
*Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds.*
About the spread of Humanism in Australia.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to co-sponsor
the Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Schumer not to make the plutocratist "bipartisan" infrastructure plan even worse.
*Police officers speak to Black drivers with less respect than White drivers,
study finds.*
The difference was in the thugs' tone of voice; people who evaluated
the audio recordings, who didn't know the race of the driver, could
hear it.
Chairman Xi has made the Chinese too scared to disagree with him, but
is still not satisfied. So now China is inserting brainwashing into
everyone's daily life, at home and at work.
I expect this effort to convert Chinese into Xi-ple to weaken China,
making it rigid and irrational internally, and more offputting to
foreigners. It won't be necessary to cite the brainwashing of
Uyghurs, which China denies, when the brainwashing of Han people is
visible everywhere you go.
That can help save the rest of the world from China, but it is hard
for me to rejoice at the idea, because the injustice to Chinese will
be immense.
Los Angeles thugs shot an unarmed man at a major intersection
without taking the time to check the rumor that he had a gun.
Should cops carry binoculars with which to check, from a safe distance,
whether an object is really a firearm?
The Bootleg fire in Oregon is burning rapidly through expanses of dead trees.
The article does not say, but I suspect that these trees were killed
by pine borer beetles, which have extended their range northward with the
help of global heating.
*Illinois is first state to bar police from lying to juveniles during
interrogations.*
Now that the state understands the wrong of pushing people into false
confessions, for minors, it should extend this protection to adult
suspects. False confessions by adults may not be as probable as false
confessions by minors, but they are not rare either.
Imprisoning an adult based on a false confession
is an injustice too.
*WHO proposes fresh mission to China and lab audits.*
An avoidable dispute is interfering with the progress of residential solar power in Australia.
Here's an idea: the Australian government should arrange to finance
solar power systems and batteries for rental housing, and get the
money back over time by charging through the electric bill.
Massachusetts used a similar system decades ago to replace old,
inefficient hot water heaters. The tenants saved money, because they
payments for the new heater were less than the savings due to its
increased efficiency. The landlord lost nothing so did not object.
Two supporters of the wrecker are charged with plotting to blow up
California's Democratic Party headquarters.
Cuba is being attacked with a persistent confusion-disinformation campaign.
*Salvadoran soldiers charged with [murdering] four Dutch reporters in 1982.*
* Campaigners criticize European Commission strategy that allows
continued burning of trees for fuel.*
We have known for many years that burning wood for energy is not in
actual practice a renewable energy generation system.
*Six Extinction Rebellion protesters found guilty of blocking news printers.*
If only the UK valued freedom of the press when it's Wikileaks reporting
on government crimes.
*England's Covid unlocking is threat to world, say 1,200 scientists.*
In Spain and Italy I've seen people gather close together as if
Covid-19 no longer existed. Most of them were not old enough to have
been offered vaccine yet in Europe. Even outdoors, such extended and
close proximity is not safe.
Cornel West resigned from Harvard University after he was denied tenure
because of his support for Palestinians.
A new test may be able to determine whether a patient has long covid.
This would at least put an end to the problem that doctors may not
believe what the patient says. However, it won't help treat patients
unless researchers discover a treatment.
In the New Deal, the US government started guaranteeing home
mortgages, using explicitly racist criteria.
This policy continued into the 1960s. The segregation of suburbs thus
established persists to this day.
In cases where the government discriminated against people based on
race, it owes reparations to the victims of that discrimination, and
their descendants. That includes those who were discriminated against by aid programs
like these.
UK universities find that many students are fed up with virtual courses
and want to attend class physically. Others feel the opposite.
If you are a student, or have been admitted, and you are disgusted
with being forced to use nonfree software for the university, you can
make a difference right now by telling the university you don't want
to do that. Keep your language civil, but show how strongly you feel
this.
A racist bully in Michigan was sentenced to 5 years in prison for
a bloody attack on a black teenager for using the same beach.
*Man who pleaded guilty in murder-for-hire case planned to pin
killings on Black Lives Matter.*
Perpetrators of right-wing violence have made a habit of flying false
flags. Consider "umbrella man" who started violence in protests about the
murder of George Floyd,
and the way the perpetrators of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol
now claim that it was "Antifa" which carried out that attack.
I have to wonder how much of this plan was suggested and promoted by
the FBI informant. The FBI's MO includes leading people by the nose
into participating in a criminal plot. We can't tell whether the
accused entered the plot of per own motivation, in which case the
conviction is valid deserved, or was effectively entrapped, in which
case the conviction is invalid.
US citizens: call on Biden to block all new fossil fuel projects and
invest in a clean energy future.
US citizens: call on Congress to cancel the F-35 fighter.
US citizens: call on Democrats to finish extending Medicaid in the
remaining 10 Republican-dominated states.
Mass residents: call on the legislature to prohibit government use of face
recognition except with a specific court order.
When children are given penicillin, or related antibiotics ampicillin
and amoxicillin, it might alter their brain development.
Whether it actually does so is not yet known.
Whistleblower Daniel Hale's action was not an issue of freedom of speech.
Something stronger was at stake — his duty of speech.
*Manchin — 'Very, Very' Disturbed by Climate Action — Made Nearly $500K Last Year
From Coal.*
Why allowing children to play without adult supervision should not be limited
to a certain minimum age.
The Amazon is now emitting more CO2 than it is absorbing.
DNA matching makes it possible to identify the dog owners that don't
clean up the dogs' excrement. And fine them.
Making a DNA database of all people gives governments dangerous power
over people. But a DNA database of all dogs is ok, because dogs are
not entitled to human rights.
*We got the bill for having a baby — $37,000.*
Immigrants forced to wear location trackers report that their flaws
cause many problems, including getting fired because employers don't
want the chance that the deportation thugs might come around.
An effort to develop better location trackers might reduce these
problems. However, there are also questions about whether the basic
idea is wise and whether the system is systematically unjust. If
immigrants are denied their legal rights due to lack of legal advice,
we should give them legal advice. If that ensures they show up for
their hearings, there is no need to track them.
*At Sun Valley each year, the billionaires are feted
by the mere millionaires; the millionaires drum up enough deals to
allow them to buy their third and fourth homes; and somewhere down the
line, you can get a job as a housekeeper for one of those homes. This
is the wondrous model of American capitalism in action — a tiny handful
of wealthy people eat cake, and an entire nation gathers downstream,
hoping to snatch up a few falling crumbs.*
Sanders describes his intention to speak to "Trumpworld", the followers
of the truth-hater.
* As a forensic psychiatrist I have learned that helping prisoners
confront their offenses is best for them, and for society.*
The many inspections of the now-collapsed Champlain South Tower
condominium focused on compliance with rules about the inside of
individual units (as require by building codes), and mostly ignored
the safety of the overall structure of the building because that
wasn't their job.
One significant aspect of systemic racism in the US is that black mothers
are 3-4 times as likely to die in childbirth than white mothers.
To fully eliminate the bases of systemic racism is the ideal goal, but
easier said than done. So it is a good thing to try to correct this
particular aspect (and likewise, various others).
Ethiopia has banned a news site for supposedly supporting the TPLF.
I suspect that this really means failing to uphold the government line.
Newark, New Jersey, is replacing the lead pipes that connect many houses to
water supply.
Boston is doing this, too.
The European Court of Justice ruled that employers can enforce a policy
that employees may not wear religious or political symbols at work, provide
it applies in a neutral way to all such symbols.
I think it is legitimate for a business or agency to apply that
policy, so as to present a neutral stand to customers.
*Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs.*
This is largely due to the amount of fires that burn there every year.
The senators behind the bipartisan infrastructure "compromise" call
themselves the "problem solvers".
In a sense they are, but the basis of their compromise
is to refuse to do anything to solve the problem of global heating
and coming climate disaster.
*American west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’, experts warn.*
Do Martian bacteria (if they exist) have a "right" to Mars?
In my view, no bacteria have any right to anything. Any right is the
right to exercise some option, so its prerequisite is some level of
awareness and ability to make decisions. I don't think insects and
plants are capable of having rights, nor rivers and forests as such.
That doesn't mean we should let people destroy them. That could
be a big loss to the world.
For Martian bacteria, their extinction could destroy our chance to
learn whether they are related to Earthly life, and that would be
a great loss to our understanding of life in the universe.
Massive private projects to generate electricity and hydrogen from
solar and wind power are being planned. One in Australia would be a large
fraction of the size of Australia's entire electric grid power.
(I am assuming that the grid power supply in the less populous
Western Australia and Northern Territory amounts to a small fraction
of that of the rest of Australia.)
Resistance to family pressure for arranged marriages is growing in
India, but inexplicably it veers off target.
Instead of defending the right to refuse marriage — which I would
wholeheartedly support — this campaign calls teenage minors
"children", then demands a prohibition on marriage for minors.
It's a side issue, but I disapprove of calling teenage minors
"children".
As for whether minors should be allowed to marry, I am not sure.
Perhaps people under 18 are not ready to make a lasting legal
commitment, and should limit themselves to living together until they
reach the age of 18. (In India, being part of an unmarried couple is
more radical than remaining celibate.) On the other hand, people over
18 are often not ready for this either. Since I am not sure, I do not
support raising the age requirement for marriage to 18.
I support Rajasthan Rising's campaigns for gratis education, and to
save people from being pressured into marriage — whether they are
under 18 or not.
The UK's foolhardy haste to return to "normal" life could leave hundreds of thousands suffering from long Covid disabilities.
Vaccines reduce the danger of long Covid, but don't entirely eliminate it.
This is one of the reasons I continue to take precautions.
*WHO committee calls for sharing of gene editing tools with poorer nations.*
Gene-editing tools are potentially very dangerous, but limiting their
use to rich countries alone is not effective for protecting against
that danger.
Rebecca Solnit: *Our climate change turning point is right here, right now.*
US citizens: call on Congress to require the rich and corporations to
pay at least $4 trillion more in taxes.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to stop deporting asylum-seekers in the
name of protecting the US from Covid-19.
This practice provides no significant protection, and never did; it
was the bullshitter's excuse to blame scapegoats.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
Campaigners take on domestic violence against women in Papua New Guinea.
In the past, it was considered normal for men to force women into
obedience and/or sex. Some men refrained, based only on their own
empathy. The idea that it is wrong for men to act that way has
spread in the past century, and not everywhere at the same pace.
Short-term thinking New Zealand farmers are protesting plans to make them limit fertilizer runoff into rivers, and tax its greenhouse gas
emissions.
The government must not let them off the hook, but it can support them
in doing what needs to be done.
Drought is causing disaster in southwest Iran.
Farmers' buffaloes are dying of thirst.
*Kremlin papers appear to show
*There is a strong case for making any vaccination mandatory (or
compulsory) if four conditions are met: there is a grave threat to
public health; the vaccine is safe and effective; mandatory vaccination
has a superior cost/benefit profile compared with other alternatives
[and] the level of coercion is proportionate.*
Russia expected him to "destabilize" the US.
Putin arbitrarily banned the investigative journalist site Proect, which has published news about Putin's wrongdoings.
The main staff have been blacklisted personally also.
Floods in Germany surprised climate scientists; extreme weather is much worse than their models predicted for so soon.
Will that enable us to defeat the planet roasters?
*Maine bans toxic [PFAs] under groundbreaking new law.*
* Only 10% of $17tn global bailout directed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and restoring nature, report finds.*
Tennessee Republicans fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus as head of vaccination and prevention at the state's health department, because she was doing her job. Specifically, she informed clinics that they can vaccinate teenagers of age 14 and over without parental consent.
The underlying motive is that they are bowing to the Republican death cult, which has made spreading Covid-19 one of its crazed tenets.
Satire: *Centers For Disease Control Lets Smallpox And Rinderpest Viruses Out For Daily Hour Of Exercise.*
(satire) *Company Struggling To Find Diverse Leadership Candidates Among CEO’s Golf Buddies.*
(satire) *Gate Attendant Offers Richard Branson Hotel Voucher After Virgin Galactic Flight Fully Booked.*
Some of the Colombians accused of killing President Moise of Haiti say that they were hired to help protect him, but they arrived too late.
The United National Antiwar Coalition says that the US and Colombia can't be trusted to investigate who killed the constitution-trampling President Moise.
The article lists US interventions against democracy in Haiti.
The Olympic Committee keeps repeating that the Olympic games are safe, but hedges its bets by demanding participants absolve it of all liability for anything that happens to them.
National Nurses United calls on the CDC to bring back its mask requirement for those who are vaccinated.
*Australia Covid outbreak: Delta variant cases rise among fully vaccinated people. "Vaccines aren’t perfect," epidemiologist says, but offer lower risk of hospitalization and prevention against spread of virus.*
Asymptomatic infections are significant mainly because some can spread virus to other people, and those people's cases may not be asymptomatic. An asymptomatic case can also stop you from taking a flight.
I wear a mask when there are other people within a few meters of me, and I try to keep distance also.
The leaders of Democrats in the Senate proposed a climate and social welfare bill to be passed via budget reconciliation despite Republican opposition.
However, planet-roaster Democrats might kill it.
Some Senate Democrats get lots of funds from planet roaster activities, including: Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Jon Tester (Mont.).
They also fund plutocratist think tanks (which call themselves "centrist" to cover up where the center is in public opinion).
No wonder Manchin rejects even the goal of cutting the extraction of fossil fuels.
*Amazon rainforest "will collapse if Bolsonaro remains president".*
The question is, will electing Lula have a chance of preventing the forest's collapse?
*Over 10,000 species risk extinction in Amazon, says landmark report.*
If the forest does convert into a savannah, as is expected, most of the species that live there now would no longer fit in.
General Milley said he feared that the wrecker would try to overthrow the US government by force.
The wrecker is working on overthrowing the US government, not by force, but by shouting down those who refuse to support him.
A Venezuelan opposition party accuses the government of jailing relatives of one of its activists, as hostages.
*Food strategy for England calls for big cut in meat consumption.*
*Progressives Call on Biden to Lift U.S. Embargo on Cuba as Thousands Protest Critical Shortages.*
Lithuania passed a law to imprison refugees and deny them internationally required rights.
Even if they are being used as pawns by Lukashenko, they are still human and deserve human rights.
As Merkel visited the White House, protesters outside demanded that she remove the monopolies of Covid-19 vaccine manufacture.
Illinois has passed a law requiring public schools to teach Asian-American history.
I am in favor of teaching the history of immigrants from various Asian ethnic groups. The crucial basis for understanding that history is that Asia is a large continent and contains many nations, and immigrants from all those nations don't have anything in common, except being human. It is misguided to suppose that they could learn "their heritage" together. There is no such thing as "their" heritage, since each nation or people has its own heritage and past history.
Even groups that have had cultural relations in the past remain very different. For instance, India and China have Buddhism in their heritage; that commonality is significant, but small compared with what is different between them.
Biden promised to reduce the approval of new licenses for fossil fuel extraction, but instead has speeded it up.
*Rights groups urge Japan to stop real estate project in Myanmar.*
China is imposing multifaceted censorship on most video games, much as it does on movies.
*The UK won’t meet its ambitious climate goals by making spending cuts.*
*The EU border agency has failed to protect the human rights of asylum seekers, according to a damning European parliament report.*
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court so as to stop the wrecker's right-wing appointees from imposing permanent plutocratic minority rule on the US.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Citizen's commissions in the UK call for strong action for climate defense. Politicians don't seem enthusiastic.
Why not? I don't know the details, but I suspect it comes down to being in thrall to corporations. Corporations tend to be psychopaths; they care only about their own gain, even if it kills thousands or billions. And they tend to think short-term.
*Deadly heat: how rising temperatures threaten workers from Nicaragua to Nepal.*
Even if the weather isn't hot and humid enough to be universally fatal, it will still tend to hurt people that work hard for any length of time.
Tories aim to privatize parts of the NHS without accountability. The lack of accountability will enable the businesses to squeeze staff and patients for the sake of their profits.
That tends generally to be the real motive behind privatization of government services. This is why privatization of government services is usually harmful and usually must be reversed.
The arguments offered in favor of privatization tend to be based on trickle-down ideology, but often that premise is not explicitly stated. Hunt for it and you'll usually find the flaw.
India's system that distributes food to the poor has broken down due to Covid-19, and millions have trouble finding food.
Covid-19 was the trigger, but the underlying cause is population growth. It is possible to reform systems so as to waste less food — but that is easier said than done. Also, if population continues to grow, it will require repeated increases in efficiency, which tend to become ever more of a challenge.
As for putting more land into production, India has already done too much of that.
Relatives of people killed by the explosion in Beirut protested outside the home of a minister who is blocking the investigation of why the explosive chemicals were stored in a dangerous way inside the city.
Some officials seem to have known where the chemicals were, long before the explosion.
In the UK, traveling by plane is cheaper than traveling by train. In some cases much cheaper.
There are obvious solutions, for any government willing to value the survival of civilization over the demands of businesses.
The FBI charges that Iranians, working for the government of Iran, plotted to kidnap several expat journalists that criticize Iran and take them to Iran,
What they are accused of is a vicious act. It reminds me of what the US has done to Julian Assange.
More information.
Louisiana passed a law to make peaceful protest near certain "critical infrastructure" a crime, but the district attorney dropped charges against a group of protesters that were arrested.
Abortion rights defenders in Texas have come up with targets to sue to challenge the validity of the new law against "abetting an abortion".
A PAC set up to support plutocratist Democrats is telling lies about progressive candidate Nina Turner.
Crown Prince Bone Saw is building a model city of the future, using migrant workers subject to the usual repressive practices of Salafi Arabia.
The article does not talk about the issue of surveillance, but I bet the model city will track everyone's actions all the time. Salafi Arabia wouldn't miss an opportunity to make repression of dissent more effective.
Manchin's proposed "energy infrastructure" bill would spend heavily on fossil fuel infrastructure.
An economist punctures the plutocratist arguments that inflation is terrible.
The real reason plutocratists want to prevent inflation is that helps people who are in debt, and thus harms the lenders. Most non-rich are in debt to the rich, so who loses?
*On a Single Day in May, Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Cooperated in Attacks That Left Four Palestinians Dead.*
A firefighter talks about getting heatstroke. Fortunately he recovered in an hour, and went back to containing the wildfire.
US citizens: call on schools to reject e-proctoring malware.
I would not sign the letter that you can find in this page, even though I agree with its point, because it contrasts "Black" with "white". I won't put my name on a statement which does that.
However, what we are asked to sign is the petition, not the letter. So I signed the petition, and I hope you will, too.
US citizens: call on the US to undertake the UN-recommended steps to eliminate systemic racism from policing.
US citizens: call on the Senate to include the Invest Act in the American Jobs Plan.
France will require people to show a "Covid health pass", which is proof of vaccination or a recent negative test, to enter a restaurant, a supermarket, or a train.
Checking people's vaccination status is necessary, for now. Doing it digitally is dangerous because it leads to tracking people's movements digitally. For a vaccinated person to catch Covid-19 is unlikely enough that there is no need to identify them.
I also wonder whether people who don't carry mobile devices full of nonfree malware will be excluded simply for that.
Amazingly, Venezuela has not kept Juan Guaidó in prison, despite his overt attempt to launch a coup. Isn't that a crime?
Jamaica is planning to ask the UK for reparations for slavery. I support this.
Haiti needs reparations even more. France should pay back what it made Haiti pay as ransom, adjusted for inflation.
1/3 of the human population do not have enough to eat. 1/5 of all young children's growth is stunted.
Covid-19 caused a big jump in these numbers, and maybe in the next couple of years we can undo that much. But hunger was increasing before Covid-19, and it won't be easy to reduce. Our society and systems are broken in a number of ways, and though we campaign to fix them, we are finding it difficult.
Having fewer children is one thing that is sure to help.
*UN sets out Paris-style plan to cut extinction rate tenfold.*
The US says that Haitain and Cuban refugees won't be allowed into the US if they come by boat.
This resembles Australia's horrible policy.
*Biden defends voting rights — but no word on ending the filibuster.*
Biden is well aware of the situation in the senate, and so are the senators he is trying to persuade. They all know that the For the People Act requires ending the filibuster. So I think he is ramping up the pressure gradually.
*House Democrats tell Senate: exempt voting rights bill from filibuster.*
Wildfires have burned 3000 square miles in Siberia.
At long last, Italy has banned cruise ships from entering the lagoon where Venice is. This will prevent some sorts of damage to the beautiful old city.
However, nothing can save Venice if the level of the Mediterranean Sea rises by several meters, except perhaps a giant dam from Italy to the Balkans.
An expert on dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks says that Sydney needs to close more businesses and vaccinate people whose work goes between households. But there is no need for a curfew.
Australia has put a fossil fuel CEO on the committee in charge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
I hope to see charges of ecocide soon.
Australia has set up a special snorkeling tour for representatives of countries that will soon vote on whether to label the Great Barrier Reef as in danger.
I suppose the tour will cherry-pick parts of the reef where not much damage is to be seen, like tours of Israel or tours of the Soviet Union. Can environmentalists invite the ambassadors to another tour, to show the damage to the reef?
South Africa's former president Zuma has been jailed for refusing to testify, and his supporters are rioting.
The riots are threatening transportation of food.
Cuba is blocking internet services that protesters are using to coordinate.
Over 140 protesters and journalists have been arrested; some cannot be found.
Cuba arrested a journalist who was covering protests, and repression of same, for a Spanish newspaper.
Biden said that the US stands with Cuban people as they protest the shortages caused by US sanctions on Cuba.
Cubans are right to demand human rights, but they should watch out lest they be used to make Cuba submit to the dominion of multinational corporations, which will claim to be entitled to exercise those human rights against human beings, as they do in the US.
How the wrecker's plutocratist rule is different from fascism's ideology.
This shows that the wrecker is not a fascist, though he may be more or less equally bad.
Israel gave 10 Palestinian families 10 weeks to leave their homes in an apartment building that Israel has decided to demolish.
The motive may be to make more room for an officially unauthorized Israeli colony on Palestinian territory.
Israeli troops attacked protesters in many Palestinian cities.
Right-wingers misrepresent critical race theory; then they make false accusations which are a parody of the facts of systemic racism.
The article explains how this is standard right-wing practice. They superficially reverse what progressives say, and don't care that that mirror image is incoherent and false.
The mainstream media are starting to recognize that digital "toys" for children are likely to snoop on them. They do that as a consequence of containing nonfree software. The user community can't study and fix the software so it doesn't spy, and that means the users have no protection except to reject these toys, separately.
I do not consider any digital functionality to be an "enhancement" of life it is controlled by someone other than its users.
In union there is strength. If users try to "negotiate" with the companies by rejecting products, they have little clout and little influence.
The article says that the ROYBI Robot "has a camera and microphone to detect facial and emotional reactions from kids, but all of the information collected is controlled through a parent or guardian's account." I am not sure what "controlled...account" means concretely, but I tend to think that it is not adequate to protect the child's privacy.
When will the mainstream media realize that snooping is just as wrong when carried out against adults?
The employees that work for Cook County (which contains Chicago) are on strike, and Bernie Sanders came to show support for them.
(satire) *Historic Heat Wave Causes California Wildfire To Catch Fire.*
*Documents Reveal Obama's EPA Approved Toxic Chemicals (specifically, PFAs) for Fracking in 2011.* Since these chemicals do not naturally degrade, if they get into water supplies they will remain there, perhaps for thousands of years.
We should not allow frackers to keep any secrets about what they are putting into the well.
An argument that cancel culture is like disinformation, in that both are forms of manipulation that try to impose a "totalistic" culture that tolerates no dissent.
At present, the right wing uses disinformation while the left uses cancellation, but neither method is intrinsically tied to a political position. Rather, any side's ability to use these forms of manipulation can use depends on what strengths it has at hand.
*Rapidly Thawing Permafrost Threatens Trans-Alaska Pipeline.* This can cause an oil spill.
Adopting ecocide as an international crime would mean that individuals could be punished for their roles in destroying natural systems.
The UK is deporting boat people without even a hearing. This violates British law as well as international treaties.
As Charlottesville, Virginia, removed statues of Confederate generals, onlookers cheered.
*The real rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge is how low they can go for money.*
Two rival prime ministers are disputing power in Haiti. I would tend to suspect that both of them are gangsters.
Doubts about whether those accused of killing President Moise really did that.
Feeding raw food to dogs may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
I would not hesitate to prohibit this, for public safety. Of course, there are other foolish practices that promote antibiotic resistance, such as feeding antibiotics to farm animals even when they are not sick. We should put a stop to that.
Frito-Lay is working its staff harder and cutting wages, so now they are on strike, with community support.
(satire) *California Employees Hesitant About Returning To Office Currently On Fire.*
Global heating brings more extreme rains. New York City experienced flooded streets and subway stations because its drains could not cope with the rainfall.
The cost of adapting systems to cope with this will grow at an accelerating rate unless we curb global heating.
Biden has forgiven the student debts of students who borrowed to pay for fraudulent for-profit colleges.
It is ok for a business to teach a specific practical skill, but dressing them up as colleges is harmful since that leads students into thinking of them as something like colleges. We should put an end to that. Biden promised to forgive other student debt, but he has not done so.
Figures for Europe's progress in renewable electric generation are partly bogus because they include cutting down trees in the US to burn the wood.
Planet roasters spend a lot of money keeping elected officials on their side.
*How big oil keeps a grip on New Mexico — with the help of a major lobbyist.*
Ralph Nader: *Today the silence is deafening. Just try calling your members of Congress, not as one of their donors or golf companions, but as a serious informed citizen.*
US citizens: urge clemency for Reality Winner.
The UK is considering an Australia-style response to refugees: if you are too persecuted to get a passport and a UK visa, and you ask for asylum there, you'll be sent back to where they persecute you.
A journalist reports on accompanying Iraqi counterinsurgency forces that were searching for PISSI guerrillas, and not having much success at finding them.
Taiwan has done a good job of keeping Covid-19 out, even counting the time that defeating the latest outbreak is taking.
Uttar Pradesh is considering a two-children-per-family law.
Reducing the number of births would be a good goal, but doing it by punishing the children when a family is overlarge is a cruel method of doing so.
Belarus is recruiting migrants to send overland into Lithuania. Now Lithuania is building a border wall.
Previously, Turkey exploited the contradiction between Europe's adherence to the principle of giving refugees asylum and its fear of giving it to more than a few refugees.
Right-wing fanatics in Georgia (in the Caucasus) attacked people who were organizing a pride parade, and journalists, and killed one of them.
A new Texas antiabortion law is designed to make it difficult to challenge in court in advance, because there is no way to determine who to sue about the question.
The Democratic National Committee's response to Republican voter suppression laws is pathetically weak: let's each try harder to overcome the obstacles.
This fails to use the power of collective action.
Big banks must exclude "investments" that destroy the Amazon forest.
*[The Tories'] police bill risks criminalizing homeless people, warn UK charities.*
It looks like this proposed law is meant to spread repression against the non-rich, non-powerful in all possible directions at once.
*How the BBC let climate deniers walk all over it.*
Meteorologists believed that the recent northwest heat wave was impossible. Global heating is having effects far worse than expected.
For the short term we must prepare to cope with such heatwaves. But that path does not lead to survival in the long term if we fail to curb global heating. Each additional degree of extreme heat locally will require a lot more work to cope with. And since local extreme heat could hit any locality, we will need to build up these precautions everywhere. We don't even know what will be sufficient, ten years from now.
How do we prepare for the danger of a regional power outage that may occur while the weather outside is fatal in an hour? Should we give build for each building an underground shelter deep enough to keep people safe from fever for days? That would be a new twist on the Cold War.
And how will human beings put out wildfires in fatal weather? That work has to be done outside. Will firefighters have to wear cooling suits?
We could do lots of things like that, in the wealthy countries, one for each aspect of the harm done by global heating. But it is a foolish approach. If you think curbing global heating is "expensive," you don't understand how expensive it will be to compensate for failing to do so. Indeed, we won't be able to compensate for more than a few decades. Curbing global heating will be much cheaper and give far better results.
Experts told the G20 meeting that those countries need to spend 75 billion dollars over 5 years to prepare to confront future pandemics.
*In Vietnam, where the state is fighting a fierce online battle against political dissent, social media "influencers" are more likely to be soldiers than celebrities.*
I can't understand why many people — or why anyone — chooses to be influenced by people known to have the goal of influencing them for ulterior purposes.
*Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ are contaminating plastic food containers.*
*Big Pharma Firms Spent More Enriching Investors Than on R&D.*
Deepening persistent drought is causing Las Vegas to work hard to reduce water use. Whether it will be able to do this enough is not clear.
Someone killed an Afghan Air Force pilot as well as the real estate agent he was working with.
Shooting people for accepting soldiers as clients is terrorism.
Covid-tracking in England is showing so many contacts that people can't possibly self-isolate so often. What does this mean?
To me it says that the disease is spreading too fast for contact tracing to be effective. England needs to reduce the contact between people.
This article about Australia shows what is needed.
The UN special rapporteur argues that Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory amounts to a war crime.
Malta will admit visitors only if they are vaccinated against Covid-19.
More than 50 workers in a factory in Bangladesh died in a fire because the owner had them locked inside.
Bangladesh should start prosecuting factory owners and managers simply for locking workers in — even when there is no fire.
The Netherlands has resumed some regulations on groups of people to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Many governments were foolishly eager to throw off all restraints, but the problem is not over.
*Mexico prosecutors open probe into personal wealth of ex-minister.*
China is taking firm actions to protect Chinese people's personal data from US access and from some kinds of misuse.
The most dangerous misuse of personal data in China is misuse by Chinese governments. China's policies will not protect people from much of that.
Insisting on storing people's personal data within their own country has good and bad effects — it protects them from many kinds of mistreatment, while denying them protection from mistreatment by the power that can hurt them most.
In total, is its effect good or bad? That depends on how repressive your country is, especially against people who criticize. Most countries are becoming more repressive — some quickly, some more gradually.
A man in Hong Kong stabbed himself fatally after attacking a cop. This was on the anniversary of China's declaration of its repression.
The thug department says this was "terrorism". Was it terrorism, or was it rebellion?
Terrorism is making war on civilians. In Hong Kong, the cops have provided armed force for Chinese repression. I consider that that makes them occupation forces rather than civilians. Therefore, I would say this attack was rebellion, not terrorism.
If I thought that Hong Kongers had a chance of defeating Chinese forces and freeing Hong Kong, I would encourage them to try. I don't see any way the Hong Kongers could possibly win, so think it would be irresponsible to encourage a rebellion there. But I can't say it would be morally wrong.
What family farms would like to get from US farm policies, if it isn't redirected to subsidize factory farms.
US citizens: call on Congress not to allow Israel to use US funds to terrorize and oppress Palestinians.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on companies to stop supporting Republican supporters of insurrection.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject any infrastructure deal without climate defense.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to let 4,000 low-risk federal prisoners, already released, finish their sentences at home rather than making them return to prison
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: join the Sunrise Movement's national day of action (July 15) for government action to save Earth's climate.
Cops in Haiti say they have shot several people and captured several, and assert they are some of the group that killed President Moise.
Others say that Moise's own bodyguards shot him.
It may not be easy to find out who really did it, in the chaotic environment of Haiti where corruption and dishonesty prevail.
If Republicans succeed in rigging the 2022 election, they will turn the US into the same sort of place.
*U.S. considers visas for vulnerable Afghan women after military exit.*
Please don't spend too much time considering it — it will be needed soon.
*Prenatal test developed with Chinese military stores gene data of millions of women.* The company will have to provide this data to the Chinese government if demanded — officially "if necessary for national security", but in practice in China there is no such thing as refusing.
The US considers it a threat to US national security for a Chinese company to collect world-wide genetic data, especially about Americans. I agree. However, China is not the only government that can collect DNA, sequence it, and use the data against people. Any government could.
The UK has a system to collect the DNA of every newborn baby. Over time, that will grow into a national genetic database. This is dangerous too. And, unlike the Chinese company, this system does not try to anonymize people. (As we know, anonymized data is easier to deanonymize than one tends to suppose.)
Correlating people's DNA with medical problems can do wonders for medical research. We need to develop a system to make this possible while protecting privacy.
China diverts attention from its crushing of the Tibetans and the Uyghurs by citing the way the US and Canada crushed indigenous people in the past.
The comparison is valid, and if we look at this as a matter of competition between powers, it's poetic justice. But if the point is to save people from repression and injustice, historic whataboutism is a distraction. Ending the unjust treatment of indigenous people today is a real cause, but encouraging a new imperialism is not going to help them. China will lure them, use them, and spit them out, even faster and more blatantly than the US has done.
The NHS is so underfunded that its backlog of treatments has set a record twice in a row.
The immediate causes is relaxing Covid-reducing measures exactly as the Delta variant comes to dominate, but this meets the weakness that Tories have built up step by step.
*[Some] ALEC Politicians Belong to Neo-Confederate Organization.*
Businesses are proposing to establish a commission to validate carbon offset schemes. Greenpeace says it won't be strict enough.
* Cruise ships kill whales, leak gray water, and are largely exempt from US taxation. When they violate the law, they pay the equivalent of a parking ticket.*
*Justin Trudeau’s love of fossil fuel will only make Canada’s extreme weather worse.*
*Why declining birth rates are good news for life on Earth.*
I disagree with one point. I think we need to reduce the human population more than 20% per generation. If in the short term that leads to somewhat less quality of life, by the 22nd century it will enable us to distress Earth's natural ecosystems.
*‘Heat dome’ probably killed 1bn marine animals on Canada coast, experts say.*
I am skeptical of what that number means, because if you adopt a smaller lower bound on size for taking notice of an animal, you could take in twice as many animals.
Nonetheless, the destruction was enormous, and it may even change ecosystems.
There is pressure for the US to intervene in Haiti again.
Previous interventions removed President Aristide, brought him back to be president again, kidnapped him again and sent him into exile, installed President Martelly, and installed President Moise. Martelly and Moise were never elected by free and fair elections.
The EFF says that California's digital vaccination certificates are safe for privacy as long as you avoid the QR codes.
Extreme rain events are mostly due to global heating.
Various countries that had suppressed Covid-19 successfully are struggling to suppress the Delta variant.
Lukashenko is closing all gaps in the official repression in Belarus.
He had a news site editor arrested for covering last year's protests, and blocked access to the news site.
A Republican congresscritter told supporters that the party's goal is sabotage: "18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done."
We who oppose them must not sink to their level. But they are conscious enemies of our country, and of our democracy, and this justifies many tactics that are somewhat bad, and that ordinarily we should scruple to sink to. For instance, making Washington DC a state (rather than authorizing its residents to vote in Maryland), and increasing or decreasing the size of the Supreme Court.
As long as we remain solidly more scrupulous than they are, we should fight to win.
(satire) *[Governor] Ron DeSantis Requires Florida Residents To Reinforce Bones With Steel, Concrete.*
It worked for Miles Vorkosigan, so why not?
The LA Times mentioned, unusually, the danger of prosecuting news publishers like Julian Assange. The article did not mention that one of the main witnesses against him has admitted that he fabricated his testimony in connection with a deal with the FBI. Has the LA Times mentioned that?
*The Strange Virus Attacking Republican Governors.* Warning, it's very snarky.
What those governors are doing is entirely rational: they are repeating some Big Lies to suck more people into the lunatic death cult which is the Republican Party.
Two years of preparation for the Adani Carmichael coal mine in Queensland have pumped out so much groundwater that springs in the region are drying up.
The reason this mine should not exist is that it's a coal mine and will speed global heating disaster, but the planet-roaster government of Australia doesn't care about 30 years from now. There is a chance that the damage to groundwater can be used to stop the mine.
*Top Economist Warns 15% Global Minimum Tax on Corporations Is 'Way Too Low'.*
Cambridge University wants to avoid the risks of the present Covid situation by making an enormous deal with the UAE.
Such deals tend to be extremely corrupting to the university.
Biden will make executive orders for the right to repair farm equipment.
I support the right to repair, of course, but the best way to achieve that is as part of insisting on free software in the machinery. We need to make this a step towards further gains, rather that letting people think that it's the full solution.
EPA scientists report that political distortion of their work continues.
(satire) *Haiti Faces Constitutional Crisis After Assassinated President Refuses To Step Down.*
Whistleblowers report imprisoned immigrant minors are being abused by subcontracted prison workers.
Subcontracting undermined accountability. Its purpose is to pay workers less and mistreat them, but it also affects the people that depend on those workers.
We must make subcontracting in-usual again.
Underwater fracking in the Gulf of Mexico releases large quantities of liquid chemicals into the water. What effect the chemicals have on wildlife, or humans that eat the wildlife, is unknown.
Since we need to cut down fossil fuel extraction anyway, let's start with the particularly dangerous methods, including this one.
The federal government made an unjust website to let poor families sign up for the increased child tax credit. That was developed Intuit, which may have been trying to ensure poor families did not have a way to do without Intuit's services. Aside from being made very hard to use, it was also designed to treat users unjustly: it won't work unless you run nonfree software while you use it.
A group of activists developed a convenient site to do the same job. Alas, it is equally unjust, and for the same reason: it won't work unless you run nonfree software while you use it.
Filling out forms is generally fairly easy to do in a non-Javascript web site. How easy it would have been to make a new site that would have been both convenient and just! But they did not think about the latter.
If you're a good web developer, maybe you'd like to do it. Perhaps the People's Policy Project will tell you what you need to know to design a sample web site that doesn't require Javascript code.
* Politicians must respond to the latest warnings that climate science has underestimated risks.*
I expect they will respond to the newly discovered risk as half-heartedly as they are responding to the previously known risks.
An incoherent article celebrates the forthcoming inability to obtain, in Australia, specialized genetic variant strains of mice and rats to use for biological experiments.
The article seems to presume that these mice and rats are used in superfluous, redundant, required product tests that are not really necessary, so if they are not available, the problem will be addressed by removing the requirements for them.
Redundant product tests used to be required, and maybe sometimes still are, but I don't think such tests are where specialized genetic variants are used. Those are often used for experiments to figure out unknown biology — and you can't do that with models.
Australia and other countries should maintain their capacity to elucidate biological systems with experiments on mice and rats. If you wish to die for a mouse, go ahead, but don't pressure others to do likewise.
*Australian government must protect young people from climate crisis harm, court declares.*
Australia's government consists of planet roasters, and they will do their damnedest to reverse the decision. But if they fail at that, it may do some good.
On the corruption and violence of Haitian politicians in general, president Moise included.
*New York Regulations Allow Cops Stripped of Training Credentials to Be Rehired.*
Israel continues to practice collective punishment by blowing up the homes of Palestinians that are accused of participating in attacks.
Whistleblowers and victims have tried to inform the public about the cruelty and deadliness of Canada's forced boarding schools since the early 1900s. They had to push against a current of legitimization.
*Higher food prices help fuel 40% jump in global hunger — UN agency.*
The US made a deceptive proposal to send Assange to an Australian prison for the rest of his life after a decade or two in US prisons, during which time he might be kept in ordinary prison conditions provided the government doesn't change its mind.
This deal says, basically, "We can cheat you and say it wasn't cheating."
*More than 8 billion people could be at risk of malaria and dengue fever by 2080 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unabated,* That would be most of humanity.
Indonesia has been using Chinese vaccine, and it's better than nothing, but a substantial number of medical personnel have caught Covid-19 anyway and cannot work.
* Unlike in previous decades, there are many successful US gun violence prevention groups with a record of saving lives.*
*The climate crisis will create two classes: those who can flee [for the time being], and those who cannot.*
The UK has a shortage of truck drivers. The government chose the dangerous solution of letting each driver drive more hours per day, rather than the safe solution of allowing more EU citizens to live there and drive trucks.
Afghan women have taken up arms to fight the Taliban. Now they need military training.
These women provide exactly what has been missing from the fight against the Taliban: people as strongly committed as the Taliban themselves. If they had got started 10 years ago, if they now numbered tens of thousands, they could win the war.
It's sad to see them only now when there is little chance left.
The new mayor of Boston has cancelled a regional plan to fill the whole metropolitan area with connected surveillance cameras.
The reason they did not know how many cameras Cambridge would contribute is, I believe, that Cambridge has an ordinance requiring city council approval for all surveillance technology.
It is a good thing to defeat an initiative for massive surveillance, but there are already many surveillance systems here. We need to get rid of them and establish laws to prohibit replacing them.
Greece has put restrictions on bars and restaurants once again, demonstrating how foolish it was to eliminate them completely.
I have the impression most governments are manic-repressive about Covid. They get intoxicated with hope, and throw caution to the winds. After the predictable results of that, they are compelled to start pulling on the reins. The repetition of this cycle builds up a feeling of unwillingness to obey restrictions.
*Kuwait arrests poet activist for 'insulting' emir.*
*Colombia’s government must hold genuine dialogue with civil society and ensure punishment for [state thugs] who have committed abuses,* according to the OAS human rights commission. They committed these crimes against protesters in the recent protests, and bystanders.
Israel destroyed Palestinians' tents in a place near the Jordan River. For many years, Israel has tried to make it very difficult for any Palestinians to live near the river, attempting to clear them all out. Declaring their land a "closed military zone" is a frequent tactic.
The president of Haiti was shot by gunmen that said they were DEA agents.
I don't think they were really DEA agents, because it was the US that installed Moise as president, and I think the US could have put in some other president without shooting Moise.
Haiti effectively has no government now. There is no one officially eligible to take over as president.
Here's more about the constitutional irregularities of Moise's regime.
The result will probably be chaos.
After the state has been a US puppet for so long, I think it would be difficult for anyone to exercise authority with much legitimacy,
About the guerrilla resistance to the coup in Burma.
It seems clear that the army doesn't take care to avoid killing nearby civilians when it fights a battle. It acts like an occupying army in its own country.
I wonder what the soldiers will do about that. Surely some must be very uncomfortable with the situation.
Bolsonaro wants Brazil to switch to paper voting, instead of the computerized system whose security can't be verified.
Brazil ought to use paper ballots, but I can't believe that Bolsonaro wants an honest election. I expect that he has something bad in mind.
Victoria (an Australian state) will offer sick pay to workers in insecure jobs. It is crucial to enable them to stay home if they get sick.
This is a good step, but not enough. Employers for whom a person regularly works should be required to formalize that relationship and give sick pay.
*Extreme temperatures kill 5 million people a year.*
In the past, more have died from cold than from heat, but global heating is increasing the latter.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to support the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2021.
This is a substantial step forward, but not sufficient. We must ban face recognition by private parties too, outside of narrow exceptions.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: phone your senators on July 12 to insist on abolishing the filibuster.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
10 Colombian soldiers have been charged with almost 150 murders, as part of the "falsos positivos" murder campaign which involved murdering over 6,000 people around 15 years ago.
The motive for the murders was to inflate body counts and claim bounties meant for killing rebels.
Nicaragua's dictator Ortega is aiming for completeness in the repression of political opposition.
Tories want to privatize actual medical treatment for the NHS, and issue contracts in an informal way that facilitates corruption and fails to assure competence.
The right-wing extremist party Vox made a hardly-veiled threat of violence against the editor of El Jueves.
¡Viva El Jueves! I often need help to understand it, but once explained, I enjoy some of it.
The Great Salt Lake is rapidly shrinking, leaving a dry lake bed full of arsenic-laden sand that will blow away and poison people.
The trial that sentenced Carlos DeLuna to death was an example of complete contempt for justice and the rights of the accused. A proper investigation would have supported his claim of innocence, but nobody bothered to investigate.
This sort of thing (which is not unusual) is one of the reasons to abolish the death penalty, but not only that. To convict anyone of anything with such a shoddy trial, regardless of the severity of the crime, invites wrong verdicts. We should change the system so this does not happen any more.
The UK will bully countries into cooperating with deportation of their nationals, by denying visas to other people from those countries.
It feels like hostage-taking to me.
The UK's foolhardy decision to eliminate all Covid-19 distancing rules will make a many people prisoners in their homes for a long time.
Wearing a mask is a small sacrifice.
The reason Britain builds too few houses is that investors who own houses and building sites prefer to hold on to them for later. The Tories don't want to change this. Instead they plan to deregulate — to eliminate planning rules.
This will create a big windfall for those investors, and a thousand local forms of pollution and trouble, but won't do much to reduce housing prices.
The US case against Assange has now lost any way to pretend to be valid. The US must drop the case.
The case has been based on contempt for law and human rights all along.
A proposed new WiFi standard, 802.11bf, would allow WiFi devices to sense the position of people and how they are moving. Even from someone else's apartment. Perhaps even sensing how your fingers are moving over the keyboard and what keys they are pressing.
This seems to me like a disaster. I expect that Amazon and other companies will sell "connected" products containing such WiFi interfaces, and set them up to watch everyone in range and report.
Belgium plans to return the art works looted by King Leopold from the Congo, but instead of physically shipping them there, Belgium will rent them so as to continue displaying them where they are.
One can think of this as reparations for the thefts. It could benefit the Congolese more than physical possession of the art works would.
Bennett wants to eliminate lots of regulation in Israel to "boost the economy."
Rich people are always glad to give you the benefit of a little more of the mythical trickle-down that's going to result from giving them more leeway and power.
For organized Christian fanatics, abortion is just a recruiting issue. They explicitly advocate theocracy and killing whoever disagrees with them. Their attitude towards truth resembles the one that other Christians long ago ascribed to Pontius Pilate.
A victory against apartheid in Israel: Arab citizens will be allowed to bring spouses from Palestine to live with them and become citizens.
*Republicans’ effort to deny the Capitol attack is working — and it’s dangerous.*
The reasons why Covid-19 is much worse than seasonal flu.
The UK government rushed to deport an asylum seeker to Darfur without waiting for per legally required hearings. A court ordered the government to bring per back to Britain, if at all possible, so as to finish respecting per legal rights.
*Global experts urge [Bogus] Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening.*
The idea of "living with the virus" is advocated by plutocratists who callously disregard the suffering, death or disability this causes, mainly to the non-rich.
I suggest relaxing regulations on a city-by-city basis according to what fraction of people in the city have been vaccinated. That would lead people to get vaccinated.
In order for that to be fair, the government must make sure that people all across the UK have equal access to vaccination. It would be wrong to impede vaccination based on (say) race or class, and then use that as an excuse to punish people for what is not their fault.
*Scientists said [global heating] had made such a heat wave in the [US northwest] 150 times more likely.*
With current trends, *an event so extreme could start occurring every five to 10 years by the 2040s, they warned.*
*As Big Oil Execs Roam Free, Climate Activist Gets 8 Years in Prison.*
Belarus oppositionists were kidnapped in Moscow and brought immediately to Belarus without even an extradition hearing, and accused of plotting to assassinate Lukashenko.
Since then, they have been held incommunicado.
Trout in some rivers are addicted to the methamphetamine that flows into them after humans use some.
Republicans have redirected the Social Security Administration to hound poor people to whom it has given extra money by mistake. It can demand the impossible, such as to return within a month thousands of dollars that the agency overpaid them over periods of many years.
Poverty has become so widespread in the US that most Americans can't come up with $500 in an emergency. The poor people that Social Security helps can't pay these debts.
And they should not have to. The first step to correct this is to make the agency, not the benefits receiver, responsible for the agency's mistakes.
*We Need to Build Economies — Not Walls — to Stop Migration.*
The Santa Fe (Texas) school district ran nonfree face recognition software and handed copies of 5,000 photos of students to the developer. That alone should be illegal — schools must never hand student personal data to any company, except grade transcripts when students request that.
But the schools did worse than that — they operated cameras and identified students by their faces. "Overall, we had over 164,000 detections the last 7 days running the pilot. We were able to detect students on multiple cameras and even detected one student 1100 times!" said a salesman.
Maybe it is acceptable, under strict limits, for stores to try to detect thieves already known to them. But it is not acceptable for a store to distribute such photos to any other person or entity, because blacklist networks are too dangerous to society.
It should be illegal to operate a camera viewing a place the public is admitted to, that systematically collects or transmits identifiable face images of some or all of the people it sees. Because doing that much would enable someone else to run face recognition on them.
Iceland is turning to a four-day work week, with the help of pressure from unions.
I personally don't think I could endure anything less than a seven-day work week, but that's because my work is the heart of my life.
(satire) *Struggling Tech Company Almost Desperate Enough To Start Making Actual Product.*
(satire) *Study: "Truly Being Seen" Still Ranks Among Worst Possible Experiences In Human Existence.*
(satire) *21 Million Floridians Evacuated After State Deemed Structurally Unsound.*
Progressives in Congress called on the Pentagon to investigate apparent undercounting of the civilian casualties of US military combat.
Waste heat from a power plant that powers a bitcoin mine is damaging Seneca Lake in New York State.
*Data predicts 2m UK summer Covid cases with 10m isolating.*
That is an enormous rate of infection — almost one in 30 people.
*Twenty-five years ago, the International Court of Justice stated the obligation to negotiate the abolition of nuclear weapons.* No progress has been made, except for the non-nuclear deal with Iran — which Biden seems to be missing the chance to restore.
The US has concluded that China's diplomatic differences with Australia reflect a strategy of making countries subservient to China via divide and conquer. (That is what I have thought.)
It is useless to treat this as a minor dispute and hope to resolve it through diplomacy. China doesn't want a reasonable solution, it wants surrender so as to increase its power.
We must overturn the divine right of corporations' profit so that they can't drive us into poverty.
*Brazil's lower house approves text of bill to allow breaking of vaccine patents.*
Bolsonaro opposes the bill, as part of his general policy of letting Covid-19 win.
Turkish agents in Kyrgyzstan arrested a dual citizen and took him to Turkey for prosecution, accused of being an ally of Fethullah Gulen.
Erdoğan envisions Gulen as the leader of a giant conspiracy and accuses all those he considers enemies of conspiring with Gulen. I find those claims extremely unlikely.
The bullshitter recently quoted Goebbels, Hitler's head of propaganda.
The bullshitter: "If you say it enough and keep saying it, they'll start to believe you."
Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
Tomorrow the bullshitter might say the opposite, or anything else whatsoever, but he will continue to be culpable for his big-lie tactics.
The Tories don't care much the Britons who are stuck with firetrap apartments. They keep adopting solutions for some that omit the rest.
*Brazil's Bolsonaro implicated in alleged graft scheme as lawmaker.*
Politicians who don't think corruption is wrong, in countries where corruption is widespread, will generally have participated.
*The Tories’ abandonment of responsibility to protect us from Covid is unmasked.*
A former CEO has been convicted of ordering the assassination of Berta Cáceres. Her activism was in the way of the dam that his company wanted to build. The murder followed years of surveilling her.
Before being the CEO of that company, he was in the Honduran military and got training from the US. I wonder: was that in the School of the Americas, aka WHINSEC and various other names?
Should the EU admit the remaining Balkan countries?
They do not have a long or strong tradition of democracy, so it seems likely that they will go the way of Poland and Hungary. Before admitting them, the EU needs to strengthen its ability to stop countries from going down that path.
Spain is suffering from a surge in Covid-19 as people there act as if Covid-19 did not exist any more.
I am in Spain now, and I take care to remind the people I meet to take precautions — and to set an example by doing so myself.
Mexico has arrested a former high official of thugs on charges of torturing prisoners.
*The real tragedy of the 2003 U.S. invasion is that virtually none of its lessons have been learned. It's easy to understand why. None of its perpetrators have ever suffered any consequences for the damage they inflicted on the country and the world.*
I think that the death of a million or so Iraqis, and the rise of PISSI, are additional tragic consequences of Dubya's invasion.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to refuse to meet with Exxon's representatives.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
The Council of Europe's human rights representative urged the UK not to restrict protests.
Isolating people for long times causes mental problems. So does working in an overloaded hospital, getting badly sick, and having friends and relatives die. It is a mistake to assume it is better to let people spread Covid-19 ad libitum.
A large pension fund in Norway has refused investment in 16 companies because of their connections to Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
What's even worse than working under robot supervision in an Amazon warehouse? Being fired by a robot in an Amazon warehouse.
You can help put an end to this: don't order anything from Amazon.
You could even recover some of your freedom by joining me in not ordering things online. Saying no even once is helping.
Companies are studying what they can achieve with advertising designed to alter people's dreams.
The clean and simple solution to this problem, which would solve many other problems, would be not to have computerized speakers in your home controlled by nonfree software. That gives companies the power to do many nasty things to you. But most people consider that such a radical change that it can't even be proposed.
*Capitol attack: what Pelosi’s select committee is likely to investigate.*
*South Korea in talks with mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 billion doses.*
This has the potential to be of great help in eliminating the danger of Covid-19. To vaccinate the world faster, we need faster production of vaccines.
Global heating was having effects in the 1960s that can be recognized in hindsight. There was even some government concern about the issue. But it was the 1970s when the public started to receive warnings.
The UK has decided to end anti-Covid distancing measures and invite spreading of the disease.
*US halts all federal executions amid review of capital punishment.*
This may be the effect of Biden's disapproval of the death penalty. It could lead to ending the death penalty for federal crimes.
The Supreme Court is eagerly seeking opportunities to allow states to make elections less fair. First, by accepting voting rules that interfere with poor voters; second, by ensuring the rich can use their money to do more than vote.
Nina Turner is running in an Ohio Democratic primary for Congress. She has worked for Sanders and eagerly supports Medicare for All. Her plutocratist opponent gets campaign support from Big Pharma, and gets endorsements from politicians funded by Big Pharma.
Bill Gates is funding an effort to make it easier to collect and analyze personal data about students. Easier for schools. Easier for companies.
They talk about protecting students' privacy. What they mean is, protecting it from third parties who were not officially supposed to get the data. As for protecting the students' privacy from the companies that have dealt themselves in, they exclude that from the definition of "privacy".
If the school gives a student's real name to any company, or any other identifying data, that already violates the student's privacy.
Russia demonstrates the power it gets from Europe's dependence on Russian gas by pressuring European countries to invest in continuing, long-lasting dependence on Russian gas.
This should remind Europe that the whole world needs to quickly cut down its use of natural gas, Russian or not. If Nord Stream 2 is still in use 10 years from now, that will mean the world has failed to protect itself from global heating.
If Nord Stream 2 is not still in use 10 years from now, building it will have been a waste of money. Europe should not spend another eurocent on that bad investment.
Cutting it off now will punish Putin where it really hurts.
The level of belief in the unsubstantiated claim that SARS-Cov-2 leaked from a lab demonstrates the powerful effect of a loud chorus repeating the same claim.
This gives the wrecker his power.
Britons are protesting against the Tories' undermining of the NHS and their plan to privatize it step by step.
*Why Is Biden's Foreign Policy So... Conventional?*
*The Heat Wave Shows [the climate crisis] Is a Workers' Rights Issue.* Particularly for the low-paid workers that can't work in air conditioning.
Public pressure has cancelled plans for a new oil pipeline in Tennessee.
A pipeline company is using a business-supremacy treaty to sue the US for blocking the Keystone XL pipeline. It demands 15 billion dollars.
It does not deserve to get any of that money. The approval of that pipeline was the result of lobbying and lies by many fossil fuel companies, starting in the 1970s, which warped the US government (and others) to act in the interest of planet roasters rather than the public interest. If this influence has come to an end, and it blocks planet roasters from doing some harm, that means it is acting properly. The planet roasters will owe damages for the damage they succeeded in carrying out.
*FBI Begins Arresting People Accused of Assaulting Journalists at Capitol on January 6.*
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act". It threatens fair use, and would give big media added advantages over small competitors.
Italy has seized another ship that rescued migrants at sea.
*Fury in India over death of 84-year-old political prisoner Stan Swamy.*
He and other activists for human rights and against caste prejudice were charged with "terrorism", based on files found on one of their computers — files which analysis suggests were planted by crackers.
Modi's officials may not have been interested in reasons to doubt the conclusion they wanted to believe.
*UK scientists caution that lifting of Covid rules is like building "variant factories".*
This is true — but meanwhile there are enormous "variant factories" in the unvaccinated countries. We need to get almost everyone vaccinated for Covid-19, so we can eradicate it.
The Taliban are rapidly taking over large parts of Afghanistan. Government soldiers either run away or surrender happily.
It is interesting that the areas which fought the Taliban bitterly 20 years ago show no interest in fighting it now. Perhaps the opposition back then was due to loyalty to the individual warlords that lead them.
It is clear that those soldiers don't feel a strong commitment to the current government's cause. That, I think, is why the Taliban are winning. The Taliban inspire loyalty. How sad it is to see people invest their loyalty in a fanatical religion.
I am also sad about the religious repression that Afghan women will face under the Taliban. But I can't consider forever war better.
What can these women do? Some years ago, they could perhaps have formed militia units determined to defeat the Taliban. With real commitment to the cause, just what the Afghan army lacks, they might perhaps have won. But it seems too late to start now.
At this point, I think their only hope of avoiding some of the Taliban's oppression is to seek asylum in other countries.
An article about the possibility of DNA-sequencing every baby born in the UK does not mention that this would be a giant collection of biometric identification data.
Freedom of speech as applied to vanity plates.
Greta Thunberg rebukes politicians for only making a show of defending Earth's climate. Even if this fools many people, it won't fool the air.
A thug tried to use copyright law to block publication of recordings of how he was treating the protesters at Black Lives Matter event. It wasn't the first time.
A human US judge could rule that the right to publish news of events overrides copyright law. The thugs expect that automatic copyright censorship filters will not be able to make such a judgment.
I support Black Lives Matter, but I would equally condemn thugs for doing this to people supporting any other cause, even a cause I oppose. (However, thugs tend to be friendly and helpful to supporters of right-wing causes.)
It would be ironic if the thug gets sued for public performance of the song. That too is copyright infringement. But I do not hope that this happens, because it too would increase the unjust power of copyright.
(satire) *Congressional Democrats Put On Elaborate 4th Of July Pageant To Teach Republicans Importance Of Democracy.*
(satire) *Labor Department Announces Plans To Stop Counting Jobs And Just Enjoy Economy.*
Exxon's CEO is trying to tell people that the admissions about its planet-roasting lobbying were not really said, so we should forget them.
Europe decided to authorize glyphosate based on experiments carried out by companies, then described in secret reports written and submitted by companies. These reports have become public and show important flaws; they don't prove that glyphosate is safe.
No wonder the companies kept them secret.
Clearly these regulatory decisions should not accept secret studies carried out by companies with an interest in the outcome.
For medicines, I've argued that tests of their effectiveness and safety should be independent of the companies involved with producing and selling them. Perhaps that should apply to pesticides, too.
It is pertinent that one report says that glyphosate caused cancer specifically when mixed with other chemicals, as occurs in Roundup. That one study may not be proof enough, but shows the need to test Roundup as well as pure glyphosate.
*'What was the point?' Afghans rue decades of war as U.S. quits Bagram.*
If the US had achieved its war aims, the war could have been worth its human and financial cost, which would have been small. But once it became clear that that was no longer possible, there was no point in continuing the war any longer.
(satire) *"Someone's Gotta Occupy Afghanistan," Grumbles Dick Cheney, Shoving Firearms Into Suitcase.*
The northwest US heat wave was the most extreme heat wave ever recorded.
Forecasting some of the extreme weather disasters we will experience at 1.5 C, 2C, 3C and 4C of global heating. Meanwhile, the world may reach 1.5C by 2025, showing the trying to avoid that by actions with targets in 2050.
US citizens: call on Biden and Senate Democrats to Use reconciliation to pass a robust climate-focused infrastructure bill.
The condo board of the collapsed Florida apartment building disputed for a long time what to do about the damaged concrete.
I can understand the disagreement in the board. The owners of the building were the residents; some of them might have been bankrupted by a $100,000 expense. If they had realized that the alternative was likely to include collapse of the building, I suppose they would have closed the pool and said "Fix the damage right away," or moved out immediately if the collapse was likely to happen soon. But the engineers did not tell them (and I suppose did not know) that collapse was likely.
What a dilemma.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "Journalism Competition and Preservation Act". It threatens fair use, and would give big media additional advantages over smaller competitors.
Everyone: call for leniency for whistleblower Daniel Hale.
Minneapolis denounced the Line 3 pipeline and called for its cancellation.
A genetic disease has been cured in several patients by injecting a CRISPR-Cas9 gene editor into their bloodstream.
Bill Cosby's rape conviction was thrown out because it was based on using his own testimony (for a civil suit), which he gave in return for a promise not to prosecute him.
I have no reason to doubt the trial's conclusion that Cosby was guilty of rape. Punishing rapists is important.
But it's even more important not to let governments cheat and trick people by making a promise not to prosecute and then breaking it. The right to refuse self-incrimination is an endangered fundamental liberty, and we must protect it — even though sometimes it protects real criminals who committed real crimes that call for real punishment.
Explaining the constitutional issue at stake.
The plaintiffs wanted those answers so as to help them win damages against Cosby. Without this promise, Cosby could have cited the 5th amendment and refused to answer some questions.
*On Ghana's Lake Volta, child slavery is in plain sight.*
A bill to decriminalize drug possession has been introduced in Congress.
Multinational hospital chain owner Tenet Healthcare plans to fire the striking nurses in one US hospital. They are on strike demanding safe levels of staffing. Tenet's aim is to be able to maintain insufficient levels in the US and perhaps in other countries.
I think we should put an end to for-profit hospitals, I know that the managemment of nonprofit hospitals often engages in some of the same harmful actions, but I suspect that the for-profit competition encourages this.
Oxfam denounced the global minimum tax deal because of its designed-in loopholes.
As people learn more about animals of the deep sea, we might start overfishing them without understanding that we are doing so.
Some events sell tickets only online, and allow only the person that purchased the ticket to use it.
Aside from excluding people who can't personally purchase a ticket that way, this system does something even worse: it violates the privacy of everyone that attends.
Since you're not going to be compelled to attend, refuse!
New US regulations attempt to check the practice of surprise enormous medical bills.
Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a former Wikileaks volunteer, has admitted he had given the FBI false testimony making false accusations against Julian Assange.
The article shows how the US indictment against Assange repeats some of Thordarson's accusations.
He initially offered his fabrications to the FBI to try to get out of possible charges for embezzling money from Wikileaks. In 2019,the FBI gave him immunity from prosecution on other charges in exchange for this testimony against Assange.
The article reconciles the US assertion that the push to indict Assange started only under the bully, with the evidence that the efforts to indict Assange started while Obama was president.
* Alcohol addiction has long been romanticised in films, TV shows, books and adverts. Let’s stop glossing over the destructive drudgery and sheer sorrow of the disease.*
Suggested tactics for defending monuments to the Confederacy include avoiding the topics of race and slavery.
The whitewashing of the Confederacy has always been based on pretending that the Civil War was not about whether to end slavery.
One aspect of the Tories' proposed broad repression law would be to make nomadic life almost impossible, as they would be effectively forbidden to stop almost anywhere.
People who live in vehicles because they can no longer afford anywhere else would also be targeted.
*France investigates fashion brands over forced Uyghur labour claims.*
The deal that removed Israeli fanatics from their illegally constructed colony in Palestine seems to be designed to create an excuse to permit them to return soon.
*Libyan coastguards "fired on and tried to ram migrant boat".*
European countries support the Libyan Coast Guard, so one has to wonder whether this support amounts to recruiting Libyan help to kill migrants.
Climate models show that global heating causes more instances of extreme weather, but there is a secondary effect, not included in the models, that causes extreme weather to get stuck for longer in one place. This makes the effect even more extreme.
A report from the prison says that John McAfee tried to commit suicide at the end of February.
Venezuela jailed Javier Tarazona after he claimed that the government had dealings with Colombian FARC splinter groups.
*UN warns of worsening famine in Ethiopia's Tigray.* The famine is at least partly caused by the civil war.
(satire) *Rumsfeld Family Immediately Squabbling Over Who Will Inherit Mounted Heads Of Iraqi Civilians.*
(satire) *Donald Rumsfeld Survived By 1 Million Fewer Iraqis.*
Large events in the UK require participants to (1) run nonfree software to get a ticket and (2) identify themselves.
There is no justification for requiring nonfree software — they could do the job with free software. Rather than run the nonfree software, I would choose not to go. It isn't the end of the world to stay away.
Identification is a more complex issue. I can't argue with the importance of contact tracing for beating Covid-19, if the country makes a serious attempt to do that. Some countries try to do that carefully, but I don't think the Tories have tried. They give the contracts to incompetent companies for political reasons. For the same reason, I feel safer staying away from those events. I wouldn't even think of going if I were not fully vaccinated. But even vaccinated people have a small but significant chance of catching the Delta variant.
As we pollute the sea and overcatch fish, we are driving the seas towards mainly jellyfish.
23 Guantanamo prisoners have been "released" to the UAE, which said they would be free after some months, but every one has been kept in prison ever since. One may be sent to Russia for more torture and imprisonment.
US citizens: call on Biden to appoint an FCC commissioner to fill the vacant seat.
US citizens: call on Biden to introduce a strong climate bill.
Scientific American published an article whose title explicitly stated a controversial political stand. It said that the authors "stand in solidarity with Palestine." Later the magazine took it down.
The article should never have been published there, because Scientific American's purpose is science education. It should not politicize that education, except perhaps to defend science from anti-science.
Depending on how far the stated solidarity extends, I might agree with the authors' position. (I support the existence of Israel as well as the existence of Palestine.) I might possibly have stated agreement with the article.
However, the issue as I see it is not about which stance the article took. If the proclaimed solidarity were with "Rojava", "Hong Kong", "Taiwan", "the United States", or "Israel", the issue would be the same. The article belongs in a place where political stands belong, and Scientific American should not be that place.
Edward Snowden: *Why do conspiracy theories flourish? Because the truth is too hard to handle.*
The article explains that the most dangerous conspiracies are not secret, and that imaginary conspiracies serve as a distraction from them.
*After Britney Spears testimony, lawmakers push changes to conservatorship laws.*
California Governor Newsom overstated work that the state had done on preventing future wildfire damage.
I don't know how effective it is to remove some potential fuel from a forest. On that I will defer to experts. This method can't get out of control and become dangerous (a controlled burn has that danger), but it must be a lot more labor-intensive.
Effective action to reduce fire danger requires a tremendous amount of work and money, because it has to be done over the whole region affected by drought. And it has to be done over and over, forever.
Switching to renewable energy and curbing the emissions that cause the drought will be far more efficient in the long term.
Several US states are using algorithms to apportion home care budgets for the disabled. This has given more help to some, and less to others. Some patients can't get out of bed without the help they no longer get; some have died.
In theory, an algorithm can do the job better than humans. The salesmen will lead you to imagine that the algorithm performs as well as you could imagine. In practice, it can easily do a bad job. In this case, some factors were explicitly not considered. Very likely there are other important factors that human decision-makers used to recognize on their own.
If the state doesn't have the source code of the program, it should not use the program. But the problems described in the article can happen with a free program, because they result from the absence of any non-problematical solution.
The underlying problem is that the algorithm has to divide up funds that are insufficient to start with. The algorithm tries to spread the insufficiency equally. Is that the best thing to do?
Which is worse: to permanently give each disabled person half the help perse needs, or to permanently abandon a randomly-chosen half of them? The answer is not obvious to me.
Progressives tell Biden not to put water privatization into the infrastructure deal.
Privatizing any service is harmful unless it results in a competitive market with many competitors.
A Pakistani thug has been charged with the brutal murder of Muhammad Waqas, who had been charged with blasphemy and then acquitted.
In Pakistan, it is not unusual for fanatics to murder people who have been charged with blasphemy, or their lawyers, or anyone who stands in the way of executing them.
Prosecutors in Orange County, California, bully everyone accused of the smallest offenses into giving a DNA sample, by threatening false felony charges.
It is easy to manipulate the public with fear into tossing aside civil liberties for "stronger law enforcement" which will supposedly make everyone "safe". The danger is that it promotes repression too.
Everyone: call on Cop26 to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop Elon Musk's union-busting by passing the American Jobs Plan.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*Secret Internal Report [from a federal prison] Slammed Warden For Freezing Jail Conditions — Then He Was Promoted Anyway.*
We must put an end to impunity for officials that are callous and/or incompetent (as well as for officials that are brutal).
People are coming to realize that the predicted climate disaster has started. Nowhere is safe from extreme weather.
The extreme weather of 30 years from now will go beyond what we call "extreme" today.
*US supreme court deals bow to voting rights by upholding Arizona restrictions.*
The Republicans on the court seem inclined to give states lots of leeway for voter suppression. They support "states' rights" rather than "people's rights".
*Euro soccer tournament under fire for helping spread COVID-19.*
I want to respond, "Duh?!"
Travel to beaches is having a similar effect.
*Italian prisons under fire as video footage shows guards beating inmates.*
A teenager in Zimbabwe fought with a rapist who had invaded her home, and killed him. Now she is charged with murder for her act of self-defense. Zimbabwean law leaves doubt about whether self-defense is a legally valid defense, which makes some women scared to fight back.
Donald Rumsfeld's legacy: *systemic torture, massacres of civilians, [and] illegal wars.*
A Hong Kong official demonstrated a level of blackwhiting befitting Republicans.
* Adopting insect protein in pig and poultry feed could reduce UK soya consumption by a fifth by 2050, says WWF study.*
(satire) *Biologists Discover Roots Of Washington Monument Have Spread Over 400 Feet Underground.*
(satire) *Supreme Court Waits In Line For Hours Before Voting To Uphold Arizona Restrictions.*
Some scientific journal publishers have resisted a push to reject articles by Chinese scientists to punish China for its crimes against humanity.
I support that goal, in general, but these publishers acted rightly in refusing to reject authors for being Chinese. Scientific cooperation is part of the basis of science. We must not undermine cooperation for political campaigns, not even when the campaign is based on a valid goal.
It should be noted that the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign carefully avoids calling for a boycott of individual Israelis. It targets only institutions.
Biogen developed improper influence inside the FDA to bring about the approval of its drug aducanumab with inadequate investigation.
This looks like an example of regulatory capture.
(satire) *Senate Passes Bill Wishing Younger Generations Best Of Luck Stopping Climate Change.*
Trickle-down neoliberalism appears to work as long as stock prices are rising, but occasionally it crashes. To keep it going requires a bailout of the rich. Each bailout incorporates more instability which results in a crash some years later.
The article also discusses the alternatives to continuing down that path.
Maine has prohibited state government use of face recognition, with small exceptions.
This is a substantial step forward but it may not be sufficient. I think it does not prevent private businesses from tracking everyone via face recognition — something we could call the China Syndrome.
Bolsonaro threatens to seize power if he loses the next election, giving "voter fraud" as an excuse.
EU sanctions against Belarus and against Lukashenko's cronies are unlikely to endanger Lukashenko's dictatorship.
As long as Russia supports Lukashenko, the west cannot hurt him much.
The lack of rain on the California-Oregon border is endangering fish, and farmers.
There is no way to keep farming going without enough rain, but I think that the US government should buy out enough of the farms in such areas that the remainder will be able to subsist on the water that is now available. That would be of some help to them. Letting them fall into bankruptcy is the callous, Republican approach.
*Call for global treaty to end production of "virgin" plastic by 2040.*
Thousands protested in Turkey as Erdoğan took Turkey out of the treaty against violence against women.
President Duque of Colombia wants to sentence protesters to more than just 8 years in prison for blocking a highway.
*Republicans Trumpify Electoral System to Steal Future Elections.*
*Yes, Matt Hancock resigned, but standards in government have to be upheld by more than just public opinion.*
If public opinion learns to say, "Never vote for a Tory," that would be a good first step.
Russia has jailed Jehovah's Witnesses for arbitrarily declared "extremism".
Jehovah's Witnesses are annoying, but it is not hard to get them to leave you alone. There is no justification for putting them in prison.
The corruption of UK contracting with Covid-testing companies has been exposed by emails.
Fanatical Israeli colonists agreed to leave the officially unapproved "outpost" with which they were trying to take Palestinians' land, but their buildings will remain there, locked and off limits to the local Palestinians.
That is significant because that particular spot was chosen to help cut the West Bank in two parts, blocking Palestinians from travelling between.
This is temporary, and the government says it might later authorize another colonization attempt there. I hope that the strength of opposition convinces it not to do so. Israel must return the land it has taken on Palestinian territory, unless it gets an agreement to trade that territory for other good land.
*Australian universities may allow students to submit written assignments under pseudonyms and in hard copy amid growing concerns about [China]-linked harassment over politically sensitive topics.*
This is a good thing to do, but their pseudonyms should extend to all aspects of their participation in the school, and they should be allowed to have multiple pseudonyms for different activities.
Also, everyone should be allowed to submit work on paper so as to avoid digital systems that snoop on them.
An "important" football match in London became a Covid super-spreader.
It was a policy mistake to permit spectators at that match.
*How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America.*
The German Green Party is being hit hard by accusations of plagiarism that seem to be exaggerated to hurt the party.
The article is undermined by a mistaken basic assumption: that plagiarism is related to copyright. The two are entirely unrelated. If you publish a copy of Hamlet calling yourself the author, that is not copyright infringement, since Hamlet is in the public domain. It is, nonetheless, plagiarism.
Legally it is possible to infringe copyright by republishing your own writings, if the copyright belongs to some other person or company. But that cannot be plagiarism.
Accusations of plagiarism for short passages seem to be straining to put the accused in the wrong. That does sound like something resembling character assassination. Meanwhile, supposing this is big enough to amount to plagiarism, the one responsible would seem to be the ghostwriter who wrote the book, not the Green candidate whose name was on it. She can't be expected to recognize that a passage was copied from an unidentified book that she may never have read or heard of.
The mere use of a ghostwriter feels, to me, somewhat like plagiarism. You are putting your name on something written by XYZ. To be sure, you paid XYZ for permission to do so, so XYZ won't object. But I don't think that excuses claiming to have written something you did not write.
However, if the candidate's book acknowledges the work of the ghostwriter, that eliminates the issue.
In any case, recognizing that ghostwriting is generally accepted and does no special wrong to anyone, I would not consider it a major ethical issue. If I were a German voter, it would not change my vote.
It would be unconstitutional for those who aided the Jan 6 insurrection after taking an oath of office in the US, to take up any federal or state office.
Three Mexican states have now legalized abortion.
Striking Alabama coal miners picked investment companies that bought the bankrupt Walter Energy, made promises to the union workers, then broke them.
In the negotiations for a global treaty on persistent organic pollutants, the US EPA is pushing to omit UV-238 from the list of them.
Calling on social media companies to ban ads for fossil fuel companies. This punishment would fit the crime of advertising lies which denied global heating.
A Coronavirus epidemic 25,000 years ago seems to have killed enough people in East Asia to have a big selective effect on certain proteins. Those proteins probably made people more capable of resisting the infection or its symptoms.
I expect Republicans will condemn China for not sharing those genes with other racial groups, while secretly looking for people of Chinese descent to marry. ;-}.
The People's Response Act would move the US towards responding to drug and mental crises with compassion rather than hatred — with unarmed people who will help rather than kill.
It might be better for the mental health responders to be local organizations rather than federal. But that is a detail — it is better to do this in one way or the other, than not to do it.
Is it wise to make hydrogen by burning fossil fuel and sequestering the CO2?
Any CO2 that is released into greenhouses or used to carbonate water will then go into the atmosphere — its sequestration will be temporary. Anyway, if we already bottle enough CO2 to meet those demands, whatever CO2 is sequestered this way won't get used for that.
So why grasp at that straw to make this project look good? I have a feeling that someone is trying to underestimate the cost of storing all the unwanted CO2 that this process will produce. Perhaps to make this plant look more green than it would really be.
I suggest building more wind and solar generating capacity than the average electric demand can directly use, and using the surplus (when there is a surplus) to make hydrogen. When there is need for more electricity than the wind and solar facilities are producing, burn some hydrogen to make up the shortfall.
The Pacific Northwest heat dome is being described as "once-in-a-millennium" by people who don't understand that heat that was rare in the past will be frequent in the future.
A few decades from now, the same strength of heat dome will be an every-few-years event, and worse ones will happen occasionally.
Lytton village in British Columbia suffered three days of record-breaking heat; then a wildfire destroyed it.
South Korea wants rapes committed against soldiers to be tried in civilian courts, because they are more likely to convict rapists.
Women's suicides after being raped suggest to me that patriarchal (Confucian) values, according to which rape destroys a woman's purity and calls for her (rather than the rapist) to feel shame, still have power in South Korea. If so, the solution should include confronting and rejecting those values.
Billionaires can use Roth IRAs to hide billions of dollars of income from all taxation ever.
There is no need for Roth IRAs. It would be legitimate to wind them all up.
Fossil fuel companies caused the coming global heating disaster by systematic lies. We should focus on this, and prosecute them.
We can't save ourselves individually from climate disaster. The only way we can save ourselves is together.
To wonder where your descendants would be "most safe" in a world of climate disaster is a foolish distraction. That question will become pertinent only if civilization is failing — which means, if almost everyone is doomed. But that defeat is only a possibility; it has not happened yet. Now is the time when humanity can win, so focus on now!
Billionaires know where their descendants would be "most safe": in private enclaves intended to survive collapse of civilization. We need to show them, in a way that they can't doubt, that we won't let their families abandon the rest of us that way — that their families' fate is linked with civilization's, so they must work for civilization's survival if their own descendants are to have a chance.
Lawsuits and other pressure against planet roasting companies are starting to win in some countries.
The UK is negotiating and signing business-supremacy treaties with countries that disrespect human rights, and in some cases workers' rights as well.
Exporting production to countries that have lower pay or working conditions is an indirect way to reduce them in the UK.
* Forest protection carbon offsets that may have no benefit to the climate have been used by polluters to avoid paying carbon taxes in Colombia.*
The offset schemes get a seal of approval from a private organization called "Verra", but its private status makes it less accountable than a government organization would be.
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