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The UK is entering further into the "Imagine there's no Covid" camp, like the US.
This article proposes a fallacious argument for imposing a cease-fire on Ukraine, to be followed by negotiations under circumstances that would give Putin the territory he has conquered plus wherever else he demands.
The article starts by assuming that continued war can mean, for Ukraine, nothing other than continuing destruction and advance by the Putin forces. This is called "defeatism". I don't think it is true.
It continues by claiming that the only way to save Ukraine from putative violent defeat by Putin is to cease the fighting under conditions that compel defeat by negotiating. Putin will insist on all of Ukraine he wants by threatening to renew the war, after having brought copious supplies.
That outcome follows from that defeatism, but that defeatism is a supposition, not fact. Ukrainians do not want to be "saved" by forcing them to give up the fight. They want the chance to fight and win some of their country back.
As Putin's army gets ever weaker, he will become willing to settle for less and less. After enough damage, he will settle for taking what's left of his army out of Ukraine so that he can remain in power in Russia.
*Grassroots progressive groups on Tuesday urged Democratic congressional leaders to ignore Republicans, right-wing members of their own party, and neoliberal economists who are pushing lawmakers to hit the brakes on federal spending as inflation surges to levels not seen in decades.
The US is in danger of a recession. To cut spending now would make that recession worse, as it did for President Hoover in 1930: it hoovered up the jobs, and dumped Americans into Hoovervilles. The way to avoid a recession, as Keynes taught and FDR carried out, is to increase government spending. The US government learned to do this, until the plutocrats came to dominate the government in the 1980. Now a recession is an opportunity for the richest to get richer.
*Poor Nations Face 'Perfect Storm' of Debt, Food, and Energy Crises: UN.*
A mother in the UK systematically denied her baby, referred to as Child AU, all kinds of care and all expressions of affection. There is a scandal now about why state agencies did not do anything to take Child AU out of that situation earlier.
Child AU must have suffered terribly. I fear she may never learn to feel loved by anyone. However, beyond the question of what the state should have done differently to rescue her sooner, I raise a few other questions:
A study estimated that 21% of all reptile species are "threatened" or worse. This covers all the reptile species whose status is known well enough to determine whether each one is threatened. There are species whose conditions are so little known that scientists find it hard to determine whether they are threatened; those were omitted from the survey.
The EU is considering an anti-SLAPP directive.
*Russia attacks infrastructure in western Ukraine to slow supply lines.*
Since I hope for Ukraine's victory, I am alarmed. However, this kind of counterattack is not an atrocity.
*Former head of Polish army criticizes [Bogus Johnson] for risking safety of soldiers.*
This was truly incompetent of him, to blurt out important military secrets for the purpose of boasting. Johnson demonstrated that he does understand the conditions of these discussions.
Putin has cut off the gas supply to some European countries and is threatening to cut off the gas supply to others. Those countries are calling this an outrage.
I disagree with them — this is simply another economic sanction. NATO countries are refusing to sell certain things to Russia, and now Russia is refusing to sell a certain thing to some of those countries. It hurts, for sure — but it is not an outrage or a crime, like some other things Putin has done.
The goal of "weakening Russia" has a range of concrete possible meanings. I believe that the only way to reach a peace that will last is for Ukraine to give Putin a defeat that will convince him not to attack again later. That is one form of "weakening Russia," which I agree is necessary.
However, to damage Russia in other ways would mean widening the war, and that would asking for trouble.
Manchin is having a meeting with billionaires who carry no political affiliation except "we want more riches".
*Minneapolis police engaged in pattern of racial discrimination, inquiry finds.*
*A state investigation accuses the Minneapolis Thug Department of systematically practicing "discriminatory, race-based policing."
Manchin and the Republicans are learning to play a new song: subsidizing new fossil fuel facilities.
(satire) *Mark Zuckerberg Asks Hawaiian Neighbor To Cut Down Unsightly, Overgrown Rainforest.*
More and costlier nuclear weapons do not deter conventional war. So it makes sense to seek nuclear arms limitation treaties.
The UK economy will lose an estimated 8 billion UKP in this year alone as a result of the loss of 400,000 workers due to consequences of Covid-19. The losses from those people will not end this year.
This November, the Utah Democratic Party will not run a candidate for the Senate — instead, it will support a non-trumpet Republican running as an independent.
Urging people to vote for an independent compromise candidate has an advantage over nominating a compromise candidate, because the former avoids giving the impression that the compromise candidate speaks for the party.
The US military outsourced housing for soldiers to private companies. Can you guess what happened?
That's outsourcing for you. When the government (or a larger company) outsources a job, that job will tend to be done in an exploitative way. (That's what makes it cheaper.) And if the job involves providing any sort of service to people, the service will be done badly, unreliably, and (whenever possible) in ways that endanger their health.
Putin has cut off sales of natural gas to Poland, saying this is because Poland refuses to pay in rubles.
Poland will sue, claiming breach of contract. However, I don't think anything can make gas flow through the pipeline if Putin decides not to pump gas into it.
If we don't restore the nonnuclear deal with Iran soon, it will develop the capacity to quickly enrich some uranium and make nuclear weapons.
That would reduce the value of the deal, but the deal might still be worth having.
The US government has reached the conclusion that it is crucial to weaken the Putin forces to the point that he won't think of starting another war.
I came to a similar conclusion a few weeks ago: that it would wrong to let Putin make peace and keep any sort of gains from he battle.
US citizens: call on Biden to expand workers' power.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop offering new leases for offshore oil drilling.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
An internal document from Facebook says that the company has no systematic control over what purposes each kind of data gets used for. "We can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as 'we will not use X data for Y purpose.' And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do."
This is because much of Facebook's important data is derived correlations and instances of those correlations. Those didn't directly come from anywhere, but rather was calculated based on various kinds of data from various sources, including various people's personal data.
If they find that listening to a certain song has a 75% correlation with being gay, the fact that person X listened to that song is certainly personal data. What about the conclusion that X is likely to be gay? What do various privacy laws require about data like that?
If Europe is firm about regulating the whole mass of data that companies like Facebook deduce, it might make surveillance-based advertising totally unfeasible. That would be great. But Big Data will lobby for a weaker rule, or a weaker interpretation, that would make less difference.
*"We have a democracy problem": how Texas voter suppression helps keep climate action off the table.*
Global heating effects will lead to thousands of instances of viruses jumping to a new host species, due to various host species' moving to new habitats.
The prediction suggests around 15,000 such events, but I doubt that we can predict anything more accurate than "many thousands".
How a group of dentists built a great career by claiming to be experts in matching bite marks in corpses with the teeth of the alleged biter.
*Ukraine names 10 Russian soldiers in alleged human rights abuses in Bucha.*
A member of the UK Parliament has been accused of (gasp) watching porn inside Parliament.
This must be a convenient distraction from the really bad things some MPs do in Parliament, such as lying about public issues, voting to impoverish the poor, or actually sexually harassing an actual person.
*US FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.*
I think it is wrong to ban recreational drugs, but helping teenagers avoid being drawn into smoking tobacco is a good thing.
*Global warming risks most cataclysmic extinction of marine life in 250m years.*
The Putin forces are trying to conscript men in Donetsk, so the men there have gone into hiding away from home.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has more volunteers that it can arm and equip.
Wendy's refuses to support action against enslavement of farm workers.
Lawyer Steven Donziger has been released after almost three years under arrest, but Chevron is still persecuting him for defending the indigenous Ecuadorians whose land was polluted by Chevron wells.
He was arrested after Chevron used a series of dirty tricks and what looks like corruption to avoid paying damages to those Ecuadorians.
A centibillionaire has purchased a company with enormous influence over public opinion. Serious competition for that company is effectively impossible, so it is a natural monopoly, but it is entirely unregulated.
His stated intentions have made people fear that he will use it to strengthen right-wing movements that demonize people, or to change laws to benefit himself.
Yanis Varoufakis: *Macron's Centrist Win Over Le Pen Also Shows Why Neoliberalism Strengthens the Right.*
*Prosecutions of Corporate Criminals Hit Record Low Under Biden.*
(satire) *New Tennessee Law Requires Women To Wait 24 Hours Before Getting A Burger.*
A proposed new coal mine in Australia could have "far-reaching impact" on the Great Barrier Reef.
That is in addition to the grievous blow to the Earth's future climate.
Given predictions that the market for Australia's coal exports is going to disappear in a few years, starting another coal mine will be a waste of money as well. That's less important for the world, but might help convince some not to start it.
Burma's military rulers have made an excuse to sentence Aung San Suu Kyi to prison for five years.
This won't change anything in practice, since she was already in prison. It just means there is an official excuse for that.
Marjorie Taylor Greene urged the wrecker to declare martial law so as to steal the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, Mark Meadows said he would give Congress all his text messages that were pertinent to the Jan 6 investigation, but he seems to have hidden some.
Bogus Johnson threatened to privatize the UK passport office because it is not keeping up with applications.
Privatizing it would in theory enable the same amount of money to hire more workers. But some of those funds would be diverted to profits. Meanwhile, those workers would be inexperienced and desperate. Overall I think this would result in worse service. But it would result in more profits, which is what a neoliberal really wants.
This article presents the argument that the "go back to Mexico and wait" policy at the border with Mexico can't be terminated by the executive branch because it was somehow required by Congress.
Does anyone know more details? Is it true? If so, what exactly was it that Congress did?
In Australia, poor people need to pay for funeral insurance. A company that insured many indigenous people turned out to be a fraud, and now those who paid for the insurance can't have funerals.
Poor people should not have to pay for funerals — not at all. A reasonable, non-luxurious funeral should be the norm, and the state should pay for that.
The lavish and expensive funerals that are usual in the US are not fraudulent like Youpla, but they are predatory. Your dead relative won't notice what the coffin is made of, and a well-embalmed and sculptured corpse won't be any more alive than one which decays.
Let's resist the social pressure for this and other sorts of competitive conspicuous consumption, and spend money on goods and services that are actually useful for the living. For instance, the opportunity for the relatives and friends of the deceased to meet and talk is the part of a funeral that serves them rather than a business.
The WHO warns that the world has blinded itself to the evolution of Covid-19 by eliminating massive testing.
Putin seems to be preparing to send a large force to Transnistria, an eastern sliver of Moldova which borders Ukraine and which was set up by separatists in 1992 and hosts a small detachment of the Russian army.
US citizens: Demand that Big Food and Soda disclose their global political activities and spending.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Green New Deal for Cities Act.
US citizens: tell Biden you support regulation of "ghost guns".
*Billionaires Do Not Give Anything to Society — They Take From It.*
I think one of his points is not 100% true — there are a few exceptions. Thomas Edison built a business empire based on inventions, some of which he invented on his own. Most were developed with others that worked under his direction, and I think he deserves some of the credit for those too.
Steve Jobs did not invent anything, but Apple made important innovations in computer and systems. Some of those innovations were good. Others were evil, and they reflected Apple's power and Jobs's lack of respect for others' rights.
This side issue doesn't invalidate the article overall.
*"Soft Climate Denial": The Biden administration claims to "believe the science" on climate, but its actions need to catch up with its words.*
We should recognize that this is only partly his fault. Biden has tried to do a lot more, and plutocratists (Republicans, Manchin and Sinema) have blocked it.
*Six Ideas to Address High Gas Prices That Won’t Fan the Flames of [global heating].* And why even temporarily reducing the taxes on gasoline is harmful.
Motorists perceive increases in tax on gasoline as pressure. They attribute that pressure to the government and may protest. But actually that pressure comes from the disaster our fossil fuel use is creating. If we are wise, we will recognize that we dare not press back against it.
Philadelphia ended its newly restored mask requirement after just a few days on seeing that new Covid-19 cases had leveled off anyway.
I think they should have continued the mask mandate, so as to reduce the number of new cases and spare some people the risks of catching Covid-19. These risks include death, which is unlikely for vaccinated people, plus a fate worse than death — lasting disablement.
France reelected plutocratist President Macron rather than the extreme right-wing Le Pen.
*The US Spent 7.5 Times More on Nuclear Weapons Than Global Vaccine Donations.
This is the second level of an outrage. The first level is allowing the Covid-19 vaccines to be monopolized and thus very expensive, so that poor countries need to solicit donations instead of making their own.
Biden endorsed the proposal to waive these rules for the specific case of Covid-19 vaccines, but the US was as eager as other countries to impose these deadly rules world-wide in the 1990s.
Parents of trans-kids talk about the Republican persecution that is just getting started.
The EU is considering a program to systematically test 12,000 suspected toxic chemicals that appear to endanger wildlife and humans, and vigorously ban those that are verified as dangerous.
Forensic examiners studying corpses of women killed by the Putin forces say that the women were raped first. Presumably also by the Putin forces.
Many living Ukrainian women describe being raped by soldiers in the Putin forces.
When people are ashamed of having been raped, that reflects an unjust way of thinking in their own society — the injustice of blaming the victim. Shame on those who do this! It is the perpetrator that deserves the blame.
Rebecca Solnit: *Ukraine has taught us all a lesson in moral courage.*
This lesson is applicable to any cause that requires making sacrifices for the general good — even when they are smaller sacrifices that don't generally involve violence and wounds. Climate defense, and defeating nonfree software, are two of many examples.
It is no longer possible to give the Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong. Giving the award would be considered a crime. The winners would very likely have been charged already.
I would suggest that the club continue to have a press freedom committee, and state publicly that it no longer has any members.
The expectancy of healthy life in England is now almost 20 years less for poor people than for better-off people.
This is surely due to the ever-increasing privations imposed by plutocratist politicians, specifically Tories.
I wonder how large this difference was in 2005, during the last time Labour was in power.
*How bad do things have to get in Britain before we start to see solidarity emerge?* There is no telling how bad, because the right wing flies into mad hatred when anyone shows a hint of supporting a left-wing cause.
Hong Kong reporters (some of whom no longer do journalism) talk about the extreme propaganda requirements that China has imposed.
Erdoğan displays his Humpty Dumpty idea of justice: the nonviolent protest in Gezi Park declared "trying to overthrow the government".
Most US states now report Covid cases every week, instead of every day. This imitates bad judgment of the CDC. The result is that detecting trends can take several weeks.
The world is about to have a shortage of the main kinds of vegetable oils. Global heating is implicated for most of them.
Florida now has a special thug department for voter-fraud.
Since real voter-fraud is so rare, I expect it will spend most of its time pursuing vague or false suspicions, the way Republicans try to prosecute women that have miscarriages — all with the aim of frightening blacks out of voting.
*Texas death row prisoner Melissa Lucio granted stay of execution.*
Jurors in her trial have stated that they may have made a mistake in convicting her.
The bullshitter has been found in contempt of court, and will be fined ten thousand dollars per day until he hands over the subpoena'd evidence.
What a weak action by the judge! A fine so small means nothing to a putative billionaire. For a measly $3,650,000 per year, he will get the opportunity to vaunt his defiance of all authority.
To have a chance of making him comply, the court should fine him 10 million dollars a day — or jail him.
US citizens: call for justice for Patrick Lyoya — fire and prosecute the killer thug.
Also call for a federal investigation into the murder and racism in the Grand Rapids Thug Department, and support alternative approaches to policing
US citizens: phone the White House and call on Biden to finalize the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
An idea for reducing gun violence in the US: to alter common situations to be less threatening and easier to handle without violence.
It appears that any machine learning model can be backdoored during training. The backdoor makes it possible to fool the model during real use.
The EFF explains the principles by which US law rejected forced arbitration, until plutocratists on the Supreme Court started trashing those principles in the 1980s.
*Pointing out racial disparities in COVID-19 makes white people more reckless.*
In other words, they think, "The danger is for blacks, so I must be safe."
Wrong!
*Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.*
Jonathan Haidt puts the blame on the changes that converted social media platforms into antisocial media, almost tailor-made to encourage factional hatred. The article ends with recommendations for reforming these platforms that he argues could correct the problem.
I wish he didn't use the term "consume" in regard to works of authorship. That word's implications are all wrong. To consume food means to break it down into small building blocks and extract what is useful, to build into other things. That is not what we do with text we read.
The word "absorb" is not very good, but it avoids part of what's bad about "consume".
A school district in Pennsylvania has refused to allow the an extracurricular activities club sponsored by the Satanic Temple. However, it has allowed a similar club sponsored by a Christian church.
This is unconstitutional and is likely to lead to a lawsuit.
(satire) *Twitter, Enemy Of First Amendment Rights, Permanently Bans The Onion.*
(satire) *Our Intern Is Being Forced Into A Hunger Strike Until Twitter Lifts [Ban on The Onion].*
*Replacing NSW coal plant with renewables would create thousands more jobs than gas, report says.*
*The key to winning the climate debate isn’t economics: it’s health.*
Global heating effects are already killing substantial numbers of people, and the GDP is not a very good way to measure that. It is also causing sicknesses that will later cause premature death for a considerable fraction. (For instance, breathing smoke from wildfires.) That doesn't show up in today's GDP at all.
I hazard a guess that the people who think about global heating in terms of effect on the GDP are the people who simply don't recognize how dangerous it is.
Anti-sex feminism saw the pornography that shows exploitative sex, and took alarm. Now right-wing extremists are using that to persecute the queer.
They want to reimpose the prudery of the 1950s. Will we let them?
Proposing that tech companies have made a religion out of working for the company, and expect/require all employees to be believers.
In Ukrainian, "rashism" means Russian fascism — except that the joke has additional layers in the Ukrainian context.
The Putin forces fired flechette shells in Bucha a few days before leaving. The flechettes have been found in corpses of civilians.
Using those weapons in a built-up civilian area, such as Bucha, is a war crime.
Other civilians in Bucha were killed by cluster bombs.
Florida banned some math textbooks because they contain examples involving data about racism.
I sense something artificial in the examples described in this article. I am sure that those passages were written that way out of a desire to encourage students to be aware in a general way of the phenomenon of racism, and subtly encourage them to think about the issue. But that is a well-known fact of life, that the students experience in their own lives. Only a white supremacist could demand denying it entirely.
Many math problems are formulated in terms of numbers of various sorts of fruits. Will Florida Republicans find them in violation of the new law restricting teaching about homosexual relationships?
The UK's minister of personal control and repression misled Parliament officially.
Interviews with Muslims in Delhi who were victims of a pogrom stirred up by the ruling BJP party and its Hinduismist movement.
CNN's opinion: We shouldn’t trust Musk’s plans to transform Twitter.
He has made cars that have surveillance engines, so we should hardly trust him with any other digital systems.
Activists blocked the door of a printing plant in New York City, which prints the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, to protest their lousy coverage of global heating and the disaster it is causing.
*Drug Policy Alliance Applauds Biden's Embrace of Harm Reduction.*
*Gun violence becomes leading cause of death among US youth, data shows.*
This includes accidents and suicides as well as fighting and murder. Fewer guns makes all of them less frequent, and not just for teenagers.
*Homes For Ukraine whistleblower says UK refugee scheme is "designed to fail".* Basically, Bogus Johnson wants to pretend to be offering asylum to Ukrainian refugees without actually giving it to very many.
New Mexico now has fast-growing wildfires.
A long-term increasing drought covers the US southwest, so fast-spreading fires will become the norm.
Robert Reich: *Elon Musk wants to own Twitter to protect his "freedom", not everyone else's.*
Nominally-sovereign countries on the borders of wealthy countries have been conscripted as border zones to slow migration.
President Rajapaksa has united Sri Lanka's opposition; can they push him out?
(satire) *Ikea Wardrobe Contains Cheap, Poorly Constructed Fantasy World Inside.*
South Africa had flooding from rain that went on and on. The government dares to say that this is global heating at work.
I am disappointed that it used the neutral term "climate change", but at least it gets the substance right.
70% of Covid patients who are hospitalized still have serious problems a year later.
*Once a form of evidence is accepted by a judge, [US] legal precedent makes it incredibly difficult to keep even the most questionable forensic practices out of court.*
*More Than Half of US Student Loan Borrowers Say They Can't Afford [even a] Single Payment.*
An Oklahoma library board's Republican censorship decision required cancellation of the romance book club.
The House minority leader, McCarthy, privately said after the Jan 6 coup attempt that the corrupter should resign. Then, when he recognized how completely the Republican Party had morphed into the Big Lie Party, he denied saying that.
This is an illustration of how the corrupter uses power to turn tens of millions of people into liars.
*Katie Porter Leads Letter Urging Biden Not to Dump More Money Into Medicare Advantage*.
*"Private contractors, through Medicare Advantage plans, game the system and bill patients as sicker than they are to rake in billions of taxpayer dollars."*
(satire) *Struggling AMC Threatens To Clamp Down On Theater Sharing.*
*Lifting of Covid mask mandate on US transportation horrifies health experts.*
It horrifies me, too. Yesterday I went to a party in a well-ventilated space. When I got to the transfer station at Park Street I found that the train line from there was shut down; we had to take shuttle buses instead. There were not enough shuttles so there was a long line. People were waiting in line for half an hour, standing quite close to strangers, to board a packed bus; most of them had no masks. I decided not to ride a bus under conditions like that.
I waited quite some time and saw that the line was not getting shorter, so I tried to look for a taxi. No one could point me at a functioning taxi stand, there in the heart of Boston. A hotel bell captain tried to phone for a taxi for me, and got no answer. I did see some taxis go by in the street but there was little chance of finding an empty one.
On returning to the shuttle stop, I found that the line had become short and buses were no longer packed. I reached the party over two hours delayed; many of the people had already left.
A mask requirement by itself would not have prevented this problem, and I would not ride on a packed bus even if everyone had a mask. But it would have reduced the amount of infection that took place on those crowded buses.
The airlines that have gleefully eliminated mask requirements will regret it when sick employees lead to cancelling flights.
US citizens: call on Biden to remove Ginni Thomas from the Library of Congress.
US citizens: tell the SEC you support new transparency rules for private equity funds.
I think we need to regulate them a lot more than this, but maybe the SEC can't go that far on its own without new laws.
US citizens: call on Biden to sign up the US to the International Criminal Court.
New Spanish pun: las máscaras
US citizens: call on your congressional representative to pass Biden's billionaire tax.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Geoengineering schemes that work by reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere carry a risk of greatly increasing malaria.
California is building renewable electric generation and large batteries in a way that shows the world what everyone should do.
Mexico is nationalizing lithium deposits.
Warning to Australian politicians: the export market for coal will vanish in a few years. It must stop building expensive new coal facilities that will never make a profit.
Meanwhile, Australia imports nearly all its oil. It needs to invest in renewable power for vehicles.
OSHA must start planning to protect American workers from the heat that is coming.
The only way to protect workers from the even worse heat of 30 years from now is to curb global heating.
Physicians for Human Rights called on Biden to stop defending the cruel family-separation policy of the vicious president and instead pay compensation to the victims.
*Atlanta Apple Store Workers File for Company's First Union Election in US.*
Until we can make Apple respect users' freedom, or get rid of it, at least its workers should have a union.
*DOJ Files Appeal to Revive Travel Mask Mandate.*
One ethnic group in Tanzania has taken up the project of defending lions, while also protecting livestock from lions.
New Zealand agreed to extradite to China a defendant accused of murder there. Now there is a campaign not to extradite him, because China might torture him and give him an unfair trial.
Indeed, that is quite possible. However, it is not only China that does this. The campaign against extraditing Julian Assange to the US cites the danger of similar conduct by the US.
Florida Republicans have used gerrymandering to assure they will control 20 out of the state's 28 congressional seats.
Republicans do have a majority in Florida, but nothing like that.
Bernie Sanders: the US should stop subsidizing any part of Bezos's space business. He can afford it himself.
The mayor of Mariupol accuses the Putin forces of secretly burying corpses lying around in Mariupol, to cover up the number of casualties. And, in some cases, possible war crimes.
As long as the Putin forces hold Mariupol it will never be possible to check whether that is true.
Guardian journalists have found physical evidence that the Putin forces used cluster bombs on civilian area in towns north of Kiev.
The evidence includes, among other things, fragments found in corpses.
This article makes much of the fact that most countries in the world have signed the treaty to ban cluster bombs. However, the major powers have not signed it, and I don't think "that's forbidden" is a valid moral argument in regard to the countries that have not signed.
Rather, the valid moral argument to condemn the use of cluster bombs is the practical consequence of using them: the unexploded submunitions keep killing civilians (especially children) for decades after the war.
It is also true that using these or other powerful munitions in civilian areas is a war crime.
Sami defending their use of land for reindeer herding are in conflict with plans to make steel with less carbon emissions.
Sustainable steel is crucial for all of society; reindeer herding is a niche activity. If the two inescapably conflict, in principle we should approve the mine and the wind farms.
But not necessarily the specific plans that have been proposed. Wind farms can go in various places. Other places might cost more, but that might be a good compromise. If compromise increases the cost of mining, the Sami's interest can justify that.
We can't trust companies, and especially not mining companies. Before approving any specific plans, we should study them in minute detail looking for deceptions, and for promises they might wiggle out of — or that might be impossible to carry out.
I also wonder whether the existing mines could be used for the new, less-polluting steel plant. Perhaps the company hopes that increased output will cover the cost of building the new plant. If so, perhaps the state should pay for it as a replacement, and own it.
We are running out of time to prosecute the wrecker for trying to overthrow the US government and seize power.
*US police have killed nearly 600 people in traffic stops since 2017, data shows.*
Putin ordered his forces to blockade Mariupol so that no civilians can possibly flee. It would also stop soldiers from getting out, but I don't think there was much chance of that anyway. Putin has been taking strong measures to keep civilians from escaping. I can think of a few possible motives:
Students in Vermont Law School have demanded that a school get rid of a mural which depicts the Underground Railroad (in which whites helped escaped slaves reach Canada and freedom) in a tone they don't agree with.
I have no opinion on the mural itself, because I have not seen it. I don't know whether I would agree with the reported criticism. It doesn't say precisely what aspects of the mural are being criticized, and I don't know if I would recognize them without more explanation.
I think the court's ruling was correct. To remove a piece of art from view is not "distortion, mutilation, or … modification", just as deleting a file does not make a modified version of it.
It would be ludicrous to give whoever painted a mural in a publicly visible place the power to require it to be preserved there forever. Imagine if the mural showed adulation for Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin — should this compel the building's owner to display propaganda for them? The school must have the choice to cover up or paint over art that it does not wish to display. Indeed, it may someday wish to remodel or demolish the building, and eliminate that wall entirely.
Although this means the school has the right to decide to hide the mural, I disapprove of that decision. It is partly for the reasons stated in the article, but it is more than that.
Although I am not sure what aspects of the mural some students criticize, I can tell that it is a matter of nuance. It is not like a painting that admires Trumputin. That means that the critics are being demanding more than anyone in a free society has a right to demand. They must learn to respect disagreement on such points. I say this without knowing whether I would agree or disagree with them on their specific criticisms of the mural.
Now Arizona is the state that's dealing with a wildfire that is much worse than normal.
*Prosecutor drops all charges against Pamela Moses, jailed over voting error.*
*Vaccination Could Have Prevented 3 in 5 US Covid Deaths Since June 2021: Analysis.*
Zelenskyy accused Putin of planning to hold a worthless "referendum" in conquered areas of Ukraine. He did that in Crimea after conquering it, and the election was clearly bogus.
An Indian cabinet minister faced protests when visiting UC Berkeley for the Modi government's policies of religious persecution.
*A senior Russian military commander has said that the goal of [Putin's] new offensive is to seize control of southern Ukraine and form a land bridge to Crimea, indicating that Russia plans a permanent occupation of Ukrainian territory taken in the war.*
Another part of the statement suggests that Putin wants to conquer Odessa as well.
Scientists call for limiting the number of satellites in near-Earth orbit to avoid collisions.
The desire of a company to launch thousands of satellites is of no importance compared to this.
Modi arrested a Dalit activist elected official for accusing Modi of admiring the fanatical assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.
I don't know whether Modi actually admires him, but his party is allied with the RSS which inspired the assassin.
After years without live shows to see, some people have lost their inhibitions about disrupting shows.
With so much Covid-19 spreading around, I think it is foolhardy to go to any indoor live show where people will not follow mask discipline and stay distant from each other.
The major Australian parties are all planet-roasters.
The US should speed up the conversion of US steel production to use hydrogen instead of coal.
Biden plans to offer money to keep unprofitable nuclear power plants operating.
Shutting down a nuclear power plant has a plus — it avoids making more radioactive material and gets a start on cleaning up the site.
I wonder how these payments will work. Will they be a simple subsidy? Or would the company have to pay something in return — perhaps its own stock? I think that when the state tries to aid a company, it should never be a simple subsidy; the state should demand payment in shares.
The most basic way to prevent the switch from nuclear power to fossil fuel power is to tax the use of fossil fuels heavily. That would not lead to building any new nuclear plants, as that is far too expensive, but it would encourage building renewable energy.
The enormous profits to be made from drug patents create pressure to corrupt the details of the patent system.
That's aside from the question of whether patents should apply to medicine, or to any other field.
The level of dissent in Shanghai is so high that it is saturating China's censorship army.
It looks like someone used Pegasus to snoop on the phones of Catalunya's officials. They accuse the government of Spain.
More about the US mask mandate, whose loss will increase the danger to everyone in the US.
*“No Wars, No Warming‘: Extinction Rebellion Marches on NYC.*
Supporting Ukraine in defeating the Putin forces is a necessary part of discouraging wars launched by states against states. However, among US wars since 1960, that is an exception. For most of them, the US had no valid grounds for fighting.
Support for Ukraine is a small fraction of US military spending; we could reduce it greatly, especially via new nuclear diplomacy.
Thus, we can cut the US military budget while supporting Ukraine as much as it needs.
Putin's invasion is leading to disaster for the whole world, as it interferes with urgent climate defense measures.
*Progressives Say Climate Inaction, Student Debt Explain Biden's Drop in Support Among Young Voters.*
They reduce my support for him, too. However, they do not make planet-roaster Republicans and plutocratist Democrats any better for us than they used to be.
US citizens: call on Congress to have the US lead the IMF to give Ukraine debt relief.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Everyone: call on airlines to designate some flights as masks-required.
The UK has forbidden a P&O ferry to operate, after inspecting it and finding 31 different safety failures.
I have a suspicion that these failures are the result of skimping. It is urgent for the UK to bring in new requirements about the minimum pay for the crew, which the Tories said they would bring in when P&O fired all the crew in order to use subcontracted workers instead.
* It's time to talk honestly about "fewer and less": fewer people consuming less energy and materials.*
There will surely have fewer people in 2100; what is not certain is whether the population will decrease the humane way or the brutal way. Likewise, human use of resources will almost surely be less in 2100; what is not certain is whether people will have comfortable lives or live in squalor. Those questions are political questions.
The European Court of Human Rights has the power to garnish payments for oil coming in to Russia as reparations for Russia's damage to Ukraine.
(satire) *Health Insurance Plan [Covers Only] Random Hippopotamus Attacks.*
*More Fracked Gas Exports Will Worsen Climate Emergency. Send Heat Pumps Instead.*
This is basically correct, but in practice it isn't that simple. For a heat pump system to do good, it needs to be first built, then installed. I doubt that the world's capacity to build heat pumps can deliver enough by next winter to avoid shivering in Europe, and I doubt that the capacity there to install them is enough either.
No business will choose to build so much new capacity that it will satisfy the whole market in a year and put itself out of business. With public subsidy and careful planning, we could arrange to do the whole job in a few years. In parallel with that, we could insulate houses in their hundreds of millions. We should do this, but we can't do it by next winter.
(satire) *Gymnastics Program Gives Child Self-Discipline Needed To Sustain Lifelong Eating Disorder.*
Around 20,000 Ukrainians got visas to visit the UK for farm work, and some were enslaved once there.
Russian journalist Mikhail Afanasyev: * 11 members of the Russian National Guard from his home region of Khakassia had refused to fight in Ukraine, he said, and the military was hiding information about their unit’s casualties from the public.*
Now he is waiting for state censorship thugs to arrest him and accuse him for "fake news".
Two Floridians have pleaded guilty to voting twice in the 2020 presidential election. Both got a slap on the wrist.
One is a registered Republican; the other has no party affiliation but is probably a Republican, since they live in a suburb whose inhabitants are nearly all white and retired.
Republicans' outrage against voter fraud seems to be limited to the possibility of improper voting for Democrats.
Elon Musk said that if he buys Twitter, he would make its recommendation algorithm free software. More precisely, he said "open source", but it's almost the same in practice. There are a few programs which are open source but not free, as explained in https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.
A study of gun violence records from California shows that starting to live in a house where there is a gun correlates with increased danger of being killed by domestic violence, and is no protection against killing by strangers.
DeSantis has found a way to bully Disney into silence on the question of queer rights, by proposing a law that would take away Disney's special privileges — in 2023. This means that that the law would pressure Disney to keep quiet for the 2022 election.
This contest pitches one kind of corruption against another. Companies such as Disney should not have much political influence on elections; that influence is how plutocracy works. That power undermines democracy.
However, Republicans also undermine democracy.
Woe is my country, caught between these dangers.
*US justice department appeals mask mandate ruling after CDC request.*
Australia's planet-roaster government proposes to spend lots of money building dams that may not serve any other purpose. Nominally they will collect water for irrigation, but they have not been chosen to provide useful irrigation. They were chosen to reward a right-wing governing party's voters.
One thing they will surely do is release lots of CO2 as the concrete sets.
Bogus Johnson said something valid, for once: he acknowledged that there is no chance of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia just now.
The reason is that the sides are too far apart. Each side would rather fight than agree to terms that the other side might possibly accept. Putin wants to seize additional parts of Ukraine's territory, and Ukraine wants to recapture the areas that the Putin forces have already taken, starting in 2014. Each side sees a hope of winning. So they will fight.
Aside from territory, Ukraine also wants to recover the citizens who were taken to Russia and don't see a way to get out.
After one side or both sides recognize that the victory it had sought is unattainable, they may converge on an idea of peace that they could agree on.
For now, the best thing to do is to help Ukraine make Putin recognize that victory is impossible and he may as well accept a peace deal that gives him at least something.
Bogus Johnson was compelled to abandon the attempt to prevent an investigation into his lies about participating in parties at work during the time when he had made such parties illegal.
*[Jeremy Corbin] does not blame Nato for Russian invasion but questions role of military alliances.*
He said he *hoped military alliances like Nato could be ultimately disbanded, saying they could create "greater danger" in the world.*
I don't agree with him on that point, but I don't consider that position horrible. Despite that disagreement, I still support Corbyn. Overall, he is the one I would trust to fight plutocracy.
Protected nature reserves can ensure the survival of species, but that is not automatic. Researchers are now studying what causes a given nature reserve to succeed or fail with any particular species.
*America’s crime panic: why we can’t afford to repeat mistakes of the 90s.*
The mistakes were hiring more thugs, stop-and-search, and longer prison terms.
Geoengineering methods designed to cool the Earth could also exacerbate malaria.
Those methods would fail to counteract the acidification of the oceans, caused by the CO2 dissolving in them. That would kill a large fraction of ocean life.
Rep. Raskin, of the January 6 investigation committee, asserted that the insurrection was a coup attempt organized by the corrupter.
Workers in a major Apple store seek to unionize. As long as Apple stores exist, it would be good for their workers to have a union — but due to the injustice of Apple's hardware and software, what we should really wish for is the elimination of Apple's products (along with products running Android and Windows).
Everyone: call on Boeing to stop funding insurrectionist candidates.
Here's more information.
US citizens: Tell Biden, we're counting on you to seal the Iran deal.
US citizens: call on Congress to let its staff form a union.
*Starbucks Workers Urge Congress to Grill CEO Howard Schultz on Union-Busting.*
Senator Warren states what Democrats need to do to avoid losing Congress in November.
However, they also need to defeat the Republican corrupt election officials plot. Robert Reich points to a description of the Republican plan to install state election officials who will try to steal elections for offices at all levels, state and federal.
What he sent was a youtube URL. I won't direct people to run nonfree Javascript code so I converted it into an invidious proxy URL. Invidio.us will ask you to choose one of the many proxy sites to watch the video from.
There is also the problem of gerrymandering and voter suppression.
*DOJ Urged to Probe Whether Trump "Willfully Mutilated and Destroyed" Jan. 6 Call Logs.*
Republican censorship campaigns have reached public libraries too.
(satire) *Company Referral Program Offers Bonuses For Recommending Potential Employees To Fire.*
Australia vows unending hatred for refugees that arrived by boat. Even if they move to New Zealand and become citizens there, Australia will not let them live in Australia as New Zealand citizens generally can.
The US does an abominable job of protecting new mothers' health. For black new mothers, it does even worse.
*No, more police won’t make New Yorkers — or anyone else — safer. It never does.*
*Most workers at large retail and food corporations receive less than $15 an hour.* That is not a living wage nowadays.
Autopsy confirmed that Patrick Lyoya, unarmed, was shot by a Michigan thug who was on top of Lyoya while he was lying face down on the ground.
More info about the situation in which he was killed.
I agree with Lyoya's relatives that this was this was totally gratuitous, and inexcusable. Let's see charges against the thug!
In some high schools, boys harass female teachers as well as female students.
Why does this happen? Are teachers not allowed to punish students for harassing students and teachers?
Ukraine's latest stamp gives the finger to the Moskva. It is selling fast.
The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys were planning something together for Jan 6.
Some of them said they were in communication with extremist Rep. Ronny Jackson.
Argentina has legalized abortion, but one rogue prosecutor decided to prosecute an abortion doctor anyway.
When countries turn to the IMF for loans for coping with Covid-19, it almost always demands they adopt crush-the-poor policies.
The IMF has done this for decades. In the 1980s it was famous for making countries charge money for public school.
(satire) *Airlines Announce It Safe To Fly Planes Indoors Again.*
Threats of violence from right-wing fanatics forced the Family Sex Show to cancel its performances. They consist of the very beginning of sex education.
(satire) *Conservative Parents Explain Why They Are Boycotting Disney.*
The Disney streaming channel is an injustice for real — just like all other streaming channels. They all impose DRM,all snoop on you all demand you sign an antisocial contract promising not to share, and they all require you to run nonfree software including the DRM software. Only the details differ.
* After decades of interfering in the island nation with nuclear testing, disposal of radioactive waste, and human experimentation, U.S. leaders are considering a formal apology.*
A study found that state-legalized recreational marijuana correlates with "significant reductions in the volume of prescriptions within the drug classes that align with the medical indications for pain, depression, anxiety, sleep, psychosis, and seizures."
Payment companies and stores save money by pushing people to pay using digital systems, but if we don't maintain the use of cash, we will all lose.
Long before there was any system for digital payments, a think tank predicted that those systems would be every repressive regime's dream.
The main reason I insist on paying only cash to buy products is not my own privacy — though I appreciate that too — but rather to defend the privacy of the heroic journalists and their heroic sources, the whistleblowers.
We all depend on them, for our freedom.
Please support the defense of cash. When you leave the house, bring a reasonable amount with you for the day's purchases, and use the cash at least sometimes.
If at a store you don't have enough cash, that doesn't mean you have to pay with a card or give up. You can go to an ATM, get cash, then return to the store. With that method, the bank learns only where you were when you got the cash, and the store doesn't learn anything about you.
Beware of the defeatists who predict that surveillance is (or will become) so complete that there is no use even trying for privacy. They get a perverse pleasure from urging people to despair and give up. You can tell them, "On something important, only fools give up without a fight."
The drastically wasteful business of "fast fashion" is accelerating into even more wasteful "ultra-fast fashion".
Its predatory marketing sets up a competition of consumption which wealthy "mean girls" can use to sneer at and exclude other girls. It amounts to an addiction, but an addiction of social groups rather than individuals, so that your social circle would pressure you do join in.
It seems to be bad for almost everyone, except the few who win the game and don't get in money trouble, and the few business owners that succeed.
I wonder what happens to the now-unfashionable purchases of a few months ago. Are they given away to frugal people?
Some parents of sailors on the Moskva know their children are alive. A few have been told that their children are dead. But many others can't get any information.
*India has been accused of attempting to delay an effort by the World Health Organization to revise the global death toll from Covid-19 after its calculations suggested that the country had under counted its dead by an estimated 3.5 million.*
The Hindu-theocratic movement whose party rules India is converting traditional religious festivals into violent pogroms against Muslims.
*Progressive International Outlines Four Ways to End IMF's 'Abuse of Power'.*
They say, "Only strong mechanisms of accountability -— changing both who decides and how -— can end the Fund's impunity."
One Republican extremist judge overturned the US mask mandate for transportation of all kinds.
I am very worried about the danger that will result from this. I hope the government appeals it.
There is evidence that Ukraine has used cluster bombs in fighting the Putin forces.
It appears that Ukraine used them on Putin's military, not on civilians. But regardless of who the immediate target is, cluster bombs tend to harm civilians later, because the bomb-lets lie around and can be set off later by civilians, even children.
Industry groups representing companies that systematically eliminate privacy are taking control of the development of state laws that supposedly aim to protect privacy.
These laws are mainly based on trying to limit how companies can use data once collected. That approach is inherently inadequate: it may reduce certain annoyances but what it can't provide is actual privacy. To do that, we must limit the collection of data. and that can only be done by limiting what kinds of data systems can be designed to collect.
Everyone: tell Amazon to stop blocking the Amazon Labor Union.
Everyone: call on Amazon to stop selling bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides.
US citizens: call on the Senate to address marijuana policy reform.
US citizens: insist that US schools must teach American history, not just straight white history.
US citizens: call on Biden to declare climate an emergency under the National Emergencies Act. This would give him several useful powers to start climate defense.
Everyone: call on British Columbia to protect old-growth forests.
China is failing at the task of distributing food to everyone in Shanghai during lockdown. People who have run out of food and are not allowed to go out and get any.
I am surprised that China cannot organize people to walk around with pressurized air breathing masks to distribute food to everyone. It would be worth the trouble of that, to get rid of Covid-19 in Shanghai instead of suffering all the damage it would do — if it is possible.
*Labour split by leadership call for action against climate crisis blockades.*
The Tanglewood Festival Chorus joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the first concert without masks since two years ago. More than 30 of them caught Covid-19 there.
I suppose they were singing, "Imagine there's no Covid."
The EU accuses right-wing extremist Marine Le Pen of using EU funds to pay to hold meetings of her anti-EU party.
Amber was enslaved by a gang of rapists, then accused by the British state of being their assistant. Then prosecutors changed their mind and she identified some of the rapists — only to find that prosecutors had labeled her a "co-conspirator."
Putin has reportedly taken thousands of Ukrainian children and plan to send some of them to orphanages in Russia.
Some of these cases have been independently confirmed, at least partially. It appears that Kira really can talk with her grandfather, but will Putin's forces let her leave?
Christians are being forced out of the Christian quarter of old Jerusalem.
*Top 5 Charter School Myths Debunked.* "Charter schools" are funded by the government, but in other respects they act like private schools. So we get the worst of both sides.
Ralph Nader: *Consumer Protection Progress and Regress — From the Sixties to Now.*
* A refugee who fled torture in Rwanda and was given asylum in the UK has criticised [UK] government plans to fly unauthorised migrants to his home country.*
Jackie Robinson was an antiracist campaigner, both before and after he played major-league baseball.
Florida has been an abortion refuge for the southeast of the US. The new restriction there will oppress millions of US women.
Valerie Tarico: *Why I Am Pro-Abortion, Not Just Pro-Choice*.
I too am pro-abortion. I think her reasons are good, but my own principal reasons are very different. The most important one is that fewer births will reduce the horror of global heating disaster.
*Australia failing its own citizens held in 'sordid' camps in Syria.*
*Military and Economic Power Once Again Fail to Produce Happiness.*
*Rich countries that let inequality run rampant make citizens unhappy.*
Some Muslims in Sweden are violently crazed, trying to prevent a right-wing group from burning a Qur'an.
Freedom of speech includes the right to offend anyone — even you, even me. If someone burns your sacred book in a free country, whichever book that may be, you just have to live with it.
Those who demand the privilege to punish people who offend them are fighting against other people's freedom. The state must never surrender to that.
Australia is sending 2000 "pod homes" to victims of flooding.
How about providing these to homeless people, too?
New York's mayor called for an increase in state psychiatric hospital facilities as a way to deal with the recent subway shooting.
That is a step in the right direction, and better than what I had expected.
Interviews with people in towns near the Donetsk front line.
The World Food Program warns of starvation in Mariupol, present and future, after Putin's forces have stopped them from bring food to the civilians there.
Scientist Emma Smart has started a hunger strike in jail after being held for extra time after her nonviolent protest for climate defense.
(satire) *God Who Took Form Of Swan Finding It Much Harder To Seduce Women Than Expected.*
Gina McCarthy, Biden's main climate advisor, is reportedly planning to quit because she little opportunity to make progress, with climate legislation blocked by the Republicans and Manchin.
I don't know whether having done bankruptcy law work for a few failing fossil fuel companies implies that her deputy has planet roaster sympathies. It might.
Ukraine accuses the Putin forces of kidnapping Ukrainian children and taking them by force to Russia.
If this is true, I can imagine that Putin might make it extremely hard for Ukraine, or their relatives, to find them in Russia and ask where they would rather go.
Rape of civilians is a frequent concomitant of war, but it is very rarely punished as a war crime.
It seems to me that there are two big practical obstacles to prosecution of war rapists:
There is a project to reintroduce California condors to northern California, where some of them lived until 1892.
We reintroduce condors (or other species) to places that were once good habitat for them, and expect them to live there. But will those same places be good habitat for them in 2060, or 2100? Will anyplace on Earth be good habitat for them?
After an unusual heavy rain that caused a local disaster, South Africa is about to get one more.
Eastern Australia recently had a similar series of rain-driven floods.
These two regions are in comparable latitudes, and I suspect that the two series of floods are part of one single climatic pattern — due to global heating.
Women are starting to drive electric three-wheel minitaxies in Delhi.
I find it fun to ride in those. They exist in Latin America too.
On the spread of Agroecology as a movement to make farming more sustainable (and more efficient) by taking advantage of natural tendencies instead of overriding them.
The UK National Union of Students is under fire for for antisemitism.
Distinguishing between antisemitism and criticism of Israel's policy requires care. I take care because I condemn antisemitism and I oppose the occupation of Palestine.
The article presents an old example from an NUS leader which is real antisemitism. However, the NUS has adopted the IHRA's classificatory scheme for antisemitism as a criterion for judgment. That draws the line at the wrong place, and thus systematically opens the door to repressing criticism of the occupation of Palestine. Past examples suggest that some organizations, perhaps including the British government, will try to make the NUS expel all those who criticize it.
(satire) *Supreme Court IT Guy Walks Ketanji Brown Jackson Through Logging Into Gavel.*
*Biden EPA Unveils 'First-Ever' Blueprint to Protect Endangered Species From Pesticides.*
The US deportation thugs are tracking the movements of 200,000 immigrants. Even worse, it is privatized. Activists are suing to find out what data they store.
Tracking people's movements is much less than keeping them in prison, but is this change being used as an opportunity to "jail" more people?
Biden has restarted the sale of oil and gas leases on public land, but multiplied the royalty rate by 3/2.
A big enough royalty rate could discourage investment in these leases, but I have a feeling that around 20% is not enough to do that. Furthermore, I have to ask, "18.75% of what?" Many oil wells are run by smaller companies that sell the oil to a big company. If this is 20% of what the small company charges the big company, it may not amount to much money, or much dissuasion.
Unless we have a long-term increasing carbon tax big enough to make new investments unprofitable, we will have too many.
Truck drivers protested again, this time against Greg Abbott's policy of searching all trucks entering Texas from Mexico, and made him cancel it.
The search was for smuggling, of goods or people. In principle, there is nothing wrong with checking for that, but the cost was disastrous.
An idea occurs to me. Every truck that crosses the border could be required to carry inside cameras and lamps that could be used at the border to inspect the inside of the cargo compartment quickly.
Since there are supposed to be people inside, this system would surveil any people unjustly.
Now that concert halls take a large fraction of the merch musicians sell there, musicians can't make a go of it
More about the loopholes that rich Americans use to pay very little tax.
Politics offers two ways to end the injustice of neoliberalism (the system that plutocracy imposes to serve the plutocrats): democratic socialism, and hate-based fascist authoritarianism.
The article describes neoliberalism as a "failure". In a sense, it is. Neoliberalism was presented (for instance, by Reagan) as a system that would serve people better in general. In those terms, it is a failure.
However, it's not a failure for the plutocrats. That's why they fight so hard against progressives.
But they might find fascism even more lucrative. Instead of corrupting and lobbying the legal system, they could wipe away all governmental respect for popular opposition to plutocracy.
*84% of US Teens Back Urgent Climate Action to Save Future Generations: Poll.*
More precisely, they agree that "If we don't address climate change today, it will be too late for future generations, making some parts of the planet unlivable."
Most have already seen the effects of global heating in the short period they have lived.
It may be that the term "climate change" is losing its distractive ability, for teenagers, since they know the reality it stands for. However, not everyone is a teenager, so I still make sure to use terms that were not chosen to downplay the point about which overall direction this change is going.
*Bank of America Accused of Using "Accounting Tricks as Real Climate Action."*
If your bank account is in a big bank, how about moving it to a local bank that invests in your local economy.
Ilhan Omar: *If we oppose investigations into countries, like our own, that haven't joined the ICC, how can we support an investigation into Russia, another country that hasn't joined the court?*
I personally commit no hypocrisy by calling for prosecution of Putinite war criminals, because I advocate joining the ICC, for the US and other countries.
Remember when the hate-spreader ordered various thugs to clear the protesters out of a park so he could walk through it? The ACLU sued, supported by the Department of Justice, and won an agreement from the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police to make rules against various dangerous and unjustified tactics.
The Santa Ana thug department is investigating its own thugs' practice of playing loud Disney music to cause Youtube's automated filters to delete recordings of their actions.
The "Babies not Billionaires" bill is another version of the billionaire's tax.
Its feature is that it would require the IRS to audit annually everyone with over $100 million in assets. No more harping on poor people's child tax credit.
I support the substance of this bill because it will help make sure no children in the US have to grow up in poverty. But I dislike the name of this bill because it spreads the dangerous, obsolete idea that there is something good about having babies. On the contrary, it is important to reduce the birth rate to a low number.
Educated guesses about why Bogus Johnson proposes to send refugees to Rwanda.
(satire) NATO has offered Finland and Sweden gratis one-day trial membership in NATO.
Now that Australia has thrown away the precautions against the spread of Covid-19, lots of people go to sports events, concerts and so on, 3% of the population is immunocompromised and don't dare go.
Another 3% is immunocompromised and takes a wild risk by going anyway.
It would be so easy to require vaccination and reduce the threat to all those people.
In the short term, money spent buying Russian oil is blood money. In the long term view, money spent buying oil anywhere is blood money.
*USDA Conservation Program Must Be Reformed to Stop Funding Pollution, Report Shows.*
Let's not confuse the existence of an unconscious system which handles certain problems with "knowledge" about them. That is anthropomorphism,
coated with sloppy sentimentalism.
Plants that concentrate metals are scientifically interesting, and could eventually become useful for us. Transport of nutrients between trees by fungi is very scientifically interesting, and very important.
However, the article is philosophically confused when it equates having evolved to do something, with having "knowledge". There are parts of normal human brains which unconsciously do things — such as recognizing objects in a scene — which we don't know how to do. We have funded thousands of man-years of research into developing knowledge in an area that our brains have evolved to handle unconsciously. Likewise for the immune system, except that it may be hundreds of thousands of man-years.
The "computational" feats of slime molds may be appear philosophically amazing when we realize that the experiment arranged for them to act as a kind of analog computer. The operational amplifiers in an electronic analog computer don't know anything about the quantities that people are using them to compute.
China is struggling to quarantine everyone in Shanghai that tests positive for Covid-19.
It could be that Omicron spreads so easily that this approach can't work any more.
Farmers in one part of the UK used to keep ditches around the edges of their fields to drain excess rain. Then they filled these ditches and caused a problem of flooding in the area. I speculate that they were under competitive pressure to grow the maximum amount of crops, or fail. In other words, I suspect that the social system made it impossible for them to take the wise precaution. if so, we need to alter the system so that they can do so.
Australia's prime minister butters up Modi, chose a candidate for parliament who is of Indian origin and has posted valid criticism of Modi.
Right-wing government in New South Wales is selling lots of public housing.
I suspect that results in accommodating fewer, wealthier people in those buildings. That would increase the housing crunch for poor people.
Refugees in the UK respond to the Tory plan to send refugees to Rwanda.
Macron said he favors a Europe-wide limit on executive pay.
I advocate policies to limit the income of rich people, but that is not the best way to do it.
First, many rich people are executives of corporations, but not all. I think we should limit the income of all people with high incomes.
Second, arbitrary fixed limits tend to create economic paradoxes which people then try to game. Consider for instance the trucks that DeJoy wants to make the USPS buy, which are just a smidgen over an arbitrary weight at which certain environmental standards cease to apply.
Thus, instead of an absolute cap on some or all high incomes, I think a big increase in tax rates would do the job better.
In any case, it's good for the French president to advocate such a limit, but that doesn't mean it will happen. Such a change in EU policy is beyond Macron's power to implement.
The very high income of the CEO of Peugot-Chrysler-Fiat, mentioned in the article, should remind us of the harm done by mergers and reduced competition.
The Republican Party now campaigns based on hatred for homosexuals,
and for anyone who might have an association with homosexuals, or might persecute them less than Republican do.
New York City's new mayor is a surveillance night-mayor.
He plays on foolish demands for cops to find every criminal fast — which is impossible — as an excuse for surveillance and tracking of everyone.
Planet roasters in the UK parliament showed what weak loose screws they will cling to for support as they oppose actions that would start to defend the climate.
Afghanistan is arresting journalists because of what they report.
Israeli soldiers killed an unarmed, mostly-blind Palestinian who ran towards them after they fired warning shots.
They shot her in the legs, which should not have been fatal. She actually died because they then kept medics away from her for 15 minutes. That's a common practice of Israeli soldiers who have shot a Palestinian, and it often kills people who could have survived.
It seems to be a frequent pattern that people with sensory deficiencies get killed by "law enforcement". US thugs regularly do it too.
What can be done to put an end to these pointless killings?
Predictions that speculating in NFTs would be profitable have hit a painful counterexample: an NFT that sold for almost 3 million dollars a year ago has lost almost all of that value
There is art involved in that NFT: it is a performance art piece that tells a story we could refer to as, "The Connoisseur's New Artwork."
The Republican Party has prohibited debates for its presidential candidates.
Democrats could try these responses:
Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, reportedly with Ukrainian-made anti-ship missiles.
I would expect that ship participated in the continuous bombardment of Maruipol. Ukraine's success against Putin's most powerful warship in that region will discourage further attacks from the sea — for instance, against Odessa. And Putin forces ships won't dare come close enough to bombard cities again.
According to Wikipedia, that ship had close-in weapons system. The purpose of those systems is to destroy incoming missiles. Apparently it was ineffective this time. Other navies including the US also carry such systems, for the same purpose. Can they be counted on to work?
*Covid-19 Death Rates in Poorer US Counties Were Nearly Double.*
In the worst waves, the ratio was more than double.
Jim Hightower: Does the Democratic Party have the courage, and the independence, to fight the unpopular things that the Republicans want to do?
Ukraine reports finding 900 dead civilians in the region around Kyiv (which includes Bucha and other towns that were occupied by Putin forces).
Most of them killed by gunshot.
US citizens: call on the Senate to confirm Gigi Sohn as an FCC commissioner.
US citizens: call on Congress to end the hater's Title 42 "wait in Mexico" policy.
US Citizens: tell Congress to reject mandatory automatic censorship filters to be based loosely on copyright.
This "smart act" will sure make copyright smart. It will smart so much we will all cry out.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Army Corps of Engineers to check each proposed oil pipeline's environmental impact instead of approving them under a blanket order.
Amazon warehouse workers have almost double the rate of work injuries typical in other warehouses.
This adds to the many other reasons not to buy from Amazon.
The graduate students at Indiana University are on strike because the university administration has refused to recognize their union
It would make sense for the adjunct professors to organize together with the grad students. Why don't they? My guess is that precarious workers have fewer rights than students. They can be junct at any moment.
In a just country, workers wouldn't have to struggle to get their rights respected. Employers that violate their rights would be prosecuted like muggers.
Big oil companies do greenwashing by disregarding 3/4 of the greenhouse emissions of their operations: the part due to their suppliers.
They also omit half their methane leaks from reporting.
Alden Global Capital takes over US newspaper companies in order to turn them into profitable censored trash.
The US needs to change its tax and investment laws so that asset strippers can't operate in any industry. The only assets that strippers should work with are the sexy ones.
Accusing Wikipedia of becoming too exclusive and "deletionist", and giving businesses a dangerous level of influence.
The fight to kill the Mountain Valley Pipeline continues in court, with no final outcome yet.
*Boris Johnson’s impunity is the mark of a rotten political system.*
The Tory justice minister has resigned, rebuking Bogus Johnson.
Just Stop Oil representative after a TV interview: *The worst part is that these presenters and journalists think they know better than chief scientists or academics who have been studying the climate crisis for decades, and they refuse to hear otherwise.*
*BBC warns of fake video claiming Ukraine carried out Kramatorsk attack.*
Indonesia has passed a law to punish various sorts of sexual violence and harassment, including forced marriage.
Extinction Rebellion scientists glued their hands to windows at the UK's Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
* A preliminary war crimes assessment, conducted on behalf of 45 members of the OSCE, concluded that Russia had engaged in "a clear pattern" of war crimes, targeting, for example, hospitals, schools and places of shelter during the seven weeks of fighting.*
*Lightning-sparked forest fires set to increase in North America.* This is because global heating will make fire weather more frequent.
A campaign accuses the rich countries of obstructing vaccinating all of humanity against Covid-19, by upholding the artificial monopolies of the vaccine companies, and thus encouraging dangerous new variants of the virus.
Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter — the whole company.
He has no sense of social responsibility. Twitter today, aside from being inacceptable to use because it requires running nonfree software, makes imperfect efforts to respect human rights. Musk might drop that in the trash.
The UK has given Dogger Bank protection from bottom-trawling.
This is a vital step for protecting endangered ecosystems. It needs to be done in a lot more parts of the sea bottom.
*Women and Journalists Are Targets of Violence in Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan.* Especially women that protest against repression, and journalists that cover protests.
Just as Australia has sent refugees to Nauru, and then to Manus Island in New Guinea, as prisoners, so Tories plan to send refugees in the UK to Rwanda.
If Elon Musk buys Twitter, he is likely to reenable the bullshitter's account.
The UK wants to force refugees to "wait in Rwanda", a country whose president is accused of having exiled dissidents assassinated, and holding show trials of those he could grab.
It shouldn't be surprising the UK is not averse to this record, given that the UK is currently helping the US grab a famous dissident for a show trial.
If Rwanda proves too dirty for this use, the UK could try China ;-{.
Some European airlines eliminated the requirement to wear a mask. Now they are cancelling lots of flights because their crew staff are sick.
Teachers obeying a new Republican censorship law banned an author from reading aloud from his book, It's Ok to be a Unicorn.
It's not just hostility that leads the UK government to cause people great harm in regard to issues of residency. It appears they are prone to trivial errors, and can take months to correct them.
1/8 of the rental homes in England violate legal standards with problems that cause serious risk to health.
The agencies that ought to make landlords fix these problems are hampered by being given insufficient funds by the Tories.
US businesses are using claims of trade secrecy to override safety laws, environmental protection laws, worker protection laws, and the right to a fair trial.
The article describes some legal strategies to use in lawsuits, but I think we need to legislate to weaken trade secret law. For instance, trade secrecy must give way to any legitimate public need to know the information, and government's responsibility to keep the trade secret secret should be limited to when that is easy to do.
If Guber and Lyft drivers are independent contractors, some of what those companies do to them violates US anti-trust law.
Both the Registry of Copyright and US Congress are looking at requiring platforms to run automated copyright filters.
I appreciate that EFF's efforts against this threat, but it is disappointing to see them give more weight to whether some businesses can be profitable than to whether people are free to share, and free to post what they see. And they highlight those bad values by calling artists "creators".
Requiring these filters would in effect permit cops to block videos of their actions from being posted in popular platforms.
Will Russian shells and bullets play Disney tunes so that Youtube won't post recordings of their attacks?
Around 100,000 young Mexicans have been reported as missing and hardly any have been found.
*New York lieutenant governor quits after arrest on bribery and fraud charges.*
Elon Musk is being sued for illegally delaying the announcement that he had bought a large stake in Twitter.
Everyone, tell CBS News: No cushy jobs for the corrupter's former chief of staff.
Everyone: call on Costco to eliminate single-use plastic packaging.
Australia's planned investments in gas facilities are going to prove a big bust if we don't cause global disaster.
That means the "investors" are betting on causing disaster.
Italy will reimburse 110% of the cost of a green renovation of an old house. Over 100,000 renovations have already been approved.
Along with a million or more Muslim Uyghurs, some Christians of other minority groups get imprisoned and tortured similarly. One is visiting the US to testify to the International Criminal Court.
He reports being forcibly injected in prison with something that may have caused the unknown debilitating illness that started soon after.
The US should join the International Criminal Court; that is the way to give it wholehearted support.
Hurricanes drop 10% more rain per hour nowadays due to global heating. In some places, this causes widespread floods.
The UK has lost over a million workers since Covid-19 started.
Some of them decided to retire earlier than planned. Perhaps they don't dare go out to work and risk getting Covid-19. Some of them have been disabled by Covid-19. Maybe some are taking care of people as a result of the death or incapacitation of whoever was taking care of those people before. I wonder what other causes there are, and how each cause relates to Covid-19.
*The cost of living crisis [in the UK] has been going on for decades… What's new is the utter lack of support for those that need it the most.*
Goons and buffoons like Marjorie Greene may seem absurd, but the Republican Party expects to follow them to brutal power.
*Copying the far right doesn’t help mainstream parties. But it can boost the far right.*
High-priced union-busting consultants are becoming less effective as workers show more courage and determination against them.
About Putin's crushing of Chechnya, in which he developed the pattern of mass murder now being applied to Ukraine.
I read about the wars in Chechnya, but it was a small region of Russia I had not heard of except for Islamist extremism, and the occasional news coverage didn't make an impression on me.
Seized Russian funds could be used to rebuild Ukraine.
British teachers are fed up with the cruelty that thugs stationed in schools display towards students, and voted to call for the thugs' removal.
In my view, the race of the students who are treated cruelly is an insignificant detail, because it would be wrong regardless of who is the victim. But it doesn't surprise me that bigotry and cruelty tend to go together. That pattern is widespread: bigotry brings out a person's tendency towards cruelty.
The text of the proposed vaccine patent waiver has been leaked. It gives only a small part of the permissions needed to vaccinate the world. Activists call on South Africa to reject this deal and denounce it.
Four kinds of legal obstacles block the making of generic mRNA vaccines: patents, secrecy, propagating culture contracts, and special restrictions on generic medicines. The first two are covered in the treaty I call TRIPES (*); the last two are not. Perhaps countries can simply legislate themselves exceptions for the last two,
* Trade-Restricting Impediments to Production, Education and Science: a treaty that gives powerful corporations global power. The world should abolish the TRIPES accord; waiving parts of it could be a first step.
Crown Prince Bone Saw invested 2 billion dollars in a corporation, Affinity Partners, recently started by Jared Kushner.
Speculation says that this is a payoff for helping protecting the prince from any punishment for organizing the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(satire) *Financial Advisor Recommends Fraud.*
(satire) *Parents Ask If Son Wouldn't Mind Stopping By To Fix Gaping Void In Their Lives.*
Bill McKibben: *Putin's Aggression Shows Why Defeating Autocracy Is Key to Combating Climate Crisis.*
Let us resist the pressure to condemn and exclude all Russians in the arts.
The UK Labour Party has gone full planet-roaster, calling for harsh injunctions that would put climate defense protesters in prison.
Sonic pollution from boats and ships is making it hard for orcas to find prey, or find their families, in some areas.
The global food shortage threatens a quarter of a billion people with extreme poverty.
The more stressed our food systems become, the smaller the margin of safety. Increasing production increases environmental damage. Each increase in efficiency is harder than the previous one.
The long-term solution is to reduce the human birth rate.
*Herd immunity now seems impossible. Welcome to the age of Covid reinfection.*
I am glad to see some attention given to the problem of long Covid. If vaccination continues to make death unlikely, I think the main long-term harm done by Covid-19 will be the steady accumulation of people disabled by it.
However, treating and helping those disabled by it, as the author proposes, is not enough. We need to reduce the number of people that are disabled by Covid-19 over the coming years.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice O'Connor is a Republican who still has an idea of civic duty. So she rejects gerrymandering designed to rig elections. Modern Republicans want to impeach her for that.
The difference between the two parties is clear. Democrats will impeach you for trying to steal an election. Republicans will impeach you for not trying to steal an election.
*Sunscreen chemicals accumulating in Mediterranean seagrass… UV filters absorbed by Posidonia oceanica may have damaging effects on ecosystems, scientists warn.*
Bogus Johnson has been fined officially for having a party with people from different households when that was prohibited. That law was being enforced vigorously against everyone else, and arguably in a manner that was too strict. But he was totally behind that rule for everyone else, while covering up his own disobedience.
Many Britons now hate him for this, and demand his resignation.
*Global Progressive Leaders Urge Biden to Drop US Charges Against Assange.*
To get its hands on Assange, the US government corrupted first Swedish justice, then British justice. It is clear that in both countries the end result was decided first and the rulings chosen to procure that result.
*US Limits on ICC Complicate Biden's Aim to Aid Putin War Crimes Probe.*
The article describes some of the measures that the US adopted to render the International Criminal Court null and void, but doesn't mention that the US pressured other countries around the world not to sign up to it. The European Union was too strong to be pressured in this way, but most countries did as the US bid.
I agree that when the US recognizes a crime of war, it is likely to prosecute the perpetrator. The hard part is getting the US to recognize such a crime. For example, there seems to be little move to make Dubya pay for his war of aggression which was based on that have been exposed.
The latest Russian landmines detect the footsteps of people walking nearby. Putin forces deployed them at a distance using missiles — in effect a sort of mine-dropping cluster bomb.
Interestingly, these mines are proof that potential atrocities were set up by the Putin forces, not by putative omnipresent but never-seen Ukrainian Nazis bent on killing thousands of Ukrainians to make a false accusation. Only the Putin forces had these ultra-modern mine-missiles.
The US should join most of the world's countries and sign up to the prohibition of cluster bombs.
The Federal Trade Commission ordered two companies to destroy all the data they illegally collected from children, plus all work product based on such data.
That represents a recognition that the product of collecting data can be morphed into various forms, including algorithms derived from deep learning, and allowing the culprits to retain any form whatsoever of that data would let them make a monkey out of any and all privacy laws.
On the front end, however, this shows how weak US privacy protection is. It protects only children, and that protection disappears when they get "consent". That is not enough.
Tory ministers received recommendations for changed building codes after a London apartment building fire in 2009, but paid hardly any attention.
The various reasons come down to giving the matter low priority. Basically, the priority was to help business profit more by relaxing regulations, and not looking hard when businesses stretched the regulations further — which is what caused the fire in the Grenfell building.
Right-wing extremists fund campaigns to recall school board members.
Covid-19 vaccine is no more likely than other vaccines to cause the rare temporary condition, myopericarditis.
Philadelphia has brought back mask requirements, having seen the Covid case rate increase rapidly.
New York City and Boston have high rates of Covid-19 and should have mask requirements too.
A fossil fuel company wants to do a frackwell in England to "to show that a competent operator can be trusted to develop the technology safely." This proposed "test" is a swindle, for two reasons.
Suppose the test fails because the local water supply is contaminated. (That has happened in the US.) What will the company do to correct that damage? Without a commitment to do that, this "test" would be carried out at great risk to the public. "We risk not finding a new business, you risk permanent loss of your water supply."
The test could also fail because the well appears to "work." Those wells would continue to be used for many years, and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions would certainly not be safe.
Everyone: call on Home Depot to protect the Boreal forest.
US citizens: call on Congress to support the Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticides Act.
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 Congress to affirm the validity of the Equal Rights Amendment.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*Russians start to see evidence of high military casualties in Ukraine.*
This may show them that Putin is bullshitting them.
Canada has banned foreign investors from buying homes in Canada. (Except those who will actually live in a home they buy.) This is wise; other countries should do it.
However, it might be slightly better to tax homes owned by foreigners (except homes they reside in) at a very high rate. That would deal with the problem of homes foreigners have already bought.
Accusing Assad of seizing the possessions (including homes) of political prisoners, amounting to 1.5 billion dollars.
* Attorney general Letitia James requests calls for fines [of $10,000 per day] until [the wrecker] complies with order to turn over files related to his businesses.*
$10,000 amounts to 3.65 million per year. That may not be enough to get the wrecker to comply — he could simply pay the fine.
Can New York State jail him until he complies? I think that would do the job.
New Zealand should treat feral cats as pests to be eliminated, like the other introduced predators, to protect the endangered birds.
A Putin forces soldier was recorded describing by radio a practice of shooting prisoners of war after interrogating them.
That was clearly not a matter of spontaneous individual crimes stemming from rage or panic. The commanders had to be responsible for those crimes.
This article recounts Putin's career since 1999, including how he step by step centralized all political power, then all communication influence, under his control.
Companies such as Nike and H&M use quirks in definitions to pretend that they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, when in fact their emissions are increasing.
Life expectancy in the US has gone down 2.6 years since 2019. Other wealthy countries lost around .3 years. Overall, the US now has a life expectancy 5 years shorter then those other countries.
I'm sure a considerable fraction of this was caused by the crush-the-poor Covid-spreading party.
Putin has closed the Moscow offices of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Protesters plan to blockade a West Virginia power plant that burns Manchin family coal.
(satire) *Avant-Garde DJ Really Gets The Dance Floor Thinking.*
The flow of government press representatives into news media jobs tends to tarnish both sides.
The Tories are so habituated to demonizing anyone who would like to live in the UK, and creating bureaucratic nightmares to keep them out, that they can't see their way to treating Ukrainian refugees any better.
Economist Robert Pollin calls for nationalizing the three dominant US fossil fuel companies, so as to face less resistance to shutting the fossil fuel companies gradually down.
Over a thousand scientists participated in civil disobedience, blocking doors and so on, demanding adequate action to reduce climate mayhem to a level we can survive.
The corrupter did not hand in a list of gifts that visitors gave to him as president during 2020. These gifts belong to the US government, not to whoever was president. One must suspect that the corrupter has walked off with public property.
The corrupter's son, Donald Trump Jr., started privately pushing to cut short the electoral process and declare his father the winner, two days after election day, before the true result was even known.
More info.
Nationwide standardized tests have been tried for decades in several different varieties, each supposedly going to make US public education better, and each a failure in its own terms. Each time they fail, the proponents insist on trying another variation.
How about getting rid of them entirely?
The CDC's current message to the public is, if the hospitals in your county are not close to being packed with Covid-19 patients, relax and don't worry about taking precautions.
To the extent that local governments base their rules on this guidance, it will tend to encourage careless contagion.
Many UK government agencies are quick to hand debts of a few dollars worth to a collection agency, which will tack on a few hundred more and ruin someone's life.
The agency will presume that any bureaucratic confusion is your fault, and that justifies nasty treatment of you.
The challenge of investigating and prosecuting the Putin forces' apparent war crimes.
A Buffalo thug pushed Martin Gugino to the ground and fractured his skull. This was judged by an arbitration procedure which predictably ruled that the thug did nothing wrong.
Gugino is suing the city, but such damages are paid by the city, not the thug who did the damage.
The Tories have run down ambulance service in the UK to the point where patients wait hours (and get sicker).
Santiago, Chile, has been in drought for 12 years and there isn't enough water to keep it flowing in the city all the time.
Basically, northern Chile (along with Peru) is getting wiped out by global heating.
Pressing the US on the issue of its continuing support for Crown Prince Bone Saw.
A former teacher in Kabul denounces the Taliban for closing schools for women.
I wish I could see a way to change this.
Renewable energy generation grew fast in 2021, by past standards. But not fast enough to avoid global heating disaster.
Describing the organizing methods that led, over years, to a union victory at one Amazon warehouse.
Texas Governor Abbott said he would forcibly take border-crossers to Washington DC against their will. He received a hostile reaction and changed the plan. Now he says he will offer them a gratis bus trip to Washington.
I don't see anything wrong in his making them that offer — provided that's really what happens. But you can't trust Republicans to keep their commitments to anyone that is disprivileged, or even to anyone not filthy rich. Their contempt for the weak is unrestrained. Who knows what nasty things they might do, to unauthorized immigrants who decline the offer, or to make sure that they "choose" to go.
So I suggest sending spanish-speaking federal marshals to monitor the whole operation, including the stage of asking who wants to go and who does not, and what happens afterwards to both groups, inviting reports and audio/video recordings of any abuses. A marshall should ride in each bus.
Everyone: call on Lockheed to start converting to peaceful industries.
US citizens: Fax your members of Congress to tell them to pass the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to give more money to our communities and less to the military.
US citizens: call on the Biden administration to keep single-use plastics out of federal government purchases.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to stop distributing single-use plastics in US national parks.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: phone your senators to support the Stop Wall Street Looting act. A brief summary is:
(satire) *Trojan Introduces New Contraceptive Fife For Charming Sperm Out Of Vaginal Canal.*
*As US Funds Pentagon Bloat, China Investments in Green Energy Soar.*
China's commitment to decarbonization is incomplete. It is building many new coal-fired power plants, so the electric vehicles it is building will in fact be powered by fossil fuels for some decades.
However, the US is not much better.
The dynamics of an army at war systematically pressures and inspires soldiers to commit atrocities.
So we see them in all armies.
This is why the crime of aggressive war is so grave.
Putin's army seems to order soldiers to commit atrocities. But even armies which try to enforce laws against atrocities face constant temptation to disregard or cover up the atrocities that its soldiers have committed.
Joining the International Criminal Court can firm up those efforts.
13 Starbucks stores' workers have voted to unionize. 180 more stores are planning to follow.
Only one site has voted not to unionize.
The workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama voted on unionization. The outcome is not clear, because some ballots are being challenged. Meanwhile, the workers accuse Amazon of using illegal methods to pressure the workers. It is standard practice for companies to violate these laws, because the boss would rather take the risk of paying a small fine than have a union.
It is no accident that the laws that protect workers' rights are so hard to enforce. Businesses lobby for this, and plutocratist politicians are eager to be bought.
The State of the Free Software Movement
Richard Stallman will be speaking about the free software movement and your freedom. His speech will be nontechnical, admission is gratis, and the public is encouraged to attend online.
Online at fsf.org/live
*‘Toxic combination’ of issues threaten world’s health and human rights –- BMA.*
Yemen's president (according to Salafi Arabia) has agreed to let others negotiate the future of Yemen with the Houthis.
Rising sea levels (caused by global heating) are already forcing Americans to move to higher ground. Over the next few decades, millions will need to move. The US is not doing a good job of helping them.
If we were wise, we would get ahead of the problem by curbing greenhouse gas emissions so as to reduce the number that will have to move.
Republicans that control state governments are extending anti-abortion repression to forbid going to another state to get an abortion. They even want to prosecute doctors and pharmacists in other states for serving people who reside in a repressive state.
The idea that state A could prosecute someone in state B for treating a patient who has travelled from state A, or for shipping a drug by US mail to someone in state A, seems absurd. But the right-wing Supreme Court extremists can't be relied on to uphold basic constitutional principles.
People systematically underestimate the danger of catching Covid-19 from friends.
A group of many strangers is more dangerous than a group of a few friends, simply because the latter group is fewer. It is safer to eat at home with a few friends than in a restaurant with those friends plus many strangers. But even at home you should take precautions: set up a current of fresh air (strong enough you can feel it a little) through the dining room, sit far apart, and keep distance from each other whenever you don't have your N95 mask on.
*Biden needs to start going after large corporations if he wants to win again.*
An Australian bomb appears to have killed 35 members of an Iraqi family in a house in Mosul. However, because the Australian air force refuses to give details about that bombing run, the hearing was unable to determine for certain whether that bomb run killed them, so it refused compensation.
Another positive feedback cycle in global heating: as Arctic ice melts, more ships travel through the Arctic Ocean, which pump out more black carbon, which falls on ice and melts it.
Texas's right-wing rulers showed what they really want to do to women who have abortions: charge them with murder.
They can't that nowadays, because they haven't actually passed a law to do it. But now we know they want it.
What will they do to the women they convict? Execute them, I suppose. Right-wingers love the death penalty.
(satire) *Original Stan Lee Corpse Sells At Auction For $5 Million.*
(satire) *Several Wendy’s Menu Items Added To Periodic Table As Part Of New Sponsorship Deal.*
Fireproof Australia protests, demanding the state do more to help people whose houses are destroyed by wildfires.
The question of tactics is secondary, in my view. I support Extinction Rebellion because it focuses on the heart of the problem, on the disease rather than the symptoms.
*As a science journalist I'm reconsidering having kids. I'm not the only one.*
A German historian thinks about what made Germany become civil and peaceful after World War II.
Bogus Johnson now wants to build more nuclear power, plus sea-based wind power, while finding and excuse to reject land-based wind power and solar power.
There is no rational reason for this as energy policy. It won't reduce prices, it won't stop the import of Russian fossil fuels.
US citizens: call on Congress to end Big Money’s stranglehold on our democracy.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*Climate scientists are desperate: we’re crying, begging and getting arrested.* All in the hope of preventing global heating disaster.
*The Fossil Fuels Era Must End. Collective Transformation Must Start Now.*
Too much screen time can cause real life to lose interest — for gorillas.
*‘Learning to live with it’? From Covid to climate breakdown, it’s the new way of failing.*
I think that statement is too weak. It's the new way of saying, "Tough on you, non-rich people!"
*Global food prices rise to highest ever levels after Russian invasion.*
I have a hunch they will never again fall to the level of before the war.
Senate Republicans are holding Americans' Covid vaccine and treatment hostage to demand renewed repression against asylum seekers.
(satire) *"They Switched It For Molasses!" Yells Energy Secretary Discovering Nation's Entire Oil Reserves Stolen.*
Jesse Jackson: *The higher the price the Russian military pays in Ukraine, the less likely Putin will be emboldened to repeat his aggression.*
My view is that the resolution of the war must not give Putin anything that could be construed as a victory. Especially, no territorial gains and no legitimization of past seizures of Ukrainian territory.
It would be useful to make him withdraw troops from Moldova too.
Several US states have incorporated white supremacist bias into their standards for teaching about the reconstruction period and how it was crushed.
*Poverty: The Pre-Condition Underlying Covid-19 Mortality.*
The right-wing radicals on the US Supreme Court fabricate artificial emergencies as excuses to impose questionable right-wing decisions without even a hearing.
The most recent example was to limit states' power to challenge approval of "energy projects" — such as pipelines and export terminals — once federal agencies, if corrupted by planet-roasters, approve them.
Normally, right-wing officials claim to promote "states' rights", but that really only means states' rights to serve business. States' rights to resist big business are less appealing to these plutocratists.
Scientist Rebellion shows how fossil fuel money watered down the IPCC report.
Explaining Biden's plan for the billionaire's tax, and how it would tax their asset appreciation every year.
I think it would require people with more than 100 million dollars in assets to report those assets to the IRS. That is fine with me.
I campaign against the sorts of government surveillance that put dissidents and whistleblowers in danger. The worst things for the government to know about people are where you go, what you do there, and who you talk with.
Knowing the large property holdings of centimillionaires is not much of a threat to dissidents and whistleblowers. And even for them, it would collect little information about their daily activities.
Interviews with the Patriotic Millionaires, who advocate raising the tax rate for millionaires.
*Extinction Rebellion vows fossil fuels protest will "grind London to a halt."*
The Putin forces attacked the Kramatorsk train station where thousands of Ukrainian civilians were waiting to evacuate to the west.
At least 39 of them were killed.
The "world nuclear order" which kept us at a distance from nuclear war has been fraying, strand by strand, for decades. This means that the danger of nuclear war increases.
Amtrak wants to identify all passengers and check them against a secret suspects list belonging to the Department of Harshness and Suspicion.
This would require demanding official identification from each passenger. That's what Amtrak did until a few years ago. My response to that was never to use Amtrak.
In practice, I still never take Amtrak, because the trains I might have a reason to require reservations, and those reservations still do require identifying oneself.
People should be free to travel within a country without identifying themselves. You can support this by phoning your congresscritter.
Proposing strong measures to reduce Europe's energy use.
In the short term, these measures would cause great difficulty. Public transit systems could not cope with the extra passengers, and they would push people into dangerous proximity.
Over a somewhat longer period, giving time to prepare lots of buses and trained drivers for them, I think they could work.
I am not sure what "internal flights" is supposed to mean. If it means "flights within the EU", that would not be feasible; there are trips that would take days by train. However, the EU has many short flights that could be eliminated without great difficulties.
A mining company has, after years of pressure, joined in supporting a proper archaeological investigation of an old Australian aboriginal site, in cooperation with the local aboriginal group.
This is very good news, as it will lead to more understanding of ancient humanity.
Ketanji Jackson has been confirmed for the US Supreme Court.
That is a relief; it would have been very bad if she had not been confirmed. But I don't feel joy, because we are not out of the woods yet.
Her confirmation prevented the Supreme Court situation from getting one notch worse. But I don't see how we are going to make things start to get better.
*LA jail guards routinely punch incarcerated people in the head, monitors find.*
Each of these thugs deserves to be prosecuted, and then experience jail as a prisoner.
West Germany's first elected chancellor, Adenauer, used the country's intelligence agency to spy on political rivals.
*Methane in Earth’s atmosphere rose by record amount last year, US government data shows. Climate scientists say plugging methane leaks and phasing out fossil fuels are necessary to avert catastrophic global heating.*
We should not demand of artists that they take political stands we support — or that they take political stands at all.
Tory ministers are disregarding freedom of information law and getting away with it.
The wrecker hinted that he is endorsing candidate for state offices because they would steal the election for him.
Congress is proposing to cut the Department of Agriculture just as a global food shortage is beginning.
*Aid Groups Warn "More Variants Will Emerge" If Congress Kills Global Covid Funds.*
We can't make poor people better off through high-pressure studies in kindergarten.
Proposing the 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights — a collection of the main progressive policy proposals.
Government safety regulations save lives, but plutocratists prefer to let workers and customers be sick or injured in the name of increased profits. The right-wing Supreme Court is likely to attack safety regulation and make your life more dangerous.
Minneapolis has put an end to no-knock search warrants.
I wonder if there is a good solution, such as a way to enter and search a house using robots, so there is no reason to shoot at the inhabitants even if they start shooting.
The Starbucks CEO made bizarre statements about unions coming between the company and its workers.
Starbucks is not a charity; it acts solely for the owners' profits. There is no reason for the staff to feel loyal to that.
John Eastman's emails in the Jan 6 plot have been delivered to the investigating committee. (He was one of the wrecker's lawyers.) They explicitly talk about the goal of undermining the election.
US citizens: call for eliminating preventive use of antibiotics in animals.
US citizens: remind the Democratic Party that primaries are good.
US citizens: call on Congress to adopt a windfall tax on fossil fuels.
I sent the following personalized message, advocating improvements in the bill that the campaign supports. You can send your own version of it, if you wish to.
We should have a windfall profits tax on fossil fuels, but the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax bill does too little and does it the wrong way.
- It should cover all fossil fuel sales for which prices fluctuate, not exempting smaller companies.
- It should capture more than just half of their windfall.
- Does taxing companies that sell wholesale capture all of the windfall that actual users pay? I don't know, but I suspect not.
- The funds collected should not be aimed particularly at drivers, because that is equivalent to subsidizing fossil fuels — exactly the wrong thing to do when we need reduce the amount which is used.
Instead, we should give those funds to all poor Americans, those that use fossil fuels and those that don't. That way, we will enable them all to cope with the high prices, and we will preserve the incentive for them to use less fuel if they can.
As your constituent, I urge you to sponsor a better bill.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate Clarence Thomas's unethical behavior.
Customers of big US banks: tell your bank to stop investing in climate chaos.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the EQUAL act, reducing the penalties for crack cocaine to the same level as powder cocaine.
Possession of recreational drugs should not be a crime at all.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word
Everyone: Tell the Washington Post: No more op-eds from warmongers.
US citizens: tell the US government, don't increase fossil fuel subsidies — cancel them.
Everyone: call on Travelers Insurance not to insure oil drilling in the Arctic.
US citizens: tell the SEC you support new protections for investors against Wall Street private equity.
US citizens: call on world leaders to make polluters pay to fund the transition to renewables.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Agriculture Right to Repair Act.
This is just a small part of the freedoms tractor owners deserve. The software in a tractor, or a car, or any other product, if it is meant to be changed, should be free.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call for banning members of Congress from trading military contractor stocks now.
I'd rather ban them from trading any stocks but this would be a start.
US citizens: call on congress to make billion-dollar corporations pay minimum 15% tax on reported domestic profits and on offshore profits.
*Scientists have just told us how to solve the climate crisis — will the world listen?*
The Tories plan to give oil companies priority and cut back on renewable energy construction.
Activists occupied an oil import terminal near London, shutting it down.
Many Iranian men were drafted and assigned to the Revolutionary Guards. If the US finds out that an Iranian was one of them, it treats him as a terrorist.
This tendency to jump to conclusions and act cruelly is unjust, and harms the US as well as the people punished this way.
An Australia court ruled that anyone formally adopted into an indigenous group, even if not an Australian citizen, gets a special immunity from deportation. Non-aboriginal groups have no comparable power. The government wants to change this.
English (mainly) colonists stole the indigenous peoples' land. By modern standards of universal justice, that was a crime and calls for compensation. Indigenous people today face the usual forms of discrimination of disprivileged groups, and that must cease.
But this peculiar privilege contributes nothing to that, and could even work against it because it likewise contravenes modern standards of universal justice.
US right wing in step with Kremlin over Ukraine disinformation, experts say.
The US right wing includes self-proclaimed Nazis as well as many others with similar views. (This happened because, over his four years as president, the inflamer did his best to shift his supporters to right-wing extremism.) Those of them who pay attention to consistency will surely find it strange that their movement advocates "denazification."
Over the years while President AMLO has attacked the press, violence against reporters in Mexico has greatly increased.
The Russian army made the town of Trostianets into a forward base after a blown bridge stopped them from continuing on south. They killed some residents and terrorized the rest, while gratuitously making the town a wreck.
I think they took out on the civilians their resentment at the Ukrainian military.
Finally someone turns up who committed real voting fraud in the US. He is a Republican, of course, and this year he wants to run for Congress.
The president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for "blasphemy".
He had been told that his relatives would be threatened unless he pleaded guilty, and that he'd get a short sentence if he did so.
*Analysis of the images [from Bucha] date massacre to before Russian forces evacuated the Ukrainian city.*
Unregulated companies rate prospective tenants as good or bad using questionable machine-learning algorithms and big data. They don't give reasons for blacklisting a specific tenant. Perhaps their method gives them no way to do that.
The lack of clarity about the reasons for blacklisting would-be renters adds gratuitous frustration, but the basic problem is that rents are so high that workers struggle to afford them, so many tenants don't succeed in paying rent.
To make the algorithms more transparent would change who gets to rent an apartment and who does not, but would not prevent that the shortage. The only way to do that is to make a lot more housing.
The best way to make a lot more housing is to eliminate the zoning laws that prohibit dense housing.
As long as that does not happen, landlords will see that scarcity enables them to raise rents to levels that make struggle to afford the rent, which means that some will be unfortunate and get evicted, which means that landlords will seek ways not to rent to anyone who might have get into that situation.
Amazon has a special cr…app for discussions among staff. The company plans to censor the words "union", "fire", "slave labor", "diversity" and "injustice."
That will be done using an "auto bad word monitor" which will recognize "inappropriate" messages.
This reminds us that "inappropriate" states a subjective judgment and nothing more, so we should be suspicious whenever anyone is accused of acting or speaking "inappropriately" without some explanation of why we should consider it wrong.
A Ukrainian civilian reports on three nights of torture by Russian captors, along with other civilian prisoners.
Australian federal cops, in thousands, demand Australia set up a body to investigate charges of corruption against politicians, and against cops also.
Oklahoma has made performing an abortion a felony in nearly all circumstances.
Fox News: it actually bit a congressional Democrat.
*If the House Oversight Committee is serious about getting to the bottom of the fossil fuel industry's longtime campaign to stymie climate policy, it should call [Charles] Koch on the carpet.*
Planet roasters pretend that helping Europe boycott Russia's gas justifies building new fracked gas pipelines in the US.
Europe's gas crunch will last just a few years, if European countries push hard to build renewable generation. But any new fossil fuel facilities built now will be used for decades: to stop using them will provoke powerful lobbying, as if making a pipeline investor lose money would be worse than the end of the world.
(satire) *BetterHelp Therapy Session Leads To Breakthrough In Sell-able Patient Data.*
Two of the oldest modern human skeletons ever discovered are going to be "reburied", meaning further research will not be possible.
In principle, that is a bad outcome. However, it is possible that it makes little actual difference in this case. Wikipedia says that some of the corpses found there have already been checked for DNA and none was recoverable.
El Salvador has arrested 6,000 people and plans to hold them for a long time without any specific charges or letting them talk with lawyers. The government says they are gang members, but without individual trials, there is no way to see if that is true.
Anti-racist activism focuses too much on microagressions and choice of words, instead of supporting people's campaigns for better treatment in substantive ways.
*Israel Charges Palestinian Journalists With Incitement — for Doing Their Jobs.*
Tories have damaged the UK's DHS so much that it can't keep up with the need to test people for cancer. Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to get late diagnoses before it catches up. That is, supposing they give it enough funds to catch up. Perhaps they will reduce the standard of care to the point where those who have money pay for a private exam, and everyone else just dies of cancer.
*UN Chief: Those Expanding Fossil Fuels — Not Climate Activists — Are the "Truly Dangerous Radicals."*
Hear, hear!
Orbán defeated the united opposition, in an election alleged to be crooked.
Congress has agreed to spend 10 billion dollars on Covid-19 tests, vaccines and treatments in the US, but nothing at all for vaccinating the rest of the world.
The Covid-spreader party has taken a small step back, forgoing some method of spreading the disease in the US.
Putin's stretching the concept of "human shields", arguing that all the civilians that live in a city Putin is attacking and that Ukraine is defending are "human shields", just because soldiers are fighting in the neighborhood of their homes.
The article lists other countries that it accuses of doing the same thing.
Viktor Orbán has won an unfair election to be reelected the ruler of Hungary. He handles elections the way US Republicans do.
The EU needs to be tough on Putin, and tough on Orbán, but is that possible?
The head of Australia's government, planet-roaster Scott Morrison, is a bully as well. One of his party's members of Parliament has quit the party, denouncing him as a bully for trying to offer flood aid only to the towns which had voted for his party.
He's still trying to corrupt the few decarbonization measures that Australia has.
Zelensky spoke to the UN Security Council and pointed out that it is a failure at its stated goal.
That truth is well known. We also know why it is true: because we don't know of any way to set it up that would make it able to enforce justice without being corruptible too.
Many government agencies, and anyone pretending to represent a government agency, can get people's personal data from Apple and Greater Facebook just by saying, "This is an emergency".
People will be tempted to try to fix this problem through a system for authenticating real government agencies and real emergencies. My view is that companies should not have so much data about people.
*Oregon’s bold drug decriminalisation sees some success — but use still rising.*
*Sri Lanka faces medical emergency as economic crisis hits drug supplies.*
*US power outages from severe weather have doubled in 20 years.* Mostly because severe weather happens more often, due to global heating effects.
The Tories have cut off welfare benefits for children after the first two in a family. Research shows that this does not reduce the number of children in a family, it only increases the number of children growing up in poverty.
Poverty often results when people lack the ability to make good plans, or the ability to stick to a plan. It is hard to fill those lacks by punishing people.
I don't know whether Tories were seriously seeking to avoid overpopulation, or only used it as an excuse to keep more money for the wealthy. No children should grow up in poverty, but it is very important for people to have fewer children.
San Francisco's mayor wants to loosen the recently adopted restrictions on surveillance by city government. The thug department would be allowed to watch directly through surveillance cameras in areas which have seen certain kinds of crimes.
This exception would still keep limits on their surveillance, but the use of the exception needs to be monitored. Here are my suggestions:
Leftists should resist the compulsion to blame the US for every problem in the world. A non-imperialist Russia had options for trying to keep Ukraine out of NATO without launching a war.
The Taliban have banned opium cultivation again.
Prohibition is not a solution to the problem of opiates and opioids.
Looming behind the cheater's Big Lie is another Big Lie: that the US economy as it exists nowadays works for everyone.
Gaza is facing a water crisis: nearly all of its water is undrinkable.
When Russia took Ukrainians from Mariupol to Russia, some wanted to go. Others were effectively compelled to go.
Some who had brought money found it was not too hard to get out of Russia. No one was actively trying to stop them. But those without money may be trapped there.
When Putin forces soldiers shot civilians in Bucha, sometimes it was clearly murder. Sometimes it might have been a panicking soldier who shot someone unidentified who seemed like a possible threat.
That danger is an inevitable concomitant of war, which is why fighting a war without a valid justification is a heinous crime.
Discussing various ways Putin could be prosecuted for war crimes, or for the crime of aggression (starting a war without valid justification). All approaches face obstacles.
I read of an argument that Russia was never properly authorized as the successor of the Soviet Union's permanent membership in the Security Council. If Russia can be replaced there, it would unlock many things.
Dubya set the US on a policy of undermining and weakening the International Criminal Court. (Perhaps he feared being tried for the crime of aggression.) Will the US now give the ICC support?
Two bills being considered by the California senate would take significant steps to reduce massive surveillance. But they don't go half far enough.
S.B. 1189 requires that companies and organizations ask for "consent" before collecting biometrics. That will protect you in many situations, but not all, because it is easy for that entity to arrange for others to pressure you to consent. Those others could be employers, schools, or social groups. If it is the general practice for people to chat on Scroo'm, and Scroo'm won't let you use it unless you consent to its collection of biometrics, the pressure may feel irresistible to people in general.
The Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act (STTPPA) would take a substantial step forward in putting a limit the snooping that these prokto-programs do to students. But the limit in this bill would be vague, because it is easy for the company to argue that collecting your face image, your fingerprint, your voice print and your gait pattern is absolutely necessary. To assure real effect, the bill should set a standard that snoopers can't stretch.
In the event that some kinds of biometric snooping — or other snooping — become accepted, there should be limits on storing the data. Also, having your school testify to your identity, rather than letting the prokto-program's developer see your face, should be an option.
Simply requiring you to run that non-free program (perhaps developed only for Windows and MacOS) on your own computer is an unacceptable injustice, and we need to press the campaign until that is prohibited.
More generally, see https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
The IPCC has now published its third report, the one on how to save civilization from global heating disaster.
*"Now or Never", if world is to stave off climate disaster.*
Here is a summary of the specifics.
Planet roasters' influence in IPCC was strong enough to make the organization delete the called-for denunciation of planet roasters.
The Tories are trying to resume fracking in the UK.
Meanwhile, an organization that puts on airs of supporting "renewable energy" is campaigning against land-based wind power.
Negotiations are progressing towards a treaty to ban the use of heavy bombs in cities.
It looks like the US and Russia will not sign it.
Society and institutions in the US put poor people in bigger danger of death from Covid-19 than well-off people.
*People in poorer counties have died overall at almost twice the rate of those in richer counties. … During the third pandemic wave in the US, over the winter of 2020 and 2021, death rates were four-and-a-half times higher in the poorest counties than those with the highest median incomes.*
I wonder how a similar comparison for long Covid disabilities would come out.
*Democrats see hope for a clean energy bill, but Manchin is adding a new hurdle: More funding for fossil fuels.*
His "reason" is balderdash. The efficient and safe way to make the US self-sufficient in energy generation is to use 100% American sunlight and 100% American wind. Manchin is not trying to offer a rational argument, only an excuse that will suffice for a sound bite.
Ukrainian women report being raped by Putin forces soldiers. Some may have been raped and then killed.
Witnesses from Bucha report seeing Putin forces soldiers murder civilians with extreme cruelty.
These acts of cruelty do not indicate whether commanders encouraged the cruelty. Perhaps they did, perhaps they didn't. Many soldiers could have done these things on their own initiative, after hearing that other soldiers were doing it. Each soldier who intentionally shot at civilians committed a war crime, but without more evidence, we have no basis to pin responsibility on commanders or on Putin.
Planting mines is a different story. That takes effort and time, as well as specific training. I don't think many soldiers would have planted mines or booby traps unless they were ordered to do that.
Even if the commanders did not order soldiers to kill civilians, they have the responsibility to prosecute murderers in their ranks.
*Yemen: two-month ceasefire begins with hopes for peace talks.*
As global heating dries up the US mountain west, wild ecosystems have to compete with humans for water.
Climate scientists warn that getting distracted from global heating will guarantee disaster.
US citizens: call on the Dept of Justice to investigate the cheater for removing/destroying official records.
US citizens: call on your senators to keep toxic pesticides out of wildlife refuges.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
(satire) *Ukrainian Delegate Knows It Is Dangerous To Eat At Peace Talks, But Brownie Just Too Tempting.*
New Tory strategy to confuse the public and smooth the way for plutocrats: they talk about measures to do justice, change their mind back and forth.
By the time they eventually do nothing about the problem, the public is confused about the outcome.
Ukraine said that the Putin forces have pulled out of the region around Kyiv, but they have planted mines in homes and on corpses.
Ukraine reports finding lots of corpses of civilians, and that the Putin forces used buses full of children as human shields for tanks.
Ukraine also reports finding corpses of civilians who were murdered by Putin forces soldiers who were close enough to see who they were shooting at.
When Argentina's military rulers invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, the officers of the invasion force used torture to punish soldiers for even the smallest infractions,
and made them sign nondisclosure agreements about the torture they had experienced.
*Protesters continue to block UK oil terminals despite arrests.*
Russian scientists say that conferences and journals in other countries are refusing to consider their papers.
Boycotting individuals because they are Russian is wrong. We should protect scientific cooperation to keep it safe from wars and nationalism.
Minnesota investigated the behavior of thugs at George Floyd protests and found many things they did badly.
Ukrainian journalist Oleh Baturin describes his 8 days of torture after the Putin forces lured him into a trap.
Russian émigrés and dissidents are using a white-and-blue flag to show they are Russians opposed to Putin's war.
Long Covid frequently incapacitates people in their prime working years. Governments must put more research into how to treat it.
In the mean time, governments must recognize the long-term damage they risk by allowing Covid-19 to run rampant through millions of people.
US citizens: call on Democratic leaders to say that Putin's invasion reaffirms America must lead on clean energy.
US citizens: call on Starbucks CEO to stop union-busting.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass two bills that would restrict anticompetitive actions by Big Tech.
One bill would reduce the power that Apple has over use of iMonsters and their app stores.
This would eliminate some of the injustice, but not all. It would certainly not make non-libre apps, or non-libre spyphone operating systems, safe to actually run.
Another bill seems to be aimed at curbing the power and abuses of dominant online stores.
Other interesting US antitrust bills are described here.
US citizens: call on the Department of Justice to investigate the corrupter's possible crimes in connection with the Jan 6 insurrection and efforts to steal the 2020 election.
Everyone: call on Condé Nast to recognize the Condé Nast Union.
With all communications channels in Russia repeating Putin's lies in different forms, he has created the ultimate disinformation system. Its effectiveness shows us how vulnerable people are to such disinformation system.
I am convinced that we must disassemble the right-wing disinformation system that operates in most countries. What I don't see is how to do so without the risk of building up a system that would be perfect for enforcing disinformation, as Putin is doing.
*The latest threat to democracy? A [cheater]-backed candidate willing to "find extra votes."*
*Low-wage workers have paid dearly for Qatar's glittering World Cup.*
Food aid is finally reaching Tigray.
Putin forces continue to promise to permit evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, and continue not actually doing so.
A team of Greenpeace activists in kayaks tried to stop the transfer of oil cargo from one supertanker that had brought it from Russia, to another supertanker that might have passed it off as non-Russian.
A UK thug is being prosecuted for using a taser on a man who was leaping a fence, which caused him to fall down and be permanently paralyzed.
Biden intends to promote mining of minerals needed for batteries. Before new mines start, we must replace the old law that almost guarantees the mine will be left leaking pollution for decades, or millennia.
The obvious step is to require the mine, before it operates, to put aside a bond to clean it up — and then pay during operation to increase that bond, since the cost will probably increase.
But even better would be to operate the mine in a way that reduces or avoids the source of pollution. Has anyone developed a way to do this?
A parliamentary committee is treating the payment of a debt to Iran as a ransom.
By tying the payment, which the UK owed to Iran since around 1980, to the hostages, this investigation treats the money as a ransom and effectively criticizes the government for being slow to ransom them. Governments must not pay ransom for hostages; as Reagan taught us when he did precisely that, paying ransoms tends to encourage further kidnappings.
The reason why the UK had to pay this money to Iran is that it owed Iran the money Iran had paid for goods that were never delivered.
Australia has approved a long extension for a large coal mine.
New South Wales finally did pass the law to put people in jail for blocking roads, with the support of the principal "opposition" party, which doesn't oppose very much.
*Democracy is in peril when our leaders [such as Bogus Johnson] no longer care about being seen to lie.*
Workers at an Amazon warehouse voted to unionize.
*Democratic-Aligned Firm Slammed for Working on Amazon's Failed Anti-Union Effort.*
If Amazon workers generally unionize, they may succeed in putting an end to a substantial subset of that company's predatory practices: those aimed at workers. That won't be enough to make Amazon safe for our anyone to tolerate. For its anticompetitive activities, and its denial of freedom to its customers, it would be better to get rid of Amazon entirely.
But as long as it exists, I hope its workers will have a union.
(satire) *Dozens Of Aborted Fetuses Flee Through Back Window After D.C. Police Bust Down Door.*
Ralph Nader explains how Congressional committees used to scrutinize the US budget — and how Congress handed most of the control to lobbyists.
The US government has made lynching a federal crime.
Since murder (and attempted murder) are crimes already, why is this law necessary? Because some jurors are racist, and some prosecutors are racist, and they often protect people who commit crimes of hatred.
If you call a suicide hotline, it may send the thugs to arrest you "for your own good." This is standard practice now in the US.
(satire) *Scientists Speculate Universe May Be Simulation After "Trial Version Expired" Appears Across Sky.*
*City of Los Angeles agrees to provide thousands of beds in homelessness crisis lawsuit settlement.*
Contrast this with Malibu's plan.
*Europe faces a future of extreme droughts, due to global heating.*
*A 19-month-old child has died in Gaza after waiting for five months for Israel to grant her permission to leave the blockaded enclave for treatment.*
Russia says that Ukrainian helicopters attacked a Russian oil storage facility inside Russia.
Morally, I see no reason why Ukraine should not do this. It is not escalation, since the Putin forces regularly attack targets in Ukraine from bases in Russia, so this is just a little bit of turnabout. That oil is surely there to be be transported into Ukraine for Putin forces vehicles.
It is natural that the powers that are arming Ukraine might be concerned that Putin might react to this by a real escalation. But he could not make the attack on Ukraine much more heinous, so no reason to worry greatly about that.
What if he reacts by bombing NATO countries? That is conceivable, but he would recognize that that is more likely to bring him great harm than any good.
Big Oil companies are raising their prices more than they need to, so as to increase their profits.
Those companies' owners don't deserve more profits — they deserve to lose everything. But what they deserve is less important than what Americans deserve, and what the rest of the world deserves. Above all, we all deserve to avoid global heating disaster.
The crucial question is whether Americans, and the US government, can take the long view and respond to this gouging by pushing quickly to decarbonize.
So far it appears that Biden is planning to do the exact opposite: to fine oil companies for whatever fossil fuel reserves they do not drill into
Putin is acutely evil, and dangerous. Oil companies are evil on a longer time scale, and far more dangerous. We must defeat them both, and we know how to do it. we know how to do it.
*Hundreds of environmental protesters have blocked seven oil terminals across the [UK] as part of a campaign to paralyze the UK's fossil fuel infrastructure.*
An interview with participants.
This is a last-ditch effort to stop global heating disaster from killing them before they get old.
*Amid Renewed Medicare for All Push, Study Shows 112 Million Americans Struggle to Afford Healthcare.*
Providing medical care for everyone who lives in a country is one of the missions of the state.
London thugs handcuffed Eric Taylor because they considered his heavy coat to be suspect. He posted a video. They didn't like that, so they handcuffed him again, and this time deleted the video he was making.
If the thug department allows its "officers" to defy people's rights with impunity, it has surrendered to lawlessness.
Hundreds of soldiers from the Putin forces dug trenches in soil near Chernobyl which has a high level of radioactive contamination. They developed radiation sickness and have withdrawn to a hospital for treatment.
The workers who take care of the ruined reactors are back in unimpeded control. That is a step forward, for safety.
What is the situation with the Zaporozhzhia reactors?
A large clinical trial found that no category of Covid-19 patients benefits from taking Ivermectin, and some categories have it worse.
*Malibu [agreed to plan] an "Alternative Sleeping Location" for up to 30 homeless people, some place outside of Malibu.*
Nokia has built products for years to help Russia snoop on dissidents,
much as Apple has helped China's surveillance
and Microsoft has helped the NSA's surveillance.
In Russia, it started with snooping, but it didn't stop there; it continued to shutting down their organizations, putting them in prison, and even poisoning them. In China, also, it surely includes the first two; we don't know whether China killed any of them.
Speaking of Apple, it treats its users unjustly in many ways,
even censorship, since the iMonsters are designed so users can't even freely install programs others have released.
Plutocratist Democrats in the Senate blocked Biden's nominee for a subunit of the Labor Department that deals with disputes about which workers are employees.
Authors argue that if the west can receive 4 million Ukrainians, or perhaps eventually 10 million, it can accept climate refugees without limit, even if they number in the hundreds of millions, or eventually billions.
That claim is absurd. For any kind of burden, there is a limit.
It is clearly true that western countries are motivated by prejudice when they decide how to treat various groups of refugees. But western countries would find it hard to admit hundreds of millions of refugees even if they were all Europeans, even today. 20 years from now, when all these countries will have shortages of food and millions will be homeless, it would be even harder.
The only way for the world to get through this is to cut our greenhouse emissions, fast.
Florida Republicans plan to eliminate financial incentives for installing home solar-powered electric generation.
Republicans are not on humanity's side, not on civilization's side. They are on the other side.
*Citing Likely Racist Motives, Federal Judge Blocks Florida GOP's Voter Suppression Law.*
*I Want You Back: Getting My Personal Data From Amazon Was Weeks of Confusion and Tedium.* It uses a dark pattern to make it slow and inconvenient.
I think the latter can only be anti-ship missiles.
*Airport Workers Protest Across US Demanding "Living Wage" and Right to Union.*
A recent court ruling shows that it is possible to prosecute the wrecker for trying to interfere in the 2020 election.
Amnesty International denounced Putin for massive persecution of anyone in Russia that opposes his invasion of Ukraine. Even describing what is happening is a crime. Like the bullshitter in the US, Putin unhesitatingly labels all unflattering truths "fake news."
US citizens: call on the DoJ to investigate the wrecker's crimes, now that a judge ruled he is likely to have committed some.
US citizens: call on your senators to permanently protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
*Why is Biden boasting about drilling for oil? Our planet demands we stop now.*
Governments are disregarding the future cost to society of long Covid, both the cost of taking care of those disabled and the harm done by the loss of people's ability to work.
When you risk catching Covid, you risk needing someone to take care of you and losing the ability to work. You can reduce those risks by getting fully vaccinated, and minimizing how much you are indoors with other people without an N95 mask and good ventilation.
Arguing that Ukraine will only be safe from Putin if his attack ends in unambiguous failure that he cannot spin as a kind of victory.
Putin is replying to sanctions with sanctions: European countries that want to keep buying Russian gas would have to do it by dealing in roubles.
Erdoğan seeks better relations with Crown Prince Bone Saw, so Turkey plans to halt the prosecution of the direct murderers of Jamal Khashoggi, and hand it over to Crown Prince Bone Saw himself. (Crown Prince Bone Saw commanded the murder, but he is not a target for prosecution anyway.)
It is true that the trial is unable to make progress. The accused are in Salafi Arabia, protected by their master. But this plan is dishonest.
The UK proved in 2020 that it could provide housing to all homeless people. Then it sent them back to the street.
I use the term "homeless" in the US manner, meaning people who have to live on the street unless they find temporary space.
Unions call for Oregon's state employee pension fund to divest from the company that makes the Pegasus spy software, as well as from fossil fuels.
*Covid vaccines give extra protection to previously infected, studies show.*
New South Wales is trying to impose a two-year sentence on protesters that block roads. The Green Party is trying to stop it.
(satire) *Terminal Cancer Wasted On Man Who Was Already Living In The Moment.*
The UK's Tory government refused to insist on competent evaluators for fire risk in building designs because that would be "red tape".
Strangely, the same government always wants more red tape to tie up immigrants, disabled people and poor people.
*Transition to Zero-Emission Vehicles [in the US] Would Deliver $1.2 Trillion in Public Health Benefits.*
Facebook's political manipulation is not done solely by targeted ads. The choice of what posting to show each used also depends on per profile.
IC manufacturing has hit another obstacle: a shortage of neon. The main producer is Ukraine.
It is very important for the industry to develop redundant supplies, both for raw materials and for manufactured goods, to cope with breakdowns 30 and 40 years from now when there could be many happening each year. If industry learns to plan for redundancy now, and incorporates this into planning, it may enable technological civilization to survive.
*Trump brazenly asks Putin to release dirt about Biden's family.* The alleged dirt may or may not exist, but the corruptor's coziness with Putin shows what he stands for.
Oregon has allowed people who live elsewhere to come there for assisted suicide. This right is slowly spreading around the US, but it is limited to people who are expected to die soon anyway. Those who can look forward to years of helpless agony are still condemned to a life sentence.
Ukrainians who got out of Mariupol describe life under Putin's bombardment.
Manchin said he will protect billionaires from paying more taxes.
The cheater made a call from a White House phone on Jan 6 and arranged to delete it or omit it from the White House call log.
India blocked dissident journalist Rana Ayyub from traveling to Europe by stopping her from boarding her flight. This is part of a systematic pattern of repression against those who criticize Modi and the bigotry and violence his regime promotes.
A wood stove cause substantial harm to the health of people who live in the house. About 40 times as much as a gas-fired boiler. (I presume an electric heater generates roughly the same amount of indoor pollution as a fossil-fuel-powered heater.)
Warning: planet-roasters are spreading false criticisms of today's renewable energy generating systems.
*Many of New Zealand’s glaciers could disappear in a decade, scientists warn.* The rest will shrink.
Mining peat and using it implies releasing its stored carbon. We must stop that practice.
Tunisia's president is trying to crush its parliament.
He decreed parliament "suspended" last year; but Parliament met anyway and canceled that decree. So he made another decree to "dissolve" parliament, and now the question is whether he will arrest the members of parliament and revert explicitly to tyranny.
* Rain forests looked after by communities absorb twice as much carbon as other lands, analysis shows.*
Driverless taxis, which could receive orders to take you where you really really don't want to go, are one step closer to being a real and practical danger.
If you were in Russia, would you get in a taxi that knows who you are? I wouldn't take one in any country.
The UK Parliament voted to continue a two-year trial of mailing women abortion pills to use at home.
The US needs something similar, to thwart the Republicans who are trying to make abortion impossible in some states.
The strategic situation in Ukraine.
*The planet needs global cooperation to heal from the damage humanity has wrought—more war is the opposite of what we need.*
Due to global heating, drought has extended to the southern plains of the US, and with it wildfires.
Spring has barely started and they have had 500,000 acres burnt.
*We are currently pushing existing vaccines to their limits with high infection levels, but we should instead be supporting them by reducing transmission. Returning to normal behavior does not return us to normal life. It returns us to a life with more disruption, more sickness and more strain on [the medical system].*
The UK meteorologists will adjust their criterion for heat waves based on the new, hotter, normal.
That's reasonable as far as it goes. The concept of "heat wave" becomes useless if heat inflation results in a heat wave every week. Just as long as people don't get fooled and lulled by it.
*EU wants to force fashion firms to make clothes more durable and recyclable.*
That could be a great step forward, if it is enforced thoroughly.
The UK government is running ads promoting one of its notional policies, just where it will help Tories win local elections.
"Level-ling up" might be a good thing if truly implemented, but that would take lots of money, which Tories have no intention of spending on this.
Many US schools have installed "security cameras" with facial recognition. Perhaps most schools.
It's legitimate (and useful) to have cameras with computers that detect people with guns, or people without masks. Likewise to send the photos of those people to school staff, who could take appropriate action — or sound an alarm. Those are legitimate precisely because they don't track anyone who hasn't done something that requires attention.
What is not legitimate is to identify students, or make pictures of them available to anyone else (at the same time or later), in the absence of a specific wrong that they are doing. They must be true security cameras, not surveillance cameras.
The big increase in the already-bloated Pentagon budget is not necessary for supporting Ukraine.
If the wrecker runs against Biden again, the wrecker might win the popular vote, according to a recent poll.
Since the wrecker's fraction in this poll exceeds his general popularity, this must be due to Biden's unpopularity. Why is Biden so unpopular? I don't know, but I suspect that people blame him because Republicans blocked the mostly-good laws he proposed. I have seen that particular irrationality in the major media (when I see that). Instead of "Manchin and Sinema plus the Republicans blocked the bill," stories say "Biden failed to get his proposal enacted," as if that were his fault.
When and as Biden's proposed laws are inadequate, that's his fault.
*Why do we still have no answer for these four long Covid questions?*
The "let Covid rip" policy might almost make sense if our vaccines and treatments reduced the danger to a very small chance of death. There are two big flaws in that picture: (1) the substantial fraction of the population (perhaps 1/4 of the US) who are particularly vulnerable (and face a much larger chance of death), and (2) the risk of a fate worse than death: lasting disability due to Long Covid.
Information about the frequency of Long Covid is limited, and it comes mainly from unvaccinated people infected in 2020 by the original Covid-19. With Omicron, it could be so rare that it is no longer a major problem. Or it might be larger than before. BA.2 might be just like Omicron or it might be quite different.
In the face of this ignorance, the one thing we can be sure of is that the "let Covid rip" approach risks crippling considerable numbers of people.
Has anyone determined what fraction of the Americans that quit their jobs last fall quit because they were disabled? What fraction can't find child care because some of the people who previously provided child care had become disabled? To what extent was it, rather than the "great resignation", actually the "great incapacitation"?
One thing is clear. Now that Republicans have eliminated the funds for testing (as well as vaccination and treatment), many Americans, including those who can't escape being exposed every day, won't ever get tested for Covid-19. If they develop Long Covid symptoms, their doctors won't know they had Covid-19 at all.
*Contraception myths mean nearly half of pregnancies worldwide unintended.*
US thugs kill, overall, three people per day, the same rate of killing as in the past few years.
The UK policy for people who might have Covid-19 is, don't get tested (unless you're well-off), go to work anyway, don't bother with a mask, and make people sick.
Some politicians call for rejection of the narrow and weak patent waiver proposal, because it would supersedes the adequate deal proposed by South Africa and India.
Ukraine accuses the Putin forces of kidnapping thousands of Ukrainians and taking them to Russia. Due to obstacles to communication, imposed by the Putin forces, it has not been possible to verify the facts. I can't take for granted that the Ukrainian statement is accurate. However, I trust the Ukrainian state more or less. I wouldn't trust Putin to tell the truth about the time of day.
In Putin-occupied cities, the Putin forces want journalists to become collaborators. Journalists face attempts to corrupt them, followed by Soviet-style repression if they refuse, including jail, beatings, and threats to their relatives.
However, those who demonstrate their firmness are sometimes released.
(satire) *McDonald's Launches $99 Ripoff Menu.*
Campaigning to make oceans absorb CO2 or else reduce emissions from on land.
AOC and some other Democrats say that Clarence Thomas's collaboration to undermine the Constitution by stealing an election is a reason why he ought to resign, and a reason to impeach him.
I fully agree — but as a shameless "by hook or by crook" Republican with no loyalty to American democracy, he will never resign for trying to undermine and destroy it. Furthermore, the "by hook or by crook" Republicans in the Senate will never vote to remove him from office, so impeaching him is about as useless as impeaching the wrecker.
*Progressive Caucus Says Pay-For Concerns 'Evaporate' When It Comes to Pentagon.*
Ukraine's government is investigating a video that appears to show a Ukrainian guard shooting Russian prisoners in the leg.
It could be fake news, but it could also be true. If it is true, I hope the government will punish it strongly to set an example. Each country must set an example of refusing to tolerate such behavior, to influence other countries.
We must reject the idea that pointed words can justify violence.
A slap is nowhere as bad as a gunshot, but let's not take a step in the wrong direction. Moreover, one side of our politicized society loves guns, exults in violence, and believes in winning by hook or by crook.
*From "herd immunity" to today, Covid minimisers are still sabotaging our pandemic progress.*
This proposal specifies a minimum policy of readiness for future developments (including new variants). It does not try to avoid leaving millions of people incapacitated. I have seen no statistics on how what fraction of people become incapacitated after an infection of Omicron, nor of what fraction remain incapacitated after 3 months.
Heavy rains are going to flood towns on Australia's east coast, whose houses were rendered uninhabitable by floods a few weeks ago. Perhaps people had better move those towns.
Modern life, since a few decades ago, disconnects people from the ingredients that go into real food, and many children nowadays don't learn anything about them.
Amnesty International condemns the Tories' plan for tearing up the human rights of anyone that is treated badly or unjustly by the state. Plus a separate, special attack on refugees.
US citizens: Urge Congress to end corporate tax loopholes that companies like Tesla continue to abuse.
US citizens: call on Democratic leaders to thwart Putin by uniting to reduce fossil fuel use, and fast.
*Want to Defeat Putin? Deliver the Green New Deal.*
The wrecker's phone call log on 6 Jan 2021 has a surprising gap from before noon to almost 7pm. He made calls during that time, so apparently he either prevented them from being logged or destroyed part of the log.
Australia's planet-roaster government plans to cut "climate spending" by a total of 1/3.
In Australia, the opposition party (Labor) is usually only a little to the left of the right-wing coalition; it can't be relied on to defend the climate firmly.
Republicans are deregulating the hidden carrying of guns in the states they control.
Progressives have warned Biden that victory at the polls in November will depend on his using executive orders to fulfill promises.
Russian billionaires use the same tax-dodging haven countries to evade sanctions that other billionaires use to dodge taxes. By changing the laws that were designed to facilitate this, we can crack down on wrongs.
The Institute for Digital Archaeology requested to scan one of the Parthenon marble sculptures and use numerically controlled tools to cut a perfect imitation out of similar marble. The British Museum refused. The Institute says it will sue for permission.
The project seems like a good one, and should go forward, but the article doesn't explain on what grounds the institute could win such a suit.
A preliminary investigation found "credible evidence of attempts by Russia to interfere with the UK’s electoral processes," but the UK has failed to investigate further to reach a conclusion. Some UK elected officials have asked the European Court of Human Rights to demand that the UK do so.
Why would the Tories choose not to investigate? Perhaps because the intervention helped the Tories.
*Why do Putin, Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the GOP sound so much alike?
It's not just that they're all authoritarians. Their culture wars have similar agendas.*
Davis, California, and the University UC Davis, have worked together for 1.5 years to resist the spread of Covid, and had great success, keeping the case rate to a level far below the rest of California.
A proposed outline for a peace agreement for Ukraine and Russia.
I think this proposal is acceptable in its overall lines, but we must be careful about the specifics of certain points.
*A security agreement for Ukraine will be worthless if it is controlled by the UN Security Council, in which Russia has veto power.
I propose instead a one-way alliance between NATO and Ukraine. That is, NATO countries would be obliged to defend Ukraine if it is attacked, but Ukraine would never have an obligation to join in a war involving NATO countries. This might convince Russia there is no danger to Russia in the agreement.
Perhaps the nuclear-armed NATO countries would agree to provide funds and arms but not fight Russia directly unless it attacks their forces.
*Autonomy for any parts of Ukraine should be limited to civil matters, and some kinds of national laws must apply. They must not have their own armies.
The people of each district — those who lived in it before 2014 — should get to vote on whether that district is included in an autonomous region or not,
Ukrainians that Putin took to Russia should be returned so they can vote freely.
(satire) *Wealthy Couple Founds Art Museum To Foster Public Appreciation For How Wealthy They Are.*
Robert Reich: *Inflation Won't Be Remedied by the Federal Reserve Imposing Higher Interest Rates. The result is likely to be a recession.*
Scientific institutions are going overboard in cutting scientific cooperation with Russian institutions and Russian scientists.
Scientists should cooperate regardless of wars, as long as their work is not related in the short term to military use.
*A worker objected to Google’s Israel military contract. Google told her to move to Brazil* or be fired, with 17 work days to decide.
A different issue also raised by this contract is that allowing a company to run the state's computer facilities is a threat to the national security of that state. No country should trust such cloudy computing facilities.
There are many other reasons to boycott Amazon. I ask people not to use Amazon to buy anything for me.
Booster doses of the existing vaccines may not be very effective at maintaining immunity towards current and future variants of Covid-19.
I am disturbed by the brief report that the US has cut funds for vaccine development. Can anyone send me more info?
*Neither Nato nor Ukraine can de-Putinise Russia. We Russians must do it ourselves.*
The great challenge we face now is to break through Putin's web of censorship. During World War II, airplanes dropped leaflets. What can we do today?
It is worth noting that Ukraine was ruled by Stalin, and subsequent Communist rulers, for just as long as today's Russia. Since Ukraine has managed to become democratic, maybe Russia can too.
*Push for new UK nuclear plants lacks facility for [radioactive] waste.*
It is hard to be sure that a radioactive waste storage facility will continue operating for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, especially if it will require continual attention during that time. Especially since we don't know whether technological civilization will still exist 50 or 100 years from now.
Besides which, nuclear power plants are so expensive that it would be preferable to build renewable generation plus energy storage facilities, and avoid the nuclear waste entirely.
On the third anniversary of Julian Assange's expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy, rally from 11am to 2:45pm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the park opposite the British Consulate (which is 245 Main Street).
The rally is in the park with the big globe in the middle.
*Dalai Lama, Other Nobel Winners Demand Explicit Vow Not to Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine.* They demanded this vow from the US and Putin.
I support this demand.
*Uninsured Americans Will Now Be Charged $125 for a Single PCR Covid-19 Test.*
DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” law. This law prohibits teachers from explaining to students about sexual orientation and gender identity, through third grade.
That's long enough that the kids are likely to learn everything from other kids, and learn it wrong.
*[Biden]’s playing into Putin’s hands* by talking about regime change.
Senator Scott of Florida listened to a description of measures from his own tax plan, and condemned them. He said they were "Democratic talking points."
*Biden to announce "billionaire minimum income tax" in budget plan.*
All in all, the countries that set out to eliminate Covid-19 did very well, until variants much more contagious supplanted the original virus.
If all countries had approached the disease this way, the more contagious variants might never had evolved. Of course, that was not possible for all countries; many didn't have the money, or didn't have the social cohesion and trust, or didn't have the necessary leadership, to make the attempt. But we should learn to do that in the future.
Australia's right-wing ruling parties aim to win reelection by spending a lot of money on infrastructure in precisely the districts where they need more votes.
A coup in Russia might get rid of Putin, but if it did, it could lead to other bad situations.
Past imperialism of present-day NATO countries is provoking hostility from their former African colonies, which express it in a bizarre way: by supporting Putin's imperialism.
They have valid grounds for a grievance with former colonizers, but it's not fair to take it out on Ukraine, which is in the same position today that they were in a century ago.
Campaigners in Iceland have been working for 15 years convincing tourists to stop eating whale meat, with substantial success.
US citizens: Tell your representative, senators and president not to declare a no-fly zone, and to avoid war between the US and Russia.
*Taliban reversal on girls’ education derails US plan for diplomatic recognition.*
I think this is the right sort of way to exert suasion on Afghanistan about women's rights. It can potentially influence the outcome but won't backfire by arousing resistance. It is not certain to succeed, but no other method would be either.
The false confessions of the Birmingham Six — beaten out of them by thugs — show that Britain shares the pattern of injustice which in the US is typically applied to blacks. In the US, 100 years ago, it was applied to the Italians Sacco and Vanzetti.
The US tolerates problems that cause many avoidable deaths, partly due to distrust of science. Covid-19 has been one of them, and is likely to be tolerated on a permanent basis.
US students from poor families can't afford to go to college because they can't afford to live anywhere near it. That's in addition to the cost of the university itself, which is also prohibitive.
The EFF proposes prohibiting advertising based on behavioral profiling.
This might substantially reduce the extent of tracking, but won't eliminate the danger from tracking. Only part of the danger comes from online advertising as such. Profiling can be used in other ways than online advertising, including offline political activity, "predictive policing", and state repression. Personal data can be used for other things than profiling in the usual sense.
In particular, the proposed exception to allow advertising based on the user's current location will give companies an excuse to collect the user's current location. This location history will be useful for finding whistleblowers and dissidents.
I fear that the EFF has found a compromise plan that would eliminate a lot of the tracking that annoys individuals, but won't protect society politically at all,
Miami declared a state of emergency because of students coming for spring break.
Some suspect that this is because many of the students are black. That might indeed be the motive. But there is a good reason to do this, one that has nothing to do with their skin color. Those people on he beach threaten to spread Covid-19!
Arizona legislators from the Repressive Party passed a law against making videos of what uniformed thugs do.
We used to have confidence that the Supreme Court would stand by the right to do this. I feel less confidence nowadays.
To Endure, Peace Needs to Weaken Putin But Not Ruin Him
Belarus has shut down nearly all nature conservation organizations, and has jailed some of the activists.
Sanders proposes to enact again the law which in World War II taxed profiteering companies up to 95%.
An EU directive will regulate how internet tracking servers use their data.
This directive may boost competition, and limit somewhat the harm that surveillance companies do to the public. But as long as data are collected, they will be misused, and misused by various entities that get the data. This law is inadequate; what we really need to do is make sure people have the right to as much anonymity as we had 30 years ago.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reversed its new regulations gently limiting fossil fuel extraction, and approved new projects.
Amory Lovins still enlightens the world about the way increased efficiency of energy use can eliminate most energy use for heating, cooling and transportation.
Increasing humidity in the Atacama desert is causing the 7000-year-old Chinchorro mummies to rot.
Reportedly US Democrats have got political advice to declare that Covid-19 is no longer a problem so that Americans will relax, give them credit for a nonexistent victory, and spread Covid-19.
This is almost as callous as what the Republicans have done for two years, intentionally spreading Covid-19.
New York's new mayor is a night mayor for the homeless. He ordered the thug department to break up all homeless people's encampments within two weeks.
It's that living in an improvised house of cardboard on the street is an inhumane situation. But this reasoning from that starting point is screwy. Is it more humane to make someone live on the street without even a cardboard house? Yes, there are dangers to living in subway tunnels — but are they more dangerous than living on the street? Thieves and killers can go in the tunnels, but they can go on the street too.
If you want to see whether your effort to help the homeless is doing any good, one way is to see whether homeless people move there from the street voluntarily. If you want to make success more likely, you could give homeless people more say. If you want them to stay somewhere that isn't a street, you could make some other space available that they can get to.
Putin's war is building up around him a coterie of repressive and unjust regimes — a real life Axis of Evil.
Its not quite a coherent alliance. India and China, which are permanently at the edge of war with each other, are both part of it.
Unarmed protesters who wouldn't stop protesting convinced the Putin forces to pull out of the town of Slavutych.
25 years after the civil war ended, Sri Lanka continues torturing Tamils to get false confessions.
Some victims are suspected of "terrorism" because they are human rights lawyers. For other victims, it simply isn't clear.
Russia had a sophisticated plan for a war based on cracking and disinformation, but strangely Putin is not using it.
The whole length of the Great Barrier Reef is suffering severe bleaching of corals. In some places, deaths of coral organisms have already started.
This is no surprise at all. The main causes of coral bleaching are heat and water pollution. The Australian government stubbornly promotes both global heating and pollution in the region near the reef.
The UK is not giving local governments enough money to repair 3000 damaged bridges. They also struggle to provide housing and welfare benefits for the people of their district.
The US is turning the job of schoolteacher into a low-wage job; many teachers are planning strikes.
Poland's partly-authoritarian government hopes that its strong opposition to Putin will shield it from EU pressure.
The two partly-authoritarian governments in the EU, Poland and Hungary, have protected each other from pressure through EU rules that require standards of democracy, and independence of the judiciary (often referred to in this context as "rule of law"). If Orbán is defeated in Hungary, the EU will be able to pressure Poland much more effectively.
The British royal family invested directly in transporting slaves to Jamaica. I would expect the same is true for other British colonies, including the ones that rebelled and became the United States.
I believe that Britain owes reparations to the descendants of those slaves.
The article linked to 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 US will export more natural gas to Europe so that it can stop buying natural gas from Putin.
Whether this hurts Putin depends on whether some other country will buy the gas he would have sold to Europe. I don't know, but I would not assume it is impossible.
US citizens: call on the CDC to eliminate "Title 42", which is used to expel asylum-seekers without a hearing.
US citizens: tell Biden that every refugee deserves an asylum hearing.
US citizens: call on Biden to pick up a pen and cancel student debt.
US citizens: call on Congress to Investigate critical new evidence that the wrecker committed crimes trying to overturn the election.
US citizens: support the Stop Gas Price Gouging Tax and Rebate Act.
Sanders's bill might be better, but this one would would do some good.
Everyone: call on Chevron not to drill in the Arctic Refuge.
Many bird species in the UK are laying eggs a month earlier than they did 100 years ago.
Republicans in Colorado have organized to send groups of armed whites to intimidate black voters at their homes.
Gangs of armed whites in the US have committed violence against blacks thousands of times, so it's plausible that this might terrorize some blacks so much that they won't vote. The attempt reflects the arrogance of white supremacism, nowadays endorsed by the Republican Party.
The article linked to at the start of 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 or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the exceptions.
The UK government renewed a big railroad operating contract with a company that 6 months ago it fined and terminated another contract because it acted in "bad faith."
UK immigration bullied 2,000 asylum seekers into giving "voluntary" permission to seize and keep their phones, then look through them. A court ruled that it broke the law by doing that.
When they tried to apply for asylum, they were stymied because UK immigration demanded information they couldn't provide because they were unable to get it out of their phones.
The UK transport minister, a Tory evidently, privately told P&O ferries in November that it was ok to fire all the crews and outsource the work to low-wage workers. Then, last week, he pretended that it came as a surprise to him.
With a serial bullshitter as prime minister, who makes incredible claims to avoid admitting that he lied, it has become hard to demand that Tories follow even the most basic standards of honesty.
P&O seems to have one valid point: that it had a competitor, Irish Ferries, that was already outsourcing the same job to low-wage workers. There were two possible ways for the UK to deal with that: (1) let P&O pay low wages too, or (2) impose better wages on all ferries through a new law. The former fit with the natural inclination of Tories.
Big Oil's investment in Russian oil companies gave Putin 100 billion dollars of investment and income, which paid for much of the weapons he is using for attacks and massacres in Ukraine.
Even in oil- and gas- extracting Oklahoma, enormous wind-power developments are being built, purely to save costs. This may not go fast enough to save humanity, but with a sensible amount of attention to the goal of saving technological civilization we might succeed.
Two weeks after Massachusetts eliminated regulations to slow transmission of Covid-19, the new case rate increased almost 30% compared with the previous week, 5735 compared with 4459. If this continues, the new case rate will double every 2.5 weeks or so.
Vanguard funds invest in injustice and climate destruction.
(satire) *Ginni Thomas Dismisses Text Messages To Mark Meadows As Regular, Run-Of-The-Mill Infidelity.*
Clarence Thomas has already flagrantly disregarded the basic rule for unbiased judicial proceedings, by ruling on a case involving his wife's political activities.
They just happen to be activities directed at overthrowing the US government.
Tigray and Ethiopia have agreed to "cessation of hostilities" which could mean an end to their war.
*Australians with the most to fear from Omicron living in "permanent lockdown".*
That could happen in many European countries, and the US.
Dubai is an inviting home for rich Russians facing sanctions elsewhere. All the luxury goods they can no longer buy in Russia, they can buy in Dubai.
The Senate judiciary committee showed absolutely no interest in Judge Jackson's views, or her knowledge, about the power of big business and the laws that were meant to restrain it.
Since the UK threw off all precautions against the spread of Covid-19, the disease has spread quickly. Last week, 6% of the people in England had Covid-19.
Such worrisome news will not repeat, because the UK's policy of charging for testing will discourage people from getting tested.
*"Decide who you are with," Ukrainian leader tells Viktor Orbán.*
Actually it's the Hungarian people who will soon choose who they are with: either authoritarian Orbán, or the opposition coalition that wants to return to substantive democracy.
A heatwave at the north pole and collapsed Antarctic ice shelf are reminders to redouble our efforts, and focus on climate.*
*Mariupol theatre bombing killed 300, Ukrainian officials say.*
Bureaucratic conditions added to the proposed vaccines-only temporary patent waiver would make it very difficult to use the deal.
*[A] new paper shows that the climate and biodiversity crises "need to be tackled in a joined-up way by central banks and supervisors to build a nature-positive financial system."*
Republican senators used their "questioning" of Judge Jackson as an opportunity to spread bullshit and racism to their supporters.
US law gives the government the power to issue compulsory patent licenses for a product (including a medicine) if government funds paid for part of its development, unless the patent holder makes it available "in reasonable terms."
Arizona Republicans are passing a law that would give already-registered voters just 30 days to dig up proof of citizenship or be removed from the voting list.
If they need to apply for copies of papers, it could be impossible to accomplish the task in so little time.
*Special Assistant District Attorney Pomerantz explains in his letter of resignation that he believed the case of financial crimes against the cheater was ready for prosecution.*
The cheater actively threatens free elections and human rights in the US. If there is evidence to prosecute him for a serious crime, I agree with Pomerantz that we should do so without delay.
Reportedly Ukraine is trading corpses of Putin forces soldiers for living Ukrainian prisoners of war.
That makes no sense to me. If I commanded an army, I wouldn't release a captured enemy in exchange for a corpse. Doing so would not bring the soldier who died back to life, and the corpse would be of no help in a fight.
In general, I don't understand why people care so much about corpses. Even the corpse of someone you loved is not a person, just a keepsake, and other keepsakes would serve better to remember per by.
I have a file where I put the names of the deceased who meant something to me. Sometimes I go through it and remember them one by one.
Ginni Thomas (insurrectionist wife of Justice Thomas) sent text messages to the cheater's staff (including Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff) calling for overturning the election.
We don't have evidence that the couple explicitly conspired together for this strange coup, but I suspect that they did.
California plans to give $400 to each car owner in the state, to help compensate for high fuel prices.
This is much better than the Republican proposal to make fuel cheaper. In the long term, the high price is good, as it will encourage people to use less of it. Thus, it is wise that the $400 aid payments are independent of how much a person actually drives the car; this way, they will not encourage more driving.
The plan has one flaw: it is limited to car owners. It follows that people will not have an incentive to sell the car and start taking the bus or a bicycle instead. The aid payments should go to every adult in the state.
If you get one of these debit cards do not use it to buy anything. Convert the money into cash, and pay cash!
*France opens inquiry into alleged torture by Interpol’s Emirati head.*
*Ukraine uses facial recognition software to identify Russian soldiers killed in combat.*
This is one of the few uses of facial recognition that isn't an injustice. I don't think that the dead are entitled to privacy rights.
The existence of exceptions where facial recognition does no wrong is no grounds to legitimize the repression that massive use of facial recognition tends to imposes on living people. We need laws to make it impossible for any company to do what Clearview AI does.
*New data suggests forests help keep the Earth at least half of a degree cooler, protecting us from the effects of climate crisis.*
Tories voted to allow businesses to fire workers and rehire them (or replacements) for half the wage. That's what permitted P&O Ferries to do that. But the worst damage to workers is that many unions have lost their focus on fighting.
Researchers looked at blood from 22 donors and found microplastics in the blood of 17 of them.
There is a lot more research to do in this field.
A study found a general tendency for countries in which people generally trust each other more to be more effective in reducing Covid-19.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to oppose the "College Transparency Act" or "CTA". This bill would set up centralized surveillance of all US college students, continuing for the student's whole life.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US residents: call on US mayors to invest in mass transit now, so as to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Everyone: state your support for the striking workers at Maximus call center.
We should move beyond supporting each group of outsourced workers and put an end to the outsourcing. The US government should put narrow limits on outsourcing so that it can happen only to limited quantities of jobs.
US citizens: call on the House of Representatives to strip Greene and Gozar of their committee assignments for participating in a meeting of white supremacists and Nazis.
Everyone: call on AT&T to keep right-wing channel OAN off DirecTV.
*Peace in the Balkans is again under threat. EU governments must confront the Serb government before it is too late.*
It is surely no coincidence that Serbia maintains friendly relations with Russia.
Use of sewage sludge for fertilizer has rendered farmland in Maine too poisonous to use — ever — because of PFAS that contaminates anything grown there.
If technological civilization lasts through the global heating disaster, maybe we will eventually be able to develop ways to destroy the most used PFAS.
The number of homeless people in California keeps growing, inevitably, because the state has a growing shortage of available housing.
The full solution is to unblock construction of dense housing in the cities with public transportation. That will make housing affordable.
However, lockable tiny rooms could also help.
(satire) *Senate Republicans Attack Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Lack Of Experience On U.S. Supreme Court.*
P&O ferries is offering to pay workers around 6 months' salary (more for some workers) in exchange for not criticizing the company.
This stingy offer would only slightly soften the harm done to workers.
Ferry workers at that company, and any competitors that follow the switch to temporary workers, will lose a large fraction of that amount (let's guess half of it) every six months for the rest of their lives. Perhaps for decades. This "compensation" compensates only for the transient harm, not for the lasting harm.
The change will harm passengers too, with bad service and increased risk of accidents that would result from the frequent turnover.
The company may be fined millions of pounds if convicted of illegal dismissal, but even that wouldn't undo the damage.
The only way to correct the damage is to make the company back down. Of course, Bogus Johnson doesn't want to do that.
Prime Minister Corbyn would have kept his eye on the ball.
*Khanna-Warren Bill Would Ban Wall Street Profiteering on Water Scarcity.*
* New research out of Texas reveals how wind and solar can replace coal power across the state and serve as a "model for the nation".*
The Republican state government of Tennessee wants to abolish the town of Mason, with its mainly-black population and black (and Democratic) elected officials, so it will be controlled by the mainly white county government.
Fidelity has donated millions to right-wing extremist "charities".
The smallest "tactical nuclear weapons" today are about the same power as the Hiroshima bomb, which killed about 150,000 people soon and more later.
Britons who visit food banks say "no thanks" to potatoes because they can't afford the cost of the fuel or electricity needed to boil them.
The Republican Party is now completely the Covid Party. Beyond organizing supporters to reject masks and vaccination, and lying to dissuade others, it has now eliminated federal funds to pay for them.
It has also eliminated federal funds to pay for treatment for uninsured poor people who catch Covid-19. This will kill tens of thousands of additional Americans — killed by the Republican Party.
Republican senators tried to smear Ketanji Brown Jackson by associating her with the principle of human rights, justice, and the US Constitution.
I have a hunch that Faux News broadcast what the senators said and not her replies. Does anyone know? (If you don't normally watch Faux News, please don't let this lead you to start now!)
Ukraine is unable to identify the dead soldiers of the Putin forces. They carry nothing that states their names. They carry dog tags which show only a serial number.
Russia refuses to accept the corpses from Ukraine — a very strange thing for an army to do.
Putin is evidently set on supporting his denial that there is a war by preventing Russian families from finding out that their sons are dead.
Their absence can't be concealed forever. What will happen when the families find out?
Sanders opposes the "America Competes Act" for big giveaways to big businesses.
I've been saying for years that when companies want help from the government, they should sell the government stock at a fair price.
* A Tennessee [thug] fired his stun gun at a food delivery man who had begun recording his traffic stop for speeding and asked to see the officer’s supervisor.*
*US man charged in Capitol attack gets asylum in Belarus.* This further demonstrates the alliance between the wrecker and Putin.
Edward Snowden must be extremely embarrassed to be stuck in Russia. He isn't there by choice. He never intended to stop there — he simply had a flight connection through Moscow. He was blocked from boarding his next flight because the US had revoked his passport.
The US contrived to block his later efforts to travel onward; the US had its allies violate the diplomatic rights of Bolivia by forcing a search of the president's plane to look for Snowden. (He wasn't in it.)
This was just one step less nasty than what Lukashenko did to seize a Belarusian dissident from an airliner that was crossing Belarus.
Thousands of Cubans are seeking asylum in the US, or in Mexico.
*"Surely a chancellor wouldn’t choose to do the wrong things, knowingly, when he has the power to set the country in a better direction?"* Oops, he's a Tory.
Biden is planning to use the Defense Production Act to order an increase in electric vehicle production.
Persecutor Paxton has arbitrarily declared that Pride Week in a school is illegal "sex education".
In general, parents should not have the power to insist that their children remain ignorant. Everyone has the right to good sex education. But Pride Week is education about kinds of relationships, not about sex.
The UK is planning to follow the US and Australia in making it a crime for refugees to go there and ask for asylum.
AIPAC, the lobbying group for continuing Israel's occupation of Palestine (the west bank, and Gaza), is lobbying for insurrectionist Republicans.
Rigidly prudish right-wing Indian bigots are freaking out at the use of a rubber penis model to demonstrate how to put a condom on.
Rigidly prudish right-wing American bigots are not very different, with their repression campaigns about everything that relates to sex.
George Monbiot: *The latest wave of climate deniers claim green schemes are "unaffordable." Success stories from around Europe prove that’s not true.*
Journalist Chris Mullin reports that he protected the anonymity of the bombers that he interviewed so as to prove the innocence of people who were falsely convicted of that crime.
Israel refused to sell Pegasus spyware to Ukraine.
Now if only Israel had refused to sell it to all other clients…
US agencies are dedicating more funds to study "long Covid" disabilities, now that tens of millions of Americans may have them.
The easiest way to deal with the problem of these disabilities is to prevent them. Effective measures to prevent transmission of Covid-19 will mean that fewer people catch it, and fewer people get disabled in this way.
One thing I have not seen is reports about what fraction of people that catch Delta get long Covid. What about Omicron? What about fully vaccinated people?
The Putin forces have cut off Chernihiv from supplies of water (and food). They say they plan to grab specific civilians and take them by force to Russia.
Don't assume "oligarchs" means we're talking about Russia. Yanis Varoufakis explains the harm they do, world wide.
I've read that the concept of "oligarchs" is obsolete in regard to Russia. They used to have political power, but Putin took it away from them.
*What Florida's endangered panthers need to survive.*
My "childhood sweetheart", that I fell in love with when she and I were both 40 years old, campaigned very cleverly against development that threatened their habitat.
The Taliban have rejected letting girls above age 11 go to school.
US citizens: call on Congress to hold Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable for speaking at AFPAC, a white-supremacist and Nazi meeting.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to Make Massive Investments in Clean Energy, so as to fight global heating and authoritarianism.
Everyone: call on Home Secretary Patel to block extradition of Julian Assange by sending email to Public.Enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk.
(Priti Patel, Home Secretary, Home Office, 2 Marsham St Westminster, London SW1P 4DF, UK; +44 20 7035-4848)
*As Biden Continues [Medicare] Privatization Ploy, Sanders Vows to Reintroduce Medicare for All.*
Ukraine accused Putin of seizing a food aid convoy near Mariupol and taking the drivers and aid workers prisoner.
We don't have confirmation of this, but since it would fit Putin's modus operandi, I find it plausible.
Putin is also accused of starving the people in the occupied city of Kherson. A country that has occupied territory has the legal responsibility to provide the occupied people with food and medicine.
Putin is bombarding Mariupol from warships in the Sea of Azov. A few antiship cruise missiles could put an end to that. The Ukrainians don't have to be fully trained in how to launch them — they can get remote guidance over the internet.
US agencies are dedicating more funds to study "long Covid" disabilities, now that tens of millions of Americans may have them.
The easiest way to deal with the problem of these disabilities is to prevent them. Effective measures to prevent transmission of Covid-19 will mean that fewer people catch it, and fewer people get disabled in this way.
One thing I have not seen is reports about what fraction of people that catch Delta get long Covid. What about Omicron? What about fully vaccinated people?
Washington DC is suing Grubhub for charging hidden fees and using dark patterns to get customers to pay them. For other reasons to reject Grubhub and the other food delivery surveillance companies, see here.
There is now a chance to prevent a giant oil spill in the Red Sea, but that chance could blow up any day.
*Progressives are resisting rightwing book banning campaigns — and are winning [sometimes].*
(satire) *TurboTax Threatens To Tell IRS Customer Cheated On Taxes Unless [Perse Upgrades] To Deluxe Version.*
P&O ferry workers live on the ship. The 800 ferry workers who were abruptly fired were, ipso facto, evicted with one day's notice.
(satire) *[Senator] Josh Hawley Slams Ketanji Brown Jackson For Letting Pedophiles Like Himself Walk Free.*
How Fidelity funnels millions of dollars to right-wing advocacy groups.
*US High Schooler's Answer Listing Zero "Positive Effects of Imperialism" Goes Viral.*
NATO needs a large force in Eastern Europe, capable of actually resisting a Russian attack — not merely a sign saying "Putin, invasion here would mean war with the US."
*Long Covid could create a generation affected by disability,* according to Professor Altmann, immunologists.
Over 1% of the UK's population have had symptoms for a year now. If the US is similar, that would mean 3 million people disabled, who probably will not recover. Another 3 million, whose lasting symptoms started more recently, may or may not remain disabled for a long time.
That is up to six times the number of Americans who have died from Covid-19.
It seems from the data in this article that Omicron can cause lasting symptoms, at least for some time. The data do not indicate whether vaccinated people are safe, or whether their risk of being disabled is less. We really need to see this!
*Australia’s carbon credit [i.e., offset] scheme "largely a sham," says whistleblower who tried to rein it in.*
*One year after LA evicted [180 homeless people] from a park, few are in stable housing.*
Wildfires have started near Chernobyl. Whether or not the fighting started them, the war is preventing any effort to put them out.
*WHO blames rising Covid cases in Europe on curbs lifted too soon.*
British journalist Chris Mullin has won his case not to have to report the identity of the person who told him about participating in IRA terrorism.
Mullin got the story by promising confidentiality, and it's against the public interest to make such promises worthless.
An Amazon store worker who supports unionization has been locked out of work by closing her account in an app.
I think this store is one of those where customers pay automatically and cash is not accepted. Please don't ever do business with stores like that.
(satire) *Building Code Violation Fines Leave Landlord With No Choice But To Raise Rent.*
*Syria using maze of shell companies to avoid sanctions on Assad regime's elite.*
*Sudan's military is brutally suppressing protests.*
(satire) *Executive On Deathbed Requests Obituary Be Optimized For SEO.*
Philosophers in the 18th century wrote about the danger that a group of rich people would corrupt a democracy and convert it into an oligarchy. The US constitution was designed to try to prevent this process, but it is has been happening for 40 years in the US — and in many other countries, including Russia.
Russia illustrates that such an oligarchy can easily convert into an autocracy ruled by an empire. The cheater demonstrates it in the US. In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar was one of a group of three oligarchs, and when he had defeated the others and was making himself emperor, even killing him did not prevent the fall of the republic. I suspect that that was because property ownership had become too concentrated, making it very easy for a rich few (we could loosely call them "billionaires") to dominate everyone.
(satire) *Exterminator Shows Off Trophy Room Filled With Mounted Heads Of Insects.*
The SEC has announced new requirements for public companies to publish their climate effects, and it includes some reporting on "offsets".
*The childcare and universal pre-K provisions included in [the Build Back Better bill] passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in November would hugely benefit not only families but also the American economy, businesses, and state governments.*
We should not assume that blockchain, which is a technological mechanism, will empower the non-rich. It could equally well be used by the rich to escape from taxation, and condemn the rest of humanity to serfdom or sucking up to the barons. Or various possibilities in between.
The London thug department has a history of strip-searching minors who it arrests, and being reproached for the practice.
The word "children" here seems to mean "minor", under 18.
Strip-searches about marijuana are just part of the gratuitous harm done by prohibition of marijuana. The solution is to legalize it.
*[Ex-minister] Alan Duncan's employer Vitol has stake in vast Arctic exploration project backed by the Putin regime.*
Under UK rules, even present members of Parliament are allowed to have "second jobs". Officially, the job can't include "vote the way we want", but that could be implicitly understood.
*Rich countries must stop [extracting] oil and gas by 2034, says study. Poorest states should be given until 2050, says research aiming to set out fair way of ending fossil fuel economy.*
*António Guterres says countries seeking alternatives to Russian energy may increase use of fossil fuels.*
The Tories have a two-pronged plan to prevent most students from poor families from attending a university.
Those who don't get high grades on certain tests will be unable to afford to go. Those who do get high grades will get loans and will be crushed by debt.
Although many businesses require female staff to wear high-heeled shoes, people tend to perceive women as more competent when they wear sensible shoes.
This perception may be grounded on valid reasons. A woman wearing sensible shoes demonstrates something about how sensible she is, and how willing to reject bullshit. Those qualities may correlate with competence.
The mayor of Riace, Italy, has been convicted on trumped-up charges for publicly adopting policies make it easy for immigrants to settle there.
Westerners' disgust doesn't tackle all the world's powerful rich equally. Russian billionaires are targeted now, but not the murderous rulers of Salafi Arabia and the UAE. Nor do all attacked countries get equal support.
To some extent, the differences in US response reflect the difference in what options the situations offer.
In Syria, the US tried supporting the rebels against Assad, but they were inseparable from the intolerant Islamists, eager to persecute non-Muslims and non-Sunnis. Only the secularist, socialist Kurds deserved and deserve support, but they could not offer a potential government for all of Syria, including those who are not Kurds.
By contrast, in Ukraine it is clear who to support, and that makes it easy to do so.
The US can stop drone bombings in Yemen, and perhaps take a neutral stance there, but that won't make its civil war go away.
The US could give less support to the regimes of Salafi Arabia and the UAE, but barring trying to impose regime change there, which we should know would cause disaster, it can't deal with those countries except through those regimes.
*Australian government "aggravating extinction" through land-clearing approvals, analysis finds.*
US citizens: call on Senator Sinema to stop blocking lower drug prices.
US citizens: call on the Pentagon to investigate civilian casualties in Yemen.
US citizens: call on the Senate to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court.
US citizens: call on state and local governments to direct transit aid into public transit, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.
Everyone: call on AT&T not to support anti-election Republicans.
US citizens: call on Congress to eliminate for-profit deportation prisons.
US citizens: tell Congress that AIPAC doesn't speak for you.
US citizens: call on Congress to ban neonicotinoid pesticides to save bees.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call for protecting the area around Chaco Canyon from fossil fuel drilling.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
*There’s an easy way to help Ukraine without military escalation: cancel its foreign debt.*
*Many conservatives don’t think the 2020 election was stolen. But they believe democracy itself has betrayed America, by allowing the "wrong" people to take charge.*
Putin's forces fired a missile at a hospital. This report describes a mother who was wounded shielding her baby.
Testimony to Putin's bombardment of Mariupol, by the last journalists there.
The tank crew that shot at the apartment building could not have done it by mistake. They saw what they were shooting at, and they knew what they were doing.
Much of the Great Barrier Reef is sick from heat and hunger.
Investigators have identified billions of dollars of foreign assets belonging to people that Alexei Navalny identified as the main supporters of Putin.
Australia has suspended use of an internet-based system for blind people to vote with.
It is supposed to enable them to vote securely and anonymously. That is a worthy goal, but I strongly doubt that it can really achieve that. I'd rather trust a friend than trust network communication with my vote.
Some countries were unwilling to protect the high seas from exploitation, so treaty negotiations have collapsed.
I suspect that those governments have been bought by companies that plan to plunder the sea bottom.
Iran killed prisoner Shokrollah Jebeli by denying him medical care.
This sort of conduct is not unique to Iran — I've read about similar things happening in the US too.
*Open letter from 500 academics likens fossil-energy funding of climate solutions to tobacco industry disinformation.
China has converted some disputed islands in the South China Sea into strong military bases.
Merely flying or sailing close to these islands every few months will have no effect on the military situation that China is altering. The US needs to pay to build similar bases for Taiwan, or perhaps the Philippines, if President Do-dirty is replaced with someone that is not murderous and could be an ally.
A UK asbestos company started in 1958 to downplay the known danger of asbestos, while lobbying to allow continued use of it. It continued this through the 70s, also concealing some of its research.
Although the company was sold in 2017, some of the people who managed it in 1980 may still be alive. And some of those who managed it in 2000 and 2010 may be culpable for concealing the danger.
The possibility of being sued many years later is clearly not enough to deter companies from doing it in field after field. I think it should be a felony to aid such a plot.
*Scientists Shocked as Polar Temperatures Soar 50 to 90 Degrees Above Normal.*
This is weather, and in a few days it will change. But the fact that it could happen is climate, and it's a harbinger of megadeaths.
The drones in use by Ukraine and the Putin forces don't try to choose targets without human help. But that may not be many steps away.
The time for a treaty to ban such weapons is now.
The US government stated the conclusion that the Burmese army committed genocide against the Rohingya.
*Government ministers knew about P&O Ferries's plan to slash 800 jobs before staff were informed but were told by officials it would ensure the firm remained "a key player in the UK market for years to come", it was claimed on Saturday.*
Contending that fund manager companies now control the bulk of the capitalist economy, and proposing certain consequences.
If there is going to be a concentrated power in society, it should be a democratic power, not a power of the rich only.
The "carbon offset" business has a systematic preference for scams. Scams will always be cheaper to implement than really reducing or preventing emissions, so they will prevail in the market for offsets.
Union of Concerned Scientists: if the EPA shuts its web archive, that will harm science and accountability.
Can anyone find a petition campaign to change the EPA's decision?
"Trauma to Trust" is a program that brings cops (some of them, presumably, thugs) and people from the communities they work in, to establish empathy.
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.
Despite my disapproval of that practice, I find the article very humane in spirit.
In 2013, the Tories decided to "get rid of the green crap" and cancelled many renewable electricity projects. The lack of those investments is now costing everyone in Britain.
Arguing for a proposed framework for peace between Russia and Ukraine.
If the issue at stake were limited to Ukraine's immediate future, it would be a fairly good deal. But if Putin gains territory and suffers no losses except arms and soldiers, he may well conclude that he should try this again later, in Ukraine or elsewhere. The deal must impose some permanent loss on him, to discourage this.
If the deal will include "autonomy" for parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, that "autonomy" should depend on a plebiscite of the legitimate residents from before 2014, wherever they live now. And it should be done county by county, not presuming the border in advance.
The wealthy countries seem to be converging on agreement to temporarily waive patent obstacles to producing and distributing generic Covid-19 vaccines, but not the trade secrecy. And this excludes tests and treatments.
Not making an exception to the trade secrecy would mean that the would-be generic producers would have to repeat the development of production processes.
As long as we respect and tolerate the propaganda and confusion term "intellectual property", the world will continue to bow down to the Big Pharma companies. We should fund medical research and development in a way that doesn't leave us stuck with monopolies that interfere with use of the results.
A forensic pathologist criticizes the practice of distracting ourselves from the fact of death, including the euphemism "passing".
*How do we solve a problem like Putin? Five leading writers on Russia have their say.*
*With Covid infections and hospital admissions rising across the UK, measures such as masks, social distancing and ventilation are key.*
The governor of Wisconsin is running for reelection based on overcoming the Republican-dominated legislature's efforts to stop his supporters from voting.
People are returning to buying CDs again — sales are increasing.
Now all we need is to bring back the large record stores which offer a great variety of CDs that you can buy anonymously with cash.
CDs don't have to be sold in plastic "jewel boxes" that break. Some are sold in cardboard boxes which are more robust and probably better for the environment.
If this is driven by the obligatory giving of copies to people who don't actually want them, that's sad, but it means more used copies to be sold to people who really do want them.
The author displays a fundamental shallowness by describing listening to music or reading books as "consuming" them. Perhaps that's valid when applied to streaming music, because the stream will disappear after listening to it. That's one aspect of what makes streaming evil. But digital files of books or music don't have to be evil — I have many which are simple files on my computer, not under the control of anyone but me.
Arguing that somewhat more arms for Ukraine could encourage Putin to negotiate peace. It is necessary to wipe away his hopes of real victory.
With some additional arms, they might make him withdraw his forces. How about some air-launched anti-ship cruise missiles? They could prevent a landing near Odessa, and by attacking naval ships coming and going at Novorissiisk, also Russia's main oil port, they could make most shippers decide not to risk going there.
US citizens: call on asset managers (companies like Vanguard, Fidelity, and BlackRock) to create sustainable options now.
US citizens: call on Congress not to impose a risk of prosecution on all activities that receive payments digitally.
This law would threaten a wide variety of projects. Surely some of them would have various ethical flaws, while others would be morally acceptable. A law to attack them all has to be bad.
*Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles alarm climate scientists.*
Experts call for continuing the operation of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation sensor, which measures forests and their carbon storage.
A British teacher says she and all teachers have been conscripted into repression of students from disprivileged minorities, and serving the thug department.
This is comparable to the school-to-prison pipeline in the US.
*Ukraine suspends 11 political parties with links to Russia.*
"Suspending" means that they have not been banned, but they are not allowed to take any political actions until the war is over and normal conditions have returned.
This is rather restrained as a way to deal with organized treason.
Ukraine's human rights speaker says Putin's forces are kidnapping Ukrainian civilians and enslaving them in Russia.
ISTR that forcibly removing civilians from their country violates the Geneva conventions. ISTR that this came up in connection with Dubya's capturing people in various countries and taking them by force to CIA prisons and ultimately to Guantanamo.
As vehicles travel, their tires wear down. The resulting detritus is poisonous to salmon — so poisonous that it can explain the mass deaths of salmon after storm runoff washes debris from roads into rivers.
*Report Rings Alarm Over Private Equity's Grip on Home Health, Hospice Industries.*
*Fears of New Covid Wave Grow as GOP Is 'Actively Sabotaging' Aid Effort.*
(satire) *Oscar Mayer Introduces New Filter-Tip Hot Dogs For Healthier Meat-Eating Experience.*
Republicans killed federal support for Covid-19 tests, vaccination and treatment. That means vulnerable Americans who aren't wealthy are consigned to death, or to solitary confinement in their homes.
80% of US voters want to place a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
*If members of Congress refuse to act, it'll be concrete evidence that they’re in the pockets of the industry.*
Peru's supreme court has released murderous former president Alberto Fujimori. Relatives of his victims have appealed to an international tribunal to reverse the decision.
Australian mass-murderers (of aboriginals, that is) used to make an improvised oven to burn up the evidence (dead bodies). James Noble, a famous tracker, found several and identified the thugs that led the massacres.
They were tried, but not convicted. The article refers to some sort of sleazy scheme to prevent conviction, but I don't entirely understand the sketchy description of that aspect.
Thousands of Australians were flooded out of their homes by global heating. Many have been unable to find anywhere to live except in their homes, which have been condemned. Many are condemned because of mold.
The policy of condemning those houses is wise. Living for weeks in a moldy building may not bother you just then, but it can cause you a long-term illness that could kill you. But that policy must be accompanied by making sure there is enough housing for everyone. It is no use to tell people to sleep outside.
New South Wales must throw up some housing immediately. Then it must build a lot of dense housing in places near train lines that won't be flooded — at least, not in the next decade or two.
US mainstream reporters ask questions that seem to push Biden to bring the US into the war against Russia. Biden wisely recognizes that that would be a very bad idea. Why don't they?
An appeals court authorized the EPA to take account of the "social cost of carbon emissions" — effectively an estimate of the amount of damage that much more global heating would cause — when regulating emissions.
Eventually this decision will go to the Supreme Court, and I expect the worst there.
Disgust for Putin's atrocities in Ukraine seems to be creating a narrow spirit of unity between the Republican and Democratic parties.
Whether that is a change for the better is something that remains to be seen. If Republicans can unite with Democrats in measures against Putin, would this spirit of unity reduce their intention to impose permanent Chritianitist plutocracy on the US, through unfair elections? Or would they instead hide their hostility behind the apparent "unity", to undermine our resistance?
A Dubai company which owns most of the ferries in the UK has fired all the workers and plans to replace them all with low-wage subcontracted workers. Some are refusing to leave the ferries that they were working on.
A Tory minister wrote a letter in support of the firing before the public found out about it. That's the plutocratist position: bow down to the Invisible hand when it hurts the poor; override it when it hurts the rich. Replacing workers to cut pay ought to land those in charge in prison.
In this case, those in charge are the royal family of Dubai, responsible for terrible injustices.
A good government would set a minimum wage and working conditions for scheduled ferries operating in its ports, even if they to go other countries, so that the companies would have nothing to gain by preferring foreign crew and no opportunity to do this.
This is the sort of thing I believe Jeremy Corbyn would have done, and that's why I'd support him if I were British. I would be favorably surprised if Starmer took such a stand.
US wealth-hiding facilities, available from certain states to anyone rich enough to find them useful, helps hide Putin's untraceable hidden wealth.
Thousands of lesser crooks must use them too, to the great detriment of various countries. We must abolish them, in the US as well as other countries.
Cuba has sentenced protesters to prison for as much as 30 years.
Throwing stones is violence; overturning cars can damage them. But people would never ordinarily be sentenced to 4 years in prison, let alone 30, for crimes like that. Those long sentences can only be understood as repression of dissent.
It isn't the first time in this century that Cuba did that.
The Putin forces are applying against Mariupol the terrorist tactics that they used against Syrian cities such as Aleppo.
I say "terrorist" because their essence is to make war against the civilians, and that's what terrorism means.
US citizens: call on the Small Business Administration to reveal how many Covid Paycheck Protection Program dollars actually went to saving jobs.
US citizens: phone your congrescritter and your senators to oppose a system of broad and almost unlimited lifelong surveillance of everyone who has been a college student. Here's what the ACLU and other organizations say about it.
(I could not link to the URL that was sent to me, because it was on Google Drive, and I couldn't see that page.)
This bill is in the last stage of consideration by Congress; it got there quickly and quietly. This is the sort of thing Bill Gates wants, so I wonder if Bill Gates's money greased the wheels for it.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Why the IRS is much more likely to audit poor people than rich people. The underlying reason is that rich people want it that way and they corrupt Congress to give it to them.
California thugs beat up and arrested women who were making videos of those thugs arresting the fiancé of one of them.
There was apparently no real grounds to arrest him in the first place.
A lawsuit that the city would have to pay is not enough for those thugs. They belong in prison.
(satire) *Americans Celebrate 4th Consecutive Victory Over Covid.*
Several US states are now considering laws that would restrict abortion very strictly.
Women who have miscarriages are likely to face criminal investigation, one official admits.
Nonfree software used in schools monitors students' email looking and notices various patterns that suggest "something is wrong."
This is a step towards a paternalistic tyranny that monitors everyone "for your own good."
I can envision a system which achieves the good part of this goal while respecting privacy and freedom. It would run on your own computer, in free software, and reports the problems it notices to you alone. You could then ask for help, if you think it is useful and safe to do so.
*Mining the deep sea is as destructive as strip mining the mountains of Appalachia, extinguishing whole ecosystems with a single blow.*
Can people design a way of mining the bottom without destroying ecosystems? It would be more expensive, but perhaps still profitable.
Minnesota is considering a bill to prohibit large social media companies from using recommendation algorithms for users that are minors.
(The article misleadingly says "children," which calls adolescents "children.")
Perhaps this should apply to users of all ages. Algorithms to control what each user sees give Facebook its power, and disinformationists have learned how to game them.
Some of the right-wingers accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Whitmer are arguing that the FBI entrapped them into a plot that the FBI planned.
The sad thing is, this is not implausible. The FBI has a history of doing such things.
I hope there will be enough facts in this case to determine what the truth is.
Mark Meadows, who tried to fake a wave of voter fraud for the cheater, is now being investigated for voter fraud himself.
Recycled PET bottles release more of some dangerous chemicals than bottles made from new plastic.
It may be possible to correct this with more care in the recycling process.
Cigarette smoking has dropped to 12.5% of US adults. Vaping by adults has dropped too.
I am against criminalizing drugs, but reducing use of tobacco is a very good thing.
Greg Palast asserts that Putin was chosen by the oligarchs, then winning public support (while he needed it) through the Chechen war that killed lots of civilians and lots of Russian soldiers.
I think Palast can be trusted, but I would be more certain of the claims if they came with references to demonstrate some of the cited points.
Some Americans are attacking anything in the US associated with Russia — even Russian restaurants.
Since 2020 some have associated the Chinese people with Covid-19, and take it out violently at random on people in the US that might be of Chinese ethnicity. Now some are doing likewise with people that might be of Russian ethnicity.
They should reserve their rage for Trumputin — he's Putin's biggest and most persistent supporter in the US. He even directly hampered military support for Ukraine and threatened to eliminate NATO.
I more or less agree with the article in regard to Russian sports and art stars, those who would prefer to be apolitical. Those who actively support Putin can be held responsible for that.
Russians who criticize the war, or the government, face repression, and their friends and coworkers pressure them to hush up.
Whether it's killing civilians, using cluster bombs, or launching a war of aggression based on lies, the US and Russia must be judged by the same standards.
The article does not distinguish between war crimes properly speaking and the crime of aggressive war, which is even more grave. In the conquest of Iraq, there were few war crimes or crimes against humanity. There were plenty of them later, during the long occupation of Iraq. But the decision to invade was, as we now know, a crime of aggressive war.
Women in Afghanistan still face repression from many sides.
The women imprisoned by the Taliban for trying to leave the country, raped in prison, then murdered by their relatives, provide a clear illustration of how ingrained this injustice is in Afghan society.
Is there anything we foreigners could do which we could expect confidently to make Afghanistan respect women's rights more, even over decades? Not that I have heard of. Certainly not trying to occupy Afghanistan again. Not "nation-building" either. A just society requires more than peace, but peace in Afghanistan is a step forward from a year ago.
Perhaps we could offer a nonviolent deal to convince the Taliban to allow women to flee the country without permission from a male owner.
*How "Ukrainian bioweapons labs" myth went from QAnon fringe to Fox News.*
Climate activists in Britain are pointing out how SUVs increase greenhouse gas emissions with a campaign of deflating the tires of SUVs.
The action lets the air out of the tires by opening the valves; it does not damage the tires.
*The uphill battle to resurrect the US child tax credit that lifted millions from poverty.*
The modified Omicron variant BA.2 is causing a wave of Covid-19 in the UK and has already caused one in other European countries.
I expect the number of new cases to rise in the US very soon if it has not already done so.
The world must maintain readiness for rapid test and vaccine production, for future pandemics.
Texans can look out their windows and see global heating at work. An unlucky few no longer have windows to look out of. It's not even spring in Texas, but there are already many wildfires, stimulated by a drought that has continued since last year.
In 2050, this week's "bad fire weather" will be "the good old days."
Texans need to kick out officials that oppose efforts to slow down global heating. Those officials are working for planet roasters, and more generally for rich business against the rest of us.
Many of them, Republicans, are working also for racism, for sexism, for Putin, and for Trumputin. The plutocratist Democrats don't support those things, but still do support the planet roasters.
US citizens: call on the Bureau of Prisons to release medically vulnerable prisoners from federal prisons.
US citizens: call on Congress to restore the Child Tax Credit.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: Oppose proposals for war with Russia, including the proposal to declare a "no-fly" zone in Ukraine.
It would be satisfying justice to rescue Ukraine, but the resulting war between Russia and the US could easily escalate to become nuclear.
Everyone: call on the big banks to stop funding the climate crisis with our money.
At the last minute, Iran demanded a ransom from Anoosheh Ashoori's family in order to release him.
An Arkansas thug has been sentenced to a year in jail for killing unarmed Hunter Brittain. Brittain apparently didn't hear the thug tell him to show his hands. Others on the scene did not hear it either. Such incidents are frequent, and we cannot accept them as making it legitimate to kill someone.
*The National Labor Relations Board accused Starbucks of retaliating against workers for supporting a union.*
A New York City cop behaved kindly when a proper thug would have seen an opportunity to deal out cruelty. This brought him persistent harassment by his superior. He is suing.
Russian biologists explain the truth behind Russia's lies about Ukrainian biology research. Generals showed totally irrelevant "evidence" and fabricated fake news about what it was.
Dr Lewitin: *"The Ministry of Defense made a false, unfounded statement — and now, if I talk to people, 90 percent of them will say: ‘Bioweapons were made in Ukraine.’ No one has read the attached documents. And those who have read it will say: ‘Well, yes, maybe there are no dangerous pathogens in these documents. But they don’t tell us about it for nothing. Maybe there are dangerous strains in other documents that cannot be published openly.* In other words, blow enough smoke and people will assume there must be some fire.
Faux News personalities are supporting Putin on Russian TV as well as on Faux itself.
*Sanders Vows 'Strong Solidarity' for Multi-State Amazon Worker Walkout.* As he said, "Amazon can afford to give its employees a $3 raise."
Once again, many Indian farmers are committing suicide.
When this happened some years ago, it was because government policies were driving farm families to penury. I expect that is true again now.
Offering psychotherapy to help them bear up to penury is treating a secondary symptom of the problem. What's needed is effective laws to ensure farmers can get by. The US instituted some in the New Deal.
Also, India to reduce the birth rate so that things stop getting worse.
*The SEC must not legitimize fake "carbon offsets".*
When UK thugs are accused of domestic violence, 80% of them are allowed to keep their jobs.
(satire) *Watchdog Warns Nearly Every Food Brand In U.S. Owned By Handful Of Companies, Which In Turn Are Controlled By Newman’s Own.*
Progressives gave Biden a list of 55 executive actions he ought to take to help low-paid Americans.*
US citizens: call on the states' secretaries of state to disqualify insurrectionist candidates.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators. A US bill, just a step away from passing, would set up centralized surveillance of every college student, and it would continue for all per life.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
In Mariupol, Putin's forces bombed a theater and a municipal swimming pool building where civilians had taken refuge.
They continue to block convoys of food and medicine and efforts to transport civilians out of the city.
*Toxic waste revealed as eroding coastlines expose old landfills.*
For most outright poisons, I would guess that they won't do much harm once dispersed in the volume of the ocean. Endocrine disruptors such as PFAs may be an exception, as they can cause harm to sea life even at very low concentrations.
The UK will consider changing its libel law, which is often used by rich people to ruin those that publish unpleasant statements about them, even if the statements are true.
UK libel law was even more useful for censorship before a previous reform, a few years ago.
Texas voter suppression rules caused rejection of 13% of the mail-in ballots in the recent primary election.
The ratio was clearly higher (15%) in Democratic counties than in Republican counties (9%). Those same percentages in a final election would give Republicans a 10,000-vote unfair advantage in a state-wide race.
Global heating has increased the rain in Kenya. For over a decade, its great lakes have been rising and spreading. In 2019 it started going faster.
Progressive measures such as the Child Tax Credit lifted 9% of US children out of poverty. Now they are sinking back into poverty.
(satire) *Body Language Expert Can Tell With 90% Accuracy If Person Sitting.*
London thugs mounted a huge operation to remove four people who had occupied a Russian billionaire's disused house. They wanted to invite Ukrainian refugees to live there.
It's unusual for squatting in a rich person's empty house to have such a sharp political motive. The usual reason, in a city where the rich are making people homeless, is to have a place to live. I believe that it is even more important to support people who do that.
*Let's Just Say It Very Clearly: The US Supreme Court Is Corrupt.*
After April, Americans without good medical insurance will have to pay for Covid-19 tests, treatment, and vaccines. Congress has eliminated the funding for this.
Meanwhile, the rash abandonment of mask and distance rules could soon result in increasing case numbers.
*House Democrats call on Justice Department to address 'insider threats' posed by candidates who believe false election fraud claims.*
(satire) *Supreme Court Justices Sheepishly Admit All Of Their Spouses Attended Jan. 6 Riot.*
About Phil Goldberg, who campaigns to convince us to trust Big Oil companies to protect the climate.
Hungarians are starting to condemn Orbán's support for Putin.
After so many human-caused climate disasters in Australia, planet-roaster politicians are citing them as excuses to extract more fossil fuels. *Reliant on coal to pay for the damage coal brings.*
*Biden's Climate Action Woefully Inadequate to Meet Escalating Crisis.*
Neoliberalism's approach to regional disasters: the rich pay for their own rescue, and starve the state's treasury so it can't afford to rescue you.
*Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ordeal shows the uselessness of economic sanctions.* They usually fail to achieve their goal.
Veronika Belotserkovskaya, one of the first three victims of Putin's new law against "fake news", says she has been "officially declared a decent person." She does not feel threatened because she is not in Russia. But everyone in Russia faces mounting repression.
If Ukraine had kept its nuclear missiles, don't assume that would have made it safe from Russian attack. It could instead have put the world in danger of nuclear war.
The Covid rate is rising fast in some European countries that have eliminated Covid mask and distancing rules. The US is likely to experience this too in a month or two, and it could be avoided if we had had good leaders, instead of weak Democrats facing Republican saboteurs.
The US government is waking up to the danger of violence from incels.
I understand the misery of being rejected over and over. I passed many years in that despair. But, unlike incels, I recognize that a woman's feelings are hers, just as my feelings are mine. No one has an obligation to love me, and if she doesn't, I simply have to accept it.
Documenting apparent war crimes in a town north of Kyiv.
How the definition of war crimes applies to the Putin forces' attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
Stopping civilians from sending information about military activities seems legitimate to me. Killing them to prevent it, I expect is a war crime.
The reason why most of the world's countries do not belong to the International Criminal Court is that Dubya pressured them to refuse. Why do that? We suspect it was to avoid prosecution of American soldiers, commanders or leaders for war crimes — including perhaps Dubya himself.
George Monbiot: the temporary drop in food production from Putin's war must not prevent rewilding, which we need for the ecosphere's long-term security.
*The UK could eliminate all need for imports of Russian gas this year through a combination of energy efficiency, expanding renewable power generation and a campaign to help people change their behavior,* according to an environmentalist think tank.
New York Mayor Adams is bringing back thug department practices and subunits that were known for a racist predilection for unjustified violence. At the same time, he is cutting the support for the homeless.
*Widespread abuses since Myanmar coup may amount to war crimes, says UN report.*
Everyone: call on US companies to stop advertising on Fox News.
*We claim Britain is an ethical democracy — but oligarchs know that’s not true.*
We should not understand the term "oligarchs" as limited to rich Russians (who may have little political power in Russia); it certainly applies to rich Westerners (who are likely to have far too much political power in western countries).
US citizens: call on Congress to shift the US to renewable energy instead of increasing extraction of fossil fuels.
US citizens: call on the EPA to save the monarch [butterflies] by providing critical protections for the endangered prostrate milkweed.
Laurence Tribe, a distinguished jurist, says, "The evidence is clear: it's time to prosecute Donald Trump." Let's join in urging prompt prosecution.
I wonder about one thing: will it be difficult to find a jury? Surely most Americans knew little about what Guy Reffitt did on Jan 6, 2021, so even though they had general opinions about the insurrection, they could give him a fair trial based on the facts about him that they would learn while on the jury. But could we find a jury of people who can do the same for the wrecker?
I would like to see what a lawyer says about this question.
The situation facing US unions: they need more capacity to reach out to organize more workplaces.
Our right-wing anti-union laws are against workers. In order for unions to win, they need to build up solidarity that extends to election campaigns.
The biggest obstacle to punishing the rich Russians who uphold Putin's unjust power over Russia is that this might enable to punish the rich Americans and Europeans that maintain unjust power over the US and Europe.
*Marina Ovsyannikova broke the state propaganda machine –- others will follow.*
I hesitate to predict chain reactions of victories before they happen. It is too easy to to be disappointed. But it could happen. Each chink in the wall is a step towards pulling it down.
The "creator economy" is the latest marketing term encouraging artists to yield to the clouded manipulation of online dis-services.
Abuse of power, most often against black adults and adolescents, is normal among British thugs.
*China accused of plotting to smear Democratic candidate for US Congress*. This refers to Xiong Yan, Chinese dissident become US citizen.
Interviews with refugees fleeing to Mykolaiv from villages, and fleeing from Mykolaiv to the west.
The rate of complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission has almost doubled since 2020. Meanwhile, it has to reduce its staff.
A prediction of 200 million people displaced by climate mayhem by 2050 and moving to cities.
A UK court ruled that Abu Zubaydah can sue the UK agents who collaborated in his illegal imprisonment and his torture.
Reports from Mariupol say that the Putin forces have seized a hospital and are holding 500 people prisoner in it, without food access to food.
One side of the city has fallen entirely.
*A US surveillance program tracks nearly 200,000 immigrants.* It collects a lot of data, including their locations all the time, and the data can be abused by the government or the company that runs the surveillance system.
No company should ever be in practical control doing the state's computing. Privatizing any government activity makes it unaccountable, and that's part of what we are seeing here. The extra level of indirection in control of the procedures (and the software used) has the effect of thwarting the people's control of the state.
In Germany, a record 1.6% of the population tested positive for Covid-19 last week, but that's just the maximum PCR testing capacity. No one knows how many other people caught it too and did not get tested.
Berlin is about to eliminate mask requirements as well as gratis testing. Perhaps it aims to break the record again.
The policy seems to be to encourage people to ignore Covid and its danger. "What, we worry?"
I have still seen no reports on the prevalence of long Covid among vaccinated people that catch the Omicron variant. How big is the risk that vaccinated people will now be exposed to whenever they leave the house?
*Calls for "blue corridor" to let stranded seafarers leave Ukraine war zone.* Putin has threatened to attack any vessel that moves.
Iran imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori as hostages to get the UK to pay the UKP 400 million that it owned to Iran.
That money was a refund of the price of an arms sale that the UK cancelled. It was right for the UK to pay that money, but not acceptable for Iran to take innocent people hostage to get it. Foreigners thinking of visiting Iran should beware, for they too may be taken hostage for years.
Areas of permafrost under the Arctic Ocean floor are melting and creating huge sinkholes.
Manchin vetoed the appointment of Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Federal Reserve board because she wants banks to move away from investing in destroying Earth's climate.
This is very bad, since we can expect Manchin to do veto any other nominee who would create obstacles to the planet roasters.
A leftist is favored to win Colombia's presidential election.
Colombia's recent presidents have been repressively associated with the army, in some case with army massacres of civilians.
Australian historians have made a list of over 400 instances where colonists in Australia massacred indigenous people.
*Proud Boys leader had [written] plans to "storm" government buildings on 6 January.*
Uyghur exiles in Norway say that even there they get harassment calls from Chinese agents that threaten their relatives in China.
TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova told a friend in advance about her plan to burst in on a Russian live TV program to denounce Putin's war.
*Ukrainian heritage is under threat [from Putin's invasion] -– and so is the truth about Soviet-era Russia.*
Putin has been working in Russia to praise Stalin's regime as well as to block dissemination of facts about his vicious repression.
A rapid expansion in fishing, farming, mining and power generation endangers life in the high seas. We urgently need a treaty to regulate those practices.
Many governments, in thrall to big money, will fight to maintain the vulnerability until most ocean life is wiped out.
Many parts of the US food system are concentrated in the hands of a few companies. This reduces resilience, and led to shortages when Covid-19 started.
The shortage of competition is also causing price increases, in food and other fields.
*The Tories railed against "green crap." Why trust them to solve the energy crisis now?*
The same can be said of most US elected officials, Republicans and plutocratist Democrats.
Volunteers, both experienced crackers and nontechnical people, are supporting Ukraine's internet army.
The article says "hackers" but it's referring to crackers.
*The Guardian view on CIA torture, two decades on: we need the truth.*
The Australian government is considering a plan to streamline attacks on the environment by exempting some projects from environmental protection law.
Ukraine needs arms with which to attack the Russian artillery that is turning to bombarding civilian areas of cities.
We must not neglect the bigger but slower danger of global heating while preoccupied by the shorter-term danger of Putin's war.
US citizens: call on cops and judges to stop cracking down on striking workers.
Everyone: call on U.S. banks and insurers to stop funding fossil fuel expansion.
US citizens: call on US regulators to stop bank mergers.
*Pro-Putin Disinformation on Ukraine Is Thriving in Online Anti-Vax Groups. All the usual themes: Secret government alliances, anti-Semitic tropes, and nefarious scientists.*
*Washington Needs to Do Something About UAE Dirty Money.* The US needs to make sure that its own states, and its allies, are not helping robber barons hide the loot they have stolen from their own countries.
The US no longer dominates the world. How should progressives confront the new situation? This article proposes a way.
TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova ran onto a live broadcast and denounced Putin, his war and his propaganda.
She will be prosecuted and imprisoned, or perhaps murdered, if protests don't balloon quickly.
A gung-ho report discusses using biometrics for tickets to large events.
Look at the silly distraction arguments some of these companies. "We don't keep track of who you are — we just help some other company keep track." What difference does it make? Once any one company knows, some companies and government agencies will know all.
If I can't attend anonymously, I won't go.
However, I see positive potential in palm scanning if it is a substitute for identification, Palm prints are safer than fingerprints, because you don't leave your palm print on most things that you touch,
An inside-of-the-elbow print might be even better. You never touch anything with the inside of your elbow, and you can keep it covered all the time from cameras if you like. (Surely you do that in the winter.) If you give your inside-of-the-elbow print when buying a ticket anonymously, it would identify you as the owner of the ticket without giving any idea of who you are.
Robert Reich believed that democracy was inevitable, people around the world would be well-informed thanks to the internet, and nationalism was sure to decrease. Now he recognizes he was mistaken in these and other optimistic expectations about national and international governance.
*Trump is using America's democratic process to destroy democracy from within.* He has admitted this in a slightly veiled way.
In Melitopol, an occupied town, the Putin forces grabbed the elected mayor and installed a traitor as mayor. In another town, the elected officials have fled but are still running the town, communicating by internet.
The city council of Melitopol have called for prosecution of the traitor that claims to be mayor of Melitopol.
Everyone: call on US companies to stop advertising on Faux News.
US citizens: call on Biden to restore the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
US citizens: call on the EPA to cut greenhouse gas pollution from the meat and dairy industry.
The UK's supreme court brushed aside Julian Assange's appeal against extradition, but appeals can still be made on more important issues.
* A [prisoner] at a secret CIA detention site in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage.*
Yemen is on the edge of starvation.
* Carbon emissions from felling of tropical forest doubled in just two decades and are accelerating, research says.*
*Polish mayors warn cities reaching capacity as Ukrainian arrivals rise.*
Other countries will need to accept a substantial fraction of the refugees.
Hong Kong threatens to attack the human rights group Hong Kong Watch, which is based in the UK, unless it shuts its web site (which is blocked in Hong Kong).
Two Russian activists broke into a luxury estate in France, said to be owned by Putin's "ex-son-in-law", to invite Ukrainian refugees to stay there.
Instead of trying to kick them out, France could put sanctions on the owner and offer the estate to refugees legally.
A similar occupation is occurring in London.
The "test-to-treat" initiative won't work, because pharmacists can't prescribe the two drugs to treat Covid-19.
I've read that molnupiravir is not very effective against Omicron. If that is true, including it is basically a waste.
Newspapers reported than an Australian soldier murdered a prisoner, and he sued them for libel. Now witnesses are testifying to demonstrate that the accusation was true.
Why is there no criminal trial?
Australia and the Netherlands are suing Russia for shooting down flight MH 17 as it passed near the regions where Russia had armed rebellious Ukrainians.
The Buk missile system seems to be a combination of three vehicles: missile launched, radar, and control. You can't just hand such a system to volunteers and expect them to operate it. It was, as it had to be, operated by specially trained Russian troops.
Global heating is eating away at the beaches of Cancún and the rest of Quintana Roo, while building on dunes is attacking from the inland side.
British unions call for banning outsourcing of workers.
The factor that most helps a country respond effectively to an epidemic is trust — that the citizens trust each other and trust their leaders.
As long as we have Faux News and politicians that use disinformation as their way to win power, the US is likely to fare worst.
The Belarus army is forcing Middle Eastern refugees into Ukraine.
Let Grow: Children don't need adults to play with them or teach them. They can play with each other, and learn by watching adults do adult things and sometimes helping out.
Today's computer systems don't seem to be designed to allow kids to watch the adult things that adults do on line.
Al-Jazeera accuses Russia of severe repression of Crimean Tatars, in Crimea before, and now it parts of Ukraine that the Putin forces have captured.
Apple and Google have repeatedly bowed to Putin's threats by using their power over users on Putin's behalf.
In particular, Apple made use of the fact that the iMonster is a jail (users can't install applications without Apple's approval) to deny Russians the ability to install apps designed to express criticism of Putin.
Apple has already done such things on China's behalf.
Any company that has power to restrict what users can use a computer to do will be compelled to use that power on behalf of evil regimes.
The US should prevent this from happening again, by prohibiting the sale of a computer that's a jail.
If you're in the UK, tell stores you can only pay cash! If you go to a store, ask the staff if they accept cash, and get no for an answer, it is perfectly reasonable to ask to speak to the manager, then state your unwillingness to identify yourself by using one of today's digital payment system. Then you can say that you disapprove of the store's policy and you will not buy there.
Don't curse at them or revile them — that would only lead them to regard you as vicious. If you keep a civil but disapproving tone, you will inform them that yes, there are people who feel mistreated by what they are doing.
The store won't know that there are people who object to surveillance capitalism enough to refuse, if we don't tell them!
Ukrainians report that Russian troops kill civilians, sometimes randomly, when they capture a village. Sometimes they shell the village persistently afterwards.
Copyright law does not fit the way musicians write music nowadays, and the result is a big danger of lawsuits over marginal accusations.
Please don't speak of "consuming" music — listening to music does not use it up, especially if it is a digital copy that is not shackled with Digital Restrictions Management.
Also, please join me in rejecting the misleading over-generalization, "intellectual property." I not only refuse ever to use that term, I also denounce its confusing ideas whenever they are pertinent.
Cattle farmers in Queensland are making rapid progress on eliminating the habitat of the endangered koala.
*First, we did too little to oppose Russia. Now do we risk going too far the other way?*
In shocking, meticulous detail, [Caroline Elkins (acclaimed American historian)] uses "lost" records from 37 former colonies to reveal the barbarity of the British empire and the hubris that fueled it.*
Repressive school board administrators fired a teacher for reading to children from an "inappropriate" book.
I've never seen that book, but it seems to be made of humor that is somewhat "dirty" and very childish. One might say that it is completely appropriate for children. Others say no.
This substantiates my point that "appropriate" is a subjective judgment. You can argue against a choice by saying it is "inappropriate" in your judgment, but no one should ever be criticized or punished for something so subjective and vague.
Tasmania's kelp forests receded so fast that people didn't notice until they were almost gone. Now there is a project to reseed them.
In addition, volunteer divers will take away the sea urchins that would otherwise eat every last piece of kelp.
One of Putin's main propaganda broadcasters is a UK citizen. A politician has proposed to revoke his UK citizenship.
The UK has been exiling citizens without trial for years now (here's an example), and it an injustice even when the target is the worst of criminals. Situations like this, where a dual citizen is hated for a blatant crime, help normalize undermining human rights for everyone else.
Propaganda in support of an enormous crime should be grounds to prosecute him. It would be legitimate to charge the broadcaster in case he ever comes to the UK again, and freeze his assets now on the strength of those charges.
*The Walt Disney Company is suspending political donations in Florida after its chief executive suffered huge blowback for not using the company's vast influence in the state to try to quash a Republican bill that would stop teachers instructing early grades on LGBTQ+ issues.*
That is a small step towards a very important goal. To throw off plutocracy and restore democracy, we must make Disney, and every other company, stop political donations everywhere in the US, permanently, and stop rich people too from donating enough to buy elections.
Why the increasing Covid-19 level in the UK is probably caused mainly by the elimination of the measures to stop it from spreading.
Politicians have talked about moving from the "pandemic" stage to the "endemic" stage, as if that would end the danger. But that's not what it means.
A disease is endemic if its prevalence is roughly stable and continuing. Whether it leaves some people lastingly harmed (perhaps dead) after catching it is another question. It is good that Covid-19 is no longer increasing rapidly, but increasing slowly will bring society to the same disaster after time.
Our actions, as a society, can increase Covid-19 or decrease it. Have we got sufficient wisdom and leadership to protect each other?
Some internet backbone companies are cutting off service to Russian businesses. I think that will backfire.
The Russian state will get internet access somehow — perhaps via China — so in practice the question is whether to help Putin cut Russians off from news that corrects his lies to them.
Facebook is being prosecuted in Russia because it permits Ukrainians to post bellicose statements such as "Death to the Russian invaders!" The Facebook and Instagram sites are also blocked.
I suggest referring to the invaders as "the Putin forces", rather than as "Russians". I don't think that would affect Putin's censorship decision.
*Conservationists Say Congress Underfunding Species Protection by Hundreds of Millions Despite Biodiversity Crisis.*
For the long term, the crucial actions to prevent the extinction of hundreds of thousands of species are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the human birth rate.
Congressional Democrats have proposed a bill for a windfall tax on oil. But it applies only to oil extracted or imported by big companies.
That exception is misguided. The increased price is a windfall for small companies as well as large.
There is no particular benefit for society in encouraging small oil extraction companies. It is not an incentive for anything useful, except perhaps to foment war globally (which they do, by contributing to global heating).
The exception covers 70% of domestic oil extraction, and that is a lot of money. We need that money for the treasury.
*New Israeli Law Bars Naturalization of Palestinian Spouses.* Some Israelis call for murdering the Israeli women that even go on a date with an Arab man.
It resembles Pakistan's custom of patriarchal murder.
The saboteur-in-chief succeeded in his efforts to manipulate the 2020 census to underestimate the number of Latins, blacks, and indigenous. This will bias elections in the US until the 2030 census.
A Florida Republican gave a nuanced explanation of new and proposed laws regulating the teaching of gender and sexuality issues in school. If we could count on the law to be followed in that nuanced way, I would have no objection.
I expect that, in practice, zealously repressive Republicans will apply a very strict interpretation. Other officials will try to stay far away from the line, fearing lawsuits if the school comes anywhere near it.
Likewise, the law doesn't prohibit students from bringing up these issues, let alone require punishing them, but in practice teachers may punish those students, whether from having a vague idea of the law, from right-wing zeal, or from fear of being punished themselves.
US citizens: call on Biden to take action now for climate defense.
US citizens: call on Congress to bring the MORE act up for a vote.
This bill would legalize marijuana.
US citizens: call on AT&T and other big businesses to stop funding insurrectionist Republican candidates.
US citizens: call on Congress to refuse to cut the gasoline tax.
The way to help poor Americans who can't afford the current high cost of gasoline is to give them extra money which they can spend as they wish. If they must buy gasoline, this money will help them pay for it. But if they can reduce their gasoline usage, they can spend the money on something else. Thus, they will feel pressure to conserve.
US citizens: call on Congress to make billion-dollar corporations pay minimum 15% tax on reported domestic profits and on offshore profits.
Really we should stop taxing international businesses based on their profits. It is too easy to hide profits through clever accounting.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to confirm Biden's two nominees to the USPS board, so they can fire Postmaster/Saboteur DeJoy.
I was wondering why he had not been fired yet.
US citizens: call on Congress to extend the food program for school children.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
* While everything suggests Russia may now be in serious trouble, there are still reasons for caution.*
The Republican Party's Senate platform: (1) to make every low-paid worker pay at least a dollar in income tax and (2) make programs such as Social Security and Medicare disappear automatically after five years.
Many low-paid workers, particularly those with dependents, get aid money through the income tax system — their tax amount is negative. If this change replaces that with paying one dollar, it would cost them a lot of money.
For those that now owe no tax but would instead owe one dollar, it would impose the burden of filing a tax return. This may not be easy for people who are not used to it. Many Americans can't do it themselves, and pay for a tax professional' services. The poor can't afford that. This could put many workers in legal trouble.
Republicans might continue Social Security and Medicare, but they will surely find ways to shaft the poor with the changes.
Tracking Russia's oil tankers around the world.
To look at the results, which are posted on Twitter, without making your browser run nonfree JavaScript code, use nitter.net instead of twitter.com.
There remains one way for Russians to fly to Europe now: to take Air Serbia to Belgrade and transfer there.
Would it be better for Europe to block that route? I tend to think it is good to have some way for people to go back and forth between the EU and Russia. It facilitates communication.
Plutocratist politicians in Ontario will try to bring back private hospitals, to create an opening for more expensive private medical care as in the US.
(satire) *Texas Bans Consensual Sex.*
Democrats dropped Covid response from a bill to keep the government operating. This includes testing, vaccination, treatment, and more.
Pence said that Republicans will cancel any agreement with Iran and push once again to the brink of war.
There is no rational reason why the US should insist on keeping Iran as an enemy. In its conduct, it is nowhere near as bad as Salafi Arabia. Meanwhile, the US has far too many enemies already.
(satire) *Starbucks Fights Unionization Effort By Hiring Pinkertons To Order Exhausting, Hyper-Specific Drinks.*
(satire) *Consumer [Financial] Protection Bureau Fines Curio Shop That Disappeared Hours After Unloading Haunted Talisman.*
The Department of Hatred and Sadism is having trouble keeping violent extremists out of its employ.
Joseph Stiglitz: the IMF may have learned a crucial lesson. Instead of the usual futile attempt to squeezing money out of Argentina, and causing a recession, it is adopting a gentler policy that will let Argentina have some economic growth so it can afford to pay its debt.
For the long term, the world needs a way to stop frivolous spendthrift governments that borrow and spend on unimportant things from saddling a country's populace with burdensome debt. One idea I have thought about is a way for a country to declare bankruptcy. Another is a way to punish the leaders of the frivolous government.
A suggestion for how to avoid escalation of the war in Ukraine into a nuclear war.
*Tens of thousands take part in climate protests across France.*
Republican requirements on voting by mail have been effective at rejecting some voters' ballots.
We don't know how many people gave up on even trying to vote because of other obstacles to voting by mail or dropping off ballots.
US citizens: call on Congress not to spoil resuming the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Everyone: call on Whole Foods to push to end single-use plastic packaging.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
Ukraine has US-supported labs which study disease germs for medical purposes. They were set up in the early 90s to give useful work to the unemployed ex-Soviet scientists, so they wouldn't accept harmful work out of desperation.
Putin's disinformation claims repeatedly that these labs are developing germ warfare.
This offers us the opportunity to determine which people and sites spread disinformation for Putin.
*Amazon Deforestation Hit Record High in February—Up 62% From 2021.*
An Australian fertilizer company wants to build another plant, which involves "removing" ancient rock art. It seems that "remove" is a euphemism for "destroy".
Aboriginals say the company misled their community about the plan. It wouldn't surprise me — companies large and small deceive.
Could the company build the plant differently so as to avoid damage to the rock art? Perhaps the chemical emissions would destroy it slowly. Is it possible to cut the rock art off the hill and move it away without damaging it?
Tennessee Republicans show their values by putting an ammunition store owner on the state education board. The store takes little precaution against selling bullets for massacres.
That's Republican family values for you.
*China is squirming under pressure to condemn Russia. It can’t hold out forever.*
China's difficulty results from the fact that it is threatening to do the same thing to Taiwan.
Raif Badawi, champion in Salafi Arabia of secularism and separation of church and state, has been released from prison into the larger prison which is Salafi Arabia.
*Roads ripped apart by NSW and Queensland floods … shouldn’t just be rebuilt but "rebuilt to withstand future disasters".*
Of course, they should be. But there is no known limit to how bad future disasters will become, if we keep emitting more greenhouse gases and making them worse. The first priority must be to put a cap on how bad future disasters will be, by bringing global heating to a halt.
Putin's naked war of conquest will change the world more than the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
I disagree with the author on some specific points.
*Iran nuclear talks on hold over last-minute Russian demands.*
I think everything will depend on how much Iran wants a deal with the US and its allies. It looks like there would be a way to work around Russia's refusal, if the other countries want this.
* Brandt's vole found to engineer ecosystem to scan skies for shrikes and deny them perches.*
Georgia proposes to follow Florida in passing a law to restrict discussion in school about sex or gender identity.
Education about those topics is important, so prohibit it is wrong, but we should describe clear what we are criticizing.
The label "don't say gay" misrepresents what these bills do. They do not order students not to talk about their own gender identities or sexual orientations, nor do they explicitly punish students for what they might say about those things.
Rather, they try to make schools and teachers discourage discussions about those topics, except for older students in a way considered "appropriate" for their age. ("Appropriate" is a subjective concept, and whenever it is used in connection with a contentious issue, it invites a subsequent power struggle over whose subjective interpretation will prevail.)
Covid-19 is increasing again in the UK. In England, 4% of the population had Covid-19 last week.
England is showing us what can happen when all transmission-reducing measures are made optional: most people conclude, "These measures are not needed any more." Not legally required is one thing, not needed is another.
Just after reporting the increase, the lab which measures the prevalence of Covid-19 in Britain reported its funding has been terminated.
An organization of relatives of people killed by the September 2001 terrorist attacks called on Biden to demand accountability from Salafi Arabia.
* Workers are calling for the National Labor Relations Board to ban captive audience meetings and make organizing easier.*
Suggestions for how Europe can make a substantial reduction in its fossil fuel use, rather quickly.
Fanatical Christianitists are criminalizing such actions as traveling to get an abortion, letting your child do so, or letting your child have sex-change treatments.
Britain subsists by selling the country's assets to rich foreigners. Naturally that included Russian billionaires.
A former US nuclear missile operator says, "There have been more near-misses than the world knows.*
I've read that these soldiers have a low morale, generally, and that makes them careless.
*Judge [temporarily] blocks Texas from investigating parents of transgender children.*
El Salvador seeks to arrest an ex-president and officers accused of involvement in the 1989 political murder of Jesuit priests.
*Researchers studying "excess deaths" estimate that more than 18 million people died of Covid-19 by the end of 2021.* That is 3 times the sum of the official figures for deaths attributed to Covid-19.
The "excess deaths" figure surely includes some people who died of other causes due to practical consequences of the pandemic. For instance, people who could not get treatment for some other disease because the hospitals were too full, or too dangerous to visit. This distinction is interesting for understanding what happened, but I don't see that it makes a crucial difference. Those people were killed by regional-level effects of the pandemic.
Inflation in food prices, combined with extreme pressure to reduce benefits, is making poor Britons go hungry even more.
Florida Republicans' latest attack on fair elections includes an "election investigation agency" that could harass any voter alleged to have violated some rule.
The law will also make it easier to prosecute voter registration organizations for any technical mistake.
*Groups Urge Biden to Invoke Defense Production Act to Counter Putin, Accelerate Green Transition.*
The EPA has decided to reduce toxic pollution from heavy trucks, but its proposed regulation is not strong enough, and it does nothing to promote a shift to electric trucks.
*British American Tobacco will continue selling cigarettes in Russia.*
(Irony) If you blame the Russian people in bulk for Putin's war, it could seem admirable to continue providing them with poison that causes heart attacks, cancer and emphysema. But I don't think Russians deserve that on Putin's account.
Hmm, how about putting warnings on the packs. For instance, "Warning: Putin can be hazardous to the health of people in neighboring countries," and "Warning: believing state-controlled Russian media can lead to crimes against humanity."
(Later) British American Tobacco changed plans and will not continue selling in Russia.
Canada bought the unfinished Trans Mountain Pipeline, and now plans to spend 9 billion more dollars to finish it, not to mention the repression required to crush protests.
Then Canada it would struggle to export more oil so as to recoup some of those losses.
Minneapolis teachers are on strike, demanding smaller class sizes, improved student supports, and better pay.
*Green Groups Cheer as EPA Restores California's Power to Curb Vehicle Emissions.*
California has often pioneered pollution controls that were then adopted by the whole US.
The Russian anti-war movement faces a long uphill climb.
*Oil and gas companies and lobby groups in Canada are heavily investing in campaigns to present themselves as defenders of Indigenous interests.*
Since the truth is against them, they must reach for falsehood.
*Russia plans to seize assets of western companies exiting country.* I don't think that this sort of retaliation, in and of itself, is an outrage. It is basically turnabout. However, all moral questions about Russia are under the shadow of the crime of aggression that Putin is committing, and the crimes against humanity.
*The Center for Biological Diversity on Tuesday laid out a comprehensive case for the Biden administration to go far beyond simply mending the damage done by President Donald Trump to the Endangered Species Act, calling on officials to strengthen the law "to save life on Earth from the extinction crisis."*
Republicans in Kentucky show a pattern of antisemitism.
The IHRA's criterion for antisemitism has a serious flaw, of labeling criticism of Israel's occupation of Palestine as "antisemitism", but that flaw has nothing to do with what those Republicans are saying. That's real antisemitism.
The Atheist Street Pirates in Los Angeles remove signs that promote religion from public land and property.
Idaho is planning a law to jail librarians (along with anyone else) for lending minors books that talk about masturbation, or anything else that could "harm" those minors.
Masturbation is normal, but in our twisted society, the influence from Christianity are likely to make people anxious about it, and about sex generally. Those right-wing legislators are trying to deny people help in overcoming the anxiety.
Uber, Lyft and Doordash have set up a lobbying group against workers' right to unionize.
This is one more among many reasons to refuse to do business with those companies — starting with making customers run nonfree software and identify themselves. The food-delivery companies exploit restaurants, too.
The US said it would donate 1.2 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses this year, which is an inadequate substitute for freeing up vaccine production. But it is not on track to keep the pledge.
*US in "very active discussion" with allies to ban import of Russian oil.*
Oil is a commodity. Won't some other country buy whatever Russian oil and gas Europe stops buying? To lastingly reduce Russia's fossil fuel exports, it will help greatly to reduce the total consumption of fossil fuels — and we know that the way to do that is to build up renewable generation fast. Which is exactly what our survival depends on, Russia or no Russia.
I am surprised by the idea that giving Ukraine fighter planes is somehow closer to actually entering the war than giving Ukraine missiles to shoot airplanes or tanks. The people who presume that that is so do not explain why.
There are three ways to get a fighter plane into Ukraine, starting from a place outside Ukraine, given that shipping the plane is not feasible:
An Su-25 is under 15 meters wide. A good four-lane highway on level ground should be wide enough, even assuming the wings must stay inside the area where cars would normally drive — which isn't strictly necessary if shoulders and roadsides are clear.
A Mig-29 is under 12 meters wide. A three-lane highway might even suffice.
The US should choose its preferred method and stop dithering.
(satire) *Company Celebrates Employee's 40 Steadfast Years Of Being Unable To Retire.*
*Climate Coalition Urges Big Banks to Pull Plug on US Gas Exports.*
It appears that antiwar protesters arrested in Russia are not all being kept in jail, but they may be sentenced to 15 years in prison later.
*Advocates Say Biden's New Vaccine Production Project Must Be Publicly Owned.*
In a few of the Covid-19 patients given the monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, it provokes the virus to evolve resistance.
The researchers call for monitoring the progress of patients that take sotrovimab, and isolating them if this resistance develops.
*[One of the wrecker's lawyers] knew plan to delay Biden certification was unlawful, emails show.*
The rate of Covid-19 infections among people age 55 or over in Britain is increasing, even as it decreases among younger people.
Various causes may be combining to do this. It could be that a substantial fraction of them are now socializing more. It could be that they have been convinced there is no need to take precautions (masks, distance, ventilation, avoiding large groups). It could be that their booster doses are losing effectiveness as the months go by. It could be the new variant BA.2, which is like Omicron by transmits more easily.
This result lumps together all ages 55 and up. I wonder what we would see if the statistics were broken down into 10-year age groups, and into the specially vulnerable and others.
Putin forces are bombarding civilian targets in Mariupol constantly. The intentionally destroyed electric cables and gas pipelines. Civilians have no water supply.
The Putin forces destroyed a maternity hospital without warning; both adults and children are trapped in the rubble. They invited civilians to evacuate, then shelled them when they tried to.
Russia claimed that Ukrainian right-wing extremists are planning to carry out an attack against Ukrainians and blame it on Russia. The UK warns this could be preparation for the Putin forces to use chemical weapons and blame it on Ukrainian nationalists.
Nazis lean towards cruel violence and dishonesty, so I won't say that Putin's claim about their plans is utterly absurd. But I don't believe it. I am skeptical that they would want to use chemical weapons against Ukrainians, and skeptical that they would have the capacity to obtain them or make them, or the capacity to use them.
By contrast, Russia had a history of being involved with chemical weapons, and Putin has a history of poisoning a enemies — Alexander Litvinenko, the Skripals, and Alexei Navalni.
Russian claims about US bioweapons labs in Ukraine seem so unlikely that I can't take them seriously. If the US wanted to do this, Ukraine would have been totally unsuitable. The US would not have chosen a country that is not its ally, which has a recent history of governmental instability, and where Russia was waging a low-intensity war. Stupider decisions have been made, but Russian disinformation is a more plausible explanation than that there is any truth in this.
It seems that Russia is interfering with GPS signals near its western borders in Europe.
I was in Moscow in 2019, and while in a car driving around in an area fairly near the Kremlin, the driver told me that navigation was leading him astray. He said that that was common in that area. I supposed it was a precaution to interfere with air attacks.
Putin's repression in Russia started over ten years ago and gradually intensified.
The House Judiciary Committee has urged prosecution of Amazon for *a "pattern and practice of misleading conduct that suggests” it was acting to influence the committee’s investigation into online market competition.*
*The [sanction-evader's] guide to getting round the UK’s economic crime bill.*
The original says "oligarch" but that word is misleading for these Russian billionaires since it means that a few rule together. These few are rich but have little political power.
[The bully] "admired" Vladimir Putin's [power] to kill anyone he wanted, according to his former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.*
"In my experience with him, he loved the dictators, he loved the people who could kill anyone, including the press," she also said.
The new plastic pollution treaty could make it possible to sue companies for their disposable plastic packaging.
This would vary from country to country, according to the country's legal system.
Regulation-evading "ghost guns" are now the easiest to obtain, for those who have crime or murder in mind.
A report from the last foreign journalist in Burma, after fleeing.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine is causing a global food shortage.
This shows that humanity is already too close to the edge. We must urgently curb world population growth.
(satire) *Biden Provides Nuclear Codes To Scammer Pretending To Be Pentagon.*
The US Navy will close the underground fuel storage site in Pearl Harbor that has been poisoning local water supply.
A special investigation has proposed a nationwide training system for cops. They would be retrained and tested every five years, to get or renew a license.
This would be a good idea in the US, too.
A deputy police chief acknowledged that the job of cop attracts men who want to "coerce" vulnerable people.
Some US cities are ordering thugs not to do high speed chases over minor crimes or offenses.
A climate strike has been announced for March 25. Past experience suggests that the site that gives information about strike events will require nonfree Javascript even to find them. If so, that will impede people who defend their own software freedom from participating in the climate strike. I won't be able in good conscience to post a link to their site, and I won't know where there is an event near me.
I can't believe that the people who organize the climate strike are intentionally working against the free software movement. Why would they do that, given that nonfree software promotes extra e-waste in addition to its direct injustice to every user?
More likely they simply don't see the problem in the usual "solutions" that mistreat them every day in other web sites.
Perhaps they make the assumption that since "everybody" uses these online dis-services, such must be acceptable. However, they know how to doubt that assumption when it's a matter of greenhouse gas emissions or other pollution. If only they recognized nonfree software as a kind of systemic pollution, they might choose solutions for their own sites that avoid creating yet one more problem of that kind.
Given the situation as it is, a natural workaround for us is to set up to scrape their site and post the information in another site which is accessible with no techno-ethical obstacle. I wanted to ask the person who has done this in the past, but perse has become unreachable.
Would anyone reading this like to do the job, in time for people to find strike events and participate? Please write to me if you are ready, willing and able to do it.
I hope the repeater site will be up and running by March 19 and announced by March 20. I know that's a bit fast, but that's the situation we are in.
I don't know the URL of the site where the organizers post this information.
Although the IPCC has reported that heat itself is starting to kill people (and other living things), the planet roasters are proposing that fracking is the way to fight Putin.
Australia's planet-roaster government is likewise trying to kill you.
In one of Australia's flooded, ruined towns, families now homeless know that the planet-roaster politicians did this to them.
Geg Palast suggests crushing Russia economically by allowing Venezuela to export oil again.
Cheap gasoline has an immediate appeal, but it will destroy civilization. Making fuel expensive is an inherent part of making transport decarbonize. But that should be a steady and gradual process — price shocks are not good for progress.
Is it valid to "offset" destruction an area of habitat by declaring another equal area legally protected? I don't believe so.
The reasoning for it seems to be based on the assumption that every area of forest that isn't protected now will certainly be destroyed later. Only thus would it follow that protecting one square mile now increases by one square mile the area of habitat that will ultimately survive.
That assumption is terribly pessimistic. If it were valid, disaster would be assured. But it clearly can't be valid in general, because any forest that isn't protected this year will probably still exist next year and could be protected then.
There is a questionable assumption on the other side, too. Declaring a square mile of forest "protected" won't assure it survives. It could be burnt in a wildfire 300 years from now, or next week.
I think the only valid way to offset the destruction of some habitat is to create a new area of substitute habitat — and that more easily said than done.
Putin is bombarding museums and cathedrals as well as living civilians.
Bolsonaro is making a final attack against the environment, the forest, and indigenous people.
In the UK, catching Covid-19 tends to make people poor.
That's a sure sign of a society that doesn't do enough to help sick and disabled people.
What is starting is not a "new cold war", it's a new era of greedy fight for geopolitical supremacy.
I fear that that is exactly the thing to get in the way of cooperation in decarbonization.
After the Fukushima meltdowns, Japan needed to reduce its electricity use quickly. Its methods may be useful now.
Moderna is narrowing its temporary pledge not to enforce some Covid vaccine patents. In the latest version, it applies only to half of the world's countries.
Decisions about state electoral districts seem to be splitting the US Supreme Court along nonpartisan lines.
George Monbiot: * Starving Putin’s military machine of funds and preventing the collapse of life on Earth: we can do both at once.*
Amazing that many of Europe's reserve gas storage facilities are owned by Russia, which emptied them in preparation for this crisis. European countries put their faith in "the market"; Putin was too clever to make that mistake.
* BlackRock is performing a high-wire act between its public support for green investment and oil industry clients, private emails suggest.*
* The US president is facing demands for America to do more for Ukraine –- but he’s also determined to avoid being the US president who started a third world war.*
Hertz has a pattern of accusing its customers of stealing cars, apparently based on erroneous information in its computer system.
Florida's government has decided to urge most adolescents not to get vaccinated, and parents not to vaccinate most children.
Its surgeon general had given no medical specifics to justify this position, perhaps because there are none. It is surely bad advice. Vaccinating a child protects that child. It also helps protect other children in the same school, and helps protect adults in their family.
I suspect that the reasons for this policy are political and derived from Republican ideology.
The Republican Party, with few exceptions, has opposed measures that reduce the spread of Covid. That includes masks and (since 2021) vaccination. Republican leaders started this when they discovered, in April 2020, that deaths from Covid-19 were concentrated among mainly Democratic demographic groups, such as blacks.
As the US commits the folly of unilateral tactical disarmament against Covid-19, by encouraging people to abandon masks, and fails to help people who work in a plant or office to stay home when sick, reducing Covid-19 to a low level rests on vaccination. The prevalence of the disease has been decreasing for around 6 weeks, but we cannot count on that to continue if we cease pushing it along.
*The sanctions strategy is flawed. To defeat Putin, you have to know how the Kremlin works.*
Another article suggested that Putin's main subordinates have some influence on him and suggests putting personal sanctions on them.
Robert Reich suggests sanctions that would hit 10,000 Russians that own property in the US.
*Now Let's Do the American Oligarchs.*
The Russian billionaires grabbed big pieces of Russian industry in the 90s, but they do not dominate Russia as the word "oilgarch" implies. (As a result, punishing them may not do much to influence Putin.) They are parasites on Russia.
By contrast, the US plutocrats (billionaires and US big businesses) have real power over the US through the elected officials that they buy. We see that in the power of the Republican Party, which is funded by some of them, and in the poverty of most Americans. They are worse than merely parasites.
*To those who wish to penalise poor people, cold and hunger are signs of a perfect system.*
Why might you wish to do that? If you have entered the service of a greedy billionaire who wants every penny that the poor have, there's not much difference between getting the most for your boss and leaving most people with the least.
Putin's forces have cut off the electric power to Chernobyl. This risks damage which could lead to radiation leaks. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency can no longer monitor the plant.
Seeing as this has happened in Chernobyl and in Zaporizhzhiya, it is surely no accident.
US cities today are still shaped by the racist discrimination of city planners of 100 years ago.
China is considering making "fake news" a crime, as Putin recently did in Russia. Like Russia, China will surely accuse reporting not in accord with the state's assertions as "fake".
Rebecca Solnit: *[The wrecker's] power is fading: Trumpism [sic] is the clear and present danger now.*
We should call the dishonesty he spreads "trumpery" — that describes it better.
US citizens: phone your senators and urge them to support a new non-nuclear deal with Iran.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Global heating "amplifies risks all the way through [Australia's food] supply chain, from farm to warehouse to supermarket shelves."*
Russians are learning how Putin took the Russian army for his own use, and about the death or capture of their loved ones as a result.
The EPA is about to approve use of neonicotinoid pesticides nationally.
The effects on bees and other non-pest insects could be disastrous.
Putin has given civilians in Sumy and Irpin a real opportunity to evacuate, deeper into Ukraine.
This replaces the previous mockery of an evacuation plan, inviting Ukrainian civilians to flee to "safety" in Russia.
Holly Sklar and Chip Berlet: *NED, CIA, and the Orwellian Democracy Project.*
Australian floodwaters will destroy seagrass and cause dugongs and turtles to starve.
Dugongs are related to manatees, which are starving now in Florida due to the loss of most of the seagrass there.
Urging the BBC not to "clean up" old programs to make them politically correct.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the harm caused by SESTA/FOSTA.
I supported the campaign against that law. It prevents voluntary sex workers from advertising by punishing any site that will publish their ads, and does so in a dishonest way.
Everyone: call on UPS to stop retaliating against injured workers and delaying their medical care.
Comparing the Israeli occupation of Palestine with Putin's attempt to conquer Ukraine.
On fighting right-wing book bans in US schools.
The Manhattan District Attorney concluded that the evidence for fraud in the Trump Organization was not strong enough to bring charges against the wrecker personally.
*Don't let high energy prices derail UK green agenda, say climate experts.*
The same conclusion applies world-wide. Global heaing effects will cause disaster on an unprecedentd scale — perhaps a hundred times the casualties of World War II, Predictions of numbers harmed tend to work bny adding the various forms of harm we can project into the future. They do not take account of the still-unknown ways these harms will interact.
* Analysis of satellite observations show [Amazon] forest is losing stability, with "profound" [I'd say disastrous] global implications.*
*Oil and Gas Giants Under Fire for Fueling Russian War on Ukraine.*
The fact that Russia's economic power (and thus, its military power) are due to selling fossil fuels is not what makes its invasion of Ukraine evil. But it is the cause of Europe's weak position vis-a-vis Russia.
But the power of the fossil fuel companies is much bigger than that of Russia. It is like ten Russias, all allied in war against the survival of civilization.
Ralph Nader: Biden once again failed to try to mobilize the people to make Congress pass the progressive laws he has asked for.
*Demand grows for UK ministers to reclassify psilocybin for medical research.*
During the era of leaded gasoline, many American children's brain development was damaged by lead that they breathed in. A study estimates that half the adults in the US as of 2015 had been affected by this.
The high street crime level that began in the 60s and ended in the 90s has been meticulously traced to lead in the air. Although tetraethyllead was added to gasoline starting in the 1920s, the amount of automobile traffic was much lower then; lead poisoning of the populace did not become a significant problem in the US until after World War II.
Fortunately, we are not spreading lead through gasoline any more. But other sources of lead poisoning, such as lead pipes for water and lead paint, are still being gradually removed.
Last year, Boston was subsidizing the replacement of lead water supply pipes running from the water mains to individual buildings.
The impact of lead fell most heavily on disprivileged groups, for the usual reason: people with more money can afford to live in places where they are safe from these problems. I can't blame anyone for trying to do that, but the state's responsibility includes protecting everyone from such problems, once the problems are known.
New satellites will give a much better capability to find leaks of methane.
However, unless we follow detection with correction, finding the leaks will be useless. I don't see any real effort to stop these emissions.
Programs that monitor violent men and interrupt their violence can be very effective at making other people safe from them.
An experiment will see if waste from processing rice can serve as food in the ocean for more fish.
It's still officially winter, but there is a dangerous wildfire in Florida.
Civilians in conquered cities in Ukraine are courageously holding unarmed protests, telling the Putin forces to get out.
*Ukrainians Find That Relatives in Russia Don't Believe It's a War.* They have been fooled by Putin's enormous range of disinformation sites.
Investigators have discovered that when enough "independent" sources repeat the same disinformation, many people have trouble distinguishing disinformation from sincere reports. Russia, the US extreme right-wing, and fossil fuel companies, have set up large enough networks of sites to "corroborate" each other.
Almost 200,000 immigrants being considered for deportation from the US are subject to a system of electronic tracking whose operation is outsourced to a company.
Outsourcing government activities to a private company normally leads to lower pay, worse working conditions, and doing a hurried, lousy job. This activity is no exception.
All such outsourcing should be prohibited.
A separate issue is whether tracking people like this is justified. It can be legitimate to place special rules on people present in the US without authorization, but there is still the question of whether it is necessary.
Mikhail Shishkin: *My dear Russians –- the Ukrainians are fighting Putin’s army for their freedom, and ours.*
*Our climate solutions are failing - and Big Oil’s fingerprints are all over them.* Oil companies are big participants and sponsors of the work that is supposed to stop them from destroying our ecosystems.
Putin has proposed to allow civilians to flee from some Ukrainian cities that his army is bombarding; but those fleeing certain cities would be allowed only to go to Russia or Belarus.
Inside Putin's prison is hardly a place of safety.
This offer is not serious. It is meant only to carry a message — but what message? To Ukrainians, it will display contempt, but it will take more than that to demoralize Ukrainians.
It carries a different message to the Putin's supporters around the world. They will take it at face value and present it as the deepest magnanimity.
That could offer us an opportunity to identify some disinformation sites. Anyone who presents this offer of "safety" seriously is one of Putin's disinformation repeaters.
The UK's intentional hostility towards immigrants is keeping out Ukrainians refugees like everyone else.
Brain scans show that even mild Covid-19 infections damaged brain tissue and reduced some mental abilities. The damage was measured months later.
This data is from infections before Delta and Omicron.
A Russian journalist talks about Putin's imposition on Russia of Soviet-style mandatory lies that change from day to day. Russians can now understand what life was like for their great-grandparents.
Americans, this is what Trumputin sought (and still seeks) to impose on the US.
Tourism nowadays no longer brings people into deep contact with foreign cultures. Is it good for the world, or is it merely a deeply unsustainable form of entertainment?
South Korea has been trying to triangulate between ties to the US and commercial interests in China. But the people are wisely rejecting China.
It has been 70 years since China invaded South Korea. During much of the intervening time, China was not a potential immediate enemy. Peace must have seemed possible. But with the new, aggressive China, peace is at most temporary.
The Putin forces are endangering operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by requiring the staff to get permission for everything they do to it.
*The US should continue investing in masks, tests, ventilation, vaccination campaigns, wastewater monitoring and other measures to prevent and respond to the next surge, experts said. And when the next wave begins rising, communities should pay careful attention to changing levels of risk.*
Russia has thrown a monkey wrench into negotiations on resuming the non-nuclear deal with Iran. Putin demanded an exemption to the sanctions on Russia for Russia's trade with Iran. The west won't go along with that.
Iran criticized the Russian demand, If Iran and western countries are ready to make a deal, I think they could do so without Russia's participation.
*The people of Ukraine need our solidarity. But not just because they're "like us".*
*The tight web of lawyers and PR firms who oil the wheels for [Russian] billionaires.*
Belarusian opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya says that Lukashenko no longer controls the Belarusian army — it takes orders from Putin now. The opposition is urging Belarusian soldiers to switch sides if they are sent to Ukraine.
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.
US citizens: call on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from insurrection-related cases, because his wife is part of an organization that promotes insurrection.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel student loan debt.
US citizens: call on US states to make sure people subject to felony disenfranchisement know their status, so that they are not imprisoned for mistakenly trying to register to vote.
Beyond this, we should abolish felony disenfranchisement — it is an injustice, and when combined with systemic racism that puts lots of blacks in jail, results in disenfranchising a substantial fraction of blacks.
US citizens: call on Congress to fight inflation by taking on corporate greed and concentrated power.
US citizens: call on Secretary Buttigieg to release the rule to measure greenhouse gas emissions created by the national highway system.
US citizens: call on Congress to make sure insulin is available to everyone anyone in the US for no more than $35 per month.
US citizens: rebuke DeSantis for claiming that masks are "theater."
US citizens: call on Biden to admit more Ukrainian refugees.
1/3 of Britons age 16 to 64 suffer from a long-term illness. That is shocking.
The number has increased due to Covid, but what's even more shocking is that almost all of these cases existed before Covid.
4,300 more Russians held a coordinated nationwide protest against Putin's invasion of Ukraine. That makes almost 12,000 antiwar protesters in prison.
I hope that people planning to protest inform their friends, so that their disappearance will be understood for what it actually was, rather than giving rise to mere curiosity.
In France, people are expressing their resentment against Putin's invasion of Ukraine by condemning the dish, poutine, which is pronounced the same.
What I've said for years is that poutine is such a disgusting combination of foods that pronouncing a person's name like that is an unforgivable insult. It is unacceptable to do that to a foreign head of state. We should rather pronounce the name "Putin" in French just as it is written.
A prominent right-wing Brazilian congressman expressed contempt for Ukrainian refugee women, regarding them as objects to take advantage of. That attitude towards other people seems quintessentially right-wing to me.
The House investigation reported evidence to suspect that the corrupter committed crimes in trying to steal the 2020 election. Call on the DOJ to investigate these crimes.
A Kansas City thug has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for killing Cameron Lamb, who was backing his truck into the garage of his home.
It looks like someone tried to plant a gun at the scene to substantiate a claim that Lamb was armed. It's too bad the thugs are getting away with that crime.
*Former National Security Advisor John Bolton says 'Putin was waiting' for Trump to withdraw the United States from NATO in his second term.*
The UK has failed to deal with the problem of SLAPP lawsuits, in which rich people and businesses sue people for libel (or threaten to sue) to stop them from accusing wrongdoing. Even if the person sued is telling the truth, perse may not have the money to pay to defend the lawsuit.
Now Russian billionaires are using this to stop the UK from putting sanctions on them until they have time to sell their UK assets. So the UK is finally looking into how to block SLAPP lawsuits. That would be a change for the better, in general, as it would eliminate part of the unjust power of the rich.
Some US states adopted anti-SLAPP laws a few decades ago, but some have not done so.
More generally, the cost of defending a libel suit in the UK is enormous, so they are used to protect criminals as well as to deter criticism of tyrants such as Putin.
Deregulated lending causes a danger of financial crashes. That happened in 2008, and it can happen again. The results could hurt everyone. This illustrates a danger to freedom from the use of programs that are run jointly by various parties — a danger that can happen even if the programs are free.
First, to explain the danger of deregulated lending. It comes from "leverage" — the practice of borrowing to invest. I refer to Cory Doctorow's article for this topic.
Leverage is dangerous when it goes beyond a certain amount. When the market goes down, those who have invested with leverage are forced to put in more money, and that compels them to sell other property, which often accelerates the crash. This is what happened in 1929 to cause the great crash, and the worldwide great depression.
After the crash, the US assured this would never happen again by placing regulations on banks, designed to limit the amount level of leverage. What brought this vulnerability back, decades later, was the growth of lending that bypassed bank loans and thus evaded the regulations. That caused the financial crisis of 2008.
Due to the political power of finance (as distinguished to business in general), the US has not adopted new regulations to stop that from happening again. Meanwhile, "distributed finance" using smart contracts is pretty much equivalent and creates the same kind of danger of a crash.
Instead of a loan contract written in English but so complex you have no real chance of understanding it, you'd be asked to agree to an Ethereum smart contract so complex that you have no real chance of understanding it, even supposing you can read the language it's written in.
Now let's return to the issue of software and freedom.
Using a nonfree program is automatically an injustice, because someone else controls it and you can't change it. There are no exceptions to that.
A free program can't be unjust in that way. That doesn't mean a free program can't ever be unjust. In the simple case where you run it by yourself, it would be very difficult for the free program to be unjust. But other scenarios are not so simple. The use of a program jointly by multiple parties creates other ethical issues, other threats.
For instance, if you want to borrow money, and each lender insists that you must run, jointly, a particular Ethereum program which you can't change and which can make you owe thousands of dollars, that is dangerous. If that Ethereum program is free, that means a different lender can modify it and offer to lend using another version. But that does not directly give the borrowers (who have less power to start with than the lender) any freedom.
How does this differ from the classic case of a client program that talks to a server program on someone else's server? If the client program is free, you can use a modified version to talk to the same server. If the server wants some information about you, you control what information to send. You can lie, if you choose, and in some cases lying might be morally and/or legally legitimate.
When the program is part of a system that makes it impossible or ineffective to lie, that changes things. Such a program could be part of a web of social control, and there is no limit in principle to how much control it can exercise. Mostly we see this in nonfree programs for "test proctoring", but we also see the beginnings of it in free programs such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
US hotel owners have figured out how to use a financial instrument, REITs, as an excuse to exploit workers.
The bully's practice of immediately expelling asylum seekers, which Biden has inexplicably continued, has been limited by an appeals court. It ruled that the US cannot expel them to places whey they are likely to face persecution.
The bully instituted this policy in the name of Covid-19, claiming that the immigrants might carry it. That was true, but since they are no more likely to have Covid-19 than the people already on the US side of the border, it is no justification for expelling them. The bully's real reason was probably as a way to demonize immigrants, for political motives.
Why Biden did not simply end the practice, I don't know. Some Democrats push him to end it now.
Two further levels of appeal are possible. Will Biden continue appeals?
*Ukraine claims battlefield successes as Mariupol evacuation falls apart.*
The US is planning to send Ukraine more airplanes. It takes time to get accustomed to flying a new kind of plane. Thus, the US need to send Russian-made planes that Ukrainian air force pilots are thoroughly accustomed to flying.
A fringe movement among paleontologists demands to use present-day human countries to determine where to keep fossils of organisms that lived long before humans, and long before any human countries.
I think these fossils should be made available to science in the way that is best for their scientific study. I'm not a paleontologist, so I don't know what that way would be, but I am sure it is not a matter of nationalism.
If these fossils go to a museum somewhere, at least they will be available somehow for scientific study. What's most outrageous is when people demand to "rebury" human remains that were found near where they live. That makes the remains totally unavailable for scientific study by newer methods — such as, through their DNA.
*Supreme court blocks [psychologists] behind CIA’s "enhanced interrogation" from testifying [in a Polish court].*
They were summoned to confirm that Abu Zubaydah had been tortured in a CIA "black site" in Poland. This would not have revealed any secrets, only confirmed what the US did to him.
It is shameful that US officials set out to block that testimony. The duty of any US official is to punish torture.
*Where to Crack Down on Russia Oligarchs? Try South Dakota.*
South Dakota plays a significant role in some methods rich people use for hiding their wealth.
There are actually female judges in Egypt.
What is not clear is whether an Egyptian trial presided over by a female judge is going to pay more attention to law, justice and evidence than an Egyptian trial presided over by a male judge.
The Sackler family agreed to pay 6 billion dollars in settlement of claims over harm done by oxycontin.
The US condemned Putin for using cluster bombs on Ukraine, but the US has refused (like Russia) to sign the treaty to ban cluster bombs.
We should hold politicians of various countries responsible for starting wars of aggression. 1.5 million Russians have said they oppose Putin's war.
Bogus Johnson got an official rebuke for misleading the public about the UK employment rate.
The most right-wing US politicians support Putin. This makes sense to me. They, like Putin, are enemies of freedom for people who don't agree with them.
*House January 6 Panel Accuses Trump of 'Criminal Conspiracy to Defraud' US.*
(satire) *Drano Introduces New Shampoo For Eliminating Drain-Clogging Hair At Source.*
Hawaii state court has allowed a climate lawsuit by Honolulu against big oil companies to proceed.
*US Praised for Plan to Transfer Covid [vaccine] Tech to WHO.*
Florida high school students went on strike against Republican anti-gay bills.
*Russian Invasion Bolsters Case for Ending Use of Fossil Fuels.*
*DOJ Must Permanently Bar Insurrectionists From Public Office.*
(satire) *U.S. Seizes New York City Borough Belonging To Russian Oligarch.*
*Oil and gas lobbyists are using Ukraine to push for a drilling free-for-all in the US.*
Some small towns in Ukraine are being shelled into ruins by the Putin forces.
They are located near the edge of the rebel areas. The Putin forces have not been able to capture them, as the inhabitants are resisting furiously.
In Kharkiv they are constantly attacking civilian targets.
Influential Tories have connections to easy money from Russian billionaires.
I'm not sure we should call them "oligarchs", since they do not collectively rule Russia.
Bad news, working Americans — the "pressure for higher wages" is decreasing.
Except that, given the inflation caused when profitable companies with little competition raise prices because nothing holds them back, the so-called "higher wages" really mean "the same wages in real terms."
A study finds that each additional drink of alcohol, on a given day, does greater harm to the brain.
Brett Solomon: *THERE ARE SIGNIFICANT, real-world benefits to having an accepted and recognized identity. That’s why the concept of a digital identity is being pursued around the world, from Australia to India… I am nevertheless convinced that digital ID, writ large, poses one of the gravest risks to human rights of any technology that we have encountered. Worse, we are rushing headlong into a future where new technologies will converge to make this risk much more severe.*
In 2015 I proposed that the remedy is to prohibit systems that systematically collect personal data. That solution is drastic, but nothing less will do.
Five giant agribusiness companies pledged at Cop26 to reduce deforestation. A week later they lobbied to weaken the EU plan to do that.
*Sky News journalists evacuated after being shot at by Russian "death squad".*
In the interests of balance, I have to remind people that the Bush forces did something comparable in 2003 when they fired at the building that housed the Baghdad office of Al-Jazeera.
*Biden Urged to Prevent 'Catastrophe' by Reversing Seizure of Afghan Funds.*
One proposal for a peace deal for Ukraine and Russia.
The proposal for referenda in Luhansk and Donetsk presents a complication. Which are the territories that these referenda would decide about? And who would be allowed to vote in them?
After Putin seized Crimea, he chased out those who would not bow down to him, then held a Putinesque bogus election about whether to approve the seizure. Naturally, Putin won the election. That is not a valid way to decide anything. These elections have to be honest, and include everyone who lived in those areas before Putin' supporters made others flee.
One idea that occurs to me is that Ukraine would not be part of NATO, but the west could commit to helping to defend Ukraine if it is attacked. In practical terms, the difference is that Ukraine would never be called upon to join in a war unless Ukraine itself were attacked.
US citizens: call on Biden to fire the official that is stubbornly trying to privatize Medicare.
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the College for All Act.
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US citizens: call on Congress to stop providing weapons to Saudi Arabia.
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The ACLU is suing to stop Texas from persecuting parents that enable their transgender children to get puberty-delaying or sex-change medical treatment.
I've learned that such treatment is very effective against depression and suicide among trans youth. So I am very much in favor of making it available.
But I think we need to have an objective way to refer to the treatments we are talking about, one that doesn't incorporate a built-in stance about them. I don't like the term "gender-affirming treatments" because it tries to twist people's arms to approve of them. I'd rather approve of them by my own free choice.
*[Insurance company] AIG to Stop Insuring Coal, Tar Sands, and Arctic Drilling.*
We will still have to fight to get them to stop insuring other gas and oil projects.
Putin shut down the last independent news source in Russia, and the staff are trying to flee.
The CDC's revised mask guidelines are based on just one goal: to prevent hospitals from getting full.
That goal is important, but the CDC has abandoned other important goals, such as reducing the total number of people who eventually get sick, which is the way to reduce the number who eventually develop Long Covid disabilities, and the number who eventually die of the disease.
One of the Oath Keepers pled guilty to seditious conspiracy for 6 Jan 2021.
This will include testifying against the others.
*If we are concerned about the situation in Ukraine when both nations have access to largely affordable food and water, what is going to happen when water becomes scarce and food prices soar? We can answer this question by looking at our recent past.*
The article is blind to one aspect of the issue: that each country needs to curb its population growth to avoid making the problem even more difficult.
*Opinion: Five vile things Trump did to Zelensky and Ukraine that you forgot about.*
Why it would be a bad idea to cut Russia off from the internet.
Increasing aridity in the US southwest is lowering the water level in the lakes behind hydropower dams. A little lower and those dams will cease to generate electricity.
People will use fossil fuels instead, thus speeding the development of more aridity.
*Interpol arrest warrant allegedly targeting Kuwaiti princess and partner "on political grounds".*
The history of "economic warfare", a.k.a. trade sanctions, and what they imply.
People-smugglers find it easy to make holes in the bullshitter's "impenetrable" wall on the Mexican border.
*The Guardian view on Putin's siege tactics in Ukraine: a war crime by another name.*
Calling for the US to adopt a no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons.
The Putin forces attacked a Ukrainian nuclear power plant with artillery and hit one of the reactor blocks. (The shelling started a fire in a building at the site, of no crucial importance.)
To reach the plant, soldiers fired at civilians who were blocking the road.
By giving the order to fire on the plant, Putin risked serious damage to the plant and releasing radioactive materials. That would have endangered people in a wide area, including Ukrainians, Russians who live to the east, and to some extent people in the European countries to the west.
We have to interpret this as a form of threatening a nuclear attack.
This shows a powerful reason not to have nuclear power plants anymore.
The US has prohibited mandatory arbitration contracts that require workers to deal with sexual harassment or crimes at work through arbitration instead of going to court.
It is a good first step, but the same needs to be done for other sorts of accusations, and customers as well.
The UK must close the avenues of corruption that Russian oligarchs — and other rich people — have taken advantage of.
California's plan to end the release of microplastics into the environment.
*In several prominent cases, black people got harsher sentences for unintentional voting errors than whites who committed fraud.*
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.
US citizens: call on Senators Schumer and Menendez to take up the nominees for 50 vacant offices for US diplomats.
The Russian Army has become the Putin Forces.
*Former Delaware [thug] charged in two excessive force cases after surveillance video went viral.* He faces a potential sentence of 13 years in prison.
I am very gratified to see prosecution of thugs extend to those whose crimes did not kill anyone.
*Rich Nations Driving Biodiversity Loss Called to Invest Billions in Developing World.*
Russian media meet Fawlty Towers — "Don't talk about the war!"
(satire) *Crows Evolve New Blond Look Concluding 17-Million-Year Goth Phase.*
One of the flaws of "carbon emission trading" is that speculators enter the trading market. That is causing volatility now in the EU's emission trading market — the price has fallen, so that it is now cheaper to pollute.
A carefully-designed carbon tax would avoid this problem. It has no room for speculation. Furthermore, it is possible to make a special increase the tax if emissions are not declining fast enough.
George Monbiot: *We must confront Russian propaganda – even when it comes from those we respect.*
*The argument of the Left should be, that in 2003, other governments did not put enough pressure on the United States over Iraq. Not that it is necessary to exert less pressure on Russia over Ukraine now.*
*Biden Announces "Crackdown" on Profiteering Shipping Cartels to Fight Inflation.*
Biden (and many state and local officials) have yielded to pressure from fools and assholes, and decided to encourage people in most of the US to go without masks.
As the article says, this policy puts vulnerable people on their own as increasing numbers of people either say, "It's safe now" (the fools), or "Fuck you, I won't go to any trouble to avoid giving you a disease" (the assholes). There are lots of vulnerable people — I read that in the UK they amount to 1/4 of the population. I have no such figure for the US, but I am one of them.
The Covid transmission rate in Massachusetts has been going down (I don't have access to info about other states), but last week it decreased only 27% — less than before. How fast it continues to decrease will depend on how much we take precautions, including masks and vaccination. If many Americans stop using masks, the transmission rate will decrease more slowly, and may start increasing again.
Imagine if millions of people got tired of brushing their teeth and decided to stop worrying about the danger of losing them in a few years That's what this seems like to me.
Biden talked about a "test to treat" system. In principle that is good, but how often should you get tested? If you have to take the subway to work several days a week, and/or if you are near other people at work, you could catch Covid-19 any working day. Should you get tested on each working day? Can the system handle that much testing? Can you afford whatever it will cost?
Will low-paid "essential workers" be able to participate in this system?
The treatments available are for preventing severe disease that might lead to death. I have not heard whether they prevent lasting disability. Do we know whether "long Covid" is still a danger, with Omicron? I have seen no info on this, and if we don't know it isn't still a danger we have to presume it is. Long Covid used to be far more common than death, and some forms of it are as bad as death in my estimation. Fatigue all day? Mental disorganization? Losing the sense of taste and smell and finding all food boring or horrible?
I have started talking with people I know about the importance of using N95 masks, and the fact that drug stores are distributing them gratis in the US. Efforts to inform the public have not reached most people. Now that good masks are available, everyone should switch.
* Wealthy nations accused of depriving poorer ones of nutrient-rich food and wasting mackerel, sardine and anchovy stocks — to feed farmed salmon.*
I don't think there is anything wrong in principle in farming salmon, but we who are wealthier must not starve the poor.
At the same time, every country has an obligation to stabilize its population. If we don't end population growth, it will reduce everyone to poverty. Now that we are hitting global resource limits, no people should imagine that they can have population growth without taking from other people. Humanity must back off from these limits, and the only human way is by a lot fewer births.
Right-wing Polish racists attacked nonwhite refugees who had fled Ukraine, and are organizing disinformation falsely accusing refugees of committing crimes, to stir up support for their scapegoating.
US citizens: call on Biden to pardon everyone convicted for possession of marijuana.
The mother of a mixed-race child who looks white is suing his school for telling him to think of himself as an "oppressor" because he looks white.
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 fact that some would call that boy "black" adds an extra element of irony to the case, but I don't think it changes the issue at all. It's wrong to judge people as guilty based on their race. Whether guilty for being white or guilty for being black, it's wrong.
Meanwhile, Republicans are encouraging a confusion between anti-white bigotry and critical race theory. Let's look at each one and see the difference.
Critical race theory deals with the history of institutions and laws, and how some of them shaped and perpetuated racism. It's important to teach that, and important to learn that, but prejudging individuals is not part of it.
Anti-white bigotry seems to be a perversion of anti-racism. It uses terms such as "white guilt" and "white debt" and teaches that anyone who is white ought to spend per whole life in shame. That isn't critical race theory, so let's not call it that.
A system that forces children into debt is oppression, and that includes "white debt". To be born indebted is like being born enslaved.
When Republicans condemn teaching "critical race theory", and define that term to include "white debt", that is an instance of their general political approach: disinformation.
The Tories have degraded to the point that 15% of Britons are ready to pay for private medical treatment.
Next step: make the NHS so inadequate that anyone who can afford private treatment will go for that, and the rest will get only the most basic treatment for the easily cured diseases. More or less like the US.
The corrupter has been close friends with Putin since before being elected, and has been trying to undermine or abolish NATO.
Rebecca Solnit: *It's time to confront the Trump-Putin network.*
I am skeptical of the claim that Wikileaks got the material showing the dishonesty of Clinton and the Democratic National Convention towards Sanders from Russian spies. Assange said that was not so, and I trust him.
However, that was just a side point in the article linked to.
Overall, I think the name "Trumputin" fits what we are dealing with.
Two extremist Republicans in Congress have crossed the Republican Party's line by speaking at a white supremacists' event. Powerful Republican politicians are condemning them.
Taiwan became a democracy only in the 1960s. For decades after World War II, it was a repressive dictatorship run by the rulers recently defeated on the mainland. Taiwan is now beginning to examine the repression of that period.
The UK government tested flammable cladding materials 15 years before the deadly fire of 2017. Somehow it neglected to take steps to update the fire code to prohibit use of those materials.
The UK government under Tory rule has shown a pervasive tendency to fail in ways that screw individual and let businesses get away with murder. This is one example. Another is the privatized "jobcenters" that default to punishing welfare recipients for any technical violation of the onerous rules.
Republican officians promote a long list of policies that tend to shorten Americans' lifespans (especially poor Americans and disprivileged groups). It's mostly because they are hand-in-glove with racists, religious fanatics and greedy billionaires.
However, when the wrecker was president they got even worse. Nowadays they support policies that make America more deadly, because that gives their followers a chance to enjoy being jerks.
Lukashenko, who has become Putin's puppet, announced that Belarus would retract its pledge not to have nuclear weapons.
Doing this publicly is a way to make it act as a threat. For instance, he could make vague threats against NATO.
In addition, next time the Belarusians try to kick out Lukashenko, he will be able to threaten to nuke Belarus's cities. But I suppose he will not actually do that.
Trumputin canceled the IRBM treaty, with which both the US and Russia agreed not to station intermediate-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads in Europe. Would Putin like to reestablish that treaty? If so, it would make sense for the US to demand that Belarus pledge to continue not to have nuclear weapons as part of the treaty.
Has Putin shown a wish to resume that treaty? I have to wonder whether Trumputin canceled it as a favor to Putin — to give him the benefit of getting out of that treaty, while dumping on the US the onus of terminating it.
Ukraine was torn between two factions, the pro-Russian faction and the pro-EU faction. There were a number of Nazis in the latter. But then Ukrainians conclusively rejected both factions, and the Nazis, by voting for President Zelenskiy.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy's surprising career before becoming president of Ukraine: he was a popular comic actor.
Ronald Reagan, the actor turned president, used his acting skills to lull Americans into letting the rich take a bigger fraction, and waiting like a cargo cult for wealth to "trickle down".
Zelenskiy uses his skills to be the best possible leader for a Ukraine under invasion.
Over 350 human rights defenders were murdered in 2021.
*Could international criminal court bring Putin to justice over Ukraine?*
Probably not — it would take a bolt of luck to be able to arrest him.
The UK is slowly considering imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs linked to Putin, giving them time to sell what they own in Russia.
*Don't Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine.*
Torrential rains on Australia's east coast have destroyed farms as well as homes.
How much more will it take to teach Australians to vote the planet-roasters out of office?
The ACLU is suing to stop Texas Republican officials from persecuting the parents of transgender children for giving them drugs (that they requested) to delay puberty or alter their secondary sexual characteristics.
*Egyptians seen in jail "torture" videos charged with spreading fake news.*
This illustrates how completely Orwellian many repressive governments have become, including Russia. China, Egypt, Nicaragua and more. Republicans have tried some of this in the US.
US citizens: call on Maine Gov. Mills to respect farmworkers and sign the bill that gives them the right to organize.
US citizens: call on Biden to get the world vaccinated against Covid-19.
*World leaders agree to draw up "historic" treaty on plastic waste.*
The Hindu Nationalists of India have reached the point where their elected officials openly demand denying Muslims the right to vote.
Meanwhile, their supporters commit violence, even going as far as murder.
(satire) *Teen Wondering Whether Boyfriend Even Loves Her If He Unwilling To Exploit Relationship For TikTok.*
The Belmarsh Tribunal does more than defend Julian Assange. It investigates the crimes of the "war on terror".
It won't be easy for sanctions on Russia to convince Putin to make peace. Diplomacy might do it.
Nigeria says that Poland is blocking Africans trying to flee Ukraine.
Some predicted many years ago that expanding NATO towards and into the former Soviet Union could make Russian leaders angry. To the extent that they wanted Russia to be a world power, reducing that power would be galling. For this reason, it would arguably have been wiser to hold back some distance, and leave a buffer zone.
However, we should not make the mistake of equating the reduction of a country's international power with attacking or destroying it. NATO expansion was not war. It did not include a military attack. It did not damage Russia's land, or its people, its capital, or its economy. It may have motivated Putin to start wars, but was in no sense grounds to start wars.
The IPCC says there is only a small window in which to mitigate the worst effects of global heating.
Bank sanctions have hit Russia very hard. Is there any way for the Russian people to tell Putin to change course, such that he can hear them?
The pyrocumulus clouds caused by more intense wildfires deplete the ozone layer.
As many problems caused by global heating get bigger, they start to have important indirect effects that cause new problems.
*UN Chief: IPCC Report a 'Damning Indictment of Failed Climate Leadership'.*
*Letting families in England choose schools hasn’t made things better –- just more stressful.*
*The evidence … suggests such measures have had minimal impact on educational attainment and have worsened class-based segregation between schools. Far from giving people a sense of control, the process has created a maelstrom of anxiety and disenchantment.*
Nigeria is destroying slums in a coastal city, leaving poor people with no possessions and nowhere to go. If they try to take anything with them, thugs attack them.
Tories have driven Britons into such poverty that they are begging for blankets — they can't afford heating.
US citizens: call on Biden and HHS Secretary Becerra to end the project to privatize Medicare.
US citizens: Tell Biden we need climate action now.
US citizens: call on Disney to stop funding anti-abortion politicians.
US citizens: call on your Senators to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson right away as a Supreme Court justice.
US citizens: call on your state governor to support banning foam cups and boxes made of polystyrene.
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US citizens: call on Biden to protect mature trees in national forests.
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US citizens: pledge solidarity with Russian anti-war activists against militarism by any country.
* People in Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia and Romania fear [that] Nato membership may not stop more Russian incursions.*
On the other hand, those westerners' dependence on Russian gas and oil is no one's fault except their own. Decarbonize!
California will empower fast food workers to negotiate collectively about wages.
*Munich Philharmonic sacks conductor Valery Gergiev over failure to denounce Putin.*
We achieve nothing against Putin by scapegoating Russians that state their support for him. Cancelling them undermines freedom of opinion in our own countries. Gergiev has little influence in the west — Trumputin is the Putin supporter that we should really be concerned about.
Global heating has caused a deep drought in northern Argentina, which resulted in big wildfires that have covered half of Paraguay with smoke.
US citizens: call on Congress to give the IRS the resources it needs to serve taxpayers and catch wealthy tax cheats.
5000 Russians have dared to protest against Putin's war, knowing they will be jailed.
Tigray is now fighting a local war with the neighboring part of the Afar region.
The people there are angry but also say that the hostility of Tigray, which they used to have close relations with, is confusing when seen from Afar.
Arguing against "disruption" as a desirable characteristic of business, and refuting supposed reasons to tolerate being disrupted.
That argument is valid as far as it goes; but the article, as usual in business-oriented writing, disregards entirely the danger of tracking people's movements.
*Russian Labor Confederation Demands Peace in Ukraine.*
Prohibiting slavery in northern states was a gradual process. A number of 19th century court decisions shed light on how free black women sued to win their children out of slavery.
Don't trash bottles of vodka without checking their origin — hardly any of it comes from Russia nowadays.
The Tories have decided to conceal most of the companies that got big loans to help them deal with the pandemic
Many of them committed fraud, but those whose names are secret can't be investigated to see whether they did so.
If a conquered country has an organized people, it can often use nonviolent resistance to compel the conqueror to make some compromises. In addition, if other enemies continue fighting the conqueror, this nonviolent resistance can help them defeat the conqueror so they can liberate the conquered country.
Nonviolent effort to reduce the oppressiveness of an occupation can do some good. But the occupation of Norway and Denmark lasted only 5 years. Ukraine could be occupied for decades.
I think that the fact that Ukraine is fighting bravely is the reason why NATO countries have chosen such strong nonviolent actions against Russia. If Ukraine had surrendered without a fight, it would never have stirred up such a response.
After writing that, I saw that Hariri said something similar.
Now we can say, "Strike a blow against Putin — decarbonize!"
Let's stop trying to figure out what aspects of people's minds are shaped by genes and which by their environment. The genes and the environment work together in such complex ways that there is no simple way to separate them.
Laurence H Tribe and Jeremy Lewin: The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court is prepared to attack climate defense on ideological grounds.
Putin's invasion has convinced the UK to force hidden owners of property in the UK to identify themselves.
The fossil fuel industry should be forced to fund the clean energy transition, not allowed to make even more money as the Ukrainian people suffer.*
A windfall profits tax is the least step we can take.
The leader of the Cop26 climate conference says that global heating effects are much worse than previously predicted.
The IPCC *report says human actions are causing dangerous disruption, and window to secure a livable future is closing.*
US citizens: call on Biden to reject ConocoPhillps's plan to construct a large oil field near Alaska's Arctic coast.
US citizens: call on Congress to advance drug pricing reform through the budget reconciliation process.
An EU representative denounced Putin's war with Ukraine, and his dishonesty both before and since, on behalf of the EU.
One point calls for a response.
Putinite weapons have hit civilian targets. That does not imply that troops knowingly attacked civilian targets, or that the weapons were aimed at those targets. War causes confusion, and fighting often does unintended damage. Consider how often troops in any army hit other troops on the same side, despite having rules designed to prevent that. I think we should wait for a clear pattern that goes beyond possible accidents before accusing Putinite forces of intentionally attacking civilians.
We do have grounds to accuse Putin of the principal Nuremberg crime: aggressive war.
As Bogus Johnson talks about supporting freedom and democracy, the Tories are attacking both of them in the UK.
Biden has continued the corrupter's experiment in privatizing Medicare, with only cosmetic changes.
US-based social networks are starting to resist the massive Russian disinformation wave.
So Russia is threatening to block them in Russia.
(satire) *Governor Abbott [of Texas] Warns Children Of Accepting Parents Often Grow Up To Become Accepting As Well.*
(satire) *Russian Soldiers' Guns, Tanks Vanish Into Thin Air As First Wave Of Sanctions Takes Effect.*
A new bicycle factory in England will be built in an area that is occasionally flooded — on stilts, so that it won't be shut down when that happens.
*Georgia GOP chair tells January 6 committee that [the wrecker's] campaign directed alternate elector effort.*
We can think of nuclear power plants as "pre-deployed radiological weapons". Just add a conventional bomb…
Here's what data Amazon admits collecting from people that do business with it.
How to stop it? That's easy. First, don't buy from Amazon. Second, ask your friends not to give Amazon your name, address, or anything else. If that has already happened, that doesn't mean you have to let it happen again!
I can testify that it isn't hard, because I do that for all online stores. The only exception I make is for prescriptions, since those have to be in my name.
The extra level of boycott that I do against Amazon is that, if someone is going to buy something for me — either as a gift, or as a favor which I'm going to reimburse — I say, "Please do not get it from Amazon!"
In Thailand, students are campaigning intensely against royalist censorship and repression.
Vladimir Sorokin: *Vladimir Putin sits atop a crumbling pyramid of power.*
An interview with Rana Ayyub, an Indian journalist that Modi's supporters are trying to censor via imprisonment.
*"I'm a dead man walking": ex-Russian spy says defectors in the UK are at risk.*
Part of the current shortage of workers is because of people who have become physically unable to work. That could be due to Covid-19 damage.
New York State is considering two approaches to decriminalizing sex work. One would legalize the profession; the other would continue the threat to punish everyone involved except the prostitutes themselves.
I agree that it is important to protect sex workers from enslavement and exploitation. However, prosecuting customers and answering services makes no sense at all.
Legalization does not have to imply deregulation -- many other kinds of businesses are regulated, and sex businesses can be too. When trafficking becomes frequent in any kind of business, the regulations can be designed to catch traffickers.
Ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons that it inherited when the Soviet Union broke up. Putin's invasion is the sort of thing that will make other countries in the future cling to nuclear weapons.
US supermarkets are making great profits but finding sneaky ways to cut some workers' pay.
Ukraine says that Ukrainian forces defeated and expelled Russian forces from Kharkiv and that Russian soldiers surrendered in groups.
One can't trust announcements from any side in a war, though.
Germany will give antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Ukraine.
Putin announced that he has "transferred the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty."
I think that is his way of saying, "I'm a maniac swinging a loaded gun around, so do exactly what I say." But I don't think he is really a maniac -- I think this is manipulation.
How the west influenced Putin's thinking for the worse.
*If the UK government had set out to undermine and degrade our country, it couldn't have done a better job.*
I suspect that, in practice, the difference between "undermine the country" and "drive the non-rich into penury" is not very big.
The International Red Cross warns that global heating is a threat to the national security of every country.
Conjecture: the availability of inexpensive tea made Britons healthier in the 19th century because, to drink tea, they had to boil the water.
I speculate that Britons can thank the rebellious American colonists for the 1784 decrease in the British tax on tea.
Proctorio, the company which makes nonfree software that takes total control of a student's computer in the name of preventing cheating, is using legal harassment against organizations that criticized it.
Students, please organize and demand that your school stop demanding that you run vicious surveillance software.
On the risk of disaster posed by Ukraine's nuclear power plants.
The UK plans to prohibit anonymous use of many internet platforms -- in the name of "protecting children", of course.
The US military must stop showing Faux News, with its insurrectionist and anti-vax propaganda, on military bases.
A Republican congresscritter proposed expelling all students of Russian nationality from US universities. That would be mindless scapegoating -- exactly what one expects from Republicans. Those students are not serving Putin by going to school in the US.
I urged countries to limit the number of students from China, but that is not a matter of trying to hurt Chinese students. It is because China has an organized system of forcing Chinese nationals (and people who have relatives in China who can be used as hostages) to act as instruments to pressure students, faculty, and the universities themselves.
The US, UK, Europe and Canada have joined to limit Russia's use of the SWIFT bank transfer system.
*SWIFT action, at last, brings meaningful sanctions against Putin regime.*
*Armed with hammers and pistols, Ukrainians wait at barricades for the Russians.*
It's not going to be very effective at resistance if Putin tells the Putin army to plow through them.
*Veteran Hershey's Workers Lead Union Drive to Benefit New Hires.*
The governor of Texas has ordered prosecution of anyone (including parents) involved in providing sex-change treatments to transgender youth. This attempts to twist a law that Republicans failed to actually change. Some DAs in Texas have said they will refuse to comply prosecute.
However, those families (and many others) may be persecuted anyway as state agencies investigate them, looking for an excuse to take their children away.
Republican congress-fascist openly advocated violence against trans people.
DeJoy has finished the procedure for ordering a new fleet of gas-powered trucks for the Postal Service.
It seems that Biden's new postal commissioners have been confirmed. We were told that they would replace DeJoy, Why has this not happened?
The Canadian military launched an operation to collect data on activists as part of a plan to test propaganda techniques on Canada's public.
(satire) *U.S. Shocked Russia Would Invade Another Country After Seeing How Badly America's Recent Invasions Went.*
The Tories are planning a massive increase in what graduates with low incomes will have to pay for their university education.
China is pushing for world dominion by 2030, but it is boosting greenhouse gas emissions so much that its power is likely to be broken by the cost of global heating effects by 2050.
(satire) *Scotch-Brite Unveils New Scouring Bread For Wiping Up Leftover Pasta Sauce On Plate.*
(satire) *Amazon Transfers Insubordinate Employee To Shifts Working In Solitary Warehouse.*
The steady right-wing pressure to maintain maximum harshness against convicted criminals seizes on and magnifies any outlying case.
Every decision about policies in dealing with crime is a probabilistic one. If you replace policy A with policy B, there will be cases where the result of B is better and cases where the result of B is worse. Whether B is a change for the better overall depends on the frequency of better and worse outcomes.
A wave of indignation is not a substitute for a rational evaluation of the results of using policy B, not even in one specific case. We don't know yet whether convict Tubbs will commit more crimes after experiencing juvenile hall than she would have committed after a sentence in adult prison. Indeed, the general experience with adult prison suggests it often directs prisoners toward a life of crime.
If B turns out to give worse results in an identifiable subset of cases, that doesn't necessarily imply that going back to A is the best change. Maybe some variant B would be better than either A or B in such cases.
So I think that Gascon's latest decision was premature.
The lies that Dubya forced into US intelligence reports about Iraq caused a lasting skepticism about US intelligence reports, which did harm just now, as people distrusted the reports about Putin that we now know were valid.
Now US intelligence says that Putin's army is considering taking the relatives of Ukrainian soldiers hostage and killing them if the soldiers don't surrender.
Putin has established a pattern of shocking the world by taking barbarity further than people could have believed. Threatening war if Sweden and Finland join NATO is the latest example. That doesn't prove he would descend to terrorism, but it would fit his pattern.
We must not allow him to win victories by threatening barbarity. The proper response to such barbarity is, "Wanted dead or alive."
However, even if Putin is planning to do that, he has not done it yet. There is a big moral difference between "may do X" and "has done X." Putin still has the option of not murdering hostages.
*Russia speaks total lies. That doesn’t diminish America’s half-truths.*
However, the article's real point is that a government that speaks half-truths can sometimes be your only protection from the total lies.
Matt Taibbi apologizes for the error that blinded him to how horrible a deed Putin would do. He had become "so fixated on western misbehavior" that he didn't realize that the west's enemies could be worse.
*US fossil fuel industry leaps on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to argue for more drilling.*
Fossil fuel companies led the US and Europe to become so dependent on those fuels that we became vulnerable to Putin. We must not let them off the hook.
The long-term way to defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats is by decarbonizing.
*The Russian leader’s pretext for invasion recasts Ukraine’s Jewish president as a Nazi and Russian Christians as true victims of the Holocaust.*
UPS is so profitable that it is cutting wages.
*El Salvador’s former president charged over 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests.*
*The west has a duty to help defend Ukraine –- and to help Russia [adjust to the loss of its empire] by ensuring its defeat.*
The antivax protest at New Zealand's parliament draws people with opposition views that are within the domain of rationality, then indoctrinates them into conspiracy ideation.
*Israel Surpasses 1,000 Demolitions in the Occupied West Bank Since Joe Biden Took Office.*
Spanish banks have been eliminating branches and ATMs, trying to push people to pay digitally and suffer tracking. Retired people have organized and pressured banks to back down.
People should do this in other countries, too. But don't put the petition on change.org! That company requires people to run nonfree software to sign.
*Western powers have realised Russia is largely immune to sanctions.*
In effect, the warnings of disaster that we heard coming from Biden were more exaggeration than I guess they were. Rather than a standard-issue paper tiger, they were more like a tissue-paper tiger.
The chance we had to prevent this war was months ago. Starting then, we could have provided Ukraine with the military strength to deter the attack.
*[Putin] has hardly kept his worldview secret – and now Ukraine is paying the price for western leaders who looked the other way.*
Progressive politicians are endorsing Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court.
I had read she was associated with harsh policies in criminal justice, but if these politicians don't see them as a grave problem, I'm satisfied.
Ukraine's operating nuclear power reactors could meltdown and spew radiation if they shut down and lose grid power with which to keep the fuel cool.
War could force them to shut down even if no army intends to do so. But Russian attacks towards the plant could kill the staff or drive them away. If Russian troops seize the plants and try to force the staff to work as prisoners, there is no telling what might happen.
It is ominous that Russian troops have seized Chernobyl and imprisoned the staff that work there. The wrecked reactors are not a weapon and provide no service to Ukraine that Putin might threaten to shut off. It would have been easy and safe to ignore the place and leave the staff alone.
I can only imagine that he plans to use the wrecked reactors to do something vicious, such as poison Ukraine with radioactive waste. But that doesn't make sense either; I can't see that it would gain him anything.
*Judge orders new trial for US woman sentenced to six years for trying to register to vote.*
Historic England, which until now has preserved the old buildings of the wealthy and important, has decided to preserve also some buildings where the non-wealthy lived or worked.
Prominent Russians are denouncing Putin's war, though they know they may be blacklisted or fired, while ordinary citizens protest on the street knowing they will immediately be dragged away.
In these photos of protests around the world, I was moved especially by the Russians who condemn Putin's war. Please let's not blame Russians for what Putin does -- under his contemptuous tyranny, which crushes dissent and cites absurd reasons, they have no say in what Russia does.
President Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian high officials say they will stay in Kyiv to boost morale for the fight to defend the city.
I hope that the vice president and some other officials are safe in another country where they can constitute the government in exile if Kyiv falls. That will be important to deny Putin control over Ukraine's foreign assets and its embassies.
Putin threatened to attack Sweden and Finland if they join NATO.
A week ago he was describing NATO as a threat so powerful that he was compelled to attack Ukraine to forestall its joining NATO. Now he treats NATO as so weak that he can bully countries not to join it by threatening war against them. There is a fundamental contradiction here.
But what he says is not meant to be valid. It is all part of bullying.
The UK allows people to fire lead shot at birds, and the lead gets into other birds and makes them toxic.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support the Right Whale Coexistence Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on banks to defund the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.
Pipeline opponents used axes to wreck construction equipment being used to construct a gas pipeline along Canada's Pacific coast.
Intentional destruction of property is a crime. But is the destruction of equipment for building fossil fuel infrastructure as bad a crime as building that infrastructure? We know that that will cause, over a few decades, the destruction of a far larger amount of property, and much of that will be to property of ordinary people rather than a planet-roaster enterprise.
The people that attacked the work camp avoided attacking humans, but global heating is already killing millions of people per year and will surely kill tens of millions per year in a few decades.
Thus, I think that the necessity defense applies morally, even if not legally.
What disturbs me about this attack is that it is an escalation. It may inspire other escalations, in retaliation and/or by right-wing extremists. I wish it had not come to this.
Australia approves fossil fuel facilities based on estimates of how much greenhouse gas the facility will emit once operating. But there is no effort to verify it stays within that limit. Some facilities emit a lot more.
It seems that the system has been designed to avoid inconvenience for planet-roasters.
* Rising temperatures pushing much more freshwater towards poles than climate models previously estimated.*
This means that predictions of droughts and desertification will need to be revised upward.
I wonder how this affects the threat to turn off the ocean currents in the North Atlantic — the gulf stream and the conveyor. That would cause disaster for coastal countries in that region, including Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia.
*US government halts [the wrecker's] plan to approve mining road in Alaska.*
Humanity has a chance to eliminate malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, but it will require more money.
Ukraine says it was attacked from Russia, Belarus, and the Crimea.
Many major cities have been attacked. It is clear that though Putin sent "peacekeepers" using Luhansk and Donetsk as a pretext, their mission has no particular relation to those insurrections or to the provinces they are in.
Putin said he intends to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Translated through his propaganda system, I think that means he threatens to remove the current "Nazi" government of Ukraine (never mind that it's led by a Jew) and impose a puppet government. Perhaps with permanent Russian "peacekeepers" to keep it in power.
That doesn't mean it is what he actually intends to do. Like his US protege Trumputin, Putin loves lying, and the more brash and absurd, the better.
If Biden declares a climate emergency, he would have the authority to take important steps to prevent new fossil fuel development and to speed the construction of renewable energy facilities.
The WHO has decided to help five more non-rich countries make RNA vaccines.
One crucial question I have not seen answered: are these countries allowed to make vaccines for other countries, or only for their own use? What are the rules for this?
"Influencing" is based on suckering young people with the idea of beating everyone else in who can sucker more people in.
It's similar to multi-level marketing, in that of the many who enter at the bottom, very few make a success of it. Most of them become part of the many that the successful ones exploit.
The UK system for student loans had one good quality: if you didn't get a good income afterwards, you didn't have to pay back all of that. Now, the Tories think that gives poor people too good a deal.
Three Minneapolis thugs who failed to prevent the murder of George Floyd have been convicted of federal hate crimes for failing to intervene to prevent Chauvin from killing him and helping to deny him medical attention during the while.
*Elon Musk and brother under investigation for alleged insider trading.*
*The UK wants to bar Russia from the international payments network [Swift] — but others doubt the sanction’s value.*
* It will take years for the consequences of 24 February to play out, but there is still much the west can do to help Ukrainians.*
I'm glad someone agrees with me that we should have given Ukraine enough weapons and training to deter Putin from invading.
*Greens unveil a $19bn plan to subsidise coal workers to transition away from fossil fuel jobs.*
Oops! If you offer coal miners that cushy deal, coal mine owners will demand to be paid to transition away from fossil fuel investments.
During the pandemic, England allowed women to obtain abortion pills by mail and take them at home. It's not ideal for women to do this alone, but it's better than being forced to have a baby.
The US should make sure women can do likewise, in Texas and other states where Republicans are blocking them from getting the pills.
Ecuador's former foreign minister: the UK's goal all along was to send Assange to the US.
*As a Russian, I don’t know how to live with the shame of Putin’s aggression.*
*Massive feeding effort underway to save starving Florida manatees.*
But Republicans are working hard on eliminating the remaining seagrass and the remaining manatees.
Cory Doctorow believes that Facebook is doomed.
I hope so, but that will be nothing to celebrate if Facebook is replaced by another online dis-service that has the same basic injustices. These include requiring people to run nonfree software, collecting data users don't ask it to hold, and promoting whatever postings tend to cause outrage.
Don't be a zucker — don't be used by Facebook! But don't assume that everything else is ok!
A progressive "good guy with a gun" stopped a right-wing gunman who attacked volunteers supporting a protest. When official thugs came, they didn't believe the survivors' report and arrested the good guy.
It's very rare that a "good guy with a gun" is present when someone starts committing murder. In this case, his presence was not a matter of luck. He was there to protect people at the protest. The protest organizers realized in advance that the violent tone of right-wing hatred might inspire someone to shoot protesters, and wisely arranged to have some guards.
This one even managed to disable the killer without killing him, so he will face trial.
Theory: what Putin really wants in Ukraine is to create a "frozen conflict" that would make NATO refuse to admit Ukraine.
It makes sense, and it may be part of the truth. But it can't be the whole truth, because (1) Putin had already created frozen conflicts in Ukraine, by seizing the Crimea and by creating a permanent rebellion in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, and (2) he has announced the intention to seize all of Ukraine and impose a government under his control.
Moderna patented a short subsequence of a natural human gene. Natural genes are not supposed to be patented, but patenting a subsequence of one is basically equivalent and should not be allowed either.
This was noticed because it turns out that SARS-CoV-2 contains that same sequence. How did that happen? It could be the result of genetic engineering if anyone did that, but it is no proof that the virus was engineered because it could have randomly incorporated that sequence as RNA while adapting to a human host.
The article is slanted in support of the lab leak theory, and it's not impossible, but not proven either. If it is someday established that a lab leak played a role, we could learn important precautions to take in the genetic engineering of viruses. However, even if the virus did not pass through a lab, we might nonetheless learn some important precautions.
(satire) Either way, Moderna's patent lawyers will sue the virus, and it won't dare reproduce any more in countries with vigorous patent enforcement. Then WIPO will tout this as proof that patenting of gene sequences is vitally important for everyone.
Los Angeles thugs kept Bethany K Farber of California in jail for 13 days before they figured out she was not Bethany K Farber of Texas. They could have determined this in 5 minutes if they had checked the most obvious things.
The article describes the physical mistreatment she experienced in jail that are surely suffered by other prisoners as well. That's something that the city must correct.
The corrupter's supporters, while engaged in a coup to impose their control permanently over the US, constantly accuse their opponents of doing something like that.
The corrupter just praised Putin directly. They use similar methods of brash and outrageous lies. But I wonder now whether they really are allies.
Converting a Cracker Into a Soup
* "For the one in four people in the U.K. who are clinically vulnerable, the current approach appears a perilous and politicized pandemic response," wrote more than 2,000 physicians and scientists.*
London trains and buses no longer require people to wear masks.
This means considerable danger for clinically vulnerable people who don't have cars, if they travel anywhere. And this is for the sake of a small degree of comfort for the other passengers.
When several southern states adopted "stand your ground and kill" laws, the rate of deaths by shooting increased immediately by 16 to 32 percent.
Curiously, there was no such increase in states elsewhere in the US that did the same thing.
Some Russian oligarchs give or route money to the Tory Party.
Russia's economy is hardly vulnerable to economic sanctions.
*San Francisco police will stop misusing sexual assault victim DNA to investigate unrelated crimes.*
It's good of them to adopt this policy, but there are thousands of cities in the US, as well as county sheriff's departments and state thug departments. We need to make this a legal requirement.
*Proposing a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights—a Bill of Rights.* These are eight rights that enable people to have a decent life.
In addition to these eight rights to the things that make for a decent life, people also deserve freedoms.
The world is constructing 44,000 miles of gas pipelines, and planning 76,000 more. If they are built, the $500 million "investment" will motivate the owners to do anything whatsoever to keep gas flowing through them, even though burning that much hydrocarbon would destroy the ecosphere and civilization.
America's Putin, the wrecker, praised Putin for the brazenness of his lies about Ukraine.
This confirms the article which presented Putin as the model for today's Republicans.
Guns are now the biggest cause of loss of years of life, in the US, surpassing vehicular collisions.
The states with weaker gun control have more loss of life due to guns.
Clarence Thomas's wife is a right-wing extremist activist who arranges to bring cases to the Supreme Court, where her husband votes for her side.
Reportedly Salafi Arabia is cooperating with Russia to drive up oil prices.
Starmer declares that the UK Labour Party will treat business as a "partner", which will put non-rich people in second place. Labour will become the milder plutocratist version of the Tories, just as "mainstream" Democrats are the milder plutocratist version of the Republican Party before that turned into the right-wing extremist party.
When water melts on top of the Greenland ice cap, it falls down to the bottom. Its gravitational potential energy converts into heat, which melts more ice at the bottom. This means the melting is faster than scientists previously recognized.
(satire) *Woman Desperately Seeking Excuse To Assault Retail Workers Now That Mask Mandate Lifted.*
George Monbiot: *What price British democracy when a rich elite has the government’s ear?*
He invites us to imagine that a foreign power had the control over the British government that the rich have.
It's broadly similar with the rich in the US, and the plutocratist senators (and other officials) they buy.
Social and psychological reasons to stop using streaming dis-services.
This is not just a matter of advantages and disadvantages of two formats. CDs are free technology — you don't need nonfree (and probably malicious) software which controls your access to their contents. Streaming dis-services impose DRM, and jerkmaking contracts in which users promise to be bad neighbors, and also require them to identify themselves.
Out, out, damned Spotify!
US citizens: call on Justice Department to take action against people that attack service personnel in airports.
US citizens: call on the USPS not to buy gas-fueled trucks.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass a war powers resolution to end US involvement in the war in Yemen.
US citizens: call on Congress to bring back the child tax credit.
US citizens: call on Secretaries of State to disqualify all insurrectionists from serving in office, including as poll workers and election officials.
*More than 1,000 Hershey’s workers vote on plan to unionize Virginia plant.*
Arguing that Putin is not worried about sanctions against Russian oligarchs, but sanctions against the officials that serve him would cause him real trouble.
Robert Reich believes the Democrats can keep control of Congress in this year's election, if they handle it right. I hope so.
It isn't enough for Democrats to control Congress. We also need to replace some plutocratist Democrats with progressive Democrats.
Democrats might be able to win support in rural America again if they make it their target to break up the large landholdings and give land back to the rest of the citizens.
(satire) *Doctor Assures Family Of Dying Patient He Billing Everything He Can.*
Scientists predict a 30% increase in wildfires by 2050.
The increase won't stop in 2050. As long as global heating continues, fires will get worse. The report says that some of those fires will be impossible to extinguish with known methods.
*Oil and gas facilities could profit from plugging methane leaks, IEA says.*
The US would be more convincing when condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine if it had not supported occupations and carried out conquests.
Putin announced his intention to seize the whole extent of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces -- far larger than the territory his proxies actually hold.
That would require real fighting. The announcement was a declaration of real war.
The province of Donbas includes the important city of Mariupol. Western experts speculated some weeks ago that Putin would try to capture it. Ukraine will surely resist that attack strenuously.
*How to save [the UK's] precious public services? A windfall tax on those who got rich from Covid.*
Coping with Covid-19 is expensive, especially if you're not careful to spend money wisely. The UK spent a lot of money, much of it incompetently or corruptly.
In the minds of Tories, like other plutocratists, this is an opportunity to cut the support that keeps penurious people alive. They have been pushing for more than a decade to undermine and ruin the National Health Service, and they see success within their grasp.
Swiss banking secrecy made Switzerland an ideal place for dictators and crooks to hide money. A treaty made Switzerland pull back the secrecy for clients from European countries, but third world embezzlers still take advantage of it.
Many other countries help disguise profits for rich people.
European governments agreed that airlines would not be penalized (with cancelled departure or arrival slots) if they cancelled empty or nearly-empty flights. But airlines flew empty flights anyway.
From personal experience I know that many fewer flights were scheduled from the US to Italy flew in April and May, 2020. And many of those scheduled were cancelled a few days in advance.
Is it possible that the "ghost flights" started after May?
In any case, it is clear that governments ought to demand statistics about number of paying passengers, and publish them. The simple wish of a business to keep something secret should carry very little weight in the decision about whether to allow it to do so. Any significant public interest should be enough to override that wish.
*The [UK's] "living with Covid" strategy fails to provide testing, or address the impact of future variants, long Covid and inequality.*
The US may provide for testing more than the UK does. But neither one will do what is necessary to assure Covid-spreading staff are not handle your order, or preparing your food. That calls for (1) testing them so they know they have Covid-19, (2) requiring them to stay home when sick, and (3) giving them paid sick leave so they can afford to stay home when sick.
Theory: plutocratist Democrats treat Republican insurrectionists like fellow members of the plutocratist (and, to some extent, racist) elite, even as the Republicans plot to overthrow democracy.
Canadian cops are ready to end further truck blockades without delay. They say they will scrupulously respect the right to protest in other ways, and they seem to have done so this time.
One of the nasty consequences of nonfree software is that programs become unobtainable at the whim of some company.
Nonfree software means some "owner" officially owns all copies, and has power over all who use the program. That's an injustice in itself, and it is the root of many other injustices. It even includes power over whether anyone can get a copy, as described above.
Covid-19 has led Australians to care more about how the state aids people's wellbeing, and to give lower priority to "law and order".
The Dakota Access pipeline has finally lost its fight against the court decision requiring a new environmental impact study. However, the pipeline will continue operating until that is done.
The company will surely try to delay the actual report. How many years of delay can they arrange? And if Republicans seize power, all they need to do, to keep the pipeline operating forever, is to slow down this environmental impact study so that it never reports any result.
George Washington University secretly tracked the movements of students and faculty, for a statistical study of how the campus facilities were used and how people travel around campus.
Making a statistical survey would be harmless, if it were impossible to recover any individual's data from it. With this survey, extracting data about an individual is possible. If it tracks people by their IP addresses, they should start changing those. Does the system try to stop them?
In order for people to trust the university, it needs to show them it cannot track them. Once tracking becomes an option that the university can turn on and turn off at will, people will feel they are being watched.
The Tories plan to cut the budget for research into Covid-19.
Apparently, eliminating rules to retard the spread will be an excuse to decide that the disease can be ignored by society.
US immigration courts are so understaffed that asylum-seekers may not be notified before their hearings.
New Zealand will maintain requirements to reduce contagion of Covid-19 until the case rate stabilizes at a new, low level, and only then consider removing some of them.
That is a wise approach. Furthermore, it would be wise to terminate measures one by one, and see what effect each one has on the rate of infections before going on to the next one.
It is a mistake to decide by counting deaths. Some percentage of the people who survive the initial infection will develop permanent disabilities. With Omicron, it may still be too early to get such data, since large numbers of people didn't catch Omicron until around 3 months ago.
It is important to remember also that a substantial fraction of people would probably die if they ever catch Covid-19, despite being vaccinated, because they are immunocompromised or have other medical problems. To eliminate mask and vaccination requirements for everyone else would force that fraction into permanent isolation, along with any family members who join them in isolation.
*US claims Russia creating lists of Ukrainians "to be killed or sent to camps."*
I would not treat this as certain based on the unsupported word of the US. But this is what Putin does in Russia, so he will surely do it in Ukraine too.
As for dissidents (Russians or Belarusians) in exile in Ukraine, Putin will surely persecute them if he gets his hands on them. I doubt he will hesitate to go as far as his ally, Lukashenko, has already gone.
Those dissidents need to flee Ukraine right away. They can't wait and apply for asylum first -- they must travel by land and then apply for asylum. People with Ukrainian passports are welcome to visit European countries, but those in exile in Ukraine probably don't have those. Will Poland let them in?
Countries facing a guerrilla resistance in an occupied country often arrest its influential sympathizers. The US did this while occupying Vietnam.
and maybe also in Iraq -- I don't remember off-hand. (We should not equate a resistance movement with a terrorist campaign.)
Most recently, India arrested everyone in Kashmir who was in any sense a leader, immediately after converting it, in effect, from an Indian state to an occupied territory.
*Vladimir Putin: the Authentic Leader of the Republican Party.*
*Real constitutional reform [in the UK] goes beyond abolishing the monarchy.*
I don't think the question of whether the UK has a constitutional monarch or no monarch is very significant at all. The system of government is the problem.
Easter Island has over 1000 of its large stone statues, but the inhabitants resent that a few were moved to other places, such as Santiago, Chile.
Colombia's Supreme Court has "decriminalized" abortion.
This is clearly a great step forward, but the choice of the word "decriminalized" rather than "legalized" suggests that some step remains to be taken.
Republican states are deregulating the use of teenage workers, allowing employers to make them do dangerous jobs or work so many hours that it cuts into their education.
It's entirely congruent with the Republican philosophy that the wealthy should be able to pressure everyone else into something close to slavery.
*Biden administration freezes new oil and gas drilling leases after court rules against key climate tool.*
That is the right thing to do, after all.
Fossil fuel companies are demanding billions of dollars in damages from countries that are blocking development of new oilfields, or even cutting down on the use of coal. They are doing this through a business-supremacy treaty, the "Energy Charter Treaty", which has an ISDS clause ("I Sue Democratic States")
It is hard for the victims of the treaty to cancel it; they would need to rebel against the global systems for enforcing the payments.
However, countries could pass laws that recognize that these companies are engaging in attempted mass murder -- which is the truth -- as well as any lawyers that represent them in the treaty cases. Then they could start a global manhunt to prosecute them. With luck, this will cause the treaty to become ineffective.
The main threat to Americans is not from China or Russia -- it is from plutocracy. And likewise the main threat to Biden's reelection.
Not only Biden, but most Democrats in Congress too, support plutocracy.
(satire) *Beijing Streets Overrun By Hundreds Of Stray Olympians After End Of Games.*
(satire) A man realized that *over the years he had become just a shell of his imagined self.*
Putin has started a small invasion of Ukraine: he has recognized the independence of the two rebel areas (which he created with Russian money, arms and soldiers), and saying he will send soldiers there as "peacekeepers".
At one level, this announcement acknowledges a fact he has hitherto denied: Russian arms and troops are in Donetsk and Luhansk. At another level, calling them "peacekeepers" signals that they will attack. Putin's approach to truth is like Republicans': he reverses important truths to show that no one has the power to make him stop lying.
Because this is a small invasion as invasions go, it puts NATO in a quandary. To disregard it means Putin can seize anything and get away with it, as long as he does so by small steps. But because it is so small, any substantial response is too big, disproportionate.
US citizens: call on Congress to a corporate profits minimum tax so that large, profitable corporations don't pay $0 in federal income tax.
US citizens: call on Congress to make prisoners' phone calls inexpensive.
New South Wales is allowing farmers to divert more rain water upstream, though this will endanger the wildlife life in downstream reaches of the rivers.
*Five ways AI is saving wildlife -– from counting chimps to locating whales.*
Identifying animals and poachers is an important part of a system for protecting the animals, but won't do anything without the rest of the system, and there are often political obstacles to doing that.
Belgians propose to melt a statue of King Léopold II, and make it into a statue depicting the suffering caused by his colonial rule over the Congo.
Progressive politicians must stop being scared of the vague accusation of "woke".
Many right-wing smear words work by being vague. They seize on an extreme fringe view which has real flaws, lump it together with other views which don't partake of those flaws, give one name to all so as to attack the latter for the flaws of the former. "Woke" is one example. "Critical race theory" is another.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Recovering America's Wildlife Act.
It would provide funding to every state, territory and the District of Columbia to proactively conserve more than 12,000 at-risk fish and wildlife species.
For saving these endangered species, and hundreds of thousands of other species, we must urgently reduce greenhouse emissions in addition to making specific conservation plans.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on senators to confirm Fed nominees Raskin, Cook, and Brainard.
General Smedley Butler wrote that "war is a racket."
Ralph Nader: *California Advocates Counterattack Corporate Crime and Control.*
Nader refers to the bills that are so complex that it is hard to tell whether they are correct -- followed by customer dis-service departments designed to make people give up trying.
*[Indigenous] American tribes sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering.*
They may have legal grounds available under their treaties that could fill gaps created for the rest of us by the right-wing Supreme Court.
The Church of England plans to "engage" with planet roasters rather than divest from them.
People that profit from fossil fuels have found their way into various councils in institutions that are supposed to serve the public good. They use the resulting influence to protect their future profits by blocking moves that would serve the institutions' goals by reducing greenhouse emissions.
See the example of WGBH and its science programs (David Koch left the board, but kept influence on NOVA ; he died in 2019).
Experience shows that "engaging" with oil companies means nothing more than choosing to believe their greenwashing.
Sea-level rise will raise groundwater in coastal areas, and release toxic chemicals that people have buried there. To avoid poisoning people and animals, we will need to dig out those areas and convert the toxins. The resulting ponds can be very useful -- for floating neighborhoods, as in the Netherlands.
I doubt that poor countries will have the means to do this. I think that hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of those regions will have to struggle to survive. Some will survive by being terribly exploited, and the rest will die. And it is too late to avoid this by reducing greenhouse emissions now.
Those peoples can reduce the number of people who suffer those effects by having fewer children.
The CDC has kept important Covid-19 statistics unreleased. For some kinds of data, this has gone on for more than a year.
If adults under 50 don't benefit from booster doses, that's great. That could free up US vaccine for unvaccinated people in other countries.
The Tories plan to politicize the now-independent election-monitoring body.
This, together with their plans for voter suppression, indicate their intention to impose their rule through a pretend democracy.
Joseph Stiglitz: *Credit Suisse has allowed the morally bankrupt to steal from the poor for too long.*
Unlike Stiglitz, I have no sympathy for countries that operate as tax havens or provide a service of disguising ill-gotten gains. No matter whether be small, obscure islands such as Nevis or Jersey, or large, prominent islands such as Britain or Ireland, or continental countries such as the US. Saying "this is so we don't export addictive drugs" is no excuse.
Bogus Johnson's latest bogus policy is to make it harder for Britons who catch Covid-19 to avoid spreading it, by charging them to get tested.
He seems to be awfully confident that Covid-19 will continue decreasing anyway, but what if that's not so?
The Mountain Valley Pipeline never had a valid environmental study, and it is too late to make one now since the construction of the pipeline has already caused damage to habitats and there is no way to measure what they were before. Thus, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is obligated to stop construction.
But since it disregarded the law before, can we expect it to obey the law now?
Most of the Republicans in Congress are trying to sabotage the non-nuclear deal with Iran. Since convincing Iran not to develop nuclear weapons is important for US national security, and reestablishing the deal is the only way to achieve that, those Republicans have shown that they are willing to harm their country to get power over it.
Fossil fuel companies have cut their employment by 30% since 2014. They pretend to employ lots of people, but it's not true.
Even if that claim were true, it would not be significant. It makes no sense to cause the death of hundreds of millions to get a hundred thousand jobs now.
Belarus says that the Russian soldiers will remain there indefinitely.
Pfizer is using the new Covid-19 treatment pills to gouge sick people. Instead of absolutely banning generic production, it is playing favorites to limit generic production which is almost as bad.
We should abolish patents in the field of medicine, and fund the costs of drug research directly through the state.
The Tories still refuse to determine the ultimate owners of billions of dollars worth of real estate owned through front companies by people unknown, not even though Russian oligarchs could use this to evade the sanctions they are being threatened with.
The UK is right when it criticizes EU countries for allowing themselves to be dependent on gas from Russia. However, trying to play "what about you" with this is a distraction. Both criticisms are valid.
The principal reason for identifying the real owners has nothing to do with the Ukraine crisis. It is to put an end to using them for tax evasion or as a channel for hiding the proceeds of crime.
Here is an example.
The principal reason to stop burning Russia's natural gas is that it contributes to global heating, which endangers civilization.
Even if Russia and NATO made peace tomorrow, Russian planet-roasting would remain just as dangerous as US planet-roasting or any other country's.
Europe has done little to reduce its demand for natural gas because fossil fuel companies are presenting arguments for going slowly.
Arguing that recovery from Covid-19 should be considered equivalent to getting one dose of vaccine.
For three decades, 1942 to 1972, American scientists intentionally infected over a thousand subjects with hepatitis to study what would happen.
I can't tell from this book review what, if anything, the subjects were told about what was going to be done to them. At one extreme, they may have been forced outright. At the other extreme, they could have been offered a good deal given their situations, and asked for informed consent -- but the text seems to imply that the experimenters did not do that. What did they do? This seems to be the crucial moral question.
*To begin unravelling the Kremlin’s tendrils from Britain, the government [i.e., the Tory Party] must return millions in political donations.*
The royal family sells "honors" for large sums of money, but this is not considered a bribe, because it is a centuries-old tradition and in the past was not hidden.
Fossil fuel companies in the UK secretly provide personnel to help run some committees of Parliament. In some cases they serve as the contact point for the committee, which gives them tremendous power.
This arrangement is outright corruption, and ought to be prohibited absolutely.
The US is making a mistake by encouraging people to stop wearing masks now. There are still many new cases.
The only way it would be wise to stop insisting people wear masks indoors or close to other people is if protecting oneself with an N95 mask is so reliable that one no longer needs to be concerned about whether the people around one are wearing masks themselves.
The data broker X-Mode bought location data about 20,000 people collected by around 100 different malicious apps.
This shows how much it has become true that you must expect all non-libre programs to mistreat their users. There are surely a few exceptions, but that's no reason to allow this level of mistreatment to continue.
The way to stop it reliably is to get rid of nonfree software.
The New York City thug department boasted of arresting 23 people for stealing diapers. The average amount each stole was around 80 dollars' worth -- which is not a large amount nowadays. It looks like these people were stealing due to desperate poverty.
Nevada Republicans have proposed to scare away voters from disprivileged groups by stationing National Guard troops around polling places, as well as more ordinary methods of rigging the election.
The Jewish National Fund was established to acquire land in Palestine for Jews to settle. Initially, with Turkey and then Britain ruling the area, it did this by buying land from its owners. But under Israel's rule, it can fabricate excuses to cheat.
NATO is planning how to arm the Ukrainian resistance if Russia attacks.
As the few survivors of the internment of the Japanese die, we Americans must not forget the lessons we ought to learn from that wrong.
19 Austin thugs have been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for attacking Black Lives Matter protesters.
"Beanbag round" is a euphemism for a bag containing lead balls such as might be fired with a shotgun. In fact, a shotgun is the way to fire it.
US citizens: call on US TV cable companies to drop Fox (Faux) News.
I prefer another form of this campaign which I've seen proposed before: to ask those cable companies to drop Fox from the basic minimum package. That way, customers would still be able to get Faux News if they request it and pay extra for it. But I support either one.
The Abortion Support Network helps women travel to another country where they can get abortions. Even in Europe, this is necessary.
Some twisted logic has convinced the Pentagon to permit exemptions from vaccine requirements because of people's religion.
The idea of a "religious exemption" from public health requirements is absurd. Your religion, whatever it may be, does not entitle you to violate public health precautions and put other people in danger.
There is no telling how far these "religious exemption" will go after this. Suppose your religion says that fire is an act of the fire god and people must not resist divine will. Does that entitle you to a religious exemption to the building codes?
(satire) *Biden Shoots Self In Foot In Hopes Of Getting Discharged From Presidency.*
The EU is about to discard 55 million Covid-19 vaccine doses because they will be too old to use. If governments had paid attention to vaccination of Africans, they could surely have sent some tens of millions of doses there while time remained to use them.
President Lyndon Johnson's secret phone call recordings show that Nixon, as a candidate, sabotaged peace negotiations with Vietnam. Johnson considered this treason, and I agree.
I've read that Reagan similarly sabotaged peace negotiations with Iran to defeat Carter's reelection.
*Just 6% of US House Seats Expected to Be Competitive Thanks to Rigged Maps.*
The other 94% will be foregone conclusions.
The rate of deaths from Covid is increasing, world-wide, even though fewer new cases are being recorded. This suggests that perhaps the rate of new cases is actually increasing too, but governments don't notice because they are doing fewer tests.
A secret recording shows Amazon's threat of illegal retaliation against workers that vote for a union.
Over 50 US prosecutors have signed a petition against the death penalty.
I support their stand, and I've stated my reasons before.
A campaign pushes for initiative petitions to eliminate poverty wages, especially for workers that currently depend on tips.
*It's Time to Get Loud on Abortion Rights.*
A controlled study of somewhat vulnerable patients with Covid-19 found that giving patents Ivermectin gave them no benefit compared with a placebo, and sometimes it caused side effects.
The article does not say whether the study was blinded.
Canada has ended the right-wing occupation of central Ottawa. Right-wing fanatics were involved in organizing the occupations, and at least a few brought guns.
It is interesting to compare this with Occupy Wall Street, which went on for a long time, but stayed in a park rather than using trucks to block streets for weeks.
Public transportation in London has banned ads for junk food, and it has had a macro effect.
US citizens: call on the Bureau of Land management to block the enormous planned "Willow" oil field.
US citizens: call on Biden to release the legal memo advising him about his power to cancel federal student debt.
US citizens: call on Starbucks to halt its union-busting tactics.
US citizens: call on the Department of Justice to oppose state-level restrictions on the right to protest.
US citizens: call on Biden to regulate the emissions of heavy-duty trucks more strictly.
*Sanders Blasts GOP, Manchin Over 41% Spike in Child Poverty.*
The way the US treats members of the military demonstrates that social democracy is possible and effective in the US.
All we need is to offer these benefits and services to the rest of the population.
*Six African countries to begin making mRNA vaccines as part of WHO scheme.*
A bitcoin mining company bought a coal-fired power plant that was about to be shut down permanently, and are keeping it running much more than before, releasing lots of CO2.
We must not allow such a heavily polluting industry to continue unless they make it cleaner.
30 years ago. journalist Chris Mullin interviewed real Irish terrorists confidentially as part of an effort to exonerate people falsely convicted of a terrorist bombing. (They were in fact exonerated.)
Now he faces the threat of jail if he does not hand over those interviews.
The SEC proposes to put firm limits on "private equity" purchase and trashing of profitable companies.
"Gators" are companies that buy many small manufacturers that sell on Amazon.
The gator is better placed to stand up to Amazon's bullying than a small manufacturer, but the result is a second layer of oligopoly.
Uber and Lyft lost billions in 2021 despite raising prices.
I hope they won't be able to keep this up much longer. Their surveillance systems must be eliminated. Then we only need to make sure that we can use taxis without identifying ourselves.
Arguing that there are fundamental reasons why today's cryptocurrencies are insecure and wasteful, and they cannot yield the benefits people hope to get from them.
Arguing that the internet has succeeded in making most people better informed, overall, and that the growing problems are due to increased polarization rather than simple ignorance.
One specific claim is a confusion. He claims that Republicans are becoming less right-wing overall, and cites a few policy areas. He might be right about them; but Republicans have become far more right-wing in the areas of banning abortions, supporting fossil fuels, crushing immigrants, attacking elections, defending and imposing racism, and undermining constitutional government.
One news site's unclear redaction of another site's story about some scientific research produced unclear wording, which appeared to report that vaccination increased the amount of virus patients would transmit. Antivaxxers trump-eted this editorial mistake as supposed "proof" that vaccination could backfire.
This article compares the two stories and shows what the researchers actually reported.
In effect, right-wing conspiritorialists play a million parallel games of Telephone, and each time one yields words that seem to endorse their cause, they play it for all they can get.
*Biden Issues More Gas and Oil Drilling Permits [in his first year] Than [the wrecker did] in His First Year.*
California is considering a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides.
Some pipeline in Louisiana is leaking 100 tons of methane per hour, but the pipeline owners all say "It's not our pipeline!"
Tennessee established gratis "pre-kindergarten" school for a number of poor children, and chose by a lottery which children got in. A study found out that the children who were not admitted to the pre-kindergarten were doing better, a few years later, than the children who the children who had gone through the pre-kindergarten.
Suggestions for how to encourage rapid construction of more low-income housing.
I have two more suggestions:
Eliminate zoning limits on density of residential housing. Zoning creates scarcity, and with millions of homeowners looking for a way to sell their homes for a higher price, they will always find (or create) a way.
Without the artificial scarcity, construction will bring housing prices down. We will also be able to limit urban sprawl and make mass transit more efficient.
Forbid corporations to own residential buildings with four or less units. An individual owner of many residences for rent will someday get old, and perhaps infirm, and eventually die. Some of per properties will get sold, and might be bought by a new homeowner. By contrast, the corporations that make rental housing their business will never sell.
*[The corrupter] improperly took away classified material, National Archives says.*
*New York City will begin removing homeless people from subways at night.*
The mayor said that this will not involve arresting them, but what will actually happen to them? Where will they be able to go? That's the crucial moral question which will determine whether making them leave the subway is acceptable.
The Russian proxy separatists in eastern Ukraine are increasing their artillery attacks against neighboring areas, while spreading disinformation claiming that Ukraine is attacking them.
They also claim that schools outside their zone, in areas controlled by the Ukrainian state, were bombarded by the Ukrainian state.
A few weeks ago, the US warned that Putin was preparing to do something like this.
The US grabbed Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab off of a plane (with the help of Cabo Verde) and has imprisoned him and brought charges against him.
This reminds me of what Belarus did to the dissident, Roman Protasevich.
Saab stated in US court that he was also working with the DEA as an informer all the time.
If he presents evidence of this, it means the US violated diplomatic immunity to arrest its own informant.
*San Francisco DA drops charges against woman whose rape kit DNA linked her to a property crime.*
It is more important to encourage people to report grave crimes than to prosecute them for minor offenses.
When Theresa May was prime minister, her staff pressured another minister to cancel plans for new systems to stop rich crooks from hiding their wealth in the UK.
Major oil companies' environmental claims are greenwashing — a study finds that they are increasing their spending on extracting more fossil fuels.
As banks start investing in cryptocurrencies, they create a risk of financial crises.
*[Interior Secretary] Ryan Zinke lied to agency ethics official about his involvement with foundation to advance project in his Montana home town.
New South Wales, a state in Australia, has accelerated the destruction of habitats for native species.
This is been a highly contested political issue, and the greedy bastards have been winning.
Local campaigns in Mali are changing social opinion about female genital mutilation.
Men are joining the campaign.
The UK plans to teach people not to worry about Covid by making them pay to get reliably tested.
*Students' [legal] complaint argues it's illegal for US universities to invest in fossil fuels.*
Australian planet-roaster business interests have published an exaggerated estimate of what it would cost to stop opening new extraction facilities for coal and gas.
*World spends $1.8tn a year on subsidies that harm environment, study finds.*
Fossil fuel subsidies make up 1/3 of that total. Other large parts come from deforestation, pumping fossil water out of aquifers that will take ages to refill, and pollution.
The campaign of Zemmour, the far-right French candidate for president, is found to be racist and deceptive, accuses someone who infiltrated it.
Right-wing extremists see nothing wrong with racism or lying, so we should expect them to do those things.
* The Dutch state condoned and concealed a systematic use of extreme violence such as extrajudicial executions and torture during the 1945-9 Indonesian war of independence.*
*Police stop brawl by letting white youth sit on sofa as black teen is handcuffed.*
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.
I corrected this bigotry in the title when I cited it.
*US has suffered more than 1m excess deaths during pandemic, CDC finds.*
This exceeds the 900,000 deaths explicitly attributed to Covid-19. Some of them are people who did not catch Covid-19, but died due to the conditions of the pandemic — for instance, because hospitals had no capacity to treat them for other conditions such as cancer.
*Oath Keepers, Anti-Democracy Activists, and Others on the Far Right Are Funding Canada's "Freedom Convoy".*
Bernie Sanders describes the dangerous power that big Wall Street investment companies have over all areas of business. Also the way "private equity" investors buy up businesses people depend on, and destroy them.
We need to prohibit those operations — I believe they were illegal until the 1980s and that it was Reagan that authorized them — but today's plutocratist legislators won't help.
Elon Musk has endorsed the mad right-wing exaggeration of comparing Trudeau to Hitler.
Exaggerations like this enable right-wing extremists to vaunt their contempt for sense and truth, to shamelessly equate requiring life-saving measures is the moral equivalent of murder.
The new Texas obstacles to voting by mail have been extremely effective. In the county that includes Houston, almost 40% of mailed-in ballots were missing what was necessary.
That doesn't count the people who didn't vote because they were no longer allowed to vote by mail and their responsibilities didn't let them go to vote on a Tuesday.
*Belgian Workers Win Right to Request Four-Day Week.* This right may depend on having a union contract in place which authorizes working 10 hours per day on each of the four working days. I am not sure.
UK thugs destroyed a Black Lives Matter activist group by trying to recruit one of its supporters as an informer. She showed other members what was happening, and the rest got scared of persecution and the group collapsed.
Some Republican candidates are using advertisements to encourage political violence.
The US passed a law in 2008 to investigate unsolved murders of civil rights activists in the 1960s, but the effort has not produced one single indictment.
Global heating is changing Australian ecosystems: more plants, fewer fur seals.
Sea-level rise is accelerating: scientists expect another foot by 2050, if we don't rapidly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
US states with stricter gun control have lower rates of killings with guns.
The states with weak regulations have more than three times the gun killings per capita as states with strong gun control.
*Major banks pledging "net zero" are pouring money into [coal mining].*
Republicans are undermining religious freedom for Americans by subcontracting state services to religious organizations that refuse to serve people who don't meet their religious characteristics.
This extends a long-standing practice in which state-supported hospitals that are owned by religious organizations refuse to cooperate with abortion.
All levels of government should take a strict stand: when state-funded and state-licenses services are not allowed to impose any religious criteria on who they serve or what services they provide.
Australia keeps refugees in immigration prison for almost two years on the average. A few have been in immigration prison for ten years.
US citizens: call for a Democratic primary challenge to Senator Sinema, to replace her with someone that won't support the filibuster.
Alas, the chance to do this will not happen until 2024.
US citizens: call on Whole Foods to set an example by reducing use of throw-away plastic.
US citizens: Tell the Republican National Committee that violent insurrection is not "Legitimate Political Discourse."
I don't post petitions that only vent feelings. They should have a chance of influencing outcomes. The RNC will not heed our complaints about Republicans' betrayal of the US Constitution's letter and spirit, but some Republicans may, and some may reject the Republican Party over this.
US citizens: call on Congress to close the gaps in inheritance tax that billionaires use to pass on billions to their heirs.
US citizens: support the End Child Poverty Act.
US citizens: oppose the anti-encryption "EARN-IT" Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to ban "no-knock" warrants. They are a recipe for great damage.
Greg Palast's take on the Ukraine situation.
Escaped pet parrots in New Zealand, mostly brought from Australia, may breed and increase the threat to many endangered native birds.
Releasing a pet into the wild is a bad idea. If that species lives wild in your area, it may not matter. But if it doesn't. At best that pet will die. At worst it will destroy the ecosystem.
The CDC is considering relaxing the harshest aspect of the war on pain sufferers, which denied people strong painkillers when they were suffering from excruciating acute medical problems.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the 4th Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, to stop "security" agencies from illegally snooping on Americans without warrants.
US citizens: call on the USPS Board of Governors to fire DeJoy.
Why haven't they done so? What's going on here?
US citizens: call on Amazon to stop selling neonicotinoids.
*The fall of Cressida Dick [ex-commissioner of the London thug department] gives us the opportunity to truly reform Britain's police.*
Curing a pervasive problem of attitude in an organization will tend to stir up resentment. A person whose general approach is to try to be popular with the staff is likely to turn away from tackling the problem.
*The US private equity firms funding dirty energy projects.*
Putin seems to be planning to add 10 more years to Alexei Navalny's sentence.
Court rulings like this in Russia are as arbitrary as they were in the Soviet Union. But that should be no surprise.
What horrifies me is that there is no way to prevent megacorporations such as Chevron from doing this to people in the US.
*Belgium to give workers right to request four-day week.*
The UK post office falsely accused 700 employees of theft, and ruined their lives, based on a computer system known to be faulty.
The relatives of students shot in Sandy Hook got Remington Arms to agree to pay to settle a lawsuit The company was potentially liable because it marketed the rifle based on the possibility of killing people with it.
Cuba has sentenced people to as much as 20 years in prison for protesting.
Paris is installing systems to detect illegally noisy vehicles and identify their license plate numbers so as to give them tickets.
I think it is basically legitimate to do this, provided that the system recognizes the vehicle's license plate number only when it has detected a violation. It is wrong ever to track vehicles without a specific cause.
Online dating platforms are screwing up the way people choose who they will date. Some reject a priori anyone they meet outside of a dating platform.
These platforms collect lots of personal data, and I wouldn't reveal my identity to any of them.
Republicans are legislating obstacles to obtaining and using abortion drugs.
Can the federal government permit these drugs to be mailed from another state?
Canadian police shut down the Canadian right-wing & antivax bridge-blocking protest gently, with no violence. Once they announced they would tow the trucks and arrest the drivers, most drivers left.
Future protests will be allowed, but not blocking the road.
It surprised me how long officials permitted the protest to continue as long as they did. They have not acted against the occupation of Ottawa but say they will do it soon.
(satire) *Los Angeles Bulldozes SoFi Stadium After Reports That Thousands Of Vagrants Convening There.*
Major league sports teams are a machine billionaires to extract money from the state. Allowing others to invest in them would not change much.
My idea for a remedy is to prohibit any sort of public subsidy or tax incentives for the teams or the stadiums they will use.
The anti-Valentine’s Day movement is catching on in Britain.
Can we get it going in the US? Let's fight the commercial pressure to make us feel an obligation to buy gifts for various people just because it is such-and-such day.
To keep this on track, we must resist attempts to distort it into another excuse for obligatory spending.
*Climate Crisis Has Made Western US Megadrought Worst in 1,200 Years.*
The other droughts during that time period include those that wiped out ancient towns in Arizona and New Mexico. Those towns were never reoccupied.
Los Angeles County is investing in recycling wastewater, and plans to get 70% of its water locally (local rain and recycling, I suppose) by 2035.
That will help provide drinking water, but won't do much for California farms or California forests. I fear they cannot survive if we don't stop global heating.
A commander in the London thug department, who drew up the policy for repression of drugs, faces dismissal for taking marijuana and two psychedelic drugs while on vacation outside the UK.
When a person's conduct conflicts with a rule, at least one has to be wrong. When the person has publicly defended the rule, at least one aspect of per conduct must be wrong. But which one?
Don't assume blindly that it was right to repress drugs and wrong to try them. These drugs are not addictive and there should be lawful ways to get them and try them. I think the commander's wrong was to participate actively in repression of these drugs.
*The largest 25 European banks -— all purportedly committed to "net-zero" goals -- have provided more than $400 billion in financing to 50 corporations expanding oil and gas production since 2016, with no signs of slowing down.*
*We Need Answers About the Unconstitutional Mass Surveillance of the CIA.* And Congress must put an end to it.
Sad to say, Congress is rushing to do the exact opposite, with the "EARN It" act that would prohibit services from offering end-to-end encryption.
(satire) *Artificially Intelligent Amazon Supercomputer Stuck In Dead-End Retail Job.*
Cambodia plans to extend total repression of opposition views onto the internet by centralizing network communication.
China is not the only country to have done this -- Russia has done it too.
A nexus of trumpery is a connection between Covid-19 disinformation, profit from ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and the wrecker's claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The Department of Harshness and Sadism (DHS) is studying the use of walking robots to patrol the border with Mexico. They like to call these robots "dogs", but they have no actual relationship or resemblance to dogs, so that is PR.
The robots being evaluated now are not armed, but since the US is in favor of deploying armed robots, that would tend to follow.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court.
US citizens: call on Biden not to designate the Houthis as terrorists.
The US should not support Salafi Arabia and the UAE (two repressive and cruel states) in this war.
US citizens: call on the PR agency Edelman to drop its oil, gas, and coal clients.
UK climate activists are planning direct action against oil facilities.
*From politicians to academics, Americans who speak against Hindutva face harsh backlash, protests, and violent threats.*
The threats appear to be organized by powerful right-wing organizations in India.
More than half the money visibly donated to the anti-vax roadblocks in Canada came from Americans. A little over 1/3 came from Canadians.
In effect, these money-transfer sites have become a system for destabilizing Canada. It would be wise to prevent their use for this purpose.
I suspect that American right-wing billionaires are providing money secretly to be used to pay their parking tickets.
If the protesters are being supported by rich foreigners, it enables right-wing protesters to disregard fines the way megacorporations do. In both cases, this calls for increasing fines until they are too much to ignore.
Rivers around the world are polluted by medicines, including antibiotics. In some cases the concentration is enough to be dangerous to wildlife. The antibiotics can breed bacteria for resistance, and that can kill humans later.
Several arguments why Afghanistan's 7 billion dollars should go to help Afghanistan begin trading again, and not be given to anyone else.
The argument that "this money belongs to the government of Afghanistan" is weak, since that government ceased to exist. But the other arguments are sufficient without that one. I think using some of that money for immediate relief to Afghanistan is acceptable.
Prison thugs in Arkansas gave ivermectin in large doses (and other drugs) to several prisoners without asking them, or even telling them. They started having serious symptoms that are not typical for Covid-19.
The article doesn't say what the other drugs were. Each one was an experiment without consent, and several others might also have been dangerous for all we know.
*Beware of this deadly mix: oligarchic economics and racist, nationalist populism.*
The US has not reached the oligarchic stage, but oligarchy implies plutocracy (which already exists in the US).
Plutocracy makes political improvements on the most important issues very hard, and that might explain why people turn to twisted forms of faith that attack various scapegoats (immigrants, Muslims, Jews, blacks, vaccine companies, witches, …).
Methane emissions have increased substantially since 2007. Before that, they were declining. Scientists worry that this may due to a positive feedback loop in which rising temperatures are releasing buried methane.
If that's true, we may be in for a catastrophic release of methane and global heating of much more than 2C.
A white Republican college student is studying critical race theory in the University of Mississippi, and defends the subject.
Global heating has facilitated a plague of pine-borer beetles that are killing millions of trees in Canada. The cost of lumber has gone up.
Protesters against the UK bill to repress protests are being charged with rioting, which indicates the intention to give them long prison sentences.
The charges refer to protests in which the thugs violently attacked protesters, and some protesters fought back.
In Georgia, each county has its election board, which is locally elected. The state is removing Democrats from election boards and appointing Republicans to replace them.
The Republicans on the board will be in a position to kick lots of black voters off the voter list.
The corrupter, while president, tried to destroy many of the records of his conversations, rather than hand them over to the National Archive as the law requires. He may still be holding on to them.
Some wondered if he was doing this out of madness, but I suspect it was a lifelong habit of silencing critics by being over the top.
Biden should appoint a Supreme Court justice with experience representing people with no particular power.
(satire) *The coming MAGA cultural revolution?*
(satire) *Inflation Jumps 7.5% Before Janet Yellen Realizes She Leaning Against "Turbo" Lever.*
Biden should have federal agencies completely stop arguing in court against bankrupt student debtors that seek to escape their student loan debt.
Biden promised to cancel most of these debts, and has not done so. Instead, his officials are doing the exact opposite.
The new Los Angeles football stadium sets an example by having been built with no government subsidy.
The government should use its funds to do things that the public needs, not to subsidize rich sports team owners.
(satire) *Pope Quietly Moves God To Different Universe After Deity Caught Molesting Altar Boy.*
* The ADL didn't utter a word of concern about the painstakingly detailed descriptions of Israel's apartheid system, nor an ounce of self-reflection about the organization's own unequivocal support for Israel's unjust and discriminatory system.*
The Afghan central bank needs some funds so that people in Afghanistan can buy food.
70 Starbucks stores are now trying to unionize.
*Europeans more likely to vote green after extreme weather events.*
A father and son team decided to murder a black FedEx driver, but he survived to tell what they did.
7 or 8 vaquita porpoises remain alive. Mexico agreed to ban the gill nets that kill them, but has not bothered to enforce the law.
London's mayor says he is determined to end the corruption and bigotry in the London thug department.
However, he supported the commissioner who failed to do this, and continued his support until the last moment.
*Why not re-erect the statue of Edward Colston and topple it once a year?*
I like the idea of such a ceremony, but I wonder if there could be a target more important and better known than Colston. No one outside Bristol had heard of Colston in recent times until his statue was knocked down.
Some Texas prisons are hot enough to make people swelter while sitting down. People with certain medical conditions can die of it.
Many Florida prisons are vulnerable to flooding during storms. Sometimes flooding makes sewage rise inside the cells. People can catch diseases that way.
Four progressive federal lawmakers have called for government agencies to stop using Clearview AI facial recognition, citing the dangers of the use of that technology.
I'm proud to have voted for Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey, but this is just a first step. Activities such as Clearview AI's business ought to be illegal, pure and simple.
Youtube and TikTok host third-party trackers, meaning that other companies (or other entries) track users and keep dossiers about what those users watch and do in Youtube and TikTok.
A group of young people in Virginia have sued the state for authorizing fossil fuel infrastructure that is expected to damage their health and shorten their lives.
Calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to start resisting bank mergers.
A legal analysis of what would happen if a cryptocurrency exchange in the US goes bankrupt: customers would probably lose all their "deposits", because the exchange is not a bank and the coins are not really a "deposit."
An interview with Yanis Varoufakis, in which he rejects the idea that cryptocurrencies can reduce the injustice of an oppressive oligarchic economic system.
He describes today's economy as techno-feudalist rather than capitalist, because markets play less of a role than before. (Capitalism, as he defines it, is based on extracting money from most people through markets, whereas feudalism is based on extracting money from most people outside of markets.)
One point he misses in his advocacy of central bank digital currencies to dis-intermediate the commercial banks is the surveillance impact and how dangerous that is. I pay for all the goods I buy in cash, and I would not switch to identifying myself for a central bank digital currency just to screw a private bank.
Varoufakis endorses out-and-out socialism, in which there would no longer be private business. I am not in favor of that radical leap into the unknown -- it could easily make things much worse. However, I find his insights valid and important regardless of that specific disagreement.
After deregulation and mergers, the remaining US railroads became very profitable by cutting employment, skimping on workers' safety, gouging customers with fees, and maximizing efficiency with just-in-time operations. They spent more on stock buybacks than on operating the line.
Covid taught them that just-in-time streamlining is a dangerous mistake whenever something starts to go wrong.
It's the frequent mistake of US industry -- optimizing the usual case and assuming nothing will go wrong.
We don't need price regulation if we make more competition. And we won't need more regulation to improve the treatment of railroad workers if we help workers make strong unions.
Government loans are helping "private equity" wreckers buy up rental housing and screw the tenants.
*Biden administration plans to spend $5bn to build EV charging network across US.*
That is basically a good plan, but if they are not careful, it will impose an unjust surveillance system. Most commercial charging stations accept only credit-card payment. The government should require these chargers accept cash payment given on the premises.
Also they should not be put in places that charge for parking, unless it is possible to pay cash to park and the parking lot does not track who does so.
Interviews with five desperate New Yorkers who lost their income and can't pay rent.
The accusation that the NYC Housing Authority is letting public housing run down to create an excuse to privatize it is horrible corruption. It would be interesting to pressure the new mayor about this and see if he is on the people's side.
US citizens: call on the US government to stop signing contracts for new immigration prisons.
US citizens: call on Pepsico to stop funding antiabortion candidates and parties.
US citizens: call on all government officials to be ready to defeat the corrupter's next coup attempt.
The IRS used to publish information on the 400 highest-income taxpayers each year. The corrupter stopped it. Biden should restart it.
(satire) *Tech Leaders Justify Project To Create Army Of AI-Controlled Bulletproof Grizzly Bears As Inevitable Part Of Progress.*
Republicans are using recall elections to knock out popular Democratic officials, hoping Democrats won't have money to campaign, and that most voters (who elected the Democrats) won't notice there is an election outside the usual schedule.
A German organization connected with BioNTech and Pfizer is trying to bully South Africa into abandoning its effort to reverse-engineer the Moderna vaccine and manufacture vaccines there.
The article digresses onto the topic of patents, but that's
a different issue. It is purely an issue of legal threats;
morally, there should
not be patents in the field of medicine.
[Reference updated on 2025-05-09 because the
old
link was broken.]
Norway talks a good game of climate defense leadership, but it continues to develop large new oil fields that can cause global disaster.
The US government pays to watch Faux News in the Pentagon and other military facilities. It should cut that off.
(satire) *Hollywood Studios Locked In Massive Bidding War For Screenplay Entitled "Existing IP TBD."*
*Public Health Experts Warn Against Premature End of School Mask Mandates.*
Last July, there was another case of a cop who shot someone with a gun while intending to tase him.
The 21st Century Bill of Rights states the progressive program for a livable society.
(satire) *Florida Bullies Concerned ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Would Make It Tougher To Identify LGBTQ Students To Torment.*
* The CIA has been secretly [and illegally] collecting Americans’ private information in bulk.*
This information comes from senators who are not allowed to state any more details, because the details are secret.
*We know how to save the endangered koala — it starts with protecting habitat.*
Democrat Gary Chambers, running for US Senate in Louisiana, showed his courage by burning the Confederate flag in an campaign ad.
In another ad, he smoked pot, to criticize the unjust effect of US drug laws. I wish I knew what he advocates for drug policy.
A new operating system for surveillance cameras makes it easy to sell proprietary add-on modules for additional kinds of AI for identification and monitoring.
In theory, this changes nothing about what sorts of video surveillance people and companies can do. In practice, it makes enforcement (by law, or by social pressure) of any rules whatsoever more difficult.
Biden has asked court to take Afghanistan's 7 billion dollars in assets deposited in the US, give half to humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, and half to relatives of victims of the September 2001 attacks.
This plan to provide aid to Afghans might be a good idea, if it avoids frittering away a substantial fraction on middlemen and if it gets into operation fast enough to save people from starvation. But I see no justification for giving half to the American victims of an attack carried out by a group of foreigners just because a few of its leaders were hiding in Afghanistan. It should all go to Afghans who need it.
A Michigan farm's beef is heavily contaminated with PFAS.
The article does not say whether any action will be taken against selling beef from that farm.
* As part of a calculated assault on democracy, QAnon steered far-right candidates toward secretary of state contests.*
Congress has passed a bill to stop nondisclosure agreements from being used to block workers from testifying about sexual harassment.
Nondisclosure agreements magnify the power of the wealthy and powerful.
Off one part of the English North Sea coast, the usual sea life has died. Everything is gone. Seals and seabirds, too.
It is not clear what the cause is, but some suspect dredging a river has released industrial toxins from the sediment.
A year ago, Texas's power grid delivered far insufficient electricity because many gas-fueled power plants failed. If Texas had more home solar power, it would have avoided the problem.
DeJoy is gaming a quirk in EPA standards for fuel efficiency to excuse buying gas-powered trucks instead of electric ones.
US citizens: call on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to use that department's power to fight against efforts to censor and ban books.
US citizens: ask your state representative to oppose laws to impose censorship of "uncomfortable" moral issues, especially in US history.
*A Human Rights Watch report found Cameroonian asylum-seekers forcibly flown back home suffered imprisonment, torture and rape.*
The wrecker seems to have instructed the deportation thugs to disregard the asylum-seekers' rights. It ought to be a crime for government issues to force people to waive their rights.
All managers who accepted these orders should be dismissed for doing so. People inclined to obey illegal orders and then plead "I was only obeying orders" are not fit to work in positions where they can send people to be tortured.
Target is teaching store managers how to recognize signs workers might be organizing. If they detect any, they will work with expensive consultants to quash the attempt.
*How felony charges are weaponized against pipeline protesters.*
British right-wing extremists fabricate and circulated many false accusations. Once in a while, the Tories adopt one and spread it further.
Meanwhile, in Australia the right-wing government hints that Labor is allied with China.
Labor is opposition in some details, but not so you'd notice on the biggest issues.
Some US states are lifting mask mandates while Covid transmission remains high. This will increase transmission to avoid some inconvenience.
Burmese soldiers entered a village and arrested whoever they could catch. Then murdered them.
Anti-mine protesters in Honduras have been convicted of "criminal damage" after spending 2.5 years in jail awaiting trial.
It is not clear what the "damage" refers to, since the prosecutors never said, but the mine polluted the region's water supply and made people sick.
In El Salvador, women who have miscarriages can be prosecuted for (allegedly) having an abortion. They can be imprisoned for decades.
A human rights organization has succeeded in freeing many of them because their trials were bogus. But little can be done for anyone who really had an abortion.
After a settlement agreement, Minnesota thugs are now forbidden to harass journalists.
US citizens: call on Biden to pardon everyone convicted for possession of marijuana.
US citizens: call on the Department of Justice to investigate the corrupter for violating the Presidential Records Act.
The hastily-written Minsk agreement is either a framework for peace between Ukraine and Russia, or a framework for Russia to mess with Ukraine permanently, depending on how some vague provisions are interpreted.
If it is clarified, perhaps it would be acceptable for Ukraine to agree not to join NATO as long as Russia follows the treaty provisions.
NASA is having doubts about whether to permit SpaceX to launch 30,000 additional communications satellites. They might spoil astronomical observations and block launches into all but the lowest orbits.
There is no mention of the risk of creating more space junk. Perhaps there is a reason that is not a danger here. If so, can anyone tell me why?
*General accused of rights abuses made Ugandan head of police.*
Bogus Johnson's weakness in the Tory Party is giving planet-roaster Tories an opportunity to overturn the agreed-on climate defense policies.
Weak as they are (for instance, by talking about "net emissions", which implies treating "offsets" as if they were real), they are a first step. Cancelling them will make things worse.
Influencers are amazingly bland. The blander, the more successful.
If a celebrity is someone famous for being famous, an influencer is someone famous for having nothing to be famous for.
Since I don't use these antisocial networks, I have never actually seen an influencer at work.
A report studies the various ways that the US could have responded to the September 2001 terrorist attacks, other than by war, which could have done more good and less harm.
It should be noted that the US actually won the war in Afghanistan: the Taliban offered complete surrender before the end of 2001. The Bush regime inexplicably preferred to continue the war.
The US could also have secured the stated goals diplomatically without a war. The Taliban offered in the summer of 2001 to kick out al-Qa'ida.
Apparently, Dubya wanted that war for other reasons and, having got an excuse, was not going to let it go.
When container ships sink, likely a few containers contain plastic that will release endocrine disruptors that can cause ecological disaster for sea life, and also for land animals higher up the food chain that will eat the sea life.
That includes humans.
Big Pharma companies' corruption of drug regulation and marketing includes opioids -- and it's not limited to Purdue Pharma.
Vietnam is imprisoning climate activists on multi-year sentences, ostensibly because of tax issues.
Vietnam is trying to sell more coal.
* Instead of ramping up the threats, western nations should be offering Vladimir Putin a ladder to climb down.*
This is made more difficult by his practice of saying, "You need to offer me a way to climb down from the incipient tantrum that I've talked myself into. To do that, start by giving me the concessions I have demanded."
*West Virginia students to stage walkout over Christian revival at high school.*
I'm heartened that there are students in the school who recognize that proselytizing in a public school is intolerable.
(satire) *Declining Bee Population Linked To Increase In Bees' Pornography [use].*
Using porn works, like other works of authorship, does not use them up. They remain and can be used by many other humans, or bees. So please do not call this "consuming" them.
Patients who had Covid-19, even if they were not hospitalized for it, have an elevated probability of heart disease a year later. This is on form or aspect of "long Covid".
This demonstrates the importance of protecting people from catching Covid-19 at all, to the extent this is possible.
A campaign calls on the Interior Department stop selling fossil fuel leases.
(satire) *NASA Slammed For Selecting U.S. Company To Build Rocket On Mars Rather Than Local Martian Engineers.*
Starbucks has fired workers participating in the union drive in a store in Memphis. The fired workers were 7 in number, out of a total of 21 workers at a that store.
Michael Mann debunks the fossil fools' arguments for carbon capture and for planting trees as "carbon offsets".
Co-op apartment buildings in New York have the effect of enabling racism. The co-op directors can reject blacks -- or reject short people -- and it is hard to stop them.
*White House Discusses Reinstating [the saboteur in chief]'s Terror Designation for Yemen’s Houthis.*
This would mean increasing support for a war that has no justification. The US should cease its support for the UAE's (and Salafi Arabia's) intervention in Yemen.
The Tories propose to spread "prosperity" (for a fraction of society) from London to the rest of the country by investing in the tech sector. One city tried this, and the result was that a fraction became wealthy and the city only gentrified.
It's a repackaging of the same old trickle-down.
The Indian state of Karnatika has banned wearing hijabs in high school, supported by the ruling Hinduist party.
Oppressing non-Hindu Indians is that party's central goal, It can be seen especially against Muslims in Kashmir and all Muslim Indians that can't prove their Indian ancestry. However, it also targets Christians. Imprisonment of people that criticize the government is also included.
California never adopted a detailed decarbonization plan to limit global heating to 1.5C. And it looks like losing the courage to make one.
The climate pledges of 25 giant corporations are more exaggeration and distortion than reality.
Joseph Stiglitz: *Although it is anyone's guess what will happen next with inflation, the data show that there is no reason to react rashly with large across-the-board interest-rate hikes. The economy is working through an unprecedented transition that could ultimately be a boon for workers; but only if policymakers let the process play out.*
We objected when Biden reappointed Powell as head of the Federal Reserve because we knew Powell was likely to do things like this. Now, instead of letting Powell be Biden's shield, we must blame Biden for choosing the course that the Federal Reserve is now implementing.
*The pollution paradox. The paradox proposes that the most antisocial commercial interests have the greatest incentive to buy political favor, otherwise they would be regulated out of existence. So politics comes to be dominated by them.*
The result is that the UK allows fossil fuel companies to cheat the public even as they prepare an early death for many of the public.
The Taliban are hosting Pakistani Islamist terrorist groups that attack Pakistan.
The new UK anti-porn law may require British users of Twitter and Reddit to identify themselves using government photo id.
*Iranian refugees face deportation from Turkey for attending demonstration.*
Sanders proposes a direction for negotiations with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
I more or less agree with Sanders, but there is a complication he doesn't address.
Normally the deal we would propose is, "Russia won't invade Ukraine and NATO will not invite Ukraine to join. Everything else stays the way it is now."
That is not acceptable because the current situation includes a Russian-sponsored guerrilla rebellion in eastern Ukraine, as well as its occupation of territory that Russia seized (the Crimea). A real peace would have to resolve these two conflicts. An agreement that lets them continue would not be peace.
It's not hard to envision a fair peace for eastern Ukraine -- though negotiating agreement would be a challenge. It is less obvious for the Crimea. But here is an idea.
The UN will hold a referendum among the people who lived in the Crimea before 2014. If they vote for Russia, the Crimea will remain Russian. If they vote for Ukraine, the Crimea will return to Ukraine, but not immediately.
Rather, Russia will have 5 years to build a replacement naval base in Russian territory. As it replaces each existing Crimea naval facility and shifts naval operations to the replacement facility, it will sell the existing Crimea facility to NATO. The purchase price will pay the cost to Russia of building the replacement facility.
The point is to make it painless and costless for Russia to move. In emotional terms, it won't be a loss for Russia to move its fleet, because NATO will be paying for the move.
*Cut meat and dairy output by a third to save climate, British farmers told.*
Dairy production is more efficient than meat production -- it would be better to reduce the meat production more so as to maintain the dairy production.
Erin Brockovich explains Chevron's persecution of Steven Donziger, the lawyer for the Ecuadorias who sued Chevron/Texaco for polluting their water.
What enables Chevron to get away with using the US legal system as a club to bash people who get in its way is that it has far too much money. We could fix this by chopping it into 100 companies, each much smaller than Chevron is now, and then taxing them a lot more.
ALEC is pushing right-wing state governments to blacklist companies that divest from fossil fuels or boycott fossil fuel companies.
They are step by step declaring war on civilization's survival.
The Taliban have arrested people trying to cross the border into Afghanistan and accused them of being terrorist recruits for PISSI.
It seems the Taliban are sincerely trying to keep international terrorists out of Afghanistan.
* Ottawa’s occupation was a result of unrivaled coordination between anti-vax and anti-government organizations.*
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963 suggests ways for de-escalating the Ukraine crisis of today.
The Montana young people's climate lawsuit will proceed to trial.
(satire) *Biden Administration Considering Pivot To Good Presidency.*
The UK establishment responds to inflation, not mostly caused by pay raises, and takes it as an excuse to prevent pay raises.
This as millions of UK workers have become newly poor and cannot afford food even with some government support.
The movement against attacking Iraq was very strong, at the start. This is a look at how and why it faded away.
*Supreme court lets Alabama use maps decried as biased against Black voters.*
It may be planning to approve them permanently, too.
*The Dynastic Wealth of US Oligarchs Is a Threat to Democracy.*
ALEC is pushing a state law (in every state) that would reduce how much damages people get when suing for injuries.
The lack of a national medical system in the US, combined with the general poverty wages, means that many people who are injured have medical bills they cannot pay. They are desperate to sue someone for damages to cover those bills. Of course, this practice creates a mindset which induces most injured people to sue for exaggerated sums, even if they are not broke.
The way to fix the underlying problem is to establish a national medical system and to raise wages, which includes promoting unions, and welfare benefits.
Then it would be time to adopt measures that tend to bring injury damages closer to the level of actual harms.
Which is more important: a telescope that could expand human knowledge of the universe, or one of the thousands of religions that some humans follow?
We all have our emotional attachments to this or that, but an emotional attachment is not enough reason to stop the telescope. There are few places where that telescope could be built and be effective.
*[The corrupter]'s promising pardons for insurrectionists and calling for protests if indicted could help make a case for obstruction of justice.*
Europe's dog population is growing to the point that their urine and excrement are overfertilizing nature reserves, screwing up the ecosystems.
Addressing moral concerns about enforcing the Constitution's rule that insurrectionists are excluded from public office.
Biden has made an executive order to make it easier for federal workers to unionize.
Gig drivers in New York City are trying to unionize.
I hope they succeed, but that would not eliminate the injustices that these companies do to their customers, so I will still absolutely refuse to use them.
China has supported Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands.
In 1982, when Argentina was ruled by murderous generals, supported by the US, they sent troops to seize the Falkland Islands, very much against the wishes of the British-descended people who lived there. The UK sent a fleet to liberate them.
The generals had used nationalism as a tool to distract the Argentine people from their crimes, but after losing the war, they couldn't hold on and Argentina became a democracy.
China's motive for taking a side in this dispute is surely to win Argentina's support in the new cold war. However, comparing the Falkland Islands to Taiwan is morally accurate. China wants to do to Taiwan the same thing that the Argentine generals did to the Falkland Islands: conquer and permanently rule an unwilling people.
The chemical industry needs a complete overhaul to reduce its substantial greenhouse gas emissions, to reduce its vulnerability to local disasters, and to reduce the air pollution that can poison people or interfere with children's development.
Manchin has come up with another insincere "reason" to reject the Build Back Better (relief) bill.
He is learning the Republican way of speaking: as long as you don't contradict yourself within one sentence, people will accept it.
*Playing with dolls helps children talk about how others feel, says study.*
I wonder whether the expectation and encouragement in our society for girls to play with dolls explains why women tend to develop better empathy and understanding of social interactions than men. I wonder if that is part of the cause of that expectation and encouragement.
*Amazon, Ikea, Nestlé and others will fall [short] of promise to cut carbon by 100%, says NewClimate Institute.*
Thousands of Covid death cultists have occupied Ottawa, blocking all activity in the city. The police say they cannot deal with so many. Only a small fraction of truck drivers in Canada support this protest, but the rest are not assembled to show they disagree.
These Canadians have adopted the gang-of-bullies attitude of the Republicans in the US. The Canadian government must not be intimidated by them.
US citizens: call on the FDIC to quash subterfuges to evade the laws on payday lending.
Payday lending is a form of exploitation to which workers become vulnerable because they don't get paid enough. We need to cure the disease as well as prevent this symptom.
US citizens: call on Biden to end the wrecker's Medicare privatization scheme.
US residents: call on US cities to require gun owners to carry liability insurance.
US citizens: call on the DOJ to challenge the new state laws that repress protests. Some of these laws even encourage killing of protesters.
Farming is under great stress globally, due to unsustainable farming and global heating effects. Ultimately, overpopulation is an important factor.
*The Federal Reserve Is About to Give US Workers the Shaft.*
Real wages of US workers are decreasing, but the Republican head of the Federal Reserve blames wage increases for today's inflation. That shows which side he's on, and that has been obvious all along, which is why I supported the campaign calling on Biden not to renominate him.
Proposing that for people convicted of causing a disturbance on an airplane should not be allowed to fly as passengers on commercial flights. I am in favor of this: the punishment fits the crime and should help to deter it.
The current US "no-fly" list is unjust because it is a secret punishment imposed without trial. This proposed punishment would be part of a sentence for a criminal conviction — thus, not sharing that particular injustice at all.
Rather than lumping this sentence together with the unjust arbitrary punishment that has existed for 20 years, we should contrast them as much as possible.
Biden has restored a sanctions waiver for Iran, which had been cancelled by the wrecker.
He should have done this a year ago, to get the best chance of restoring the non-nuclear deal that the wrecker destroyed.
*Economists Say Raise Pay to Solve Public School Staffing Crisis.*
Every animal ingests substantial quantities of microplastics, including humans. Scientists have discovered many ways they can harm animals.
The editor of a Kashmiri news site, The Kashmir Walla, has been arrested and charged with nasty-sounding crimes that probably stand for "journalism" and "criticizing the government."
Although the universal repression imposed after Kashmir's government was abolished has been reduced, repression of the press is increasing.
*Americans exposed to toxic BPA at levels far above what EU considers safe.* Research has found anatomically visible effects on developing brains in some mammals from extremely low levels of Bisphenol A.
*Sure, let’s be wary of abuse of power, but do we really want to outlaw office romance?*
If the claim is valid that the real reasons for firing Zucker had to do with his work, perhaps CNN's board would have overlooked his romance if he had done his job well.
It's not easy for a scientist's knowledge and careful reasoning to win a debate (conducted like a political debate) against the invincible ignorance of someone under the spell of disinformation.
This is why science doesn't use that method to reach conclusions.
*Texas butterfly sanctuary forced to close after far-right threats.*
Each time these bullies force someone to bow down, they tout it as proof of their strength, and use that to recruit more bullies so they can do something more aggressive. Having forced the sanctuary to close, next they will vandalize any facilities, then burn them down.
The FBI should set a trap so as to arrest whoever tries.
Most Americans don't know even the most basic facts about the Holocaust
(the Nazis' systematic campaign to murder all the Jews they could get their hands on).
If they don't know what was so evil about Nazis, that is likely to make them more susceptible to recruitment by today's Nazi sympathizers and neo-Nazi organizations, including the Republican Party.
When Whoopi Goldberg said that the Holocaust "was not about race," she was using the modern American conception of race. By that conception, most Jews are white, although a few belong to other racial groups.
Those who rebuked her cited the Nazis' conception of race, which was different -- they described Jews collectively as a "race." Going by their definition of "race," the Holocaust was indeed about "race."
I don't think this disagreement was about morality, only the semantics of the word "race." Can we give Goldberg a break?
*Whoopi was Wrong [that is, mistaken] and Wronged [that is, unjustly punished].*
Australia is letting its native animals be wiped out by the effects of business. It pledges funds to protect koalas, because everyone finds them so cute, but has not made a plan that can achieve this.
The main threat to koalas is habitat destruction, due to human activity either directly (cutting down native forests) or indirectly (human-intensified fires that destroy entire forests). Unless Australia makes a plan to end habitat destruction, koalas and many other species will be extinct soon.
Iowa is considering a bill to require a camera in every public school classroom to monitor the teachers and ensure no forbidden education occurs.
It is not clear from the details in this article whether the cameras would allow visual monitoring of the students, but if it contains a microphone it would surely allow listening to all the students. This would tear up their privacy.
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.
A US appeals court has blocked finishing the Mountain Valley Pipeline
On the grounds that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly evaluate its impact on some endangered species.
This pipeline was the object of protests. This is not a final decision, as there remain two stages of appeal.
I support protecting endangered species, and the most important way to do that is to slow the mass extinction that is now starting.
The main cause of that mass extinction is extracting fossil fuels, and that means we must stop projects such as oil pipelines that will create more costs sunk in future extraction.
*How CNN, the New York Times, and Other Major Media Outlets [profit from] Your Data and Lobby Against Regulation.*
I object to using the word "monetize" to mean "profit from".
US citizens: call on Congress to Support the Supreme Court Ethics Act.
US citizens: call on congresscritters to stop taking campaign contributions from Big Oil.
US citizens: call on advertisers to stop supporting Spotify.
The companies that advertise in Spotify include Zoom, Tushy, Athletic Greens, MasterClass, Reebok, McDonald's, Jose Cuervo, Coca-Cola, GAP, Old Navy, Fiat, Taco Bell, LinkedIn, Two Men and a Truck, Condé Nast, Yahoo, Chuze Fitness, and Pepsico.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act.
This would make it harder for Republicans (or anyone else) to monkey with the mechanics of US elections.
The UK culture minister advocates state censorship on the grounds that it could be used to prohibit a joke, transmitted on Netflix, that insulted Gypsies.
Meanwhile, the same government is pushing a law to jail British Gypsies if they spend the night in an unapproved place.
Censorship is an offense against human rights. We must tolerate expression of opinions and beliefs that we condemn, or we will make a repressive society like what China has become.
EU medical authorities suspect that frequent repeated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots might overstrain the immune system and cause other immune problems.
We simply don't know. Scientists will observe what happens, when there is time for it to happen.
Many former Israeli ministers, and nonpolitical leaders, acknowledged that Israel already was, or was becoming, an apartheid state.
*South African Scientists Replicate Moderna Vaccine.*
Now the question is, will Moderna sue them if they manufacture that vaccine?
The US claims that Russia is planning to make a high quality fake video showing a Ukrainian attack of some sort. But it has no proof to offer.
I am not surprised there is no proof. For something like this, it would be hard to get any.
I agree that we can't be sure the claimed US intelligence is honest. If the US were presenting the accusation as a reason to preemptively attack Russia, the analogy with the invasion of Iraq would be valid.
However, the US does not propose to attack Russia. Quite the contrary, it doesn't even commit to help Ukraine defend itself if Russia attacks. So the purported analogy is just an insignificant coincidence.
I am not sure what purpose the US has in making this claim. If the claim is honest, perhaps the aim is that the world disbelieve the Russian phony video footage, if such footage appears. If it is not honest, I can't see any point in it.
(satire) *Kavanaugh, Gorsuch Recite Questions In Perfect Unison After Accidentally Memorizing Same Lines From Federalist Society Script.*
As the workers of the Bessemer warehouse vote on unionization for the second time, Amazon is still trying to bully them and surveil them.
10 executive actions Biden should carry out to defend Earth's climate.
The Moderna vaccine has received regular approval.
The staff of Congress are trying to form a union, and progressive members of Congress support it.
The UK's housing ministry took only two days after the fatal housing fire (caused by flammable materials) to start covering up its responsibility.
What I read yesterday suggested that the apartment where Amir Locke was killed was not his own. This article, which is newer, said it was his home.
If that is the case, it is fishy that the thugs didn't know whose apartment it was.
(satire) *Washington Commanders Primed To Sign Free Agents After Receiving $30 Billion From Defense Budget.*
A growing movement in South Korea is made up of young people who have decided not to marry or have children.
What I don't understand is why they feel this obligatorily includes not having dates or lovers, and habitually eating alone.
North Carolina's supreme court rejected the Republican gerrymandering attempt.
The UK is considering a bill that would require communications platforms to check all postings to make sure they are not prohibited before letting anyone see them.
These prohibited kinds of messages are very nasty, and I think posting them is a crime already. However, checking for those messages would require either an enormous staff or a very reliable AI. There are platforms which, if this law applies, would be closed. Wikipedia is one example. Any free software project with an unmoderated development discussion list is another.
Perhaps the law excludes them.
The Republican National Committee declared that the violent attack on the Capitol was "legitimate political discourse".
Does this mean that attacking a meeting of the RNC in a similar way would be "legitimate political discourse"?
Pence stated that the idea that he could have personally overturned the US election was wrong, and the idea he should have done so was "un-American".
I agree he should have done this long ago. However, I think we should recognize this as "better late than never". After decades of loyalty to an organization, it is difficult and painful to recognize that it has been perverted into the enemy of principles it used to stand for. Most Republicans abandon those principles instead.
Minneapolis thugs burst into a home in which a black man, Amir Locke, was sleeping with a pistol that he lawfully owned. As he began to wake up, the thugs saw he had a gun and shot him immediately to death.
I wonder if a white man in the same circumstances would have gone unscathed. It is possible, because unconscious racism is very common. Maybe a white man would have been allowed to drop his gun.
In effect, the decision to mount a no-knock raid is a decision to risk killing anyone on the premises, based on anxiety.
Is it possible for the first two thugs that enter in such a raid to wear armor that will protect them from bullets, so that they don't need to rush the decision of whether to shoot someone?
It isn't directly relevant, but I wonder why Locke was sleeping with a gun in someone else's house. Was he afraid someone was trying to kill him?
Maybe the apartment was in fact his.
Reportedly, some of the corrupter's staff made a plan to get data from the NSA and try to "prove" there was foreign interference in the vote counting of the 2020 election.
US citizens: call on Biden and Congress to choose a Supreme Court justice who will defend Democracy.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
The US has allowed a dangerous fertilizer plant to keep operating for decades without even a fire alarm system. Now a fire started there and it is only luck that the plant did not explode.
How many other dangerous plants are allowed to keep operating under obsolete safety standards?
Two Australian soldiers have testified they saw a particular ex-soldier order the murder of captives on two different occasions.
Amazon treats warehouse workers so badly that on the average they leave after 8 months.
Iceland will end its whaling in 2024.
The EU plans to reduce use of synthetic pesticides by 50%. One of the means under consideration is to ban using them in parks.
*Revealed: [the wrecker] reviewed draft order that authorized voting machines to be seized.*
Indeed, he had long discussions about the details with his advisors. But ultimately he was convinced that the plan had a problem.
*Evade, gaslight, attack: this is the playbook of a corrupt company, not a government.* The article compares Tory government with an organization determined to shield a criminal.
The U.S. border thugs plan to test patrols by robots on the border with Mexico.
A robot patroller can be programmed to be gentle and nonviolent. Or it can be programmed to kill or disappear anyone "unauthorized". It could even be programmed to flip from one to the other on command in an instant.
My conclusion is that there is good reason to be frightened of robot patrollers, because you can't start to predict what it will do to you 20 seconds from now.
US school teachers are increasingly burned out and stressed, and half plan to retire sooner than before.
Part of this comes from the shortage of teachers. To fix it requires paying teachers higher salaries and hiring more teachers.
I worry that the plutocrats will hand most US children over to robot teachers that will snoop on them for Big Tech. They won't learn a lot that way, but plutocratists may prefer if most Americans don't learn much.
Amnesty International has presented the specific reasons for its conclusion that Israel imposes a system of apartheid on Palestinians.
A US court ruled that making a government contractor commit not to boycott Israeli companies would violate its freedom of speech.
The cheapest way to reduce greenhouse emissions over the next few decades is to cancel expensive highway construction projects that will increase car travel. Adah Crandall is campaigning to stop one near her school — not in the name of "Not in my backyard", but in the name of "Not in my planet."
Xiomara Castro faces huge obstacles to her program for Honduras, some of them from the US.
Biden says he will nominate a black woman as Supreme Court justice. Plutocratist Democrat Rep. Clyburn has proposed a plutocratist Democrat judge, who happens to be a black woman.
The last time a president promised to appoint a black justice to the US Supreme Court, we got rigidly right-wing Clarence Thomas. When a president promised to appoint a woman, we got extreme right-wing Amy Barrett. Let's reject these distractions of judging race and sex, and focus on what matters: is the nominee progressive or plutocratist?
Jesse Jackson: *Time for the DOJ to Get Much More Aggressive on [defending] Voting Rights.*
Brown University faculty voted not to approve a planned new institute, which could be a path for Koch's right-wing funding to influence the university.
Ecuador's constitutional court rejected President Moreno's effort to permit oil drilling in a protected indigenous territory.
This is a victory for civilization, whose survival depends on keeping that oil in the ground, as well as for the inhabitants of that region, who might be poisoned by local pollution.
President Lenín Moreno is the one who forced Julian Assange into British captivity. Among his first acts after being elected was to make a surprise military deal with the US.
Putting a "means test" on the Child Tax Credit is a tool to ruin it — an excuse to exclude some poor people or make it inadequate.
*In a Single Year, $1.78 Trillion Was Stolen From the Working Class*, and that's only in the US.
J K Rowling has now been cancelled from the right and from the left.
That makes three cancellations so far, the first being my boycott of Harry Potter. After she sued her own readers, and ordered them not to read the books they had bought, I said it's ok to read her books but you should not buy them.
*Protecting wildlife to stop viruses jumping to humans would save far more than it costs, analysis shows.*
The immediate cost of today's climate mayhem in Washington State has created a move to take funds away from preventing it from getting worse.
That's a death spiral!
Global heating is not the only way humans are changing fire. Fire suppression and deforestation are equally important. Less of the Earth is burning now than in the past, but the fires destroy forests now, and their smoke poisons millions.
The head of CNN ostensibly resigned because his vice president was discovered to be his lover, but arguably that was just an excuse, to avoid talking about the things that were really damaging, as well as decreasing viewer numbers.
The article attacks Jeffrey Toobin with weasel words
that will be taken to mean A but, when challenged, will be defended as meaning B. I have no opinion of Toobin's journalism since I have not read or seen it, but this is the wrong way to criticize anyone.
Snowden reminds us that the NSA suffers no penalty after being found to have failed to follow precautions that were designed to reduce how often it looks in its surveillance data and finds information about Americans.
US food companies and fossil fuel companies have raised prices while making high profits -- they didn't need to, but they could get away with it.
Starbucks is a clear example: profits up 31%, but it plans to raise prices.
The US raided the house of the leader of PISSI, who killed himself to avoid capture.
He used a large bomb that destroyed the upper floor of the house, and killed his own family.
Killing the leader will not cripple the organization. Guerrilla movements can always find new leaders.
People who don't dare risk getting Covid-19 describe what it is like to be frightened to leave their homes, knowing that in stores and transport many refuse to protect them by wearing masks.
Most people who think they have Havana Syndrome have various problems and misattribute them, but the original victims may have been injured by "pulsed electromagnetic energy", or maybe ultrasound.
It should be possible to build detectors for the various frequency bands that are suspected. I wonder if they have done so.
Tesla programmed its cars to go very slowly through a stop sign rather than completely stop, in very limited circumstances, much as many drivers do. This is regarded as "unsafe", but given the special conditions required for the car to do it, I think that officials are exaggerating that danger.
I know of two real reasons why the Tesla car is unsafe.
The "full self-driving" feature is unsafe because it's based on the pretense that the driver will pay full attention to the driving all the time, just as one does while actually driving. Lots of drivers will say they will do so, then not do it.
The computer systems are not safe for drivers because they contain nonfree software, and that is always an injustice to the user.
Over and over we find US cities that squeeze their budgets out of poor people by fining them over and over while threatening them with jail.
It's easier to do this than to make the rich pay fair taxes. Which is why we need to defeat their power.
(satire) *Mississippi Undergoes Controlled Demolition To Make Way For New High-End Luxury U.S. Territory.*
US citizens: Call the Department of Interior at 866-834-8040 and urge Secretary Haaland to accept the court's cancellation of the sale of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: phone your senators and urge them to confirm Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve Board.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to support diplomacy to restore the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
Bigotry and hatred are part of the culture of the London thugs: the leadership doesn't support police officers that try to stop it.
*Covid vaccine hesitancy could be linked to childhood trauma, research finds.*
Our society produces trauma for lots of children.
The UK approved a new oilfield in the North Sea, claiming that this does not conflict with its greenhouse gas targets.
I don't know if it is possible to prove that they conflict. Perhaps if the UK never does anything like this again, and pushes hard to reduce emissions in all other ways, it can still achieve those targets, plus the additional reductions necessary because those targets are inadequate.
But anyone who wishes to achieve a target needs to set out as perse intends to go on. "Just one more dose and then I'll quit forever" is an ill-auspicious way to start.
* Formerly rare high temperatures now covering half of seas and devastating wildlife, study shows.*
* Almost no corals on the planet will escape severe bleaching once global heating reaches 1.5C, according to a new study of the world's reefs.*
Australia's three major parties received large donations from fossil fuel companies.
Leonard Peltier has caught Covid-19. It is time to free him from prison. There was little reason to believe he was guilty in the first place.
Jos Beek was an artificial insemination doctor. He told women he would give them sperm from anonymous donors. Anonymous to them, that is.
Years later it was discovered that the sperm was donated by Jos Beek.
People seem to be vexed with this, but I don't understand their complaint. Didn't he do exactly what he said he would do?
If you agreed to have a child with sperm from someone unknown, who could be anyone, why would it be objectionable to find later that it was one particular man?
Norway plans to adopt a new gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun, "hen".
Bravo, Norway. This would address the need for a good way to refer to a person of unspecified gender without causing the damage of making it hard to tell singular from plural.
I suggest that Norwegians state their appreciation of this plan.
Bank of America is arbitrarily refusing to forgive part of some small business PPP loans.
The bank refuses to accept the application for loan forgiveness unless the business enters the lower figure that Bank of America says it is willing to forgive. Businesses can't appeal the refusal unless they enter the application with the smaller amount. But the owners are afraid that entering that smaller amount would be presented as accepting the bank's refusal.
This kind of thing can happen because the US has a few very large banks that are "too big to fail". We should prohibit the operation of any such bank until it splits itself up into many small pieces, each small enough that we wouldn't hesitate to give it a sentence that would wipe it out.
The Tories say they will spend funds on raising the economic level of poor areas -- but the specific plan gives more funds to some wealthy areas.
Plants in the UK now flower several weeks earlier than they did in 1986.
This means that global heating is discombobulating ecosystems in a way that could wipe out some species.
(satire) *FTC Questions Merger Of Google With U.S. Government.*
Scotland plans to plant millions of trees near rivers to cool them and help salmon survive in them.
It can work for a while, but eventually global heating will overwhelm the cooling that the trees are capable of. Scotland must give priority to the long term.
The next Boston rally for Julian Assange will be on the Boston Common near Park St Station, at 1pm on Feb 7.
*EU includes gas and nuclear in guidebook for "green" investments.*
Unusual rains have flooded all the railroads and truck roads from eastern Australia to western Australia, and they are likely to be out for weeks.
I wonder what role global heating played in causing these rains.
A group of 19 London thugs was found to be "bantering" with violent hate: racist, misogynist, and antisemitic.
Sometimes they threatened other cops (that expressed disapproval of this hate) with violence if they exposed the practice.
If it were only 19 thugs in all London that indulged in hate, it would be a small problem -- but there are surely many more.
US citizens: affirm that the January 6 insurrectionists must be banned from running for office.
The NSA has been using its warrantless search power while disregarding the rules that are meant to protect Americans from being snooped on.
The author of California's single-payer medicine bill withdrew it, just before it was scheduled for a vote.
He said this was because the bill would have been defeated -- but the point is to make its opponents go on record against it, and be held accountable.
The Crisis Text Line gives "anonymized" data about callers, and what they said, to an AI company to analyze.
What can be learned about individuals from this "anonymized" data? We must not assume it is zero, or that none of them can be identified from it. If they want this to be trusted, they had better let investigators make simulated help calls, see what data they record from it, and try to deanonymize it. And then they should make a commitment never to include more data than that in the future.
The issue of bogus consent is always significant: "you agreed to the fine print" is not a valid excuse. We should establish by law strict rules for what any such organization can do with personal data, strict enough that you can take for granted any approved organization won't abuse your personal data.
If the US had had the vaccination rate of some European countries (around 80%), it would have had half as many Covid hospitalizations this winter.
I expect that would mean half as many deaths; that would be around 30,000 Americans who would not have died.
Guatemala has convicted some of the murderous officers and paramilitaries who carried out mass murder, but right-wing politicians with old military ties want to release them all.
*Britain's failure to tackle Russian dirty money has enabled Putin’s aggression.*
British banksters serve Russian oligarchs because it is very profitable to do so.
To cease that service is something that the UK needs to do for its own future honesty, even more than as a sanction against Putin. But honesty is not the Tories' priority.
Two Chinese dissidents have been jailed for two years awaiting "trial" for planning dissent, which will surely be followed by long "sentences".
In 1940, Britain imprisoned all German and Austrian refugees, even the dissidents that Hitler had imprisoned.
Most were released later that year; it wasn't as bad as what the US did to the Japanese-Americans.
Decarbonization has become an important election issue in Australia.
Generating hydrogen from renewably generated electricity, then burning it for electricity later, is a form of energy storage. Australia needs more energy storage capacity; the question is whether this method is cheaper than alternatives, such as charging batteries and pumping water uphill.
*I photographed Myanmar’s protesters one day –- and their funerals the next.*
A city in Sweden is paying wild crows to collect cigarette butts off the street and hand them in. They get paid in food.
The article mentions New Caledonian crows, which are native to New Caledonia, not Sweden. Has this project released New Caledonian crows into the wild in Sweden? That kind of action can do ecological harm.
Sinema marketed her defense of the filibuster directly to rich Republicans.
The "silent strike" to protest the coup in Burma showed almost complete participation despite threats by the military to punish participants.
The cheater explored, in 2020, several schemes to seize voting machines with a view to denying the actual votes. He had Giuliani ask on his behalf.
*While Lobbying to Kill Build Back Better, Pharma Hikes Costs of 866 Drugs.*
(satire) *U.S. Sends Military Advisors To Peace-Ravaged Country.*
(satire) *Crypto[-Currency] Executives Assuage Environmental Concerns By Unveiling Digital Avatar Of Glacier.*
*Biden administration to offer $1.2 billion for states to clean up planet-warming methane leaks.*
Cuba is sentencing last summer's protesters to long prison terms, in some cases after beating them up.
I have to note that US thugs sometimes engage in similar violence against protesters, and protesters can face long prison sentences for charges that are disproportionate to any harm they did, if they did any harm.
50 Starbucks stores' employees are now seeking to unionize.
There are thousands of Starbucks stores in the US. If each store has to unionize separately, that will be a lot of trouble. Furthermore, if each store's workers need to negotiate separately, they won't have the strength of their numbers. I hope they can form a single body.
US citizens: call on the US government to block bank mergers that lead to insufficient local competition.
US citizens: call on the Federal Trade Commission to take action against bait-and-switch salaries in job advertisements.
In Massachusetts, support the Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights, which is campaigning against Lyft's ballot initiative whose purpose is to permit Lyft (and Uber, and other companies) to deny their gig workers the rights of employees.
A few percent of antivaxxers have pressured the UK into allowing unvaccinated medical workers to stay on the job and interact with patients.
This is dangerous for the patients, as well as for their coworkers. The system could compensate for this weakness by testing all the workers frequently — perhaps every other day.
Modelling suggests that donating half of existing vaccine production to poor countries would protect the world (as a whole) faster from Covid-19, as it would reduce the development of new variants, some of which will surely be dangerous.
The question does not need to be asked if we eliminate the artificial obstacles to producing vaccines much faster. Or, for example, if the new American libre vaccine or the Cuban vaccine does the job.
2800 American convicts have been exonerated in the past 30 years, after trials that gave a mistaken wrong result. Worse, it many cases it was not an innocent mistake — these trials were deliberately undermined.
All of these wrong convictions could have been avoided if the prosecutors and judges had respected the rights of the suspects.
The convictions that have been overturned were surely just a fraction of the total.
How significant is it, whether those that undermined a trial did so because they wanted to frame someone, or because they had jumped to the conclusion that the suspect was guilty?
Morally, it makes a difference, because the framer has crossed an additional moral line. However, when there is a tendency to jump to the conclusion that people of a certain group are guilty — as there is with blacks — the result is systemic injustice even if none of the thugs involved believes perself to be framing someone innocent.
A Tennessee thug has been found guilty of using excessive force against people as he was arresting them.
There is no implication that it was wrong to arrest them; that is not the issue at hand.
Israeli cops allegedly use Pegasus spyware to track Netanyahu's personal enemies, as well as others.
The wrecker is threatening to launch his followers against the prosecutors investigating him. He did not explicitly tell them to do it with violence, but they won't be slow to think of that.
A couple of those prosecutors happen to be black, and the bully took that as an opportunity to spread bigotry.
The House investigation of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol is strangely soft on most of the people who have refused to testify.
A US appeals court ruled that when electric utilities cut what they pay homeowners for their solar energy, this can constitute unfair competition.
That decision can be very important for reducing the US carbon footprint if it isn't reversed by right-wing judges.
Statistical techniques suggest that there are probably 9.000 species of trees that are unknown to science, and around 3,000 of them are rare.
Some of them may never have been recognized by any human being.
To admit a post-Putin democratic Russia to NATO could make sense.
Indeed, under those circumstances, Russia might replace the US as the mainstay of NATO, if the US has fallen under Putin-like Republicans.
*Covid becoming endemic doesn’t mean it will be mild – or that there won’t be new variants.* It might become like the Polio virus, which most patients didn't even notice, except for the small fraction that it crippled.
Thus, "endemic" does not imply "we don't need precautions against its spread." Not if we are wise, that is.
The Burmese military government threatens to arrest people who participate in a planned silent protest. Some shop owners have been arrested for saying they will close their shops in sympathy.
The bullshitter seems not to have noticed, when he said that Pence "could have overturned the election", that he admitted he lost it.
Recently he said he might pardon the Jan 6 attackers if he were president again. Didn't he tell us that the attackers were supporters of the Antifa (anti-fascist) movement? Why would be want to pardon them?
US citizens: call on regulators to ban ownership of payment systems by the dominant tech platforms.
The main digital payment systems are unjust for two reasons: they require users to run nonfree Javascript code to use them, and they require users to identify themselves. If they were owned by megacompanies, that would be an additional injustice. Preventing that would be good, but would not make them acceptable to use.
*Where to build in a state on fire? California housing projects face growing challenges.*
An oil spill from a broken pipeline in the Ecuadorian Amazon has polluted a river that provides drinking water to almost 30,000 people.
The CEOs of Lockheed and Raytheon -- two major US military contractors -- celebrated increasing world instability as good for their business.
A Burmese dissident calls for prosecution of the military rulers in the International Criminal Court, and a cut-off of arms sales.
Does anyone know which countries still sell arms to the Burmese military government?
Spotify said it will point users at valid Covid-19 information to make up for some of Joe Rogan's disinformation.
US citizens: call on Congress to fund the IRS adequately, so it can provide service to taxpayers and catch rich cheaters.
The National Labor Relations Board is considering whether falsely labeling an employee as an independent contractor should be considered a violation of federal law. This could make a big difference for gig workers in the US.
The US has a near-monopoly on hospital beds. A competitor has recently sued, alleging that the monopolist uses secret, illegal contracts to maintain its market power.
More than 100 people in Afghanistan who were formerly associated with the previous government, or with foreign armies, whom the Taliban says it had no grudge against, have been murdered.
To me, this suggests that the Taliban are not disciplined enough for a policy to be effective. The leadership can announce an amnesty but that doesn't mean all supporters will obey it.
I don't see any solution except to offer asylum to all those who may be next, along with whatever they need in order to get out.
China intensely intimidates foreign journalists -- almost any aspect of life can be perverted into harassment, a threat, or an attack.
One common kind of threat is a bogus lawsuit, which can be used as an excuse to stop you from leaving China. If you're lucky, you're just forced to leave China in a hurry.
China can arrange a pizzagate against anyone at any time.
*Freedom of speech was too hard won to be cavalier now about censorship.*
*Nixon aide: [the corrupter's] pardon promise for Capitol rioters is "stuff of dictators".*
A long list of absurd excuses Tories make to excuse Bogus Johnson's contempt for the public.
The whistleblower who reported abuse and underpayment of workers by Foxconn, making Amazon products, was tortured by China. Now he demands that Amazon and Foxconn pressure China to clear his name.
Several regions of Ethiopia are suffering from drought, with famine on the way.
This is in addition to Tigray, which suffers from civil war and blockage of food and medical aid.
Republicans are passing state laws so medical boards can't punish doctors for prescribing quack remedies for Covid-19.
*Corporations have record profits. Most workers are losing ground. So why not create incentives for corporations to profit-share?*
*ACLU Demands 'Truly Systemic Overhaul' of US [Military's] Civilian Harm Policies.*
Concrete truck drivers in Seattle have been on strike for months. The contract they rejected would have meant a decrease in wages once they are adjusted for inflation.
(satire) *Elite Selective Hospital Only Accepts 9% Of ICU Applicants.* Be sure to apply to several hospitals, including a nonprestigious "safety" hospital.
(satire) Paradises are competing for elite souls, too: *Jesus Christ Starts Rival Eternal Paradise After Family Rift.*
Can you choose Valhalla, or Tlalocan, if that's where your spirit leads you?
300 scientists signed a letter to Bogus Johnson calling on him to support allowing generic vaccine production world-wide, as the way to end the evolution of new variants.
Bogus Johnson doesn't care about anything but staying in power, but it may influence other politicians.
Greedy corporations push hard to keep the filibuster in place in the US Senate. The US Chamber of Commerce admits it, but mainstream media generally try to distract attention from it.
*Why Is It So Hard for [many US prisoners] to Get Access to the Books They Need And Want?*
RSF: members of the European Parliament called on Israel to respect Palestinian journalists' freedom of movement.
US thugs believe that the touch of someone overdosing on fentanyl is deadly, and based on this, put them in prison for threatening thugs' lives.
Arizona Republicans propose to authorize the state legislature to reject election results and order a new election.
The bill would also require counting all the ballots in 24 hours. That is an invitation to confusion and errors, which could provide a pretext to reject election results.
*Myanmar's junta torching "village after village" in bid to quell opposition.*
New superyachts emit as much CO2 as 1500 cars, and almost 1000 are being made per year. I urge countries to prohibit them from entering harbors except in an emergency.
New Georgia voter suppression rules for mail-in ballots would, if applied in 2020, have stopped almost 70,000 people from voting by mail. That's far more than enough to change the outcome.
If Biden is serious about reducing civilian casualties from US war operations, the Pentagon should do more than study the problem.
Reverence for the Thai monarchy is fading away among young people.
Many Republican education bills prohibit teaching a list of "divisive concepts" that are supposedly related to Critical Race Theory. This article presents a list of the "divisive concepts", and it seems to me that (1) all of them are bad things to teach in school, and (2) they have little in common with Critical Race Theory.
The article goes on to explain that many of these prohibitions are likely to be unconstitutional due to various specific conflicts with US legal precedents about freedom of speech.
Alaska's Supreme Court killed the young people's climate damages case.
Ways that the phrase "Everybody knows that" is used to cut off discussion and put people down.
The comments show that there are valid situations to claim that "everyone knows that". Sometimes everyone does know X, but not everyone knows that everyone does know X.
Two fracking former Democratic senators joined a lobby group for fracking.
Frack off, planet roasters!
US citizens: call on Congress to ban members of Congress from buying and selling stocks while in office.
US citizens: call on Pepsico to stop funding antiabortion candidates and parties.
US citizens: call on Biden and Congress to send Americans N95 masks regularly on a continuing basis.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Get Foreign Money Out of U.S. Elections Act, to stop foreign owners of US corporations from donating to US election campaigns.
Donors have provided funds to rebuild the bookshop in Gaza that Israeli bombers destroyed, and books for it to sell.
It is now quite clear that Manchin represents billionaires in the Senate. One billionaire supporter publicly announced his reasons for opposing the Build Back Better bill, and it is totally bogus — he called it "Socialism," which is already a big exaggeration, but what he attacks is an extreme form of Communism that no country ever practiced.
*US judge blocks sale of Gulf of Mexico drilling leases over climate concerns.*
I suppose the Supreme Court will actually decide the case, months from now, and I expect the worst.
A French hospital official proposed charging unvaccinated patients for Covid-19 treatment.
The basic idea that those who go unvaccinated should bear the burden they impose on society is valid, but charging patients is the wrong way to implement it. It is wrong to charge patients for medical treatment. (The US medical system is so bad because it is based on charging patients.)
It is better to punish people directly for refusing vaccination — whether they catch Covid-19 or not.
Also, if hospital facilities are full and it is impossible to treat all the patients at that time, vaccinated patients should have priority.
That situation won't arise if we are careful in precautions to prevent the spread of the disease, so we should all practice them. The main precautions are vaccination, isolation when sick, not spending time close to other people, and wearing good masks. The good masks — FFP2, or even better N95 with its tight head straps — will give you substantial protection.
We must make sure that all workers have paid sick leave available, so that they can afford to stay home when sick.
* In the past half century, North America has lost a fourth of its birds. Earth is now a coalmine, and every wild bird is a canary.*
However, it is a mistake to make too much of the fact that birds are remotely descended from dinosaurs (they split off about 100 million years ago). After all, birds are also descended from fish, around 300 million years ago. Neither of these facts causes a hawk to closely resemble a velociraptor, or a tuna.
The UK's Environment Agency threatened to fire staff if they talked with each other about how the agency was neglecting its mission to protect waterways.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has a history of systematic dereliction of duty, going back decades. The corrupter intentionally made it more corrupt, to the point that I called it the Environmental Poisoning Agency.
The CIA tortured Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn ("Abu Zubaydah") around 20 years ago to experiment with torture techniques. To keep the torture secret, the US government decided to keep him incommunicado for life. Now there is movement towards ending the cruel secrecy.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are boycotting Spotify because of its support for Joe Rogan with his Covid misinformation.
I disapprove of his misinformation, but I have been boycotting Spotify for unjust treatment of its customers, so I have no way to boycott it harder. The latest thing for star musicians is to sell their song catalogs to Big Music. Those that do so won't have the option of joining in a boycott like this one.
* If Tory legislation is left unchallenged, it won’t just be the right to protest that ordinary Britons will lose.*
"Fort Bragg", California, was named after General Bragg when he was in the US Army, before the Civil War.
He was not a traitor then, but he became one subsequently. In my opinion, the name should be changed. Will it be possible to convince the people of the town to change it?
REI is a cooperative — of customers, not of workers. Some of its workers are trying to unionize, and the company is opposed.
More info.
Private voter-suppression in Chile: private bus companies stopped their service on election day to stop non-rich people from getting to polling places.
I have a feeling that some cities had closed the polling places in working-class neighborhoods, as a first blow.
Chuck Palahniuk says that China's altered ending of the film, Fight Club, makes it closer to the ending of his book.
*'No More Hiding': Sanders Says Make GOP Vote on Popular Policies.*
I've made this suggestion here.
US crop insurance payments have increased since 1995 by a factor of 5. The cause is global heating, and that means it will get a lot worse in the next 25 years.
When the US prioritizes car travel over public transit, it systematically hurts the poor.
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 are important enough.
American workers are not benefiting from the "strong economy", but it is not because of inflation — it's because they are not unionized.
Six Japanese who lived near Fukushima and developed thyroid cancer since are suing TEPCO, the plant's operator, for damages.
Thyroid cancer is one of the common consequences of fallout from nuclear fission
King crabs have invaded British waters. They have wiped out the native fisheries of Norway, and may now do the same to Britain.
Europe is making good progress on reducing the amount of antibiotics routinely fed to farm animals.
I suspect it is even more important to restrict which antibiotics are given routinely to animals -- never give them the ones that are still fairly likely to cure humans' diseases.
Hungarian journalists will sue Hungary and the company that made the Pegasus spyware, which was apparently used to snoop on them.
Biden got a secret memo about the extent of his authority to cancel student debt, and he refuses to reveal what it says.
The suspicion is that it says he can cancel a lot of debt, but he has made some deal by which he will not do it.
(satire) *Police Flip Through Unsolved Crimes To See What Else They Can Pin On Mentally Disabled Man.*
The US is withholding part of an arms sale to Egypt on grounds that Egypt violates human rights.
Part of the sale is going through -- radar systems and transport aircraft -- but those, while useful in a war, won't actually shoot anyone.
This might be an effective way to tell al-Sisi that it is time to start respecting human rights, without being so nasty that he will run off bitterly angry.
(satire) *Biden Meets With Senate Democrats To Discuss Breaking Up Supreme Court Nominee And Confirming Her In Parts.*
Progressives in Congress demanded that Biden compel vaccine companies to share their secret methods with other countries for generic production.
(satire) *Lies All Police Officers Are Legally Allowed To Tell You.*
Gas stoves leak methane all the time, even when turned off. The total leakage is enough to be worth shutting off.
What the cancellation of Nina Paley, brilliant animator, teaches about cancellation.
Knowing the rules that often-dishonest sources follow in their lies can enable you to determine that certain specific statements from them are probably true.
US citizens: call on Biden to make this year the year of Executive Actions — with several suggestions.
A study found that people in the US are more likely to die early if they live near frack wells. Downwind of them is even worse.
The study controlled for socioeconomic, environmental and demographic factors, so it's not that these wells are built where poor people live, or that the wells drive down housing prices and poor people have to move near them.
Other medical problems are also more likely near frack wells.
Basically, frack is a dangerous drug.
Republican gerrymandering split the Democrats of Nashville among three congressional districts, each of which has a majority of Republicans from outside the city.
Nashville's current representative, a Democrat, has no chance of winning any of those three districts.
There is a mathematical system which finds the fairest possible division of districts, which can be implemented by computer. Some states use that method to produce an unbiased electoral system. But Republicans aim to rig elections, not to make them fair.
Skyhorse Publishing publishes books whose authors have been cancelled (and which are likely to sell many copies).
The principal target of Nazi hatred was the Jews, but they had hate left over for several other groups.
2400 families in New York City have been investigated for "neglecting" their children by keeping them away from school and the risk of Covid-19.
The heat in Phoenix, Arizona, is becoming more deadly. The city is considering long-term changes to reduce its heat-island effect.
Many antiracists stretch the concept of "harming people" to include disagreeing with their views, or showing an action that they condemn.
Republicans are stretching it even further when they stretch "critical race theory" to include blanket condemnation of whites, and then ban them both. And when they ban books such as Maus on the basis of minor details.
*Taliban must respect rights of women and children, says UN head.*
He also called for powers to unblock humanitarian aid.
*Dems Demand Biden Stop Maintaining Saudi Jets Causing 'Untold Suffering' in Yemen.*
I wonder which countries the US plans to get extra gas for Europe from, whether they include the UAE or Salafi Arabia.
*Serbia extradites Bahraini dissident in cooperation with Interpol.*
This was in despite of an order from the European Court of Human Rights.
Israeli soldiers arrested an old Palestinian man, tied him up and gagged him, and blindfolded him so tightly that it injured his eyes. Soldiers saw him "fall asleep", so they cut the zip ties, then left him lying on the ground.
He was dying, or perhaps dead already, but the soldiers didn't check.
*The US is only the 27th least corrupt country in the world.* Tied with Chile.
(satire) *Mitch McConnell Blocks Justice Stephen Breyer From Retiring.*
Don't believe the fossil fools when they claim that US needs the employment they provide. They employ much fewer than what they claim, and the number decreasing pretty fast.
Investment in renewable energy would support far more jobs, and help civilization keep going.
Parents can now buy their children a child's version of the AR-15 rifle.
It shoots real bullets that can really kill.
Several major oil companies have pulled out of Burma.
I the past, this would be a blow to the military rulers. Now I suspect that China will gladly replace them in supporting the Burmese rulers.
I'm afraid that Western leverage to discourage atrocious behavior through economic sanctions is gone: China is always there to compete.
China may not always win this competition, but human rights are sure to lose.
A Polish woman carrying two fetuses needed an abortion to save her life, because one of them had died. The other fetus still lived, and doctors feared prosecution if they aborted the dead one, so they waited. The other fetus died, and they did the abortion, but during that time her condition had deteriorated, leading to her death.
Now her death has become a cause to mobilize Polish women for abortion rights.
I've read that the Catholic Church initially decided to oppose abortion, in the 19th century, on the grounds that the fetus might be male, and males (even mere fetuses) were of higher value than any female.
*New report from Human Rights Law Centre says fossil fuel, gambling and tobacco industries are distorting Australia's democracy.*
*A dozen ways a smaller, older population might be awesome.*
*Large investors drive up house prices in Europe’s cities, study finds.*
*Governments around the world used Covid to erode human rights.*
*Dutch university gives up Chinese funding due to impartiality concerns.*
The funding was, effectively, a bribe to deny Chinese repression,
*Reparations to the Caribbean could break the cycle of corruption – and China’s grip.*
Arguing that NATO can afford to commit not to bring Ukraine into NATO.
I think committing to Ukraine's neutrality could be a good path if it does includes an end to Putin's military destabilization of Eastern Ukraine. A commitment by Ukraine to respect the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians would make it even better.
Xi declared short-term convenience for Chinese higher priority than the survival of civilization.
Meanwhile, in the US, the plutocrats have a veto, and they consider their profit higher priority than the survival of civilization.
The UK, by telling people not to bother with masks, has condemned medically vulnerable people to prison in their homes -- in isolation. This could last for years. It could last for their whole lives.
A man in India is trying to teach people not to swear at people using misogynist words.
I agree with the man's goal. I don't like attacking people based on their race or sex, and I never do that, because I don't associate rage or frustration with demographic groups. I fortunately escaped being taught that bad habit.
However, the law that prohibits all swear words (misogynist or not) is unjust -- fucking evil censorship.
George Monbiot: *Carbon offsetting is not warding off environmental collapse –- it's accelerating it.*
I've expected this for years.
A survey of patients found that two doses of vaccine greatly reduces the chances a person will have symptoms 12 weeks after infection with Covid-19.
More studies are needed to track the development of long Covid more carefully, and control better for variables such as which variant the patients had.
A UK court ruled it was illegal to take away someone's citizenship without informing her, and on those grounds ruled her citizenship was restored.
The UK government is already working to change the law to give itself permission to toy with people in that way. But, even with notification, exile is an unjust punishment -- even if it is the result of a fair trial.
Without a trial, no punishment is legitimate.
Discussion about various smaller attacks that Putin could launch against Ukraine.
There is evidence that Bogus Johnson directly authorized saving dogs instead of Afghan human beings.
*US prosecutors investigate Republicans who sent fake Trump electors to Congress.*
Justice Breyer has agreed to retire, rather than hang on and probably be replaced by Republicans with a right-wing extremist.
Los Angeles has decided, in principle, to put an end to fossil fuel extraction inside the city.
San Jose, California, passed a law to require gun owners to carry liability insurance.
The big question is whether the Supreme Court will rule that this conflicts with the Second Amendment.
*US to hold surprise plant inspections targeting [air] pollution in Louisiana's Cancer Alley.*
*Nearly 75% of water-resistant products contain toxic PFAS, study finds.*
Special drugs enable frogs to regrow an amputated leg.
Pfizer is cooperating on generic manufacturing of its Covid-19 treatment, Paxlovid — but dragging its feet. It should do everything it can to get production up to the level the world needs.
Jesse Jackson: there are things Biden can do to defend voting right against some attacks, but what we need most is to mobilize large numbers of people in the street.
US thugs killed 1,134 people (or more) in 2021.
In 2020, they killed 1,021. Reportedly a disproportionate share of the increase was due to more killing of blacks.
A new Covid-19 variant, named BA.2, is spreading fast in several countries.
In its basic behavior, it resembles Omicron: it spreads fast and its symptoms tend to be mild.
A call for athletes to boycott the Olympics in China in solidarity with the Uyghurs that China is imprisoning and brainwashing.
It is not easy to convince thousands of athletes to stay away from the most important contest of their lives. The best chance of success is if groups of athletes make the decision together.
*Virginia Schools Sue Youngkin Mandate Making Masks Optional.*
Some parents might want to tell their children not to wear masks in school. That would be foolish of them, but they might.
Other parents might want to tell their children to stay safe in school, by not hanging out with dangerous unmasked and unvaccinated people.
It is impossible to give both kinds of parents their way. So which is more important? The ones who want to keep their children safe.
The Department of Homeland Security has an ingrained blindness to the danger of right-wing extremists, partly because it contains ingrained right-wing extremists, and it has little to restrain it from obeying orders to go after dissidents that the president labels as dangerous.
I've called it various things, including the Department of Homeland Suppression and the Department of Harm and Sickness.
(satire) *Tom Brady Rips Into His Nutritional Supplements For Letting Him Down In Big Game.*
A study of 1000 children whose parents were poor gave substantial funds to half the parents, and found that the children showed improved brain function.
This was, presumably, the result of using the additional income to correct problems in the families' lives.
The "Covax" campaign, which was supposed to provide Covid vaccines to non-rich countries, has achieved only half its 2021 target, and has run out of funds.
The people of those countries, and indirectly the rest of us, will remain vulnerable until we vaccinate everyone with an up-to-date vaccine.
We have to hope that the virus has not started developing new variants to frequently to ever catch up.
US citizens: call on Biden to end all U.S. involvement in [the war in] Yemen.
Backlash against right-wing extremist Christians seems to have encouraged many Americans to drop religion.
A counter-backlash is making "evangelical" more equivalent to "right-wing extremist" and eliminating internal resistance against ever-more-extreme behavior.
The "metaverse" is *another place to spend money on things, except in this place the empty promise that buying stuff will make you happy is left even more exposed by the fact that the things in question do not physically exist.*
The article informs us that Facebook is thinking about ways to track and profile people in its metaverse even more than they are tracked in the physical world.
Many large store chains alter their internet prices in surprising ways based on tracking the customer.
Today's pervasive surveillance systems would quickly expose the secret identities of superheroes, if they really existed.
They can expose your secrets, too, and make you vulnerable to repression.
*UN data reveals "nearly insurmountable" scale of lost schooling due to Covid.*
I hazard a guess that the amount of schooling lost over the past few decades due to IMF "structural reform" policies that made countries charge money for elementary school greatly exceeded was was lost due to Covid.
*FCC chair plans to block exclusive deals that limit ISP choice in apartments.*
(satire) *Man Hoping His Death Fucked Up Enough That He Gets Law Named After Him.*
*How Americans fearing higher water bills are fighting takeovers* of their public water systems.
Belarus hackers cracked Belarusian railroad computers to interfere with Russian troop trains. They say they can crash the signaling and emergency control systems and may do that later.
The specific activity they are doing, breaking security on systems, is called "cracking", but I refer to them as "hackers" because they seem to have the hacker spirit.
They say they are using ransomware, but not demanding money — instead, they demand freeing political prisoners.
Government-sponsored Guatamalan paramilitaries have been convicted of raping Maya women as an act of political violence during the civil war.
One of the victims demands return of the remains of her parents — the paramilitaries took them away and they were never seen again.
The civil war in Guatamala was organized by the US government.
The UK plans to change the asylum rules so that refugees granted asylum can no longer bring their families.
"Stakeholder capitalism", like trickledown economics, tries to convince us that truly wise capitalists would naturally make life better for the non-rich. There is no sign that this really happens.
(satire) *Leaked Documents Confirm ExxonMobil Has Known Exactly Which Day Earth Ends Since The 1970s.*
(satire) *Biden Vows That If Russia Invades Ukraine, U.S. Will Invade One Country Of Equivalent Value.*
(satire) *Pragmatic Extremist Stresses Importance Of Assassinating Local Politicians.*
The new mayor of New York City has a plan to reduce gun crime. I can imagine that "targeted, precision policing" of 30 precincts is (1) not very different from "predictive policing" and (2) not a big change from what's already done.
I can also imagine that "spot checks" and bus and train stations will not be very different from "stop and search", and that most of the arrests they make will be for drug possession. Though they may succeed in dissuading non-car-owners from New Jersey to come into New York City with weapons.
What other things will the reported "new technology" do, besides identify people with illegal guns?'
Unidentified individuals attacked the statue of Juan Ponce de León in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Ponce de León became successful by enslaving Tainos in Hispaniola, and his main achievement was to extend such slavery to Puerto Rico. I think his statue is a good candidate for official removal.
Florida Republicans seek to ban teachers from talking about the topics of queer sexual orientation or gender identity in class.
This is premised on the supposition that parents have a right to dictate their children's sexual orientation and gender identity — but they can't do that.
The head of WHO says that it is weakened by depending on voluntary funding from donor countries — that gives them too much control over what WHO tries to do.
It also lets them specifically control what WHO does not do — for instance, allow Taiwan to participate.
He also warns us not to assume that Omicron is the last big wave of Covid-19. There are plenty of people catching the disease and giving it a chance to mutate.
*Third Mexican journalist killed this year as press corps faces murder crisis.*
Google is being sued for "deceptive" suggestions that users can disconnect themselves from old location data simply by making a new account and changing settings.
A museum exhibit teaches people about slow inundation, what has happened and what's coming.
Antimuslimism is pervasive in the Tory Party: when instances pop up, there is a brief furor, but no one is punished.
This makes an interesting contrast with how Corbyn was drummed out of the Labour Party, not for being antisemitic (he never showed any sign of that), but merely for not stretching that term to punish critics of Israel's occupation of Palestine.
I don't think either one is mainly about disapproval of bigotry. I think plutocratism is at work in both cases.
Three more US states are considering "free-range kids" laws, intended to free parents of the burden of supervising their children nonstop, 24/7.
An analyst believes Putin is coming to realize he can't grab anything from Ukraine by bombastic threats. He thinks Putin will turn to war. That would be undesirable.
It suggests to me that the US should try to help Putin save face if he does not attack.
Julian Assange may get a chance to appeal the extradition decision to the UK Supreme Court.
This means there is a chance to reverse the disastrous general decision to extradite journalists for "espionage" changes, as well as the cruel decision to subject Assange to brainwashing prison conditions for at least a few more years.
Newt Gingrich warned us that if Republicans take over Congress next fall, they will invent excuses to jail the people who are now investigating the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
In other words, they will institute arbitrary rule, as we see in Russia and China, where the rulers invent crimes to accuse opponents of.
*Prisoner’s secret filming appears to show torture in Cairo police station.*
The only surprise is that we get something like proof of this. The prisoners accused specific thugs by name.
Almost 1% of the population of Britain has had long Covid disabilities for at least a year. Around 2% have them now.
People who oppose practicing and requiring precautions against spread are imposing on everyone a fate worse than death.
Training on how to deal with hostage-takers and murderers was very effective in thwarting the attack on the synagogue in Texas.
Biden is planning economic warfare that will really hurt Russia: to stimulate world gas extraction so Europe won't buy from Russia any more.
Its other short-term effect will be to push the world closer to global heating disaster. And it may not be easy to shut off the increased flow of gas after a few years.
If the threat dissuades Putin from attacking, perhaps the increase will not have to occur.
US citizens: call on the Senate to protect election workers from Republican threats.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word
Presidential debates were reformed in 1987 so as to exclude parties other than Republican and Democratic.
I knew this, of course, when I suggested that the Democratic candidate debate the candidates of the secondary parties. This would be better for the Democratic Party than to ignominiously allow the Republicans to cancel the debates. It would make the Republican Party suffer the brunt of its refusal.
(satire) *New NFL-Military Partnership Sends First 1,000 Fans To Stand For National Anthem Off To War.*
*Half of first-wave Covid cases may have lasting harm to sense of smell.* This can make food taste bad. It terrifies me.
I don't think it is known yet how Omicron today compares to those results.
Real Republican officials supported the wrecker's plan to send phony teams of electors to present themselves as the winners of their state' presidential elections.
Why does the US have such a bizarre system for determining the result of the presidential election? Why have so many elected officials play a role?
I have a hypothesis. I think the people who designed that system wanted all the officials to play a part so that they would feel a loyalty to the eventual results. They thought this would increase respect for the process and its result. It must never have occurred to them that some of those officials would make a conscious plan to cheat. They expected dispute, not sedition.
*Faster internet speeds linked to lower civic engagement in UK.*
It seems that increasing speed of web access reduces involvement in political parties, trade unions and volunteering.
Very Rich People Can Now Make Millions More By Reselling luxury assets to each other.
It is true that this money tends to come from other very rich people. It may not have the effect of increasing the squeezing of the poor.
People want to be happy, but will accept pain for goals they want. Interestingly, one of the goals many accept to suffer for is to have a meaningful life.
Most of my life has been sad, but the Free Software Movement has made it meaningful.
Florida is the latest target of the electric companies' campaign to slow the installation of home solar panels by cutting the incentives.
Survival of civilization is something we all need. If the rapid increase of solar power systems requires improvements in the electric grid, the state should pay for that as it pays for other necessary forms of defense.
The UK contributed to the propaganda for the 1965-66 massacre in Indonesia.
The UK has exiled at least 464 Britons by cutting off their citizenship, since it gave itself the power to do this easily.
Whatever a person has done, exile is an unacceptable punishment. Furthermore, any punishment is unjust if it is imposed without a proper, fair trial.
(satire) *Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Under Pressure To Return Looted Ancient Mesopotamian Stratocaster.*
Biden is giving plutocratist Judge Rearden a second chance to be confirmed permanently as a federal judge.
Rearden has carried out Chevron's persecution of Steven Donziger, as Biden surely knows.
I hope there is a campaign to defeat Rearden.
The US bombed a big dam in Syria and caused its equipment to fail. Only an emergency truce between all the sides fighting in Syria, including Turkey, made it possible to repair the dam.
The rogue targeting unit, Task Force 9, ordered the bomb run, disregarding standing orders not to bomb that dam.
Biden gave help to a substantial fraction of poor people in the US by raising the minimum wage for federal workers.
We need to raise it generally, but that would require help from Manchin and Sinema.
*Turkey: prominent journalist detained for [indirectly] insulting president Erdoğan.*
The journalist was talking about an ox. It was Erdoğan who asserted that he was the ox.
*Tennessee Jewish couple sues state after Christian adoption agency denies them services.*
Republican officials who are willing to condemn the wrecker are nonetheless supporting the campaign to rig future elections.
A large project aims to restore the ecosystems of Finland's rivers and forests. Finland converted its forests into tree plantations and its rivers into conveyors for logs.
7% of the population of England consists of people who for medical reasons are especially vulnerable to Covid-19. The elimination of anti-contagion precautions makes them choose between grave danger and the equivalent of prison.
More.
*About a dozen Tory MPs said to have accused party whips of blackmail.* The aim of the blackmail was to make them vote to keep Bogus Johnson as prime minister.
Rich people overestimate the income of most Americans, and underestimate what they need to pay for housing.
Daniel Ellsberg argues that it would make no strategic sense to retaliate for a large nuclear attack.
Norway demonstrated the way to make electric cars catch on fast: with lots of financial incentives.
Watch out for the efforts to eliminate one financial incentive to reduce fossil fuel consumption — by replacing the fuel tax with "road pricing".
The brilliant new idea for our plutocratist medical system is an Uber for nurses.
Imagine getting treated by a nurse that has no sick pay and therefore desperately needs to work even when sick. In principle, it is not much different from eating a sandwich made by a cook that has no sick pay and therefore desperately needs to work even when sick. Both are plutocracy at work and we should not allow them to occur. But we need to make it safe to go to a clinic.
At least the nurse will wear a mask.
*[The wrecker] recognized the wholesale annexation of one country by another. If Biden lets that stand, the global implications are deeply troubling.*
*Chevron and Total withdraw from Myanmar gas project* and say it is because of the junta's oppressive rule.
*Oil industry board members to testify to Congress on climate disinformation.*
*Oligarchs from authoritarian countries use London law firms to intimidate journalists, MPs say.*
The UAE bombed a prison in Yemen, killing 100 people and wounding hundreds more.
Prisoners are not combatants.
*Unvaccinated seniors 49 times more likely to be hospitalized than those with boosters – CDC.*
The corrupter's inner circle wrote an executive order in December 2020 directing the US military to seize the voting machines that had been used in swing states.
This appears to have been intended to give the impression that the election had been stolen, using the "We made smoke, so you know there was fire" principle.
US citizens: call on Congress to fund a continuing program of distributing N95 masks to Americans that want to use them.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on your senators to confirm Lisa Cook and Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Federal Reserve.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden not to recruit fossil fuel executives for White House activities.
*Staff blow whistle on [UK] Environment Agency that "no longer deters polluters."*
This does not surprise me. The Tory Party is the all-out plutocracy party. Its policy on pollution by businesses is, "Full speed ahead." We've seen the EPA in the US quietly yield to business pressure under past administrations, Republican and Democrat, and then the corrupter converted it into the Environmental Poisoning Agency.
Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch and Roberts say that the reports of a conflict over whether to wear masks in court sessions are untrue.
With Governor DeSantis's new special election thugs, it will require a hero to locally oversee an honest election.
A Republican-dominated county in Georgia is considering closing all but one of the voting places. The result would be to stop poor people from voting, because it would be too far to go.
In principle, they could vote by mail, but Republicans are also imposing new rules on that.
Republicans claim this won't stop poor people from voting, but given how Republicans endorse lying, I don't believe a word of it. There is no other reason for them to do these things except voter suppression, so they will surely get around to that.
Many people are calling the cops to report that they are being tracked using Apple airtags.
The systems to inform people that they are being tracked with airtags are available only to people that carry an iMonster or an Android phone. However, to use those devices as protection from tracking is perverse, because they are tracking devices themselves. The phone network records its locations and stores that data for months.
IMSI-catcher devices (used by thugs at protests to identify protesters) track them locally, too.
*It is easy to say that we [in the UK] must learn to live with Covid. But to do so ethically and responsibly means focusing on the welfare of all — not the political survival of the prime minister.*
Congress is considering a possible law to have the FTC write official summaries of terms and conditions of web sites.
This could be a step in the right direction, but not enough to make them acceptable. For any kind of service that is widely used, the state should regulate the allowable conditions, not merely summarize the conditions that the business chooses.
This is not to mention the many nasty aspects to what the dis-services actually do.
The CIA concluded that the "Havana syndrome" is mainly a mirage constructed out of various unrelated illnesses that people happened to develop. However, a few of the cases call for further investigation.
UK schools teach about the effects of drinking alcohol using texts sponsored by the alcoholic beverage companies.
The UK will allow experiments with planting gene-edited crops.
I see no reason why this should be totally forbidden, but each case needs to be checked with care. Almost any wild plant or animal species has the potential to become a dangerous invasive species if it gets to the wrong place, and a gene-edited variety has this no less than a wild variety. Varieties designed to kill "pests" could become threats to wild species, even very plentiful ones. (Pesticides have driven monarch butterflies close to extinction.)
In addition, gene-edited varieties could carry patent pollution that endangers poor farmers and the independence of family farms.
Massachusetts is considering proposed changes for its "right to repair" law for cars.
I think H400 is a step forward — the additional requirements are worth the delay — but more is needed. The law should also require that each new car offer a physical switch to turn off all radio transmission from the car (except when the user asks for an emergency call) and a physical switch to turn off all recording of location data (no matter how it is obtained or computed) and of any data from which locations could be inferred (such as by recording directions of motion or turns made).
I'm going to talk with my state lawmakers about this.
Despite the increased fighting spirit of US unions, the fraction of workers that belong to unions fell substantially in 2021.
The US is not doing as much for climate defense as most European countries, and it's too little, too late — but at least it's a start.
Robert Reich theorizes that Manchin and Sinema are drunk with the feeling of importance that they get from being able to block whatever Biden tries to do.
Millions of American retail and restaurant workers are in such a squeeze that they can't call in sick, even if they have Covid-19.
(satire) *Nancy Pelosi Introduces Landmark Legislation To Provide Aid For Struggling Personal Stock Portfolio.*
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, intended to curb the power of big tech platforms.
*[450 scientists] called on public relations and advertising agencies to no longer work with fossil fuel clients.*
(satire) *Oxygen Masks Drop From Nation's Ceilings After Earth Hits Rough Patch In Orbit.*
Right-wing Covid-spreaders are boycotting the work clothes company Carhartt for maintaining a vaccination requirement for its workers.
Covid-19 is their biological weapon, and any organization that tries to resist it, they will try to make it give up. They have a grip on our government such that it is powerless to help us resist.
A plan to cancel most of Puerto Rico's debt will leave enough debt to crush it.
*360+ Climate Groups to Biden: Phase Out Fossil Fuels on Public Lands.*
I wish I knew what reasons for this he has in his head. Maybe he can't face the challenge of trying to lead the US into making the sacrifice necessary for the survival of the US (and the rest of the world too) -- but that's the job, and if he won't do it, no one else can.
Senator Cruz has invented a new form of campaign corruption in order to undermine campaign finance laws.
(satire) *Apple Acquires Apple In Historic $3 Trillion Deal.*
Biden announced a plan to provide N95 masks to everyone in the US.
He should have done this a year ago, but now is much better than never.
Papua New Guinea has abolished the death penalty.
Smoking makes your descendants (for three generations at least) likely to be fatter. What is amazing is that the effect depends in a complex way on details.
Ola Bini has been stuck in Ecuador for two years, awaiting trial on apparently bogus charges under a process including illegal actions by the state. How he will go on trial.
One must suspect that Ecuador is doing this to serve the US, just as it expelled Assange from the embassy to serve the US.
*America must take steps now to avoid a slide into authoritarianism.*
Lyft has donated 14 million dollars to buy a ballot initiative to deny Lyft's drivers the rights of employees.
*Medicare and ACA Call Center Workers Demand Basic COVID Protections.*
The talks to restore the non-nuclear deal with Iran have reached no agreement, and soon they will end.
Google Analytics declared illegal in the EU.
Bravo! But what we really need is to stop Google (and other companies) from collecting the sort of data that makes people vulnerable.
Kate Clanchy, Richard Dawkins and Priyamvada Gopal write about their experiences with cancellation.
In ASCII form, the page doesn't say whose writing starts where, but I think that Kate Clanchy's part starts with "I have no doubt that the critic," Richard Dawkins's part starts with "A university is a Socratic haven of free thought," and Priyamvada Gopal's part starts with "Let me be upfront."
I read the first part of Clanchy's book to see what the offense was about. She described physical and cultural traits of the various demographic groups of children she taught, mentioning differences that made an impression on her — but her only wish was to teach them all, not to judge them, and they appreciated that.
Maybe I understand how some people could look at that writing with a particular squint and see bigotry. What Clanchy wrote is not bigotry, but it has some superficial resemblance to certain expressions of bigotry. A racist might mention some of those same group characteristics as a build-up for a racist sneer at those children, and at their adult relatives. That would be real bigotry.
The error those cancellers made was to hype themselves into a hairtrigger state in which they look at something that superficially resembles bigotry, declare it to be real bigotry, and explode into hatred.
Clanchy warns that cancellation will someday drive someone to suicide. Sad to say, this has already happened. David Chappelle tells how his friend, trans comedienne Daphne Dwarman, was cancelled for supporting him, and killed herself from the pain. I would expect there are dozens more such instances.
I love Dawkins's point about the extreme contrast between progressive acceptance of transgenderism and condemnation of transracialism. The physical difference between the sexes is fundamental to reproduction; the physical difference between human racial groups is a matter of minor details that only occasionally have a substantial direct effect on living. In both cases we surround those physical differences with socially constructed roles. So why not let people identify as whatever racial groups they choose? Or invent new ones?
What about the right-wing cancellationism that Priyamvada Gopal reports? It operates using state power and financial influence. Left-wing cancellationism does not have state power or financial influence to work with, so it operates using hate mobs. They are both harmful to freedom of thought, but they look very different.
*Amid 'Slow-Motion Coup,' Manchin and Sinema Help GOP Sink Voting Rights.*
(satire) *Frustrated Hospital Worker Rounds Up Gurneys Patients Failed To Put in Parking Lot Corrals.*
Florida Republicans suspended the Orlando area director of public health for encouraging the staff to show their support for public health.
Public health goes against the Disease Spreader Party's politics.
A new form of malicious hardware: CPUs with circuits that won't allow it to work if moved to some other brand of computer.
Does this have an effect on software freedom? I don't see that it does, but it is nasty in any case.
* More than a thousand crows roost in Sunnyvale every night, ruffling locals’ feathers with caws and droppings.* At least they do it with good caws.
Can Buffy slay crows?
Some deep-water coral reefs seem to be safe from world-wide coral damage.
What I wonder is, can all the coral species that live in shallow reefs also live in deep reefs?
* Keynes argued that aiding our allies is more effective than sanctioning our foes.*
Sanctions are not very effective, so I suppose this is true.
The difficulty about aiding allies is that it costs money. Governments that are prostrate from having lowered taxes on the rich are not in a position to do this very much — and likewise the other good things they ought to do.
*New York attorney general alleges Trump firm misled banks and tax officials.*
Questioning the wrecker himself for a civil suit might be a mistake, since it would require giving him immunity from prosecution, and that would be most unfortunate.
The Tories have given in to right-wing pressure by saying that they will soon eliminate all the rules to reduce spread of Covid-19. Teachers and medical personnel say this is absurd.
This will allow people to "live normally", if they can ignore the danger from all the unmasked Covid-infected people they pass by. They will all catch and spread Covid-19 from time to time. Each time, it might kill them, or give them long Covid disabilities.
For the people who are "vulnerable", which is a large fraction of the US population, it will be extremely dangerous to come near other people, since many will be doing little or nothing to avoid transmitting the virus. Using public transit will be dangerous, so those who don't have cars will be stuck at home.
UK censorship: jail sentence for possessing a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook.
Nazism is despicable, and the Anarchist's Cookbook explains how to make some explosives — but merely possessing a copy of a book must never be criminalized. That is just one small step away from thoughtcrime.
*Florida health official put on leave after encouraging staff to get Covid vaccine.*
*Woman sentenced to death in Pakistan over "blasphemous" WhatsApp activity.*
Unusually, the target this time is a Muslim who claims to be religious. But morally that makes no difference. It is vicious to punish anyone for "blasphemy" against any religion, and it demonstrates the danger of giving religion any more power than any other opinion.
*[Antibiotic-resistant bacteria] now a leading cause of death worldwide, study finds.*
Scientists have warned us for years that we need to put an end to overuse of antibiotics, or they will cease to work and that will kill lots of people. The reason we did not do so is that it would have reduced the profits of Big Ag. It's not the farmer workers that get more pay, nor the owners of small farms that sell their crops to Big Ag. It's the giant distributor/processors that get the money.
*Supreme Court rejects [the bullshitter's] bid to shield [official government] documents from January 6 panel.*
A prescribed burn in Texas got out of control and now needs to be treated as a wildfire.
The US does not do enough prescribed burns, and that insufficiency makes fires more dangerous when they eventually happen. But part of the reason for the insufficiency is that they are risky. Global heating makes them more risky.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Postal Service Reform Act.
* More than 100 members of the global super-rich called on Wednesday for governments around the world to "tax us now" to help pay for the pandemic response and tackle the gulf between rich and poor.*
Teenagers in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, have responded to Republican book-banners by starting a book club for reading banned books.
A study from the MIT business school found that America's "toxic corporate culture" is one of the main factors that motivated many workers to quit their jobs last year.
Exxon (and other oil companies) are trying to distract us by committing to to eliminate the greenhouse emissions from their own operations.
Those emissions are nothing compared with the emissions generated when their customers burn the oil or gas that Exxon sells them. That is the real problem.
Students in many US cities have demanded proper Covid protection or they will refuse to go to school.
A bill in the US Congress would try to prohibit targeted advertising based on certain personal characteristics, such as Google does. For instance, it would be forbidden to target an ad to "gay men".
Would the bill also forbid targeting an ad to a complicated criterion, which Google chose to correlate well with being a gay man? I think that's what Google actually does.
*An annual wealth tax targeting the world's millionaires and billionaires would raise enough revenue to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, provide universal healthcare to the people of low- and middle-income nations, and produce enough coronavirus vaccines to meet global demand.*
Exxon is suing the California officials who brought suit against Exxon for deceitfully denying its part in global heating.
The argument based on the First Amendment is absurd. Indeed, the First Amendment covers claiming that burning oil does not cause global heating. It is not a crime to make that claim. But that is not an excuse, if making that claim was part of a scheme to damage other people and they sue.
It worries me greatly that judges are reportedly giving credence to that argument.
*Dumped fishing gear is killing marine life. Yet no governments seem to care.*
I don't recall seeing a proposal to pass US laws to curb this practice. It is easy to think of ways to do it. Which way would be best, I wouldn't propose to say with my lack of experience.
* Expanding national parks not enough to protect nature, say scientists. "Urgent": coordinated action to tackle overconsumption, farming subsidies and the climate crisis also needed to halt biodiversity loss.*
Israel evicted one more Palestinian family from Sheikh Jarrah. There is always some good project as an excuse, but the net result if to kick out Arab residents, because the plan is to convert the neighborhood.
Israel annexed Sheikh Jarrah to Jerusalem. It was not part of Jerusalem at all before 1967.
*How a Powerful Company Convinced Georgia to Let It Bury Toxic Waste in Groundwater.*
In the UK, computer systems track parking in stores' parking lots.
Even if the store decides not to act like an ass, it is still wrong to track people. But London is planning to make it even more complete, by charging owners of fossil fuel cars a fee for each trip made.
I am in favor of charging fossil fuel cars a bigger fee to operate, but if the purpose is reducing emissions, there is no reason to care where the car travelled, not even whether it was in London or not.
UN Secretary General Guterres pointed out that, to cope with global heating, global pandemic, global debt, and global inequality, we need global solidarity. "If we leave anyone behind, in the end, we leave everyone behind."
The UK's House of Lords rejected the repressive anti-protest measures in the Tories' latest repression bill.
That does not mean they are dead. If the Tories are stubborn enough and have no defectors, they can eventually push this through.
China and Russia are increasing their military and economic power while that of the US is crumbling.
Many of us have hoped to see the weaker parts of the world overcome US imperialism and violence, for the sake of justice and human rights. Now it seems that the US may lose its power, but not in a way that benefits human rights for anyone weak.
China and Russia have become vicious mad dictatorships. Different, of course — the Chinese Communist Party cares to some extent about the well-being of Chinese and China, whereas Putin and his barons are more short-term greedy — but they both vaunt their contempt for human rights to discourage anyone who might thing of trying to defend them. Each has rehabilitated the mass-murderers that ruled them in the past (Mao and Stalin).
Against them, the only bastion in the world is the United States, whose evil aspects are quite familiar to us, and which teeters on the edge of falling into a dictatorship as mad and vicious as China and Russia already are.
The next mass extinction, the first to be caused by humans, is slowly accelerating, but most people hardly pay attention. The IUCN Red List of threatened species covers only 5% of the species we have identified, and many more species are extinct already than it mentions.
*America has taken its eyes off the ball on Iran.* The US has not tried offered enough to get a return to the non-nuclear deal with Iran. The unfortunate consequences could be unending.
To avoid being infected by anti-mask Justice Gorsuch, Justice Sotomayor never attends Supreme Court sessions in person.
This has been denied by the justices involved
US citizens: phone your Democratic senators at 833-346-1256 and call on them to hold a prolonged debate on the voting rights bill, as pressure on senators Manchin and Sinema.
The Houthis launched an air strike at an oil installation in the UAE. This has inspired peculiar outrage.
Salafi Arabia and the UAE have attacked the Houthis in Yemen for years, on the ground and from the air, attacking all sorts of targets including homes. Why in the world would people feel outrage when the Houthis retaliate in kind?
Both Salafi Arabia and UAE are ruled by murderous despots. The acting king of Salafia Arabia, Crown Prince Bone Saw, arranged the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. One of the nobles of the UAE has just been formally accused of torture.
The Houthis are probably not much better, but I see no reason to judge it by a stricter standard than the other two.
China arrested a long-time annoying dissident on charges of pleading to be allowed to join his dying wife in the US. He was charged with suspicion of intending to annoy the state.
*Torture complaint filed against new president of Interpol.* It has been filed with a French court on the occasion of his visit to Interpol headquarters in France, on behalf of two people who were tortured in the UAE.
*I study crowds — that’s why I know the [UK's] police and crime bill will make us less safe.*
* The irony is that the repressive power of the police, supposedly the means of stopping violence, is actually the source of most violence in crowd events — either directly (the police inflict far more violence than is inflicted upon them) or indirectly (the repression of protesters' rights inflames previously peaceable crowds).*
Some scientists assert that the global level of chemical pollution threatens to destabilize global ecosystems.
This threat would be on top of that of climate mayhem, which is already destabilizing global ecosystems.
China has got its hands on 2500 dissidents who were living overseas.
In some cases this was done by kidnapping. In some cases, China used Interpol. Some returned "voluntarily" after China used their relatives as hostages.
Sometimes ordinary extradition sufficed, since China does not hesitate to fabricate accusations of nonpolitical "crimes".
The US has used relatives as hostages to try to make people spy for the US.
*Another 'Big Lie' Corporatists Like to Tell: Bipartisanship Will Lead to Progress.*
I prefer the term "plutocracy" to "corporatocracy", because the crucial thing about that bad system is that the rich wield the power. Their use of corporations to do so is a detail of methods.
Bipartisanship existed in the US when both the major parties in the US were working for the rich. To the extent that Democrats worked for working people, or disprivileged racial groups, that broke the bipartisanship.
We are seeing a dangerous outbreak of bipartisanship right now: various congresscritters claim that the Biden administration has implemented the No Surprises Act — which is meant to prevent shocking, unexpectedly high medical bills — in an excessively effective fashion. They say the law was not supposed to work so effectively.
One of them, Richard Neale, was reelected in 2020 by means of dirty tricks against his opponent.
New York's new mayor, an ex-thug himself, has seized on a small increase in street crime as an excuse to hire a lot more thugs.
The article proposes better ways to spend that money on reducing low-level crime, without increasing repression.
The most destructive crimes in the US are committed by powerful companies, and can't be stopped at the level of city governments.
Most "negative reactions" to some Covid-19 vaccines are not caused by the vaccine itself; they result are caused by the negative form of the placebo effect.
*Investigation alleges Israeli police carried out phone intercepts [using Pegasus spyware] without court supervision or monitoring of how data was used.*
Pegasus was used to snoop on dozens of journalists and human rights activists in Bahrain and Jordan.
Australia's immigration agency takes travelers' phones and copies their contents, much as the US does.
People who are concerned about this danger don't bring phones when they travel. They get a phone in the destination country and leave it there when they depart it.
(satire) *Smart Home Security Camera Conspires With Burglars In Exchange For Half The Loot.*
Sanders: *As We Honor Dr. King, We Must Remember What He Truly Stood For.*
Some people cite King to attack the Liberals of the day, but none of these ideas was outside the range of what American Liberals supported.
*In an era of right-wing populism, we cannot destroy democracy in order to save it.*
The UK government is campaigning against end-to-end encryption, presenting this as a way to prevent "child sexual abuse".
My understanding is that real sexual abuse of real children is usually carried out by relatives and friends of the family. The abusers don't use the internet either to carry out that abuse or to meet the children.
Some points in the article suggest that the word "child" is being misapplied to adolescents. What adolescents need is help navigating the area of sex, showing them how to avoid bad trysts and relationships and find good ones.
An anthropologist says many Americans have become accustomed to walling themselves off from their surroundings — that could be why they wanted a wall against Mexico.
The UK took away a man's citizenship, claiming that was OK because in theory he could apply Bangladeshi citizenship. But in fact he couldn't, so the UK had to restore his citizenship.
Meanwhile, his youngest daughter, born while he was exiled, is still denied British citizenship, perhaps forever.
He was never told any reason for his five-year exile, and never accused of a crime.
North Korean defectors in South Korea face a life of poverty (despite government aid) and loneliness.
A review of the military situation in Ukraine suggests that Russia could probably conquer Ukraine, but could not occupy it for long.
Russia might attack through Belarus. Or it might try to capture only parts of Eastern Ukraine.
I am skeptical of the idea of deterring that attack by threatening economic sanctions, because that approach has almost never succeeded in changing a country's policies.
This suggests to me that the US and NATO should announce a commitment to defend Ukraine from an overt invasion by Russia, and move divisions into Poland (if Poland agrees) near the frontiers with Ukraine and Belarus.
If Russia attacks Ukraine through Belarus, it would be legitimate and easy to send NATO troops into Belarus to fight the Russian troops there. This would probably spark an uprising, as it would offer an opportunity to overthrow Lukashenko. The Belarusian army would be unable to suppress an uprising while facing invading forces. Its units might even accept the invitation to change sides, or remain in their bases doing nothing.
That won't happen, because in that situation, Lukashenko would tell Putin he doesn't want Belarus to be involved. Without Belarus, Putin would hesitate to launch a full-scale invasion. He might engage in destabilization, but Ukraine does not need NATO troops to deal with that.
Biden has chosen a weak posture by ruling out military deterrence. That makes war more attractive to Putin and thus more likely.
20 women protested in Kabul, standing on a street and chanting "equality and justice" with signs. Taliban thugs came and shot them with pepper spray.
Even racist American thugs probably wouldn't attack 20 Black Lives Matter supporters with pepper spray.
The Taliban thugs stole the phone from a bystander who was making a video. American thugs often do that sort of thing. It is despicable in either country: if you know your action will look like cruelty, don't do it!
The strife that killed over 200 people in Kazakhstan seems to have been a power struggle between Nazarbayev, the retired ruler, and the new president Tokayev, who was supposed to preserve the power of Nazarbayev's family.
Maybe the truck drivers' protests were organized by Tokayev's supporters. Or maybe they were real popular protests, and Tokayev hijacked them for his own ends. I don't know how we can find out.
The Biden administration has done a lousy job of protecting the US from Covid-19. It relied on vaccines alone, without enough effort to use other methods, such as masks that effectively protect the wearer (as well as others), distancing, and testing.
Much of the problem was due to intentional obstruction by the disease-spreader party, and some of it was surely a matter of bowing to powerful plutocratic forces. But if Biden had pushed visibly for a better response, he would be able to blame those enemies for the failure.
*Corporate Polluters Want Us to Stay Distracted.*
*10 Reasons the OAS Secretary-General Must Go.*
Ralph Nader: *Time for Attorney General Garland to Create Corporate Crime Database.*
Ralph Nader: Eight New Year's Resolutions for NPR to Consider Now.
I would add: stop running commercials! I stopped donating to my local NPR when I heard commercials on it — not messages of thanks for a donation, but messages that companies paid it to read — and I also greatly reduced my listening to it.
A spoof interview with a spoof member of the UK parliament fooled people — it seemed normal for members of parliament to make absurd excuses.
There is no way to clean up the oil that spilled on Huntington Beach last year, and it may continue harming seabirds and marine animals for a long time.
As global heating melts icecaps, the added weight of the ocean will cause more volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
Israel is trying to force Palestinians out of Sheikh Jarrah, where many families have lived since before 1967. One man says he will set himself on fire rather than leave.
More about Sheikh Jarrah and how this relates to things.
Why it is very important to protect yourself from catching Omicron.
*This is what "cutting red tape" gets you: rivers polluted without consequence.*
Our safety depends on enforcement of safety regulations; that's one of the many missions for which we need the state.
The UK's NHS doctors are working such long hours that they are losing track of their actions while treating patients.
*As long as party donations can be obscured, British politics will not be clean.*
India has shut down Kashmir's independent press club.
China is firmly suppressing all languages other than Mandarin. Not only the languages of non-Chinese peoples, such as Tibetan and Uyghur, are under attack: even the other Chinese languages, such as Shanghainese and Cantonese, are being eliminated in China.
This reminds me of what the US and Canada did to indigenous languages — and, with the Uyghur, China is using even more cruelty than the US and Canada used.
The other Chinese languages are traditionally called "Chinese dialects" in English, but that is a misnomer. They are not dialects of Mandarin; they are far too different for that.
Cantonese will survive among people of Chinese origin in countries to the south, such as Vietnam and Singapore.
Some of India's Hindu extremists are calling for genocide of Muslims, with tacit support from the ruling Hindu-extremist party.
Some of them call for genocide against Christians. Hindu extremists are persecuting Christians already. Surely they won't spare Buddhists.
Just 0.01% of bitcoin holders control 27% of the existing bitcoin. Thus, bitcoin is basically a system for concentrating wealth.
Students in some US cities are going on strike, demanding either protective masks and testing, or remote education.
I understand their wish for remote education, for safety. Unfortunately, the way US schools normally do remote education is a threat to their freedom. Schools should not ask students to run a nonfree program or give data to an online dis-service.
Manchin and Sinema say they will block the voting rights bills, by refusing to vote an exception to the filibuster for them.
I heard that Schumer plans to have a floor vote on this question on Wednesday, to put them on the spot.
The IMF should reallocate its "special drawing rights" to help poor countries make up for the harm done by slavery and colonialism.
I see one flaw in the article: it talks about "solutions" for the climate crisis in a way that seems shifty. Does this refer to efforts to reduce and stop global heating, which is treating the disease, or does it refer to assuaging some of the immediate symptoms for the short term? The former will help save civilization and nature; the latter will only help delay some of the damage for a few decades.
We must insist on this distinction so we can focus on the long term.
Russia is apparently making cyber-attacks against Ukrainian government web sites.
*What more could Novak Djokovic have done? Get vaccinated, isolate and get the facts right.*
The Australian government should get its policies straight, and avoid confusion in its decisions, but there's no reason to give anyone permission to enter who is unvaccinated by choice.
The Philippines will require vaccination as a condition for using public transit.
The article does not state whether poor people can easily get vaccinated gratis. If they cannot, that puts them in danger; furthermore, this requirement amounts to discrimination.
However, if everyone can get vaccinated, that is their solution: to get vaccinated.
The policy properly offers exemptions for those who, for medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated.
The Jan 6 attack investigation committee will investigate how various antisocial media companies handled postings leading up to the attack, and how they interpreted and enforced their rules.
*Timeline of Filibuster Helps Explain Why So Many Say It Now Needs to Go.*
For decades, the filibuster has been extremely convenient for right-wing forces to block legislation to reduce racism.
If Republicans succeed in imposing minority rule, the remaining Senate Democrats might find it useful — but the Republicans would surely eliminate it immediately if it got in their way. Most Republicans believe victory overrides any and all principles; the few who do not, don't have any principles against imposed minority rule.
*The [possible] Overthrow of American Democracy: A Scorecard for [the corrupter]'s Next Coup.*
The triumphal march of cultural bigotry advances ever onward: there is a movement to allow only Jews to play parts that are Jewish.
There are many intersecting subsets of Americans (for instance) who have a certain aspect of their culture in common. New Yorkers tend to have much in common, and so do Texans. But not all New Yorkers are similar, nor all Texans, nor are all Jews. With equal validity, casting directors could be compelled to classify parts and actors into lots of small pigeonholes.
Here's a part for a white Midwestern Evangelical Christian. There's one for an Irish Protestant. And that one, for a Texan Evangelical from Austin. Another role is someone from Dallas. Yet another, from a rural area near the Mexican border. These cultures are not the same.
Here's a part for Hasidic Jew of Polish background, from Brooklyn. That part likewise, calls for a Jew of Polish extraction, but Orthodox. There's a part for a mostly assimilated not-very-religious Jew from a New Jersey suburb, who went to a prestigious university, like per parents. And another for one who went to a community college. These cultures are not the same either. Which of those differences are the most important?
Who should be allowed to play a transsexual Nazi Eskimo (as suggested in "Can't Watch This", by Weird Al Yankovic)? Or a neo-Nazi playwright (as in The Producers)? Should those roles be limited to actors who are real American Nazis?
Productions won't carry this to the point where it makes casting impossible. But those are not morally significant questions — only variations among groups of people. If it is ok to ignore most of these divisions, then it is ok to consider only the ones that are important for good performance of any particular role. Along with everything else that is important for a good performance.
If gentiles are forbidden to play Jewish parts, gentile actors will demand, for fairness, that Jews be forbidden to play gentile parts. Here are some Jewish actors who have been very successful playing non-Jewish parts, and might have been barred by cultural bigotry.
Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Robert Downey Jr, Douglas Fairbanks Jr,
Mira Furlan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Harvey Keitel, Hedy Lamarr,
Peter Lorre, Leonard Nimoy, Sean Penn, Rhea Jo Perlman, William Shatner, Eli Wallach,
all three stooges.
200 prisoners in New York City's Riker's Island jail are on hunger strike to condemn the dangerous conditions that they are subjected to.
US citizens: call on the SEC to require large corporations to publish the amount of their greenhouse gas emissions.
Citizens of Massachusetts: call on your state legislators to pass H.3453/S.2304, to stop jailing people and suspending their driving licenses over debt.
(satire) *[New York City mayor] Eric Adams Appoints Deputy Patsy For All Future Corruption Probes.*
(satire) *The Onion's 1-Second Workout.*
Last year Canada set up a national childcare system for all parents that need it. It is a big success.
Senator Sinema pretends to support voting rights, but she doesn't really support them much if she would drop them to protect the filibuster.
Two of the main officials of the Council for Environmental Quality have recently quit.
One can guess that they feel it is impossible to achieved what they hoped to do, a year ago. They may be disappointed with Biden. Or they may be disappointed with Sinema and Manchin's defeat of Biden's climate defense legislation.
Many doctors protested Spotify for letting Joe Rogan distribute vaccine disinformation.
Germany's contact tracing organization rebuked German thugs for using contact tracing data to investigate a crime.
The contact tracer said that the system is designed to deny the thugs access to the data, and speculated the thugs fabricated a fake Covid contact to get access.
It is extremely short-sighted for thugs to do this. The benefit of finding one criminal is not worth the cost of undermining trust in the state.
(satire) *Newly Uncovered Manuscript Reveals China Invented English Language 700 Years Before Western World.*
*Guns, ammo … even a boat: how Oath Keepers plotted an armed coup.*
*US claims Russia planning ‘false-flag’ operation to justify Ukraine invasion.*
Putin's seizure of Crimea was a kind of false-flag operation, carried out by Russian soldiers disguised as something other than Russian soldiers.
* Pandemics, the climate crisis and the algorithms used by tech giants feel too amorphous to squeeze into the dramatic form [of tragedy].*
*Global heating linked to [premature] birth and damage to babies' health, scientists find.* Also to obesity.
*The US supreme court to Americans: tough luck if you get Covid at work.*
*Extinction Rebellion activists cleared over London rush hour disruption.*
It looks like the British public understand what is really at stake when the same authorities that disregard the climate danger prosecute those who try to wake people up.
Powell, the Republican that Biden continued as head of the Federal Reserve, is willing to let climate disaster build up for fear of the pain of making changes to prevent it.
That's like an idiot who won't get dental treatment for a cavity or won't get tested for cancer. The longer you let these things go, the worse they get.
Tigray is running out of insulin, as no supplies have reached that region in months.
Tigray's government says that Ethiopia is blockading Tigray. Ethiopia's government says that Tigrayan forces are attacking aid trucks. The latter is a priori implausible, so I think that a blockade is the real cause.
It is easy for the Ethiopian government to block supply from Ethiopia. Why can't supplies be brought in from Sudan? Is it possible to air-drop medicine?
In 2009, a giant oil spill poisoned seaweed farms of East Timor and Indonesia. The company that let it happen has resisted in court, and the people's whose farms are still poisoned have received no compensation.
The EU objects to holding a meeting of the WTO to consider allowing generic vaccines while the pandemic is going on.
I'm surprised they aren't ashamed of making such a transparently bogus excuse.
(satire) *Breakthrough Procedure Allows Surgeons To Transplant Pig Rib Directly Into Human Mouth.*
The US is losing the social cohesion that is needed for any country to thrive. What could possibly get it back?
It is cute to describe political camps as "tribes", but when one of the camps aims to abolish democracy, spread disease and surrender the climate battle, letting that camp "win" for a while would allow them to create even bigger and broader deadly strife.
US citizens: support the Disinfo Defense League platform.
(satire) *LAPD Cautions Residents To Look Out For Dozens Of Bullets Officers Sent Ricocheting Around City.*
Senators Ossoff and Kelly have proposed a bill to prohibit members of Congress (and their families) from buying and selling stocks.
A Republican proposed something similar.
*Big Bank, Corporate Destruction of Forests Worsening Climate Crisis.*
Human rights defenders warn that a new treaty to combat "cybercrime" could become a tool for repression of dissent.
Frito-Lay employees ended a strike when the company agreed to give each worker at least one day off in each week.
How is it that any business operating in the US is allowed to deny that to any worker? I thought that US law required a lot more than that. But apparently not. What's the origin of this problem?
A Wisconsin court reinterpreted state law to prohibit ballot drop-off boxes. Those who could overrule this decision are Republicans, and won't do so.
Electricity consumption grew 7% last year, and renewable generation grew only 6%. Thus, fossil fuel consumption for generating electricity increased too. This is going in the wrong direction.
New bureaucratic requirements in Texas are causing rejection of many applications for mail-in ballots.
In some counties, the rejection rate is 50%. In other places, it is less but it is substantial.
Biden allows continued sale of coal leases. This caused a 14% increase in coal consumption in 2021 alone.
Increasing numbers of young men are having vasectomies because they recognize that it's not good to have children in a world headed into climate disaster.
It's not good for the children, and it's not good for the rest of the world.
The UK government is telling Afghan and Yemeni refugees that their home countries are safe to return to.
In the case of the specific Afghan refugee, it could well be true that the Taliban have no specific interest in bothering him. But Afghanistan is a violent, dangerous place, and is facing hunger because of sanctions. As for Yemen, that is still a war zone, facing hunger because of sanctions and combat.
8000 workers in Kroger supermarkets near Denver are on strike.
The big supermarket conglomerates nowadays use many different brands. Wikipedia lists the names Kroger stores use. These stores are labeled "King Sooper".
Negotiation between the US and Russia has failed. Putin demands that NATO make major concessions or he will attack.
Putin would be more likely to forego war if Ukraine were more strongly defended. The US should have made sure to strengthen Ukraine enough to deter war; there was no danger in doing that.
Threatening sanctions never had much chance of success. Indeed, sanctions have usually failed to change other countries' foreign policy. They often hurt the people of the targeted country, but its dictator generally doesn't care about them.
The sanction that would worry Putin is to refuse to buy Russia's gas, but Europe hasn't got the courage to do it. Indeed, Russia is cutting its gas sales to Europe to provoke distress there and make European leaders timid. The courageous response for Europe would be to boost construction of renewable generation facilities, while meanwhile using temporary measures to help people get along with less gas.
It would have been wiser all along for the US not to try to extend NATO to Ukraine and Georgia. But the way Putin has shaped this confrontation, to agree to the demand now would be an abject surrender.
The bloodthirsty cruelty of Islamic law was on public display in Aceh. Nearly all the Islamic states deny religious freedom to their inhabitants by punishing blasphemy and by prohibiting Muslims from converting to any other belief.
US citizens: Phone your senators at 1-833-497-4273 to urge them to fix the filibuster and pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. It is the combination of the two voting rights laws that progressives have campaigned for for several years.
US citizens: call on Red Lobster to offer paid sick leave to its employees, and thus protect customers' health.
US citizens: tell NYC Mayor Adams: No slumlords on your transition team!
US citizens: call on senators to confirm Lael Brainard to the Federal Reserve.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
The UN says it can't get enough food into Tigray to keep people alive, nor the fuel to transport that food. The supplies of food have been insufficient since July.
Can anyone find reports that explain what is really going on in that war?
One of Assad's torturer commanders has been convicted in Germany of overseeing the torture of 4,000 prisoners. Some of them testified in his trial.
Someone used Pegasus spyware to spy on 35 journalists in El Salvador. Based on the fact that they were investigating accusations against the tyrannical president, we can suspect this was done behalf of the government or the president.
The UK general repression bill plans intense repression of Gypsies. Their vehicles could be confiscated on suspicion and their children taken away. The UK already has laws to punish homeless people for sleeping on the street, or in an unoccupied home.
All this just as Britain is facing a critical shortage of housing.
As the animals that disperse seeds shift habitats in response to global heating, the plants they used to disperse tend to be left without a way to shift. That reduces their range, so that all sorts of random local accidents can wipe them out.
The leader of the Oath Keepers has been charged with seditious conspiracy for the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, along with other members.
Some Australians call for public works to repair beaches and protect them. This would be worth doing if not for global heating. Two or more meters of sea level rise in this century will overwhelm these local efforts.
If they want to preserve today's beaches, they have to start by preserving today's sea level, and that calls for climate defense. Strange that this article doesn't say a word about this.
Sinema seems to have killed all hope to rescue US elections from Republican rigging.
(satire) *CDC Announces Plan To Send Every U.S. Household Pamphlet On Probabilistic Thinking.*
When it comes to preventing Covid-19, the CDC should give people clear and simple recommendations. But these pamphlets could be useful to help people recognize and reject disinformation.
*Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Partisan Gerrymandering.*
*Report Debunks Manchin's Inflation Argument Against Build Back Better.*
When plutocratist Democrats defeat progressive programs, the next thing they do is pretend that the programs failed because they went "too far left." This is supposed to be a reason to vote for plutocratist Democrats. Polls show that large majorities of Americans support the main progressive policy programs.
Now they are pushing for Clinton to run again for president.
I will back Sanders if he runs.
*Biden Under Fire for Resisting Calls to Distribute N95 Masks to All.*
The Burmese army is fighting heavily with rebels in the city of Loikaw. Most of the inhabitants (perhaps over 100,000) have fled.
Since the start of the pandemic, *while wealthiest got richer, 140m people fell into poverty as jobs were lost, wiping out years of gains for poorest.*
Here's an article that tries to convince us that what's really bad about global heating is that it treats disprivileged groups worse than privileged groups.
Sure, unfairness is wrong. But if most people in every group are going to be killed -- plus over half the other living species -- isn't that much worse?
If, in that killing of billions, an equal fraction were going to be killed in every ethnic or racial group, that would not make it ok.
NYC's new mayor, in regard to the recent fire, downplays the owner's failure to maintain and operate the building safely, and focuses on the tenants' dangerous methods for coping with those flaws.
It's generally better to fix the system than to try to teach many individuals to work perfectly within the existing flawed system. At one level, that's the reason to require central heating. At another, that's the reason for building codes. At another, that's the reason for progressive politics.
Blood donations in the US are down, due to the spread of Covid-19, and supplies of some blood types are running dangerously low.
Soon, injured people may start dying because there is no blood available to give them transfusions.
*Trump loyalists form alliance in bid to take over election process in key states.*
Republican fanatics are now leading a blacklisting campaign against teachers that explain racism in American history.
The right-wing justices on the US Supreme Court rejected OSHA's vaccination mandate for medium and large businesses. With this ruling they began to support the Republican Party's strategy to incapacitate the US with disease, and blame the consequences on Democrats.
Calling for the elimination of ICBMs, to eliminate the hurry to launch a nuclear attack because one seems possibly to be on its way.
*What would the Supreme Court's "originalists" think of the filibuster?
If they were honest,
they'd
find it unconstitutional.*
An Israeli writes about his long friendship with his Palestinian Aseel friend, who worked for peace, and was shot dead for no reason by Israeli thugs while standing unarmed in the middle of a nonviolent rally.
Covid-19 has transformed commercial sea cruises into real adventures! (I'd rather stay home.)
As the rich show off their wealth, they show we need to impose a wealth tax.
The Republican Party will refuse to debate Democrats for the presidency.
Democrats should invite the Green Party and the "Libertarian" Party to the debate, so that the Republicans will miss out on the chance rather than cancel it.
*Mississippi: felon disenfranchisement is a racist labyrinth worthy of Kafka.*
The people who set up that system chose a set of felonies to trigger disenfranchisement, not because they were the worst of felonies, but because they were likely to disenfranchise blacks.
If the wrecker captures the presidency through a coup, the US could fall apart in chaos.
US citizens: push the EPA to regulate methane emissions.
The department of HHS is pushing back on a cost increase for Medicare that would be needed to pay for an exorbitantly expensive drug that might prevent Alzheimer's disease.
The approval of that drug may have been a mistake, and some corrupt influence is suspected.
The complaint against Rep. Cawthorn requires him to demonstrate he is eligible to run for the House of Representatives — specifically, that he was not involved in the Jan 6 insurrection.
Several prestigious US universities are being sued for illegally rejecting applicants specifically for being poor.
A special law allows universities to collaborate (rather than compete) on how much financial aid they offer, but only with the condition that they don't consider need for financial aid as a criterion for admissions.
All in all, other countries do a much better job of keeping the cost of higher education down.
People who refuse the basic precautions against the spread of Covid-19 endanger people who get badly sick or injured in any way.
The lockdowns in Britain whose purpose was to reduce cases of Covid-19 were effective for that. They also prevented nearly all of the expected hospitalizations of children for flu, meningitis, tonsillitis, and bronchiolitis: over 70,000 cases in all.
*EPA begins enforcement on clean up of toxic coal-ash ponds.*
Argentina's new center-left government is doing surprisingly well at climbing out of the economic hole that the previous right-wing government and the IMF contrived to put it into.
(satire) *Man Horrified After Genealogy Test Confirms He Has No Past.*
Texas schools are blocking internet access to sites that help queer students avoid suicide, and cope with hatred.
Arguing that the corruptor really is an antichrist. That statement doesn't make any supernatural claims.
(satire) *Gates Foundation Sues Thousands Of Charities For Infringing On Trademark Concept Of Philanthropy.*
The Gates Foundation's announcement fell into a common confusion by equating trademarks with patents. This sort of confusion turns almost any statement into conceptual garbage.
See https://gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html and https://gnu.org/philosophy/komongistan.html.
Workers at an Amazon warehouse will get a new vote on unionization.
*UK government sued over "pie-in-the-sky" net-zero climate strategy.*
93% of the children in West Virginia were supported last year by the Child Tax Credit. Senator Manchin of West Virginia says he couldn't possibly justify continuing that support to the people of his state.
One of Assad's interrogation officials fled from Syria and described the system which tortured people to get information, which he participated in as a supervisor. Now he is on trial for his role in the system.
Covid-19 is again filling US hospitals in many states. In addition, with so many medical workers sick with Covid-19, it is hard for the hospitals to treat so many the patients.
A Tory minister has promised that the UK government will pay for rebuilding the flammable construction of residences in Britain. But this is no legal commitment, just a personal promise. He could be replaced as minister with the promise unkept.
The UK is going to push millions into penury with rising prices for fossil fuel. Labour has joined the push for a windfall profits tax, such as the US adopted in the oil shortage of the 1970s.
The Tories have adopted plans to reduce use of fossil fuels, but they have cancelled them before it was time to spend money. That's because "more for the rich" is its priority.
Labour's plan is not particularly bold. It is an adequate plan, and much better than none at all. However, we won't see any bold plans from Labour now that it has kicked out Corbyn and his supporters. It has decided against boldness.
*German climate minister says speed of carbon cuts needs to be trebled* to achieve the country's targets.
Quebec plans to tax those who refuse Covid-19 vaccination, on the grounds that they are choosing to impose costs on the NHS.
Vaccination is so important that this is justified. However, it would be wrong to extend that to much actions that don't put others in danger; that would lead to a pervasively repressive society.
Bogus Johnson's decision to invite officials and friends to a party at his office, disregarding the strict rules that said no one else in Britain could have such a party, have focused anger at him.
Planet-roaster Tories want to seize the opportunity to replace him with someone who will officially cancel Britain's climate commitments.
WHO Europe forecasts that half the population of Europe will be infected with Omicron soon.
The article presents recommendations, including mandating high-quality masks, priorities for vaccination, and others.
*Ugandan writer charged over tweets critical of President Museveni.*
So many countries are repressive to those who criticize the rulers.
*Covid has undermined fight against global heating, says WEF.*
*Cuba Shows How to Take Action [to cope with climate mayhem].
The more important climate action is to reduce the amount of global heating. As we do more of that, we spare every region lots of work coping with climate mayhem, because there will be less climate mayhem to cope with.
*Voters move to block [the corrupter's] ally Madison Cawthorn from re-election,* citing the constitutional amendment barring candidates that have taken the oath to defend the constitution and violated it.
The last seven years were the seven hottest since records began.
The last three years set records for the heat of the oceans.
Prejudice against Dalits is so powerful in India that those Dalits who make it into middle-class society work desperately to conceal their background. They could be shunned, fired, even murdered.
Small killer robots are feasible now — especially if they find their target by the IMSI and IMEI codes in the transmissions from a portable phone.
It is possible to prevent their use in war, with a treaty. But I think that criminal gangs will use them for assassination.
From Free Press: US citizens, please phone Senator Maria Cantwell at (202) 224-3441 and call on her to hold the vote to confirm Gigi Sohn in the FCC before the end of January. If no one answers, please leave a message.
Climate-based disasters in 2021 cost the US $145 billion last year.
This is going to get a lot worse over the next few decades, until we stabilize the greenhouse gas levels.
Ahmaud Arbery's murderers were sentenced to life in prison.
I think this is justice. However, for the goal of eliminating white supremacism, it is just a small step.
*Sanders Says Democrats Need 'Major Course Correction' to Prevent GOP Takeover. "In too many ways the Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class," argues the Vermont senator.*
Climate mayhem is wiping out the terns and puffins that lived on the islands of Maine. The water there is now too hot for the fish that used to live there.
*How the speed of [global heating] is unbalancing the insect world.*
(satire) *Man Tries To Regain Sense Of Control In Chaotic Universe By Learning To Juggle.*
Governors from the Democratic Party have vetoed bills in California and Maine that would have permitted farm workers to unionize.
The FTC has investigated what personal data ISPs collect from their customers. However it is thinking in terms of regulating how ISPs can use that data, rather than whether they can collect it. In general, that choice is the ineffective choice.
If you can find a way to tell the FTC, "Limit the data ISPs can collect!", that would be useful to do — and I would be glad to post here the way to reach that agency, if it does not require running nonfree Javascript code.
Proposing to unite the racial groups in a society by defining them as not exclusive of each other. The article proposes this specifically for the case of New Zealand, but it could be applicable elsewhere.
The Taliban have jailed a professor for criticizing their policies.
An opposition candidate defeated one of Maduro's lieutenants in an election for Congress.
The article doesn't say which opposition position the winner supports — was it the "surrender to the US" golpista opposition of Guaidó, or was it the honest-government opposition? I wish I could find out.
*Defusing the climate emergency requires defusing threats to American democracy.*
This is because the Republican support for plutocracy goes so far you would expect it only in satirical exaggeration. Surely real plutocrats would not be so absurdly greedy!
*Bolsonaro Gave Brazil's Army New [Political] Powers. The Generals Won't Give Them Up Easily.*
*The EU’s police agency, Europol, will be forced to delete much of a vast store of personal data that it has been found to have amassed unlawfully by the bloc’s data protection watchdog.*
To defend democracy requires anonymity. So the next challenge is to limit what data that agency, and other "security" agencies, can collect in the first place. Also what data businesses can collect.
Republicans are passing state laws to give themselves excuses to arbitrarily overturn elections for partisan motives.
Their planned elimination of democracy, followed by repression, could be lawful in a superficial sense. However, it would result in a blatantly undemocratic, thus blatantly illegitimate government.
No one knows how to make an institution that can adapt to all possible future situations without falling into a trap that perverts it into something worthless. But I did not expect to see that during my lifetime.
The United States had never implemented democracy and human rights fully and properly; there have been struggles over this through its whole history. But at least it provided a framework for that struggle, within which progress and victory were possible. If that is lost, where will it be possible to imagine victory? We may have a world in which all the pressing struggles are between one disgusting illegitimate regime and another. Will it be worth fighting for the US to prevent China's world domination if the US has become almost as repressive as China?
In that, in which the demand for democracy and human rights is seen as a distraction, one that people are permitted to talk about with some nostalgia only because that talk can have no consequences. In a few decades, what is now the United States may be split into dozens of little absolutist regimes that fight over whatever fragments of technology can still be used, and people will hardly remember what human rights once meant.
Now even in CNN: arguing that people should save the planet by having fewer children.
It's good to reproduce bugs, to fix them. It's good to reproduce works of art, to share them. But we need to have a lot less reproducing of human beings, in every part of the world, to greatly reduce the load we put on nature.
Ralph Nader calls for a ten-year plan to reverse the takeover of the US by business, including the idea that businesses deserve rights as much as human beings.
That takeover is why working people can't live like Homer Simpson.
The UK has ordered a Syrian refugee to return to Syria. He fears he will be jailed for leaving rather than be conscripted to fight in Assad's army.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and ask per to fund a pilot program for postal banking in the 2022 appropriations bill.
Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath has been released from prison and sent into exile in France.
There are multiple injustices here. Imprisoning someone for political organizing is one. Arbitrarily labeling a person as "terrorist" with no proof is another. Arbitrarily labeling an organization as "terrorist" is another. Taking away someone's citizenship is another.
Alas, some of these injustices are often carried out by the US as well.
The Muslim Brotherhood's political position is also unjust, because it advocates denying equal rights to non-Muslims. Most "Muslim" countries commit this injustice; indeed, Egypt already does so.
Republican-ruled US states are putting up arbitrary obstacles to interfere with obtaining and using abortion pills.
The US must allow people to get these pills without a prescription, by mail, so that women in Republican-ruled states can get them. To fail to do this is to put their health in danger three times — first from pregnancy, then from childbirth, and ultimately from the responsibility for raising a child, which drives many destitute Americans to dangerous measures.
The editors of the New York Times support unionization; the business side is trying to oppose unionization.
The article errs in presenting this as hypocrisy, because it can also be understood as respect for editorial independence. It is a good thing that the business management does not order the editors to desist from supporting unions to avoid putting the business's own practices in a bad light. We can criticize the business for opposing union organizing, but to do so presuming that the business and the editorial office are supposed to agree is to work against editorial independence.
Old joke: how do you tell the difference between a labor organizer and a chemist? By their pronunciations of "unionized."
The UK has yielded to evident moral obligation and will pay to replace the flammable cladding in all the buildings that have it. Previously the Tories planned to do this only for the taller buildings. I never saw a justification for making that distinction, and I can't see one.
This is the right way to handle that issue.
However, there are buildings that were built with other dangerous features, and they raise the same issue.
If the builders skimped on satisfying building codes, the builders should pay.
US citizens: call on Congress to reform the Electoral Count Act in order to close a loophole the wrecker tried to use for the coup.
But Congress should watch out for this pitfall.
Which fruits are the most talkative?
*Only a culture change can end this state of climate inaction.* But it's hard to achieve such change.
Talks this week could reveal whether Putin wants a pretext for a war with Ukraine, or is only trying to bluff his way to another conquest.
In general, buffer zones between empires make for peace. I think NATO should be willing to agree with Russia not to admit Ukraine, if Russia makes a comparable concession, which should include pulling the plug on the rebellion it has supported inside Ukraine. However, Russia should have to pay heavy reparations for taking Crimea. Russia should move its Black Sea fleet to a base further east, not close to Ukraine, and at least demilitarize Crimea.
A zone on both sides of Ukraine's border with Russia (and its ally, Belarus) in which no armored vehicles or missile launchers can be deployed could also be a good idea for preventing future violence.
* One-third of former prisoners [of Guantanamo] sent to third countries lack legal status — unable to work or travel, at risk of human rights abuses.*
Some outspoken citizens of the breakaway Turkish portion of Cyprus want some sort of reunion with the main, Greek part of Cyprus. Some of them have been blocked arbitrarily from flying to Istanbul, which is the only way to fly out of the Turkish portion.
People with these views are planning to boycott the next election. I wonder why. It could be that Turkey rigs the elections. Or it could be that the majority support the current alliance with Turkey.
US citizens: call on Biden and Congress to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021, to expand the Supreme Court.
In both poor countries and rich countries, the wealthier people must do the most to reduce their carbon emissions. This has implications for policies.
A speculation: Omicron may have evolved in someone who has an HIV infection and was not given the drugs to control the infection.
If we treated everyone that has an HIV infection, that disease would no longer be transmitted. It would eventually disappear. And perhaps, in the mean time, we would avoid new, dangerous variants of Covid-19.
An ex-smoker argues against New Zealand's plan to make it illegal to buy tobacco.
I never intentionally smoked tobacco, because I saw from my grandfather when I was 9 years old that tobacco means death. I wish that tobacco would cease to exist. But making it a crime is a foolish reaction to the problem.
I apply this principle to nonfree software also. It is unjust and nasty, and should not exist. But we should not make nonfree software as such illegal.
I do think we should make malicious functionalities illegal.
The initially peaceful protests in Kazakhstan may have been seized as an opportunity for political factions to fight.
It won't be easy to get to the bottom of this.
Florida proposes to authorize public schools to record all class sessions, video and audio.
The stated purpose is to investigate accusations that a teacher either abused or neglected a child. This could perhaps be acceptable, if we could trust that the cameras won't be used for other purposes, either with or without the school's authorization. But I expect that Florida will use them for other purposes — for instance, to punish teachers that teach about racism and sexism as factual matters, and the history of unjust systems.
Meanwhile, companies may wangle permission to "make education better" by feeding the videos to AI programs.
Climate defense activists say the reality of their fight is worse than the satire, Don't Look Up.
A UK military official warns that Russia might start damaging or tapping undersea cables.
The US did this for years during the cold war — see Blind Man's Bluff, by Sontag and Drew. Maybe it still does.
US citizens: call on the Senate to make an exception to the filibuster for voting rights and fair elections.
California is considering a universal medical care system. This could be a great step forward.
Of the three funding methods proposed, a payroll tax is a bad choice, because it creates an incentive to have fewer employees in the jurisdiction. We would be better off if we replaced all payroll taxes with other taxes.
A gross receipts tax with a fixed tax rate has drawbacks too: businesses could easily pass that along to customers, as they do with sales tax. That's why I've proposed a gross receipts tax with a tax rate that is higher for large companies.
Covid's spread is causing food shortages in two Australian states: * "Critical" or "essential" workers who are asymptomatic no longer required to self-isolate if job is essential for growing, manufacturing or transporting food.*
US citizens: call on Congress to reform the Electoral Count Act in order to close a loophole the wrecker tried to use for the coup.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the members that supported the Jan 6 insurrection.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Australia put a tennis star in quarantine for arriving unvaccinated. They put him in a former hotel which is also an immigration prison; some refugees have been in that prison for up to 9 years.
Why Americans today can't hope to match Homer Simpson's working-class lifestyle.
When that satirical family was conceived of, in the mid 1980s, the plutocratist campaign was already running, but the changes were only partial and the results were only beginning to sink in.
Putin has used Interpol to get Italy to arrest a Ukrainian who condemned Russia's seizure of Crimea.
An accusation of "financial crimes" by Russia is like an accusation of "espionage" by the US. There are real tax cheaters, and there are real spies, but when the charges are aimed at a political target, you should not let them manipulate you.
Nonviolent Indian dissident (and software developer) Sharjeel Imam is imprisoned on falsified charges of encouraging violence.
The activists of the BJP and RSS do daily what he was falsely accused of, and get no pushback from the state.
I regret to say that the article talks on various occasions of developing nonfree software, as if that were perfectly legitimate. However, that is also no justification for imprisoning Sharjeel, or others. We need to put an end to development of nonfree software, but imprisoning the people who do it would be going too far.
In another Gostak and Doshes case, a police department worker in the UK has been sent to prison for downloading private photos of murder victims.
It may be that his having copies undermined security by increasing the chance that some cracker would get them and release them. That could justify firing him for laxity in security (and fixing the security hole he used). But that's not what the judge rebuked him for. The court said his conduct was "insulting" — and that makes no sense to me.
I can't see how a private act, which communicates nothing to anyone, can insult anyone. And even if it did, freedom of speech includes the right to insult people.
Punishing privately expressed insults is one small step away from thoughtcrime.
An emergency declaration gives sick children in the US coverage from medicare. If Biden does not extend it, it will expire in a week.
Arsonists destroyed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Tennessee.
*Prosecutor Sought Funding From Oil Giant Enbridge to Jail Line 3 Water Protectors.*
In effect, the "justice" system of Minnesota is acting like a contractor for big business.
The UK thugs set up a "counterterrorism" project to investigate and persecute protesters. A review panel said it was "increasingly being used as an intimidatory and oppressive national policing tactic." Then some secretive officials decided to "withdraw" the report.
Greg Palast reports on how Exxon bribed Nursultan Nazarbayev, and an individual pleaded guilty, but was then let go by the judge.
Manchin has rejected a "compromise" shrunken version of the Build Back Better relief bill, which he had previously proposed.
I think he has been toying with the progressives all along.
The most important bills are the voting rights bills. If he supports those, at least the suffering will be temporary.
*The Bill for My Homelessness Was $54,000.*
*Uber CEO Admits Company Can Afford Labor Protections for Drivers.*
*I'm a [British] police officer, and I fear increased powers of stop and search will undermine public trust.*
*More than 400 weather stations around the world beat their all-time highest temperature records in 2021.*
A new collection of lessons about the history of blacks in Britain is designed to be sprinkled into the rest of the curriculum, like an added ingredient.
*First female judge nominated for Pakistan’s supreme court.*
A demand for reform of US federal flood insurance is a model of wisdom in that it considers the well-being of society as well as that of people whose homes have been flooded. It calls for measures that will do good in the long term -- to warn about housing in flood plains, and move housing to safer, higher ground.
*US sanctioned China's top facial recognition firm over Uyghur concerns.*
Punishing companies that participate in repression in China is the right thing to do -- but even more important is to restrict face recognition in the US. And restrict systematic capture of face images, which is the basis of face tracking surveillance.
*Assault on American democracy has gained pace since US Capitol attack* (a year ago).
Monsanto developed some proprietary software to collect and analyze farmers' data about their own farms. I expect this would be used as part of a system which, by its design, would subject farmers to Monsanto's power.
A researcher who is a Chinese citizen and worked with Monsanto took a copy of this program with the intention to send it to some organization in China, that would very likely use it in a way that subjects farmers in China, and maybe elsewhere, to that organization's power.
We should not get distracted by focusing on Monsanto's interests. Nonfree software is the wrong solution for any computing need.
Lightning, and thunderstorms, are increasing substantially in the high Arctic, a reflection of global heating.
Lightning is also increasing in parts of North America, and that tends to increase the amount of wildfire in the areas that are also becoming increasingly arid.
Google is trying to intimidate the newly appointed head of the FTC's antitrust division.
Fighting has broken out in Almaty, Kazakhstan, between opposition and government suppression forces supported by Russian troops. Both sides have become quite violent.
Some Tories demand to impose much higher penalties for pulling down a statue, or even a wreath, on the ground that the act offends the sensibilities of some people.
If the main significance of an act is how it offends someone's sensibilities, that means it should be treated as an expression of an idea, rather than anything else.
Archival documents show that Belgium arranged the murder of Burundi's first prime minister, in 1961.
A Belgian state investigation confirmed this in 1962, but the state concealed it.
*One in five ads served on search results for 78 climate-related terms placed by firms with interests in fossil fuels.*
*More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged.*
Rebecca Solnit: *Republicans are laying a path back to power – and paving it with lies.*
The War on Drugs comes from a lie that Nixon's campaign used to demonize leftist political movements: anti-war Liberals and the Black Power movement. Ehrlichman, one of his officials, later admitted this.
Those who campaign for this drug-addicted war fight tooth and nail against measures such as pill-testing and safe injection spaces, that would prevent most of the war's civilian casualties, because those measures would supposedly "legitimize" the drugs. Then they cite the casualties, that continue because they prevent these measures, as the reason to prohibit them.
*The UK government is facing legal action over its decision to keep using a Malaysian company accused of using forced labour as a supplier of [disposable medical gloves].*
Antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus aureus evolved on hedgehogs, which are host to a fungus that makes the antibiotic.
If cows got the resistant bacteria from hedgehogs, it is still possible that these bacteria spread in cows because the cows were fed that antibiotic.
The protests in Kazakhstan were triggered by an increase in tax on fossil fuels.
Keeping fossil fuel as cheap as it now is will destroy civilization. Nazarbayev may be corrupt power, but on this one issue, what his opponents demand is destruction for everyone.
The recommended way to tax fossil fuels more is to return the tax money to the poor people, so that they won't be worse off overall. I would guess that Nazarbayev didn't do that. Perhaps that is worth a try.
Meanwhile, the government has obtained Russian military aid for repressing the opposition.
After repressing a protest in 2011, Nazarbayev paid Tony B'liar 13 million dollars for advice about hypocritical ways to talk about it.
Many of the island states in the Pacific Ocean repress journalists whose writing rocks the boat for the wealthy.
*Behind the insurrection of January 6 was a coup plot that was months in the making, and which involved a dastardly cast of characters.*
*‘Urban fire storm’: suburban sprawl raising risk of destructive wildfires.*
*Volunteer Quits Moderna Vaccine Trial Over "Ruthless Corporate Profit-Making."*
*Fort Lauderdale sued Food Not Bombs for feeding homeless people -- and Food Not Bombs has won!*
US citizens: call for restoration of the roadless rule for the Tongass National Forest.
US citizens: call on the Senate to include the billionaire income tax in the Build Back Better bill.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Australia's medical system is collapsing under the assault of Covid-19. The government did not prepare for what would happen.
How leading the public to reduce greenhouse-generating practices is related to changing the social systems that pressure or compel people to do those things.
A secret US bomb targeting unit, "Talon Anvil," systematically twisted or disregarded the official targeting rules that were designed to protect civilians in the war against PISSI. The result was to kill a lot of civilians.
The personnel in the unit went so far as to discourage taking reconnaissance photos after a bombing, as a cover-up.
There is no military reason today to keep any of this secret; however, the general resistance to releasing any military secrets is an excellent shield against prosecuting anyone or learning anything.
Bangladesh's campaign of hatred against Rohingya has extended to smashing 7,000 stores set up where they have settled.
Considering this in human terms, it is reprehensible hatred.
Considering this in a longer term, the vice made of global heating and population growth is squeezing Bangladesh. Unless we shut them off, their pressure will, I expect, crush tens of millions to death. Some of them will die having given up, but some will die in fights over who will, and who won't, survive till the next day.
Not that I see anything unusual about Bangladeshis and Rohingya. On the contrary, this is what I expect to see everywhere, sooner or later.
(satire) *City Announces Construction Of 20 New Miles Of Secret Underground Tunnels For Vloggers To Explore.*
*The Other Drone Casualties: The Whistleblowers Who Tried to Stop It.*
After a decade of killing civilians by drone, and covering up the facts and the causes, the only person in prison for this is whistleblower Daniel Hale, who exposed it.
The reporting on the death of Senator Harry Reid should not fail to note that he pushed hard for the conquest and occupation of Iraq.
Mayor Adams of NYC implored banks to make their staff work in their offices, and risk infection, so that they will pay for services like transport, food, and more.
The wise thing to do is what the UK did a year ago: give companies money to pay the salaries of workers whose work was temporarily not necessary. This saves the workers and the employers from financial disaster without making anyone take unnecessary medical risks.
*From Sore-Losers to Violent Terrorists?* Republicans now place Americans in physical danger by threatening to kill rather than accept they lost.
Biden is moving to provide federal subsidies to independent meat-processing companies. This is to reduce the power of the big four companies.
I agree with that goal, but this method is the expensive way, because it is based on exerting the influence of added government spending. It would be more efficient to break up the big four companies, or pressure them with taxes.
Meanwhile, reducing the retail price of meat would have a harmful effect: encouraging more production of meat — bad for people who eat too much meat, and bad for the climate. It would be better to add a tax, so that the reduction in big four income goes into things that are better for society.
Chevron, ExxonMobil, Merck, Pfizer, FedEx and UPS are donating to coup-supporting Republicans in Congress. Other companies and trade organizations, too.
Long Covid may be caused by microclots. Medicine to dissolve them may help some patients.
The protesters who toppled the statue of Edward Colston have been acquitted of criminal charges for doing so.
I support the removal of Colston's statue. Slave trading was the most impactful thing he did in his life; his local philanthropy, using part of the profit he got from slave trading, cannot compensate for the wrong of the slave trading itself.
Many other famous people are similar cases and we could well reach the same conclusions about them. They include Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, whose main "contribution" to the world was software that subjugates users.
But there are also cases where the balance goes the other way: people who did important good that is worth commemorating, but also participated in some widespread practice or widespread view that we condemn today. How should we judge them? I think we should weigh the importance of the good and the bad they did, and commemorate them on that basis. For instance, Thomas Jefferson gave crucial impetus to separation of church and state — a vital liberty now under threat in the US. He also owned slaves, but he was not a champion of slavery. We must commemorate his signal contribution to freedom without forgetting what he did against freedom.
What about when the bad and the good are of the same order, as in the case of Woodrow Wilson? I suggested a statue which shows him with two sides, the good side and the evil side.
The Tories want to punish the toppling of a statue with 10 years in prison. This is draconian when compared with the small physical damage that usually results.
California's system of emissions trading is having much less than the predicted effect.
This example illustrates why the emissions-trading approach is inadequate, which is also why fossil fuel businesses prefer it to other, more effective approaches. If they can't deny the danger, and they can't delay countermeasures, their next effort is to arrange countermeasures into less effective approaches.
*AFL-CIO, Nurses Unions Demand Permanent OSHA Covid-19 Safety Standard.*
*Section 3 of the 14th amendment disqualifies from public office any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to those who have,*
Thus, state election officials have the duty to exclude candidates who have done that.
We can't expect Republican officials to do their duty — so what is plan B?
US airlines dismissed thousands of employees this fall. When they had to cancel a lot of flights in the past couple of weeks, that's part of the cause.
*Congress Could Help Prevent Another Jan. 6 With Data Privacy Law, Say Campaigners.*
It could stop Facebook from magnifying disinformation.
*McConnell Openly Admits His Very Real Fear Is American Democracy Actually Working.*
*Palestinian Prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash Ends Hunger Strike After Deal With Israel* to end his imprisonment without trial.
Imprisonment without trial is vicious and vile, whether it is done by Israel, China, the US, or any other country.
*The government is finally taking the threat of far-right militia groups seriously. But the larger threat are the Republican legislators who continue to recklessly undermine democracy.*
*Joe Biden needs to stand up and fight Manchin like our lives depend on it.*
Craig Murray explains the peculiar physical and social characteristics of the prison he is in, and the causes of them.
Saudi Arabia has deported thousands of Tigrayans to Ethiopia, where the government imprisons them incommunicado.
*Vaccination as the price for taking part in society.*
I think the word "price" is not quite right here, because it implies that society could arbitrarily decide what "price" to charge. I think that the role of vaccination in the situation is that of a self-evident prerequisite.
*Humanitarian Exemptions to Crushing U.S. Sanctions Do Little to Prevent Collapse of Afghanistan’s Economy.*
Dating apps have created a sick world in which people are mortified by the idea of going out with anyone they have friends in common with.
When asking for a date with someone you barely know, and have no social relationships in common with, whatever you say will inevitably be strained. You'll be publicly shamed for that -- but it's unreasonable to demand anything else under those circumstances,
Besides which, you're probably dealing with a user of Facebook, who has learned to think of life as an image to be "curated" rather than a reality.
Big Pharma raised the price of 440 drugs at the start of the year.
The companies were making big profits already, but they saw the opportunity to make even more, because of the lack of competition. Partly (for the generic drugs) that is caused by failure to block mergers.
Partly it's because of too much patent power. The power of patent holders has been increased in many ways, when companies argue, "If we don't make even more profits than now, we won't have enough incentive to bother."
I advocate
abolishing
patents entirely.
[Reference updated on 2025-05-09 because the
old
link was broken.]
A Canadian academic who studies violent conflict warns that Canada may soon have to deal with a large and powerful fascist neighbor.
Comparing two proposed systems to subsidize local newspapers.
The decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima reactors was planned for 30 years, but it is running into problems.
By 2040, global heating disasters may undermine the ability to continue the cleanup. The site may be abandoned in whatever state it is in, and containment of wastes on the site may crumble.
Sudan's premier has resigned in order to avoid legitimizing military rule.
*Capitol attack panel in race against time as Trump allies seek to run out clock.*
Biden's proposed limit on the price of insulin doesn't help everyone that needs to take insulin.
In the UK, female patients have worse outcomes from surgery when the surgeon is male.
*Detained, missing, close to death: the toll of reporting on Covid in China.*
Protesters are compelled to cause some sort of disruption because the mainstream media have learned to ignore other forms of protest.
China and Tonga are covering up the cause of death of a "fisheries observer" whose job was to verify that a Chinese fishing boat did not catch more than its allowed limit of fish.
*Destruction of trees, grasses and other plants in world's largest savanna is a major source of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions.* This adds to the emissions of destroying the Amazon forest.
Brazil under Bolsonaro has hardly tried to enforce its laws against deforestation. He has stated contempt for the goal.
*US, Russia, China, the UK and France who are permanent members of the UN security council agree "nuclear war cannot be won".*
Schumer will lead an attempt to set aside the filibuster and pass voting rights reform.
This is a wave of public pressure aimed at Manchin and Sinema. I hope it succeeds.
The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court is likely to override anything that interferes with Republican efforts to rig the next election. I believe that replacing that majority needs to go with voting rights laws.
US prosecutors go easier on violent fascists than on relatives of violent Islamist.
Some indigenous groups in the US accept gifts of land to protect for wildlife.
Houthis seized a UAE freighter in the Red Sea off Yemen.
I don't see any reason to be shocked at this. Salafi Arabia and the UAE are allies of the US, but hardly deserve our moral support -- and they started the war by invading Yemen.
*The UK is in danger of becoming a police state cosplaying as a democracy.*
The new mayor of New York City plans to hold more defendants in jail before trial, and start keeping them in inhumane solitary confinement.
Some fear he is going to support real estate developers rather than try to house the many homeless people of the city. I worry about this too. However, I think it is acceptable to house people in hotel rooms even if that isn't entirely in accord with residential rules. That is better than being on the street.
*Fury as EU moves ahead with plans to label gas and nuclear as "green."*
I am surprised the planet roasters dare to be so blatant as to continue pushing the "bridge fuel" excuse.
Nuclear power is a somewhat different idea. Nuclear power does not release greenhouse gases. But it is so expensive that whatever we spend on that will hold back decarbonization.
The FDA approved the drug aducanumab despite having no solid evidence that it does what it claims to do. Now Medicade is considering whether to cover the drug at an exorbitant price. If it does, every person with Medicare drug coverage would face considerable additional cost.
If Medicare could negotiate a price to buy this drug in bulk, it might get a reasonable price. It can't do so because of a law passed by plutocratistic officials.
However, giving millions of people a drug on the grounds that it might prevent a disease for some of them seems like getting ahead of the game.
*Sudan's prime minister resigns as pro-democracy protests violently repressed.*
UK thugs tried to intimidate a person for expressing opinions that some might find offensive.
It is proper to record any expression of racist ideas by cops, because cops have a privileged legal status and a duty to protect all people regardless of their race. A racist cop is doing the job wrong.
But this practice must not be extended to people with no special state-granted authority.
Since the judge Sergio Moro was caught in collusion, Lula is now free and untainted, and polls suggest he will return as president in the election this year.
Hooray for Lula!
India has cut off foreign donations to Oxfam India.
Reviewing Tyler Stovall's work on the history of the concepts of freedom and race.
Nowadays, the conflict between "property above all" and "liberty above all" still exists, but I doubt anyone who advocates racism can manage to think seriously about the meaning of liberty. Spewing foolish slogans would be their choice today.
The legacy company that made Blackberry phones is about to kill them off by shutting down the server they are tethered to.
Since few of those phones remain in use, I think it is legitimate to want to save money by not running a server for them. However, it is not right to stop people from modifying the phones' software so they can talk to some other server -- or modifying the Blackberry server code to give them something else to talk to.
A flash fire started in a town near Denver and wind quickly drove it through 580 houses, so fast that firefighters could do nothing to stop it.
This was partly due to a severe drought. In 20 years, the area will probably have an even worse drought.
The UAE runs secret Guantanamos in Yemen. It has disappeared and tortured hundreds of people.
A campaign seeks to demonize the idea of taking a photo of a woman on a public street without asking for her permission first. As is common, the campaign operates by insisting that its position is already generally accepted, and only "creeps" would disagree.
The campaign demands this right only for women and says nothing about whether men should have it too. If it stands for gender bias, it is clearly wrong.
But what if this right applies equally to everyone, regardless of gender? Then it would not be prima facie unjust. Would it be a change for the better?
If this right applies to use of machines that systematically take photos of everyone, we could insist that people stop their Amazon "ring" surveillance cameras from taking our pictures as we walk down the street. Likewise for other surveillance cameras.
It would also prohibit "dashcams" mounted on vehicles that continuously record the scene in front. These cameras can be a form of surveillance, and perhaps their use should be regulated, but prohibiting them entirely seems to be going too far.
If the thug that murdered George Floyd had had this right, he could have ordered the witnesses to stop making video recordings of what he was doing to Floyd. Thugs would just love to have that power. Indeed, they often threaten, attack or frame people that record what they are doing. In Spain they got the right-wing government to criminalize it.
However, it would be legitimate to exclude thugs from this right -- to declare that, because of their special legal powers, they are not entitled to the same rights of privacy that most people deserve.
However, I cannot willingly give up the right of everyone to take photos of scenes in public. Every scene in a city or park is likely to have people in it, even if they are not the reason you take the photo. Probably some are so far that you couldn't possibly ask them for permission, or recognize them with the naked eye, though may you could recognize them by scene enhancement on a photo. There may also be dozens who are much closer, You could hardly take a photo of a monument, a building, a sculpture or a cityscape if you had to get permission from everyone in the scene.
The resignation of the wrecker's head of the FDIC will enable the organization to limit mergers between big banks.
(satire) *Gwyneth Paltrow Touts New Diamond-Encrusted Trepanation Drill, Drainage Bucket On Website.*
(satire) *Artist Crafting Music Box Hopes It Delights At Least One Child In Post-Apocalypse.*
Germany will shut down three nuclear power plants and replace them with renewable generation.
This is good, but it should also replace a substantial amount of fossil fuel consumption with renewable generation at the same time, so it can tell Putin "buzz off".
*Why Is the UK's National Health Service Being Run by Former Bankers?*
There's no one like a banker for screwing non-rich people and redirecting funds to the rich.
The Tories have been bleeding the NHS for a decade, and it's almost ready to fall down dead.
*India bans Mother Teresa charity from receiving funds from abroad.* This is probably a part of the increasing repression of Christians.
Let's not presume that Mother Teresa set a standard of goodness. I read that her organization didn't bother to offer medical treatment to dying poor people — it gave them only "spiritual" aid.
However, any government that lays charges of "hurting religious sentiments of believers in XYZ religion" is viciously repressive, regardless of which religion XYZ is, or what else may be good or bad about those who are accused.
All coast protection measures are temporary. Eventually the sea overwhelms them — and projected sea-level rise keeps rising.
With the US having more than half a new million cases of Covid-19 each day, US officials are starting to think it doesn't matter how many new cases there are.
What I would like to know is, what fraction of people in my city or my neighborhood are contagious now. You can roughly estimate that from the rate of new cases.
US citizens: call on the Small Business Administration: force private equity big businesses to pay back Covid-19 bailout money now.
The CDC, to encourage vaccination, warns that a stay in a US hospital for Covid-19 treatment could cost thousands of dollars. This to motivate people to get vaccinated and avoid the need for hospital treatment.
Some progressives condemned this ad campaign. One said that the government is "boasting" about the crushing expense of the US medical system — but that is false. To cite painful facts does not excuse them.
Progressives should not object when the CDC acknowledges that medical treatment in the US can have crushing costs. Instead, progressives should take advantage of the CDC's help (reminding Americans about how bad the current system is) for the campaign for a national medical system, also known as "Medicare for all".
*Arrests, Beatings and Secret Prayers: Inside the Persecution of India's Christians.*
Muslims remain the main target of Hindu-supremacists, with fanatics calling for murdering Muslims, and the government saying nothing to discourage them — perhaps encouraged by the example of the wrecker in the US.
A few years ago the Hindu-supremacist government of India adopted a pair of laws that make it easy to declare Muslims non-citizens and exile them.
Nowadays, all religions other than Hindu are now targets. Buddhists have faced persecution, especially when Dalits want to convert to Buddhism as a rejection of Hinduism's oppression of them — following Dr Ambedkar's lead.
Guantanamo prison is building a new court room designed for real time censorship of testimony.
A UN meeting failed to agree on banning autonomous weapon systems, and meanwhile it's possible they are already being used.
The number of recorded threatened species has jumped from 17,000 in 2010 to 42,000 today. By 2040 it may be hundreds of thousands.
Protesters camping out near Biden's home call on him to declare a climate emergency.
He definitely must do something more. What, concretely, would a "climate emergency" do? Would it have legal consequences (as it did in British courts), or would it be a no-op?
Robert Reich relates the movie It's A Wonderful Life to US politics, which seems to have been its purpose.
(satire) *New Initiative Decreases Stigma Against Homeless By Making Majority Of People Homeless.*
It would decrease inequality, too.
Global heating will enable hurricanes to form, and strike the coast, farther north than they could ever do during the past few centuries.
Fines against businesses fail to deter destruction or poisoning of natural systems. We should prosecute and imprison the individual culprits.
*Colorado trucker’s 110-year sentence reduced to 10 years after outcry.*
It is not clear to me that his losing control of the truck deserves to be punished at all. He didn't decide to lose control; he tried to regain control, and failed.
Is it just to punish people for being the instrument of misfortune? Does it make society safer? I don't think so.
Anti-vaxxers in the UK are launching harassment and violent threats against scientists who advise the government about public health, and their relatives and associates.
France has banned selling many fruits and vegetables in a plastic containers.
The western obituaries for Desmond Tutu generally don't mention that he compared the Israeli occupation of Palestine to the apartheid that he knew from South Africa.
*Warm winter could prove fatal for UK’s endangered species.* The warmth causes species to miss out on the relationships that they need to other species, and thus discoordinates ecosystems.
If they make it through this year, I doubt they will make it through winter in 2050.
Many Uber drivers who work in San Francisco can't afford to live there, so they live in another city and stay in San Francisco for a few days, sleeping in their cars between work shifts. One of them was murdered. What responsibility does Uber have in the matter?
Uber does wrong to all its drivers by paying them so little and by stopping them from organizing a union that can demand better working conditions. Uber is totally responsible for that.
They also suffer from the political pressure of many well-off citizens who demand to keep housing density low, even though the result is to drive millions into poverty. Uber is not responsible for that, but it is responsible for the low pay and bad working conditions.
(Don't forget that Uber mistreats its customers too, by making them identify themselves and run nonfree software. This is why I refuse ever to be a customer of Uber — I won't even get into an Uber car.)
But is Uber responsible for the murder of one of its drivers? I don't see the connection.
Many US citizens need to renounce their citizenship — often to avoid paying US taxes as well as the taxes of the country they live in, sometimes in order to become a citizen of that country. But the US is not cooperating with the process, and that blocks them all.
The new German government plans to eliminate retention of telecommunications metadata, in the absence of a specific reason.
Delta has jumped on the CDC's truncation of the recommended isolation time, and gone even further.
Some workers will be sick enough that they shouldn't or can't work after 5 days. Indeed, some of them may stay sick for weeks.
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