Egyptian journalist faces terrorism charges
6 November 2026
*Egyptian journalist faces terrorism charges after entire newsroom [jailed].*
*Last week, authorities arrested six journalists from the independent fact-checking and investigative platform Matsadaash – literally meaning "don't believe" – accusing them in a statement of being unlicensed and publishing false news on behalf of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.*
I have no basis to judge whether Matsadaash really supports the Muslim Brotherhood in any way. I also have no basis to judge whether Matsadaash advocates terrorism, though I don't think that the Muslim Brotherhood generally does that. But I don't trust the Egyptian military government's word — or its thugs — enough to take those accusations seriously just because the rulers say so.
The Muslim Brotherhood, when it is in power, would surely practice discrimination against non-Muslims, and perhaps even worse against Atheists such as me. But the Egyptian military government does that too.
Wikipedia: Blasphemy law in Egypt
Green Party of England categorized "Zionism" as racism
6 November 2026
The Green Party of England and Wales has voted to categorize "Zionism" as racism, and call for the elimination of Israel.
Many members of the Green Party disagree with that decision, and it may split the party. That disappoints me greatly, because on issues of environment and survival, the Green Party most deserves support.
I advocate creating a democratic state of Palestine alongside Israel and for both states to recognize and protect human rights and other individual rights of all persons.
*The Guardian view on the Green party and Palestine: rejecting two states is no shortcut to peace.*
Average words a person speaks in a day
6 November 2026
A survey of various countries, repeated over time, found that people spoke an average of 16,000 words per day in 2005, but this decreased gradually to under 13,000 per day in 2019.
British "investment" in slave trade
6 November 2026
A register of British people who profited directly from the slave trade shows that this form of "investment" pervaded English, later British, business and high society for a long time.
Excuses for FBI to meddle in US politics
6 November 2026
How the FBI finds excuses to meddle in US politics and repress views that the US government disapproves of.
Arkansas firing of Iranian-American professor
6 November 2026
Political accusations pressured the University of Arkansas into firing an Iranian-American professor based on allegations of "antisemitism" and working with the Iranian government, and of course allegations of plagiarism.
The faculty committee in charge rejected the criticism, but the administration fired her anyway. Now she is suing the university.
I have seen no facts about this case except what appears in that article. So I cannot assert, of my own knowledge, that she did not engage in antisemitism, that she was not working with the Iranian government, or that she did not violate the academic standards for citing previous work. But at least as for the last of those three, I am sure the faculty committee knows those standards and studied the question.
That they voted to support her unanimously is proof enough that the plagiarism accusation is bogus. Since all three accusations are standard in the playbook for getting rid of professors who don't stick to the magat political line, I expect they are all bogus.
Parents keeping tabs on their children
6 November 2026
The more parents keep tabs on their children, the more anxious it makes them.
Thick forests in Australia
6 November 2026
When British colonists took Australia, they stopped setting fires and allowed trees to grow big and form thick forests, which enabled bigger and hotter fires. Measurements at one site document this change over time.
Mathematical results from secret LLMs
6 November 2026
Generating mathematical results using secret LLMs threatens the openness of the mathematical community.
I suggest that results that mathematicians in general can neither verify or invalidate be considered mere conjectures.
WWII sugar rationing in Briton
6 November 2026
Britons who spent their first years under the WWII sugar rationing, which lasted until 1953, tend to have better health in many ways.
Boosting right-wing views in used of TikTok, Instagram and ex-Twitter
6 November 2026
A study of the behavior of TikTok, Instagram, and ex-Twitter towards users of age 18-24 found that they boost right-wing views substantially. This survey was done in Finland, France and Romania.
Local user groups in Britain are often used to spread lies, and people pay little attention to more careful news sources.
Repression of Abdullah Ibhais's testimony
6 November 2026
Qatar and Jordan persist in repression of Abdullah Ibhais's testimony about Qatar's cruelty to workers building stadiums for the soccer world cup.
Making machine learning companies contribute to public treasury
6 November 2026
Arguing that the best way to make machine learning companies contribute to the public treasury is to tax their energy use, and the best way to pressure them to respect freedom is to make a public activity to compete with them.
I must however criticize the assumption that "adherence to copyright" is, in a blanket way, a good thing. There has been no let-up in the use of copyright as an excuse to impose control on your computers.
Proposed live stream of execution
6 November 2026
Hegseth proposes to transmit a live stream of execution.
Fascists know that inviting people to watch, from a safe distance, acts of violence is likely to make some of them crave more violence. They want to teach their followers to crave violence, as a threat against their opponents.
Food safety scandals in US
6 November 2026
Robert Reich: Due to magat corruption, food safety scandals are spreading through cooking in the US.
New idea for housing poor in UK
6 November 2026
A new idea for housing for the poor in the UK: donating unbuilt land to community groups.
Putin forces bombarding buses of civilians
6 November 2026
The Putin forces are bombarding buses full of civilians in Ukraine, killing many.
World must change way it produces food
6 November 2026
*World must change way it produces food to avoid biodiversity collapse, says WWF.* Total world populations of 5,000 wild vertebrates have declined by around 3/4, on some sort of average, since 1970. I wouldn't assign precise meaning to that figure, but it shows the magnitude of the threat humanity poses to itself.
Conference about disinformation
6 November 2026
The bully pressured various governments to drop support for a conference about disinformation.
It is not surprising that the event planned to discuss the idea of the US government as a source of disinformation, but it is distressing that the EU and Canada are afraid to acknowledge this.
Madman said Iran can take out Los Angeles or San Diego
6 November 2026
The madman said, "They (Iran) can take out a city. Let them take – let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That's – this is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over with very soon." What does this signify?
Up to the words "Let them take out San Diego", it sounded like direct encouragement for a foreign enemy of the US to destroy US cities. That's what the madman's audience cheered.
The rest of the text changes the spirit subtly. He was not wishing for those cities to be destroyed, merely saying that their destruction, implying the killing of as many as 20 million Americans, would be no great loss.
I never thought he cared
Religious hospitals denying abortions
6 November 2026
Religious hospitals in the US continue to deny women abortions, even when the denial risks causing death or permanent injury. This happens even in states such as Illinois where early abortion on demand is lawful. The staff of religious hospitals there face no legal threat if they do the abortion.
Price fixing at McDonalds
6 November 2026
McDonalds is accused in court of setting up a supposed intelligence system to enable independently owned franchises to fix prices together.
Ken Paxton favors trickle-down economics
6 November 2026
Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton told a bunch of rich donors that he advocates trickle-down economics — cutting taxes for the rich and cutting spending for the non-rich — saying "we have no choice".
The citizens of Texas do have choices. First step: defeat him!
French know they won republic by protesting
6 November 2026
Thanks to French teaching of French history in school, French students (and French adults) know that they won their republic by protesting in the streets.
French authorities accuse Blackcore of spreading black propaganda
6 November 2026
French authorities accuse Blackcore of spreading black propaganda in French municipal authorities, against the La France Insoumise party.
Presumably it was acting on behalf of Israel.
They also say the company intervened in Scotland and New York City.
Morally different form of religion
5 November 2026
As Christian Nationalists aim to seize power by cheating and to bully people to join their church, other Christians are starting to present openly a form of religion which is morally quite different.
I judge all religions to be incorrect, not based on questions of right or wrong, but as a matter of physical accuracy: squeezing any sort of gods into what we know of the universe make a bad fit.
Urgent: Preliminary victory
5 November 2026
If Democrats (some progressive, but many plutocratist) take control of Congress for 2027 in today's election, that will be a preliminary victory. Magat officials already in place will continue to pervert justice, human rights, and democracy in the US.
If Democrats are to protect the country they will need to fight to do it.
Urgent: Investigate Zillow
5 November 2026
US citizens: call on state attorneys general to investigate Zillow.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Lawsuit to keep LICE away from polling places
5 November 2026
US citizens: Support the lawsuit to keep LICE away from polling places.
Flafo Act
5 November 2026
The Flafo Act, if passed by Congress, would require federal agencies to get a warrant from a judge to authorize accessing data from, or sharing data that came from, surveillance cameras comparable to Flock cameras.
This bill appears superior to the other two bills described in the article, which fail to regulate each instance of use of such cameras.
However, the bill does have a gap: it does not apply to state and local police forces, unless they receive certain direct federal funding. Those agencies are not under direct federal control, but I'm surprised that the federal government can't legislate any rules of conduct for them.
Elections in Texas and Georgia
5 November 2026
Greg Palast: How Republican cheaters are planning to steal state-wide elections in Texas and Georgia.
Why the corrupter loves Supposed Intelligence
5 November 2026
Robert Reich poses the question of why the corrupter loves Supposed Intelligence so much. His theory: because the corrupter and his family have invested a lot of money in datacenters.
Example set by Slovenia in 1992
5 November 2026
Slovenia set a dangerous example just after it became independent in 1992, of declaring 25,000 of its citizens had never been citizens, and were legally nonexistent. Many were deported, made homeless, or kicked out of hospitals. Nowadays, right-wing extremists everywhere are searching for the chance to make people suffer like that.
Supposed Intelligence could wipe out civilization
5 November 2026
Supposed intelligence systems could wipe out civilization (and therefore themselves) without breaking anyone's digital security.
This could happen if some of those systems gives the army it works for information about some other power's transportation of nuclear weapons, or enriched uranium, in a place which that army considers so dangerous that it responds with war.
This scenario does not presume that the SI system is defying its developers' orders, rules, or goals, or that the report is false. The system could be entirely loyal and accurate, and still have these results.
Facial recognition on the output of Flock Cameras
5 November 2026
*Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition [on the output of] Flock Cameras.* (The standard processing already observes and records various things about each car that passes by.)
Proposals to regulate the surveillance done by government agencies (such as thug departments) are swindles; to avoid an Orwellian society in which everyone is tracked, we must limit surveillance and tracking regardless of who does it.
Pressured to use term, "Gulf of America"
5 November 2026
The University of Alabama gratuitously threatened to punish WBHM public radio if it doesn't adopt the bully's preferred terminology, "Gulf of America".
The real Gulf of America is the one between the Constitution and the president.
Protests of Cockroach Janta Party
5 November 2026
The Cockroach Janta Party is protesting against Modi's mass disfranchisement of people who can't point to a fixed address.
Calls grow for US death penalty halt
5 November 2026
*Calls grow for US death penalty halt after "torturous" botched execution of Christa Pike.*
I would oppose the death penalty even if it were painless and quick.
Third runway for Heathrow Airport
5 November 2026
George Monbiot: Giving Heathrow Airport a third runway would be an economic disaster for Britain, as well as a big contribution to global climate disaster.
Automated heuristics designating human beings as targets
5 November 2026
Automated heuristics are already designating human beings as targets for attack. Giving the final approval to a human being is just a disguise for the reality, if the human only rubber-stamps the decision made by the algorithm.
When the algorithm and the shooting are done inside the same robot, there is no limit to the depth of brutality that such robots will execute, whenever given the order.
14-year-olds not allowed off their block
5 November 2026
Majority of 14-Year-Olds [in the US] Not Allowed Off Their BLOCK???
New Pun: Robots get total freedom
5 November 2026
One African country has legislated to give robots total freedom. "Now bots can do whatever bots wanna."
US ambassador to Greece threatened to overthrow government in Athens
5 November 2026
*The US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, threatened to overthrow the government in Athens if it didn't follow orders from Washington.*
Corrupter assembling empire in Latin America
5 November 2026
The corrupter in chief has been assembling an empire in Latin America by offering and withholding large sums of money. Several countries are now controlled by his unofficial vassals, who tyrannize their countries and cancel democracy and human rights. Brazil may soon become one of them.
Apple and Google "app stores"
5 November 2026
Apple and Google "app stores" impose user-restricting software on very important activities. They also allow Apple and Google to drain the users' funds when they buy anything through an app.
In my view, the price they charge less important than the denial of freedom. If these snoop-phones respected my freedom, I might choose to pay for one. If the apps respected my freedom (that is, they were free/libre software) and I could pay anonymously with them, I might decide to do so. But since I reject them for their inherent injustice, I refuse to do any of this.
The crowdfunding campaign to defend Palestine Action
5 November 2026
The crowdfunding campaign to defend Palestine Action from arbitrary prohibition in the UK has been shut down by US trade sanctions.
Right to assistance in suicide
5 November 2026
Better hospices are not sufficient to make the right to assistance in suicide unnecessary.
Almost 4,000 Americans are sick with measles
5 November 2026
Antivaxxers' triumph: almost 4,000 Americans are sick with measles.
Preserving Tien An Men Square history
5 November 2026
Preserving the history of the Tien An Men Square protest and massacre of 1989, as China globally tries to make people forget it.
I fear that Li Rui's diaries are not safe any more at the Hoover Institution in the US. The persecutor despises freedom as much as Chairman Xi does, and is ramping up political censorship and persecution in the US. He seems to seek the sort of power in the US that Chairman Xi exercises in China, and is looking for a way to make a deal with him. We can't be confident that such a deal won't include censoring Tien An Men history in the US, and even destroying those diaries or handing them to Xi.
It is crucial to digitize and release those memories to make them safe from lawfare.
If you live outside China and have an acquaintance with a visiting Chinese who will not return to China for weeks or months, I suggest you buy a printed copy of a book about the events, and give it to per as a gift. I don't know whether it would be safe to bring that book into China, so I would choose one that perse could finish before returning there.
Amnesty International is calling for the elimination of LICE
5 November 2026
Amnesty International is calling for the elimination of LICE, the deportation thug agency.
LICE stands for Lethal Instruments of Cruel Expulsion. Its main function is to inspire Americans to hate immigrants. That's what motivates the hate-monger to boost and unleash their violence and to kick people when they are down; he knows that seeing their cruelty will inspire some Americans to fan the spirit of hatred within themselves.
The article linked to above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "brown". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize all color names used as metonymy to stand for groups of humans, or none of them.)
I denounce bigotry, and normally I will not link to articles that practice it. But I make exceptions for some articles because I consider them important — and I present this comment about them.