NYPD raided Columbia U. because …
4 May 2024
Night-Mayor Adams asserted that the Gaza protest in Columbia was booted by "outside agitators". Reporters are skeptical, and Adams won't say who those were.
Cost of rebuilding Gaza
4 May 2024
*Rebuilding homes in Gaza will cost $40bn and take 16 years, UN finds.*
UC system: protesters' legal strikes back
4 May 2024
The union of student workers at UCLA will strike against the school administration for using city thugs to crush a Gaza protest.
Peaceful resolutions to Uni. protesters
4 May 2024
Rutgers and University of Minnesota reached compromises with protesting students, granting some of their demands, and students picked up their encampments.
If the students want to have an actual influence for peace in Gaza, and more rights for Palestine, they need to keep people thinking about the issue but not as a bitter knock-down confrontation.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
Brutal protester suppression: GA, OH, IN
4 May 2024
Uniformed thugs let loose on protesters at Emory university went on a violent rampage against students and faculty — a gas-them-beat-them-and-frame-them operation.
The thugs that mauled protesters ought to go to jail. The university presidents that invited them to do that should resign.
(Satire) Students in NY penitentiary system
4 May 2024
(satire) *Columbia University Gives Students Option To Finish Classes From Prison.*
Global changes that sever human bonds
4 May 2024
*We think loneliness is in our heads, but its source lies in the ruin of civil society.*
In 2019, I found that the Tech Model Railroad Club (famously associated with early computer hackers) was almost dead. A few years before members had been vigorously developing it. I told Professor Sussman, and he told me that several years before, most incoming MIT freshmen had lost interest in physical hobbies and activities (model railroading being one). We both speculated that widespread use of snoop-phones and antisocial media platforms, which were addictive to social groups, helped to bring that change about.
A decrease in Americans' use of those systems might perhaps expand the space for civil society.
Columbia U. protesters vile statements
3 May 2024
Some of the protesters on behalf of Palestine in Columbia called for burning Tel Aviv and for eliminating Israel.
The references for this are on Ex-Twitter and therefore inaccessible to me. What they said advocated mass killing and ethnic cleansing of Jews in Israel.
This is the same sort of wrong that right-wing Israelis are advocating and doing to Palestinians. But having this on both sides is not a step towards peace. It is not on the path to having both sides treat each other with respect.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
Biden
3 May 2024
Biden is the most progressive, most liberal president the US has had since 1980. (I don't recall enough to judge how he compares with Jimmy Carter.) We should show our appreciation for that. On some important issues, he is doing great.
At the same time, on some other important issues he falls far short of what the US and the world needs and what we demand. We get frustrated and infuriated that he doesn't change for the better. One of these issues is ending the bombing and siege of Gaza.
How should we deal with this half-full, half-empty glass? I think we should make sure to keep showing both sides of what we feel.
We need to keep saying, "Yes, more of that," for the issues where Biden does the right thing,p and "Stop this nonsense!" where he does not. To continue pressure on Biden, we need both sides. Sometimes we need both at once: "This is a big advance, but without more, we are still headed for disaster. Tackle the whole problem, fast!"
There are times for saying, "Yes, this measure is something to be proud of, for today." And there are times to say, "Don't make us laugh — that change is inadequate."
The student protests against Biden's inadequate efforts to protect the civilians of Gaza are running into increasing repression. Although not violent, they are calculated to provoke the schools to violence. This tends to make compromise impossible and leave no chance of agreeing on an outcome we would really want: It seems designed to lead to going down fighting, followed by years of hatred, rather than to a change for the better that leads to opportunities to demand further change.
Drug use in private places
3 May 2024
British Columbia has modified its experimental system of decriminalizing some recreational drugs, limiting lawful use to private places.
I oppose prohibition of drugs, but requiring drug use to be in private places is not prohibition. I don't think it will cause the same great harm that prohibition has caused.
Israel's human rights abuses
3 May 2024
*US finds Israeli units committed human rights abuses before Gaza war.*
LLMs and web searches
3 May 2024
Because LLMs are not real intelligence, using them as a basis for web search is likely to lead to various bad results.
The article presumes that searching means "Google search", but for me it is just the opposite: I can't access Google search at all. For me, bizarre or inconvenient things that Google does to its search engine are things I won't notice.
So let's not forget that people can use other search engines if they get burned by Google's.
Business-supremacy treaties
3 May 2024
Recent advances against business-supremacy treaties, around the world.
More about business-supremacy treaties.
Thug violence against Gaza protest
3 May 2024
New Orleans thugs crushed a Gaza protest in a city park, using horrifying violence against participants and against bystanders.
When Republicans complain about federal debt
3 May 2024
*So the next time you hear Republicans complain about the federal debt and our swelling interest payments on it, remember that: (1) the debt has grown mainly because of Republican tax cuts, (2) those cuts have mostly benefited the rich, (3) the rich are now the major recipients of interest payments on that debt, (4) and those interest payments are crowding out spending on childcare, elder care, affordable housing, better schools, paid family leave, and everything Americans need.*
Bowing to lobbyists
3 May 2024
*Developed countries accused of bowing to lobbyists at plastic pollution talks[:] Campaigners say last-minute compromise plays into the hands of petrostates and industry influences.*
Big oil downplaying crisis
3 May 2024
*Big oil privately acknowledged efforts to downplay climate crisis, Senate report finds.*
Coral bleaching
3 May 2024
*Great Barrier Reef's worst bleaching [ever] leaves giant coral graveyard: "It looks as if it has been carpet bombed."*
G7 and unabated coal
3 May 2024
*G7 agree to end use of unabated coal power plants by 2035.* However, they are failing to take action to reduce oil and gas use fast enough to avoid disaster.
A reprotoxic PFAS' high rate of increase
2 May 2024
Human activity is increasing the concentration of one PFAS in drinking water by a substantial amount each year. Finding out whether this is causing major damage to humans is a question that will take difficult research, so it will be many years before we know whether we are causing a disaster this way.
Important lesson from history
2 May 2024
*Everyone laughed at Hitler in the 1920s. A century on, are we making the same mistake?*
If we Americans don't make sure the wrecker loses, and then block his supporters from stealing the next election, we will never have another real election.
The 32 hr work week?
2 May 2024
It is possible that some large companies are so inefficient that staff working 32 hours per week could get as much done as they now get done in 40 hours. But that can't work for small businesses.
What could work is to offer employees the flexibility to work four 10-hour days in a week.
Urgent: Working people need Congress
1 May 2024
US citizens: call on Congress to side with working people, not billionaires and big business, by raising taxes on the latter.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
Feds reconsidering cannabis
1 May 2024
Biden plans to put marijuana into a less strict category of prohibition instead of legalizing it.
This is simply not adequate.
Columbia University protesters drama
1 May 2024
Students at Columbia University occupied a building, and the president brought in cops to arrest them.
Was the occupation really organized by outside agitators unrelated to Columbia? I am skeptical of the claim, given that at least 50 students have been suspended. That sort of convenient accusation is easy to claim, whether it is true or not, because it is hard to disprove. I can't be sure it is false, but I would not trust Night-Mayor Adams' word for it, or President Shafik's.
Likewise for the claim that students destroyed doors and so on. I wonder what the protest organizers have to say about this claim.
What is unfortunate is that the confrontation has gone in a direction which is likely to lead university administrations to give priority to "showing who's boss" over all else. Which means that the protest movement can vent a lot of anger but it can't advance the cause of peace in Gaza. It can only create festering hostility.
It also plays into the hands of the right-wingers in Congress who bullied the university presidents, and the fascist leader they serve.
To make effective pressure for peace in Gaza, or more precisely to pressure the US to pressure Israel to allow peace in Gaza, would require different kind of protests.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
Medical abortion ban "science"
1 May 2024
*Junk science is cited in abortion ban cases. Researchers are [calling for retraction of] the "fatally flawed" work*. They object on the grounds of scientific methodology, not based on the conclusions as such.
The ancient civilization myth, debunked
1 May 2024
An archeologist describes the enormous weight of evidence that shows there was never a lost ancient civilization. The archeological evidence shows hunter gatherers all around the inhabited worlds.
University protesters debacle, MA
30 April 2024
At a Gaza solidarity encampment in Northeastern University, "pro-Israel" counterprotesters shouted "Kill the Jews! Anybody onboard?", acting as dishonest provocateurs. The encampment responded with shouting and booing.
The university administration soon after cited this as a reason to tear up the encampment and arrest the protesters.
They have since tried to bury the crucial distinction between what the Gaza solidarity protesters said and their adversaries' provocations. That is deceitful.
If I learned I had made a mistake like this, I would be mortified, and I would do everything possible to unmake it. I would apologize for the arrests, drop all charges, return or replace any property stolen by cops, and authorize the reestablishment of the encampment.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
Project 2025 NOAA
29 April 2024
*Climate experts fear [the wrecker] will follow a blueprint created by his allies to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), disbanding its work on climate science and tailoring its operations to business interests.*
A suicide around an ELIZA effect
29 April 2024
Chatbots can lead people to suicide. What should we make of that?
It seems that chatbots can build, with susceptible people, various sorts of self-reinforcing loops of conversation, such that both get stuck in the loop together.
Of course, this happens to people in interactions with other people. Getting out of them is a challenge.
A long wait in the casualty dept, UK
29 April 2024
Inga Rublite died after waiting 8 hours in an emergency room in Britain. None of the staff had even looked at her or taken her blood pressure.
The fault does not belong to the overloaded staff. It belongs to the Tories, who have cut medical spending over and over, simply so the rich can pay less taxes.
Now that Labour has also caved to the rich and their demand for low taxes, Britain needs a party to champion what Labour used to stand for.
Thermonator, a robotized flamethrower
29 April 2024
A four-legged robot with a flamethrower is now available for anyone to purchase in the US. Supposedly it is not intended for war. Maybe that means it is intended for criminal gangs?
Weather tracker
29 April 2024
I suspect that flooding in East Africa was caused by atmospheric rivers.
I think it can happen anywhere that the prevailing winds arrive over a large body of water.
Bomb-filled debris
29 April 2024
*Gaza's 37m tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert.*
Nepinak’s headdress
29 April 2024
A leader of an indigenous tribe brought a headdress onto an Air Canada flight and was told it had to be put in the baggage compartment. She objected that her headdress was sacred and therefore deserved special treatment.
That demand for privilege should be refused. We all face the possibility of being required to check some item rather than carry it into the cabin, and we deserve equal treatment.
The rules don't have to be rigid; it is good if they are somewhat flexible. However, that flexibility should apply equally to all passengers, not in a discriminatory way based on a passenger's ethnicity or religion.
Political arrest
29 April 2024
Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian of Hebrew University in Jerusalem was arrested and treated quite harshly, and charged with publishing unacceptable views.
(They are similar, in grand lines, to my views and the views of many of my readers.)
Many colleagues and other academics have condemned the arrest as political repression. Even Hebrew University condemned it.
The cruel treatment of Shalhoub-Kevorkian in jail adds to the nastiness of this, but the core of the issue is the intention to prosecute people in Israel who demand a cease-fire.
Taxing big fossil fuel
29 April 2024
*Taxing big fossil fuel firms "could raise $900bn in climate finance by 2030."*
That extra money will enable states to do far more of the vital jobs we need them for.
Cashless society
29 April 2024
China reaffirmed its plan to eliminate cash, and thus keep track of all purchases anyone makes.
Despite some recent compromises, the government remains dead set on tracking everything that people do.
The anonymous use of cash is the basis for other freedoms. If you think that using cash is too inconvenient, please approach the matter with a problem-solving spirit. Can you find a way to make it convenient enough to bring enough cash with you whenever you leave the house?
Media freedom breaking point
29 April 2024
Freedom of the press is being hammered in several European Union countries.
Torres Strait Islanders
29 April 2024
Torres Strait Islanders, who live on islands between Australia and New Guinea, are suing about the damage that sea-level rise will do to their homes if we don't curb global heating in 20 years.
Important litmus test
29 April 2024
Robert Reich warns that SCROTUS are already warning that they might arbitrarily override the next congressional election as a stepping stone to stealing the presidency.
Revulsion against anti-abortion is splitting Republican party
28 April 2024
The public revulsion against anti-abortion extremes is splitting the Republican Party.
May the fragments fall on the ground and be trampled by Americans' boots!
Unawareness of injustice of "modern digital society"
28 April 2024
Unawareness of the injustice of "modern digital society" leads to thinking about internet connections that misses half the point. Here is an example.
The concept of "digital inclusion" as a goal presumes that the ways people normally participate in "modern digital society" are just fine, and labors systematically to help people surrender to what is demanded of them.
Most people judge every Internet "service" in superficial terms, and know no other way because they have never learned about the injustices: massive surveillance, demands for personal data, addictivity, anti socializing contracts, DRM, and more. In addition, people confronted with a demand to "use snooper.com now to do this" tend to see the immediate inconvenience of refusing now more vividly than the long-term harm of having an account on snooper.com.
In Spain, a friend has told me, banks are making it inconvenient and expensive to withdraw cash from your own bank account. You can do that only if you physically go to a bank branch when it is open, which is some hassle outside of big cities. But he has decided now to withdraw cash enough to last for some weeks so he can make a habit of paying cash.
Justice Sotomayor
28 April 2024
Justice Sotomayor had better retire now, so we can replace her with another liberal, rather than risk dying in office and be replaced by Republicans with another right-winger.
Ecuador ban on ISDS clauses
28 April 2024
Ecuador has voted to affirm its constitutional ban on ISDS clauses, which I call "I Sue Democratic States" clauses.
Some have criticized my term, saying that ISDS clauses are not specifically limited to democratic states. That is true — but in practice it tends to be democratic states that are targets for them. That's because the kind of law that foreign corporations target that way is a kind that tends to be passed by democratic states. Most dictators rarely pass laws that would make foreign corporations treat the populace better.
Professors support for violated rights of arrested students
28 April 2024
Professors at several US universities which have brought in thugs to arrest students, steal their property and make them homeless, are showing strong support for the violated rights of those students.
If those university presidents thought they were going to quickly crush all opposition, they have now learned otherwise.
I expect to see some law professors bringing suit against the universities from students who were suspended or made homeless.
Turning back to the reason all of this is so important, it seems that Israel continues not to attack Rafah. Maybe Biden has brought sufficient pressure to make Netanyahu change that plan.However, I have not seen that Gaza is getting enough humanitarian aid to prevent thousands of additional avoidable deaths.
Participants in corrupter's fake electors scheme
28 April 2024
Summarizing what is happening to the participants in the corrupter's fake electors scheme to steal the 2020 election.
Origins of QAnon
28 April 2024
* QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com.*
I've seen a number of sex-related moral panic articles the Guardian, and I generally find they are based on a series of exaggerations of the likely magnitude of side issues — the tail wagging the dog.
I've read articles in which prostitutes say that legalization enables them to look up information about the customer's behavior towards other prostitutes. It makes sense that would be useful for them, but it boggles my mind that anyone considering being a prostitute's customer would agree to reveal per real name to anyone involved in the transaction. Or pay by a credit card at all. That seems like asking for trouble.
If I imagine myself in the place of a prostitute's customer (where it is unlikely I would ever actually be, since I'm not interested in sex without affection and wouldn't feel safe without closeness and trust), I would pay cash and give no one any identifying information. We can't help knowing the sorts of scandal that have resulted when the wrong person found out, and anonymity is the only plausible protection.
How Google decided to enshittify search
28 April 2024
Enshittification, and the detailed story of how Google decided to enshittify search.
It should be clear that making users depend on nonfree software is a considerable part of what makes a company "too big to care". So this is one more reason why we need to reject nonfree software.
The article makes a vague comment using the incoherent term "IP laws". Those laws have very little in common, so it is a mistake to generalize about them by using that term; I carefully never use it, because anything that is meaningful to say is a matter of one particular law, or perhaps the subtle interaction of more than one of them. The article gives no details, so I have no idea what actual events that vague comment refers to.
