Proposal to cut interest rates for poor countries
8 May 2026
*Proposing to cut interest rates poor countries pay for their massive debts by around 11% so they can fund social needs.*
Much of those debts should be wiped away.
Violent antisemitism percolating in Australia
8 May 2026
Violent antisemitism, threatening murder, has been percolating for years in Australia.
I don't think a threat of murder in 2019 had much to do with criticism of Israel's atrocities. It was simply hatred and scapegoating.
Billionaires have taken effective control of many governments and used it to impoverish most of humanity. A fraction of the billionaires are Jewish; most are not. Focusing condemnation narrowly on the Jewish billionaires lets the (non-Jewish) majority of billionaires, such as Musk, off the hook.
Ironically, today's Nazis give their political support to the right-wing governments that cooperate thoroughly with Israel's atrocities. They cite antisemitism as an excuse to persecute people who reproach those atrocities, and mostly leave the other antisemites (Nazis who support them) alone.
Public transit in US cities worse than third-world cities
8 May 2026
Most US cities are worse than many third-world cities in public transport.
Since the many cars that Americans use emit enormous amounts of greenhouse gases, the whole world should demand that the US start catching up.
Wrecker's oil-and-coal oligarchy
8 May 2026
*[The wrecker] and his oil-and-coal oligarchy should face sanctions for its war on the environment.*
Zohran Mamdani on event for investing in West Bank land
8 May 2026
Zohran Mamdani condemned an event held in NYC which encouraged Americans to invest in West Bank land being stolen from Palestinians.
Bravo, Mamdani!
Urgent: Robert Reich's site paywalled
7 May 2026
Sad news: Robert Reich's site has become paywalled. As a result, access to an article there requires running nonfree JavaScript code (https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html) and requires identifying oneself by using a payment account. Each of these consequences is unjust, and I have a moral obligation not to refer people to pages that require such things.
I can't let the links remain here as they are, but they are numerous and it will take time to deal with all of them.
The articles I linked to did not have that problem when I made the links.
Urgent: Executive order could label millions of Americans as domestic terrorists
7 May 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to refuse to fund Trump’s executive order that could label millions of Americans as domestic terrorists, or in any fashion block it.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
Urgent: Stand up for science
7 May 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to stand up for science, not polluter profits.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
Urgent: Denounce DOJ's attack on Southern Poverty Law Center
7 May 2026
US citizens: denounce the DOJ's Attack on the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Urgent: Drop bogus charges against James Comey
7 May 2026
US citizens: call on the Department of supposed Justice to drop bogus charges against James Comey and stop persecuting political speech.
Increase in FBI personnel working on "immigration-related matters"
7 May 2026
*There were 279 FBI personnel working on "immigration-related matters" [i.e., persecution] before [the persecutor] took office in January 2025, according to bureau records The Intercept obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. By September, that number had ballooned to more than 6,500.
Global heating will isolate New Orleans and Baton Rough
7 May 2026
Global heating will isolate New Orleans and Baton Rough in the middle of the sea, miles away from land. New Orleans must start now to move to higher ground.
No green card if you criticized Israel
7 May 2026
*Want a green card? Better make sure you haven't criticized Israel on social media.*
Supreme court ruling on voting rights act
7 May 2026
*Six supreme court justices handed down a ruling built, ostensibly, on the belief that the US has changed so much as to render the protections of the Voting Rights Act unnecessary. No one should be that gullible.*
Activists from flotilla captured jailed by Israel
7 May 2026
Activists Israel captured on the recent Gaza aid flotilla are being jailed in Israel. They told their lawyers that they are being held in solitary confinement, blindfolded.
Israel claims they are part of a group which it accuses of working secretly with HAMAS. That would be a bad thing if true, but I won't believe it on Israel's say-so. That is a standard way that right-wing extremists in the US and Israel try to smear anyone that defends the rights of Palestinians.
Even supposing that is true, it can't justify abuse of prisoners by Israel.
Executive agencies ignoring US courts
7 May 2026
*[Executive agencies are] increasingly ignoring US courts, new analysis shows.
Critics warn that respect for rule of law could break down as executive branch flouts judicial decisions.*
Zambia cancelled RightsCon conference
7 May 2026
Zambia agreed to hold the RightsCon conference this May, but canceled it shortly before it happened.
The article speculates this was due to pressure from China, and there may have been such pressure, but I have a hunch that the Zambian ruler objected to the event's support for equal rights for queer people. Zambia is very repressive in that area.
Starmer trying to label defense of Palestine as antisemitism
7 May 2026
Starmer is seeking a path to label defense of Palestine as antisemitism.
Once you accept that identification, you will inevitably take an unjust stance on at least one of the two issues.
Starmer Labour called itself the "adults"
7 May 2026
Starmer Labour called itself the "adults", meaning the ones who would prevent adoption of mad policies such as raising taxes on the rich. Rich people from increases in taxation, thus leaving a choice of various policies that won't solve the big problem of impoverishing the non-rich.
With a right-wing party in power, the "adults" may try to stop it from tearing up the legal system and constitution. However, with an ostensibly left-wing party in power, the "adults" try to prevent any major economic changes that could once again direct a large part of the country's productive capacity to the non-rich.
TikTok's "For You" pages prioritize pro-Republican messages
7 May 2026
* Researchers found that TikTok's "For You" pages prioritized pro-Republican [messages] in New York, Texas and Georgia.*
The research operated many dummy accounts and tallied how what the site showed them, comparing that with the preferences that the account showed by which videos it cut off.
The experiment does not reveal how the site chose the videos it chose to present to each user. We don't know whether the site was specifically programmed to show more right-wing messages. Perhaps the site prefers characteristics that are more often found in right-wing messages.
But ultimately that design detail is not very important. What matter is that TikTok spreads right-wing bias.
Accusation Modi's party stole election
7 May 2026
The leftist premier of West Bengal has accused Modi's party of stealing the election.
This is plausible, given the laws they adopted to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship if they don't have written proof of it. One of the two laws (which operate together) is explicitly biased against Muslims.
Green Party as antisemitic, UK
6 May 2026
British cops have arrested two Green Party candidates, accusing them of promoting antisemitism.
The statement attributed to Sabine Mairey is flagrantly antisemitic. Aside from being inherently bad, it is also foolish and self-defeating to try to support Palestinians' rights by attacking the Jews that support Palestinians' rights.
The statement attributed to Saiqa Ali supports HAMAS. Since HAMAS is a terrorist organization, arguably the statement supports terrorism. However, HAMAS does not advocate antisemitism. HAMAS is is Islamist, meaning it seeks to impose the rules of Islam on everyone, including non-Muslims. That would be unjust, but does not imply treating Jews worse than Christians. However, HAMAS would be likely to treat Atheists such as me worse than either Christians or Jews.
According to Wikipedia, HAMAS was formerly antisemitic, but ended that about 10 years ago.
Tracking car travel, US
6 May 2026
Flock license plate cameras are networked to facilitate tracking of all cars' travel.
This is ideal for all sorts of abuses, from "running a plate for a date" to repression of protest groups once they have been identified as part of the mythical "terrorist" organization "Antifa".
The UK set up a national car tracking network over 20 years ago, and used it to find specific people and stop them from traveling to a protest.
Do you expect the persecutor to be less unjust than Tony B'liar?
Trophies from hunting wild animals
6 May 2026
Arguing that banning or interfering with taking trophies from hunting wild animals is a misguided policy that interferes with protection of wildlife.
EPA budget cut proposal
6 May 2026
*Democrats say EPA head's budget cut proposal "reads like climate change deniers' manifesto".*
Magat federal prosecutors losing in court prosecuting protesters
6 May 2026
Magat federal prosecutors have lost in court in their prosecutions of protesters, because judges found them to be stretching the truth to the point where it snapped.
China regulations on Pretend Intelligence chatbots
6 May 2026
China will impose strict regulations on Pretend Intelligence chatbots that have conversations about suicide — a human must be notified to intervene.
Other things that chatbots will be prohibited from doing include encouraging violence, and emotional manipulation, and promoting "obscenity", gambling and crime, and misleading users.
An intelligent being can try to apply such rules because it can understands, more or less, the meaning of its communications. (Although it is not easy even for an intelligent being to understand reliably what a communication might imply to another intelligent being.)
A pretend intelligence will have trouble applying such rules beyond a superficial manner, because it is not capable of such understanding. It might have a discussion of "getting off this mortal coil" or "the big sleep" and not detect that as a reference to suicide or death.
Aside from that, I would expect that these rules will be interpreted by China as restricting discussion of political issues that lead to criticizing China. Alas, the US might restrict discussions of fascism and democracy, a few years from now.
Magats reopened "gun show loophole"
6 May 2026
The magats reopened the "gun show loophole", which allowed gun dealers to sell guns at gun shows without requiring a background check from the buyer.
Machine learning system for emergency triage
6 May 2026
A machine learning system did better than human doctors at providing a second opinion for emergency triage.
I think this justifies describing that system as "artificial intelligence", when used for that job.
Countries adopting plans for ending use of fossil fuels
6 May 2026
60 significant countries agreed to adopt plans for ending use of fossil fuels.
The most powerful countries, who are he biggest consumers of fossil fuels, did not participate, but the participants amount to half the global GDP, so their decision might shift the world's climate trajectory.
Cuts to bus service caused by end of federal subsidy
6 May 2026
Many low-income Americans can't easily get to a supermarket due to cuts in bus service caused by the end of a federal subsidy. (I suspect the wrecker ended it.)
However, there is no decrease in bus service in Somerville, Massachusetts. The MBTA has been increasing its bus service in the past few years and claims to have more bus service now than in 2019.
Supermarkets used to be far more numerous, a few decades ago. I think many independent small supermarkets went out of business.
Political enemies when they take offense over statement
6 May 2026
Never apologize to your political enemies when they take offense tactically over a statement that wasn't actually wrong.
Activists accuse Israeli soldiers of torture
6 May 2026
Activists on the latest Gaza aid flotilla accuse Israeli soldiers of violently torturing them after seizing their ships.
Israel says the flotilla's leaders will be taken to Israel for "questioning" — which may include torture.
British king Charles III urge US to respect legal rights
6 May 2026
British king Charles III, speaking to the US Congress, tried to urge the US to move back to democracy and respect for legal rights.
Will it change the minds of some Republicans?
Appeals court ruled against mailing abortion drugs
6 May 2026
An appeals court in the South, which is generally right-wing biased, ruled that abortion clinics cannot mail abortion drugs.
This will do terrible harm to women who can't afford to travel to a state where abortion is still lawful.
The Supreme Court then temporarily lifted the prohibition.
No Kings movement failing to follow up with local organizing
6 May 2026
Ralph Nader critiques the No Kings movement for failing to follow up with local organizing everywhere to demand removal of the would-be dictator.
Urgent: Call ABC to resist bully's censorship
5 May 2026
US citizens: call ABC to resist the bully's censorship demands.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Pass war powers resolution about Cuba
5 May 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to pass a war powers resolution about Cuba and end the humanitarian crisis that the US is causing there.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
Decrease in rate of homicides in California
5 May 2026
California officials point to changes in laws as the cause of a 35% decrease in the rate of homicides since 2024.
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 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.
Rejection of fascist "Christian nationalist" movement
5 May 2026
Most US Christians reject the fascist "Christian nationalist" movement and they increasingly organize to oppose it.
Repression of climate protesters
5 May 2026
Research suggests that repression of climate protesters is self-defeating: it builds the impetus for climate defense.
Refused afghan asylum seekers in UK
5 May 2026
The UK says it might send refused Afghan asylum seekers back to Afghanistan.
This would make the UK culpable for the repression that drives them to flee and beg for asylum.
Bad aspects of fame with antisocial media
5 May 2026
Arguing that antisocial media give each used the bad aspects of fame. Just not the good aspects.
Experiments with brainwashing North Korean prisoners
5 May 2026
The CIA experimented with attempts at brainwashing of North Korean prisoners of war starting in 1950. However, it did not try using mind-altering drugs for this until later.
Big Bad Bill federal tax voucher program
5 May 2026
The Big Bad Bill established a federal tax voucher program — a taxpayer paying tuition for private school could take the whole sum off per tax owed.
This takes that money straight off the public budget.
Schemes the cheater uses to receive money from supporters
5 May 2026
A survey of many schemes that the cheater and his family use to receive money from supporters, many of whom visibly receive special preference for giving the money.
SLAPP lawsuits endanger freedom of the press
5 May 2026
SLAPP lawsuits endanger freedom of the press; magat officials are now using them and tightening the screws to a level that few can resist.
To restore effective freedom of the press, we need laws to stop this practice. But officials that practice SLAPPing won't approve them.
If we had a supreme court full of honest supporters of freedom and democracy, they would interpret existing laws to prioritize citizens' freedom to participate in forming public opinion. But it is hard to count on that to come back.
(satire) Need to end journalism
5 May 2026
(satire) *[The bully] Claims Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Reinforces Need To End Journalism.*
Increasing Cuba's infant mortality rate
5 May 2026
US sanctions imposed on Cuba in two stages by the persecutor appear to be responsible for increasing Cuba's infant mortality rate from 4.0 per 1000 live births in 2028 to 9.9 per thousand as of 2025.
I suppose that non-infants in Cuba are also dying at a higher rate now.
Disneyland facial recognition
5 May 2026
Disneyland is joining the movement to get Americans accustomed to facial recognition everywhere and anywhere.
If it correctly recognizes you at a ride in Disneyland, that instance won't do you any harm. But the Orwellian general practice of using facial recognition facilitates finding and repressing dissidents or anyone else selected for persecution.