*Texas abortion providers ask supreme court to halt unprecedented abortion law.*
Instead of directly punishing people who get abortions, it would allow anyone and everyone to sue anyone that plays any role in an abortion — even driving the patient to a clinic. Most people would be bankrupted by legal expenses before the end of the trial; they would lose by default.
This kind of law is oppressive regardless of what it is about. Israel passed a similar law to repress advocacy of Gush Shalom's boycott of products made in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory, because even people prepared to go to jail for freedom of speech did not dare expose their families to this risk.
Georgia's prisons are so understaffed that they don't even notice when a prisoner is dead. The result is an increase in murder in the prison.
I wonder what is causing the understaffing.
Militarists, "addicted to war", don't want to allow the US war in Afghanistan to end. They want the US military to fight "terrorism" there.
The Taliban's victory could be a big step forward towards eradicating PIS, if the US cooperates with the Taliban for this. Above all, the US must not mess it up by provoking friction with the Taliban. For instance, drone strikes in Afghanistan that kill civilians would be extremely counterproductive, even if the target is a real terrorist.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what is happening.
(One thing not clear in the article: were the civilians killed the people in the car, or were they bystanders the vicinity?)
All US troops are now out of Afghanistan. The US should adopt a policy of no air strikes in Afghanistan except in cooperation with the Taliban.
China has put tight limits on how much time minors can spend playing online (networked) games. I can't tell whether it is 2 hours per week, or 3 hours per week.
Part of this legal restriction is that every player will have to prove identity. Digital systems to protect minors tend to have this byproduct, which oppresses everyone.
WHO says that a "booster" third vaccine dose may be a necessity for people who have medical vulnerabilities.
That does not imply they would be a necessity for most adults, only for a minority.
*US judge revokes mother’s right to visit son over her refusal to get Covid vaccine.*
Given that she has had a medical recommendation not to get the vaccine, her resistance is not mere obstinacy. So I am not convinced that it is correct to require her to do so.
The Afghan state was corrupt in every activity — here are details.
Thus, hardly anyone wanted to fight (or do anything whatsoever) for that state as such — only to get in on the graft.
A school board rejected gratis lunch for all children, because that way some children who are not quite as poor as others might receive help.
*Contrasting US Withdrawal From Afghanistan With Trump's Abrupt Departure From Syria.* A spectacular example of double standard.
*When Military Contractors Fund Their Own Pro-War Think Tanks.*
*If labour shortages are driving up the wages of low-paid workers then what is wrong with that?*
Harvard University's chaplains have unanimously selected a new chief — the Atheist/Humanist chaplain.
Everyone: call for dissolving the National Rifle Association. For decades it has linked itself to white supremacism. Nowadays it is simply a marketing agency for guns.
US citizens: call on Biden to nominate a climate leader as Chair of the Federal Reserve.
The largest generic drug plant in the US recently closed. The government might have been able to stop this.
Was it really possible to invoke the Defense Production Act. There may have been some legal barrier to doing so — I don't know. To form an organization to buy the plant and keep it operating might have been another method. So why wasn't this done?
I wonder if this has something to do with placating Senator Manchin. If so, I think the public got the short end of the deal, since he still refuses to eliminate the filibuster.
Sanders refuses to negotiate a "compromise" to make the family aid bill smaller, saying that he's already done that negotiation and the current bill is the deal that was agreed on.
It's a standard tactic of right-wing politicians, whether Republican or Democrat, to demand we meet them half-way, starting from a deal in which we met them half way. The result is to meet them three-quarters of the way. Then they may try it again and demand another eighth. Usually Democrats go along with that, but progressives today won't do it.
If we can't help renegotiating, we should start from our original starting proposal — the whole of what we really ought to do for non-rich Americans.
David Werking stayed in his parents' house for 10 months, then later discovered that they had thrown out his collection of porn while it was there. He sued them and won about $30,000 plus his legal fees.
The parents seem to have believed that, despite David's being 42 years old and formerly married, he was still their little baby and they were entitled to dictate his sex life. Most parents don't take this sense of entitlement to the point of being ridiculous, but many try to control offspring that have already developed their own idea of sexuality and desires.
Afghanistan was never a "breeding ground" for terrorism against the US, so disregard attempts to distract you with that fake concern.
The article refers to Dubya's dubious claim to have won the 2000 election, but it's much worse than that. We know that the election was rigged by Republicans, by voter suppression. And they're at it again now.
Afghan feminists — the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan — have said all along that US intervention in Afghanistan was wrong and would not help Afghan women.
I first heard of RAWA when I read about its opposition to the coming attack on Iraq. But I learned a lot of background about RAWA from this article.
(satire) *Nation Stunned That 20-Year Catastrophe Could End So Catastrophically.*
The EPA has acknowledged that neonicotinoid pesticides endanger wildlife. Each of these pesticides is expected to harm over a thousand endangered species. (The precise number affected by each pesticide varies.)
The EPA should take quick action, especially since some of those species are important pollinators.
(satire) *DeSantis Locks Down Florida After Spread Of Covid Vaccination Gets Out Of Hand.*
*Dental, Insurance Lobbyists Quietly Target Democrats' Medicare Expansion Plan.*
Mexico's retail, especially food, is being colonized by multinational chain stores.
In some cases, foreign companies bought Mexican supermarket and restaurant chains. I think they are nearly all foreign-owned. The banks, too. A decade ago I posted a joke about Ban-comer and Bananamex — nowadays, young Mexicans may not get the joke because those banks have been swalloped up by multinationals.
There is also in Mexico a Japanese retail store chain, Mikasa. Mexicans who see that name may think it is an intentionally misspelled version of "mi casa", my house. It is actually the name of a famous battleship used in the war with Russia in 1905, which was itself named after a mountain.
The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans with foreign visas to travel.
That is good news.
The Taliban don't have full effective control over Afghanistan. There may be hateful factions who are trying to find and beat up or kill women who they consider too "uppity", as well as PIS supporters. To the Taliban, they will be terrorists and criminals. The Taliban is in a much better position to vanquish them than the US was.
Many Britons are showing hostility towards NHS doctors and nurses, which is increasing the pressure on them and causing them PTSD.
I speculate that many frustrated Britons are using NHS personnel as a whipping boy for the pain and frustration caused by Covid-19. They are not to blame for it. But the Tories are, for cutting and undermining the NHS for so many years in accord with their ideology that the state should never help individuals.
*Extinction Rebellion protesters target [London] Science Museum over Shell sponsorship.*
This deal was as corrupt as we could have imagined: the museum let Shell explicitly limit what the exhibit could say.
After rigging the next Russian election in several ways, so he can't really lose, Putin still needs to give out handouts to make people want to vote.
Caleb Wallace, an anti-masker who organized protests for "freedom" from protecting others, caught Covid-19 and died at the age of 30.
I am sorry for him, because I don't see him as a rational being who is responsible for what happened to him. I won't despise him for having acted in a way that brought this on himself.
Rather, I think he was sucked into a contagious and deadly collective insanity, and it killed him. It is killing others, too, and I think that is very unfortunate.
It will kill many more Americans in coming months. Dr Fauci predicts around 100,000. But its deadliness is not limited to the people who believe it.
Greece's right-wing government aims to privatize everything that the state owns, including the forests. Varoufakis explains the local history that led to such large fires, and the new threat.
Some alleged "terrorists" in the US are in prison solely because of a prediction, without having even imagined any specific act. They would probably have been totally harmless if they had not been stimulated by people working for the FBI.
The UK has a painful shortage of truck drivers because businesses have given them no raises in 35 years — and impose painful working conditions too.
An anti-apartheid activist slept with a South African official to get information for use in campaigning to end apartheid.
Is this morally different from the British undercover spies who infiltrated activist movements? If so, why?
It may make a difference that the South African regime worked for the state, and tortured and killed anti-apartheid activists. The British activists that UK thugs infiltrated were part of civil society, and nonviolent by principle.
That is a big moral difference, but does it relate to this particular kind of question? I am not sure.
The history and the myth of the Alamo: were the gringos fighting for slavery?
US citizens: call on P&G's investors to vote Angela Braly and James McNerney out of the board.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose any federal bill to "get tough on crime."
I've seen an email that specifically mentioned the danger of laws that would offer additional funds for hiring cops, or punish local governments for prioritizing gentle and helpful ways of reducing crime, such as housing, violence prevention and jobs, rather than policing and incarceration.
You can mention those points in your phone call, if you wish.
I got this from a petition which I cannot sign or recommend, even though I agree with what it says, because signing requires running nonfree Javascript code.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
(satire) *Humanitarian Organization "Doctors Without Dimensions" Phases Into War-Torn Nonlinear Universe.*
I wonder whether a "doctor without dimensions" is a single mathematical point, or a nonmeasurable set.
*Unvaccinated teacher infected half her students with Covid.* She went to work despite having symptoms, and read to the students without a mask on.
This was triple disregard for the safety of others.
Houses in parts of California are becoming uninsurable.
For the people who own and live in those houses, that is a disaster; most Americans don't have money to put a down payment on a new house if they can't sell the old one. However, insuring those houses so that they get repeatedly rebuilt would be unending waste, like trying to fill a leaky bathtub.
The right solution, I think, is for the US government to buy their houses for what would have been a fair price when they were insurable.
I wonder if it is feasible to build underground houses that usually won't be damaged by wildfires. The inhabitants will still have to evacuate as fire comes, but with luck the house will be unscathed after the fire passes.
Controlled burns are clearly a good thing to do, but there is a lot of political opposition to that, partly because there is never a safe time for it nowadays. When people see the danger of not doing them exceeds the danger of doing them, they will start.
The US is not to blame for the PIS attack at Kabul airport, but it is to blame for being so slow to evacuate Afghans who were in danger because of working with the US.
The main consequence of that failure is that tens of thousands (at least) are now unable to get out. If indeed the Taliban persecute some of them, that could be fatal. It could be fatal for far more people than the bombing.
Anti-vaxxers are tearing families apart.
Most anti-vaxxers are also subject to conspiracy ideation, which is in itself a reason to limit contact with them. Communication with someone who has lost contact with reality, outside of purely practical topics, is sure to feel like pressure to tolerate the delusion.
*The real OnlyFans scandal is the unaccountable power of platforms and banks.*
What gives them this power is (1) making users run nonfree software and (2) being able to set their terms and conditions arbitrarily within a very broad range.
The nonfree software enables them to collect data secretly. We need to require that all client software be free, so users can have control over what it does. In particular, so they can fix it not to spy on them, regardless of what the platform owners wish.
The rest of their power comes from imposing whatever terms and conditions they like. There are some legal limits, but not enough. We need to limit what platforms can require, just as we (in some places) limit what conditions a landlord can require in a lease for a residence.
Laws are not invariably good. Indeed, OnlyFans's plan to kick off the core of its clients was triggered by a law whose purposes is repression (sexual and legal). But at least we have a chance, to the extent democracy functions, of changing the law.
*Brazil's Indigenous Groups Mount Unprecedented Protest Against Destruction of the Amazon.*
Today's step-by-step deforestation hits them first, and will hit everyone over decades.
Fusion power continues to make progress. Recently one experiment came to 70% of break-even, using a somewhat academic standard of break-even.
Fusion may someday work, but considering the number of advances still needed for it to make a useful contribution to replacing fossil fuels, I don't think 30 years is enough time. And that's how much time we have to finish saving civilization. So we can't do that with fusion power; we need to do that with the forms of generation that already function at commercial scale.
Fossil fuel companies probably hope we will convince ourselves that fusion will save us, so we will let them keep on burning ever more oil for another decade or two. But if we do that, it will be too late.
The Taliban are blocking people from reaching Kabul airport.
Prices have been rising in the UK, so the Tories are planning to cut welfare benefits.
*"Use your £11bn climate fund to pay for family planning," UK told.*
As a way to reduce future environmental damage, and curb greenhouse emissions, this is tremendously efficient.
Proposing a way to take some of the private profit motive out of US war and military spending.
*The west has to ask itself: if IS is the enemy, does that make the Taliban our friends?*
We must hope so. It would snatch a peaceful success (better than mere "victory") out of the jaws of defeat, and provide a chance for thoughtful diplomacy to advance women's rights a little.
Everyone: Remind Lululemon, Under Armour, and Athleta to carry out the commitment to get fossil fuel out of their supply chains.
A UN report says that North Korea hits prisoners with wooden boards and forces them into hard labor, while starving them.
Texas Republicans have passed their voter-suppression bill.
If a few more Democrats had had the courage to stay away, they could have prevented this. Sometimes it's clear what your duty is, and you must do it even if it hurts.
As Canada heads to an election, the power of Big Oil is suppressing discussion of climate mayhem. *It's Not Human Stupidity That Is Blocking Climate Action, It's Big Oil.*
The article recommends voting for the NDP because it advocates a wealth tax. That would not directly address the problem, but it could weaken the power of the rich. Is this better than voting for the Green Party? I don't know what the Canadian Green Party is like.
How can you love any artistic work, if discovering an alleged or real bad aspect of its author makes you feel disgust for it?
*Atmospheric CO2 Levels Haven't Been This High in 800,000 Years: NOAA.*
*According to US Supreme Court, Right to Buy an Election More Protected Than Right to Vote in One.*
(satire) *Vaccine Skeptic Does Own Research By Enrolling 45,000 Friends In Double-Blind Clinical Trial.*
A Louisiana state thug was caught on video beating a black motorist's head with a flashlight. The thug now faces charges of second degree battery.
The dialog between them suggests that the thug perceived the motorist as fighting him, though in fact the motorist was helpless and saying "I'm not resisting." It seems that racists often get carried away in this fashion
We can't tolerate people in a police department who will let rage blind them to reality such that they beat people up.
*Colombians march to urge Congress to back social reform package.*
*Capitol police officers sue [the wrecker] and far-right groups over 6 January attack.*
The chief of a Thai thug department has been arrested and accused of torturing a suspect to death while trying to extort money from him.
As the UK hurried to rescue as many as possible of the Afghan human beings who had supported its forces and diplomats, an animal lover pushed to divert effort into rescuing some dogs.
I understand that it is possible to love a dog very much, but any human being's life is more important than any dog's life.
*Seven Months In, Avril Haines Shows No Appetite for Investigating CIA War Crimes.*
Haines is the Director of National Intelligence, and is above the head of the CIA, so she has the power to make this happen.
*Mexico seeks to convince U.S. to invest in Central America, not just migration curbs.*
That would be a good step 1, but first should come step 0: to stop investing in repression that makes it hard for people to survive in some countries of Central America.
*XR protesters tell UK government: ‘stop the harm’ of fossil fuels.*
Samsung TVs have a back door with which Samsung can brick them remotely.
(satire) *Apologetic Nurse Informs Man Having Heart Attack There's About An Hour Wait Until Next Covid Patient Dies.*
Ilhan Omar called on Biden to pardon drone attack whistleblower Daniel Hale.
The Poor People's Campaign in West Virginia is trying to pressure Senator Manchin over his support for the filibuster.
The US Supreme Court has been lax in using the Constitution to limit violence by uniformed thugs.
Uber and Lyft are fighting with their drivers about how drivers can specify which kinds of rides they will take — and whether company control over this means the drivers are not independent contractors.
Meanwhile, the companies hope the public will vote to let the companies exploit the drivers. The customers are invited to assume that more exploitation must mean lower fares — but even if that were true, would it be just?
Sad to say, there is no motion in the direction of preserving customers' anonymity or respecting their software freedom.
The Delta variant of Covid-19 is twice as likely as the Alpha variant to put an unvaccinated person in the hospital.
The Supreme Court eliminated the federal eviction moratorium in a hasty way, not bothering to listening to the arguments.
It seems to be a matter of right-wing ideology, pure and simple.
*Taliban say Afghan women health service staff should go back to work.*
I'm sure they will still deny women the rights they deserve, but it may not be much worse than the previous government of Afghanistan.
US citizens: call on the White House to push harder to sweep away the artificial obstacles for producing Covid-19 vaccines.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
An AI-controlled autonomous ship is being tested.
I wonder what systems they will use to notice people signaling for help using low-tech methods — or to rescue them. It would be unacceptable to design ships to motor on by and not stop to save people in distress.
A court ruled that the bully's construction of the beginning of a border wall was illegal because it did not take account of environmental harm.
The question is, will this make it possible to stop such a president in the future?
Lithuania recognized Taiwan, so China has cut off trade with Lithuania. This is meant as a threat to other EU countries.
The US should recognize Taiwan and let China to make whatever trouble it likes. That may be uncomfortable for the US in the short term, but it will ultimately weaken China.
Navalny says that Putin is trying to brainwash him by making him watch Russian State TV for 8 hours every day.
Six years in prison for one member of a right-wing plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer of Michigan.
Under today's circumstances, others are likely to talk each other into trying violence against her.
A study finds that bigger corporations tend to lobby more, and this lobbying gives them increased power over government policies.
It follows that making regulation effective requires making big companies much smaller.
The famine in Madagascar is caused by drought. The drought is caused by global heating.
A court ruled that the New South Wales environmental regulator had failed in its duty to protect the state from dangerous wildfires, and ordered it to reduce emissions.
Global heating has heated up part of the Pacific Ocean in a persistent way, and it is causing a lasting drought in Chile.
Terrorists (presumably not working for the Taliban) shot at a military plane that was evacuating civilians from Kabul airport.
The agreement to drop garment companies in Bangladesh that endanger workers will soon expire, but a new agreement is stronger.
Outsiders are gentrifying Montana at amazing speed, so it has become like San Francisco: people who do working-class jobs can't afford to live there.
*Qatar has failed to explain up to 70% of migrant worker deaths in past 10 years – Amnesty.* The total number of deaths was 6,500, and each one passed a medical exam before going to Qatar. This suggests that Qatar allows unsafe working conditions.
New South Wales is beginning to abandon its battle to put an end to the outbreak of Delta variant.
Could it have succeeded if it had tried harder? China seems to be approaching success. Taiwan is not a pertinent comparison, since its outbreak is of the Alpha variant.
Idea: turn London's golf courses into parks and housing.
Giving prisoners work, along with workers' rights and good wages, is good for everyone.
*Analysis: Islamic State attack signals West's least bad option for Afghanistan — the Taliban.*
I've been saying this for a while.
In addition to fighting the local branch of PISSI, there is the issue of preserving some of the improvement in women's rights. With a good relationship with the Taliban, western countries could support the leaders that can be convinced to allow women to leave the house alone, study, and work.
*EPA is falsifying risk assessments for dangerous chemicals, say whistleblowers.*
Sometimes the managers bow to pressure from companies by deleting scientists' reports of hazards, without informing them. Or forbid employees from talking with other EPA personnel. "Managers seem to think their job is to get as many new chemicals on the market as fast as possible," said a whistleblower.
This started before the corrupter was elected.
* From relying on outsourced contractors to failing to tackle corruption, the west's military presence was not fit for purpose.*
*Minnesota Law Enforcement [gave] Intelligence on Protest Organizers [to] Pipeline Company.*
(I object to use of the positive term "sharing" to refer to private redistribution of unpublished data bass of personal data.)
*Local law enforcement has become the brutal arm of a Canadian corporation.*
Burma's military government has decided to let Rohingya get Covid-19 vaccination.
The Burmese suppression forces have killed over 1,000 people who were protesting or fighting the coup.
Let's not apply the term "security forces" to an army that is fighting to subjugate people rather than to make them secure.
The major US media ignore the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan except when they can use it to argue for war.
Massachusetts residents: call on the state legislature to pass the Work and Family Mobility Act.
This would allow anyone living in the state to apply for a driver's license without proving permission to be in the US.
Immigrants in jail in the US are charged much higher bail than citizens.
Afghans advocating education for girls made great progress in providing primary education for girls, even including getting the Taliban to compromise and tolerate it.
The outside world can help support this, if it is not ham-handed about it.
Taiwan is coming close to eradicating its latest Covid-19 outbreak. It made the initial mistake of trying steps that were insufficiently airtight.
Biden is looking at trying to break up the four big meatpacking companies that control 80% of US meat production. How about also breaking up the big grocery store chains?
After Reagan handed over control of the US government to big business, subsequent presidents, including the "moderate" plutocratist Democrats Clinton and Obama, continued to encourage concentration that increased business power. We see this in a wide range of industries, and it's generally harmful wherever it is found.
If the only way to undo the concentration is with a lawsuit or specific policy change for one industry, progress in undoing the concentration will be slow and limited. My tax scheme could pressure all these businesses to break themselves up.
A bird feeder doesn't help all species of birds equally. Sometimes it can give one species an advantage over another, and wipe the latter out.
*Black people [in the UK] more likely to be Tasered for longer, police watchdog finds.*
OnlyFans has found way to continue hosting material that treats sex and still get paid.
*Why has so little been said about the Afghan casualties of the past 20 years?*
London thugs rushed to attack Extinction Rebellion protesters. Since protesters often bring a band of musicians, the thugs arrest the musicians too.
25 would-be immigrants sent by Belarus, and stuck at the border with Poland (which won't admit them), are getting hungry and sick; one needs treatment urgently.
It appears that each country refuses to allow the responsibility for feeding and treating them to fall on it, and each refuses to allow food or medicine to come from its side.
Perhaps Poland could allow a helicopter from another country to travel along the border to that point, and land to provide food and medical care. That way, the aid would not come from Poland.
The helicopter could also, conceivably, evacuate them to a ship which could take them to countries willing to accept them.
*Little-Known Federal Software Can Trigger Revocation of [US] Citizenship.*
LED streetlights are more harmful to insects.
Human activities are harming insects so much that their populations have crashed in the past few decades. This is called the "insect apocalypse." Since many animals eat mainly insects, we are putting entire ecosystems in danger.
California's Orange County sheriff's department explicitly trains deputies to misuse force, according to an official investigation.
For instance, trainers told deputies to memorize the locations of the jail's security cameras so as to cover up quick but painful violence.
*Breathing toxic wildfire smoke during pregnancy increases risk of premature birth, study finds.*
If we can only lead people to follow the steps from "This smoke is horrible" to "Down with the oil companies!"
The House of Representatives passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which updates the existing Voting Rights Act to restore the pre-clearance requirement for voter suppression laws.
This would be an important advance, but it does not go as far as the For the People Act.
To pass either of them would require the Senate Democrats to eliminate the filibuster.
China is gravely threatened by global heating disaster. By 2050, it may be too disaster-wracked to continue building up its military.
Perhaps by that time, the idea of conquering and enslaving Taiwan will have become a pipedream for China instead of a real possibility. But we can't count on that now.
It is vitally important for China to cut its greenhouse emissions, and fast. If the Zhengzhou flood, and the newly discovered likelihood of fatal weather in the North China Plain, convince Xi to push China into rapid efforts for climate defense, that will be good for the whole world. It may help us convince other countries do likewise.
Maybe the US and China could negotiate limits on some sorts of arms, in particular nuclear arms.
However, the need to strengthen Taiwan's conventional defense so that China doesn't starts a war there will remain.
The main national central banks are still investing in fossil fuels, doing nothing to slow global heating.
US military veterans support removing troops from Afghanistan by 63% to 24%.
Plutocratist Democrats on Buffalo's city council propose to eliminate the office of mayor, if democratic socialist India Walton wins the election for mayor (as is likely).
*Supreme court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy.*
The ruling is not about the substance of the policy. It is about following the procedures for government agencies to make a change in policy. What I do not understand is why the wrecker didn't have to follow those same procedures when he introduced this policy. That seems fishy.
(satire) *CDC Warns Going Unvaccinated Not Worth Risk Of Losing Ability To Taste Wings.*
For me, this is HHOS. I live to eat, and while I have no special love for chicken wings, to lose the joy of delicious food would be crushing for me.
The New York Post requires its staff to wear a mask in the office. Nonetheless, it publicly derides use of masks to prevent Covid-19. The publisher knows what is right, but doesn't want you to know.
(satire) *‘Let’s Take It To Our Afghanistan Experts,’ Says Anchor Throwing To Panel Of Dick Cheneys.*
(serious) For the US to overcome its addiction to violence in Afghanistan was an act of strength.
A third dose of vaccine is defeating the Delta variant in Israel.
Australia said that the prediction of 25,000 deaths from Covid-19 is an overestimate, because Australia would continue some anti-Covid measures even if it ends lockdowns.
In any case, it will be a significant number. However, around 300,000 people die per year in that country. On the other hand, tens of thousands of people (including young people) disabled by long Covid may be even worse.
The San Onofre nuclear power plants have been shut down, but the nuclear waste is buried nearby.
The article provides some examples of a general problem with nuclear power plants: the tendency to do a bad job of maintenance, ignoring their problems.
To find a place for nuclear waste that will be safe for tens of thousands of years is a real engineering challenge, but finding a place that is safe for 25 years from well-known threats is surely much easier. I think that the people who selected a place near a beach on the Pacific ocean, an earthquake fault, an important transport artery and a major metropolitan area were not being careful.
Anti-mask fanatics are besieging US school boards demanding that they not require people in schools to wear masks. When a board does so, some of them call the board members "Nazis", while others threaten like Nazis.
Bahrain used the Pegasus spyware to crack the phones of Bahraini activists.
Thailand has pulled out of the War on Drugs. Drug users will be given treatment rather than punishment.
Eritrea is sending troops back to Tigray, in alliance with Ethiopia. Perhaps they never entirely left.
Yanis Varoufakis praises Star Trek's Prime Directive.
How to avoid overprotecting your child: make a list of the horrible things you're afraid will happen, and you'll see they are too unlikely to deserve so much concern.
Scientific papers that present astounding results attract more attention. They are also more likely to prove to be unreproducible and probably wrong. Moreover, they continue to be cited despite evidence that they are wrong.
Perhaps we could set up a system that enables journalists and commentators to more easily find out that the result proved unreproducible. Then maybe it could become standard practice in reputable publications to check this.
I hope it functions without nonfree JavaScript so that I could use it myself.
(satire) *Jane Goodall Returns From Latest Expedition With Annoying Chimp Accent.*
* More than two dozen advocacy groups launched "extreme weather ads" … to pressure right-wing Senate Democrats to stop giving taxpayer money to the oil, gas, and coal companies most responsible for the climate emergency.*
*Right-wing media pushed a deworming drug to treat Covid-19 that the FDA says is unsafe for humans.*
New York City will require all public school employees to be vaccinated. The teacher's union pointed out the need for medical exceptions. However, there are no grounds to allow a personal preference exception.
A small town in Texas has been overcome with Covid-19. Its schools and most activity are shut down.
Many teenagers in the US are overcome with anxiety or depression due to the treatment they have experienced in school, and refuse to go there.
*Taliban issue death sentence for brother of Afghan translator who helped US troops, according to letters obtained by CNN.*
US citizens: call on the Army Corps of Engineers to cancel the Line 3 pipeline.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the Child Tax Credit permanent now.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Florida school districts are defying Deadly DeSantis and requiring masks, after seeing many Covid cases among the students in just the first week.
The Pfizer vaccine now has full approval (not experimental approval), so it is easier to require vaccination.
Record-breaking rain in Tennessee has killed people and destroyed houses. I hope this makes some Republicans aware of the urgency of curbing the global heating, which has already progressed so far as to cause disasters like this around the world.
Poland plans to build a wall on the border with Belarus to block unauthorized immigrants, some of whom would ask for asylum.
Aside from the treaties about asylum, and the moral duty to offer asylum, I am not sure an 8-foot wall would actually stop able-bodied migrants. Belarus would surely equip them with ladders.
*Extinction Rebellion occupy Norway's oil ministry as part of 10-day protest.*
In London they only occupied a busy junction.
The UK's Minister of Love wants to label Extinction Rebellion as "extremist". This would open the door to extreme repression of Britons who are not content to wait quietly while global heating destroys their country.
The same government is meanwhile dreaming up excuses for greenwashing the expansion of fossil fuel use.
California thugs picked up disinformation talking about "Antifa" and ran with it.
We cannot afford to have people with a right-wing bias in positions where they can bias the administration of justice.
The concept of an individual's "carbon footprint" was invented by Billionaire Polluters' PR company, to distract people from demanding the big changes that can only be made with the help of governments.
I wish the Guardian would stop publishing articles that focus people's attention on reducing their individual contributions to greenhouse emissions. Especially since they almost always omit the most important thing an individual can do is to have fewer children.
When Lukashenko considers people "enemies of the state" and places criminal charges against them, lawyers are not supposed to defend them against the charges. The "trials" are for show only.
The Canadian Conservative Party is driving away voters by sending unvaccinated candidates to knock on voters' doors.
Sad to say, Trudeau's Liberal Party is rather conservative too.
Sexually aroused sea snakes seem to mistake divers for sea snakes.
Male dolphins do try to have sex with humans, but that doesn't imply they are mistaken about anything.
*In Latest Yes Men Prank, 'Paul Wolfowitz' Says Afghanistan War 'Failure From Day One'.* But it was worth all the cost and suffering, according to the imitation Wolfowitz, because Americans can always be proud of fighting a war.
Here is a transcript.
Bravo for the Yes Men!
200 of right-wing extremists, presenting themselves as "Proud Boys", held a rally in Portland, Oregon, many carrying weapons. Some 30 antifascist protesters came by to object. The fascists attacked them (and other people) physically, and appear to have hurt some people badly.
The city thug chief had announced in advance that the thugs would not try to prevent the violent intimidation that right-wing extremists crowds go in for. So it went on one fascist started shooting at the antifascists. One antifascist was also armed, and shot back.
The fascists took advantage of the impunity they had been awarded to form gangs that attacked vehicles and their drivers.
Last year, thugs at similar rallies showed their support for right-wing violence. Portland's officials had better take action to prevent that from happening again.
The leader of the Proud Boys has been sentenced to 5 months in prison for bringing high-capacity magazines to Washington, DC, plus vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a church. The magazines were preparation for possible violence on Jan 6, though he didn't actually carry it out. The vandalism demonstrates that white supremacy is the base of the group's ideology.
Interventionists in the US are pushing for bitter recrimination about Kabul's surrender, as distraction from the needful recrimination about the US conduct of the war.
Tunisia's president extended his suspension of parliament. The longer this goes on, the more we must worry that he intends to become a dictator.
The US War on Pain Sufferers has launched a new method of choosing its targets. It has put all prescriptions into a nationwide database which uses a simplistic algorithm to classify each patient as "real patient" or "drug addict." If you get a negative judgment, you can be cut off instantly from your painkillers. I can imagine that as driving people to suicide, or rendering them unable to confront the needs of staying alive.
Officially, the algorithm never makes an actual decision. Rather, it reports a score, which could be called the "patient social credit score". That determines doctors' decisions; they don't dare disregard it.
More casualties of the War on Drugs: the US government continues seizing people's money based on vague suspicion, without charging them with any crime.
Afghanistan will need food aid soon.
Modelling suggests that ending Australian lockdowns when 80% of adult Australians are vaccinated could cause 25,000 deaths, over time, plus 270,000 cases of long Covid.
That is one death per thousand people, and one long Covid case per hundred.
Waiting till 90% of adults vaccinated, and all children vaccinated, the number of deaths would go down to 10,000. The article does not say how many long Covid cases would accompany them.
I wish I could ask for more information about this model.
US hospitals and medical insurance companies play bizarre games with prices. Neither the insured nor the employers that usually pay their bills can find out in advance what a procedure will cost at this or that hospital.
A law now requires hospitals to post this information, but most hospitals ignore it with impunity. Furthermore, a hospital can send one price, then charge a higher price, and say "We sent you a wrong estimate."
We need a law that makes it impossible for a hospital to get away with not posting prices or not sending estimates. In addition, we need a law by which every hospital is bound by whatever advance prices it states. Also, that the hospital is forbidden to charge for anything that didn't have an easily found published price.
Noncompliance should get the hospital cut off from business until it sells to new owners with new management.
However, even that may not be enough. So what we really need is a national medical system — what most advanced countries have.
Ukraine is dividing its population by turning the use of two similar languages into a point of political dispute.
*Ilhan Omar's Genuine Progress Indicator Act: An Important Step for Sustainability.* It will also encourage planning to making life better, rather than to increase the churn and production.
Americans support by a landslide the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The military-industrial complex is pushing hard to convince us that the fall of the US-established government was a disaster. I don't think it will be worse than unending war; but I also think I won't be as bad as the Taliban's rule was before.
The new Afghan government, which will include other power groups, will have many reasons to want peace and cooperation with the US. Many reasons, that is, to keep the pledge not to allow Afghanistan to be a base for terrorism. The Taliban may even appreciate US intelligence help for fighting PISSI.
They will also have very strong interests in allowing women to do the many kinds of skilled work that Afghan women have trained to do. I think they will end up adopyin a policy resembling Iran's.
Compared with a western country, that is horribly sexist. But it would be a big step forward compared with the way most of Afghanistan has been in recent years (outside of a few cities).
Global heating is drying Iran, and much of the Middle East, for the long term.
*4 Major Environmental Treaties the U.S. Never Ratified — But Should.*
China will reduce the income of the rich, in order to make the rest wealthier, and to eliminate the political power of the rich.
How paradoxical that the state that crushes freedom of thought for everyone will eliminate this other menace to freedom. But is there a path from there back to freedom?
Australia shows no mercy for churches that hold spreader ceremonies.
Biden just demonstrated that he can order the cancellation of college loan debt, by cancelling the debts of permanently disabled students. Now he should cancel the rest of college loan debt.
The campaign to drive sex underground on the internet just conquered a site that became successful for being a place you could publish images of sex.
This campaign for "women's rights" is backed mainly by right-wing Christians that advocate general repression of sex.
I consider the site OnlyFans unacceptable because it requires visitors to run nonfree software, and makes them identify themselves (through the payment system). (Of course, they are not planning to fix that.) But that is a side issue. What's dangerous is not specifically the change in that one site's policies, it is the overall campaign of sexual repression.
The first article contains the phrase "share adult content", which is a triple series of debasements of language.
We should not weaken the word "sharing" by using it for commercial distribution of works. Not that I'm against commercial distribution, but we should not discard the distinction between cooperation in society and commercial activity.
We should not refer to works as "content", either, because that disparages all works.
As for "adult", that's a euphemism. As a founding member-at-heart of the Anti-Euphemism League, I object to it.
The Taliban are maintaining safe and orderly queues outside Kabul airport. I gather that they are not trying to stop would-be evacuees from entering.
Right-wing extremist radio personality Larry Elder could become governor of California with around 10% of the overall votes cast unless > 50% vote to keep Governor Newsom in office.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange August 30 from 4:30pm to 6pm in Boston Common, next to the entrance o
US citizens: call on Congress to fix SSI in the Reconciliation Bill.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
How to find *A Thoughtful Response to the Tragedy in Afghanistan.*
(satire) *Production Delays Cause Film Reboot To Reach Theaters Before Original.*
Radio host Phil Valentine, who ridiculed Covid-19 vaccination, changed his mind to advocate vaccination after he caught the disease.
If he had lived, and returned to his show, he could have done a lot of good.
Between Covid-19 and low wages for nurses, the Philippines have a shortage of nurses.
*When power thrives on unspoken fear, bravery is in saying "I am afraid."*
The Taliban is finding it difficult to establish in Kabul the nonrepressive order that it says it stands for.
We Americans are aware that right-wing enemies of our government are often responsible for provoking violence to blame on the government and/or the left. Nonetheless, the state has the responsibility to maintain order while respecting freedom, even if that is difficult. It is the same for the Taliban.
The Taliban have said they will do so.
Since they took power in Kabul only one week ago, we need to give them time. If they reject fanatic violence, they need to make this rejection effective and visible.
This includes the responsibility to demonstrate that the people searching for journalists to kill are lawbreakers, and to protect the journalists from them.
Perhaps the US should give the Taliban lots of police uniforms and badges, so that people can distinguish between them and unaffiliated terrorists.
*Beware state surveillance of your lives — governments can change for the worse.*
An Alabama thug who needlessly killed a man who was threatening suicide has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. The man was threatening suicide, but a police officer was talking him down, and believed things were on the mend.
What is the urgency of shooting a person who holds a gun to per own head?
The hypocrisy of California's Democratic Party leader makes it likely that he will be replaced by next month's recall election with someone much worse.
The most likely winner is a Republican death cultist.
I urge people to vote in part 1 to keep Governor Newsom.
A bill proposes to cut US military spending to pay for vaccinating poor countries.
That would be money well spent, not only in terms of the general good of humanity, but also specifically in terms of US security against threats to Americans. It would reduce the chance of the evolution of more deadly variants of Covid-19.
The US could use more deficit spending, so it doesn't actually need to cut some other spending to fund this.
A US intelligence official says that the US could have prevented the Taliban's quick victory by keeping certain intelligence teams going. However, Biden could not do this while keeping the agreement (made by the wrecker) to withdraw all the US troops.
If Biden had kept those teams going, would that have prolonged the war? I don't know, but I have a feeling that that could only have occurred if the US had continued pouring in money. There would still have been no chance to defeat the Taliban.
The US will probably not talk about a "war on terror", but many of the operations against terrorist organizations will continue. So will the ominous Department of Homeland Security, with its massive surveillance capabilities that could be turned against anyone.
The most dangerous source of terrorism in the US in the near future will be the millions of right-wing fanatics, detached from reality. They are killing thousands of Americans now, by crusading against masks, vaccination, and anything that would retard the spread of Covid-19.
Will the DHS be of any use against that?
Extinction Rebellion aimed protests against the City of London, the small district that protects banks from many laws, and lobbied against laws that would limit their ability to promote climate mayhem.
The City of London has the form of a representative, democratic body. Except that few people actually live in its territory, and they are almost all banksters.
Republican anti-vaxxers at the wrecker's rally in Alabama bood him when he advocated vaccination.
It seems that the monster he started has become too powerful and crazy for him to restrain.
One MD in Alabama refuses to treat unvaccinated patients with Covid-19. He says it is because he can't bear watching them die.
I don't think that is a valid reason. Medical doctors should try to treat all sick people, even if the chance of saving them is small, because the chance is more than zero. In this case, the chance is not really so small. Treatment for severe Covid-19 does save many of the patients.
However, a doctor can only do so much, and a hospital can only handle so many patients in its ICU.
When there are more sick people than the doctors and the hospitals can handle, so that they simply cannot treat everyone, it makes sense for them to publish a policy of giving first priority to the patients who took proper precautions to reduce the chance of getting sick — meaning, those who got sick despite vaccination. After those, they would treat as many of the unvaccinated patients as they can fit, to the extent they can.
*Denser cities could be a climate boon — but nimbyism stands in the way.*
Higher degrees of education — outside the fields important for technology — are like a pyramid scheme. You pay a lot and get in debt, then probably don't get a job in the field except as a low-paid "adjunct professor." But degree inflation pushes more and more people into doing this.
Biden has greatly increased the level of food stamp benefits ("SNAP") for poor families.
(satire) *Afghanistan Falls To Taliban Couple Hours Earlier Than Expected.*
Nabisco/Mondelez bakery workers are on strike. *Workers have been forced to work 12 to 16 hour shifts, six to seven days a week, during the pandemic, while the company seeks to eliminate overtime pay by altering employee schedules so that weekend shifts become part of the 40-hour work week.*
The strike is spreading to other plants.
Medea Benjamin: *Will Americans Who Were Right on Afghanistan Still Be Ignored?*
*A Viable Human Future Depends on Living With Less.*
Humanity in total needs to live with less. But if the decrease falls mainly on the rich, that may be acceptable. If nobody eats a lot of meat, we may all have fine and enjoyable diets.
*We Need to Urgently Regulate Global Meat and Dairy Companies to Cut Methane and Avoid Climate Breakdown.*
Cows generate a lot of the world's methane emissions.
The mainstream media's false equivalence between the progressives in Congress and the trumpets has the effect of legitimizing right-wing efforts to overthrow democracy in the US.
Even with the older Republicans, who did not aim to overthrow democracy, this false equivalence was misleading. Because the second fallacious step was to find the place midway between the two views, and call that the "center" — even though the overwhelming majority of Americans rejected that as too right-wing.
A report says that the Taliban want to arrest the high officials of the previous government, and will threaten to use their families as hostages.
The US has also been accused of using people's family members as hostages. It is a vile practice.
*Cable News Military Experts Are on the Defense Industry Dole.*
This includes Faux News and CNN.
Enough Texas Democratic legislators returned to the session that the Republicans were able to pass their voter suppression law.
I am very disappointed with the Democrats who wouldn't continue the resistance.
Bolsonaro wants to build a pipeline to buy natural gas from Argentina. I presume some of the methane would leak, and the rest would be burnt.
This would accelerate the loss to the ocean of the historic Brazilian cities on the coast. The name of that fossil fuel deposit is "vaca muerta", but "civilización muerta" would be more accurate.
*EPA Bans All Food Uses of Neurotoxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos.*
It sounds like farm workers tending crops that are not meant for eating, including cotton, hemp, and most tobacco, may still be exposed to chlorpyrifos.
(satire) *Disappointed Taliban Realizes Taking Over Afghanistan More Fun Than Running It.*
There are reports that the Taliban offered unconditional surrender in December 2001.
This is so shocking that I can't accept it as unquestioned truth without further substantiation. Anand Gopal heard the story in Afghanistan some time after 2008. That was plenty of time for distortion to set in. I took a quick look at his book, but that part doesn't say where he got the information; can anyone tell me whether that is stated elsewhere in the book?
I won't accept it as unquestioned truth, but I won't say it must be false, either.
Dubya had previously rejected an offer by the Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden and break off with al-Qa'ida. Accepting that offer would have satisfied the supposed purpose for the invasion of Afghanistan.
US citizens: call on Congress to Tax billionaires to fund the Green New Deal.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. This is a companion to the For the People Act; we want both.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on legislators to protect the freedom to own and preserve books, whatever format they are released in.
This addresses part of the injustice of typical commercial e-books. I won't accept an ebook if it has any of those injustices.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the child tax credit permanent.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
A US appeals court has ordered the border thugs to return to the "wait in Mexico" system that the bully set up. Biden tried to end it, but the court decided that ending it requires an official procedure that takes time.
Is Biden working on that procedure?
An former Afghanistan war profiteer is now in Congress and pushing for the US to invade again. He does not mention, in his publicity, that he profited from the war.
UK thugs plan to go all-out to crush coming Extinction Rebellion protests.
They warn that thugs may be so busy protecting plans to commit ecocide that they won't have time to deal with lesser crimes.
Rain fell on the summit of the Greenland ice cap for the first time ever recorded.
Mexico drops unauthorized Salvadoran, Honduran and Nicaraguan immigrants penniless just across the border in Guatemala. They can't cross Guatemala to their home countries, so all they can do is try again to enter the US.
The Texas supreme court authorized local school mask mandates.
Many Afghans who worked for foreign governments or armies were subcontracted, so the governments don't know about them and don't try to save them.
Subcontracting workers commonly facilitates abusing them, and the practice should be eliminated, but this case is especially bad.
Chris Jackson was head of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association. He has resigned, saying that he *believes [oil] companies promoted "unsustainable" [blue hydrogen] projects to access billions in taxpayer subsidies.*
The article supports my impression that the Tories' hydrogen project is basically a plan to help fossil fuel companies greenwash. It presents hydrogen as a way of reducing greenhouse emissions, focusing on the "green" hydrogen made from renewable energy, then invests in "blue" hydrogen made by burning fossil fuels.
A robot nursing aide and companion might be very useful, if only it weren't reporting on you for some company — and, in China, certainly for the state as well.
While Deadly DeSantis discourages masks and vaccination, he promotes an antibody treatment that does reduce the chance of catching Covid-19 for a few days.
The big drawback of that approach is that you'd need to know when you've been exposed to Covid-19, and ask for the treatment. In Florida, you will have lots of opportunities to get exposed, so you'd need to request it often. More likely, you would ask for it only occasionally, leaving yourself unprotected most of the time.
The antibody treatment is currently gratis, but I'm sure the company will start charging some day.
I wonder if DeSantis makes money somehow from that treatment.
Laissez-faire laissez-mourir economists claim that wages in a "free" market are controlled by productivity, and that they will naturally rise when workers' productivity rises. But it does not happen.
This article explains some of the changes which have pushed the income of most workers down over recent decades.
On the danger of Facebook's censorship.
(satire) *Biden Responds To [Haiti's] Aid Request By Deporting Haitian Doctor [to Haiti].*
Proposed carbon capture systems have fundamental flaws — even if they work, in a narrow sense, they can't enable us to curb global heating very much.
The Tories want to redefine teacher education so as to train trainers. Cambridge University says it would sooner cease involvement than go along with that.
US citizens: call on the Jan 6th Select Committee to subpoena the wrecker and insurrection-supporting Republicans.
Everyone: call on T-Mobile and other companies to stop advertising on Fox.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster.
*Iran accelerates enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, IAEA says.*
It will be a setback for world peace and safety if we cannot resurrect the non-nuclear deal that the wrecker destroyed. However, I criticize Biden for not offering enough concessions to bring it back when he had a chance. Since breaking the deal was the US's fault, it was proper for the US to apologize for that and act accordingly.
Some similarities between the Vietnam war and the Afghanistan war: US officers had no idea what winning would mean, or how to achieve that, and they systematically generated lies to give to their superiors an impression of constantly making progress. The book, The Afghanistan Papers, presents the details.
* While many [in Pakistan] are celebrating, others fear Taliban victory will embolden Islamic militant organizations operating in Pakistan.*
Islamists, right-wing trumpets, now incels … it looks like society has become prone to camps of violent extremism of hatred against whatever target it may be.
The Taliban carefully planned a strategy to win the war.
*American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one.*
It is a mistake to use "percentage increase" to describe a large change. Instead of saying that average CEO pay increased 1,322 percent since 1978, the clear thing to say is that it has grown by a factor of 14. (To say 14.22 is excess, pointless precision.)
I would guess that this figure does not include everyone that is the CEO of a company, but only large companies. It would be interesting to see what that company was.
I criticize those details but I don't think they are very important. The article demonstrates its point. I support Sanders's economic program cited at the end of the article.
Garment factories in Los Angeles make workers work 60 hours a week, pay them less than the minimum wage, and often steal their wages.
Naturally they exploit unauthorized immigrants, who don't dare report the employer's crimes since they are not allowed to work. But these abusive practices harm all workers.
No surprise that many businesses lobby to keep them going.
To avoid a disorderly (sometimes chaotic) transfer of power to the Taliban would have required negotiating an orderly one. But that would have entailed admitting defeat. For the US, that was unthinkable.
*Rightwing lobbies and dark money funders backing assaults on voting rights.*
Senator Paul encourages people to spread and catch Covid-19. His wife owns stock in a company which makes a treatment that helps with severe cases. Is that a conflict of interest?
I don't claim that he has encouraged the spread of Covid-19 in order to profit from that stock. I expect that he is motivated mainly by a callous political strategy. But this does show he knows that the disease is dangerous and likely to spread.
His wife bought the stock in February 2020, showing attentiveness to investment opportunities. It also means that they concealed the purchase for about 18 months. If he reported it now for an "annual disclosure", wasn't there a similar annual disclosure in 2020?
A judge invalidated a ConocoPhillips plan for extracting oil from Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.
The company claimed that the extraction would not endanger the survival of polar bears. That was false: global heating and the consequent melting of Arctic ice endangers their survival, and any project to extract additional fossil fuel will exacerbate that.
Dunleavy's statement is based on an implicit defeatist premise: that we will fail to cut down the use of fossil fuels and suffer catastrophe, so why not compete to sell more oil now?
Alaska's coasts are being eroded rapidly by the loss of ice, and residents are losing their homes, but I guess he does not care.
*Polish appeals court overturns ruling against [Polish] Holocaust historians.*
The judged said that the "courtroom was not the right place for a historical debate." Bravo!
I know almost nothing about my ancestors, before my grandparents; but I expect that if you could identify them and their families, and watch them in a time machine, you'd see someone commit a grave wrong. I expect that is true of everyone, and it is not something to get worked up over. I wonder why Ms Leszczyńska is so concerned about it.
The US is trying to block the Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but not for the obvious reason: that it will encourage global heating. Rather, the motive is to make that gas travel through Ukraine and thus provide income to Ukraine.
I wouldn't say that goal is bad, but it misses the point. No matter how that gas gets to Europe, it will be burnt there and contribute to global heating. And some of it will leak, and since it is mainly methane, that leak will contribute even more to short-term global heating.
In addition, it will give Putin income. Putin is not as dangerous as global heating, but he is dangerous nonetheless.
Al Qa'ida is jubilant about the Taliban's victory, but PISSI and its offshoots condemn and hate the Taliban.
*Investors in US Weapon-Makers Only Clear Winners of Afghan War.*
A Taliban representative accepted an interview with a female journalist on Afghanistan television.
This doesn't conclusively demonstrate anything about what they will do in the future, but it shows an openness.
Malala Yousafzai talks about protecting Afghan women's access to education.
The government that took power through the coup that ousted President Morales is now accused of torturing and executing political opponents.
*Residents block road near Peru's Las Bambas copper mine after two-week truce.*
They blame the mine's heavy truck traffic for spreading toxic dust.
In Kansas City, mothers of men killed by uniformed thugs have formed a support group.
Cuban dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer has been sentenced to four years in prison for implausible charges.
*New Cuban decree tightens controls on social media, sparking outrage.*
*Multibillion-dollar Louisiana plastics plant put on pause in a win for activists.*
South Korea may legislate that animals are "beings" and therefore deserve "protection and enhanced welfare."
In the US, I would respond by suggesting that we give human beings a right to protection and enhanced welfare, first. But maybe South Korea has already done that. If so, that is admirable. However, this law is problematical.
The article doesn't say which kinds of "animals" the law covers. Dogs, apparently, are included. Does it cover mice? Cockoaches? Mosquitoes? Ticks?
If you see a cat about to eat a mouse, what protection is the mouse entitled to? If you find a mosquito trapped in a spider web, what protection is the mosquito entitled to? And how to prevent the spider from starving?
Abandonment of pets is a serious problem, not only for the pet, but often for ecosystems too. It is not good at all to release pets into the wild. However, the enforcement of such a law would be problematical.
*Biden Treasury Guidance Fails to End US Support for Fossil Fuels Abroad.*
Everyone: call on Facebook to stop permitting the bullshitter to post by buying ads.
Sahraa Karimi, Afghan film director, is safe in Ukraine.
I hope that the Taliban will allow women to study and work, but I am sure she is right that they will not let women make movies. They may not let men make movies, either.
Building construction releases lots of CO2. We need to build to last, not to replace.
Women's rights under the Taliban may be decided by a very conservative group, the council of Islamic scholars.
It won't be easy to convince them, but at least they are used to considering ideas. Convincing old warlords could be harder.
Taliban patrolling Kabul have told at least one woman, at home, to resume going to work. Another went to the office and was told to go home.
Panjshir province of Afghanistan, inhabited mainly by Tajiks, has not surrendered to the Taliban.
The conflict could lead to continued localized fighting, or to some sort of compromise than might involve a less strict government.
Xi said he will "adjust excessive incomes" of rich Chinese.
A good, strong democracy will be able to do this, and respect civil liberties too. A plutocracy, by contrast, can't be counted on to do either one.
*Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to bypass ban.*
Ordinarily I resent the idea of a dress code; I have resisted them all my life. However, on this special occasion it is being used for something good.
A proposal for how the UN Security Council might lead Afghanistan to peace and stability.
* The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage [the protests]. The orders came from the highest officials: Attorney General Barr, and the bully.
Thugs bent over backwards to tolerate right-wing anti-mask protests, and this made a visible contrast with how they treated Black Lives Matter.
*What lessons should the West learn from the defeat in Afghanistan?*
The first article is right about what happened in Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Its overall point is valid.
However, it is utterly mistaken in one small point: classing the Korean war with those others. That was a conventional war, most of the time with a front; the South Korean army fought hard. The US forces arrived barely in time to prevent North Korea's tanks from completely conquering the south, and ultimately achieved a partial victory by restoring (more or less) the pre-war frontier. The result today is that 51 million Koreans do not suffer under the repression of the Kim dynasty.
The US intervention in Libya was much smaller and not comparable to those wars.
Shadi Hamid's article makes the mistake of supposing that the Afghan government forces were fighting for something that they were committed to. I don't know what efforts Biden tried to make for the Afghan government to continue the war, but it is clear now that no such plan could have made any difference.
*Formaldehyde Causes Leukemia, According to EPA Assessment Suppressed by [the poisoner].*
*France, Germany, UK very worried about Iran's uranium enrichment.*
A federal appeals court upheld Texas's law banning the dilation and evacuation method of abortion. The supposed reason is based on confusion, but this happens to be the usual method for a second trimester abortion. Note: in the US, second trimester abortions are permitted only deal with some medical problem or danger.
Two Hong Kongers have been convicted of calling for other countries to put sanctions on Hong Kong.
*Consumerism, Inequality, and the Climate Crisis.*
"Is it possible to build a society where people have enough to live well and also feel that they have enough?" The article argues yes, in a society with less inequality.
(satire) *Desperate California Home buyers Locked In Bidding War Over Charred Remains Of Ranch House.*
Individual big oil companies have now been rated for methane emissions.
*The U.S. architects of the ruinous war [in Afghanistan] are getting the last word on its "lessons,"* in the mainstream media.
Governor Abbott is getting the best of medical care for his Covid-19 infection, but he won't let school students be protected.
*Progressive Caucus Urges US Diplomacy With Taliban.*
According to modeling, by the end of this century the North China Plain will suffer fatal weather, before even the Persian Gulf and India.
The UK government plans a massive shift to using hydrogen as a fuel in vehicles. The crucial issue is how to produce that hydrogen.
The inconvenience of making hydrogen by electrolysis is that it takes a big investment. We can be sure that the Tories will try to use "blue" hydrogen as much as possible, as an excuse to include fossil fuel despite pledges to decarbonize.
My opinion is, if survival of civilization requires this investment, we must do it.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan is causing irrational blowback in South Korea.
The argument being made is, "If the US will give up on propping up a government against a guerrilla after 20 years, maybe it will refuse to support a bona-fide ally against an external invasion." It seems wildly irrational to me, but the fact it is being made is one aspect of damage caused by the occupation of Afghanistan.
I have no opinion on the specific policy question being discussed.
Right-wing ministers are risking spreading Covid-19 in the UK Parliament by not wearing masks.
Black Lives Matter protesters who engaged in vandalism are being charged with a federal felony, "domestic violent extremism".
*Pope Francis urges everyone to get COVID-19 vaccines for the good of all.*
I agree with him on most issues, the exception being those that relate in some way to sex or children.
* Taliban promises of “safe passage” to the Kabul airport for Afghans trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through checkpoints set up by the militants.*
If the Taliban leaders sincerely mean those promises, they need to exert control quickly over their followers.
The US border thugs hold migrants outdoors underneath the Anzalduas International Bridge. They have to sleep on hard ground, subject to whatever temperature there is, and have no communication or medical attention.
(satire) *Critics Warn Withdrawal From Afghanistan Paints Entirely Accurate Picture Of U.S. Government.*
Ralph Nader: *"Nobody Is Above the Law" — Except the Biggest Corporate and Government Criminals.* They expect impunity and they generally get it, even when they kill hundreds, or thousands.
Nader presents examples such as Dubya, DeSantis, Abbott and Boeing.
Governor Abbott of Texas has got Covid-19. Since he is vaccinated, he probably won't have grave symptoms. Too bad, because his death could save the lives of many other Texans who will catch Covid-19 due to Abbott's pro-spreading policies.
If Abbott dies from Covid-19 (though that is not likely for someone vaccinated), will the death cult adulate him as a martyr, someone to imitate? Or will it scorn him for being vaccinated?
If he recovers, will his example be touted as proof that "Covid-19 is not dangerous," or presented to show that vaccination reduces the danger?
*The Taliban Have Seized U.S. Military Biometrics Devices.* They can be used to check people against the biometric ID cards that the US handed out. Perhaps the Taliban will be able to use this system to identify Afghans that worked for the NATO military.
*Taliban Spokesman Accuses Facebook of Stifling Free Speech by Banning Group.*
This is hypocritical, since the Taliban censor other religions, and Atheism.
Rep. Jayapal denounced the idea that right-wing Democrats are "moderate".
*One month after Cuba protests, hundreds remain behind bars.*
*US officials still cannot find the parents of 337 children separated at the Mexico-border by the [bully's] administration.*
The UK has eliminated many dimensions of freedom in recent years. Rather than aiming to reverse these changes, defenders of liberty should aim for more.
The reason why the Taliban took over Afghanistan so fast is that the government forces and Taliban forces in each area had negotiated deals in advance. They had been negotiating for someday surrender for a year or so.
Something similar happened when the US conquered Afghanistan in 2002: local warlords switched sides. This was well reported at the time; had US generals and leaders forgotten this?
It is interesting that the Communist government held out much longer without external support than the US-supported government did. I know of several factors that could have contributed to this. For instance, the Taliban are more united than the mujahideen were in 1992. But I wonder if one factor is that the Communists were fighting for something they believed in. The Afghan army was fighting only for graft, and that graft was about to disappear.
Protected marine reserves benefit everyone, even fishermen, but the benefits for them do not come immediately.
Poor people and descendants of disprivileged groups are much more likely to die if they get Covid-19, but not for directly biological reasons. It is because social factors cause them to be less healthy and get worse medical care.
So many wildfires, so hard to put out, are causing firefighters to burn out.
* By 2050, nearly 60% of [US] outdoor workers could experience at least one week [in each year] when extreme heat makes it too dangerous to work.*
*In the post-9/11 era, our greatest threat isn't jihadist terrorism any more.*
The major threat to US national security in the short term is the Republican attack on democracy and truth.
In a medium term, China is one major threat. Others are plutocracy and repression in the US, including mass surveillance.
In a longer term, the main threat is global heating.
Biden: *I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there.*
I agree. The various things that may change for the worse are not as bad as continuing the war that would have been.
Gorbachev: *They (NATO and the United States) should have admitted failure earlier. The important thing now is to draw the lessons from what happened and make sure that similar mistakes are not repeated.*
*More than 40,000 war-wounded treated in Afghanistan since June* — Red Cross.
Exxon is building a massive offshore oil extraction project which could poison the local ecosystems, and the company is not properly planning to deal with disastrous leaks. Even worse, the resulting increase in available oil will make it harder to save civilization.
By contrast, an energy company is cancelling plans for natural gas exploration in Australia, because there is no room in the carbon budget to extract and burn the gas that may be found there.
*Let's heed the UN's dire warning and stop the east African oil pipeline now.*
Poland yielded to the EU on an issue of judicial independence.
Shi'ites of the Hazara ethnicity may face persecution in Afghanistan.
There was no way to avoid injustices like this in Afghanistan. Propping up continued war was not a way — it caused other gross injustices.
I wonder if there is a way to convince the Taliban through diplomacy to respect the rights of Shi'ites, Hindus, and other religious minorities.
For the Republican Millionaires Caucus, nothing is more important than keeping millionaires' taxes down.
*Twitter reinstates accounts of India's Rahul Gandhi, other opposition leaders.*
5 years after release from Guantanamo prison, student researcher Mansoor Adafyi who was treated by the US as a terrorist, is treated now by Serbia like an unwelcome immigrant being pressured to leave, except that Serbia won't let him leave.
Serbia does not allow him to work, and does not give him medical care. I suspect that Serbia does this as part of a commitment to the US.
* Census data shows that Americans are shifting from safer areas of the US to the regions most at risk of heating and flooding.*
George Washington ordered that all soldiers in the Continental Army be inoculated against smallpox.
Inoculation was the predecessor of vaccination, and it was somewhat dangerous — though not as dangerous as smallpox itself.
That same reasoning is why everyone who has no medical reason not to be vaccinated against Covid-19 has a duty to get vaccinated.
*Coronavirus has created the perfect conditions for a full-scale war on truth. Some politicians are siding with lies.*
Canada is rushing an extreme censorship law, which would in practice require automatic AI filters to block anything that seems questionable.
All the usual problems, including precluding competitors with the Big Tech companies, are present here.
Uber continues to operate at a loss, disguised by accounting maneuvers, and uses distractformation so people will not notice.
The first article says that Uber rides now often cost more than taxi rides used to cost — which means that the supposed benefit for the public is gone. Apparent advantages for riders turn out to have been a temporary loss-leader that could not continue.
Does this give us the ability to wipe out Uber and its surveillance?
It is possible to use taxis anonymously, but you need to do it the right way. You must (1) not use an app to call the taxi, (2) not identify yourself by calling with your own phone or giving your own name, and (3) pay cash.
Every time you leave the house, make sure you have enough cash for your expected purchases, plus a sufficient amount for other opportunity purchases.
*We Know What to Do on Climate. We Know How to Do It. Only Question: Will We?*
*UK can’t fight climate crisis with austerity, warns expert.*
Conjecture: Republicans adore the bully because they see him as the Antichrist. They are proud of being a death cult.
Juan Cole describes how US troops occupying Afghanistan turned the people against them and built support for the Taliban. He also asserts that the whole thing was a continuing swindle, and that it had to end some day.
*Taliban surge exposes failure of U.S. efforts to build Afghan army.*
(satire) *New Ford F-450 Promises To Make Driver Look Ever So Tiny.*
Three ex-thugs in Philadelphia are being prosecuted for coercing an innocent man into signing a false confession for rape and murder.
Global heating effects is making penguins overheat; when it gets worse it is likely to kill them. If there are any left — because heating is reducing the krill that the penguins eat.
Modi plans to spend the next three decades converting India to different ways of using fossil fuel.
He plans to switch to natural gas, which leaks methane (which is the highest priority to stop emitting), plus hydrogen, which I expect he plans to generate from fossil fuels, perhaps using carbon capture and storage to reduce the CO2 emissions if that technology ever works.
The people of Los Angeles are fighting to prevent Olympic Games from afflicting their city.
"Olympics Kill the Poor", yes, but they oppress lots of people they don't kill.
The Taliban have captured Kabul and announced victory. The fighting seems to have ended.
The statement that they won't allow Afghanistan to be used to attack other countries suggests that it will not let al-Qa'ida conduct attacks from there. I hope that the US and Afghanistan can make peace. More information.
I expected the Afghan government to fall, when left to itself, but not this fast. The rapidity of the conquest may mean that many Afghans who worked for the government or the NATO armies are trapped there. Foreigners, too. However, the Taliban seem to have said they will let foreigners leave, and accept the service of the men that worked for the old government, and even for foreign armies.
They say they will allow women to study and work. Maybe they are starting to value the prosperity of the nation as a goal, and appreciate that this depends on the contribution of women. That would be repressive by our standards, but less so that the Taliban of the 1990s.
I expect that these official Taliban statements are sincerely meant by the leaders, but they will have to work hard to make Taliban soldiers obey them. (We see the same thing in the US Army.)
The news that the US has kept its embassy open is a good sign. Vietnam and the US are allied now against the empire that Vietnamese have fought for 2,000 years. (This does not make Vietnam a free country, not the slightest little bit.) It won't surprise me if someday I see the Taliban and the US allied against that same empire.
As Germany's economy recovers, it is headed for more fossil fuels, not conservation.
Many animal species, including vertebrates and invertebrates, depend on cultural knowledge to survive in the wild. Preventing species's extinction sometimes requires helping the species recover lost cultural knowledge.
Impecunious parents in the UAE can't get a birth certificate for their baby until they pay the hospital bill, which is impossible. (They lost their jobs.) This renders the baby effectively stateless.
Speculation about how the Taliban will treat al-Qa'ida after taking control of Afghanistan.
Mexico is deporting migrants to Guatemala without asylum hearings, under pressure from the US.
*The Arctic remains a place we barely understand. "We are starting to understand it better, but by the time we do it will be gone."*
I wonder, would it be possible to make portable solar-powered freezer units to generate and maintain floating ice pads for walruses?
US citizens: call on Congress to cut the new Navy nuke from the Pentagon budget.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Zuckerberg to allow the NYU Ad Observer team to study Facebook once again.
Meanwhile, as always, don't be a zucker — don't be a used of Facebook.
US citizens: call on Biden to fire DeJoy now.
*WHO seeks to take political heat out of [SARS-COV-2] virus origins debate.*
I am in favor of this. To determine the origin of the virus will be useful for science, and may teach us some important precautions for future research, but it surely won't inculpate any government of anything worse than a mistake.
* Analysts and experts are warning of many years of instability across Africa, possibly leading to wars and political upheavals, as the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic deepens across the continent.*
Other likely causes of instability in Africa include climate breakdown, Islamist guerrilla movements, and in some places population growth. They all work together.
Giving booster vaccinations to millions of people in wealthy countries will slow the vaccination of the rest of the world.
The main cause of this problem is that each kind of vaccine is a monopoly and that the manufacture of the best vaccines is being artificially held back. It is surely no coincidence that the vaccine companies are taking advantage or raise prices because charging more is the whole point.
Using more doses for people vaccinated people, aside from special cases, would exacerbate this effect.
The one factor that might override this is if a third dose will make it almost impossible for a vaccinated person to contract Covid-19. If so, the third dose might be necessary for a country to become Covid-free and thus protect its unvaccinatable population.
I do not use the word "jab" to refer to an injection. To me, "jab" means a kind of attack.
The misogyny of Afghanistan is horrible; the Taliban make it even worse.
It might have been possible to defeat the Taliban by supporting a radical secularist movement and army like Rojava. But there was no way to do that after putting Afghanistan in the hands of the not-quite-so-radical anti-Taliban rulers.
*The problem isn't "inflation." It’s that most Americans aren’t paid enough.*
This reflects the political power of the rich, who use their influence to set up systems to concentrate wealth. Concentrating wealth works by directing more of the total income to rich people and companies (whose shares are mainly owned by rich people), and that means less of the total income to the non-rich.
Some chemicals in sunscreen kill coral (and various other animals found in reefs) even in minuscule amounts such as 60 parts per trillion. However, if we want to save coral reefs, the main thing we must do is curb global heating, and specifically the emission of CO2, which makes the ocean more acid and will eventually kill all coral.
*Fears over lax US standards prompts bill on chemical safety of beauty products.*
Here's some information on political obstacles to humanitarian aid in and near Tigray.
Turkey planned for zero forest fires this year, and failed to carry out the insufficient preparations and purchases it had budgeted for.
Powerful rifles that can fire very fast, and penetrate bulletproof vests, are sold to civilians in the US. Smuggled into Mexico, they enable drug gangs to outshoot most cops.
US guns, including powerful rifles that can fire very fast and penetrate bulletproof vests, are sold to civilians in the US. Smuggled into Mexico, they enable drug gangs to outshoot most cops. Mexico is suing the manufacturers.
It probably can't win such a lawsuit, but it would be good for the US as well to prohibit their sale to anyone but the military and SWAT teams. And even the latter should be carefully limited.
The CDC has stopped collecting information about Covid-19 infections in vaccinated people. This means we can't measure that danger any more.
UK libel law makes it too easy to intimidate journalists around the world into silence. Even a case that can't win is too expensive for any defendant to oppose.
Hungary has legislated indirect censorship of books that deal with homosexuality or transgenderism, because they could be judged to "promote" them, and then many book stores will be forbidden to sell them.
Mexicans anachronistically and misguidedly judge as "traitors" the soldiers of Tlaxcala, who joined with the Spaniards to overthrow the hated Aztec empire.
The Mexica rulers periodically ordered Tlaxcala to send some of its finest young men to fight a rigged ceremonial battle against young Mexica. The Mexica men had real weapons, the Tlaxcalans imitation weapons. After the latter almost inevitably lost, the Mexica killed them by cutting out their hearts. The lords of Tlaxcala were forced to sit and watch the whole proceedings.
After the Spaniards conquered, they enslaved most of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and worked them harshly; they intentionally killed some people, and unintentionally killed a great many.
Which empire was worse? I can't judge. But Mexicans today have no reason to feel a loyalty to the Mexica empire of 1520.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's opposition Congress Party, accused Modi of making Twitter lock his account.
Protecting crime victims' privacy is proper when that's what they want; however, blocking them from communicating to the public in the name of their privacy is absurd.
The Labour Party is expelling its left wing, including many supporters of Corbyn. Some are being purged for not supporting the purges.
Apparently it aims to become a timid party that fusses about small disagreements.
Russia's repression of the press more and more resembles the Soviet Union's.
*The Most High-Profile Al Qaeda Plot Foiled After 9/11 Was an FBI Scam.* And so were many others — I've covered a number of them here.
Whenever the FBI claims to have caught terrorists plotters, I think of this pattern and I wonder whether the supposed terrorists were really going to do anything.
Daniel L Davis, formerly a US Lieutenant Colonel who served in Afghanistan, writes that it was clear 10 years ago that the Afghan government forces had no chance of defeating the Taliban, and the US military and government persistently covered this up.
(satire) *Real Estate Developers Decide Colorful Bench Enough To Deem Area "Arts District."*
*The Tennessee Department of "Safety and Homeland Security" kept secret files on civil rights protesters, as if they were some sort of threat to society.*
Unfairness in access to medical care in the US was so great, before the pandemic, that "going back to normal" is not a good goal.
Koch and his right-wing supporters are operating a long-term plan to eliminate public schools and replace it with "whatever education you can afford."
Americans use to believe that a well-educated citizenry was crucial for good government, and establishing good public schools was fundamental to that.
*Once it is built into phones, Macs and even watches, Apple's new system could scan for whatever else — or whoever else — a government demands..*
We can see Biden's priorities by his decision to ask OPEC to pump more oil, to stimulate "economic recovery", rather than to use the high gasoline prices to stimulate reduced use of fossil fuels.
Boston area: come to the rally for Julian Assange August 16 from 4:30pm to 6pm in Boston Common, next to the entrance of Park St Station.
The enormous "Bootleg" fire did little harm to one area of forest that has been managed by prescribed burns.
Afghan women are fleeing in terror of the Taliban's violence, which includes rape and worse. But they have nowhere to go.
You don't hurt the Taliban by jumping off a roof. If instead you run out and shoot them until they kill you, you might do them damage, and you'll have a faster death. Taliban might be dissuaded from forcing women into "marriage" if the women stabbed them in the night.
If the Afghans who don't want Taliban rule had been motivated to die fighting, they could have won the war. The sad fact is that they were not generally so motivated.
*"This Was Avoidable," Climate Activists Say About Apocalyptic UN Climate Report.*
Scientists call on Biden to expand US capacity to make RNA vaccines to 8 billion doses per year.
That's enough to vaccinate half the world each year. Of course, other countries should make vaccine factories too.
Many big wildfires are started by arsonists, but that's nothing new. The reason fires get so big nowadays is global heating.
Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change said that Canada needs to build the Trans Mountain Pipeline in order to get revenue to end the use of fossil fuels.
* Just £145m of UK budget went on environment, with £40bn spent on emissions-increasing measures*.
(satire) *"Rise Up, Patriots!" Rand Paul Calls To Intubated Patients Lying Unconscious In Hospital ICU.*
(satire) *Cuomo Scandal A Somber Reminder That Leaders Bad At Job Can Have Dark Side Too.*
*Groups to Congress: Include $34 Billion for Global Vaccine Production in $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan.*
Lessons from World War II for the war against greenhouse gases.
Despite Tigray's military victories, the people there still lack food.
I am curious about the cause. Are foreign powers choosing not to aid Tigray? Are Ethiopia and Eritrea blocking transport of food aid?
(satire) *Latest Climate Change Report Just Heartfelt Farewell Letter Telling Humanity To Remember The Good Times.*
Brazil's Congress has passed a law to suspend vaccine patents and require cooperation with local manufacture. I am not confident that Brazil could make US and European vaccine monopolists comply, but if there is a chance, bravo for trying.
The UK government says it will eliminate many civil service positions.
Supposedly this is to reduce the number of workers, but I think that they can't do it. The jobs need to be done.
I predict that the state will replace these well-paid positions with subcontracted workers. That will make the work get done worse, but cost less.
Taliban leaders say that their soldiers respect civilians and do no violence to them.
The US government denies and covers up harm done to civilians, so it is not impossible that the Taliban leadership does likewise.
However, it is likely that there is a disconnect between the official policy of the Taliban and what Taliban soldiers actually do. This tends to happen in all armies. To order soldiers not to kill, rape or rob civilians is easy; actually stopping them is difficult.
The incoming governor of New York says she will eliminate the "toxic culture" that Governor Cuomo created, and used to pressure women for sex.
That is the right thing to about the point. However, I wonder where Governor Hochul stands on issues of plutocracy and confronting business power.
Various large banks plan to buy coal power plants in Asia and shut them down — in 15 years!
15 years is too late. The purchase could easily backfire, as these new owners would have an interest in operating the plants as long as they are profitable.
Chemical manufacturers have undermined the integrity of the EPA. They can apply so much pressure to approve a chemical that the agency does not dare disobey or even hesitate.
We must make sure that the EPA can do its job. As a first step, the EPA should eliminate all promises of confidentiality to manufacturers. Such commitments give the companies too much power. Instead, the EPA must always reserve the right to show the public all that it knows about a chemical's effects.
The only kind of confidentiality that it has a duty to respect is about the individual subjects in a medical experiment.
*Colombian top general Mario Montoya faces murder charges in "false positives" scandal.*
When California legislated to treat gig workers as employees, the gig-work companies spent enormous sums to mislead the public into override that decision. Now they are preparing to do it again in Massachusetts.
These companies mistreat passengers as well as drivers. The food delivery companies mistreat restaurants, too.
It would be great if making them pay decent money made those companies disappear, but I don't expect that to happen. I think they are exaggerating for effect.
Particulate pollution from giant wildfires seems to be promoting Covid-19 infections, and making the symptoms worse so that more patients die.
July was the hottest month since record keeping became sufficient to measure.
Alberta's right-wing government dropped the plan to eliminate the main Covid-control measures, as Covid is surging there.
*California considers human composting as a greener [corpse disposal] option.*
One concern is to make sure that germs remaining the corpse don't get a chance to infect anyone later.
*Is Biden serious about climate? His 2,000 drilling and fracking permits suggest not.*
*Biden-backed "blue" hydrogen may pollute more than coal, study finds.*
"Blue" hydrogen means it is made from fossil fuels, and produces greenhouse gases. The subsidy for this is a subsidy to the planet-roasters.
The Tories pushing that same climate evasion scheme. Fake climate defense seems to be the latest fallback of the planet roasters, succeeding climate delay.
Acheleke Fuanya says that deportation thugs knelt on his neck and suffocated him to try to force him to accept his own deportation.
He also accuses them of giving him Covid-19, by refusing to wear masks.
The CDC assumes that Covid-19 infections in vaccinated people, if they don't need hospitalization, are mild. But we don't know whether they cause "long Covid" disabilities. To find out, we need to keep track of them.
Monitoring people's sweat chemically could be a tool for repression.
*Philippine court dismisses libel case against journalist Maria Ressa.*
This case was started for purposes of repression.
Pakistan dropped blasphemy charges against the eight-year-old Hindu boy.
Pissing in a library is wrong, but threats of death or prison are not the way to teach a child decorum.
Amnesty International accuses the Ethiopian army of enslaving, torturing, raping and mutilating Tigray women.
*Once you understand the terrible cost of doing nothing, climate action is a bargain.*
What doing nothing could cost us — or not doing enough — may include technology and civilization. It may include your life and the lives of everyone you know. There is nothing you can count on not to be included in that cost, nothing you can assume will survive.
If there is anything you value, its survival depends on climate defense.
In a world of climate breakdown, there is no such thing as "getting back to normal." It may look that way, but it won't last.
The plastisphere is a new basis for ecosystems in the ocean.
I wonder if we will someday need to make plastic substrates to put in the ocean to preserve these ecosystems.
*EU lowers limits for toxic metals in baby food, vegetables.*
Ideally there would be no lead at all in any food, but that would be prohibitively difficult. The question is where to put the best tradeoff between that goal and other goals, such as feasibility of making food.
A neighborhood group in London writes about defeating a plan to gentrify their neighborhood with public funds.
*Climate delayers are to blame for Britain’s lack of urgency in creating a green plan.*
Fanatical anti-vaxxers in France have vandalized vaccination centers, and in a few cases actually sabotaged them.
(satire) *"I'll Wait Until It Passes The CDC, DCC, CCD, FAD, AFD, FDA, BIA, AIB, BFI, FIB, FBI," Announces Vaccine Skeptic.*
Republican fanatics are trying to forcibly expose children to Covid-19 in school.
*The Eviction Crisis Is a Rental Assistance Crisis.* The US offers to pay poor people's back rent, but the system to get the benefit does not function.
*Democrats Pressure US Justice Department to Stop Seeking Death Penalty.*
Finally, I'm not alone in saying I am "pro-abortion." Young Americans are now organizing for this cause.
Certain businesses will get anyone's Instagram account banned for a small fee. Other businesses will get the account unbanned again, for a much larger fee.
Big businesses (and other organizations) in the US can choose a bankruptcy judge who will let the business get out easy.
Drivers went on strike against Doordash, which combined low pay with manipulative uncertainty about how low it would be.
I urge people to refuse to buy from any of the food-delivery gig companies.
US companies outsource customer service to companies that subcontract workers in Colombia, and force them to allow surveillance of their homes (and their family).
It should be illegal to subcontract workers, and illegal to require them to submit to video surveillance at home.
China has announced censorship of karaoke.
*Chile's record-breaking drought makes climate [mayhem] "very easy" to see.*
*FBI offer to release some Saudi files not enough, 9/11 families say.*
*On Eve of Hearing, Amnesty Again Demands US End Effort to Extradite Assange.*
Princess Latifa was photographed in Iceland with a cousin, who said that he had seen her looking happy and well.
I do wonder why she doesn't present unquestionable proof — for instance, by dropping in at a TV station, showing her passport, and giving a brief interview.
Sanders published the draft plan for the budget resolution, which will aid the poor in many ways.
However, I see nothing significant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since climate defense was omitted from the infrastructure bill too, this is disaster. We need to act boldly and urgently, and the budget resolution is one of the few opportunities to stop Republicans from filibustering it.
Less than half of Britons 16 and older are part of an official couple. One of the few exceptions is in Clitheroe.
It seems that only clit heroes can stay married, nowadays.
*Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible.*
*Only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade can prevent such climate breakdown, with every fraction of a degree of further heating likely to compound the accelerating effects.*
The IPCC presents seven possible scenarios for future development of the Earth's climate.
It also says that cutting methane emissions must be the immediate priority.
That means emissions from cows, and from the extraction and transmission of natural gas.
Pakistan has charged an eight-year-old boy with blasphemy. He may be executed for this.
It is evil to punish anyone for blasphemy. However, regardless of the crime, it never makes sense to punish children as criminals. They have not had the chance to develop the sort of responsibility which laws could operate through.
The repression in Belarus has hit massive numbers of people.
*Harder borders are a legacy of Covid we should reject.*
It is rational to restrict travel into your country if it has a low level of Covid-19. If it has a high level, such restrictions are pointless annoyance. Thus, I am amused by the US's prohibition on visits by Europeans. With millions of Americans you can catch Covid-19 from, what difference would a few Europeans make?
The UN report shows the climate crisis in which no one is safe for long.
Google, Facebook, and General Motors helped fund the Republican State Leadership Committee, which supports voter suppression.
Those companies say they are against voter suppression, but apparently not against it enough to stop donating.
The UK "police bill" will impose so many restrictions on protests that protesting in a way that people will notice will be effectively illegal.
The damage caused by the fires near Athens was exacerbated by funding cuts to the fire departments.
These funding cuts were imposed by the Euro-banksters as a consequence of the Euro-zone rules that stopped Greece from doing the necessary deficit spending in 2010 and following years.
With 4C of global heating, what used to be extreme once-in-50-years heat waves will happen in most years.
Greece promises to replant the forests that have burned, but that seems futile. Whatever trees might grow in drought will burn up again.
Compensation for the destroyed property will be good provided that people are not allowed to use it to rebuild in areas vulnerable to fire. Such areas should be designated as uninsurable.
*Protesters block roads across Guatemala, urging president to step down.*
Secretary-General Guterres: *"The alarm bells are deafening," he said in a statement. "This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet."*
*I covered Hong Kong for decades. Now I am forced to flee China’s "white terror."*
US citizens: call on Congress to Pass the Green New Deal for Public Schools.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to confirm Myrna Pérez for the US second circuit court of appeals.
*In Burma, more than 190 health workers have been arrested and 86 raids on hospitals carried out since the coup — Physicians for Human Rights and others.*
*India's chief justice has said the most dangerous places in the country for threats to human rights are police stations.*
This is true in many countries. I admire an official who is willing to admit it. Bravo!
Now the task ahead is to change that situation.
The government of Ethiopia is calling on people to join the army and militias to fight Tigray.
To recruit soldiers without training them is an act of desperation. This suggests that the Ethiopian army has collapsed. That the Tigrayan forces have captured places outside Tigray itself supports the idea. But it is very surprising, a priori. What in the world is happening there?
Governor Abbott of Texas begged for aid so Texas can cope with all the people hospitalized with Covid-19.
Abbott is famous for fighting against all the measures that could have avoided so much spread of Covid-19. The aid Texas needs is to undo Abbott's harm. Thus, other states should offer Texas masks and vaccination teams, plus a Democrat who could take over as governor of Texas.
*Six [European] countries urge EU not to halt deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers.*
*Heat, drought and fire: how climate dangers combine for a catastrophic "perfect storm."*
Allowing wildlife to grow between grapevines or olive trees turns out to benefit production and the soil.
Australian protesters are going all-out to pressure the government to cooperate with climate defense.
(satire) *Woman Puts Off Going To Doctor Until Disease Bad Enough For Him To Believe Her.*
The private boarding schools where the British elite educate their sons are designed to teach them contempt for their own pain and loss, and therefore contempt for anyone else's pain and loss.
They also learn never to show they care about anything or anyone. The writer argues that this is why the ruling class educated there is so bad at ruling.
*Animal and Climate Justice Coalition Calls for Carbon Pricing on Meat, Dairy Products.*
I support this. I don't intend to cease eating meat or dairy, but when I do so, I should pay the real cost, and so should everyone else. This will help encourage everyone to cut down.
We must establish the right for poor people to have legal representation in civil cases.
The UK used to have a system called "legal aid" which did this, but the Tories cut it, and cut it again, and I don't think there is much left of it now.
*Young people in West Virginia look to push Sen. Joe Manchin in hopes of passing federal voting rights legislation.*
Thank you, the country needs this.
*Top Scientists to Biden and Congress: 'Go Big on Climate… Do So Now'.*
*IPCC to Say Drastic Methane Cuts Necessary to Avert Climate Hell.*
7.5 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits on Labor Day.
Many low-paid US workers can't afford to miss work even one day to get vaccinated.
How about offering them three days' pay for each injection? That will cover one day to get the shot, and two for side effects. If they don't have bad side effects, this will be a nice bonus.
Meanwhile, I think that the proposed vaccine mandates for federal workers, military personnel, medical personnel and the work force of some businesses will help. They are a small fraction of the population, but in the delusional states they will help break through the anti-vax pressure.
If you have recovered from Covid-19, get vaccinated. Vaccination makes it less likely you will get infected again. It also reduces the likely severity of a subsequent reinfection.
Biden must choose a climate defender as commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
*How in the world is Louis DeJoy still the postmaster general?*
*In Burma, more than 190 health workers have been arrested and 86 raids on hospitals carried out since the coup — Physicians for Human Rights and others.*
US citizens: call on Congress to ban employers from requiring overtime work.
The Yale researchers who reported how frequent surprise enormous medical bills are in emergency rooms got support from a big insurance company, United Health Care, and this support came with strings that were morally unacceptable. For instance, excluding the insurance companies a priori from criticism.
Ironically, Lithuania is building a wall on its border with Belarus because Lukashenko is bringing migrants from the Middle East to direct them into Lithuania, as well as into Poland and Latvia.
Belarus is now an ally of Russia. The way to put real pressure on Russia is to stop buying its fossil fuels. As it happens, this fits perfectly with what Europe needs to do anyway — use less fossil fuel. Germany needs to bite the bullet and cut its fuel imports from Russia, temporarily buy them from somewhere else, and tax fossil fuels enough to make the total usage decline quickly.
European countries could also cut off ground and air traffic between the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and the main bulk of Russia. That is a somewhat aggressive move, though nowhere near as aggressive as seizing the Crimea or stirring up rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
*Greta Thunberg: ethical fast fashion is "pure greenwashing."*
It's obvious: the way to avoid wasteful clothing consumption is to buy clothing a lot less often, and make each garment last. That's what I've always done.
*Mexican cartel threatens to kill TV news anchor over "unfair" coverage.*
The Pentagon will require everyone in the US military to get Covid-19 vaccination. The military already requires other vaccinations.
This policy should have been adopted months ago. Last year there was a Covid-19 outbreak on a navy ship which would surely have diminished its combat capability. This alone is enough reason to require vaccination, even without the point that it will advance the US towards herd immunity, which means that Covid-19 outbreaks will die away on their own.
Detailing some of the accusations against Governor Cuomo of New York.
Because these descriptions are detailed and clear, they give us a basis for judging his actions. I think he was trying to pressure and bully women into having sex with him, and that is very bad.
Previously I had seen statements formulated in terms of "appropriate". Those are statements of opinion, not fact. We should judge people's actions (or possible actions) based on the actions, not indirectly based on other people's opinions of actions not concretely described. Lacking the basis to judge, I decided not to judge them — not then.
The news today is that Cuomo has resigned.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Better Care Better Jobs Act.
For people that start, as children, in harsh circumstances, punishing them for using drugs is often one additional stage in a series of cruelties. Plutocratist rule has no interest in helping the non-rich at any stage.
The UK's system for auditing large companies is untrustworthy; this has been known for years. But there is no effort to fix it. The Tories find no difficulty making life painful for the poor and weak (though they will pretend it isn't happening), but they haven't got the stomach to give the rich and powerful any bad-tasting medicine.
* Widespread devastation and extreme weather is likely to become inevitable within the next two decades thanks to human behaviour causing rising temperatures, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned.*
*The IPCC report is clear: nothing short of transforming society will avert catastrophe.*
Thunberg: *'Massive public pressure' needed to galvanize climate fight.*
Mendocino, California, is running short on water. Importing water has become very expensive.
They may need to invest in solar-powered desalination.
Old, damaged trees must not be destroyed — many animals need them for survival.
Anti-vax radio host Dick Farrel has died of Covid. Reportedly he repented of his folly while on his deathbed in the hospital.
Low-tech "saeklon" houses, with beams fastened with vines instead of nails, stood in Vanuatu when the cyclone tore apart modern buildings.
Africans who adopt "modern" farming that requires expensive chemicals become in effect prisoners of those needs.
An overall look at how to reduce hunger in Africa over the long term needs to factor in population growth, and reducing it.
The delays in medical treatment caused by Tory underfunding of the NHS could cause thousands to die of various treatable problems.
Rhode Island has authorized supervised places to take illegal recreational drugs. The aim is to reduce the harm that results from taking the drugs, including overdoses.
It would be additionally helpful if they could analyze the user's drugs for toxic impurities and strength. It would be even more helpful if these centers sold drugs of known potency and without impurities, to registered addicts.
Many children are now being hospitalized with severe Covid-19 infections.
Union of Concerned Scientists: why Biden's electric car policy is too weak.
The "fusion center" (surveillance hub) of Minnesota refuses to tell how thugs have been surveilling the pipeline protesters.
The thugs go beyond surveillance — they attack protesters in illegal ways.
When Bogus Johnson has no serious answer to a serious question, he insults a group of people as a way of changing the conversation.
US new cases of Covid-19 are running about 100,000 per day again, a level last seen in February.
Conor Lamb is running for the Senate in Pennsylvania and asks people to disregard his right-wing voting record in the House.
The crucial question to ask any Democrat running for the Senate is, "Will you vote to abolish the filibuster?"
*Senate Infrastructure Bill Would Invest $500 Million in “Smart City” Surveillance Technology.*
Personal data, once collected, will be misused. To speak of "privacy protection" in regard to tracking data is a lulliby for the gullible.
*9/11 families tell Biden to skip [the 9/11] memorial [event] if he does not declassify files [about the possible involvement of Salafi Arabia].*
Australians living abroad, who visit family in Australia, will not be able to return home.
As long as Australia was keeping Covid-19 out, its strict quarantine policies were justified and necessary. But if Covid-19 spreads and Australia abandons the effort to keep it out, but may as well permit travel as much as other countries do.
Several congressional leaders have called on Biden to close the Guantanamo prison.
Starting with the "easy" prisoners is natural, but if the goal is to close the Guantanamo prison rather than just reduce the number of prisoners, that requires tackling the hard problem: the 10 prisoners who have somehow been charged. It will take decades for this problem will go away on its own, and that is too long, so let's get moving on it.
Some of them can be put on trial. One approach would be for Biden to demand, of Congress, "Authorize bringing them to the US for a real trial, or I will have to let them go. You've got six months to do it."
However, there are some who can't ever be put on trial because the US beat confessions out of them using torture. Those confessions are not valid proof of anything, because they are likely to be false. Indeed, one prisoner told the lies Dubya would want to hear, and thus tricked the US into attacking the wrong enemy.
Since the US can't try them, the US will have to let them go. If the US doesn't like this outcome, well, it should have thought about this before torturing them.
Why we should get rid of corporate landlords, and an easy method.
US citizens: tell Biden to stop issuing new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters.
We need to stop them on private lands and waters, too, but the president cannot do that by executive order.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to stop the predatory capitalism of private equity.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the NLRB to overturn Amazon's rigged union-busting election.
UK courts gave especially harsh sentences to people charged with minor crimes during the 2011 riots, compared with people charged with similar crimes before and after.
It takes time to build vaccine production capacity — so countries should have pushed it in 2020. But vaccine companies have been standing in the way.
Here are practical proposals for how to sweep away the obstacles to increasing the production of the most effective Covid-19 vaccines.
I support all these recommendations, but I urge people not to use the term "open source" to describe this, because it doesn't fit. The trade secrets that need to be published are not source code. A vaccine is not software; it is not made from "source code". There is no source code involved.
"Open source software" was coined as an amoral substitute for the idea of "free software". This distortion of the idea was harmful. Applying that term to things that don't even have source code is a gratuitous further distortion, that would be harmful again.
David Lidstone wants to live out his life as a hermit in a cabin in the woods of New Hampshire, bothering nobody. He is up against the weight of the state government, which has put him in jail.
If a lot of people tried to live in those woods, it would cause unacceptable environmental damage, and it would be necessary to stop them. However, given that it is just one person, who probably won't live another two decades, there is no need to fuss.
As for the landowner, surely he can give Lidstone a lifetime lease for the area around his cabin.
(satire) *Juilliard Opens Business School For Students Who Realize Acting Thing Probably A Long Shot.*
A Senate bill would impose large fees on companies that emitted lots of greenhouse gases from 2000 to 3019.
If I take those words seriously, it would not apply to the fossil fuel companies that supplied the fuel, but rather to the companies that used lots of the fuel. I am not sure that is wise.
*More Than Two-Thirds of US Adults Support Mask Mandates as Variants Spread.*
(satire) *Study Finds Falsehoods About Delta Variant May Spread Twice As Easily As Original Covid Misinformation.*
The son of assassinated President Moise distrusts all official statements about who was responsible.
Pakistani exiles who have criticized the power and brutality of Pakistan's army face a threat of assassination.
Protecting the last few wild golden-shouldered parrots by putting a small piece of Australian land back as it used to be.
This is admirable, but I think it will require continual human effort to keep that land in its retrotransformed state. The climate crisis could put an end to that.
The combustion of so many trees near Athens in the past week's enormous wildfires will cause persistent problems: when it does rain, the water will run off and cause floods.
People tend to focus on the short term and ignore the long term. Now, "mitigation", coping with the consequences of global heating for the next decade or two, is the short term. The long term is curbing global heating. If people don't focus on that, 2050 will bring short-term consequences that there is no way to cope with.
Burma's military rulers seem to have sent assassins to kill Burma's UN ambassador, who was appointed before the coup.
The alleged assassins have been arrested.
The Taliban are capturing provincial capitals. I think this means they are close to winning the war.
Tens of millions of Americans suffered from medical problems caused by heat, last summer. It will keep getting worse.
The CDC urges everyone in school to wear masks. Florida governor Deadly DeSantis has threatened to cut funding for public school systems that require masks. Some districts are deciding to do it anyway.
Apparently they consider that protecting their students, and whoever those students come in contact with, is more important than the funds that DeSantis might deny them.
Biden calls for 40% of cars sold in 2030 to be electric. That's about 40% of what we need to aim for.
However, in order for it to be possible to charge cars without their being tracked, we need chargers that accept anonymous payment — preferably cash and GNU Taler.
The UK government said it would not deport Jamaicans brought to the UK decades ago as children, but it is about to start doing so anyway.
The deportation department seems to have no regard for commitments of any kind. It will take half an excuse, pretend that is a justification, and deport, disregarding both fairness and people's legal rights.
Minnesota thugs relish maiming protesters that oppose the Line 3 Pipeline. They fire rubber-coated metal bullets at people's heads.
The bully pushed hard to corrupt the Department of Justice into endorsing his lies about election fraud, just before the end of 2020.
Many senior officials said they would resign in protest, and this may be what convinced him to back down.
* Facebook cut off accounts of researchers examining its political ads and misinformation on the platform.*
(satire) *Cuomo Increasingly Desperate To Shift Focus Back Onto Nursing Home Deaths.*
I hope to write seriously about Andrew Cuomo tomorrow.
If the US continues fighting wars around the world, they can kill a large fraction of humanity through their greenhouse gas emissions alone.
Nina Turner was defeated by a plutocratist Democrat who was backed with endorsements from other plutocratist Democrats, plus lots of money from plutocrats, and some lies.
I hope Turner will try again in 2022.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP: *I visited the migrant [prison] in Dover. What I saw was unacceptable.*
It's not as bad as what the wrecker did in the US, but that's no standard to judge by.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra fired flutist Emily Skala, partly because she advocated right-wing politics, but also because she refused to wear a mask.
Wearing a mask is an important safety precaution, and firing people for refusing to do that is entirely justified. They should have offered her some other way to hand in her tax document, but I don't think she could have done her job without wearing a mask.
What she said is another issue. I disagree completely with her views, and I condemn her reported bigotry. However, it is harmful to society for employers to impose political limits on what employees say outside of work, unless their job is to speak for the organization. We see an increased tendency to restrict employees' political expression. This does not violate the First Amendment, but freedom of expression goes beyond the First Amendment. Restricting employees' freedom of expression makes society less free.
*Labour calls for ‘hard-edged’ end date for oil and gas exploration.*
That date should be last year, if not today.
Research on comparative genetics of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang could be used by China for repression.
*Millions more people vulnerable to flooding in next decade, study shows.*
Discrimination in employment against blacks and other minorities operates on job applications sight-unseen: employers reject them because the applicant's name sounds like a black.
This article reports on the UK situation, but I expect it is the same in the US.
I wonder if it is possible to do something about this by preventing the application from showing the applicant's race. But would that make a real difference in who gets hired, or would it only postpone application of the bias?
There is evidence of applying bias against women in a similar way.
China is finding that the Delta variant is too transmissible to eradicate with the strict lockdown measures that were successful in the past. This is the same as what Australia is experiencing.
Some of the people quoted in the article assume that this will remain the case even after nearly everyone is vaccinated; but that does not follow. Transmission between vaccinated people does occur, but the R-value will be less.
Germany will make the unvaccinated pay to get Covid tests so as to enter restaurants and other dangerous sites for transmission.
I think this is justified, provided it does not become a system of tracking the movements of vaccinated people.
Moreover, I agree with Mr Holetschek: the system must not charge for Covid tests for the people who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated. It would be absurd to punish people for doing something that they must not do.
Western news outlets call on governments to give visas to the reporters that are likely to be killed by the Taliban.
It is the least we can do.
The OSCE says that Russia won't allow it to properly observe the coming election, so it will not try.
Mexico is suing US gun manufacturers, claiming that they marketed guns to the market of people who would smuggle them into Mexico.
Giving some old people in rich countries a third, booster vaccination shot may be bad for everyone if it slows down the vaccination of everyone else. It could encourage the evolution of another strain that might resist the vaccine.
That danger exists when there are lots of vaccinated people and lots of unvaccinated people. To eliminate it, we need to vaccinate everyone as fast as we can.
That requires doing everything possible to increase production. The first step is to eliminate the patent obstacles.
Disinformation in the DR Congo is convincing many to leave themselves vulnerable to Covid-19.
US citizens: call on minor league baseball to stop exploiting players, pay them a fair wage, and allow the formation of a union.
New Zealand has developed intensive dairy farming to the point where it is a major contributor to global heating.
The government encouraged this, and that was not necessarily a bad thing as long as it caused no grave problems. But now it does cause one.
Fossil fuel companies paid Facebook around 10 million dollars in 2020 for ads to discourage adequate climate defense action.
Let's prohibit spraying chemicals in road borders and urban areas, to allow insects to come back.
Australia will pay about 300 million USD as reparations to the indigenous children that it forced to go to assimilation boarding schools.
In most Western democracies, politics has become a contest between two elites: the well-educated, and the wealthy. The major parties don't do much for the non-elites, but try to manipulate them through distractions (left-wing identity politics and right-wing scapegoating). Often they give up on politics.
I couldn't have described things as clearly or with as much basis as the article does, but I did dimly perceive the situation (as do many), and that is why I have supported Sanders and Corbyn.
One Hong Kong political defendant was acquitted of "corruption". The charge was perhaps too far-fetched for even China to swallow.
Pakistan is putting extremely strong pressure on people to get vaccinated.
I wonder why Pakistan now has such quantities of vaccine available. Apparently that was not the case before.
The mayor of Miami Beach called governor DeSantis the "Pied Piper of Covid-19, leading everybody off a cliff."
DeSantis can be described as a metaspreader: instead of spreading the disease directly from his own breath, he has pressured thousands of Floridians to do it for him.
California has made new emergency water use regulations to keep enough water flowing in the Sacramento River.
Some farms may lose their crops due to this drought. But then, farming in California has been operating on borrowed water for decades, borrowed from aquifers that could take millennia to refill. Farmers even planted water-thirsty almond trees there.
The Russian news site Open Media published the list of web sites labeled as "extremist activity", and was blocked, apparently in response to that.
Russia isn't the first country to censor journalism about state censorship policy. Sweden did this many years ago.
*‘Mega-drought’ leaves many Andes mountains without snow cover.*
As the anthropogenic drought deepens, subsistence farmers may be unable to subsist.
Biden faces the issue of what to do with Guantanamo prisoner al-Qahtani, who confessed to a terrorist plot under torture and cannot therefore have a fair trial.
In my view, this case is simple. Imprisonment without trial is an injustice. Torture is a vicious evil.
It is more important, morally, for the US to accept the guilt for its own crimes and take the moral and legal consequences, than to do punish al-Qahtani any further.
Crown Prince Bone Saw is trying to ruin or kill a former intelligence official of Salafi Arabia, perhaps because the official was a protege of the prince's rival. Biden acted to interfere with a US lawsuit that the prince ordered filed making accusations against the official.
It is noteworthy is that Biden is not giving the prince full support against his rivals. It is a form of pressure on Salafi Arabia that does not reach the point of outright hostility, and might be more effective because of that.
Boston's Mayor Janey endorsed the exaggeration that compares vaccination certificates to the manumission certificates that freed slaves in the US needed to show to prove they were not slaves.
In the US, stores check a buyer's ID before selling alcohol. Does Janey say this is the same as slavery?
The real issues I know of regarding checking vaccination certificates are
- Making sure people don't need to own or use a mobile phone to enter a place.
- Making sure not to let the state (or businesses) track people's movements and activities through this system.
- Taking care not to exclude those who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated.
*Haiti requests U.N. commission to probe president's killing.*
Rich countries pushed the other countries to pass new laws to fight money-laundering, but several governments have distorted this into a way of punishing critics and dissidents.
*US ranks last in healthcare among 11 wealthiest countries despite spending most.*
*Russian opposition activist to run for parliament from jail.*
Tigray seems to be conquering substantial parts of other regions of Ethiopia, and the opposition to this seems to be ineffective.
I am very curious about the explanation for Tigray's military success.
The Gulf stream is starting to weaken. Further global heating, which we cannot now avoid, could cause it to shut down. This would make the US east coast and the Atlantic coast of Britain, Ireland and France considerably colder.
The bipartisan "compromise" infrastructure bill proposes to have the government track all car travel.
Regardless of the purpose, tracking people's movements as the method is unjust. But the purpose stinks, too. The stated purpose is to tax cars based on the distance they travel, rather than the amount of fuel they use. Who would prefer that?
Fossil fuel companies would prefer that. I suspect this is really is meant to hamper emissions reduction.
There are other things in the bill that subsidize fossil fuels.
If you think of this as "infrastructure construction", but might appear that a smaller amount is better than none at all. But with these harmful measures, the bill can be worse than none at all.
A wildfire destroyed the historic old town of Greenville, California.
Wildfires in Turkey failed to damage a coal-burning power plant enough to prevent it from making worse wildfires in the future.
1/3 of Republican old people will consider voting for a Democrat who supports allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Israel is trying to take Palestinians' homes near Old Jerusalem, and kick them out. Some were just offered a deal — they can stay in their homes, for the time being, provided they agree to surrender title and start paying rent.
They rejected the deal, recognizing that, to first order, it is simply defeat.
Apartment rental companies donated a million dollars to a Democratic Party PAC, not long before Democrats had to unite to extend the eviction ban. Perhaps it was not a coincidence that they failed to do that.
This sort of thing is tantamount to bribery. Rep. Tlaib demands that the PAC return that money.
(satire) *Senate Loses Congress Contract To Upstart Private Legislator Firm.*
Activists call on Congress to permanently ban oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I agree, but they should not stop there. Congress should prohibit all new fossil fuel development. There is no room in the carbon budget for any additional fossil fuel development.
Call on Ted Cruz to stop blocking many State Department appointments.
*Is Biden Doing Enough to Fight Off the GOP's Relentless Assault on Democracy? I Fear Not.*
A woman tracked down her father, then had him prosecuted and convicted for raping her mother.
*Democrats Considering Major Cuts to Future Pandemic Preparedness.*
Is it so long since they experienced a pandemic that they don't remember how bad it can be?
Disney is reopening and rehiring old workers — for less pay, no benefits, and worse conditions.
This URL uses the Invidio.us proxy network to view a Youtube video without running Youtube's nonfree Javascript code. I would not have linked to the video on Youtube, but I can link to it on Invidio.us.
Invidio.us will show you a choice of proxy servers to choose from. Click on Go for your choice of proxy server to view the video there.
*Six Sudan paramilitary officers sentenced to death for killings of student protesters.*
I am glad that Sudan has been able to try and convict such criminals, but the death penalty is never justified.
Some people will take offense because you protect others from death or disability by wearing a mask.
Just because someone takes offense at something you do, that doesn't imply you shouldn't do it. Just tell them you're proud to help protect other people, as well as yourself.
A surprising fraction of violent terrorists have a history of violence against women — usually as perpetrators, but sometimes as victims or as witnesses.
Bottled water is enormously wasteful. In resource use and in environmental harm, it's a factor of thousands.
France has a law that restaurant must offer customers tap water. A law like this makes it a lot easier to shun bottled water in restaurants. Other countries should adopt it.
Nearly all Republicans in Congress are working together to boost the wrecker's backwards version of history, in which all Republican wrongs are attributed to their opponents.
The presence of female elders in a family of giraffes helps the family survive. This may have to do with why giraffes evolved menopause.
The reason this concerns grandmothers and not grandfathers is that adult male giraffes do not stay in families with their offspring. They form separate groups consisting of adult males only. The only elders that can help lead the family are female.
Elephants are similar, except that the adult males are generally solitary.
Orca pods include male and female adults, but the males may have grown up in other pods.
Bolsonaro claims there was election fraud in recent Brazilian elections and threatens to cancel the next election if Brazil does not switch to paper ballots.
Brazil should switch to paper ballots, because the current system cannot be properly audited. I have not seen any plausible claims that there has been election fraud, but there could be, and it would be well to eliminate that risk. However, I would not trust Bolsonaro to attempt to make elections honest, and his threat would imply an autogolpe.
Members of the UK Parliament continually accept gifts which are tantamount to bribes.
Members of Congress in the US are not allowed to accept, and do not accept, gifts of nonzero value. Barnie Frank did accept the zero-dollar bill I gave him, but then he voted for the DMCA anyway.
*U.S. diplomat Sherman backs moves to end 'forever war' authorizations.*
*Biden to announce new 60-day eviction ban protecting most of US population.*
Five Miami Beach thugs chased Daltona Crudup into a hotel (they claim he hit one of them), handcuffed him, then started kicking him and slamming his head into the ground. Then they grabbed a videographer and beat him up too, then charged him with some invented crime. But then some good news: the thugs face criminal charges for these attacks. The charges against videographer have been dropped.
I have a feeling that thug departments are coming to understand that they can no longer tolerate brutal behavior by their employees. That's an important step on the road to changing the brutal behavior.
We must also systematically punish thugs for making bogus accusations. As my button says, "Jail cops for frame-ups."
The UK police departments have accepted a new oversight board, which will be headed by a black lawyer who doesn't hesitate to tell them that their hostile behavior has made blacks afraid of cops.
Italy, Greece and Turkey are overcome with wildfires. I hope they learn to unite against the tempting deadly money of fossil fuels.
*Insulated From Patent Waivers, Pfizer and Moderna Hike Vaccine Prices.*
Oil companies invented the ISDS clause ("I Sue Democratic States") decades ago, and are now using them to make countries pay dearly for their climate defense actions.
If the fossil fuel companies insist on destroying civilization, the victims should not go down without a fight. To save millions of lives, war is justified.
(satire) *Congress Advises Newly Evicted Americans To Just Relocate To Second Home.*
*Lawsuit Initiated Against Trump for 'Illegal' Deportations Resumes Against Biden.*
(satire) *Researchers Discover Galaxy-Sized Goldfish Astronauts Discarded From Space Shuttle In 1988.*
Counties and cities in Colorado are suing oil companies for the expected costs of coping with global heating for just the next few decades.
103 Thai protesters face charges for insulting the king.
*Siberian heatwave led to new methane emissions, study says.*
This means it is a real positive feedback loop. As global heating proceeds, it will increase the amount of cuts we need to make to stop the heating.
Nassau County (next to NYC's borough of Queens) is passing a law to punish people who harass "first responders", which includes cops.
Just as thugs typically say, "He was running toward me and I felt threatened," after they shoot someone, they will find it easy to say, of a protester, "He was harassing me," to ruin someone. Blacks, hispanics, protesters … whoever thugs detest.
A Belarusian opposition activist living in Ukraine was found hanged in a park. One must suspect that Lukashenko's agents killed him.
The "Lord's Resistance Army" continues to act as pirates, kidnapping and enslaving teenagers. Females who escape then face cruelty from their own families, due to the condemnation of women who have been raped.
To me, that cruel reception is even nastier than what the pirate army does. I suspect that the expectation of this reception must inhibit captives from trying to escape. Perhaps the pirates' continued existence depends on it.
Bravo to Ms Nyanjura for working to change that.
New Zealand will investigate the causes of its housing shortage. The problem has been growing for many years, but the pandemic may have made it worse.
The leaders of the Belarus Olympic team were ordered to send athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya home, but they could not force her onto the plane. (It is hard to force someone onto a commercial flight departing from a foreign country.)
Now she is seeking asylum.
Hong Kong: *Anthony Wong accused of breaking law by singing at a pro-democracy rally three years ago.*
This is China's Humpty-Dumpty understanding of law: it means just what the authorities choose it to mean, no more and no less.
Climate protesters in Switzerland targeted two large banks for their continued funding of fossil fuel projects.
*Biden Isn't Withdrawing Troops From Iraq, He's Relabeling Their Mission.*
AOC reproaches the Democrats that wouldn't vote to ban evictions.
Indeed, Biden should have brought thus up earlier. But Democrats didn't have to wait helplessly for him to do that.
A cluster of 900 cases of Covid-19, most of whom were vaccinated, shows that defeating Delta requires masks as well as vaccination.
Biden's very flawed infrastructure compromise was a distraction from the crucial issue of stopping Republicans from rigging future elections. The same sort of mistake, in the 1870s, led to Jim Crow.
I agree completely. However, that assumes that fixing voting rights is not already hopeless. What approach could possibly succeed?
Pinochet justified his coup in Chile by accusing President Allende (falsely) of planning mass murder. Pinochet's party believed this, and considered his coup justified. The supporters of the bully's cult are trying to do that here. What can straighten them out?
I think putting the bully on the witness stand under oath can help correct his lies. If he lies on the stand, he could be charged with perjury. If he tells the truth, some of his followers may wake up.
Biden has done nothing to make non-medical workplaces protect workers from Covid-19.
Restorative justice can be more effective than punishment, for avoiding future harm and future crime.
US citizens: call on Congress to write the budget reconciliation bill to follow the INVEST Act — raising taxes on the rich and investing public transit.
The US could spend that money on public transit without any increase in taxes; it can handle a larger deficit. But taxing the rich more is a good thing to do, just as investing more in public transit is a good thing to do.
* We [Britons] feel besieged and imperiled, and the Johnson government is seizing the chance to weaken our most fundamental liberties.*
Various countries take different approaches to increasing Covid-19 vaccination.
I agree with this position:
*There is a strong case for making any vaccination mandatory (or compulsory) if four conditions are met: there is a grave threat to public health; the vaccine is safe and effective; mandatory vaccination has a superior cost/benefit profile compared with other alternatives [and] the level of coercion is proportionate.*
I see two moral issues about the details of the system:
- The system must not punish those who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated. They should be treated legally as if they were vaccinated, then encouraged and helped to stay away from diseases-spreding situations
- Systems to check vaccination certificates should not build a database listing everyone's movements. If the system is used for contact tracing, it should be designed so that no central organization finds out who went where except when a place and time becomes listed as a possible transmission site.
Salafi Arabia has launched campaigns of demonization (on antisocial media) against Arab democratic dissidents, and US journalists whose investigations make the regime uncomfortable.
The same sort of campaign was used against Jamal Khashoggi, so that people in Salafi Arabia would endorse the murder of Khashoggi. Perhaps these campaigns prepare for the murder of journalists and dissidents, or perhaps it is meant to intimidate and silence them.
Either way, it is a hostile act towards the US.
The president of Tunisia has used constitutional emergency powers to take drastic actions: dismissing all the ministers and canceling the immunity of members of parliament. That last is in effect a threat to prosecute them.
Opponents argue he has not properly followed the constitution.
His supporters rallied on the streets in large numbers, and so did his opponents. But then he prohibited rallies entirely.
I don't know enough to judge the right or wrong of these actions, but I think there is enough information to see who the real evildoers are: the IMF, which demands to increase the price of bread while many Tunisians fear having no food.
Perhaps there is a more efficient way to make sure that the poor have bread, rather than a general subsidy for bread. Would the IMF permit establishment of an alternative support for the poor?
The UK is keeping convicts in brainwashing conditions, basically solitary confinement.
India increased its repression in Kashmir in 2020, arbitrarily jailing the main human rights defenders in that former state, which it has converted into an occupied territory.
People have been imprisoned for criticizing any act of the Indian government. It sounds like Hong Kong.
The Burmese military rulers say they will hold elections.
Their willingness to have elections could mean an opening for returning to democracy. They should not be trusted to run the elections, but through diplomacy they might be led to agree to let some trusted neutral party do it.
In June, the UK promised not to deport UK-resident EU citizens if they had made an application for continued UK residence. Now its staff are doing just that and show no concern for either these promises or the law.
The UK government has done things like this so much that I must conclude that the deportation office simply does not care what it does wrong.
President Castillo's administration proposes small and tentative steps to tax some foreign mining companies more.
Afghan witnesses testified that they saw an Australian soldier murder a farm worker they knew. But the soldier is not on trial — rather, he is suing newspapers that accused him. The witnesses are needed simply to defend the right not to accept his version of what happened.
If the witnesses are right, he ought to be on trial. Furthermore, it should not matter whether the victim was a farm laborer or Taliban fighter. Isn't it a war crime to kill a prisoner?
Some House Democrats refused to support extending the eviction moratorium, and they didn't have the courage to hold a vote to get everyone's position. Instead they adjourned and left town with no decision.
* Following the killing of President Jovenel Moïse, Haitians are hesitant to seek aid from the United States, due to the West's long history of intervention…*
The subcontractors that hire customer service workers treat them like dirt. Miss a shift, even because of a power outage in your neighborhood or because your child broke a hand, and you're fired.
The nastiness also includes making them listen ad infinitem for any sort of abuse that customers give them — while reproaching them for not handling customers faster.
Abusive customers are personally to blame for what they say, but what makes it so painful for the worker is the company's rule that the worker can't hang up. We should not allow these subcontractors to shift the blame for their system onto individual customers.
We need laws to protect these workers' rights. For instance, no subcontracting! All these workers must be employees of the company that the customers are calling. And all but a fraction should have half-time or full-time work, with overtime pay for any shift that wasn't scheduled a week in advance.
Sometimes the customer is angry at the company's practices and policies, and punishes the customer service worker, who is compelled to follow those practices and policies robotically. If the customer makes a reasonable demand because of something bad that the company did, the worker cannot grant it. It is not fair for the company to use the worker as a shield. There should be a way for the caller to send a message to people who can vary from the script.
Curtis Crosland spent 30 years in prison after a false conviction because the Philadelphia thug department concealed evidence.
The new district attorney, Larry Krasner, set up a systematic effort to correct such injustices, and this exonerated Crosland.
The London Science Museum accepted funds from Shell to make a presentation about global heating, and made a commitment to avoid saying anything that might make Shell look bad.
In effect, Shell corrupted the museum. The museum's officials that accepted the deal are culpable and ought to resign; but let's not let the small fry distract us from Mr Big. The principal culpability falls on Shell, and we should not let it evade condemnation and punishment.
Perhaps companies involved substantially in fossil fuel extraction, shipment, processing or use should not be allowed to advertise, or sponsor activities in a visible way.
Billionaires can effectively liquidate assets without paying capital gains tax by borrowing against the assets at very low interest rate.
* [Researchers] said people need to wear masks and take other steps to prevent spread until almost everyone in a population has been vaccinated,* and get vaccinated ASAP. to prevent evolution of more resistant strains.
Texas decreed special harsh treatment for refugees in the name of protecting the state from Covid-19.
The fundamental dishonesty and contempt show in the pretense that the government of Texas seeks to reduce Covid-19 infection in the state.
US citizens: call on Wall Street & President Biden to stop funding climate chaos.
US citizens: call on Biden to lead the way for voting rights.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
US citizens: call on your Senators to cosponsor the National Security Powers Act.
Covid-19 has led many countries to move to a kinder form of capitalism, instead of the cruel poverty-spreading form that has dominated since the 1970s.
If this is because the rich feel they can't get away, now, with being quite so cruel, we will need to keep up the pressure to stop them, or they will grab back whatever power they have ceded.
The government of Uganda proposes to put trackers in all cars to surveil everyone's movements.
This would be grounds for a revolt, because tracking people's movements is the basis for crushing repression.
You'd expect that from Uganda; but I have heard that the European Union has a similar plan. I would be glad to hear from an expert who knows how to explain the situation clearly.
British unions call for banning use of subcontracted workers in public agencies.
I think no employer should be allowed to use subcontracted workers more than a little bit.
*Major protests swell in Guatemala as calls grow louder for president, attorney general to resign.*
A Republican wore body armor while he spoke at the wrecker's Jan 6 rally and encouraged people to attack the Capitol.
Dr Faisal Khan, director of public health for St Louis County in Missouri, spoke in a packed and dangerous county council meeting to defend his advice to adopt a mask mandate. The room was full of right-wingers and they responded to him with racist bullying.
St Louis County does not include the city of St Louis, but does include Ferguson.
*NYPD Reforms Are Failing, Say Plaintiffs Who Won Landmark Stop-and-Frisk Case.*
*Abolishing online anonymity won’t tackle the underlying problems of racist abuse.*
Anonymous speech is an important freedom in itself, since criticism of the powerful is also something that people will often be intimidated from saying once they know they will be identified and punished.
Here is a suggestion: social media conversations platforms should not be allowed to support direct messages. Instead, they could allow person A to inform person B "I'd like to talk with you — please contact me at [phone number/email address/other contact channel]" using fixed wording. That can't be used to carry an insult, but it can be used to start conversations.
*Trump pressured DoJ officials to falsely claim election corrupt, memos show.*
Biden is adopting the wrecker's innovation of deporting refugees without a proper hearing of their claims for asylum.
*73 Major Corporations Paid Just 5.3% Federal Tax Rate Between 2018 and 2020.*
Thanks to increased government aid, there are 45% fewer Americans in poverty now than there were in 2019. We can do even better than that if we decide to try.
The UN has received new greenhouse gas pledges from 110 out of 200 countries. Still far from what is needed.
*Covid-19 Vaccine Corruption Implicates Top Bolsonaro Allies.*
Guatemala's indigenous people went on strike in response to the firing of anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval. Guatemalans accuse the attorney general of firing him to protect corrupt cronies of the president.
Arguing that the UK cases against Julian Assange, and against Craig Murray, both distort the law for a purpose: to criminalize journalists that are not on a leash to large companies that will keep them in check and protect the dirtiest official secrets.
This is not 100% true: big journalistic organizations sometimes do help reveal these secrets. But I think it is partly true.
*Eviction crisis looms after Biden and Congress fail to extend Covid ban. More than 3.6 million [Americans] at risk of eviction after Covid relief ends.*
*Hong Kong man arrested for allegedly booing Chinese anthem while watching Olympics.*
*Foreign control of North Sea oil licenses threatens UK’s net zero goal.*
*The Select Committee Investigating January 6, like the two House impeachment efforts that preceded it, appears to have no social media strategy and no strategy of public outreach and public education.*
The US sanctions on Cuba are intended to make Cubans rebel by causing them misery and starvation. This was the intention from the beginning in 1960.
The UK's censorship is broad and repressive: posting something people are likely to consider "grossly offensive" is a crime. (The criterion is stated more precisely in the article.)
Meanwhile, black musicians were convicted of singing a prohibited song.
More generally, the institutional racism of the thugs has got worse since the report that showed how bad it already was.
After 7 months of 2021, humans have used the full amount of what Earth's ecosystems offer per year.
US citizens: call on Congress to end arms sales to Egypt because of its atrocious contempt for human rights.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Department of Labor to make businesses pay their interns.
Everyone: sign a pledge against Amazon.
Call on Wall Street & President Biden to defund global heating.
It is very easy for a human being to become stuck to a piece of misinformation. Many sorts of misinformation can do this.
To get unstuck requires taking a scientific attitude towards the possibility that a claim was wrong.
Arguing against the widespread assumption that demanding "informed consent" from users is an adequate solution to various injustices of online dis-services.
Explaining the "section 702 backdoor surveillance loophole", part of the surveillance imposed by the PAT RIOT Act 20 years ago. Congress is considering whether to shut the back door.
If the average male (in developed countries) causes 16% more greenhouse gas emissions, due to typical male spending preferences, what does that imply?
16% difference in the average does not mean that the typical male causes 16% more emissions than a comparable female. It could instead be that 20% of males emit 80% more each, and the rest act just like females. Averages over groups are meaningful for certain purposes, but judging individuals is not one of them.
If civilization survives to 2100, it may be a good idea to reduce pollution on Earth by moving polluting industry to the Moon, where solar energy is plentiful in the sunlight and undesired waste products will be stable forever stacked in the shade.
But that issue will not arise at all if global heating destroys civilization first.
If Biden doesn't wake up to the fact that Republicans oppose by reflex almost anything he does to help Americans in general, he will be sunk.
The Supplemental Security Income aids 8 million very poor Americans, either old or disabled, but the amount of aid is set based on the economic conditions of 50 years ago. As each year goes by, it becomes less effective.
Cuba is holding very hasty trials of people who helped organize protests.
(satire) *DaBaby Apologizes For Leaving Jews Out Of Offensive Rant.*
The campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage has won a total of $150 billion in raises for 25 million low-paid US workers.
In China, even a billionaire can be sentenced to prison for criticizing the government.
One Republican wise guy is using a financial trick to stop the House from collecting fines for his defiance of the mask rule.
This is a game Republicans use to appear powerful to their followers. If the game had no real stakes, the best thing would be to overlook it. Therefore they have decided to put other people's lives and health at risk, and their relatives' too. "I can put you and your family in danger, and you can't stop me, nyah nyah."
The House should adopt measures that are not possible to defy. For instance, to eject violators from the House space (part of the Capitol, and House office buildings) and exclude them for 48 hours.
The US should actively promote more vaccine capacity, as well as waiving patents, to get the world vaccinated faster.
The US should legislate that corporations must consider the interests of customers, workers, and the public, not only making the most possible Profit For Owners. There are still countries which require this.
Members of Congress call on Hilton hotels to refuse to license its name to a hotel built over a demolished mosque in Xinjiang.
Hilton has various excuses, such as that it licensed the name to a Chinese company, as if that could eliminate its responsibility.
Bayer will stop selling glyphosate for home use.
It won't happen for 2 years; I hope this isn't a plan to wait and hope people forget.
The success in protecting wolves in the US west was enough to remove them from the endangered species list. This allowed some states to operate plans to wipe them out again. So the Fish and Wildlife Service has been asked to protect them again.
Australia imprisons some refugees in hotels, which are set up to be more or less solitary confinement, perhaps 24 hours a day. This can continue for years.
One refugee is suing, claiming that Australia did not lawfully authorize those hotels as prisons.
A Colorado thug is being prosecuted for a violent attack on Kyle Vinson, who was unarmed and not threatening anyone. Another thug who tried to cover it up is being prosecuted too.
This seems to be a serious effort to change the violent and dishonest behavior patterns of thugs in Aurora, Colorado. I hope it is effective. No matter what Vinson might be accused of, it was no justification for attacking him once he had surrendered.
The Scottish parliament has passed laws to cover landowners, but the Queen lobbied secretly for royal estates to be exempt.
AMLO will free all federal prisoners that have been tortured.
That is a step towards putting an end to torture.
*Our biggest enemy is no longer climate denial but climate delay.*
Tunisia's president arrested an MP who called the president's actions a "coup".
Whether that is right or wrong is a matter of judgment. I don't know enough to judge. But arresting the opposition gives more reason to consider it a coup.
4/5 of the original shipment of chemicals that arrived in Beirut may have been moved elsewhere by the time the explosion occurred.
That may have avoided a far bigger explosion. It may have been part of a legitimate effort to protect the city. Or it could have been a terrorist plot. Or both at once.
Thailand has prohibited reporting bad news; government lies must not be challenged and cover-ups must not be revealed.
Medicaid home care workers are now required to carry "smart"phones with a specific nonfree app which tracks them.
Bolsonaro's logging railway would push the Amazon rain forest over the tipping point, and more or less get rid of it.
*The British government’s Covid strategy was never designed to manage the virus.* Bogus Johnson projected an air of bumbling, *using the facade of incompetence to narrow the political choices available to the public.*
*Millions of destitute Britons rely on charity handouts, yet ministers feel no shame.*
What Tories feel is pride — they have been working towards this result for a decade.
Some Americans get vaccinated secretly to avoid showing that they disagree with the trumpets around them.
It is good to get vaccinated, but we need you to stand up and say so, to help weaken the intimidatory power of the Republican death cult.
Whatcom county in Washington has banned all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
That county has refineries and other fossil fuel facilities, so the refusal to construct more could have a direct impact, as well as setting an example.
Steven Donziger has been convicted of withholding his Ecuadorian peasant clients' privileged communications from Chevron, and he has been sentenced to 6 months in jail.
He will appeal, in the hope that a judge that wasn't selected by Chevron will overturn the decision.
*Australia can’t dump zero-Covid strategy until 80% of people vaccinated.*
Three-four average Americans' lifetime CO2 emissions are roughly enough to cause the death of one additional person from global heating effects.
Supporters of pipeline resistance in Canada are sabotaging trains in ways that can derail them.
I oppose the pipeline, and I admire support nonviolent civil disobedience in that cause. However, to risk causing a disaster cannot be called "nonviolent"; it is going too far.
Alla Mousa, a Syrian doctor, is accused in Germany of torturing prisoners for Assad.
President Castillo will encounter powerful opposition in Peru's congress, which is dominated by plutocratist parties.
President Saied of Tunisia seems to be taking action against broadcasters. It is not clear how far that will go or whether it calls for condemnation.
*Alabama Miners Take Strike to BlackRock's NYC Headquarters.*
New Zealand is considering breaking up the two large supermarket chains. With just two competitors, they can both gouge.
I suggest having at least six competitors.
US citizens: state your support for various measures to weaken Amazon's power.
See also the reasons to refuse to buy anything from Amazon. I stubbornly refuse. When friends want to buy something for me, I always say, "Please don't get anything for me from Amazon!"
*Elites Profit From "Nonprofit" Charter Schools.* The nonprofit organization contracts with a profit making company to really run the school, and really do the skimping, profiteering, and sometimes cheating.
*Failure to help poor countries fight Covid "could cost global economy $4.5tn", says IMF.*
That in addition to providing opportunity for more dangerous variants to evolve. To stop that, we must speed up the production of vaccine as much as possible, removing all obstacles.
(satire) *BP Launches Environmental Campaign Pledging To Clean Up Oil Polluting Earth's Interior.*
(satire) *Improv Theater’s Corporate Workshops Help Employees Realize Things Could Always Be Worse.*
*Critical measures of global heating reaching tipping point, study finds.*
*Justice Department opposition kills major insurance merger.*
Yes! Block all mergers of large companies!
Unvaccinated state employees in California will have to be tested each week, and wear N95 masks while on the job.
Biden is considering a similar rule for US government workers.
I am very much in favor of this.
Facebook will do more to ensure that promotion of drinking alcohol does not reach teenagers.
This increased exception to the usual functioning of Facebook is a change for the better, but I suspect that Facebook will retain the data collected from teenagers, and from children, and use it to profile them once they reach 18. And perhaps use it in other ways than advertising.
*Top security official for slain Haitian president arrested by police.*
Many in Latin America are recognizing that bringing a child into the world we are headed into is not a blessing or a gift.
Please take the long view. The Covid-19 situation might get better for you in a year or two, but it will take a struggle to win humanity and the ecosphere a tolerable future 20 years from now.
Western companies' dependence on Chinese markets makes them pawns of China. The more dependent, the worse.
We saw this before with internet services and computer companies such as Apple.
* We have zero years before climate and ecological breakdown, because it’s already here. We have zero years left to procrastinate.*
The IMF has bullied Ukraine into "opening the land market", which I think means that foreigners will be able to buy up the country.
China is finding it difficult to stamp out an outbreak of Delta in Nanjing.
It seems that Delta is considerably harder to get rid of than earlier variants. Various experienced countries that knew how to suppress outbreaks are finding it difficult now. Nonetheless, it is much safer to push for the goal of zero-Covid than to give up as the US and most European countries have done.
Australia has repeatedly found that its quarantine and arrivals procedures left small loopholes that Covid-19 could sometimes slip though.
If the world switches to artificial meat, it needs to ensure that the new system does not harm workers, consumers and the environment as the existing system does.
Apple farms out repair of Macbooks to a sweatshop company, CSAT Solutions, which treats workers abominably. Apple bears the responsibility for the mistreatment of workers, and so do Dell and Lenovo which also use CSAT.
If companies such as Apple don't want the responsibility for treatment of workers by subcontracted companies, they should establish a system which protects workers' rights universally.
Burning most of the known fossil fuel reserves would cause 16 C of global heating.
This would be worse than the heat that caused the end-Permian extinction which wiped out almost all species in the ocean. Humans might hang on in some polar regions.
350.org calls on the Federal Reserve to stop financing of fossil fuel projects.
The CDC now recommends people wear masks in indoor public places even if they are vaccinated, in most parts of the US (those with infection rates above a certain threshold).
The complexity of the condition will make this recommendation less effective. Even some of the states that try to prevent Covid-19 have rates that are increasing fast. Vaccinated people should wear masks in indoor public places everywhere in the US, and other countries where Covid-19 is circulating.
Nina Turner is running in the Democratic primary for a congressional seat in Ohio. Her opponent is a plutocratist, getting campaign funds from Republicans.
The opponent faces an accusation of criminal corruption: using her office as Cuyahoga County commissioner to steer contracts to a business owner by long-term friends and supporters.
A preliminary review found the accusation plausible enough to refer it to the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Activists responded to Bezos's space joyride with a rally to tax the rich more.
Capitol police — *for once in this nation's history the good guys* — testified about being attacked by trumpets, a fact which trumpets now lie about.
The US National Football League has decided that if a team can't play due to players sick with Covid-19, that team forfeits the game.
Tories propose to reduce crime by increasing the systematic harassment of blacks on the street.
*Student Data Used to Tag Kids as Potential Criminals* in Florida.
The unfortunate families selected get persistent harassment and surveillance, as well as minor criminal charges that can bankrupt and jail the parents.
(satire) *Olympics Under Fire For Human Rights Violations After Forcing Athletes To Exert Themselves.*
The investigation of the murder of Moise has encountered strange obstacles that look like a cover-up.
The committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol, Jan 6, has started meeting, and Republican saboteurs in Congress are trying to distract attention from it.
Jesse Jackson and William Barber are charged with trespassing for holding a sit-in outside Senator Sinema's office. (Barber is the leader of the Poor People's Campaign.) They could be jailed for 6 months.
I hope Senator Sinema realizes how bad that would look.
*Labor Movement: We Need a Big National Strike Fund.*
Morocco arrested exiled Uyghur activist Yidiresi Aishan when he arrived from Turkey, and plans to send him straight to China for prosecution.
Extraditing Aishan to China would be like extraditing Julian Assange to the US: a shameful disrespect for human rights. There is no reason to trust China's criminal accusations against dissidents. Construing dissent as "terrorism" is a widespread practice.
The UK's electoral system suppresses minor parties almost as hard as the US electoral system. This prevents real politics and saddles the country with fantasist manipulators like Bogus Johnson.
Whistleblower Daniel Hale was sentenced to almost 4 years in prison for revealing that US drone attacks were killing lots of civilians, which the US had tried to cover up.
Shame on the US government for prosecuting heroes such as Hale.
A new method of measuring the status of endangered wildlife is based on how far it is from returning to its previous population, before anthropic damage.
*Ex Rio Tinto chief Walsh joins Aboriginal group's board.*
A former mining executive probably owns lots of stock in mining companies. He might perhaps be able to give useful advice to this organization, provided they remain alert to the danger of being led into a trap.
But there is something fishy about putting the mining executive on the board, where he could vote to make it decide to "compromise" by letting the mining company have its way. Thus, I am skeptical that the organization truly intends to protect those lands. It could decide that the best way to "benefit" the Banjima is to pay the organization to permit more mining.
I wonder which of the Banjima would actually benefit from some of that money, and how that relates to the board of the organization.
US citizens: call on Biden not to let the wrecker and his officials off the hook of criminal prosecution.
Mass tourism on Zakynthos is wiping out the sea turtles. They have to stay far out to sea to avoid swimmers and boats, and it is hard to come in to lay eggs.
A woman in Alabama faces a felony charge for taking a painkiller while pregnant. Pregnant women will be scared to talk to doctors when they realize that doctors might be required to turn them in.
Explaining the details of how gerrymandering fits through loopholes in the rules for legislative districts.
A proposal: to end tobacco addiction by prohibiting the sale to anyone born after 2005.
Tobacco is very dangerous, and I urge everyone never to use it. However, prohibiting an addictive drug is asking for unrest, crime, and corruption. Let's not start a War on Tobacco!
Tanzania has charged an opposition party's leaders with planning terrorism.
This is over the top, and basically says that the president doesn't care how transparently false the accusations are.
Heat waves in the next few decades will get hotter an accelerating rate, so they will set new records more often.
Labour has made an important campaign promise: workers rights will cover to all kinds of workers, starting from the first day of work.
Biden has not even started on most of his environmental campaign promises.
He has started reversing only 1/4 of the wrecker's environmental sabotage measures, while supporting another 1/4.
Hungarians protested against the government's use of Pegasus to spy on dissidents. They compared this with the Communist regime's surveillance, and repression.
Powerful entities — governments and rich businesses — want to track people to get more power over them. In systems of universal surveillance, future dissidents will be surveilled in advance.
The most sensitive personal data are metadata:
- Where did you go?
- What did you do there?
- Who did you talk with?
For the sake of democracy, we must forbid the existence of systems that can collect these data about people.
*California and New York City to mandate vaccine for government workers. Department of Veterans Affairs becomes first major federal agency to require healthcare workers to receive Covid shot.*
The requirement is not absolute — each worker can choose to be tested once a week, instead of vaccinated. I support this in principle, but I think the tests should be more frequent; perhaps twice per work week.
Factory farms pollute rivers, lakes and oceans, drive global heating, and make so much meat that people in many countries make themselves sick. Some senators support a bill to eliminate factory farms in the US, over a period of two decades.
(satire) *Boston Dynamics Unveils New Robots Able To Realistically Behave Like They Under Researchers' Control.*
Over 30,000 Australians can't go home. They may have to wait years, and may be ruined by debt, including the high cost of the "subsidized" flights.
I disagree with the writer on one point. Given the world-wide shortage of vaccine, I think it was proper of Australia to rest behind its wall of quarantine and suffer occasional shutdowns to keep people safe, making vaccination unnecessary. If Delta makes that cease to be effective, so that Australia needs to compete for the scarce vaccines, it will be an unfortunate setback.
But that is a separate issue. Australia should spend more on quarantine facilities so that it can bring its people home sooner.
Australian officials reviled anti-lockdown protesters in Sydney for "filthy, risky behavior", as well as fining them.
I disagree with the protesters' position; I'm convinced that Sydney needs a more complete shutdown in order to suppress the outbreak faster. ("Shutdown" is not quite the same thing as "lockdown".) However, their right to protest is another matter. Prohibiting protest is repression. The right to protest is sacred to democracy.
There are clearly things that protesters could do which risk spreading Covid-19 — for instance, failing to keep their distance from each other and everyone else. Protesters must obey rules like that, to keep the protest safe for each other and everyone else.
However, the article does not report that most of these protesters did things that endangered anyone. What officials call "filthy" appears to be simply a matter of breaking a rule about travelling more than 5km away from home.
It is not more dangerous to travel 6km than 4km. The rule is clearly meant as a rough approximation to reduce the overall level of travel and social intercourse.
That might be a helpful measure in general, but they should make an exception for a protest now and then.
To call an individual "toxic" is to essentialize per behavior. It is misguided to put all the blame on one person, disregards the point that perse is responding to the structure of the situation, and denies the possibility that people can learn to act better.
China is suffering a disaster of extreme rains and flooding. Will this convince Xi to give higher priority to decarbonization? We must hope so.
A former NHS nurse is telling people that vaccination is comparable to Nazi war crimes, and encouraging in a vague way threats against NHS staff.
Shemirani's absurd claims are indeed reprehensible and dangerous. Not surprisingly, there are calls to criminalize them now if that has not already been done.
However, we cannot make a free society by jailing people for expressing hostility and saying things the government designates as reprehensible and dangerous. It is not merely possible that this will lead to repression, it is virtually certain given the censorious spirit that rules in the UK. Here's an example in Fiji.
The UK must refute Shemirani's raving falsehoods with truth, not with a gag.
The Tories have recognized that the privatized bus lines of the UK (outside the London metropolitan area) are a useless subsidy for businesses, but their proposed solution won't change much.
A former Australian soldier is on trial for the murder of a handcuffed prisoner in Afghanistan.
*A record number of companies are making climate pledges, but experts warn the pace of action remains glacially slow in the face of a barreling climate crisis.*
*Afghanistan civilian casualty figures at record high, UN says.*
The Taliban and PISSI are killing and wounding most of those civilians. They have been responsible for a large amount of the civilian casualties before.
A report from Iraq claims that the Sh'ite militias are too powerful for either the Iraqi government or Iran's agent (the replacement for General Suleimani) to keep them under control.
Old people often felt more lonely and depressed with only digital communication with friends and family, than being entirely alone.
Oil companies are using ISDS clauses to demand huge penalties from countries that limit fossil fuel extraction.
These treaties are not merely the enemies of democracy, they can destroy human civilization and the ecosphere. Allowing those companies to get what they demand would be worse than fighting a war to defeat them.
*End the 'National Security' Excuse for Racial and Religious Profiling.*
UK thugs regard Extinction Rebellion as a threat to the "UK way of life", and try asking supporters to turn informer about the group's supposed crimes. They don't seem to understand that XR is trying to stop a far bigger real threat.
The History of FAIR — correcting the gaps in mainstream media.
Tens of thousands joined a rally in Hungary to defend queer rights against Orbán's censorship law. The law ostensibly prohibits "promoting" transgenderism or homosexuality, but just talking about them or instances of them seems to be interpreted as "promoting" them.
The striking workers at the Frito-Lay plant accepted a new contract offer which somewhat reduced their overtime. However, when you see that one of the things they won was a 6-day work week, it shows how far in the wrong direction US labor law has been driven in the 40 years since Reagan attacked unions.
*Indonesia loosens Covid restrictions despite record deaths.* The new case rate is supposedly falling, but that may be because they are testing fewer people.
US citizens: call on Congress to pay/cancel Americans' utility debts.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the PRO Act, which will protect the right to organize unions.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Women's Health Protection Act.
Canadians plan painstaking analysis of the bones of deceased indigenous children, buried next to the schools they were forced to attend. This could determine what killed some of them.
Direct physical evidence of mistreatment of specific people will make it hard to disregard the horror of those schools.
The UK uses a dumb automated contact-tracing app which tells the user to stay home for 10 days when it detects a possible contact. Just now it has told so many people to stay home that many of society's systems are failing, including trains, hospitals and food distribution.
Contact tracing is a very important method of keeping Covid-19 in check, but it is usable only when the infection rate is low enough that the burden of isolating the contacts is bearable. The UK has too high a level of infection.
Contact tracing in the UK never worked as well as it should have, because the Tory government applied its usual bad management and its usual corrupt contracting.
This problem is one of many consequences of the underlying bad approach: allowing Delta to run almost unimpeded through the population by ending nearly all measures to hold it back.
A recent analysis finds the global economy following paths forecast in 1972 by The Limits to Growth.
Resource scarcity has not been a big problem thus far, but we do face challenges in resources for making batteries. Population growth has not caused a disaster, but it is still heading for one.
Bogus Johnson talks about "levelling up", meaning to raise the standard of living in the poorer areas north of London, but the measures he proposes are nowhere near adequate to achieve that.
Tories propose inadequate measures because they are not really interested in helping anyone that is poor. If Britons really want to reduce poverty in the UK, they need to make Corbyn prime minister.
A UK citizen, prisoner in Somalia, says he is being tortured with UK connivance to pressure him to work for the CIA. He says that FBI agents questioned him in the prison where he is being tortured, including by waterboarding.
Japanese officers were executed for waterboarding US prisoners of war during World War II. I condemn the death penalty, but we must punish torture, including torture by Americans.
China, Russia, Brazil and Australia have energy policies aiming for 5C of global heating (or more, due to possible positive feedbacks not properly modeled).
US citizens: call on Biden to end the trade sanctions on Cuba.
US citizens: call on the Senate to examine the FBI's sham Kavanaugh investigation.
More information on the cover-up.
Human activities are wiping out insects overall (with a few species, such as cockroaches and mosquitoes, as exceptions). Insects are crucial in almost all land ecosystems, so we could not even try to survive if we continue to reduce insect populations.
Cuban socialists now criticize the state for cracking down on protests. Perhaps this offers a chance to make Cuba respect human rights while continuing to resist capitalist colonization. I hope the US will respond to this by dropping the sanctions. But if they are really driven by plutocracy, it won't be quick to drop them.
In Italy, local scandals about political corruption are followed by an increased rate of theft of products by customers in supermarkets.
Canada has accorded a river the false status of "living entity".
This concept carries a practical danger that most activists do not recognize: it will be hard to fight the idea that corporations are "persons" if we tolerate the idea that rivers are "persons."
An ecosystem is not a person, not even an organism. It can't exercise rights, but it can be worth protecting.
Let's put aside this absurdity. We can make laws to protect rivers, in whatever way we determine is needed, without endorsing flagrant irrationalism.
UK health minister Sajid Javid tried to use the standard Republican manipulation, "If you are scared of catching Covid-19, your a sissy. We don't need any precautions here!" But people responded with anger.
This has to be won gradually. The bully built up his US death cult step by step, getting his followers to push each other along one step further into fanaticism, then waiting before the next step.
Russia has blocked a popular opposition candidate from running for parliament, based on accusations that are strange and hard to believe.
When debating with short-termers who would trade survival of civilization for more jobs this decade, it is useful to know that decarbonization would provide increased employment as well as helping civilization survive.
(satire) *Dozens Of Athletes Incinerated After Being Attracted To Sight Of Glowing Olympic Flame.*
Calling for an end to the standardized tests that the US requires of schools.
*150 Voting Rights Groups Warn Biden Against Attempting to 'Out-Organize Voter Suppression'.*
Sam Barton has a valid point, but I don't think it alters what we ought to do: support the campaigns of progressive candidates. What about Biden, then? He started out more progressive than I expected, but he is too willing to throw in the towel rather than go to the mat with Manchin and Republicans.
Republican state legislatures want to restrict the emergency powers of state medical officials, so that they can't protect people from Covid-19 or future diseases.
The lunatic Republican death cult has taken sickness and death as its emblem.
Ghana is considering a law to imprison homosexuals for 10 years, along with anyone who aids homosexuals or defends equal rights for them.
Spyware called Pegasus, sold to governments by a company called the NSO Group, cracks mobile phones to spy on their usage. Amnesty International was given access to a list of 50,000 alleged surveillance targets. Not all those numbers were in fact targeted, but many of them were. This demonstrates that Pegasus is regularly used for purposes of spying and repression.
*At least 180 journalists in 20 countries have been targeted,* or at least are on the target list.
Also lawyers and activists.
Morocco considered spying on French President Macron's phone. Likewise some French ministers. One minister provided his phone for examination; it showed signs of spying.
In India, it seems that Modi's right-wing antdemocratic party BJP used Pegasus against the Congress Party, including apparently against its leader, Rahul Gandhi. One of his supporters calls for banning Amnesty as punishment for revealing the BJP's wrongdoing. That's Modi for you.
Speaking of Modi, there is evidence that the Emir of Dubai used Pegasus to find Princess Latifa on a boat so that Modi's soldiers could grab her.
In Hungary, Orbán's repressive government is spying on his opponents.
Current Mexican president AMLO says that the previous Mexican president spied on many people's phones, including perhaps AMLO's own phone.
The country that spied on Britons seems to be the UAE.
The NSO Group says that it tells its clients to use the spying software only against "crime and terrorism," then takes on faith that they are sticking to that rule.
The company emphasizes that it does check not what client countries actually do with it, but we are supposed to have faith in them too.
As we know, unjust governments often make dissent a crime, and/or call it terrorism.
Other methods have been used for over 20 years at least to use mobile phones as listening devices.
To put a stop to this, and other means of spying through portable phones, we need phones that are designed for real security and in which all the software is free, including the software in the modem processor.
Everyone: state your support for the Belarus branch of PEN. Lukashenko may shut it down.
Republican truth haters persistently lead Americans to risk death and disablement. Are they guilty of murder by means of "depraved indifference to human life"? After checking the definition in Wikipedia, that seems plausible to me.
* Our entire political system is designed to let corporate money speak, through campaign contributions and corporate lobbying.* This is especially true in West Virginia, which may be why things are run so badly there and the people are so poor.
The US is very much concerned about Poland's plan to suppress a TV news channel owned by Discovery Inc. The US government is more concerned about protecting US businesses' investment in Poland than about possible Polish censorship of news.
*Reform unemployment, US workers say, as Covid reveals chaotic systems.*
Hong Kong has sentenced people that attacked protesters in 2019 to years in prison.
This is at least a little bit of even-handed law enforcement. However, it cannot overcome the repression.
Australian lobbying of various countries prevented UNESCO from designating the Great Barrier Reef as "endangered".
We all know that it is endangered by CO2 emissions, both because of global heating and because of the ocean acidification caused by CO2. For UNESCO to acknowledge this would have helped the cause of curbing those emissions.
A new proposed agreement to slow the destruction and extinction of wildlife is inadequate, like the Paris agreement on climate defense, because it only calls for nonbinding targets.
It should be noted that if we don't curb global heating, it will cause extinction of lots of species, regardless of whatever other measures we take to protect them. Ecosystems depend on relationships of species, each of which is adapted to the conditions created by the others, and to aspects of the climate (such as, the typical temperature in March). Global heating messes it all up.
*Bust of Klan leader is removed from Tennessee state capitol after decades.*
It is interesting that it was installed in 1978. Like the monuments installed in the early 20th century, it celebrated slavery and racism.
Science is the method for being rational when it is impossible to be certain. Dealing with Covid-19 is an illustration of this.
Lebanon's water systems will fail soon for lack of money to pay for running them.
A New Zealand museum has "returned" bones that were dug up in 1949. What can we say about this?
This article pervasively uses language which treats the dead as if they were alive.
A person who died no longer exists; what does exist are remains. The remains are not a person, not alive; things can happen to them, but they cannot actively do anything. They cannot "come home." They cannot "rest." They cannot truly be "welcomed," since that word refers to making a person aware of one's feelings towards per, and a corpse cannot be aware.
Remains can be stolen, like any other objects that are property. Was digging up the skeletons in question really "stealing"? Were they property? I don't know the specific circumstances, so I have no opinion.
I disapprove of fetishizing corpses, regardless of which ethnic group they are from. Nothing matters to a dead person. The only valid reasons to care what happens to a corpse are (1) what science can learn from studying it and (2) to cater to living people's feelings about it.
Which of those concerns is more important in any given case depends on details. The article does not give those details, so I have no opinion. I do see that the article aims to inculcate the assumption that (2) is the only possible concern.
*Mystery Group Promoting Infrastructure Privatization Boosted by Toll Road Lobbyists.*
"Public-private partnerships" generally indicates corruption — it means that the government helps put a company in a position to squeeze the public.
Athens will look for measures to make the city a little cooler.
This is short-term palliative treatment for global heating. What the world needs is a long-term cure.
Sierra Leone has abolished the death penalty.
Calling for an end to the Olympic games.
All the supposed social benefits offered as reasons to hold them — local economic growth, better physical fitness, convincing repressive host governments to allow freedom — have proved to be false promises. What the games really do is hurt local poor people and boost repressive "security".
I've long urged people to campaign to defeat their city's bid to hold the games. To end them completely would be a full solution for this problem.
(satire) *Opening Ceremony Depicts Olympics’ Time-Honored Tradition Of Destroying Local Communities.*
After Simon Akam wrote the history book he had contracted to write, about the British Army in Afghanistan and Iraq, Penguin Random House demanded he let his sources and the British government revise it. Then it broke the contract and demanded he pay to be allowed to publish elsewhere.
Fishermen assume, without evidence, that oceanic wind farms will reduce the amount of fish that they can catch. One way or another, it has to screw them, they believe.
It might have the opposite effect. In general, protected marine areas increase the fish population, Some of the fish move from the protected areas to other areas where fishing is allowed. The result is to increase the total catch that is sustainably possible.
If the effect of wind farms is to protect areas from fishing, it might have this same beneficial effect on total fishing.
Anyway, fishermen are comparing against an fictitious future in which global heating does not occur. Continued global heating will devastate the ocean, and it could destroy technological civilization. The remaining fishermen might have to carve canoes out of trees, if they can find any trees left standing.
Line 3 protesters got a court to order the county sheriff's thugs to stop blocking entrance into their land.
This was the right thing for the court to do, but it is not enough. When uniformed thugs intentionally harass people for their lawful political activities, that calls for more than just ordering them to stop. It requires a punishment stiff enough to make sure they never do it again.
6 million US households are likely to face eviction at the end of this month unless Biden extends the protection against eviction.
(satire) *NASA Returns To Home Planet After Completing Mission On Earth.*
(satire) *Bat-Wielding Jim Jordan Bursts Through Capitol Window Demanding To Be Allowed Onto January 6 Committee.*
Republican states are rushing to end the boost in unemployment payments, claiming that this would pressure low-paid workers to rush back to low-paid jobs. It did not have that effect.
*Marijuana farmers blamed for water theft as drought grips American west.*
I wonder what fraction of total water use this amounts to. Is it enough to be a significant factor in the shortage? It seems to amount to be around 1.5 billion gallons per year. What is California's total water usage per year?
Theft might cause a real problem to specific houses which had water stolen under their own accounts.
Naomi Klein: billionaires still think they can move to escape global heating effects, but most people in wealthy countries are starting to realize there is no safe place to move to.
US citizens: call on Senator Sinema to meet with the Texas Democrats.
Bernie Sanders explains how the new budget will make most Americans less poor.
MIT's advice to vaccinated people about dealing with the Delta variant.
Biden imposed sanctions on some Cuban officials involved in repressing protests.
These sanctions are acceptable. The US should relax the old sanctions that cause the suffering that Cubans are protesting against, and replace them with these and other new sanctions that hardly affect anyone but the elite.
The US has charged a Chinese official (and some hired Americans) of working to bully Chinese expats to go to China to face prosecution.
Mexico wants Israel to extradite a former high official accused of corruption and undermining the investigation of the kidnaping and murder of 43 students. But Israel may be being uncooperative to punish Mexico for supporting Palestinians' rights.
Japan has pledged to move rapidly to renewable electric generation. Now Australia will find its coal and gas export markets disappearing.
Hooray! Australia's truth-despising planet-roaster government deserves this slap in the face. It deserves three more slaps in the face, for (1) unending imprisonment of thousands of boat people without trial, (2) prosecuting whistleblowers, and (3) threatening to imprison free software developers who don't add back doors on command.
* A group of US Democratic senators on Thursday said that newly released materials show the FBI failed to fully investigate sexual misconduct allegations against US supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated to the court in 2018.*
Investigative journalists now face high-tech surveillance carried out by teams that combine multiple methods, including spying on smartphones.
*Tax raids target Indian paper that criticised government over Covid.*
President Nixon made an "enemies' list" and ordered the IRS to investigate the people on it. This seems like similar corruption on Modi's part; but it is no surprise, since he has already done much worse things, including putting a whole state under martial law and preparing to exile Muslims without proper papers.
The US demands extradition of a Venezuelan government representative to Iran, who was arrested in Cape Verde when his plane was refueling there.
His "crime" was arranging trade between Venezuela and Iran.
The US can make rules about its own trade with other countries, but it cannot legitimately have jurisdiction over dealings between two other countries.
Tigray's militia/army, the TPLF, is attacking neighboring regions of Ethiopia and trying to conquer disputed territory.
I am astonished by Tigray's military successes in fighting against so many enemies. I wonder if there is an explanation. Could it be that Sudan is supporting them? Sudan (along with Egypt) has a big dispute with Ethiopia about use of water from the Nile. This is speculation, a shot in the dark, but I wonder if anyone knows.
1/6 of American workers are stuck in a job and can't leave it because they would lose their medical coverage. Others are stuck in a marriage that for the same reason they can't leave.
We need a national medical system that covers everyone and is not tied to employment or family.
Haiti is a battleground between powerful elites, and the killing of President Moise was an example of how they contend for power. That is all we actually know — details such as who was fighting whom over what remain a mystery for now.
Bogus Johnson claimed he could magically satisfy conflicting goals at once, regarding Northern Ireland's trade. He promised the EU frictionless trade with Northern Ireland. He promised Northern Ireland unionists frictionless trade between Northern Ireland and Britain. He promised his British supporters not to have frictionless trade between Britain and the EU. There is no way to keep all three promises.
Pelosi's decision not to include Republican saboteurs in the Jan 6 Capitol attack investigation means the committee can actually try to do its job.
It was very important to deal Team Sabotage a visible defeat.
Low traffic neighborhoods in London cut the rate of road collision injuries in half.
Extreme rain is causing flooding in more areas of China. I hope this wakes up the Chinese government to the urgency of curbing global heating. China is only starting to slow its increase in greenhouse emissions, and it will suffer greatly if the world does not unite to lower emissions and quickly.
*UK faces legal action over North Sea oilfield exploration plans. Greenpeace threatens to take government to court as approval risk[s] undermining climate targets.*
The large "Bootleg" fire in Oregon has burned 90,000 acres of trees that were sold as a carbon offset. The assumption was that they would keep growing and keep on taking CO2 out of the air. However, all the carbon in those trees has been converted back to CO2.
I've warned since 2007 that this is a risky assumption in a world of global heating.
*Airlines need to do more than plant trees to hit net zero, MPs told.*
The opposition to freeing the manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines is now coming mainly from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
The vaccine waiver is vitally necessary, but what we really need is much more. The TRIPES agreement (Trade-Restricting Impediments to Production, Education and Science) was designed to elevate business over people; it is an implementation of trickle-down. We should get rid of it.
Arguing that Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory are a war crime in and of themselves.
They also act as bases for more specific war crimes against Palestinians.
Large banks are abandoning their own computer systems and switching to Big Tech's servers. That could be asking for trouble.
The article uses the nebulous term "the cloud", so it does not distinguish between renting virtual servers and running the bank's own choice of software on them, and using Google services. However, the former gives a bank the option of having control over the software it runs, while the latter does not.
Tanzania's new president is as repressive as the old one.
*US workplace injuries caused by heat severely undercounted, study shows.*
The study says they may be undercounted by more than a factor of 100.
*Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I've gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’.*
Small dairy farms in Wisconsin can no longer survive — a few large farms are taking over.
The large farms seem to be more efficient, if you don't count finding some way to support all the unemployed ex-farmers. I fear they will be dumped on America's human trash heap.
The committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol will investigate the actions of the House minority leader and the wrecker, who participated in instigating the attack.
Behrouz Boochani: who are the interests that profit by Australia's keeping boat people in prison forever without trial?
Fracking injects nonbiodegradable toxins (PFAs). No wonder frackers worked so hard to protect their supposed "right" to conceal these "trade secrets".
Businesses have many reasons to want to keep secrets about their actions, but what they want is less important than what the public needs. We should never hesitate to force exposure of their secrets when there is a public need to do so, and we should reject their demands to "compensate" them for the public's investigations.
Gig workers in many US cities went on strike on July 21.
*Secret NYPD Document Teaches Cops to Illegally Raid Sealed Records.*
A bill introduced in the Senate would tighten restrictions on fighting and deploying troops without specific congressional authorization. It would also cancel all existing congressional authorization for combat.
Explaining some of the extreme weather that global heating is starting to cause.
*China rejects WHO plan for study of COVID-19 origin.*
*Deadly coral disease sweeping Caribbean linked to wastewater from ships.*
*From China to Germany, floods expose climate vulnerability.*
*After Covid, the climate crisis will be the next thing the right says we "just have to live with".*
Indian farmers continue protesting Modi's laws that give big companies more clout over ordinary farmers.
This shows who Modi is really working for.
US citizens: call on Congress to make the expanded child tax credit permanent.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Senate to vote on the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
The consequences of limiting social contact and travel are not worse than letting Covid-19 spread.
Lithuania is resisting Chinese pressure and opening a "representative office" in Taiwan.
A taxonomy of possible pandemic response strategies. Exclusion (when possible) and eradication generally give the best results, both in terms of the fewest deaths, the fewest people with disabilities, and the least harm to the economy.
Suppression (try to keep the number of cases down) and mitigation ("flatten the peak" so hospitals don't get full) lead to more harm of every sort.
Ralph Nader presents a list of major, deadly problems which the US government should have addressed decades ago, but interested businesses blocked action until the present.
Each "smart"phone (for "smart" read "spy") has a unique "mobile advertising ID" number which supposedly makes it possible for surveillance capitalism to profile the user without knowing per identity. It sounds nice, but businesses that link that ID to the user's name and address etc. are in use on an industrial scale.
Given the powerful incentives to make nonfree apps malware, and make online services into dis-services, I think schemes like this are unlikely even to be effective.
I advocate going back to the World Wide Web of 2000, in which users sent a web site only the limited data they actually wanted to send.
(satire) *Hesitant Man Just Waiting To Observe Long-Term Effects Of Vaccine Over Next Several Eons.*
Congress is trying to help people escape from abusive conservatorships that have been imposed on them by states.
I have not followed the Britney Spears case, but I think these reforms are good changes. They, and can help protect people from abuse by heir conservators, and I don't see that they are likely to do facilitate any sort of wrong.
(satire) *FBI Warns Oregon Fire Had Been Plotting Violent Takeover Of State For Years.*
TikTok and Youtube have collected data about users, including users that are children, and used it for abusive purposes such as to figure out how to get them hooked. Maybe they still do.
In my view, we should not allow online dis-services to do this to children. Or to adolescents. Or to adults. Respecting users' privacy and well-being should not end when the user gets to be 13 years old.
*Critics Note Blinken's Vow to Support 'Independent Journalists' Does Not Apply to Julian Assange.*
Biden's "Plan for Security and Prosperity in Central America" turns out to be more of the same old same old: economic domination with military backup.
Four Mexican states have now decriminalized abortion.
If Mexican states on the US border legalize abortion, they could provide abortions to women fleeing oppression in Texas.
Labour has plans to become a "safe space" for "all its members", by expelling certain leftist groups of members. Surely it is not a coincidence that these groups organized to support or defend Jeremy Corbyn.
West coast wildfires are poisoning the air over New York City and other east coast cities.
A lawyer working for Alaska's department of law anonymously advocated violence and repression against Black Lives Matter protesters and others on the left.
Under the constitution, he has the right to advocate such views, but they make him unfit for his job.
A disappointing outcome regarding the Nord Strea 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany: Ukraine will be protected from Russian pressure, but Europe will increase its dependence on Russian gas — and, even worse, extend its overall dependence on fossil fuel.
In every decision about use or non-use of fossil fuel, reducing that dependence should be the primary consideration.
*Covid-19 antibodies detected in 67% of India’s population.*
It looks like most people have already caught it. The total deaths are estimated at 3.5 to 5 million. If it spreads to the rest, that could mean 2 million more deaths.
The UK government's general repression bill proposes to make reporting on whistleblowing a crime, and give officials the power to impose arbitrary restrictions on individuals suspected of planning acts of journalism.
Banks are only just waking up to the need to consider sea-level rise when deciding about making mortgages.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to kill the Hyde amendment which limits federal funding for abortion.
Here's the text I used:
I am writing as your constituent to tell you that I support ending the Hyde Amendment and all legal impediments to abortion.
Abortion is basic health care, and no person should be denied access because of where perse lives, how much money perse makes, or anything about per medical insurance.
Therefore, I support ending all barriers to abortion, including the Hyde amendment. Ideally all medical plans should be required to cover 100% of the cost of an abortion. The usual argument that patients should pay a copay so they have "skin in the game" does not apply to abortion.
Uganda jailed activists that worked for the opposition presidential candidate.
*Climate envoy John Kerry has rejected notion that Beijing could buy US silence on human rights as price of cooperation on climate.*
I think that is proper.
Haiti's elections minister says that the two suspects accused of organizing the murder of President Moise were probably not the ringleaders of the plot. He did not speculate about who the ringleaders might be.
As for whether those two suspects were actually involved in the plot, I have seen no information shedding light on that.
G20 countries provided 3 trillion dollars of subsidy to fossil fuels since 2015 despite their stated intention to defend the climate.
Perhaps directed that intention into preparation of targets for 2050, so far in the future that it is purely an excuse. We need action, not targets.
US employers want to use prisoners and pay them a pittance rather than give their employees a raise.
India officially acknowledges 400 thousand deaths from Covid-19, but the actual number could be as high as 5 million.
Governments that don't respect truth feel a temptation to minimize the extent of death and sickness that Covid-19 causes. Republicans are the ultimate truth-disrespecters in the US, and indeed Florida officials understated the casualties in 2020.
Hundreds of refugees in Brussels have been on hunger strike for two months, demanding permission to live in Belgium.
Manchin's profits with fossil fuels go beyond the usual (stock, campaign support). He owns a coal company and gets $500k per year from it.
This shows why Manchin is so determined to sabotage the survival of civilization. Unfortunately it does not show us a way to overcome his opposition.
Global shipping has no way of changing crews in East Asia. Crew find them stuck on ships for too long, with no way to go home; so they are thinking of quitting that work. This could cause a crisis for shipping.
US veterans of the war in Afghanistan are becoming aware that fighting there was a waste.
The war Afghanistan is unwinnable, but that was not clear at the start. Most of Afghanistan rejected the Taliban immediately in 2001 and allied with the US. But it morphed into an unwinnable war over the next few years as the Taliban regrouped. The Afghans that supported the national government were not motivated to fight to win as the Taliban were. Given that situation, the Taliban were sure to win eventually unless they ran into some unforeseeable problem.
It was visible by 2006 that the war was going badly. A few years later there it was clear that victory was impossible. Why did the US deny the situation and waste more American and Afghan lives?
It is always hard to accept defeat; in the US government, which believes itself unbeatable, it is hard to acknowledge that defeat has happened.
Then there is the bizarre idea that American soldiers' lives lost were not wasted as long as American soldiers continue being killed ineffectively in the same war.
Climate mayhem includes putting fisheries in danger. Many fish won't be able to thrive because global heating effects will disrupt the food they eat.
Accusing ALEC of illegal campaign contributions.
Tories dislike raising taxes on the rich, so they propose to raise taxes on the poor instead.
Spain is planning to do more to educate the public about the former dictator Franco's mass murder.
The rebellious military, led by Franco, executed some 100,000 to 200,000 people during and in the years after the civil war, which the military won in 1939.
Right-wing extremists such as the Vox party thrive on fake history. This law may weaken them.
Large wildfires in Siberia are generating smoke full of toxic pollution. People in Yakutsk have been warned to stay indoors.
I am no expert, but I'll make a rough guess than 3,000 to 10,000 people in Yakutsk (of the 320,000 inhabitants) will die eventually from this summer's smoke.
Colombia is considering a revised version of the tax plan that inspired the protests.
Some bad aspects have been removed. I am interested in seeing the complaints against the revised version.
Keiko Fujimori, of the Fujimori conservative/corruption political dynasty, has conceded defeat in the presidential race. Authorities refused to accept her baseless claims of voter fraud.
However, she plans to continue gnawing away at democracy by insisting on those baseless claims. That is really dangerous, as by constantly repeating their lies, they do convince more people to believe them.
Perhaps President Castillo can damage her by pointing out her resemblance to antitruth US Republicans.
Biden said that Facebook was killing people with misinformation, but now he says he didn't mean for Facebook to "take it personally."
It's true that Facebook does not originate the disinformation. What Facebook does is tune its algorithms so that many useds see the disinformation after the 12 originators post it.
Facebook can't take anything personally, since it is not a person. A corporation is not a person, whatever the right-wing Supreme Court may say.
But since it is clear that Facebook is controlled personally by Zuckerberg, we could say that Zuckerberg is personally responsible for the decision to boost that disinformation. Zuckerberg ought to take it personally.
Ben & Jerry's announced plans to stop the sale of its ice cream in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
Most Israelis favor colonization and many will boycott Ben & Jerry's if it continues to sell in Israel but not Israel's occupation colonies. Israel's new prime minister, a right-wing extremist, has threatened retribution for this.
I don't think the direction of Ben & Jerry's will be intimidated. However, it is now owned by Unilever. I hope that conglomerate does not impose a "profit über alles" mindset.
Ben & Jerry's will continue to be sold in the colonies until the present license terminates.
Instagram intensely promotes thinness to teens that bring it up in conversations.
Bogus Johnson's scorned ex-favorite, Cummings, said that Johnson opposed measures to reduce spread of Covid-19 a year ago because "the people who are dying are essentially all over 80."
There are situations where you can't save everyone and it is inevitable to prioritize who to save. We have seen some such situations during the pandemic, such as when hospitals did not have capacity to treat everyone who was gravely ill. But Johnson gives nearly everyone's life too little priority.
An NHS hospital doctor reproaches Bogus Johnson and the British government for shirking responsibility now to protect Britons from Covid.
Doctors Without Borders has campaigned effectively to influence Canada to stop letting Pharma companies privatize drugs developed with public research funds.
The campaign is very good, but ought to go further. Canada ought to take the control of studies that test the effects of medicines away from the Pharma companies, and run them with public funding under public control — and tax the companies to pay for them.
A blemish in the article is that it uses the propaganda term "intellectual property," which opposes the goal and spreads confusion. Please help end the confusion by refusing to use that term.
A new version of the Wi-Fi standard, 802.11bf, is planned to standardize their use as spy devices to track people's movements through walls. The designers have reportedly not yet turned their minds to the questions of "privacy and security" for this capability.
When they do, if they follow the usual bad conceptions, they will interpret "privacy" as "protecting the collected data from use unauthorized by the business that controls them", and "security" as meaning "security against third parties, not against the manufacturer or ISP."
And if they implement any way to turn this capability off, I fear that it will be under software control — and that it will be an excuse to to require nonfree software in every Wi-Fi interface, just where you really shouldn't trust it.
What the standard needs is a way to build Wi-Fi interface hardware that is hardware-limited to communication and can't do any tracking. Every ordinary Wi-Fi device should be hardware-limited to communication.
The devices that are not hardware-limited to communication should be special models, which you won't have in your house unless you know that's what you want. They should not do any communication themselves. That way, if you do have one, you'll be able to control who it communicates with.
It would be good to require these devices to have a geofence: no tracking anything outside of a certain boundary. It should be legally required for the installer of such a device to configure the geofence at the boundary of your own apartment. Installing them such that they can track outside of a private place should be a crime as well.
Or perhaps it would be better not to approve this standard and not make such tracker devices.
Morocco is imprisoning journalists based arbitrary accusations.
"Sexual assault" is so vague that it makes no sense as a charge. Because of that term, we can't whether these journalists were accused of a grave crime or a minor one. However, the charge of espionage shows this is political persecution.
An investigation reports that privatization of UK bus service (outside London) was a disaster and left many people cut off from work, school, and medical care.
Privatizing public services generally makes them worse, but this case seems to have been a real doozie.
Bogus Johnson has proclaimed "freedom day", on which he gave Covid-19 freedom to spread unrestrained among the unvaccinated people of Britain. And occasionally infect the vaccinated as well.
The hospitals are already filling up, while a badly designed automatic contact tracing system almost randomly orders the NHS staff to self-isolate. Johnson's solution to that is to order the staff to keep it secret.
Johnson and another minister were told to self-isolate at just the most inconvenient time, so they said they didn't have to do that because they were part of a "pilot study". It appears that they invented this on the spur of the moment, because they had not worked out the full story. So they dropped it and actually did self-isolate. One small victory for practicing what you preach.
One small bit of sense: only fully vaccinated people will be allowed into nightclubs. They should make some sort of exception for the few who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons.
US citizens: call on Biden to ban autonomous killer robots.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
If you call, please spread the word!
Everyone: call on social media CEOs to reject Big Oil's ad campaigns.
Foreign powers have chosen Haiti's new prime minister. This continues decades of nondemocratic rule imposed from outside.
*Republicans, so called party of family values, do not support needy families.*
This has been true since the 1960s; back then, the Democratic Party was the party of Liberals, who supported the same causes that Progressives support today, and the Republican Party opposed them (but did not oppose environmental protection and abortion rights the way it does today).
Various countries have accused China of utilizing a bug in nonfree software, specifically Microsoft Exchange, to spy on email of many companies and organizations.
The problem with these accusations is that they don't show us the reported proof, so we can only take the claim on faith (or not). I see no reason to doubt that China would engage in such digital spying, nor the US, the UK, or Australia.
The article spreads confusion by referring to "intellectual property." From the context, I know it must refer to trade secrets, because nothing else makes sense — but most people don't know that it can't refer to copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical product names, or any others of the long list of disparate laws that the term refers to. Most people confuse these things with each other, and "intellectual property" encourages that confusion.
Please join me in shunning that term.
One more prisoner in Guantanamo has been freed. That is 2.5% of the way to closing the prison. However, Biden still has no plan for how to finish the job or to put an end to the injustice of imprisonment without trial.
The US should never have taken prisoners of war out of Afghanistan. If it called someone a criminal it should have given per a fair trial.
Some major oil companies say they now recognize the danger of global heating and aim to move to renewable energy — while continuing to donate millions to the American Petroleum Institute, which uses the funds to block government action for climate defense.
When companies say they support climate defense, we should challenge them to publish the list of their donations.
After several decades of letting rich people and rich businesses corrupt our laws, look at the damage they have done.
Arguing that Haiti is trapped in a web of ruling elites that are dependent on foreign support and foreign aid money.
*Came to fight, stayed for the freedom: why more Kurdish women are taking up arms.*
*New Zealand farmers’ demands are unrealistic — but they are suffering and deserve support.*
I suspect that planet-roaster companies have funded efforts to mislead the farmers and use them.
Reducing the use of plastic is important, but it is difficult for individuals to do this if what they eat comes packaged in plastic. The government can achieve this by requiring companies to change how they package those foods.
I don't agree with veganism, but I enjoy eating vegetables.
Right-wing bullies attacked Wi Spa in Los Angeles for accepting trans-women in the women's section. Counterprotesters came to support the business. The bullies attacked the counterprotesters, and then the uniformed thugs did too.
The right-wingers are displaying their usual contempt for truth and honesty, because they are only pretending to care about women's rights as an excuse to attack.
*The Department of Justice … formally adopted policies sharply restricting the instances in which prosecutors can seek records or testimony from reporters.*
This is the right thing to do, but the next president could revert the change. It needs to be a law rather than a policy.
Mainstream media have exaggerated the protests in Cuba while downplaying the contribution of US sanctions to Cuba's problems.
Cuba represses dissent. It punished dissident Oswaldo Payá by putting him into a menial job and harassing him; it punished some of his supporters with prison. Some years later, the government arranged to kill him. But Payá did not want to hand Cuba over to the empire of multinational business. I expect that that's what the US government aims for with its sanctions.
Counting the cost of environmental damage (including global heating) and the medical harm to the people that produce the food and eat the food, food in the US costs three times what we actually pay for it.
If this were simply a matter of having the state pay part of the cost rather than individual consumers, that might not be a bad thing. But these costs are not mere money. They are damage that we can't sustain.
Here's some propaganda intended to convince you that having a tattoo that is a copy is theft and you should be terribly ashamed of it.
You can tell it is propaganda from its use of the propaganda term "IP". That is a bogus concept that spreads confusion whenever it is used. Copyright really exists, but "IP" does not.
Having a copied a tattoo is no more shameful than having a copied book, video or music recording. Copying is not theft!
I can't understand how anyone could do something so rash as to get a tattoo. Don't you understand your tastes will be different a few years from now? If you like a design, put it on paper, not on your skin.
US sanctions' real effect on a country tends to be harsher than the nominal rules. Sanctions on Cuba permit delivery of medicine, but DHL returned a delivery of insulin citing "US sanctions."
US sanctions on Iraq, before 2003, caused a shortage of medicine there, even though nominally medicine was permitted. I think sanctions blocked Iraq from paying for medicine.
* Following the leak of IRS documents that shed additional light on the prevalence of tax dodging among the wealthiest Americans, a group of House Democrats on Thursday said President Joe Biden must swiftly appoint a new Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division if he hopes to crack down on unlawful evasion tactics.*
The Republican death cult is killing Americans — its believers, and people who come in contact with them. It is doing its best to endanger anyone it can.
Greenland has banned oil extraction, and preparatory exploration for oil extraction, for the sake of stabilizing Earth's climate. It has also banned uranium mining.
Let this be an example that all countries follow.
Minority rule is built into the governmental structure of the US at every level. Republican efforts exacerbate the imbalance, but they start with what is naturally there.
I disagree with one secondary point in the article. I reject the idea that it matters what fraction of the GDP is produced in the areas that voted for any particular county. Deciding by a majority of the GDP would not be democratic nor legitimate.
(satire) *NordicTrack Recreates Outdoor Running Experience With Treadmill Covered In Dog Shit.*
South Africa has accused individuals of instigating rioting in response to the imprisonment of former president Zuma for corruption.
Zuma's corruption was well known, but he was backed by a large party of supporters who excused his corruption and are willing to defend him with violence. I fear that supporters of the wrecker would do likewise if he is sentenced to prison. But we must not let that intimidate us, for then he would be truly above the law.
UK plainclothes thugs used lying to get into Katie McGoran's bedroom. They did not give her a chance to put on clothes before they handcuffed her for 20 minutes.
Circumstances suggest that the motive for this was to punish her unofficially for having been at a protest.
The thug department said, in effect, "We're sorry it made you feel bad, but we would do it again."
US insurance companies have not grasped how climate mayhem will affect their insurance payouts. It is important for them to learn this, so that they can take the selfish steps that will discourage misguided projects that are likely to be greatly damaged by climate mayhem or exacerbate it.
The partisan "audit" of ballots cast in Maricopa County, Arizona, has generated a bogus appearance of irregularity by lumping in early voting ballots with mail-in ballots. The list of people who were mail-in ballots does not include the early voting ballots, and this has been cast as a "mysterious absence".
This supposed discrepancy is an example of how Republicans leap from one falsehood to the next falsehood. When enough truth-despising Republicans repeat the falsehood, other people can be swayed by the sheer number of people and web sites repeating it as the truth, and Republican officials can use that as the basis to draw false conclusions officially.
Right-wing extremists are picketing a trans-friendly spa, claiming to be concerned about customers that might be in danger from trans-women.
Since they are right-wing, they don't feel sincere concern for women's rights. Their "concern" is bogus, dishonest.
Thus, instead of letting them make their falsified concern be the issue, we should make their dishonesty the issue.
Turkey plans to encourage the torture of Kurds to be forgotten by converting Military prison 5 in Diyarbakır into a "cultural center".
An Ugly Truth is a book about Facebook's wrongdoing, written by award-winning journalists.
*The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And the question posed by this splendid book is: what are we going to do about him?*
The first step is, don't be a zucker — don't be a used of Facebook. Your doing this will not eradicate Facebook, but it will exert one person's worth of influence against its power, and it won't take much work.
If you are in an organization that insists on having a "Facebook presence", you could exert a little more anti-Facebook influence by suggesting that the organization use that only as a way for people to find it and make initial contact.
Almost all food in the US is sold by a few giant companies.
*Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds.*
About the spread of Humanism in Australia.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to co-sponsor the Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Schumer not to make the plutocratist "bipartisan" infrastructure plan even worse.
*Police officers speak to Black drivers with less respect than White drivers, study finds.*
The difference was in the thugs' tone of voice; people who evaluated the audio recordings, who didn't know the race of the driver, could hear it.
Chairman Xi has made the Chinese too scared to disagree with him, but is still not satisfied. So now China is inserting brainwashing into everyone's daily life, at home and at work.
I expect this effort to convert Chinese into Xi-ple to weaken China, making it rigid and irrational internally, and more offputting to foreigners. It won't be necessary to cite the brainwashing of Uyghurs, which China denies, when the brainwashing of Han people is visible everywhere you go.
That can help save the rest of the world from China, but it is hard for me to rejoice at the idea, because the injustice to Chinese will be immense.
Los Angeles thugs shot an unarmed man at a major intersection without taking the time to check the rumor that he had a gun.
Should cops carry binoculars with which to check, from a safe distance, whether an object is really a firearm?
The Bootleg fire in Oregon is burning rapidly through expanses of dead trees.
The article does not say, but I suspect that these trees were killed by pine borer beetles, which have extended their range northward with the help of global heating.
*Illinois is first state to bar police from lying to juveniles during interrogations.*
Now that the state understands the wrong of pushing people into false confessions, for minors, it should extend this protection to adult suspects. False confessions by adults may not be as probable as false confessions by minors, but they are not rare either. Imprisoning an adult based on a false confession is an injustice too.
*WHO proposes fresh mission to China and lab audits.*
An avoidable dispute is interfering with the progress of residential solar power in Australia.
Here's an idea: the Australian government should arrange to finance solar power systems and batteries for rental housing, and get the money back over time by charging through the electric bill.
Massachusetts used a similar system decades ago to replace old, inefficient hot water heaters. The tenants saved money, because they payments for the new heater were less than the savings due to its increased efficiency. The landlord lost nothing so did not object.
Two supporters of the wrecker are charged with plotting to blow up California's Democratic Party headquarters.
Cuba is being attacked with a persistent confusion-disinformation campaign.
*Salvadoran soldiers charged with [murdering] four Dutch reporters in 1982.*
* Campaigners criticize European Commission strategy that allows continued burning of trees for fuel.*
We have known for many years that burning wood for energy is not in actual practice a renewable energy generation system.
*Six Extinction Rebellion protesters found guilty of blocking news printers.*
If only the UK valued freedom of the press when it's Wikileaks reporting on government crimes.
*England's Covid unlocking is threat to world, say 1,200 scientists.*
In Spain and Italy I've seen people gather close together as if Covid-19 no longer existed. Most of them were not old enough to have been offered vaccine yet in Europe. Even outdoors, such extended and close proximity is not safe.
Cornel West resigned from Harvard University after he was denied tenure because of his support for Palestinians.
A new test may be able to determine whether a patient has long covid.
This would at least put an end to the problem that doctors may not believe what the patient says. However, it won't help treat patients unless researchers discover a treatment.
In the New Deal, the US government started guaranteeing home mortgages, using explicitly racist criteria. This policy continued into the 1960s. The segregation of suburbs thus established persists to this day.
In cases where the government discriminated against people based on race, it owes reparations to the victims of that discrimination, and their descendants. That includes those who were discriminated against by aid programs like these.
UK universities find that many students are fed up with virtual courses and want to attend class physically. Others feel the opposite.
If you are a student, or have been admitted, and you are disgusted with being forced to use nonfree software for the university, you can make a difference right now by telling the university you don't want to do that. Keep your language civil, but show how strongly you feel this.
A racist bully in Michigan was sentenced to 5 years in prison for a bloody attack on a black teenager for using the same beach.
*Man who pleaded guilty in murder-for-hire case planned to pin killings on Black Lives Matter.*
Perpetrators of right-wing violence have made a habit of flying false flags. Consider "umbrella man" who started violence in protests about the murder of George Floyd, and the way the perpetrators of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol now claim that it was "Antifa" which carried out that attack.
I have to wonder how much of this plan was suggested and promoted by the FBI informant. The FBI's MO includes leading people by the nose into participating in a criminal plot. We can't tell whether the accused entered the plot of per own motivation, in which case the conviction is valid deserved, or was effectively entrapped, in which case the conviction is invalid.
US citizens: call on Biden to block all new fossil fuel projects and invest in a clean energy future.
US citizens: call on Congress to cancel the F-35 fighter.
US citizens: call on Democrats to finish extending Medicaid in the remaining 10 Republican-dominated states.
Mass residents: call on the legislature to prohibit government use of face recognition except with a specific court order.
When children are given penicillin, or related antibiotics ampicillin and amoxicillin, it might alter their brain development.
Whether it actually does so is not yet known.
Whistleblower Daniel Hale's action was not an issue of freedom of speech. Something stronger was at stake — his duty of speech.
*Manchin — 'Very, Very' Disturbed by Climate Action — Made Nearly $500K Last Year From Coal.*
Why allowing children to play without adult supervision should not be limited to a certain minimum age.
The Amazon is now emitting more CO2 than it is absorbing.
DNA matching makes it possible to identify the dog owners that don't clean up the dogs' excrement. And fine them.
Making a DNA database of all people gives governments dangerous power over people. But a DNA database of all dogs is ok, because dogs are not entitled to human rights.
*We got the bill for having a baby — $37,000.*
Immigrants forced to wear location trackers report that their flaws cause many problems, including getting fired because employers don't want the chance that the deportation thugs might come around.
An effort to develop better location trackers might reduce these problems. However, there are also questions about whether the basic idea is wise and whether the system is systematically unjust. If immigrants are denied their legal rights due to lack of legal advice, we should give them legal advice. If that ensures they show up for their hearings, there is no need to track them.
*At Sun Valley each year, the billionaires are feted by the mere millionaires; the millionaires drum up enough deals to allow them to buy their third and fourth homes; and somewhere down the line, you can get a job as a housekeeper for one of those homes. This is the wondrous model of American capitalism in action — a tiny handful of wealthy people eat cake, and an entire nation gathers downstream, hoping to snatch up a few falling crumbs.*
Sanders describes his intention to speak to "Trumpworld", the followers of the truth-hater.
* As a forensic psychiatrist I have learned that helping prisoners confront their offenses is best for them, and for society.*
The many inspections of the now-collapsed Champlain South Tower condominium focused on compliance with rules about the inside of individual units (as require by building codes), and mostly ignored the safety of the overall structure of the building because that wasn't their job.
One significant aspect of systemic racism in the US is that black mothers are 3-4 times as likely to die in childbirth than white mothers.
To fully eliminate the bases of systemic racism is the ideal goal, but easier said than done. So it is a good thing to try to correct this particular aspect (and likewise, various others).
Ethiopia has banned a news site for supposedly supporting the TPLF.
I suspect that this really means failing to uphold the government line.
Newark, New Jersey, is replacing the lead pipes that connect many houses to water supply.
Boston is doing this, too.
The European Court of Justice ruled that employers can enforce a policy that employees may not wear religious or political symbols at work, provide it applies in a neutral way to all such symbols.
I think it is legitimate for a business or agency to apply that policy, so as to present a neutral stand to customers.
*Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs.*
This is largely due to the amount of fires that burn there every year.
The senators behind the bipartisan infrastructure "compromise" call themselves the "problem solvers".
In a sense they are, but the basis of their compromise is to refuse to do anything to solve the problem of global heating and coming climate disaster.
*American west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’, experts warn.*
Do Martian bacteria (if they exist) have a "right" to Mars?
In my view, no bacteria have any right to anything. Any right is the right to exercise some option, so its prerequisite is some level of awareness and ability to make decisions. I don't think insects and plants are capable of having rights, nor rivers and forests as such.
That doesn't mean we should let people destroy them. That could be a big loss to the world.
For Martian bacteria, their extinction could destroy our chance to learn whether they are related to Earthly life, and that would be a great loss to our understanding of life in the universe.
Massive private projects to generate electricity and hydrogen from solar and wind power are being planned. One in Australia would be a large fraction of the size of Australia's entire electric grid power. (I am assuming that the grid power supply in the less populous Western Australia and Northern Territory amounts to a small fraction of that of the rest of Australia.)
Resistance to family pressure for arranged marriages is growing in India, but inexplicably it veers off target. Instead of defending the right to refuse marriage — which I would wholeheartedly support — this campaign calls teenage minors "children", then demands a prohibition on marriage for minors.
It's a side issue, but I disapprove of calling teenage minors "children".
As for whether minors should be allowed to marry, I am not sure. Perhaps people under 18 are not ready to make a lasting legal commitment, and should limit themselves to living together until they reach the age of 18. (In India, being part of an unmarried couple is more radical than remaining celibate.) On the other hand, people over 18 are often not ready for this either. Since I am not sure, I do not support raising the age requirement for marriage to 18.
I support Rajasthan Rising's campaigns for gratis education, and to save people from being pressured into marriage — whether they are under 18 or not.
The UK's foolhardy haste to return to "normal" life could leave hundreds of thousands suffering from long Covid disabilities.
Vaccines reduce the danger of long Covid, but don't entirely eliminate it. This is one of the reasons I continue to take precautions.
*WHO committee calls for sharing of gene editing tools with poorer nations.*
Gene-editing tools are potentially very dangerous, but limiting their use to rich countries alone is not effective for protecting against that danger.
Rebecca Solnit: *Our climate change turning point is right here, right now.*
US citizens: call on Congress to require the rich and corporations to pay at least $4 trillion more in taxes.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to stop deporting asylum-seekers in the name of protecting the US from Covid-19.
This practice provides no significant protection, and never did; it was the bullshitter's excuse to blame scapegoats.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
If you call, please spread the word!
Campaigners take on domestic violence against women in Papua New Guinea.
In the past, it was considered normal for men to force women into obedience and/or sex. Some men refrained, based only on their own empathy. The idea that it is wrong for men to act that way has spread in the past century, and not everywhere at the same pace.
Short-term thinking New Zealand farmers are protesting plans to make them limit fertilizer runoff into rivers, and tax its greenhouse gas emissions.
The government must not let them off the hook, but it can support them in doing what needs to be done.
Drought is causing disaster in southwest Iran. Farmers' buffaloes are dying of thirst.
*Kremlin papers appear to show
Russia expected him to "destabilize" the US.
Putin arbitrarily banned the investigative journalist site Proect,
which has published news about Putin's wrongdoings.
The main staff have been blacklisted personally also.
Floods in Germany surprised climate scientists; extreme weather
is much worse than their models predicted for so soon.
Will that enable us to defeat the planet roasters?
*Maine bans toxic [PFAs] under groundbreaking new law.*
* Only 10% of $17tn global bailout directed to cutting greenhouse gas
emissions and restoring nature, report finds.*
Tennessee Republicans fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus as head of vaccination
and prevention at the state's health department, because she was doing
her job. Specifically, she informed clinics that they can vaccinate
teenagers of age 14 and over without parental consent.
The underlying motive is that they are bowing to the Republican death
cult, which has made spreading Covid-19 one of its crazed tenets.
Satire: *Centers For Disease Control Lets Smallpox And Rinderpest
Viruses Out For Daily Hour Of Exercise.*
(satire) *Company Struggling To Find Diverse Leadership Candidates
Among CEO’s Golf Buddies.*
(satire) *Gate Attendant Offers Richard Branson Hotel Voucher After
Virgin Galactic Flight Fully Booked.*
Some of the Colombians accused of killing President Moise of Haiti say
that they were hired to help protect him, but they arrived too late.
The United National Antiwar Coalition says that the US and Colombia
can't be trusted to investigate who killed the constitution-trampling
President Moise.
The article lists US interventions against democracy in Haiti.
The Olympic Committee keeps repeating that the Olympic games are
safe, but hedges its bets by demanding participants absolve it of all
liability for anything that happens to them.
National Nurses United calls on the CDC to bring back its mask
requirement for those who are vaccinated.
*Australia Covid outbreak: Delta variant cases rise among fully
vaccinated people. "Vaccines aren’t perfect," epidemiologist says,
but offer lower risk of hospitalization and prevention against spread
of virus.*
Asymptomatic infections are significant mainly because some can spread
virus to other people, and those people's cases may not be
asymptomatic. An asymptomatic case can also stop you from taking a
flight.
I wear a mask when there are other people within a few meters of me,
and I try to keep distance also.
The leaders of Democrats in the Senate proposed a climate and social
welfare bill to be passed via budget reconciliation despite Republican
opposition.
However, planet-roaster Democrats might kill it.
Some Senate Democrats get lots of funds from planet roaster activities,
including: Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly
(Ariz.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Jon Tester
(Mont.).
They also fund plutocratist think tanks (which call themselves "centrist"
to cover up where the center is in public opinion).
No wonder Manchin rejects even the goal of cutting the extraction of
fossil fuels.
*Amazon rainforest "will collapse if Bolsonaro remains president".*
The question is, will electing Lula have a chance of preventing the
forest's collapse?
*Over 10,000 species risk extinction in Amazon, says landmark report.*
If the forest does convert into a savannah, as is expected, most of
the species that live there now would no longer fit in.
General Milley said he feared that the wrecker would try to overthrow
the US government by force.
The wrecker is working on overthrowing the US government, not by force, but by
shouting down those who refuse to support him.
A Venezuelan opposition party accuses the government of jailing relatives of
one of its activists, as hostages.
*Food strategy for England calls for big cut in meat consumption.*
*Progressives Call on Biden to Lift U.S. Embargo on Cuba as Thousands Protest
Critical Shortages.*
Lithuania passed a law to imprison refugees and deny them
internationally required rights.
Even if they are being used as pawns by Lukashenko, they are still
human and deserve human rights.
As Merkel visited the White House, protesters outside demanded that she
remove the monopolies of Covid-19 vaccine manufacture.
Illinois has passed a law requiring public schools to teach
Asian-American history.
I am in favor of teaching the history of immigrants from various Asian
ethnic groups. The crucial basis for understanding that history is
that Asia is a large continent and contains many nations, and
immigrants from all those nations don't have anything in common,
except being human. It is misguided to suppose that they could learn
"their heritage" together. There is no such thing as "their"
heritage, since each nation or people has its own heritage and past
history.
Even groups that have had cultural relations in the past remain very
different. For instance, India and China have Buddhism in their
heritage; that commonality is significant, but small compared with
what is different between them.
Biden promised to reduce the approval of new licenses for fossil fuel
extraction, but instead has speeded it up.
*Rights groups urge Japan to stop real estate project in Myanmar.*
China is imposing multifaceted censorship on most video games,
much as it does on movies.
*The UK won’t meet its ambitious climate goals by making spending cuts.*
*The EU border agency has failed to protect the human rights of asylum
seekers, according to a damning European parliament report.*
US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court
so as to stop the wrecker's right-wing appointees from imposing
permanent plutocratic minority rule on the US.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Citizen's commissions in the UK call for strong action for climate defense.
Politicians don't seem enthusiastic.
Why not? I don't know the details, but I suspect it comes down to
being in thrall to corporations. Corporations tend to be psychopaths;
they care only about their own gain, even if it kills thousands or
billions. And they tend to think short-term.
*Deadly heat: how rising temperatures threaten workers from Nicaragua
to Nepal.*
Even if the weather isn't hot and humid enough to be universally fatal,
it will still tend to hurt people that work hard for any length of time.
Tories aim to privatize parts of the NHS without accountability.
The lack of accountability will enable the businesses to squeeze
staff and patients for the sake of their profits.
That tends generally to be the real motive behind privatization
of government services. This is why privatization of government services
is usually harmful and usually must be reversed.
The arguments offered in favor of privatization tend to be based on
trickle-down ideology, but often that premise is not explicitly
stated. Hunt for it and you'll usually find the flaw.
India's system that distributes food to the poor has broken down due to
Covid-19, and millions have trouble finding food.
Covid-19 was the trigger, but the underlying cause is population
growth. It is possible to reform systems so as to waste less food —
but that is easier said than done. Also, if population continues to
grow, it will require repeated increases in efficiency, which tend to
become ever more of a challenge.
As for putting more land into production, India has already done too
much of that.
Relatives of people killed by the explosion in Beirut protested outside the
home of a minister who is blocking the investigation of why the explosive chemicals were stored in a dangerous way inside the city.
Some officials seem to have known where the chemicals were, long before the
explosion.
In the UK, traveling by plane is cheaper than traveling by train.
In some cases much cheaper.
There are obvious solutions, for any government willing to value the
survival of civilization over the demands of businesses.
The FBI charges that Iranians, working for the government of Iran,
plotted to kidnap several expat journalists that criticize Iran and
take them to Iran,
What they are accused of is a vicious act. It reminds me of what the
US has done to Julian Assange.
More information.
Louisiana passed a law to make peaceful protest near certain "critical
infrastructure" a crime, but the district attorney dropped charges
against a group of protesters that were arrested.
Abortion rights defenders in Texas have come up with targets to sue
to challenge the validity of the new law against "abetting an abortion".
A PAC set up to support plutocratist Democrats is telling lies about
progressive candidate Nina Turner.
Crown Prince Bone Saw is building a model city of the future, using
migrant workers subject to the usual repressive practices of Salafi
Arabia.
The article does not talk about the issue of surveillance, but I bet
the model city will track everyone's actions all the time.
Salafi Arabia wouldn't miss an opportunity to make repression
of dissent more effective.
Manchin's proposed "energy infrastructure" bill would spend heavily on
fossil fuel infrastructure.
An economist punctures the plutocratist arguments that inflation is
terrible.
The real reason plutocratists want to prevent inflation is that helps
people who are in debt, and thus harms the lenders. Most non-rich are
in debt to the rich, so who loses?
*On a Single Day in May,
Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Cooperated in Attacks That Left Four
Palestinians Dead.*
A firefighter talks about getting heatstroke.
Fortunately he recovered in an hour, and went back to containing the
wildfire.
US citizens: call on schools to reject e-proctoring malware.
I would not sign the letter that you can find in this page, even
though I agree with its point, because it contrasts "Black" with
"white". I won't put my name on a statement which does that.
However, what we are asked to sign is the petition, not the letter.
So I signed the petition, and I hope you will, too.
US citizens: call on the US to undertake the UN-recommended steps to
eliminate systemic racism from policing.
US citizens: call on the Senate to include the Invest Act in the
American Jobs Plan.
France will require people to show a "Covid health pass", which is
proof of vaccination or a recent negative test, to enter a
restaurant, a supermarket, or a train.
Checking people's vaccination status is necessary, for now. Doing it
digitally is dangerous because it leads to tracking people's movements
digitally. For a vaccinated person to catch Covid-19 is unlikely
enough that there is no need to identify them.
I also wonder whether people who don't carry mobile devices full of
nonfree malware will be excluded simply for that.
Amazingly, Venezuela has not kept Juan Guaidó in prison,
despite his overt attempt to launch a coup.
Isn't that a crime?
Jamaica is planning to ask the UK for reparations for slavery. I support this.
Haiti needs reparations even more. France should pay back what
it made Haiti pay as ransom, adjusted for inflation.
1/3 of the human population do not have enough to eat. 1/5 of all
young children's growth is stunted.
Covid-19 caused a big jump in these numbers, and maybe in the next
couple of years we can undo that much. But hunger was increasing
before Covid-19, and it won't be easy to reduce. Our society and
systems are broken in a number of ways, and though we campaign to fix
them, we are finding it difficult.
Having fewer children is one thing that is sure to help.
*UN sets out Paris-style plan to cut extinction rate tenfold.*
The US says that Haitain and Cuban refugees won't be allowed into the US if they come by boat.
This resembles Australia's horrible policy.
*Biden defends voting rights — but no word on ending the filibuster.*
Biden is well aware of the situation in the senate, and so are the senators
he is trying to persuade. They all know that the For the People Act
requires ending the filibuster. So I think he is ramping up the
pressure gradually.
*House Democrats tell Senate: exempt voting rights bill from filibuster.*
Wildfires have burned 3000 square miles in Siberia.
At long last, Italy has banned cruise ships from entering the lagoon
where Venice is. This will prevent some sorts of damage to the
beautiful old city.
However, nothing can save Venice if the level of the Mediterranean Sea
rises by several meters, except perhaps a giant dam from Italy to the
Balkans.
An expert on dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks says that Sydney needs
to close more businesses and vaccinate people whose work goes between
households. But there is no need for a curfew.
Australia has put a fossil fuel CEO on the committee in charge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
I hope to see charges of ecocide soon.
Australia has set up a special snorkeling tour for representatives of countries that will soon vote on whether to label the Great Barrier Reef
as in danger.
I suppose the tour will cherry-pick parts of the reef where not much
damage is to be seen, like tours of Israel or tours of the Soviet
Union. Can environmentalists invite the ambassadors to another tour,
to show the damage to the reef?
South Africa's former president Zuma has been jailed for refusing
to testify, and his supporters are rioting.
The riots are threatening transportation of food.
Cuba is blocking internet services that protesters are using to coordinate.
Over 140 protesters and journalists have been arrested; some cannot be
found.
Cuba arrested a journalist who was covering protests, and repression of same, for a Spanish newspaper.
Biden said that the US stands with Cuban people as they protest the shortages caused by US sanctions on Cuba.
Cubans are right to demand human rights,
but they should watch out lest they be used to make Cuba submit to the dominion of multinational
corporations, which will claim to be entitled to exercise those human
rights against human beings, as they do in the US.
How the wrecker's plutocratist rule is different from fascism's
ideology.
This shows that the wrecker is not a fascist, though he may be
more or less equally bad.
Israel gave 10 Palestinian families 10 weeks to leave their homes
in an apartment building that Israel has decided to demolish.
The motive may be to make more room for an officially unauthorized
Israeli colony on Palestinian territory.
Israeli troops attacked protesters in many Palestinian cities.
Right-wingers misrepresent critical race theory; then they make false
accusations which are a parody of the facts of systemic racism.
The article explains how this is standard right-wing practice. They
superficially reverse what progressives say, and don't care that that
mirror image is incoherent and false.
The mainstream media are starting to recognize that digital "toys" for
children are likely to snoop on them.
They do that as a consequence of containing nonfree software. The
user community can't study and fix the software so it doesn't spy, and
that means the users have no protection except to reject these toys,
separately.
I do not consider any digital functionality to be an "enhancement" of
life it is controlled by someone other than its users.
In union there is strength. If users try to "negotiate" with the companies
by rejecting products, they have little clout and little influence.
The article says that the ROYBI Robot "has a camera and microphone to
detect facial and emotional reactions from kids, but all of the
information collected is controlled through a parent or guardian's
account." I am not sure what "controlled...account" means concretely,
but I tend to think that it is not adequate to protect the child's
privacy.
When will the mainstream media realize that snooping is just as wrong
when carried out against adults?
The employees that work for Cook County (which contains Chicago) are
on strike,
and Bernie Sanders came to show support for them.
(satire) *Historic Heat Wave Causes California Wildfire To Catch Fire.*
*Documents Reveal Obama's EPA Approved Toxic Chemicals (specifically,
PFAs) for Fracking in 2011.*
Since these chemicals do not naturally degrade, if they get into
water supplies they will remain there, perhaps for thousands of
years.
We should not allow frackers to keep any secrets about what they are
putting into the well.
An argument that cancel culture is like disinformation, in that both are
forms of manipulation that try to impose a "totalistic" culture that
tolerates no dissent.
At present, the right wing uses disinformation while the left uses
cancellation, but neither method is intrinsically tied to a political
position. Rather, any side's ability to use these forms of
manipulation can use depends on what strengths it has at hand.
*Rapidly Thawing Permafrost Threatens Trans-Alaska Pipeline.*
This can cause an oil spill.
Adopting ecocide as an international crime would mean that individuals could
be punished for their roles in destroying natural systems.
The UK is deporting boat people without even a hearing.
This violates British law as well as international treaties.
As Charlottesville, Virginia, removed statues of Confederate generals,
onlookers cheered.
*The real rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge is how low they can go
for money.*
Two rival prime ministers are disputing power in Haiti.
I would tend to suspect that both of them are gangsters.
Doubts about whether those accused of killing President Moise really
did that.
Feeding raw food to dogs may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
I would not hesitate to prohibit this, for public safety. Of course, there
are other foolish practices that promote antibiotic resistance,
such as feeding antibiotics to farm animals even when they are not sick.
We should put a stop to that.
Frito-Lay is working its staff harder and cutting wages, so now they
are on strike, with community support.
(satire) *California Employees Hesitant About Returning To Office
Currently On Fire.*
Global heating brings more extreme rains. New York City experienced
flooded streets and subway stations because its drains could not cope
with the rainfall.
The cost of adapting systems to cope with this will grow at an
accelerating rate unless we curb global heating.
Biden has forgiven the student debts of students who borrowed to pay for
fraudulent for-profit colleges.
It is ok for a business to teach a specific practical skill, but
dressing them up as colleges is harmful since that leads students into
thinking of them as something like colleges. We should put an end to that.
Biden promised to forgive other student debt,
but he has not done so.
Figures for Europe's progress in renewable electric generation are
partly bogus because they include cutting down trees in the US to burn
the wood.
Planet roasters spend a lot of money keeping elected officials on
their side.
*How big oil keeps a grip on New Mexico — with the help of a major lobbyist.*
Ralph Nader: *Today the silence is deafening. Just try calling your members of
Congress, not as one of their donors or golf companions, but as a
serious informed citizen.*
US citizens: urge clemency for Reality Winner.
The UK is considering an Australia-style response to refugees: if you are
too persecuted to get a passport and a UK visa, and you ask for asylum there,
you'll be sent back to where they persecute you.
A journalist reports on accompanying Iraqi counterinsurgency forces
that were searching for PISSI guerrillas, and not having much success
at finding them.
Taiwan has done a good job of keeping Covid-19 out, even counting the time
that defeating the latest outbreak is taking.
Uttar Pradesh is considering a two-children-per-family law.
Reducing the number of births would be a good goal, but doing it by
punishing the children when a family is overlarge is a cruel method of
doing so.
Belarus is recruiting migrants to send overland into Lithuania. Now Lithuania
is building a border wall.
Previously, Turkey exploited the contradiction
between Europe's adherence
to the principle of giving refugees asylum and its fear of giving it to more
than a few refugees.
Right-wing fanatics in Georgia (in the Caucasus) attacked people who
were organizing a pride parade, and journalists, and killed one of
them.
A new Texas antiabortion law is designed to make it difficult to
challenge in court in advance, because there is no way to determine
who to sue about the question.
The Democratic National Committee's response to Republican voter
suppression laws is pathetically weak:
let's each try harder to overcome the obstacles.
This fails to use the power of collective action.
Big banks must exclude "investments" that destroy the Amazon forest.
*[The Tories'] police bill risks criminalizing homeless people, warn UK charities.*
It looks like this proposed law is meant to spread repression
against the non-rich, non-powerful in all possible directions at once.
*How the BBC let climate deniers walk all over it.*
Meteorologists believed that the recent northwest heat wave was impossible.
Global heating is having effects far worse than expected.
For the short term we must prepare to cope with such heatwaves. But
that path does not lead to survival in the long term if we fail to
curb global heating. Each additional degree of extreme heat locally
will require a lot more work to cope with. And since local extreme
heat could hit any locality, we will need to build up these
precautions everywhere. We don't even know what will be sufficient,
ten years from now.
How do we prepare for the danger of a regional power outage that may
occur while the weather outside is fatal in an hour?
Should we give build for each building an underground shelter deep
enough to keep people safe from fever for days? That would be a new
twist on the Cold War.
And how will human beings put out wildfires in fatal weather? That
work has to be done outside. Will firefighters have to wear cooling
suits?
We could do lots of things like that, in the wealthy countries, one
for each aspect of the harm done by global heating. But it is a
foolish approach. If you think curbing global heating is "expensive,"
you don't understand how expensive it will be to compensate for
failing to do so.
Indeed, we won't be able to compensate for more than a few decades.
Curbing global heating will be much cheaper and
give far better results.
Experts told the G20 meeting that those countries need to spend
75 billion dollars over 5 years to prepare to confront future pandemics.
*In Vietnam, where the state is fighting a fierce online battle
against political dissent, social media "influencers" are more likely
to be soldiers than celebrities.*
I can't understand why many people — or why anyone — chooses to be influenced
by people known to have the goal of influencing them for ulterior purposes.
*Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ are contaminating plastic food containers.*
*Big Pharma Firms Spent More Enriching Investors Than on R&D.*
Deepening persistent drought is causing Las Vegas to work hard to
reduce water use.
Whether it will be able to do this enough is not clear.
Someone killed an Afghan Air Force pilot as well as the real estate agent
he was working with.
Shooting people for accepting soldiers as clients is terrorism.
Covid-tracking in England is showing so many contacts that people
can't possibly self-isolate so often. What does this mean?
To me it says that the disease is spreading too fast for contact tracing
to be effective. England needs to reduce the contact between people.
This article about Australia shows what is needed.
The UN special rapporteur argues that Israeli colonization of
Palestinian territory amounts to a war crime.
Malta will admit visitors only if they are vaccinated against Covid-19.
More than 50 workers in a factory in Bangladesh died in a fire because the
owner had them locked inside.
Bangladesh should start prosecuting factory owners and managers simply
for locking workers in — even when there is no fire.
The Netherlands has resumed some regulations on groups of people
to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Many governments were foolishly eager to throw off all restraints,
but the problem is not over.
*Mexico prosecutors open probe into personal wealth of ex-minister.*
China is taking firm actions to protect Chinese people's personal
data from US access and from some kinds of misuse.
The most dangerous misuse of personal data in China is misuse by
Chinese governments. China's policies will not protect people from
much of that.
Insisting on storing people's personal data within their own country
has good and bad effects — it protects them from many kinds of
mistreatment, while denying them protection from mistreatment by
the power that can hurt them most.
In total, is its effect good or bad? That depends on how repressive
your country is, especially against people who criticize. Most countries
are becoming more repressive — some quickly, some more gradually.
A man in Hong Kong stabbed himself fatally after attacking a cop.
This was on the anniversary of China's declaration of its repression.
The thug department says this was "terrorism". Was it terrorism, or
was it rebellion?
Terrorism is making war on civilians. In Hong Kong, the cops have
provided armed force for Chinese repression. I consider that that
makes them occupation forces rather than civilians. Therefore, I
would say this attack was rebellion, not terrorism.
If I thought that Hong Kongers had a chance of defeating Chinese
forces and freeing Hong Kong, I would encourage them to try. I don't
see any way the Hong Kongers could possibly win, so think it would be
irresponsible to encourage a rebellion there. But I can't say it
would be morally wrong.
What family farms would like to get from US farm policies, if it
isn't redirected to subsidize factory farms.
US citizens: call on Congress not to allow Israel to use US funds to
terrorize and oppress Palestinians.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on companies to stop supporting Republican
supporters of insurrection.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject any infrastructure deal without climate
defense.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to let 4,000 low-risk federal prisoners,
already released, finish their sentences at home rather than making them
return to prison
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: join the Sunrise Movement's national day of action (July
15) for government action to save Earth's climate.
Cops in Haiti say they have shot several people and captured several,
and assert they are some of the group that killed President Moise.
Others say that Moise's own bodyguards shot him.
It may not be easy to find out who really did it, in the chaotic environment
of Haiti where corruption and dishonesty prevail.
If Republicans succeed in rigging the 2022 election, they will turn
the US into the same sort of place.
*U.S. considers visas for vulnerable Afghan women after military exit.*
Please don't spend too much time considering it — it will be needed soon.
*Prenatal test developed with Chinese military stores gene data of millions of women.*
The company will have to provide this data to the Chinese government
if demanded — officially "if necessary for national security", but in
practice in China there is no such thing as refusing.
The US considers it a threat to US national security for a Chinese
company to collect world-wide genetic data, especially about
Americans. I agree. However, China is not the only government that
can collect DNA, sequence it, and use the data against people. Any
government could.
The UK has a system to collect the DNA of every newborn baby.
Over time, that will grow into a national genetic database.
This is dangerous too. And, unlike the Chinese company, this
system does not try to anonymize people. (As we know, anonymized data
is easier to deanonymize than one tends to suppose.)
Correlating people's DNA with medical problems can do wonders
for medical research. We need to develop a system to make this
possible while protecting privacy.
China diverts attention from its crushing of the Tibetans and the Uyghurs
by citing the way the US and Canada crushed indigenous people in the past.
The comparison is valid, and if we look at this as a matter of
competition between powers, it's poetic justice. But if the point is
to save people from repression and injustice, historic whataboutism is
a distraction. Ending the unjust treatment of indigenous people today
is a real cause, but encouraging a new imperialism is not going to
help them. China will lure them, use them, and spit them out, even
faster and more blatantly than the US has done.
The NHS is so underfunded that its backlog of treatments has set a record
twice in a row.
The immediate causes is relaxing Covid-reducing measures exactly as
the Delta variant comes to dominate, but this meets the weakness that
Tories have built up step by step.
*[Some] ALEC Politicians Belong to Neo-Confederate Organization.*
Businesses are proposing to establish a commission to validate carbon
offset schemes. Greenpeace says it won't be strict enough.
* Cruise ships kill whales, leak gray water, and are largely exempt from
US taxation. When they violate the law, they pay the equivalent of a
parking ticket.*
*Justin Trudeau’s love of fossil fuel will only make Canada’s extreme
weather worse.*
*Why declining birth rates are good news for life on Earth.*
I disagree with one point. I think we need to reduce the human
population more than 20% per generation. If in the short term that
leads to somewhat less quality of life, by the 22nd century it will
enable us to distress Earth's natural ecosystems.
*‘Heat dome’ probably killed 1bn marine animals on Canada coast, experts say.*
I am skeptical of what that number means, because if you adopt a
smaller lower bound on size for taking notice of an animal, you could
take in twice as many animals.
Nonetheless, the destruction was enormous, and it may even change
ecosystems.
There is pressure for the US to intervene in Haiti again.
Previous interventions removed President Aristide, brought him back
to be president again, kidnapped him again and sent him into exile,
installed President Martelly, and installed President Moise.
Martelly and Moise were never elected by free and fair elections.
The EFF says that California's digital vaccination certificates are
safe for privacy as long as you avoid the QR codes.
Extreme rain events are mostly due to global heating.
Various countries that had suppressed Covid-19 successfully are struggling to suppress the Delta variant.
Lukashenko is closing all gaps in the official repression in Belarus.
He had a news site editor arrested for covering last year's protests, and blocked access to the news site.
A Republican congresscritter told supporters that the party's goal is
sabotage: "18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff
done."
We who oppose them must not sink to their level. But they are
conscious enemies of our country, and of our democracy, and this
justifies many tactics that are somewhat bad, and that ordinarily we
should scruple to sink to. For instance, making Washington DC a state
(rather than authorizing its residents to vote in Maryland), and increasing or decreasing the size
of the Supreme Court.
As long as we remain solidly more scrupulous than they are, we should
fight to win.
(satire) *[Governor] Ron DeSantis Requires Florida Residents To
Reinforce Bones With Steel, Concrete.*
It worked for Miles Vorkosigan, so why not?
The LA Times mentioned, unusually, the danger of prosecuting news publishers
like Julian Assange.
The article did not mention that one of the main witnesses against
him has admitted that he fabricated his testimony in connection with
a deal with the FBI. Has the LA Times mentioned that?
*The Strange Virus Attacking Republican Governors.*
Warning, it's very snarky.
What those governors are doing is entirely rational: they are repeating
some Big Lies to suck more people into the lunatic death cult which is
the Republican Party.
Two years of preparation for the Adani Carmichael coal mine in
Queensland have pumped out so much groundwater that springs in the
region are drying up.
The reason this mine should not exist is that it's a coal mine and
will speed global heating disaster, but the planet-roaster government
of Australia doesn't care about 30 years from now. There is a chance
that the damage to groundwater can be used to stop the mine.
*Top Economist Warns 15% Global Minimum Tax on Corporations Is 'Way Too Low'.*
Cambridge University wants to avoid the risks of the present Covid
situation by making an enormous deal with the UAE.
Such deals tend to be extremely corrupting to the university.
Biden will make executive orders for the right to repair farm
equipment.
I support the right to repair, of course, but the best way to achieve
that is as part of insisting on free software in the machinery. We
need to make this a step towards further gains, rather that letting
people think that it's the full solution.
EPA scientists report that political distortion of their work continues.
(satire) *Haiti Faces Constitutional Crisis After Assassinated
President Refuses To Step Down.*
Whistleblowers report imprisoned immigrant minors are being abused by
subcontracted prison workers.
Subcontracting undermined accountability. Its purpose is to pay workers less
and mistreat them, but it also affects the people that depend on those workers.
We must make subcontracting in-usual again.
Underwater fracking in the Gulf of Mexico releases large quantities
of liquid chemicals into the water. What effect the chemicals have
on wildlife, or humans that eat the wildlife, is unknown.
Since we need to cut down fossil fuel extraction anyway,
let's start with the particularly dangerous methods, including this one.
The federal government made an unjust website to let poor families
sign up for the increased child tax credit. That was developed
Intuit, which may have been trying to ensure poor families did not
have a way to do without Intuit's services. Aside from being made
very hard to use, it was also designed to treat users unjustly:
it won't work unless you run nonfree software while you use it.
A group of activists developed a convenient site to do the same job.
Alas, it is equally unjust, and for the same reason: it won't work
unless you run nonfree software while you use it.
Filling out forms is generally fairly easy to do in a non-Javascript
web site. How easy it would have been to make a new site that would
have been both convenient and just! But they did not think about the
latter.
If you're a good web developer, maybe you'd like to do it.
Perhaps the People's Policy Project will tell you what you need to know
to design a sample web site that doesn't require Javascript code.
* Politicians must respond to the latest warnings that climate science
has underestimated risks.*
I expect they will respond to the newly discovered risk as half-heartedly
as they are responding to the previously known risks.
An incoherent article celebrates the forthcoming inability to obtain,
in Australia, specialized genetic variant strains of mice and rats
to use for biological experiments.
The article seems to presume that these mice and rats are used in
superfluous, redundant, required product tests that are not really
necessary, so if they are not available, the problem will be addressed
by removing the requirements for them.
Redundant product tests used to be required, and maybe sometimes still
are, but I don't think such tests are where specialized genetic
variants are used. Those are often used for experiments to figure out
unknown biology — and you can't do that with models.
Australia and other countries should maintain their capacity to
elucidate biological systems with experiments on mice and rats. If
you wish to die for a mouse, go ahead, but don't pressure others to do
likewise.
*Australian government must protect young people from climate crisis harm,
court declares.*
Australia's government consists of planet roasters, and they will
do their damnedest to reverse the decision. But if they fail at that,
it may do some good.
On the corruption and violence of Haitian politicians in general,
president Moise included.
*New York Regulations Allow Cops Stripped of Training Credentials to
Be Rehired.*
Israel continues to practice collective punishment by blowing up the homes
of Palestinians that are accused of participating in attacks.
Whistleblowers and victims have tried to inform the public about the
cruelty and deadliness of Canada's forced boarding schools since the
early 1900s. They had to push against a current of legitimization.
*Higher food prices help fuel 40% jump in global hunger — UN agency.*
The US made a deceptive proposal to send Assange to an Australian
prison for the rest of his life after a decade or two in US prisons,
during which time he might be kept in ordinary prison conditions provided
the government doesn't change its mind.
This deal says, basically, "We can cheat you and say it wasn't
cheating."
*More than 8 billion people could be at risk of malaria and dengue fever
by 2080 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unabated,*
That would be most of humanity.
Indonesia has been using Chinese vaccine, and it's better than nothing,
but a substantial number of medical personnel have caught Covid-19 anyway
and cannot work.
* Unlike in previous decades, there are many successful US gun violence
prevention groups with a record of saving lives.*
*The climate crisis will create two classes: those who can flee [for
the time being], and those who cannot.*
The UK has a shortage of truck drivers. The government chose the dangerous
solution of letting each driver drive more hours per day, rather than the safe
solution of allowing more EU citizens to live there and drive trucks.
Afghan women have taken up arms to fight the Taliban.
Now they need military training.
These women provide exactly what has been missing from the fight
against the Taliban: people as strongly committed as the Taliban
themselves. If they had got started 10 years ago, if they now
numbered tens of thousands, they could win the war.
It's sad to see them only now when there is little chance left.
The new mayor of Boston has cancelled a regional plan to fill the
whole metropolitan area with connected surveillance cameras.
The reason they did not know how many cameras Cambridge would contribute is,
I believe, that Cambridge has an ordinance requiring city council approval
for all surveillance technology.
It is a good thing to defeat an initiative for massive surveillance,
but there are already many surveillance systems here. We need to get
rid of them and establish laws to prohibit replacing them.
Greece has put restrictions on bars and restaurants once again,
demonstrating how foolish it was to eliminate them completely.
I have the impression most governments are manic-repressive about
Covid. They get intoxicated with hope, and throw caution to the
winds. After the predictable results of that, they are compelled to
start pulling on the reins. The repetition of this cycle builds up a
feeling of unwillingness to obey restrictions.
*Kuwait arrests poet activist for 'insulting' emir.*
*Colombia’s government must hold genuine dialogue with civil society
and ensure punishment for [state thugs] who have committed abuses,*
according to the OAS human rights commission. They committed these
crimes against protesters in the recent protests, and bystanders.
Israel destroyed Palestinians' tents in a place near the Jordan River.
For many years, Israel has tried to make it very difficult for any
Palestinians to live near the river, attempting to clear them all out.
Declaring their land a "closed military zone" is a frequent tactic.
The president of Haiti was shot by gunmen that said they were DEA
agents.
I don't think they were really DEA agents, because it was the US that
installed Moise as president,
and I think the US could have put in some
other president without shooting Moise.
Haiti effectively has no government now. There is no one officially
eligible to take over as president.
Here's more about the constitutional irregularities of Moise's regime.
The result will probably be chaos.
After the state has been a US puppet for so long, I think it would be
difficult for anyone to exercise authority with much legitimacy,
About the guerrilla resistance to the coup in Burma.
It seems clear that the army doesn't take care to avoid killing nearby
civilians when it fights a battle. It acts like an occupying army in
its own country.
I wonder what the soldiers will do about that. Surely some must be
very uncomfortable with the situation.
Bolsonaro wants Brazil to switch to paper voting, instead of the
computerized system whose security can't be verified.
Brazil ought to use paper ballots, but I can't believe that Bolsonaro
wants an honest election. I expect that he has something bad in mind.
Victoria (an Australian state) will offer sick pay to workers in
insecure jobs.
It is crucial to enable them to stay home if they get sick.
This is a good step, but not enough. Employers for whom
a person regularly works should be required to formalize
that relationship and give sick pay.
*Extreme temperatures kill 5 million people a year.*
In the past, more have died from cold than from heat,
but global heating is increasing the latter.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to support the Facial
Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2021.
This is a substantial step forward, but not sufficient. We must ban face recognition by private parties too, outside of narrow exceptions.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: phone your senators on July 12 to insist on abolishing
the filibuster.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
10 Colombian soldiers have been charged with almost 150 murders,
as part of the "falsos positivos" murder campaign which involved
murdering over 6,000 people around 15 years ago.
The motive for the murders was to inflate body counts and claim
bounties meant for killing rebels.
Nicaragua's dictator Ortega is aiming for completeness in the repression of political opposition.
Tories want to privatize actual medical treatment for the NHS, and
issue contracts in an informal way that facilitates corruption and
fails to assure competence.
The right-wing extremist party Vox made a hardly-veiled threat of violence
against the editor of El Jueves.
¡Viva El Jueves! I often need help to understand it, but once explained,
I enjoy some of it.
The Great Salt Lake is rapidly shrinking, leaving a dry lake bed
full of arsenic-laden sand that will blow away and poison people.
The trial that sentenced Carlos DeLuna to death was an example of
complete contempt for justice and the rights of the accused. A proper
investigation would have supported his claim of innocence, but nobody
bothered to investigate.
This sort of thing (which is not unusual) is one of the reasons to
abolish the death penalty, but not only that. To convict anyone of
anything with such a shoddy trial, regardless of the severity of the
crime, invites wrong verdicts. We should change the system so this
does not happen any more.
The UK will bully countries into cooperating with deportation of their
nationals, by denying visas to other people from those countries.
It feels like hostage-taking to me.
The UK's foolhardy decision to eliminate all Covid-19 distancing rules
will make a many people prisoners in their homes for a long time.
Wearing a mask is a small sacrifice.
The reason Britain builds too few houses is that investors who own
houses and building sites prefer to hold on to them for later. The
Tories don't want to change this. Instead they plan to deregulate —
to eliminate planning rules.
This will create a big windfall for those investors, and a thousand
local forms of pollution and trouble, but won't do much to reduce
housing prices.
The US case against Assange has now lost any way to pretend to be
valid. The US must drop the case.
The case has been based on contempt for law and human rights all
along.
A proposed new WiFi standard, 802.11bf, would allow WiFi devices to
sense the position of people and how they are moving. Even from
someone else's apartment. Perhaps even sensing how your fingers are
moving over the keyboard and what keys they are pressing.
This seems to me like a disaster. I expect that Amazon and other
companies will sell "connected" products containing such WiFi
interfaces, and set them up to watch everyone in range and report.
Belgium plans to return the art works looted by King Leopold from the
Congo, but instead of physically shipping them there, Belgium will
rent them so as to continue displaying them where they are.
One can think of this as reparations for the thefts. It could benefit the
Congolese more than physical possession of the art works would.
Bennett wants to eliminate lots of regulation in Israel to "boost the
economy."
Rich people are always glad to give you the benefit of a little more
of the mythical trickle-down that's going to result from giving them
more leeway and power.
For organized Christian fanatics, abortion is just a recruiting issue.
They explicitly advocate theocracy and killing whoever disagrees with them.
Their attitude towards truth resembles the one that other Christians
long ago ascribed to Pontius Pilate.
A victory against apartheid in Israel: Arab citizens will be allowed
to bring spouses from Palestine to live with them and become citizens.
*Republicans’ effort to deny the Capitol attack is working — and it’s
dangerous.*
The reasons why Covid-19 is much worse than seasonal flu.
The UK government rushed to deport an asylum seeker to Darfur without
waiting for per legally required hearings. A court ordered the
government to bring per back to Britain, if at all possible, so as to
finish respecting per legal rights.
*Global experts urge [Bogus] Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening.*
The idea of "living with the virus" is advocated by plutocratists who
callously disregard the suffering, death or disability this causes,
mainly to the non-rich.
I suggest relaxing regulations on a city-by-city basis according to
what fraction of people in the city have been vaccinated. That would
lead people to get vaccinated.
In order for that to be fair, the government must make sure that
people all across the UK have equal access to vaccination. It would
be wrong to impede vaccination based on (say) race or class, and then
use that as an excuse to punish people for what is not their fault.
*Scientists said [global heating] had made such a heat wave in the [US northwest] 150 times more likely.*
With current trends, *an event so extreme could start
occurring every five to 10 years by the 2040s, they warned.*
*As Big Oil Execs Roam Free, Climate Activist Gets 8 Years in Prison.*
Belarus oppositionists were kidnapped in Moscow and brought immediately to
Belarus without even an extradition hearing,
and accused of plotting to assassinate Lukashenko.
Since then, they have been held incommunicado.
Trout in some rivers are addicted to the methamphetamine that flows
into them after humans use some.
Republicans have redirected the Social Security Administration to
hound poor people
to whom it has given extra money by mistake. It can
demand the impossible, such as to return within a month thousands of
dollars that the agency overpaid them over periods of many years.
Poverty has become so widespread in the US that most Americans can't come up
with $500 in an emergency. The poor people that Social Security helps
can't pay these debts.
And they should not have to. The first step to correct this is to
make the agency, not the benefits receiver, responsible for the
agency's mistakes.
*We Need to Build Economies — Not Walls — to Stop Migration.*
The Santa Fe (Texas) school district ran nonfree face recognition software
and handed copies of 5,000 photos of students to the developer.
That alone should be illegal — schools must never hand student
personal data to any company, except grade transcripts when students
request that.
But the schools did worse than that — they operated cameras and
identified students by their faces. "Overall, we had over 164,000
detections the last 7 days running the pilot. We were able to detect
students on multiple cameras and even detected one student 1100
times!" said a salesman.
Maybe it is acceptable, under strict limits, for stores to try to
detect thieves already known to them. But it is not acceptable for a
store to distribute such photos to any other person or entity, because
blacklist networks are too dangerous to society.
It should be illegal to operate a camera viewing a place the public is
admitted to, that systematically collects or transmits identifiable
face images of some or all of the people it sees.
Because doing that much would enable someone else to run face
recognition on them.
Iceland is turning to a four-day work week, with the help of pressure
from unions.
I personally don't think I could endure anything less than a seven-day
work week, but that's because my work is the heart of my life.
(satire) *Struggling Tech Company Almost Desperate Enough To Start
Making Actual Product.*
(satire) *Study: "Truly Being Seen" Still Ranks Among Worst Possible
Experiences In Human Existence.*
(satire) *21 Million Floridians Evacuated After State Deemed Structurally Unsound.*
Progressives in Congress called on the Pentagon to investigate apparent
undercounting of the civilian casualties of US military combat.
Waste heat from a power plant that powers a bitcoin mine is damaging Seneca Lake in New York State.
*Data predicts 2m UK summer Covid cases with 10m isolating.*
That is an enormous rate of infection — almost one in 30 people.
*Twenty-five years ago, the International Court of Justice stated the
obligation to negotiate the abolition of nuclear weapons.*
No progress has been made, except for the non-nuclear deal with Iran
— which Biden seems to be missing the chance to restore.
The US has concluded that China's diplomatic differences with
Australia reflect a strategy of making countries subservient to China
via divide and conquer.
(That is what I have thought.)
It is useless to treat this as a minor dispute and hope to resolve it
through diplomacy. China doesn't want a reasonable solution, it wants
surrender so as to increase its power.
We must overturn the divine right of corporations' profit so that they
can't drive us into poverty.
*Brazil's lower house approves text of bill to allow breaking of vaccine
patents.*
Bolsonaro opposes the bill, as part of his general policy of letting
Covid-19 win.
Turkish agents in Kyrgyzstan arrested a dual citizen and took him to
Turkey for prosecution, accused of being an ally of Fethullah Gulen.
Erdoğan envisions Gulen as the leader of a giant conspiracy and accuses
all those he considers enemies of conspiring with Gulen. I find those
claims extremely unlikely.
The bullshitter recently quoted Goebbels, Hitler's head of propaganda.
The bullshitter:
"If you say it enough and keep saying it, they'll start to believe
you."
Joseph Goebbels:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it."
Tomorrow the bullshitter might say the opposite, or anything else whatsoever,
but he will continue to be culpable for his big-lie tactics.
The Tories don't care much the Britons who are stuck with firetrap
apartments. They keep adopting solutions for some that omit the rest.
*Brazil's Bolsonaro implicated in alleged graft scheme as lawmaker.*
Politicians who don't think corruption is wrong, in countries where corruption is widespread, will generally have participated.
*The Tories’ abandonment of responsibility to protect us from Covid is
unmasked.*
A former CEO has been convicted of ordering the assassination
of Berta Cáceres.
Her activism was in the way of the dam that his company wanted to
build. The murder followed years of surveilling her.
Before being the CEO of that company, he was in the Honduran military and
got training from the US. I wonder: was that in the School of the Americas,
aka WHINSEC and various other names?
Should the EU admit the remaining Balkan countries?
They do not have a long or strong tradition of democracy, so it seems
likely that they will go the way of Poland and Hungary. Before
admitting them, the EU needs to strengthen its ability to stop
countries from going down that path.
Spain is suffering from a surge in Covid-19 as people there act as if
Covid-19 did not exist any more.
I am in Spain now, and I take care to remind the people I meet
to take precautions — and to set an example by doing so myself.
Mexico has arrested a former high official of thugs on charges of
torturing prisoners.
*The real tragedy of the 2003 U.S. invasion is that virtually none of
its lessons have been learned. It's easy to understand why. None of
its perpetrators have ever suffered any consequences for the damage
they inflicted on the country and the world.*
I think that the death of a million or so Iraqis, and the rise of
PISSI, are additional tragic consequences of Dubya's invasion.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to refuse to meet with
Exxon's representatives.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The Council of Europe's human rights representative urged the UK
not to restrict protests.
Isolating people for long times causes mental problems. So does
working in an overloaded hospital, getting badly sick, and having
friends and relatives die. It is a mistake to assume it is better to
let people spread Covid-19 ad libitum.
A large pension fund in Norway has refused investment in 16 companies
because of their connections to Israel's colonies in Palestinian
territory.
What's even worse than working under robot supervision in an Amazon warehouse?
Being fired by a robot in an Amazon warehouse.
You can help put an end to this: don't order anything from Amazon.
You could even recover some of your freedom by joining me in not
ordering things online. Saying no even once is helping.
Companies are studying what they can achieve with advertising designed to
alter people's dreams.
The clean and simple solution to this problem, which would solve many
other problems, would be not to have computerized speakers in your
home controlled by nonfree software. That gives companies the power
to do many nasty things to you. But most people consider that such
a radical change that it can't even be proposed.
*Capitol attack: what Pelosi’s select committee is likely to investigate.*
*South Korea in talks with mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 billion
doses.*
This has the potential to be of great help in eliminating the danger
of Covid-19. To vaccinate the world faster, we need faster production
of vaccines.
Global heating was having effects in the 1960s that can be recognized
in hindsight. There was even some government concern about the issue.
But it was the 1970s when the public started to receive warnings.
The UK has decided to end anti-Covid distancing measures and invite
spreading of the disease.
*US halts all federal executions amid review of capital punishment.*
This may be the effect of Biden's disapproval of the death penalty.
It could lead to ending the death penalty for federal crimes.
The Supreme Court is eagerly seeking opportunities to allow states to
make elections less fair. First, by accepting voting rules that
interfere with poor voters; second, by ensuring the rich can use their
money to do more than vote.
Nina Turner is running in an Ohio Democratic primary for Congress.
She has worked for Sanders and eagerly supports Medicare for All. Her
plutocratist opponent gets campaign support from Big Pharma, and gets
endorsements from politicians funded by Big Pharma.
Bill Gates is funding an effort to make it easier to collect and analyze
personal data about students. Easier for schools. Easier for companies.
They talk about protecting students' privacy. What they mean is,
protecting it from third parties who were not officially supposed to
get the data. As for protecting the students' privacy from the
companies that have dealt themselves in, they exclude that from the
definition of "privacy".
If the school gives a student's real name to any company, or any other
identifying data, that already violates the student's privacy.
Russia demonstrates the power it gets from Europe's dependence on
Russian gas by pressuring European countries to invest in continuing,
long-lasting dependence on Russian gas.
This should remind Europe that the whole world needs to quickly cut
down its use of natural gas, Russian or not. If Nord Stream 2 is
still in use 10 years from now, that will mean the world has failed to
protect itself from global heating.
If Nord Stream 2 is not still in use 10 years from now, building it
will have been a waste of money. Europe should not spend another eurocent
on that bad investment.
Cutting it off now will punish Putin where it really hurts.
The level of belief in the unsubstantiated claim that SARS-Cov-2
leaked from a lab demonstrates the powerful effect of a loud chorus
repeating the same claim.
This gives the wrecker his power.
Britons are protesting against the Tories' undermining of the NHS and their
plan to privatize it step by step.
*Why Is Biden's Foreign Policy So... Conventional?*
*The Heat Wave Shows [the climate crisis] Is a Workers' Rights Issue.*
Particularly for the low-paid workers that can't work in air conditioning.
Public pressure has cancelled plans for a new oil pipeline in Tennessee.
A pipeline company is using a business-supremacy treaty to sue the US
for blocking the Keystone XL pipeline.
It demands 15 billion dollars.
It does not deserve to get any of that money. The approval of that
pipeline was the result of lobbying and lies by many fossil fuel
companies, starting in the 1970s,
which warped the US government (and others) to act in the interest
of planet roasters rather than the public interest. If this influence
has come to an end, and it blocks planet roasters from doing some
harm, that means it is acting properly. The planet roasters will owe
damages for the damage they succeeded in carrying out.
*FBI Begins Arresting People Accused of Assaulting Journalists at Capitol on
January 6.*
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "Journalism Competition
and Preservation Act".
It threatens fair use, and would give big media
added advantages over small competitors.
Italy has seized another ship that rescued migrants at sea.
*Fury in India over death of 84-year-old political prisoner Stan Swamy.*
He and other activists for human rights and against caste prejudice
were charged with "terrorism", based on files found on one of their
computers — files which analysis suggests were planted by crackers.
Modi's officials may not have been interested in reasons to doubt
the conclusion they wanted to believe.
*UK scientists caution that lifting of Covid rules is like building "variant
factories".*
This is true — but meanwhile there are enormous "variant factories" in the
unvaccinated countries. We need to get almost everyone vaccinated
for Covid-19, so we can eradicate it.
The Taliban are rapidly taking over large parts of Afghanistan.
Government soldiers either run away or surrender happily.
It is interesting that the areas which fought the Taliban bitterly 20
years ago show no interest in fighting it now. Perhaps the opposition
back then was due to loyalty to the individual warlords that lead them.
It is clear that those soldiers don't feel a strong commitment to
the current government's cause. That, I think, is why the Taliban
are winning. The Taliban inspire loyalty. How sad it is to see people
invest their loyalty in a fanatical religion.
I am also sad about the religious repression that Afghan women will
face under the Taliban. But I can't consider forever war better.
What can these women do? Some years ago, they could perhaps have
formed militia units determined to defeat the Taliban. With real
commitment to the cause, just what the Afghan army lacks, they might
perhaps have won. But it seems too late to start now.
At this point, I think their only hope of avoiding some of the
Taliban's oppression is to seek asylum in other countries.
An article about the possibility of DNA-sequencing every baby born in
the UK does not mention that this would be a giant collection of
biometric identification data.
Freedom of speech as applied to vanity plates.
Greta Thunberg rebukes politicians for only making a show of
defending Earth's climate.
Even if this fools many people, it won't fool the air.
A thug tried to use copyright law to block publication of recordings
of how he was treating the protesters at Black Lives Matter event.
It wasn't the first time.
A human US judge could rule that the right to publish news of events
overrides copyright law. The thugs expect that automatic copyright
censorship filters will not be able to make such a judgment.
I support Black Lives Matter, but I would equally condemn thugs for
doing this to people supporting any other cause, even a cause I
oppose. (However, thugs tend to be friendly and helpful to supporters
of right-wing causes.)
It would be ironic if the thug gets sued for public performance of the
song. That too is copyright infringement. But I do not hope that
this happens, because it too would increase the unjust power of
copyright.
(satire) *Congressional Democrats Put On Elaborate 4th Of July Pageant
To Teach Republicans Importance Of Democracy.*
(satire) *Labor Department Announces Plans To Stop Counting Jobs And
Just Enjoy Economy.*
Exxon's CEO is trying to tell people that the admissions about its
planet-roasting lobbying were not really said, so we should forget them.
Europe decided to authorize glyphosate based on experiments
carried out by companies, then described in secret reports written
and submitted by companies. These reports have become public and show
important flaws; they don't prove that glyphosate is safe.
No wonder the companies kept them secret.
Clearly these regulatory decisions should not accept secret studies
carried out by companies with an interest in the outcome.
For medicines, I've argued that tests of their effectiveness and
safety should be independent of the companies involved with producing
and selling them.
Perhaps that should apply to pesticides, too.
It is pertinent that one report says that glyphosate caused cancer
specifically when mixed with other chemicals, as occurs in Roundup.
That one study may not be proof enough, but shows the need to test
Roundup as well as pure glyphosate.
*'What was the point?' Afghans rue decades of war as U.S. quits Bagram.*
If the US had achieved its war aims, the war could have been worth its
human and financial cost, which would have been small. But once it
became clear that that was no longer possible, there was no point in
continuing the war any longer.
(satire) *"Someone's Gotta Occupy Afghanistan," Grumbles Dick Cheney,
Shoving Firearms Into Suitcase.*
The northwest US heat wave was the most extreme heat wave ever recorded.
Forecasting some of the extreme weather disasters we will experience
at 1.5 C, 2C, 3C and 4C of global heating.
Meanwhile, the world may reach 1.5C by 2025,
showing the trying to avoid that by actions with targets in 2050.
US citizens: call on Biden and Senate Democrats to Use reconciliation
to pass a robust climate-focused infrastructure bill.
The condo board of the collapsed Florida apartment building disputed for
a long time what to do about the damaged concrete.
I can understand the disagreement in the board. The owners of the
building were the residents; some of them might have been bankrupted
by a $100,000 expense. If they had realized that the alternative was
likely to include collapse of the building, I suppose they would have
closed the pool and said "Fix the damage right away," or moved out
immediately if the collapse was likely to happen soon. But the
engineers did not tell them (and I suppose did not know) that collapse
was likely.
What a dilemma.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "Journalism Competition
and Preservation Act". It threatens fair use, and would give big media
additional advantages over smaller competitors.
Everyone: call for leniency for whistleblower Daniel Hale.
Minneapolis denounced the Line 3 pipeline and called for its cancellation.
A genetic disease has been cured in several patients by injecting a
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editor into their bloodstream.
Bill Cosby's rape conviction was thrown out because it was based on
using his own testimony (for a civil suit), which he gave in return
for a promise not to prosecute him.
I have no reason to doubt the trial's conclusion that Cosby was guilty
of rape. Punishing rapists is important.
But it's even more important not to let governments cheat and trick
people by making a promise not to prosecute and then breaking it. The
right to refuse self-incrimination is an endangered fundamental
liberty, and we must protect it — even though sometimes it protects
real criminals who committed real crimes that call for real
punishment.
Explaining the constitutional issue at stake.
The plaintiffs wanted those answers so as to help them win damages
against Cosby. Without this promise, Cosby could have cited the 5th
amendment and refused to answer some questions.
*On Ghana's Lake Volta, child slavery is in plain sight.*
A bill to decriminalize drug possession has been introduced in Congress.
Multinational hospital chain owner Tenet Healthcare plans to fire the
striking nurses in one US hospital. They are on strike demanding
safe levels of staffing. Tenet's aim is to be able to maintain
insufficient levels in the US and perhaps in other countries.
I think we should put an end to for-profit hospitals, I know that the
managemment of nonprofit hospitals often engages in some of the same
harmful actions, but I suspect that the for-profit competition
encourages this.
Oxfam denounced the global minimum tax deal because of its designed-in
loopholes.
As people learn more about animals of the deep sea, we might start
overfishing them without understanding that we are doing so.
Some events sell tickets only online, and allow only the person
that purchased the ticket to use it.
Aside from excluding people who can't personally purchase a ticket
that way, this system does something even worse: it violates the
privacy of everyone that attends.
Since you're not going to be compelled to attend, refuse!
New US regulations attempt to check the practice of surprise enormous
medical bills.
Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a former Wikileaks volunteer, has admitted
he had given the FBI false testimony making false accusations against
Julian Assange.
The article shows how the US indictment against Assange repeats some
of Thordarson's accusations.
He initially offered his fabrications to the FBI to try to get out of
possible charges for embezzling money from Wikileaks. In 2019,the FBI
gave him immunity from prosecution on other charges in exchange for
this testimony against Assange.
The article reconciles the US assertion that the push to indict
Assange started only under the bully, with the evidence that the
efforts to indict Assange started while Obama was president.
* Alcohol addiction has long been romanticised in films, TV shows, books
and adverts. Let’s stop glossing over the destructive drudgery and
sheer sorrow of the disease.*
Suggested tactics for defending monuments to the Confederacy include avoiding
the topics of race and slavery.
The whitewashing of the Confederacy has always been based on pretending
that the Civil War was not about whether to end slavery.
One aspect of the Tories' proposed broad repression law would be to
make nomadic life almost impossible, as they would be effectively
forbidden to stop almost anywhere.
People who live in vehicles because they can no longer afford anywhere else
would also be targeted.
*France investigates fashion brands over forced Uyghur labour claims.*
The deal that removed Israeli fanatics from their illegally
constructed colony in Palestine seems to be designed to create an
excuse to permit them to return soon.
*Libyan coastguards "fired on and tried to ram migrant boat".*
European countries support the Libyan Coast Guard, so one has to
wonder whether this support amounts to recruiting Libyan help to kill
migrants.
Climate models show that global heating causes more instances of
extreme weather, but there is a secondary effect, not included in the
models, that causes extreme weather to get stuck for longer in one
place. This makes the effect even more extreme.
A report from the prison says that John McAfee tried to commit suicide
at the end of February.
Venezuela jailed Javier Tarazona after he claimed that the government
had dealings with Colombian FARC splinter groups.
*UN warns of worsening famine in Ethiopia's Tigray.*
The famine is at least partly caused by the civil war.
(satire) *Rumsfeld Family Immediately Squabbling Over Who Will Inherit
Mounted Heads Of Iraqi Civilians.*
(satire) *Donald Rumsfeld Survived By 1 Million Fewer Iraqis.*
Large events in the UK require participants to (1) run nonfree
software to get a ticket and (2) identify themselves.
There is no justification for requiring nonfree software — they could
do the job with free software. Rather than run the nonfree software,
I would choose not to go. It isn't the end of the world to stay away.
Identification is a more complex issue. I can't argue with the
importance of contact tracing for beating Covid-19, if the country
makes a serious attempt to do that. Some countries try to do that
carefully, but I don't think the Tories have tried. They give the
contracts to incompetent companies for political reasons.
For the same reason, I feel safer staying away from those events.
I wouldn't even think of going if I were not fully vaccinated.
But even vaccinated people have a small but significant chance
of catching the Delta variant.
As we pollute the sea and overcatch fish, we are driving the seas towards
mainly jellyfish.
23 Guantanamo prisoners have been "released" to the UAE, which said
they would be free after some months, but every one has been kept in
prison ever since. One may be sent to Russia for more torture and
imprisonment.
US citizens: call on Biden to appoint an FCC commissioner to fill the
vacant seat.
US citizens: call on Biden to introduce a strong climate bill.
Scientific American published an article whose title explicitly stated
a controversial political stand. It said that the authors "stand in
solidarity with Palestine."
Later the magazine took it down.
The article should never have been published there, because Scientific
American's purpose is science education. It should not politicize
that education, except perhaps to defend science from anti-science.
Depending on how far the stated solidarity extends, I might agree with
the authors' position. (I support the existence of Israel as well as
the existence of Palestine.) I might possibly have stated agreement
with the article.
However, the issue as I see it is not about which stance the article
took. If the proclaimed solidarity were with "Rojava", "Hong Kong",
"Taiwan", "the United States", or "Israel", the issue would be the
same. The article belongs in a place where political stands belong,
and Scientific American should not be that place.
Edward Snowden: *Why do conspiracy theories flourish? Because the
truth is too hard to handle.*
The article explains that the most dangerous conspiracies are not
secret, and that imaginary conspiracies serve as a distraction from
them.
*After Britney Spears testimony, lawmakers push changes to
conservatorship laws.*
California Governor Newsom overstated work that the state had done on
preventing future wildfire damage.
I don't know how effective it is to remove some potential fuel from a
forest. On that I will defer to experts. This method can't get out
of control and become dangerous (a controlled burn has that danger),
but it must be a lot more labor-intensive.
Effective action to reduce fire danger requires a tremendous amount of
work and money, because it has to be done over the whole region
affected by drought. And it has to be done over and over, forever.
Switching to renewable energy and curbing the emissions that cause the
drought will be far more efficient in the long term.
Several US states are using algorithms to apportion home care budgets
for the disabled. This has given more help to some, and less to
others. Some patients can't get out of bed without the help they no
longer get; some have died.
In theory, an algorithm can do the job better than humans. The
salesmen will lead you to imagine that the algorithm performs as well
as you could imagine. In practice, it can easily do a bad job. In
this case, some factors were explicitly not considered. Very likely
there are other important factors that human decision-makers used
to recognize on their own.
If the state doesn't have the source code of the program, it should
not use the program.
But the problems described in the article can happen with
a free program, because they result from the absence of any
non-problematical solution.
The underlying problem is that the algorithm has to divide up funds
that are insufficient to start with. The algorithm tries to spread
the insufficiency equally. Is that the best thing to do?
Which is worse: to permanently give each disabled person half the help
perse needs, or to permanently abandon a randomly-chosen half of them?
The answer is not obvious to me.
Progressives tell Biden not to put water privatization into the
infrastructure deal.
Privatizing any service is harmful unless it results in a competitive market
with many competitors.
A Pakistani thug has been charged with the brutal murder of Muhammad Waqas,
who had been charged with blasphemy and then acquitted.
In Pakistan, it is not unusual for fanatics to murder people who have
been charged with blasphemy, or their lawyers, or anyone who stands in
the way of executing them.
Prosecutors in Orange County, California, bully everyone accused
of the smallest offenses into giving a DNA sample, by threatening
false felony charges.
It is easy to manipulate the public with fear into tossing aside civil
liberties for "stronger law enforcement" which will supposedly make
everyone "safe". The danger is that it promotes repression too.
Everyone: call on Cop26 to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop Elon Musk's union-busting by
passing the American Jobs Plan.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
*Secret Internal Report [from a federal prison] Slammed Warden For
Freezing Jail Conditions — Then He Was Promoted Anyway.*
We must put an end to impunity for officials that are callous and/or
incompetent (as well as for officials that are brutal).
People are coming to realize that the predicted climate disaster has
started. Nowhere is safe from extreme weather.
The extreme weather of 30 years from now will go beyond what we call
"extreme" today.
*US supreme court deals bow to voting rights by upholding Arizona restrictions.*
The Republicans on the court seem inclined to give states lots of
leeway for voter suppression. They support "states' rights" rather
than "people's rights".
*Euro soccer tournament under fire for helping spread COVID-19.*
I want to respond, "Duh?!"
Travel to beaches is having a similar effect.
*Italian prisons under fire as video footage shows guards beating inmates.*
A teenager in Zimbabwe fought with a rapist who had invaded her home,
and killed him. Now she is charged with murder for her act of self-defense.
Zimbabwean law leaves doubt about whether self-defense is a legally
valid defense, which makes some women scared to fight back.
Donald Rumsfeld's legacy: *systemic torture, massacres of civilians,
[and] illegal wars.*
A Hong Kong official demonstrated a level of blackwhiting befitting
Republicans.
* Adopting insect protein in pig and poultry feed could reduce UK soya
consumption by a fifth by 2050, says WWF study.*
(satire) *Biologists Discover Roots Of Washington Monument Have Spread Over 400 Feet Underground.*
(satire) *Supreme Court Waits In Line For Hours Before Voting To
Uphold Arizona Restrictions.*
Some scientific journal publishers have resisted a push to reject
articles by Chinese scientists to punish China for its crimes against
humanity.
I support that goal, in general, but these publishers acted rightly in
refusing to reject authors for being Chinese. Scientific cooperation
is part of the basis of science. We must not undermine cooperation
for political campaigns, not even when the campaign is based on a
valid goal.
It should be noted that the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
campaign carefully avoids calling for a boycott of individual Israelis. It targets only institutions.
Biogen developed improper influence inside the FDA to bring about the approval of its drug aducanumab with inadequate
investigation.
This looks like an example of regulatory capture.
(satire) *Senate Passes Bill Wishing Younger Generations Best Of Luck
Stopping Climate Change.*
Trickle-down neoliberalism appears to work as long as stock prices are
rising, but occasionally it crashes. To keep it going requires a
bailout of the rich. Each bailout incorporates more instability which
results in a crash some years later.
The article also discusses the alternatives to continuing down that path.
Maine has prohibited state government use of face recognition, with small
exceptions.
This is a substantial step forward but it may not be sufficient. I
think it does not prevent private businesses from tracking everyone
via face recognition — something we could call the China Syndrome.
Bolsonaro threatens to seize power if he loses the next election,
giving "voter fraud" as an excuse.
EU sanctions against Belarus and against Lukashenko's cronies
are unlikely to endanger Lukashenko's dictatorship.
As long as Russia supports Lukashenko, the west cannot hurt him much.
The lack of rain on the California-Oregon border is endangering fish,
and farmers.
There is no way to keep farming going without enough rain, but I think
that the US government should buy out enough of the farms in such
areas that the remainder will be able to subsist on the water that is
now available. That would be of some help to them. Letting them fall
into bankruptcy is the callous, Republican approach.
*Call for global treaty to end production of "virgin" plastic by 2040.*
Thousands protested in Turkey as Erdoğan took Turkey out of the treaty
against violence against women.
President Duque of Colombia wants to sentence protesters to more
than just 8 years in prison for blocking a highway.
*Republicans Trumpify Electoral System to Steal Future Elections.*
*Yes, Matt Hancock resigned, but standards in government have to be
upheld by more than just public opinion.*
If public opinion learns to say, "Never vote for a Tory," that would
be a good first step.
Russia has jailed Jehovah's Witnesses for arbitrarily declared
"extremism".
Jehovah's Witnesses are annoying, but it is not hard to get them to
leave you alone. There is no justification for putting them in
prison.
The corruption of UK contracting with Covid-testing companies has been
exposed by emails.
Fanatical Israeli colonists agreed to leave the officially unapproved
"outpost" with which they were trying to take Palestinians' land, but
their buildings will remain there, locked and off limits to the local
Palestinians.
That is significant because that particular spot was chosen to help cut
the West Bank in two parts, blocking Palestinians from travelling between.
This is temporary, and the government says it might later authorize
another colonization attempt there. I hope that the strength of
opposition convinces it not to do so. Israel must return the land it
has taken on Palestinian territory, unless it gets an agreement to
trade that territory for other good land.
*Australian universities may allow students to submit written
assignments under pseudonyms and in hard copy amid growing concerns
about [China]-linked harassment over politically sensitive
topics.*
This is a good thing to do, but their pseudonyms should extend to all
aspects of their participation in the school, and they should be
allowed to have multiple pseudonyms for different activities.
Also, everyone should be allowed to submit work on paper
so as to avoid digital systems that snoop on them.
An "important" football match in London became a Covid super-spreader.
It was a policy mistake to permit spectators at that match.
*How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America.*
The German Green Party is being hit hard by accusations of plagiarism
that seem to be exaggerated to hurt the party.
The article is undermined by a mistaken basic assumption: that
plagiarism is related to copyright. The two are entirely unrelated.
If you publish a copy of Hamlet calling yourself the author, that is
not copyright infringement, since Hamlet is in the public domain. It
is, nonetheless, plagiarism.
Legally it is possible to infringe copyright by republishing your own
writings, if the copyright belongs to some other person or company.
But that cannot be plagiarism.
Accusations of plagiarism for short passages seem to be straining to
put the accused in the wrong. That does sound like something
resembling character assassination. Meanwhile, supposing this is big
enough to amount to plagiarism, the one responsible would seem to be
the ghostwriter who wrote the book, not the Green candidate whose name
was on it. She can't be expected to recognize that a passage was
copied from an unidentified book that she may never have read or heard
of.
The mere use of a ghostwriter feels, to me, somewhat like plagiarism.
You are putting your name on something written by XYZ. To be sure,
you paid XYZ for permission to do so, so XYZ won't object. But I
don't think that excuses claiming to have written something you did
not write.
However, if the candidate's book acknowledges the work of the
ghostwriter, that eliminates the issue.
In any case, recognizing that ghostwriting is generally accepted and
does no special wrong to anyone, I would not consider it a major
ethical issue. If I were a German voter, it would not change my vote.
It would be unconstitutional for those who aided the Jan 6
insurrection after taking an oath of office in the US, to take up any
federal or state office.
Three Mexican states have now legalized abortion.
Striking Alabama coal miners picked investment companies that bought
the bankrupt Walter Energy, made promises to the union workers, then
broke them.
In the negotiations for a global treaty on persistent organic pollutants,
the US EPA is pushing to omit UV-238 from the list of them.
Calling on social media companies to ban ads for fossil fuel companies.
This punishment would fit the crime of advertising lies which denied
global heating.
A Coronavirus epidemic 25,000 years ago seems to have killed enough people
in East Asia to have a big selective effect on certain proteins.
Those proteins probably made people more capable of resisting the
infection or its symptoms.
I expect Republicans will condemn China for not sharing those genes
with other racial groups, while secretly looking for people of Chinese
descent to marry. ;-}.
The People's Response Act would move the US towards responding to drug
and mental crises with compassion rather than hatred — with unarmed people
who will help rather than kill.
It might be better for the mental health responders to be local organizations
rather than federal. But that is a detail — it is better to do this
in one way or the other, than not to do it.
Is it wise to make hydrogen by burning fossil fuel and sequestering
the CO2?
Any CO2 that is released into greenhouses or used to carbonate water
will then go into the atmosphere — its sequestration will be
temporary. Anyway, if we already bottle enough CO2 to meet those
demands, whatever CO2 is sequestered this way won't get used for that.
So why grasp at that straw to make this project look good? I have a
feeling that someone is trying to underestimate the cost of storing
all the unwanted CO2 that this process will produce. Perhaps to make
this plant look more green than it would really be.
I suggest building more wind and solar generating capacity than the
average electric demand can directly use, and using the surplus (when
there is a surplus) to make hydrogen. When there is need for more
electricity than the wind and solar facilities are producing, burn
some hydrogen to make up the shortfall.
The Pacific Northwest heat dome is being described as
"once-in-a-millennium" by people who don't understand that heat that
was rare in the past will be frequent in the future.
A few decades from now, the same strength of heat dome will be an
every-few-years event, and worse ones will happen occasionally.
Lytton village in British Columbia suffered three days of
record-breaking heat; then a wildfire destroyed it.
South Korea wants rapes committed against soldiers to be tried in
civilian courts, because they are more likely to convict rapists.
Women's suicides after being raped suggest to me that patriarchal
(Confucian) values, according to which rape destroys a woman's purity
and calls for her (rather than the rapist) to feel shame, still have
power in South Korea. If so, the solution should include confronting
and rejecting those values.
Billionaires can use Roth IRAs to hide billions of dollars of income
from all taxation ever.
There is no need for Roth IRAs. It would be legitimate to wind them all up.
Fossil fuel companies caused the coming global heating disaster by
systematic lies. We should focus on this, and prosecute them.
We can't save ourselves individually from climate disaster. The only
way we can save ourselves is together.
To wonder where your descendants would be "most safe" in a world of
climate disaster is a foolish distraction. That question will become
pertinent only if civilization is failing — which means, if almost
everyone is doomed. But that defeat is only a possibility; it has not
happened yet. Now is the time when humanity can win, so focus on
now!
Billionaires know where their descendants would be "most safe":
in private enclaves intended to survive collapse of civilization.
We need to show them, in a way that they can't doubt, that we won't
let their families abandon the rest of us that way — that their
families' fate is linked with civilization's, so they must work for
civilization's survival if their own descendants are to have a chance.
Lawsuits and other pressure against planet roasting companies are
starting to win in some countries.
The UK is negotiating and signing business-supremacy treaties with countries
that disrespect human rights, and in some cases workers' rights as well.
Exporting production to countries that have lower pay or working conditions
is an indirect way to reduce them in the UK.
* Forest protection carbon offsets that may have no benefit to the
climate have been used by polluters to avoid paying carbon taxes in
Colombia.*
The offset schemes get a seal of approval from a private organization
called "Verra", but its private status makes it less accountable than
a government organization would be.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop all new fossil fuel projects.
To do this sincerely means not looking for excuses to claim that some
of them aren't quite new enough, as the UK just did.
Moving to renewable electricity depends on a lot of mining, and mining tends to
raise both environmental concerns and human rights concerns.
London cops arrested Extinction Rebellion protesters for dumping manure
on the office of a newspaper that downplays the climate crisis.
The Chinese Communist Party presents a thoroughly censored history
in which all the things it did badly have disappeared.
There are similar tendencies in other countries.
For instance, Japan tends to deny war crimes, including kidnapping
women from subject peoples and forcing them to be prostitutes.
Some Americans tend to deny ugly parts of US history,
including slavery, stealing the land from the indigenous peoples,
overthrowing democracies in other countries,
and, since 2000, a number of wars that go on and on because victory
is impossible.
But it is not forbidden in the US to talk about these things.
Mexico's supreme court has legalized marijuana.
It is foolhardy to eliminate precautions against Covid-19 with the Delta
variant increasing the threat.
Some US states, ruled by the Republican death cult, are already seeing
a new surge.
Minnesota "law enforcement" personnel claim to have arbitrarily prohibited travel from a road to a driveway and say they will build a
wall there to prevent it.
The driveway, like the land it leads to, belongs to protesters that
oppose the Line 3 pipeline. The "law enforcement" personnel come from
a local sheriff's department which has been (in effect) purchased by
the pipeline company.
*Nigerian government threatens to rein in press after Twitter ban.*
Biden launched another retaliatory air attack on "Iran-backed militia
groups" which seem to be using drones to bombard US military forces
and US civilian activities in Iraq (for instance, a consulate).
The Iraqi government condemned this attack.
It is the Iraqi government's responsibility to protect foreign
consulates, and US forces as well if it has invited them to Iraq.
This raises the question: why are the forces there?
Are they there to provide military support that Iraq wants? If so,
Iraq should join in protecting them, including counterattacking if that
is necessary.
But perhaps the Iraqi government regards US forces as intruders, and
would rather they were gone. If so, removing them might be the right
thing to do. The only force in the region that the US has a reason to
fight is PISSI, as far as I know.
The Sunrise Movement organized a protest at the White House
criticizing Biden's desperate efforts to find a "compromise" so
weak that Republicans won't kill it.
I suspect that that is a moving target, and that each new surrender emboldens
Republicans to demand more.
If you are going to accept a "compromise" that is a small fraction of
what must be done, at least have the courage to continue describing it
as such — something like. "I thank the Republicans for compromising
on 15% of what we wanted to do for US infrastructure."
The worst part of this "compromise" is that it takes a step backwards.
Venezuela is looking at being flexible about letting opposition candidates
run either separately and in a coalition.
Some opposition parties have been running candidates (and gaining some
seats) all along. But some were excluded, I think, after their leader
Juan Guaido tried try to stage a coup, claiming support from the US.
Not surprisingly, he faced criminal charges for that.
Can anyone tell me whether he still faces charges?
The US deportation thugs transferred 30 immigration prisoners to a different prison and did not say where. This included prisoners who
were on hunger strike.
Human Rights watch says Chinese students in Australian universities
mostly cooperate with China to transmit pressure for classmates and
teachers not to say anything critical about China. Those who disobey
face physical attacks, or punishment of their relatives in China.
As long as they are holding classes online, they should make all the
students anonymous so that they can more safely criticize China (or
any other country).
However, I think that the real root of the problem is having so many
students from a country with a vicious repressive government. When
10% of the students in a university are Chinese, the desire for their
income will tend to carry more weight with cowardly administrators
than academic freedom. By keeping the numbers down, they can protect
themselves from this temptation.
Brazil's congress is considering a law to facilitate taking over
indigenous lands for commercial farming and mines.
However, Brazil has banned outdoor fires, in an attempt to prevent
people from setting fires as they tend to do at this time. In recent
years these fires have burned substantial parts of the Amazon forest,
and the drought would make it even worse.
At least it will enable people to cut down the trees for wood rather
than seeing them all burn.
Los Angeles County recommends that vaccinated people wear masks
in public indoors, just like the non-vaccinated.
Sea level rise will threaten the homes of 410 million people by the end of
the century,
and that is not counting any population increase.
*Russian [thugs] raid journalists probing government corruption.*
The Russian state has abandoned any attempt to heed ideas of justice.
It represents raw power.
Israel is now demolishing Palestinian homes and stores in Silwan,
which is part of what Israel has annexed as "East Jerusalem".
The excuse is that some of the homes were "built illegally", but since
Israel effectively prohibits all construction by Palestinians, that has
little moral weight.
*Malaysian palm[-oil] giant IOI faces labour abuse allegations in new report.*
*Five Asian countries account for 80% of new coal power investment.*
Calling teenagers "children" has real effects. The UK is considering
a law to prohibit marriage of anyone under 18, and this is presented as
"saving people from child marriage."
The stated reason for this law is to prevent the practice of
compelling someone to marry. Doing that is clearly an injustice, but
I don't see that it becomes any less wrong if the victim is over 18.
Maybe it is unwise for people under 18 to marry. Maybe it is unwise
for people under 21 to marry. Or under 31. I clearly don't know, but
it is not about being "children."
The Tories want to impose secrecy on British environmental protection
decisions. That would be very helpful when ministers wish to permit a damaging
development because of the developer's political influence. Would
Tories ever do that?
Remote exam software companies try to have it both ways: telling
schools that they automate detection of cheating while saying that
teachers can and must review recordings and make their own decisions.
It is clear that those programs snoop on students and the interiors of
their homes.
However, the article says nothing about their demand that students
install nonfree software. Even worse, the program talks over a
network, which means you must expect it to be spying on users.
The EFF criticizes the ACCESS Act, a bill meant to stop platforms from
mistreating users. It is too weak in several ways.
The EFF's criticisms are valid, but it doesn't mention a basic
weakness: that it doesn't require services to allow anonymous use. If
the service knows who the user is, it will track the user, and that is
the basis for some injustices.
A Disney heiress explains the attitudes she absorbed from her family
while growing up, which taught her to feel entitled to avoid paying
any taxes.
These people ought to pay lots of their income in taxes. Their
political philosophy enables them to justify escaping from that, by
spending a much smaller amount on philanthropy.
Uber and Lyft corrupted community groups to get them to push the
companies' campaigns to stop gig workers from unionizing.
*The Republican narrative that enhanced unemployment benefits are
dissuading people from returning to work—and that cutting off the aid
is necessary to boost hiring—is running up against reality in the
GOP-led state of Missouri, where officials have yet to see any
significant increase in job applicants since the governor cut off
pandemic-related federal programs last month.*
We don't see much effort by legislatures to stop landlords from
holding apartments vacant until someone offers a higher rent. But if
workers wait for a better offer, legislators insult them and try to
pressure them. That's plutocracy at work.
Toyota has donated lots of money to Republican congresscritters
that have supported overturning the election.
United Nations human rights officials have called on all countries
to stop police from practicing discrimination against blacks.
In Idaho, most of the people not wearing masks indoors are unvaccinated.
Interviews with people suffering from various medical problems
that cause chronic pain.
Many report that doctors didn't believe they had real medical problems.
Amartya Sen: Britain taught India important traditions, including a
free press and democratic elections, but the British Empire prevented
India from taking advantage of them until India became independent.
Right-wingers in the UK are distributing fake leaflets, pretending to
be from the Labour Party, which make extreme statements.
South Africa has sentenced its former president Zuma to prison
for refusing to testify about corruption.
The US Southern Baptists are divided between supporters of the
Republican death cult and people more interested in Christianity.
Why is there an organization called "Southern Baptist"? In 1845, the
Baptists of the south split from the US Baptist church because the
latter had concluded that slavery was wrong. Those in the south were
ardent supporters of slavery. Now they are reverting to white
supremacism.
Tigrayan guerrillas have reorganized and chased the Ethiopian government
forces out of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray.
Mekelle is now under the control of the Tigray People's Liberation Front,
The brain can respond to some kinds of pain and damage by lowering its
pain threshold. This can lead to devastating pain in many parts of
the body.
Fly-shooting nets are so effective for catching fish that they leave
very little to regenerate the stock.
If our goal is to keep fish stocks strong, fish them sustainably, and
provide work for many fishers, it is clear that these nets are
counterproductive -- so we should ban them entirely.
New Zealand plans to ban plastic packaging for some products, as well as the usual single-use plastics that other countries ban.
Rising seas drive salt water into the ground nearby. This can corrode
the foundations of tall buildings and make them collapse.
There are many places in the world where lots of somewhat tall
buildings have been built near beaches. I've seen them near Rio de
Janeiro.
Even if we work hard to curb greenhouse emissions quickly, sea-level
rise will continue for decades, perhaps even centuries. Miami cannot
be saved.
*Brazil could have stopped 400,000 Covid deaths with better response,
expert says.*
A major London museum insists on its responsibility to "accurately
explain the nature of its collections," including how some were
acquired through British imperialism, but rejects demands to hide
them.
I agree with the museum's general stance. I don't know enough about the
specific cases to have opinions on them.
"Decolonization" properly means giving independence to colonies. I
object to extending that word to cover removing things from display,
because that results in absurd hyperbole. Also, it tries to impose
the presumption that two very different issues are just one issue.
Opposing colonization does not imply any particular position on what
to do with objects in a museum that were acquired from colonization --
or with objects acquired by war (as distinct from colonization).
Why the approval of the purported Alzheimer's preventative, aducanumab,
was questionable.
*Republicans can [rig] the next elections through gerrymandering alone.*
In many US cities, wealthier neighborhoods have lots of trees, but
poor neighborhoods have few or none. So the latter become painfully,
even dangerously hot. This is the result of lending practices decades
ago, which will take effort and money to overcome.
Just planting trees won't immediately fix the problem; it may take
some decades for the trees to grow big enough to have much effect.
To give poor neighborhoods the same amount of trees would
require 30 million new trees.
That's assuming they find enough new-tree-ents to grow big.
The EU will draw up work safety standards that apply to working
at home or in other premises that are not "workplaces" of the employer.
Biden called on countries whose citizens are in Syrian prison camps,
accused of supporting PISSI, to take them back
(and prosecute them if appropriate).
I am in favor of this.
Advances in attributing parts of the costs of global heating effects
to specific amounts of greenhouse emissions are likely to lead to a
lot more lawsuits against fossil fuel companies.
I predict that companies will buy laws to give them immunity.
That's the plutocratic way of life.
A French court has prohibited hunting songbirds by putting glue on
branches.
This will help protect endangered species.
I find it hard to understand how anyone can want to kill a songbird
rather than listen to its singing.
US citizens: call on Blinken to end all US training of "security"
forces of Salafi Arabia.
*The case for Brexit was built on lies. Five years later, deceit is routine in
[UK] politics.*
The difficulty of getting the health minister to resign demonstrates
the level of tolerance for deceit.
Indeed, several instances of deceit in government, and outcry in
response to them, were covered up in the past year.
*From Grenfell Tower to the Met police, shirking responsibility has become
endemic.*
On the issue of cancelling books to express disapproval of their authors.
I am terrified by the reported contempt of publishing staff under 40
for freedom to disagree with them. If they succeed in excluding from
publication all disagreement with their ideology -- regardless of what
the ideology eventually comes to be -- the result is likely to be
tyranny.
Right-wing propaganda claims that increasing rates of violent crime result
from local policy changes, which in many cases did not really happen.
The UK plans a new climate impact test for proposed fossil fuel projects.
The test will be applied at the very start of the process, which means that
an enormous planned oilfield in the North Sea will be exempt from the test.
US citizens: call on Congress to protect workers from Amazon's
oppressive surveillance.
Black Lives Matter activists and supporters in the UK are getting
death threats; when they state their support, they are accused of
"inflaming racial tensions".
I think that the thugs who are quick to murder blacks are the ones who
inflame the racial tensions. The issue is how to change their behavior.
*Nathan Maung says [Burmese prison thugs] punched, slapped and beat him, and
kept him blindfolded for over a week.*
They also chained him in painful positions and denied him sleep.
They didn't know, for the first few days, that he was a US citizen.
So his treatment may be representative of how they treat political
prisoners who are citizens only of Burma. But he says that some
prisoners got worse torture than he did.
A "good guy with a gun" shot a murderer. Then a uniformed thug shot
him dead without giving him time to explain.
The bipartisan infrastructure sellout-or-deal include an attempt to
crack down on fraud in unemployment insurance.
Whatever it does, it is likely to screw people who are entitled to
unemployment support.
And the supposed amount to be saved is likely to
be way exaggerated.
Big Pharma corrupts the UK Parliament via hiden funding to various
parliamentary "all-party" groups.
They don't have official status; nonetheless, funding one gives support
to its members, and can therefore corrupt them.
*Amnesty: ‘catalogue of violations’ by Israeli police against Palestinians.*
On the issue of whether two sides in a dispute are "morally equivalent,"
or even in the same region of morality.
False equivalence is a kind of fallacy that can be used to argue for
various conclusions. Often that fallacy is used to defend unjust
power; the article presents examples. The article also presents
examples of false or misleading accusations of use the fallacy.
Was it better to be in Eastern Europe under the Soviet Empire than in
Central America under US dominion? I think that depends on where and
when. Stalin's rule also included massive arbitrary imprisonment and
execution, sometimes almost at random, but he died in 1953 and after
him the repression was less wild and brutal (but it was still
repression).
I have a feeling that the term "genocide" is being stretched when
applied to the repression in Guatemala. It was a crime against
humanity, for sure; but genocide is something different. In order to
be genocide, the killings would have to have been intended as a step
towards eliminating the Maya of Guatemala. Was that the army's
intent? I don't know for ceertain, but the basis presented here seems
insufficient to show that.
*Military Contractors Quietly Boost Donations to GOP Backers of Trump's Coup
Attempt.*
(satire) *Subway CEO Apologizes For Trusting Fish Who Falsified
Documents To Pass As Tuna.*
A book reports that the bully, in 2020, persistently pressed for US
thugs and the army to commit more violence against
protesters.
How Israel should start contacts with HAMAS to reduce the siege of Gaza.
Israeli thugs found Ahmad 'Abdu in his car, which was stationary,
and immediately started shooting him. Then they left without even giving
him first aid.
Then they lied about what they had done.
Youtube has deleted videos in which people talked about their relatives
who are in reeducation camps in China, and showed their own ID cards
to demonstrate their identity.
Youtube has a rule against showing people's identity data.
That rule seems good in most circumstances, but this seems to be
an exception.
Posting videos in a site other than youtube
is not a bad thing. But some of them require nonfree software to view,
and do not — unlike Youtube — have invidious as a workaround.
*Assange's fiancée urges Biden to free WikiLeaks founder to show
U.S. has changed.*
The funeral of Nizar Banat became a protest against Mahmoud Abbas,
president of Palestine.
Palestine has not held an election for many years. The reasons for
this are complex: Israel has put elected officials in prison without
charges, and has interfered with holding elections. The result is that
Mahmoud Abbas remains president by default.
US hospitals, even those that are nonprofit organizations, refuse to
hire enough nurses. The predictable result is that patients get
injured.
Occasionally a patient develops a serious condition that went unnoticed
because the nurses were always in a hurry.
I voted against the Massachusetts initiative, despite agreeing with
the basic idea, because it seemed to me that putting a specific
staffing ratio directly in the law was too rigid. In 20 years that
ratio might call for change and would be very hard to change. Also,
since the nurse I had known had died, I had no one to ask about whether
that number was correct.
The UK's supreme court dismissed charges against participants in
an inconvenient but nonviolent protest
in the name of the freedom to protest.
Russia is excluding candidates from local elections because of their
past support for Navalny.
The US has put sanctions on some Chinese solar panel exports.
This is a tricky trade off between two goals: to punish China for its
repression, about which it shows as little shame as the bully does,
and to continue installing solar generation in the US. I suppose the
aim includes encouraging a buildup of US production which would be a
long-term decrease in the world's dependence on China for this.
*Leaked IPCC Draft Climate Report 'Reads Like a 4,000-Page Indictment'
of Humanity's Failure.*
John McAfee's widow says he was not suicidal and had told her
he would call her again in the evening. She does not believe he committed suicide.
I know nothing about his case and have no opinion about whether he was
guilty or not.
Arizona Republicans are passing a law to make it easy for Republicans
to conspire to reject election results (in case a Democrat wins).
70 members of Congress told Biden that the US should resume its former
recognition that Israel's colonies in Palestine are illegal.
The US Army must not be too timid to punish Michael Flynn
for calling for a military coup.
The US as well as China has carried out research on potentially dangerous modified versions of coronaviruses.
This in itself is not evil; the research has an ethical medical
justification. But there is some risk to it, and we are not sure how
much risk that its. The author calls for coordinated international
standards and oversight for such research.
(satire) *Contractor Informs Biden It'd Be Cheaper To Just Tear Down
U.S. And Start Over.*
(satire) *Raid Introduces Holy Water-Infused Spray That Allows
Cockroaches To Be Baptized And Die As Christians.*
Germany claims that it could stop construction of the new gas pipeline
to Russia, or shut off its use, as punishment for Russian aggression.
I am skeptical of the claim. Once the pipeline is in use, EU countries
would become dependent on it, and their pressure to keep it running would
be even harder to resist then, than their pressure to finish it is now.
The EU should cancel this pipeline and adopt stronger measures to
decarbonize. It needs to do that anyway.
Hong Kong's new head of the thug department claims that "hostility
against the police" is caused by "fake news."
I think that means the state will declare news about unjust actions by
the thugs to be "fake."
Biden campaign workers are suing the Republican supporters that besieged
a campaign bus in Texas.
The owners of the recently collapsed apartment building in Miami got a
warning from an engineer of structural damage, so they started
planning to do the recommended repairs.
That takes time. Alas, the building collapsed shortly before those
repairs were going to start.
What should we conclude about such a situation? Were the owners
negligent or culpable for this?
Is there a way to tell when there is an imminent danger of collapse?
Should all building owners assume an imminent danger from such damage?
When the US shut down Iranian web sites, it included even dissidents.
The New York City thug department has a history of sabotaging lawsuits
by failing to hand over documents that the victims demand for the
trial. It is doing that again now, to Black Lives Matter protesters
whom the thugs attacked last summer.
The Supreme Court's ruling on farm-worker union organizers is a disaster
for the public which extends far beyond union organizing.
It limits all levels of governments in the US in requiring businesses from
allowing access to workers in workplaces.
In Boston: rally to support Julian Assange and freedom of the press.
Monday, July 5, from 11 to 12:30, at Park Street Station on the Boston
Common.
US citizens: call on the DOJ to exclude white supremacists in
America's thug departments, including transit thugs, as well as the
TSA.
US citizens: call on Congress and the president to pass the Green
New Deal.
There is a bipartisan deal to pass an infrastructure bill. What it
does not include, Democrats say they will pass via budget
reconciliation process, a sort of loophole-in-a-loophole.
It seems that the crucial question is not what this deal includes, but
what is included in this deal plus the budget reconciliation bill.
I'd like to see what Sanders says about it.
One thing that is clearly dangerous is the plan to sell public assets.
Another is "public-private partnerships", which is a nice-sounding name
for making the public support the profits of businesses.
Reportedly the investments are slanted towards use of fossil fuels.
Some of that can't be avoided, but it's clear that plutocratists
will try do as much of that as they can.
(satire) *Scientists Announce Successful Experiment To Bankrupt Mouse
That Can’t Afford Cancer Drug.*
(satire) *Infrastructure Talks Come To Halt After Giant Sinkhole
Swallows Capitol Building.*
Florida Republicans have adopted a law that claims to defend freedom
of speech in universities; but it lets the politicians in power
(right-wing politicians) decide when and how to enforce. As a result,
it is likely to defend freedom of right-wing speech, while helping to
restrict left-wing speech.
Masculinity anxiety has held society back from rational advances.
I'm proud to say that I adopted wheeled suitcases as soon as I became
aware of them. Conceptions of manliness didn't hold me back at all.
I never considered myself physically strong, nor made much effort to be so.
I do wonder how the women who used rolling suitcases before they were
a "success" got them. Did each make her own? If not, they had to buy
them somewhere, so where was that?
Plutocratist Democrats including Clinton are trying desperately to
mislead voters so that they won't vote for Nina Turner for Congress.
Some ideas for how the Senate can make filibusters more difficult
to carry out.
The Pentagon has released its report describing Unidentified Aerial
Phenomena which appear to be objects.
In some cases they reportedly affected military systems.
Let's see what explanations skeptics come up with.
UAPs could be devices that send spoofing transmissions to present a
false impression of how they are moving.
The NIH deleted in June 2020 some early SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences at the
request of the Chinese researcher who had previously submitted them.
It is not obvious what those sequences would prove if they were still
available, but given the way China operates, we have to suspect that
officials ordered the researcher to "request" their deletion, and that
the purpose was to impede understanding. I think the NIH should
change its rules for deletions. Perhaps it should allow the submitter
to add notes, such as "I now suspect this was spurious", but not
actual deletion.
China uses its increasing economic power to make other countries expel
Uyghur expats or deport them to China.
This includes Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Burma, Egypt, Turkey,
and other countries.
I've decided to write it "Uyghur", because their own pronunciation of
that name starts with the sound of "uy" rather than the "we"
customarily used to pronounce that name in English.
When Iranian soldiers shot down Ukrainian flight 752, was it a
"disastrous mistake" or was it "incompetence and recklessness"?
The difference does matter in regard to what steps Iran should take to
make sure nothing similar happens again, but it is not a big moral
issue.
Statistical methods suggest that SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in China
in October or early November, 2019.
Australia has imposed a lockdown on part of Sydney, and a neighboring
town.
This is necessary.
An article argues that Australia was foolish to depend on its
quarantine and occasional lockdowns to protect the country from
Covid-19. I disagree.
In an ideal world, Australia (and every other country) would have
vaccinated everyone by now (aside from medically necessary
exceptions). However, given the artificial limitations on vaccine
production, on top of the inevitable difficulties of ramping up
production, Australia was not the most urgent place to use the limited
supplies. It was succeeding, as well as any country, in keeping its
population safe.
Belarus has moved journalist prisoner Roman Protasevich to house
arrest in an apartment.
Likewise Sofia Sapega, who was taken off the plane with him.
This could be a step towards releasing the two. I expect the EU would
suspend its sanctions unless/until Belarus does such a thing again.
PISSI is becoming PISSA as it expands in Subsaharan Africa.
PISSA in Nigeria treats local Muslims with respect, better than other
governments. Which is fine, in and of itself. If it were willing to
make peace with non-Muslims, we could coexist with it.
New Zealand imprisons people for "being insulting", and plans to do this
in even more cases.
It is painful to be insulted, but none of us has the right to forbid people
to insult us.
The US blocked access from the US to some Iranian government web
sites.
That is censorship in the US. Americans have the right to see what
Iran is saying.
The Poor People's Campaign protested Manchin and the Republicans
outside their office in Washington DC.
The UK plans to develop a large new oilfield in the North Sea.
There is no room for this in the carbon budget.
*Ignoring Climate Goals, Biden Administration Greenlights Oil Drilling in
Alaska.*
* New South Wales’ use of environmental offsets to compensate for habitat
destruction caused by major developments will be examined by a
parliamentary inquiry.*
Pakistan is moving to censorship of opinions and art.
Drought caused by global heating is forcing California to burn more
gas and thus causes more global heating.
Forest protectors are attaching themselves to trees and roads to prevent
logging of the remaining ancient trees in British Columbia (Canada).
People in the Florida Keys are starting to recognize that their islands
are doomed because of global heating.
To raise their homes enough to escape flooding in the short term would
cost more than they can afford. Worse than that, it would only delay
the disaster, not prevent it -- the work would have to be repeated,
with increasing frequency, and that would be money ill spent.
Millions of people will lose their homes due to sea level rise,
and for in most cases we can't protect them for very long.
We have to focus on treating the disease, not the symptoms.
The disease is greenhouse gas emission and the treatment is to
curb emissions.
UN special rapporteur David Boyd warns that three proposed repressive
UK laws would *make human rights violations more likely to occur and less
likely to be punished.*
Dictator al-Sisi has taken at least 60,000 political prisoners,
including four activists of the Egyptian Initiative on Personal Rights
(EIPR).
*Part of the EIPR’s role is to investigate the [88]mistreatment of
prisoners, and during interrogations the arrestees were asked why they
had fabricated accounts of the grim conditions faced by those in jail,
even as they sat in those very conditions themselves.*
Al-Sisi can continue this because he has outside financial backing,
from the US for instance.
Palestinian thugs beat Palestinian opposition candidate Nizar Banat
so badly that he died from his injuries.
The expected filibuster against the We the People Act was
not a final defeat. Steady pressure can shift the votes of some
senators and achieve victory.
The European Parliament approved binding greenhouse emissions targets
and other measures to curb global heating.
I think this is not strong enough, but it is still a good step forward.
*At least 64 killed in Ethiopian airstrike on Tigray market.*
When US pilots bombed weddings in the Middle East, perhaps they did
not know what they were attacking. However, Ethiopian pilots ought to
immediately recognize an Ethiopian market.
When the US claims that all the victims of a bombing were guerrillas,
it is hard for Americans to know for certain that this is false. Most
of us have never been to the countries where these attacks occurred,
and we don't know what is normal there or not. We have to decide
whether to believe the US government or believe local people that we
don't know much about. Over time, it has become clear that the US
often denies civilian casualties.
I expect that Ethiopians know what is plausible in Ethiopian life, and
what really could or could not have happened in that bombing.
Malaysia plans to increase the repression of blasphemy and nonstandard
gender or sex roles.
We think of Malaysia as modern, not fanatical.
But countries dominated by Islam tend to be repressive and deny
various human rights in the name of religion, including religious freedom.
US citizens: call on the Senate to repeal the 2002 Authorization for
Use of Military Force.
The House passed this, but that's not enough to do it.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to pass a wealth tax.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: tell the President and Congress: No infrastructure
deal without climate defense.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to give clemency to people imprisoned for
drug crimes.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
Massachusetts citizens: support the Work and Family Mobility Act.
Israel has brought back the requirement to wear masks in public places
indoors, due to renewed spread of Covid-19.
Almost every death (or disability) due to Covid-19 in the US from now
on will be preventable —
due to American's foolish refusal to get vaccinated.
* Brazil’s environment minister has quit amid a criminal investigation
into whether he obstructed a police inquiry into illegal logging in the
Amazon rainforest.*
A juror in the trial of Chinese scientist Anming Hu says that the
FBI tried to railroad him, that the accusation of hiding his ties
to China was visibly false all along.
I wonder what the FBI does when it finds that an agent has tried to
frame someone. Does it say, "Get lost, we don't want to threaten
innocent people"? Or does it say, "Nice try, better luck next time"?
*UK to ban junk food advertising online and before 9pm on TV [and on
internet sites] from 2023.*
The ACLU's criticisms of Amazon's private internet, "Sidewalk".
Some states require unemployed people to use unreliable face
recognition to prove their eligibility for unemployment support.
Failures can cause delays of weeks.
This is a use of face recognition for which a perfectly reliable
system would do no harm, provided it doesn't impose nonfree software
on people. Applicants for unemployment support are required to
identify themselves, after all. What worries me most about biometrics
is the danger of using them to identify people when they are entitled
to anonymity.
(satire) *Experts Encourage Americans To Start Thinking About What
Form Of Government They’d Like To Try After Democracy Crumbles.*
I think we already know the answer. If we don't defend democracy now,
we will have out-and-out plutocracy — still presented as democracy.
(satire) *Conservative Man Tearfully Informs Family Critical Race
Theory Has Spread To His Liver.*
As Israelis build a new colony on Palestinian territory, Palestinians
are trying many ways to drive them out.
The colony is illegal under Israeli law, but the government is only
interested in keeping it growing. Rather than removing the Israeli
lawbreakers, Israel sent troops who are killing some of the
Palestinian protesters.
Smoke from the fires burning outside the colony sometimes hurts the
eyes of the colonists. It must feel somewhat like tear gas.
*Oil and gas donors gave over £400k to Tories* as the UK government decided
to allow new oil wells in the North Sea.
A web of influence linked a rich backer of the corrupter with Crown
Prince Bone Saw and his murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
I doubt that the training included use of bone saws or forced
application of powerful sedatives, but it may have included readiness
to follow orders for assassination.
I see no evidence that either the corrupter or his plutocratist donor
specifically supported murdering Khashoggi. But they surely helped
get the US more closely involved with Bone Saw and Salafi Arabia. If
that didn't directly bring about to the murder of Khashoggi, it surely
helped bring about US support for Salafi Arabia's war in Yemen, which
has killed thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands.
* Rep. Mondaire Jones said [Senator] Sinema [by defending the
filibuster] is effectively arguing that "we should let Republicans
destroy democracy now because at some indeterminate time in the future
they may try again."*
The proposed British law to restrict the right to protest — even
alone — says this is in the name of avoiding noise!
Right-wingers say the law is good because the thugs like it.
Duh! I say that confirms it is bad.
Companies that store data about users in China are required to cooperate
unquestioningly with Chinese surveillance, and must not send the data to
anyone outside China without China's approval.
This protects people in China from non-Chinese surveillance and
profiling, while making all of them totally vulnerable to China.
*Study Warns of Severe Drying for Amazon
Rainforest.*
Biden's slow negotiations to resume the non-nuclear deal with Iran
probably helped push the voters towards the right-wing candidate.
I think the term "train wreck" is too strong, but mostly I agree with
the article's opinions.
The US underestimates the future cost to society of emitting CO2,
which systematically encourages plans to emit too much of it.
Connecticut will stop charging prisoners for phone calls.
Sanders: *Not a single Republican in the United States Senate has the
courage to even debate whether we should protect American democracy
or not.*
Buffalo, New York, has elected a socialist mayor.
She plans to reduce the opportunities for brutality by the city's thug
department, and to redefine "public safety" in a broader way.
The US endorsed the validity of the Peruvian election.
This is definitively better than how the US used to act.
Some geoengineering schemes could capture large amounts of
already-emitted CO2.
These schemes, if they work, could compensate for all the effects of
releasing CO2, by removing that CO2. Running them extra could
compensate for the methane we have released.
Concerns about "playing god" are foolish. That idea is valid only
insofar as it reminds us that these schemes could have risks we won't
foresee. Alas, what we are already doing has enormous risks that we
have already foreseen.
We may need to uses megasystems to sequester CO2. However, I am
concerned that we will adopt this as an easy substitute for reducing
emissions. Fossil fuel companies will say, "Let's continue to extract
and burn all the fossil fuels — and sequester all the CO2 with
olivine and kelp forests."
That would be risky: if the scheme works for a while, that does not
mean it will work without limits. We had better play it safe with our
planet: first, make firm arrangements to cease the dangerous and
destructive practices, thus limiting the damage we will do; then fix
the damage we will not have avoided.
As for the schemes that would only cool the Earth, they don't try to
address the danger of ocean acidification by the emitted CO2, which
could kill all coral, all molluscs, and maybe all crustacians (I
don't remember), because they could not make their shells.
Some research suggest that
high levels of CO2 would change some other animals' behavior, making
them rash, so they would get eaten.
Local cooling to prevent escape of methane might be useful. It
would be much smaller and thus less risky than trying to cool the
whole surface of the Earth.
The EU has accustomed itself to the absence of the UK, and may have been
strengthened by it.
It still has grave problems: its government has only a little democracy,
and it gives the Euro banksters the power to crush countries
such as Greece and Italy that fall into unpayable debt.
*Hong Kong police arrest editorial writer at Apple Daily newspaper.*
Some indigenous Australians criticize Western Australia's bill to
change the rules meant to protect the sites containing ancient
indigenous art.
I support protecting them, but the AHAA seems to say that the
destruction of ancient indigenous art is acceptable provided that the
"holders of this cultural heritage give consent." I do not agree with
that. Those sites include some of the oldest art in the world; it is
part of the heritage of all humanity. No one group should be
authorized to give consent for their destruction. On the contrary, we
should make it very hard for anyone to get legal permission to do
that.
We should not romanticize indigenous humans. They are humans, and
susceptible to corruption by money or power like other humans.
Just now an indigenous group in Canada opposes efforts to protect
the remnant old growth rainforest in British Columbia, because it gets paid for the trees that are cut down.
I think logging is legitimate and useful -- as long as it doesn't go
too far. In particular, we must preserve the small old growth forests
that remain.
The UK's tax system allows people to own second homes, rent them out
part time, and pay no tax on them. The result is more homelessness.
*Four Saudis who participated in the 2018 killing of the Washington
Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi received paramilitary training in the
United States the previous year.*
Apple says it restricts users for their own good, to protect them from
"security risk".
Apple is using the usual narrow definition of "security" — the danger that
third parties might attack the user. However, Apple's own software mistreats
users in several ways, and that is bad security, using a broader and deeper
sense of "security".
Let's stop presuming that all tax dodging by the rich is lawful.
Much of it may be lawful. When corporations route their profits
through a country where the tax rate is zero, it may be lawful. That
is no excuse morally, of course — those laws must be changed.
However, the purpose of using tax havens to hide who really gets the
money is so that someone can commit tax evasion, and that is
presumably a crime.
The article calls for investigating rich cheaters, and changing laws so
that it is possible to nail them.
A proposed EU directive for cutting the carbon emissions of shipping
would permit use of liquified natural gas as a bridge to nowhere.
Compared with the current fuel (heavy fuel oil), it might not reduce
emissions at all.
Cutting emissions will cost a lot of money, but the alternative is
global disaster, so we need to spend it. Permitting "flexibility"
to avoid this is self-defeating.
Republicans blocked the For the People Act with a filibuster, as expected.
Now the really hard fight begins, to convince all Democrats in the Senate
to vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster so that this and other crucial
laws can be passed.
The US Interior Department will hold an investigation of the boarding
schools that decades ago it forced indigenous children to attend.
*Teamsters plan sweeping effort to unionize Amazon workers.*
Bravo!
Nicaragua has arrested journalists as well as political candidates; a
famous Nicaraguan journalist has fled the country after his home was
raided.
When the US prosecutes journalists such as Julian Assange, it lends
support to other countries that do so. Including Nicaragua and China.
The US should stand up for freedom of the press, including the freedom
to investigate government wrongdoing.
*US military training manual describes socialism as "terrorist ideology."*
That is arrant bullshit. Today's socialists are mostly not violent at
all. Some communists are violent, but that is mainly when they are
working for violent communist states such as China.
New article : Worker-owned internet services can still be dis-services.
A third wave of Covid-19 has started in the UK.
It is clear that the government catered to the demands of those who
could not defer gratification to save people's lives. However, the
government's previous bad leadership undermined its authority and fomented
those demands.
When a system behaves badly, the blame falls on the system overall
as well as on the people who exploit its flaws. Neither one can make
the excuse of blaming the other.
Five thugs from Savannah, Georgia, reported that a suspect committed
suicide while they were taking a break from interrogating him.
Mysteriously, the cameras all failed to record anything during that
time.
Is it plausible that the suspect committed suicide? It seems more
plausible to me that the thugs killed him. But there is no proof.
The system has to be changed so that this can't happen again.
Most US cities and metropolitan areas have become more segregated racially since 1990.
*Absurd planning policies that create Britain's housing crisis.*
Video shows that Czech thugs killed a Roma man by kneeling on his neck.
Proposing a draft law establishing the crime of ecocide.
It shows that the law can defend the well being of ecosystems without
the silliness of claiming that the ecosystems themselves "have
rights".
If this is adopted by the International Criminal Court, we will
have another reason to press for more countries to join that court.
Its main opponents are the US, Russia and China.
The Vatican objects to a proposed Italian law which might criminalize
the refusal to teach certain specific ideas about gender, and refusal
to conduct same-sex marriages.
I support same-sex marriages, and adoption by same-sex couples. I
also support the right of people to practice their religion, so any
particular church should not be required to carry out those
procedures. As long as same-sex couples have other places to marry or
adopt, such as state agencies, their rights are safe.
Where I see real injustice is where religious organizations have a local
monopoly (or near-monopoly) on some activities, such as medical care or education.
That near-monopoly gives them power over what people can do.
China imprisons tens of thousands of people secretly and incommunicado,
to break them before charging them with crimes.
Some who were later released report having been tortured,
Guantanamo style.
Covid-19 may have pushed millions of Americans into irrational rage
while other millions practice denial of what they went through.
The denial is spreading the Delta variant, while the irrational rage
pressures people not to take precautions.
More details about San Jose's proposed gun insurance and fee law.
Trevor Aaronson has reported on the FBI practice of prosecuting Walter Mitty terrorists, people whom the FBI has led by the hand into
trying to commit a crime which was never a real possibility.
Thus it can prosecute people who would never have
committed any terrorism if left alone.
This makes the FBI look very effective, but it may not prevent any
terrorist plots that would really have been carried out. It's also
unjust.
Right-wingers have used that truth as the basis for fiction, claiming
that the attack on the Capitol was brought about by FBI entrapment.
Aaronson refutes part of their argument about this.
In addition, if that were the case, the FBI (1) would not have built
up the group to be big enough to do real harm and (2) would have
arrested the participants before they got in a position to do real
harm.
Since 2014, the Australian government has campaigned forcefully against
recognizing how global heating and fertilizer runoff are destroying the
Great Barrier Reef.
Now UNESCO plans once again to label the reef as world heritage "in danger".
Tories blame the failure of British state schools on "decades" of bad
policies, but the policy under funding schools, and food and shelter
for the students in them, was started by the Tories in 2010.
It is still true: the Tories are lower than vermin.
*Trial of Moroccan journalists raises fears of repression.*
The right way to respond to revenge porn: "I'm not ashamed."
*Migrants turned away at border under Biden face shocking abuse in Mexico.*
Fighting Libyan factions filled Tripoli with landmines and booby traps.
The US should sign the treaty against antipersonnel landmines
and lead other countries to do so.
Guatemala's anti corruption judges are facing threats of violence.
(satire) *Every day, women are using pancreatic
enzymes to break down food without any consideration for the sanctity
of these innocent carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.*
(satire) *Organized Crime Syndicate Condemned For History Of Nepotistic Hiring Practices.*
*Global Hopes in Doubt After G7 Fails to Meet Climate Finance Pledges
for Poor Nations.*
We who are vaccinated should continue taking precautions such as wearing masks
when indoors or near other people.
*Hong Kong leader refuses to say how media can avoid arrest in wake of Apple
Daily raids.*
Keeping the boundaries vague is standard practice for promoting
self-censorship through intimidation.
Hong Kong has decided that political accusations won't have jury trials.
Juries give the people power that repressive autocrats don't want
them to have.
Amazon must eliminate the tight control that treats workers as robots, and
injures them along the way.
Please don't buy from Amazon. When people buy things for me, I ask
them to please not buy from Amazon.
Encryption algorithms used in old portable phones were designed to be
weak.
Some numeric parameters were chosen to make breaking the encryption
particularly easy.
A Lunatic Party candidate for Congress said he would send contract
killers to murder a rival Lunatic Party candidate, if the latter wins.
The US Supreme Court allows corporations to direct farms outside
the US to mistreat workers and not be held responsible.
The decision gives corporations more rights than human beings. That
is always wrong. Aside from that, the decision is wrong because it
allows a US entity to organize and direct an action and escape
responsibility for it, by organizing and directing it outside the US.
There is a crucial factual question: to what extent do Nestle USA and
Cargill really control the working conditions on those farms? The
article quotes someone as asserting that they have total control. The
article itself doesn't demonstrate that. It may be true, though.
Obama backed Manchin's proposed compromise version of
the For the People Act.
Sanders said he did not reject it out of hand.
Manchin's version of voter ID requirements is not as bad as what
Republicans are imposing in many states. It permits demonstrating
residence with a utility bill. In some states, that is a lot cheaper
and easier to get than an official state ID.
However, many people who share apartments don't directly pay any
utility bills (though they may share the cost). How are they supposed
to vote? What about spouses that don't have the utility bills in
their name? And adult children who had to move back to their parents'
home?
I don't know whether Manchin's compromise would enable them to vote or
not, since I don't know the details.
The same difficulties could prevent them from getting a
driver's license in some states.
*UN warns of worst "cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetimes."*
Uber and Lyft are cutting pay for drivers
even as they charge customers more.
This is in addition to making customers run nonfree software and
identify themselves, which both Uber
and Lyft
do.
Putin may regret outlawing opposition organizations such as Navalny's.
Some of the sufferers of long Covid injuries can recover their normal
strength and capacity by getting lots of rest for a substantial time.
Society needs to give all of them the opportunity to do this.
What would the Buddha have said about the idea of a 69-meter-tall
statue of him?
*Donations flood in to restore Gaza bookshop destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.*
Some of Princess Latifa's friends report travelling with her, and that
she is not imprisoned, but there are some reasons to wonder if it is
really true.
*Biden Subsidies for Liquid Natural Gas Could Doom International
Climate Goals.*
The EU will reject major exports from Belarus as punishment for
the seizure of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega.
Salafi Arabia and the Houthis are reportedly negotiating peace.
I think Biden is partly responsible for Crown Prince Bone Saw's
decision to seek peace. In addition to the overt pressure,
I expect there was private pressure.
* US study finds households with recent birthdays about 30% more likely
to have positive diagnosis [for Covid-19].*
The effect is strongest for children's birthdays.
It appears that birthday parties are spreading the disease,
and suggests that children are playing a significant role in the spreading.
The study covered most of 2020. It will be interesting to see
what happens in the second half of 2021.
(satire) *CEO Of Troubled Company Accepts Full Compensation For His Mistakes.*
Ralph Nader: business executives control most political decisions,
because they have systematically neutralized the former competing
sources of power in society.
Amnesty International calls for an investigation of Ebrahim Raisi, who
was just elected president of Iran, for the execution of thousands of
political prisoners in Iran in 1988.
The US has eased sanctions against Iran, Venezuela and Syria to facilitate
shipment of products to treat or prevent Covid-19.
It is clearly the right thing to do. It should not have taken so long.
British students protest the London Science Museum for letting Shell
fund an exhibit which leads people to think we can trust in carbon
capture and storage to curb global heating and skip the necessary effort.
Some US bishops are trying to bully Catholic politicians (including Biden)
into opposing abortion.
When John F Kennedy ran for president, some said that it would be
intolerable to have a Catholic as president because he would be a
puppet for the pope. Kennedy responded said that he would not let
that happen.
*Witness K spared jail after pleading guilty to breaching secrecy laws
over Timor-Leste bugging.*
However, that is no excuse for prosecuting whistleblowers who report
wrongdoing by the state. Australia must change its laws.
*UN blasts world leaders for failing to seal £72bn-a-year deal on climate.*
Fujimori's anti-democratic party aims to cancel the votes of Peru's rural poor, saying they are too ignorant to be allowed to vote.
We know what happens when elites don't let poor people's votes count:
they form governments that serve the elites. They are trying it in the US and
they are trying it in Peru.
How will the US government use its influence in Peru? Will it support the
coup, as Hillary Clinton did in Honduras and the bullshitter's servants
did in Bolivia? Or will it support the elected government?
Australian thugs have arrested a journalist for "stalking" an official
at public events to ask embarrassing questions.
Hong Kong's non-submissive newspaper Apple Daily will have to shut down
soon because China has frozen its assets.
The immediate threats to the US do not come from China. They come from
its own flaws.
In the longer term, Chinese dominion is a threat to the world as a
whole. But the US will not be able to help resist that threat unless
it corrects its own flaws.
Barr as attorney general was a thoroughly willing flunky for perverting
the Department of Justice.
Half of Zimbabweans are now in extreme poverty: 8 million now,
up from 6.5 million in 2019 and 3 million in 2011.
*Farm plan poses ‘catastrophic’ threat to Zambian park vital for fruit bats.*
The last frenzied decades before massive global collapse
could see desperate humans wipe out thousands of endangered species
in a futile effort to postpone that collapse.
It's getting so that people will condemn an actor for playing a
character that has any substantial difference from per real self.
President Do-dirty said he will put people in jail for refusing
Covid-19 vaccination.
I think that is unjustly strict. First of all, there are people who
have certain medical conditions for whom vaccination would be
dangerous. However, even for people that have no medical reason to
refuse, actually forcing them is going too far.
It is legitimate to restrict certain activities to vaccinated people,
such as large gatherings, and occupations where other people's safety
depends on vaccination. However, if people who cannot be vaccinated
are excluded from work for not being vaccinated, the state should
pay their salaries, because it isn't their fault.
Once enough people have been vaccinated to reach herd immunity, it
will be safe to let unvaccinatable people return to those jobs,
and generally treat them just like vaccinated people.
*Who Setting up hub to make COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa* for
vaccinating people in poor countries.
UNESCO threatens to decertify Venice unless it stops letting cruise
ships dock.
90,000 disappearances (and plenty of simple murders) in Mexico are directly
related to US-Mexico collaboration in the "War on Drugs".
This is one of many reasons we need to end that war.
Progressives call for repealing the 2001 Authorization for Use of
Military Force.
Voting rights activists have to help disprivileged voters, one by one,
overcome the hurdles Republicans invent to disenfranchise them.
Cory Doctorow talks about the proposed interoperability law, ACCESS,
and endorses the idea of limiting the collection of personal data.
"Data protection" requirements may do a little good — here's one
interesting attempt —
but this is unusual. For the most part, their approach
is too weak.
Some nasty things about Airbnb. For instance, most airbnb rentals
belong to large companies that gobble up lots of houses that people
used to live in.
This could be driving up your rent.
Right-wing Peruvian retired military officers called for a military coup.
This is the standard right-wing one-two punch: fabricate accusations
of election fraud, then cite them as the excuse for a coup. That's what the
right-wing opposition did in Bolivia against Evo Morales.
Congress plans to eliminate the exception in the US Constitution that permits
imposing forced labor on convicts.
When I read those words in the 13th amendment, I thought that their
purposes was to allow sentencing convicts to imprisonment. I don't
advocate abolishing that.
However, the practice of forcing prisoners to work for low pay is a
dangerous abuse, because it encourages passing laws to put more people
in prison. I strongly support eliminating that practice.
The Portland thugs that police protests demand to be allowed to bash
protesters at will. One of them was charged for a gratuitous violent attack
on a protester, so the others resigned from the team.
The city cannot afford to give in to such demands.
California's gang data base includes supposed gang members added at
the age of one year. And other errors that can ruin someone's life.
LinkedIn censors user profiles for China.
The question of whether SARS-CoV-2 jumped to humans from an animal or
leaked from a lab has become politicized, and researchers feel
threatened based on the positions they take.
Scientific progress needs the truth, whatever it is, and this will
make the truth harder to ascertain.
A court ruled that the CDC can't make vaccination requirements for
cruise ships.
Rulings like this make the US rather helpless defend itself against future
pandemics. In other words, they endanger national security.
I expect the Republican-controlled US states to suffer another wave of
Covid-19, with the Delta variant, causing a substantial number of deaths
and permanent disabilities among adults under age 60.
*Climate campaigners claimed a "historic victory" after a Brussels
court on Thursday condemned Belgium for its climate policy that
breaches the country's duty of care and human rights obligations.*
*The amount of heat the Earth traps has doubled in just 15 years, study shows.*
This is related to drought.
*94% of Americans Oppose Big Pharma's Control of Global Covid-19 Vaccine
Doses: Poll.*
Scientists regarding the US west: We have warned about heat waves and
droughts like these, and the fires that will follow.
People who attacked pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have been
convicted of violent crime.
Comfortable and unchallengeable lies paved the way to overthrow
democracy in Germany. It can happen in the US too.
The reason why the US military can't win the wars it has started in
the 21st century is that foreign armies and foreign money normally
can't defeat a strongly motivated guerrilla. Only a local force with
an even stronger commitment to victory can do so. In situations like
that, a US military intervention is usually self-defeating.
US leaders should recognize this.
ALEC is lobbying for more states to imitate Arizona's "election audit".
As far as I can tell, the aim of the "election audit" is to be
secretive and sloppy enough to create the opportunity for liars to
claim to have discovered irregularities, and no one will have enough
facts to refute the claim. Then the Republican anti-truth machine
will convince 50 million Americans to believe the lies, along with
other lies such as "Covid-19 is not dangerous" and "Democrats stole
the 2020 election."
*Critics Warn Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan 'Would Facilitate a Wall Street Takeover.'*
The Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act would shift funds
to support counseling in schools instead of uniformed thugs.
Prefabricated small houses, to fit in spaces which used to hold garages,
can provide a lot more housing comparatively quickly.
Thugs in Lahore demanded gratis burgers at a restaurant. The staff
said no, so the thugs returned the next day and arrested all the
staff, leaving the restaurant unattended, even the machines that heat
oil for frying.
This risked causing injuries or a fire. Fortunately that didn't happen.
Reportedly the thugs have been suspended. They deserve more
punishment than that; what they did was corrupt.
Biden's order to stop issuing oil and gas leases on public lands, or
offshore, was temporarily blocked by a judge. It may be blocked
permanently.
We have to keep this in perspective. If this comparatively small
action is a "key" part of Biden's efforts to avoid global heating
disaster, it's because what he has done so far is small. He has
proposed legislation to do more, but Manchin and Sinema are blocking
those bills. Unless we do a lot more, our future is hosed.
San Jose, California, cannot prohibit guns. It plans to require gun owners
to carry insurance and pay a tax.
Those who possess guns but have not paid and insured them will have
them seized.
I think it is a clever idea. Let's see how well it works.
A leaked meeting recording shows Manchin asking rich donors to "convince"
some Senate Republicans to vote for an investigation of the Jan 6 insurrection,
to help him preserve the filibuster.
Pfizer has pulled out of ALEC, in response perhaps to public pressure.
It is better to cease support for ALEC than continue it,
but whatever motivated the company to support ALEC may find
a new expression — perhaps through PhRMA, which lobbies
for Big Pharma.
Australia will soon decide, secretly, the sentence to impose on the heroic
whistleblower that we know only as "Witness K".
Hungary has passed a law which seems to prohibit showing video
including transgender minors except late at night.
The expression "defend the right of children to an identity that
conforms to their birth gender," when we interpret "right" correctly,
means that no one should try to force or pressure children to be
trans. I agree that children who want to be cis have the right to be cis.
However, I doubt that many children grow up under pressure to be
trans. Few parents are likely to impose such pressure. (The Chinese
movie, "Farewell My Concubine," presents a fictional example that
might be based on some real instances 100 years ago.)
The right-wing advocates of that law seem to twist the concept of
"have the right" by adding, implicitly, "whether they like it or not."
That results in an excuse to impose something on people while
pretending to be respecting their freedom.
People have duties as well as rights. There are times when we must
demand that people carry out their duties — for instance, to pay taxes
so the state can carry out its missions.
But we should reject the dishonesty of pretending that this is done
for the sake of those people, that it constitutes defending their
rights.
It appears that "children" is being used here to mean "minors". I
can't let that practice go by without a rebuke. Treating teenagers
like children harms them by infantilizing them.
*Legal scholars publish letter calling for Stephen Breyer to retire
from Supreme Court.*
He is old; the aim is to ensure Republicans don't get to replace him
as they did Justice Ginsburg.
*Press Freedom Advocates Say 'Congress Needs to Act' to Prevent More DOJ
Spying Abuses — Under Both Parties.*
*Protests against police abuse spread across Tunisian capital.*
Proprietary software tends to be designed to mistreat the user.
The FBI released proprietary software for gangsters which was designed
to snoop on them.
In my view, snooping on those gangsters' crimes was a good thing to
do, for special reasons. Nonetheless, it is a good example of why you
should not use nonfree software.
*Nixon's War on Drugs turned out to be a war on people. President
Biden should end it once and for all.*
The Democratic Party power structure in West Virginia is made
up of people with political stances like Senator Manchin's.
They keep the working-class and nonwhite Democrats from having much influence.
Jesee Jackson: Most West Virginia residents are poor and need more
federal government support. To represent them, Manchin should help
enact the progressive program.
*Rev. Barber Says West Virginians Are Ready for 'Non-Violent Sit-Ins' Against
Manchin for Abetting GOP Voter Suppression.*
Meat made in non-living factories could address issues of
sustainability, and animal suffering. But it creates possible
problems for human beings,
both biological (elimination of the biodiversity, and organ
diversity as in present-day farm animals) and legal (patent-owning
companies could control all meat).
This is not necessarily a reason to reject artificial meat, but means
we should not uncritically assume that all artificial meat is free
of grave problems.
Britons, protect your anonymity —
pay
cash! If you don't defend this right, you will lose it.
When you leave your house, take cash with you, enough for the
purchases you might make.
A bonus: most people find that paying cash leads them to spend less.
US citizens:
call
on Pelosi and Schumer to give the Pentagon none of the
infrastructure plan money.
If you sign, please spread the word!
June 19 is Juneteenth, a new federal holiday which
celebrates
the freeing of slaves in the defeated confederacy.
It was not the end of discrimination by law against blacks —
that continued into the 1960s and was ended by the civil rights
movement.
Systemic
racism continues
to
this day. So we still need more change in that area.
Some Americans
had
antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in blood samples they gave in January
2020, so they must have got infected in 2019.
I don't know whether there is any chance that some other coronavirus
could have triggered formation of antibodies that react to SARS-CoV-2.
If not, those Americans must have caught Covid-19 in December.
*'Let
Scientific Evidence Determine Origin' of Covid-19, Say Heads of US
National Academies.*
A Chinese virologist said this means the investigation of the origin
of SARS-CoV-2 should
move
to the US.
The investigation should study all relevant places and
events. Trying to "blame the US" for Covid-19 is as foolish as trying
to "blame China" for it. It is foolish to consider this as a matter
of rivalry between countries. If any mistakes were made by China, if
any mistakes were made by the United States, if any were made
elsewhere, the world needs to know what happened and understand them.
*Driver accused of driving into protesters in Minneapolis charged with
murder.*
Republican state legislatures are passing laws to help murderous fanatics
get away with such murders.
They will only need to claim that they hit the protesters by accident,
and right-wing jurors could decide to believe them.
A minister in Bolivia's previous coup-installed government sought to
hire US mercenaries to block the 2020 election of the new president
Arce.
China is remodeling old buildings in some cities in Xinjiang as more
appealing oldish-looking tourist attractions. When reporters visit,
they feel the heavy hand of Soviet-style repression.
The FDA must enforce limits on arsenic and lead in baby foods.
For most Americans, a college education is something they need to win
a lottery to get.
*[The US deportation thug organization] Discussed Punishing Immigrant
Advocates for Peaceful Protests.*
China arrested executives and editors of the Apple Daily for
endangering national security. Precisely what actions supposedly had
that effect, China does not bother to answer, since the goal is to
intimidate all journalists.
*Father of [Sofia Sapega, who was] arrested off plane in Belarus,
appeals to Lukashenko for her release.*
*Israeli policeman charged with manslaughter of autistic Palestinian.*
The thug had no reason at all to shoot him.
It is rare for Israeli thugs or soldiers to face justice for killing a
Palestinian. I hope this is the sign of a change.
Eight countries in the Pacific Ocean organized to prevent foreign ships from overfishing, and get a share of the money at the same time,
Emails show that the White House chief of staff, under the corrupter,
tried five times to make Acting Attorney General Rosen investigate
various bogus accusations of voter fraud.
Rosen refused. At that time it was possible for supporters of the corrupter
to retain some scruples about their civic duty.
How plutocracy co-opts and perverts the defense of freedom and
autonomy — using consumerism.
Zuckerberg wanted to buy the rights to "Another Brick In the Wall"
to use it to promote Instagram, which is a very big collection of
bricks
in the wall of surveillance.
Musician Roger Waters, author of the song, condemned Facebook and
stated support for Julian Assange.
Tories plan to deregulate businesses across the board.
Contracts will be awarded in "agile" ways, thus regularizing the Tory
practice of giving contracts to companies run by friends of ministers,
whether or not they have the capacity to do the job or the experience
to do it right
Planning will also
be agile, so that local people won't be able to argue against plans that
would harm them.
(Unless it's a land-based wind farm; Tories want those
all to be blocked.)
*[Minister] Michael Gove's civil service plans threaten impartiality,
says union leader.*
Andy Slavitt hinted at how some Americans (Republicans) were too
selfish in confronting Covid-19, and refused to do the little things
that save other people's health and lives, They should have made
little sacrifices such as wearing masks, keeping distance, getting
vaccinated. What they opposed was the principle that we ought
to help each other. "War on Earth, ill will to men."
He touched the right-wingers' nerve because what he said is evidently
true. So they began spewing gibberish as white noise to drown out his
message.
Delta variant has to start a wave that will kill or disable a lot of
antivaxxers. As people see the pattern that Republicans spread human
death and Democrats more or less protect human life, they may learn
not to trust Republicans.
Global supplies of soybeans, coffee, chocolate, and palm oil will be cut
by global heating, even if we curb emissions quickly.
They will be cut a lot more, over time, if we fail to curb emissions.
US citizens: call on TikTok to stop collecting biometric data, and
delete what it has collected.
Trying to prevent the extinction of eels in the Britain.
Australia has temporarily released a boat refugee from an immigration
prison on a remote island, to reunite him with his wife and children, but
he will still be kept under some sort of house arrest.
Australia has sworn unending repression for boat people, and treats that as
the highest political priority.
Whether or not Covid-19 escaped from a virology lab, such labs
need to take stronger precautions.
*Trump spied on journalists. So did Obama. America needs more press freedom
now.*
*Ikea fined €1m by French court for spying on staff.*
*London's [thugs] corruptly concealed failings in the investigation of
the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.*
The revolving door for violent thugs leads out of one thug department
and into another.
They continue to main and kill, but they suffer the penalty of a lower
salary.
Republicans will thwart a Senate investigation into how Trump's henchmen
seized senators' communication records.
Small amounts of antidepressants in the water make crayfish "bolder",
and more rash. This could affect ecosystems.
* From food standards to fossil fuel exports, Britain’s agreement with
Australia could stop us dealing with the climate crisis.*
*ICC prosecutor seeks investigation into Philippines ‘war on drugs’
killings.*
President Do-Dirty's war was nominally on drugs, but actually against
whoever looked good to shoot.
*Brazil to deploy special force to protect the Yanomami from wildcat
gold miners.*
Measures like this are justified for the protection of the Yanomami
and the land and its ecosystems. However, I have to worry that Bolsonaro
will intentionally pervert or corrupt the mission so that it poisons them
instead.
Biden has endorsed repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of
Military Force.
Bravo!
Will the Republicans in the Senate block this
to make sure the next Republican president can make an excuse
for war wherever he wants it?
(satire) *Senate Passes $50 Billion Bill To Combat Chinese Influence
By Developing Own Pandas.*
That is less of a joke than it might seem. China uses its pandas with
great care as instruments of influence. It does not give pandas, only
lend them, and the contract says that all baby pandas they produce
belong to China. Thus, China maintains its monopoly.
This has been used to induce various countries to panda to China.
A heatwave in the US southwest brings temperatures of 49C, 120F, in
some places.
If we don't curb global heating, people should expect much worse.
The corrupter has inspired thousands of Americans to hate masks the way they
hate Democrats and minority racial groups.
Biden dropped pressure to quickly end burning of coal. Perhaps this
was catering to Manchin.
It is a mistake to give Manchin anything without a concrete deal where he
gives something concrete in return.
Ukraine's president very very much wants Ukraine to be part of NATO.
I suspect that it would be far more effective, for restraining Putin,
to threaten to include Ukraine in NATO than to actually do it. That
is a general principle that I learned about by reading a book about Go
strategy.
*U.N. rights office voices concern on serious violations by Tunisian police.*
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 spreads, it increases the danger.
Being vaccinated is still very helpful, but the chance of catching it
despite vaccination is significant.
Delta can also more easily be mistaken for a cold.
*The number one
symptom is headache … followed by sore throat, runny nose and fever.*
* Rich countries must come forward with detailed plans on how they hope
to meet their climate targets.*
A campaign calls on companies to split from ALEC.
That organization lobbies states to adopt right-wing policies
that hurt poor people, democracy, or both.
Reality Winner has been released on probation, but the US government
practice of imprisoning whistleblowers by calling them "spies" is only
getting worse.
Global heating will make major Australian cities unlivable in a few decades.
*UK health inequalities made worse by Covid crisis.
Disadvantaged groups have faced greatest
disruption to medical care.*
The underlying long-term cause of this is steadily increasing
underfunding of the NHS. Tories keep saying that they will get
more done with less money; but always the result is less done,
so some poor people get squeezed out the cracks.
* The [G7] summit was a golden opportunity to avoid countless deaths.
History will judge the rich world's failure harshly.*
Floating plastic detritus is transporting various marine species
around the world, to other regions where they can become intrusive
pests and wipe out native species.
On top of war, Afghanstan's hospitals are collapsing under the weight
of Covid-19.
A new form of predatory lending lures women into improvidence by
inviting them to imagine the bliss of never worrying about whether you
can afford something. Such bliss can be yours in an instant with
one-click borrowing.
You will still need to worry about how much you are spending,
but you will fail to do what you need.
Imagine when someone combines this with the prosperity gospel. "Start
borrowing now, and since you're a good Christian, your debt will
miraculously pay itself. If it doesn't? You must not be a good
enough Christian."
The US conquest and occupation of Iraq were one cause of its economic
weakness, which is enabling China to move towards dominating the world.
I think that its plutocratist decadence is, however, another cause.
(The two are related.)
If this were no more than a matter of competition between countries, I
would say, "Let the (most capable) country and system win." The
reason I don't say that is that China would impose a totalitarian
hell.
Protesters in London and Glasgow objected to plans to deport to Jamaica
a man who has lived in the UK since he was a toddler.
*This G7 reflects our G-zero world, ruled by self-interest instead of global
ambition.*
*Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years.*
Netanyahu's great achievement was to eliminate Israel's will to make
peace with Palestine, and replace it with the will to subjugate
Palestinians for ever.
He has postponed dealing with the corruption charges against him by
being prime minister. With luck, the prosecution will soon start and
prevent him from holding that office again.
Netanyahu's great achievement was to eliminate Israel's will to make peace
with Palestine and replace that with the will to rule Palestinians for ever.
*Pelosi: "beyond belief" that [the corrupter's] DoJ chiefs didn't know
of secret subpoenas.*
If it is true that they did not know, it follows that the corrupter
had undermined their control of the department in order to use it
to undermine the US government.
Since it appears that the leftist candidate has won Peru's presidential
election, the right-wing candidate is making bogus accusations of fraud.
The next right-wing step may be to spend a lot of money to create a
false impression that the election was stolen. It worked in Bolivia;
it might work in the US; it may work in Peru if people don't organize
to stop it.
US citizens: call on Zuckerberg to endorse laws prohibiting algorithmic discrimination.
This is a half-measure. Collecting people's personal data endangers
them in many ways, and discrimination is only one of them. It also
harms society in various ways — for instance, boosting hate groups
and conspiracy fantasies; this is not an issue of discrimination by
Facebook, even if some of the hate groups might practice or advocate
discrimination.
We should not allow anything comparable to Facebook to exist.
In Mexico, 1/4 of the population — 31 million people — have had Covid-19.
I'd expect this to mean around half a million deaths and a larger number
with persistent disabilities.
Deep sea explorer Sylvia Earle: we must "protect marine areas and stop
eating tuna."
She may be right regarding people in wealthy countries that most
seafood we eat is a luxury. But not in poor countries. I've read
that around a billion people around the world depend on seafood for
their sustenance.
Of course, most of them are not eating expensive tuna. They are
eating whatever they can catch near where they live. The people
who eat canned herring are not splurging.
I don't want to rush to stop eating tuna in sushi, especially since I
only rarely have sushi at all. But I endorse firm measures to end the
practice of fishing for tuna, and all forms of overfishing,
non sustainable fishing, and ecosystem-damaging fishing.
In some places, "sushi" usually means tuna and salmon only. Other
kinds of fish may not even be available. I suggest that people try
the other kinds of fish, aside from tuna and salmon, to discover how
delicious they are.
Human Rights Watch: *Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights
abuses.*
Tunisians are protesting after uniformed thugs beat a prisoner to death.
The prisoner was accused of selling illegal drugs. Repression of drug
dealers is a bad solution to a gratuitous problem created by
prohibition of drugs. The best way to handle drugs that can harm
their users is to legalize the drugs and regulate them so that fewer people will use them.
China is teaching Tibetans to thank the Party for everything they have
in life.
Argentina has captured a fugitive Chilean colonel who was one of
Chilean dictator Pinochet's murderers.
*Azerbaijan swaps 15 Armenian PoWs for map of landmines.*
It is very bad to plant antipersonnel landmines.
Assad's forces have shelled a hospital again.
The court that convicted Craig Murray for writing about Salmond's
trial decided not to let him appeal the peculiar basis given for convicting him.
How can it make sense to let a court decide whether its decision can
be appealed? "Is there any chance that you might have misjudged this?
No, that's impossible."
Factory working conditions in southeast Asia encourage the spread of Covid-19 among the workers.
One candidate for mayor of New York wants to fire most of the public
school teachers, leaving only a few "great" teachers, each of whom
will "teach" 400 students.
This would make sense if students were mass-produced, identical machines.
The American people are in strong agreement about the most important
policy questions, including preserving democracy. These policies have
2/3 support, and many have 3/4 or 4/5 support. A small minority of
extremist Republicans are hijacking the country.
(satire) *Thrilled BlackRock Announces Purchase Of 800,000th Dream Home.*
(satire) *Over 2 Million Left Brain-Dead In Most Brutal Day Of Culture
Wars Yet.*
New repressive Republican laws in various states allow thugs to decide
whether a protest constitutes a "riot", and to punish anyone nearby when some unidentified person commits a crime.
Paleontological evidence suggests that global heating may heat both summers and winters the same amount.
That would lead to painfully hot summers.
Israeli thugs have arrested over 2,000 Palestinians, in many cases
over obviously bogus charges.
Some were protesting; some were at home. Some are journalists, but
journalists were arrested despite not being at protests.
Sometimes the thugs attacked protesters with violence and then did not
let them get medical treatment.
Sometimes the thugs did not allow volunteer lawyers to meet with the
prisoners.
Israel demanded that Egypt block the shipment of construction materials
needed to rebuild Gaza's destroyed houses, on the grounds that some of it
might be used to rebuild HAMAS's military facilities.
Fortunately, Egypt is disregarding that demand. Biden pledged funds
to help rebuild Gaza, and must have urged Egypt to allow in the
necessary materials to do it.
*EU leaders urge unfettered probe into origins of COVID-19.*
I too think that is called for. To achieve it calls for not giving
presenting the possibility of a lab leak as wrongdoing by China.
It would be a mistake.
How should we fund the development of drugs to treat resistant diseases?
This article proposes that governments fund them to do the
development, and later are entitled to the drug at a reasonable price.
That could be good if all governments will be entitled to the drug
at a reasonable price. But I suspect that all but the sponsoring country
will have to pay through the nose.
Inviting Big Pharma companies in will surely mean letting them gouge.
They will find an excuse, or simply insist.
I think that the drug-manufacturing know-how should be available to
any country that either (1) is poor or (2) sponsors drug research
appropriately for the size of its economy.
The European Parliament voted to support liberating Covid-19 vaccines.
This is non-binding; the parliament has no say over such questions.
A UK appeals court endorsed the right to state dissent from
established political views about what respect various individuals deserve.
The UK continues to impose censorship in other ways,
but this is an important step forward. Unless overturned, it means
that people in the UK cannot impose political censorship by law simply
by saying, "Your views are harming me!"
*Climate and nature crises: solve both or solve neither, say experts.*
People of Bristol are working on making an accommodation between their
conflicting views about Colston, and political values.
I hope that the targets of racism and the targets of economic
inequality learn to work together. Together they can win.
Amnesty International presents more reports of torture of Uyghurs and
other Muslims in Xinjiang.
Having a leader that isn't everyone's worst enemy is winning back
trust in the US.
Pedro Castillo, a socialist candidate, has won the election for
president of Peru, subject to reexamination of some of the ballots.
He is not an extremist, and said he intended to continue a market economy,
but he wants to raise taxes on extractive foreign companies.
Naturally, the right wing is fabricating charges of fraud, as is its
strategy nowadays.
*Single-use bags, plastic bottles, food containers and food wrappers
are the four most widespread items polluting the seas.*
Russia labeled the Jehovah's Witnesses as an "extremist group" and has
attacked their prayer meetings, sentencing some of them to many years
in prison.
This is inexplicable, since they do not advocate violence, or agitate
against Putin.
The European Parliament voted to demand sanctions against Hungary and
Poland for violating the rule of law.
The wrong those two countries are carrying out consists of infringing
the independence of the judiciary.
Asking the International Criminal Court to investigate the deportation of
thousands of Uighurs from Tajikistan to China.
The discovery of unmarked burials of indigenous children who died at a
Canadian boarding school — which they were forced to attend — has
compelled Canada to offer settlement for legal disputes about
forcing indigenous children to attend those schools.
The purpose of these schools (which were spread across Canada) was to
disconnect indigenous children from their parents, their culture, and
their language. That in itself was cruel, but the schools also
practiced direct physical forms of cruelty, including giving the
students inadequate food.
Canada set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate
the crimes of those schools, but has not implemented its recommendations.
Australia's planet-roaster government wants to spend 600 million to
build a new gas-powered generator that won't be fully utilized,
and isn't necessary.
At least, it isn't necessary for providing electricity. I am sure
some construction companies and fossil fuel companies desperately need it.
US citizens: call on Biden to fire and replace one of the USPS board
members, to assure the firing of DeJoy.
The effects of PTSD on US war veterans are exacerbated by the fact that the US doesn't want to be a society which cheerfully accepts killing.
We want to be a society that fights wars only when just.
Thus, veterans feel guilt about what they have done in war.
This makes a paradoxical contrast with the fact that the US fights so
many avoidable wars that one can hardly keep track of them all.
For most of these wars, there is no possibility of
real victory, which means the US has to choose between indefinite
prolongation and politically unacceptable voluntary defeat.
Perhaps the best way to reduce the harm done to Americans by PTSD is
by learning to be less ready to fight a war. If we only fought when
there was a reason to be proud afterward of having fought, perhaps we
would fight fewer wars, fewer veterans would suffer moral injury, and
those who did could be welcomed back and healed.
Other countries have similar problems. Samantha Crompvoets
interviewed Australian veterans about war crimes, and stated
conclusions that the Australian government would rather silence.
Right-wing trumpery: running ads on Facebook for Green Party
candidates in the hope of dividing Democrats, and pretending not to be
who they really were.
The Sri Lanka pollution ship disaster can be traced to the country's
debts, which forced it to lease its ports, long term, to foreign investors
that didn't care about safety.
The UK and the EU are headed for a trade war.
Bogus Johnson saw a collision coming, and pretended for political
purposes that it would magically go away.
*How Tories changed their tune on Northern Ireland protocol.*
In Britain, smokers overall give more support to discouraging smoking
than to protecting the right to smoke.
Tobacco is death for the smoker, as well as disgusting for everyone
else. I wish I could magically help everyone quit. Nonetheless, I
oppose prohibition of tobacco, on grounds of personal freedom.
China will impose political censorship on movies in Hong Kong.
If you are in Hong Kong, the only way to get copies of movies is through
unofficial channels, sharing from people in countries which have only some
of the oppressive systems that Hong Kong and China have.
Right-wing Italian prohibitions want to repeal the law that allows making
deals with informants in the Mafia.
They want to have their cake (long prison sentences) and eat it too
(get confessions and convictions).
*The Biden Administration Is Routinely Sending Mexican Children Back to
Danger, Report Finds.*
The US military is the largest socialist entity on Earth.
Strange how officers tend to despise socialism.
The US Labor Department's new workplace rules about Covid-19 fail to
require most workplaces to do anything to protect employees.
An enormous group of investment funds are calling on governments to
speed up greenhouse emissions reduction.
Two notable exceptions are Blackrock and Vanguard, which deserve
specific rejection by the public.
If these funds are serious about the matter, they could exert strong
pressure on corporations as stockholders. Their lobbying power could
be significant too.
The UK has received the suggestion to fill a shortfall in funds for
universities from low-income graduates,
by reducing the income threshold above which they must repay their
student loans.
That sounds like the sort of soak-the-poor plan that Tories would love.
(satire) *Pfizer Announces Breakthrough Medication That Will Treat
Executives To New Chalet In Swiss Alps.*
The would-be tyrant had the Department of Justice seize communications
records of Democrats in Congress and their staff and relatives,
as part of a leak investigation.
In this article, an official claims this was meant as punishment, not real investigation.
Chip factories in Taiwan are having trouble getting enough water, as Taiwan
suffers form a drought.
Global heating will lead to more and worse droughts there.
Powerful countries should not allow their manufacture of any critical
product to be concentrated in one region or a few regions. Such
centralization leads to vulnerability — to various kinds of problems.
The way to reduce the vulnerability, to threats of many unrelated
kinds, is to disperse production.
Anti-corruption crusaders in Guatemala have been charged with crimes that
are incredible.
I can't imagine that anything could motivate those influential people
to intentionally found a political party and list a dead person as
participant. Why not find a living supporter to list instead?
I conclude the charges must have been fabricated.
Colombia's former president Santos was previously the defense minister
and thus ultimately responsible for the over 6,000 murders committed
by soldiers during that time. He says that he took action to stop the
practice when he determined it was happening. Nonetheless, he asks
forgiveness.
Santos said that the pressure for the murders came from the then
president, Alvaro Horrible (Uribe).
I think that those who killed, or encouraged or facilitated the
killing, ought to be prosecuted for it.
An article about keeping an invasive species as pets (Australian
possums in New Zealand) presents the usual emotional pleas, plus a
peculiar nonsequitur about colonial history.
Perhaps it would be safe and reasonable to permit neutered possums as
pets in New Zealand, provided they are not allowed outdoors. The
article does not say whether the pet-owners interviewed do that.
One of them has a cat, too. Cats in New Zealand are a similar case.
Even in the US, cats that are allowed outside devastate many species
of birds. If you want to have a cat, please keep it indoors and
protect wildlife.
The UN official in charge of food aid accuses the Eritrian army of
starving people in Tigray.
One Indian village is praying to a new goddess, "Mother Corona", to stop
the disease.
That's where religion comes from.
The G7's agreement on a global tax system for multinational companies
will mostly increase tax revenue for their home countries. It won't do much good for poor countries they operate in.
*Whistleblower Craig Murray Sentenced To 8 Months In Prison Over His
Reporting On Former Scottish First Minister's Trial.*
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the "millionaires
surtax", which would establish higher tax brackets for individuals
with incomes over a million dollars a year.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: remind Senator Manchin that the For the People Act has
overwhelming bipartisan support.
Many Greek workers are on strike against a labor "flexibility" bill that would
weaken their position in some ways against the demands of employers.
Amnesty International: *The self-interest of G7 countries is the
biggest obstacle to ending the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of
campaigning organizations said today.*
To vaccinate the world fast requires building a lot more vaccine
factories, fast. This requires eliminating the patent obstacle
and making the vaccine companies teach others how to make those
vaccines.
Under the present circumstances, with the way Big Pharma has corrupted
the field of pharmaceuticals, patents on medicines to a lot of harm
and very little good. (Patents in other fields don't do as much harm,
but they still do very little good.)
Any blow against the patent system will be a
good thing.
However, building the additional vaccine factories may not be
necessary. If China will finish vaccinating the world by early 2022,
we might not have any way to speed that up by much.
Student groups call on corporations to quit the US Chamber of Commerce
unless it stops lobbying against climate defense.
Right-wing campaign groups are saying that CEOs are engaging in
"corporate-run communism" when corporations state their opposition to
voter suppression and election sabotage.
They know that right-wing lunatics today will accept any lie that
supports their side.
The Fossil Fuel Exit Strategy presents a path to low greenhouse gas
emissions that is feasible with no new technology.
Maine has passed a law to divest from fossil fuel assets.
Every government on Earth must do likewise.
(satire) *Children’s Museum Docent Reminds Guests
Not To Touch The Kids.*
A Dutch court ruled that Shell must reduce its greenhouse emissions.
A company executive makes fallacious arguments that this is unfair.
*Wealth Tax on World's Billionaires Would Raise $345 Billion a Year.*
(satire) *Desperate Employer Offers Basic Dignity To Incentivize New Hires.*
A growing problem: resistance to fossil fuel infrastructure now
frequently downplays the main danger of extracting and transporting
fossil fuels — that they might leak methane into the air, or be burnt
and release CO2. This example does not trouble to mention it at all.
What's with these people? I get the impression that they are more
concerned with who owns certain land or waterways than with whether
civilization survives.
Ironically, the same can be said of the companies that want to extract the
fossil fuels.
The reason not to build the Line 3 pipeline applies to every other new
oil or gas pipeline, every new refinery, and every new well or mine:
there is no room in the world's carbon budget
for any more fossil fuel infrastructure.
Kevin Strickland was convicted of murder in 1979. Since then,
everyone involved in his case agrees he was falsely convicted, even
the prosecutors. The governor of Missouri is grasping at straws to
excuse keeping Strickland in prison anyway.
These strict "law and order" fanatics believe that it should be
unthinkable to question a court's decision to punish someone. Unless
that person is trying to destabilize our democracy for right-wing
ideology.
Columbus, Ohio, thugs have been charged with crimes for spraying pepper spray on peaceful protesters who were violating no law or order,
and for covering up lies.
A Louisville thug faces criminal charges for nonfatal brutality:
hitting a suspect on the head with a stick while the latter was
kneeling with his hands up.
No matter what that person was arrested for, or what he had actually
done, nothing can justify hitting him under those circumstances.
Prosecuting thugs for unjustified violence even when it is nonfatal is
crucial for teaching them to practice self-control as required for a
police officer.
New York State has made gun manufacturers legally liable for damages caused by the manner of marketing or selling guns.
I want those activities to be better regulated, but I am concerned
that this law may be unfair on account of vagueness. If those
companies are to be required to obey new rules, the rules must be
clear.
*San Jose mayor proposes gun owners carry insurance and pay annual fee in wake
of mass shooting.*
I am in favor of this. Gun owners should also have to get safety
training and keep the guns in ways that prevent theft or unapproved
use of the gun.
*Venezuela says payments to COVAX vaccine system have been blocked*
by US sanctions.
Rep. Cori Bush put FBI director Christopher Wray on the spot while he
was testifying to Congress. She demanded a copy of the records that the FBI had collected on her protest activity.
Australia's government wants to give the WTO more power to make
countries bow down to foreign businesses.
This is indeed the purpose of business-supremacy treaties,
but few governments dare to admit they advocate that purpose.
Now that a court found "apparent favoritism" by ministers in choice of
companies to get UK contracts, how will that make future decisions
less corrupt?
The old UK method was that ministers had to resign when visibly
tainted. Now, like US Republicans, Tories don't object to corrupt
ministers, as long as they are Tories. So the question is whether
this will weaken ministers' hand in disagreements with civil service
professionals.
I don't have confidence in that.
*Voluntourism: new book explores how volunteer trips harm rather than help.*
*Oregon house expels Republican who helped far-right rioters enter capitol.*
That is the treatment Republicans bent on insurrection deserve.
The G7's pledges to donate an insufficient quantity of Covid vaccines
constitute a total failure.
Unidentified aerial phenomena may appear to be "out of this world",
but they are in fact mundane objects that appear mysterious due to the
circumstances of the view.
None of them are evidence for alien visitors.
US citizens: call on Congress to fully fund a zero
emission transit policy now.
US citizens: call on Biden to lift sanctions that are blocking Covid relief.
Artificial light at night on coastal reefs seems to kill 20% of young
clownfish there.
Ethiopia has built a large dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt and Sudan
worry that by retaining water in Ethiopia, it will reduce their share
of the water.
Egypt and Sudan have coasts, and can do solar-powered desalinization
(very expensive) to purify sea water. That is the only solution for
the medium-term — the only way to make enough potable water for the
growing population.
In the long term, curbing and then reversing population growth is the
only way.
The UK has reopened too fast; the Delta variant of Covid-19 is spreading.
This was quite predictable.
What the UK needs is leadership in taking the steps to prevent
transmission. But it won't get that from Bogus Johnson, whose
repeated policy changes have not given Britons a reason to trust his
judgment.
Officials' breaking their own hygiene rules have led Britons to
disregard the same rules.
It looks like Russian agents poisoned author Dmitry Bykov with
novichok in 2019.
The Keystone XL pipeline has been cancelled. The owner yielded
in the face of Biden's decision to revoke the permit.
Now what about the Line 3 pipeline? That would carry tar sands oil
too, if it is allowed to be built.
Former Guatemalan soldiers face charges for murdering and disappearing
people during the US-supported dirty war.
Koch money and the US Chamber of Commerce are behind senators Manchin
and Sinema's stubborn defense of the filibuster.
Texas Republicans have launched the "1836 Project" to teach a distorted version
of the reason for Texas's secession from Mexico.
I expect that the Mexican government and Mexicans elites found the
rapid arrival of so many border-crossing immigrants in Texas worrisome
in itself, independent of the fact that some of them illegally had
slaves.
I suspect that one of the aims of this project is to pave the way for
an attempt to take nondemocratic control of the US government,
or else secede.
The UK wants to exempt the big banks from the plan for global businesses
to pay tax in the countries where they get the income.
Even if those banks do pay an adequate tax rate — and I won't take a
minister's word for that! — it is still important to make them pay tax
in each country where they operate.
When writing about unknown aerial phenomena (UAPs), it is soooo
tempting for writers to presume that at some of them are sightings of
actual objects that are actually moving at their apparent high
velocities with their apparent rapid accelerations.
They look like that, but many are not that.
The term "unidentified aerial phenomena" is better than "unidentified
flying objects" because it rejects that presumption — but we need to
remember not to let the presumption sneak in later.
I find it implausible that alien visitors with high technology would
fail to conceal their presence from us, supposing they were trying to
do conceal it.
Due to the deferred US taxes on capital gains, the richest 25 US
billionaires paid an effective tax rate of 3.4% on the increase of
their known wealth.
How CNN fought the bully's secret demand for Barbara Starr's email
metadata, which was supported by secret court filings.
The story is somewhat vague about the ultimate result. It appears
that CNN ultimately did have to deliver some of this information.
The US government should stop persecuting whistleblowers. The US
government should build precedents and laws to prevent persecution if
a subsequent administration sets out to persecute whistleblowers.
*Poll Shows 83% of Americans Believe So-Called 'War on Drugs' an
Abject Failure.*
US citizens: call on the Secretary of Defense to have Michael
Flynn tried for advocating a coup.
The UK NHS is hiring nurses who don't have nursing qualifications.
This, along with the lack of nurses, results from many years of
gradually reducing the NHS's funds, together with the refusal to spend enough on training nurses
and the refusal to employ immigrants.
*San Francisco may be first major US city to hit herd immunity, experts say.*
Mining destroyed the caves on Banaba Island (also called Ocean Island)
that preserved water in periods of drought. Nowadays, when their
desalination plant breaks, they have only sea water to drink.
Lukashenko plans to make protesting a crime.
Also insulting officials — which is also a crime in many countries that
don't sufficiently respect freedom of speech. France is an example.
Human rights defenders in Australia are calling for an end to
imprisoning people secretly.
Australia keeps the identity of such a prisoner secret by threatening
the relatives and friends who know about per disappearance.
A trial held in secret is likely to be an unfair trial. That is true in
Australia just as in the UK, Belarus,
or China.
There is no reason to suppose that "Witness J" really broke an
Australian law, or that perse did not have an overriding justification
for doing so, as Witness K had.
Feral peacocks have become a nuisance in the northern LA region.
I am perplexed by the idea of "relocating" the peafowl. Peafowl
originated in India; in California, they are an intrusive pest
species. There is no reason to protect them.
In India and Europe peafowl were traditionally farmed to be eaten.
We could
Bahrain's political prisoner Husain Barakat died in prison from Covid-19.
Prison tends to put prisoners (and guards) in danger of catching
Covid-19. That has been true world-wide. Putting someone in prison
for legitimate political activity, which repressive governments such
as Bahrain tend to do. Thus, Bahrain's repression was responsible
for Barakat's death.
The UK government will pay landowners for increasing forest cover
in specific beneficial ways.
A PR agency for fossil fuels greenwashes its business by
pledging to reduce the greenhouse emissions of its own activities.
That reduction is insignificant compared with the increased use of
fossil fuels by others caused by its own PR work.
Companies that extract or deliver fossil fuels have used this
distraction tactic for years.
Joseph Stiglitz: don't listen to people that claim inflation is a real
worry now.
(satire) *Revolutionary New Driverless Car Requires Zero Functional Technology To Generate Profit.*
The Sunrise Movement demands Biden stop trying to make a ruinous
compromise with Republicans that only want to make him fail.
I would like to support the Sunrise Movement. However, I found it was
impossible to participate in any of their activities without running
nonfree software. When I saw that was completely true, I
unsubscribed. I wish they would fix this so I could support them.
The Federal Anti-Solitary Taskforce has developed specific targets for ending
solitary confinement in US federal prisons.
Solitary confinement is a kind of torture, but the word "tortuous" has
nothing to do with torture. It describes a road or path with many
twists and turns.
New Zealand's prime minister tentatively endorsed a big effort to
reduce use of fossil fuel, and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions.
A conman cheated would-be supporters of the bullshitter's campaign by
collecting for a fake campaign organization with the fake support of
the bullshitter's relatives.
If your aim is to con people. what better place to seek victims than
among people who want to be lied to? The difference between a fake
charlatan and a real charlatan is a subtle point.
Netanyahu approved the right-wing march in old Jerusalem that
officials had previously forbidden.
I suspect he aims to create difficulties for the new government that
will probably take office next week.
*Nicaraguan police arrest third potential Ortega opponent.*
How many other Nicaraguans might possibly run against Ortega?
Is there anyone in the country that certainly won't do so?
*Knowledge of medicinal plants at risk as (indigenous) languages die
out.*
African activists are making some progress campaigning against female
genital mutilation.
The Australian government plans to weaken environmental protection
laws, and thus "fast-track extinctions."
Erdoğan is now trying to entirely abolish the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party).
The party did well in an election,
so Erdoğan launched a civil war against Kurds and announced victory.
Then he held a new election in which the HDP did not do so well.
Whether this was because nationalists were elated by the "victory" of
Turkey over part of Turkey, or because some HDP voters were dead, I
don't know.
Biden appears to overlook al-Sisi's practice of taking relatives of
dissidents as hostages to intimidate them.
The plan for the NHS to distribute patient data (or use of it) has been
postponed for reconsideration.
It's very useful to make medical records available for medical research,
but there must be a very strict system to prevent it from being used
to judge people or discriminate between them.
"Sharing" is something that people do with people; let's not use that
word for this.
Bogus Johnson's former advisor said he had witnessed dishonesty among
the ministers, but has failed to give any evidence of dishonesty.
The nastiest forms of Republican election sabotage are those designed
to destabilize the system of counting votes.
The bully did pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden's son.
His lawyer, Giuliani, did this on a phone call, of which a recording
has now leaked.
Ratko Mladić has been finally convicted of genocide in Bosnia.
He ordered the Bosnian Serb to kill Bosnian Muslims with the aim of
driving Muslims out (euphemistically referred to as "ethnic cleansing").
El Salvador convicted Sara Rogel of aborting a pregnancy, and sentenced
her to 30 years in prison.
She has been released by a judge after 8 years in prison.
Nevada will prohibit useless lawns in the Las Vegas area, because
the grass wastes scarce water.
Criticizing the fashion for making documentaries as stories, and
prioritizing empathy (for individuals) over understanding (of a
phenomenon that affects individuals).
Something like this has happened in textual journalism. I sometimes
stop reading an article because the "human story, feel for this human
who was hurt" part is too big and heavy compared to the part that
explains what's going on (events that may hurt lots of people).
The House of Representatives once had rules that allowed something
comparable to a filibuster.
Segregationist Democrats tried to be counted as absent one moment
and present the next. In 1890, the House stopped permitting them to
be counted as absent while actually physically present.
US citizens: tell Congress that the federal infrastructure bill must
be big, bold and green.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
California is in deep drought, exacerbated by global heating. Many
farms will be idle this year for lack of water. There may be big
wildfires again.
I wonder whether lakes will have water available to put out the fires.
*China funneling billions into harmful production of beef, soy and palm
oil, says campaign group.*
Researchers say that the economic impact of global heating disaster, in 2060,
will be twice that of Covid-19.
African great apes are predicted to lose 90% of their habitats.
Their survival in the wild could be impossible.
Turning off the light in half the windows of a large building can reduce
bird collisions by a factor of ten.
In Australia A plague of mice is destroying crops, even houses,
but the poison that might be effective would kill endangered parrots,
as well as predators that eat mice.
NYC unions plan to move their retirees onto Medicare Advantage programs whether they like it or not.
These insurance programs reduce the subscriber's costs when the subscriber
is more or less well, and can increase them by thousands of dollars when the subscriber needs expensive medicines.
*Hawaii bill seeks to gut funding aimed at protecting environment from
tourism.*
Republican state governments are using federal funds, meant to support
poor families, to fund phony "crisis pregnancy centers" whose purpose is to
spread religious opposition to abortion.
*Top Japanese virologist warns of risks of Tokyo Games during pandemic.*
The Olympic games tend to do lasting harm wherever they are held:
to homeless people, to anonymity (via public surveillance), and to
the public treasury.
If your city proposes to hold them, I suggest campaigning against the bid. This has been successful.
The EFF analyzes the Supreme Court's decision about the CFAA.
It pretty clearly rejects the twisted interpretation that was
used against Aaron Swartz, then at the end creates some doubt.
The US informs other countries about drug mules so that those countries can catch them and imprison them. Most of these drug mules are old,
and many have been tricked into carrying drugs.
Aside from the special case of cognitively impaired old drug mules,
what about drug mules in general? Many of them claim to be duped,
too. Some of those are lying, some are telling the truth.
What of those who participate knowingly? Indeed, they are committing
crimes. But what purpose is served by practice of imprisoning them?
As far as I can see, it does a lot of harm to them, and achieves
little good for anyone else. The whole War On Drugs does more harm than good, even when it concerns drugs that are dangerous.
*How Third-Party Auditors Make Oil Industry Fraud Possible.*
75,000 customers of Amazon filed cases demanding arbitration, so
Amazon withdrew the rule saying that customers can't do class-action
suits.
Companies should not make their customers or employees use arbitration
instead of suing. If what happened to Amazon convinces companies to
stop, that will solve the problem. But if arbitration requirements
continue, we need laws to negate them.
(satire) *Biden Offers Infrastructure Concession By Partially
Demolishing Brooklyn Bridge.*
*In a secretly recorded video, GOP Oregon lawmaker tells protesters how he
will help them enter closed state Capitol.*
Will the legislature expel him?
The Department of Justice continued trying to subpoena journalists' communications records even as Biden was saying his administration would not do this.
One can never rule out lying by a politician, but another explanation
seems plausible: institutional inertia. People appointed by the bully
may still be in their positions, and committing sabotage to serve him.
Others may still be following orders they received which reflected
his policies.
The DOJ recently said it would not do this any more, so it looks
like Biden took the necessary action to overcome the bully's
policies.
The last time Earth had this level of atmospheric CO2, it was 7F hotter
(around 4C) and sea level was around 80 feet higher.
If we don't get the CO2 level back down to 350 ppm, we are likely to
see all of today's coastal cities inundated, by and by.
*Swiss to vote on whether to become first European nation to ban
synthetic pesticides.*
Hungary says that the proposed Budapest branch of the Chinese
university Fudan has not been approved, and suggests it could be
cancelled if local people don't like it.
It could be an excuse to silence controversy and quietly proceed with
the plan.
We don't know enough about the things that affect male fertility
to draw conclusions from the sperm count data.
What we do know is that the world's human population is still increasing,
and that is still dangerous.
*Israeli police bar right-wing march through Jerusalem's Old City.*
I guess the authorities have noticed that they couldn't keep playing
with that fire.
The attorney general of Washington DC is suing Amazon, claiming that
Amazon Prime uses Amazon's size to harm competitors.
Today's industry, at least in the west, has prioritized efficiency
over robustness. The result is that lots of things don't work.
The president of Colombia announced measures to try to restrain the thugs' violence against protesters.
I don't know how effective they will be, but at least this
acknowledges the problem.
*Our decision to structure patent and copyright monopolies in a way that allows for a small number of people to get incredibly rich is because we have politicians who like very rich people.*
If China is on track to provide vaccines to most of the world by early
2022, it seems that a western investment in increased vaccine
production would be a waste now, because it is too late to help. It
would, reportedly, produce enough vaccine to vaccinate the world by
the end of 2022, but long before that it won't be needed any more.
Why is China going faster? I suspect it has more to do with the (low)
competence of the western business system than with the competence of
western engineers. This too is due to having politicians who like
very rich people.
Israeli thugs beat up, then arrested al-Jazeera journalist Givara Budeiri
while she was covering a protest.
As usual, the thugs fabricated outrageous accusations against her,
but even if they were true, they would not have justified ordering her
to stop covering the protests for 15 days.
The UK minister for domestic oppression wants internet platforms to
delete postings that "glamourise" migrants' crossing the channel
illegally.
This shows that censorship is now the go-to British solution for
unpleasant communications.
Plutocracy interferes at every political level in efforts to save
civilization from global heating disaster.
The world can no longer allow profit-seeking companies such as Shell to manage
the continued use of fossil fuels.
They will try to drag it out as long as they can.
The wealthy countries have put a lot of money into developing new
fossil fuel facilities in poor countries.
This is busting the carbon budget and directing civilization toward
disaster.
Nigeria says that use of Twitter is banned and it will prosecute anyone
who tweets.
Publishing news obtained from Twitter is banned too.
The Dept of Justice tried to get reporters' email logs for a leak
investigation.
*Global G7 deal may let Amazon off hook on tax, say experts.*
Protesters in British Columbia are trying to stop the unsustainable logging
of old-growth forests.
Humans have already eliminated most of the old-growth forests that
existed 100 years ago. It's time to stop before they are all gone.
As the supply of these woods decreases, their price will rise. If
today's high prices are taken as a reason not to stop now, higher
prices in the future will always be a reason to keep logging — until
there are no old-growth forests left. That is absurd, so this reason
is invalid.
US citizens: call on Congress to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use
of Military Force.
This was meant for a misguided and harmful purpose — to authorize
attacking and occupying Iraq — but continues to be stretched to justify
other wars.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Californians are trying to save monarch butterflies by planting more
milkweed for their caterpillars.
But they don't know whether this will do the job.
Computerized systems to monitor old people, perhaps partly demented,
for their safety, work by means of AI-based surveillance, and their
actions can feel oppressive to the people they "help".
However, the problem goes deeper: they contain proprietary software, so
neither the people to be "served" nor the people who install the system
have real control over it.
In particular, they can't be sure which sorts of events are being
observed and reported to companies by the system, and used to profile
or manipulate people.
A 3D model of the movements of protesters in Charlotte, a year ago, as
well as the thugs who had surrounded them, demonstrates that thugs
intentionally trapped and besieged the protesters.
Then they attacked the trapped protesters with tear gas and other
weapons.
UK officials told asylum seekers in immigration jails that complaining
about the conditions there would jeopardize their asylum requests.
Manchin has effectively killed the For the People Act.
This means nothing can be done to stop Republicans from stealing the
next election at the level of various states.
Uganda's president has jailed hundreds of the opposition after his
"reelection."
The 2,000 inhabitants of Wagina island, in the Solomons, won a court
case to prevent a bauxite mine on their small island. Then 8 of them
appointed themselves a "council of elders" and claimed to authorize
the mine.
I wonder what inducement convinced those 8 people to do this.
*The Tax Foundation [Cites] Mythical Taxpayers to Cause Alarm Over
Proposals That [Would] Only Impact the Wealthiest Among Us.*
A business leader says that rich countries must cooperate with
vaccinating poor countries in order for poor countries to cooperate with
climate defense.
I don't know whether the two issues are linked, but I am not sure it
matters. Rich countries must cooperate with vaccinating poor
countries. Poor countries must cooperate with climate defense.
The FBI demanded from USA Today the IP addresses of everyone that read
a certain newspaper article.
The power to get that information is dangerous to a free society. I
take steps to prevent such information from being recorded about me.
This is also why I do not identify myself when accessing any online
publication, whether text, music, video, or whatever.
Now the Department of Justice says it won't demand reports' phone records
for leak investigations.
That is a small change for the better, but what we really need to do
is change the Espionage Act and whatever other laws whistleblowers may
be prosecuted under.
Some democrats ask Biden to *support a
$25 billion investment in the production of roughly eight billion mRNA
vaccine doses.*
Is that what we need? The words are not precise enough for me to
tell.
Whatever vaccine production lines exist will surely keep running,
producing vaccine, as long as there are people who want to be
vaccinated. I expect funds will be found to pay for the vaccine and
vaccinate someone or other. Pledging funds towards that will be
necessary, but doing so in advance won't speed things up.
The way to funds to speed up vaccinating the world is by increasing
the future rate of production: building more plants, sooner. If
that's what this plan would do, I'm in favor of it.
So which one are they proposing to do with that money?
If it refers to this proposal, then it would be spent on boosting production. In that case, I'm
in favor of it.
(satire) *L.A. Mayor Prevents His Kid From Lazing About By Installing
Spikes On Family Couch.*
The connection between the lousy US response to Covid-19 and the
laissez-mourir plutocracy of the cult of the invisible hand calls for
an investigation, but there is no visible intention to investigate
this.
Florida is considering a constitutional amendment to declare that
rivers have rights.
I am in favor of the goals of this amendment, and practical rules such
as are likely to follow from it. However, it should not be formulated
this way.
It is a confusion to extend "rights", as such, to anything other than
intelligent beings. To exercise a right is to make a decision. A
river cannot make any decision whatsoever, so it cannot exercise any
right whatsoever.
If you think a river can have rights, next you'll believe that a
corporation can have rights. Reject these absurd ideas!
It would be legitimate to decide that rivers have inherent value, that
there is an imperative to preserve them in good state, that their
health counts in some sorts of legal questions. Just don't call this
"rights".
*126 Nobel Laureates Warn "Humanity Taking Colossal Risks With Our Common
Future."*
10 signs of fascism on the rise.
The US faces an immediate fascist threat, not merely a potential one.
The progressive caucus warned Biden that they would not vote for a
"compromise" infrastructure bill dictated by Republican senators.
Afterward, Biden rejected the Republican proposal.
We need to get Manchin and Sinema to vote to abolish the filibuster.
Rejecting Republican sabotage "solutions" for the infrastructure bill
might put on enough pressure to achieve that goal.
Biden's plan is already a "compromise" compared to what we really need.
What's at stake in the infrastructure plan: prosperity, democracy,
saving civilization from climate disaster.
Also making America great again, with health and strength rather
than bullying and cruelty.
Nicaragua has jailed a second opposition presidential candidate.
The charges are vague, of course.
*Psychopath-Driven Inequality (grab-it capitalism) Is Making Our
Society Sick.*
Rewarding the "move fast and break things" approach makes the US even
more psychopath-favorable today than it was before.
It turns out that Victoria (a state in Australia) does not requires
everyone to use an app
to "check
in" when entering a supermarket (or any other store).
People are allowed to use other methods, including pencil and paper.
Thus, this system does not require customers to run nonfree software.
It does track their movements. Whether that is acceptable, for the
very importat purpose of eradicating outbreaks of Covid-19, depends in
my view on how much that data is available to be used for other purposes.
*Microsoft blocks Bing from showing image results for Tiananmen "tank man".*
If you support Chinese censorship, Microsoft, move to China!
Even Zionists can condemn Israel's occupation policies.
US movies are ceasing to treat abortion as taboo, ceasing to present
female characters who find abortion too stressful to go through with.
It turns out that SARS-CoV-2 spreads by aerosols — usually not
travelling a long distance, but it can do so.
Some Amazon warehouses provide a booth which a staff person can get
into for some sort of help in coping with the pressure of working in
an Amazon warehouse.
I suspect Amazon will keep track of what employees say and do while in
the booth, and use that as well as other profiling that information to
decide how to pressure them and whether to fire them.
A thug involved in killing Ronald Greene lied about what the thugs had
done, then falsely claimed not to have any body camera footage.
Officials including the governor participated in the coverup.
Somehow, that body camera footage showed up recently. I am curious how.
*126 Nobel Laureates Warn 'Humanity Taking Colossal Risks With Our Common
Future'*.
They say that "transformational action this decade" is absolutely necessary.
*More than a dozen cities push to minimize or even eliminate police
presence at mental health calls.*
This is an important part of the substance that "defund the police"
refers to. However, it is also important to take armed thugs out of
traffic law enforcement. That is another big source of opportunities
to mess up someone's life.
The Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo prison saw that some prisoners were
being tortured, and saw that the officials knew most prisoners were
innocent, and saw that Dubya would not release them because that would
mean admitting a mistake.
After his scheduled return to the US at the end of his tour of duty,
he was jailed and kept in solitary confinement with some of the same
sorts of torture, based on the general feeling that he sympathized
with the prisoners and must therefore be a terrorist.
*Firefighters Denied Coverage by Veterans Affairs After Exposure to PFAS
Firefighting Foam.*
A federal judge, who is a second-amendment extremist, ruled that an
AR-15 is legally equivalent to a swiss army knife.
It is possible to hurt someone or destroy something with a swiss army
knife, but it isn't particularly good for that use. It is mainly
designed for other things.
Conversely, it may be possible to use an AR-15 for something that
doesn't involve sloppy destruction, but it isn't designed for that.
Indeed, it would be a clever hack to do so.
*Arctic sea ice thinning twice as fast as thought, study finds.*
This will accelerate global heating.
*End destruction of nature to stop future pandemics, say scientists.*
The immediate cause is that people get into closer contact with
wildlife. However, the amount of travel (between regions and between
countries) is increasing, and that helps a disease become a pandemic.
Parts of Peru have a Covid-19 outbreak that exceeds hospital capacity
in some regions. In those regions, many of the sick people die even though
standard treatment could have saved them.
Uber recognized a drivers' union in the UK, but the contract signs away
collective bargaining on their rate of pay. One driver says it's a "dud".
US citizens:
call
on the Senate to end the filibuster and pass the For the People
Act.
Han Dongfang
commemorated
the Tiananmen Square massacre alone in Hong Kong. He lived through that massacre in 1989 and will not stop resisting.
"Before your last breath, don’t tell yourself you are dead."
*Residents light candles, lay flowers and paint messages as
police
enforce ban on annual vigil for massacre.*
The EU has
proposed
"we'll try a little harder" as a substitute for unlocking vaccine
production.
The point at the end about the existing WTO for compulsory licensing
of patents is true (though countries including the US
have
pressured countries not to do this), but it is fundamentally
inadequate because it only allows a country to make vaccine for its
own use. Most countries, other than big economies, can't do their own
vaccine manufacturing. The bigger and more capable countries must be
allowed to make vaccine for the smaller/poorer countries.
Globally, the world has to choose between efficiency (and profit), and
finishing the job of vaccinating everyone quickly.
The efficient way to vaccinate everyone is to make just enough vaccine
plants, then run them until they make enough vaccine for everyone.
That costs less but will take a long time.
The rapid way is to keep building vaccine plants, so that the
production will accelerate. This way, we will get enough vaccine to
vaccinate everyone, sooner.
The drawback is that many of those vaccine plants won't run for a
whole year. The expense of running them may seem wasteful. Private
companies would call it wasteful, but so would the governments that
have to pay to get them running. "Why be in such a rush", they will
argue. "We have enough plants now — be patient and you'll all
get vaccine."
However, while billions of people are "being patient", tens or
hundreds of millions of them will be patients, and millions of them
might die from Covid-19.
In addition, the virus might mutate and become even more dangerous
than the Delta and Kappa variants are now. They might kill hundreds
of millions of people.
Producing vaccine as fast as we can until the job is finished
is worth the cost.
The EU has
banned
Belarus planes from EU airspace, and orders its planes not to fly
over Belarus.
What about planes registered in other countries — the UK, for
instance? Should the EU allow UK planes flying to or from EU cities
to cross Belarus?
*World's
soils "under great pressure", says UN pollution report.*
*UN Agencies
Call
for a Decade of Restoring Ecosystems to Confront Biodiversity and
Climate Emergencies.*
*World
must
rewild on massive scale to heal nature and climate, says UN.*
Rewilding is often a difficult task, and in some cases nobody knows a
way to make it successful. We can't count on being able to duplicate
an ecosystem that has been eliminated in a place, not even if that
ecosystem still exists elsewhere. And even less, if it does not.
Dissident leaders in Nicaragua
call
for a general strike to protest the jailing of the opposition
leader.
EU agrees to
compel
multinationals to publish how much tax they pay in each EU country and
in some non-EU countries (though some of the biggest tax havens
are missing from that list).
For countries that charge businesses no tax, will they be required to
publish how much of their income flows through them?
*Microsoft Irish subsidiary
paid
zero corporate tax on £220bn profit last year.*
This subsidiary is only nominally Irish, since it "pays taxes" in
Bermuda, and it sucks in money from around the world.
The Republican motto is "Say it with cruelty." The governor of Texas
plans
to cancel the licenses of the child care facilities that take care of
immigrant minors, trying to compel the federal government to keep
them in prisons instead.
The federal government could transport them to new facilities outside
Texas. But Texas is big, so they would need to spend a long time in a
bus, exposed to catching Covid-19 from each other.
If governments agree to liberate manufacture of vaccines,
companies
could sue them using
business-supremacy
treaties. "You're not allowed to save lives if that reduces our
profits," is the motto of plutocracy.
(satire) *Homeowner
Shoos
Away Feral Driverless Car Rooting Around Garage.*
(satire) *Congress Takes Field Trip To Goldman Sachs
To
Learn How Laws Get Made.*
The Supreme Court limited the breadth of the Computer Fraud and Abuse
Act, ruling that
accessing
data for invalid purposes was not a violation.
This was the right decision. Justice Thomas was confused in his
arguments. It should be prohibited to pull a fire alarm when there is
no file — and it is prohibited, by another law, one which has
nothing to do with using a digital system. The CFAA should not apply.
The recent experiment in giving every US household hundreds of dollars
showed that this made a
big
help in easing poverty. So let's do it every year.
Paxton Smith, high school valedictorian,
focused
her speech on condemning the new Texas anti-abortion law.
Amazon has
cancelled
its policy of gratuitous drug testing of employees.
This is a change for the better, but Amazon continues to
mistreat
its staff and its customers so I won't
start buying there because of this change.
Many large companies have this policy of harassment. Drug testing is
part of the war on drugs, and it's not a good solution to real
problems.
For employees such as drivers whose ability to concentrate is crucial
for safe work, it is better to test their concentration and reflexes
each day than to test them for drugs once in a while.
*UN Labor Agency Finds Pandemic Pushed
Over
100 Million Workers Into Poverty.*
The Pentagon
continues
understating the number of civilians killed by US military
operations. It
tends
to call casualties "enemy combatants" regardless of facts.
A study found that right-wing Americans are
more
likely to believe fake news. Also, that right-wing viral stories
tend to be fake.
US citizens:
call
on Biden to cancel student debt now. At least some of it!
US citizens:
call
on Congress to reduce military spending.
A long list of
voter-suppression
measures in the Texas Republican voting bill that Democrats
recently blocked.
The US proposal for subdividing international taxation would be a step
forward, but it is wrong to use the nation's power to defend those
companies' exploitation.
Facebook, Google, and Amazon, etc
mistreat their "users"; I say that Facebook does not have users, only
useds.
Schumer's bill to focus on China as a threat
would
cancel the joint climate action plan that Kerry has negotiated.
China's growing power, and its practice of using that to build an
empire of repression, is a threat to the world. However, the actions
we can take to defend against that are mostly in specific areas of
activity. Global heating is also a threat to the world. We should be
able to work together on climate defense.
(satire) *Dianne Feinstein
Considers
Eliminating Filibuster Over Upcoming Vote On Smoot-Hawley Tariff.*
*America Has
More
Than Enough Renewable Resources to Meet All of Its Energy Needs,
Says Report.*
Indonesia's
leading
anti-corruption investigator has been fired, and says it is
because corruption has won.
China is setting up the internet for many African countries, and China
is reportedly
implementing
a different architecture that allows it to monitor and control all
usage.
*‘If publishers become afraid, we’re in trouble’:
publishing’s
cancel culture debate boils over.*
40 years ago there were many substantial independent publishers with
distribution to bookstores. If a few refused to publish a book, it
could still reach the public. Nowadays there are four large
publishing empires (or is it now just three?). It is easy to keep a
book from reaching bookstores.
The concentration of book publishing results from plutocratist
policies which continue to allow mergers in nearly all industries.
We need to deconcentrate industry, to make the large companies split up
into many competing pieces. My
tax
proposal is a way to do this without needing a lot of lawsuits.
In 2021, Apple has been
shifting
more production to China.
A fire in 2020 seems to have destroyed
1/10
of the world's giant redwood trees.
The fire's intensity was partly due to human fire-suppression
activity. We could prevent wildfires from being intense enough to
damage those trees by doing a lot more controlled burns, but that is
easier said than done. It is hard to keep a controlled burn under
control in times of deep drought, and even harder when flammable
debris has accumulated.
It would make sense to grow more giant redwood groves in widely
separated places.
*Why Israeli progressives have
started
to talk about ‘apartheid’.*
Russia will extradite a Belarusian exile to Belarus, who is charged
with protesting and is
likely
to be tortured there.
This is not surprising given that Putin is fundamentally similar to
Lukashenko in his contempt for opposition and dissent.
*Trump justice department
secretly
obtained New York Times reporters’ phone records, paper says.*
This was, of course, a hunt for leakers (whistleblowers). The US
should stop persecuting leakers, because they serve the public.
*Why governments
should
keep spending, and stop worrying about inflation.*
We are still in a slump, and the way to end a slump is with deficit
spending.
However, we should stop putting government funds into fossil fuel
development and
move
it all to renewable energy.
The only obstacle to a renewable energy future is that governments
still put their money into civilization-killing fossil fuels.
An Arab party has
endorsed
right-wing annexationist Naftali Bennett as prime minister of
Israel. Without the Arab party, Bennett would lose his majority.
This may restrain him from passing new unjust laws.
All of humanity is under attack by the greenhouse emissions that
humanity makes.
Television
news fails to show the severity of this.
*Denmark agrees
law
to deport asylum seekers outside Europe.*
This sounds somewhat like the horrible things that Australia has done.
Biden is
raising
the pressure on senators Manchin and Sinema to eliminate the
filibuster and pass voting rights laws.
Norway says that in 2014 it objected to US spying on allies, and the
US
promised
it would stop.
*Climate tipping points
could
topple like dominoes, warn scientists.*
The Indian "delta" variant of Covid-19 is twice as likely to cause a
severe case that requires hospitalization. It also
spreads
more easily. This is evolution at work.
The article does not state anything quantitative about effectiveness
of vaccines against it.
*Pakistan court
overturns
blasphemy conviction of Christian couple.*
*Top ALEC Official Is Ringleader of Arizona Election Audit Circus.*
*Ai Weiwei accuses curators of rejecting artwork over [a reference to]
Julian Assange.*
Nicaragua's dictatorial president Ortega has arrested the main opposition
candidate, Chamorro, on charges of money laundering.
It is not impossible that these charges could be valid, but it is
implausible. Ms Chamorro has been under state harassment for many
years. Would she take the risk of committing a real crime and giving
Ortega a valid reason to prosecute her? Of course not.
Biden has announced a new drive to vaccinate 70% of Americans against Covid-19.
If this is achieved, uniformly over the population, the US will be at
or near herd immunity, safe against the disease. Unless we encounter
a variant that is more transmissible, in which case herd immunity
would need a higher fraction to be vaccinated.
The mayor of Budapest will demonstrate opposition to building a branch
of a Chinese university in Budapest through street names China will
not like.
I love this sort of mischievous hacktivism. And I have a suggestion.
How about naming a plaza in the vicinity of the university site Tien
An Men Square? Then they could have a rally for democracy (in China,
in Hungary, world-wide) every June 4.
Giving babies special medical care and education for five years
resulted in visible increases in the size of some brain regions at age
40.
Two billionaires want to build a molten-salt nuclear fission power
plant using US government money.
I am skeptical of the claim that this would be "clean" energy. It would
not emit greenhouse gases, but it would create radioactive material.
Many Americans refuse Covid-19 vaccination because they fear it would
cause them financial side-effects.
When properly understood, that concern is a reason to get vaccinated
as soon as you can. Vaccination is gratis, but if you get a severe
case of Covid-19, treatment is not.
However, the US needs to do a better job of showing everyone that
vaccination is gratis.
*Revealed: NHS England bosses meet with tech and pharmaceutical giants
to discuss price list of millions of Brits' medical data.*
The data would be "anonymized", but we know that it is easy to
identify most of the "anonymized" individuals given several data
about each one.
The NHS has no inherent need to sell anyone access to data about its
patients. The illusion of a need comes from the Tory policy of
starving the NHS of funds, since 2019,
which I believe is intended to lead to privatizing the NHS
and thus effectively destroying it.
Tories now plan to include this in a business-supremacy treaty with
the US, so that future UK governments would have their hands tied.
*"DOJ Antitrust is run by people promoted under Trump/Barr!"*, and
they are not trying to restrain monopolies.
The EU's Green New Deal has many fundamental flaws. Here they are.
Global heating is causing the level of oxygen in lakes to decrease —
by 20% so far. This endangers wildlife and can taint drinking water.
For Europeans 16-25 years old, Covid-19 has caused great harm to their
lives. 2/3 of them are at risk of depression.
*G7 nations committing billions more to fossil fuel than green energy.*
*Microwave weapons that could cause Havana Syndrome exist, experts say.*
The British and Australian governments
plan
to subject those two countries to a business-supremacy treaty
which gives businesses direct power over what laws the countries can
have.
This would be implemented with an
ISDS clause ("I Sue
Democratic States") that would empower foreign businesses to sue the
state if it does anything that would reduce the profits those
businesses expect to make.
The advocates of taking the UK out of the European Union said that the
goal was to recover Britain's sovereignty. I warned that the Tories
would
give
that sovereignty to global business instead, and now they are
about to do it.
Australia has
bad
experiences with an ISDS clause, and politicians should have
learned their lesson never to accept one again. But the current
government of Australia is irredeemably plutocratist.
Pakistan's army tortured journalist Asad Toor in his home,
then charged him with "defaming" the government.
The next step will be to explicitly criminalize criticism of the
government.
*By representing [UK government policy] failures as the outcome of the
psychological nature of groups, "groupthink" hides their political
basis.*
The Tories want to put the UK into the TPP.
That would imply subjecting it to the ISDS clause ("I sue democratic
states") that gives foreign companies more rights than citizens.
Australia has suffered greatly from the ISDS clauses.
A ship laden with chemicals, many of them more or less toxic,
is sinking near Sri Lanka and is likely to poison the wildlife
in that area.
The effects could last for decades.
*Biden suspends Trump-era oil drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge.*
This is one step towards what we need for ecosurvival. There is no room
in the carbon budget for additional fossil fuel infrastructure. We need
to end the drilling world-wide.
*Key species at risk if planet heats up by more than 1.5C.*
The loss of those species can upend ecosystems and thus cause havoc.
*Emissions from coal mined in Australia but exported and burnt overseas
were almost double the nation’s domestic greenhouse gas footprint in
2020.*
When coal is mined in country A and burnt in country B, which one is
responsible for those emissions? Both share the responsibility, since
both work together to arrange to burn that coal.
If we had sufficient pressure to stop burning coal, country B would
stop buying it and stop burning it. Country A would not be able to
prevent that.
But the world does not put enough pressure on country B to bring the
practice to an end; thus, pressure to stop mining the coal is needed
too.
Since Covid-19, ambulance crews in the UK have been attacked enough
times that they will now wear body cameras to document the attacks.
What's the cause of this, I wonder?
When cruise ships start operating again, they plan to destroy coral reefs
around Gran Cayman Island to build a bigger harbor and unload far more
tourists every day.
Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft are lobbying to kill right-to-repair bills
in many US states.
Some of the arguments they use amount to, "We designed these products
to be tricky to repair," and the obvious response is, "You had better
not do that any more."
Looking at the information in the article from the standpoint of users'
freedom, we see that Chromebooks (some of them? all of them?) are designed
not to work unless it can spy on the user.
Pharma companies spent $$44 million last year on lobbying EU countries,
and much of it was to oppose generic vaccines.
*At a Time When America Faces Cascading Crises, Republicans Just Say No* —
to every constructive action.
Amazon's harsh working conditions and workloads result in a rate
of injury 50% higher than in competing companies.
Please don't buy from Amazon. I refuse to buy from Amazon for my own
protection, because buying from Amazon entails being identified and
running nonfree software. In addition, I boycott Amazon, so I ask
others, when they are getting anything for me, not to get it from
Amazon.
There's no harm in looking at products in Amazon's web site as long as
you've blocked it from identifying you or running nonfree software on
your machine.
* …coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths would
continue to rise [in North Carolina] if pandemic precautions such
as quarantine, school closures, social distancing and mask-wearing
were lifted while vaccines were being rolled out.*
*Illinois lawmakers pass a bill banning police from deceiving juvenile
suspects during interrogations.*
You may call me hyperstrict, but I think there should be limits on
manipulative treatment of adults, too. Adults are not immune to being
pressured into false confessions. I agree that an adult ought be
strong enough to resist the pressure to lie, but that doesn't imply
that adults who are not strong enough to resist deserve a false
conviction.
*How US mega-dairies are killing off small farms.*
Chinese censors are very creative at inventing speech crimes.
*An Indian court has ruled that a local government administration in
Uttar Pradesh filed a "false and unfounded" police report against
eight Muslim leaders who had opposed the "illegal" demolition of
their mosque.*
Belarusian protester Stepan Latypov cut his throat in court, saying
that he had pled guilty because Lukashenko's men had threatened to
imprison his family and neighbors if he did not.
I suppose he had been tortured already and expected more torture, so
he attempted to escape a fate worse than death.
He may have failed in that attempt — but he did land a blow on the
enemy in the process. I bow to the courage he displayed in doing
this.
Amazon gave customers just one week to opt out of having
their Amazon devices offer wifi connections to other people's
devices.
I don't think that letting other people's devices connect is as bad as
the spying that Amazon devices do. However, giving people one week to
opt out of anything should be prohibited. The FCC should set
standards for this, and any company that doesn't follow the standard
should be prosecuted.
If a company is too big to prosecute then it is too big to exist.
A campaign asks the UK's NHS doctors to refuse to put patient data
into the new digital system that makes it available to companies.
Australia has an outbreak of the Indian variant of Covid-19, and finds
that it can spread when people brush past each other momentarily.
This is very dangerous — people need to get vaccinated.
A year ago, *NYPD Took Hours to Respond to Mass Looting,
Despite Quickly Cracking Down on Protests.*
*Oil and Gas Companies Get Enormous Welfare,
Still Lay Off Workers and Enrich Executives.*
And they are "too busy" to testify at a congressional hearing.
Israel's request for more military aid from the US faces opposition from
US Jews, including Jewish Voice for Peace, and Senator Sanders.
The US has offered aid to rebuild Gaza. That influence over Gaza, plus
the influence the US has on Israel when it dares to use it, could be
sufficient to prevent more violence — if the US can also guide Israel
away from the apartheid and fanaticism that could spark violence.
*[Republican] initiatives are transforming several
states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is
now at risk.*
(satire) *Couple Who Met During Pandemic Tenderly Remove Each Other’s Mask Straps For First Time.*
Juan Cole: Naftali Bennett, who personally advocates annexing the
Palestinians' land and treating them as unwanted residents, may become
prime minister of Israel with the support of a coalition of parties
with a spectrum of different views.
Ironically, he may need one Arab party's votes. I can't begin to
guess how much of Bennett's personal views would get implemented by
that coalition.
But it could stay in power long enough for Netanyahu to be formally
prosecuted for corruption. Maybe then he could not become prime
minister again, and the political situation would change permanently.
Trickle-up economics: economic modeling including the "velocity of
wealth" predicts that giving a larger share of economic growth to the
non-wealthy increases economic growth, and this benefits everyone
including the wealthy — while decreasing the gap between them.
The result is to increase the total level of consumption. That would
be good if it benefited mainly the non-wealthy, except for one
problem: nowadays it is not clear that we can sustain more consumption
in the US.
Daniel Ellsberg published a secret US report that proposed using
nuclear weapons against China in 1958,
supposing China were to attack Taiwan.
Now he dares the US government to charge him under the Espionage
Act, as it has charged other leakers including Edward Snowden,
as well as journalist Julian Assange.
Lukashenko has charged the editor-in-chief of TUT.BY with tax evasion
"on an especially large scale," which could only be a fabricated excuse.
*Colombia to probe police who stood by as civilians shot at protesters.*
Pakistani talk-show host Hamid Mir criticized the military's
censorship of media, and was removed from his show with no explanation.
Unsustainable logging in the Solomon Islands will eliminate its
natural forests in 15 years.
I suppose this will cause extinction of many species. Ecological
damage is everywhere.
Some used book stores will give money to the book's author when they
sell a book.
I'd be in favor of this if it were accompanied by a move to narrow the power
of copyright.
Many local armed groups are fighting the Burmese army.
The army is using artillery and helicopters to attack them.
Hong Kong's repression agency arrested a solitary protester who called
attention to the 1989 massacre in Beijing's Tien An Men square,
Grandma Wong.
19 members of Oath Keepers militias have been charged with attacking
the Capitol.
The new Texas voter-suppression law will do more than stop
disprivileged people from voting. It will also give judges an easy way
to perceive a problem of election fraud, even when there wasn't one.
Democrats blocked it for the moment because the legislative session
was ending.
* The Arizona Legislature is continuing its attack on voting by mail. In
a party-line vote, the state house advanced a bill that would turn
allegedly mismatched signatures on mail ballots into potential criminal
cases.*
A Republican who rejects the very idea of truth would have little
difficulty reporting a "mismatch" between two identical signatures.
A voter who is informed of an alleged mismatch might wish to go
through the process to cure it, but there are various innocent reasons
why perse might not do so. Here are a few that occur to me.
* We must ensure that rich companies and nations stop this destruction of
life in the oceans, which not only impoverishes wildlife but also the
coastal communities that are truly dependent on small-scale fishing for
survival.*
Yang Hengjun, prisoner of China, says he was tortured and drugged, and
made to say things that were probably recorded to be presented as
(false) confessions.
US citizens: call on Democrats to reject ruinous Republican
"compromises" and pass the whole American Families and Jobs Plan.
Let's stop describing the supporters of the wrecker's cult as
"conservatives". Most Republicans today are no longer conservatives,
they are right-wing extremists.
It's foolish for anyone to entrust secrets to cloudy digital
"services". It's especially foolish when these secrets concern
guarding or accessing nuclear weapons, but that doesn't mean you ought to make the same mistake.
The guards should use one of the free/libre programs for flashcard
learning — some are listed in
the free software directory.
They won't send anything to remote servers unless you ask them to.
The UK agency that investigates crimes by uniformed thugs refused to
reopen its astonishing conclusion about the thugs' killing of Mark
Duggan, despite new analysis that makes the conclusion even more
astonishing.
Many Americans will decide to get vaccinated when they can get a Covid-19
vaccine that has a regular (not emergency) approval.
That will probably be soon.
*The Ugly Truth: Republicans Want More Poverty and Crime.*
Their cuts in aid to the poor, and cuts in workers rights (which makes
more workers poor), encourage crime, which Republicans then cite as an
excuse to bash the poor some more.
Millions of Britons will lose their homes soon —
perhaps this week.
Even if the US takes you off the no-fly list, you may still be on some
secret list that cues other countries to interrogate you blindfolded for days.
There is no way to confirm whether you're on one of these lists, and
no legal procedure for getting yourself taken off.
Archaeology in the UK is in crisis because projects can't hire
Europeans any more.
The "people power" methods of making autocrats step down no longer
work. Repressive regimes have learned that they can crush a dissident
movement, then survive being hated.
We see this today in China, Belarus and Burma,
but it was Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey and Syria that demonstrated this.
China and Russia are setting up an informal bloc to defend repressive
countries that are willing to have a bad relationship with the US.
Colombia won't reach out to them, but countries farther from the US
will.
*Republicans who embraced Trump’s big lie run to become election officials.*
Since they endorse cheating, Republican extremists will vote for them so that
they can cheat.
In Tulsa, nobody dared talk about the 1921 pogrom against blacks,
especially not the few survivors. Official records were destroyed.
It took persistence and hard work to pull the story into the open.
Calling for the US to adopt a more normal, less "special" relationship with Israel.
I think the US should remain committed to protecting Israel's survival,
while at the same time pushing to end the occupation of the West Bank
and the siege of Gaza.
The US spied on its European allies via facilities in Denmark.
Denmark investigated this starting in 2015 based on information
released by Edward Snowden. The results of the investigation have
only now been published, but the Danish government seems to have been
acting to prevent a repetition.
China's appetite for minerals, wood and fish from the Pacific
is having a big economic impact, and a big ecological impact too.
A virologist calls for interviewing the individual stall operators
at the wild animal market in Wuhan.
The goal is to find out which kinds of wild animals were traded in
2019.
Apple is systematically undermining interoperability. At the hardware
level, it does this via nonstandard plugs, buses and networks.
At the software level, it does this by not letting the user have any data
except within one app.
The NHS has a plan to redistribute patient data to university labs and
even companies.
This can be useful for progress in medicine, but if it isn't held in
check by an organization whose main priority is privacy, it could ruin
some people's lives.
Please don't refer to the redistribution of personal data between companies
with the word "sharing".
*Data isn’t oil, whatever tech commentators tell you: it’s people’s lives.*
Thinking of art works as "intellectual property" demonstrates contempt
for these works and for art,
much like calling them "content."
I've described several reasons to reject the term "intellectual property"
entirely.
This is one additional reason.
President Kagame of Rwanda is now being recognized for his persistent
repression of opposition leaders.
It's on a level with Putin and Lukashenko.
US citizens: call on Biden to revoke the permit to build the Line 3
pipeline.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster and approve the
Jan 6 investigation commission.
A promising choreographer killed himself after he was canceled in
response to unsubstantiated accusations of some sort of sexual
wrongdoing.
Although an investigation found no indication the accusations were valid,
institutions proceeded with the cancellation anyway.
The decision to stop performing his work, the fact that there was no
way he could clear his name or ever be able to practice his art again,
must have made him feel he was as good as dead already, his art
already buried.
A few developers of useful free software have been convicted of grave
crimes, even murder. (With the large number of contributors, by
chance we must expect this.) We disapprove of murder, but we don't
reject their code on that account.
*Kumbh Mela: how a superspreader festival seeded Covid across India.*
All around the world, fervent religion has been deadly in
spreading Covid-19. We have seen this with Christianity
in Brazil,
South Korea,
the US of course;
with Judaism in the US,
and now with Hinduism in India.
If death followed quickly, it would be easier for believers to stay in
touch with reality. But nobody is likely to die of Covid-19 from a
religious ceremony until a couple of weeks later, and most of the
victims will not have participated in the ceremony themselves, but
rather got the disease indirectly via participants.
The 2021 version of the MORE Act, which would legalize marijuana, would also
eliminate some continuing punishment of people with old convictions.
*The statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, Oxford, should be turned to face the wall in shame.*
I like it.
Covidiots beware — a new variant has appeared which spreads faster
than the other bad variants.
It is currently limited to one country, but it will get to the others
soon enough.
Bogus Johnson is once again rushing to eliminate all Covid-19 restrictions,
and this is producing yet another surge of infections.
Most of the protests in Colombia have been peaceful recently.
However, in Cali, protesters have made barricades blocking roads.
Official state thugs attack the protesters, sometimes killing or
maiming them.
Unidentified nonuniformed thugs joined in shooting at protesters.
If the protesters manage to kill or capture one of those, maybe it
will be possible to determine what their affiliations are.
There were large protests across Brazil against Bolsonaro and his
callous disregard for Covid-19 and Brazilians' lives.
(satire) *New Evidence Shows Fauci May Have Been
Created In Chinese Lab.*
Biden's budget does not try to prevent extinction of species in the US.
An idea for step-by-step reduction of the power of filibuster.
Relatives of victims of government misconduct call for a law requiring
ministers government departments and advisers to answer truthfully in
investigations and court proceedings.
Thugs that bring dogs sometimes tell them to bite people — around
4000 people a year in the US.
Usually the dog bites whoever the thug directs. Sometimes it bites
someone else who happens to be in the vicinity. Sometimes the bite is
fatal.
US citizens: call on Congress to divide transportation funds 50-50
between mass transit and highways.
US citizens: call on Congress to cancel all student debt.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
A man condemned to execution has subpoena'd secret source code from
GitHub for a program that the court used to analyze evidence. (If the
program is flawed, that might invalidate the conviction.) But GitHub
is in another state, and has ignored the subpoena for years.
The article explains that the difficulty of accessing secrets needed
as evidence can drive people to please guilty.
In this particular case, the court should conclude that it can't get
the source code, therefore it can't trust that program, and overturn
the conviction. Society should adopt a general rule that programs used to
evaluate evidence for a court must be free/libre so that their validity
can be analyzed.
Senate Republicans have decided also to mostly kill Biden's
infrastructure plan.
Biden yearns for bipartisan cooperation, but it is worth than
useless to try to cooperate with saboteurs.
A study concludes it would cost 25 billion dollars to build vaccine
factories sufficient to vaccinate the whole world in a year.
*How my family's memory of the Tulsa massacre sheds new light on Jan. 6
Capitol riot.*
We don't need technological miracles to curb global heating and prevent
climate disaster.
What we need is firmness and determination.
Progressives in Congress: *Ending Poverty in the Richest Country on
Earth: poverty exists because we allow it to exist.*
*We can't end poverty without attacking the interconnected injustices
of systemic racism, inequality, militarism and the climate
emergency.*
Republicans used a filibuster to block the Senate from voting on an
investigation of the January 6 Republican attack on the Capitol.
Those Republicans now endorse the obvious falsehood that there was no
attack, or else it was an attack by "antifa". This is a lie about events
that Americans saw less than 4 months ago.
They have, in effect, endorsed 1984-style rewriting of history.
Having convinced their followers to accept this, on something very
visible, I expect that they will do it over and over.
It is noteworthty that Republicans accuse Democrats of trying to deny
the truth of who won the 2020 election, when in fact it is Republicans
who have done that ever since November, and are still trying with
irregular "audits" in Arizona and Georgia. The attack on the Capitol
was specifically part of that.
This may be preparation for a bigger attack on the mechanism
of US democracy in 2022 or 2024.
Will Democrats take this threat seriously?
*Brazilian wildcat miners attack police and burn indigenous homes in Amazon.*
*A dangerous cult now runs Britain — the worshippers at the Temple of Johnson.*
I don't think that worship is as complete and blind as what is found
in the US, though.
The opposition in Belarus plans a national strike.
5% of the members of the Democratic Republic of Congo's parliament
have died from Covid-19.
It seems that they don't practice physical distancing and don't wear
masks.
Erdoğan is prosecuting the leader of the opposition for saying that
the supreme election board was foolish to cancel a previous election.
His attitude towards laws is like that of Republicans: they are
opportunities to imprison whoever he wishes. At least this time
he did not launch a civil war.
Biden is running the Pentagon's revolving door with power assist.
*Meet the Senate Nuke Caucus, Busting the Budget and Making the World Less
Safe.*
Richard Stallman will be giving a talk/interview on Monday May 31, titled
"Live de Segunda #80 - Uma conversa com Richard Stallman"
(Monday's Live #80 - A conversation with Richard Stallman).
People can send in their questions from #debxp:matrix.org via Matrix or
#debxp on freenode via IRC.
Everyone: call on large store chains to reject using face
recognition technology on customers.
US citizens: call on Biden to hold firm on increasing corporation
taxes.
Imposing sanctions on violent regimes is usually ineffective, and
often hurts the people that the regime oppresses.
He is mostly right, but (as is his tendency) he falls into simplistic
exaggeration.
I contend that some of the sanctions against Belarus are likely to be more
effective than usual.
The US should block Amazon from merging with MGM.
In general, large companies should not be allowed to merge at all.
The larger the company, the more lobbying power it has, and the more
it can mislead the public about science and the public interest.
We should take steps to make it difficult in general for companies
to be large.
The big US insurance companies are eagerly profiting from encouraging
business that increase global heating, destroy ecosystems, and violate
human rights.
This is to be expected. The US adopted a twisted policy around 1980
which says that corporations are legally required to maximize profit
at the expense of everything else that ought to matter, and this is
the natural result.
Far from requiring psychopathic behavior, we should require all entities
to have a care for the rest of society.
(satire) *‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This
Regularly Happens.*
Forced arbitration harms small businesses as well as individuals.
When companies are able to impose arbitration requirements, it is
generally because they are large and don't have many competitors.
Large companies often try to change laws in ways that benefit them at
the expense of everyone else. Prohibiting businesses from imposing
arbitration requirements on customers, workers or suppliers would
reduce that harmful advantage.
Israeli thugs are arresting Arab protesters by the hundreds.
*Nearly three-quarters of patients with moderate-to-severe Covid-19
had at least one long-term symptom.*
A friend of mine had Covid-19 a few months ago; he needs to sleep
two hours more every night.
(satire) *Coronavirus Variant Excited To Compete With World's Top
Mutations In Tokyo This Summer.*
Chevron's stockholders voted to require the company to deliver energy
with less greenhouse gas emissions.
That would require the company to invest in renewable energy,
or perhaps increasing the customers' energy efficiency.
One of the Australian climate plaintiffs talks about their recent
partial victory in court.
*UN rights council votes for probe into crimes committed in Gaza conflict.*
Israel refuses to cooperate with the investigation.
Biden's administration have not explained to Congress what they really
mean by ending "all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales."
Colombian thugs shot protesters in the eye so often that people think
they were intentionally aiming to render people half blind. A
right-wing leader mocked them for complaining about it.
The spirit of right-wing arrogance is to mock their victims.
The United Nations has not brought world peace, but the documents
around its founding still point the way.
Scientists agree that Bogus Johnson's decisions led to tens of thousands of avoidable Covid deaths.
Facebook has been deleting photos from many years ago showing
New Guinea natives nude in ceremonies that called for nudity.
*Protesters call on banks to "drop African debt" in wake of Covid.*
Much of the debt was borrowed by dictators who then stole the money
from their country, leaving it with only the debt. Once the dictator
is ousted, the country should be able to repudiate those debts.
Eric King, anarchist, has been tortured by US prison thugs, who then
claimed he had attacked them.
Rebecca Solnit discusses the right-wing assumption that the "center"
is morally superior, a priori, and other views bear the onus of their
disagreement with that "center".
The article does not mention the second-stage lie: referring to a
fictitious "center" position which is actually rather right-wing
compared with what most people think.
Whether the UK's "hostile environment" targets a particular foreign
visitor is largely a matter of what the border officials suppose perse
will do in Britain. That is largely a matter of profiling and stereotyping.
Mexico is failing to protect Teotihuacan from a private construction
project that is destroying ancient ruins without properly excavating
them.
*Biden's military budget puts lots of money into weapons that the US
is better off without.*
Israeli thugs eagerly arrest Arabs for protesting; meanwhile, they
usually don't even try to interfere when fanatical Jews attack Arabs
or their property.
A secretive and mysterious PR campaign tried to hire influencers to
denigrate the Pfizer vaccine. The company whose name was on the offer
may not exist at all, but the people listed as involved had internet
ties to Russia.
Whether this campaign had anything to do with Russia is not clear.
Non-vaccinated Americans should not assume they are safe from Covid-19
simply because many of the other Americans they encounter are vaccinated.
The problem is that the fraction that are vaccinated is insufficient
to reach herd immunity; the virus still circulates and you can still
catch it. And in some regions, it is even less.
Indeed, vaccinated individuals can catch the disease and spread it,
and may not experience any symptoms. This is less likely for
vaccinated individuals than for non-vaccinated, but the chance is not
zero.
Tesla cars collect lots of data for the company, including the precise
trajectory of movement of the car. Henceforth, all the data for Tesla cars in China will be at the tentacletips of the Chinese state.
Tesla will offer the misleading response that it is legally required
to store data collected from cars in China in servers in China that
the state can easily browse through. That is true, but it evades the
issue. The wrong is that the car collects that data in the first place.
It took 80 years for the whole of The Man Who Lived Underground, by
Richard Wright, to be published this year.
The EPA is becoming the Environmental Protection Agency again. It has
cancelled the rule that Republicans invented to exclude most medical
studies from consideration for EPA decisions.
That rule converted the EPA into the Environmental Poisoning Agency.
Climate activist shareholders ran candidates for Exxon's board of
directors, and shareholders elected two or more of their candidates.
Some scientists are coming to see the lab-leak theory of SARS-Cov-2 as
plausible, due to reports that workers in the Wuhan virus lab got
badly sick a month before the identification of the disease Covid-19.
According to this theory, China's applied its standard approach to
problems — cover up and deny! — and this led to the pandemic.
There is not much evidence for that theory; what exists is not clear
or conclusive.
If the lab-leak theory is true, it does not mean that China deserves
all the blame for the harm that the disease has done.
In December 2019, people had little knowledge about what this virus would
do. The Chinese authorities may have believed they could prevent the
disease from spreading, get rid of it, and the world would never
notice a problem or complain. Such a response would have been risky,
perhaps reckless, but not murderous.
Later efforts to cover up the outbreak were injustices, of course,
regardless of whether there was a lab leak.
More blameworthy are the right-wing rulers such as Bolsonaro, Johnson,
Modi and Trump,
who decided to let their compatriots die rather than
take action to bring the epidemic to a halt. That was murderous.
Climate defenders call on Biden to tell the Department of Justice to stop
defending proposed oil drilling in Alaska.
This would be new development of fossil fuel extraction infrastructure,
and there is no room for any such development in the carbon budget.
Germany will pay Namibia enormous compensation for the atrocities
it committed after conquering Namibia.
Tweets about fuel shortages led to Venezuelan oil union leader's arrest.
last year.
Regardless of the facts, those charges seem morally invalid to me.
I wonder what happened after that hearing. Was Girot jailed until
trial, or not?
A privacy campaigner puts the recent court victory over GCHQ's massive
surveillance in context.
A Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 45%
by 2030.
When I first read about this, the vague words did not make it clear
whether this meant a 45% decrease in the emissions from Shell's own
operations, or a 45% decrease in emissions from the energy and fuel
that Shell delivers to customers. That difference is crucial: the
former would be insignificant, while the latter would be revolutionary.
From this article, I think it is the latter. Hooray! Even though this
is just the first of many such battles, Hooray anyway!
The "bomb threat" which Lukashenko used as an excuse to force down the
plane carrying Roman Protasevich was posted after the attack had
already started.
Global heating, in Miami, means that death from heat will continue to
increase.
Global heating has increased the range of summer temperatures in
Tokyo. Sometimes it gets so hot that vigorous exercise becomes
hazardous to health.
*Investing 0.1% of global GDP could avoid breakdown of ecosystems,
says UN report.*
But the work that is done would become insufficient as the climate crisis
gets worse.
It is absurd to think we can afford to cope with the consequences of
global heating each decade, as each decade will bring new changes
bigger than the old ones. The costs will rise until they become more
than we can cover.
The only solution we can afford is to stop global heating.
It will be a big expense, but we only have to do it once.
Oman plans to build a large plant to make hydrogen from renewable
energy.
That's the right spirit!
Global heating is causing more and bigger cyclones in the Indian Ocean.
In the Atlantic, Hurricanes (as they are called there) are also becoming
more damaging.
Taiwan had made a deal to buy vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, but China
intervened to cancel it.
US citizens: call on big store chains to reject using facial
recognition on customers.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in
Policing Act.
Republican senators say they are uncomfortable with a congressional
investigation into the attack on the Capitol because it could stir up
awareness of Republican support for attacking the Capitol.
It might also help Americans remember, for the next election, how
Republican elected officials continue giving support to the same lies
that Republicans used to organize the attack on the Capitol.
Franco's fascist rebels shot prisoners, then recorded their deaths as
due to natural causes.
The Australian Federal Court ruled that the environment minister
has a general "duty of care" to protect young people from future
climate disaster.
Ministers will have to defend their specific decisions based on this
standard.
This is not a final decision. The Federal Court is an appellate
court, but an appeal could still be made to Australia's High Court.
*Australians travelling overseas should be forced to have Covid
vaccine, doctors say.*
I support this, but there should be an exception for people
who, for medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated.
*Belarus regime uses video confessions as a tool to silence dissent.*
They extract confessions by torture and threats of violence.
They don't mind if the confessions are false.
Ms Sapega was forced to confess to an activity that would not be a
crime in a free country. In effect, Lukashenko is the one who has
confessed, on two different levels.
The Satanic Temple of Texas is suing to overturn some of the new Texas
restrictions on abortion, claiming that they violate the state
Religious Freedom Restoration Act by imposing gratuitous preconditions
(and financial costs) on the temple's abortion ritual.
As the Satanic Temple's page says, "The state might as well tax and
regulate Mass."
This is the legal equivalent of aikido, and a great hack.
Dominic Cummings accused Bogus Johnson of displaying incompetence,
carelessness, dishonesty, appointing incompetents with connections,
and disregard for human life, in dealing with Covid-19.
Other high officials participated, including Cummings himself,
he admits.
Tens of thousands of Britons got sick and died as a result.
*The Dominic Cummings circus is an indictment of the entire governing class.*
The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran is hiding something about
its processing of uranium.
Just what that might be is not clear.
*Israeli Police Target Palestinian Journalists at Al Aqsa Mosque.*
*WhatsApp sues Indian government over ‘mass surveillance’ internet laws.*
The UK is at the mercy of Bogus Johnson, who can impose
business-supremacy treaties arbitrarily; Parliament has no say.
Bogus Johnson's former chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, stated that
the health minister lied about how the UK was dealing with Covid-19 in
April 2019, falsely claiming that all patients were getting the
requisite treatments and that supplies of protective equipment were
under control.
Living through the impacts of global heating effects, or just fearing
future impacts, are causing widespread mental illness and distress.
Nevada's legislature has given a strong punishment to a Republican
anti-mask anti-vaxxer. She is
barred
from speaking or voting in the legislature unless she apologizes
for breaking the chamber's mask rule.
Her firmness in defense of principle would be admirable, if not for
the fact that the principle being defended is "Spread disease!"
A guide to the fashionable ways to impress people,
for
those who can't afford a mansion.
The construction of a new, potentially polluting chemical plant in
Cancer Alley is
running
into government resistance.
Instead of trying to clean up Cancer Alley, how about if we move the
people out of there? Here's how we could do it.
Help out each of the families that lives in the polluted area, paying
enough that it can afford a home in a city some distance away.
Set up bus lines from those cites to the area where the polluting
plants are, taxing all chemical plants nationwide to pay to run them.
Put all new chemical plants in such a zone, so that they won't pollute
places where anybody lives.
How Democrats can maneuver the political process so that Manchin
votes
reluctantly to eliminate the filibuster.
It seems to me that they are working on a plan like that.
Cory Doctorow has endorsed my denunciation of "intellectual property"
as a
bogus
overgeneralization.
See
"Did You Say
'Intellectual Property'? It's a Seductive Mirage", for how I
stated the point.
Doctorow does a good job of explaining the point, and will reach a
bigger public.
Community Health Systems, Inc. owns 84 hospitals, and watch out if you
end up in one! That company
sues
lots patients that can't pay their medical bills.
Most Americans can't raise $400 for an emergency expense. Can you
raise $162,000?
Android tracked users’ location across third party apps,
even
if the user disabled "location". Installing a Google-disconnected
operating system, such as the not-entirely-libre LineageOS or the
totally libre
Replicant, was the only way to
stop this.
In addition, it tracked users' location via which WiFi networks the
phone could see.
Navalny says an official told him of
additional
criminal charges. They all seem absurd to me.
Poverty, and
inadequate
government support for the poor, forces many Britons to live in
vans because they can't afford any housing.
The US
must
not accept "compromise" with right-wing fanatics about whether
right-wing fanatics are allowed to sabotage democracy.
The ACLU is continuing to advance the lawsuit challenging US border
thugs' power to unlock any traveler's computers arbitrarily.
However, this lawsuit does not go far enough. The border thugs should have to
ask a judge to sign a warrant before they can search a traveler's computer.
(Every smart phone is a computer. Maybe some nonsmart phones
should also be treated as computers.)
The new head of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice,
Kristen Clarke, has made a career of fighting against bigotry and bias.
*A Third Reconstruction Is Pragmatically Achievable and Could End
American Poverty.*
By "reconstruction", the author means the elimination of the systems
that disenfranchise and impoverish poor people and disprivileged
demographic groups.
Even as many public pension funds divest from coal, some others are
gobbling up the shares that they sell.
The net result is not zero. It drives down the stock price of the
companies that do coal development, which is a positive step. But not
a big positive step. We need laws to make fossil fuel industries
shrink.
A carbon tax is one method that can do it.
Israel's bombing of Gaza damaged a lot of the water and electricity
infrastructure. 400 thousand have no access to water except by going
to fetch some.
This makes it hard for people to wash their hands regularly, as they
need to do.
*IG Report Shows Top Trump Officials at EPA Hid Threats of Toxic
Dicamba Herbicide.*
(satire) *Class-Action Suit Against God Pays Out 45 Extra Seconds Of
Life To Every Creature.*
Calling on the UK to stop the flow of Lukashenko's tax-dodging money
through UK banks.
It ought to stop this for all tax-dodging, but (like so many other
countries) it stubbornly insists on continuing to profit from
assisting.
*Iran’s leadership accused of fixing presidential election* by
authorizing the main hard-line candidate and blocking the popular
softer candidates.
Belarusian journalists in exile are getting lots of death threats.
Somalia has a plan for elections for president.
*Nile fishermen protect [fish] stocks by pulling plastic from river.*
Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers raided refugee camps and violently
took away 500 refugees.
Fossil fuel development continues because it is still profitable. To curb global heating we must take such strong steps to discourage it that it won't be profitable any more.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK's GCHR was
violating human rights through its uncontrolled massive surveillance.
90% of the casualties caused by military explosive weapons when used in
cities, in the past ten years, have been civilians.
This fuels a campaign to end the use of explosive weapons in cities.
(Writing "91%" gives the number too much precision. I can't believe
the data are reliable enough that we could tell whether the true
percentage is 90% or 91% or 92%.)
Plastic trash that washes up on tropical beaches makes the beach sand
substantially hotter. This causes most sea turtle eggs to come out
female.
The lack of males endangers the species.
Global heating will eventually have the same effect anyway, but that
will take longer and maybe we will stop it.
In 1945, the UK secretly deported hundreds of Chinese seamen who had helped
run the UK's merchant marine during World War II.
The government did not tell Parliament, nor did it tell the men's
British wives and children.
A British clothing company registered "Yoruba" as a trademark.
That is absurd — the name of an ethnic group, or other group of
people, should never be anyone's monopoly. Imagine if a company in
Africa made "British" its trademark! It would be the same wrong.
However, using the term "cultural appropriation" to describe this wrong
is a confusion.
A fitting term for what happened here would be "cultural enclosure":
the attempt to seize part of the common.
Biden offers to give up on central progressive commitments to try to
"compromise" with Republicans whose goal is to make him fail.
Don't believe Apple's claims to care about users' privacy. In China,
it stores all user data on servers controlled by the Chinese government.
*Venezuelans in mining town loot stores that refuse to accept
[Venezuelan currency].*
Texas has removed nearly all legal limits on carrying a gun in public.
No safety training (or accuracy training) is required.
A lot more people have reasons to drive cars than to carry guns.
When will Texas eliminate the requirement for a driver's license?
If Democrats start urging Americans not to cut their ears off with a
kitchen knife, will Republicans insist on upholding the freedom to do
that?
Australia's quick and strong reaction when Covid-19 somehow escaped
from quarantine demonstrates the way to defeat the virus.
Any country can do this, if it has sufficient social cohesion to trust
that the inconvenient measures will pay off. And they do pay off,
even economically, if you judge with a time frame as long as six
months.
(satire) *New Orleans Airbnb Touts Location In Heart Of Historic
Airbnb Quarter.*
(satire) *Patient With 18 Months To Live Not Sure She Can Sustain
Cherishing Every Moment That Long.*
*EU report highlights widespread use of ‘stop and search’ on ethnic minorities*
The EU is about to change its farm subsidies to avoid promoting
concentration and intensification.
Italy seeks EU funds that come with a requirement to allow more
subcontracting.
When businesses subcontract work, it tends to imply lower pay,
worse working conditions,
and in many cases illegal working conditions.
*Kremlin critic Khodorkovsky tells Europe: sanction Belarus's oil and potash
producers.*
US citizens: call on Congress to enact the right to an abortion in
federal law.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111. If you call, please spread the word!
Massachusetts residents: call on Massachusetts legislators to support the
VOTES act.
Here
is more explanation of that proposed law.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Break Free from Plastic
Pollution Act.
Here
is a description of that proposed law.
Video entertainment attracts people so strongly that they reduce their
working hours to do it.
(The article says "television", but that word introduces a specificity
that I suspect is spurious.)
If you want to watch video, I urge you to make sure your choices are
not being tracked by some snooping tech. Don't use nonfree software
(including nonfree Javascript code from a web site) or a streaming
dis-service or a cable box.
*Both left and right practice "cancel culture". Both should stop.*
Blood Legacy, by Alex Renton, examines Britain's involvement in
slavery through his family's investment in slave plantations in
the Caribbean.
*Washington toughens stance to fight atrocities in Ethiopia.*
*Police records show threats to kill lawmakers in wake of Capitol attack.*
This is a part of the Republican campaign to attack the truth about
the election.
*What is at stake with Nikole Hannah-Jones being denied tenure.*
Vancouver, with its large population of immigrants from China and
nearby countries, is becoming the focus of anti-Sinasian hate in
Canada.
I use the term "Sinasian" because the target group of this particular
hate movement includes countries such as Indonesia and the
Philippines, which are not in Asia. Also because it does not include
countries such as Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and India,
which are in Asia.
People from those countries are also currently targets of bigotry and
hatred, and that is just as wrong as when the targets are Chinese or
neighboring. But when people say "anti-Asian", they don't have in
mind the western parts of Asia.
Belarus forced down an airliner crossing its airspace in order to
arrest a passenger — Roman Protasevich, a Belarusiano protest
organizer who had gone into exile.
Lukashenko's toadies say they will kill him.
How to push back? Other countries could close their airspace to
flights going to or from Belarus airspace, until Lukashenko frees
Protasevich and commits not to do this again.
In spirit, this resembles what the UK did to David Miranda when he
transited through the UK with a copy of Snowden material.
However, that did not involve forcing down an airliner.
*Mexico Wants to Import Non-GMO Corn and US Farmers Say They Can
Deliver It.*
However, Mexicans can also grow it, and that might enable a lot of Mexicans
to get out of the poverty that NAFTA pushed them into.
In Arnhem Land, in northern Australia, indigenous rangers actively
manage fires.
This sort of management can reduce destructive fires and protect species.
However, whether it will succeed in storing carbon long-term depends on
how bad global heating gets. It is good to pay rangers to do it,
but we should not take for granted it will reduce net emissions.
Indeed, I think we should not plan for curbing global heating in terms
of "net emissions" and "offsets". Rather, we should make plans to
reduce emissions; and we should also make plans to protect various
sorts of terrain.
*Academics suspect papers with grabby conclusions are waved through
more easily by [peer] reviewers.*
The WHO has refused to allow Taiwan to send observers to participate
in its plenary meeting.
I think western powers should bite the bullet and start recognizing
Taiwan as "Taiwan". There could, by chance, be a more convenient
moment in the future, but it won't get easier.
Burma's democracy movement is shifting into a guerrilla uprising
and getting involved with minority ethnic separatist movements
that have maintained autonomous zones for decades.
Don't expect China to be any less violent in its imperialism than the
US has been. However, its denials will be in the bullshitter's style,
broad and blatant denial of truth, rather than subtle lies.
Samoa's prime minister is holding on to power with a sort of
nonviolent autogolpe.
Japan is suffering a wave of Covid-19 in Osaka which is
overwhelming
the medical system there.
I wonder why Japan has failed to apply the necessary discipline to
suppress the disease. It seemed to do so effectively a year ago,
though I don't recall details.
Could it be that the government has denied the severity so as to
reduce pressure to cancel the Olympic games?
Around 10% of women have a medical problem, polycystic ovary syndrome,
which can cause severe complications if they catch Covid-19.
Most Covid-19 medical studies have not paid attention to it, and most
of these women don't know they have it.
Even in 2012, lunatic extremists were altering the Republican Party.
They were not yet a majority, but the trend was clear.
Right-wing cancellationists have got two noteworthy journalists fired
for past support for Palestinians' rights.
50 years ago, plutocratist in the Republican Party started a long-term plan
to convince Americans that the government should work mainly for the rich.
It has been very effective.
I love the German businessman's explanation for why he did not resent
the high income tax bracket he was in: "I don’t want to be a rich man
in a poor country." Today's plutocratists are aiming precisely for
that situation.
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are being overcome by
Covid-19.
The lack of enough vaccine is not pertinent to why things are worse
than a year ago, since vaccine is more plentiful now than then.
The more transmissible B.1.617 strain may be part of the cause. But
it seems that they are failing to take adequate measures against
transmission.
Australia showed the right example: take local measures immediately
that are strong enough to end transmission. Don't wait, because
waiting will require the measures to cover more areas.
The Burmese military rulers imprisoned the editor of Frontier Myanmar,
an American, as he was about to fly out of the country.
The UK has punished Belarus for arresting Roman Protasevich
by forbidding Belarus's airline from flying to the UK and ordering
British planes not to fly over Belarus.
That is a substantial step, but I think it is inadequate. At the very
least, other countries should ban any flights between their airports
and Belarus — regardless of which airline — and ban flights from or
to Belarus from crossing their airspace. This would cut off Belarus from
air transportation with anywhere except Russia.
As a separate matter, they should to prohibit flights that have
crossed Belarusian airspace from entering their airspace. That would
would not punish Belarus any further, but it would make all flights
avoid the territory of Belarus, and that would ensure the safety of
passengers in those flights.
Belarus is not the only country which interfered with travel in
foreign country's civilian aircraft. When Snowden was seeking a way
to reach Bolicia, and the US wanted to keep him stuck in Russia, the
plane of the president of Bolicia went to Europe. The US suspected it
would bring Snowden to Bolivia on its return there, and had its allies
compel the plane to land in a country which then forcibly searched it.
Fortunately, Snowden was not aboard.
They did not threaten violence against the plane or order
it to land at a specific place. But they did box it in by forbidding
it to enter various countries' airspace. And they likewise compelled
Bolivia to allow it to be searched.
It would be a mistake to draw blanket conclusions about the US
government or the Belarus government from this. Each one is capable
of doing evil. Lukashenko's regime is unremitting tyranny and
unremitting evil; the US has some hope of being better.
Ghana has arrested people for holding an event and "advocating LGBTQ
activities", then held them incommunicado without access to lawyers.
To avoid global heating disaster, we need to put an end to extractivism
as the basis for our economy.
It is an error to suppose that local cultures of the past had an
inherent understanding of sustainability. Some groups recognized
problems and adopted ways of life to protect their environment.
Others did not, and caused environmental crises that wiped them out.
In regard to our current situation, the problem that drives us to too
much growth is partly in the desires of masses of people, and partly
embedded in laws and institutions. For instance, the fairly new
"principle" (adopted in the 1980s) that a corporation "must" maximize
return to its investors regardless of all other values.
Belarus is choking off all avenues for independent reporting and trying to
imprison all dissidents. Even dissidents in exile are not safe.
Supporters of Palestinians' rights stand firm against antisemitism.
Covid-19 vaccination makes you pretty safe from actual harm, but does
not guarantee you can't get a mild case and transmit the virus to
others. Thus, some people rationally decide to keep wearing masks.
I continue to wear a mask when in the proximity of strangers.
Barrett Brown went to a protest in the UK and multiple times helped
hold a banner that said "Cops Kill". The last time, it had been
rearranged to say "Kill Cops" — and he was arrested for incitement to
violence.
If I understand right, that would not count as incitement to violence
in the US. The US has a very strict definition of that crime.
Exhorting Biden to insist on the infrastructure/jobs plan, not cut
it back in the hope Republicans will deign to accept it.
A general principle of negotiation, when you're working for something
other than your own gain, is never to propose a concession. You can
accept all or part of a concession proposed by the opposition,
preferably attaching a condition (a quid-pro-quo); that is the way
deals are reached. But initiating a concession says, "I am desperate
and weak-willed." It invites the opposition to respond, "That's not
enough — make a real concession!"
WHO estimates that the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 is two or
three times the official reported total of 3.4 million.
Perhaps even more.
Many countries don't have good systems for reporting cause of death,
In some cases it is hard to determine whether Covid-19 was to blame.
And then there are the cover-ups.
William Jennette was in jail in Tennessee, and handcuffed, when a
group of thugs killed him by kneeling on his back for several minutes.
(satire) *"And You Lived In Afghanistan For How Long?" Asks Suspicious Agent
Questioning Returning Soldier At Customs.*
The former dishonest journalist, Bogus Johnson, must not be allowed
to reform the BBC after his own heart.
*World expert in scientific misconduct faces legal action for challenging
integrity of hydroxychloroquine study.*
It is remarkable that Dr Raoult would escalate this far to silence a
scientific criticism, and also that he has the resources to do so.
I wonder where those resources come from.
The UK government is covering up the results of an investigation into police
corruption from 34 years ago, corruption which resulted in the murder of
a private detective who was investigating it.
This demonstrates that the corruption is not just a thing of the past.
An argument against the UK's proposed university free speech
requirement shows real problems, but it also shows that the author
(Renton) advocates a lot of censorship.
I disagree politically with Yiannopoulos, and when Renton criticizes
things Yiannopoulos said, I agree with the criticism. However,
censoring such statements is another matter. In arguing for that,
Renton shows little support for freedom of speech.
Naturally, right-wing politicians in power will try to crush dissent.
The solutions they propose will tend to be unfair. But that doesn't
mean there is no problem.
The UK is hardly trying to make businesses prevent Covid-19 spread in
workplaces.
*Don't let Middle East violence fuel hatred on the streets of Britain.*
Bogus Johnson suppressed information on spread of new Covid-19
variants via schools.
The more transmissible Covid-19 variants are more likely to make children
gravely ill, even kill them, than before.
People age 12-15 are not children. They are adolescents.
Please do not infantilise adolescents.
US citizens: call on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate drug
prices.
US citizens: call on the US to condition military aid to Israel on
ending the occupation of Palestine, human rights abuses, and war crimes.
US citizens: call on Biden and cabinet secretaries to lift US
sanctions temporarily to facilitate countries' imports of food and
medicines required to deal with Covid-19.
US citizens: call on states to stop requiring facial recognition for
unemployed benefits.
Chicago's mayor, a black woman, has set a policy of refusing to give interviews
to white journalists.
Blacks in the US continue to meet with individual bigotry as well as
systemic racism. But you can't help cure bigotry by pushing back in a
bigoted way.
The Extinction Prevention Act would provide funds to help save many
endangered species that live in the US.
*Tech Companies Want Schools to Use COVID Relief Money on Surveillance Tools.*
It's standard practice for thugs to lie about the people they
gratuitously shoot. In Ronald Greene's case, we now see the truth.
With Andrew Brown, we have indications of it but the thugs are still
keeping the facts secret.
More info about Ronald Greene's killing.
Australia's climate strike movement has made the planet-roaster
Australian government its main target.
Israel's bombing has damaged 19 medical facilities in Gaza.
Bolsonaro wanted to achieve herd immunity by having most Brazilians catch
Covid-19, rather than by vaccinating most Brazilians.
The article errs by using the term "herd immunity" only for the first
option. Both recovery from an infection and vaccination convey the
same sort of immunity; a sufficiently large fraction with immunity from
whatever cause results in herd immunity.
Where they differ is that catching Covid-19 can result in death, or
in lasting disability (perhaps permanent) in a few percent of the
infected people. Vaccination does not do this.
Out of 200 million Brazilians, letting the disease run rampant may
imply a few million dead and a few million disabled on the path to
herd immunity.
This is why it makes sense to use various methods to reduce the fraction
of people that ever catch Covid-19.
Taiwan says that China is using disinformation to undermine Taiwanese
cohesion in responding to Covid-19.
Taiwan asked everyone to stay home this weekend so as to break the chain
of transmission.
*Charles Koch funded eviction push while investing in real estate companies.*
China has been suppressing Tibetan culture for so long that, soon,
little will be left.
We should not forget that many imperialist countries have suppressed
the culture of colonized peoples. The US did, Canada did, and so did
some European countries to their minorities. Nowadays, these countries
no longer have such policies, while China does.
Texas passed a law allowing parents to give their children reasonable
independence outdoors.
The article does not make it clear whether the law also includes
allowing children to be home alone. It would be logical if it did,
but can anyone find out and tell me?
Everyone: call on BlackRock, Fidelity, State Street, T. Rowe Price and
Vanguard to vote for shareholder resolutions 4–8 at Facebook’s annual
meeting on May 26.
US citizens: call on the Forest Service not to permit Nestlé's
successor to extract California's water.
US citizens: call on the Senate to support the Jan 6 insurrection
investigation.
*Climate crisis behind drastic drop in Arctic wildlife populations.*
China is supplying jet fuel to Burma. The military uses that for air
attacks.
The US has a history of similar behavior, and progressives criticize it.
We should not treat it as less bad when China does it.
*Hong Kong court denies jury trial to first person charged under national
security law.*
The US government should buy Greyhound and provide intercity buses
as a government service.
This would be great as long as it is not used as a surveillance system.
Greyhound asks for passengers' names but mostly does not seem to check
their identities. It should stop asking!
A German soldier who is apparently a Nazi is being tried for planning to assassinate politicians while posing as a Syrian refugee.
Catching him after those murders would have revealed that he was no
Syrian. I wonder why he did not consider that a flaw in his plan.
Perhaps he assumed it would take so long to catch him that the truth
would never overcome his lie. Or perhaps he expected Nazis to reject
the truth whenever it did come out.
Covid-19 vaccine profits have made nine people billionaires.
They are not satisfied — they and their businesses are determined to
get as many billions as they can from vaccination, even by slowing the
process of vaccinating everyone.
Many of the experts and think tanks that argue for strict application
of patents and trade secrets on Covid vaccine production are supported
by drug money.
The mainstream media do not mention this when citing their "wise"
advice.
This sort of practice makes it necessary to be skeptical of the motives
of scientists and other experts, and that hurts society deeply.
Argentina's medical system is collapsing under the strain of so many cases
of Covid-19.
As in the US, politicians are exploiting resentment against public
health measures, boosting their careers by killing some fraction
of the public.
The G7 countries have agreed to stop financing coal development in
other countries.
That will be a significant step, if they carry it out quickly.
But then we need similar policies regarding oil and natural gas.
Ethiopia has convicted four of its soldiers of rape or murder of civilians.
Every army has a duty to enforce the laws against war crimes, but
disorder in the army is out of control in Tigray;
Ethiopia has a long way to go.
Erdoğan is still working on convicting
the organizers of the 2013 protests in Gezi Park in Istanbul.
That was his first big foray into repression. Since then he has done
much worse things, such as starting a civil war so he could rerun an election
that he had lost.
Guatemala has decided to stop prosecuting corrupt officials and
instead prosecute the officials who tried to make the rich pay taxes.
Sounds like Guatemala's equivalent of Trump or Bolsonaro is in charge.
The families of people who died in Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752
won a lawsuit against the government of Iran.
There is no question that Iranian forces shot down the plane, but I
am surprised by the conclusion that they knowingly and intentionally
targeted an airliner. What evidence exists for that?
*Asthma in toddlers linked to in-utero exposure to air pollution.*
Republican governors plan to cut the unemployment benefits of 3 and a
half million unemployed Americans.
In approximately Covid-free Australia, students are striking again for
climate defense.
Excluding the most polluting vehicles from densely populated areas is
an effective way to reduce the general level of exposure to air pollution,
and the medical harm which that pollution does.
However, when the exclusion is implemented by systematically tracking
all vehicles, that is a form of oppression. Tracking the movements of
people in general is inherently oppressive. The system should be
implemented so that it does not notice the movements of low-emission
cars, only the presence of a high-emission car.
*The U.S. Must Stop Providing Weapons Used to Repress Colombia’s Protests.*
The scarce resources for making efficient batteries, as it is
currently done, will cause conflict among states.
*His family says they were told he died in a car wreck. Video now
shows Ronald Greene was kicked, dragged and tased by [thugs].*
Then, as usual, they lied about it. At least this time they did not
try to frame him.
*The EPA effectively
admitted grave errors in EPA’s 2020 interim registration of glyphosate,
best known as the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup pesticides,
and asked the court for permission to re-do the agency’s faulty
assessments.*
*Committee to Protect Journalists Accuses Israel of Trying to 'Shut Down' Gaza Coverage by Bombing Media Outlets.*
*Democrats unveil $30bn bill to cancel water debts and bail out utility firms.*
To evade the responsibility for bad decisions on protecting the UK
from Covid-19, Bogus Johnson is blaming the Britons who did not want
to be vaccinated.
This is even more absurd than it looks like. because vaccination in
the UK is limited by supplies of vaccine. If one person chose not to
be vaccinated, another person got the chance to be vaccinated early.
This had no effect on the vulnerability to the more transmissible
Indian strains.
US citizens: call on Congress to abolish the death penalty for federal
crimes.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the DOJ to create a task force to investigate
the corrupter and his associates.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass Medicare for All.
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!
Israel and HAMAS have agreed on a cease-fire.
I think that Biden privately pressured Netanyahu to accept it,
while publicly defending Netanyahu. That seems to be his approach.
*Declining birthrates will take the strain off our planet.*
I agree with the first two letters. However, I have to point out
that, for the societies that live in an ecologically inefficient way,
the effects of one more immigrant are not very different from the
effects of one more baby. Either one adds to the population
and is likely to result in further growth in subsequent generations.
*The pro-Palestine movement is broad but it can’t be a home to antisemitism.*
Furthermore, the presence of Jews, and a majority of people who are neither
violent nor extremist nor antisemitic, must not be taken as proof
that none of its supporters are violent or extremist or antisemitic.
Israeli state thugs, plus thuggish right-wing private citizens, are
committing repeated violence that has poisoned the peace between Jews
and Arabs that prevailed in Jaffa for many years.
Oriel College in Oxford decided not to remove Rhodes's statue. It did
not refuse on principle, but rather because some laws create an
obstacle.
Rhodes's main activity was colonial conquest. He did good with some
of the riches he got from colonialism, but that can't compensate for
the harm by which he got those riches. Therefore, I conclude that
there are no good reasons why the statue ought to remain.
I hope that the UK will change whatever laws interfere with removing
such statues.
India's Covid-19 crisis has eliminated vaccine supply for most other
countries.
The world needs more production capacity, for other countries and for
India too.
Sanders and other senators have introduced a bipartisan bill to audit
the Pentagon.
This is long overdue.
Some Republican cultists in the House of Representatives refused to
wear masks, and got a warning for the first violation of that rule.
They believe that getting away with this makes them look brave to voters,
and that may be true. The House needs to take measures stern enough that
it will make them back down. For instance, keeping them off the house
floor for the next ten hours of being in session.
Even though the Jan 6 investigation had been pre-undermined with a
requirement for Republican agreement to issue any subpoena, most
Republicans in the House voted not to have any investigation.
Democrats compromised by giving Republicans equal representation in
the commission, hoping to win some Republican support. In response to
that, Senator McConnell called it a "slanted and unbalanced proposal."
McConnell can probably kill the investigation entirely.
It was foolish of the Democrats to agree to a compromise without
getting a final deal as part of the compromise. It appears that what
they will ultimately get for their concession is nothing — and
making a concession uselessly only looks weak.
(satire) *U.S. Military Leaves Scarf In Afghanistan So It Has Excuse To Go Back Later.*
Ethiopian soldiers raided a hospital in Tigray searching for staff and
patients that told journalists about interference with humanitarian
aid to that region.
Despising politics, and expecting elected officials not to care about
what people need, gets us elected officials that show contempt for
the public.
I disagree, however, with the criticism of sleeping in the office.
That space is theirs to use, and their using it 10 more hours
each day does not cost the government anything significant.
(satire) *Neighborhood Rallies To Designate Pothole As Historic Landmark.*
Ford is considering programming the nonfree software in the car
to impose ads on the people in the car.
The owner could pay extra to turn off the ads.
This is what you get with a device that contains nonfree software
and can communicate in any fashion.
US waste companies continue to send the waste to countries that won't try to recycle it.
Fact-checking and debunking, as Snopes does, used to be apolitical and
fun, as well as educational. People who read the explanations often
learned from this.
Nowadays, refuting the spew of right-wing lies is ineffective;
right-wing fanatics don't change their minds no matter how much
evidence is piled on them.
If someone you know has fallen under the truth-hating spell, then unless
you have the best information on how to lead someone out of it, and wish
to put a lot of patience and effort into it, I suggest cutting off those
conversations rapidly.
European ministers look forward to joining Biden in policies that give businesses further power over democracy in the US and the EU.
The area of business-supremacy treaties
was one of the few policy areas in which the corrupter made things better, keeping the US out of
the TPP
and modifying NAFTA to remove the ISDS clause (I Sue Democratic States).
Will Biden return to something like Obama's bad policy?
Can progressive legislators block it?
*North Carolina prosecutor says [thugs] were justified in fatally shooting
Andrew Brown.* He claimed Brown was driving his car at the thugs.
Brown's family's lawyer says the video contradicts the prosecutor's claims. The family has seen the video but the public
is not allowed to see it.
False accusations against blacks have played an important role in
history and politics in that region of Virginia.
The prosecutor is not entitled to say, "take my word for it!"
*Michigan "Big Lie" lawmaker proposes eerie bill that would punish fact
checkers: "You better be right".*
I suspect they will draw up the law such that it will be easy to
launch lawsuits that will deter people from criticizing, even if they
would ultimately fail.
*What will the institutions of liberal democracy do when Republican
officials simply refuse to concede Democratic victories?*
(satire) *Congress Reaches Compromise To Investigate Events Of January
9.*
(There was nothing on January 9 that Republicans don't want investigated.)
*The Most Colossal Planning Failure in Human History:* setting up a
civilization to run on fossil fuels without planning for how to stop
using them.
Ohio is offering a prize lottery to people that get vaccinated, and
this boosted interest in vaccination.
Republicans are no longer ashamed to say their intention is to stop
legitimate voters from voting. On the contrary, many Republicans are
proud to do that.
They are picking up the "by hook or by crook" attitude that the wrecker
has promoted.
* A review of California cases shows that [thug departments] frequently
publish highly misleading information about people they've killed —
just like the first George Floyd press release.*
*Brazilian police raid environment ministry over ‘illegal’ timber sales.*
The minister, a close ally of Bolsonaro, seems to be one of the suspects.
Belarus blocked the news site Tut.by and arrested its journalists.
The UK was exporting plastic waste to Turkey, but once it arrived the
companies just burned it or littered it.
Now Turkey will stop accepting such waste.
Cheaters will keep looking for countries they can pollute in that way,
but we had better stop making large quantities of unrecyclable plastic.
Chad's troops attacked protesters denouncing the military coup.
US sanctions against Venezuela are cutting into planting, and the
threatening the country with food shortage later.
The government of Honduras feeds the supporters of the ruling party.
Others have to flee to get food.
Survivors of the 1921 massacre of blacks in Tulsa testified about it in Congress.
They were children when 300 people in their neighborhood were killed.
It's bad enough that this happened once, but the wrecker is trying to make
it happen again.
*Ivory Coast jails child traffickers after cocoa farm raids.*
Food companies Cargill, Bunge and Cofco were caught selling soy beans
produced by deforesters in Brazil.
When the wrecker was in charge, the Department of Justice gave Twitter
a subpoena to try to identify the operator of a parody account that made
fun of abject supporter Rep. Devin Nunes.
It went so far as to make Twitter keep the subpoena secret.
This looks like an attempt to use the government to repress criticism of Nunes.
*Israeli TV reporters face attacks and threats from Jewish extremists.*
Soon they may have to flee to the West Bank and seek the protection of
the Palestinian Authority ;-}{.
In a survey, 90% of US blacks said they had experienced some sort of
prejudice from the staff of stores.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to block funds for Israel's
evictions of Palestinians.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Washington State has banned disposable styrofoam food containers and
packing "peanuts", as well as other steps to reduce disposable
plastic.
Varoufakis: Why do the rich push against stimulus programs? Ultimately, they
want working-class people to be desperate and take low pay.
(satire) *Israel Returns Occupied Territories To Palestinians After
Running Out Of Targets To Hit In Gaza.*
(satire) *‘The Onion’ Calls On Israel To Bomb Our Offices In Case Any
Hamas Agents Hiding Out There.*
The UK has announced plans to protect and restore peat bogs, which absorb
considerable amounts of CO2.
Rep. McCarthy opposes an official Congressional investigation
into the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
This is a form of the Republican big lie, which claims there was
no attack.
It appears to me that the proposed investigation, if approved, will be
paralyzed by its structure. With equal numbers of Democrats and
Republicans required for a subpoena, Republicans could block all
subpoenas. Is there some crucial point I am missing?
Australia will spend almost a billion dollars (AUD, not USD) on a
fossil-fueled power plant that would only rarely be turned on.
At least it won't emit a lot of CO2 if it rarely operates, but it is a
big waste of money. How about building storage batteries instead?
In the US it is easy to get a gun by mail order, with no background
checking. It comes as parts, which are not considered a gun until
they are assembled.
The conservative parties lost big in elections for Chile's
constitutional assembly. Candidates that favor substantial change will
dominate the body.
*Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever
seen.*
Why is Bogus Johnson so eager to urge Britons to take foreign holidays,
then warning everyone to be careful about it?
The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency says
there must be no more investment in fossil fuels anywhere in the world.
This is important because the IEA has in the past promoted and defended
fossil fuels. Its departure from that camp will have an influence.
The same report also explains that putting the economy into full
decarbonization mode will create jobs, and requires no futuristic
technology, only predictable advances.
Signal tried to use Instagram ads to show users how Instagram
was profiling them. Instagram shut down these ads.
Bogus Johnson made corruption in awarding government contracts systematic.
Putin will prohibit Navalny's supporters from running for the
basically subservient Russian parliament.
A lynch mob in Pakistan tried to break into a police station to murder
two people accused of minor property damage to a mosque.
Denmark has decided to admit 22 Danish citizens who are in prison in Syria
for involvement in PISSI.
Justice calls for this. Those people may be accused of participation
in PISSI's crimes, but if so, they deserve trials to judge their
actions. If they are convicted, exile should not be their punishment.
The British parliament has ceded too much power to ministers.
Nowadays, UK ministers tend to be corrupt
and unaccountable.
Pinochet's constitution for Chile imposed a laissez-mourir
"neoliberal" economy. The vote on the constitutional assembly
indicates repudiation of that ideology — an intention to allow the
government to limit the power of the rich and to actively help those
that need help.
It is ironic that some bemoaned the surprise that the explicit
requirement for 50% women in the assembly actually resulted in
slightly increasing the number of men in the assembly. Does this mean
they now reconsider whether it is right to have an explicit gender
requirement in public elections?
I also wonder what will happen, or perhaps what did happen, in the
encounter between such a requirement and transgender and
nonbinary gender.
In the 1980s Savings and Loan scandal, hundreds of US banks engaged in outright cheating.
President Bush I clamped down on the agency that reported the crimes
so that future crimes would be protected.
Private equity coalitions are trying to take over Medline, which makes
and resells medical supplies.
If they destroy this company as they destroyed Toys-Я-Us, any of us
could die as a direct result.
It looks like Israel must have been systematically targeting
Palestinian journalistic sites in Gaza.
Systemic racism example: Carlette Duffy's home was appraised at a much higher
value when she tacitly let the appraisers think the owner was a white man.
What's more, it is clear how appraisers used the owner's race in the
appraisal process, leaving no doubt that her race was the cause of the
difference.
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
an exception for articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
Bad news: Uber made money last year.
More bad news: it paid no US taxes, because it laundered the profits
through a tax haven: the Netherlands.
The article uses the term "intellectual property". You might think that refers
to something of inherent monetary and intellectual value, but chances are
it only means some excuses to sign a contract for Uber branch A to pay rent
to Uber branch B. Please don't use the term "intellectual property".
An dietary additive could reduce each cow's methane emissions by 30%.
I see one potential flaw in the system: once a company has bought the
supplement as an "offset", what will ensure that it reaches farmers
who really feed it to their cows? If its use is advantageous to the
farmers themselves, they will arrange to get it and use it; but
if not, it could get put in the trash.
Biden's proposed arms sale to Israel includes more of the missiles that
Israel fires at many civilian homes and institutions in Gaza.
*Israeli Airstrikes Damage Gaza's Only Coronavirus Testing Lab.*
The International Energy Agency still has some changes to make to fully
support curbing global heating.
Amnesty International says Israel has a pattern of air attacks on
civilians.
Some unions that represent many cops have adopted policies to lead and press them to act like police officers.
Officially, they will no longer defend thugs.
Making changes in this area is easier said than done. We will see to what
extent this decision is effective.
The melting of ice in Antarctica could cause increased rain there.
This fall of molten ice could make the remaining ice melt even faster.
The executives of many EU countries have made Covid-19 "emergency"
declarations which have enabled them to rule by decree.
The UK's "hostile environment" for foreign workers is driving out so many
long-term residents that there is now a labor shortage.
Millions of Americans have medical problems that call for them to wear
masks even once they are vaccinated.
We could eliminate this problem if we cooperated in taking precautions against
transmission.
HAMAS says it never operates military activities in civilian buildings,
and in particular not in the building which housed the AP and al-Jazeera
offices until Israel bombed it.
It looks like I didn't miss anything by not using dating apps; they
are addictive and twisting, and not very good for finding love.
I won't consider using dating apps — they are nonfree software so I
refuse to run them.
US citizens: call on Biden to nominate a climate leader as chair of
the Federal Reserve.
US citizens: call on Congress to forbid Israel from using US aid
funds for actions that trample Palestinians' human rights.
In my view, the fact that the trampling is done with US funds is not a
central moral issue. Those actions would be equally bad if it did not
benefit from US funds. But the US should not overlook them.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsa labs workaround.
*Sierra Leone sells rainforest for Chinese fish plant.*
Australia plans to invest heavily in production of hydrogen, including
production that consumes fossil fuels and will probably contribute to
CO2 emissions.
It wants to use "renewable energy" funds for this project.
The core aim of this planet-roasting bullshit is to paint CO2
generation as acceptable on the expectation supposition that the CO2
will be captured. Will that really happen? What fraction will the
hypothetical technology actually succeed in capturing, if it ever
works? Is it ready for use at industrial scale at all now?
The loophole for cheating our future is that they will build the
plant, and capturing all the CO2 won't actually be feasible, but they
will insist on using the plant anyway "because we already paid for
it."
A lot of Greenland ice is about to start melting, and as much as 2 meters
sea level rise may already be unavoidable.
*The warming Arctic tundra will make it harder for the world to curb
climate change, as thawing permafrost and wildfires release
greenhouse gases that are not fully accounted for in global emissions
agreements, a study said on Monday.*
Canadian thugs accused someone of running an illegal casino, but the charges
have been dropped after videos showed thugs stealing and planting evidence.
Proposing to release wild jaguars in parts of Arizona and New Mexico,
an area which used to be part of their habitat.
The right-wing-dominated US Supreme Court has chosen an opportunity to
undo all or part of the Roe v Wade decision which established the
right to an abortion in the US.
*The FBI is supposed to track how police use force — years later, it’s falling
well short.*
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
an exception for articles which give important information about
racism or the fight to eliminate racism. That article is one of the
exceptions.
*There's a database whose mission is to stop problematic [thugs] from
hopping between departments. But many agencies don't know it exists.*
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, has voted to hire unarmed non-thugs to
handle certain kinds of situations, including people having
psychological crises.
This change would presumably have prevented Daunte Wright from being killed.
Thugs object to some of the changes.
*How Apple’s AirTag turns us [captives of Apple] into unwitting spies
in a vast surveillance network.*
Inevitably Apple will see where each user's tags are located, so the
state will be able to see that too. However, the main danger I see is
that of tracking other people or their property. The safeguards that
are described won't prevent that.
The Burmese army is imprisoning writers and poets, sometimes killing them.
Big tech companies are making concessions about privacy, so they can
continue their targeted advertising while collecting less data about each
individual.
Evgeny Morozov suggests that this fails to touch their deepest problem:
the fact that commercial factors determine how the internet treats people.
I think that tracking individuals is an important moral issue, and it
is not limited to internet service/disservice companies. The stronger
we can make the movement to demand anonymity and non-tracking, the
better our chance of putting an end to other forms of massive
surveillance, including Amazon Ring video cameras
and Apple Airtags that could be attached to other people's cars,
property, or clothing.
At the same time, I think he has a valid point that we shouldn't have to filter
the internet we want through the filter of startups.
Rep. Doug Lamborn is being sued by a former staffer for compelling his
staff to risk infection with Covid-19 by not letting them wear masks
when together in the office.
*Long working hours are a killer, WHO study shows.*
The Associated Press calls for an investigation of why Israel bombed
and destroyed its office in Gaza.
Authoritarian right-wing rulers have a pattern of denying Covid-19 and
covering up casualties.
Biologists are scrambling to find a way to help some coral survive
longer against global heating.
Identifying heat-resistant coral species, or breeding some species to be
more heat-resistant, cannot possibly protect more than a fraction
of the coral species that exist now. The only way to preserve reef
biodiversity is to halt the increase of CO2 in the air.
Meanwhile, ocean acidification will eventually wipe out all coral
and many other kinds of ocean life.
*Challenge bigotry by all means, but outlaw it? I’d rather not.*
The UK is considering a law to prohibit political censorship in
universities and another law to require censorship by antisocial
media. Both are projects of the Tory Party.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to make statements we disagree
with or disapprove of. To respect freedom of speech, we must maintain
the distinction between offending people and harming them.
The UK deportation thugs imprisoned refugees that they did not need to
imprison, then held them in solitary confinement for more than a year.
It is crucial for Biden to appoint a climate defender as the next
chair of the Federal Reserve.
Workers in McDonalds franchises are planning a strike on May 19.
The wrecker made the EPA conceal data on developing global heating
damage, but Biden has it publishing the data again, and it shows how
things have got worse.
In China, school officials cover up student suicides, and if parents
and their neighbors demand information, the state's noise machine says
they are working for the CIA.
The US likewise places too much pressure on students. However, such coverups
tend to be limited to thug departments after a uniformed thug murders someone.
A proposed Texas law would authorize anyone whatsoever to sue anyone
who helps anyone to get an abortion.
The target could be bankrupted by one 10,000-dollar penalty after another.
This is the same tactic used in Israel's law that made it impossible
in Israel to advocate boycotting the products made by Israeli
businesses in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory. It
threatened such a person with the prospect of penury through unlimited
judgments of "damages".
The root cause of the Texas law is that Republicans rig the elections
in Texas.
(satire) *Biden Outlines Renewable Energy Plan To Invade Mt. Olympus
And Steal Aeolus’s Bag Of Wind.*
It should be "Aeolus's" because the "s" in "Aeolus" is not a plural suffix.
Most vaccine disinformation in the US comes from 12 saboteurs.
Although their bullshit is likely to kill people, I do not like the
idea of censoring it, because the systems of censorship will be used
against other targets — perhaps including, some day, people who
question Trump's proclaimed victory in the 2020 election.
It would be much better to force companies to drop the business model that
promotes postings based on how much "engagement" they provoke.
*Jacinda Ardern calls for ‘ethical algorithms’ to help stop online
radicalization.*
Whether it's white supremacism or radical Islamism, anti-vax or QAnonsense,
I suspect that "social" media promote them all in the same way.
Apple fired a new employee because he had published statements of
misogyny in 2016.
What he wrote about women in 2016 was contemptuous and nasty. It was
also 5 years ago. Perhaps he should have been offered a second chance
if he has had a change of heart.
I can't disregard the other moral issue, that of his job. The job he
was hired for was adtech, which is itself harmful and exploitative by
nature. Whoever does that job will do a lot of real harm to people,
more than mere insults can do.
Fossil fuel extraction projects are having difficulty finding investment
funds and insurance for their projects.
This is a crucial step forward, but it won't be enough until it makes
those projects come to a halt.
Diosdado Cabello, vice president of Venezuela, won a libel suit
against a newspaper for republishing an article that accused him of
ties to drug trafficking, and is seizing the newspaper's offices as
payment.
In the US it is very hard for a public official to win a libel suit.
The standard is set very high so that officials cannot suppress
criticism.
Australia's practice of keeping refugees in prison with no time limit,
arbitrarily with no stated reason, violates international human rights
law. But Australia quietly made it legal under Australian law.
Israel destroyed the building in Gaza which held the offices of
Associated Press and al-Jazeera.
Other media organizations had their offices in that building too.
The US did something similar in Baghdad in 2003: it bombed the office
of al-Jazeera. The office was visibly labeled and the US knew where it was.
The attack had to be intentional.
Israel knew where those offices were in Gaza, so this attack too had
to be intentional.
*Cheney says some GOP members voted against impeachment out of fear for their
lives.*
Some epidemiologists, fully vaccinated, say why they will continue
wearing masks when near strangers or non vaccinated people, and why they think
the CDC made it too easy for anti-mask anti-vaxxers to risk their own health
and other people's too.
(satire) *Houston Authorities Scramble As Missing Tiger Disappears Into Crowd Of Tigers.*
Vaccine patents, vaccine manufacturing monopolies, are part of a
neoliberal system of trickle-down.
Patents were supposed to trickle down both material benefits (products
incentivized by the patent system) and knowledge (made available by
the patent applications since the patent system requires it). Both of
these trickle-downs have slowed to vary little. For example, the
vaccine patents do not give enough information for other companies to
make the vaccines commercially.
Let's eliminate the patent system. We have little to lose.
People in Glasgow massed in the street to block the arrest of
immigrants for deportation.
The objection to their arrest was not focused on the idea of deporting
them, not that as such, but rather the idea of keeping them for a long
time in an immigration prison where prisoners are likely to catch
Covid-19,
as well as the idea of arresting Muslims on a Muslim holiday.
I can't empathize with that last; if I were going to be put in prison,
I wouldn't care what day of the year it might take place. If I were
arrested for advocating free software, and it occurred on the
anniversary of the GNU Project, that would make it more ironic but
would not make it more unjust or more painful.
China is targeting Uighur expats by inserting spyware into their
computers.
There are around 5,000 tigers in captivity in the US,
and only around 4,000 of them in the wild.
Ralph Nader criticizes NPR's deep inadequacies.
US citizens: call on the Senate not to confirm Rahm Emanual as
ambassador.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: support the Freedom to Move Act, which would fund better
and cheaper public transportation.
Wage stagnation in the US is the result of policy decisions expressed
in laws, not mysterious unchangeable economic "laws."
Epidemiologists generally believe that vaccinated people should wear masks
indoors with other people who might be unvaccinated.
Vaccinated people can catch Covid-19, can be damaged, and can pass it on.
The vaccination makes this far less likely, but not impossible.
Let's choose to protect each other.
(satire) *DSM-5 Finally Stops Classifying Adult Disney Fandom As Form
Of Psychopathy.*
The major media should stop reporting official figures about Covid-19
infections or deaths as if they reflected the reality.
Australia has started bringing home Australians who have been stuck in
India.
At the rate of 2000 per fortnight, it is going to take 10
weeks, provided no one else joins the waiting list.
Craig Murray has been imprisoned for covering the trial of Alex
Salmond, under an extreme standard of secrecy that mainstream media
are not held to.
I linked to his coverage of the Assange hearing.
I do not advocate independence for Scotland, but that's a separate
issue.
The UK does need to have regional governments with some real
authority, but it was a terrible mistake to set this up using
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as regions.
Chile is going to draw up a new constitution.
I have suggestions for national constitutions.
I urge free software supporters in Chile to look at this
and think about whether these relate to the new constitution.
A new Covid-19 which may be more transmissible could cause another
wave in England.
*Covid quarantine process in the UK is riskier than being in a ‘red list’
country.*
Properly run Covid-19 quarantine procedures require careful planning
and a lot of money spent on actually work. The Tory government is
stingy with both.
*Brazil's easing of COVID-19 controls will cause new surge, experts warn.*
That can happen in the US too.
Allowing fully vaccinated people to go unmasked in stores is probably not
significantly dangerous for them or others; but how can you tell whether
the maskless person you see is vaccinated or not?
*1/3 of global food production at risk from climate crisis*
by the end of this century.
Facebook's plan to merge in data from WhatsApp violates a promise it
made when it bought WhatsApp.
Opposition leader Bobi Wine: *Young Ugandans are being brutally
oppressed. They must be allowed a voice.*
Everyone: call on Senator Menendez to support diplomacy
with Iran.
How the UK's Home Office, which deals with immigration among many
other things, developed into Ministry of Cruelty.
The minister "seeks to do and say the thing that will be perceived to be
the toughest thing that anyone could possibly do or say in any given
scenario."
*The violence that began at Jerusalem’s ancient holy sites is driven by a
distinctly modern zeal.*
(satire) *Parents Can’t Believe How Bad Daughter Is At Being Raised By Them.*
*Fear stalks streets of Israeli city where Jews and Arabs mixed freely.*
When the extremists compel people who are not extremists to become
hostile, that is a victory for the extremists. The hostility tends to
propagate, since change in the other direction is very difficult.
Israeli hate groups have been carrying out pogroms for many years
and I think their goal was this.
Netanyahu is using the pogroms against Arabs (and, occasionally,
against Jews) for his own political advantage.
I have to wonder if he has done something to exacerbate the violence
in order to get this advantage.
Proposing that the US should have laws to defend US industries from Chinese
competition before they get wiped out.
The US ought to defend the workers in these industries from their
employers, not only from their employers' competitors.
In the 1970s, it was still normal for American mothers to send little
children to the grocery store.
I never saw that; when Sesame Street appeared, I was in high school.
*Last hope over climate crisis requires end to coal*, says the president
the Cop26 climate conference.
When it comes to permitting generic vaccines, plutocratist officials
that Biden appointed will still have plenty of opportunities to get in
the way.
The Republican authoritarian death cult has demonstrated, by ousting
one of its leaders on Congress, how it will purge anyone that stops
short of the latest, biggest lie.
If there is any lie that you would not repeat, get out now.
(satire) *Sally Beauty Introduces New Press-On Hangnails.*
JPMorgan Chase announces a new policy of appearing to support
decarbonization in its investments.
Samoa was a stable democracy but its current government is undermining
democracy.
I can't tell from the facts given here what the correct outcome of the
election was, but the efforts to weaken democracy are alarming.
*Suspected Russia-led cyber campaign targets Germany’s Green party leader.*
The motive is her opposition to the proposed Russia-to-Germany gas
pipeline. That pipeline would boost both Russian influence in Europe,
and use of fossil fuels, and that effect would last a long time.
Since the pipeline is almost finished, I wonder if withdrawal
of support for it will come too late.
*Will Movement for People's Vaccine Open Doors to Larger Revolt Against Big Pharma?*
We can't possibly know the answer to that question, but it would be good
if that happens.
People are raging about the treatment of the corpses of the people who
were killed when the Philadelphia thug department dropped a bomb on
the MOVE house.
I think this is a side issue, and a distraction from the real moral
issue, which is how they died, and why.
They died by murder. The Philadelphia thug department killed 11
people, gratuitously — it could easily have let them live. This is
the issue that matters. Living people are important in their own
right; living people (which they were) have rights. Corpses don't.
I don't believe that corpses deserve any special sort of "respect."
That goes for all corpses, includes my corpse when it some day exists.
I've signed papers for it to be used for scientific or medical
purpose, because that's a constructive use. You can do that too!
Let's not shift our moral focus from respect for people's rights to
respect for taboos.
Some real biologists say there is not yet sufficient evidence to rule
out the possibility that Covid-19 leaked from a lab.
Morally, I don't think it makes much difference. Everyone makes
mistakes.
A captain in the Belarus army showed the press a secret order that told
the army to attack protesters. He has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
In the UK, a creditor can easily make it impossible for a debtor to
rent a place to live.
That is not an officially mandated consequence, but that is what
results in practice.
Perhaps it is still possible to pay to use a room in someone else's
apartment.
Qatar arrested a blogger who writes about the life of migrant workers
there, and is holding him secretly, incommunicado.
*Study finds alarming levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in US mothers’
breast milk.*
Goodreads is an antisocial network that encourages people to show off
what they read and be judged by others accordingly. One reader
thinks this perverts the enjoyment.
I think that may be valid. Of course, it also collects data about each user
and that will surely be used to manipulate per.
Electric companies in the US want to charge homeowners for the privilege
of using their own solar power systems.
This has the tendency to discourage decarbonization, so with rational
politics the US government would make it illegal.
*The American gun crisis? It’s largely a domestic violence crisis.*
The UK is competing for the most-unfriendly-nation prize by
imprisoning and deporting Europeans who visit for the purpose of a job
interview, although this is supposed to be permitted.
Most microplastics in UK rivers come from untreated sewage that
water companies sometimes release into rivers.
Jewish and Arab mobs in Israel are carrying out reciprocal mob
violence, which can reach the point of lynching.
The Jewish mobs are composed of right-wing extremists, which Netanyahu
has increasingly tolerated.
*Live TV shows Israeli mob attack motorist they believed to be an Arab.*
Uganda has allowed cutting down part of a forest reserve which is
habitat for chimpanzees and other wildlife.
Thailand is having a Covid-19 outbreak in two large prisons.
The prisoners there include political prisoners.
Biden's proposal to pay farms to sequester carbon is designed in a way
that will not cover regenerative agriculture.
US citizens: call on Congress to give the FCC authority limit the
price charged to prisoners for phone calls in prison.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Asim Jamal Shakir Jr watched an LA thug, who is Asim's uncle, tell
another thug to shoot Asim.
I get the impression that he shot Asim with rubber-coated steel bullets.
The birth rate of Uighurs in Xinjiang fell by half from 2017 to 2019.
Humanity needs to reduce its birth rate substantially, but not by means
of inflicting suffering on masses of people. Singling out a specific
minority group for that suffering is an injustice in itself.
*[Wrecker]-Appointed Judge
Rules
Against CDC Moratorium on Evictions During Pandemic.*
I do hope that this will be overturned on appeal, but eventually it
will go to the Supreme Court where the same bad outcome could be
reimposed.
Guatemala's government has given itself the power to monitor or
dissolve NGOs, particularly those that get support from outside
Guatemala.
This would include the local affiliates of international human rights
organizations.
*Colombian protest leader Lucas Villa, who was shot eight times, dies.*
He was shot by gunmen on motorcycles, who I suspect are somehow related
to the paramilitares.
EU citizens are signing a petition to demand an EU-wide referendum for
rejecting products made in Israel's colonies in Palestinian territory.
Reportedly Eritrean soldiers are occupying Tigray and wearing
Ethiopian uniforms, and they are blocking aid from some regions.
The ancient city of Axum is besieged by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces,
which do not allow aid or communication.
EU citizens tried to establish a petition to demand an EU-wide
referendum for rejecting trade with illegal colonies in occupied
territories. The European Commission refused to register
it, but now a court has ordered the commission to do that.
The Tories are considering a law to punish universities if they interfere with freedom of speech.
Opponents say that the law would instead limit freedom of speech.
But the arguments presented in the article seem very weak: "It's
complicated, don't interfere" is not persuasive, and neither is "Only
53 people were deplatformed in a year."
Given that the law is being proposed by Tories, and Tories are not
known for scrupulously respecting the rights of the non-rich, I will
not rule out the possibility that the law would indeed do the opposite
of its stated purpose.
However, I think it should not be hard to design the law so that it
can't interfere with speaking. If the Tories don't want to do that, a
constructive proposal could demonstrate what they are really aiming at.
(satire) *New Program Encourages Americans To Get Vaccine To Prevent
It From Going To Foreigners.*
Reportedly the US is blocking the UN Security Council from publicly
calling on Israel and HAMAS to make a truce.
Right-wing elites have their own forms of "cancel culture" — ways of
silencing those who disagree with them.
Moreover, they are now actively cancelling Republicans that don't
recognize the bully as their personal savior.
I think, however, that we should not get too distracted by comparing
the respective levels of cancellation activity. It's bad on either side.
Some US states are adopting laws to protect people from coercive control.
China is "protecting" old mosques in Xinjiang by partly or completely
demolishing them, and by putting fences around them.
China is not the only country that destroys the Muslim heritage.
Salafi Arabia has systematically destroyed the oldest sites.
Biden's decision not to put sanctions on Salafi Arabia's acting king
was followed by a big increase in punishment of dissidents.
*Air pollution from food production in the United States is linked
to an estimated 15,900 premature deaths each year.*
*A Developmental Psychologist on Why Kids Need Some Independence.*
Georgia has reformed the citizens arrest law that provided vigilantes
an excuse to stalk and kill Ahmaud Arbery.
*We Don't Have a Labor Shortage in the US, We Have a Crisis of Low Wages.*
*Report Reveals How Big Corporations Rigged Rules to Boost Pandemic Pay of
CEOs as Workers Suffered.*
(satire) *New Evidence Finds God Destroyed Sodom And Gomorrah As Part Of Luxury
Condominium Development Deal.*
*HSBC has stakes in firms that plan more than 70 new coal plants.*
We can easily boycott HSBC.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to demand
Israel end the practice of evicting Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah.
Sheikh Jarrah is a part of East Jerusalem.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
*Why is the world still being hit by wave after wave of Covid when we
know how to stop it?*
*Covid pandemic was preventable, says WHO-commissioned report.*
At the start of 2020, the virus existed, but quick action could have prevented
it from infecting very many people.
Originally, the flaws in the response were due to political leaders.
Now, however, they have taught millions of people to believe fake
news, react irrationally, and sabotage public health measures.
The next new pathogen may be even worse if we are not disciplined enough
to keep it away.
*Chemical giants hid dangers of [PFAs] in food packaging.*
*EU states cooperating informally to deny refugees asylum rights.*
*[Rep.] Cheney's ousting proves the "big lie" is the Republican
Party's religion.*
They still seek to abolish democracy in the US, and they will tell
any lies to do it.
Colombian protesters, fired up by the murders committed by thugs and
right-wing death squads, are demanding policies to improve life for
the non-rich.
Hungary's opposition parties are forming a coalition to defeat Orbán.
A report from the Louisville thug department says that the thugs that killed
Breonna Taylor violated the department policies by starting to shoot.
*Michigan governor orders Enbridge to shut down controversial Canadian
[Line 5] oil pipeline.*
The US border thugs now holds 21,000 border-crossing minors, though nowadays
they mostly stay only a few weeks in those camps.
Facebook insisting on merging all WhatsApp data into its main data base.
This is a great impetus to stop using WhatsApp forever.
Conservation efforts have enabled large areas of forest to regrow.
However, deforestation is going much faster.
The US has approved an 800-megawatt wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean to
the south of Massachusetts.
This is almost twice as big as the failed Cape Wind project.
I hope that it gets built.
Tory voter-ID plans could disenfranchise up to two million UK voters.
The UK has arrested Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion
over a planned nonviolent protest.
*Italy to ask EU to pay Libya to stop migrant departures.*
Is it legitimate for Libya to prevent people from leaving the country,
if they are not wanted for nonpolitical criminal charges? China stops
people from leaving, and even caught a boat in which dissidents were
fleeing Hong Kong, and arrested them all.
China has bought lots of diplomatic support, which it is using to block
Taiwan from participating in the World Health Organization's conferences
about dealing with Covid-19.
US citizens: call on the U.S. State Department and Department of
Defense to demand an end to Israel’s forced displacement of
Palestinians from East Jerusalem.
US citizens: call on your Senators to sign letter opposing Salafi
Arabia's blockade of Yemen.
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!
Colombia's president has acknowledged the demands of the countrywide
protesters that the thugs have been killing.
In Colombia, protesters have built barricades, and right-wing gunmen
with support from the uniformed thugs shoot to kill them.
I suspect that these killers are part of, or related to, the notorious
"paramilitares" right-wing gangs.
*Sen. Bernie Sanders … announced that the Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing … on "Waste, Fraud, Cost Overruns, and Auditing at the Pentagon."*
Three Portuguese border thugs have been sentenced to years in prison
for beating a would-be immigrant to death.
The US has become accustomed to many endless undeclared wars;
to end them all is almost unthinkable.
Now that the UK has adopted binding targets for greenhouse emissions reduction,
it must reconsider its plans to expand airports.
Australia's endangered species protection laws do not seem to apply to logging.
Logging is the main direct threat to forest habitats, so this omission
is disastrous.
*The 10 companies that have contributed the most to state lawmakers
sponsoring both anti-voter and anti-protest bills are: AT&T, Dominion
Energy, Zurich North America and its subsidiaries, Berkshire Hathaway
and its subsidiaries, UnitedHealth Group, Mednax Services, Charter
Communications, State Farm Insurance and its subsidiaries, Phillip
Morris USA, and Vistra Energy (FKA Energy Future Holdings) and its
subsidiaries.*
Some of these are easy to pressure or boycott.
Mainstream media are trying to rehabilitate Republican supporters of
overthrowing the US government and overturning the 2020 election.
The UK's Covid-testing operation employs 50,000 people, but they are paid
through many small companies which obscure where the money actually goes.
It's exactly the sort of system one would set up to facilitate corruption.
(satire) *Conservatives Panicking After Every Member Of Republican
Party Ousted For Insufficient Loyalty To [the bully].*
A proposed lithium mine in Nevada would likely cause the extinction of
Tiehm's buckwheat, a plant that has adapted to grow in soil with
lithium and boron and is not found anywhere else.
Dealing with a decreasing population has some inconveniences, but the
robots that will exist in 20 years will ensure it is not really
difficult. The main challenge will be to ensure that these robots are
under the control of the people that they serve, rather than acting as
companies' agents to control those people.
Burmese journalists who fled to Thailand to escape the army's
murderous crackdown face the threat of being sent back to Burma.
Australia has an immigration prison where the average prisoner has
been held for five years. (A year from now that average might be six
years.)
The prisoners have, effectively, no legal rights. So some of them dug
an escape tunnel, which was discovered unfinished.
China is trying to deplatform Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan.
China's wrath is not limited to invective. It uses all the power at its
disposal to bully countries into shunning Taiwan while China gets the world
used to the prospect China will invade.
The situation calls for a courageous response: uniting to defend
Taiwan, and backing this up with action while this could avoid the war.
Global heating may damage tea production as some of the growing places
become too hot for it.
The PRO Act might need to be amended to clear up what it would do
regarding some independent contractors.
Or perhaps it's ok as now written.
The Tories will impose a voter-ID law on the UK.
Apparently they found the voter-suppression effect quite satisfactory.
*FTC Report Finds Manufacturers' Repair Restrictions Unwarranted.*
I support the right to repair movement but its goal is only a first
step. It should be illegal to block purchasers of a product from
replacing the software embedded in it, or to impede them from together
to replace that software with free software.
Private equity fund managers arranged to have their management fees
taxed as capital gains rather than as ordinary income. This
intentional giveaway to the abusive finance industry is referred to
by the misnomer of "carried interest loophole". It may be eliminated soon.
I am in favor of this change, but it won't be enough to put an end to
the "private equity" funds that have eliminated many companies we used
to deal with.
*Global Protests Target Banks Funding Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline.*
I wish I had found out a week ago and could have posted an urgent note
suggesting that people participate in these protests. Does anyone
know where these plans are announced in advance? If necessary, I will
recruit developers to help you access the announcements without
running nonfree JavaScript code, then link to them here.
Summarizing the most harmful points in Florida's new voter-suppression law.
Texas Republicans passed a bill to interfere with voting in a number
of ways. This article describes how Democrats resisted efforts to make
it even worse.
The article mentions the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting
Rights Act. The only way to get these past the coup-supporting
Republicans in the US Senate is to eliminate the filibuster, and that requires
the support of a few plutocratist die-hard Democrats.
I hope someone has a plausible plan for how to achieve this, a plan I
could support. So far I have not seen any discussion of one.
The US needs to undo the plutocratist revolution of the 1980s
and reject the idea that a corporation's only duty is profit.
The head of Ethiopia's Orthodox Church made a video saying that genocide is
occurring in Ethiopia and that he had been stopped from talking about it.
He did not give the details to answer the obvious first questions.
One must suppose that the Ethiopian government is doing those things.
With the US adult population roughly half-vaccinated, cases of
Covid-19 are decreasing.
However, in order to get rid of Covid-19, we need to vaccinate 80% of the
population, in every country.
Arizona's "audit" of the 2020 election may violate civil right law
because it provides opportunities to generate suspicion based on
racial profiling.
Kentucky has set up a commission to study how thugs carry out search
warrants, looking for ways to reduce the danger that they might hurt
someone in the process.
*Hundreds of Palestinians Protesting Evictions in Jerusalem Injured in
'State-Sanctioned Campaign of Israeli Violence'.*
These evictions are not like the ones in the US, carried out because someone
cannot pay the rent. Israel is systematically seizing Palestinians' homes
in Jerusalem.
A shocking defeat in an election Labour expected to win has made the party
aware it needs to change something.
What it needs is to unite behind Jeremy Corbyn, but that name did not even
appear in the article.
US citizens: call on Biden to ban fracking.
The Department of Justice has only 5 more months to prosecute crimes
of the bully's 2016 campaign.
Stiglitz: *Big Pharma Greed Will Prolong Pandemic—If We Don't Fight Back.*
I agree fully with the substance of his points. I wish he did not
fall into trap of using the term "intellectual property" to talk about
patents. copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks as if they were
similar enough to generalize about.
Since the whole point of the WTO is to give businesses more power over
national governments, and thereby more power over people, we should
abolish the WTO.
Higher unemployment payments are not the main reason Americans
hesitate to go back to work. Safety is one. Taking care of children
who are not spending the day in school is another.
Fascism is spreading around the world, with fascist ideas spreading
before it. No two fascist regimes are identical, but we must acknowledge
that that is what they are.
The Gates Foundation's forays into education have not turned out well.
The Republican Party has become the Lie-Cheat-Steal Party, still
repeating in unison that the bully really won the 2020 election.
Every year since 2000, if not before, the Republican Party has tried
to rig the election. In 2000, 2004 and 2016 it succeeded.
(satire) *Mark Zuckerberg Asks Facebook Oversight Board To Rule On
Whether Argument Wife's Fault.
*Rejecting Bayer Appeal, Top EU Court Upholds Ban on Bee-Killing Pesticides.*
The US attorney for Southern New York says that the scheme that sent
fake letters to the FCC about network neutrality was illegal.
Will we see some charges?
*This Motorcycle Airbag Vest Will Stop Working If You Miss a Payment.*
In the world of the future, you won't own anything, not even the vest
around your torso. Unless you are rich.
Introducing DRM-gouging to dishwashers.
Normally, a new kind of product may start out expensive, but
the price goes down. However, if the product requires a subscription,
its price may never fall.
The heirs of Samsung will have to pay a substantial fraction in
inheritance tax.
South Korea has made a wise decision. The US should follow it.
*Mayor of Mexican town and two officials arrested over disappearance of
activist.*
Claudia Uruchurtu Cruz was grabbed after a meeting and forced into a
van belonging to the city.
*Brazil judge sees signs of 'arbitrary execution' in Rio police raid.*
*Lula lays foundations of anti-Bolsonaro coalition.*
Amnesty International has resumed referring to Alexei Navalny as a
"prisoner of conscience".
The organization has decided to be less particular, and recognize
people that courageously resist tyrants, even if they have expressed
views that Amnesty disagrees with.
I disagree with those views too, but I think Amnesty's change in
policy is wise.
A descendant of Ponca chief Standing Bear demands that Harvard return
a hatchet that Standing Bear gave away in gratitude.
We know that the US committed many injustices against Standing Bear
and the rest of the Poncas, as it did to many other indigenous
Americans. Only a fraction of them are mentioned in the article.
However, none of that invalidates Standing Bear's gift of the hatchet
to Webster, who had defended his right to be considered human. That
was a valid gift, and so (as far as we know) was Webster's gift of the
hatchet to Harvard. Thus, I conclude that Chapman's argument is
invalid and Harvard should keep the hatchet.
Displaying the hatchet in a museum can teach Americans about what
indigenous Americans had to do to claim human rights in the United
States.
The UK should stop prosecuting Extinction Rebellion protesters.
The public are protecting them by finding them not guilty. Bravo for
the public! Now it is time for the state to back down.
European politicians have found an excuse to thwart generic Covid vaccines:
demanding that the US start exporting vaccine first.
This is a bizarre nonsequitur. The US will have spare capacity soon
and could export it, but that won't be enough to vaccinate the whole
world quickly.
The EU has brokered a deal between the two main political parties
of Georgia. The opposition alleged rigging of the election,
so the ruling party imprisoned the leader of the opposition.
With no information to go by except this article, I'm inclined to believe
the opposition. It is hard to set up an ecosystem disinformation as complete
as the one that Republicans have established in the US, and even that one
can only fool those who wish to be fooled.
The bully had the Department of Justice seize phone records of
reporters who were investigating whether Attorney General Sessions
had talked with the Russian ambassador.
US citizens: call on Biden's team to clean up ICE or shut it down.
New Zealand threatens to prosecute Geoff Upson for trying to get potholes
fixed by drawing penises around them.
Sick and cruel prudery is seeping back, threatening to reverse the
sexual revolution.
Very small tracking tags, made by Apple and other companies, make it
easy to track any person or object. We may have to start checking our
clothing and other property regularly to remove them.
Some say that Prince Charming has no right to wake Snow White with a
kiss without first waking her to ask for her consent. His obligation
is to leave her unconscious forever, they contend.
In real life, nobody needs a kiss to regain consciousness. But there
are real situations in which medics need to cut clothing off of
unconscious people, perhaps even exposing their genitals. This is a
prelude to medical treatments which aim at restoring those people to
consciousness. Medics have presumed that that goal justifies
stripping them.
Maybe we will see real pressure for medics to leave those
people untreated, on pain of being charged with some sort of sex
crime.
I compare this to the right-wing political pressure to let women die
rather than abort ectopic pregnancies.
Biden's infrastructure plan includes subsidy for the existing nuclear
power plants, as well as plans to build a new one.
This would be a harmful use of the money, as well as wasteful — it
would be cheaper to replace the nuclear plants with storage batteries
— but if it can convince Manchin to vote to end the filibuster, it
would be a price worth paying.
A London thug probably killed dissident Blair Peach; afterward,
undercover thugs spied on dissidents (including his lover) for 20
years as they demanded information on how he was killed.
One must suppose the thugs were seeking a way to discredit the
dissidents who were, for them, an inconvenience.
The BBC has exposed the persistent corruption of London cops.
US citizens: call on youtube to exclude the wrecker.
US citizens: call on Congress to adopt a wealth tax.
*The company I founded in my 20s exploited vulnerable people for profit.*
It sold special kinds of funeral activities, mainly to people who
would pay for more ways to grieve.
Republicans in Wyoming threaten to sue states that don't burn coal.
*EU court upholds ban on [neonicotinoid] insecticides linked to harming bees.*
They harm other kinds of animals too.
Florida has agreed to spend 400 million to help various endangered species
including the Florida panther.
My "childhood sweetheart" Melinda would be glad if she were still
alive.
After the 2018 California fires, 20,000 refugees fled to the city of
Chico. After a while of warmth and assistance, the city got tired
of them and now tries to chase out those that remain.
* Research reveals that many national vaccination plans exclude asylum
seekers, refugees, migrants and [internally displaced persons].*
The remaining Koch brother is still promoting extremist Republicans
that supported the Republican big lie that the bully won the election.
There are now federal charges against four thugs that participated in
the killing of George Floyd.
The US deportation agency, ICE, is disregarding Biden's orders
and doing gratuitous harm -- because it can.
*France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain urged Israel… to
halt settlement-building in the West Bank.*
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that almost 7 million
people have died from Covid-19.
That is a lot more than governments recognize.
Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was injured by a bomb.
He championed climate defense, and was removed by a coup which we must
suspect was organized by planet-roasters.
The article says he is now speaker of the Maldives Parliament.
I hope he is still pushing for the need to curb sea-level rise
before the Maldives are inundated.
Three Hong Kong dissidents have been imprisoned for "rioting" simply because
they were present at a protest.
Republicans are trying to make it easier to imprison protesters for
"rioting." This seems to be a standard item in the repressive playbook.
Uber and Lyft are lobbying against the PRO Act, which would facilitate
forming unions.
So are Instacart and some of the food-delivery companies.
This is another reason to boycott them all. (I won't use them anyway
since they won't let me pay anonymous cash.)
It is physically possible to make hydrogen and use it as a fuel,
and it's renewable if generated using renewable electricity,
but that is inefficient use of funds. In this decade we can decarbonize
more by converting the uses of energy to run off renewable electricity.
I wonder if it is possible to generate hydrogen efficiently from petroleum
without producing any greenhouse gases as the result. Maybe the result
could be sugar.
Even with US support, a waiver on patents and trademarks on Covid-19
vaccines is likely to take many months to negotiate, in effect keeping humanity helpless against the virus.
The WTO is structured to resist any initiative to reduce the power
of the businesses that it exists to serve. Of course, it claims that
this is for our own good, to ensure plenty of wealth for the rich
that could theoretically trickle down to the rest of us.
I have said before that we should abolish the WTO. I repeat that now.
* Unless actions by governments and corporations cut emissions in the
here and now, a dose of scepticism is in order.*
Amsterdam's mayor wants to move the visible prostitutes' windows to an
out-of-the-way place where tourists will not see them. This change is
supposed to "protect" the prostitutes, but the prostitutes do not want
to be protected in this way.
I think the mayor is motivated by prudish disgust.
It would be better to consult the prostitutes and see what sort of
protection they would actually like.
*Cut methane emissions to rapidly fight climate disasters, UN report says.*
Rep. Liz Cheney is the one Republican leader in the House of
Representatives that refuses to be a puppet of the bullshitter. So
the puppets are planning to replace her as a leader.
New Zealand's Labour Party is sliding into establishing two classes of
citizenship with two different laws.
It may well be that the Maori deserve compensation for being
mistreated in the past by European colonists. That sort of thing has
happened in many colonies including the US, Canada and Australia. I
don't know enough about New Zealand history to have a firm opinion
about that case.
But this compensation should not take the form of a permanent division
of society between two kinds of citizens, with different rules and
privileges.
Australia refused to lend money for a wind farm and battery farm,
saying that all funding for that is supposed to come from private
lenders.
Does Australia provide any subsidies for fossil fuel development or
extraction? Any tax write-offs such as depletion? I would expect it
does. By its stated philosophy, it should stop that immediately.
The new standard in Hong Kong is 15 months in prison for telling people
about the Tian An Men Square protest and massacre.
One dose of Covid-19 vaccine improves your chances a lot, but the
second dose is a big improvement on top of that.
Conclusion: get
vaccinated and get both doses!
Bill Gates says, have faith in the Invisible Hand and assume technology
will prevent global heating.
When confronted with the political issues about which way the world
will go, he plays dumb.
US citizens: call on Congress to include paid sick leave and family
leave in the American Families Plan.
*US declares support for patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.*
I am curious to see how this change of position came about,
and who championed it. Most of the officials that Biden chose
for foreign policy have plutocratist leanings.
The article says nothing about the trade secrets of the vaccine
companies, but I've read elsewhere that the US means to include them too.
Governments should require the vaccine companies to teach their
methods to new producers, but that (unlike the patent license) is not
just a matter of stating a new policy.
*World Must Move From Pledges to Actual Green Recovery Spending.*
(satire) *Couple Worried Relationship Will Lose Spark Once They Move
Into Leader's Compound.*
Will Biden find the courage to propose the whole of what the country needs,
instead of just 1/3?
*House Democrat introduces bill to release COINTELPRO files on surveillance of
Black Panthers and Fred Hampton.*
Since 1980 the world's elites have adopted right-wing ideology and
spread suffering. Only left-wing politics offers an answer.
"left-wing" covers a lot of ground, so we must be careful about which
variety we support.
Why young (and middle-aged) adults need to get vaccinated,
for their own health and everyone else's.
Fight for the Future gets to the root of how surveillance capitalism
promotes civic strife: it's the algorithm, and behind the algorithm,
the business model.
Notorious civic saboteurs, such as the bully, are the creations of
that algorithm and that business model. They are people who had
enough talent to exploit it, and lacked the conscience to hold them
back. Instead of playing whack-a-mole with them, we should fix the
system they exploit.
*Tens of Thousands of Premature Deaths Linked to So-Called "Cleaner" Energy
Like Fracked Gas: Study.*
A UK undercover infiltrator in the Troops Out Movement became its
leader and surely reported all the personal details of supporters.
He used deceptive sexual relationships with other supporters as a
means to advance in the group.
British banks have increased their lending for coal since 2015.
A dis-service now offers everyone face recognition applied to lots of collected
pictures of anyone and everyone.
*European countries, supported by EU’s border agency Frontex,
systematically pushed back refugees [numbering 40,000] using
illegal tactics ranging from assault to brutality during detention
or transportation.*
2,000 of them died from this.
Venezuela has refilled the election council, including some members of
the democratic opposition.
The forest-protection programs that airlines present as "offsets" for
for their greenhouse emissions don't necessary do much good.
Even the head of the WTO says that the world should make Covid-19
vaccine as fast as possible.
Alas, the head of the WTO has no power to override its rules, which
are not designed for public health.
(satire) *Private Equity Firm Heartbroken After Realizing There No AOL
Employees Left To Fire.*
The US birth rate took a big drop in 2020.
If this is due to cruel starve-the-poor policies, those are a terrible wrong.
But the birth rate drop itself will be a good thing.
*Myanmar junta bans satellite dishes in media crackdown.*
*US seen as bigger threat to democracy than Russia or China, global
poll finds.*
That was true for most of the time since 1990, and it is still true for
Russia, but it is not true any more regarding China.
A wide variety of explosives and weapons have been confiscated from
right-wing protesters in the past year.
US citizens: support the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to ban oil and gas development in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Progressives immediately cancelled mayoral candidate Scott Stringer
when a former intern accused him of groping her. However, others say that the two had a relationship and she wasn't an intern.
Greta Thunberg says that the political leaders she has met with
show no "sense of crisis" about the climate.
No wonder they think it is acceptable to surrender to the business pressure to take it slow.
One of Sudanese tyrant al-Bashir's lieutenants says he wants to be tried
by the International Criminal Court, not by a Sudanese court.
He expects the ICC to be less biased.
Bravo to the ICC. The US should cease its campaign to delegitimize the ICC and sign up for it.
"Carbon offsetting" or climate defense by protecting forests, as it is
now done, is a weak scheme.
It may do some good, but certainly not enough.
Afghan journalists face murder threats from the Taliban,
especially those who are women.
The US should offer them all asylum.
Germany is suffering a peak level of right-wing hatred displays.
The figure of 24,000 "attacks" includes mere statements (I will not
call this censoring messages merely because I disapprove of what was
said) as well as actual violence. The article does not tell us how
acts of actual right-wing violence took place last year in Germany.
I wish it did. I would expect that that too has increased.
The US Department of Justice, then operating under the control of the
wrecker, threatened MIT researchers who had published a statistical
demonstration that there was no sign of fraud in Evo Morales's
electoral victory, which was followed by the coup in Bolivia.
*UN condemns violent repression of Colombia protests after at least 18 die.*
PISSI is gradually recovering its strength in Iraq.
After the US assisted Rojava in defeating PISSI, the wrecker removed
US troops and cooperation and let the remnants survive. That was a foolish move.
Belarusian dissidents ask for Germany to investigate Lukashenko's crimes
against them.
If Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland break away from the United
Kingdom, they will have a chance of more democracy than Tories allow
(though that will be limited by the European Union, which they would
join).
Meanwhile, England, with most of the UK's population, would sink under
inescapable Tory dictatorship, with democracy more tenuous each year.
England would have as much chance of restoring democracy as Hungary
has. I can't see that as a happy ending.
People who have been trafficked into the UK and forced into crimes are
nearly always treated as criminals, not as victims. Parliament decided
recently to make it even harder to escape this fate.
Uganda has reprised an old law imposed by the British Empire which criminalizes
homosexuality.
*Internal NYPD Documents Show Cops Were Sent to Protests With Barely Any First Amendment Training.*
It is complex, organizationally, to choose the personnel for a
specific mission based on which trainings they have had. The easy thing
to do is train everyone. The next easiest is to have specific units
for specific jobs and give those units the training for those jobs.
Several young Germans won a lawsuit against the government for failing to take
adequate action against global heating.
*Rich nations' climate targets will mean global heating of 2.4C — study.*
That's if there are no unexpected positive feedback loops.
I've discovered that it is possible to view the 1619 Project
using IceCat by clicking on the "Reveal Hidden HTML" button
that appears at the bottom right corner of the window.
In other graphical web browsers, open the "web developer tools," usually
by pressing the F12 key, then switch to the console and run:
You should paste and run that as a single block.
It reveals the contents of the 1619 Project page.
The New York Times ought to use Javascript to make the contents
initially invisible — that way, when Javascript is not running,
the contents will be visible.
If you know a way to pass that message to the Times, please do so.
They might fix this, since it won't be a big change.
*LA sheriffs frequently harass families of people they
kill, says report.*
France has decided to sell Egypt more fighter-bombers.
There are points in that message that seem like bullshit, but I don't
understand what's really behind them.
I don't see that human rights are a direct concern regarding fighter jets.
The Egyptian military regime is highly repressive,
but I don't think fighter jets are very apt, or necessary, for
attacking protesters, journalists or bloggers.
I also don't see how terrorism relates to sale of fighter jets.
Egypt does have a problem with domestic terrorists,
but I don't see
how fighter jets are very useful against them.
The Burmese military killed several dissidents with a mail bomb.
Pesticides are harming the animals that turn dirt into soil,
including earthworms and insects.
This is very dangerous.
A professor of linguistics explains how (and perhaps why) the US has
converted racial slurs into taboos that can't be mentioned, not even
to discuss them.
I agree that overt racist attitudes should be "ridiculed and socially
punished in general society"; it is wrong to make racial slurs against
anyone.
However, that is no reason to put taboos on them. I am opposed to
putting taboos on any words, for any reason, because they gratuitously
tie society in knots. When the taboo is on a racial slur, it
prevents discussion of racism,
and famous anti-racist statements
cannot be quoted.
The same hypersensitivity does its harmful work when students seeing a
picture of George Washington with slaves are "triggered," and lose the
ability to think and speak about the significance of the fact that
Washington owned slaves.
How progressive Democrats gained power in the New Mexico state
legislature, replacing some plutocratist Democrats.
They had to fight against identity politics. If you choose which candidate
to support based on matters of identity, you are asking to be manipulated.
A big oil discovery in Namibia offers windfall profits to some of the
inhabitants, until global heating destroys their country.
So the people of Namibia have a right to a better life — for a couple
of decades — thanks to a little trickle-down from the profits of
exploiting a giant oilfield and perhaps destroying civilization?
Of course not! Nobody does! There is no room in the world's carbon
budget for any new fossil fuel development, whether it is in
California, Namibia, the Mediterranean Sea, or anywhere else.
President Correa of Ecuador asked the wealthy countries to pay Ecuador
not to exploit a new oil field. No one took up that deal, but the
basic is still a good one. Let's give the people of Namibia a better
life in exchange for an agreement to keep that oil forever in the
ground.
Of course, we need to structure the deal so that corrupt oligarchs don't
swipe the money and put it into secret offshore investments.
* Removing armed [thugs] from traffic enforcement and turning it
over to civilians should be a major goal of the racial justice
movement.*
Thugs use minor traffic violations — or possible appearance of one —
as pretexts to stop blacks and search their cars. Civilian traffic
code enforcers would put an end to this practice.
I contend that the practice violates the fourth amendment regardless
of whether racial profiling is used, because an unaggravated moving
violation, by itself, is no excuse to search a car.
The EPA is moving to reduce use of hydrofluorocarbons, which are
very powerful greenhouse gases.
There is a campaign to stop Facebook from merging two collections of
data about useds: the data about the useds of Facebook itself, and the
data about the useds of WhatsApp.
Of course, if Facebook eliminates an internal policy barrier that
limits its use of the massive data it collects from its useds, that
will make its power to abuse people a little greater. It would be
better to prevent that.
But I cannot support this campaign, because doing so would legitimize
the injustice those dis-services already do.
Facebook in its current form should not be allowed to exist at all,
because much of the data collection it does should be illegal.
Don't be a zucker! Stop letting Facebook and WhatsApp use you!
* The Biden administration is reportedly considering teaming up with
private companies to monitor American citizens' private online activity
and digital communications.*
What creates the opportunity to try this the fact that these companies
are already snooping on users' private activities. That in turn is
due to people's use of nonfree software which snoops, and online
dis-services which snoop.
"Israeli" dates are mainly grown in Palestinian territory, and those grown
in Israel proper depend on underpaid Palestinian workers.
Several plutocratist presidents have found ways to let businesses off
the hook for their crimes. Will Biden change directions?
The US is using NAFTA to try to stop Mexico from banning glyphosate.
NAFTA is a business-supremacy treaty, and it used to contain an ISDS clause (I Sue Democratic States)
which authorized businesses to sue a country for adopting a law or
policy that interferes with their plans.
The bully revised NAFTA, eliminating the power, but another member
country can still do so, and that is what the US is threatening to do.
* We are told by some opponents of the far-right that supporters of
equality and civil liberties should not be worried about expansions of
U.S. surveillance and counterterrorism capabilities. They are wrong.*
(satire) *U.S. Vows To Invade Next Country That Asks For Covid Vaccine
[patent licenses or trade secrets]*
Even when you're joking, please don't lump together trade secrets and
patents as if they were similar!
Colombia's president pulled back the regressive tax plan in response to
big protests around the country. However, thugs attacked the protesters.
The Tories are proposing a law to make it so hard to sue the UK
government (claiming its policies are illegal) that the government
could get away with anything.
New Zealand is proud of taking an "independent" foreign policy towards China: independent of the west, but going along with China in
practical terms.
On May 10, RMS will give a remote talk for the University of
Buckingham Free Speech Society, starting at 7pm UK time.
You can watch the stream
here.
US citizens: call for the US to offer gratis college education in public colleges.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on Biden to cancel college debt.
Everyone: call on AT&T to speak out against the Texas abortion ban
and pledge to stop funding anti-abortion politicians.
Bogus Johnson appears to have said, "let the bodies pile high in the
thousands," insisting on keeping the UK economy open.
(He later changed his mind about that decision, and changed it again, and again, etc.)
Bogus Johnson has evaded scandal after scandal by refusing to take
them seriously, but the current scandal about accepting gifts of money
and covering them up is constricting around him.
Nonetheless, he continues trying to thwart punishment by ignoring it.
The UK used to hold its ministers accountable with a firm expectation
that a minister would resign over any wrongdoing, whether public or
personal. The Tories have abolished that expectation by disregarding
it, and now they can get away with just about anything. But they are
still pushing to destroy every institution that could stop them.
I can imagine them as saying, "If you're a Tory politician, they let
you do it." And, as when the bully said it, it's not really true,
unless "let you" includes "be too scared to stop you".
The Indian government asked Indian scientists for advice for dealing
with Covid-19, but when they said that the variants threatened another
wave of illness, the government ignored them.
The UK, by outsourcing regulation, has demonstrated that this practice
encourages corruption that defeats the regulation, with results that
sometimes kill and often ruin people.
Unionizing the workers in charter schools prevents some of their
usual kinds of exploitation. Is that enough to make them harmless?
Thousands protested peacefully in London against Tory plans to repress
protesters if they cause inconvenience to anyone.
I fear this will not be enough. The Tories figure they will win the
next election, with some help from voter suppression,
and aside from that they care about nothing and no one.
A thug went mad and attacked a teenager who had surrendered, for not obeying
every violent demand.
An interview with the last resident of the village of Wollar in Australia.
Everyone else has sold per property to Peabody coal mining.
If the new use of the town's land was something necessary for
Australia and the world to survive, I would say that what has happened
in Wollar was not so bad. At least people are getting bought out and
they can move to other communities.
But given that mining more coal is death, the state should not have permitted
a new coal mine at all. Laws should prohibit new coal mines.
Republican election sabotage bills go beyond making it inconvenient to
vote (especially for Democrats). They propose to allow poll watchers
to look at people's ballots (and see how they are voting), harass
voters, even try to disqualify voters.
Republican officials would judge the challenges and there is no reason
to expect them to try to judge in a non-partisan or fair manner.
Cars record everything that happens in them, even opening doors and
windows. If you connect a phone to one, it gets lots of data from the
phone, and stores them permanently too.
In the US, various government agencies can get this data out of the
car. However, it's not just the government. Surely the car manufacturer
gets it too, and can sell it.
I wonder whether all this data enables the government, and the car
manufacturer, to track the car's movements by dead reckoning if the
GPS antenna is covered.
We need laws to tightly restrict what data a car can record.
The Tory government has stated the intention to privatize all public
schools in the UK.
Privatization would result in paying teachers less, spending less on
education, and providing profit to the operators. In addition, the
privatized schools could get away with disregarding educational needs,
even kicking out students because they cost more money, perhaps
leaving them with no school that will admit them.
Bernie Sanders: *Big Pharma doesn’t want us to expand Medicare. We
have to fight them.*
Children who catch Covid-19, even without symptoms, have a significant chance
of ending up with lasting pain and disability.
Putting aside the gratuitous disrespect reported for some doctors,
there is, in fact, nothing that medicine can do for those people now.
No one has any idea what might help. Maybe research will discover
treatments in the future, but there is no guarantee.
This is a fate worse than death. I suppose some of those children
wish for death. If they don't now, they may start in a year or
several years. But it may take them years to attain that wish.
To prevent this horrible fate, we need to eradicate Covid-19, from our
countries and from the whole world. That means a large fraction of
the population must be vaccinated.
We cannot allow perverse cults to stand in the way.
The UK's fines for violating Covid-19-suppression rules fell most heavily
on disprivileged racial groups.
I think it would be interesting to study the importance of various
factors in producing that result, including these:
Polls suggest that the Green Party may be Germany's strongest party after
the next election.
That would be truly revolutionary.
So don't say, "Colorless Green ideas sleep furiously." They are not
colorless, and they are not sleeping any more.
Hong Kong plans to require foreign domestic workers to get Covid-19
vaccination.
Each domestic worker works in close proximity to a family, over long
periods of time. If the worker catches Covid-19, person is very
likely to transmit it to that family. Therefore, the worker should be
vaccinated.
Perhaps people who work in stores and deal with the public should also
have to be vaccinated. A store worker rarely spends even 5 minutes
near one customer, but one infected worker in a store for hours can
fill the store with virus and several people could catch Covid-19 from
that.
The likelihood of this depends on the store's ventilation system. It
also depends on whether customers keep wearing masks when in a store.
The only sort of exception that, for ethical reasons, needs to exist
is for those who, for medical reasons, cannot be vaccinated. Hong
Kong says it will offer that exception.
Aside from those people, anyone who feels discriminated against by
this policy has a simple solution at hand: get vaccinated. It's the
right thing to do and the safe thing to do. Humanity needs to
eradicate Covid-19, and this is the way. Stop complaining, and get
vaccinated!
However, for the time being, many people don't have the option of
getting vaccinated, because they live in places where little or no
vaccine is available. It would be proper for a country that has money
to burn, such as Hong Kong (i.e., China), to offer people admitted
with work visas vaccination before or after arrival, if they are
coming from one of those places.
Singapore is using a disco ad to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Australia's chief medical officer talks about the need to stop
citizens from returning from India while getting the quarantine system
ready to cope with the extremely contagious virus variant now
spreading there.
I think this is legitimate as long as they work fast and get this
over quickly.
Poaching rare plants in a South African desert is likely to wipe them
out, and if it doesn't, global heating effects can do it.
Complex and subtle factors have to be weighed to determine whether use
of the chickenpox vaccine is desirable. One factor is whether everyone
will agree to be vaccinated.
Funeral for a glacier.
Evidence that some sort of directed radiation attack was made against
US personnel in the 1990s.
*Redirect harmful subsidies to benefit the planet, UN urges governments.*
Witchcraft accusations in New Guinea: is it correct to call this a
"highly modern phenomenon" and say it is not a practice from "ages
past"?
I think that is a false choice, and that it is part one and part the
other.
It may be true that an accusation of witchcraft nowadays typically
results from conflicts related to modern society and the precarious
economy. I have no reason to doubt that. It would result from whatever
tends to cause strong conflict.
However, the choice to handle the conflict by accusing someone of
witchcraft surely comes out of cruel traditions, and so does the
choice to deal with that accusation by torturing the alleged witch.
The fact that in some regions it is usually males that are accused of
witchcraft, while in other regions usually females are accused,
supports the idea that the traditional culture of each region is
responsible. New Guinea traditional cultures varied greatly in their
customs and religious beliefs, including their beliefs about
witchcraft.
Whatever the explanation, the idea of witchcraft is a plague of
irrationality that leads to persecution of many innocent people.
One thing secular humanists do, in many countries, is campaign for an
end to persecution of "witches". I see articles about this
occasionally in the secular humanist magazine, Free Inquiry.
*Glacial lakes threaten millions with flooding as planet heats up.*
Getting a Covid-19 vaccination greatly reduces the chance of your
transmitting Covid-19 to anyone else.
Please get vaccinated as soon as you can.
India is giving false figures for the number of people killed by
Covid-19, reporting only half as many deaths as the number of bodies
that were cremated.
In the US we have seen governments falsify Covid-19 statistics
in Florida
and New York State.
Oregon has reinstated restrictions to prevent spread of Covid-19,
based on projections that this would avoid hundreds of deaths from
Covid-19.
How about conditioning reopening in each area on the fraction of residents who
have been vaccinated?
Chad's military shot protesters who were criticizing Chad's military rulers —
which include the son of the recently deceased former dictator.
Glenn Greenwald: *The Left Continues to Destroy Itself and Others With
Evidence-Free Destruction of Reputations.*
Biden says that he continues to push for "denuclearization" of North Korea,
which is an impossible goal. Kim has learned that nuclear
weapons are the way to protect his dictatorial power, and will not consider
giving up that protection.
Canada has obtained new insurance coverage for the planet-roasting
Trans Mountain pipeline, and is concealing which insurance companies
are providing the coverage.
This is a reaction to the pressure already placed on insurance
companies to stop insuring fossil fuel projects.
Canada's government takes a planet-roaster stance, and what we see here
is how far it will go to continue destroying civilization's future.
Some Republicans object to the New York Times' 1619 project,
about the history of slavery in the US, claiming that it is wrong
to call attention to the country's flaws.
Since some of these flaws continue to cause injustice today, I believe
as a general principle that we should pay attention to them, not cover
them up. Therefore, I would like to look at the 1619 Project and see
what it says.
I am blocked from doing so because its web site insists on running
nonfree software (written in Javascript) in my browser.
Since I don't allow anyone to do that
to me, the site shows me a blank window.
Does anyone know of another way I can look at that material? Perhaps
a way that is not "interactive"?
Because of that injustice in the site's infrastructure, I must urge
everyone to decline to visit that site, unless and until they fix it
to be accessible from the Free World. I hope that school curriculum
will likewise refuse to suggest the site as a resource until it has
been fixed.
I hope that they fix it soon, to make the material available for
viewing from the Free World. But we will need to press them to do it.
Does anyone know where we should direct the pressure?
*How the For the People Act [would blunt] New Florida Voting Restrictions.*
Delete your social media accounts, because sooner or later
the algorithm will figure out how to trigger you and start changing
you so you can't get away.
Pressure for people to study for careers in science and technology
is leading universities to stop teaching history.
*Who's Controlling the COVID Vaccine: 10 Myths and Misdirections.*
I posted this link because overall the points are valid. However,
talking about the concept of "intellectual property" inevitably spreads
confusion through over generalization
and putting scare quotes around the term does nothing to undo that
confusion. Each use of that term inherently misinforms.
The way to avoid that misinformation is to talk about patents and
about trade secrecy as two separate issues which are legally
unrelated.
Win Without War's campaign to end the arming of US thug departments
with military weapons.
The world struggle between democracy and repression has been going
oppression's way for ten years. The influence of repressive powers,
China and Russia plays an important role, and so do the supporters
of the bullshitter.
The existence of a powerful antidemocratic party in the US undermines
its influence for democracy in several ways: it makes the US a
disappointing example of democracy's functioning; it encourages
repressive and aggressive US policies, which set bad examples
themselves; its support for plutocracy weakens the US and thus
undermines its ability to do anything inspiring.
The right to take and publish photos in public places is under threat
from another direction: in the UK, some campaign to criminalize
photos of breast-feeding in public.
I sympathize with Ms Creasy's feeling of disgust, but we should not be
led into supporting a dangerous law by a feeling alone.
The right to take and publish photos is already threatened on several
fronts. Some US states have adopted "ag gag" bills that criminalize
publishing pictures of farms' treatment of animals.
Some countries, including Spain, criminalize publishing photos of thugs
committing acts of violence,
under vague and stretchable conditions. And many countries restrict
photos that include buildings whose architecture is copyrighted,
even in the background.
To combat these threats, we need to insist on a simple and general
principle: wherever you have the right to be, you have the right to
photograph anything that you can see, and to show the photograph to
others.
Those who wish to breast-feed in public and avoid others' looking at
or photographing their breasts have an easy way to prevent this: wear
(or don at the moment of need) a garment that can be arrayed to block
the view. This can achieve the goal more reliably than the proposed
law, while not putting anyone's rights in question.
Extinction Rebellion organized highly visible protests in London, in many cases
blocking the travel of cars which are mostly using fossil fuels.
The four factors of the apocalypse:
*Dangerous Republican Anti-Protest Laws Grant Drivers License to Kill.*
*Right-Wing Extremism Is on the Rise in Israel.*
It is ironic in the extreme to see that a party with views comparable
to Nazis is so powerful in Israel that it may soon be in government.
Comparing Biden's tax proposals with what FDR actually did.
Biden's plan goes further in regard to capital gains, though in some
others it does not go as far.
Ralph Nader: we must make Congress raise the taxes on rich businesses and
rich people.
US citizens: call on Congress to reduce drug prices this year.
Thousands are protesting in Bogotá against a plan by the right-wing
government to institute a sales tax.
A sales tax is a very regressive method, so this plan is designed to
hurt the poor and spare the rich. So I support the protesters.
Pedro Castillo, Socialist, says that as president of Peru he would make
mining companies "70% of the profits in Peru".
*Republican [state representative] who let violent protesters into
Oregon state capitol is charged.*
Apple takes a step to interfere with some kinds of tracking of users.
If Apple's operating were free/libre,
public-spirited hackers would
already have released a modified version which had the defaults set
to protect privacy. You could get the benefit of these modifications
without having to work on them yourself.
Proposing to end the profit-based decisions on whether to invest
in fossil fuel infrastructure.
The West Antarctic ice sheet could start to break up within this decade.
If it does, it will eventually raise sea level by an additional two feet.
I don't know how long it would take for that extra sea level rise to occur.
UK undercover thugs that infiltrated peaceful political groups lied
about their activities to justify continuing to spy on them.
This according to former minister Peter Hain, who participated in a
political campaign to end apartheid in South Africa and thereby became
one of the targets for this spying.
He charges that the choice to infiltrate that movement was made for
political reasons: the government supported South Africa and therefore
opposed pressure against apartheid.
*Four [UK] police officers have been convicted after one of them beat up a
member of the public and the others helped him to cover it up.*
The latest round of relief checks sent to US taxpayers made a big, though
temporary, dent in overall poverty in the US..
Making this permanent would convert it into a form of universal basic
income.
The popularity of extra support to Americans suggests it might be
politically possible to lift all children in the US out of poverty.
The US border thugs are now quickly transferring border-crossing
children to long-term shelters run by the Department of Health and
Human Services. Far fewer children are in the first-level camps at
any time.
This is how the system is supposed to work.
It is still necessary for journalists to look at the conditions in
those shelters, and in the first-level camps.
Climate defense activism, shared, can give people a feeling of joy
to cope with the external disasters.
A former Louisiana thug faces state and federal charges for attacking
and injuring a man he was arresting,
with no legitimate reason.
If we weed out the violent thugs for crimes that are not fatal,
we may be able to avoid most of the killings that some of them
would have gone on to commit.
*Free childcare equals class warfare, say Republicans.*
I agree, and it's time the non-rich fought back — let's march!
Children should grow up with less stress.
*Study Commissioned by Sanders Shows US Pays 2 to 4 Times More for
Prescription Drugs Than Other Nations.*
US laws provide a handout to pharma companies by restricting the
practice of buying prescription drugs at retail price in other
countries and selling them to Americans to fill their prescriptions.
That allows pharma companies to charge a higher price in the US
than anywhere else in the world.
The world's major powers increased their military spending
substantially in 2020.
Australia has made it a crime for Australians stuck in India to
return home. They face imprisonment, and ruinous fines.
Many of them have been stuck in India for a year trying to get a flight
home. The seats available were few and expensive.
Rebecca Solnit: climate scientists are starting to see hope that we
will do what is necessary, as fast as is necessary, to avoid climate
disaster.
But we are not on a course for safety yet. We need to fight for this.
The new hope is that, by fighting, we can win.
India's encounter with theocratic populism is much like that in the US.
Indian politicians threaten criminal charges against people that report
the shortage of oxygen.
I am disappointed that the article propagates a claim about the
emperor Nero that may be a lie concocted by his enemies.
Bolsonaro may face impeachment and prosecution for almost half
a million Brazilians that his policies caused to die.
A lawsuit in Florida attempts to defend the rights of some wetlands.
I may well agree that the construction of that housing should be
stopped. Aside from the threat to the wetlands, it sounds like the
construction is too close to sea level and likely to be flooded in a
few decades. I suspect that someone is being swindled. No one should
build anything in lowland areas of Florida.
However, the idea that the wetlands "have rights" seems like a kludge.
Philosophically, only a being that can have desires and make choices
can have rights. I would rather achieve the same result — blocking
bad development — in a conceptually coherent way.
England has restricted burning coal and wood inside houses, to reduce
toxic particulate pollution.
The Taliban made a deal with the US to protect US and other western
forces in Afghanistan, until their planned departure on May 1, from
other Islamist groups.
This follows the Taliban's pattern. In 2001, the Taliban offered to kick
out al-Qa'ida for the sake of peace with the US.
Too bad Dubya was not interested.
Tunisia has arranged a loan through the IMF, and (as usual) there
is an element of dooH niboR in it.
Wages will be reduced.
Will the profits of business shareholders be reduced?
Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner in Guantanamo based on an false accusation of being a member of al-Qa'ida, is suing the countries that kidnapped and tortured him.
US citizens: call on your senators to introduce a Senate counterpart
to the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 1694).
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The FDA is planning to ban flavored cigarettes and cigars.
The flavored cigarettes in the US are mainly flavored with menthol.
ISTR reading that the menthol makes cigarettes more attractive to
teenagers.
A discussion of controversies about Substack.
Is it possible to read Substack and make a donation to a writer
without running nonfree software? The usual ways of paying most web
sites require the payer to run nonfree software, which is why I never
pay a web site.
The head of the OECD is in favor of Biden's proposed reform to the
international tax system.
I agree it would be a step forward, but the system I proposed to put
pressure on big companies to split themselves up would be much better.
A sheriff in Georgia faces charges for ordering torture of people in jail.
Progressives in Congress have asked Attorney General Garland to review
the case mounted by Chevron against Steven Donziger.
The thugs that injured Karen Garner have resigned.
I am heartened to see several cases in which thugs have been held accountable
for violence that was not fatal. This is the way to teach cops to avoid the
habits that lead to unjustified violence, which occasionally is fatal.
*New York mayor calls off ‘creepy, alienating’ police robo-dog.*
Putin has labeled Navalny's opposition movement as "terrorist".
We should not forget that "anti-terrorism" laws often turn out to be
anti-dissent laws.
Has Bogus Johnson taught most Britons to accept bullshit from their leaders?
*Female political prisoners in Iran facing ‘psychological torture’, say
campaigners.*
*[Three] UK students sue government over human rights impact of climate crisis.*
Mexico is trying to phase out glyphosate genetically modified corn,
but the US is trying to interfere.
*UN Treaty Could Force Mining Companies to Behave Responsibly.*
Thugs in Alameda, California, killed Mario Gonzalez by kneeling on his back,
then lied about it.
*The low-hanging fruit in the climate battle? Cutting down on meat.*
The Epoch Times is accused of sinking into far-fetched conspiracy theories
since 2017.
A priori I can't tell whether the accusation that it is fake news
is valid, or fake news itself. I would like to be able to verify this.
US citizens: call on Biden to add Medicare expansions and
improvements to the American Families Plan.
US citizens: call for green augmentation of Biden's
infrastructure plan.
Manchin argues for letting Republicans rig the 2022 election
because otherwise they would try to steal it by force.
Is it better if they rig it?
Using virtual reality to train cops on how to respond to difficult situations
and avoid killing innocent people.
If it enables them to see how their scores are worse when dealing with
blacks than with whites, could it train them out of unconscious bias?
Covid-safety of people in an indoor space depends greatly on the amount of
ventilation — and on use of face masks.
A New York City thug faces criminal charges for ordering subordinates not
to save a prisoner who was killing himself.
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, privately showed relatives a heavily
edited video of how thugs shot and killed Andrew Brown, Jr.
One thing they saw is that the thugs began shooting just as they said,
"Show us your hands", while in fact his hands were in plain view.
Vanuatu is about to chill all controversial public statements
with a law making libel a crime.
Even if that law is applied honestly, it will make all controversial
journalism dangerous. But such honesty is not likely, as the powerful
will keep trying to distort the law.
We have seen many examples of use of such laws for repression.
* Germany’s supreme constitutional court has ruled that the
government’s climate protection measures are insufficient to
protect future generations.* The government must adopt stronger
climate defense measures.
Three Extinction Rebellion activists were found not guilty of charges
for a protest against a denialist right-wing newspaper.
A court ordered the EPA make a proper decision about regulating
Chlorpyrifos.
Two more states have passed laws to allow parents to leave their
children alone for a while, without being accused of "neglect".
San Francisco is taking the police out of dealing with the homeless
and complaints about them.
The idea is to regard them as people that need help, rather than as
nuisances to be pushed away, which is how San Francisco has treated
them historically for a long time.
*Factory Owners Around the World Stand Ready to Manufacture Covid-19
Vaccines.*
Those who lobby not to allow them to try to do it
claim they could not.
After Portland thugs sprayed protesters with tear gas in July, over
1000 of the protesters reported medical problems that did not quickly
go away.
In particular, it seems to have a tendency to cause abnormal
menstruation. I wonder if it can cause abortions also. Would
Republicans ban tear gas, if so?
We say "tear gas", but I've read that there are different products
with different composition. They might have different medical
effects, too. I wonder what kind, or kinds, the Portland thugs
sprayed.
24 senators urged Biden to get to work on closing the Guantanamo prison.
The US should either offer them real trials or stop holding them in
prison.
Republicans in many states are working to draw new congressional districts
so as to dominate the House of Representatives with a minority of the votes.
Companies and apps are using AI to analyze people's voices to
manipulate them.
The government of Nigeria is permitting religious fanatics to jail
humanist Mubarak Bala for criticizing religion.
*Senate Urged to Reject Fossil Fuel Attorney Beaudreau for Deputy Interior
Secretary.*
Human Rights Watch has recognized that Israel intends to operate
an apartheid system permanently, in Palestine and in Israel.
New York City is suing Chipotle for failing to give workers
predictable schedules.
For workers that are terrified of losing their jobs, being compelled
to work at last minute is a big hardship.
Insisting that flights not fly over Belarus is not primarily a
sanction, it is a necessary safety precaution.
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global heating, global hating,
global eating, global mating.
