SWAT team raid
30 December 2014

A SWAT team raided Chad Chadwick's house based on a false report, shot him, beat him up, and tased him, then fabricated a series of charges against him.

They did not convict him of anything, but they ruined his life as well as rendering him deaf in one ear.

These thugs must be punished or they will ruin someone else's life next.

Jeffrey Deskovic
30 December 2014

Jeffrey Deskovic was falsely convicted of murder, and freed after 16 years. Now he dedicates his life to freeing others wrongly imprisoned by a system that makes slapdash mistakes.

UK cinema calls thugs to arrests kids
30 December 2014

A cinema in the UK called the thugs to arrest some 12-year-olds for bringing iThings with them to the movie.

The fact that they did not in fact record the movie is a side issue. What if they had done so? Since that is not a crime in the UK, the only complaint the cinema could make is that they violated its rules. That should not qualify as an "emergency" — the thugs should have refused to come.

This is in addition to the general point that laws against sharing copies of published works are an injustice.

Protests in Nicaragua over canal
30 December 2014

Protests Erupt in Nicaragua over Interoceanic Canal.

The canal raises two issues. One is that farmers who will lose their land don't trust that they will be compensated. There is an obvious solution: start buying their land at a fair price now.

The bigger and harder issue is that of potential ecosystem damage. I don't know if there is a way to prevent that.

"Cloud computing"
30 December 2014

How the nebulous idea of "cloud computing" led millions of internet users to lose their privacy.

The one flaw in the article is that it presumes we have all fallen for the trap. For example, "When the technology industry embraced 'cloud computing' and made it part of our daily lives, we all made a Faustian bargain." Maybe you made that bargain — I never did. I hope you will join me in rejecting it now.

Some kinds of services are acceptable to use in specific ways. But if you adopt a policy of trusting a service without first carefully checking who you would be trusting with what, you'll be mistreated over and over. This is why I have adopted the policy of not identifying myself to businesses I deal with except under very narrow conditions (for instance, the company that hosts stallman.org knows it's mine).

In other words, you've got to stop thinking that there is a "cloud", and start thinking about each particular service.

Occupied Palestine
30 December 2014

Life and business in occupied Palestine are tangled in hundreds of absurd Israeli regulations, each with its own excuse, but all designed simply to make life poor and difficult.

Patients forced to waive legal rights
30 December 2014

A public hospital in Alabama makes patients waive their legal right not to be sued for hospital bills.

I don't think poor indebted Americans should feel the slightest shame about using bankruptcy to escape the medical bills that a civilized country would never have tried to impose on them.

Meanwhile, I wonder whether the hospital's contract with these patients is valid. If the law says hospitals can't do something to their patients, can the hospitals set it aside just by getting the patient to say yes?

Celebration of 1914 Christmas truce
30 December 2014

The UK government celebrates the 1914 Christmas truce because it doesn't threaten the idea of war. Contrast it with the reception of acts and movements that did.

Obama to send mercenaries to Iraq
30 December 2014

Obama plans to send mercenaries to Iraq so he can deny he is sending ground troops there.

Mercenaries are troops.

Faux News misrepresents protest chant
30 December 2014

Faux News cut a protest chant in mid-sentence to misrepresent it as advocating the kill of thugs.

Syriza's economist demands debt relief
30 December 2014

Syriza's Marxist economist does not propose leaving the Euro. Rather he demands debt relief with that threat in the background.

Flight MH17
30 December 2014

Russia reports that an unidentified witness saw a Ukrainian fighter plane take off with missiles and land without them, at the time flight MH17 was shot down.

If true, this would not be conclusive proof that Ukraine shot down the passenger jet. There could be other reasons for the fighter to return without missiles.

But is this testimony real? We have only the Russian state's word that the witness made this testimony — and that the witness exists at all.

UK bans activists from protests
30 December 2014

The UK has used bail conditions to arbitrarily ban hundreds of activists from protests.

The bogus charges are dropped eventually, but in the mean time, democracy is the loser.

Brazil's Agriculture minister
30 December 2014

Brazil's new Agriculture minister is the obedient servant of big agribusiness and will energetically promote deforestation.

General internet security undermined
30 December 2014

The NSA and its friends undermine general internet security in many ways.

The NSA has created a web of cooperating companies. It helps protect them from cracking, and they allow help the NSA spy on others.

The low price of oil
30 December 2014

The low price of oil may be Saudi Arabia's plan to hurt Russia and Iran.

The article speculates that it may cause a big decrease in oil production a few years from now. I hope that leads to more renewables installation then, but it would be better to have a high oil price now to incentivize renewables now.

Attack on democratic rights in Israel
30 December 2014

Israel's parliament is considering a law to bar the most outspoken Palestinian legislator from parliament.

I disagree with Ms Zoabi on her controversial statement: I think kidnaping children is wrong even in fighting a colonizing occupying power. Nonetheless, barring her from election to Parliament attacks the democratic rights of hundreds of thousands of people, and that is also wrong.

Blocking water privatization in NJ
30 December 2014

New Jersey is trying to clear away the democratic procedures that allow the residents of a city to block water privatization.

Governor Christie has a chance to block this by vetoing the bill. If he does not, it may hurt his presidential chances.

Homeless squatters join activists
30 December 2014

Homeless squatters joined activists who sought to feed them, to occupy a disused bank in London. The government sent thugs to kick them out, true to its policy of screw the poor to help the rich; but two of the activists climbed on a balcony rather than leave.

This shows that the UK state regards the idea of feeding homeless people on Christmas as a danger so urgent that it warrants an eviction on Christmas eve to prevent it. (For me, as an Atheist, I don't particularly care that it was Christmas; I'd disapprove of the eviction equally much on any day of the year.)

The court ordered the activists be allowed to return temporarily to feed the homeless today. I guess someone decided to try to smooth over resentment over the eviction. I hope it does not succeed in that aim.

The cracking of Sony
29 December 2014

Dissecting the US "evidence" supposed to tie the cracking of Sony to North Korea.

It's flimsy argument, misleadingly cited multiple times as if that made the conclusions stronger. In other words, total bullshit.

The North Korean regime is viciously oppressive; there is no need for false accusations where so many valid accusations are available. But these accusations smell like a PR campaign meant to shape US public opinion.

Further arguments.

Don't forget Sony's cyber-attacks against its own customers.

boycottsony.org

Thugs shoot another black teenager
29 December 2014

Thugs in St Louis (near Ferguson, that is) shot another black teenager, saying he was pointing a gun at them.

If things happened as the thugs claim, I don't think they did wrong this time. But people are right to distrust the thugs and demand proof, as the thugs have lied so many times before.

Court-ordered back door access to computers
28 December 2014

The US government asks courts to order computer companies to remotely give access to people's computers — when the companies have power (through back doors) to do so.

The defense is to use free software that probably does not have a back door, rather than proprietary software that almost certainly does have one.

UK power plant subsidies
28 December 2014

The UK gave 1.5 billion dollars in subsidy to all sorts of power plants just for existing and doing what they were going to do anyway.

The subsidy was supposed to be an incentive to bring new generating capacity on line, but it did none of that.

Since a large fraction of this generating capacity uses fossil fuel, that fraction of the subsidy is subsidy for continuing to use fossil fuel (rather than building renewable capacity).

Global heating disrupting butterflies
28 December 2014

Global heating is disrupting butterflies, so that caterpillars mature in the autumn and can't survive the winter as adults.

This Treaty Is Plutocratic
28 December 2014

The TTIP would require US states to pay foreign companies in order to regulate toxic chemicals such as Bisphenol A.

TTIP stands for "This Treaty Is Plutocratic". Its other name, TAFTA, stands for "Turn All Freedom To Ashes".

Solitary confinement
28 December 2014

A solidarity hunger strike persuaded Israel to release Nahar al-Saadi from solitary confinement after 570 days of it.

Solitary confinement is a form of brainwashing common in US prisons.

Comcast
28 December 2014

Another way Comcast tries to buy support for its planned merger with a large competitor: by handing out cards that entitle the bearer to decent customer service. In Washington DC, these cards are often given to people with political influence.

Thugs threaten to imprison kids
28 December 2014

As two children (ages 10 and 6) were walking home from a park, thugs grabbed them, took them to their home, then threatened to shoot their father.

I think the father should have refused to sign any papers making absurd promises, even for a few days, and told the kids, "I can't stop them from taking you prisoner, but mom and I will rescue you." Any child of 6 will understand what that means.

When I was 6 years old, I walked to school every day. That's what all the boys and girls in first grade did, in my ordinary neighborhood public school in New York City. How cowardly TV has made Americans.

The crack attack on Sony
28 December 2014

Quite a few security experts doubt US claims that the crack attack on Sony was carried out by North Korea. This article presents their reasons.

Santa Claus and crew arrested at protest
28 December 2014

Santa Claus and his crew joined a protest against a natural gas storage facility that is likely to pollute the regional water supply in nearby Seneca Lake.

Climate defense activism
28 December 2014

There is still a chance for the many streams of climate defense activism to prevent the worst level of disaster — but we need to push for deep changes that go beyond changing our individual lifestyles.

Urgent: Oppose ISP censorship list
27 December 2014

Everyone: call on Mississippi Attorney General Hood to drop his plans for a mandatory ISP censorship list.

It does work to sign with Javascript disabled — the page of JSON data that you get indicates success.

Australia's carbon tax effective
27 December 2014

Australia's carbon tax was effective in reducing CO₂ emissions. That's why the fossil fuel companies' men were so determined to get rid of it.

Nepalese worker deaths in Qatar
27 December 2014

Nepalese workers are dying in Qatar at the rate of 15 a month. And this doesn't count the workers from India and other countries.

Luxembourg tax avoidance leak
27 December 2014

Luxembourg should not bring charges against the person who leaked the tax avoidance schemes of Luxembourg.

Amazon boycott in the UK
27 December 2014

Amazon Anonymous claims its boycott in the UK has cost Amazon 8 million dollars.

While I support the boycott, I can't say I have bought any less from Amazon than I did in the past.

Abolishing the CIA
27 December 2014

In 1995, Senator Moynihan proposed to abolish the CIA.

US torture extends beyond the CIA, and everyone responsible ought to be chased down and prosecuted.

Flight MH17
27 December 2014

Reportedly three other countries have made a secret agreement giving Ukraine a veto over publishing results of the investigation of the destruction of flight MH17.

This article belongs to a body of writing that claims that MH17 was shut down intentionally by Ukraine. That is an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary proof — it is much more plausible that badly trained missile operators were mistaken about the target. The articles I have seen are not extraordinary proof: for the most part, the evidence is attributed to people I can't find much information about, and I am not convinced it is for real.

For instance, this article says that the unusual flight path of MH17 has never been explained, but I recall reading that it (as well as other flights before and after) were diverted away from a storm.

Nonetheless, the author personally attests to getting a runaround in requests for information about this agreement, and I think that point is credible.

Life under the rebels and/or Russia
27 December 2014

Refugees from Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea report on life under the rebels and/or Russia.

Some of these people could be motivated to exaggerate, but it is consistent with what Putin does in Russia, and some of them had no other reason to flee.

Charges laid against torturers
27 December 2014

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has laid charges of torture in Germany against two officials of the Bush regime: former CIA Director Tenet and former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

Thug shootings
26 December 2014

Contrast the difference in reaction between the unusual event that someone shoots a thug dead and the frequent event that a thug shoots an unarmed man dead.

Producers of documentary sued
26 December 2014

The producers of a documentary about Edward Snowden have been sued by someone who claims they are "profiting from the theft of documents".

From what I have read, the use by journalists of leaked documents is lawful in the US. (The movie isn't where they are used; it is about Snowden, not whet he showed us.) But the US government might try to use this lawsuit as an opportunity to press its case to label Snowden as a criminal.

Thug shoots unarmed homeless man
26 December 2014

A Milwaukee thug shot an unarmed homeless man, apparently beating him up first, then accused the homeless man (apparently falsely) of attacking him. The thug will get off without prosecution.

Ukraine plans to join NATO
26 December 2014

Ukraine is planning to join NATO, and NATO does not reject the idea.

That seems calculated to push Russia into war.