Defending monuments to the Confederacy
5 July 2021

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.

Making nomad life impossible
5 July 2021

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.

Fashion brands and slavery
5 July 2021

*France investigates fashion brands over forced Uyghur labour claims.*

Colonies
5 July 2021

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.

Coastguards and migrants
5 July 2021

*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.

Longer extreme weather
5 July 2021

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.

John McAfee
5 July 2021

A report from the prison says that John McAfee tried to commit suicide at the end of February.

Dealing with FARC splinter groups
5 July 2021

Venezuela jailed Javier Tarazona after he claimed that the government had dealings with Colombian FARC splinter groups.

Worsening famine
5 July 2021

*UN warns of worsening famine in Ethiopia's Tigray.* The famine is at least partly caused by the civil war.

Donald Rumsfeld
5 July 2021

(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 requirements
5 July 2021

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.

Jellyfish ocean
5 July 2021

As we pollute the sea and overcatch fish, we are driving the seas towards mainly jellyfish.

Guantanamo prisoners
5 July 2021

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.

Urgent: Appoint an FCC commissioner
5 July 2021

US citizens: call on Biden to appoint an FCC commissioner to fill the vacant seat.

Urgent: Strong climate bill
5 July 2021

US citizens: call on Biden to introduce a strong climate bill.

Scientific American
5 July 2021

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.

Conspiracy theories
5 July 2021

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.

Changes to conservatorship laws
5 July 2021

*After Britney Spears testimony, lawmakers push changes to conservatorship laws.*

Future wildfire damage
5 July 2021

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.

Home care budgets
5 July 2021

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 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.

Water privatization
5 July 2021

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.

Murder of Muhammad Waqas
5 July 2021

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.

Bullied into giving DNA samples
5 July 2021

Prosecutors in Orange County, California, bully everyone accused of the smallest offenses into 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.

Urgent: Exclusion of military pollution from climate agreements
3 July 2021

Everyone: call on Cop26 to stop excluding military pollution from climate agreements.

Urgent: Elon Musk's union-busting
3 July 2021

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!

Freezing jail conditions
3 July 2021

*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).

Climate disaster has started
3 July 2021

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.

Arizona voting restrictions
3 July 2021

*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
3 July 2021

*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
3 July 2021

*Italian prisons under fire as video footage shows guards beating inmates.*

Charged with murder for self defense
3 July 2021

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
3 July 2021

Donald Rumsfeld's legacy: *systemic torture, massacres of civilians, [and] illegal wars.*

Hong Kong blackwhiting
3 July 2021

A Hong Kong official demonstrated a level of blackwhiting befitting Republicans.

Insect protein
3 July 2021

* Adopting insect protein in pig and poultry feed could reduce UK soya consumption by a fifth by 2050, says WWF study.*

(satire) Roots of Washington Monument
3 July 2021

(satire) *Biologists Discover Roots Of Washington Monument Have Spread Over 400 Feet Underground.*

(satire) Supreme Court waits in line
3 July 2021

(satire) *Supreme Court Waits In Line For Hours Before Voting To Uphold Arizona Restrictions.*

Articles by Chinese scientists
3 July 2021

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.

Influence inside the FDA
3 July 2021

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) Best of luck stopping climate change
3 July 2021

(satire) *Senate Passes Bill Wishing Younger Generations Best Of Luck Stopping Climate Change.*

Trickle-down neoliberalism
3 July 2021

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.

Face recognition in Maine
3 July 2021

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.

Voter fraud
3 July 2021

Bolsonaro threatens to seize power if he loses the next election, giving "voter fraud" as an excuse.

Lukashenko's dictatorship
3 July 2021

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.

Lack of California-Oregon rain
3 July 2021

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.

Virgin Plastic 2040
2 July 2021

*Call for global treaty to end production of "virgin" plastic by 2040.*

Erdoğan protest women
2 July 2021

Thousands protested in Turkey as Erdoğan took Turkey out of the treaty against violence against women.

Duque 8 years protesters
2 July 2021

President Duque of Colombia wants to sentence protesters to more than just 8 years in prison for blocking a highway.

Republicans Trumpify Electoral System
2 July 2021

*Republicans Trumpify Electoral System to Steal Future Elections.*

Matt Hancock Resigns
2 July 2021

*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 Jehovah's Witnesses Jailed
2 July 2021

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.

UK Covid-test corruption
2 July 2021

The corruption of UK contracting with Covid-testing companies has been exposed by emails.

Israeli Colonists
2 July 2021

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 University Pseudonyms
2 July 2021

*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.

London football super-spreader
2 July 2021

An "important" football match in London became a Covid super-spreader.

It was a policy mistake to permit spectators at that match.

Pesticide Companies Poison EPA
2 July 2021

*How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America.*

Accusations of plagiarism
2 July 2021

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.

Unconstitutional for insurrection aids to hold office
2 July 2021

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.

Legalization of abortion
2 July 2021

Three Mexican states have now legalized abortion.

Coal miners
2 July 2021

Striking Alabama coal miners picked investment companies that bought the bankrupt Walter Energy, made promises to the union workers, then broke them.

Pollutants
2 July 2021

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.

Ban ads for fossil fuel companies
2 July 2021

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.

Ancient coronavirus epidemic
2 July 2021

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. ;-}.

People's Response Act
2 July 2021

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.

Making hydrogen
2 July 2021

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.

Heat dome
2 July 2021

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.

Military rapes in civilian courts
2 July 2021

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.

Hiding billions
2 July 2021

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.

Systematic lies
2 July 2021

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.

Business-supremacy treaties without human rights
2 July 2021

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.

Carbon offset
2 July 2021

* 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.