Disappeard Chinese actress
9 October 2018

Disappeared Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has communicated again after months, with a public confession.

I don't know whether Ms Fan is guilty of tax evasion. I won't claim that is not so. However, mere guilt can't possibly justify holding a prisoner incommunicado, nor torture.

I wish China would stop holding prisoners incommunicado in horrible circumstances. Even more, I wish the US would stop.

Victims' rights
9 October 2018

Peru: Decision to Overturn Fujimori Pardon Confirms That Victims’ Rights Must Take Priority Over Political Decisions.

True conditions of farms
8 October 2018

Animal rights activists entered a chicken farm in California and found chickens that were very badly sick. They were arrested and charged with felonies for "stealing" some chickens, which were so ill that veterinarians would not send them back to the farm.

The idea of "rescuing" chickens, especially chickens that are so sick that they couldn't survive anyway, is is a gimmick and doesn't impress me. However, gimmick aside, I support their efforts to reveal the true conditions of farms.

Meanwhile, the cheater plans have the USDA endanger Americans who process or eat chickens: speeding up the processing in a way previously determined to be unsafe.

Masculinity
8 October 2018

We Need to Talk About Masculinity.

Somehow I escaped being taught to judge myself in terms of masculinity. I judge myself based on success or failure, but I never took up "having sex with women, regardless of circumstances and feelings" as a goal. Instead, I learned to want to feel loved and wanted by women, and for women to be glad to feel loved by me. My goal will never lead me in the direction of trying to pressure a woman into reluctant sex.

The toxic masculinity goal is sometimes called "scoring", because it treats sexual relations like a game where one gets points. Those points have no meaning, and that imaginary competition can't lead to happiness. It's only an excuse to tell yourself you're "winning". If you are playing that game, I hope you will recognize how pointless it is.

Deforestation
8 October 2018

Scientists Say Halting Deforestation 'Just as Urgent' as Reducing Emissions.

Bezos's power and control
8 October 2018

"Jeff Bezos runs a powerful monopoly that causes him to exert huge power and control. We shouldn’t be praising him but tackling his power."

Temporary Protected Status
8 October 2018

A federal court ruled that the bully cannot terminate Temporary Protected Status for people that fled El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan.

The basis of the ruling was that the bully based his decision on racism, rather than on the criteria he is supposed to apply.

FBI "investigation" of Kavanaugh
8 October 2018

Schumer and Feinstein say that the FBI "investigation" of Kavanaugh was a sham.

DARPA virus delivery system
8 October 2018

DARPA is funding a system to use insects to deliver viruses to crops. DARPA says that is meant to benefit farmers, but maybe it is actually for biological warfare.

If the crops are friendly and the farmers are willing, you don't need the insects.

Intestinal bacteria samples
8 October 2018

A plan to save samples of the highly diverse intestinal bacteria of people in remote communities.

Protesters face possible imprisonment
8 October 2018

Nonviolent protesters blocked a deportation flight out of London. Now they are on trial and face possible life imprisonment. Their defense is that they were preventing a crime.

Stateless man imprisoned in Canada
8 October 2018

Canada wanted to deport Ebrahim Toure, considering him a menace to Hollywood. But he was totally stateless, so there was no country Canada could send him to. So Canada put him in prison, where he has been for six years, in service of an impossible goal.

Christian extremist movie
8 October 2018

A Christian extremist movie says that the bullshitter was sent by "god" to save the world's morality.

According to the restored morality, people will lie and cheat all the time.

This movie's success further demonstrates that the Republican Party has become a cult.

More evidence of Kavanaugh's lies
8 October 2018

A letter written by Kavanaugh in 1983 provides more evidence that he lied to the Senate about how he lived then.

Wildfires polluting water supplies
8 October 2018

Wildfires, increasing in many areas due to global heating, are polluting water supplies — sometimes long after the fire.

The fires also release mercury, which ends up in wildlife, which can be unsafe for people to eat.

If civilization survives, we ought eventually to deploy a system to concentrate mercury from the environment, so we remove it from the environment.

Nitrogen fixing bacteria
8 October 2018

Genetic engineers are developing nitrogen fixing bacteria to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (which is made using fossil fuel).

Will these new bacteria be designed to limit how much fixed nitrogen they make? Without negative feedback that would limit the production based on circumstances, what would avoid that?

I also worry about the issue of patents and what this will cost farmers. Patents on the bacteria could make farmers even more dependent. On the other side, if the protection against an excess of these bacteria, and a consequent excess of fixed nitrogen, is that they don't survive very long, does that mean farmers would have to buy more bacteria each year?

Runoff has made the rivers of Iowa toxic — people can't the fish or drink the water.

This runoff includes phosphate as well as nitrate. The bacteria to fix nitrogen would perhaps eliminate the latter but not the former. And no substitution of fertilizer will reduce the outflow from animal feedlots — they only consume the plants.

Italian right-wing extremist
8 October 2018

An Italian right-wing extremist, who wasn't elected when he ran for the right-wing extremist League party, shot immigrants at random as an act of racial hatred. He has been sentenced to prison.

Puerto Rico
8 October 2018

Puerto Rico Has Not Recovered from Hurricane Maria.

Urgent: State of the Union speech
8 October 2018

US citizens: Boycott the bully's State of the Union speech.

If you sign, please spread the word!

Urgent: Drift gillnets
8 October 2018

Citizens of California: call on Governor Brown to sign SB 1017, which would phase out use of drift gillnets for fishing.

Drift gillnets kill various species that are not targets for fishing, including dolphins and some whales, and endangered sea turtles.

Ruling on secret watchlist
8 October 2018

A federal court ruled that a secret watchlist does not give US border thugs the power to jail people indefinitely with no grounds.

'Lie detectors'
8 October 2018

"Lie detectors" are not only pseudoscience, ineffective at determining whether someone is lying, they also enable racial bias.

Deforestation in Australia
8 October 2018

Australia is suffering rapid deforestation under the policies of its extractivist government. Almost 3000 square miles of native forest have been cut down in 5 years.

Breaking up financial companies
8 October 2018

Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to break up financial companies that are above a certain threshold — amounting to 8 of them.

Law professor petition
8 October 2018

900 US law professors have signed a petition calling for rejection of Kavanaugh, saying that he lacks the temperament and impartiality every judge is supposed to have.

Surveillance technology in NYC
8 October 2018

NYC is considering limiting the thug department's use of surveillance technology. The first step is simply to make the thugs say what they do.

Room rental platform law in NYC
8 October 2018

The EFF is challenging New York City's law requiring room rental platforms to give a lot of personal data about those who rent out a room.

I agree with the EFF. The city has a valid right to get some limited information, because the public has a valid interest in limiting the amount of loss of rooms people can live in. But it shouldn't get more than what is necessary for this.

Please don't refer to rental as "sharing".

Body cameras for border thugs
8 October 2018

Democratic senators have proposed to require border thugs and deportation thugs to use body cameras.

Body cameras can be an effective check on violence by thugs, but they require systems to ensure that they record at the right times, and laws to stop them from being used to record the full interior of every place that thugs enter and every person that thugs pass.

Especially we need to prohibit passing those people's faces to a face recognition system if they are not observed committing some specific crime.

Coal plant mercury limits
8 October 2018

EPA saboteurs are setting up a two-stage process for cancelling the limits on how much mercury coal plants can emit into the air. They are planning to do likewise for radioactive fallout emitted by coal plants, citing a convenient crackpot theory.

Eroded fingerprints
8 October 2018

Because India's biometric identification system depends on fingerprints, it often fails for people who have done manual labor for many years and eroded their fingertips.

If the sincere intention is to identify people for welfare benefits, they should be able to take prints from some other part of the body — one which (1) doesn't leave prints on what you touch and (2) won't get worn away.

Helmets at daycare
8 October 2018

The report that a daycare center requires children to wear helmets is only partly true, and it isn't totally outrageous. However, the overall issue is real.

Escaping from capitalism
8 October 2018

Arguing that the aim of everyone in capitalism is to escape from capitalism.

I think that idea has a lot of truth in it, but not 100%. To construct a single thing that nearly everyone in capitalism is trying to escape from, you need to put in more than just capitalism. You need to expand it to include the need to do work (whether for pay or not) and the constraints of living in a society with others. The billionaires are clearly aiming for all of that.

Urgent: Daily Kos candidate portals
6 October 2018

US citizens: call on Daily Kos to make its candidate portals function from a browser that disables JavaScript, so that voters can consult them without having to surrender some of their own freedom.

You can communicate with the site by clicking on General Inquiries on the site's footer, followed by Contact US.

You will be asking for a favor, so please use a friendly tone.

Urgent: Justice For All Civil Rights Act
6 October 2018

US citizens: support the Justice For All Civil Rights Act.

If you sign, please spread the word!

Amazon wage raise
6 October 2018

Amazon's decision to raise wages to 15 dollars an hour may have been a response to Bernie Sanders's proposed BEZOS act.

Hooray for Bernie Sanders!

In the UK, however, Amazon is canceling out half of the pay increase by reducing bonuses.

Psilocybin legality
6 October 2018

Researchers say that psilocybin should be treated legally like prescription sleep medicine.

New Zealand digital search law
6 October 2018

New Zealand's new law about searching digital devices of people entering the country has an apparent step forward, in that it requires specific grounds for suspicion. But the thugs don't have to say what it is, so the step forward is more apparent than real.

Minimum wage for tipped workers
6 October 2018

The people that live in Washington DC voted to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, in effect to put an end to their dependence on tipping. The city council, influenced by money from restaurant companies, is in the process of overriding that decision.

The article uses the confused term "people of color". I agree with the article's position but not with that term.

NAFTA replacement
6 October 2018

Here's a summary of various kinds of harm that Canada would suffer in the field of copyright if it adopts the NAFTA replacement.

The article confusingly presents a few harms in the area of patent law. It looks like the author is following the confused practice of lumping together several unrelated laws and calling them "intellectual property". The confusion in that term is why we should refuse ever to use it.

The article also uses the word "content" so much that I groan inwardly as I read it. I would have preferred to link to some other article to present this information, but the information is important and I don't know of one.

Blasey Ford examination
6 October 2018

Former federal prosecutors say that prosecutor Mitchell examined Prof. Blasey Ford only, which is far too little to constitute an adequate basic investigation of her accusations, but Mitchell's report passes it off as one.

This is just one of the flaws they describe, which suggest it is politically motivated.

Investigation cut short
6 October 2018

It looks like the FBI is cutting the Kavanaugh investigation short under pressure from Republican politicians.

However, Senator Collins is now insisting on a thorough FBI investigation of Kavanaugh.

The article presumes, and I agree, that her shifts on the issue are a matter of how seriously she takes the political pressure from various sides. I can't see what pressure could be responsible for her supporting Kavanaugh as much as she has done until this point, despite knowing that her constituents will resent it, but it must be awfully powerful.

I am relieved to see that the anti-Kavanaugh pressure is capable of outweighing that.

Sponsoring migrant kids
6 October 2018

Bipartisan Legislation Would Stop ICE from Targeting Immigrants Who Want to Sponsor Migrant Kids.

Detroit protesters
6 October 2018

Detroit protesters, charged with protest-crime, are refusing to accept plea bargains, making the state put them on trial. These trials will put unjust state policies on trial.

Nunes's farm history
6 October 2018

Rep. Nunes lets his voters think he has a farm in California in the district. In fact, he sold it in 2006 and gives interviews from someone else's farm.

Teaching of evolution
6 October 2018

Many countries prevent the teaching of evolution. Israel and Turkey are joining them.

Jamal Khashoggi
6 October 2018

Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident from Salafi Arabia living in Turkey, entered the Salafi consulate in Istanbul and did not emerge again.

How women are silenced
6 October 2018

[The bully's] Mocking of Christine Blasey Ford Shows How Women Are Silenced.

Men traumatized by not getting something
6 October 2018

(satire) Nation Urged To Be Extra Sensitive To Men Reliving Trauma Of Not Getting Something.

Proof of Kavanaugh's lying
6 October 2018

Text messages of Kavanaugh's friends show he was aware of Deborah Ramirez's accusations before they were published. That proves he lied to the Senate about that point.

NAFTA version 2
6 October 2018

NAFTA version 2 would weaken the ISDS provision. However, it would make it harder to resist pipelines.

It would permanently limit the EPA's use of scientific research results, and weaken food safety regulations, and facilitate use of toxic pesticides. It would also expand fracking.

It would also extend the length of copyright in Canada, a sad loss for Canada.

The population of Chagos Islands
6 October 2018

When the UK expelled the population of the Chagos Islands, it allowed them to live in the UK. But their grandchildren face deportation to places where they have no connections.

Proposed changes in US laws
6 October 2018

Proposed changes in US laws to prevent future presidents from sabotaging government ethics rules as the bullshitter is doing.

Amazon
6 October 2018

(satire) Paper Towels On Amazon Surge To $2,000 A Roll After Crippling Cost Increase Of Paying Workers A Living Wage.

Amazon has indeed agreed to pay all its workers $15 an hour, but low pay is not the only way it mistreats them.

The cheater's tax-dodges
6 October 2018

The cheater presents himself as a "self-made man", but he got $400 million from his father through tax-dodges, some of them alleged to be fraudulent.

Crushing the Palestinian Authority
6 October 2018

The Palestinian Authority sends lots of money to Gaza every month. With the US and Israel crushing the Palestinian Authority, and cutting off its funds, Abbas may decide to stop paying Gaza. This could start a war. It would be rational for Gazans to fight before they starve.

On the other hand, other powers might decide to provide Gazans money to live on.

Netanyahu's claims about Iran
6 October 2018

The "secret nuclear fuel warehouse" Netanyahu claims Iran has is really a known archive of nuclear program records, according to a US official.

Boycotting Israel
6 October 2018

States Can't Punish Businesses for Boycotting Israel, Federal Judge in Arizona [rules].

Israeli guards
6 October 2018

Palestinian prisoners say Israeli guards gave them polluted water to drink, which made some of them sick.

US psychological and psychiatric care
6 October 2018

The US does not make a serious effort to provide psychological and psychiatric care to the seriously mentally ill.

It would cost a lot of money, which means we need to tax the rich to pay for it.

Reducing politics to celebrity obsession
6 October 2018

George Monbiot: By reducing politics to a celebrity obsession — from Boris to Trump to Corbyn — the media misdirects and confuses us.

Digital payment systems
6 October 2018

Banks and card networks are pushing Britons into using digital payment systems that give them a cut of every payment — and track people, to boot.

Right-wing extremists
6 October 2018

Germany has accused right-wing extremists of plotting to overthrow the government by attacking foreigners on the street.

The planned to attack journalists and politicians, too.

Grand Canyon uranium mining ban
6 October 2018

The Supreme Court refused to consider the Grand Canyon uranium mining ban, so the ban will stand.

Corrupt campaign donations
6 October 2018

The right-wing Australian government wants to legalize some corrupt campaign donations.

The bullshitter and President Kim
6 October 2018

The bullshitter has come out of the closet, affirming that he and President Kim have fallen in love.

I am glad for the two of them, but should the US have a president that is in love with the ruler of another country? Is love an emolument?

Kavanaugh's false testimony
6 October 2018

Kavanaugh got into a fight in a bar in 1985, and was questioned about it by thugs. A witness described Kavanaugh as "belligerent and aggressive".

This contradicts his statements about being a sober and nonviolent person.

He has been working to recruit witnesses to testify on his behalf. There is a report he was working on countering Ramirez's testimony as early as July. If this is true, it demonstrates another instance of false testimony.

UK thugs' access to surveillance data
6 October 2018

The UK is putting the capstone on its system of massive surveillance of everyone: a system to give every thug access to the surveillance data.

Whole Foods employees organizing
6 October 2018

Whole Foods Employees Have Begun to Organize resisting changes Amazon has made. "They want us to be robots."

Outsourced government department
6 October 2018

Australia outsourced the government department that is supposed to help people find jobs. It is 'leading to anxiety rather than jobs.'

Prominent Iraqi women assassinated
6 October 2018

A series of prominent Iraqi women who don't stick to traditional restraints have been assassinated.

Four-day, 32-hour work week
6 October 2018

A New Zealand company with hundreds of employees is moving to a four-day, 32-hour work week with no decrease in salary. It has already tested this approach and decided to adopt it completely.

Indonesian government
6 October 2018

The Indonesian government has fallen down in delivering food and water to tsunami-hit Sulawesi.

National Housing Service
6 October 2018

Maybe there should be a National Housing Service to provide housing to everyone.

The contagion of memes
6 October 2018

Studying the contagion of memes, including disinformation.

Access to birth control in the US
6 October 2018

US Christian fanatics are now seriously trying to eliminate access to birth control. The bully has put a saboteur in charge of the funds for women's medical care to achieve this.

I think these Christians want to force women to have children. Stopping women from ending a pregnancy is half the job — forcing them to get pregnant is the other half.

Very urgent: Georgia voter purge
5 October 2018

Citizens of Georgia: the state purged 10% of registered voters last year. By Oct 9, the deadline for registration, call your local election authority to see if you are still registered — and, if not, do register.

I learned of this from a mailing with a reference to a site I can't access, so I am passing on the crucial message this way.

Urgent: Federal voter ID law
5 October 2018

US citizens: oppose the proposed federal voter ID law.

If you sign, please spread the word!

Conway and patriarchy
5 October 2018

Kellyanne Conway Proves Patriarchy Has No Gender.

In an unequal society, the aristocrats can easily recruit others as their lieutenants, by giving them power over most of the people. In that society, this is the only way for someone other than an aristocrat to get some power, within the system's rules. To change the inequality requires that people seek such change rather than seeking to compete for more power or wealth for themselves.

Face recognition over passwords
5 October 2018

New iMonsters urge users to use face recognition instead of passwords. That makes it trivial for state agents to unlock them.

I would expect that armed thieves can do the same thing.

Cybersecurity weaknesses
5 October 2018

The weakest link in cybersecurity is no longer the users. Rather, it is the companies that pressure or lure people to entrust data to them.

FEMA loan discrimination
5 October 2018

Blacks face discrimination in FEMA disaster recovery loans.

Suppressing fake news
5 October 2018

A voluntary code to suppress fake news includes a plausible definition of it.

Dismissing the masses
5 October 2018

The error of smugness: "By dismissing the masses as fools, progressives confirmed all the culture warriors’ claims."

California beach access
5 October 2018

The Supreme Court refused to hear millionaire Vinod Khosla's case about the California beach from which he seeks to exclude the public. That means the California public access law will stand.

Rushed Kavanaugh vote
5 October 2018

McConnell wants to have a vote on Kavanaugh before the FBI finished its hasty investigation.

Imprisoned minors to military camp
5 October 2018

US immigration thugs have moved hundreds of minors who are prisoners to a military camp where they will be out of sight and impossible to visit.

Aristocracy and lynching
5 October 2018

How white southerners put over the heroic myth of aristocracy, at the same time they were lynching.

Facebook stories blocked by Facebook
5 October 2018

Facebook blocked posting of some news stories about Facebook's data breach affecting 50 million of its useds.

The cracking of these Facebook accounts was made more harmful because Facebook encouraged using its accounts to log in on other sites.

Perhaps that sort of relationship between sites should be prohibited.

This suggests that plans to "eliminate passwords and log in with your phone" are a bad idea, too.

System for appointing justices
5 October 2018

The US needs to reform its system for appointing justices of the Supreme Court; the current one is crippled by partisanship.

Labour leftists and the EU
5 October 2018

Labour leftists want to take Britain out of the EU because it is wired for neoliberalism.

Owais Raja
5 October 2018

The UK drove Owais Raja and his family into destitution by labeling him a "security threat", and canceling his visa, because he discovered and corrected an error in his tax return.

The UK government has now given him a visa. I hope it will compensate him for the harm done by its deliberate policy of erring on the side of harshness.

Most of all I hope it will change that policy.