DeJoy plans further sabotage of the USPS — closing facilities and slowing delivery, in the name of cost savings that are probably exaggerated.
(satire) *God Frustrated After Google Search Reveals Octopuses Already Exist.*
(satire) *Researchers Determine Coelacanth Faked Own Extinction To Escape Massive Gambling Debt.*
*Speed at which world’s glaciers are melting has doubled in 20 years.*
Chinese repression is squeezing journalists in Hong Kong.
However, China is hardly alone in repressing journalism more these days. It is a global trend.
Plutocratist Democrats in the House of Representatives are pushing for an increased tax deduction, almost entirely for high-income taxpayers.
Biden has proved to be much more progressive than I expected.
We need to keep pushing on the areas where he isn't; but mostly we need to convince a few plutocratist Democrats in the Senate to eliminate the filibuster.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to support Medicare for All.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on your senators to support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
US citizens: call on Biden to halt use of land mines.
I was pleased to learn that New Zealand concluded that Ahmed Zaoui was not a terrorist after all, and allowed him to live there in freedom.
I first heard about Zaoui when New Zealand had imprisoned him without trial, Guantanamo-style, based on unverified suspicions.
Navalny is ending his hunger strike and has appeared in court in an attempt to appeal his bogus conviction.
With the benefit of hindsight, I think that Navalny's dramatic return to Russia, which at first galvanized opposition, has been defeated by Putin's willingness to throw away all restraint.
People around 10 years older than me write about enjoying liberty outdoors by themselves at the age of 4 or 5 years.
Local action to protect the Great Barrier Reef would extend its life for only two decades, unless we also curb greenhouse emissions.
*Study links childhood air pollution exposure to poorer mental health.*
What makes it interesting is that it controls for other variables that might affect people's mental health.
*Tribes without clean water demand an end to decades of US government neglect.*
The American Families Plan would help low-wage families in several ways.
We still need to reduce drug prices. As well as a national medical system.
China has set up to arbitrarily ban certain people from leaving Hong Kong, as it arbitrarily bans certain people from leaving China.
The Soviet Union and its puppet countries famously required people to get an "exit visa" in order to leave the country. This practice was a constant reminder of that empire's tyranny.
New Zealand proposes to "fight terrorism" by giving thugs the power to search anywhere without a search warrant when they say it's because they suspect terrorism.
This would be a grave error. Terrorism is a real danger. Unchecked policing is a real danger, too.
Philippine journalist Maria Ressa has won the Unesco press freedom prize.
Let's hope this convinces President Do-dirty that putting her in prison on bizarre charges would not be wise for him.
I call him Do-dirty because he boasts of sending thugs to kill people in the street. He says that those killed are drug traffickers. I suppose some of them really are drug traffickers.
The "music industry" represses people who listen to music, using unjust copyright laws such as the DMCA
The "music industry" plants its boot on people who listen to music, using a repressive copyright system such as the DMCA, in the name of musicians and composers. At the same time, it increases its plutocratist exploitation of musicians and composers to the point where those get almost none of the money that the companies squeeze out of us.
I've proposed two better ways for listeners to support the musicians and composers. Let's make a deal with them, and tell Spotify and the music copyright industry to dry up and blow away.
The first, personal step: always listen to music from a non-DRM copy in your own computer — never from a streaming dis-service. By insisting on having a copy, you make sure that the possibility of sharing a copy is always available to you.
The copyright industry is lobbying the WTO against an exception to vaccine patents.
Since copyrights and patents are independent laws, different on every detail, why would the copyright industry care about this question? I think it is the result of lumping these and other unrelated laws together under the umbrella term "intellectual property". That is meant to teach people to imagine a mythical principle of "intellectual property," which is so important that it overrides practical needs of whatever kind.
The world would be better off if we eliminate patents entirely. We should do so, in software and in general.
I do not advocate entirely eliminating copyright — rather, reducing it to some extent.
But we should entirely reject the term and myth of "intellectual property."
Florida is still working on a voter-suppression bill.
The prohibition on handing out food or water to people waiting on long voting lines (themselves a consequence of voter-suppression measures) may be omitted.
North Carolina thugs shot Andrew Brown in the back of the head as he was driving away from them.
The FBI is going to investigate the thugs' actions.
The thugs were carrying body cameras but the thug department seems reluctant to show the video.
Sanders and Democrats in Congress call for publication of the wrecker's secret vaccine contracts.
The imperfect democracy that the US has is our only avenue for addressing the injustices and threats we now face. With Republicans dead-set on negating it, we must now defend it.
There are two kinds of criticism of American democracy: the kind that accepts democracy in principle, and the kind that rejects it. We are all aware of the flaws in the way the democratic system functions in the US, and of campaigns to fix them.
What is shocking is the existence of progressives who reject democracy in principle. What do they imagine as a better alternative?
*America Needs a 21st-Century Civilian Climate Corps.*
Reducing greenhouse emissions is curing the disease. Protecting people and places from the effects of greenhouse emissions is treating the symptoms. We must make sure to cure the disease, and then if we have resources to spare, we can treat the symptoms.
The place to get those resources is from the rich.
Florida is passing laws to obstruct the transition to renewable energy.
The Republican death cult has decided that global heating is not a threat and efforts to curb global heating are acts of the devil. So they will do anything they can think of to interfere with that.
Likewise, efforts to curb Covid-19 are acts of the devil and they will do anything they can think of to interfere with that.
Yet another accusation of "cultural appropriation" — this one aiming to establish racial restrictions on wearing certain hair styles.
Each person is entitled to the right to wear per hair in any style.
*Brazil begins parliamentary inquiry into Bolsonaro’s Covid response.*
Colorado cops arrested a 73-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease who had tried to leave a store with a little merchandise she had not paid for (and maybe did not remember she had). Staff had taken it from her already.
The cops broke her arm and caused her other injuries.
*Police video shows officers joking about violent arrest of Colorado woman.*
The threat to ocean life is not just overfishing — pollution is involved too.
*Protests erupt in N’Djamena as Chadians demand civilian rule.*
A pressure campaign demands that Simon & Schuster refuse to publish books by right-wing politicians even if they did not support the attack on the Capitol — for instance, Pence.
I find this frightening. I disagree with Pence on issues across the board, but it is wrong to make it impossible for him and other right-wingers to publish books.
*Drought-hit California [prepares to order] Nestlé to stop pumping millions of gallons of water.*
Companies like Nestlé and its successor privatize the profits while dumping the cost on the public.
Biden proposes to give the IRS a lot more money to audit the tax returns of people with a lot of income.
* Human Rights Watch calls on international criminal court to investigate ‘systematic discrimination’ against Palestinians* in Palestinian territory and in Israel.
* A coronavirus “vaccination persuasion” initiative targeting elderly people who have declined invitations to get vaccinated is gearing up to be rolled out across Turkey.*
The climate-striking students in the UK call for a boycott of an exhibit about the climate in the Science Museum, sponsored by Shell.
Oil companies have used their money in clever and subtle ways to deny, then downplay, then delay action to reduce fossil fuel use. We should not trust them to have influence in education about the climate.
*Slashing Methane Emissions Must Play Larger Role in Fighting Climate Crisis, UN Says.*
*House Dems Propose Lifting 'Cruel' Ban on Former Drug Felons Receiving Food and Cash Aid.*
It is harmful for society overall if people who have been convicted of crimes are thereafter excluded from survival without crime.
A mob in Papua New Guinea tortured two women with burning metal, demanding they confess to being witches.
This sort of atrocity still occurs in many parts of the world.
Our internet hate mobs are the same sort of psychological phenomenon, but without the physical violence.
Bill Gates is still campaigning hard against generic Covid-19 vaccines.
France supported the dictator of Chad (who was just killed by rebels) in exchange for his help in fighting PISSI.
I agree that fighting PISSI is a good thing to do, but keeping a dictator in power (and now his son and heir) is not.
Google has decided to protect users of Android from being tracked — except by Google.
What gives Google the power to make this choice and impose it on users? That is due to Google's nonfree software in Android.
*Revealed: UK solar projects using panels from firms linked to Xinjiang forced labour.*
The effective way to get away from using products of China's forced labor is to plan to develop production capacity outside China, and plan to refuse to buy the products from China. However, the WTO may make that difficult.
Which is one more reason why the WTO, which is a business-supremacy treaty, is an injustice. Add that to the obstruction of generic Covid-19 vaccines and a long list of other injustice.
Australia's retirement funds have decided to cast their votes in corporations' bodes in favor of greenhouse emission reduction targets. To be sure, following the Paris treaty is aiming for failure, and 2050 is far too late; but it is a shift to start pushing aside the Australian government's planet-roaster policies.
*United Airlines received billions in Covid aid. Now thousands of workers could lose their jobs.*
Why didn't Congress attach conditions to that "bailout" money? It's not that nobody thought of doing that. The same Covid relief law, passed a year ago, included "forgivable" loans to small businesses and organizations; in order to convert these loans into grants, the organization had to maintain the level of staffing. Why not put the same conditions on handouts to airlines?
"Eliminalia" is a network of 300 fraudulent "news" web sites which eliminate real news articles by posting copies of them, backdating them, and filing DMCA takedowns on them.
David Jones was jailed, pre-trial, for 14 months. Then his charges were dropped, but the jail demands he pay $4,000 for the service of jailing him.
I imagine him daring the jail to jail him again because he will never pay a cent either way. If it does, it will have to spend even more money on him. How long will it take the jail to give up and limit its loss?
The now-right-wing Supreme Court could sweep away laws requiring disclosure of who donates campaign funds.
Twitter is censoring tweets that criticize the Indian government's handling of Covid-19, upholding the Indian government's contempt for freedom of speech.
US citizens: call on Biden to make the American Families Plan reduce drug prices.
The European Union's policies against concentration of industry are so weak that hardly ever is a merger blocked.
Thanks to action by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, people who are evicted during the Covid emergency will be able to sue.
Proposing a campaign to ask US restaurants to admit only clients who can prove having been vaccinated.
I think we should not start this now. Many people in the US have not had a chance to become fully vaccinated yet — they became eligible for vaccination only recently. We should wait a month or two, until the time when everyone over 16 will have had a chance to be fully vaccinated.
A small fraction of Americans cannot be vaccinated, for medical reasons. Allowing them in will make little difference in public health, so restaurants ought to do so.
People under 16 can't get vaccinated yet, but in fancy restaurants only a few of the clients are so young, and there is no significant risk of transmission between them as long as they are few in number.
With these two exceptions, people who cooperate with public health measures, as much as they can safely do, will not be excluded.
Thus, the only people excluded will be those who intentionally refuse to join in putting an end to Covid-19 in the US.
UK thugs issued a fine of 10,000 UKP (more than 12,000 USD) for a peaceful protest, without bothering with a trial.
The Tory government wants to make it clear that thugs can do this with no accountability.
*In space, no one will hear Bezos and Musk's workers' call for basic rights.*
*US policing is far less about fighting crime than controlling the poor.*
Organized opportunities for groups of children to organize their own games.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Made in America tax plan.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act.
This is just the first step of what we need to restore digital privacy.
Many courses that aim to train people out of unconscious bias use methods too weak to do the job.
*Before Chauvin: decades of Minneapolis police violence that failed to spark reform.*
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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. This is one of the exceptions.
Calling on the US State Department to take its own conclusions seriously by insisting on the human-rights conditions on military aid to Egypt.
Why not replace it with civilian aid?
*Fears Covid anxiety syndrome could stop people reintegrating.*
I see parallels with the Americans who were paralyzed with fear of terrorist attacks in the 2000s, and the parents who won't let their children alone for a minute.
[The bullshitter's] $27m-a-mile border wall being scaled with $5 ladders.
US citizens: call on live event producers to reject imposing face recognition in the name of Covid safety.
US citizens: support the Democrats' Green New Deal.
Indeed, it is not as good as the Green Party's Green New Deal, but it's better than none at all.
US citizens: call on Congress to fix the Supreme court.
Increasing its size may not be the best method. I think it would be better to reduce the size to six, if it is possible to ensure that the three most-recently-appointed justices are the ones that are moved to other federal courts.
None of these methods can actually be enacted now without first eliminating the filibuster.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Women who work in massage parlors in New York City are afraid thugs will pressure them into sex or into prostitution, or what could be portrayed as prostitution, whether or not they normally do sex work — and then arrest them.
This means that the decision not to prosecute prostitution in Manhattan any more (following Brooklyn's example) makes them much safer. But not as safe as they would be if sex work were not a crime at all.
Meanwhile, I've read that some of the sex workers in massage parlors are enslaved. It happens in a wide range of occupations, and that includes sex work.
Arresting them does no good against enslavement, but has anyone found a method that is effective for freeing them?
Exposing phony "news sites" whose purpose is to fabricate backdated "original" news stories, so as to accuse journalists of copyright infringement on their own writing.
(satire) *Person Criticizing Police Has No Idea What It’s Like To Wake Up Every Day And Put Lives In Danger.*
The UK government turned to minor crimes, committed decades ago, as reasons to exclude people of Jamaican origin from the UK citizenship they had been entitled to claim earlier if they realized it would be important. (satire) D.C. becoming its own planet (satire) *Republicans Argue D.C. Statehood Slippery Slope To District One Day Becoming Own Planet.*
Seriously, it would be a great thing if a part of the Earth could become a separate planet capable of supporting human civilization. Then civilization would have two chances for survival.
(satire) *Milwaukee Promotes Itself As Hip, Affordable Place To Live With All The Police Brutality Of Chicago.*
The big banks, in the US and elsewhere, continue financing fossil fuels, for all that they talk about wanting to reduce greenhouse emissions.
The big US banks also were behind the recession of 2008, followed by taking the homes of millions of Americans with fraudulent foreclosures.
Afterward, there was a campaign 10 years ago to move our money out of those banks, and I did.
It's not too late to participate in this campaign.
*Pentagon review panel recommends taking sexual assault investigations out of commanders' hands.*
I object to the vagueness of accusing a person of "sexual assault" — people have a right to a more specific accusation. However, in this issue we are not talking about any specific person or any specific alleged action. Rather, it is a proposal for how to handle trials for all crimes of a sexual nature. That doesn't constitute vagueness about any individual.
The fundamental problem of military "justice" overall is "command influence" — the fact that your trial is under the control of one of your commanders and the judges also report to that commander. The consequence is that the court has a tendency to rule as that commander wishes.
In the 19th century, with travel so slow, it may have been necessary to hold courts martial locally. That is no longer necessary now. So it is good to see a plan to eliminate command influence, even if it is for just some kinds of charges. If this is adopted, perhaps eventually the US military will do this for all kinds of charges.
The US will continue air attacks in Afghanistan after withdrawing ground troops. However, the US may withdraw all its military contractors, including those that act as mercenaries.
Russia's military buildup near Ukraine seems to have been a bargaining point.
*Covid spread as overcrowding doubles among private renters in England.*
Many aspects of life in poverty tend to make people sick, and shorten their lives.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the NO BAN Act. It would prohibit religious discrimination in regard to entering the US.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*Fifth of UK Covid contracts ‘raised red flags for possible corruption’.*
The Gambia has eradicated trachoma, following the example of Ghana.
We can eradicate trachoma globally with the same methods. All it requires is spending money, plus having the trust of the people. If there is trachoma in Afghanistan or Pakistan, it may be impossible to make progress there.
Biden's proposals for emissions cuts look large, partly because they are presented in misleading ways. For instance, using 2005 as a basis for measuring greenhouse gas emissions reductions exaggerates the amount of reduction being proposed.
Green Party: *The President is offering half of a parachute when we’re about to be kicked out of an airplane.*
The article describes the Green Party's plan for a full Green New Deal.
Australia is also using fudged accounting to magnify small planned reductions.
The world may be at a tipping point for climate defense action.
Amazon is offering customers the option of using palm-prints to identify themselves.
In situations where it is acceptable to demand people identify themselves, palm-prints are somewhat better than fingerprints, because people in other activities leave fewer palm prints than fingerprints.
However, people people should not have to identify themselves to buy things.
CVS recently donated millions of dollars to a lobbying campaign against single-payer medical care.
We could think of it as PAHCEF, or Partnership for America's Heath Care's Expensive Future.
Wealthy countries set up a scheme called Covax to donate vaccine to poor countries, instead of permitting alternate producers. But Covax is running far behind its schedule. The manufacturers are not delivering as much as they promised.
I continue to support ordering the vaccine companies to stop impeding the generic manufacture of vaccines.
Biden's new restrictions on financing fossil fuel development outside the US are simultaneously a great advance and terribly inadequate.
This is the Biden pattern. Starting from such a low level of climate defense, it is not difficult to make a great advance and be terribly inadequate.
For decades, US urban transportation facilities have been situated in places where they cut off or eliminated black neighborhoods. Their disenfranchisement (even where not official) left them unable to stop this.
Greta Thunberg: *We can keep using creative carbon accounting and cheat in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed. But we must not forget that while we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics.*
(satire) *EPA Hoping To Streamline Ecosystem By Hosting Team-Building Lunch Meet-And-Greets Between Species.*
*EU lawmakers propose strict curbs on use of facial recognition.*
The proposal described here comes in range of what is really needed. But since massive tracking of people's past movements is enough to make society repressive, that too must be regulated. I've proposed that the right action to regulate is systematically collecting images of people and making them available for automatic identification.
A new vaccine against malaria prevented 3/4 of the expected cases of malaria in its test.
In combination with other measures, maybe this will make it possible to eradicate malaria.
California Governor Newsom decided to stop fracking — slowly. The state will take 3 years simply to stop issuing new permits for fracking. And it will end oil extraction, so many decades from now that it will be too late.
Newsom seems to think we've got all century!
*NIH Scientist Who Developed Key Vaccine Technology Says Patent Gives US Leverage Over Big Pharma.*
The question is whether the US wants to use this leverage. Around 1980, the US changed its policy on technology developed with government funds. Before that, it prioritized public access to that technology. Then, with the Bayh-Dole bill, it it switched to the trickle-down goal of giving companies "more incentive".
Several Extinction Rebellion protesters were found innocent of various minor offenses they committed in a protest against Shell. They presented the defense of necessity, and the jury acquitted them even though the judge said not to.
*Pharmaceutical Industry Dispatches Army of Lobbyists to Block Generic Covid-19 Vaccines.*
When you talk about this issue, please choose not to employ the term "intellectual property". It is subtle propaganda for the other side.
*Virginia family questions why sheriff’s deputy shot [Isaiah Brown] 10 times.*
*Brazil's indigenous groups protest bill that would allow commercial mining on their land.*
That's the sort of thing we'd expect Bolsonaro to support.
Australia's federal government is using new laws to prevent China from spending money to buy influence in Australia.
The phone-cracking program Cellebrite has such bad security that a special poison file in a phone being cracked could alter any and all of the data in the Cellebrite installation.
(satire) *FBI Says Chauvin Matches Profile Of Blue-Uniformed Killer Behind Hundreds More Unsolved Murders.*
Reporters Without Borders says that 3/4 of countries have used Covid-19 as an excuse to interfere with reporters' access to information.
*To Confront 'Systemic Failures,' DOJ Announces Federal Probe Into Minneapolis Police Department.*
That's the sort of thing we need, to reduce the lawlessness of cops.
When Ireland helps multinational corporations pay less tax, they pay Ireland a fraction of the tax they avoided paying elsewhere. Ireland says it will fight hard to continue this betrayal of the rest of the world.
My proposed progressive tax on businesses can be implemented by one country or several coumtries, regardless of what the rest of the world does.
Several large US cities have adopted a policy of not prosecuting anyone for prostitution.
This is a big step forward. I think sex work should be legal, and sex workers should be free to work with support businesses for advertising, security and finance. If they cannot work because of an epidemic, they should get unemployment payments.
Legalization does not have to mean deregulation. It is reasonable to require sex workers follow hygeine standards and get regular tests for STDs, for public health.
Meanwhile, some sex workers are enslaved. Prohibiting sex work has failed to prevent enslavement; indeed, it can help keeping trafficked sex workers in slavery because they don't see how they could survive if they escape. We should design other methods so that they work.
The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act would forbid the government agencies in the US from buying location tracking data in bulk.
This is a good but small start at what we need to do to restore privacy. We should prohibit systems that collect personal data without a specific warrant.
Contrasting the cases of Alexei Navalny and Julian Assange: they receive similar repression, but the former gets mainstream western support, and the latter does not.
I support them both. I have some political disagreements with each of them, but I set those aside because of their heroism in a good cause.
In general, the right way to criticize a double standard is to apply the right standard, and criticize judgment based on a wrong standard.
*[The Revolving Door Project] Gives Biden White House 'B-' on Corporate Capture in First 100 Days.*
That is better than I would have expected from a US administration.
Reportedly one Capitol Police officer gave radio instructions on Jan 6 to focus on hypothetical progressive counterprotesters and disregard the wrecker's insurrectionists.
*Children need free time to figure out how to handle stressful situations.*
*US vows to cut its emissions at least 50% by 2030 ahead of climate summit.*
Hypothetical sunlight-dimming technology would not be a correct substitute for sufficient cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Promoting them as if they were a substitute tends to encourage fewer cuts.
The US should require a license to have or carry a gun, just as it requires a license to drive a car.
*FTC Declares Racially Biased Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence Unfair and Deceptive, Prohibited by Law.*
This should have a real effect against that problem.
(satire) *Depressed Police Officer Reminds Self That Chauvin Verdict Not Representative Of System At Large.*
(satire) *Police Ask Tesla To Drive In Straight Line, Recite Alphabet Backwards After Vehicle Crashes Into Tree.*
The International Life Sciences Institute gets its funding from big food companies, and works to form the standards of scientific integrity to make it easy for those companies to get away with things.
Simon & Schuster rejected demands from staff to cancel publication of Pence's memoir.
I thoroughly oppose Pence's politics, and I would not regret if his book were not published, But I also oppose the efforts of the publisher's staff to bully the company into cancelling books.
Iran as much as admits that it is holding dual-citizens hostage for exchanges.
I conclude that it is not safe for citizens of likely target countries to visit Iran. But the chance that any given person will be targeted is small enough that they will convince themselves that "It won't happen to me."
The Burmese army is arresting medics and doctors, even people who have first-aid supplies on the assumption that they mean to aid civilians that the army shoots.
Covid-19 is spreading in India at an alarming rate. Hospitals have run out of beds and are running out of oxygen for ventilators. Even young, healthy adults are dying in large numbers.
This is the result of a right-wing truth-rejecting government that recklessly "reopened the economy". As well as causes that people could not easily have changed.
*Four in 10 Americans live in counties with unhealthy air pollution levels.*
Do we know a feasible way to substantially reduce toxic air pollution?
*101 Nobel laureates call for global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.*
Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murdering George Floyd.
That killing was one instance of a recurring pattern. Lesser instances, which are not fatal but do oppress, happen all over the country every day. One conviction is just a step towards the goal of ending that.
I wonder — if Chauvin had let Floyd up after 7 minutes, and Floyd had survived with evident brain damage, would Chauvin have been prosecuted at all?
In Mexico, election season is also drug gang war season, since the rival gangs want to control state governments.
Turkey is deporting Iranian exiles to Iran after they joined Turks in protests.
Some Christian clerics are working for climate defense.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support H.R. 2509 / S. 1139, which would eliminate the mechanism for the military draft. Specifically, it would do these things:
- Repeal the Military Selective Service Act (thereby eliminating Presidential authority to order men to register with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft and eliminating criminal penalties for failure or refusal to register);
- Abolish the Selective Service System (thereby ending contingency planning by the SSS for the Health Care Personnel Delivery System or any other form of special-skills draft);
- Prohibit all other Federal agencies from imposing civil sanctions (denial of federal student financial aid, federally-funded jobs, etc.) for nonregistration or using nonregistration as a basis for other adverse determinations (denial of naturalization as a U.S. citizen, etc.);
- "Preempt" (and thereby override and prohibit) all state sanctions for nonregistration (denial of drivers' licenses, state financial aid, state jobs, etc.); and
- Preserve the rights of conscientious objectors under other laws and regulations (such as applicants for reassignment to noncombatant duties or discharge from the military on the basis of conscientious objection).
*The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must radically overhaul the Treasury’s response to the climate crisis, reforming the department’s longstanding hostility to green spending and resetting its priorities, experts said.*
UK is suffering from the problem of giving children less freedom. This shows up in not letting them go outside to play on their own.
Greece set up a system for Covid-19 vaccination that depends on a Greek social security number. Foreigners, and Greeks who came home to retire, are excluded in practice.
This seems to bespeak incredible bureaucratic rigidity.
Some of the companies that publicly support voting rights also help fund the US Chamber of Commerce, which campaigns for the same voter suppression laws.
Systemic racism is visible in vaccination: blacks and Hispanics face practical obstacles in dealing with the system of vaccination, and the result is that vaccination has reached a smaller fraction of them and a larger fraction of whites.
*Poll Finds Majority of US Voters Back Green New Deal and Want Lawmakers to Co-Sponsor Resolution.*
If the US had an effective democracy, the strong backing from voters would lead to passage within a few years. However, a plutocratic system can reject it for decades.
*A Former Lobbyist Explains How the Privatization Movement Is Trying to End Public Education.* Its goal is to make parents pay for education of their children. Parents with low income would have to beg or borrow for elementary school.
The article refers to "libertarians" and their policies, but that term is misleading. They are not about liberty; the aim of those policies is to enrich the wealthy at the expense of the poor: that is, dooH niboR. I refer to those people and policies as "antisocialist".
A few decades ago, the IMF bullied many poor countries to eliminate their public education programs, in accord with the then-prevailing "neoliberal" economics. How did that view of economics come to prevail? By means of contributions to academia from various rich people who saw it as a long-term method to obtain laws for dooH niboR.
The Energy Charter Treaty, a business-supremacy treaty, threatens to make European countries pay hundreds of billions of dollars in "compensation" for taking explicit action to cut down on fossil fuels.
When a treaty puts the business interests of private parties over the vital needs of society, that must make the treaty invalid.
Biden is changing the US industrial policy. The old one gives handouts to businesses for the sake of billionaire's enrichment. The new one must reject that practice.
(satire) *Rainforest Tree Remains Very Still In Hopes That Bulldozer Will Lose Interest And Drive Away.*
The Green New Deal for Public Housing Act would invest in public housing to build more, make it cheaper and safer to live in, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and achieve this by making good jobs.
Disinfecting surfaces is much less important, for preventing Covid-19, than wearing a mask, keeping distance from other people, and frequently washing hands.
The principal union of US coal miners has accepted the need to put an end to coal mining.
This raises a number of issues of justice.
The miners have the duty, like the mine owners, to cooperate fully with rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as toxic pollution.
Former miners, present and future, deserve the things that the union now demands for them. They deserve this not as an exchange for ceasing to campaign against civilization's survival, but because all unemployed and retired people deserve those benefits, to the extent we can provide them. They are parts of a proper welfare system.
One demand is to properly clean up and close abandoned mines. That is a necessary part of reducing the toxic pollution over the long term.
The US is planning to pressure other countries to move faster to curb global heating, after announcing plans to do that itself.
This is what all countries should have done starting 20 years ago or more, and they would have done so if not for the influence of the planet roasters.
Better late than never, but we hope it is not too late.
*Compulsory worship of national symbols is the sure sign of a culture in decline.*
*Cambodia accused of using Covid to edge towards ‘totalitarian dictatorship’.*
*Why is the right obsessed with ‘defending’ borders? Because it sees citizenship as a commodity.*
*Alexei Navalny moved to hospital as fears grow for life of Putin critic.*
Huawei equipment seems to have been able to snoop on all calls in the main Dutch mobile phone network.
To put this in context, mobile phones enable much more spying than that.
*Environment protest being criminalised around world, say experts.*
*Extinction Rebellion prosecutions showed the spectrum of climate protest.*
Everyone: support Biden’s decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan.
If you sign, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Washington DC statehood bill.
If you sign, please spread the word!
It is difficult for journalists to adapt their methods to the awareness that cops often lie.
The National Security Education Day celebration in Hong Kong sold souvenirs of the repression of 2019.
I wonder how long before China takes note of anyone who does not buy them with proper enthusiasm.
Biden plans to extend the bully's war on fentanyl.
Covid-19 is speeding the demise of many endangered languages. The remaining native speakers are usually old, and thus in special danger from the disease.
A language, like a species, is a self-propagating bundle of information. If its propagation is interrupted, it is lost forever.
Passing a language through a stage of existing only in dictionaries and teaching tools is damaging, too — comparable in a very broad sense to a population bottleneck that strips a species of genetic diversity.
Potowatomi's close relative, Ojibwe, is much healthier.
Bolsonaro has proposed an inadequate-hearted effort to reduce deforestation, but only if other countries pay Brazil to do it.
Biden has announced a plan to remove US ground troops from Afghanistan, but it looks like US airplanes, drones and mercenaries will continue fighting there.
Biden has continued the bully's secrecy about drone bombings, so we will be told nothing about what is going on.
If it is true (we can't really know) that these attacks are mainly directed at al-Qa'ida and PISAP (Pseudo-Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan) rather than the Taliban, they may not prevent movement in the direction of peace. The Taliban are at war with PISSA, and I think they might find al-Qa'ida an inconvenience if they win.
The P1 variant of Covid-19 that dominates in Brazil is especially dangerous to pregnant patients, so officials have urged people to avoid pregnancy now.
Avoiding pregnancy in Brazil faces the extra obstacles of restrictive abortion laws and fervent Christianity. Indeed, you might want to get an abortion now so as not to die if you catch Covid-19, but the government will make that difficult.
In Brazil, Covid-19 is killing lots of young, vigorous, formerly healthy people. It could be that the Brazilian variant is the explanation.
Putin plans to criminalize support for Navalny's opposition movement by arbitrarily designating it an "extremist group".
I've denounced for years the US practice of designating organizations as "terrorist" without holding a trial to prove it. When the US shows contempt for human rights, other countries are quick to follow the same path.
The Tories have made private corruption of the state's work into normal practice.
Various aspects of the response to Covid-19 were contracted out to companies that didn't have the capacity to do the job at all. Almost everything that the UK government tried to do, failed. Vaccine production was the exception because the Tories didn't have the choice to hire unknown companies to make pharmaceuticals.
The latest lifelong UK resident to be denied a UK passport is, ironically, a member of British nobility.
With his position, he won't suffer much difficulty — unlike the people who were forced to live in Jamaica for lack of records of living in Britain as children.
*Witnesses to deaths in detention ‘deliberately’ deported from the UK.*
Betraying their country is the standard practice of Republican candidates for the presidency. That has been so since 1968.
The New York City thug department has acquired a dog-robot. Is that good or bad?
I can see very good uses for that robot, to save people's lives. But it can also be used against protesters. The question is, as I see it, is how the thug department will decide what to do with it. As it is, I would not trust it to make good decisions.
A documentary about an activist for liberal Islam.
She faces death threats from Islamist extremists. They are not threatening only us "infidels".
An interview with Maria Ressa, Philippine journalist facing imprisonment.
Systematically pressuring BlackRock and other investment companies to stop promoting fossil fuels and disaster.
Some of the methods of disinformation that Amazon used to win the union vote.
*Big Tech Is Pushing States to Pass Privacy Laws, and Yes, You Should Be Suspicious.*
In general, these bills' approach to "privacy" is that of "data protection" — limiting the use of personal data once sites collect it — and that is fundamentally inadequate. The only real way to protect privacy is to limit the data that systems can collect about people.
For the mainstream media, a political idea is "divisive" or "controversial" if rich people don't like it.
The new renewable electric capacity installed in 2020 equaled 3/4 of the world's total nuclear generating capacity.
With a little push, we could build enough extra renewable capacity to replace all the existing nuclear generation, and shut those plants down.
The UK is prosecuting ex-thugs for false statements about what they did at the time of a fatal panic in 1989. Those false statements were intended to evade the cops' responsibility for the deaths.
The US should learn that Blue Lies Matter.
We must learn to recognize fascism so we can take care not to treat its talking points as ordinary politics.
Australia's government is doing all possible to continue fossil fuel extraction while saying it aims to reduce greenhouse emissions at some distant date.
The corruption of the Tory party today is measured in millions and directly involves current and former ministers.
*Statement to CEOs: If You Really Want to Stop Voter Suppression, Support the For the People Act.*
More about this.
* We must ensure that temporary Covid-19 data surveillance infrastructures do not needlessly outlast this once-in-a-century pandemic.*
US citizens: call on Biden to close the Guantanamo prison.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to co-sponsor the Keep It in the Ground Act.
It is a small first step, but it is nonetheless in the right direction.
US citizens: call on Biden to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline.
*Supermarket ‘bags for life’ must cost more to cut plastic use, urge campaigners.*
Covid-19 is spreading fast in most of the world, and 3 million people have died.
A system to collect clams faster and in large quantities could endanger them and other species.
In general, equipment that collects wild animals or plants, in bulk, faster than people used to do is potentially dangerous.
*Alexei Navalny allies call for mass protests in Russia to save his life.*
Brazilian progressive organizations call on Biden not to give money to Bolsonaro's government in exchange for a promised partial reduction in deforestation.
How US police unions developed into thug unions: they built so much power that they demanded, and got, basically everything they could think of wanting.
I support most of what these unions have obtained for their members. Indeed, I think workers in general deserve those benefits.
The two exceptions, the benefits that cops should not have, are (1) payment for their family court bills, which is unfair to their present and former spouses, and (2) impunity after committing violence against the public, whether based on racism or not.
*Man smokes legal weed in Nevada, gets arrested in Dubai, could face 3 years [in prison].*
If they are reasonable about applying their laws, they will recognize that he did not commit any crime in Dubai. But one can't count on that — and they might keep him in jail for months while deciding.
So stay away from Dubai, and the UAE in general.
The US mainstream media use many methods to help cover up the facts after a thug shoots somebody, including the basic fact that the thug did the shooting and that killed someone.
I had not identified this pattern of vagueness, but I had noticed that the first stories I see about such a killing don't say enough abot what happened to be useful to link to. I wait a few days and see stories that make it clear.
The Interior Department just reverted many of the wrecker's policy changes that favored fossil fuels.
Banks and investment companies spent almost 3 billion dollars on political campaigns for the last election.
Probably more than that, since 1 billion can't be traced.
We need to pass the We the People amendment.
The US and China stated a joint commitment to curbing global heating.
Both countries have to cut down greenhouse emissions much faster than they are committed to doing. China's commitment to "net zero emissions" (a vague way to formulate the goal) by 2060 is far too slow.
Convincing antisocial media to curb the spread of hate.
The companies' business model leads them to promote hostility because hostility in general gets the biggest amount of "user engagement."
US voters favor by 2 to 1 eliminating the patent and secrecy obstacles to broader vaccine manufacturing.
Please don't use the term "intellectual property" to refer to those two very different artificial obstacles.
The End Polluter Welfare Act of 2021 would eliminate several tax Breaks that promote fossil fuels, as well as increasing a tax that pays for medical care for coal miners with black lung disease.
(satire) *Loose-Cannon ACLU Investigator Beats Recantation Out Of Confessed Murderer.*
*Trump EPA appointee blocked public release of cancer danger, inspector general says.*
*Nobel Laureate Warns of 'Devastating Marriage' Between Artificial Intelligence and Killer Robots.*
I agree that the US should sign the land mine ban treaty.
(satire) *In an attempt to address community outcry over recent police encounters, [Chicago] Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a reform effort Friday that would require all city teenagers to undergo mandatory deescalation training.*
(satire) *Minnesota Deploys National Guard Ahead Of Next Week’s Police Shooting.*
Famous children's books from the 1950s and 60s present a way of life in which children had considerable freedom.
I especially enjoyed the hours between the end of school and when my mother got home from teaching — the hours when I could be alone.
(satire) *Russian Diplomats Given 30 Days To Complete Espionage Before Being Expelled.*
Many weed killer products combine glyphosate with various secret "inert" ingredients. The "inert" ingredients vary from product to product, and some of them are highly toxic to bees.
I don't think we should continue to permit the practice of adding secret ingredients that are presumed to be harmless.
An unfair election with various dirty tricks enabled a right-wing candidate to win Ecuador's presidential election.
Plutocracy is leading many governments to respond to the cost of dealing with Covid-19 by making budget cuts. That could lead to recessions, amounting to more unemployment and more suffering for the poor.
A bill in Congress would require Israel not to use US aid for violating Palestinians' human rights.
Based on the description here, I support the bill. However, I wonder how such requirements deal with the fact that funds are fungible. For the sake of such conditions, how does one determine whether the funds spent on the specific actions that violate Palestinians' human rights came from the US aid money or not?
Maybe there is a standard answer to this — if anyone can tell me, I would appreciate it.
*Tech giants are happy to do Modi’s bidding in return for access to the Indian market.*
US citizens: call on Biden to advocate an increased estate tax.
Attorney General Garland pledged to tackle systemic racism in the practices of US thug departments.
The Keep It in the Ground act would ban new fossil fuel leases on public lands.
It is just a first step towards stopping the expansion of fossil fuel extraction. To achieve that goal would require banning construction of new wells on land already leased, and extending the ban to private lands, too.
This article describes a more complete effort to decarbonize.
But even a first step would be good.
A black reporter contrasts his fear of uniformed thugs and their violence with cops' fear of black men who might be violent.
One crucial difference is that cops tend to enjoy impunity for their violence.
Interviews with Afghans living under Taliban rule.
The US has mostly failed to release non-dangerous prisoners from jail to protect them from Covid-19. Prisoners in jail are rioting to demand protection.
Prisoners are especially exposed to Covid-19 because conditions won't let them maintain proper distance or good sanitation. And when there is an outbreak in a prison, the guards catch it and spread it to the surrounding community. For both reasons, vaccinating prisoners should be a priority, like vaccinating retain workers and meat packers.
*Public Health Coalition Urges Biden to Create Vaccine 'Manufacturing Operation for the World'.*
ACT-Accelerator is Bill Gates's way of infiltrating of the World Health Organization to ensure the triumph of private monopolies over public health.
I am heartened to see the building condemnation of the use of patents to put profit over people's health. It is unfortunate that it uses the term "intellectual property", which is a bad fit for each real issue including this one. The article acknowledges this when it talks about "technology transfer".
My proposal to remedy several problems in medicine is that pharmaceuticals should not be patentable, that the government should run all trials of pharmaceuticals, and pharma companies should make medicines and sell them in a non-monopolistic world.
Alongside Facebook and Google, data brokers that buy databases and correlate them are another threat to people's privacy and independence of thought.
This is why I reject most opportunities to let a business have my name. Don't pay digitally — pay cash!
Businesses exploit workers by putting them into a "work culture" which is based on overwork. That tends to isolate people as a byproduct, leaving them lonely.
My work is also my life — but I'm not working for a company's profit. I'm working for your freedom and mine. And it keeps me going when I am lonely.
Adolescents generally get more sleep when school starts at a later time.
They delay their bedtime, but not as much as the delay in school start time.
The US border thugs make a practice of releasing adult asylum-seekers in minuscule towns just on the US side of the border, which cannot support them.
New Zealand is trying to eliminate the practice of smoking tobacco.
I hope this succeeds, but I am concerned that the prohibition will become repressive.
Florida has passed the bill to make it easy to label protests as "riots" and jail the protesters.
As we get close to the climate cliff, delaying climate defense is almost equivalent to not doing it at all.
The Tories' lobbying law was intended to restrict lobbying by the charities that help the poor and weak. Corruption continued as before.
*Warren and Smith Reintroduce 'Critical' Bill to Block US From Starting Nuclear War.*
Progressives in Congress propose to fund the IRS adequately to audit lots of rich people to see if they are evading taxes.
*What We Can Learn From the First New Deal to Make the New One Better.*
The tradeoff between efficiency and effectiveness relates to the point that an effective system for dealing with emergencies needs to have more capacity than is needed on the average.
72% of Democrats want Biden to clear away the patents that limit vaccine production.
*Facebook planned to remove fake accounts in India — until it realized a [Hindu-repression party] politician was involved.*
There are thousands of abandoned oil wells in Texas, and no plan for how to pay for cleaning them up and shutting them down.
I can propose one straightforward method: engage all the capable oil-well cleaning teams, put them to work cleaning oil wells and training more workers as fast as is reasonable and proper, and make the oil companies that are still operating pay the cost.
The reason there is a problem is that vested interests won't allow that. So the problem is purely political.
Convicting Derek Chauvin must not let all other uniformed thugs off the hook.
Cop Cariol Horne tried to stop another cop from using a choke hold on a prisoner, and was fired for doing so.
I'd say Horne was a police officer, and a judge has now agreed, ruling that Horne was fired unjustly.
Even better, the city of Buffalo adopted a law calling on cops to do this.
Is firing a gun, while thinking it is a taser, "culpable negligence"? Is it negligence at all?
*Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine research "was 97% publicly funded".
It follows that allowing it to be privatized was a form of corruption. A very common form, sad to say.
*Oil firm CEOs’ pay is an incentive to resist climate action, study finds.* It motivates them personally to do anything whatever to keep the oil flowing, and the money too.
*Just 3% of world’s ecosystems remain intact, study suggests.*
*Mexico’s high Covid death toll blamed on populist government.*
The research that claimed to demonstrate that cognitive behavioral therapy can treat chronic fatigue syndrome seems to have been based on improper analysis.
US citizens: call on Congress to End the War on Yemen.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
Fossil fuel extraction and refining emits lots of toxic local pollution.
They can even harm plants in the vicinity with their loud pumps that drive birds away.
The people who live near them are the disprivileged people who lose the competition for better places.
The best way to correct this injustice is by ending the extraction and refining of fossil fuels. We need to do that anyway. Then we need to clean up the closed facilities.
Belarus has arrested the director of a documentary film festival. I guess one of the documentaries said something dictator Lukashenko did not like.
Introducing bison to forests in Spain may reduce forest fires.
Is anyone trying something like this in California and Australia?
Lukman Thalib fears that while tortured in Qatar he confessed to something he can't remember, because Sri Lanka now accuses him of helping to plan a terrorist attack two years ago.
* Rep. Betty McCollum Leads Effort to Block Israel From Using U.S. Aid to Destroy Palestinian Homes.*
*Report claiming global temperature rise will top 1.5C by 2030s divides scientists.*
I am not an expert on climate modeling. I hope scientists can figure out what we should really expect.
Several organizations for privacy have taken up the call to prohibit all use of face recognition, which I have advocated for many years.
The Capitol police force was debilitated by many kinds of mismanagement.
I get the impression that everyone in the force expected it would never be put to a difficult test. It never had been before.
In addition, the leaders disregarded warnings of a coming violent attack.
The FBI cracks servers to delete malware previously installed by crackers.
I think this action is legitimate and useful, but please don't use the word "hacking" to describe what the FBI are doing. That gives us hackers a bad name. Please distinguish between hacking, which is playful cleverness, and cracking, which is breaking security.
If I were an adherent of cancellationism, I'd say that your use of antihackerist language is an aggression against us hackers, doing us psychological harm, and that you're a bad person if you don't stop.
If big business takes its support away from the Republicans, Democrats must beware of accepting it.
The US food system lets big businesses exploit the people who actually produce food, while letting millions of Americans go hungry. It exhausts the land, too.
The loss of most black farmers' land parallels the loss of most white farmers' land. A lot of this happened under President Reagan, which inspired me to write a parody of Old MacDonald's Farm.
San Francisco has a new plan to house homeless people. Previous efforts have in many cases offered people housing that requires they give up their work, their close relationships, or their pets.
California is likely to have devastating fires again this year.
No local wildlands management can possibly overcome the inexorable effects of continuing global heating, just as no construction of seawalls can possibly overcome the inexorable effects of continuing sea level rise.
We need to curb global heating.
Forest protectors in Canada are trying to defend old-growth forests while factions among of the indigenous peoples are trying to sell the timber.
Protecting wild lands must be a global priority, Well-organized indigenous peoples are often excellent defenders of wild lands, but we should not let indigenous people cut down old-growth forests any more than we let other people do so.
Mergers of large companies are often approved under the idea that the resulting very large company can compete with a pre-existing very large company.
The net result is to exacerbate the concentration of that industry, which is the initial problem. Thus, this way of thinking is a pretend-solution that contributes to the problem.
The right thing to do is to break up the pre-existing very large company.
(satire) *Geologists Recommend Eating At Least One Small Rock Per Day.*
A campaign has identified 30 crucial bank directors that enable the fossil fuel industry to resist climate protection. Now to pressure them to stop.
Jesse Jackson states the reasons to support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Calling for reform of the Freedom of Information Act to require release of the documents that an agency is considering during the final decisionmaking about how to handle an issue.
Physical Education classes can let the students invent their own games and play them freely.
Comparing the US Republican Party with Órban's Fidesz Party and other fascist parties.
The Republican Party is now a fanatical anti-truth cult, which retains power only by rigging elections (gerrymandering and voter suppression).
Walmart will require all its produce suppliers to adopt integrated pest management, which will protect pollinators and insects generally.
Fresh fruits and vegetables make up only a small fraction of farming. So this is an important step but doesn't reach the goal.
(satire) *Police Department To Avoid Future Errors By Replacing All Equipment Officers Carry With Guns.*
*Police officer jailed for breaking Black man's knee in 'clear case of racial profiling'.*
It will be harder for people to deny the existence of racial profiling as cases like this accumulate.
Several news publications say: *Journalism should reflect what the science says: the climate emergency is here.*
Scientific American is one of them.
Around 60% of US voters support various measures to regulate banks so they cannot facilitate increases in fossil fuel infrastructure or use.
I think we need to do more than those four requirements.
A special blood-filtering machine can cure Covid-19.
Most people won't die from Covid-19 now, but many will develop a lasting disability. We don't know whether they will ever recover. Instead of limiting these machines to those who are close to dying, we should see if they prevent "long Covid".
Cops admit that they use minor driving infractions, such as an air freshener attached to the rear view mirror, as excuses to stop and search a car based on vague and groundless suspicion.
If we take the idea of rights seriously, we should not allow the supposed enforcers of laws to set them at nought.
Of course, there is another risk to justice that occurs whenever cops search a car: that they may "find" something that wasn't there before the search. Can we develop a way to end this risk?
Biden has ordered US troops out of Afghanistan by September. I am very impressed by his courage.
After several attempts to "stabilize" Afghanistan, we know that we do not know any way to do that. To "stabilize Afghanistan first" means, in practice, "keep the war going forever."
It is silly to insist that the US has a responsibility to "fix" Afghanistan, because no one knows how.
If this means that the Taliban win the war, that will be a setback for human rights in Afghanistan — especially for women, but also for men. But keeping that country forever at war is not a better outcome.
Here's what Senator Sanders said about this decision.
In the first years after the US invasion, it looked like Afghanistan would be peaceful and better off. I hoped for a lasting improvement in women's rights there. I have long thought that Dubya's decision to attack Iraq played a part in spoiling that peace. Of course, I can only speculate about what would have happened otherwise.
The US has a higher death rate, for people under 85 years old, than European countries. If the US had had a typical European death rate, 400,000 Americans under 85 would have survived past 2017.
Curiously, about 100,000 more Americans over 85 would have died in 2017 with a European death rate. However, each death of an younger person typically means more years of life lost than the death of an oldster.
This problem started to appear after 2000, and has been getting worse since then.
Julian Assange has been in prison for two years, accused by the US of journalism.
*US unions not fazed by Amazon setback and vow to keep up the organizing fight.*
*Boris Johnson’s ‘chumocracy’ is using Covid crisis to sell off health service by stealth, says Sir David King (former chief scientist of the NHS).*
We may have 3 feet of sea-level rise by 2050. Areas in the US and other countries where tens of millions of people live will be uninhabitable. And it won't stop at 3 feet.
In addition to curbing CO2 emissions, we need to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Large-scale engineering for pulling CO2 out of the air are preferable to attempts to reduce the sunlight that hits the Earth's surface because they can prevent ocean acidification (which could wipe out entire phyla) as well as global heating.
*Facebook knew of Honduran president’s manipulation campaign — and let it continue for 11 months.*
A Minnesota cop shot and killed Daunte Wright, a black man, at the wheel of his car.
The cop thought she was shooting a taser, and when she saw she had shot a bullet instead, she was shocked by what she had done. She has resigned.
France is taking a small step to reduce short flights. The world needs to do a lot more to reduce the amount of flying. A substantial tax on airplane fuel would be effective.
Canada's wealth tax proposal: *If you don't have $20 million or sitting around you can just relax.*
*Living near a US Superfund [chemical pollution] site could shave a year off your life, study finds.*
Israel's sabotage of Iran's uranium refining plant may have been intended to sabotage negotiations between the US and Iran.
60% of US voters support various sorts of regulations to make companies pay more attention to how they effect global heating and how global heating can affect them.
(satire) *Judge Asks If Chauvin Jury Minds Sticking Around For A Couple More Police Misconduct Trials.*
(satire) *Cadet Studying For Police Academy Exam Just Skimming Over Deescalation Training He’ll Never Use In Real Life.*
Biden's plan to reduce the impetus for people from Central America to flee to the US is limited to some disaster relief.
That will be nowhere near sufficient as long as the war, on drugs, continues in Central America. The war fuels gangs, and those gangs create error. The US must stop doing this to those countries if they are to become safe places for people to live.
The next step is to stop helping "American" companies extract the wealth of those countries and thus push the people into penury.
Japan will release the water stored at Fukushima into the ocean, after filtering out the more radioactive isotopes so that the release will not harm anyone.
It seems that many people don't understand the concept of "down in the noise".
We ingest Carbon-14 every time we breath. That is why archaeologists of the future will be able to date our bones after we die.
Protestant youth in Belfast started a violent riot out of a general feeling that their side has been screwed by the deal between the UK and the EU — together with the fear that they may cease to dominate Northern Ireland's politics.
Bogus Johnson promised to do two incompatible things: end free trade between the UK and the EU, and preserve free trade between Northern Ireland and both of those. That promise was a lie.
It seems that separating UK trade from the EU requires a customs barrier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, or a customs barrier between Northern Ireland and Britain, and either one will cause violence.
The other option is to reestablish free trade between the UK and EU.
Republicans tried to kick 129,000 voters off Wisconsin's voter list; the state supreme court block them.
*Republicans push ‘tsunami’ of harsh anti-protest laws after BLM rallies.*
*Revealed: the Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens.*
*The climate emergency is here. The media needs to act like it.*
Biden is augmenting the bully's program of having Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Mexico, keep would-be immigrants away from the US border.
*Critics Warn $15 Billion Merger of Global Water Giants Would Create 'Dangerous Corporate Monopoly'.*
Large companies should not be allowed to merge at all.
* David Cameron’s ‘chumocracy’ instincts run through the Tory party, which treats Whitehall checks and balances as the enemy.*
In Bogus Johnson they have found someone shameless enough to order checks and balances to begone.
*Thousands of [Burmese] citizens in Australia at risk of being deported to violence back home.*
Calling on Stephen Breyer to retire now, so he can be replaced by Democrats.
Labour MP Jon Cruddas says the party is *losing sight of its historical mission to stand up for the working classes.*
To respond to digital scheduling with precarious work was a political choice. If installation of robots results in many humans living in penury, that too will be a political choice.
Why I am not reading about the trial of Derek Chauvin.
When I read, then saw, what Derek Chauvin did to George Floyd, I concluded it was murder. I am glad Chauvin is being tried, and I hope he will be convicted.
I am not following the events of the trial for the same reason that I don't watch election returns on the evening after Election Day: it's too late for us to influence the outcome.
To focus on the details of the process would cause us anxiety, uselessly. It's more productive, and less stressful, to do activism instead.
We'll see the result at the same time either way.
The Houthis have captured journalists and imprisoned them for "spying".
The US is trying to do the same thing to Julian Assange. They should both stop.
Israel launched a cyberattack against Iran's uranium refining centrifuges and caused them physical damage.
With each attack, one way or the other, the danger of nuclear war some day increases.
*Concerns mount that US withdrawal from Afghanistan could risk progress on women's rights.*
Sad to say, a probable increase in oppression of women is the worst aspect of making peace with the Taliban. The second-worst aspect is a probable increase in oppression of men.
But oppression of women in Afghanistan is pretty bad even now under the US-supported government. It's not as bad as the Taliban would be, but that's the best thing one can say about it.
I think that endless war is too high a price to pay to keep the oppression somewhat less.
40% of US marines offered Covid-19 vaccination have refused it.
This could be a symptom of dangerous right-wing extremism. It also means that an outbreak of Covid-19 in the marines could weaken the US military.
Biden refused to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline.
It is disappointing that he fails to protect our future when he has an easy chance.
*Italian prosecutors secretly recorded human rights lawyers.*
The lawyers were talking with their clients, who operated rescue boats to save drowning refugees.
Kentucky has responded to the killing of Breonna Taylor by putting stricter conditions on the use of no-knock warrants.
The requirements for carrying out no-knock warrants may do some good, but the added conditions for obtaining no-knock warrants won't make any difference if all they do is require thugs to tell a bigger lie.
Has the detective that lied to get that warrant been punished? If we want to teach cops to be honest, we must give them more than a slap on the wrist when they lie. And that must not be limited to cases like this one, where the lie results in someone's death. Even those of us who reject religion must not tolerate bearing false witness.
One minor detail: In the winter, 6am is just as dark as 2am, and many day-time workers and students are still asleep at 6am.
Republican minority rule in Michigan has brought about a surge in Covid-19, and the governor is powerless to do anything effective to stop it.
She has asked Biden to send more vaccine doses to Michigan, but even if he does, the time scale for curbing Covid-19 by vaccination is measured in months — if Republican antivaxxers don't prevent it from reaching that point.
The only known methods to stop the surge now are those that prevent transmission of the disease, which is exactly what Republican covidiots refuse to do.
Republicans in Michigan have made the elections unfair through gerrymandering. That is why they control the legislature even though the voters elected a Democratic governor.
Michigan Republicans are trying to build up hatred against Democrats, and since the governor is a woman, they are using misogyny as part of it.
On the global scale, Covid-19 is spreading exponentially.
No matter what political decisions are made this year, there is no hope of vaccinating billions of people. The only chance of slowing the global spread of Covid-19 this year is by preventing transmission.
The UK government convened a commission of experts to write a report on race relations and racism — then Bogus Johnson's staff rewrote their text to get rid of the idea of systemic racism.
The low wages of the US economy are part of a system designed to make some people rich and keep most people struggling.
*China launches hotline to report "illegal" comments about Communist party.*
When Virginia thugs stopped driver Caron Nazario, he wisely stopped in the nearest gas station so that cameras would catch whet they did. He got out with his hands up and they attacked him for no reason.
It seems that they stopped him because they did not notice his valid temporary license plate. As for why they beat him up, I have to suppose it was racism.
I hope he was not seriously injured.
One of the thugs has been fired.
*Biden Creates Commission to Study Supreme Court Expansion, Other Reforms.*
I am glad he is thinking about it. However, to actually do any such thing would require convincing Manchin to support both this and eliminating the filibuster.
Bill Gates convinced the Oxford vaccine development team to cancel its plan to allow all companies to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine.
Everyone: call on Disney not to use face recognition.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to commit to voting No on any bill that funds militarism at over 90% of the current level.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: support the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.
A black British academic talks about leaving academia to become a cop — because the police have made more of a commitment to combat racism than universities have hade.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster so as to pass federal voting rights and democracy protections.
US citizens: call on your senators and congresscritter to support the ICBM Act, which would transfer funds from ICBM development to vaccine development.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
US citizens: call on world leaders to protect the climate, and help those who will face hardship soon.
US citizens: support the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.
When Jon Heylings worked for Syngenta, he tried for decades to convince the company to stop selling the weed killed paraquat which also kills humans. What he achieved was a persistent effort to pretend to have made it safe.
A right-wing cancellation network is attacking US college professors.
The IMF has endorsed a wealth tax.
*Biden’s Tax Plan Comes Up Short on [cutting] Fossil Fuel Subsidies*
*LAPD officers are accused of racial profiling during an arrest of a Black man outside his home.*
It seems rather open-and-shut. Because the man was black, they assumed he was guilty instead of bothering to check.
One of the ways Amazon intimidated workers into voting against unionization was to arrange to get workers mail their ballots from work.
One of the people accused of attacking the Capitol was attacked in jail and may lose the use of one eye as a result.
Even if he is guilty as charged, that doesn't excuse attacking a prisoner in jail.
Killers in Virginia can no longer claim as a defense that they freaked out because the victim was gay or trans.
New Mexico has abolished qualified immunity for thugs. So it will be easier to sue them personally for gross violence or dishonesty.
*GOP group bullies donors who don't give every month: "We will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR".*
US employers have sophisticated techniques for refusing to hire anyone who might be inclined to join a union.
US citizens: call on Biden to support UN sanctions against Erik Prince.
US citizens: call on Biden to Cancel Student Debt.
British Columbia is allowing the small area of remaining large old-growth trees to be cut down, and activists are blocking the logging teams.
Brazil-nut hunters are forming cooperatives to get more than a tiny share of the price that we pay for them in foreign countries.
If deforestation turns the Amazon forest into a savannah, the Brazil-nut trees will mostly be wiped out. That alone would be sad but not a disaster; to envision what things will be like in 40 years, imagine that half the things you eat are gone and the other half are too expensive.
*Fascism of India's RSS Denounced by European Members of Parliament.*
Congress should reduce military spending, not keep it unchanged.
I have a hunch there are military programs that spend a lot of money in West Virginia. Proposing to cut them drastically could persuade Senator Manchin to abolish the filibuster. The security of the US would still be adequate with such cuts.
*Arm Our Cities With Military-Grade Healthcare, Not Weapons.*
*Economists Warn Democrats 'Going Too Small' on Infrastructure Risks Economic and Climate Catastrophe.*
* The costs of inaction outweigh the risks of borrowing to take action—by trillions of dollars.*
* Democrats often blame their election losses on gerrymandering and voter suppression, but progressive initiatives win all over the country. It is time to embrace a bold agenda and then fight like hell to to win it.*
A large beef- or pork-packing plant in a county more than doubled the level of Covid-19 infection in that county, on the average.
(satire) *Amazon Celebrates Union Defeat By Raising All Prices 150% Anyway.*
Norway's prime minister was fined for having a birthday party with 13 participants, after endorsing an official limit of 10.
What a contrast with Tories and Republicans.
The US is beginning a fourth Covid-19 surge, caused by the same foolish actions that caused the second and the third.
The anti-transmission precautions that have been recommended for a year or so would prevent the fourth surge.
Biden has endorsed plans to prevent companies from shifting taxes from one country to another which charges a lower tax rate.
All countries should unite to tax the plutocrats!
(satire) *Panthers Adopt Patchy-Haired, Shivering Rescue [Quarterback] Who Spent Years Abused By Jets.*
New York State will offer compensation to residents who are unauthorized immigrants for problems such as lost employment caused by Covid-19.
Other residents are already eligible for such compensation.
Palestinian Authority president Abbas is under pressure to cancel the Palestine elections because Hamas might win.
*Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian motorist and injure his wife.*
Several soldiers shot at them after telling them it was ok to get back into their car.
With 4C of global heating, Antarctic ice shelves (which float) will collapse and melt. This will allow ice from the ice sheets (which rest on land) to flow into the ocean and melt in turn. That in turn would cause large rises in sea level.
Wildlife defenders in Italy have pretty much put an end to trapping migrating songbirds, so people have switched to shooting them. To stop this will require a change in the law.
(satire) *More Companies Considering Hybrid Model Where Half Return To Office, Half Laid Off.*
The US deportation thugs, on Biden's orders, now focus once again on unauthorized immigrants that are dangerous or serious criminals.
The number of prisoners in deportation prisons is half as many as last year.
Liberty Mutual insurance company not only continues insuring fossil fuel extraction, it is building a new coal mine itself.
Amnesty International reports on aggravation of human rights abuses in many countries under the cover of Covid-19.
Courts in Britain are ordering some people on probation or parole to wear new ankle tags that check sweat for indication that they have drunk alcohol.
I think this is legitimate because it is applied only as part of punishment for a crime. What I object to is the systematic monitoring of people in general, without specific grounds such as a conviction for a crime.
Australian universities are trying to increase cooperation with Indonesia to reduce dependence on China.
Biden made some small increments in regulation of guns, to try to convince Congress to go further.
The UK government's report on racism in Britain cited old scholarship which didn't figure on structural racism, rather than newer scholarship which does.
The idea of using health disparities between groups to measure the net effects of racism surprised me. In principle, racism's injustices are not limited to worse health and shorter life span. Bigotry is wrong even if it does not shorten your life, and it can do you harm in ways that don't make you physically sick.
But the author suggests that the varied wrongs of racism tend to manifest themselves in the form of worse health, visible in medical statistics — and that this provides an objective way to measure the level of harm caused by racism within any given population. That is very interesting.
A man died in Oslo ten years ago, in his apartment, and his corpse was only just discovered.
This is a sign of how little social contact a person can have now. I wonder if the man was lonely and sad.
A study finds that sheep tend to have lower pulse rates when shepherded by drones.
That might mean those sheep are better off, but that isn't certain. Perhaps sheep benefit from occasional higher heart rates. Humans do.
* The United States created a hellish world for millions (south of the border) and now demonizes those trying to escape it.*
Over 3,600 US workers in the medical field have died from Covid-19. A substantial part of this was caused by the wrecker's bad policies, such as allowing the manufacture of protective gear to grow slowly, and encouraging the spread of the disease.
(satire) *Rats Scramble To Hide Fully Functioning Amusement Park And Resort They Built As Workers Return To Office.*
Moral arguments against AI-based surveillance of students, in exams or not.
The article uses the term "ablism" in a way I think is incorrect. A tendency to move your head around while thinking is not a disability, merely a quirk. So if a system penalizes people for such head movements, I think the term "quirkism", meaning "prejudice against people because of quirks", describes that system better.
Whatever name we call it, it is bad for systems to show prejudice against quirks like that.
The article does not mention the essential basic injustice of proctoring systems: they are nonfree software that the student is required to run.
It appears separatists in the Donbas area of Ukraine are escalating the fight against Ukraine.
The separatists are Putin's willing proxies; when the fighting was hot, a few years ago, he sent Russian soldiers with Russian arms to fight alongside them. I presume that Putin invited them to heat up that little war now to provide a pretext for a bigger invasion from outside.
Amazon's employees in Alabama seem to have voted against unionization, but the union claims Amazon intimidated workers and made the election unfair.
Salafi Arabia sentenced alleged satirist Abdulrahman al-Sadhan to 40 years of punishment. The monarchy may have identified him by infiltrating Twitter.
Abdulrahman has been tortured in prison.
The UAE has not responded to the UN's demand for proof that the kidnapped Princess Latifa is still alive.
Were they Indian commandos mercenaries, or were they Indian armed forces? What role, if any, did the government of India play in the events. It ought to investigate who in India was involved.
China has sentenced some former Uighur officials to death.
*The Guardian view on peat: keep it in the ground.*
The UK is on the verge of another surge in Covid-19 among the millions of people not yet vaccinated — if it continues to relax restrictions and open the commercial spaces that are closed.
The US is already having another surge. It is the work the same Republican officials that obeyed the bullshitter by making foolhardy disease-spreading a badge of defiance against rationality.
*Police are most effective when the public approves of their actions.*
*Climate campaigners call for halt to regional UK airports expansion.*
There is no room in the carbon budget for increase in flying that expanded airports would lead to.
West Virginia came to exist because that part of Virginia refused to secede from the United States, and stayed with the Union in the Civil War. More recently, a right-wing political movement set up monuments to the Confederacy and Confederate generals, thus spreading an erroneous idea of the state's history.
Now Republicans, who dominate the state's government and perhaps lean towards white supremacism, want to make it illegal to remove or rename those monuments.
It is possible to deal with a statue that supports the Confederacy by putting up an opposing statue: perhaps of Lincoln or Grant, or some West Virginian who fought for the Union.
However, when a building's name refers to the Confederacy, it would not usually be feasible to override its message by building another building nearby. Cities and schools in West Virginia should rename those buildings promptly, before a new law can get in the way.
Putting up new monuments depicting West Virginia soldiers in their blue Union uniforms would help teach the state's history. And if West Virginia organized regiments of escaped slaves, like the 54th Massachusetts, monuments to them would get the point across even more clearly.
They surely deserve monuments.
New kinds of fishing gear could save the North Atlantic right whale.
On the coast of North Carolina, forests are slowly being inundated by the ocean, and many of the trees are dead.
When there is a drought on the land, salt water seeps inland and salinifies the land.
The US government, and international institutions, have recognized that trickle down only feeds dooH niboR, and have adopted Keynsianism.
The reason why Covid-19 increased inequality is that it caused lots of disasters. So it created lots of opportunities for disaster capitalism. People and institutions that had a habit of searching for such opportunities found them and benefited from them.
*Zimbabwe under renewed pressure to give up Rwanda genocide suspect.*
*China’s vast bitcoin mining empire risks derailing its climate targets, says study.*
* We at Carbon Tax Center believe that removing climate deniers from the Climate Solutions Caucus could help rehabilitate carbon taxing in the public conversation.*
The overall point is that a revenue-neutral carbon tax, redistributing the tax money to help the poor, would complement programs to invest in renewable energy generation and use. The investments would provide an alternative to fossil fuel use, and the tax would pressure everyone to use the alternative instead of fossil fuel rather than using more energy.
The US military — or any military — is based on a philosophy of seeing the world as a potential fight and the enemy as dehumanized. This gives it a fundamental similarity to right-wing extremism.
That is the foundation of the US military's vulnerability to right-wing extremism, but other factors add to it.
* Analysis finds 77% of directors on boards of seven US banks have ties to ‘climate-conflicted’ groups.*
*UK's 'headlong rush into abandoning human rights' rebuked by Amnesty.*
1/3 of patients who had Covid-19 developed neurological or psychological problems in 6 months. Most of these problems were psychological.
Supporting Stallman against a campaign of hatred
San Francisco has retracted the plan to rename schools named after heroes that were found to have done some things wrong.
In some of those cases, I know the wrongs were real. Perhaps that was true in all 44 cases. But it is a mistake to judge past heroes by today's values and demand perfection.
Over time, the default views in society change. Views we now consider reprehensible were once held by almost everyone. We don't need to condemn people of the past for not understanding what we understand today.
I have criticized Senator Feinstein for her right-wing positions. In addition, I believe that no government in the US should display the flag of treason and slavery. However, I can understand how an official might not want to let vandalism decide changes in policy, even changes for the better.
*[Two] Months After Biden Promised to End Support for Yemen War, Congress Still Has No Details.*
* Study suggests [the ocean] is already too warm in tropics for some species to survive.*
* Light pollution is killing insects and birds – and an ancient human connection with the heavenly bodies.*
I have some criticisms of the specifics of Biden's infrastructure plan.
I question the decision to give so much money to roads (as distinct from bridges) rather than to mass transit.
Upgrading Amtrak's Northeast Corridor would be a good thing if it included allowing anonymous travel on that line.
Support for for buying electric cars is a good idea but the owner must be allowed to turn off all features that track the vehicles' movements.
Building charging stations for electric vehicles must include allowing anonymous payment and the stations must not take note of the identity of the vehicle being charged.
Replacing lead water pipes is a very good thing to do.
The US keeps attacking Venezuela, with coup attempts and sanctions.
The fight for abortion rights continues in countries around the world.
*After Decades of Raking in Corporate Cash, McConnell Tells CEOs Mildly Defending Voting Rights to 'Stay Out of Politics'.*
Does that mean he won't accept their money any more ;-}?
The difference in US work, 50 years ago and now, is that well-paid union jobs have been replaced by precarious work for a pittance.
The "We the People" Amendment bill has been reintroduced. This amendment would wipe away various Supreme Court decisions that extended human rights to nonhuman corporations.
Alexei Navalny is "seriously ill" in the Russian prison.
Since the Russian state poisoned him once, maybe it is doing something similar now.
*Survey Finds 2/3 of US Students Want Cops Removed From Campus.*
I get the impression this is not a scientific survey, but it demonstrates that US high school students are aware of the danger of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Ukraine is afraid Russia is about to attack again soon.
This is not an absurd fear. The Russia-fueled rebellion in eastern Ukraine quieted down after a Russian missile unit mistakenly shot down a passenger airplane, but it seems that Russia is heating it up again.
Putin tends to probe for weaknesses. Responding with strength, but not aggression, can convince him to pull back and not start a war now. But this does not have to mean joining NATO — which would in any case take too long.
*Six Ways Chevron Imperils Climate, Human Rights, and Racial Justice.*
Tesla's innovation in malware is designed to help repossess the car if the owner falls behind on loan payments.
States should pass laws to enable car owners to turn off GPS and turn off all radio communication from the car.
In an economy of near-monopolies, you can't usually get political power via boycotts.
*It's a perfect macrocosm of the consumer's dilemma: if you rely on money, rather than politics, to accomplish political change, you will never make a change that reduces the power of money in politics.*
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: *Pfizer demands governments gamble with state assets to secure vaccine deal.*
The US military-industrial complex and its products are surprisingly broad. This article investigates the moral issues of how to deal with it and how not to.
I think the US should move the research that is not directly about fighting into a non-military agency. That way, the cuts that we need to make in military spending will not harm that research.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Medicare for All Act of 2021.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you call, please spread the word!
*NYPD "Goon Squad" Manual Teaches Officers to Violate Protesters’ Rights.*
Parkinson's disease is increasing, and Trichloroethylene may be the cause. We should ban it now rather than wait to be absolutely certain when it is too late to avoid getting sick.
*Will the United States Ever Become a Strong Nation for the Common Good?* For the US to be great again, the US government must do great things and tax the rich to pay for them.
*Greenland’s leftwing anti-mine party wins snap election.*
Rare earths, though not exceedingly rare, are important as well as valuable. But mines tend to leave dangerous pollution lying around, and mining companies lobby not to pay for remediating the damage they do.
I wonder, is there any safe way to let a mine operate?
Democrats in Congress are failing to use their power to eliminate many of the wrecker's destructive federal regulations.
(satire) *U.S. Criticized For Giving $1 Trillion To Military Contractor To Develop Hat That Didn’t Work.*
To reestablish the non-nuclear deal with Iran, the US needs to get rid of several existing sanctions against Iran, even if the ostensible motive for the sanctions is "terrorism".
Millions of Americans have private medical insurance that won't cover the cost of expensive treatments for grave illnesses.
US citizens: Tell Zuckerberg not to give the bullshitter his megaphone back.
Britons: call your MP to oppose "Checkpoint Britain".
I hope you will say that no occasion should require a person to carry a portable phone.
Economists that advocated "free trade" knowingly hid the fact that millions of people, and even some countries, can be permanently harmed by adopting that system.
Perhaps it is true that they sincerely believed that this condescending approach to the topic was for the best. But business schools and economics departments have ties with businesses, and that biases them.
It is a mistake for schools to eliminate all free play, even in the name of preventing bullying.
There are some children who can't learn to deal with bullying on their own. It is important for schools to do something to help them not just dismiss the problem with "That's life." But this does not entail eliminating free play for everyone.
A bill in the Maine legislature would put an end to Maine's "fusion center" which exchanges surveillance data between various government agencies.
British thugs arrested legal observers present outside a protest in Briston to give legal aid to protesters that were arrested.
The thugs could not have failed to recognize that they were legal observers.
Describing all of the Briston protests together as "sometimes violent, sometimes not" misrepresents them. Most of the protesters were nonviolent while sometimes certain protesters started violence.
(satire) *Man Opposes Taxing Rich Because He Knows One Day He Could Find $20 Bill On Ground.*
Treasury Secretary Yellen called for a global minimum tax rate on corporations.
I support this; however, to make it truly effective will require global agreement on limiting deductions and blocking tax evasion.
*NLRB Says Amazon Firing of Workers Who Demanded Better Climate, Labor Policies Was Illegal Retaliation.*
Public pressure has convinced some large companies to condemn Georgia's voter suppression laws — after supporting the campaigns of the Republican legislators that passed them.
*Corporations Gave $50 Million to GOP Lawmakers Behind Voter Suppression Onslaught.*
Additional Republican-controlled states are passing similar laws. To get these companies to pressure additional states, we will need to keep up the pressure on them.
The US Supreme Court ruled that imitating the API of Java was fair use of the text of the API description.
The other decision would have been disaster.
*Your 'smart home' is watching — and possibly [sending] your data [to] the police.*
I am glad to see that awareness of this threat to everyone's freedom is spreading, but it continues to be associated with an inadequate proposed solution: laws to "protect privacy" by limiting how companies use the data that they accumulate about the public. This would reduce the abuse of people's accumulated personal data but not stop it.
Please don't use the word "sharing" to describe propagation of surveillance data.
The police are plural, so the pronoun "they" fits them — but "roommate" ought to be plural as well.
Before my freshman year of college, I stated my preference for a roommate that was invisible, inaudible and intangible (if I couldn't have a room of my own). I forgot to add deaf and blind.
Western governments need to end their support for human rights abuses and authoritarianism in order to be able to exert effective pressure on China.
*Can an assault weapons ban reduce killings if firearms last 100 years?*
Perhaps the clips don't last as long as the guns.
* Extinction Rebellion is planning to step up its campaign against the banking system with a series of direct action protests and debt strikes*
* The government has effectively declared institutional racism does not exist, and framed those who disagree as the problem.*
When the government takes the position that criticizing its statements is unpatriotic, that is the final demonstration that it is unjust.
The wrecker's support among Christians has given religion a bad name in the US, and young people are abandoning it fairly fast.
US citizens: call on AT&T to Stop Funding Voter Suppression.
US citizens: call on Biden to support an arms embargo on Burma.
US citizens: call on the Senate to pass the Equality Act.
US citizens: call on Biden to propose bigger plans to reduce US greenhouse emissions faster.
Bill Gates is buying lots of US farm land, just as an investment — but concentration of land ownership is not a good thing.
A seedling of PISSI has captured part of Mozambique. It seems to be too strong for Mozambique to defeat alone.
*Ethiopia is fighting 'difficult and tiresome' guerrilla war in Tigray, says PM.*
I expected something like this.
New Zealand's annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt killed almost 12,000 rabbits, but that wasn't enough. Perhaps they should do it every month.
Regional heating in part of the Amazon rain forest, due to deforestation, is making it hard for the trees there to survive.
This could deforest the whole region.
Teaching people to feel more empathy can have a good effect, with people that want to feel more empathy.
Enslavement in the UK seems to have increased by 25% to 40% during Covid-19.
*Scientists create online games to show risks of AI emotion recognition.*
The article identifies various dangers of this technology, but does not mention the ones I think are worst.
If your boss can tell whether you are lying, and you can't tell whether your boss is lying, that magnifies the boss's power over you.
If the repression agencies can tell whether you are lying, and you can't tell whether agents are lying, that magnifies their repressive power over you.
*Across the UK, environmental protest is surging.*
From this article, it seems that most of it is against local development projects. In principle, such objections may be valid or they may be NIMBYism. The UK needs a lot more housing; the shortage especially hurts poor people. The questions are where and how.
Each project should be evaluated under the right criteria. What are the right criteria? That is a national political question which I would not trust the Tories about.
The evaluation must be carried out by an honest government body -- which is unlikely with Bogus Johnson in charge.
Thus, I would expect a lot of those objections ARE valid.
The hunt for capitol rioters used many widely deployed surveillance technologies that can be used for repression also.
I think it is proper to have security cameras inside and around the Capitol. But their video recordings must not be accessed in any fashion except when there is probable cause for an investigation of a specific person. A security camera's recording should not be easy to view, and it should be overwritten automatically after a few weeks if there has been no grounds to look at it.
I propose the following guideline for judging whether a technology with surveillance potential is acceptable in a free society:
- If tracking or identifying any randomly chosen person is so much trouble that the state won't do it unless there is a need, it is safe.
- If identifying and tracking 100 people requires a major effort, and the state would not even consider mounting such an effort except because of an actual or planned terrorist attack or something comparable, it is safe.
US citizens: call on Democrats not to weaken the infrastructure bill to cater to Republicans.
If you sign, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on The NIH to tell Moderna to increase vaccine production.
If you sign, please spread the word!
*Haaland Announces New Missing and Murdered Indigenous Unit at Interior.*
The aim is to give indigenous people who are murdered the same chance of getting justice that other Americans have, or at least more chance than now.
*Any proposal for vaccine credentials must be primarily paper-based, decentralized, and protect privacy.*
If we handle vaccination right, that system won't be needed for very long. Real vaccination will be very effective in making Covid-19 a minor danger, as long as enough of the population gets vaccinated.
*The Republican Party has no interest in actual governing.* It has no serious proposals, only tactics for fighting the culture war and making elections unfair.
*55 US Corporate Giants Paid $0 in Federal Taxes in 2020 Thanks to 'Gaping' Loopholes.*
We should fix these loopholes — but also refuse to be manipulated by fandom in businesses such as Nike.
*Why are desperate refugees turning up on the U.S. border? Because we have offloaded the costs of the drug war on Latin America.*
*These 7 ways of taxing the rich would generate more than $6 trillion over 10 years.* In other words, 600 billion or so per year. (Reporting costs and benefits on an annual basis keeps them all comparable.)
Eliminating the "stepped-up cost basis" rule would be entirely justified for billionaires, but if it applies to your parents' apartment you would probably be unable to inherit it. I suggest maintaining that rule only for the deceased's primary residence. Rich people generally have a smaller fraction of their assets in their primary residence than non-rich.
*Fracking brings pollution, not wealth, to Navajo land.*
I am not surprised. Businesses employ negotiators whose job is to make bad deals sound good.
The UK government published a study of racism in the UK, whose main thrust seems to be to reassure Britons that the situation is getting better, so there is no need for the state to do anything to make it better.
*The government has reversed progress and betrayed black Britons with this divisive and politically motivated document.*
*This is the legacy of Britain's year of Covid: power unchecked, scrutiny sidelined.*
A dam in Florida used to retain wastewater loaded with phosphate and nitrogen is on the verge of collapsing, so people are pumping some of it into nearby Tampa Bay where those chemicals could damage the ecology.
Fertilizer run-off is largely phosphate and nitrogen, and it regularly causes toxic algal blooms and dead zones when it gets into the sea.
The problem with the dam has been developing for many years, but the state ignored it until the last minute. Florida needs to pay close attention to assure all its dams are Tampa-proof.
Imagine a sports team, the Tampa Bay Fertilizer. Or Tampa Bay Algae?
In addition to the carbon emissions from using a building, which could be reduced by using renewable electricity to heat and cool it, we must start reducing the carbon emissions from constructing it, repairing it, and eventually demolishing it.
*Trump 'money bomb' scheme raised millions from unwitting donors.*
If this isn't illegal, it ought to be.
New York State has greatly limited solitary confinement.
San Francisco has implemented, to some extent, the basic idea of "defund the police": send trained de-escalators as first responders instead of cops.
Larry Lessig argues with the Green Party criticisms of the bill, HR1.
I agree that we should pass HR1 — modified not to make things harder for minor parties than they already are.
Daniel Hale's whistleblowing to journalists led to publication of important information about American drone assassinations. Prosecuting him was an attack on freedom of the press in the US.
*LexisNexis to Provide Giant Database of Personal Information to ICE.*
The breadth of data that LexisNexis collects about people makes its existence dangerous. Some of that data, such as tracking based on license plate readers, must not be collected at all.
New York City is worried about the sea level rise that global heating will cause.
A barrier that will keep water away from the city at high tide is just a temporary stopgap. To protect all the cities in the world that way would cost more than curing the root cause — greenhouse gas emissions.
Asia may over time switch to using Chinese currency for international trade. This would enhance China's economic power and diminish that of the US.
I hoped to see a reduction in the US dollar's dominance in favor of the euro. In favor of China, that's a different matter.
*Ethiopia dismisses evidence of war crimes verified by CNN investigation*. The crimes were killing of prisoners.
*The Pro-LGBTQ Companies That Helped Elect Arkansas Anti-Trans Bill Sponsors.*
Amazon apologized to the Rep. Pocan for calling him a liar, and admitted that its drivers really have to pee in bottles in the truck.
I don't think that peeing in a bottle is a horrible thing. Nowadays there are products that make it less difficult for women.
But it reflects the outrageous time pressure that they are under — all the time, not only when they need to pee.
The US border thugs are deporting migrants to Mexico without even telling them that that is what happened.
The company that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline has subpoena'd unreleased documents and videos from news publisher Unicorn Riot, which covered the protests, aiming to identify all the protesters and sue each and every one.
The name "Unicorn Riot" seems to be a joke — what they did was journalism, not rioting. I hope that it does not help the pipeline owner pretend that they were rioting.
Maskless covidiots, many of them still unvaccinated, are making a last attempt in the LA area to spread Covid-19 to a hundred thousand more Americans.
The Canadian Pacific herring fishery is being fished to death. Other animals that eat the herring are indirectly in danger.
* The campaign to cancel the author [Philip Roth] is typical of today’s all-or-nothing approach, where if you don’t like everything about a public figure, you can’t like anything.*
*Early bloom of cherry blossoms in Washington DC point to climate crisis.*
Over 120,000 personnel in Britain's NHS have long Covid. That must be an amazing fraction of all NHS workers. I wonder how many workers it has.
*US lifts Trump administration's sanctions on top ICC prosecutor.*
The FSF should support the ICC.
Italian prosecutors tapped the phones of journalists who were covering the rescue of migrants rescued from drowning in the Mediterranean, all in order to accuse people in the organizations that did the rescuing with "collaboration with people smugglers."
The US and Iran are making progress negotiating a return to the non-nuclear deal.
*US fossil fuel companies took billions in tax breaks — and then laid off thousands.*
The wrecker's ultimate act of sabotage was a proposed rule to let drug companies raise prices unreasonably. Shockingly, Biden does not seem to plan to cancel it.
Israel has vaccinated a large fraction of its population, and Covid-19 transmission is dwindling. The main danger of Covid-19 in the future will be from variants spreading in Palestine.
Israel is responsible for public health in territories it occupies or besieges. That means it must provide vaccine to the Palestinians. Now that is also crucial for Israel's public health — so its refusal is vindictiveness carried to the point of self-destruction.
I think the US should offer to donate vaccine for everyone in Palestine if Israel does not.
Meanwhile, I wonder if people in Israel who refuse to run nonfree programs, and therefore can't run the "green pass" app, are being excluded from much of society's activity. Is that really true? Is there no other way to demonstrate that you have been vaccinated?
A whistleblower claims that a UK agency whose job is to check for misconduct by thugs did the opposite: it spun its report about recent protests in Bristol so as to justify increased repression of protests.
*This anti-protest bill risks making the UK like Putin's Russia.*
Daniel Everette Hale has pled guilty to whistleblowing: giving a reporter secret information about US drone assassinations.
*Forget 2030 or 2040, Says Greta Thunberg, World Must 'Reduce Our Emissions Right Now'.*
I think she is right, as a general point. Targets in the future serve as an excuse not to make big efforts right away.
I think that Covid-19 did great harm to the climate strike movement. It distracts people's attention to a threat that, ultimately, is not as big. And it prevents the large demonstrations that made climate strike influential.
I hope it won't be too long before it regains its influence. Civilization's survival depends on that.
(satire) *New Gun Control Measure Would Put Firearms In Difficult-To-Open Hard Plastic Packaging.*
(satire) *Man Living In Most Affluent Country In World History Has Nerve To Complain About Being Homeless.*
*Rapid global heating is hurting farm productivity, study finds.*
(satire) *GOP Argues Government Shouldn't Be Deciding Which Bridges Succeed Or Fail.*
British Gas is bullying its installation engineers by firing them all, then hiring them back only if they agree to pay cuts and longer hours.
The company's customers are pushing back against this.
*India's top court has granted bail to a comic [Munawar Faruqui] after he spent 35 days in jail for a joke he didn't crack.*
He wrote the joke in his notes, but did not use it in his performance.
The US could reach herd immunity for Covid-19 if enough people get vaccinated — but that won't be permanent. Herd immunity could come and go.
The US military has had cells of violent white supremacists for decades, and doesn't have an adequate policy to prevent them.
Thai dissidents are threatened with 20 years in prison after the queen's car drove through a crowd containing some dissidents.
Georgia is moving to mostly eliminate the practice of "citizen's arrest", which is used as an excuse for racist crime.
This article leads me to wonder whether citizen's arrest existed in Georgia before the 1863 adoption of the present law.
*Biden Administration Deports Human Trafficking Victims, Expels Immigrants to Countries They’ve Never Visited.*
*Hong Kong democracy leaders found guilty over peaceful 2019 protest.*
Almost a third of the patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in the UK have been in the hospital in 4 months.
So even if you get better, you're very likely not really better.
US citizens: call on Biden to restore the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
The US has had experience with trans-people for decades.
There are a few examples I've read about in Europe, centuries ago. I presume there must have been some for all of human history, though I don't know details.
The Zuni Man-Woman describes the practice in various Amerindian and Pacific Ocean cultures.
The UK puts almost no effective checks on directly corrupt lobbying.
Even when lobbying is not directly corrupt, it tends to make government serve those who can pay lobbyists, and that is a corrupting effect. Perhaps the right solution is to prohibit lobbying, or prohibit lobbying in many situations.
A treaty alone may not secure global cooperation against a pandemic. Governments need to be willing to cooperate on a rational policy or they will break the treaty.
*Toxic impact of pesticides on bees has doubled, study shows.*
The US is pressuring Britain in trade negotiations not to tax tech companies.
Comparing China with the US in regard to alliances with autocracies.
(satire) *Experts Worried Students Will Fall Behind After Spending Past Year In U.S. Education System.*
(satire) *New Wells Fargo Employee Walked Through All The Crimes He’ll Be Asked To Commit.*
* Democratic [so-called] moderates are holding climate policy hostage to get a tax cut for the rich.*
For mainstream media, "moderate" Democrats are the plutocratist Democrats.
To curb global heating, we need to regulate business and investment, not think of it as a "partner".
*Nearly 46m Americans would be unable to afford quality healthcare in an emergency.*
The Burmese military have released some of the protesters they arrested, who report extremely cruel treatment in jail.
*Global treaty needed to protect states from pandemics, say world leaders.*
I agree. We need to bring more areas of life out of narrow national interest, and into the sphere of cooperation.
*New Covid vaccines needed globally within a year, say scientists.*
We must increase the capacity to produce vaccine so that we can get the new version to just about everyone in a few months. Then we won't have to do it yet another time.
Biden plans to construct offshore wind electric generation to power "10 million homes" by 2030.
That is a significant step, but not enough. We need to power half the country with renewable energy by then, vehicle as well as homes.
If offshore wind farms have the effect of protecting part of the ocean from fishing, so much the better. We need to protect a substantial fraction of the ocean. Protected zones enable fish to reproduce and grow, which results in more fish to catch in the nonprotected areas.
And if we don't stop making lots of CO2, with the resulting ocean acidification there may not be much to catch a few decades from now.
*The Australian Academy of Science says Australia needs to push faster to cut greenhouse gas emissions.*
*Under cover of Covid, British workers' rights are being quietly stripped away.*
Tories do this in the UK just as Republicans do it in the US. Unions, and laws giving workers rights, help protect them from what businesses, with their right-wing pretense that it is virtuous to exploit workers as much as they can, keep trying to do to them.
*AT&T said [the wrecker]'s tax cut would create jobs — now it's laying off thousands of workers.*
Reviewing many things that are wrong with the US electoral system, not counting voter-suppression and gerrymandering by states.
(satire) *CDC Concludes U.S. Not Prepared For Potential Pandemic Following Year-Long Simulation Drill.*
Experts estimate around a year before the current Covid-19 vaccines become obsolete due to new variants that are different enough to infect people who are vaccinated.
The conclusion is clear: we must vaccinate everyone and soon, to cut off the evolution of the virus.
Who gets the limited current supplies of the vaccine is a side issue. We can't avoid the development of mutant strains by vaccinating A instead of B. We have to vaccinate them both.
Biden's infrastructure plan could be a significant start at what the US must do to achieve its share of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
I don't think it goes far enough. I expect that the UCS doesn't either.
Union of Concerned Scientists to Biden: *Slash Emissions 50% Below 2005 Levels by 2030.*
It is important to people that you pronounce their names rather than ask to substitute for them.
However, please be considerate of people who can't pronounce it, or feel ashamed of pronouncing it wrong.
I could pronounce Fermín or Kuan-lin, but some languages have sounds I don't know how to make. I would be glad to learn, but I would need teaching over time. If you are prepared to coach me, I will do my best.
New York State has made a try at a digital vaccination certificate.
That article describes some flaws, which maybe will be fixed. But I wonder, how do restaurants, concerts and so on check your status? Does it require you to have a smartphone?
Also, does the system record where your certificate is checked?
Can people use paper certificates instead? I have one of those.
Please call Governor Cuomo's office and ask these questions. Show the state that these questions matter.
*Destruction of world's forests increased sharply in 2020.*
New Zealand has raised taxes on the rich to help support the poor.
Hooray!
Alexei Navalny has started a hunger strike, and reports being tortured and denied medical care.
His return to Russia was a powerful spur to opposition to Putin, but the effect can wear off with time.
The amount of damage caused by intrusive pest species is 'trebling every decade'.
Perhaps in 20 years we will have safe technology to wipe out some of these species, in the places where predators won't keep them in check. However, the same technology might be used to wipe out the people of a region.
Singers and musicians are bullying songwriters to give up their share of income from music.
This happens as the the companies that distribute music are putting the squeeze on the musicians.
They would be better off with my suggestions for how to support the musicians and songwriters/composers.
Capitol police sue the bully for inciting the Jan 6 riot.
I'm delighted to see it, but I doubt personal injury claims can possibly amount to enough of a punishment for him.
Bolsonaro may have prepared the ground for another coup in Brazil, perhaps to strengthen his grip on power as the people come to hate him.
A former victim describes the cruelty of an elite English boarding school.
I got a taste of that just once while attending a private school in New York City. Being made to thank the school's head for slapping me hard and knocking me off the chair was far less than what the article describes, but I hated him after that.
One day I put a sign, "Ministry of Love," on his office. I put signs for the other three ministries of Oceania on other people's offices.
The man who attacked a stranger of East Asian descent, in NYC has been caught. He was previously convicted of killing his own mother.
I condemn the surging violence and hatred against people who have ancestry in East Asia and the Pacific. Like all forms of ethnic hatred, it is a evil that we must denounce and try to stop.
But I feel we should call those people by a term that doesn't define India and other large parts of Asia out of existence.
More exact than "Asian Americans" would be "East Asian Americans." However, that is not perfect, since the same hatred also targets ethnic groups from Pacific islands, which are not in Asia at all.
The UK offers some welfare support to people in penury — but it is not enough to live on, so they go hungry.
The US, by contrast, offers nothing to many Americans in penury and they end up begging on the street.
The American Petroleum Institute says it wants a carbon tax.
A big enough carbon tax will cut down the demand rapidly. A smaller one won't have much effect. The API will lobby for a smaller one, and
I agree that we should not trust the API. It represents the oil companies, and what they want is to delay the emissions reductions that we need to do quickly.
(satire) *Police Now Ignoring Active Shooter Reports In Effort To Deprive Killers Of Attention.*
Tens of thousands marched in France demanding a climate law strong enough to do France's share to prevent global heating disaster.
The US is helping abusive big tech companies by demanding a trade agreement that stops Britain from regulating them.
*How many anti-vaxxers does it take to misinform the world? Just twelve.*
Two St Louis thugs beat up and injured an undercover thug at a protest, and were put on trial, but not convicted.
What surprises me is that the attackers were not charged with the attack itself — only with other related crimes.
The Labour Party says it is now a pro-business party. Indeed, more than merely pro-business.
I do not advocate being "anti-business"; it would be very bad to abolish business. (We have seen how bad Communism is.) However, businesses have a tendency to mistreat human beings, so a large part of the job of the state is to make businesses stop doing that.
You can't make businesses respect human beings by thinking of yourself as "pro-business" or "in a partnership with business".
Civilians say that the "gathering of armed extremists" bombed by a French plane was actually a wedding party.
I am inclined to believe the local people. They generally know a lot more about what is going on.
The US has done things like that too.
When mass media believe thugs accounts of fighting protesters without checking them, that puts democracy at risk.
*Big Chunks of Corporate Tax Cuts End Up in Executives’ Pockets.*
This was supposed to "trickle down", but it didn't, because that never really happens.
Some right-wing judges want to weaken the criteria for judgments of libel. If they succeed, criticizing the wealthy would become very risky.
If you're worried that the US national debt is too big, keep in mind that patent and copyright monopolies (especially patents) have the same effect and much bigger.
Any continuing monopoly will tend to have the same effect, even if no law prohibits more competition from arising. Having insufficient competition will do the same thing, though to a lesser extent. Ask the diabetics that can barely afford the insulin they need to live.
A tendency to oversensitivity to "what might someone possibly mistakenly criticize?" is pushing society into increasingly rigid self-censorship.
Even when New York City refuses to directly defend a cop in a lawsuit, the city does so indirectly through a special fund paid by the city.
* As the former chief investment officer of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world with $8.7 trillion in assets, I led the charge to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) into our global investments. In fact, our messaging helped mainstream the concept that pursuing social good was also good for the bottom line. Sadly, that's all it is, a hopeful idea. In truth, sustainable investing boils down to little more than marketing hype, PR spin and disingenuous promises from the investment community.*
In the 1990s or 2000s, someone challenged me to look for an ethical investment fund. As it happened, I was acquainted with someone to had started one — an independent company. The fund stated its criteria and it listed its investments.
I think the fund was honest. The main investment was Microsoft.
Microsoft got a high ethical grade, according to the usual criteria — which did not include the question of whether software respected the freedom of its users.
I did not invest in the fund.
*US Military Ordered 'Clandestine Burning' of Toxic Chemicals in Poor Neighborhoods: Study.*
(satire) *L.A. Books 5,000 Hotel Rooms For Police Officers To Take Naps In Between Displacing Homeless.*
How to wind down the "global war on terror". In addition to the deaths and other misery that it directly causes, the US brings itself into valid disrepute by pursuing this "war."
*Lawsuit Challenges EPA Approval of the Use of Medically Important Antibiotic as a Pesticide on Citrus Crops.* If that decision stands, it will kill people.
The European Court of Justice dismissed the young people's climate case on the grounds that it does not consider accusations that a law is bad for people in general. I think the idea is that these issues should be handled by democratic processes, not by trials. That is valid in principle, and it might be ok in practice if the EU had a strong and effective democracy. But that is far from true. The lawsuit may have boosted the climate defense movement despite having failed.
(satire) *‘Can You Trust Anything You See?’ Says Jack Dorsey, Shapeshifting Into Cat During Congressional Testimony On Misinformation.*
(satire) *Ted Cruz Decries Voting Rights Bill As Shameless Power Grab By American People To Control Country.*
US citizens: call on your congrsscritter to end US involvement in the war in 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!
*Is pornography to blame for rise in 'rape culture'?*
*Rio Tinto pledges to protect cultural heritage after Juukan Gorge disaster.*
After one sad loss, the outcome could be very good.
*Covid-19 has shown humanity how close we are to the edge.*
*Shanna Swan: 'Most couples may have to use assisted reproduction by 2045'.*
If it were no worse than that, it might be ok. But we cannot be sure that human reproductive systems will work sufficiently to utilize those techniques.
China's heavy-handed pressure on its critics is causing blowback.
The US has given support to the UN again, in a prestigious way: inviting it to lead peace negotiations for Afghanistan.
I see hope that this might lead to a real peace rather than merely a fig leaf behind which the US can stop prolonging the war.
*Republicans have taken up the politics of bigotry, putting US democracy at risk.*
Disunited Europe has trouble standing up to China's economic power.
"Vaccine passports" in the UK would be a "national ID card by stealth."
I think it is possible to design them so that they do not have that drawback. However, as the article points out, it is not yet certain whether they would do much good for public health.
*Four-fifths of Sudan's £861m debt to UK is interest.*
Many poor countries pour out money to pay interest on old debts that they cannot pay back. In many cases, the borrowing was done by dictators who spent the money and left the country with the debt.
Cancelling these debts would teach banks not to be so eager to make loans to dictators.
*[Salafi Arabia] has spent at least $1.5bn on 'sportswashing', report reveals.*
The increasing size of ships inspired warnings that one would get stuck in the Suez Canal.
UK thugs lied (partially) about the violence at the first Briston protest; on subsequent days, they attacked peaceful protesters.
*Kurdish forces enter refugee camp in Syria to eliminate [PISSI] cells.*
It won't be easy for soldiers to find them, though. That would take police work or spying. If most of the prisoners support PISSI, those who are ready to kill for it will easily be able to hide.
*More than 100 killed as Myanmar junta unleashes worst day of terror.*
I imagine mothers of soldiers sending them text messages, "The next protester you shoot may be me." It might convince some soldiers to desert.
Some are organizing a guerrilla to overthrow the army.
The classic Maya had a higher level of inequality than other Mesoamerican societies, due to being more autocratic.
Ironically, this may be linked to the ancient monuments that make the Maya so fascinating to us.
I think it is important for a society to use some of its wealth to make glorious lasting things that can fascinate the public, present and future.
Lasting things do not have to be buildings or art. Condors and whales are glorious, too, so saving them counts.
Making glorious things does not require the extreme inequality that the US suffers today. What it requires is to tax the rich enough to have money for society's needs — including glory.
Congress is looking to reverse the saboteur's change in methane regulations using the Congressional Review Act.
I wonder whether Republicans can block this using the filibuster. The article does not say.
*Jakub Żulczyk faces possible prison term for insulting [President] Andrzej Duda.*
Many countries other than the US make it a crime to insult officials. Some make it a crime to insult anyone. This is disrespect for freedom of speech. People are entitled to the right to call anyone a moron, even me.
I raised this issue once with an official in Mexico, who responded that insults can wound people so much that it should be a crime to say them.
I tried to reply, "The words that can wound most are, 'I'm breaking up with you,' but everyone has the right to break up, so it must be lawful to say so. That being the case, it makes no sense to prohibit mere insults from strangers."
However, I did not put it into Spanish clearly, and did not get my point across.
Greg Palast describes the conspiracy of oil companies to turn off the expensive precautions that they had agreed to, in order to get permission to ship oil out of Valdez, Alaska.
More about the frauds that led to the oil spill.
I am very interested what Greg Palast has to say, but I would prefer if the articles were shorter, and more focused on the crucial facts and the crucial conclusions they demonstrate.
A teacher in a UK school showed students cartoons from Charlie Hebdo and is being excoriated by officialdom.
Was it wrong to show those cartoons in class? I can't judge, because crucial information has not been given.
The article tells us nothing about what lesson the teacher was teaching. If the lesson was to disparage Muslims, that was completely unacceptable to teach in a school. If the lesson was about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and controversies about them, perhaps it was proper.
This would depend also on the age of the students, which isn't stated.
The protesters have the right to protest, but they must take precautions against spreading Covid-19 to each other or to others.
Sanders's bill to reduce the estate tax threshold would also eliminate some of the legal maneuvers that are used to dodge paying it.
US citizens: call on Uber to stop doing facial recognition on drivers.
There are many reasons to refuse to do business with Uber and Uber Eats.
US citizens: call on the FBI to investigate Bannon's role in the attack on the Capitol.
*Top US scientists back $100m geoengineering research programme.*
It can't hurt to do this research, but we must not expect those measures to address the whole problem, since they won't prevent ocean acidification from wiping out coral, mollusks with shells, and some sea animals. That alone would be a disaster, though not as big a disaster.
A fake cosmetic company gives Polish women a way to ask for help, unnoticed by their controlling spouses.
It is a clever idea. If only it were implemented without Facebook!
Republican efforts to spread Covid more are having an effect: a 7% increase in the past week.
This is not as fast as it was last fall, but still dangerous.
*Fears climate crisis could increase allergy season severity by up to 60%.*
*Power-sharing is the only way to end the war in Yemen — if the US supports it.*
Yemen has been unstable for a long time. If the US gets Salafi Arabia to stop intervening, that won't necessarily enable Yemen's factions to share power in a peaceful and stable way. But it will probably not be as bad as now.
*'Breonna’s Law' bans on no-knock warrants are growing — but they're just one step.*
Amazon's drivers don't have access to toilets while they work, so they have to pee in bottles in the truck. Amazon claimed this is not so, but an internal memo shows it was lying.
* Researchers say half a million infections might have been stopped if more states had suspended [water] disconnections during pandemic.*
Consider the recommendation to wash your hands often to avoid spreading Covid-19.
The Republican government of Georgia, itself elected by a minority, rapidly passed a law to attack voting rights in every way they could think of.
There is a Robert E Lee high school in Florida — shocking enough — which has banned teachers and students from showing support for Black Lives Matter.
I don't think teachers in a public high school can have the right to teach their political views in class, giving them the authority of the school. But they should be allowed to present their views as personal views.
Students too should be free to show their support for a political point, for instance with buttons, shirts, or printed handouts. (I disapprove of making students wear uniforms.)
US cops confronting Black Lives Matter protesters acted like thugs, according to most of the investigations that cities have carried out. They treated the protesters like "the enemy."
(satire) Amazon made bathroom breaks unnecessary in its warehouses by turning the floor into an open toilet grate.
*California Supreme Court ends cash bail for some who cannot afford it.*
New York City adopted a law to rein in the impunity of violent thugs.
In 2015, the University of Michigan rejected divestment from fossil fuels. Now it has adopted divestment.
The policy is still weak: it defines a goal in terms of "net zero".
*Myanmar military says protesters could be 'shot in the head' as it marks
Armed Forces Day.*
A major UK clothing retailer has placed stringent new conditions on
how its suppliers in the UK treat their staff. For instance, at least
some are not allowed to do subcontracting.
I don't know what fraction of the clothing it sells come from foreign
producers, to which apparently these conditions would not apply.
It might be none, but I can't tell.
I am very unhappy with pressuring employees to give their fingerprints.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to make Washington, DC, a state.
If you sign, please spread the word!
(satire) *National Support Grows To
Give
North Dakota’s Statehood To D.C.*
US citizens:
call
on Congress to pass the American Dream and Promise Act, which
would give non-citizens brought to the US as children a path to become
US citizens.
If you sign, please spread the word!
Brazilians see no way to prevent Covid disaster except to
impeach
Bolsonaro.
I don't know whether there is any real prospect of convincing Congress
to do that.
(satire) *Georgia Lawmakers Warn Stricter Gun Regulation
Could
Cause Mass Shooters To Move To Other States.*
*Amazon to Delivery Drivers:
Agree
to Be Spied On Biometrically or You're Fired.*
This is one among
many reasons not to buy from Amazon.
*Beating Back Cancel Culture:
A
Case Study from the Field of Artificial Intelligence.*
(satire) *Police Say
Dead
Homeless Individual Threatened Them With Weapon As Far As You
Know.*
New Zealand has
moved
hard against the housing speculators.
This is good, but New Zealand (like many other places) needs to build
a lot more places for people to live, in concentrated form near public
transport.
*Deep job losses and benefits lags have meant an increase in homeless
Americans, and
shelters
have struggled to keep up.*
Senator Warren is pushing for closer oversight of Blackrock, because
it is so big it
endangers
the overall economy.
I think this is a good first step, but the right thing to do is make
Blackrock split up. And other large companies in this and other
fields.
*The US military is
poisoning
[low-income] communities across the US with toxic chemicals.*
Republicans are stepping up both voter-suppression and gerrymandering
in an all-out push to
make
it impossible to vote them out of office.
*American bald eagles have made
'strong
return' from brink of extinction.*
We can protect a species, with effort. But the main cause of
extinction is loss of habitat. That means we have to stop the actions
that make habitats unlivable for their wildlife.
*Having police in schools is emblematic of a society headed in the
wrong
direction.*
Los Angeles thugs
forcibly
evicted a large homeless people's encampment.
How Singapore crushes criticism of the powerful: suing critics for libel
when they post newspaper articles.
*The Urgent Need for a Biden-Putin Summit:* to prevent nuclear war.
The UK is going to punish boat people by never giving them permanent
asylum.
*UK government to allow new North Sea oil and gas exploration.*
This is supposedly in exchange for a promise by "industry" to cut its
emissions by 50%. But which emissions would be cut? Only those by
the fossil fuel businesses themselves, I suspect. Emissions by users
of fossil fuels would probably increase a lot more than their
emissions would decrease.
*Over 30 million people 'one step away from starvation', UN warns.*
*Europe's trust in Britain has gone. We're now a problem, not a partner.*
Burmese oppositionists are now using a general strike and staying home
as a replacement for visible protests.
Somalia is in danger of collapsing again.
Another positive feedback loop for global heating: soil absorbs less
carbon than was expected.
An interview with Steven Donziger, the lawyer put under house arrest
by an evidently biased US judge for representing indigenous people in
Ecuador against Chevron.
I wish that sort of thing happened only in Brazil.
A proposed Florida law would repress protests by jailing
all participants in a protest if anyone commits a crime of violence.
(satire) *USPS Announces 10-Year Plan To Deliver Letter.*
It's an exaggeration, but the reality is bad enough.
(satire) *HR Warns Employees Against Taking Unsanctioned 8-Hour Naps
Every Night While Working From Home.*
The words of the founders make it clear that the purpose of the Second
Amendment was to allow slave states to keep the militias that they used
for suppressing slave revolts.
Now that we don't allow slavery, that purpose is irrelevant. If the
Second Amendment were interpreted as limited to state-regulated
militias, it would become basically harmless.
*By the end of the century, summer weather could last half a year (and
that's not a good thing).*
All sorts of pests would chow down, and winter would hardly slow them
down.
(satire) *A lack of adequate
bridge maintenance [is] the most reliable form of suicide prevention
available in the United States.*
Ending Covid-19 restrictions in the US now will lead to an own goal.
It is a sign of immaturity, of Americans and our political system
that it can't hold out some months longer to prevent another surge of
cases — and perhaps a new variant that could be a big setback in
eliminating Covid-19.
When "biomass" means wood chips, it is not a renewable fuel.
Due to global heating effects, the trees being cut down now
may be a permanent loss.
Activists celebrate the cancellation of a proposed export terminal for
fracked gas, and bizarrely cite only the local damage it would have
caused.
Don't be a NIMBY: oppose all new fossil fuel infrastructure no matter
where it may be!
*Massachusetts DA seeks to vacate thousands of drug convictions connected to
botched evidence certification at state lab.*
The forensic lab which tested their possessions for drugs employed
chemists found to be messing up the testing.
*Climate Polluters Pour Billions Into Hundreds of 'Sportswashing'
Sponsorships.*
There is nothing particularly healthful about watching spectator sports.
These artificial struggles for a meaningless "victory" are a distraction
from real struggles over something important.
*Experts Urge World Leaders to 'Put Marine Ecosystems at the Heart of Climate
Policy'.*
A billion human beings depend on oceans and seas for food.
Lakes are warming faster than oceans. Warming of the depths of Lake Michigan
is harming native species and aiding intrusive species.
(satire) *Biden Claims It’s Unfair To Attack Administration Over
U.S. Borders That Were Created By [President] James K. Polk.*
An eye-witness in Bristol (England) describes how a few hundred very
angry protesters started a violent riot after a peaceful protest
(against repression by thugs) of 3,000 people.
We on the left who denounce injustice need to keep the violent
protesters at a distance, if we can't convince them to contain
themselves on the occasions of our peaceful protests.
I understand why marginalized people can burst into anger, because I
have done so myself. They have a lot to be angry about. But they
need to develop the self-control needed to win their fight.
A lawyer that sued on behalf of the wrecker's campaign, claiming that
the election had been stolen from the wrecker, now says no reasonable person would have believed her claims.
Lots of supporters of the wrecker took them seriously. I guess she
claims they are not reasonable persons.
*Top Saudi official issued death threat against UN's Khashoggi investigator.*
The US has sunk 11 points in 10 years in the Freedom House ratings
of how democratic a country is.
Virginia has eliminated the death penalty.
Builders in the UK went on strike in 1972 and were prosecuted for
picketing. Just now an appeals court threw out the convictions.
*Europe and US could reach 'peak meat’ in 2025.*
I doubt I will ever eat imitation meat — but lots of vegetables that
are proud to be vegetables are delicious.
California is trying to spearhead requiring new guns to stamp
cartridges to show which gun fired them.
It seems like a good idea to me.
The Tories rejected the amendment to save flat owners from paying
enormous sums to repair fraudulent construction that made their buildings
unsafe.
A proposed merger between Penguin and Simon & Schuster would be bad
for everyone else, including authors.
The advocates of increased concentration of industry will always say
that the merger of X and Y will make it big enough to compete better
with giant Z. But that path leads to fewer and bigger companies. The
right way to eliminate Z's advantage over X and Y is to make Z smaller
or split it up!
Critics of the Iraqi government face arrest for insulting officials.
Such prosecution is unjust in Iraq, but also in other countries.
A large consortium of investors is coordinating to pressure companies
to decarbonize.
(satire) *AI Researcher Warns Deepfake Videos Of Him Cheating On Wife
Will Become More Common.*
I think that the possessiveness presumed by the article is a harmful
way of thinking. I decided before 1980 never to be possessive about
someone I have a romantic and/or sexual relationship with.
*Richest 1% of US Households Don't Report 21% of Their
Income*
in total.
This does not mean that each of those taxpayers hides 21% of per income.
Some hide less, and some hide more.
Finding the enormous unreported sums requires careful and targeted
effort. It is much easier to audit a few poor people who are hiding
small amounts so that they can survive.
The "Paygo" law which imposes automatic budget cuts threatens Medicare
funds.
Obama signed this Republican law, demonstrating what it means to be
"centrist" and seek "bipartisanship".
A large protest was held in Bristol UK repression of protests and the
plans to restrict them more. The protesters attacked cops violently and
injured some severely.
Bristol is a rather leftish city which elects a Green representative
to Parliament, so it makes sense that a big protest would happen there,
and that local officials would support the purpose.
I expect the violence did harm to the cause of defending the right to
protest, because it will allow the cops (who did not, it seems, act
like thugs on this occasion) a justification for the claim they need
more powers — which would enable the to repress nonviolent protests
more in the future,
It is not a valid justification, but they will make use of it anyway.
The left needs to adopt disciplined nonviolence, such as it employed
effectively in the 60s and 70s in the US, and reject "black bloc"
tactics. As long as it does not, it is vulnerable both to hot-headded
supporters and to right-wing provocateurs.
China sent 200 vessels (boats, I suppose, rather than ships) to a reef
in disputed waters as a provocation against the Philippines.
I don't know whether it is true, as claimed, that their crews are
militias, but if they aren't this time, they will be in the future.
China has an advantage in this confrontation because it can mass its
forces at any point, whereas the countries it is attacking cannot
easily do so.
Sending 200 probably armed small vessels separately into Philippine
waters at once would be even more troublesome.
The wrecker has endorsed theft of elections by pushing to replace
Raffensperger with an election official that endorses theft
as well as voter-suppression.
The UK is considering putting asylum seekers into an island prison, perhaps
forever.
US officials will go to Guatemala to "address root causes of migration
in the region and build a more hopeful future in the region."
If they are sincere about this, the US could alleviate a lot of suffering that
it helped to cause. But one can't take for granted that they are sincere.
The UK has banned trawling in a coastal area, hoping that this will
enable kelp to regrow.
Thugs in Georgia kept Mario Gonzalez in handcuffs in a squad car for
four hours after his wife (and others) were shot. They didn't release
him until long after they had caught the killer — and until after his
wife was dead.
* We have to act on the Rwandan regime’s human rights abuses, but
withholding aid is unlikely to help the general population.*
Salafi Arabia and the Houthis are negotiating about a cease fire
and end to the blockade.
I don't see any reason to insist that the Houthis receive no arms.
Nothing stops Salafi Arabia from receiving arms. In my view, Salafi
Arabia is in no way morally superior to the Houthis; one can argue it
is inferior.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Advancement
Act.
The border thugs are not allowing journalists into the places where
migrant children are being held.
Journalists must be allowed to photograph the conditions, and should
have a chance to talk with the children too. Protecting the children
from Covid-19 is indeed important, but I expect that methods can be
designed for that. For instance, the journalists could be required
to use use medical level PPE and show recent negative Covid-19 tests.
The Arctic ice is melting extra early this year. Usually icebreakers
can start crossing the northernmost part of Siberia in July. This
year, one did it in February.
This is a measure of the approach of climate disaster. Many animal species
will be in big trouble without polar ice near the land.
Two Florida thugs beat up and injured a man then charged him with
attacking one of them. Video proved the thugs were lying.
Both thugs had had prior complaints, but that did nothing to stop them
from committing crimes. Because of thugs' political influence, the
system bends over backwards to protect them.
Legalizing marijuana creates jobs, increases tax revenue, and reduces
opioid abuse.
I expect that it saves many people from the fate of being convicted of
possession of marijuana, but I don't have a reference to verify that.
Two large US railroads want to merge.
We should not be run over by another megamerger.
The government should stop it.
On reconciling appreciation of Winston Churchill's tremendous
achievement — defeating Nazi Germany — with reprehension for his
racism and his support for dooH niboR.
The new Canada Infrastructure Bank is designed to give handouts to
big business.
Georgia disregarded the voter registration forms of thousands of
Korean-Americans, and used outrageous criminal charged to shut down
their voter registration organization.
In December, the wrecker's minions started a plan to literally
privatize Medicare. If Biden does not stop it, it will continue to
run.
But things were not ok in Medicare before that. Years ago, Democrats
approved an insurance industry plan to embrace, extend and undermine
Medicare: "Medicare Advantage" plans,
described here by Ralph Nader.
Nader is being a little too harsh here. On a radio program on March 5
he said that Sanders was giving single-payer medical care low priority
for now because Biden said he would veto it, so Sanders decided to
push on other issues where he thought progress was possible.
In that program, Nader and his guest, Kay Tillo, explained why and how
"Medicare advantage" plans are a trap: they cost less for people who
don't have major medical problems, but cover less for those who do.
And if you make that choice when you are 65, your preexisting
conditions may deny you the option to switch to the older "medigap"
option back when "Medicare advantage" becomes expensive.
Since then, progressive Democrats have introduced a single-payer bill.
There are many on-line shops that try to be ethical alternatives to
Amazon.
I appreciate many of the ways in which these stores try to be more
ethical. (I do not wish to be vegan, though.)
However, they are all spoiled by not offering the two primary
dimensions of ethical treatment of the customer: (1) anonymous
purchase and (2) not imposing use of nonfree software. So I decline
to use them.
Aside from that, when buying clothing, food or books I generally want
to see the product before deciding. With clothing I want to try it
on. With prepared food, I want to taste it. With a book, I want to
browse it. Nowadays it is hard to try on clothes even in a physical
store, and hard to taste the food, but I hope that will come back.
How the UK's "mainstream" right-wing press supports racism by targeting the weak and helpless.
Miami Beach declared a curfew 8pm to 8am to stop crowds of covidiots
from getting drunk, destroying restaurant property, and making each
other sick.
Corrective information about people of Asian or "Asian" descent in the
US.
What is occurring seems to be bigotry and hatred directed at people of
East Asian descent. Whether we call them "Asians" or describe them
more accurately, the wrong of that hatred is the same. But I like to
be accurate.
*Biden must punish Putin’s cyber-attacks. But [Britain's] building
more nukes only makes things worse.*
The US has a strong interest in limiting nuclear weapons, and if it
throws that away to punish Putin, it would put itself (and the rest of
the world) in more danger. That is not a rational way to punish Putin?
Giving Germany something in exchange for its agreement to cancel the
new pipeline, and with it the planned increase in fossil fuel purchase
from Russia, would address two problems at once.
Mark Carney, until recently head of the Bank of England, has excoriated
the cult of the invisible hand.
His book, Value(s), calls for *fairness between the generations, in
the distribution of income and of life chances.*
Fairness in the distribution of income is crucial — it means that
nobody should be painfully poor. Without that, we would have the
frequent error of believing that "social mobility" is enough to make a
society good.
"Relationship education" is an advance in regard to teaching people
what not to do in connection with sex and romance.
Still missing is teaching people in practical terms how to find
their way towards joyous love. Without that, people either stumble
upon it by chance, or fall into loneliness.
Japan now requires people entering the country to have or acquire a smartphone
and install some tracking apps on it.
This is not as bad as it first appears, because the requirement is
only for the duration of the mandatory quarantine. Tracking your movements
is not harmful when you never go anywhere.
The harm that remains even if you're staying always in the same place
is that the phone can listen to your conversations all the time.
Canada's Conservative Party voted not to take action against global
heating.
Arguing against cancellation of architect Philip Johnson.
I don't recall that I ever heard of him before, and I have nothing to
say about him specifically, but I agree that we should not equate each
person to per worst mistake.
Museums in Hong Kong now face state censorship with vague rules.
There is no way to be certain that any art work is not "subversive"
and criminal, so the M+ Museum should sell its entire collection
and open empty.
A UK thug who grabbed a woman on the street by her neck was sentenced
to a nighttime curfew, plus paying her a small sum of money.
I think more is needed to reliably change his behavior, but I don't
know what sort of thing is effective with men that suffer from
irrational violent rage. Perhaps psychotherapy could help.
The British Army proposes that soldiers will communicate and get information
via mobile phones running Android.
The article doesn't say whose phone network the soldiers would use, or
how they would stop it from triangulating on each of them — nor how
they would stop the enemy from getting their locations by cracking the
phone network.
I recall this sort of thing vaguely from the US, where officials said
that the army can save money by being smaller and yet be stronger by
using high-tech systems. I think the high-tech systems ate up more money
than the savings.
The House passed a bill, the PRO Act, which would give gig workers the right
to organize unions.
But that's all it would do for them.
In my view, it's a step forward but not enough.
Half of surveyed Republicans say it is very important to prosecute the
people that attacked the Capitol.
It would be interesting to know whether the Republicans who want to
prosecute are the ones that believe the attackers were Antifa.
A senator reports on visiting a building where border-crossing minors
are kept.
The senator says that they are being treated decently given their numbers.
If children were held long-term in such places, the places would be
prisons. Legally the government is supposed to send them to stay with
families within 72 hours, but it can't keep up.
The "Build Green" infrastructure bill would invest in electrification
of transportation in the US.
*For Biden's Climate Diplomacy to Be Successful Abroad, It Will Need Address
the Abusive Activities of U.S. Oil Companies in Africa.*
A fanatical restaurant owner in Michigan has been arrested for
persistently refusing to follow Covid safety guidelines and probably
spreading the disease.
Biden is extending the drugged war by pressuring Colombia to spray
glyphosate on coca farms.
*All Health Is Public Health.
The pandemic has blown up the myth that
our health is largely a product of individual choices and personal
responsibilities.*
I agree with this proposal, more or less. However, if we make
national sovereignty a foundational principle, we must recognize that
the rulers of countries can do things very badly. The US was ruled
until January by a covidiot who acted intentionally to spread
Covid-19.
Tanzania's late president was a Covid-19 denier and may have died from
the disease he refused to recognize.
Wealthier countries will not stand for funding the medical system of a
country which does not seriously aim to protect people's health.
National sovereignty and democracy don't guarantee that a system will
treat all the country's citizens with equal effort. Prejudiced
majorities can be found in many countries.
Finally, plain old corruption can occur anywhere.
These potential problems do not constitute a reason to reject the
overall idea of the article. But a proposed world medical system must
have a structure designed to reduce its vulnerability to these
problems — to discourage them rather than play into their hands.
*The planet cannot survive our remorseless pursuit of profit.*
Arguing that the US owes reparations to Iraq for the damage it has
done.
I agree that the US owes reparations for damages, but I disagree on
some secondary points.
The US did occupy Iraq for many years starting in 2003, but what the
US military has done in Iraq in recent years was help to defeat PISSI.
The US government has not controlled the Iraqi government for a long
time — reportedly it has been friendlier to Iran than to the US.
Paying to rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure is not as simple as it
sounds. This is not very different from the "nation building"
activities that the US made for some years after the conquest in
2003, and those funds were mostly siphoned off to corruption.
Funding the rebuilding of infrastructure in the US without having
the funds dissipated uselessly cannot be taken for granted. To do so
in Iraq would be an amazing achievement.
Maybe the US could rebuild Iraq's medical system successfully.
That may be the most important infrastructure system to rebuild.
*At behest of settlers, Israeli forces arrest Palestinian children picking
wild flowers.*
This is not as harmful as some other things they do -- but it shows
the mean spirit of those fanatical "setlers".
*GOP Senator Blocks Democratic Effort to Shield Covid Relief Payments From
Debt Collectors.*
I can imagine a landlord taking the relief payment to cover a small
part of an unpayable debt, then evicting the tenant anyway.
China has banned Tesla cars from entering military bases.
I think that is wise. Maybe Tesla doesn't normally use the cameras in
its cars for spying, but it would be foolish to trust any car not to
spy.
We should not trust them either. Rather, we should require cars to be
designed so that they can't spy on what is around them.
*We always speak of women's safety. Let's talk about male violence instead.*
I have never understood how a man can yearn for a woman and then do,
based on that yearning, something that is likely to make her unhappy
with him. To me, that's akin to deciding to be totally mortified.
Only some terribly important responsibility could convince me to
suffer that fate by choice.
Perhaps this means I am not a normal man. Are most men different
from me? If so, what made them so, and at what age?
I have no idea -- how would I know?
Putting undercover cops in bars is dangerous rather than helpful for safety.
I think it is comparable to putting cops in schools.
When there isn't time to do science the careful, reliable way, and it
becomes necessary to extrapolate beyond what is known, it is easy
for science to become politicized and distorted for advantage.
Opponents of Bolsonaro called him a Nazi, so to show how right they were,
he had them arrested.
India plans to track all cars somehow.
That will make it easier to find dissidents and anyone that state-linked Hindu
extremists wish to lynch.
The UK plans to change citizenship law to help people that were kept
out of the UK by the government's mistake and thus became ineligible.
However, the way they plan to fix it is not the right way, because it gives
a minister arbitrary discretion over whether to punish the individual
for a government mistake. The right change would be to legislate that
absence from the UK in which a government mistake played a role is not
an impediment to citizenship.
An opinion article describes a disputed Congressional election with
subtle right-wing bias.
I agree that it would be better to decide this election in an unbiased
apolitical way. And the House of Representatives won't do that; it is
dominated by the Democratic majority.
But the State of Iowa procedure would be equally political and
biased. The Chief Justice was appointed to the court by
an extreme right-wing governor.
Given this situation, I conclude that asking the House to decide is as
legitimate as asking the Republican judge to decide, if it has to be
one of those two.
What could be a better way? The idea that occurs to me right now is
to establish objective criteria for deciding which ballots are valid,
in edge cases. But this too will be politicized: Republicans would
prefer to invalidate any ballot which is somehow strange, since they
figure it is more likely to come from someone marginalized and thus
probably a Democrat.
China is systematically breaking up Uighur families
and keeping them relatives apart after years.
Covid-19 spread from one person to another by remaining in the air in
a hotel corridor for a period of 50 seconds, from closing the door of
the first person's room to opening the door of the second person's
room.
The fact that there was no ventilation in that corridor may have been
crucial.
(satire) *Local Birds Pissed Off Feeder Full Of Tourists.*
*Poor Peoples Campaign's "Moral Budget" Offers Guide to New Budget Priorities.*
I agree with the moral budget in a general way. I don't know enough
to comment on the specific details, except that I was surprised that
it seems to hold short of establishing a universal medical system.
Why not?
A UK government tutoring scheme hires 17-year-olds in Sri Lanka and pays them
only £1.57 an hour.
The author is most disgusted that some tutors are not quite 18 years
old. I am most disgusted by how little this government program pays
workers.
The UK government did something right for a change: it will make some
house construction companies cancel the sneaky, exponentially growing
fees that the not-exactly-owners of the houses were going to have to pay.
China is building a new embassy in London. The local council decided
to consider renaming nearby places and roads to Uyghur Court, Hong
Kong Road, Tibet Hill, and Tien An Men Square.
I hope they push ahead with this plan.
The Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act would authorize Puerto Ricans
to choose statehood, independence, or various other options.
Nine months after many New York City thugs attacked peaceful Black Lives
Matter protesters, only two thugs face some sort of legal proceedings.
But these legal procedings are not real criminal charges. The thug
department will hold a hearing to decide whether to punish them. Perhaps
they will get slaps on the wrist.
Around 180 more cases are still being investigated, slowly, but unless
their acts of violence are taken more seriously than those two, thugs
in NYC will continue to feel perfectly safe punching and kicking
protesters.
*8 People Describe How Unions Changed Their Lives.*
*Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry.*
Also to smash its lobbying power, which it uses for repressive laws
such as the DMCA and worse.
Out, out, damned Spotify! Please refuse to use it.
The only ethical way to listen to music is by getting a copy
that has no DRM, without identifying yourself, and without making
the antisocial promise not to share.
The People’s Parity Project aims to influence US courts and laws in a
progressive direction, working against the right-wing Federalist Society.
An Israeli organization finances intimidation lawsuits against people that
criticize the policies and/or actions of the occupation of Palestine.
One such lawsuit was defeated by California's anti-SLAPP law.
US citizens: call on the Senate to end the filibuster.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the National Marine Fisheries Service to slow
ships to protect young North Atlantic right whales.
US citizens: call on the FTC to investigate possible conspiracy to
fix the price of insulin.
The European Union and its member countries have messed up Covid-19
vaccination, with the effect of fomenting anti-vax sentiment.
Thousands may die because of their fear of a tiny danger that turned
out not to exist.
Brazil's medical system is collapsing under the weight of Covid-19,
and it is all because Bolsolaro has sabotaged the country
much as the wrecker sabotaged the US.
* Twelve months of Covid-19 has reversed 12 years of global progress
against tuberculosis.*
A few years ago, China accused two Canadians of espionage, apparently for
revenge. One of them, Michael Spavor, just had a secret trial which
lasted just three hours.
Clearly China is not interested in whether Spavor really committed a crime.
The bullshitter urged his supporters to get Covid-19 vaccination. An
interviewer found a group of them clinging to the lies he taught them,
and despising him.
That's a step up from supporting both him and the lies. But it is not
a step towards rationality or sanity.
If the majority of his cult followers follow this pattern, I predict
that the bullshitter will soon return to condemning vaccination,
and they will forget that he ever said anything different.
A broad coalition from 50 countries calls on Biden to end US support
for fossil fuel projects world-wide.
Lula called on Biden to donate the US's surplus vaccine pre-orders to
Brazil, or another country poorer than Brazil.
The US does not have a surplus of physical vaccine. What it has a
surplus of is commitments by various countries to sell the US
additional vaccine doses later. I expect the US will release those
commitments when it has enough actual vaccine, and the manufacturers
will sell those doses elsewhere. But I don't think the US will pay
for them.
Goldman Sachs operates like a sweatshop for its new employees. They
have to work 100 hours a week.
I work something like 100 hours a week, but nobody makes me do it.
it's for causes I am glad to fight for. In a good society, nobody has
to do that merely for money.
The CLEAN Act bill pretends to aim for 100% "clean" energy by 2035 by
allowing "clean" to include unclean forms of generation, such as
fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
Several countries have compelled companies to give gig workers the
rights of workers.
But in the US, plutocracy has won, so far.
Global oil demand is quickly returning to the level from before
Covid-19.
The House of Representatives passed once again a bill to give immigrants
brought to the US as children a way to become US citizens.
I support this bill, notwithstanding their use of the hokey term "dreamers"
for the people that it would help.
A lawsuit challenges Tory plans to impose a Republican-style voter ID
law in the UK.
Human fertility is decreasing so fast that by 2045 it extrapolates to
zero.
I doubt it will actually reach zero. Also, I expect there will be
ways to enable reproduction. The decrease in fertility so far may
help reduce overpopulation.
But it is impossible to be certain. And we need to stop the decrease.
I wonder how the decrease affects animals.
The UK has cut the subsidy for electric cars while preserving the
subsidy for fossil fuel cars.
Tory policy statements are so contradictory that you can't tell what
they really intend to do. Perhaps that is a strategy for getting away
with inconsistency.
* The oil industry knew at least 50 years ago that air pollution from
burning fossil fuels posed serious risks to human health, only to spend
decades aggressively lobbying against clean air regulations.*
Natural immunity after infection with Covid-19 is not reliable.
People need to be vaccinated, especially old people.
*Why do so many straight men come to resent the women they find attractive?*
I've noticed that pattern too, but never understood it. It seems to
result from an invalid step of reasoning which fortunately never
occurred to me. If I long for a woman's affection and attraction, but
she does not feel that way about me, I assume my own inadequacy is at
fault.
*Drugmakers Promise Investors They'll Soon Hike Covid Vaccine Prices.*
The Tories are planning a new era of spending cuts, which are sure to
fall mainly on poor people.
Utility companies have cut off electricity to over 750 thousand US
households because the pandemic has left them with bills they can't
pay.
And that counts only 10 states.
Senator McConnell threatens: if Democrats abolish the filibuster, he
will use all possible excuses in the Senate rules to paralyze the
Senate. And that, if Republicans ever win power again, they will go
all-out to reverse the progressive achievements of past Democrats.
In other words, exactly what they doing now ;-}.
If he abuses other rules to paralyze the Senate, the Democrats can
alter those rules to prevent the paralysis.
As for threats some day to pass horrible laws, the best way to prevent
that is for Democrats to pass some laws that most Americans are eager
for.
Biden ended the temporary halt to fossil fuel drilling permits for
public land.
This is a step in the wrong direction. And remember that fossil fuel drilling
on private land is just as dangerous for the survival of civilization.
There is no room in the carbon budget for fossil fuel development on
land or sea, anywhere in the world.
*Documents Show Industry Pushed to Relax Food Safety Measures During
Pandemic.*
Congress is considering bills to protect the western Monarch butterflies,
which are close to being wiped out.
*Feeding cows seaweed could cut their methane emissions by 82%,
scientists say.*
This is a great advance, but we would still need to reduce the
production of beef — because growing their feed uses too much
land and too much fertilizer.
A new Medicare for All Act has been introduced in Congress. Passing
it will not be easy, but let's push hard.
The proposed single-payer medical system would be considerably better
than actual Medicare.
A study argues that Medicare for All would have prevented a considerable
fraction of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the US.
US businesses are rushing to replace human workers with automation.
Some analysis forecast eliminating 45 million jobs by 2030.
"If robots make it, we've gotta take it!" A society with a cornucopia
must include everyone.
Of course, the cornucopia can't include products that degrade
ecosystems. There will have to be limits on things like beef.
*Sanders Bill Would Hike Taxes on Big Corporations That Pay CEOs Over 50 Times
More Than Median Worker.*
(satire) *Zookeepers Confirm Pandas Not Mating Because They’re Scared Of Messing Up
Friendship.*
Correction: Republican Rep. Salazar, who voted against the Covid-19
relief bill, did not try to take credit for it. She was talking about
a different bill that proposed a policy change for the Small Business
Administration.
I correct this point because I posted the incorrect criticism before.
*This is What Israeli Apartheid Looks Like.*
US presidents have for decades overthrown governments in many countries.
It was a small leap from there to trying to overthrow the US government.
(satire) *Bible Scholars Say Early Mistranslation Distorted Story Of
Jesus Crucifying The Romans.*
*A substitute teacher living in his car got a birthday surprise of $27,000 from a former student.*
If you focus on those few individuals, it is a heart-warming story.
But look at the bigger situation: our society is so plutocratist that
rich people blow millions on frivolities while teachers are homeless.
Burning refined coal was supposed to reduce air pollution, but it
doesn't have that effect in reality.
The moral and military issues raised by drones as weapons.
*Eating up the rainforest: China’s taste for beef drives exports from
Brazil.*
*Bottom trawling releases as much carbon as air travel, landmark study
finds.*
*Racist extremists pose most deadly terrorist threat to US,
intelligence report warns.*
Europe is headed into another wave of Covid-19, caused by variants
that spread more.
I agree that holding back on vaccination is foolish. In addition to
delays in saving many people's lives, it will fuel anti-vax sentiment
which will itself endanger lives.
Australia is deporting New Zealanders for committing crimes, even if they
have not seen New Zealand for decades.
This is not as bad as when the US deports people to countries where they
don't even speak the language.
But it is nonetheless unjustifiable.
The full enormity of Australia's policy can be seen in its attempt to
deport an Australian citizen, with Australian roots, who happened to
have New Zealand citizenship too.
Cancelling people's citizenship is not a legitimate punishment.
*Prominent supporters of Alexei Navalny face "indefinite" house arrest.*
Various proposed rule changes for the Senate would make it easier to
overcome a filibuster, and more difficult to keep it going.
The Burmese army has launched deadly mass repression in Rangoon.
*ECJ orders France to ban glue-trap hunting of songbirds outright.*
A journalist investigated the trapping and found much deceit.
Republican state legislators are trying to stamp out any and all forms of democracy at the state and local level.
The right to protest is part of democracy, so Republican state
legislators are trying to criminalize protest.
The recently passed US relief bill failed to say that debt collectors
could not take the relief payments for payment of debt.
The result is that many poor people are just as poor as before.
The Tories are rushing through a law to criminalize protests
and give thugs more power to attack protesters.
There was a substantial protest on Sunday.
Britons had better protest while they still can.
*Amazon Retaliated Against Chicago Workers Following Spring Covid-19
Protests, NLRB Finds.*
A few rich people with houses on Long Island are suing to stop the power cable from an offshore wind farm from running, 30 feet
underground, through their hamlet.
It would be good to establish national safety criteria for wind farms,
on sea and on land, to assure that they can't be built where they
would cause real problems for anyone — not even people who are poor
or disprivileged — and that even rich NIMBYs can't arbitrarily block
them.
Britain (and the world) needs to remember the evil side of Winston
Churchill as well as the heroic side.
In addition to his racism, he was also a Tory: he stood for keeping
working Britons down. That's why they voted in 1945 to replace him
with the Labour Party, led by the giants that inspired Jeremy Corbyn.
Set against this, he not only championed the defeat of Germany and
Japan, he also made the world aware of the totalitarian repression of
the Soviet Union under Stalin.
It is true that cancellationism and pressure for censorship can be
found on the left and on the right. When they come from the right,
they tend to involve heavy-handed threats. Resisting that can be
difficult but people don't hesitate to denounce it as censorship.
When they come from the left, it consists of a mob that demands
submission in the name of a cause which is basically just. Many
consider them heroes, and just as with Churchill, find it difficult to
recognize the evil side of what they do.
Sperm whales taught each other
Sperm whales taught each other, as a society, effective methods to
protect themselves from human whale-hunters that were using sailing
ships.
There is a campaign to stop the US government from buying personal
data about people from data brokers.
It would be a step forward, but as usual it does not try to deal with
the overall problem: massive surveillance of people in general.
The US government may not be the only government that buys data about
Americans from data brokers. Is it ok if other governments know all
about most Americans?
Indeed, the US government could work around the proposed law. The NSA
could get data about Americans by cracking the computers of foreign
governments that buy the data from US data brokers. Or by cracking
the servers of foreign data brokers.
The real solution is to make sure that data brokers don't have such
data, because the data are not collected in the first place.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports on the danger to journalists
from spyware used to endanger them.
People see the problem of goods designed to cease to run,
but they don't see that it is the tip of the iceberg.
The things that make an iMonster impossible to repair include the same
things that make it unjust to its users while it is still "in working order".
Please distinguish between obsolescence (something that happens to a
given model) and inoperability (something that happens to a
particular object).
Swiss thugs seized the computers of Tillie Kottman, who I previously
read was the voice of the group of crackers that looked at the video
archive of Verkada insecurity cameras.
The thugs say this was on account of a previous act of security
breaking, about which we know nothing, but if it is similar to what
they did to Verkada and Nissan, it would involve commercial secrets
about mistreating the public.
I wish Kottman had not fallen into the trap of using the confused
pseudo-concept of "intellectual property".
The article is written using confusing pronouns, so that I cannot tell
in some points whether "they" refers to one person or several.
Us neighborhoods where banks refused to make loans (because they were
inhabited by poor people or blacks) are now generally more vulnerable
to damage from flooding.
Global heating is exacerbating the danger of flooding.
I'm curious about how this came to be. I have a conjecture.
Cities invested less in those neighborhoods, and still do;
maybe inadequate infrastructure causes the risk of flooding.
The US convinced the UAE to have its proxies in Yemen release
journalist Adel al-Hasani.
He is not to be confused with the other person, Osama al-Hasani, whom
Morocco recently handed over to Salafi Arabia for repression.
An investigation by the CDC found that the saboteur's aides altered or
wrote parts of some CDC reports last year.
I'd be interested to see a summary of what specific changes and
impositions they found.
(satire) *Florida Attempts To Increase Vaccinations By Leaving Loose
Syringes Around Beaches.*
The Director of National Intelligence reports that Russia tried
secretly to support the wrecker's campaign with disinformation, while
Iran tried secretly to support Biden.
Various countries will say what they wish to try to influence US
elections. That can't be avoided. But maybe we can have a system in
which such campaigns don't have much influence.
Maybe we can have candidates who won't be eager for such "help."
Women's participation in urban design and engineering can make streets safer.
The UK threatens to use nuclear weapons in response to a cyber-attack.
This is foolhardy and dangerous. It is not obvious who launched a
cyber-attack, thus easy to do it as a false flag move. And it could
lead to a nuclear war that would destroy our world.
*Uber to pay UK drivers minimum wage, holiday pay and pension.*
They get some benefits in case of illness, too.
If Uber treats drivers decently, I'd have no reason not to use it, if
someday I can do so anonymously and without running nonfree software.
Port Moresby General Hospital (in Papua New Guinea) may have to close
because 30% of the staff has Covid-19.
Two groups of chimpanzees, in two different zoos, seem to enjoy a video
link between them.
I hope they are not grooming those chimps to use nonfree software.
They might never get organized to stop.
On the other hand, they are not entitled to human rights,
so maybe in their case it's not as bad as it is when humans use
nonfree software.
Some big investment companies are starting to recognize that they have
been accelerating global heating for decades, and making some effort
to slow the juggernaut.
Is this going to be enough? I don't think it will stop global heating
fast enough. We need stronger action.
*Feeble Pandemic Protections at Private Texas Prison Leave People
Fearing Death Behind Bars.*
With Republicans in Texas preferring to catch and spread Covid, there seem to
be vaccine doses available there. The US government has a responsibility to
give federal prisoners medical care, including vaccinations, so it should
give those vaccinations to prisoners to protect them.
Proposals to use hydrogen as a fuel are causing confusion because they
think of hydrogen as a source of energy.
In fact, the proposed use of hydrogen is not for generation. It is
for storing and transporting energy densely, good for machines such as
airplanes which need to minimize the weight of their fuel. A tank
full of liquid hydrogen weighs a lot less than a battery holding the
same amount of usable energy.
However, we're going to need to extract the hydrogen atoms out of
something. If we want to use electricity to power this operation, we
will extract the hydrogen out of water, using electrolysis.
The advantages of using hydrogen for storage and transport are
entirely independent of how we generate electricity to make the
hydrogen. Naturally we should choose the best method for that:
renewable generation. Not expensive, polluting and accident-prone
nuclear reactors.
Foxconn seems to want more subsidy from Wisconsin. It is trying to give
the impression that it might actually manufacture something there.
If Foxconn does make electric vehicles for the US market, I suspect they will
report their movements and listen to conversations for the Chinese state,
in addition to whoever else new cars snoop for.
Spain will sponsor companies to try out a four-day work week.
* Why have Tory defenders of ‘free speech’ been so quiet over the
proposed police powers? They know who they are aimed at.*
Purdue Pharma proposes to get out of bankruptcy with insufficient payments
from the Sackler family.
There seems to be a disagreement about how much money the Sackler
family actually received from Purdue Pharma. Perhaps they should
agree to a full audit of their finances to determine what they
actually received. For instance, to see whether they acquired any
offshore assets that are difficult to trace.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Postal Banking Act.
Thousands of minors have crossed the US border unaccompanied.
Immigration sends them camps where they are supposed to stay for at
most 72 hours before being housed somewhere; the government can't find
places to house them as fast as they are arriving.
The conditions sometimes get very bad. Perhaps this is due to
overcrowding, but I don't think that is enough to explain the
problems. I can't see what could legitimately cause people, in a camp
using tents as housing, from seeing the sun all day — unless they are
locked inside their tents. Is that the case? If so, why?
The government is trying to make more places for minors.
Biden must end Salafi Arabia's blockade of Yemen, which is causing
starvation.
Economics Nobel prize winners say that the world's economic recovery
depends on setting aside vaccine patents.
Since June/July, states governed by Republicans have had higher
Covid-19 case/death rates than the states governed by Democrats.
Medea Benjamin's criticisms of Biden's foreign policy.
I agree with her except on items 3 and 6.
Regarding Salafi Arabia, Biden using a kind of pressure
that has a chance of bringing about a transfer of power
away from Prince Bone Saw.
Regarding China, I regard China as a real threat to the world,
especially its threat to conquer and enslave Taiwan.
Unlike many other countries that the US claimed it would "help" — for
instance, Afghanistan, Cuba, Honduras, Iraq, and Venezuela — the
Taiwanese have a real democracy and want US support to protect it from
China.
*$15 Minimum Wage Would Lift Millions Out of Poverty, Says... Wall Street
Giant Morgan Stanley.*
If a big company is against raising the minimum wage, I have to
suspect it wants to pay workers little. But if it is for raising the
minimum wage, its motive must be more decent.
Computerized filtering of job seekers' résumés means that anyone who
is capable but unusual is never considered.
Covidiot students went to Florida on spring break and acted as if
there were no such thing as Covid-19. Many will bring Covid-19 back
to school and spread it there.
Last weekend was the Easter holiday long weekend in Italy. Some
resort towns in Liguria, on the Mediterranean Sea, closed all stores
including supermarkets for the entire long weekend, simply to make
sure that vacationers from heavily-infected Milan would not come there
this time.
That is a wise policy, placing people's lives and long-term health
above profits.
Tree ring studies show that recent droughts and heat waves in Europe
have no parallel as far as the analysis runs
— which is 2,000 years.
Scientists have found that global heating is the cause, which implies that
we are making the problem worse.
Ilhan Omar proposes that the US deportation thugs stop using prisons
for criminals to imprison people for deportation.
The Canadian province of Alberta runs an undisguised propaganda effort
in favor of fossil fuels.
Specifically, in favor of the CO2-intensive tar sands oil that
Alberta exports.
The mingling of modern humans with Neanderthal and Denisovan humans
may have resulted in a burst of creativity from 50,000 to 30,000 years
ago.
I think it is a mistake to include Homo floresiensis among ancestors of
modern humans. They were more like Homo erectus, and there is no evidence
that they did or could interbreed with Homo sapiens.
We need to triple the rate of building renewable electric generation.
As the Tories push for a law to restrict protests, the minister of
repression says that protesters are "hijacked" what she thought was
supposed to be much less.
Bogus Johnson promised the protesters one part of their demand.
Whether a promise from him means anything is a good question. But the
right to protest, itself, is more important than any of the causes
people protest for.
If some of the protesters stood too close together, the proper action
by the state would have been to insist that they they protect each
other by keeping distance — not to stop them from protesting.
European governments have ceased administering the AstraZeneca vaccine
based on a shadow of a shade of a problem, because they have adopted a
policy of bending over backwards to cater to vaccine anxiety.
Den Haaland has been confirmed as secretary of the interior.
Usually I don't care about the "identity" of an official, only per
political stances. However, in this case I think that Haaland's
indigenious background, which is more than just a matter of ancestry,
is likely to help her right some of the effects of historic wrongs,
given that her political stance is to try to do that.
I also cheer her commitment to increased protection of ecosystems.
The wrecker is no longer president, but his attacks on the
International Criminal Court continue. Biden has done nothing to
change them.
Americans that cooperate with the ICC face punishment under these sanctions.
The ACLU is suing to invalidate that part.
Morocco was in an awful hurry to hand over Osama al-Hasani to Salafi Arabia,
where he is wanted for forbidden publication. It extradited him before
his case was actually finished.
It is clear that Morocco does not take legal rights seriously.
Sad to say, Morocco is not the only country that acts this way.
The UK's treatment of the extradition of Julian Assange is not similar
in details, but it is generally similar in its disrespect for
his legal rights.
In recent years, the US has deported people who were in the middle
of their court cases over deportation.
Bogus Johnson lied to the British people, to Northern Ireland, and to
the EU about the trade UK-EU trade deal. The British people are
starting to suffer the consequences — unemployment and poverty — and
ought to be fed up with the lies.
*Collapse of trade with EU will "last until the summer".*
Meanwhile, the EU is already fed up.
As Sanders says, Americans want Democrats in Congress to do the right
things, not wait for Republicans in Congress to go along.
The Republican Party today is a lunatic death cult.
The only thing to do with it is defeat it.
US citizens: call on Biden and the Senate to appoint a progressive
commissioner to the FCC, and soon.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to sign the
Lee-Pocan-Auchincloss letter to reduce military spending.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to cancel the ship-launched cruise
missile.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to support the Break Free From Plastic
Pollution Act of 2021.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
The crackers who found a way to watch through Verkada insecurity
cameras did it so they could show the world the extent of surveillance
Verkada's insecurity systems carry out.
Bravo!
What these activists did was an act of cracking, because it consisted
of breaking security. It may also have been hacking, but I can't
directly tell.
According to Israel, if you claim that human rights in the West Bank
are Israel's responsibility, you're an antisemite. And if you claim
that the Palestinian government has the responsibility, you're an
antisemite.
2 trillion dollars of investment in coal-powered and gas-powered
electric generators is a bubble. When it bursts, those generating
plants are going to be valued at much less. Don't be caught owning
any of them when that happens!
The army arrested a Burmese political leader and protest organizer,
then said he had died while trying to escape from jail. However,
evidence suggests he was tortured to death.
*Acting civilian leader says people 'must win the uprising' against
junta.*
*Has the pandemic led to a long-term erosion of the right to dissent?*
There is no need to make it a question. The answer is, definitely
yes. What remains a question is whether the people, in the various
countries harmed, can overcome and reverse the process.
The UK wants to cancel the citizenship of the British wife of Syrian
dictator Assad.
The UK government claims she participated in his horrible crimes. The
proper way for it to act to those claims is indict her and ask
Interpol to help arrest her. Given adequate evidence, a fair trial
could convict her and sentence her to prison. This would be justice.
Cancelling someone's citizenship is wrong on its face, and since the UK
does it without a trial, it is also punishment without trial.
In practice, the effect of either measure would be to prevent her from
traveling to the UK or to a country that might extradite her to the
UK. If she travels anywhere, it would be to a country that has
decided to receive her as the spouse of Syria's president, and in that
case it would not matter directly to her which way the UK had handled
the matter.
But it will matter for justice to others in the future.
*To kill terrorist leaders
without addressing the despair of their supporters is a fool’s errand
and produces more frustration, more despair, and more terrorism. The
more we ‘win’ such a misbegotten war — the more we debase civil
society and democratic norms — the more we turn our society into an
Orwellian dystopia in which truth and lies are indistinguishable.*
The Observer: *On the erosion of our civil liberties.*
The Burmese now blame China for its support of the murderous army.
A call for people and government to do work to teach males not to be
violent towards women, with suggestions.
An Italian WHO scientist says he was pressured to cover up Italy's
failure to plan for a future pandemic.
The London thug department broke up a vigil for Sarah Everard,
a woman who was murdered on the street.
The thugs do little to pursue men that rape or kill women, but when
women hold a carefully harmless protest, they think they must not
allow it to go ahead. Apparently they are upholding the principle of
"No protests!" Not even carefully planned harmless nonviolent
protests may be tolerated.
Meanwhile, the Tories want to give thugs additional permanent power to
suppress protests even after Covid-19 is gone.
That the man arrested for murdering her is a thug, acting as a private
citizen, adds to the irony of this situation.
Bolivia's "interim president" who took over when the military ousted
Evo Morales faces criminal charges.
The right-wing accusation that Morales rigged the election was bogus
all along.
This does not, in itself, imply that Añez and the various officials
now charged are guilty of crimes. That we will have to see.
A proposed giant mine in Papua New Guinea includes a big dam to hold
toxic mine waste, plus lots of water. The rock there would not safely
support the dam structure, and if the dam breaks it would pollute the
important Sepik river.
The officials of Austin, Texas, are fighting in court to maintain
their mask requirement
against the all-out efforts of Covidist state
officials who persistently seek to spread the virus wherever they can.
It is our country's sad fate that Covid-19 and a mind-virus are spreading
in tandem.
First Google, now Microsoft, are trying impose patent obstacles
on use of Jarosław Duda's ANS compression system.
This illustrates how the US Patent Office has been deeply corrupted by
envisioning its job as serving patent applicants. However, even a
well-run patent system would do harm if it issues patents that
restrict running software on computers.
Some progressive members of Congress asked Biden to start considering
Palestinians' rights.
The Covid-19 stimulus just adopted does not fix the problems in
the US economy: dooH niboR is still at work.
In China, students are tracked in everything they do, using tracking
devices in their uniforms. EdTech is inventing totalitarian tracking
systems for US schools and students, with the motto, "No child left
untracked."
Everyone: call Illinois legislators to defend the Illinois biomedical
privacy law which businesses are pushing to repeal.
It is helpful for people outside Illinois to call!
A doctor said I had a distended abdomen. I said, "Hold it right
there! I tend my abdomen carefully every day — particularly the
stomach."
US citizens: call on Biden to put an end to executions by the US
US citizens: call on Biden and Congress not to make Rahm Emanuel an
ambassador.
Here are reasons why not.
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!!
Russia arrested more than 150 dissidents on charges of dissenting.
*Philadelphia calls for 'lights out' after skyscrapers cause hundreds
of bird deaths.*
I wonder why birds do not hit dark buildings.
*How Unions Defeated a Right-to-Work Bill in Deep-Red Montana.*
China has complained to the UN about Australia's imprisonment of
asylum seekers — in islands outside of Australia where the press may not be allowed.
China is right about this. Australia is committing a horrible crime
and we should not let it off the hook.
Meanwhile, China is doing much worse, and on a far larger scale.
This is not a question of which of the two countries are committing
bigger crimes.
New York Governor Cuomo can no longer keep scandals bottled up,
because his plutocratist Democratic machine has lost control
of New York State to progressive Democrats.
UK ministers used to have to resign if they lied.
Bogus Johnson has made lying to Parliament standard practice.
Some US colleges are cancelling spring break so that their students
don't go to Florida to catch and spread Covid-19 and then bring it home.
That is a wise precaution. It would be wise for the US to forbid
interstate travel in and out of states governed by spreaders.
A Texas thug has been charged with murder for shooting and killing an
unarmed man with no justification.
The thug department, of course, says thugs should be allowed
to get away with that.
Wealthy countries including the US continued to insist on hampering
global production of Covid-19 vaccines by means of patents.
Please do not call patents "intellectual property". That term
injects fundamental confusion and presupposes values that put profit over life.
The TRIPES agreement (Trade-Restricting Impediments to Production,
Education and Science) ought to be cancelled entirely, along with the
rest of the WTO.
A Palestinian died in a fire because Israeli soldiers held up the fire
truck for half an hour.
The US just gave private medical insurance companies more subsidy to
provide lousy medical care to Americans, but a universal national
medical system is what we need.
US citizens: call on Congress and Biden to do their utmost to support
unionization at Amazon.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Israelis that are living on Palestine's land continue using
violence to try to drive out Palestinians.
This reminds me of what I heard about the pogroms that gentiles
carried out occasionally against Jews. I have the impression that
Israeli Jews have learned the backwards lesson from the injustices
that their ancestors suffered until around 100 years ago: the lesson
that "We can do, to those weaker than us, as we were done to by those
stronger."
Plutocratist Democrats are making sure that Biden's infrastructure plan
will be too small to do a lot of good — or win over many voters.
The For the People Act would override many new Republican obstacles to
voting.
US citizens: call on the Senate to reject the Menendez-Graham
letter, which would obstruct resuming the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "SAFE" bill.
which would terrify companies into censoring who-knows-what.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
There is a report that Israel has attacked Iranian oil tankers, as well
as Iranian ships carrying arms.
Israel has accused Iran of attacks at sea. If that's true, those may
have been retaliation for Israeli attacks. I have a suspicion that
the US encouraged Israel to make these attacks.
There is no reason for the US and Iran to be in conflict. Iran is not
the Great Satan, and not a world power.
Iran supports Assad's regime in Syria. Assad is a dictator and
torturer. However, the US supports torturer-dictators too,
including Iran's great enemy, Salafi Arabia, so we Americans should not demonize Iran too much for this. Let's make our
own government change its own wrongs.
Iran's government has a democratic part and an Islamist theocratic
part. The theocratic part oppresses Iranians, and it should not
exist. But there is nothing the US could or should do to change that.
We Americans should focus on defeating the lunatic Christian theocratic movement that threatens our own country's rather limited democracy.
Proxies of the UAE have jailed Yemeni journalist Adel al-Hasani,
who reported on ties between UAE and al-Qa'ida.
*Growing Chorus Implores Biden to Fire Trump Holdovers Who Support
'Dismantling and Cutting' Social Security.*
They have already tried to sabotage the program. Why let them have any
authority?
It is sometimes wise to make peace with officials who disagree with
you but are not cutthroat about it, and may change their minds. But
it never makes sense to let a known saboteur remain.
Some Burmese cops resigned and fled to India after refusing an order
to shoot protesters.
I suppose there were others that obeyed the order.
The Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act would limit the transfer of military weapons to thug departments. That's important since they often use those weapons when there is no valid reason.
A driver describes the encounter with three passengers that had no
masks, and coughed on him when he insisted they get masks and wear
them.
It should be a crime to knowingly approach a person while maskless inside
a building or vehicle.
You can see, from how stingy Uber was, how much it exploits drivers.
That is one of many reasons to refuse to do business with Uber.
Lyft is no better.
It is a good idea for drivers to carry spare masks for passengers who
need them.
The London thug department says that holding a vigil for a murdered woman
is illegal because the current rules intended to prevent spread of Covid-19
don't allow it.
The right of the people to gather in public to express one's views
must be respected, as long as the people take care to avoid spreading
disease. Since these people are not right-wing truth-haters, and
indeed would be protesting about the danger women face on the street,
I am sure they will make every effort to keep each other safe while
they do this.
Perhaps instead of holding a vigil, in one area, they should spread
out around the neighborhood or around the city.
One measure of how effective dooH niboR has been is that there are
people ready to blow 69 million dollars on a "non-fungible token"
whose worth derives from nothing except that (1) it can't be copied
because it has a signature and (2) others may in the future pay even
more for it.
It can be amusing to see them blow money so foolishly, but the poverty
that their system has imposed is no joke.
*[Republican] Senator Who Voted Against COVID-19 Relief Already Taking
Credit For Bill's Benefits.*
Today's Republicans will say, at each moment, whatever they feel like,
as if past history were meaningless.
*Researchers Say 'True Climate Leadership' by US Would Be 60% Emissions
Reduction by 2030,* plus support for poor countries to convert to renewable
energy.
US citizens: phone your senators calling on them to confirm Deb Haaland
as secretary of the interior.
https://act.350.org/go/227102?t=1002&akid=142708%2E1151744%2Exs4nEL
Here's why it is important to confirm her.
*Broadcast TV Networks Coverage of the Climate Crisis Plummeted in
2020.* It dropped 50%.
Rep. Jayapal demands an investigation of the involvenment of three right-wing
extremists, themselves members of Congress, in the attack on the Capitol.
A study reports that the Fukishima nuclear meltdowns have caused no
medical problems for the people living nearby.
However, it may be starting to harm the people who have recently
returned to areas closer to the power plants.
Even if people other than plant workers suffer no medical harm,
the loss of the plant itself and the cleanup cost amounts to
a disaster. And if 50 years from now Japan is not in a situation
to finish the cleanup, a much bigger release of radiation will occur.
One advantage of renewable electricity is that the collapse of a wind
power generator or solar generator is not a disaster.
The UK government plans to tackle "premature obsolescence" for large
appliances with a requirement to sell spare parts.
Global heating is eliminating forest in many parts of the world.
Shrubs grow instead.
This is a positive feedback for global heating, since the dead trees' carbon
will get converted to CO2 (unless it becomes structures or furniture) and the
replacement vegetation won't use as much carbon as the trees.
It also casts doubt on whether planting lots of trees will do any good
to overcome global heating. It may be too late now for that.
*14-hour days and no bathroom breaks: Amazon's overworked delivery
drivers.*
An overworked driver is dangerous.
There should be a special law specifying the maximum time a paid
driver can be paid to drive in one day, for the purpose of road
safety, and a special minimum wage for any paid driver, to make
sure paid drivers don't need to take more than one job.
If a paid driver has a collision and has been working more than the
maximum hours, whoever hired per to work longer should be legally
responsible for the collision. That would make Amazon quit
overworking drivers.
* [Thug] departments in major cities across the world give their officers
legal impunity to use lethal force even when their lives are not in
danger.*
*Hong Kong activists urge EU not to ratify new deal with China.*
I hope Europeans will organize a campaign for this.
In Australian universities, Chinese students and Chinese professors
kowtow to the long tentacles of China. So do the universities
themselves.
Perhaps a computer system can be designed to enable students from China to
participate pseudonymously in courses and seminars, for their protection.
However, I don't see what could possibly be done to make professors
from China safe from Chinese repression.
I think that, in fields such as history and modern literature, in
which honest evaluations of Chinese policies is crucial for teaching.
Universities should not hire professors who would be inhibited by
China's repression. I don't despise people who would be inhibited by
that monster. I can understand it. But if they are inhibited that
way, they can't be good professors, so the university must hire
someone else.
As for how to prevent the university from kowtowing, perhaps it would
be adequate to limit the number of students from China that can enroll
in any one university, any one department, any one lab, etc. Limiting
the amount of funds that come from China might limit China's
influence.
These measures will be painful, but that pain must be suffered for the
sake of the university's integrity.
The UK has proposed new laws to restrict and punish protests.
India's repressive right-wing government has imposed sweeping
surveillance and censorship on the internet.
India has already imprisoned people for criticizing the state,
so we
can expect this new repressive power to be used in the most harmful
possible way.
It's no longer just the Dalits and Muslims who are being repressed.
Now it's anyone Modi's party considers hostile.
The US border thugs want to make face-recognition patterns for every
non-citizen entering the US. These patterns would facilitate
checking images to match their faces.
(satire) *Secret Service Worry Major Biden’s Behavior Influenced By
Time Spent On Far-Right Dog Forums.*
The April 2020 Covid stimulus bill lent money to businesses (and other
employers) to keep their workers employed. But many of the businesses
that borrowed did not then keep their workers employed.
The bully arbitrarily blocked many Muslims from coming to the US.
Many can apply again, paying substantial fees a second time.
Thousands are not allowed to apply again because of the nature of the
visa they sought.
If Biden agrees that the ban on some Muslims arbitrarily denied them
their rights, he should restore what they were denied. Citing laws is
not a moral excuse for failing to do so.
*Activists and Rights Groups Sue Clearview AI, Warning 'We Won't Be
Safe' Until Facial Recognition Firm Is Gone.*
I wish they would stop undermining their arguments by talking about
the lesser accuracy of the system for blacks' faces. We can't defeat
face recognition by arguing that sometimes it does not work.
The danger is that often it does work.
*Journalist Andrea Sahouri, Arrested at Black Lives Matter Protest in Iowa,
Found Not Guilty of 'Bogus Charges'.*
It is scandalous that the prosecutor brought this to trial. Perse had
plenty of chance to find out that they were bogus. It bespeaks the
intention to use the legal system to harass journalists. I suspect that
the prosecutor is right-wing, and perhaps even a white supremacist.
Is there information about that?
The big US grocery store chains, such as Walmart, use their purchasing
power to keep small grocery store's counters bare.
I recommend breaking up those big chains. Make more, smaller chains,
that will have less power to starve everyone else.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the "SAFE Tech" act, which would
pressure Internet platforms to censor very strictly.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
(satire) *Don Jr. Sends Letter To RNC Begging To Have Likeness Used
For Fundraising.*
The wrecker told the RNC a couple of weeks ago to stop using his
likeness.
50 million American schoolchildren today are likely to go through
lockdown drills repeatedly in their school careers. I estimate that
100,000 current students will experience a non-drill school lockdown
at some time in their lives, and 100 will be killed in school
shootings. Do the drills do more good, or more harm?
Greek thugs are habitually violent. A video showed a thug hitting
someone with an iron bar, and this inspired a peaceful protest in
which a few violently attacked some thugs.
The person attacked by the thug was reportedly caught violating
Covid-19 precautions. It is important to enforce them, but brutality
is not justified.
I can understand the pent-up anger that the protesters feel, but
sinking to the thugs' level will only undermine their cause.
Protest movements must learn the discipline of nonviolence.
*Failure to investigate [UK] ministers [accused of corruption] risks alienating public, says ex-ethics adviser.*
Texas is endangered by gangs of covidiotic bullies, and the rest are
desperately trying to get vaccinated to be safe from them.
If you run the nonfree Javascript code of a vaccination web site,
I'll understand — Covid-19 could endanger your life. I decided
not to run that nonfree software, and instead find a vaccination
appointment by phone. It did not take very long.
Burmese thugs are arresting protesters by the hundreds, and trying to
intimidate the striking railroad workers by shootings.
*Governments failing to fulfill talk of green Covid recovery, UN warns.*
The European Parliament advanced a proposed directive to make
companies responsible to some extent for damage done by their foreign
suppliers, including human rights violations and environmental damage.
It's not clear to me how far the responsibility would extend.
Also, I am not sure whether non-European companies selling directly
to customers in Europe would be covered.
Rep. Raskin: *FBI must target white supremacists' infiltration of
police agencies.*
Victor Obiols was fired as Catalan translator for Amanda Gorman's
poetry because he was the wrong race.
Obiols commented,
*But if I cannot translate a poet [Amanda Gorman] because she is a
woman, young, black, an American of the 21st century, neither can I
translate Homer because I am not a Greek of the eighth century BC. Or
could not have translated Shakespeare because I am not a 16th-century
Englishman.*
I can't say it is impossible that a young, black, female translator
would have an objective advantage in understanding and translating
Amanda Gorman's work. My understanding of poetry is limited, so I
won't try to judge that question.
However, since Obiols has finished his translation, I think it would
be interesting to publish both translations and let readers — and
Gorman herself — compare and judge.
Even more interesting: publish both translations, labeled A and B, and
identify who translated which in an endnote. This way, people can
compare the translations and see which they prefer, in a blind test.
*Queensland passes laws banning 'killer' single-use plastics.*
The aim is to reduce litter and protect wildlife.
*Thailand considers expanding jails as it arrests more political prisoners.*
*US must cut 50% of emissions by 2030, environmental groups say.*
This is counting from the 2005 level, which was higher than today.
Making the case that China's treatment of the Uighurs is genocide.
An Illinois law requiring companies to give notice of any biometric
surveillance is starting to get in the way of some businesses, so they
are pushing to repeal it.
That's what plutocracy looks like.
If you live in Illinois, I suggest you tell your state legislators you
want more restrictions on surveillance, not less.
A right-wing extremist who joined in attacking the Capitol joyfully
told friends that he pretended to be a supporter of antifa during the
attack.
*The Racist History of Tipping.*
This article was publish in 2019. Does anyone know whether the minimum wage increase bill that was just defeated would have eliminated the subminimum wage
for tipped workers?
The idea of meritocracy makes sense to the extent that we would rather
have capable people make civic decisions. But that doesn't justify
the idea that more capable people deserve better lives.
The prosecution of Nazir Ahmed, accused of sexual abuse of children,
collapsed when it was learned that the prosecution had concealed
crucial evidence from the defense.
I don't understand how the British legal system deals with this, but
it smells like an attempt to railroad the defendants.
70% of Americans want to override the drug company monopolies and
allow companies in other countries to make Covid-19 vaccines.
If only there a way to translate this into actual policy.
The DCCC has ended, officially at least, its policy of blacklisting
consultants who work for progressive primary challengers.
(satire) *CDC Launches Ad Campaign Featuring Racist Mascot In Effort
To Get More Conservatives Vaccinated.*
After years of progressive organizing, Biden has chosen a number of
progressive officials for important posts.
It's a step forward, but we need several more such steps.
*Help Hong Kong residents flee before it's too late.*
China is imposing a law to block anyone, arbitrarily, from leaving Hong Kong,
Other countries should help Hong Kongers flee before then.
I expect that China will block anyone from leaving that it suspects
may aim to move permanently.
Those who could stay home during Covid-19 are exaggerating their suffering;
the people who had to go to a store or factory to work, or become homeless,
have had it far worse.
*All in it together? The pandemic's losers could soon be left behind.*
The US is designing a new ICBM because the businesses that will build it
have steered the consideration of the question.
That leaves the question of what the US ought to do. I can't
rigorously prove this, but I think that the existing ICBMs are in effect
a doomday machine, because a Russian attack intended to destroy them
would require so many nuclear weapons as to cause a nuclear winter.
Does anyone know whether that is true?
If that is true, there is no need to try to "improve" the ICBMs.
George Gascón, district attorney of Los Angeles, is trying to institute
criminal justice reform in the face of massive opposition from those
who believe the purpose of justice is cruelty.
Diversity training often fails; sometimes it backfires.
Telling me to learn to be "less white, less oppressive" will inspire me to
righteous anger. On the other hand, I've found it useful to learn to be
less certain, and I'd rather not be arrogant at all.
Nationalist fanatics associated with the ruling right-wing nationalist
repressive party blocked an annual theater festival, because the
titles of some plays to be presented struck them as insufficiently
nationalist.
Modi is even worse for India than the wrecker has been for the US.
*The best way for Democrats to weaken the far right? Build up the labor
movement.*
Many well-known childrens' books were revised to eliminate prejudice.
I think such revisions are a good way to fix the problem. They make the
book available without the prejudice.
The bad aspect is that the new edition will have a newer copyright;
children reading the new edition shortly after its publication will
grow old and die before they can lawfully share copies of it. Beware
the oppressive e-books with DRM(PDF)!
They will have to resort to
unauthorized copying.
What publishers should not do is to withdraw the book from
publication at the slightest hint of prejudice. That represents the
choice to destroy the work rather than fix it.
For instance, Dr Seuss's 1937 book, And to Think That I Saw It on
Mulberry Street, was withdrawn on account of one small drawing, which
depicts a Chinese man dressed in what might be a style of the 1800s
and wearing his hair in a queue, as the Manchu conquerors imposed.
I asked a Chinese friend and a Taiwanese friend what they thought of
that drawing. Neither one felt offended by it. Nor would I feel
offended by a drawing of an American with clothing and hairdo in a
style from the 1800s.
Papua New Guinea is being overwhelmed by Covid-19.
The statistic about the fraction of mothers coming to hospitals to
give birth who are infected is interesting because it is is something
close to a representative sample. If 40% of them are infected, it
suggests that around 40% of the population are infected.
We will see what damage Covid-19 does when there is no way to hold it
back.
Arkansas has passed a law banning abortions, almost like Honduras.
This is part of a plan for right-wing radicals on the Supreme Court to
eliminate or reduce the Roe v Wade decision that established
the right to an abortion.
* New coalition calls on governments to tackle root cause of emerging
infections — the destruction of nature.*
*Humanity Has Degraded or Destroyed Two-Thirds of
World's Rainforest.*
*A proposed Kentucky bill would make it a crime to insult or taunt a
police officer.*
How about making it a crime for those thugs to insult or taunt, or
worse, other people,
(satire) *ExxonMobil Throws In A Couple Extra Million While Paying
Pollution Fine As Advance On Next Violation.*
The wrecker privatized Medicare for some Americans.
As usual, privatizing a government service does harm to the people
it serves.
If a president could start this without Congress, another president
can end it without Congress.
(satire) *Los Angeles Carries Out Controlled Burn Of Old-Growth
Celebrities To Make Way For New Stars.*
Avril Henry: *People with a terminal illness are the lucky ones. I
have longed for a diagnosis of cancer.*
Eventually she gave herself a rapidly terminal illness.
It was an inexcusable wrong that she ended up (like so many others) in
a situation where life meant unbearable pain. But no one had a way to
right that wrong. She did not want people to feel sorry for her over this,
but I do anyway.
Henry did not deserve to die — no one ever does. But even less did
she deserve to continue living in that pain-wracked body, a fate worse
than death.
It appears that France's nuclear tests exposed people downwind to more
fallout than formerly believed. Those parts of Polynesia have
suffered an increased cancer rate since then.
*Charge more for flights to deter tourists and help the planet, says
Air New Zealand adviser,* advocating a greenhouse emissions tax on
international flights.
I have to agree.
In some countries, a large fraction of working people work in serving
tourists. The loss of many of those jobs will cause considerable
suffering. But that is the consequence of bad aspects of the
was our economies are organized: each person needs to work long hours
on something that is hard to automate. We could change that.
*US scholars form Academic Freedom Alliance to defend free expression.*
The presence of Cornell West and Nadine Strossen suggests it does not
conceal a right-wing alignment, and will defend freedom to express any
viewpoint. When I have a chance to learn more, I may support this
organization.
US citizens: call on Google to remove Proctorio from the Chrome app
store.
Chrome is unjust also; kicking out Proctorio does not mean your
computing respects your freedom or treats you decently. But it's one
step in that direction.
US citizens: call on Congress to send monthly aid payments to every
individual in the US.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
New anti-glossary entry: worth
Advocates for Palestinian's rights are being blacklisted for their
stand, by tarring them as "antisemitic". Those not ready to
dedicate them to that cause and get blacklisted often ask to
participate in an activity anonymously. However, when they do this in
an event at a public university, an Israel-funded lawyer sues
using
public records laws to force disclosure of their names.
These public records laws were meant for official decisionmaking; they
should not apply to academic activities.
That change needs to be made soon. Otherwise, China will hire a
lawyer to get the names of people who anonymously describe what China
did to them or their relatives.
*Mail-in
voting did not raise turnout or boost Democrats, study finds.* At
least, not generally. It may have made a difference in some places.
It was unwise for the House of Representatives to shut on March 4
because
of threats from QAnonentities.
Chancellor Merkel *has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic
could
endanger progress made on gender equality, as women [are saddled
with the bulk] of childcare in lockdown and are more likely to work in
at-risk jobs.*
The use of the metaphor "the lion's share" in the article is
ironically inappropriate, since it means "100%" and refers to what the
lion unfairly takes by force.
The founder of Jacobin magazine argues that building unions is the
most
effective way to reduce racism in businesses.
Why the US needs
the
WATER Act.
*Israel's military courts for Palestinians are
a
stain on international justice.*
America's military courts in Guantanamo, likewise.
But the ones in Israel are imposed on far more people.
The activities criminalized in occupied Palestine remind me of
those
China has criminalized in occupied Hong Kong.
Discussing US relations with Salafi Arabia and
how
to deal with Prince Bone Saw.
Trevor Donald was formally denied UK citizenship on the grounds that
errors
by the UK government had kept him outside of the UK for nine
years.
Tennessee Republicans propose to
make
it a felony to block any passage in a protest, and legalize
injuring or killing a protester through vehicular collision.
Global heating threatens national security for just about every
nation. But the only defense for a nation is to
defend
the Earth's climate.
Focusing on adapting to how military threats might change could enable
the US to win a hypothetical war, but only until global heating
effects cause it to collapse.
The House did not fix the weaknesses in the Justice in Policing Act,
described
here, so activists ask the Senate to make up for that.
(satire) *Researchers Warn Of New Giant Covid-19 Variant
Large
Enough To Swallow Grown Man Whole.*
Hedge fund raiders
squeeze
big corporations so that they have to buy back shares rather then
invest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It does not follow inevitably that they would have invested more in
reducing greenhouse gas emissions if not for the hedge fund raiders.
And some of the companies they raid are scum because of what they do
to the freedom of users.
Apple, for instance, restricts users so that
they can't install a free program from source code.
*Goldman Sachs Latest Major U.S. Bank to Set Net-Zero Emissions Goal
Without
Key Details to Get There.*
When I read that headline, I thought it was from The Onion. But it is
not satire. It is factual.
*Women in UK armed forces
face
'hostile environment' if they report bullying. … women are
coerced to withdraw harassment complaints.*
The US military is
developing
weapons systems that cost billions and don't work, yet it is
almost impossible to cancel them.
Local journalist Andrea Sahouri
faces
prosecution for covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Des
Moines.
Local thugs seem to have decided to treat her as a protester, never
mind that she told them she was a journalist. This article makes me
wonder whether they also violated the protesters' right to protest,
but I don't have the information to judge that. Can anyone tell me?
At 1.5C of global heating, only .4C more than now, fatal weather
will start to occur fairly often in topical areas.
Lula is free to run again for president of Brazil.
Forests and wetlands are more useful for humanity if preserved as they are
than if they were converted to other uses.
India has arrested Rohingya refugees and threatens to deport them
to Burma, where they might be killed.
Ethiopia's violent suppression of Tigray has triggered guerrilla resistance.
This could continue for years.
A thousand covidiots were joyfully infecting each other in Boulder,
Colorado, when cops tried to make them stop.
I don't know whether the cops acted like thugs -- one can never
presume they did not -- but some of the covidiots did.
The location outdoors would have tended to interfere with transmitting
virus, but with no masks and no distancing, they could have done it
anyway.
New York City is about to introduce municipal rental scooters that
will track whoever uses them.
Don't be distracted by the side issue of rules for access to this
tracking data. Whatever rules New York City adopts, the FBI won't be
required to heed them. It will be empowered to collect the whole data
base at will — once a month, or once a minute.
Making systems respect privacy means designing them not to collect
sensitive data (such as locations) about people without a specific
justification validated by a court.
I would not use these scooters unless I could use them anonymously.
Likewise, I would not use Uber unless I could use them anonymously.
* The U.S. can't [persuasively] rebuke global tyranny when our companies sell [face
recognition] tools that enable it.*
Burmese thugs and soldiers have taken over hospitals, presumably to
arrest (or worse) protesters they have wounded.
The US Chamber of Commerce, an extreme plutocratist organization, has endorsed
the wrecker's campaign to override US voters' votes.
*Research reveals that financial support of infected workers benefits everyone, but the [UK] government won’t budge.*
The US government isn't doing much about it either.
Kenan Malik: * Race should not be a factor in who turns the poetry of
Amanda Gorman into Dutch.*
The idea that particular art or culture should on principle be limited
to certain subsets of humanity -- even certain subsets of intelligent
life, if we meet intelligent non-humans -- is pernicious
discrimination, and unjust.
Criticism of "cultural appropriation" is an outgrowth of that unjust idea.
Rep Caliban: Democrats *need to find a way to
pass major voting rights legislation or they will lose control of
Congress.*
*More than 20 major [US] cities have reduced police budgets in some form, and
activists are fighting to ensure that is only the start.*
The UK has been very successful at chasing away migrant workers.
Their absence may prolong the recession.
Over a period of years, according to economics, wages for construction
jobs may increase and draw more Britons into those jobs. But most of
them (except that of waiter) require training.
The US military has a long tradition of not worrying about whether
its recruits are racists or right-wing extremists.
Prince Bone Saw is so important the US thinks that it can't afford
sanctions against him.
But Salafi Arabia is one among many regimes that regularly get away
with murder. Partly because making sanctions effective is harder that
it might appear. If the US wants sanctions to exert positive
influence rather than only look tough or cause mass suffering, it
needs to be very clever about them.
The US blames a missile attack on a US base in Iraq on Iran-supported militias
and plans to retaliate.
If we consider only that one attack on a US base, as a narrow issue
without context, I think that retaliating is justified in general.
It may not be wise, though.
However, considering that attack in its context, as following several
much worse US attacks on Iran's officials and installations, I think
the US should realize that it is more perpetrator than victim in this
exchange. Instead of retaliating, it should ask for negotiations.
Switzerland approved by referendum a law to prohibit covering your
face in public.
I am not Muslim, and I am not a woman, but that law will infringe my freedom
to defend myself from surveillance, when I am there.
Seven of the eight Democratic senators that rejected the minimum wage increase
are multimillionaires.
The article's reasoning about Senator Sinema is too aggressive. She
may have a million dollars; she may have several. But I wouldn't try
to deduce that from her salary. With an income of $174,000 per year,
it is likely to take more than a decade to save a million dollars.
Prosecutors keep on concealing evidence to exonerate defendants.
Freeing some defendants 25 years after a false conviction is a rather
unsatisfying form of justice. Can't the US develop a system that will
assure this form of prosecutor cheating does not happen?
China is building warships in large numbers, which could make the defense
of Taiwan very difficult.
*Biden orders temporary limits on drone strikes outside war zones.*
This is an interim measure while they develop new permanent limits.
Ultimately we will have to judge by the results.
(satire) *Congress Cancels Thursday Session After Authorities Warn Of
Looming Plot To Pass Stimulus Bill.*
White supremacists fabricated a story of Irish slaves in the Americas
to distract attention from concern with racism in Ireland and the
involvement of wealthy Irish in slave plantations in the past.
Any Irish that went to the Americas in the 1700s and 1800s went voluntarily,
or else as punishment for a crime. However, many of them were driven to go
by the activities of dooH niboR in Ireland.
Ten years since the Syrian civil war began have turned Syria into a horrible
mess of suffering that no one sees how to heal.
Secret "risk assessment" algorithms are still being used to steer the
education of black and Latin college students away from the tracks
followed by white students.
Is the governor of Texas prematurely dropping mask requirements just
to please business interests?
I don't think it's only that. I think this is suppression of nonwhite
(and probably Democratic) voters who are more likely to die.
I suspect also that it is partly that the refusal to protect oneself
or others from the disease is an act of bravado that can inspire fools
to join in.
The War on Drugs has perverted many aspects of life in the US.
*There are serious consequences for drug use in nearly every sector of
civil life — education, employment, housing, child welfare,
immigration, and public benefits.*
You could say that the US is addicted to drug punishment.
In the State of Washington, until recently, you could be convicted for
possessing drugs which you did not know were inside something that had
been given to you.
Republican officials in Texas found far-fetched reasons why it would
be wrong to reduce the impossible charges for gas or electricity
during the big storm.
Look for instance at the claim that people trying to cope with various
urgent problems caused by the storm should have looked at the high prices
and used no energy.
*Spring break could be a perfect storm for spreading coronavirus variants.
Don't let that happen.*
Facing the explicit and implicit social clubs of the well-off
students, British students from working-class families, who went to
state schools, have founded their own 93% Clubs to socialize, and to
organize.
I hope in their organizing they look beyond the goal of "social
mobility." Increased social mobility means that a larger fraction of
those starting poor will achieve a comfortable level of income.
That's good, but it would not end poverty. A real solution would give
everyone in society, even the poorest, a comfortable life.
*The Richest Country in the World Should Guarantee Universal Paid Sick and
Family Leave.*
This won't be sufficient if it is limited to employees. We need to make it
cover gig workers too.
Biden said he would work with Congress to reduce the authorizations
for war.
Glenn Greenwald: Congressional plans to compel Facebook to censor
would violate the first amendment.
Worse than that, the censorship might not stay limited to right-wing
domestic terrorists.
Right-wing disinformation on Facebook and Twitter puts our lives and our
freedom in danger. But we can't defend our freedom through censorship.
This is why I propose to require them to change their algorithms
fundamentally so as not to promote articles because of how much
"engagement" they generate. Let's recognize Facebook as running an
engagement ring, and prohibit that.
To pass the For the People Act, Biden must do as President Johnson did
in 1964 to pressure a few hold-out Democratic senators into passing
the Voting Rights Act.
However, the For the People Act has a few bad changes designed to
create hardship for parties other than Republican and Democrat. The
Green Party says:
The changes would put smaller parties at a bigger disadvantage in
funding,
and make it so expensive to get a presidential candidate
on the ballot that they may have to give up. There may be no one on
the ballot in 2024 I would consider voting for. For the first time
since I became old enough to vote, I may cast no vote for president.
The Green Party asks people to oppose the For the People Act. I do
will not oppose it, because its good changes are absolutely necessary.
What I will do is call my senators and urge them to remove the bad
provisions from the bill.
US citizens: call on Congress to end "qualified immunity" for thugs.
US citizens: call on McDonald's to stop snooping on workers' advocacy
of raising the minimum wage.
US citizens: call on Biden to clear away obstacles so all countries
can make Covid-19 vaccines.
Citizens of Massachusetts: call on the state government to stop
helping the deportation thugs deport Massachusetts residents.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the wealth tax bill.
Blinken should open his eyes and see why the ICC has jurisdiction to
investigate war crimes committed on the territory of Palestine.
The For the People Act has many good provisions, but also some bad
ones. They increase the power of money in politics, and put parties
other than the big two at an increased disadvantage.
Eight Democratic senators voted against raising the minimum wage.
The minimum wage would have been raised by steps, reaching $15 per hour
in a few years.
Requiring masks, and closing restaurants, correlate with lower rates of growth
of Covid-19 or higher rates of decrease.
(satire) *Disney Announces Next Movie Will Feature Princess With
Never-Before-Seen Ethnicity.*
*ACLU to Biden: Do Not 'Review' Drone Killing Program—-End It Once and
for All.*
Assassination via drone cannot be justified as war. If considered as
war, it is a war crime.
Low traffic neighborhoods reduce pollution in that neighborhood, but they can
increase traffic elsewhere.
Often "elsewhere" is where poor people live.
One key question, I think, is whether the low traffic neighborhood
leads people who live there travel carelessly for a substantial
fraction of trips. If it does, it can decrease the total pollution.
The UK systematically uses polygraphs to interrogate some convicts on
parole.
Making someone sit still for 3 hours answering questions, and accusing
per of cheating if perse fidgets, while threatening jail if perse does
not answer, is a subtle form of harsh interrogation — a psychological
equivalent of a "stress position." The polygraph itself might not be
necessary.
However, it won't cause real injury. Perhaps using it to get
confessions of parole violations is acceptable.
Georgia Republican officials claim that handing out food or water to
voters waiting for hours on line to vote — as blacks are often
compelled to do — is a crime.
They have adopted various measures to suppress the black vote.
Perhaps it would be lawful to sell snacks, rather than giving them away.
This article describes additional voter-suppression measures.
Republicans figure that each obstacle will block or deter a certain
number of voters and bring them closer to "winning".
One of the Republican officials involved in these disenfranchisement efforts
is Brad Raffensperger. Meanwhile, the press lionizes him for refusing to
of committing outright election fraud for the bully.
By refusing, he did his job honestly in that particular, but that does not make
him a hero.
* New York governor [Cuomo]’s aides rewrote report, which was not yet
public, to omit 9,250 deaths of nursing home residents.*
They would never have done such a thing without Cuomo's knowledge.
Don't forget that Governor DeSantis of Florida falsified te death
figures there.
Is there any reason to believe that he has stopped?
The New Enlightenment And the Fight to Free Knowledge, a book by Peter
Kaufman, describes the forces that have purposely crippled efforts to
share knowledge widely and freely, and proposes how to defeat them.
In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that the book
says very nice things about me. But it's about a lot more than me.
The book is being published on line
one chapter at a time, under CC-BY; eventually the whole book will be
there. Nicely printed copies are also available.
Everyone: call on McDonald's to stop snooping on workers' advocacy
of raising the minimum wage.
*China's five year plan could push emissions higher unless action is taken.*
Asking the public to admire underpaid "heroes" is an excuse for not giving them a raise. The Tories' treatment of the NHS shows this clearly.
*NHS may face a million long Covid patients after pandemic.*
If 16% of the people in a country are debilitated this way,
it would cripple the country. Will that happen to the US?
*Aussie State Senator Calls Out "Right-Wing, Intolerant Modi Government".*
* The total number of butterflies west of the Rockies has fallen 1.6%
a year since 1977.*
That amounts to around 50% since then.
*India's top judge tells accused rapist to marry victim to avoid jail.*
The article does not suggest he considered what the girl wanted.
* More than 400 European parliamentarians have urged leaders to use Joe
Biden's new presidency as an opportunity to stop what they term
Israel's "de-facto annexation" of the occupied West Bank.*
*WHO chief: waive Covid vaccine patents to put world on 'war footing'.*
Here are his actual words:
More precisely, he calls for allowing any manufacturer to make
vaccine. Anyone doing so would still be required to pay a royalty.
That cost by itself could slow vaccination.
I am disappointed that he used the ill-conceived concept of
"intellectual property", since that overgeneralization spreads confusion
and every use of it creates resistance to what he is trying to do.
Assad will confiscate the homes of Syrians who have fled his tyranny.
* A handful of rightwing “super-spreaders” on social media were
responsible for the bulk of election misinformation in the run-up to
the Capitol attack,*
They were not independent — they were working together.
Nearly all the principal supporters of democracy in Hong Kong are now
facing charges, or at least arrested.
China's rulers make up bullshit to justify each instance of injustice,
but they don't try to make the justification plausible to people
outside their control. They consider it sufficient brainwashed
supporters believe it, since almost everyone in China is a brainwashed
supporter now, or pretends to be.
The NOAA is planning to convert to publishing nautical charts only in
digital form. In principle, that may not bad. But will people be able to
access charts from the Free World?
If you are a mariner, please investigate the system of publication
that NOAA used. Try accessing it with LibreJS active, and see what
results you get.
And if it does not work, complain to NOAA.
Meatpacking companies lobbied hard against rules to protect workers
from Covid-19, and kept outbreaks secret.
Israeli soldiers are destroying Bedouin's crops.
Palestinians in Israel protested that the local thugs were doing nothing
about organized crime. The thugs began attacking many of them with weapons.
Some of the protesters required hospitalization.
The violence was clearly directed by officers.
US citizens:
call
on Merrick Garland to investigate and prosecute Trump and his
network.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to pass Senator Warren's wealth tax.
US citizens:
phone your congressional
representative and ask per to pressure Biden to stop construction
of the Line 3 pipeline.
Israeli border thugs
gratuitously
shot Ahmad Erekat dead after he had an embarrassing car crash,
then lied about the circumstances.
Thugs in various countries have a
practice of thinking, "What accusations can we make against the victim
that no one can disprove." But in this case they seem to have
exceeded that limit.
When my friends die, I miss them. It doesn't matter whether I even
see their corpses. But it occurs to me that there may be a sinister
reason why Israel holds permanently the corpses of Palestinians that
Israelis kill: to prevent autopsies that could provide objective
evidence about how they were killed. Making this a blanket policy
avoids the need to conjure up an individual excuse.
Biden gave in to a demand from Manchin and Sinema to
reduce
the stimulus payments for people whose 2019 income was above $80k.
Whether they were unemployed most of 2020 or not.
A UK Green MEP explains
the
Green Party proposals for reversing the Tories' dooH niboR cuts in
business taxes, plus a steadily increasing carbon tax.
*US experts warn new Covid variants and states reopening
may
lead to fourth wave.*
*Fauci: US shouldn't loosen coronavirus restrictions
until
daily new cases fall below 10,000.*
That is assuming your goal is to make Covid-19 go away. Republicans,
who boosted the infection last year and killed perhaps 300,000
Americans who otherwise would not have caught it, are still trying to
spread it. Perhaps their motive is that they expect it to
kill
mainly blacks.
I would add an additional proviso: we should not loosen coronavirus
restrictions unless we can determine that R will remain substantially
under 1 after they are loosened.
(satire) *Covid Announces Plan To Move Operations To Texas Full-Time
To
Escape Burdensome Regulations.*
(satire) *New Texas Law
Requires
All Masks Have Word ‘Pussy’ Written Across Front.*
How
the EU Commission Broke Its Own Rules to Let the Biotech Industry
Help Rewrite GMO Safety Laws.
By selecting the questions to ask, and who to ask them of, it is not
hard to shape the answers.
*China's Communist party ran campaign to discredit BBC, thinktank finds.*
Warning the UK that it can't shrink its carbon footprint and expand
an airport.
Italy is prosecuting the volunteer crew members of boats that went to sea
to rescue migrants traveling to Italy on smugger boats.
The US has likewise prosecuted people who leave water in
the desert for people trying to migrate from Mexico.
*Iran and IAEA clear potential roadblock to talks with US on nuclear deal.*
*The George Floyd Act wouldn't have saved George Floyd’s life.*
I will look for more information about the Breathe Act. However, the
George Floyd act does try to prevent other injustices committed by
uniformed thugs.
The ICC might prosecute Israeli officials, even a minister,
who
were involved in bombing Gaza in 2014. They might be unable to
travel internationally.
It is even possible that the court
might
investigate the crime of settling Israelis in the occupied West
Bank.
An Italian court is investigating the use of bombs made in Italy by
Salafi Arabia in Yemen.
The drug company lobby is lobbying heavily for the US to punish countries
that propose to save lives by making their own Covid-19 vaccine.
The article follows the misguided practice of using the term
"intellectual property". That term spreads both bias and confusion;
I urge people to reject it entirely as I do.
*Global oil companies have committed to 'net zero' emissions. It's a sham.*
They say they will make "offsets" so big, by 2050, that they will cancel out
fossil fuel combustion and leaks.
There's no way to absolutely prove this won't work, until 2050. Then
they can say, "Too bad, we tried," but everyone alive then will suffer
the ecological damage.
*South Korea's first transgender soldier found dead.*
Of suicide, it appears.
Humans are rapidly destroying the world's remaining seagrass meadows.
That is a shame, because they shelter baby fish and sequester carbon in the
sea bottom.
The chairman of the board of Rio Tinto will step down, following
several executives, due to the scandal resulting from the company's
destruction of 46000-year-old cave habitations in Juukan Gorge.
Management had got legal approval to do this, and acted as if nothing
else mattered.
Right-wing misinformation on Facebook attracts more attention than
truthful information. Left-wing misinformation attracts less attention
than truthful information.
A good, quick heuristic for finding valid information is look at
whatever left-wing information comes your way.
(satire) *Pros And Cons Of Sharing Vaccine Supplies And Technology.*
(satire) *New Military Diversity Initiative Aims To Make Leadership
Look More Like Countries They Invade.*
*Blaring Quiet Part Out Loud, GOP Lawyer Admits to Supreme Court That Easier
Voting Puts Republicans at 'Competitive Disadvantage'.*
The CLEAN Act would take some steps forward towards decarbonizing, but has
big shortcomings.
A protester has been jailed for protesting repeatedly in the vicinity
of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
The article makes a big fuss about the protester's ethnic background.
I do not think that makes any difference. I would admire anyone
equally for doing the same thing.
Sanders called on the Senate Democrats to disregard the views of
the Parliamentarian.
Varoufakis: *Both supporters and critics of US President Joe Biden’s
$1.9 trillion stimulus plan assume that there is a dollar amount that
is just right. In fact, no such figure exists: every possible
stimulus size
is
simultaneously too little and too big.*
In addition to a stimulus, Biden needs to *lift the spending power of
those who have next to none.*
Unconscious bias training does not seem to be effective in reducing
unconscious bias.
Chinese-Australians face a powerful current of racism.
Almost 1/5 have suffered violence or threats of violence.
People of Chinese origin or ancestry are not necessarily supporters
of the Chinese government. Indeed, some of them hate it.
I've seen articles recently about prejudice in the US against
"Asian-Americans". Racial prejudice is bad regardless of the details,
but I do wonder what people "Asian-Americans" means. Asia is the
biggest continent and includes a variety of peoples, and they do not
look similar, so it is implausible that all Asian-Americans are
involved.
Are Americans of Turkish descent facing prejudice? Iranian? What
about people from India and neighboring countries? Siberians? Do
Balinese musicians face threats? Hawaiians?
Are these articles really about people of Chinese descent, or who
resemble Chinese? If so, please don't mislead us with "Asian".
Factory farms emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. We need to
regulate farms to bring those emissions down.
A restaurant chain, threatened with closure, asks workers to "lend" it
10% of their pay.
Considering how little most restaurant employees make, they may have
trouble doing without 10% even supposing they will get it back.
But will they get it back?
If the restaurant chain stays in business and becomes successful
again, it will probably repay the loan, but we can't be sure.
Wage theft from restaurant staff is not unusual.
However, if the restaurant chain goes broke, which apparently might
happen, I expect the workers will probably lose the lent pay.
*Biden Criticized for Lack of Transparency After Refusing to Publicize Virtual
Visitor Logs.*
Hybrid cars use more fuel and emit more pollution than they are
advertised to emit.
In other words, they are a green swindle.
*Net zero increasingly involves highly
questionable carbon accounting. As a result, the new politics swirling
around net zero targets is rapidly becoming a confusing and dangerous
mix of pragmatism, self-delusion and weapons-grade greenwash.*
*[The deportation thugs] reached a new low: using utility bills to
hunt undocumented immigrants.*
*Emmanuel Macron has admitted French soldiers tortured and killed a
well-known Algerian lawyer and activist during [Algeria's]
independence war.*
The fact was already known, but the government's recognition of its
involvement is a step forward toward justice.
The Canadian "incel" killer has been convicted of murders, and will
presumably be sentenced to spend a long time "in cell."
Burmese soldiers and thugs shot protesters in various
cities.
They must have received orders to do that. They killed at least 33 people.
The Republican governor of Texas has eliminated nearly all rules
designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.
I think he wants as many Texans as possible to get infected before
it is too late.
Millions of Americans are receiving tax bills for their unemployment
insurance payments over the past year.
After decades of rule by dooH niboR, most Americans live close to the
edge. Especially those who lost their jobs last year. An expense of
$500 dollars will push them over the edge.
Millions of Americans are falling over the edge, because they
have not received unemployment benefits.
Jamaica's laws criminalize homosexuality. The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights ruled that these laws violate human rights
and inspire violence, especially by the uniformed thugs, which extends
as far as murder.
The challenge of changing those laws, and changing the hatred, remains.
Bogus Johnson openly manipulates the government to pay for personal
conveniences for him.
Tories have legitimized corruption to the point where they don't need to
disguise it.
Meanwhile, Labour has become so "centrist" that there is a serious proposal
for it to become the "party of business",
instead of the party of working people and those in need.
A party of the rich and the bigots and a party of business — that's
what the US had under Clinton. Progressive Democrats are gradually
changing that.
A study found toxic fracking chemicals in the air, water and human bodies
in the region of fracking in Pennsylvania,
even in people who live five miles away.
Fracking ought to be banned on account of its global heating
contribution alone, but local pollution adds another good reason.
Planet roasters try to distract Americans with concerns about side
issues such as "energy independence" so that they can keep
pumping oil to export.
They have obtained plenty of oil leases that they are not using yet,
so Biden's moratorium on approving additional leases won't affect them
for a long time.
I do not wish to take a nationalistic viewpoint towards the global
problem of planetary heating. If country C is going to buy oil and
burn it, it is not worse if that oil comes from the US. And refusing
to export it will mean some other country exports that oil, perhaps
Salafi Arabia. That is not a step forward.
On the other hand, if several countries compete to export oil, they
will export more oil, which is the opposite of what we need. We need
a treaty to limit and reduce oil exports.
But it may be possible for one oil-exporting country to exert
influence on its own.
Here's an idea: the US should agree to continue exporting oil to China
for the next 10 years, provided China agrees to build no new coal
power plants and shut down all its existing coal-fired plants on a
pre-agreed schedule during that time. And replace them with renewable
electric generation. And not to export any coal.
The energy independence that Earth needs is independence from
nonrenewable or unsustainable energy.
(satire) *World Leaders Pledge To Cut Emissions By As Much As They Can Realistically
Back Out Of.*
(satire) *U.S. Allocates $500 Million For Mohammed Bin Salman To Use
On
Anger
Management Counseling.*
The federal government transfers funds from more urban, Democratic
states to rural Republican states. Perhaps that offers a lever to
influence the Republican voters.
To punish them would be pretty easy, but would not help enact
progressive policies. How to use these programs to win over some
Republicans is harder — and how to do it with changes Democrats
can enact is even more challenging.
*US hits Russian officials with fresh sanctions over Navalny poisoning.*
Secretary-General António Guterres called for cancellation of all
planned coal projects.
We have understood this for years, but that the head of the UN says so
is a big step towards making it happen.
The damage caused by global heating in Australia will get to be so
costly that insurance will no longer be a feasible way for people to
protect themselves from damage.
I think the same thing will happen in California.
The only effective remedy will be to curb global heating.
*McDonald's spies on union activists — that's how scared they are of workers'
rights.*
RSF has filed a complaint against Prince Bone Saw in Germany, over
systematic persecution of journalists.
This includes the murder of Khashoggi and lots more.
This is possible because Germany asserts universal jurisdiction over
crimes against humanity.
(satire) *No-Nonsense Negotiator Strong-Arms Landlord Into Fixing Toilet For Rent Increase.*
*Biden Can Freeze Potentially Dozens of Harmful, Last-Minute Trump
Regulatory Rollbacks.*
The leader of Zimbabwe's principal opposition party
calls on world powers to stop supporting its tyrannical government.
It is harder for western powers to restrain the government of Zimbabwe
now that China is shipping arms to it.
In this regard, China is not uniquely evil. Western countries gave
tyrannical governments similar support in the past, and still do with
some. Nonetheless, the fact that China does it today has bad
repercussions in many parts of the world. Western governments
sometimes join together to push for freedom, but China won't care at
all.
US citizens: call on Congress and the president to stop all transfer
of military weapons to US thug departments.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
The US does little to restrain Erdoğan from accusing political
opposition of "terrorism".
Electric vehicles are more efficient than fossil fuel vehicles on
every measure.
Then use less energy, and less materials — even if you don't count
the fuel.
The US has a kind of wealth tax — the property tax — and rich people
pay much less property tax (as a fraction of their wealth) than anyone
else.
Renters pay a high fraction, because their rent covers the real
estate tax on the dwellings they live in (but do not own).
Explaining Iran's refusal to negotiate while the US keeps all the
sanctions going.
The article shows the diplomatic harm this would do to Iran.
For me, a much simpler explanation was sufficient.
*Fossil fuel emissions in danger of surpassing pre-Covid levels.*
This is no surprise. What it shows was that people should not let the
Covid-19 recession relax their demand for policies that cut emissions.
Since people can refuse to believe the bullshitter when he says he won
the last election, they can also refuse to believe Ex-pope Benedict
when he sais he resigned.
* Ben Bonnema says he was [fired by Trader Joe's] after writing a letter to company’s
CEO calling for a series of safety measures for workers.*
Spain makes it a crime to insult the king. This system of censorship
is an injustice.
I strongly dislike Tarantino's movies, those I have seen any of. I
don't intend to see any more. I would probably dislike those rappers'
performances, too — except that they probably speak too fast for me,
and with Spanish colloquialisms I don't know, so I would not
understand them. But my tastes are irrelevant to the issue. Their
works don't need to appeal to my taste to be covered by freedom of
expression.
Biden is awfully quick to admit defeat on legislating to raise the
minimum wage to $15 (over a period of a few years). He ought to try
his damnedest before giving up.
*[Ex-president] Sarkozy found guilty of corruption and influence peddling but is
unlikely to spend time in prison.*
*Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey Push to Abolish Qualified Immunity.*
*More than 75% of Syrian refugees may have PTSD, says charity.*
*Senate Democrats Can and Must Abolish the Filibuster. Now.*
Hong Kong is putting protest leaders on trial for political charges.
1000 people came to protest.
China has crushed freedom in Hong Kong. What about freedom in the US
and the UK? Both are threatened now.
Starmer is so frightened people will accuse Labour of raising taxes
and spending too much that he is
making
it into a right-wing party.
Global heating is
reducing
the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation,
which includes the Gulf Stream. This could eventually result in
freezing Ireland and Britain.
The UK government has
arbitrarily
terminated the citizenship of Shamima Begum. Attempts to block
that decision failed.
Exile of citizens is not an acceptable punishment.
What makes this even worse is that the punishment was
imposed
without a trial. No punishment should be imposed without a trial.
Adding insult (to the public) to that injury, the minister who decided
on exile for her cited an absurd excuse. She has no other
citizenship, but the minister did not wish to recognize the fact that
this would leave her stateless. So the he claimed it was sufficient
that she would be entitled to citizenship in Bangladesh
— theoretically.
No one knows what would happen if she tried to apply for citizenship
in Bangladesh. Perhaps that country deny her citizenship, citing
something like the UK's grounds for terminating her citizenship.
The US has unjustly terminated citizenship, too. US citizen Emma
Goldman was deported as punishment for advocating resistance to the
draft.
Biden put official personal sanctions on many officials of Salafi
Arabia, but
not
directly on Prince Bone Saw himself.
This may be a clever indirect form of sanction against him. Cozying
up to the king and shunning the prince has a chance of causing his
demotion in the Salafi Arabian court, whereas direct hostility could
inspire the rest of the power structure to close ranks behind him.
Salafi Arabis is culpable for many different wrongs:
The US does not have the power to make Salafi Arabia desist from all
these wrongs; as a result, it is not immediately obvious what stance
would be best for the US to take so as to reduce some.
Most of these have gone on since long before Mohammad bin Salman
became crown prince. I think he started item 2; he certainly
started item 3.
As for the other wrongs, the US is already starting to try to end 1.
The others will take time.
Biden ordered an attack at two Iran-linked militias in Syria.
This raises
two
moral issues: was it harmful to nuclear negotiations with Iran,
and did it violate the War Powers Act.
This is a decrease in level of violence compared with when the wrecker
was president, so I tend to think it won't affect the negotiations.
However, Biden has done
other
things that may put these negotiations at risk.
*Lawmakers Say Biden Admin
Must
Present Congress Legal Justification for Bombing of Syria.*
US agencies say that the acting king of Salafi Arabia
ordered
the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
The WATER Act would
ensure
Americans can get clean water to drink even if they are poor.
The House of Representatives has
passed
a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Republicans will block this, along with every bill to fix the nation's
permanent problems, unless Democrats find a way to make Manchin and
Sinema vote to abolish the filibuster.
The UK Inspectorate of Constabulary says that thug departments are
going overboard in their arbitrary searches of blacks on the
street, and
cannot
justify them. I can't escape the conclusion that this is bias at
work.
I suppose the thugs have had training about unconscious bias already,
and it does not seem to have helped. Here's an approach using
feedback that might be good to try, with each cop separately.
The hope is that, over time, the cop learns to filter out spurious
triggers of suspicion.
Has anything like this been tried?
Illinois has
eliminated
bail for those accused of crimes. Suspects will no longer be kept
in jail until trial simply because they are poor.
*Jewish Groups
Urge
Biden to 'Review and Revoke' Trump-Era 'Made in Israel' Settlement
Goods Policy.*
The US should not allow any of the wrecker's policy changes in support
of Israel's occupation policy to stand.
(satire) *Joe Manchin Claims West Virginians
Too
Deficient In Character, Grit To Deserve $15 Minimum Wage.*
Mexico has
banned
both growing glyphosate-resistant corn and importing it.
*Majority of US Voters Want Government to
Invest
More in Healthcare, Education, and Fighting Poverty.*
Will the US government define "national security" in terms of power to
fight future threats, or in terms of
helping
other countries be safe from disasters?
Jim Hightower on Texas: *Not only must our corporate-controlled
electric grid be replaced; so must our corporate-controlled ag
policy—and our
corporate-controlled
elected officials.*
US wages increased on the average in 2020, because
many
low-wage workers lost their jobs.
I suspect that if we tabulate household income rather than wages, we
will see a shift towards lower income.
Iran refuses to discuss resuming the non-nuclear deal unless the US
does more to lift the the sanctions that the wrecker imposed when be broke the deal.
I think it would be wiser for the US and Iran to stop delaying
negotiations by disputing how to start them. But since the US broke
the deal, the US should go out of its way to resume the deal.
Perhaps the US should suspend sanctions for a year, and extend that
to a permanent cessation if the deal is remade.
* UN report claims up to 10% of the world’s wealth could be hidden "offshore"
and calls for global banking reform.*
"Offshore" means "in a tax haven". Some important tax havens are in
quasi-independent islands, but Switzerland, Belgium, the UK and the US
also function as tax havens.
All that money concealed from taxation leaves governments short on funds,
which translates into poverty.
* The UK government is considering nationwide curbside collection of
used electrical appliances and gadgets, and requiring retailers,
even online ones, to take them back.*
For once, the IMF wants to do some good. It needs approval from the US.
A federal court ruled that the CDC's emergency ban on evictions is
unconstitutional.
The ban is indeed an emergency measure, not a permanent solution. The
US needs to set up a system that will give everyone in the US a place
to live that meets our standards.
"Modernizing" the world's nuclear missiles would only provide us with
a fancier way to cause a fast mass extinction. We should cancel it.
*Two-year jail terms signal bid to crush all independent journalism in
Belarus.*
Journalists were convicted on a *trumped-up
charge of organizing a protest they simply filmed.*
Uber is trying to falsify an impression that drivers really want to
have no rights.
Many California towns inhabited by poor Hispanics don't deliver clean
water.
In some places the threat of future water shortage is the obstacle to
fixing it. The only fix for that is to use a lot less water — which means,
less farming and fewer people.
*Facebook's Australian news wipeout showed it can delete [zuckers']
history at any time.*
It can't delete any of my history, because I don't put it there.
You shouldn't either.
The Tories are planning to criminalize protests that interfere with anything.
Chain yourself to a door and you'll be wearing chains for years.
Some right-wing UK "defenders" of freedom of speech criticized a
no-platforming which did not actually happen. They, and the minister
in charge, were careless with the facts.
Nonetheless, another instance they cite did really occur, and so do
others. If 53 speakers were vetoed in one year, that may be a small
fraction of all speakers that year, but it is still a lot of
censorship.
I gather that the Equality Act is meant to prohibit discrimination and
harassment. I support that goal, but campaigning for that goal should
not go so far as to ban controversial speakers from giving talks.
Even in a good cause, there must be limits on how far we can go. I
would not try to ban people from praising proprietary software, even
though I disagree with such praise. People have a right to disagree
with me, or with you, or with anyone.
I also agree that the government can easily be a worse threat to freedom
of speech than any collection of students.
Environmental defenders have sued California and Governor Newsom
for illegally issuing thousands of oil and gas drilling permits.
I am not sure how much Governor Newsom was personally involved in granting those licenses, but he's in charge of the state government, so it's his
responsibility to stop it — and, if possible, to cancel those leases.
*From 2018 to 2020, the United States government undertook what it
labeled “counterterrorism” activities in 85 countries.* This map shows
what it did where.
Israel is going out of its way to deny vaccine to Palestine.
We need to immunize almost everyone against Covid-19, and the rate of
production means many will have to wait. Who has to wait more and who
gets to wait less is a secondary matter that I usually don't dwell on;
instead I campaign for faster production so that the waiting is less.
Palestine is an exceptional case because it is under military
occupation. Israel as occupying power is responsible for public
health in Palestine and thus has the obligation to secure vaccine for
Palestinians, if it can. We see that it can. When Israel has extra
vaccine in its hands, it should carry out its responsibility.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Advancement
Act.
US citizens: Support the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act.
This bill would do many things to reduce death in childbirth in the US —
which is shockingly frequent in the US. Contrary to its name, its benefits
would expect to all poor women; they would not be limited to blacks.
The US must not increase the laws to repress protests. Instead it should
start using its existing powers adequately against right-wing extremists
and stop overusing them against nonviolent leftists.
Many states are passing laws for repression of nonviolent protest action
against dangerous business activities, and thugs tend to be extra
harsh against all left-wing protests. Compare that with the friendliness
of thugs with the Kenosha killer, Rittenhouse,
and the Capitol
Police leaders' betrayal of their mission on Jan 6.
The US should boost Social Security by eliminating the cap on how much income
a person pays the tax on.
The reason this cap exists is because there is an idea that each
person is supposed to receive support based on per own earnings.
Following that idea, if there is a limit on how much Social Security
will pay a retire rich person, there has to be a limit on how much
that person pays Social Security.
I think it is perfectly fine to say that rich people will help support
the rest, through Social Security as well as in other ways.
(satire) *Biden Unveils Cool Teen Migrant Detainment Center Where
Youths Can Hang Out And Never Leave.*
Americans believe that their country has a "social safety net" which
will protect them from absolute penury when something goes wrong. In
recent decades, many cords of the net have been removed or stretched,
so now people tend to fall through it. Here are the details.
A good government arranges to do better for its people than merely set
up a net somewhere beneath them in case they fall. It provides good
things for its people so that everyone can have a good life.
One benefit for the UK (and the world) of its departure from the EU
is that Goober will have to stop paying British drivers peanuts.
I made a mistake in a previous note of saying that the drivers were
now "employees." It seems that in the UK makes a distinction between
"employees" and "workers"; the drivers are now "workers." I am not
sure what rights workers have, but it is more than "independent"
contractors.
Planet roasters can no longer convince by denying that global heating
is occurring, so they have switched to other methods to stop society
from taking sufficient steps to curb the heating. Interview with
Michael Mann.
There is no evidence that Wikileaks was part of a scheme to elect the
wrecker. It published evidence in 2016 that the Democratic Party had
corruptly prevented Sanders from winning the nomination.
That corruption was a bigger problem than the fact that it was leaked.
Western countries, no longer as powerful as in the past, are
exaggerating what they might do to support democracy in Burma.
This is leading some Burmese to expect an armed rescue. They might
start a rebellion which would be crushed.
QAnincompoops now claim that Trump will be inaugurated as president on
March 4.
When this fails to occur, they may pretend that it did.
A special business supremacy treaty specifically for energy
infrastructure has a ISDS clause.
Under this treaty, countries must pay for permission to adopt climate
policies that make foreign-owned fossil fuel infrastructure less useful.
All business-supremacy treaties are instruments to crush democracy.
Countries should refuse to sign them, withdraw from them, ideally join
together to cancel them out entirely.
For this treaty, one possible last-resort solution would be for
countries to declare war on each other and bomb each other's fossil
fuel infrastructure, disabling it from functioning. Then they could
decline responsibility on the grounds that the damage was an act of
war.
I don't suggest bombing the power plant into rubble — that would
cause pollution — just destroying some key part of it, without which
it does not operate.
Is this idea shocking? There are better ways to stop burning fossil
fuels, but it is good to have this fall-back method if the others prove
too difficult. Don't say it can't be done!
The faculty at University College London rejected the UHRA definition
of antisemitism.
It was not designed to be used as a basis to judge people for their actions.
Malta says all those who masterminded killing of Maltese journalist Daphne
Caruana Galizia have now confessed or been charged.
The wrecker put sanctions on personnel of the International Criminal Court;
a month after inauguration, Biden has not lifted them.
How the US should approach the ICC may be a complex question, but
sanctions on its personnel cannot be a valid answer.
It was Dubya that began attacking the ICC and trying to make it
ineffective.
The US should end that, too.
*CO2 emissions: nations' pledges 'far away' from Paris target, says UN.*
The Paris agreement's target is far from sufficient to avoid global
heating disaster.
Remote work has led to a great jump in remote surveillance of workers.
They can be monitored far more than they were in the office.
Amazon is putting cameras in delivery vans to monitor drivers.
I hope the drivers go on a camera strike, all covering the cameras
on the same day.
However, given all the other nasty things Amazon does, I urge you
never to buy from Amazon — and to urge your friends not to buy any
presents for you from Amazon.
*The United States Is the Biggest Carbon Polluter in History — Now Is the Time
for Bold Action.*
Or a cowardly drift into disaster.
*Is Israel trying to keep Hamas from running in Palestinian elections?*
Georgia passed a law requiring speakers at universities not to boycott
Israel. One speaker threatened to sue; Georgia is changing that law.
(satire) *Florida GOP Introduces Ballotless Voting In Disenfranchised Communities.*
The Senate parliamentarian ruled that increasing the minimum wage is
not a budgetary measure, thus thwarting the plan to include that in
the Covid-19 relief bill. Democrats now have plans to work around that decision.
I advocate increasing the minimum wage, but I think the
parliamentarian made the right decision. It is stretching things
to say that any measure that could will have fiscal effects
is a budget measure.
There seem to be other ways to raise the minimum wage.
Raising the minimum wage will give the US economy a boost that focuses
on working people, rather that trickle down.
An experiment found that various artificial sweeteners promoted gene
transfer between bacteria.
The gene transfer can speed the evolution of multi-drug-resistant
strains. Since tons of these chemicals now appear in human wastes,
they can easily affect
It seems like an amazing coincidence that several chemicals whose only
point of commonality is to taste sweet would also have this effect on
bacteria. So I suppose there is an explanation to be found.
*A third of US military personnel refuse Covid vaccine.*
It shocks me that blacks often refuse the vaccine. It can't be due to
heeding white-supremacist right-wing extremists. Since the same
vaccines are being offered to whites, it should be clear that this is
not a case of offering blacks something dangerous. They are doing
themselves harm by refusing.
If a way can be found to win over the blacks in the military, a few
months to observe will convince most people that the vaccine is safe
enough. (Unless a problem appears.)
The main remaining group of refusers will be white-supremacist
right-wing extremists. Requiring vaccination of all service members
— no choice about it — might convince some of them to leave the
military, which is exactly what the country needs.
Monarch butterflies are threatened. The population this winter is only 1/3
of what is needed to keep the species safe.
*New research links Delhi’s thick smogs to burning of plastics.*
Since the UK government has failed to stop bottom-trawling in
"protected" marine areas, Greenpeace is doing so — by setting up
lines of boulders as obstructions.
Bravo!
Both Republicans and Democrats are papering over the ways Neera Tanden
has boosted government-for-hire.
I am disappointed that Sanders supports her. I wish I could ask him
why he does.
Meanwhile, some of the senators that are very hostile to Deb Haaland
own fossil fuel stock.
When the Ethiopian government captured the ancient city of Axum,
its soldiers (and allied Eritreans) rampaged and massacred civilians — hundreds, at least.
The prison camps for captured women and children of PISSI have become
radicalization camps, ruled by the most fanatical prisoners.
I can't tell from the article whether there are prisoners in those
camps that no longer support PISSI. If there are, I hope they get a
chance to go somewhere they can live in peace.
Fanatics should not be allowed to raise children. The children
should be adopted by families that do not support PISSI.
In general, what to do with prisoners that support violent extremist
cults is a question with no evident good answer.
Twitter shut down its old web interface that permitted tweeting without
running nonfree Javascript code.
US citizens: call on the Department of Justice to investigate the
Rochester thug department for civil rights violations and racist
violence.
Residents of Massachusetts: call on Massachusetts legislators to enact
the VOTERS act and require public meetings to be accessible virtually
I added the following text:
I ask you push to amend HD2828 (Garlick/Lewis) in two ways:
* To require virtual meetings to be accessible by phone as well as by
internet.
* To require the state to use its own servers for this purpose, rather
than any company's servers, starting no later than June 2023.
The companies such as Zoom that offer the use of their servers for
virtual meetings impose their own rules about what may be said and who
may participate. It is intolerable for any governmental activity or
state entity to be covered by commercial censorship, so the state must
have a firm policy not to use commercial servers for its meetings
except in an emergency. However, recognizing that the state will need
time to set up its own facilities, I propose a transition period of
two years before the requirement to use them becomes effective.
US citizens: call on Congress to cancel Americans' college loan debt.
I entered this text.
I advocate cancelling student debt for undergraduate education,
and for postgraduate education except when it is for a professional degree
and the person has or will become employed in that profession.
We don't need to forgive doctors' and lawyers' expenses for
medical school and law school.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
*Rich nations must either help developing countries fight Covid or
live in a fortress.*
The first thing advanced countries need to do is get themselves
governments that will help those very countries fight Covid-19. With
leaders like Trump and Bogus Johnson, they are charging off to defeat.
The US military has done next to nothing to keep out white-supremacist
radicalization. Nazis openly talked about their views. Aside from
the Navy, the US armed forces treated this as acceptable.
India is overconsuming its ground water,
and is approaching a deadly shortage. Food production would be
insufficient. Some major cities are faced with the threat of having
no drinking water.
Solar-powered desalination of sea water can help provide drinking
water, but it would take a long time for India to make enough capacity to
serve the purpose. Shipping water to inland Delhi, Bangalore and
Hyderabad (36 million people) would also be enormously expensive. I
don't know if that solution is feasible even with a desperate effort.
Looking at what Modi has done with the desperate protests of farmers
over a change in laws, I expect that Modi will try to hide the water
shortage when it comes, rather than address it.
(satire) *NASA Welcomes Litter Of Mars Rovers After Successful
Breeding Of Perseverance, Curiosity.*
*If the UK government isn't held to account for its Covid failures, democracy
may never recover.*
Even before this, democracy in the UK was rather decrepit. Corbyn,
the only leader for decades who had any chance of redirecting the UK to
serve most of its citizens, was shot down by character assassination.
A democracy which gives such a leader no chance to succeed is not
much of one.
Nonetheless the article is valid as regards the threat to the little democracy
that remains.
*The Coronavirus Death Toll Reached 500,000 Because [the wrecker]
Sabotaged the Covid Response.*
Fracking has been banned in the Delaware river basin.
That still leaves large parts of the US where we need to ban fracking.
Of course, no new fossil fuel development of any kind should be allowed.
But fracking is particularly bad, since it tends to leak methane
and can pollute local water supplies.
*UK's gas power plans risk derailing climate targets.*
If civilization survives, new fossil fuel power plants will not remain
in use long enough to recoup their investment costs. And likewise if
civilization collapses. So there has to be some dirty reason for
proposing to build them.
NASA is testing the main component for a future large solar power
satellite.
In the 1980s I helped the L5 Society campaign for this.
Biden has ordered prioritizing protecting critical supply chains from
risk of interruption due to dependence on foreign suppliers.
The US should have started this in the 1990s if not before.
Indeed, I wonder if the US used to pay attention to this,
and whether it ceased as part of Republican deregulation.
Can anyone find out and tell me?
Biden and some Democrats in Congress think they can get a "bipartisan"
deal to change some laws for the USPS by leaving Saboteur DeJoy in office
as its head.
It is not entirely lunacy to try to make a deal with Republicans, but
you must check your pockets frequently during the meeting, a well as
after. The leader of their cult made a practice of not paying his
debts
and not keeping his deals, so you must not give them anything on
credit. Allowing a known saboteur
to remain in place would be asking
for trouble, even as part of a deal. To give him more opportunities
for sabotage indefinitely in hope there might be a deal is idiotic.
If there is a good deal to be had, the Democrats can get it without
DeJoy. But they can't possibly get a good deal by acting desperate
for one.
California has approved thousands of fossil fuel wells without the
environmental approvals required by law.
They have also omitted the required public hearings about the projects.
China will
require
all candidates for office in Hong Kong to swear they are Xi-ple.
*Arctic ice loss forces polar bears [and some other predators]
touse
four times as much energy to survive.*
Two Pakistani Christians, Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel,
face
execution for "blasphemy" on account of text messages they may not
even have sent.
The two are married but imprisoned separately in solitary confinement
for 7 years so far.
Any law against "blasphemy" expresses contempt for freedom of
expression. I was invited once to Pakistan, but I decided it is not
safe there — not for me, nor for anyone.
Accusing North Korea of
forcing
prisoners to mine coal for export.
Where does the exported coal go? China, I suppose. Few other
countries would buy it.
There is no way to stop North Korea from exporting coal to China, and
no way to pressure China from ceasing to buy it. But this becomes
part of a bigger issue: China must stop burning coal! We can, and
already do, put pressure on China to cut down and eventually cease its
use of coal.
I don't know from the article whether the exported coal is thermal
coal (burned for the heat alone) or coking coal (used to mix carbon
into iron). That makes a difference, since the world needs to
eliminate use of thermal coal, but it will not cease the much smaller
use of coking coal.
Another man killed because a thug
kept
a knee on his neck for 5 minutes.
The thugs had come, supposedly, to help him because he was freaking
out. If Antioch, California, had defunded the "police", 9-1-1 would
have sent paratherapists instead of thugs, and they would have talked
him down with no loss of life.
Is
Alexei
Navalny a prisoner of conscience?
Plainly he is: he has been jailed for nonviolent defense of democracy.
Therefore Amnesty demands his release. However, it has got itself in
a pickle by stating criteria for designating someone as a "prisoner of
conscience" which include other requirements besides being a prisoner
of conscience.
The other pertinent requirement is "who has not advocated violence".
Does comparing immigrants to "rotten teeth" constitute advocating
violence against them? It could be interpreted that way. But it is
not relevant to his imprisonment today; Russia has not accused him of
"hostility towards immigrants." (Not that an opinion could justify
imprisoning someone.) So Amnesty should not consider his past or
present views on immigrants relevant to determining whether he is a
prisoner of conscience.
If Amnesty wants a designation limited to people who have been
exemplary in all aspects of their political lives, it would do better
to call that something different — perhaps "exemplary prisoner
of conscience." Then it could recognize Navalny as a prisoner of
conscience who has not been exemplary.
Canadian milk and butter appear to contain
increasing
amounts of palm oil.
Philadelphia elected a new district attorney, who
supports
criminal justice reform. Philadelphia thugs want to bring back
the old district attorney, for whom a thug could do no wrong. So they
blame all crime on the new district attorney.
Protests have put an end to the plan to build a giant gas power plant
in England.
The UK should build batteries or other energy storage units instead.
*Who will clean up the 'billion-dollar mess' of abandoned US oil wells?*
Collapse, by Jared Diamond, explains how the same thing happens with
mines: when the mine becomes unprofitable to operate, there is no
money left in the company that owns it to clean it up.
Often the actual ownership of wells is left in small companies that
can be allowed to go bankrupt, while the profits are in the
megacorporations that buy from those small companies. Those
will never go bankrupt.
A carbon tax could solve the problem. Part of the tax money could pay
for closing wells. Of course, the tax should be a lot bigger than
that, because its purpose is also to encourage switching to renewable
energy.
*Covid and the climate crisis show why we need a new social contract between
old and young.*
Let's resist supposing that the question is whether to blame the baby
boomers in general or generation z in general, because maybe it's
neither. Plutocrats often play divide and rule. Setting the old and
the young against each other is just their sort of thing.
The argument that we need to retire later, and thus keep working
longer, makes perfect sense, but how can that be reconciled with the
fact that lots of people in their 50s are already terminally out of
work?
Meanwhile, the lifestyles of Americans are terribly inefficient.
Surely we can do something to move to greater efficiency in our
consumption.
* Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme
weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast.*
The Environmental Poisoning Agency engaged in the most blatant stupidity to
overlook evidence that Telone is carcinogenic.
Frequent forest fires reduce the forest's carbon capture.
This is another positive feedback that will push us towards disaster.
*Australian scientists warn urgent action needed to save 19 'collapsing'
ecosystems.*
Now that all the official interfaces to Twitter require nonfree
Javascript code, the Free Software Foundation uses unofficial free
software to post on Twitter.
*Germany convicts former Assad regime agent in historic Syria torture verdict.*
Due to global heating, bats in some places are dying from heat.
*Woman awarded $7,700 for five years of housework in China divorce
ruling.*
It is a long-standing feminist complaint about social practices that
women tend to do the chores, and their work is undervalued because it
is unpaid. It seems that China takes this argument seriously.
Many Yazidis cannot go home to Shinjar, and continue to live in
dismal refugee camps. With Covid-19 on top of that, some young people
are committing suicide.
If the wrecker had continued the campaign to eradicate PISSI, perhaps
more of the Yazidis could go home.
I am surprised by the statement that some Yazidis remain prisoners of
PISSI. PISSI no longer controls territory; where can it hold its
prisoners. The statement is so brief and sketchy that it is hard to
make sense of. The reference given does not seem to say anything
about this.
*Israeli checkpoint killing of Palestinian was an execution, report claims.*
*Corporate Lawyers Line Up for Justice Department Top Slots.*
Greece is pushing to require people to use phones to present proof
of vaccination, and the UK is looking at the idea too.
Even if the government does not require digital surveillance for this,
companies might do it too.
*Sri Lanka at 'tipping point’ with risk of return to past atrocities,
activists warn.*
The Cherokee tribe asked Jeep to stop using its name as the name of a
line of products.
I think businesses should have to get explicit permission to use the
name of any person, ethnic group or community in commercial publicity.
Neera Tanden's confirmation by the Senate is in jeopardy, for the
wrong reasons: for condemning Republicans,
not for working with
plutocratists.
I wonder why progressive senators plan to vote for her. If they have
a reason to think having her as head of the OMB would be good, I would
like to know it.
For $25 billion, the US could easily give everyone Covid-19 vaccine.
Given what Russia and China are doing, providing vaccine to everyone
else would cost considerably less. Wouldn't it be great to put an end
to Covid-19 sooner? And the US would win gratitude for this generosity,
just as Russia and China are winning it now
But the US should not spend the money on windfall profits by paying
high prices. First it should allow other manufacturers, to reduce
what vaccines cost.
The article refers to patents as "intellectual property". That term
causes confusion which benefits patent holders as they try to restrict
others.
It's a shame that
representatives of organizations that seek to serve the public good
speak in ways that build up the obstructive power of patents.
Texas thugs arrested a man for walking while black during a snowstorm.
Fortunately, nothing worse resulted.
The Department of Transportation agreed to an alliance between
American Airlines and Jet Blue. But now it will reconsider the decision,
because such alliances are anticompetitive.
How private equity funds exaggerate the profitability of investing in
them.
Don't trust what they claim they can do.
Google is paying powerful News Corp (the Wall Street Journal, etc)
for presenting its articles in Australia, but don't forget about
smaller publishers.
I think it is good to make large, profitable online services
pay to make use of publications, but we must be on guard against
any attempt to turn that into a part of copyright power and impose
the same requirement on nonprofit web sites.
However, it might be good to direct some of this money to the authors.
Why not?
Nearly all US states make it too easy to subject a person to total,
permanent control by a "guardian".
This is often done without properly notifying the target of the
court hearing which will decide about per fate.
Zuckerberg personally ordered Facebook not to ban Alex Jones
when the company's policy said to ban him.
The Senate confirmed thoroughly plutocratist Tom Vilsack as Secretary
of Agriculture.
He is expected to favor the big middleman companies
over people that eat food or grow food.
Biden has brought the issue of Americans accused of crimes in Iran
into the negotiations on resuming the non-nuclear deal.
I think that is a mistake. Keeping Iran non-nuclear is far more
important than freeing a few people who may be unjustly accused, and
sanctions that interfere with medical treatment for millions can't be
justified by those few either.
*How Seville is turning leftover oranges into electricity.*
I have occasionally wondered why the city does not replace
the trees gradually with other orange trees that will produce
fruit people will like to eat.
Many companies are using Covid-19 as an excuse to terminate (for all
practical purposes) telephone support.
Inaccessible sites are a problem for more than just blind people. I
am not blind, but many websites are inaccessible for me because they
demand visitors run nonfree JavaScript code.
I avoid many of these problems by not dealing with those companies. I
never purchase anything over the internet. But there are sites that
do really important jobs, such as scheduling Covid-19 vaccinations,
which are inaccessible in the Free World. Fortunately I found a
vaccination site that would make an appointment by phone.
Australia's renewable energy generation is growing so fast that the
market will compel shutting several fossil fuel plants by 2025.
This does not mean Australia is on track towards doing its share
of what civilization needs to survive.
US senators have introduced a bill to put sanctions on the president
of Honduras and on the Honduran military.
NATO was set up to defend Western Europe from possible invasion by the
Soviet Union. Now it makes plans for attacking Russia.
I can't see how attacking Russia could be justified in a world like
this one, nor why we should maintain an alliance for that purpose.
I disagree with some of the article's other points. I think the
almost bloodless displacement of the Taliban from Afghanistan might
have lead to a better Afghanistan if we had not dropped it from our
attention to prioritize the unjustified attack on Iraq. Of course,
there is no way to make sure.
China's campaign for world hegemony calls for countries to unite in
opposition, but that opposition will need to be economic and
diplomatic, not military (except for a few countries that prepare to
deter or repel China's announced plan to attack Taiwan). It does not
require NATO.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to resist Nestlé's plan to sell some water sources to
private equity.
The thugs that killed Daniel Prude in Rochester
will
not be prosecuted because the grand jury voted not to indict.
I am sure that Letitia James tried her best to get an indictment. The
refusal is therefore quite unusual. It might perhaps represent
racism, or an insistence to "support your local police."
One way or another, we need to stop thugs from holding people down
with their knees.
*Republicans 'Fear' Green New Deal, Argues Naomi Klein,
Because
It's a Viable Alternative to Free-Market Failure.*
Thinking nonpolitically about
when
and how to reopen schools.
I agree that remote education is necessary while Covid-19 rages. But
using nonfree software is not necessary, and morally not acceptable.
*Half
of America In or Near Poverty.*
(satire) *Trump Worried Biden Will Take Credit For
500,000
Covid Deaths [Trump] Made Possible.*
(satire) *Joe Manchin
Reverses
Stance On Abolishing Filibuster After Son Diagnosed With
Filibuster Disease.*
The corrupter had
over
1.6 billion dollars in outside income while he was president.
This was due to various sorts of corruption.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow release of the wrecker's tax returns
was not about release to the public. It was about private release to
prosecutors
for
use in a grand jury to try to indict him.
I think that's the most important thing to do with them.
Uber cheats drivers by
underestimating
the distance they must travel.
The Capitol Police faced extreme violence from the attackers on Jan 6,
using all sorts of weapons short of guns. And their leaders seemed to
have
disappeared.
*Iran reaches deal with global nuclear watchdog for
inspections
over the next 3 months.*
However, the deal is somewhat limited.
Ayanna Pressley proposes a federal program to
provide
work doing jobs that benefit the public.
I support the plan, but in political terms I wonder how this
resolution, which is not a bill and thus can't actually create the
program, will help establish it.
A new AI program
uses
video to recognize people's emotions. Reportedly it helps
teachers figure out what a student needs. But who gets that
information? Since the program is, apparently, nonfree, nobody should
trust it.
It is even less trustworthy given that it is developed in Hong Kong.
China will surely find a way to make it serve to catch potential or
actual dissidents, and not only among students and teachers.
Australia
reached
a compromise with Facebook about the requirement to pay news
publishers.
The situation is too complex for me to have any idea what the results
will be. I can't tell whether this deal will permit Facebook to get
away with paying news publishers little or nothing. I wish someone
would tell me which side won in the confrontation.
What I am sure of is that it isn't enough to make Facebook safe for
society, whether in Australia, the US, or anywhere else.
*Populations of migratory freshwater fish have
plummeted
by 76% since 1970, and large fish — those weighing more than
30kg — have been all but wiped out in most rivers.*
Too many young and healthy migrant workers die in Qatar, and the
government has
ignored
calls to investigate why.
*Cronyism in Britain is rampant and goes unpunished.*
This is because Bogus Johnson is its biggest sponsor.
Some Tories want to end UK's Covid-19 precautions by the end of April.
Scientific modeling predicts this would lead to another wave
of Covid-19, and tens of thousands more deaths.
Part of the problem is that children are not being vaccinated. They
could spread the disease to those adults who remain vulnerable
(including the fraction for whom the vaccine is not effective).
Eradicating the disease without strong social precautions requires
vaccination of children.
The FBI, to investigate the attack on the Capitol, has seized call
records and "actual communications" from portable phones of everyone
there.
I think that is legitimate in response to a crime, especially a
heinous crime like that one. The majority of the people there were
engaged in insurrection.
What we must fight against is the establishment of systems that
collect data about people in general when there is no reason to think
they are engaged in a serious crime. That is fuel for tyranny.
San Francisco plans to rename many schools, including the ones named
after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
I think that would be a mistake.
We designate people as heroes because we admire their actions.
However, as our moral standards change, over time we come to perceive
some of their actions as wrongs, flaws. When we talk about them, we
should criticize their flaws.
In some cases, the flaws we discover may be so large that we conclude
they were not heroes at all, merely evildoers. I think Columbus is a
candidate for that.
However, it is a mistake to demand that past heroes be flawless. If
we designate them as evildoers at the sight of the first serious
flaw-by-our-standards, by and by we will have no heroes left.
Therefore I think we should continue to admire a hero if per great
deeds greatly outweigh per flaws.
*Connecticut Lawmakers Want to Try Again to Make Prison Phone Calls
[gratis].*
The US has a history of white supremacists staging violent overthrow
of properly elected state governments, then imposing racist rule with
rigged elections.
Jan 6 was not the first time. The article describes an instance
in 1876.
That article is pervaded by symbolic bigotry, expressed by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid such bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.)
I object to bigotry, and normally I refuse to link to articles which
instantiate it. I made an exception for this article because it
teaches something very important about the history of racist violence,
and I didn't see much chance of finding another article on the topic
without the bigotry.
Nonetheless, I rebuke the article's bigotry. Spitting at all whites
is wrong, and far from helping to eliminate racism, it is more likely
to do the opposite.
Claiming falsely that a blackout was caused by renewable generation
is a standard tactic of planet roasters.
Israel's entire coastline has been polluted by an oil spill.
By luck, Gaza escaped the pollution. Could Israelis, yearning to
bathe in the sea, make peace with Gaza so that this will be possible?
Probably not, but it is a nice idea to think about.
Virginia has abolished the death penalty.
Almost half the states in the US have done this. I hope Biden will
encourage progress.
Nathan J. Robinson, former columnist for The Guardian, explains how
the paper's US editor terminated dealings with him after he was
absurdly accused of antisemitism.
In the article, he explains both the paper's good aspects which are
why I refer principally to its stories, and its bad aspects, such as
helping to give Corbyn the shaft.
Secretary General Guterres: *The world faces a pandemic of human
rights abuses in the wake of Covid-19.*
Oxfam says that the UK's arms sales to Salafi Arabia are helping it
continue fighting in Yemen.
The US must continue using masks, keeping distance, and
avoiding/prohibiting activities that tend to spread Covid-19.
Otherwise the newer, more infectious strains are likely to spread
and cause another surge in cases.
The Republican governor of Texas says Republicans will somehow spare
Texans from paying the thousands of dollars that they have been
charged for electricity during the storm.
That's a step in the right direction, but it would have been better
for Texans to have voted for Democrats and avoided both the gouging
and the unreliability of the power grid.
Iran's women's skiing team has gone to the world championship without
its coach — her husband vetoed her travel.
US citizens:
call on
Congress to vote to bar Trump from running for office, using the
14th amendment, on the grounds that he participated in insurrection.
Citizens of Massachusetts: call on the Massachusetts legislature to
pass
a bill to regulate face recognition, and a bill to end the practice of
suspending drivers' licenses because of debts.
Many people are too poor to pay their debts, and losing their drivers'
licenses means they lose their jobs and get even further in debt. The
fact that now half of all Americans are in poverty or close to it
means that this harmful feedback loop does even more harm.
Starmer says that
*Labour
must work with business to create fairer society.*
"Working with business" sounds good to people who dislike conflict,
like "working with Republicans", but both are programmed to fail.
Working for more fairness together with the main source of unfairness
is not likely to get very far.
Even worse, announcing that that's your intended approach gives the
source of unfairness veto power. "Working with" thus turns into
"begging the indulgence of."
Frederick Douglass reminds us that "Power concedes nothing without a
demand." Starmer would like Britons to forget to make the demand.
A thousand students at Columbia University are on strike, refusing to
pay their tuition fees,
demanding
a reduction in those fees but also other changes in the name of
justice, such as fossil fuel divestment.
Rihanna
wore
a pendant with an image of Ganesha, and is being criticized for it
using the misguided concept of
"cultural
appropriation."
Setting aside that confusion, is there something to criticize about
Rihanna's pendant? I am not sure. Was it disrespectful to the
worshipers of Ganesha? Perhaps a little -- in that it acts to
disconnect the appearance of Ganesha from its context and meaning.
I disagree with every religion, more or less, and I might use one's
symbolic images as well as its words to make a point about it, perhaps
to criticize it, much as Nina Paley did (better than I ever could) in
Sita
Sings the Blues.
But I would not disconnect them from their context. I may criticize a
religion but I do not want to undermine knowledge or awareness about
it.
Progress in
filtering
or breaking down microplastics, though not yet at commercial
scale.
Republicans' spreading of Covid-19 was the culmination of a
decades-long trend: plutocratist policies of deregulation and
marketization have
made
the US more unequal in life expectancy as well as in income.
The "new idea" of letting pork processing plants do their own
inspections was tried experimentally under Obama. In 2014-2017, the
plants which did this had
twice
as many violations as other plants.
Does this surprise you? It does not surprise me. In general, the
reason businesses lobby to run their own inspection is so that they
can do a quick and sloppy job of it, and sell things they should have
discarded. The result can spread disease.
In general, the reason why government agencies accept these proposals
from business is that they are trying to serve business rather than
serve the public. A good government would teach its officials to
laugh those lobbyists out of the office.
The US should simply cancel this bad policy.
A UK minister's proposal to legally enforce freedom of speech in
universities conflicts with his
plan
to label criticism of Israel's occupation of Palestine as
"antisemitism".
The US must stop condemning parents for "neglecting" their children
when they are
doing
the best possible given their poverty.
A study found that
30%
of patients with mild cases of Covid-19 had serious symptoms for
months after their "recovery".
The wrecker decided to expose tens of millions of Americans to
Covid-19 when he could have chosen not to. That will mean millions of
people partially or wholly disabled months from now.
Republicans propose to give Americans better internet bandwidth by
prohibiting
cities from helping out with municipal broadband.
Plutocratist politicians will propose dooH niboR as the solution to
any problem whatsoever.
The US has increased production of N95 masks, but
has
not yet ordered hospitals to buy N95 masks for their staff.
Nevada is considering a bill to
allow
companies to set up their own local governments.
They will surely find ways to harass whistleblowers in those
companies.
US citizens: call on Congress to stop providing military weapons to
US thug departments.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code
from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
Bogus Johnson gave the UK the next worst thing to a no-deal exit from
the EU.
I warned that the only way to get good results from leaving the EU
was to put Corbyn in charge.
Studies have linked phthalates in the mother's blood with the
frequencies of various subsequent brain disorders in children.
Students are suing Northwestern University for collecting students' biometric
information through exam software.
Bravo! The law in use is limited to that one state, but if one university
shows it can do without these vicious pieces of proprietary malware,
other universities will obviously also be able to do so.
US citizens: call on the Fish and Wildlife Service to restore the
protections of the Migratory Bird Protection Act.
A lesson on how domestic violence and controlling relationships really
unfold.
*Texas freeze led to release of tons of air pollutants as refineries shut.*
These emissions can be equivalent to many years of normal operation.
Ideologically imposed Republican deregulation is the cause
of Texas's power failure and the cause of the bankruptcies
caused by gouging on natural gas.
Some Texans have been bankrupted by the thousands of dollars that
the gas companies charged while their electricity was out. Republicans
now aim to use them as hostages to protect the windfall profits for the future.
They want the federal government to ransom the hostages by paying what
pay the utility gouging.
It is good to rescue the hostages, but what will happen next time
there is a global heating disaster or a natural disaster in Texas?
Should the utilities be able to gouge again, and the federal
government ransom their hostages again? We must not throw our money
down the toilet from which utilities feed.
The deal to ransom the hostages this time must include regulating
utility prices in Texas so that,next time, the utilities can't
gouge again.
Paying ransom for hostages to the enemies of the American people was
Reagan's policy. It must not be ours today.
*Malcolm X family says letter shows NYPD and FBI conspired in his murder.*
I would not be very surprised if they did.
Privatized deportation prison thugs use the current freezing cold to
torture prisoners. When they complain of the cold in their unheated
cells, the thugs turn on fans to make it worse.
That is but the most shocking of many forms of cruelty and neglect,
just as one must expect from any privatized government function.
Secretary General Guterres warned that humanity needs to end its "war
with nature."
I am concerned, however, that use of the term "natural capital" will
backfire, leading people to accept the practice of selling off natural
systems as long as the price is high enough. The capitalist will sell
the ladder he is standing on, and won't even climb down before it is
taken away.
A non-Uighur teacher in Xinjiang was ordered to teach shackled Uighurs
and saw them get weaker and sicker as time went by.
What Medicare pays for some important drugs is much higher than other
US government programs.
If they were unified into a single buying bloc, they would get even
lower prices. And with most of the country's population as members, they
could push it down even more. This is what most advanced countries do,
and it works for them.
A court ruled that New York City can publish the records of misconduct
of its official thugs.
Thug unions sued to block publication, and lost.
Florida's governor, DeSantis, took the initiative to offer special
"pop-up" vaccination for two zipcodes whose residents happen to be
particularly wealthy.
DeSantis was previously known for covering up statistics about deaths
from Covid-19,
and prosecuting the whistleblower who arranged to leak the true numbers.
Florida's governor, DeSantis, took the initiative to offer special
"pop-up" vaccination for two zip-codes whose residents happen to be
particularly wealthy.
DeSantis was previously known for covering up statistics about deaths
from Covid-19, and prosecuting the whistleblower who arranged to leak the true numbers.
The UK government goes to great lengths to investigate welfare fraud,
even demanding information from the NHS.
Investigating benefits fraud would be legitimate if the support one
could get by being honest were adequate to live on. As in the US,
what motivates the overemphasis on poor people's frauds rather than
rich people's frauds
as well as the push to reduce welfare for the poor in order
to increase welfare for the rich is the cruel attitude of despising poor people and blaming them for
their poverty.
The Supreme Court is blocking a grand jury request to see the
corrupter's tax returns.
Maryland has enacted a tax on digital advertising. Proxies for Big Tech
are suing to overturn it.
Facebook is being sued based on claims that it cheated advertisers
by exaggerating the effectiveness of ads.
*House Dems Demand Probe Into US Military Purchases of
Location Data From Muslim-Focused Apps.*
I see the motive for this, but they're trying to cure a symptom rather
than the real problem. Why protect only Muslims and not other
Americans?
Congress ought to investigate what allows those apps, and thousands of
other apps, to collect location data about their users. Then they
should legislate to put a stop to this.
(satire) *Facebook Takes Down All Posts Spreading Misinformation About
Fictional Nation Of "Australia."*
(satire) *Maine Residents Placed Under Boil Lobster Advisory.*
The Stop CHEATERS Act would invest $100 billion in IRS systems and audits,
which is expected to increase tax revenue by a trillion dollars.
(satire) *Studio Ghibli Theme Park Opening Delayed After Construction
Site Overrun With Curious Forest Sprites.*
Vandana Shiva argues for treating "everything we need" as a commons.
I think that goes too far -- it is, in effect, Communism, and we have
not seen that come out well.
In societies where each family can do its own gathering, or its own
gardening, there is no need to make food part of an economy. But we
are far away from that now. It is not feasible for everyone to grow
food, not in India and even less so in the US. No one farm will grow
all the foodstuffs that people eat nowadays, not even in India. There
must be a system to handle growing food, processing food (do you want
bread, flour, or just whole grains of wheat) and providing it to those
who don't grow it. If it doesn't work by rationing, it needs to be a
market.
A market is based on rules, and there are many choices for society to
make in those rules. The big economic issues, the causes of hunger
and penury, have to do with the rules of the market for food. Through
the 1970s the US used to have many family farms, and governments made
sure its policies enabled them to stay in business. Reagan suckered
farmers into accepting loans they could not pay back, and this caused a big leap in consolidation. His deregulation and his weakening of
anti-monopoly laws allowed mega-businesses to dominate and eventually
buy most of the remaining family farms, while mistreating the eating
public too.
Likewise for water. In a city, you can't get water from your own
well. There needs to be a system to handle it. What should the
system's rules be? How should it charge for water -- and how do we
make sure poor people water to drink and to wash? Those are crucial
political questions today, with poor families' water being disconnected
just as they are told they need to wash their hands frequently.
But "dig your own well" is not a solution.
An aquifer should be a common -- but successful commons need rules
about who gets to take how much.
Oracle provided the software for the Chinese state to make effective
repressive use of the massive data it collects about everyone in
China.
The crucial evil is in the collection of the data, but that is no excuse for helping in any other stage of repression.
Around 15% of prisoners in the US are sentenced to 50 or more years in
prison.
There is rarely a rational basis for such a long sentence.
Calling on India to release political prisoner Professor G N Saibaba.
*Nursing Home Industry Avoids Scrutiny for Covid-19 Deaths as Powerful Lobby
Goes to Work.*
Civilian government workers in Burma are striking against the military takeover.
Large numbers of people in the UK going to the beach last summer seems
to have had no Covid-spreading effect.
The UK Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers are employees.
This should result in giving them many forms of employment rights.
Meanwhile, in California, the initiative that decided drivers are not
employees has enabled Uber to cut the drivers' pay.
The Colombian army killed at least 6400 noncombatants and disguised
them as FARC guerrillas killed in combat.
The soldiers were rewarded based on body count.
The imprisonment of two Dubai princesses illustrates how Dubai
legally makes women second-class citizens.
European countries did this in the 1800s, and even into the 1900s;
it went much further than just denying women the vote.
The Tories are more or less undoing their previous harmful
reorganization which introduced competition and privatization into the
workings of the NHS, which they did based on plutocratist ideology.
*Call to tax international flights to raise climate funds for poor countries.*
I am in favor.
Elsevier is corrupting "open science" in Europe by worming its way
into operating the systems to monitor scientific publication.
That is in addition to publishing pay-walled journals, which should
not exist at all.
*To Avoid Backlash, Facebook Reportedly Relaxed Fact-Checking Standards on
Conservative Pages.*
A librarian has been fired for taking books by Ann Counter and Donald Trump
off the shelves and burning them.
Although I think those books are contemptible, destroying books in the
library's collection is not acceptable. Burning books is especially
bad.
SpaceX donated over $100k to members of Congress that tried to overturn
the election.
The Earth's magnetic field flipped direction 42,000 years ago.
It now appears this may have caused problems including an increase
in UV radiation hitting the Earth, and might have caused extinctions
including the full-blooded Neanderthals.
The Neanderthals did have descendants of course -- us.
UK ministers are becoming habituated to deciding laws without letting
Parliament vote.
This is not a democracy.
*Belarus jails two journalists who covered Lukashenko protest.*
When Britons claim welfare payments after losing their jobs,
1/6 of them can't afford food.
*Iran [non-]nuclear deal: US agrees to join talks brokered by EU.*
It looks like Biden decided he wants to make progress towards a deal,
rather than put Iran in the wrong.
Facebook's rejection of Australian news sources makes visible the injustice
of internet connections that privilege Facebook over other sites.
Such schemes ought to be prohibited in the name of market competition,
among other reasons.
*Facebook is gambling Australia can't live without it.* More
precisely, without finding news articles in it. *Imagine if we prove
them wrong.*
Biden opposes defunding local police, apparently even partially.
Fortunately, localities can do this without federal approval.
Britain, Canada and Norway pretend to be leaders in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions while exporting lots of fossil fuel.
Cavities in Siberia, filled with methane, are producing large craters
when they explosively release the methane into the atmosphere.
Texas's gas-fired power plants failed due to cold.
Republican deregulation enabled and encourage Texas's electric utilities
to save money by not preparing for winter storms.
The power grid should be run by the state so it will be accountable.
Texas cities kept the electricity on in downtown areas because
of the critical facilities there. This had the side effect of keeping
power on for business that wasted power on lights for publicity.
Maybe there needs to be a law that the city can order a building to
turn off all external lights and all light in rooms that no one is in.
This will make more power available to keep the current on in other
neighborhoods.
(satire) *Doctor Assures Limbaugh Family It [is] Normal For Body To
Continue Ranting About Welfare Queens Hours After Death.*
The Georgia state senate is secretly considering bills for voter suppression.
To disprove the impunity the wrecker still claims to have, we must
prosecute him for inciting the attack on the Capitol.
Failure to prosecute him would encourage him and others to sabotage
our system of government.
Are we so desperate to rebuild our house that we can't afford to
remove the termites' nest?
Biden proposes to give/sell $200 million in ship-to-air missiles for
the Egyptian military government.
At least they can't be used to repress dissidents.
*Senior UK fraud prosecutor unfairly sacked after US sabotage,
tribunal finds.*
The article is concerned with how UK officials acted, but I'm most
concerned with the possible dishonesty of the US officials.
Reasons not to use funding sites.
The imprisonment of climate activist Disha Ravi epitomizes the Indian
government's readiness to outrage the world in order to crush dissent.
Now that England has reopened many schools, Covid-19 is spreading fast
among school children there.
Planet-roasters keep trying desperately to ship abrasive tar sands oil
from Alberta to some coastline. Biden should cancel the Line 3 pipeline
to protect the world from that oil.
*The GOP Is a Dangerous Cult That Democrats Should Not Negotiate With.*
The question is, how to twist the arms of senators Manchin and Sinema,
Democratic in affiliation but with politics like pre-tea-party
Republicans.
(satire) *"You Go Back Where You Came From," Says Texan Pointing Gun
At Snowman Trespassing On Property.*
(satire) *Historians Reveal Terra-Cotta Army Result Of Perfectionist
Sculptor Screwing Up Soldier Statue Thousands Of Times.*
*Reversing Myanmar's Coup Isn't Enough. Here’s How to Build a Better Burma.*
Facebook responded by the requirement to pay for carrying news articles
by blocking all news sites and lots of other sites as well.
With luck, people will adapt by finding other ways to see news articles
and stop letting Facebook use them.
*California bill would decriminalize psychedelics, paving the way for medical
treatment.*
In Chicago, black and Hispanic cops are substantially less thuggish
than white cops, on the average.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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.
The War on Drugs is so drugged-out that its damage shows up in many
aspects of life.
I would say to bring the drug war's soldiers home, but the problem
is that that's where they are; their war is against Americans.
Let's demobilize them.
When considering issues about aid to the poor, we should keep in mind
the human right not to live in poverty.
Nepal is considering a law to make females under 40 years old get
permission to leave the country.
This is supposed to be a measure to prevent them from being trafficked
and enslaved. However, the result is patriarchal. Meanwhile,
trafficking and enslavement is not limited to females, and the forced
labor they do is not limited to sex.
Perhaps a law should strongly encourage every Nepali who plans to
leave to take a course of study about how enslavers actually work and
the lures they use.
The NAACP is suing the wrecker for organizing the attack on the Capitol. That is good, but is it adequate as a response to his deeds?
Normally, civil lawsuits cannot result in a judgment that puts
someone in prison. Is this lawsuit an exception? If not,
I think it is not enough.
The Poor Peoples Campaign in West Virginia is pressuring the plutocratist
senator Manchin to support increasing the minimum wage.
*The Guardian view on two-party politics: a binary choice is bad for
democracy.*
The article focuses on the UK — where proportional representation, as
in most European parliaments, would give Corbyn's supporters a chance
to succeed with another party — but the US has the same problem.
Biden is using a clever method to pressure Salafi Arabia to reduce the
power of the acting king, Prince Bone Saw,
and deal instead with King Salman.
This rebukes the prince, but not the country.
*California bill would ban fracking in state by 2027.*
Hooray!
*Taiwan suggests China to blame after deal for 5m Covid vaccine doses is put
on hold.*
Geographical allocation of distribution of a product should never
group Taiwan with China. Instead, group Taiwan with countries that
are rivals with China.
Taiwan's humorous response to disinformation is effective.
Light pollution and delectable floating plastic are killing baby sea
turtles in Australia.
BLM UK will contribute to a "people's tribunal" to investigate the death
of people in jail, prison, and locked wards.
Princess Latifa's description of her prison, which is effectively
long-term solitary confinement.
Abiy, ruler of Ethiopia, has arrested some Oromo protest leaders,
making accusations that are fishy, and they have been on hunger strike
to the point of organ damage.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that Jamaica must repeal
its laws prohibiting homosexual sex.
New York State has sued Amazon for failing to protect its warehouse
workers from Covid-19, and for firing a worker who tried to organize
to demand protection.
The Republican mayor of a town called Colorado City told the residents
to "Sink or swim" on their own — that they should not expect any help
from the city or anyone else.
That's what passes for morality among Republicans today.
If you would like governments to organize efforts to help and take care of
people that need help, vote for progressive Democrats and Greens.
Progress in designing public housing to be low-carbon and good to live in.
*Crew of oil tanker beached off UAE to go home after four years
stranded at sea.*
They could have left before, but they would have forfeited their back pay
for years on the ship.
Their ordeal is over, but what we really need is a treaty to assure
that stranded crew do not face that unjust choice in the future.
Perhaps the nearest country should be allowed to seize the ship,
pay off the crew, sell it for auction, take enough to cover what
was paid to the crew plus something for its trouble, and send the
rest to the previous owner.
*Heating Arctic may be to blame for snowstorms in Texas, scientists argue.*
Global heating is not uniform — it does not mean that every part of
the Earth gets steadily hotter. It is possible for a region to get
quite cold for a few weeks a year, while its average temperature
rises.
It is even possible for a region to get colder on the average even as
the Earth's surface overall gets hotter on the average.
Right-wing anti-truthers blame renewable generators for power outages
in Texas, which in fact are the result of problems in fossil-fuel
generators.
The UK government is considering a bill to oppose de-platforming in
universities, giving the universities and student unions a
responsibility not to censor staff, students, and visiting speakers.
The University and College Union replies that the UK government itself
is a big threat to freedom of speech on campus. That accusation seems
plausible to me, and I would like to see examples. Does criticism of
Israel's occupation of Palestine faces repression there through
labeling it "antisemitism"?
However, if freedom of speech is in danger from two sides, the
two dangers to not balance each other out. Rather, they add.
Secret recordings made by Princess Latifa as a prisoner in Dubai
say that she was captured in 2018 by Indian soldiers
who handed her over to Dubai's forces.
They also give reason to think that her friends released the videos because
she is either dead or being imprisoned in a worse situation.
The PKK, and underground Kurdish guerrilla group, killed 13 Turkish
soldiers and cops that they had captured.
Killing prisoners is wrong no matter who they are, but remember that
Erdoğan is guilty of far worse. He ordered atrocities which dwarf
this one. He started a civil war a few years ago so he could rerun an
election and get a better outcome.
US officials helped convince Mexico to continue the use of glyphosate.
(satire) *Police Union Honors Law Enforcement Officers Injured
Carrying Out Capitol Attack.*
Biden could have started his term with a diplomatic triumph by
immediately resuming the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
Instead he risks
failure by demanding Iran comply first.
*UN Envoy Warns Global Food Crisis
Getting Worse.*
Many well-known US companies use subsubsubcontracted gig workers to do
customer service. Each worker has to pay for training and services to
be able to do the job at all, which leaves very little income for the
worker.
The companies that use Arise to exploit customer service agents include
Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Barnes & Noble, Comcast, Disney, eBay,
Instacart, Intuit, Home Depot, Staples, Princess Cruises, Peloton,
Signet Jewelers, Virgin Atlantic and Walgreens.
This is what plutocracy looks like — laws written to let companies
shit on people.
Right-wing extremist legislators in Tennessee propose to allow the
father of a fetus to prohibit aborting it.
A woman is not an incubator; no one should have the power to force her
to give birth to the fetus.
"True the Vote" raised 250 million dollars, supposedly to sue to overturn
the fictitious fraudulent election, but all those lawsuits went nowhere
and the money will actually go to serve the wrecker in other ways.
One donor is suing to demand 2 million dollars back.
*Risk of global food shortages due to Covid has increased, says UN envoy.*
One secondary injustice of cancelling people's citizenship for crimes
is to dump them on other countries they are citizens of.
*LAPD Sought Ring Home Security Video Related to Black Lives Matter Protests.*
A German MP from the Green Party proposes to ban construction of
new single-family homes in cities.
I support this plan, which Hamburg has already carried out.
116 species of plants in Australia may have been wiped out by the
fires a year ago, because all known populations of them were burned.
Some of these species may regrow from seeds or roots.
Hundreds more species have been pushed a long way towards extinction.
Vaccination with any effective Covid-19 vaccine is much better than none.
The Tories have understaffed the NHS to the point where doctors in their
first years of work have trouble finding time to go to the toilet, let
alone get vaccinated for Covid-19.
Perhaps bringing vaccination to their workplaces so they can be vaccinated
while on duty would help.
Various groups of workers in the US will strike on Tuesday demanding
a $15/hour minimum wage.
Proposing cease-fires in wars around the world to allow for vaccination.
*Since the coup, people in Yangon have been patrolling the streets to
protect neighbors from overnight military raids and criminals.*
*How the Covid pandemic could end — and what will make it happen faster.*
US citizens: call on Congress to urge Biden to declare a climate
emergency.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Most Republicans still support the corrupter, and want to run him for
president in 2024.
*Israel blocked Covid vaccines from entering Gaza, say Palestinians.*
US citizens: call on Biden to fill the USPS governing board so they
can fire DeJoy.
Russia jailed Ivan Safronov on charges of spying. Perhaps a journalist he wrote a report for is a spy, but unless there were secrets in it, so what?
*Animals traded for pet industry, bushmeat, traditional medicine, ivory
and lab use declined locally by up to 99.9%.*
Bolsonaro has made it easier to buy guns in Brazil.
I can't help worrying whether he is setting up a civil war between his
supporters and his opponents.
Leaders of the Hong Kong democracy movement are now being tried for advocating
democracy.
Of course, the repressive government has other names for it, which are
designed to disguise repression.
Historians state their conclusions about President Lincoln.
A massive Chinese espionage system used chips inserted secretly in
computers made in China for US companies.
A commission should investigate the terrorist attack on the Capitol,
much as a commission investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Impeachment was a failure politically; the commission could convert it into
the beginning of a victory.
Congress is considering it now.
UK thugs now frequently watch protests with drones. This includes
Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, animal rights protests,
and lockdown protests.
I suggest that one crucial issue to regulate is whether drones are
allowed to take footage that can be used to recognize individuals.
Perhaps it should be illegal to use drones capable of doing that in
any place unless violence is occurring there or a warrant has been issued
for there.
US citizens: call on Congress not to expand the power to arbitrarily
repress activities called "domestic terrorism".
Punishment of groups, and their members, must operate by way of a trial.
Surveillance must be controlled via warrants.
Extremist groups are potentially dangerous. So are states. So we
need to walk a fine line, making the state strong enough to suppress
the danger of extremist groups while keeping it from being itself a
danger.
Whatever additional power we give the state, a violent extremist group
known as "Republicans" may someday wield.
The "pros and cons of Covid vaccine passports" does not mention the two
issues about them that most concern me.
I have no objection to requiring a traveler to present a certificate of
vaccination along with per passport when crossing a border. But if
the system requires the traveler to have a portable phone, that makes
it unjust. Portable phones are tracking and listening devices, which
is why I refuse to carry one.
If restaurants and other businesses check these certificates, that
could require people to have portable phones to enter them. But even
if they accept paper certificates, the system could still result in
identifying every vaccinated person who visits them. Tracking
people's movements creates a database for repression, whenever a
government chooses to use it.
The bully's power over Republican legislators, even after he sent people
to kill them, reflects their dependence on donations from billionaires.
*This Is Biden's Chance to End ICE's Abuses—For Good.*
Greta Thunberg published advice on how to support the Indian farmers'
nonviolent (most of the time) protests with nonviolent action.
India's freedom-trashing government calls this an "attack on India"
and has arrested an activist, Disha Ravi, calling her a "conspirator"
in writing the advice.
According to the Indian state, to "spread disaffection" against it is
a criminal act. In other words, criticizing the state's actions is
repressed.
US taxes on the wealthiest, measured against their total wealth, are
1/6 the fraction that they were in 1953.
*Federal Court Strikes Down Arkansas Attempt to Punish Proponents of
Boycotting Israel Over Its Treatment of Palestinians.*
It's true that we will need to organize pressure on Biden to make
larger positive changes — but false that Biden wants us to do this.
The Proud Boys is fragmenting, and cops have stopped treating the group
as an ally.
I hope that will help defeat the plans to restrict basic freedoms so
as to defeat right-wing violence. That would be a disaster,
exchanging a possible defeat for actual defeat.
Walmart, Costco and Kroger are selling beef from JBS, known as a
seller of deforestation production.
The saboteur-in-chief's officials corrupted the federal plan for
managing California's water.
Bogus Johnson is undermining accountability in the British government
with a pervasive system of secrecy about information that might embarrass
present or past officials.
Larry Flynt fought in court over and over for freedom of the press
and other human rights.
The head of a vaccine manufacturer in India says that the limitation
on quantity of vaccine available is the challenge of scaling up
production.
Maybe that is so, but nonetheless it seems like we are producing
vaccine too slowly. To stretch it out over 18 months is more
efficient, for sure, but producing twice as fast could save millions
from dying from Covid-19 during the extra 9 months.
Reviewing the evidence that the wrecker encouraged the attack on the Capitol
even as it was happening.
He wanted the attackers to seize and harm Pence, Pelosi and other officials
that were not doing his will.
A deadly avalanche of ice and rock, in the foothills of the Himalayas, was
made possible by global heating.
Like most disasters, this one had several underlying causes, including
deforestation, as well as its precipitating cause.
* The January 6 assault on our democracy should lead to greater
accountability for future political leaders—and their wealthy financial
backers.*
Burning wood to get energy sounds like a renewable system, but in
practice it isn't.
*Biden Should Stop Payment on U.S. Funds To Sisi's Egypt.*
Interesting moral issues raised by the question of strategy for
dealing with Covid-19.
Covid-19 is far more deadly than flu.
*The “For the People Act” of 2021 Would Make the U.S. a Democracy*,
or at least closer to it.
We to have a real democracy we would also need to restrict the
political power of the rich, both power over elections
and power of corruption.
*We Must Fight the System, Not Each Other.*
I agree with Ms Farmand's criticism of capitalism as it is practiced
by powerful companies in the US today — plutocracy, extractivism and
dooH niboR — but I don't believe in eliminating all capitalism (all
private business). Rather, I advocate eliminating the political power
of business, and restoring democracy.
China denied some raw data to the WHO team investigating the origin of
Covid-19, and did not allow them to arrange meetings freely.
*Having first indulged and then
endorsed Trump’s trampling of constitutional norms and abuse of the
presidency, when would Republican lawmakers say, "No more"?*
*Republicans have betrayed American democracy — and boosted the world's
dictators.*
Most Republican senators have demonstrated they are the
wrecker's flunkies. No crime is so bad they would condemn him
for it.
The wrecker told the organizers of the Jan 6 rally there would be no march — then he surprised them by calling for a march on the Capitol.
And why did the Capitol Police let the criminals leave without noting
down who they were?
He also provided at least 3.5 million to those organizers
through hidden channels.
Christian extremists have taught some of Brazil's indigenous people's
to refuse to be vaccinated for Covid-19.
I wonder if they will refuse vaccination for measles too. If that gets loose
among them, large numbers could die.
The thugs who knocked down protester Martin Gugino will face no charges because the grand jury voted not to indict them.
It is always a surprise when a grand jury votes not to indict, because that hardly ever happens. Prosecutors dominate grand juries so effectively
that they almost always get the results they want. Thus, I have to
wonder whether the prosecutor intended to fail. Prosecutors want good
cooperation with thugs and often have right-wing views, so it is
plausible that a prosecutor might choose to fail to prosecute thugs
for attacking a protester.
Whether that happened in this case is only speculation, but we know it
does happen. Members of a grand jury accused the attorney general of
Kentucky of concealing options so as to prevent indictment of thugs,
then lying to the public about what he had done.
The Burmese army is arresting organizers of protests.
DeJoy has another plan to slow down some first class mail.
China plans to arbitrarily block Hong Kongers from leaving Hong Kong.
Presumably it would do this to stop people from emigrating.
The Soviet Union used to require citizens to get exit visas to be
allowed to leave that country. The assumption was that most people,
if they could ever get out, would not return. Does China do this
nowadays?
Another tactic used by the Soviet Union was to use relatives of hostages:
you would not be allowed to leave unless some of your family stayed home.
I expect to see this in Hong Kong too.
*Facebook might censor criticism of Zionists. That’s dangerous.*
Proctorio is such a proktos that, when students analyze its nastyware, it forbids them to run its software.
Which software is nominally required to pass courses at many
benighted schools.
I urge students to organize to demand a way to take the exam
without using their own computers.
Biden has allowed asylum seekers to wait in the US, those that the bully forced
to wait for a decision in Mexico instead.
*Minneapolis poised to ban facial recognition for police use.*
That's just the first step! Systematic face recognition should be
banned for all use aside from a few limited exceptions.
Calling on Biden to override Moderna's patent and thus allow low-cost
production of vaccine.
Forget squabbling over which country gets how many doses: this is what
we really need.
If the Senate does not convict the wrecker, Republicans will have
declared that they endorse overturning elections by force.
Governor Cuomo of New York State is responsible for covering up the
number of deaths from Covid-19 in nursing homes.
His aide said that the reason for covering it up was to stop the
wrecker from launching a politically motivated investigation. I
sympathize, but I don't think that justifies the course of action.
*Mars, Nestlé and Hershey [and other large companies that sell
chocolate] to face child slavery lawsuit in US.*
This is because the farms they buy from use forced labor of children,
and the companies can't help knowing it.
Reporting progress in stopping the looting of ancient artifacts from
Cambodia.
In the case of the statue that was stolen from Koh Kher, it sounds
like people know exactly where it came from. Therefore scholars can
learn from the fact of its prese at that spot. That is unusual —
looters do not normally record where exactly they found each object,
nor the non-valuable things that they disturbed. and the result is the
loss of precious information about the past, information that could
eventually help us understand ancient peoples' way of life.
Facebook has blocked the Burmese military government for spreading
misinformation.
A panel chartered by The Lancet concluded that Medicare for All is the only
way to make the US a society of healthy people.
60 Israeli high school seniors this year refused to be drafted into the army,
for political reasons.
The US policy of inflicting extreme sanctions, effectively economic
warfare, should be rethought.
They inflict great suffering, and now even perpetuating Covid-19.
Meanwhile, they do not convince governments to do as the US demands.
*At Confirmation Hearing, Bernie Sanders Calls Out Neera Tanden's History of
'Vicious Attacks' on Progressives.*
*Fossil Fuel and Other Polluters Gave Tens of Millions in Campaign Cash to GOP
Lawmakers Opposing Biden's Leasing Freeze.*
Rep. Clyburn proposed to designate Lift Every Voice and Sing as something
like a second national anthem for the US.
The song is a beautiful and moving expression of striving for freedom,
aside from a few annoying hints at excessive religious sentiment,
until the disaster at the end: it becomes an explicit prayer! I will
never sing that! I am sure many other Atheists will likewise refuse.
They could correct this problem by deleting the last stanza.
*Study Warns Emissions Cuts Must Be 80% More Ambitious to Meet Even the
Dangerously Inadequate 2°C Target.*
*Israel has been exporting arms to the world’s most repressive governments. A
new project aims to hold it accountable by tracking these confidential sales.*
The FAIR Act is a bill that would eliminate forcing arbitration on
workers and customers.
(satire) *Tim Cook Unveils Rows Of Artificial Wombs After Announcing
Apple Will Begin Manufacturing Own Employees In House.*
The US continues secretive sporadic drone attacks in Yemen.
The new White House Press Secretary doesn't show contempt for the idea
of truth, but that doesn't mean she always tells the truth.
We are back to the pre-2017 approach of crafting a consistent picture which
may have falsehoods embedded in a matrix of mostly truth.
*Republicans Are Now the Party of Lawlessness and Disorder.*
The computer forensics firm Arsenal Consulting says that someone used
malware to plant incriminating phony letters on prisoners' rights
activist Rona Wilson's laptop. Thugs seized his laptop, "discovered"
these letters, and used them to imprison Wilson and other activists.
*Global green recovery plans fail to match 2008 stimulus, report shows.*
The UK has set limits on pollution from farms, but never bothers to
enforce them.
In Honduras, Keyla Martínez was murdered in jail, strangled inside her cell.
Burma's military is imitating the Republican Party, making bogus
accusations of election fraud.
Except that it can arrest the officials
in charge and brutalize them into confessing.
*US fast food workers hold Black History Month strikes to demand $15 an hour.*
*America 'Should Be Ashamed': Texas Teen Forced to Use College Savings to
Prevent Mom's Eviction.*
(satire) *Botched Autopsy Brings Murder Victim Back To Life.*
*We Can Push Biden for Fundamental Change at the USDA and Beyond.*
We need to push together, with organization.
*Meaty meals and play stop cats killing wildlife, study finds.*
Brightly colored collars seem to protect birds but not mice.
Putting a bell on the cat was observed to have no effect.
I think the cats learned to avoid jingling the bells.
There goes the fable of Belling the Cat.
Salafi Arabia has released political prisoner Loujain al-Hathloul from
prison but has imposed restrictive probation conditions.
*I quit food delivery apps – the absurd convenience was not worth the cost.*
The author considers the cost to society and the cost to her tranquility,
as well as the price of food ordered that way.
New Zealand's parliament has dropped the requirement for neckties
after one rebellious MP of Maori origin refused to wear one.
Hooray! I have compared ties to nooses since I was a teenager.
Nowadays, they do more than hurt your feelings (if they do that).
If the US had handled Covid-19 as well as other developed countries,
it would have had 40% fewer deaths from the disease.
The US could have averted even more of those deaths if it had set up a
true national medical system earlier, rather than leaving Americans to
be the prey of greedy drain-em-dry pharma and clinic companies,
plus a proper safety net so they would have places to self-isolate and
could afford to stay home from work when sick.
The scale of salmon farming is causing global environmental problems.
If the human population were just one billion, we could help wild
salmon recover and sustainably catch enough of them to satisfy our
wish for salmon.
Despite the latest information and recommendations, Australia's
extractivist government proposes a weak way to prevent further
environmental damage.
Environmental racism makes people of disprivileged groups
life in sickness and die earlier.
The right way to correct this is not by spreading the polluting
facilities through the areas where more privileged people live. The
right way is to fix them not to pollute.
*President Sisi has destroyed Egyptians' hopes after they ended Mubarak's
hellish reign* (10 years ago).
California's long-term drought is getting worse this year.
With little rain in winter, the fires of summer, fall and next winter
could be very bad again.
US citizens: support Deb Haaland for secretary of the interior.
US citizens: call on Congress to pull the US out of the war in Afghanistan.
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!
President Higgins of Ireland criticizes the tendency to whitewash imperialism
(and specifically the British rule over Ireland). At the same
time, he warns against narrowminded nationalism, including condemning
all British over the current policies of the UK.
On Burma's tradition of underground resistance to military rule.
The EU trained Burmese thugs in "crowd control", which in this case
means repressing protests to restore democracy.
Scientists say it is possible to move to 100% renewable energy system
by 2035, with coordinated global action.
This would go a long way preventing global heating disaster, and
eliminate much of the pollution that kills millions of people every
year.
But not all of it. For instance, vehicle tires produce an important
part of particulate pollution; changing the source of
the energy that moves the vehicle will not affect that pollution.
(satire) *GOP Senators Argue It’s Unconstitutional To Be Forced To Work On A Tuesday.*
*Corporate Concentration in the US Food System Makes Food More Expensive and
Less Accessible*.
At the other end of the food system are the farmers.
The same powerful middlemen squeeze them too.
Massachusetts is considering bills to prohibit super-PACs in elections
in Massachusetts.
It's time to negotiate a treaty banning weapons in outer space.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a large federally-owned electric
company. It must plan to decarbonize.
* Hedge funds and private equity firms make profits off our misery and
threaten any future health care reform.*
In Pakistan, 1000 Hindu and Christian women a year are forced into
marriage by Muslim men, who in many cases kidnap them first.
The Labor Party of Australia has proposed to give contractors many of
the same rights that employees have, including minimum wage, sick
leave, pension, and right to unionize.
It's not the "Alternative Liberal Party" anymore.
US subway stations suffer from extremely high levels of particulate
pollution.
What amazes me most is that it varies greatly from one station to
another. This implies that much of the problem is due to very local
causes, that could be corrected quickly and easily.
The British Army fought hard to suppress publication of a book that
revealed its incompetence, both personal and structural.
We should not, however, blame the British Army in 2003 for having
few in its ranks who had fought in combat. It was a good thing that
the UK went 20 years without fighting a war.
California is considering a bill to prevent companies from using NDAs
to gag workers about any sort of discrimination in the company.
I support this. And why not include other things that businesses should
not be allowed to conceal, such as practices that endanger the public?
Consider the examples of tobacco companies and oil companies.
China's birth rate fell 15% in 2020. This is being considered a problem.
China is overusing its natural systems, like many other countries.
Now that most Chinese are not horribly poor — a very good thing, in
itself — they have pushed agriculture to the point of causing
problems for the land. China imports large number of pigs, too.
If China's population drops to half a billion, it will reach a
better balance.
Perhaps the decreased birth rate can enable China to cancel some of
then new coal-fired power plants it is planning to build in coming
years.
As for the predicted economic problems of an aging population,
adjustment in policies can handle them, for the few decades that they
last.
US citizens: call on Congress to end fossil fuel subsidies.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
*Climate action could save 'millions of lives' through clean air, diet
and exercise.*
The UK government has agreed to pay some part of the costs of replacing
flammable cladding on the outside of apartment buildings.
This is a classic instance of a job that the government ought to
handle. The Tories' years of refusal reflect the ideology of
privatization, of business over people.
*GameStop Fiasco Proves We Need a Financial Transaction Tax.*
The original reason for proposing that tax was to reduce volatility
of stocks and commodities. Collecting revenue from rich people
is a secondary benefit.
Governments that fail to support working people so that they can stay
away from work are putting everyone in danger.
Firstly, this spreads Covid-19, making more people sick.
Secondly, it makes more chance for the virus to mutate and perhaps
become more dangerous.
Some sobering facts about global heating.
178 million hectares (of lost forests) are about 700,000 square miles.
Twitter says it has banned the bullshitter for life.
That is important. There are other Republicans who can invent a new lie
every day, but they probably can't do it with same effect as he.
Georgia prosecutors are investigating the wrecker over his phone call
to the Georgia secretary of state, in which the wrecker demanded that
he "find more votes" so that the wrecker would win that state.
I wonder whether they can do something to prevent the wrecker from
leaving the US. I expect that at some point he will try fleeing to
some country from which the US cannot extradite him.
*Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden family.*
I am curious whether this leads to legal jeopardy for Giuliani or
the wrecker. I don't see immediately that it does.
Humans are degrading the natural systems that our lives and civilization
depend on. We wiped out 40% (estimated) from 1992 to 2014, and unless
we slow down, by 2040 we may have trouble staying alive.
The problem is broader than greenhouse gas emissions and global heating.
Waters, soils, forests, we are damaging them all.
We need to mobilize society and business to work together to protect
our future.
*Amazon Hired Koch-Backed Anti-Union Consultant to Fight Alabama Warehouse
Organizing.*
Ralph Nader criticizes the Democrats in Congress for not bringing up all
the arguments for impeaching the wrecker.
I am not sure he is right. There are other urgent things for
the Senate to do, which could change people's lives for the better.
There was a moment when it looked like Republicans might vote to
convict him, but now it is clear they won't dare do that. Democrats
may figure that showing them extra reasons to convict would be wasting
their breath.
At long last, Covid-19 infection rates are going down. We must not
stop the precautions against transmitting it.
Apple's total control over installing apps in iMonsters
gives Apple dangerous power over computing and other companies.
Even though Apple occasionally uses this power to stop other companies
from exploiting users, it is not a trustworthy defender of the public's
safety or rights. The right way to do that is through democracy and
freedom.
The article is written based on premises that accept nonfree software
as legitimate, so I disagree with a lot of what it says.
Dictator Lukashenko has defeated the protest movement in Belarus,
using force and repression.
China has imprisoned a publisher for publishing censored books.
She pled guilty, but the article leaves it clear whether she really
published them.
Burmese protesters are continuing their nonviolence. The thugs are
using the usual forms of violence.
Global heating is pushing great white sharks northwards, and now they
are eating sea otters and salmon.
Alberta panicked about loss of exports of tar sands, so it decided to open
up protected lands for coal mining.
How crazy can you get?
*Hedge Funds Tried to Kill Gamestop. Now They’re Coming for Our Health Care System Too.*
*Inuit hunters blockade iron mine in freezing temperatures [to block
its] expansion.*
Fossil fuel pollution
shortens
human life expectancy by one year or more. This is aside from the
harm that global heating will do.
The article says that this pollution caused 8.7 million deaths in
2018, and also that this is 1/5 of all deaths, but something is wrong
since there were around 63 million deaths that year and 1/5 of that is
12.6 million. However, that error hardly alters any conclusions.
*State-owned fossil fuel firms planning
$1.9tn
investments.* This is enough to sink civilization.
Exploding old bombs from World War II underwater (because they were
found on the sea bottom) is
damaging
the hearing of whales. The whales then die.
US citizens: call on Amazon not to make its delivery vehicles snoop
on everyone they pass by.
A Canadian thug beat up a helpless person, including cruelly giving per
orders while holding per down so that perse could not carry them out,
and beating per for not complying.
Denver set up a pilot program to send medical professionals instead of cops
for some emergency calls. It has been a great success.
Jails in the US often serve rotten food to the prisoners.
*New Campaign Targets Wall Street Funding to Stop Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline.*
Human rights organizations have called on Biden to drop charges
against Assange.
Congress can, and should, vote to deny the wrecker the government support
normally provided to former presidents.
Freedom of speech is limited in shocking ways in countries other than
the US. This example shocked me.
I hardly know anything about Captain Moore, and I have no wish to
criticize him. The criticism cited seems crude and harsh. But
criminalizing it seems wrong.
I wonder whether what I said about Steve Jobs
— that his death put a stop
to his attacks on our freedom — would be a crime if I were in the UK.
Economists dispute whether raising the minimum wage to $15/hr would increase the national debt or decrease it, but either way it qualifies to be included
in budget reconciliation.
Even a rather unfriendly analysis found lots of benefit.
In terms of the public good, increasing the deficit by $5 billion/yr
is hardly significant when compared with the benefits of increasing
the minimum wage. However, if the minimum wage does not apply to
gig workers, it is not doing its job.
20% of patients in UK who were hospitalized for Covid-19 have PTSD
afterward.
A few percent of he hospitalized patients have continuing "long Covid"
disabilities.
Thus, even if you don't die, Covid-19 can do you substantial harm.
*Myanmar protesters vow to continue despite ban on gatherings.*
The UK's official policy of hostility towards unauthorized immigrants is
likely to scare many of them off Covid-19 vaccination, despite the decision to make an exception for vaccination.
This undermines the effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 and thus
harms everyone.
Biden's termination of support for Salafi Arabia's offensive in Yemen
now includes selling arms for that use.
That is an important step. At least one of the US's forever wars may be
brought to an end. Of course, the UK ought to do likewise.
Finally it emerges that the Tory party has antisemites —
real antisemites, in this case, not critics of Israel's occupation policy
smeared as "antisemites."
During the campaign to force out Corbyn, Tory antisemites were downplayed
so as to focus the unjust condemnation on Corbyn.
Supporters of Taiwan must plan how they will respond if China launches
economic warfare against Taiwan.
Either a financial trades tax or a wealth tax could be used to reduce
inequality in the US.
Why not use both?
*Pollen season grows 20 days in 30 years as climate crisis hits hay fever
sufferers.*
A cracker got into the computer that controls the water treatment
system of Oldsmar, Florida, and started pouring large amounts of lye
into the water supply.
This is one of the things that should not be connected to any networks.
The US has been imposing "elected" governments on Haiti for more than
a decade.
Although we have no evidence that voting machines were used for election
fraud in 2020, we know some are vulnerable to such use.
People should vote on paper, marking ballots with a pen. Then a
computerized machine can be used to count them. That machine should
not be able to alter them.
Amazon is requiring warehouse workers to work a shift that starts
after 1am and lasts 10.5 hours.
Aside from being exhausting and physically dangerous, the workers, who
often do not have cars, have no easy way to get to work at that hour.
It is ironic that they ask for Lyft rides, since Lyft is an exploitative
gig company
which keeps track of people, like Amazon.
Here are specifics of Senator Klobuchar's plan to strengthen
US antitrust law long several dimensions.
I think these changes would be very good, but my proposed tax scheme
to pressure companies to split themselves up, or not merge in the
first place, would be complementary to it.
In parts of California there are many farmers of Punjabi origin.
They have been protesting in support of India's farmers against
Modi's dooH niboR farm law.
US citizens: call on the Osceola sheriff to fire the thug that
knocked a teenager unconscious in school
I support not having thugs normally present in schools. It is too dangerous.
US citizens: call on Congress to tax Wall Street trades.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site,
use the Salsalabs workaround.
As increasing numbers of Americans are forced into precarious work,
such as an Amazon warehouse, unionization becomes increasingly
important for them.
They also need many changes in US law, which won't be possible unless
Manchin supports them.
On the best way to impose regulation to prevent digital sites from
boosting the internet of political delusion.
I don't see any way that changing CDA section 230 could help achieve
this goal.
As for the issue that 80 countries could regulate internet discussions
in 80 different ways, I suggest that the solution is to make it easy
for a web site not to do business in any given country, and then it
would not have to follow that country's regulations. This should not
involve refusing to let people in that country post comments,
but they could not purchase any services from the site.
Amazon is installing cameras in the vans that deliver for it.
The stated purpose is to monitor the driver all the time,
but they also look at and recognize the people and cars nearby.
Republican donors are suing to get their money back, claiming to have been
cheated by use of false claims of voter fraud to raise "campaign" money.
*If India can charge journalists with ‘sedition’ for doing their jobs, it has
no free press.*
The harsh foot of dooH niboR is driving many poor Americans to despair
and opioids. Life expectancy started decreasing after 2015.
Covid-19 is causing a poverty hit, and that is likely to mean more
opioid deaths. A country with functioning democracy would do
something about the cause of the poverty.
An FBI agent asked for and got a meeting with Cory Doctorow.
Then the FBI officially said it had no records about him,
which has to be a lie.
Republican Representative Cheney proposed prosecuting the wrecker for
inciting violence on Jan 6.
Around the world, authoritarian government is gaining and democracy is losing.
Vice President Pence served the corrupter with total loyalty until the
day he was asked to flagrantly betray the republic.
Now the corrupter's followers loathe Pence for that refusal.
How can we bring millions of Americans back to respecting truth.
People can disagree about what the facts are while still agreeing that
facts count. That latter is what's at stake here.
There are large protests against the military coup in Burma.
Looking at the broadcasting "fairness doctrine" of the US from the
1930s to the 1980s.
(satire) *Americans Scrambling For Covid Vaccine After CDC Director
Announces Thousands Of Doses Buried Somewhere In California.*
(satire) *Biologists Discover Modern-Day Corn Dog Descended From
Ancient Aquatic Sausage.*
New York State lets companies offer workers the "choice" of a 24-hour
shift; then they effectively compel workers to "choose" them.
A proposal to reform section 230 of the CDA would have sweeping disastrous
consequences.
New Jersey prison thugs face
criminal
charges for punching prisoners. One of the prisoners was
handcuffed when they punched him.
*Forget Zuckerberg and Cook's hypocrisy — it's
their
companies that are the real problem.*
I agree with that point, but the writer is partially mistaken when
projecting Milton Friedman's ideas beyond the past few decades. In
the 1970s it was generally accepted that a corporation had obligations
to the community in which it operated -- not solely to stockholders.
Reagan's surrender-to-business revolution established Friedman's ideal
of greed as the norm of society, but we don't have to leave it that
way.
By letting Putin absurdly put him in prison, Navalny has
made
Putin look petty and absurd.
*London’s first commissioner for victims has revealed
how
misogynists are attempting to silence her attempts to tackle domestic
violence.*
The FBI is investigating hundreds of people who participated in
attacking the Capitol. Some are already facing charges of
preparing
to overthrow the government (sedition). Others will face such
charges if the FBI finds evidence to charge them.
Florida's
stingy
and reluctant unemployment compensation system reflects the spirit
of the Republican Party.
Burma's army has shut down some internet connectivity,
aiming
to crush protests.
*[Deportation thugs]
Threatened
to Expose Asylum-Seekers to Covid-19 if They Did Not Accept
Deportation.*
*Britons
should not face extradition to the US for alleged crimes on UK
soil.*
Five
US regulated utility companies' executives were prosecuted in the
US in 2020.
I speculate that the spirit of cheating which pervades the US has
spread from
banks,
cable
companies,
prison
companies,
pharma
companies,
hospital
companies and
airplane
manufacturers to utilities.
*UK quietly expelled Chinese
spies
who posed as journalists.*
Amazon warehouse workers
will
soon vote on unionizing.
(satire) They are called werehouse workers because for each shift
Amazon transforms them from human workers into building components
comparable to robots. Reportedly the experience is unpleasant.
Perhaps by forming a union they will be able to put a stop to it.
Some Texas Republican politicians now
advocate
secession.
After so much waving of Confederate flags, it does not surprise me
that the white-supremacist lunatic wing of the Republican party now
advocates imitating it.
Part of me hopes that Texas declares secession, because that would be
grounds to prosecute those officials and imprison them for many years.
Part of me hopes we allow them to separate a part of Texas, containing
the non-urban mainly-white areas of Texas, and secede with it.
Perhaps some of the small, rural US states will follow them. Good
riddance to their electoral college votes and their seats in the US
Senate!
*UN-sponsored talks produce interim government for Libya.*
*ICC rules it can investigate alleged war crimes in Palestine despite
Israeli objections.*
The ICC might prosecute Israeli officials and/or HAMAS officials.
(satire) *Pundits Warn Removing Marjorie Taylor Greene From Committee
Assignments Could Leave Her With Free Time.*
(satire) *Republicans Accuse Ocasio-Cortez Of Not Being Anywhere Near
Place They Told Capitol Mob She Would Be.*
Major US baby-food companies knowingly used ingredients with
possibly dangerous high levels of several metals that can cause
brain damage.
I can't tell from the article whether it is clear that the resulting
food was harmful. If it was, the argument that they no longer use
these ingredients does not wipe away the culpability, since they used
the ingredients knowingly in the past.
Biden will remove the "terrorist" designation from the Houthis.
It looks like he is serious about trying to take the US out of Yemen's
civil war.
The UK plans to continue social mixing restrictions until new cases fall
to a level which contact tracing can drive down.
That is valid in theory, but the government needs to get contact
tracing working properly and establish what rate of spread the contact
tracing system can cope with.
*Cacophony of human noise is hurting all marine life, scientists warn.*
*Mexico: ex-governor arrested for allegedly ordering torture of journalist.*
The deportation thugs have cancelled a deportation flight so that the
people to be deported can testify in court hearings.
In other words, their legal rights are significant once again.
Biden said he would end American support for "offensive operations" in
Yemen by Salafi Arabia.
The US will continue selling arms for this.
Australia has rejected expansion of a coal mine, to avoid local toxicity.
This coal is a special kind, for making steel — not just to get heat.
It will still be needed after civilization decarbonizes. It will have to
be part of the emissions that nature absorbs.
Nonetheless, it looks like Big Coal is losing its power over
Australia. If so, that is good for civilization's survival.
Australia's Northern Territory will ban mining on the sea bottom.
What makes the practice harmful is the way it is done. I think there
will be a safe way to mind the sea bottom in the future when robots
can identify valuable nodules and pick them up individually without
touching anything else.
Australia is making a big investment in large batteries that will
facilitate using solar-generated electricity at night.
(satire) *Activists Call On Sitcom Producers To Reckon With Genre’s
Ugly History Of Sarcasm*.
It's called a "sit-com" because some people can't stand it.
US citizens: call on Congress to censure the four main leaders in Congress
of support for the attack on the Capitol.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to take two steps to improve access to
abortion pills.
US citizens: call on Congress to cut the military budget 10%.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
Ten suggestions for
how
Biden can become a peace-time president.
I agree with these points, except for a few parts.
It is useful to distinguish between terrorism and war; the fact that
movements which are not fighting wars can commit terrorism is part of
the difference.
A long-term confrontation between the US and China is almost
inevitable if China stays on its current course. We could hope to
make agreements to keep that non-nuclear, perhaps even non-military,
if China is willing — but I don't expect China to commit not to
conquer Taiwan.
However, military affairs will be only a small part of that
confrontation. Ultimately, the military strength of a nation comes
from its economic strength.
The US will wear itself out if it continues spending so much on its
military and not healing its people and its broken economy. So most
of the measures proposed in the article are needed either way.
Every important law that Democrats seek to pass
will
require firm pressure on Senator Manchin, the plutocratist who
supports dooH niboR.
Most of them will also require eliminating the filibuster, which will
also require Manchin's support.
One way to put pressure on Manchin is to threaten not to fund programs
that are important for West Virginia.
*So-Called
"Moderates" Always Say Helping the Poor Costs Too Much.*
The thing that "costs too much" is the thing that's not your priority.
Biden wants to expand the Child Tax Credit so that it
helps
children in poor families as much as those in wealthy families.
Success stories for protected ocean habitats that
enabled
populations of sea life to recover from damage.
*More Partisanship, Not Less: Democrats
Shouldn’t
Compromise Their Solutions to Pander to a GOP That Is Part of the
Problem.*
Canada
should stop supporting the US-imposed corrupt president of Haiti.
Background information
about
him.
Staff now working at home, in the US and several other countries, are
working
two
more hours per day on the average.
Strangely, even I am spending more hours per day working than I was
before — and I'm my own boss!
An active Iranian diplomat has been
convicted
of providing a bomb to set off at a rally in France.
That was undeniably state sponsorship of terrorism. The government of
Iran must commit to preventing any repetition.
The world must keep this matter separate from the non-nuclear deal,
because that is a more important issue. Sanctions that block
medicine, such as the US is applying, must not be used to punish
Iranian terrorism, because the sanctions are worse than a bomb.
What other way is there to apply pressure? Perhaps seizing an Iranian
oil tanker?
*US
'deeply
disturbed' by reports of systematic rape in China's Xinjiang
camps.*
I agree fully, but it would be nice if the US government were equally
disturbed by
what
thugs do to women in US deportation prisons. The US government
can't directly stop China from its massive injustice to Uighurs, but
it ought to be able to put a stop to injustices in US government
activities.
The first step could be to make sure all guards are US government
employees by
eliminating
privatized deportation prisons.
*Democrats Actually
Learned
From the Failures of 2009.*
Prohibiting privatized federal prisons should include immigration prisons.
Turkish students are protesting against Erdoğan.
A congressional panel recommended keeping all the US troops in
Afghanistan to pressure the Taliban to make concessions in negotiations.
If you suppose that this is a real negotiation, and that concessions
would lead to a preferable outcome, that conclusion would make sense.
But I don't think this is a real negotiation about a real outcome.
Either it is a process for the US to convince itself to stop keeping
the war going, and let the Taliban win, or it is a sham.
Some Chinese expats in Australia were too scared to testify about Chinese
threats and intimidation of Chinese expats in Australia.
If Google Search shuts down in Australia, it would be little loss
as far as news is concerned, a study finds.
Now a yet higher estimate of sea-level rise by 2100. Now around 4 feet.
I expect these estimates to keep increasing.
*The Oligarchy Knows Class Warfare Is the Real Fight—Why Don't Liberals?*
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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 occasionally for an article which makes an important
point. That article is one of the exceptions.
Noise from traffic interferes with behavior of some animals.
Russians protested the sentencing of Alexey Navalny.
*Robinhood Highlights Dangers of Biden Administration Appointing Fintech-Tied
Regulators.*
The article shows questions that anyone considered for an important
government position ought to be asked.
Mexican thugs have been charged with murdering a group of 19 people
near the US border.
*Decades of progress on extreme poverty now in reverse due to Covid.*
Humor: Hammer into Anvil
*Amazon intensifies 'severe' effort to discourage first-ever US warehouse
union.*
The Polish government is funding a libel case that is meant to prevent
the study of Poles' involvement in the murder of Jews during the Nazi
occupation of Poland.
The Holocaust was carried out by Germany, not by Poland, but there
was plenty of antisemitism in Poland and Poles showed it frequently.
French environmental groups won a lawsuit against the French state for
failing to carry out its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Starmer is making Labour the party of "patriotism" rather than the
party of giving everyone a decent life.
I feel patriotism, and my patriotism manifests itself as wanting the
US to give American a decent life, and treat the rest of the world
with respect. But I would not support a party that stands for
patriotism. I will support a party that stands for what I stand for.
*Lawmaker who faced anti-vax attack: 'The movement is growing more violent'.*
Those fanatics have gone far beyond opposing vaccination. They want
to cause death. Some say, outright, that they want to make everyone
catch Covid-19; they say the people that die, die because they were
weak-willed, so they deserve it.
As for the apparently healthy people that die from Covid-19, and the
people who suffer lasting disability from it, I don't know if they
even recognize that this happens.
The Isle of Man held a fairly short complete lockdown, eliminated
transmission of the disease, and has opened up again.
The US was supposedly doing something vaguely like this, starting in
March, but did not implement it completely nor continue long enough.
Republicans imposed "reopening" while the disease was still present and
spreading, with the deadly results that we have seen.
The Biden administration has cancelled the wrecker's last attempt
to undermine inspection of poultry, and is listening to the workers
in regard to safety.
Biden must not compromise with Republicans — their general goal is to
sabotage him (and the US).
Compromise is for working with people who disagree with you but are
not your enemies. There may occasionally be a special issues on which some
Republicans are not enemies. It will be useful to find those opportunities
to take action with their support, and that can involve a compromise.
But there is no real compromise with those who are dedicated to
falsehood and destruction.
Here's my advice on >rejecting ruinous compromises.
(satire) *Paranoid Janet Yellen Hides Entire U.S. Money Supply In
Treasury Department Drop Ceiling.*
https://politics.theonion.com/paranoid-janet-yellen-hides-entire-u-s-money-supply-in-1846146074
*Judging Biden by Standards Set by [the wrecker] Would Be an
Unforgivable Catastrophe.*
Especially since it seems the wrecker may have been the the conscious
enemy of the US all along.
Millions in the UK have purchased apartments that they now cannot sell
because the buildings were constructed with unsafe materials. Some of them
have been bankrupted by bills to deal with the problem.
Taking care of such problems is the job of the state. A state with
effective democracy would do the job.
*EU-UK Vaccine Dispute Will Be 'First of Many' Unless Patents Suspended, Say
Campaigners.*
The UK prosecuted nonviolent protesters, who blocked the departure
of a deportation flight, as "terrorists", and convicted them.
An appeal has annulled the convictions.
St Petersburg, Florida, has effectively reformed its thug department
to reduce its tendency towards thuggery.
Don't expect to find any "good guys" among fintech businesses.
They all participate in the plutocratic system. Even "Robinhood"
is part of dooH niboR.
Israel has extended its legal repression of Palestinian dissent
to cover the Israeli organization B'tselem.
*Australia's proposed gas pipelines would generate emissions equivalent to 33
coal-fired power plants.*
The article says that the US is even worse. Will Biden cancel the
Line 3 pipeline? Domestic pipelines must be cancelled too.
The New York Times condemned China for (1) covering up the Covid-19
situation in January 2020 and (2) donating vaccines to countries such
as Brazil.
Overall, China has done an effective job of controlling Covid-19, and
the US has not. To criticize its coverup in January 2020 is
nonetheless valid, because China's tendency is to cover up problems.
We should not, however, fail to condemn the US government for covering up the problems of Covid-19 through the end of 2020,
nor the way Florida has covered it up starting in September.
I agree it is unfortunate that China gains world influence by donating
vaccines. The US should counter that by donating more vaccines.
Why doesn't the US do so? Because the plutocrats that control the US
won't allow it.
A committee of tech insiders say AI-controlled weapons will avoid
harming civilians.
I can imagine that an AI-controlled weapon would do a better job of
following its rules of engagement. Thus, whether it would harm
civilians less, or harm civilians more, depends on what those rules of
engagement say.
Would an AI-controlled weapon be better at saying, "We shouldn't be
fighting a war here"? Would it be even occasionally capable of asking
that? Would it be capable of asking, "Sergeant, do you think we're
the redcoats?"
I seem to recall reading that the helicopter crew that stars in the
collateral murder video killed in accord with the letter of the
rules of engagement; that they took advantage of loopholes in it to
justify some of their killings.
Some AI programs are capable of such reasoning. Would these weapons
do that?
The Department of Agriculture, when run by Vilsack before, suppressed
research that could (or did) cast a negative light on businesses.
(satire) *Pete Buttigieg Learning About Problems Facing Rail
Infrastructure By Spending Week Living As Train.*
The UK has ordered slot machine operators to eliminate some features
that make them addictive.
The same is needed for many nonfree programs and digital dis-services,
but there is no way to require this change. However, if they were free
programs, the user community could fix such things in them.
US citizens: call on the Secretary of State to ban weapons sales to
Salafi Arabia and the UAE.
Each of the various artificial antibodies designed based on the
original Covid-19 virus fails against some of the mutant strains now
spreading.
If doctors can determine which strain a patient is infected with,
they could choose one of the antibodies that does work against it.
Or they could give a combination of all of them.
Planting hedges can be as good as planting trees.
AOC described how she hid and fled from rioters inside the Capitol,
fearing for her life.
She also pointed out a resemblance between the way trumpets evade
recognizing the wrong of their actions and the way domestic abusers do
so.
All this was in service of demanding due punishment for those who
participated in or supported the attack on the Capitol, including
some Republicans in Congress.
AOC referred to a past experience by saying that she was a "survivor
of sexual assault."
AOC would not exaggerate. The attack that she refers to must have
been a grave and traumatizing one, one that justifies the term
"survivor."
I suggest therefore that "sexual assault" is not a good term to
describe it, because that term covers a spectrum of actions that
stretch from the most grave, such as rape, to minor things like a
stolen kiss on the forehead, along with all the territory in between.
Between the ends of that spectrum there is a great gulf: it would be
ridiculous to call someone a "survivor of a stolen kiss." We should
not equate a kisser to a rapist.
Therefore, when we talk about grave and traumatizing attacks, let's
use a term which is limited to grave and traumatizing attacks.
The Indian government told Twitter to turn off the accounts of dissidents
and news sites, and Twitter did it, for a while.
Thugs in Rochester, New York, handcuffed a nine-year-old girl,
then pepper-sprayed her.
I am sure that one full-grown adult cop can restrain a nine-year-old.
What did they do before pepper spray was invented?
It was incidents like this that inspired the campaign to "defund the
police", which concretely means to train mental health responders and
send them instead.
They would have known a better way to respond to that call.
A investigation found that human activities (even recreation and
hunting) tend globally to disturb animals' patterns of movement, which
can harm them in various ways.
*UK North Sea oil rigs release as much CO2 as coal-fired power station.*
India and China must reduce their use of coal, instead of increasing
it.
Other countries are not doing enough either, such as Australia,
but China and India are the big emitters. The combustion of coal
releases toxins and radioactive fallout,
and both harm people's health.
*To protect [Burma's] democratic values, the international community
will have to work with [Aung San Suu Kyi]'s elected party.*
The military never really gave up the substance of power.
*Uganda opposition leader Bobi Wine calls on court to nullify election result.*
Unlike the bullshitter, whose accusations of election fraud were
bullshit, Bobi Wine has real facts to cite.
We achieve justice by judging cases by form alone; we need a grounding
in facts to do that, as well as values.
Shoshana Zuboff endorses laws to stop collection of personal data!
This is a big step away from the fundamentally inadequate "data
protection" approach. From there to what I have advocated for many
years — requiring systems to be designed such that they can't collect
personal data
— is a much smaller step than the one she has taken.
I get a feeling that she is still thinking about prohibiting
collection of some personal data rather than requiring complete
nonsurveillance in many activities.
From thinking about prohibiting data collection (at either level) to
enacting laws to do so is a much bigger step, but I am glad to see the
idea enter public discourse.
Surveillance companies will do their utmost to lead the public
away from that idea.
Honduras has imposed an almost impossible barrier in its constitution
against legalizing abortion, and it explicitly forbids ever altering
that barrier.
Under a democratic government, a valid response to a call for
revolution is, "If most citizens agree with you, you will be able to
enact the changes you want peacefully — otherwise, you should not
be able to impose them."
Measures in a country's constitution to make peaceful democratic
change impossible have the effect of invalidating that response,
because they eliminate democracy. In my view, the government of
Honduras no longer has a moral argument to make against using
revolution to undo this change in the constitution.
This is not the only reason to consider the government of Honduras
illegitimate. It was set up by a coup
and has not been very democratic since.
Practically speaking, if some neighboring country legalizes abortion
it will be feasible for Honduran women to go there for an abortion.
Toxic chemicals made by humans are killing sea lions.
Sea lions are pretty high on the food chain, so they accumulate many
toxins that animals don't have ways to metabolize or excrete.
An artificial blowhole will soon generate electricity from ocean waves.
A dismal forecast that the US will fall into permanent Republican
minority rule, cemented with undemocratic means that will be
impossible to overcome.
Current and former US military personnel are disproportionally represented
in the people facing charges for attacking the Capitol.
This reflects the fact that the US military is a dangerous hotbed for
right-wing fanaticism.
On Jan 4, the acting secretary of defense placed very narrow limits on
what the National Guard could do to help defend the Capitol from the
expected rioters.
One must suspect that the wrecker told him to do something like this.
(satire) *Trump to Defend Self After Receiving Law Degree from Trump
University.*
One unjust advantage that the bullshitter would enjoy is that he is
sure in advance not to be convicted, no matter how bad a job he does.
US citizens: call on Biden to save the USPS.
In Rome (and in many non-tropical places), Covid-19 has increased
homelessness and homeless people can't find safe shelter.
That can be fatal.
The underlying cause of this problem is a society that prioritizes riches for the rich and allows destitution to threaten the rest.
Countries whose culture promotes obedience to rules have been more
effective in dealing with Covid-19 than countries whose culture encourages
ignoring rules.
It doesn't have to be that way, however. Australians and New
Zealanders are no more obedient by culture than Americans or British.
But they had leaders who faced up to the danger and led the country to
make Covid-19 precautions effective — including, when necessary, by
enforcing the rules. The tightening was temporary because it was
tight enough to beat the disease down.
Britain and the US have had leaders that chose not to lead their
countries in the right direction. With a good leader, or at least a
sincere leader, they could have come through much better.
The practice of adjusting rules based on variations in the infection
rate, which is common in the US and the UK, is fundamentally harmful.
People will support the effort to stamp out the disease if they
understand that the goal is to eliminate it and we must all work hard
for that. (They also need support so that they are not rendered
destitute in the process.) A lackadaisical national reaction will
inspire people to game it.
US citizens: call on Congress to make Washington DC a state.
Burma's army has arrested the civilian government officials and is
apparently doing away with civilian government.
The coup has been condemned by the US and the UN,
while China sees nothing particularly bad in military rule.
*India blocks mobile internet at sites of farmers’ protest.*
Modi is a repressive plutocratist ruler. What is amazing is that he
has launched repression against half of India.
Biden calls for bold climate defense action as a way to create jobs.
Philosophically, I disagree with the idea that creating jobs should be
the reason we protect our future. Reducing the coming disaster is
absolutely necessary if we want civilization to survive. That the
process create jobs is not absolutely necessary — after all, the
state has many ways to make jobs, it just has to hire people.
However, politically I think it is an intelligent strategy. It is hard
for plutocratists to attack the plan in the name of economic growth.
Meanwhile, he is not downplaying the vital reason: the "existential threat” to civilization", as he put it.
Overall, I am pleased. The nutcases will have to work mighty hard to
defeat this.
When the bullshitter announced that Hydroxychloroquine was a treatment
for Covid-19, the Republicans that rule Oklahoma bought 100,000 doses
for 2 million dollars. Now they are trying to get their money back.
Fanatics opposed to rational understanding of Covid-19 shut down a
vaccination center in Los Angeles by massing outside.
They will point to that as a victory. It is important to make sure their
next action does not stop any aspect of medical care from functioning.
Nazis in Europe are holding similar protests.
Even Nazis have the right to protest, but not while going without masks
or coming dangerously close to anyone.
Robert Reich: *Why Republicans won’t agree to Biden’s big plans and
why he should ignore them.*
The only problem is that two Democrats in the Senate are, in their
political views, more or less 2015 Republicans.
Avi Loeb calls on scientists to seriously investigate the
possibility that 'Oumuamua is an alien artifact.
The UK arrested a press photographer for having earlier taken photos
at a protest. The thugs held him for seven hours and filed charges
against him.
The protest was at a sort of immigration prison where there is a
Covid-19 outbreak. The protesters condemned the government for operating
the prison.
The next day, there was a fire at that prison, apparently set by
someone. It was a very bad thing to set a fire, and could conceivably
have injured or even killed people.
I would not assume that the people who set the fire shared the views
of the people who protested.
*Forget the furore over Trump — Facebook is interested only in maintaining its
monopoly.*
There were large protests in France against plans to repress publication
of photos of thugs, including when the thugs are committing crimes.
I am disappointed that they also condemned the public health precautions
against Covid-19. We can live with that, temporarily. What is crucial
is to make sure they all go away once Covid-19 is not much of a threat.
The Tories want to put Britain into the TPP
(Treacherous Plutocratic Poison), a business-supremacy treaty
with an ISDS clause.
An ISDS clause makes it almost impossible to impose any new regulation
on an activity that foreign companies (from signatory countries) have
invested in. The effect is to subordinates the state to foreign
companies.
The mass manipulation of Gamestop mainly shows how absurd Wall Street is.
The manipulation caused big losses to a private equity fund,
but has given big gains to shareholders in Gamestop.
I wonder if some of them had something to do with manipulating the
people who did the mass manipulation.
Sanders responds to the poor little rich investor who was outraged
about possible tax increases on rich people.
Biden has resumed US funding for the United Nations Population Fund.
However, far more funds are needed.
The organization goes by the acronym "UNFPA" which came from its
original name.
An FBI lawyer was convicted of falsifying information in a request
for a surveillance warrant on Carter Page.
False justifications are a substantial part of the US system of
surveillance, and if they do it to associates of the president, there
is nobody they wouldn't do it to.
Biden seems to be turning away from calling out right-wing terrorism,
perhaps to focus on only certain sectors of it and not the main body.
Books that refute a pleasing picture of the British Empire.
Haredi Jews in London are holding large weddings where they spread
Covid-19 to each other.
One response would be to permanently shut and seal the venues where
they hold these weddings. Another would be to say that if they are
all determined to get Covid-19 there's no need to try to stop them.
They mostly keep to themselves, so they may not be a big danger to
anyone else.
Israel has convicted Issa Amro for peaceful political campaigning against
Israel's colonization of Palestine, and in particular against seizing
land and settling Israelis on it.
His "crimes" include "insulting a soldier", which in a free country is
not a crime.
*Facebook is banning leftwing users like me — and it's going largely
unnoticed.*
It seems to be yet another case of false balance. When right-wing fanatics
are attacking the Capitol, false balance takes the worst thing progressives
are doing, and arbitrarily treat that as equivalent to attacking the Capitol.
*Court rules Shell Nigeria must pay for oil damage.*
Extraction companies are in many cases profitable only because
they dodge paying the cost of cleaning up their mines or wells.
Indian thugs attempted to force tens of thousands of protesting
farmers to leave their protest camp near Delhi.
In a second camp, Hinduist fascists allied with the ruling party
led the attack and were supported by thugs.
The US and Russia have agreed to renew their principal nuclear weapons
limitation treaty.
The wrecker was going to let it expire.
Poland banned abortion of abnormal fetuses. Women have protested across
the country for three nights.
Senator McConnell dropped his demand for a commitment to preserve the
filibuster when center-right Democrats Manchin and Sinema promised to
vote to preserve it.
Either way, it will be hard to pass any laws to reduce the harm that
Republicans have done, unless in 2022 we elect more Democrats to the
Senate (unless Sanders can achieve this with the reconciliation tactic).
In 2022, Republicans will claim, absurdly, that the Democrats "failed
to achieve anything". They do this every time.
Marjorie Greene's advocacy of murdering members of Congress disqualifies her for
being in Congress.
Most Republicans toleration for that advocacy disqualifies them.
*German neo-Nazi jailed for murder of pro-immigration politician.*
Present-day Nazis from around the world are in touch with each other;
that murderer and Rep. Greene
run in the same circles.
*$1.1 Trillion Billionaire Wealth Gain During Pandemic Could Fully
Fund Biden Relief Plan for Working Class.*
*The Real Money Behind the Politicians Who Voted to Overturn the
Election.*
*Alpine plants face extinction as melting glaciers force them higher,
warns study.*
*70+ Civil Rights and Progressive Organizations Warn Against Repealing
or Making Overbroad Changes to Section 230 in Wake of Capitol Attack.*
(satire) *Increasingly Bold Israel Begins Building Settlements In
Downtown Albuquerque.*
Marjorie Greene is a creature of the lie; she claims that various
school massacres did not occur. And the Republican Party in Congress
endorses this disrespect for truth.
Greene personally harassed David Hogg, a survivor of one of the
massacres she denies.
Hogg said that if Greene or someone else like her murders him,
people should politicize his death.
*Corporate America is ready to put the past behind them and hire
former staffers [of the corrupter].*
Here is a list of where specific fairly high officials have gone.
The list starts with 10 people whose current employment is unknown,
but after that, plenty of people are listed with new employers.
*New government report details how [the wrecker] failed Covid-19
response 'across the board'.*
*How the National Security State Has Come to Dominate a "Civilian"
Government.*
Israeli "settlers" destroyed Palestinians' crops, so Israeli soldiers join in and destroyed more.
Calling on the US to cancel sanctions against the International
Criminal Court.
B'tselem's accusation that Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid
puts pressure on the US to cease to approve of it.
B'tselem reports that "settlers" increased their harassing violence
against Palestinians in the West Bank, and gets the state's support
(as has been the case for decades).
Six US policies that favor Israel against Palestine, which the US
should not have, and which Biden could reverse.
Fossil fuel companies paid a lot of money to the campaigns of
Republican coup-supporters.
Fossil fuel companies are in the business of destroying civilization
slowly. To keep that business going, why not spend money on keeping
us helpless to shut them down?
A right-wing disinformationist faces federal charges for organizing
a campaign to tell voters that they could vote by sending texts.
I am very glad that such sabotage can be counteracted.
An expert says that for a country to move away from political violence
it needs to do three things — and in the first two, it seems the US
is stymied by Republicans' power.
*All countries should pursue a Covid-19 elimination strategy.*
The article gives powerful reasons.
Elimination requires short periods of strict discipline, but it
tremendously reduces the number that get sick, and adds up to much
less pain even for those who would not have got sick.
The US government warns of continuing danger of terrorism by
right-wing fanatics.
Biden is moving slowly on restoring the non-nuclear deal with Iran.
Since it was the US that cancelled the deal, the US ought in fairness
to take the lead in restoring the deal. Dropping part of the
sanctions now would show Iran that it can expect full restoration of
the deal and should aim for that outcome. That might even encourage
Iranians to elect officials who will do so.
Meanwhile, Israel is threatening to attack Iran in an attempt
to sabotage restoring the deal.
Biden shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, but that and reversing the
wrecker's acts of sabotage does not add up to fast enough action to
avoid global heating disaster.
*Merrick Garland Wants Former Facebook Lawyer to Top Antitrust
Division.*
This would put her in charge of the antitrust lawsuit against
Facebook.
*Republicans considering more than 100 (state) bills to restrict
voting rights.*
Covid-19 cases in India are decreasing; the country may have come close to
herd immunity.
The large fraction of young people, due to a dangerously high birth rate,
may have reduced the fraction of people that died from Covid-19.
But it is surely a large number in absolute terms, and I would guess that
the official count of deaths is vastly under-counted.
*Biden urged not to give top FDA job to official over her role in opioid
crisis.*
Hawks, supporters of hostilities and perhaps war with Iran, are trying
to intimidate Biden out of choosing an envoy who is inclined
to establish peace.
The UN ruled that the Chagos Islands belong to Mauritius, not to the
UK.
This will be uncomfortable for the UK, and for the US, which has made
the largest of those islands into naval and air base.
It might eventually allow the Chagos Islanders to return home.
(satire) *YouTube Removes Thousands Of Under-performing Covid
Misinformation Videos.*
(satire) *Biden Authorizes U.S. Military To Shoot Down Any Harmful
Greenhouse Gases That Enter Nation’s Airspace.*
Jewish Voice for Peace is pressuring Facebook not to equate
anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Curiously, some sects of orthodox Jews profess that the existence of
Israel goes against their religion. Many of their adherents live in
Israel and hold that Israel, as a state, should not exist.
Whatever one might think about them, they are not antisemitic,
but they are anti-Zionist.
Non-government organizations can impose very powerful censorship.
Examining statistics shows that a moratorium on evictions, and a
moratorium on disconnection of utilities, substantially reduce death
from Covid-19.
(satire) *National Guard Returns To Endless Sleep Under Mount Rushmore
Until Nation Calls Upon Them Again.*
Jesse Jackson: *The US System Is Rigged So the Minority Can Rule Over
the Majority.*
"Innovative" businesses are selling privatized automated education to
US public schools.
Implemented with unjust nonfree software, of course. I expect that
the system collects data which sooner or later helps profile the
subjects.
(satire) *Late-Arriving Protester Has No Idea What He’s Chanting.*
I think the chant that he could not make out was, "The gostak distims
the doshes!" See the story, "The Gostak and the Doshes," by Miles
Breuer.
California is relaxing Covid control measures in response to a
fractional decrease in the Covid-19 case rate.
The hospitals are no longer full, so everyone that gets badly sick can
at least get treated. But allowing the case rate to remain so high
will mean that many do get sick and die — and more infectious strains
will take over. I share the view of the experts quoted that this
is foolish.
US citizens: call on senators to vote against Tom Vilsack.
To sign without running nonfree Javascript code, use this workaround.
US citizens: call on Congress to expel members of Congress that incited or
planned the storming of the Capitol.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to fully end family separations at the border.
US citizens: call on Biden to stop construction of Line 3 pipeline.
US citizens: call on your Senators to reject Samantha Power.
To sign without running nonfree JS code, use the Salsalabs workaround.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on North Carolina Attorney General to do a full
investigation of the violent arrest of Christopher Lynch
US citizens: call on the Senate to eliminate the filibuster.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress not to increase surveillance.
Facebook said it will make some kinds of data about its political
ads from Aug 3 to Nov 3 available to researchers.
It is a step in the direction of permitting society to find out what
Facebook actually does and how that affects public thought, but there
is a long way to go.
*Schumer Says Biden Should Declare a Climate Emergency.*
Biden ordered the Department of Justice not to sign contracts for
privatized prisons.
That means that privatized prisons will gradually disappear from the
Department of Justice's activity.
However, this order did not apply to immigration prisons.
Republican senators delayed the wrecker's second impeachment trial.
Then almost all of them voted that it is too late to hold the trial.
Today's Republicans don't notice that there is a conflict in principle
between the two actions, so Republican senators don't need to
recognize it.
*Coalition Calls for Urgent Action On Livestock Antibiotic Overuse.*
We've known for decades that this will kill people. Now it is killing
people. But keeping herds producing without indiscriminate use of
antibiotics would apparently cost more.
How many thousands of deaths will it take to overcome the
lobbying power of Big Ag?
Dr Irene Butter, survivor of Nazi persecution and now a US citizen, speaks
about seeing American Nazis try to seize the US Capitol.
*Democrats stunned by briefing on Capitol's security before insurrection: 'It
was only by pure dumb luck' more weren't killed.*
The officials in charge of security for the Capitol saw every hint of
an attack coming and thought it would look bad if they reinforced
security to stop it.
The CEO of Goya has gone down the rabbit hole into fanatical support of
the wrecker. The board of directors told him to shut up.
I never made an explicit decision to boycott Goya, but ever since he
praised the wrecker last July, and received a corrupt commercial
endorsement from the White House in return, I have not felt like
buying any Goya products.
The corporate media forgot about "deficit" during the corrupter's
handouts to big business, but now that Democrats are ready to help
non-rich Americans, those media have remembered their old friend.
Europe is moving rapidly to renewable electric generation, which this year
exceeded fossil fuel electric generation there. The US must do the same.
The UK government spent 700 million dollars to rapidly build hospital
buildings, but they are not operating because the UK does not have
staff to run them. Why not? Because the government has bad policies
towards staff.
The Tories think of working people's pay as a diversion of money that
was meant for a plutocrat. They want to pay them less, impose harsh
rules, and employ fewer of them. They have found it difficult to
approach workers who treat sick people in a different spirit.
Opponents of the HS2 high-speed train line secretly built a tunnel
next to Euston Station to block construction,
using techniques from prison escape tunnels.
What astounds me even more is that they consider blocking an electric
train line to be part of climate defense. The usual reason for
high-speed trains is to substitute for air travel and thus reduce
global heating.
It does seem like bad design to run that line out of Euston rather than
from St Pancras, where the high-speed trains arrive from France. It
is only 10 minutes' walk from St Pancras to Euston, but the need to
change trains will make a much bigger delay.
*Climate crisis: world now at its hottest for 12,000 years.*
*Global shark and ray population crashed more than 70% in past 50 years.*
Fanatical lunatics are barging into hospitals in the UK and claiming
that patients badly ill from Covid-19 are not really sick — and that
the hospitals are killing them.
Despite the danger of that lunatic movement, I see danger also in
censoring them. Consider another movement which is much more
rational, the animal rights movement. One of its methods was to enter
farms and make videos of how they treated animals. Some US states
have repressed this with special laws, the "Ag Gag" laws.
Although I do not support animal rights, I condemn those laws for
their offense against the activists' human rights. It will be difficult
to oppose the Ag Gag laws while endorsing laws against doing the same thing
in a hospital.
However, if the intruders don't wear masks, it is legitimate to
prosecute them for that.
*ALEC's Numerous Ties to the Capitol Insurrection and "Big Lie".*
Prior exposure to PFAS can make vaccination less effective.
It is one of various harmful effects they have.
*The Democrats' priority in power must be to stop minority rule.*
Global heating is wiping out the humpback whales' food.
*Australia needs to cut emissions by at least 50% by 2030 to meet Paris goals,
experts say.*
It would have been easy to achieve this, if the planet-roasters had
not taken control of Australia and prevented it from starting these
reductions years ago.
Google's news-blocking search "experiment" in Australia kept some stories
entirely out of search results, for the users targeted.
What this tells me is that Google has too much influence.
Lyft makes drivers compete for rides by accepting lower pay.
The bullshitter's big lie depended on all the little lies.
A judge blocked Biden's order to suspend deportations for 100 days.
*Biden signs more executive orders in effort to advance US racial equity.*
(satire) *Tearful Justin Trudeau Chains Self To Keystone Pipeline To
Stop Biden Administration From Destroying Oil Industry Heritage Site.*
*'Pleasure ripped out': the people suffering long-term loss of taste after
Covid.*
The fraction of patients that suffer from lasting loss of smell would
seem to be roughly 20%. This worries me more than the danger of
death.
The mayor of Portland, Oregon, used pepper spray against a hostile stranger
who masklessly started breathing in his face.
It was kind of him to give the assailant a bottle of water afterward.
I suggest giving pulling out the pepper spray before the spreader
arrives at six feet away. With luck the spreader will back off then.
Of the 16 most potentially dangerous infectious diseases, there are no drug projects for 10 of them.
Where there are treatments, the wealthy countries do little to get
these drugs to people in poor countries. As we have seen, allowing a
disease to run rampant through any part of the world encourages
mutations that can make it worse. We need to recognize that public
health is a global issue and protect public health globally, and
proactively.
It's not enough for China to strengthen its laws to keep animal
diseases away from humans. It needs to start enforcing those laws.
The Supreme Court dismissed lawsuits against the corrupter for violating the "emoluments" prohibition in the US Constitution, simply because
he is no longer president.
In order for that to be honest, the courts should speed up these cases to hear them before
it is too late.
In some parts of Indonesia, hospitals are full and
some people sick with Covid-19 cannot be properly treated.
*US companies using pandemic as a tool to break unions, workers claim.*
*Ireland is repeating its mother and baby home scandal with its asylum system.*
*Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with ads for combat gear.*
Masses of Indian farmers protesting a devastating new law
entered Delhi and captured ... the Red Fort???
The Red Fort was a real fortress in 1700, but now it is a historical relic.
I support the farmers' cause, but I think it would be better to hold
protests elsewhere to keep historical relics safe.
*Helping poorest tackle climate crisis will boost global growth, says
IMF head.*
A few doughty defenders of rationality are battling Covid-19-disinforming
bullshitters.
A Wuhan doctor says that in January 2020 he and his colleagues were
forbidden to warn the public that Covid-19 was being transmitted from
person to person. They were forbidden to wear masks because people
would figure out what that meant.
38 of the Capitol Police tested positive for Covid-19 after the
riot in which many rioters ostentatiously refused to wear masks.
I have to wonder whether in some of those cases the person was
infected due to refusing to wear as mask.
*Are You Raising Kids in Captivity, then Expecting Them to Survive in the
Wild?*
(satire) *Sarah Huckabee Sanders Vows To Protect Good People Of
Arkansas From Any Questions.*
The EU's ministers agreed to a commitment to end European investment
in fossil fuel projects outside the EU.
It is not clear from the article how close this is to a binding
decision, nor whether it would cover private funds.
Canadians blocked the transport of Canada-made tanks to the port where
they would be shipped to Salafi Arabia.
(satire) *a disguised Amazon drone reportedly snuck into a worker
meeting Monday to disrupt union talks.*
Proposals for how the Biden administration can protect workers from
digital exploitation.
Proposal 4 includes a small step in the direction of free software,
though it doesn't get all the way there.
Urging Biden to fire the current USPS commissioners for cause, because
they praised DeJoy or stayed silent while he was sabotaging the USPS.
New York City's pension funds have begun gradually selling their
fossil fuel investments.
*New Research Shows Stopping Water, Utility Shutoffs Would Have Prevented
Thousands of COVID Deaths*
in the US.
The basic principle, that you can't wash your hands if you have bad
access to water, will apply anywhere, but the specifics will vary.
Biden promised to renegotiate trade treaties to make "buy American" rules
more powerful.
We are told to think about "buy-American" rules (and "buy-European"
rules in the EU, "buy-Chinese" rules in China, etc.) in terms of
competition with other countries. If it were only that, I would be
against those rules. The one good aspect of trade agreements is that
they reject this sort of economic hostility.
The reason I support "buy-from-our-country" rules is that in each country
that will help workers organize and demand higher wages. In other words, it
will work against the business-supremacy-treaty aspect of them.
An indigenous woman in jail in Australia accuses the guards of
stripping her in front of male prisoners.
The racism in Australia is directed mainly at ine indigenous people
and manifests very strongly, even more than US racism against blacks.
Americans are prejudiced to some extent against indigenous, but not like this.
President AMLO told Mexico that the end of Covid-19 was at hand, then caught it
himself.
I have an impression that AMLO is like the square root of Trump.
Nowhere near as bad, but with some of the same bad tendencies.
The world's big ice sheets are melting faster and faster. The
melting is following the IPCC worst-case scenario.
Will humanity ignore this fire alarm?
*Ugandan court rules Bobi Wine house arrest illegal.*
The UK government using Covid-19 as an excuse to ban demonstrations
outside the trial of people accused of toppling the statue
of
slave-trafficker Edward Colston.
Of course, people must take precautions against transmitting Covid-19
whenever they come near strangers, and that includes when protesting.
They must wear masks all the time while there, and stay two meters
apart. As long as they do so, they must be allowed to protest.
Protesting is more than a human right, it is a crucial aspect of
democracy.
Although forest fires in Oregon are increasing due to global heating,
managing forests for the long term can help the forests keep growing
notwithstanding the occasional fire.
Police shut down an illegal nightclub in Lawrence, Mass, for spreading
Covid-19.
A nightclub is not a horrible thing in ordinary times, but nowadays
that sort of thing keeps Covid-19 spreading and evolving.
Singapore's contact tracing app, supposedly intended to detect
possible transmission of dangerous virus, will also be used to detect
possible transmission of dangerous dissident ideas.
I would be glad to let a contact-tracing device track when I come
close to another contact-tracing device, provided they don't
record my whereabouts the rest of the time and it releases information
about me only when I tell it to.
Three of the members of the grand jury that was manipulated into placing no
charges for shooting Breonna Taylor are among the signatories of a petition
to impeach the attorney general of Kentucky, who did the manipulating.
He falsely told them that there was no legal basis for any charges
against that thug.
Boeing plans to make planes that can fly exclusively on biofuel.
That won't do the ecosphere much good if the biofuel is
made by growing crops
using the same resources, and causing the same
pollution, used for growing food.
Perhaps boeing should look at using hydrogen that will be made using
solar-generated electricity, and will produce only water.
*Portland: leftwing protesters damage Oregon Democrats’ headquarters.*
I share their disapproval of Biden for failing to support crucial
programs such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. However, this
vandalism is self-defeating: it will turn the public away.
Given the composition of the Senate, with a few center-ring Democrats
and 50 Republicans, it won't be easy to get it to vote even for
Biden's reforms.
*Talking can spread Covid as much as coughing, says research.*
*Jewish leaders use Holocaust Day to decry persecution of Uighurs.*
*Toxic Chemicals Threaten Humanity’s Ability to Reproduce.*
And other animals too.
Humanity is reproducing to dangerous excess; a certain amount of
decrease in humans' reproductive capacity would reduce the coming
disaster and could increase the number of humans who reach the end of
this century. (I expect that each additional human birth in coming
decades will result in more than one additional human death in the
disaster.)
But too much decrease in human reproductive capacity could wipe out
our species.
Facebook has experienced powerful pushback in response to its
announced coming change in use of the personal data it collects.
Although this change would have increased the use of the collected
data for profiling, the underlying wrong — the collection of the data
is happening already. Collecting personal data is the primary wrong
in WhatsApp. Even if Facebook decides to cancel the change, this
reason to reject WhatsApp will still exist, as it has existed for
years.
There are other reasons to reject WhatsApp, starting with the fact that it
requires users to run nonfree client software on their own computers.
*Indian comedian held over ‘indecent’ jokes at show where he did not perform.*
He did not perform because a gang of bigots prevented him. (They
are bigots in the name of Hinduism.) Then the gang had him arrested
and jailed for a "crime" of criticizing Hindu gods and a government
official. Criminalizing criticism is oppression in its own right.
For some hilarious criticism of some Hindu gods, watch Sita Sings the
Blues, by Nina Paley, available on archive.org.
For big business to defend democracy requires more than silencing one
of democracy's enemies, namely Trump. Big business corrupted our
democracy in the 1990s and is fighting to keep control.
Will the Department of Labor please become less of a pushover when
dealing with companies that classify their employees as contractors?
New York City thugs keep on regularly killing people with chokeholds
and not being punished, even though the thug department formally
prohibited choke holds 28 years ago. The system that judges
accusations against thugs is structured so as not to punish them.
While sheltering in her office on Jan 6, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and her
staff discovered that all the alarm buttons in her office had been
removed at some earlier time.
This looks suspiciously like insider participation in a plan for
violence against her.
I've voted for Pressley twice, and I want to do so many more times.
*Beware Corporate ‘Democracy Washing’: Twitter, Trump, and the Danger of
Privatizing the Fight Against Fascism.*
If a publicly owned system operated with Facebook's incentives, it
would act like Facebook and tend to do the same harm that Facebook
does. I've proposed a system which would serve Facebook's original
purpose — giving people a way to enable others to find them by name
— and do nothing else.
As an experiment, there is one: plumebio.com.
China's government is so powerful that even the biggest businesses and
the richest billionaires can't push the country around.
Alas, China has the opposite problem: the government can crush anyone.
We are left with the challenge of making a government that is powerful
enough to stand up to businesses day after day, but that respects
human rights.
Ralph Nader calls for reinvigorating the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, so it can once again protect Americans from
injury in traffic collisions, and other problems that vehicles cause.
I wish he recognized that cars with computers remotely controlled by
the manufacturer pose threats that are not limited to being taken over
by some third party.
The "essential workers" at New York City's wholesale fruit and
vegetable market demonstrated how essential they are by going on strike
demanding one additional dollar per hour.
John Dean: *Insurrectionist Senators are Co-Conspirators and Should Not Sit in
Judgment of Trump.*
One of them threatens that Republicans will impeach past Democratic
presidents even if they didn't launch a mob to attack the Capitol,
if and when Republicans ever take control of Congress.
This is a silly distraction. If Republicans have a majority in the
house and 2/3 of the Senate, retroactive impeachment of past
presidents (supposing the Constitution permits it — recall that the
wrecker's second impeachment occurred while he was still president)
would be the least of our worries.
However, it is not just any old distraction. The purpose of maneuvers
like these is to suck all ideas of right and wrong, of rights and
duties, out of life. With them gone, evil and good look the same, and
the only distinction that can be seen is that between the powerful and
the weak. They want this because they serve the powerful and they
want nothing to impede them from trampling the weak.
Asking the International Criminal Court to investigate Bolsonaro for
damaging the Amazon forest.
Republican congresscritters who threatened the lives of Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives now defy the Capitol Police and
the rules of the House by bringing guns into the chamber.
In 2020, right-wing extremists adopted the tactic of breaking safety
rules to menace people, and made themselves look powerful by showing
no one could stop them. In effect, their message is, "Join our mob
and intimidate people with us!" Backing off to avoid an immediate
conflict is a bad option when they point to this as proof of their
power. Congress needs to impose on them rules they can't get
away with breaking.
The jailing of Navalny inspired massive protests against Putin.
It looks like Navalny' judgment was correct: returning to Russia
and facing jail struck a blow against Putin.
Australia is considering requiring Google and Facebook to pay for
showing links to news articles.
To restrict linking in general would destroy the Web, but making big
surveillance capitalism companies pay would do no harm. If it pushes
one of those companies out of Australia, good for Australia!
However, the plan should not be discriminatory. It should apply to
any large company which does a suitable sort of business, regardless
of what country it comes from.
Please stop referring to works of journalism as "content", because
that term disparages whatever works you apply it to. Their importance
to society comes from not being a commodity.
Refuting Covid-19 disinformation — and some bad news about mutants.
The US should realize that North Korea will not agree to nuclear
disarmament no matter what the US might offer.
* The oil, gas, and coal industries support and fund white supremacy and
far-right politics.*
Government by executive order is not the way things ought to work.
It happens in the US because Congress is unable to function.
This does not mean that Biden's executive orders are bad. I have not
read about each and every one of them, but the ones I have read about
are vitally necessary.
To get a functioning Congress we need to have fair elections, not
rigged by voter suppression and gerrymandering. Then Congress would
pass the crucial legislation that most Americans want, such as a
national medical system (aka Medicare for All),
the Green New Deal, increased rights for workers, and abortion rights.
The corrupter pressured the high officials of the Department of
Justice to attack Georgia's election results, but they refused.
The corrupter also bullied the US attorney in Atlanta into resigning,
hoping his temporary replacement would help bully Georgia officials.
The corrupter reveled in showing contempt for ethics rules. These rules
were meant to impose accountability on officials who would be embarrassed
to have found to have violated them. When the president spits on them,
there is no way to enforce them short of impeachment. We need a way.
If the US resumes the non-nuclear deal with Iran, it ought to be
able to reach a peace deal with the Houthis in Yemen.
I see no reason why the US should insist on a unified Yemen. A few
decades ago, North Yemen and South Yemen were separate countries
(though West and East Yemen would have described them more
accurately.) If the Yemenis disagree too much to accept one single
government, the rest of the world need not make them fight until they
do.
*Ilhan Omar Calls on Biden to Back Recurring Direct Payments.*
This would amount to a basic income for all American households
except those earning over a certain comfortable level.
A distributed campaign to defeat the planet roasters' PR machine.
*As Economic Suffering Grips Regular Americans, Wall Street Behemoths Ready
Feast of Stock Buybacks.*
Neonicotinoid insecticides in small quantities interfere with the
sleep cycles of bees and fruit flies.
The reason they tested this on fruit flies is that those are the
principal insect species for scientific study, studied more and
understood better than any other species of insect. Easy to raise,
too. Then they tested a species of bee as well because we are very
concerned about bees.
Biden has reverted the wrecker's order to give the president the power
to fire civil service employees and replace them with his own loyal
flunkies.
That's good as far as it goes, but we need a law to prevent future presidents
from trying the same trick again. Meanwhile, what about the flunkies
that the wrecker opt in? Has Biden pushed them out? Can he push them out?
It looks like the election-stealer senators will not be expelled.
So there is a campaign to deny them committee assignments.
Would that punishment achieve anything but to give them a chance to
demonstrate defiance?
I do not know the rules that govern Senate committee assignments or
how easily they can be set aside by 50 senators plus the vice
president. Would denying those senators committee assignments imply
giving extra committee assignments to other Republicans? Or would it
mean Republicans get less than half the committee assignments?
How can the senate move forward without an organizing resolution?
The US Army is planning to start another bogus Guantanamo trial.
The suspects are accused of specific crimes of terrorism, and they
may actually be guilty. It would be good to try them, provided the
trials are fair. However, Guantanamo does not hold real trials; its
kangaroo courts are inherently unfair.
Have the suspects been tortured? A trial based on so-called evidence
obtained by torture cannot be valid, since torture extracts false
confessions.
They have been in prison for 17 years. To make people wait that long
for trial is an injustice in itself. A terrorists who was convicted
and sentenced years ago in Indonesia for one of these bombings is now
being released. I suggest giving these suspects clemency, saying that
17 years is enough.
Another solution might be to extradite them to Indonesia. If there is
no extradition treaty, they might choose to go to Indonesia for trial,
so they can serve their sentences and be released, rather than stay in
Guantanamo forever.
One of the perpetrators of the attack on the Capitol was also the head
of an organization that could be called Doctors for Delusion.
1/3 of the rivers in the US have visibly changed color in the past 40
years.
The direct causes may vary, but the underlying causes is
almost certainly human activity in nearly every case.
The staff of The New Yorker went on strike for 24 hours to demand
higher pay.
I applaud this, but the union should also defend employees such as Toobin
who have been fired for vaguely stated grounds.
Israeli terrorism keeps increasing in Palestine, as the ideological
Israeli "settlers" who build and occupy housing in Palestine increase
their attacks on Palestinian property.
Israel just announced plans to build 2,500 more units of housing
in Palestinian land.
Housing any Israelis in occupied Palestine violates the laws of
occupation.
The number of species of bees reported from 2006 to 2015 is 3/4 the
number reported before 1990.
The other 25% have become too scarce to be observed very often.
The EU is removing tax haven status from various British territories.
*California opens civil rights inquiry into LA county sheriff's department.*
Putin has arrested some of Navalny's supporters and accused them of
planning protests.
The Democracy for All Amendment would reverse the "Citizens" United
decision in a narrow way; it would authorize laws to limit campaign
spending by non-human entities.
This would be a change for the better. However, the Supreme Court's
ruling that human rights in general apply to corporations has caused
harm in other ways — for example, through the idea that a corporation
is entitled to religious freedom including refusing to pay for
abortion coverage for employees.
Therefore, I think we should pass the We The People Amendment, which
would reject in general the idea that human rights apply to
corporations.
Reports say that Windows laptops provided to UK students contained malware.
Alas, they did not recognize that Windows is itself malware.
The President of the European Investment Bank said that "gas is over".
I hope that the EIB translates this into a policy that will stop
all investment in facilities for extracting or using natural gas.
It would naturally follow, but you can't count on such organizations
to make their actions conform to their stated goals.
*A Good Way to Unite the Country Would Be to Convict and Prosecute
Donald Trump.*
This is a counter intuitive claim. How could that unite the country
when his supporters will surely not like it? The answer is that it
will make some of his supporters reconsider their support for him,
and that will take a step towards unifying the United States.
One might fantasize about some simple, magical way to unify America
all at once, but this way is the only way I see.
Senate Democrats are keeping open the option of eliminating the filibuster.
Since even "moderate" Republican Senators oppose more Covid-19 relief
any time soon, the only way Democrats can pass it is to eliminate the
filibuster.
What will happen in the Senate if there is no organizing resolution?
*Biden Administration Must Go Further in Financial Disclosures to Reveal
Possible Conflicts of Interest in Foreign Policy Making.*
(satire) *Inaugural Address Spills Over Into Second Day As Biden
Continues To List Greatest Issues Facing Nation.*
The temporary halt to fossil fuel drilling on public lands is a good
first step, but it should be permanent.
If it is limited to public lands, will it be sufficient to
prevent increase in fossil fuel capacity? Wells on private property
increase emissions just as much.
A court ruled that Section 230 of the CDA gives Amazon the right to
evict Parler from its hosting service.
What enabled right-wing lunatic extremism to become so powerful, and
thus so dangerous, was that Facebook promoted its posts because they
generated "engagement". This gave lunacy access to recruit millions
of zuckers. I hold Facebook's promotion algorithm responsible and
I believe it should be regulated.
While I understand the wish to eliminate Parler, because I wish there
were no right-wing lunatic extremism, I think it is dangerous to shut
discussion sites for hosting discussions of that or any other
political tendency. Which one will be shut next?
Why you should always wear a mask when you go near others outside
your household.
Adequate ventilation is very important for avoiding Covid-19
transmission when you're inside a building or a car.
(hack) If an anti-masker approaches you to try to infect you with Covid-19,
fire your mask gun at per face.
(satire) *U.S. Enters Constitutional Crisis After Forgetting Whether
Transfer Of Presidential Power Happens At 12 A.M. Or 12 P.M.*
On Jan 20 after noon I told people that Trump claimed he was still
president in California until 3pm Eastern time. They believed it, so
I acknowledged I was only kidding.
Bernie Sanders describes what he aims to achieve by using the budget
reconciliation process to bypass the Republicans' use of the
filibuster.
*Even After an Insurrection, Corporate Media Can't Let Go of False
Balance.*
The article points out some exceptions.
Reporting with false balance gives an advantage to whichever side
does the more extreme things.
More things Biden can fix without passing laws.
If he does them all he will make the US considerably better than it
was in 2016.
*To achieve a real legacy, Biden will have to be more radical — and
ready to fight.*
(satire) *Stray Doberman Accidentally Sworn In As President After
Putting Paw On Inaugural Bible.*
Rashida tlaib campaigns against the danger of new "domestic terrorism"
laws.
The history of the first organized slave revolt in the Americas.
Biden has or will reverse many acts of climate-related sabotage
carried out by the wrecker.
This will resume the climate defense policies that were already
in force in 2016 — but they were woefully insufficient to succeed
in avoiding disaster.
World leaders must change the plans to boost the economy by
subsidizing fossil fuels.
I disagree vehemently with the demand to prioritize adaptation to the
current painful foretaste of coming disaster. That is foolish
short-term thinking.
We must respond to global heating in the way that does the most to
reduce the ultimate global disaster and ensure the survival of
civilization. That is to put priority on cutting emissions (treating
the disease).
To invest in coping with extreme weather is treating the symptoms. If
our funds for doing that do not come from the funds we could use to
reduce the ultimate disaster, then let's do it. But it is not equal
in priority; it is clearly secondary.
Today it looks easy to get more money for both long-term prevention
and short-term gecko. That is because what we are spending on
long-term prevention is far too little.
The harm caused today by the foretaste seems like a lot, because we
judge it against the recent past. When we judge it against the
likely future we will see it is secondary.
*Arizona Prosecutors Pretend "ACAB" Is Gang Lingo To Hit Protesters With Felony Gang Charges.*
"ACAB" is an acronym that stands for "All Cops Are Bastards". It has
nothing to do with gangs. The prosecutors can't help knowing this,
but — like the thugs they are trying to support — they don't object
to lying to help thugs.
I do not agree with that slogan. Some cops are honest and will not
lie to repress protests. They are a small minority, but maybe in the
future there will be more of them.
Aside for that, I do not use the word "bastard" as a derogatory term
because being the child of two people who were not married to each other
is not a moral flaw. Indeed, the child has no choice about it.
When Senator Manchin opposed stimulus payments to Americans, it wasn't
because his constituents in West Virginia would disapprove if he
supported them. Progressives played an ad on the radio in West
Virginia criticizing his stance, and he changed it on the double.
I think this shows that his motive for opposing them was not a matter
of appealing to voters, but rather one of satisfying rich donors.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russian forces tortured
and murdered Georgian civilians and burned their houses, in the 2008
war between Russia and Georgia.
Bizarrely, it was Georgia which started that war by attacking Russia,
perhaps hoping to get NATO support when Russia counterattacked.
But NATO declined to be drawn in.
I can't criticize Russia for counterattacking when attacked, but that
doesn't excuse war crimes.
*Former head of Vatican bank sentenced to jail for embezzlement.*
Slavery today is a personal injustice with a macroeconomic cause.
France has legally protected the sounds and smells of the countryside
against lawsuits from annoyed neighbors.
John Kerry, the US "climate envoy", publicly recognizes the need for
much faster action to curb fossil fuels.
The article does not say whether he mentioned reduction of emissions
from agriculture as crucial.
A document from years ago reports that a witness testified that Mexican
soldiers took the 43 disappeared students to an army base and questioned them,
then handed them over to a drug gang which presumably killed them.
*Biden Should End Espionage Act Prosecutions of Whistleblowers and
Journalists.*
Don't be distracted by "food" poverty, "fuel" poverty, "period"
poverty, "digital" poverty, or even "child" poverty. The problem is
that people, even families, live in poverty, and that it casts a
pervasive pall over their lives.
The solution to the problem of poverty is simple in principle: give
poor people an income that is sufficient for the necessities of life.
There are many ways to do that, but a government headed by dooH niboR
will fail to see any of them.
There is a specific problem with the term "digital poverty", because
it calls for helping poor people to be mistreated by nonfree software
and
on-line dis-services in the same foolish way that most wealthier
people are.
Biden is continuing US sanctions against Venezuela and support for
coup-instigator Guaidó.
President Maduro is responsible for political injustice and economic
problems, but Guaidó seeks only to convert his country into an
unofficial colony of the US.
The believers in QAnonsense are in an uproar after their central
prophecy failed to occur.
Some are piling lunacy on lunacy by professing that the bullshitter is
the real president and is pulling Biden's strings.
Biden's economic proposals would make improvements in many areas.
They would, for instance, substantially increase taxes on rich
people and companies.
Substack may be targeted by campaigns to demand that it censor writers
for their views.
If I understand rightly, Substack is a publishing site, not a social
media site — it doesn't provide a forum for readers in general to
post their views. That means readers cannot have much influence via
Substack.
I think that the main danger of antisocial media is that they allow
disinformation snowballs to grow. In these snowballs, people invent
and circulate new wrinkles of disinformation which others can then
pick up in repeat. I think that can only happen on a special media
site; thus, not on Substack.
That may help convince people to stop bullying Substack to censor.
PCBs leaking out of landfills and into the sea are damaging
the fertility of male harbor porpoises.
And probably other species of dolphins, such as killer whales.
This is in addition to other threats they face.
Arguing that we can't expect communication systems to filter out
disinformation while important officials and candidates are promoting
it.
Global heating is making it hard for reindeer to find food. Sweden
will build bridges so they can cross highways and train tracks.
Those bridges will postpone disaster, but to prevent it requires stabilizing
global temperatures.
The inauguration went as planned, with no violence.
This should not have required comment, but I expected fanatics to try again.
That they did not is somewhat reassuring.
A new product consists of gorgonzola cheese
with marijuana mixed in. One look and you're stoned.
*Incoming Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders Lays Out Visionary First
100 Days for Biden.*
*Arizona GOP Chair Urged Violence at the Capitol.
The Mercers Spent $1.5 Million Supporting Her.*
Biden has brought the US back into the Paris climate agreement, but let's not forget that that is inadequate.
Glenn Greenwald: *The New Domestic War on Terror is Coming.*
Domestic terrorism is real; if we did not know this already, Jan 6
proved it. But a "war on terror" is an absurd response; it would
crush dissent of all stripes.
We can't solve the problem of 70 million voters that have lost touch
with reality by trying to imprison them.
A forest on the Alabama coast was inundated 60,000 years ago.
Now it is a unique wonder of the world, and needs to be protected.
Sanders: *Joe Biden must put an end to business as usual. Here's where
to start.*
If we want Biden to address the big problems, we will have to pressure him.
That's what Sanders is trying to lead us to do.
*'Kleptocrats' will try to block Libya elections, says UN envoy.*
Meanwhile, foreign powers that support the various sides may refuse
to remove the mercenaries that both sides agreed should leave.
Biden will try to offer us a feeling of hope as a substitute for
progressive policies.
If Biden tries to move to the fictitious "center" — the average of
plutocratist Democrats and lunatic Republicans — he will achieve
nothing there. He must at least try to do what the country needs.
(satire) *Trump was reportedly panicking Tuesday
after realizing his fingerprints were all over the White House.*
This article says that Navalny has caused significant trouble for
Putin and has got under his skin.
So that, even in prison, Navalny is seen by
Putin as a threat.
If that is true, I think Navalny will not live long. There are lots of
ways to kill someone in prison.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to join the
Military Spending Reduction Caucus.
To sign this without running nonfree Javascript code, use the
Salsalabs workaround.
Changes Biden needs to bring about so as to stop making life in
Central America unbearable.
(satire) *Up-And-Coming White Supremacist Added To FBI’s Terrorists To
Watch List.*
*Report Shows Corporate Landlords Received
Public Funding Yet Still Kicked Out Tenants.*
Since large companies as landlords are nastier to tenants, we should
take steps to discourage being a large company landlord. Higher taxes
for them, for instance. Or, increase taxes for landlords that
frequently make a tenant leave.
Vladimir Fardin, a 9-year-old Haitian, arrived in the US with a valid
visa, in the company of his older brother who also had a valid visa.
The immigration thugs jailed them for two days incommunicado, then
separated them and deported the older brother to Mexico for no reason.
However, the deportation of Paul Pierrilus
was cancelled.
Several center-right Democratic senators seem to want to maintain the
filibuster rule, thus enable Republicans to block progressive laws.
Can Biden "carry them along" to eliminate it? If not, what can he do?
When society pressures people to bet all their wealth on a path to
future success, it's inevitable that many of them will lose that bet.
It is unfair to blame the individuals who lose for that loss.
Society could do more to help people make a new start after such a bet
goes wrong.
Contending that the quality a good citizen needs today is being
hyper-responsible about adoption of beliefs.
The king the people did not like.
US government agencies are trying to co-opt the antiracist part of
Martin Luther King jr's message, while disregarding the rest.
Ten million people in the UK still depend on paying cash.
The way to defend the right to pay cash is to insist on depending on it.
So join me in doing so! Tell stores, "No cash, no sale!"
Pelosi removed progressive Democrat Katie Porter from the Financial
Services Committee because banks and big businesses thought she was
doing too good a job.
Facebook proposes to eliminate online radicalism by establishing
regulations that would eliminate its competitors and allow
only Facebook.
Lobbyists will repeat absurd arguments like this with a straight face,
while bought members of Congress accept them as valid.
Remember what happened when one of the Yes Men went to a meeting of a
campaign for privatization and advocated slavery?
Nobody denounced the
idea. If you think of everything as property for what businesses own,
you will try to treat workers that way.
The wrecker's last-minute pardons reportedly do not include people
accused of storming the Capitol, his family, or himself.
I worried that he would pardon them.
*Syria's White Helmets awarded £1.17m to make PPE.*
*California households owe $1bn in water bills as affordability crisis
worsens.*
A moratorium on shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures is not enough,
because it only defers the day of disaster. The government must
rescue people whom Covid-19 has pushed into debt.
A Thai has been sentenced to 43 years in prison for forwarding audio
clips that criticized the monarchy.
In Pakistan it is now a crime to criticize the army, which is very
politically powerful.
The world is full of threats to freedom of sane speech.
The cheater's effort to get the 2020 Census to omit unauthorized
immigrants has failed.
He also tried intimidate them (by threatening to deport them)
so that they would not respond to the census.
I don't know to what extent that may have succeeded.
*Vaccine Site Uses Credit History to Verify Patients’ Identities.*
This gives information about the vaccination to the credit reporter.
It is wrong to spread people's personal data that way.
China's economy grew in 2020, while most other countries' declined.
It's clear this is because China took the necessary actions to quash
Covid-19.
I wonder what happened economically to Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan,
which also quashed Covid-19 effectively. It is possible that they had
economic declines because of loss of tourism or trade with other countries
that did not respond effectively.
As Museveni was stealing the presidential election in Uganda, he was
shutting down the internet so that the citizens could not report what
they were seeing.
Senator Warren highly approves Biden's choice to run the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
What would Martin Luther King jr say about Israel's occupation of
Palestine? In 1967, shortly after Israel conquered Palestine, he
had a feeling it was going to become oppressive.
(satire) *God Blindsided After Illegitimate Son From Andromeda Galaxy
Tracks Him Down In Heaven.*
The sadist has rushed to deport Paul Pierrilus, who came to the US
with his parents at age 5.
They became US citizens, but seem not to have that for their son.
Bernice King: *We still have a choice today — nonviolent coexistence
or violent co-annihilation.*
She advocates sticking to nonviolence in protests, which I endorse.
When the thugs start the violence, we can win by making it clear
that violence comes from them and is their fault.
An investigation shows that the Massachusetts Democratic Party was more
deeply involved in sabotaging Alex Morse's candidacy
than we previously knew.
Guatemala has sent its army to attack a group of thousands of Hondurans trying
to cross Guatemala (and then Mexico) to reach the US.
The US is surely behind Guatemala's military response to these refugees.
The US is also behind their flight from Honduras. It sponsored a coup
in Honduras in 2009.
If the US allowed Hondurans to have a better government
they might not need to search for a place to move to.
Bernie Sanders as head of the Senate Budget Committee will have
substantial power to help poor Americans instead of rich Americans.
He will face the challenge of preventing only-nominally-Democratic
Senator Manchin from blocking these efforts.
US citizens: call on Congress to prohibit naming any federal property
after the wrecker.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
*Big Tech Critics Alarmed at Direction of Biden Antitrust Personnel.*
The EU is failing to effectively protect seas from being over-fished
and destroyed.
*Uighur campaigners to target 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics sponsors.*
*US defense officials fear insider attack on Biden inauguration.*
This fear is justified by the participation of military personnel in the
coup attempt.
*The Capitol riot wasn't a fringe 'uprising'. It was enabled by very deep
pockets.*
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/18/the-capitol-riot-wasnt-a-fringe-uprising-it-was-enabled-by-very-deep-pockets
I can't rule out that billionaires would welcome the chaos of the assassination
of the new president and vice president. But even if they don't, what they
started may be beyond their control.
The US and its allies confront Russia and its tantalizing supply of
natural gas.
I think I see what ought to be done: instead of building the new
pipeline, start a Marshall Carbon Plan to decarbonize Germany on the
double, and help it get past the period of shortage before that is
finished.
The outcome will be a loss for Russia, but a victory for civilization.
*Phil Spector defined the toxic music svengali — a figure that
persists today.*
I have to believe the accounts women give of how the men they loved
imprison them. They sound like horrible pain. But I see nothing like
this in my life experience. Are many of the women I meet being
treated secretly like that, and forced to hide it?
*Britain has plenty of cash to bail out big business, yet nothing for the
poorest.*
Tories work for the rich; naturally they do this.
Germany is moving to the use of N95 masks for everyone. There may
be transient problems in this, but it might do some good.
I've read that the main cause of spreading is indoor gatherings
where people may take off their masks.
People in England who went home after hospitalization for Covid-19
were not out of the woods. 1/3 of them were back in the hospital
within 5 months. 1/8 of them died within that time.
Psychiatrists tried to warn about what the wrecker would do, even that
he would try a coup before giving up. However, the American Psychiatric Association made a rule that they
were forbidden to publish such predictions.
*Denial of American Fascism Has Cost Us Dearly.*
Includes interesting proposals for how to help today's fascists start to see
reality and how to check their armed threat.
*UK trained military of 15 countries with poor human rights records.*
Israel as occupying power has a treaty obligation to provide medical
care to the occupied population as to its own. Instead, Israel is
denying Covid-19 vaccine to Palestinians.
Palestine will hold legislative elections in May, or try to. It will
not be easy to do, under occupation and with Gaza held by HAMAS and
under siege.
28 prominent US Jews, including Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt,
signed this letter condemning as fascist and murderous the first political
party started by Menachem Begin. He later founded the Likud Party, which
now heads the government of Israel.
Assange, Corbyn and leftist filmmaker Ken Loach have been targeted for
the modern method of character assassination, which works by accusing them
of things their supporters would consider very bad.
Yannis Varoufakis also has been. He describes it 48 minutes into
this video.
Dead seagrass leaves collect and sequester plastic particles.
Illinois is about to eliminate bail, and establish more freedom
of movement for accused people subject to location tracking.
There is a need, however, for a way to keep someone in jail
who is accused of trying to overthrow the government for the wrecker.
*Should we celebrate Trump’s Twitter ban? Five free speech experts weigh in.*
US citizens: call on Congress to expel the members of Congress that
deny there was a coup attempt.
Alexei Navalny returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested
and faces years in prison for absurdly unfair charges.
*Poison squad stalked Alexei Navalny on 40 flights, says Bellingcat
investigator.*
An interesting abstract economic understanding of the politics of the
US these days.
However, as for continuing that 50-year cycle, there are many things
which are getting worse and will keep getting worse for more than 50
years, due to underlying physical and biological factors: global
heating, resource exhaustion, and pollution of various kinds.
There is a debate between those who argue that carbon capture and
storage (CCS) is a necessary system for reducing emissions and those
who argue that it is ineffective and an expensive distraction.
I readily agree that CCS is an acceptable method in principle. If you
can make it work, please go ahead. But when it comes to public
investment, it has to compete with the other methods for reducing
emissions. If we spend X on reducing emissions, which way of spending
it would achieve the biggest reduction?
The article mentions that debate, and gives me the impression that
the opponents of CCS are right, at least while while other cheaper
methods are waiting to be used.
Or maybe we should treble our spending on emissions reduction and
try all the methods at once.
*Mahatma Gandhi's killer venerated as Hindu nationalism resurges in India.*
"Hindu nationalism" despises non-Hindus (especially Muslims, but
Christians too, and maybe Buddhists) and seeks to oppress them within
India or expel them. That's why Modi's supporters adopted two
citizenship laws which, together, make an excuse to deny the
citizenship of non-Hindus and expel them.
Paradoxically they also want India to control areas inhabited mainly
by Muslims, such as Kashmir, whether they want to be part of India or
not. (India promised Kashmiris a referendum about independence, but
never carried it out.)
Those who condemn Gandhi for supporting partition between India and
Pakistan apparently wish that Pakistan and Bangladesh were part of
India today, so that they could oppress or expel Muslims there too.
This looks like the return of the sort of territorial expansionism
that mostly disappeared after World War II, together with religious
hatred.
President Museveni of Uganda says he won reelection, but his opponent,
Bobi Wine, says the election was rigged.
Some forms of rigging are undeniable — for instance, shutting down
the internet, and repeatedly arresting Wine. That makes it plausible
Museveni has done other things to rig this election.
Prosecutors have recognized that the taser is a lethal weapon.
The taser is meant to be a nonlethal weapon, though "less lethal" is a
more accurate term for it. Yet these weapons can kill; and many of
them can maim.
It is a good thing that cops carry these weapons; it stands to reason
that the availability of that alternative to shooting a gun has
avoided many killings. At the same time, the wild use of less-lethal
weapons by thugs has caused many avoidable injuries. We need to consider
their misuse as a serious matter even when they cause damage less than fatal.
And even when they don't cause any lasting damage that time, it is a
serious matter because it is crucial that cops don't have bad habits
of using them.
US politics today is a battle between evil yoked to identity politics
and some kinds of justice yoked to identity politics — and the
identity politics will make the two camps fight on and on.
I have to point out, however, that Republicans stole the 2016
presidential election, with voter-suppression.
They try this every time. Sometimes the Democrats win by a
sufficient amount to overcome the Republican election-rigging, and
sometimes they don't.
Wales is using Covid-19 as an excuse to completely ban protests, for instance
about the death of a black prisoner in jail.
People must always have the right to protest, as long as they follow safety
rules such as masks and distancing.
It is no surprise that thugs with badges participated in a crime
intended to overthrow the US government.
Thugs have had a tendency towards violent right-wing views for a long
time. What has changed is that the wrecker convinced many of them to
believe in a fantasy world in which the US government was guilty of
imaginary wrongs.
The thugs who actually participated will be prosecuted. However,
thugs who support white supremacism or Nazism are, and were, unfit to
work as police, and would be unfit even if they did not support
a coup attempt. How can we expel them?
The US has almost 18,000 thug departments, some very large and many
quite small. Any thug who is dismissed from one department because of
basic hostility to some aspect of justice can almost certainly get
hired by another.
To clean any one form of that hostility — such as, right-wing
extremism — out of these departments requires some sort of system to
block that tendency. I can think of two ideas. There could be a
system of blacklisting (thought that would call for safeguards against
wrongful blacklisting). There could be a system of rebooting thug
departments as was done Camden, New Jersey.
I wonder if it is possible to deny those ex-thugs the right to carry
guns.
*By elevating the role of the Presidential Science Advisor to the
Cabinet level, scientists will be at the table and in the room when
key issues are discussed and decisions are made.*
*If Trump looks like a fascist and acts like a fascist, then maybe he is one.*
One difference between the Republican death cult and 20th century
fascism is that the former is a lot more lunatic. It discards
grounding in reality as well sa grounding in morality.
*21 Reasons We Need Population Stabilization in 2021.*
The Pentagon is working on purging soldiers that are so disloyal that
they might support a right-wing overthrow of the government.
The problem of right-wing extremism and racism among military
personnel has been known for decades. The Air Force Academy was more
or less taken over by Christian extremists who bullied cadets to join
their cult.
The wrecker encouraged them to increase their extremism to the point
of lunacy and disloyalty, and that made the problem much more grave.
*If Lawmakers Really Care About "Unity" They Should Support Policies Voters
Actually Want.*
Racism and explicit racist bullying are rife in the Capitol Police.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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.
*How the Biden-Harris Administration Can Fight Climate Change and
Structural Racism.*
The corrupter's officials hastily approved a giant copper mine, rushing
the environmental impact statement.
I hope that this haste offers opportunity to challenge the decision
and that Biden will be able to quash it.
(satire) *officials from the U.S. Mint announced Friday a new
seven-cent coin to bolster citizens’ math skills.*
(satire) Cancel culture in the Middle Ages.
The link will bring you to a page listing links to the same video on
many invidious proxies. Follow any one of those links to see the
video.
The wrecker designated the Houthis in Yemen as a "terrorist organization",
which will impede humanitarian aid to that starving region.
The article does not explain why Biden could not cancel this on Jan 21.
I would like to know.
Calling for federal action against food monopolies.
I support this, of course, but we need not look at the issue of
monopolies on an industry-by-industry basis. Concentration is harmful
in any industry, so we should take general steps to reduce it
drastically across the board.
And how about an import tariff that is based on the size of the company
doing the exporting?
*To Protect Democracy, Lawmakers Must Fix [antisocial media's] Socially
Destructive Business Model.*
Not all the big tech companies use that business model.
Apple does other evils,
not that one. Likewise Microsoft,
Amazon,
and Uber.
US thugs are three times as likely to use force against peaceful
leftwing protests than against peaceful rightwing protests.
When violent protests are included, the ratio is almost as large.
Amazon has made it painfully difficult to terminate membership in
Amazon Prime.
The inspector general of the Department of Justice said that Sessions
imposed the policy of separating families because he wanted to punish
unauthorized immigrants more.
Victoria Nuland, whom Biden proposed as an official in the State Department, has a history of promoting war.
Some voting machines used in some US states, specifically the Dominion
Voting Systems ICE and the ESS ExpressVote machines, are vulnerable to
cracking. Crackers could install software that would alter the vote
printed it on the ballot before the machine deposits it in the ballot box.
Voters must vote directly on paper.
There is little practical difference between censorship by
an oligopoly of businesses and censorship by the state.
And even less differences when the state defines the framework for
censorship by these businesses.
I object to those businesses for other reasons, so I don't use any of them;
I never did use them to communicate with people. I think we should bring the internet back to the stage when it let users connect with each other.
*It's now clear this government wants UK workers to have as little power as
possible.*
Not just workers — campaigners' freedom is threatened too.
For instance, "Don't you dare embarrass us by talking about past
profits from slavery! And make a contract not to criticize government
policy!"
Qatar imprisoned and tortured professor Lukman Thalib for 5 months
and never tried to give any reason for it.
*US military sonar linked to whale beachings in Pacific, say
scientists.*
*Capitol rioters planned to capture and kill politicians, say prosecutors.*
The loss of Sci-Hub would be a disaster for science around the world.
The loss of Elsevier, Wilie and the American Chemical Society would be
a plus. There are already libre scientific journals, and once the
non-libre journals are gone, the libre ones would enjoy complete
success.
Air pollution will make millions of people refugees.
There will not be places for millions (or billions) of people to
migrate to. The only practical solution is to reduce the pollution,
in all countries.
Not just this sort of pollution, of course. We have to make it safe
for people to live in their own countries.
2020 was the year that India imposed unrestrained repression.
*By June 2020, the Modi regime began its gradual "unlocking"
process. Yet, as restrictions were slowly eased, the damage was
already done. The anti- CAA/NRC protests had been squashed, internal
migrants were impoverished or lay dead, the general populace had
endured the unhinged brutality of the police as they enforced the
lockdown, the jailing of dissidents had expanded, and the already
ascendant RSS had entrenched itself far deeper into society than ever
before.*
Global heating, degradation of ecosystems, increasing general human
hunger and sickness, increasing general extinction for other species
— looking at the ghastly future facing us if we don't pull humanity
away from it.
A lawsuit accuses Amazon plus the four giant book publishers of fixing
prices on e-books distributed anywhere but on Amazon.
I doubt that whatever damages they have to pay for this will make them
really stop doing this. I expect instead that they will find a
different way to dress it up. But this use of their market power is
only a symptom: the disease is that they control so much of the
market.
We need laws that effectively prevent so much concentration of any
industry, regardless of how that concentration was or is achieved.
Antimonopoly law, or better said antioligopoly and antioligopsony law,
should discard the question of whether excess concentration was
achieved by "unfair" means or not, and focus on protecting society
from the unjust power that concentration generally tends to create.
Achieving a fair, competitive price for the not-really-sale of e-books
would not make them cease to be unjust. The principal injustices of
commercial e-books today are in the other aspects of their distribution:
imposing DRM and its concomitant nonfree reader software,
carrying an antisocializing contract instead of actual purchase,
and requiring the not-really-buyers to identify themselves.
I would rather do without the e-book than submit to those wrongs.
Nigeria is starting a New Deal that will fund work for 750,000 young
workers to reduce the economic damage of Covid-19.
US citizens: call on Biden to end US participation in the war in
Yemen.
US citizens: call on the Senate to convict the wrecker and disqualify
him from all offices.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass HR 1 to make US elections more
democratic.
US citizens: call on big tech and media companies to stop donating to
legislators that tried to overturn the election and/or encouraged the
coup.
*Google's 'experiment' hiding Australian news just shows its inordinate power.*
*New York attorney general sues NYPD over response to BLM protests.*
*We found a pattern of deeply concerning and unlawful practices that
the NYPD utilized in response to these largely peaceful protests.*
Suing the department may be a good way to take action, but I am
convinced that changing the behavior of thugs requires some sort of
sanction on individual thugs.
(satire) *North Korea Holds Quiet, Low-Key Nuclear Test Just For Self.*
(satire) Senator Hawley: *Yesterday, I was shocked and disappointed to see a
destructive mob break through the Capitol building’s security and
overshadow my own planned grandstanding.*
As Rep. Bustos flew home from Washington after the fright of the
insurrection in the Capitol, other passengers who were anti-truthers
not up and began bullying other passengers.
They took off their masks to intimidate people.
That's reckless endangerment again.
Venice identifies all tourists by their mobile phones and tracks
their movements.
The article is propaganda in favor of massive surveillance, presenting
it as an exciting advance in technology. Since the city tracks boats and
tides, it implies, of course it should track you and me also.
But they won't track me, not that way, because I don't carry a
personal tracking and listening device. This tracking is one of
the two reasons I don't.
Fridays for Future will resume global climate strike actions on March 19.
If I can, I will report on no-Javascript ways to participate.
*The US is now the focus of global instability.*
And it is likely to remain such until such time as right-wing
terrorism diminishes.
There are indications that some Republicans in Congress aided the
insurrection, including helping participants plan in advance how to
attack the Capitol.
(satire) *Citigroup Begrudgingly Keeps Funding Marco Rubio After
Learning Senator Voted For Election Certification.*
Glenn Greenwald notes that when three Big Tech quasimonopolies shut
down Parler, they demonstrated that they have considerable censorship
power over society.
He also says that, counter to widespread impressions, Parler did not
intentionally promote any particular political current, did not permit
advocacy of violence, and was not the main way insurrectionists
communicated to prepare for insurrection.
*If these firms are so powerful that they can be the primary
gatekeepers between a president and the public, then they have outgrown
democratic control.*
Is DNA engineering anything like programming? Can we reach
any ethical conclusions about its "source code"?
Look at the workings of a Covid-19 RNA vaccine.
That RNA is not compiled from "source code"; there is no such
technology. I don't think it is much like programming, either; this
looks to me like a field of physical engineering. So I don't think we
should try to understand it based on software. We should think about
it independently, based on our general principles; some of the principles
we apply to software may be pertinent here, but they won't lead to
the same conclusions.
Big Tech companies decided to crack down on right-wing mobs set on
overthrowing the US government (or worse) just after they learned
that Democrats would control the Senate. It could be a scheme to
convince them not to break up those Big Tech companies.
I would guess that Big Tech is also working on acquiring a few
Democratic senators to block anything that might reduce their power.
ALEC, the right-wing state law lobbying group is working on a campaign
with a group that promotes voter fraud lies and helped organize the
preparations for the insurrection.
Some state legislators that are members of ALEC participated in the rally
that was the staging ground for the insurrection.
Reporters Without Borders warns that anti-truth right-wing extremists
will threaten journalists, in the days leading up to the inauguration.
I see no reason to assume they will stop then.
US citizens: support the COUP Act, which will establish a commission
to investigate the weaknesses (and perhaps worse) of the Capitol Police.
US citizens: call on Congress remove members that won't denounce
the insurrection.
The Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121. If you call, please spread the word!!!
Senator Schumer wants to put alleged insurrectionists on the TSA's
no-fly list.
The no-fly list is punishment without trial. It should never have been
set up, and we should get rid of it in the name of freedom.
10 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump.
The rest of them continued to defend him even after he had launched an
attack on the House of Representatives.
Hong Kong's puppet leader equates protests in Hong Kong for democracy
and against repression with insurrection against democracy in the US.
She condemns them both alike.
The wrecker equates them too. He supports them both alike.
BlackRock pledged to divest from coal, but all it did was move its
coal investments into companies which do other things as well.
*Top scientists warn of 'ghastly future of mass extinction' and climate
disruption.*
They warn we will face *climate-induced mass migrations, more
pandemics and conflicts over resources* unless we hasten to curb
global heating, and take power away from businesses that demand
perpetual economic growth.
Wole Soyinka: *Global outrage at the storming of the US Capitol risks
diverting attention from repression by Uganda’s president.*
*Climate crisis: record ocean heat in 2020 supercharged extreme weather.*
Istanbul is 45 days away from running out of water. Turkey's other
major cities, and farmers, are in trouble too.
Population increase and the concomitant development is part of the
problem, but the other jaw is global heating.
US states are failing to provide unemployment compensation to all the
unemployed workers that are trying to apply for it.
*A Post-Election Strategy for (long term) National Unity: Focus on
Future Generations.*
*America doesn't need new security laws to prosecute insurrection.*
And those laws are likely to be used to crush even nonviolent dissent.
The article recommends that we instead reorganize all "security" agencies
with personnel that are not right-wing extremists.
I hope we can find enough such personnel to staff them.
Many important US politicians grossly misrepresent section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act. That section is crucial to protect
freedom of speech, and most of the "problems" it is criticized for are
fictitious.
Colorado's reports of its contribution to world greenhouse gas
emissions are bogus; they gravely underestimate its own operations and
don't even try to count the emissions from burning the fossil fuels
extracted there.
This sort of underestimation must be very common around the world.
Here are some of the corporations that gave lots of money to some
senators that tried to overturn the election.
Hundreds of pipeline protesters interrupted construction of the Line 3
planet-roaster pipeline by dancing in the construction site.
(satire) *Nation Settles On Being Home To Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame As
New Foundation For American Exceptionalism.*
(satire) *Child Weirded Out After Bumping Into Teacher Outside Laptop.*
The US is caught between two threats: the lunatic anti-truth movement,
and the plutocratist elites who would be glad to "protect" us by
exacerbating the social deprivation that led millions to join the
lunatic anti-truth movement.
The wrecker has tried to sabotage US relations with Cuba by falsely
claiming it promotes terrorism.
The Cuban government does not recognize freedom of speech, and does not
obey its own constitution.
It has even killed dissidents.
However, injustices like that in a country do not compel the US to engage
in economic warfare with it.
Salafi Arabia is far, far worse, and has started wars in its region,
as well as killing dissidents.
Despite that, the US is quite friendly with Salafi Arabia.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a
criminal complaint against the wrecker for sedition on Jan 6.
This means that officials need to decide whether to charge him, and
if they don't, the public can call on them to justify their decision.
*'If Wall Street Really Believed in Defending Our Democracy,' Says Sanders, It
Would End Political Donations... Forever*
*These 63 Billionaires Who Bankrolled Trump All the Way to Insurrection Have 'No Right to Feel Shocked'.*
1000 Extinction Rebellion activists in the UK face prosecution for
blocking roads in protests against Shell.
Compared to what Shell is doing to all of us, blocking roads is nothing.
The Capitol insurrection makes visible the loss of political stability
that plutocracy in the US has brought about.
*The Solution to the Coronavirus Recession Is a Global Green New Deal.*
An economist argues for something similar.
UK supermarkets are now enforcing mask requirements.
We should do the same in the US. People's lives are at stake,
and a preference to go without a mask must yield to the duty
to protect other people's lives.
*Indian court suspends new agriculture laws after mass protests.*
Artificial obstacles to producing Covid-19 vaccine will make billions
of people wait years to be vaccinated.
The article focuses on a side issue: given that production is
insufficient, who will get it first?
That is a distraction. There is no need for production to be so slow.
It is slow because of the artificial scarcity created by giving
businesses the power to limit production. To squabble over which
country gets vaccine this year, since there isn't enough, is to
legitimize the artificial scarcity.
Let's resist being distracted. As James Love says, let's make them
produce enough vaccine so that we can all get it first!
The NYC thug in charge of investigating harassment was secretly posting
bigoted hate messages on a bulletin board for thugs.
It is hard for me to understand the thoughts of a person who becomes
obsessed with hate.
Washing polyester clothing is filling the Arctic Ocean with
microfibers that endanger sea life.
The US deportation thugs didn't even give prisoners soap to wash their
hands with. No wonder many caught Covid-19.
Republican congresscritters infected two Democrats while they were
sheltering together during the insurrection, by refusing to protect
them with masks.
Fining Republicans for doing that won't dissuade them — Republican
billionaires would gladly pay their fines. They should be charged with
reckless endangerment.
California is considering a law to limit the use of license plate cameras by thug departments.
It is a step forward but not strict enough. And it should apply to
all parties, not just certain government agencies.
One way to get the wrecker off our backs would be to extradite him to Iraq,
where he faces murder charges.
I don't think it is an ethical option, though. I doubt that Iraqi courts
follow proper legal standards.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass legislation to stop the
president from unilaterally starting a nuclear war.
US citizens: call on the DoJ to prosecute insurrectionists to the
fullest extent of the law.
Dozens or hundreds of the pawns who stormed the Capitol will probably
be prosecuted. What will we do to preserve democracy from the
competing threats?
Ireland's unmarried mothers, and their babies, were in many cases
compelled to live in "mother and baby homes" which vented on them the
Catholic Church's hatred of women who had sex outside marriage.
They didn't even give the children adequate food.
Governor Snyder faces charges for poisoning the people of Flint, Michigan.
It always seemed implausible to me that he did not know what his
lieutenants were doing.
Ron Paul, former congresscritter, has been blocked from his Facebook
page and given no explanation.
Ron Paul is an Antisocialist (he says, "Libertarian"): he advocates
civil liberties for individuals and deregulation for business. I
support the former and oppose the latter, but that's not the point here.
The crucial point is that he has not supported the anti-truth
right-wing disinformation, let alone the insurrection, and yet he is
being silenced in its wake.
Evidently we can't count on Facebook to silence only coup plotting.
We can't in general expect Facebook to do the right thing,
since it has done so much wrong.
"Have the tech companies silence the disinformationists" sounds like
a solution, but it gives those companies unchecked power. Their
obvious next step would be to censor people who
Two officers of the Capitol Police have been suspended for showing sympathy
towards the insurrectionists during the insurrection.
People in general have the right to express that opinion, but anyone
who feels that way is not fit to hold a job protecting against
insurrections.
Twitter is clamping down on QAnonsense, blaming it for stirring up
the insurrection.
Facebook is putting a limit (easy to work around) on one PR phrase
used in election disinformation.
If anything deserves to be censored, it the fascist movement, because
that is dangerous to Americans and our freedom. But it was the power
of these giant companies that enabled the wrecker to build the fascist
movement, and that power is dangerous in itself, aside from the danger
of the fascist movement.
We need to reduce their power, not reassure ourselves that "They are
protecting us now."
The right wing's Orwellian shift:
from praising media dominated by big
business as "freedom" to condemning this as tyrannical censorship.
China has permitted the WHO team studying the origin of Covid-19 to
enter China.
The topic under investigation is scientific, not an attempt to blame China
or establish conspiracy theories.
A vast network of Republicans colluded with the wrecker to organize
the Republican autogolpe effort on Jan 6.
The preparations included orders to prevent the National Guard from
protecting the Capitol. I am not sure that obeying orders is properly
called "collusion" — I think the word implies actions taken
by choice. However, the giving of those orders was culpable.
The Spanish word "autogolpe" is used to describe seizure of power by
the current head of the government — not an attempt to install a new
government, but rather to keep it in power in defiance of the
country's constitution. That is what the wrecker was trying to do.
Everyone: call on John Kerry and the US Congress to include military
greenhouse gas emissions in agreements to reduce emissions.
(satire) Lobbyists are disappointed that congresscritters are so easy
to influence. It hardly even takes a bribe any more.
New "domestic terrorism" legislation would be very effective
for crushing Black Lives Matter and other progressive causes.
Some Republican-controlled state legislatures have started planning
new laws to repress protest, supposedly to be used against domestic
terrorists but actually to be used against protesters against
pollution and abusive businesses.
There is a push to increase the PAT RIOT Act surveillance powers.
No special surveillance facility was needed to see that fanatics were
talking about attacking the Capitol. What was missing was the
willingness to take their threat seriously.
Does anyone know what ultimately happened to the felony charges,
mentioned in one of those articles, against the "J20" activists for
being near where property damage was committed?
China lured Gulbahar Haitiwaji to return from France to sign some
retirement papers in Xinjiang. This was pretext to imprison her in a
're-education' camp for Uighurs. She describes the torture and
brainwashing carried out there.
The leader of B'tselem denounces Israel's system of slightly veiled
apartheid.
British scientists: Britain needs to plan to deal with Covid-19 into
2022, or even later.
The virus could reappear after every human has been vaccinated if it
can survive in nonhuman hosts. We might be able to eradicate it from
those hosts — we could at least try.
The Taliban, in peace negotiations demand the release of two prisoners
in Guantanamo.
The US should release all the prisoners in Guantanamo, because they
have been imprisoned without trial and many have been tortured as
well.
*As 'Dark Stain' of Guantánamo Begins 20th Year, Groups Demand Biden Close
Offshore Prison.*
The main practical obstacle is finding a place each one can go
— but these two Afghans do have a place to go.
In New Zealand, and many other countries, most people who own houses
want them to appreciate in price. So they insist on limiting construction, and that makes it hard for everyone to have a place to
live.
The House of Representatives is impeaching the wrecker again, but there is not enough support in the Senate to convict him.
I don't see the point of this exercise.
This article argues that the impeachment will have more bad influence
than good on the wrecker's followers. "The wiser move would be to let Trump
drift into exile, not stoke the sense of grievance among his base," it
says. I don't know whether that is true. But I think it is crucial
to take measures that will deal them real setbacks. Expressing
hostility to them is something they eat up.
I wonder if there is be a way to enforce the 14th amendment in court
to block the wrecker from running for office in the US in the future.
That would not require a vote in the Senate.
I think it would be wise to move the inauguration to a secure
location, perhaps indoors. I would not be surprised if Republicans in
the army stole a drone to try to assassinate Biden and everyone else
there.
On the debate about whether market-dominating tech companies should
ban the wrecker, or should have banned him long ago.
Merkel said that laws should set the criteria for banning someone from
communicating on internet sites, but in the US that would directly
violate the first amendment.
Human activity is damaging insect populations in many parts of the world.
Perhaps everywhere, but there is no data from many places.
Fewer insects means many other animals will die for lack of food.
Measuring how far the US Senate is from democratic.
According to the figures in the spreadsheet in that article:
Population the 50 Republican senators represent: 142,991,983 (44%)
A gorilla war is taking place in Virunga national park in the Congo.
*A Mob Attacked the Capitol for Trump. Now What?*
Over and over they take one more step along the path towards rebellion
and mass murder. Some of them envision massive terrorism as the
outcome.
One of the roots in antitruth right-wing extremism was the violent
defiance of environmental limits on grazing cattle.
Indeed, people should be free to do as they wish, unless they are
doing harm. Those people's actions do harm.
The problem with their actions is like that of the anti-maskers: their
individual activities add up to predictable and big harm to the world.
One rancher who insists on grazing cattle in an area with wildlife can
safely do so; the cattle and the wildlife can coexist. But there are
thousands of ranchers in the US and they aim to increase their herds.
Without something to limit the herds they put on protected lands, they
will predictably wipe out wildlife.
If only one man refused to wear a mask, he might at some point catch
Covid-19 and then infect some others. But they, with their masks.
would not re-transmit the infection very far. Indeed, if others take
the proper precautions, our one man will probably never catch Covid-19
and his lack of mask won't hurt anyone.
However, to extend this to millions of people is covidiotic. It was
entirely predictable that they would overload the hospitals and cause
hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Everyone: call on companies to stop funding
extremist US candidates.
The insurrection was more violent than appeared in the immediate coverage.
The wrecker forced out the US attorney for Georgia and put in a
replacement loyal to him. This was evidently meant as part of his
efforts to steal the election there.
To defend against a future fascist president, we need to make it more
difficult for the president to arbitrarily fire US attorneys, and the
attorney general. But whose approval should be required for firings?
A majority of the senate? The courts? I don't see an obvious good
answer.
After a US court ordered Georgia to reverse a fraudulent voter purge,
Raffensperger used a series of tricks and maneuvers to avoid letting
those almost 200,000 voters vote in the Jan 5 runoffs.
Beware when rich people and corporations seek to rehabilitate the
reputations of those who tried to seize power on Jan 6.
They did that to the survivors of the slave-owners, and gave us a
century of Jim Crow.
A factory that "recycles" neonicotinoid-treated seeds into ethanol
emits pollution that harms the health of people that live nearby.
Since neonicotinoids do not naturally degrade, they will accumulate
dangerously in the environment near that factory, just as they do near
the farms where those seeds are used.
The deer population in Britain is exploding because restaurants are no longer
buying venison. This threatens other wildlife.
If this were a permanent change, the long-term solution might be to
have more wolves. However, it is likely to be short-term, so the
government will have to pay hunters to keep the deer down until
restaurants start paying them again.
Two of Biden's cabinet nominees are associated with a secretive
investment company.
This is not proof of a crime, or even evidence to suspect a crime,
but it exemplifies their participation in plutocract which we should
not have in cabinet secretaries.
Proposing to offer pot gratis to prisoners that are addicted to other drugs.
Focusing on your level of happiness (present, or future) interferes
paradoxically with feeling happy.
Each day more of the Jan 6 insurrectionists are being arrested and
charged.
I hope that the Capitol cop who did a fist bump with one of the
insurrectionists has been fired.
More information on some of the charges insurrectionists could face.
I think that the "felony murder" law as it sometimes interpreted is
too broad. A should only be guilty of B's killing if the killing is a
natural possible outgrowth of what they joined in doing.
If A and B decide to do an armed robbery with a gun and B kills
someone, A should be liable because killing is a natural possible
outgrowth of pointing a gun at someone. It isn't the usual
consequence in a robbery, but it is hardly surprising. However, if A
and B decide to steal something without using weapons, and B pulls a
gun and shoots someone dead, that isn't a natural outgrowth of an
unarmed robbery, so A should not be guilty of the killing.
*Woman charged after falsely accusing Black teenager of stealing her phone*
and then grabbing him.
In 2017, Manchester (England) set out to get homeless people into
housing. Almost 300 of them still have housing.
We could do this anywhere, with some priority and some money.
The billionaires don't need quite so much.
In 2020, as a precaution against spread of Covid-19, the UK moved to
get all homeless people off the street. But didn't continue paying
for this.
If we gave more priority to the well-being of poor people, fewer of
them would develop the sort of problems that make it hard for them to
rent housing. Building more housing (public, and private) would also
help.
Reducing population growth, which we need to do anyway, would help
with this also. Rents would come down and thus so would the cost of
living.
The debate about a proposed law to define some crimes as "domestic
terrorism".
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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.
The proposed law would not directly attack freedom of speech, but
there's a danger it would be applied with a racist bias, thus
exacerbating the bias that we see in comparing DC thugs' harshness
towards Black Lives Matter protests with their laxity towards
insurrectionists.
In addition, it is an injustice to designate an organization as
"terrorist" except by convicting it as a crime.
*A British judge said US prisons are dangerously inhumane. Sadly, she's right.*
US prisons were, most of them, much more humane before the ideological
increase in imprisonment started by Reagan for ideological reasons.
Back then, US prisons tried to rehabilitate prisoners.
It is hard to treat prisoners decently or try to help them
rehabilitate when too many people are in prison.
If we end the war on drugs, we could could improve this.
But it would still be wrong to prosecute Assange.
Internet random error amplification is
convincing
teenagers of the misinformation that Helen Keller was not deaf and
blind.
When I was young, children read about her story, but left out the part
where she became a Socialist and joined the IWW.
*Among
Republican
voters, 45% approve of the storming of Capitol, 30% think the
perpetrators are 'patriots', 52% think Biden is at least partly to
blame for it, and 85% think it would be inappropriate to remove Trump
from office after this.*
*Biden and Congress
Must
Repeal Law Authorizing Endless Wars.*
Governor Raimondo
would
be a bad choice for Secretary of Commerce, for much of the same
reasons she would have been a bad choice for Secretary of Health and
Human Services.
I wonder why Biden is trying so hard to give her an important post.
(satire) *"This Apology Is Bullshit And I Am Lying To You," Says GOP
Senator To
Widespread
Media Praise.*
A retired official accuses the Capitol Police of
not
even trying to be ready to keep rioters out.
He accuses the officials in charge of Capitol security of being either
incompetent or disloyal. Indeed,
three
are resigning.
As for why the National Guard were not available to help, I read
somewhere that the wrecker blocked the attempt to activate them.
*After Right-Wing Coup Effort in DC, Venezuela Offers Sympathy for US
Suffering
What 'It Has Generated' Elsewhere.*
Impeaching the wrecker
provides
a way to disqualify him from ever holding any sort of government
office, and this requires only a majority of the Senate.
However, it is not clear to me whether the Senate can do that without
first convicting him, and that requires 2/3 of the Senate, which is
probably out of reach.
Some politicians say we need to remove the wrecker from office right
away to
stop
him from wreaking more havoc as president.
That danger may be real. On the other hand, it would still be a shame
if this allows Pence to pardon him.
One of the insurrectionists
was
killed trying to break down a door in the Capitol.
Normally, cops should not shoot someone just for breaking down a door.
They should first try to restrain per, and will normally succeed. But
in that situation there may have been no easy option. She was part of
an armed mob bent on violence, and allowing her to break down a door
might have enabled the mob to attack people.
Some of the insurrectionists had guns, and bombs were found too.
The legislators that supported the inside arm of the wrecker's coup
are
culpable
for the coup, even if they did not commit a crime. They are a
threat to the republic.
Those helped the wrecker create the movement that was the base for his
coup attempt are morally culpable for that, even if they turned aside
before Wednesday's last step. They could see, just as we all could,
where the wrecker was aiming that movement. But their culpability is
less than that of the first group.
I support the
plan
for the House to expel the first group.
The districts will hold new elections to replace them.
Some of the wrecker's supporters are having conniptions watching
the talk where he condemned them for the violence he urged them to commit.
I can understand that they feel whipsawed by the contradiction between
the two things he said. What is interesting is that they cling to his
earlier persistent incitement to violence and reject his later
denunciation of it.
Long ago I read a book, When Propechy Fails by Festinger et al, which
described the events in a small prophetic cult in the US (1950s) whose
central prophecy specified a date. Naturally it failed to occur.
Some of the participants rejected the cult after that, but others
redefined the prophecy so it could happen later, so that they could
cling to the cult.
I expect that some of Trump's cultists will redefine the cult to shift
it away from him, rather than reject it.
Two laptops were stolen from the Capitol during the insurrection.
Women who don't want children and ask for operations to prevent it
face persistent resistance from doctors that presume everyone will
ultimately regret not having children.
In 1983, after I had made the announcement of the plan to develop GNU,
the announcement which started the free software movement, a woman I
loved asked me to support her and the children we would have in a
middle-class lifestyle. I said no, because I did not want that life,
and because it would have meant abandoning GNU. That no implied great
loneliness, but now I am proud of what I have achieved with my
child-free life.
If I had said yes, I doubt I'd have achieved anything important, and I
would have regretted every day the decision to give up trying.
I am sure some fraction of women who get sterilized later regret it,
just as some women have children later regret it. That is true for
every choice people make: always, some fraction regret their choice.
But it's impossible to postpone all choices forever.
The Capitol Police went way beyond being gentle with Wednesday's rioters.
Some of them actively aided the insurrectionists to enter.
The rioters at the Capitol menaced and sometimes attacked reporters.
They said they hated all reporters.
Sometimes they stole reporters' equipment and destroyed it.
Right-wing extremists stormed Oregon's state Capitol on December 21
after a Republican state legislator opened a locked door and let them
in.
The legislature is investigating him; I hope that the experience in Washington
convinces them that this is grave enough to expel him.
Laying out the criminal charges that could be brought against the wrecker
for promoting insurrection —
supposing he does not get a valid pardon.
A study predicts that due to global heating and deforestation the
Amazon rain forest will pass a tipping point before 2064 that will
convert it into a dry plain with shrubs.
The forest would become too little to cause enough rain for it to survive.
That would be a global disaster, since it would release a lot of
greenhouse gases and the transformed land would no longer store carbon.
*Civil Society Groups Warn Against Anti-Protest Legislation Following
Siege of US Capital.*
I agree. The right to protest is nothing if we don't respect it for
those we oppose.
But when protest gives way to intimidation, we need to keep it in check
so that it doesn't grow into domination.
Nonfree software establishes "manorial computing" — a local
aristocrat (nowadays a corporation, not a person) offers to take care
of you and protect you in your computing, and you in return submit
helplessly to its dominion.
Doctorow's "Ulysses Pact" refers to a point I've made in many speeches
condemning Apple's eagerness to spy for China. It is applicable to
you as well. If you erase Windows, MacOS, or Android, and get rid of
an iMonster, people will understand it is futile to ask you to use it.
Making people serfs on a manor is as evil now as it was a thousand
years ago. Medieval Europe experienced many revolts of the people
against aristocrats; one of them created a free country that still
exists: Switzerland. The Swiss revolt spread from valley by valley
over a period of hundreds of years. I've cited this inspiring example
in my speeches in Switzerland.
So pick up your digital pitchforks and chase those aristos out of your
computer!
Alas, the story of William Tell appears to be a myth, though the context
it is set in is real.
Right-wing manipulators have bullied Facebook by accusing it of bias
against them, even as its real bias was in favor of them.
Making Facebook adjust its bias would be an improvement, but would
continue to be an arbitrary choice by a business. I have proposed
imposing public control over Facebook's algorithm for showing things
to its useds. However, I think we need to make Facebook less powerful
by making it smaller.
* Far-right attempts to storm parliaments and government offices have
happened in Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands in recent years.*
The mainstream right-wing politicians think they can use the fanatics
to boost their strength, but once that happens, they find that the fanatics
have become their masters.
*Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murder.*
It is gratifying to see one extractionist tool get punished. However,
the world does nickel. What should we do to get it?
If mines operate with the best safety precautions, and handsomely
compensate all harm that the mines do, local inhabitants will probably
not object to them. Of course, nickel will cost more — but that's fair.
A timeline of the final stages of the wrecker's incitement of the storming
of the Capitol.
His arousal of violence started years ago.
I have an idea for a device that would make it safe for people to eat
while in a room with other people.
The idea is to make a sanitizable negative-pressure hood which seals
around the head and torso and hands, with a flat torso-mounted table
inside in the front. Elastic could hold the seal closed around the
body; I think that would be good enough. It could pump air in through
a filter and out through a filter.
If you know of something like this, or have a suggestion, or see a
flaw, please email me.
Anti-reality extremists were calling for violence in DC on Jan 6 for
weeks before that date.
*Extremists intensify calls for violence ahead of Inauguration Day.*
A mob of maskless anti-truth extremists in LA ganged up on a black
woman, hitting her and pulling her hair.
A mob attack like that can easily develop into dangerous violence.
Sanders supports impeaching the wrecker.
Senator Manchin, a Democrat whose views are similar to Republicans of
2015, will try to block giving Americans in general more immediate
aid.
He's not alone. *Billionaire-Owned Media Look Out for Neediest by
Demanding They Get No More Money.*
Manchin is probably right that some of that money will go to Americnas
who did not lose income during 2020. But that is quibbling. Nearly
all will go to Americans who are poor and need aid — wealthy people
will not get any of this.
For most of Americans who receive the whole $2000, it won't be enough.
Manchin puts more weight on small chance of giving some low-income
Americans a little more than was supposedly intended for them right
now, than on the certainty of giving millions too little. These are
cruel priorities.
*As Pro-Trump Mob Boasts About Roles in Deadly Capitol Invasion, Indigenous
Water Protectors Charged for Peaceful Keystone XL Protests.*
This double standard has been shown over and over.
I continue to feel that the term "water protectors" understates in a
distracting way the importance of the fight against building new
fossil fuel infrastructure. They are protecting global civilization,
not merely the water supply in a region of the US.
(satire) *Betsy DeVos Apologizes For Ever Being Complicit With
Something As Toxic As Public Education.*
*One Year After Declaring Climate Emergency, Scientists Say 'Massive-Scale Mobilization' Necessary.*
The US military have been pouring surplus gear into thug departments
and many of them don't even say they have a use for it.
This is not to mention the equipment they use in SWAT teams that they may
claim to need, but which we may consider harmful.
Rowan Atkinson denounces the cancel culture.
Pompeo has ended limits that the US has put on contacts with Taiwanese
officials to placate China.
I don't have an easy way of checking, but I expect that these limits
were put in place decades ago, when China was not a world power and
the US wanted China's support. Back then, it was arguably a wise
concession to make. It isn't now.
2020 was tied for the hottest year ever since records began.
The Tories foolishly allowed Covid-19 to get out of control in the UK,
by "reopening the economy" and running incompetent privatized contact
tracing. Now the NHS is overwhelmed by far more patients than it can
handle, and the numbers keep increasing.
It takes mental firmness to hate a buffoon who laughs off all his
deadly wrong decisions, but Britons must summon that firmness.
With a margin of 51 to 50 in the Senate, it will be a challenge to get
all the Democrats to agree.
The first law they pass should be statehood for Washington, DC.
That would mean two more senators, certainly Democrats.
I used to feel that making basic decisions like that for partisan
reasons went counter to civic spirit. However, this year, seeing how
Republicans have done counter to civic spirit to an enormous degree, I
concluded that this small amount against them is excusable.
Facebook will compel all WhatsApp users to "agree" to hand over their personal data to Facebook (or else be kicked off).
One lesson from this is, always be prepared to stop using any digital
"service" at very short notice.
This announcement reveals what data WhatsApp collects about each user.
To collect all that data is the first level of injustice.
Pooling the data between the company's dis-services is a significant
issue because Facebook is so powerful already and this would give it
more power. For a smaller company, I think we should focus entirely
on the wrong of collecting the information at all.
The Fascist movement in the US is too strong for mere civility to make
it wither away. That will require defeats, such as the one it experienced
on Wednesday.
We can't expect overconfidence and naive exuberance to give it more
defeats. The government must take steps to ensure they happen.
Passing and enforcing laws requiring everyone to wear a mask (or show
a doctor's excuse) in most public places could help. Arrogantly
threatening people's lives by refusing to wear masks is one of their
ways of looking strong and attracting support from people who want to
follow someone strong; when they have to back down, they won't attract as much support.
Many of the wrecker's rich and powerful backers have abandoned him.
That does not imply they have abandoned Fascism. They will surely be
waiting for a more skillful enemy of our Constitution to come along.
To preserve our democratic structures, we need to restore the
substance of democracy by taking away the political power of the rich
and powerful (plutocracy).
Daniel Ellsberg believes the wrecker is planning to start a war
against Iran in the 11 days remaining to him as president.
I would not put it past him. If he tries, I hope that the US military
will consider it an illegal order.
Ellsberg asks people in the Pentagon to leak the plans for provoking
a war with Iran.
Everyone: call on the US to drop charges against Julian Assange.
Reporting on the insurrectionist mob at the Capitol.
Some of the insurrectionists attacked journalists.
Biden called the Capitol insurrectionists "domestic terrorists"
and condemned the wrecker as the enemy of the Constitution.
This suggests he has dropped the idea of letting the wrecker off the
hook. I am very glad.
Democratic politicians and progressive groups are calling for Pence
and the cabinet to declare the wrecker unfit and remove him from
office, which they have the power to do. I would support this call,
except for one thing: Pence would become president and might pardon
the wrecker straightaway.
If Pence were committed not to pardon him, then I would support it.
Impeaching the wrecker now would run into similar problems.
Appropriate though it would be in principle, prosecuting him later is
more important than whatever we do to him for the next 12 days.
(satire) *Why I Am Resigning After Stabbing 97 People for Donald Trump.*
*Global heating could stabilize if net zero emissions achieved,
scientists say.*
Mobs of Republicans assembled around various state Capitols,
often with guns, and threatened the state officials.
(satire) *New Mental Health Initiative To Add 10,000 Beds To Nation’s Prisons.*
*Why Progressives Should Care About Biden's Pick for Commerce Secretary.*
*If Democrats Control the Senate They Have No Excuse: Restore Net Neutrality,
Ban Facial Recognition, Protect Section 230, End Big Tech Data Harvesting,
and Defend Online Human Rights.*
(satire) *Ted Cruz Makes Last Effort To Block Election Result By
Unleashing Wave Of Locusts From Mouth To Black Out Sun.*
* The press must measure the Biden administration’s actions [on
climate defense] against what the science demands.*
"Not getting worse quite as fast as before" is not sufficient.
A detailed summary of events in the Jan 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
*The far-right German provocateur who faked being a Syrian refugee.*
He has been charged with planning false-flag assassinations to give
real refugees a bad name.
Christian fanatics in Ohio have found a new way to harass women who
get abortions: to make them pay for the burial or cremation of the
aborted fetus.
The world's oil and gas companies are still making a profit and still
planning to increase their extraction to make more profit.
When they talk about "going green", it is part distraction (look at
the wind farms we are building and ignore all the CO2 our oil
generates, look at our reduction in emissions from our own operations
and ignore the emissions when customers burn our product), and part
co-optation (when Shell buys a solar energy company that doesn't
necessarily increase solar energy investment). All designed to let
them keep increasing the problem.
They want us to give them subsidies for green energy systems even
bigger than the the subsidies they get for extracting oil and gas.
Then they would make the transition, but slowly.
They would be quite capable of putting earnest efforts into a
transition to green energy, if we eliminate the subsidies for
gas and oil and replace them with a carbon tax.
Republicans dominate the Pennsylvania state senate, but they decided
to increase their majority by arbitrarily refusing to seat one
Democratic state senator.
Democrats criticized this action, but I wonder, can they do anything to
stop it?
Pennsylvania has a Democratic majority, but Republicans have imposed
minority rule in the state senate via gerrymandering.
People have noticed that the Capitol police were very gentle with the
insurrectionists, and contrasted this with the violence of thugs in
many cities towards peaceful protesters for Black Lives Matter and
other progressive causes.
That the Capitol police restrained their violence was a good thing,
and I think that helped some Republican leaders to withdraw their
support from the wrecker. What was not good is that thugs did not
extend the same respect and decency towards progressive protesters.
Why this difference? I think the Capitol police have been trained in
how to deal with protesters with restraint and respecting their
rights. They expect protests and expect journalists to be watching.
By contrast, the thug departments of cities vary. Some of them have
a culture of violence toward progressives and especially blacks.
As has been pointed out,
most thugs are right-wing and have cheered on right-wing
counterprotesters even when those are killing Black Lives Matter
protesters.
I saw a rumor that some even took selfies with the insurrectionists
at the Capitol.
Records show that nonwhites in the US tend to get worse punishments
than whites for violations of Covid-19 emergency regulations.
This demonstrates racist injustice at work.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid that 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.
The Communications Workers of America is trying to organize unions
in tech companies.
I support this, even though many of those companies distribute unjust
nonfree software or operate online dis-services.
Those companies should not exist in their current form — but as long
as the company does exist, it's good to make it workers better.
*[Sabotage] auction of oil leases in Arctic refuge attracts barely any
bidders.*
In the end, the State of Alaska ended up leasing most of the tracts.
This makes sense as sabotage — to prevent protection of ANWR. But
the federal government should have legitimate ways of convincing
Alaska to accept cancellation of those leases.
Since the violent insurrection at the Capitol was overcome, a number
of Republican officials have denounced the wrecker and his coup
attempt. Some have, it seems, dropped their support for their part in
it.
Ilhan Omar is preparing to impeach the wrecker again. I share her
disgust for him, but would this do any good?
The first impeachment was ineffective because the Republicans in the
Senate protected him. Is it worth trying again? Perhaps now enough
Republican senators are ready to remove him from office. If not, some
Republican support for impeachment — if there is any — might educate
Republicans.
However, bad results are also possible. Firstly, it would not affect
any of the sabotage that Republicans will continue doing until Jan 20.
Pence would continue those efforts.
Secondly, if Pence becomes president he might pardon the wrecker.
Indeed, I've seen speculation that the wrecker might resign so that
Pence can pardon him. But I don't know if he could bear the
humiliation of leaving office early.
The wrecker spoke to crowd of his supporters in DC and sent them to
attack the Capitol. They broke in by force and interrupted Congress,
and tried to take over the building.
Violence against the US under a Confederate flags declares treason as
well as racism.
Rebecca Solnit: * I call it a coup attempt because, though I assume that it will not
prevent the Biden presidency, it certainly intended to.*
I agree.
Using rioters in the streets alongside action by insiders is common
practice in coup attempts. That worked, temporarily, in Bolivia in
2018. I think it was employed in Czechoslovakia in 1948. I am sure
there are other examples that don't come to my mind now.
I criticize Solnit on one point. She repeatedly describes the actions
of the coup supporters as "white male rage." That is an unjust
racist/sexist generalization: it falsely imputes that attitude to all
white males. Bernie Sanders is a white male; so are various other progressive leaders. So is Biden. They do not participate in that
"white male rage". I am not of Sanders's stature, but I too have
rejected that attitude all my life.
This stereotype is just as wrong as the hostile stereotypes about
blacks and about women, which I am sure Solnit would call out.
The heat of the eastern Mediterranean is quickly wiping out the
molluscs that live there.
As global heating proceeds, the extinction of molluscs will spread to
more areas of the sea.
The state of Wisconsin said there is no chance of convicting the cop
that shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake. The events as he reported them
would justify his plea to have fired in self defense.
whether or not he was actually in immediate danger.
We can't take for granted that the state reached the correct
conclusion. The officials may not have tried hard enough.
* More than 50 pro-democracy politicians and campaigners have been
arrested in Hong Kong under the [so-called] national security law.*
*Assange Wins. The Cost: The Crushing of Press Freedom.*
Instead of the freedom Assange deserves, he may get a form of
clemency on the grounds that cruelty has left him mentally ill.
(satire) *Rueful Trump Wishes He Knew Republicans This Willing To
Overthrow Democracy Earlier In Term.*
California hospitals are full, so ambulance crews have been directed
not to bring in patients who are on the edge of death.
This is what happens when you choose to let a communicable disease run
rampant.
Feral cats are pushing many Australian species to extinction.
The bully's "remain in Mexico" policy "needlessly and foreseeably
exposed [asylum seekers] to considerable risk of serious harm",
ranging from armed robbery to rape to kidnapping, according to Human
Rights Watch.
Some of these crimes were committed by Mexican government thugs.
Uber propagandized Californians to pass Proposition 22, which allowed
companies to treat drivers as precarious contractors. Now Albertsons,
which owns several chains of supermarkets (Vons and Safeway, as well
as Albertsons) is firing unionized delivery employees and switching to
contractors.
I won't have a supermarket deliver, not even with union workers,
because I can't do that anonymously.
(satire) *Scientists Attempt To Convince Public To Take Covid More Seriously By
Explaining Concept Of Death.*
*More than a million Americans are reportedly still waiting on their
first unemployment check thanks in large part to a fragmented U.S.
benefit system that has been marred by years of inadequate funding,
outdated technology, and right-wing attacks.*
Iran has asked Interpol to arrest the bully on charges of
assassination.
They have a good reason to do this, but the bully should be tried in
the US for trying to overthrow the government and installing a
nondemocratic regime.
*Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Road There and the Road
Ahead.*
Advocating a carbon tax, combined with and giving the tax revenue to
poor people so that it is revenue-neutral.
A study of thousands of people who had Covid-19 for over a month
found that 85% of them suffered from cognitive and memory problems
six months later.
Almost one quarter of them are now unable to work.
There is, as yet, no way of knowing whether they will ever recover.
The study did not use a rigorous sample, so it could be subject to
various biases. But if it turns out that even 50% have a mental
disability, it is still a tremendous risk. The flu might kill you
(though the chances are much less than with Covid-19), but it won't
mentally handicap you.
It is very important to help other people avoid Covid-19.
China is punishing lawyers who worked for some recently persecuted
dissidents.
It's one of the ways that the Chinese state ensures that people it wishes
to crush do not really have any legal rights, notwithstanding laws which
say that they do.
Argentina has launched a government-run online store,
CorreoCompras, to compete with the near-monopoly private store,
MercadoLibre, which is the local equivalent of Amazon.
Although it may avoid many of the evils of Amazon,
this is not guaranteed. It is run by a state-owned company, but a
company nonetheless. It will be subject to the pressure to increase
sales and that will translate into pressure to do the things Amazon
does to increase sales — except whichever things the state orders
it not to do.
However, the fundamental direct evils of Amazon are identifying people
when they pay, and making them run non-free JavaScript code.
On these issues, CorreoCompras is no better.
The corrupter's call to pressure Raffensperger to carry out election
fraud was, it appears, a federal crime and a state crime under the
laws of Georgie. Democrats in Congress are rightly demanding to
prosecute him.
This may convince Biden not to let him off the hook. I hope so.
It is likely that the corrupter tried pressuring officials in other states,
because corrupting Georgia alone would not have brought him victory.
Some call for Congress to impeach him again, but if there are not
enough Republicans in the Senate willing to convict him, that would be
futile. Anyway, what's the use of removing him from office a few days
earlier?
Then we will face the challenge of keeping him in the US to face trial
— stopping him from fleeing the previous day to a country which will
not extradite him. The flight he has arranged goes to Scotland, but I
suspect that would only be a temporary stop on the way to his ultimate
destination.
New York City has prohibited fast-food chain restaurants from firing
workers, or cutting their work hours, without just cause.
This should enable workers to be less intimidated by the manager.
Criminal abuses such as theft of wages are rife in those restaurants,
and this
protection may enable workers to exercise their legal rights by
reporting the abuses.
I won't presume that the two bills just passed go far enough — I
don't know enough to have an opinion on that.
200 Google workers have formed a union.
They are determined to include contractors, so they have decided
not to apply for formal recognition. We need to change US law so that
contract workers, even subcontracted workers, can unionize.
A clock running backwards is right four times a day, and occasionally
the conman does something good. One of them was to require hospitals
to publish their prices for a long list of medical procedures.
In addition to giving patients the opportunity to say, "I will go
elsewhere" — those who are well enough to do so — it is also likely
to result in pressure to lower the prices. That will help all
patients without insurance. However, it is likely to pressure on
insurance companies to pay hospitals more, and thus charge more.
Overall it will be an improvement, but the US medical system will
still be lousy overall.
The US needs a national medical system, also known as Medicare for
All.
*Mexico's Lopez Obrador Wants to Give Asylum to Julian Assange.*
A privately designed treaty uses the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
as a model to end the spread of fossil fuel extraction.
A question to ponder: if you are using one of those teledildos with
bad security,
and a cracker takes control of it, what could the
cracker do to you with it?
If it were Durand Durand's sex machine, which he uses to try to kill
Barbarella, that crack could be deadly (unless you're as innocent in
your sexuality as Barbarella). But if it's only a vibrator, you could
resist its effects until you take it off.
The one thing the toy could really do for the cracker is snoop on you
for per. That would be in addition to snooping on you for the
manufacturer — which is exactly what the manufacturer designed it to
do.
So if you don't want to be snooped on, don't use that thing at all.
Nearly all products in the Internet of Things are designed to snoop
on the "owner", and worse.
Demand a teledildo run by free software so that you can control who,
if anyone, can communicate with it.
*In 2021, the Best Way to Fight Neofascist Republicans Is to Fight Neoliberal
Democrats.*
"Neoliberal" is a valid name for the right-wing ideology that
"moderate" Democrats support, but I'd rather call it by a name
that says what is wrong with it: "plutocratism" or
"dooH niboR".
More about the extradition case against Assange.
Milan is taking advantage of the hiatus in office work and tourism
to move decisively to reduce greenhouse emissions.
The one bad thing about the electric cars is that they have done nothing
to reduce the tracking they implement.
*China blocks entry to WHO team studying Covid's origins.*
Their plan was to visit Wuhan to investigate how Covid-19 transferred
to human hosts. I'm curious about what they would do to investigate
this.
The US deportation thugs cover up the cruelty of the privatized
deportation prisons by sending a privatized inspection team to visit
and report that everything is entirely according to specs.
US citizens: call on your senators to vote no on Neera Tanden.
This petition has trouble when Javascript is disabled, but here is a
workaround for the trouble.
When you sign the petition with Javascript disabled,
it will display a page containing a URL. That URL will start
with the text "[URL]" — literally "[", "U", "R", "L" and "]".
That text needs to be replaced with the proper hostname.
The address bar of the browser will contain the proper hostname.
Thus, what you should do is to erase all the text in the address bar
except the host name. Then copy the text from the page contents,
except for "[URL]", into the address bar after the host name.
If you made the mistake of including two slashes, or no slashes,
after the host name, fix that manually.
Then visit that page, fill in the form, and finish signing.
US citizens: state your support for the Green New Deal.
Reagan was a forerunner for the wrecker's denial of reality,
practicing some of the same forms of denial of reality
and cruelty.
The head of the right-wing intimidation group, the Proud Boys,
has been arrested for threatening actions in a rally.
There are signs the conman may be planning to flee the US before Jan 20.
If his first stop is Scotland, that doesn't mean he will stay there.
It would be natural for him to flee to a country that would protect
him, such as Russia.
Assad's regime makes prisoners' families pay heavily to get the
prisoners released, or even to visit them.
US prisons make the relatives pay heavily even for phone calls with
the prisoners — and since those relatives are often very poor, this
may be as hard for them as thousand-dollar bribes are for Syrians.
The judge in Assange's extradition case, who had appeared persistently
prejudiced against him, ruled against extradition.
This would be an occasion to celebrate, but the decision is not final.
The UK government will appeal it.
Additionally, the judge cited as reasons only the cruelty of the US
prison system. This means there will be no protection in the UK
from US efforts to criminalize journalism.
Iranian forces seized a South Korean oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
Both Biden and Iran's leaders have said they want to reestablish the
non-nuclear deal as soon as possible. So why seize a tanker? That won't
help Iran get what it wants.
When the wrecker engages in violent acts toward Iran, we understand
this as trying to thwart renewal of the agreement.
When someone in Iran engages in violent acts toward the US, we must
speculate that it is someone who has some power and is trying to
thwart renewal of the agreement.
Converting used bamboo chopsticks by the million into furniture and art.
Georgia's lawyers lied to a Federal court to justify their arbitrary
and unjustified disenfranchisement of almost 200,000 black voters.
Palast's team may win in the end, but it will be too late for
them to vote in the crucial Jan 5 senate runoff.
In charge of this is same Brad Raffensperger who continues to resist
the conman's pressure to declare the Georgia presidential election
(which he was in charge of) to be fraudulent and overturn it.
Doing the right thing once when it is difficult does not make up for
doing wrong on several other occasions. However, it makes me wonder
why Raffensperger stubbornly defends democracy on one occasion while
trashing it eagerly on others.
The most important of the techniques used by Facebook (and other
antisocial media) to addict and manipulate victims.
Even Facebook staff are starting to doubt whether Facebook's existence
is a good thing.
US citizens:
call
on your senators to vote against Tom Vilsack for Secretary of
Agriculture.
This petition has trouble when Javascript is disabled, but here is a
workaround for the trouble.
When you sign the petition with Javascript disabled, it will display a
page containing a URL. That URL will start with the text "[URL]" --
literally "[", "U", "R", "L" and "]". That text needs to be replaced
with the proper hostname.
The address bar of the browser will contain the proper hostname.
Thus, what you should do is to erase all the text in the address bar
except the host name. Then copy the text from the page contents,
except for "[URL]", into the address bar after the host name.
If you made the mistake of including two slashes, or no slashes,
after the host name, fix that manually.
Then visit that page, fill in the form, and finish signing.
If you sign, please spread the word!
*Jeremy Corbyn:
Why
Is There Always Money for War but Not Public Services?*
Facebook says it works very hard to catch terrorist pages, but it's
amazing
how much it does not find.
Many governments and political factions, in many countries, are
making
massive use of Facebook for disinformation.
The employee in charge of dealing this was fired, and posted
internally a report on the magnitude of the problem. It seems that in
most of these cases the staff mean well but they have no idea how to
cope.
*‘Global Britain’ is willing to trade away everything.
Including
scruples.*
I
told
you so, Britons.
For leaving the EU to be an opportunity to do anything good, you
needed Labour and Corbyn to be in charge.
Geofencing and GPS
can
replace fences on farms. They can also direct cows to visit
certain spots to eat wild plants there while protecting other spots.
*South African game reserves
forced
to cull animals as Covid halts tourism.*
This shows how precarious laborious protection of endangered species
becomes when human society hits a bump.
*Squatters
issue
death threats to archaeologist who discovered oldest city in the
Americas.*
Vicious looters of our past deserve severe punishment.
Ireland's public broadcasting group broadcast a parody news report
which said that
God
had been convicted of forcibly impregnating Mary but was given a
suspended sentence.
Speaking fictionally, do we know for a fact that Mary was unwilling?
I wish I could have downloaded this, but the satire site seems
to have deleted it. Can anyone find a copy?
In the UK, during the summer and fall, an influential right-wing
pressure group pushed for "open up and ignore the virus", much as
happened in the US. They cited Sweden as an example of success to
imitate. They got
funding
associated with the Koch brothers.
They got what they wanted, and
now
the UK has a Covid-19 crisis and hospitals are overwhelmed.
The details were different in the US, but it is the same right-wing
death march. I wonder if it is funded by the same killers in both
countries.
I do wonder why Sweden avoided having a major first wave when other
countries had one. Even though it wasn't a lasting solution, it is an
interesting phenomenon that might be useful.
Seven
crucial lessons 2020 taught to reality-oriented Americans.
House Democrats "demoted" the poverty ratchet rule, "Paygo", by
adopting
exceptions
for laws that address the consequences of the climate crisis or
Covid-19.
I call it the "poverty ratchet rule" because it said that change would
give the poor more support had to be counteracted by a change to cut
other support for the poor. The result was that any change that cut
support for the poor without any accompanying increment, that
reduction was effectively permanent.
Adopting a rule like Paygo represents prioritizing the interests of
the rich over the interests of giving he poor a decent life. In other
words, the rule is a triumph of neoliberalism and dooH niboR.
Israeli soldiers were trying to take a generator away from a
Palestinian house; some Palestinians were holding on to the generator,
so the soldier shot Haroun Abu Aram in the back of the neck and
paralyzed
him permanently.
Israel was demolishing the house, having declared it "illegal", surely
based on one of the
usual
unjust pretexts.
Comparing Facebook to a doomsday machine: its power over the world is
too great, so we must
get
rid of it before it wrecks things.
I am proud that I never had a Facebook account. But if you did have
one, it is not too late to delete it.
Iran has intensified its continuing persecution of Baha'is,
raiding
the homes of 50 of them and seizing their computers.
Biden should
start
a new Civilian Conservation Corps, to repeat its achievements
while correcting some mistakes.
HSBC bank closed the bank accounts of
exiled
Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui and his family. It relented later
after public outrage, but merely trying this is unacceptable. Maybe
that company should have to choose between doing business in Hong Kong
and doing business in Europe.
*For psychologists, the pandemic has shown
people’s
capacity for cooperation.*
When people don't cooperate with Covid-19 protection rules, look for
an explanation in terms of practical needs.
The US is a special case: the wrecker has trained millions of
ideological covidiots. But that's not normal behavior for humans.
*People started breaking Covid rules
when
they saw those with privilege ignore them.*
India is holding vaccination drills to prepare to
vaccinate
300 million people within six months.
I hope that it will continue by vaccinating everyone else in the
country and that no one will be denied vaccination.
Foreign corporations are using I-Sue-Democratic-States clauses in
business-supremacy treaties
to
sue the US and other countries for losses they suffered due to
measures to suppress Covid-19.
Maybe now we can get rid of those
business-supremacy
treaties, or at least those clauses. The business-supremacy
treaties are harmful as a whole because they are instruments of dooH
niboR. They may cause an increase in overall economic growth, but
poor people don't share in the benefit.
The US occupation of Iraq
destroyed
the structure of the country, and brought on a series of
calamities which Iraq has never been able to address.
The US occupation did not cause Covid-19, but its consequences hamper
dealing with it.
A million Iraqis live in refugee camps, including children whom the
state treats as unpersons. Meanwhile, most of Mosul was wrecked by
PISSI and the war to kick out PISSI, and most of the wrecked buildings
just sit there with the bones of the people who died in them. Nobody
dares clean up the wreckage because of the booby traps.
The urban heat island effect is more accurately described as a
minority
and poor people's neighborhoods heat island effect. As heat waves
cause a fair number of deaths, this contributes to the gap in life
expectancy between poor and non-poor and between disprivileged
demographics and others.
Low-tech changes in building and street designs can reduce the heat
island; some of them also reduce global heating by reflecting light
back at the sky.
*Big Pharma to Raise Prices of 300 Medications on Jan. 1.*
To prevent this requires at least a national medical system.
More radical changes in the system for developing and selling drugs could be an improvement too.
Pakistan is
charging
women with "criminal defamation" for accusing a famous star of
groping them.
It is an
injustice
to make defamation a crime. Doing so
invites
repression. Also, we should refuse to pay heed to vague
criticisms such as "inappropriate" whatever. If an action is wrong,
you should describe it in a concrete way which shows what sort of
wrong it is.
*Let’s Pass Some More Free-Range Parenting Laws in 2021!*
Stop giving a media platform to the professor of delusion who keeps
predicting that Covid-19 will fade away to almost nothing, any month
now.
It is possible to get rich by systematically betting against the latest ideas of QAnonsense.
Very small particles of pollution, produced by jet engines, reduce people's
heart and lung function when they are downwind of an airport.
Bangladeshi thugs arrested and tortured a Rohinga man, Abul Karam, for
taking photographs of the forced transfer of other Rohinga to a dangerous
island which is likely to be flooded.
The rapid-spreading variant of Covid-19 may have been in the US since October.
I wonder whether the recent increase is due to that variant.
*Critics Warn Repeal of Section 230 'Would Be Devastating for Human Rights,
Social Movements, and Marginalized People'.*
In other words, don't sell our freedom permanently for a fixed
sum of money, even if it is money for millions of poor hostages.'
A private equity fund is buying up the remaining US local newspapers.
*"Settler" hate crimes escalating beyond already high "routine",
army helps erect settler outposts, destroys Palestinian homes and farm
buildings.*
Israel is reported to be planning to approve a lot of new construction
of colonies in Palestine before Biden takes office.
The assumption is that he won't have the gumption to denounce anything
that was previously approved by the wrecker. Maybe he will do that,
but he shouldn't.
The EPA has regulated greenhouse gas emissions, but grandfathered all
existing models of planes, so that the regulation is a no-op.
Iran has sentenced a British author to 8 years in prison, apparently
for writing about the state of things in Iran.
Pakistan's repression forces have disappeared thousands of people and
tortured them.
In most cases the victim is never seen again, so the
thugs have probably killed them. A fraction are released alive.
A fraction are dumped on the street, dead.
Human rights defenders that oppose disappearances and torture are a
specially preferred target.
*The pandemic has taken surveillance of workers to the next level.*
The extreme of this is represented by the Amazon warehouse,
where a worker's every move is controlled by the computer system.
This is one of many reasons to refuse to buy from Amazon.
Unfortunately, surveillance of workers is not limited to Amazon. I
think states should pass laws to limit surveillance of workers. It
should cover independent contractors as well as employees.
The law should completely forbid demanding that workers run any
specific software on their own computers (keep in mind that portable
phones are computers); the employer who wants that must furnish
the computer at no charge.
Covidiots in the UK are rapidly spreading Covid-19 by
disregarding
even the most basic precautions to avoid it.
Stores should be padlocked if the staff fail to call the cops when
anyone enters without a mask.
*Land subsidence
'will
affect almost fifth of global population'.*
Don't fall for McConnell's trolling. There is no significant
difference between attaching outrageous riders to an aid bill and
simply refusing to pass it.
If you let him get your goat, he gets to look good to his backers.
Indonesia captured a Chinese drone submarine in Indonesian waters.
Greenpeace UK: *Amid 2020’s gloom, there are reasons to be hopeful
about the climate in 2021.*
The danger of Covid-19 to unauthorized immigrants in California is so great
that many feel safer in Mexico.
This partly because they are scared that if they get tested for Covid-19
the deportation thugs will grab them at the clinic.
Decades after the more-or-less ban on whaling, whales are again
threatened — by the noise of ships,
and other things people do.
Desmond Tutu: *Joe Biden should end the US pretense over Israel’s
‘secret’ nuclear weapons.*
The Secret Service will shift some agents out of the detail that protects
the president, because their loyalty may be to the conman rather than
to their job.
*[Michigan] Judges Are Locking Up Children for Noncriminal Offenses
Like Repeatedly Disobeying Their Parents and Skipping School.*
The directors of the California Public Utilities Commission fired its
executive director, accusing her of various offenses including a false
accusation that 200 million dollars had gone missing. But she was not
lying. It really had gone missing.
And many other CPUC affairs were in a disorderly or improper state.
Fanatical Muslims in Pakistan demolished a Hindu temple as an act of
hatred.
This is comparable to what fanatical Hindus in India did to a historic
mosque, the Babri Masjid.
These two acts of hatred are reflections of each other, but that
doesn't mean they cancel each other out. They do cancel on one dimension,
the Hindu-Muslim dimension. However, on the dimension of kindness-hate,
they both contribute to hate, and they are both wrong.
With 2/3 of Americans supporting abortion rights, it is possible to use
that political backing to defend those rights.
Cleaning up Fukushima reactors 2 and 3 may be impossible to begin,
since the radiation level at the shield plugs is so high that workers
cannot survive removing them.
If it is possible to find terminally ill workers who are physically
fit enough to do the work but would like to die soon, maybe they could
do this.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus has adopted a more disciplined structure
which should strengthen its efforts against plutocratist representatives,
both the Democrats and the Republicans.
Lebanon's prime minister says he started an investigation into the
ammonium nitrate that was stored in Beirut — and it exploded just
afterward.
He says that the timing raises suspicion that the chemical was
detonated intentionally, and I agree. I also wonder why he did not
tell us this point right after the explosion.
A newly elected Republican congresscritter died of Covid-19 a few
days before taking office.
He probably brought it on himself by refusing to take precautions.
And he probably joined in causing hundreds of thousands of avoidable
deaths.
That doesn't mean he deserved to die. No one ever deserves to die.
Any person's death is an inexcusable harm, whatever wrong perse may
have done.
However, his absence from the world is no loss to the world.
Will this help wake Republicans from their cult-induced stupor?
No doubt you've heard from "progressive" groups about how HR1 contains
much-needed voter protections. And it's true, HR1 contains some badly
needed reforms. That makes it all the more shameful for the Democrats
to use those reforms as cover to eliminate competition from
alternative parties.
With luck, Covid-19 will no longer be a big threat, next time there is
an election in Georgia. People can develop convenient and safe water
dispensers on carts with which to distribute tap water to waiting
voters. Tap water is not an "object of (monetary) value", so the law
might not apply to it.
Population the 50 Democratic senators represent: 184,541,791 (56%)
