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Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.
My intention is to make links only to publicly accessible, stable URLs. If you find a link to a page that requires subscription, please report that as you would report any other broken link.
Some sites have paper tiger paywalls that can be defeated by deleting a cookie. I don't post links to those sites because it would be too complex to tell users what to do to avoid having to identify themselves.
Cambodian dissidents are sentenced to prison after sham trials.
The US could set a good example if it ceased using bogus trials (as in Guantanamo) and imprisonment without trial.
In Ireland, environmental taxes have caused big reductions in trash and CO2 emissions.
The quoted complaint, "what's being done with [the money] to help the environment," misses the point. The environment is helped by the incentive created by the tax, which is independent of how the money is spent.
The NRA is blocking the global treaty to control the international trade in handguns and rifles.
Regarding shopping as a modern replacement for magic.
I don't need to agree with Christianity or Judaism to agree with this article's point.
A small increase in taxes for the rich will not give most Americans a decent life. We need to increase wages.
Halloween decorations from Sears/Kmart came with a letter from a worker telling about his prison conditions in China.
Of course, the company says that such production is against its rules, but these companies don't try very hard to enforce such rules.
The labor camps in China are often used as political prisons.
The US Congress has made a monkey of the 4th amendment by renewing the secret electronic snooping bill without the slightest safeguard for Americans' rights.
The Koch brothers are bullying Congress into opposing relief for victims of hurricane Sandy.
The Koch brothers deserve the hatred of every American, but we should not let that distract us from what needs to be done. We need to change our political system so that rich people can't have so much influence. And we need to tax them more heavily for all their income, including capital gains.
The US has the most expensive health care system in the world, but it delivers less than other advanced countries' systems do.
Obama and Senate Republicans, helped by anti-human-right Democrats such as Feinstein, voted to reauthorize wireless wiretapping, and used the same fascist arguments that Cheney and Nixon used.
The US has used Guantanamo as a legal black hole for over 20 years with different groups of people.
China has imposed a "real names" policy on Internet users. This is obviously for purposes of oppression, and that should make people see injustice in services such as Facebook and Google+ that demand people's real names.
People in the UK have been arrested for leaving a pig's head outside a Muslim community center in England.
This was a crude and nasty way of expressing what they thought of Muslims' views. However, there are worse ways of criticizing someone's views: for instance, to arrest people for expressing them. The pig head was not a threat, just an insult, and insults must not be a crime.
Airlines want to charge different fares for different people, based on a wide variety of personal information, and keep the price hidden until possible buyers jump through a lot of hoops.
Republican senators are not satisfied with voting for imprisonment without trial; they want to argue for it in the Supreme Court too.
Across India, thugs have attacked anti-rape protests as well as the journalists who cover them.
Big business money is corrupting scientific research in many fields, including agriculture and fracking — not just pharmaceuticals.
To fix this, we need to tax rich people and businesses more so that the state can find this research.
US veterans have to wait months for pensions and disability benefits;
often
they die first. Some of them commit suicide because they don't get
the support they need.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
In Italy it is a crime to say that someone "has no balls".
I will say something much stronger and more harsh: Italy has no human rights.
Wal-Mart in Mexico was an "aggressive and creative corruptor".
Many Syrian rebels are fighting each other over loot.
Thatcher promised to preserve the UK's National Health Service, then proposed in secret to replace it with a system of US-style insurance.
The current Tory government is more subtle: destroying the NHS slowly by underfunding it and "reforming" it.
TEPCO cannot pay the damages for the Fukushima meltdowns,
which are now estimated at
38
billion dollars.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Egyptian women protested in Tahrir Square against the new constitution.
Zainab al-Khawaja calls on the US to
stop
supporting the brutal Bahraini regime.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
On a Wyoming Ranch, Feds Sacrifice Tomorrow's Water to Mine Uranium Today.
The UK is considering punishing the customers of prostitutes, which would do harm to prostitutes and their clients, and help no one.
The root of this campaign is the labeling of prostitution as "violence", a twisted half-truth.
Some prostitutes choose that line of work and are happy to profit from it. Whatever they are, they are not victims of violence. Others are forced to be prostitutes, often by means of violence (actual and threatened) by traffickers and pimps. The violence they suffer and fear is not metaphorical; it is not another word for sex with their clients. This violence consists of beatings, kidnaping, imprisonment, and sometimes even worse.
The government's mission ought to be to assure that those who wish to be prostitutes can do it safely, while those who wish not to be prostitutes can avoid it safely.
What makes it difficult for someone to avoid being a prostitute? If it is violence and threats from a pimp, offer shelter. If it is kidnaping and enslavement, offer escape. If it is poverty, offer another option. Austerity, in the UK and the Euro zone, has surely convinced tens of thousands to reluctantly become prostitutes.
A safety drill at the Sellafield (formerly called Windscale) nuclear facility showed that its resources for responding to an accident were grossly inadequate.
Judge Afiuni, awaiting trial in Venezuela, has been denied exercise and medical care.
While this is not as extreme as what the US did to Bradley Manning, it is nonetheless wrong.
Noam Chomsky has called on Chavez to free her on humanitarian grounds because she has cancer.
Granting bail to the businessman Cedeño seems foolish, and since a judge could hardly have failed to realize he might flee, it generates the suspicion that he corrupted Judge Afiuni. I don't know what other evidence there is against her, but the charges against her seem plausible.
Hamas has ordered Palestinian journalists in Gaza not to give reports to Israeli media.
I think this is both wrong and harmful.
MDMA ("ecstacy") shows promise for treating PTSD, and did not seem to do any harm to the patients.
It is quite possible for the drug to be safe when used in one controlled way, and dangerous when used in other ways (perhaps with higher doses).
US citizens: call for a ban on sale of lion meat in the US.
A senior Al Jazeera journalist has quit, denouncing political slant imposed by Qatar.
Just 6
companies control most of the US major media, and the FCC wants to
reduce that even more.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Li Yiqian, who campaigned against diversion of funds for repair after the Sichuan earthquake, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for a crime which consists essentially of protesting.
The UK also has a crime, "aggravated trespass", which consists essentially of protesting.
Human Rights Watch has condemned Hamas rocket attacks against Israel. The fact that Israel carries out war crimes against Gaza does not excuse Gazans to carry out war crimes against Israel.
Two species of seals have been given
legal
protection because global heating
is expected to be devastating to their way of life.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
First Sale Under Siege: If You Bought It, You Should Own It.
Morsi signed the Islamist Egyptian constitution, approved by 21% of the eligible voters.
Obama continues trying doggedly to make a bad budget deal.
Paul Krugman explains why nothing much will happen on Jan 1 in the absence of a deal, because the real effects are longer-term, and why it is better to wait till after Jan 1 to address them.
Video game companies are marketing real weapons.
Using surveillance drones to spot rhino poachers.
Yemen's government cooperates with the US to deny US drone strikes that killed civilians.
Hitting the wrong target is a kind of accident that tends to happen from time to time in war. There is no way to completely avoid it. When the people support the war, they recognize this and sustain the accidents. When they don't support the war, they don't.
Noam Chomsky: America, Moral Degenerate.
I think his evaluation of Libya exaggerates the negative, but the rest seems valid.
Nanotechnology is being strangled by patents.
The article uses the term "open source" in a confusing way, very different from "open source software". Of course, I am not a supporter of "open source software" and never was, but I still don't like to see people distorting its meaning.
The article also uses the confusing term "intellectual property", equating it to "patents". The confusion is because another article you read tomorrow will say "intellectual property", except it means copyrights. And another you read next week will say "intellectual property", except it means trade secrets. Each of the articles would have been clearer if it had avoided that term.
Israel is accelerating the construction of colonies in the West Bank, and Netanyahu is considering admitting that he is against a future Palestinian state in principle.
Don't Surrender the Privacy Battle.
US citizens: sign this petition saying a bad fiscal deal is worse than no deal.
Why do certain rock stars die young? Childhood suffering, which may have driven them to seek fame, also makes them susceptible to drug addiction and other medical problems.
In a world with a smaller, stable population, and fewer children, we could protect all children from many of the causes of suffering.
In the film Zero Dark Thirty, inside the false claims that torture helped the US find Osama bin Laden is the message that torture can be beautiful.
I am not going to watch it to "judge this for myself". That's precisely what the film-makers and the CIA want us to do. Don't be lured by them; join me in shunning it.
Another armed Afghan government agent shot a US soldier, but the only reason it's news is that the shooter was a woman.
Women in Burma are kidnapped and taken to other countries where they are forced to work as slaves.
The UK must hold a public inquiry into systematic torture in Iraq.
Otherwise it will continue to pretend that it was just a few "bad apples", while refusing to punish most of them.
Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Facing Death Penalty.
The US and Russia are at odds on most issues, but agreed to cooperate in attacking people who share.
West Antarctica is warming twice as fast as was thought.
Supposedly the Islamist Egyptian constitution was approved, but only 30% voted and the opposition says the election was not honest.
The FBI investigated Occupy Wall Street as "Domestic Terrorists, Criminals" even before its protests began.
Occupy showed what democracy looks like. The US showed what the first levels of repression look like.
The UN is playing
arsonist
and fireman in Haiti.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Don't scapegoat Nancy Lanza for her son's murder spree.
We don't know enough to conclude that she did something wrong.
Protests in Delhi demanding action against rape were attacked by the thugs.
The idea of the death penalty for rape is a foolish one, as well unjust (since execution is always unjust). The problem in India is that rape is usually not punished at all. Increasing the theoretical penalty would make little difference; the death penalty is not a better deterrent. What India needs to do is make punishment likely.
Large banks have become so pervasively corrupt that large fines are merely a cost of doing business.
A little tinkering can't fix this. Banks need to be restructured so that they are limited to simpler operations in which corruption is not a possibility.
New Israeli colonies are designed to divide Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
The annexation wall already separates them.
Up to 1/3 of anti-malaria drugs in parts of Africa are fake.
The UK is looking for a technicality to avoid paying compensation to torture victims in Kenya.
Sanal Edamaruku on
previous
end-of-the-world prophecies.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Oakland fired city employees so it could keep paying the Raiders football team to stay in that city.
"Raiders" may be an appropriate name for them.
The thugs who were fired may have attacked protesters in 2011. Perhaps with fewer thugs, Oakland will have more democracy. However, that doesn't invalidate the main point: that we must stop businesses from playing US cities and states against each other.
European Human Rights Court Finds Turkey in Violation of Freedom of Expression.
What's in Egypt's draft constitution that threatens human rights.
US citizens: tell Wells Fargo to stop its tricky excuse for foreclosing on the homes of widows.
Israel is considering a bill to escalate the War on Sharing, which would block access to web sites based on an absurd pretense of a trial.
Still, it's not as bad as the US, which "seizes" domains with no trial at all.
8 ethical ways to reduce the US deficit.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Reducing the deficit during a recession is a bad idea, but some of these measures are beneficial in other ways. Tax increases could be used to fuel stimulative spending on crucial needs such as renewal energy.
Krugman: In poker terms, no matter how strong Obama's hand is,
he
folds anyway.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Krugman assumes that Obama is sincere in wanting to preserve benefits for disabled and old Americans. But Obama is not stupid, and he has to know what he's doing. So I conclude that he wants to cut benefits and blame it on the Republicans.
Some proposals for solving the real problems of the US economy.
Reality filters could be used to facilitate racism and other prejudice. But also perhaps to discourage them.
Meet the Press tried extra hard to find a right-wing anti-gun-restrictions guest. OK, but why don't they look for people who advocate removing troops from Afghanistan, or criticize a big bankster bank?
How to present a Social Security cut as something else.
The FDA is moving to approve genetically modified salmon, without sufficient research into its effects.
Billionaire Polluter has agreed to pay around 8 billion dollars to those who lost money due to the Big Spill.
I think this does not cover those who were made sick by the oil.
Egyptian artists fear Islamist rulers could censor them more than Mubarak's regime, using the old censorship systems that still exist.
The killings of polio eradication workers have inspired rage throughout Pakistan.
Anastasia Hagen asks for political asylum in the Czech Republic. If forced to return to the Ukraine, she faces prosecution for appearing in porn.
I don't think there is any ethical difference between making and distributing porn and appearing in porn. There's nothing wrong with either one.
She argues that she had no choice in order to get money to take care of her child. The state ought to offer indigent people sufficient support, but her poverty would be be no excuse if she had done something really wrong, such as robbing people or making proprietary software. However, no excuse is needed for making porn.
By contrast, if she achieves her ambition of having many grandchildren, she will have done a substantial blow to the future of civilization.
US citizens: call on Obama not to interfere when states legalize marijuana.
One reaction to the Newtown massacre is misguided suspicion of people with certain variants of autism.
Instagram reversed its changes in policy for using users' photos, under pressure from massive rejection by users.
The article speculates Facebook will try some other nasty scheme instead.
I would not mind paying to view a photo, as with Pheed, if I could pay anonymously. But if Pheed requires users to identify themselves, count me out.
In New York State: submit a comment by Jan 11 in Governor Cuomo's rushed decision process about fracking. Rally on Jan 9 in Albany against dangerous fracking.
Massive surveillance by aerial drones is becoming established in the US, and there is pressure to deploy assassination drones too.
The European Parliament approved the
Unitary
Patent scheme, which gives the European Patent Office effective
autonomy to decide whether software patents are valid in Europe.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Valid prophesies from the modern Maya.
The army doctor who covered up torture of Baha Mousa has been banned from working as a medical doctor.
This demonstrates the need for more investigation into UK torture practices during its participation in the Bush forces.
The fight for GMO US labeling goes on, now in New Mexico.
Tanzania will limit foreign land grabs.
Hundreds of Indian political candidates face accusations of sexual violence.
Russia says that surveillance of an opposition leader is justified
because
he
criticized surveillance.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
The article describes US surveillance as it was long ago. Thanks to William Binney, we know it is now much worse than the Russian system described here: the NSA copies down nearly all Internet and phone communications in the US and saves them in a giant database.
See http://publicintelligence.net/binney-nsa-declaration/.
US citizens:
sign
this petition calling on Congress to amend the Constitution to
overturn the Corporations United decision
(calling it by what it is rather than by right-wing spin).
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: oppose the right-wing and AIPAC's condemnation of
former Senator Hagel for Secretary
of Defense.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Hagel has the support of Americans for Peace Now.
Political leadership's new low in Italy: only Berlusconi dares to criticize the austerity and control of the euro system, now that the left has given up. But he won't try to fix the problem, only use it to get himself elected.
Tea-party Republicans blocked Boehner's tactical gesture to preserve the Bush tax cuts for all but very high incomes.
It looks like we may avoid a Grand Sellout because the Republicans won't compromise to get one.
Giving to organizations through telemarketers is a scam; the telemarketers get more than the organization, and the organization may even lose money.
The Senate changed video rental privacy law to cater to Facebook, but killed the plans to upgrade people's right to privacy over their email that is stored in a business's server.
If you must use a commercial email server, use a company in a country that is (1) not friendly with your own country's government and (2) not interested in anything you are doing.
The US has made improvements in privacy rules for web sites targeted at children, but that fails to protect the privacy of a large class of Internet users: adults.
New York thugs want to spy on everyone's email looking for signs that someone is preparing to commit mass murder.
This could really mean plans to entrap people, most of whom would never have tried to kill anyone. Even psychiatrists can't predict which of the many mentally ill people are the tiny fraction that will become violent; but the NYTD won't try to predict so much as to entrap them all.
Unrestricted state surveillance is a bigger danger than individual mass murderers. The NYTD has been accused by the UN of systematic violence against dissidents.
The FDA does not publish the information it collects about use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.
In general, the US caters too much to the wishes of companies to keep secrets. Whenever there is a public interest at stake, the desire of companies for secrecy should be rejected.
US citizens: oppose the plan to remove endangered species protection from wolves.
A thug chief in India said that women should avoid rape by not travelling after dark.
His other suggestion, to arm themselves with chili powder, is not insulting.
Guatemala has made great strides in protecting the rainforest in the region where ancient Maya cities stood.
Pussy Riot could be a success as a mere band, but decided to aim for something much more important. Even going to prison, they won a victory.
The UK's settlements with over 200 Iraqi torture victims show that torture was standard practice.
Canada's aboriginal peoples have launched a broad protest movement.
Murdoch proposed to use his media empire and money to make General Petraeus president, but Petraeus was not interested.
Rather than focusing on Murdoch's personality, we should make sure no one has a media empire that could be used in this way.
The UN
approved
intervention against the Islamist fanatics that have captured northern
Mali.
The EU continues to choose its fishing quotas based on
short term gain,
ignoring
sustainability.
The issue of
microphones
to record our conversations in public places.
I agree with the ACLU that the proposed Maryland bill could be adequate,
if drivers really implement it as intended.
The planet roaster Keystone XL pipeline
won't
use top-of-the-line leak detection.
This even though its oil is especially caustic and likely to leak.
France has required doctors to
provide
contraception gratis to teens aged 15-18
and forbidden them to tell their patients' parents.
The NRA arranged to end to US funding for scientific research into the
phenomenon of gun violence. And one researcher says he has received
personal
death threats.
The words in the law don't actually say that the CDC can't fund such
research. That interpretation of them is rather strained — but
that strained interpretation is the one government officials follow.
I am sure there is a systematic reason for that, that it is not chance
or a quirk, but I don't know what it is.
Here's more on how the NRA has made US agencies
bend
over backwards not to fund research into the social effects of firearms.
Colombia has required ISPs to implement back doors for
state
surveillance.
This is a pro-terrorist measure; the biggest terrorists in Colombia
are the paramilitaries, which are connected with the state.
US citizens: tell
Washington to cut the Pentagon, not benefits for Americans.
Monsanto GMOs were
supposed
to reduce herbicide use, but the opposite result has occurred.
14% of US households are in "food
insecurity".
That amounts to around 40 to 50 million Americans, depending
on the average size of the households that have this problem.
Some 8 million old Americans have
trouble
buying food, and 1/4 of America's children.
A spectacularly brutal case of rape highlights
how
ineffective India is at punishing any rape.
I can't imagine even wanting to do such brutality even to politicians
that support torture.
Kraftwerk sued another band for copyright infringement over
the
use of a two-second sample.
Copyright law needs to be changed to make this unambiguously legal.
But in the mean time, that a law gives someone the possibility
of doing wrong like this is no excuse for actually doing it.
Shame on you, Kraftwerk!
Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes for
attacking
journalists in Gaza.
A UK man has
escaped
prosecution for posting a photo that expressed contempt for the
memorial of soldiers who died in wars. However, another man
was fined for doing so.
I do not agree with the views stated in these protests. Most of those
soldiers died in World War I, fighting for a good cause even though
incompetent generals wasted their lives, and in World War II, fighting
for a good cause again. Some 500 died fighting an unjust war in Iraq
for B'liar and Bush, and there have been other unjust wars too; but
criticizing those wars does not require expressing contempt for the
loss that their families feel.
Whether we agree with their views or not, we must defend their right
to state their views. People have a right to protest anything and
mock any position. Arranging for this man to meet some soldiers may
have been a good idea, but he should not have had to fear prosecution.
Britain is
flooded
again after heavy rain.
Such floods have happened repeatedly this year. Global heating is
directly
responsible for the tendency to have lots of rain there.
UBS's Libor manipulation was broader and deeper than Barclays',
and extended to
bribing
other companies to lie.
The author concludes that this part of the banking business is so corrupt
that there is no room in it for an honest man.
Two of the banksters face
prosecution.
The UBS corruption extended to
Hong
Kong.
Victoria's Secret tried
to use copyright to censor a parody ad campaign.
Everyone:
call
on companies to reject products made by slave labor.
Corporate-Occupied
Government: A 'Redistribution Machine' for the Wealthy.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call for him to publicly
oppose Obama's proposed cuts in social security.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
The Swedish Pirate Party has pressed charges against Swedish banks
that have
blocked
payment to Wikileaks.
Meanwhile, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has been set up to
provide a middleman to
receive
donations for journalistic activities that the powerful do not like.
Germany says Facebook's policy of demanding users' real names is
illegal.
I hope Facebook loses this fight.
Theocratic minds think alike: Huckabee and Khamenei agree in
blaming
mass murder on a lack of religion.
However, mass murder is enshrined in the Bible, which both of them
say they venerate, and mass murder has often been carried out in
the name of religion.
Violence has only a
small
correlation with mental illness, and psychiatrists can't predict
which few of the mental ill will carry out violence.
Use of (some) drugs, and alcohol, have a lot more to do with violence,
and I suspect the connection is due more to prohibition than to the
effects of the drugs.
The former ban on "assault weapons"
did
not cover the rifle used in the Connecticut massacre.
It follows that the ban needs to be made somewhat broader.
Meanwhile, a ban on large magazines might have applied directly.
India's legislature is working on a bill to make its unjust
anti-terrorism law
even
worse.
In most of the world, when they say "terrorist" you should read "dissidents".
It's a shame that the US has
set
a bad example in regard to freedom of association.
Human Rights Watch calls on the UK to
reject
secret courts.
The "War on Drugs" means seizing people's money, homes and cars on
mere suspicion. But when a big bank is guilty, it gets a fine it
can easily pay, and
no
person gets punished.
This war must be on drugs.
A new planned Israeli colony between Jerusalem and Bethlehem
has met with
strong
condemnation from the EU.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to stop talking about cuts in Social Security.
Australia banned assault weapons, then bought back the ones already sold,
and it
succeeded
in preventing massacres.
In the US: call
on Whole Foods to label whether produce was grown
in sewage sludge (which can be toxic).
Here's more information.
Wafa Sultan, who grew up in Syria, describes the unending violent
oppression of women that she saw, and
condemns
Islam and its associated culture for this.
Ms Sultan refers to the case of Lars Hedegaard; he was convicted of
the crime of saying, more or less, that
Muslim men
have no respect for women and often abuse young female relatives.
At least that's what he's accused of saying; I've only seen a
summary, which Hedegaard says was written by the prosecutor and
doesn't reflect his words. I don't know what Hedegaard really said,
and I don't know whether he was right or wrong. But that isn't
the issue here.
The Danish censorship law makes it a crime to criticize a religious
group even if the criticism is valid. In a free country, you're
allowed to make such a statement even if it is false. In Denmark,
honest discussion of that question is forbidden a priori. This
demonstrates how little freedom of speech exists in Denmark.
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff was
fined
in Austria for calling the Qur'an
"evil" and saying that "Muslims want war".
To say that "Muslims want war" is a gross oversimplification, like
"Christians want war" or "Atheists want war". There is evil in lots
of religions' holy books. But whether she was right is not the point.
The point is that a free country does not prosecute people for
political statements.
We must defend everyone threatened by state or private violence for
criticizing any religion or its adherents, either in theory or in
practice.
China has
arrested
500 followers of a cult that says the world will end this Friday.
It might be appropriate to force them to walk around on the street on
Saturday wearing signs saying "I said the world would end yesterday.
Laugh at me!" However, it is not right for a state to impose any
punishment on stating any sort of prediction, even really dangerous ones
such as "Earth is not going to get any hotter."
The bank UBS has been fined over a billion dollars for
Lie-bor
manipulation.
Even these huge fines will not end corruption in banks that believe they
are "too big to fail". The banksters will only look for more subtle
forms of corruption and hide their plans better. What is needed is
to knock down the profitability and size of banks.
Protesting
students in Chile have forced a corrupt minister to resign.
The Mexican government says that attacking the heads of drug trafficking
gangs caused them to fragment, meaning
more
fighting between them.
Campaigning for US universities to
disinvest from coal.
The five
ways Christmas hurts people who practice it.
As an Atheist curmudgeon, practiced at refusing to do things merely
because "that's what everyone does", I am safe from all of them.
The EU has proposed a
ban
on flavored cigarettes.
The US banned flavored cigarettes with the exception of menthol,
but on the basis of that exception, the WTO condemned it as a trade barrier.
(Does anyone know how the US responded to that decision?) The EU proposes
to ban menthol flavoring too, perhaps in response to that decision.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to ban assault weapons.
Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping
tells
Santa Clauses to stop doing the devil's work.
US citizens:
tell the
NRA to stop opposing gun regulation that can prevent massacres.
US citizens:
call on
CEOs to pledge zero tolerance for slave labor.
Women's rights for contraception and sex education took a
medium-sized
step forward in the Philippines, but Catholic cruelty continues to
hold them back. For instance, Catholic are determined to punish
teenagers with pregnancy.
Amnesty International
calls
on Iraq to stop executions, saying that they often follow
confessions obtained by torture.
Given who set up the Iraqi government, it is no surprise.
Egyptians call for a rerun of the constitutional referendum,
criticizing
widespread wrongs in
the voting process.
A crackdown on
Omani democracy activists.
When thugs off duty
moonlight
for banks, what effect does that have on protests against banks?
If the banksters commit a crime, will the thug feel paid to close
his eyes to it?
What
If Children Mattered No Matter Where They Lived — and Died?
Wealthiest Kissed, Weakest Kicked: Obama's Ugly 'New Deal' Offers to Gut Social Security.
The EU had a contest for carbon capture and storage, but
no
candidate was good enough to win.
A UK extremist candidate proposed mandatory abortions for gravely
deformed fetuses, and gratis euthanasia for old people,
to
reduce medical costs.
I don't believe such decisions should be made based on medical costs.
Inviting people to die to if they can't pay is
what
we see in the US, and now in Greece.
However, these two policies would be good ones for other reasons.
Requiring abortions of gravely deformed or incapacitated fetuses is
ethical so that the people who are born won't gave to suffer with
those deformities or handicaps. And anyone suffering from a painful
or debilitating disease that can't be cured or made bearable even with
the best of care deserves our help in escaping into death.
If a suffering person wants to escape, loving treatment means helping
him escape. To force him to stay alive, to prolong his horrible
suffering to avoid grief for ourselves, is selfish treatment.
A review of 2012's extreme weather and other indications of
how the Earth is hotter than before.
To avoid the probable location of the climate cliff, we must
shut
65% of coal-burning power plants by 2020.
We can't see the climate cliff; we can only estimate where it is.
Maybe we are lucky and it is a little further away. Or maybe it is
even closer. Want to find out the hard way?
Assad's militiamen kidnaped a TV team, which was then
freed
by rebels.
US citizens:
Phone your senators and say, "Oppose any cuts
in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The 'fiscal cliff' is a myth,
so don't attack us in the name of avoiding it. Follow Paul Krugman's
advice; what the US needs is no deal in December."
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Burning of coal is likely to increase in the next five years
unless measures are taken to
stop
it.
Even the low estimates of sea level rise will lead to
tremendous
liability to flood damage in cities such as New York and Miami.
Air pollution killed
over
2 million people in Asia in 2010. The death rate due to pollution
is growing rapidly there due to a big increase in cars.
Since the population of the regions in question is on the order of 3
billion, and around 50 million of them die per year (rough estimate),
this is not a large fraction of all deaths, but it is a
significant fraction.
Billions of dollars have leaked from Zambia to tax havens via
dishonest
corporate accounting.
Mass murders by Americans kill
a
lot more children in Pakistan than in the US.
The argument for secret courts in the UK is based on a dubious
premise: that without this, the US would
cut
off intelligence sharing to avoid leaks. It is not credible that
the US would really do so.
But what if it did? Protecting torturers cannot be justified.
Americans have
fallen
for the "fiscal cliff" bogeyman, which was invented to create
pressure for a Grand Sellout that would cut benefits for most
Americans. Now Obama is prepared to compromise part of the tax
increase for the rich, an issue on which he could win completely by
waiting two weeks.
Instagram, now under
Facebook control,
demands use of people's photos for
sale
and advertising.
Instagram later
tried
to reassure users that this didn't mean it would
"own" their photos.
That is a red herring — the issue is that photos in Instagram
will be used in advertisements whether the user likes it or not.
Hollywood is
postponing
the showing of some violent movies. The producers think people
might just now perceive them in relation to real life violence, so
they will wait a few weeks for Americans to mostly forget about it.
I don't need to have a recent school shooting in mind to react to
gruesome movie violence that way. I always react that way. I found
the violence in Pulp Fiction so disgusting that I won't watch anything
by Tarantino.
I cite that film to argue against the idea that we should censor some
works merely because we find them disgusting. No matter how
disgusting a work might be, censorship is more so.
Nonetheless, I can't understand why anyone wants to wallow in gruesome
fictional events. With gruesome real events, such as school
shootings, or the bigger practice of torture
carried
out and
facilitated
by the US regime, there is the argument that we have a responsibility
to face the facts so we can put an end to the practice. No such
argument applies to the fictional events imagined by Tarantino.
Haneen Zoabi, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, may be
banned
from running again due to her political views.
Note how Israeli fanatics refer to the Mavi Marmara, an unarmed ship
carrying relief supplies whose personnel were
killed
by Israeli soldiers, as a "terror attack". This blackwhiting
exemplifies the distorted way they view all the pertinent facts.
An Ethiopian journalist was sentenced to
18
years in prison under "anti-terrorism" laws.
When a law says "terrorism", understand "journalism" or "dissent".
Muslim fanatics
shot
several polio immunisation workers in Pakistan.
It is the most perverse example of the cruelty of religious
intolerance.
Greeks who stated support for the neonazi Golden Dawn party
attacked
a leftist MP.
Meanwhile, Greeks who are ill can
die
from austerity.
Some who will die from untreated cancer may still be fit enough to
attack the politicians and banksters who have killed them.
Thugs in the Maldives who participated in overthrowing democracy there
and have
attacked
opposition protesters and journalists.
What we
have lost in the World Wide Web in the past five or so years.
He pulls the rug out from under his feet at the end, by saying that
Facebook is a "great site", and judging it and others in terms of the
"value" they "give", and accepting the idea that maximizing profit
should decide how the Internet works. However, since I don't accept
those points, I don't pull the rug out from under the text up to that
point.
The Pope publicly blessed a Ugandan politician who
champions
the imprisonment (and possibly execution) of gays.
US citizens:
call
on Congress and Obama to tax financial transactions.
US citizens: call your congresscritter and say,
don't
weaken the safety and security measures for US nuclear weapons labs.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Insufficient funds have been donated for mosquito nets in Africa, and
this is likely to lead to an
increase
in malaria.
The UK thugs are
attacking
their own whistleblowers.
One thug was arrested for unauthorized release of "information". That
is a rather vague description; what was this "information"? Was it
personal information about a member of the public, or was it
information about wrongdoing by thugs? Ethically, that makes a
crucial difference.
An Israeli thug shot a Palestinian teenager, then claimed the deceased
had asked for it by
pointing
a toy gun at another thug.
No one would do this except to commit suicide.
There is no way to prove what really happened, because the thugs stole
witnesses' cameras and deleted photos. But nobody who knew the victim
recognized the toy gun.
The story so fishy, on so many levels, that it would be a candidate
for the Thugs' Tallest Tale Prize.
The Connecticut school massacre was carried out using weapons of the
sort that were once banned, but were
legalized
by the Republicans 8 years ago.
An investigator resigned from a secret UK investigation into abuse of
prisoners, saying she found it was a
cover-up.
The EPA has put
limits
on agricultural runoff that fuels dangerous algae
in Florida waterways.
New regulations will end
overfishing
of menhaden in the Atlantic.
New York State has decided to
rush
its decision about fracking,
which means a health effects inquiry will not have time to reach conclusions
in time to be heeded.
Secular Egyptians accuse Morsi of
rigging
the vote on the new constitution
which places religious limitations on human rights.
Islamists and secularists are increasingly
in
conflict in Tunisia.
The UK's cooperation in torture came to light by chance, but justice
would be
totally
suppressed if the secret court plan is adopted.
China's rulers are starting to consider changes in the
labor
camp system, in which people can be imprisoned without trial for
getting in some corrupt official's way, then forced to work for a
pittance.
The US also uses prisoners as slave labor making products to sell to
the public,
paying
them a pittance, and puts a
larger
fraction of its population in prison than China does.
Medical doctors in the US are paid
more
than in other advanced countries. Is cutting their income the way
to reduce medical care costs?
When cutting income, I suggest we start with the rich, rather than
doctors.
Large, old trees are
rapidly
disappearing around the world. This puts many species of animals in
danger.
Human activity is to blame for this in many ways, including via global
heating, which causes worse forest fires and spread of pests.
Calling on the EU to put
export
control on Internet surveillance and
censorship technology.
The former ban on "assault weapons" and large magazines would have
prevented the killing of so many children in school. Senators are
pushing
to reinstate it.
A UK army doctor who seems to have
closed
his eyes to the fatal injuries of tortured Baba Mousa was found
guilty of covering it up.
Students at Newcastle University are
organizing
against the imposition of fingerprint scanners for their classes.
US citizens:
call on Obama to start a national conversation about gun
control.
Also call
on the NRA to compromise with gun control.
Gun control does not have to mean that most people would be banned from
having any sort of gun.
In addition to gun control, the US
needs to
provide mental health resources as a community so that people can
get care.
Other
practices that may have contributed to the number of
gun killings in the US.
The UK government
wants
to block increased protection of cod in the North Sea,
even though they are not clearly safe.
This is a surrender to the short termist attitude of fishing businesses.
A UK thug broke ranks to denounce other thugs for
how
they treated striking miners in the 1980s.
He reported the abuses privately at the time, but the thug commanders
ignored them. I suppose the government had told them to break the
strike, and never mind how.
The New York Supreme Court's decision, in a case about gang members
that killed members of a rival gang and were accused of "terrorism",
demonstrates the
system
of inferior justice that has been created to
punish anyone accused of "terrorism".
African Elephants are being rapidly slaughtered, with even
military
planes joining in. At this rate, in a decade they will be
effectively extinct.
Can elephants survive in the wild without tusks?
Extreme poverty in the US: millions of people survive, somehow, on
less
than 2 dollars a day.
The study
says that this amounts to almost 1.5 million households, which might
be 2-4 million people. Many of them live on the street.
Thanks to Clinton's welfare "reform", the state has mostly abandoned them.
And they have no chance of getting the
IDs
that Republicans want to demand to let them vote.
A Swedish political web site that publishes information obtained via
freedom-of-information requests has been
shut
down arbitrarily by its hosting provider, which refuses to answer
calls.
The
PSY Scandal: Singing about Killing People v. Constantly Doing It.
The statement that the US "embraces and props up the world's most
repressive tyrants" is perhaps too strong. The US embraces and props up
some of the world's most repressive tyrants. Others, such
as the regimes of Iran, China, Syria and North Korea, get no US support.
However the larger conclusions are unaffected by this correction.
Sara Reedy who was raped by the man who stole money from the store
where she worked. The thugs accused her of inventing the story, and
prosecuted her for stealing the money. They
did
not bother to check her fingernails for the rapist's DNA.
(Even if they could not have identified the rapist, they could have
determined there was tissue that came from a male.)
I am glad that she won a large settlement, since the false accusation
caused her to lose her job. However, it is the city that will pay the
settlement. Unless individual thugs are punished for acts like this,
they won't stop.
A Canadian safety review of tar sands oil pipelines seems to have
catered
strongly to the fossil fuel companies.
The massacre in an elementary school has
increased
the pressure for gun control in the US.
Does anyone know whether the shooter used an assault rifle
of the sort that was prohibited for a while?
Russian opposition leaders were arrested for participating in an
illegal protest.
The US also declares many protests illegal and
arrests their leaders.
US citizens:
oppose
renewal of Dubya's (now Obama's) warrantless
wiretapping program.
On the Maya and their calendar, and
what
is most interesting about them.
Anyone who thinks he could escape the end of the world by moving to a
particular spot in it might be dumb enough to believe that someone
1500 years ago could forecast a non-periodic event today.
The Obama regime has
called
for "regime change" in Venezuela.
Chavez has some bad policies, such as arbitrarily blocking some
candidates from running for office, and imposing surveillance over all
purchases in stores. Corruption is high, but that was true before
Chavez.
However, I've never seen anyone accuse Chavez of launching wars of
aggression, holding people in prison for years without charges, or
torture. It's the US that needs regime change.
Zimbabwe is arresting human rights and democracy advocates on
strange
pretexts.
US citizens:
tell
extremist Republicans to stop blocking renewal
of the Violence Against Women Act.
Although Bhutan's practice of measuring and advancing the total
national happiness is an interesting idea to imitate, Bhutan is not
good in all ways. It has committed large atrocities, such as
forcing
all inhabitants of Nepalese origin into exile.
The Wikipedia page on
Bhutan
gives more information.
The World Bank recognized the danger of global heating, so why does
it keep
financing
coal mines?
The record companies and movie companies apparently plan to top off
Obama's "six strikes" scheme with a
seventh
strike: suing sharers once again.
This could once again lead to rising hatred for them.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted for
Senator
Franken's location privacy bill.
Limiting location tracking by companies is a good idea, but it won't
address the principal threat to our freedom: location tracking by the
phone network, whose results are easily available to the state.
Karl Rove's corporate political ads campaign promised the IRS it would
spend
"limited" money on elections.
I guess that meant, "limited by what donors give".
Costly
Oil Subsidies Drag Us Down; Clean Energy Investments Will Build a
Healthier Economy.
US media say very little about the US brainwashing of Bradley Manning
or what
this means for freedom of the press in the US.
The
Swindle, the Shnook and the iBad enable Big Brother to tell what
users read.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to put the US on course to cut its oil use in half.
The Union of Concerned Scientists presents a plan for how to do this.
US citizens: tell
rogue Democrats that support cutting Social Security,
Medicare or Medicaid that they will be sorry.
Bangladesh processes a lot of leather in
conditions
that kill most of the workers before age 50.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to order protection for some wilderness areas.
The US is trying to
separate the Syrian majority of rebels from the jihadis,
but that is difficult since the jihadis are the most effective fighters.
It would be great to get rid of Assad's oppression, if the replacement
is not Islamist oppression.
Arguing that the Doha climate negotiations
made
progress on many important points towards a deal that would
become effective in 2020.
I presume that the points in the article are accurate, but isn't this
time scale too slow?
Should the UK give Turing a pardon, or should it
ask
him for one?
Israeli soldiers grabbed Reuters journalists in Hebron,
robbed
them, stripped them, then attacked them with teargas.
The journalists were accused of documenting human rights abuses
— as if that were wrong. Compare this with the attacks and
sabotage of journalism used by thugs
against
Occupy, and the attempts to to
shut
down Wikileaks; what we see is a systematic pattern of
repression against those who try to report on the evil actions of the
state.
While the victims of US torture are gagged in their trials, a Hollywood movie
presents a thoroughly false picture of facts,
designed
to glorify torture. This on top of a one-sided propaganda view of
the conflicts that the US is involved in, conflicts which the US has
most often been the perpetrator of violence.
The film was made with CIA help and under effective CIA control. It is,
in effect, a US government propaganda film.
The great drought in the Midwest is lowering the Mississippi to the point
where shipping
may soon be stopped.
Global heating makes both floods and droughts more likely, so we're going to
see much worse in 10 years.
The ITU sneakily wrote and voted for on a treaty
giving
governments more control over the Internet, which some countries
may sign, though many others will refuse.
It is not clear to me what practical effect this treaty would have,
since many governments already surveil, censor and block the Internet.
The ITU executive acted deceptively towards the national delegations
and violated previous promises.
Such rigged negotiations have been reported from global negotiations
before, but then they were
rigged
by the US and other wealthy countries.
I wonder why this time the manipulation was done to cater to the
other countries.
Global heating deniers posted a draft of the next IPCC report,
and are trying to create a bogus scandal about
one
sentence whose meaning they have twisted.
Their job is to create an appearance of doubt. They don't care
whether there is any rationality in what they say.
Here are the
details
of the twisting.
Kucinich:
Throw out the NDAA, End the Wars and Start Nation Building at Home.
In addition to his arguments, there is the issue of
imprisonment
without trial.
Even if natural gas obtained by fracking causes less CO2
emissions than coal it appears to replace,
the
coal will be used elsewhere, so the result is still an increase
Since we need to prevent burning around 80% of the fossil fuel
that we can get at, we must apply limits to its use. A tax
is a smooth kind of limit.
6 billion dollars intended to aid Haiti has been
dispersed
without accountability.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to say that the climate cliff
is the real cliff we need to worry about. Also sign
this
petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Shaker Aamer, imprisoned in Guantanamo without a trial, will
sue
the UK government for accusations it made against him to the US.
British women raped in Barbados campaigned successfully to free a man
that the state
falsely
accused of being their rapist. They say that the thugs just wanted
to claim they had caught the perpetrator and made no attempt to find
the real rapist.
A
Eulogy for Occupy. The article discusses the flaws of Occupy Wall
Street as well as its virtues. It also has an interesting analysis
of the mentality of thugs and its causes.
I find the use, by the thugs, of special flashlights to sabotage
photography of special significance, because even if all the false
accusations against Occupy were true, and even if the violent
suppression of the protests were justified, none of that could excuse
a measure specifically to prevent the press from taking photos of what
was going on. It is prima facie evidence to convict the government of
a crime against democracy.
France is talking about eliminating punishment of sharers by
disconnection, but proposes
other
forms of repression as a replacement.
As South Africa adopts a secrecy bill
to
attack whistleblowers and journalists, it
cites the US (though not by name) as an example.
A Russian company provides governments surveillance equipment to
recognize
people by their voices and faces.
The article's unsupported accusation that Ecuador violates human
rights is bogus, though surely there is corruption there, as
elsewhere. I am more frightened about the use of this technology by
the US.
The ANC is morally bankrupt, and maintains its support through
inertia
based on ending apartheid 20 years ago.
The al-Saadi family has accepted compensation from the UK for their
handover to Gaddafi for torture, figuring that the
UK's
proposed secret trials would not give them justice.
The European Court of Human Right condemned the
handover
of Khaled el-Masri to US agents in Macedonia.
Here is more about
what
Macedonia and the CIA did to el-Masri. This will make it harder
for the Obama regime to get the cooperation of governments in Europe
to hand over people for torture by the US. But the US government is
still determined to cover up its torture.
A US judge approved the plan to
censor
statements by defendants in Guantanamo kangaroo courts about how
they were tortured.
These "military tribunals" are fundamentally unjust for many reasons.
These trials are just for show, since even if a prisoner were
found not guilty, he would suffer life imprisonment anyway.
The only real significance of these trials is to make the US
more orwellian.
US citizens: phone your senators telling them not to cut
Social
Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Movie star Jackie Chan
wants
less democracy in Hong Kong.
The UK has
authorized
fracking, with "precautions" to avoid causing tiny earthquakes.
Will these precautions prevent poisoning of water supplies?
Using fracked gas would cost the UK
more
than renewable energy. And even if it produces less CO2
than coal, it is a lot more CO2 than renewable energy.
Obama has approved a clone of
Total
Information Awareness.
This attitude towards our rights is one of the reasons I did not vote
for Obama.
The Afghan government facilitates taking
large
amounts of money out of the country. The term "smuggling" is
hardly applicable.
The secret donor behind some US campaign ads was a
Saudi
oil group.
The proprietary software in some medical devices
functions
as spyware too.
An inter-ethnic group of Afghans has started a
political movement for an honest and modern state.
70%
of Pakistan's politicians did not file tax returns last year.
US citizens:
call on
congress to stop accepting campaign funds from the
student loan system.
Hollywood has made a new propaganda film that
extols
US torture.
Companies have manipulated US states into $80 billion per year of
tax breaks by
playing one
state against another.
Most Americans are squeezed between
robots
and robber barons.
Increasing
evidence ties neonicotinoid pesticides to the death of beehives.
The pesticide can build up in the soil over a period of years, and kill
bees that nest in soil.
Secularist protesters in Egypt accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of
seizing
them and torturing them, while thugs looked on.
The UK's Prime Minister admitted that the state colluded in the murder
of a Belfast lawyer in 1989, but
his
family wants a real investigation.
I have no sympathy for the minority in Ulster that wants to detach
Ulster from the UK and add it to the Irish Republic, but they are
guilty of lots of violence too, but that doesn't justify this.
One of the UK's legislative houses has voted to
legalize
insults.
The people of Nabi Saleh continue their protests even though Israeli
soldiers
arrest
them, murder them, shoot and hit them while they are
lying on he ground injured, and spray "skunk" directly into their houses.
Since the Israeli Army's investigation into the killing (clearly
intentional) of Mustafa Tamimi has
mysteriously
made no progress in a year, activists have denounced the soldiers
responsible.
A Kremlin-controlled Russian TV station bleeped out the names
"Putin",
"Medvedev" and "Church of Christ the Savior" when they appeared in a
song.
US citizens:
call
on the EPA not to permit use of toxic methyl bromide.
US citizens: sign
the Jobs not Wars petition.
Guilt in the US and UK over failing to intervene against the genocide
in Rwanda have
paralyzed them
as Rwanda sponsors mass murder in the DR Congo.
Kagame is also accused of
rigging elections in Rwanda itself.
The two main obstacles to an agreement to save the Earth's climate are
the
US and China.
The Federal Reserve Bank is trying to boost the economy through
extremely
low interest rates.
The right tool for the job is deficit spending, but right-wing deficit
cutters have blocked that since 2009, so a less effective tool is
being used instead.
Republicans
complain that Obama is not willing to compromise to avoid the
fiscal downramp that would start on January 1.
Perhaps this provides a glimmer of hope that he will do the right thing
in December:
no
deal. But I am reluctant to expect anything good from Obama.
US citizens: call
on Obama to protect the Clean Water Act.
One commercial
ebook publisher offers books on terms that are in no way
inferior to printed books. You can even subscribe anonymously.
See also Non-oppressive Commercial Ebooks.
How the UK came to ban torture — and
how
easily the US has discarded that and other ideas of justice.
The Committee to Protect Journalists rebuked Israel for
attacking
journalists in Gaza.
If the "fiscal cliff" were real, it would be nothing compared to the
climate cliff.
Mumbai's
Catholic archbishop is personally connected to the
prosecution of Sanal Edamaruku for blasphemy.
If you raise taxes on the rich, only a few of them move away to avoid it.
Most stay put
and pay.
Ivory traffickers are such big business that they
outgun
the government anti-poaching agents that they can't bribe.
It is interesting to contrast this with the War on Drugs. At the
level of production and transportation, they are very similar.
However, there is a major difference at the consumption end.
The War on Drugs attacks users "to protect them", and both retail
sellers and users are often imprisoned. Thus, legalization of use and
providing some legal way for addicts to get drugs eliminates most of
the problem.
In the case of poaching, the problem is extinction. The users
are not being prosecuted, which is ok since the drugs experience
suggests that would not help anyway.
Another difference is that drugs really do something for the user.
(Never mind whether what they do is desirable, a question on which
people disagree.) Elephant tusk and rhino horn have no effect at all;
the users are being gypped. A fake substitute would do them just as
much good.
US citizens: call
on Obama to push for wetlands conservation in the farm bill.
Israel destroys Palestinian cisterns, both ancient ones and modern
EU-funded ones, to make
life impossible.
How Israeli bombardment of Gaza
fails
the criteria of international law. It was meant as collective
punishment, not defense, and Israel's statements effectively admit this.
Hamas's missiles fail these criteria too, but Israel's crimes must
take priority, both because they do far more harm and because it was
Israel that decided to have a war by assassinating the Hamas military
leader as he was about to agree to a truce. Israel and Hamas both
committed war crimes, and both say they are ready to commit more, but
the Israeli war crimes are central to the problem.
Israel keeps
changing
its explanation for bombing the al-Dalou family home, but none of
the justifications is valid.
Although Israeli Arabs are allowed to vote and run for the Knesset,
their candidates are
often
banned from running.
Hakamada Iwao was sentenced to death in 1968 after thugs tortured him
into a false confession.
DNA
evidence supports his innocence.
Syrian rebels captured an
alleged
Russian intelligence agent
and threaten to kill her unless they get a huge ransom.
It's possible she really was a Russian agent. It's also possible she
was pressured into a false confession. But even if she was an
intelligence agent, that is no excuse for killing a prisoner, and even
less for demanding a ransom not to kill her.
Now that Obama has formally recognized a Syrian rebel sort-of-state,
does he have leverage to stop this?
The end of Facebook's
meaningless
elections reveals the hard fact: to avoid being mistreated,
don't use Facebook.
Leveson wants
strict
regulation of what people say in the Internet.
Either he is ignoring the fact that most Internet publication occurs
outside the UK, or he is assuming that the UK can impose its power on
the whole world.
Louise Thomas resigned from the UK investigation of accusations
that Bush forces troops tortured prisoners, saying she found it was
meant as a
cover-up.
Israel
raided
the office of Palestinian human rights defenders.
Obama wants to spend
far too
much on "security"; most of which is military and repression.
Some of the foreign aid -- that which isn't just an instrument
of US foreign policy -- should be a separate discussion.
But that is so small that it doesn't alter any of the conclusions here.
The US seems to consider the big banks
too
big to prosecute.
In effect, they are above the law, so they must be abolished.
Non-oppressive Commercial
Ebooks
US citizens:
call
on Obama to support same-sex marriage in the Supreme
Court.
Will
Congress Rein in Warrantless Spying on Americans?
A charter school in Massachusetts plans to subject students to rigid
discipline all day without a
moment's break.
It might succeed in getting them to better grades, but it seems like a
horrible price in freedom of spirit. Meanwhile, the goal is to get
into college, but in the US today getting student loans is asking for
a ball and chain for most of your life.
The Clean Water Act: a
triumph
of national will, shows what it means to have a government for the
people instead of for business.
The reason such a law could not be passed today, and the reason why a
law to address agricultural runoff cannot be passed to day, is that
business has taken control of our state. The "tight budgets" of today
are not the cause, but another result of the same underlying problem.
Contrast this with the
more
recent government policies that allowed
fracking to poison water supplies.
Canada's right-wing government is
abolishing
part of its protection for lakes and rivers, with the exception of
about 100 of them surrounded mostly by right-wingers.
Bradley Manning's lawyer has demonstrated that the officers in charge
willfully and
perversely
disregarded US military prison rules in order to oppress Bradley
Manning.
Will those responsible be prosecuted? I doubt it.
The US is organizing humanitarian aid to Syrians
through
the Syrian National Coalition, which seems to me intended as an
alternate government for Syria.
The first question that occurs to me is how much of that aid money
will go to help needy people in Syria and how much will line these
people's pockets. Can the US do anything to increase the former?
One pawn is being prosecuted for helping murder journalist Anna
Politkovskaya, but the authorities are
protecting
whoever arranged the killing.
Berlusconi's campaign to rule Italy again is based on criticizing Monti's
austerity measures — never mind that
Berlusconi's
party supported those measures when Monti enacted them.
This reminds me of some of Machiavelli's advice for a prince who had
conquered a city: put a governor in place to take harsh measures to
beat down opposition, then at a suitable time heed the people's
complaints by removing the harsh governor, as an act of pretend
magnanimity.
The latest bombardment of Gaza has
traumatized
the children.
An Afghan law
meant to stop violence against women has been
enforced to some extent, but has not achieved its goal.
Banksters have been
arrested
for Libor manipulation.
The European Parliament
voted
very strongly for net neutrality.
The University of Texas withdrew a study which concluded there is no
evidence that fracking poisons water supplies, and the head
investigator resigned, after it became known he was
on
the board of an oil company and was paid handsomely by it.
The US
could
end homelessness with the cost of Christmas decorations.
Secret
Farm Bill Threatens An "Environmental Cliff".
Falkvinge: don't say you "got" or "downloaded" a copy, say
you
"made" one.
I am not totally convinced yet, but this may be a good point,
especially about "got". As for "download", since it is a very
specific term for a technical practice, perhaps we should simply
remind ourselves that it creates a local copy rather than moving one.
US citizens: phone your senators to call for
support
for Senator Merkley's bill to end warrantless snooping on Americans.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Mechanically tenderized steaks are a
health hazard.
More journalists are in prison than at any time
since
record-keeping began in 1990.
China is the center of the
world's
trade in illegal timber.
The Lib Dems
oppose
the proposed UK snoopers' charter but suggest a rewrite of the bill rather
than killing the whole idea.
This scheme does not involve handing over all phone calls and
emails immediately to the state, but
having
them stored by the phone company or ISP is almost as bad.
The Department of Homeland Repression is putting
bugs
as well as cameras in public buses.
All of them can be accessed remotely over the Internet, so if their
security is broken, others besides Big Brother would be able to listen
to the passengers' conversations.
US citizens:
tell Congress not to shut down its ethics office.
US citizens: call your congresscritter to
support
Rep. DeFazio's letter opposing Monsanto's GMO power grab.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Michigan's right-wing government voted to allow hospitals to refuse abortions
to women who
will
die as a result.
What is happening in Afghanistan
as
NATO troops start to leave.
Many apps designed for children are
dishonest.
Many of the gifts people give on obligatory gift holidays are
not
meant to be of real use for even a minute.
This doesn't apply to me — I swore off obligatory gift giving
holidays once I realized I didn't want gifts from others, I use
clothing until it wears out, and the rest of what I buy is mostly food
or books.
If you are in the habit of hating government, here's
who
you really should hate.
Why Is the
Failed Monti a 'Technocrat' and the Successful Correa a 'Left-Leaning
Economist'?
How the revolving door gave medical companies
influence in Obama's
health care bill — and he does not seem to object.
The Internet is in as much danger from
corporate
censorship as from state censorship.
This is because people use commercial platforms to communicate and publish
on the net. These companies should not be allowed to censor, any more
than the phone company is allowed to disconnect your phone call because
it does not like what you say.
The residents of Detroit are fighting a plan to sell off a lot of
the city's land, at a
fire-sale price.
A female official in the Afghan government was
assassinated.
Since her predecessor was also assassinated, it looks like the Taliban
are expressing their Islamic hatred of women.
The "University" of Phoenix, a for-profit company, lobbied the Arizona
legislature
to stop
nonprofit community colleges from competing with it.
A massive months-long squat-in protest in France aims to block an
unnecessary new airport that would
destroy
an ecologically important forest.
In the 1980s, the World Bank built a hydroelectric dam in Guatemala;
soldiers
killed
hundreds of local people, and raped women, to kick them off their land.
Now Guatemala is stuck in debt, and seems planning to do more of this.
The radio broadcast of the prank call, which led a nurse to
commit suicide, might have violated some
radio
regulations and laws about recording phone calls.
Perhaps some action should be taken, for those general reasons.
However, it should not be be unusually strict just because a freak
accident occurred this time.
US citizens:
pledge
to hold "rogue Democrats" that support right-wing
deficit reduction plans accountable for their wrong.
Turkey is considering a law to ban
"misrepresentation
of historical figures", perhaps inspired by the French law that
bans denying the Turkish genocide of the Armenians.
Any law that bans expression of a view about history is directly
contrary to human rights.
Rich Arab states such as Qatar and Abu Dhabi are
investing
lots of oil money in renewable energy.
Thugs bullied Damon Thibodeaux into a
false
confession of murder, and his lawyer was so bad that
inconsistencies in his confession were ignored.
He has been freed after 15 years thanks to DNA testing, but he was
lucky that DNA could be tested. What about the other people falsely
convicted of murder (or other crimes) due to false confessions?
The Greek opposition leader
calls
for a Europe-wide debt conference
to reduce the debt of the European countries being crushed by austerity.
It is a good idea, but I'm afraid that there is little chance of this
unless he can bring back the Soviet Union to point to as a bugbear.
Meanwhile, many non-European countries could use debt reduction too.
Feminists in Europe are
crusading
for prohibition of prostitution.
This would be as harmful and nasty as prohibition of alcohol was in
the US. Some prostitutes are mistreated; if we want to help them,
surely we can do it in a way that would cause less misery to others.
For instance, victims of trafficking may not ask for help because they
fear being stigmatized, especially if they come from Asia. It would
be useful to offer them a way out. Others don't know how to escape.
Perhaps every prostitution-age female visitor entering Europe for the
first time should receive a booklet written in her own language
explaining what she should do if someone takes away her passport and
forces her to do sex work. Or domestic work — that problem
exists too. And this sheds more light on the issue. People generally
think it is wrong to enslave people and force them to do domestic
work, but don't despise domestic workers and don't suggest a ban on
domestic work. Why should sex work be different?
Perhaps because of an irrational disgust. I would not feel horrified
if a relative of mine were a prostitute or the client of one, but
apparently many people feel that way. That disgust may be the real
impetus for this campaign.
Morsi got elected with support from secularists who now feel he has
betrayed
them.
That doesn't necessarily mean the majority of Egyptians are on the
side of secularism and human rights. But I hope they are.
South Sudan's army killed
10 protesters.
The people of South Sudan are better off out of Sudan's repression,
but that doesn't automatically assure they will escape domestic repression.
The IMF chief is promoting the
myth
that something horrible would
happen to the US if there is no Grand Betrayal by Jan 1.
Paul Krugman
explains
the fallacy and why it is better to have no deal.
Walmart plans to
cut
off health coverage for most of its employees
on the excuse that it won't let them work more than 30 hours a week.
On rumors that Obama would make bankster Sallie Krawcheck head
of the SEC, business journalism praised her for side issues,
disregarding
her
bank's role in the crisis.
Saudi Arabia
seems to be planning to fund Islamist extremists
in Afghanistan as it does already in Pakistan.
Americans often forget that most of the Sep 11 hijackers were Saudis.
The Saudi regime surely didn't intend anyone to attack their friend
Bush, or their ally the US; but after so much effort to promote
violent religious extremism, such effect was not mere coincidence.
However, the victims of this extremism are usually in
Asia and Africa. Terrorism in the US is almost nonexistent.
The Doha negotiations have agreed on
partial
compensation to poor countries from the rich countries.
The US fought to water this down.
To make multinational corporations pay tax fairly, they
must
not be allowed to treat foreign subsidiaries as separate companies.
Here is what secular
Egyptians demand of Morsi.
Egyptian thugs attacked journalists who were
covering
a protest.
Not content with ruining our water and contributing to atmospheric
CO2, the US government wants to frack even more, for
export
of natural gas.
US citizens: Protest on Jan 19 for a constitutional amendment to
reverse
the Corporations United decision (written that way to say what it
really was).
We
cannot
trust what US officials say about Assad's preparations for
using chemical weapons.
Whether this matters depends on what is proposed. If this
"intelligence" were offered as a reason for a war of conquest, it
would count for nothing. However, if the idea is to attack Assad's
chemical weapons facilities if he starts using them, then the
"intelligence" about preparations only sets the scene for a
conditional threat. In that case, it doesn't matter than much
whether we can trust it.
As for the general idea of intervention against Assad,
I see nothing immoral about it, but avoiding a bad outcome
may be tricky.
US citizens: call your congresscritter for renewing tax breaks for
sustainable bioenergy.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Turkey's repression of the press is
constant,
mostly invisible, and perverts journalism in that country.
I am not sure this directly affects Leveson's proposals, since there
are many intermediate possibilities between repressing criticism of
the state and allowing them to break into people's phone answering
machines. I have not studied what he proposed.
Morsi
revoked
his decree that gave him emergency powers, but still plans to push
for a quick referendum on a constitution that doesn't respect human
rights. Meanwhile, he plans to legitimize arrests of civilians by the
military, one of Mubarak's nasty tactics, as a result of which many
protesters are in prison.
Maybe Egypt needs to commit in advance to fixing its constitution with
a Bill of Rights, as the US did.
The British have
forgotten
how to protest really hard.
Exfoliants in cosmetics contain tiny particles of polyethylene that
end up floating in the ocean and
hurt
certain species of animals.
Il Ducino
will
try to rule Italy again.
If he succeeds, it might protect him from
going
to jail.
Hamas's leader, Meshaal, in visiting, called Israel illegitimate, and
announced
the goal of taking all of it back. Thus, Hamas is about as
impossible as a "partner for peace" as the Israeli state.
Meshaal's boasts about launching missiles at cities match Israel's
boasts about bombing houses. Israel had a chance to make peace with a
secular Palestinian state, but decided to grab land and water instead;
this is the result.
As for the Hamas plan to take more Israeli soldiers prisoner and
exchange them for other prisoners, I don't see anything wrong in that
particular tactic. Taking enemy soldiers prisoner for no reason
except that they are enemy soldiers is legitimate. Imprisoning
civilians for no reason, as Israel does, is what's wrong.
Egypt sentenced those who made "Innocence of Muslims" to
death,
in absentia, for "harming national unity, insulting and publicly
attacking Islam and spreading false information".
Thus Egypt demonstrates the lack of freedom of thought and speech.
The film might be lousy, stupid and insulting, but that is no excuse
for criminal charges.
Verizon claims that freedom of speech means it can
censor
your Internet communications arbitrarily.
Sounds like blackwhiting: censorship is freedom.
In many countries around the world, murder of journalists is used
for
censorship.
A change
in the adjustment for inflation could be a sneaky way to
cut Social Security benefits.
The EFF defeated a Washington law that would have
punished
web sites if any of their pages appeared to be ads for
prostitution.
In the US: join
protests on Monday December 10 against any Grand
Betrayal that would cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
Companies are correlating browsing and activity patterns to
tie
together the same person's computer use on different computers.
Since they use cookies to do it, this appears to be another way for
permanent cookies to be harmful.
Reportedly the Taliban are using children to do
combat-related
jobs.
The US has imprisoned many Afghan teenagers, perhaps thousands,
calling them combatants — even when they were
captured
unarmed in their own homes.
Fighting or capturing enemy combatants, properly speaking, is
legitimate in war. However, the fact that some adult men are Taliban
combatants does not justify pretending that any and all Afghan adult
men who are killed were combatants. And if some Afghan children are
combatants, that does not justify treating Afghan children arbitrarily
as combatants.
UK Uncut launched many
protests
against Starbucks Coffee for its low taxes, but the real target is
the government that helps companies such as Starbucks avoid taxes and
takes it out on the poor.
The UK also needs to have sit-ins to repeal the "aggravated trespass"
law whose specific purpose was to ban many kinds of protests,
including sit-ins.
Famous rapper Psy made a humble
apology
for his hostile verbal attacks in 2004 against the Bush forces.
It was wrong for Psy to call for killing the innocent relatives of
Dubya's torturers, but the crimes of the Bush forces — the
torture, and the wanton killing — went beyond mere words.
Nowadays, Obama protects those guilty of war crimes and aggressive
war, from Dubya (who has confessed to his role) all the way down.
Obama, not Psy, ought to be the first to apologize, but he must do
more than that: he must prosecute them.
In the US:
tell
Applebee's not to cut workers' hours to avoid
responsibility for health care.
Students are occupying a building in Cooper Union to protest the
plan to
charge
a tuition fee for the first time.
Student loans in the US have become an oppressive
permanent ball and chain,
so lots of Americans should not pay for college
under these circumstances.
The suicide of a UK nurse who received a prank phone call created an
example of
why
we must reject the proposed "right to be forgotten".
Although I feel sorry for that nurse, who must have felt horrible pain
if it led her to suicide, I don't think the people who made the prank
call were morally responsible for this unlikely consequence. We must
not let all of life be oppressed by fear of freak accidents and
overreactions.
The outgoing legislature of Michigan passed a last-minute
union-busting
law.
US citizens:
call on
West Virginia Governor Tomblin to save Blair
Mountain from mountaintop removal coal mining.
The latest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
publicly
defends censorship.
He got the prize for literature, not for defending human rights, so
this does not mean he doesn't deserve the prize. It only means he is
contemptible slime.
Billionaire Polluter will acquire a supercomputer
to
model rock structures, and says this will make undersea drilling safe.
This system might (if they are describing it accurately) make
certain accidents happen less often, but that doesn't make
undersea drilling safe — especially if they continue
cutting corners on safety.
Soot from Arctic wildfires seems to have caused
increased
melting of Greenland ice.
Global heating will tend to increase Arctic wildfires in the future,
leading to more acceleration of melting (and sea-level rise). This
means the melting will be more than current models predict.
Greece is turning back lots of
Syrians
trying to cross from Turkey.
Since Turkey welcomes fleeing Syrians, I am skeptical that they face a
likelihood of abuse from the Turkish state, so I don't think many of
them have a valid argument for asylum in the Schengen zone. I think
they are would-be economic migrants.
Is Assad preparing to use
chemical
weapons against Syrian rebels?
It's possible — I don't supposed he has scruples against this
(or anything). However, he might be restrained by other
considerations.
Former
Defense Officials Call For Military Spending Cuts.
Wall Street Bank Cuts 11,000 Jobs After Paying Ousted Executives $14
Million.
25
countries have agreed to take action on short-term greenhouse gases.
Action against black carbon — that is, soot — is
important
for people's health, but as regards avoiding climate disaster
CO2 is more important than these short-term gases.
Instead, the US
pretends
to have planned more CO2 reductions than it really has.
Biodiversity offsetting means you can destroy a species' habitat in one place
if you
say
you will build another somewhere else.
The idea is bogus because building a new habitat for wildlife is an
uncertain activity, unlike building houses or streets.
US citizens:
oppose
ITU regulation of the Internet.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support HR 5959
(Appalachian Communities Health Emergency, to stop mountaintop removal
coal mining) and HR 1084 (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of
Chemicals, to end secrecy about chemicals used in fracking).
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
ITU censorship proposals may come to naught, but we
can't
count on that.
US citizens:
oppose the use of corn designed to grow with use of toxic
Agent Orange defoliant.
How Social Security cuts in the 1980s were
misrepresented
as "raising the retirement age".
How Time Magazine
gave
up on factchecking and objectivity.
The NYC poster hacker who made
this
was tracked down and arrested. Perhaps not with drones.
Many manufacturing companies are
moving
production from China to the US. Amazingly, wages in China have
risen to the point where this is profitable.
Nonetheless, this will never provide full employment in the US.
We must provide, as a society, for the people whose labor is not needed.
US citizens:
call on Congress to cut subsidies to fossil fuel
companies and preserve or increase spending for green energy and to
protect the environment.
US thugs want phone companies to accumulate a years-long dossier of
each
person's text messages.
This would fill a gap in the total surveillance of people's communications
which they are setting up.
How the Koch brothers' money
bought
control of the US government and turned
it into an enemy of saving our climate
Israel demolished the mosque in the village of
Mufaqra…again.
Gush Shalom argued in Israel's supreme court against the law that
imposes
unlimited damages on anyone calling for a boycott of products
of Israel's colonies in the West Bank.
In Gaza, Israel intentionally bombed a house with a bomb that
flattened it and destroyed several neighboring houses.
10
people were killed.
The Israeli military said this was to assassinate a supposed visitor.
Israel considers a massive civilian death toll justified by the merest
hint of a military target.
By that logic, the presence of soldiers or military-related offices in
Tel Aviv would justify launching missiles against Tel Aviv.
Israel's
newly
announced colony construction would split the West Bank
into two parts.
This would completely spoil any idea of a real Palestinian state, if
we presume none of territory Israel has effectively annexed is
returned. In practice, though, that does not really mean a Palestinian state
is harder to achieve, because in practice that state requires return by Israel
of most of the land and water it has seized control over.
Lebanese thugs demanded access to the
email
and social media passwords of everyone in Lebanon.
The court rejected the demand.
New Jersey drivers
risk
accidents to avoid being caught by red-light cameras.
US citizens:
call for dismissal
of the judge who decided not to send a convicted thug to prison.
The thug groped a woman in a bar, and the judge says it was the woman's
fault for being there.
US citizens:
sign
this petition to protect Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid from cuts.
It can't hurt to sign several of these petitions.
US citizens:
call
on the EPA to move ahead with strong limits on soot pollution.
In addition to killing people directly, soot adds to the absorption of
sunlight and thus slightly increases global heating, which will kill
lots of people.
ALEC and the Heatland Institute (spelling intentional)
are teaming up
to try to repeal state
laws that require utilities to buy a certain minimum of electricity
from renewable sources.
Climate campaigners called on the University of Wisconsin to
divest from fossil fuel
companies.
No
warrant, no problem: How the [US] government can still get your
digital data, and you may never find out about it.
The FBI has its own access, via snooping, to almost
all the email sent and received in the US.
Military drones are frequently used for
surveillance of civilians in the US.
The Republican Party staffer who
published
a note suggesting copyright reform as a possible Republican policy
has been fired.
He certainly won't find a home in the Democratic Party. Both of those
parties have sold out to big business, on this issue and many others,
which is why I won't support either of them.
An
Economy That Works for the Middle Class Won't Happen on Its Own.
US citizens: ask
your congresscritter to sign a discharge petition
for an explicit vote on ending Dubya's tax cuts for the rich.
America, tax
the traders!
Stabilizing financial markets was the original motive for the Tobin Tax,
or Robin-Hood Tax, but collecting more money from a lucrative and exploitative
sector of the diseconomy would be good too.
Increasing the Medicare age threshold would
cost
patients twice the amount that the government would save.
The loss would be gain for some businesses. Maybe that's why
politicians want to do it.
Bradley Manning's jailers violated military prison rules
on
several occasions as they kept him in conditions
comparable
to North Korean brainwashing.
US citizens: phone your senators to support Merkely's
Protect
America's Privacy Act (S. 3515).
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Two Thai politicians face murder charges for
ordering
repression forces to shoot protesters.
Typhoon Bopha, now hitting the Philippines, is their equivalent of
Hurricane Sandy. The Philippines representative cried as he described the
storm and
begged
the world's representatives to get serious about limiting global
heating.
This year
set
a record for decrease in Arctic ice and snow.
International
criticism convinced South Korea to back down from the
plan to start killing whales.
An organizer in the UK was convicted for organizing an
Internet
sit-in.
This illustrates how translating physical activities to the Internet
serves as an opportunity for states to take away traditional rights.
Islamists attacked secularist protesters in Cairo, leading to
street
fighting.
Arguing that Morsi
continues Mubarak's authoritarian tradition: this is not a new
fight, but the same old fight.
The
Obscenely Rich Men Bent on Shredding the Safety Net.
New Zealand, like Michigan,
pays
unconscionably to get movies made there.
The price included unjust laws affecting
movie
industry workers and the
general public.
U.S.
Commandos' New Landlord in Afghanistan: Blackwater.
Obama is still trying to attack digital freedom around the world
via
the TPP.
The TPP probably contains injustices for other areas of life, too.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter at 888-497-9539 to say, "No
cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and let the Bush Tax
Cuts for the richest 2% to expire."
The multiple
levels of legal invalidity of "shouting 'fire' in a
crowded theater" as a precedent.
The other fallacy in this argument is generalization. The idea of
"shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater" is that the audience members
don't dare take time to verify whether there is really a fire. They
have to try to get out immediately. In nearly all real censorship
situations, this argument would not apply anyway, because people
have time to think before doing anything.
Another
petition
for a good cause that I could not sign.
It asserts that women (and men) in the US military are "fighting for
our freedom." I know of only one man in the US military recently that
I can confidently say this: Bradley Manning.
India's government has
chosen
Wal-mart over employment.
Greece
is the most corrupt country in Europe, as perceived by its citizens,
and this is due to bad laws that fail to obstruct corruption.
If we take a wider definition of "corruption", including buying laws
and regulations that suit companies, the US is very corrupt.
It seems countries are
starting
to negotiate about the necessary greenhouse gas cuts.
Is it true that this treaty that would not come effect until 2020?
That is like planning to let the horses out of the barn and then bar
the door.
In any case, it is stupid to argue about whether increased effort must
be made by the richest countries or the other large emitters. The
answer is "both". Both must confront this issue like an invasion
if they are to survive.
Reconnaissance drones will be used to
track
poachers that kill rhinos, elephants and tigers.
Is
Your Pension Fund Taking Land Away From African Farmers?
US citizens:
call
on Obama to campaign for a constitutional amendment
to correct the Corporations United decision.
US citizens:
Call
on Obama to stop Shell from drilling for oil in the Arctic next
year.
We already have 5 times as much oil reserves as we dare to burn; there is
no point in using the deposits that are hard or dangerous to reach.
The methods of India's Green Revolution have become
unsustainable.
Groundwater is exhausted, pesticide pollution is spreading, and burning
of rice plants is making people sick.
The burning releases CO2, but if that CO2 was
drawn from the air by the plants, it does not add up to any increase
in CO2 concentration.
World food demand is expected to
almost
double in the next 40 years, but global heating is expected to
reduce food production. The result is that food prices will double,
and many children will be malnourished.
The solution must include gratis contraception for everyone. We can
avoid having 9 billion people if we act firmly to reduce the birth rate.
UK troops shot Afghan teenagers and a boy at close range while the
latter sat
on
the floor drinking tea.
IMF Suggests Lowering Global Financial Speed Limit.
An Ecuadorian "white hat" who cracked the security of the government's
records about individuals, and published news of this to call for
security improvements, was imprisoned 45 days until
President
Correa personally had him released.
It is good that Correa understands the difference between an attack
and constructive criticism, but the rest of the state needs to know it too.
Border
Agents' Power to Search Devices Is Facing Increasing Challenges in
Court.
Note also the injustice of punishing someone for dating a person who was
15 years old.
In the US today,
terrorism
is a minuscule danger. Repression by the state is a big danger and
these searches are part of it.
The ITU approved a standard requirement for
deep
packet inspection facilities (snooping) in future networks.
US states give 1.5
billion in tax breaks to the movie companies,
supposedly to create jobs, but it makes very few jobs.
These states are in a bidding war trying to take jobs away from other
states. In other words, the movie companies are playing one state
against another. Even if the promised jobs were real, the practice
would still harm the country as a whole.
Movie companies
demanded
Google censor their own sites.
134 Nobelists called on China to
free
Liu Xiaobo.
Investment in offshore wind power would make
more jobs than fracking.
OECD says civilization is on a
collision
course with nature.
1000
Rwandan soldiers joined the Congo rebels for the capture of Goma.
I am not sure what to think about these rebels. Previous rebels in
that region were brutal towards the civilians and were mainly
interested in capturing control of vital minerals to sell to the
developed world. This batch might be the same, or it might make a
real effort to replace the DR Congo's parasitical president with some
better government. The former deserves only condemnation; the latter
could deserve support.
Civilians in Mali are forming a militia to
fight
the Islamists who captured the north of the country.
We can't trust the US or even European governments not to approve something
nasty in private at the ITU meeting.
Fracking destroys
farms, with inadequate compensation, and can make the
local farmers sick and drive them out of their homes.
Absurdly, the frackers burn the methane rather than collecting it for
some use.
If this were the worst problem caused by fracking, it could be
corrected by requiring compensation for these other problems.
However, the global heating from burning this gas will do damage
beyond all compensation.
How an excessive gift to a homeless man
turned
into an excuse to despise the homeless.
Was the whole thing set up as a way to distract from the
persistent
human rights violations of the New York Thug Department?
The UK's homeless are
up
23% in the past year, mainly among the very poor who can't cope with
even a temporary reverse.
The UK's plans for fracking violate its
CO2
emissions reduction law.
Decade
of US 'War on Terror' Yields More 'Terrorism'. Just not in the US.
The UN has voted to rebuke Israel for
not
allowing IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities. Israel
appears to have scuttled a conference about nuclear disarmament in the
Middle East, which Iran was willing to attend.
US citizens: phone your senators to support the Shaheen Amendment
to extend abortion coverage to military women who have been raped.
There is also a petition, but I couldn't sign it because of its
"drivel
about serving".
I wish the US government used its military in the service of the
country and the world, but it more often uses them in the service of
the megacorporations.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
US citizens:
call on
Pepsi to take a clear stand in Uganda against
the bill for increased persecution of gays.
US citizens:
call
on the US to suspend Billionaire Polluters from
federal contracting for five years (not for a short time).
The Japanese tunnel collapse was apparently due to
negligence
by the private company that operates the road.
Allowing private companies to operate roads is asking for trouble.
They always have an incentive to skimp.
A very
large solar power plant will be built in Ghana, thanks to a policy
incentive for renewable energy.
Developing countries such as India, Brazil and China
must
cut emissions too, or we're doomed.
Of course, the US must also do a lot more.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say, Sign Rep. Lee's letter
calling for a prompt withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to enforce US laws about how Israel uses US
arms.
Julian Assange explains, in an interview, how the Obama regime has
started to treat journalistic publication of US government leaks,
anywhere in the world, as a crime.
Another disqualification for Susan Rice: she
supported Dubya's
invasion of Iraq.
A considerable fraction of Americans had the sense to recognize that
the invasion was wrong and stupid; anyone who didn't see this should
not be in an important foreign policy post.
Washington's
Serious People Are on the War Path — against us.
The purpose of absurd cuts proposals, such as Corker's corker,
is to make smaller cuts that are merely cruel and unjust look like
"reasonable compromises".
The survival of civilization now
requires
the destruction of plutocracy and the revival of democracy.
Americans, you will regret you didn't vote for Jill Stein.
The European right-wing movement to
criminalize
squatting: "If they
have no homes, let them live in prison."
Life expectancy in South Africa has
increased
by 5 year due to anti-HIV drugs.
The spread of HIV has gone down.
Former heads of state call on Europe to
clearly label products made in Israeli colonies in
the West Bank.
Since these colonies are all illegal under international law, I don't see
why Europe should stop with labeling them. It should ban them.
A survey attempts to explore the
perceived
benefits that motivate people to use illegal drugs.
Reductions
in methane and other short-lived greenhouse gases are no substitute
for reducing CO2 emissions.
The US and Europe
oppose
compensating poor countries for the damage that global heating will do
to them
Many people in poor countries are likely to die after a few more years
of floods or droughts.
The Simpsons illustrates the extent of
censorship
in Turkey.
A breakdown
in talks may save America from a harmful deal that might
cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
The term "fiscal cliff" is Republican spin, and
"no deal" is the best
outcome for the rest of this year.
Starbucks in the UK has
cut
lunch breaks and sick leave, but argues that this is ok because it
was not a response to possibly having to pay its fair share of taxes.
Autonomous killer robots should be banned, but the US is
proceeding
with them, and the "precautions" are inadequate.
CO2
emissions rises mean dangerous climate change now almost certain.
By "dangerous" they mean "far worse the damage we have already seen".
US citizens:
call
on the EPA to enforce cleanup of cement plants,
and not give them two more years to continue polluting.
In some parts of the ocean, sea snails' shells are dissolving due to
increased
acidity from CO2 in the water.
2200 square miles of Appalachia have been
destroyed
by mountaintop removal coal mining, and companies want to destroy
more. Now one mining company has been forced to turn back to
underground mining, which doesn't destroy the whole terrain, by the
cost of the damage it did.
We need to slow coal mining down, because civilization can't survive
burning a lot more coal.
Republicans want to force Twitter to
block
the accounts of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Censorship on such an important forum is dangerous no matter what
is being censored.
Asylum-seekers in Canada are
nearly
all imprisoned, held by a private
prison company, unless and until they give up and leave.
Some
suggestions for how to get rich people's money out of US elections.
An antisec hacker says: giving
information
on security holes to the
public, or to the software developer, only helps those who want to
exploit the holes.
The article doesn't say this is about proprietary software, but seems
to take for granted that the software is proprietary. It even argues
for "armored executables" designed to prevent reverse engineering,
which presupposed users can't read the source code.
The author recommends giving the security hole info "to an individual
whom you know (through personal experience) will act in the interest
of social justice."
I wouldn't give a proprietary software developer any sort of bug
report; since proprietary software is fundamentally wrong, it doesn't
deserve help. Free software deserves help, because it upholds social
justice within its own sphere.
A peasant leader in Paraguay was
assassinated.
He was a leader in a movement whose other leaders were either killed
or arrested by thugs, and this was seized on by the elite as an excuse
to remove President Lugo from power. His killers were surely
associated with the elite as well.
Kuwait's opposition
boycotted
the elections for parliament, after the regime changed election laws.
I do not understand the change enough to have an opinion of it,
but the strength of the boycott shows the strength of the people's
opposition to the regime.
Morsi has called for a referendum in 2 weeks on a
constitution
that doesn't respect human rights.
Egypt's Supreme Court was
shut
down by Islamist protesters.
Israel punished the Palestinian Authority for its UN success by
refusing
to hand over the funds it is supposed to collect for the PA.
The plan to construct of more housing for Israeli colonists is
supposedly also "punishment", but since it is no different from what
Israel has done all the time for years, that is just a pretense.
More about Susan Rice's
big
conflict of interest.
A tunnel collapsed
in Japan, trapping cars which caught fire.
The idea that cars would catch fire from collisions is a movie
cliché, but I thought it was pure fiction. Apparently it
does occasionally happen. Should car designs be changed to prevent it?
(Of course, people will investigate why the tunnel collapsed.)
Leaked documents show how soon-to-be-ex Senator Lieberman
used
threats to make PayPal, Visa and Mastercard cut off payments to
Wikileaks.
They also show that "European" Mastercard and Visa pretend to be
European-owned but are in fact controlled by their US counterparts.
The European Commission is acting to protect the US-imposed shutoff,
even though the European Parliament has voted to endorse rights for
Wikileaks.
The factory in Bangladesh which burned down, killing 120 workers
who couldn't escape because of locked doors, was
making
clothing for many global brands.
These companies say they had had policies against using this factory
as a subcontractor, but the policies are clearly not effective.
A North Korean assassin carried
deadly
weapons disguised as pens and a flashlight.
Soviet bloc agents used similar poison weapons to kill defectors in
the 1970s.
US citizens: call
on Senator Reid not to block Elizabeth Warren from
the Senate Banking Committee.
Everyone: call
on the president of Uganda not to sign the bill
to kill gays.
US citizens:
urge
the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to
push forward with offshore wind power.
Censorship laws in the West, including punishment of blasphemy or Nazi
ideology, are regularly
cited
around the world to justify other sorts of censorship.
The UK also has laws censoring statements that people should be free
to make, including
anything
likely to cause offense.
I don't know enough about the Leveson commission's proposals to have a
position on them. If a new press law amounts to censorship, that
would be wrong. If it only helps put a end to certain abusive
methods, such as breaking into people's answering machines, it might
be good. As for the issue of attention to people's private lives, I
think that those who enjoy fame and great wealth should accept the bad
with the good.
Tobacco companies have hired big PR firms to
lobby
against laws to require plain packages for cancer sticks.
They have
used
"free trade" treaties against this for years.
A carbon tax is
quietly
being considered in Congress to eliminate the
US budget deficit.
Eliminating the budget deficit is a misguided goal; the US needs
deficit spending to get people back to work. But the carbon tax is a
great way to move towards renewable energy. It's not enough by
itself, of course: most Americans now have no money to invest in
reducing their future energy usage. Schemes must be established to
facilitate the changes that will reduce emissions.
Kosovan prime minister Haradinaj was prosecuted twice by the Hague war
crimes tribunal, and
found
innocent twice. Advisors to the
prosecutors told them in advance that the evidence (provided by Serb
intelligence) was insufficient, and the prosecutors went ahead anyway.
Haradinaj claims that a deal was made with Serbia to prosecute him in
the absence of grounds. He now plans to reenter politics.
Why is the war crimes tribunal allowed to prosecute someone twice?
Many common food ingredients have been spuriously linked with cancer
based on insufficient studies.
In 1984, UK thugs who attacked striking miners and then made
false accusations
against them.
They also arrested strikers' relatives and made bogus charges. And they
pressured
miners to accept bail and plea conditions that banned them
from picketing.
Clearly this was simply a scheme to break the strike, and never mind the
costs to the idea of justice.
The victims ask only for erasure of their unjust criminal records, but
I think that justice requires jailing those thugs (and any officials
who told them to do this — too bad Thatcher is not alive to be
jailed).
Correction: Thatcher is demented but nominally alive. However, it comes
to the same thing.
Assad has
reconnected
Syria's Internet.
I wonder if the outage was in order to install some new surveillance
equipment.
The Rwanda-supported rebels in DR Congo have
withdrawn
from Goma.
I have a feeling that there is more going on here than is described in
the article, but I don't know enough to guess what.
Bhutan's "Gross National Happiness" measurement seems to have produced
big improvements
in life there — but global heating is already
destroying its agriculture.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to give priority to climate protection.
Just like Dubya, Obama believes (with the support of his followers)
that
legal
limits on assassinations are are not needed as long as he's
the one in charge of them.
The Leveson commission's proposal for preventing press abuses (such as breaking
into people's answering machines) ignores the issue of
how
the people who promoted these abuses got hold of UK media.
What to expect
later this century if we don't take firm action
now to protect the climate.
Uri Avnery sees upgraded UN recognition of Palestine as a
path
towards peace.
The New York Times supported militarism by regretting at length the
departure
of retired Senator Lieberman, who advocated bellicose policies and
led the US government attack against Wikileaks.
It also published a
low
estimate of casualties from Obama's drone
attacks in Pakistan, from an organization sponsored by Lieberman.
US citizens: call
on the US government to reconsider its politically biased
decision against selling Plan B (oral emergency contraceptive) without
prescription.
Major
New U.S. AIDS Plan Disallows Funding for Family Planning.
In other words, Obama has made yet another gratuitous surrender to the
theocrats who normally vote Republican.
The Caribbean island of Barbuda is facing
truncation
due to global heating.
Congress is proposing
additional
sanctions against Iran without any way to lift them as part of a deal.
This is not designed to convince Iran to make concessions; it is designed
to provoke war.
Eastern Europe is fighting a cruel war on drugs, left over from
the Soviet Empire, which
spreads
diseases without even reducing the use of these drugs.
US courts can order compassionate release for prisoners in special
circumstances, such as if they are terminally ill, but the Bureau of
Prisons rarely allows prisoners to reach the court.
It throws most prisoners' petitions in the trash and forgets them.
Jordan is
putting
protesters on trial in a special repression court, for crimes that
basically consist of being dissidents, after torturing them.
This court shares the flaw of the
Guantanamo kangaroo courts:
a lack of independence.
Jeb Bush is
pushing
school privatization based on the apparent success
of mostly different measures that worked well for a while while he was
governor of Florida.
The measures actually tried included increased spending, for a while.
Department store dummies whose eyes are cameras bring home the
outrageous
nature of surveillance.
Obama condemned Republicans for threatening a
"Scrooge Christmas".
However, he too is a Scrooge, since he has already offered to do part
of the harm Republicans demand.
The idea of making a deal with the Republicans is misguided;
the term "fiscal cliff" misrepresents the situation and creates
the
false
impression that a deal is really needed.
Thugs in Brazil have a habit of
killing
people and faking firefights as justification.
Obama and his supporters, including the US mainstream media, treat
everyone that exposes
US
war crimes and torture as "the enemy".
Atheists in Santa Monica have put an end to the
use
of town property to promote Christianity.
Alas, this means that town property also can't be used to promote
Gravmass, but at least
it is fair.
Anxiety
about changes to prevent global heating lead many people
who recognize the danger to avoid thinking about the issue.
This combines with the problem that, to paraphrase someone famous,
everyone wants a stable climate, but nobody wants what makes for a
stable climate.
I agree with the recommendation to avoid campaigns based on individual
guilt, because individuals are not to blame. We can't solve this
problem by making changes individually; it requires
state
action.
In the US,
most
individuals now recognize global heating as a danger,
and want the government to take the necessary action to prevent it.
The state can do this in a way that might provide more benefit than
suffering for working Americans.
It is the sell-out politicians,
including Obama and much of Congress, that are guilty.
Australia has adopted
strict
rules for cigarette packages to prevent them
from being attractive to young people.
US citizens:
Sign
this petition in support of the fast food workers on strike in New
York City.
US citizens:
sign
Bernie Sanders' petition: no cuts in Social Security,
Medicare or Medicaid, and no tax cuts for the rich.
US citizens: object
to appointing Susan Rice as Secretary of State,
since she has invested in companies that will profit from the Keystone
XL planet-roaster pipeline.
I gave this comment:
When 9000 women in St Louis were offered gratis use of long-term
contraceptives, the pregnancy rate for teenagers among them went
down to
under
1%, and the abortion rate dropped dramatically too.
A US Senate committee adopted a
partial
limitation on imprisonment
without trial, prohibiting it for US citizens and permanent
residents when captured in the US. Immediately, the senators totally
opposed to human rights began trying to twist its meaning to claim
that anyone can nonetheless be imprisoned without trial.
10 Corporations That Still Get New Gov't Contracts, Despite Alleged Misconduct.
With international agencies and business consultants warning that we
are on the
edge
of too late to avoid climate disaster, powerful
countries such as the US continue to obey the dictates of the oil
companies. What can make them stop?
DuPont is following Monsanto in
attacking
farmers who save their seeds.
Farmers' right to save and trade their seeds must be protected
from all interference, aside from health and environmental concerns.
The article was flawed by using the vague term
"intellectual
property"
instead of the clear and precise term "patents".
Relatives of Adnan al-Qadhi ask Yemen, and Obama, why they killed him
when they
could
easily have arrested him if there were any grounds.
Julian Assange summarizes what the Wikileaks cables showed about the US's
tentacles of
repression
and death.
Morsi is pushing for a quick vote on a hurried constitution that
doesn't
respect human rights.
A Pentagon lawyer suggests it is about time to
declare
al Qa'ida destroyed, and regard whatever remains as criminals
rather than a military enemy.
This goes against Obama's actual behavior which is to
expand
the drone bombings supposedly aimed at anti-US "terrorists" to
other targets.
US citizens: support
the fast food workers' strike.
New Zealand used the
threat
of offshoring as an excuse to take away the rights of its film
workers.
This is the evil logic of
"free trade":
countries compete to see which one can give businesses the most power
over the people.
US citizens:
tell
Congress, cut military spending, not the spending
that helps people.
Haiti wants the UN to
pay
for clean water facilities, so as to get rid
of the cholera brought by the UN colonization troops.
Oh, they call themselves "peacekeepers", but their purpose is to maintain
US-imposed
rule on Haiti, so "colonization troops" is more accurate.
US citizens:
call
on Obama not to accept corporate funding for events connected with
his inauguration.
A home
water purification scheme in Kenya is funded by carbon offsets.
Many
carbon offset schemes are bogus — for instance, planting
trees might absorb CO2 over the next 20 years, but they might die
instead.
Currently if a company says, "We're good because we offset
or emissions", I would not trust that that means anything. However,
with suitable regulations to ensure these schemes produce real
emissions reductions, they might become meaningful.
An experiment suggest that the dispersant that Billionaire Polluters
poured into the Gulf of Mexico helped the oil penetrate deeper into
beaches, and now enables
toxic chemicals to last longer.
Senator Graham wants to make it explicit that the US can imprison
absolutely
anyone forever without trial. I can't imagine anything more un-American than that.
The paradoxical battle between Morsi, the Islamist, and the courts, full
of Mubarak supporters,
leaves no easy path to democracy and human
rights.
The UN General Assembly named Palestine
as a "non-member
state".
This means it can refer Israeli war crimes to the International
Criminal Court. I can't see any other way to reduce the oppression of
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Asking the PA to negotiate
with Israel is like asking a lamb to negotiate with a lion about
which limb to eat next.
The UK will make
sure state-supported schools teach evolution
and not creationism. Some web sites track how the user
moves the mouse (even without
clicking).
I consider this inherently abusive. Browsers should be designed so it
can't be
done at all.
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If Susan Rice knew that she had invested were in companies likely to
benefit from the planet-roaster pipeline, that alone should disqualify
her from any important government post.
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Thugs in Colombia arrested a journalist who was photographing a protest, then beat him to death.
Then, like good thugs, they made false accusations that he attacked them.
Most Japanese no longer want whale meat, which has turned Japanese whaling into a drain on the government treasury.
I am sure Japan can find other ways to spend the money that would create more jobs and without doing any harm.
Russia is considering a nationwide ban on "homosexual propaganda".
I don't think Putin really cares about gays one way or the other, but that is a convenient excuse to officially establish censorship.
A new campaign has been launched to
reform the City of London
which serves as a lobbying and political influence arm for the
banksters.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
A Chinese dissident's relative was sentenced to prison for fighting unidentified men who broke into his family home — who turned out to be thugs.
He was put on trial with "defense lawyers" imposed on him by the state. Access to the trial was effectively restricted.
Sounds a lot like Guantanamo.
Sen. Sanders: Wall Street CEOs are
the 'Faces of Class
Warfare'.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
McJobs Should Pay, Too: Inside Fast-Food Workers' Historic Protest For Living Wages.
It appears the US uses drones as a general-purpose weapon to fight against rebels opposing US-supported governments, while claiming that the targets are "terrorists".
A senate committee voted for requiring search warrants for any access to people's email and other remotely-stored data.
Big Pharma companies are trying to use ridiculous patents to crush generic drugs in India, but so far India has thwarted them.
The only reason patents on drugs exist in India is that they were imposed by wealthy countries including the US, through TRIPES, the Trade-Restricting Impediments to Production, Education and Science.
The supporters of that harmful treaty call it "TRIPS", which uses their propaganda term "intellectual property". Since that term spreads confusion, using it does harm; therefore I go out of my way not to use it.
After Australia conscripted all ISPs to snoop on their users, it sparked a movement for use of encryption.
Afghan clerics want to impose Islamic law on Afghanistan and abolish women's rights. They have asked Karzai to do this.
The Netherlands has repealed its law against blasphemy.
ALEC is pushing to privatize US public schools, together with a specialized organization called FEE.
Both Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice, and it is accelerating.
Assad has cut off Syria from the Internet.
America Needs To Stop Sucking Up to Generals.
The treaty banning landmines is having a significant effect
even though the US refuses
to sign it.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Governor Walker wants to abolish same-day voter registration in Wisconsin because that makes it too easy for poor people to vote.
US schools are much like prisons; in Arizona, privatized prison guards go on raids in schools and help arrest students.
Arresting people for possession of marijuana is always an injustice, and many states have put an end to the practice.
Privatized prisons should be abolished too, because they create a lobby for more imprisonment.
The UK seems to have got serious about promoting renewable energy.
However, the model is Germany. To avoid climate disaster, the world must push for renewable energy as Germany is doing.
James Hansen: we must introduce a fee for emitting greenhouse gases.
A sports analogy highlights the irrationality of common arguments for pseudoscience.
Quantico Psychiatrist: those in charge of imprisoning Bradley Manning disregarded his advice.
For a prisoner facing a likely long sentence, as for a totally paralyzed person, suicide does not indicate insanity. It is a rational way to escape.
A leak supposedly from an IAEA report from a year ago, which purported to demonstrate Iranian progress towards a nuclear weapon, is bogus according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The UK forces in Afghanistan cannot turn their prisoners over to
Karzai's men
because they are likely
to be tortured.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
After 1000 Tibetan students protested,
some were beaten and
injured.
The rest have been imprisoned in their school.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Most couches in the US have chemicals that cause cancer or nerve trouble. The chemicals get into dust and can be inhaled.
The FBI escaped defending entrapment in court when the three anarchists pled guilty to an imaginary bombing plot organized by an FBI informant. But it was rebuked by the judge.
The ITU is only one threat to the freedom of Internet users. Tyrannical states don't need ITU's endorsement to mess with the Internet, and neither do the "free" and "democratic" countries.
However, the worst thing is when they work together for the purpose of surveillance of "terrorists" (read, dissidents). And the ITU could encourage that.
Austerity in Greece has destroyed the middle class, as well as the poor. And it is now set to get worse.
It is a mistake to say that EU funds "prop up the economy" of Greece. All they prop up is debt repayment.
Countries should not accept responsibility to pay back loans made to a former dictator.
If this policy were adopted, another benefit is that dictators would have trouble getting loans.
Oakland thugs beat protester Kayvan Sabeghi, ruptured his spleen, then left him in jail without medical care for 18 hours.
The thugs claim they called an ambulance for him, but that must be a lie; if it were true, he would have gone to a hospital.
Why aren't they charged with the crime of gross bodily harm?
Russian prison guards kicked a handcuffed prisoner.
Sounds like the US, but not quite as bad, since most of the guards were fired or arrested.
Syrian rebels obtained surface-to-air missiles from captured army bases and used them to shoot down two of Assad's aircraft.
The US was reluctant to give them missiles, fearing that some might get into the hands of al Qa'ida and be used to attack US planes, perhaps airliners. It is a valid concern. However, the same danger exists now, but the US can't prevent it. I wonder if this means the US should have given them these missiles a year ago.
Anti-drone protesters in upstate New York have been threatened with seven years' imprisonment if they come near the gate of the drone base.
9 Greedy CEOs Trying to Shred the Safety Net While Pigging Out on Corporate Welfare.
The Heatland Institute (spelled that way to reflect its goals) wants to mostly wipe out the EPA.
An anti-science Koch-funded Republican will chair the House Science Committee. Perhaps we should call it the House Pseudoscience Committee.
Government background checks on contractors' employees have exposed them to identity theft.
When a cell phone is reported stolen in New York, the thug department collects the victim's phone call records, even afterward — and can do whatever it wants with that information.
Pesticide companies are using secrecy and nitpicking to prevent action to protect bees from neonicotinoids that appear to kill them.
A new
law gives strong protection to some whistleblowers in the US government.
Protesters who called for shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant
were denied
the opportunity to present the necessity defense.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say,
"Don't let the FCC allow Murdoch to take over more US media".
Here's info I got from Free Press (I have no URL for it):
More info on
this bad plan.
Polls continue to find that
60%
of Americans want to tax the rich more rather than cut support for
the poor.
So why are politicians looking for a deal to do exactly the
opposite? I suspect they get money from rich people who want
to screw the masses.
In Louisiana,
state "education" money funds teaching of creationism.
Chinese feminists are protesting against
gender
bias in China.
Obama signed a bill that
tries
to exempt US airlines from paying Europe's emissions tax.
I don't see how the US can legislate such a question. Ultimately
every airline will have to pay or stop landing in Europe. However,
Obama's efforts to stall this show what side he's on: the fossil fuel
companies' side.
Campaigners
threatened
to sue the Environmental Protection Agency to
make it regulate carbon emissions from cars, planes and off-road
vehicles.
The fossil fuel companies are trying to delay action as long as
possible to that we get stuck with the need to burn lots more oil.
They don't care about the disaster this will cause. The oil
millionaires must suppose their children will buy a way to survive it.
If we can show them that's impossible, maybe they will realize they
must help avoid the disaster.
Brazil has made great strides in
reducing
the rate of deforestation.
The EPA has temporarily suspended Billionaire Polluters from new US
contracts for its "lack
of integrity."
It is not clear how long this will last. However, the worst flaw in
US oil policy is that it has not made sufficient reforms to prevent a
similar accident — and it is allowing drilling in Arctic waters
where such an accident is more likely and more catastrophic.
A campaign for an
arms
embargo against Israel.
Corruption in Afghanistan: Sherkhan Farnood had an Interpol notice
about financial crimes, but the Afghan state not only didn't arrest him,
it let
him start a bank (which then collapsed due to corruption).
On the
need of rebuilding differently after a flood that is likely to
recur.
A mere change in building techniques may not be enough. The house
should be rebuilt elevated, or rebuilt somewhere else.
US tobacco companies have been ordered by a court to publish
ads
saying they lied about the dangers of smoking.
UK officials in charge of nuclear energy received
lots
of treats from lobbyists.
US citizens: phone your senators and congresscritter, and say, "Don't
make any deal that continues Dubya's tax cuts for the rich, and don't
make any deal that cuts Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare."
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
US citizens:
call
on Walmart to join a union-supported fire safety program
for Bangladesh.
US citizens:
call
for a farm bill that supports healthy food.
In accord with the cease-fire agreement, Israel has
relaxed
restrictions on Gaza's farmers and fishers.
Why
Israel didn't win the short war it started with Gaza.
The most interesting point is that Israel, which called itself the
only democracy in the Middle East, worked hard to ensure there were no
others, but has for the moment failed.
A leader of Hamas says that it only wants a Palestinian state in the
pre-1967 borders, and suggests it would recognize Israel
in exchange
for recognition of Palestine.
I am in favor of an independent Palestinian state at peace with
Israel. However, Palestinians deserve more than that: they deserve a
democratic and secular Palestinian state that respects human rights.
Hamas may cooperate with the first part but would oppose the second
part. Success for the Palestinian Authority's UN recognition
campaign, and bringing Israeli war crimes to the ICC, would improve
the chances of both.
The Washington Post rejected
pressure to apply false balance to the fighting in and around Gaza.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to appoint a new SEC head who will hold
Wall Street accountable.
Why the US and Israel should support the Palestinian Authority's move for
UN recognition.
Everyone:
sign
this petition against the ITU's takeover of the Internet.
US citizens:
sign
this petition against teaching children they should
massacre without question on the orders of the celestial tyrant.
Our climate models do not take account of
methane
leaking out of Arctic permafrost as it melts.
Poaching of rhinos in South Africa is running at
600
a year, and accelerating.
China is planning to reduce its population through
fracking
without safety precautions.
Although burning natural gas releases less CO2 than burning coal,
I've read that there is no reduction in CO2 once the emissions due
to fracking itself are counted.
Sea level is rising
60%
faster than was predicted a few years ago.
Germany is about to
prohibit
sex between humans and animals, apparently based on sheer bigotry.
Many kinds of animals sometimes want sex with humans. I've read that
female apes sometimes ask human males for sex. Male dolphins just
love human females. Dogs can be convinced to lick almost anything by
smearing on something that tastes good to them. A parrot once made
love to me, and I hope I get another chance.
When the US and other states pressure the Palestinian Authority to drop its
plans to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, the PA replies,
"To
oppose us is to support Hamas."
100,000 protest in Egypt
against
Morsi's decree.
1000 students
protested
in Tibet, which is not easy given the harsh
response of Chinese thugs towards any protest.
Although we have not heard much about dirty
depleted
uranium weapons, they continue in use, and the US government
refuses to recognize any problem.
US citizens: Phone your congresscritter to say, please support
the Lee-Jones bipartisan letter calling for an accelerated withdrawal
from Afghanistan.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Predictions of increased US oil extraction are
presented as
good news. The same predictions imply global disaster but they
don't talk about that.
US citizens:
call
on the SEC to make publicly traded companies
publicly disclose their political spending.
US citizens:
tell
CBS evening news that its coverage of Dubya's tax
cuts for the rich, and proposed cuts in aid to the non-rich, should
include someone who disagrees with the rich CEOs.
US citizens: visit your congresscritter's office
on Wednesday Nov 28
and drop off a letter saying, "Don't extend Dubya's tax cuts for the
rich, and don't cut benefits programs that the non-rich depend on."
If you can't do that, phoning is good too (though not as powerful
as a visit).
Documenting
how fracking in Pennsylvania damages public health locally.
The Kyoto Protocol was a success, in that it
reduced
overall
greenhouse gas emissions from the countries that participated in it.
The UK government appointed an ex-Goldman bankster
to
govern the Bank of England. This suggests that crucial reforms
will be omitted.
The world natural gas glut has enabled Germany to put
pressure
on Putin's contempt for human rights and democracy.
Every bad event has some good repercussions, but the evil of Putin
is not as much as what burning all that gas will do.
Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill no longer carries the death penalty
but
legalizes
murder of gays.
The bill also violates freedom of speech, by banning "advocacy"
of homosexuality. It looks like this bill would ban any attempt to
campaign to repeal it.
Samsung admits its suppliers include sweatshops, but gave them
two
more years to cease the abuses. They could stop in a week if they
wanted to, so giving them two more years is Samsung's attempt to help
them stall. If we made Samsung liable for its suppliers' illegal
treatment of labor, it would make them stop in a week.
Assad's forces are using cluster bombs
on
urban areas.
Rich countries pledged funds to help poor countries cope with the
effects of global heating, but they are
not
following through.
I suppose this is due to the bad economic situation, but that is not likely
to get any better.
Imagine that a country likely to suffer many deaths due to global
heating, such as Bangladesh or many islands, bombs CO2-emitting
equipment in the US, China, or some other wealthy country that is
increasing its emissions. Would this be permitted under international
law as self-defense against a deadly attack?
Germany's CO2 emissions are actually
getting
smaller, thanks to a great effort to move to renewable energy.
This shows that any wealthy country can do it, if only it gives
priority to the goal.
An Australian court found a search engine liable
for
referring to web pages that someone took issue with.
This means that a search engine must avoid doing business in Australia
if it is to do its job properly.
The official Congo government's army is accused of rape and looting, and
the
UN concurs. The rebels seem better, but it's not clear how much.
It's a Great Time To Be a [Bankster] in America.
In the UK:
help
the Open Rights Group fight the Snoopers' Charter.
35%
of the US GDP goes to the banksters as interest.
This drain on the treasury is part of the reason why everything else
in the US is going bad.
Bereaved Israelis and Palestinians
working
together for peace.
The rich countries must now agree on how to
avoid climate disaster.
Companies that
conceal
their boards of directors are used to conceal
commerce and avoid taxes.
Obama plans to draw up a new rulebook for targeted assassination via
drones, but with
no
indication that he plans to publish it or follow international law.
A man who climbed on a statue in London and stripped has been charged
with
possession
of an offensive weapon.
I've heard it referred to as a weapon, but I thought that was metaphorical.
Catalonia's election has been turned into a
referendum
on secession from Spain.
Anti-independence forces threaten Catalonia with exclusion from the EU
and the euro, but that's exactly what Catalonia needs. Exiting the
euro could enable Catalonia to adopt sensible economic policies
instead of austerity.
This is what all of Spain needs, but supposedly it can't get there
from here. I can suggest a way: all the regions of Spain could secede
and each establish its own new currency. Then they could reunite and
merge their currencies, while keeping them separate from the euro.
If nobody sees a simpler method, this is better than none.
(Ha Ha Only Serious.)
Garment workers in India are frequently
threatened
and beaten if when don't meet the impossible quota.
Nothing can excuse the behavior of these employers, but population
growth also contributes to the problem, and that is an important avenue
for correcting it.
A popular
movement in Afghanistan for women's rights.
The world needs to work out how a country can
declare
bankruptcy.
UK austerity will cut more than 30% of the income of the poorest families,
but the government is trying to disguise this by
shifting
things around.
The government held a "consultation" about privatization of the health
service, but worked with a lobbyist to assure an
appearance
of public support for the plan.
For names typical of Blacks, a US web site advertises
"find
out if this person was arrested".
In the US, a Black is more likely to get arrested than a White if they
both do certain common activities, in particular possessing drugs.
Maybe that is the real root of the problem. Legalizing possession of
drugs might fix it.
Reporters Without Borders criticizes the Italian Senate for its
flip-flop
on abolishing the crime of defamation.
Hooray for
Andrea
Hernandez, who is resisting a demand from her school
to wear an RFID tag.
However, even more sinister is the school (mentioned in that article)
that puts RFIDs in students clothing.
A new,
stronger
campaign to end the War on Drugs.
US citizens:
oppose Obama's "Grand
Bargain" sellout to the Republicans.
Human Rights Watch campaigns to ban autonomous killer robots
before
they are developed.
Vulture capitalists seek giant profits by suing debtor countries in
US courts. Argentina plans to
defy
the vultures.
Lobbies
killed Brazil's bill to establish important rights for Internet users.
A German court subjected participants in the Retroshare encrypted
communications system to
unlimited
liability for other people's sharing.
The same pretext could be used to ban Tor.
Israel emphasizes how precise and "surgical" its air attacks are,
but they still kill
plenty of civilians.
The US is
much
wealthier than it was when Social Security and Medicare
were set up, but greedy rich people use bogus figures to justify
dumping the old and sick into poverty.
If Walmart paid a living wage, the whole US economy would
benefit.
In the Congo, murderers and rapists enjoy
impunity, as rebels and in the
government army.
Mining of tin brings Indonesia lots of money, but the mining companies
don't mind
killing
workers and destroying the environment.
Even in the US, mining companies get away with
murder.
Finnish thugs
confiscated
a young girl's laptop because she download music from the Pirate Bay.
This was after her father had refused to pay a thousand-dollar
unofficial fine and shut up.
The means used here are not the only injustice. The goal, stopping people
from sharing, is the root of the injustice.
Egypt's supreme court has gone
on
strike against Morsi's decree nullifying its powers.
Thousands of secularists are
protesting
in Cairo.
The European Parliament
pre-emptively
rejected any form of ITU or UN regulation of the Internet.
I support this wholeheartedly, but I think it is sad that the UN is not
a force for good in this area.
Hundreds of Walmart workers went on strike on Friday, along with a
thousand
protests across the US.
This is a good start but not more is needed to win decent working
conditions at Walmart. I refuse to shop there.
Uri Avnery comments on on the
effects
of Israel's latest attack on Gaza.
I wonder if the US secretly pressured Israel to accept a truce.
I can't see any other explanation.
The BBC has a
history
of bias on issues important to the UK government's
interests.
Syrian rebels have captured
several
of Assad's army bases, and with them, large numbers of small arms.
Now that the rebels control substantial territory, it would be
feasible to aid them militarily. There is no arms embargo against
Syria, so a country recognizing the rebels as forming the legitimate
government of Syria could send weapons and even troops, as far as I
know.
The challenge is how to do this in such a way that the Jihadists
will not come out on top, and so as to avoid rebel atrocities.
Thousands of people are held for years in Mozambique's prisons
without
trials or even charges.
The real story of
Thanksgiving
(three articles; the second and third are deeper than the first).
It should be noted that Amerindian groups fought each other for land
too, and often tortured their prisoners; the English colonists were
one more rival group, perhaps no worse than the rest.
Instead of thanking a "creator" that wouldn't deserve thanks if it
existed, perhaps the US should celebrate a
national
day of atonement.
As Shah Khamanei's thugs torture and kill Iranian activists and their
relatives, families are speaking up to
condemn
the regime.
Israeli soldiers
broke
the truce by killing a civilian in Gaza who
was approaching the border fence.
When a woman leaves Saudi Arabia, the state
electronically
informs her master.
One consequence of Israel's isolation of Gaza is that young adults
there have never met an Israeli, and
have
no idea of Israelis as human beings. And vice versa.
Operation Fix Toshiba:
Help us write repair manuals.
There is a legal confusion in the article. The problem here was not
an "extension of copyright law" — all repair manuals are
copyrighted, and that has been true for a long time. Toshiba's nasty
act consists of using the copyright it its manuals to block
their availability to the public.
This does not alter the ethical issue; it does not excuse Toshiba's
action in the slightest. However, while we're talking about it, we
may as well give people correct information about the legal situation.
Secret repair manuals add to
planned
obsolescence and e-waste.
Rare earth elements are found mixed with uranium and thorium, and the
refining companies
poison
people with radioactive discards.
Ecuador has raised about
10%
of the money it asked as compensation for
keeping a large oil deposit in the ground.
Sanal Edamaruku, in exile in Finland,
campaigns for Western pressure
against blasphemy laws in India and elsewhere.
Campaigners
vow
to fight against San Francisco's new ban on public nudity, which
polls say the city's population opposes.
The UK's welfare-sabotage minister says that
the
social welfare programs
he plans to undermine discourage poor people from taking risks.
Society should help poor people avoid risks. You shouldn't gamble
what you can't afford to lose, and poor people can't afford to lose
anything. Social welfare programs should help them get into a
position where they could afford to take a risk.
Exiled opposition candidate Andrei Sannikov says the West is
"too
complacent" about dictator Lukashenko.
China has
rejected
any intention of reducing its CO2 emissions.
Mere improvements in efficiency of fuel use are insufficient to avoid
disaster. The world needs to reduce its total emissions, and that
must include China, which is now the biggest total emitter.
The EU has
closed
the loophole that has permitted catching sharks and keeping
only their fins.
This practice, world wide, threatens the survival of sharks.
Everyone:
take a
stand against Uganda's propose law to execute gays.
Italian reporters have gone
on
strike to protest the criminalization of defamation.
The Taliban are
killing
Shi'ites in Pakistan.
Syrian rebels have captured
major
military bases, ejecting the regime's forces from one province.
President Morsi caused a constitutional crisis by
preemptively
decreeing that the Supreme Court cannot challenge any laws passed
since he took office, or the constituent assembly.
The constituent assembly is accused of planning an
Islamist constitution.
The scarcity of medicine in Iran amounts to
"wartime
conditions".
The US supports Kagame in Rwanda even as he
supports
rebel armies in the Congo.
Some Things Never Change: Governments Still Present Biggest Threat to Open Internet.
Pentagon
Wants to Keep Running Its Afghan Drug War From Blackwater's HQ.
The USDA took the side of GMOs against organic farms, telling them
that they are
on their
own against proprietary genetic pollution.
In the US: participate in the
National
Opt-Out Week protest against the TSA.
The scanners that were not properly tested are the
X-ray scanners.
You should always refuse to go through those; I always do. As far
as I know, the millimeter wave scanners are not dangerous; if you know
of some danger in them, please write to me with a reference.
Israel's
short-sighted
assassination.
Gaza
escalation: there was another way.
School
Principals: Students Have Privacy and Free Speech Rights Too!
Gush Shalom's
statement
about the announced Gaza cease fire.
Obama's regulation of CO2 emissions from power plants is so weak
that it
will
hardly change anything.
US citizens: call on Obama to
make a priority of amending the Constitution
to reverse the Corporations United decision.
Pledged carbon emission cuts are ever more
inadequate
compared with what would be needed to avoid climate disaster.
Spelling out how 4°C of warming would be a
catastrophe.
US citizens:
participate
in a rally supporting striking Walmart workers.
You can also sign
this
petition, but attending a protest will contribute a lot more.
Phoning
Walmart is another useful method of action.
US citizens: phone your senators saying the government should need to
get a search warrant before it can read your email. Also send mail
via
this
page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Hamas and Israel have agreed on a cease fire, together with some
relaxation
in the siege of Gaza.
The main gainers from this war are
Hamas.
The cease fire does not mention measures to stop Hamas from getting
more rockets, but given how rarely they hit anything, and given
Israel's increasing capability to intercept them, this is not crucial
for Israel. They don't even deter Israeli military action. Their
main real effect is to make Hamas guilty of war crimes and to provide
Israel with a pretext for bombing Gaza.
I suppose the reason Hamas wants to launch rockets is to make itself
look strong and gain support in Gaza. This is the mirror image of
what
Netanyahu is doing in Israel.
Sattar Beheshti's family, and witnesses to his torture,
face
intimidation to silence them.
It is not the first time — this is standard Iranian cover-up practice.
US citizens:
call
on Zara to stop selling toxic clothing.
The Committee for Public Safety (oops, Department of Homeland
Security)
wants
to double its fleet of Predator drones for use in the
US.
Morsi has not fully addressed the case of the
children
that were arrested and tortured by Egyptian thugs.
Lessons from Florida about the
wrong
way to rebuild New Jersey and New York.
US citizens:
pledge
not to shop at Walmart on Friday.
I suggest going even further and not shopping at Walmart at all.
US citizens: phone the White House and call on Obama to block the
Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline. Also sign
this
petition.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
A bill to improve users' rights over their email was modified in
Senate committee to do the
exact
opposite.
350
economists call for spending to get the US out of recession
— not budget cuts.
Some
additional
countries have joined the TPP, which remains
just as oppressive as before.
The article uses the term
"intellectual
property", which spreads
confusion and harmful bias. The perpetrators of the TPP use that term
because it helps them. That they use it is no reason for us to repeat
it!
Amnesty International calls for an
arms
embargo on Hamas and Israel.
ACLU: Obama, tackle the
homeland "security" budget.
The article falls into the error of speaking of a "fiscal cliff"
rather than the "Republican extortion".
US retailers could
easily afford to give workers a raise.
But we might need to force them to do so.
Now two
kinds of plant-attacking worms have developed resistance to
genetically modified corn.
Partly this is due to carelessness in the use. When farmers started
using GMOs, they dropped all the other measures that they used to
control pests.
Israel
Hasn't Grown Up Since The Last Gaza War.
What Israel does to people who are useless and "in the way"
(Palestinians) could be a
model for what
the US elites will do to most
Americans who are useless to them and "in the way".
The torture applied in Iraq and the violence used in Afghanistan could
be applied at home.
In other words, if you're an American, there is a good chance
that Obama and Congress are planning your death, starting with
the Grand Sell-out that Obama has proposed.
The EU's greenhouse emissions cap-and-trading scheme is being
gamed
by Chinese companies that run highly-polluting plants in order to sell
lots of emission credits by upgrading them.
For a company to pay companies in other countries to cut emissions is
not necessarily a bad thing. If the companies paid to do the cutting
really do cut, this is how cap-and-trade was supposed to work. The
problem is that some of the credits that are sold do not correspond to
real cuts.
Cap-and-trade systems would be effective if they could not be gamed.
But we have seen over and over that they are gamed. I advocate a
carbon tax because that is hard to game.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to renew the Wind Production Tax Credit.
Israeli soldiers
shot
dead two protesters in the West Bank.
Israelis
debated
whether Palestinians could get justice in Israeli courts.
Several former officials and even former judges said it is impossible
by the nature of the occupation.
Artist Geoffrey McGann was arrested for trying to board a plane while wearing
an ornate
watch covered with switches and wires.
Even though a bomb squad determined it contained no explosives, and
that he had no explosives, the thugs imagined this watch might be
convertible into a bomb timer, which could make it dangerous if only
there were some explosives.
Charges against McGann were dropped, but thug sergeant Nelson said
that it was McGann's fault that his watch was regarded as a bomb by
thugs who must have forgotten all their training about what bombs look
like. However, nobody can anticipate all the screwy mistakes thugs
might make, and it's not their responsibility to even try. When thugs
are wrong, it is their fault.
How a PR firm paid by Russia
"placed"
op/ed articles in major web sites, but concealed this from the editors,
and the public.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support
copyright reform.
I suggest saying that the House Republican Study Group's proposals did
not go far enough — call for legalizing peer-to-peer sharing
and banning DRM.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Every
month for the past 28 years has been warmer than average.
(Average for the 20th century, that is.)
Women in India were charged with a crime for
criticizing
the amount of fuss dedicated to the death of a politician.
Many in Catalonia, which is wealthy compared with most of Spain,
advocate secession because they
resent
the use of their funds to support poorer areas of Spain.
I think it is right and proper to tax the wealthy to aid the rest. It
is possible that these measures tax people in Catalonia who are not
wealthy, and that spreads resentment. It is also possible that separatist
feeling is the basis for the resentment.
Maybe the real wrong is Spain's austerity, which abandons the poor.
"Israelis talk about fear, we Palestinians talk about death."
Armies must not make
bases
in schools.
US citizens:
call
on the FCC not to allow more media concentration.
Murdoch, the owner of Faux News, wants to buy more newspapers.
Why all drug testing funded by pharma companies
must
be published and made free.
More
than 1000 new coal-burning power plants are planned, around the world.
They would be equivalent to another China, in terms of their contribution
to global heating.
A global heating denier in the UK parliament has
major
financial interest in an oil company.
Oil companies will go to
any
lengths to prevent action against global heating
because the required action is never to burn about 80% of the oil reserves
that they claim as their main assets.
CO2 in the atmosphere reached a
new
record in 2011.
Major global investors
call
for action to reduce global heating.
UK independent bookstores condemn Amazon for
not
paying taxes as they do.
Amazon
mistreats publishers, authors, workers, readers, and the nation.
The former prime minister of Croatia was sentenced to prison for
taking
bribes.
Pakistan dropped
blasphemy
charges against Rimsha Masih, but she faces the danger of assassination.
US citizens:
join
the boycott of "natural" and "organic" foods from
companies that paid to defeat the California GMO labelling initiative.
Natan Blanc states why he chose to go to prison
rather
than participate in attacking Palestinians.
Attention
WalMart Shoppers: Cynical Manipulation In Aisle Two.
Netanyahu prevents any cease fire in Gaza
by
demanding the condition that Hamas not be allowed to rearm later.
Imagine if Hamas demanded that Israel not be allowed to acquire any
weapons. That would be a a non-starter, and it is the same in the
other direction. Worse, it would entail closing the tunnels between
Gaza and Egypt, thus destroying what economy Gaza has.
The reason for this non-starter, I suspect, is to enable Israel to
pretend to seek an end to the fighting while in fact choosing to
continue the fighting as long as it wishes. In other words,
these
talks are a sham, just as Israel's peace negotiations with the
Palestinian Authority were a sham.
Israel has
speeded
up the killing of civilians in Gaza.
Drone bombings of towns in Mali are
not
the way to defeat the foreign Islamists who have taken control of
them.
The UK government has
slashed
the legal hearings for local projects,
describing local control as "bureaucratic rubbish".
Cameron also plans to
abolish
appeals of asylum decisions, which means people will be deported
to countries where they face torture or murder. People have been
spared this in the UK at the last minute
by
appeal.
Accusing the American Red Cross of being totally
ineffective
in real disasters.
Obama is preparing to throw
Americans off the austerity cliff.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Lee-Jones letter
and to speed withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Also
send
a message through this page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
EMI
sued
the band Thirty Seconds to Mars for terminating its abusive
record contract after 9 years, as California law allows the band to
do.
Women who were lured into sexual relationships with UK undercover thugs
are suing the thug chiefs. The thug chiefs are trying to use a
secret
court to block justice.
Astounding
facts about inequality in the US.
The battle against fracking in New York State, carried out through
local
zoning rules.
Calling for a national campaign for awareness of
digital
tracking.
A fallacious
argument concludes that passwords are inadequate
for security.
The reasoning is logical, but note the assumptions it is based on:
that we are foolishly trusting all manner of network services for
important data and activities, typing passwords at them to identify
ourselves to them, that we link these accounts together, and that we
are using software so shoddy that exposes us to having our machines
cracked through mere browsing.
There are plenty of reasons to stay away from those network services.
And GNU/Linux is much safer since it doesn't run programs that arrive
in files.
I type my important passwords only at my own computer. No company
knows them, so no company can bypass them, change them, or hand them
out. Since my computer does not allow remote access, no one can even
try to guess them except typing on my computer. I think it is safe.
US citizens:
call
on the US to be completely severe with Billionaire
Polluters.
People have
tried
to kill Haitian human rights defender Evel Fanfan.
Thugs in Italy investigated protesters last year so thoroughly
that they knew
how
many protesters were coming in each bus.
The House Republican Study Committee
proposed
reforms to reduce copyright power. They don't go far enough, but
they go in the right direction.
The copyright lobby objected, and they took down the report within a day.
This shows that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are in
the pockets of our enemies.
Air pollution may damage old
people's thinking capacity.
Activism against the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline has
renewed
vigor thanks to Hurricane Sandy.
To
Climate Scientists: Be Persuasive. Be Brave. Be Arrested
(if necessary).
Hostess, the company that makes twinkies,
massively
increased its executives' pay, then blamed its bankruptcy on the
union.
Israel
bombed
TV news offices in Gaza.
Obama says he is trying to reduce the fighting in Gaza, but gives
Israel a
blanket
endorsement for whatever it does.
Since Netanyahu wants war, and
planned
this war carefully, he will do
nothing to reduce its intensity, just as he does nothing to move
towards peace with Palestinians generally. The only thing that can
end the fighting is pressure on Israel. Since Obama bends over
backwards not to pressure Israel, he is not sincere about wanting to
end the fighting.
French President Hollande
rejected fracking.
The War on Painkillers: since some people die from prescribed
painkillers (often combined, or taken with other drugs),
there is
pressure
to make it hard to get them.
If that campaign succeeds, people will die from suicide instead.
CourseSmart e-textbooks (distributed for major publishers) will
track
users' reading.
Can anyone confirm that accessing them requires nonfree software?
Do they have DRM, too?
US citizens:
join the
opt-out campaign to protest the TSA.
Russia has proposed that the ITU encourage countries to
take
format control over the Internet.
However, I am not sure that tyrannical governments need any ITU help in
order to impose censorship and surveillance on the Internet. They
seem to be doing it perfectly well without any ITU support.
PayPal users:
"opt out"
of imposed arbitration requirements so as to preserve your legal rights.
US citizens:
call
on the US government to suspend Billionaire Polluters
from new contracts.
Everyone:
call
on Behrain to free Nabeel Rajab.
The UK court which found Samsung had not copied the design of Apple products,
and ordered Apple to publish a notice saying so, has punished Apple for
trying
to obfuscate the message.
Explaining why filibuster reform has become a
pressing issue.
The OSCE criticized the US for repeatedly
violating
the rights of protesters.
We've just learned that the FCC may try to hold a secret vote to allow
more media consolidation in the U.S. [1]We need you to call Congress right
away to help stop this vote.
Last week, you took action to stop the FCC from allowing Murdoch to gobble
up more media. Since then, groups like the ACLU, the Rainbow PUSH
Coalition and the National Organization for Women have joined you in
protesting the FCC's rush to give away more to big media.
But so far the FCC hasn't flinched.
When the agency tried to push through similar rule changes during the Bush
administration, Congress told it to back off and the Senate even voted to
overturn the FCC rules.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
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Syria's cyberwar against dissidents
(and the resistance).
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Most of this malware enters through nonfree programs, which tend to be particularly vulnerable because they are set up to run programs that arrive in files that users consider to be "data".
According to the corporate media, Obama's big mistake is the failure to fawn publicly before CEOs.
Israel killed Hamas commander al-Jabari just after establishing a truce with him.
Uri Avnery explains how the attack was pre-planned by Israel, and how it relates to the coming election.
The truce-breaking attack came as al-Jabari was trying to negotiate a longer truce.
Avnery expected Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Gaza, but now it appears to be preparing to do just that.
500 missiles have been fired by Hamas. Hardly any of them has hit anything but earth or sea, but since they are not aimed at military targets, each one is a war crime.
Israel has a better excuse, in legal terms, for most of its attacks, saying that they are aimed at destroying missiles. (I don't think this applies to bombing offices and houses.) However, that excuse is no justification, because Israel is fighting by choice.
US psychiatrists propose to define repeated outbursts of anger as a "disorder".
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sued the IRS for allowing churches to endorse candidates in violation of the tax laws.
As part of the War on the Homeless, thugs in Sarasota arrested a man for charging his phone in a park.
The mean spirit of this attack is displayed by the accusation that this was "theft of utilities".
The US public is showing signs of becoming less cruel and punitive.
US citizens: rebuke Apple for
phony
improvements in factory working conditions.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
The German policies that are moving rapidly to renewable electricity.
Obama's "grand bargain" is based on a Republican lie. With no chance of extending Dubya's tax cuts for the rich, all this bargain can do is help business at the expense of most Americans.
What the US needs is to use tax increases and military spending cuts
to raise spending on
useful
activities (that also make more jobs).
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
Senator Sanders says that riding over the "fiscal cliff" is better than a bad deal.
The US has no wish to prosecute confessed torture conspirators such as Dubya, and Canada protected him too. Will the UN act?
Billionaire Polluter's big fine is not really so big when compared with the extent of its military contracts.
International trade, seeking small increases in profit, puts whole forests and other ecosystems at risk from invasive species (including fungal infections).
A UK man sued his employer and won, after he was fired for publicly stating his opposition to same-sex marriage.
I support same-sex marriage, but I support Smith's right to state his views, so I applaud this decision. Sad to say, the US does not have similar protections for workers freedom of speech.
UK thugs who attacked striking miners and then tried to frame them
face a
criminal
investigation.
US wages have remained stagnant for a decade, and are
lower
than in the 1970s.
US citizens: call
for filibuster reform: require senators to really speak
on the senate floor to filibuster.
Some fish in the ocean near Fukushima may be
too
radioactive to eat for 10 years.
Romney says that serving most people's interests was
"bribing"
them.
Walmart workers planning
to strike ask for community support.
Apple dropped from iTunes the erotic novel, The Proof of the Honey,
saying
it is because of the cover.
Repeated acts of censorship are an additional reason to condemn
iTunes, but not the only one. Even if there were no censorship,
you ought to refuse to buy from iTunes because it
tramples the rights
of its own users.
Gravely wounded civilians Gaza may die because the hospital is
running
out of fuel for its generators. And the ICU is already full.
More people could die from routine medical procedures
as
antibiotics lose their effectiveness.
True
Amount of BP Settlement Will Depend on Hidden Tax Giveaways.
Three distinguished Nobel laureates
condemn
the prosecution of Bradley Manning.
US citizens: support
insurance coverage for abortions for females in the military who get
pregnant via rape.
A town in Colorado
voted
to ban fracking, despite heavy advertising spending by frackers.
Now the state is pushing to overturn this law, since the governor
has been paid by frackers.
Officials should be dismissed for
harming
the public interest, not for sex.
Gas from fracking is so cheap in the US that it has
destroyed
the market for renewable energy generation.
A carbon tax would fix this problem.
The UK prime minister has given his approval to
treacherous
maneuvers
against his own Tory party, and against his coalition partner, for the
sake of fossil fuel companies.
A Tory opponent of wind power admits in private that he
has
no basis for an argument he makes in public.
Will he resign, or is he shameless?
Will increased
trade with Burma wipe out its forests?
BP will pay a fine of
4.5
billion dollars.
I am not sure this is enough, even with damages added, to fully
dissuade companies from taking such risks. However, the worst part is
that the individuals who decided on dangerous policies won't face
personal prosecution.
US citizens: call
on Senate Republicans to allow confirmation of judges.
A Republican state senator
bemoaned
the failure to disenfranchise 300,000 legitimate voters in
Wisconsin.
Proposing
divestment
from fossil fuel companies as a means to fight back against them.
US citizens: call
for improved privacy laws about digital communications.
US citizens:
call
on Democrats in Congress to refuse to extend Dubya's
tax cuts for the rich.
US citizens:
tell
Obama to reject the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline.
Two people in Spain have
killed
themselves when faced with eviction.
Others are responding in a more effective fashion, organizing to block
evictions.
Al Gore on the planet-roaster pipeline and how fossil fuel companies
suppress
awareness of the danger of global heating.
Obama
says
he will take personal charge of action to limit global heating,
but seems to reject outright the measures that would be firm enough
to do the job.
When UVA fired its chairman, that may have been the influence of
global heating deniers who had already
blocked
the university from hiring Michael Mann as a professor.
Genetically modified eucalyptus trees are
proposed
as a way to cut global heating.
Since people won't eat them, and they don't affect wildlife, they don't
have some of the problems of other GMO crops. However, they could still
cause concentration of business, and the artificial genes could pollute
other people's eucalyptus trees and lead to their being sued.
If some GMOs are biologically safe,, this problem needs to be
corrected in order to make them legally safe.
Dutch environmentalists plan to sue the government if it does not take
firm
action against global heating.
Israel launched a
massive attack on Gaza.
Uri Avnery said that Netanyahu did this is to manipulate the coming
Israeli election.
This
article says more about it.
I wonder why so many missiles were
launched from Gaza in the past few
days. Launching missiles at nonmilitary Israeli targets is a war
crime, and cannot be justified, but I suspect some Israeli attack
provoked the launches — and was likewise unjustified.
UK thugs confessed to persuading people to make false confessions
in order to
fill
quotas for solved crimes.
Burma's government made a dishonest goodwill gesture, freeing 450
prisoners including
zero dissidents.
Ecuador is running a
massive
campaign to eradicate rats on the Galapagos Islands.
The "grand bargain" Congress is considering would
cut
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to protect
corporate welfare.
Wind
Energy Could Provide One-Fifth of World's Electricity by 2030.
US textbooks don't talk about
the
commons or its history. Some even present enclosure (driving
tenant farmers off their land) as progress.
The
Petraeus Legacy: A Paramilitary CIA?
The
American
Anti-Corruption Act is a collection of proposed law changes
to reduce the corruption of elections and legislation in the US.
These changes look good to me, except for 1.2, which seems to require
members of Congress to vote in committees only to the disadvantage of
anyone they have got money from. Aside from the question of whether a
law can or should specify which way a member of Congress should vote
on a question, it would be difficult to tell whether a given vote
violates this law. Whether the vote helps or harms a particular
interest is often a subtle question, and understanding it may depend
on information not available to us.
It would be better to forbid members of Congress from taking any action
in regard to bills that specially interest their donors.
What the Petraeus scandal reveals about the lousy state of
US
email privacy law.
A UN agency suggests that
access
to contraception should be a human right.
Israel
Throttles Palestinian Television.
60%
of workers in Spain participated in a general strike
against austerity.
Some mayors have
moved
city funds to punish banks that foreclose homes.
Soup kitchens in Spain
can't
handle all the need.
Savita Halappanavar died in Ireland because of
restrictions
on abortions. Ohio is considering a similar ban, but even worse.
Unsafe
Abortions Threaten Thousands in Eastern Europe.
Restricting abortion
pushes
many women into poverty.
Senator Wyden has blocked an "intelligence" bill that forbids many
US employees from speaking to the press.
Israel's army continues
demolishing Palestinian buildings.
The excuse is that they "don't have a permit". But Palestinians
almost never can get a permit to build in areas under direct Israeli control.
AT&T's
misleading
tactics for abolishing all regulation of telephone lines.
Israeli military rule prohibits all protests in the West Bank, and
specifically prohibits the weekly protests in several villages by
designating them as "closed military zones". Now The army has gone to
special
pains to threaten Israeli activists who join those protests.
The UK government cancelled Labour's plan to make a database about all
children, then
started its own
secret plan to do the same thing.
Don't believe the myth
that banksters and corporate raiders (such as
Romney) operate based on sophisticated math.
The
Real Scandal: Crimes of War, Not Passion.
Despite the irony that the "national security" surveillance system
caught the head of the CIA, it remains a threat to freedom for all of us.
350.org is starting a
student
campaign for schools to divest from greenhouse gas activities and
invest in energy efficiency instead.
Energy efficiency gives a better return, but it would be necessary
even if not for that.
A project collects testimony from the Israeli soldiers of the war of
independence about
how
they attacked and expelled Palestinians.
Arabs also committed crimes against Jews in Israel in that period,
and the Jews had reason to fear they would be killed. That is not
a total and universal excuse, but it does affect things.
Why the world must confront
Israel's
apartheid system.
Ayman Sharawna, imprisoned without charges, has been on hunger strike
for 130 days, and is too weak to stand up, but Israeli guards
refused to let
him be taken to a hospital without shackles.
US citizens: Paul Ryan is still in Congress;
fight
his attack on women's health care and birth control.
Tony B'liar gave a speech on a university campus in the UK and was met
with accusations of
"war
criminal".
US citizens: phone the White House and call on Obama to reduce air
pollution, especially green house gases, and promote clean energy.
Also
sign
this petition.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
US citizens: phone the White House and call on Obama to defend Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and not to renew Dubya's tax cuts for
the rich. Also
sign
this petition.
The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
The United Arab Emirates adopted a
repressive
censorship law for the Internet.
Several Cuban dissidents were
arrested
as they went to work on a petition
for human rights in Cuba.
Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks says that Islamists are winning the
war
against freedom of speech.
Activists dressed as Robin Hood held a
sit-in
in Senator Durbin's office.
Durbin, a leading Democrat, is suspected of planning to join Obama in
selling out to the Republicans.
A lawsuit against Rumsfeld, accusing him of being
responsible
for torture, was dismissed.
A web site invites people to
pay
to have their nude photos taken down.
This business model depends on the nudity taboo. If everyone posted
nude photos of themselves, we'd all say "Ho hum" if anyone else
posted some.
Mainstream US journalists reporting on General Petraeus's resignation
feel obliged to
express
regret, because it is unacceptable to make a
general look bad — or to raise the question of whether he (or the
CIA) is guilty of something more grave than a love affair.
US citizens: call
on Senate Majority Leader Reid to put Elizabeth
Warren on the Banking Committee.
US citizens:
support
Amnesty International in calling on Obama to make the US respect
human rights.
So much fuel has disappeared from the thug office in Helmand
that the Afghan government has
stopped
deliveries.
I expect that corrupt thugs were involved in the disappearance.
The Internet Governance Forum should stop holding its meetings in countries
such as Azerbaijan that
don't
respect human rights.
Mountain gorilla populations are increasing, thanks to
decades
of conservation work.
However, a species with such a limited range will always be vulnerable
to many chance events, and overpopulation in Africa creates a motive
for people to take over their land. To avoid wiping out that species
and thousands of others around the world, we need to curb global
heating and cut the human birth rate to achieve population decrease.
2,444 UK thugs are being investigated for the
Hillsborough
coverup, in which thugs blamed the victims of their errors, then
covered up the truth.
The IMF wants some of Greece's debt to be forgiven, but
Germany blocks it.
What this article does not state — though it is reflected in the
cited figures — is that the high debt-to-GDP, the excuse for
additional EU-imposed austerity, is the result of the present
austerity. Austerity has cut Greece's GDP while the debt remains
about the same. More austerity will do even more of this.
Al Gore calls on Obama to
push
for a carbon tax.
I agree, but I would be stunned of Obama carries out such an about-face
as to even try.
A new Syrian opposition coalition has gained somewhat
more
European support.
This might be a step forward, but overcoming the influence of the Islamists
among Syria's opposition will not be easy.
The natural gas market in the UK has allegedly been
manipulated
with false information, much the way Libor was.
Some people that appear to be in a vegetative state may be conscious
but unable to take any action.
Brain
scans offer them a way to communicate.
I wonder if people would like to develop free software that would help
them communicate more effectively.
Major companies that pay little tax in the UK were called to account
in Parliament, but Amazon and Starbucks executives gave
bullshit
instead of explanations.
The new Russian censorship law, supposedly intended to block sites
relating to drugs, suicide and pedophilia, has already been
used
against political criticism.
This is a world-wide tendency, and shows why any censorship of the Internet
is intolerable.
Even with good will, filtering the Internet for some humanly meaningful
characteristic cannot be done reliably, so it
causes
tremendous trouble while not achieving its goal.
However, one can rely on governments.
China is facing a labor shortage which is leading to improved wages
and working conditions. Factories are
looking
for robots.
I think this demonstrates the wisdom of China's one-child-per-family policy.
Automation and the resulting improved efficiency is good for everyone,
as long as it doesn't result in millions of people who have nothing
useful to do and are condemned to poverty. There is no immediate
danger of that in China — but it could be happening in the US.
I refuse to use computerized self-checkout machines in stores, because
I don't want automation to kick millions of sales clerks into
permanent unemployment. Imagine what will happen in ten years if
self-driving cars eliminate all bus, truck and taxi drivers. Will
there be some new kind of job for these people to do? I doubt it.
In a meeting in Cambridge, some ten years ago, a person said,
"Production without workers requires consumption without money. In
other words, if the robots make it, we've gotta take it." One way or
another, making people work in order to have a decent life ceases to
be acceptable when society doesn't have any work for millions of
people to do.
Of course, there's also the disaster capitalism approach: let all the
superfluous people die.
Glenn Greenwald: The real scandal in the Petraeus affair is how far
the FBI pushed an investigation with no apparent crime, and the fact
it was able to
get
people's private information with no search warrant.
Global heating
threatens
to eliminate coffee plants in the wild, which
means the loss of many varieties with unusual flavors.
A medical journal says there is no
evidence that tamiflu has a beneficial effect on humans that have the
flu, and calls on Roche to release all the data it has.
Drug companies make a practice of
suppressing studies whose results
displease them. I know of no evidence that Roche did this in the case
of tamiflu, but we need to change the system of drug evaluation so it
can't be done at all. The reliable way to do that is to remove drug
companies from the system. Instead of letting them fund these tests,
we should tax them and use the money to pay for the tests.
Global heating is
devastating
Italian agriculture.
Venice will be inundated permanently after a few decades of sea level
rise, along with hundreds of historic cities that dot the
Mediterranean. The only way to protect them from a two-meter rise in
sea level would be to dam them off from the sea. A world suffering
from the effects of agricultural failure will not be able to do that.
Much of our past will be lost.
A group of Israelis that live near Gaza called on their government to
start
serious negotiations with Hamas, rather than continuing war.
Both sides call most of their attacks "retaliation", but it was noted,
a few years ago, that it was usually Israel, not Hamas, that
first
violated the truce and ended periods of calm.
Thousands of Kuwaitis protest against
voting
changes which were designed to make pro-monarchy candidates win.
Some US medical clinics are using palm prints to identify patients, and
push
patients into giving their palm prints without telling them
it is not required.
A shallow article in the New York Times, which cites experts explaining
how stupid Internet voting would be and then effectively disregards them
to present it as democratic paradise, has inspired a number of
me-too
articles.
It takes years, perhaps decades, to discover the flaws in a voting
system. The voting system includes more than just the technology; the
social system that the technology functions in can have flaws too.
But if the flaws are security holes exploited by viruses, it would be
hard to determine this is happening, so how would we ever know?
Many Americans, like Romney, don't realize
how
little help the US gives to the poor,
and how little it costs to help the poor.
The UN is
campaigning
to end violence against women and girls, which
many states do not wish to treat as a problem.
An Israeli film explains the
complex
of Israeli, British and Turkish laws that has been designed to
reliably find Palestinians guilty, and to take away their homes and land.
Everyone:
call
on South Korea not to start hunting whales.
Israel is a
pioneer
in the use of medical marijuana.
China has
barred
UN human rights observers from Tibet.
US citizens:
oppose
the idea of appointing SOPA supporter Howard Berman as Secretary of State.
Obama has always been on the side of the copyright lobby
against you and me.
How deregulation of local Spanish savings banks turned them into a disaster,
and will
benefit the big banks and harm everyone else.
Global heating is
likely
to wipe out the habitat of giant pandas.
Obama begged the Palestinian Authority to postpone its
bid
for partial UN recognition — in effect, to continue the
pretense that there is a real peace process. The Palestinian
Authority refused.
Uri Avnery has explained why the "peace process" is a sham meant to
distract attention from Israel's gradual takeover of most of the West
Bank.
The EU
suspended
its tax on airline CO2 emissions for a year in the hope
of encouraging a world-wide deal for such a tax.
Twitter has created a new form of mass folly: when celebrities die,
lots of people who didn't know them express
intense
public grief.
Among those celebrities, there are some whose work I appreciate, a few
whose work I loathe, and a majority that I never heard of. (I am
proud not to have a TV set, which insulates me from much of popular
culture.) But I didn't have a personal relationship with any of them,
so I don't feel grief for them. I resist social pressure to express
an emotion I don't feel.
I grieve for the friends I have lost.
The US could boost oil production and become
self-sufficient
in oil.
However, it would have trouble remaining self-sufficient in food after
burning so much oil roasts the Earth's biosphere. Known fossil fuel
reserves are 5 times the amount that we could dare to burn.
Meanwhile, Labour in the UK wants to postpone a small increase in fuel taxes
because of the
pain
it might cause.
You might as well postpone a visit to the dentist when you have a
toothache — or the oncologist when you have a strange lump.
In the UK, posting a picture of burning a poppy is
prosecuted.
The freedom to insult people, even personally but especially by
rejecting their ideas, is central to freedom of speech — a
freedom that is
in very bad shape in the UK.
After a
petition
with 60,000 signatures against a China-Canada investment treaty,
sumofus.org reports that ratification of the treaty was cancelled.
Treaties like this subordinate the citizens of the country to foreign
companies. They are inherently unjust, regardless of which countries
are involved. The fact that Canada has a number of such treaties
(with countries other than China) proves only that its government has
repeatedly betrayed the country.
Canada needs to abrogate all these existing treaties. So does every
other country. Each time some government signs one of these treaties,
it harms its own people and the people of another country. By
abrogating the treaty, it helps the people of the other country as well
as its own people.
Toshiba keeps the service manuals for its laptops
secret
— advancing the abusive treatment of customers.
Remember the old saying, "The customer is always right?"
In high tech business today, the customer is always a mark.
The legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington could be the
beginning
of the end of the War on Drugs.
Privatization of water in the UK has led to
inadequate
development at a tremendous cost to the treasury.
The UN has a
punishment
list for individuals, and it puts people on the list without trial.
70%
of Americans now believe that global heating is happening,
and this is beginning to affect election results.
However, the dirty fuel companies are not defeated yet, and they will
go on using dirty tricks to block the necessary action to slow down
the use of their product.
For instance, gas companies have paid for a smear article to appear in
searches
for Robert Howarth's research into the environmental damage
caused by fracking, and now few graduate students want to work in
his lab.
The UK government says it needs secret courts because otherwise
torture
victims would get too much money in damages.
Why not instead stop protecting torturers?
Scientists have figured out
why
Antarctica is gaining some sea ice.
Since this is much less than the decrease in Arctic sea ice, it still
adds up to a net increase in sunlight absorption, a positive feedback
in global heating.
Obama has a second chance on
human
rights. Will he use it?
Same thing for
privacy
vs surveillance.
Investigative journalists in Spain who documented corruption in Catalonia's
medical system were
convicted for calling it "robbery".
Strictly speaking, corruption is not robbery, but the difference is not
enough to be a crime.
5000 Tibetans
protested
for equal rights for Tibetans.
Why
a carbon tax would work where Kyoto has failed.
The 48 least developed countries
beg
the US and other big economies to slow global heating.
Those countries will be hit hard soonest because they have no
resources to cope with disasters even if the disasters affect just part
of the population. Wealthy countries such as the US will be able
to hold out for longer before they too are drained.
Many of the ash trees in Britain will die of a fungus infection; in
2009 the government
cited
"world trade rules" as an excuse for not keeping the disease out.
I suggest that Britons put signs on ash trees, saying "killed by 'free trade'".
The US military
recognizes
what global heating will do, but all
it can do in response is plan to move bases as they are inundated.
Republicans propose to "save" the economy for future workers by
shortchanging them, but what our grandchildren's generation really
needs is a
healthy
biosphere.
Chocolate production in Africa is being
damaged
by global heating.
If there were just one burst of global heating, people would find new
places where cocoa will grow. However, as global heating continues,
no place will stay good for very long. It takes five years for a tree
to start producing. If the good places to grow it shift every five
years, it can't be grown at all.
We will lose many things in this way.
Karl Rove's money
mostly
failed to get right-wing candidates elected.
However, big money and lies
defeated
California's initiative to require labeling of GMOs.
Price Waterhouse Cooper
advises
businesses to plan for global heating to reach 6°C in this century.
That is ridiculous — no business and no state can survive the
cataclysm which will follow from that much change. They can think
about moving the New York Stock Exchange to higher ground, but the
society it depends on probably won't keep functioning after that point.
Chances are you won't survive this either.
The plutocrats are trying to use hurricane damage as an
excuse to
privatize New York's infrastructure and ram in Walmart.
Glenn Greenwald: what Obama's
betrayal
of Social Security will look like, unless Liberals in congress
find some courage.
Corporate media is so desperate to present "balance" that it feels
obliged to
claim
that the Romney and Obama campaigns lied equally much.
Public Citizen describes bills it will campaign for in the coming
"lame duck" session of Congress, and many
nasty
bills it will campaign against.
Occupy Wall Street's new plan:
buy
bad US debts of poor people for a tiny fraction, then forgive the debt.
Noam Chomsky on the
embargo
of Gaza.
The most significant point is that the aquifer is becoming salty and the UN
reports that life in Gaza may be impossible by 2020.
Even without a disaster, Shell has trouble
removing
its oil equipment from the Arctic site where it wanted to drill.
4000 people voted for Charles Darwin instead of their unopposed
anti-science
Republican congressman.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to enforce US arms export laws on Israel.
Amazon's tax avoidance means it
sucks
money out of your country's economy.
In addition, the ease of using the site leads some people to spend more
than they want to spend. While this can happen in a physical store,
you don't spend all day there.
The head of the CIA has resigned for
the
dumbest of reasons — he had an affair.
The real ethical issues of the CIA's actions — torture and
assassinations — are not raised.
The US media have a double standard for
whether an election
victory is a mandate. As you'd expect, the threshold is lower for
Republicans.
The crucial point, however, is that both Obama and Romney
reject progressive positions that most Americans support.
An Indian Internet user was arrested for accusing
a politician of corruption.
If you accuse an Indian politician of corruption, chances are you're
right. I have no proof that that one politician is corrupt, so I
won't make that claim. Nonetheless, insulting someone should never be
a crime, not even when it is mistaken.
Carlos Miller was acquitted of the crime of videotaping the thugs at work,
and now
plans
to sue them for deleting his video.
UK intellectuals condemn the conversion of universities into
commercial
factories for what business needs.
Everyone:
condemn
Apple for using its control over iThing apps
to censor information about US drone bombings.
This power shows what proprietary software means and leads to.
Nobody should have this sort of power.
US citizens: reject
the right-wing claim that America is broke
and only screwing the poor can save it.
A judge
acknowledged
that the US has a criminal investigation against Wikileaks.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to protect wildlife.
Australia's proposal for Internet filtering has been
dropped,
but maybe this only means censorship will be imposed via ISPs
without a new law.
US citizens:
pledge
not to buy anything online on "Cyber Monday" to
protest the horrible working conditions imposed by Walmart, Amazon and
others.
There are many reasons never to buy anything from Amazon (https://stallman.org/amazon.html)
and Walmart. There is also a good
reason not to buy via e-commerce: to avoid letting anyone track your
purchases. However, the petition doesn't require you to say that
you would buy from these companies on other days.
US intelligence agencies will
search
for poachers in Africa.
Global heating is following
the
more severe predictions among the various models.
AT&T wants to abolish
regulation
of phone lines, which would mean it could charge any amount, and
cancel service arbitrarily.
In exchange for customers' rights, the company offers to spend money
on material investments. Does AT&T think it can buy our
congresscritters so easily? Oops, it probably can.
US citizens: call
on Obama to make it a priority to get big money out of politics.
An Iranian
dissident was tortured to death.
Greek MPs voted for further austerity, while outside protesters said,
"They are drinking our blood."
US citizens: call on
Congress not to extend Dubya's tax cuts for the rich.
Civil conflict continues Libya, which to a large extent is still
divided
between various militias.
Is Tunisia stagnating on human rights, or
regressing?
Sabotaging Black voters in Ohio by
giving
them absentee ballots during early voting.
Hundreds of thousands of Korean teenage girls
run
away from home and then become prostitutes, because they cannot
bear the pressure and competition of school.
California's initiative for labelling GMOs was defeated after a
giant
ad campaign by agribusiness said labelling would make the sky fall.
Colorado and Washington have
legalized
marijuana.
The US government vainly vents its anger against Wikileaks by
blocking
searches for the word "Wikileaks" in the National Archives.
This is in addition to blocking access to articles about Wikileaks
from various agencies' computers, and firing employees that even refer
to articles published by Wikileaks.
Nigerians who protested peacefully for an independent Biafra were
arrested
and charged with treason.
A couple in Pakistan murdered their daughter by pouring acid on her,
because she
looked at a
boy who rode by on a motorcycle.
They had apparently planned this for some time, because they had the
acid ready.
Their punishment should include the worst dishonor anyone
in Pakistan could imagine — so that nobody will again imagine
that this is a way to "avoid dishonor".
Greece has been
unable
to pay for a cancer treatment drug, so supplies
have been cut off.
Thus, austerity will kill sick people in Greece as it does in the US.
A beer conglomerate is
replacing
imported beers in the US with lousy domestic substitutes, to save
money.
I don't like any beer, but this is what typically happens in any field
when large conglomerates are allowed to buy other companies.
That general practice should be banned.
The bishop of Green Bay claims that anyone who disagrees with the
Catholic Church on certain
issues does not believe in "the common good or the dignity of the
human person."
I score five out of five on the bishop's list of horrors. I support
abortion rights, euthanasia for those who want it, embryonic stem cell
research and same-sex marriage. And I don't see anything inherently
wrong with human cloning (though with our current technology human
cloning would risk causing avoidable medical problems for the clones).
I reach these conclusions because I value the dignity of the
human person (and the golden rule).
Shame on the bishop for this calumny against people who disagree with
his church.
The Church of Emacs endorses cloning of programs, but says abortion
should be mandatory for nonfree software projects. But we don't say
that those who disagree can't value human dignity. We only say they
are wrong.
The last-minute patch in Ohio election systems was, it appears, not in
voting machines themselves, and was not dangerous. But this
does
not mean computerized voting is necessarily honest.
The article is too quick to conclude that there is no danger from
computerized counting machines for paper ballots.
It was reported after the 2004 election that computerized ballot
counting machines in Ohio were
apparently
biased: areas that counted
by hand got results that agreed with the exit polls, but those that
used these machines to count the paper ballots got results that swung
towards Dubya by around 2%, and that this was enough to give the state
to Dubya.
In principle, a recount by hand of the papers could have corrected the
error, but it was not done. I don't know why. Perhaps there was some
pressure to accept the machines' count.
If such pressure is still operative, computerized ballot counting
machines could still rig elections now.
Green Party candidate Robert J. Fitrakis sued over
Ohio's
plan to install a last-minute change in computerized voting machines. Can anyone tell me the outcome?
Republican-spread confusion has hit the US election.
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California forced one election money-laundering organization to reveal its funding sources, but they were other election money-laundering organizations.
Israelis shot a man in Gaza, then kept ambulances away for hours as he bled to death.
Activists plan to sail a ship out of Gaza containing
export
goods.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
I wonder how Israel will claim that this is dangerous. Perhaps all the world's rockets are in Gaza and this threatens to put rockets in the hands of the rest of the world.
Israeli annexationists have started building
new
colony "outposts".
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
They do this without official government permission, but often the government subsequently approves these outposts as new colonies
South African Jews have organized a protest calling on a toy store to stop supporting the Jewish National Fund.
Israelis have destroyed half a million Palestinian olive trees since 2001.
The Israeli army has done little to stop this, and actually harasses Palestinians trying to harvest.
The ICRC refutes Israel's attempt to distort international law.
Israel pretends that it is not occupying the West Bank and that international law does not apply to voluntary population transfers into an occupied territory.
A computerized voting machine interpreted clicks on Obama's line of the ballot as votes for Romney.
Apparently only one machine malfunctioned in this way. It should have been investigated to find out why it did this — and whether someone intentionally sabotaged it, and if so, who. Instead they "recalibrated" it, which probably means that they reloaded the relevant data, thus erasing the evidence that should have been investigated.
The "Internet of things" is an opportunity for the CIA to spy on the people who allow it into their homes.
Fear of what the Leveson inquiry might do is chilling British journalism.
US citizens: pledge to campaign for prosecution of US election rigging, if that occurs.
Many US smart meters allow anyone to
determine
easily whether people are at home.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens:
call
on Sunday TV shows to address global heating.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
The UK lent hundreds of millions of pounds to dictators in several countries so they could buy arms to repress the people.
The UK government continues to press the people of those countries to pay back the loans.
Thugs in South Africa planted weapons on striking miners they had killed, then claimed the miners were responsible for the violence.
Some miners were apparently murdered, shot in the back. Others were tortured.
Oakland's thug chief set a spam filter to block all emails about
Occupy Oakland. This led him to ignore an
email
from a court-appointed monitor.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
He says he never intended to ignore email from the court-appointed monitor. He only intended to ignore emails from the public he is supposed to serve.
As a UN agency visits Western Sahara to investigate, the Moroccan
occupying forces are
terrorizing
those that might want to criticize them.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
The US and other countries are rushing into Internet voting. Here is why that is dangerous.
Russia's Internet filters block a list of sites, but the list is secret.
I read that the same is true of Denmark's Internet filters.
The US cannot easily find allies in Syria that would stop atrocities, or reject al Qa'ida.
Bassem Tamimi's 16-year-old son was arrested for protesting in Nabi Saleh.
Obama's main grass-roots support groups are planning to fight him if he tries to sell out poor Americans in December by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The US provided a standing authorization to export certain medicines to Iran, but it is not effective since banks refuse to handle the payment.
Miami's Republican mayor made people wait a long time to vote on Sunday.
Another Republican dirty trick in Ohio: a "data base error"
blocked
tens of thousands from voting.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-03 because the old link was broken.]
New Jersey invited email voting to cope with the effects of Hurricane Sandy, but this is very dangerous.
Because of technological advances, we must establish
privacy
rights that used to be taken for granted.
The
Kafkaesque World of the No-Fly List.
Republicans in Florida have been sued for
interfering
with voting.
US citizens:
call on
Attorney General Holder to investigate falsified
environmental analyses done by Pennsylvania to cover up poisoning from
fracking.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
falsified
analyses of water contaminants to cover up poisoning from fracking.
The governor of Pennsylvania seems to have been paid to do this.
A nasty trend in Internet services: arranging
relationships between people in a way that maintains control over
them and prevents them from contacting each other in other ways.
For example, look what happened to a user of Airbnb.
Everyone:
urge Nigeria
to enforce the large fine against Shell Oil.
Mexican underground armies have kidnaped engineers to build extensive
secret
cell-phone networks.
40,000 poor New Yorkers
face
cold weather while having no heat due to damage from Hurricane Sandy.
This is a medium-size disaster. Katrina was much worse, and much of
the population of New Orleans had to scrabble for a place to live
somewhere else. Such a storm in 20 years could leave a million people
without heat and power, which might strain the repair capacity so that
it might take years to repair.
Mass protests in Kuwait against
unfair
election laws were attacked by thugs.
Apple paid just 2% US tax on its
non-US
profits of almost 37 billion.
Syria's rebels captured
the
oil field that provides fuel for the regime.
A group of masked men carried out a carefully planned attack on
gays dining in
a private room in a club in Moscow.
This series of attacks seems to be related to the laws against "gay
propaganda" in Russia.
Such a large current of activity, involving regional governments,
could not happen in Russia without Putin's approval. Therefore,
he must be behind it.
How the US criminalized activism for animal rights by
labeling
it as "terrorism."
I only support the animal rights cause to a limited extent. I am in
favor of medical and biological experiments on animals if they advance
science.
But that is a side issue. The business-driven persecution of animal
rights activists is being used as a wedge to attack human rights for
activists for any cause that the plutocrats don't like.
Meanwhile, those same plutocrats are planning to kill hundreds of
millions of people by keeping global heating on track to destroy
civilization. Americans will not be spared. If you are young, they
may kill you, though perhaps only when you are middle-aged and you
can't afford treatment for sickness caused by fracking, or tropical
diseases that will have spread to today's temperate zones. Your
children will have it worse: they may die from food shortages or civil
war.
So who are the real terrorists?
The MPAA argues against allowing Megaupload users to download the
material that they previously uploaded,
claiming
it would cost Hollywood something.
I can't see how. Even in the case of Hollywood movies uploaded
without permission, those who uploaded them had a copy already.
Nearly all of them still have it. If not, they could get another
copy in an easier way.
The works people really care about downloading back from Megaupload
are their own lost works.
I don't advocate legalizing commercial redistribution without
permission, for artistic works. Since Megaupload was commercial,
I am not necessarily against shutting it down. However, the people
who used Megaupload to share should have been allowed to do this
noncommercially.
Dubya's FEMA director, who famously let people suffer in New Orleans,
criticized Obama for
moving too fast to help areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
There is plenty to criticize about Obama, but Republicans act like
stupid robots that will say absolutely anything as long as the
conclusion is that Obama is bad.
Thugs in Florida raided a
poker
game in which people do not bet any money.
The organizers believed the game was legal.
Putting aside the questions of whether the Florida law really
prohibits Nutz Poker, and whether it is right to prohibit Nutz Poker,
that the thugs attacked with drawn weapons in a situation where common
sense says a phone call would have sufficed is an example of a problem
spreading around the US.
A thug in New Mexico shot a 10-year-old with a taser for
refusing to help clean the thug's car.
The taser did not kill him but did wound him seriously.
The US Patent and Trademark Office is famous for issuing absurd patents.
Turns out it issues
absurd
trademarks, too.
At the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which was shut down for refueling,
flood
waters came close to damaging a pump needed to cool
the used fuel pool.
The pump did not flood this time, but it came close. In 20 years, the
ocean level will have risen and storms will be stronger. Nuclear
disaster is inevitable there sooner or later. Will they build a
backup cooling system that is safe from hurricanes and tsunamis and
can run for months? Or will they skimp to save money?
Drug-sniffer dogs are
not
impartial — their handlers can tell them
to "find drugs here".
The UK Supreme Court ruled that handing over Yunus Rahmatullah to the US
was illegal.
How Obama is planning to betray
Americans to the Republicans.
Most London thugs who responded to a survey said
the London thugs do a bad job.
US citizens: you can
get
Greg Palast's last book in PDF, with no EULA,
and pay whatever amount you wish.
I'm told the site works fine with Javascript disabled (though it says
that it won't work).
Iran says it has suspended uranium enrichment as a goodwill gesture to
encourage negotiations to end the trade sanctions.
An EU official warned that breakaway independent European regions would
start
from zero if they want to become members of the EU.
Van Rompuy is right that independence for a region makes little sense
if the region wants to be part of the EU. However, independence
provides an opportunity to get out of the EU, the WTO, the Bern
Convention, and all sorts of other international injustices.
UK thugs bullied survivors of the Hillsborough disaster into
changing
their stories so that the thugs would not be blamed.
The UK government is aiming for natural gas
at
the expense of its emission cuts targets.
US nuclear reactor operators say
the
absence of a nuclear accident in this hurricane proves they are safe
already.
Examples of foolhardiness:
"That no bullets hit me in this fight proves I don't need body armor."
"That I didn't get HIV this week proves I don't need to use condoms."
"That this storm caused no accident proves we don't need more precautions."
US citizens:
call
on Whole Foods to stop selling chocolate made by
child labor.
Uri Avnery: Netanyahu has joined forces with Israel's fascist leader,
the Putin-admiring Lieberman, whose propaganda against the Israeli
political system follows the lines of Nazi propaganda.
If they win, it could be the end of democracy in Israel.
Global heating
causes hurricanes like Sandy just as smoking causes
lung cancer and the American diet causes obesity.
No wonder that the oil companies are using PR techniques to confuse
the issue that were used by the tobacco companies and
sugar companies.
Debunking the myth that the election is about "small government" vs
"big government".
New York City has greater wealth inequality than Brazil,
and this
had its effects
in the consequences of the hurricane.
This also shows that decades of tuning the economy and essential
services for efficiency has resulted in very little excess capacity.
How many exploded transformers could the US replace in one year?
Anything that causes one more transformer than that to explode
could result in abandonment of large parts of a city.
Rectification of names,
replacing
lies with truth, is essential for a
political movement. This includes the movement against the planet-burning
plutocracy.
One Internaut accused of insulting the king of Thailand has been freed,
but only because
there
was doubt the account was really his.
When a law is fundamentally unjust, as this one is, administering it fairly
prevents only part of its injustice
When the electricity go out, food
stamps and welfare benefits delivered by fancy new digital systems
stop working.
US courts should learn to hear lawsuits about illegal government spying;
other
countries have done so.
A long
list of union organizers endorse Jill Stein.
Apple points the way to America's
low-wage future.
US citizens: tell
Obama and Panetta to retract their assertion
that communication with the public constitutes "aiding the enemy".
In effect they are trying to admit, and regularize, their policy
of regarding the people as "the enemy". We must not stand for this.
Jill Stein for president!
US citizens: Call
on Holder to stop delaying the whistleblower protection
cases for the people who reported fraud and theft committed by FBI agents.
The weather system results from climate, so all
the weather we observe now is the result of the changed climate caused
by human-made global heating. Natural weather — weather not
influenced by global heating — no longer exists.
However, it is still the case that many weather events we see now
would have been normal and frequent under natural weather. And some
events that happen occasionally now might have happened once in a long
while under natural weather.
Ralph Nader suggests how to decide on
elections
for positions other than president.
US citizens: The mainstream media are silent about the damage caused
by Hurricane Sandy (and that others will frequently cause) and global heating.
Sign
this petition calling on them to confront the issue.
Kostas Vaxevanis says that the media in Greece are controlled by the
corrupt clique that rules Greece, and that
corrupt
politicians protect
the rich from prosecution for crimes such as tax evasion.
US government spending cuts are pushing towns into
disastrous
privatization.
Councilor Eichenwald is right to smell a rat. The only way a company
could profit by taking over the town's water or sewage systems is by
squeezing someone else. It could screw its workers, the water users,
or the environment.
This privatization is the opposite of investment: the town would lose
in the long term in order to avoid short-term trouble. A society
which does that is foolish. Allowing the plutocrats to rule is the
foolishness.
We must learn to treat corporate-funded criticism of progressives as a
sign we should vote for them. They show that the companies fear
losing power if we elect that person. Even if the criticism is true,
it is unimportant. Suppose a progressive poisoned his mother -- he's
better than a right-winger who would let a company poison thousands or
millions of people. What counts about any candidate is: will you,
if elected, act steadfastly to abolish the power of the rich?
A Brooklyn school makes its
oldest
students choose between voting and failing the year.
The Romney campaign has trained poll watchers to
impose
nonexistent voter ID requirements. In two different states.
This is part of an extensive plan
to steal the election, which is a backup to the corporate plan to
take the
election via PR.
James Hansen
accuses
the Democratic and Republican parties of selling
the Earth's future to the fossil fuel companies.
Kuwait has repressed a series
of protests.
Faced by a lawsuit to return one user's data from seized Megaupload
servers, the US government wants to
establish
hoops so high and numerous that hardly anyone would try to jump
through them.
Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, who
faced
charges for publishing a leaked list of accused tax evaders, has been
acquitted.
An Indian man faces three years imprisonment for tweets
vaguely
alleging corruption of some government officials.
Tsar Putin imposed Internet
filtering in Russia, with the usual excuse
of "protecting children", but the system is also used to protect his
regime from dissent.
The komissar for telecommunications says he expects Google to censor
YouTube according to their rules.
Due to flaws in the Kimberly Process,
diamonds
that fund war crimes committed by governments such as Zimbabwe and
Israel are certified as ok.
The military budget cuts called for by the 2011 budget deal
would be no problem for the US. A report suggests
how
to implement these cuts.
The cuts in other spending would do a lot of harm.
A video shows Syrian rebels
killing government soldiers they had
captured.
I can understand hating Assad's men, but we must not accept
that as justifying killing them once they are captured.
A study concludes that legalization of marijuana in three US states
could
cut
the profits of Mexican drug gangs by as much as 30%.
There are no legitimate grounds to prohibit marijuana. Marijuana
can
hurt teenagers' developing brains, but it is safe enough for adults.
There are many reasons why we must end the War on Drugs. It corrupts
thugs and officials, gives them an easy way to frame whoever they
don't like, ruins lives through botched drug raids, exposes all of us
to government seizure of our possessions without a trial, and puts
millions of Americans in prison. It means that drug purchases support
gangs that do other harmful things instead of providing tax revenue.
Let's get that war off drugs!
Bahrain sentenced someone to prison for
insulting
its cruel monarch on Twitter.
Kuwait has planned a rigged election and imprisoned an opposition
leader for criticizing its cruel monarch.
NYC
Hospitals Lose Power Once; in Gaza, it is a Constant Crisis.
On the
Orwellian
effects of Argentina's high-tech surveillance.
SIBIOS is why I decided not go to Argentina again.
Andrew Norton:
Is
it Time to Police the Police?
I think the first step is to root out the attitude that presumes
they are right.
Iranian political prisoners have started a hunger strike to
protest
degrading body searches.
Israel has
imprisoned
nonviolent protester leader Bassem Tamimi again.
Two of the three charges against Tamimi amount to "dissident political
activity". As for the other, "assaulting a thug", that probably
means hitting the thug's stick with his head or something similar.
US citizens:
call
for investigation of American Tradition Partnership for violating tax laws.
The World Bank recommends "reforms" that
attack workers' rights.
Tracing Romney's silence on global heating to
seeking
endorsement from the Koch Brothers.
ALEC routed 4 million dollars in corporate money to state legislators,
effectively
buying
their support for the right-wing laws ALEC pushes.
US citizens:
call for real
measures to stop global heating.
The UK's right-wing government is making poor people choose between
rent
and food.
Torture accusations against Mexican thugs have
increased
500% under the last president.
Barclays Bank has been
fined almost
half a billion dollars for manipulating California's energy market.
Rather than relying on prosecution and fines, we should limit the use
of derivatives which are susceptible to manipulation. However, the
banksters, knowing they would lose opportunities to get away with
subtle tricks, use their political power to block this change.
The junk food megacorps are
buying
influence with the World Health Organization.
The Battle Against Big Energy's Rush to Ruin Our Planet.
Everyone: call
on Domino's to stop buying pork made using gestation
crates.
Romney lies
about many aspects of his record as governor of Massachusetts.
The top
11 Republican dirty tricks, so far.
The Republican Party considers a free and fair election as an obstacle
to be crushed. It is un-American.
Blue Coat says
it didn't intentionally sell equipment for
monitoring and censoring the Internet in Syria.
It was meant for monitoring and censorship in Iraq.
Superstorm
Sandy, Google, France, and Saving the Freedom to Link.
In the US, a court says thugs can
install
cameras in open land without a warrant.
The article points out that allowing thugbots to do whatever real thugs are
allowed to do leads invariably to a tremendous increase in surveillance of
everyone by the thugs.
An Israeli border thug who shot an 11-year-old boy at a protest has been
convicted
only of firing his gun inappropriately.
Unless someone else fired ordinary bullets, it had to be him.
Beijing is restricted so tightly that people must
fill
out a form to get in a taxi.
In New York, by contrast, the taxi
sends
your photo to the police.
The cloudy thinking by many companies about their computing has led
them to make web services
depend
on lots of different servers run by different companies. If any
one of them fails, perhaps due to a hurricane, the service may become
inoperational.
The same design practice often means that using one web service
enables many servers run by different companies to track you.
Why Chavez
Won Again.
Jill Stein was
arrested
for bringing supplies to tree-sitters blocking
construction of the planet-roaster pipeline.
The report says that the company is routing the pipeline around the
tree sitters, thus giving the lie to previous statements that it
could not change the route for all the world.
However, the pain that Texas landowners are suffering from the
construction of the pipeline is nothing compared to what global
heating will do to humanity if this pipeline is finished and used.
Here is a
statement published by Ms Stein's campaign.
US
Media Covering Hurricane Sandy Mostly Ignore Whether Climate Change
Fueled Storm's Fury.
The New York Times mentions that
sea
level is rising, but avoids
saying why: global heating, of course.
"Free trade" treaties allow countries to use any measures to protect
public health or the environment,
provided they
have no effect.
A commission involving businessmen and unionists concluded that the UK
will experience increasing inequality and decreased income, and recommended
measures
to push wages up as well enable people to work.
Other useful measures would be to help people have fewer children
and to help more workers unionize. It would be hard to get such a
commission to recommend these.
The US sugar industry's
organized
PR campaign ended scientific
research into the health effects of eating lots of sugar.
This enables the sugar company to continue to claim that there is no
evidence that eating sugar causes obesity or diabetes.
Bahrain's tyranny has overtly
banned
all protests.
Colombia's president is
pushing
a constitutional amendment that would
give the country's murderous military effective immunity for murdering
civilians.
I heard in Colombia that he was minister of defense when the
"false
positive" murders took place.
An executive of the Bank of England says that Occupy London Stock
Exchange was right in its
criticisms
of finance in the UK.
US citizens: sign
this petition against giving immunity to banksters' fraud.
Congress is so paralyzed that it
cannot
defend its own power from the other two branches of government.
To say that Congress is "polarized" mis-states the problem;
"paralyzed" fits it better. The Republicans can block anything in the
House, and the Democrats can block anything in the Senate. Thus, it
hard to pass any law.
UN Special Rapporteur Falk endorsed the
boycott
of certain companies that support the Israeli occupation of the West
Bank.
The US response repeats Israel's practice of using the moribund
"peace process" as a
smokescreen.
President Carter recognized publicly that
Netanyahu
has abandoned the goal of peace with Palestine.
Israeli soldiers shot at Palestinian fishermen, and
killed one of them.
As Katrina Katarzyna monitored a nonviolent protest in Palestine,
Israeli thugs
choked
her and then dragged her away. She has not been allowed to see a lawyer.
Israeli fanatics are trying to build a colony on the lands of
Beit Sahour, so the Palestinians have begun
regular protests.
Until 1977, Israel tried to treat the inhabitants of the West Bank decently.
Then the
colonization
started.
As Israel has taken 89% of the West Bank's water resources,
the
aquifer is being emptied and Palestinians' water supply decreases
every year. In Gaza, overuse of the aquifer threatens to ruin it
permanently.
Emptying aquifers through overextraction is a world-wide problem.
Israel's policies cause this problem to occur more strongly in Palestine.
Imports and exports via tunnels have greatly
eased
the siege of Gaza,
but Hamas has developed unexpected bad relations with Egypt.
Hasan Safadi ended his second hunger strike and was
freed
from imprisonment without trial in Israel.
Safadi ended his first long hunger strike when Israel promised to
release him. Then Israel reneged on the deal by extending his
imprisonment, so he launched the second hunger strike.
America's Schools: Breeding grounds for
compliant
citizens.
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Telling
Truths about Israel, Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The founder of the regulation-defying taxi company UberTaxi has praised and echoed the ideas of Ayn Rand, and shows Rand-like contempt for mere workers.
Government regulations can be well or badly chosen, but trying to destroy government regulation is means a society in which businesses trample people at every opportunity. I've seen taxi regulations that I think are cruel (requiring drivers to wear jackets and ties in hot weather, supposedly for my sake — I felt ashamed) and even flat-out tyrannical (in NYC, every cab must have equipment to send the customer's photo immediately to the thug department by radio, so I refuse to use cabs in NYC). However, there are also legitimate grounds for some kinds of taxi regulation. One of them is to make sure there aren't so many taxis that each driver is idle most of the time.
In several cities in Australia, taxis have microphones that record the passengers' conversation. I silently showed cab drivers a note which said,
Don't speakfollowed by the destination address.
Cab is bugged
Activists have occupied parts of a new gas-fired power plant in the UK to protest fracking and increasing CO2 output.
Greek journalists face several kinds of repression from the state.
Why the US tends to have ridiculous rules that can be gamed: powerful companies have blocked the simpler reasonable methods.
New York thugs beat up a homeless man who they found sleeping inside a synagogue-attached school.
When he explained that he had permission to sleep there, the thugs were not interested in checking.
Even if resisting arrest justifies something, it can't justify this violence, which was not necessary for any legitimate purpose.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not call for or advocate copyright as we understand the term.
The article falls into the widespread error of treating "intellectual property" sometimes as if it were a coherent concept meaningful to talk about, but that doesn't invalidate its argument.
In Greece, as in the US, treatable cancer kills those who don't have money.
The families of these people should use their funerals as political rallies to condemn the politicians responsible for killing them.
Rebecca Watson writes about the sexist bullying that she received after complaining about sexist bullying in the skeptical community.
The page mentions threats, insults, criticism, and gentle expressions of attraction. To think clearly about these issues, we need to distinguish them clearly.
The insults are mean and nasty; the threats are mean and nasty and maybe illegal too. I see no excuse (or even basis) for them in the events described here.
The gentle expression of attraction was a different matter entirely. Some men find a woman attractive for knowing what she stands for and acting capably and firmly to achieve it. I don't think he did her any wrong by suggesting coffee as an excuse for sitting and talking and perhaps going further. It was an harmless offer of something she didn't want.
Repeated offers of something unwanted can get to be annoying. In some countries, if I have a small bag in my hand, numerous people ask me if they can carry it for me. I call this "obsessive hospitality" and I find it burdensome — but I realize it is not mean or nasty. Occasionally I can't take any more and I am short with people who offer me this absurd help, but afterward I feel sorry because I was too harsh with them.
If Ms Watson finds gentle invitations for sex or romance burdensome because they are so frequent, I will restrain my envy and say the same thing to her that I say to myself. When a practice is meant in good will, but turns out annoying, we ought to explain without rebuke why we want others to change their practice. To say "You must change the way you treat me" does not require "You're being mean to me."
Dawkins criticized her for complaining about the invitation, saying it was a small matter compared with the oppression some women suffer. It certainly was. I don't know whether her complaint was made in a way that called for this criticism, but he could have said it without the sarcasm.
All in all, the insults and threats are the more important issue. Having discussed the complex but minor issue of the invitation and responses to it, I suggest the skeptical community focus on rejecting verbal bullying.
More about the Greek journalist arrested for leaking the list of accused tax evaders that the Greek government doesn't want to touch.
Burning natural gas makes less CO2 than coal, but supposing that remains true when the other effects of fracking are considered, the global effect of fracking in the US is to increase CO2 emissions.
This is because the substitution of gas for coal in the US has led to a glut of coal, driving down its price and leading to a boom in coal exports. The coal that the US used to burn is still being burnt, just elsewhere.
This reinforces my conclusion that taxes on fuels and activities that lead to greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to slow global heating.
Ukraine's ruling party claimed victory in the elections.
Here is how it rigged them.
A woman is facing execution if convicted of smuggling heroin out of Pakistan.
Ms Shah says other people (in her family?) gave her the luggage to carry. She might be telling the truth, and might be lying. If she gets a fair trial, the outcome cannot be based on certainty; at best it could be based on plausibility of the various possibilities. Even if she is guilty, the death penalty is barbaric.
It would be much better to end the War on Drugs. Heroin is somewhat dangerous, so I don't recommend legalizing its sale to the public, but making it available legally to registered addicts would wipe out most of the black market as well as any romantic attraction the drug has. That would nearly get rid of smuggling.
Old oil pipelines owned by a company known for skimping on maintenance could pollute the Great Lakes, ruining the drinking water for tens of millions of people.
An Egyptian tv commentator was sentenced to prison for defaming president Morsi.
He is said to state support for the dictator Mubarak. If so, I disagree with him, but he has a right to say it.
The right-wing austerity-imposing government of Greece has arrested a journalist for publishing a list of rich suspected tax-evaders.
The Greek government's policy is to impose suffering on ordinary people, but apparently it intends to protect the rich. As for attacking whistleblowers, that is the finest Obama tradition.
South Africa's president has
dropped
his lawsuit against a cartoonist that criticized him.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: sign this petition to limit the catch of menhaden. These small fish, which many larger fish eat, are down 90% from what they used to be.
US citizens:
sign
this petition to Obama and Romney calling on them
to explain how global heating makes big and dangerous hurricanes
like Sandy more likely.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Environmental protesters in Ningbo pushed the Chinese state into saying it would suspend construction of a petrochemical factory. But they do not trust the government.
A court in Bahrain acquitted a thug charged with torturing a journalist.
The US wouldn't even have prosecuted a thug for that.
Experiments by scientists that distrust genetically modified foods can
hardly be more biased that the
experiments
funded by the seed companies.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Look at all the ways Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted to make Americans suffer.
Obama has systematized the US's killing system, now called "the matrix", making it massive and likely permanent.
Of course, the criteria can easily be changed. In the absence of judicial control, whether your name goes on the kill list is up to the president alone — this president and any future president.
Criminals and terrorists
can
use high technology to attack, just as states can.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Here are some comments on the article.
Alarm about deadly cyber-attacks is exaggerated and self-serving.
By jailing whistleblower Kiriakou, Obama's message is: torture is ok, but those exposing torture will be punished.
A bunch of rich CEOs who are already ripping off the US treasury
gave
advice to let them take more.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Like Reagan's absurd "trickle down", this is supposed to magically make us better off. And like Reagan's absurd "trickle down", it won't.
Romney's performance in the foreign policy debate demonstrated that
his only policy commitment is to
change
his position as often as it suits him.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: call
on Attorney General Holder not to allow
Republicans to use electronic voting machines to steal the Ohio
election.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
A mother in Atlanta called 911 because she thought her son might shoot
himself, so a SWAT team came and a sniper thug
shot him from a distance.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
How did this happen? Here is a guess. Once Atlanta had a SWAT team, it had to decide when to use it. It wrote rules for when to send a SWAT team, such as, "Whenever someone has a gun and is likely to shoot it." So they sent the team. The SWAT team's mentality is dedicated towards shooting people, so they shot.
Such harm has happened many times, and will happen again and again until there are fewer SWAT teams.
A friend said this reminded him of a joke, "Save police time — beat yourself up."
David Attenborough says, "There is no problem on Earth that could not be solved quite easily if you could reduce world population."
I am disappointed, however, that the article promotes Bluray disks. They have DRM which has only been broken for some disks — the other Bluray disks remain incompatible with freedom.
If a product is designed to chain you, you must not surrender to it. If you can't break the chains, don't put them on!
US citizens: sign
this petition to block more mountaintop removal mines.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
UK prudes are looking to persecute 1960s pop stars for having sex with possibly underage groupies.
The idea that stars generally "manipulated" their groupies into having sex is ridiculous. Groupies crossed hurdles to get sex with stars.
Mr Roffey gives no reason for prosecuting these stars except the existence of a prohibition, which begs the question of whether the prohibition is justified. His idea of "child protection", which he applies to teenagers who were hardly children, is as hypocritical as "protective custody".
US citizens: call
for prosecution of a company boss who threatened
employees if they don't vote for Romney.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
In America, the weak protections against companies that pressure their employees about how to vote are hardly even enforced.
Guarani-Kaiowá people in Brazil who were kicked off their lands by violent farmers now face court-ordered eviction from their lands.
I wonder whether these farmers have a connection with megacorporations.
Prisoners linked to former president Gbagbo are being tortured in Ivory Coast.
On the danger that Twitter will be used to manipulate US congressional elections with lies.
US citizens:
support
those who have called for applying US law
to Israel's use of US weapons.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Wikileaks has published US government military prison regulations.
Amnesty International is
concerned
about what it sees.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Defenders of Palestinian prisoners' human rights face state harassment in Israel.
Indonesian thugs shot Papuans protesting for independence.
Papuans never wanted to be part of Indonesia, which has sent large numbers of Javanese to colonize West Papua.
Another argument against supporting the lesser of two evil candidates.
US citizens:
call
on the US government to publish its policy for drone
bombings and make it fit international treaties.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The government of Greece has tolerated the growth of fascist enclaves among the thugs in order to use them to suppress leftist-organized protests against austerity.
Two Jamaican homosexuals have asked an international commission to criticize Jamaica's law against homosexual acts, calling attention to entrenched bigotry in that region.
The Library of Congress has decided it is legal to jailbreak phones but not tablets.
Obama demonstrates his commitments by offering logging companies a treat: stripping protection from part of the forest where an already threatened seabird hangs on.
Now that workers are protesting against moving the Sensata factory to China, Bain (which Romney still owns part of) is threatening to close the plant early.
What's most pitiful here is that it is possible to threaten American workers with closing their plant a few weeks before it was going to be closed anyway. They should respond by saying, "Shut it today!"
The workers should have walked out immediately as soon as Bain told them to help ship their jobs to China, telling Bain, "If you do it, you'll do it without our help and without our knowledge — and we hope the business fails as a result." Then, instead of helping their oppressor, they could have done their best to make Bain regret this decision.
350 former generals endorsed Romney, perhaps because they now work for arms companies and he's promising to pay them more money.
The great drought has brought the dust bowl back to Oklahoma, and recent pesticide-heavy farming (thanks to GMOs) has made the soil more susceptible to blowing away.
The heirs of author William Faulkner sued Woody Allen for using in a movie an 8-word attributed quotation from Faulkner's work.
This is ridiculous opportunism, but if successful, it could make copyright nastier for everyone.
A UK politician is getting flack for advising people to give false personal information to web sites.
I think his only mistake was to suggest that people trust large commercial sites. Nobody should trust Facebook with personal data. If a social networking system requires correct personal data, we should reject it on principle.
Massachusetts citizens: call on Governor Patrick to move forward with the state's solid waste plan.
A survey of fracking areas found a large fraction of respondents have become sick from pollution of their water supplies.
US citizens: support Walmart workers on strike.
A campaign
accuses
various UK officials of lying in order to convict
Abdelbaset Al Megrahi of the bombing of Pan American flight 103 over
Lockerbie.
There are reports that suspicion was turned towards Libya for political reasons
despite
evidence
that pointed towards Syria.
Senator Inhofe
won
the Rubber Dodo award.
Berlusconi has been
convicted of tax fraud.
Everyone:
help
stop India's National Investment Board, a new scheme
for selling the country to business.
A Texas official
threatened
to arrest international election monitors.
More about the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime call for total surveillance
of the Internet, including a ban on anonymous use in places such
as libraries.
Readers will recognize this as a policy typical of tyrannical regimes
such as China, which was imitated to some extent by France under Sarkozy
and Italy under Berlusconi.
Five
Specific Questions Journalists Should Ask About the Drone Strike Policy.
The "I pay more" campaign —
one dollar is
more tax than many large corporations pay.
Mairead Maguire, who received the Nobel Peace Prize, says that the
peace
prize committee must be reformed.
US citizens: call
for investigation of Republican voter registration fraud
across the US.
Two of the 6 largest publishing companies
want
to merge.
Mergers should be absolutely barred between companies so powerful
within their fields. Such mergers create companies "too big to fail".
A UN report advocates
rigorous
surveillance of the Internet, in the name
of stopping "terrorists".
For "terrorists", read "dissidents", since that's who it will be used against.
Another
aspect of the Playstation 3 has been jailbroken.
Way to go, hackers! (I use the word in the correct sense, even though
the domain they are hacking in this time happens to be cracking.)
Recall that Sony sold the Playstation 3 with the ability to run
GNU/Linux or its proprietary system; then it
demanded
that each user give up one or the other.
The Free Software Foundation calls for a
complete boycott of Sony
because of its legal attacks on jailbreakers.
Romney's naval spending adviser knows what he's talking about — and
how
much money he has made from navy shipbuilding.
Even if we suppose is the good thing for the US to have a powerful
navy — which depends on whether the US will support or oppose
human rights around the world — the US navy is so powerful
already that any further increase is wasteful as well as unaffordable.
Charter schools are
big profiteers.
There are only three ways that charter schools can make money like
this: skimping on the students, paying teachers less, or charging the
public more. (Of course, one school can combine all three methods.)
This demonstrates the general rule: privatizing any public service
is a bad policy unless it gives the public the direct benefit of competition.
Internet surveillance by companies includes
information
about most US Internet users' political affiliation.
This is a reason to be careful in how you browse, and block various kinds
of surveillance. I browse from shared computers and don't identify myself
to any web site I visit. Using Tor and the Tor browser is a good idea too.
Reasons
to avoid Internet voting.
David Attenborough says that
only
a bigger disaster will make the world start acting to stop global
heating.
The UK has
refused
a US request to use its bases to attack Iran.
The request could be part of a contingency plan. But it could also
indicate that Obama really plans to launch another war.
The Tibetan leadership asks Tibetans to
stop
setting themselves on fire as a method protest.
The UN special rapporteur for counterterrorism
will
investigate US drone bombings and says that some may be war crimes.
He also talks about the waterboarding that was the centerpiece
of the Khmer Rouge's torture.
One of the few good things ever done by the government of Vietnam was
to capture Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge and rescue Cambodians from
their genocide. The US opposed this, effectively supporting the Khmer
Rouge, as a way of opposing the Vietnamese government, which it still
considered an enemy.
A New York thug was arrested and
accused
of plotting to kidnap women to be raped and eaten.
Turkish political prisoners have spent
43
days on hunger strike.
Beijing has shown off a
new
model jail.
Based on previous precedents, I suspect that they will keep treating
most prisoners badly and hope we believe that this is typical.
A UK thug who called a prisoner "nigger" has
escaped
all punishment.
On the one hand, this demonstrates the impunity of the thugs.
On the other hand, it is wrong for insults (racist or not) to be a
crime — even for a thug. However, any public official who
gratuitously insults members of the public in the course of his work
ought to be fired.
The UK has seen over 4000 oil spills and
has
fined those responsible only 7 times.
The UK government has put a
global
heating denialist on its energy committee, demonstrating its policy of
undermining renewable energy supports step by step.
Russia Today broadcast a presidential debate
including
the US candidates that are on the ballot in enough states to win,
but shut out by the major media.
There will be
another
such debate on Oct 30.
BP is asking the US to settle some of the damages for the Big Spill
for
only half what they really cost to others.
US citizens: here's the ACLU's
advice
on ballot questions.
The US military
keep spending
more and changing its doctrines, but keeps losing.
Perhaps the US military is a success for its real purpose:
spending money on the companies that get the money.
In Boston:
join
the vigil to end climate silence.
Romney would "do nothing to hurt the auto industry", but he
moved
every unionized Delphi job to China.
US citizens: vote for candidates that support abortion and
contraception rights.
Here's
a list.
US citizens:
put
KFC under more pressure to stop using paper made from
cutting down wild forests.
The US has sued Bank of America for
dishonest
lending to government home loan systems.
NOAA suppressed information about whales that
may
have been killed by the Big Spill.
Hamas
launched
missiles against Israel, saying this was a response to
Israeli attacks.
US citizens:
sign this petition
to abolish several states' constitutional
rules that ban Atheists (as well as Unitarians, Hindus and Buddhists)
from holding office.
Elik Elhannan, from the Estelle,
says
that Israeli soldiers shot him repeatedly with tasers as he was
helpless, and that they beat a Greek MP in prison.
Former Mossad chief
condemns
Israeli leadership and Romney, saying that negotiations are
needed, not war.
Israeli extremist "settlers" attacked a Palestinian harvesting his
olives near Hebron. Israeli soldiers arrived and took the side of the
extremists. They
arrested two
Palestinians and an Italian for making videos of the attack.
Another Palestinian was arrested
because
the extremists threw stones at him as he harvested his olives.
This is part of a pattern
of attacks by colony inhabitants against the Palestinians they
want to push out.
Also near Hebron, a group of
"undercover"
Israeli soldiers, apparently posing as Palestinians, were also
attacked by the extremists.
"Undercover soldiers" is a strange idea — if captured in war,
would this mean they can be shot as spies? However, they might
represent an attempt by the Israeli government to put a stop to the
extremists' violence. I eagerly await analysis from someone such as
Uri Avnery who will understand what's really going on here.
Israel needs leaders who will
tell
the truth and make peace.
Republican senate candidate Mourdock
says
raped women should not be allowed abortions because the pregnancy
is "God's will".
By his strange reasoning, there is no reason to treat heart attacks,
cancer or infections, or rescue people from burning buildings. Aren't
all those events just as much "God's will" as a rape? The Panglossian
idea that humans should surrender to bad things because they are
"God's will" is at the heart of Christianity and Islam. (I don't
think Judaism has the same fatalism.)
Ohio Republicans working for the state told voters the
wrong
date and place for them to vote.
The Republican Party has no shame, and would boast of successfully stealing
an election.
Imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has started a
hunger strike.
The Pakistani Taliban
threaten to shoot another teenage activist for
women's rights.
Russia
kidnaped
a Russian dissident from Ukraine. Naturally he is
accused of "planning terrorism".
If criticized, Putin can say he is only following the example of
Dubya. Until the US conclusively rejects his example, frees the
victims of arbitrary imprisonment, and puts the torturers on trial, it
will continue to set an example to inspire tyrants around the world.
Turkey
systematically
harasses and imprisons journalists who criticize government policies.
It appears that if Egypt's supreme court dissolves the constituent
assembly, Morsi
will be able to choose the members to replace it.
So it seems to me that there will be an Islamist constitution either way.
US "aid" for Haiti means suffering, and it is
no
accident.
The humble ebook bundle has collected a
million dollars in voluntary payments in two weeks.
This bundle avoids two of the three
unethical
aspects of most commercial ebooks: it has no
Digital Restrictions
Management, and it doesn't impose an EULA to restrict users more
tightly than copyright law.
The only problem remaining is that there is no way to pay anonymously.
On principle, I won't buy a book in a way that identifies me to a data
base. I asked them if they would please accept a money order, but was
told it would be too difficult to handle those.
The dissidents of Pussy Riot have been
sent
to remote prison camps
where their children will hardly be able to see them.
Haiti can expect the same suffering from
international
gold mining companies that they have caused in the neighboring
Dominican Republic.
Our system for testing medicines has been
corrupted
at every level by the pharma companies.
We should take this testing completely out of their hands.
The state should fund all studies, insist on publication of
all studies, and pay for them by taxing the pharma companies.
In regard to danger of dependence on computer systems we don't
understand, see
The
Persistent Peril of the Artificial Slave.
The Airbus crash over the Atlantic, mentioned in the paper, was later
analyzed. It seems that the high-level clever flight controls got
confused and gave up, reverting the plane to an ordinary flight
control mode, but the pilots did not expect this and did not realize
they should go back to the old-fashioned manner of controlling the
plane that every commercial pilot has learned. They could have coped,
but they didn't figure out that they needed to.
As Obama and Romney Agree on Afghan War, Israel and Syria, Third
Parties Give Alternative.
Corporate lobbyists are in charge of the US presidential debates, and
use this power to
suppress
some issues where the public disagrees with both of the approved
candidates.
Expanding the foreign policy debate with
Jill
Stein and Rocky Anderson.
e-Voting
Company Could Intercept and Change Ballots Without a Trace.
Mitt
Romney's Medicaid Claims Belie How Block Granting Would Affect the
Program.
With high US officials warning about the danger of
"cyberwar",
which of our freedoms will they attack in the name of "protecting us"?
Terrorists are a real danger, but anti-terror laws are a
bigger
danger. This article points out that the same is true for
cybersecurity. Bad security practices are widespread; many of
Microsoft's decisions amount to negligence. Aggressively
prosecuting such negligence, and actively seeking web sites with bad
security of users' personal data so as to fine them heavily, could
reduce the real danger by changing the usual practices that developers
follow. And it would not attack anyone's rights or privacy.
Perhaps that's why the Obama regime prefers another approach.
The author was taken in by treating "intellectual property theft" as a
meaningful concept. "Intellectual property" lumps together so many
unrelated laws, which have nothing in common in their practical
effects and requirements, that its only meaning is confusion.
Most of these laws have no connection with theft; for instance, it is
impossible to steal a patent or a copyright. (The term "copyright
theft" is a bogus propaganda term for "copyright infringement", which
is not theft, and usually not a crime although Hollywood would love to
make it one.)
See
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
for more information about this.
The article also uses the term "hacker" as synonymous with "security
breaker", which is unkind to us
hackers.
Putin is redefining treason to include
political
opposition and working with international organizations.
I think all international scientific organizations should cut off working with
Russians if this is adopted, because those Russians would be guilty of treason
and we should not lure them into such a situation.
Is execution a form of torture?
Maybe it is. However,
extended solitary confinement seems to be much
worse, as torture.
The other
reasons
to oppose capital punishment are quite sufficient.
CIA whistleblower
John
Kiriakou will go to prison, a great victory for Obama's
War
on Journalism and Public Knowledge.
An informant recruited by the New York Thug Department quit
and said he was
ashamed
of spying on his friends.
Such infiltrators have found quite a few people they could
entice into terrorist plots, but few who were motivated enough
to try anything on their own — and they would have been unable
to achieve anything.
A dispute about biofuels —
between
corn farmers and cattle ranchers.
The interests of the poor around the world who can't afford food, and
the need to reduce global heating, do not enter into it.
Egypt's Supreme Court will take up the question of
whether
to elect a new assembly to write the constitution.
The implications of this decision have changed since the military rulers
tried
to dissolve the assembly, and Morsi defied them by reinstating it,
since they no longer have power, so pushing them out of power is no
longer Egypt's crucial need.
The Stingray
collects
data on all the cell phones in a given area,
effectively a blanket search technique that can search hundreds of people.
The FBI worked with private security companies to
sabotage
and defeat protests in Oakland.
However, 2/3 of the documents are labeled "classified", in effect
treating protests as a threat to national security.
Right-wing politicians are the real threat to the security
if the American nation. They and their cronies think
they can make most Americans into oppressed poor. Then when
the oppressed American nation fights to protect itself,
they pretend that the American nation is a threat to the
security of the American nation.
noPhoto is
designed to nullify red-light cameras that generate
automatic traffic tickets.
Defenders of Obama's drone assassinations follow the
same
thought pattern as Osama bin Laden.
The UK privatized its court interpreters, and the service
doesn't
work.
Sri Lankan Tamils were spared deportation from the UK based on evidence
they
would be tortured if returned there.
Racists in Louisiana
doused
a Black woman in chemicals and set her on fire.
The world is
provisionally
winning the battle against piracy.
Qatar will give 400 million dollars to Gaza
to
repair damage done by Israel's attacks.
International observers will
monitor
the US elections for voter suppression.
True
the Vote is outraged by this observation,
because its mission is to make the election unfair.
The Atheist, Secularist and Humanist group at the London School of
Economics posted a Jesus & Mo cartoon and was
ordered
to take it down.
Eventually it was vindicated
and will keep the cartoon up.
I am only sad that they are using
Facebook to post it.
The Green Party and Libertarian Party together are
suing
to call for inclusion of more candidates in presidential debates.
It is too late for this year, but it might do good in the future.
Another effect of smartphones:
apps
designed to encourage teenagers to smoke tobacco.
US citizens:
sign this petition
to take the Minuteman missiles off
13-minute alert.
US citizens:
call
on the Virginia Election Commission to investigate a
Republican voter registration fraud.
(Collecting registration forms from voters, then throwing them away
instead of turning them in.)
It is getting to the point where we should call it the Election Cheating Party.
US citizens: stand with Jill Stein
for ending global heating,
instead of Obama and Romney's "burn it all" policy.
A UK thug is accused of boasting that he lied and
blamed
the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
A passenger was
mysteriously stranded in Hawai'i by the No Fly list.
Since flying is the principal method of long-distance travel in the
US, it is inexcusable to deny anyone the right to fly except as
punishment for a crime after a fair trial.
Thanks to global heating tropical avian malaria is now
infecting
birds in Alaska. Populations never before exposed could be wiped
out by the parasite.
I don't think most birds could open and reseal mosquito nettings when
they leave the nest to seek food for their chicks. Just for fun, it
would be interesting to see if some parrots or corvids could learn to
do this.
The Big Spill is not leaking, but the experimental containment dome
which failed to hold in the oil did collect some oil. That oil is
now leaking
out of the dome.
A containment dome with a large tank and a collection pipe for ships
to empty the tank might perhaps be of use in future spills.
Italian seismologists were
convicted
of manslaughter for making a report, for the state, saying they
saw no particular reason to expect a large earthquake in L'Aquila.
They did not say there would be no large earthquake, only that they did
not think the many small quakes implied there would be a large one.
As the scientists say, this is a horrible decision.
Amazon wiped a user's
Kindle and deleted her account, then offered her
kafkaesque
"explanations".
The Russian opposition held an Internet election to choose a shadow government,
but it was
blocked
by some sort of interference with the server.
For a real election, voting by Internet is utter folly.
Since these people are not being elected to positions of
real authority, maybe it is tolerable.
Governments
Grow Increasingly Repressive Online, Activists Fight Back.
Microsoft just made changes
similar
to Google's much-criticized privacy rules, yet people are not
criticizing Microsoft.
Maybe this is because the people who disapprove have been worn out
opposing Google's change. Or maybe it is the targeted ads that they
really hate.
For me, this issue of combining data bases is secondary, because the
danger is in the fact that Google and Microsoft collect the
information, not in what they do with it. Once a US company collects
information, Big Brother can take all of it under the PAT RIOT Act.
Big Brother can combine all the data even if the company doesn't.
As for the targeting of advertising, I don't see that as bad in
itself. When the targeting seems creepy, that's because it shows
Internet users how much data is being collected about them. The
targeting is a diagnostic sign; the collection is the disease.
Comedian Rowan Atkinson speaks
in
favor of legalization of insults in the UK. His point, however, is
more general: feeling offended is no excuse for censorship.
I think he gives too much credit for good intentions to the authors of
this unjust law. Anyone who can't see this is a violation of human
rights does not belong in a position of public responsibility.
Italy has decided to
ban
cash payments over 50 euros.
I will limit my own purchases to under 50 euros when I am there,
but Italians won't be able to do this. In fact, I suspect some
will be unable to pay utility bills.
Wendell Potter: Romney tells the same bullshit about the uninsured
that Potter wrote as a
flack for the insurance companies.
It is noteworthy that the uninsured have a 40% higher risk of death.
Shane Bauer spent 26 months in prison in Iran waiting for a trial in
which he was forbidden to talk with his lawyer. Four months were in
solitary confinement.
He
reports on solitary confinement in California, where the
conditions in the prison he visited are much worse and last far
longer.
Their hearings for solitary confinement are more absurd than Bauer's
joke of a trial in Iran, since they can't have lawyers. What they
have in common with Bauer's trial is that the supposed evidence
against these people is kept secret from them. Naturally, much of it
is bogus, an excuse to put in solitary whoever the guards want to put
there. It includes evidence from informants who have been driven half
crazy by years in solitary confinement, and know they can get out only
by inculpating other prisoners.
This ties in with the prison industrial complex that profits from
making the US the country with the highest fraction of its population
in prison.
Israeli marines
boarded
the Estelle to stop it from reaching Gaza.
One of the passengers was
Yonatan
Shapira, a former Israeli air force pilot
Fair taxation:
raise
billionaires' tax rates to what they were under Nixon —
or maybe even Eisenhower.
This, by the way, is part of what makes Obama more right-wing
than Nixon.
A
false
confession in Japan.
The definition of
"Democrat".
Thugs in the US and UK are enjoying the opportunity provided by tasers
to
attack
people more often, with less hesitation.
Whatever rules are made, thugs will stretch them and break them
unless they are severely punished when they do.
UK thugs lied to
frame striking miners who they attacked.
The facts were established long ago, but they have enjoyed impunity
until now.
Uruguay has legalized abortion, but
makes
women jump through hoops to get it.
India's sellout government, working together with Walmart,
plans to undo
land reform.
Thugs in Atlanta are
torn
between supporting an ex-detective facing eviction
and their right-wing general leanings.
In terms of economic interests, the thugs are indeed part of the 99%.
But their job is to defend the power of the 1%, and usually they do it
enthusiastically.
The man who
promoted the
financial derivatives that led to the financial crisis is Romney's
adviser.
Polluters are attacking the Clean Water Act, and seek to
continue
dumping raw sewage into rivers and lakes.
UK citizens: support
the campaign to abolish the law against saying
anything that offends someone.
Although social networking systems can have positive uses, they can
strip away all privacy from a social gathering, and even lure adults
into
childish
competitions for how much they can reveal about themselves and others.
I don't use any social networking system, unless you count email and
this web site. I think I am better off without them.
I urge everyone to say, in every social gathering, "If you take any
photos of me, please don't put them on any web site without asking me
first." Even if there is nothing particularly private about the
gathering or the conversations there, even if there are no secrets as
such, it is still good to encourage people to think about others'
privacy.
I don't say that in my speeches because the speeches are public events.
I do, however, ask people not to post any photos of me on Facebook.
The Civil Liberties Australia has launched a campaign to
repeal
Australian laws that trample human rights.
We need such a campaign in the US too. A government that fails to
respect human rights is far more dangerous than any other terrorists.
For once, Facebook did the right thing. It was asked to shut down a
page that presents photos of suspected undercover thugs' cars, and
refused.
This page may benefit some thieves, but it will also help dissidents,
and that is a more important issue. Meanwhile, the biggest thieves,
the banksters, don't need this information because states allow them
to be above the law.
Even though Facebook did the right thing on this occasion, it is
a problem for such activities to depend on any company's good will.
A study shows
humans
develop a tolerance for THC. What does this imply
about use of marijuana?
Romney made
15
million from the rescue of the automobile companies.
Everyone:
support
protecting parts of the Southern Ocean.
US citizens:
support
the ACLU's campaign to limit surveillance of dissidents in the US.
US citizens:
rebuke Faux News for denying global heating.
Ireland has scrapped its computerized voting machines, recognizing that
they cannot be trusted.
Some sort of
licensing
between related corporations has become an excuse to let
multinational companies avoid taxes.
Because the article uses the vague term "intellectual property" to
hide the details, it doesn't tell us what they are licensing. But in
this case it does not really matter what they are licensing. It might
be something of no real value, since it is only an excuse.
Chinese fools looking for sex potions have switched from tigers to lions,
so lions
are being wiped out, and South Africa's President Zuma
doesn't want it talked about.
Why don't they use viagra? It's not made from an endangered species,
it's much cheaper, and it really works.
The ACLU fights the
orwellian
coverup of CIA torture.
On the
ethical
significance of outing people who are nasty on the Internet.
Threatening Amanda Todd and posting her photo was nasty. But this
alone would not have hurt her very much, without the cruel context in
which it occurred. What did the real damage was the response of
society to the photo.
Much of our society condemns and sneers at women for showing their
bodies. It is taboo, and violators of the taboo are undeservedly
scorned. This is what drove Ms Todd to suicide. It is no better than
condemning and attacking women for showing the hair on their heads,
which happens in some parts of the world that are even more twisted
than our own.
Without this scorn, that photo's publication would have been one of
the many embarrassments that teenagers live down — nothing more.
However, I would guess that Ms Todd's suffering started much earlier.
Most 13-year-olds don't seek to chat on the Internet with adults they
don't know. The ones who do are generally disturbed; i.e., hurt. My
hunch is that there was something bad about her life before age 13. I
have no idea what it might be. But if this hunch is right, it would
have predisposed her to chat with that man and maybe also to grant his
request. It would have been the first blow in the series of blows
that led to her suicide. The publication of the photo was the second,
and the attacks by others the last.
If the question is to judge the man who published the photo, his
actions were contemptible. But if we focus instead on Ms Todd, her
suffering, and how to save others from similar suffering, it seems to
me that the last blow, and maybe the first, are the points where
action can do real good while avoiding repression.
The Netherlands is considering
legally
authorizing its thugs to attack foreign computers.
The US government has effectively adopted a similar policy
with no law and no discussion by Congress.
Security holes in pacemakers
can
be used for murder.
The article does not say whether the bug is in software.
I wonder whether it could be used to write free software
and install it. Perhaps that free software might not have
the security hole.
Bahrainis face
imprisonment for "defaming the king".
Many countries make it a crime to criticize or insult certain people.
All such laws are injustice and shame whatever state imposes them.
Obama has taken government secrecy to a
new
level, with help from
Congress and little resistance from the press.
How the Republican plan to replace medical care with vouchers
would
kill thousands of Americans.
Many reporters in Zimbabwe have been arrested and the thugs steal
their equipment. Often they face
criminal
charges for reporting.
The Pakistani Taliban
threaten
to kill journalists that criticize them.
It's Time to Fix YouTube's Biased Copyright System!
I think the root of the problem is depending on a centralized service
for distributing videos on the Internet.
There are things about YouTube I consider bad — for instance,
the site requires the user to run some nonfree software or other
(either Flash Player or the nonfree Javascript in the page). Google
ought to fix that. The "Content ID" system is another problem, which
this article talks about.
Even if those were fixed, it would still be bad to depend on a
centralized system. Google faces pressure for censorship, and it does
business in many countries, which enables them to force Google to
censor as they demand. The only solution is not to use such a system.
This is why the Free Software Foundation does not use anyone else's
video service. We distribute videos ourselves.
Romney doesn't want to say he promotes school vouchers, so he calls
them "school choice", but it is really the
same thing.
Right-wing tax reductions are responsible for
poverty and
the increasing national debt, and even reduced the entrepreneurship
that they were supposedly going to stimulate.
US citizens:
support
the plan to protect salmon in Oregon.
Exit polls have been cancelled in 19 US states, making it
harder
to tell if elections are stolen.
However, the poll results were already "adjusted" for a mysterious
pattern, the "red shift". It seems that the official totals
systematically slant Republican compared with the exit polls.
So either people who vote Republican are ashamed to admit it to
election pollsters, or the totals are being distorted by fraud.
There is some evidence of the latter. In 2004, in Ohio, this
"red
shift" was observed in Ohio counties that used certain
scanners to count the ballots, but not in counties where people
did the counting.
Big
Oil and the US Chamber of Commerce Fight to Keep Foreign Bribery
Flourishing.
Britons
protested
in London against austerity policies that were
supposed to stimulate the economy but, predictably, did the opposite.
Keynes showed that the way to end a recession is deficit spending.
Spending cuts make it worse. When the elites propose to respond to a
recession with cuts, it shows that their goal is not to end the
recession but to use it to grab more wealth and power away from the
rest.
They are fighting a class war, and the rest of us, if we don't want to
be suckers, must organize to fight back.
Jill Stein for president!
The record companies dropped their "three strikes" case against a New Zealand
student after
having caused her so much grief that she had to move out of her apartment.
The advice that you should fight back when accused is, of course,
correct, but individual resistance is not enough — collective
resistance is needed too. That means organizing to defeat all
politicians that take the copyright industry's side against the people
of New Zealand.
While copyright cruelty is just one of many important political
issues, politicians that side with one industry against the people are
likely to side with other industries against the people too.
Universities in India
systematically
gave Dalit students failing grades by mis-marking their exams.
What we know about the Trapwire surveillance system: supposedly meant
to detect would-be terrorists, it's really more important
against dissidents.
When occasionally a company working on renewable energy fails, it get
disproportionate media attention — which
enables
Romney to lie.
The US media let Romney get away with touting a "tax
plan" whose details he refuses to reveal.
US citizens:
sign
Bernie Sanders' petition to preserve Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Enbridge, whose pipeline had a million-gallon oil spill that polluted
Michigan,
wants
to build another pipeline alongside the Keystone XL
planet roaster, and just as big. Plus more.
We can't kill the Earth more than once. Pumping out the tar sand oil
twice as fast (or even more) will make the full extent of the disaster
arrive quicker, but won't make the ultimate disaster worse.
However, if and when the world starts trying to reduce the disaster,
more pipelines could be additional obstacles to success.
Lebanon's security chief was
assassinated
as he was preparing a case against a powerful politician, accused of
joining with Syria to plan bombings and assassinations.
US citizens:
call for a question on global heating in the last
presidential debate.
The ACLU published documents proving that the Boston "fusion center",
through which local, state and federal thugs exchange information
about the public, has systematically
spied
on political opposition groups with no grounds.
The fusion centers threaten our freedom and do no good.
Get rid of them all!
Twitter shut the account of a neo-Nazi group because
the German state
told it to.
I disapprove strongly of Nazis and their racist ideology. At the same
time, I uphold their right to present their views even though, due to
my ancestry, I may well be one of the targets of their hatred.
This group is accused of making a "threatening video". Depending on
what's in it, it could be legitimate to prosecute them for that.
However, banning any organization without trial (on mere accusation)
is a violation of fundamental human rights, and that punishment
without trial can hardly be an ethical justification for Twitter to
pour on more punishment without trial.
An international tribunal is
trying
to investigate the execution of thousands
of political prisoners in Iran under Khomeini.
Everyone:
sign
this petition condemning the prosecution in Uganda of
the producer of a play.
US citizens:
call on local
TV stations to reject false and misleading political ads from
SuperPACs.
The US subsidizes coal mining for
export
to Asia.
While this is against the US's short term competitive interest,
subsidizing coal for US use is also against the US' interest in long
term survival of civilization. We must keep it in the ground.
Israel has
ordered
a big expansion of a settlement in West Bank land
that Israel has relabeled as Jerusalem.
Repressive
grand juries land three activists in jail.
Greece
needs a zero-tolerance policy for violence by thugs.
So does the US.
ACLU: the US is quietly setting up a
total
system for tracking car travel, as found in the UK, and the thugs
are looking forward to having it.
Homeless people in the UK are being led into slavery by
offers
of a place to stay.
This is thanks to the austerity practiced in the UK, without which
they wouldn't be homeless.
Karzai
refuses
to allow foreign monitoring of Afghanistan's next election.
The motive for this decision can be adduced from the corruption
of the last election.
Everyone:
call
on Israel to free Majd and Abdelateef Obeid, who were arrested and
jailed for being inside their house.
The Koch brothers sent mail to 45,000 employees pressuring them
to vote Republican, while
threatening
employees who express other political views.
The EU, which was created around 20 years ago, is being applauded for
"60 years of peace" now that it
inexplicably
received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The BBC said "seventy years of peace" — but 70 years ago was
1942. I don't think there was peace in Europe in 1942.
I criticize some of the specific points in the article. Yugoslavia
was not broken up or destroyed by a military intervention; the
intervention came later, and ended the Serb attacks against Bosnian
Muslims. I supported the intervention in Afghanistan initially, and
initially it appeared to result in peace and an end to Taliban oppression.
Nonetheless, the article is useful for its main points.
And what it says about Kissinger, Mother Teresa and Obama is valid.
Repression of homosexuals in Uganda has reached the point of
prosecuting
the producer of a play with a homosexual character.
Islamist harassment is
spreading
in Egypt.
Defeating religious oppression is a crucial battle for human rights.
US citizens:
demand
a question about global heating in the last
presidential debate.
Let's put the heat on them about their plan to pour the heat fatally
on us.
Another would-be bomber has fallen for an
FBI sting operation.
If he indeed came to the US with the intention of carrying out a
bombing, then I see nothing wrong with the operation. The usual
problem with these stings is that the FBI appears in many cases to
have stimulated the desire in people who, left to themselves, would
not have had the idea of attacking anything.
"Private equity" takeover companies are antisocial — and
they're
even dishonest at it.
Computerized medical devices in hospitals are vulnerable to viruses,
and
perverse
laws don't allow the hospitals to fix them.
My conclusion: nonfree software is as unjust in these machines
as it is anywhere else.
Rigged voting machines
could
steal the election in Ohio as they
apparently did in 2004.
Two Palestinians were
arrested
for being in their home while a protest passed by.
Romney told
31
lies in 41 minutes, breaking his own record.
Neither Romney nor Obama mentioned
global
heating, the elephant in our
biosphere.
The argument about who can reduce gasoline prices is especially
harmful. We need to keep the oil, gas and coal in the ground, and
that requires high prices for fossil fuels.
Expanding the Debate with Third-Party Candidates Jill Stein,
Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson.
Western governments refuse to recognize that the Iran sanctions
endanger the lives of Iranians with
cancer
and other diseases.
They should provide these medicines gratis to Iran if they are
serious about not blocking them.
Russian protest leader Sergei Udaltsov has been arrested and
could
be imprisoned for 10 years for the crime of leading an opposition movement.
Rwanda's defense minister is
accused of leading a rebel group in the Congo
that commits many atrocities.
These rebel groups mainly seek to control profits from mining.
Thugs in the UK tasered a 61-year-old blind man who was walking slowly
with a stick, which
they
thought was a sword.
A drunkard with a sword might be dangerous, but not as dangerous
in practice as thugs with tasers.
Inorganic
arsenic, used as a pesticide, is carcinogenic; it may
be dangerous to eat rice often.
Libyan rebels
murdered
Mutassim Gaddafi and 66 of his supporters after capturing them.
Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala were arrested
protesting
the presidential debate from which they were excluded.
Israel is moving demographically towards a form of
right-wing
religious Zionism that will make anyone secular want to leave.
San Francisco "clipper" bus and train cards clip your privacy —
and can
keep
data for 7 years.
And someone who walks by you could scan it to determine your travel
history, too. Unless you keep it in a radio-proof container.
The Charlie Card system in Boston also records passengers' travel.
This is why from time to time I empty my card, give it away, and get
a new one.
Verizon is selling data about its customers'
calls
and Web browsing.
Israel fired a missile at Gaza and
wounded
10 civilians.
The missile was aimed at two people alleged to be planning an attack.
If that's true, this is still a lot of civilian casualties.
Calling on Congress to examine
whether
Israel uses US arms to violate human rights.
Israeli fanatics built a "settlement" in the lands of Al-Khader town,
and now are
cutting
down the residents' olive trees to drive them out.
Similar attacks are
widespread,
as they are every year.
Palestinians responded with a protest
occupying
a road that the Israeli army does not allow them to use.
Ukraine's voting system allows voters to
sell
their votes and prove that they voted as ordered.
Why
does the US support the coup in the Maldives?
The vague and mild messages that the US are its usual way
of pretending to be concerned while actually giving support.
Compare with Honduras and Bahrain.
Republicans have filled the House Science Committee with
people
who condemn science outright.
Many company executives are threatening their employees with
losing
their jobs if Romney does not win.
People with guts would tell the CEO to stick it to himself,
but Americans have lost the habit of resisting corporate abuse,
and Obama is hardly trying to motivate working Americans to fight.
Noam Chomsky writes about the Cuban missile crisis, and the
US-sponsored
military and sabotage attacks against Cuba that led
the Soviet Union to put missiles there.
The article omits to mention one significant factor. While the US
treated the people of other countries (such as Guatemala and Iran)
with contempt, it practiced a certain level of democracy and human
rights, which it had come to symbolize. The Soviet Union and Cuba
practiced neither democracy nor human rights. This did not justify
the US's treatment of Guatemala and Iran, and other countries, but it
meant that the Cold War was not a contest with moral parity.
I wonder, however, to what extent Castro might have respected the
human rights of Cubans more if the US had not waged a low-intensity
war against Cuba.
Europe is
making
progress towards adopting a small tax on financial
transactions.
This tax was originally proposed by Tobin to stabilize financial
markets by discouraging rapid speculation for tiny profits.
Bringing in revenue is will be a nice bonus.
US citizens: call
on Clear Channel to remove billboards
apparently intended to scare minority group voters.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to name a new Secretary of the Treasury,
and not the banksters' man.
Everyone:
call
on Pakistan to extend to the whole country
the support for education for girls.
Another
painfully
funny work of genius from Nina Paley.
Lithuanian voters tossed out their right-wing
austerity
government.
If Americans want to do likewise, they must vote for Jill Stein.
India has a law against some kinds of abuses against Dalits,
but the
thugs
and the courts ignore it, and it doesn't even cover
many everyday forms of discrimination.
Gary McKinnon
will
not be extradited to the US, but the unjust one-sided extradition
treaty between the US and UK remains in force, and the government
plans to eliminate some safeguards.
Sudan is back at work in
violent repression.
Linking birth defects in Falluja and Basra to
toxic
metals in US bombs.
People have generally suspected Depleted Uranium, but if it turns
out to be lead or mercury, the conclusions differ only in detail.
The EU
may
end its stupid policy of growing crops for biofuels.
If farmers complain, ignore them. Let them eat their crops —
i.e., grow something for people to eat.
Attempts to
sink
carbon dioxide by fertilizing ocean algae
risk backfiring disastrously.
On the other hand, letting the CO2 accumulate in the ocean
is also causing disaster through
acidification.
Which disaster is worse? I don't know enough to judge, but I suggest
it is not a straightforward decision, and depends on facts we could learn
through experiments such as this one.
TEPCO admits that it
caused
the Fukushima disaster by neglecting
recommended safety precautions.
Jill Stein explains the
Green
New Deal.
Since I will be outside the US on election day, I had to cast an
absentee ballot. I have already voted for Jill Stein for president.
This year's grain harvest will be the third largest in history, and we
have a shortage anyway. However, in coming years,
extreme
weather is likely to devastate production.
Freedom of speech is
under
assault across the Western World.
Exports of food and medicine to Iran are
regularly
blocked by financial sanctions.
I'm convinced that the Iranian nuclear enrichment program relates to
nuclear weapons. Nothing else would plausibly explain the regime's
persistence and its rejection of other ways of getting fuel for
reactors. However, it appears that Iran
intends
to hold short of the development and construction of the weapons.
If the US hopes that inflicting pain on Iranians will lead them to
overthrow their government, this is utter folly. A few years ago many
of them did want to overthrow their government, when it attacked them
in the streets. That government is no less oppressive today, but now
that they are being attacked by foreigners, their reaction is patriotism.
Biden voted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but
pretended
in the debate not to have done so.
Threatening
3D printing with mandatory DRM.
The fact that someone has a patent on this idea actually has nothing
to do with scheming to impose it. The patent might encourage
companies to fight harder against such a scheme.
In the US:
support
the boycott of American Crystal Sugar
on account of its lockout.
Assad's forces are
dropping
cluster bombs in populated areas.
The US has done
likewise.
The US
refuses
to sign the convention to ban cluster bombs.
Morgan
Stanley Sued for Racial Discrimination in Pushing Predatory Loans to
Black Homeowners.
US citizens:
sign
this petition to end the silence about global heating.
Malala Yousafzai, the heroic girl shot by a Taliban fanatic, is unconscious
and has been
sent
to the UK for medical treatment.
I fear that she will never really recover.
The UK Drug Policy Commission recommended
decriminalizing
possession of small amounts of drugs, as well as growing marijuana for
personal use.
The government ruled this out in advance, of course, because its drug
policy is based on demonization rather than the public good.
A
human rights lawyer is Libya's new prime minister.
Mental stimulation around age 4 is
crucial
for cognitive development later in life.
This has lessons for social policy: if we arrange to give children
in deprived families mental stimulation at that age, they will be more
capable throughout their lives.
Oakland
has sued the US Government to try to protect the Harborside
medical marijuana dispensary.
Thanks to federal funds, lots of small US cities now have SWAT teams.
Of course, they feel they must make use of them, so they are assigned
to carry out many searches and raids "just in case". This means
innocent people regularly get hurt.
This time a
12-year-old
sleeping girl got seriously burned.
19,000 Britons wrote to a parliamentary committee to oppose the
Snooper's Charter.
Zero
wrote to support it.
Everyone: support
Walmart workers on strike.
EU citizens: The Canada-Europe free exploitation treaty specifies
ACTA-style
punishments for Internet users. Contact your national
government to oppose this.
Turkey's government proposes to
require
people to enter government ID numbers to access the Internet.
Nigerian journalist Desmond Utomwen, who was beaten unconscious by thugs
while covering a protest,
won
a lawsuit against the thug department.
A journalist says secret documents prove Venezuela's secret service
tracked his team, and infiltrated opposition groups. As his team
tried to leave the country,
they
were interrogated and their computers were erased.
The US has a regular practice of examining and even
confiscating
the computers of dissidents entering the US. I am not sure whether it
does this when they leave.
The UK has had
undercover thugs infiltrate opposition groups
for decades.
I am disappointed that Chavez does likewise.
Greenpeace activists demonstrated the lax security at Swedish nuclear
power plants by sneaking in, staying overnight, then
telling
reporters.
Violent evictions are on the rise across China as
local
governments unofficially seize land.
Why do the victims kill themselves instead of killing one of the
officials responsible?
Environmental activist Liu Futang is on trial on absurd charges
for
telling the public about environmental damage near where he lives.
A lawyer argues for legalizing
Internet
protests a la Anonymous.
Medact calls for banning drones, because they
inflict
fear on everyone in the areas where they are used.
The army in Guatemala attacked an indigenous protest,
wounding
and killing protesters.
The biggest danger to our privacy isn't specifically corporate data
mining or government massive wiretapping. It's the
combination
of the two.
Rackspace advocates
abolishing
software patents.
Neda Soltani's photo was mistakenly used instead of that of the dead
Neda Soltan, so the thoroughly dishonest Iranian regime tried to force
her to pretend to be Neda Soltan and still alive. She had to
flee
the country.
I hope that her memoirs becomes available in paper copies that don't
attack the reader. Until then, don't buy a copy! We should
never buy an Amazon ebook.
No matter how admirable it may be as a work of literature, its manner
of distribution is execrable.
A London sting operation meant to catch thieves has
lured
many people into committing their first crimes.
The selling point for the London Olympic games was that they would
lead to better sports programs and improve British people's health.
But the politicians
have
not bothered to follow through.
The businesses have got what they wanted, the surveillance agencies
have got what they wanted, and the people are stuck with the bill.
Thus, the politicians see no need to give them anything. Perhaps they
intended it all along as a scam.
I have nothing against a sporting event as such, even though I
recommend not granting them very much importance. However, the
Olympics impose a wide range of
harmful
policies, so I urge people in Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul
to organize now against holding the 2020 Olympics there.
The Swedish Pirate Party's
platform
positions on copyrights, patents and trademarks.
I agree with all three of these positions. I do suggest, however,
that it would be better not to group together these three issues and
only these three. Why would anyone group together these three
unrelated laws? I suspect it reflects the mistaken concept of
"intellectual
property".
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Grassroots
Democracy Act. Also sign
this
petition.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
The empire directed by the US
has inherited
the evils of previous empires.
Although it is more militarily superior than any previous empire was,
it becomes
ever less
able to defeat popular resistance.
It is a mistake to refer to this empire as "American" or "US", because
its rulers are not the officials in Washington, but the billionaires
and corporations that control its elections, laws and policies.
Democracy means government of the people, by the people, and for the
people. Elections are the mechanism of democracy, but elections
controlled by the powerful are not democracy, not in the US any more
than in Russia.
Dennis Kucinich:
Weapons of
Mass Distraction: The Big, Long Lie about Iraq Lingers Still.
The US Presidential Debates —
Illusion of Political Choice.
Is cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Obama's next plan?
This article argues it is.
Paul Ryan has proposed a
scheme
to wreck Medicaid.
What it comes down to is that most Americans are no longer of any use
to the rich, who have concluded it is better to let them die.
Thanks to global heating, world food production is falling, supplies
are dwindling, and food prices are rising around the world. The UN
warns of
a food crisis next year.
The rational response would be to curb greenhouse gas emissions
and promote contraception. However, between the oil companies
and the twisted religions, humanity is unable to respond rationally.
Obama's free exploitation treaties
did
not even produce their supposed benefit of increased exports.
But no matter — they achieved their real goal, to undermine democracy.
In this area, Obama is no different from Clinton and Dubya.
Expanding
the VP Debate: Third-Party Candidates Challenge Biden & Ryan
on War, Economy, Healthcare.
How a debate question
prepared
the way for Paul Ryan to lie about Social Security.
Ryan
pleaded
repeatedly for federal spending in his district, then
condemned Democrats for that spending in the debate.
The New York Times presented a
thoughtful
article about the harm done by software patents.
Although pretty good overall, the story has a few gross confusions.
For instance, it says that, "Patents are vitally important to
protecting intellectual property," as if "intellectual property" had
some independent meaning. In fact it is just a posited abstraction of
patents and other unrelated legal privileges, which makes the
statement is a tautology — in effect "Patents are vitally important
to having patents".
Likewise, when Apple says, “If we can't protect our
intellectual
property”, it is a fancy way of saying “If we can't use
patents to sue other companies.”
As for Professor Kesan, when he says that "intellectual property works
fine", he knows full well that his statement applies to a dozen or so
unrelated laws, all but one of which have nothing to do with this
issue. This alone shows that he is trying to pull the wool over
people's eyes. And the argument he gives, "Even rules that need
improvements are better than no rules at all," attacks a straw man:
abolishing patents from any field would not result in no rules, but
rather in clearer, simpler and more predictable rules for doing
business in that field.
Has anyone investigated whether Kesan has financial interests in patents?
When the article says that Creative Technology applied for a patent
for a "'portable music playback device that bore minor similarities to
the iPod", readers could get the impression that the patent was based
on a specific product that resembled an iPod. I don't know whether
that company ever made such a product, but if so the patent had
nothing to do with it. A patent is never legally based on a specific
product, even if the patent applicant made some product that the
patent covers. Every patent application describes an idea and it is
judged based on the idea; actual products are irrelevant. The
significant point is that Creative Technology's patent described an
idea that the iPod seemed to be an instance of.
The article errs when citing, in this context, Apple's statement that
some Samsung products were "copies" of Apple products. This statement
had to do with a different legal claim about the appearance of the
products — nothing to do with patents.
The practice of imprisoning people for unfunny sick jokes
has
made British comedians afraid they will be next.
The one Pussy Riot prisoner who was freed
promises
to use her freedom for continued protests.
I suspect that the reason why the judges' deliberation didn't take long
is that the decision was made in advance.
The
Right Won't Defund PBS — and the Left Won't Save It.
New
restrictions
about driving on some US beaches have enabled
endangered sea turtles and birds to resume breeding there.
A report presents an
economic
case for abolishing patents entirely.
The report is long and technical;
here's
an article that acts as a summary.
The report seriously tries to generalize about copyright and patents,
calling them
"intellectual
property". This leads the authors into a
substantial error on page 3, where the report says that free software
software operates "absent intellectual property". In fact, nearly all
free software is copyrighted, and nearly all free software licenses
(including copyleft
licenses) are based purely on copyright.
This error does not invalidate the substance of the arguments
presented against patents, but it should serve as a warning not to use
that term. If it lures even experts into error, do you think you can
use it safely?
Why, though, did they think of trying to generalize about copyright
and patents together? Because they are economists, and economists
find a narrow economic aspect in the two laws that they can generalize
about. However, this narrow focus is misleading for political
consideration of either of these laws, since it disregards their
disparate requirements and disparate effects.
The shorter article also uses that term, but in the usual unthinking
way. It doesn't really try to talk about copyrights, so if you
consciously read "patents" whenever it says "intellectual property",
it makes sense.
Lying in presidential debates is
a Republican strategy acknowledged in
the 80s.
Romney's team
admitted
the same strategy for the whole campaign.
US citizens: Call
on Obama to support the right of first sale.
An archbishop demonstrates
Christian
Cruelty demanding that a
woman change her mind about respect for her gay son.
The archbishop, and his church, are entitled to their views.
But these views are repugnant.
A man was sentenced to prison in the UK for wearing a shirt with
slogans
that might offend thugs.
One could perhaps read the slogan on the back as an incitement to
violence, but it doesn't seem serious, and that's not what he was
accused of.
People should not be imprisoned for any opinion — even if
everyone else considers that opinion "reprehensible". What's truly
reprehensible here is the UK's repression of dissent.
Protecting endangered species requires spending a substantial amount
—
half as much each year as banksters get in bonuses.
US citizens:
call
on Walmart to sell only responsibly-caught tuna.
Systematic Republican efforts to stop Hispanic citizens from voting.
"Is
This a Joke?" after Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the European Union.
An investigator resigned from the UK investigation into torture by the
Bush forces, saying it was
set
up as a whitewash.
Wikileaks' web site now
pushes
visitors to either donate or publicize it.
Since it is so easy to bypass this, it is effectively just a request,
so it can't be any harm.
I'd say it reflects the damage caused by the US's distributed denial
of service attack against Wikileaks, which blocked most people from
donating to Wikileaks.
Anti-abortion
Republican Congressman Desjarlais pressured his pregnant lover
to get an abortion.
A
16-word
quotation was the excuse to shut down an entire web site
under the DMCA.
US companies do DNA sequencing on
samples
taken from coffee cups.
Private insurance plans operated under Medicare are
making
Medicare more expensive. In other words, they are a rip-off.
US citizens: call
for a criminal investigation of Murray Energy
for ordering employees to contribute to election campaigns.
US citizens:
call
on federal agencies not to muzzle scientists.
US citizens:
stand against the plan to rig the election in Florida.
Activists convinced Disney to
stop
buying paper made by cutting down Indonesian rain forests.
The description of the extent of the Disney empire reminds me of the
need to break up such large companies.
However, I expect this
will
not stop the loggers from cutting down those trees. They will cut
down the trees to grow palm oil, and sell the paper somewhere or other.
Protesters
were arrested blocking Romney's Bain from shipping a factory
to China.
The US regime claims that prisoners' description of how they were
tortured is
classified
secret.
This will, I suppose, be an excuse to refuse to ever release them.
If they were released, they could talk about their torture, and that
would never do.
Greek thugs grabbed a protester and used her as a
human shield.
Western powers are starting to offer relaxation of sanctions on Iran as
part
of a deal on uranium refining.
Maybe this means they now seriously want a deal.
A Cuban blogger was
jailed
for 30 hours, and apparently beaten badly
since she lost a tooth.
A report on the
practical
problems caused by genetically engineered food crops.
I think the recommendations are too weak. Farmers must have the right
to save, trade and replant seeds.
A virus-infected computer was used remotely to post threats of
violence, leading to an
accusation
against the computer's owner.
One piece of advice that should have been in the article is to use
GNU/Linux — there are very few viruses for our system.
Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico call for changes in
the
treaty that demands prohibition of drugs.
Instead of begging the arrogant US for changes, they should
withdraw from the treaty and then do as they see fit.
Putin's judge
freed one of the members of Pussy Riot, while the other two
had their appeals rejected and were sent to prison.
Maybe he thinks that if he imprisons only two singers instead of three
that people will forgive him.
Kagame has brought progress and general peace to Rwanda, but
imprisons
and kills opposition leaders and journalists even in exile.
The UK government wants to restart
road-building
schemes that were killed years ago.
The government spending would do some good for employment, but why spend
in a way that presupposes and encourages increased use of fossil fuels?
Why not use the money to encourage renewable energy instead?
The same UK government keeps cutting the funds for that.
Putting the two together, the effect is to transfer money from
renewable energy to fossil fuels. Perhaps the fossil fuel companies
are behind this.
The right-wing UK
government will investigate accusations that the BBC
has a left-wing bias.
Given that the BBC's persistent right-wing bias has just been
demonstrated,
this must be intended as intimidation to increase the right-wing bias.
Workers are on strike against Walmart in many states, both
in
warehouses and in stores.
In Asia, many women and girls are
forcibly
married.
The people described in this article have been horribly mistreated.
They were forced into marriage, beaten, denied contraception and thus
forced to bear children, and/or denied medical care. These acts are
wrong regardless of the victim's age.
Girls are more vulnerable because they typically have less strength
(of various kinds) with which to resist their families than a woman
would have. Thus, special programs to protect girls from these abuses
may be needed. However, that is no reason to conclude that marriage
for someone under 18 is inherently wrong.
Raising the minimum age for marriage, even to more than 18, could be
justified if necessary to reduce population growth.
US citizens: sign this petition to support extending tax credits
for wind power.
The unconstitutionally installed president of Paraguay has
approved
GMO corn. Peasant farmers fear genetic contamination.
Superweeds and superpests as in the US will follow in a few years.
High school students in Texas are
resisting the imposition of RFID cards.
I wish MIT students had resisted them. The building where my office is
located has doors opened by RFID cards — I call them "pox cards" —
but I refuse to carry one. So I have to find other ways to get in.
Romney is
flipflopping on restricting abortion, trying to be all
things to all men.
Of course, if elected he will surely be up to no good.
The leader of Kazakhstan's opposition has been sentenced to
7
years in prison.
A giant insurance company says,
expect
global heating to bring increased weather disasters.
They can't afford to wait decades to be absolutely certain in hindsight.
They need to use the best rational conclusion based on current information,
and this is it.
Governments also need to act based on the best rational conclusion
based on current information. However, unlike this company, governments
are under the control of the fossil fuel industry which won't allow
them to do it.
The US House of Representatives has
voted
223 times in favor of dirty energy in just two years.
The US government showed its support for Bahrain's repression with a
new
trade and investment scheme.
The EFF's heroic effort to punish the companies guilty of warrantless
wiretapping has been
rejected
by the Supreme Court.
Jeremy Forrest and Megan Stammers ran away to France as a couple, and
were captured walking hand in hand. Now he has been
charged
with kidnapping her.
I am sure they won't let her spoil the accusation by telling the
truth, such as, "Nonsense, he did not kidnap me. I love him. Please
let him go!" They are surely demanding that she endorse their
distorted view of the situation.
Thus, I expect she is being brainwashed by her family to say (and even
believe) that he did her a horrible wrong, one that would excuse the
treachery of testifying to put him in prison. If she yields to that
pressure she will be mentally twisted by it. When the article talks
about "support" for her, it probably means additional pressure for her
to endorse this lie.
This is not to say that the two were heroic lovers headed for a
beautiful romantic future. It seems that neither of them thought very
far about their plans to get away. If they had been thinking clearly,
they would probably rather have waited a year or two, then lived
together legally. That would have given him time to get divorced
if it seemed necessary that he be single.
That they were not thinking carefully about how to have a future
together suggests their relationship might not have lasted. They
might not have what it takes to thread life's maze and reach the
desired exit. They might not know each other well enough to have a
basis to believe they will continue to love each other. However,
those shortcomings are frequent among people. They can hardly justify
punishing someone.
The support Megan needs is help in resisting the pressure to commit a
treason she would spend the rest of her life trying to justify. Even
if there is little chance this couple will be happy together for many
years, she needs the chance to try, so that if and when it fails she
will see that it failed from its nature, and not as a martyr to
the cruelty of family and state.
Privatization of fishing quotas is not necessarily effective for
protecting fishing stocks.
Since Europe needs more employment, perhaps privatization of quotas
would work better if combined with a ban on some efficient but
destructive fishing methods.
I suggest that the first goal should be sustainable fishing, and the
second goal should be to maximize the number of fishermen who can make
a living from sustainable fishing. As means, I propose to let
fishermen catch as much fish as they can using the permitted methods,
and keep the operation sustainable by regulating who may fish and by
what methods.
The prison scandal that brought down Georgia's president is no side
issue. Georgia has embarked on a
US-style
imprisonment binge, combined with Soviet-style rubber-stamp courts
that make it futile to plead not-guilty.
Don't believe Suckerberg — a poll finds Americans do
object
to tracking of their browsing.
I think tracking by the state is more dangerous than tracking by
corporations. The state can specifically
arrest you or kill you if
you're a "terrorist" (i.e., dissident). Corporations can't.
The main danger of corporate surveillance in the US is that whatever
info the corporations collect about you is available to the state
without a warrant, under the PAT RIOT act Act.
3/4 of Americans now believe
global
heating is affecting the weather.
However, it won't make a difference what Americans think as long as they
vote for candidates who don't want to take action to correct the problem
(such as Romney and Obama).
US psychiatrists in the US has been
seduced
by the drug companies into overprescribing, and it is so pervasive
that they may not recognize what has happened.
Greek thugs
arrested
anti-fascist protesters, tortured and wounded them, then threatened
to give their names and addresses to violent fascists for further
reprisals.
The thugs' spokesman responded in the best tradition of thugs: he said
this accusation couldn't be true, since Greek thugs would never do
such a thing.
This is why I call them "thugs": to reject the presumption that we
should expect them to be honest or good.
The victims compared their treatment to US torture practices. Isn't
it a shame, my fellow Americans, that our country deserves this
comparison? That it has not prosecuted the torturers so as to restore
its honor?
Putin's regime plans to ban
children from access to public Wifi networks.
Environmental activists face
systematic
harassment for taking photos of refineries in the US.
A man in Texas was harassed by the FBI for
taking
photos of storm clouds.
Answering
questions for the FBI can be very dangerous.
Even innocent
answers to innocent questions can give
them an excuse to prosecute you.
The supposed threat of terrorism is also the
excuse
for massive surveillance of Americans' communications.
This threat is almost entirely a
myth,
but it's a very handy myth.
US citizens: call for a question about abortion rights
in the vice
presidential debate.
Opposition to the UK's secret
courts bill. Indigenous protesters stopped construction
of the Belo Monte
dam.
More censorship in the UK: it is a crime, apparently, to wish for
UK soldiers to
be killed in war.
Or perhaps the crime is wishing they would go to hell. Would it be a crime, I wonder, to express a wish for them to be
defeated but not physically harmed? That too might offend some. "Freedom of speech" limited to statements that don't offend
is an absurdity.
The UK must repeal its law that
criminalizes Internet postings that
offend.
A former UK minister has been accused of lying to MPs to cover up
Britain's
role in handing over Libyan dissidents
to Gaddafi for
torture. The CIA participated too, of course. But the US has already completely
crushed
any attempt to probe these actions.
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The US sued Wells Fargo Bank for fraud amounting to around 200 million dollars.
Why no criminal prosecution of the people involved?
The US government has outsourced handling of FOI requests to companies.
This seems to be an attempt to evade the law. However, even aside from that, privatization of government work is just an excuse to degrade working conditions.
Israel's right-wing government no longer wants criticism from leftist academics.
Bahrain's highest court confirmed the sentences of medical personnel accused of treating protesters who had been wounded by the thugs.
Legal action in the UK against the export of parts for US killer drones.
An Islamist fanatic shot an outspoken 14-year-old Pakistani political activist in the head.
These right-wing extremists hate women who show any independence.
President Morsi has pardoned all protesters accused of crimes during the protests that brought about Mubarak's ouster.
US citizens:
call
on the EPA to ban the pesticides that are killing honeybees.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: call on Obama and Secy of the Interior Salazar not to give licenses for drilling for oil in the Arctic.
In the US:
support
striking Walmart workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Organizing resistance to the war in Afghanistan among the US troops due to be sent there.
The US and EU have frozen aid to Kagame's regime in Rwanda because it seems to be fueling rebels in the Congo.
Some doctors say that children under three should never watch video screens.
The leader of the Mexican Zetas gang seems to have been killed in a battle with Mexican marines.
I doubt that his death will make much difference to the gang or its operations. There are generally many ambitious would-be replacements.
In the US: support the "Do the Math" tour to strengthen the movement to stop global heating.
A man in the UK was jailed for posting a sick joke about a kidnaped and possibly murdered girl.
The UK's censored media don't dare tell you what the joke was, but it is shown in slashdot.
The joke is gross, with too little wit to rate a groan. (I'm not one of those who considers mere grossness humor.) However, people should not be imprisoned for their jokes, not even lousy, tasteless jokes.
The judge said the joke is offensive. It is, but imprisoning people for saying something offensive is tyranny. Putin demonstrated this point by defending the imprisonment of Pussy Riot on the grounds that their name is offensive.
Of course, there are many differences between a puerile and unfunny joke about a kidnaped child and a protest against a tyrant. Those differences are relevant to other judgments, which is why we admire Pussy Riot and not this humorist. However, those differences are not relevant to the question of whether these people should be in prison.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend anyone.
Quebec thugs mounted a sustained and massive campaign of
violence
and lies against the protest movement in Quebec.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
An investigation is not enough — the thugs who injured protesters, or lied, must be locked up.
The main US ISPs have begun acting as unofficial anti-sharing police.
This is designed to stop people from cooperating — in other words, it is divide-and-conquer. It is not just nasty, it is completely mean-spirited.
The long-term necessary fire-prevention measure is to curb global heating, and of course the US doesn't dare do that either.
Greeks protested Merkel's visit to Greece, intended to "support" the flunkies carrying out her austerity policies, so the same flunkies banned protests.
A leftist Turkish whistleblower group has been accused of "terrorism".
Pregnant women are warned not to eat birds killed with lead shot.
I've read that the California condor has the same problem: it is a scavenger, and when it occasionally eats an animal killed with lead shot, it can be poisoned.
Hugo Chavez won reelection, but his margin was smaller than in the past.
Rwandan civilians have been tortured into false confessions.
It sounds horribly like the US.
US citizens: call on Trader Joe's to support the California GMO-labelling initiative.
Belarus officially imprisons some dissident leaders, but more often they are disappeared or killed.
The Corporations United decision has led, as predicted, to foreigners' spending money to influence US elections.
How Obama subtly signaled his willingness to gut Social Security.
Pakistan's army blocked 10,000 anti-drone protesters from entering Waziristan.
US citizens: Call on Obama to allow a pesky Yemeni journalist to be freed from unjust imprisonment.
His supposed crime is interviewing members of al Qa'ida. If Obama acts to keep someone in jail over that, it shows the plaintiffs worried Obama will imprison them without trial are right.
Apple product manufacturers went on strike after Apple demanded they do better work but wouldn't give them more time to do it.
Students in Italy protested
against
education cutbacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Hospitals in several states have
agreed
to stop distributing baby formula, since its distribution leads
mothers to disregard the hospitals' medical recommendation to
breast-feed their babies.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
A Cuban journalist was arrested and taken back to Havana when she tried
to cover the
trial
of the driver who accidentally killed Oswaldo Paya.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The driver is associated with the right-wing Partido Popular in Spain. That party, now in power, also represses dissidents. In addition, it obeys the banksters' orders to make life horrible for most people in Spain. Given the choice, I'd prefer repression under Castro to repression plus exploitation under the PP.
Bogus DMCA requests are damaging large numbers of web sites.
Calling for a criminal investigation of Romney for lying in his
financial disclosure reports.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
I predict that the Republicans that tried to impeach Clinton for lying about a private matter will claim that Romney should suffer no penalty for this lie.
In Ethiopia, foreign journalists covering protests are arrested and harassed, but Ethiopian journalists get imprisoned.
Jeremy Hammond is accused of obtaining and leaking the Stratfor files. Here his defenders explain their support for him.
Here for comparison purposes is a statement of the indictment against him.
If Hammond and/or others did indeed make charges on some credit cards he obtained this way, I would consider that wrong unless they can show some specific justification for it.
Drones with facial recognition technology could soon follow anyone everywhere.
This could be useful for catching minor criminals, as well as dissidents. But it will do nothing to protect us from the most dangerous criminals — the banksters that ruin millions of lives with their frauds, and the politicians that start wars of aggression, because our sell-out governments don't prosecute them.
The Vatican has sentenced its corruption whistleblower to several years in prison, focusing on punishing the messenger so as to ignore the message.
I wonder if Obama's persistent attacks on whistleblowers was an inspiration to them.
Several countries are pushing to tighten economic sanctions on Iran, which are already pushing the country into suffering comparable to Greece and Spain.
Iran is already offering to negotiate about its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting the sanctions. If the goal of these sanctions is to end Iran's uranium enrichment, why does the US not offer to end the sanctions as part of a satisfactory deal?
Although Netanyahu has not got the US to bomb Iran, he has distracted the world mostly from the occupation of Palestine.
A politician admits the real reason why the US government doesn't want Iran to have nuclear weapons: it would deter US attacks and increase the regime's influence.
It would be unfortunate for those murderous tyrants to get more influence, and I would stop them from getting nuclear weapons if I could do it by snapping my fingers. However, doing it through an attack that would kill thousands of civilians from the toxic chemicals alone would be wrong even if it had a chance of working — which it doesn't.
I suggest that we Americans instead put more effort into restraining our own government from acting like Iranian tyrants. Obama claims the power to kill or imprison anyone without a trial — different in detail from the Iranian tyrants, but fundamentally the same evil.
Tibetans have been imprisoned for transmitting information about protests to the outside world.
Morocco's government functionaries denied a journalist's permission to work because they disagreed with a statement in his article.
Thugs' cameras in Lansing, Michigan, can read the names off your mail envelopes as you take the letters out of your mailbox.
Chevron is trying to subpoena private information about people who have merely stated opinions about Chevron's legal case in Ecuador.
US citizens:
ask
your state governor to support a ban on the
"conversion therapy" sometimes imposed on gay adolescents.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Marijuana helps people cope with the intense nausea caused by cancer therapies. Does it also fight cancer? Thanks to US laws, there is no way to follow up on promising research.
Haiti's US-imposed president Martelly has inspired mass protests.
Obama is personally responsible for imposing President Martelly on Haiti.
Obama is actively defending his power to imprison Americans without trial by appealing the court decision that temporarily blocked it.
Obama said he was unhappy with this provision, but he cannot evade responsibility for this step.
US citizens: tell the owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants to allow their staff sick leave, instead of making them work while sick.
Web filtering in US schools harms students' education, as well as their freedom.
Thugs in Uganda arrested an opposition leader, then beat up journalists who were covering the event.
It appears to be as systematic a practice in Uganda as it is in
New
York City.
US citizens: call on the Philadelphia DA to spare Terry Williams' life.
Chomsky: Issues That Obama and Romney Avoid.
Everyone:
call
on eBay to stop its nasty and absurd arbitration
requirement.
US citizens: sign this petition to replace Columbus Day with
Exploration Day.
Kenyans win permission
to sue the UK government for torturing them in
prison.
Greg Palast presents
what
the Democratic presidential candidate ought to have said in reply to
Romney.
The next step in sabotaging the UK's national health plan:
fire
the best doctors for treating the main killer diseases.
The Philippines' president advocates
subsidized contraceptives, defying the power of the Catholic Church.
Walmart warehouse workers are on strike, demanding protective gear
to prevent sickness
and injury caused by their work.
Romney told big
lies in the debate.
In fact, 27 lies in 38 minutes.
He even denounced
his own tax plan.
Romney calls
successful electric car companies "losers". By his
definition, only fossil fuel is a "winner".
Both Romney and Obama are too much under the thumb of the fossil fuel
companies to do anything to move us off the road that goes over the
cliff.
As Obama and Romney debated in their bubble, Democracy Now presented
real-time responses by candidates Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson.
US citizens: denounce Shell for claiming that
laws
against its crimes in Nigeria don't apply to it because it is a
corporation.
Fast food logos are
imprinted in children's brains.
Speculators and biofuel producers have bought land that
could
feed a billion people — most of it in countries where there
isn't enough food.
A Russian company offers dangerous technology to
track
people when they use other people's phones.
This will be especially dangerous for dissidents in countries
such as Russia
and the US
that regularly press absurd charges against them.
I make calls using strangers' cell phones, figuring that
I am not tracked that way, but with this technology that may
be tracked too.
Perhaps dissidents will need to use voice distorters
all the time.
Tim DeChristopher, who blocked an illegal auction of mineral
rights and was imprisoned for it, explains that he
has given up
on appeals against his conviction.
He also explains what this implies about the US legal system.
Here's info about his victory and sacrifice,
for which he has no regrets.
Spain
and Greece Are Being Forced to Suffer to Save Germany From High
Inflation.
Regional "fusion centers" harm
Americans' essential liberty,
and fail even to give us a little temporary security in exchange.
Joseph Stiglitz says that the "American dream has become a myth",
thanks to the corruption of the political system, and reminds
us that government
spending is needed to end the recession.
US citizens:
sign
this petition to include other candidates with
nationwide support in the presidential debates.
Brazil plans to require
every car to have a radio tracking device.
This is too dangerous to be allowed, even if it is "useful".
Meanwhile, I suspect it won't stop professional car thieves.
They will be able to jam the car's RFID and override its signals,
even faster than they can switch the license plates today.
US citizens: call for continued protection of the Illinois River
(in Oregon) for the sake of its fish stocks.
The European Parliament must stand ready to
reject
a proposed free exploitation treaty with Canada just as it
rejected ACTA.
Hamas is accused
of practicing torture, arbitrary imprisonment and
unfair trials.
Sounds like Guantanamo. If only the US were a positive example for the world
instead of a negative one.
An abortion ship plans to visit Morocco in order to give Moroccan
women for a brief
period of access to safe abortion.
GMOs need more regulation, since they are leading to superweeds and
superpests and broad use of toxic pesticides. However, the US farm
bill proposes
to reduce the regulation of GMOs.
Romney says he would go back to Dubya's torture practices.
That would not make much of a difference, in practice,
because Obama has not changed those policies very much.
He banned one of Dubya's torture techniques, waterboarding,
and that's all.
Republican voter registration drives use
dishonesty to avoid registering any Democrats.
I would not criticize them for looking for Republicans to register,
but using dishonesty to avoid registering Democrats reflects the general
dishonesty of the Republican Party.
Two Egyptian Christian children, aged 9 and 10, face
charges
of insulting Islam.
While others might focus on the idea of punishing children, this law
would hardly become acceptable if limited to adults. If repression of
others' disapproval is part of Islam, then Islam itself insults Islam,
and we should not hesitate to point to this fact.
More about the Philippine
criminal libel law.
Radical Islamist Abu Hamza was awakened hourly
every night, for 8 years in jail in the UK. The sleep deprivation
has caused him permanent medical problems.
The IMF says that the world won't
recover from the recession until 2018.
That probably means never, because by 2018 global heating will be
doing ever more damage.
The IMF's idea of "recovery" is probably defined in terms of GDP, not
employment or the general standard of living. Thus, a "recovery"
according to the IMF might do most people no good. However, if
business is going to keep losing even given business-favoring
governments, the general public will be hurt all the more.
Part of gutting social welfare in the UK is requiring
many sick people to go to work — even some who can't cross
the street on their own
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
It is not absurd to think that a person who needs a personal nurse full-time might be able to do productive work. She could be escorted to work so that she would arrive safely. The nurse could take care of her while she is at work just as at home; this would not require any more nursing time than she needs now. Of course, this depends on how bad the person's medical problems are in other respects.
However, in a society beset by unemployment, where many who are not disabled and want a job can't find one, it makes no sense to push even partially disabled people to work.
A group of American women plan to march in Pakistan to protest CIA drone attacks.
The presidential debate was jointly controlled by Romney and Obama
to the point of making
it totally "safe".
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The moderator, Jim Lehrer, shows a
general pro-business
bias in his PBS news program. A progressive candidate would have
objected to him, but Republicans-at-heart like Romney and Obama
probably found him easy to accept.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Victory in Quebec shows that a
mass movement
can overcome the power of repression.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Romney's health care plans would leave 72 million Americans without coverage.
As the Great Barrier Reef's coral dies due to human-imposed stress, the US Export Import Bank finances coal projects around the world, including one likely to attack it even more.
Academic paywalls mean "publish and perish."
Obama's dangerous drone legacy: any future president could use drones to kill anyone at all.
California's legislature has tried twice to pass laws to make thugs get warrants to search inside portable computers, but the governor keeps vetoing them.
Climate scientists complain about attempts to subpoena their private emails.
In general, I think scientists should publish more of their data and the software they use to analyze it, as part of doing good science. However, they should not have to publish their conversations about their work.
The Philippine law that censors the Internet apparently has some other repressive provisions, described as being about "intellectual property theft".
"Intellectual property theft" is the latest propaganda term used to make file sharing sound bad. The term is incoherent, in regard to copyright, because there is no way to steal a copyright.
Even more nonsensical, the term "intellectual property" confuses copyrights with a dozen or so unrelated laws. (See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html.)
The article's reference to this bogus concept leads me to expect that this law contains a second repressive provision, above and beyond its libel provision. Does anyone know what it is?
Later: It looks like this was a
false
alarm. I don't see anything pertinent in the text of the law.
Ships bringing aid are once again
on
the way to Gaza.
See http://shiptogaza.se/en
for more information.
US citizens:
call
for continued protection of the Illinois River in Oregon.
A project leased a 3D printer to make a
plastic
pistol, but the lease was cancelled arbitrarily by the manufacturer.
I don't have a position on the project itself, but it is clear that
the manufacturer acted abusively. Those leasing a machine tool should
not have any say over what the lessee does with it; that is the
lessee's responsibility.
Furthermore, whatever the lease conditions may be, the company should
not be allowed to decide arbitrarily that it was violated. Such a
contract should be illegal.
Everyone: sign
this petition to remove David Gregory as host of Meet the Press.
Israel points out that Arab countries expelled
nearly
a million Jews in and after 1948.
The Israeli right wing cites these expulsions now to try to put the
Palestinians in the wrong. However, the Jews who were expelled hadn't
done anything to the Palestinians, and their expulsion didn't help any
Palestinians. So I don't think these two wrongs cancel out. They add
up to two wrongs.
As many as
80,000
people marched in France to oppose austerity plans.
"Strict fiscal discipline" makes every recession worse, and dumps the
burden on the poor. It is inherently wrong. The euro zone needs to
establish a way to authorize deficit spending in periods like these.
Pennsylvania's voter ID law has been
blocked in court, for this election
at least.
It needs to be blocked permanently, because there are
systematic
reasons why poor, downtrodden and/or decrepit citizens, entitled to
vote, do not have the kind of IDs that expire frequently and state
the person's address.
Google has agreed to
support
Turkish censorship of YouTube in much the same way as it supported
Chinese censorship for a time.
Google stopped upholding Chinese censorship, and should stop upholding
Turkish censorship too.
It occurs to me that
browser-based
user-location snooping systems might make it difficult to bypass
censorship such as this. If YouTube detects that you're connected
to a wireless router it believes is in Turkey, it might apply Turkish
censorship to you even if you connect through a proxy or VPN outside
Turkey.
Wisconsin officials are being
sued to release emails about state business
that they sent and received using personal email accounts. (They are
trying to evade the state's open records law.)
Here's an instance in which computerized voting machines allowed
systematic
vote-rigging through "social engineering".
In other words, the vulnerabilities of computerized voting may not be visible
in study of the machine itself.
Verizon can monkey with voice mail and phone lines in various ways,
and will do so on
simple request from the thugs.
Israel is proceeding with
demolition
of Bedouin villages in the Negev.
Progress in the
divestment campaign against companies that aid the occupation of
Palestine.
Israel is constructing a road between colonies in the West Bank
through
the territory of Palestinian villages that Israel wants to
eliminate.
An Israeli peace activist who was taking photos of illegal
construction of a colony was
attacked,
beaten and robbed by
"settlers", while thugs watched and did nothing.
Discussions of self-driving cars claim that humans are unreliable
drivers. Nonsense!
There were around
2.3
million car accident injuries in the US in 2010,
which comes out to 1 accident per 33,000 hours of driving.
As for accidents that caused a fatality, there were around 30,000,
which was around 1 for every 2 million hours of driving.
These figures are based on a rough estimate of around 75 billion hours
of driving in the US, which was made from figures for number of miles
driven on various kinds of roads and the estimated speeds. However,
even if the correct number is as little as 50 billion hours or as much
as 100 billion, it won't change the conclusion: humans are very
reliable drivers.
Global heating
will
kill 100 million people by 2030, according to an
official study.
US citizens:
Tell
New York Governor Cuomo: Be a leader to protect all of us from
fracking. Ban fracking in New York.
It appears UK thug chiefs want secret courts so as to
cover
up evidence about undercover thugs that slept with dissidents they
were spying on.
Hezbollah is fighting
in Syria in support of Assad. So are the Iranian
revolutionary guards.
The president of Georgia has been replaced
democratically.
When debating candidate Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Senator Brown
said his model Supreme Court justice is Scalia.
'Nuff said.
Undercover thugs in Austin try to convince Occupy protesters to do
something violent, but the protesters refused. So the protesters were
threatened
with 2 years in prison for nonviolent civil disobedience.
A movie in India has been censored
because
it presents the viewpoint of Dalits and criticizes Gandhi.
The conservative government has imposed disastrous "reforms" on the
National Health Service (which I suspect are designed to ruin it and
provide an excuse for further "reforms"). During two years of debate,
the BBC's coverage of the issue was nearly completely
biased
in favor of the government.
How tables of wireless networks' hardware addresses work with
malicious browser features to
determine
where you are located when you browse.
Obama says that we should not "look back" to punish Bush's torturers
but Iraqi-American
Shakir
Hamoodi has just been sentenced for sending
money to his family in Iraq before the war.
A genetically modified cow produces milk that might avoid
allergic reactions in a small but significant fraction of human babies.
Calling
U.S. Drone Strikes 'Surgical' Is Orwellian Propaganda.
An attack on Iran's uranium enrichment factories could kill 5000 to
8000 Iranians who live nearby, due to the
toxic
chemicals and radioactive fallout that would be released if the
factories are bombed.
Thugs in Azerbaijan
falsely
accuse dissidents of "resisting arrest" to
put them in jail; it is standard practice.
Did they learn this from the US?
The US mainstream media
hardly touch the
issue of unemployment in the US.
US citizens:
call on
Obama and Romney to say what they will do about global heating.
Global heating is affecting coastal waters much
more than the average, and this can kill the fish.
Global heating is forecast to result in a horrible drought in the
US Southwest in most years, which
will kill lots of the trees.
A Cambodian dissident was framed and sentenced to
prison
for 20 years.
This is comparable to Bahrain.
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble:
coral is dying fast.
US-imposed sanctions are causing rapid inflation in Iran, which means
great
hardship for many of the poor.
The stated purpose of these sanctions is to pressure Iran to stop
moving towards development of nuclear weapons. I wonder why the US
does not offer to drop the sanctions in exchange for a deal.
Local TV stations run political ads paid by rich secret donors but
do
not cover the fact that this is going on.
California has
banned
conversion "therapy" that pretends to convert gays into straights.
Copyright Kills New Music, by composer Mehmet Okonsar.
Scandal: web sites track children that use them, and are
designed
to lure them into providing personal information.
I think it's scandalous to treat adults this way, too.
US citizens:
call
on grocery stores not to stock GMO apples.
The New York Thug Department
systematically
and dishonestly attacks journalists and anyone else it feels like
abusing.
In 2050, thanks to global heating,
fish
will be smaller and there will be fewer of them.
The US has
thousands of known sites contaminated with toxic
chemicals, and cleaning up is very slow.
An editor in Italy has been sentenced
to prison for libel for publishing a letter to the editor with a
controversial viewpoint. I disagree with the letter, but that is no
reason to support censorship.
Indian thugs attacked a reporter, hitting him with rifles.
Then they
threatened
to frame him if he didn't sign a statement
that was presumably damaging to his rights.
Texas thugs
pepper
sprayed and tasered nonviolent protesters who were
blocking construction of the planet-roaster pipeline.
Shame
on Obama for ordering this.
Protesters pepper-sprayed at UC Davis got a
million-dollar
settlement from the university.
I hope the Texas victims get 10 million dollars.
I think that destroying already-constructed parts of the pipeline is
justified under the necessity principle: preventing a greater crime.
The rent-to-own companies that put spyware on the rented computers
don't have to stop. The FTC required them only to
promise
to tell users about the spying.
I suppose it will be stated cryptically in the fine print of a 50-page
agreement that hardly any users read. But if they did, they would surely
find it is an EULA for nonfree software that nobody should ever sign.
Defending the study that found Roundup and "Roundup-ready" maize cause
cancer
in rats.
US citizens: stand with Bradley Manning and demand dismissal of
charges against him.
US residents: call
on Whole Foods to come clean regarding GMOs in its products.
Nuclear energy is
unreliable
and unsafe, and more expensive than renewable energy.
Obama's officials rebuked a government climate scientist for leaking
government documents that revealed
the danger of Shell's undersea drilling plans.
Thugs disguised
as protesters provoked violence at a protest in Madrid.
US citizens: sign
the Peace Voter Pledge.
US citizens: demand
arrangements to enable foreclosed people to vote.
US citizens:
call
on Jim Lehrer to ask the candidates a question
about global heating in the first presidential debate.
Some
US politicians want to support the Mujahedin-e Khalq as a
government in exile for Iran.
This won't win the support of anyone in Iran. Most Iranians love
their country even if they hate the mullahs. They recognize the US
economic sanctions
(which often hurt ordinary Iranian people)
as hostility between the US and Iran, and some see the US as a worse
enemy than the Iranian regime. Under these circumstances, no Iranian
opposition can benefit from US support, and an organization such as
the MeK which has no support in Iran to begin with can only be
ridiculous.
Basically, the US can pressure Iran as a state with trade sanctions,
or it can try to support Iranian people against their state, but it
can't do both.
Why I can't support
Obama.
US citizens: call for including
questions about Corporations
United and election funding in the presidential debates.
Everyone:
phone
Transcanada to condemn brutal treatment of
anti-pipeline protesters.
The two protesters, who had handcuffed themselves together on
TransCanada's construction equipment, were subjected to choke holds,
stress positions in which their free arms were handcuffed, contorted, and
then pepper sprayed, burning their skin. They were then tased -- one of
the activists was tased twice.
There is no excuse for subjecting peaceful, defenseless protesters to this
level of violence.
Those willing to cause global disaster for profit will hardly care
about injuring protesters. But they fear strengthening the opposition,
and when our calls show them this is happening, they may hesitate
to treat protesters that way again.
California will develop
free/libre
textbooks for the 50 most common college courses.
Elementary school should be next.
My only disappointment is that the article uses the word "open" so much.
In education, lots of works called "open" are not free/libre, and use
a
license that has a particular problem.
An analyst predicts that Karzai's regime
won't
last long after the US troops pull out.
I think he's right, but propping up Karzai is not worth continuing
this war.
The Taliban offered to drop support for al Qa'ida in 2009 but
the US was not interested in the deal.
A dishonest forensic analyst in Boston
falsified
tests for drugs.
A large fraction of the 34,000 cases affected by this falsification are
consequences of the destructive War on Drugs.
Such cases are a large fraction of all criminal cases in the US.
If we only had ended this war years ago, there would not have been
pressure on forensic analysts to rush their tests.
Some
Democratic senators oppose oil drilling in the Arctic.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-05-13 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Anwar Sadat made a peace offer in 1973 via Kissinger to Golda Meir, who rejected it without even telling most of Israel's ministers. So he tried war instead.
Uri Avnery says that Israel's current policies are comparable.
One of the Federal Reserve governors says the US unemployment problem requires spending, not just money expansion.
It's too bad Obama talks about compromise with the Republicans to cut the deficit.
The US drought is getting worse and will reach even the Northwest, where it normally rains most of the time.
More about the protests in Georgia about the torture of prisoners.
Amnesty International criticizes the conditions inside
California
prisons.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Chicago's park curfew, used as an excuse to arrest Occupy protesters, was ruled unconstitutional.
When Ted Koppel criticizes media falsehoods, his starting premise is that there must be equal criticism for Republicans and Democrats. Except sometimes there can be a little more for Democrats.
A thug attacked Austin DeCaro for refusing to switch off his video camera, then laid false charges against him.
The thug ought to be prosecuted for attempting obstruction of justice.
The Arctic is substantially hotter now than it was due to natural causes in the medieval warm period.
Global heating causes extreme weather events in the ocean too.
Obama picks people to kill with drones, but he doesn't know how many civilians they have killed, and neither does anyone else.
Old men are kept in prison in the US even when they are paralyzed or can hardly hold a pen.
And often they can't get the medical treatment they need.
A major reason for imprisoning criminals is so they cannot commit more crimes. An old man is not likely to commit a crime of violence. A paralyzed old man could hardly even try.
Afghanistan: Violence stalks women workers.
Karzai's government reflects the sexist attitude of Afghan society. It is a step forward compared with the Taliban, but not that big a step. If it could be kept in power by something less than unending war, I might be in favor of that. But this small gain can't justify the unending war, which likewise exposes Afghan women to violence.
The medieval souk of Aleppo is being destroyed
by fire
started by combat.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Another Bahraini protester was killed by the thugs.
It isn't wrong for Bahrainis to fight the thugs with violence, just as it wasn't wrong for Libyans and isn't wrong for Syrians to do so. It may or may not be a wise idea — that is a different question.
The Freedom Theater performed in Nabi Saleh, which has held a weekly protest for almost 3 years against the theft of their land by an Israeli colony.
The US government has illegally held Bradley Manning before trial 6 times the legal limit.
The Wall Street Journal published op-eds by 10 people while not disclosing that they are associated with Romney.
A right-wing anti-immigrant party is gaining power in Greece by helping poor Greeks and bullying immigrants for them.
When powerful rich knock the people down, they get angry. But if they don't know to focus their anger directly at the rich, demagogues can use it by scapegoating others who are even weaker.
France tries to cut its deficit, but uses taxes as well as cuts.
It appears Pakistan tacitly cooperates with US drone attacks in Pakistan.
Megan Stammers and her lover, Jeremy Forrest, objects of an international dragnet for running away together, were arrested. Her family claims to be "elated".
I doubt that Ms Stammers feels elated. Most people are not elated to be arrested, even if their jailers say it is for their "protection". She may not relish being "reunited with her father" against her will. When she envisions being forced to testify against him when he is trued for the crime of running away with her, she might feel despair.
The FBI manufactures bombing plots among dissidents as well as among Muslims.
Many US states enforce regulations on oil and gas wells in such a
perfunctory and slapdash fashion that it
hardly does any good.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The president of Guatemala will propose legalization of drugs to the
UN General Assembly.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
It is useful to try this route, but Guatemala and any other country that doesn't want to be at war with its own citizens should take unilateral steps to legalize drugs.
It is common in India for the thugs to torture arrested people. Now India faces international pressure to pass a law against it.
The US already has a law against torture, but Obama refuses to enforce it.
New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance.
Officials and executives in the US increasingly demand journalists get permission for quotes they want to use
Since I have sometimes been terribly misquoted, I too ask reporters to verify their quotes with me — but only if they don't make an audio recording, which is the best way to ensure they quote what I really said.
A Portuguese prosecutor dropped cases against accused file sharers, saying that file sharing for personal use is lawful there.
Panama is proposing to fine people a hundred thousand dollars for file sharing, while giving them only 15 days to prepare a defense.
The money thus collected is paid as a bonus to the staff of the agency that issues the fines, which don't go through any court.
Obama pushed through the free exploitation treaty between Panama and the US. Is Obama responsible for this?
Boston police cameras recognize 3,600 license plates per day, and there are no real limits on what they do with this data. They store some in a corporation's server.
A Tunisian woman is on trial for something comparable to public
nudity. Apparently
she was nude
because thugs raped her.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The UK is imprisoning squatters who live in empty buildings.
To call the sentence "disproportionate" is a grave understatement, since it grants some legitimacy to a law that is pure evil.
Nation-building in Afghanistan meant building schools and clinics that Karzai's government can't afford to run.
The article doesn't mention corruption, but I suspect that is the reason why Karzai's government can't pay to run these schools and clinics.
Civilians in parts of Pakistan feel terrorized by US drones. They are taking their children out of school and fear to attend funerals.
The US military designated Assange and Wikileaks as "enemies".
This means that Assange might be imprisoned without trial if the US got its hands on him. It also suggests the US might to try to kidnap him or assassinate him.
Rejecting the
"wasted
vote" argument against voting Green.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Voting for Obama is effectively voting Republican since on issues of concern to business he effectively is one.
I think one minor point in the article is mistaken. The Democratic Party was never a third party; it was the first organized political party in the US, though at its beginning in the 1790s it was called "Republican".
Anonymous obtained 60 hours of video made by New York thugs as they shut down the protest camp of Occupy Wall Street last November. The thugs attacked journalists so as to prevent them from taking videos.
A person who looked at the short clip for me says it shows thugs beating up on the protesters while handcuffing them and taking them a way. At one point, a gang of thugs abuse a man who seems to be screaming in pain. They rip people out of groups who have intertwined their arms by pulling on their legs. They push a guy from behind whose arms are cuffed behind him.
It is possible that this video was obtained from the office of a lawyer suing the thugs. The article assumes that, if this is so, it would damage the rights of other protesters brutalized by thugs. I am skeptical of that conclusion.
If you look at videos on youtube.com, take care not to access them by visiting the site in a browser, since that requires running nonfree software (either Flash Player or nonfree Javascript code). Use the youtubedl script to get the Webm file, and play that with free software.
Here's a magnet link for the full set of videos.
States in Latin America are establishing massive surveillance systems.
Gold mines in South Africa exploit their employees cruelly, but they are starting to push back.
At the same time, it is clear that the other root of this problem is too high a birth rate. I support the miners' demand for higher pay, but they also have a responsibility: not to have so many children that it makes them slaves to the mine. If contraception is not easily available to them, the state has a responsibility to help.
US citizens:
join
Amnesty International's campaign to free Pussy Riot.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Julian Assange points out that it was Wikileaks, not the US government, that spurred the Arab Spring.
The US seems to support the repression of the democracy movement in Bahrain.
Protesters were arrested in NYC for putting paintings or stickers over anti-Muslim advertisements.
I support the right to make such statements, even though I don't agree with them. I also support the right to criticize them by writing on the posters. Covering them up or tearing them down is on the borderline; to prosecute people for this is extreme.
Large numbers of abusive US mortgages have invalid title, so cities and states can use eminent domain to seize and abolish the mortgages.
Comparing Obama with Roosevelt.
The US is restricting who can fly between Spain and Mexico.
Record Arctic Snow Loss May Be Prolonging North American Drought.
Romney has failed to notice that the US has plenty of moochers totally dependent on the government.
Thugs in Spain attacked travellers in Madrid's principal train station as a mass protest continued outside.
A German and French proposal to extend copyright to
cover publishing snippets of articles could cause problems for
smaller competitors of Google.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Free Speech, the Internet, and a Very Big Lie.
The problem of censorship begins when a site that the public depends on for communication — in other words, an effectively public virtual space that is formally private — blocks access to any material from any country. If a state installs filters to block the material, the state is clearly committing censorship. When a company does the state's dirty work, that disguises the censorship as an editorial judgment.
Google says that it must comply with the censorship laws of the various countries where it has offices. That's true, but incomplete. For a time, Google complied with the censorship laws of China for this reason; but then it closed its office there and stopped complying. That was the right thing to do, but Google does not always do the right thing. When Google opens an office in a country that imposes censorship, it extends that country's censorship to YouTube.
US citizens: call
on the NFL to end its lockout of referees.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The US Passport Agency is trying to create the option to give any passport applicant an impossible set of irrelevant questions.
Refuting the
myths spread
by agribusiness about GMO labelling.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
A Google executive in Brazil faces criminal charges for
not
removing a video from YouTube.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
To punish executives personally when corporations act illegally seems in general like a good idea. This particular law is another matter: it is a form of censorship.
The words in the article suggest that the law was meant to apply to advertisements by election campaigns. Thus limited, it might be acceptable — and applying it to statements published by independent members of the public might be a legal error. However, only a Brazilian lawyer could tell if this is really true.
EU proposal to stop terrorist sites even more ridiculous than it sounds.
This is supposed to be a justification for trying to develop it in secret. That reminds me of "I believe because it is absurd".
Ralph Nader says
Obama is
a war criminal, and condemns Romney too.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
In the US, even kindergarten children are burdened with
standardized
tests.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The Gates Foundation is pushing dependent agriculture in Africa: expensive patented seeds that need expensive fertilizers.
There is a general strike against austerity in Greece.
Rent-to-Own Laptops Secretly Photographed Users Having Sex.
Lots of proprietary software has malicious features; it is not limited to rental computers.
By abolishing the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians could demonstrate
that Israel's current path is an
apartheid
state.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: sign this petition to raise the Corporations United (*) decision in the presidential debate.
* These corporations called themselves "Citizens United", but there's no reason to repeat their spin.
The BBC interviewed members of Israel's largest violent extremist group: those who launch acts of violence against Palestinians.
One group of settlers decided to campaign for better housing for their Palestinian neighbors, who have been blocked for a decade from constructing even a toilet.
I admire that attitude, but we shouldn't consider that a settlers who show good will towards neighboring Palestinians make the settlement land grab and water grab ok.
A rigged Israeli government committee is trying to shut down the politics and government department at Ben Gurion University because it is "leftist".
Israel long prided itself on being the "only democracy in the Middle East". That's no longer the case, since Egypt seems to have become a real democracy, and Libya is making a substantial attempt. But Israel could continue to call itself the oldest democracy in the Middle East.
That's presuming the right wing doesn't change it into a non-democracy.
US citizens: Join Shirin Ebadi in opposing war with Iran.
Arguing that the US should bring back its system of postal banking.
Even when there is an arms embargo against an oppressive regime, the UK still trains its thugs and soldiers.
An academic study in the US concludes that drone attacks in Pakistan do more to boost the Taliban than to damage it.
For a guerrilla movement, the limiting factor is its ability to recruit supporters. Leaders, even the best, can always be replaced if recruiting is good. Thus, to kill leaders in a way that stimulates popular support for the guerrilla only strengthens it.
Thus, the study's conclusion is not surprising. However, it is good to see it confirmed in a way that may impede the attempts to ignore the point.
Innocent-seeming text posted on Facebook could cause you lots of trouble, due to development of systems to deduce things about you.
A high Tory official in the UK faces a scandal because he "swore" at a thug who would not let him leave the prime minister's office by his usual path.
A Tory politician surely advocates policies that will harm the non-rich and damage the environment, but Britons are more upset that he insulted a thug?! This absurdity rivals that of the sex scandals that bring down right-wing US politicians after they have got away with policies that hurt most of their electorate.
If he did treat a thug with disrespect, was that wrong? Persons and institutions deserve what respect they earn. After publicly lying to blame the victims of their own misconduct, sleeping with dissidents they were spying on, besieging thousands of protesters, beating and shooting innocent people, and killing numerous prisoners, I think the UK thugs should go and earn more respect before they complain.
If there is a real wrong in what Mitchell is reported to have said, it is the arrogance — for instance, "learn your place" and "plebs". Those words suppose a society in which a few deserve to be served by the rest.
However, if that attitude were unacceptable in a politician, it would exclude the Tories and New Labour in general, since both parties are subservient to the rich.
As for the "swear word" Mitchell allegedly used, that merely indicates anger. People understandably feel angry when forcibly blocked from travelling on their usual paths. To arrest someone for displaying that anger is to kick him when he's down. Not even a politician deserves that.
The UK should take this opportunity to ensure that no Briton will ever again be arrested for "swearing".
The UK government admits that part of the motive for secret courts is to protect itself from bad publicity.
France's new government proposes to "abolish prostitution".
What these measures would really do is force prostitution underground, hurting both prostitutes and their customers.
If you want to help people who feel they have been driven into prostitution, help them deal in other ways with the problems that drove them. That would be real help, and they would appreciate it. Some might then be able to stop doing prostitution. If others continue, voluntarily, why should you object?
Protests against the TPP got
through to the negotiators of other countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
A few months ago, an unjust Canadian law increased copyright restrictions. The lobbyists already demand more.
The article uses the unwise term "digital locks" to refer to Digital Restrictions Management. Please don't imitate that weak choice.
Voting laws may disenfranchise 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens.
The Union of Concerned Scientists rebuked News Corp for distorted coverage of global heating in the Wall Street Journal and Faux News.
Shell is suing Greenpeace International aiming to ban protests anywhere near Shell installations and activities.
Romney believes poor Americans can get needed medical care via emergency room visits.
Data refute the theory that companies "need" to offer CEOs pay that is competitive with CEOs of other companies in the same size.
Journalist John Knefel reports how thugs attacked him then arrested him as he was covering the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Facebook has started working with a purchase-tracking company to cross-reference Facebook's data about users with data about their purchases.
This can't affect you if you do as I do: refuse to use Facebook, block its surveillance of non-users (done via Like buttons), and pay cash. But it is nasty nonetheless.
New Zealand Intel Agency Investigated for Unlawful Spying on Kim Dotcom.
The city of Bogota will provide addictive drugs to addicts by prescription, as a plan to reduce the crime committed by addicts.
A human rights lawyer in Honduras was
murdered.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Human rights defenders and journalists are murdered often in Honduras since the US-legitimized coup.
Iran officially offered to halt uranium enrichment to 20% in exchange for relaxation of trade sanctions.
The rational point of trade sanctions is to pressure a country into changing policies. If the US goal is that Iran not be able to make a nuclear weapon, Iran is now offering just that. In negotiations, it might offer more. So why would the US not make a deal?
One reason would be if the real US goal is something other than a change of Iranian nuclear policy.
President Morsi of Egypt called on the US to honor the Camp David agreement by supporting Palestinian independence.
Why it is important not to have children.
US citizens:
ask
the FBI to investigate a gruesome antisemitic
attack in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Most of the world uses second hand goods that came from the rich countries. Therefore, our decisions in rich countries about what sort of goods to use have a long effect on others.
The US must firmly defend the right to criticize any religion.
I posted a link to a note pointing out that protests against the video are organized by extremists as an attempt to spread their extremism among Muslims who mostly are not inclined to violence against anyone. Harris is mistaken in not recognizing this difference among Muslims. However, his main point is valid.
Global heating and acidification due to CO2 are forecast to destroy half the fisheries in the Persian Gulf. And do lots of damage all around the world.
US citizens: insist
on an investigation of the manifest injustices
in Troy Davis' case.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
In an experiment,
Roundup-resistant
GMO corn killed rats by causing cancer. Roundup itself had similar
effects.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
However, the experiment's validity has been criticized.
To conduct a larger experiment seems like a wise policy.
Libya is cracking down on Islamist militias.
Companies are perverting the cooperative spirit of free software and Wikipedia to get people to work gratis.
When someone asks you to contribute to a joint project, think about whether it is being contributed to the public as it ought to be.
The article refers only to "Linux" but it's clearly talking about the GNU/Linux system. The author probably does not know this is an error.
According to Romney's own words, he is unqualified for the presidency because in 2011 he intentionally paid more federal taxes than he had to.
There is nothing inherently wrong in a person's making a gift to the national treasury, but it looks like Romney did this to avoid showing how low a federal tax rate he might have paid before.
And since it is not presented as a gift to the treasury, but rather as not claiming the full deduction he could claim, he can get that money back next year.
Now, I am in favor of a tax deduction for charitable donations, including to churches. His low basic tax rate is the problem.
A Chinese AIDS activist has been disappeared after going on hunger strike to protest his house arrest.
Human Rights Watch and others accuse the Syrian rebels of various war crimes including summary execution.
Ministers in Georgia have resigned due to public protests against brutal treatment of prisoners.
US prisons are getting worse and worse, and privatization creates a systematic motive to imprison ever more Americans. When will Americans show enough spine to protest massively?
A journalist has been arrested in Cuba for writing about diseases there.
Oman sentenced a blogger to a year in prison for criticizing the state.
In Quebec, just across the border from the US, the student protest movement brought down the government and eliminated harsh restrictions on protests.
France bans GMO corn and fracking.
A leak shows that the EU's "Clean IT" plan means massive surveillance and Internet filters.
Karzai's government has
not resulted in respect for womens' rights
in Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Human Rights Watch makes recommendations for Peru regarding conduct towards protesters.
Global heating deniers tend to believe many conspiracy theories.
Tunisian artists cry for help against religious extremists.
An artist faces 5 years in prison for "disturbing public order" … with paintings
The House of Representatives passed the Dirty Air/Water Act.
Glenn Greenwald: Republicans and Democrats defend freedom of speech
only for some opinions,
while
supporting censorship or even prosecution of others.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The Internet is made up of privatized "public spaces" comparable to shopping malls, and that puts freedom of speech in danger.
The article also points up the UK's lack of respect for freedom of speech.
Sugar withdrawal can affect part of a rat's brain like opiate withdrawal.
Uri Avnery explains to Romney about the two-state solution to the one-state problem.
Five Looming
Curses of Privatization.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The US public asks "Why do they hate us" because
our media
don't tell us how the US kills them.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Romney's embarrassing statements are not "gaffes" — they show the real Romney.
A study predicts that most people in the UK will get worse off through 2020 even though the total economy expands.
That's what happens if you promote economic growth by deregulating business and taxing the rich less — the growth is only for the rich, so why bother?
Only cannabidiol from marijuana stops 6-year-old Jayden David from having seizures all the time. Thanks to Obama, he may be unable to obtain it any more.
Abortion, compared to having an unwanted baby, does not pose a risk of increased mental illness to the woman.
A previous study that purported to show such a risk seems to have been flawed.
The Syrian rebels have
moved
their headquarters into areas of Syria that they control.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The existence of areas under rebel control means that it is now militarily possible for the West to aid them, as it was in Libya. Whether to do so is another question. The challenge would be to avoid making this a victory for Salafists that could be worse than Assad.
The TSA stopped a traveler from boarding a plane, after she had passed
through security, because
an
agent did not like her attitude.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: don't let PG&E sterilize a marine reserve with explosive "tests".
A crowd of citizens stormed the base of Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, whose fighters fled after some attempt at resistance.
This may be a step forward in helping the state take power away from the various militias that control parts of Libya. But not necessarily.
Glyphosate (Roundup) promotes gwowth of fungi, and its use has been associated with the appearance of a new fungal disease that causes abortions in farm animals.
Whether Roundup is responsible for this disease is not yet established, but may be established by further study. Whether ceasing to use Roundup would eliminate the disease is a separate question, which experiments could answer.
Whether continued use of Roundup is likely to make more such diseases appear is another question, which we can't answer with certainty, so we must not ignore the risk.
Obama has ignored a letter from 27 congresscritters criticizing the "signature" drone attacks — for 3 months.
Some victims of the shooting in a movie theater
are suing the
theater.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Isn't this nuts? If they win, theaters will adopt new "security measures" to make life more difficult for everyone (and, as a secondary evil, charge more). But I don't blame the plaintiffs. Due to the lack of a national health service in the US, and the lack of proper support for the disabled, they must be desperate to get money from somewhere.
Reggie Clemons got a new investigation, which presented evidence that his prosecution was unfair.
Thugs get lots of practice lying on the witness stand, so what they said must be disregarded. Aside from that, it looks like Clemons was guilty of something, perhaps participating in rape, if not murder. Some suspects are guilty, after all, but that doesn't excuse torture, or execution.
Our system of testing drugs for safety and efficacy is fundamentally
broken. Pharma companies systematically manipulate it so they can
sell drugs
that don't work, are dangerous, or both.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The solution is to tax the companies and have the state fund the studies.
This is one example among many of the harm done by the political power of business. That is why I support movements and candidates ready to take away that power.
Democracy does not mean elections. Elections are part of the method, but they are not the point. The point of democracy is that the many non-rich unite to be stronger than the rich. The US doesn't do this, which means democracy is sick.
Clinton the Great Deregulator gave the banksters the conditions to
create
the financial
crisis and the recession.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
I had read that Clinton opposed repeal of Glass-Steagall, but that was incorrect information. He supported it.
In an experiment, Roundup-resistant GMO corn killed rats
by causing
cancer.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Using a cell phone while driving may not in fact be dangerous. It
seems that the drivers who typically answer the phone drive
dangerously
all the time.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Fracking is used as a way to dispose of inconvenient toxic waste.
The US has published a list of 55 Guantanamo prisoners who are "cleared for release".
Since the US government doesn't claim to have a reason to imprison them, they should be freed immediately.
The rest of the prisoners should be freed immediately too, unless they are charged with some crime and tried.
(I refuse to call prisoners "detainees". That word sanitizes the horror of being imprisoned.)
Violent protests against an insulting film are being
used
by Muslim extremists (Salafists) to build support for their extremism,
much the way Christian extremists in the West used sometimes violent protest
against abortion providers.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
What is crucial is whether Muslims who respect freedom of expression organize to defeat the extremists.
The world center of Salafism is Saudi Arabia, whose state the US has supported in repression for decades.
If you live in the US, your house can be wrecked as part of the War on Drugs.
Protesters in Benghazi, perhaps remembering how the US air force defended their city, tried to attack the Islamist militia accused of killing the US ambassador.
Millionaires spent millions on lobbyists and campaign contributions to get the Mojahedin-e Khalq removed from the list of organizations arbitrarily labeled as "terrorist".
This demonstrates that the list is a matter of politics, nothing to do with justice. It is prohibition of groups by decree, if they don't have political connections.
Obama has become, on many fronts, as bad an enemy of civil liberties as Bush.
The delusion that terrorism in the US is a significant danger is part of the cause.
A leader of the UK Tory party runs a sleazy search engine spamming company.
Many conservatives own or work for businesses that exploit people (consider Romney), so this should not be surprising.
On the delusion that terrorism is a significant danger in the US.
Authoritarians are not slow to take advantage of this irrational fear. A thug chief claimed that illegal drugs are terrorism.
Facebook censorship guidelines
have been leaked. They include political censorship catering to
various countries that do not respect freedom of speech.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Some people believe that global heating is a massive hoax. What a silly theory!
Facebook is experimenting with a system to ask people to rat on friends who have not given their real names.
If I used Facebook, I would give my real name, but being denied the option of doing otherwise is enough reason for me to refuse to use it at all.
There are many reasons to reject Facebook.
Amnesty International warns that Israel plans to demolish 13 Palestinian villages.
A simulation
exercise found that the US and Iran could drift into war
through miscommunication.
The Taliban
actively encourage Karzai's troops to kill US troops,
and nothing can be done to stop it.
The root cause of this is that Karzai's rule inspires no loyalty.
If men joined his army because they wanted to defeat the Taliban,
it would be quite rare for soldiers to betray their units and buddies.
Inspections of factories, to assure "social responsibility", often
mean
nothing.
Since Obama's "surge" in Afghanistan did not achieve the goal of
weakening the Taliban, officials
give
it a new goal that has not failed yet.
Romney and Ryan are
letting
neocons decide their foreign policy ideas.
We shouldn't listen to neocons until they become ex-cons.
Murderous fanatics in Pakistan demand
execution
of the man who made a video that insulted Muhammad.
Once again we see the comparison between prohibiting denial of the Nazi
genocide and prohibiting such insults. Censoring one opinion leads
to pressure to censor another. To ban denial of this genocide or others
may be well-intentioned, but it is extremely dangerous.
US citizens:
call on Republican senators
to stop blocking the bill
to aid veterans with education for jobs.
I disagree with calling veterans "our heroes" — those who were
sent to Iraq were victims and dupes. But we should not punish them
for that. It is the lying officials like Bush that should be punished.
US citizens:
Call on the NLRB
to investigate the mining company
that forced employees to participate in a rally for Romney
(and lose pay as a result).
US citizens:
Tell the Bureau of Indian Affairs
to support tribes that
want to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from bulldozing sacred burial
grounds.
The resignation of Yale's president presents an
opportunity
to protect liberal education from turning into corporate
propaganda, but this is not automatic.
US citizens: tell
the EPA to keep farm runoff from turning Chesapeake Bay
into a sewer.
US citizens: Phone your senators to support Senator Merkley's bill,
the Protect America's Privacy Act (S. 3515), which would limit
warrantless wiretapping of Americans.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
Here's info from CREDO Action about the bill:
While Sen. Merkley's bill does not repeal telecom immunity for illegal
spying, restore privacy protection to library and bookstore records, end
National Security Letter abuse, or roll back the worst abuses of the
PATRIOT Act (all issues CREDO will continue to fight for, in addition to
the full repeal of the PATRIOT Act), it does make three major changes to
the warrantless wiretapping program that help us end some of the abuses of
the Bush era.
First, it would put stronger protections in place to ensure that spy
agencies are not using this program as an indirect way to target someone
in the U.S.
Second, current law allows the government to collect information in
anticipation of having its request to do so approved by a special type of
top-secret court. Sen. Merkley's bill would ensure that if this court
decides the procedures the government is using to collect information are
improper, any information collected from Americans cannot be used in a
legal proceeding.
Third, the bill would establish a new process for ensuring that if
security agencies determine that information is being collected on
Americans, that information cannot be accessed or searched until a proper
warrant is obtained.
In France, the "collecting society" that
claims
to represent songwriters squeezes money out of them.
US citizens: call
on the FCC to stop privatized prisons from charging
prisoners a dollar a minute to talk with their families.
US citizens: support
Italy in demanding extradition of CIA
agents convicted of kidnapping.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say to remove the "summary
judgment provision" from Whistleblower Protection Enhancement bill.
This provision would allow a judge to dismiss a whistleblower's case
before it is heard in court.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
A Republican legislator who supports voter-ID laws said that
people
who get government benefits should not be allowed to vote.
Store owners and workers went on strike across India
against
plans to allow foreign supermarkets such as Walmart.
When politicians say these stores are "good for the economy", they
mean for the total GNP. However, deregulation implies these "benefits"
go mostly to the rich.
German spyware business
supports
dictators.
Germany is not alone in this: US, UK and French companies do it too.
Arrogant Islamist groups demand the
world-wide
prohibition of blasphemy.
If this proposal is adopted, my cartoon,
Shared
Sacrifice in America, might get me imprisoned for blasphemy
against Huitzilopochtli.
Recall
what
laws against blasphemy do in Pakistan. But even when not carried
so far, censorship is an injustice. We must defend the right to
blaspheme against Allah, Huitzilopochtli, or any other deity.
In a blow against freedom of speech, France has banned
all protest
against the controversial anti-Islam film.
Muslims have a right to protest this or any film, just as people have
a right to make such a film.
Freedom of speech is rather weak in France.
The company that made the ammonia-treated meat derivative that was
secretly added to hamburgers in the US is
suing lots of people for calling it "pink slime".
The Palestinian Authority has arrested
over
100 protesters, activists and journalists.
A UK man was
arrested
for praising someone accused of killing two thugs.
The UK's restrictions on freedom of speech are far more dangerous to
Britons than a murderer.
The Philippine government is considering a
"cybercrime" bill that
exacerbates the danger of criminal punishment for libel, intended to
chill online expression.
Ukraine has restricted
public protests in a manner reminiscent of the US.
There is
Chicago's anti-protest law, the restriction
of protests to far-off "free speech zones" outside the Republican
and Democratic conventions, and
the
law that makes nonviolent protest at events where the Secret Service
is present a felony.
All in all, Ukraine's shame is following the example set by the US.
Massive
protests against austerity in Portugal, but what change
to advocate?
Some are looking towards Iceland's example.
Iran is setting up an independent Internet so as to
disconnect
most citizens from the rest of the world.
Australian public television used a DMCA-like law to
censor
a free program that could access the ABC's web site.
This act of censorship is despicable, and so is the law that was used.
Australians, tell your MP that this law is an injustice.
Although may countries endorse the idea of freedom of speech to some
extent,
most
of them fall short in important ways.
Freedom of speech has been perfected in the US thanks to the
ACLU. I'm a member; are you?
Another paralyzed UK man is
suing
to get permission to pay people to transport
him to Switzerland, where he could get help in dying.
A further disaster for Greece:
most
state property will be privatized.
When it is a matter of selling palaces or islands, the only loss will
be that they get a smaller price than if they had sold at a better
time. Privatizing public services is much worse, since will result
in mistreatment of the workers and the people who use them. This will
result in further poverty.
Privatizing revenue generators such as the lottery will, in the long run,
exacerbate the problem of revenue,
as
in Chicago.
Some in the UK parliament recognize that
drilling
for oil in the Arctic is going in the wrong direction.
How John Paulson arranged with Goldman Sachs to swindle other banks
and got away with it, and now is
paying
millions of those winnings to help Romney.
If you want to buy the book, please don't get it from Amazon.
Other links include
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781609804787
but even better, you can ask a local independent bookstore to order it.
A French Magazine has published cartoons about Muhammad, and
lots
of intolerant Muslims are expected to go nuts.
I have not seen these cartoons (I hope I can find a copy on Friday),
but I doubt they represent hatred. They are probably kind and gentle
compared with what
my
latest political cartoon
says about Romney and Obama. If Muslims did not let these
caricatures get their goat, people would laugh at them and forget
them.
The main thing currently inciting hatred against Muslims is their own
intolerance. However, most people would hold no grudge against
Muslims if Muslims learn to practice tolerance for disagreement.
Note how the French censorship law that prohibits denial of Hitler's
murder of Jews is being cited as an excuse to advocate further
censorship. That law violates freedom of expression, which makes it
an injustice in its own right. Now we see it threatens to create more
injustice. All laws prohibiting the expression of certain views
on some issue must be repealed.
Meanwhile, look at the Jesus & Mo cartoons — no hatred, but
lots of fun.
US citizens:
tell
the Bureau of Land Management: no fracking near Arches National
Park.
Overfishing and agricultural runoff damage coral reefs by
encouraging
algae to replace coral.
A new
law in Jordan threatens websites that post user comments.
The Israeli
state excused the killing of Rachel Corrie by accepting
inconsistent testimony (probably lies) and by defining everyone in the
area as an "enemy".
This goes a little further than Obama, who only
defines
every adult male as an "enemy".
The fossil fuel companies are
spending
heavily to promote Romney even though Obama is giving them most of
what they want.
Partly this is because they don't like EPA regulations. But partly it
is meant to push Obama further into obedience.
US citizens: call your congresscritter to oppose the Dirty Air/Water Act.
Also send a message through
this
page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
The Palestinian Authority is considering scrapping the Oslo agreement,
which has
served
to allow Israel to prevent a peace agreement.
Chicago's teachers union ended the strike and
claims
victory.
I can't tell from this article whether it is a real victory for labor.
Obama's treatment of Haiti demonstrates that
you
shouldn't judge a person by race.
Jimmy Carter said that Venezuela's elections in 2006 were the most honest
he has seen, while
the US is far
behind.
A CIA
analysis of the mistaken belief that Saddam Hussein was
developing weapons of mass destruction might have lessons about Iran
today.
New Comic, Shared Sacrifice.
Arctic sea ice reached a record low of this year,
18%
smaller than the previous record low in 2007.
The volume of ice has decreased even more because the ice is now
thinner than ever before. Some scientists say that the Arctic could
be ice-free in summer in just 5 years. If so, it would lead to
further warming (since open water absorbs sunlight unlike ice that
reflects it). This could lead to release of tremendous amounts of
stored methane, which could force a lot more warming, which could kill
a large fraction of humanity.
This disaster is not necessarily inevitable. If we try hard, we might
be able to avoid it.
Anyone arguing for extending airports or highways now is proposing
to let the disaster happen — which a most unwise investment.
A response
to an inquiry about the September 11 note. (September 2012)
On-line education is using a flawed Creative Commons license.
The US has declared fishery disasters on
four coasts.
This should demonstrate that we must do more to protect fish stocks
from disaster. This means
US citizens: Phone your congresscritter and say, "No war with Iran". The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support Rep. Keith Ellison's bill for a small tax on sales of stocks, bonds and derivatives.
A secondary benefit of this tax would be to damp out rapid fluctuations caused by computerized trading. (This goal was Tobin's reason to propose the tax.)
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Congressman Kucinich voted to cut off funding for war.
The US diet, with added sugar and fat, causes diabetes. It may also cause Alzheimer's disease.
A misguided policy of selling auto fuel with 15% ethanol, which can ruin a small engine, has made it necessary for the EPA to impose an impractical regulation about minimum sales that will make many purchasers unable to buy what they need.
This Republican congressman's rant about the "free market" is invalid. Environmental protection regulations are necessary — and these regulations seem like a rational choice, given that the 15% ethanol fuel is being sold.
The root of this problem is using ethanol made from growing corn in fuel for automobiles. This would be fine if there were plenty of corn, but nowadays the shortage, caused by global heating, means that billions of people are bidding up the price.
We need to burn less fossil fuel, but replacing it with ethanol made instead of food is nuts
.Some kids are getting tired of Facebook.
The author does not care how Facebook (or other companies) abuse his privacy; he does not mind how the iBad restricts him, let alone how the workers producing Apple products are treated. But even he finds Facebook unpleasant. I hope others, if they don't learn to be concerned about the important issues, at least follow him that far.
21 would-be refugees were trapped between the Israeli and Egyptian border fences. Here's how the Israeli army made the problem disappear.
Jill Stein joined the Occupy Wall Street protest.
Production of iThings continues to oppress workers, notwithstanding Apple's attempts to pretend it has changed the conditions.
Bahrain has made trivial "reforms" but remains
the enemy of human
rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Cell phones for thugs infiltrating protesters can mean cells for protesters.
It's only natural that the thugs beat up a journalist who tried to follow one of these infiltrators. That's what thugs do.
Putin has kicked out USAID for supporting an organization that publicized dishonesty in the elections.
Aaron Swartz faces 50 years in prison if convicted of crimes that
amount
to violating JSTOR's terms of service.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
I've heard that the Injustice Department, which he filled with former RIAA heavies, is pushing hard to get Swartz, which is why they don't care that JSTOR has no complaint against him.
If Obama wins this, people could be imprisoned for registering for Spotify with inaccurate information, or for lending someone else the music they "bought" from iTunes. Perhaps that is Obama's long-term goal.
Uri Avnery comments on mass protests in the West Bank against the Palestinian Authority.
Charity workers have been in prison in Haiti for months for not having a permit.
William Binney went public about NSA spying on all Americans after working privately inside the NSA won him an FBI raid on his home.
Here is a video in which he explains more [35 meg Ogg Theora].
Sworn Declaration of Whistleblower William Binney on NSA Domestic Surveillance Capabilities.
Working within the system for reform occasionally works, but it depends on outside pressure that gives the rulers a reason to want to change. More often, the idea that you're working within the system to reduce the harm it does is merely an excuse to overlook the harm you are doing by not fighting against it.
US prosecutors work hand in glove with sleazy collection agencies.
Should we consider the US and the West
"the
good guys"?
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
In the Cold War, the US was far less bad than the Russian Empire, and mostly deserved to be considered the good guys even despite the horrible things (such as overthrowing governments and arranging death squads) that it did in many countries, just because the Russian Empire was such tyranny.
However, as the US moves toward tyranny, I don't see that it deserves to be considered "the good guys". China and Russia today are much worse, but the US may come to rival them in time.
The Obama regime's response to the injunction against imprisonment without trial shows that the plaintiffs' worst fears are justified.
The US bases environmental regulations on an underestimated figure for the harm done by CO2 emissions.
US citizens: tell
the EPA not to make unexplained exceptions
to its rules on air pollution from PVC factories.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Argentina plans to attack farmers' rights in order to encourage GMOs.
The use of the term “intellectual property” shows the twisted thinking underlying this plan.
Glyphosate, a.k.a. "Roundup", has harmful effects, and weeds are developing resistance fast in the US.
Israel has been claiming
for 20 years that Iran was just about
to develop nuclear weapons.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
The IAEA report referred to in the last paragraph does not factually support the belief that Iran is now developing nuclear weapons.
I don't believe Iran would go to this much trouble if it were not related to making nuclear weapons. But the facts seem to fit the view that Iran wants to develop the capability but not actually build any yet.
Obama's unofficial system of punishment on mere accusation doesn't go as far as the official punishment systems of some other countries, but it is unjust nonetheless.
Romney, not knowing he was on camera, said that half the US population is dependent on the government and he doesn't care about them.
He also claimed that these people pay no income tax, but 2/3 of them pay social security tax which adds up to more than Romney's own tax rate.
Meanwhile, many big and successful companies pay little or no tax despite their high incomes.
So many of Karzai's men have shot Americans that things finally snapped: the US has mostly suspended joint missions with them.
Panetta misrepresents the situation when he calls this the "last gasp of the weakened Taliban." I wish that were true, because the Taliban are loathsome fanatics, but it isn't true. There is no sign that the Taliban have been weakened militarily — their attacks increased this year. The attacks by Karzai's men occur in addition, not instead.
US citizens:
Call
on Obama to regulate fracking effectively to protect
water supplies.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Of course, we don't dare keep depending on these fossil fuels.
The EU "unitary patent" proposal
threatens
to impose software patents on most of the EU.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
It looks like Iraq is cooperating with a push to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq from the US list of arbitrarily banned organizations. (I think People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran is another name for that.)
The Mujahedin-e Khalq are accused of working with Israel to kill Iranian scientists involved in nuclear weapons research. I am not convinced that is a horrible thing to do; I regard it as low-intensity continuation of a long-existing war. Whether the organization should be considered terrorist, I don't know. However, it is clear that what the US government says about this or any other organization is a political decision. It is unlikely that your bowling league will be designated as "terrorist" and banned, but Obama could do it if he really wants to.
To ban any organization without a trial is tyranny.
The Obama regime condemned the court ruling against imprisonment without trial on the grounds that it might require release of some people already imprisoned without trial.
Shame on you, Obama, and shame on the US if we do not stamp out this tyranny.
A court in Afghanistan
ruled
against imprisonment without trial, too.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Romney's business was started using US government funds that had been delivered to El Salvador for repression, then extracted by the corrupt ruling elite.
So Romney didn't build his engine of job destruction alone. He did it with government help.
A peculiar kidney disease is becoming common in three specific regions, and nobody can figure out why.
In Belarus, where opposition candidates are arrested,
those
who talk of boycotting elections are punished.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Australia punished Albert Langer for urging people to vote in such a way that their ballots could not count for two major parties that are mostly sellouts to business.
Shell's experimental "containment dome", meant to deal with future oil well leaks in the Arctic Ocean, broke when tested.
Maybe next year Shell will make it work well enough not to break, but that doesn't mean it would really do its job.
The thug who shoved Ian Tomlinson has been punished — by being fired.
US citizens: support
the Occupy Movement.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Chicago Mayor Emanuel says he will
sue
to stop the teachers' strike,
effectively threatening to jail the teachers.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
It's a favorite right-wing tactic to demonize whichever workers they haven't yet cut the pay of.
Freedom of speech is threatened in the US for Muslims and anti-Muslims, by both Republicans and Democrats.
Everyone:
sign
this petition for clemency for Terrance Williams.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
I think he ought to have a new trial.
Stirring up violence towards anything that "insults" Islam is a
political
tool of Islamist extremists.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
Iran's revolutionary guards are in Syria fighting for Assad.
Occupy Wall Street has returned to protests.
Have the thugs returned to violent attacks on protesters and journalists? Since they must have considered their past practice a success, and none have been punished for these crimes, I expect them to continue.
Netanyahu is trying to pressure the US government to commit itself to war with Iran.
A man in Chicago was arrested for trying to set off a
government-supplied
dummy bomb.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
This raises the issue: to what extent did the government lead him into committing a crime that he otherwise would never have attempted?
Whistleblower Richard Perkins says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is covering up the danger that a nuclear power plant in South Carolina could have a meltdown if a dam breaks and floods it.
Thirty thousand people protested to block loading nuclear fuel into a reactor in India.
Some argue for nuclear power as a way to prevent global heating. But this is a dangerous bet. If civilization collapses, all the dirty used nuclear fuel rods, stored in a manner that requires frequent high-tech maintenance, will leak into the environment.
The killing of the US ambassador to Libya may have been done by a militia linked to al Qa'ida.
If true — the US or the Libyan government could be lying — this reflects the fact that various militias that participated in the revolution against Gaddafi remain armed, and pursuing their own agendas, including in some cases Islamist extremism.
US surveillance drones are flying over Libya now, probably with the state's approval. What does this imply?
Such groups are not like the army of a state. The army of a state is limited by the state's funding for the troops, training and arms. Killing some of the troops makes the remaining army smaller and (unless it was victorious) weaker in spirit. But these underground groups are limited mainly by how much they can recruit. The drone attacks seem to make them stronger, especially through the resentment generated when they kill civilians.
How the US government talks about drone attacks while claiming it doesn't.
A massive protest in Madrid demanded a referendum on austerity.
Germany is proposing to establish a kind of copyright over news stories in bulk.
Major ISPs want to use the ITU to get rid of network neutrality.
Some in the Taliban want to make an accommodation with the US, but don't trust Karzai to run an election.
Since his last election was a sham, I can't blame them.
The UK's new environment minister has no credentials except the support of a prominent global heating denier.
The current government says it plans to be the "greenest ever" but has taken every opportunity to sabotage renewable energy and boost fossil fuels. I concluded long ago that its actions show us its true goals. Now this is confirmed.
Arguing that continued economic growth is now impossible and people must prepare for society on a broad scale to collapse.
Although economic growth has, in the past, meant increased use of resources that are now scarce, that is not the only way an economic recovery for American workers can occur. Directing the US towards constructing renewable energy in the way it was once directed towards fighting World War II could provide jobs for millions while reducing our resource usage.
But this possibility changes little in practice as long as our corporate rulers will not allow it to happen.
The UN criticized the UK's plan for secret courts.
Protecting torturers is not merely an accidental byproduct of this plan. It is the motive for the plan. The servile UK government will go to any lengths to help Obama protect US torturers.
US citizens:
call
on Congress to repeal the law
that prohibits nearly all protests at many public events.
[Reference updated on 2018-03-02 because the old link was broken.]
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Major "natural foods" store chains have stopped trying to resist GMOs.
The White House seems to have pressured Google in vague terms to take down the anti-Muslim video that fanatics are using as an excuse to provoke violence.
I am not surprised that the video has been blocked in India.
Terry Williams faces execution for
killing the men who
raped him repeatedly in church.
The death penalty is always wrong, but commuting it to life imprisonment
in this case seems insufficient.
Responding to broad public condemnation, the Canadian government
dropped its plan to
charge
a musician for using pictures of pennies on a record cover.
The mint spreads gratuitous confusion by describing its copyright
policy as
“intellectual
property policy”, mixing up copyright with a
several other unrelated laws.
This confusion is so easy to avoid that it is inexcusable
not to.
Drought due to global heating is
blocking
the operation of electric power plants.
Solar and wind power are not affected by these problems.
Charging farms more for water is also vitally necessary to prevent
wasteful use. This has been recognized for decades, but agribusiness
interests have prevented it.
Former anti-Gaddafi Libyan dissidents describe
how
the CIA tortured them before handing them over to Gaddafi's torturers.
Since Obama has gone all-out to protect US torturers so far,
he will surely protect the perpetrators of this torture too,
while doing everything possible to prevent the accusations from
being investigated in court.
In effect, Obama is complicit in the torture he covers up.
Hadopi, the unjust French law that
punishes
people when they are accused of file-sharing.
A former Republican (of the non-theocratic variant)
explains what
he used to believe, and how he found out that much of it was baloney.
US citizens: call
for raising the issue of global heating in the
presidential debates.
US citizens: support
striking Walmart workers.
Wisconsin has carried the War on Dissent to new lengths,
arresting
people carrying hand-held signs in the capitol building.
A lobbying group of "fire experts" was shut down after it was exposed
as a
front
for the companies that make toxic fire-retardant chemicals.
The idea of artificially stopping fires from starting is not a bad
one, and it isn't self-evident whether these chemicals do more or less
harm than the fires they prevent. On the other hand, some highly
flammable materials such as polyurethane could be banned in consumer
products instead of treated with toxins.
Nobody in the US will be prosecuted for torture
except
the whistleblower John Kiriakou who told us about it.
As a patriotic American, brought up to love freedom,
I feel the same disgust for the US government today
as I feel for other governments that torture and oppress.
The impression of "balance": a Washington Post columnist says it
bothers him to criticize Romney more than he criticizes Obama.
Someone taught him a decent journalist is
supposed
to criticize both candidates equally.
I think a decent citizen should criticize Obama and Romney equally
for the right-wing policies they agree on.
The US will protect former Mexican president Zedillo from a
lawsuit by
victims of a massacre carried out by paramilitaries during his
presidency.
Thanks to Obama,
punishment
without trial is coming to the US, "justified" by the illegitimate
goal of stopping people from sharing.
Everyone: call
on Apple to treat its workers ethically.
This would not be enough
to make Apple computer products acceptable to use.
Florida's Republican rulers
plan
to resume a hasty purge of supposedly ineligible voters,
giving them too little time to challenge the exclusion.
Japan has announced a plan to close
all nuclear power plants in 30 years and expand renewable energy.
Fossil fuel companies are buying lots of ads to
push
Obama to give them all they want.
Arguing that the protests against US embassies are more due
to
US
policies (such as drone assassinations) and fanatical
organizers than to a video.
US citizens: Phone your congresscritter to say "No war with Iran".
Then send a message through this page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
US citizens:
call
on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings
on Republican voter suppression.
Arctic sea ice sets a new record low, just
half
the area that was usual in the 1970s.
But this understates the loss, because it is also much thinner than it
used to be. In volume, it is now far less than half.
The UK plans to deport Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka despite evidence
they are
likely
to be tortured there.
Repressive Malaysia is
extending
repression of gays.
Brought to You by...Big Oil? The Washington Post presented a biased
"debate" about energy sources, concealing the fact that it was
sponsored
by fossil fuel companies.
A Dutch court put journalists and web site operators in danger by
fining
a site for a link to an unauthorized copy of a photo.
Intel has designed a chip with secret features so that
only
Windows can run on it.
House
GOP Budget Would Cost States Ten Times More Than Expanding Medicaid.
Republican Romney and Chicago's Democrat mayor both
oppose
Chicago's teachers, and Obama doesn't support them.
How Romney
helped
Monsanto become the menacing giant that it is today.
If Romney applies the
Bain Capital methods to the 50 states.
Protests against the
TPP
negotiations.
Networking
Rebellion: Digital Policing and Revolt in the Arab Uprisings.
UC Davis will pay
compensation
to the protesters who were pepper sprayed by thugs.
Zainab Al-Khawaja protested even with a cast on her leg, which had
been broken
by Bahraini thugs in a previous protest. So now she is in prison.
Her father was raped in prison while recovering from the many operations
needed to repair all the bones that the thugs broke.
The US government continues supporting Bahrain's cruel king,
as part of the race for who gets to roast our planet fastest.
Senator Leahy has proposed an
amendment
to fill the gap in Americans'
rights against surveillance of their stored email.
This ought to ban the existing universal
NSA
snooping, but I suspect that point will be ignored.
High-ranking UK thugs may face prosecution for
lying
about the events of a disaster in which 96 sports fans died,
falsely blaming the victims.
Apple censorship is not always aimed at its direct commercial advantage.
Naomi Wolf's book
"Vagina"
is presented on iTunes with a censored title.
Calling on
Clinton to apply the law and suspend US arms sales to Bahrain.
US citizens: sign
up to confront candidates about public funding of
elections and reversing the Corporations United decision
(note that I call it by what it really was).
Some Syrians who didn't like Assad are
repelled
by the violence and extremism of the rebels.
I doubt we can tell how many Syrians feel this way, how many support
the rebels, and how many supported Assad all along. However, I think
the disapproval of the rebels might result in Assad's keeping power.
World of Warcraft screenshots have secret watermarks
identifying
who made them.
Rick Falkvinge joins me in demanding an end to the
censorship
of "child pornography", and points out that if in the US you
observe the rape of a child, making a video or photo to use as
evidence would subject you to a greater penalty than the rapist.
The article does not mention that it's common practice for teenagers
to exchange nude photos with their lovers, and they all potentially
could be imprisoned for this. A substantial fraction of them are
actually prosecuted.
Just 350 miles from the North Pole, sea ice is only fragmentary.
This means that
satellites
overestimate the amount of ice that remains.
A Cambodian journalist who
reported
on deforestation has been murdered.
Sustainable development
must
aim at wellbeing, not at economic growth.
This is all the more so given that economic growth under the empire of
business tends to benefit only the rich.
Thousands of species of frogs in Asia may be
wiped
out by human activity before science discovers their existence.
The UK government is
planning
to break its own laws by pushing for
extended use of fracked gas rather than renewable energy.
How will Libya's new government
deal
with violent Islamists?
A million Catalans marched in favor of separating Catalunya from
Spain.
Their grievances are fueled by the effects of austerity. Catalans are
making a mistake blaming the poor in Andalucía and Extremadura;
they should join together to fight their common enemies: Rajoy and the
banksters.
Meanwhile, this shows a way for a country to exit the euro zone. It
can split into regions, each of which will need a new currency since
it will be outside the EU. But instead of making a new currency for
each region, they could share a single new currency, just as Ecuador
and the US share the dollar. Then the regions could reunite.
One of many tyrannical laws in the UK allows border agents to arrest people
arbitrarily and
imprison
them for refusing to answer a question.
The plans to revise the law affect other secondary nasty points, but
apparently there is no plan to change the law's principal attack
against the rights of Englishmen: forcing people to incriminate
themselves.
An iThing user writes about being
trapped by the Apple "ecosystem".
It is not impossible to break loose: you can stop, and you should
stop. However, is is a considerable inconvenience to break loose from
this pernicious system, and that makes Apple culpable for creating it.
Colombian General Motors worker Jorge Parra is on hunger-strike again,
after
GM refused to help the workers who were
fired
after they were injured on the job.
Pakistan
Parties Uniting Against Drones.
The US continues imprisonment without trial. Prisoner
Adnan
Abd-ul-Latif died in Guantanamo, where he was held merely for
being Yemeni.
U.S. strike on Iran
could
lead to all-out Mideast war, experts say.
Even the thugs are
protesting against austerity in Greece.
Fortunately for Greece, the long-term disaster of privatization has
proceeded slowly. There may be some government activities that could
safely be privatized, because the public would be able to use them
through a competitive market; but I expect that the main privatization
will be for the things that ought to be run by the state.
Unjust US laws have harmed Tunisians' human rights, in
Guantanamo
and in Tunisia.
Google has
blocked
access in Libya and Egypt to the video that
Muslim fanatics are offended by.
Big Banks
failed to properly implement the Home Affordable
Modification Program, resulting in 800,000 foreclosures that should
have been avoided.
Judge Katherine B. Forrest
issued
a permanent injunction against the
imprisonment without trial authorized by the National "Defense"
Authorization Act.
While it is good that this injustice has been blocked, the grounds for
blocking it are too specific: that the grounds stated for imprisoning
people were too vague. Even given a very clear and precise criterion,
imprisonment without trial is tyranny. For the US to be the Land of
Liberty, it must respect the most basic human right: no punishment
without a fair trial.
Foxconn
closed
schools and forced the students to work building iThings.
Republicans
Admit Federal Reserve Can Help The Economy, But Prefer It Wouldn't.
Increased government spending is a much better way to promote employment
in the US, but Republicans have been able to block that since 2010.
New
Study Finds High-Income Tax Cuts Don't Stimulate Economic Growth.
In recent history, that is.
The House of Representatives voted for
5 more years of warrantless
wiretapping of Americans' international communications.
Note that the NSA in fact intercepts
nearly all the digital communications in the US, but has redefined
the word "intercept" to pretend this isn't so.
US citizens: call
on Obama and your senators not to defend
imprisonment without trial, which a judge found unconstitutional.
In the two messages, I replaced "indefinite detention"
with "imprisonment without trial". Why mince words?
"Agent
Orange Corn" One Step Closer to Approval
Stanford scientists who published an analysis of studies comparing
organic and conventional foods worked in a lab
funded
by organizations
with their own private interests in the issue.
This does not necessarily invalidate the conclusion: that organic food
was not better in nutritional value. But it casts doubt on whether we
can trust the scientists who published the study.
The first announcement of the study that I saw said that it
acknowledged that organic foods could be better in avoiding pesticides
and drug-resistant bacteria. So I am surprised by the articles
criticizing the study for denying that.
US citizens: call
on Citibank to cancel student loans when a student dies.
US citizens: sign this petition against the TPP.
A mob attack on the US consulate in Banghazi provided the opportunity
for someone to fire a rocket that
killed
the US ambassador.
If I saw the movie that the mob was angry at, I might disagree with
parts of it. I'm not interested in seeing it, because whatever
opinion I might have of the film itself is irrelevant to the important
issue at stake. We must defend the freedom to state those views, or
any views, whether we agree with them or not.
Censorship is an injustice. Whether it is done by a state such as
Turkey, a company such as Apple or Facebook, or a mob of people who
think one has no right to offend them, it is an injustice. No matter
how powerful are the forces of censorship, we must never grant them
legitimacy.
An undercover journalist reports on the horrible conditions in the
Foxconn factory that makes iThings:
still
horrible in 2012.
Vietnam plans
to prosecute publishers of anti-government web sites.
Protesters
and legislators
condemned the secret negotiations of the TPP.
The articles spread confusion when they use the term "intellectual
property". The draft treaty probably does it too.
Romney condemned the US embassy in Egypt for responding to mob attack
by condemning the film that the mob was angry at. But he was mistaken.
It turns out that the embassy
anticipated
the attacks by condemning the film.
To my mind, that makes the embassy's action even worse. Surrender before
you're even attacked?
US citizens:
tell
Nintendo to refuse to buy conflict minerals
mined by brutal African militias.
US citizens:
call
on Obama to ban trade in polar bear parts.
1/5
of children in the US are living in poverty.
When you cut everything that can help the non-rich, you get more poverty.
Most Americans and most Europeans want to remove lots of the NATO troops
from Afghanistan
immediately.
Paul Ryan voted
repeatedly against paying for the treatment of
illnesses caused by breathing the toxic air of the burning World Trade
Center.
Today's banks, focused on financial schemes to grab more money from
other investors,
downplay
productive investment.
Many UK schools have put surveillance cameras in
toilets
and changing rooms.
Ten years ago, an article
foretold
what the results would be if Bush invaded Iraq.
Few of those who supported the decision have admitted it was wrong.
Perhaps that is because it was worse than just a mistake. It was a
crime, and those responsible do not want to feel that they are
criminals.
The Caravan for Peace has toured the US
protesting
against the destructive War on Drugs.
The record companies have been victorious
in their lawsuits for hundreds of thousands of dollars for
nonprofit sharing of songs.
We must demand that our congressional representatives support
legalization of sharing.
Other countries should monitor the US election to see if Republicans
will win via disenfranchisement.
The multiple
swindles of No Child Left Behind.
AT&T claims that "Internet freedom" means
abolishing
all regulation of ISPs and phone companies. It wants to force
people to switch from telephone service to Internet service, and
abolish "common carrier" status so it can arbitrarily cut people off.
The US Navy got court approval to risk causing the
extinction
of North Atlantic right whales, by setting up a sonar testing
range next to the place they give birth to their young.
Chicago teachers have gone on strike because
the
city is planning to fire them if they teach in schools where students
do badly (because they are poor).
Greg Palast explains
how the scheme works.
White
House Preparing Executive Order As A Stand-In For CISPA.
Ensuring that companies that run crucial infrastructure maintain good
computer security is a legitimate goal, and parts of the plan may
be unproblematical. But it needs to be done in a way that doesn't
trample the public's freedom.
Twitter seems to have lost its appeal to protect
personal
data of a protester in New York City.
I agree that tweets, which are published, cannot be the object of privacy.
However, I've read in other articles that the information in question
includes IP addresses and other non-published data.
Julian Assange threatened to sue SXSW if it broadcast a
film
that presented him in a bad light.
I have not seen the film, and I have no opinion about it, but even if
it were an out-and-out lie and deserved a libel suit, this advance threat
seems harsh and aggressive.
However, this is a secondary issue compared with the heroic work of Wikileaks
and has no effect on the need to protect Assange from US persecution.
Egyptians attacked the US embassy, enraged about a
video
made in the US which insults Muhammad.
The embassy conceded
too much to these would-be censors.
Another example of
dangerous
surrender occurred in the UK.
People have as much right to express anti-Muslim views as they have to
be Muslims. Censorship threats by arrogant Muslims who can't bear
criticism must be resisted with not the slightest hint of an apology.
A suicide bomber in Kabul
killed
and injured teenagers who sold trinkets
outside NATO headquarters.
Whatever may have been the bomber's originally intended target, he
surely knew when he pushed the button who the victims would actually
be. He could instead have walked away.
I wonder whether Afghans will feel the same disgust at the Taliban
that they feel towards the US for killing civilians.
Prohibition of marijuana in the UK is fueling violence among producers,
so a chief of thugs proposes …
more
prohibition.
It appears that there was
no
massacre in the jungle in Venezuela. The group that made the
accusation retracted it.
US citizens: sign this petition
for presidential debate to include
other real candidates.
Everyone:
sign this petition
to the US and Israel, saying not to
attack Iran.
11
years after Dubya invaded Afghanistan, the US is still at war
there, still killing, still dying, still propping up a corrupt
government that treats women with contempt.
Meanwhile, the Taliban get their funds from US "ally" Saudi Arabia.
Instead of asking people to pay for access, websites might in the
future
ask
visitors to answer a survey question.
There are many kinds of questions I would not mind answering to visit
a web site. However, I would not mind paying money, either, in
principle. My objection to today's paywalls is that paying would
require me to identify myself. My concern about possible future
"surveywalls" is likewise about the details.
If I could answer the survey question without running nonfree software
(including nonfree Javascript code), and without its being tied to my
identity or to my other browsing, I would be willing to answer,
supposing the question itself were not objectionable.
Did Romney intentionally misrepresent his position on health care to
mislead
undecided voters?
I have no proof, but I think it is plausible that he did.
The outcome of the US election may be determined by lawsuits over
Republican
voter suppression laws.
Dubya ignored many warnings about the Sep 2001 attacks and is
still
covering up what they were.
Romney's PACs get
millions
from Chinese casinos, and from dummy
corporations run by cartoon characters.
"This
blogpost will cause lasting damage to children's brains".
Many cleaning products contain toxic substances that
can cause
asthma or cancer.
South Sudan is a new country, but its thugs have already
beat up
a human rights activist.
Legitimizing
tyranny in Sri Lanka.
The leaked list of iThing UDIDs
originated
from a company. This does not necessarily prove it was not
obtained from the FBI.
That list is personal information about people who did nothing to
deserve mistreatment. (They did something very foolish by using Apple
devices, but they shouldn't be punished for that.) The
crackers
reduced the wrong by limiting the information in what
they leaked, but it was nonetheless somewhat wrong.
However, the more important wrong was collecting the data in the first
place. When we consider how to prevent future wrongs, we should focus
on that kind.
An HIV-infected political prisoner in Zimbabwe is
campaigning
for prisoners to have access to the medicines that save their
lives by preventing AIDS.
Climbers in an Austrian mountain peak found it
without
an ice cap for the first time.
Global heating should be
presented
as a public health issue.
Econometric evidence that taxes and regulations are
not
the obstacle to US economic recovery.
Even the Koch brothers can criticize
crony capitalism. So let's stop them from practicing it.
The claim that 80% of human DNA is functional was based
on a lax criterion for "functional".
Some
of that 80% might nonetheless be junk.
Today we commemorate the September 11 attacks, which killed President
Allende of Chile and installed Pinochet's murderous military
dictatorship. More than 3,000 dissidents were killed or "disappeared"
by the Pinochet regime. The USA operated a destabilization campaign
in Chile, and the September 11 attacks were part of
that campaign.
I also support a
new investigation of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
A study reports that the apparent grains of microthermite in
dust from the World Trade Center
could
be a mixture of kaolin and epoxy, both common in paint.
Also, the iron microspheres can form in a fire at a temperature
much
lower than the usual burning point of iron.
This undercuts the practical evidence cited for the claim that the
World Trade Center was knocked down by thermite planted in the
buildings.
I still support the demand for an honest, impartial investigation with
full subpoena power. The weakened and then
corrupted
investigation that Bush allowed was not sufficient
to establish the truth and demonstrate it to the public.
The UN's global carbon trading system, set up to encourage investment in
emissions reduction in poor countries, is
on
the edge of collapsing.
Salmon farms, like plant farms, need ever increasing amounts of toxic
pesticides. These pesticides are
dumped
straight into the ocean.
Taliban leaders want to negotiate,
according
to former Taliban leaders.
44 journalists face charges of terrorism in Turkey
for
criticizing the state in various ways.
The saddest thing is that
US
dissidents are getting similar treatment.
America
the Possible: Breaking the Chains of Consumerism.
Garbage magnates are
lobbying
to discourage composting recycling.
Apparently I am not the only one who's non compost mentis.
Existing nature reserves fall far short of what is needed to prevent
a mass
extinction later this century.
Iraq's vice president, a Sunni and now in exile in Turkey, was
sentenced
to death in absentia.
I won't say it is impossible that he's guilty of ordering killings,
but it is clear that the trial is political and the verdict is
meaningless. Several major Iraqi political parties were (maybe still
are) connected with militias which participated in the sectarian
warfare a few years ago. It would be good to punish all those
involved, but trying to execute only the Sunni political leader looks
more like a further act in that warfare.
Caribbean coral reefs are over 90% dead, and
what's
left is threatened.
Laura Poitras' new documentary shows
how
much the NSA is spying on every American.
Congress
could
stop this, if it cared about human rights.
Ask your candidates for congresscritter and senator where they stand
on warrantless surveillance of Americans.
Privatized water companies are giving US homeowners
unjustified
and incredible bills.
Greenpeace says Shell was
reckless
in its rushed and incomplete testing
to a crucial component it wants to use for undersea Arctic drilling.
The US shielded
Bolivia's ex-president from extradition on charges of
mass murder.
Not the Financial Times.
Wind-power generators kill hundreds of thousands of birds in the US,
but that's
insignificant
because buildings, power lines and cats kill
hundreds of millions of birds.
UK citizens: oppose
default-on UK Internet filtering.
Wells Fargo
foreclosed
a home that had no mortgage, and a retired couple
lost all their possessions.
The reason this can occur is that courts don't bother to insist the
banks provide valid proof of the mortgage they claim to be foreclosing.
Pressure
for Labour in the UK to imitate Obama and move even further
to the right.
The Democratic Party platform
endorses
the War on Sharing, using the propaganda term
"intellectual
property".
The use of that term by the government is a method of
framing the copyright issue so as to support the War on Sharing.
Using that term helps their cause, so please don't.
Jacob Appelbaum explains how much of a
security
risk a cell phone is.
US-funded
African armies are now joining in the slaughter of elephants.
The Republican and Democratic conventions have turned into
displays
run on corporate sponsorship.
We are a
step closer to seeing Tony B'liar prosecuted for the
crime of aggressive war, but there is a long way to go.
Subsidies and tax breaks for the 1% are
vast
compared with social welfare programs for the 99%.
Thanks to these, the owners of major US companies can't honestly
claim to have built those companies. We the taxpayers built them
too. (And the workers surely helped.)
The richest Americans and big business are creating
hardly
any jobs in the US, even though they have plenty of money.
So it is no surprise that giving them more money,
with tax cuts, doesn't lead to any more jobs.
That article accepts one erroneous but widely believed point: that
innovative startups create substantial numbers of jobs. As an Intel
executive pointed out a couple of years ago, such companies only provide
substantial numbers of jobs when they ramp up production, and nowadays
they don't do that in the US.
Other kinds of new businesses, such as restaurants and stores, can add
up to large numbers of jobs, simply because there can be large numbers
of these businesses.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to call for continued funding
for US conservation programs. Also send a message through
this page.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
I called for increased efforts to stop global heating.
We need a new
911 investigation.
The FBI has a new facial recognition system, and there is little to
stop them from
trying
to put in a photo of everyone in the country.
China continues repression in Tibet,
arresting
monks and confiscating computers.
A girl who made a solitary protest was
imprisoned
for 3 years. Beating and injuring her was not enough to satisfy
the thugs.
Chinese
who want human rights face repression too.
A Nigerian journalist who was attacked
may
get justice.
Comparing Obama, Romney and Stein on
energy
policy.
Arguing against
the premature dismissal of organic food.
The advocates of organic food often adopt a simplistic "natural is
good" platform which is not justifiable. But that doesn't mean that
it it does not sometimes address real problems. Ecological damage,
resistant bacteria and efficient resource usage are all important
issues. Avoiding monoculture and domination by giant agribusinesses
is important too. Many of the practices of organic farming may be
necessary to address these problems.
Romney advocates more government spending, in
the name of jobs, as long as it's military spending.
Strange that he wants to cut the other government spending,
that creates more jobs per dollar and does some real good
for society in the process.
Romney wants Internet filtering software
installed
in all computers.
Note how he uses works that some find disgusting as
an excuse for something even more disgusting.
The Koch brothers' political front endorses tax breaks for oil companies,
but opposes
them for wind power.
Half
of America's unemployed people are not getting unemployment
benefits.
Car insurance companies want to install
computer
systems in cars to track where and how they drive.
The whole idea of insurance is that you pay based on an estimate of
what your accidents are likely to cost. With more information,
they can make a better prediction. This is not inherently bad,
but there are some kinds of information that companies should
not be able to use for this.
I think it is legitimate to charge based on a person's style of
driving, and to collect data to determine what that style is. For
instance, how you typically brake is not sensitive for other reasons,
so there's no reason to stop that from being measured.
However, the insurance company must not be able to collect any
information about where or when you drive, because nobody should
be allowed to collect that sort of information about you.
It is too sensitive and amounts to a surveillance society.
"Raising
the retirement age" is the euphemism for cutting social
security benefits.
With longer life spans, it makes sense to ask people to retire later
— if there is work that we need them to do. However, in a
society with high unemployment, it is absurd to claim that people
should be required to keep working longer even though they can't find
a job.
The
New
York Times won't dare to call torture torture, when the US
government does it.
This is a double standard. After World War II, the US
executed
Japanese soldiers who applied this kind of torture to US prisoners
of war.
I oppose capital punishment, but anyone who commits torture
deserves to be punished, and the US has the duty to punish
its torturers.
Why Romney is not
afraid of fact-checkers.
Paul
Ryan's lies are mere "overreaching" which calls for a "course correction".
One author sells his ebooks to libraries
without DRM or EULA. And also permits a
certain
amount of copying.
This doesn't go as far as it should — readers should be free to
share copies of any published work — but it is at least no worse
than a printed book.
The ACLU
is suing the Washington DC thug department for stealing
a man's phone memory.
The political conventions demonstrate the US success in
repressing
mass protest.
What's left of US democracy is an election between two right-wing
parties in which businesses can spend as much as they wish to make
lies appear true.
Can we do anything with this shred of democracy? Only if we can
thwart the attempt by the rich to buy victory for their flunkies.
Who is not their flunky? If they are buying lots of attack ads against
someone, that's a hint. If the target is progressive, vote for him.
Glenn Greenwald
dissects
CNN's response to his article about burying
Amber Lyon's documentary.
Restaurants are
starting
to replace waiters with computerized ordering systems.
How will millions of poor Americans work as waiters? Will the US government
do anything for them when half of them are out of work?
US citizens: tell
Obama to stop his assassination policy.
Americans, unless they resist, will be the subjects in an experiment in
massive
personalized marketing.
Not me, though. I almost never use the systems that give companies
personal information about customers.
US citizens:
oppose
fracking in Yellowstone National Park.
Everyone: call
on the EU to negotiate with China over clean energy policy.
Obama stated
his own guidelines for drone assassinations.
Given the US practice of claiming that any adult male that gets killed
was an enemy combatant, point 4 seems to be mere window dressing.
However, in the absence of any legal procedure, they could all be
empty words.
Amnesty International warns that the TPP threatens
free
speech and health care.
US sanctions against Iran supposedly do not affect medicine,
but here is how
they do so in practice.
Supporters of Bradley Manning protested
at
Obama campaign headquarters in 34 US cities.
Some schools in the US are forcing students to carry RFIDs all the time
so as to track them around the school.
They are being trained to live in subjection in prison.
Rimsha Masih was granted bail but
her
lawyer says Muslim fanatics will try to murder her.
The history
of the sex-toy vibrator: it was invented for doctors
to give their patients orgasms.
The idea that there is something wrong with a woman if she doesn't
have an orgasm in sex with a man seems so strange to me that I can
hardly believe anyone thought that. If I can't give a woman pleasure,
I might feel inadequate, or perhaps just disappointed, but it would
never occur to me to think that this was a flaw in her.
The US designated the Haqqani network as a
"terrorist
organization".
That might be an accurate designation, but terrorism is a crime, and
it is an injustice to declare an organization guilty of a crime
without a fair trial to prove it.
Human Rights Watch says that evidence points to Assad's men as the
perpetrators
of the massacre of Daraya.
18
million Americans can't get enough food.
It will be even harder in a few years as global heating reduces agricultural
productivity and drives up food prices.
Israel's defense minister
reportedly
now opposes attacking Iran.
If this is true, Israel will not attack unless Netanyahu pulls off a
really clever trick. This is good, because such a war would be a
disaster for everyone.
Almost 2/3 of Indian school children from lower castes have been subject
to explicit
discrimination in school.
US citizens: tell
the Bureau of Land Management that its proposed
rules on fracking need to be tougher.
Honduras plans to create a city with separate laws to be written to
suit
foreign investors.
Now it is clear what Obama hoped to gain by supporting the coup.
An architect of multiple levels of front groups, designed to let oil
companies spread denial of global heating while denying it's done with
their funds, is now getting
closely
involved with the Democratic National Convention.
The NAACP President explains why Black Americans (and poor Americans
generally) are likely
not to have up-to-date government IDs with their
current addresses.
US citizens:
Tell
President Obama and Secretary Salazar: don't give
Shell an extension on its Arctic drilling window.
Amber Lyon made an award-winning documentary in Bahrain for CNN, as
part of a larger program about the Arab Spring. CNN suppressed it
after one showing, fired her, and is now
making
threats to silence her.
If you watch the video on YouTube, don't do it through the site itself:
that requires running nonfree software (either Flash, or nonfree Javascript
from YouTube itself). You can download the videos from YouTube and
watch them using free software, such as youtube-dl.
Human Rights Watch announces its report about US torture of Libyan
dissidents for
Gaddafi.
Here's
the
report itself.
Democrats have started talking as if they were defending Americans
from Republicans and business-friendly plans, but they too
plan
to sell us out.
The Democratic Party's claims to have resisted the banksters, defended
American workers, and resisted global heating turn out to me
more
false than true.
The overall strategy of the two-party system is to push the US ever further
towards right-wing
cruelty.
Individual Democratic candidates may deserve support, especially if they
oppose such things as free exploitation treaties. But not the Democratic
Party in general, and not Obama.
Global heating is changing the forests in New England, and the seas
around New England. Industries have already been wiped out, and
more
will follow.
The Democratic Party supports "internet freedom", but it
endorses
the copyright lobby's war against the Internet at the same time.
Striking miners in South Africa are demanding a
big
raise, and heartlessly resisting when the bosses beg them to be
reasonable and go back to work. Management would like us to believe
that a raise for these low-paid and dangerous jobs would be a
"dangerous precedent".
I think the company can afford to pay these workers decently.
Republicans want "small government" except, mysteriously,
for the
military.
The US gives billions
in tax exemptions for construction of stadiums.
Supporters of the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline
continue
to lie about how many jobs it would create.
Of course, the bigger and deeper error would be to judge the pipeline
by a secondary issue such as jobs working on it, and ignore the
tremendous boost it would give to global heating. The articles that
claim the pipeline is good because of the imaginary jobs are not only
false, they are also distraction.
Human Rights Watch says that the CIA
tortured Libyan dissidents by
waterboarding before handing them over to Gaddafi's men.
I think Obama will protect these torturers too.
American mobile phone users are demonstrating they are
starting
to care about privacy.
If they had the option of mobile phones that wouldn't track them
everywhere, they might choose those. But no such phones exist, and it
is simply impossible to prevent the localization done by cell towers.
The way not to be tracked is to reject portable phones.
US citizens: call
on IBM, Google, Pepsico and Microsoft to
stop supporting the US Chamber of Commerce
US citizens: tell
New York Governor Cuomo that he won't get public
support if he allows fracking in New York State.
EU citizens: comment to oppose plans for a "clean" Internet,
where "clean"
means "no sharing".
Here's the
consultation itself.
Here's where to submit
a comment.
Rather than only opposing unjust proposals, how about demanding a
right not to be disconnected from the Internet without a trial, and a
ban on Digital Restrictions Management? I don't know if this is
possible — because of the short time available, I have asked to
post this without waiting to get a copy of those pages.
US citizens:
Ask
Michelle Obama to remind the president
to carry out his promise and support labeling requirements for GMOs.
The UK government, throwing the Earth's climate to the winds, is
looking
for an excuse to support extending Heathrow airport.
Bahrain Court Upholds Life Sentences for Activists.
It appears a US drone killed 13
civilians in Yemen. The victims' families are rather angry at the
US government.
IAEA
Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity.
In
Iran, sanctions take toll on the sick.
How the TPP could make life-saving medicines
prohibitively
expensive in some countries.
The US already has these bad policies, and it needs to change them.
Therefore, the Big Pharma lobby wants to give sellout politicians
such as Obama and Romney an excuse in the form of a treaty.
Bottom-trawling affects the sea floor
as
much as plowing affects the land.
Glaciers in Patagonia are melting
faster since 2000.
Deforestation in tropical regions reduces
rain there.
A court in Rhode Island ruled that
a
thug should have had a warrant
to look at someone's text messages in her phone.
But this will probably be appealed.
The ACLU calls on Apple to get
rid of the UDID unique identifying number.
I agree. However, every mobile phone has another unique ID number
that it transmits to the phone system every time. Which is one of the
reasons I don't have a mobile phone.
Pakistan has punished Save the Children,
claiming
that the CIA used that organization to find Osama bin Laden.
It is valid to criticize Afridi (and his US employers) on the grounds
that, by setting up a phony vaccination scheme, they put the
vaccination mission in peril. Eliminating polio forever was (and is)
far more important than finding bin Laden. If the US wanted to
prosecute someone with lots of blood on his hands, Dubya is easy to
find.
However, it is clear that Pakistan did not put Afridi in prison for
endangering the elimination of polio — because Pakistan is now
going the US one worse by attacking that project outright.
Through these actions, Pakistan in effect declares bin Laden a
national hero, which implies endorsement of what he did. Even if he
was a lesser criminal than Dubya, he was still very bad.
Thousands
of people have faced prosecution under Pakistan's blasphemy
law. Some due to ludicrous reasons, and others for exercising their
freedom of expression.
The article asserts that the words these people are accused of saying
cannot be published because it would be blasphemy. That may be true
in Pakistan, but The Guardian is published in the UK. I therefore beg
the Guardian to publish this information.
If someone emails me this information, I will post it here.
Samsung joins Apple in
being accused of mistreating workers in China.
Addicted gamblers are not hoping to win, just to
prolong
the sensation of playing.
If they could manage to get the same sensation from playing a game that
doesn't cost money, they might be home free.
Deregulation has encouraged speculation on food, which can
cause price
rises that can drive millions around the world
into hunger.
"Free trade" treaties also do this; they subject peasants in
many countries to very efficient mechanized competition,
resulting in reduced production and increased poverty.
An Apple patent suggests a
plan
to restrict users of phones based on where they are located.
The article says that this poses the question of who really owns the
phone. I'm glad they are starting to ask it. In fact, with nonfree
software, you never really own it.
US citizens:
call
on the Attorney General to take action against Colorado's
voter-suppression plan.
On-line music "sales" are in many cases
not
sales at all.
More
fraud in Barclay's Bank.
A study finds that "organic" food is no better than any other food, in
terms of nutrition, but it
reduces
exposure to pesticides and
antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
This is what common sense would have suggested, and it shows what society
ought to aim for in regard to farming.
A group called AntiSec claims
to have found and leaked an FBI list
identifying the owners of 12 million iThings based on a unique ID code
in each device.
The FBI says
that it never had the list.
Neither source is guaranteed reliable, but I think that on this point
it is more plausible that the FBI is lying. If AntiSec had got the
info somewhere else, it would have had no evident motivation to claim
it came from the FBI. By contrast, the FBI would have a clear
motivation to deny the facts. Another point is that the FBI (like
municipal thugs) is habituated to lying, since it expects people to
assume its statements are honest.
In a leaked
Stratfor email, an FBI agent speaks of "felonious" spying
by the New York Thug Department.
Destroying
precious land (and poisoning precious water) for gas.
Apple store staff are taught twisted
psychological manipulation.
The mere practice of referring to service staff as "geniuses"
is dishonest already.
As global heating makes the oceans rise, the parking lots at
Assateague National Seashore's beach keep
turning
into ocean.
Censorship robots in Ustream cut
off the live stream of the Hugo awards ceremony.
This is ironic because an activity concerned with future technology
was the occasion to show how evil technology can be.
Ustream does harm to society even when it doesn't censor, because it
requires viewers to run nonfree software. It is fundamentally bad.
Once I found out there was a plan to stream my speech through Ustream,
and I insisted they not do it.
If you are connected with an event that is going to do streaming, I
can put you in touch with people that can teach you how to do it using
Ogg Theora, with free software. Then nobody can censor it.
Smugglers of endangered wildlife are using the Internet in
sneaky
ways.
I strongly support cracking down on this trade, but that does not
require abolishing privacy on the Internet. The merchandise has to be
delivered physically, so the sellers are vulnerable to stings.
US citizens: call
on the Democratic Convention to support clean energy
and peace, and cut military funding.
A former Moonie tells how he was
recruited
and brainwashed.
Leading Pakistani Muslim clerics came to the defense of the girl
who was
falsely
accused of burning pages from a Qur'an.
This demonstrates a commitment to truth and rejection of lies.
However, honesty of application does not justify censorship, such as
the prohibition of blasphemy. Even people who really do burn Qur'ans
must not be imprisoned, let alone killed, for that. If you don't like
their doing so, buy a copy of some book they admire and burn that in
response.
Three Palestinian prisoners, imprisoned without trial, have been on
hunger strike for months to
protest
Israel's breaking the agreement that settled the previous massive
hunger strike.
Israel's mining of minerals from the Dead Sea is a
crime
under international law.
US citizens: sign
this petition for media attention to the substance
of what Paul Ryan says.
Workers in Colombia ended their hunger strike after gaining an agreement
to submit
their dispute with General Motors to arbitration.
Many Americans let the replacement of Dubya by Obama silence
their criticism of the
same
offenses against human rights.
The Republicans are getting so much secret money that they have changed
their position to oppose
requirements
to disclose donations.
Massachusetts has passed a
law to make it harder to cheat temporary employees.
Extremist Muslim cleric accused of
framing
the retarded Christian girl
to create an excuse to scare all the Christians out of the neighborhood.
Attempting
a citizen's arrest of Tony B'liar for his war crimes.
The UK has the responsibility to prosecute B'liar,
just as the US has the responsibility to prosecute Dubya.
They launched a war based on lies which killed uncounted
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, as well as around 4500 Americans.
South Africa has temporarily dropped murder charges against striking miners,
who were charged with the deaths of their fellow protesters actually
killed
by the thugs.
The Afghan government
fails
to punish its torturers.
With the US as an example, why would it?
The Israeli state forced settlers to leave one "outpost", but they
moved
to another (state-supported) colony in the West Bank.
Mexico is creating a database with
iris
scans and fingerprints of all citizens.
By cutting military spending instead of civilian aid programs, the US
would
save 300,000 jobs.
However, this is a choice between bad and worse. The US should not
cut spending at all now, because the way to get out of a
recession is through deficit spending. The time to reduce the
national debt is when things are going well.
Israel has driven around 160,000 Palestinians from their homes, mostly
by demolishing
their homes.
2011 was the worst year ever for this.
The UK law that makes squatting a crime
"criminalizes
the homeless".
The government which passed this law showed it is the enemy of the 99%.
Shell was given
permission to start drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
Desmond Tutu called for prosecution of Dubya and Bl'iar for the crime
of
starting
a war based on lies.
Hooray, Tutu!
Police forces in Europe defy parliamentary oversight into their
spying
on opposition groups.
In 2011, Paul Ryan supported big military spending cuts.
Now
he wants military spending increases.
The press should
stop
giving global heating deniers the same respect
that it gives climate scientists.
Paul Watson of Sea Shepard describes the bogus Japanese charges against him,
and says that Sea Shepard will continue its activity
whether
he can get to the ships or not.
A Pakistani lawyers says, if the US can kill Pakistani civilians with
drone missiles, why shouldn't they execute a girl for blasphemy?
What's the difference, he
asks?
Of course, we can see plenty of specific differences, but he's right
that there is a great similarity between one unjust killing and
another. So what is his twisted point? To take revenge on the US by
killing this girl?
A member of the team that killed Osama bin Laden said, in his book,
that the team had orders to arrest bin Laden if he was not armed,
but shot
him instead. This was followed by a public lie to justify the shooting.
When I first heard about the raid, I was skeptical that the man shot
was really Osama bin Laden. After all, the US government is hardly an
honest and reliable source about such things. However, since nobody
is claiming that he wasn't Osama bin Laden, I suppose he was.
Nonetheless, the really important point is that his death made no
real difference. It
did
not hurt al Qa'ida, for instance.
Internet surveillance is getting so cheap that
companies
might start recording all their network traffic.
Jordanians protest
a proposed law that would filter Internet access.
Romney was a pioneer in creating debt and saddling companies with it.
Now his hypocritical campaign pretends to be against debt, as an excuse
for an economic revolution bringing poor-country suffering to most Americans.
Here is Matt Taibbi's description of
Romney's
career.
Melting Arctic ice means
even
worse weather disasters are coming in
Europe and the US.
Obama's government launched a
new
campaign for corporate immunity.
Hidden in the IAEA report on Iran: evidence that its uranium enrichment program
is not
aimed at making bombs.
Factchecking
the Minnows and Letting the Whales Swim Away.
Letting the US manage the Internet domains and addresses
is bad, but the other options are worse.
US citizens:
oppose a plan to make the ITU the primary standards committee
for the Internet.
Tunisian political cartoonist Z says that the new regime
represses
him like the old one.
Furthermore, it has convinced Facebook to censor him, which shows that it
was a mistake using Facebook at all.
As license plate cameras spread around the US, a movement to resist is
beginning, and New Hampshire has
limited
the use of them.
Miners in South Africa were charged with killing
after
some of them were shot by thugs.
Eritrea has imprisoned dissidents since 2001, and several
journalists have died in prison.
US citizens: support
continuing the US environmental education program.
Microrobots are being
designed to repair coral reefs.
This might deal with the effects of bottom trawling, but the worst
long-term threat to coral is from acidification of the ocean due to
CO2 emissions from human activity. I don't think robotic repair
can do that. What we need is to stop the CO2 emissions.
We
Are Writing the Epilogue to the World We Knew
Most new US jobs are low-wage
jobs.
(I take issue with the article's assumption that the recession has ended.)
Obama has quashed
the last two possible criminal cases against US torturers.
Persistently over 4 years he has acted to make sure that no US
government torturers will face justice, in the US or elsewhere,
even those that tortured prisoners to death.
Don't vote for torture. Jill Stein for president!
A federal court
restored
early voting in Ohio.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to
cosponsor
three bills to help state-authorized medical marijuana
dispensaries.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641
and 888-355-3588.
The Angolan president seems to have got himself re-elected by
stopping
lots of people from voting, and making the rest feel it was useless.
Spain has a large wildfire due
to heat and drought.
Global heating is making Spain drier and hotter, meaning there will
be more of these and worse.
US citizens:
sign
this petition against commercial advertising by schools.
US citizens: call on Secretary of the Interior Salazar not to
give Shell any special exception regarding Arctic drilling.
This week, Arctic sea ice reached a new record low, and it
will
keep melting for several weeks more. The Republican National
Convention was partly shut down by a hurricane, but they still deny
the problem.
Decades from now, as the disaster unfolds, many of them will keep
denying what is happening.
Meanwhile, Obama is no solution. He
talks little about global heating, and as for actions, he
"expedited" the planet-roaster pipeline.
Kasparov describes how he was arrested while talking to
journalists, and calls
for the West to impose financial sanctions on Putin's government.
Some US states are on track to
vote
to legalize marijuana sales to adults.
The siege of Gaza has relaxed somewhat, but the UN warns it
will
not be livable in 2020.
Part of the action needed, however, is to reduce the birth rate.
Having such a "young population" is the result of human activity, not
a natural characteristic.
The Antarctic ice sheet may cover
billions
of tons of methane.
Poor
people should work harder and stop complaining, says the world's
wealthiest woman.
I think she should pay more taxes.
Over
100,000 signed the petition to pardon Peter Sunde, associated
with The Pirate Bay.
Here is Sunde's description of the charges against him.
6
Worst Lies In Paul Ryan's Speech.
The corporate
media mysteriously decline to pounce on Ryan's lies.
A voter-ID law in Texas has been
overturned.
The US national debt's interest burden is the
lowest
it has been since World War II.
Ecuador has protected another
political whistleblower, this one from Belarus.
Colombia-US Labor Action Plan led only to "cosmetic changes".
Since the real purpose of "free trade" treaties is to help business at
the expense of everyone else, it is not a surprise that the provisions
about improved rights for labor are mere window dressing, that meant
to take arguments away from the opposition in order to gain votes, and
not intended truly to help workers in Colombia. Why then bother
to implement them once the blow has fallen?
Militarizing
the Police and Killing Natives: How the US Drug War Is Ripping Honduras Apart.
The Republican Party has endorsed Internet freedom, but it must be a rather
weak stand since the
MPAA does not object to it.
Brazilian
Supreme Court Judge Overturns Suspension of Belo Monte Dam.
US citizens: call
on your congresscritter and senator to limit NSA surveillance of
Americans.
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