| Time |
Event |
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
Evangelical Taliban against democracy
Bolsonaro is trying to use the Evangelical Taliban to attack democracy
in Brazil. Lula has responded by saying that Bolsonaro is possessed
by the devil.
That would be entirely plausible, if there were a real devil that
could really possess people. |
| 1:33a |
(Satire) Wrongful death settlements
(satire) *City's Primary Investment In Community Comes Through Police
Department's Wrongful Death Settlements.*
If an Onion page appears blank, try disabling JavaScript entirely or
telling LibreJS to blacklist all scripts in the page, then right-click
and select item "Reveal hidden HTML". Or use a browser such as lynx
that doesn't implement JavaScript and CSS. |
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
(Satire) Texas gun law
(satire) *New Texas Law Requires Gun Buyers To Show Proof Of Mental
Illness.*
If an Onion page appears blank, try disabling JavaScript entirely or
telling LibreJS to blacklist all scripts in the page, then right-click
and select item "Reveal hidden HTML". Or use a browser such as lynx
that doesn't implement JavaScript and CSS. |
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
Ricardo dos Santos
Ricardo dos Santos, a black man, was stopped in a car by British thugs
for the third time in two years, for no obvious reason.
He alleges racial profiling and threatens to sue. |
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
Manchin's owed nothing
America does not owe Manchin anything, and especially not cooperation
with his plan to undermine environmental protection. He has broken deals
with Biden.
In addition to maintaining environmental regulations, we should reject
the idea that gutting them would be "reform". |
| 1:33a |
Conviction from weak association
In Britain it is not unusual for people present at a murder to be
convicted of murder on the basis of a weak association with the
murderer.
Some US states do this too. |
| 1:33a |
When cars record locations
When cars record locations, the data is available to advertisers,
insurance companies, and uniformed thugs. Cars must offer a dashboard
switch to sop them from determining their locations.
Cars must also offer a dashboard switch to stop the car from sending
out signals by which other systems could track them.
Toll payment systems must offer an anonymous method so that they don't
track you either. |
| 1:33a |
|
| 1:33a |
Americans dying younger
Since 1980, Americans have tended overall to die younger than people
in other developed countries; since then, the problem has grown.
In 2019, 2/3 of a million more Americans died than would have died
if the US had been like those other countries.
Part of the problem is that the US lacks the national universal
medical system that other developed countries have. Another part is
that the US lacks the welfare system that other developed countries
have. Also contributing is the plutocratist politics of the US,
which impoverish an increasing fraction of Americans. Other social
problems in the US contribute too. |
| 1:33a |
Teacher monitoring
code.org's new high school course in programming involves stricter-than-ever
monitoring of teachers.
The motive for this is another bad practice: running the students' and
teachers' programs on servers, rather than on local computers. |
| 7:33a |
|
| 7:33a |
Food at risk because of endangered butterflies and bees
*One-third of the food we eat is at risk because the climate crisis is
endangering butterflies and bees.* |
| 7:33a |
Taliban deal to chase out al-Qa'ida
Before the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the Taliban were offering to
make a deal with the US which involved chasing out al-Qa'ida. If Dubya
had accepted the deal, we would never have invaded Afghanistan.
Now US newsmedia — even NPR — are covering up this history.
Why didn't the US accept the deal? I don't know, but whatever the
reason was, it is likely to be the same reason that motivated the US
to reject the Taliban's surrender offer, later in 2001.
Meanwhile, al-Qa'ida is still not very effective in Afghanistan.
I gather that the Taliban consider al-Qa'ida as a troublesome and
unfriendly rival. Next time the US identifies a leader of al-Qa'ida
in Afghanistan, it might be wise to try helping the Taliban deal with
him, rather than attacking him directly. |
| 7:33a |
Funerals for pets
Poor people in Britain whose pets die feel incomprehensibly attached
to spending money they don't have, for funerals for those pets.
Overattachment to pets, and pets' corpses, leads to a perverse sense
of values. If you are rich and you feel like burying or cremating a
pet, it's harmless. But we must not stand for the idea that people
have an obligation to spend so much on pets that they ruin themselves.
That way of thinking leads to enormities such as abandoning refugees
in Kabul to evacuate a planeload of dogs.
I would feel sorry for Freya when her dog died, but I would not cater
to her mishigas. |
| 7:33a |
Physical and mental health of young Americans
The broken aspects of US society are damaging the physical and mental
health of young Americans to the point that military recruiters can't
find enough soldiers.
It may also be the realization that a lot of the fighting the US does
is not justified or not necessary. |
| 7:33a |
Assange's lawyers suing the CIA
Assange's lawyers have sued the CIA for violating their
attorney-client privilege — by spying on their discussions. |
| 7:33a |
Bizarre appointments of former Australian prime minister
The former Australian prime minister, Morrison, bizarrely appointed
himself minister of health, minister of finance, minister of industry,
ministry of science, minister of energy, minister of home affairs
(policing), and minister of the treasury — without informing the
public, or even the officially appointed ministers of those issues.
Apparently this meant that the officially appointed ministers remained
ministers, but Morrison could override them at will. When he actually
did so, did the officially appointed ministers find out what he had done?
Or was that concealed from them somehow?
I wonder if Morrison was inspired by the wrecker's practice of
dismissing the heads of agencies and departments and leaving those to
be run by acting heads. This might have had an equivalent effect.
In Australia, the governor general (representative of the British
crown) is responsible for swearing in ministers. He quietly
participated in this abuse of the Australian governmental system.
There is a movement in Australia to cut its tie with Great Britain and
become a republic. I have a feeling supporters will point to this as
a reason to remove the British crown from the process.
Morrison, who apparently couldn't keep track of all the things he was
personally the minister of, said there was "no sense of bad faith in
it." That may be true — he may be so inured to practicing bad faith
that he has no conscious awareness of it. |
| 7:33a |
Price for Britain avoiding its biggest problems
*Britain has been avoiding its biggest problems for decades. Now we’re
paying the price.*
It has been avoiding these problems because correcting them required
rich people's money, and those rich people refused to participate
in saving the country. |
| 7:33a |
Practitioners of mental health strike against Kaiser Permanente
Psychotherapists and other practitioners of mental health
are on strike against Kaiser Permanente.
This seems to be a consequence of the increasing frequency of psychological
problems in the US. |
| 7:33a |
Advocating voter fraud at a rally
Marjorie Taylor Greene and a defeated Republican congressional candidate
advocated voter fraud at a rally.
This makes a bizarre contrast with her attacks on supposed Democratic
voter fraud, whose existence can't be found anyway. Does she believe
fraud is wrong only for Democrats? |
| 7:33a |
|
| 7:33a |
Puerto Rico official corruption
Puerto Rico is suffering from widespread official corruption.
Mayors and governors have been charged with crimes.
The article doesn't mention the crushing debts, but I believe they are
the root cause. The US Congress has given Puerto Rico no debt relief,
so it is forced to squeeze the people (even poor people) to pay the loans.
The result is that most everyone who can leave does leave.
I suppose the creditors hope eventually to take control of the
island's land and turn it into tourist resorts and corporate-owned
plantations.
They won't stop with Puerto Rico — they will move on to other parts
of the US. |
| 7:33a |
American men getting vasectomies
Many American men are getting vasectomies before the Supreme Court
gets a chance to interfere. |
| 7:33a |
FBI harassment of Aswad Khan
The FBI invited Aswad Khan, a Pakistani who was visiting the US after
attending a university there, to become an informant and go to mosques
to spy on people. Aswad, who was not particularly religious and was
more interested in getting a well-paid job, said no. After that, the
FBI harassed his friends until they cut off all ties with him.
FBI whistleblower Terry Albury says that the FBI regularly does this. |
| 7:33a |
Finnish tourist visas to Russian citizens
Finland may stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, to punish
them for Putin's war.
I think it is misguided to punish Russian tourists for Putin's war.
It's not their fault, and excluding them is counterproductive.
Putin maintains an information blockade; any Russians who visit
Finland will come in contact with non-Putinized news.
It also gives Russians an opportunity to leave Russia and not return. |
| 7:33a |
Tories cut 1/5 of firefighters in UK
The Tories will cut anything to reduce government spending that
doesn't go to businesses. They have cut 1/5 of the firefighters in
the UK since they took power in 2010. |
| 7:33a |
Biggest fallacy in online privacy issue
* The biggest fallacy in the online privacy [issue] is that there is a
[real] difference between "state surveillance" and
"commercial surveillance."*
In fact, government surveillance operates through commercial
surveillance. Both wholesale (surveillance of the whole net) and
retail (think of Amazon Ring cameras).
We need to restrict the deployment of massive surveillance systems
regardless of who operates them. |
| 7:33a |
Cancelled statement in support of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
The city of Manteca, California, has cancelled a statement it made in
support of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh,
which is a foreign auxiliary
to the RSS in India. |
| 7:33a |
Attack on Inflation Reduction Act's EV credit
Some countries plan to attack the Inflation Reduction Act's EV credit
with the help of the WTO.
The World Trade Organization is a business-supremacy treaty;
it prioritizes catering to business over all other goals. |