| Time |
Event |
| 4:46a |
Censorship, US universities
Harvard's school of political science invited the former head of Human
Rights Watch to visit as a fellow. Then
the dean cancelled the invitation
because he has criticized Israel for human rights violations.
Those human rights violations already amounted to apartheid, but Israel's
new government, which includes right-wing extremists, is planning to make
things much worse. Honest defenders of human rights will have to criticize
Israel more than ever. Rich supporters of Israel will surely increase
the censorship pressure in US universities.
Don't assume that those supporters are Jews. Some of them are
fanatical Christians who are determined to bring about events that
would
fulfill certain prophecies related to Christian myths of
doomsday.
July 2004 (Uncritical support for Israeli policies from Christian fanatics)
|
| 9:31a |
Great Salt Lake water levels
Great Salt Lake could disappear in 5 years
at the current rate of
shrinkage. Conservationists say Utah needs to adopt policies to
take less water from the lake.
The article says that the region is overdrawing the available water.
At some point it will hit a hard stop and have to cease much of its
economic activity. However, it doesn't explain what harm will
come directly from the emptiness of the lake itself.
|
| 12:01p |
Amazon worker died of heart attack at work
Amazon warehouse worker Rick Jacobs had a heart attack and died while
at work. To prevent any disruption, management kept the remaining
workers in the dark about it by erecting a wall of cardboard boxes
around the area where Jacobs's body lay.
|
| 12:01p |
|
| 12:01p |
Israel prohibits Palestinian flag in public
Israel has prohibited showing the Palestinian flag in public places.
Palestine asked the UN to adjudicate Israel's occupation of Palestine,
and Israel is "punishing" this by applying many forms of repression
all at once. (I have the feeling that the right-wing extremists in
the new Israeli government were itching for an opportunity to do
this.)
But why should Palestinians deserve punishment for asking the UN for
adjudication of their rights? |
| 12:01p |
Insect declines mean reduced yields of healthy foods
* Insect declines mean reduced yields of healthy foods like fruit and
vegetables and increased disease in people. This is estimated to cause
half a million early deaths per year.* |
| 12:01p |
Bolsonaro in Florida
Bolsonaro probably entered the US using a visa he held as a head of
state. In the normal course of events, that would be canceled now,
and he would be compelled to leave the US.
The US should make him leave rather than give him a base for planning
to endanger Brazil.
The ideal thing would be to extradite him to Brazil, but I would
expect there is no evidence to justify criminal charges. |
| 12:01p |
Tory policies that harmed people legally coming to Britain
Tories set up policies that tended to unjustly harm people who
lawfully came to Britain without any special papers in the past. but
had no papers to prove it. Tories dragged their feet in ending these policies and compensating victims. Now they plan to throw the whole matter away. |
| 12:01p |
|
| 12:01p |
University teacher fired for showing old Persian painting of Mohammad
Hamline University in Minnesota has fired a teacher for showing, in a class on the history of Islam, an old Persian painting of Mohammad.
It was made by Muslims as a religious object.
The article reports that in Persia, and in Persian-influenced Turkey
and India, there is an old Muslim tradition of paintings of human
beings including Mohammad.
Catering to the most conservative Muslim views, which are those spread
by Salafi Arabia since 2001, has become the requirement exacted by the
most fanatical devotees of tiptoe culture. The university president
actually asserted that this demand overrides academic freedom.
A teacher must not insult students — to do so goes against the needs
of the job. However, this must be interpreted using society's general
concept of what it means to insult anyone. Students are not entitled
to demand that a teacher, when dealing with them, avoid doing whatever
they may call "insult".
The university owes the teacher who was fired an apology, restoration
of duties, pay for the period of work that perse lost, and some
punitive damages. And above all it must recognize that students cannot
eliminate academic freedom but shouting, "Offensive! That harms us!" |
| 12:01p |
|
| 12:01p |
|
| 12:01p |
NHS directing those with money to get "private clinic" appointments
The NHS now directs patients who have money to pay to get a "private
clinic" appointment sooner at the same place.
The NHS used to provide medical care for nearly everyone in Britain.
Under Tory power, it has become a provider of lousy care for the
people that the state considers unimportant.
*When state services fail, citizens pay extra or sink. This is Sunak’s Britain
now.* |
| 12:01p |
Reports on Jan 6 insurrection that was not followed up
Greg Palast reports on evidence about the Jan 6 insurrection
that was not followed up, or not collected. Why didn't the state
identify every rioter and search their cell phones?
It is especially disturbing (though not surprising) that some capitol
thugs showed their support to the insurrectionists, before the actual
insurrection. |
| 12:01p |
Someone shooting at Democratic elected officials
Someone is shooting at Democratic elected officials in Albuquerque.
After five attacks, I think we can conclude that this is an expression
of the Republican party's encouragement of political violence. |
| 12:01p |
Campaign against requiring internet companies to spy on people's communications
A campaign calls on governments not to require internet infrastructure
companies to censor people's communications.
Please don't call communications and publications "content". That
term disparages all of them as mere filler to keep a container full of
something or other.
I find it disturbing that Facebook is criticized for labeling the
statement "Men are trash" as "hateful". Of course it is hateful — it
blatantly expresses misandry, just as "Women are trash" would express
misogyny. Both statements carry hate, similar kinds of hate, in a
similar way, differing only in which target is hated.
The crucial point is that neither of those statements should be banned
or censored. I might rebuke a person for saying either of them, but
to forcibly limit people to saying only nice things (or to show hate
only towards those we revile) is intolerable.
Despite that minor inconsistency, this campaign stands for freedom. |
| 12:01p |
Military fired missile at NGO aid worker
Random innocent events, seen through the filter of confirmation bias,
enabled US military personnel to convince themselves that NGO aid
worker Zemari Ahmadi, traveling around Kabul on errands, was carrying
explosives for PISSI. So they fired a Hellfire missile at the car he
had borrowed from the NGO.
In just a few minutes, analysts figured out that the missile had
killed noncombatants, and within hours, that it had killed children
(who were certainly noncombatants). Nonetheless, the US military
continued pretending to be absolutely sure that it had attacked a PISSI
fighter and only fighters had been killed.
The US military did admit, in a week or so, that Ahmadi and the other
people killed were all noncombatants, not enemies at all. That was a
big advance compared with the standard US practice before that, which
was to deny stubbornly that a drone strike killed noncombatants,
disregarding all evidence that it did. |
| 12:01p |
Court ruled banning bump stocks stretched law too far
One federal appeals court ruled that the policy of banning bump stocks
stretched the law too far.
I think this applies only to the states in that one circuit: Texas
and some nearby states.
In sensible times, the US would amend that law, but I expect the
anti-gun-control fanatics controlling the House of Representatives will
not allow that. |
| 12:01p |
Great Salt Lake could disappear in 5 years
Great Salt Lake could disappear in 5 years at the current rate of
shrinkage. Conservationists say Utah needs to adopt policies to
take less water from the lake.
The article says that the region is overdrawing the available water.
At some point it will hit a hard stop and have to cease much of its
economic activity. However, it doesn't explain what harm will
come directly from the emptiness of the lake itself. |
| 12:16p |
Big insurance, fossil fuel cos.
"Liberty Mutual" insurance company (an ironic name) has a new CEO. A
gklp-0=campaign presses for him to stop the corporation insuring and
investing in fossil fuel projects.
This is a clear example of a pernicious development in progressive
thinking: advocating an explicitly privileged higher status of
citizenship for indigenous people.
The campaign makes four demands. I support the first three,
| 1. |
Immediately stop insuring new and expanded coal, oil, and gas projects. |
| 2. |
Commit to phase out insurance for coal, oil and gas companies in line with 1.5ºC. |
| 3. | Divest all assets from coal, oil, and gas companies that are not aligned with a 1.5ºC pathway. |
| 4-. | Adopt a policy to ensure the projects and clients you insure respect the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of impacted Indigenous Peoples. |
but I criticize the fourth demand (which I have relabeled "4-") for
the unfairness of demanding new rights but limiting them to indigenous
people, thus denying those rights to all other people impacted locally
by a large fossil fuel project. That omission is racist in spirit.
Item 4- should be replaced by this one:
| 4+. |
Adopt a policy to ensure the projects and
clients you insure respect the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
(FPIC) of the people of impacted areas. |
</td>
Why would a group of progressives think of proposing 4- instead of 4+?
Why advocate rights that are clearly required by justice, then
spontaneously and arbitrarily limit them to a small subset of humanity?
In today's progressive thinking, there is a current which, not
satisfied with the goal of eliminating the racism against indigenous
people and compensating the injustices that have been practiced
against them, seeks to elevate them to a status above ordinary human
beings. According to that line of thought, they are inherently
superior by birth to the rest of humanity -- born high-minded and
loyal to preserving nature. Therefore we (the rest) should have faith
in them, consider them born to be our leaders, and grant them the
privileges and power to make decisions for all of us. They would be,
in effect, a new noble class.
I would support demand 4+, which advocates additional rights for
everyone, indigenous people included. I will not support 4-, which
denies those rights arbitrarily to the rest of us.
|