| Time |
Event |
| 2:48p |
State hegemony on civil society, HUN
A private ally of Orbán has bought Hungary's main
book publisher and
bookstore chain.
Hungary, like various other countries, is exploring how to create
cryptic fascism, in which the institutions of the state nominally
continue to work, but democracy ceases to be meaningful, This reminds
me of how Octaviuss Caesar gave himself personal control of Rome while
keeping the Republic's institutions nominally in function.
|
| 2:48p |
Unrelenting, intense heat dome US & MX
Six
southern US states including Texas
are suffering from an extreme heat wave.
When will Republicans admit that our actions are making this worse?
I have a hunch that northern Mexico is suffering from a heat wave too.
|
| 2:48p |
Referendum on Cop City, GA
Opponents to Atlanta's cop city project are running a referendum campaign
which seeks
to cancel it entirely.
The city government, which seems to be motivated by something we can
only guess at, tried several times to sabotage the petition drive.
Surely the would-be contractors see an opportunity to profit, but I
doubt that the profit would be big enough to motivate such stiff
insistence from the city government. I have a hunch that something
nastier is at work, something more deeply related to right-wing
politics.
I doubt that the contractors who would build it have enough money to
gain that they would find it worth while to put a lot of money into
stiffening politicians' support for the project.
|
| 2:48p |
Thugs charged with murder, TX
Three Texas thugs face murder charges
for killing Melissa Perez,
who seemed to be freaking out but was not in a position to harm them significantly.
|
| 2:48p |
Train wreck into Yellowstone
A train carrying
toxic chemicals fell into the Yellowstone River
because a bridge collapsed.
I have to wonder whether this collapse was caused by saving money by reducing
regular maintenance. That would fit the railroad company's general approach,
but I don't know whether it occurred in this bridge.
|
| 2:48p |
Urgent: Urge Democrats in Congress to Boycott the "bipartisan" commission to cut SS
US citizens:
call on Congress
to boycott Kevin McCarthy's commission to cut Social Security (and Medicare).
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are
+1-202-224-3121,
+1-888-818-6641 and
+1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
|
| 2:48p |
Russian infighting gone too fast
Prigozhin's Wagner soldiers took over
the city of Rostov without a fight,
and some of the locals welcomed them.
Another Wagner column seems to have
rushed towards Moscow,
while Putin
ordered real army units to stop them.
Ukraine welcomed the opportunity
that an internal conflict in Russia might offer.
However, I expect this won't give Ukraine much of an opportunity.
Prigozhin was at pains to explain
that
the army centers he had taken control of were working on the war with Ukraine just as before.
Then he made a deal with Putin to abort the coup.
Prigozhin's attack seemed precipitously sudden,
with too little public preparation to build up much support.
His climb down seems unbelievably fast as well.
I would not expect someone who has launched an armed rebellion and been accused of treason
to call it off so quickly.
I have to wonder whether this coup was a kind of theater,
agreed in advance between Prigozhin and Putin.
|
| 2:48p |
Urgent: Call on P&G to help save the boreal forests of Canada
Everyone:
call on Procter & Gamble
to switch to forest-free products
to help save the boreal forest.
|
| 2:48p |
|
| 8:18p |
|
| 8:18p |
Nature at risk of breakdown
*Nature at risk of breakdown if Cop15 pledges not met, world leaders warned.*
|
| 8:18p |
|
| 8:18p |
Ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr's candidacy at our peril
Naomi Klein: *Beware: we ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr's candidacy at our peril.* |
| 8:18p |
|
| 8:18p |
|
| 8:18p |
3M pays $10.3bn to settle water pollution suit
*3M pays $10.3bn to settle water pollution suit over [PFAS] "forever chemicals".*
This is a lot of money, but I think it may be too little. is it
enough to pay for the costs of treating all the people affected?
What can these cities do to keep PFAS out of their water supply? They
will have to do it forever, I think, since the environment is already
full of PFAS. |
| 8:18p |
Amazon subcontracting deliveries
Amazon has subcontracted a lot of its deliveries to "separate" companies,
to thwart holding it accountable.
The workers at one of them now demand Amazon negotiate, but Amazon wants
to shut down that subcompany instead.
The easiest way to hold Amazon responsible. Don't buy from there, and
ask your friends not to buy anything for you from there. Inform web
sites that ask people to buy from Amazon through their pages that you
boycott Amazon and suggest they choose another way to raise funds.
I go even further than this. I refuse to identify myself when buying
products, aside from prescription medicines. |
| 8:18p |
|
| 8:18p |
Psychological experiments for mental manipulation tricks
It is more or less impossible to do valid psychological experiments on
whether mental manipulation tricks to help a person really do help.
People tend to be helped by doing anything which they believe will
help them. |
| 8:18p |
US corporations hardly ever prosecuted
Ralph Nader: US corporations have good reason to believe they are
above the law, since crimes by corporations occur constantly
and are hardly ever prosecuted.
Government lawyers don't want to prosecute businesses because they
hope to work for those businesses later.
We voters could stop them if we concentrated on the issue. That is why
they create side issues (refugees, queer people, drag shows, sex education)
to distract people with. |
| 8:18p |
US beekeepers making up for dead colonies
US beekeepers have to work very hard to make new colonies
to make up for the ones that die. |