| Time |
Event |
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
Affirmative action ruling
The Supreme Court ruled that
race-based affirmative action is
unconstitutional
discrimination, but left one aspect that applicants of disprivileged demographic
background can still cite: "an applicant’s discussion of how race
affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or
otherwise."
Interestingly, one right-wing justice rebuked Harvard for its
discrimination in favor of students from extra-privileged backgrounds,
those whose families had past association with Harvard. His point was
somewhat confused, but there is a valid point to be made: since 43% of
white Harvard students benefited from that privilege, eliminating that
privilege could achieve, through fairness in process, much of the
fairness of outcome that affirmative action has achieved.
Justice Jackson explains
why affirmative action is needed
to counteract generations of disadvantage which government policies
imposed on the blacks of the time, and which today's blacks have
more or less inherited.
Biden condemned the decision and said he will
seek ways to maintain
the effect of affirmative action
despite the decision.
|
| 1:46p |
Nuclear plant in peril, UKR
Putin is
rapidly evacuating personnel
from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear
power plant, and Ukraine claims he plans to blow up part of it.
This would be tantamount to using a dirty nuclear weapon. I suggest
that the US warn Putin that it will attack the Putin forces with
non-nuclear weapons if he does that.
|
| 1:46p |
Racist policing, FR
*France has ignored racist police violence for decades. These
riots are the
price
of that denial.*
|
| 1:46p |
Jenin Resistance, ISR
Several
Palestinian militias are based in Jenin.
Israel is systematically
bombing them with drone attacks.
Possible Palestinian fighters are referred to as "suspected" whatever.
Israeli soldiers who fight are never "suspected" of anything.
|
| 1:46p |
Bolsonaro banned from office
*[Brazilian] Judges ban Bolsonaro from running for office for eight
years over
"appalling lies".*
If only US judges had the good sense to do that.
|
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
ChatGPT lawsuit
A lawsuit accused the developers of ChatGPT of "stealing" people's
personal data to train the system.
The article does not say how the company obtained that data. Security
measures should have prevented that — how come they did not?
Is it possible that the company got permission to use that data
from other companies that had collected it?
Using the data can be wrong, but the fundamental wrong is
collecting it at all.
|
| 1:46p |
Billionaire grips national media, IN
*"Resistance is possible": Ravish Kumar, the broadcaster risking his life to
tell
the truth about India
today.*
|
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
New oilfield protest, UK
*[British] Campaigners vow to step up action against
new North Sea oilfield.*
Ministers know that the world has no room for this, and they are disregarding
climate commitments to approve it.
This is plutocracy at work.
|
| 1:46p |
Prisoners swelter, TX
*Texas [prisoners]
deprived of water and AC
are fainting in jails that
reach [up to 116°F].*
Water is a necessity for human life. The prison thugs are putting
the prisoners' life and health in danger.
|
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
The Hague: crimes of aggression
*Centre for prosecuting crimes of aggression [in Ukraine]
opens in The Hague.*
This war crime has been mostly neglected since the Nuremberg trials,
as prosecutions focused on war crimes and crimes against humanity
rather than the fundamental crime of launching aggressive war.
|
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
|
| 1:46p |
Urgent: MA Location Shield Act
Massachusetts residents:
support the Massachusetts Location Shield Act.
Here is what I gave as my personalized message:
I urge you to support the Location Shield Act — but, as described in
the articles I have seen, it has loopholes that may make it fail to
achieve its laudable purpose.
It would block the most obvious and usual way for states persecuting
abortion patients (and those who help them) to get the data, but there
are various others ways which they will not take long to think of.
For instance, companies could be "persuaded" to "give away" the data.
(States have ways to persuade them — think of what Governor DeMentis
has tried with Disney. Most companies won't resist as Disney has.)
States could also get the data by subpoena.
I suggest forbidding requiring entities that collect location data in
Massachusetts to distribute that data to any entity under any basis,
outside of a small list of exceptions such as subpoenas from federal
courts or certain specially authorized Massachusetts courts.
This may call for requiring those entities to keep the data inside
Massachusetts, stored in ways that Massachusetts law can reliably govern.
Those entities often store their personal data — including location
data — on computers belonging to cloudy businesses which don't deal
directly with those entities' clients: for instance, Amazon AWS.
Persecuting states could get the data by subpoena directly from those
businesses. That requirement proposed above about where and how to
store the location data could address this loophole too.
The full solution to the danger of massive surveillance of people's
movements is to _prohibit collection of location data_. Massive
surveillance, of which tracking people's movements is an example, is
the foundation of tyranny. Phones should not track people, and when a
business asks where you are, it should have to be content with
whatever answer you choose give it. You do not owe a business a
truthful answer to whatever question it may ask you!
Buses, trains, taxis, cars, and payments systems often track people's
movements. We should put a stop to that too. My associates are
working on a software system for paying stores and internet
subscriptions without identifying yourself — see taler.net for more
information.
Ending massive surveillance is a big job and will take time, but a
strengthened Location Shield Act could be an exemplary first step.
|
| 1:46p |
Urgent: Name climate disasters after fossil fuel companies
Everyone:
call on WMO and NOAA
to name climate disasters after fossil fuel companies.
|
| 1:46p |
Urgent: Stop promoting social-media climate-deniers
Everyone:
call on media outlets
to stop promoting deniers of coming climate disaster.
|
| 2:01p |
|