| Time |
Event |
| 7:02a |
Oil sheikh speaking in favor of decarbonization
The oil sheikh paradoxically in charge of the Cop28 climate conference
now speaks clearly and firmly in favor of decarbonization,
and "the phase down of fossil fuels."
That is a change for the better, but we can't
take for granted that he is serious.
|
| 7:02a |
Making rigid demands of lovers, friends and relatives
How people nowadays appropriate terms and concepts from
psychotherapy, or pop psychology, and use them to justify making
rigid demands of lovers, friends and relatives. |
| 7:02a |
Thai political party block from governing
The progressive party that got the most votes in the Thai election
has been blocked from governing, and its supporters (including most
of the young people) are angry.
It is normal in a parliamentary system that forming a government
requires support from a majority of parliament. It is normal, though
unusual, that the party with the most seats is blocked from forming a
government by a coalition of other parties.
What is not normal about the Thai system is that parliament includes
members who were not elected — rather, appointed by the army.
The closest thing to this that I know of is the UK's House of Lords. |
| 7:02a |
American Medical Association to stand with doctors
The American Medical Association announced it will "stand with"
doctors that violate for medical reasons state laws that prohibit
certain kinds of medical treatment. |
| 7:02a |
Global heating has gone dangerously far
There is no mistaking, this year, that global heating has gone
dangerously far.
That is the sign that we needed to take action years ago. It was
scientifically clear all along that if we waited till the effects were
visible to everyone, we would have waited too long,
What no one could predict was that the US would be in the grip of
an enormous murder-suicide plot called the Republican Party. |
| 7:02a |
Seizing frozen assets of Putin
Should we be concerned that seizing frozen assets of Putin and his
oligarchs might "let Putin paint himself as the victim"?
When dealing with a bare-faced disinformationist, such as Putin or
Trump, the concern about "giving per an opportunity to pretend to the
victim" is obsolete. If they don't have a real opportunity, they fake
one. Best not to worry about the matter. |
| 7:02a |
Lawfare on voter registration organizations
Florida Republicans are waging lawfare on voter registration organizations.
For instance, some organizations get fined because a person
registering wrote the wrong county name from ignorance. |
| 7:02a |
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| 7:02a |
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| 7:02a |
Review of *Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature*.
Review of *Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature*. |
| 7:02a |
UK proposes more fossil fuel extraction
The UK proposes to develop additional fossil fuel extraction,
supposedly for "energy security", but it would make little difference
for that.
The way to get energy security is to build electric storage and renewable
generation. The real motive for this fossil fuel project is surely to
enrich some of the plutocrats that the Tory Party works for. |
| 7:02a |
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| 7:02a |
American aid programme engendered corruption in Afghanistan
The special inspector general for Afghanistan
reconstruction (Sigar) has reported that
*America’s huge, badly-coordinated and politically-driven aid programme
in Afghanistan engendered the corruption that undermined its
entire mission and turned Afghans away from the western coalition.* |
| 7:02a |
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| 7:02a |
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| 8:47a |
Tax the rich v. cuts to services, UK
*The Guardian view on public sector pay: higher taxes on the rich are needed
to
fix broke Britannia.*
Funds are needed for many other areas in which plutocratists have cut
public investment and support for poor and disadvantaged people.
That is clear to us — but not, apparently, to today's leaders of Labour.
A party that fails to advocate taxing the rich is on the side of harm.
Maybe somewhat less so than the Tories, but still. |
| 8:47a |
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| 8:47a |
Wage theft, UC San Diego
Unionized students of UCSD held a nonviolent protest against the
chancellor for not implementing the agreed-on raise for student
employees. The university retaliated by
arresting some of them.
on charges that seem to be an exaggeration of the truth.
|
| 8:47a |
Election interference, GTM Judicial
*Guatemala prosecutor suspends party of anti-corruption
election
candidate.*
This was because that party got enough votes to make it
into the final run-off.
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| 8:47a |
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| 8:47a |
Bukele's war on gangs, SLV
* Barbers on Strike, author Michelle Recinos’s collection of short
stories, has apparently upset strongman president Nayib Bukele.*
He had her book banned.
|
| 8:47a |
Net Zero Report: Nuclear too expensive, AU
A major project to plan Australia's decarbonization
says that nuclear power
is simply too expensive and too far in the future to play any role.
The report also suggests that making hydrogen using fossil fuel may
permit storing or using enough of the CO2 that it can aid
decarbonization. I am skeptical, but if they say so, maybe it is true.
|
| 8:47a |
Org. for Economic Co-op and Development on AI
The OECD says that future artificial intelligence will mostly eliminate
skilled jobs (well-paid jobs).
When human skill is no longer needed, the plutocrats will push everyone
down into inescapable poverty — until we overthrow them.
|
| 8:47a |
Shell consumption rate crisis averted, UKR
The reason for sending cluster munitions to Ukraine is that the West
cannot manufacture shells anywhere near as fast as Ukraine fires them.
The only way
to keep Ukraine fighting
is to take them from the large stockpile of cluster munitions.
I understand the logic of this, but it doesn't eliminate the danger
that the unexploded submunitions will pose after the fighting stops.
I wonder if anyone has calculated what fraction of unexploded
munitions left in the battlefields will come from cluster munitions
fired by Ukraine. If it is a small fraction, in the end Ukraine's
use of cluster munitions will not make a big difference. If it is
a large fraction, then it will be the main cause of that future danger.
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| 8:47a |
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