| Time |
Event |
| 4:19a |
Poland's "elections", Oct 15
The antidemocratic government of Poland is employing all the tools of
fascism to defeat a last-ditch attempt to defeat fascism in the Polish
election and
return the country
to democratic government and human rights.
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| 4:19a |
A "citizens audit" group, NY
Right-wing fanatics
in New York state have been impersonating state
officials to intimidate Democratic voters.
Right-wing fanatics eagerly seek ways to intimidate those who oppose
them. If real officials want to reassure bona fide voters that they
are safe, they should do more than just order them to "cease and desist".
Limiting the response to that looks like going soft on a criminal gang.
The state should vigorously prosecute right-wing election fraudsters whatever their methods.
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| 11:04a |
Campaign against real time facial recognition
UK legislators have started a campaign against real time facial recognition.
As China demonstrates, it puts human rights in danger.
After-the-fact recognition is also a threat to human rights.
As a famous science fiction story pointed out, the past continues
until infinitesimally close to the present; the ability to "watch the past"
approaches, as a limit, the ability to "watch the present".
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| 11:04a |
Disillusionment for Labour supporters
A Labour MP warns that Starmer's policies of low taxes for the rich
will cause disillusionment for Labour supporters.
They see that the only hope from Labour would be that Starmer
doesn't really mean the policies he states so clearly.
I know a Labour supporter who is planning not to vote in the coming
election because perse sees no party to vote for.
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| 11:04a |
George Orwell's advice on protecting freedom
George Orwell's advice on protecting freedom:
“Nourished for hundreds of years on a literature in which Right
invariably triumphs in the last chapter, we believe
half-instinctively that evil always defeats itself in the long
run. …. We have become too civilized to grasp the
obvious.
For the truth is very simple. To survive you often have to fight, and
to fight you have to dirty yourself. War is evil, and it is often
the lesser evil."
Orwell learned this by joining in the war against fascism in Spain,
back when no other government would support the Spanish Republic
against the rebellious fascist military.
The article is full of interesting remarks on other topics. One is
how to draw the line between satire used to provoke violence and
oppression and satire that rebukes it.
The article points out that the organizers of genocide in Rwanda used humor to
convey messages of hatred and murder, to deadly effect. American
fascists likewise often foment violence, even murder, with messages
that have the superficial form of jokes.
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| 11:04a |
Tories to restrict private solar installations
The Tories now plan to restrict private installation of solar panels.
Plutocracy politicians have shown a pattern of doing this, citing
various reasons.
A US example: paying electricity customers for delivering their excess
solar electricity to the grid makes sense only if the grid can
transmit that power to someone else who wants it; but transmitting
increasing amounts of power that way requires upgrades to the grid.
Plutocratist politicians dismiss the idea of spending to upgrade the
grid, preferring that we spend over and over on burning extra fossil
fuels and destroying civilization.
I suspect that these politicians' real motive is some sort of past or
future reward from the fossil fuel companies.
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| 11:04a |
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| 11:04a |
Pakistan deportation of Afghans
Pakistan says it will deport an estimated 1.7m Afghans who don't have
official permission to be in Pakistan.
The announcement says that the 1.4m Afghans with official permission
to live in Pakistan can stay. However, the Taliban oppress all women
and all girls, and a large set of men (those who had relationships
with the former government agencies or any western institutions).
Do all of the Afghans in those categories living in Pakistan have
official refugee papers? I would expect Pakistan's criteria for
granting asylum are narrower than that, perhaps much narrower.
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| 11:04a |
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| 11:04a |
Denver medical relief plan
*Denver city council members propose $300m medical debt relief plan
for residents.*
The article also explains how the primarily private US medical system
systematically puts people into debt.
What we really need is a proper national medical system that would
treat everyone who is ill and never put anyone in debt. However,
actions like these are a step forward.
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| 11:04a |
War on poverty, war on poor
Nobelist Angus Deaton on inequality: "The war on poverty has become a
war on the poor."
He aims to revitalize attention to the suffering caused by an economic
system that rewards predators.
I think "has been replaced by" would state it more accurately than
"has become". The change was intentional.
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| 11:04a |
Above preindustrial temperatures
September's temperatures were 1.8°C above preindustrial temperatures.
For that month, the Earth reached a level of heat that implies
almost certain disaster.
Because that level of heat isn't permanent yet, there is still hope of
avoiding disaster. People are installing solar and wind generation
very fast, but now we need to stop all new fossil fuel development
(Hello, USA! Hello, China!) and speed up decarbonization as much as
possible before 2030.
*Biden Ignores Public Interest In Push For Record Methane Gas Exports and
Fracking.*
Of course, Republicans want to do worse — but that doesn't make this ok.
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| 11:04a |
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| 11:04a |
New Zealand's reaction to Covid-19
New Zealand's reaction to Covid-19, closing the border, seems to have
reduced its death rate to just 20% of the US death rate in that period.
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| 11:04a |
Republican Extremist Gaetz on reforms to government
Republican Extremist Gaetz seems to agree with progressive leader Ro
Khanna about some reforms to Congress and the US government.
- Ban money from lobbyists and political actions committees to congressional candidates
- Ban members of Congress from trading stocks and from ever becoming lobbyists
- Term limits for members of Congress
- Term limits for Supreme Court justices
- An ethics code for Supreme Court justices
I agree with the author that term limits for Congress are a foolish
idea and that term limits for the Supreme Court require a
constitutional amendment. I support the other three.
Is it wort while negotiating a deal like this with a sabotage-minded
Republican? He may not stick to any good deal long enough to get it
enacted and through9ugh the Senate. And it would be hard to cooperate
with him on one issue while he demands to abolish other programs that
poor Americans depend on for their survival.
However, if he can learn to tone himself down enough to cooperate
successfully, it could be a good thing.
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| 11:04a |
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| 11:04a |
To save the spotted owl
To save the spotted owl requires killing other owl species that
compete with it.
I don't feel sentimental about this. Since there is no automatic
"balance of nature" that maintains itself, keeping things in balance
and protecting species requires intervention. Therefore let us
intervene — to protect all the existing species from extinction.
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| 11:04a |
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