| Time |
Event |
| 8:19a |
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| 8:19a |
Potential rally participants as criminal suspects
The Sydney thug department wants to treat even potential participants
at a pro-Palestine rally as criminal suspects: searching them
arbitrarily and jailing people who refuse to show their papers.
Setting off flares on an outdoor stairway is not violence, neither
against persons nor against property. Neither is chanting slogans,
even odious slogans of bigotry such as antisemitism. We should
detest those slogans but not arrest people for them.
Sydney has also banned all marches in support of Gazans. Human rights
defender condenm this action.
I condemn HAMAS's terrorism. I condemn Israel's siege and killing in
Gaza also.
Note, I capitalize "HAMAS" because it is an acronym.
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| 8:19a |
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| 8:19a |
Russia's internal "security" apparatus
Russia's internal "security" apparatus proposes to require all web
sites in Russia to store visitors' geolocations and "payment
information" to give to the state later.
It is not clear to me whether this would require all web sites to
_collect_ that information, or only require them to store it and hand
it over if they collect it.
In the US, large companies record this information if you ever
transmit it to a site which uses it. I don't want those companies to
get such data about me. Fortunately my free browser, IceCat, does not
know or send my geolocation, and using the Tor network prevents sites
from figuring out from my IP address.
As for payment information, most sites impose use of nonfree
JavaScript code in order to pay (fsf.org being a happy exception), and
I refuse to run that. For that reason, in addition to my privacy, I
never pay for anything over the internet. Never!
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| 8:19a |
Nonprofit hospitals exploiting tax breaks
*Chairman Sanders Releases New Report Showing Major Nonprofit Hospital
Systems Exploiting Tax Breaks and Prioritizing CEO Pay Over Helping
Patients Afford Medical Care.*
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| 8:19a |
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| 8:19a |
Starmer promises to keep taxes low
Starmer continues to appeal to Tory voters by promising to keep taxes low.
This precludes obtaining the funds needed to fix Britain's giant problems.
The article presents this as asking Tory voters to switch to Labour,
but I'd describe it as switching Labour to Tory voters and ditching
many Labour voters.
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| 8:19a |
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| 8:19a |
Call for store robbers to be shot
In a previous political note I wrote:
The fascist calls for store robbers to be shot:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/30/donald-trump-california-speech-robbers-shot
How about election stealers and voter suppressors?
The point I intended was to show the conclusion that the fascist's own
logic would lead to about how to deal with criminals like him. I
expected it to be obvious that I disagreed with his attitude
towards shoplifters, but just in case, here I say so explicitly.
I disagree with fascist thinking. Neither shoplifters nor election
underminers deserve to be summarily killed. People don't deserve to
be killed for those crimes even if they have been convicted, because
the death penalty is unjust in itself.
What we should do to them is give them fair trials, and if we find them
guilty, punish them in accord with their actions.
Rigging or undermining an election is a far graver crime than
shoplifting. Also, we should excuse shoplifting when poor people are
stealing the necessities of life.
To put an end to shoplifting we
should correct its root cause: poverty. The government should help
everyone to have a decent life without stealing.
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| 8:19a |
Ponzi scheme to benefit investor class
*The American dream has been sold and replaced with a Ponzi scheme
meant to benefit the investor class.… The American education
system has become a way of forcing lower-class citizens into a form of
indentured servitude.*
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| 8:19a |
Fallacy of "effective altruism"
Highlighting the fallacy in the seductive argument for "effective
altruism".
Actions such as fraud, and abuses that are not actual fraud but
neighboring to fraud, do have bad consequences: they undermine
society's reserves of rationality and trust, just as surely as the
corrupter and his followers do. The calculations of "effective
altruism" don't measure this harm so they cannot include it in
the conclusions.
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| 8:20a |
Cartoonist detained by Tunisia
*Tunisia detains cartoonist over drawings mocking prime minister.*
For a decade, Tunisia enjoyed hard-won human rights and democracy,
but the authoritarian president has abolished them completely.
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| 8:20a |
The insurrectionist's destabilization strategy
Robert Reich: the insurrectionist's current destabilization strategy
is to create chaos and make it appear that the US can't be governed
democratically. He hopes that people who defend democracy and human
rights will give up on them and let him take over.
This follows a line of development from Reagan's sabotage strategy of
trying to make Americans forget the great effectiveness of the New
Deal and the War on Poverty — government programs to help people who
needed help — and claiming that government was bizarrely a problem.
itself.
When Iran took the US embassy personnel hostage, President Carter
ordered a military rescue mission. The mission messed up before
any contact with the enemy, but Carter's decision was correct.
What did Reagan do? He made a deal with the hostage takers that they
would hold the hostages until after the election.
Then Reagan paid a ransom for the hostages.
Today's Republicans don't need to ransom hostages taken by foreign
enemies. Instead they take the hostages and demand the ransom.
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| 8:20a |
Brazil's campaign to stop illegal deforestation
Brazil's latest campaign to stop illegal deforestation: seizing
the cows that the deforesters are raising.
I expect it will be difficult for deforesters to resist this approach.
They can't hide or move the cows, and if they can't raise cows,
they can't profit from the deforestation (aside from places where
there is gold to filter).
I think some deforested areas are used to grow soybeans to be shipped
elsewhere and fed to cows. The soybean plants can't be hidden or
moved either. But it would be a shame to waste the current year's
harvest by destroying the plants. Perhaps the state can bring in
workers temporarily to harvest and remove the soy beans. This would
still be effective for deterring further deforestation because
the people who expected to profit will not profit.
Brazil should not limit this campaign to land designated as reserves for
indigenous groups. The whole world depends on keeping the Amazon forest going,
and we need to preserve as much of it as we can. Any parcel that can be
identified as having been illegally deforested should get this treatment.
If a neoliberal government did these things, it would push many
desperately poor Brazilians into hopeless poverty. But Lula rejects
neoliberalism; he is committed to helping them escape poverty in ways
that won't do harm.
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| 8:20a |
Sinister threats of the corrupter
*The greater the fear [the corrupter] feels, the more sinister his
threats become.*
The article also asserts that anyone with the slightest scruple of
conscience who tries to obey orders from the corrupter eventually gets
an order that per conscience can't swallow, and the corrupter orders
his followers to cancel per. This is what happened to McCarthy after he
compromised to avoid a shutdown.
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| 8:20a |
Urgent: OLIGARCH Act
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and ask per to cosponsor the
OLIGARCH Act, which would establish a graduated wealth tax starting at
a household wealth 1000 times the median US household wealth.
As of 2019, according to Wikipedia, the median household wealth in the US was a little under $100,000.
Going by that figure, the tax would start at a household wealth of 100
million dollars.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121 |
| 1:49p |
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