| Time |
Event |
| 9:48a |
|
| 9:48a |
|
| 9:48a |
God Save Abortion in Indiana
Nadya Tolokonnikova, formerly of Pussy Riot, went to Indiana and sang
God Save Abortion.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
Australian law on deportation prison
Australian legislators are rushing to pass a law to partly reverse the
court decision against holding non-Australian criminals in deportation
prison for life simply because it is impossible to deport them.
There are crimes that justify keeping the culprit in prison for life.
Such a sentence could be carried out, when imposed, for criminals
whether they are Australians or not.
But whether the criminal is kept in prison for life must not depend on
whether the culprit is an Australian citizen. If the culprit of a
certain crime, being an Australian citizen, would eventually be
released (perhaps paroled), a non-Australian culprit should be
released from prison just the same (and possibly then deported).
</li> |
| 9:48a |
|
| 9:48a |
Japan's whaling
Japan's whaling is very heavily subsidized.
The subsidy amounts to twice the commercial revenue
from sale of whale meat.
I wonder why the Japanese government spends so much money on an
activity whose main product is disapproval from the rest of the world.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
Un-Hungarian activities commission
Orbán has established an Un-Hungarian Activities commission to
investigate and pressure human rights groups and journalistic
organizations that get foreign support.
It will also investigate foreign support to political parties. That
does not seem dangerous to me, because it seems proper to me to
prohibit foreign donations to political parties.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
We must redesign our production and use of plastics
Since "biodegradable" plastic doesn't biodegrade in nature, and since
it is not feasible to clean all the microplastics out of the ocean, we
must redesign our production and use of plastics to avoid filling
nature with them.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
Fighting gold mining in Ecuador's rainforest
An indigenous local police force fights gold mining in Ecuador's
rainforest.
They use modern drones to discover the miners and to record video to
prove in court that they were mining.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
Historical context of Israel-Palestine conflict
Putting the century-long conflict between Israel and Palestine into a
historical context along with European racism and antisemitism.
It should be noted that the Jews who lived under Islamic kingdoms did
not enjoy equal rights. All Jews there, along with all Christians
there, were officially designated as inferior to Muslims. They were
never allowed to forget this. I expect that is part of the reason
some of them chose to emigrate to Israel.
</li> |
| 9:48a |
Tory plan to ban glorifying terrorism
* [the Tory] plan to ban the glorifying of terrorism risks
criminalizing "supporters of the suffragettes, Nelson Mandela, or even
the crowd at Murrayfield belting out Flower of Scotland".*
The idea of trying to prohibit any opinions one finds odious leads
invariably to tyranny, though the path that goes there may be crooked.
That includes prohibition of a hostile attitude to some ethnic or
religious group, no matter which group it may be.
</li> |
| 9:49a |
Companies that make political donations
*Companies that make political donations are more than twice as likely
to win government contracts and should be banned from working with
departments for an entire electoral cycle, according to a key
transparency group.*
I second that. Preventing what is effectively a form of corruption is
important.
A counterargument is that those who award contracts may have no idea
of recent donations to political parties. My response to that is, yes
but so what? Preventing what is effectively a form of corruption is
important. Making it safe for businesses to donate to political
parties is basically harmful.
Indeed, it would be better to prohibit such donations outright.
</li> |
| 9:49a |
Milei alienated military veterans
Milei, the right-wing candidate for president of Argentina alienated
military veterans by confirming his adoration for Margaret Thatcher,
the Tory prime minister.
Thatcher sent a fleet to liberate the Falkland Islands from the
Argentine military dictatorship. (That's the same dictatorship
that tortured Argentines who were on the left, then murdered them
by dropping them into the ocean from airplanes.)
Liberating the Falklands, whose population is of English descent, was
the only good thing Thatcher did that I know of. That had the
indirect result of restoring democracy in Argentina. Aside from that,
her actions were to break unions, reward greed and crush the poor. I
would guess that those things are what Milei admires her for. He also
admires Bolsonaro and the insurrectionist, according to Wikipedia.
</li> |
| 9:49a |
Report from al-Shifa hospital
Report from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza: around 2500 people remain
there, and Israeli troops that surround it shoot when people try to
enter or leave.
Patients in intensive care are likely to die because there is no
electricity. The hospital also has no food and no water, so other
patients may die too.
</li> |
| 9:49a |
US Supreme Court code of ethics
The US Supreme Court has adopted a code of ethics, but is it any good?
People are criticizing this code on the grounds that they don't trust
the right-wing justices to heed it. That is a valid point, but under
public pressure they might heed it. That leads to a second question:
supposing they do heed this code, is it adequate?
For instance, what does it say about the situation where a justice has
received gifts from a rich person and then a case arises in which the
giver has interests at stake, or political views? If it doesn't call
for recusal in that situation, then it winks at corruption.
</li> |