| Time |
Event |
| 3:19a |
"Voluntary" migration
*Israeli ministers attend conference calling for ‘voluntary migration’ of
Palestinians.*
I am sure any such migration would be no more "voluntary" than the use
of nonfree software today: done under pressure that is hard to resist.
|
| 3:19a |
Reducing microplastics
*EU [proposes] force cosmetic companies to pay to reduce microplastic
pollution.*
This is just a first step, but it will get started on a path that the
world needs to follow much further.
|
| 3:19a |
Climate gentrification
Global heating is causing sea-level rise. The better-off people in
the prosperous parts of Miami (mostly whites) want to move west to
higher ground, into neighborhood now inhabited mainly by blacks.
To facilitate this, redevelopment projects tear down old housing projects
and build new housing, most of which is rented out for more than the old
inhabitants can afford.
Because of the extent of racism in the US, this phenomenon has a
racial tinge. The wealthier people who drive poor people out of
higher ground are more often white, and the poor people driven out
tend to be nonwhite.
But that detail is not what makes this an injustice. If the people
moving in were the same mix of races as those being driven out, only
richer, the injustice would be the same. A good society is not cruel
to anyone.
Governments ought to buy out every residence in what is or will be a
flood zone, and build new flood-safe rental housing for tenants to
move to. And help people move out of regions such as Florida, which
are going to be too hot and wet whether inundated or not. That is
what progressive officials would do -- while reducing the size of this
problem by vigorously curbing global heating.
|
| 3:19a |
Conscription
The Tories are now considering imposing conscription on the UK because young
people don't want to join the army.
There is not much about the UK as it is misgoverned that would inspire
people to fight to defend it. The only argument I know of is,
"Government could be even worse."
|
| 3:19a |
|
| 3:19a |
Climate crisis warning in 1954
Fossil fuel companies were warned about the danger of global heating
in 1954, from research that they funded to track the level of CO2 in
the air.
|
| 3:19a |
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| 3:19a |
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| 3:19a |
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| 3:19a |
BP vs hedge fund
Some investors in BP are demanding it cancel plans to ramp down fossil
fuel extraction, saying it could make more money pumping more.
A few decades from now, if we do not curb global heating, all that
wealth will disappear along with the framework in which it is
meaningful, But these fools don't look at the long term.
What this shows is that we must force the world to reduce fossil fuel
extraction at a planned pace. We must make the world does not fulfill
these short-sighted investors' expectations.
|
| 3:19a |
|
| 3:19a |
Tory dooH niboR scheme
*[Tory] ministers plan to push cash-strapped English councils to sell
assets.*
The Tories cuts in support for local government now turn out to be
part of a two-part dooH niboR scheme. First, cut the aid to local
governments to the point that they can't do anything for the non-rich,
not even parks and public libraries, not even the most essential
(which they must do anyway). Then, compel them to make up the
shortfall by selling public buildings and land in a hurry, for less
than their market value, which is in effect a hand-out to the rich.
The two parts add up to dooH niboR as a whole: take from the poor, and
give to the rich.
|
| 3:19a |
NAFTA
A seabed mining company is using NAFTA to prevent Mexico from
protecting seabed ecosystems in the Gulf of California.
NAFTA is a business-supremacy treaty
and it contains an ISDS clause.
Businesses can use those against any government. I call them "I Sue
Democratic States" clauses because democratic states sometimes heed
popular demand to make regulations to stop business operations from
doing massive damage. This damage can be enormous -- it can include
global heating disaster, which may result in the collapse of
civilization -- so preventing it justifies war.
One of the few good things that the wrecker did as president, one of
the few cases in which he did what he said he would do, was replacing
NAFTA with a new version, which ISTR eliminated the ISDS clause.
I wonder, didn't that treaty eliminate this case? If not, why not?
Could a further revision of NAFTA succeed in abolishing all the
existing cases under that one treaty?
|
| 3:19a |
Spies in Taiwan
China seeks unceasingly to recruit spies in Taiwan.
Why should Taiwanese fight China? Not out of hatred for China the
country, but rather to protect freedom in Taiwan -- and someday,
perhaps, to bring it to China as well.
|
| 7:19a |
Rail safety V hiring more workers
The Norfolk Southern megarailroad responded to the derailment in
East
Palestine, Ohio,
by increasing its lobbying expenditures to make sure Congress
does nothing to require it to hire enough workers to ensure safety.
The derailment, the toxic gas leak and the fire would not have
happened if the train had had
a full crew.
|
| 7:19a |
"Genocide" as an abused term
*AOC says no one should be
‘tossed out of public discourse’
for accusing Israel of genocide.*
I disagree with that accusation — I've explained
the difference
between
genocide and a series of atrocities — but I agree completely with AOC's point.
As long as we tolerate people in public discourse despite their advocating the horrible
things that Republicans espouse (or, should we say, "rape"?) nowadays, it is absurd to
condemn a person totally for a disagreement over the level of condemnation Israel deserves
for killing 25,000 Palestinian civilians.
|
| 10:49a |
|
| 10:49a |
Plutocratist Labour party
You can tell Labour is a plutocratist party when it gives higher
priority to satisfying the demands of bank CEOs than to achieving the
goals of the voters.
|
| 10:49a |
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| 10:49a |
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| 10:49a |
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| 10:49a |
Urgent: Protect American bumblebee
US citizens: call on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the
American bumblebee as an endangered species.
If you have disabled the page's JavaScript, you may get a blank
response after signing. That does not mean anything is wrong; your
signature has probably been sent in properly. The blank screen has
text that is rendered invisible by CSS; if your browser gives you a
way to disable the CSS in the page (as Icecat does), that should make
the text appear.
|
| 10:49a |
|
| 10:49a |
Election chaos
Robert Reich explains how the bullshitter and Republicans
are trying to spread
chaos to discourage non-fascists from voting. After creating as
much real chaos as they can, they pretend there is even more of it,
hoping Americans will give up and not vote, or support a fascist
strong man.
I urge you to vote in Democratic primaries for the progressive
candidate, if there is one. And in the final election I urge you to
vote for Democrats, unless a liberal independent had a good chance of
winning.
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