| Time |
Event |
| 6:51a |
Move Forward party
Thailand's government is moving to abolish the party that got the most
votes in the 2023 election — for simply
proposing to reduce censorship.
|
| 6:51a |
Pharma’s Secret Middlemen
"Pharmacy benefit managers", companies that act as middlemen in
insurance payments for medicines in the US, by making
demands that
harm patients.
The biggest spend tens of millions of dollars stopping Congress from
fixing the problem.
The three biggest of them are owned by giant companies that they have
to work with — one is owned by a pharmacy chain, and two by insurance
companies. This creates a conflict of interest. In addition to the reforms
proposed, such connections should be specifically prohibited.
|
| 6:51a |
|
| 6:51a |
Prosecutorial misconduct
*Prosecutors Buried Evidence and Misled the Court. Ten Years Later,
They Got a
Slap on the Wrist.*
|
| 6:51a |
|
| 7:25a |
|
| 7:25a |
Radioactive rhetoric
Commercial nuclear power propaganda is hiring politicians
again in Australia.
As usual, it functions by being absurdly optimistic, underestimating
the time and money required to bring new technology to the point of
wide commercial use, drawing attention away from the future harm
nuclear waste can do over
a long period of time,
and misrepresenting the facts about the renewable
alternatives,
The companies (and politicians) involved will use the
fallacious "sunk
costs" argument
to demand subsidies rather than cancellation. (Why
not try — it succeeded in
Britain in the past decade.)
Thus they hope to profit handsomely
even if the project doesn't see widespread adoption.
|
| 7:25a |
Jimmy Lai trial
The key witness in the trial of Jimmy Lai, in Hong Kong, had been
tortured into
condemning Lai.
That testimony proves no more about Jimmy Lai than the testimony
of a prisoner in Guantanamo that had been tortured would prove about
anyone.
However, there is a crucial difference between China and the US on
this point: US courts recognize this point and won't accept testimony
that was extracted by torture. Chinese courts don't care. China
deals with such blow back by treating those who criticize the phony
trials of political prisoners into the next batch of political
prisoners, in line for phony trials of their own.
The worst evil of the charges against Jimmy Lai is not the dishonesty
of the trial itself, it is the basic decision: to treat raising funds
to call for democracy as a crime.
|
| 7:25a |
Tory radicalization
Almost any set of political views can generate a violent extremist
fringe. To protect democracy from those extremist fringes cannot be
done by persecuting
specific non-extremist starting points.
|
| 7:25a |
|
| 11:21a |
Urgent: End all govt. shutdowns
US citizens:
call
on Congress to end government shutdowns (and the threat of them) once and for all.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
|
| 11:21a |
Urgent: Reject a national abortion ban
US citizens:
call
on Congress to reject the national abortion ban that most Republicans are pushing for.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main
Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
|
| 11:21a |
|
| 11:21a |
Urgent: Stop Article V convention
US citizens:
call on state legislatures
to reject and rescind any calls
for an Article V convention.
|
| 11:21a |
Muslims as outcasts, India
Several years ago, India passed a couple of laws that add up to an excuse
to
strip
Muslims of Indian citizenship if they can't prove their ancestors have been in India for a
long time. Protests convinced the government to delay putting the law into effect, but
it is about to do so now.
The result will be to exile millions of Muslim Indians to Bangladesh
or Pakistan, where they are not likely to survive very long.
|
| 11:21a |
Republican Voters Against Trump
*Republican Pac released 100 testimonials of former Trump voters
explaining while they will
never
again vote for [the cheater].*
|
| 11:21a |
Deadly lack of insulation, UK
*Analysis finds 58 people have died due to cold homes every winter day
in the UK since 2013 Tory pledge to
"cut
the green crap."* That amounts to thousands of deaths every year. I am sure it causes a
far larger number of nonfatal illnesses also.
|
| 11:21a |
Simple possession pardons, MA
The governor of Massachusetts said she will pardon everyone convicted
of simple
possession
of marijuana.
This is a very good thing, but the pardons should cover people convicted of other
marijuana-related crimes, as long as they don't involve violence or fraud.
|
| 11:21a |
|
| 11:21a |
Define "extremist", suppress groups, UK
*[UK] ministers and
officials
to be banned from contact with groups labeled extremist.*
Aside from the general point that this would undermine democracy, there is the question of who
to label as "extremist". What about the big Tory donor who recently said that
MP
Diane Abbot should be shot? I don't think you can get more extremist than that.
How about prohibiting ministers and officials from meeting with business lobbyists? Those are
the most dangerous people for ministers to meet with.
|
| 11:21a |
|
| 11:21a |
New technologies lower quality of life
*Exposure to new technologies including
trackers,
robots and AI-based software at work is bad for people’s quality of life, according to a
groundbreaking study from the Institute for the Future of Work.*
|
| 11:21a |
Palestinian granted asylum in UK
*Palestinian citizen of Israel granted UK asylum in case said to be
unprecedented. "Hasan", 24, argued he would face persecution in
Israel on grounds of his race, faith and
its "apartheid regime".*
|
| 11:21a |
Humans' long history with the ocean
*Radioactive waste, baby bottles and Spam:
the deep ocean
has become a dumping ground.*
I wonder what density these contaminants amount to, given the size of the ocean.
|
| 11:21a |
Labour disprivileging the sick and poor?
A clear explanation of how Starmer Labour has fenced itself into a
right-wing position that will
serve the rich and not the rest.
|
| 11:21a |
Schools' freedom of speech restored, FL
A court settlement has greatly narrowed the scope of the Florida law that prohibits teaching about
sexual orientation and gender identity.
This settlement eliminates much FUD that the law inspired in the teachers restricted by it.
The narrowed interpretation of the law remains a change for the worse, but it's a smaller change.
|
| 11:21a |
Climate records smashed, AUS
Record
rains have cut travel and shipping between Australia's east and its west. It will take
time to repair the damage.
|
| 11:21a |
The monster is a head of CPAC
*The Conservative Political Action Conference has turned itself into a center of the
global
anti-democracy movement and anointed Trump its head. [The Wrecker] surrogate Jack Posobiec
kicked off the conference by saying, "Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow
it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of
it and replace it with this, right here." The crowd went wild.*
They brought tyrants from various other countries to show their alliance
with the American movement for tyranny.
This has gone well beyond expression of views; it is a stated intention to convert the US
government into a repressive tyranny, using violence when convenient.
There is no obligation to delay further before arresting them for this.
|
| 11:21a |
Assessments on the Paris Climate Accords
*UK, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark have failed to align
oil
and gas [extraction] policies
with Paris pledges, say campaigners.*
|
| 11:21a |
New book on J.F.Kelly's time with Trump
The fascist’s second White House chief of staff, John Kelly, tried to convince him to
praise Mussolini rather than Hitler,
because Mussolini was less evil.
Kelly said that the fascist loves dictators because he was dissatisfied
with the comparatively limited power of the President of the United States.
One correction to the article: The figure of 400,000 American military killed is actually the
global total for World War II, not the number killed in Europe alone.
|
| 11:21a |
Special forces' Afghanistan cover-up, UK
A minister tasked with investigating accusations that British special forces committed
many murders
in Afghanistan came to the conclusion he was facing a cover up.
The article explains how they enjoy impunity, not only informally, but built into the formal
structure of command.
|