| Time |
Event |
| 8:48a |
Bird flu spread
*H5N1 has been found in commercially available milk – but gaps in
testing of cattle and humans are
hampering
effort to stop virus.*
It is crucial for public health to find out how many of the people working with infected
cattle are catching the virus from them. Without that, we don't know whether one human
can catch it from another. We need a law authorizing public health authorities to test
cows and dairy workers for this virus.
The article does not say much about what we might do to slow the
spread, if we find it is happening. I'm in favor of compensating
farmers for cattle that have to be slaughtered, if that's the solution,
but is it?
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| 8:48a |
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| 8:48a |
Fierce battles in Gaza
Israel is fighting resurgent
HAMAS in northern Gaza again.
As I've noted many times, it is impossible to defeat an underground
guerrilla movement that has the popular support to recruit new members.
HAMAS has that support.
Israel should recognize this and end the useless and deadly attempt to
do the impossible. HAMAS is an evil group of terrorists, but there is
no use in futile efforts to eradicate it, and the effort is no excuse
for killing thousands of civilians.
Israel has also announced plans to
attack central Rafah.
The "tens of thousands" reported fleeing sound like a small fraction
of the people who have fled to Rafah. It seems that many must have
decided not to leave,
I can see various reasons a Palestinian might conclude that per chances of survival are
not much better there than in Rafah itself. So I think only a fraction will go there. A
substantial fraction will stay in Rafah, where Israel has invented an excuse to define
their lives as forfeit.
Let's not lose sight of
where we want to end up.
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| 8:48a |
Student demonstrators
Robert Reich says that his conversations with US student protesters
showed him that their protests are meant as a rebuke to
Israel's
deadly violence in Gaza. He reports that Biden said he has cut off supply of
artillery shells for Israel to use in attacking Rafah, and credits this as an achievement
for the protesters.
His article does not report the fine print of Biden's decision. Israel surely has lots of
artillery shells already. Is this decision going to actually hamper Israel's current attack?
Even if it doesn't do that, it must help convince some of the Israeli government that
Israel cannot continue down this path. Maybe that will suffice to change the government
and end the bombardment and siege of Gaza.
Let's not lose sight of
where we want to end up.
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| 8:48a |
Property damage immunity
US courts have given cops immunity for any destruction of property that they
cause
in the course of their activity.
I agree that the government should compensate those whose property government agents
destroy except pursuant to a court order to do so.
As I see it, this conclusion does not require calling the damage "taking of property."
It's enough that it is damage. If you or I destroyed a house, even if it were in the
course of some activity that was not wrong in itself, you or I would be liable.
So should the city.
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| 8:48a |
Global hunt for profits
*National sovereignty is little defense against the
global
hunt for profits Capitalism seems to enable companies to see staff as expendable
units, not humans [or people].*
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| 8:48a |
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| 8:48a |
Faith groups
*Faith groups want more say in secular Britain. Labour
should
tell them to go to hell.*
The principle of religious freedom says that that is the right way to treat any group of
citizens' rituals: regardless of details, they have no right on push those on other
people. Now, how to convince Starmer Labour to have principles other than "We must win"?
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| 8:48a |
Righteous fury
*Righteous fury over Gaza must allow empathy for
fearful
Jewish students.*
Jewish students ought to be able to feel safe (and be safe) on campus. Likewise, students
rallying to end an avoidable deadly war ought to be able to feel safe (and be safe) on campus.
Safe,
especially, from uniformed thugs.
We can do the right thing for both groups at once, if we think about it. Many of the Gaza
protest rallies in the US are thinking about that.
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| 8:48a |
Sir Keir Starmer
Starmer has been surprised by the strength of criticism from within the Labour Party for
allowing a right-wing
Tory
to join the Labour ranks.
Some of them still remember the moral crusade that Labour used to be.
She condemned firemen for going on strike. Unions reminded Starmer that that contradicts
a Labour Party commitment to
restore
the right to strike
If the government considers some public employees so essential that they must not go on
strike, the right way to avoid that is by paying the workers better without waiting for a
strike. Rather than singling them out, it could pay all working people better.
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| 8:48a |
AstraZeneca vaccine withdrawn
The AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has been withdrawn; it was effectively obsolete
since
it had not been updated,
A very rare side effect killed one person who took the vaccine. We should not forget that
it saved millions of lives in 2021-2022.
I saw an article that crowed about the end of this vaccine as a victory. Over what, I
must ask? Vaccination, it seems. To an anti-vaxxer, one death from being vaccinated
counts more than hundreds of thousands of likely deaths that vaccination prevented.
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| 8:48a |
Pregnancy.gov
Right-wing Senator Britt proposed a bill to set up a honey trap to
lure pregnant Americans to giving their personal details to the US
government. It would then send them
right-wing-biased advice.
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| 8:48a |
Nuclear site license
The UK has granted a license for a new
nuclear
power plant, Sizewell C.
It probably will never be finished, because at some point the government will have a
crisis which will prevent it from continuing to pay for it. But the unfinished reactor
will play a part in bringing the country to that disaster.
In the mean time, it will do plenty of harm to non-rich Britons.
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