| Time |
Event |
| 8:59a |
Urgent: Candidates for reducing nuclear tensions
US citizens:
call on CNN to ask candidates how
they would reduce nuclear tensions.
|
| 8:59a |
New PFAS regulations, CO
Colorado's new law will regulate
sale
of products that contain PFAS.
|
| 8:59a |
Photojournalist Linda Tirado
Photojournalist Linda Tirado was covering a protest about the murder of George Floyd when a
uniformed thug shot her in the eye, perhaps with a tear gas canister. She is
now
dying from the damage that did to her brain.
Thugs know from their training that firing a gas canister at someone's face
is likely to kill. That one should be charged with murder.
|
| 11:05a |
Climate crisis
*The climate crisis is driving an exponential rise in the most extreme
wildfires in key regions around the world.*
Extreme fires are a small fraction of total wildfires, but they release
more greenhouse gases because they burn whole trees. The gases
accelerate global heating.
Whether the effect of this feedback loop is truly exponential remains
to be observed, but if it is, reducing greenhouse emissions may become
impossible. We should not wait for those observations before we act
vigorously to reduce greenhouse emissions while we still can do so.
|
| 11:05a |
|
| 11:05a |
|
| 11:05a |
Religious texts and public schools
Posting a religious text in a public school classroom isn't harmless,
let alone neutral.
It would be difficult to write it in English and be neutral between
monotheism and polytheism, and including atheism in the range of views
respected would be even harder.
|
| 11:05a |
|
| 11:05a |
|
| 11:06a |
Digital-only payments failings, SWE
Sweden's foolish campaign to push everyone into using tracked digital payments instead of
anonymous cash is unjust to everyone who uses the digital system. Ironically, it has
also boosted fraud.
A digital payment systems fraud can steal far more money than a small store would ever have on
hand as cash. Thus, leaving cash has magnified the danger from crime.
If they were using GNU Taler for digital payments, instead of
BankID, that would fix both problems. A Taler payment never reveals the payer's
identity, and does not enable fraud against merchants.
|
| 11:06a |
Why the attraction to a US dictatorship
A young right-wing American, a supporter of the wrecker, told Robert Reich,
"Think of Putin, Xi, Kim, Ali Khamenei, Netanyahu — they’re all odious thugs," he said. "We
need
our own
odious thug to stand up to them."
That thinking has a blatant flaw. The other "odious thugs" (his words) he listed, aside from
Netanyahu, made their own peoples the first and principal target of their oppression, though
they hurt some minorities worse. I think the wrecker would be similar. An American would
need to be very lucky to benefit from being under the wrecker's heel.
|
| 11:06a |
US-backed ceasefire rejected, ISR
Netanyahu rejected the idea of a lasting cease fire in Gaza.
He
spoke of "pauses" but it is not clear that those would allow in enough aid to save
Palestinians from dying from shortages.
I think that whatever Netanyahu says about what he will or might do in the future is bullshit,
just as if it came from the wrecker. Furthermore, since Netanyahu wants
the wrecker to win
the election, he will say whatever will cause trouble for Biden now. As long as Biden doesn't dare
to do defy Netanyahu in something with consequences, Netanyahu will drag Biden around on a
chain and he may indeed lose.
Let's not lose sight of
where we want to end up.
|
| 11:06a |
More floods in CHI-GD, drought in CHI-HA
*Southern
China
hit by floods as north suffers from drought.*
Last
I heard, China was rapidly increasing its burning of coal, so its own actions are partly
responsible for these twin disasters.
|
| 11:06a |
Israeli-influence funds, US
Documents show Israeli-influence funds
target
US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law.
The
redefinition
they push for is to adopt the distorted IHRA criterion for judging antisemitism.
I think it would be justified for Biden to take an action to block or punish this influence attempt — something
sharp enough that Netanyahu will conclude he is going too far and must stop.
|
| 11:06a |
|
| 11:06a |
Julian Assange is now free
Julian Assange has accepted a plea bargain according to which he will be sentenced to the time
he has already spent in Belmarch prison. (One charge has been filed already by the US for him
to plead guilty to.) He is now supposed to go to the Mariana Islands (near Guam) to plead
guilty and be
sentenced
to "time served", and then leave for Australia.
Reportedly
Australia's
support for Assange played a major part in convincing the US to agree to this deal.
I am very glad for Assange for being out of prison, but I am alarmed that the danger of being
treated similarly will face other journalists and publishers in the future. If the US had
prosecuted the perpetrators of the actions in the "collateral murder" video, none of this would
have been necessary.
The plea deal requires approval from the judge. I wonder what will happen to Assange if the
judge declines to accept the deal. Could he be sent to a US prison to await trial?
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