| Time |
Event |
| 11:56a |
Urgent: Reject corporate tax breaks
US citizens:
call
on Congress to reject Republican tax breaks for big corporations.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
|
| 11:56a |
Presidential debate analysis
In the debate, the bullshitter pummeled Biden with high speed lies, making him seem
old and
weak.
Each candidate has had
time
to show us who [perse is], and one is a felon trying to destroy democracy.
If you have to choose between a weak and tottering friend and a vigorous, greedy, hostile
cheater, which should you choose? I'd choose the friend, because the cheater is sure to do
more harm.
|
| 11:56a |
Another Bolivia coup put down
Bolivia put down a right-wing
coup
by army generals. Right-wingers, including followers of Bolsonaro, applauded the attempt,
demonstrating their opposition to democracy.
An arrested coup leader said that the president ordered him to carry out a phony coup, as
political
theater.
I don't know enough about Bolivia to have any basis for trying to
judge whether this is true.
|
| 11:56a |
Oligarchs, a history of injustice
George Monbiot: *Things are not going to get better as long as
oligarchs
rule the roost in our democracies.*
That is true to first order, but not exactly 100% true. The dominion of the billionaires is
not an all-or-nothing thing, and there are issues important to us which are not particularly
important to them.
|
| 11:56a |
Boeing's double trouble next week, DOJ
Boeing made a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department
to avoid prosecution for causing two fatal crashes. Then it did not
carry
out the agreement.
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
Bribery legalized
*The US supreme court just legalized bribery.*
The bribe has to be given after the service it rewards is done, and
there must be at least the pretense that it wasn't promised in
advance.
|
| 11:56a |
Oklahoma bible teaching
*Oklahoma state superintendent orders public schools to teach the
Bible.*
Ten years ago we could have confidently counted on the Supreme Court
to overturn that. And officials, realizing that, probably wouldn't
have tried it.
Nowadays, which sympathizers of Christian Nationalism forming a
majority of the court, we can't be sure. We need to get those
fanatics off the court -- and ensure no more get put on it,
This means we need to make sure that their openly dictatorial leader
does NOT get to be president in 2025. All the bad things that Biden
has done. even if we don't count the good things he has done, are
small potatoes compared to the tyranny and repression that the wrecker
would systematically wreck under Project 2025.
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
The state should not give businesses money
*China-owned British Steel said to have requested £600m of taxpayer
support.*
Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to
ask, because the state should never give money to a business "to
support it."
Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable
repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price.
These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an
opportunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely
to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from.
With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the
company's owners are from.
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
Film fiction
I hate it when a "true story" has in fact been altered to make it
"more dramatic". People falsely portrayed as bad guys may hate it
enough to sue.
People writing works of non-fiction should try to be honest to the facts.
|
| 11:56a |
Denmark livestock taxes
Denmark plans to make farmers pay a tax on their cattle and sheep to
compensate for the harm done by the methane those animals emit.
The plan was negotiated with farmers' organizations, which suggests a chance
that farmers won't protest it later.
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
Microplastics
Microplastics (which includes pieces as big as 5mm, which I would call
milliplastics) have been found in human penises and testes.
It is possible that they are responsible for the world-wide decrease
in human fertility over the past few decades.
But that is not proved. The cause could be PFAS. Or something else.
|
| 11:56a |
|
| 11:56a |
Biden's supporters turning on him
Some of Biden's important supporters are pressing him to step aside
for some other Democrat.
Biden is around 30% progressive. That means (1) a real progressive
would be much better, but (2) he is the most progressive president the
US has had since the 1970s, and it is causing improvements already,
despite opposition from Congress and the Supreme Court.
Choosing a stronger Democratic candidate would help prevent the wrecker
from winning or stealing the presidency. But perse would be chosen
entirely by the smoke-filled rooms of political insiders, with no
primaries for the public to influence the choice. I am afraid that
will give us a plutocratist like Hillary Clinton.
|
| 11:56a |
|