| Time |
Event |
| 9:42a |
Presidential immunity
A more precise description of the new presidential immunity from
prosecution: *core executive functions of the presidency have absolute
immunity from prosecution, official acts of the presidency are
presumptively immune, and unofficial acts carry no immunity.* However,
in addition, *official acts cannot be used as evidence at all to
bolster a criminal case.*
Each part can help a corrupt president to engage in conspiracies
against laws and the Constitution, including those that the corrupter
tried in 2020 and those he threatens to carry out if he wins or steals
the presidency again.
The judge in the corrupter's trial for violating campaign finance laws
(crimes he committed before he was president) has delayed the
sentencing, to consider whether any of the evidence in the trial
mentioned subsequent "official" acts.
*Sotomayor says, in stark dissent, ruling makes president "king above the law".*
|
| 9:42a |
Boeing prosecuted with reported plea deal
The US is prosecuting Boeing for fraud, but reportedly is offering a
plea bargain that will let it off the hook with little punishment.
Biden is encouraging somewhat more prosecution of lawbreaking
corporations, but that does not go far enough. To restrain
corporations effectively from dangerous crimes, we should prosecute
the individual executives who decided to break them.
|
| 9:42a |
Prison-like asylum conditions
The UK's "living accommodation" for asylum seekers on former
Wethersfield air base feels like a prison.
They are permitted to leave, but it is so isolated that in practice
it is not feasible for them to go anywhere useful to go or where
people they know live.
This unprison was approved, despite its evident drawbacks, risks and
dangers, because supposedly it would be cheaper, but it ultimately
cost far more than the estimates. Much like a nuclear power plant.
Ultimately, how did the cost of housing asylum seekers there compare
with the usual cost? What is the usual cost?
|
| 9:42a |
|
| 9:42a |
Urgent: Stop the pharma lawsuits
US citizens: Call on various pharma companies to drop the
lawsuits that aim to stop Biden from lowering the prices of medicines.
|
| 9:42a |
|
| 9:42a |
Addressing the housing shortage
Proposing better ways of addressing the housing shortage instead of the
mostly capitalist ways usually proposed today.
As a side point, I think the author is mistaken about Labour's
attitude today. Starmer has publicly rejected the idea of heroic
achievements such as Labour did before.
|
| 9:42a |
|
| 9:42a |
Democratic Party convention
The Democratic Party set its convention for August 19-22, but Ohio's
deadline for parties to choose a presidential candidate is Aug 7. So
the Democratic Party made a plan to have a virtual meeting to formally
vote on the candidate, who had already been chosen by primaries.
A week ago, that seemed to be a painless plan. But now that some
consider replacing Biden (if he steps aside) with some other
candidate, it poses a problem: they can't afford to wait for the
convention to make that decision. They have to arrange a way to
decide in July.
|
| 9:42a |
|
| 9:42a |
Feiglin on Palestinians
Israeli right-wing politician Moshe Feiglin cited Hitler's attitude
towards Jews to explain his own attitude towards Palestinians.
His version of the Golden Rule must be, "Do one to others before they
do one to you." Not as a joke, but seriously.
However, that is the extreme right-wing creed, found in many
countries, and Israelis are not immune to it. It is shocking, though,
that a Jew would unhesitatingly cite Hitler as a model.
|
| 9:42a |
Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems
Boeing has been pressured by the US government to buy the part of
Spirit AeroSystems that makes parts for Boeing planes -- a part that
it spun off a few decades ago.
Spinning off parts or aspects of production is effective for
increasing profits -- by paying some workers less, and by shirking
accountability for whatever goes wrong. Except that when what goes
wrong is that a plane crashes, the responsibility bounces back.
I would expect the previous management of Boeing viewed making their
parts in-house as a way to make their planes safer. So it always
comes back to one's values.
|
| 9:42a |
|
| 12:24p |
Presidential immunity
A more precise description of the new presidential immunity from
prosecution: *core executive functions of the presidency have absolute
immunity from prosecution, official acts of the presidency are
presumptively immune, and unofficial acts carry no immunity.* However,
in addition, *official acts cannot be used as evidence at all to
bolster a criminal case.*
Each part can help a corrupt president to engage in conspiracies
against laws and the Constitution, including those that the corrupter
tried in 2020 and those he threatens to carry out if he wins or steals
the presidency again.
The judge in the corrupter's trial for violating campaign finance laws
(crimes he committed before he was president) has delayed the
sentencing, to consider whether any of the evidence in the trial
mentioned subsequent "official" acts.
*Sotomayor says, in stark dissent, ruling makes president "king above the law".*
|
| 12:24p |
Boeing prosecuted with reported plea deal
The US is prosecuting Boeing for fraud, but reportedly is offering a
plea bargain that will let it off the hook with little punishment.
Biden is encouraging somewhat more prosecution of lawbreaking
corporations, but that does not go far enough. To restrain
corporations effectively from dangerous crimes, we should prosecute
the individual executives who decided to break them.
|
| 12:24p |
Prison-like asylum conditions
The UK's "living accommodation" for asylum seekers on former
Wethersfield air base feels like a prison.
They are permitted to leave, but it is so isolated that in practice
it is not feasible for them to go anywhere useful to go or where
people they know live.
This unprison was approved, despite its evident drawbacks, risks and
dangers, because supposedly it would be cheaper, but it ultimately
cost far more than the estimates. Much like a nuclear power plant.
Ultimately, how did the cost of housing asylum seekers there compare
with the usual cost? What is the usual cost?
|
| 12:24p |
|
| 12:24p |
Urgent: Stop the pharma lawsuits
US citizens: Call on various pharma companies to drop the
lawsuits that aim to stop Biden from lowering the prices of medicines.
|
| 12:24p |
|
| 12:24p |
Addressing the housing shortage
Proposing better ways of addressing the housing shortage instead of the
mostly capitalist ways usually proposed today.
As a side point, I think the author is mistaken about Labour's
attitude today. Starmer has publicly rejected the idea of heroic
achievements such as Labour did before.
|
| 12:24p |
|
| 12:24p |
|
| 12:24p |
Democratic Party convention
The Democratic Party set its convention for August 19-22, but Ohio's
deadline for parties to choose a presidential candidate is Aug 7. So
the Democratic Party made a plan to have a virtual meeting to formally
vote on the candidate, who had already been chosen by primaries.
A week ago, that seemed to be a painless plan. But now that some
consider replacing Biden (if he steps aside) with some other
candidate, it poses a problem: they can't afford to wait for the
convention to make that decision. They have to arrange a way to
decide in July.
|
| 12:24p |
Feiglin on Palestinians
Israeli right-wing politician Moshe Feiglin
cited Hitler's attitude
towards Jews to explain his own attitude towards Palestinians.
His version of the Golden Rule must be, "Do one to others before they
do one to you." Not as a joke, but seriously.
However, that is the extreme right-wing creed, found in many
countries, and Israelis are not immune to it. It is shocking, though,
that a Jew would unhesitatingly cite Hitler as a model.
|
| 12:24p |
Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems
Boeing has been pressured by the US government to buy the part of
Spirit AeroSystems that makes parts for Boeing planes -- a part that
it spun off a few decades ago.
Spinning off parts or aspects of production is effective for
increasing profits -- by paying some workers less, and by shirking
accountability for whatever goes wrong. Except that when what goes
wrong is that a plane crashes, the responsibility bounces back.
I would expect the previous management of Boeing viewed making their
parts in-house as a way to make their planes safer. So it always
comes back to one's values.
|
| 12:24p |
|
| 12:24p |
Nazi verses as prizewinning poetry, RUS
A poetry
hoax
demonstrated how similar Putin's admirers are to Hitler's admirers.
Didn't they have to replace "Jews" in Nazi poetry with "Ukrainians" in Putinite poetry?
|
| 12:24p |
Explosions and brain damage
People exposed to explosions tend to show certain kinds of brain damage which often result in
problems
in thinking.
One case was an instructor who taught soldiers to use hand grenades. He surely did not explode
them close enough to wound him externally, but he was wounded internally nonetheless. I wonder
how close to him they were when they exploded.
|
| 12:24p |
Gaza hospital head capture, torture, ISR
Israel captured
Mohammed
Abu Salmiya, the head of al-Shifa Hospital, and tortured him in prison for 7 months.
|
| 12:24p |
Presidential immunity, US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court ruled that the president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution over
official
acts. This covers some of the things he is accused of doing to steal the 2020 election.
I am puzzled by this statement:
his prosecutors will not be able to introduce as evidence any acts deemed to be official and
struck from the case, even as contextual information for jurors to show Trump’s intent.
Why should facts be prohibited from use as evidence to prove a crime not covered by immunity,
merely because they are not in themselves criminal?
The attempted explanation at the end of the article did not make sense to me.
|
| 12:24p |
Internet user-ID, AUS
Australia plans to require porn sites and antisocial media sites to
check
users' ages.
If the system truly did nothing other than determine whether the user's age is above or below N
years, I would not object to it. However, such systems are likely to demand to see official ID
records, which would identify the user as well as check per age, or take photos, which could be
saved and used to identify the user.
There are plans to implement
a way to use GNU Taler to check ages. Just as Taker payments
allow users to send a store payments that it can validate but cannot use to identify them, the
same technique makes it possible for users to send a site a proof of age that it can validate
but cannot use to identify them.
|
| 12:24p |
Predator culls, NZL
New Zealanders are working to eliminate the intrusive mammals (mostly predators)
that
endanger endemic animals. Feral cats are now in the target list.
Alas, some people demand to protect feral cats instead of the animals (often endangered) that
the cat would wipe out.
|
| 12:24p |
Costly slow-mail failures, UK ballots
*Voters in the UK and abroad have either not received their ballots or
have been left with
too
little time to return them.*
The Tory-undermined
state
apparatus is simply incapable of carrying out its responsibilities even when it tries to.
It requires people to get new paperwork and
fails
to give it to them in time.
|
| 12:24p |
Extreme heat protection, US workers
*Biden
unveils rules to protect millions of US workers from extreme heat.*
Republicans will ask Congress to cancel this rule, and if that fails, ask courts to rule
against it. They always do.
|
| 12:24p |
An ISR-LBN war scenario
*Israel risks going to war against Hezbollah to ensure Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival,
but it would be a miscalculation that could
lead
to mass civilian deaths in both Lebanon and Israel, a former US military intelligence
analyst has warned.*
|
| 12:24p |
Regulations in an administrative state
Robert Reich: *Last week, the Supreme Court made it much harder for the FTC, the Labor
Department, and dozens of other agencies — ranging from the Environmental Protection
Agency to the Food and Drug Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and National Highway
and Safety Administration —
to protect
Americans from corporate misconduct.*
|