| Time |
Event |
| 3:44a |
China's wind and solar power
*China building twice as much wind and solar power as rest of world.*
But China has still shown no sign of ceasing to increase coal consumption,
and only reductions in fossil fuel use contribute to saving civilization.
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| 3:44a |
Asbestos poisoning investments
*Wall Street Is Investing In Your Asbestos Poisoning.*
Basically, it takes pay for accepting companies' liabilities for
past asbestos poisoning, then uses legal schemes to avoid ever paying
damages to the victims who were poisoned.
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| 3:44a |
D’Vontaye Mitchell
Once again, "security personnel" killed a black man by putting a knee
on him.
They did this in a hotel where thousands of magats will assemble
soon for the Republican Convention. Perhaps they will cheer the
murder that took place.
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| 3:44a |
Poison pills in Republican spending bills
*475 Poison Pills in House Republican Draft Spending Bills.*
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| 3:44a |
Privatization of UK water and sewers
Privatization of water and sewer systems in the UK was allegedly going to
inspire investment.
What it actually did was to enable the owners to reduce investment
(maintenance and replacement of systems) to pay themselves bigger
dividends. The story in more detail.
That's what we must expect when public functions are privatized, which
is why that is generally a terrible "solution" for most problems and
imperfections in public services.
The only exception is when the privatized service sells directly to
the public in a well-functioning competitive market where there are
many competitors for each purchase -- but only if efforts to pressure
consumers into fealty to a supplier are made to fail.
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| 3:44a |
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| 3:44a |
Biden answered well
Robert Reich says that Biden answered well in his latest
press conference, except for momentary verbal slips.
Everyone makes momentary slips, and they don't generally alter
real decisions, so they don't constitute real failings.
I think that if all US voters understood this point, it
would be better if the Democrats stick with Biden.
But, as we know, they don't all understand that. Many overestimate
the significance of verbal slips. Perhaps, as a consequence, someone
else might be more able than Biden to defeat the corrupter. If so,
maybe the Democratic Party would do well to switch to that other.
If Democrats want to try to judge carefully whether to switch to some
other candidate, and induce Biden to cooperate, I suggest the
following procedure.
-
Press Biden to agree that he will step aside if the
procedure below is followed and chooses someone other than him.
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Press all the delegates and superdelegates to agree to formally
implement the choice that would be made as follows.
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The delegates and superdelegates -- those who would vote in the
convention -- join in anonymous virtual votes to choose a candidate.
It might follow the sequence that the convention would follow.
-
If the choice is not Biden, he carries out his commitment to step aside,
and they officially select the candidate.
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| 3:44a |
Free range childhood normal in Norway
In Norway, free-range childhood is still normal.
In Manhattan in the 60s, my life wasn't like Norwegian life, but I had
a similar absence of constant control. When I meet adults who are
constantly tied up ferrying their children around, and children who
can't go anywhere without parental help, it strikes me as horrible.
Constant controlling and monitoring continues past childhood into
adolescence, so that younger teenagers have nowhere to get away to
except into a video game.
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| 3:44a |
Biden and the "elite"
Biden criticized the "elite" for pressuring him to step aside from
candidacy. These elite are the rich donors who fund the party's
campaign.
That sort of elite controls both parties.
The US has resumed shipping 500lb bombs to Israel.
Only the 2000lb bombs will still be withheld.
The practical explanation given for this is rational, as far as it
goes. But it reflects the lack of effort to convince or pressure
Israel to end its train of war crimes in Gaza.
I have to wonder if this reflects the demands of the same powerful
"elite" donors.
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| 3:44a |
IMF's draconian austerity measures
*Why are the US and IMF imposing draconian austerity measures on Kenya?*
In the 1980s, the IMF was widely rebuked for compelling many poor
countries' governments to cut spending on education, medicine, and
help for the poor, to make those governments repay their debts faster.
It looks like the IMF is still doing that.
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| 3:44a |
Defeating right-wing extremism
Robert Reich's advice on how to do your part to defeat right-wing
extremism in the election this November.
Since I am sure Biden will win Massachusetts, I could vote for a
non-major party, but I don't know of any I would want to vote for.
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