| Time |
Event |
| 2:55a |
UK Riots, rapid sentencing
Two right-wing extremists in the UK have been sent to
prison
for postings that urged violent attacks against asylum seekers.
The border between freedom of speech and inciting violence is subject to abuse by governments. But
I think the facts this time merited the decision.
|
| 2:55a |
Biden endorses Harris
Biden announced he will not run for reelection, and endorsed Kamala Harris,
the
current vice president.
It looks likely that the Democratic Convention will choose Harris . I
don't know whether to consider this good or bad, because I don't know
- whether she will be more likely to defeat the corrupter or
- whether she will be as progressive as president as
Biden has been.
Following the advice of Martin Luther King, jr., I try not to judge
candidates by race or sex. I judge by their politics and (when
pertinent) their chances.
My opinion of Harris's politics was raised by reading what she said
about prosecuting possession of drugs, and mass imprisonment.
|
| 2:55a |
Executive Paywatch
Some US companies pay their CEOs thousands of times as much
as their workers.
The average for S&P 500 companies is 268 to 1.
|
| 2:55a |
Activists arrested
The practice of labeling protests as "organized crime" has spread from
the US to
Germany and now the UK.
The UK protest involved violence against property, and that has always
been a crime. Nonetheless it is wrong to equate a protest, whose participants
sought no gain, with organized crime, whose purpose is gain.
|
| 2:55a |
Working class far right
*The reality is that racism [in the UK] isn't a
bottom-up expression of popular discontent, but a top-down project
propagated by
people in positions of power.*
|
| 2:54p |
Vance's momentary concerns about honesty
*[The bullshitter] and Vance are unmatched in "the Olympics of lying",
says
Pete Buttigieg.*
When battling with the bullshitter,
one must not mince words for how dishonest he is. He pretends that is an acknowledgment
that he is truthful.
|
| 2:54p |
Climate-defense V rioting, UK sentencing
The UK sentenced a peaceful climate defender to
a
longer prison term than a violent right-wing rioter.
There is a perverse kind of logic that perhaps the judges used, although if so they would not want
to admit it.
The right-wing rioters may have been carried away with rage stimulated by disinformation. In a
year, this phase may have passed and he might become harmless.
By contrast, the leaders of Just Stop Oil have thought long and hard about the danger of climate
disaster and the importance of preventing it. It won't be easy to convince them to give up, with so
much at stake.
I think that the climate defenders should be rewarded, not punished.
Arguing that the right-wing rioters should be
charged
with terrorism.
|
| 2:54p |
|
| 2:54p |
|
| 2:54p |
Israeli finance minister bluster
Australia, Germany, France and the UK have condemned extremist Israeli
minister Smotrich for suggesting it was legitimate to decide
to
starve two million people to save a few hundred.
The US should be saying this, too.
|
| 2:54p |
Extreme asylum obstacle-course
Biden has adopted the
extreme
asylum-obstacle system
pioneered
by Republicans when the wrecker
was president. The result is that the right to asylum is already mostly eliminated in the US,
except for those who are safe enough at home to remain there while their cases are judged.
Presumably Biden did this to neutralize the issue as a political boost for Republicans. Ironically,
the Americans who want this system don't seem to be aware that they already have it.
|