| Time |
Event |
| 2:49a |
Urgent: A voter suppression scheme
US citizens:
call
on Congress to reject Republicans' last-minute voter suppression scheme.
It is called the "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act", which is typical right-wing
blackwhiting, since actually it makes US citizens ineligible to vote if they can't show up-to-date
papers to prove they are citizens. An expired driver's license isn't good enough, even if you look
just the same.
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| 2:49a |
Urgent: Campaign finance corruption
US citizens:
call
on Congress to pass anti-corruption policies and campaign finance reform to limit the influence
of Big Money in politics.
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| 8:49a |
Russia propaganda
According to an investigation by Microsoft, Russia's disinformation
army made a video that pretends to be a news report about a fictitious
2011 car accident that
supposedly involved Kamala Harris.
What was the motive for this?
It makes sense if wrecker is Putin's
man
or if they made a deal.
I don't have implicit trust in Microsoft, so I don't have full
confidence in this report. But I trust Microsoft more than I trust
Putin.
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| 8:49a |
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces a Russian disinformation
fake "BBC" documentary that reported a
fictitious RSF investigation.
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| 8:49a |
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| 8:49a |
UK airport expansion
Starmer-Labour seems leaning towards allowing airport expansion and
thus more
commercial flights in Britain.
This would be a step towards climate disaster, and one that would be
easy to prevent. I think it reflects the basic Starmer error of choosing
to get funds from trickle down from the rich,
rather than by taxing the rich.
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| 8:49a |
Anti-Whaling
*Losing the Whales: How the
Anti-Whaling Narrative Has Failed.*
The article accuses the International Fund for Animal Welfare
of secretly working against the cause of whale conservation
while publicly stating it advocates that cause.
I don't have a way to judge the accusation against that
organization, but the larger point seems to be valid.
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| 8:49a |
Global spending
*Global spending on subsidies that harm environment
rises to $2.6tn.*
*Fossil fuel companies sponsor $5.6bn in global
"sportswashing" deals.*
I think plane roasters should not be allowed to advertise or visibly
sponsor anything. As for the sports that they sponsor, they are not important
anyway.
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| 8:49a |
EU marine protected areas
*More than 80% of EU marine protected areas are
ineffective, study shows.
Activities such as mining, dredging and bottom trawling in most MPAs
mean conservation targets will be missed.*
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| 8:49a |
Myanmar journalists
The Burmese military government is sending raids that kill journalists
in
their own homes.
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| 8:49a |
AI chatbot misinformation
Ex-Twitter's chatbot spread incorrect statements about the election:
specifically, whether another candidate could
replace Biden on ballots.
It took the intervention of several states' secretaries of state to get this
corrected.
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| 8:49a |
Anti-war protesters injured
Thugs attacked an anti-war protest outside a weapon sales
exposition in Australia. They injured dozens of protesters and some
required hospital treatment.
A legal support person says that thugs "were documented using force
against people who were trying to run away, shielding themselves or
were already on the ground."
Some protesters' actions may have called for a forcible response,
but police offers are supposed to determine judiciously when and
where that is necessary, not go wild and rampage against all.
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| 8:49a |
Afghan women
Afghan women went to Albania so they could have a public event, which
they wanted to hold in a majority-Muslim country (though I don't see why that
was crucial). Most of those supported the Taliban by refusing.
Most of the women who participated
are living in exile,
but some came from Afghanistan and are facing a challenge to go home
again.
They called on influential countries to insist that the Taliban
include some women in diplomatic discussions. The Taliban, out of
misogyny, refuse to do this. The discussions are about international
aid to give people in Afghanistan a better life. If you call on the
Taliban to include women in that better life, and in the discussion,
they refuse. What is right to do in this situation?
The Taliban are hardened religious fanatics, and the world would be a
better place if they were all gone.
But the war with which we tried
to defeat them failed.
Maybe an Afghan woman needs to be ready to kill the Taliban in her own
family, while he sleeps at home.
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| 8:49a |
Stop Camp Grayling
Students protested military recruiting at the University of Michigan.
The local sheriff labeled it a "hate crime against law enforcement"
and the
FBI labeled it as terrorism.
Although IANAL, I think the law about hate crimes is limited to
certain demographic groups as targets, and "law enforcement" does not
qualify. In addition, a "hate crime" in the US is defined to be more
than just expression of views (thank the First Amendment!). It means
a crime of violence, motivated by hatred for one of those groups.
Expressing condemnation for all uniformed thugs cannot actually be a
hate crime.
Nor is spraying ketchup as fake blood constitute terrorism.
Biden, will you make the FBI stick to reality-based action?
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| 8:49a |
Douglas Emhoff
Republicans are running fake ads in areas in Michigan where there are
many Muslims, emphasizing the fact that
Harris's spouse is Jewish.
It is true that Harris insists on support for Israel — and
Republicans do so even more strongly. But the ads don't show that about
both major parties.
I hope American Muslims recognize the one-sidedness of these ads and
refuse to be fooled into helping the more hateful party to win.
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| 8:49a |
French far left
*The US government is right to investigate Nvidia for alleged unfair
practices.* Too bad that its unjust
practices are not the target.
My understanding is that Nvidia's processors have secret
specifications, so no one but Nvidia can make tools to generate code
that can actually be installed in them. This is an injustice to every
user, because it blocks the use of them without nonfree software.
Every nonfree program is unjust, so a processor that forces use of
nonfree programs is unjust.
That's what we need governments to investigate.
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| 8:49a |
Propaganda charges
Turkey has accused writer Yavuz Ekinci of promoting terrorism
for publishing a
work of fiction.
Such repression is not unusual under Erdoğan's repressive rule.
*Florida officials investigate voters who signed
abortion ballot initiative.*
This is standard harassment procedure for right-wing governments.
The two appear similar in spirit to my eyes. Can Biden direct the FBI
to investigate Florida officials for this apparent political harassment
of citizens for lawful political activity?
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UNRWA staff
Israel has killed 220 UNRWA staff in Gaza, but it is not satisfied; it
wants to eliminate UNRWA itself.</a>
Israel is working on laws that would stop UNRWA from operating, but this
would not establish any replacement system. Israel would, I expect, simply
never agree to one. Then it would have more "excuse" to stop humanitarian
aid
from getting into Gaza.
Israel condemns UNRWA because its work is done by local Palestinians,
and some of
them work for HAMAS.
I don't think that in practice there
is any way to avoid this. It would not be feasible to get so many
workers in
Gaza in any other way.
If no substitute can get Israel's approval, that will cement the
hunger in Gaza but enable Israel to pretend that it was due to a
failing of the UN, rather
than to Israel's obstruction.
Israel is already blocking the flow of US humanitarian aid, and would
do so even more if it stops UNRWA from functioning. Under US law, the
US is supposed to block military
aid to Israel for this.
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| 8:49a |
Election poll dangers
The Department of Homeland Security warns that Republicans are likely
to attack polling places to
disrupt the election.
If they do, the chief truth-hater and his followers will claim that
Democrats did it and use this as an excuse to sabotage the election in
other ways. That is standard operating procedure for right-wing
truth-haters.
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| 8:49a |
Climate rights report
*Rich countries silencing climate protest while preaching about rights
elsewhere, says study.*
*The report's authors highlighted several examples of developed
countries lauding the importance of the right to protest on the
international stage at the same time as undertaking harsh and punitive
crackdowns at home.*
Side issue: the term "global south" means "poor countries". but refers
to them using a geographical metaphor which is not literally true,
adds no actual understanding, and can mislead you if you're not
careful. The poor countries are scattered around the Earth, have no
common history, and what they have in common is the consequences of
bring poor and frequently exploited.
This article takes a step into being misled by the metaphor: it refers
to countries "in the global south", as if it were a region. That
metaphor could stir up a sort of nationalism that takes the side of
one imaginary region or the other.
That way of thinking obscures the real issue: rich people are
exploiting most of humanity, but in the wealthy democracies a
substantial fraction of people get a decent life out of this. (Just
how big a fraction varies from country to country, and varies over
time in any given country.)
The article's actual point is valid despite use of that metaphor.
And they are planting to ramp up the repression.
*"We'll arrest people quicker at protests from now on -- London cops'
deputy chief.*
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| 8:49a |
Non-Tesla electric cars
The Guardian has published *The 10 best electric cars to buy if you
want to avoid Tesla.*
Alas, the ratings fail to include how easy it is to painlessly turn
off all radio transmission, and GPS reception, by the car's
proprietary computer systems. That information is crucial for any
car, whether electric or not.
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| 8:49a |
Almost 200 environment defenders killed
*Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report
finds.*
Those were mostly in Latin America. In Britain, they won't kill you for this
but they will sentence you to years in prison.
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| 8:49a |
Urgent: Call on Democrats to reconnect with Democratic base
US citizens: call on Democratic candidates to reconnect with the
Democratic base, including by pushing for an arms embargo on Israel until
it ends atrocities.
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