| Time |
Event |
| 2:39a |
Urgent: National protests at Wells Fargo
This Friday, August 15th, there is an organized, petition-based, protest of Wells Fargo
in major cities across the US. It is a
National
Day of Action.
|
| 11:14a |
Covid's prevalence
Covid-19 has not evolved to be just another kind of cold.
It remains dangerous, and
deadly
for some people.
|
| 11:14a |
Stabilizing power grids
You will hear a lot of talk about needing fossil fuel electric
generators to stabilize a power grid. That is one way of doing it, but
the Waratah battery in Australia shows that
large
storage batteries can
do the same job.
These batteries can be charged up from renewable generators when not all their
output is needed, and discharged later.
When planet roasters
claim we need more fossil fuel generators, you
can cite this show that is only the latest excuse to keep burning more
fossil fuel. |
| 11:14a |
|
| 11:14a |
UK self-censorship
Chinese agents sent letters to the neighbors of some exiled Hong Kong
dissidents who live in the UK, offering a reward for help in arresting them,
One of them, Carmen Lau, reports that
UK
cops responded by asking her
to sign a promise to avoid attracting public notice and especially
protests.
Police departments have a tendency to prohibit protests in the name of
"public safety". This sounds like wise policy until one realizes that
is a way of assisting those who wish to cancel those protests and are
willing to threaten violence to engage the cops to help them.
For instance, *Pro-Palestine fundraising gig in Newcastle cancelled
after police
said "credible threat" made against venue.*
|
| 11:14a |
|
| 11:14a |
Gaza famine
*The mathematics of starvation:
how
Israel caused a famine in Gaza.
Israel controls the flow of food into Gaza. It has calculated how many
calories Palestinians need to stay alive. Its data shows only a
fraction has been allowed in.*
|
| 11:14a |
Wildfire casualties
Studies have found that
wildfires
cause far more casualties indirectly than directly.
The indirect causes include inhalation of smoke, even at a distance,
poor function of the medical system due to disruption, and depression.
Parts of the article are unclear; when it says that the fire "left one
in five people with lung damage", what group of people is that?
Maybe I could find and access the paper, though I suspect a paywall
will make that impossible. I am curious enough to want to know,
but no curious enough to do that much work to find out.
|
| 11:14a |
Israel closes war crime cases against themselves
*Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse
without charges.*
according to Action on Armed Violence.
|
| 11:14a |
US government to burn IPPF contraceptives
The US government owns about 10 million dollars worth of medical
contraceptives, and is
planning
to burn them and condemn African women
to unwanted pregnancy. This is, of course, perverse.
The motive for this has to be religious fanaticism. The consequences
can include thousands of deaths from giving birth.
France should pass a law allowing it to seize any thing of use, the
owner of which plans to destroy it and render it useless.
|
| 11:14a |
UK housing damage
Measuring the damage
that Thatcher's "right to buy" policy for public
housing has done to Britain. It took away most of the existing public housing apartments, and
discouraged building new ones to replace them.
In the past, I've said that privatizing a public service can be good
if the privatized service will sell in a competitive market. (that
criterion is meant to prevent the new private owners from gouging their
customers.) This is a counterexample: the housing market is
competitive, but right-to-buy did tremendous harm nonetheless.
I think the explanation is that housing units are generally used one
per family. Selling one public housing unit means that public housing
can provide a home for one family less. Privatization of services
such as water supply, letter delivery and mass transit does not have
that characteristic.
|
| 11:14a |
National Guard ordered to D.C.
The wrecker
is deploying the National Guard in Washington, DC,
supposedly to
"help
fight crime".
That must be intended to refer to street crime, but that's pasé in
Washington. The truly dangerous crime in DC is the corruption
involving the wrecker and his henchmen. And
this
is part of it.
Robert Reich *It’s important to see [Mr. Un-American]'s occupation of
Washington, D.C.,
as a trial
run for a possible military occupation of the United
States…"
|
| 11:14a |
Reerection of removed statue of Confederate general
The anti-American has
ordered
reerection of the controversially
removed statue of a Confederate general,
He is honored as a leader of Freemasons rather than as a solder. I am not sure
that makes this any less disloyal to the United States, though, especially
since he has already renamed US military bases after Confederate generals.
</li>
|
| 11:14a |
Tesla shareholders sue Elon Musk
*Tesla shareholders
sue
Elon Musk for allegedly hyping up faltering Robotaxi.*
</li> |
| 11:14a |
|
| 11:14a |
Italy seized ships sent to rescue refugees
Italy has seized
some of the ships that were sent by charities to
rescue refugees being smuggled across the Mediterranean, packed into
unseaworthy small boats from which they were likely to drown.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
If Britain recognises a Palestinian state
*If Britain recognises
a Palestinian state, it will be a gesture. That doesn’t
mean it is pointless.
A two-state solution is the only solution. Starmer should be honest
about this, and get on with the hard work it will require.*
Israelis admired (at least formerly) in Israel have
called
for international sanctions on Israel to end the crimes against
Palestinians.
I support that call.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Biased assumptions on price of nationalizing water companies in UK
Exposing
that biased assumptions that led a Labour minister to
estimate an enormous sum as the price of nationalizing the water
companies.
I've suggested that the
proper
price for nationalizing a privatized
former state utility is the investment the current owners put in,
minus all that the executives and stockholders took out.
Clearly that minister is working for the wrong side.
It would good to ask Corbyn what he thinks should
be the environment minister's position on this question.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
|
| 11:14a |
Florida thugs stopped and attacked a driver
Florida thugs
stopped a driver, reportedly accusing him of driving
with headlights off, and
attacked
him, causing grievous injuries.
Naturally, Governor DeMentis
tried to excuse the violence while
refusing to look at the evidence. The fact that the driver was black
may explain the thugs' hatred and unjust violence.
If indeed the driver's lights were off, and if Florida law requires
headlights on in the daytime, he would deserve some sort of
punishment. But he can't possibly deserve the violence that the
thugs
committed. The thugs
deserve to be fired and then serve a prison
term.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Household storage batteries in Australia
Australia's subsidy for installing household storage batteries has
led
to an astounding boom.
If other countries do likewise, it could lead to a big decrease in
fossil fuel combustion.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Translator for US Army in Afghanistan
Zia S worked as a translator for the US Army in Afghanistan. The US
gave him asylum so that the Taliban would not kill him. Now the
persecutor's agents
arrested
him and threaten to deport him.
They say they are investigating him over a "serious criminal
allegation". When devotees of deception say that, it could mean
anything — or nothing at all. I suspect that their motive for this
vagueness is that, if we knew what it refers to, we should sneer at
them for making a fuss about it.
If there is valid criminal case against Zia S, it is legitimate to
prosecute him in a fair trial, and conviction might lead to punishing
him. But even if he is convicted, he should certainly not be deported
to Afghanistan. Even grave crimes cannot justify that sort of
betrayal.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Harvard biologist Kseniia Petrova
Harvard biologist
Kseniia
Petrova, a Russian exile, brought frog
embryo samples from a lab in France, and obtained a proper license to
bring them into the US. She forgot to mention them also on the
customs declaration form, and US border
thugs made this an excuse to
cancel her visa. That gave them an excuse to try to deport her to
Russia where Putin would persecute her.
If she had a trial for "falsifying" the customs form, I think she
would have a good case to win. But there will be no trial, because
border thugs
can cancel visas almost at whim. Her visa simply no
longer exists.
This is a major flaw in US immigration law. Border
thugs should not
be able to cancel visas arbitrarily without a trial to weigh whether
there was a valid reason to do so.
An incorrect customs form is normally a minor matter,
so why did they make a big fuss about it this time?
I suspect it is because she works at Harvard.
The persecutor
is trying to intimidate all US universities
into abject Columbia-style
submission ,
and he is using Harvard as the example to terrorize them. I suspect
he has ordered agents to seize every opportunity to make some minor
matter into a federal case, if it will ruin the life or work of
someone associated with Harvard.
The law provides room for judgment calls about errors in a customs
form to enable officials to avoid harshness when
there was no criminal intent. It was not made for officials under the
orders of the wrecker, who tells them that a dirty trick is a valid reason and
a non-billionaire is a pawn.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Interview with Kseniia Petrova
An interview with Kseniia Petrova, jailed by the deportation thugs who
falsely claimed she lied about the frog embryo samples she was
bringing to the Harvard research lab where she works.
The claim that she concealed the frog embryos is absurd.
She not only told the US government about the frog embryos,
she arranged in advance for a license to import them.
That has to be why they targeted her.
I wonder if the bully's agents chose her as part of a campaign to
punish Harvard for not submitting to the bully.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
District court injunctions forbidding specific practice
District court injunctions forbidding a specific practice nationwide
were
rare before 2000, because over-the-top policy outrages were rare.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Systematic cruelty towards prisoners in US deportation prisons
Systematic
cruelty towards prisoners is rife in US deportation
prisons.
It seems to have no general causes: overcrowding (sometimes prisoners don't
have room to sit down) and sadistic hatred by the
thugs that run the prison.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Labour focused on appeasing reform
*Labour focused
on appeasing Reform[ the extreme rightwing party], not
beating them, says Jeremy Corbyn.*
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Republicans protect elites
Proposing a simple
way to describe the wrong in Republicans' hearts:
"Republicans protect elites."
However, that's only one sign of the wrong. Republicans are on the
side of elites all the time, not only when the elites are under
criticism or pressure. So I would broaden that phrase a little, into
"Republicans serve and protect elites."
So who does the opposite? Progressives do.
As for "centrist, mainstream" Democrats, they are sort of in the
middle. They serve and protect elites often but not always.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Threats to take away freedoms
*If the US president
threatens
to take away freedoms, are we no longer free?*
It isn't a dichotomy — we are clearly already less free than we were
last year. The saboteur in chief is indeed sabotaging the US
Constitution and tradition of freedom, even though much of what he
says is bombast, because there is no clear dividing line.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
|
| 11:14a |
Judge's son murdered by lawyer
A US judge's son was
murdered
by a lawyer who was angry at the judge.
It is becoming a fad to threaten judges by mentioning that lawyer's
name.
This includes judges who have put brakes on tyranny.
</li> |
| 11:14a |
Urgent: discharge petition for vote on releasing Epstein files
US citizens: call on Congresscritters to
sign
the discharge petition
for the vote on releasing the Epstein files.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
</li> |