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31 October 2014 (Eventbrite) What's bad about Eventbrite.

31 October 2014 (US oil and gas extraction forecasts) Forecasts of a high rate of US oil and gas extraction turn out to be based on oil company figures that were designed to attract investors. The real potential is much less. If the worst problem we faced was that oil and gas might become expensive, this would be bad news. However, this is good news since it will encourage investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

31 October 2014 (Australia's thugs) Australia has created special obstacles to investigating violence by thugs against protesters or bystanders outside the G20 meeting. Since thugs enjoy near impunity to start with, this means they will be allowed to wreak havoc and repression.

31 October 2014 (Hungary's distorted election system) The Hungarian regime has hollowed out democracy by setting up a distorted election system, but has avoided measures that would make a lot of people angry until just now.

31 October 2014 (FBI wants power to break in computers) The FBI is trying very quietly to get the power to break the security of computers in the US and elsewhere, essentially unsupervised. Once a judge authorizes some investigation, the FBI would be allowed to break into any and all computers in the world as part of that investigation, and would be left entirely on its own in choosing those targets. The FBI subverts various web sites to attack their visitors.

30 October 2014 (Ethics of various candy brands) On the ethics of various brands of candy available in the US.

29 October 2014 (GMOs) GMOs require applying the precautionary principle because if GMOs do harm, it can be a spreading global harm.

29 October 2014 (Blocking Americans from voting) US Republicans are secretly planning to deny millions of Americans the right to vote based on dubious claims that they are registered in two states. The trick is to compile the list carelessly so that it includes lots of people with similar names. Then they can deny all these people the right to vote without really investigating far enough to determine that they are not guilty.

29 October 2014 (Venezuela's thugs) President Maduro promises to reform the country's thugs after some were accused of killing a politician. The head of a Venezuelan government agency told me a decade ago that the thugs made a practice of arresting people on false charges to get ransom, and even heads of agencies were not safe. Chavez did not cause this — it was happening before he became president. He did not, however, take strong action to stop it.

29 October 2014 ("Extreme pornography" law) A man who was jailed and almost convicted of "possession of extreme pornography" (a video he had failed to delete fully) is campaigning to change that law. This "extreme pornography" law needs to be repealed, not just reformed. Various kinds of animals, including cats, dogs, gorillas, and dolphins, sometimes enjoy and even ask for sexual activities with humans. To prohibit the act, or images of it, is sheer authoritarian prudery. Necrophilia can't hurt the person who died (nothing can), so there is no reason to prohibit the act, let alone images of it. However, the fundamental point is that prohibiting the possession of a copy of something — no matter what it is — is tyranny and puts everyone in danger.

29 October 2014 (Oil from the Big Spill) Between 1 and 12 percent of the oil from the Big Spill is lying at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Where the rest is, nobody knows. But the oil on the bottom will be toxic for sea-bottom life as long as it remains there.

29 October 2014 (150 peshmerga allowed across Turkey) Turkey has allowed 150 peshmerga to cross to defend Kobani. How can that number be enough?

29 October 2014 (Military trials for protesters) Al-Sisi decreed that protesters (or anyone accused of any offense on a public street) can be given military trials.

29 October 2014 (Mobile phones and billboards) A mobile phone company sells data about the people in the vicinity of billboards — personal characteristics and what they are doing at the time. It plans to go even further and inform the billboard company about the interests of people who are approaching. This way, even the billboards will know you're a dog.

29 October 2014 (US hospitals invent new fees) US hospitals and clinics invent new fees to defeat attempts to limit costs. Often these new fees are not covered by insurance, leaving patients broke.

29 October 2014 (Punishing people for voluntary sex) Malaysia's main opposition leader has started an appeal against a criminal conviction for "sodomy". Whatever the details, they don't matter ethically. It is wrong to punish people for voluntary sex.

28 October 2014 (New Pun) New pun: change.

28 October 2014 (Male rage) Male rage threatens women and men. Why are some men so angry?

28 October 2014 (UK attack on the poor) The UK attack on the poor has gone so far that poor people must steal food to eat — or steal more expensive things in order to get into jail. People who are hungry are entitled to steal food.

28 October 2014 (Life under the rule of PISSI) Some people in Mosul say that life under the rule of PISSI is a disaster even if you're not being singled out for punishment. This suggests they would be glad to have the chance for a government that won't repress them. The problem is where that could come from.

28 October 2014 (Turning old camera phones into remote surveillance cameras) A company wants to pay people to turn old camera phones into remote surveillance cameras. How is this different from stationing a human there to count people? They couldn't afford to station humans full time in very many places. And if they argue that they don't or can't recognize individuals, what assurance do we have that they won't be recognizing individuals using the same technique 10 years from now? I think it should be illegal to set up a camera looking for more than a short time at a place where the public is admitted, if it makes the video remotely accessible. Individuals, and especially the state, should have to get a court order before they can do this.

28 October 2014 (Voting by email) New Jersey's emergency experiment with voting by email ran into various practical problems in addition to the fundamental ones you'd expect, and there is no way of knowing how many votes were lost. It is amusing how the artificial concern with voter fraud, stoked to provide a basis for stopping poor and disabled people from voting, is not applied to internet voting.

28 October 2014 (Capturing and centralizing the internet) Giant web site companies are capturing and centralizing the internet, so that now 30 companies generate half the traffic in the US. They are converting it primarily into a broadcast medium. I almost never access those companies' sites. In my view, the only good use of the internet is what they don't do. Fortunately there is still enough of that to make a big difference from what the world was like before the internet.

28 October 2014 (Unusual behavior on Amtrak) On Amtrak, almost any unusual behavior is considered "suspicious" and is grounds for filing a report, perhaps arresting you, and perhaps stealing your money. In practice it rarely happens to whites.

27 October 2014 (Least religious generation in US history) The US millennial generation is the least religious generation in US history. Churches are shrinking, and in the long term, the theocratic Christian right-wing is going to get weaker. In effect, this election is the Christian fanatics' last chance at grabbing political power, and if they get it, the only way they can hold on to it is by denying the vote to those who will later take it away from them.

27 October 2014 (UK's university system) The UK's university system remains better than the US system in one way: the payments made by graduates depend on their incomes. My main motive for going to college was fascination for learning. I hardly thought about making money afterward; I assumed I would become a professor but I rarely thought that far ahead. It was easy in the US in the 60s and 70s to follow an artistic or scholarly fascination and let income take care of itself, because the US still allowed most people a share in its income. We should not blame today's students for giving high priority to their careers after they graduate, but the fact that they do so is a disadvantage for society. It will change when we get rid of plutocracy.

27 October 2014 (Woman executed in Iran) A woman in Iran was executed for killing a man that she said was trying to rape her. I believe her claim, especially since there was no other plausible account of what happened.

26 October 2014 (Right to sue) 1/3 of the most popular US web sites make users give up the right to sue over various sorts of mistreatment. States should be prohibit this practice, but until they do, people should refuse to use sites that try to escape justice.

26 October 2014 (Apple's random hardware address) Apple announced that iThings would randomize the WiFi hardware address to protect privacy, but it tuns out to do this only in unusual circumstances.

26 October 2014 (UK proposes a vague law) The UK proposes a vague law to imprison computer users that "damage national security", including whistleblowers. It is idiotic to pass a law against "using computers to do XYZ". If XYZ should be crime, what difference does it make whether it is done with a computer, with a pen, or however it might be?

26 October 2014 (UK gov't spied on history professors) The UK government spied on history professors who were members of the Communist party, even reading their mail, with no reason to suspect them of having anything but an opinion. It spied on various academics and writers just because they agreed to a statement against nuclear weapons.

26 October 2014 (Gyroscopes in mobile phones) Gyroscopes in mobile phones are so sensitive that they can pick up the sound of nearby voices. This allows apps to eavesdrop even if they are not allowed to use the microphone. Note that this is a separate issue from conversion of phones into listening devices, which the NSA and other entities can do through the phone's universal back door. Thus, this facility doesn't make the phone more of a listening device than it was; but it does allow more parties to use it as a listening device.

26 October 2014 (Prison for cartoon) A man in the UK has been sentenced for prison for having a cartoon depicting a fictional child in some sort of sexual situation. The advocates of this kind of censorship started by saying they were trying to protect real children from being abused in order to take their photos. Making such photos should be a crime, and is a crime, but that is no reason to prohibit possessing copies of the photos. However, they have already gone far beyond that. No child was harmed in drawing the cartoon. To criminalize possession of copies of anything published — no matter what it is — is oppressive, and leads to many other forms of tyranny.

26 October 2014 (Islamist rebels in Egypt) Islamist rebels in Egypt have a persistent campaign of attacking Egyptian soldiers. These rebels deserve condemnation for seeking to impose the rules of their religion on everyone, which tramples their human rights. However, when al-Sisi calls them "terrorists", that is a lie. Terrorism means attacking civilians; attacking soldiers or state institutions is rebellion. Al-Sisi calls even peaceful opposition "terrorism".

26 October 2014 (US media exploiting Ebola) US media are trying to exploit Ebola by spreading panic about anyone who might have come anywhere near it. This is having political results already from politicians that want to look tough. Americans interested in helping to treat sick people in Africa will now either (1) return home through some other place or (2) decide not to go. These people should take precautions, but it isn't necessary to lock them up, costing them their jobs and perhaps making them homeless afterward.

26 October 2014 (CIA torture report delays) Frustrated CIA Blames Torture Report Delays on Senators Who Want It To Be Intelligible. The right thing for the senators to do is to publish what they see fit and tell the CIA to jump in the lake. And then start a new Church Committee investigation that will tear the CIA open from top to bottom. You can't stop its abuses while handling it with kid gloves.

26 October 2014 (Liberian burial rituals) People in Liberia are clinging to traditional burial rituals to the point of killing their relatives and killing themselves. They kill their relatives by denying them treatment for whatever disease they have. They kill themselves by washing and handling the bodies of the dead, some of whom died of Ebola. They are acting like idiots, but they don't deserve the consequence that they are bringing on themselves.

26 October 2014 (Fanatics demand punishment of journalists) Muslim fanatics in Afghanistan demand the punishment of journalists who wrote an article that they believe criticizes their religion. Shame on anyone whose religion includes believing people are not allowed to insult it.

26 October 2014 (Urgent: Stop lobbying against solar power) Everyone: tell the owners of Walmart to stop lobbying against installation of home solar power. I think this is one additional reason not to buy from Walmart. I never get anything there.

26 October 2014 (Political control of South Florida) Parts of South Florida want to split off from Florida and form a new state to get rid of the political control of global heating deniers. One more foot of sea level rise will destroy the water supply and sewage systems of South Florida.

25 October 2014 (US atrocities in Viet Nam) The US government has a PR campaign to cover up the atrocities in Viet Nam and make that unjust war appear glorious. It wants to bury the fact that atrocities by US forces were commonplace. "You can't separate this effort to justify the terrible wars of 50 years ago from the terrible wars of today."

25 October 2014 (Manipulation of stock prices) US corporations manipulate their stock prices by buying back shares. Some companies borrow money to do this, which over time puts the company in greater debt. Others are sitting on piles of uninvested cash and can do this without borrowing.

25 October 2014 (Murder confessions in Thailand) The Burmese migrants that confessed to a murder in Thailand say that the thugs threatened to kill them and dump them if they didn't confess.

25 October 2014 (Rana Plaza factory collapse) The survivors and relatives of the workers killed in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factories have only begun to get compensation. What is really needed is an end to the business-controlled globalization that lets multinational companies make states such as Bangladesh compete to allow the worst exploitation of workers. Let's replace it with a new form of worker-focused globalization, in which countries legislate that "If you sell goods here, the factories that make them must pay and treat workers according to our standards, no matter where they are working."

25 October 2014 (The Love Commandos) The Love Commandos in India protect couples who run away from families that want to force them to marry others.

25 October 2014 (Russian media censorship) Russian journalists must now operate from Latvia due to Russian media censorship. Will we see Australian journalists operating from Indonesia due to Australian media censorship?

24 October 2014 (Misogyny) The internet is crawling with misogyny, and any woman doing something controversial is likely to be attacked by posted threats of violence. The examples cited in this article seem sick and twisted to me, but the worst thing I find in it is the assumption that women who are raped, or even seen semi-nude, have something to be ashamed of. That's the explicit assumption of the Indian rapists that make videos of the act, as well as their victim who was interviewed. She expects people to condemn and shun her if they know she was raped. People who do that are committing the most basic injustice. We can see this attitude in the firing, by an elite Canadian high school, of a drama teacher because who made porn films in 1970. (She is now 73 years old.) What, the administrators ask, will today's high school students think from knowing their teacher made porn 45 years ago? Perhaps "Older generations were just like us"? Or perhaps, "Our administration wants women to be weak and susceptible to misogyny"?

24 October 2014 (Herbicide) Earthjustice and farmers have sued to block use of 2,4-D herbicide (best known as part of the toxic Agent Orange that the US dropped on Vietnam).

24 October 2014 (Online Avatars) Civil liberties advocate opposes use of online avatars to catch sex offenders. There are two issues here. First, the question of whether a person should face prosecution for a fictitious crime against a fictitious person. Second, supposing the answer is yes, there is the issue of entrapment, luring the person to commit the fictitious crime.

24 October 2014 (UK's Economy) The UK's economy has experienced a structural change of low pay for workers, starting in 2003, and apparently permanent. Now that the UK has more or less exempted the rich and multinational companies from tax, the tax burden falls mainly on workers. Thus, the low pay wipes out tax revenue. The rich and businesses must be put into the tax base.

24 October 2014 (El Salvador) El Salvador s Fight Against Gold Mine Will Be Decided in D.C. These treaties do not deserve to be obeyed, only torn up. That's what the Salvadoran government should do.

24 October 2014 (Driver) FTDI's proprietary driver for its USB-to-serial chips sabotages alternative replacement chips when it finds them. The driver can be used for sabotage because it is nonfree software. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with making other compatible chips, and it is wrong to call them "counterfeit" unless they are sold dishonestly.

23 October 2014 (Giving food to homeless people) More US cities are making it a crime to give food to homeless people. The right-wing idea is that homeless people are homeless because they are lazy; they were punished enough, they would find jobs. Of course, other right-wing policies have made sure there are no jobs for them and that jobs don't pay enough to rent a place to live.

Send ground troops to fight in Iraq. (Just the thing to strengthen PISSI's support among Iraqi Sunnis.)

Crush civil liberties at home. Canada has already taken such a step with secret courts, which is one step too much.

Impose total surveillance so spy agencies will know everything about everyone.

23 October 2014 (Great Barrier Reef) Dredging the Great Barrier Reef for coal exports will endanger development of fish larvae.

23 October 2014 (UCL's "sustainability institute") University College London has set up a "sustainability institute" funded by a giant mining company. It must be difficult for people at that institute to be honest about the damage caused by mining.

23 October 2014 (TVs to monitor users) TVs will be designed to monitor their users. This article uses the perverse concept of "consuming" video. That word enables the writer to demonstrate his sophistication in disregarding all aspects of a situation except the economics, and getting even that wrong.

23 October 2014 (US spy agency personnel) US spy agency personnel can get away with perjury, destruction of evidence, torture, kidnaping and assassination. The only unforgivable crime is telling the people how they are spitting on our rights. Laura Poitras talks about her experience working with Edward Snowden.

23 October 2014 (Geneva homeless shelters) In Geneva, old fallout shelters are now in use as homeless shelters.

23 October 2014 (Vietnamese blogger exiled) An imprisoned Vietnamese blogger was removed from jail and put straight on a plane to exile in the US. Ironically, it seems the statements that he was jailed for were a nationalistic criticism of China, not a campaign for freedom.

23 October 2014 ("Terrorism") Note to Canada: it is not "terrorism" to kill soldiers of a country at war. One can argue it is treason for a Canadian to thus take sides against his own country. The ethics of this are a complicated question. Was Mr Rouleau fighting on behalf of Iraqis devastated by Bush's conquest and occupation of Iraq (done with Canada's help), or was he fighting on behalf of the PISSI which is more cruel than Bush ever dreamed of being?

23 October 2014 (Phthalates) Just about everyone is exposed to phthalates that seep out of plastics, and they have various harmful effects on people.

23 October 2014 (Afghanistan's poppy production) Afghanistan's poppy production has hit a record level. Since the government tries to destroy poppies, they are grown mainly in areas controlled by the Taliban.

23 October 2014 (UK fracking investigators) The UK will have the "risks and benefits" of fracking investigated by a team funded by frackers. The team says it will be "impartial", the way Faux News is "fair and balanced".

23 October 2014 (CVS to penalize competitors) The drugstore chain CVS owns a company that reimburses drug stores from insurance companies. The idea of penalizing people for using drug stores that cell cigarettes might be good, but one drug store should not be able to decide on such policies towards its competitors.

22 October 2014 (Urgent: Impeach Judge Fuller) US citizens: call on Congress to impeach Judge Fuller, who pled guilty to attacking his wife.

22 October 2014 (US "security" policy) A scholar argues that US "security" policy is decided by an entrenched bureaucracy, not by elected officials. This may be true in practice, but a president opposed to massive surveillance could stop it.

22 October 2014 (Occupy Parliament Square in London) Democracy protesters have occupied Parliament Square in London for several days. Recently they were attacked by thugs using a law designed pre-emptively to criminalize protest camps.

21 October 2014 (Gamergate) Gamergate explained. Here's what I think of this. The principal wrong in this issue consists of the threats of rape and murder made against some commentators. These threats are inexcusable. Even supposing the targets' statements were mistaken or dishonest, that would not justify these threats.

The integrity of journalism is a significant issue, in regard to computer games as in every other area. However, according to this article, the initial accusation that a game designer exercised dishonest influence on a journalist is demonstrably false. Meanwhile, US journalism is subject to distorting influence in regard to issues such as war, destabilization campaigns, supporting tyrannical allies, global heating, "free trade" treaties, massive surveillance, and others.

The quality of journalism is also a significant issue. Journalism about computer games is generally lousy because it focuses solely on what playing the game is like, and disregards the grave ethical flaw nearly all these games have: a nonfree software engine. If you value your freedom, rather than arguing about whether a review of a nonfree game was accurate in regard to secondary aspects, refuse to run nonfree games.

21 October 2014 (Hatred against disabled) The UK government's real attitude towards the disabled is now patent: to stir up hatred against them while pushing them into hopeless poverty. People who hate the disabled will forget to hate the plutocrats that really deserve it. A worldwide survey of happiness finds that people are generally happier in societies with "big government" that runs ample welfare programs.

20 October 2014 (Finnish parliament won't consider petitions) Finland has a system for the public to propose revised laws by petition; then the parliament is supposed to vote on these changes. A petition for small relaxation in harsh copyright law was rejected by a committee as too radical. So far, parliament has rejected all six of the petitions without voting on any of them.

20 October 2014 (Neonicotinoid pesticide) A study found that a neonicotinoid pesticide, used on soy beans, provides little or no benefit in production. Farmers may still want to use it, if it gives a little benefit, but we should not allow them to do so.

20 October 2014 (Tracking of people's movements) A Florida court ruled that tracking a person's movements in real time through cell phone data requires a warrant. This is a good decision, but I still don't feel like carrying a cell phone and giving that data to anyone.

20 October 2014 (French senate votes for censorship) The French senate voted for the Loi Cazeneuve, which imposes dangerous censorship.

20 October 2014 (Death sentences for blasphemy) Pakistan continues sentencing people to death for blasphemy, after trials that would be unjust even for a real crime. Changing the trials and the penalties would make the blasphemy law do less damage, but would not make it just. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend or insult any person, real or imaginary. Criminalizing blasphemy was wrong in Britain, just as it is wrong in Pakistan today. The unfair trials are a second injustice, and the murder of politicians is a third. What all three have in common is that they are perpetrated by religious fanatics who believe they are entitled to use force against those who would criticize them.

20 October 2014 (HK protests) The Hong Kong protest has grown to around 10,000 again, and thugs had to give up on attacking the protesters.

20 October 2014 (Mexico's disappeared students) Protesters in Mexico continue to demand return of the 43 disappeared students, and also take actions to denounce and apologize for other protesters' violence. All those mass graves, whether they contain these students or not, are testimony to the violence that Mexico has experienced from the "war on drugs". When a war is on drugs, its violence affects everyone indiscriminately.

20 October 2014 (CIA report on arming foreign rebels) An internal report of the CIA found that arming rebels in other countries has almost never been effective. In many cases it was a good thing that this failed, since the US was attacking governments with local support, for reasons of commercial interest.

20 October 2014 (Renewable electric generation) Germany and Nordic countries are developing so much renewable electric generation capacity that they can retire some fossil fuel plants.

20 October 2014 ("Cost savings" costing society) "Cost savings" obtained by screwing the poor and sick often cost society dearly. For instance, the UK could save 8 billion pounds a year by spending a mere 1/3 billion on mental health care for mothers. Reducing spending or deficits is only an excuse. When right-wingers succeed in doing this, they turn around and cut taxes for the wealthy or businesses, thus creating another deficit that they "need" to reduce by screwing the poor and sick.

20 October 2014 (Secret trial in UK) An accused terrorist in the UK is being tried partly in secret. A secret trial is an unjust trial, but we have already seen enough to condemn one the charges, that of "possessing a document". For there to be any work that it is forbidden to have a copy of is incompatible with human rights.

20 October 2014 (Deceptive business practices) Deceptive practice has become standard practice for many businesses.

20 October 2014 (Republicans) Republicans insanely condemn Obama's rational response to the danger of Ebola virus. What they demand to avoid at all costs is what will make the US safer from Ebola and other future epidemics: supporting proper public health systems in poor countries.

20 October 2014 (Privatization in Africa) Western-imposed privatization and spending cuts in Africa produced weak health care systems that can't cope with epidemics such as Ebola.

20 October 2014 (PISSI) PISSI enslaves captured women. Some have escaped, and then a strange thing happens: they feel ashamed, rather than proud of their strength and courage. I think this reflects twisted patriarchal gender attitudes, the same ones that provide the soil for PISSI to grow in. If you want to watch the video from youtube, don't watch it embedded — that uses nonfree software. Instead, fetch it with youtube-dl. PISSI captures and kills Iraqi journalists too.

20 October 2014 (Automation) Automation is the central factor behind a 10% fall in wages for British workers without unusual marketable skills, and it is going to get worse. More or less the same is happening in the US. The solution is obvious: tax the rich to spread the benefits that automation provides.

20 October 2014 (Indigenous Peoples' Day) Seattle celebrated Indigenous Peoples' Day, rather than celebrating the man who started killing and enslaving them. If you want to listen to the audio, please use one of the alternative formats that work without enabling Javascript code.

20 October 2014 (Coal Companies) Coal companies used the G20 meeting to lobby for more coal mining, presenting coal as the savior of the world. It's ridiculous, of course, but officials often support ridiculous claims to get funds for their election campaigns, or work in retirement.

20 October 2014 (Facebook) Facebook is still suspending the accounts of drag queens that don't reveal their official names. However, Facebook is trying to convince them to stay, so it can do drag net surveillance.

20 October 2014 (UK proposes privatized prison for teenagers) The UK is cutting the budget for education for teenagers in prison, but it proposes to build a privatized prison for teenagers as an excuse to legalize using force against them.

20 October 2014 (Erdogan refuses to help defend Kurds) Erdogan says Turkey will not help the US defend Kurds. This formalizes what was already apparent. So much for Obama's dream coalition. However, the US can bring food, arms and Kurdish fighters to Kobani by air without Turkey's help.

20 October 2014 (Pharmaceuticals and wildlife destruction) Human pharmaceuticals could be to blame for part of the massive destruction of wildlife now occurring.

20 October 2014 (Repeated attacks on HK protesters) Thugs have repeatedly attacked the massed protesters in Hong Kong. The protesters resist the sticks and pepper spray without attacking.

20 October 2014 (Christian doctrine of hell) Has the Christian Doctrine of Hell Become an Awkward Liability?

20 October 2014 (Transport of Kurdish peshmerga) Is it possible for the US to bring Kurdish peshmerga from Iraq to Kobani by helicopter? That might save the Kurds of Kobani. Is it possible for the US to airdrop food and ammunition to them? Even if half of it fell into the hands of the jihadis, that half would make no material difference (they already have plenty of both), and the other half might save the Kurds of Kobani.

20 October 2014 (Increase in suicides in UK prisons) Inadequate staffing is causing an increase in suicides in UK prisons. In some cases, the suicide seems to be a reaction to mistreatment. How can it make sense to put a suicidal person, not accused of doing anything wrong to others, in prison "for his safety"? Even a well-staffed prison is not a safe or secure place.

20 October 2014 (Children enslaved in Italy) 4000 African children who got into Italy appear to have been kidnaped and enslaved.

20 October 2014 (Hong Kong protest) Thugs repeatedly clear away protest areas in Hong Kong. If the 400,000 who supported the protests were to keep protesting, the antidemocratic government might have to yield.

20 October 2014 (New Pun) New pun: geometer.

20 October 2014 (Minimum-Wage pay is too little) The people who clean the UK foreign ministry protested that their minimum-wage pay is too little to live in London and do the job. The article demonstrates the harm done by subcontracting, which gives the state and other companies a way to hire people for low wages and say "we're not responsible, since we don't employ them." A company or agency that gets workers through a subcontractor should be directly responsible for how they are treated and how much they are paid.

19 October 2014 (Campaign reduces rhino horn demand) An education campaign in Vietnam has cut the demand for rhino horn by 33%, by correcting the superstitious idea that it is beneficial. Can anyone make plausible imitation rhino horn? It would work just as well as the real thing.

19 October 2014 (Fracking) If a lot of natural gas is obtained by fracking, it will squeeze out renewable energy and likely result in more greenhouse gas emissions.

19 October 2014 (CO 2 emissions-trading scheme) Europe Needs to Fix Or Ditch Its Emissions-Trading Scheme. A carbon tax would be better. One of the problems with the European emissions-trading scheme is that it is too easily gamed: companies can get credit for industries that have simply failed, for instance, and emissions credits are so cheap that nobody really needs to conserve.

19 October 2014 (Private "police foundations") Private "police foundations" buy controversial massive surveillance equipment and donate it to thug departments across the US, bypassing democratic decisionmaking about what these systems should do.

19 October 2014 (100 students in Egypt arrested) 100 students were arrested in Egypt this week for protesting. Violent Islamist fanatics continue to fight the regime with terrorism, but all in all their violence is less than what the military regime directed at peaceful Islamist fanatic protesters.

19 October 2014 (43 disappeared students) The mass graves found in Mexico appear not to contain the 43 disappeared students.

19 October 2014 (Gun threat against feminist) A talk by feminist Anita Sarkesian was cancelled due to a mysogynist threat to shoot her, backed up by a state law that prohibited stopping people from bringing weapons into the auditorium. That law says, in effect, that anyone people threaten to shoot cannot speak in public.

19 October 2014 (Corruption charges in Turkey) The corruption charges against high officials in Turkey have been dropped. Many of the officials involved in bringing the charges had faced official retribution.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.] Either the charges were bogus and placed for political reasons, as Erdogan says, or they were valid and he has protected his party colleagues' abuse of power. I have no way of determining which it was.

19 October 2014 (Prosecuted for filming in West Papua) French documentary makers are being prosecuted for filming in West Papua, where foreign journalists are not allowed. Indonesia took over West Papua by force in the 1960s when the Dutch pulled out, and has sent large numbers of Javanese colonists. It's somewhat like China and Tibet.

19 October 2014 (Colleges reshaped by plutocracy and budget cutting) State colleges in the US today have been reshaped by plutocracy and budget cutting, along with hiring patterns, so that students from poor backgrounds are likely to end up with debts and no good job. There are some exceptions, of course. If you have talent in a professional field, and you study hard, you can still get a job. For a while.

19 October 2014 (China banned logging in state forests) China has banned logging in state forests in its most heavily forested province. In the US, businesses control politicians. In China, the politicians own and control the businesses, or else the state owns them. While Chinese politicians can be quite corrupt, they can also take action to protect China's future from rogue businesses, in a way that US politicians no longer can do.

18 October 2014 (Iraqi army) Why the US-constructed Iraqi army couldn't and wouldn't fight PISSI. Basically, the idea of setting up a client state and training its army to fight for it (i.e., for the US) doesn't work.

18 October 2014 (Cuts aimed at poor people) US budget cuts aimed at poor people don't ultimately reduce spending. But they sure do help demonize the poor, which is what right-wing politicians need.

18 October 2014 (Australia's millenials) In Australia, government policy makes millenials poor and the rest of society blames them for it. Many of them, not realizing the fault isn't theirs, are going crazy. The first step in not going crazy is to realize that the injustice is imposed by the state. The second step is to unite to kick out plutocracy. If the rich were not getting richer, there would be enough for the aged and the young.

18 October 2014 (New TPP leak) A new leak of the part of the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership shows that the US is pushing mass murder in the form of tightened patent power on medicines. This treaty does harm already, although it is still a draft, simply by using the propaganda term "intellectual property" to lump together various unrelated laws. To repeat that term is to boost the confusion — and we don't have to repeat it. Since I identified the term as a confusion-spreader, ten years ago, I have not used it once. I will say that the TPP negotiators put the bogus label "intellectual property" on this chapter but I will not use the term myself.

18 October 2014 (UK NHS staff shortages) The UK NHS is so underfunded that its staff shortages endanger patients. The reason the NHS is underfunded is plutocratic refusal to tax businesses and the rich; they demand to be subsidized instead.

18 October 2014 (People's voiceprints) ACLU: the dangers posed by collecting millions of people's voiceprints.

18 October 2014 (Pushing people into self-employment) The crass remarks of a Tory minister reveal an already-existing abuse, where people are pushed into self-employment so as to pay them less than a minimum wage.

18 October 2014 (Thugs raid journalist's house) New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager revealed evidence of the ruling party's dirty political tricks; then thugs raided his house and seized his computers. Evidently the politicians that control New Zealand prefer to keep crime secret rather than behave honestly.

17 October 2014 (Rape threats against TV personality) A TV personality has received rape threats after speaking in favor of allowing a convict to resume his previous job after release from prison for rape. Her daughter received rape threats too. You may agree or disagree with her statement, but threats are not justified as a response. The US imposes so many kinds of exclusions on ex-cons that, unless they are geniuses, they are almost condemned to a life of crime. This is not in society's interest; it results from politicians' desire to look tough. I don't know whether it is the same in the UK. It seems to me that people who object to giving this particular ex-con this particular job back view sports stars as symbols of an ideal person. A rapist is a bad choice for an ideal person, but then, I don't consider professional sports as the site to find ideal persons in. I think it is just a well-paid job.

16 October 2014 (Urgent: Cancel oil exploration) US citizens: Call on Obama to cancel oil exploration on the Atlantic coast, which will make loud sounds that injure whales and dolphins.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.] I put this as my message. To avoid global heating disaster, we need to leave 80% of fossil fuel reserves in the ground. Finding more reserves is at best a waste, and when it injures whales, it is worse than a waste.

16 October 2014 (Harassment) Even being wealthy graduates of prestigious schools doesn't enable US blacks to protect their children from racist insults. What makes the most impression on me is how far blacks in the US have to bend over backwards to avoid being falsely accused or treated with prejudice. These precautions seem to have been mostly effective — being called a nasty name is not that bad on the scale of human injustice — but it's unfair for anyone to have to do that. Meanwhile, think of all the people (black or not) who aren't in the families of wealthy graduates of prestigious schools. They don't deserve to be harassed either.

16 October 2014 (Making it hard for minors to get abortions) For minors in the US, getting a judge's permission for an abortion is painful harassment, often followed by arbitrary denial. Just getting out of school to go to a court in another town may be a struggle. I don't understand how people who generally agree it is not a good thing for poor minors to have children come to support laws making it hard for them to avoid doing so.

16 October 2014 (A repeating tendency of SWAT raids) A SWAT team shot and killed a homeowner who tried to protect himself from a repeat burglary. He didn't know that the burglar claimed to have stolen drugs from him. I don't see anything saying where this took place, except that it is in the US. Can anyone tell me? Thieves do steal drugs and drug equipment. Perhaps it was reasonable to investigate the accusation against Hooks. The central problem is the repeating tendency of SWAT raids to kill innocent people.

16 October 2014 (Public banks) How a city can set up a public bank and make its funds secure against failure of the big bankster banks.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.]

16 October 2014 (The PKK) One Administration's Terrorist Is Another's Freedom Fighter. Just Ask the PKK.

15 October 2014 ("Sports drinks") "Sports drinks" are mostly used outside of the context of sports, and are bad for people's health.

15 October 2014 (Isolation of young and old) Modern western society isolates the young and the old, leaving them with no idea of anything to want except wealth. The statistics cited are from the UK, but I expect it is true in the US as well. When hippies wished to live in communes, it had to be a rejection of the beginnings of this. The communes failed because just wishing isn't enough to make a new social system succeed. The loneliness of old people, many of whom had children, shows that having children is not a solution. Being part of some other sort of community, such as a political activist community that defends people who are being exploited, can make your life a lot less lonely as well as helping others.

15 October 2014 (Ireland to close a tax loophole) Ireland will close one of the tax loopholes that multinational corporations use to avoid paying tax on their income cross Europe. However, Ireland's low corporation tax still constitutes beggar-thy-neighbor. The rest of Europe, if it were not corrupted by those same corporations, would make Ireland stop this.

15 October 2014 (Reclaiming Louisiana land lost to sea) Louisiana plans a megaproject to reclaim some of the 2000 square miles lost to the sea in the last century. In principle, it is a good idea, but it will be futile if we don't stop pumping out the greenhouse gases that melt icecaps and raise sea level even more.

15 October 2014 (Bolivia reelects Morales) President Morales of Bolivia was reelected after his socialist policies reduced poverty and grew the economy. You can cause economic growth with right-wing policies too, as the US and UK have demonstrated, but doing it that way increases poverty.

15 October 2014 (Wisconsin's voter ID law) Various Republican forms of political sabotage worked together to support Wisconsin's voter ID law, leading to a split between modern "hold power no matter how" Republicans and older Republicans who have some loyalty to the ideals of a free political system.

15 October 2014 (On Doxing) On doxing, and how to spell it.

14 October 2014 (UK university education cost) The UK has adopted the US model for university education, requiring students to take out huge loans. Nonetheless, many are desperate to go to a university because wages for non-graduates have been knocked down. Indeed, many graduates won't get good jobs because there are too many. The only aspect which is not quite as bad as the US is that graduates with low incomes won't have to pay as much.

14 October 2014 (UK values submarines above children) Next year, most children in the UK will be living in poverty. The UK hasn't got the billions needed to help them, because nuclear missile submarines have higher priority.

14 October 2014 (Sea level rise) The sea level rise of the past century is a record for 6000 years. (That is when the melting of the ice age ice sheets finished.) Even if we stop pumping out greenhouse gas, the Earth will continue getting hotter for quite some time due to the greenhouse gas we have already pumped out. That's ignoring the possibility that positive feedback effects will release more. And it will take centuries for the effect of that heat to finish melting all the ice it is going to melt. We will have to lower the greenhouse gas level substantially below the present level to get the ice to stop melting.

14 October 2014 (Persecution of Koreans in Japan) In Japan, right-wing extremists with support of officials in the ruling party call for persecution of Korean residents, and have launched a campaign of threats against journalists that cover Japan's war crimes. The Korean residents of Japan are descendants of Koreans forcibly taken to work in Japan when Korea was under Japanese rule. Those alive today were born in Japan, but in Japan that does not give them citizenship. Naturalization in Japan is not like naturalization in the US; it requires denying one's previous identity and trying to act totally Japanese. These people of Korean descent might be willing to get Japanese citizenship, but they don't want to deny their identity.

14 October 2014 (Computerized recognition of voices) Computerized recognition of people's voices is being employed on a large scale. I don't mind if bank customers can use this authenticate themselves to the bank. What worries me is that it can also be used to track people.

14 October 2014 (Sexual harassment female students face in UK) The level of sexual harassment female students face in UK universities today is amazing. I think it is largely the same in US universities, but I never saw anything like this when I was studying at Harvard in 1970-74. I think the social pressure to get drunk is the worst part of it.

14 October 2014 (Reports on al Qa'ida's magazine) Peter van Buren reviews reports on al Qa'ida's magazine. In tyrannical states such as the UK, you could be imprisoned just for having a copy of the magazine.

14 October 2014 (Wearing my "Impeach God" button) A week ago I made a connection in Dallas-Ft Worth Airport, and was wearing my "Impeach God" button. A pilot said it takes courage to wear such a button there. It did not seem to me that I was being particularly courageous. However, a rather strange conversation ensued on the subsequent flight: a flight attendant said, "I feel offended by your button. Please take it off." I responded, "I don't see why you should feel offended, unless … you're not a god, are you?" She: "No, but I believe in god." I: "Well, I don't." She: "But you're putting your views all over me!" I: "Actually, I'm putting them all over me. I can't make you wear such a button, and I wouldn't try." At that point, she let the issue drop.

14 October 2014 (Generic equivalent drugs) Around 10 million people with HIV owe their lives to generic equivalent drugs. The Obama regime is pressuring India to stop making them, which would kill millions of those people within a few years. The Nazis murdered 7 million civilians. This could murder more than 7 million of those now in treatment, and more millions in the future. The US officials behind this are aiming to be literally worse than the Nazi leaders convicted at Nuremberg of crimes against humanity. The article uses the incoherent propaganda term "intellectual property", which the pharma companies love because it interferes with critical thinking about their unjust demands. The pharma companies claim that only patents can enable them to do research into new lifesaving drugs, but the fact is they don't do much of that research. It is usually government funded.

14 October 2014 (Centralized social networks) Centralized social networks can learn a lot about people that don't directly give them data, through what others say about them and even who knows them. In other words, you should insist that your friends not mention you by name or email address in anything they post on centralized social networks. I think this applies to gmail as well.

14 October 2014 (RSA's secret contract with NSA) When RSA installed key generation code that had been weakened by the NSA, it wasn't just ingenuous — it took money from the NSA to do so.

14 October 2014 (Domestic "coercive control") There is a proposal in the UK to prohibit domestic "coercive control", but identifying that might require a difficult judgment call. What strikes me is that the methods used for domestic coercive control have a lot in common with the methods used for enslavement of farm laborers and domestic workers. Criminalizing such enslavement has not been very effective at stopping it. Could it be more effective to change other systems so that these methods of control can't be used or don't work? For instance, if banks automatically gave one spouse access to a limited amount of money from the other spouse's account — not enough to substantially harm the other spouse, but enough for the one spouse to get by — one element of coercive control would not work. If spouses were required to jointly view the deed of their residence once in a while, another element used in this instance would not be possible. Other elements could also be blocked. Enough such concrete measures would often prevent coercive control, and otherwise would make it require a cut-and-dried violation that could be prosecuted easily without a difficult judgment call.

14 October 2014 (Publication of autobiography stopped) A UK court stopped publication of an autobiography on the grounds that it might cause pain to the author's son. In the US, which respects freedom of speech much more than the UK, this decision would be called "prior restraint", which is more or less unconstitutional, though I would not trust today's US Supreme Court to stand by that principle or (any human right, when it's for actual humans rather than corporations).

14 October 2014 (US military budget) Obama pretends that the US military budget has suffered intolerable cuts.

14 October 2014 (Reporter faces imprisonment in Korea) A Japanese reporter in Korea faces 7 years imprisonment for reporting the existence of a rumor about the president.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.] Did you think it must be North Korea, which is of course a total tyranny? Sad to say, it is South Korea. If the report was false — if the rumor did not exist — it might be legitimate to sue the reporter for claiming it did. However, nothing can justify prosecution for an insult. Freedom of speech means having the right to insult everyone, even President Park, even me, even you.

14 October 2014 (Danger of debt crisis) Dozens of poor countries are in danger of sliding into a debt crisis. Many of these debts were more or less imposed by outside pressure and accepted by rulers that were tyrants or traitors. Those debts should be considered entirely invalid.

14 October 2014 (UK National Health Service underfunded) The UK National Health Service is so underfunded that it is paying staff poverty wages. The NHS needs a lot more money, and it needs to come from the rich (including businesses). However, making housing cheaper would help the workers get by; that too depends on increasing taxes on the homes of the rich.

13 October 2014 (HK democracy protests resume) Hong Kong democracy protesters have resumed large protests after the government reneged on talks.

13 October 2014 (Carbon-neutral homes) The Netherlands has renovated 300,000 apartments so that they don't need fossil fuel or external electricity, and 100,000 will be renovated in the UK. This scheme is very good, but its scale is minuscule: 100,000 homes in a country of 64 million people is a drop in the bucket. Its significance is to show that humanity can still save itself from global heating disaster, if it can overcome plutocracy to do similar things on a large scale.

13 October 2014 (Court order to get journalists' phone records) The UK will require a court order to get journalists' phone records. That is a small step in the right direction. I have to ask, however, who this will apply to. On the internet, anyone can be a journalist. In addition, journalists reporting on ticklish issues such as government snooping must arrange to communicate with their sources in a way that can't be tracked.

13 October 2014 (Overprotecting children) In the US today, parents who would dare resist overprotecting their children face threats from other parents. When I was six years old, I walked 5 blocks to school in Manhattan. Not that I was unusual — this is how everyone got to school. We all knew how to cross streets. We all understood traffic lights, since there were traffic lights at every intersection.

13 October 2014 (No Fly List) For the first time, the US government has officially informed 13 Americans whether they are on the No Fly List. This is just a small step towards justice. The No Fly List is a deprivation of rights. The US government should not be allowed to put anyone on this list without a trial.

12 October 2014 (Arrest of Kurds in Turkey) Kurds fleeing into Turkey have been arrested without charges and accused of fighting PISSI. It's unlikely to be true, since some of them are children. However, if some of them really did fight PISSI, it is disgusting to punish anyone for that.

12 October 2014 (Big banks face criminal charges) Big US banks once again face criminal charges, but the executives will probably get off unscathed yet again.

12 October 2014 (TTIP) The European Commission is inventing strained legalistic excuses to block a referendum opposing the TTIP.

12 October 2014 (UK agricultural workers exploited) Agricultural workers in the UK are stripped of their passports and their pay, and gouged on rent. This is a world-wide pattern, much like what happens to construction workers in Qatar. A government that doesn't want to let businesses exploit people could adopt laws that make it harder to get away with this. One approach would be to make the farms directly liable for how the temp agency treats the temporary workers. It would help to prosecute the executives and staff of the temp agency, as well as the agency, for any wrongdoing; I can't tell from the article whether this is already done.

12 October 2014 (Public defense failure) Manuel Velez was convicted of murder because the public defender didn't bother to investigate the evidence that proved he was innocent. The cruel prosecutors gave him a choice between a new trial (on charges already known to be false), which would probably have meant keeping him in jail for a year or two, and pleading guilty to a smaller false charge. Evidently they are more interested in pretending they are never wrong than in justice. The main cause of these repeated injustices is that we don't have enough public defenders in the US. They can't possibly do a proper job for so many clients. Most of the time they advise clients to make a deal and accept a lesser charge, whether it is true or not.

12 October 2014 (Control of forests) Arguing that putting the local inhabitants or indigenous people in control of forests works better than REDD for ending deforestation. I see some questionable points. For instance, the danger that the forest's trees may die even if protected exists no matter how we try to protect them. Global heating is killing a lot of pine trees in the US.

11 October 2014 (Sharif Mobley) The US government says it knows where Sharif Mobley is, but refuses to tell his family.

11 October 2014 (NSA sends agents to install spy devices) The NSA sends agents to install spy devices in networks in various countries, including apparently the US. For the US government to do this to a rather hostile government such as China does not seem wrong to me. Doing this to Germany and South Korea would be a low blow against an ally if it was done without those states' approval (we don't know). If those states approved of the act, it might mean that they are spying massively on their own citizens.

11 October 2014 (Transport of toxic chemicals by rail) A train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in the middle of a Canadian town. No one was directly injured, but the toxic smoke from the burning chemicals may cause people respiratory problems down the line.

11 October 2014 (Walmart trying to cut health insurance) Walmart is pushing reducing the hours on 30,000 workers so as to deny them health insurance. The US laws that associate medical care with employment implement a bad policy. For instance, it is an incentive to replace workers with robots. Companies should pay for people's health care through taxes that would only increase if the company replaces workers with robots. The laws ought to be changed so that everyone gets medical care, regardless of the person's life situation. This does not excuse Walmart's conduct. Ethics are separate from law; taking advantage of a bad law to screw people legally is just as wrong as screwing them illegally.

11 October 2014 (NSA propaganda activities) The NSA was asked for a list of the information it has disclosed to reporters. It responded that the list is too secret to show. The NSA is trying to hide its propaganda activities.

11 October 2014 (Lego cancels Shell marketing) A pressure campaign (which I supported here) has convinced Lego to cancel its marketing collaboration with Shell. This sort of thing is very important: we need to strip the fossil fuel companies of the little maneuvers that they use to disguise the murderous nature of their plans.

11 October 2014 (Ebola) Hundreds of thousands of fools wanted to risk spreading Ebola to humans to save a dog. Nobody knows whether a dog can pass Ebola to humans, but let's not find out the hard way.

10 October 2014 (Giant coal mine in Australia) Indian environmentalists are suing to block a giant coal mine in Australia which would export coal to pollute India (as well as polluting the whole world with CO 2 ).

10 October 2014 (False confessions) Burmese expatriates in Thailand confessed to killing two British tourists, but now they say they were tortured into a false confession. I believe them.

10 October 2014 (Human cab drivers) Uber plans to do away with human cab drivers. It would be easy for a non-plutocratic government to prohibit this, and that's what every country ought to do, unless/until every person gets an adequate basic income so people don't need to be employed.

10 October 2014 (Educational success) Children of East Asian (mainly Chinese) immigrants excel even in mediocre Australian schools. This suggests that the root cause of the high educational success of various East Asian countries may not be particularly due to how the schools there are run.

10 October 2014 (Ebola epidemic) The World Bank says 20 billion dollars must be provided to quash the Ebola epidemic.

10 October 2014 (EU Climate and Energy Commissioner) Former Oil Mogul Confirmed as EU Climate and Energy Commissioner. He will surely find ways to obstruct progress in decarbonization; whoever proposed him for the post must have done so with this goal in mind. Whatever controls are set up to make sure he does his job, they can't stop him from dragging his feet. Thus, I fear, the fossil fuel companies have neutralized the only center of political power that was sincerely trying to avert global heating. I fear that they have murdered many of those who are reading this.

10 October 2014 (A law making it easier for businesses to fire workers) Italy's prime minister Renzi pushed through a law making it easier for businesses to fire workers, hoping that in exchange the EU will avoid punishing Italy more.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.] These "reforms" are part of the world-wide campaign by business to set countries against each other in a competition for letting business have more power and workers less power. Step by step, business gets to do want it wants, leaving most people poor. I doubt that the plutocrats will keep their side of this deal. Appeasing them is foolish; the more power they get, the more they can demand more power.

10 October 2014 (Facebook and Master Card will join forces) Facebook and Master Card will join forces to profile Master Card customers so banks can push them to spend more. By doing this, Master Card is ratting on its customers. This reinforces the point that using a credit card enables others to take advantage of you. It also interferes with your efforts to limit your spending. Don't be tracked — pay cash.

09 October 2014 (Democracy in Syria) Revolutionary Kurds in Syria have established the sort of popular democracy we would hope that the whole Middle East could have.

09 October 2014 (Release of Brit jailed in Morocco) The British tourist jailed in Morocco for being homosexual was released. His Moroccan friend or lover is not so fortunate.

09 October 2014 (Helping wildlife by legalizing marijuana) Extinction of wildlife is another problem that the US could partially solve by legalizing marijuana.

09 October 2014 (Israel to demolish homes) Israeli soldiers told the inhabitants of the village of Khirbet Um al-Jimal that all their homes will be demolished at some undetermined date.

09 October 2014 (Adobe's "digital editions" spy system) Adobe "digital editions" spy system sends users' complete reading logs to Amazon. Adobe says this is legitimate because users agree to it in the EULA, but pressuring people to click "Ok, spy on me" does not excuse it. This article focuses on the fact that the NSA can watch this data passing on the net, avoiding the need to use the PAT RIOT act to collect it directly from Adobe. It legitimizes the snooping by saying that's needed to enforce DRM, which legitimizes DRM too. According to the article's view, all this would be fine, if only Adobe didn't also leak everyone's dossier. As a defense of readers' rights, this is pitifully weak. DRM, being evil itself, can't justify anything.

09 October 2014 (Baltimore's inner harbor) Baltimore's inner harbor will be flooded roughly 900 hours a year, on the average, by 2045 — due to global heating. A few decades later, it will be permanently inundated. Many other US coastal cities and towns face similar problems that we are bringing on ourselves.

09 October 2014 (Clinton endorsed policy of endless war) Clinton has openly endorsed the policy of endless war. Put this together with NSA snooping and the systematic dishonesty of the mainstream press, and it adds up to 1984 lite. The main threat to Americans comes from plutocracy. Plutocracy could kill millions of Americans in the coming decade, mainly through the poverty it imposes. Compared with this, underground terrorists are a tiny threat. Back when Dubya was president, I speculated that he and al Qa'ida were both working to cause the endless war that suited them both. It seems the same for the US and PISSI. Not that they have explicitly conspired to do this together. Rather, each side expects to gain domestic power from endless war. So PISSI offers bait, and the US government jumps for it.

09 October 2014 (Terrorism is gift that keeps on giving) For the fascist plans of US officials, terrorism (real or imaginary) is the gift that keeps on giving. The author makes a mistake by saying that "we" have adopted these foolish attitudes, because that effectively insists the reader can't reject them. We can all reject them — it just takes a tiny bit of moral fiber. I reject them every time they come up, and you can, too.

08 October 2014 (Endless war programmed by US officials) US officials, Republican and Democrat, have programmed an endless war all around the world. It is endless by nature, because its tactics generate more enemies, and have never won a victory anywhere.

06 October 2014 (Staff take sexual advantage of prisoners) In a privatized immigration prison in Texas, the staff take sexual advantage of the prisoners. In ordinary language, a prisoner is anyone kept in prison. When the authorities try to impose distinctions, with words such as "detainee", I think that is a plan to avoid the odium of the word "prisoner" for cases such as these. Why help them? I call these people "prisoner".

06 October 2014 (Expensive unnecessary dental work) Dentists in the US are increasingly likely to recommend expensive unnecessary dental work. This appears to be due to the economic pressure placed on dentists by changes in dentistry, including large companies with hundreds of offices.

06 October 2014 (Strong target for energy efficiency) The UK could boost the economy, and not only for the wealthy, by setting a strong target for energy efficiency. The government is not interested, perhaps because it aims to make workers desperate and penurious, not make jobs.

06 October 2014 (Phone call metadata) UK thugs used a journalist's phone call metadata to identify a source, after a judge told them they were not entitled to that information. They used the notorious R.I.P. act, which was the death knell for privacy of communications in the UK. This law also makes it a crime not to answer thugs' questions.

06 October 2014 (PISSI's script) If you want to "do something" about PISSI (aka ISIS), be careful you are not following their script.

06 October 2014 (Global heating threatens agriculture) Latin America has mostly eliminated hunger, but global heating threatens to bring it back by damaging agriculture. A growing population won't help.

06 October 2014 (US thugs attacking CopWatch) US thugs around the country are attacking CopWatch groups and their leaders with threats and even bogus arrests. Is spitting in a thug's face really a felony? If so, the first step in ending the thugs' reign of terror is to change that law — and many others with it. Thugs regularly abuse their power; they must have less of it.

06 October 2014 (Support for HK protests) Some US dissidents are claiming that the Hong Kong protests are a US plot. Those critics seem to be more anti-US than pro-freedom. If the US is indeed supporting the protests in Hong Kong, I'm glad that for once it is doing something good. I'd say the same thing if it were demonstrated that China or Venezuela had supported Occupy Wall Street or other legitimate democratic activity in the US.

06 October 2014 (HeForShe manifesto) I support Emma Watson's HeForShe manifesto. It took me a while to find it in textual form; I don't want to link to a video that would lead people to run nonfree software.

06 October 2014 (Monopolies on old drugs) An inexpensive 20-year-old drug for an unusual medical condition may soon cost patients $80,000, due to a legal maneuver by drug barons. The long-known generic drug colchicine, used for gout, was made a monopoly through a similar maneuver. The same sort of corrupt scheme for new monopolies on old drugs exists in Europe. These monopolies, applied to drugs that were already available, are an additional reason to distrust everything drug companies say to argue for patents on even new medicines. I think they just want monopolies.

06 October 2014 (Continued support for Afghan gov't) Obama has signed an agreement with the contrived Afghan government to keep propping it up for 10 more years.

06 October 2014 (NSA snooping "authorized") Most NSA snooping is "authorized" by Reagan's executive order 12333. This snooping has no oversight by Congress or courts. Although the government says this is to prevent "terrorism", that is nothing more than an all-purpose excuse.

06 October 2014 (Video games) A list of ethical issues that someone else sees in regard to video games. I agree with most of them, but conspicuously absent is the direct injustice that most video games commit against their users: the game software is not free/libre. Indeed, the article goes so far as to condemn "unsanctioned clones" for being "free" (i.e., gratis, not freedom-respecting). That's where I disagree with the article.

06 October 2014 (Facing an age of extinction) Humanity is pounding the natural world so hard that even common species are not safe from extinction. Many species that humans depend on face extinction. Don't forget that a the species that inspire human interest, such as tigers, orangutans and pandas, are used for campaigns to protect the entire ecosystems they live in; if we lose them, it will be because we lost the thousands of other species that live along with them.

05 October 2014 (Extremists in Japanese gov't) Right-wing extremists in the Japanese government are denying the facts about forcing women from conquered peoples to act as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers. The worst crime was committed by the societies that despised these women for the way they were treated. Many of them did not go home after the war, certain their families would reject them.

5 October 2014 (Senate) If the Senate continues blocking the small reform of the "USA Freedom Act", parts of it will expire entirely next year. Let's hope so.

5 October 2014 (2022 Olympic Games) Four cities have dropped their bids for the 2022 Olympic Games, because the IOC demands too much money. The only remaining bids are from corrupt, tyrannical countries which don't care.

05 October 2014 (Hong Kong anti-protesters) A Hong Kong opposition legislator accuses the government of sending gangsters to attack the protesters. It looks like the thugs, or some of them, cooperated with the gangsters. Even if some of the anti-protesters are being honest about their motives, they are unpatriotic to put their immediate income above democracy. Shame on them! Naturally, China's imposed "chief executive" cites the danger of more such nonuniformed attacks against the protests as an excuse to order a uniformed attack against the protest. That's tyrant logic for you. We should be prepared to denounce it when we see it in our own countries.

05 October 2014 (Investment in renewable energy) Naomi Klein says, although private businesses invest in renewable energy for their own interests, we need four times as much investment as what they are doing, and there is no reason to expect businesses to go that far without the state's help or pressure. The enormous government subsidies for fossil fuels are pertinent here, because they push the market towards fossil fuels, and will continue to do so. Transferring the subsidy to renewables would push the market towards renewables, and a carbon tax would do likewise.

05 October 2014 (Brain myth) Debunking the myth that we "only use 10% of our brains". Every part of the brain gets used in various kinds of mental processes.

05 October 2014 (Being self-employed) Nowadays, being self-employed mostly means doing an unglamorous job with no job security and does not get a living wage. Being an entrepreneur (not counting funded startups) means taking a risk with your money — gambling on your success. There's a small chance you will make a lot, and a big chance you will lose all. You shouldn't gamble what you can't afford to lose, and nowadays most Americans (and Britons) are so close to the edge that they can't afford to lose anything. Therefore, it is foolish for them to be "entrepreneurial". When politicians say they want most people to be "entrepreneurial," it means they intend to make most people's lives risky.

05 October 2014 (Profiting from US prisoners) US prisons make prisoners pay for food, medical care, even toilet paper. If relatives want to give prisoners money for this, they have to go thru companies that take almost half the money. The other way prisoners can pay for this is by working, for a pittance, for private companies, thus undermining the standard of living for Americans not in prison. It should be forbidden for the government to contract parts of its operations to companies in this way. They should all be done by people with civil service jobs. But prison should not make prisoners or their poor relatives pay for what they need either to live, to be healthy, or to be rehabilitated. And when prisoners work for companies, they must be paid the prevailing wage for the work they do.

03 October 2014 (Loss of biodiversity) Humanity is not on track to meet its commitment to slow down the rate of loss of biodiversity.

03 October 2014 (Paywall Protected Torrent) Thom Yorke Sells New Album via Paywall Protected Torrent. This is much more ethical than other internet music sale schemes. The only thing wrong with it is that paying requires identification and nonfree Javascript code. (We've verified that free bittorrent clients work.) If they accepted anonymous payment and didn't require Javascript to pay, I could endorse it.

03 October 2014 (EPA has power to ban mountaintop mines) A court ruled the EPA has the power to ban mountaintop mines. Now the EPA needs to do this broadly. Civilization's survival depends on greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Making coal (and other fossil fuels) scare is a great way to make the market boost investment in renewables.

03 October 2014 (Global heating) Australia's record hot September, a year ago, would have been a freak occurrence 50 years ago. Global heating has made it a fairly likely event that will happen once every 6 years or so.

03 October 2014 (Obama's demand for secret hearing) A US judge rejected Obama's demand for a secret hearing about the torture of Guantanamo force feeding.

03 October 2014 (Germany imposes internet filtering) Germany imposes internet filtering on routers (which I suppose includes those in ISPs as well as those in people's homes), blocking sites with no trial, and claims that the names of the censored sites are a "secret". A site that posted the list of blocked domains was threatened with blockage itself. Germany also made a rather shocking claim that posting this list in the US is illegal under US law, on the grounds that some of the censored sites display "child pornography". Some works are disgusting, but censorship is more disgusting. "Child pornography" is an all-purpose excuse to attack human rights on the internet. The FBI and Holder are now using it as an excuse to demand to be able to snoop on everyone's computers. This "cure" is worse than the disease.

03 October 2014 (New York City seawall) New York City is building a 10-mile-long seawall/recreation-area to prevent flooding for a few decades. If we don't stop pumping CO 2 into the air, no seawall will protect New York City.

02 October 2014 (Religious extremists in Florida) A town in Florida is under the perpetual legal control of a rich religious extremist who gets support from religious extremist elected officials and religious extremists on the Supreme Court.

02 October 2014 (Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve) Leaked recordings show that the Federal Reserve is too cozy with Goldman Sachs. This may be partly because the Federal Reserve is owned by private banks.

02 October 2014 (Protesters block Israeli ship in Florida) US protests blocking unloading of Israeli ships have spread to Tampa.

02 October 2014 (Spyware to "protect children") US thugs and prosecutors are distributing software to "protect children", which is really spyware. Americans are so insanely obsessed with overprotecting children that you can get them to swallow almost any form of abuse in the name of doing that.

02 October 2014 (Euro-zone austerity) Stiglitz: The euro-zone austerity has caused tremendous harm, all of which could have been avoided. If you judge these budget cuts in terms of the supposed goals of nations' policies, they are failure. But they are very effective as an intentional shock (as Naomi Klein puts it) to transfer wealth to the plutocrats.

01 October 2014 (Space debris) Small satellites, "cubesats", are being placed in long-lived orbits thus increasing the danger of collisions that generate space debris. The disaster shown in the movie Gravity is in fact happening, though far more slowly than in the movie. The question is whether we can find a way to stop it. In the mean time, we should not do stupid things that are likely to speed it up.

01 October 2014 (Facebook) Facebook now allows people to use aliases, but only if they are generally known by those aliases. This is not much better than the previous "real names" policy. You can't have one account to show your boss and your parents and another for your friends.

01 October 2014 (Putin) Putin remains, in spirit, a Soviet secret policeman who watched the East German tyranny collapse. He is determined to attack any challenge to the regime pre-emptively, to prevent protesters from winning. Nothing will convince Putin let go, but sooner or later he will die or become incapacitated. Economic sanctions against Russia may convince Putin's successors not to continue his tyranny.

01 October 2014 (Commercial) A commercial carbon-capture coal-burning power plant has opened. In principle this can be part of a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If other forms of fossil fuel are cheaper, a simple tax can make them more expensive. Subsidizing fossil fuel use is harmful, but subsidizing a decrease in the CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use makes sense.

01 October 2014 (Gaza) Uri Avnery: Palestinian President Abbas offers Israel a partner for negotiations, provided the negotiations are sincere. Avnery says it is an exaggeration to call the attack on Gaza "genocide", but according to the official definition, the accusation may be valid. This case, imposing destructive conditions of life on a part of the targeted people that are likely to kill some fraction of the victims, but nowhere near all of the victims, seems to be an edge case. I tend to think it should not be considered genocide. The official definition may be a little too broad, depending on how it is interpreted. However, I think that is a side issue. Provoking a war as an opportunity to kill and wound 10,000 people is a great crime regardless of whether it qualifies as "genocide".

01 October 2014 (Economic Growth) It's Time to Shout Stop on This War on the Living World. The world needs economic growth for the benefit of the poor, which can be done together with less waste for the rich; but that is not what plutocratic governments are likely to do.

01 October 2014 (UK Torture) Moazzam Begg, former Guantanamo prisoner and now human rights investigator, was imprisoned in the UK and accused of terrorism after he went to Syria to investigate evidence of UK torture. He has now been freed. The UK government will violate any rights to prevent the facts about its torture from being brought out in court.

01 October 2014 (Antarctica) The loss of ice in Antarctica is big enough to affect the Earth's gravity as measured by satellites. Melting is unlikely to continue at 500 cubic kilometers per year. The greenhouse gases we have already emitted will make the atmosphere hotter, and melting will speed up.

01 October 2014 (Florida) Florida thugs tased and arrested a woman as she was walking away after asking about arrests of other people. I wonder whether she was concerned on general principles or because she saw something that looked wrong.

01 October 2014 (European Commission) MEPs are concerned that the European Commission wants to cancel conservation policies and deregulate instead. Deregulation of business means that plutocrats have less in their way as they build businesses that make profit for them while poisoning you.

01 October 2014 (Syria) A food aid worker in Syria tweeted the coordinates of a bunker being used by PISSI. PISSI says it will kill him for this. This shows why humanitarian aid workers should remain neutral — so that they can get the support of all sides in a conflict.

01 October 2014 ("Intelligence Agencies") The US spends almost 70 billion dollars a year on "intelligence agencies", but they hardly ever predict the major events that the US might rationally want them to predict. They probably do a good job of suppressing many journalists and protesters.

01 October 2014 (Walruses) The lack of sea ice has forced 35,000 walruses to go ashore in Alaska, rather than resting on sea ice to take quick trips to feed. This surely makes it hard for them to eat, and will therefore interfere with reproduction.

01 October 2014 (Hong Kong) China's efforts to keep the public ignorant of protests in Hong Kong show occasional slips. Nonetheless, we have found no way to defeat the tyranny of internet censorship, which has spread to many supposedly "free" countries including France and the UK.

01 October 2014 (Ebola) The US public health defenses that prevent an outbreak of Ebola in the US. The scandal is that extractivism and short-sightedness won't let Sierra Leone and Liberia have the medical systems necessary to prevent Ebola outbreaks there.

01 October 2014 (Water Supply) A US court declined to stop Detroit from continuing to shut off poor residents' water supply. Citizens plan to continue their resistance.

01 October 2014 (Privacy) Outgoing Attorney General Holder has joined the US government campaign against online privacy.

01 October 2014 (Urgent: Mortgages) US citizens: tell HUD to stop selling mortgages to wall street.

01 October 2014 (Urgent: Poultry inspections) US citizens: call on the USDA to abandon its plan to let poultry companies do their own inspections.

[Reference updated on 2018-03-21 because the old link was broken.] Only a government working for the foxes would put them in charge of the hen house.

01 October 2014 ("Open-plan" offices) "Open-plan" offices appear to harm workers' health and productivity. I wonder why businesses use them. The savings in rent can hardly be enough to be the reason.

30 September 2014 (Urgent: End sports tax exemption) US citizens: support taking away tax exemption from professional sports leagues.

30 September 2014 (World Bank carbon offset plan) A World Bank carbon offset plan involved kicking people off their lands so that a forest could grow. This is a fundamental conflict, and human population growth makes it worse.

30 September 2014 (Growth of renewable energy) The UK Conservatives are so embarrassed by the growth of renewable energy that they have decided not to report statistics on it. They are in cahoots with fossil fuel and nuclear power companies, for which this growth is an inconvenient embarrassment.

30 September 2014 (US hospitals in HMOs outsource ER doctors) US hospitals in HMOs hire doctors in the emergency room who are not in the HMO — so that the doctors can gouge patients.

30 September 2014 (The misogyny of ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel) The misogyny of ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel spills over constantly to seating on airlines. When it happens on airlines, it is funny, but in Israel it makes secular Jews think of emigrating. I don't think Arabs will destroy Israel (most of the governments no longer even say they want to). Orthodox theocracy will do it.

30 September 2014 (Nicaragua's planned canal) Nicaragua's planned canal would destroy and pollute forests where endangered species live. I have to wonder whether a railroad might do a better job. Now that containers make it quick and easy to load and unload ships, the time it takes to move cargo from ship to train is only a matter of how long a ship must wait to be unloaded. Building more port facilities can reduce that to any level. A train line could carry the containers from one shore to the other faster than a ship could go through the canal. If one train line isn't enough, even ten parallel tracks would hurt the forest and the surrounding inhabitants less than a canal. Animals can run across the tracks, but it would be easy to make bridges across the train lines since trains are much less tall than ships.

30 September 2014 (Urgent: End prison quota system) US citizens: phone your congresscritter to put an end to the quota system for keeping unauthorized immigrants in prison. The quota system means that they always keep the prison full, and if there aren't enough unauthorized immigrants that there's a reason to imprison, they have to fill the bed with someone else that there is no reason to imprison. It's as wrong as giving thugs a daily quota for traffic tickets. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.

30 September 2014 (Iran executes religious innovator) Iran executed a religious innovator for "heresy". For cover, other charges were listed with no evidence presented.

30 September 2014 (Changes in political views) Old people change their political and ethical views as much as younger adults, and they tend to change in the direction of greater tolerance.

30 September 2014 (NDA for cell phone snooping devices) The FCC requires local thug departments to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the FBI, as an excuse to keep the use of cell phone snooping devices secret. The text of the NDA itself is also secret. Nice of them to at least admit that the contract is an NDA.

30 September 2014 (Private sex lives none of our business) So [Tory Minister] Brooks Newmark Sent Some Explicit Pictures — Why Should He Resign? I am glad to see prominent rejection of the absurdly exaggerated importance given to politician's private sex lives. The same foolish idea was the basis for impeaching President Clinton. That Tory minister is not fit to be in office because he's on the plutocratic side. The same was true of Clinton. Their sex lives were none of our business and not relevant at all.

30 September 2014 (Russia wants social media data) Russia will block access to Facebook, Twitter and Google unless they register and keep all data on Russian users in Russia. That policy would make the users safer (perhaps) from NSA spying but more vulnerable to spying by the ex-KGB. For people in Russia, the Russian state is much more of a threat than the American state, so this law oppresses them. By contrast, the European Union has better data protection law than the US, so requiring European users' data to be kept in Europe is an improvement in their privacy. However, that improvement will only fully take effect if the EU prevents the US from subpoena'ing user data that subsidiaries of US companies keep in Europe.

29 September 2014 (PISSI) What to call the theocratic state in Syria and Iraq? Calling it the "Islamic State" endorses their claim to represent Islam. That's dubious, since most Muslims say otherwise; it also plays into their hands. Since it stands for a twisted and distorted version of Islam, it is really a pseudo-Islamic state. Thus, I propose PISSI, for Pseudo-Islamic State of Syria and Iraq.

29 September 2014 (Remote car shutoff devices) Car loans in the US now come with remote control car shutoff devices. I don't think this should be allowed.

29 September 2014 (New solar electricity generators) A new invention uses 80% of incoming sunlight to generate electricity and desalinate water.

28 September 2014 (Modi went to New York) Indian Prime Minister Modi went to New York for a triumph but encountered a lawsuit from victims of the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat that he is suspected of encouraging.

28 September 2014 (Urgent: Phone Walmart) Everyone: phone Walmart at 1-800-WALMART to tell that company to give Thelma Moore her job back. She was fired for being injured while pregnant.

28 September 2014 (Proposed European Commissioner for the environment) The proposed European Commissioner for the environment seems to be tied to Malta's policy allowing mass shooting of migrating birds, and people suspect his choice was part of a larger plan to sabotage EU environmental protection.

28 September 2014 (Privately run NHS hospital neglecting patients) The one privately run NHS hospital in Britain has been neglecting patients. Why am I not surprised?

27 September 2014 (Voluntary cooperation) Psychology explains how Burning Man creates a high level of voluntary cooperation. The word "market" means buying and selling. To use that word to refer to altruistic cooperation is an abuse of language; I am not going to use the word that way.

27 September 2014 (Australia's new ban on journalism) Australia's new ban on journalism will imprison journalists and their sources. If it had been in effect two years ago, articles we have read about Australia's spying would have led to imprisonment of the authors.

27 September 2014 (Facebook rats) Julian Assange: 'When you post to Facebook, you're being a rat.' I've stated the same point in my speeches for a few years, asking people not to post photos of me to Facebook and explaining why.

27 September 2014 (The CIA-cocaine scandal story) The CIA helped a few major US newspapers nitpick the CIA-cocaine scandal story to death. It seems unlikely that the people in charge of each of those newspapers ordered the major biased efforts spontaneously. It must have been coordinated somehow. Since these CIA documents don't show how, it remains to be investigated.

27 September 2014 (Minimum wage) Los Angeles legislated a $15/hr minimum wage for hotel workers in large hotels. If some hotels move to nearby towns, that will show the whole region ought to have a higher minimum wage.

27 September 2014 (UK cuts in legal aid) UK cuts in legal aid are supposedly meant to save money, but they won't do much of that; rather they will deny justice to the non-rich.

26 September 2014 (US attack on ISIS oil wells) The US attacked ISIS oil wells and refineries to cut off its funding. It seems like an intelligent way to damage ISIS, but it risks causing horrible pollution.

26 September 2014 (Pseudoscience in UK schools) UK schools teach creationist pseudoscience and some universities recognize it academically.

26 September 2014 (US beer market) One giant beer conglomerate controls half the US market. Four companies control almost 80%. That's about as bad as the ISP market, the book publishing market, and the recorded music market. I think we should take whatever steps are needed so that no company, unless it is a regulated monopoly, controls more than 5% of any field.

27 September 2014 (Cal students under control) 50 years ago, students at UC Berkeley defeated an attempt to control them with censorship. Today, under plutocratic rule, students are controlled with debt they can't pay, because the plutocrats got out of paying taxes.

26 September 2014 (Attacking without UN authorization) Attacking ISIS in Syria, without authorization from the UN Security Council, violates the treaties that created the UN, and Obama's argument that it is Iraq's right of self-defense is invalid. If it were valid, it would equally well authorize Assad to bomb Turkey. The ethical argument that convinces me it is right to bomb ISIS forces in the field as they try to conquer cities and big dams is that we must protect those people from horrible oppression including mass murder. I don't know how that plays out against the UN charter, but that's not the argument Obama made.

26 September 2014 (Rare bits of nature to be destroyed) A hill in England that hosts old trees, nightingales and rare butterflies is slated for building; all those things will be lost. The UK urgently needs more council housing, but that does not require destroying rare bits of nature. It is much better to replace low-density housing near train stations with apartment buildings.

26 September 2014 (Painful experiences) Advice to distance yourself from painful experiences, not rehearse them as a grievance. If the painful experience was an injustice, the one feeling you shouldn't try to weaken is your support for others to whom such an injustice happens.

26 September 2014 (Protection of wolves in Wyoming) The few remaining wolves in Wyoming are once again protected. Protection enabled wolves to recover, but some states don't like that, and seek to use the successful recovery of the species as an excuse to wipe it out again.

26 September 2014 (Briton charged with blasphemy in Pakistan) A Briton in Pakistan, who has been charged with blasphemy, survived an assassination attempt by a thug. This law is why I refuse to visit Pakistan. I recommend that the US and other countries require all visitors to make a public pledge in support of freedom of speech (which would include condemning laws against "blasphemy") before allowing them to enter. Pakistan is not the only country that unjustly punishes "blasphemy". In India, web sites can be forcibly shut down if they "offend" any religion. And the Maldive Islands have imposed censorship on book publishing as part of Muslim extremism.

26 September 2014 (Sierra Leone imposes quarantines) Sierra Leone has imposed quarantines on large zones containing more than 1/3 of the population. I am skeptical that this will be effective for stopping the spread of Ebola. Surely there are infected people in each of the zones that the country is now divided into.

26 September 2014 (Coal train protest) A coal train protester says ending coal shipments is the government's job, but since it failed to do its job, the responsibility fell to him.

26 September 2014 (Seattle bans neonicotinoid pesticides) Seattle has banned neonicotinoid pesticides in the city. It also will fine people that don't do composting. I am not sure how this is supposed to work for people that live in apartments and have no gardens.

26 September 2014 (US politicians want to cancel citizenships) US politicians want to cancel the citizenship of people that support ISIS. There are crimes that we have good reason to punish, some by life imprisonment, but denial of citizenship is never legitimate. (It also violates treaties to make someone stateless.) Sad to say, the US has a history of revoking citizenship of immigrants for political reasons. For instance, Emma Goldman's US citizenship was revoked because of her political activities: draft resistance and birth control.

26 September 2014 (Repression of gays in Egypt) Egypt is systematically repressing gays (extralegally) after a video was posted of an unofficial wedding of two men.

26 September 2014 (Prosecution of Romanian prison commander) In Romania, the commander of a prison under Ceausescu is being prosecuted. When will the US prosecute people who presided over torture in Guantanamo?

26 September 2014 (New Zealand election) The pro-business party in New Zealand won reelection through a long-term organized practice of smearing opponents through proxies.

26 September 2014 (UK's deportation of Tamil refugees) Sri Lanka continues to torture Tamils regularly, often demanding information about Tamil refugees in the UK. Meanwhile, the UK continues deporting those refugees to Sri Lanka. This is prima facie evidence that the UK minister in charge of deportations is callously blind to justice, law and humanity.

26 September 2014 (Massive and broad attack on Australians' freedom) Australia's government is using far-away ISIS as an excuse for a massive and broad attack on Australians' freedom, including imprisonment of reporters and whistleblowers, massive surveillance, and punishment without trial. ISIS is a horrible threat to people in Iraq and Syria; for Australia, the danger of ISIS is a pinprick compared with this.

26 September 2014 (John Crawford was not threatening anyone) Walmart's security camera shows that John Crawford was not threatening anyone, bothering anyone, or pointing the BB rifle at anyone when thugs shot him. He was standing still, talking on his phone. A passerby told the thugs that Crawford was pointing the BB rifle at people, and the thugs who killed Crawford falsely repeated that claim, but they shot him without taking a couple of seconds of care to check it. If thugs can get away with this sort of excuse, nobody is safe. However, whites are in less danger than blacks: people are less likely to falsely perceive whites as threatening others, and thugs are less likely to shoot whites before asking questions.

26 September 2014 (Plutocratic extremists in US) Plutocratic extremists in the US want to set retired people and children against each other, hoping parents will blame the retired and fight them for the dwindling share of the nation's production that plutocrats allow to everyone else.

26 September 2014 (Urgent: Stop trying to patent mutant human genes) Everyone: call on Myriad Genetics to stop trying to patent mutant human genes. Of course, what is really needed is a law to eliminate all such patents in Australia, that's no reason not to pressure the companies that try to exploit the existing bad law.

26 September 2014 (Palo Alto's electricity) Palo Alto's electricity is carbon-neutral, and cheap compared with the rest of California. However, that doesn't include the cars; there is still a long way to go.

26 September 2014 (Thugs will not be prosecuted) The thugs that shot John Crawford, while he carried a BB-gun he was about to buy, will not be prosecuted. The US legal system, through a combination of its official rules and its unstated prejudices, empowers thugs to shoot innocent black men from time to time, and to harass them continually.

26 September 2014 (Israeli crime) Kidnaping and killing three Israeli teenagers was a horrible crime, by every day standards, but Israel used it as an excuse to commit a crime 400 times as big.

26 September 2014 (Privacy research) Google gave money to Stanford for research, but made Stanford accept the condition not to use it to fund privacy research. [later] It seems the original report was based on a misunderstanding; everyone now says there was no such restriction.

25 September 2014 (Protesters block UK coal train) Greenpeace protesters in the UK blocked a coal train and packed the coal into bags saying to return it to Putin.

25 September 2014 ("Plagiarism" of policy proposals) Two Republican legislators criticized a Democratic candidate for "plagiarizing" part of the text of a policy proposal. The same two Republicans did not hesitate to copy a na