[ 2012 July - October | 2012 March - June | 2011 November - February | 2011 July - October | 2011 March - June | 2010 November - February | 2010 July - October | 2010 March - June | 2009 November - February | 2009 July - October | 2009 March - June | 2008 November - February | 2008 July - October | 2008 March - June | 2007 November - February | 2007 July - October | 2007 March - June | 2006 November - February | 2006 July - October | 2006 March - June | 2005 November - February | 2005 July - October | 2005 March - June | 2004 November - February | 2004 July - October | 2004 March - June | 2003 November - February | 2003 July - October | 2003 March - June | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 ]

Each political note has its own anchor in case you want to link to it.

My intention is to make links only to publicly accessible, stable URLs. If you find a link to a page that requires subscription, please report that as you would report any other broken link.

29 February 2012 (Urgent: Internment) US citizens: tell your congresscritter and senators, eliminate imprisonment without trial.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] It is good to phone them too.

29 February 2012 (Da Capo) A Stratfor executive, who was formerly a deputy chief of the State Department's counter terrorism division, said that the US used to assassinate people like presidents Chavez and Morales.

29 February 2012 (Collateral) An AP investigation of casualties from US drone attacks in Pakistan supports the Bureau of Investigations' conclusions: many civilians have been killed. I have not yet found the AP report in a site I can link to, but it says that 30% of the victims are civilians, which is the same as the Bureau of Investigations' figure.

29 February 2012 (Wage Pressure) India's main unions have joined in a large strike, demanding a national minimum wage as well as benefits for their members.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] The article errs in saying that India's government is "leftist". The Congress Party is as subservient to corporations as Obama.

29 February 2012 (Censorship) Pakistan wants foreign companies to help implement sophisticated Internet censorship. Pakistan's censorship already blocks a wide range of sites over many pretexts — all of them unjust.

29 February 2012 (Patent Absurdity) A patent holder is suing several Republican presidential candidates for infringing an absurd patent. Absurd patents like these are not rare at all. This is just one way that the patent system is broken.

29 February 2012 (Double-Double Cross) Wikileaks reports that, according to Stratfor, Israel and Russia betrayed the customers for their weapons by trading the secret codes to control them. Israel gave Russia control codes for drones Israel sold to Georgia (Russia's enemy), and Russia gave Israel control codes for missile defense systems Russia sold to Iran (Israel's enemy). This means that Israel in effect betrayed Georgia, while Russia betrayed Iran. This is an extreme case of the general point that you can't trust nonfree software. Do you want your country to use weapons with nonfree software in them?

29 February 2012 (2+2=5) Teenagers in the US are sent to religious brainwashing camps. Since the article is short on personal information, I don't have total confidence that it is true, but the comments seem to substantiate it.

29 February 2012 (London Corp) Police attacked the Occupy LSX camp late at night so that supporters could not come, and told people they had 5 minutes to clear out everything or face arrest.

29 February 2012 (For a New World) The world has an opportunity to redirect the World Bank to work to end poverty and protect the ecosphere from disaster.

29 February 2012 (Urgent: Stop NDAA) US citizens: phone your congresscritter to demand an end to imprisonment without trial. Also sign this petition.

28 February 2012 (latimes.com) Latimes.com just announced it would put up a paywall. Please look through the past political notes for links to latimes.com and try to find replacement links. Send any links you find to rms at gnu period org.

29 February 2012 (Are Shelters Humane?) A lobbying company is attacking the Humane Society for spending money on more useful activities, rather than on shelters for animals found on the street.

29 February 2012 (Digital Rights) A Danish band says that the collecting society sabotaged its plan to play at an anti-ACTA rally.

29 February 2012 (TechDirty Dealing) An important article about the censorship danger of SOPA/PIPA was censored in Google search by a false DMCA takedown notice.

29 February 2012 (Keystone XL Pipeline) Obama approved a segment of the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline, choosing the side of the oil companies against the survival of civilization. He repeats the already-exposed lies that this is important to create jobs. I probably won't live to see the slow catastrophe that kills most humans and wipes out most living species. But Obama will be principally responsible for it.

29 February 2012 (Yeah Democracy) As his army bombarded cities, Assad held a referendum on a constitutional amendment formally authorizing multiparty democracy. The change is probably a step forward in theory but irrelevant in practice.

29 February 2012 (Personhood+) The US Supreme Court, which awarded corporations human rights, is now considering a request to give them immunity from human duties.

29 February 2012 (Hot Air) As opponents of wind power criticize the UK's subsidies for wind farms, it turns out that fossil fuels get twice as much subsidy. I think it is even more lopsided in the US.

29 February 2012 (Stop Attack On Iran) Israeli officials that want to attack Iran presume Iran will be unable to retaliate. When possible retaliation is considered, such an attack is likely to lead to a broader war.

29 February 2012 (Antisec Raids) While Anonymous carries out the Internet equivalent of street protests, Antisec raids evildoers to extract and publish information. The Stratfor emails were obtained in such a raid. I think it is wrong to publish personal details such as credit card numbers obtained from such raids. That is going too far in personal retribution, and could extend to harming innocent people too. The difficult ethical issue concerns stealing and publishing emails, such as Antisec did to Stratfor and parties unknown did to climate scientists. This is wrong, but it is a small wrong compared to the alleged wrongs of the targets. For instance, the climate scientists were accused of lying about and suppressing scientific truth. If that had been valid, it would have been tremendously important. The most important thing about the climate scientists' emails is that the grave charges against those scientists were false. As for publishing the source code of a virus, I expect that has little harmful effect because virus writers already circulate such information.

29 February 2012 (Overpopulation) China is softening the one-child policy but maintaining it in place. This policy is crucial for saving the environment and for enabling Chinese to advance out of poverty.

29 February 2012 (Afghanization) The Afghan protests have led to renewed attacks on US "advisors" by Afghan troops, which (if it continues ) would spoil Obama's plan for Afghanization of the war. There might then be no option except to pull out US and NATO troops, which is what needs to happen anyway.

29 February 2012 (10 Signs of Greenwash) Dr. Seuss' work has been twisted into a greenwashing campaign. His heirs must have made this decision. I hope that Dr. Seuss would have refused to get money this way.

29 February 2012 (Voters Say No) In many US cities, voters have rejected red-light cameras. Other alternatives are as good or better for safety, and the real motivation for these systems is to collect money. I'm in favor of this change, but we need to get rid of the license-plate recognizers too.

29 February 2012 (Internment) Khadar Adnan illustrates the Israeli practice of imprisonment without trial.

29 February 2012 (Political Science) The Canadian government has gagged scientists since 2008 on the issue of global heating, and the gag policy has been applied in other areas too.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] The Canadian government does not want the danger of global heating to be addressed, because its main priority is to make money from tar sand oil.

29 February 2012 (Diplomacy Possible) Experts on diplomacy say that a deal by which Iran would forego nuclear fuel enrichment in practice is still possible.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] However, it is only possible with political will on both sides, and either side might prefer no deal.

29 February 2012 (Conservation) 10% of the marine species in the tropical eastern Pacific are threatened with extinction.

29 February 2012 (Syrian Underdogs) Saudi Arabia wants to give arms to the rebelling Syrian army defectors. It might be possible to smuggle some arms to them, but it would not make much difference. They are too few to defeat Assad's army even if they had all the arms they could use. They control no region, only neighborhoods in some cities. It is also not clear that most people in Syria want to remove Assad, even though many do. The Free Syrian Army started because Assad ordered troops to shoot protesters. Those who were unwilling to perpetrate that evil were compelled to defect instead. I admire them for rejecting evil. However, the defections were too few to make Assad's army fall apart, and the defectors too few to stand against it for long. At this point, perhaps other countries should propose to let them go into exile along with those inhabitants of the neighborhoods they hold that want to join them.

29 February 2012 (GMO News) Even thought Sarkozy is right-wing, he is moving to block Monsanto GMO plants, which he knows French voters want.

28 February 2012 (Advance Warning) UK courts have covered up for years an accusation that some "Asian country"'s royal family funded al Qa'ida and knew in advance about the London terrorist bombings.

28 February 2012 (Another Honeypot) The Bush regime intervened directly but secretly in Somalia in 2006, using private mercenary companies. This was in support of the "transitional government", which turned out to be a "transition" to defeat at the hands of the Islamic Courts Movement.

28 February 2012 (Ka-Ching!!) 377 congressional aides became lobbyists in the past 3 years. It ought to be illegal.

28 February 2012 (Coal Mining) A supervisor will face charges for blocking enforcement of safety regulations at a Massey Energy mine.

28 February 2012 (GMO Automatic Update) Bill Gates is a big fan of genetically modified seeds. Perhaps because they make farmers dependent, like Windows users.

27 February 2012 (Pepper Sprayed Students) Student protesters at UC Davis who were attacked with pepper spray are suing the university.

27 February 2012 (Urgent: GMO foods) Citizens of California: help collect signatures for the state initiative to require labeling of GMO foods.

25 February 2012 (Urgent: Ellison-Jones) US citizens: phone your congresscritter to support the Ellison-Jones letter supporting diplomacy rather than war with Iran. Also sign this petition.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Here's background information on the letter. I suspect there is an organized PR campaign behind the mainstream media drumbeat for war.

25 February 2012 (Afghanistan Protests) Protests in Afghanistan, that began when US troops burned copies of the qur'an unknowingly, keep growing and spreading. These protests display the irrational absurdity of religion. The burning of copies of the qur'an hurt nobody. It was not even an intentional insult; probably the troops did not know what the books were, since they don't even know the Arabic alphabet. But I have a feeling that the book-burning incident was only the trigger, and that the protests are fueled by pent-up anger provoked by years of atrocities and repeated real insults.

25 February 2012 (Surveillance Law) The EFF proposes laws to stop the sale of surveillance equipment to despotic governments. Alas, these laws won't be applied to sales to the US government.

25 February 2012 (Amazon) Amazon continues to harry small publishers ; it has cut off Swindle sales for an independent book distributor in order to press for bigger discounts. The article ends by promoting ebooks for another platform, the Shnook from Barnes and Noble. While that company is not as nasty to small publishers, its ebooks do nonetheless have DRM, so they are not acceptable.

25 February 2012 (Privatization) Argentina's fatal train crash was caused by privatization of the trains. Privatization never makes sense unless it leads to substantial competition.

25 February 2012 (US Media) The US mainstream media have come to condemn the inconsequential lies that were necessary for undercover investigation, except when done by right-wingers. Since Peter Gleick is not a right-winger, they condemn him too.

25 February 2012 (Romney Insincerity) Why it is a mistake to trust in Romney's insincerity. I see a resemblance between the people who suppose today that the real Romney is better than what we see, and the people who made similar suppositions about Obama.

25 February 2012 (Sheriff Babeu) Sheriff Babeu is so tough on illegal immigration that he threatened to have his lover deported to Mexico if he (the lover) told the public they were gay.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

25 February 2012 (War On Drugs) One reason to end the War on Drugs: it corrupts officials. Naturally these officials are in favor of prohibition — they need it to make money.

25 February 2012 (UK Privacy) The UK has spent almost a billion dollars on surveillance cameras in the past 4 years, and has got nothing for it but a loss of privacy.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

25 February 2012 (Uri Avnery) Uri Avnery: the paradox of Khader Adnan , who says that the only possible resistance to Israeli occupation is with violence, and just proved that isn't true.

25 February 2012 (ACTA Legitimation) Whatever the European Court of Justice decides on a narrow set of issues, that cannot possibly make ACTA legitimate.

25 February 2012 (Fishing Quotas Violation) Many UK fishing boat captains and processing plants built secret pipelines so as to violate fishing quotas. The fines seem small in comparison with the amount of fish that was illegally landed. Are they really enough to deter this practice?

25 February 2012 (Dioxin Contamination) Monsanto settled a lawsuit by people who lived near an Agent Orange factory, whose homes are contaminated with dioxin.

24 February 2012 (Occupy Protester) A subpoena to Twitter about an Occupy protester is probably part of a government plan to look at all his movements and communication for a period of 3 months.

24 February 2012 (Accused Syrian Leaders) A UN report accused various Syrian leaders of being responsible for crimes against humanity including torture and having snipers shoot children.

24 February 2012 (Private Equity Companies) Private equity companies, that buy failing companies and often just strip their assets, are so lucrative (especially thanks to a special tax break) that they are paying for a spin campaign to convince the rest of us that they benefit society.

24 February 2012 (Heartland Plans) The Heartland Institute plans to spend over half a million dollars supporting Governor Walker's campain in the recall election. This despite the fact that a tax-exempt charity isn't supposed to do anything like that.

24 February 2012 (Italy Violates Human Rights) The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Italy violated human rights principles by returning African migrants and asylum-seekers on the high seas.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] They may or may not qualify for asylum, but they are entitled to present their cases.

24 February 2012 (Republican Tax Plans) A study says that Republican candidates' tax plans would bloat the US national debt. Unless, of course, they carried out drastic cuts in spending, and you know they would not cut military spending.

24 February 2012 (Afghan Police) Afghan police, ordered to protect against violence from protesters against the US army's mistaken burning of korans, say they support that violence. With all the Afghan civilians killed and imprisoned, people in Afghanistan have plenty of reason to hate the US intervention. The Taliban have given them the same kind of reason to hate the Taliban, but they mostly don't hate the Taliban the same way. However, their fanaticism shows when what makes them the most angry is the destruction of copies of a book which exists in millions of copies and is in no danger of being lost.

23 February 2012 (Peacekeeping Army) The UN decided to increase the "peacekeeping" army that is gradually taking control of Somalia. Meanwhile, Ethiopian forces are fighting there too. The Somali "government" has no political support in the country. It was set up by the "peacekeeping" army — a misleading term since its purpose is to attack, not keep a peace. It is misleading to say that the "government" is carrying out this offensive, since it is only a front for intervention. Both the "government" and its enemies, the Shabaab, are factions of the Islamic Courts Movement that established a government in Somalia a few years ago. I don't think the Islamic Courts Movement cooperated with al Qa'ida; its concern was with Somalia, not with the rest of the world. The US should have left well enough alone and been content with a stable Somalia that was not an enemy. However, instead it sent an Ethiopian intervention to destroy that government. Ethiopian occupation troops were unable to rule Somalia, and pulled out, and Somalia collapsed again into disorder. If the intervening forces do take control of all Somalia on behalf of the "government", Somalia will get almost back to where it was briefly before the intervention, but it won't be stable. Its "government" would face a struggle to gain any loyalty among people who know it was imposed on them.

23 February 2012 (Attacking Iran) Israel arrogantly denounced General Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as "serving Iranian interests" by saying that an invasion would be a bad idea. This demonstrates Netanyahu's arrogant attitude towards the US. He believes all US politicians are under his thumb and that he can get away with absolutely anything. Military and intelligence figures in the US and Israel say that attacking Iran would be folly, but these politicians drown them out. Americans who dislike the idea of "containing" Iran should not suppose that an attack would lead to anything different.

23 February 2012 (Abortion Sexism) The UK has copied India with an unjust prohibition on deciding about abortion based on the sex of a fetus. The arguments for this ban all presuppose that a woman can in some circumstances be compelled to continue an early pregnancy, and once that is accepted, the main line of resistance to a ban on abortions has been breached. A fetus is not a person, not even if it is female. Women are not incubators, not even if the fetus is female. Laws saying you can legally do X for reason A but not for reason B amount to thought control.

23 February 2012 (Syria) A report from Syria that Sunni extremists are kidnaping solders from buses and indoctrinating them in sectarian hatred. I have not read the Arab League mission's report. Someone directed me to it, and I looked at it, but it was very long and hard reading. If my work were focused mainly on Syria, I would have a responsibility to read it. Al Qa'ida appears to have carried bombings in Syria against Assad's forces. This suggests Saudi Arabia is setting up a Sunni jihad coalition including al Qa'ida (or more precisely the Iraqi group which uses that slogan) and western countries, aimed at Assad because he supports Iran.

23 February 2012 (Iran Refuses Inspection) Iran refused to cooperate with visiting IAEA inspectors, who wanted to inspect a site where iran might be testing explosive triggers for atomic bombs.

23 February 2012 (Romney Proposes Tax Cut) Romney proposes a further transfer of wealth to the rich by means of a 20% tax cut for everyone. Of course, a rich person will gain more than anyone else, but I'm sure all the resulting cuts would fall on the poor.

23 February 2012 (Scroogled) Scroogled, a science fiction story , shows a new side of the danger of a society in which everything is recorded and filed.

23 February 2012 (Misrata) Militias that control Misrata and environs are destroying villages and preventing inhabitants to return home to them.

23 February 2012 (Greece) Greece has been "bailed out" and will not default now, but the spending cuts are likely to trigger a further recession. The effect of the deal is to turn Greece into a colony of the EU, being exploited for debt payments like the third world. A leaked report says that thanks to the coming recession, Greece will again be unable to pay its debt in a couple of years.

23 February 2012 (Iranian Assassination) Israelis who are shocked at Iranian assassination attempts must acknowledge they are a response in kind for Israel's assassinations. I am not sure I agree that the recent assassinations (on both sides) should be called terrorism. They were aimed at government officials and people with a role in weapons development, not at the public. However, this doesn't invalidate the overall point of the article.

23 February 2012 (Head-Mounted Cameras) Police are testing head-mounted cameras that record whatever they see.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] In protests, this could be a good thing if juries are skeptical whenever the thugs make accusations but failed to record what they did. It might impede their regular practice of framing dissidents. At the same time, I share Lauren Weinstein's concerns that when this is used in your house it could facilitate a fishing expedition.

23 February 2012 (Republicans Condemn Obama) Republicans who wanted sanctions against Iran's oil exports now condemn Obama because this has increased the price of oil and gasoline. The world needs higher oil prices to encourage conservation, but they must be combined with higher prices for coal and natural gas so that those are not substituted for oil.

22 February 2012 (Gay Discrimination) Virginia has sneakily allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against gay couples. If you are in Virginia and thinking of having a baby which would be adopted, have an abortion instead!

22 February 2012 (Drug Legalization) Businesses in Central America support drug legalization. That would be a big step forward but we need it in the US as well.

22 February 2012 (Heartland Documents) Climate scientist Peter Gleick says he obtained the Heartland documents by pretending to be someone else. This affirms that the documents are genuine, except perhaps for the one which Gleick says he received anonymously and sought to validate. However, he says that the other documents agree with that one in substance.

22 February 2012 (Punished Doctors) In Homs, hospitals have been turned into torture chambers and doctors that treat wounded protesters are punished brutally. When it says that "The men torturing him weren't even trying to get information," it falls into the common but erroneous belief that torture is a means of getting information. Torture is a system for getting false confessions, or simply for venting hatred; the supposed desire for information is a pretense.

22 February 2012 (Transparent TPP) The US Trade Representative boasts that the TPP negotiations are fully transparent (but only if you're a lobbyist for big business). The secretive process is part and parcel of the malicious purpose of this treaty.

22 February 2012 (Whales Rights) A proposal to give whales a legal right to life and freedom. I might support this. It's a lot more reasonable than offering such rights to a 3-month human fetus. Shows presenting dolphins would be able to continue if the dolphins stay and perform voluntarily. Sometimes dolphins are willing to do that.

22 February 2012 (Malting Himalayas) Soot from industry in Asia is falling on Himalayan glaciers and making them melt faster.

22 February 2012 (Avoid Eco-disaster) Environment scientists say drastic action is needed to avoid eco-disaster. Thich Nhat Hanh says that putting an economic value on nature is not enough — it is necessary for people to love the world's ecosystems. If that is really necessary, it would require the elimination of corporations (psychopaths).

21 February 2012 (Canada Hides Pollution) Canada is making blustery threats to deter Europe from recognizing the heavily polluting effects of tar sand oil. Canada's tar sand oil is more dangerous than Iranian nuclear weapons. If Iran builds nuclear weapons, it could very well never use them. If Canada is allowed to finish developing its tar oil export capability, it will attack the world immediately. Nations threatened with attack (by inundation, drought or agricultural plagues) by Canada's planned weapon would do well to plan preemptive military intervention to prevent Canada from finishing its deployment.

21 February 2012 (Drug Tests) Some Americans may be subject to gratuitous drug tests in order to collect unemployment benefits. No one should be required to take a drug test, not in connection with employment, and much less in connection with any benefits from the state. They are not a good solution to any real problem.

21 February 2012 (Arrests In Morocco) Morocco arrested people for handing out leaflets calling for a boycott of the elections. This also shows the danger of laws that forbid anonymous public statements.

21 February 2012 (Truth About ACTA) ACTA is part of a multi-decade, worldwide copyright campaign by governments working for corporations to impose injustice. One step in resisting their demands is rejecting their propaganda terms. Why say "copyright protection" when it is shorter and easier to say "copyright"? Copyright lawyers use the word "protection" because it spins the copyright issue their way. Since they are the "experts", their way of speaking is prestigious, so others imitate it in order to sound prestigious.

21 February 2012 (US Socialism) While Republican liars call Obama "socialist", he is actually less socialist than any recent president — and much less socialist than the American people.

21 February 2012 (Singularity Predictions) Refuting Kurzweil's singularity predictions.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] It would be nice if they came true, but 2045 would probably be too late for me anyway. If immortality were ready in 2020, I might live to see it. Meanwhile, after 2045 the social upheavals due to global heating will probably interfere with scientific progress. If immortality isn't developed by then, society may no longer be in condition to make progress towards it.

20 February 2012 (Taliban Negotiations) Obama's negotiations with the Taliban disregard the Afghan people.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Consulting the Afghan people is not only the right thing to do, it is likely to lead to a better settlement.

20 February 2012 (Obama Wants War) Obama has no interest in a diplomatic deal with Iran about uranium enrichment. The other parties (including Iran and Israel) also have no interest in reaching agreement.

20 February 2012 (Apple Workers Get Raise) Apple's assembly workers in China got a 25% raise. Will Apple products' users get a 25% increase in their freedom to control their own computers? If I know Apple, they will seek increased control.

20 February 2012 (Teenagers) A police official is aghast that adolescents "as young as 13 years" are using Facebook to look for lovers among their own circle of youth gangs. This article distorts a real issue by viewing it through the filter of sexual overprotectiveness. You can see that when the official calls these adolescents "very young girls". These teenagers are being mistreated in various ways. They are being pressured into dangerous criminal activities, such as hiding guns. They may also feel pressured into having sex, which people shouldn't be. Sex is not inherenly harmful, but could be dangerous for them if they don't use condoms. Some of them are abused by their lovers, too; that could mean violence. All these are real problems or wrongs. But the article treats the real problems as side issues, and focuses on shock at the fact that they are looking for lovers. It even says their lives are "ruined". Involvement in gangs can give people a bad start in life, but that doesn't mean they have no hope of overcoming it, so "ruined" is an exaggeration. But I think "ruined" is meant to resonate emotionally as "no longer virginal". This article uses the problem of youth gangs to endorse victorian prudery.

20 February 2012 (Iran) Obama is trying to discourage Netanyahu from launching an attack against Iran. His stronger predecessors would have told Netanyahu not to attack Iran. Israel depends on tremendous amounts of US aid.

20 February 2012 (Few Shrimp) There were few shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico this winter, and a large fraction of them were deformed.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

20 February 2012 (Equador) President Correa in Equador has persecuted journalists who criticized him, to the point of shutting down the country's principal newspaper. Correa calls that newspaper corrupt, but even if it is the Equadorian equivalent of Faux News, that can't justify punishing it for criticizing an official.

20 February 2012 (Ethiopia) The tyrannical regime of Ethiopia is driving hundreds of thousands off their lands to make way for sugar plantations. The US has a close relationship with that regime, which has attacked Somalia on the US' behalf.

20 February 2012 (Google) Google used malicious Javascript code do turn off a browser's protection against surveillance.

20 February 2012 (Child Care) The UK Labour Party may advocate subsidizing child care so that poor women can work. Of course, this is a good policy — but it fails to address the main problem: no jobs. The UK needs to smash the power of the banks so it can increase taxes on those who are not poor.

20 February 2012 (Corruption) When Obama said he had no choice but to start a super PAC, he said in effect that money rules the US and its government is pure corruption. Legitimate government is government of the people, by the people, for the people. By this standard, the US government has no claim on our loyalty.

20 February 2012 (Climate) A report concludes that the Earth is now doomed to 2 degrees centigrade of heating, if not more.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Short-term thinking, manipulated and used by the oil and coal companies, have caused a catastrophe, but they are not satisfied yet: they continue to delay countermeasures, making the coming disaster even bigger. Does this mean that people who sabotage fossil fuel facilities can argue the necessity defense?

20 February 2012 (Canadian Government) The Canadian government is blocking scientists from talking with the press. Harper is dead set on destroying Earth's climate, so maybe this is meant to prevent scientists them from interfering.

20 February 2012 (Surveillance) Under the proposed Canadian Internet surveillance law, inspectors would have the power to go to any ISP and copy any data whatsoever.

20 February 2012 (Colorado) Colorado is considering banning red-light cameras. I support this. However, what really needs to be restricted is the indiscriminate use of automated license-plate scanners. These scanners should be required by law to recognize only license plates on a watch list of court-ordered license numbers. Then they could be used to catch fleeing criminals, but could not be used to build up dossiers about everyone.

20 February 2012 (France) Copyrighted furniture designs in France mean that many photos of people at home can't be published.

20 February 2012 (Israel) Raquel Rolnik, UN rapporteur on housing, accused Israel of pursuing a "strategy of Judaization" in areas where Palestinians live.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] More than 70% of the demolitions in Jerusalem are carried out against Palestinian residents, even though they make up only 20% of the infractions.

20 February 2012 (Charges) When thugs know they can't arrest people for making video recordings, they threaten to make up other charges such as "loitering". This bullshit will stop when there is a zero-tolerance policy for perjury and frame-ups by thugs.

20 February 2012 (Tent Cities) Thousands of Americans are living in tent cities. They are far away from cities, which helps keep them out of everyone elses mind.

20 February 2012 (Google) Google exploited a browser bug to force third-party cookies into people's browsers.

20 February 2012 (Coupons) Beware coupons sent to you in the mail — they are used to track people.

20 February 2012 (Iran) Some US officials are trying to legitimize an Israeli attack against Iran, shortly before the US elections. Since such an attack could at most delay Iran's development of nuclear weapons by a short time, I don't see how it could be a better option for Israel than no attack at all. At least, not directly through effects on Iran. However, a war between the US and Iran could be very useful for Netanyahu. A war might be useful for Obama too, especially if he can pretend he got into it only as a last resort. It could give him credentials as a tough guy. Americans tend to vote for the incumbent president when there is a war

19 February 2012 (US Blacking Iran) The US media seem to be repeating, about Iran, the sort of distortions that paved the way for Dubya's conquest of Iraq. The claim that Iran and al Qa'ida are working together is particularly absurd. Iran's regime is run by Shi'ites, while al Qa'ida is Sunni. They don't get along very well; in neighboring Iraq, al Qa'ida fought Iran-supported Shi'ites with bombings. The claim that Saddam Hussein and al Qa'ida were working together was equally absurd (and false).

19 February 2012 (Blasphemy) A Saudi writer faces execution for "blasphemy". This is the most extreme example, but not unique. Pakistan has also sentenced people to death for blasphemy. Indonesia and Malaysia have imposed lesser punishments on people for criticizing Islam In general, most "Islamic" countries do not respect freedom of religion.

19 February 2012 (Urgent: Senator Brown) In Boston: Protest on Feb 23 at noon, outside Senator Brown's office, JFK Building, 15 New Sudbury Street. He supported the Blunt bill would allow companies to eliminate anything from their employees' medical coverage by saying they have an "ethical objection". Of course, the main goal is to cater to religious objections to contraception.

18 February 2012 (GoDaddy) The US government appears to have shuttered the JotForm.com web site almost without thinking. It is indeed stupid of any company to use GoDaddy — aside from the point that you should boycott it because of its support for SOPA. Using someone else's site to have people fill in a form for you is Software as a Service, which means you lose control of the computing of your site. None of that excuses what the US government has done to JotForm. There is a vague report this was because of phishing. Phishing is bad, but this was comparable to spraying tear gas over an entire neighborhood because a robber was active in it.

18 February 2012 (Labs) To make pseudoephedrine a prescription medicine might shut down dangerous meth labs, but the costs for society, if people had to see a doctor to get a prescription to unstuff your nose, would be much more harmful. Then again, it might not succeed in shutting the meth labs. They would turn to another method. The fact that prescription requirements in two states have eliminated meth labs in those states reflects the fact that it easy to bring in meth from other states. If pseudoephedrine required a perscription all around the US, they would get it anyway, perhaps robbing trucks, perhaps corrupting someone to "lose" a large shipment. This is why the war on drugs is futile.

18 February 2012 (Religious People) A Jesus and Mo cartoon — an example of what arrogant religious people want to forbid. The cartoon shows Mohammed in a bar, probably drinking beer, which an observant Muslim would not do. I don't know whether this is an error or an intentional point.

18 February 2012 (IMF) Why do good people feel poor countries must repay loans to the IMF? Those who repeatedly borrow and don't pay back are spongers. We properly learn not to lend to them. However, we do not believe that people or businesses absolutely must pay every debt. A business can be set up as a corporation, so that if it fails, it ceases to exist and its debts are never paid. A person can declare bankruptcy, and we do not hold that person in scorn forever (as perhaps was the attitude in some circles in the 19th century). So why can't poor countries do the same? Theoretically, they can: it is called default, However, the wealthy countries, working hand-in-hand with the banks, discourage this by menacing them.

18 February 2012 (Urgent: Tell Obama) US citizens: tell Obama to replace Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Ed DeMarco, who works for the banksters against homeowners.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

18 February 2012 (ALEC) Some states are considering bills to classify ALEC as a lobbying agency and make legislators treat it as one.

18 February 2012 (Wisconsin Republicans) Wisconsin Republicans, embarrassed by revelations about their campaign funds, want to pass a law to help disguise both legal and illegal donations.

18 February 2012 (War on Sharing) In the nastiest move yet in the War on Sharing, the UK government threatened people with 10 years in prison for downloading a song.

18 February 2012 (Europe) European politicians in many countries are retreating from ACTA. Popular opposition is having an effect. We have to push harder.

18 February 2012 (UNESCO) UNESCO is holding a conference about the effects of Wikileaks and did not want anyone from Wikileaks to speak. It's true that UNESCO has a right to invite the speakers it wishes. This is not a trial, so Wikileaks has no right to be heard. But it is a lousy way to run a conference on the subject.

18 February 2012 (France) In an act counter to freedom of thought and freedom of speech, a French court upheld the conviction of a right-wing politician for saying that the Nazi occupation of France was "not particularly inhumane". He's wrong, but that is no excuse for repression.

18 February 2012 (UK Government) The UK government wants to force partially disabled people to do unpaid work. This will displace some paid workers, increasing unemployment. Doesn't the UK have enough unemployment already?

18 February 2012 (The FCC) The FCC has imposed strict rules on robocalls. This is one small example of what we need government for. Our government does little of this because democracy is sick.

18 February 2012 (China) Microblog services in China will require users to give their real names and to expose them to repression if they spread true rumors.

18 February 2012 (The International Olympic Committee) The International Olympic Committee decided to keep Dow Chemical as a sponsor (and thus promote it) despite its refusal to pay the settlement for the Bhopal disaster.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] I'm sure that Dow was happy to take on the assets of Union Carbide.

17 February 2012 (Israeli Diplomats) The bombs used to attack Israeli diplomats in Georgia and India match those prepared by Iranians in Thailand. So it is pretty clear that Iran was trying to do tit-for-tat for the Israeli assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. On both sides, this is low-level war, not terrorism.

17 February 2012 (UK: Unemployed People) The UK makes unemployed people work without pay as a "learning experience". I hope they learn to support unions.

15 February 2012 (Wesley Clark) General Wesley Clark said that in late 2001 an officer in the Pentagon told him of a written plan from Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to overthrow the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. Somalia did not have a government at that time, and Lebanon is a complex situation. The other governments listed were tyrannies, and in some circumstances eliminating them could be a good thing if the people want such help. It was bad for Iraq, whose people did not ask for help. In Libya, where a large fraction of the populace did want help, it is too early to tell how things will turn out. But it was legitimate to try. In Iran, even the people who hate their government do not want a US invasion to "help them" get rid of it.

15 February 2012 (Urgent: Protest) In the US: Join a protest on Feb 16 against Obama's arrests of medical marijuana patients and providers.

15 February 2012 (Chinese Monks) In Ngaba, annexed by China and called part of Sichuan, many monks have set themselves on fire. Many more have been shot or disappeared by the Chinese suppression forces.

15 February 2012 (Hamza Kashgari) Malaysia hastily deported Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, without a hearing, and thousands are clamoring for his execution. Shame on Malaysia for its contempt for human rights.

15 February 2012 (Controlling Iran) Using military force to prevent Iran from being able to make nuclear weapons is neither possible nor necessary.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] If we could get Washington and Netanyahu to stop threatening Iran, the subjects of that tyranny would have nothing to distract them from how much they hate it.

15 February 2012 (Spying iPhone) Many iPhone apps are spyware and send the user's address list to someone else's server. So much for the idea that Apple's total censorship will protect users. The only defense for users is to have control over the software they use: that is, to insist on free software.

15 February 2012 (Weaken Obama) Rich people that fund Netanyahu and Gingrich are using Iran war talk to weaken Obama. When it comes to restraining Israel, Obama is the weakest US president ever. Apparently this inspires Netanyahu to hope to go even further.

15 February 2012 (Taliban Soldiers Refuse Peace) The Taliban's commanders would like a peace agreement, but the footsoldiers find the idea of negotiating peace hard to understand.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Is it only a coincidence that Republicans are the same way? Perhaps because both groups are right-wing religious extremists that have little respect for human rights.

14 February 2012 (Volcker Rule) A strong Volcker Rule is one way to make the big banks smaller. I doubt it will go far enough. I think we need to break them up too.

14 February 2012 (Eric Cantor) Congressman Eric Cantor stood up for banks against homeowners. He had investments in banks and mortgage companies. Coincidence?

14 February 2012 (Iran Blocks Acess) Iran now blocks access to major search engines and social networks.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] This would build opposition to the Iranian tyrants. The only way they can maintain the loyalty of the population is if a foreign enemy threatens to attack Iran.

14 February 2012 (Handcuffed) After thugs handcuffed 5-year-old Ty's grandpa for vague suspicions, then grilled her, she has learned to fear the police and plays "hiding from the kidnapers" with grandpa. They said this was ok because they were just doing their job.

14 February 2012 (Diesel Engines) Mining companies are using political flunkies in Congress to block a study of how diesel engines in mines hurt miners' health.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

14 February 2012 (Israeli Official Cars) Israeli official cars were attacked in other countries using the same method that Israel used to kill Iranian nuclear scientists. It does seem plausible this was done by Iran. I don't find that scandalous; it is retaliation in kind. The targets were not random civilians, any more than Israel's target were. However, I don't think a diplomat's wife is a legitimate target.

14 February 2012 (India Censors) Freedom of the press under assault in India from spreading censorship. The "myth" that India censors only "obscenity and hate speech" is a myth at two levels. India censors sex that only prudes would criticize; I saw a few minutes of American Pie on cable in India, and things seemed to have been cut. In regard to religion, India censors all sorts of criticism of any religion — no "hate" required. Taslima Nasrin's first book, Shame, about persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, was banned in West Bengal lest Muslims feel offended by it. I'm pretty sure the cartoons about Mohammed are banned there too. Neither of them expressed hate. Censorship starts with things that many find disgusting, and spreads from there. So we need to fight censorship at the root. Censorship of "obscenity" or "hate speech" is already too much.

14 February 2012 (Obama) Obama proposed a progressive budget, with a tax increase for the rich and some needed spending increases. Of course, he knows the Republicans will reject this. A real Progressive president would propose far more things that Conservatives would reject, to keep reminding Americans how bad the Conservatives' positions are. Obama does this rarely because he is not much of a Progressive. This won't make me forgive Obama for so many wrongs, but I won't criticize it.

14 February 2012 (Congress) Some in Congress want to hamper negotiations with the Taliban by stopping the release of a few prisoners.

14 February 2012 (Ehub Barak) Ehud Barak, a minister from Israel's Labor Party, warned that failure to make peace with Palestine would lead to a state that was either non-Jewish or non-democratic.

14 February 2012 (Corrupt Cop) For once, a corrupt cop goes to prison. What is most amazing is not that a jury convicted him, but that he was prosecuted at all.

14 February 2012 (EU Ministers) EU ministers demand an irrevocable commitment to further austerity in Greece. This is to make the coming election in Greece will be meaningless, and thus effectively squash democracy there as it was squashed in Italy.

14 February 2012 (Court Case) No More Racketware won a court case in France demanding a refund for an unwanted Windows license. The decision is based on an EU directive so it might affect other countries too.

14 February 2012 (Reporters) Reporters Without Borders will set up mirror sites of news sites threatened with overt or covert censorship.

14 February 2012 (Protests) Protests forced Chile's right-wing government to drop a plan to require journalists to hand over information to the thugs.

14 February 2012 (Israel) Amnesty International: Israel should stop its plan to forcibly displace 2,300 Bedouin.

14 February 2012 (US Missiles) The US fires drone-launched missiles at rescuers who pull bodies from the rubble from previous missiles, at medics aiding wounded from previous missiles, and at crowds at funerals of people killed by previous missiles. Evidence shows this is an intentional tactic, not an error. I think that other terrorists have used a similar tactic, setting off a second bomb once rescuers arrive at the scene of the first bomb. The US use of drones to kill individuals obeys neither the laws of war nor the laws of peace. Senator Wyden has been trying for more than a year to get Obama's secret legal analysis that is supposed to justify killing Americans overseas.

14 February 2012 (In The UK) A disabled person and a retired nurse were accused of "aggrevated trespass" in the UK — basically, protesting.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] They protested against the agency that is supposed to determine who is really disabled, but actually aims to exclude people on any handy pretext.

14 February 2012 (Saad Allami) Saad Allami texted his coworkers to "blow away the competition" (more or less) at a trade show, so the thugs, who were somehow spying on these messages, searched his house and told his wife he was a terrorist.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Then they secretly blacklisted him. He is suing, but that won't necessarily explain why his text messages were under surveillance.

14 February 2012 (Colonel Davis) Colonel Davis, who was stationed in Afghanistan, says that the US military's claims about progress towards defeating the Taliban and strengthening Karzai's forces are totally bogus. US forces don't even control the areas they can see.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] More info about Davis's career and whistle-blowing. The unclassified version of his full report has leaked. In Vietnam, the commanders and high officials deluded each other. I'm not sure whether they commanders and high officials now are deluded, or simply lying to the public. He reports unofficial local truces between the Afghan police and the Taliban. These might perhaps offer a path towards peace, once the US decides to stop prolonging the war.

14 February 2012 (Science Teaching) Republicans in many states are trying to destroy science teaching in public schools, while they destroy public schools.

14 February 2012 (UK) The UK wants to adopt the US policy that makes it effectively impossible for victims of state-sponsored torture to sue. The effect of this policy in the US is to establish impunity for torture and to cover it up as well.

14 February 2012 (Hungary) Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] I am not sorry for those farmers, if they knew what they were planting.

14 February 2012 (Carbon Companies) The carbon bubble: carbon companies' reserves are 5 times what we dare burn. They will never be able to use all those reserves; society will collapse first. But they don't dare admit those reserves are valueless, so they will go all out to deny global heating until the day stock ceases to mean anything.

14 February 2012 (Ideology) Low intelligence predisposes people to believe right-wing ideology. The "terminal niceness" of progressives, which Monbiot refers to, is no mere custom. Fear of the right-wing noise machine pushes politicians and NGOs towards that, while funding from business attracts them towards it.

14 February 2012 (EU-India) The proposed EU-India free exploitation treaty could destroy millions of jobs in India for the benefit of the 1%. It should be cancelled entirely, but a pause in negotiations would be a step in the right direction.

14 February 2012 (UK Austerity) Austerity: a UK family now lives in a tent on a farm because it was paying its whole income for rent. I don't think it would be feasible for all the unemployed people in the UK to live this way. Finding farms to host them and so much wood to burn would be difficult.

14 February 2012 (Fishing) Limiting fishing in the short term, so fisheries can recover, would provide long-term benefits greater than the EU's fishing subsidies.

11 February 2012 (Obama Drones) The New York Times quoted a government official who insinuated that anyone counting civilian casualties of Obama's drone missile raids must be a supporter of al Qa'ida. Since giving support to al Qa'ida is illegal in the US, I wonder how long it will take before the US lays charges against those journalists.

11 February 2012 (WIPO) WIPO seems to be secretly planning something nasty, through a meeting that has been set up in just the way to spring a bad treaty on the world. The most subtle form of harm done by WIPO is encouraging people to warp their idea of copyright law, patent law, and several other laws by generalizing about them through the term "intellectual property".

11 February 2012 (Miami Thugs) Miami thugs singled out one journalist at a protest for no obvious reason, arrested him on false charges, then deleted his video to cover up their lies. However, he recovered the deleted video which proved what really happened.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

11 February 2012 (Nevada City) Nevada City thugs pulled a driver out of his car, thinking he was drunk, and began kicking him on the ground.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] In fact, he was not drunk. He was being affected by diabetes. He sued the city. Suppose the driver had turned out to be drunk — he would deserve to be charged with drunk driving, but that can't justify kicking him as he lies on the street.

11 February 2012 (Saudi Arabia) Saudi Arabia used Interpol to get Hamza Kashgari arrested in Malaysia, so that he will be extradited to Saudi Arabia to face execution for his words.

11 February 2012 (Nicaragua) Nicaragua's green energy projects will take the country from almost total dependence on imported oil to making over 90% of its electricity from renewables, by 2016. Why can't the US do what Nicaragua has done? Partly it is because the US uses a lot more energy per capita, and has already constructed the obvious hydroelectric facilities. But partly it is because the oil and coal copanies would veto it. The US lacks sufficient democracy to have any vision.

11 February 2012 (Contraception) Obama gave right-wing antiabortionists a "compromise" which in practice protected employees' abortion coverage, but would offer Catholic hospitals a way to say it wasn't through them. If these antiabortionists were inclined to be satisfied with a symbolic concession, this would have been clever. But they are pushy, and this demand was only a step in their larger campaign to abolish contraception. Naturally they say it is not enough. I am concerned that Obama's clever compromise has undermined the defense of contraception rights by suggesting that these absurd demands were worthy of some sort of consideration. The issue is about religious institutions tat do secular work. For instance, Catholic hospitals hire non-Catholics to do a non-religious job. They should not be allowed to impose the Church's rules on their staff.

11 February 2012 (Maldives Protest) Thousands of people in the Maldives protested in favor of the elected president Nasheed.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] (5000 people would be 1% of the population.) The US, which had immediately legitimized the coup, has retreated from that position.

11 February 2012 (Romania Blizzard) A tremendous blizzard fell on Romania. Someone there I know reports that 60,000 people are trapped in freezing houses, and that the government is doing nothing to rescue people in the districts that voted for the opposition.

11 February 2012 (Republican Convention) Are billionaires aiming for a brokered Republican convention with a super PAC that only pretends to be for Romney? There is reason to be suspicious, but I am not sure it's true. The executives of that super PAC are Romney's close political supporters and it seems unlikely they would all be betraying him for the Koch brothers.

11 February 2012 (Worried Iran ) Iranian officials are concerned that the US may soon be capable of building its 8500th nuclear weapon. (This is satire of course, but just barely.)

11 February 2012 (Senator Lieberman) Senator Lieberman has proposed a resolution calling on Obama to insist on a probably unattainable goal in any negotiation with Iran. In other words, block the path of negotiation and assure a war.

11 February 2012 (Argentina Card System) Argentina has imposed a system of cards for trains and buses which require identification and track everyone. Argentinos should resist the government's distraction issues and mobilize to demand anonymous SUBE cards. And until they win, they should swap cards to defeat the surveillance.

11 February 2012 (Obama And Banksters) Obama has made a deal with the banksters, which will require them to pay the wrongfully foreclosed homeowners about 1% of their losses.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] The banks that got bailouts of $700 billion will have to pay only $25 billion. It's clear whose side Obama is on.

11 February 2012 (Super PAC) Obama decided to start a super PAC, which Russ Feingold calls a "a legalized Abramoff system". The danger is not that Obama might sell out to corporate interests: he has little unsold merchandise left. The danger, rather, is that it reduces the chances of fixing the problem of super PACs.

11 February 2012 (Immigration Law) In some states, utility companies, public libraries and even food stamp distribution are demanding proof of citizenship.

11 February 2012 (Greek Government) The Greek government agreed to more austerity, but the promised bailout won't be enough to overcome the damage done by the austerity.

10 February 2012 (Suspended Judge) Judge Garzon was suspended for 11 years (probably, in effect, for life) for ordering surveillance of conversations between right-wing politicians accused of corruption and their lawyers. It was wrong for him to do that, just as it's wrong when the US does that in Guantanamo. The prosecution of those people has to be dropped if they can't have fair trials (which would require disregarding what was learned from that surveillance). Whether this calls for suspending Judge Garzon, I am not sure. However, if Garzon is punished but the following judge that continued the policy is not punished, that demonstrates a political vendetta.

10 February 2012 (Indiana Law) An absurd Indiana law restricts using celebrities' mannerisms (or their names or faces)) for 100 years after their death. Now Indiana proposes to extend it to celebrities that died before 1994. Elvis impersonators may be boring, but should they be the subject of lawsuits? Should videos of Elvis impersonators be censored? If US sites outside Indiana can be sued because their videos can be viewed in Indiana, they will delete such videos. However, I don't know whether this law bans videos of impersonators. It is not copyright law, and I don't know how broad its requirements are. (Can anyone tell me?) This demonstrates the harm done by the term "intellectual property", which leads attention away from the details that make these laws totally different issues.

10 February 2012 (Dividing Schoolchidren) In a study comparing many countries, dividing schoolchidren into groups by ability goes with lower overall achievement.

10 February 2012 (Maldive Islands) President Nasheed of the Maldive Islands, a long-term democracy campaigner compared to Mandela, has been overthrown in a military coup. Jill Stein said that the oil companies will rejoice. Nasheed campaigned strongly against global heating, which threatens to convert the Maldive Islands into the Dive Islands. I wonder if some government, perhaps the US or India, arranged this coup on behalf of the oil companies.

10 February 2012 (Iranian Scientists) The US says that Israel is working with the Mujahedin-e Khalq to kill Iranian scientists.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] The US has designated the Mujahedin-e Khalq a "terrorist group". There is a well-funded campaign to remove this designation, based on the claim that the Mujahedin-e Khalq no longer practices violence. If the group is working on attacks, that's clearly not true. Are these attacks properly considered terrorism? I'm not sure, because they are a borderline case. I call them low-level war, but when is war "terrorism"? One suggestion is, terrorism is when civilians are targeted. I am not convinced that scientists in projects that develop advanced weapons capabilities should be considered civilians. However, appointed officials should never be the ones to decide such questions. Banning any organization other than through a fair trial is tyranny.

10 February 2012 (Brazil Sued Twitter) Brazil has sued Twitter demanding it censor messages saying where checkpoints for drunk drivers are.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] I never drink as much as a full glass of wine, but even totally sober I would not like to be stopped by a checkpoint.

10 February 2012 (Fox-Werritty) Although the UK's "investigation" into the Fox-Werritty scandal was purposefully incomplete, there is evidence Werrity was given inexplicable high priority by officials. This suggests he was doing something of great consequence, which might be a great scandal if it were known. Whoever was behind this has surely not stopped it. Someone else must have replaced Werritty.

9 February 2012 (US Drones) Drones operating from aircraft carriers, and other military plans, will enable the US to attack anyone anywhere at any time.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] And then, no doubt, claim that whoever was hit was a "terrorist".

9 February 2012 (Copyright Infringement) Copyright infringement is not theft — not under US law. Everyone who refers to it as "theft" is spewing false propaganda.

9 February 2012 (John Catt) Persistent nonviolent protester John Catt sued the UK state for keeping a dossier on him.

9 February 2012 (Corrupted Sarkozy) Sarkozy's former minister has been charged with illegally receiving lots of cash for Sarkozy's campaign in 2007.

9 February 2012 (Workers Rights) The AFL-CIO called on Obama to postpone the US-Colombia free exploitation treaty after murders of union leaders showed that Colombia hasn't implemented the requirements to protect workers' rights.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Obama does not give high priority to people who resist businesses; if he did, he would not be in favor of free exploitation treaties. But he sees a need to pretend to care, and maybe something can be achieved by pressuring him about it.

9 February 2012 (Qaida Overestimated) A Pentagon official says that the US overestimated al Qa'ida's capabilities after September 2001. So when will we reduce the nasty "security" measures against an imaginary future attack?

9 February 2012 (Iran Sanctions) The sanctions against Iran fail mainly on ordinary people — for instance, on food. Iran is not democratic enough for these people to convince the regime to make a concession, even if they wanted to. But I don't think they will want to, at least not soon.

9 February 2012 (Himalayas) A new study found that ice in the Himalayas has not decreased in recent years. However, the world's overall ice loss in Greenland, Antarctica and elsewhere was confirmed.

9 February 2012 (Deport Abu Qatada) The reason Abu Qatada can't be deported to Jordan is that he might be convicted based on evidence extracted from others via torture. Bush is indirectly responsible for this problem. By making torture the official practice of the US, he encouraged it around the world. He even pressured countries to reduce their protections for human rights (one of them being Morocco). It will take a long time to overcome the damage Bush did to the world, and Obama doesn't even try.

9 February 2012 (Us Terrorism) Terrorism in the US is a small danger. This means that the US gave al Qa'ida an avoidable victory through its overreaction. It also means that there is not even a shadow of a justification for the assaults on human rights done in the name of "terrorism".

9 February 2012 (Egypt) Amnesty International says Egypt should stop trying to prosecute the staff of foreign-funded NGOs. The US-funded IRI and NDI may be up to no good, but banning (or effectively banning) foreign-funded human rights organizations is dangerous, as can be seen in Israel where the government wants to prevent human rights organizations from operating using foreign funds.

9 February 2012 (Bahrain) US condemnation of Assad's massacres in Syria would carry more moral weight if the US applied the same principles to its ally in Bahrain. Bahrain has blocked the entry of human rights observers.

9 February 2012 (Abu Qatada) The UK government wants to deport jihadist Abu Qatada to Jordan, but can't do so because he might be prosecuted on evidence obtained by torture. His "bail" amounts to 90% house arrest. The claim that this man is "dangerous to Britain" is absurd. Supposing there is evidence that he plans some sort of terrorism, that would convince a court to approve any and all sorts of surveillance of him. It is ridiculous to think that he could organize any substantial act of violence under such circumstances. If he tried, that would be a real crime and would be a basis to imprison him without trampling human rights.

9 February 2012 (Military Spending) Why military spending makes few jobs, and other ways to spend the same money make more jobs.

8 February 2012 (Trademark Law) Trademark law is supposed to protect buyers from inferior imitation products, but it does no good when the trademark holders produce the inferior imitation products. The article refers to a book called "Against Intellectual Property". I have never seen it, so I don't know what points it makes, and I have no opinion about them. However, since "intellectual property" is a misguided overgeneralization, it is just as foolish to be against "it" as to be for "it".

8 February 2012 (Killed Prisoner) Investigating a prisoner killed by UK troops in the Bush forces has partly exposed a CIA-related US torture squad. Ben Griffin, who tried to inform the public about torture, was a hero. If the UK still has him gagged, he should flee to Argentina and speak out.

8 February 2012 (Teaspoons) Teaspoons are "drug paraphernalia". The ban on drug paraphernalia — even real drug paraphernalia — is one of the injustices of having a war that's on drugs.

8 February 2012 (ACTA Protests) Protests against ACTA have spread around Europe. I think the article is mistaken about ACTA's effect on the US. Obama said he personally could approve it because (he claims) it requires no changes in US law. If that's true, it means that ACTA has imposed unjust US laws on other countries. However, if ACTA calls for changes in US laws, they would need congressional approval.

8 February 2012 (Susan G Komen) An anti-abortion executive of Susan G Komen foundation resigned. Furthermore, she contradicted the founder's claim not to have included her in the decision to defund Planned Parenthood.

8 February 2012 (Craig Murray) Craig Murray's freedom of information request was answered with the entire substance deleted. But, through an error, it proves that officials lied to the investigation of the Gould/Werrity scandal.

8 February 2012 (Czech ACTA) The Czech government has suspended ratification of ACTA.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] This means it is feeling the pressure, but it is not yet a victory.

8 February 2012 (US Savings) One way to increase the US' savings rate is by increasing the capital gains tax.

8 February 2012 (Vietnam GMO) Monsanto gave the Vietnamese Agent Orange. Now it wants to give them GMOs. It is ironic that the Vietnamese government, which triumphed over the US and Monsanto in a long war, now sells itself and the Vietnamese people to the US and to a national corporations, and even to the WTO.

8 February 2012 (Banned Gay Marriage) A federal appeals court ruled that California's initiative that banned gay marriage is unconstitutional because it has no purpose except to discriminate against gays.

8 February 2012 (Putin) Putin has a group of paid Internet astroturfers whose job is to give the impression that just about everyone in Russia admires him.

8 February 2012 (UK Unemployment) The UK has 2.7 million unemployed people seeking jobs, and only 460 thousand job openings, but a reality-defying right-wing minister says they could all find jobs if they were willing to work.

8 February 2012 (Urgent: Russian Freedom) Everyone: oppose the law proposed in St Petersburg that would ban writing or speaking about being gay.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

8 February 2012 (Urgent: Breast Cancer) In the US: call on the Susan G Komen foundation to commit to funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

7 February 2012 (Craig Murray) Craig Murray on Syria: NATO's stretching of the UN resolution on Libya have made Russia and China wary of similar stretching. I believe the intervention in Libya was justified and necessary, but NATO wrongfully stretched its mandate, especially toward the end. The fact that there are still injustices in Libya doesn't alter this conclusion.

7 February 2012 (Students Computers) Computers for students make no difference in learning skills, but they are great for diverting public funds to tech companies instead of teachers. The article does not mention that computers in schools often have proprietary software with malicious features, making them an injustice, or that e-textbooks are likely to be DRM-ridden.

7 February 2012 (Privacy) The harm that web sites' "real name" policies can do. As far as I know, the Korean policy has not yet been changed.

6 February 2012 (Drones) Drone bombers encourage the US to attack in places where it would otherwise not attack at all. In October a US drone killed a human rights worker investigating the damage done by drones, but the US government still pretends that this never happens.

6 February 2012 (Obama Iran War) Obama says that the US and Israel are in "lockstep" regarding war with Iran. Since he has already renouced te idea of stopping Israel from attacking Iran, the implication is that he will let Israel decide whether to drag the US into war.

6 February 2012 (UK Government) The UK government has demonized the disabled , as an excuse to cut welfare for them, and the result is that its supporters revile them on the street.

6 February 2012 (China Carbon Tax) China says it will forbid Chinese airlines to pay EU's carbon tax. The idea that the EU needs to "negotiate" about this leaves me puzzled and worried. The EU's response should be straightforward: nobody forces those airlines to fly to European cities. Why is there anything to negotiate? And does that negotiation mean China and the US can force the EU to back off environmental protection?

6 February 2012 (Burma Election) Aung San Suu Kyi will be allowed to run in Burma's election. This election is for only 1/10 of the seats in Parliament. One question not clear in the article is, how many seats in Parliament will her party be allowed to contest fairly in a future election? This system could be like that of Hong Kong, set up so that the people have great hurdles against them.

5 February 2012 (Profitable Fisheries) Sustainable management has made fisheries more profitable. It was clear this had to be true in the long run, since after overfishing makes the fish disappear, nobody can catch them. The question is whether humanity is smart enough to choose the long run.

5 February 2012 (Global Trade) The ideology of global trade is endangering food production and impoverishing the poor. It could stir up massive riots. The proposed agreement between India and the EU will surely have many unjust, antidemocratic provisions aside from crushing 14 million chicken farmers in India. Just about every "free-trade" agreement attacks democracy, and nowadays they typically give corporations power over laws. Most attack the rights of Internet users too.

5 February 2012 (Cambodia) Cambodia has kicked hundreds of thousands of citizens out of their homes and lands, for development projects. These projects aim to make lots of money, and could afford to pay poor people for their homes, but the rich are so greedy they would prefer to screw the poor.

5 February 2012 (US Drones) The US plans to fly drones over Iraq and didn't bother to ask the government of Iraq, which objects. Dubya said he would give Iraq freedom and democracy. The government of Iraq seems to be capable of saying no to the US, and it was elected in a more or less democratic fashion, but it is rather corrupt and suppress political opposition. Police/thugs arrest people just for ransom. I don't think most of the Iraqis driven from their homes by the sectarian war have been able to return home. Thus, Iraq remains worse off than it was under Saddam Hussein.

5 February 2012 (Cybersecurity) The FBI Director said that cybersecurity threats "will" be bigger than terrorism as the greatest threat to America. Congress, naturally, is considering a cybersecurity bill that could increase the general effective level of Internet surveillance in the US. What the director says is not about real threats; it's about the threats the FBI would like us to worry about. I think that the banksters, the Keystone XL planet-roaster pipeline, free exploitation treaties, and government are all bigger dangers, but he probably did not have them on his list.

5 February 2012 (Obama Iran) Obama is pressuring Iran by pointing at Israel's threats of an overt military attack. I don't see anything wrong with this pressure tactic. What worries me is that Obama is not making sure Israel won't launch a war.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.]

5 February 2012 (Penn State) Global heating deniers are pressuring Penn State University to cancel a speech by a prominent climate scientist. The campaign is run by a business-funded disinformation group. Once again, it accuses honest scientists of forming a conspiracy because it really did so.

5 February 2012 (Madrid Thugs) Madrid thugs attacked protesters, and journalists that took photos of them, and passersby who criticized that. Some of the people attacked had entered the metro without paying, as a form of civil disobedience. I don't think that the penalty for that is a beating in the metro.

5 February 2012 (Russia Protests) Despite extreme cold, a hundred thousand Russians protested Putin. Americans; when will you get off your asses and protest in large numbers?

4 February 2012 (Iranian Regime) The Iranian regime is threatening relatives of the staff of the BBC Persian service. The BBC is sometimes biased, but whatever bad things it says about the regime in Iran are surely true. However, even a totally dishonest channel such as Faux News should not be censored, and certainly not attacked by hostage-taking. Iran is not the only country that tramples the religious freedom of people who were formerly Muslims. Malaysia is one example but other Muslim countries do it too.

4 February 2012 (Climate Scientists) Real climate scientists refuted the Wall Street Journal op/ed in which a number of scientists (mostly from othher fields) said global heating was nothing to worry about. Here's the op/ed they responded to.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Note the true but irrelevant statements about CO2. "Plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today" — I don't know whether that's true, but it was hundreds of millions of years ago. Today's species and ecosystem are adapted to the CO2 levels they have evolved under. Half of the signatories of that letter are funded by oil companies.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] This may explain why they make the absurd claim that most climate scientists are conspiring to lie, merely to get grants. They are part of a funded conspiracy to deny global heating, so that's the accusation that occurs to them to make against others.

4 February 2012 (Foundation) The Susan G Koman foundation now says it won't say whether it will fund Planned Parenthood again. We are supposed to think that this reverses their decision to cut off that funding, but actually it only means they might reverse it later. Or they might not.

4 February 2012 (Checking Messages) Checking email or other messages can be seriously addictive. I'm not convinced by the argument that they are harder to resist than tobacco or alcohol. If people resist them less often, because there is less motivation to resist them, that doesn't prove they are "hard to resist". However, that doesn't invalidate the rest.

4 February 2012 (Syrian Dissidents) Syrian dissidents say Assad's army is shelling Homs, and has killed 200 or more civilians there in the latest attack.

4 February 2012 (Austerity) Greek workers and employers have rejected minimum wage cuts that the EU wants to impose. Austerity is targeted at the poorest. Greece could not meet its targets after the first "bailout". Apparently the plans did not take account of how the first dose of austerity would impact the economy and tax revenue. Maybe that was a mistake, or maybe it was a plan to impose austerity in multiple steps. Using multiple steps could undermine resistance since at no one time did people have a chance to say yes or no to the whole thing. Austerity is targeted at the poorest.

4 February 2012 (Monsanto) Farmers are suing Monsanto for unwanted genetic contamination of their organic crops. The danger is not only that Monsanto's patented artificial genes get into their crops, but that Monsanto then sues them.

4 February 2012 (War) Most Americans are against war with Iran. Even most Israelis are against it. That by itself won't stop politicians from starting a war.

4 February 2012 (Republicans) Republicans want to eliminate the agreed-on reductions in military budget increases that result from the deadlog of the supercommittee. That would get them what they always wanted: cuts only in goverment activities that benefit Americans.

4 February 2012 (Gas Tax) Republicans want to kill funds from the gas tax for buses and trains. Clearly they are doing this for the oil companies. They have a base cunning about tactics, but their goals are predictable: whatever will enrich the businesses in any area is their policy.

4 February 2012 (Bill C-11) The copyright industry wants to add SOPA-style outrages to the Canadian copyright bill C-11. Even worse, Canada's government is desperate to undermine democracy by signing the TPP free exploitation treaty. Absurdly, it is so desperate that the copyright industry is using this as a lever to impose nastier copyright laws. Canadians should tell their government, don't sign the TPP. The article would be clearer if it did not use the confusing term "intellectual property" which lumps together unrelated laws.

4 February 2012 (Breast Cancer Organization) One of the board members of Susan G Koman is connected with "crisis pregnancy centers" that lure in women and give them false information in order to discourage abortion. In particular, they make the false claim that abortion causes breast cancer.

4 February 2012 (South Korean) A South Korean faces imprisonment for repeating North Korea's Twitter postings. That he probably intended to mock those posts adds a level of self-defeating stupidity to the accusations, but even if he had meant them seriously, to censor an opinion is tyranny. It is tyranny to censors support for North Korea (as South Korea does). It is tyranny to censor Nazism (as France and Germany do). Respect for freedom of speech means respecting the freedom to state even views you detest.

4 February 2012 (Privacy) The FBI to Internet cafes: when customers try to protect their privacy, consider them terrorist suspects. When customers don't try to protect their privacy, consider them sitting ducks.

4 February 2012 (Phone Application) A phone application sends photo and location information about a crime to the police. Don't believe it is anonymous; the phone company can tell the police who sent it. If the criminal is one of them, they could come after you.

4 February 2012 (Tax Sugar) A proposal to regulate and tax sugar like tobacco and alcohol. As a sugar addict, I don't relish the thought of being asked to show ID when I buy candy. However, I agree it would be good to do something to discourage sugar consumption. I think that a plausible tax would not be enough to decrease the amount of sugar used in restaurant food.

4 February 2012 (No-fly List) The US no-fly list has doubled in size in the past year. The US also uses this as a way of exiling citizens, without trial and without admitting it. The US admits that some are on the list solely to hamper their travel and not because of any expectation that they would try to endanger a flight. There is no excuse for the no-fly list.

4 February 2012 (Rap Group) When rap group After the Smoke posted its own performance on YouTube, Universal Music took it down with a false copyright claim. These bullies enjoy impunity when they falsely use the power they have. They should not be given any additional power. When they ask us what we propose instead of SOPA to "solve their problems", the answer is, "Nothing — you have too much already. We must reduce existing copyright power."

4 February 2012 (Drug Tests) US politicians love bashing Americans with drug tests, unless they have to get tested too. Welfare in the US is only available to single parents, and only for a limited time. There is no rational reason for drug testing welfare applicants, especially not for recreational drugs that don't cost much and have no effect on their ability to handle their responsibilities. However, it is great as a distraction so people won't focus on how corporations are robbing them.

4 February 2012 (The Pirate Bay) The founders of the Pirate Bay will have to go to prison, as Swedish courts accepted the argument that posting links to copyright infringement is a crime.

4 February 2012 (Wars) Obama's weak restraint on Israel: if Israel attacks Iran, the US won't join in.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] Previous US presidents told Israel not to start wars. They were able to do this because Israel depends on US support.

4 February 2012 (Romney) Romney is using the old right-win trick of offering a big tax cut to the rich plus an insignificant tax cut for everyone else. The main effect on everyone else would come from the consequent tremendous budget cuts.

4 February 2012 (Mobile Phone) A bill in Congress would make a small improvement in privacy for US mobile phone users. Phones would not be allowed to send information to anyone except the phone company. This would not affect Big Brother's ability to find out your present and past whereabouts, so it won't alter my decision not to carry one of these.

3 February 2012 (Urgent: ACTA) US citizens: Obama's men are working on the successor of ACTA, once again negotiated secretly with manufacturers. Phone or fax Vice President Biden to pressure him to try to stop it.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-22 because the old link was broken.] The negotiators and their flunkies lie routinely just to keep activists out of the hotels where they are meeting. Whatever they are planning, we know it will harm us and undermine democracy. That's what "free trade" treaties are for, and this one will aim to go further than any other before.

2 February 2012 (US Imprisonment) A US appeals court ruled that Americansn have no legal resource if they are arrested in the US, handed over to the army without a trial, and tortured in prison. This is especially dangerous given the law, passed by Congress and signed by Obama, allowing imprisonment without trial. It not only "can happen here", it is already happening.

2 February 2012 (Democracy) London's new bylaws for Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square, imposed in honor of the Olympic Games, ban carrying signs and making speeches. This continues a decades-long trend to ban protests and convert democracy into a sham. An earlier step was the creation of the crime of "aggravated trespass" which basically means "protesting which wasn't illegal for any other reason."

2 February 2012 (US Healthcare) Why do Americans pay 3 or 4 times as much for medical treatment as other advanced countries? Follow the bills.

2 February 2012 (US Poverty) Taxing the rich is not enough — the US needs to redirect spending towards helping the poor instead of arms and war.

2 February 2012 (UK Infiltrators) A UK report proposes to continue sending police to infiltrate protest groups, only with a little more supervision. Perhaps they won't be allowed to have children with real activists.

2 February 2012 (London Stock Exchange) A group of Britons plead guilty to plans to set off bombs, including some in the London Stock Exchange. The UK needs to crush the London Stock Exchange, which is the main obstacle to restored democracy there, but a bomb in its building would not do the job.

1 February 2012 (Foreclosure Fraud) Why so much foreclosure fraud? One explanation is that banks began using mortgages as tokens for short-term trading, and in order to do so, they had to violate legal requirements for assigning mortgages.

1 February 2012 (Limits To Growth) The conclusions of The Limits to Growth, that economic growth cannot continue indefinitely, are being ignored by the world. In the short term, economic growth can end the fiscal crisis. But in the long term we need to adapt to a world without growth. I think that stabilizing and then decreasing the population is the way to do it without poverty.

1 February 2012 (Taliban Prisoners) NATO's Taliban prisoners think that the Taliban will oust Karzai after NATO troops leave. I share their expectations. The Taliban are tyrants, and not only towards women, but Karzai's corrupt regime cannot hold on to anything, and there is no use propping it up forever by perpetual war.

1 February 2012 (US Drones Pakistan) Amnesty International says the US must disclose its policies about drone attacks in Pakistan. Obama admitted that these are being used to attack in Pakistan, won't allow any discussion about the details, and expects us to take his word that the US is not killing lots of bystanders.

1 February 2012 (Occupy Retrospection) A comparison between Occupy in 2011 and ACT UP in the 80s shows the US is systematically squeezing the right to protest, and aiming a military response at dissent. Naomi Wolf calls it the beginning of a civil war.

1 February 2012 (Obama Prepares To War) Obama seems to be preparing for war with Iran. His intelligence director openly accused Iran of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US, which seemed implausible from the outset. I don't think the Iranian regime would scruple to kill someone, but this assassination would onlyt have done it harm.

1 February 2012 (Obama Skulks) Obama ducked responsibility for the attempt to extradite and prosecute Richard O'Dwyer for running a search engine in the UK. He says he played no role in choosing that particular target. That may well be true, but why did the Department of Justice decide to pursue someone like O'Dwyer? Is it because Obama appointed several lawyers from the music and movie companies to important jobs in that department? If so, he is directly responsible for the wrong, even if he did not choose the victim. His use of the propaganda term "intellectual property" instead of "copyright" is further propaganda for their side.

1 February 2012 (Iran Democracy) Iran's phony democracy is imprisoning union organizers. Ultimately there is not much difference between the Islamic Republic and fascism (which Mussolini said could have been called "corporatism").

1 February 2012 (Thug Department) New Yorkers in the South Bronx rallied against the New York Thug Department's practice of searching people on the street without specific cause. Note how the thugs create excuses to arrest people that they are beating up.

1 February 2012 (Destroy America) A UK resident citizen who joked he would "destroy America" (UK slang for have a party) and "dig up Marilyn Monroe") in LA was treated as a real terrorist and blocked from entering the US. They even searched his girlfriend's baggage for shovels. When US border agents tell us how much they do to keep us "safe", I am sure they will count him as one of the people they protected us from. This reminds me of when the Australian TV producer tried to go to LA to "shoot a pilot", and the border numbskulls thought he meant he would kill someone.

1 February 2012 (Urgent: STOCK Act) US citizens: support the STOCK act, which would make it illegal for congresscritters and senators to do stock trading based on their knowledge of upcoming legislative action.

31 January 2012 (Egypt Employees) Employees in Egypt of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute have taken refuge in the US embassy. I would not describe the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute as working for democracy and human rights. At least, not always. Sometimes they are instruments of US policy. For instance, they were willing to monitor the election in Honduras, where the violence of the coup-installed government made a fair election impossible even if votes were counted correctly, even as all other international organizations refused to grant the election that legimacy. This clearly reflected US support for the coup. However, if there is anyone in Egypt that the US would support, it is the generals that closed these organizations. Given their past and present relations with the US, I suspect this is a political ploy.

31 January 2012 (Euro-zone) The Euro-zone has agreed to tie its hands, so that its only response to recession will be austerity and more recession.

31 January 2012 (Fadhila Mubarak) Amnesty International calls Fadhila Mubarak a prisoner of conscience. She was sentenced to prison in Bahrain for the crime of protesting.

31 January 2012 (FDA Spies) The FDA spied on the email of whistleblowers who told Congress about wrongdoing inside the agency. It is legitimate, in general, for the FDA monitor what is done with FDA computers. But it must not harass or fire whistleblowers no matter how it finds out about them.

31 January 2012 (Movie Pirates) Today's movie pirates are the 6 major companies that dominate Hollywood.

[Reference updated on 2018-02-21 because the old link was broken. The below paragraph comments on the original article.] The page segues into a series of rants, but the first part is interesting. One flaw is that it uses the term "intellectual property", which promotes the spin of the companies that it criticizes.

31 January 2012 (US Drones Iraq) Iraqis, in government and on the street, are outraged over unauthorized US drone flights. The Pentagon invites students to develop better drones. If any of these ideas is applicable to civilian life, they won't do us much good since the Pentagon will own them. It would be good for people to protest this program to the schools involved.

31 January 2012 (Pesticides) The pesticide imidacloprid is suspected of causing the collapse of honey bee hives. In an experiment, it tripled the probability that bees got infected by a fungus.

31 January 2012 (Urgent: Indians) Indians: write to your state's chief minister to oppose the BRAI bill that would end states' power to block GMOs.

31 January 2012 (Human Rigths Watch) Human Rigths Watch: Indonesia should drop charges against Papuan activists, and stop punishing political activity as "treason". Some were accused of reading a declaration of independence for West Papua, which was made from 1961. Can anyone tell me what country West Papua declared independence from? Was it Indonesia, or the Netherlands? The declaration of independence they read was for indepenendence from the Netherlands.

30 January 2012 (Indonesia Protests) Protesters in Indonesia have pressured the state to promise to cancel plans for a gold mine that could pollute their land. However, the inhabitants don't trust the government to carry through on this cancellation.

30 January 2012 (Japan Nuclear Inspections) A Japanese nuclear engineer says that the recent safety inspections of Japanese nuclear plants were not adequate.

30 January 2012 (Wildlife Protection) The World Society for the Protection of Animals will fund a London police unit aimed specifically at organized wildlife trafficking Hardened wildlife traffickers are just as bad as hardened banksters. So I approve of this plan. But the banksters must not be left out.

30 January 2012 (Tortured Pakistani MD) The Pakistani MD who helped the US find Osama bin Laden was imprisoned and tortured in Pakistan. The fake vaccination scheme seems to have been wrong, because it sowed distrust of real vaccination projects. Maybe this should be a crime, but it apparently isn't. In any case, imprisonment without trial, and torture, are just as wrong when Pakistan does them as when the US does them. If the US consistently opposed torture, and didn't practice torture, it would be in a stronger position to criticize the torture of its friends. It would also perhaps deserve admiration and support.

30 January 2012 (Occupy Arrests Oakland) The Oakland thugs arrested everyone they found at the Occupy protest, even the journalists. This is the report of one of them.

30 January 2012 (ACTA Protest) There were protests against ACTA as most European governments signed it. You can tell that ACTA is bad at the root because it claims to be against "counterfeiting" but represses sharing between individuals. You can see more of this mean-spirited propaganda in the way the Guardian described the treaty: Acta is a far-reaching agreement that aims to harmonize international standards on protecting the rights of those who produce music, movies, pharmaceuticals, fashion, and a range of other products that often fall victim to intellectual property theft. "Protect" is propaganda, using "rights" to describe private privilege and not users' rights is too. Using "intellectual property" to refer to various laws is always misleading, since it reifies a generalization that is misguided. The idea that there could be "theft" of this imaginary something is even more twisted. This is the language that the proponents of ACTA use to muddle thinking about what they want. There is still a chance to defeat ACTA by convincing the European Parliament not to sign it.

30 January 2012 (Water Pollution) 49 million Americans are at risk that a nuclear power plant accident could pollute their drinking water. This includes the water supplies of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Cleveland and Detroit.

30 January 2012 (Occupy Protesters Arrested) Oakland thugs arrested 300 Occupy protesters who were marching. The mayor and the city endorse the democracy-suppression agenda that equates protesters to "terrorists". This agenda plans for the US to remain democratic in form, but all avenues to reach a substantial number of people with ideas that the 1% don't approve will be shut off one by one.

30 January 2012 (France Bans Genocide Denial) The French government has voted to ban another historical opinion: denial of the genocide of the Armenians. This lowers France to the same level as Turkey, which has convicted people for acknowledging the genocide of the Armenians. In Turkey, to affirm the genocide is heroic. In France, under this law, it will be as worthless as any statement dictated by the state. Ironically, this law will make it impossible to affirm the genocide in France with seriousness. Where denying a position is banned, affirmation of that position is a ritual of conformity rather than a real statement of belief. Freedom-loving people in France who do not wish to deny the genocide (for instance, because they agree that it occurred) must object to any any attempt to raise in France the issue of what happened to the Armenians: "Where we are forbidden to discuss this with integrity, we could only have a sham discussion. Let us talk about this issue only outside France." I hope the lack of diplomatic relations between France and Turkey will not stop them from exchanging political prisoners: Turks who affirm the genocide and Frenchman who deny it.

30 January 2012 (Tibet Protests) Tibetans held public protests and Chinese suppression forces shot them. Like thugs anywhere, the Chinese said the protesters started the fight.

29 January 2012 (Twitter Censorship) An EFF article which argues that Twitter's per-country censorship is benign actual explains exactly why it is dangerous. The EFF has missed the crucial consequence of the information given. At present, Twitter need only obey court orders from the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Japan. Without this handy per-country censorship feature, Twitter would hesitate to open an office in Turkey and make itself vulnerable to orders to censor criticism of Ataturk. With no office in Turkey, if Turkey ordered Twitter to censor such material, Twitter could disregard it. And if Thailand tried to order Twitter to censor criticism of the King of Thailand, Twitter could shrug it off. If Mubarak, in January 2011, ordered Twitter to delete a tweet criticizing him, Twitter could shrug it off. Mubarak was led to try to block access to such sites by shutting down the Internet in Egypt because he could not censor selectively. Now, however, there is nothing to discourage Twitter from opening an office in Turkey and censoring people there, opening an office in Thailand and censoring people there, and opening an office in the next Egypt and censoring people there.

29 January 2012 (Gingrich) In 1981, Gingrich advocated legalizing marijuana. In 1996, he proposed to execute anyone importing a couple of ounces and said that marijuana was "destroying our children". He smoked marijuana, and reconciled this with his draconian law by saying that marijuana was moral for him and immoral for those of the 90s. Next he will blame this lack of political constancy on the marijuana he smoked, but I think it is a lack of moral fiber.

29 January 2012 (US Finance) The US financial sector has grown to 8% of the economy, and political donations from rich banksters have shot from 15 million in 1990 to 178 million in 2010. This is how they eliminated the regulations meant to prevent the crisis and how they prevented new regulations to stop another.

29 January 2012 (Portuguese Collecting Society) The Portuguese collecting society that pretends to represent authors advocates a new tax on blank disks to further subsidize that society. It claimed support from 100 authors, but some of them never gave permission to use their names.

29 January 2012 (Condemning Muslims Video) The New York Thug Commissioner participated in making a video condemning Muslims, then lied about it. I have no information except this article about that video, so I don't know whether it was racist hate, but lying about it is intolerable in a city official either way.

29 January 2012 (Apple Workers Boycott) The cost of globalizating trade policies: 60% of Apple's factory subcontractors make people work more than 60 hours a week. Even if that were reduced to zero, it is a tremendous step backward in working conditions compared with former production in the US. It was made possible by government decisions and treaties, which were themselves purchased by the megacorporations that take advantage of them.

29