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Glossary

31 October 2018 (Urgent: Atena Daemi) Everyone: call on Iran to free and pardon Atena Daemi. If you sign, please spread the word!

31 October 2018 (Imitation cannabis) New Zealand prohibited so-called "synthetic cannabis", which then became extremely fatal, apparently as a consequence of prohibition. "Synthetic" is a misnomer; "artificial imitation" would fit these drugs better, since they are not the same psychoactive chemicals found in real marijuana. It appears they are addictive. It is not stated what "urgent action" is being considered, but I doubt that they include any sort of legalization or partial legalization, even though those measures could make the drug less dangerous and less appealing to young people.

31 October 2018 (Greenhouse gas commitments) The US is not, in fact, carrying out its totally inadequate greenhouse gas commitments made under the Paris Climate Agreement.

31 October 2018 (Bridge from Hong Kong) China has constructed a 34-mile-long sea bridge from Hong Kong to Zhuhai for use only by selected individuals China wants to single out for reward. As a transportation system, it will be a waste of money. As an instrument of influence over Hong Kong, it may prove effective. Wealthy Chinese compete for status, and part of this competition might be shelling out lots of money so as to win qualifications to be permitted the use of the bridge.

31 October 2018 (Enabling Saudi crimes) The West Enabled Khashoggi's Demise — Not To Mention All the Other Saudi Crimes.

31 October 2018 (LA teacher strike) Los Angeles teachers have voted to strike, and not only about their salaries.

31 October 2018 (Marijuana in South Korea) South Korea threatens to imprison South Koreans for using marijuana even if they do it in places where it is legal to do so. I dislike this article greatly. It asserts that South Koreans couldn't possibly use marijuana in defiance of that law. And it seems to endorse the idea that that law makes the South Koreans wrong for using marijuana, rather than making the country wrong for having the law.

31 October 2018 (Deporting from Mexico) Amnesty International: Mexico must not deport anyone to Honduras or Guatemala who would face danger there.

31 October 2018 (US mass media) No matter that the US mass media are so right-wing that they praise plans to cut back on civil rights for queer people, the right-wingers claim the mass media have a "Liberal bias".

31 October 2018 (Coal mines in Wales) Wales will pledge not to open any new coal mines. Most coal mining in the UK, perhaps all, was shut down in the 1980s because the underground mines were more expensive than blowing off mountaintops in Appalachia. Wales has also banned fracking.

31 October 2018 (Examples of democracy) Many examples demonstrate that humans can practice democracy and make it work. The US is having trouble because Americans have not recognized that they need to unite to take power away from the plutocrats.

31 October 2018 (Performance in Israel) Two New Zealanders that Israel tried to "fine" for urging a singer not to perform in Israel write to turn attention back to the real issue: the occupation of part of Palestine and the siege of the rest.

31 October 2018 (Microplastics in humans' stools) A sample suggests that 50% of humans have microplastics in their stools. They could cause medical problems, but we don't know.

31 October 2018 (Judge lobbied for by Kavanaugh) Kavanaugh Once Lobbied for Judge Now Handling Ethics Complaints against Him. Nowadays, Republicans scorn the idea of integrity. Is it possible that the other judge still has some?

31 October 2018 ("War on drugs") A study of international statistics shows that the "war on drugs" is "terrible at eradicating drugs, but great at upending societies."

31 October 2018 (Environmentalist group XR) The environmentalist group XR campaigns for efforts to curb global heating which are proportional to the gravity of the danger. Their protesters have occupied the Greenpeace UK headquarters to call attention to the fact that Greenpeace's campaigns don't demand enough to solve the problem.

31 October 2018 (Municipal plastic recycling) Municipal plastic recycling is, in many cases, a sham — nothing ensures that the plastic collected goes anywhere but a landfill or an ocean. If you reuse a carry bag, or refill your own water bottle, the reduction in plastic use is guaranteed.

31 October 2018 (Soldiers are not for policing) Bolsonaro says he would put the army on the streets of Brazil's cities. Soldiers are trained for war, not for policing. They would cause tremendous avoidable suffering simply by responding to confusing or alarming situations as if they were on a battlefield.

31 October 2018 (Cancelling the INF treaty) Experts say that cancelling the INF treaty is a misguided way to get Russia to comply with it.

31 October 2018 (Candidate records offers of corrupt deals) An Italian candidate for office made video recordings of corrupt deals he was offered — even selling votes.

31 October 2018 (Military + evangelicals) In Brazil as in the US, military + evangelicals = violent repression.

31 October 2018 (When a president spews contempt) With a president that spews contempt, civility may be too much to hope for. Bill McKibben says, how about if we stop threatening to kill each other?

30 October 2018 (Urgent: WATER act) US citizens: call on Congress to pass the WATER act (Water Affordability, Transparency Equity and Reliability Act, to provide Americans with what people in Flint and other cities don't have. If you sign, please spread the word!

30 October 2018 (Urgent: Carbon 'offsets') Everyone: call on California to reject unreliable "offsets" as an excuse for expanded fossil fuel extraction. If you sign, please spread the word!

30 October 2018 (Format for genomic data) MPEG is developing a new format for genomic data, which will be patented, and probably off-limits in the free world for 20 years. We should campaign for rejection of that format. The author thinks that some computational-idea patents might be legitimate. The reasons they are all harmful is that they create a form of gridlock — and that they usually exclude free software, since the developer must pay license fee per user. (We don't know how many users our programs have.) Therefore, we should protect the entire software field from the threat of patents. The author says he is not against "commercialisation" of software. Interpreting the term precisely, neither am I. I am not against profiting from software, as long as it respects users freedom (it is free/libre software). However, nothing can justify a program that takes away freedom from whoever uses it.

30 October 2018 (Surveillance equipment) Israel has built up the world's leading source of surveillance equipment, used by many unjust states to implement repression of dissidents, as well as groups such as queer folk that are persecuted out of sheer bigotry.

30 October 2018 (The bullshitter's lying) How Do You Write about Trump vs. Reality Without Saying 'Lie'? New York Times Shows The Way. We may not have absolute, direct proof that the bullshitter is lying. That is because he does not attempt to maintain a consistent position from one moment to the next. If he looks at the sky and sees sunshine, and a minute later says it is raining, it is conceivable that he isn't lying: he could perhaps sincerely believe that statement if he has forgotten what he saw a minute before. However, if he is even halfway mentally competent, the only plausible conclusion is that he is lying.

30 October 2018 (Ceremony for Stalin's victims) Moscow Bans Ceremony Honouring Victims of Stalin's Terror. Those who protect the reputation of Stalin take on a share of Stalin's guilt.

30 October 2018 (Local control of surveillance) St Louis is considering a local law to give elected officials control over surveillance technology. This could be a big step forward, but only if it leads to eliminating some of the existing massive surveillance that the article describes. Cambridge Mass is also considering such a law.

30 October 2018 (Uighurs in camps) China turned abruptly from denying it puts Uighurs in brainwashing camps to describing them as wonderfully beneficial schools. I trust whatever China says about them about as much as what the bully says about immigrants.

30 October 2018 (London march for referendum) Hundreds of thousands, perhaps 700,000, marched in London to demand a new referendum on taking Britain out of the EU.

30 October 2018 (The internet and democracy) We used to believe that the internet would promote democracy by decentralizing media. At present, it does little of either one.

30 October 2018 (Redefining gender) The Saboteur of Human Disservices wants to define gender in an immutable way based on a baby's sex organs. The article does not say what they would like to do with people born with sex organs that are intermediate or mixed.

30 October 2018 (Policies on disinformation) The EU should not impose policies to curb disinformation which are based on guesswork.

30 October 2018 (Laws not under copyright) Appeals Court Says Of Course Georgia's Laws (Including Annotations) Are Not Protected By Copyright And Free To Share. This is a good outcome, if it is an outcome. With doctrinaire plutocratists now dominating the Supreme Court, I expect it to overturn every decision that goes against plutocrats.

30 October 2018 (Dependency on Saudis) Khashoggi Murder Exposes Trump Administration's Dependency on Saudis. These dependencies concern the bullshitter's success, not anything that is good for the US or the world.

30 October 2018 (Deporting military veterans) The US is jailing then deporting US military veterans based on infinitesimal excuses, and (naturally) lying about it. When the US defends human rights and democracy, instead of defending plutocrats from everyone else, it might be a good thing to join the US military.

30 October 2018 (War on sharing in Australia) Australia is considering an escalation of the War on Sharing. Australians, please write to your elected officials to oppose this. What I would say is that sharing is good, and sharing ought to be lawful; copyright issues should not be decided mainly for the sake of the copyright industry. Meantime, I urge you to make sure that you personally can share with people you know. Don't watch or listen to anything directly by streaming; rather, insist on getting a local copy without DRM, so that you can share copies if you decide to.

28 October 2018 (Urgent: Support for war in Yemen) US citizens: Tell Congress to end U.S. support for Salafi Arabia's war in Yemen. If you sign, please spread the word!

28 October 2018 (Urgent: Recognition of transsexuals) US citizens: oppose the bully's plan to make parts of the federal government deny all recognition to transsexuals. If you sign, please spread the word!

28 October 2018 (Urgent: Candidates against fossil fuels) US citizens: see which candidates have pledged to work against fossil fuels.

28 October 2018 (US assassins in Yemen) The UAE hired US veterans to assassinate local leaders in Yemen. The targets were called "terrorists".

28 October 2018 (Rigged for plutocrats) Joseph Stiglitz: how the US economy and political system were rigged to benefit the plutocrats and screw most people. Because the plutocrats got their wealth by legalizing cheating, and hold on to their political power by lying and rigging elections, they have no moral right to either this wealth or this power. We should organize to take it and redistribute it. We need to do it soon, in time to stop them from roasting Earth's ecosphere.

28 October 2018 (Homosexual acting roles) The latest form of identity politics is to condemn straight actors for playing homosexual roles. Since gay actors such as Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn (according to Scotty Bowers) have played straight characters (and done it well), why shouldn't straight actors play homosexual roles? Why should it matter what any actor's real orientation is? The only question that should matter is whether that actor plays the role well.

28 October 2018 (Australian arms contract) An Australian minister ordered an auditor not to discuss whether an arms contract was unreasonably expensive, on the grounds the information might harm the interests of the arms company. This means that the Australian government is in effect a government of occupation for foreign arms companies, as well as for foreign coal companies.

28 October 2018 (Smearing Khashoggi) Sub-leaders of the Republican cult are trying to smear Jamal Khashoggi so as to protect the repressive regime of Salafi Arabia, because their leader says Salafi Arabia is on their side. It appears that Khashoggi covered Osama bin Laden's activities in the time when al-Qa'ida was supported by the US to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

28 October 2018 (Response to reported gun) A cop confronted a black child reported to have a gun … and behaved like a police officer instead of a thug. He did not shoot, and the reported gun turned out to be a BB gun.

28 October 2018 (Rating hurricanes) The main damage from hurricanes comes from storm surge and voluminous rain. High-speed winds do damage too, but it is much less. So we should rate hurricanes based on the expected water damage.

28 October 2018 (College sports) "It's naive to think college athletes have time for school." Evidence shows they don't have time to succeed in their studies. Big-time college sports teams are a tumor on the side of education, a perverse way of funding colleges based on inculcating a bizarre obsession into the students (even the non-athletes). It didn't take with me; I never once attended a sports event during my own college years. I simply decided that teams were a distraction of no importance. With public funding of college — and if we stop employers from asking about education that the job doesn't need — we could cut out the tumor.

28 October 2018 (Judging poor people) The richest people and poor people do similar peccadilloes, but when poor people do them, people say they are bad and deserve to starve. One of these peccadilloes, "promiscuity", is bad only in the eyes of prudes. There's no reason you shouldn't have sex with various people, if you enjoy that and have the opportunity, provided you take care to avoid spreading diseases and babies.

28 October 2018 (Chinese national anthem) A Chinese music star was jailed for singing the national anthem in a non-serious manner. She was coerced into apologizing for "hurting the feelings" of properly brainwashed Chinese.

28 October 2018 (Truth and freedom of speech) Freedom of expression is a dangerous licence when severed from any commitment to truth, as cyber-thugs reveal daily. However, no one has found a way to offer freedom of speech only to those who are sincere, or only to those who are right.

28 October 2018 (UK may speed global heating) The UK may speed global heating by expanding a runway at a London airport. We have no chance of saving our climate if we don't reject proposals to increase air travel. We should increase the taxes enough so that air travel does not increase; then no more airport capacity will be needed. In the US, Democrats appear to be too weak, or perhaps too corrupt, to even propose measures sufficient to do the job. Widespread despair about avoiding global disaster helps them get away with that weak stand. It is not physically too late to avoid the big disaster, but we have to reinsert the world's overriding need into all issues that affect it.

28 October 2018 (Eliminating HIV) HIV prophylaxis medicine could, over time, eliminate HIV. We only need to make sure everyone can get it.

28 October 2018 (Dubya and Obama's assassination programs) Dubya and Obama borrowed their assassination programs from Israel, which had set it up as part of denying that the occupation of Palestine was an occupation. At that time, Israel occupied the whole of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza.

28 October 2018 (Boycott of Israeli universities) A professor at the University of Michigan was punished for refusing to write a letter of recommendation for a student's application to a university in Israel. In general, I think professors should be allowed to boycott specific universities for any reason. However, letters of recommendation are a different issue because they are something professors do for their students. Denying a student a letter of recommendation to a university because of disapproval of that university forces the student, in effect, to boycott that university too. That choice should be the student's choice to make.

28 October 2018 (Lobbying against network neutrality) Up to 9.5 Million Net Neutrality Comments Were Made With Stolen Identities. Lobbyists are being investigated for this. They were lobbying against network neutrality. It was clear at the time that the phony comments were meant to give Ajit Pai a superficial excuse to pretend that the public did not support network neutrality. It was not clear that some were identity theft, too.

28 October 2018 (Rising seas) Rising seas will destroy the Florida Everglades, which people have worked for so long to preserve.

28 October 2018 (Nonviolent protesters in prison) Anti-fracking protesters in the UK were sentenced to long prison terms, but the appeals court cut them down to a short period (which they had already served). This is not good enough. Nonviolent protesters should not be jailed. "My release from prison for protesting fracking does not equate to justice."

28 October 2018 (Shooting blacks while white) 10 years after the crime, a white man who shot 3 blacks who were fleeing New Orleans has pled guilty and will go to prison.

28 October 2018 (Security of voters' computers) Blockchains Won't Fix Internet Voting Security — And Could Make It Worse. Until we can rely on voters' computers to be secure, we must not allow voting by internet.

28 October 2018 (Voter suppression in Georgia) Georgia is grasping any excuse to block poor and black people from voting. The latest excuse is to claim signatures don't match. The Republican candidate for governor, Kemp, is in charge of this, and he takes the usual Republican attitude: "If you can't stop me, I will do it."

28 October 2018 (Honduran refugees) 1600 refugees crossed from Honduras into Guatemala, so the bully demanded that Honduras catch them and bring them back or he will cut all US aid. Remember when the Soviet Union blocked refugees from leaving? Leaving required an "exit visa" — a demand that was condemned as fundamentally unjust. What the bully demands of Honduras goes beyond that. The Soviet Union did not try to kidnap and bring back all the refugees who had managed to get out. Much of the "aid" to Honduras props up the coup-installed fake-democratic government. Cutting off that aid might do some good for that country. But the bully won't consider doing that. On the other hand, increased aid of the right kind might help end the repression that drives people to flee.

26 October 2018 (Urgent: Refugee imprisonment bill) US citizens: call on Congress to reject the bill that would start a reign of terror for refugees, and imprison them indefinitely. I am disappointed that the article uses the emotionless word "detain" to refer to imprisonment. A prison is still a prison even if you decide to call it a "detention center". I'm also disappointed by the absurd word "Latinx". But I signed the petition anyway and I hope you will too. If you sign, please spread the word!

26 October 2018 (Urgent: Georgia voter registrations) US citizens: Call on Kemp to release the 50,000 Georgia voter registrations that he is blocking. If you sign, please spread the word!

26 October 2018 (Khashoggi admission) Salafi Arabia admitted that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in its consulate, but claim that his death was not intended. This is, of course, incredible a priori, but what if it had happened? Nothing could explain denying his death and disposing of his body.

26 October 2018 (Caravan into Mexico) The caravan of Hondurans and Guatemalans crossed into Mexico by rafting and swimming, bypassing Mexican border controls.

26 October 2018 (Paying with plastic bottles) A parking garage lets motorists pay by handing in plastic bottles. If the bottles can really be recycled, this does some good, but we really need to make fewer plastic bottles.

26 October 2018 (Making global heating a problem) For the plutocrats and fascists, global heating is not a problem. The problem is us — the people they consider superfluous — and global heating is the solution. I see a possible way to defeat them: to prove to them now that, if they kill hundreds of millions a few decades from now, those hundreds of millions will make sure to drag them down too.

26 October 2018 (Universal basic income) For the giant businesses that seek to rule the world, Universal Basic Income is appealing as a way to keep the masses dependent and powerless. That doesn't necessarily mean it isn't a change for the better. However, today's politicians would be likely to make the basic income less than universal. They would pass laws to kick people off the basic income if they commit a crime, fail a drug test, protest, attract the attention of the thugs, etc. I agree that Universal Basic Assets might be better — depending on details. At the same time, I still think that Universal Basic Income could be a good system, if the rest of the political and economic context were better. The article's criticism of Uber omits the injustices Uber does directly to its customers: Making customers run nonfree software

Identifying them

26 October 2018 (PEN lawsuit) PEN and others are suing to stop the bully from threatening to use his powers against freedom of the press. The merger of Time Warner with AT&T ought to be forbidden simply because they are both so large — regardless of what CNN publishes.

26 October 2018 (Papilloma virus vaccination) Right-wing prudes would rather put women in danger of cancer than allow them to be vaccinated against papilloma virus at age 12.

26 October 2018 (Abortion drugs by mail) Women in many states of the US need to get abortion drugs by mail, as the states have set up arbitrary obstacles.

26 October 2018 (Voting in Dodge City) Republicans have made it nearly impossible for the Latinos of Dodge City to vote. They have given the city just one polling place for 13,000 voters. It is outside the city, a mile from any bus stop. They can't win an election, so they have to steal it.

25 October 2018 (Very urgent: Juliana v US in Boston) If you can get to Boston, join the rally Monday at 11:30am at the start of the Juliana v United States climate damage lawsuit.

25 October 2018 (Urgent: 'Bridge fuel') Everyone: Tell the G20 leaders that natural gas is not a "bridge fuel". If you send a letter, please spread the word!

25 October 2018 (Urgent: Flores Settlement) US citizens: call for preserving the Flores Settlement, which limits how long the US can imprison refugee minors. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 October 2018 (Urgent: My Health Record) Australians: you can opt out of My Health Record. I don't have enough details about this to judge whether it is important to do so, or whether it protects in any substantial way from state surveillance.

25 October 2018 (Urgent: Killing of Chinedu Okobi) Everyone: Demand Justice in Police Taser Killing of Chinedu Okobi. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 October 2018 (Farming robots) Small, cheap farming robots are being developed to pay attention to each individual plant, and to kill weeds without pesticides. In growing wheat, they could be used to enable the same number of humans to do a far better job. However, the plans for broccoli would imply a big cut in employment, and that will harm people. Until we are ready to prevent efficiency from making millions of people starve in the midst of plenty, we should not allow robots to be used that way. Meanwhile, when farmers use such robots, they deserve to run their robots with free software, and to process their data with free software too.

25 October 2018 (Steps toward gender equality) Small steps towards gender equality, decreasing the advantages of being male, are interpreted as oppression by supporters of the bullshitter.

25 October 2018 (Felony for hiding face) In Virginia, it is a felony to protect your anonymity by hiding your face. We must demand such laws be abolished, so we can protect ourselves from face recognition surveillance.

25 October 2018 (Global insect decline) The world's entire insect population has decreased by a factor of 2 since 1980, apparently due to global heating. Most of the decline has been in tropical forests, where the quantities have declined catastrophically, in some places by a factor of 60.

25 October 2018 (Funds for endangered species) "New data tool can help scientists use limited funds to protect the greatest number of endangered species." There is no inherent limit on the funds available for protecting endangered species. There is also no inherent limit on how many species human activities can endanger. So I think they are optimizing for the wrong problem.

25 October 2018 (Printer DRM) Printer manufactures are very innovative — at blocking the use of independent replacement ink cartridges. Their "security upgrades" occasionally impose new forms of cartridge DRM. HP and Epson have done this.

25 October 2018 (Meritocracy) "The myth of meritocracy: who really gets what they deserve?" Meritocracy means "rule by the most worthy." But the reason we want the most capable as managers of society is not because they deserve more than anyone else, but because we presume they could manage society better. That presumption may be valid provided they are not affected by bias or corruption. However, in practice ability does not assure honesty.

25 October 2018 (Homework for three-year-olds) It is crazy to give homework to three-year-olds, but New York public schools are compelled to do this.

25 October 2018 (Remote voting in West Virginia) West Virginia is allowing people to vote remotely (which in general means your spouse or boss could watch), demanding that voters give their fingerprints (surveillance of voters) and use lots of nonfree software (tyranny). Of couse, it is insecure too.

25 October 2018 (Assassins without borders) Assassins Without Borders: Salafi Arabia joins North Korea, Russia (and the Soviet Union), Chile, Bulgaria, Israel and the US. I would not apply the term "assassination" to most of the killing of Gazans by Israel, because that word means that a specific target was chosen and specifically killed. Israel recently announced its soldiers would apply even less restraint before killing Gazans that come near to the border with Israel. If Israel wants a buffer zone to keep Gazans away from Israelis, it ought to set up the buffer zone on its own side of the border.

25 October 2018 (Voter-verified paper ballots) Voter-verified paper ballots seemed to have potential, but they don't work to protect the election from theft. For a secure election, voters should vote on paper. Computers can count the votes by scanning the papers.

23 October 2018 (Caravan of migrants) Guatemala did not block the caravan of migrants, which is now approaching the border with Mexico. Mexico has threatened to stop them.

23 October 2018 (Sex worker interview) An interview with a British sex worker who chose that career, rather than the alternative: her family hungry and living on the street. Arresting her customers would have given her no help. Hampering her form of advertizing would have been no better. What she needs is proper government support for poor people.

23 October 2018 (Protester deaths in Nicaragua) Nicaragua's suppression forces have killed over 300 protesters by shooting at protests. Others have been arrested and tortured. I cannot blame the opposition for firing back, but it might be mistaken strategy.

23 October 2018 (Rep. Rohrabacher) Rep. Rohrabacher might be defeated by a former Republican running on the Democratic Party ticket. That could mean less support for bullying and bullshit, but a plutocratist Democrat is no better than a Republican in the fight to end plutocracy and curb global heating.

23 October 2018 (US Saudi relationship) "The United States must view the Saudis not as flawed partners, but rather as malign actors undermining US interests."

23 October 2018 (Emissions from agriculture) The world is hardly serious about reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

23 October 2018 (Mercury-resistant trees) Experiments are testing the planting of mercury-resistant trees in parts of the Amazon forest that gold miners have poisoned. It's worth trying, but Bolsonaro might permit cutting down the whole forest.

23 October 2018 (Loopholes for offshoring wealth) The EU is designing tax rules intended to block offshoring of wealth, but a loophole was just discovered in them.

23 October 2018 (UK's slavery problem) From Nail Bars to Car Washes: How Big is the UK's Slavery Problem? It is hard to count the slaves.

23 October 2018 (Khashoggi assassination) Republicans are bending over backwards to excuse the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. They have designated the Salafi Arabian monarch as "on their side", so they will excuse whatever he does. This is pure 1984. The former head of MI6, says that the evidence points to the crown prince of Salafi Arabia as the one who commanded the murder of Khashoggi.

23 October 2018 (Laser weapon to attack crowds) The US is developing a laser weapon to attack crowds of protesters by burning off the outer layer of their skin.

23 October 2018 (Slowing voter registration) Republicans are slowing down processing of voter registrations so as to block people from voting. The Republican Party stands for "power by hook or by crook".

23 October 2018 (Fishing peoples forced to do smuggling) In many parts of the world, traditional fishing peoples that can't catch enough fish are being lured or forced to do smuggling instead.

10 October 2018 (Good neighborhoods vs bad neighborhoods) The difference between a good neighborhood and bad one can make a tremendous difference in children's subsequent lives. We can't make all neighborhoods above average, but this difference suggests there must be something that would make them all better.

10 October 2018 (Bad news for Canadian copyright) New North American Trade Deal Has Bad News for Canadian Copyright. I suggest Canada legislate that copyright last until either 70 years after the author's death, or such time as is at least 50 years after that death and this treaty is no longer in force — whichever comes first. That way, the treaty will not have a lasting effect if it is cancelled.

10 October 2018 (Amazon creating subsidiaries) Amazon is creating subsidiaries that act like "third-party" sellers, to compete with the real third-party sellers. This is one more example of how Amazon cooperates with various other parties so as to get more power, then betrays them. Amazon has done wrong to readers, authors, bookstores, as well as its workers. And now to the companies that accepted it as a nearly-monopolistic market. More reasons to refuse to buy from Amazon.

10 October 2018 (Lobby-bots) Many federal agencies, asking for public comment, are bombarded by lobby-bots.

10 October 2018 (Jamal Khashoggi) Turkey says that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Salafi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. Neither of those states is known for its respect for human rights, or for honesty. There is no hard evidence. However, if Salafi Arabia cannot produce Khashoggi alive, we will have to consider the accusation proved. It would not surprise me for Salafi Arabia to assassinate dissidents, given that it has sentenced dissidents to death. It does surprise me that it would do so in a way that is implausible to deny and would cause a diplomatic incident.

10 October 2018 (Advisory panel for Toronto's "smart" city) Saadia Muzaffar has resigned from the advisory panel for Toronto's "smart" city, because the project is not seriously attending to citizens' privacy concerns. As usual, "smart" means "spy". Most campaigns to protect privacy aim for an inadequate target: regulating the use of data collected. That is not enough to protect people from being harmed by the data collected about them. I don't see anything in this article to suggest that Muzaffar, and the citizens that complained, are trying to go further than that.

10 October 2018 (FOSTA advertising censorship law) Since the FOSTA advertising censorship law was passed, more sex workers are working on the street, making them vulnerable to arrest, violence, and subjugation by pimps. Finding clients through the internet used to enable them to avoid these dangers.

10 October 2018 (Urgent: Impeach Kavanaugh) US citizens: call on Congress to impeach Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court. If you sign, please spread the word!

10 October 2018 (Eliminating mosquito populations) An experiment to eliminate an isolated population of the mosquito Anopheles gambiae with a gene drive has succeeded. Should we eliminate that species of mosquito, together with the other few that carry most malaria? I think we should do so. There are over 400 species of Anopheles mosquitos, so wiping out a few of them probably won't lead to big changes in ecosystems. Other mosquitos will replace them, and bats and birds will still have food. Human activity is on track to wipe out a large fraction of all the species on Earth — not intentionally, only as a byproduct of causing global disaster. Instead of sparing a few species that really do hurt us, we should try to protect the hundreds of thousands of species we are likely to extinguish unthinkingly, by curbing our population and our greenhouse gas emissions.

10 October 2018 (Arson convictions) Americans are still in prison, decades after being convicted of arson based on false theories of how fires spread inside a house. The falsity of those theories was recognized over 15 years ago.

10 October 2018 (MacBook repair lockout) Apple plans to lock out independent repair by designing MacBook hardware and software to brick the machine if anyone else replaces the screen.

10 October 2018 (Recycling as 'effeminate') Recycling is regarded as a feminine trait, so some men reject recycling so that they will not be regarded as "effeminate".

10 October 2018 (Consent for data collection) "Consent" for data collection is meaningless because it is impossible to express what actions the consent is for.

10 October 2018 (Coal protest in Germany) Fifty thousand Germans protested to demand and end to burning coal, and to protect a forest that is scheduled to be cut down for coal mining.

10 October 2018 (Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court) Republicans succeeded in putting Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, with help from Manchin, who calls himself a Democrat but votes with Republicans on all the important issues.

10 October 2018 (Surveillance system export) A loophole permits the UK export of surveillance systems to tyrannical states. Since even states that are not generally considered tyrannical abuse massive surveillance, I think it is becoming necessary to block sale of surveillance systems to any state whatsoever.

10 October 2018 (Corporation controlled by AI) An artificial intelligence, or even an artificial non-intelligence, could wield political power by having control of a corporation with no official human owners.

10 October 2018 (Amazon workers) It's good that Amazon is giving its workers a raise, but the overall effect of Amazon on workers in general is very harmful. That's not to mention the harm it does to customers' freedom by tracking them and requiring they run nonfree software.

10 October 2018 (Putin's popularity) Arguing that Putin's popularity is superficial, and his continued domination of Russia is not assured.

10 October 2018 (Nauru's orders to MSF) Nauru has ordered Médecins Sans Frontières to stop treating the refugees that Australia has sent there for imprisonment.

10 October 2018 (Fast food marketing) Fast food stores are driving obesity, and restrictions on their marketing practices have done nothing to hold them back. They find ways around the restrictions. Maybe that means we need stricter measures. The spread of obesity is a disaster almost at the same level as global heating.

9 October 2018 (Salafi Arabia's oppression of women) Salafi Arabia has jailed or forced into exile most of the women who campaigned for the right to drive a car. It seems that that the ruler intends that to be the one and only step towards equal rights.

9 October 2018 (Nadie Murad) Nadie Murad, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, tells how she was made sex slave by DAESH (*), which made a detailed plan for enslavement of its captives (after killing all prisoners except attractive women). She later escaped to Germany and started a campaign against enslavement. * My usual term, PISSI, feels too flip for this context. I've read that the Arabic acronym DAESH means, more or less, "What crushes things".

9 October 2018 (Release of political prisoners in Rwanda) Rwanda's president Kagame has repressed dissidents for decades. Now he has released over a thousand political prisoners. He is reputed to govern fairly well in areas other than human rights. He should be able to get reelected honestly, so his repression was gratuitous as well as wrong. I hope he is learning to stop it.

9 October 2018 (Support for opponent of Senator Collins) A crowdfunding campaign to support Senator Collins' eventual opponent (but only if she votes for Kavanaugh) has received around 2 million dollars in donations. Recently the site crashed because of the high volume of donations. I wanted to post a reference to that campaign, but I determined that there was no way to contribute to it without running nonfree Javascript code.

9 October 2018 (Selling the US Postal Service) Selling the US Postal Service would be a grave error. Its financial problems result from a requirement that is not imposed on private companies. Converting it to a private company would fix the problem, to be sure, but simply removing that special requirement would fix it too.

9 October 2018 (Thug convicted) The thug that killed Laquan McDonald has been convicted of second degree murder. Occasionally they are held accountable. It needs to happen more often.

9 October 2018 (The polygraph) The polygraph is nothing more than pseudoscience — it should be called a "fear detector", or better "anxiety detector", rather than a "lie detector".

9 October 2018 (US elected officials) Almost all US elected officials are from a privileged background. The article presents several reasons this happens.

9 October 2018 (Forced into prostitution by Japanese Army) San Francisco has accepted a statue recognizing women forced into prostitution by the Japanese Army. Many of those women felt so ashamed that they never went back to their families afterward. Their culture taught them that they were to blame for what had been done to them, rather than the perpetrators who did it. You can only be to blame for what you do, or fail to do, never for what others do to you.

9 October 2018 (Thugs who shot protester face no punishment) The thugs who shot pipeline protester Marcus Mitchell in January 2017 in the eye, and maimed him, face no punishment. But they seek to imprison him for two years, on charges that are evident exaggeration. His neck is likely to break from his injuries within two years, rendering him a paraplegic.

9 October 2018 (Italians rescue drowning refugees) Some Italians have commissioned a ship flying the Italian flag to rescue drowning refugees. Minister Salvini will not have the authority to block that ship from docking.

9 October 2018 (America's new aristocracy) America's New Aristocracy Live in an Accountability-Free Zone. No matter what crimes they commit, they are never punished.

9 October 2018 (Free Time Index) Green Party Calls for Free Time Index to Replace GDP Measure. I agree that the GDP is a bad index of how well the economy serves people in general, but I haven't seen a good replacement. It would be good to include something like the Free Time Index, but that alone can't do the job. To take an extreme example, if a lot of people are unemployed and starving, they have lots of free time but it isn't a good situation to be in. Therefore, a good index needs to include other things. It needs to include some measure of whether people have enough income for a comfortable life, as well as not being overworked to get that income.

9 October 2018 (Playful reference to sex) Professor Gérard Mourou, who just received the Nobel prize, made a video with students which refers playfully to sex. I see no wrong in it, but I fear that prudes will try to crucify him.

9 October 2018 (Carbon tax) "Charge €30 a tonne for CO 2 to avoid catastrophic 4C warming." The wording of the article suggests that when they say "carbon price" they mean a carbon tax. If so, I agree with them, but they are not making the point clear. The same term is used also to refer to emissions trading, which has been ineffective because it was so easy to game.

9 October 2018 (Kavanaugh investigation) Here Are the 30 People the FBI Needs to Interview in its Kavanaugh Investigation. If, that is, it were going to do a proper and thorough investigation.

9 October 2018 (Sinking cities) From London to Shanghai, World's Sinking Cities Face Devastating Floods.

9 October 2018 (Interpol-China scandal) Interpol-China scandal #2: the chief of Interpol, who is Chinese, was disappeared last week on a visit to China. Interpol-China scandal #1: the head of China's secret police was made chief of Interpol. Scandal 2 brings discredit on China. Scandal 1 brings discredit on Interpol.

9 October 2018 (US sanctions against Iran) The International Court of Justice ruled that US sanctions against Iran violate a treaty, and that they interfere with humanitarian aid. It ruled that the US should drop these sanctions. In response, the US cancelled the treaty.

9 October 2018 (Disappeard Chinese actress) Disappeared Chinese actress Fan Bingbing has communicated again after months, with a public confession. I don't know whether Ms Fan is guilty of tax evasion. I won't claim that is not so. However, mere guilt can't possibly justify holding a prisoner incommunicado, nor torture. I wish China would stop holding prisoners incommunicado in horrible circumstances. Even more, I wish the US would stop. One expects injustice from China, but the US is supposed to follow a higher standard.

8 October 2018 (Masculinity) We Need to Talk About Masculinity. Somehow I escaped being taught to judge myself in terms of masculinity. I judge myself based on success or failure, but I never took up "having sex with women, regardless of circumstances and feelings" as a goal. Instead, I learned to want to feel loved and wanted by women, and for women to be glad to feel loved by me. My goal will never lead me in the direction of trying to pressure a woman into reluctant sex. The toxic masculinity goal is sometimes called "scoring", because it treats sexual relations like a game where one gets points. Those points have no meaning, and that imaginary competition can't lead to happiness. It's only an excuse to tell yourself you're "winning". If you are playing that game, I hope you will recognize how pointless it is.

8 October 2018 (Bezos's power and control) "Jeff Bezos runs a powerful monopoly that causes him to exert huge power and control. We shouldn’t be praising him but tackling his power."

8 October 2018 (Temporary Protected Status) A federal court ruled that the bully cannot terminate Temporary Protected Status for people that fled El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan. The basis of the ruling was that the bully based his decision on racism, rather than on the criteria he is supposed to apply.

8 October 2018 (FBI "investigation" of Kavanaugh) Schumer and Feinstein say that the FBI "investigation" of Kavanaugh was a sham.

8 October 2018 (DARPA virus delivery system) DARPA is funding a system to use insects to deliver viruses to crops. DARPA says that is meant to benefit farmers, but maybe it is actually for biological warfare. If the crops are friendly and the farmers are willing, you don't need the insects.

8 October 2018 (Intestinal bacteria samples) A plan to save samples of the highly diverse intestinal bacteria of people in remote communities.

8 October 2018 (Protesters face possible imprisonment) Nonviolent protesters blocked a deportation flight out of London. Now they are on trial and face possible life imprisonment. Their defense is that they were preventing a crime.

8 October 2018 (Stateless man imprisoned in Canada) Canada wanted to deport Ebrahim Toure, considering him a menace to Hollywood. But he was totally stateless, so there was no country Canada could send him to. So Canada put him in prison, where he has been for six years, in service of an impossible goal.

8 October 2018 (Christian extremist movie) A Christian extremist movie says that the bullshitter was sent by "god" to save the world's morality. According to the restored morality, people will lie and cheat all the time. This movie's success further demonstrates that the Republican Party has become a cult.

8 October 2018 (More evidence of Kavanaugh's lies) A letter written by Kavanaugh in 1983 provides more evidence that he lied to the Senate about how he lived then.

8 October 2018 (Wildfires polluting water supplies) Wildfires, increasing in many areas due to global heating, are polluting water supplies — sometimes long after the fire. The fires also release mercury, which ends up in wildlife, which can be unsafe for people to eat. If civilization survives, we ought eventually to deploy a system to concentrate mercury from the environment, so we remove it from the environment.

8 October 2018 (Nitrogen fixing bacteria) Genetic engineers are developing nitrogen fixing bacteria to replace synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (which is made using fossil fuel). Will these new bacteria be designed to limit how much fixed nitrogen they make? Without negative feedback that would limit the production based on circumstances, what would avoid that? I also worry about the issue of patents and what this will cost farmers. Patents on the bacteria could make farmers even more dependent. On the other side, if the protection against an excess of these bacteria, and a consequent excess of fixed nitrogen, is that they don't survive very long, does that mean farmers would have to buy more bacteria each year? Runoff has made the rivers of Iowa toxic — people can't the fish or drink the water. This runoff includes phosphate as well as nitrate. The bacteria to fix nitrogen would perhaps eliminate the latter but not the former. And no substitution of fertilizer will reduce the outflow from animal feedlots — they only consume the plants.

8 October 2018 (Italian right-wing extremist) An Italian right-wing extremist, who wasn't elected when he ran for the right-wing extremist League party, shot immigrants at random as an act of racial hatred. He has been sentenced to prison.

8 October 2018 (Urgent: Drift gillnets) Citizens of California: call on Governor Brown to sign SB 1017, which would phase out use of drift gillnets for fishing. Drift gillnets kill various species that are not targets for fishing, including dolphins and some whales, and endangered sea turtles.

8 October 2018 (Ruling on secret watchlist) A federal court ruled that a secret watchlist does not give US border thugs the power to jail people indefinitely with no grounds.

8 October 2018 ('Lie detectors') "Lie detectors" are not only pseudoscience, ineffective at determining whether someone is lying, they also enable racial bias.

8 October 2018 (Deforestation in Australia) Australia is suffering rapid deforestation under the policies of its extractivist government. Almost 3000 square miles of native forest have been cut down in 5 years.

8 October 2018 (Breaking up financial companies) Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to break up financial companies that are above a certain threshold — amounting to 8 of them.

8 October 2018 (Law professor petition) 900 US law professors have signed a petition calling for rejection of Kavanaugh, saying that he lacks the temperament and impartiality every judge is supposed to have.

8 October 2018 (Surveillance technology in NYC) NYC is considering limiting the thug department's use of surveillance technology. The first step is simply to make the thugs say what they do.

8 October 2018 (Room rental platform law in NYC) The EFF is challenging New York City's law requiring room rental platforms to give a lot of personal data about those who rent out a room. I agree with the EFF. The city has a valid right to get some limited information, because the public has a valid interest in limiting the amount of loss of rooms people can live in. But it shouldn't get more than what is necessary for this. Please don't refer to rental as "sharing".

8 October 2018 (Body cameras for border thugs) Democratic senators have proposed to require border thugs and deportation thugs to use body cameras. Body cameras can be an effective check on violence by thugs, but they require systems to ensure that they record at the right times, and laws to stop them from being used to record the full interior of every place that thugs enter and every person that thugs pass. Especially we need to prohibit passing those people's faces to a face recognition system if they are not observed committing some specific crime.

8 October 2018 (Coal plant mercury limits) EPA saboteurs are setting up a two-stage process for cancelling the limits on how much mercury coal plants can emit into the air. They are planning to do likewise for radioactive fallout emitted by coal plants, citing a convenient crackpot theory.

8 October 2018 (Eroded fingerprints) Because India's biometric identification system depends on fingerprints, it often fails for people who have done manual labor for many years and eroded their fingertips. If the sincere intention is to identify people for welfare benefits, they should be able to take prints from some other part of the body — one which (1) doesn't leave prints on what you touch and (2) won't get worn away.

8 October 2018 (Helmets at daycare) The report that a daycare center requires children to wear helmets is only partly true, and it isn't totally outrageous. However, the overall issue is real.

8 October 2018 (Escaping from capitalism) Arguing that the aim of everyone in capitalism is to escape from capitalism. I think that idea has a lot of truth in it, but not 100%. To construct a single thing that nearly everyone in capitalism is trying to escape from, you need to put in more than just capitalism. You need to expand it to include the need to do work (whether for pay or not) and the constraints of living in a society with others. The billionaires are clearly aiming for all of that.

6 October 2018 (Urgent: Daily Kos candidate portals) US citizens: call on Daily Kos to make its candidate portals function from a browser that disables JavaScript, so that voters can consult them without having to surrender some of their own freedom. You can communicate with the site by clicking on General Inquiries on the site's footer, followed by Contact US. You will be asking for a favor, so please use a friendly tone.

6 October 2018 (Urgent: Justice For All Civil Rights Act) US citizens: support the Justice For All Civil Rights Act. If you sign, please spread the word!

6 October 2018 (Amazon wage raise) Amazon's decision to raise wages to 15 dollars an hour may have been a response to Bernie Sanders's proposed BEZOS act. Hooray for Bernie Sanders! In the UK, however, Amazon is canceling out half of the pay increase by reducing bonuses.

6 October 2018 (Psilocybin legality) Researchers say that psilocybin should be treated legally like prescription sleep medicine.

6 October 2018 (New Zealand digital search law) New Zealand's new law about searching digital devices of people entering the country has an apparent step forward, in that it requires specific grounds for suspicion. But the thugs don't have to say what it is, so the step forward is more apparent than real.

6 October 2018 (Minimum wage for tipped workers) The people that live in Washington DC voted to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, in effect to put an end to their dependence on tipping. The city council, influenced by money from restaurant companies, is in the process of overriding that decision. The article uses the confused term "people of color". I agree with the article's position but not with that term.

6 October 2018 (NAFTA replacement) Here's a summary of various kinds of harm that Canada would suffer in the field of copyright if it adopts the NAFTA replacement. The article confusingly presents a few harms in the area of patent law. It looks like the author is following the confused practice of lumping together several unrelated laws and calling them "intellectual property". The confusion in that term is why we should refuse ever to use it. The article also uses the word "content" so much that I groan inwardly as I read it. I would have preferred to link to some other article to present this information, but the information is important and I don't know of one.

6 October 2018 (Blasey Ford examination) Former federal prosecutors say that prosecutor Mitchell examined Prof. Blasey Ford only, which is far too little to constitute an adequate basic investigation of her accusations, but Mitchell's report passes it off as one. This is just one of the flaws they describe, which suggest it is politically motivated.

6 October 2018 (Investigation cut short) It looks like the FBI is cutting the Kavanaugh investigation short under pressure from Republican politicians. However, Senator Collins is now insisting on a thorough FBI investigation of Kavanaugh. The article presumes, and I agree, that her shifts on the issue are a matter of how seriously she takes the political pressure from various sides. I can't see what pressure could be responsible for her supporting Kavanaugh as much as she has done until this point, despite knowing that her constituents will resent it, but it must be awfully powerful. I am relieved to see that the anti-Kavanaugh pressure is capable of outweighing that.

6 October 2018 (Sponsoring migrant kids) Bipartisan Legislation Would Stop ICE from Targeting Immigrants Who Want to Sponsor Migrant Kids.

6 October 2018 (Detroit protesters) Detroit protesters, charged with protest-crime, are refusing to accept plea bargains, making the state put them on trial. These trials will put unjust state policies on trial.

6 October 2018 (Nunes's farm history) Rep. Nunes lets his voters think he has a farm in California in the district. In fact, he sold it in 2006 and gives interviews from someone else's farm.

6 October 2018 (Teaching of evolution) Many countries prevent the teaching of evolution. Israel and Turkey are joining them.

6 October 2018 (Proof of Kavanaugh's lying) Text messages of Kavanaugh's friends show he was aware of Deborah Ramirez's accusations before they were published. That proves he lied to the Senate about that point.

6 October 2018 (NAFTA version 2) NAFTA version 2 would weaken the ISDS provision. However, it would make it harder to resist pipelines. It would permanently limit the EPA's use of scientific research results, and weaken food safety regulations, and facilitate use of toxic pesticides. It would also expand fracking. It would also extend the length of copyright in Canada, a sad loss for Canada.

6 October 2018 (The population of Chagos Islands) When the UK expelled the population of the Chagos Islands, it allowed them to live in the UK. But their grandchildren face deportation to places where they have no connections.

6 October 2018 (Crushing the Palestinian Authority) The Palestinian Authority sends lots of money to Gaza every month. With the US and Israel crushing the Palestinian Authority, and cutting off its funds, Abbas may decide to stop paying Gaza. This could start a war. It would be rational for Gazans to fight before they starve. On the other hand, other powers might decide to provide Gazans money to live on.

6 October 2018 (US psychological and psychiatric care) The US does not make a serious effort to provide psychological and psychiatric care to the seriously mentally ill. It would cost a lot of money, which means we need to tax the rich to pay for it.

6 October 2018 (Reducing politics to celebrity obsession) George Monbiot: By reducing politics to a celebrity obsession — from Boris to Trump to Corbyn — the media misdirects and confuses us.

6 October 2018 (Digital payment systems) Banks and card networks are pushing Britons into using digital payment systems that give them a cut of every payment — and track people, to boot.

6 October 2018 (The bullshitter and President Kim) The bullshitter has come out of the closet, affirming that he and President Kim have fallen in love. I am glad for the two of them, but should the US have a president that is in love with the ruler of another country? Is love an emolument?

6 October 2018 (Prominent Iraqi women assassinated) A series of prominent Iraqi women who don't stick to traditional restraints have been assassinated.

6 October 2018 (Indonesian government) The Indonesian government has fallen down in delivering food and water to tsunami-hit Sulawesi.

6 October 2018 (National Housing Service) Maybe there should be a National Housing Service to provide housing to everyone.

6 October 2018 (Sex offender list) Convicted kidnaper Equan Yunus was imprisoned and then released, but because he kidnaped a minor (the son of a rival gangster), he is still punished by being placed on the sex offender list. His crime had nothing to do with sex; this is an arbitrary rule. Some teenagers have been placed on the sex offender list because they were advised to plead guilty to "crimes" even though their actions were innocent. Even for those who have committed sex crimes, it makes no sense to impose restrictions on them that are impossible to follow. These restrictions have been heaped on following worst-case thinking. They assume, unrealistically, that everyone on the list is prone to commit all kinds of sex crimes. Any real criminal is prone to commit certain kinds of crimes and not others. The restrictions on any one criminal should be based on what that person might plausibly do.

5 October 2018 (Very urgent: Georgia voter purge) Citizens of Georgia: the state purged 10% of registered voters last year. By Oct 9, the deadline for registration, call your local election authority to see if you are still registered — and, if not, do register. I learned of this from a mailing with a reference to a site I can't access, so I am passing on the crucial message this way.

5 October 2018 (Urgent: Federal voter ID law) US citizens: oppose the proposed federal voter ID law. If you sign, please spread the word!

5 October 2018 (Conway and patriarchy) Kellyanne Conway Proves Patriarchy Has No Gender. In an unequal society, the aristocrats can easily recruit others as their lieutenants, by giving them power over most of the people. In that society, this is the only way for someone other than an aristocrat to get some power, within the system's rules. To change the inequality requires that people seek such change rather than seeking to compete for more power or wealth for themselves.

5 October 2018 (Face recognition over passwords) New iMonsters urge users to use face recognition instead of passwords. That makes it trivial for state agents to unlock them. I would expect that armed thieves can do the same thing.

5 October 2018 (Cybersecurity weaknesses) The weakest link in cybersecurity is no longer the users. Rather, it is the companies that pressure or lure people to entrust data to them.

5 October 2018 (FEMA loan discrimination) Blacks face discrimination in FEMA disaster recovery loans.

5 October 2018 (Suppressing fake news) A voluntary code to suppress fake news includes a plausible definition of it.

5 October 2018 (Dismissing the masses) The error of smugness: "By dismissing the masses as fools, progressives confirmed all the culture warriors’ claims."

5 October 2018 (California beach access) The Supreme Court refused to hear millionaire Vinod Khosla's case about the California beach from which he seeks to exclude the public. That means the California public access law will stand.

5 October 2018 (Imprisoned minors to military camp) US immigration thugs have moved hundreds of minors who are prisoners to a military camp where they will be out of sight and impossible to visit.

5 October 2018 (Aristocracy and lynching) How white southerners put over the heroic myth of aristocracy, at the same time they were lynching.

5 October 2018 (System for appointing justices) The US needs to reform its system for appointing justices of the Supreme Court; the current one is crippled by partisanship.

5 October 2018 (Labour leftists and the EU) Labour leftists want to take Britain out of the EU because it is wired for neoliberalism.

5 October 2018 (Owais Raja) The UK drove Owais Raja and his family into destitution by labeling him a "security threat", and canceling his visa, because he discovered and corrected an error in his tax return. The UK government has now given him a visa. I hope it will compensate him for the harm done by its deliberate policy of erring on the side of harshness. Most of all I hope it will change that policy.

5 October 2018 (Plea bargain practices) A judge reports on sleazy and dishonest practices by prosecutors in regard to plea bargains.

3 October 2018 (The Maldives) The Maldives has a chance to move to democracy, but there are many obstacles.

3 October 2018 (Global war against freedom of speech) The fanatics that condemned The Satanic Verses launched a global war against freedom of speech. No longer limited to Muslims, it now aims to silence anything that would offend some group of people. The right to offend is an essential part of freedom of speech. If we are forbidden to offend some groups, sooner or or later we will be forbidden to offend Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, right-wing extremists, rich people, and other groups with political power. Unless you are namby-pamby and timid, sooner or later you will be the victim of that censorship. Please support the ACLU in defending freedom of speech, including speech that offends someone.

3 October 2018 (Republican candidates on abortion) Republican candidates are trying to tell right-wing voters they will ban abortion, while hiding this from the mainstream media and the general public.

3 October 2018 (Kavanaugh's lies) Fact Check Shows That Kavanaugh Is a Skilled Liar … But Still a Liar.

3 October 2018 (California thugs and DNA samples) California thugs that want DNA samples from minors will be required to get a court order, or consent from the minor and parent or guardian. This is not quite enough; the law should prevent them from obtaining consent by offering or hinting at any quid-pro-quo. Furthermore, samples (except those of convicts) should be linked to a specific case, and discarded whenever that case is closed.

3 October 2018 (Data broker regulation) Vermont has adopted a law to regulate data brokers. The right way to regulate data brokers is to prevent them from getting their hands on most information about people.

3 October 2018 (Urgent: Google thermostat) Everyone: can you find out whether this new Google "smart" thermostat is just or unjust in certain ways? Can you connect to it digitally without going via a server?

Can you connect to it digitally without going via a server outside your house that belongs to someone else?

Can you adjust the temperature with a manual control, if it is disconnected from the internet?

3 October 2018 (Urgent: Denying benefits to children) US citizens: call on the US not to deport parents for claiming benefits for their US citizen children. Denying medical care and food aid to children can cause them lifelong harm. If you sign, please spread the word!

3 October 2018 (Gandhi's tests of temptation) Mahatma Gandhi tested his resistance to sexual temptation by sleeping with young naked women, and doing nothing sexual with them. I find his religious ideas irrational, but I see no harm in what he did. Today's narrow-mindedness would call for putting him in prison. Gandhi is not the Indian I most admire. That is Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, a firm rationalist and even firmer campaigner against bigotry.

3 October 2018 (Net Neutrality lawsuit) US Justice Department Sues California over New Net Neutrality Law. The FCC already said that states could not adopt stricter rules, so this confrontation was predictable. That's why some other states decided instead to adopt rules about what ISPs the state could do business with. I hope California wins, but that is unlikely if Kavanaugh has anything to say about it.

3 October 2018 (US carbon tax) As a Wealthy, Warm Country, the US Would Benefit from Implementing a Carbon Tax to Slow Global [Heating].

3 October 2018 (Investigation of Kavanaugh) The FBI investigation of Kavanaugh will be very limited. The FBI will not interview several pertinent witnesses. The bullshitter says he did not impose those limits, but that could be bullshit.

3 October 2018 (Fathers and babies) When new fathers take care of their babies alone, their relationship with the babies' mothers becomes much more stable.

3 October 2018 (Robot brothel) Houston Officials Halt Proposed Plans to Open First US 'Robot Brothel'. The hostility towards this business, which would employ no human sex workers, demonstrates that repression of sex work is based to a substantial degree on prudish disapproval. To help the people that do sex work reluctantly, we should not repress sex work for those who choose to do it. What we should do is give poor people a bigger share of income. To free those who are enslaved and forced to do sex work, let's use methods that will also free the people who are enslaved doing other kinds of work.

3 October 2018 (Protests in Brazil) Huge Protests in Brazil as Far-Right Presidential Hopeful Returns Home. He seems to be a lot like Do-dirty.

3 October 2018 (Deported without their children) A few parents who were deported without their children are sneaking into the US to find them again.

2 October 2018 (Back doors in Australia) Australia is thinking of demanding back doors to install different software into computers and phones, claiming this would be something other than a "security weakness".

2 October 2018 (Elizabeth Warren 2020) Elizabeth Warren is considering running for president in 2020. I will vote for her if she is the Democratic nominee and Sanders is not running, but I'd rather elect Sanders. His criticism of plutocracy is deeper and broader.

2 October 2018 (Prison for video in Egypt) Amal Fathy posted a video criticizing sexual harassment she experienced at a bank in Egypt. She received an absurd assortment of criminal charges and has now been sentenced to two years in prison. For your own safety, stay away from Egypt. Spend your money on some other country.

2 October 2018 (Instagram and WhatsApp) Instagram and WhatsApp will be fully integrated into Facebook's surveillance network. I never trusted them to be truly separate.

2 October 2018 (Afghanistan's parliamentary election) Afghanistan is planning a parliamentary election for Oct 30, but it has been delayed for 3 years and may not be possible now.

2 October 2018 (Bellingcat founder) An interview with the founder of Bellingcat.

2 October 2018 (Global heating target) World 'Nowhere Near on Track' to Avoid [heating] Beyond 1.5C Target. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a report admitting that the world is on track for 4C of global heating in this century. However, the same report supports cancellation of vehicle efficiency rules on the grounds that that alone wouldn't be enough to avoid disaster. Of course it wouldn't — that's why more and broader measures are needed, and proposed. That's one of the tactics in the planet roasters' playbook: to oppose each measure because "this alone wouldn't be enough."

2 October 2018 (University as business) The UK encourages universities to act like businesses and treat students as customers. The result is that they mislead and cheat their customers like businesses.

2 October 2018 (Disappearing-message apps) When Police Use Disappearing-Message Apps, It's Not Just Bad for Accountability — It's Illegal.

2 October 2018 (Very urgent: Keep phoning) US citizens: keep phoning your senators at 1-844-778-3056 to tell them to reject Kavanaugh.

2 October 2018 (Urgent: Climate Risk Disclosure Act) US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Climate Risk Disclosure Act. If you sign, please spread the word!

2 October 2018 (Birth rate) Macron dares to point out that Africa needs to reduce its birth rate, not scrabble desperately to keep up with it.

2 October 2018 (Inadequate "privacy protection" laws) The latest example of totally inadequate "privacy protection" laws, this one assumes the danger to users of the Internet of Stings is limited to unauthorized access by third parties.

2 October 2018 (Fracking chemicals in food chain) Fracking Chemicals Dumped in Allegheny River a Decade Ago Entered Food Chain. They were found in the shells of mussels that were growing that year. Mussels grown since that discharge was prohibited still show signs of those chemicals. Freshwater mussels are endangered and this probably contributes to the danger.

2 October 2018 (Internet censorship) Canadians, watch out! Canada might follow the EU and US in censoring the internet in the name of copyright. The article gives undeserved support to the companies that want to impose these restrictions by calling music-sharing "piracy" and referring to it as a "sin". Sharing is virtuous! The first step in defeating the copyright industry is to refuse to spread its propaganda. If Canada wants to punish the bullshitter, it should do so by legalizing sharing of all published works. Indeed, it should do that regardless of what the US government is doing.

2 October 2018 (Privileged families) "Evidence shows that privileged families will stop at nothing to prevent their children being overtaken [by anyone else's children]." Society needs social mobility so that we don't end up with incompetent aristos in charge and so that people from poor families get heard. But social mobility is not a solution to the problem of poverty. The small chance of becoming wealthy is of no benefit to the poor children who don't become wealthy (which is most of them). Growing up in poverty and hardship stunts children's growth, including their mental growth, so when judged on their "merits" later they will be consigned to poverty. The solution to poverty is to redistribute the wealth and income. When no child grows up in hardship, no child will be stunted. Indirectly, this will help social mobility too.

1 October 2018 (Insurance company collects personal data) John Hancock insurance is pressuring people to give their personal data to Apple or Fitbit. The insurance company should offer an alternative which collects only the exercise data, not people's locations or the time of day when they walk, and sends it only to the insurance company, which will store only the overall totals that are pertinent. The only rational need for life insurance is if you have long-term dependents. If you do the wise thing and avoid having children, you probably won't need life insurance anyway.

1 October 2018 (Deborah Ramirez's testimony) SCROTUS's lawyers made discussions about Deborah Ramirez's testimony break down by switching from phone calls to written communication. They also demanded a full description of her evidence in writing before they would even decide to invite her to testify. Sounds like they wanted the negotiation to fail. Then they blamed it on Ramirez's lawyers.

1 October 2018 (Puerto Rican debt) Hurricane Maria gave vulture funds an opportunity to buy Puerto Rican debt cheap. It looks like they want funds supposedly for Puerto Rico's rebuilding to be given to them instead. Puerto Rico deserves an opportunity to declare bankruptcy and make those debts disappear. That the vultures will lose a lot of money is an additional secondary reason for this.

1 October 2018 (Salafi Arabia) Don't treat Salafi Arabia like a banana republic! For one thing, it's not even a republic. It is an absolute monarchy with an imposed religion.

1 October 2018 (Delay in final vote on Kavanaugh) Senate Republicans agreed to delay the final vote on Kavanaugh by one week for the FBI to investigate the various rape and groping accusations against him. Is one week really enough to do that? Normal FBI investigations of nominees do not examine their conduct as juveniles. But even if they did, they had no reports to look into until the recent accusations were reported.

1 October 2018 (Glyposate articles arranged by Bayer) Articles that opposed the conclusion that glyphosate causes cancer turn out to have been secretly arranged by Bayer (formerly Monsanto), which even paid some of the authors.

30 September 2018 (ABA and Kavanaugh) Just after Kavanaugh cited his approval by the ABA, the ABA called for suspending the process of confirming him, so the FBI can investigate.

30 September 2018 (Water spill) (satire) A Coca Cola water tanker ship exploded off the coast of Mexico, leaving marine animals drenched. Water is now washing up on the coast.

30 September 2018 (Patent examiners) Evidence suggests many patent examiners are influenced corruptly by the prospect of future employment by businesses that get patents. The future employment they seek is, effectively, lobbying patent examiners on behalf of those businesses.

30 September 2018 (Disks with customer data) A store sold its old servers, and the disks were sold with customers' personal data which is now being used to harm those customers. The obvious way to try to prevent repetition of this specific problem is with a law about disposal of servers' disks. The deeper way to fix this and many other problems caused by stores' personal data is not to allow stores to collect any. Stores should not be allowed to track their customers.

30 September 2018 (McDonald's worker strike) McDonald's workers held a one-day strike against sexual harassment on the job, which they say often includes groping by supervisors.

30 September 2018 (Student debt forgiveness) Dubya offered Americans paths to have their student debts "forgiven", but those paths are strewn with obstacles and your chances of reaching the goal are roughly zero. Loan companies neglect to inform people of the fine print, leading them to fail.

30 September 2018 (Fan Bingbing) Fan Bingbing's Disappearance Shows No One Is Safe from Beijing. I know very little about that actress, and I have no reason to conclude that the charges are political. For all I know, she might be guilty of tax evasion. Or not. But this is not the way suspects ought to be treated.

30 September 2018 (Acapulco thug department) The Mexican federal government took direct control of the Acapulco thug department and arrested thugs suspected of working with criminal gangs. The War on Drugs fuels those gangs. If limited to other kinds of crime, the gangs would not disappear, but they couldn't get as much money.

30 September 2018 (Right to Repair activist) About the teenage activist pushing for Right to Repair in Michigan. Sad to say, the article does not hint at the ethical points. Americans have been taught that businesses are fundamentally entitled to treat customers in any way that customers will go along with, and only certain kinds of arguments can be used against that.

30 September 2018 (Russian poisoner) Journalist-investigators say they have identified one of the poisoners of the Skripals as a Russian intelligence colonel.

30 September 2018 (World's orca population) Half the world's orca population will be killed by PCBs that continue leaking into the ocean. A treaty calls for destroying the PCBs that were produced decades ago, but only the US has actually tried to do it.

30 September 2018 (UK anti-fracking activists stand firm) UK anti-fracking activists, jailed for nonviolently blocking fracking activities, stand firm and say that they will win the battle against fracking.

30 September 2018 (Platform censorship) Platform Censorship: Lessons From the Copyright Wars. Basically, forcing web sites to censor "fake news", "terrorism" or "hatred" will censor a lot more than that. As I read the article, the repeated use of "content" as a noun irritated me. I also grit my teeth when I see some publications referred to as "unlawful" when really they only infringe copyright, and by the verb "monetize". I linked to the article despite that because its point is important. I wish there were another article I could link to instead.

30 September 2018 (Speculative investment vehicles) The speculative investment vehicles that gave us the fiscal crisis of 2008 are banned, but banks are selling something quite similar.

30 September 2018 (Selling blood products for big profit) Selling blood products for big profit led to disaster in China; it spread HIV among the donors and perhaps a million of them, perhaps more, died from that. The US blood system is heading in the same direction. depending on testing carried out by people whose imperative is to work fast.

30 September 2018 (US children not getting enough sleep) Most US children, age 8-11, spend too much time using digital screens and not enough time sleeping. This is associated with poorer cognitive development, but that leaves the question of which causes which. Perhaps starting school at a later hour would help them get more sleep.

30 September 2018 (Puerto Rico) The sacking of Puerto Rico began long before Hurricane Maria. Disaster capitalism (through their subsidiary, the US government) demanded crushing cuts in all public services including education and medicine; to get this, it eliminated democratic government there.

30 September 2018 (Malkia Cyril) Edward Snowden describes Malkia Cyril, a campaigner against surveillance in the US.

30 September 2018 (EPA approval for pesticide use) The EPA's Inspector General reports that the EPA is too quick to grant "emergency" special approval for pesticide use, and that it fails to measure properly the risks of harm to humans and wildlife.

30 September 2018 (Where Facebook gets "fake" news advice) Facebook gets advice about what news is "fake" from two partisan organizations, the National Democratic Institute (representing "centrist" plutocratist mainstream Democratic Party) and the International Republican Institute (representing the theocratic-plutocratist Republican Party). Naturally this tends to label anything that doesn't sustain plutocracy as "fake".

29 September 2018 (Urgent: Hold Kavanaugh's confirmation) US citizens: phone your senators at 1-844-248-4061 and call on them to hold Kavanaugh's confirmation process for an FBI investigation, and vote against him if that isn't done. If you phone, please spread the word!

29 September 2018 (Oil train brakes) In another act against Americans' safety, the US has canceled a rule requiring oil trains to upgrade to computer-controlled brakes. The saboteur in charge was convinced by the argument that the cost of upgrading the brakes exceeds the worth of lives that might be lost in explosions from runaway trains.

29 September 2018 (Deportation thug boycott) If you would like to stop the US deportation thugs, one way is to boycott companies that serve the US deportation thug department. There are many reasons to boycott the big banks and Amazon.

29 September 2018 (Deradicalization system) A deradicalization system in Australia explains how it operates: finding people holding an intense grudge who might get tipped into an insane desire for violence, then working with them. Some of these grievances might be due to real injustices. One Somali boy was "mistakenly accused of swearing at police." The word "accused" has a range of meanings. Did someone merely say that the boy uttered curse words at some thugs? That's a valid meaning, but it seems unlikely to have resulted in a lasting grudge. I have a hunch that insulting a thug is a crime in Australia, and that the boy was charged with this "crime". That would not justify terrorism, but it would justify the grudge. If that is what happened, Australia should repeal that law and apologize to everyone prosecuted under it. Insulting people is part of freedom of speech. People deserve the right to curse at thugs, at elected officials, at you, even at me.

29 September 2018 (Expensive coal plants) Some US electric utilities are running their expensive coal plants and charging customers extra to pay for that, rather than buying cheaper electricity to resell.

29 September 2018 (Power of foreign business) One issue where the bullshitter is right: he condemns the idea of surrendering the state to globalization — to the power of foreign business. The ironic part is that he bows down eagerly to business on all other aspects of policy.

29 September 2018 (Civil war and Ebola) The ever-bubbling civil war in the DR Congo impeded vaccination against Ebola.

29 September 2018 (Saboteur Nielsen) Saboteur Nielsen, head of the Department of Harsh Sadism, chose a policy recommended by staff as a way to deter unauthorized immigration and that they acknowledged would mean taking children (and teenagers) away from their parents. Subsequently she lied repeatedly about those two facts.

29 September 2018 (Support for attacking Yemen) Important Democrats in Congress now support a resolution to stop supporting Salafi Arabia in attacking Yemen.

29 September 2018 (Kavanaugh and Mark Judge) Julie Swetnick swears that Kavanaugh and Mark Judge used to put drugs in the punch at their house parties so as to make girls lose their inhibitions, or even incapacitate them so a series of boys could rape them. She was once drugged to the point where she could not resist being repeatedly raped. She doesn't claim that Kavanaugh was one of the rapists, but they allowed it to happen. Several friends of Prof. Blasey Ford have signed statements that she told them about Kavanaugh's rape attempt years ago, as far back as 2012. To some she said his name; to another she said, "He's now a federal judge."

29 September 2018 (Jailing fracking protesters) The Jailing of Fracking Protesters Tells Us We Are Winning This Fight. However, the UK is escalating repression of nonviolent protest on many different issues. The author is one of the leaders of the UK Green Party, and was arrested (but not jailed) for a similar nonviolent protest.

28 September 2018 (Biometric id in India) India's supreme court ruled that many important activities may not require a biometric id number. However, since paying taxes does require it, in practice it is impossible for Indians to escape.

28 September 2018 (Trade with Iran) EU, China and Russia set up a special financial institution to help insulate their trade with Iran from US sanctions.

28 September 2018 (Smith and Wesson) The stockholders of American Outdoor Brands voted to require the company to record what its gun company subsidiary, Smith and Wesson, is doing to monitor and reduce gun violence.

28 September 2018 (Global heating vulnerability) Of all the countries on Earth, the US is the second-most-vulnerable to damage from global heating. China is building more coal capacity that would amount to a 25% increase. Could it be that China wants to provoke disaster because the US will lose more from it than China will? That's the same as the bullshitter's attitude towards a trade war. No, I'm not seriously proposing that theory. The most vulnerable country is India, which China is not particularly friendly toward either.

28 September 2018 (HIV coverups) Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of patients getting blood transfusions in the UK around 1980 were infected with HIV in the process. An investigation has found that their medical record suffered deletions and even fake additions as a cover-up. Similar infections occurred in the US and France. The medical systems were not designed to prevent this sort of thing.

28 September 2018 (Reuniting immigrant minors) The sadist's officials are dragging their feet in obeying the court order to reunite immigrant minors that were taken away from their families. Almost 200 have not yet been reunited.

28 September 2018 (Business funding for research) In several fields, business funding for research serves to distract research from issues the businesses don't want explored, and distorts public policy.

28 September 2018 (Bottom slapper) Paris Man Jailed for Three Months for Slapping Woman's Bottom. I agree with this decision. He physically attacked her. If it were just a matter of his verbal remarks, I would disapprove of them (it is nasty to insult strangers for no good reason), but insults should not be a crime.

28 September 2018 (Urgent: LYNE Act) US citizens: ask your congresscritter and senators to cosponsor the LYNE act, which would stop the development of "low-yield" nuclear weapons which are more conducive to actually using them.

28 September 2018 (Urgent: Medicare for All PAC) US citizens: contribute to the Medicare for All PAC. All you need to do is send a check to PO Box 21912

Seattle, WA 98111

28 September 2018 (Houston could avoid flood damage) Adapting Dutch technology and spending $15 billion dollars could enable Houston to avoid a much larger sum in flood damage from future hurricanes. The sad thing is, the US has become so downtrodden that it no longer has the gumption to tax companies so it can do important jobs. Thus, this job can be done only if companies graciously bestow their sponsorship. Then they will ask us to be grateful for it.

28 September 2018 (US healthcare system) Ex-UN Chief Ban Ki-moon Says US Healthcare System Is 'Morally Wrong'. He also acknowledged that businesses are blocking a national health system for their profits' sake.

28 September 2018 (Arrest of Senator Trillanes) Philippine Senator Trillanes, who had been sheltering in the senate hall, has been arrested.

28 September 2018 (US-Mexico border walls) Existing US border walls along parts of the border with Mexico damage infrastructure and the environment. They don't stop people from trying to enter the US illegally, but do push them into more risky routes on which a greater fraction die. I think that is the border thugs' intention, judging from the way they destroy water supplies left by humanitarians.

28 September 2018 (China) China is gaining influence in the UN's defense of human rights, and won't use that for good. Whether it will do more evil than the US directed by the bully remains to be seen.

28 September 2018 (Glyphosate harms honeybees) Glyphosate can harm honeybees by damaging their normal intestinal bacteria. This is in addition to other indirect forms of harm.

28 September 2018 (Permanent arrangement for Idlib) France and the US are pressuring for a permanent arrangement for Idlib and for the removal of Iranian forces from Syria.

28 September 2018 (Discussion of political activity) If you discuss political activity as a game between teams, in which the sides can win or lose points, you're missing the point.

27 September 2018 (Urgent: Hurricane Maria failures) US citizens: call on the FCC to investigate failures of Puerto Rico's communications infrastructure after Hurricane Maria. If you sign, please spread the word!

27 September 2018 (Urgent: SITSA) US citizens: call on Congress to oppose SITSA, which would give the attorney general the power to ban any drug arbitrarily. If you send a message, please spread the word!

27 September 2018 (Tracking teenagers) US parents are now invited to track their teenage offspring like convicts on parole.

27 September 2018 (Ill refugees in Australia) Australia has permitted Nauru to block badly ill refugees from being brought to Australia under a court order. The Australian judge ruled that Australia is responsible for that difficulty.

27 September 2018 (Victoire Ingabire) Victoire Ingabire, a Rwandan opposition leader, has been released from prison and vows to continue the struggle despite the danger she will be imprisoned again. President Kagame represses human rights harshly.

27 September 2018 (Rescuing drowning migrants) Italy pressured Panama to cancel the operating permission for Médecins Sans Frontières' ship that rescues drowning migrants.

27 September 2018 (Endangered Species Act) The Endangered Species Act functions very effectively. 99% of the species that have been protected are still living. Perhaps that's why Republican saboteurs are trying to destroy it.

27 September 2018 (Grand Staircase-Escalante) Shrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Is a Disaster for Paleontology.

27 September 2018 (Hidden voice commands) Researchers have discovered how to hide voice commands in other audio, so that people cannot hear them, but Alexa and Siri can.

27 September 2018 (Heating national parks) US national parks are heating up faster than most of the US. Some are forecast to suffer 9C of heating (16F) in this century. Today's local species will go extinct if they can't move elsewhere. What is Glacier National Park if it doesn’t have glaciers anymore? To an environmentalist, it's a tragedy. To an extractivist, it's an opportunity for mining.

27 September 2018 (Fleeing global heating) Thousands of Americans are moving to higher ground, fleeing from global heating. In 30 years it will be hundreds of thousands. Some decades later, it will be millions. We can't predict how many millions; the climate models don't allow for the methane that will be released by melting permafrost, since we don't know how much that will be. Currently 30,000 households are being squeezed out.

27 September 2018 (Hong Kong independence party) China has banned the Hong Kong independence party entirely. China is stepping up its control and repression in Hong Kong by steps. Just a few years ago it banned individual candidates from the election for advocating independence. As long as it faces no penalty for this, China can keep pushing.

27 September 2018 (Medical care in India) India's government offers gratis medical care for all the poor. I hope it includes the most effective forms of birth control.

27 September 2018 (Kavanaugh accuser Ramirez) Deborah Ramirez accuses Kavanaugh of attacking her sexually while he was at Yale. Two other women make accusations against Kavanaugh, not yet publicly.

27 September 2018 (Kavanaugh and the constitution) Kavanaugh claims to be a strict constructionist, following the text of the Constitution literally — but that's only when he can use that to justify deregulation. Sometimes he rules for deregulation by inventing a fanciful interpretation of the Constitution. Apparently his approach to the Constitution is better described as, "Deregulation by hook or by crook."

27 September 2018 (Coal and oil usage) OPEC predicts that coal and oil usage will increase for decades. If that happens, it won't continue for the rest of the century. The poverty, hunger and wars will stop it. However, that is not a second-best solution; that is failure.

27 September 2018 (Defeat of Yameed) President Yameen of the Maldives was defeated. Apparently he was unable to rig the election.

27 September 2018 (Stopping plutocratist governments) Plutocratist governments in Central America are forcing peasants off their land and converting it to plantations or mines. Sometimes women organize and stop them.

27 September 2018 (Australian ex-Ministers' careers) Since 1990, 1/4 of Australian [ex-]Ministers Go on to Work for Lobbyists or Special Interests, according to a study that tracked each one's career. The author of the report said that this is not necessarily bad, Perhaps I'd agree, if each one had been surprised to receive a cushy job after leaving government office. Let's not be naive. Government officials know they will be offered such work, and their decisions while in office are likely to be influenced by the prospect. Accepting a job that is unofficially contingent on their policies is morally equivalent to taking a bribe.

27 September 2018 (To stop the world from changing me) I've always found this quotation inspiring: "I'm not trying to change the world. I'm trying to stop the world from changing me." I used to attribute the quote to Thoreau, but it seems that was mistaken: it is actually from Ammon Hennacy. I have succeeded in changing the world to some extent, and I am still trying to achieve more. At the same time, I see how the use of nonfree software, and digital dis-services, has changed others for the worse. Millions surrender their freedom and privacy without moving a muscle to protect it. They run freedom-denying software that snoops on them constantly. They let Facebook use them. They play nonfree video games for hours, killing time which they could have used for something meaningful, and learning nothing except how to retreat from society. Even if they would find it hard work to resist these evils 100%, there are surely parts they could easily resist. It sure looks like malicious technology has changed them for the worse. Please don't let it change you!

27 September 2018 (Land-based birds at risk of extinction) "Land-based bird populations are becoming confined to nature reserves in some parts of the world—raising the risk of global extinction—due to the loss of suitable habitat."

25 September 2018 (Urgent: Fight against voter-purging) Citizens of North Carolina: fight against Republican voter-purging. I can't test this, since I am not from North Carolina and should not sign. If you find that this petition can't be signed with Javascript disabled entirely, and can't be signed with LibreJS active, please email me (rms at the GNU project site) so I can delete it. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 September 2018 (Bully-appointed federal judge) One of the bully's appointed federal judge disregarded the facts to make a partisan decision in favor of right-wing counterprotestors.

25 September 2018 (Palestinian home life) Israelis Experience Palestinian Home Life in Virtual Reality. They see the home of a specific Palestinian family that volunteered for this.

25 September 2018 (Kavanaugh's Republican votes) The reason Republicans intend to vote for Kavanaugh no matter what is that he is part of the same plutocratist group as four other right-wing justices. They will turn the US into hell for all except the favored classes.

25 September 2018 (Uighurs in brainwashing camps) Pompeo condemned China for putting around a million Uighurs in brainwashing camps. Someone else called this "The pot calling the kettle black", but that is not correct. What Chine has done is comparable to putting a million people in Guantanamo. The US put only a thousand people, total, in Guantanamo. Even today it is possible to be worse than the US. When Pompeo talks about "stealing intellectual property", he spreads confusion. That term invariably has that effect because it doesn't fit reality.

25 September 2018 (Judge frees migrant-rescuing fishermen) An Italian judge freed the Tunisian fishermen, victims of the right-wing attempt to criminalize the act of rescuing migrants from drowning. This won't end the threat. Right-wingers trying to pervert justice never give up.

25 September 2018 (Projecting images onto capitol building) Maine is moving to prohibit protesting by projecting images onto the state capitol building. The practice does not hurt anyone, but there is a general tendency to repress effective protest in the US. If it can attract the attention of substantial numbers of people, politicians that don't represent the public will find some excuse to stop you.

25 September 2018 (Urgent: Shareholder resolution against NRA) Call on mutual fund companies to support the shareholder resolution to make American Outdoor Brands stop supporting the NRA, and be clear about what it is (and what it isn't) doing in claimed efforts to reduce gun violence. The company is a conglomerate, but its main business is guns. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 September 2018 (UK immigration) The UK denies citizenship to teenagers for petty crimes, and seeks to deport them to countries they would hardly remember and where they may not know anyone.

25 September 2018 (Urgent: New Jersey cash law) Citizens of New Jersey: call your state legislators to support the law that stores must accept cash. You can support cash (and your privacy) more by actually insisting on cash when you buy things in stores, and refusing to give your name. I do this, and so can you. If you phone, please spread the word!

25 September 2018 (Urgent: Prisons for immigrant families) US citizens: call on Congress to reject building more prisons for immigrant families. The problem is not space to imprison them, the problem is imprisoning them. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 September 2018 (Urgent: Impeach Kavanaugh) US citizens: call on Congress to impeach Kavanaugh (as an appeals court judge). If SCROTUS put him on the Supreme Court, we will want to impeach him from there. Convenient that there are several valid grounds already, including attempted rape and lying to the senate at least twice. If you sign, please spread the word!

25 September 2018 (25th amendment obstacle) Removing the bullshitter from office using the 25th amendment would run into the same obstacle as impeachment: requiring a 2/3 majority in Congress.

25 September 2018 (Infiltrator 