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The ‘Tiktok ban’ law is ‘not just a Tiktok ban’ says Sacks. It could be the new Patriot Act. E170: Tech's Vibe Shift, TikTok ban debate, Vertical AI boom, Florida bans lab-grown meat & more - YouTube ‘The worst ideas are bipartisan.’ This one was 50-0. Not 47.3, not 42.8. There was hardly any debate. The may have been ‘stampeded’ into passing it.
‘My alarm bells go off when DC acts with this kind of unanimity, because the only time they do that, when they become a uniparty, is when the national security state wants some new power. Entry into Iraq War, Patriot Act.’
‘They always cite classification when they don’t want the public to know something.'
If this is about we can't have our apps in China but their are here, and we want to stop that, put it in a trade bill, said Sacks. This isn't in a trade bill, it just gives new powers to the government to define foreign adversary controlled applications and websites.
What does this app do that other apps don't do? It hasn't been shown.
There's so many AGs going after Facebook and Insta and other tech companies, making their bones, and could go after ByteDance, yet none are. Why not? and suddenly 100% support for this law.
Remedy not narrowly tailored, and law will lead to weaponization.
The Patriot Act was written with sunset provisions, but although it expired in 2020 without being reauthorized, government agencies retain most of the authorities granted by the act.
Secret Tiktok Ban Hearings / Lobbying - YouTube
Although there are political differences among people, ‘we should be able to come together on these issues like ... mass surveillance’. ‘It is a major threat to your rights.’
They want to ‘collect data that can’t be collected right now.'
The idea that TikTok is dangeous because it seeds misinformation or discontent in America. ‘No one seeds more discontent than the MSM in the US. They pit political parties against each other on a constant basis.’
‘Vague language is always alarming ... because everyone who is under this legislation is at risk.’
FOSS developers are in every country including foreign adversaries. ‘That doesn’t mean they have misaligned influence.'
Tiktok may be becoming a problem for ‘the Israeli establishiment.’ Billionaires.
The work of journalists going undercover. Those involved are ... taking money from the pro-Israel lobby.
ADL policing speech. APAC funding politiicans, who can fund and run a candidate against you if they don't like your platform or speech.
#Politics
Trudeau's new online censorship law - Problems with Bill C-63 / the Online Arms Law - YouTube

Another State Does Away w/Mandatory Bar Exam for Attorneys - YouTube

DOJ has sued Apple over iPhone monopoly.
One argument: When Apple encounters competitive threats, it doesn't lower prices, but rather imposes a ‘series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions in its App Store guidelines and dev agreements.’ ... ‘Blocks, essentially, that forces people to stay.’
‘Peak Apple’ has been said by some.
To a challenge that Android phone users couldn't send videos to people they knew, Cook responded ‘Buy your mom an iPhone.’
The issue has been talked about in terms of government wants Apple to be integrative with nonApple products. Apple has always had this policy. Consumers are paying for this product.
A sort of ‘democrat’ view is that ‘Apple will keep abusing power until they’re checked' and so they have to be checked. They want ‘the industry to stand for more interoperability’.
Point of reference is when Microsoft (which had 95% of the market at that time for PCs) tried to dominate search with a browser, and how they would have continued. 'They had substantial market power and what they were in the process of doing was the smart thing from the business standpoint. They would have killed the competing browser, then baked their own into Windows, and with that you control search. They were trying to break html and openStandards and using all kinds of funky code. They were telling computer makers that they could get Windows for cheap (or free?) with the browser bundle, or pay $150 each computer without the browser monopoly thing. Same thing Google does on phones with Android basically.
I would probably say that for that particular issue, it is fine as long as the company is small (10% of market or less). Another tactic would be for Android to deny interrelation with Apple until Apple permits it.

Reddit IPOd. How will they monetize?

UK Police Force told: 'Women who criticise gender ideology should be treated as terrorists' - YouTube
#Terrorism

Google fined 250 million euros for using news articles to train chatbot | BBC News - YouTube

A law in US will reduce real estate agent commissions by shifting it from (current) seller pays 6% in a contract when he lists, to buyer and seller each pay 2% or 3% or so. No buyer will agree to this, it is considered. They can look on Redfin and go look at the house themselves.
The current way is considered to be a kind of a racket, which only works because the seller pays it and is sort of force to.
You buy a house for $1m and then sell it for $1.1, but have to pay $60k to an agent. A great service by an agent might get $1.2 whereas a bad one might get 800k.
They might remove half the fees in the industry this way.
Agents might start to work hourly. Or they might change a fee rather than a commission, for various homebuying services. Or a flat rate plus percentage ($1m house means $10k, plus 10% over that price ... or and 20% for the next hundred K over the price), flat fee guaranteed plus commission for performance.
Opportunity for startups, leveraging AI.

State Court Says Local Officers Can't Spy From Above Without a Warrant - YouTube
Alaska constitution. US Constitution actually has language to allow doing this, it says if you can fly over and look down then you can fly over and look down and take pictures.
Aircraft must have a warrant to use a camera with zoom lens.
In 2012, police flew over the yard to take a look, and saw ‘unidentifyable plants' and got a warrant on that (how?) to enter the property. Several appeals.
Alaska Supreme court: ‘The Alaska Constitution protects the right to be free of unreasonable searches. The fact that a random person might catch a glimpse of your yard while flying from one place to another does not make it reasonable for law enforcement officials to take to the skies and train high powered optics on the private space right outside your home without a warrant.’
Just because people can see something doesn't mean police can take a telephoto lens and all these different sensors and things (heat sensors) and do anything.
The Constitutions talks about what steps the government can and cannot take to surveil you, and you have to ask yourself what kinds of things would we want them doing or not doing. ... You want law enforcement to enforce the laws, but they get a tip somebody's growing something, so they fly over and take pictures with a giant lens.
Are all Americans fascinated with Alaska?
#StateConstitutions

House passes TikTok bill: What investors need to know - YouTube
Is it actually starting? A trend which will protect people from tracking and spying?
‘Tiktok should be banned,' one commenter said, because of their extraordinary ability to influence public opinion. Will we see Congress actually do something to make a thing that should be actually happen?

He Brought A Nailgun To A Protest - What Is The Law? - YouTube
It can't fire 152.4meters per second, so not a ‘firearm’. (Note that some nailguns can achieve over that, particlarly powder-actuated ones.)
It is a weapon carried to a public meeting. It is a weapon carried for a dangerous purpose (unless he went and got it for self-defense after getting in an altercation).
He was carrying a weapon while committing another crime, if he was assaulting. Then he would be assaulting with a weapon (just drawing a fist or pointing a projectile weapon is assualt).

Lawyer: Bad Copyright Claims Cost Rick Beato a Ton - YouTube
‘clearly fair use’ during an interview to talk about the thing.

Is Oregon's controversial drug decriminalization plan working? - YouTube

Crime Lab Scientist Deleted and Tampered w/DNA Results in 600 Cases - YouTube
The findings ‘put all of her work in question’. 29 years. Data retention and quality control measures were violated, showing how specious these are having them as the reliable part of a system.
When DNA, blood, fingerprint testing is done, it's just sent to the prosecutor or whoever, it's not delivered into the court. The person doing the testing doesn't come into the court and participate and say who they are and what they found. The person is not, as perhaps they should be, a witness. They can't be cross-examined, an integral part of reliable justice systems. If a witness seems not credible you can cross-examine them on that. If the woman tester here were later called to court regarding a test she did, she could be cross-examined on her reliability as a witness because she had these manipulated/deleted tests.
How many retrials must now be done? where the convicted may not have had true evidence presented, and at the least didn't get a fair trial. It looks like 652 trials going back to 2008. Some of the convicted would have already been sentenced and served time in jail and been released.
'She deleted and altered data that concealed her tampering with controls ... her failure to troubleshoot issues within the testing process ... failed to provide thorough documentation in the case record related to certain tests ... cut corners ...
CBI apparently doesn occasionally find their agents have issues. But this is 29 years later.
Steven noted that one way this sort of thing happens is that in law enforcement (like other things) some people start to believe that their hunches are magically correct and ‘though the evidence doesn’t point towards this guy I know they did it, so we're going to construct a case around this person.' And police might be coming to this tester and saying Hey I know you did some tests but this isn't helping us, and might pressure her to give them evidence that helps their case because they're sure the person did it, and maybe they make her job hard for her if she doesn't cooperate. Or maybe it's laziness on her part.
There are a lot of steps in the travel of a piece of evidence, through storage, transport, packaging, testing, between buildings, data entry, retrieval. Sometimes you hear about how something wasn't done properly for various reasons. Maybe the guys just wanted to finish work to go out for a beer because it was somebody's birthday so they cut corners, whatever.

Terrorism charges laid against man accused in Edmonton City Hall attack - YouTube

Cops Use 'Find My iPhone' App, Search Wrong House, Hit w/$3.8M Verdict - YouTube
Can you think of an easier way to get $4m?
The phone location wasn't precise and they thought it was. The phone they were looking for was somewhere else.
A new Colorado law (2022 police reform bill) allows people to sue police over violations of their state constitutional rights. Sue in state court. (Fed constitutional rights, you have to show it's a clearly established right, otherwise the police can say ‘qualified immunity’ which made it difficult to pursue wrongs, and that's why Colorado did this).
Woke up to an alarm, military style police, armored vehicle, police dog, etc. ‘on her lawn’. They busted into the garage even though she told them how to open the door. They busted ceiling tiles to get into the attic. Broke some other things. 'Biggest damage to her sense of safety.' 'Has difficulty sleeping.' 'Moved to a different neighborhood.'
ACLU of Colorado. Her verdict appears to be against not the PD but 2 employees. Can she collect?
#StateConstitutionalRights

Algos could be regulated to not conduce echo-chambers.

Why a Senate bill could see Pornhub blocked in Canada | TECH NEWS - YouTube
Digital IDs or facial recognition.

FBI informant Smirnov arrested again over charges on false Hunter Biden reports - YouTube
Same charges?

Two Montreal universities launch lawsuits against the Quebec government - YouTube
For tuition hikes.

Dominican hospital charges Atlanta couple $7,100, refuses to give itemized bill - YouTube

Case Adjourned When Jurors Can't Be Found Who Are Willing to Convict - YouTube
Voir dire. $500 fine for feeding the homeless without the city's permission in Houston.
90 tickets have been issued since March against volunteers of this organization (not an individual) which serves meals near the city library. City has lost every case.
Voir dire often comes up in murder and assault in cases where people have strong feelings about things, and in capital punishment.
Jury nulificaiton can also happen when a jury agrees about guilt but still aquit. Often they disagree with the law. Is this guy a criminal or a good neighbor?
Sometimes a jury says, 'The prosecution has one version, and the defence has a completely different version, and I'm actually buying THAT version.'
Sometimes the person has excuses for what they've done, and that excuse might not rise to where the court's gonna say ‘If you find this you can acquit.’ But a jury looking at the facts might say say I understand that what they did was illegal, but I understand why they did it, and I think I woulda done it, you woulda done it, I think reasonable people would've done that, considering the circumstances. So I can't vote to convict that person.

Company That Sweeps Up License Plate Data Faces Class Action Trial in May - YouTube
They use license plate scanners, drive around, develop location data on cars and sell that to marketers. 22m plates per month are scanned by this company.
Not consistent with civil liberties, it is argued. Mass surveilance program. Detailed picture of people lives, home, other peoples' homes, doctors, place of worship, businesses they frequent.
Is there something intrusive about this? Sweeping up the info on a plate, not just the person who happens to be there at that moment unconnected to the person anyway. But building a detailed profile of people.
Defense says no one has been directly harmed.
According to a Cali 2016 law that says if you sue for a broken law, you can get minimum $2500. 22m people times that. The plaintiff may also want equable relief ie to make them stop.

Teachers sue Gavin Newsom for forcing them to lie about students' gender - YouTube (Fox)

City to Install Speed Cameras on Interstate for 'Safety' - YouTube
'Other cities that have implemented similar measures have seen a massive increase in revenue.' A money printing machine, paid for by citizens, many from out of state. You don't have to pay the machine a salary either.

"There's NO such thing as PARENTAL RIGHTS in Canada" - YouTube
‘It’s dangerous and harmful' to do what he doesn't want lawmakers to do, and the way they talk about it is ‘hateful.’ The people in question are ‘just trying to be kids.’
Commenter: "Someone with rights but no responsibilities is a tyrant.
Someone with responsibilities but no rights is a slave."

HOA sends him 1 dozen-plus parking tickets, but he doesn’t own a car - YouTube
These things should mandatorily have a papertrail of who touched a procedure, with either their name or id number on a list on the actual document the person gets.

Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman began a year ago, says Musk biographer Walter Isaacson - YouTube
Motivations? Relationship started in 2012. Musk worried about AI getting out of control. They had made OpenAI opensource, nonprofit. Falling out and Altman decided it wasn't going to be any longer opensource or nonprofit. Musk wanted to go back to original documents about what the project was, and saw, the biographer says, they would wind up in court. Altman had offered Musk shares and said he could make money off it. Musk doesn't want money really, he wants OpenAI opened up to opensource, as the original documents said, so it can't run out of control.
You can't take an opensource, nonprofit and turn it into what they're doing now (something pretty much controlled by Microsoft), is the issue, the biographer said.
They had a bunch of founding documents, the emails between the two men talking about it.
#Musk

Air Canada found liable for chatbot’s bad advice on plane tickets - YouTube
AC said they are not responsible for something their employees or workers, even a chatbot, say. The chatbot is not a separate legal entity, he argued.
Airline's Insane Defense in Lawsuit it Lost - YouTube

The Flipper Zero Ban is Insane - YouTube
No evidence one was ever used to steal cars in Canada. Can't even really do it, it seems, unless you have the fob and trigger it outside range of the car, then go to the car and open it.
100k cars were stolen in Canada in 2022, and there's a lot of meetings on the subject in Ottawa this week.

College student tracking Taylor Swift’s jets fires back in legal letter - YouTube
What do you do when someone makes themselves a personal nuisance? Generally, laws are created to prevent these actions, but how would we define the wrong here?

Police Now Need a Warrant to Access Ring Footage - YouTube

Causing Someone to Stop Walking is Now a Crime in Vegas - YouTube

Blinding headlights are growing problem on US roads - YouTube

Is he for real? Destruction of evidence isn't viewed as criminal act by Trudeau government - YouTube

City Sues to Keep Its Police Chase Policy Hidden - YouTube
Because police have rules for when they will continue a police chase and when they will not pursue further becaues negatives outweigh positives.
But now a bystander was struck and killed during a chase. They want to know if the police were following their policy at the time.
They have the Freedom and Information Act in Texas.

Anna Paulina Luna Asks If Hillary Clinton Or Stacey Abrams Should Be Charged With 'Insurrection' - YouTube
#Terrorism #Politics

Ford government's wage restraint law deemed unconstitutional - YouTube
Bill 124. Workers could be eligible for $billions in backpay.
'Violated the collective bargaining rights of workers.'
‘unconstitutional bill passed in 2019.’
#Canada

Section230 repeal (to have more censorship), both sides seem to want it in Congress (at least the lack of reliability). Current grandstanding, maybe even support, but we'll regret where it goes, which is more censorship. Scapegoating, moral panic, chance to grandstand?
Instead of having lots of small players, you have a handful, so it's easier to blame or attack them. ‘If you apply a very small error rate to a very large number (3.5b monthly), even if you say .01% error rate, that’s 3m unintended consequences. A law of large numbers. In China they mandate what products (mostly video games) children can use and how many hours per day.
Every time there's an alleged harm, a bully whateer, they're going to try to pin it on SM, to show that they consumed something that led or contributed to this. Disproportionate relative to harm.
There's linups around the world to sue these companies if we let them be sued. Flood of litigation. The companies will have to content moderate even stricter, just as a corporate act. ‘That Republican content caused a situation that caused this harm’ so they censor more of it.
Do you think there will still be conversations online about gun ownership enthusiasm (or even second amendment rights)? or will it result every time in a plaintiffs lawsuit every time there's a shooting, not going after the person who made the post, but the platform.
Lawyers looking at all that money they could extract, and their fees is 10 or 20% of $100s of millions. Bringing bullying, sexual cases to jury trials and they're going to think they're ‘on the right side of history.’ There will be lawyers specialized in this kind of case. Funded cases by hedgefunds.
The rules on the field were X and people were trying to follow those rules.

Elon ruled against in pay compensation package completion
The company went up $50b. When Elon negotiated, no one thought he could hit all these things. They've 10xed. He got no guaranteed compensation, but instead he only got any compensation if he hit ‘crazy’ milestones. Decent or good performance wouldn't have got him anything. TSLA had the largest short position ever. He had tried 3 CEOs and thought none would be able to do it. He was sleeping on the factory floor. So massively positively affected shareholders. The deal was a win-win. 73 or 80% of shareholders approved the deal. It's the deal most shareholders of any company would want. Most CEOs would not take this deal. Most CEOs have compensation packages counter to shareholder value, and instead they raise debt, increasing the enterprise value by loading up on debt, and then do repurchase plans. Debt doesn't do good for shareholders but it does for CEO. Wile Elon spent the last 5 years making TSLA go 10x.
A shareholder (9 shares) ('the nameplace for the lawfirm going after Elon') sued and won that the pay package didn't go through (Elon can appeal).
Delaware had highly predictable governance, but now maybe not, said Chamath.
Will ‘100%’ have a ripple effect on how CEOs do their contracts. They will want something totally gameable where they have 90% support on the surface. EPS targets for CEOs (Elon did it on pure profit and performance) meaning debt). What companies will chose Delaware?
Is this part of Biden's ‘We gotta get this guy’ thing? Sacks asked. Delaware is a Biden state. FCC is spending $15k per person to do wireless internet when Starlink would cost them 1500. Why? And they're gonna go out and buy Starlink while they're waiting anyway.
Lawyers may take $19b of the plaintiff's winnings as a fee, by far the largest gain for lawyers in the Delaware Chancery Court history.
Musk may reincorporate in Texas, but they would have to pay corporate tax rather than 0 corporate tax in Delaware but like $250k in a fee.
For a pay contract to work for a CEO there has to be a possibility of pain as well as gain, otherwise, like the megagrants of CEOs in the past, they will just think about how rich (very rich or more rich than that) their pay will be. Patrick Boyle highlighted.

Vince McMahon’s resignation from TKO ‘not enough’: Attorney - YouTube
She was late 30s, he was sending sexualized content of her around without complaint from her, and now years later she ‘wants to end the culture of cooercive control’ where ‘she feld imprisoned.’
Don't we need some nice clear and hard definitions of what can be illegal treatment? or it could be on the other side, a constitutional protection or a law against being slandered in a lawsuit for treatment that was accepted at the time. Howver, that might not be beneficial to lawyers who make a lot off this ambiguity.

More provinces looking to ban phones in classrooms - YouTube

Squatters turn Beverly Hills mansion into party house - YouTube
Keeping neighbors u p with noise.
The police were called to attend but the people came up with a false lease. The courts won't do anything, the real estate agent says, because squatters have rights.
Police swarm Beverly Crest mansion occupied by squatters - YouTube
Someone called saying someone with a knife was entering the building.
But the police couldn't evict them. Detained and released. ‘If someone enters your house while you’re away and changes the locks there's nothing you can do about it.' LA.

Palm Springs home values in "free-fall" after city cracks down on Airbnb - YouTube

Federal lawsuit claims common fridge failures are corporate fraud - YouTube

Hong Kong court orders Chinese property developer Evergrande to liquidate | DW News - YouTube

"Should It Be Illegal?" - Controversy Over Taylor Swift AI Nude Images - YouTube
Things that a minority of people can see immediately, it requires actually happening (and sometimes thereby passing the point of proper control) for the magority to even acknowledge. The only rational solution becomes only possible to them to consider at that point.

I-Team: Study: Nearly 1,000 Georgians wrongly arrested due to false positive drug field tests - YouTube

TSN confirms names of former WJC players facing charges - YouTube
No one has details of statements what happened in the room, but after a date with one hockey player and consensual sex in a hotel room, allegedly other guys entered and had other kinds of relations alleged to be assault.
Recently, I listened to a bballer talk about how different it is for them. That sport pays a lot relatively, and they just pay their girls and they also just call the shots. Paying means buying them things or whatever. Acceptance of the thing could be interpreted to mean consent.

Toronto-area teacher’s aide acquitted of sexual assault says her reputation is ruined - YouTube
Apparently without even questioning the story told by the student, who was known to ‘have a propensity’ for ‘violence and falsehood’. People assume that if a person is charged the police have reason to do so. ‘How the people we trusted are the ones that failed us the most.’

Official arrested for speaking at her own meeting. Her rights were violated, judge says - YouTube
She was criticizing country sheriff at an open meeting. Told she was disrupting the public meeting and removed in handcuffs. Charges later dropped. She filed suit against them. ‘This is not ... Putin’s [or] ... AlAdas' country. We do not arrest our political opponents because of something they said.'
Ohio has a law that law. Misdemeanor where you can use obstructive speech or conduct outrage the sensibilities of the group.
An inmate had died and she and the sheriff were going back and forth about it.
Happened a year and a half ago, now making headlines.

Macy's and Sunglass Hut.

Raped him with a shank pressed against his neck when he went to the bathroom.

#Macys #AI #Technology #Crime

Invoking Emergencies Act against convoy protests was unreasonable, court rules - YouTube
Infringed 'Charter rights’. 2B Freedom of Expression. 8 Search and Seizure. Didn't find any infringement on Movement.
Finding was very different than the the ‘public inquiry’, the Merlo Commission which had found that what the government did was ok.
At the time, there was a lot of talk about the ‘CSIS defintion of a naitonal threat.’ Justice Mosley said it doesn't matter if CSIS says that, although it might have weight and be considered. ... The seizing and freezing of bank accounts affected people beyond those they were trying to affect. ... Unreasonable invocation of the Emergencies Act.
Judge said this is why it's important to have thes public interest litigants [CCLA] to bring these cases forward.
#Canada #HumanRights
The CCLA hadn't asked for costs or any remedy other than a declaration.
‘Canadian government’ expected to appeal.
What happens when a court finds a democratic government violates the Constitution? Can a person who is a PM/President retain authority after they have publicly broken the law against many people and violated a whole nation? and how can they hope to afterwards talk about other people as criminals?
Trudeau government has been saying that ‘economic harm’ can constitute ‘a national threat to Canada.’ Nope. ‘Gaslighting’ Court rules Trudeau's invocation of Emergencies Act was UNREASONABLE and UNCONSTITUTIONAL - YouTube
Government lost on all measures, not just one. Everything they did, basically, was illegal (unconstitutional) (except perhaps againts Movement).
The Trudeau Regime Just Got a Whole Lot Worse - YouTube

FBI DEFIES Judge’s Order To Turn Over Seth Rich’s Laptop! - YouTube

Supreme Court may reel in power of federal agencies in major case - YouTube
Medicine, air quality. Who has power to decide? The government-created agencies or the courts, in deciding how to interpret laws? Fishing agency forces fishing boats to carry a government observer on their boat and to pay for it. Currently, courts defer to these types of agencies. ‘That’s where the government almost automatically wins. The government's argument just has to be within the realm of acceptibility, the realm of plausibility.' But the fishermen are saying the agency is overstepping. Lower judges are instructed they have to rule in the government's favor. 40-year precedent. Decision expected in June.
Healthcare, things won't ‘move as smoothly.’
#CivilRights
We investigated the German farmer protests - YouTube

Supreme Court Vacates Rulings Against Vaccine Mandates - YouTube

Court Orders Police to Give Man's Phone Back After 175M Failed Password Attempts - YouTube
In Ottawa, Canada. How long should they be allowed to keep it? How many passcode guesses? They wanted to keep the phones for 2 years. They use a dictionary of passwords, leetspeak, and numbers. Takes about days to test 30m passcodes, but depends if the password is in the dictionary. Software (Mentalist) allows them to generate passcodes customized to what's known about the suspect.
The judge is framing it as a property rights question, not a privacy rights question.

Proposed Law Would Block Use of Bodycam Footage on YouTube - YouTube
‘Seeks to protect women’ and ‘young’ individuals also languaged, ‘young women’. Open public records act requests. Leveraged for gains on SM.

State Court OKs Warrantless Searches Based on 'Nonverbal' Gestures - YouTube
Wyoming.
‘Based on believed’ consent. What if the person who opens the door is just a visitor? Good faith belief. ‘Believed authority to consent.’ A smart officer will now just not ask if the residence is theirs, but will just say ‘Can I come in?’ and on ‘good faith’ believe the person had authority to consent nonverbally. If a man shrugs his shoulders, they can assume that means ‘I don’t care go ahead and search' when actually he meant ‘Why are you asking me that? its’ not my place' when he shrugged. Things that before would have meant the police don't have consent now mean the police do have.

Court Allows Suit to be Served Via Bitcoin Wallet - YouTube
#Crypto

Canadian customs officers could soon be based in U.S. for the first time - YouTube
‘Preclearance.’
Canadian guards would arrest people wanted under US law.
Border guards and their lawyers didn't evne know about this until journalists at CBC just called them to comment on the story. They have a lot of concerns, and don't know anything about how it would work.
Are all laws in Canada passed in secret from anyone they might affect? because it seems to be this way a lot.

900 Wrongful Convictions in British Post Office Scandal - YouTube
#UK
Not accused. Convicted. Because of a faulty computer system. Left them ‘bankrupt and bronken.’ Fixed after a TV docudrama roused public support, not before, not even after then news published on it. The State owned post office maintained that Horizon (their software) was reliable and said the branch managers were guilty. Some went to prison, some were bankrupt trying to defend themselves, became community pariahs, accused of stealing, marriages fell apart.
Similar problem happened years ago in Michigan, Lehto said, to handle what they wanted to be an easy way to deal with unemployment claims, flagging people falsely of receiving fraudlently obtained unemployment money, and prosecuted them, saying they had to pay the money back. Class actions were served. Trusting machines to do our thinking for us, and make decisions for us.

Huge Civil Asset Forfeiture Win for the Marine - YouTube
#Nevada
How many civil asset forfeitures happen in the US?

Man Sues 27 Women for Comments on 'Are We Dating the Same Guy?' - YouTube
Apparently there are Facebook groups like this for regions/cities. Sometimes it's someone's husband or wife.
Relatedly, the state is looking at new legislation to prevent sharing of personal information online.

GREAT 2A DECISION: Federal Judge Rules Post Offices ARE NOT Sensitive Places! - YouTube
(Didn't watch.)

The current legislation limiting big tech is not meaningful. Of all the big fines handed out to the big tech companies last year, the biggest fine was paid off in 7 days. Andy Yen. You can't change those companies behavior unless you're forced to. DMA coming into force this year in Europe though.

Saskatoon passengers landing in Orlando told they 'entered the country illegally' - YouTube
A staff member opened the wrong door so they didn't pass through customs.

Madonna sued by fans in New York over late concert start time | BBC News - YouTube

Is the ‘Panemic Treaty’ the next ‘Patriot Act’?

Reports Ireland govt is trying to make new hate speech laws so citizens can't complain about immigration, which perhaps they majority oppose?
Will Sin Fein become increasingly the nationalist party?

Police Called To Stop Filming During Piano Livestream - YouTube
This is something legislatures are going to have to decide. Should people be unrestricted in where they film/livestream? Do public spaces belong to people who don't care about others who may not want to be in their videos? or does it belong to people who would limit the ability of others to film?
#CivilRights

Disney loses famous Mickey Mouse copyright in 2024, along with many others - YouTube
After pressuring courts to (aquiese and) modify copyright law how many times?

When is it legal to dox someone? When they have 50k followers, is it of general interest?

Rite Aid to be barred from using facial recognition under proposed FTC settlement - YouTube
They falsely tagged consumers as shoplifters.
They took images and processed them with facial recognition without notifying customers.
The Dolan family has gotten in trouble for using facial recognition for banning people they didn't like from Madison Square Garden.
‘Drug stores are not a place where people should be recorded.’
Is there space in the market for ‘privacy stores', stores that explicitly state with signage they don't record or track you?

Couple Loses the Multimillion Dollar African 'Mask Case' - YouTube
You can't go get some of the money from something you used to own, that was later sold by someone else, France.
The previous owners failed to exercise due diligence in evaluating thie artistic and historical value.
They had said the art dealer who bought it mislead them. He said he didn't know it would be worth that much. When he found it was worth like $4m, he offered them $300k after the fact. He bought it for like $150.

New Law Requires Police to Tell You Why They Pulled You Over - YouTube
Cali starting Jan 1. 'For among other reasons, just so that they have a reason.' Otherwise, in some places, they'll just pull you over and ask you all kinds of questions, and may aggravate you, and then later tell you Oh you did this. Cali police will have to state their reason before asking any quesion on a subject.
Now, in Cali, if they say, Hey your headlight is out, and then they say Where you comin from? you will realize that quesiton has nothing to do with the reason they pulled you over.
To stop ‘pretextual stops’.
‘Do you know why I pulled you over’ puts you on the defensive immediately, and there is a tension there.
Oakland Privacy.
With the new law, the officer can still withhold the reason if he believes it is ‘necassary to protect life or property from imminent threat.'
Constitutionally (Federal), police don't have to tell you why they pulled you over, the Supreme Court has said (they've also said police don't have to tell you why you're being arrested). State laws may require it.
This is only California.
#California

Woman Sued for $250K by Singer's Reps to Stop Her Merchandise Sales - YouTube
‘That would be one of the problems with allowing people to be served by email.’ Some states (including Illinois) allow this. Their email landed in her junkmail folder and she missed the 21-day window. I have email accounts I don't check for years.
The country singer called the woman personally and said they do have a team that goes after internional companies fake merch sellers who make millions, but he knows she's not doing that. He said it made him sick to his stomach. He sent her $11k, double what she's lost to medical bills for a heart condition. He's also going to make a similar profile on Tumblr, sell it and donate the proceeds to the woman. He invited her to a concert where he'll invite her on stage and give her a hug and apologize in person.
Most summons are done in person. Some (like for big companies with a resident reciever for these mails) can be served by mail, with their cooperation. You can consent to electronic service, but you have to consent, in other states (not Illinois).
Letho points out a good scam, where you can create a gmail account for the person you want to serve, serve them by email to that account, then log into that account and say you received it, and then the real person would have to prove that that's not their email account.

Landlords Required To Build EV Chargers At Renters' Request New Illinois Law! - YouTube

Giuliani Files for Bankruptcy - YouTube
Intentional torts not discharged with bankruptcy, so he'll maintain the debt. He was found to have falsely accused 2 2020 election workers of fascilitating fraud. $168m in damages. ??

SiriusXM Sued for How Hard it is to Cancel - YouTube

Gas Station Near Airport Accused of Price Gouging - YouTube

Controversial Florida law sends cities scrambling for new council members - YouTube
Sharing net worth.

Huge NEWS in Julian Assange Case: Lawsuit Against CIA for SPYING on Attorneys Will Proceed | Rising - YouTube
#Assange

Nightmare Squatters Inspire New Anti-Squatting Law - YouTube
Better crafted than past failed lawsuits. First line of the suit is that we need independent journalism for democracy to work. It's a lawsuit not just about money. It's a gripe about input and output.
The output has included verbatim text from NYT articles.
The debate will be about fair use, the defense against copyright infringement.
Millions of articles.
Timing. Sue early. With Google during it's rise, it took journalism and payed nothing, until later we just consider that normal. Challenge assumptions before they become the norm.

New York Times sues AI companies over copyright infringement - YouTube

Safe Deposit Box Case Heard by Ninth Circuit - YouTube
Fourth Amendment versus unreasonalbe search and seizer. And Fifth for having private property taken without compensation. Institute for Justice. Allegation is FBI has no probable cause to open boxes or after opening them, to keep the stuff. And FBI lost all kinds of stuff they had documented in order to not lose. IJ wants the appeals court to difinitively state that the FBI violated individuals' rights, and to force Fedgov to distroy copies it made of private things like medical documents etc. ‘Oh you want your document back here you go’ but they have a copy. FBI did need to document the contents of the boxes in order to properly give the contents back to the owners, Lehto speculated, otherwise people could just show up and say Hey I'm box number 5 and they couldn't say what was in the box to confirm. However, that seems false, because if they prove they had the box through identity and rental records that should be the only thing needed.

Sheriff Letter IN FAVOR of Civil Asset Forfeiture - YouTube

Law deems Illegal immigration a state crime in Texas - YouTube

China Fines Everything: $3 Vegetables Sale=$15K Fine, GitHub Visit=$300K Fine, Puppy Joke=$2M Fine - YouTube

Sony Steals Customers' Purchased Content - Piracy is COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED! - YouTube

High Court Judge Arrested and Charged - YouTube
Tasmania, assault and emotional abuse. Media not allowed, court restricted publishing name of victim in accordance with family violence act. A crime that wouldn't get any headlines if it had just been an ordinary person off the street, because it was a Supreme Court justice they escorted him through back door etc.

Amazon Sued for Selling Bathroom 'Spycam' - YouTube
‘Amazon cannot claim shock.' Spycam designed to look like a towel hook. Underage woman in her bathroom, a foreign exchange student.

Google Loses App Store Antitrust Fight With Fortnite Maker Epic Games - YouTube

83-Year-Old Woman Handcuffed and Forced to Kneel During Stop Can Sue the Police - YouTube
Google and Apple as gatekeepers. Thumb on the scale. By jury. The jury understood the issues and case and made a decision. In past cases they used a judge. Google will appeal, so its an issue that'll be settled in years. Google says when you use Android you can use any app etc, and that's technically true but in practice not what Google makes it sound like, which was part of the case.

New Hampshire Man John DeLee is Not Guilty of Bar Fight Murder: Defense - YouTube
This is just the argument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp4Hljh9PKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDWdXXclQvs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GKg1UucxNc

The sheriff isn´t allowed to keep it, so they give it to the Fed who does their due dillegence for 20% and then returns 80% to the sheriff. ´The financial motive makes it inconsistent with due process.' Ẃe keep getting robbed by the Sheriff.' The TRO burden isn´t met. ‘Prove to us you’re innocent.' ‘Uncontroverted.’ ‘All you have is self-serving statements.’

‘Law enforcement, across the entire USA, represent the single greatest threat to our personal safety and well being,' said a commenter. Both the almost only prevention of crime organizations and also perhaps the largest criminal organizations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Care_of_Maya

This case was decided today, 7 years after the events, siding with the family. Is law enforcement or health care the greatest harm in the USA? Like police, its something that generally serves but also is widely evidenced to harm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqhPUmyrfGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0GGvr_2XOg

DEA et al, keeping it. ‘There’s nothing different than being robbed. Someone come up with a gun and take your money.'

Between 2000 and 2016, a Jacksonville's airport's customs seized $108m in cash.

The foundation of war is economics. - Musk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBWhQ09qNM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s-BEj97SxI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7tp4UZgxKg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4S3QQOO02U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkVQ4-JM2aQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OzkkNb2cpo

Arrested for misplacing a document at a council meeting, after arranging a petition for the resignation of the mayor.

She couldn't sue the city council officials because they have qualified immunity, and they had made sufficient probable cause to arrest her (that she had perhaps stolen her document).

“Backdoor censorship."

The police in that city arrested her and then released her a day later, dropping the charges. Ie she wasn't taken to trial. But she as the defendent has been trying to have the court to take it to trial so she can prove she had been wronged through law/police.

She's trying to say that the qualified immunity does not fit this case.

It's a ‘what if’ case. What if we allow city councils and authorities to do this.

Institute of Justice is working on it. Is IoJ the new ACLU?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH3VYCh7z5o

Is good faith enough?

Some people were killed at home, and the police requested anyone (among 1b search users) who had searched that address.

There is little about a person that isn't revealed by reviewing a 1-month search history, including things they tell no one because they're private (and sometimes they would otherwise not even address).

The majority recognized people have a constitutional right to privacy in their internet search querries, and that these impact speech rights.

Before the Amendments were written, there was a ‘general warrant’ where a judge gave police a general warrant to go around, knock on random doors and say ‘we have a warrant’ and barge in. Since the Amendment, police need a specific warrant where they say who or what they are looking for.

EFF disappointed with the results of the case.

Go to your search results for the month and look through them, and see if you would like strangers/authorities to have that info. Now consider that of your family members.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpU9LdxO9aE

The court took the trial on the road and it was hosted at a highschool. It's much easier to go see.

The argument police/city used was “We didn't need a warrant because we were just flying a drone over your property.” They also used “an anonymous tip by a neighbor" for an impetus. Their argument was that the drone was not touching the ground.

The town council is using tax dollars and “don't even seem to care” if this case is taken to the Supreme court and the costs associated?

Another what if case. Every town council will buy a drone and regularly fly it over every property all the time and look for things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lietcrJy1MU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7W296G2ik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rnzQ6A2Nv8

Said to be to combat planned obsolesence and companies selling cars that they know won't last. The bill also has things to do with right to repair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJcsXRhArA8

What about TV? Phones? Junk food? Exercise?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MnGgsOKjqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hHOFZUCC5E

Can't take drone images ‘for surveilance’. Originally journalists had sued to be able to and won, but on appeal this. It's legal only up to 8 feet off the ground and you can't use ‘ampificaiton’ (zoom).

‘And nothing in the No-Fly provisions has anything to do with speech or expression. These are flight restrictions, not speech restrictions.’

#Drones #Privacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQfloQlSmFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MirpRkmruOg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mFzFaGE-c

First in US. Seattle PD can't knowingly lie, saying it undermines public trust in police (not outweighed, said mayor). We might also say in society in general, since police will lie to one friend saying his friend said he did things and thereby pressure him into ratting on his friend. People have falsely confessed to murder because they were lied to and browbeaten in this way. The can still lie for felonies but not minor property crimes.

Seattle PD can't make a false statement to press or in any way that ‘shocks the conscience’ so we don't know what that means yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU9dJgFa8Dc

Not much progress against monopoly.

Ecosystem, rather than just different parts of a business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROtcckDw4Nc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvp9AX0HaMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXQrlbfyu1E

A juror had said that the defendent deserves to go to jail because they're rich, white, and entitled. Another juror told the judge this, but it was a lie. Juror26 said 'm standing up for white people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UScNk39xUTk

WHO is not elected.

‘What’s with all the secrecy?'

It's all happening by default, if no one does anything. Just by not doing anything, something happens.

100k signatures in the UK, but still no public hearing. Canada and Australia also got more than enough signatures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pttMVC3ia9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzHo5TM--6A

The racial equality policy written by NY DA Bragg aims at equality of outcome, not treating people equally. The statement the victim of the original crime made reads like he was the aggressor and the perpetrator was the victim, the lawyer says. ‘Evidence mischaracterized.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NWv1R-0ws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqsUH2-AgA8

Any streamer who makes $10k would have to register with the Can govt and then hand over info on their listeners.

In the vid, they also comment on how hate laws are used by the government to oppress groups who oppose them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeQI30LyajM

Usually people complain when Cali passes a new law.

This is a ‘backspace’ for data brokers (those who buy and sell personal data). With one single request all the companies have to delete it at once. 500 data brokers are already registered with California.

Most states sell your drivers licence info to the companies who collect this data. Post offices sell your new address when you change address. Post offices sell info on which people have recently moved to an area.

‘We’ll sell it if you promise to use it properly.'

'The burden of policing data brokers shouldn't be on consumers.'

People can go get your property data, taxes, whether you're up to date.

Note: if you write your name and address a certain way, you will be able to track from which original source your address for junk mail was leaked/sold.

JPM net income up 24-35% (lower figure excludes First Republic purchase).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EknWd3rtdR8

Court Says Cops Can Come Up w/Probable Cause AFTER the Arrest - YouTube

How did the 8th Circuit get to that (clearly unconstitutional)?

'Dead Name' Trans Documentary Censored as “Hate Speech” | Peter Boghossian & Taylor Reece - YouTube

Tinder launches $500-per-month subscription to its most active users - YouTube

Will ‘Chinese spies’ become the next pretense for invasion of privacy? The two pillars of the past 20 years, one is basically defunct and the other seems waning through counter-opinion/saviness of it being a pretense.

Cops Were Wrong to Extend Traffic Stop by 3 Minutes - YouTube

“A seizure violates the 4th Amendment when an officer extends a traffic stop with tasks unrelated to the traffic mission, absent independent reasonable suspicion. ”So, if they pull you over for a tail light being out, once they've notified you of that and perhaps ticketed you, then that traffic stop should end. If they sit there and start fishing, ie throwing questions at the owner and stalling, that would be ‘extending the traffic stop unreasonably.’ Other tasks are unlawful if they add time to the stop and they are otherwise unsupported by independent reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. It might be an issue entering things as evidence found during that extra time. - 9th Circuit Court of Appeals of California

End-to-End Encryption Will Be an Historical Footnote! - YouTube

Legal mass wiretapping? Under the banner of stopping CSE, of course. Currently, there are no other options.

Apple does content scanning on devices, using AI, as a compromise with 3letters. A12 Neural Engine, the same thing that was used to remove YouTube videos that mentioned the pandemic, violence, guns, etc, in iPhones since iPhone10 2017.

Employers now must post salary ranges on all job listings across New York state - YouTube

NYC's new legislation cracking down on Airbnbs goes into effect today - YouTube

Afroman being sued by officers after they raided his house | ABCNL - YouTube

Violation of privacy, claimed.

Congress rejects a CBDC, the Fed's building one anyway - YouTube

Fed can do this without Congressional authorization because they don't depend on it for funding. Fed can 'write laws' and lots, while Congress is held by by opposition parties.

Burford Capital Eyes 37,000% Return in Argentina Win - YouTube

Litigation funding. American lawyers (and trial?) against Argentinian government.

The US Government Is Suing Google - Everything You Need To Know - YouTube

DOJ says Google illegally maintained a monopoly for more than a decade - YouTube

Monopolizing search by making deals with phone makers to be the default search.

Of all the things Google and other tech giants are bad for doing, this is one thing they are not bad for. Google Search is the best. When I can't get results using non-spy search engines, I go to Google and it is an excellent product. What would be nice would be competing excellent products, for different types of search (Google provides search for specific information queries of a certain type, and they also put answers in the results, stock graphs, etc, but they are useless for finding interesting and new things, blogs, bloggers, non-commercial things). Or they could take up the privacy issue with Google.

AI-generated art not protected by copyright law, judge rules - YouTube

Large retailers facing lawsuits over deceptive pricing allegations - YouTube

Listing things as ‘on sale’ without actually discounting the price. They raise the price to double the price for a short time, then discount it back to the original $20 price.

JCPenny, Foot Locker, Eddit Bauer facing lawsuits currently.

Reportedly, the financial damange is worse if they lose market share to competitors (monetary damange and bad PR), worse than if they didn't do this price

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ghmxnK1LUg

trick. Even if it's like $20m. Because these suits will likely disappear.

Cali has a regulation where the older price has to have been for 3 months, but reportedly this doesn't really prevent the stores.

Former UCSD doctor speaks out after winning $39M whistleblower lawsuit - YouTube

Huawei Building Secret Network for Chips: Trade Group - YouTube

Shenzhen. To get around US sanctions.

Tulsa man could face more charges after 12-year-old delivers his child | FOX23 News Tulsa - YouTube

Denmark mulls banning desecration of holy books amid Quran burnings | DW News - YouTube

Violence won in Denmark?

Iranian women reject hijabs despite morality police return - BBC Newsnight - YouTube

DOJ tells Jim Jordan that FBI agent subpoenas 'cannot be enforced' - YouTube

Secret recording of insurance lobbyist reveals plan to change CA insurance law - YouTube

Senators propose new bipartisan ban on stock ownership - YouTube

Congressmen have a state in the system through stocks, but sleezy things happen.

Another option is to limit politicians power over the economy.

Politicians have info and know what's coming. And they maybe aren't good at actually punishing their own members.

Difference between trading and (broad-based) investing.

CNBC on-air hosts can't own individual securities either (company policy). They can own mutual funds and ETFs and other kinds of securities.

Diminimism. 5% versus 50% of portfolio.

...

Apple says no FaceTime and iMessage in UK if proposals made law – BBC News - YouTube

"As Seen On TV" companies accused of knocking off products made by small inventors - YouTube

‘I was a shaking mess’: Woman arrested for a COVID Facebook post reflects on experience - YouTube

...

OpenAI: Sarah Silverman and others launch lawsuits over alleged copyright violation concerns - YouTube

...

- YouTube (video not available now)

...

Hollywood writers sue Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement - YouTube

If the courts side with OpenAI and Meta, will writers be too soured to write new works going forward?

...

It used to be just open season at Twitter, rubber stamping Fisa requests, said Musk. Now they will still comply with Fisa requests, but they will review them and it has to be something they agree with is a danger to the public. “We're the only social media company doing that, as far as I know.” “A lot of this does depend on the willingness of the company to oppose government demands.” “I don't know if we can do more than that. We'll try to be as transparent as possible, so that other citizens can raise the alarm bells to oppose the government.”

...

“It's not so much that the regulators are instructing Tesla and SpaceX, but more that since we have to think about things internally and then justify it TO regulators, it makes us just think about the problem more, and in thinking about the problem more it makes its safer. As opposed to the regulators specifically pointing out the ways to make it safer. It just forces us to think about it more.” - Musk

...

AI and Privacy; Attorney discusses his firms lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft - YouTube

“We have been duped by big tech into believing that ... either that we participate online and participate in transacting business and communicating on the internet but we wave all of our privacy and property rights, or we simply don't engage in activity on the internet. That is a false choice ...” - Ryan Clarkson
Yet no one has shown us alternatives to the online things we use.

...

FTC, DOJ release guidance on their approach to antitrust enforcement - YouTube

Including that mergers should not eliminate substantial competition or increase risk of coordination, eliminate a potential entrant in a concentrated market, and substantially lessen competition by creating a firm that controls products its rivals use to compete.

This document isn't law, but rather a summary of how the FTC sees the law and how they'll try to act upon it. But for people looking at it, it might be so restrictive it's not worth looking at. Companies can say ‘I’m going to challenge it, I don't think it's right.'

Hondurans Fight Private Cities Run by US Companies as Gov't Sued for Outlawing "Neocolonial Project" - YouTube

“Large corps weaponize ... this undemocratic dispute settlement regime ...” - Elizabeth Warren

“Sedes” removed from territorial jurisdictions, and can set their own regulatory standards, tax policy, court system (basically run their own government).

At first the people of the country didn't even know this was happening. ... Then there was massive uprising. Indiginous societies ... A new leader was elected on a campaign to overturn this law .. did so. But then the Trade Agreement (that no one really knew about), that empower corporations to be able to challenge democratic policies, outside of the court system, this isn't in a US or Honduran court, it's in a private tribunal of private sector lawyers, three arbitrators who will decide ...

“The company is using this [lawsuit for $12b, 1/3 of the country's budget, which would ‘bankrupt’ the country] as a tool to try to bully the government.”

Supreme Court rules in favor of business owner who refused services for same-sex weddings - YouTube

Making a website for them.

She hasn't even made any websites yet, but she said she's afraid she'd be forced to make websites for something she opposes which is gay marriage. SCOTUS 6-3 said she can't be forced to do so because it is her speech right.

This is not about her religeon. She objected on speech grounds. Where is the line? Is the couple's speech, which is through a website designer, also compromised?

Florida making it illegal for some foreigners to buy real estate - YouTube

DeSantis.

China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, NK, Cuba, Syria. They would have to rent.

Florida is top state for foreign buyers and China is top source of buyers. Real estate is the second most important revenue source in Florida after tourism.

25 states have or are looking at laws preventing Chinese state actors from buying farmland. This idea is popular in both parties.

The EU’s AI Act, Explained | WSJ Tech News Briefing - YouTube

Facial recognition, predictive policing, realtime biometric surveillance in public places. “High risk applications” that they want guardrails or bans.

Looking at forcing developers to insert things that will prevent it from creating illegal material. Another thing is making companies publish summaries of the copyright content they used.

#Europe

Lawfare versus Trump continues. Almost every time I've seen a headline with Trump for the past couple years it's been him being charged with something. Years after the start of the accusations, the evidence is found to be scant or nonexistent, according to later headlines.

Amazon to pay over $30M in settlements over Ring, Alexa violations - YouTube

Amazon let workers access videos from people's houses when it wasn't necessary to do their jobs. Unfettered access.

Alexa kept voice and other info on kids for years, violating their privacy rights, according to finding.

Australians seeking compensation for being 'allegedly injured from COVID vaccines’ - Sky News Australia

Headlines for past week had US military leak of war plans re Ukraine. Later headlines about possibly identifying the leak (through online accounts?). Headlines about gov changing how it handles online information.

Most people commented saying it was a way, or would be used as a way, to justify taking more civil rights away.

Worse Than The Patriot Act? - YouTube

"Restrict Act" being debated in Congress.

?Ban VPNs, impose fines?

#Security

German police carry out raids on extremist group | DW News - YouTube

The Germans I know are not impressed by the government doing this over the past months.

Violent protests in Georgia over proposed 'Russian-style' bill | DW News - YouTube

"It improves transparency" said lawmaker, to require news and other orgs that receive more that 20% of their rev from external to register as 'foreign agents'.

#Terrorism #CivilRights

Idaho lawmakers introduce bill to make it a misdemeanor to administer mRNA vaccines - YouTube

As a response to the administering of mRNA Covid vaccines under 'emergency use authorization' (at the time) without receiving FDA approval.

"This was fast-tracked. There's no liability. There's no access to the data. The risk-benefit analysis has not been done. There's no informed consent."

#PIC #Idaho

Viral video takes on DUI checkpoints - YouTube

(not this isn't news. It's from like 2014, but recently popped up on my feeds.)

It's legal in Florida. "But you better be squeaky clean otherwise you give them another reason because you draw attention to yourself."

He hangs a plastic bag outside his driver's window but the window stays closed.

In the bag are license, registration, and insurance. All the ID he'll need.

"Because the second you open your window, they can say they smell alcohol or drugs emitting from the vehicle. And the moment that you say a word, they can say that your speech was slurred."

"A lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea that police can just stop you for no reason. And if you're not comfortable with that, this is a good way of handling a checkpoint. And there are good cops and there are bad cops. The purpose of this flyer is to protect innocent people from bad cops."

Thousands in Israel protest legal changes planned by Netanyahu government • FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

To give Parliament power to overturn Supreme Court decisions and appoint judges.

80k people in central TA.

Seems to have something to do with LGBT at the moment.

#Israel

Gravitas: Google loses anti-trust battle in India - YouTube

Pre-installed apps, restricted ability to remove apps, measures to ensure search is Google.

Renewed hopes for Indian startups.

Southwest Airlines' meltdown is a national crisis, says FlyersRights.org president - YouTube

Over half of customers had delays recently.

With no delay compensation in the US yet, it's cheaper to give bad service and even cancel a flight than to operate it in certain situations. Eu has this already. Congress may act.

Some Canadians Will Have to Explain Their Wealth or Lose It - YouTube

I think this is just about carried cash, not all 'wealth' as they titled it, but I haven't watched the full vid yet. However, you could make the point that cash seized from a home is another category.

It's illegal under EU law to platform RT, Greenwald said

Iran’s morality police dissolved, says prosecutor general • FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

Veil for women is the main focus, and what women can say. (Also anything that is Islamic/Sharia) like alcohol, mingling or men and women.

Morality police really formed in early 1990s.

Iranians also have been using apps to notify each other where the checkpoints are set up where they check for moral clothing use.

Iranian protests (began in September, several hundred have died so far in multiple protest events) are still making headlines.

Other countries have similar things. "Any country where you have strict codes of behavior enforced ... [Saudi Arabia although it has eased restrictions for women over recent years], Sudan, Malaysia. Enforcing public order sometimes.

#HumanRights

Indonesia set to penalize sex outside marriage, reportedly

Qatar did a lot to ensure Temporary Worker Immigrants visas weren't tied to a specific employer (which led to abuses like if you don't do this you're fired and you'll be shipped out of the country)

Where is the line between bargains and exploitation?

Do they have safety? Food? Shelter?

What is the direction of the progress? How much further is there to go? Who will care about this specific question in 2 or 3 years?

The Truth of the Matter: World Cup Geopolitics - YouTube

(Old: The baby name Xaea12 would have violated Cali law because it contains characters not in the modern English alphabet, so Elon and Grimes changed it to X AE A-XI)

#Elon

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan charged for making ' false statements' by Election Commission | WION - YouTube

Recently some random person posted about the Alex Jones trial, asking what he said that was different from MSM or government agencies.

Social Media is Told To Allow All Viewpoints by Appeal Court - YouTube

A grocery store (or other private property) can be forced to host speech, according to common law.

SM platforms are different from newspapers because what is published in a newspaper is so because the newspaper made a choice to publish it. It is the newspaper's speech.

SM platforms are primarily conduits.

Parades make choices about who goes in them. This is their first amendment right, so they can discriminate against gays. They can't be forced to make a choice, akin to a newspaper. The parade organizer is more like a newspaper.

Schools can be forced to host military parades, although they can of course speak out against them.

SM have no space considerations. Forcing a newspaper or tv station to publish something means they can't publish something else which means they lose money on that space, and curtails the owners ability to speak in its own form.

The SC has been very clear on protecting from forced affiliation claims. Plus SM platforms can actively say what they want against opinions. Coerced endorsement.

For newspapers or TV or parades, do editorial decisions occur after the speech has occurred or before? After? That is not what an editor does.

SM platforms have constantly said they aren't the speaker. That it isn't their speech. (Section 230.)

Publishers make a decision to repeat something someone else said. Now they're saying it too. Now you're a publisher.

Common Carrier doctrine dates back before US founding, in common law. It vests states with the power to impose nondiscrimination obligations on communication and transportation providers who hold themselves to serve all members of the public without individualized bargaining. (Telegraph invented in 1830 was the first communications service subjected to Common Carrier at the end of the 19th C. Legislators were concerned private entities that controlled this new tech would use their power to manipulate the flow of info to the public when it served their economic or political self-interest. Western Union (the largest) sometimes refused to carry messages from journalists that competed with its ally AP. The first law required them to receive dispatches to and from any individual on the payment of their usual charges to transmit them with impartiality and good faith. And to transmit them in the order they were received.

Phone companies are privileged by law to filter obscene or harassing expression. Spam calling. And they often do. So phone companies aren't quite required to accept all transmissions.

Public transport companies can kick people off their vehicles. They're forced to accept everybody but can be forced to revoke that.

SM is the dominant means of communication (although not exclusive).

Commerce, friendship, family, speech, persuasion, picketing, pamphleting, concerts, protests. There a public interest in the social media communication.

US Senate passed $740 billion 'Inflation Reduction Act' package | Latest English News | World News - YouTube

Eyesbrows raised for: lots going to IRS, so they can do more active work perhaps, lots of government oversight of drug companies, emphasis on climate initiatives when other issues seem to some people more pressing.

$740b, so taxes will be raising, it's been said, during a time when Americans might not want taxes raised.

Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

1971 - 1973

Supreme Court strikes NY law (as unconstitutional) that required permits for concealed guns

Before, New Yorkers had to show they had self-defense needs to get the permit.

NY mayor not happy, nor Biden. It affects 40 states, Biden said.

NY can still require people get licenses on condition of things like background checks and mental health records, said an analyst. They can also limit guns in places like overcroweded places, courts, maybe trains.

Getting a gun is the same as before in NY. You still have to go through the same process to get a license. What is different is that anyone who has that license can concealed carry.

#Constitution #CivilRights

Japan announced up to $2000 and 1 year jail terms for online insults

They already have the law, but it calls for a fine of $75 and no more than 30 days in jail.

An actress killed herself two years ago, and in last days she was sharing some of the insults she had received online. This law change is considered to be related.

Lawmakers added a provision that they would reexamine the law in 3 years, and if the impact was positive it would remain.

#Japan #CivilRights

Thailand, which had very strict drug laws, legalized cannabis

People can grow it at home, and can consume it. The government is giving away 1m seedlings. It's being sold in stores.

However, possession of extracts stronger than 0.2% THC are not allowed.

#Asia

2 British men, who were fighting in Ukraine against Russia, sentenced to death after surrender during Mariupol battle

Russia calls them foreign mercenaries. It's expected they won't be executed, but will be held as diplomatic tools. Sentenced in Donetsk, Ukraine, occupied by Russian forces. Maybe a prisoner swap.

The men had been in Ukraine since 2017, serving in the army there, reportedly. One has a well-established life there and a Ukrainian wife.

Russia does not follow any international order, some say, and this can be kept in mind. The court is recognized by Russia and no other countries. Western MSM refers to it as a show trial.

The men have 30 days to appeal.

#Ukraine

An African man who was imprisoned in Guantanamo is suing Canada for allegedly supplying the US with false info about him

He suffered various types of torture and maltreatment in the US torture prison.

Taiwan considering harsher chip protection industry laws

Everyone wants to buy chip manufacturers now. Taiwan is concerned China will obtain it's chip tech.

Wion reported Taiwan accounts for 94% of the world's most advanced semi manufacturing capacities.

How can you protect against economic espionage and talent poaching?

#Taiwan

New Supreme Court justice in US

First black woman, but for many the interesting thing is she was a public defender before.

Ketanji Brown Jackson secures votes to win US supreme court confirmation : law

Lobola (bride price) is now mandatory in Uganda

... with a clause empowering marriage officers to find out whether a bride price was paid.

#Women #Culture

"We saw Chapter 7, the authority given under Chapter 7, being used now as a weapon to route a whole family [Gadafi's], to commit the murders that occurred in the country ... bombs" - Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe at UN General Assembly 67th Session, October 1, 20212

Chapter 7 of NATO to operate in Libya in protection of civilians.

This speech is seeing virality now in light of Ukraine.

Also interesting, it could just be the sources I have in front of me, but it seems Africa / Africans are having more of a voice on Ukraine than I remember them having. Their leader's speeches in places like UN counsels, their increased number of vloggers and bloggers. Also, it might be Africa will be able to argue with a lot of authority, given their experience over the past 100 years.

Mugabe Scary UN Speech Warning the World About NATO - YouTube

#NATO #Libya #Africa

Biden issued an executive order on crypto

... and Bitcoin went up. His order was to look into it and come up with what to do about it, it looks like.

It's being seen by many in the asset class as a defining or watershed moment (just because it's getting this kind of attention and treatment, not because there's anything concrete, which of course there's not).

There had been questions about crypto. How to regulate it? Who's going to regulate it? What kind of posture should the US have in terms of competitiveness and innovation in this technology?

People say the markets like certainty, even if sometimes it's something not positive, it's the certainty that the markets react positively to.

What does this mean as a new competitive infrastructure for the US? How does the US stay strong in this industry, while still addressing the risks?

How does the dollar work in this new world? How is it kept safe and sound, so this can grow and flourish?

US dollar competitiveness on the internet is a strategic national issue.

Bipartisan engagement about this issue.

One of the questions is whether the US should do a central bank digital currency.

China has a stable coin, but it has a lot of surveillance in it.

#Crypto

Reportedly, Latvia and Czech Republic have made it illegal to support Russia

That basically means Speech.

25% of Latvia is Russians.

Czech said 1-3 years possible for supporting Russia.

#Latvia #Russia #Europe #CivilRights

In Brazil, they amended the constitution to guarantee data protection as a fundamental right

The guys on Techlore said they didn't seen anything like that possibly happening in the States for decades. The only thing they could see was if they expanded the Fourth Amendment to include digital property.

#Brazil #LatAm #Privacy

PM Trudeau invokes 'emergencies act' against truckers

Gives extra powers to police and Fed gov can now freeze bank accounts of the truckers and anyone associated with them (participating in roadblock, funding them), It also means they can revoke insurance on the trucks.

Reportedly, it also expands tax-funded terrorism and money-laundering laws to include crowdfunding websites.

GiveSendGo has ignored an order and given some of the millions raised for the trucker protest (from countries all over).

#CivilRights

US gov now considering disinformation (free speech) as terrorism

MDM (mis-, dis-, and mal-information)

People who spread this could be considered 'threat actors.' If your words could lead to a protest against the gov, and that protest could lead to violence, they could label people who spoke those words domestic terrorists.

Iverson points out that many things that were originally labelled 'misinformation' turned out to be true over the past year or two.

Kim Iversen: FREE SPEECH Now Labeled As Domestic Terrorism By DHS. Working With BIG TECH To Surveil? - YouTube

Minister who crafted Canadian Charter suing government for violating it

"I'm the only first minister (of those who drafted the Charter in the early 1980s) left alive who was at that conference and helped draft these freedoms and these rights and the Constitution Act of 1982 itself. And I do this very reluctantly. I've been watching this thing for two years, I've been speaking out about it ... and I've come to the conclusion now that I must as a Canadian and as one of the writers and founders of the Constitution Act of 1982, not only speak about it. I must act about it. I must show Canadians that I'm so concerned as a citizen and as a former first minister ... that I must take action against my own government because they have violated rights that I and others helped craft in 1981-1982." - Brian Peckford

"There is a section in Charter of Rights and Freedoms which allows governments to override these freedoms in unusual circumstance. And I remember this very well when we were crafting the constitution. These unusual circumstances, because of putting it in the constitution, it's not a Federal act or a provincial act, it's in a constitution which is supposed to enshrine permanent values and give glue to the country. So this Section One can only be used, and I remember this well, in times of peril, in times of war and insurrection, or when the State is in peril, when the existence of the State is in peril."

"Even in the extreme circumstance that you try to make Section One apply ... then there are four tests that had to be met in order for it to apply. That means it must be demonstrably justified that what the action is is worthwhile. In other words, some kind of cost-benefit analysis must be done by law, it must be done within reasonable limits, and fourthly and most importantly, all those three must be done within the context of a free and democratic society. And a free and democratic society to me means parliamentary democracy in our country. We have 14 parliaments, and they have all been completely silent. There's no parliamentary committee anywhere in any of those 14 parliaments looking at what's happening to our country. There are the people's representatives."

He said that newspapers in the country, which in the past did carry his letters when he wanted to comment on some public policy, but since he started talking this way, they have not carried his letters, or even acknowledged that they've received his letters.

He noted that lots of news organizations in the country have received money from the government. Over $600m.

His legal team is basing their claim on the freedom of mobility guarantee (since he has to specify something). He commented that in Canada, the second largest country by land mass, freedom of travel was very important. The government has banned travel by plane and train (and sometimes highways, I've heard). "In other words, we can't travel across our own nation."

(He said they also considered freedom of association, and freedom of assembly. "Lots of people and churches were prevented from getting together.") (And there's currently a curfew in Quebec.)

"If us as first ministers had wanted to just have protecting rights and freedoms that could easily be changed, we wouldn't have gone to the constitution. We would have said, 'Just put an act in the Federal parliament, put acts in all the parliaments, and then up to the whim of the political party of the time to change it. We wanted to safeguard it, so it would be beyond the whim of political machinations and therefore could not be changed, only in the most extreme circumstances."

He also noted that the Oaks Test (coming from a Supreme Court case in 1986) about what Section One meant, and [in the current situation] the lower courts have not looked at this test. This is highly unusual because the courts always look to the precedent set by the highest court ... in determining what they will do in their case. The absence of seeing the Oaks test in the lower courts is very troubling and is the other reason we must take this kind of action at this time."

"And this is where I ... come down and say, 'We have to exhaust all of the civilized legal processes that we set up under our constitution. ..."

When asked what the current process was, if not by parliamentary discussion and decision, for the government to take these actions, ever the Charter rights, Peckford said, "Here's where the most insidious part of this equation comes into play. What the governments have done is used, in many cases, existing legislation under which they have the power to make regulation. So they've used existing emergencies, legislation, and inflated it enough or interpreted it in a manner that they can also use in this circumstance and therefore issue additional regulation. And then in other cases, they did not fully explain or have a parliamentary committee look at other amendments when they opened their parliament and closed it within two or three days or a week. In other words, sufficient debate wasn't allowed to understand the repercussions of what they were doing, when they were giving more power to the minister and more power to the public health officer."

He said it was worse than just not allowing debate, "because we had time. One can perhaps relieve or excuse, if one wants to, and say, For the first 90 days, when this thing began, you could make an argument that OK, the government's had to move. But in any rational way if they had used the emergency measures planning that was already in place, they would have moved to protect the vulnerable first. And then did a study on the rest. What else do we need to do in society. What they did is just a cart blanche over all of society without giving second thought to it."

"... not only are the vaccines destructive. More destructive than any vaccine in our history, and that's a scientific fact, they have had time to adjust, and this is where they have not even been nimble."

He discussed that many decisions are made by government based on opinion polling of Canadians in the street, but that the polls were sometimes affected by advertising and (government subsidized legacy media) news, saying "Here they are advertising that you've gotta get vaccinated, on the television, and they're actually even doing ads for children, and trying to talk to children directly through a public ad, so they're feeding off themselves. They're creating enough fear so they'll get the poll they want to get."

"Canadians are very trusting of their government," he noted. (I've also noticed this a lot.)

Canadian Constitutional Crisis | Brian Peckford

#Canada #CivilRights

San Fran mayor proposes giving police real-time access to surveillance videos

... 'in some cases.' As well assnging police a role of dealing with poor drug users in 'The Tenderloin.'

Texas abortion law

"If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgements of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgements, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery." - Chief Justice Roberts

Currently, the Texas law is the strictest in the States, banning abortion after 6 weeks, when 90% of abortions happen. The Supreme Court (Conservative majority) said OK, 5-4, this is a weird new thing, we don't understand it yet, weird procedural question, but abortion providers haven't given us enough reason to tell Texan judges not to enforce it.

R V Wade (1973) said 24 weeks. Are Women's rights being violated now, since abortions after 6 weeks are not being done. The Constitutionality won't be worked out, people say, until there's a real case brought forward (a lawsuit by a Texan--perhaps one of their anti-abortion groups like Right to Life) to be tried.

The Texas law is enforced in a unique way, which is why Conservatives on the Supreme Court said they didn't have the power to intervene here. State officials don't enforce it. Individual Texans sue both providers and anyone who aids and abets an abortion. Doctors said they would comply by not doing abortions after 6 weeks.

A civil avenue for any individual to sue anyone else for violating a certain law.

Americans to a considerable but not overwhelming degree would favor laws against abortions in the 3rd trimester (80% according to Gallup) and a slight majority (60%) would favor laws for the 2nd trimester.

Texas poll found 50% of Texas support making abortion illegal after 6 weeks. 67% of Republicans and 27% of Democrats said they supported these bills.

(This story has been going on for a few months now.)

#Abortion #Texas #SupremeCourt #Constitution #CivilRights

UK court ruled in US appeal that Assange can be extradited to US

... judges were reassured by US promises to reduce the risk of Assange's suicide.

Assanges fiance and lawyers will appeal. The appeal will be on assurances, not on free speech of political motivation for extradition.

But his lawyers can also try to reverse the judgement by challenging last January's findings that Assange's leaks ammounted to a crime. We don't know if such an appeal would be heard.

#Assange #Journalism

Why should Americans not lie and fake crimes against themselves when their government does it?

Kim Iversen: Joe Rogan Calls BS On Patriot Front March, Is The Group Backed By Feds?

Actor Jussie Smollett leaves court after being convicted of staging an attack on himself

#Integrity #Leadership #US

US companies versus vaccine mandates

"A vaccine mandate for a disease that's just out in the world is not a hazard that's unique to the workplace. And using an emergency temporary standard to mandate a vaccine is not an appropriate use of the emergency temporary standard." - Sara Harbison, Pelican Institute

Justices denying anti-vaccine mandate cases

"Mass General is Massachusetts's largest private employer with about 80,000 employees. Their vaccine mandate went into effect on November 5th. Non-compliant employees were subsequently fired. Several of them filed a lawsuit to prevent the vaccine mandate from taking effect.

"Barrett declined the vaccine case from Indiana University and Breyer declined this one from Massachusetts. Six of the nine judges turned down a similar case from Maine. It's not looking hopeful for the anti-vaccine mandate crowd."

This caused some commenters to say they think the Supreme Court has become part of the DeepState.

But others have noted that this is a purely business decision, and working for a company is at-will in most jobs (a company can mandate you have to wear blue on mondays).

Others noted that because the vaccines (mRNA) are still experimental (one of the biggest concerns of people not wanting to get or mandate them), forcing people to get them violates the Nuremburg Code (if people later die those who participated even in small ways in forcing people to undergo the procedure liable for deaths).

#Pandemic #CivilRights #HumanRights

Nuremberg Code — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Kyle Rittenhouse found not guilty

Kenosha, WI shooting. Shot 3 men, of which 2 died, at a protest against police brutality. Rittenhouse was 17, armed with an AR-15 style rifle, on the location to protect a car dealership.

This has been a massive news story for the past month, quite political between Dems and Republicans. The other day, a Dem news org issued a sort of personal correction where the host said they earlier thought Rittenhouse did the agressing, but now said it looked to them like he was aggressed against.

I only bothered to look at one or two videos on this, just to see what it was, at the start of the trial, and the video the news org showed made it look this way to me also. Unclear about events, but that Rittenhouse was agressing. And I'm not a Democrat news org. Some questions then about how the news presents unresolved legal accusations.

#Politics #Journalism

Fed gov of Austria ordered a lockdown for non-vaccinated people

Barred from leaving their homes, with threat of a $500 fine. Applies to anyone not 'fully vaccinated' or previously infected.

65% of the country is vaccinated.

#Austria #EU

Protests:

Halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) food in Greece

A recent law made permission for production of food products in these two ways.

But on review, the Hellenic court annulled the permits because existing Greek law requires anesthesia for animals slaughtered, and said the halal and kosher production methods were 'inhumane' because they killed animals without first removing sensation to pain.

In recent years, 5 northern and eastern European nations have banned ritual slaughter.

#Animals #Greece #CivilRights

Assange extradition appeal trial underway

US reps offering 'assurances' Assange will be treated OK. Assange reps highlighting CIA plans to kidnap, kill, etc.

#People #Assange #Integrity

EU (ECJ) fines Poland 1m Euros per day

In Poland there's a disciplinary chamber that, critics say, can make judges leave if they don't follow the 'right wing' party line.

The chamber, EU says, violates EU law because it compromises the independence of the judiciary in Poland.

ECJ decided this last summer and Poland accepted it, but Poland didn't really take any steps to remove the chamber.

The method of fines is standard for the EU when a country does something they don't like, but usually the countries fall into line.

In September, one of Poland's high courts (with ties to government it is said) also decided Poland's courts can overrule the ECJ.

#Poland #EU #Integrity #Independence

EU majority vote against mass surveillance through facial recognition

... such as that used by police. It's called 'biometric surveillance.'

It's not a law against, that they voted for. It's more of a statement against the idea.

#EU #Technology

Tesla ordered to pay $137M to ex-worker over hostile work environment

He was an elevator operator who said someone or people did racial abuse to him.

What percentage of people would you guess would willingly have someone do racial abuse to them for even $137?

R. Kelly found guilty

Groupies going backstage and getting the performer's number and hooking up were recast by the court/media as victims being groomed. Kelly's wife, a person he loved, was also treated as a crime.

It was reported as a victory for the MeToo movement.

#Sex

China, famous 'MeToo' case thrown out

3 years ago, a TV station employee alleged a prominent TV host groped her and used force to kiss her when she was an intern under him. She sued him for damages, and he countersued for damage of his reputation.

The trial she initiated ended today with the finding that she had not shown enough evidence to prove her boss had done so. The accused was not 'even' required to come to court to testify. Some feminists and others considered the trial something of a Chinese MeToo thing.

The woman, Zhou Xiaoxuan, said it was worth it either way, and she knew the outcome could have gone either way. "I am very honored to have gone through this together with everyone.'

She will appeal, she said.

#China #MeToo #Feminism #Sex

Canadian govts go for mandatory vaccines

... but there were large protests outside city halls and hospitals over the freedom to chose. A further concern has to do with people not feeling the vaccines currently being offered are not adequately tested, we don't know enough about them, and they don't feel comfortable putting it in their bodies.

Legally, people have the freedom to choose they don't want a vaccine, according to Canadian employment lawyer Lior Samfiru. It can't be forced on them. He said it's actually a human rights violation (to require a medical procedure and also to distinguish between people who have and don't have Covid) as well. He said it's not legal for employers to impose it on employees, and if they let employees for this they are liable to pay severance (possibly up to 2 years). Samfiru said people who challenge their employers have a good chance of success.

In the US, however, it might be different. Dorit Reiss, law professor at the University of California Hastings, told CNBC there was a history of vaccine mandates in the workplace. Health care employers have required vaccines, and some restaurants have required Hep A vaccines. Employment is at will, which means the employer gets to set many of the workplace rules, and vaccine rules are health and safety rules, making the workplace safer. But there is a question whether the government can mandate a vaccine under an emergency authorization (which it is currently under in the US). However, the EUA only limits the Federal government and doesn't say anything about other employers. Citizens don't have constitutional rights against employers, although they may have some legal rights.

#Canada #Vaccines #Pharma

New China data privacy law

... goes into effect Nov. 1.

It targets digital companies. Collecting a lot of random info on users in order to 'provide a better service' seems it'll be not as available to businesses. The restrictions in the bill target businesses and don't really apply to the CCP.

Under the law, companies are required to only collect the minimal amount of data for a service, and must obtain consent for collecting sensitive info (like biometrics), offer easy opt-out options, and if they want to transfer data overseas they have to get govt approval first.

Does this put China ahead of the West in internet privacy?

#China #Internet #Privacy

Some Afghanis are fleeing to cities to escape new Taliban law

'If they don't kill us today, they'll kill us tomorrow,' a husband told a wife who worked as a teacher for years before being promoted to principal, after death threats began. She worked at a government-run school in an increasingly Taliban-controlled town. Schools are attacked by rockets and suicide bombers sometimes. The Taliban have their own schools. The couple moved to the city where Taliban holds no real sway, although some of her sons remained in the town.

A typical punishment for women: public whippings for an unmarried woman talking on the phone with a man. A married woman who did something similar could be hanged.

A local government head sitting at a local trial said to France24: 'Today, just like yesterday, all Taliban decisions must be in harmony with Islamic law. Whether it be stoning to death, decapitation, or mutilation of the hand, these are strong principles of Islam. They're strong principles of Sharia. And we will never change thm until judgement day.'

#Women #Afghanistan #Taliban #Sharia

Hong Kong man jailed 'under national security law'

The man, during pro-democracy protests in HK against the Chinese government, purposefully rode his superbike at a line of police. He carried a flag which read 'Liberate Hong Kong.'

Western media is headlining this as the first person to be charged under Hong Kong's new national security law, and highlighting the law's restrictions on protest slogans that are 'capable of inciting others,' on secessionist activity, and that without a guilty plea there should be no leniency.

... despite this man's actions being clearly not just protest oriented.

This may logically make China appear unfairly presented, and give China a valid claim to such. American commenters on the story noted that the man would probably have been gunned down by US police if he tried that in NY. ... However, China may follow this trial of what many consider an aggressive act with trials of peaceful protesters, journalists (which reportedly it has lined up about 30 of them), etc.

9 years. He will appeal.

(following this video clip, the motorbike was on the ground with police surrounding him. It appears he slowed and turned to the side and did not hit any police once he charged up close to them.)

#HongKong #China #Protest

Tanzania government rounds up members of opposition party, talk they might charge them with terrorism

Previous VP now president after death of previous president extending authoritarian tendencies used by previous president?

#Africa #Tanzania #Terrorism

Design trolls lose another lawsuit over their copyrights

Design Basics is a website that uploads lots of house plans, copyrights them, then sues home builders (they've sued over 100 in recent years).

Introduction from KANNE, SCUDDER, Circuit Judge:

Copyright law protects individual expression while encouraging creativity and maintaining the public interest in spreading ideas. In recent years, however, a cottage industry of opportunistic copyright holders—earning the derisive moniker “intellectual property trolls”—has emerged, in which a troll enforces copyrights not to protect expression, but to extract payments through litigation. Design Basics, LLC fits that bill.

The firm, which holds copyright in 2 Nos. 18-3202, 19-3118 & 20-1515 several thousand single-family home floor plans, has brought over 100 infringement suits against home builders in recent years. But many defendants—the targets of the settlement-extraction scheme—are starting to push back. This case is a good example.

We have affirmed dismissal of Design Basics’s lawsuits twice in recent years. See Design Basics LLC v. Signature Con-struction, Inc., 994 F.3d 879 (7th Cir. 2021); Design Basics, LLC v.Lexington Homes, Inc.,858 F.3d 1093 (7th Cir. 2017). We do so again today. In dismissing Design Basics’s copyright in-fringement suit against the Kerstiens family’s home building business, the district court recognized that the firm has a thin copyright in its plans because they consist largely of standard features found in homes across America. We agree and affirm.

#Copyright #Design #Trolling

Design Basics, LLC v. Kerstiens Homes & Designs, Inc, No. 18-3202 (7th Cir. 2021)

Climate litigation on rise

... like the German case on human rights climate grounds.

Norway is facing a climate suit (from Friends of the Earth) for its plans to drill in the Arctic.

#Environment #Energy

Bill Cosby released, conviction overturned (vacated) on rights issue

... after serving 2 years of his 5 - 10, sentenced for giving quaaludes to a woman who said he later sexually assaulted her.

The judge said Cosby's due process rights had been seriously violated in the trial because a prosecutor had made a deal with Cosby under the table, after which Cosby in his statement included that he had given quaaludes to a woman he was pursuing years earlier.

Some have said the judge with this move has set a precedent that, although police are notoriously allowed to lie to pursue convictions, when a prosecutor makes a deal saying he won't prosecute that's basically equivalent to an immunity deal. If later judges follow his lead. However, I don't know that DAs were ever allowed to lie to get testimony the way police currently are.

Another option the court could have taken is to send the case down for another trial, without using the evidence the judge said he didn't like.

From the ruling: "In accordance with the advice his attorneys, Cosby relied upon D.A. Castor’s publicannouncement that he would not be prosecuted. His reliance was reasonable, and itresulted in the deprivation of a fundamental constitutional right when he was compelledto furnished self-incriminating testimony. Cosby reasonably relied upon theCommonwealth’s decision for approximately ten years. When he announced hisdeclination decision on behalf of the Commonwealth, District Attorney Castor knew thatCosby would be forced to testify based upon the Commonwealth’s assurances. Knowingthat he induced Cosby’s reliance, and that his decision not to prosecute was designed todo just that, D.A. Castor made no attempt in 2005 or in any of the ten years that followedto remedy any misperception or to stop Cosby from openly and detrimentally relying uponthat decision. In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successorD.A.s to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby’s due process rights. No other conclusioncomports with the principles of due process and fundamental fairness to which all aspectsof our criminal justice system must adhere."

However, legal professionals have asked whether Cosby should be saved from bad legal advice to wave his fifth, which he may have done in the interest of not looking guilty in front of the jury.

Opinion and dissents: Bill Cosby's conviction was vacated. Read the court case opinions (Philly Inquirer)

#Sex #Integrity #Trust #Police

Mexico decriminalized recreational marijuana

... by video conference, the Supreme Court 'recognized the right to the recreational use of marijuana.'

It's still not legal. The Supreme Court can just cross out unconstitutional laws. Legalization (rules for consuming, growing and selling) is for the Senate and Congress.

#drugs #civilrights #Mexico

Word is both sides of US Congress is taking aim at Big Tech

Usually, they seem quite antagonistic but people say they're aligning on this issue.

Antitrust bills.

#BigTech

DOJ used powers to legally spy on Journalists and elected members of Congress

We don't know everything about the story, or what led to the Trump admin investigating journalists, because of the US's secrecy (even in its court trials).

Rather than investigating the journalists, they went to the tech companies that had the emails and other information and served them not only a warrant for the information, but a gag order (non-disclosure order). Once the gag orders expired, companies were able to notify the journalists.

#CivilRights #DOJ #Journalism #Press

right to speak from his expertise and experience.

"In a resource-starved industry, few newsrooms can offer the type of mentoring, guidance and time that it takes to shape a great journalist."
"But the cost of a journalism education has become an insurmountable barrier for exactly the kind of people we need the most."
"News has too often been reported by predominantly middle-class, white, male journalists."
One Way to Help a Journalism Industry in Crisis: Make J-School Free : Journalism/
'If you offer something for free, there's no accountability; people don't appreciate what they're being given if you just hand it to them.'
'On the backs of whom? English majors? Engineering majors? Grad students Someone has to pay the journalism professors.'

Scandal grows around fraudulent New York Times "mass rapes" investigation, with Ali Abunimah - YouTube
‘Recycled claims’ by Israel government, atrocity claims against Hamas, no evidence produced for even one victim. ‘Relying on testimony,’ not evidence, the Times corrected their early story to say.

What Tucker Carlson's Putin Interview Means for X - YouTube
Probably a lot of advertisers don't want their content shown beside this, but probably a lot of those advertisers are no longer on X (exodus a year ago). Now thicker skinned ones remain on X. (What even could lure back those exodused?)
How is BlueSky doing? Keep tabs. Mastodon?
No one is going to be talking about Facebook when it comes to these uncommon interviews though. And dems will be watching the shows too, I assume, so they'll be warmed/lured to X.

Exclusive: Tucker Carlson Interviews Vladimir Putin - YouTube
One thing that seems a point is that when other world leaders are elected (not all but some), you can see the leader really does decide what the country does. When we've watched American presidents make statements on the election trail and then change in office, etc, it seems the president doesn't make many decisions, even the ones he's allowed to make.

Putin's Puppet Show feat. Tucker "The Propagandist" Carlson || Peter Zeihan - YouTube
‘There’s really no point in going to the substance of Tucker Carlson's interview.'
‘He's been a Russian shill for several years.'
Zeihen refers to Tucker as a ‘shill’.

I would guess the main problem ruling politicians see with people like Carlson is that they are so used to Agenda Setting being enough to maintain Their Order (they own the majority of the media, in Canada it is almost absolute with a state media organization, in USA it is a bipartizan political news system) they don't need to do deeper level (and more risky) forms of propaganda. When someone forces a legitimate competing truth or agenda into the mainstream and they are forced to address it on its own terms, they either look bad or have to try other forms of propaganda/oppression.

The thing we can say here is that when politicians (or anyone) are challenged in a legitimate way, have legitimate competition, are forced to talk against the truth and not their version of it/inventions, they are forced to do a better job, and citizens get a better country. Citizens have a lot of motive to nationalism. If you like/listen to Tucker/Putin, you are not a patriot, you are a traitor, you should support USA, you should critisize everything an opponent of ‘the government’ says and does and support everything your national government does. You should not even listen to those competing people. This leads to poorer and poorer leaders and a worse nation.

BI to do 8% layoffs.

A professional journalist in the US starts at $50-60k, can move up to $80k. The overhead (including managers etc) costs mean that the company pays $200-300k for that one journalist. 2 stories a week. Needs 100-150k people to read it at $10 cpm. Subscribers can do it at 10 or 15 people reading each story. But now we have experts doing broadcasting (not maybe exactly reporting though).

Traditional news lke BI, using ‘anonymous’ (basically, because not a celebrity who can lose their most valuable commodity ie cred if they lie) journalists uses ‘lying as a service’. ‘So you just have to ignore it all.’ Chamath. ‘Clickbait disinformation.’ Also a lot of trad media put out not just ‘not the truth’ but ‘the official narrative’ which is disinformation. Sacks. ‘Stenographers for the White House' printing ‘whatever they tell you to print’ rather than vetting it and telling you which part is the truth. ‘Gelman amnesia’.

The Economist, AP and Reuters have boots on the ground. Newswires are not great businesses.

Wikipedia and other companies that work opposite to Google Pagerank, have a weakness when it comes to Bios of Living People. If a company fails, someone was an investor, your fired someone, they have motivation to write bad things. Interest groups. Activists who are funded as a full time job to diseminate propaganda.

Triangulate towards the truth, not just one source. You can do this on Twitter by following a few hundred people you respect.

https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/98832/
Vot Tak news website.

CBC lets Trudeau off the hook after Federal Court rules Emergencies Act invocation unconstitutional - YouTube

No independent media in Canada. Less resistence. Tucker. Most of the 'media is corporate welfare cases and you're never gonna get the truth out of them.' Gord Magill. ‘I don’t know if there's any political solutions to this. People need to start looking into themselves.'

Gunmen storm Ecuadorian television studio while live on air - YouTube
Balaclavas. Police special forces entered and took control about an hour later.
The president is calling opposing groups ‘terrorists’, reportedly.
Recently, the president took control of several prisons, which before had been controlled by gangs.

Headlines because WSJ did a piece on Musk's drug use.

Zazlof likes CNN for reasons other than the bottom line. He says it's a great global asset. Influence. And has been traditionally a good business, a billion in profit sometimes. An election year, news tend to benefit.

Walter Isaacson on AI's implications for journalism: This could be a 'godsend' for good journalism - YouTube
‘The principles of copyright we have apply, to AI and to all new techs.’ This could be good for good journalism. We just had a decade where good journalism ‘has been decimated by the internet because the business model doesn’t work anymore. That's why Time Magazine is so thin.' But now you can licence your content if you send someone to the ground in Gaza to report. And there will be competition among AI services to rewrite it.
To prevent unwanted scraping, publishers can just slide false information articles into the library, and only they have tabs on which ones.

[The Biden admin] had total control of the media discourse (controlling all platforms) until Elon bought Twitter on a whim, just because he cares a lot about free speech. They're so upset with Elon for opening up free speech. - All-In Podcast

NYT getting criticism for editing a statement by Hunter Biden taking out the key word ‘financially’ and just printing ‘Let me state as clearly as I can. My father was not involved in my business.’ Breaking basic journalistic standards. Who took out the word? ‘They bury their corrections’ #NYT

Sports Illustrated called out for articles by fake writers with AI profile photos - YouTube

Part of the reason we want people, not AI, in positions of responsibiltiy like journalism is because work is part of improvement, which results in a more proficient person. Ultimate decisions (such as will this thing be OK or harmful to us) are made by (influenced by, informed by, taught by) wise people. If people do not become professionals, there will be no experienced, wise people in these roles.

#AI

Judge Who Signed Newspaper Warrant Won't Be Disciplined - YouTube

‘The evidence did not support the search warrant.’ Instead of disciplining the magistrate, they just said ‘next time slow down.' First Amendment and journalists. Journalists' home, home of a council woman raided, alleging ‘identity theft. In the raid of the news office, police took computers and cell phones and took documents that revealed confidential sources for stories unrelated to the investigation. ‘Police weaponizing search warrants against journalists’ requiring police to get a subpoeina instead of a search warrant for journalists, in order to have the courts oversee what's happening when they do something with journalists. This way, journalists are brought into court and told to answer questions, rather than just kick down the door and take everything, which compromises journalism, and also looks like they're trying to shut down the paper/journalist.

The town tried to shut down the newspaper. Other newspapers nearby stepped up and said ‘we’ll help you get your editions out.'

Those reviewing whether the magistrate should be disciplined decided no because he hand't been found ‘incompetant.’ Their standard for that. ‘Just don’t cross the line of incompetance and you're ok.'

Commenter: 'If signing the warrant wasn't incompetent we can only assume it was malicious.' Another: ‘ Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.’ Another: ' Wait signing a warrant that is ILLEGAL and violates federal law was not incompetence? ok then it was criminal because they knew what they were signing.'

What is the worst thing that happened today? - Elon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BYH4K4kHJA

#Canada

If you have 20m users and over $1b revenue (only Meta and Google). Meta didn't want to comply and now blocks Canadian news organization links. Google threatened to do the same but now has reached a deal and the links are not blocked.

It's to compensate news organizations when they share their links (?and click through to them?). Not all ‘news’, but some news that meets certain standards they decided. Google didn't want to deal with each organization, but is willing to deal with one organization that represents them all.

Question of democracy. If voting relies on news, and if people who now get their news from online, can't access reputable news organizations, could pose challenges. Perhaps a bigger principle at stake.

#Journalism

“Is Apple the next IBM?” - Animal Spirits, The Compound

Funny and Interesting Headlines

The Biden family has so many whistle blowers we're 'starting to lose track' - GOP rep - FoxNews

"Let it Rot" - China's Youth are Giving Up on Life

Palki quit Lion News

She said they were doing news curation, and needed to move to do something different and tell the India story in a more compelling fashion.

It's true that Lion News on YouTube is valuable more because it gives a non-US-propaganda take on events and doesn't actually present anything of its own, it seems. It also has it's own obviously indulged political biases, but not to the point of being really problematic as long as there are alternative news sources to round things out.

Headlines all over, and all talk shows, as Tucker Carlson let go by FoxNews.

Also, Don Lemmon says CNN fired him. He said his agent told him and he was surprised.

Different date, different story

Funny and Interesting Headlines

Uh, Stormy? France24.

VICE brand now completely over?

Recent vlog I saw from them was titled 'The Dark Side of the 90s' or something like that.

Would like to see a chart of how long it takes after a corporate buyout / originator stops caring, until a brand like VICE, MTV, etc is completely over.

Mutiny at BBC after anchor pulled from football show | Latest News | English News | Top News | WION - YouTube

BBC cancelling shows because presenters refuse to go on air.

Lineker had tweeted criticism of PM Sunak's migrants policy.

"When you work for a public institution ... it can be hard to differentiate between the person's views and the corporation's views."

Did he cross the guidelines of BBC policy?

Next day: BBC reverses Gary Lineker's suspension, will return as MOTD presenter | Latest English News | WION - YouTube

Result, in terms of public framing/understanding of the story: Lineker crisis exposes impartiality row at heart of BBC • FRANCE 24 English - YouTube

But who was right? BBC in attempting to preserve impartiality of journalists who work for a public news service? or did they just give in to protest?

#Protest

Funny and Interesting Headlines

Tanzanian President's Brutal Speech Explaining the Stupidity of Western Leaders - 2natcheki

Self-driving Repossessed Cars - Switched to Linux

Mar 13

Gravitas: Twitter's quirky signage up for sale - YouTube

Is this what's called an 'attack piece'?

Matt Taibbi Explains Journalism Gone Wrong: #‘You Should Not Trust Mainstream Media' - YouTube

"Demographic hunting business." "Politically homogeneous" is "fundamentally untrustworthy." 90% on NYT readers vote one way. Fox and MSNBC it's close to 100% one way.

"You should be able to reproduce news stories" like in science, but with anonymous sources this isn't possible.

Not really ashamed of error.

One thing news organizations can do to keep their articles clean of opinion is give their writers a place to publish their opinions while they are expected to keep their news journalistic.

Funny and interesting headlines lately

For Tech Workers, Pink Slips and Anxiety Replace Perks and Parties | WSJ Wall Street Journal

The End of Magical Thinking: When Narratives Fail - Blockworks Macro

The End of the Future with Peter Thiel

Fastest way though the city? Inline skating!

How Bernard Arnault ruined fashion

Israeli forces attack funeral of veteran journalist Shireen Abu Aqla - BBC News - YouTube

In the video, the officials are whacking those that are bearing the coffin (ie both hands holding the weight above their shoulders).

#Israel #Palestine

RT and Sputnik have closed some things down, and have been banned from some US/Western platforms

This happened right after the invasion of Ukraine a few weeks ago, but I just watched this interview with Abby Martin who said this:

" RT America was an incredible opportunity to highlight voices like Chris Hedges, consistent anti-war like myself, Lee Camp. And that was unmatched. That platform that RT America gave us was unmatched. Our viewpoints are not allowed on the corporate media. Dissent against empire is not allowed on the corporate media. And that is why we had to go to places like Russia Today, in order to have a platform for these very important and crucial perspectives."

She said the US was looking for a chance to shut down alternative media.

#Information #Censorship #MIC

Funny titles

4Chan attempts to raid Facebooks Metaverse ... [SomeOrdinaryGamers)

Chinese President Xi JinPing is under pressure right now, says former Australian PM [CNBC]

#Integrity

Ukrainian Defense Ministry published a video claiming to be a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian one

... This is according to RT.

The footage was from a video game.

RT also said the footage many have shared of Zelinskyy in military dress on the front lines of Kiev, is actually from several months ago during practices.

#Russia

Twitter has made it so you can't search for Russia Today and Sputnik, reportedly

#Technology #Information

EU banned Russia Today and Sputnik media

In the West (or the world?) Russia's main media sites are regarded not really as news but more as of propaganda.

#Europe

BMJ gets fact checked - YouTube

Dr. John Campbell reviews censorship of BMJ and Cochrane on social media

#Censorship

Some funny and interesting headlines for Feb 2022

"Racism" Is the Left's Weapon of War - Michael Knowles

INSIDE Big Pharma: employees say their careers have been made into a lie - Teryn Gregson

Nothing says sedition like beeping your horn - Fox News

Canadian gelato shop owner breaks down crying after threats for donation to truckers - Fox News ... after her shop was doxed

In the West, many vloggers, personalities, and regular commenters basically don't trust MSM at all

This is talked about quite a bit these days.

"You can't legislate, judges can't solve these problems, you can't get FOIA requests to get the documents. You need whistle blowers." - James O'Keefe of Project Veritas

"You need people on the inside who are brave enough to jump on a metaphorical grenade."

#CivilRIghts #Politics

CNN reportedly losing viewers

Fox News doing better.

Is CNN really losing viewers though? The numbers are down from the same week a year ago, which was the Capital riot news.

Tourists questioning Western mass media reports about Ethiopia, because they're currently there

3 YouTube links:

Why Ethiopian Are Saying Nomore To Western Media?

Ethiopia War Tourists 1

Ethiopia War Tourists 2

#Ethiopia #MIC #Africa

John Campbell censored, responded by seeing who internet censors are (mostly people who work in journalism)

Video: Alternative facts - YouTube

#Censorship #Information #Internet

Pandora Papers

(Filed under ¿Journalism? rather than under Journalism)

Many many documents were leaked, not showing illegal activity or wrongdoing, but simply how wealthy people move money and make purchases.

Things like photos of homes that the owners wanted to keep private were shown. Anyone wanting to rob them can say "Thanks."

People like Ringo Star are in it. Everyone knows he's rich, knows how he made money, and he's not suspected of wrongdoing.

Types of documents in the leaks: passports, bank statements, tax declarations, company and corp records, real estate contracts and due diligence questionnaires.

The way this data data was taken from lawyers offices and financial firms was most likely illegal, it is considered.

The org that published (or gave to 600 journalists to pick through) the leak was the ICJ.

#Leaks

Funny or interesting headlines this month

Afghanistan will return to 'safe haven for terrorism': Retired Brigadier General Kimmitt : CNBC

French youth: Politically active but not voting : France24

Nicaragua newspaper out of paper

They can't get more imported, and they expressed doubts about the reason. They said they'd continue to publish online. The paper is La Prensa.

#Nicaragua #Information #Newspapers

Some funny or interesting headlines this month

'Biden’s Against Hate-Crimes, Unless They Are In Israel' | By Robert Inlakesh : RT

Blinken vows to support journalists - critics raise Assange case (regarding the Secretary of State's 'defense' of Iran-critical VOA journalist Masih Alinejad) : RT

Haiti president assassination suspects trained by Pentagon : RT (This is completely false and not journalism - the report was just about that the assassins had some American training or something in their lives, not that the Pentagon had anything to do with the assassination.)

9/11 families want Biden to declassify documents or stay away from 20-year memorials: CNBC (Bush, Obama, Trump admins all declined to release them. The DoJ is likely to order a review of them, while they have been classified under the state secrets)

US Spent $89 Billion & 20 Years Building Afghan Army and All of It was Toppled in Just Days : The Free Thought Project

#News #Editing

Saudi Arabia is going to have a news platform with a studio in DC.

It will have journalists who were formerly part of AJ, Fox, NBC, and Sirius XM. It is expected before the end of the year.

It's part of a new lobbying effort aimed at the White House and Congress.

This is according to the DOJ: SA's foreign lobbying disclosures.

The news org will be owned by Taqnia ETS, a SA-based subsidiary of SA's $400b PIF (Public Investment Fund). Taqnia is supervised by the Saudi Ministry of Info.

#SA #news #Lobbying

Americans trust in news down to 29%

According to Digital News Report's study of many countries. US trusted their news the least of all countries included. Canadians trusted their news 45%. Finlanders trusted theirs the most at 65%.

The US level has declined steadily from 40% in 2017, and it is thought to be due in part to the pandemic, the media relationship with Trump, and increasingly prioritizing their audience's preferences or reactions to presenting quality news.

The business model of creating hate and outrage to sell news to a particular demographic is considered to probably continue to increase, according to some analysts.

Report: Digital News Report 2021 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

#Trust #Press

Politics of Water in the Himalayan Region - YouTube
Commenter: 'Hydropolitics is a fractional issue, but discussing the solutions is of course a good step in the right direction. Investment water speculation, in the guise of legitimate water trading based on the premise that everything has a price, is a much weightier issue.
'All our water problems are rooted in the lack of water literacy...'

The relationship between China and India is at an all time rock bottom. Before talking about water politics, they might need a reinvigoraiton of the broader relationship first before the very thorny water and water challenges.

U.S. to airdrop aid into Gaza - YouTube
Israel military opened fire as civilians waited for life-saving supplies, reportedly. Israel said most of the injuries came in a crush or hit by vehicles as the vehicles tried to escape.

Is China's 40-year experiment with the West over? | DW Business - YouTube
Saw the West as bags of money in the 80s. Saw them as dangerous for ideas, etc, so they isolated them to a couple coastal cities. They set up 13 open cities, invited foreign companies to invest as long as they'd export the product (without taxes). All kinds of promotional activities to get them to invest. Labor costs were so low, maybe 1/10th the production costs as if done in the US. China at that time seen as a plucky underdog. Had the nicest hotels in the hothouse districts, anyone could get a meeting with a minster in the cities. People got the impression China was trying to redo it's entire legal system to do business etc with the West. Chinese were barely making enough to eat before this.
They had 180 newspapers. 3 years later 1800 magazines, 100 TV stations. One regulator for many, so they couldn't regulate, and you felt you didn't look over your shoulder, led to explosion in the arts. Then demands for a better life, control of inflation, protested, everyone joined the protest, same time Gorachev visited. They strenthnd central control, much less free during 90s, but because tons of capital was flowing into China, people didn't feel it or worry too much. Until 2008-09 GFC and Olympics.
Foreign governments were hopeful about integration, possibly just fooling themselves about the nature of China. They were all investing and profiting from China.

For a foreign company now (not before), all it takes is some Chinese company to file a lawsuit against you, and you can't leave the country. It's not high-level threats, it's just little stuff that is enough to keep you from going there and trying.

Because China focuses on copying foreign tech rather than making new tech, they create value destruction, not new tech. They drive down prices sometimes but don't get on top of the product curve. Planned economy.

There's concern China is building significant overcapacity in the auto sector: CFR’s Michael Froman - YouTube
National security risks from connected auto.
China is going to be building more in Mexico, which has free trade to US.
Musk says the Chinese EVs are better than US cars except Teslas.

China Urges US to Lift ‘Illegal, Unilateral’ Sanctions - YouTube
He appealed to Blinken (Secretary of State).
‘The trend towards economic globalization cannot be reversed.’

The West is very often a good short term ally but a bad long term ally.

ICJ ruled Israel must take steps to prevent genocide. Headlines Israels said ICJ is antisemitic. Is it possible to criticize israel and not be antisemitic, and if so how?

‘"Russian cosmonauts will no longer be delivered to the ISS. They will work under a different program,” Borisenko told lenta.ru. "It goes about the creation of our own national orbital station.’ called ROSS.

Iran allegedly hired Canadian citizens to conduct killings on U.S. soil - YouTube
A network of drug traffickers operate with carte blanche in Iran, under protection of the government there, and in exchange do assasinations, kidnappings, around the world, who are dissidents or opponents of Iran.
$350k to shoot them repeatedly in the head to make an example of them.
Events from 2021. One of the assasins is allegedly HA.

Today the official border guard forces are former independence fighters against the government military regime. They are free to pursue their own business interests in return.

Kamila Valieva decision happened today, and she's disqualified for 4 years from the date of the test. It takes away her titles (medals are handed out by other organization).
‘She’s a minor.' ‘The amount of substance was relatively small.’
‘Threw the book at her.' ‘Could have given her a 2 year or 3 year.’ ‘This was supposed to be judged on an individual level, not a Russia level.’

Geopolitics is supplanting economic efficiency as the primary driver of goods moving throught the global supply chain. Red Sea is happening at same time as drought in Panama. Global instability in supply chains. Made in country paradigm. A long chain in past few years. Point when a shift takes place in where goods are made.

Canada sending $40M more in aid for Gaza after pausing UNRWA funding | Power & Politics - YouTube

U.S. will retaliate if Houthis continue Red Sea attacks, Biden says - YouTube
US, UK, AUS, Canada, Netherlands, Bahrain (but, it seems, only US physically), to ‘restore deterrance.’
Sacks thinks several US politicians want a wider war in the Middle East ie US and Israel vs Iran.

Headlines that Milei says he won't make good relaitons with countries that are socialist. First flaw?
#Milei

Could Turkey be kicked out of NATO for note being a trusted ally? Turkey has one of the biggest armies in Europe. Could it side more towards Russia?

Possible conflicts: Guayana and Venezuela. Ethiopia and Egypt or Eritrea (spilling into Red Sea, Houthis), Middle East. Ukraine. Iran.

Should we consider Hamas members as created by Israel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvQCZvgi2l0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LgR5KJIcX8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8lC4TFw4k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-bsYDAHDhM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKMZKGWA3dE

6% favor Palestinians. 36% say treat both the same (which is down from 53% in 2014. Also, less people are ‘unsure’ than in 2014).

Republicans and Independents put securing the US/Mex border as the #1 security consideration, followed by aid for Israel, while democracts put Ukraine at top then aid to Israel.

Is this just an impossible situation for US leaders? Israel is their partner and no matter what they have to side with them (or even criticise or admit criticism of them), but people naturally are not impressed with Israel or the situation there, and so US leaders must want nothing other than to avoid this topic. People immediatley after the invasion started protesting at the US government buildings, which allowed this to be a news story in headlines.

Basically, Hamas forcing the situation, forcing Israel to act more brusquely, forces other people/nations to one side or the other (it comes up at the UN, newspapers, etc). If they chose immorally it can be uncomfortable and detrimental for them.

Similarly, the India situation in Canada right now.

Is it that there hasn't been much confrontation in a while? China and the US only a couple years ago became non-mutual-silence-allies at the upper government levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbwNAqllmoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0pet5QC7wk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNulBQC4tfs

Venezuela is a source of some of the heaviest crude, and there are few places that can process this. US wants to do more refining.

Azerbaijan had blocaded Nagorno-Karabakh for months and then invaded and took full control in a 24-hour offensive. The Armenian separatists agreed to disarm and most of the 100k Armenians relocated themselves to Armenia.

Syrian pres's plane escorted by air protection of Pakistan, Iran, SA and Russia, as a precaution against ‘Anglo-American Empire’ ‘Rules Based Reich’. - Some blogger named Corrine

The Iranians look down on the Chinese as an inferior society, Zeihan said. Really? and on what grounds?

India expels Canada diplomat as Sikh murder row escalates - BBC News - YouTube

Campaining for a separate land for Sikhs in northern India, for this branded a ‘terrorist’ by India? India has longstanding concerns that within the large Indian population in Canada, they are conducting anti-India activities. Kalastan movement. Separatism.

Canadian Hindus Get Khalistani Threat: Trudeau Shields Hate Mongers Khalistanis In Canada - YouTube

India suspends visa services in Canada - YouTube

India says Canada must stop providing safe haven for separatists - YouTube

The separatist government of Tibet has been in India for how many years now? Daramsala.

Poland says it will no longer supply weapons to Ukraine | DW News - YouTube

We need to be very careful in our approach to China at a moment of this kind of difficulty, and I think we need to be more attentive to avoiding a situation where we terrify China with potential economic damange that we're going to do to them. - Sommers on China's tough week (Country Garden now after Evergrand months ago, decision to not report youth unemployment)

Musk wants regulation for AI. He recently stressed that when he went to China and met with leaders. And that the main objection to regulation in the US was that if US did regulation China would jump ahead of them. To China, he noted that without regulation, a superintelligence could find itself in control, which is not what the leadership in China wants.

Enforcement is difficult.

...

Morgan Stanley Moves 200 Technologists Out of China on Data Law - YouTube

... to HK and Singapore. They'll still have a standalone tech center in China that will comply.

...

US cuts off funding to Wuhan Lab connected to Covid origins - YouTube

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