tardigrada @ tardigrada @beehaw.org

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3 yr. ago

Dozens dead as Helene unleashes life-threatening flooding and knocks out power to millions across Southeast

Hurricane Helene continues to unleash its fury across the Southeast after leaving 49 people dead in multiple states, leveling communities and stranding many in floodwaters after the historic storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with roaring 140 mph winds.

This is just another blatant propaganda campaign by China. The government in Beijing obscures its domestic supply chains, and there is much evidence for grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity in China, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet.

[Edit typo.]

Read Trump's Project 2025. It's aiming at the same things.

You have not been alone with this if I may say so :-))

Jan. 6 investigator says he has ‘receipts’ on Clarence and Ginni Thomas -- (archived version)

A former House GOP lawmaker says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should be removed from the bench over his “unethical” behavior and taunted people to challenge him.

“Come at me. I got receipts,” Denver Riggleman posted to X, calling Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, “disturbed.”

Riggleman posted in response to a clip of Donald Trump saying at a rally that “people should be put in jail for the way they talk about our judges and justices.”

“Clarence Thomas is, at the least, unethical. Should be removed from the bench. His wife, Ginni Thomas, is disturbed. Come at me. I got receipts.” Riggleman said.

Just stumbled upon this blog post: Elsevier selling access to an open access article, again (2024 edition)

Addition: It's really time to change this system.

As parts of the U.S. prepare for the landfall of the Hurricane this week, a friendly reminder that Donald Trump's Project 2025 would eliminate the National Weather Service and NOAA.

J.D. Vance Admits He’s Telling Racist Lies for Attention -- [archived version]

“Nobody is disputing that the town of Springfield, Ohio, needs help. But, you’re not just a bystander,” [CNN's Dana] Bash said. “You’re the senator from Ohio, so instead of saying things that are wrong, and actually causing the hospitals, the schools, the government buildings to be evacuated because of bomb threats, because of the cats and dogs thing, why not actually be constructive, in helping to better integrate them into the community? Because there are a lot of employers there who say that the Haitians workers are helping fill jobs that they need desperately filled.”

Rather than take any ownership of his role in spreading false claims and incendiary rhetoric, Vance recoiled, saying that any suggestion that he’d been responsible for inciting the bomb threats in Springfield was “disgusting.” The Ohio senator scolded Bash for sounding like a “Democratic propagandist” as she called him out on his reckless lying.

Here comes Saul Justin Newman: 'The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out’

In general, the claims about how long people are living mostly don’t stack up. I’ve tracked down 80% of the people aged over 110 in the world (the other 20% are from countries you can’t meaningfully analyse). Of those, almost none have a birth certificate. In the US there are over 500 of these people; seven have a birth certificate. Even worse, only about 10% have a death certificate.

I'm not a lawyer, but one reason could be that there's not (yet?) a clear criminal case that would convince a judge. It's not clear whether a crime is committed, maybe?

For example, Mr. McCabe says, "“I don’t know that I would characterize it as [an] active, recruited, knowing asset in the way that people in the intelligence community think of that term" (and similar comments), but 'don't know' could mean there's nit enough for prosecution? This is not China or Russia, where people are sentenced to.prison in closed-door trials and often not even their lawyers know what exactly their clients are accused of. Maybe we could call it another 'weakness' of democracy (which non-democratic state actors try to exploit)?

But I say 'could' and conclude I don't know either.

Exactly eight years ago this week, Trump campaigned in Miami and spent some time at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, stressing the “common values” he shared with Haitian Americans.

“Whether you vote for me or not,” the then-candidate said at the time, “I really want to be your biggest champion.”

A year later, he scrapped temporary protected status for Haitians who were allowed entry to the U.S. following a devastating earthquake in 2010. A year after that, the Republican hosted a White House meeting and referred to Haiti as a “s---hole” country.

And now, Trump is lying to the public about Haitian immigrants — the same people he told, “I really want to be your biggest champion” — betraying a community he vowed to look out for.

Source: Trump betrays a community he previously vowed to ‘champion’

Now, Trump says he's going to deport Haitian immigrants from Springfield, Ohio, even though they're there legally.

We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio. Large deportations. We're going to get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela [sic]. [Edit typo.]

Just stumpled upon that (video, 20 sec): https://infosec.exchange/@littlealex/113131659214334040

Just buy from China. It's cheap :-)

Addition:

Toxic substances found in Shein and Temu products -- (August 2024)

Women’s accessories sold by some of the world’s most popular online shopping firms contained toxic substances sometimes hundreds of times above acceptable levels, authorities in Seoul said yesterday.

Chinese giants including Shein, Temu and AliExpress have skyrocketed in popularity around the world in the past few years, offering a vast selection of trendy clothes and accessories at low prices.

Shoes from Shein were found to contain significantly high levels of phthalates — chemicals used to make plastics more flexible — with one pair 229 times above the legal limit.

“Phthalate-based plasticisers affect reproductive functions such as sperm count reduction, and can cause infertility and even premature birth,” an official from Seoul’s environmental health team told reporters.

One such chemical “is classified as a human carcinogen by the International Cancer Institute, so special care should be taken to avoid long-term contact with the human body,” the official said.

The article is longer, very interesting.

Did someone say we need supply chain transparency?

This is why we need supply chain transparency and this game is over, buddy, and among the weakest points in this context is China.

Whatever we understand by a 'free market', China must really not complain about a 'non-free' market policy not in the U.S. nor in most othrr countries. That would really be hypocritical.

Just one example:

Report finds shein, temu fueled by slave labor in [China's] Xinjiang -- [archived]

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has released a report stating that leading fast fashion brands, Shein and Temu, are powered by "slave labor." The author of the report, Adam Savit, who is also the director of AFPI's China Policy Initiative, said that Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities are subjected to forced labor in China's Xinjiang region, benefitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This is just one of many similar reports. I think we should always asking ourselves when buying cheap whether there are others who who pay the price, especially in.countries like China where there is no supply chain transparency.

[Edit typo.]

Yeah, but now it gets really weird:

Totally normal response': Trump blasted for threatening ABC's license after debate flop -- [archived]

ABC took a big hit last night," Trump told Fox News. "I mean, to be honest, they are a news organization, they have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that."

Australian University students and staff face increasing threats, foreign interference inquiry finds -- (2022)

[Australian] Universities face escalating threats to students and to national security from hostile forces, a report into foreign interference has warned [...] The report [...] specifically singled out Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes, a $10m deal between Monash University and a Chinese company linked to industrial espionage, and talent recruitment drives that see Australian researchers work with universities overseas.

Finland shuts down Confucius Institute amid censorship, espionage accusations -- (2022)

A cooperation contract between Helsinki University and the Confucius Institute will be terminated following accusations of spreading Chinese soft power, conducting espionage, and an attempt to block discussions on Tibet. [...] Belgium closed its Confucius Institute in 2019, Sweden and Denmark in 2020, and Norway in 2021.

Chinese students signing a “loyalty” pledges to the Chinese motherland before arriving in their host country, as shows the example of Sweden.

Chinese students signing “loyalty” pledges before arrival in Sweden -- (2023)

International doctoral students who are arriving in Sweden from China are being told to sign agreements and guidelines to the Chinese government, an investigation has revealed [...] The Chinese regime requires that they also must “serve the interests of the regime” and “never participate in ‘activities’ that go against the will of the authorities”, the report said. 

Sweden, Germany, and many other countries have been cutting ties with the China scholarship scheme over this practice already.

And these are just a few examples. There is much more.

Yeah, and the article the user @technocrit posted before that in this community is from 2021.

This is report is more than 3 years old.

This is a rhetorical question, right?