The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights, voicing concerns that it “enables discrimination, invades our privacy and undermines our rights.”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Biden buries Obama’s 3rd term
The media mostly reports stories about the new anglo military alliance against China, the forthcoming Quad summit in Washington, the coming new cold war with Beijing without pointing out the single most important thing: it represents the total collapse of the 21st century dream of a ‘rule based global world order’ and a reversion to …
Sussman was not just a ‘good citizen’
The indictment, returned by a Washington, D.C., grand jury on Thursday, charges attorney Michael Sussmann, of Perkins Coie, a law firm tied to the Democratic party, with making a false statement during a meeting with officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shortly before the 2016 election. WSJ
The Pacific line
New at the Belmont Club. Australia, the UK and the US form the AUKUS alliance to contain China as the Aussies acquire nuclear subs for the first time. Inside the Quad is an anglophone alliance.
Putting the rule based global world on hold
New at the Belmont Club. China just voted to recall Obama’s Third Term.
England vaccine passport plans ditched
Under the scheme, people would have been required to show proof – whether of double vaccination, a negative Covid test or finishing self-isolating after a positive PCR test – in order to gain entry to clubs and other crowded events. BBC
Trapped on earth’s biggest island
‘Home suddenly feels like such a long way away’ … Julia’s hopes of temporarily returning to the UK to live and work close to family before her son started secondary school have been thwarted. And like thousands of others, the inability to see close relatives for almost two years has been agonizing. BBC
House Democrats Consider 26.5% Corporate Tax Rate
House Democrats also are considering raising the minimum tax on U.S. companies’ foreign income to 16.5% from 10.5% and increasing the top capital-gains tax rate to 28.8% from 23.8%. Lawmakers are also expected to raise money by expanding Internal Revenue Service enforcement and might include other tax increases on corporations and high-income individuals. WSJ
Maternity hospital pausing deliveries as employees quit over mandate
Six employees at the Lewis County Health System have resigned, and seven more are unwilling to get vaccinated, meaning Lewis County General Hospital will stop delivering babies for the time being. NY Post
Winning, then losing the war on authoritarianism
Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Americans were reasonably positive about the state of their rights and liberties. Today, after 20 years, not as much… That attitude has eroded in the years since, with far fewer people now saying the government is doing a good job protecting rights including the freedom of speech, the right …
Continue reading “Winning, then losing the war on authoritarianism”
The Taliban impose their will on the defeated
A chilling video showed a group of Taliban fighters beheading an Afghan soldier before celebrating and singing while holding the several of the victim by his hair. …They then start shouting praise for the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The video ends with the group stating they must shoot the Afghan soldiers because ‘he has …
Continue reading “The Taliban impose their will on the defeated”
Vaccines won’t end pandemic must now ‘gradually adapt strategy’ to inevitable spread of virus, WHO warns
Dr Hans Kluge said new strains of Covid will continue to emerge and the virus will remain with us like the flu. Earlier this year, he said the pandemic would be over once 70 per cent of people were fully immunized. But he admitted today that the situation had now changed, so leaders need to adapt their …
Biden shakes UK special relationship
Mr Heappey, speaking to Christopher Hope, the Daily Telegraph’s chief politics correspondent during his weekly politics podcast, said: “There’s a wobble. “But it’s not an institutional wobble. It’s a wobble in confidence
Biden cancels 9/11 live remarks
“You will hear from [Biden] in the form of a video in advance—or if that will be available that day, I should say,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. Free Beacon
China not picking up the phone
When climate envoy John Kerry visited China last week, senior Chinese officials emphatically rejected Biden’s proposal to deal with climate cooperation as a freestanding issue, apart from other, more contentious matters. Axios
Politics as unusual
Trying to follow US politics from a distance can be challenging because there are so many questions and so few answers. Is California a national bellwether? Is the full court press in CA a sign of strength or weakness? Can the progressives buy their way to victory with the infrastructure bill? At what point does …
The Chinese elite choose power over prosperity
Having done away with term limits in 2018, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong is pushing what some observers describe as a mini “revolution”, curbing the excesses of capitalism and shedding negative cultural influences of the West. Reuters
When in doubt, insist on certitude
The dominant narrative became that “we are at war.” When at war, everyone has to follow orders. If a platoon is ordered to go right and some soldiers explore maneuvering to the left, they are shot as deserters. Scientific skepticism had to be shot, no questions asked. The orders were clear. Tablet
We won’t be bullied into going green, says China
Days after China sent US climate envoy John Kerry home empty handed, Beijing has given Alok Sharma, the COP26 President and the UK’s senior climate official, the same message: China won’t cave in to Western demands, plunging Joe Biden’s and Boris Johnson’s Net Zero agenda into doubt. GWPF
White House Blasts Meatpackers for Grocery ‘Profiteering’
The Biden administration is taking aim at major meatpackers, charging that “pandemic profiteering” is squeezing consumers and farmers alike, with a few companies that dominate the industry raking in record profits. Bloomberg