On Uganda, Burma, the attempted coup in the USA, and from the news

On Uganda this week: 

• as detentions are extended, security experts and political actors have stated that "unexplained arrests are [a] major cause for concern";
• graduating police recruits have been "urged to restrain themselves from injuring civilians in the course of carrying out their duties" (how about making that an order?); 
• a "missing persons" hotline has not gone over well (comments on social media pointed out that the authorities know where the missing are, so it is up to them to advise, not the victims' families to ask). Meanwhile, nonsensical claims by police that number plates on the cars they use to kidnap people "fall off" . . . (are they claiming incompetent and illegal attachment of number plates?);
  
• there are multiple reports on social media on what is happening to those who have been kidnapped. It's the same old abuses that despots everywhere have used for decades, much of dating back to tactics used (and, in some cases, developed) by the nazis in 1930s and 1940s Germany. How does it feel, after a revisionist speech, to be an inheritor of European nazi methods, Mr Museveni?
  
• "The Archbishop of the church of Uganda ... has urged people in the country to value life and stop killing the young generation"; 
• MPs are trying to overturn a court ban on extending terms from 5 to 7 years; 
• the military are bashing  journalists; 
• a court has rejected accepting more evidence submitted by Bobi Wine, evidence delayed by security force abuses - see also this;  
• a woman whose parents fled, with her, from Uganda, under Idi Amin, to Kenya has not fled Uganda, under Museveni, to Kenya.
  

On Burma this week: 

• expert recommendations for the world on what to do (coordinated messaging against violence, targeted sanctions, directing aid away from the military & arms embargoes, talk to the generals);
  
• creative resistance as protests - by many young people - continue and grow; 
• reports of nighttime "kidnappings" (disappearances?) -and the first confirmed fatality;
  
• anger at the continuing mass arrests of protestors; 
• some police have broken ranks and joined the protestors; 
• tanks on the streets as the UN warns the military against attacking protestors and Asian companies are urged to "do their duty" and break ties with the burmese military ; 
  
• an Internet shutdown; and calls for notorious social media platform facebook to stop enabling the genocidaires;
  
• in a splendid example of non-violent resistance, cars are breaking down at intersections;  
• the UK has sanctioned Burma's coup generals "for 'violating the right to life'";  
  
• the UN Special Envoy on Myanmar has said world unity against the coup is very important; 
• journalists have resigned rather than comply with junta-imposed censorship; 
• it is the young people of Burma who are leading the protests;
• updates here and here.
  

On the attempted coup in the USA: 

• calls for "for 9/11-style commission to investigate" the attempted coup in the USA have been successful;
  
• meanwhile, the coward republicans are hoping "other courtrooms will release [trump's] grip" on what is left of their morally bereft (see here on some of the retaliation) white supremacist party . . . ; 
• a warning to the US Democrats against cooperating with the cult hiding behind the "republican party" name as one Democrat brings a "case against Mr trump ... under a provision of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was passed in response to KKK violence and prohibits violence or intimidation meant to prevent Congress or other federal officials from carrying out their constitutional duties"; 
•  a powerful call by a respected scientific organisation to address domestic white supremacist terrorism in the USA; 
• one of the trumpettes in Congress has shown herself to be an utter horse conch who does not understand the US Constitution.
  

From the news this week:

• the USA has rejoined the fight against the climate crisis;  
• an example from history showing how close we have sometimes come to accidental nuclear war reminds us why we must STILL be careful now; 
  
• an international coalition of 57 countries is condemning hostage diplomacy by China; 
• a call for change in Nigeria ("only Nigerians can change Nigeria") - and a supporting petition;
  
• the CCP's bending of rules to create a false veneer of legitimacy (it is a continental nation, not an archipelago) for its outrageous grab (based on bullying and occupation) for the South China Sea (and the USA has shot itself in the foot with regard to resisting this by not ratifying treaties and not supporting a 2016 court decisions);
• Russia is using the same sort of intimidation of ex-pats that China does - including here; 
• growing tensions between the European Union and the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia ruled by Grand Tsar Putin; 
• Burkina Faso - with over one million refugees/IDPs - urgently needs the world's help;   
• Israel is sticking to its irremediable hardline anti-Iran stance; 
• "In Iran, I was taught to hate Israel and Jews. Then I watched Schindler’s List. . . . This should be an important lesson for dictatorial regimes like Iran, North Korea and others: You cannot deny and distort history for your own purposes. You cannot promote nefarious goals such as the destruction of another nation and country by using the media and propaganda in schools and universities and infecting the minds of children and adolescents."
  
• the USA will sideline the notorious MBS in Saudi Arabia;  
• inexplicable reluctance in Australia to accept the evidence of aerosol transmission (which has been around for months and is one of the reasons we're wearing masks!);  
• the vindictiveness behind facebook's news ban is being shown by it also blocking weather & unions & ALP politicians (but not neolibs) & health and emergency warnings & satire - but some are pointing out the connection between the proposed (flawed) law and the Murdoch press, who are alleged to have provided the wording of the law (as someone I know said, Murdoch vs. Zuckerberg is a bit like Alien vs. Predator: no matter who wins, we're still worse off). Following this, a satirical site has listed 125 out of a list of 902 items of corrupt or poor conduct by our national neolib nitwit government. My initial thoughts on this matter are here;
  
• facebook has treated some people in Indonesia, Brazil and Canada with contempt by removing political content without their consent - and may similarly gut access to information elsewhere (so much for those morons who think the argument in Australia is Zuckerberg vs. Murdoch); 
• facebook has shown it could shut down hate speech if it wanted to: why does it NOT WANT TO?;
  
• calls for "more responsible" surveillance; 
• from https://twitter.com/JoshBBornstein/status/1360722417765683200, a re-tweet from Inequality Civic Action:
  
  
  
  
  
• major concerns over our weak political donation laws; 
• as the USA discusses ways to rein in "big tech" (Reuters exclusive here) and Google enters more lucrative deals, in a farcical move that has caused anger and is based on a lie notorious (allows misogyny, is scared of breastfeeding, enables genocidaires, and appears to have a schoolboy mentality) social media platform facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing or viewing Australian and international news content (time to get off it and go elsewhere, people); 
  
• the disastrous experience of LGBTIQ+ people who live through natural catastrophes; 
• a young woman has reported being raped in a government Minister's office, and states her job was threatened and that she was not given access to CCTV footage (some of her statements are disputed). From my experience of having been sexually assaulted and the reports of others, this is a major matter, and the FIRST consideration has to be the wellbeing of that young woman - and all other  victims (male, female, and non-binary) - of sexual assault. Police investigations are secondary, and subject to the victim's wishes, as the investigation and court cases are a further assault: in this case, she has chosen to re-activate charges, and the rules around that process now apply.
  Politics has NO place in this, and - although there may be particular vulnerabilities associated with such positions - this sort of incident happens in other places, with the victims often being or left to feel silenced and abandoned.
  This matter is now subject to legal proceedings: spare a thought for the others that aren't. In the meantime, the PM appears to be lying (he says he isn't);
  
• victim blaming and bias - including of police - against DV victims; 
  
• the "false consensus effect" results in people doing environmental damage and other socially unacceptable or illegal behaviours; 
• NO evidence the cashless welfare card reduces harm; 
• an interview about an interestingly titled new book "Work Won't Love You Back", by Sarah  Jaffe (Amazon, no e-book version as yet, so I won't buy it);   
• criticism of BMI;  
• the origins of the moronic claim that science is about disproving something - and WHY it is moronic and led to, amongst other evils, neoliberalism and climate change denial.