Some (mostly) human rights links [Note: Content Warning - reader discretion is advised!] and thoughts - Saturday 12th February, 2022

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• an opinion that "a carbon tax would encourage companies to reallocate the capital they spend on consumption towards developing green technologies"; 
• "Colombia's Amazon indigenous groups train youth to defend rainforest"; 
• koalas in NSW are endangered;
  
• France will go off fossil fuels . . . by building nuclear reactors;
  
• wind and solar companies NEED to address human rights; 
  
• one US network included commentary on politics, human rights, and Ukraine in their coverage of the major international sporting event currently being held in human  rights-abusing, genocidal  China - where athletes have reported being traumatised by their abuse;
  
• from one of my favourite journalists: "as Putin draws closer to Xi, who among the leaders of the West will rise to their feet like Winston Churchill?" (I can't think of any potential candidates . . . ); 
• "it appears that coupists are learning to circumvent the international community’s typical demand in post-coup situations—that elections be held—to entrench themselves in power";
  
• Russia's government "is seizing ever-more control over biometric data of everyone resident in Russia. This carries serious risks for their rights"; 
• "Cameroonian authorities subjected dozens of asylum seekers deported by the United States to serious human rights violations between 2019 and 2021" (which would be the USA committing refoulement); 
• "the company behind Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru made a $101m profit last financial year – more than $500,000 for each of the fewer than 200 people held on the island";
  
• Libya is back to having two parallel governments;
  
• "Ethiopia has committed a wide range of human rights violations in its war against Tigrayan rebel forces ... according to a landmark legal complaint submitted to ... The African Commission [on Human and Peoples’ Rights]" - see also here, on concerns about Ethiopia, the DRC, and child soldiers; 
• a rift is developing between Europe and the Sahel; 
• a review of the violence in the eastern DRC;
  
• an attack has been made in an attempt to disrupt Somali's election process;
  
• from the USA: there is a "clear error in the Defense Department’s Law of War Manual on presumptions of civilian status";
  
• a call for South Sudan to advance human rights; 
• "thousands of Sudanese [have] marched against military rule"; 
  
• "although Nicaragua is not a signatory of the Rome Statute, ... international law still offers options for an eventual criminal trial against those officials of the Ortega-Murillo regime accused of committing crimes against humanity"; 
• after recovering records he wrongly took with him, "National Archives [has asked the] Justice Department to investigate POTUS45's handling of White House records";
• "calls for [the] federal government to strengthen modern slavery laws after [a] scathing report"; 
• "Arab states in the Gulf region have downplayed the legacy of repression and racism faced by minorities. But some countries are taking the first steps to address the past" of slavery;
  
• beginning with Ehud Barak's warning in 2010, a measured assessment of Israel's discrimination against Palestinians;
• Tunisia continues its backsliding towards authoritarianism - including secret detection centres; 
• China has praised the "positive steps" by the EU and the USA on restoring the Iran nuclear deal - see also this;
  
• the USA has restricted "visa issuance for Somali officials accused of 'undermining democratic process'";
  
• journalists are being silenced in Russia, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, and "the fight for democracy and media freedom in Hong Kong feels like it has “entered its endgame”, after a year of crackdowns, arrests and forced closures of outlets, the International Federation for Journalists has said";
  
• a criticism of the mainstream media response to growing corruption in my nation, and an apology to whistleblowers in Qld who weren't listed to;
  
• support for students wanting to wear hijabs at schools in India after government bans, as a warning is made hate speech is at dangerous levels; 
• another "school" - this time in NSW - is trying the LGBT-phobic hate line; 
• "religious discrimination laws could see people with disability 'insulted and humiliated'" - and won't protect trans students - there have been powerful  actions against this notorious bill, and calls for "a ‘Christchurch amendment’ to be included ... to protect people of faith from vilification and endangerment", but it actively causing serious harm right now . . . but has passed the lower house with the most egregious transphobic elements  curtailed (my preliminary thoughts from during the week are here); . . . until it was  suspended (NOT WITHDRAWN -  it is still on the books, and capable of being resurrected at some stage) in the Senate . . . after harm had been caused (as intended). Meanwhile, from the ultra-conservative and religious USA, "the US House of Representatives [has] approved a bill cracking down on human rights abuses against LGBTQ+ people in other countries, pledging to impose sanctions on foreign individuals involved in anti-LGBTQ+ harassment or attacks that have taken place abroad" (maybe they should have a look at out PM?), positive responses to LGBTIQ-phobia in Colombia, but a notorious NSW MP is opposing training police to be decent people and Iran has murdered two gay men;
• powerful speeches by two women who have highlighted the need to act against sexual assault, including of children, and discrimination - see here, here, here, here, and, on the threatening phone call to attempt to silence on of these women, here, here, and here;
  
• "Australia is suffering a democratic recession – and we can’t blame COVID ... The looming federal election provides the opportunity to start the process of repairing and restoring our democratic health";  
• businesses are leaving Hong Kong;
• hypocrisy in the soft response to extremist- led COVID deniers in Canada as opposed to responses to genuine human rights protests (Canada's PM has ordered the underplayed but extremely serious disruption ended); 
• "nearly one in five applicants to white supremacist group tied to US military"; 
• "Victoria’s parliament will formally investigate the rise of far-right extremism in the state and the risk it poses to multicultural communities";
  
• a far right wing conspiracy fantasist MP has been using taxpayer funds to spread his evil lies - and another has been taking people threatening violence into Parliament; 
• "UN experts: ‘UAE-funded mercenaries in Libya bankroll Darfur armed movements’";
  
• "the US Air Force has been ordered to pay more than $US230 million (a$323 million) in damages to survivors and families of victims killed in a 2017 Texas church massacre ... the Air Force failed to flag a conviction that might have kept the gunman from legally buying the weapon used in the shooting"; 
• Sri Lanka's tokenistic "reforms" aren't fooling the EU;
  
• a call for Mexico to legislate to enable people with disabilities make decisions for themselves; 
• PNG's hospitals are on "the brink of collapse";
  
• "hundreds of 'burnt out' aged care and disability care workers are quitting, union warns"; 
• in a further sign of giving up trying to save lives, "requirements to check-in to venues using QR codes are being questioned now the data collected is no longer used for COVID-19 contact tracing" - although police have been trying to access that information . . . ;
• "despite broad support in the United States for reshaping policing, movements to “defund” or “abolish” police departments generate strong public opposition. The resistance is largely due to discomfort with the movements’ policy goals, not their slogans or negative beliefs about the activists associated with them, according to a new study" - but, on the other hand, US police have killed a record number of people, and these recommendations have been made to address that;
  
• after decades of problems and decades of objections & protests from people such as myself, "delivery failure: the private sector is no place for essential services";
  
• in Germany "three out of five [people are] happy working from home" - which I suspect reflects the experiences of others in the world;
• comments by the treasurer appear to show a disturbing lack of understanding of the realities of the job market; 
• the "WHO [ has highlighted] benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence for older people" (discrimination including wrong assumptions remains a major problem); 
  
• Iraq has made its final reparation payment for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
  

How did we get here?

This is a preview - still being updated as events unfold - from my coming human rights post on Saturday: 

• "religious discrimination laws could see people with disability 'insulted and humiliated'" - and won't protect trans students - there have been powerful  actions against this notorious bill, and calls for "a ‘Christchurch amendment’ to be included ... to protect people of faith from vilification and endangerment", but it actively causing serious harm right now; . . . but has passed the lower house with the most egregious transphobic elements curtailed;

In the 50s and 60s, ignorance and transphobia were rampant. That started to be countered by activists in the 70s and 80s, and in the 90s and early 2000s, during my involvement in community activism, there were a few hold outs, but there was also a preponderance of support - after humanising trans people and basic education on gender identity - for protections.(See here for an excellent history.) 

Two Victorian MPs at the time were notorious for their opposition - opposition which, in my opinion, showed them to be transphobic, and opposition which nearly led to the anti-discrimination laws being blocked (we were in contact with both sides of politics, and thus the opposition would have blocked the bill on our advice if the transphobic [toilet] laws had been included) if they had transphobic elements added. A religious community supported the protections, but wanted teachers excluded, over their misunderstanding that exposure to trans issues would somehow "confuse" children - which has subsequently been clearly shown to be absurd by the many brilliant young trans and gender diverse advocates (and their allies). 

It may, however, have been a hint of what was to come. 

What was also to come was using the protections enacted as the toe in the door to get additional changes - such as the ability to correct Birth Certificates. At the time of our activism, corrected documentation wouldn't have been enough: it would have been possible - and likely - that an employee could say "I'm not sacking you because you're now male, I'm sacking you because you used to be female" - and vice versa - and get away with it.

In fact, it's still possible that some transphobic bigots will try that. 

The field of action has also quite rightly broadened, to include gender diversity (sometimes at the cost of denying those trans people who are binary), and that may be increasing the discomfort of the people who, as a result of their personal insecurities / inadequacies combined with a refusal to grow and develop as human beings, and that is partly behind the backlash.

However, just as anti-vaxxers are being used as a smokescreen for other forms of bigotry, transphobia may be using religion as a smokescreen: the majority of religious people are actually supportive of TGD people. 

However, a small element of religious extremists have used transphobia as a shield to enable them to avoid doing any acknowledgement / changing of their personal inadequacies, and they have then used their rat cunning and political acumen, much as hitler did to seize power in Germany in the 1930s from a minority position, to gain a level of political clout through their sock puppet Morrison that far exceeds their numbers. 

And, much as the others in Germany allowed hitler to seize power through ineptness and/or inaction or through being dupes, I am currently considering whether we have, through ineptness (there have, in addition to the successes, been mistakes) and/or inaction, or others have, through being dupes, allowed the transphobic element to seize power beyond what is reasonable?

The ALP's response to the national neoliberal nitwits (enable) religious discrimination bill has been botched - the TGD community is reeling, and explanations have been and still are too late and inadequate, but the question is: how, over the last couple of decades, did we get to this situation?

PS - also from my coming weekly post: 

[the bill] was  suspended (NOT WITHDRAWN -  it is still on the books, and capable of being resurrected at some stage) in the Senate

Computers and their human vulnerabilities

There's an old computer world joke about a bit of automated kit that comes with a person and a dog: the person is to top up the oil as needed, and the dog is to stop the person touching anything else (or maybe the person was to feed the dog, and the dog was to stop the person touching the kit).

Arrogant in its assumptions about the reliability of devices, the limitations of people, and who a dog would feel more loyalty to, but it also has a point: people can be the weakest part of a digital system. 

I'm reading "Zero Day: The Threat In Cyberspace" by The Washington Post, Robert O'Harrow, and it's good to read of thinks like the need for password (and social media) discipline, but it also includes this: 

"Social engineering works because it targets a vulnerable part of cyberspace that cannot be patched with technical fixes: human beings. People want to believe that their communication is safe."

I would put a slightly different slant on that. In my opinion, it seems to be that it's feeling deeply, personally, even mortally affronted by the occurrence of a cyber problem with anything they are connected to - almost as is a cyber problem is like a disease that only came into their home because they failed to keep their home clean enough, whereas it is really more akin to not being able to perform a heart transplant because they didn't get the right people involved instead of trying to do it themselves (any heart transplant surgeons reading this [you're a long way from Kansas!] will have to change that to something else - launching rockets, perhaps, or plumbing?).

Some (mostly) human rights links [Note: Content Warning - reader discretion is advised!] and thoughts - Saturday 5th February, 2022

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• the European Commission (the executive branch of the EU) has shown itself to be incompetent by declaring unsustainable fuels to be sustainable . . . but some leading nations want to form a climate crisis club to share ideas and punish bludgers like Australia - where a national neolib government member has wrongly claimed the carbon tax cost jobs;
  
• a video on the background, tools and possible events of a Russian war with Ukraine (including accusation of a possible fake ["false flag"] event as a pretext) - during which, NATO will support but not send troops directly to Ukraine - see also here, on the possible human rights impact; 
• as the US defence industry insanely claims a nuclear war can be "won", the USA's President Biden has been urged to keep his pledge to limit nuclear weapons;  
• in a blow to hopes of renewing the nuclear deal, the USA considers Iran could manufacture weapons much more quickly than in 2015, when the nuclear deal was reached;  
• a major violent extremist leader committed suicide to avoid being captured by the USA;
  
• an assessment of the dire situation in Lebanon; 
• the need for an economic ceasefire, as well as a military ceasefire and a political agreement, in Yemen, as the USA sends military support to a notorious  human rights abusing regime to defend it against human rights abusing rebels in Yemen;
  
• "Syrian war photos misused by senior Chinese diplomat";
  
• the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, northern Ethiopia; 
• example details of the torture - and it was that, no matter what US courts have declared - inflicted by unpatriotic (do those IPOCs have any idea how much damage they have done to the USA's standing in the world?), sadistic, psychopaths of the CIA; 
• Russian mercenaries are torturing their supposed colleagues in the CAR army; 
  
• violent right wing extremists and white supremacists - including in police - in the USA have appropriated a violent "superhero";
  
• the genocidal junta which seized power in Burma a year ago is repeating its village-burning atrocities - this time to attempt to intimidate the remaining population - and blocking aid as it slides towards economic collapse and possibly civil war; 
• concerns that some Hindus in India may commence a genocide against members of other religions;  
• calls for a fair trial of a whistleblower who reported worker abuses on a sports project in a Gulf state;
  
• as the struggle against the dissent suppressing military continues, " Sudan’s imperilled transition: policy recommendations for the USA ";
  
• "Australia’s Future Fund has invested over $90m in [a] weapons manufacturer"; 
• Turkey is extending its silencing of dissent to kidnapping whistleblowers to hide possible crimes; 
• Burundi is still silencing dissent;
  
• a call for Japan to match its actions to its words and stop funding coal powered power plants in Bangladesh, as it said it would;
  
• ECOWAS has suspended Burkina Faso's membership over the coup in that nation, as another coup is attempted and fails in Guinea-Bissau (with allegations of a drug connection); 
• the USA will block aid to Egypt over human rights abuses in Egypt; 
• "in Hungary, journalists sue state over spyware"; 
• teaching journalism in Hong Kong is now dangerous;
  
• The Democratic Republic of Congo will compound the murders of two UN workers by legally murdering DOZENS of people convicted (hopefully by a genuinely fair trial) of the two murders - thereby confirming that the DRC does not hold life as inviolable;  
• fears that a private (and therefore elitist) security company's plans to use cameras will be used against Indigenous youth and "fears over Aboriginal child removals as report reveals 'endemic racism' in WA Department of Communities"; 
• "confused polling distorts the debate on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament"; 
• "a Queensland parliamentary committee has concluded more needs to be done to counter “on-line and off-line hatred”, saying police data does not accurately reflect serious vilification in the state"; 
• "Australia’s structural cruelty goes beyond refugee policy";
  
• criticism of a major tech company over racism;
  
• racist hypocrisy on the part of the republican party in the USA; 
• "it is not necessary for race to be real for racism to be real. It is only necessary that people believe race to be real";
  
• our national neolib nitwits are, in my opinion, showing their true colours by wanting to be able to deport Indigenous people . . . (on the grounds that Indigenous ownership was allegedly extinguished . . . despite native title recognitions!!!); 
  
• the intersex ex-girlfriend of a former swimmer has criticised his hypocrisy over a trans swimmer; 
• revelations of the disturbing manipulation of social media algorithms by LGBT-phobic haters;
  
• as the majority of voters reject the national neolib nitwits desire to allow discriminatory religious statements, a school in Queensland - over the religious  objections of some of its parents - tried to get around anti-discrimination laws (and why are they getting public money? The principal has either lied or shown that he is an idiot), leading to moderate Liberals pushing for protection - and, eventually, after a costly backlash, a back-down; 
• as the opposition "offers conditional support" to the neolib's notorious (enable) religious discrimination bill, "reports on religious bill show both major parties out of touch";
  
• the importance of TGD inclusive language to ensure TGD access to health care (see also here);
  
• Poland is trying to stop human rights groups accessing schools to stop education on the Holocaust and human rights; 
• a Nigerian oil ship has exploded (with unknown consequences for the crew), creating a risk of an oil spill; 
• "Indian village banks on tree mortgages in bid to go carbon-neutral";
  
• a US coal mining company is alleged to have misreported its emissions in Australia; 
• "more than 20 women working for [a mining company] have reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault in the last five years to a formal, independent review commissioned by the company" - and criticism of the complaints process at another; 
• 97% of those committing sexual assault are male - and it is important to note that women DO also commit sexual assault; 
  
• a court has found Mexico's government must protect human rights defenders; 
• Japan's Parliament has adopted a resolution asking Japan's government to 'relieve" the human rights "situation" in China; 
• "‘Apartheid state’: Israel’s fears over image in US are coming to pass";
  
• "the bombing of Gaza in May 2021 marred the last months of implementation of a five-year Australian government-funded agriculture development project in the Occupied Palestinian Territories"; 
• "Australians found to overwhelmingly support [a] path to permanent residency for migrants on temporary visas";
  
• the head of the neochristian catholic sect has described COVID misinformation as a human rights violation; 
• an opinion that a social media platform's response to a COVID misinformation scandal "falls short of its ethical and editorial obligations"; 
• "Australian billionaire mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest has launched criminal proceedings against social media giant Facebook, alleging the company has breached Australia's money laundering laws by failing to prevent false cryptocurrency advertisements"; 
  
• a translation app is being used to track ethnic minorities at the IOC's event in China - and a reminder of China's atrocities in Tibet;
  
• a call for Queensland's new "shield" laws to extend protection to journalists appearing before the anti-corruption body as well; 
• as a US politician pushes "for an internet Bill Of Rights", "electronic surveillance law review won’t stop Border Force’s warrantless phone snooping";
  
• "police officers face corruption charges for allegedly [remember: innocent until proven guilty] lying to obtain warrants"; 
  
• concerns that a religious chaplaincy programme would put volunteers at risk (and impinge on human rights of recently released prisoners); 
• an opinion that misinformation is less of a problem than is thought; 
• concerns over the influence of large political donations by a few conservative companies;
• progress in a campaign to ban asbestos from Asia; 
  
• a call for companies to share the benefits they get when people work from home (such as reduced power and Internet charges);
  
• a same sex penguin couple in a US zoo have successfully become foster parents;
  
• the benefits of migration.
  

WAY, WAY, WAY OFF TOPIC: thoughts on the return of commercial sail vessels

In recent years there has been a strong interest in a return to using sail-driven vessels for cargo - largely in the interests of reduced environmental impact. Probably one of the most spectacular of those currently under construction is the "Ceiba" - website here (they have quite interesting videos) - and there are a few in operation elsewhere (see here - I'll refer back to one of these shortly). 

This is intended to be a for-profit commercial venture, which such projects have to be if they are going to be a viable option for reducing the impact of commercial mechanically-driven cargo vessels, many of which have appalling fuel characteristics when they are at sea (they change fuel grade when close to land), quite apart from the inherent impact of using fuel rather than wind. 

That is a noble and actually widely desired goal - even mechanically-driven vessels have been looking at using parasails and vertical turbines to gain some advantage from the wind. Traditional rigging clutters decks and makes modern containerised cargo handling impossible.

They've also been looking at air injection to break down boundary layers, which, based on my experience racing small sail dinghies (which used venturi bailers to remove water - which also sicked air if left open when the bilge was dry) as a kid, I KNOW works. I'll come back to this again shortly. 

To simplify considerably, some of the main reasons sail-driven vessels lost out to mechanically-driven vessels was a combination of: 

• greater surety of travel times - mechanically-driven enable schedules to be made and more-or-less kept to; 
• faster travel - cargo ships now travel at up to 30 knots and don't have to worry about the doldrums when crossing the equator; and 
• the lack of rigging enabled the use of shipping containers, which cuts down time in ports and thus shipping charges, as well as also reducing the need for, and thus cost of, skilled and unskilled labour to load and unload.
  

Now, the sail cargo projects that are getting most attention are those using traditional approaches, but at least one (refer to the second link above) is using modern materials (aluminium, which has an extremely energy-intensive manufacture) and containerisation. These do have advantages over timber in terms of strength, but their mining and manufacture causes damage and GHG emissions that are contributing to the climate crisis and environmental damage. 

There are, however, some lessons that can be learned from modern shipping practices, and I would suggest they are the following. 

Firstly, build ships to use containers - perhaps to "10' container", or cube. I've put a cross section below showing how this could be done, but it may need stronger construction techniques than traditional timber - e.g., epoxy reinforced timber, perhaps, or a modest amount of metal work, as is being done with "traditional" construction. 

A double skinned construction could be achieved in a number of ways. As the inner liner would only need to deal with the pressure of a leak, and not the impacts of going over waves (although that would convey a pressure surge), perhaps a plywood material would suffice - but having a cavity that a tank could be put into to use water ballast would add modern sailing knowledge into the mix, just as does using containers, and things like air injection under the hull to break down the boundary layer.

Is it traditional? No. 

Does it allow better use of the advantages of traditional techniques? yes. 

The second suggestion that would enable better use of sail power is cleaner rigging - something which allows space for handling containers, and possibly increased safety by not needing people to aloft as often, something which may incorporate the means to handle 10 t containers, like . . . 

We could also put solar panels on the yard arms to, amongst other things, drive electric bow thrusters or short term electric propulsion for entering / leaving ports etc.

Just a few thoughts aimed at trying to combine the best of traditional with the best of modern . . . 

(And in terms of usage, I'd suggest a vessel like this may be good for archipelagos, much as small planes can be used flexibly. Also, I used to use my blog here for such ideas, but haven't used it for so long I se little point in trying to resurrect it for this.)

Some (mostly) human rights links [Note: Content Warning - reader discretion is advised!] and thoughts - Saturday 29th January, 2022

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• a comment that Russia's statements about Ukraine have not shown how military action would comply with international law (I have a few thoughts here, and there is a good overview in the media here). Also, the UK has accused Russia of wanting to install a puppet regime, and, in a significant indicator of expectations of violence, the US and UK have ordered families of diplomats to leave Ukraine, Australia has called for its citizens to leave, NATO (including the USA) has reinforced forces in eastern Europe, and the USA is threatening to use the Magnitsky Act (which has a history of being effective) against Putin - but the situation is different to when Russia invaded in 2014, and an invasion is less likely to be successful (there are also reports the massed troops have not been organised into combat formations). Furthermore, as Russia points out responses to date have ignored its main concerns, a reminder that "Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits aggressive war. This renders illegal any aggressive war on the part of Russia. Moreover, article 51 gives all states the right to self-defence on behalf of one. That is, this right authorizes “collective self-defence” by the international community of states against aggressive war"; 
• a call to rethink nuclear weapons strategies (e.g., to a "deterrence only" approach);
  
• a useful reminder that nations are complex and play a wide range of roles (i.e., they're generally neither all good nor all bad) with Russia playing an intermediary role between Iran (which is facing internal unrest over the prospect of talks) and the USA;  
• Ethiopia will lift the state of emergency that was imposed in response to the uprising in Tigray;
  
• the largest incursion to date by mainland China's airforce into Taiwanese airspace;
  
• Chile has shown enlightened implementation of gender equality in its Cabinet appointments; 
• suppression of criticism in Kyrgyzstan and continuing murders of journalists in Mexico; 
• many Australians do not know of our inglorious connections to the Holocaust; 
  
• as Australia's corruption ratings plummet, "Malawi’s president dissolves cabinet over corruption allegations";
• fossil fuel companies have withdrawn from Burma over the junta's human rights record;
  
• an oil spill in Peru blamed on the tsunami caused by a recent Tongan eruption is being cleaned up, but has caused significant environmental damage, and sanctions may be imposed; 
• "long-duration energy storage systems are writing coal’s death certificate"; - but "changes in mindset and boosts in funding are key to achieving a swift transition to a climate-smart economy" (there are no technical blocks); 
• a family of Indian refugees have died of exposure on the US-Canadian border, leading to calls for reform;  
• dozens of refugees are missing, feared drowned, after a human smuggling boat capsized on the way from Cuba to the USA;
• criticism of Europe's border agency at a conference meant to resolve that agency's human rights abuses; 
• Nigerian police continue to commit abuses; 
• a Victoria Police search without suspicion operation has been criticised for missing the fact that poverty is the real problem (I continue to hold that the oath police swear is the cause of a lot of these elitist-favouring problems - that, and the low-level cumulative psychological damage of policing);
  
• the national neolibs will boycott one of the more concerning (Chinese owned, in this instance) social media platforms after the PM's account was hacked (no, apparently it was SOLD - how the **** can that be???!!!) and turned into a CCP propaganda outlet for some time; 
• the national neolib nitwits' proposed enable-religious-discrimination bill "will ‘clog’ [the] court system and deny access to justice";
• the national neolib nitwits are still denying an Indigenous voice through their lip service attempt at formalising an Indigenous Voice to the Parliament;
  
• on reconciliation, "to tell the truth, our flawed emotional logic must be laid bare";  
• a correction that the national neolib nitwits haven't "freed" the Indigenous flag - that "transfer" of copyright was more "a violent appropriation of what Aboriginal people deem to be a symbol of reverence";
  
• after a recent notorious visa case involving a sports "celebrity", a court has found that the visa case a popular refugee family being held in extended (and expensive) detention lacked fairness; 
• the organisers of a sporting event in Australia have been called out for their human rights hypocrisy after T shirts asking where a Chinese female sports player (who criticised a sexual abuser and then disappeared after allegedly recanting) was - an apt question, given the CCP's history and style of suppressing dissent (the organisers recanted, but remain contemptible, IMO - and there are serious questions about the police reportedly involved in this: why are they acting as agents of foreign repression?); 
• the violent bigots who have power in Afghanistan are probably succeeding in their quest for political legitimacy by being included in an international conference to solve the humanitarian crisis that the bigots have created - although the intent is that aid be linked to respect for human rights;
• as Burkina Faso undergoes a military coup, a reflection on why - beyond the internal politics and structure - the UN Security Council "stumbles in responding to coups", and Ghana has "implored" ECOWAS and West African governments to "proactively tackle the underlying causes of military takeovers in the sub-region to avert their increasing effect on security and socio-economic development"; 
• a more easily stored and transported vaccine against COVID - which will be of immense benefit to places like Africa; 
• a sports club has received a token fine for its fans' homophobic abuse, another club's homophobic fans could face hate crimes charges, a hate crimes unit is investigating online homophobic abuse of a player, and a sports organisation has been criticised for setting an effectively transphobic policy; 
• a West Asian airline is allegedly trying to silence its pilots raising safety concerns;  
• a warning to learn from mistakes around other social media when considering using the "meta" verse; 
• how a powerful and honest speech led to Germany facing its history under hitler;
  
• "teaching tolerance in schools cannot avoid controversy";
  
• children of smokers are worse off than children of non-smokers; 
  
• a thoughtful reflection on whether an Australian national identity is outdated; 
• based on what has happened recently, a call for our society to base work on a four day working week.
  

The USA's ludicrous Electoral College system

I think most, if not all, people have made decisions that they either subsequently regret or acknowledge were mistakes. These range from minor (e.g., eating a food type that disagrees with one's digestive system) through moderate (a.g., a job that winds up being moderately frustrating) to major (e.g., moving to another nation that doesn't suit one). 

Sometimes decisions are out of one's hands - for instance, in my teens when my family moved to Queensland (which led to a mixture of good, bad, and indifferent outcomes for me, but suited my adoptive sister well). 

In most cases, when one realises a mistake, one generally remedies that - and thus I moved back to Victoria in my 20s, although my attempt to find something outside of engineering as a career wasn't successful (I trained in several massage techniques, but don't have a business orientation which meant trying to work as a "sole trader" didn't work for me).

And that brings us to the Unexceptional States of America, and it's ludicrous Electoral College "system". 

In the 1700s, that "system" - and voting on a Tuesday - may have made some sense at that time, although it seems at least several of the USA's "founders" regretted the Electoral College decision within a few years or decades, but it has since then become nothing but an absurdity that is an affront to democracy (along with their version of the filibuster) and shows a mental ineptitude that so undermines the USA's claim to exceptionality that said claim disappears out of sight on a landslide of the world's laughter into a ravine of ridicule. 

In the Aussie vernacular, the USA's Electoral College "system" fails the pub test. Others might term it comedic gold - or comedic cannon fodder. 

It's that bad, these days.

And I've just found someone wrote a book about this: James Michener, who wrote "Presidential Lottery: The Reckless Gamble in Our Electoral System" in 1969 based on his experiences in 1968 as an elector.

In this book, Michener describes the potential and actual problems of this system, including a staggering lack of awareness on the part of US voters of how the Electoral College system functions - which is actually sadly paralleled by too many Australians' ignorance of the role that the imposed agent of the British Monarchy, the Governor-General has - including that laws are NOT laws until the Governor-General signs them . . . and we haven't changed that for reasons including laziness, mental ineptitude, appallingly elitist options for change, and the aforementioned failure to understand the power that the Governor-General and thus the Queen of the United Kingdom has. (Re-labelling the Queen of the United Kingdom as Queen of Australia is a meaningless farce.)

Going back to Michener's book, he comments on the lack of knowledge and confusion:

"Any system which induces such misconception is dangerous"

In his book Michener examines a range of options for changing or eradicating the Electoral College, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. 

The alternatives include direct election - which, in my opinion, is the most democratic and common sense option, although it could be improved by also adopting preferential voting - and an independent electoral  commission. It also does have potential flaws, as Michener discusses, such as populism. These - along with other potential problems discussed in the book - have more recently been laid bare nearly half a century later by the USA's potus45 (and our weaknesses, such as relying on political conventions, need for human rights protections, etc have been laid bare by our Prime Marketer Scott). 

In my opinion, we in Australia need better education on "civics" and human rights protection to deal with such problems (and better mainstream media wouldn't hurt) - and we need to accept and deal with our historical bigotry. One of the people working on our Constitution  (Andrew Inglis Clarke) was well aware of the USA's Bill of Rights and wanted to include something like that, but everyone else wanted to be able to enshrine the bigotry known as the "White Australia" policy and actually contrived to leave him behind when they went on a boat to finalise everything (from Geoffrey Robertson's book "Bad People – and How to Be Rid of Them: A Plan B for Human Rights").

Interestingly, Clarke was one half of the Hare-Clark electoral system, which took a few attempts to be successfully introduced. 

And that raises the last point I wanted to cover about the USA's Electoral College: why hasn't it changed? 

Clarke needed several attempts and then was able to introduce a better way of voting; on the other hand, he was unable to get a Bill of Rights for Australia against the combined bigotry of others. 

The USA has made changes to its various voting systems, and changes to the Electoral College have been proposed (Michener, incidentally, favours improvements over options such as direct election in his book - which suffers from lack of awareness of the effects of discrimination), but no substantive changes to the Electoral College have been made - despite the clear need for improvement. 

Why? 

Some of it may be political circumstances, or the need for "pragmatic" compromises, and some of it may be a misbegotten "pride" in being different, but I suspect it goes further than that: I suspect too many people can see opportunities for them to have political influence, and they're unwilling to risk having to be part of what they possibly consider the "pack of mediocrity" - or, as I would term, the voter, or the everyday or non-elite person.

And changing the USA's system is up to the USA's everyday, non-elite voter - they have to advocate for change, and then vote on that change. 

And until they do, they are contributing to the dis-enfranchisement of themselves and, even more so, others votes that should be equal with theirs - not more or less weighty, equal.