Logan Act

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government’s position.

‘The Insider’ is an independent media outlet originally from Russia. It is banned there, though, labelled by the Kremlin as ‘foreign agent’, which is why it’s headquatered in Latvia now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Insider_(website)

(Edit typo.)

@Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org @Fapper_McFapper@lemm.ee

It seems it doesn’t work without whataboutism here.

I thought it’s a typo :-)

There is a lot wrong with Amazon, and I don’t buy there, but as far as I know they never sold toxic stuff (although I wouldn’t be surprised whatever happens in the future, but that’s a different story). One thing this tells us is that China is not the way to go. It’s the worst outcome of so-called neo-liberal capitalism within an authoriatarian political system.

Unfortunately I know nothing about Quebec, but there apoear to be some coops in the retail sector. A quick web search revealed this: https://grocerystory.coop/food-co-op-directory

United Auto Workers (UAW) endorses Vice President Harris in the upcoming presidential election, citing ‘track record’ with workers

"Our job in this election is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Kamala Harris to build on her proven track record of delivering for the working class,” [United Auto Workers (UAW) Shawn] Fain said […]

“We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris, who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed,” Fain added.

Fain and Trump have sparred publicly for months. Trump called for Fain to be fired during his speech at the Republican National Convention, and the UAW hit back on the social platform X, calling the former president “a scab and a billionaire.”

Last week, Fain praised Harris for walking the picket line with UAW workers in 2019, saying Trump, who was in office at the time, “sure as hell wasn’t on the picket line.”

I don’t know where you live, but is it discouraged there? Would you and your community be able to start a cooperative?

Ukrainian troops now up to 30km inside Russia, Moscow says

Yes, I am surprised too. Let’s see how this develops :-)

Yeah, I’m not in the position to provide advice what they should do, but I guess there is a need to change the way how political campaigns are funded as the article also suggests.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but very often when a terrible incident like this one in Iraq or in any other non-Western country is posted, then anyone comments about the U.S., Europe, or anywhere in ‘the West’, and then a thread develops about how bad things are in Michigan, Illinois, and other Western areas. And this always goes in one direction.

So don’t get me wrong, I don’t say that Western democracies are a perfect world (their democracies are indeed under threat), but this is a weird observation. But maybe I’m mistaken.

In the video, Lawrence O’Donnell argues that there is some sort of ‘kid-glove treatment’ (that’s my word) for Trump. He doesn’t answer reporters’ questions in that his statements doesn’t reflect what they have asked, even if it’s a simple yes-no question.

Trump is ignoring questions by default, and he does that in a very weird way. A typical Trump ‘answer’ is completley unrelated to the question, and often doesn’t make sense at all. However, the reporters seem to accept that.

At the same time, however, they criticize Biden/Harris and now Harris/Walz of not responding adequately to media questions, although they do.

The video is really worth everyone’s time, but the content has nothing to do with the issues raised so far on this thread.

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between real news and The Onion. When I read the headline I was unsure for a moment 🤔😅

Michigan’s Secretary of State has launched an investigation into Musk’s pro-Trump PAC and how he is funding efforts to redirect voters in swing states away from official voter registration sites, while leaving them with the false impression that they have registered to vote, and collects a host of private information, as per CNBC.

Noteworthy that it is not entirely clear whether state law currently prohibits such misdirection and voter suppression.

Here is the link to CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/04/elon-musk-pac-investigated-michigan.html

Very satisfied to say that I’ve never been there.

Elon Musk and other tech executives are funding a social media ad blitz to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump

If a voter in Michigan performs a search on Google, a somewhat shocking ad might pop up.

The ad shows a young man lying in bed late at night when someone else texts him, “Hey you need to vote,” and then sends the man a video of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The man can hear the gunshots and people screaming in the background.

As Trump is rushed off stage with blood pouring down his face, the man watching the video types in response, “This is out of control. How do I start?”

The ad then displays a website for a group called America PAC.

The website says it will help the viewer register to vote. But once a user clicks “Register to Vote,” the experience he or she will have can be very different, depending on where they live.

If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they’ll be prompted to enter their email addresses and ZIP code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign-up section.

But for users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.

If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a “thank you” page.

So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.

[…]

True. I’d have just one edit to whole story:

“The fact is, that if you make a good climate story, people will want to read it.”

These are simulations. Simulations don’t predict the future, they help to create and evaluate options, and thus support decision making under conditions of uncertainty. It is usually good if you create worst and best case scenarios, no matter how probable or improbable some issues and details may seem.

China’s Belt and Road creates an attractive system for -and is likely aimed at- autocratic regimes, especially since it does not impose conditions of loosening state controls on the corporate sector and reducing clientelism. There is evidence that between 2014 and 2019, almost 80% of total Chinese infrastructure investing worldwide went to autocracies (or to countries with ‘semi-competitive’ elections). Beijing has no interest in democratic reforms in its partner countries, and this might be one major reason why the CCP supports Maduro.