ROBERT WEISSMAN
‘…And a couple of those cases had to do with a lawsuit you all have covered extensively, which had to do with ExxonMobil’s operation in Indonesia and villagers in Aceh suing for really horrible human rights abuses conducted by the Indonesian military on behalf of Exxon. Judge Kavanaugh ruled in two separate cases regarding that, first saying, “Look, if the government says—the U.S. government says there’s a foreign policy consideration here, case closed. We’re not even going to look at it.” Secondly, getting actually to the legal question presented by a different set of villagers about the same matter, he said they should have no right to sue in U.S. courts, first, because the abuses occurred overseas, but, secondly and crucially, he said that the relevant statute, which is known as the Alien Tort Statute, doesn’t apply to corporations, that you can sue human beings under the Alien Tort Statute, but you can’t sue corporations.
So, corporations, it turns out, aren’t always people. They’re not people for Judge Kavanaugh when they might be held liable. And if you look across his record, you see, time and time again, this theme that comes through: There is one standard that applies to corporations, and it is very favorable, and there’s a different standard that applies to human beings as they’re trying to get their rights recognized, either as consumers, workers, breathers of clean air or victims of human rights abuses…’
Full interview and transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2018/9/5/report_finds_judge_kavanaugh_ruled_against
Brett Kavanaugh's record on human rights
Opinions from Judge Brett Kavanaugh's time on the U.S. Court of Appeals suggests he side human rights and police abuse cases on the U.S. Court of Appeals suggests h http://ow.ly/ZSD530lHmrC
Publiée par Democracy Now! sur Mercredi 5 septembre 2018
Nike’s NFL Deal – Nike makes money from all sides
While Colin Kaepernick was 'taking the knee', Nike negotiated an 8 year contract withe NFL, then turned around months later to negotiate another contract with him using his political stance against the NFL. Amazing.
/jd
‘….The two brands announced on Tuesday that they would be extending their partnership for another eight years. The new deal will take place when the current one expires in 2020 and will run through 2028.
As part of the deal, Nike will set up all 32 teams with game-day uniforms and sideline apparel that bears the swoosh logo [….] Financial details of the NFL deal weren’t released…’
https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/27/news/companies/nike-nfl-gear-contract/index.html
check out Ray Serrato's data analysis of how searching for #Chemnitz on Youtube results in a feedback loop of bias-confirmation that drives people to Alt-Right racist/fascist videos. Quite disturbing, I think. /jd
3. When I sorted these videos by view count, an unsettling trend emerged: most of the highly-viewed videos were from the perspective of the Alt-Right and its subgroups of conspirators, white nationalists, media like RT Deutsch, and other fringe right figures. pic.twitter.com/ET4qfJh4vz
— Ray Serrato (@raymserrato) September 2, 2018
Read the entire twitter thread: https://twitter.com/raymserrato/status/1036349167394795527
Free speech determined by AI? I feel safer, already
/jd
‘…Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. Congress that artificial intelligence would solve the problem of accurately tracking hate speech in 5 to 10 years…’
by Ray Serrato and Michael Meyer-Resende work for Democracy Reporting International
Oh those colonial laws...
'...157-year-old colonial-era law which criminalises certain sexual acts as "unnatural offences"...'
‘In a historic decision, India’s Supreme Court has ruled that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence.
The ruling overturns a 2013 judgement that upheld a colonial-era law, known as section 377, under which gay sex is categorised as an “unnatural offence”.
The court has now ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a fundamental violation of rights.
[….] What is section 377?
It is a 157-year-old colonial-era law which criminalises certain sexual acts as “unnatural offences” that are punishable by a 10-year jail term…’
more at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45429664
India decriminalises gay sex in landmark verdict
‘…Neighbouring China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997 and with this landmark ruling in India, a majority of Asians now will not face criminal charges for their sexual identities. [….] “LGBTI communities in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are also working to repeal similar remnants of British colonisation in their own country and the ruling from India will feed into more dialogues, at least among LGBTI civil society across these countries,” she added. Homosexual acts are still illegal in most of India’s neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh…’
re: Kaepernick & Democrats in 2018
Book Review by Danny Haiphong:
The Einstein File Exposes the FBI as an Enemy of All the People
‘…The book The Einstein File’ further shows that the world’s most famous scientist was a social democrat whose specific experience with anti-Semitism in Germany and anti-communism in the US greatly influenced his political strivings. Einstein vocally rejected communism but that didn’t matter to the FBI. Einstein never leaked nuclear secrets to the Soviets not only because he disagreed with Soviet policy but also because it was the US intelligence apparatus itself that prevented Einstein from participating in the Manhattan Project (and he certainly opposed the use of the atomic bomb after witnessing the horrors inflicted on Japan). Einstein declined an invitation to the Soviet Union when many other leftists in the US visited the country. Yet by the end of his life, Einstein was the target of charges of espionage and efforts on the part of the INS to deport him from the country for his alleged ties to communism.
Einstein faced such an assault from the FBI precisely because of his strong adherence to the principle of solidarity…’
read more: https://blackagendareport.com/review-einstein-file-exposes-fbi-enemy-all-people
also see: http://www.theeinsteinfile.com/portal/alias__Einstein/lang__en-US/tabid__3339/default.aspx