Political Notes and News Items

November 24, 2024

Turkish Currency Crisis Analysis

Current investigation into counterfeit $50 notes crisis:

NASA’s Psyche Mission Update

November 22, 2024

Ukraine’s Long-Range Missiles

It is not clear whether Ukraine’s use of long-range US missiles will make a big difference to the outcome of the war.

Biden has authorized them only in relation to the Kursk salient. It would make sense to use them in whatever ways would most impair Putin’s war effort.

Misogyny in Schools

Teenage boys in the US are now venting misogyny in school. Girls in one school have noticed this and are wondering what can be done about it.

An idea occurs to me: the girls in a school could set up a web site where they anonymously rate the boys on how misogynist they are in everyday interactions in school. (It would not be focused on dating or anything like dating.) They could tell the boys were to look at the ratings, but not give them accounts to alter anything in the site.

The “Palestine Exception”

From Campus to the Courts, the “Palestine Exception” Rules University Crackdowns.

I looked at the article for which Dahlia Saba and Vignesh Ramachandran were accused and threatened with punishment. It is democratic participation, pure and simple, and trying to punish people for that is vicious opposition to democracy. For a university administration even to consider such intimidation shows a lack of respect for democracy and academic freedom.

I expect this repression to get far worse when America’s highest officials are overt enemies of democracy, acting on administrators who have no sense of loyalty to freedom of speech. Others expect it too.

Iranian Plot Investigation

Canada reportedly foils Iranian plot to kill former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who was campaigning to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps designated as “terrorist”.

I can well believe that it merits that determination, but such decisions should be made by trial, not by administrative fiat.