China has recruited 18 million people to post "positive energy"; that is, support the government's propaganda line.

Reporters Without Borders criticizes the decision to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

I agree that it is not good to boost China and other tyrannical countries with Olympic games. The ironic thing is that the Olympic Games impose tyranny, and the places they do the least harm are in countries that are already tyrannical, such as China. The sort of repression that games impose already pervades China. The debt they leave behind won't make much as difference there.

Until the games are reformed, we must protect still-somewhat-free cities from them.

Meanwhile, Beijing already has the large facilities needed. It is more efficient to reuse them than build new ones somewhere else.

US politicians have admitted that money rules elections since before 1900.

California cities have made great strides in conservation, but the real question is whether their water use is less than the rainfall available nowadays. If California literally runs out of water, it can cut off irrigation, but cutting off cities would mean disaster.

Even el Niño won't cure California's drought.

NSA Tries to Blame Privacy Advocates for Keeping Americans' Telephone Records.