Leftists should resist the compulsion to blame the US for every problem in the world. A non-imperialist Russia had options for trying to keep Ukraine out of NATO without launching a war.

San Francisco's mayor wants to loosen the recently adopted restrictions on surveillance by city government. The thug department would be allowed to watch directly through surveillance cameras in areas which have seen certain kinds of crimes.

This exception would still keep limits on their surveillance, but the use of the exception needs to be monitored. Here are my suggestions:

• The times and places where they exercise this exception must be logged precisely, and the log must be published in full within 6 months.
• The number of people who appear in the videos for which the exception is invoked must be counted, and published, together with the number of people charged with a crime as a result of being watched in the video, and the number subject to a possible miscarriage of justice as a result.

The IPCC has now published its third report, the one on how to save civilization from global heating disaster.

*"Now or Never", if world is to stave off climate disaster.*

Here is a summary of the specifics.

Planet roasters' influence in IPCC was strong enough to make the organization delete the called-for denunciation of planet roasters.

Two bills being considered by the California senate would take significant steps to reduce massive surveillance. But they don't go half far enough.

S.B. 1189 requires that companies and organizations ask for "consent" before collecting biometrics. That will protect you in many situations, but not all, because it is easy for that entity to arrange for others to pressure you to consent. Those others could be employers, schools, or social groups. If it is the general practice for people to chat on Scroo'm, and Scroo'm won't let you use it unless you consent to its collection of biometrics, the pressure may feel irresistible to people in general.

The Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act (STTPPA) would take a substantial step forward in putting a limit the snooping that these prokto-programs do to students. But the limit in this bill would be vague, because it is easy for the company to argue that collecting your face image, your fingerprint, your voice print and your gait pattern is absolutely necessary. To assure real effect, the bill should set a standard that snoopers can't stretch.

In the event that some kinds of biometric snooping — or other snooping — become accepted, there should be limits on storing the data. Also, having your school testify to your identity, rather than letting the prokto-program's developer see your face, should be an option.

Simply requiring you to run that non-free program (perhaps developed only for Windows and MacOS) on your own computer is an unacceptable injustice, and we need to press the campaign until that is prohibited.

More generally, see https://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Discussing various ways Putin could be prosecuted for war crimes, or for the crime of aggression (starting a war without valid justification). All approaches face obstacles.

I read of an argument that Russia was never properly authorized as the successor of the Soviet Union's permanent membership in the Security Council. If Russia can be replaced there, it would unlock many things.

Dubya set the US on a policy of undermining and weakening the International Criminal Court. (Perhaps he feared being tried for the crime of aggression.) Will the US now give the ICC support?