The UN Human Rights Council rebuked China for torturing human rights activists into false confessions.

The Chinese state will not heed this rebuke, but it may do something to weaken Chinese influence.

The Tories' stingy new welfare system forces poor people to choose at the end of the month -- food or rent?

Whichever one they choose, Tories have an opportunity to lecture them for failing to do the impossible, in effect blaming them for the poverty that the system imposes on them.

It's not wrong to steal food if you are hungry, or your children are hungry. Not wrong in the slightest. But it is a shame to punch the garage wall in anger. The garage isn't responsible for the injustice. Punching a Tory official would be more to the point.

Amazon makes a practice of gaining public subsidies for itself to the detriment of local competitors. Now it is making suckers out of city governments by inviting them to compete to offer the biggest subsidy for its new headquarters.

This demonstrates in the most explicit possible fashion what I've said for years: when cities compete to offer subsidies to business, business wins and cities lose.

We should not allow cities or states to compete with offers of subsidies.

China says it is developing a face recognition system with which it will be able to recognize everyone on the street.

"Free" countries are moving towards the same thing, and it would be just as repressive here.

We need to organize to oppose massive surveillance, which is more dangerous than terrorists.

Wireless Carriers Again Busted Collecting, Selling User Data Without Consent Or Opt Out Tools.

I don't think we should accept "consent" as an excuse for massive surveillance. It is easy to pressure nearly all users into giving "consent". We must insist that systems be designed not to surveil.