Saturday, November 18, 2023

News roundup, 18 Nov 2023

- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling higher than any third-party candidate in three decades. Whether this support will last, and whether it will take more votes away from Trump or from Biden, remains to be seen. Potentially, California Governor Gavin Newsom could find himself regretting his decision to overrule the parole board in the case of Sirhan Sirhan. Or not; time will tell. Note, though, that even if Kennedy takes more support from Trump than from Biden it could still end up helping Trump; if Kennedy wins enough electoral votes that no candidate has a majority in the Electoral College, there will be contingent elections in which the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the VP. The consequences would be unpredictable and possibly dangerous; perhaps the worst situation would be one in which the House chooses Biden and the Senate chooses Trump's running mate; it could create just the wrong sort of incentive for the MAGA crowd. 

- In Colorado, another attempt to bar Trump from the ballot for the state's Republican primary has been defeated in the courts. The decision is being appealed. Note, though, that this may not be a bad thing. If Trump is kept off the ballot in some states and not others, the aforementioned contingent election could occur.

- The Manitoba Tories are trying to avoid the kerfuffle that overshadowed their last leadership race, which led to a lawsuit by Shelly Glover to challenge the outcome.

- One of the "two Michaels", Michael Spavor, is alleging that his fellow prisoner, Michael Kovrig, actually was a spy and that his own arrest resulted from his having innocently provided Kovrig with information. He is suing the federal government over the matter.

- Two UN-run schools in Gaza, which were being used as emergency shelters, were bombed by the Israelis, with nearly 200 confirmed dead so far.

- After Media Matters for America found that antisemitic posts on the former Twitter were appearing next to ads from major corporations, and Elon Musk himself expressed approval of one such post, many of those corporations withdrew their ads. Musk is now threatening to sue the Media Matters and others.

- Romana Didulo and her followers have moved out of the school they were occupying in Richmound, Saskatchewan. They haven't gone far; a landowner in the nearby RM of Fox Valley gave them permission to set up on unused farmland. Perhaps some benevolent individual should buy them all one way tickets to Georgetown and let nature take its course.

- David McBride, the whistleblower who revealed war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, has pleaded guilty to leaking classified information to the media. He made the plea after evidence he hoped to use in his defense was suppressed by the court on national security grounds.

- The offer to allow residents of Tuvalu to resettle in Australia is being welcomed by many Tuvuluans, but not all. Some note that the country's most vulnerable citizens might lack the means to emigrate. Others fear (quite understandably) that this will be the death of their culture, though I think that ship is pretty much committed to sail anyway. The highest point in the entire country is less than five metres above the present sea level.

- SpaceX's latest product may not be ready for prime time yet.

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