News roundup, 20 Sept 2024

- Dozens of pagers and similar devices used by Hezbollah members have simultaneously exploded in two waves, killing over 30 people and injuring many more. Experts think this is a case of the Israelis playing the long game to get explosives into the supply chain for the devices; this may have been in the works for years. Gwynne Dyer has some ideas on the matter here.

- The fallout related to Mark Wasyliw's expulsion from the Manitoba NDP caucus continues. Caucus chair (and Riel MLA) Mike Moyes says that Wasyliw's conduct towards his colleagues and the premier shows a pattern of disrespect. Now if it's a longstanding issue, then the decision to expel Wasyliw may well have been correct - but in that case mentioning the tenuous Nygard connection, which has aroused the ire of law societies across the country, should have been avoided.

- Manitoba Hydro has plans to add 600 megawatts of wind power to the grid in cooperation with several First Nations and Metis governments. They are also trying to promote the use of heat pumps. The government concedes, however, that they won't be able to completely eliminate fossil fuels in the short term, though they want to make the power grid clean by 2035 and bring the entire province to net zero by 2050.

- Despite pulling out of the supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is not going to back the Cons' non-confidence motion, and neither is the Bloc Québécois. Not surprisingly, the Cons are enraged by this, and some of their brownshirts tried to confront Singh on Parliament Hill on Tuesday (the Cons deny any connection with them, of course).

- South Carolina is preparing to execute a man even after new evidence, including his co-defendant admitting to having lied about his presence during the trial, has come forth. I guess they can't risk admitting that they could be executing an innocent man, otherwise there might be questions about all the other people they've executed over the years.

- A Kentucky sheriff has been charged with fatally shooting a judge following a confrontation in the judge's chambers at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg. There have been no official statements about the motive so far, though there's some speculation here.

South Carolina requires "subversives" to register with the government

Seriously:

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State."

There's even a $5 filing fee.

By "subversive organization," the law means "every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State."

From Raw Story, via skidder in this iTulip thread. The curious thing is, they don't define "overthrowing" the government in the statute, which is a little worrisome to say the least. Obviously advocating violence to change the system would qualify, but what else? Would advocating substantial reform of the system (proportional representation, abolition of the Electoral College, etc) count? Would campaigning to defeat an incumbent governor count? Who decides such matters?

US Senator cites blacks as disadvantage for his state

Yikes:

"Throughout the nation there are going to be thousands more people enrolled in Medicaid and every state except one is going to have to come up with matching money," Graham remarks. "I have 12 percent unemployment in South Carolina. My state's on its knees. I have 31 percent African-American population in South Carolina."

Source (h/t jblaque). Perhaps he thinks that most of the other 69% of the state will approve. The sad thing is, he might be right; certainly most of his base won't be turned off by comments like that.