Prof. Sam LawlerSep 19, 2024
Tomorrow I've got an interview with the Financial Times and then the Wall Street Journal to talk about space junk and satellite pollution. So I guess maybe people with money are starting to notice that the commercial space race is a really really bad idea?
Show threadNicole ParsonsSep 19, 2024

@sundogplanets

The national security implications of satellites deliberately designed with obsolescence and radio frequency leakage, are worrying.

Musk has used his pre-eminence in the market to harm his competitors before.

His tweet in support of the convoy blockades in Canada in 2022 shut down his competitors Toyota & Ford.

It cost the Canadian economy billions in losses.

https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/small-demonstration-prompts-police-action-near-site-of-2022-bridge-blockade-1.6847630

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/us-auto-plants-face-shortages-shutdowns-layoffs-protesters-block-canada-bridge

https://tc.canada.ca/en/binder/16-economic-impact-blockades

Small demonstration prompts police action near site of 2022 bridge blockade

What proved to be handful of demonstrators were protesting the federal carbon tax over the noon hour in Windsor moved police to act and remind the public that blocking “critical economic infrastructure” is illegal.

Windsor
Show threadaltruios phasma

@Npars01 @sundogplanets

A protest is deemed good entirely based on its media darling status. If people are “protesting the wrong things” “too effectively” suddenly it’s not a protest but a coordinated attack…

I strongly disagree with what they are protesting… I think it’s hypocritical to condemn the right to protest based on the content.

Methodology is another argument. But honking horns isn’t violence, at best it’s noise pollution. Stopping trucks isn’t violence either.

My 2¢

Sep 19, 2024 at 1:47pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadNicole ParsonsSep 19, 2024

@altruios @sundogplanets

The convoys weren't non-violent. They were escalating towards violence.

Anti-vaxxers were supported by right wing churches & Koch anti-democracy groups like the JCCF for political reasons. They promoted protests that prolonged the pandemic, for partisan reasons.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/judge-says-men-convicted-in-coutts-blockade-were-ready-for-shootout-with-police

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-protesters-get-6-1-2-year-sentences-for-roles-in-coutts-border-blockade-1.7030399

Judge says men convicted in Coutts blockade were ready for shootout with police

Labrenz's decision echoed the Crown's submission that jurors believed the men were prepared to battle with police.

edmontonjournal
Show threadaltruios phasmaSep 19, 2024
@Npars01 @sundogplanets
I'm not defending shitty people. I defend the right to protest, as that's an important right: which can't be relegated to ineffectual sidelines everyone can ignore.
Being prepared for violence and violence are two different things. I can't know this, but I suspect the results would have been different in America than in Canada. Which is a + for Canadian police. American police would absolutely have started a blood bath. Being prepared isn't violence.
still: shitty people