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Michel Pilon

@mich42.bsky.social
376 followers 148 following 3 posts

He/him. Montreal

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Reposted by Michel Pilon
Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 12h
The Trump administration is pushing forward with sanctions against the ICC. A coalition of domestic political opposition and concerned foreign firms governments supporting the ICC is vital for future accountability against human rights abusers, including the Trump administration
foreignpolicy.com
Here’s What to Do About Trump’s War Crimes
Despite the obstacles, foreign governments and U.S. lawmakers can begin the process of holding the president accountable.
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Jill Sargent Russell, PhD @jsargentr.bsky.social · 13h
The US was not the state to try a speed run to autocracy without priming. It is too complex structurally, economically, and geographically for our paltry federal authority to be exercised effectively without the institutions.
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Johann Huntera @chattwjonathan.bsky.social · 18h
A friend from Houma Louisiana - way out in the bayou - used to say they prepped for hurricanes but rode them out. Until they made Category 3. At Cat 3 they left. They knew there would be no power for weeks, no schools and little else besides recovery.
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Johann Huntera @chattwjonathan.bsky.social · 18h
The modern disaster is not in direct death. It's no services. No electricity. No cell phones. No jobs and limited transportation. These things drag on weeks and months and in some cases years. It does not get the coverage of the winds and waves. How could it?
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12h
It's important to remember that the AI doom scenario assumes not only that intelligence is a single well-defined thing, but also that intelligence solves literally every single problem, and that in every conflict overwhelming intelligence always wins. This is just not how anything works.
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12h
I am smarter than a bear A bear would still murder me in a fight I am also smarter than an Ebola virus but that wouldn't help me too much if it infected me
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12h
Same thing goes for the AI utopia/accelerationist/singularity story, which is basically the same as the AI doom story. There are plenty of problems that don't yield to increased intelligence. A lack of intelligence is not why we have a climate crisis or no durable peace in the Middle East.
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12h
Intelligence is not a universal solvent. It doesn't fix everything. The people pushing these ideas only believe this is true because they desperately want it to be true. They want the world to be much, much simpler than it actually is. But we live in a complicated world, and that's a good thing.
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 12h
Anyhow, don't listen to me. Turn off your phone, step away from screens, go out into the complicated world and touch grass. It's pretty nice out here.
Rocks, trees, grass, and bright mountains, with wispy clouds overhead.
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Gail Helt @gailhelt.bsky.social · 12h
So army regulation 190-55 states clearly that no recording device may be present at an execution, and no person under age 18 may witness it. The constitution bans cruel and inhumane punishment. What Hegseth wants to do is clearly illegal. Bureau of Prisons ban public executions. 1/2
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Gail Helt @gailhelt.bsky.social · 12h
International law — which the US is a party to—bans it. See the intl covenant on civil and political rights, it bans degrading punishment, which public execution is widely assessed to be. See also the UN convention against torture, of which the US is a party. 2/2
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 11h
The French student protesters’ demands are clear: smaller class sizes, more teachers, and better classroom conditions. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
newyorker.com
The French Student Protesters’ Demands Are Extremely Clear
A growing movement has mobilized France’s youth against diminished school conditions and accumulating problems—and provided, for its detractors, a pretext for blaming the country’s ills on febrile adolescents.
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 15h
NEW: The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement firmly condemning plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan. Archbishop Paul Coakley calls the decision “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.” www.usccb.org/news/2026/us...
United States
Conference of
Catholic Bishops
READINGS
WASHINGTON - Yesterday, the U.S.
Department of War announced that the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the man convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, would be publicly livestreamed. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement sharply condemning the decision of the U.S. government:
"It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War's decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hassan. Our God is the God of life. In no way can Hassan's actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered. The word of God exhorts us: 'do not repay anyone evil for evil' (Romans 12:17). The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.United States
Conference of
Catholic Bishops
READINGS
"It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War's decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hassan. Our God is the God of life. In no way can Hassan's actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered. The word of God exhorts us: 'do not repay anyone evil for evil' (Romans 12:17). The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.
"I pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel that we as a nation may always choose life even in the most trying times and circumstances."
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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 9h
Full story — with additional condemnation from the National Association of Evangelicals — here: religionnews.com/2026/10/09/h...
religionnews.com
Catholic, evangelical leaders condemn public execution plans as promoting ‘a culture of death’
(RNS) — ‘The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people,’ Archbishop Paul S. Coakle...
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Steve @stevetsra.bsky.social · 13h
While all eyes are understandably on Isaias, a much rarer event is possible in San Diego where a tropical storm may make landfall on Sunday. This almost never happens because waters are usually too cold to support tropical activity near SoCal, but strong El Niño+global warming says otherwise.
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Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 11h
The Toddler-in-Chief throws another tantrum. "But I started a war! Why don't I get the Peace Prize?"
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 14h
Shared some thoughts on the Trump administration’s boat strikes: “In the absence of an armed conflict,” Finucane said, “the term for premeditated killing is generally murder.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to … the Opposite of Trump
The world is watching a split screen: In one panel, humanity sees jurists such as Navi Pillay of South Africa, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize for her decades of struggling for international law, i...
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Anu @nofirstorder.bsky.social · 15h
What's actually shameful is shooting into a car with a 5yr old inside and then calling a press conference to brag about it.
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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word
ALT: Princess Bride: You Keep Using That Word
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 11h
The plane suddenly listed 30 degrees to the right for a few seconds so that was exciting
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 11h
I think twelfth-richest person is the ideal level of rich. Cuz like, your wealth is still functionally infinite but one away from one away of the top ten is just obscure enough not to draw aggro.
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Dom Ervolina @dominicervolina.com · 15h
So a bunch of guys in plainclothes surrounded a man in a car and shot him, then the government disappeared him and refuses to release any information about his condition or whereabouts
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 15h
Again, you (& I) live in a country where there are concentration camps & people are being disappeared. We can argue about what exactly to call this particular form of partially autocratic political regime, but it’s not a full democracy.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10h
Update: basically the last person onto my connecting flight
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Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 10h
We’ve noticed! We’ve all noticed!!!!
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10h
Actually they did this on my flight and people were nice and actually stayed in their seats while those us with tight connections ran off the plane
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 12h
Boy it would really nice to be able to fucking leave the airport once one is on the plane
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 11h
The plane lands when my connecting flight begins to board which means I'll be off the plane just in time for my connection to close its doors, air travel is magical
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 12h
New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854
Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 12h
A real welfare state and universal health care require broad taxation, including the middle class. But high end wealth taxation is the kind of tax that protects democracy and the rule of law, and prevents aristocratic dynasties. It keeps us human.
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The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 10h
David Climenhaga: “It’s no surprise the Most Hated Man on Earth thinks that Canada should be busted up and sold for scrap. But it does clear the air to have it right out there, don’t you think?” thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...
thetyee.ca
Elon Musk Makes It Clear He Hates Canada | The Tyee
Good to know. Add his separatist urgings to all the other horse manure he extrudes.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 09/10/2026
I am angry tonight. Because tonight ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his five year old child was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.
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Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 10h
Also, Trump, his appointees, & gop officials have been hectoring anyone & everyone for weeks that the reason diesel is so expensive is that Ukraine has destroyed Russia’s refining capacity. If that were true, where is Putin going to get this diesel he’s selling to Trump?
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Ambassador Ken Fairfax (ret) @portlandken.bsky.social · 10h
Trump's plan to disrupt the election is already underway, with troops standing menacingly at a DC ballot drop box. Under 18 U.S. Code § 592, it is illegal for armed troops to be "at any place where a general or special election is held," yet there they are.
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Brittlestar @brittlestar.com · 10h
GUY WHO THINKS HIS RESTAURANT WILL BE DIFFERENT ON KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 14h
honestly the thing that I find most galling about all this is the massive overlap between people trying to apply human rights models to computer programs and those arguing that some categories of humans -whether by race, category, or caste- don't have them.
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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 14h
mfers will would rather argue that your computer program has feelings than accept that the same is true of a Black person, and try to construct a worldview where turning off a computer program is murder while a lynching isn't.
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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 14h
"What if the computer has feelings" ask the people who write the code used to blow up Palestinian families and Iranian school children, to strip millions of people of their health care, to help the modern-day Gestapo put our immigrant neighbors in concentration camps. Yeah, what if.
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More like I-ACK @mumbly-joe.bsky.social · 13h
reducing Black and Brown children and families to dots on a screen of zero consequence while also saying that some other dots on the screen, the ones that are powering the murders of the aforementioned, might have souls and feelings meaning the real crime against humanity would mean not using them
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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 9h
We are sanctioning the ICC because we are a country that commits war crimes. We are buying diesel from Russia to fund Putin’s war machine because we are a country that likes *other* countries that commit war crimes.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 10h
Temu Karoline Leavitt is going to absolutely suck at this job and I can’t wait to see how bad it is
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Covie @covie93.bsky.social · 12h
So a book with two gay penguins will traumatize kids but a public execution wouldn't???
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 9h
President Trump was denied the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, and the voting took place BEFORE he live-streamed a military execution. How can anyone deny the system is rigged against him? by Hugh Hewitt
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 9h
I converted to Catholicism six weeks before running for office. Here’s what the pope gets wrong about live-streamed executions.
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Richard Kadrey @richardkadrey.bsky.social · 9h
This is exactly why I, and many other writers, have added "no AI" clauses to our contracts.
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 9h
NYT: "Russia is escalating its campaign of sabotage in NATO countries, trying to break European support for Kyiv. Internally, the debate among European officials, they said, is whether and how to retaliate by taking the fight to Russia."
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 9h
2/ Link:
nyti.ms
As Putin Wages Shadow War, Europe Looks for a Way to Hit Back
Moscow has used tactics of fear and ambiguity to try to divide NATO and limit support for Ukraine. But how should Europe retaliate? And how hard?
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 9h
3/ And MAGA-GOP Congress members are silent.
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 9h
4/
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@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 9h
5/ Full statement
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