Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

Breaking away from right-wing Christianity

A journalist describes how she learned to break away from right-wing Christianity, and how she copes with the resulting breach with her family.

Bill to limit insulin price defeated

Republicans defeated the bill to limit the price of insulin.

California's approach, manufacturing insulin to compete with the giants, may work better. Forcing the established companies to tolerate more competitors could work too.

My proposed giant-splitting and competition-boosting tax scheme could do it also.

New concepts of shooting

*An Accused War Criminal Trained Florida [Thugs] in "New Concepts of Shooting."*

EU countries helping France

EU countries are helping France fight large wildfires.

Of course, they ought to help each other. But that won't be enough in 20 years when they all face large wildfires at once.

Waves and shore erosion

The interaction between waves and shore is a complex system; a sea wall can prevent erosion at one point while exacerbating it elsewhere in the region. Scientists are developing permeable obstacles that slow down the ocean waves, to protect shore and land from erosion.

These measures can be effective against erosion, but not against inundation. Therefore, they are temporary expedients, presuming that we curb global heating and prevent the coming inundation.

Inland wetlands can buffer against floods and drought (and therefore also against fire).

I am skeptical of the "biodiversity net gain" requirement. Constructing a new wetland is surely not as simple as it sounds, so it is likely that businesses will often follow the rules but produce no real new wetland. If a development has destroyed an old wetland and failed to create a new one, what does the government do?

FBI raid for secret documents nobody was allowed to take

The FBI raid on the corrupter's home was looking for secret documents that nobody was allowed to take home, and it found quite a few.

Atmospheric rivers

California could experience a series of atmospheric rivers that would add up to an enormous flood, that could flood millions of people's homes.

As global heating continues, the likelihood of such a flood will increase.

Web site tracking

The Markup investigated 80,000 popular web sites and reports on how much they snoop on users. Almost 70,000 had third-party trackers. 5,000 fingerprinted the browser to identify users. 12,000 recorded the user's mouse clicks and movements.

Company urges Australia to forget climate defense target

A natural gas company urged Australia to forget its climate defense target so that the company can drill.

Oklahoma governor harassing

The anti-anti-racist Republican governor of Oklahoma is harassing the Tulsa city school department. One thing she did was label it as "deficient" for allegedly showing a video that shamed white students for being white, which is prohibited now.

The school department replied that the video (1) didn't try to shame anyone alive today and (2) was shown before that law was adopted anyway.

Republicans have made it standard practice to stretch laws and twist facts. With a little private pressure and harassment on the side, they can hope to win a victory for injustice.

Cheniere Energy's greenwashing

A report examines the specific way Cheniere Energy's greenwashing bends the facts about the methane it trades in.

US amusement parks and exclusion

In the 20th century, many US amusement parks practiced excluded blacks, in some cases violently. This was not only in the south; it occurred even in New York City.

Nowadays, black customers face hostility from staff at some amusement parks, as at Sesame Place. With so many racists in the US, that is going to happen randomly. But is it more than that? It could be that that particular park has a habit of bigotry among its staff.

Leondra Taylor fired for cartoon

Delta Airlines fired Leondra Taylor for posting a cartoon showing the corrupter with a Ku Klux Klan hood. The company called this cartoon "disrespectful, hateful or discriminatory", which is quite a distortion. Taylor is suing.

(Satire) Mar-A-Lago

(satire) *FBI Sent Itemized Bill For 12-Hour Stay At Mar-A-Lago.*

If an Onion page appears blank, try disabling JavaScript entirely or telling LibreJS to blacklist all scripts in the page, then right-click and select item "Reveal hidden HTML". Or use a browser such as lynx that doesn't implement JavaScript and CSS.

UK torture and murder investigation blocked and suppressed

The UK used torture and murder systematically in the 1950s to fight the Mau Mau movement in Kenya. Then it blocked and suppressed an investigation into this.

*"You often hear people say in Britain that it was acceptable by the standards of the time. And I think documents like this really illustrate that, no, people at the time knew this was wrong as well."*

Arizona thugs attack parents

Thugs at an Arizona school, which they had "locked down", attacked parents who were trying to get their children.

Sending daughters to get education

Some Taliban officials sneakily send their daughters outside of Afghanistan to get an education.

Court interference

A senior Hungarian judge condemns the government's interference with courts.

Protest in Kabul

Women protested again in Kabul, chanting "bread, work and freedom." Taliban thugs hit them with rifle butts.

Disapproval for those who call for retreating

As we remember the death threat Ayatollah Khomeini made against Salman Rushdie, we should also show our disapproval to those who call for retreating in the face of bullies that try to ban books.

Nowadays, Muslim extremists are not the only group that tries to bully people into banning books. For the sake of freedom of thought, we need to resist all such campaigns.

President Gustavo Petro's inaugural address

Here is the inaugural address of Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia.

How abortion rights won in Kansas

*The strategy that worked in Kansas [for defending abortion rights] — countering misinformation, building a broad coalition — offers lessons for [other states].*

Australia holds people without conviction

Australia holds hundreds of people in prison without a conviction for any crime, and has no statistics about why, or how many.

Mail-in ballots

An activist campaigning against voter fraud in Wisconsin ordered mail-in ballots for other people, found it was easy to do, then went public.

It would be wrong to file charges against the activist. He did not try to vote using those ballots. But what should the state do instead?

In effect, he tried to demonstrate that the state doesn't have much security against this sort of fraud. Apparently that is true. Is that a real problem?

If people actually use this "security hole" for fraud, I think it is a real problem and the state should fix it.

On the other hand, if nobody really does this, maybe the system is not really broken and there is no need to fix it.

Marine heat waves

The Mediterranean Sea ecosystems are threatened by marine heat waves.

Sars-Cov-2 entered humans in the Wuhan wild animal market

A team of scientists concludes that Sars-Cov-2 almost certainly entered humans in the wild animal market in Wuhan.

I think the question of how the virus started infecting humans is interesting, but not morally important. Its importance is only to affect precisely what we might learn about how to prevent future epidemics.

It could be that we already know the crucial lessons for preventing pandemics from starting from wild animals, and for preventing pandemics from starting from lab leaks, and all we need not is to put them into practice. Regardless of which path this virus followed, we know both dangers exist.

FBI office attacked

One of the wrecker's Jan 6 coup mob attacked an FBI office with guns, and was eventually shot dead.

I expect the wrecker and his followers to praise the gunman.

Inflation reduction act

*Four Key Climate Questions About the Inflation Reduction Act.*

Stock buyback tax

The new 1% tax on stock buybacks will make those corporations pay a little more tax. That is a step forward.

It also sets a precedent: if we can tax them 1% today, we can tax them 25% next year. If we keep raising that, eventually the percentage will get big enough to discourage buybacks.

Need to fight censorship

The attack on Salman Rushdie demonstrates the need to fight censorship from any and all directions.

See my article about Hrant Dink, who was ready to fight censorship from all directions.