Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

Indonesia plans political and sexual repression

Indonesia plans political and sexual repression: it will be a crime to (1) insult the president, the state, or the official ideology or (2) have sex (except for married couples).

Reportedly Islamists are behind this attack on freedom in Indonesia.

British government has become incompetent

The British government has become simply incompetent. They summon people to court by mistake, after reporting judgments against them by mistake, after failing to notify them at all.

Arguments against "KOSA" bill

Here is a set of narrow arguments against the "KOSA" bill that is supposed to protect "children's" privacy, but will instead deny the privacy of all internet services.

I agree with the arguments in general, but I need to state these points of disagreement.

It is wrong to classify designate teenagers as children. We need to give teenagers more freedom and agency, not less.
The Edtech programs and dis-services that children, and teenagers, typically use in school is typically snooping malware. These programs are a real part of what students of any age deserve to be protected from.
Snooping on adults is unjust, too.
Please do not refer to postings, communications, stories, art, etc. as "content". That disparages all of them.

Campaigners demand deep cuts to plastic production

*Campaigners Demand Deep Cuts to Plastic Production as Global Treaty Negotiations Ramp Up.*

Police unit for focusing on deterring environmental crimes

*President Lula da Silva wants to establish a new Federal Police unit focused on deterring environmental crimes.*

Climate protester sentenced to over a year in prison

Australia has sentenced a climate protester to over a year in prison for blocking one lane of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

US should pressure Israel into nuclear disarmament

The US should pressure Israel to agree to nuclear disarmament. Maybe Iran and Israel would agree to nuclear disarmament together.

Ecosystems more immediately threatened by human activities

Curbing global heating will not save our planet's ecosystems. They are threatened more immediately by other human activities including deforestation, overgrazing, overfishing, desertification, and soil degradation.

A relationship does exist: global heating will eventually destroy many ecosystems, if they survive that long. But we have to curb the other environmental threats, too.

Having fewer children will help reduce all those forms of excessive human impact, all at once. And will free up your effort to work on the other problems.

Biggest food corporations make big profits and warn of price rises

*World's biggest food [corporations] made £20bn in profits — while warning of price rises to come.*

Australia investigating slave labor use in building of renewable power systems

Australia is investigating the use of slave labor in building its renewable power systems.

"Grassroots" nuclear power survey linked to US nuclear reactor industry

*[The right-wing Australian government's] "grassroots" nuclear power survey linked to consulting firm [working for US nuclear reactor industry].*

Should we call this a "public-private partnership for profit"?

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is a strong plutocratist

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Pelosi's successor as leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, is a strong and firm plutocratist, who supports a few progressive positions so people won't recognize how plutocratist he is.

Perhaps in your eyes the fact that he is black and Muslim makes his election to that position something to celebrate. In my eyes, he's just another plutocratist congresscritter that we should try to replace with a progressive.

Leaving EU is big reason for increased food prices in UK

An economist official at Bank of England says that leaving the EU has a large share of responsibility for the increase in food prices in the UK.

Crooks abuse ease of UK registrar of corporations

The UK's registrar of corporations was "reformed" to make it cheap, quick and easy to create a corporation. Crooks started many fraudulent corporations and used them to steal and hide millions.

Republicans barely won control of the House

Republicans just barely won control of the House of Representatives, and they did it because of the right-wing partisans that Republicans put on the Supreme Court.

San Antonio thug that shot Erik Cantu faces attempted murder charges

The San Antonio thug who shot at Erik Cantu 10 times and maimed him faces charges of attempted murder.

The increased willingness to prosecute thugs for violent crimes even if the victim does not die will help control cop crime.

Woman gets three years prison for selling fake immunization cards

*A woman who sold fake COVID-19 immunization cards gets three years in Federal prison.*

There is no market any more for fake vaccination records, but one more naturopathic "doctor" taken off the streets is likely to make the public safer.

NIH set up site for voluntarily reporting results of Covid-19 at-home test

NIH has set up a web site for reporting the results of your at-home Covid-19 test, if you wish. It is a good idea, but you should not use the site as currently implemented, because it requires you to run nonfree Javascript code. What a shame.

Small reforms in rules for Minnesota thug department

Minnesota is considering small reforms in rules for thug departments to better control their predilection to bully people, brutalize people from time to time, and associate with racists, Nazis and insurrectionist organizations. The thugs' unions are pushing back hard.

More information.

Call on Costco to protect the boreal forest

Everyone: call on Costco to commit to protecting the boreal forest.

Call on Congress to work towards world free of nuclear weapons

US citizens: call on Congress to work towards a world that is free of nuclear weapons. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.

If you phone, please spread the word!

Arizona

*Rural Arizona county certifies midterm results after judge orders vote.*

The county supervisors voted to certify the results they had because refusing was illegal.

They presented no grounds to refuse to certify the results, but we can determine what their motives were: The country's vote had voted majority Democratic, and the Republican election officials figured that they could steal some statewide elections by (in effect) discarding all the votes from their own county.

A large fraction of Republicans are traitors at heart, and seek opportunities to steal any election that they lose. If imprisonment is required to thwart their treachery, prison it should be.

Mosques attacked

The Hinduismists that rule India are attacking hundreds of old mosques by fabricating claims that the buildings are former Hindu temples which were seized centuries ago and converted into mosques. In most cases there is no real evidence that this ever happened. But such is the fanaticism and contempt for truth on the part of the ruling BJP and its supporters that they disregard evidence. The track record of repression and pogroms suggests they are hoping this gives them an excuse to kill some Muslims.

Historians who know about the history of these sites face threats to shut them up. The threats range from firing them to murdering them.

Abortions across state lines

*The pilots flying passengers across US state lines for abortions.*

Macron business-supremacy treaties

Macron threatens to invoke business-supremacy treaties to stop the US from carrying out its insufficient but helpful greenhouse gas reduction plans. Environmental activists protest this when Macron was visiting the White House.

Will French activists protest this too? I hope so?

Business-supremacy treaties are fundamentally unjust because they elevate trade over democracy. Businesses had too much power already, and these treaties gave them even more.

Biden imposes no paid sick days for railroad workers

Biden joined Congress to impose on railroad workers the contract that the railroads had proposed -- with no paid sick days.

*Biden Urged to Sign Executive Order Guaranteeing Rail Workers Paid Sick Leave.*

These same railroads commit safety violations repeatedly, and get fined over and over, but they do not correct the dangers.

(satire) *Biden Signs Legislation To Avert Crisis Of Treating Rail Workers Like Humans.*
(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.)

(Satire) Lesser known nazis

(satire) *Right-Wingers Criticize Kanye For Not Using Platform To Raise Awareness Of Lesser-Known Nazis.*

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.

Elnaz Rekabi

Elnaz Rekabi participated in an international sports competition without wearing the required head-covering. Her family's home was then demolished.

If the Iranian state did this, then ironically it joins Israel in the practice of punishing an entire family for one person's infraction.

UN and plastic

*"Turn Off the Tap on Plastic," UN Chief Declares Amid Debate Over New Global Treaty.*

I think it is crucial to stop the production of plastic products which are fundamentally difficult to recycle -- for instance, different materials joined together.

Thugs charged for reckless endangerment

Five Connecticut prison thugs face charges of reckless endangerment for transporting Richard Cox in a van without a seat belt and thus breaking his neck.

Shouldn't they be charged with gross bodily harm, too?

Urgent: Help families

US citizens: call on Congress to help families, not give tax cuts to corporations.

Iran strike

*Iranian protesters call for three-day strike as pressure on regime builds.*

I would not be so quick to conclude that the repressive regime will fall soon. Repressive regimes have faced very strong protests and stayed in power.

UN war crimes resolution

The UN is considering a resolution to prosecute Putin and other high officials for systematic war crimes by the Putin forces.

They deserve prosecution, but I think it would be a mistake to demand they surrender to prosecution. That would be, in effect, a decision to pursue regime change as a war goal.

That decision would have bad consequences for Ukraine, for the kidnapped Ukrainians, and for the Russian people as well. If Putin yields up all of Ukraine's territory, and returns the kidnapped Ukrainians, he will have had a defeat, not a victory. Those war aims are enough. If Putin is willing to give those, we should offer him peace.

To demand more than that would give him more reason to keep fighting instead of making peace.

The wrecker is an enemy of US democracy and freedom

Two weeks ago, The wrecker publicly associated with a white nationalist and a Nazi, and thus took a clear stand against justice and equal rights.

Since then, he called for abolishing the US Constitution, and thus revealed himself indisputably as an enemy of US democracy and freedom.

Perhaps other Republican leaders, such as Governor Dementis, are less hostile to justice, equal rights, democracy and freedom. But I tend to think they are simply more circumspect.

China drops zero-Covid policy

China has dropped the zero-Covid policy of trying, via tests and quarantines, to stamp out transmission.

It is to be celebrated that powerful protests can make China change rigid, harsh policies. But is this change the wise change to make?

My recommendation was to make the quarantine system less harsh and rigid, so people would not die or get badly sick from being in quarantine for a while.

Updates to "RMS lifestyle"

I have updated the page rms-lifestyle.html.

Updates to "How I do my computing"

I have updated the page stallman-computing.html.

The politics of Brexit

I forecast years ago that leaving the EU could be beneficial if Corbyn were in charge, but would be harmful with Tories in charge. Sad to say, Britain did the latter and has been harmed. Leaving the EU created opportunities to change policies, laws and relationships — opportunities that Britain could use in various ways. Assuming that each party would use those opportunities to achieve its goals, the consequences were clear.