Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

Christian nationalism

Around 2/3 of white "evangelical" Christians support "Christian nationalism," which means that they wish to impose Christianity on the US and make non-Christians second-class citizens.

Over 1/4 of them state that they want an authoritarian leader "who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right."

I imagine the Christian Republic of America as resembling the Islamic Republic of Iran, with similar repression directed against people who reject imposed rules for clothing, similar repression and torture of protesters, and similar execution of protesters.

Renewable energy to become biggest electricity source

The International Energy Agency says that renewable generation will become the biggest source of electricity by 2025.

This will indicate important progress, but it is not actually a crucial target. Our survival target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a point lower than the rate at which they disappear from the atmosphere. That entails eliminating most fossil fuels from land, sea and air transportation, and greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, agriculture, and construction.

The half-measures, such as nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, and "blue hydrogen" are not useful for this; they are at best distractions.

Once we reach the survival target, it would be wise to go further and reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Planting trees could do that, provided the trees survive and thrive. However, given plentiful renewable electricity, using that to capture carbon dioxide and convert it into durable goods could be worth doing.

Twitter bias

Republicans in Congress held a hearing about supposed collusion of Twitter with the FBI to censor the story about Hunter Biden's laptop. They did not find evidence of this, but they went on claiming they had.

They did find some evidence that the corrupter pressured Twitter to overlook his own violations of Twitter's rules.

Pelosi pushing for plutocratist

Pelosi is pushing Biden to nominate a plutocratist former congresscritter to be Secretary of Labor.

Masks are better than the alternative

*No one wants masks [for the sake of wearing masks], but we still need them to keep Covid at bay.*

British banks will end lending for oil and gas

One of the big British banks will end lending for oil and gas extraction.

Arsenic in air

*Arsenic found in London air raises fears over use of waste wood as fuel.*

Propaganda in schools

Florida schools are still allowed to teach about the Rosewood massacre, in which just about a whole town of blacks was massacred, but they are now forbidden to use the term "reparations" to describe the money that the survivors eventually received.

Shell directors sued

Activist investors have sued the directors of Shell for failing to redirect the company's operations vigorously away from fossil fuels.

It seems to me that this lawsuit is based on speculation presented as objective truth.

If the lawsuit accused Shell of putting human civilization in danger, that would be easy to demonstrate. If it accused Shell of intentionally covering this up, then provided Shell (like Exxon) privately did research decades ago which demonstrated this, that too would be easy to demonstrate.

If civilization does collapse, the investors will lose everything. But I think that is too far away to prove as a certainty by the standards of courts.

Manuel Páez

The thugs killed forest protector Manuel Páez, but the resulting outrage has drawn many others to oppose to building the thug training center in place of the forest he was defending.

Spying on brainwaves

*A world in which your boss spies on your brainwaves? That future is near.* Employers use many systems to snoop on workers and their physical and mental state; these would essentially robotize most people.

A safety device that measures brain waves could be acceptable in some limit circumstances: if it is illegal to use that sensor's output for anything other than safety. and provided that if the safety system says you can't do your work, you should get a day of sick leave that day.

The existing "bossware" should be prohibited too.

Right-wing antiabortion argument

The arguments that right-wing antiabortion fanatics will use with a favorable judge in seeking to ban mifepristone, and counterarguments that the FDA will use.

Blocking incoming sunlight

Scientists have proposed another method of blocking a fraction of incoming sunlight from the Earth.

Like all methods of doing this, this one would depend on humans to continue running the geoengineering system; if we ever stopped, the suppressed heating would return soon.

And all such methods would fail to stop the ocean acidification that results from having more CO2 in the air. That itself would cause disaster.

Thug puts knee on girl's neck

A Kenosha thug put his knee on a girl's neck. She was not killed, but was injured. Her family is suing.

Brazil driving illegal miners from Yanomami lands

*Brazil launches operation to drive illegal miners from Yanomami lands.*

To drive them away permanently is harder than it might seem. They will keep coming back, attracted by the profits.

Rights abuses and extremism

*Human rights abuses committed by security forces and economic deprivation are among the most important drivers of recruitment to extremist groups in Africa.*

ChatGPT-written article full of errors

AOA magazine tried using ChatGPT to write an article to publish. The result was an article full of errors.

A machine learning imitation system such as ChatGPT could not avoid those errors because it has no understanding of any subject. It does not know what testosterone is, or what it does in male or female bodies. It does not know the meaning of "low blood <whatever>".

Use of the term "content" for articles will not teach people to have more appreciation or respect for them. By adopting that misguided fashion, the article encourages what it criticizes.

Wagner group no longer finding convicts who will fight for them

The Wagner mercenary group is no longer finding many convicts who will agree to fight for Wagner.

Perhaps they have figured out that their odds of surviving Wagner are low.

Deporting to Mexico

Biden is considering a change in how the US treats migrants that cross the border with Mexico. Instead of telling each to wait months or years in Mexico for the US to consider per case, he wants to deport them permanently and immediately to Mexico without ever hearing their cases.

This is another instance of imitating Australia's cruelty.

Discrimination and external responsibilities

What makes it harder for black Americans to get college degrees than for whites? A survey reports it is because of discrimination and external responsibilities.

It also says that they are gouged by for-profit colleges. Many of them defraud their students.

Warheads for attacking infrastructure

The Iranian drones that the Putin forces fire against Ukrainian power plants have warheads optimized for attacking power plants, not for attacking armored vehicles.

Ohio thugs attack TV reporter

Ohio thugs ordered a TV reporter to leave a press conference, then escalated the dispute to the point of knocking him down. Then they filed charges against him.

(Satire) Family gun

(satire) *Mom Sick Of Reminding Lazy Teenager To Reload Family Gun After Shooting Sprees.*

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.

ChatGPT's privacy violations

Arguing that ChatGPT violates the privacy of everyone whose writing was used in training it.

The article seems to presume that it knows, in each use, who is using it. If that is true, that is definitely a grave violation of privacy. ChatGPT is an example of SaaSS (Service as a Software Substitute), and that is always an unjust way to make computing capabilities available.

Arif Sayed Faisal

Thugs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, (where I used to live) shot and killed a student, Arif Sayed Faisal. The thug department refuses to say which thugs were involved and has given out little information.

The city's thug commissioner said that there was a city policy not to release names of thugs who kill. At the next city council meeting, the mayor asked the commissioner whether that was true, and the commissioner admitted it wasn't.

Various officials admitted they wanted to delay so that public outrage would die down.

I've decided to add "officer-involved shooting" to my antiglossary.

Bogus Johnson party inquiry reopened

There are accusations that Bogus Johnson's staff conspired to lie to protect Johnson from being punished for violating Covid-19 rules limiting parties, and falsified evidence, back when he was the prime minister.

I think the UK's restrictions were too rigid and repressive. It was right to stop dangerous gatherings, but there is no reason to prosecute ordinary people for having participated in them.

However, it is intolerable for the head of the government to scheme to lie about breaking the rules himself.

AidAccess

Americans can get abortion pills with the help AidAccess.

There is a danger that a current court case will block the use of mail order to get mifepristone. For your own sake and your friends' sake, get some now, just in case.

Utah and gov IDs for signing up to platforms

Utah is considering a bill that would require people to show government ID to sign up for platforms where people can post things.

Tories want to deport anyone that arrives in boats

Some Tories want to deport automatically any refugee that arrives in Britain in small boat, even children fleeing from danger.

Imagine this policy in the 1930s, being applied to Jewish children from Germany -- those who in fact were saved by the Kindertransport.