Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

Moderna gouging US government on vaccines

The US government spent $31.9 billion on mRNA vaccines, including research, and buying millions of doses. Despite this, Moderna gouges the US government on vaccines and Biden lets it.

However, the reason that other companies should be allowed to make these vaccines is deeper than that. Live-saving medicines should never be monopolies.

Call on EPA to test East Palestine soil

Calling on the EPA to test soil for dioxins in and around the town of East Palestine, where the vinyl chloride derailment occurred.

Futile to treat UK poor people well

Starmer says it is futile to aim to make the UK treat poor people once again as well as it did before the Tories got into power.

Jewish groups call to bar Israeli Finance Minister from entering U.S.

Jewish peace groups called on the Biden administration to bar Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich from entering the U.S.

Smotrich calls for wiping out the Arab town where the recent pogrom took place.

The statement describes that as "genocide", but that is an exaggeration. When he did was to advocate an atrocity. I think that is a sufficient reason to refuse to admit him to the US — we don't need to exaggerate it, no need to weaken the term "genocide".

Progressives called on Biden not to make Indo-Pacific "trade deal"

Progressives called on Biden not to make the proposed Indo-Pacific "trade deal" a business-supremacy treaty.

It is good news that negotiations have rejected having an ISDS clause like the ones that do so much injustice on other business-supremacy treaties.

Biden to veto pernicious bill

Biden is expected to veto a pernicious bill that would prohibit retirement investment plans from taking account of probable future investment losses likely to be caused by environmental damage, and whether the company respects the well being of workers and customers.

Plutocratist politicians apparently want to steer us into investing in dishonest companies, even those that are on course to kill us in a few decades.

Quantifying growth of autocracy around the world

Quantifying the growth of autocracy around the world: 72% of humans now live under autocratic regimes. Only 13% live in liberal democracies which respect, more or less, human rights.

Russian torture centres were not "random"

* Evidence collected from Kherson … shows Russian torture centres were not "random" but instead planned and directly financed by the Russian state, according to a team of Ukrainian and international lawyers headed by a UK barrister.*

Judge finds Starbucks guilty of union busting

A federal judge found Starbucks guilty of systematic illegal union busting, and ordered Starbucks too undo numerous actions.

I expect that Starbucks will appeal, refuse, appeal, refuse, and so on. It can afford to pay lawyers to do this forever. We need to give the NLRB enough power to give big companies big punishments for spitting on workers' rights.

President of Mexico undermining election authority

AMLO, the president of Mexico, seems to be trying to undermine the election authority. Mexicans fear this is a scheme to bring back the rigging of elections, which was standard practice until after 2000.

Iran ready to refine uranium for atomic bombs

Iran is basically ready to refine uranium sufficiently to make atomic bombs.

We can thank the bullshitter for canceling the non-nuclear deal with Iran, followed by Biden who gave low priority to restoring the deal.

Gratis contraceptive products

British Columbia will provide gratis prescriptions of various contraceptive products to female residents. I fully support this policy.

It is amusing how the article struggles to describe which residents the offer applies to. It faced a struggle because it has accepted a limited version of English in which there are no words for an individual's physiological sex, only words for gender. Contraception knows nothing of gender roles; it is concerned only with physiological sex.

The article does not entirely succeed in specifying who the offer is meant for. Does the offer include all transpeople (even trans-women)? Does it include all people who identify as non-binary? My guess is no, because that would be absurd in practice, but I can't be entirely sure. Maybe trans-women will be offered female contraception that they don't have a natural way to use.

No Russian "energy weapon"

The US government says there is no Russian "energy weapon" that could make embassy staff sick.

There are energy weapons — for instance, the laser that a Chinese warship pointed at a Philippine supply ship — but when those are used there is little doubt.

Valuable data on supermarket customers

How US supermarkets collect lots of valuable data about customers.

They can track you if

You use a frequent buyer card which identifies you.
You identify yourself to the store's web site.
You carry a snoop-phone with the store's app.

I don't do any of those things, so I think I am safe, but I can't be entirely sure.

How Lobbyists lobotomized NY's Right to Repair law

*On How Tech Lobbyists Lobotomized NY’s Right To Repair Law With Governor Kathy Hochul’s Help.*

Hochul seems to be quite a plutocratist; she tried to put a right-wing judge on the state supreme court, and Democrats rejected the nominee.

Unidentified malady possibly from glyphosate exposure

A neurologist has found patients suffering from some unidentified malady and suspects it is due to exposure to glyphosate.

There is also evidence that glyphosate in farm runoff water is causing toxic algae blooms in the ocean and even in reservoirs.

Protection of Ouse river

People living near the River Ouse in England want to protect it from pollution. That's a good thing to do, but their method is based on a philosophical absurdity: to assert that the river itself is a person and has rights.

Giving corporations the same rights as people has worked out badly. Attempts to give fetuses the same rights as people causes grave injustice.

I forecast that the attempt to treat rivers as if they were people will cause no end of bad consequences as people (and as well as corporations, fetuses and rivers) deduce other absurdities from that absurd premise.

Furthermore, the more entities that are not people are treated by our legal system as if they were people, the harder it will be to stop treating corporations as if they were people.

Russian torture centers were not "random"

* Evidence collected from Kherson … shows Russian torture centers were not "random" but instead planned and directly financed by the Russian state, according to a team of Ukrainian and international lawyers headed by a UK barrister.*

Forever chemicals found at high levels across UK and Europe

*Pollutants known as "forever chemicals"… have been found at high levels at thousands of sites across the UK and Europe,*

Ideal candidate blocked, UK

Starmer's systematic ban on leftist candidates rejected the only plausible candate. In response, the whole of the local Labour Party organization has resigned in protest.

OSHA at Amazon

OSHA is investigating the high accident rate at Amazon warehouses.

You can reduce it by boycotting Amazon as I do.

High-containment lab accidents

Lab accidents that can cause leaks are more common than politicians suppose. Whatever may have happened with SARS-CoV-2, we need to take care to avoid some future leak that could start a pandemic.

We also need to take care to avoid future contact with wild animals that could start a pandemic. I disagree therefore with the article's final sentence. Given that both dangers are real, which one actually happened in 2019 makes little difference.

Urgent: Tax wealth

US citizens: call on Congress not to continue the tax cuts for the wealthy that were adopted under the corrupter.

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!

Urgent: New amendment to the US constitution

US citizens: organize to support the constitutional amendment to deny human rights to corporations.

This is complementary to the Democracy for All amendment, now reintroduced in Congress. That would reestablish the power to regulate campaign contributions by rich human beings as well as by corporations. But the idea that corporations are entitled to human rights does harm in many areas. We need to erase that too.