Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
 
[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View]

Sunday, May 28th, 2023

    Time Event
    3:47a
    Upcoming talk, June 5

    On Monday, June 5th, RMS will give a talk, "Digital Freedom and Digital Privacy", in Rende, Italy, in the Great Hall at the University of Calabria.

    The talk will follow a roundtable, "Relating Language Models, Future Artificial Intelligence, Massive Data Collection, Open Source, and Free (Libre) Software":
    Moderator: Giovambattista Ianni, Professor of Computer Science Participants:
    Vincenzo Bruno, Founder of Coopyleft
    Ines Crispini, Steering Board of the Italian Society for AI Ethics
    Stefano De Carlo, Board of Hacklab
    Gianluigi Greco, President of the Italian Assoc. for Artificial Intelligence
    Antonello Mantuano, Senior director of Cerved S.p.A.
    Giuseppe Rossi, Director of Unical's ICT Services
    Domenico Talia, Professor of Information Processing Systems

    Both are in English.

    2:32p
    Brics summit and Putin

    How Putin could be prosecuted for the crime of aggressive war.

    Regime change in Russia would probably be a change for the better, but it would be foolish to insist on that if it interferes with reaching a just peace to end the war. We should allow Putin to remain in power in Russia if he agrees to release all of Ukraine's territory.

    2:32p
    Anti-Putin movement

    Some Russians claim to have started an anti-Putin armed guerrilla movement operating in Russian territory.

    However, they seem to have entered Russia across the Ukrainian border, and to have picked up some US-made arms in Ukraine. So far they have attacked only government targets.

    In moral terms, I think what they are doing is admirable. Their actions could help Ukraine win the war, but I think it will be difficult to increase them enough to have a significant effect.

    Putin could theoretically cite this as an excuse for attacking Ukraine in some new ways. But I don't think that makes any difference. Putin never needs a real excuse for any atrocity — he invents all the bogus excuses he needs.

    2:32p
    Voter entrapment, FL

    Florida officials systematically entrap convicts into registering to vote and then voting. Then they get prosecuted for "voter fraud".

    2:32p
    Elections disinformation, UK and US

    *Elections in UK and US at risk from [neural-network-generated] disinformation, say experts.*

    To refer to these systems as "artificial intelligence" spreads confusion, so I don't call them that. Please join me in that refusal.

    2:32p
    Public land for housing, UK

    Starmer has proposed a real, significant change: to build millions of housing units under government direction, to avoid a massive give-away to the rich.

    2:32p
    Splinternet, RU

    *You Should Not Trust Russia’s New "Trusted Root [certification authority for https]".*

    2:32p
    Sec. of [oil] Transportation

    Buttigieg is going all-out to push for oil drilling in the Uinta basin of the Colorado Plateau, and to transport the oil long distances by train alongside the Colorado River.

    He is also planning to approve tax breaks for building the line for these trains, so the owners can get a subsidy to prepare to poison the water of a large region of the US.

    There is no room in the carbon budget for developing any new oil fields, no matter where the oil might be sent or how.

    2:32p
    NHS privatization strategy

    *It's a horribly effective [Tory] ploy: under invest in the health service, then encourage patients to blame staff for any failures.*

    2:32p
    Protest-repression, AU

    South Australia has passed repressive laws against protests that might inconvenience others, and one of the politicians who voted for it says, "be grateful we won't cut your head off."

    The protests that the state wanted to prevent were going to be against planet roaster companies that already kill people by the hundreds of thousands, and are working on raising that to hundreds of millions.

    2:47p
    Urgent: Direct more pay to workers and less to CEOs

    US citizens: call on Biden to use federal spending rules to direct more pay to workers and less to CEOs.

    The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.

    If you phone, please spread the word!

    2:47p
    Urgent: Avoid benefits outage

    US citizens: if your congresscritter is a Republican, phone per at 1-833-964-2935 to call for raising taxes on the rich rather than cutting the benefits that non-rich Americans (even those with jobs) depend on. You could add, "Don't threaten to make the US default."

    2:47p
    Urgent: Expand the Supreme Court

    US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court.

    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!

    10:17p
    GOP on Rollback of IRS Funding

    What do Republicans want most? To make sure rich people have a low tax rate.

    10:17p
    last spotted owl in Canada fights for survival

    Cutting down old-growth forests has wiped out spotted owls in Canada. Only one owl is remains in the wild in Canada.

    10:17p
    Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for public trials

    *Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for trials to be held in public.*

    Secret trials are an indication of tyranny. China's political trials are all secret.

    Australia sometimes does it too.

    10:17p
    (satire) Target Removes All Towels From Stores

    (satire) *Target Removes All Towels From Stores After Soaking-Wet Lunatic Objects To Dryness.*

    10:17p
    US family demands officer be charged for shooting 11-year-old

    *Mississippi family demands officer be charged for shooting 11-year-old.*

    11:02p
    Florida groups warn of danger from ‘dictator’ DeSantis

    Americans, what DeMentis is doing to Florida shows what he would do to the whole US if he becomes president.

    He has pioneered new sorts of bullying that go beyond the corrupter.

    DeMentis aims do more than defeat opposition; he seeks to punish those that dared to oppose him.

    I do not judge laws and government policies mainly based on whether they induce big companies such as Disney to move work to my state or my country. But I see, in DeMentis's efforts to punish Disney, a plan for the sort of fascism that makes opposition too dangerous.

    11:02p
    those injured by 2020’s police violence speak out

    Thugs around the US violently attacked protesters and journalists at the rallies for George Floyd in 2020. Some of those shot with "nonlethal" weapons and left with irreparable injuries.

    Have the thugs that refused to give Evans any help getting to the hospital been punished for that?

    Have the thugs that encircled and besieged protesters

    been punished for that?

    11:02p
    Look at what hedge funds really do

    The myth of Capitalism is that investors take risks with their money, so they deserve a big profit when the risk succeeds. I can go along with this to a point: we can't let the investors keep most of the wealth that a business produces — most has to go to workers and to the state.

    Nowadays, private equity fund managers and similar "investors" have obtained plutocratist laws which assure them of profits even from failure.

    This problem stems from another foolish general practice: the US has more or less given up on penalizing companies that do harm. Instead, the proposal is always to subsidize businesses that say they won't do the harm.

    And governments don't even bother to insist that the business do what it was subsidized for.

    11:02p
    the contentious tool US immigration uses to get your data

    The US immigration thug agency uses sites such as YouTube as well as Facebook and Twitter to find all users who seem to be interested in matters concerning immigration.

    It is clear that some of these subpoenas investigate people who are not by any stretch of the imagination engaged in planning crimes. These are nothing like the Proud Boys.

    The only way to deal with this problem is not to let those sites collect personal data on people for watching anything, unless there is a subpoena to collect data on those who visit a particular channel or page.

    << Previous Day 2023/05/28
    [Calendar]
    Next Day >>

Richard Stallman's Political Notes   About LJ.Rossia.org