Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
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Monday, October 30th, 2023
| Time |
Event |
| 9:20a |
Civilian casualty figures for Gaza
Israel and its allies question the civilian casualty figures for Gaza,
claiming that HAMAS exaggerates the number of casualties caused by
Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Others argue for trusting those figures
on the grounds that there are ways to cross-check the details so that
falsifying the totals would not be feasible.
Does this question make a crucial difference? I don't think so. Even
if the number of Gazan civilians killed by Israel's bombardment were
only 4,000 instead of the 7,000 reported by the HAMAS-run Gaza medical
system, it would still be mass murder and a war crime.
The fact that HAMAS committed mass murder first doesn't excuse Israel
for committing mass murder second.
| | 9:20a |
Order to end Republican gerrymandering in Georgia
A court decision has ordered an end to Republican gerrymandering in Georgia.
This will leave Republicans in control of the state, because they do
have more voters there, but will make a difference in the House of
Representatives. Also, it could deny Republicans a supermajority in
the state senate.
| | 9:20a |
| | 9:20a |
Lubbock, Texas law to persecute for helping get abortion
Lubbock, Texas, is the latest county to pass a law to persecute people who
help others get an abortion.
This law employs a dodge designed to nullify the applicability of
constitutional rights: instead of prosecuting whoever committed an
"offense", it authorizes various people to sue that person as if
they had been somehow harmed by per, in the absence of any actual harm
to them. This amounts to a kind of private persecution.
In effect, the dodge creates a notional pretend "harm" which anyone
(even strangers) can then sue for.
If this dodge is allowed to stand, it would put all constitutional
rights in danger, because it would allow governments to declare
exceptions to them at will. If we want the idea of constitutional
rights to mean anything, we must make this dodge invalid in general.
| | 9:20a |
| | 9:20a |
Gaza's water network obliterated
* Gaza’s already rudimentary water network has been obliterated, with
2.2 million residents trying to get by on three litres a day.*
Israel has imposed shortages of water on Palestinians in both Gaza
and the West Bank.
The shortages in the West Bank did not endanger human health and life
directly but they denied Palestinians the possibility of farming.
| | 9:20a |
Tennessee mayoral candidate who refused to disavow neo-Nazis
*Tennessee voters reject mayoral candidate who refused to disavow neo-Nazis.*
This will encourage Republicans to hesitate before openly endorsing
prejudice and mass murder. That doesn't mean we are out of the woods:
not all will learn from this lesson, and those who do may employ
"dog whistles" instead. But it's a step forward anyway.
| | 9:20a |
GM Cruise self-driving cars in California
California has suspended the permit for Criuse cars to operate without
a driver after a peculiar accident in which the car's computer reacted
unsafely.
I am glad that California agencies are watching out for the public's
physical safety from driverless cars. However, there is no sign that
they will adequately protect the privacy of people in the vicinity of
these cars. That includes the passengers who ride in driverless
taxis, and the passers-by whose faces are imaged by them and perhaps
subsequently subject to facial recognition.
Driverless cars should not be allowed to operate until they can operate
without contributing to the societal danger of massive surveillance.
</a> | | 9:20a |
Microphones on devices
As tech companies add microphones to a wide range of products,
including refrigerators and motor vehicles, they also set up
transcription farms where human employees listen to what people
say to the devices and tweak the recognition algorithms.
| | 9:20a |
| | 9:20a |
Deserters from Putin forces
Deserters from the Putin forces, having found temporary refuge in Armenia,
speak out to encourage other soldiers in the Putin forces to desert as well.
They were helped by an organization dedicated to helping Putin
forces soldiers to desert.
It takes courage to escape from an army that boasts of being ready to
shoot anyone who retreats. Countries that support Ukraine should help
those who do escape from the Putin forces, so as to encourage more.
| | 9:20a |
Pressure on officials to vote for "chatcontrol"
The European Commission semi-secretly bought ads on Ex-Twitter to pressure
officials to vote for the repressive plan to force encrypted messaging programs
to monitor and report the unencrypted messages.
This plan is called "chatcontrol".
EU voters, please pressure your MEPs to oppose chatcontrol!
| | 9:20a |
Congresscritters call to drop charges against Assange
A bipartisan group of congresscritters have written to two cabinet
ministers calling for dropping charged against Julian Assange.
Here's the text of the letter, so you can read it without running
nonfree Javascript code.
Dear President Biden,
As Members of Congress deeply committed to the principles of free speech
and freedom of the press, we write to strongly encourage your
Administration to withdraw the U.S. extradition request currently pending
against Australian publisher Julian Assange and halt all prosecutorial
proceedings against him as soon as possible.
Mr. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, faces multiple charges under the
Espionage Act due to his role in publishing classified documents about the
U.S. State Department, Guantanamo Bay, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He
has been detained on remand in London since 2019 and is pending extradition
to the U.S., having lost his appeal of the extradition order in the courts
of the United Kingdom.
Deep concerns about this case have been repeatedly expressed by
international media outlets, human rights and press freedom advocates, and
Members of Congress, among others. To cite only a few of the commentaries,
in November 2022, *The New York Times*, *The Guardian*, *Le Monde*, *DER
SPEIGEL* and *El País* came together to express their grave concerns
about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and
publishing classified materials, arguing that “publishing is not a crime.”
In December 2022, a coalition of press freedom, civil liberties, and
international human rights organizations wrote to Attorney General Merrick
Garland urging
him to correct course and abandon the relentless pursuit of Mr. Assange in
order to protect the ability of journalists to report freely on the United
States without fear of retribution. U.S. elected officials have previously
called on the Administration to drop the charges against Mr. Assange,
including in April of this year when Members of the House argued
that "[e]very day that the prosecution of Julian Assange continues is another
day that our own government needlessly undermines our own moral authority
abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at
home.”
We believe the Department of Justice acted correctly in 2013, during your
vice-presidency, when it declined to pursue charges against
Mr. Assange for publishing the classified documents because it recognized
that the prosecution would set a dangerous precedent. We note that the 1917
Espionage Act was ostensibly intended to punish and imprison government
employees and contractors for providing or selling state secrets to enemy
governments, not to punish journalists and whistleblowers for attempting to
inform the public about serious issues that some U.S. government officials
might prefer to keep secret. We are aware that the Assange case has been cited
by officials of the People’s Republic of China
to claim that the U.S. is “hypocritical” when it comes to its purported
support for media freedom. We are also well aware that should the U.S.
extradition and prosecution go forward, there is a significant risk that
our bilateral relationship with Australia will be badly damaged.
It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources, including documentary
evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of government.
The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks
criminalizing common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of
the free press. We urge you to ensure that this case be brought to a close
in as timely a manner as possible.
Sincerely,
James P. McGovern Thomas Massie
Member of Congress Member of Congress
| | 9:20a |
When for-profit company takes over local emergency room
*Here’s what happens [in the US] when a for-profit company takes over
your local emergency room.*
The author is a doctor who worked in an ER that was taken over.
All emergency medicine should be run by the state — for-profit companies
should not be allowed in that field.
As the Tories have demonstrated, it is not guaranteed that a
government will keep medicine working well. Especially if it is a
government of Tories (plutocratists) that seek to destroy the public
system and replace it with a privatize system that is as horrible as
the US privatize medicine system.
But we also know that government scan do this job well, for decades.
Whereas we can be absolutely certain that for-profit companies will
ruin it.
| | 9:20a |
DeMentis trying to eliminate Students for Justice in Palestine
Governor DeMentis is trying to forcibly eliminate chapters of Students
for Justice in Palestine in Florida's state universities.
That is unconstitutional, but DeMentis has no respect for the US
Constitution.
I might very well disagree with those groups about what outcome would
constitute justice in Palestine. I advocate the two-states solution,
with one of those two states being a democratic Israel. This would
require Israel to return much of the land it has seized or annexed.
Perhaps those student groups advocate something else that I would
disagree with.
Whatever it is, they have the right to advocate it, whether DeMentis
likes it or not, and whether I like it not.
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