Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

Further weakening of Voting Rights Act

A US court further weakened the Voting Rights Act by ruling in favor of a mass challenge of 36,000 voters, based on an algorithm with no attempt to investigate those individual voters.

This is a practice right-wing parties use to suppress minority voters. People whose lives are stressful may just give up. The purpose of the Voting Rights Act, passed in the 1960s, was to block voter suppression, but right-wing judges have ruled for weakened interpretations that negate the law's purpose.

Republicans know that the only way they can win power in the US is by rigging the electoral system. Voter-suppression is one approach; gerrymandering is the other.

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Pastor charged for opening church to homeless

*Ohio Pastor Charged for Opening Church to Homeless People in Freezing Weather.*

Hospitality to poor, homeless people is at the basis of Christianity. I do not hold with Christianity in general, but I do admire that part of it. Many Christians, by contrast, disdain that part.

People have noted the irony of seeing Christians worshiping an ancient homeless refugee family and being so cruel to refugees and homeless people today.

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Gaza civilians report torture

Gaza civilians arrested by the Israeli army report torture. Then they may be released far from their families with no way to rejoin them.

Both the place they are released, and the place where the relatives are, may be in danger of bombardment, and likewise the route between them.

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Unprepared for changes from global heating

Australia (and the rest of the world) are unprepared for the global consequences of the changes global heating will cause in Antarctica. And not putting much effect into figuring out what those changes or their consequences will be.

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Germans protesting German fascist party

Germans are protesting against the new German fascist party, recently revealed as such.

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Bugs in Fujitsu software

900 UK post office branch managers were accused and convicted of stealing funds from the branch's accounts, the grounds being that their records did not match what the Fujitsu software said. The software's reports were incorrect because of bugs.

We now know that Fujitsu staff knew about these bugs at the time of he prosecutions, and tried to inform the courts about them, but management of the Post Office altered their witness statements.

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Unlimited right to abortion

Arguing for the unlimited right for anyone who is pregnant to have an abortion, at no cost, — with no exceptions.

Future people, not yet born, are entitled to certain things in case they are born: namely, a livable world to be born into, and a free and compassionate society to be part of. But that does not impose an obligation to bring someone into that world.

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Thugs crashed car into a gay bar

St Louis thugs crashed a car into a gay bar, then bullied and arrested the bar's owner. This while concealing video evidence of what happened.

Biden must press Israel to end occupation

Biden must press Israel to agree to recognize the state of Palestine and end the occupation.

Since Netanyahu says that "The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends," Biden must likewise be capable of saying no to America's traditional friends.

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Israel in context of European settler colonialism

Seeing Israel in the context of European settler colonialism: it partly fits, and at the same time it doesn't.

The other colonial powers were looking mainly for profit and power, not for survival against murderous persecution. Morally that changes some things, but not everything: it does not entitle Zionists to oppress Palestinians, let alone to commit massive and repeated atrocities.

Keep in mind that colonization is not limited to European countries. Ancient empires practiced colonization — Rome, for instance. Nowadays, China is practicing settler colonialism in Tibet, and Indonesia in its half of New Guinea.

India's treatment of Muslims under its system of Hindu nationalism is not "colonization' in a territorial sense, but it has much in common.

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Limitarianism

*"No one should have more than [$10 million]": the author of</a> Limitarianism on why the super-rich need to level down radically.*

An absolute limit on any person's wealth is roughly equivalent to a 100% marginal tax rate on income beyond a certain point. A 93% tax rate would give similar results, and we know it is feasible and works. So I think we should try that instead.

To fully implement that 93% marginal tax rate entails eliminating the deductions and manipulations currently used by the rich to shelter much of their wealth and income from it.

Shika nuclear power plant earthquake

An earthquake destroyed roads near the Shika nuclear power plant in Japan, trapping 400 people within the evacuation zone. Fortunately the plant was idle and there was no leak.

Deepfake election sabotage

Election sabotage in New Hampshire: a deepfake audio call pretended to be Biden telling people to stay home rather than vote for him in the state's Democratic primary.

Printing "subscription"

HP's CEO admits that the company wants to make printing a "subscription".

I am concerned about malware in printers. That includes malware inserted by third parties, and malware inserted by the printer manufacturer. Any software designed to snoop on, restrict or interfere with the user is malware.

One way to block malware from affecting anything outside the printer is to put the printer on a separate ethernet which talks only to a special computer which won't allow it to communicate with anything else.

Drones

With plentiful drones, neither Ukraine nor the Putin forces can advance along the front. A breakthrough is impossible.

I am puzzled that the Putin forces don't attack again across the frontier.

Disinformation

Fossil fuel companies' disinformation in US public schools.

Babri Masjid

Modi has celebrated the partial construction of a Hindu temple where the Babri Masjid used to stand, treating it as a symbolic defeat of Islam.

Former Indian governments tried to promote interreligious peace and tolerance. No longer. Modi's party (BJP) has used religious hostility to boost its power, much as American fascists do. Now it wants to make Hinduism the de facto official religion, and oppress others.

In the past, some Muslim rulers repressed Buddhism generally, as did some Hindu rulers. Some historians maintain that the Dalits of today are the descendants of people who were Buddhists. In recent decades, Dalits have faced forcible opposition from Hindu fanatics when they try to hold ceremonies to convert to Buddhism.

California State University strike

Workers at the California State University will go on strike on all 23 campuses, demanding a raise.

Keep in mind that the cause of inflation a year ago was not the raises for some workers, it was intentional gouging that business did (and still do) because they can get away with it. And they could get away with it because of the insufficiency of competition, which is due to the failure to properly enforce antitrust law since Reagan's days.

Palestinian rights

US courts have rejected a demand to equate Palestinians' rights with "support for terrorism". However. strong lobbying muscle is pressuring for private organizations to make this false equation.

UK breaks fossil fuel promise

The Tories plan a massive expansion of extracting oil and fossil gas from the North Sea, violating the commitment to phase out fossil fuels.

Measles

Anti-vax propaganda and other factors are spreading measles in countries where it had become rare. The WHO warns that measles occasionally causes lifelong disability, or death.

One of the factors is difficulty in arranging for babies to get vaccinated.