Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
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Thursday, February 1st, 2024
| Time |
Event |
| 6:49a |
Immigrant-intent ethics, UK
A UK court ruled that
victims of trafficking and slavery
should be allowed to stay in the UK while their asylum claims were heard. Tory ministers
secretly decided to disregard that ruling.
To me it seems unjust to make
asylum seekers leave the country
they are asking for asylum in while their cases are decided. Especially by sending them
to a country which is unsafe (Rwanda) by means of a law saying that courts should
disregard that country's unsafeness.
| | 6:49a |
Tar-sands air finding, CAN
The local toxic air pollution released by tar sands oil extraction has
been
underestimated by a large factor
because of a flaw in the system used to measure it.
The article misuses the concept of percent; as a result, I can't tell
for sure what the factor might be. As best I can tell, the
factor of underestimation ranges from 18 to 62, but I can't be sure.
| | 6:49a |
Hope for Israelis
In 2008, Israel
and Palestine came very close to agreeing on peace and mutual recognition. The deal they
almost accepted then could be modified into a deal for today.
| | 12:19p |
Burmese army faltering
The military rulers of Burma have suffered major defeats; large
units have
surrendered.
| | 12:19p |
Apple app store maneuvers
Apple has announced a
plan for allowing other app stores
for the iMonsters, and it seems likely to exclude free (libre) software.
The problem is that users will have to pay a fee, and it sounds like
the redistributor will have to collect that fee — but there is no way
to do that without using nonfree software and insisting that users run it.
That is not certain, though. Depending on details, the problem may exist or not.
The operating system of the iMonsters is
full of nonfree software
(which is, as usual, malware). That is unfortunate and unjust, but
it's Apple's doing, not ours. Distributing free software that can run
on iMonsters would not make us culpable for what Apple does. If Apple
charges the user money to install our free programs, Apple would be
culpable for that too, but again we would not be.
If Apple requires whoever redistributes the code to pay a fee and
collect it from the users, participation in that would be odious, and
perhaps (depending on details) financially prohibitive, but supposing
it is possible it would not be culpable for us. This culpability would
naturally fall on Apple, along with all the rest.
However, if collecting that fee from the users requires us to ask the
user to run nonfree software — for instance, the nonfree JavaScript
code sent by Stripe for payment — we would be culpable for that.
There is no getting around this.
Compare with the Android situation. The site f-droid.org uses
free/libre programs which you can download and install with free
software. The Android/Linux operating system includes nonfree
software, and even malware, but that is not f-droid's doing nor that
of the developers of the free programs distributed there.
Why hasn't the EU required Apple to permit an Fdroid-like distributor
for free/libre software for iMonsters? It is because the EU directive
is based on the concept of more "competition" and not on "freedom for
users." In the competition framing, all people need is "more choices",
never mind if all of the choices are unjust.
| | 6:49p |
Biden's climate commitments
*Rampant Biden Administration Oil, Gas
Drilling Approvals Continue
to
Undermine U.S. Climate Commitments.*
No amount of renewable electric generation will avert global heating
disaster unless it leads to reducing total greenhouse gas emissions.
For civilization's survival,
that must be the goal.
| | 6:49p |
Bird flu, US farms
Bird flu is infecting some chicken farms in the US. When a farm is
infected, it will infect nearly
all the chickens,
and the government requires killing all the chickens to hinder spread to other farms.
If that were the only way the virus can spread, this would be an effective way to stop the
spread. But it may be useless while wild birds continue to spread the virus.
I wonder, therefore: if we let those chickens live, would a few of them, resistant to the
virus, survive and recover? Would that lead to resistant breeds?
| | 6:49p |
| | 6:49p |
Rebellions brewing, TX, USA
Governor Abbott of Texas has declared that he can disobey the federal
government in the name of Texas. He has also clearly echoed the
manifestos of the secessionists
of 1861.
The wrecker's supporters have been
preparing for rebellion
for over three years. They used violence on 6 Jan 2021, followed
shortly thereafter by threats of violence against senators and their
families. So I've been expecting an open confrontation sooner or later.
Better now than later!
The bullshitter's campaign strategy is to talk tough and defiant, giving the impression
that he is "stronger." Biden tends to try to avoid sharp confrontation, which plays into
the wrecker's hands.
Abbott's hint of secessionism gives Biden a chance to show that he is the stronger one.
For instance, he can federalize the Texas National Guard now, and order it to take down
the barbed wire it has helped place at the border.
That would provide an opportunity to discharge immediately any guard member who refuses to
obey that order. Showing that insurrectionists will not be tolerated will help keep the
guard loyal in any future rebellion, both by expelling the disloyal and by reminding the
loyal guard members of their duty to defend democracy against insurrection.
| | 6:49p |
UNRWA saddled upon
*Famine in Gaza
is being made ‘inevitable’ says UN rapporteur. Countries defunding UNRWA, the main aid
distributor in Gaza, are accused of collectively punishing more than 2.2 million Palestinians.*
| | 6:49p |
UN Gaza aid endangered
* António Guterres says loss of funding from US and [other countries],
[for humanitarian aid for Gaza], means aid into Gaza for whole of
this
month cannot be guaranteed.*
| | 6:49p |
Israel dossier on HAMAS in UNRWA
Israel accused 12 members
of the UNRWA staff of fighting for HAMAS or other terrorist groups. This is being used as
an excuse to cut off the aid to the Palestinians. Israel kept the information secret for
months until a time when it badly needed to distract public opinion from the war crimes
court's judgment
against Israel.
The UNRWA is a UN humanitarian aid agency, not intended as a police
force or peace keepers. It has 13,000 or so staff in Gaza,
99% of
whom are Palestinians from Gaza.
If 12 of them were fighting for HAMAS, that amounts to 0.1% of the
total staff. For a large organization in Gaza to have such a small
fraction of HAMAS fighters is doing pretty well at avoiding them.
| | 6:49p |
Ukraine-aid deal
Congress was considering a deal which would trade military aid for Ukraine for restoring the
wrecker's
border wall and cruel treatment
if people crossing the border.
The articles I've seen do not explicitly say, but I think that the aid
for Ukraine would be temporary and the border repression would be permanent.
That alone makes it a deal for suckers. Never make a permanent concession in exchange for
a temporary one! If you accept that kind of deal, you're inherently at a disadvantage and
you will lose ground every year.
| | 6:49p |
| | 6:49p |
Biden pauses fossil fuel plans
Biden has ordered a reconsideration of the criteria for
approving
fossil gas export
terminals. As a consequence, several proposals are now on hold.
If this leads to stricter criteria, and to less construction of new export terminals, that
could be a significant step towards avoiding climate disaster. (Although nowhere near
enough by itself.)
| | 6:49p |
Hague ruling on Israel
* UN court's ruling is
devastating for Israel
and awkward for [its] allies such as the UK and US, which belittled South Africa's case.*
The court did not label the crimes Israel has already committed as "genocide", but pointed
out properly that they head in a direction which, if continued, would amount to genocide.
And it ordered Israel to bring these crimes to a halt.
The US should help make sure it does so.
If this judgment is not heeded, how
can Putin ever be held
to account?*
| | 6:49p |
Oil tanker afire
A
Houthi attack
set an oil tanker on fire, just south of Yemen.
| | 6:49p |
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