Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
 
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Wednesday, July 17th, 2024

    Time Event
    8:49a
    Nonfree computer "games" manipulation

    Some nonfree computer "games" today are really just veiled marketing for real products using real brands -- aimed mainly at children.

    The illustrate the general principle that nonfree programs tend to be malware. Manipulating the user is one kind of malware.

    8:49a
    Hurricane Beryl

    *After Hurricane Beryl's destruction, climate scientists fear for what's next.*

    They have been warning us for decades now that this would happen.

    8:49a
    Science Museum cut ties with Equinor

    * The [UK] Science Museum has been [compelled] to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record.*

    The oil company used its donations to partly gag the museum as regards the most important scientific issue of our time: the harm to the whole world done by fossil fuels, including those extracted by Equinor.

    It may be true that such gag clauses are "reciprocal and standard", not that does not mean they are harmless. Perhaps most of them do little harm, but in this case it can be deadly.

    Even without an explicit contract committing the museum not to cover this danger, the desire to get future donations from the company in the future would tend to corrupt.

    The article mentions that other planet roaster companies, such as Billionaire Polluters and Adani, have given the museum donations.

    8:49a
    Biden denounces [corrupter] rally shooting

    *Biden denounces [corrupter] rally shooting: "We must unite to condemn it".*

    Our goal must be to maintain democracy with fair and free elections. Alas, the followers of the corrupter are trying to do the opposite.

    However, we must not be the ones to start a war against the right-wing. That would be a victory for them, not for us.

    8:49a
    Ending UK austerity

    *Labour can end [UK] austerity at a stroke -– by taxing the rich and taxing them hard.*

    "There's no money" is the standard plutocratist response to proposals to fix the gaping holes in public services by spending the amounts that they require. It is really a question of priorities: do you put money into making the rich richer, or into what is needed for everyone to have a decent life.

    8:49a
    Indignation on behalf of the corrupter

    *[The corrupter] deserves our sympathy. That doesn’t make him an acceptable candidate.*

    In my view, what he deserves is not sympathy for him, but rather our indignation on his behalf for the crime attempted against him. However, that indignation must be partly directed at him, for his stirring up of the spirit of political violence, which surely has some role in inspiring the attack on him.

    8:49a
    Climate catastrophe in US

    *Climate Catastrophe Arrives [in the US] in Large and Small Ways.*

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