Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal

8th Amdt VS cruel punishing, US

*[The persecutor] called for subjecting some convicts in federal prisons to "monstruous" conditions specifically so that they will suffer more.

That is unconstitutional, as well as perverse.

Guantanamo expanded, privatized, prison

The US private prison company Akima, which now runs Guantanamo deportation prison, has been accused of violating prisoners' human rights in other prisons it runs.

National dividing lines, per FRA

France rejects the distracting terms "global south" and "global north", and says that what matters is how countries treat each other, wherever they be located.

I reject those terms too, because they attempt to squeeze various forms of exploitation into a fictitious fight between one fictitious region and another. Perhaps some activists think that it will be easier to get people to identify with one geographical side against another, but that's a false understanding.

I don't entirely agree with the French minister's article. It focuses on one especially grave form of injustice, the violent kind which violates international law, and ignores the wrong of economic colonization and extractivism, which is also important even if it won't get you tried at the Hague.

US-Panama detention-center deal

Panama's agreement to receive non-Panamanians deported by the US seems to include a plan to imprison them for the US, perhaps indefinitely, until perhaps someday it can deport them elsewhere.

Panama is blocking them from talking with journalists, and even with their lawyers.

This could easily become a Nauru-like scheme of isolated permanent imprisonment.

Some of them want to apply for asylum in Panama. Panama has the same obligation as the US, to offer asylum to people who qualify. Will it heed that obligation?

Urgent: Schoolteachers' Gulf of Mexico

US citizens: call on schools to reject the bully's demand to use the ridiculous name "Gulf of America".

This demand is of no importance in itself, but he uses such demands to put people and institutions on the path of subservience.

Insurrection as illegal, KOR

The president of South Korea that tried to declare martial law, now in jail, will be tried for insurrection.

Insurrection as illegal, BRA

*In Brazil coup-mongers go to jail. In the US they get back into the White House.*

US chooses to bully Zelenskyy

The bully decided that Zelenskyy was not subservient enough, so decided it was time to insult him. However, he only succeeded in showing the world how vicious he is.

It is true that Ukraine has not held a election since Putin invaded. Its constitution does not allow elections while martial law is in place, and an election could not be fair while part of the country is occupied by an invader.

The bully is condemning Zelenskyy for what the bully's hero Putin has done to Ukraine.

Apple advertising on ex-Twitter

As of 2025, Apple advertises on ex-Twitter, evidently showing fealty to the would-be emperor Elon I.

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Us right-wing support for Germany's Nazi-ish party

Support for Germany's Nazi-ish party from US right-wing extremists has boosted the Left Party ("Links" in German) which calls for taxing billionaires to the point that they won't be billionaires any more.

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Wrecker abolished regulations to protect environment

The wrecker has effectively abolished regulations that require all federal agencies to take care to obey environmental protection laws.

The laws still exist, but I think this order invites all agencies to disregard environmental laws and do what they like, unless and until people sue them for violating those laws. If a government action poisons a river, the people who live their might sue, but the damage might be irreversible by then.

If the government causes extinction of a species, would anyone have standing to sue?

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Spain grew economy by welcoming immigrants

Spain made its economy grow by welcoming immigrants.

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Arresting unauthorized immigrants when they show up for appointments

Deportation thugs now regularly arrest and deport unauthorized immigrants when they show up for required appointments.

These unpredictable attacks fiendishly do injustice in two ways: they surprise some immigrants with arrest and deport them without the chance to prepare, appeal or say goodbye, and they frighten others into staying away, which will create an excuse to deport them later.

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Chemical compounds in sunscreen may bleach coral

*The chemical compounds [in sunscreens] that block UV rays may lead to bleaching of coral and a decrease in fish fertility.*

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Purge of staff studying brain-computer interfaces

The Food and Drug Administration purged some of the staff studying brain-computer interfaces for possible future approval.

I am sure the muskrat will make sure the FDA is aware that it has no real choice but to approve the muskrat's "Neuralink" product.

I don't expect the circuitry of the product to have specifically malicious hardware features. But it will be easy to design the surrounding system within which it is used so as to push patients into ex-Twitter and other far-right platforms. The package could include gratis ("free") accounts on ex-Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Faux News.

The system could also make the personal data collected by the use of the product available for personalized propaganda and disinformation. This is nominally illegal, but I don't think Attorney General Bondi would allow prosecution of it.

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Britain's chance to discard old policies with US

Arguing that Britain can take advantage of the end of the myth of the "special relationship" with the US by discarding old policies that are now manifestly useless — if it has the courage to do it. Here a Labour MP who doesn't adore Starmer proposes how to combine this.

Much as the Communist parties of 100 years ago were agents of Stalin, intended to soften up their countries to strengthen the Soviet Union, so too far-right parties of today are henceforth the agents of trumpery. As Tr-usk do ever nastier things, spitting on honesty and justice, European governments can validly tie those far-right parties to the intent to behave likewise.

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Snoop phone impact on school children

The author reports on children starting school who are unable to sit up and hold a pencil, and unable to relate in personal presence to children or teachers. Perse concludes that this is due to being shaped wrong by snoop-phones.

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Thwarted from destroying Covid tests

Servants of the saboteur-in-chief were going to destroy Covid tests rather than send them to needy Americans, but the Washington Post published the news of that plan, and the saboteus decided to hand them out in accord with previous policies.

One small piece of the sabotage plans was thus overcome.

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Airplane evacuating dogs instead of people

Leaked British government internal emails seem to show that Bogus Johnson personally intervened to override the priorities of evacuation to enable an airplane to evacuate carrying dogs instead of one carrying human beings.

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Wrecker undermining Epidemic Intelligence Service

The wrecker is undermining the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health which tries to detect emerging diseases that could cause great harm.

EIS officers investigate disease outbreaks and health threats in the U.S. and abroad

I wonder whether RFK jr specifically hates that department, or perhaps it was simply the first one the terminator happened on.

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Discouragement against investing in the US

Stiglitz warns that the wrecker's economic policies are likely to discourage investment in the US, and thus to drive the US into stagflation — rising prices but little growth.

His arguments that businesses would decide to invest elsewhere would perhaps not affect businesses owned by billionaires who have paid for special treatment from the corrupter.

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Extreme weather is our new reality

*Extreme weather is our new reality. We must accept it and begin planning.* Careful plans can protect people from temporary disasters such as storms and fires.

There is, however, no feasible way to protect coastal cities from sea-level rise when it reaches several meters. And no way to protect the people who live on sea food from ocean acidification caused by our emissions of CO2.

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State-sponsored religious revival in India

The Hindu-nationalist government of India has created a state-sponsored religious revival, pushing to make India a Hindu-nationalist country. It would then be committed to the principles of various orders of Hindu ascetics, as well as to the principle of repression of people that do not agree.

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The facism label

Rejecting the superstition that if we refuse to call it "fascism" that will somehow restrain the regime from going all the way there. [Corrected URL]