Richard Stallman

This is the Mastodon account for Richard Stallman.

I founded GNU & the @fsf and with them launched the Free Software Movement. Please join or donate to the FSF: https://www.fsf.org

I use this account to mirror the political notes from my web site, stallman.org.

Read my linking policy: https://stallman.org/linkpolicy.html

The views expressed here, as in stallman.org, are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project. #FSF #GNU #FreeSoftware

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relay.nostr.band

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Last Notes

2024-10-31 04:57:31

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/oct/18/halloween-isnt-some-frightful-us-import-its-origins-are-celtic
*Halloween [in the UK] isn’t some frightful US import - its origins are Celtic.* However, in most other countries it is indeed a frightful US import, part of the "spend all your money on celebrating now!" industry.

2024-10-29 14:41:23

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/19/theyre-killing-us-aberdeen-braces-for-end-to-north-sea-oil-as-clean-energy-plan-takes-shape
Global heating threatens to kill billions of people in this century. But the short-term-thinking people of Aberdeen look with terror measures to reduce the use of fossil fuels and see that 200,000 jobs in that field might disappear. Then they exaggerate and say, "They are killing us", but it is only certain world-destroying jobs that would

2024-10-29 03:09:29

- reply

[2/2] we know, it will be too late.

2024-10-29 00:21:57

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/hey-congress-your-internet-bills-suck
US citizens: Tell lawmakers, "I oppose all bills that weaken end-to-end encryption, infringe upon teenagers’ constitutional right to free speech on the internet, and enable censorship of valuable online resources for abortion seekers and LGBTQ+ communities."

2024-10-22 16:04:54

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#bully
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-operation-aurora-alien-enemies-act-b2628134.html
The bully plans to stretch use the old Alien Enemies Act to deport non-citizens immediately based on fabricated vague accusations.

2024-10-22 14:22:43

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/17/labour-backtracks-genocide-ruling-china-uyghurs-lammy-visit
Labour is pandering to business owners and to China by canceling the plan to push for formal condemnation of China's repression of Uighurs.

2024-10-22 12:35:52

- reply

[4/4] facility overrides the desire to keep them secret.

2024-10-22 12:35:51

- reply

[3/4] get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public. Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption. Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business

2024-10-22 12:06:23

I'm looking for some basic information about Sam's Club. If you have ever bought anything there, you probably know the answers. If you'd like to have a brief email conversation, please send me email, at the gnu web site with address rms.

2024-10-22 12:02:29

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/16/global-water-crisis-food-production-at-risk
*More than half the world's food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have warned in a landmark review.*

2024-10-19 15:40:02

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/23/violent-crime-murder-rate-fbi-2023
Violent crime in the US decreased substantially in 2023, including an 11% decrease in murders. Republicans pretend the rate is increasing. The real flaws of Democrats are due to being too right-wing, but the Republicans have trouble repeating those criticisms. So they have to make some up.

2024-10-19 10:17:38

[2/3] … I don't know enough about that issue to have an opinion. But I am confident that the Chinese government did not care about those questions. It wanted hostages that Canada would feel a need to bring home. I makes me sad to know that the United States holds some prisoners in similar conditions of torture. Julian Assange could expect to be held that way, if he had been sent to the US for trial. Indeed, his imprisonment in Britain was in conditions almost as bad as that, It is wrong …

2024-10-19 10:00:01

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/16/victoria-schools-respectful-relationships-toxic-masculinity-andrew-tate-law-changes-ntwnfb
Some Australian schools try to counter the influence of right-wing misogyny and male supremacist campaigns. Right-wing politics is all about winning some groups' support by teaching them to scapegoat other groups. It looks like right wingers have concluded that women will oppose them regardless, so they will use women as scapegoats. …

2024-10-19 07:34:34

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/12/china-communist-party-banned-books-rules-xi-jinping
China is punishing people for reading books about China that they had acquired outside China. Xi does not want people to be exposed to other points of view at all.

2024-10-19 07:06:52

[2/2] … driving the world into climate mayhem. The disadvantage of fossil fuels is not expense or scarcity. It is the harm they do by producing CO2. A suitable carbon tax could make sure these fuels continue becoming more expensive, so that humanity would continue to reduce its use of them.

2024-10-17 14:01:52

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/09/republicans-crackdown-universities-pro-palestinian-protests
Republicans seek to bully US colleges with threats unless they repress students' freedom of speech. Whatever your position on the war in Gaza, if you love civil liberties you should fight those dangerous religious fanatics here in the US. Nov 5th is your opportunity.

2024-10-17 12:22:33

How can people continue to live in fire-prone areas?

2024-10-17 12:04:11

https://stallman.org/archives/2017-sep-dec.html#11_November_2017_(Workers_rights)
The UK will have a new agency whose staff will actively enforce penalties for violating workers' rights. I've called for the US to do this. Stealing N dollars from your employee should be as serious a crime as stealing N dollars from a business, and enforced similarly.

2024-10-17 09:14:06

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/09/election-tim-walz-electoral-college
Walz stated support for eliminating the electoral college. I am in favor of that, but what Harris and Walz most importantly need to call for is directing more of the nation's wealth generation to the non-rich, as it did in the 1950s.

2024-10-17 07:42:16

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/07/hurricane-helene-trump-misinformation
*Fema chief warns ‘dangerous’ Trump falsehoods hampering Helene response.*

2024-10-17 07:22:07

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/09/trump-harris-inflation-economy
https://stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#15_October_2020_(Social_Security)
*Trump is falsely blaming Harris for high prices. His plans will cause huge inflation.* I wonder if that is why Republicans are pushing to remove the cost-of-living adjustment from Social Security. With that, and high inflation, US retirees will be squeezed between the two.

2024-10-17 06:08:38

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/13/muslims-in-india-face-discrimination-after-restaurants-forced-to-display-workers-names
Some Indian states have passed laws to make it easy to boycott restaurants that employ any Muslims. Clearly this is the work of Hinduismist party.

2024-10-17 05:48:20

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/09/election-harris-republican-endorsements
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#corrupter
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#corrupter
*Endorsements from Republicans and CEOs won’t help Kamala Harris win.* People who were Republicans in 2015, before the corrupter became that party's nominee, and who have not been sucked into his fantasy land, can be persuaded by these endorsements. It may cost the corrupter some votes. But they are …

2024-10-17 02:22:44

[2/2] … distribution of some ethings. I don't see how splitting up Google would correct these. Perhaps Google itself would not use the collected data as a base for advertising. Perhaps instead Google would sell the use of that data to various advertising companies. I don't think that would make that use of personal data acceptable and it would not help with the others.

2024-10-13 23:27:58

[2/2] … true: Bridgestone would have made a profit even with the safety measures installed. But it might have made less from that plant than from a hypothetical replacement plant somewhere else, without the safety measure. To put an end to this sort of practice, we need laws that will prevent businesses from winning disputes in that way. Reich explains other changes that would have strengthened his hand.

2024-10-13 18:53:56

[2/3] … terrorism. The official said, "But he did prove the point that many of us are making in the lead up to the rallies on Monday, which is that the only reason you would organize a pro-Palestinian protest on Monday, is if you thought it was worthy of celebration." This seems to be valid. Both HAMAS and subsequently Israel were responding to terror attacks. Both had grounds for belligerence if it were in accord with international humanitarian law. Both entities' retaliations instead …

2024-10-13 18:26:08

[2/2] … coal. This demonstrates that existing laws, plus existing pressure from well-informed public opinion, are not sufficient to decarbonize rapidly.

2024-10-13 16:36:27

https://theintercept.com/2024/10/08/trump-fbi-brett-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-supreme-court/
Accusing the wrecker of restraining the FBI from thoroughly investigating the rape accusation against Brett Kavanaugh when he was nominated for the Supreme Court.

2024-10-13 15:49:43

https://www.levernews.com/an-oil-giant-railroads-its-scotus-connection-to-gut-environmental-law/
*An Oil Giant Railroads Its SCOTUS Connection To Gut Environmental Law.*

2024-10-10 09:00:53

[2/2] … secularist, non fanatical Jews should make common cause with Palestinians so as to outvote the fanatics. I knew, of course, that that would be be difficult and unlikely, but it seemed at least thinkable. I am not sure it is even thinkable now.

2024-10-10 05:36:45

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/06/israel-iran-war-idf-lebanon-military-doctrine
Iran's big missile attack did little harm to civilians because it was carefully aimed at Israel's military facilities - and it did damage to them. This might turn into a war of attrition.

2024-10-10 03:40:54

[3/3] … worth worrying about. The reason is privacy. I don't want the store to collect any personal data for their data bases. If the employee who receives my money gets interested in free software or surveillance resistance, I don't mind telling person my name. I will even give her my pleasure card if that is useful. It is unlikely the employee would enter that data in the company's data base.

2024-10-08 18:39:33

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/22/too-white-too-black-too-woke-politics-by-labelling-is-a-disease-of-our-times
Kenan Malik: *Too white? Too black? Too woke? Politics by labeling is a disease of our times.* *There is, in fact, a long history of hate speech laws being used to criminalize minorities.*

2024-10-08 18:01:18

[2/5] … over the following 15 years. This makes it an important cause of death in those regions. The study looked at statistics for the US, but I see no reason this would not happen similarly in the rest of the world. This method of analysis does not give information about the chains of events that lead to these subsequent deaths. The researchers speculate that the causes might include "fallout from resulting economic and job losses after storms, suddenly overstretched local government …

2024-10-08 16:52:14

[2/2] … change its course of action will be far more difficult. Especially difficult would be any reduction in the level of conflict. In effect, Hezbollah may now be too weak to be flexible.

2024-10-08 16:52:13

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/30/deep-intelligence-penetration-enabled-israel-to-kill-hassan-nasrallah
The Israeli air raid that killed Nasrallah killed 90 other members of Hezbollah - probably many of them leaders. It will not be easy to replace them with experienced new commanders. There must still be hundreds of commanders who can order their units to keep firing missiles. That doesn't require cleverness, great authority, or special cleverness. For Hezbollah to …

2024-10-08 13:24:57

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/30/election-lies-misinformation-media
Why lawsuits for defamation are not adequate to protect society from harmful disinformation.

2024-10-07 13:17:14

[2/2] … to stop trying to force retirees onto Medicare "Advantage" plans. These insurance plans are convenient for people who are basically well, but can get incredibly expensive for people who are sicker. When that happens they are far more expensive than basic Medicare.

2024-10-07 13:17:12

[1/2] https://act.newmode.net/action/be-hero-fund/tell-mayor-eric-adams-stop-trying-take-medicare-away-nyc-retirees?source_code=beahero_em092224&link_id=2&can_id=8b24519448cbedadde1c8a966f94caad&source=email-give-us-just-a-minute-of-your-time&email_referrer=email_2462105&email_subject=a-quick-action-to-help-retirees
https://stallman.org/archives/2022-jul-oct.html#26_October_2022_(Publicly_subsidized_insurers_raising_prices_on_Medicare_Advantage_Plans)
US citizens: call on NYC Mayor Adams …

2024-10-07 11:42:56

[4/5] … repression scheme, "social credit". I don't think any western country would use snoop cities to stop people from traveling to places 20 minutes away from home. Why would they want that? But many western countries might use these snoop-city systems to punish dissidents - such as those who protest against fossil fuel plans that would eventually destroy civilization and kill most people. Alas, such tracking systems are not just hypothetical. They are called "mobile phones" and …

2024-10-07 11:23:16

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tax-elon-musk-before-he-becomes-a-trillionaire?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-inequality-media-civic-action&source=group-inequality-media-civic-action
US citizens: call on Congress to tax Elon Musk before he becomes a trillionaire. If the wrecker grabs the presidency, he will twist laws to help Musk become a multi-trillionaire by the end of the wrecker's fourth term in office.

2024-10-07 09:26:09

https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/comcast-amendment4/
US citizens: call on Comcast to stop funding anti-abortion campaigns.

2024-10-04 05:01:11

[3/4] … The problem shows up in the fact that many people can't get insurance again disasters that destroy They homes, but insurance is not the fundamental cause of this problem. Rather, it is the seam at which the overstuffed bag splits open. If rebuilding our House as fast as they are now being destroyed is unsustainable for society, insurance as such can't alter that. Either we make the rebuilding sustainable for society or we will end up without houses. In the long term, curbing …

2024-10-04 05:01:05

[1/4] https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/25/global-heating-doubled-chance-of-extreme-rain-in-europe-in-september
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/25/were-getting-rid-of-everything-floods-destroy-homes-and-lives-in-czech-republic
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/climate-scientists-troubled-by-damage-from-floods-ravaging-central-europe
https://stallman.org/archives/2024-mar-jun.html#25_May_2024_(Thunderstorm-damage_home-insurance)
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating
Global …

2024-10-02 15:31:21

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/27/trump-vance-mock-climate-change-hurricane-helene
Some of the wrecker's campaign events are being wrecked by effects of global heating, and some of the attendees are becoming ill from them.

2024-10-02 12:17:12

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/27/israel-palestinian-workers-pay
Israel is accused of depriving Palestinian workers of pay they are owed for work they have already done in Israel.

2024-09-29 13:56:25

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/anti-protest-laws-fossil-fuel-lobby
https://stallman.org/archives/2024-may-aug.html#12_August_2024_(Climate-defense_V_rioting,_UK_sentencing)
Fossil fuel lobbyists work with supportive legislators to criminalize nonviolent (but inconvenient) protest around the US. I suspect that they collaborate with AIPAC to achieve their common goal, so that protesters calling for an end to Israel's bombing and siege can be imprisoned too. The …

2024-09-29 13:01:01

https://ajw-origin.potaufeu.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15441263
Iwao Hakamata was convicted of murder in 1968 in Japan. Now a retrial judge has ruled that investigators falsified evidence and bullied him into a false confession. Hakamada is 88 years old, and is mentally unwell as a result of spending years on death row. He was unable to attend the retrial because of that.

2024-09-29 12:39:02

[3/3] … For-profit drug development is corrupting in many ways. One consequence is that our systems of medicine and drug development no longer encourage people to make curing disease their goal. We should replace the system driven by lust for monopoly megaprofits with a system of government funding for finding new drugs that will not be covered by monopolies.

2024-09-29 12:38:59

[1/3] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/16/health-superbugs-antimicrobial-resistance-amr-39m-deaths-infections-bacteria-gram-study
https://stallman.org/archives/2014-sep-dec.html#13_December_2014_(Antibiotic_resistance)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/16/why-arent-we-getting-any-new-antibiotics-antimicrobial-resistance
https://stallman.org/archives/2019-jan-apr.html#29_March_2019_(Outsourcing)
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria *"could kill 39m …

2024-09-29 12:20:44

[3/3] … night-mayor, is a former thug himself, and no matter what harm thugs do in the city, he always claims it's not their fault.

2024-09-29 11:54:34

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/23/california-plastic-bag-ban
California has banned distribution of plastic shopping bags at grocery stores. Only paper bags will be available. I prefer thicker plastic bags to paper, but to avoid causing waste, I reuse each bag until it wears out. I set out the bags to reuse on he belt along with what I will purchase, and say to use these bags and not give me a new one. I get a new bag perhaps once a year. But the things we buy …

2024-09-29 11:01:31

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/23/anura-kumara-dissanayake-who-is-sri-lanka-new-leftist-president
*Anura Kumara Dissanayake: who is Sri Lanka's new leftist president?*

2024-09-29 10:37:10

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/meta-bans-rt-russian-media-outlets
*Meta bans Russian state media outlets over "foreign interference activity".* I am sure that they do that.

2024-09-29 10:21:42

https://www.levernews.com/harris-turn-to-the-dark-money-side/
Kamala Harris formerly campaigned for limiting hidden campaign donations from the rich, but she isn't advocating that this year.

2024-09-29 08:41:54

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/26/elon-musk-us-national-security
*Elon Musk has gained a concerning level of power over US national security.*

2024-09-29 07:53:28

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/23/earth-breach-planetary-boundaries-health-check-oceans
*Ocean acidification close to critical threshold, say scientists, posing threat to marine ecosystems and global livability. This means Earth may have breached seven of nine boundaries.*

2024-09-29 07:27:24

[2/2] … unrelated companies. See The FTC also made the typical pernicious assumption that unjust treatment of adult users is not important. I am not sure whether the report included allowing other companies to target categories of users in the category of "surveillance". In that practice, the other companies do not actually receive data about individual users, but do get to exploit them.

2024-09-29 06:48:49

https://theintercept.com/2024/09/26/tenured-professor-fired-palestine-israel-zionism/
Muhlenberg College fired Professor Finkelstein, a tenured professor, for condemning Israeli atrocities in Gaza, by making the usual false equivalence between "Zionists" and "Jews". The American Association of University Professors may sue on her behalf.

2024-09-29 06:20:01

[2/2] … mistakenly thinking that Richards had something to do with the fleeing vehicle. But since that was just a suspicion, they should have realized that Richards might have been a bystander. And even if he were guilty, they had no grounds to be so violent to a person who was not fighting them. That is the typical dangerous excess of thugs.

2024-09-29 05:33:48

[3/3] … is willing to provide that extra money, it can just as well give that to the child's parent(s). Thus, the only case in which to consider taking a child away from per parent(s) is when the cause is something other than poverty.

2024-09-29 05:33:45

[1/3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/19/unpaid-school-lunch-debt-child-welfare-services
https://civicshout.com/p/pass-tim-walz-s-free-lunch-for-kids-program-in-every-state
Some US states will report parents to the Parent Gestapo ("Child Welfare Services") for "neglect" if they don't pay the bill for their child's school lunch. That isn't neglect of the children, it is neglect of the state. But I think it is the state's fault anyway, not the parent's that that parent is too …

2024-09-27 07:28:32

[5/5] … revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort compared with the benefit of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

2024-09-27 07:28:30

[4/5] … By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows: First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Enter the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done. This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and …

2024-09-27 07:28:29

[3/5] … but the following simple method seems adequate for some of them. To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter. Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript.) You can finish sending without that code …

2024-09-27 07:28:27

[2/5] … Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above function without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript or are using the LibreJS plug-in. I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!" They indeed won't work without some manual help, …

2024-09-27 07:28:26

[1/5] https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-blackrock/?link_id=3&can_id=8b24519448cbedadde1c8a966f94caad&source=email-the-company-that-owns-everything-2&email_referrer=email_2461922&email_subject=the-company-that-owns-everything
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-04-02/u-s-regulators-probe-role-of-asset-managers-in-banks-wsj
Support the proposed FDIC regulation that would limit how "asset manager" companies such as Blackrock use their deposits for political influence. …

2024-09-27 07:08:24

[2/2] … contributions from corporations, would tend to correct this problem as a side effect of correcting the problem of legalized bribery.

2024-09-27 07:08:23

[1/2] https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/trump-allies-lobby-for-nippons-takeover
The modern American way to lobby for an anticompetitive merger is to hire lobbyists who are tied into networks of support for major politicians. Each time these lobbyists go to work, their goal is harmful to the public interest. We should change our laws so that there are no such lobbyists - but how to do that? I tend to think that blocking large anonymous campaign donations, and blocking all campaign …

2024-09-27 06:52:44

[2/2] … Palestinian territories. Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.

2024-09-27 06:52:43

[1/2] https://actionnetwork.org/forms/add-your-name-israel-must-comply-with-international-law-by-immediately-withdrawing-all-military-from-the-occupied-palestinian-territories?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=email-sign-to-support-un-proposal-to-end-israels-military-presence-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank&oneclick=
https://stallman.org/articles/benevolence.html
US citizens: call on Israel to comply with the UN General Assembly vote calling for Israel to withdraw its army from the occupied …

2024-09-27 06:31:11

https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/sanders-weapons-resolution/?t=1004
https://stallman.orgtel:+12022243121
US citizens: call on Congress to pass Bernie Sanders's resolution to end weapons sales to Israel. Explain I might have proposed to adjust some details, of this, but I have confidence in Sanders and I trust him to know such matters better than I do. If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

2024-09-27 06:11:44

https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/cocacola_rufoevent/
Everyone: call on Coca-Cola to stop sponsoring neo-segregationist Chris Rufo.

2024-09-27 05:43:55

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/protect-floridas-abortion-rights-ballot-measure-from-voter-intimidation?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-hd&source=group-hd
US citizens: call on the Department of Justice to block voter intimidation in Florida.

2024-09-27 05:21:29

[2/2] … work with Iran towards regional and nuclear disarmament.

2024-09-27 05:21:28

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/23/iran-president-masoud-pezeshkian-israel-conflict-us
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
Iran's president calls for peace, and says Iran could negotiate a non-nuclear deal like the one that the wrecker canceled. He also accused Israel of trying to provoke a regional war, which I think is spot on. I hope Biden is flexible enough to reach such an agreement. Iran's government oppresses women horribly, but that is no reason we can't …

2024-09-27 05:05:52

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/israel-war-goals-netanyahu-hamas-gaza-palestine
Netanyahu is threatening to escalate the war with Hezbollah. Supposedly this is to achieve demands which include peace. But that is not what escalation is likely to achieve.

2024-09-27 04:38:43

[2/2] … +1-202-456-6213

2024-09-27 04:38:42

[1/2] https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-the-biden-administration-we-demand-justice-for-aysenur-eygi?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=email-re-take-action-demand-an-independent-investigation-into-the-murder-of-aysenur-eygi-by-israeli-forces
https://stallman.orgtel:+12024561111
US citizens: call on the Biden administration to hold an independent investigation of the killing of protester Ayşenur Eygi. If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) …

2024-09-27 04:20:08

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/shut-down-for-profit-migrant-detention-centers?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-hd&source=group-hd
US citizens: call on US agencies to shut down for-profit immigration prisons. The petition calls them "detention centers", but I think that term is desensitizing.

2024-09-27 03:52:32

[6/6] … typically do so little harm to anyone that the question of proportionality may be merely theoretical.

2024-09-27 03:52:31

[5/6] … resort. And even when fighting is necessary, we should strive to keep civilian casualties down to a proportionate level. This is why, rather than being especially outraged at the pager attack and denouncing it as egregious, I take the opposite view: the pager attack is the proportionate exception which highlights Israel's usual disregard for the lives of civilians. HAMAS and Hezbollah also often disregard proportionality when they attack, but -another irony- their missile attacks …

2024-09-27 03:52:29

[4/6] … requirement of proportionality, in practice it did so. Some 3000 pagers were in use, and were likely to explode, and in the process only two children were killed. It is bad when children are killed, or adult civilians are killed. It is bad when anyone is killed, even enemy soldiers, because nobody ever deserves to be killed. War normally requires trying to kill some enemy soldiers, but even those don't personally deserve death. Thus we should try to avoid war, fighting only a last …

2024-09-27 03:52:28

[3/6] … requirement that civilian casualties be "proportionate" - not excessive. It's clear that Israel does not try very much to avoid excessive civilian casualties. Indeed, when army snipers shoot protesters and journalists, who are specially protected civilians, Israel hardly tries to punish them. Ironically, one exception which contrasts with that habit of disregarding this principle is the pager attack of last weekend. Whether or not Israel actively sought on that occasion to follow the …

2024-09-27 03:52:26

[2/6] … and killed around 500 people. Since 90 of them were women or minors, we can roughly estimate that counting also the adult men, around 140 to 200 of those killed were civilians. That sort of outcome is comparable to what happens when Israel attacks in Gaza with the same weapons: lots of civilian casualties. The Israeli attacks in Gaza are a series of atrocities, and these attacks in Lebanon were atrocities too. They were atrocities, and war crimes, because Israel violates the …

2024-09-27 03:52:25

[1/6] https://theintercept.com/2024/09/23/israel-bombs-lebanon-us-weapons/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportionality_(law)#International_Humanitarian_Law
https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/fatima-abdullah-9-killed-in-israels-pager-attack-buried-in-lebanon-18209867
https://stallman.org/archives/2014-jul-oct.html#03_August_2014_(Israels_aim_of_attack_on_Gaza)
Israel attacked Hezbollah with ordinary weapons - missiles, and perhaps bombs and shells too. Reportedly these hit 1300 targets …

2024-09-27 03:26:03

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-have-a-right-to-safety-privacy-and-protest-say-no-to-mask-bans?nowrapper=true
US citizens: We have a right to safety, privacy, and protest. Say no to mask bans.

2024-09-27 03:05:26

[2/2] … embodied in a law that will keep the government operating for around three months. The article doesn't state the precise date of the next shutdown threat, but the words suggest it will be negotiated in December, before the newly elected Congress takes office. Americans, we need to remove those hostage takers from our government, so that they can't take our government and our country hostage any more. For every level of government, vote to defeat Republicans!

2024-09-27 03:05:25

[1/2] https://stallman.org/glossary.html#scrotus
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/23/government-spending-shutdown-bill-trump
SCROTUS gave up on the wrecker's demand for a new nationwide voter suppression requirement, and dropped the threat to shut down the US government otherwise. Indeed, they could not even pass that bill in the House of Representatives, despite having a small majority there. The decision not to shut it down was …

2024-09-26 12:16:40

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/30/gop-led-states-voting-rights
* Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama and Ohio want to scare off voters [of disprivileged racial groups] and naturalized citizens, activists say.*

2024-09-26 11:56:01

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/09/omnipresent-ai-cameras-will-ensure-good-behavior-says-larry-ellison/
Billionaire Larry Ellison called for a society of total surveillance in which everyone is constantly monitored by hypothetical future AI. We could expect the AI to share the political bias and racial/religious/ethnic prejudices of the organizations that run them.

2024-09-26 11:40:32

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/springfield-ohio-bomb-threat
The saboteur's hate messages about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, inspired a bomb threat. If the time bomb threat is accompanied by a real bomb, I expect he will leap for joy.

2024-09-26 11:21:00

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/swing-states-election-deniers-vote-count
* A new survey of eight vital swing states reveals that at least 239 election deniers who have signed up to Trump’s “election integrity” conspiracy theories are actively engaged in electoral battles this year.*

2024-09-26 10:53:52

[3/3] … Ukraine. They are happy to increase the military budget unless it supports Ukraine. This has happened in parallel with their shift to endorse the bullshitter's claim that he really won the election. This is not proof, but it's plenty of grounds to treat the corrupter as a suspect.

2024-09-26 10:53:50

[2/3] … promoting Putin and he knows Putin won't stand for shenanigans. "Just stop the fighting" has been the standard line of Putinite influencers ever since Putin launched the invasion. The reason is simple: that would leave Putin in possession of conquered territory, probably permanently. That would be victory for him, even if not total victory. It is surely no coincidence that the Republicans in Congress have been willing to obstruct and threaten to interfere with US support for …

2024-09-26 10:53:49

[1/3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/11/us-presidential-debate-donald-trump-ukraine-war
At the debate. the bullshitter refused to say whether he wants Ukraine to defeat Putin. Why did someone who cares so little about truth hesitate to make up whatever would go over best? The author does not know, but I have a conjecture: because Putin is watching, and Putin demands obedience. The bullshitter expects to get away with bullshitting Americans, but this is a matter of …

2024-09-26 10:26:37

https://theonion.com/vatican-city-police-unveil-new-unit-of-sin-sniffing-dogs/
(satire) *Vatican City Police Unveil New Unit Of Sin-Sniffing Dogs.*

2024-09-26 10:02:21

[2/2] … out. If the question is about safety from surveillance and snooping, the answer is clearly not.

2024-09-26 10:02:20

[1/2] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/03/technology/zoox-self-driving-cars-remote-control.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KE4.aoKF.RlSluFtKs6dy
Some of the cars that aren't driven by anyone in the car are operated by remote drivers. These cares are neither "autonomous" nor "self-driving". Are they safe for the passengers and others in the vicinity? The reply must be, "Safe from what?" If the question is about safety from collisions, I don't know but with time we will find …

2024-09-26 09:43:31

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/sep/11/religious-groups-christians-islamists-catholic-billions-counter-gender-equality-sex-education-lgbtq-equal-rights
Various religions in the US are ganging up to fight against sex education and equal rights for queer people.