]]> Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:36:51 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Televised_González_vs_Maduro,_VEN) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Televised_González_vs_Maduro,_VEN) *Venezuelan opposition candidate accuses Nicolás Maduro of coup.*

]]> Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:36:50 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Stats,_gains_from_a_low-carbon_future) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Stats,_gains_from_a_low-carbon_future) Curbing global heating would make life healthier and more comfortable, as well as limiting climate disaster.

]]> Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:36:50 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Upcoming_talk:_Lausanne,_Switzerland) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#13_January_2025_(Upcoming_talk:_Lausanne,_Switzerland) Talk in Lausanne, Switzerland Jan 17 at 18:00

Free software, and freedom in all your computing. Also, how I push the line in my own life. rue de Lausanne 64, Renens (School 42)

Language: The talk will be in English but I will accept questions in French or English.

If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213

Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html.)

First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser 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, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

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 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. Edit 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 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 for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

The loss of a celebrity's home is not a worse blow than the loss of someone else's home. On the contrary, the celebrity may be wealthy enough to have another home elsewhere already, and perhaps can afford to rebuild what was lost, except for some valuable art.

But these celebrities may be in a position to make the public aware that "This can happen to you, and probably will happen some day if we don't curb global heating."

It seems to me that the crucial question is where it came from. What country that can make large quantities of fissionable material is selling them or losing them?

There was always a chance that it would be hard to make the banks keep their commitments — that they were giving only lip service to avoiding global disaster. That chance has now become certainty.

I recommend moving your money out of those banks and into smaller ones. Those banks were also among those directly to blame for the 2008 fiscal crisis. I moved my money out of one of them around then.

They are Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo

Tens of thousands of people have lost their homes in the LA fires. This will cause a regional housing shortage and make thousands homeless.

This report presents concretely the cruelty and hatred that racism inspires. It was not the only such racist mob attack in US history, but it was perhaps the largest. There are right-wing extremists today who would like to commit more.

Ironically, the article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I denounce bigotry, and normally I will not link to articles that practice it. But I make exceptions for some articles which report on worse cases of bigotry, and the massacre surely is worse.

I suggest passing a law to cut off the salaries of his guards. Then they could allow only adequate but boring food in.

They estimate that over 60% of the dead were noncombatants.

This figure does not try to include deaths causes by the siege, or people buried under rubble. Palestinians have reported thousands of specific people they believed to be buried in the rubble of specific buildings.

]]> Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:36:38 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#12_January_2025_(About_LA_fires:_the_historical_facts) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#12_January_2025_(About_LA_fires:_the_historical_facts) How building houses in areas of frequent fire within LA built up the conditions for worse fires.

It could be that leaving some areas vacant would help protect the rest of the city from fire. But not necessarily.

The end to fire suppression in certain areas would cause more frequent fire in those areas. Those would not directly harm anyone if the areas were uninhabited — but these fires have been spread by burning embers which can travel a long way. It could be that the frequent fires in those areas would spread each time to inhabited parts of the city.

I can see the question, but I don't know enough to propose an answer.

Building all buildings so that they have nothing flammable on the outside would make them safe. Eliminating all trees would help too.

Is anyone working on a fire-extinguishing robot? To have 10,000 of those in the LA area would be expensive, but it might be worth the cost.

]]> Mon, 13 Jan 2025 04:36:36 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#12_January_2025_(Urgent:_On_executives_of_failed_banks) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#12_January_2025_(Urgent:_On_executives_of_failed_banks) US citizens: call on the FDIC to release findings from probes into executives of failed banks.

]]> Sun, 12 Jan 2025 22:36:43 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#11_January_2025_(Nauru_ruling_against_AUS) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#11_January_2025_(Nauru_ruling_against_AUS) The United Nations human rights committee decided that Australia violated the human rights of refugees by sending them to Nauru, essentially for life.

This decision was published almost 24 years after Australia started sending refugees there. The committee warned other countries that they too would be violators if they shirked their responsibility to asylum seekers by outsourcing the handling of them.

]]> Sun, 12 Jan 2025 10:36:37 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#11_January_2025_(LA_fires_and_climate_chaos) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#11_January_2025_(LA_fires_and_climate_chaos) A fire destroyed 5,000 buildings in Pacific Palisades, part of Los Angeles. 5,000 more buildings have been destroyed in other parts of LA.

Global heating is affecting the US to the point where Americans even in major urban areas are in danger. And the world overall, too.

The only way to stop this from getting steadily worse is to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Biden tried to make a start at that in the Inflation Reduction Act, but after 2021 Republican opposition solidified and he could not do more.

I expect the bullshitter to scapegoat Biden for not doing enough (never mind who prevented him from doing more), while pushing useless measures that won't reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ]]> Sun, 12 Jan 2025 04:36:52 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Climate-driven_fiery_chaos,_CA) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Climate-driven_fiery_chaos,_CA) *The Los Angeles wildfires are climate disasters compounded.*

Remember the insane rigidity of UK punishment of climate-defense protests, which is bent on repressing climate protesters and will punish them even for unintentional failure to comply. The root of this cruelty is a fundamental wrong decision not to recognize the magnitude of the crime that fossil fuel companies are committing.

]]> Sun, 12 Jan 2025 04:36:48 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Kurds_want_US_troops,_SYR) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Kurds_want_US_troops,_SYR) *Kurdish general urges [the fascist] to leave US troops in north-east Syria.*

If Russia were still contending for power in Syria, Putin would have told him not to do this. But Putin may have little influence now over decisions about Syria.

]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2025 16:36:33 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Heating-caused_climate_change_helped_trigger_Arab_Spring) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Heating-caused_climate_change_helped_trigger_Arab_Spring) How heating-caused climate changes, and others, helped to trigger the Arab Spring in 2011, as an example of what global heating does to political situations.

A law like this is good if it is not misused. The danger is that a repressive government is surely going to try to misuse it. The bullshitter often calls reports of truth that criticizes him "fake news". If the US had that law he would surely try to use it to censor truthful criticism of him.

That decrease could have had an effect on society overall.

If this atmospheric lead arrived in the Arctic, it may have arrived in Asia and North America too. So the effect could have reached there too. However, it is also possible that the level of lead in the Arctic was less than in Europe.

Maybe it would have reached parts of Africa and South America too. I don't know enough to say whether this was likely to result.

It might be a good strategy for getting reelected, if we take for granted that Labour won't do what Britain really needs: to tax the rich and enable all non-rich Britons to have a better life.

The US government needs to make sure to do this reliably in response to efforts to intimidate voters or lawful election campaigners. If it had responded vigorously in 2020 when a mob of magats besieged a Democratic campaign bus, perhaps magats would not have been so ready to attack the Capitol on Jan 6.

This is a very good idea, and should have been adopted many years ago. I speculate that it was delayed by opposition by business.

]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:36:35 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Secretly_deporting_asylum_seekers,_GRC) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(Secretly_deporting_asylum_seekers,_GRC) The European court of human rights found Greece guilty of secretly carrying out deportations of refugees seeking asylum, in violation of European human rights treaties.

]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:36:34 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(About_Facebook) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#9_January_2025_(About_Facebook) In January 2025, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram will replace fact-checking with a system of not-really-checking similar to what ex-Twitter does.

The announcement was made in ways that signaled the intent to become a loyal part of the corrupter's tame media organizations.

That article also argues that "social media" fact checking was never very effective. (I have no experience with it so I don't know whether that was true.) It further argues that result was inevitable, but I don't see that that claim is sustained there, so I am skeptical that anyone can know whether this is true.

See facebook.html for many other reasons to refuse to be used by Facebook.

]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:06:29 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Urgent:_Nonprofits_status) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Urgent:_Nonprofits_status) US citizens: phone your senators and call on them to reject H.R.9495, the bill that would make it easy to strip a nonprofit organization of tax-exempt status administratively, bypassing trial.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:06:28 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Global_Water_Monitor_Report) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Global_Water_Monitor_Report) *Climate crisis "wreaking havoc" on Earth’s water cycle, report finds.*

]]> Thu, 09 Jan 2025 12:51:14 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Crime_is_going_down,_UK,_US) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#8_January_2025_(Crime_is_going_down,_UK,_US) Most kinds of physical crime have decreased steadily in Britain (and likewise the US) since the start of this century. So why do most people think crime is going up?

A few kinds of crime, such as theft of portable phones and shoplifting, have increased, but the total has decreased enormously.

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 22:36:51 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(New_pun:_the_swarm_of_gnats) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(New_pun:_the_swarm_of_gnats) New pun: The swarm of gnats

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:39:59 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Mainstream_journalism_pressures,_US) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Mainstream_journalism_pressures,_US) Can the bully silence the US mainstream media? It looks like he is already succeeding.

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:39:59 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Tarrifs_highjacked,_weaponized,_US) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Tarrifs_highjacked,_weaponized,_US) *Firms that donated to Republican party avoided tariffs in [the corrupter]'s first term.*

Republicans don't miss a chance to extract the moral equivalent of a bribe.

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:39:59 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Decarbonization_regression,_UK) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Decarbonization_regression,_UK) Labour has retreated from another plan to accelerate decarbonization with a deadline date.

I can understand the pressure to do this. Such changes always cost money. They may reduce the income of some businesses, which generally oppose the change by cherry-picking and exaggeration. Once a government decides to keep the country poor by allowing some individuals to be giga-rich, it keeps encountering a "need" to abandon the attempt.

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:39:59 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Hybrids_with_no_power_plugin!) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#7_January_2025_(Hybrids_with_no_power_plugin!) Pushing for requiring new hybrid cars to have chargers.

]]> Wed, 08 Jan 2025 06:39:59 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Political_topics_off_limits) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Political_topics_off_limits) A Washington Post editorial cartoonist quit because, for the first time, she was told that a political topic was off limits.

The topic that was forbidden was that of billionaire executives going to Mar-a-lago to swear fealty to the corrupter.

More examples: Amazon, and "Open" "AI", have joined the parade of big companies that are donating to the glorification of the corrupter -- what the cartoonist was going to criticize. These donations are not, strictly speaking, bribes, since they don't go to the corrupter personally. But they are the moral equivalent of bribes. They demonstrates how the corrupter has made corruption normal.

]]> Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:19:37 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Burning_waste) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Burning_waste) *Burning waste is not the way to move the UK towards a circular economy.*

]]> Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:19:37 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Taliban_oppressing_women) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Taliban_oppressing_women) The Taliban are inviting foreign tourists, and there is no sign that they refuse in revulsion against the total oppression and segregation of women.

]]> Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:19:36 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Jan_6,_Coup_defeat,_US) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#6_January_2025_(Jan_6,_Coup_defeat,_US) Jan 6 is a date that will live in infamy, unless the wrecker intimidates commemoration of it.

We need a name to help each other remember it by. The only one I can think of is "Coup defeat day". Watch out: the wrecker and the muskrat will try to celebrate the coup as heroism in a perverted idea of patriotism.

]]> Mon, 06 Jan 2025 16:36:42 -0000 Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#5_January_2025_(Tourist_had_holiday_romance_in_Dubai) https://stallman.org/archives/2024-nov-feb.html#5_January_2025_(Tourist_had_holiday_romance_in_Dubai) Two tourists from London went to Dubai with their families, and had a holiday romance. Then one was arrested because the other was not legally "old enough".

This is one of many reasons to stay away from Dubai.