graphic by Susan Henson
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Upcoming talks

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Urgent action items

• US citizens: call on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to endorse a global minimum tax on billionaire wealth ahead of the G20 summit.
• Please see the front page and political note message about Julian Assange, from Susan McLucas and Paula Iasella.

  “Julian is just one decision away from extradition” -- Stella Assange

  On May 20th two UK High Court judges will rule on Assange’s appeal hearing after considering the U.S. assurances submitted mid-April.

• Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.

Recording of Guantanamero

There Ought to Be a Law

• California is proposing an interesting approach towards antisocial media platforms.

  It is exciting that SB 976 turns towards restricting recommendation algorithms. But these options should not be limited to minors — every user should have this choice. (Please do not refer to teenagers as "children"; that feeds the US tendency to treat them like children and retard their development.)

  However, I suggest taking a step beyond just choosing to use or not use the platform's addiction system. Recommendation algorithms should be completely separated from platforms!

  If you want to use a nontrivial recommendation algorithm, you should be able to choose it yourself and use it anonymously. You could send it the URLs you want it to base its choices on. These might be some of the pages you had visited, and perhaps pages you had not visited.

  Then it should send you its recommendations. You could pass all, or just some, or none of those recommendations to the platform to look at them.

  AB 1949 is admirable because it gives a small boost to privacy for users of all ages, not only for children. It isn't enough, though — users should also be guaranteed the right and possibility to access through the Tor network and to use aliases. And collection of a user's data by the state should require a warrant against the user.

• The door plug that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane was missing four bolts meant to hold it in place. They were missing because Boeing maintenance removed them and did not put them back in again.

  Some workers actually made the mistake, but they were working as part of a work system that Boeing management was responsible for setting up and running. That's where the real fault is.

  I suggest passing a law to require aircraft manufacturing and repair companies to have a certain fraction of licensed commercial pilots on their boards. Perhaps 66%.

• Private equity is gobbling up large parts of the US nursing home business. This puts patients in danger since private equity can amass lots of money, create an oligopoly, and get away with abuses.

  The study suggests that "regulation may be needed." I will take a stronger stand and call for firm limits — perhaps even prohibiting private equity combinations from owning home nursing businesses.

  I'v also proposed prohibiting private equity from buying up lots of rental housing.

• It should be illegal for a store to charge different prices to customers depending on whether they identify themselves and/or hand over demanded personal data.

Quotes

Here are some quotations that I particularly like.

Most recent Political Notes and News Items

You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.

OSHA rules being blunted on worksites
19 May 2024

US employers are required to protect workers from falls, which can be done with standard methods. They are also required to report such incidents to workers' compensation. But often they don't do either one, and it is hard to make them.

The US legal system is generally inadequate for enforcing workers' rights of whatever kind. That includes union-related rights, the right to get paid one's wages, as well as the right to proper safety measures. If the US enforced workers' rights against their employers the way it enforces the laws that mainly benefit the rich, American workers would, practically speaking, have far more rights.

New political article
19 May 2024

There is a new political article: Fight Modern Slavery, but Leave Astronomy Alone.

Insurance as a sham
19 May 2024

*[Life] insurance companies in Australia are fighting for access to these test results.* The tests show how likely a person is to die from some cancers.

It is obvious why insurance companies want these data: to charge more to people who have the harmful gene variants. The reason that practice is harmful is not so obvious but it is important: life insurance is presumed as part of the state social safety net. If you have dependents, you need life insurance.

Life insurance was developed back in the day when states hardly had a social safety net. In a country with a good enough state system, life insurance becomes unnecessary. That is the real fix.

A Mariupol soldier's POW story
19 May 2024

The Putin forces torture Ukrainian prisoners of war, but they especially torture the musicians of military bands.

Oil $7tn bigger since Paris
19 May 2024

*Banks have given almost $7tn to fossil fuel firms since Paris deal, report reveals.*

Almost all of those trillions has been invested in plunging headfirst into making climate disaster worse.

Zionist as a slur
19 May 2024

The US left has largely come to define "Zionism" as the political philosophy of the apartheid system that Israel applies to occupied Palestine.

The danger is that valid condemnation of Israel's actual policies and behavior may lead to a sort of anti-Zionism, the opposite or reversal of each aspect of Zionism. This tends to transform the conflict into one which admits of no resolution other than the destruction of one of the two sides. That would be a horrible mistake.

I support the existence of Israel, which has the obligation (like every country) to respect human rights and democracy, alongside a state of Palestine which would (like every country) have the same obligation.

Age of streaming services
19 May 2024

It is sad to see how little respect people get whet they complain after companies charged them for mere access to a remote copy of something, and then put limits even on that access.

The author of this article bends over backwards to excuse companies for doing something that is inherently abusive. He grants moral authority to the laws companies have obtained so that they have power over people. He presupposes that companies deserve whatever power they can get governments to impose.

When you get a copy of anything that has been published, no one is entitled to the power to control whether, when or how you can use it. No one is entitled to the power to make it disappear. Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is an injustice and ought to be a felony.

When people defy that through forbidden sharing, don't call that "piracy".

Border force
19 May 2024

Australian border thugs stretched the lax Australian law to demand the passwords to unlock travelers' phones. That they do this arbitrarily, without court orders, is an offense against the rule of law. That they pretend it is "random", which clearly it is not, is a lie that shames the entire Australian government.

Of course, Australia is not the only semi-free country that does this, and non-free countries such as China do far worse. That is no excuse for Australia.

It is amusing, though, to see the complaining passenger complain that it is unthinkable to travel without a device that will snoop on him.

Ex-Trump aide
19 May 2024

A Maga Maggot joked about giving homeless people counterfeit money to get them arrested. "How broken must you be to do this and think it's funny?", someone commented.

Birth trauma scandal
19 May 2024

In the UK before Tory budget cuts, medicine for pregnancy and birth was adequate, except for some disprivileged groups. Budget cuts have made it generally horrible, leading to injuries.

Israeli public opinion
19 May 2024

*Israeli public opinion is shifting on the Gaza war — but this may make Netanyahu even more reckless.*

Patient recovery
19 May 2024

*Hospital surgical teams that include more female doctors improve patient outcomes, lower the risk of serious complications and could in turn reduce healthcare costs, according to the world’s largest study of its kind.*

South China Sea
19 May 2024

The Philippines found a clever nonviolent way to respond to China's naval provocations in the disputed sea between them, which China is trying to seize.

2024 Class of Gaza
19 May 2024

*The 2024 Class of Gaza: The Students Have Done Their Part.*

Lifeguard shortage
18 May 2024

Night-Mayor Adams argued for allowing unauthorized immigrants to work in the US by saying that they could fill New York City's lifeguard shortage.

I see no racism in that statement. (By the way, Adams is black; for most political issues that makes no difference, but in regard to whether his statements express racism it might be pertinent.)

It is true that only a small fraction of unauthorized immigrants reach the US by swimming, or by water at all. His words may have suggested otherwise; if so, that was inaccurate. But perhaps he did not intend that implication. His words say that many of them say they can swim.

Anyway, if he was serious rather than sarcastic about the political suggestion of allowing them to work, I think we can pardon that inaccurate possible point.

Loathsomeness of Trump
18 May 2024

The corrupter's criminal trial is a tour through a world of pervasive corruption and immorality — the world he imposes on those around him.

Migratory birds
18 May 2024

Global heating is making seasons unpredictable. Some birds starve because after migration the things they would eat are not available; in some years the food has not appeared, and in other years it has already disappeared or changed form.

Global heating target
18 May 2024

The target of limiting global heating to no more than 1.5°C was proposed as an ambitious plan. The evident failure to reach it does not mean all is lost.

Not yet.

Aid convoy's IDF-escort self-sabotaged
18 May 2024

The aid convoy attacked by Israeli nationalist fanatics was escorted by Israeli soldiers. They did nothing to stop the attack.

States' officials battling over abortion
18 May 2024

*The Nationwide Right-Wing Attack on Reform Prosecutors Is Now an Attack on Abortion Rights [as well].*

The four factors of the apocalypse:
   global heating, global hating,
   global eating, global mating.

Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.

E-books

Non-oppressive Commercial E-books

Don't use Facebook

Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.

Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.

Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.

Internet Music EULAS

Business Supremacy Treaties

Countries to Stay Away From

No national identity cards

I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.

Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.

India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.

Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.

Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.

Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.

Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.

Ireland - national ID card by stealth.

ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.

Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.

Borders

Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.

Flight connections

Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.

The Lifelong Activist

People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.

I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.

Disclosure: I am friends with the author.

Bob Chassell

Solidarity Economy and Free Software

Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.

Falkvinge articles

I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.