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Daily political notes about what is happening in the world.
Site URL: stallman.org/archives/polnotes.html
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Posts: 87
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US health institutions no longer dependable
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_(canada_us_health_institutions)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Canada warns that US government institutions should not be trusted for medical advice. I've urged my clinics and my state government to refer to something reliable rather than US institutions such as the CDC.
Venezuelan oil focus
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_(trump_venezuelan_oil_war)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
The bully no longer tries to justify the war with Venezuela based on alleged drug trade, but rather claims that the US (or US oil companies?) owns Venezuelan oil deposits.
US intervention in Venezuela
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_(trump_intervention_in_venezuela)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
It is unlikely that the US intervention in Venezuela will have a simple resolution. The wrecker and his henchmen have stated no plan for what to do next, which suggests that whatever they do will make an even bigger mess. The US used to intervene…
Arbitrary denial of US visas to five Europeans
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
The bully's henchmen arbitrarily ordered denial of US visas to five Europeans who campaign against online hatred. One of them, Imran Ahmed, lives with his wife in the US as a permanent resident, and they want to jail him and deport him. A judge ruled he…
Urgent: Fully staff Federal Election Commission
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
US citizens: call on the corruptor to fully staff the Federal Election Commission.
Urgent: Stop news media presenting oversimplified statements about inflation
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
US citizens: call on news media to stop presenting oversimplified statements about inflation and its effects.
Self defense
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_(us_venezuela_self_defense)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
The US government is expected to claim that its attack on Venezuela was justified self-defense by pretending that smuggling of drugs — mostly not even from Venezuela — constituted making war on the US. The US will surely veto any effort in the Security…
Urgent: Require environmental impact statements on data centers
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
US citizens: call on the US government to require comprehensive environmental impact statements from proposed data centers. Don't let them lock in fossil fuels.
Working Americans and Medicaid
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_(Working_Americans_and_Medicaid)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Most of the Americans that magats seek to kick off Medicaid for "not working" do in fact work, but the difficulty of proving this over and over will kick them off anyway.
Robert Reich on American Bar Association and American Medical Association and saboteur in chief
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Robert Reich asks why the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association have not taken action against lawyers and medical professionals who violate the ethical rules of their professions obeying the saboteur in chief.
Israel doesn't bother to lie about killing journalists
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
*Israel used to lie about killing journalists; now it barely bothers to do so. What happened?*
Banksy image on side of court building
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
*Court staff cover up Banksy image of judge beating a protester.* Banksy painted in on the side of a court building.
(satire) Condoms cause autism
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#6_January_2026_((satire)_Condoms_cause_autism)
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
(satire) *RFK Jr. Warns Mistress That Condoms Cause Autism.*
Crisis Intervention Training for cops
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Crisis Intervention Training for cops, teaching them how to treat someone having a drug overdose, makes for a decrease in overall deaths from drug overdose.
Waymo driverless taxis during power outage
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
When part of San Francisco had a power outage, and traffic lights shut off, Waymo driverless taxis (which are not "autonomous") were commanded simply to stop at intersections. That was better than driving normally without traffic lights, but it blocked…
Right-wing extremists trying to eliminate equal rights
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Right-wing extremists are trying to eliminate all vestige of the 20th century ideas of equal rights for non-whites, for non-Christians, and for women.
Plain text transfer of confidential documents
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
European institutions including hospitals and courts have been using a company called Zivver to transmit and save confidential documents and records. Investigators report finding that documents are sent to Zivver's server in plain text, and encrypted only…
Cyrillic letters as "funny" stand-ins for other letters
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Writing Cyrillic letters as "funny" stand-ins for similar-looking letters in the Roman alphabet is annoying to some people whose languages use that alphabet. And it has no wittiness to make up for that. I too look down on mockery of the Cyrillic…
Maximum temperature reduction managed by carbon capture
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
A new report says that worldwide, the maximum [temperature] reduction that carbon capture and storage could manage for the atmosphere would be 0.7C, far short of the 5C to 6C industry and governments claim. In effect, CC&S is a distraction that enables…
White House refuses to rule out summary executions
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
*White House Refuses to Rule Out Summary Executions of People on Its Secret Domestic Terrorist List.*
Warnings that machine learning is ripe for abuse
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
*[In 2017,] Kate Crawford of Microsoft Research warned that [machine learning] is ripe for abuse. Crawford, who researches the social impact of large-scale data systems and machine learning, described how encoded biases in [machine learning]…
Threats of military trial of Senator Kelly
Published: January 7, 2026 10:37
Secretary of Politicized Justice Hegseth threatened a military trial of Senator Kelly (a former Navy officer) for reminding the US military that it is lawful to disobey an illegal order, but the Pentagon shows no particular interest in prosecuting…
Upcoming talk: Atlanta, Georgia
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#5_January_2026_(Upcoming_talk:_Atlanta,_Georgia)
Published: January 6, 2026 10:36
On Friday, January 23rd, RMS will give a talk, "Free/Libre Software And Our Freedom: Our shield against many digital injustices." at Scheller College of Business. Seats are unreserved. Please bring cash to get FSF merchandise.
Trump plan to vet visitors’ social media
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
The persecutor plans to impose fear and self-censorship on visitors from many countries (the ones whose citizens don't need visas to visit the US) by demanding almost full cooperation with monitoring of their past and future communications. The one thing…
Investigation of political interference
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
A UK political party calls for investigation of political interference by hostile foreign states to include interference by the US. It needs to include the US if its results are to be meaningful.
Perennial grains
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(perennial_grains_breeding_progress)
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
Progress in breeding perennial grains has already resulted in a commercially grown wheat-relative. Breeders hope to produce one with the same yield as ordinary wheat, but more efficient to grow.
SNAP food work requirements
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(snap_food_work_requirement)
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
*In many parts of the country, there are new work requirements to get food aid. But starving people doesn’t motivate them — despite centuries of this rhetoric.* In other words, poor people who can work will work, if work is doable.
Trump threatens to move olympics and world cup
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
The bully threatens to move highly profitable global sporting events out of US cities that don't bow down to him. The head of FIFA has been sucking up to him so much as to suggest it would willingly cooperate with being used as a stick to beat US cities…
EU: New Rules on Asylum
Published: January 4, 2026 04:37
Amnesty International rebuked the EU for strict new asylum policies that can arbitrarily send a refugee to an unrelated country with which person has no connections. They define many countries as "safe" including Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo,…
Returning to the west bank after 20 years
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(report_west_bank_twenty_years)
Published: January 4, 2026 04:36
*I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today.* Israel has made hundreds more checkpoints to impede Palestinians' movement, the number of "settlers" has gone from 400,000 to 700,000,…
Vouchers fuel private school tuition hikes
Published: January 4, 2026 04:36
"Private school voucher" systems, where a US state pays a fixed amount towards the fees of a private school, generally do not enable poor people's children to attend a private school. They typically charge substantially more than the voucher amount. The…
60 Minutes planned segment pulled
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
It appears that CBS omitted the 60 minutes segment about El Salvador's brainwashing prison because of an arbitrary decision not to cover that topic without a statement from the persecutor or a henchman. This decision is foolish submission — which is…
Safe drinking water bill veto
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(lauren_boebert_trump_colorado)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
The persecutor vetoed two bills to fund regional improvements in safety of drinking water, as apparent political retaliation for unrelated lack of submission. One of them was passed unanimously by the House and Senate. It will be interesting to see if…
Trump admin childcare funding freeze
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
Henchmen have suspended childcare payments to all 50 states. This is ostensibly a response to vague accusations of funding irregularities; he demands that states prove they have done nothing wrong.
Kennedy Center bylaws
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(trump_kennedy_center)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
How the perverter's new appointees in the Kennedy Center board arranged to block the other board members from voting.
Record wealth in 2025
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(billionaires_record_wealth_2025)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
The world economy is rapidly centralizing ownership of the world by enriching billionaires.
Disturbing reality of US prison food
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(eating_behind_bars_book_prison_food)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
* In Eating Behind Bars, author Leslie Soble details how food is used to further punish incarcerated people in the US.*
Dire climate change outcomes
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
*[Australian] officials warned in 2005 of major economic, environmental and social disruption to Australia [in the future] due to its dependence on coal.*
Climate Crisis year in review
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(climate_crisis_guardian_readers)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
Americans report how global heating is impacting various aspects of life. No more snow in the winter in Washington, no natural water for 30 miles in the Appalachian Trail. The garden no longer grows well in Sacramento. Butterfly species endangered in…
Protesters against ICE
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(trump_ice_protests_tow_truck_la)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
Several of the magats' retaliatory prosecutions have failed for lack of any basis for convicting the accused.
EU legislation on deforestation
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(eu_legislation_deforestation)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
*EU legislation intended to fight deforestation has been effectively "dismantled".* Without verification of sources of supply, it invites fraud. The loss of the world's forests will cause a massive extinction and increase greenhouse gas concentrations,…
Consumer watchdog funding
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(consumer_financial_protection)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
A judge rejected the magats' artificial excuse for cutting off funding to the CFPB.
Bad cops and cultural silence
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(mukund_krishna_sarah_everard)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
*Mukund Krishna, chief executive of the Police Federation of England & Wales: Bad cops prey on the public — and their fellow officers. To stop them, we must break the culture of silence.* The biggest cause of injustice by cops is, I…
Israel to ban aid organisations
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(israel_to_ban_dozen_aid_agencies)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
Israel made an extreme demand — that Gaza aid agencies hand over a lot of personal data about all their staff — and uses this as a pretext to exclude them. The aid organizations thus excluded include ActionAid, International Rescue Committee and Médecins…
Bragg soldiers
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(bragg_soldiers_allegiance)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
The wrecker is trying to corrupt the nonpartisan stance of the US military.
Honey bee study
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#3_January_2026_(honey_bee_boom_tuscan_italy_aoe)
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
Feral honeybees establish themselves in wild areas and are so successful that they leave insufficient food for all the other bee species.
Extreme floods and droughts
Published: January 3, 2026 22:36
*Only a third of world's river basins experienced normal conditions in 2024.*
Urgent: Impeach RFK Jr.
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Urgent:_Impeach_RFK_Jr.)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call for impeaching RFK Jr. US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue. To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. Please spread the word.
Urgent: Condemn official White House enemies list
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
US citizens: Condemn the official White House enemies list as an attack on the press and on democracy.
Urgent: Investigate corporate donors for ballroom
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the corporations that have donated to the cheater's new ballroom. US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue. To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is…
Urgent: Reject digital state ID systems
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
US citizens: phone your state legislators and call on them to reject digital state ID systems. Details may vary, but those systems will surely require people to run nonfree software to use them; in addition, they will enable government agencies to…
Urgent: Reject renaming the Kennedy Center
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
US citizens: call on Congress to reject renaming the Kennedy Center as the "Trump-Kennedy Center". US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue. To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121. Please…
Challenge to New South Wale's anti-protest laws
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
*Activist groups to challenge New South Wales's [anti-]protest laws on right to free speech grounds.*
Stop and search in metropolitan London
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The cops of metropolitan London appear to be using new "stop and search" power to harass and intimidate protests on behalf of Palestinians' rights. The nominal purpose of this power is to catch people who are carrying knives. However, it appears that…
Conjecture of purpose of deportation thugs in major cities
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Conjecture: the undisclosed purpose of sending deportation thugs into major Democratic cities and cause chaos is to perfect a system for causing chaos — with the plan to use it to rig the next election. The article's text is not visible with LibreJS…
Mayor of Manchester apologized to queer people
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The mayor of Manchester apologized to queer people for the persecution that the Manchester thug department systematically directed at them in the 1980s (and, I suspect, before and after that decade). Many other police forces in Britain have apologized.
Excuse to cancel offshore wind generator projects
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The bullshitter has presented a new excuse to cancel offshore wind generator projects — claiming that they might interfere with military radar coverage. The military studied this question before but concluded it was not a real problem. I suspect that…
ChatGPT leads user into world of delusions
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
ChatGPT appears to have led one user into a world of delusions, in which he murdered his mother then killed himself. It refuses to release the log of his conversations with ChatGPT to the court. Given the circumstances, the court ought to compel the…
Persecution of Cop City protesters continues
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The persecution of Cop City protesters continues as the US Department of Injustice retains seized property (letters, phones, etc) of many protesters for years.
Magat plan to eliminate National Center for Atmospheric Research
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The magats plan to eliminate the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Its climate modeling demonstrates the danger of greenhouse gas emissions, so planet roasters want to put an end to honest climate modeling. When only fossil fuel companies do…
Plans to store prisoners for deportation in warehouses
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The persecutor's henchmen plan to store prisoners for deportation in warehouses, literally. Up to around 10,000 people in each. In effect, concentration camps. Warehouses are not designed to provide water, toilets or even air ventilation for so many…
Economic danger of "AI" bubble
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Economic_danger_of_AI_bubble)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
An article explains the economic danger of the current "AI" bubble, and the long-term menace of possible human-level artificial intelligence controlled by a manipulative and powerful company, while it also punctures the hype campaign that says LLMs are…
Canada adopting artificial restrictions on applying for asylum
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Canada is adopting artificial restrictions on applying for asylum, designed to prevent many people's applications from ever being considered on the merits of the facts. One of these excuses is to pretend that the US is a safe country for refugees, which…
Delivering cutting-edge therapies
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Delivering_cutting-edge_therapies)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
* Cutting-edge therapies exist, but the market cannot deliver them cheaply. Britain must build NHS capacity so that cures become collective goods, not expensive products.* This conclusion goes for every country. We should replace the patent…
Coping with future of climate disaster
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Coping with the future of the climate disaster demands political honesty about extreme weather. Because it's not enough to cope with the current level of disaster. Even more important is to avoid making it worse.
UK group that accepts donations for Palestine has bank account frozen
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
A UK group that accepts donations to provide aid to people in Palestine has had its bank account frozen as part of an investigation into the arbitrarily banned protest group "Palestine Action." The investigators and the bank have told the group nothing…
Versions of Christianity that takes care of people
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Some Christians have shaped their versions of Christianity to take care of the people that the bully wants to persecute. This won't convince me to believe in a god, but I recognize that this way is better than the bully's way.
Don't write of protest movements
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Don't_write_of_protest_movements_)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
In general, protest movements are often very effective — don't write them off.
Protecting rainforest of Darien Gap
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Protecting_rainforest_of_Darien_Gap)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Protecting the rainforest of the Darien Gap.
UK government's new "national security" law
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
The UK government's new "national security" law prohibits a broad range of political activities that might aim for results that benefit a foreign power. In some cases, even in the absence of any contact between the people doing them and any representative…
Billboards near military bases
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-nov-feb.html#2_January_2026_(Billboards_near_military_bases)
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
Win Without War has put up billboards near some US military bases to remind troops of the laws that say they can and should refuse illegal orders. The article shows that the persecutor has renamed Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, to bear once again the name…
China's support helping Burmese military rulers
Published: January 3, 2026 04:36
China's support is helping the Burmese military rulers recover from a very weak situation.
Snoop-phone cameras "adjust" photos
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-sep-dec.html#30_December_2025_(Snoop-phone_cameras_adjust_photos)
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Snoop-phone cameras "adjust" all photos by default to make them more visually attractive. This falsifies everyone thus photographed. I think that this contributes one more factor that would lead people to prefer to interact through phones rather than in…
Migrants from Mauritania fear deportation
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Migrants from Mauritania in the US fear being deported back there to live under a form of apartheid system with slavery.
Father tells children truth about Santa Claus lie
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
A father writes that he told his children the truth about Christmas presents, rather than the usual Santa Claus lie, so they won't feel judged if some year he can't afford to get them any presents. I think that is a good reason. But I still feel that…
US citizens of foreign origin carrying their passports
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
US citizens of foreign origin have been terrorized by the deportation thugs' violence, and their rush to deport people without allowing time for justice or even fact-checking. Many now carry their passports all the time, hoping the thugs will check those…
Episode of 60 Minutes on El Salvador prison pulled from air
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
*60 Minutes episode on brutal El Salvador prison, pulled from air by CBS, appears online.* This article summarizes much of its description of the torture in the Cecot prison. It is clearly meant to destroy the prisoners' bodies and minds, though…
US general said he would obey orders to attack people inside US
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
A US general, ultra-loyal to the bully, said he would obey orders to attack people that the bully calls "terrorist" inside the US. The phrase "confident in the lawful order" is not clear. It invites us to comfort ourselves by believing that this…
Economists call for going easy on Sri Lanka's debt
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Leading world economists call for going easy on Sri Lanka's debt after the recent devastating storm. Even before that, Sri Lanka's debt was crushing and unjust.
Violence against news reporters increased
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Violence against news reporters increased greatly this year. In many cases they were attacked while covering actions of the deportation thugs. Many of the attacks were committed by thugs.
Governments have eased pressure on Israel
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
The adoption of the "peace plan" for Gaza has not brought peace or a cease fire, nor ended the siege of Gaza, but governments around the world have made it as an excuse to remove all pressure on Israel and Netanyahu to cease their crimes.
Antimuslimist threats in Australia
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
After the antisemitic killings in Australia follows a wave of antimuslimist threats. These two forms of hatred are aimed at different religions, but they are basically similar in form: stirring up hatred of an "other" to make people panic and start to…
Iranian dress code for women
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-sep-dec.html#30_December_2025_(Iranian_dress_code_for_women)
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
For the moment, Iranian women have the government's clothing rules enforcers cowed even as it continues to bluster.
High price of medicines in the US
https://stallman.org/archives/2025-sep-dec.html#30_December_2025_(High_price_of_medicines_in_the_US)
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Medicines are terribly expensive in the US because the US helps Big Pharma gouge on medicine and does little to resist them. The bullshitter claims that the prices are high in the US because other well-off countries have national medical systems that…
Trump and Putin share craving for status
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
*Trump and Putin share a craving for status. That's why they both want to destroy Europe.*
Offices of two important newspapers destroyed in Bangladesh
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
Violent mobs have rampaged across Bangladesh, and destroyed by fire the offices of two important newspapers. The article does not say what cause or side the mobs support, but they may be Islamist extremists.
US dropped plan to deport whistleblower to China
Published: December 31, 2025 04:39
The US has dropped its politically-motivated plan to deport whistleblower Guan Heng to China.