Some links of interest from here and there:
- I noted that Google was getting push-back from some of its employees for its efforts to help boost the artificial intelligence of the U.S. military’s death drones. The company has since decided not to renew the project and has further vowed not to participate in the weaponizing of its artificial intelligence technology in a set of published principles on Artificial Intelligence at Google. Bending over backwards not to spin this as some sort of peacenik, anti-military decision, the company said “we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas. These include cybersecurity, training, military recruitment, veterans’ healthcare, and search and rescue. These collaborations are important and we’ll actively look for more ways to augment the critical work of these organizations and keep service members and civilians safe.”
- There’s an interesting trend suddenly emerging in which consumer brands are trying to get a public relations boost by taking action against the government or stepping in to replace it. In these cases: Country Time Lemonade offering to provide free legal assistance to children who are fined or otherwise harassed by The Man for setting up lemonade stands, and Domino’s Pizza filling potholes that have gone unfilled by the ostensibly responsible governments.
- Here’s a second tax resistance how-to video from Nicaragua’s Theo Báez (in Spanish).
- Under the Jacob Zuma regime in South Africa, the tax agency became so corrupt and unwilling to confront tax evasion by political elites, that a country with high “tax morale” (relative willingness by citizens to pay taxes voluntarily) has now become one in which “more and more South Africans have simply stopped paying their taxes… In the eyes of many experts, the government’s — and the country’s — ability to right itself is at stake.”
- Breizh-Info reports on the craze of destroying traffic ticket issuing bots in France. While the Bonnets Rouges of Brittany probably deserve some credit for getting the ball rolling on this, the acts have spread to other regions of France. And “with rare exceptions,” says the reporter, “the culprits are never found or denounced.”
- A peace activist convicted for his role in a demonstration against the Navy base being constructed on Jeju Island has refused to pay his fine, opting to serve 46 days in prison instead.
- Waging Nonviolence reports that tax resistance has been one of the tactics of Ambazonian separatists in Cameroon.
