Various indications suggest that Russia cracked the DNC's servers and leaked their internal emails.

But this is not a certainty.

However, it is a certainty that Trump and Putin support each other in other ways, and that they are similarly autocratic. Trump has been getting a lot of investment money from Russia for many years.

Given the way Putin has imposed control over Russia, this money must be coming from Putin's friends.

No matter who leaked the emails, the real issue is the dishonesty of the officials of the Democratic National Committee, revealed by them.

Let's Talk about Tax as a Force for Common Good — or We Lose the Debate.

I am concerned about tax fairness. We should make rich people and businesses pay the fair share, a larger share than now, which they can easily afford. Then we can reduce taxes for the middle class and aid the poor better. We can also invest more in making society work better for everyone.

The US proposes to let other governments subpoena data about people directly from US companies.

The U SAP AT RIOT act already makes it dangerously easy for the US government to get data about Americans. This bill would make things worse.

"Dark patterns" are misleading or obnoxious business practices that trick or pressure people to pay for things they don't want, or allow abusive treatment. It ought to be illegal, but often is not.

Facebook is forcing its useds to run a proprietary Messenger app to get their messages, by making the web site refuse to provide them.

This is surely part of a multi-stage plan to use the app to exercise more control over the useds -- perhaps to show them ads that they cannot block.

There are many reasons not to let Facebook use you. But even if you let yourself be used, don't run proprietary software!