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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of
the Free Software Foundation or
the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been
hosted elsewhere and managed separately.
If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
I urge you to vote in Democratic primaries for the progressive candidate, if there is one. And in the final election I urge you to vote for Democrats, unless a liberal independent had a good chance of winning.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to![[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting
Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]](flag_set_vectorized.png)
US citizens: call on Biden to de-escalate the Israel-Hezbollah war.
I'm looking for a cartoonist who would like to draw cartoons for me once in a while. If you're interested, please write to rms, which refers to me, at the location gnu period org.
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to ask, because the state should never give money to a business "to support it." Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price.
These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an opporunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from.
With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from.
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.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
US citizens: call on Biden to de-escalate the Israel-Hezbollah war.
A study comparing psilocybin with a prescription antidepressant found that the psilocybin was equally or more effective. It even tended to lead to other improvements.
A study compared ten wealthy countries' medical systems.
The US system provided the worst medical care and charged
twice as much for it.
The other nine countries do better because they have national medical
systems. The US needs one of those. The US private-centered system
is likely to eventually kill you by pushing you into bankruptcy.
For the billionaires, the function of the lunatic right wing (the
bullshitter/corrupter and his supporters) is to make it difficult to
challenge plutocratist Democrats from the left. Biden has moved
partly in the progressive directions, and Harris is likely to continue
that path, but what we really need is a Sanders.
*Gaza publishes identities of 34,344 Palestinians killed in war with Israel.*
The usual count of deaths includes 7,613 more -- corpses which have not been identified.
Democratic senators and Bernie Sanders shamed big US corporations that pay their CEOs more than they pay in federal taxes.
They are AIG, Agilent Tech. Alliant Energy, Ameren, American Electrical Power, AmerisourceBergen, Atmos Energy, CMS Energy, DISH, DTE Energy, Darden, Dominion, Duke Energy, Entergy, Evergy, First Energy, Kinder Morgan, Match Group, MetLife, NRG Energy, NextEra, Oneok, PPL, Principal Financial, Salesforce, Sempra Energy, T-Mobile, Tesla, U.S. Steel, UGI, Voya Financial, Williams, and Xcel Energy.
Australia's government approved expansion of three existing coal mines.
It is not as much of a planet roaster as the right-wing government it replaced, but (like most countries) it fails to recognize the desperate urgency of decarbonization.
California is considering *the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, which would require producers of apparel, towels, bedding and upholstery to implement and fund a statewide reuse, repair and recycling program for their products.*
It may be difficult to design clothing to be recyclable -- and clothing that people have actually worn out (as I often do) are difficult to reuse or repair. But if this law is done right, it could pressure the companies that "produce" clothing to head in that direction
I wonder how the bill deals with outsourcing of clothing production. To try to enforce this law on the companies in poor countries which really make the clothing would be ineffective.
One effect of global heating is that rapidly increasing costs of no-longer-natural disasters are undermining the foundations of the system of insurance for buildings and property. A single mega disaster can collapse all levels.
This will tend to expose everyone to unpredictable risk of being wiped out.
Is it possible to develop building methods that are proof against the strongest hurricanes? The first step would be to cease building close in coastal areas that could be inundated, but that won't be enough; even buildings at a sufficient altitude can be wrecked by floods, fire, wind and flying trees or bricks.
Building storm shutters over all windows might help with the unforeseen flying objects. Building on stilts could help with the floors. Could suitable choices of building materials and keeping large pants away help with the fires?
A report argues that *policymakers could tip the world into a series of "positive tipping points", accelerating the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, by simply introducing mandates requiring key sectors to make the change.*
The report claims that taxing emissions is not a strong enough pressures, and directly requiring certain specific activities to decarbonize would be more effective.
*Harris calls for end to Senate filibuster to restore US abortion rights.*
When the wrecker was president, Republicans abolished the filibuster rule for appointing judges.
That enabled them to pack the courts with right-wing extremists, including the extreme court
So it is no use for Democrats to keep the filibuster rule in place in the hope that Republicans will consider it too sacred to touch.
If the Democrats control Congress next year, any measure to fix the Supreme Court or undo damage they have done will surely be blocked by a Republican filibuster unless Democrats abolish it.
Global heating is causing fast heavy rainfall all around the world. The most recent instance was in eastern Europe.
The speed of the rainfall tends to cause local mini-disasters by flooding places that had never been flooded before.
*Experts Unsurpassed at Intensity of Extreme Weather But Say Damage Wreaked Shows How Unprepared World Is.*
This flooding is one of several kinds of local disasters that global heating is increasing. Together they imperil the system of home insurance.
The problem shows up in the fact that many people can't get insurance again disasters that destroy They homes, but insurance is not the fundamental cause of this problem. Rather, it is the seam at which the overstuffed bag splits open. If rebuilding our House as fast as they are now being destroyed is unsustainable for society, insurance as such can't alter that. Either we make the rebuilding sustainable for society or we will end up without houses.
In the long term, curbing global heating needs to be part of making rebuilding sustainable in the future.
Marieha Hussain was charged with a crime for calling some Tory ministers "coconuts".
Ms Hussain is right that the thug department should make up for the harm it did to her with this evidently unjust charge. Criticizing politicians by calling them "coconuts" must not be a crime.
That criticism is, however, an example of a morally misguided assumption: that people of a certain demographic group have an obligation to hold certain political views, and are somehow betraying that group if they do not.
People are members of demographic groups, but thoughts are not. No one has an obligation to hold the views of the group perse was descended from.
The Tories Richi Sunak and Suella Braverman are very wrong to stand for plutocratist and repressive policies, and they are responsible for personally (as ministers of state) helping to impose those views on Britain. But that has nothing to do with their ethnicity. Those views are wrong no matter who holds them.
An additional reason to reject the "coconuts" approach of criticizing people's views as "betrayal of their demographic group" is that it tends to legitimize those views for people of other groups.
NYC's night-mayor Adams has been indicted for taking bribes and foreign campaign contributions.
Here is more of suspicions about him.
This reminds me of what Pseudolus said about being insensitive to physical pain. "I am going to crack down on crime … Not my own!"
*Mexico’s ‘anti-monuments’ force country to remember its [tens of thousands of people who are] missing.*
The world's countries pledged to reduce the death rate due to antibiotic resistance by 10% by 2030.
there is a simple way to slow the increase in antibiotic resistance: simply end the mass use of antibiotics in livestock.
What makes this difficult to do in practice is that massive use of antibiotics in livestock is what makes factory farms profitable, so their owners lobby hard against it. Will this pledge help overcome the lobbying?
Most people in wealthy countries endanger their health by eating too much meat. Discouraging that practice could help slow the increase in antibiotic resistance, but that too faces a powerful lobby.
To achieve more than that will require advances in medicine. But in order for them to do the good we would hope for, we must keep them safe from patents. If the US government subsidizes the research, it could keep them un-patented in the US.
Could it prevent US companies from patenting them in other countries? Maybe that requires in world patent treaties — which ought to be made anyway.
That research is a very important project to subsidize. Secondary to [pol note] curbing global heating,
because if climate disaster destroys civilization I expect humanity will completely lose 20th century technology including antibiotics.
7 to 15% of mothers regret that they had children.
*Pakistan says police orchestrated killing of doctor [Shah Nawaz] accused of blasphemy.*
This practice, which repeats frequently, shows how Pakistan is dominated by brutal, drooling religious fanaticism. This is of of the reasons to refuse to visit Pakistan, and why I have never gone there.
Typhoid fever is becoming a dangerous disease again as is bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. People who catch it once again often die.
The same is in various stages of happening with other diseases.
* [Egyptian dissident] Alaa Abd el-Fattah is due to complete five-year sentence over social media post but family fear further charges.*
His relatives ask the British government to press Egypt to release him.
Harris has stated economic policies that focus on helping Americans become and remain middle class.
I am in favor of these plans, but I would put more emphasis on helping the poor, the people who have to survive on the lowest paid jobs or who are unable to work. To pay for this, we should tax the rich — not only to reverse the grab by rich they got so rich at the expense of everyone else, but to reduce the power that they get from their wealth.
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.
Non-oppressive Commercial E-books
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.
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.
Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.
Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.
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.
Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.
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.
These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849
Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to
more information. The current notes are
here. For all previous
notes, see this page.
See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.
Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.
Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.
The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
Earth under attack from planet Koch.
On doxing, and how to spell it.
A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta
Española. 
Here I am wearing my "power tie".
Wine snobs get their comeuppance.
Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.
My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.
My funny poetry and song parodies.
My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).
My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)
My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)
My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)
My Puns in German (New 02/2016)
Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)
--Saint
IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon
be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for
census purposes.
There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"
The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.
I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.
If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.
Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.
ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.
No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)
Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation
A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.
Avec des chapeaux French song parody.
My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.
Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".
Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor
I would like to thank:
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