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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.
Canadians: I suggest you seek election advice at a local chapter of a group that pushes to curb global heating and has the courage to say, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel." It will at least use the right goals to suggest who to vote for in your area.
Join a Friday climate strike.That page is made by scraping Fridays for Future so you can get the information without running any Javascript code. I would be very glad if they made the information on their own site accessible from the Free World; then we could simply refer people to their site and do without the scraping etc.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
![[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting
Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]](flag_set_vectorized.png)
[ No upcoming talks. ]
This page includes the text of the letter. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to protect old-growth and mature trees on federal lands. They absorb more carbon than the smaller young trees.
To see the confirmation of your signature, you need to strip all the CSS from it. Icecat has a command in the right-click menus to do that.
US citizens: call on Biden to use executive power to make federal agencies fully account for climate the effects of their decisions.
US citizens: call on Congress to tax billionaires.
US citizens: call on Biden to take climate defense action with dispatch.
US citizens: call on Congress to do everything in its power to protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call on per to sign the discharge petition for the bill to prohibit assault rifles. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: Insist that the corrupter is not above the law.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose cutting SNAP, which provides food benefits to poor people. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Everyone: call on Red Lobster to buy only lobsters caught with ropeless methods.
This is to avoid injuring whales.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Pay the Teachers Act, which would increase the salary of public school teachers.
The page you get after signing may appear blank. If so, stripping or disabling the CSS in the page could make the text visible.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the TAP American Energy Act, which would mandate more drilling in the seas, and more coal mining on land.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to vote against authorizing war with Mexico.
Although the "war on drugs" is only a metaphor, the actual policies it stands for cause many deaths. Extending it into a real war would make it even worse.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to disqualify the wrecker from running for federal office, on the grounds of his call for violence if he is arrested.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress to legalize using US foreign aid funds for abortions": pass the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act.
I object to using the marketing term "health care" to refer to medical treatment, but that's a secondary issue, but not important enough to outweigh my support for this.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to declare a climate emergency now. This would give him powers he could use effectively without Congress.
The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Congress not to extend the corrupter's tax cuts for the wealthy. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the EPA to protect the rusty patched bumblebee (and many other species) from the pesticide cyantraniliprole.
US citizens: call on Biden to appoint Kyrsten Sinema ambassador to Italy.
The proposal is ironic but I think it is seriously proposed.
US citizens: call on Attorney General Garland to automate marijuana pardon applications.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject the Republican plan to replace income tax with a big sales tax. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Biden to declare a climate emergency now. This would give him powers he could use effectively without Congress.
The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on Bayer to stop manufacturing neonicotinoids.
US citizens: call on the Biden administration to hold Silicon Valley Bank executives accountable — to claw back some of their profits from its failure.
The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.
If you phone, please spread the word!
US citizens: call on the Biden Administration to investigate racial inequity at Maximus, a federal call center contractor.
The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
There should be a law requiring online services, if they close a user's account, to permit the user to continue to download whatever information perse had left in the account.
To be sure, it is foolish to rely on an online service to hold any data for you; you should store it locally, and use online services only as backups (encrypted). Preferably more than one online service in parallel, for redundancy. But we should not allow online services to cite this as an excuse for arbitrarily causing people great avoidable harm.
It should be a crime to knowingly approach a person while maskless inside a building or vehicle.
The extreme of this is represented by the Amazon warehouse, where a worker's every move is controlled by the computer system. This is one of many reasons to refuse to buy from Amazon.
Unfortunately, surveillance of workers is not limited to Amazon. I think states should pass laws to limit surveillance of workers. It should cover independent contractors as well as employees.
The law should completely forbid demanding that workers run any specific software on their own computers (keep in mind that portable phones are computers); the employer who wants that must furnish the computer at no charge.
Now it can cause you to be arrested randomly for walking down the street.
If stores use face recognition inside the store, they should not be allowed to use photos for matching against people in the store except for photos they have taken in that store, and photos of people convicted of theft and fraud.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and your senators to urge them to sign Rashida Tlaib's letter calling for dropping charges against Julian Assange.
This page includes the text of the letter. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Companies get graded on greenhouse emissions, and deforestation, based on figures that they supply. JBS, the giant meat processing company, amazed environmentalists by getting a grade of A&minus. They say it must be altering the figures.
A court ruling could eliminate preventive medical care for millions of Americans.
The lawsuit was filed by religious fanatics who object to paying for drugs to prevent transmission of HIV. Those drugs, over time, can wipe out HIV, but extremist Christians think that the deity they worship intended HIV to make homosexuals suffer and we humans should not interfere.
The decision was based on the perverse idea that they have a constitutional right not to pay for insurance coverage of treatments that violate their religion.
I don't think that they object to cancer screening as such. I think those are the collateral damage caused by a desire to punish people for having sex.
The leader of a thug union in California has been charged with smuggling fentanyl.
The "war on drugs" promotes corruption of every sort of official who participates in it . That is just one of the many reasons to get the war off drugs.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus recommends a long list of executive actions that Biden could take to help poor and disprivileged Americans, and restrain the powerful rich from doing some kinds of harm.
Australia's government got a secret report explaining how global heating is a bigger threat to Australia's national security than any possible foreign enemy.
It should publish this report.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and your senators to urge them to sign Rashida Tlaib's letter calling for dropping charges against Julian Assange.
This page includes the text of the letter. The Capitol Switchboard numbers are +1-202-224-3121, +1-888-818-6641 and +1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Companies get graded on greenhouse emissions, and deforestation, based on figures that they supply. JBS, the giant meat processing company, amazed environmentalists by getting a grade of A&minus. They say it must be altering the figures.
A court ruling could eliminate preventive medical care for millions of Americans.
The lawsuit was filed by religious fanatics who object to paying for drugs to prevent transmission of HIV. Those drugs, over time, can wipe out HIV, but extremist Christians think that the deity they worship intended HIV to make homosexuals suffer and we humans should not interfere.
The decision was based on the perverse idea that they have a constitutional right not to pay for insurance coverage of treatments that violate their religion.
I don't think that they object to cancer screening as such. I think those are the collateral damage caused by a desire to punish people for having sex.
The leader of a thug union in California has been charged with smuggling fentanyl.
The "war on drugs" promotes corruption of every sort of official who participates in it . That is just one of the many reasons to get the war off drugs.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus recommends a long list of executive actions that Biden could take to help poor and disprivileged Americans, and restrain the powerful rich from doing some kinds of harm.
Australia's government got a secret report explaining how global heating is a bigger threat to Australia's national security than any possible foreign enemy.
It should publish this report.
I've read about two people convicted and sentenced anonymously in Australia for crimes that the government refuses to describe.
It seems almost Stalinist.
Norway is raising the tax rate on salmon farming so that the companies will have to share the profits with people that live in coastal regions.
Those quoted as objecting to the tax increase base their arguments implicitly on the trickle-down theory of economics. The owners would like us to believe that if we let them get richer, they will share it with us. But when the time comes to do that, they always argue for postponing it.
US citizens: call on Biden to protect old-growth and mature trees on federal lands. They absorb more carbon than the smaller young trees.
To see the confirmation of your signature, you need to strip all the CSS from it. Icecat has a command in the right-click menus to do that.
Global heating is expanding the territory were tornadoes usually strike. The expansion is into the US southeast.
"Smart" devices are designed to enable companies to abuse people, but it turns out domestic abusers take advantage of them too.
Even if your present and former lovers don't mistreat you through the Internet of Stings, those companies will eagerly do so.
*New York Governor Hochul (D) is pushing to gut the state.s signature climate law after raking in nearly half a million dollars from the corporations and lobbyists pushing the move.*
*UAE plans huge oil and gas expansion as it hosts UN climate summit.*
The stress and danger of being in a demographic that is a target for prejudice tends to make people get old fast.
I presume that those demographics tend to have trouble getting a good night's sleep. It now appears that they predisposes people to asthma.
CEOs of big businesses are tired of pushing for gun control, especially since Republicans don't heed them. Reportedly they don't know what else they can do at the moment.
How about this: stop supporting the campaigns of right-wing candidates? That won't take much time, and it will save them money.
Of course, we know why they don't do this.
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 order copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition', signed or not signed.
"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:
Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.
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Richard Stallman
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