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RSS site feed for the most recent political notes and new material.

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.

Don't watch TV coverage of Covid-19!

We will gather at Park St. Station for our next rally for Julian Assange Monday, May 22 from 11 to 12 then go to Black Seed Cafe to write letters to Congress, the DoJ and the press. I hope you can join us.

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.

Is your bank pressuring you to use biometric ID? If so, please write to rms at gnu dot org. It could be useful if you document what is happening.

Please join the Free Software Foundation to support its work for your freedom.

"They" is plural — for singular antecedents, use singular gender-neutral pronouns.

Link Policy

The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.

Civil Liberties Minute:

[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting 
             Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]
graphic by Susan Henson
Americans, you may wish to copy this icon to your own page, as a way of showing what patriotism means to you.

Upcoming talks

Urgent action items

Recording of Guantanamero

Listen to the recording of Guantanamero, a protest song written in Spanish. The recording is in Ogg Vorbis format. To install an Ogg Vorbis player, see the FSF's Ogg Players page.

There Ought to Be a Law

More items where there ought to be a law.

Quotes

Here are some quotations that I particularly like.

Most recent Political Notes and News Items

(RSS Feed)

the contentious tool US immigration uses to get your data
28 May 2023

The US immigration thug agency uses sites such as YouTube as well as Facebook and Twitter to find all users who seem to be interested in matters concerning immigration.

It is clear that some of these subpoenas investigate people who are not by any stretch of the imagination engaged in planning crimes. These are nothing like the Proud Boys.

The only way to deal with this problem is not to let those sites collect personal data on people for watching anything, unless there is a subpoena to collect data on those who visit a particular channel or page.

Look at what hedge funds really do
28 May 2023

The myth of Capitalism is that investors take risks with their money, so they deserve a big profit when the risk succeeds. I can go along with this to a point: we can't let the investors keep most of the wealth that a business produces — most has to go to workers and to the state.

Nowadays, private equity fund managers and similar "investors" have obtained plutocratist laws which assure them of profits even from failure.

This problem stems from another foolish general practice: the US has more or less given up on penalizing companies that do harm. Instead, the proposal is always to subsidize businesses that say they won't do the harm.

And governments don't even bother to insist that the business do what it was subsidized for.

those injured by 2020’s police violence speak out
28 May 2023

Thugs around the US violently attacked protesters and journalists at the rallies for George Floyd in 2020. Some of those shot with "nonlethal" weapons and left with irreparable injuries.

Have the thugs that refused to give Evans any help getting to the hospital been punished for that?

Have the thugs that encircled and besieged protesters

been punished for that?

Florida groups warn of danger from ‘dictator’ DeSantis
28 May 2023

Americans, what DeMentis is doing to Florida shows what he would do to the whole US if he becomes president.

He has pioneered new sorts of bullying that go beyond the corrupter.

DeMentis aims do more than defeat opposition; he seeks to punish those that dared to oppose him.

I do not judge laws and government policies mainly based on whether they induce big companies such as Disney to move work to my state or my country. But I see, in DeMentis's efforts to punish Disney, a plan for the sort of fascism that makes opposition too dangerous.

(satire) Target Removes All Towels From Stores
28 May 2023

(satire) *Target Removes All Towels From Stores After Soaking-Wet Lunatic Objects To Dryness.*

US family demands officer be charged for shooting 11-year-old
28 May 2023

*Mississippi family demands officer be charged for shooting 11-year-old.*

Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for public trials
28 May 2023

*Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for trials to be held in public.*

Secret trials are an indication of tyranny. China's political trials are all secret.

Australia sometimes does it too.

last spotted owl in Canada fights for survival
28 May 2023

Cutting down old-growth forests has wiped out spotted owls in Canada. Only one owl is remains in the wild in Canada.

GOP on Rollback of IRS Funding
28 May 2023

What do Republicans want most? To make sure rich people have a low tax rate.

cashless welfare bill First Nations people
28 May 2023

Australia is now paying welfare benefits through a bank card that will track all spending of them.

A large fraction of those affected by this new system of surveillance are indigenous, and they are campaigning to put an end of this.

Urgent: Avoid benefits outage
27 May 2023

US citizens: if your congresscritter is a Republican, phone per at 1-833-964-2935 to call for raising taxes on the rich rather than cutting the benefits that non-rich Americans (even those with jobs) depend on. You could add, "Don't threaten to make the US default."

Urgent: Expand the Supreme Court
27 May 2023

US citizens: call on Congress to expand the Supreme Court.

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!

Urgent: Direct more pay to workers and less to CEOs
27 May 2023

US citizens: call on Biden to use federal spending rules to direct more pay to workers and less to CEOs.

The White House comments lines are +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213.

If you phone, please spread the word!

Protest-repression, AU
27 May 2023

South Australia has passed repressive laws against protests that might inconvenience others, and one of the politicians who voted for it says, "be grateful we won't cut your head off."

The protests that the state wanted to prevent were going to be against planet roaster companies that already kill people by the hundreds of thousands, and are working on raising that to hundreds of millions.

NHS privatization strategy
27 May 2023

*It's a horribly effective [Tory] ploy: under invest in the health service, then encourage patients to blame staff for any failures.*

Sec. of [oil] Transportation
27 May 2023

Buttigieg is going all-out to push for oil drilling in the Uinta basin of the Colorado Plateau, and to transport the oil long distances by train alongside the Colorado River.

He is also planning to approve tax breaks for building the line for these trains, so the owners can get a subsidy to prepare to poison the water of a large region of the US.

There is no room in the carbon budget for developing any new oil fields, no matter where the oil might be sent or how.

Public land for housing, UK
27 May 2023

Starmer has proposed a real, significant change: to build millions of housing units under government direction, to avoid a massive give-away to the rich.

Splinternet, RU
27 May 2023

*You Should Not Trust Russia’s New "Trusted Root [certification authority for https]".*

Elections disinformation, UK and US
27 May 2023

*Elections in UK and US at risk from [neural-network-generated] disinformation, say experts.*

To refer to these systems as "artificial intelligence" spreads confusion, so I don't call them that. Please join me in that refusal.

Voter entrapment, FL
27 May 2023

Florida officials systematically entrap convicts into registering to vote and then voting. Then they get prosecuted for "voter fraud".


The four factors of the apocalypse:
   global heating, global hating,
   global eating, global mating.


[More Cartoons]


Not f'd. You won't find us on Facebook

Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.


Support the Green Party



Republican Election Rigging Tactics



Evoting



The Olympics



Why everyone has a reason to fear massive surveillance



Churchandstate.org.uk


Censorship and Repression


E-books

Non-oppressive Commercial E-books


Don't use Facebook

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.


Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.



Internet Music EULAS



Business Supremacy Treaties



Countries to Stay Away From



No national identity cards

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.


Borders

Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.


Flight connections

Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.


The Lifelong Activist

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.


Bob Chassell

Writing (mostly science fiction) by my friend Bob Chassell who recently died.


Solidarity Economy and Free Software

Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.


Falkvinge articles

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.


Long-term action items


Political Articles

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.

Political notes

"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."

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.

Media/Press/Bios

Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.

Travel experiences

Photos about my travels

Scientific Links


Some humor

The berry torture.

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.

Futon Physics

A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta Española. thumbnail

The Night before M-x-mas

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 Cartoons

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 Portuguese

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.)

I am a
     Saint In the Church Of Emacs --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.

Pre-Zen Studies.

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.

Un malentendido gracioso.

ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.

American Extremists

My Small Mouth

The huns and the writs.

No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)

Hammer into Anvil

Fiction

Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation

A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).

The Right to Read

Books

My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.

Stallman on Love

Love and Dance

My Childhood Sweetheart

Made for You

My Former Personal Ad

Non-Political Articles

Am I Doctor Stallman?

Avec des chapeaux French song parody.

My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.

Resolving the trolley problem

Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights

A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.

Origin of the POSIX name.

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".

My Childhood Sweetheart

Love and Dance

Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor

Certificate of confusion

Links

Thanks

I would like to thank:


Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved.
Verbatim copying and redistribution of any of the photos in the photos subdirectory is permitted under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0 or later. You can copy and redistribute the photo of me playing music to the butterfly under the Creative Commons Noderivs Nocommercial license version 3.0 or later. Any other photos of me in this (the toplevel) directory may be copied and redistributed under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0