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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
The photo comes from
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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 Congress to defend census funding.
US citizens: call on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment restoring (former) presidents' criminal liability.
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.
Robert Reich's advice on how to do your part to defeat right-wing extremism in the election this November.
Since I am sure Biden will win Massachusetts, I could vote for a non-major party, but I don't know of any I would want to vote for.
The Pantanal, an enormous wetland in Brazil, has fires in the dry season, but this year the fires are worse than ever.
If you are used by the online dis-services that track used's every action, this massive surveillance will enable those companies to predict how much you might pay for any product. And they could offer that price to you, and a different price to each other used.
*Hurricane Beryl supercharged by "crazy" ocean temperatures, experts say.*
*Why are the US and IMF imposing draconian austerity measures on Kenya?*
In the 1980s, the IMF was widely rebuked for compelling many poor countries' governments to cut spending on education, medicine, and help for the poor, to make those governments repay their debts faster. It looks like the IMF is still doing that.
Biden criticized the "elite" for pressuring him to step aside from candidacy. These elite are the rich donors who fund the party's campaign.
That sort of elite controls both parties.
The US has resumed shipping 500lb bombs to Israel. Only the 2000lb bombs will still be withheld.
The practical explanation given for this is rational, as far as it goes. But it reflects the lack of effort to convince or pressure Israel to end its train of war crimes in Gaza.
I have to wonder if this reflects the demands of the same powerful "elite" donors.
Robert Reich says that Biden answered well in his latest press conference, except for momentary verbal slips. Everyone makes momentary slips, and they don't generally alter real decisions, so they don't constitute real failings.
I think that if all US voters understood this point, it would be better if the Democrats stick with Biden.
But, as we know, they don't all understand that. Many overestimate the significance of verbal slips. Perhaps, as a consequence, someone else might be more able than Biden to defeat the corrupter. If so, maybe the Democratic Party would do well to switch to that other.
If Democrats want to try to judge carefully whether to switch to some other candidate, and induce Biden to cooperate, I suggest the following procedure.
In Norway, free-range childhood is still normal.
In Manhattan in the 60s, my life wasn't like Norwegian life, but I had a similar absence of constant control. When I meet adults who are constantly tied up ferrying their children around, and children who can't go anywhere without parental help, it strikes me as horrible.
Constant controlling and monitoring continues past childhood into adolescence, so that younger teenagers have nowhere to get away to except into a video game.
(satire) *Megachurch Conducts Successful Nuclear Missile Test.*
Labour has appointed a practical radical prison reformer as the prisons minister.
Privatization of water and sewer systems in the UK was allegedly going to inspire investment. What it actually did was to enable the owners to reduce investment (maintenance and replacement of systems) to pay themselves bigger dividends. The story in more detail.
That's what we must expect when public functions are privatized, which is why that is generally a terrible "solution" for most problems and imperfections in public services.
The only exception is when the privatized service sells directly to the public in a well-functioning competitive market where there are many competitors for each purchase -- but only if efforts to pressure consumers into fealty to a supplier are made to fail.
*475 Poison Pills in House Republican Draft Spending Bills.*
Once again, "security personnel" killed a black man by putting a knee on him. They did this in a hotel where thousands of magats will assemble soon for the Republican Convention. Perhaps they will cheer the murder that took place.
*Wall Street Is Investing In Your Asbestos Poisoning.* Basically, it takes pay for accepting companies' liabilities for past asbestos poisoning, then uses legal schemes to avoid ever paying damages to the victims who were poisoned.
*China building twice as much wind and solar power as rest of world.* But China has still shown no sign of ceasing to increase coal consumption, and only reductions in fossil fuel use contribute to saving civilization.
Businesses and wealthy people in Guyana are profiting from a big increase in oil extraction, though it does not "trickle down" to the rest of the population. Meanwhile this big local increase in oil extraction will increase the world's global heating.
Similar things are happening in other countries of the Caribbean region and South America.
We have known since 2011 that the known fossil fuel resources were too much to fit in the world's carbon budget. Extracting all that fossil fuel, without some surprise development, would doom civilization. The discovery of additional fossil resources in Guyana makes that excess even bigger; it stimulates the pressure from short-sighted businesses and politicians to burn too much. (We do not know precisely how much is too much, and when we do fall over the climate cliff, it will take years to ascertain that fact.)
A big increase in the total extraction rate of fossil fuels pushes the world further into the rush to disaster, adding to the cuts in extraction rate that the world needs to do elsewhere, which the world is already failing to do. Whether that increase happens in Guyana, the US, or some other country, the effect is the same.
Arguing that it is OK to extract more in Guyana because that country actually consumes little of the extracted oil is hiding the emissions around under the rug. The climate defense movement is already campaigning to stop measuring the emissions of fossil fuel companies by counting only their own consumption.
*Pristine forests and grinding poverty: why shouldn’t Brazil’s Amapá state embrace oil wealth?*
That is not a rhetorical question; the article offers an answer based on the interests of that region. It may be valid in its own terms, but I have a different answer: we shouldn't forget the more general reason: hardly anyone will do well out of the collapse of civilization.
Will Labour give in to US pressure to continue the Tories' effort to block the ICC's warrant for the arrest of Netanyahu?
I hope Labour will proceed in accord with its stated intention to end Britain's interference with that arrest.
(satire) *Tearful Boston Dynamics Engineer Forced To Drown Unwanted Robot Puppies.* https://www.theonion.com/tearful-boston-dynamics-engineer-forced-to-drown-unwant-1851552395
In Australia, a climate defense activist has been sentenced to prison for a "disruptive" nondestructive protest that temporarily interfered with operation of a coal export terminal.
The campaigners are not daunted.
I admire their willingness to take the risk of punishment to avoid the willing destruction of civilization.
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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