The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
The photo comes from
wikimedia.org
"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
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It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.
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.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to
I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.
It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to reject proposals to encourage coal mining and coal burning. It is good to mention that the air pollution from coal burning kills tens of thousands of Americans per year nowadays, but the global heating it contributes to will kill tens or hundreds of millions later this century.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to shut down DOPE.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the CEO of Vanguard to meet with climate justice campaigners.
US citizens: tell Congress that we stand with Senator Padilla. who was battered by thugs as he tried to ask a question in Kristi Noem's press conference.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to denounce [the repressor]'s illegal, unprecedented deployment of troops against U.S. protesters.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to repeal the Comstock Act (postal censorship).
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the USPS board of governors not to appoint a postmaster general who has a conflict of interest — being on the board of FEDEX.
US citizens: call on prisons in the US to give prisoners safe food.
US citizens: Denounce cuts to the Department of Education.
US citizens: call on Congress to block the saboteur in chief's logging expansion.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the FCC to block the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.
There is far too little competition among phone radio networks already. Any decrease is clearly bad.
Of course, there are more important problems with mobile phones. For instance, both cellular and WiFi connections track the phone's location, and the phone can be made to listen and transmit all the time. (That last is a consequence of nonfree software in the phone's radio processor.) By contrast with that, the increased price caused by insufficient competition is a superficial issue. It is, nonetheless, bad to decrease the competition.
US citizens: call on JPMorgan Chase to stop bankrolling fossil fuel exploration in the Amazon.
US citizens: phone each of your senators and urge them to block the worst things in the Big Bad Bill. Ask them, for instance, to protect Medicaid and SNAP. Ask them to protect Medicare by not cutting taxes for the rich. Ask them to protect the authority of federal judges.
Ask them to protect tax-exempt organizations organizations from tax. Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bill? Anyone who isn't rich, or cares about people who aren't rich, or values democracy and human rights.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to oppose Israel's attacks on Iran and stop the US from supporting them.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the Senate to preserve the authority of federal courts over uncnstitutional or illegal executive actions, by defeating the No Rogue Rulings act.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the White House to remove military troops from Los Angeles and prevent further deployment of troops to the city.
If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213
US citizens: call on RFK jr and his subordinates to un-cancel the vaccine research for HIV and bird flu, which they recently canceled.
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.
* Abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up.*
I expect that the fossil fuel companies to divest themselves from old mines and wells in ways that will avoid liability for them — just as they sometimes disconnect themselves from responsibility for supporting former workers.
So I suggest making it a felony to implement a restructuring of business or assets in a way that is likely to result predictably in strand assets that carry financial responsibilities with no one capable of shouldering the responsibilities.
A pitifully weak attempt to solve a real problem: asking for a federal law that would permit victims of domestic abuse and stalking to demand that data brokers delete information about them.
Data, once collected, will be abused. The way to prevent that abuse is to facilitate refusing to hand it over in the first place.
Here is my proposal for protecting the specific people known to be in particular danger, and everyone else who could be harmed if individuals, businesses or governments use their personal data against them without a search warrant: require services to be available anonymously.
The selfish interest of those who keep trade secrets is rational but antisocial. In many cases the only harm it does is to hold back the general advance of technology. But sometimes it does really nasty things. For digital hardware and software, it often gives companies a way to subjugate their users. Regarding use of toxic chemicals, it endangers public health.
Why would legislators pass laws to "protect" companies instead of protecting the people they harm? I suspect it is partly because these companies are influential and the legislators seek their support, and partly because the legislators ask them for campaign funds.
But it is also partly the result of the mindset of "trickle down", which assumes that the only way to get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public.
Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption.
Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business facility overrides the desire to keep them secret.
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.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
*Average person will be 40% poorer if world warms by 4C, new research shows.* Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating — as well as likely ‘cascading supply chain disruptions’.
If they have estimated well the effect of those cascades, maybe this estimate will be on target. But I doubt that is even possible. With globalized production, it is easy for even a local disaster to make a crucial component totally unavailable for years. Maybe there would be no new computers, or no new cars.
Mahmoud Khalil has been freed by a judge, and has returned to New York to appear at a rally for *Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the [bully].*
I also advocate for a free state of Palestine, but I partly disagree with Khalil. I am careful to make it clear that Palestine would be alongside Israel, not a replacement for Israel.
Kilmar Ábrego García's case has become complex and paradoxical, as different parts of the US government demand to do different things to him. The consequence is that he can't be released on bail lest that put him in danger of precipitous deportation.
This shows there is a dangerous flaw in the current law. The criminal charges were created as a justification for deporting him; even if they were true, it is an obvious injustice to use them to deport him before those charges are adjudicated.
The UK government has labeled an activist group as "terrorist" for a peaceful protest, and plans to abolish its existence. That is such contempt for human rights that it reminds me of the bully.
*Israel kills innocent Palestinians. Activists spray-paint a plane. Guess which the UK government calls terrorism.*
Kilmar Ábrego, victim of an unjust deportation, has been much in the news, and journalists have had difficulty knowing how to present his name.
The Hispanic naming system gives Kilmar Armando Ábrego Garcia (like almost everyone else) two apellidos (family names): his are Ábrego and Garcia. It is helpful, in an article which discusses a person at length, to present per name in full form (as in this paragraph) at least once, for completeness. But mostly one uses only the first apellido.
Some writers in English seem to think that the two apellidos are equivalent to a hyphenated double name in English, but that is not so. An English hyphenated name is just one name, and it is incorrect to omit part of it.
Rep. Nadler condemned the weaponization of a supposed fight against antisemitism into an excuse for repression in universities.
Preliminary results from an experiment suggest that using ChatGPT lowers subjects' capacity to think while writing a essays.
*Court strikes down Louisiana law requiring display of Ten Commandments in schools.* Texas is on the verge of passing a similar law.
It is commonplace for thugs to attack people and then accuse their victims of "assaulting" them. Usually they do that to people with little influence, such as poor young black men.
Now they are doing it to Democratic elected officials, which is a terrorist/intimidation tactic.
The persecutor's campaign to crush universities, and make universities repress the left, grows out of a right-wing hostility decades old.
The persecutor has acknowledged that deporting every unauthorized foreign worker is not actually a good thing to do.
The UN special rapporteur on the right to food calls for armed aid convoys to deliver food, were that is necessary.
I think this might be successful in places such as Sudan, where the enemies are not powerful enough to crush the arms of he aid convoys from a distance. But I think they would be ineffective in Gaza, because Israel would kill the armed UN guards from the air.
At least two Republican congresscritters said they would have voted against the Big Bad Bill if they had known it said X or Y.
To be adopted, the House will have to approve the final version. If that final version still contains X and Y, will they vote to defeat it? Their majority is so small that Just a couple of Republicans voting no would be enough to defeat it.
The UK proposes to prohibit online commercial advertising of sexual services, and the wording makes it clear that the motive of this campaign is based on rigid conservative ideas of right and wrong in sex.
The author rigidly presumes that doing sex work is "being exploited". Women who are trafficked are being exploited. Women who do sex work by choice, and there are many of those, are doing business for their benefit.
In a better world, the traffickers would be punished, the trafficked women would be freed, and the self-employed sex workers would not have to hide or be ashamed. We cannot get there without recognizing all of these groups.
*PEN America "gravely concerned" by deportation of Australian writer critical of Trump administration.*
"Predictive policing" often amounts to a disguided excuse for systematic harassment of black males.
The article raises the possibility that it could be better if it is "more transparent", but no actual results of trying.
*"This presidency is a brand-franchise": the profiteer has taken the commercialization of politics to a new level.
Antivax disinformation is having an effect in many countries: more children are not vaccinated.
The CDC has invited an anti-vaxxer to present a report containing disinformation about thimerosal. It contains a mistaken citation that seems intended to report a real study, but cites that study's results exactly wrong.
One of the British activist who had a "spy cop" as lover pursued her legal case to the end, and it ended in victory. She received all the confidential reports he had made while spying on her. Now she has published them.
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".
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.
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
The text to a filk song, Johnny v. N., by Paul Rubin.
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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