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"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
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)
Everyone: Call on Canada to enforce its environmental laws against logging to export wood chips for burning.
US citizens: call on Biden to fund the transition to renewables and stop funding fossil fuels.
If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213
US citizens: call on Democratic leaders to rescind their support for Netanyahu's speech to Congress, and all Democrats to boycott the speech.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens and residents: phone your state governor to say to veto any attempt to restrict or criminalize mifepristone and misoprostol, the drugs used to cause abortions and for various other purposes.
If you phone, please spread the word! Your state governor's phone number is at USA.gov (Thanks to those who told me.)
US citizens and residents: call for parole for Leonard Pelletier.
This is an actionnetwork.org "send a letter" campaigns with a single, fixed destination. It normally runs nonfree JavaScript code. Here's how you can sign it while using LibreJS to block nonfree JavaScript code from running.
The first step, I have done for you. I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign's URL. That parameter directs the server not to add unnecessary material that depends on JavaScript.
Following that link should show you a page that starts with the message, `Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!' But that message mostly refers to material that `?nowrapper=true' has suppressed.
In that page, fill in the personal information in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.
Then click the "START WRITING" button. You will get a page that does not work at all, but by editing its URL in the browser's address bar, you can finish sending your letter.
First, if `&redirect' appears in the address bar, delete that and everything after it, until the end of the URL you see. Then, unconditionally, add `&nowrapper=true'. Then type ENTER to make the browser access the modified URL.
This will give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. In that page you can edit the text of your letter, and send it.
That step, editing the URL and visiting it, is the only additional work needed to sign with nonfree JavaScript code blocked. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort to stop some unjust, and potentially malicious, software from running on your computer.
This method works for letter campaigns that send letters to a fixed destinee, the same destinee for all senders. I have posted this campaign, and these instructions, because it is of that kind.
Alas, there is no workaround for the letter campaigns that send to "your elected representatives." That problem is caused by something outside actionnetwork's control. The nonfree JavaScript for those campaigns comes from the officials' own web sites in the official web sites of Congress, not from actionnetwork.org, and I know of no way to bypass it, and no way to reach them digitally. All I can do is phone them.
It's sad and ironic that our elected representatives require their constituents to run nonfree software to communicate digitally with them. I do not hold them personally responsible for this wrong, because they are surely not aware of the issue. But I can't close my eyes to its presence and let it run on my computer.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to demand an investigation into corruption in the Supreme Court.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Justices Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from cases about the Jan 6 insurrection.
US citizens: call on Biden not to imitate the bully's asylum restrictions.
US citizens: call on the Senate to oppose fake abortion-clinics.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Schumer and Jeffries to withdraw their invitation to Netanyahu to address Congress.
US citizens: call on Congress to overturn the "Citizens" United decision.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to support legislation banning political contributions from utilities, monopoly corporations, and corporations seeking government contracts.
US citizens: call on Congress to undo the corrupter's tax cuts for the rich.
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
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.
It should be illegal for a store to charge different prices to customers depending on whether they identify themselves and/or hand over demanded personal data.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
Israel tried to assassinate a HAMAS commander, disregarding the presence of numerous civilian bystanders nearby and the evident likelihood of many civilian casualties. Not surprisingly, many civilians were killed by the attack.
This was a war crime according to the Geneva conventions, if I understand this point correctly. The presence of a valid military target, even an important one, does not excuse predictably killing many civilians.
The Australian right wing plan for new nuclear power plants has been revealed as a bogus business boondoggle to make a poisonous pile of pollution.
I expect them to show as much respect for truth as the bullshitter does in the US, by continuing to champion the debunked claims.
*EU Council has withdrawn the vote on Chat Control, because the plan no longer has majority support.
Chatcontrol is the plan to impose massive censorship on internet communications, and its defeat is a great victory. Of course, it is not guaranteed to be a permanent victory.
*[New York Thug Department] complaints surge under [night-mayor] Adams to reach highest level since 2012.*
You have to expect an ex-cop in a powerful office to encourage cruelty and brutality by cops — simply by tending to take their side in disputes. And even if the ex-cop is black, encouraging cops' cruelty will promote white supremacism, because the two go together.
A British court ruled that planning agencies must consider the climate damage that will result from the fossil fuel to be extracted when they consider whether to approve fossil fuel development.
This is exactly the needed policy, but the planet roasters will try anything to get it reversed or undermined. If they fail, it will set an example for the world.
*Deluge of fake news websites threatens to drown out truth during US election.* *Most people in petrostates want quick switch to clean energy, UN poll finds.*
In the US, 54% want a quick switch. Alas, democracy in the US is not running very smoothly.
*Fossil fuel use reaches global record despite clean energy growth.*
No amount of renewable generation will save us unless we use it to contrive a drastic reduction in greenhouse emissions.
Vanuatu has cleaned up its lagoons by prohibiting several common kinds of disposable plastic items — including artificial flowers.
An account of how Ethiopia and the west fell for Abiy Ahmed as a messiah and how his government collapsed into war and chaos.
The article is too long for me to read it all carefully. I would like to have done so.
A psychotherapist writes about the error of trying to help someone by rushing or pressuring per to "cheer up" after a real loss.
Years ago, I had no "feelings police". If something made me despair, I cried.
Five years of cancellation have helped me develop a "feelings police" of a sort. It does not blank out feelings of danger, loss and suffering, but enables me to set them aside in order to deal with the situation in a calm and steady way.
McDonald's tried to replace human workers with a bullshit generator, but even in the narrow domain of ordering food from a menu it worked badly.
*Democrats move to repeal anti-obscenity and anti-abortion act from 1873.*
I expect Republicans will fight to keep the Comstock Act, hoping to use it for repression. But maybe that will convince some people not to vote for them.
The Supreme Court approved a tax that the corrupter put on moving money to the US, and thus left the legal door open to wealth taxes on big business.
Netanyahu complained that Biden is carrying out his announced intention to delay delivery of heavy bombs to Israel.
AIPAC, the Israeli Hawks' (and extremists') lobby, has been putting lots of effort into defeating Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a primary this Tuesday.
*Nuclear engineer dismisses [Australian right wing's] claim that small modular reactors could be commercially viable soon.*
This confirms what I said recently.
I am not an expert like him, but I know what experts have concluded for years about nuclear power's lack of practical use for electric power on Earth. For the public it is a waste of money; for business it is an opportunity to get paid lots of money and achieve no good.
*Police have used the "very legitimate grievance" the public has with large tech companies like Meta about data collection and surveillance as a pretext to undermine user privacy*.
The first step in protecting our privacy from snooping dis-services is to reject nonfree (non-libre) clients and apps. Nearly all apps are nonfree, and most organizations' web sites run nonfree software in the users' browser. Once they send private data to the server, there is hardly any limit in practice to where it will go. (There are some dis-services that explicit demand users enter sensitive private data — those pose various more complex problems.)
I've considered using Signal, since the client program (what I would need to run) is free software. However, it requires having a portable phone, and that requirement conclusively excludes me.
*U.S. Intelligence Helped Israel [plan the operation to] Rescue Four Hostages in Gaza*.
Since the plans were designed to minimize civilian casualties, I don't see anything wrong in that part of the operation. Many civilians were killed and wounded after something went wrong during the getaway phase. At that point they started to improvise as the plan was no longer usable.
The obligation to safeguard civilians does not end when a plan goes awry.
The US insists that Israel did not use the US aid pier for the deadly hostage rescue operation. What Israel did use was the area of land near the pier.
This makes sense to me. I don't think that area of land is or was under US control. But I have seen it described as a "safe area", which I think implies some sort of agreement to do no fighting there.
If that agreement included Israel and HAMAS, then using it for a combat operation (such as the hostage rescue operation) was a violation of that agreement by Israel;
I've read that the World Food Program stopped transporting aid from the pier because of this. This makes sense. No humanitarian organization will be allowed to continue operations in Gaza unless it satisfies all parties that it is militarily neutral.
New pun: My argument with guaifenesin
The Ukrainian journalists of Texty refute the arguments of Putin's disinformation.
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:
Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.
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