The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"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 judges to uphold the Voting Rights Act.
US citizens: call on Congress to end the "Citizens" United era by passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the DISCLOSE Act.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on state legislatures not to allow teachers to carry guns in school.
The myth that a "good guy with a gun" will protect people from a murderer with a gun is true often on Have Gun Will Travel, but that is fiction. In real life it is rarely effective.
US citizens: call on Biden to cut off arms deliveries to Israel unless it accepts a permanent cease fire in Gaza.
If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act.
US citizens: call on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to Require Modern Energy Efficiency Standards for All New Homes with FHFA-backed Mortgages.
US citizens: call on the Department of Education E and local school boards to reject face recognition in schools.
US citizens: call on Judge Aileen Cannon to recuse herself from the corrupter's secret documents case.
Everyone: Oppose the right-wing campaign to disregard global heating.
US citizens: call on Attorney General Merrick Garland to require Justices Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from cases about the insurrectionist.
US citizens: call on the Edison Electric Institute to stop suing the EPA to keep coal polluting.
US citizens: call on Congress and the Biden administration to stop shielding Israel from accountability for war crimes.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
Everyone: call on Amazon to implement zero-waste delivery.
Of course, we shouldn't buy from Amazon either way, and I don't; but that is no reason not to sign.
Many of America's problems can be corrected by this, both those that call for spending money and those that involve weakness of democracy.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on COP29 to remove the head of Azerbaijan's state oil company from the position of its organizer.
US citizens: call on the IRS to make a libre site for filing tax returns.
US citizens: call on The Department of Justice to sue big fossil fuel for denying global heating.
US citizens: call on Congress to side with working people, not billionaires and Big Business.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on your senators to support the FOREST Act, which would ban imports made with products of illegally deforested land.
See the detailed, general issue.
To sign without running nonfree JavaScript code from the web site, use the Salsalabs workaround.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to protect abortion and birth control by repealing the Comstock Act.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
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.
US citizens: call on judges to uphold the Voting Rights Act.
*Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War.* It was paid for by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and used fake social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to fund Israel’s military.
*The Libertarian [sic] Party's controversial plan is to "stop Biden" and extract promises from [the insurrectionist] along the way.*
This plan demonstrates a total lack of value for civil liberties, which the insurrectionist has announced his intention to crush. But this plan makes the party cynical as well, which previously it was not.
It is also utterly foolish to think that a promise from the insurrectionist (who is also the bullshitter) will be kept. Once democracy is crushed, if you're not a billionaire he won't hesitate to break his promise to you.
I have contended for years that that party, and its political stance, did not merit the name "libertarian", because its supporters valued reduction of their taxes, and termination of programs to help the poor and disadvantaged, more highly than they valued liberty. So I called them "antisocialist".
Some of the party's supporters may still be antisocialists, but the party itself deserves for a harsher name than that.
*The [US Supreme Court] unanimously rejected the mifepristone case on technical grounds. Their ruling is not the victory it may seem.*
Alito's wife vowed revenge on the people who criticized Alito for displaying an upside-down flag, after Jan 6 when that was a symbol of claiming falsely that the corrupter had won the election.
Note the typical right-wing thinking, which regards a truthful criticism of a false claim as a vicious attack that deserves revenge. If those critics made false claims of their own, revenge in kind (refuting the false claims) would be possible and legitimate. But Ms Alito does not claim that they did so.
Perhaps, for her, opposing militant Christianitism, and defending the separation of church and state, is enough grounds to label someone as evil.
Putin announced that he won't make peace with Ukraine unless it gives him more territory along with what he has captured.
This indicates a combination of thinking he can win the war, and some amount of bluster (present in everything he says).
The only sensible response is to teach him he must expect to lose.
Robert Reich: *Don't be fooled by the myth that people are paid what they're "worth" — that the rich deserve their ever-increasing incomes and wealth because they're worth far more to the economy now than years ago […]*
*The distribution of income and wealth increasingly depends on who has the power to set the rules of the game.*
It is a context of clout, not a contest of productivity.
*A braver Labour would call an end to the focus on growth.*
Starmer has made up his mind to seek the votes of former Tories. The only way to make Labour pay attention to this issue is to elect Greens or Lib Dems, or the independents such as Corbyn who agree with this.
*Phoenix [thugs] have pattern of violating civil rights and using excessive force, Justice Department says.*
*Ex-prosecutors and historians warn that Republicans' parroting of ex-president's wild allegations of political bias could erode trust and lead to violence.*
Eroding trust in anything that he considers a rival is his purpose. And while the claim is not true now, he intends, if he wins or steals the election, to make it so. He plans to pervert the US justice system to imprison his political enemies, as part of Project 2025.
The US justice system is in fact untrustworthy for defendants who belong to disprivileged groups, and for poor people since they can't afford good lawyers. But the corrupter is not at risk for this: he is a white male, and even if he may theoretically be bankrupt due to court judgments, still has good lawyers.
Some varieties of bamboo spread almost irresistibly and can destroy houses from underground.
Could we wipe them out, in the countries they don't belong in, by releasing a sufficient number of pandas? China only leases them, but it might be possible to buy unrestricted pandas from Taiwan.
In Mexico, growing avocados is so lucrative that cartels fight over land to grow them, as they cut down forests.
It amazes me that this happens for a product that is not illegal.
I don't think this would happen for any of the widely used illegal drugs, though. The sheer volume consumed would not be enough.
Alito admitted at an organization dinner that his vote to overturn Roe v Wade was part of an overall campaign to impose his religion on the US.
The rescue of hostages from Gaza started out clean, but developed into a street battle. That is when the civilians were killed.
This suggests that most of those killed were civilians.
Testimony of witnesses to the attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, in which the Israeli army killed at least 274 Palestinians to rescue four hostages.
The number of killed that were civilians was almost certainly over 100, and likely considerably more. But I think I can make a better estimate.
I think that "children" means minors. Most minors there were probably civilians, thought some of the older ones may have been HAMAS fighters. I would expect that HAMAS, being Islamist, would not recruit women as fighters (can anyone tell me whether that is true?), so it would follow that the 57 women killed were all civilians.
I expect roughly equal numbers of men and women among the civilians, since they were in and around their homes. That would suggest there were around 160-170 civilians killed, and maybe 100 HAMAS fighters.
It is therefore likely that most of the Palestinians in the area were civilians.
Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.
Fanatical supporters of the corrupter regularly get heat stroke at his rallies, because of increasing global heating, but it doesn't occur to them that we should stop drilling for all and making it hotter.
*Stock traders are trying to beat the market — by copying lawmakers [stock trades].*
*Investment in clean energy likely to be double figure for fossil fuels in 2024, IEA says [; however,] oil and gas spending still too high to meet climate goals.*
New pun: What do you need Tylenol for?
*Russia accused of "deliberate" starvation tactics in Mariupol in submission to ICC.*
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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