Richard Stallman's Personal Site


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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019"
by Ruben Rodriguez

I continue to be the Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project.
This is my long-term commitment and I plan to continue.
You may have heard or read critical statements about me; please make up your own mind.

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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.

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.

FSF Giving Guide

Robert Reich explains how the bullshitter and Republicans are trying to spread chaos to discourage non-fascists from voting. After creating as much real chaos as they can, they pretend there is even more of it, hoping Americans will give up and not vote, or support a fascist strong man.

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.

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.

I am limiting the number of new political notes per day so as not to overload the volunteers who install new notes. If you'd like to help, please write to rms at gnu period org.

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.

I'm looking for people to

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)

You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.

Recent IDF collateral damage, Gaza City
24 June 2024

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.

Nuclear power as boondoggle, AUS
24 June 2024

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.

Digital surveillance veering, EU
24 June 2024

*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.

Complaints about NYPD insignia up
24 June 2024

*[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 climate-planning govt agency, UK
24 June 2024

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.

Faked websites with "election news"
24 June 2024

*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.

Plastic prohibition working, Vanuatu
24 June 2024

Vanuatu has cleaned up its lagoons by prohibiting several common kinds of disposable plastic items — including artificial flowers.

Ethiopia's distrupter-in-chief conned US
24 June 2024

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.

Feelings arising from major losses
24 June 2024

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.

LLM takeout taken out, McDonald's
24 June 2024

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.

Repealing the Comstock Act
23 June 2024

*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.

Wealth tax ready and now legal
23 June 2024

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.

Delayed delivery of heavy bombs, ISR
23 June 2024

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.

Scientific research org disparaged, AUS
23 June 2024

*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.

Govt vs encryption, AUS
23 June 2024

*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.

Intelligence assistance, US, UK, in ISR
23 June 2024

*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 four-hostage rescue, ISR
23 June 2024

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
23 June 2024

New pun:           My argument with guaifenesin

Reasons to abandon Ukraine, NOT!
23 June 2024

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.


[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.


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 download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.

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