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
Political Articles | Political Notes | Talks | Airlines | Anti-Glossary | Archive | Ban face recognition | Books | Comics | Empire of the Megacorporations | Fiction | Glossary | GPG Key | Humor | Humorous Bio | Links | Media/Press/Bio | Non-Political Articles | The Four Factors of the Apocalypse | There Ought to Be a Law | Travel Experiences | Travel Photos | How I Do My Computing | RMS personal FAQ | Sayings | Scientific Links | Stallman on Love | Thanks |
Send comments/questions about the search engine to: rms at gnu dot org
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.
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: phone your congresscritter and senators and call on them to protect SNAP (food stamps) and other federal nutrition programs.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: phone your senators at 202-688-0628 and call on them to block the wrecker from disrespecting the independence of independent government-affiliated organizations.
Here’s a script you can use. You will need to call twice to reach both of your senators.
You don't have to call the corrupter "Trump".Hello! My name is [First Name]. I'm a constituent and am calling to ask Sen. [Senator] to respond to Trump’s illegal firing of FTC Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya.
I urge you to vote “no” on all nominees, halt the Senate’s business — and do whatever it takes to restore constitutional order in this nation.
Stop Trump’s illegal power grabs immediately.
US citizens: call on Congress to save NPR and PBS from Musk, Trump, and others' right-wing attacks.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
I will be traveling to the UK in April or May, and I'm looking for other invitations to speak there on the same visit.
To respond, please write to rms-invitation@gnu.org.
I am also looking for places I could stay for a day or two.
Because I am somewhat immunocompromised, I am vulnerable to Covid and flu. I need to say in place where I have a room and a bathroom that are somewha isolated, in air circulation, from the rest of the indoors.
To respond, please write to rms-invitation@gnu.org.
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.
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.
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.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
Magats in Congress want to impeach judges that rule against the will of El Supremo. l
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators and call on them to protect SNAP (food stamps) and other federal nutrition programs.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
It is not easy to convict a UK thug of manslaughter, let alone murder. But the current right-wing government plans to create more obstacles to make sure they won't be convicted.
In addition, it will declare the accused thug's identity a secret.
The president has no authority over the US Institute of Peace, and no authority to change its board or executives, but his henchmen claim to have done so and took over its building with the help of thugs.
*US Institute of Peace sues Trump administration to block Doge takeover.*
*Judge orders [Bureau of Prisons] to return two [trans-women] prisoners to women’s facilities.*
Israel has ended the temporary cease-fie in Gaza, resuming the bombardment and siege. Once again Palestinians are told to flee to "safe" areas. In the past, those "safe" areas were not always really safe.
One difference is that, where Biden tried to avoid talking about the military support for Israel's atrocities, the wrecker treats the carnage as legitimate.
*Israeli protesters say airstrikes are "cover" for Benjamin Netanyahu to keep power.*
Morally, that criticism is too weak to do justice to Netanyahu's campaign of death. But it will help make the world aware that he is ready to kill for mere advantage.
*Conservative former federal judge says Trump has "declared war" on US rule of law.*
This may influence judges appointed before the saboteur's first term who considered themselves "conservative" and still do.
(satire) *New Federal Law Mandates Women Talk With Baby Voice.*
*Ben & Jerry’s claims Unilever ousted its CEO for his progressive stance.*
When I read this, I checked to see if it were fro The Onion. No such luck — it is a factual article.
Robert Reich on the illegal firing of the FTC commissioners.
A federal judge ordered the government to undo its destruction of USaid and reinstate its workers with whatever they need so they could resume their work.
He did not order the agency to resume distributing aid now. That depends, it seems, on a final decision which has not been made now.
Democratic Party supporters have mostly condemned Senator Schumer for surrendering to the Republican threat to temporarily shut down the government (by not extending the debt limit) if Democrats didn't agree to the ransom the Republican demanded, which consisted of permanent harmful changes in laws.
Since Republicans are trying to permanently destroy important parts of the government, it makes no sense to respond by approving that damage to avoid lesser damage. Make the Republicans eat the shutdown!
I've suspected for years that part of the reason Schumer leads the Democratic Party is rich people's campaign support for various Democratic elected officials. But I can't cite any proof of that.
However, Schumer said something that I think we should investigate: he said that Republicans would be able to use a temporary shutdown to destroy parts of the government. Before dismissing that as ridiculous, I'd like to see exactly hat he was referring to. It could conceivably be true: the shutdown could conceivably enable them to do other kinds of destruction with their Disgusting and Outrageous Government Evisceration.
I would not take Schumer's word for that, but it may be true, so we should listen to what he means. The Project 2025 planners planned their destruction carefully.
The US has displayed recently a pattern of cruelty toward Europeans trying to enter with visas, or even with permanent residence.
Some of the victims had mad mistakes, while others do not seem to have done anything even slightly wrong.
They have been subject to various forms of torture. I suppose that this treatment was formerly reserved for immigrants from poor countries who were suspected of wanting to stay without permission, but Trump has decided to give allies a taste of hatred.
It is legitimate for the US to deny entry to visitors (unless they are entitled to asylum), but it is never justified to torture them for asking to visit or live in the US.
*Musk Is Firing Federal Workers Who Prevent Bloated Tech Contracts.* One must wonder if this is to help him get bloated tech contracts. The corrupter doesn't wish to reduce government waste, rather to direct it to his friends.
*Glacier meltdown risks food and water supply of 2bn people, says UN. Two-thirds of all irrigated agriculture in the world is likely to be affected in some way by receding glaciers and dwindling snowfall in mountain regions,*
*DEA Insiders Warned About Legality of Phone Tracking Program. Their Concerns Were Kept Secret.*
This surveillance program, which still continues, tracks cell phone locations and who calls whom. It can track any cell phone the DEA wants to track.
*Judge blocks Elon Musk's gang from accessing social security records* with a temporary court order. I think this means that the legality of its access to those records is still undecided, but the order aims to prevent permanent harm from occurring before that final decision.
US citizens: phone your senators at 202-688-0628 and call on them to block the wrecker from disrespecting the independence of independent government-affiliated organizations.
Here’s a script you can use. You will need to call twice to reach both of your senators.
You don't have to call the corrupter "Trump".Hello! My name is [First Name]. I'm a constituent and am calling to ask Sen. [Senator] to respond to Trump’s illegal firing of FTC Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya.
I urge you to vote “no” on all nominees, halt the Senate’s business — and do whatever it takes to restore constitutional order in this nation.
Stop Trump’s illegal power grabs immediately.
*The US government has sent Columbia University a ransom note*, threatening to cancel much of its funding unless it rushes to comply with impossible demands.
But those demands are just a "precondition". If Columbia does comply, it will then have to beg and plead.
Erdoğan has blocked his main election rival from running, by giving arbitrary orders to punish him.
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:
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
