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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019" by Ruben Rodriguez
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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
US citizens: call on the Senate to investigate Sen. Collins for possible corruption.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: thank states and cities for opposing surveillance pricing.
US citizens: call on Congress to block the saboteur in chief from destroying America's national parks and forests.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: thank Germany for Safeguarding U.S. Climate Data.
US citizens: call on your state legislators to tax billionaires’ income from wealth.
In my letter I said that this should be in addition to taxing the wealth they already have.
US citizens: call on networks to stop airing the corrupter's government-paid political ads.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on 2026 Senate candidates: Tax the rich, don't cut Social Security!
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to stop the cheater from spending medical research funds for weapons and war.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on OSHA officials to enforce Amazon's safety settlement with its workers.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call on your senators to protect temporary protection status for Haitians first thing, when the Senate is back in session.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on Congress to urge the IRS to investigate Meta and take the money back.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: affirm solidarity with MS-Now, CNN and Politico in suing the un-American president.
US citizens: call on Congress to keep partisan loyalty tests out of federal hiring.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: call on Waymo to release the safety data.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
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.
US citizens: call on the Senate to investigate Sen. Collins for possible corruption.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: thank states and cities for opposing surveillance pricing.
US citizens: call on Congress to block the saboteur in chief from destroying America's national parks and forests.
US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.
To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
US citizens: thank Germany for Safeguarding U.S. Climate Data.
The AFL-CIO warns that digital display of product prices is likely to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs in the US while increasing grocery prices significantly.
If you think those two consequences are contradictory, it could be that you believe that the main factor affecting products' retail prices is how much the products cost the store. That economic theory was based on the assumption of so much competition that it would compel stores to pass savings along to the customers.
Nothing like that is true nowadays. After decades of mergers and megamergers, and data companies that enable all stores easily to sync up prices without directly communicating about them, competition hardly affects what stores can charge.
A connected car is an ideal weapon for coercive control — by people you know, or by strangers working for your country's government, or by strangers working for another country's government.
Robert Reich supports Abdul El-Sayed for senator from Michigan.
The US's failure to punish Dubya for torture, in Guantanamo and other parts of the world, paved the way for the persecutor to embrace torture in the US.
The corrupter's Department of Thwarting Justice has invented a new legal excuse for presidents to block investigation into their conduct by Congress or courts.
The polluter in chief has directed his henchmen to give datacenters an exemption from disclosing their toxic air pollution.
Robert Reich lauds Bernie Sanders, then encourages Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028, although he does not expect she would win it this time.
I know one reason that she probably won't win it: the Democratic National Committee is is dominated by big business, and it barely disguises its bias against progressive candidates.
I voted for Sanders, and if Ocasio-Cortez runs, I will vote for her.
Admitting a right-wing extremist party into Sweden's government has spread hate, cruelty and global heating denialism into the rest of Sweden's parties.
(satire) *Hyperrealistic ‘GTA VI’ Feature Makes Players Serve Out Prison Sentences In Real Time.*
FLOCK cameras don't just capture license plate numbers. They capture faces, too, and other aspects of the appearance of people and cars.
Often cops search for people photographed while merely standing for a while in one place.
We need to do more than end federal subsidies for such cameras. We must stop them from being useful for repression, by putting strict limits on surveillance cameras and permitting only security cameras.
Big Chemistry is pushing a law to prohibit accusing factories of dangerous pollution based on the sort of air quality monitors that ordinary people can afford.
Australia is considering a deal to protect more of the forests where koalas (vulnerable) live in exchange for allowing additional greenhouse gas emissions.
In effect, planet roasters are holding adorable koalas hostage with a demand to let them continue destroying civilization and the biosphere. Bravo for the Green legislators with the courage to denounce that ransom demand.
Progressive campaigners report that most Americans would support a political campaign that joins the goals of "affordability" (to benefit the non-rich) and "accountability" (to be imposed on the rich).
It is useful to know that this combination — lowering prices by eliminating corruption -- can defeat the magats and plutocratists. However, it is not evident to me that the combination includes or implies preventing climate disaster, restoring human rights, upholding science, protecting everyone from Orwellian surveillance, and rejecting bigotry.
Thus, if "accountability" and "corruption" are interpreted in the usual narrow sense, I'd have to say these two goals alone are disastrously insufficient.
Some Republican officials are treating and describing neo-Nazis as toxic in their employment.
That is a positive change, but they need to understand that if you run in the same circles as Nazis — in the circles that have vicious ideas that attract Nazis — you will have opportunity after opportunity to take up with someone who is a Nazi. Look how many Republicans associate willingly with Elon Musk, or the monster in the White House. They can hardly avoid
I praise the old ACLU for defending freedom of speech for everyone, to express any views whatsoever — even including Nazis. I cite Nazis as an example here because their views are as vicious as can be. I am sure the ACLU's leaders judged them that way too. But they recognized that when you start denying people's freedom of speech because you dislike their views, that is the start of tyranny — and people who criticize the powerful in any way are likely to be on the receiving end.
I am not surprised that the extent of support for Nazi views in some countries today goes hand in hand with hatred and cruelty for many disprivileged groups.
Recognizing the freedom to advocate vicious views does not imply ceasing to castigate them.
US citizens: call on your state legislators to tax billionaires’ income from wealth.
In my letter I said that this should be in addition to taxing the wealth they already have.
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.
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