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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
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For the sake of separation, this site has always been
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I am thinking of making another trip to Europe during February - April. If you would like to invite me to speak during that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "feb-apr" as the subject.
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 Democratic leaders in Congress to block funds for the deportation thugs.
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 oppose military action against Greenland.
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 cancel medical debt and student debt, and make medical treatment and public colleges gratis for all.
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 protect officials of the Federal Reserve from harassment prosecutions meant to bully them on questions of policy.
This does not mean I agree with the de-facto "mainstream" consensus of the past two decades, that the Fed should be totally independent on basic political questions, Fed chairs must be Republicans to insure that their independent decisions will be right-wing, and investors "comfort" must take priority over employment.
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 your state's governor to protect kids from RFK jr's vaccine rollback.
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 Minnesota to arrest Renee Good's killer without waiting — there are enough grounds already.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and say, as suggested by Robert Reich:
Don't vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms the deportation thugs (agents of "ICE") (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language, or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under criminal and civil laws.
Even better in my view: abolish the deportation thug agency entirely with no replacement.
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 GoFundMe to follow its own rules against raising money for people who committed violent acts.
I refuse to use GoFundMe for any purpose because it requires running nonfree JavaScript code. Nearly all web sites require nonfree JS to make a payment, the exception I know of being fsf.org.
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the deportation thugs' use of deadly force.
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 restore PBS and NPR funding.
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 CBS to dismiss Bari Weiss as head of the news department.
US citizens: call on US mass media to Stop calling it a ceasefire. Report on what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank.
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 Congress to stop the march to war — no attacks on Cuba, no escalation in Latin America, and no more US-driven violence in our hemisphere.
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 resist the bully's attempts to freeze child care funds.
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 your congresscritter and senators to subpoena Big Oil for its role in the bully's illegal 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 Congress to Protect Medicine for Veterans — Strengthen the VA, Don't Cut It.
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 the Department of Justice to drop its demands for voters' personal information.
You know how will use it — for persecution, making eligible voters fear to vote.
US citizens: call on Congress to condemn threats against Greenland.
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: write to your senators and rep to stop funding the deportation thugs until they cease their unjustified violence.
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 investigate all killings by the deportation thugs.
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 your representative and senators to pass the Billionaires Income Tax.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: Push to impeach RFK Jr to defend public health.
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 Congress to hold down skyrocketing medical costs.
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 the DOJ to stop the Warner Mega-Merger.
We should not allow large companies to get larger through mergers.
US citizens: call on news media to challenge RFK jr's attacks on vaccination.
US citizens: call on the mass media to cover the bully's intimidation honestly, instead of pretending it is legitimate conduct for a president.
US citizens: call on Congress to impeach the gnome.
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 Tell Trump to make good on his promise to curb institutional investors: Pass the Stop Wall Street Looting Act!
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 Congress to refuse funds for the deportation thugs unless it is accompanied by making them respect people's lives and human rights.
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 Apple & Google CEOs to end your contracts with the deportation thugs.
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 Tell Your Senators: Protect the EPA's authority over energy efficiency of manufactured houses.
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 Raytheon's board to invest in improvements rather than buying back the company's stock.
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 Congress to block the magats' attacks on congressionally approved education, housing, and other human needs programs.
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 Ford to bring TJ Sabula back to work — don't punish workers for criticizing hateful visiting politicians.
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 state governor to stop giving businesses special tax breaks on the supposition that their investment would do wonders for the state.
[Please include the following URL as literal text. You can also place on that text a link to that same page.]
I mentioned https://stallman.org/articles/states-union.html in my letter.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
US citizens: call Senate Crapo to investigate the coverup of data leakage at the Social Security Administration.
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 Interior Secretary Burgum not to let Big Oil destroy Chaco Canyon.
US citizens: call on Big Tech to cancel contracts with Israel's government.
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.
Borrowing a tactic from the persecutor, the supreme ayatollah of Iran is facing massive protests by labeling the protesters as followers of the persecutor.
A global deal to require businesses to pay a certain minimum amount of income tax has been modified to make a loophole for large US-based multinational corporations.
Those are exactly the companies that worst rip off the whole world by paying an insufficient share towards keeping things going, while increasing the world's inequality.
The Committee to Protect Journalists warns that the bully's proposed restrictions on visas for foreign journalists in the US could result effectively in censorship.
I suppose that's the whole point.
More info about proposed new visa restrictions.
Magats are censoring US museums and bullying them into self-censorship. Most museums seem to be trying to duck under the desk in the hope that censors won't notice them. That will not be effective.
Deportation thugs blocked medics twice from reaching Renee Good to see whether she was dead or alive.
*Israel pushes ahead with vast illegal settlement in heart of West Bank.
Tender posted for construction of 3,401 homes in settlement designed to "bury idea of a Palestinian state"* by fragmenting the remaining land.
A small but significant fraction of the women protesters that the deportation thugs attacked with tear gas are reporting continuing medical problems afterward.
Similar problems occurred among protesters at Black Lives Matter protests who were tear gassed.
The article reports on medical studies that found harmful effects of tear gas. But it is hard to study the issue because the composition of any given tear gas product is secret.
Clearly the law should require manufacturers of any gas or liquid product intended to be applied to people at random to publish full details of its composition.
Studies show that when mainstream parties show hostility towards immigration, it boosts support for right-wing extremists. When social-democratic parties do this, it boosts the far-right vote and reduces their own.
This reinforces a conclusion I posted some decades ago: in politics, when the best outcome you can get is a compromise, you must never give the bad side of the compromise any moral legitimacy. Tell the truth, that with the limited influence you have, winning on this issue was beyond your reach.
Protests have been organized across the US condemning the deportation thugs' murder of Renee Good. Some also condemn the murder of people in small boats in the Caribbean — people who were accused of smuggling, but never put on trial to prove them guilty.
There wasn't enough notice to promote these protests here with non-JavaScript announcements, but we will try to do that in the future.
Two enormous mining companies want to merge. Whenever two enormous companies want to merge, governments should stop them. Capitalism with insufficient competition is effectively fascism.
The Iranian government has killed hundreds of protesters; the bully is messing with the situation by threatening a military attack in the name of protecting protesters.
His idiotic meddling is enabling the government to cast the protesters as tools of the US.
Meanwhile, observe the irony of comparing how the bully speaks of Iranian protesters who demand human rights and democracy with how he speaks of American protesters who demand the same.
Here are fragmentary reports of events in Iran — I don't think we can be sure of their accuracy.
Vaccinating any and all babies against the RSV virus is reducing the number who need hospitalization, but the idiot officials want to vaccinate fewer rather than more.
Decades of mergers have left US business dangerously concentrated, with giant corporations operating under many brand names using PR meant to give the impression that they are alternatives to big business.
These combined businesses are so powerful that they can prevent the government from taking crucial actions to protect the health of their consumers, their workers, and the general public. (And animals too, but I think any human being is more important than a cow or a cat.) They also drive wages down so that most people are impoverished.
This article focuses on the food industry but the same issue applies to many other fields.
Another effect of this dangerous power can be seen in the states that passed "ag-gag laws". These laws criminalize making unauthorized videos inside farms or meat processing plants, even to prove illegal or dangerous practices of those businesses.
*Ilhan Omar and two other House members blocked from visiting [deportation prison] in Minnesota.
[They were] ejected even though judge ruled Congress members can’t be barred from visiting [such] facilities.*
Is there anything the judge can do to make the deportation thugs obey the order? Can perse dispatch federal marshals to arrest them for contempt of court if they don't?
The practice of paying web sites is risky — there are constantly fake sites that lead innocent people to pay fraudsters instead.
People should always have he right to pay with paper; and if there is no inherent reason why that would be absurd, people should have the right to pay anonymously.
Directing charges to a car license plate is inherently unjust surveillance.
China is trying to bully European countries into forbidding visits by Taiwanese officials.
The US is threatening punitive tariffs on countries that do business with Iran.
Senator Kelly is suing Hegseth and the War Department for trying to punish him for accurately citing laws that the corrupter wishes did not exist.
Senator Warren shook up the Democratic Party's "moderates", then mostly joined them — but this commentary says she is returning to her firm progressive roots.
(satire) *Users [of ex-Twitter] Ask Grok To Put More Clothes On Elon Musk Pictures.*
The cheater threatened to send the national guard to seize voting machines in the next election. Only in places where he loses, one supposes.
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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Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are
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