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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.
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: phone your senators to support the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, which would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on Congress to Stop [the wrecker]'s Authoritarian Troop Deployment.
The line between military and civilian government is among the critical protections for democracy.
US citizens: call on Congress to *Stop [the wrecker]'s Authoritarian Troop Deployment.*
*The line between military and civilian government is among the critical protections for democracy.*
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on the Senate to delete the $50B tax increase on nonprofits from the Big Bad Bill.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: call on RFK Jr to revert the cancellation of the bird flu vaccine contract.
Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)
First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.
I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"
They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.
To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.
Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:
First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.
This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.
US citizens: call on the Smithsonian Institution to stand firm against pressure to slant American history.
Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)
First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.
I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"
They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.
To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.
Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:
First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.
This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.
US citizens: call on Congress to defund DOPE (so-called "DOGE").
US citizens: call on Congress to reject cuts in funding for medical treatment, and instead extend this to a universal national medical system.
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose the JUDGES bill which would let Republicans pack the federal courts.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
US citizens: Call for the resignation of acting FEMA head David Richardson.
US citizens: call on state Democratic parties to ban super-PACs from Democratic primaries.
US citizens: call on AG Bondi to give no taxpayer money to Proud Boys.
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.
Israel "ordered" people to "evacuate" a large part of Tehran, its capital city. It said that it would attack "military infrastructure", but in fact bombs and missiles are falling on civilian markets.
*[The bully] brushes off US intel reports on Iran to align himself with Israel.*
Millions of Iranians hate their government, but that doesn't mean they don't love their country. The attacks by Israel are just the thing to make them unite (at least for the while). Threats from the US will make Iranians hate the US and look for more ways to support Russia.
Hmm, maybe the bully is still trying to serve Putin.
A bipartisan resolution in Congress aims to invoke the War Powers Act to stop the bully from adding the US to Israel's attacks on Iran.
Israeli troops shot 37 Palestinians who were trying to collect some food.
Similar incidents have been happening daily.
(satire) *Kristi Noem: Sen. Padilla Had Even Deadlier Opinion That Failed To Go Off.*
Explaining how the UK could take over the incompetent and corrupt water companies without giving them to any other companies, and without paying a ransom to anyone.
An ecologically important protected wetland in Australia has been attacked by a toxic algae bloom, brought about by human-caused global heating and pollution. The bloom is likely to repeat whenever the high temperatures repeat.
Lawful protesters should be free to cover their faces, and in the US, the Supreme Court has recognized their right to do so.
The article contrasts lawful protest with civil disobedience. However, it is an obvious error to categorized whistleblowing as a kind of civil disobedience. Whistleblowing is not symbolic disobedience, it is direct action.
Ukrainian soldier Maksym Butkevych, captured by the Putin forces and recently exchanged, described the beatings, threats and lies dished out by the Putin forces guards during his two years of captivity.
About the campaign pressuring Target to bring back some of support for the minority groups that face unequal treatment by society.
The proposed My Body, My Data Act would prohibit "collecting, using, retaining or disclosing information about someone’s reproductive health," except for a "specific request". Because of the words "collecting" and "retaining", this might do some real good. Texas can't use a subpoena retroactively to make a system collect or retain data that it did not collect or did not retain.
It would be crucial to make sure that offer the option of storing the data solely on the device. If the only mode of operation that an app offers is to store the data in some cloudy server, and the user asks the app to do anything with per data, that might create a loophole: asking the app to do anything might be construed as an "explicit request" for the app/server to collect the data and retain it.
Other dark patters or manipulative money saving offers might also be used to manipulate people into making the poisonous "request".
As the Texas example shows, reproductive health data is not the only data that can be used for faith-based repression of abortion, birth control and medicine. Location data can serve the same unjust purpose. The requirements for collecting or retaining location records must be made bulletproof against fanatical officials willing to distort the truth or lie outright.
The fascist-in-waiting has prepared for years to create a test case of using the military to crush peaceful protests. Defending democracy will require careful tactics to avoid giving him a bogus excuse which he can then distort.
*Israeli government issuing "illegal" orders that must not be obeyed, say IDF intelligence officers.*
Unlike the usual position of Israeli opposition to the war, based on the wish to ransom the Israeli hostages soon, this opposition is based on recognizing the right to life of Palestinians. The "illegal orders" are illegal because they are orders to kill innocent Palestinians, with no military justification — and that makes them war crimes.
And they are being presented by prestigious army officers who back up their criticism with defiance — refusing to obey those illegal orders.
This resistance has the potential to shake the Netanyahu government. I hope so.
To ensure Americans get less help in coping with disasters, the wrecker plans to abolish FEMA and take direct White House control over the distribution of aid.
Giving the job to people he has personally appointed will also cause confusion that will surely reduce what really gets done.
Organized groups of Muslims in Australia are pressuring for a unified definition of racism (or bigotry), so as to block the push for an unjust criterion for antisemitism.
Bravo! This is an important issue, and they have chosen the right direction for solving it.
Side issue:
The word "racism" means prejudice based on race. A prejudice based on religion, sex, gender, national origin, or caste, is not racism. It is a similar moral issue, and may be equally unjust, but it doesn't fit into the word "racism".
Let's not adopt terminology that builds confusion into the moral foundation of our views. When we want to reject bigotry whether based on race or not, let's use the broader word "bigotry".
Orhan Pamuk: *I've never seen such clampdowns in Istanbul. Turkey's democracy is fighting for its life.*
The country's most popular politician has been jailed, to stop him from running for president and perhaps defeating Erdoğan. Other dirty tricks are being used to stop him from running.
Even metro stations, buses and car travel in İstanbul are restricted, as is entry to the city, to make protests difficult.
When we see the bully's thugs beating up members of Congress, we have to wonder whether the federal courts will be able to protect democracy effectively from the bully if he does the sort of things Erdoğan does.
Heating homes and water is more efficient when done in Stockholm by municipal systems serving neighborhoods.
*CDC official in charge of Covid data resigns ahead of vaccine meeting. … She does not have confidence data will be use[d] to make "evidence-based vaccine policy decisions."*
Resigning from an official position makes no impression on magats. They do not care about the capacity to judge carefully, based on evidence, a question they prefer to judge based on emotion alone, so the government's loss of that capacity does not strike them as significant.
It would be more effective to stay in the position and criticize vociferously whenever magat officials. Eventually they will fire you, and your reproach will win more attention.
*California bill proposes misdemeanor for officers who cover their face on duty.*
I would expect there to be an exception for undercover cops that infiltrate criminal activities. That activity is useful. But it will be a challenge to draw up a rule to distinguish legitimate undercover investigation from anonymous snatches.
The UK government seems to have sold its soul to nuclear power, and cites arguments based on assuming the habitual problems of nuclear power will inexplicably not happen this time.
US citizens: phone your senators to support the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, which would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
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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