Richard Stallman's Personal Site


The photo comes from wikimedia.org
"Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019"
by Ruben Rodriguez

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

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RSS site feed for the most recent political notes and new material.

This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been hosted elsewhere and managed separately.

If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.

Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.

FSF Giving Guide

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

I urge you to vote in Democratic primaries for the progressive candidate, if there is one. And in the final election I urge you to vote for Democrats, unless a liberal independent had a good chance of winning.

Canadians: I suggest you seek election advice at a local chapter of a group that pushes to curb global heating and has the courage to say, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel." It will at least use the right goals to suggest who to vote for in your area.

Join a Friday climate strike.
That page is made by scraping Fridays for Future so you can get the information without running any Javascript code. I would be very glad if they made the information on their own site accessible from the Free World; then we could simply refer people to their site and do without the scraping etc.

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

Is your bank pressuring you to use biometric ID? If so, please write to rms at gnu dot org. It could be useful if you document what is happening.

Please join the Free Software Foundation to support its work for your freedom.

"They" is plural — for singular antecedents, use singular gender-neutral pronouns.

Link Policy

The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.

I'm looking for people to If you would like to help me in any of these ways, please write to rms at gnu dot o r g.

Civil Liberties Minute:

[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting 
             Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]
graphic by Susan Henson
Americans, you may wish to copy this icon to your own page, as a way of showing what patriotism means to you.

Upcoming talks

Urgent action items

Recording of Guantanamero

Listen to the recording of Guantanamero, a protest song written in Spanish. The recording is in Ogg Vorbis format. To install an Ogg Vorbis player, see the FSF's Ogg Players page.

There Ought to Be a Law

More items where there ought to be a law.

Quotes

Here are some quotations that I particularly like.

Most recent Political Notes and News Items

(RSS Feed)

You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.

Cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel
30 November 2024

Biden has brought about a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

Israel has achieved its war aims in Lebanon, which were simple: an end to attacks by Hezbollah in support of HAMAS. In effect, Hezbollah has accepted a substantial decrease in its power and territory, but has not lost anything really crucial. The Lebanese army is supposed to maintain control in southern Lebanon.

The previous agreement, which Hezbollah broke in Oct 2023, likewise said that the Lebanese army was to maintain control in southern Lebanon and keep Hezbollah from dominating that territory. The Lebanese army unable to do that, as Hezbollah was stronger. Hezbollah is now weaker, so perhaps the agreement can establish peace. Or it might fall apart.

This Lebanon agreement does nothing to prevent the killing of additional tens or hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza.

Musk wants to eliminate CFPB
30 November 2024

Why would Musk care if the CFPB continues to protect Americans?

He surely owns shares in some large US banks, and if the CFPB were eliminated, those banks would squeeze some additional billions out of their non-rich customer. Must would get some of that.

But I doubt that is enough money to move Musk to have an opinion about the question. I think he must have some other kind of motive, more emotional than financial.

I conjecture that he has come to hate people who advocate regulating businesses. That he wants to eliminate anything that could limit his power to make people obey.

Accused of firing on Imran Khan supporters
30 November 2024

*Pakistan army and police accused of firing on Imran Khan supporters.*

I don't know enough about this situation to draw any conclusion about which side — if any — supports human rights and democracy. Both sides are using force, but the army is shooting and seems to be covering up the casualties.

Saltwater in the Delaware river
30 November 2024

Drought and sea level rise are bringing salt water into the Delaware river, threatening to spoil the drinking water of millions.

The drought may be due to global heating. The sea level rise certainly is.

(satire) Single day of retirement
30 November 2024

(satire) *Most Americans Have Enough Saved For Absolutely Incredible Single Day Of Retirement.*

Wrecker's promise to loosen crypto regulations
30 November 2024

*[The wrecker's] promise to loosen crypto regulations may be boon for extremist groups* (such as his own).

Climate denial theme
30 November 2024

*Climate denial a unifying theme of [the world-wrecker's] cabinet picks, experts say.*

Warrant for Myanmar military leader
30 November 2024

*ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader… for crimes against humanity over deportation and persecution of Rohingya minority.*

Rule on contested words and phrases
30 November 2024

The University of Sydney is considering a rule requiring speakers to "make the meaning of contested words and phrases clear to the audience."

I can see a lot of vagueness in that rule. Does this apply to any word or phrase whose meaning someone contests at that moment? Or would there be a specific published list of words and phrases that must be made clear if and when used?

Big tech no friend to progressives
30 November 2024

The big tech companies have proved they are no friends of progressives, democracy, or civil liberties.

Banks trading highly leveraged assets
30 November 2024

Banks are finding ways to trade highly leveraged assets that cause a risk of global financial crash.

The laws passed around 2009 to try to prevent this were not as strong as the depression-era Glass-Steagall law that was partly repealed in 1999. When bankers get powerful enough to repeal the protections meant to stop them from crashing society, it shows their corrupting influence has prevailed.

Putin continues his nuclear panic campaign
30 November 2024

Putin continues his nuclear panic campaign by firing an experimental hypersonic missile at Kyiv without a warhead. We are supposed to be terrified because, as Putin reminded us repeatedly, that model of missile could have been launched with a nuclear warhead (though it wasn't).

The message Putin communicates this way is, "Be afraid! If I really were crazy, I might fire a nuclear weapon at you. Hey, aren't you afraid yet?"

Hypersonic missiles have a practical advantage: that they are hard to intercept. Aside from that, they are not much different from an ordinary ballistic missile.

Arrests of climate protesters in Australia
30 November 2024

Hundreds of climate protesters have been arrested in Australia recently for disruptive but nonviolent protests against the fossil fuel juggernaut of death.

Megachurch founder suffers health incident
29 November 2024

*Megachurch founder TD Jakes suffers health incident during sermon in Texas.*

Does he ever claim that material harm is a punishment "sent by god"? If so, that can be used against him now.

Investigation against corrupter ended
29 November 2024

The special counsel who was investigating the corrupter's 2020 crimes decided to end the investigation because it is impossible to indict the president.

Robert Reich says he should have put the charges on hold instead.

It may not matter. Maybe the corrupter will pardon himself. Maybe he will corrupt the US government so thoroughly that no trial of him or his friends could ever convict. Those are possibilities, and if they occur, it could have become futile to keep the indictment alive.

But they are not inevitable. They might not have happened.

US military invited to us LLAMA
29 November 2024

Meta invited the US military to use LLAMA to choose places to bomb. (So far, only for exercises.) Marketing materials show it gives a nonsensical answer to a foolish question that it ought to have rejected.

I conjecture that those marketing materials were written to convince politicians to spend billions on the system, rather that the commanders who might in theory someday actually use it. But that doesn't necessarily imply it would work better in real life.

PFAS and microplastics more toxic when combined
29 November 2024

*PFAS and microplastics become more toxic when combined* — for water fleas, at least.

To measure how they affect humans is a very difficult study, since it would take many years and there is no way to create a control group of humans who have not been exposed.

Corrupter's choice for Department of Defense
29 November 2024

The corrupter's choice to head the Department of Defense openly advocates committing war crimes.

Turkish woman convicted for sharing Guardian article
29 November 2024

*Turkish woman convicted under anti-terror laws for sharing Guardian article* about a British volunteer fighting in Kurdish forces in Syria. (For Rojava, I suppose.)

One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. The Guardian may well have glorified the volunteers who went to Rojava to fight for human rights, but surely that article did not promote terrorism. However, to Erdoğan any army that opposes Turkey might be called "terrorist".

We must defend elective abortions
29 November 2024

*We must defend elective abortions, not just the most politically palatable cases* (in which a woman might die because doctors obeyed anti-abortion laws).


The four factors of the apocalypse:
   global heating, global hating,
   global eating, global mating.


[More Cartoons]


Not f'd. You won't find us on Facebook

Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.


E-books

Non-oppressive Commercial E-books


Don't use Facebook

Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.

Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.


Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.



Internet Music EULAS



Business Supremacy Treaties



Countries to Stay Away From



No national identity cards

I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.

Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.

India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.

Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.

Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.

Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.

Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.

Ireland - national ID card by stealth.

ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.

Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.


Borders

Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.


Flight connections

Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.


The Lifelong Activist

People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.

I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.

Disclosure: I am friends with the author.


Bob Chassell

Writing (mostly science fiction) by my friend Bob Chassell who recently died.


Solidarity Economy and Free Software

Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.


Falkvinge articles

I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.


Long-term action items


Political Articles

These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also download copies of my book, Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition.

Political notes

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to more information. The current notes are here. For all previous notes, see this page.

See this page for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes.

Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page.

Media/Press/Bios

Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.

Travel experiences

Photos about my travels

Scientific Links


Some humor

The berry torture.

The Free Software Song, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: Free Software Song performed by Thor Here is a variant of this song called "The Free Firmware Song".

A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.

Earth under attack from planet Koch.

On doxing, and how to spell it.

Futon Physics

A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta Española. thumbnail

The Night before M-x-mas

Here I am wearing my "power tie".

Wine snobs get their comeuppance.

Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.

My application to an join Marian Henley's ex-boyfriends list.

My funny poetry and song parodies.

My Cartoons

My Puns in English (Little Leaguer, August 2019).

My Puns in Spanish (New pun: Apostasía April 2019)

My Puns in French (New pun: Microsoft à l'école July 2019)

My Puns in Portuguese

My Puns in Italian (New pun: Quale pesce fa starnutire? New 10/2018)

My Puns in German (New 02/2016)

Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)

I am a
     Saint In the Church Of Emacs --Saint IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for census purposes.

There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.

Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…"

The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.

Pre-Zen Studies.

I found a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.

If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.

Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.

Un malentendido gracioso.

ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.

American Extremists

My Small Mouth

The huns and the writs.

No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)

Hammer into Anvil

Fiction

Made for You (December 2012) (local copy) Esperanto translation

A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).

The Right to Read

Books

My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.

Stallman on Love

Love and Dance

My Childhood Sweetheart

Made for You

My Former Personal Ad

Non-Political Articles

Am I Doctor Stallman?

Avec des chapeaux French song parody.

My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.

Resolving the trolley problem

Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights

A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.

Origin of the POSIX name.

On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".

My Childhood Sweetheart

Love and Dance

Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor

Certificate of confusion

Links

Thanks

I would like to thank:


Please send comments on these web pages to rms at gnu period org.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved.
Verbatim copying and redistribution of any of the photos in the photos subdirectory is permitted under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0 or later. You can copy and redistribute the photo of me playing music to the butterfly under the Creative Commons Noderivs Nocommercial license version 3.0 or later. Any other photos of me in this (the toplevel) directory may be copied and redistributed under the Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0