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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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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.
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.
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: call on President Biden to publish the Equal Rights Amendment as having been adopted.
US citizens: call for no cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
US citizens: call on Congress to reject attacks on transgender rights.
US citizens: call on Senate Democrats to close the Data Broker Loophole, that allows agencies like ICE, CBP, and the FBI bypass the 4th Amendment and spy on everyday people's location and online activity without a warrant.
In my view, that change would be a change for the better, but would not be adequate. We are entitled to use devices controlled by us, not be companies. We should be able to make sure they do not tell anyone where we go.
But closing the Data Broker Loophole is at least a change for the better.
US citizens: call on Biden to revoke Musk's security clearance.
US citizens:Support Bernie Sanders: urge Democrats in Congress to resist Republicans.
US citizens: Oppose the Appointment of a "Moms for Liberty" Co-Founder as Education Secretary.
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.
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.
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.
*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.
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) *Most Americans Have Enough Saved For Absolutely Incredible Single Day Of Retirement.*
*[The wrecker's] promise to loosen crypto regulations may be boon for extremist groups* (such as his own).
*Climate denial a unifying theme of [the world-wrecker's] cabinet picks, experts say.*
*ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar military leader… for crimes against humanity over deportation and persecution of Rohingya minority.*
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?
The big tech companies have proved they are no friends of progressives, democracy, or civil liberties.
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 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.
Hundreds of climate protesters have been arrested in Australia recently for disruptive but nonviolent protests against the fossil fuel juggernaut of death.
*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.
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.
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 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.
The corrupter's choice to head the Department of Defense openly advocates committing war crimes.
*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, 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.
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".
A song parody, Colors of the Lisp, by Jefferson Carpenter.
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.
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:
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