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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
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the GNU Project.
For the sake of separation, this site has always been
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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.
Phone the White House at (202) 456-1111
(only Tues-Thur 11 to 3) to call for dropping the changes.
Write to Biden at
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Wash DC 20500
Please phone your congresscritter at (202) 224-3121 or write to Reps at US House of Representatives, Wash, DC 20515.
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)
Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.
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.
The door plug that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane was missing four bolts meant to hold it in place. They were missing because Boeing maintenance removed them and did not put them back in again.
Some workers actually made the mistake, but they were working as part of a work system that Boeing management was responsible for setting up and running. That's where the real fault is.
I suggest passing a law to require aircraft manufacturing and repair companies to have a certain fraction of licensed commercial pilots on their boards. Perhaps 66%.
Private equity is gobbling up large parts of the US nursing home business. This puts patients in danger since private equity can amass lots of money, create an oligopoly, and get away with abuses.
The study suggests that "regulation may be needed." I will take a stronger stand and call for firm limits — perhaps even prohibiting private equity combinations from owning home nursing businesses.
I'v also proposed prohibiting private equity from buying up lots of rental housing.
It should be illegal for a store to charge different prices to customers depending on whether they identify themselves and/or hand over demanded personal data.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.
Chatbots can lead people to suicide. What should we make of that?
It seems that chatbots can build, with susceptible people, various sorts of self-reinforcing loops of conversation, such that both get stuck in the loop together.
Of course, this happens to people in interactions with other people. Getting out of them is a challenge.
Inga Rublite died after waiting 8 hours in an emergency room in Britain. None of the staff had even looked at her or taken her blood pressure.
The fault does not belong to the overwerloaded staff. It belongs to the Tories, who have cut medical spending over and over, simply so the rich can pay less taxes.
Now that Labour has also caved to the rich and their demand for low taxes, Britain needs a party to champion what Labour used to stand for.
A four-legged robot with a flamethrower is now available for anyone to purchase in the US. Supposedly it is not intended for war. Maybe that means it is intended for criminal gangs?
I suspect that flooding in East Africa was caused by atmospheric rivers.
I think it can happen anywhere that the prevailing winds arrive over a large body of water.
*Gaza's 37m tonnes of bomb-filled debris could take 14 years to clear, says expert.*
A leader of an indigenous tribe brought a headdress onto an Air Canada flight and was told it had to be put in the baggage compartment. She objected that her headdress was sacred and therefore deserved special treatment.
That demand for privilege should be refused. We all face the possibility of being required to check some item rather than carry it into the cabin, and we deserve equal treatment.
The rules don't have to be rigid; it is good if they are somewhat flexible. However, that flexibility should apply equally to all passengers, not in a discriminatory way based on a passenger's ethnicity or religion.
Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian of Hebrew University in Jerusalem was arrested and treated quite harshly, and charged with publishing unacceptable views.
(They are similar, in grand lines, to my views and the views of many of my readers.)
Many colleagues and other academics have condemned the arrest as political repression. Even Hebrew University condemned it.
The cruel treatment of Shalhoub-Kevorkian in jail adds to the nastiness of this, but the core of the issue is the intention to prosecute people in Israel who demand a cease-fire.
*Climate experts fear [the wrecker] will follow a blueprint created by his allies to gut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), disbanding its work on climate science and tailoring its operations to business interests.*
*Taxing big fossil fuel firms "could raise $900bn in climate finance by 2030."*
China reaffirmed its plan to eliminate cash, and thus keep track of all purchases anyone makes.
Despite some recent compromises, the government remains dead set on tracking everything that people do.
The anonymous use of cash is the basis for other freedoms. If you think that using cash is too inconvenient, please approach the matter with a problem-solving spirit. Can you find a way to make it convenient enough to bring enough cash with you whenever you leave the house?
Freedom of the press is being hammered in several European Union countries.
Torres Strait Islanders, who live on islands between Australia and New Guinea, are suing about the damage that sea-level rise will do to their homes if we don't curb global heating in 20 years.
Robert Reich warns that SCROTUS are already warning that they might arbitrarily override the next congressional election as a stepping stone to stealing the presidency.
The public revulsion against anti-abortion extremes is splitting the Republican Party.
May the fragments fall on the ground and be trampled by Americans' boots!
Unawareness of the injustice of "modern digital society" leads to thinking about internet connections that misses half the point. Here is an example.
The concept of "digital inclusion" as a goal presumes that the ways people normally participate in "modern digital society" are just fine, and labors systematically to help people surrender to what is demanded of them.
Most people judge every Internet "service" in superficial terms, and know no other way because they have never learned about the injustices: massive surveillance, demands for personal data, addictivity, anti socializing contracts, DRM, and more. In addition, people confronted with a demand to "use snooper.com now to do this" tend to see the immediate inconvenience of refusing now more vividly than the long-term harm of having an account on snooper.com.
In Spain, a friend has told me, banks are making it inconvenient and expensive to withdraw cash from your own bank account. You can do that only if you physically go to a bank branch when it is open, which is some hassle outside of big cities. But he has decided now to withdraw cash enough to last for some weeks so he can make a habit of paying cash.
Justice Sotomayor had better retire now, so we can replace her with another liberal, rather than risk dying in office and be replaced by Republicans with another right-winger.
Ecuador has voted to affirm its constitutional ban on ISDS clauses, which I call "I Sue Democratic States" clauses.
Some have criticized my term, saying that ISDS clauses are not specifically limited to democratic states. That is true — but in practice it tends to be democratic states that are targets for them. That's because the kind of law that foreign corporations target that way is a kind that tends to be passed by democratic states. Most dictators rarely pass laws that would make foreign corporations treat the populace better.
Professors at several US universities which have brought in thugs to arrest students, steal their property and make them homeless, are showing strong support for the violated rights of those students.
If those university presidents thought they were going to quickly crush all opposition, they have now learned otherwise.
I expect to see some law professors bringing suit against the universities from students who were suspended or made homeless.
Turning back to the reason all of this is so important, it seems that Israel continues not to attack Rafah. Maybe Biden has brought sufficient pressure to make Netanyahu change that plan.However, I have not seen that Gaza is getting enough humanitarian aid to prevent thousands of additional avoidable deaths.
Summarizing what is happening to the participants in the corrupter's fake electors scheme to steal the 2020 election.
* QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com.*
I've seen a number of sex-related moral panic articles the Guardian, and I generally find they are based on a series of exaggerations of the likely magnitude of side issues — the tail wagging the dog.
I've read articles in which prostitutes say that legalization enables them to look up information about the customer's behavior towards other prostitutes. It makes sense that would be useful for them, but it boggles my mind that anyone considering being a prostitute's customer would agree to reveal per real name to anyone involved in the transaction. Or pay by a credit card at all. That seems like asking for trouble. If I were ever inclined to be a a prostitute's customer (which is unlikely), I would pay cash and give no one any identifying information. We can't help knowing the sorts of scandal that have resulted when the wrong person found out, and anonymity is the only plausible protection.
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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