Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's Political Notes -

Plastic recycling status - 2025-12-21T10:38:53+00:00

Only a small fraction of the plastic containers for food are actualy recycled. We need to reduce the amount of plastic that we use. Many of these containers, as currently made, are not feasible to recycle, even if theoretically it is possible.

Urgent: Remove RJK Jr - 2025-12-20T22:39:16+00:00

US citizens: call on your congressional officials to impeach RFK Jr and remove him from office , for supporting medical disinformation.

See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.

The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.

Urgent: Write to Frank Bisignano - 2025-12-20T22:39:16+00:00

US citizens: write to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano saying to keep Social Security offices open.

Urgent: Support Medicare for All - 2025-12-20T22:39:16+00:00

US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators to support Medicare for All.

You can use 202-858-1717 to call your U.S. Representative, and 202-519-0494 to call your U.S. Senator. Here is a suggested script from National Nurses United:

Hi, my name is _______. I am a constituent and I'm a nurse/other health care worker/patient. I'm calling today in support of Medicare for All. Our health care system is failing patients and providers, and incremental fixes aren't enough. Support for Medicare for All is broad, and growing by the day. If you are not yet a cosponsor of the Medicare for All Act, I urge you to sign on. If you are already a cosponsor, thank you — and please continue championing Medicare for All as the real solution to this health care crisis.

The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.

Urgent: Divest New York State pension funds from Blackrock - 2025-12-20T22:39:16+00:00

US citizens: Urge New York State's pension funds to divest from Blackrock .

Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill - 2025-12-21T04:39:22+00:00

Billionaire Polluters has hired a new CEO who calls the policy of avoiding climate disaster "ideological".

To depend on companies to decide whether to save civilization or run it into the ground is foolish and weak. We must impose the choice to save it.

EPA decides to weaken regulations on formaldehyde - 2025-12-21T04:39:22+00:00

The wrecker's henchmen in the EPA decided to weaken the regulations on formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.

The linear danger assumption is a good assumption because just one cell that becomes cancerous is enough to give a person cancer. Becoming cancerous requires a set of mutations, and each carcinogen molecule has a certain low probability of causing one of those mutations. Half the dosage would mean half the probability of cancer in any given period of time.

Trump cancels plan to cleanup lead in Omaha - 2025-12-21T04:39:22+00:00

The magats have canceled a plan to remove lead in Omaha. Lead poisoning damages children's intelligence permanently and can lead them to become criminals.

Surprise lawmaker visits to ICE facilities cannot be banned - 2025-12-21T04:39:21+00:00

* District judge says policies deeming deportation thugs' field offices "off-limits for congressional oversight" violates federal law .*

Musk ally Jared Isaacman as Nasa chief - 2025-12-21T04:39:21+00:00

Making a supporter of the muskrat head of NASA will give the muskrat too much power over NASA's decisions.

Germans and "how are you?" - 2025-12-21T04:39:21+00:00

The writer says that Germans find it very difficult to confront the German equivalent of being asked, "How are you?"

I have always felt this way about it. There have always been problems in my life, which implied that "Fine" as an answer would have been false. To answer that way felt like lying.

Nowadays I can say that "My lymphoma is still in remission," which is pleasant and true.

UN experts rebuke US universities for human rights violations against Gaza protesters - 2025-12-21T04:39:21+00:00

A group of UN special rapporteurs rebuked Columbia University, Cornell University, Georgetown University. Minnesota State University and Tufts University for repression of students' freedom of political speech.

Heatwaves making people age faster - 2025-12-21T04:39:21+00:00

* [Increased] exposure to high temperatures [due to global heating] could result in long-lasting damage to health of billions of people, scientists warn.*

Trump administration to dismantle climate research center in Colorado - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

The wrecker's henchmen seek to wreck the National Center for Atmospheric Research, perhaps because it works on understanding and modeling global heating.

The magats deny global heating exists, so they see NCAR as an enemy for reporting that it does.

Trump orders oil tanker blockage with Venezuela - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

The bully has started out-and-out war with Venezuela, with a naval blockade.

Job hunting in the age of LLMs - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

Companies are using bullshit generators to post job offers, and using bullshit generators to judge applications, and it is not clear whether they really intend to hire anyone. For the poor humans who would like to find a job, it is a pointless waste of time. This article talks about Britain, but I've read that it is the same more generally.

US federal agencies mimic Trump on antisocial media - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

Some US government agencies' antisocial media accounts now post propaganda for hatred. The fascist leader must have handed them over to the Ministry of Truth.

Australia gun regulation gaps - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

Australia's rather strict gun regulations have some gaps that can be closed.

Women tricked into servitude for Opus Dei - 2025-12-21T04:39:20+00:00

The Catholic organization Opus Dei enslaved teenage women as domestic servants, after having promised to give them education.

See the enslaved workers page.

It's the media job to hold power to account - 2025-12-21T04:39:19+00:00

*It's the media's job to hold power to account . This year, too many got into bed with it instead.* "Power" in this article refers to state power. However, "power" includes the power of businesses as well as the power of governments. Over recent decades, the major US media have become subsidiaries of megacorporations which mainly do other kinds of business. That has resulted in increasing corruption of the news media, for decades.

Indiana Senate rejects Redistricting Plan - 2025-12-21T04:39:18+00:00

The bully and his supporters launched threat after threat against the state legislators of Indiana (mostly Republicans), and against the state and its people, to demand that they vote for gerrymander of the House of Representatives, but they refused.

The bully’s takeover of the Kennedy Center - 2025-12-21T04:39:18+00:00

The bully's ruination of the Kennedy Center is a warning to everyone of what fascists in power will do to arts, culture, and democratic discourse.

ICC age of impunity - 2025-12-21T04:39:17+00:00

*The jailing of a Sudanese militia leader is an anomaly in a world where Putin, Netanyahu and yes, Hegseth, act without fear of international law.*

Obamacare expiration will have ‘death spiral’ effect on US healthcare - 2025-12-21T04:39:17+00:00

*Obamacare expiration will have "death spiral" effect on US [medical insurance].* Only the sickest will pay for coverage, so the plans will go broke and disappear.

Trump’s two-pronged strategy undermining democracy - 2025-12-21T04:39:17+00:00

*Beware [the fascist]'s two-pronged strategy undermining democracy.*

[He] announces non-existent emergencies to invoke extraordinary powers – and neutralizes the opposition.*

Stephens Blames Palestine Freedom Movement for Bondi Beach Shooting - 2025-12-21T04:39:17+00:00

Israeli extremists cite antisemitic violence as justification for anti-Palestinian violence.

Other extremists respond to violence against Palestinians by encouraging antisemitic violence .

Each of these streams of violence encourages the other, but neither of them justifies the other. Both of them are unjustified cruelty. They are both wrong.

The situation is not a perfectly symmetrical dance. That hardly ever happens outside fiction, and that fiction is written to make the imperfect symmetry of reality visible.

Benediction

Twixt the river and the sea,
Palestine nigh Israel be.
Both in peace, let both be free;
Be lands of democracy.

How We End Citizens United - 2025-12-21T04:39:16+00:00

How each state can work around the "Citizens" United decision for elections in that state.

Human Rights Violations at Florida Detention Centers - 2025-12-20T22:39:15+00:00

Amnesty International: how deportation prisons in Florida gravely violate human rights .

Lawyers accuse DoJ of political pressure in University of California antisemitism investigation - 2025-12-20T22:39:15+00:00

Lawyers who worked for the Justice Department said they were pressured by higher-ups to prosecute the University of California for discrimination against Jews, before they had a chance to study the facts of the case.

Guan Heng may face removal from US after ICE arrest - 2025-12-20T22:39:15+00:00

Guan Heng documented China's repression of Uyghurs, then fled to the US. The US is pushing to deport him to Uganda, which might send him to China for brainwashing.

I am curious why the US denied him asylum.

ICE prison’s 911 calls overwhelm rural Georgia emergency system - 2025-12-20T22:39:15+00:00

A deportation prison in a rural area of Georgia is overloading the area's ambulance system. Some injured prisoners have to wait a long time to get to a hospital.

Hilda Ramirez Sanan and her children illegally and forcefully detained - 2025-12-20T22:39:15+00:00

Deportation thugs violently attacked a mother and her children , and injured them, without bothering to ask whether they were entitled to live in the US. It is inexcusable for them to do that to anyone.

These thugs behaved like a violent street gang and should be treated as such. To attack in any violent way a person who is not fighting, or per vehicle or other property, deserves a sentence of some years in prison. Causing permanent injury should add more years to the sentence.

Such actions are normal for the US deportation thugs. Ilhan Omar recently called them "Blatant racial profiling, an egregious level of unnecessary force, and activity that appears designed for social media rather than befitting a law enforcement agency."

Oil companies pretending to help - 2025-12-19T04:38:59+00:00

How planet-roasting oil companies systematically advertise to pretend to be helping to solve the problem they continue causing.

More on US-seized oil tanker - 2025-12-19T04:38:59+00:00

More information on the oil tanker that the US seized near Venezuela.

It was not, as I thought, Venezuelan. It identified itself falsely as registered in Guyana. I did not see in the article where, if anywhere, the ship was actually registered. Maybe I was mistaken in saying that seizing the ship was an act of war against Venezuela, or any country.

Big pharma - 2025-12-19T04:38:58+00:00

The wrecker bullied Britain into taking around 4 billion dollars from medicine and paying it to US Big Pharma instead.

Bullshit generators and scams - 2025-12-19T04:38:58+00:00

Another reason why you can't trust bullshit generators: scammers systematically feed them false information by injecting dangerous lies into sites that the generators scan.

Trump administration going after universities - 2025-12-20T22:39:13+00:00

The bully and his henchmen are trying many ways to attack US universities .

UK universities cut recruitment ties with fossil fuel industry - 2025-12-20T22:39:13+00:00

Some UK universities are refusing to help fossil fuel companies recruit staff.

José Antonio Kast elected Chile’s next president - 2025-12-20T22:39:13+00:00

Chile elected a new president who is a follower of the murderous dictator Pinochet and the murderous would-be dictator of the US.

Tories would end 2030 ban on new fossil-fuel cars - 2025-12-20T22:39:12+00:00

The Tories hope to climb back from near-oblivion by encouraging continued sale of fossil-fuel cars. This could drive the last nail into the coffin of civilization.

US air force plane midair collision near Venezuela narrowly avoided - 2025-12-20T22:39:12+00:00

A US Air Force plane flying near Venezuela with its transponder off flew in front of an airliner and risked causing a collision .

What Curaçao ATC said suggests the US is doing dangerous things like this often.

Chinese pro-democracy activist talks on how to find courage to oppose Trump - 2025-12-20T22:39:12+00:00

A Chinese democracy activist (now in the US) reports on how invigorating it is to speak against a tyrannical state.

Police officer spycops scandal - 2025-12-20T22:39:11+00:00

The UK is investigating the "spycops" operation which sent undercover cops to infiltrate leftist political groups engaged in political protest campaigns by pretending to be supporters and dishonestly forming romantic relationships with other supporters.

For the state to snoop on nonviolent democratic activism is an attack on democracy. Pretending to love someone in order to snoop on per activities is personal dishonesty. Both are vicious, though the former is the more consequential of the two wrongs.

I have the impression most people think the worst aspect of this is the non-monogamy of it -- part of the monogamist idea that loving someone else is a personal "betrayal". Such possessiveness is not a part of my idea of love. If my sweetheart loves someone else in addition to me, as long as she does love me I can still be happy loving her.

UK creepy digital billboards - 2025-12-20T22:39:11+00:00

*Digital billboards that can film viewers’ responses to adverts have been installed in hundreds of apartment blocks [in Britain].*

They are installed in the lobby where people wait for the elevator. Putting something very distracting there is more than just Orwellian. It is a nasty distraction.

I suggest some responses:

• Give them the finger.
• Paste something opaque over the camera.
• Put something opaque over the whole screen.

‘Weak’ Europe’s 'problem' - 2025-12-20T22:39:11+00:00

*[The fascist's] New doctrine identifies "weak" Europe's problem: not enough racism.*

It aims to *destroy liberal democracy as we know it ,* in Europe as well as in the US.

US lifts one trade sanction on Belarus - 2025-12-20T22:39:10+00:00

The US lifted one specific trade sanction on Belarus, which (perhaps in exchange) has release political prisoners.

Urgent: Amazon labor union - 2025-12-17T10:38:36+00:00

US citizens: call on Amazon to come to the table with Amazon Labor Union.

See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.

Advice to Americans from anti-fascist activists - 2025-12-17T10:38:36+00:00

Advice to Americans from anti-fascist activists in Hungary, Turkey and El Salvador.

Environmental damage from food and fossil fuel production - 2025-12-17T10:38:36+00:00

A UN committee reports: "Food and fossil fuel production causing $5bn of environmental damage an hour."

That is 51 trillion dollars per year.

We should not hesitate to invest trillions of dollars to end that damage. It will be a profitable investment if we invest enough.

But we should take care not to let big businesses own the results of that investment.

US military right to repair equipment - 2025-12-17T10:38:36+00:00

Plutocratist politicians are so in thrall to lobbyists that they voted to deny the US military the right to repair its own equipment.

In peacetime, the inability to make a nontrivial fix can waste taxpayers' money. In battle, it can be deadly. There may be no time to fly a repairman to a war zone; the repairman might even refuse to go.

Everyone deserves the right to repair — which is related to software freedom.