Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's Political Notes -

Urgent: Condemn Vance's hypocrisy - 2025-10-30T02:39:28+00:00

US citizens: Condemn Vance's hypocrisy about the Young Republicans leaked hate-venting.

For more info about what they said, see this pol note.

Estimates of global heating effects on Japan in 2060 - 2025-10-30T02:39:28+00:00

By 2060, global heating will make it unsafe for children in most of Japan to play outdoor sports in the summer.

There are countries hotter than Japan, where that may happen some decades sooner. And global heating causes worse problems, such as crop failures and mass hunger.

Americans brace for food stamps to run out - 2025-10-30T02:39:28+00:00

*[Over 40 million] Americans brace for food stamps to run out.*

Independent technocrat committee for running Gaza - 2025-10-30T02:39:28+00:00

*Palestinian factions say they agree to let independent technocrat committee run Gaza.*

This is a concession to Israel, but it does not imply an evil to Palestinians (unlike starvation and bombing). We will see whether this leads Israel to stop those evils.

Sycophantic bullshit-generator chatbots - 2025-10-30T02:39:28+00:00

* Turning to "sycophantic" [bullshit-generator] chatbots for personal advice poses "insidious risks", according to a study showing the technology consistently affirms a user's actions and opinions even when harmful.*

International Court of Justice has condemned Israel for violations - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

The International Court of Justice has condemned Israel for many violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

Is there anything that the UN can do to make Israel heed international humanitarian law?

German Court Rejects Gaza Journalist's case - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

*[German] Court Rejects [Gaza] Journalist's Case Because He Couldn't Submit an Original Signature from Gaza.*

Rejecting magat with Nazi leanings - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

Several Senate Republicans have joined in rejecting a magat with Nazi leanings for a federal office.

This is positive change, and it suggests that further public pressure could make it easier to defeat them.

Pentagon's new press corp - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

The Pentagon's new press corps is filled with conspiracy ideaionists and far-right extremists: the sort of "reporters" who will believe the official bullshit and then go beyond it.

I fear they will make good use of these reporter-allies to pass lies for truth and start wars (perhaps first with Venezuela).

Deaths linked to Wood burners - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

*Wood burners linked to 2,500 deaths a year in the UK, analysis finds.*

Using a wood-burning stove is not a wise idea.

EU complicit in war in Gaza - 2025-10-30T02:39:27+00:00

*The EU was complicit in the war in Gaza. [The bully]'s plan can’t be an excuse to dodge responsibility now.*

Elephant migration routes in Africa - 2025-10-30T02:39:26+00:00

Humans and their works are cutting elephant migration routes in Africa, leading to death of elephants and humans.

No Political Enemies Act - 2025-10-30T02:39:26+00:00

The No Political Enemies Act aims to restrain rogue presidents from persecuting political opposition.

US pressuring UK to use more fossil fuel - 2025-10-30T02:39:26+00:00

The US is pressuring the UK to use more fossil fuel. And the UK government is eager to do that.

Poland worried about low birth rate - 2025-10-30T02:39:25+00:00

Poland is worried about the low birth rate and population decrease.

Nonviolent population decrease is what the world needs now, but it is a byproduct of painful social problems that cause loneliness and suffering for millions.

Mistake of designating parts of nature as "persons" - 2025-10-30T02:39:25+00:00

Campaigners to strengthen protections for nature in the UK are on the edge of the conceptual mistake of designating parts of nature as "persons".

To protect nature legally from damage by people is very important, but we should reject the idea of "rights" for an entity (such a river, or "nature") that is unable to make decisions.

Every valid right is the right to do something if you want to. To apply the term "rights" to things that society forces on you whether you like it or not is a perversion of the idea of rights.

Io avoid getting caught in that perversion, we should stop calling for "nature" to have "rights". "Rights" with its valid meaning makes sense only for persons, and in limited circumstances for animals for things they are able to decide.

Urgent: Reject giving medals to soldiers that massacred Lakotas at Wounded Knee - 2025-10-29T02:39:27+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to reject giving medals to soldiers that massacred Lakotas at Wounded Knee.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Unreliable and biased advice from so-called AI chatbots - 2025-10-29T02:39:26+00:00

*[so-called] AI chatbots give "unreliable and biased" advice to voters, says Dutch watchdog.*

If this were a special problem unique to the Netherlands, it would not be globally significant. But it is a consequence of the nature of bullshit generators.

We can help reduce the impact of this problem by firmly refusing to call them any sort of "intelligence". Please join in!

No Kings rallies were great success - 2025-10-29T02:39:26+00:00

Robert Reich: The No Kings rallies on October 18 were a great success, with 7 or 8 million participants. What should patriotic Americans do now?

By voting for progressive candidates and spreading the word, we can support freedom, democracy, well-being, and justice for all.

Ex-police commissioner sues New York City - 2025-10-29T02:39:26+00:00

*Ex-police commissioner sues New York City and Eric Adams over alleged NYPD corruption.*

He says that he informed Night-Mayor Adams privately and was then pushed out of the post. *Donlon claims that his efforts to establish internal NYPD oversight were "sabotaged". He gives examples including that his meetings were cancelled, his communications were spied on, he was excluded from decision making, and alleges that his official police commissioner’s stamp was used to forge internal documents.*

Herbal remedy books on Amazon - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

*Detection firm finds 82% of herbal remedy books on Amazon ‘likely written’ by [a so-called "AI"].*

One book among those 82%, a bestseller, is labeled with praise from a nonexistent publisher of a nonexistent magazine. How much credence should one give to that book? In that "field", even books written by humans will be full of imaginary facts.

Medical neglect in US deportation prisons - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

*Pregnant women report medical neglect in [US deportation prisons], rights groups say.*

Interviews with leaders behind No Kings movement - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

Interviews with leaders of the organizations behind the No Kings movement.

New chief regulator for driverless cars - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

The corrupter has appointed a new chief regulator for driverless cars, who has a glaring conflict of interest: he was working for Apple, and owns stock in Apple.

I do not call them "self-driving" because many of them sometimes depend on communicating with cloudy servers, so that what becomes of the data it collects about passengers is cloudy too.

Australian Christian Lobby representative on laws against cults - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

The Australian Christian Lobby representative said that if Australia adopts laws against coercive behavior by cults, "legitimate" churches might be found to violate them.

If that happens, what should we make of it?

EU criticised for pausing sanctions on Israel - 2025-10-29T02:39:25+00:00

*EU criticised for pausing sanctions on Israel in response to Trump Gaza efforts.*

In fact, Israel is continuing to bomb Gaza and continuing to restrict food imports. Sanctions on Israel should continue until Israel fully stops its war crimes and some time goes by without any.

Open letter over Israel's conduct in Gaza - 2025-10-29T02:39:24+00:00

460 prominent Jewish figures, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"We bow our heads in immeasurable sorrow as the evidence accumulates that Israel's actions will be judged to have met the legal definition of genocide," the letter reads.

New leader of British Green Party embraced partial socialism - 2025-10-29T02:39:24+00:00

The new leader of the British Green Party has embraced the partial socialism that Starmer Labour has rejected. It offers a way out of the plutocratist ideas of Starmer Labour.

Wrecker's order designating nonexistent "Antifa" as "terrorist" - 2025-10-29T02:39:23+00:00

The wrecker's order designating the nonexistent "Antifa" organization as "terrorist" are meant as a tool to criminalize organizers of nonviolent protests. In particular, this can be done at someone commits violence at a nonviolent protest.

Here is how that order can do practical harm.

Here are details of the actual prosecution.

The US has a long history of using that excuse to frame the organizers of nonviolent protests for left-wing causes. In 1886, persons unknown set off a bomb at a nonviolent labor protest at Chicago's Haymarket. Organizers of the protest were convicted of planting the bomb despite the absence of evidence connecting them to it. Several were executed, and were known in the labor movement as the "Haymarket martyrs".

Revenge operative as US attorney - 2025-10-29T02:39:23+00:00

The bully appointed a revenge operative as US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James. She has challenged in court whether appointment was lawful.

Deportation thugs in Chicago changing license plates - 2025-10-29T02:39:23+00:00

It appears that deportation thugs attacking Chicago change the license plates on their cars every day. The state of Illinois has reminded them that it is a crime to do this.

I wonder whether the hotline for reporting suspected instances of such crime can possibly do any good.

Larry Bushart jailed for mockery of Charles Kirk - 2025-10-29T02:39:23+00:00

Larry Bushart has been jailed for a month so far, and charged with "Threatening Mass Violence at a School," for posting mockery of Charles Kirk.

TotalEnergies ordered to stop pretending to reduce fossil fuel use - 2025-10-29T02:39:23+00:00

A French court ordered TotalEnergies to stop pretending to be aiming to reduce fossil fuel use.

In a French airport jetway this month I saw a series of posters from TotalEnergies which illustrated many kinds of non-fossil-fuel energy sources, as if to distract people from the company's fossil fuel generation by harping on other things the company also does.

*Global use of coal hit record high in 2024.*

Second age of robber barons - 2025-10-29T02:39:22+00:00

Robert Reich on the second age of robber barons.

NSW prisoners could face harsh penalty for trivial offenses - 2025-10-29T02:39:22+00:00

*NSW prisoners could face harsh penalty for trivial offenses such as "looking untidy" after Labor ignores legal advice.* Even worse, according to the article they could be "convicted" of these "crimes" through a joke of a trial.

In effect, prisons will be converted into bootcamps to condition people into obedient slaves.

Pursuing exiled dissidents, CHI - 2025-10-26T14:39:05+00:00

China is using Interpol to catch exiled dissidents. Many governments won't bother to check that someone is a dissident rather than a criminal, or may not even care, when under China's economic pressure.

The most horrible thing about the persecutor is that he is making the US take after China.

Grifter pilfering 230m, US - 2025-10-26T14:39:05+00:00

*Top House Democrats accuse [the corrupter] of illegal scheme to pilfer $230m in taxpayer money. Lawmakers say [the corrupter] as president would decide whether [the corrupter] as claimant be paid for investigations into [the corrupter] as defendant.

Cloudflare verses Google - 2025-10-26T14:39:05+00:00

Cloudflare is leading a campaign for websites to tell Google they do not permit using their pages to train a bullshit generator. This is to pressure Google Search (and other search engines) to stop displaying bullshit summaries instead of search results about those sites.

I agree that bullshit summaries (as they are now) are a bad thing, partly because they are made by programs which are not intelligent, so they are often confused and misrepresent what the site really says.

In other words, I don't think that training an LLM with the page is doing wrong to anyone. What does wrong to the people who have the web site is showing the public the LLM output instead of search matches in the site.

I have little sympathy for the desire to "monetize" a site, because (1) that word is a sleazy disguised way to talk about charging a fee for access, and (2) paying on the web identifies the user and requires running nonfree software, and I reject both on principle.

I might occasionally be willing to pay for access to a web page if I could do so anonymously without running nonfree software. This could be implemented using GNU Taler. However, this would only be just if it does not include signing agreement to a freedom-trampling set of terms and conditions.

Antisemitism in the US DHS - 2025-10-26T14:39:04+00:00

The Department of Homeland Subjugation posted a video clip with blatantly antisemitic lyrics, in August. Extremist supporters of the wrecker began publicizing it with admiration, and recently the DHS deleted it, then absurdly denied that it was antisemitic.

The wrecker's henchmen criticize with false accusations of antisemitism while turning a blind eye to their supporters' real antisemitism. It is clear that their supposed campaign against of antisemitism is a lie.

Urgent: The IRS weaponization plan - 2025-10-25T02:39:35+00:00

US citizens: call on your representative and senators to stop the magats' effort to weaponize the IRS — to persecute their political opponents by spurious investigations and accusations.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Urgent: Unwanted wiretapping threats - 2025-10-25T02:39:35+00:00

US citizens: phone your representative and senators and call on them to be on guard against any attempt to extend the wireless wiretapping authorization, section 702 of the PAT RIOT Act, and block it.

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Urgent: Abortion pill accessibility - 2025-10-25T02:39:32+00:00

US citizens: call on senators to protect safe access to mifepristone — don’t let politics override science to impose religious extremism.

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

If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

Palestinian body torture and execution - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

*Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of torture and execution, say doctors.*

Signs that Israel tortures and brainwashes Palestinian prisoners were reported years ago.

Anti-bullying plan announced - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

Australia accuses chatbot bullshit generators of sending children text that has the effect of bullying them.

To say that X "bullies" Y is a statement about X's intentions. A bullshit generator doesn't understand the text it outputs, and has no intentions, so strictly speaking it can't bully anyone. But it can send someone text that expresses bullying, and if so that can hurt. Perse may even believe that the bullshit generator is judging per. The practical result is the same, but our analysis of the situation should not make that mistake.

Neo-Nazis jailed for terror plots - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

*Three UK neo-Nazis jailed for between eight and 11 years over terror plots.*

Gaza’s rich history in ruins - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

Summarizimng almost 4000 years of the history of Gaza.

Much of its store of potential archeological knowledge has been churned by bombs falling on the ground.

Gaza aid still critically scarce - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

*Gaza aid still critically scarce, say agencies, as Israel delays convoys.*

HAMAS has mostly carried out the terms it agreed to — failing only to hand over corpses it is unable to find and dig up — but Israel is holding back on both cease fire and aid.

Russian fight clubs - 2025-10-24T08:38:54+00:00

*Revealed: how a Russian fight club expanded into the US with the help of American neo-Nazis.*

Body scan clauses - 2025-10-24T08:38:53+00:00

*[Actor] Olivia Williams says actors need "nudity rider"-type controls for … body scans [that enable deepfakes].

[She] says performers are regularly pressed to have bodies scanned on set with few rights over how data is used.* Other actors say the pressure to do this is hard to resist.

World’s ocean losing their greenness - 2025-10-24T08:38:53+00:00

Global heating seems to be damaging the oceans' photosynthesis, which would mean that the Earth's capacity to deal with CO2 generation would decrease.

In other words, the reduction in CO2 production we would require to curb global heating would be even greater.