Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman's Political Notes -
Urgent: Reject calls for Article V convention - 2025-07-09T02:37:37+00:00
US citizens: call on state legislators to reject any calls for an Article V convention.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
Urgent: Protect journalists covering LA protests - 2025-07-09T02:37:37+00:00
US citizens: call on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to protect journalists covering the LA protests.
Applicants for student visa must set antisocial media to "public" - 2025-07-09T02:37:37+00:00
The US now demands that applicants for a student visa set their antisocial media profiles' visibility to "public". This means that *those who wanted to study in the U.S. to flee authoritarian governments abroad will have to make their social media public to those same governments to study here.*
Crops unharvested at California farms - 2025-07-09T02:37:36+00:00
*[Deportation thug] raids leave crops unharvested at California farms: "We need the labor."*
Beyond the obvious irony of this, I note that the wrecker hates California and seems to look for any way to cause harm there. This may part of the purpose of the raids, rather than collateral damage.
Mamdani's margin of victory over Cuomo - 2025-07-09T02:37:36+00:00
Mamdani's margin of victory over Cuomo was 12% — Cuomo was not even close.
Campaign to cancel citizenship of naturalized citizens - 2025-07-09T02:37:36+00:00
The persecutor has ordered a sweeping campaign to try to cancel the citizenship of naturalized citizens. One of the possible grounds, lack of "good moral character", could be stretched out of all recognition by partisan judges. Even when the victim has a good chance of winning, perse may lack the funds for a lawyer.
Magats plan to try to strip Mamdani of US citizenship to stop him from winning the mayoral election. This would take a lot of stretching plus a double standard.
Is it required that the mayor of NYC be a US citizen?
Israel confiscating supplies from doctors visiting Gaza - 2025-07-09T02:37:36+00:00
Israel confiscates supplies from doctors visiting Gaza. When volunteer doctors try to visit Gaza, Israel confiscates items such as baby food and surgical equipment. It is also very fussy about whether a doctor is allowed in.
In particular, doctors who talk to the media after they leave Gaza are blocked from visiting Gaza again — blocked at nearly the last minute, so there is no chance to find replacements for them.
This reduces the number of doctors in Gaza, and interferes with main remaining channel for news reporting coming from people who don't live in Gaza.
Action needed on Orbán's suppression of human rights - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
The EU needs to act to thwart Orbán's suppression of human rights in Hungary. He targeted the queer minority first, to prove that no one's rights are safe in Hungary; soon he will extend that suppression to all dissent.
Estimated deaths from abolition of USAID - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
The abolition of USAID is estimated to be likely to kill 14 million people by 2030.
Saboteur in chief's cuts to the weather bureau - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
The saboteur in chief's cuts to the weather bureau forced it to shut down at night, and reduced the available data to compute forecasts from. This interfered with forecasting tornadoes and flash floods.
Tracking sea ice for global heating - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
*Tracking sea ice is "early warning system" for global heating — but US halt to data sharing will make it harder, scientists warn.*
Enemy of trust and enemy of empathy - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
While the bullshitter is the enemy of trust, the muskrat is the enemy of empathy.
What the Democrats can learn from Zohran Mamdani - 2025-07-09T02:37:35+00:00
*Here’s what the Democrats can learn from Zohran Mamdani.* An active supporter reports on what she heard from voters as she canvassed for him.
Lead air pollution connection to killers - 2025-07-09T02:37:34+00:00
Arguing that the enormous level of lead air pollution in Tacoma, Washington, was responsible for the cluster of several killers who grew up there.
UK government considering more facial recognition - 2025-07-09T02:37:34+00:00
The UK government is considering more facial recognition in public places.
Also robot prison guards, and implanting tracking devices in people's bodies.
Name big storms after fossil fuel companies - 2025-07-09T02:37:34+00:00
Idea: name big storms after fossil fuel companies and manufacturers of SUVs.
The article focuses on Britain, but the idea makes sense globally.
PFAS in water in small part of France - 2025-07-09T02:37:34+00:00
After a long delay, people in a small part of France received an official order for certain vulnerable people should avoid drinking tap water, due to presence of PFAS in the water supply.
The warning focused on babies, pregnant women and the immunocompromised. That decision is based on caution, which has some rational basis. But actually, no one knows how much harm various PFAS are likely to do to those people, or to other people. We have reasons to think they might do harm, but we don't know. There are hundreds of different PFAS, and no one knows what effects each one might have.
Collecting statistics on exposure to each one, and on the medical problems that develop at various exposure levels, is likely to take decades.
Prisoners moved from bombed Evin prison - 2025-07-09T02:37:33+00:00
When Israel bombed Evin prison, used by Iran for political prisoners, some of them were killed. Afterward, Iran moved many others to other prisons where conditions are more painful.
Iran's government is not necessarily doing that to punish the prisoners. It seems to be working to improve some.
But Iran's government it entirely and solely to blame for imprisoning people for demanding human rights. Just as the US government is when, it jails people for protests.
Mamdani's proposal for city-run grocery stores - 2025-07-09T02:37:33+00:00
Mamdani's proposal for city-run grocery stores will provide a place to buy groceries, including fresh produce, in the parts of New York City which now have none.
Descriptions of Kilmar Ábrego's torture - 2025-07-09T02:37:33+00:00
Kilmar Ábrego's lawyers have published descriptions of how he was tortured in El Salvador's prison for alleged "terrorists". It is horrible.
The guards recognized that he was not a gang member, that his tattoos had nothing to do with gangs. So why did they subsequently start to torture him? I think they must have got orders from higher up — perhaps from the persecutor, via Bukele.
Ex-Twitter will use bullshit generators - 2025-07-09T02:37:33+00:00
Ex-Twitter will use bullshit generators (LLMs) to write the "community notes" that substitute for fact checking.
Oxfam supports initiative of Spain - 2025-07-09T02:37:33+00:00
Oxfam supports the initiative of Spain. Brazil and South Africa to tax the super-rich globally.
Europe’s heatwaves - 2025-07-08T08:37:29+00:00
Europeans seem to recognize that heat waves indicate a slow-moving disaster, but they have given up on the idea of convincing governments to resist the planet roasters.
In effect, they are giving up civilization for dead.
How sad — because they could make governments safe if they determined not to give up.
Labour left - 2025-07-08T08:37:28+00:00
Jeremy Corbyn's party is reanimating the Labour Left
Israel's army mistakes - 2025-07-08T08:37:28+00:00
Israel was compelled to admit it had shot a convoy of Palestinian medics, but still has recourse to false facts and irrelevancies to defend it.
Whether some or all of the medics in a team are related to an enemy force is irrelevant as long as they act as medics are supposed to act, and these did so.
The army's own investigation has contradicted its public excuses.
Destruction of science - 2025-07-08T08:37:28+00:00
*We are witnessing the destruction of science in America.*
With years more research, we would have been likely to find treatments or preventatives for many diseases that plague millions of people.
I suppose research will still be done in Europe and Asia. But the US contribution has been important.
Italy greenhouse gases - 2025-07-08T02:37:33+00:00
The largest oil company in Italy is suing those who have denounced it for its greenhouse emissions, and even arranged for one to be prosecuted.
Dutch school phone ban - 2025-07-08T02:37:33+00:00
Dutch schools' prohibited the use of snoop-phones in class, and that has improved education and social interaction.
Israeli airstrike - 2025-07-08T02:37:32+00:00
*Family of Dr Marwan al-Sultan says the Israeli airstrike "precisely" hit the apartment block the cardiologist and his relatives occupied.*
Palestine Action - 2025-07-08T02:37:32+00:00
*Palestine Action isn’t a danger to British democracy — but this repressive government is.*
Any government that tries to stretch the definition of "terrorism" as an excuse to punish someone declares itself an enemy of freedom.
(As is any government that tries to stretch the definition of "antisemitism" as an excuse to punish someone.)
ICE arrests strike fear - 2025-07-08T02:37:32+00:00
The bully has jailed over 130 immigrants from Iran since the brief war, accusing them of being "sleeper cells" for sabotage.
Many of them came to the US because they opposed the Iranian regime, defending there the human rights that the US used to stand for. If they were deported to Iran, they could be put in
Evin prison or another prison even worse.
Now the US could deport them to some other place such as Djibouti.
Will courts ensure that the deportation thugs prove a case against these accused spies before deporting them? Or will it allow the bully's hate-spreaders men to spread terror among all refugees and naturalized citizens in the US?
Urgent: Harms of the Big Bad Bill - 2025-07-07T08:41:05+00:00
US citizens: phone your congresscritter to oppose the Big Bad Bill, which Congress just passed. Here's an AFL-CIO list of how it harms low-income Americans:
- Rips health care away from 17 million people and eliminates 600,000 care jobs, forcing over 300 rural hospitals to close their doors.
- Spikes health care costs for people with employment-based insurance by nearly $500 per person per year and nearly $2,000 annually for a family of four.
- Destroys hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in construction, manufacturing and production, and raises energy costs at a moment when working-class households are already struggling.
- Slashes food assistance for nearly 3 million Americans, and slashes at least 140,000 jobs in food processing facilities, school cafeterias, grocery stores, and farms by cutting billions in SNAP funding.
- Threatens an estimated 1.75 million construction jobs and over 3 billion work hours, which translates to $148 billion in lost annual wages and benefits.
- Adds $155 billion in funding for President Trump’s mass deportation agenda to increase raids that target immigrant workers, throw members of our communities and our unions in detention, and rip families apart.
If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
Addressing homelessness today, US, UK, AUS - 2025-07-07T08:41:04+00:00
Right-wing methods of dealing with the inconvenience of homeless people living in public areas sooner or later take a cruel and vicious form. Here is an example from Australia.
I've often linked to examples from California,
Some places choose rather to give each homeless person a place to live in.
Price of asylum rising, US, UK, AUS - 2025-07-07T08:41:01+00:00
The magats' big brutal bill is designed to keep refugees out of the US unless they have some money. They will have to pay to request asylum, and pay for the years that they wait for a final hearing. All this is to make people persecuted in other countries give up unless they are wealthy.
It also makes sure they have to wait a long time, by limiting the number of immigration judges.
The idea of the global system of asylum was meant to ensure that people forced out of their own countries by persecution can find welcome somewhere. This scheme is designed to drive them away. Australia and the UK have been doing their best to drive away refugees for years now.
Proscribing Palestine Action - 2025-07-05T02:37:37+00:00
*Palestine Action is part of Britain's proud history of protest. Proscribing it is an assault on democracy.*
British food co-op boycotting exports from countries with human rights abuses - 2025-07-05T02:37:36+00:00
A nationwide British food co-op has decided to boycott exports from a list of countries, on account of their widespread human rights abuses: Afghanistan, Belarus, Central African Republic, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iran, Israel, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Netanyahu likely to break Iran-Israel cease fire - 2025-07-05T02:37:36+00:00
Arguing that Netanyahu is likely to break the Iran-Israel cease fire because he stands to gain from unending war.
(satire) Entitled child expects to eat every day - 2025-07-05T02:37:36+00:00
(satire) *Entitled Child Expects To Eat Lunch Every Day.*
(satire) Blank Bill for Trump to write whatever law he wants - 2025-07-05T02:37:35+00:00
(satire) *Congress Passes Blank Bill For Trump To Write Whatever Law He Wants.*
(satire) Christian Faith important part of who Senator pretends to be - 2025-07-05T02:37:35+00:00
(satire) *Christian Faith An Important Part Of Who Senator Pretends To Be.*
Campaign to repress journalism intimidating students writing for school papers - 2025-07-05T02:37:35+00:00
The wrecker's campaign to repress journalism is intimidating many students who write or wrote for school newspapers. They are asking the newspapers to delete their articles.
The USA's tree of liberty was always flawed, but now it may be poisoned entirely. The wrecker's axe is cutting into the heart of the trunk.
National government system for internet accounts in China - 2025-07-05T02:37:35+00:00
China has set up a national government system for internet accounts, enabling uniform ID checks on all platforms.
Every unified national system of internet accounts is a scheme ready-made for repression. Whatever its purpose is — even if it is only to verify a person's age — it will enable the government to track all of everyone's internet use, on all servers that the state chooses to impose this on. Combine that with a would-be autocrat and it is disaster.
Government building database to list all citizens - 2025-07-05T02:37:34+00:00
The US government is building a database to list all citizens. This will be dangerous, because it won't list all citizens, only those whom the federal government has verified.
The article says that it *could provide local and state governments a powerful method to check the citizenship of almost all Americans without additional documentation requirements.* But that must be confusion. Even if the data base has a record about you, you will still have to authenticate yourself as that person. What papers will that require?
The "voter ID" method of voter suppression demands that voters show up-to-date government ID. That disenfranchises many citizens who had to move to a different address and have not had the time to update their driver's licenses since. Republicans adopt this method because it tends to stop poor people, students, and old people from voting.
What will happen to people with such driver's licenses if a state checks this citizenship data base? Will it suppress their votes?
Court ruled temporary protected status of Haitians can't be ended prematurely - 2025-07-05T02:37:34+00:00
A court ruled that Kristi Gnome cannot prematurely end the temporary protected status of Haitians.
Religion as political cudgel, Turkey - 2025-07-03T14:37:44+00:00
The publication in Turkey of a cartoon which appears to show Muhammad and Moses shaking hands inspired Erdoğan's tyranny to revile and imprison the cartoonists.
Apparently the idea of peace between religious groups is "against [the] sacred values" of religious fanatics.
Condemnation of depicting Muhammad has not been a universal principle of Islam, and anyway, no religious group has the right to impose censorship on the public. Not Muslims in Turkey, not Christians in the US, and not Jews either.
Tick-bite that can cause meat allergy - 2025-07-03T02:37:28+00:00
Ticks of a certain species, from the southeast US, cause a painful and lasting allergy to mammal meat and dairy, in humans they bite. Due to global heating, the ticks are spreading north and have been seen in New York and Maine, close to the northern border of the US.
One could imagine that the spread of this allergy could reduce consumption of red meat and dairy thus curb global heating, but I don't think it would be enough to save civilization.
Federal judiciary as meddlers - 2025-07-03T02:37:28+00:00
Robert Reich: *Last night I couldn’t get out of my head that [the would-be emperor] is intent on abolishing the two branches of the government with the constitutional duty to constrain him.*
Federal court injunctions as overreach - 2025-07-03T02:37:28+00:00
The Big Brutal Bill was going to strip federal courts of the power to issue injunctions to block specific unconstitutional or illegal practices no matter who the victim was. The decision on that bill has not yet been made, as far as I know. But the Supreme Court just did the deed.
The Supreme Court's devastating decision effectively allows the bully to disregard the constitution, except against the specific plaintiffs that have sued about it.
The same 9 justices upheld that power as legitimate when it was used against Biden's policies, and for a long time before that under other presidents.
I've read that some lawyers are using a class-action suit to try to get around this change.
Urgent: Restore funding for vaccine development - 2025-07-02T08:37:30+00:00
US citizens: call on the CDC to restore funding for vaccine development.
Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)
First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.
I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!"
They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.
To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.
Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:
First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.
This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.
Urgent: Retract nomination of Fedex board member to USPS - 2025-07-02T08:37:30+00:00
US citizens: call on the USPS board of governors to retract its nomination of a Fedex board member as head of the USPS.
Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)
First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.
I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!"
They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.
To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.
Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:
First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.
This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.
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