Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's Political Notes -

Australia hate speech laws - 2025-12-23T10:38:57+00:00

The Australian government has prohibited using force or violence against people based on their religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion.

I wonder if this is enforced against agents of the state.

Carbon dioxide - 2025-12-23T10:38:57+00:00

*More carbon dioxide in the environment is making food more calorific but less nutritious – and also potentially more toxic (due to an increase in lead content).*

*[For instance], zinc in chickpeas would be expected to plummet by up to 37.5%, with a “significant” decrease in protein, zinc and iron in essential crops such as rice and wheat.*

Medical disinformation - 2025-12-23T10:38:57+00:00

Medical disinformation is sometimes deadly. In Canada, people are falling for disinformation about "natural" childbirth, which effectively puts recourse to medicine off limits.

Ukraine funding - 2025-12-23T10:38:57+00:00

The EU found an alternative method to fund Ukraine's defense, satisfying Belgium's objections to putting Belgium on the spot.

However, the outcome highlights the harm that Putin's client states in the EU do.

Republican vote rigging - 2025-12-23T10:38:57+00:00

In the Republican plan for rigging the 2026 election, one prong is an effort to make it harder to vote, especially for groups likely to vote Democratic. This includes cuts to early voting, voter roll purges, the elimination of drop boxes, and bureaucratic hurdles meant to confuse and discourage would-be voters. The other prong is gerrymandering.

Store robberies to "give food to the needy" - 2025-12-23T10:38:56+00:00

*Santas and elves rob Montreal grocery store to "give food to the needy."*

This isn't the ideal system for helping the poor, but it is better than failing to do the job.

Labor union vs Labour party - 2025-12-23T10:38:56+00:00

The new leader of Britain's largest labor union announces it will refuse its support to the Labour Party if that party supports billionaires instead of working people.

The retired and powerless - 2025-12-23T10:38:56+00:00

*Why is it that powerful people typically wait until they have no power [before they] take the right position and effectively admit they were wrong when they had more power to do something about it?*

ICE siphoning resources - 2025-12-23T10:38:56+00:00

*[The deportation thugs are] siphoning ever more resources and personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).*

We have seen much proof that the wrecker wants to engage lots of untrained agents to grab and deport, and separately wants to incapacitate FEMA. With this trick he can do both at once.

Election warning - 2025-12-23T10:38:56+00:00

Governor Newsom said he believe the wrecker is seriously trying to block the next presidential election so he can remain president.

Chatbots are not intelligent - 2025-12-23T10:38:55+00:00

A satire about future chatbots recognizes they are not intelligent, despite using the term "AI".

Too bad more people don't have the courage to refuse to endorse the claim that they are intelligent.

South Yemen proxy war - 2025-12-22T22:39:22+00:00

Two rich Arab clients of the US are on the verge of fighting a proxy war in South Yemen against each other.

Both proxies are enemies of the Houthis, but also of each other.

New South Wales plan to restrict protests - 2025-12-22T22:39:22+00:00

Australia is planning to respond to the antisemitic shooting by repressing protests and rallies -- those criticizing Israel's atrocities, I suppose.

Those atrocities are just as vicious, and far larger, than the antisemitic violence. It is absurd to fight antisemitic violence by protecting bigger atrocities. We must oppose both.

Lake Geneva invasive mussels - 2025-12-22T22:39:22+00:00

Invasive mussels have caused a disaster in Lake Geneva.

Right-wing Christian groups replacing USAId - 2025-12-22T22:39:22+00:00

Right-wing Christian antiabortionists are replacing the medical aid funds that the persecutor has cut, and the replacement funds have dangerous strings attached.

Citizens United 2.0 - 2025-12-22T22:39:21+00:00

Beyond "Citizens" United: Republicans want to erase the little that remains of campaign donation limits.

Arctic year of record heat - 2025-12-22T22:39:21+00:00

People and animals in the Arctic suffer the direct effects of continuing global heating.

The True Catastrophe of Trump - 2025-12-22T22:39:21+00:00

Robert Reich: The wrecker's imperative is not just to keep displaying outrageous and vicious contempt for good government and justice, but to make it worse and worse at an accelerating rate.

Urgent need to reduce methane emissions - 2025-12-22T22:39:21+00:00

On the urgent need to reduce methane emissions .

Tigris River in danger of disappearing - 2025-12-22T22:39:21+00:00

The Tigris River, where civilization began, is polluted and in danger of drying up .

Iran directed arson attacks in Australia - 2025-12-22T22:39:20+00:00

The Iranian government organized and set off at least two arson attacks aimed at Jewish activities in Australia. And perhaps more as well.

Australia has closed the Iranian embassy, which participated in attacks and in intimidation of Iranian exiles who protested against Iran's government.

Journalists in Israel failed to tell the truth about Gaza - 2025-12-22T22:39:20+00:00

*Some might be partisan, others under external pressure – but too many journalists in Israel have failed to tell the truth about Gaza.*

The story of the Republican Party - 2025-12-22T22:39:20+00:00

The history of the Republican Party since the 1970s: how it was taken over by plutocratist extremists whose goal was to hand the rich complete power over America.

Urgent: Require deportation thugs to report accurately - 2025-12-22T16:39:12+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to require the deportation thugs to report accurately what they are doing, and to give priority for deportation to those unauthorized immigrants who have criminal records.

To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.

Please spread the word.

Urgent: Stop arming Israel's military - 2025-12-22T16:39:11+00:00

US citizens: call on the U.S. government to stop arming Israel's military and instead ensure Israel complies with international law — including immediately withdrawing from Gaza and the West Bank.

Urgent: Pass Rashida Tlaib's Economic Dignity For All Agenda - 2025-12-22T16:39:11+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to pass Rashida Tlaib's Economic Dignity For All agenda.

To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.

Please spread the word.

Urgent: Put a moratorium on building new data centers - 2025-12-22T16:39:11+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to put a moratorium on building new data centers.

To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.

Please spread the word.

Urgent: Restore funds for public media broadcasting - 2025-12-22T16:39:10+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to restore funds for public media (broadcasting).

To phone your congresscritter about this, the main switchboard is +1-202-224-3121.

Please spread the word.

(satire) Fact-checking on voter fraud - 2025-12-22T16:39:09+00:00

(satire) *Fact-Checking [the cheater] On Voter Fraud.*

Belgian politicians subject to intimidation - 2025-12-22T16:39:08+00:00

*Belgian politicians and senior finance executives have been subject to a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Russian intelligence aimed at persuading the country to block the use of €185bn [of frozen Russian] assets for Ukraine, according to European intelligence agencies.*

The European spy agencies are not perfectly trustworthy, but I would not expect them to fabricate details such as those given in the article. So I think this is true.

The demand that Belgium alone not get stuck with the costs, if Putin were someday to succeed in forcing return of the confiscated assets, seems reasonable to me. That hypothetical loss should be divided somehow among many countries.

Harvard forced head of François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights - 2025-12-22T16:39:08+00:00

Harvard abruptly forced out the head of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, which worked with Palestinians in the West Bank to study the medical consequences of discrimination and repression there.

BBC terrified of bully's Florida lawsuit - 2025-12-22T16:39:07+00:00

The BBC is terrified of the bully's enormous Florida lawsuit which demands ten billion dollars for a questionable editing decision.

But is going to fight the lawsuit.

The edit juxtaposed two clips from the bully's address on Jan 6, 2021 (the one that sent the crowd to attack the Capitol), which in actual fact were separated by substantial time.

For an important public figure to win a libel case against news media in the US requires proving "actual malice". There is little chance he could do that. However, there is some chance his billionaire supporters might convince Supreme Court justices to give him victory, disregarding facts and laws, in the ultimate appeal.

Undercover cops snooped on Hackney Community Defense Association - 2025-12-22T16:39:06+00:00

The Hackney Community Defense Association was set up to expose corruption and mistreatment by British thugs. Undercover cops snooped on it for a decade.

Persecutor's henchmen ignored questions - 2025-12-22T16:39:05+00:00

*[The persecutors's henchmen] ignored questions about whether it would order the killings of those on its [secret list of supposed "domestic terrorists"] — even while answering our other queries.*

Thailand and Cambodia fighting over border - 2025-12-22T16:39:05+00:00

Thais in Siam began conquering a portion of Khmer territory after 1200 a.d. After France made the Khmer into a colony, France took part of that portion from Siam, while Siam retained the rest of it. Thailand (formerly Siam) and Cambodia are now fighting about the border of the part that France added to Cambodia.

President of Serbia agreed to build a "Trump Tower" in protected land - 2025-12-22T16:39:04+00:00

President Vučić of Serbia, a right-winger corrupted by the bully (and also by Putin), agreed to let him build a "Trump Tower" in a protected area of land. An honest prosecutor investigated and laid charges of corruption, which brought about cancellation of the plan.

Explanation of legalities of attacks on ships - 2025-12-22T16:39:04+00:00

Human Rights Watch has published an explanation of the legalities of the persecutor's deadly attacks on unarmed ships, and why such attacks are crimes.

*Pentagon won't release full video of [boat attack] that killed two [survivors of the first attack], Hegseth says.*

Government's focus on rights of rich - 2025-12-22T16:39:03+00:00

In the 1970s, governments began to focus on human rights, but interpreted them as including rich people's to get rich and buy everything, then took this as an excuse to disregard the other crucial goal of reducing economic inequality.

Wrecker wants several new nuclear reactors running - 2025-12-22T16:39:02+00:00

The wrecker wants to have several nuclear reactors of new designs running just 7 months from now, without letting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission verify their safety.

It looks like the saboteur in chief is aiming for speed above all, and safety be damned.

The demand for this haste comes from the companies that run bullshit generators and call them artificial "intelligence". In case people prefer not to use those, they aim to give people no choice.

Jailed supporters of Palestine Action on hunger strikes - 2025-12-22T16:39:01+00:00

Jailed supporters of Palestine Action have been on hunger strike for weeks.

Bullshit generators on topic of global heating - 2025-12-22T16:39:01+00:00

Comparing the output of various bullshit generators when they are given the topic of global heating.

The report says that Grok sometimes shows climate denial bias, while a couple of other bullshit generators did not.

When I call them "bullshit generators", that is not a claim that the output is biased in some specific way. What makes these systems bullshit generators rather than "intelligence" is that they are not capable of knowing or understanding anything. They play with text in a complex way but do not know what the text means.

US did not end criminal penalties for marijuana - 2025-12-22T16:39:00+00:00

The US will make it easier to do research on marijuana but did not end criminal penalties for using it.

Bully's henchmen offered money to unauthorized US residents - 2025-12-22T16:39:00+00:00

The bully's henchmen offered many unauthorized US residents a thousand dollars if they agreed to deportation. Many who agreed never received the money they were promised.

It seems that this wrong was due more to incompetence and disorganization than to outright lying or cheating. They choose people for obedience rather than for competence, and then rush into action without proper planning.

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.