Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's Political Notes -

Urgent: Section 702 of PAT RIOT act - 2026-03-14T00:45:24+00:00

How section 702 of the PAT RIOT act allows the US government to collect and search Americans' communications without warrants.

Section 702 will expire soon unless renewed.

Please phone your senators to call on let this section expire, by refusing to extend it.

US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.

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

Please spread the word.

National Public Health Coalition - 2026-03-14T00:45:24+00:00

Fired CDC workers have organized the National Public Health Coalition to advocate for public health, despite the wrecker's damage to the CDC.

Passport services in illegal West Bank settlements - 2026-03-14T00:45:24+00:00

*US to offer passport services to citizens in illegal West Bank settlements.* Step the US moves towards legitimizing mass expulsion and annexation.

German state fired head of Berlin film festival - 2026-03-14T00:45:23+00:00

The German state has fired the head of the Berlin film festival, apparently for refusing to ban criticism of Israel there.

She had opposed calls for the festival itself to take a specific stand, instead saying that artists presenting films there should be free to express their views. Apparently such freedom is now considered "antisemitic".

Germany abandoning laws on future fossil fuel use - 2026-03-14T00:45:23+00:00

Germany is abandoning laws designed to decrease future fossil fuel use.

This can only be called a surrender to planet roasters. The US and UK are doing similar things. The inevitable result is disaster.

Taliban have banned music - 2026-03-14T00:45:23+00:00

The Taliban have banned music, and have a campaign to destroy all the musical instruments in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's traditional musical styles are now threatened, as they can only be passed on outside the country.

Islam has had a thread of such fanaticism for a thousand years, at least. Muslim fanatics, the Almohads, took over Morocco in the 12th century, then parts of Spain. The Wikipedia entry does not mention this, but they banned music too.

If you want to listen to the example linked in the article, please don't simply follow the link to Youtube! Use invidio.us or yt-dlp, preferably through a proxy so that it can't be tracked to you.

Later in the article, there is a link for a different kind of music. I warn you, it is on Spotify.

Out, out, damned Spotify!

(satire) Kash Patel partying with Nancy Guthrie's captors - 2026-03-14T00:45:23+00:00

(satire) *Kash Patel Faces Backlash After Partying With Nancy Guthrie's Captors.*

Deportation thugs claimed to be city cops - 2026-03-14T00:45:23+00:00

Deportation thugs falsely claimed to be city cops in order to enter a Columbia University dorm and seize an international student.

Was this an instance of the crime of impersonating an officer? Can they be prosecuted and imprisoned for this?

Bomb threats on Shen Yun performances - 2026-03-14T00:45:22+00:00

Performances of Shen Yun are encountering bomb threats emanating from China.

I watched a Shen Yun performance once in Paris with a French friend. The impression it produced on me was curious: it reproached the Chinese government as cruelly repressive (which indeed it is), and spread on such a thick layer of this teaching that I began to find it annoying, despite the fact that I agreed in advance with that reproach.

I told this to my friend, and she had felt the same. "It preaches too much," she said.

I still condemn China's repression and threats — like what the bully is trying to impose in the US — but I have no appetite to see another Shen Yun performance.

Hillary Clinton testified at congressional committee - 2026-03-14T00:45:22+00:00

Hillary Clinton testified at a congressional committee hearing in which the questions were meant primarily as harassment and distraction.

She had to repeat that she did not know Epstein, and was asked repeatedly about UFOs and about Pizzagate.

Republicans imposed a rule against releasing photos, then Rep. Boebert (Republican) secretly took a photo and released it, violating that rule.

US banks may be required to check citizenship - 2026-03-14T00:45:22+00:00

The saboteur in chief is thinking of requiring US banks to check the citizenship of all their clients. This might imply that some non-citizens could no longer have bank accounts, who now are permitted to have them.

States can deny corporate support of political campaigns - 2026-03-14T00:45:22+00:00

Individual US states can deny corporations the power to support political campaigns.

Montana is planning to do this, and soon maybe California too.

Ancient stepwells in India - 2026-03-14T00:45:21+00:00

*Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water.*

This is a nice form of historical preservation, but it can't get more than a tiny fraction of the water that's needed for India's rapidly growing population. India (and the world as a whole) need to stop population growth.

Women arrested for kissing in public - 2026-03-14T00:45:21+00:00

*Two women arrested in Uganda for allegedly kissing in public could face life sentence.*

That is one item in a long catalog of unjustified cruel bigotry that is fueled by various religions.

Carbon levy on shipping - 2026-03-14T00:45:20+00:00

*US ‘bullying’ could scupper carbon levy on shipping, warn experts.*

I can only envision one motive for this: the saboteur in chief is determined to maximize fossil fuel consumption.

Would it be possible for countries to impose a tax on importation of goods based on the computed fuel use for transporting those goods from the place where they were produced? From the ship's actual consumption one can calculate the fuel use per gram of cargo along that trajectory, and make the tax proportional to that. The fuel needed to move the ship over that trajectory without cargo could be "charged" to the actual cargo through some formula.

British cops to start using facial recognition - 2026-03-14T00:45:20+00:00

British cops will start using facial recognition implemented in snoop phones.

Nothing will stop them from using it to identify protesters and then place grave charges against their protests. The efficiency of the system will help them repress many more protesters than before.

Kansas invalidated trans people's driver's licenses - 2026-03-14T00:45:20+00:00

Kansas has arbitrarily and abruptly invalidated all trans people's driver's licenses.

Such arbitrary and abrupt invalidation of anyone's credentials is cruel and unjust regardless of the criteria for which licenses to invalidate, but cruel injustice is precisely right-wing extremists' goal: it is performative cruelty, naturally aimed at one of their usual hate targets.

Some of the people targeted are suing.

US laser weapon to knock down threats - 2026-03-14T00:45:20+00:00

Twice, the US army used a laser weapon to knock down a supposed "threat from Mexico." Each time, the flying object had not come from Mexico and it was not a threat at all. The second one was a US government drone.

It could just be a series of human incompetence events. But it could also be worse than that. I wonder if they are basing their targeting on pretend intelligence generated by a Pretend Intelligence system. Israel used to do that when bombing Gaza. They seemed to consider that method a success, but perhaps that is they preferred to kill any Palestinians in Gaza rather than none.

Hannah Spencer elected to Parliament for Green Party - 2026-03-14T00:45:20+00:00

Hannah Spencer, plumber, has just been elected to Parliament for the Green Party. Her victory speech presents a person who would have been a Labour activist, and then a Labour MP, back when Labour was true to its founding ideals and goals.

Starmer Labour has completed the discarding of them, and put the rich firmly in the driver's seat, after expelling or driving away many of its elected officials who still believed in those ideals.

These ideals fit well with a Green Party, since the rule of the billionaires, which Starmer Labour supports, and the global environmental disaster they have decided to impose, is likely to kill of most of the world's population and reduce to serfs most of the survivors.

A Green Party would naturally oppose both aspects of that.

Rules requiring chemical companies to prepare for chemical disasters - 2026-03-14T00:45:19+00:00

The EPA has cancelled the recently adopted rules requiring chemical companies to prepare for chemical disasters, so as to protect workers, rescuers and people living within miles of the company's plant.

Palestinian solidarity in the UK - 2026-03-14T00:45:19+00:00

*Palestinian solidarity in the UK is being "silenced, criminalised and sanctioned," with more than 900 examples of repression [recorded] across Britain in the last six years.

People had been targeted with smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing, visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest.*

Urgent: Investigate facial recognition - 2026-03-13T02:37:36+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to investigate the deportation thugs' mass surveillance and use of widespread face recognition.

Iran VS Israel plus USA - 2026-03-13T02:37:36+00:00

Iran's government has a planned long-term strategy for winning the war. US officials didn't bother to think about one, assuming that resistance was impossible.

Since the Iranian regime and the US regime are both cruel and repressive, it would be unjust for either of them to control Iran. But there is no evident way for Iran to avoid both of those outcomes.

*Democrats must defund [the fascist's] Imperial war.*

Cutting down endangered native forest in Australia - 2026-03-12T02:37:34+00:00

A US mining company has been cutting down endangered native forest in Australia. The Australian government secretly made a deal to allow it to continue this, to placate the wrecker.

Corruption is about who Washington is shielding - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

*Corruption is no longer envelopes of cash – now it is about who Washington is shielding and who it is sacrificing.*

Afghan women's book club reading Orwell - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

*The secret Afghan women's book club defying the Taliban to read Orwell [and other important writers].*

Freemason UK police - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

The UK requires police to declare whether they are freemasons, because a masonic lodge "is hierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other."

This policy is necessary because masons in a police department will come across the requirement to support each other against the perpetrators and/or victims of crimes or bad policies.

Australian censorship thugs seized art posters - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

Australian censorship thugs seized *art posters depicting [the persecutor, the muskrat], Putin and Netanyahu in Nazi uniforms.*

Because Nazi symbols stand for hate, it is now perhaps prohibited to condemn acts and policies embodying hatred by comparing them to Nazis. This would be good for a laugh at the cops' expense, if it weren't seriously dangerous.

Increase in hot dry days - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

*Study finds global increase in hot, dry days ideal for wildfires.*

Over the last 45 years, the frequency of such days has increased from around 20 days per year to around 60 days per year. About 60% of that (36 days per year) are caused by fossil fuel, but some of the rest is caused by other human activities such as deforestation.

As long as we keep driving global heating, we will increase our vulnerability to fire. This is why I reject the idea that today's fires, floods and storms are "natural disasters".

A secondary problem of this increased temperature level is damage to coffee cultivation, in the main coffee-producing countries.

Manipulation to use Pretend Intelligence - 2026-03-12T02:37:33+00:00

An influential PI company is manipulatively urging officials and voters to worry about being "left behind" if they don't embrace Pretend Intelligence. Therefore they should race to give PI companies tax breaks, waive environmental regulations for them, and teach students to disregard the danger of letting companies get your data and store it in cloudy systems.

Biometric identification company - 2026-03-12T02:37:32+00:00

A company that does biometric identification (on behalf of LinkedIn) collects 12 kinds of biometrics and consults 6 kinds of government and commercial databases. Then farms out processing of face data to 17 other companies.

Those companies are North America, so in practice they can ignore the EU's "data protection" regulations, and the US government can seize any and all of that data.

This example shows the concrete meaning of dis-services operating in cloudy servers. Don't trust them! I never do.

Of course, I would never ask to be identified on LinkedIn. I do not use LinkedIn at all, because it too is cloudy processing, not to mention the other unjust things it does to its users. But LinkedIn is just one example, and the broad conclusion applies to nearly any business that wants personal data from you.

Machine learning tools to flag office misconduct - 2026-03-12T02:37:32+00:00

Metropolitan [British] police using [machine learning] tools supplied by Palantir to flag officer misconduct.

It is legitimate to monitor the conduct of police officers in ways that would not be morally legitimate for workers in general, because police officers have special authority and face the temptation to become thugs. However, giving their personal data to Palantir is not excusable.

Sad to say, use of "bossware" for monitoring of workers with no special authority has become widespread.

CIA and MI6 saw Putin moving to invade Ukraine - 2026-03-12T02:37:32+00:00

The CIA and MI6 saw that Putin was moving to invade Ukraine, months before he did so, but they could not convince either European allies or Ukraine that it would happen. Until it did.

From polluting the seas to polluting the rivers - 2026-03-12T02:37:31+00:00

When the UK's privatized water companies were effectively blocked from polluting the seas, they switched to polluting the rivers — massively.

Starmer Labour's ministers say Britain needs "investment stability", but that is a bad outcome when it comes to investment that is a kind of exploitation. That ought to be criminal, not protected.

The UK, like most countries, is unstable against being consumed from the inside out by business. The way to put an end to this instability is to make the owners of water company stock forfeit the entire value of their "investments".

Students in Iran resumed large protests - 2026-03-12T02:37:31+00:00

Students in Iran have resumed large protests, condemning the state for killing many thousands of students in January.

Treating severe cases of polio - 2026-03-12T02:37:31+00:00

No one in the US today has experience in treating severe cases of polio. There haven't been such cases in so long that the doctors who had that experience have got old and died.

As a result, when American children start developing polio thanks to the lunacy of RFK Jr (and his boss, the wrecker), they won't even get the treatment that sick children in the 1950s used to get.

Iran's universities - 2026-03-12T02:37:31+00:00

Iran's universities face armed repression and the exclusion of students from campus.

Nexus of sexist influence in academia - 2026-03-12T02:37:30+00:00

Epstein and his friends were a nexus of sexist influence in academia.

Putin hates Telegram - 2026-03-12T02:37:30+00:00

Putin hates Telegram, and is trying to arrange Russian criminal charges against its developer, Pavel Durov.

This leads me to suspect that he is planning a military-style attack against Durov or the people who operate the servers behind Telegram. against Durov or the people who operate the servers behind Telegram.

War situation in Ukraine - 2026-03-12T02:37:29+00:00

About the war situation in Ukraine.

Investments in planet roasting - 2026-03-12T02:37:28+00:00

Some big US banks have "invested" in planet roasting, and some have not. That means large organizations have a significant choice to make.

Last antitrust expert purged from "justice department" - 2026-03-12T02:37:28+00:00

The bully's henchmen have purged the last antitrust expert from the "justice department". The bully's criterion for whether to permit any particular merger involving large companies is based on how much those companies have given to him or his fund-raising activities.

Urgent: Stop Paramount's mega-media monopoly - 2026-03-11T08:37:15+00:00

US citizens: call on state attorneys general to stop Paramount's mega-media monopoly.

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

High immigrant application fees, UK - 2026-03-10T08:37:17+00:00

Non-privileged people permitted to into the UK but those whose permission is not permanent have to pay over USD 1500 per year on formalities to reapply for permission. This continues for ten years.

This is not nominally a fee for residence, but it is tantamount to that.

No wonder Starmer Labour, competing in harshness with right wing extremists, proposes to require extend that fee to 20 years.

More air polluting allowed, US - 2026-03-09T08:37:26+00:00

The wrecker's commitment to fossil fuel knows no bounds. Not only is he inviting fossil fuel power plants to roast the world, he is willing to let them poison people with mercury and other chemicals.

Unsafe to travel in US - 2026-03-08T20:37:29+00:00

Karen Newton, Briton, went to the US with permission for tourism, with her husband. They were jailed for 6 weeks based on no reason she was ever told.

They soon signed forms to agree to deportation, but instead of being sent home, they were kept in jail for weeks first, separated. She was sometimes kept in constant cold, without a bed.

Eventually the deportation thugs stole their luggage.

What she heard in prison was that a thug gets a bonus for each victim perse jails.

Zohran Mamdani's comments on "globalize the intifada" - 2026-03-07T04:37:11+00:00

I just saw Zohran Mamdani's comments on "globalize the intifada" from last October, and his stance had much in common with mine.

I also recognize the tone of the criticism he received for discouraging that phrase. There are people whose attitude is, "If you reject my method of expressing disapproval of X, you're weak, and effectively a supporter of X." This reasoning is not valid.

Urgent: Repercussions of war in Middle East - 2026-03-07T01:19:58+00:00

The war in the Middle East is having major repercussions, including strengthening ties between Russia and China. Robert Reich calls on Americans to phone their members of Congress in support of invoking Congress's power to stop the US intervention.

There is no need to worry about how this might affect subsequent events in Iran, because nobody in the US government has a plan anyway. One more random shuffle won't make it any more random than it already is.

US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.

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

Please spread the word.

Urgent: Transfer military spending to human needs - 2026-03-07T01:19:57+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to transfer military spending to human needs.

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

US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.

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

Please spread the word.

Urgent: Shut down US deportation prisons - 2026-03-07T01:19:57+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to shut down the US deportation prisons rather than permit them to continue torturing.

US citizens: Join with this campaign to address this issue.

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

Please spread the word.