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Richard Stallman
@rms@mastodon.xyz
mastodon 4.5.19This is the Mastodon account for Richard Stallman.
I founded GNU & the @fsf@hostux.social and with them launched the Free Software Movement. Please join or donate to the FSF: https://www.fsf.org
I use this account to mirror the political notes from my web site, stallman.org.
Read my linking policy: https://stallman.org/linkpolicy.html
The views expressed here, as in stallman.org, are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project. #FSF #GNU #FreeSoftware
7882 Followers
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50 Posts
Joined May 25, 2023
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rms@gnu.org
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/renee-good-alex-pretti-minnesota-evidence
The US government has handed over evidence to Minnesota about the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. This will enable the state of Minnesota to consider prosecuting the killers.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/wealth-tax-super-rich
An effective way to tax rich people's wealth is to remove the tax breaks that enable most rich people in the US to move most of their income out of taxation.
https://civicshout.com/p/impeach-secretary-of-defense-hegseth
US citizens: call on Congress to impeach Secretary of Defense Hegseth. 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.
The heatwave in Europe has caused a major crop failure. Future heat waves are likely to do likewise, but other crop failures will result from flooding, which global heating is also making more likely.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/21/gen-z-intimacy-economy-ai-companions
Many young people are giving up hope on close relationships with other people and turning to chatbots for an imitation or substitute.
https://patrioticmillionaires.org/perspectives/a-closer-look-democracy-dies-in-darkness/
The Washington Post, now owned by billionaire Bezos, follows the slant that favors policies and laws that help billionaires get richer.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/protect-medicaid-submit-a-public-comment-now?nowrapper=true
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: Protect Medicaid by submitting a public comment by July 31. See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
[1/2] https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-house-end-big-oils-taxpayer-funded-war-profiteering?nowrapper=true
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: call on the House of Representatives to end Big Oil's taxpayer-funded war profiteering. 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
[1/2] https://actionnetwork.org/letters/keep-trump-off-currency?nowrapper=true
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: call on your senators to keep the corrupter's name off our coins and paper money. 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
https://theonion.com/unemployed-man-considers-going-back-to-school-to-become-ai/
https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence
Satire post I'd rather be an AI than an LLM.
US citizens: call on Congress to block $3.3 billion in taxpayer funding for Israel's military. 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.
[1/2] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/we-cannot-choose-to-become-idiots-the-ai-cheating-scandal-roiling-brown-university
A Brown U professor suspected that many of the students that were taking his class had chosen it as an opportunity to use bullshit generators to cheat. So he announced that the final exam would be presential, and almost 1/3 of them gave up. You can view on this article. He is sad for them because the decision to use bullshit generators implied a decision not to try to
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/20/extreme-heat-india-outdoor-workers-poverty
Global heating in India has reached the point where workers doing physical labor, in some regions, can't do as much work as they used to. They are falling into poverty and can't afford enough food. The hunger and heat are damaging their health and shortening their life spans. This looks like the beginning of total collapse.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/18/burnham-to-scrap-starmers-digital-id-scheme-in-reset-of-priorities
The new Prime Minister of Britain will cancel the digital ID scheme. This is a step in the right direction.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/15/andy-burnham-wealth-tax-off-agenda-for-now
The new British prime minister, who people hoped would be less right-wing than Starmer, has rejected a wealth tax "for now". If he won't dare now, what chance is there he will dare later? The "division" he would like to avoid is between the rich and their servants, and all the rest. That division will continue to grow as long as the share of income for the rich continues to grow.
Juries want fairness in court and don't just obey the government. That's why ministers are attacking them.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/abc-nbc-stand-strong-against-trumps-attacks?nowrapper=true
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: call on ABC and NBC to stand strong against the fascist's bullying. See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/10/extreme-heat-study-global-warming-physical-activity
*Extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds. Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions.*
[1/5] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/23/israel-security-minister-itamar-ben-gvir-jewish-extremists-storm-al-aqsa-mosque-compound-jerusalem
https://stallman.org/archives/2005-may-aug.html#04%20May%202005%20(Prepared%20to%20fight%20the%20militant%20groups)
Right-wing Israel extremists seized the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The concept of "sacred" presupposes some sort of superhuman entity that can impose "sacredness" on places or things. There is no evidence for such entities
Replying to
[2/3] and converted into a school. Even a monster who cared nothing about killing Iranian civilians would have sought to avoid the bad publicity that would result. Meanwhile, the circumstances, including the pressure to attack fast, facilitated such mistakes. The tendency for belligerent acts to cause unintended consequences due to ignorance of facts is called the "fog of war". It is inescapable: war implies mistakes with consequences, no matter how much one tries to avoid them. The
Replying to
[3/3] implication of that is, one should try hard to choose a path other than war.
https://patrioticmillionaires.org/perspectives/dont-fall-for-the-idea-that-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/
Refuting the fallacious argument that rich Americans use to claim they are paying their fair share of income tax.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-trumps-postal-board-takeover?nowrapper=true
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: call on the Senate to Reject the corrupter's Postal Board of Governors nominees. Stop USPS Privatization. Election Interference Schemes. Price Hikes and Service Slowdowns. Check this action. See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/09/lgbtq-cruise-ship-refused-entry-egypt-turkey
https://stallman.org/archives/2020-mar-jun.html#13_May_2020_(Cancelling_defeats)
https://stallman.org/archives/2007-may-aug.html#05%20May%202007%20(Protests%20in%20Turkey)
Two Muslim governments (Turkey and Egypt) have seized on a self-designated "gay cruise" as an opportunity to demonstrate their religious bigotry, by refusing the ship entry. Turkey is ostensibly a secular democracy, but
Replying to
[2/2] because no one wants to spend money to do anything about that. Prisons can be overhot by intention.
https://futurism.com/future-society/college-students-oecd-reading-literacy-10-year-old
14% of incoming US college freshmen were reading at 10-year-old grade level recently, according to an OECD study.
Congress Should Reject Bill That Would Block a Federal Workplace Heat Standard. Republicans are trying to do just that.
https://theonion.com/rfk-jr-hosts-meet-and-greet-with-infectious-diseases/
(satire) *RFK Jr. Hosts Meet-And-Greet With Infectious Diseases.*
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/trump-climate-report-matthew-wielicki
The saboteur in chief wants to put a global heating denialist in charge of official US government reports on the advance of global heating.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/new-york-city-deceptive-subscriptions-ban
Mamdani is working on a New York City rule aimed at banning hidden junk fees and at requiring that cancelling subscriptions be easy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/28/prisoners-iran-largest-jail-sew-lips-shut-hunger-strike-executions-soar
Prisoners in Iran have launched a mass hunger strike against the large number of executions, and also about denial of medical care to prisoners.
[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/28/california-ice-detention-healthcare-violation
*Court-appointed investigator finds [biggest deportation prison in California] failed to comply with judge's order to provide adequate [medical care] [to the prisoners]*. This prison is privatized. A private prison company can increase its profits by skimping on medical care; thus, using privatized prisons tends to increase the illnesses and deaths among prisoners. This is one of the reasons
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/28/the-guardian-view-on-noise-pollution-keep-it-down
More road noise correlates with more Parkinson's disease. This does not prove that the higher level of road noise contributes to causing Parkinson's disease.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/23/trump-new-york-times-investigation-subpoenas
*The real aim of [the bully]'s New York Times leak investigation is to punish reporters.*
https://web.archive.org/web/20260625203721/https://robertreich.substack.com/p/a-report-you-need-to-read
Evidence and admissions demonstrate that the deportation thugs have followed a systematic policy, ordered from high up, of fabricating false accusations of crimes against protesters, journalists, and observers of their actions.
https://theintercept.com/2026/07/20/google-maps-reviews-ice-detention-centers/
People have used Google to leave "reviews" of deportation prisons in Google Maps. Google deleted them and blocks new ones. I urge people to refuse to use Google Maps because using it requires running nonfree software - which does an injustice to whoever uses it. But that doesn't excuse Google's censorship.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/12/uk-cap-political-donations-stop-rich-buying-influence
*UK must cap political donations to stop the rich buying influence.* The US must do this too, but the question of how it can be done is different in each country because of the difference in constitutions./p>
[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/10/count-binface-clean-up-british-politics-mps-limit-donations-stella-creasy
Calling on the UK to clean up its political donation system by limiting the donations from any individual to a political party to a fixed maximum per year. This new rule would be a step forward, but does the UK have anything comparable to PACs? If so, I expect the billionaires to use them to work around the rule, so they will need to extending the rule to
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/13/israel-blockade-gaza-iran-war-doctors/
*The Israeli government is blocking medical workers from entering or leaving Gaza, twice canceling the departure of seven U.S.-based physicians on a medical mission there, according to a group of doctors in Gaza who spoke to The Intercept.*
[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/15/trump-sanctions-first-amendment-violations
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/15/james-fergie-chambers-arrest-palestine-aid-trump
US sanctions against UN official [Francesca Albanese] and [Palestinian human] rights groups violate first amendment, lawsuit claims. The US has demanded Spain extradite James ‘Fergie’ Chambers, accused of "supporting HAMAS", but people suspect that what he really did was support humanitarian projects
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/california-professor-gaza-protest-reinstated
California State University fired a tenured professor for supporting student protesters who were opposing Israel's atrocities in Gaza. Arbitrators ordered the university to reinstate her with back pay.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/14/most-coverage-june-heatwave-did-not-mention-climate-crisis
Of 2500 articles about Britain's June heat wave, 3/4 of them did not mention global heating at all. And under 5% of them mentioned "net zero" policies to avoid making the heat get worse and worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/france-rivers-heatwaves-water-levels-drop
Some rivers in France are drying up. Newly hatched salmon and trout need to get to the ocean, but there isn't enough water for them to make it. So humans are helping them.
*[British] Lobbying giant filmed offering reporter payment for flattering client coverage in national press.*
[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/10/how-pauline-hanson-courts-uks-far-right-builds-brand-with-pseudo-events-publicity-stunts-ntwnfb
The leader of an Australian right-wing party is seeking publicity through an interview with a British right-wing nationalist. *Dr Imogen Richards, a criminology researcher at Deakin University, said announcing or appearing on podcasts with contentious counterparts was akin to a "pseudo event" that's as much about the publicity as it is
[1/3] https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ai-for-the-people?nowrapper=true
https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence
https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence
https://stallman.org/actionnetwork-letter-instructions.html
US citizens: call on your congresscritter and senators to support what is being called the "AI for the people" act, but to remove the marketing hype term "AI" from the bill. Here is what I wrote about the term
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#corrupter
https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/tax-the-rich-big-ugly-budget/?t=1005&akid=35425%2E96703%2ECS8YJA
US citizens: call on Congress to end the corrupter's tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. Take action.