Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's Political Notes -

US bombed Iran for Israel - 2025-06-24T10:31:38+00:00

The US has once again gone to war based on false certainties without an exit strategy, at the behest once again of Netanyahu.

Iran conflict playing out with US, ISR - 2025-06-24T10:31:38+00:00

The warlord ordered the US Air Force to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. It seems the arrangements to do this were started some weeks ago.

US intelligence has been saying that Iran was not working on designing a nuclear weapon, so Netanyahu's claims about danger were alarmist.

It appears that Iran prepared for the attack weeks ago too by moving the enriched uranium and crucial equipment elsewhere.

Iran responded by attacking a civilian target in Israel, and their parliament has approved a motion to close the Straights of Hormuz, cutting off oil shipments from Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Salafi Arabia. I think that those countries will try to stop any blockade.

June heatdome over Eastern US - 2025-06-24T10:31:37+00:00

*Tens of millions in US face dangerously hot weather in rare June heatwave.*

We could have prevented this, and other worse heatwaves of coming years, if we had done since 2000 what the climate scientists told us we needed to do.

Urgent: Reject proposals to encourage coal mining and coal burning - 2025-06-24T10:31:37+00:00

US citizens: call on your congresscritter to reject proposals to encourage coal mining and coal burning. It is good to mention that the air pollution from coal burning kills tens of thousands of Americans per year nowadays, but the global heating it contributes to will kill tens or hundreds of millions later this century.

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

Pete Hegseth suggests he would disobey court ruling on LA - 2025-06-24T10:31:37+00:00

*Pete Hegseth suggests he would disobey court ruling against deploying military in LA.*

Magat officials frequently suggest they would disobey court orders. Sometimes they engage in sort-of-disobedience making bogus excuses.

All this, I believe, is to prepare the political climate for major disobedience of courts, a path to reduce US democracy to nothing more than a sham, within which the wrecker can act like an autocrat.

Patent in way of HIV-suppressing medicine - 2025-06-24T10:31:35+00:00

A new HIV-suppressing medicine is effective for six months, and could be made for around $25 per dose. It would open the possibility of eliminating HIV, if not for the patent in the way.

People in LA put up posters to mourn deported loved ones - 2025-06-24T10:31:34+00:00

People in LA put up hand-made posters to mourn their dear deported loved ones, calling them "abducted".

Karen Read found not guilty of murder - 2025-06-24T10:31:34+00:00

Karen Read has been found not guilty of murder. She was accused of murdering her boyfriend, a cop.

The case has become a scandal, because the prosecutor's allegations were contradicted by a mountain of evidence. People suspect that he was killed by his fellow thugs and that they tried to frame Karen for it. I suppose they expected to succeed.

Iranian dissidents divided on bully's threats - 2025-06-24T10:31:34+00:00

Iranian dissidents are divided on what to think of the bully's threats and demands.

One thing they can be sure of: the bully does not value democracy, not for Iran any more than for his own country. He supports imposition of religious rules in the US, so he is not likely to oppose that for Iran. So if he succeeds in making the repressive Iranian religious tyranny sue for peace, you can't expect him to do anything for the sake of democracy in Iran.

Drought fears in Europe - 2025-06-24T10:31:33+00:00

*Drought fears in Europe amid reports May was world's second hottest ever. Copernicus data show month was 1.4°C above estimated 1850-1900 average used to define pre-industrial level*

Key crop yields could fall due to climate crisis - 2025-06-24T10:31:33+00:00

*Key crop yields could fall due to climate crisis even if farmers adapt, study finds. By as much as 120 calories per person per day for every 1C the planet heats up,*

NHS nurse ordered to remove painting of watermelon - 2025-06-24T10:31:33+00:00

An NHS nurse was ordered by his hospital to remove a painting of a watermelon (a symbol for Palestine) from the background of per video calls. The hospital called it "antisemitic".

Supporting Palestine or Palestinians' rights is not in itself antisemitic. But pro-Israel campaign organizations regularly conflate the two as a means to gag criticism of Israel's violence against Palestinians.

Civilian deaths from persecutor's bombings of Yemen - 2025-06-24T10:31:33+00:00

The persecutor's bombing of Yemen killed around 220 civilians — almost as many as 23 years of bombardment of Yemen before.

This seems to imply that he dropped some previous policies to protect civilians.

The tactic of waiting for medics to respond to a bomb, and then bombing again, is one I first read about as something that "terrorists" did. When the US military does it, can we deny that that is terrors?

Israel admitted its soldiers shot at ambulances in Gaza - 2025-06-24T10:31:32+00:00

After two months delay, Israel admitted its soldiers shot at ambulances in Gaza. The fact that they did so was clear shortly after the act.

The Israeli army has attacked rescue vehicles, rescue workers and medical facilities regularly in Gaza.

Reducing existence to series of ChatGPT prompts - 2025-06-24T10:31:32+00:00

* If I reduced my existence to a series of ChatGPT prompts, the act of my living is only shorter — not better.*

Israel keeps Palestinian prisoners incommunicado - 2025-06-24T10:31:32+00:00

Israel keeps some (or all?) Palestinian prisoners incommunicado for months (or years). Alaa abu Zeid was not informed until he was released, after over a year, that a bomb dropped on a school had killed his wife and children.

If abu Zeid had had even occasional contact with anyone from home, he would have found out what had happened to them. We can deduce he had none.

Other Palestinian prisoners report similar experiences. Clearly this is a systematic practice.

West Bank prisoners also are physically tortured and injured, and mentally damaged by brain-washing conditions.

RFK plans to have government "reevaluate" vaccines - 2025-06-24T10:31:31+00:00

RFK plans to have the government "reevaluate" the approval of various life-saving vaccines. The evaluations that led to their approval were done too scientifically, it seems.

Financing for fossil fuels in 2024 - 2025-06-24T10:31:31+00:00

The world's largest banks gave almost a trillion dollars more financing to fossil fuels in 2024.

Governments are abandoning civilization's future so that banks and billionaires can profit now.

Men raised under Evangelical "Purity" movement - 2025-06-24T10:31:31+00:00

Men who were raised under the Evangelical "Purity" movement can go for decades without ever learning what it is like to go on a date. Some may never overcome the fear that this taught them.

Weather intensity's steep rise, NASA - 2025-06-24T02:39:34+00:00

*New data from NASA has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of weather events such as droughts and floods over the past five years.*

*The study shows that such extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, with last year’s figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average.*

Climate disinfo as deceptive conspiracy - 2025-06-24T02:39:34+00:00

Climate disinformation now finds fault in various methods for reducing greenhouse emissions. The idea is to show that all the solutions are inconvenient, so we may as well resign ourselves to the fall of civilization and the death of most of our descendants.

Iranian regime - 2025-06-24T02:39:33+00:00

Iranians, inside and outside Iran, talk about their hopes, fears and wishes, supposing war makes the state collapse.

Congressional bid to keep US out of Iran - 2025-06-24T02:39:32+00:00

A bipartisan resolution in Congress aims to invoke the War Powers Act to stop the bully from adding the US to Israel's attacks on Iran.

Cloud-cover's steady decline, NASA, NOAA - 2025-06-24T02:39:32+00:00

An unexpected positive feedback: global heating reduces clouds in the polar regions. Since clouds reflect some sunlight into space, the decrease in clouds means more heating.

No-Kings protest sizes - 2025-06-24T02:39:32+00:00

4 to 6 million people are estimated to have joined No Kings protests on June 14.

*The anti-Trump camp was in disarray. How has No Kings managed to unite it?*

Upcomming fire season, US - 2025-06-24T02:39:32+00:00

Due to the DOPE's cuts, the US is not prepared to handle this year's fire season if it is like other recent years. And what if it is worse than other recent years?

Urgent: Shut down DOGE - 2025-06-24T02:39:31+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to shut down DOPE.

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

Urgent: Message to Vanguard CEO - 2025-06-24T02:39:31+00:00

US citizens: call on the CEO of Vanguard to meet with climate justice campaigners.

Urgent: Stand with Senator Padilla - 2025-06-24T02:39:31+00:00

US citizens: tell Congress that we stand with Senator Padilla. who was battered by thugs as he tried to ask a question in Kristi Noem's press conference.

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

Urgent: US troops VS US protestors - 2025-06-24T02:39:30+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to denounce [the repressor]'s illegal, unprecedented deployment of troops against U.S. protesters.

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

Urgent: Repeal Comstock Act - 2025-06-22T14:39:25+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to repeal the Comstock Act (postal censorship).

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

Urgent: No conflict of interest with postmaster general - 2025-06-22T14:39:25+00:00

US citizens: call on the USPS board of governors not to appoint a postmaster general who has a conflict of interest — being on the board of FEDEX.

Urgent: Safe food for prisoners - 2025-06-22T14:39:25+00:00

US citizens: call on prisons in the US to give prisoners safe food.

Urgent: Denounce cuts to Department of Education - 2025-06-22T14:39:25+00:00

US citizens: Denounce cuts to the Department of Education.

Urgent: Block saboteur in chief's logging expansion - 2025-06-22T14:39:24+00:00

US citizens: call on Congress to block the saboteur in chief's logging expansion.

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

Urgent: Block merger of T-Mobile and Sprint - 2025-06-22T14:39:24+00:00

US citizens: call on the FCC to block the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

There is far too little competition among phone radio networks already. Any decrease is clearly bad.

Of course, there are more important problems with mobile phones. For instance, both cellular and WiFi connections track the phone's location, and the phone can be made to listen and transmit all the time. (That last is a consequence of nonfree software in the phone's radio processor.) By contrast with that, the increased price caused by insufficient competition is a superficial issue. It is, nonetheless, bad to decrease the competition.

Urgent: Fossil fuel exploration in the Amazon - 2025-06-22T14:39:23+00:00

US citizens: call on JPMorgan Chase to stop bankrolling fossil fuel exploration in the Amazon.

Urgent: Phone senators to block worst in Big Bad Bill - 2025-06-22T14:39:22+00:00

US citizens: phone each of your senators and urge them to block the worst things in the Big Bad Bill. Ask them, for instance, to protect Medicaid and SNAP. Ask them to protect Medicare by not cutting taxes for the rich. Ask them to protect the authority of federal judges.

Ask them to protect tax-exempt organizations from tax. Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bill? Anyone who isn't rich, or cares about people who aren't rich, or values democracy and human rights.

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

Law that allows extensions of patents - 2025-06-22T14:39:22+00:00

There is a push to repeal the law that allows extensions of patents that block the manufacture of important generic medicines.

I've argued that patents should not be allowed on medicines at all. There are other ways to fund the development and testing of drugs.

To allow drug companies to fund the tests for approval of a drug is an invitation to corruption.

Thugs arrested journalist covering No Kings rally - 2025-06-22T14:39:21+00:00

A group of thugs arrested journalist Mario Guevara as he was covering a No Kings rally in Atlanta.

The charges were dropped, but they handed him to the deportation thugs. From the description I suspect that the arrest was planned in advance.

Guevara used to cover issues of human rights in El Salvador, until he fled death threats and asked the US for asylum. The article does not say explicitly what his immigration status is in the US, but I expect that the bully's henchmen would consider "journalism about deportation" to be a "threat to national security".

Living in a world of increasing disaster - 2025-06-22T14:39:20+00:00

On living in a world of increasing disaster:

* the point isn’t just to feel better necessarily, but to feel in ways that allow us to show up in the moments that matter most.*

VA allowed to refuse patients based on political views - 2025-06-22T14:39:20+00:00

Doctors and other medical staff at veterans' hospitals are now permitted to refuse patients based on the patient's national origin, or political views. The organization justifies this as implementation of one of the wrecker's executive disorders.

Lawsuit to overturn bully's persecution of law firms - 2025-06-22T14:39:19+00:00

The American Bar Association has sued to overturn the bully's persecution of law firms that worked for his adversaries.

We should all grieve about state of the world - 2025-06-22T14:39:19+00:00

*We should all grieve about the state of the world. It can be an integral part of activism.*

Senator Padilla recounts being attacked by agents - 2025-06-22T14:39:19+00:00

Senator Padilla recounts the experience of being suddenly attacked and handcuffed by agents, while the agents who had brought him there said nothing about who he was.

Corruption by UnitedHealth - 2025-06-22T14:39:19+00:00

Corruption by UnitedHealth: * secret bonuses have been paid out as part of a UnitedHealth program that stations the company’s own medical teams in nursing homes and pushes them to cut care expenses for residents covered by the insurance giant.*

The specific remedy we need is to break apart the different activities of UnitedHealth, and also splitting the insurance part into 10 competing sub-companies which are forbidden to merge.

But what we really need is to replace private medical insurance entirely with a national medical system.

Of course, Republicans won't do any of this. Biden made moves in that direction, but there were too few Democrats in Congress and they were not progressive enough.

Invasive thorn bush spreading through Kenya - 2025-06-22T14:39:18+00:00

An invasive thorn bush is spreading rapidly through Kenya, drying up land where it grows.

Evidence US planning to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities - 2025-06-22T14:39:17+00:00

Evidence that the US is preparing to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.

Right-wing disinformation about shooting of Democratic officials - 2025-06-22T14:39:17+00:00

Right-wing disinformationists spread lots of lies about the shooting of two Democratic elected officials in Minnesota.

This illustrates their practice of disrespect for truth. Even if on some occasion their statements accord with facts, giving them support enhances the power of the lie.

Proposal would make it impossible to sue for injunction against government - 2025-06-22T14:39:17+00:00

Senate Republicans propose to make it impossible to sue to get an injunction against the government unless you put down a potentially enormous sum as bond in case the injunction is reversed.