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Richard Stallman
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This is the Mastodon account for Richard Stallman. I founded GNU & the @fsf 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
When extremist Republican Senator Tim Scott threatened to fire workers for striking, he violated US labor law: He was urging for auto workers to be treated this way, but he is an employer himself, and he can't treat workers that way. So the UAW has filed a complaint against him.
Working from home makes it possible to save over 50% of one's greenhouse gas emissions, by avoiding commuting, but achieving that much savings requires taking significant steps to make your activities around home greener: We should not forget that most employers demand use of unjust technology that people should never tolerate. Starting with things like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, and lots of imposed employer-operated spyware.
I work in a supermarket and see how desperate some shoplifters are: My heart goes out to them. The same worker also sees professional thieves, and addicts who steal to buy an addictive drug. Those have always existed, but what's changed is that now there are many desperate thieves stealing necessities of life.
I will be speaking at the GNU 40th anniversary event in Switzerland on September 27th. When? The event runs September 27, 2023, 9:00–22:00 CEST When is this keynote address? On September 27th at 14:00h Where? Volkshaus in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland Link: 40 years ago the GNU Project — to develop the GNU operating system — was launched and gave birth to the Free Software movement, and Free Software has since become the cornerstone of modern computing.
[01/02] A large UK union will spend some money on publicly promoting a few specific policy issues, instead of giving it to Labour: Not all of these policies are good. One of them is to continue developing more offshore oilfields, to extract oil that the world cannot safely burn or make into more plastic. I am in favor of a well-managed green transition, but trying to demand it by overdrawing the carbon budget is environmental terrorism.
[03/03] ...whole world, not on short-term protection of each area by itself.
[01/03] Expensive plans to protect Rockaway in NYC from future hurricanes may not be effective: The article explains that efforts to estimate the probability of a another similar disaster were bogus or confused. Meanwhile, science has advanced since the 2000s. We should make a more plausible estimate of that probability, based on acceleration of global heating, then increase it for our continued incomplete knowledge. Then we should make another such estimate...
120,000 people in Britain died in 2022 while on NHS waiting lists: That is double that dies while waiting in 2017/2018. The cause of this is simple: bad policies imposed by the government. Especially the policy of refusing to tax the rich so as to raise enough funds to do the NHS job right and thoroughly. I would have suggested voting for Labour, except now Labour is committed to be just as bad.
The UK is facing another wave of Covid-19 from the multi-mutation Pirola variant: Reducing the harm calls for wearing masks, but the government is too timid to promote them. The situation is similar in the US. I wear masks by choice, to protect myself and others. So can you.