Civil Liberties Minute

Upcoming talks

• [ No upcoming talks. ]

I will have a trip to Europe in the second week of October and I am looking for invitations for additional talks in the same trip. If you would like to invite me to speak in that trip, please write to me at rms-invitation@gnu.org with "october" as the subject.

It is more likely I can actually go if you have funds to cover the additional cost, and a speaker's fee would be nice.

Urgent action items

• US citizens: don't let the cheater and Congress rig the 2026 elections.

• US citizens: Message the White House Faith Office to condemn Trump’s treatment of migrants Trump’s Internment Camps are a moral stain on our nation.

  Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)

  First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.

  I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"

  They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

  To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.

  Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:

  First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.

  This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

• US citizens: call on Secretary Burgum to revive the Lava Ridge Wind Project.

  Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)

  First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.

  I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"

  They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

  To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.

  Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:

  First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.

  This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

• US citizens: call on the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Commerce: Keep your data honest. Don't cave to the bully's fear tactics.

• US citizens: call on New York & tell coastal state leaders: don't let the bully derail offshore wind.

• US citizens: call on Congress to reject anti-science Dr. Casey Means as surgeon general.

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

• US citizens: call on Congress to reject prior authorizations in Medicare.

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

• US citizens: call on Congress and state legislatures to prohibit deportation thugs from wearing masks in arrests and to show their identification.

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

• US citizens: Oppose the saboteur in chief's efforts to slash and destroy Social Security.

• US citizens: call on colleges not to hand over admissions data to the persecutor.

  Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)

  First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.

  I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!"

  They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

  To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.

  Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:

  First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.

  This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

• US citizens: Call on Congress to protect women veterans' rights birth control.

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

• In the US: Tell Trader Joe's to provide medical insurance for all its staff.

  Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)

  First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.

  I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"

  They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

  To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.

  Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:

  First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.

  This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

• Everyone: call on Harvard to stand firm for academic freedom and human rights.

  Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html for why that issue matters.)

  First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in.

  I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without JavaScript!"

  They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one.

  To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter.

  Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely by running that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows:

  First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done.

  This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

• Everyone: call on Harvard not to cave to the zombifier: defend academic freedom.

• US citizens: phone your congresscritter and urge per to sign the discharge petition for the bill to restore the right of federal workers to negotiate as a union.

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

• Researchers are making great progress on the development of inverse vaccines: chemicals that can train the immunne system not to respond to a specific antigen. It will take some years to get them ready for widespread use, but a study has already shown success in turning off allergy to wheat gluten.

  The applications could include curing auto-immune diseases.

  Do you have an allergy, or an auto-immune disease? Does someone you love have one?

  The magats' research budget cuts are likely to delay the cure for years! (As well as many other potential advances.)

  So phone your congresscritter and call on per to restore the research budget.

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

• US citizens: call on Congresscritters to sign the discharge petition for the vote on releasing the Epstein files.

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

• This Friday, August 15th, there is an organized, petition-based, protest of Wells Fargo in major cities across the US. It is a National Day of Action.

• I'm looking for a cartoonist who would like to draw cartoons for me once in a while. If you're interested, please write to rms, which refers to me, at the location gnu period org.

• Boycott Chevron, in the name of Steven Donziger.

Recording of Guantanamero

There Ought to Be a Law

• * Abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up.*

  I expect that the fossil fuel companies to divest themselves from old mines and wells in ways that will avoid liability for them — just as they sometimes disconnect themselves from responsibility for supporting former workers.

  So I suggest making it a felony to implement a restructuring of business or assets in a way that is likely to result predictably in strand assets that carry financial responsibilities with no one capable of shouldering the responsibilities.

• A pitifully weak attempt to solve a real problem: asking for a federal law that would permit victims of domestic abuse and stalking to demand that data brokers delete information about them.

  Data, once collected, will be abused. The way to prevent that abuse is to facilitate refusing to hand it over in the first place.

  Here is my proposal for protecting the specific people known to be in particular danger, and everyone else who could be harmed if individuals, businesses or governments use their personal data against them without a search warrant: require services to be available anonymously.

• The regulation of toxic chemicals in the US is hamstrung by laws that enable companies to keep their use and their presence in any place secret.

  The selfish interest of those who keep trade secrets is rational but antisocial. In many cases the only harm it does is to hold back the general advance of technology. But sometimes it does really nasty things. For digital hardware and software, it often gives companies a way to subjugate their users. Regarding use of toxic chemicals, it endangers public health.

  Why would legislators pass laws to "protect" companies instead of protecting the people they harm? I suspect it is partly because these companies are influential and the legislators seek their support, and partly because the legislators ask them for campaign funds.

  But it is also partly the result of the mindset of "trickle down", which assumes that the only way to get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public.

  Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption.

  Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business facility overrides the desire to keep them secret.

• *China-owned British Steel said to have requested £600m of taxpayer support.*

  Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to ask, because the state should never give money to a business "to support it." Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price.

  These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an opporunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from.

  With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from.

Quotes

Here are some quotations that I particularly like.

Most recent Political Notes and News Items

You can now read the political notes on Mastodon.

National firefighting roles unfilled, US
19 August 2025

The wrecker's cuts to the US Forest Service budget are interfering with its response to this summer's fires. The damage done by the Muskrat's poisonous DOSE are hurting too.

(Satire) Vance remembers himself
19 August 2025

(satire) *JD Vance Booed By Own Reflection In Mirror.*

High office propaganda deceives US
19 August 2025

A clear example of the right-wing method to manipulate idiots: to firm up their rejection of the facts, blatantly deny those facts.

When Muskrat censored US IT breach
19 August 2025

Musk had ex-Twitter censor, and then ban, a journalist who published embarrassing leaked material about Vance.

NHS paperwork sees LLM jobs, UK
19 August 2025

The British National Health Service is about to start using a so-called "AI tool" to fill out paperwork about patients, reporting whether they are well enough to leave the hospital. The aim is to save the time of doctors and speed the discharge of patients who are ready to be discharged.

If the program's task is to draw straightforward conclusions from boxes checked, a program could do that reliably. But if it calls for human-like understanding, and the program is a sort of LLM, it will often make ridiculous mistakes. Having the medical system depend on it would be a grave error. The mistakes may seem ridiculous but people won't laugh at their consequences.

Eyes for an eye, Israeli general
19 August 2025

General Haliva, former head of Israel's military intelligence, said that HAMAS's killing of 1200 Israelis on Oct 7 justifies killing 50 times that number of Palestinian noncombatants, simply as retribution.

The idea of punishing a war crime by committing another crime is exactly the idea that HAMAS followed. It is vicious and unacceptable for anyone anywhere, and that includes Israel.

Israel is about to start yet another war crime: forcing a million people out of Gaza City.

To expel that many people, many suffering from starvation, wounds and disease, is sure to kill a substantial fraction. Just to move those people safely would require careful attention to treating them gently. The Israeli army is likely to choose methods that weakened people can't cope with, and cause mass manslaughter.

Cutting research funds for RNA vaccines
19 August 2025

The magat head of the NIH justifies cutting research funds for RNA vaccines based on a lack of "public trust" in them.

There is a lack of public trust, which antivaxxers have labored for years to create. However, he presumes it is due to a supposed shortcoming of the vaccines themselves.

Idealizing leaders just for being women
19 August 2025

*The careers of Sturgeon, Merkel and Ardern show how foolish it is to idealize leaders just for being women.*

I don't even think of judging a candidate by per gender. What difference would that make? The mold I want politicians to break is the one that forbids disappointing the rich.

Categorizing the species of fungi linking various forests
19 August 2025

Scientists are categorizing the species of fungi that link the trees in various surviving forests with a view to helping to reestablish long-lost forests.

I hope the UK does not prosecute the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks for "supporting terrorism".

Rewriting history of Indonesia
19 August 2025

The current president of Indonesia, son of the murderous, authoritarian former ruler General Suharto, is running a secret government plan to rewrite the history of Indonesia.

Will the bullshitter try to do this to US history?

Tracking people with cameras
19 August 2025

A new method of tracking people with video cameras could make a database of photos unnecessary. With enough cameras, it could track people everywhere all the time.

We need to regulate this, lest it usher in pervasive repression such as found in China.

Casting Palestinian journalist as HAMAS soldier
19 August 2025

A special unit in Israel's military intelligence looks for anything it can use to cast some Palestinian journalist or other as a HAMAS soldier, as a prepared excuse for killing him.

US schools pushing students to interact with bullshit generators
19 August 2025

US schools are rapidly pushing students to interact with bullshit generators. Here are some kinds of harm it does.

Please don't call them "AI" — that is a marketing hype campaign.

If you fall in love with an online service
19 August 2025

If you fall in love with an online service, you may find that a change in the software running the service makes your lover less appealing.

Teenage Hong Kong dissident face life with bounty
19 August 2025

Teenage Hong Kong dissident Chloe Cheung, now age 20 and living in the UK, faces life with a Chinese bounty on her and pressure on any other country she might visit.

The only rational response to such a situation is to cause as much trouble as you can get away with, to the dictators of China, Russia, and perhaps soon the US.

How Israel has calculated Gaza's food quota
19 August 2025

How Israel has calculated Gaza's food quota — first to make people somewhat hungry, and nowadays to starve them.

RFK Jr demands research paper on aluminum in vaccines be retracted
19 August 2025

RFK Jr told the Annals of Internal Medicine to retract a research paper which found that there was no sign that aluminum in vaccines caused any harm to children who were vaccinated. The journal refused, saying that the paper is valid and RFK jr provided no evidence it was mistaken.

I wonder whether the bully will attack the journal's funding in hope of forcing it to blackwhite this criticism. That seems to be his attitude towards academia, and this journal is part of academia.

Hegseth trying to force Christian extremism
19 August 2025

Hegseth is trying to force Christian extremism on the US military, perhaps preparing it to support the Giliad coup.

UK special forces war crimes accusations
19 August 2025

*UK special forces veterans accuse colleagues of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Former personnel describe soldiers exhibiting "psychopathic traits" and executions of handcuffed prisoners.* Also murdering civilians in their sleep, and planting weapons on them to disguise what they did to them.

This does not surprise me. Soldiers can build up great hatred against whoever they define as "the enemy". It is easy for this hatred to lead to torturing or murdering prisoners and civilians.

It's the commanders' responsibility to take a strong stand against this. That won't reduce the rate of war crimes to 0, but can keep it pretty low.

Corrupter encourages political campaigning by right-wing churches
19 August 2025

Fanatical right-wing churches break the law constantly by political campaigning, and the corrupter is encouraging them. Courts are considering this practice, and it will surely reach the right-wing Supreme Court.

The four factors of the apocalypse:
   global heating, global hating,
   global eating, global mating.

Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.

E-books

Non-oppressive Commercial E-books

Don't use Facebook

Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.

Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.

Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.

Internet Music EULAS

Business Supremacy Treaties

Countries to Stay Away From

No national identity cards

I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.

Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.

India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression.

Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.

Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.

Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.

Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.

Ireland - national ID card by stealth.

ACLU: the five dangers of national ID cards.

Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.

Borders

Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.

Flight connections

Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.

The Lifelong Activist

People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.

I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.

Disclosure: I am friends with the author.

Bob Chassell

Solidarity Economy and Free Software

Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.

Falkvinge articles

I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles. As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle.