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: Stop the saboteur in chief from eliminating mail-in voting.

  If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213

• US citizens: call on congress to save Veterans' medical treatment — Stop VA Privatization.

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

• US citizens: demand answers about the terrorist's unauthorized military attack in the Caribbean.

• US citizens: call on the DOE to make a coal plant close as scheduled.

• US citizens: Submit an official comment Against the EPA's plan to rescind its ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions from any industry and gut vehicle standards needed to fight global heating.

  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 tell RFK jr to resign.

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

• US citizens: Tell Costco’s Board of Directors and CEO Ron Vachris: Don’t cave to extremists. Allow your pharmacies to carry mifepristone nationwide now.

  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: Support SB 42, the California Fair Elections Act.

  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 Hegseth to cancel the muskrat's chatbot contract.

  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: Stand With FEMA workers suspended by the bully for speaking out.

• US citizens: call on Congress to stop the snooper's Palantir broad-spectrum surveillance scheme.

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

• US citizens: call on major league baseball owners to keep deportation thugs out of their stadiums.

  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 keep the DOPE's hands off Social Security.

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

• US citizens: Support the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act.

• 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.

RUS, BLR, provocations of NATO, POL, EST
12 September 2025

Putin attacked Poland with drones launched from Belarus.

*Russia is brazenly provoking the west. Putin must be left in no doubt of the consequences.*

I can't see what Putin hopes to achieve by that. The natural result would be that Polish and NATO forces prepare for war, and that will not be convenient for whatever Putin wants to do. NATO troops might go to Poland to help.

Nothing requires them to be limited to air defense forces. Since Belarus has attacked Poland, it would be legitimate to respond by counterattacking Belarus. Is that a good idea? Do Belarusian troops feel like fighting to maintain the tyrant Lukashenko's rule, or would they eagerly surrender to get rid of him? I don't know.

Urgent: Mail-in voting in peril
12 September 2025

US citizens: Stop the saboteur in chief from eliminating mail-in voting.

If you phone, please spread the word! White House: +1-202-456-1111 and (TTY/TDD) +1-202-456-6213

Urgent: Stop VA privatization
12 September 2025

US citizens: call on congress to save Veterans' medical treatment — Stop VA Privatization.

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

Urgent: Lawless US-military attacks boat
12 September 2025

US citizens: demand answers about the terrorist's unauthorized military attack in the Caribbean.

Urgent: Close a particular coal plant
12 September 2025

US citizens: call on the DOE to make a coal plant close as scheduled.

Urgent: EPA trying to limit itself
11 September 2025

US citizens: Submit an official comment Against the EPA's plan to rescind its ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions from any industry and gut vehicle standards needed to fight global heating.

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.

Urgent: RFK should resign
11 September 2025

US citizens: call on Congress to tell RFK jr to resign.

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

Urgent: Costco pharmacies
10 September 2025

US citizens: Tell Costco’s Board of Directors and CEO Ron Vachris: Don’t cave to extremists. Allow your pharmacies to carry mifepristone nationwide now.

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.

Unicef malnutrition treatment
9 September 2025

Unicef is running malnutrition treatment in Gaza. In the past 2 weeks, 7,000 additional young children have started treatment.

It is a good surprise that Unicef is able to do this.

Loss of koala habitat
9 September 2025

Endangered species law in Australia has failed to slow the accelerating destruction of koala habitat.

A new national park may help.

UK's failure to act
9 September 2025

A non-state British inquiry into Britain's conduct towards Israel and its atrocities in Gaza revealed a series of accusations of failing to try to end them, and sometimes assisting them.

Wildlife is thriving in the Korean DMZ
9 September 2025

*"Landmines have become the greatest protectors": how wildlife is thriving in the Korean DMZ.*

Regulatory barriers for new Covid-19 vaccines
9 September 2025

The antivaxxer has "approved" the new versions of Covid-19 vaccines, but most Americans will face regulatory barriers that are likely to be prohibitive.

Military spending less effective in creating jobs
9 September 2025

Military spending (in general) is far less effective at creating jobs than civilian spending (in general).

Up to 600 military lawyers to serve as immigration judges
9 September 2025

*Pentagon sending up to 600 military lawyers to serve as immigration judges.*

Hiring more immigration judges is a sensible way to reduce (over time) the number of asylum-seekers waiting for a decision. But I fear that these will be untrained in non-military law, and chosen for right-wing bias.

Bottom-trawling putting deep-sea sharks in danger of extinction
9 September 2025

Bottom-trawling is putting deep-sea sharks in danger of extinction, and sea-bottom mining could finish the job.

Many of these species have never been observed live in their habitat.

Brazen lies of saboteur in chief
9 September 2025

* Most alarming are the brazen lies of the likes of [the saboteur in chief], who has called climate science "a giant hoax", "a scam" and "bullshit" [he] and many of his influential supporters in business and politics are well aware of the global heating risks and are responding in a way that suggests they think their best hope for survival is to build up their wealth, consider invading cooler neighboring countries, such as Canada and Greenland, and prepare their doomsday bunkers.*

Cost of meeting Australia's greenhouse gas goal
9 September 2025

Fossil fuel lobbyists claim that achieving Australia's greenhouse gas goal would cost half a trillion dollars. I expect that the cost to Australia of global climate disaster would be far more.

No one country can protect itself from global climate disaster by itself. They need to do it together. Australia can't make other countries choose survival. What it needs to do is convince them.

I think that taking the issue seriously in its own actions has a chance of succeeding.

RFK jr may try to cut off availability of mifepristone
9 September 2025

RFK jr may try to cut off availability of mifepristone in the US, using as an excuse an unsubstantiated claim that it is dangerous.

Airborne particles cause toxic clumps of proteins in brain
9 September 2025

*Airborne particles cause toxic clumps of proteins in brain that are hallmarks of Lewy body dementia, study indicates.*

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.