Urgent: Call on Schumer and Jeffries to lead climate defense
10 July 2026
US citizens: call on Senator Schumer and Rep. Jeffries to be leaders for climate defense.
Urgent: Block "SAVE America" act
10 July 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to block the perverse "SAVE America" that would require voters to show up-to-date federal ID cards with their current addresses.
Poor US citizens can't afford the fees to update them when they change address (which they are compelled to do often), so this would have an effect resembling that of the "poll tax" that southern states used to disenfranchise blacks. Those states achieved racial discrimination indirectly by using a "grandfather clause" to exempt whites from the tax. Its proposed new replacement would, I expect, disenfranchise poor people regardless of race.
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.
Urgent: Nationwide high-interest loan businesses
10 July 2026
US citizens: call on the Federal Reserve to block obscure local banks from setting up nationwide high-interest loan businesses.
Urgent: Resolution to protect voting rights
10 July 2026
Us citizens: call on your congresscritter to support the resolution to protect voting rights.
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 +1-202-224-3121.
Please spread the word.
Urgent: Support "AI for the people" act
10 July 2026
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 "Artificial Intelligence" in the letter I sent.
Please join me in refusing to repeat the marketing hype slogan, "Artificial Intelligence", that the companies like to use. Let's limit the term "intelligence" to systems that can know and understand, within some domain — which the chatbots of today can't do. For more explanation, see https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence.Despite the technology's great flaws, a handful of billionaires and tech oligarchs stand to capture trillions of dollars in wealth that needs to be shared with the rest of society.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Tech bros argue surveillance makes you "be good"
10 July 2026
A number of tech bros argue that total surveillance will make everyone "be good". The implicit assumption is that the people that can use the data to punish you are good, and will always and only punish bad acts. The reality of surveillance is the opposite of that. Massive surveillance helps deportation thugs find immigrants and attack them, sometimes lawfully and sometimes not. But it doesn't deter the deportation thugs from murdering people[1] [2] on the street. The trumppets who control the surveillance don't allow access to the surveillance data to catch a killer who is on their side.
Restricting abortions in name of religious freedom
10 July 2026
Right-wing Christians in the US are seeking ways to restrict abortions in the name of doctors' religious freedom.
Will they stop with doctors? They could give every employee in the hospital the "right" to opt out of an abortion, especially one that was not planned in advance. Unplanned abortions are sometimes needed to save a woman's life threatened by complications in pregnancy, and state laws that prohibit abortions put women's lives in danger when that happens.
A last-minute veto by a pious worker could have the same effect.
Snoop phones surveilling and tracking
10 July 2026
Snoop phones have lured people into surveilling and tracking their relatives, friends, even coworkers — with their consent, which it does not occur to them to refuse.
Businesses and governments started the tracking, but the relatives and friends impose bonds that feel more personal, so some people won't dare to say no. Which is why it is good practice to start saying no and make a principle of it.
Keeping the snoop phone in a Faraday bag most of the time can also be a step towards ceasing to carry one.
Completely politicizing justice department
10 July 2026
*[The persecutor] has "succeeded in completely politicizing" justice department, experts say, using it to punish his enemies.*
Delayed manifestation of core democracy loss
10 July 2026
The US lost the core of its democracy in the 1970s-80s. After that, inertia kept parts of the democratic system sort of working. What we are seeing now is the delayed manifestation of the full consequences of that loss.
Britain's environmental protection laws
10 July 2026
Britain's environmental protection laws focus on limiting construction, including projects for decarbonization and protection of endangered species. The article argues for focusing endangered species protection spending on projects that will do a lot of that kind of good, will do it efficiently.
The argument is convincing, but it risks encouraging a big mistake: a vague general weakening of environmental protection regulations, aiming simply to "reduce red tape". Instead of making protection more efficient, that would allow developers to trash the environment massively.
LLMs can sometimes identify an anonymous person
10 July 2026
LLMs can sometimes identify a person who posts anonymously by correlating details in the anonymous posts with details posted non-anonymously on other sites.
Please don't assume that LLMs constitute "intelligence"!
Ford re-hired previously fired engineers
10 July 2026
Ford fired experienced engineers and replaced them with automation, which harmed the quality of production. The company was compelled to rehire many of the engineers.
I wonder if Ford will fire them again if it gets the automation to work better.
Death caused by heat
10 July 2026
*[The persecutor] will cause some of you to die from the heat.*
US heat wave caused by global heating
10 July 2026
The just-ended US heat wave could never have happened before global heating.
Dolphins follow fishing boats looking for food
10 July 2026
Due to overfishing in the Adriatic Sea between Italy and the Balkans, dolphins must follow fishing boats hoping for scraps.
Avenues for Billionaires and Corporations to buy elections
10 July 2026
*[Plutocratist Supreme Court] Campaign Finance Ruling Opens New Avenues for Billionaires and Corporations to Buy Elections.*
Businesses requiring workers to act like robots
10 July 2026
Businesses are increasingly requiring workers to act like robots under the control of the employer's software.
Cory Doctorow calls this the "reverse centaur" metaphor, suggesting that the human becomes the legs of some combined organism, while the boss becomes its human-like intelligence. But I think that metaphor exaggerates: the worker and the boss do not become one organism, and a real centaur would not despise its legs, or the horse-like part of its body.
The proper metaphor, I suggest, is that of a human riding a horse. The employee is reduced to the role of the horse, while the boss enjoys the role of the rider.
Naturally, nonfree software plays a crucial role in this subjugation. The natural tendency release of nonfree software is to give the owner (or the owner's allies) power over its useds; in this scenario, that is the primary purpose of developing the program.
Perhaps we should pass laws to prohibit employers from requiring or compelling employees to run any particular or special software.
What an employer could require is that the employee run some software that supports a particular protocol — but only if the protocol is supported by free software. This condition prevents the employer from choosing a requirement that would in practice force the employee into use of nonfree software.
America should offer asylum for the persecuted
10 July 2026
Robert Reich: America should offer asylum for the persecuted — not persecute those seeking asylum.
He quotes a moving part of Zohran Mamdani's recent speech.
Exposed weakness in US Constitution
10 July 2026
The corrupter has exposed a weakness in the US Constitution. Now that we have seen it, and how dangerous it is, we cannot un-see it.
Romanians convicted of stabbing Iranian journalist
10 July 2026
Two Romanians were convicted of stabbing an exiled Iranian dissident journalist in London.
The suspicion is that the Iranian state recruited them, but they may not have known (or cared) who they were working for. If they did not know, that was no excuse, of course.
mRNA vaccines are effective and safe
10 July 2026
After billions of doses given, records show that mRNA vaccines are effective and very safe.
Low reading and math skills of current undergraduates
10 July 2026
There is some evidence tying the low reading and math skills of current undergraduates to habitual use of LLMs.
Jobs created by data centers is insignificant
10 July 2026
Data centers can receive enormous tax breaks for "creating jobs", but they are so automated that the number of jobs is insignificant.
Australia investments increasing fossil fuel extraction
10 July 2026
Australia's big retirement funds have "invested" in increasing fossil fuel extraction, and even in coal.
Some made a big fuss about divesting, then later quietly reversed the move.
Pretend Intelligence systems twisting messages
10 July 2026
Pretend Intelligence systems *are twisting online messages on sensitive political topics about everything from abortion to climate change, in ways that could snowball to reshape long-term public opinion, experts have said.*
One example: *[PI] drafting tools completely reversed the meaning of draft posts on atheism, including in one test switching a claim that Jesus wasn’t real to "Jesus … was real". They also changed a post complaining of "#climatechangehoax" to "#ClimateAction".*
However, different systems alter meanings in different ways.
Vance's attacks
10 July 2026
Vance is pursuing outrageous (and absurd) exaggerated attacks on everyone who is not a right wing extremist. Conjecture: this is intended to convince right-wing extremists that if he is elected president he will show as little respect for the truth as the bullshitter does.
Federal violent arrest
10 July 2026
Federal thugs violently arrested protest activist "Doberman" (known by her communication handle), giving her to think that they may charge her with some sort of crime, then offered her $200k to spy on her fellow activists.
Pacific oil export
10 July 2026
Canada has pledged money to compensate the local problems that the new Pacific oil export pipeline will cause. That added expense clears the way to build the pipeline and thus aggravate the far worse global problem of climate disaster.
"Ratepayer Protection Act"
10 July 2026
The "Ratepayer Protection Act" is supposedly intended to prevent datacenters from driving up electric rates on ordinary people, but experts say it is too weak and too easily bypassed, and is a figleaf rather than a solution.
Israeli killing machine
10 July 2026
An Israeli machine learning system recommended 1000 "targets" a day in Gaza and Lebanon, but they could only check some 50 per day to see if they were really HAMAS or Hezbollah combatants. Israel wanted to attack more than that, so skipped the checking step.
Indian dowry murders
10 July 2026
Dowry murders in India have become more frequent, but arouse much less public anger.
This may be due to Modi's repression of any political activity on behalf of people who are poor, weak, or exploited.
Oil extraction
10 July 2026
Nearly all the big oil companies are planning to "invest" in increasing the rate of extraction, although the executives cannot help but know that this is going to kill a large number of people.
I suggest laws to define starting a new oil or gas well as murder.
Reading capability
10 July 2026
14% of incoming US college freshmen were reading at 10-year-old grade level recently, according to an OECD study.
Homeless people in Cornwall
10 July 2026
The shortage of housing in Cornwall has driven homeless people to live in trailers. Now the government is fining the farmers that allow homeless people to put trailers in their farms.
Suggestions for crucial changes
10 July 2026
Robert Reich's suggestions for crucial changes in how the US government operates.
I mostly agree with his suggestion, but I think that eliminating the electoral college should wait until we are sure that the rest of the electoral system is not vulnerable to organized fraud.
The abolition of gerrymandering should apply also to state government districts, not only to congressional districts.
Corruption increasing
10 July 2026
There have always been corrupt politicians, but today in some countries they can increasingly win popularity by flaunting it.
Outbreak of reason
9 July 2026
An outbreak of flu leads to an outbreak of reason: *Pentagon restores mandatory flu [vaccine] shots for all recruits.*
Senator Warren calls for reversing mergers
9 July 2026
Senator Warren calls for reversing some of the many large mergers that have subjected the US to drastic industrial concentration.
Even before the wrecker became president again, the US had a lot less business competition than it did a few decades ago. Several years ago I needed a new condensation pump to pump the air conditioner's water condensation out of the basement. There had traditionally been two competing manufacturers, but the government had allowed them to merge, so there was only one. That merger should have been blocked to maintain competition in that small field.
Often the US appears to have a lot more competition than it really has.
The supermarket company Albertsons uses all these names:
Acme Markets,
Albertsons,
Carrs-Safeway,
Haggen,
Jewel-Osco,
Kings,
Pavilions,
Plated,
Randalls,
Safeway,
Shaw's and Star Market,
Tom Thumb,
United Supermarkets,
Vons.
European Union negotiating to return refugees to Afghanistan
9 July 2026
The European Union, under pressure from right-wing immigrant-haters, is negotiating with the Taliban about returning refugees to Afghanistan.
This threatens to aid the Taliban in carrying out their policies of oppression. Every woman in Afghanistan is oppressed; many men are, too. The EU should give asylum to every Afghan women who can reach there, and many Afghan men will deserve it too.
Screen time damages under-twos' development
9 July 2026
*Screen time can damage under-twos’ development, landmark study suggests.*
Tenured professor re-instated
9 July 2026
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.
"Centrists" accuse progressives of "taking over"
9 July 2026
Progressive Democrats have had great success in recent Democratic primaries, defeating "centrist" corporate Democrats including some incumbents. The "centrists" now accuse the progressives of trying to "take over" the Democratic Party, saying they should start their own party.
The term "centrist" is a distortion of the facts. It claims, falsely, that their views reflect the mainstream of Americans' thought. In fact, many of the progressive ideas that those Democrats reject have the support of more than 70% of Americans.
The accusation that progressives are outsiders trying to "take over" the Democratic Party is absurd. The Democratic Party that governed the US in the 1930s and 1960s championed most of these progressive causes. (We called them "Liberal".) Then corporate and billionaire influence took over, especially under Bill Clinton and his successors.
Progressives are now bringing the Democratic Party back to the views of most Democrats.
Independence of independent regulatory agencies
9 July 2026
The corrupt US Supreme Court has abolished the independence of almost all of the independent regulatory agencies. Their job is to find and stop corruption and abuses. So this decision implies that a president who has no respect for the goal limiting corruption can neutralize them at will. Of course, that's exactly what the corrupter wants to do.
Putin's elementary school propaganda
9 July 2026
A schoolteacher's documentary shows Putin's elementary school political propaganda system at work.
Can you identify similar propaganda in your own country?
Making Arctic ice thicker
9 July 2026
Machines that run on solar electricity can make the Arctic ice thicker by making a hole in it. Overall this can prevent loss of the ice cover and thus resist global heating.
British foreign correspondents could be at risk of prosecution
9 July 2026
*British foreign correspondents could be at risk of prosecution if they use sources within state-backed groups in countries such as Iran, under national security legislation being rushed through parliament.*
China adopting "ethnic unity" law
9 July 2026
China is adopting an "ethnic unity" law which it could use to put anyone in the world on "trial" for making statements that go against China's ideology.
Anyone it can get its hands on, that means.
Deportation thugs disobeyed court order
9 July 2026
The deportation thugs disobeyed a federal court order not to arrest immigrants in immigration courts.
This puts the US constitution in danger.