Urgent: Oppose plan to undermine Head Start educational program
19 August 2026
US citizens: Submit a public comment to oppose the plan to undermine the Head Start educational program.
Here is the comment I submitted:
I strongly oppose the proposed rule, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs,” and urge HHS and ACF to withdraw it.
The fact that this proposed rule would eliminate so many standards all at once shows that its true goal is to undermine Head Start, rather than to make it work better or more efficiently.
Head Start should be strengthened, not stripped of the standards that have been its backbone. To weaken these standards would open the door to weakening the education of American children, especially children in disprivileged groups and those struggling with poverty, housing instability, and difficulty obtaining documentation.
Please withdraw the proposed rule under docket ACF-2026-0595 and RIN 0970-AD30 and preserve strong nationwide Head Start Program Performance Standards.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Ban electric shock gloves
19 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to ban the deportation thugs' electric shock gloves.
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: Stop dismantling of Head Start
19 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to stop the saboteur in chief and RFK jr. from dismantling Head Start.
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: Oppose ban on ranked choice voting
19 August 2026
US citizens: oppose the Democratic National Committee's ban on ranked choice voting in Democratic primaries.
Urgent: Restore funding for Public Media
19 August 2026
US citizens: call for restoring funding for Public Media.
Urgent: Support Green New Deal for Health
19 August 2026
US citizens: Support the Green New Deal for Health. It is designed to protect Americans from the danger of increasing heat and local disasters, both short term and long term.
Exiled dissidents from Salafi Arabia block on antisocial media
19 August 2026
Some "American" antisocial media companies are blocking the accounts of exiled dissidents from Salafi Arabia from being seen in that country.
Urgent: Tax big oil's war profiteering
17 August 2026
US citizens: call on your public officials to tax big oil's war profiteering.
Here's what I said in my letter:
I urge you to tax the war profits being collected by giant oil corporations and end their tax breaks. They have been draining America's bank account as they drain America's petroleum, and polluting our politics as they pollute our air and water. It's time to make them stop!
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Stop racist immigration crackdown
17 August 2026
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to stop the racist immigration crackdown.
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: Tax Big Tech's ad income
17 August 2026
US citizens: call on your state lawmakers to tax Big Tech's ad income.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Protect human-centered education
17 August 2026
US citizens: call on Tell State Leaders: Protect Human-Centered Education Before Supposed Intelligence Enters Our Classrooms.
I edited my letter so as not to refer to these bullshit generators as "artificial intelligence", because I question whether they qualify as "intelligence". See https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence.
See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard.
Urgent: Negotiating lower prices on prescription medicines
14 August 2026
US citizens, call on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand the practice of negotiating lower prices on prescription medicines. We need to counteract massive lobbying by Big Pharma.
Deadline for commenting, Aug 17!
Urgent: Save funding for Medicaid
14 August 2026
US citizens: call on your senators to save funding for Medicaid.
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.
E-scooters dangerous to ride
14 August 2026
E-scooters turn out to be especially dangerous to ride — much more dangerous than bicycles.
Magats' efforts to seize power
14 August 2026
Comparing the magats' efforts to seize power, and embed themselves irreversibly in it, with the efforts of Nazis in 1933.
Making Anthony Fauci the enemy
14 August 2026
*Why making Anthony Fauci the enemy will harm US public health for years.*
Wildfire betting amid warnings of arson risk
14 August 2026
*US senators urge crackdown on wildfire betting amid warnings of arson risk.*
Betting on other government actions is dangerous too, because it can offer magats the temptation to burn down good government.
Comparisons of wildfire crisis to second world war
14 August 2026
*While many leaders compare the wildfire crisis to the second world war, governments fail to adopt the real lessons of pre-emptive wartime action.*
Extreme weather and extreme climate are *attacks on our soil. They are a call to mobilize.* But governments today are barely beginning to mobilize for full action to slow and stop the slowly developing climate disaster.
I conjecture that the reason they don't do this is the presence of a highly influential group of traitors: the fossil fuel industry.
*Human-driven climate crisis fuels Canada’s deadly wildfires, study finds.*
UK restaurants and pubs banning snooper glasses
14 August 2026
Many restaurants and pubs in the UK have banned wearing of snooper glasses. Theaters, too.
Israel accused of knowingly attacking journalists
14 August 2026
*Human Rights Watch and Amnesty* accuse Israel of knowingly attacking journalists in Lebanon — a war crime.
Pakistan prohibits reporting internationally
14 August 2026
Pakistan has prohibited anyone from reporting internationally on what happens there. It has also blocked access to Al Jazeera's web site from Pakistan.
Model for turning richly funded campaign against rich backers
14 August 2026
*[Progressive Democrat] Abdul El-Sayed offers a model for successfully turning a non-progressive opponent's richly funded campaign against that opponent's rich backers, and thus against the opponent.
Butterfly species shifting habitats
14 August 2026
Many butterfly species are shifting their habitats — some as fast as 135km per year. Some species' habitats have expanded, and others have shrunk.
All of this measures the rapidity of potentially dangerous ecosystem changes caused by global heating.
Droughts in Europe
14 August 2026
*[In Europe,] droughts that were once a century now happen every year, and the impact on wildlife, industrial output and culture itself is catastrophic.*
Underlying the random fluctuation from year to year, the trend (as long as global heating continues) is to get worse.
The bully's new tariffs
14 August 2026
Joseph Stiglitz: the bully's new tariffs, supposedly meant to pressure for an end to forced labor, hypocritically omit two countries that do enormous amounts of that: China and the US.
We launched a war on nature
14 August 2026
Rebecca Solnit: *We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate war zone.
George Monbiot: *Murderous heat, an endangered food supply and no [efforts to slow the disaster]: this is the life the radical right wants you to have.
Cockroach Janata party
14 August 2026
How the Cockroach Janata Party overcame the power of Modi's captive mass media.
El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger
14 August 2026
*El Niño could push 50m people into acute hunger before end of next year.*
If so, it will mean that the disasters that climate scientists have forecast for many years are arriving.
Surveillance at Madison Square Garden
11 August 2026
Madison Square Garden uses surveillance cameras to recognize people. It specifically tracks people on its enemies list, such as journalist Rachel Maddow. But it normally tracks everyone who enters and perhaps recognizes them all.
However, they made an exception for the audience at Taylor Swift's wedding, apparently because she had the clout to demand this.
People must be free to take photos in public places occasionally and publish them. But no one, and especially no business or organization or government, should be allowed to systematically record everyone that passes before a camera and put the records into a internet-connected system.
Pressuring Democratic candidates to stop avoiding climate issues
11 August 2026
A grass-roots campaign is pressuring Democratic candidates to stop avoiding the issue of growing climate disaster.
Focusing on "affordability" of everyday life is partly a mistake, and partly a response to pressure from billionaires who figure that will lead towards weak palliative measures rather to any big change to transfer wealth.
The increasing cost of living is a consequence of deeper injustices, one of which is the growing cost of climate disaster (including food plagued by agricultural failure). Another is the growing cost of medical treatment, which stems largely from the big role of businesses in it. Another is the long and slow shift that leaves the non-rich with less and less of society's productive capacity.
Scrapped plans to curb jury trials
11 August 2026
*Andy Burnham signals he will scrap plans to curb jury trials [in the UK].*
This is a victory, even though it only prevents a plan to make things worse.
The supposed "need" for restricting the right to a jury was a shortage of funds. I think Burnham has some plan to increase taxes on non-poor people so as to pay for this and other things to make the UK better.
(satire) Wrath of next ultimatum
11 August 2026
(satire) *[The bully] Warns Iran To Accept His Ultimatum Or Face Wrath Of Next Ultimatum.*
Climate emergency poses risk to global economy
11 August 2026
*A senior policymaker at the European Central Bank has said the climate emergency and the breakdown of nature poses a dramatically growing risk to the global economy.*
If we are unable to grow enough food, or if calamities substantially reduce the life expectancy, it is going to be hard for anything to be stable or predictable.
What we need to make sure of is that the billionaires won't be able to insulate themselves (and their servants) from sharing the fate the impose on us. And that they know they won't be able to.
Boycott Magnum for Ben and Jerry's
11 August 2026
Ben and Jerry sold their ice cream company to Unilever under an agreement to preserve the company's independence and social activism. They now say that Unilever has violated the agreement in several ways, and finally by reselling it to Magnum (as far as I can tell, without any ethical requirements). They call on supporters to boycott Magnum to pressure for it to sell Ben and Jerry's to someone who will restore them.
It is not a simple matter to draw up a contract that will prevent the buyer of a company, or of a program, from slipping out of agreements to follow ethical standards by transferring control in increments.
Tourette's syndrome slip
11 August 2026
John Davidson, who has Tourette's syndrome, said the taboo word "nigger" with no conscious intention while two blacks were on stage. People freaked out.
A few decades ago, antiracists understood the word as an unjust insult — when it was meant to characterize someone. But people could contemplate the word in the abstract, and discuss its meaning and implications (such as, a racist attitude) without losing their wits. They could criticize the word's racist attitude without terror of violating the taboo if they said which word they were criticizing. If they heard a touretter say it, and understood that the touretter did not mean to characterize anyone with it, they did not hold that against per.
The change to regard the word "nigger" as a shocking profanity rather than as an unjust racist attack has made it harder for society to cope with situations like this one, and harder to clearly express condemnation of racism.
(satire) Make-out point purchased by make-out conglomerate
11 August 2026
(satire) *Small Town’s Make-Out Point Purchased By Multinational Make-Out Conglomerate.*
(satire) Military Wife Draft
11 August 2026
(satire) *U.S. Instates Military Wife Draft.*
Underground report from Iran
11 August 2026
An underground report from Iran about torture and killing of imprisoned protesters.
Ticketmaster increased base price
11 August 2026
Ticketmaster was required by law to stop adding certain junk fees to ticket prices, so in some cases it increased the base price so that the total remained the same.
Is this a scandal? I don't think so. The scandal is that they would tell you a lower price, not including the junk fees, then charge you a higher price which includes the junk fees. Now they have to be more honest about the real price.
If we want to do something about the high price of concerts, we should adopt strict laws against overconsolidation of industry, and break up businesses that are too big. This would include the Ticketmaster/Live Nation near-monopoly and many others that mergers have created in the past few decades.
The corrupter's henchmen are encouraging new monopolies.
Sham promises to get Blanche confirmed
11 August 2026
The corrupter, seeking to have his personal lawyer Blanche confirmed as Attorney General, made sham promises to the Senate that Blanche would not approve the corrupter's slush fund and tax return immunity deal.
The promises are a sham because they are only temporary — if the Senate approves Blanche, he and the corrupter can cancel these promises and approve the deal anyway.
Academic scores and antisocial media use
11 August 2026
* Pupils who open [antisocial media] accounts [at the age of] 11 to 12 score lower in some subjects [at age 16] than those who wait a few years [to open such accounts], study finds.*
Climate change kills
11 August 2026
"Climate change kills": [Prime Minister] Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain's deniers.
Prosecution of violent "settler" for killing Palestinian
11 August 2026
Israel is prosecuting one of the violent right-wing "settlers" for killing a Palestinian journalist in the West Bank.
Such a prosecution ought to regularly follow their crimes, but instead it is news, because Israel generally protects those killers.
Urgent: News coverage of subpoenas to Breakthrough News
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on news media to cover the subpoenas to Breakthrough News as an attack on freedom of the press.
Urgent: Block scheme for making deportation profitable
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to block the bully's scheme for making deportation profitable for some of his backers.
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: Terminate bully's NSPM-7 political persecution crusade
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to terminate the bully's NSPM-7 political persecution crusade.
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: Military contracts where corrupter personally profits
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to investigate military contracts in which the corrupter and his family would personally profit.
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: Stop Florida spying on wildlife advocates
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on Florida's legislature to stop the state from spying on wildlife advocates.
Block Paramount media takeover
10 August 2026
US citizens: call on Congress to block the Paramount media takeover.
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.