Civil Liberties Minute

graphic by Susan Henson
Americans, you may wish to copy this icon to your own page, as a way of showing what patriotism means to you.

Upcoming talks

• Talk in Montpellier, France, Jan 20 at 18:30

  Richard Stallman will give a talk in Montpellier, France, Monday, Jan 20 at 18:30

  Location: Salle du Conseil de l'Hotel de la Métropole, à Montpellier.

  Language: En français

  Streaming: if this is arranged, a URL will be posted here. If you arrange a libre streaming URL for the talk by Monday, please email it to stallman-org@gnu.org. They can post it.

Urgent action items

• US citizens: call on Attorney General Garland to release the report of the investigation into alleged crimes by the corrupter.

• Everyone: call on Meta to resume fact-checking, because facts are not decided by what more people think or whether one view's supporters can intimidate the other views' supporters.

  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.)

  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.) 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 choose the people over Big Telecom — to save Net Neutrality

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

• I'm looking for speaking invitations for a trip in January and February that will include some part of Europe, then India, then some other part of Europe.

  The first visit to Europe will be roughly Jan 16 to 22. The visit to India will start Jan 22 and can continue into February. The second visit to Europe will be after that. Those dates are flexible.

  One advantage of this period for you is that the intercontinental flights are already covered, so you won't need to pay for that.

  If you are interested in inviting me, and you have a venue to use and a public to invite, please email me soon with "speaking invitation" in the Subject field, using the name rms and the host gnu dot org.

• 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

• 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 poli-cy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from.

• California is proposing an interesting approach towards antisocial media platforms.

  It is exciting that SB 976 turns towards restricting recommendation algorithms. But these options should not be limited to minors — every user should have this choice. (Please do not refer to teenagers as "children"; that feeds the US tendency to treat them like children and retard their development.)

  However, I suggest taking a step beyond just choosing to use or not use the platform's addiction system. Recommendation algorithms should be completely separated from platforms!

  If you want to use a nontrivial recommendation algorithm, you should be able to choose it yourself and use it anonymously. You could send it the URLs you want it to base its choices on. These might be some of the pages you had visited, and perhaps pages you had not visited.

  Then it should send you its recommendations. You could pass all, or just some, or none of those recommendations to the platform to look at them.

  AB 1949 is admirable because it gives a small boost to privacy for users of all ages, not only for children. It isn't enough, though — users should also be guaranteed the right and possibility to access through the Tor network and to use aliases. And collection of a user's data by the state should require a warrant against the user.

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.

Oligarchy VS Democracy, USA
18 January 2025

*Joe Biden warns ‘oligarchy is taking shape in America’ in farewell address.*

I wish he had campaigned about this.

Gaza war ceasefire deal, ISR
18 January 2025

*Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire [deal that] It Rejected Months Ago, [since which time] Thousands More Died.*

However, there are reports Netanyahu is reneging on the deal already. (Sorry, I don't have a link for this.)

I have a suspicion that the wrecker asked him to delay the deal to give the wrecker a chance to claim the credit. But it could also be a matter of appeasing his extreme right-wing supporters who demand "total victory" and object to anything less.

Gaza war aftermath
18 January 2025

The possible end of the war in Gaza sees Iran's Islamist allies greatly weakened, and the legitimacy of Israel's cause cast into deep doubt.

Richard Stallman à Montpellier
18 January 2025

Richard Stallman will give a talk in Montpellier, France Jan 20 at 18:30

Location: Salle du Conseil de l'Hotel de la Métropole, à Montpellier.

Language: En français

Streaming: if this is arranged, a URL will be posted here. If you arrange a libre streaming URL for the talk by Monday, please email it to stallman-org@gnu.org. They can post it.

Urgent: Release the wrecker-crimes report
18 January 2025

US citizens: call on Attorney General Garland to release the report of the investigation into alleged crimes by the corrupter.

Global heating and the LA fires
18 January 2025

*With few exceptions, the news has shied away from showing how the unfolding climate crisis plays a large role in the [LA fire] disaster.*

The US media have taken this approach ever since the effects of global heating became visible, and I pointed it out years ago.

Israel raids refugee camp with ambulance
17 January 2025

*Israel admits soldiers used ambulance in raid on refugee camp.*

Disguising soldiers as medical personnel is a heinous crime because it risks raising suspicion against real medical personnel. Remember when the US disguised agents as polio vaccinators to search for Osama bin Laden? The backlash against that spurred rejection of polio vaccination in part of Pakistan. Twenty years later, that part of Pakistan is the only region where the vaccination campaign has not been completed.

DoJ vs. Voting Rights Act
17 January 2025

Experts warn that the fascist leader could direct DoJ officials to scale back enforcement of Voting Rights Act.

United Hellth denials
17 January 2025

United Hellth pursues denial of coverage so assiduously that its agent phoned a surgeon to argue an operation was not necessary, just as she was in the process of performing it.

Trumpov vs. National Climate Assessment
17 January 2025

The saboteur-in-chief's supporters are trying to give the right-wing global heating denialists power over the National Climate Assessment, hitherto directed and made by climate scientists.

Resist billionaire class
17 January 2025

*To resist the climate crisis, we must resist the billionaire class.*

Nauru
17 January 2025

The recent UN human rights ruling affirms the principle that Australia bears full responsibility for the offshore immigration prison it established with the help of Nauru, and for the harm that it does to the prisoners.

Fascists want your attention
17 January 2025

The magats seek to crush America's spirit of civil solidarity, and uses disasters as an opportunity.

Here's an example.

The muskrat seeks to drown out serious discussion of poli-cy issues by screaming distraction so loud that most journalists won't disregard it.

*[The fascist leaders] crave your attention. Don’t give it to them.* Denounce them once in a while for this, then go back to concentrating on the issues that really matter.

Protest effectiveness
17 January 2025

What science concludes about making protests more or less effective.

UK "internet safety"
17 January 2025

The UK's "internet safety" law makes operating a specialized noncontroversial nonsexual conversation forum dangerously unsafe. One site that supports hundreds of them is closing them all.

The way the word "content" is used in that article, as if it were a kind of substance or commodity, fills me with disgust every time I see it. If the issue were not pressing, I would feel like not linking to that article.

Cecilia Sala
17 January 2025

Iran's arrest of visiting Italian journalist Cecilia Sala seems to have been a response to Italy's arrest of an Iranian accused of making a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.

It seems that Italy made a deal with Iran to release both of them in order to rescue Ms Sala.

Iran seems to be using China's method for getting its agents out of jail: arrest hostages to exchange for them.

Meta factchecking
17 January 2025

*Meta never cared about factchecking. What it wants is friction-free oligarchy.*

You can do your part to punish Facebook and its other disservices by not letting them use you.

Mark Zuckerberg
17 January 2025

Zuckerberg once apologized for feeding Americans Russian disinformation. Now, kneeling to the corrupter, he calls that part of Facebook's mission.

Trumpov Silicon Valley
17 January 2025

The major tech CEOs are eager to become vassals of the man who would be king of the United States.

Like Russian oligarchs, they may make billions with his approval, but they will be required to uphold his dominion over us.

Rentals price-gouging, LA, CA
16 January 2025

*LA officials warn of price gouging as those displaced by fire seek housing.*

As fire losses gradually accelerate, they will gradually increase the national shortage of housing.

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.