Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Thorin Klosowski
“The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better. The demand uses a power called a ‘Technical Capability Notice’ (TCN) in the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act. At the time of its signing we noted this law would likely be used to demand Apple spy on its users. After the U.K. government first issued the TCN in January, Apple was forced to either create a backdoor or block its Advanced Data Protection feature — which turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud — for all U.K. users. The company decided to remove the feature in the U.K. instead of creating the backdoor.” (10/01/25)
“The consistent rhetoric around government shutdowns, even if the parties and issues are reversed, betrays a common view of Congress’ role in our constitutional design: Lawmakers should shut up and fund the government. When they don’t do that, and the government shuts down, they’ve failed to do their job. This view couldn’t be more backwards about how our constitutional scheme, with its separate branches, divided powers, and limits on the power of the executive and majority parties, is supposed to work. The whole reason for Congress having the power of the purse and holding regular votes on how much money to give the president to spend is to give it the opportunity to say no sometimes.” (10/02/25)
“There’s a joke about three mathematicians who spot a black cow on a train ride through Scotland. One of them says ‘I see the cows in Scotland are black.’ The second objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one black cow in Scotland.’ The third objects ‘Technically, we only know that there is one cow in Scotland, at least one side of which is black.’ This is the level of paranoia we should deploy against claims of ‘over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses.’ Technically, we only know that there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred and fifty eyewitnesses!’ (technically, you just know that Astral Codex Ten says there’s a book containing the sentence ‘there were over a hundred fifty eyewitnesses.’)” (10/01/25)
“We have seen enough Donald Trump–branded consumer pitches (Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Airlines, Trump Watches) to know that the quality of the service is less important than giving the impression of something legitimate. That’s the spirit with which we should approach TrumpRx, an alleged website where Medicaid patients can purchase low-cost prescription drugs. At a Tuesday press conference, Trump announced a TrumpRx.gov website set to launch in early 2026, with characteristically few details. There is no language about TrumpRx at the Department of Health and Human Services or its agencies, only a fact sheet at Whitehouse.gov. The only indication of what drugs will be available is vague language about ‘a large majority’ of primary care treatments and ‘some select specialty brands.’ The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced a voluntary agreement to supply drugs for the website, but that agreement, Pfizer said, will be kept secret.” (10/02/25)
“Distractions abound. Don’t be distracted. The American police state under Donald Trump has mastered the art of delivering endless diversions, constant uproar, and wall-to-wall chaos designed to prevent us from focusing on any single issue for long. This is how psyops work: keep the populace reactive, confused, fearful and pliant while power consolidates. According to the Trump administration, ‘we the people’ are now the enemy from within.” (10/01/25)
“Prior to the Warren Court, and notwithstanding the pithy language of Thomas Jefferson or the direct language of James Madison in the Bill of Rights, the federal courts equivocated in their protections of speech. In wartime, the courts often looked the other way as presidents and Congresses tried to silence and punish the words they hated or feared. Both Jefferson and Madison believed that the freedom of speech is a natural right. This view originated with Aristotle, was refined by St. Augustine, was codified by St. Thomas Aquinas, and was argued compellingly for jurists by John Locke and for the masses by John Stuart Mill. All maintained in their writings that freedom of thought is a natural absolute individual right; and the freedom of speech is expressing one’s thoughts.” (10/01/25)
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Adam Goldstein
“It may well be that some people who engage in politically motivated violence have anti-American beliefs, oppose the traditional family, or dislike organized religion. They should be prosecuted. And if there’s evidence of conspiracy or concrete steps toward violence, that may warrant an investigation. But we cannot start investigating other people simply because they happen to share those beliefs. Doing so would open the door to investigations of any political movement or ideology if any one of its adherents happened to engage in violence.” (10/01/25)
“Long ago, someone pointed out to me that if I alter my behavior for no reason but to defy someone, they are controlling me as surely as if I were obeying their every command. I don’t want to be a puppet. Wouldn’t you feel stupid if you ended up damaging your health, the health of your child, or costing yourself extra money simply because you wanted to do the opposite of what some politician told you? It’s smarter to weigh everything someone tells you to do. If it makes sense and is good for you, do it. If it seems like it would be bad for you, do something else.” (10/01/25)
“Modern democracies have a very distinct engine driving corruption within them, and it’s not what you’d expect. There are many drivers of government corruption, of course, but this one empowers corruption in ways that others do not and cannot. Democracies and democratic republics, especially now, involve professional politicians. And politicians, to put it very directly, are the winners of popularity contests. In fact, if we’re to be honest about it, modern elections might best be described as a type of beauty pageant, or a ‘popularity pageant.'” (10/01/25)
“The horrific murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10 should have started a long-overdue conversation about the danger of political violence and of rhetoric that demonizes political opponents. Instead, all too predictably, it set off a cycle of finger-pointing and attempts to prove that violence is only—or primarily — a problem for the ‘other side.'” (10/01/25)
