Listed as Extremists for Wanting a Vote: The GIFCT Report and the Real Cost of Delay

Daniel Miller opened this Wednesday coffee talk on a somber note, marking the death of member and friend H. Scott Apple, who lost his battle with COVID, and reflecting on the supporters who fought for Texas independence for years and did not live to see it. He named Lauren Savage, who helped found the TNM and led much of its early research on independence movements, along with Charlie Doreck, Archie Lowe, and former comms man Dave Mundy. That, Miller said, is the real source of his impatience. The urgency is not about him wanting a vacation. It is about not letting any more diehards leave this world without breathing one breath in a free, independent Texas.

He then turned to the response that memorial post drew. Pro-federal trolls flooded the comments, suggesting Apple should be posthumously charged with child endangerment over the vaccine question. Miller used the moment to show what he sees as the wider hostility, including a Denton-area account that called tearing down and burning TEXIT signs patriotic ahead of a TNM event, with no consequence from the platform. His point was less about the trolls than about the double standard. Promote an arm-wrestling contest and you risk a ban for violence, he argued, while open calls to destroy property stay up.

The centerpiece was a July 2021 report from the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism titled Broadening the GIFCT Hash-Sharing Database Taxonomy. Miller walked through how the hash-sharing system flags and scores content for censorship, and how the report proposes a continuum running from ordinary partisanship to fringe group to violent extremism to terrorism. On page 62, the TNM is listed beside the Greater Idaho movement, Westboro Baptist Church, the Democratic Socialists of America, and others. Crucially, the framework files seeking self-determination under nonviolent extremism, which Miller called Orwellian given that the UN Charter guarantees that very right. His warning: this is a blueprint for judging what people may say online, and it is a short step from the internet into real life. The fight, he said, is for the Western ideals of being free to think, speak, and act, not just for Texas.

Questions answered in this episode

• Will the TNM support eliminating property taxes in a free Texas? Miller said yes, explaining that keeping the 103 to 160 billion dollars Texas overpays into the federal system, combined with the existing consumption tax, would let Texas drop the property tax without raising rates.
• What is the TNM’s stance in the governor’s race, and who will it endorse? Miller declined to answer in chat, saying endorsements are never kept secret and supporters will know through the website and emails when a decision is made.
• Will Daniel Miller run for governor? No. He hinted, though, that another announcement is close.
• Don’t we need to get people angry? Miller said people are already angry, and the job is to channel righteous anger into real action rather than shaking a fist at the clouds.
• What is a CPC? A Certified Petition Circulator, the volunteers gathering signatures for the independence referendum petition.

Miller closed by pressing the petition campaign, urging supporters to register, become members, volunteer, and run signature drives so the question can be put to a vote and won early. He also previewed a coming special stream with a new advisory board member, a border-county attorney joining to advise on border and law enforcement policy.