@metacurity@infosec.exchange"The German government is set to get new powers to bar risky Chinese technology suppliers from its critical infrastructure."
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-lines-up-new-powers-to-fend-off-chinese-tech/
@cdarwin@c.imTrump is keeping proceeds from the first sale of Venezuelan oil
in an offshore bank account based in Qatar, according to reporting from Semafor.
The sale was worth $500 million.
This unprecedented move is yet another middle finger to Venezuelan sovereignty
and once again raises questions about the president’s cozy relationship with the Qatari government.
“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls
so that he ca…
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineI have written why local police, possibly SWAT, must engage, detain and arrest ice. The alternatives are all worse.
https://stuff.davidaugust.com/local-law-enforcements-challenge-uphold-the-law-even-against-the-feds/
@Techmeme@techhub.socialPoland's President Karol Nawrocki vetoes legislation meant to enforce the EU's DSA in Poland, arguing it would grant excessive powers to government officials (Wojciech Kość/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-pre
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialApple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is found guilty of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles (Kanis Leung/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-jimmy-lai-ve…
@Dragofix@veganism.socialStop the Government Redefining Animal Testing Sites as “National Infrastructure” #AnimalRights
@newsie@darktundra.xyzShort-term renewal of cyber information sharing law appears in bill to end shutdown https://therecord.media/cisa-2015-information-sharing-law-renewal-bill-ending-shutdown
@cdarwin@c.imCAPITOL HILL CELEBRATES
JENNER & BLOCK:
Congressional Republicans and Democrats
came together last night
for a bipartisan event celebrating the release of
“When Congress Comes Calling,”
a newly updated handbook on congressional investigations
published by Jenner & Block and the Project on Government Oversight.
Jenner & Block is a prominent law firm which remains locked in a bitter legal fight with the Trump administration.
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineOn the occasion of ice’s latest killing: Local police MUST engage, detain and arrest ice. There is no better option.
Here’s why in detail: https://stuff.davidaugust.com/local-law-enforcements-challenge-uphold-the-law-even-against-the-feds…
@cdarwin@c.imEver since the Supreme Court shattered campaign finance law with its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010,
Americans have been told there are only two ways to stop corporate and “dark” money in politics:
Amend the U.S. Constitution
or wait for the court to undo what it has done.
👉That is flat wrong.
Citizens United held that government may not regulate a corporation’s right to spend money independently in elections.
But the …
@newsie@darktundra.xyzBritish government unveils long-awaited landmark cybersecurity bill https://therecord.media/british-gov-cybersecurity-law
@gwire@mastodon.socialArticle doesn't say if the capacity for remotely-disabling machines is something the government ordinarily wants?
Basically any device that can receive remote firmware/software updates from a manufacturer can be remotely disabled - intentionally or otherwise.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/…
@cdarwin@c.imMoney is power, and the founders of this country feared that a president would turn into a monarch if he alone could dictate how the government uses the federal Treasury.
President Trump, however, has tried to take Congress’s constitutional power and make it his own.
He has repeatedly ignored laws passed by the House and the Senate to spend money, or not spend it,
based on his whims and agenda.
He has violated the law at least six times,
according to the Governm…
@chrisnelder@mastodon.energyVery happy to see Trump’s illegal block on wind farm development thrown out by a judge, along with the Orwellian justification given for it—a classic inversion of the truth. Every accusation is a confession, etc. (“The government argued that the states’ claims amount to nothing more than a policy disagreement over preferences for wind versus fossil fuel energy development that is outside the federal court’s jurisdiction.”)
@marcel@waldvogel.family"Block VPN users from Wisconsin" means blocking all VPNs, becuase … VPN.
"Websites subject to this proposed law are left with this choice: either cease operation in Wisconsin, or block all #VPN users, everywhere, just to avoid legal liability in the state. One state's terrible law is attempting to break VPN access for the entire internet, and the unintended consequences of …
@Techmeme@techhub.socialA US judge rules Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp don't violate antitrust law, as the FTC failed to prove the deals let Meta monopolize the market (Bloomberg Law)
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/meta-wins-ftc-antitrus…
@markhburton@mstdn.social"The attack on January 3 is not the first against Venezuela. In fact, the pressure campaign began in 2001 when the government of Hugo Chavez enacted a Hydrocarbons Law in accordance with the sovereignty provisions in the Bolivarian Constitution of 1999."
Trump’s regime change bid in Caracas follows 25 years of strangling #Venezuela | Morning Star
@davidaugust@mastodon.online“‘We had to destroy the village to save it’ is not a new American rationalization, and the imperial boomerang can and will, if we don’t stop it, bring it to bear on the American populace.”
https://stuff.davidaugust.com/local-law-enforceme…
@Mediagazer@mstdn.socialA US judge rules that Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions don't violate antitrust law as the FTC failed to prove the deals let Meta monopolize the market (Bloomberg Law)
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/meta-wins-ftc-antitru…
@Sustainable2050@mastodon.energyThe outgoing Dutch government failed to take the additional measures needed to meet the Climate Law goal of 55% emission reduction by 2030.
Although it's an 'aspirational goal', civil servants are already considering the risk of losing a new court case, and how to fund expensive emergency measures.
@servelan@newsie.socialWell...in theory: "It was not clear what funding ICE and CBP would use to provide pay to the workers. DHS did not answer a question about where the funding was coming from."
Exclusive: ICE, Border Patrol agents to receive pay during government shutdown | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/some-federal-law-enforcement-receive-pay-during-government-shutdown-2025-10-16/
@searchparty@mstdn.socialDie E-Petition gegen eine Liste von Menschen mit trans oder nonbinärer Identität nimmt Fahrt auf. Gute Vorsätze und so: Sucht euer Login für die E-Petitionsplattform. Oder macht einen Passwort-Reset, falls der elektronische Hund die Daten gefressen hat: https://peoplemaking.games/@Beurkeek/1
@davej@dice.campOur PM, NotPeterDutton, responds to #Trump’s invasion of #Venezuela. Or maybe he doesn’t. Who knows?
He was hoping for a quiet Sunday. Who are you people, and why won’t you let him roll over and go back to sleep?
This is all terribly inconvenient.
@cheryanne@aus.social- The content below is from the Palestine Action Group Canberra
- Agreement can be sent via pagcbr@gmail.com
Dear friends,
An article in Pearls and Irritations https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/12/the-invitation-to-israel…
@memeorandum@universeodon.comShutdowns began as a way to enforce federal law. Now Trump is using it to take more power (Stephen Groves/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-trump-congress-presidential-power-157d0d2d6d00d273dca722232ff252ad
http://www.memeorandum.com/251025/p31#a251025p31
@qurlyjoe@mstdn.socialPOC law officer protects racist townsfolk from racist, corrupt government officials, gets to shag a white woman though. Assisted by his trusted alky sidekick, a washed up white hoodlum.
#ExplainAFilmPlotBadly #HashTagGames
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineI think the police have to do a very hard and necessary thing: defend Americans against their federal government.
I make the case for why local law enforcement officers may need to arrest feds:
https://stuff.davidaugust.com/local-la
@metacurity@infosec.exchange @cdarwin@c.imThe Trump administration began what could be a contentious process
to rework the trade deal that governs North American business this week,
as it began hearings about the
U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump signed into law in 2020 during his first term.
Farmers, academics, trade groups and others assembled in a government building south of the National Mall on Wednesday
for the first of three days of hearings
to share their assessment of the deal.
@davidaugust@mastodon.online"If any other group arrived into a neighborhood carrying long guns, deploying chemical weapons, violently engaging and then taking people away with no warrants nor apparent legal reason, we would dispatch SWAT, as SWAT has the training to defuse and deescalate such situations."
https://
@brian_gettler@mas.toUntil a year ago, we had a French bookstore not far from the house. It couldn't make ends meet. It's not alone - several French-language bookstores have closed their doors in Ontario over the last few years. This bill, if it had become law, would've helped.
On more days than not, the government of Ontario either seems actively out to ruin everything that matters to me and mine or is at least gleefully flipping it the bird.
@rene_mobile@infosec.exchangeA new open letter urging the EU to stick to hard climate targets was signed by nearly 2200 international scientists: https://zenodo.org/records/17399532
Please spread the word widely and send towards your representatives for the upcoming decision.
@Techmeme@techhub.socialX ends its 2023 lawsuit against law firm Wachtell to recover most of the $90M fee the firm received for defeating Musk's bid to exit his $44B Twitter buyout (Mike Scarcella/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/mu…
@Speckdaene@nrw.social#Science #ClimateChange Open letter by Scientists: #Climate Neutrality is Europe's Greatest Economic Opportunity
@cdarwin@c.im"The attorney general is the people’s attorney, not the president’s attorney,”
as former Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy put it in 2017.
But Trump and Bondi clearly agree that she’s there to work for him,
to protect him, to spare him from the very law enforcement that she is responsible for.
It hearkens back to the medieval model of attorney general as legal representative to the king.
This is the rotten core of Trump
-- beneath all the makeup and slurre…
@davej@dice.campVery good news, indeed.
Also: “The agreement has sidelined Sussan Ley’s Coalition, who criticised the ‘dirty deal’ after Labor refused to accept its laundry list of business-friendly demands.”
This, of course, is a natural consequence of the #LNP doubling and tripling down on policies that handed them their arses at the polls, and then publicly throwing a tanty when they don’t get their way.
@cdarwin@c.imAxon Enterprise Inc. is working with a Canadian police department to test the addition of face recognition technology (FRT) to its body-worn cameras (BWCs).
This is an alarming development in government surveillance that should put communities everywhere on alert.
FRT brings a rash of problems.
It relies on extensive surveillance and collecting images on individuals, law-abiding or otherwise.
Misidentifications can cause horrendous consequences for individuals, includ…
@gwire@mastodon.socialUK Government wants to remove the right to jury trials. Constitutionally terrible, etc, but
During my jury service, I only saw the inside of the waiting room, not the court room. Every case I was assigned to had the defendant plead guilty just before the case was about to start.
I can't tell if this is part of a defence strategy, or just a side-effect of scheduling, where the trail date is when the defence and client are actually in the same place.
I'd fix that fir…
@markhburton@mstdn.socialColombia passes law to recognise victims of climate displacement.
It accords rights to them and responsibilities to government for both prevention and attention.
A bit unclear just what that will mean in practice
El ley: el Estado deberš reconocer a las víctimas de desplazamiento por cambio climštico | EL ESPECTADOR
@Techmeme@techhub.socialFrench lawmakers vote to raise France's digital services tax on US tech giants to 6%, up from 3%; the French government opposes the move, fearing US retaliation (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-lawmakers-progress-tax…
@cdarwin@c.imRright now it is unlikely that Trump gets a "rally around the flag" boost for his seizing of Maduro as
1) it didn’t happen with his invasion of cities or his attack on Iran
2) the country just isn’t on board some kind of extended military campaign in Venezuela
3) it increasingly feels like Trump has no real plan for what comes next in Venezuela, and like Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, thought the government would just fall and he could waltz into the Capital.
@Techmeme@techhub.socialSequoia, a16z, and other VC firms invested $1.2B into police and public safety tech startups over the past year, following the success of Palantir and others (Abram Brown/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/a
@cdarwin@c.imAmerican healthcare is on life support, -- and Republican policies now threaten to pull the plug.
Last summer, all but five GOP lawmakers worked with the Trump administration to enact the
“One Big Beautiful Bill Act,”
a law that defunds healthcare for working families,
all while funding tax breaks for billionaires.
That’s why I testified at an Oct. 8 hearing held by House Democrats in Washington, D.C., to speak out against this partisan law
—because it wil…
@gwire@mastodon.socialThe US government has said that urging US service members to not follow illegal orders, is sedition.
Which, I think, now represents a full break from "rule of law".
@cdarwin@c.imDonald Trump and his top advisers have set aggressive goals for deporting historic numbers of immigrants.
But “the largest Mass Deportation Operation of Illegal Aliens in History,” as Trump described it, requires officers — lots of them.
Far more, it turns out, than Immigration and Customs Enforcement has on staff.
So the administration is shifting tens of thousands of personnel from other federal agencies to help ICE,
-- raising concerns that other law enforcement…
@cdarwin@c.imSince the federal government got involved in the Epstein scandal in 2019, the case has been shrouded in mysterious leniency, cover-up and stonewalling.
Now, with many of Epstein’s victims, the American people, and a virtually unanimous Congress calling for transparency,
the scandal has become a confrontation that should end Attorney General Pam Bondi’s career
— and Donald Trump’s presidency.
Why Bondi?
Because the nation’s highest
law-enforcement officia…
@cdarwin@c.imEstimates suggest that hundreds of ⭐️psychedelic churches operate illegally in the US.
As court interpretations evolve, religious freedom claims expand and more Americans drift away from traditional religion,
these groups are increasingly emerging from the underground to push boundaries over which substances – and beliefs – deserve protection.
The Church of Gaia recently became the first psychedelic church to win government recognition by petition rather than suing.
C…
@cdarwin@c.imJudge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly,
nominated by former President Bill Clinton,
said on Friday that the I.R.S. plan to share information with ICE was too broad.
She said that federal law only allows for the I.R.S. to share tax information with other government officials who are directly involved in an ongoing investigation.
The I.R.S. sent the thousands of addresses to a single ICE official, who Judge Kollar-Kotelly said could not have been personally conducting so many i…
@cdarwin@c.imA protest does not become a rebellion merely because the protestors advocate for myriad legal or policy changes, are well organized, call for significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, use civil disobedience as a form of protest, or exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms as the law currently allows.
Nor does a protest become a rebellion merely because of sporadic and isolated incidents of unlawful activity or even violence committed by rogue particip…
