@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.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…
@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
@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…
@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 …
@metacurity@infosec.exchange
@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…
@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.
@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…
@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
@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…
@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…
@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.
@memeorandum@universeodon.comPOLL: 42% of liberals approve of law-breaking in response to disagreeing with a government action (Ryan Shucard/Cygnal)
https://www.cygn.al/poll-42-of-liberals-approve-of-law-breaking-in-response-to-disagreeing-with-a-government-action/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251016/p66#a251016p66
@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/
@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
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioThe First Amendment in the US says — wisely — that we should avoid giving the government the power to determine with the force of law what beliefs are unacceptable. That is •not• because all beliefs are acceptable, however; it is because giving the government such power opens the floodgates of authoritarianism.
Here’s the thing: some beliefs •are• unacceptable. We deny the government the power to determine which ones with the understanding that we •must• do that job ourselves, through social negotiation.
@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
@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.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…
@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
@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…
@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://
@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
@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.
@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.
@Speckdaene@nrw.social#Science #ClimateChange Open letter by Scientists: #Climate Neutrality is Europe's Greatest Economic Opportunity
@hex@kolektiva.social*Today*, anarchists are legally barred from US naturalization.
(a) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 405(b) of this Act, no person shall hereafter be naturalized as a citizen of the United States—
(1) who advocates or teaches, or who is a member of or affiliated with any organization that advocates or teaches, opposition to all organized government; or
Think about that. Think about that for a minute. Today, in 2025, the US bars anarchists from becoming naturalized citizens.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1424
@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…
@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.
@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.”)
@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…
@servelan@newsie.social#GiftLink
#Anarchists are now '#antifa': "The indictment defined antifa [as] a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups, primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology [calling] for “the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities and the system of law.”
Terrorism Charges Against Antifa ‘Cell’ Show Administration’s Focus on the Left - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/us/politics/justice-department-terrorism-antifa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.t08.a9_Y.RfJdbWfjmAuq&smid=url-share
@newsie@darktundra.xyzBritish government unveils long-awaited landmark cybersecurity bill https://therecord.media/british-gov-cybersecurity-law
@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/
@wraithe@mastodon.social(From BlueSky post)
Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”
Source: https://
@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
@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…
@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".
@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…
@hex@kolektiva.socialI keep coming back to the mirror dualities of the oppressed and oppressor under authoritarianism.
The oppressed is portrayed as both weak and godlike. The stereotypes are always some variation on sloth and incompetence, but yet somehow also a menace capable of destroying the "pure" society. To use the most relevant current example, Antifa being both little femme soy boys who would always get beat up by "real men" while also being an international terrorist organization on the brink of overthrowing the US government, the unarmed presence of whom makes the heavily armed agents of ICE flee for their lives. Antifa is both having absolutely no impact on ICE, and also having such an impact on ICE that the military needs to come in to protect them. The contradiction is obvious but never seems to occur to those who hold both to be true at the same time.
But few talk about the duality of the oppressor. The sovereign throughout history has always been both a ruler above the law, sometimes even the representative or incarnation of a divine force. Yet, this same superhuman/god-man is also a baby who needs constant care. This is absolutely a through line from the very earliest records of sovereign cults to modern cult leaders, CEOs, and Trump today. Power, for these people, is expressed both as the ability to force others to enact their will and in the ability to compel others to care for them. Can any of these "men" cook? Can they fix anything themselves? They are driven everywhere, cooked for all the time, constantly protected from danger. Kings are still dressed, at least for rituals. I could dissect masculinity here, but that's a whole thing.
It is as though the drive to care for our children, who must be taught to behave within acceptable norms, is hijacked by "leaders" who demand our care and attention... even at the expense of our literal children. And recently we've seen some of those very CEOs, with LLMs and return to office demands, show that their judgment is also little better than children, making decisions while pretending to understand a subject.
The oppressed are portrayed as both god-like and impotent and are, in fact, neither. Meanwhile the rulers portray themselves only as invulnerable and are, in fact, childish in their ability to survive without constant support. Their greatest fear from the collapse of society is figuring out how to make sure people keep taking care of them.
It just keeps rattling around in my head.
#USPol
@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.
@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.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…
@newsie@darktundra.xyzRenewal of cyber information-sharing law must mind the gap, senator says https://therecord.media/cisa-2015-renewal-peters-bill-gap-in-liability-protections
@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…
@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.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…
@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…
@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 …
@cdarwin@c.imIn response to an op-ed I published in the San Francisco Chronicle,
DHS claimed that during the July 10 operation in Camarillo, CA, I
“became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement,” blocked their route, and was arrested for assault.
They stated that US citizens are not being “wrongfully” arrested by ICE,
that their enforcement operations are highly targeted,
and that their personnel conduct due diligence to know who they are targeting.
DHS a…
@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.
