Imagine an internet where every website faced an impossible choice: either carefully review every single post before it goes live (making them essentially TV stations), or allow absolutely everything with zero moderation. This nightmare scenario wasnât hypothetical â it was exactly what the infamous Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy ruling threatened to create, before Section 230 [âŚ]
It took us a little longer than usual this year (weâve been swamped with other projects including the Kickstarter for our new card game) but the time has finally arrived: weâve chosen the winners in our seventh annual public domain game jam, Gaming Like Itâs 1929! There were so many great entries this year, and [âŚ]
Few moments better illustrate the GOPâs descent into constitutional incoherence than Senator John Curtisâs appearance on Meet the Press this weekend. In a display of breathtaking historical illiteracy wrapped in pseudo-constitutional rhetoric, Curtis characterized President Trumpâs threats to impeach a federal judge who ruled against his deportation orders asâwait for itââwhat our founders intended.â This statement deserves to be [âŚ]
If youâre going to plan military operations over Signal, you probably shouldnât accidentally add a journalist to the chat. And if youâre going to do government business over Signal specifically to avoid federal record-keeping laws, you definitely shouldnât get caught doing it. Yet here we are: A day after we learned that top Trump administration [âŚ]
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Lots of lies are told about immigrants to stoke the always-smoldering fires of bigotry in this country. Trump and his fellow Republicans have told most of them. They claim immigrants commit more crimes than legal residents, something that has never been true. They claim immigrants are lazy, something anyone whoâs ever worked with any immigrants [âŚ]
Instead of doing things like protecting consumers or market competition, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has spent his first few months in office abusing agency authority to threaten companies that refuse to kiss the Trump administrationâs ass. A cornerstone of those efforts has been to leverage merger approvals to get companies to support core administration [âŚ]
In Mikeâs thorough post yesterday on the topic of the Trump administrationâs naked contempt for judicial oversight, the main theme and takeaway from it was a simple one: this authoritarian regime would much rather waste everyoneâs time trying to play procedural and semantic games with the courts than actually participate in honest deliberations with them. [âŚ]
Like clockwork, lawmakers are once again rallying around the idea of eliminating Section 230. That Republicans are leading this charge is hardly surprisingârepealing Section 230 is explicitly laid out in the Project 2025 playbook. But whatâs surprising, and increasingly reckless, is the willingness of Democratic lawmakers to join forces with Republicans in dismantling one of [âŚ]
Support us on Patreon Âť In the digital age, attention is a resource â but if we can have a little slice of yours, weâve got a great conversation about that very subject for you to listen to. This week, Mike is joined by journalist Chris Hayes to discuss his new book, The Sirenâs Call: How [âŚ]
There comes a moment in every collapsing democracy when absurdity and menace fuse into something uniquely destabilizingâa phenomenon Iâm tempted to call âmalignant farce.â Weâve reached that moment. The President of the United States, after invoking a 1798 wartime law to mass-deport migrants to a third country, now claims he didnât do it. âOther people handled it,â [âŚ]
Be the âdeep stateâ you want to see in the world. Thatâs the new FBI under conspiracy theorist/Trump acolyte Kash Patelâs âleadership.â Instead of being the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it will become the Federal Bureau of Investigating People Trump Doesnât Like. I wouldnât be too surprised to hear journalists are getting their phone records [âŚ]
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Look, I know youâve probably already seen yesterdayâs absolutely stunning story from Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic. The one where Trump administration officials somehow managed to add a journalist to their Signal group chat while planning out their bombing of the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The one that reads like a plot point rejected from [âŚ]
Last October, Trump sued CBS claiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been âdeceitfully editedâ to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As Mike explored, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and common sense. CBS/Paramount is looking for [âŚ]
Historically, stories weâve covered here about the collision between the beer brewing industry and trademarks have largely been born of the creative nature of the craft beer industry specifically. Far different from the bland trade dress and naming conventions of the macro-brewing industry, the craft industry blended its beer-making with colorfully named brews and artistic [âŚ]
The acceleration of institutional breakdown in America has reached a point where we must confront a sobering reality: the constitutional system, as designed, may no longer possess the internal mechanisms to save itself. When judges face impeachment threats for ruling against the administration, when court orders are openly defied, and when Fox News hosts declare that a [âŚ]
Speaking as someone who has covered a whole lot of extremely weird legislating in service of that notoriously under-protected class of citizens (you know: cops), I have to say this is one the most batshit insane things I have ever seen offered up for a vote at any level of government. Even taking into account [âŚ]
In a moment of clarity after initially moving forward a deeply flawed piece of legislation, the French National Assembly has done the right thing: it rejected a dangerous proposal that would have gutted end-to-end encryption in the name of fighting drug trafficking. Despite heavy pressure from the Interior Ministry, lawmakers voted Thursday night (article in French) to [âŚ]
Trump seems very interested in speed-running the martial law curve. His previous term in office saw him suggesting the military should help quell anti-police violence protests around the nation, as well as participating in his undeclared war on immigration by aiding in the policing of our southern border. With Trump taking office for a second [âŚ]
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