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Trump’s War On Big Law Means It’s Harder to Challenge The Administration

2 weeks ago
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Two weeks into President Donald Trump’s second presidency, and just days after he pardoned hundreds of Capitol rioters, officials Trump had placed in charge of the Justice Department made a sweeping demand. They wanted the names of the thousands of FBI employees who had played a role […]
Molly Redden

Courts Start Asking About The ICE Arrest Quota The Administration Is Now Pretending Isn’t A Quota

2 weeks ago
Arrest/ticketing quotas have almost always been found illegal by courts. They used to be commonplace, but courts (at all levels) have generally ruled that quotas pervert incentives so much they encourage open, deliberate abuse of constitutional rights. Enter the Trump administration, which only considers the Second Amendment to be sacrosanct. Trump deputy Chief of Staff […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Digi Pen for iPad And Tablets

2 weeks ago
Equipped with a 1.2mm fine tip, the Digi Pen for iPad and Tablets provides durability, sensitivity, and pixel precision. No lagging, no skips, no scratches. Perfect for drawing, sketching, painting, and writing. With palm rejection technology, you can use it directly without wearing gloves and write on the screen as if you’re writing on paper. […]
Daily Deal

DOGE’s “Efficiency” Theater: Wasted $21.7 Billion While Destroying Life-Saving Programs Based On Conspiracy Theories

2 weeks ago
We’ve talked plenty about how Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) was always more about performative cruelty than actual efficiency. But a new Senate report reveals just how spectacularly DOGE failed at its supposed core mission while causing immeasurable human suffering in the process. The entire concept blew up more spectacularly than one of […]
Mike Masnick

After Endless Layoffs And Chaos, Time Warner Discovery Splits Back Into Two Lesser, Unremarkable Companies

2 weeks ago
We’ve well documented how the AOL–>AT&T->Warner Brothers->Discovery series of mergers were among some of the most destructive and pointless “business deals” ever conceived by modern man. Just decades of “savvy deal-making” that resulted in an increasingly shittier product. The mergers resulted in bottomless layoffs, the closure of numerous valuable and popular brands and shows, and much worse product as incompetent, fail-upward […]
Karl Bode

After Endless Layoffs And Chaos, Time Warner Discovery Splits Back Into Two Lesser, Unremarkable Companies

2 weeks ago
We’ve well documented how the AOL–>AT&T->Warner Brothers->Discovery series of mergers were among some of the most destructive and pointless “business deals” ever conceived by modern man. Just decades of “savvy deal-making” that resulted in an increasingly shittier product. The mergers resulted in bottomless layoffs, the closure of numerous valuable and popular brands and shows, and much worse product as incompetent, fail-upward […]
Karl Bode

IRS Commissioner On Direct File Program: ‘It’s Gone’

2 weeks 1 day ago
For no less than 25 years now, Techdirt has been writing about how the tax preparation industry, especially Intuit, has spent gobs of money bribing lobbying government to keep relatively low-earners from simple methods for filing their tax returns. The series of posts you can find in that link, particularly those in the last 5-10 […]
Timothy Geigner

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: What’s Next For Ctrl-Alt-Speech

2 weeks 1 day ago
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice — or go straight to the RSS feed.
Mike Masnick

Middle School Cheerleaders Made A TikTok Video Portraying A School Shooting. They Were Charged With A Crime.

2 weeks 1 day ago
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. One afternoon in mid-September, a group of middle school girls in rural East Tennessee decided to film a TikTok video while waiting to begin cheerleading practice. In the 45-second video posted later that day, one girl enters the classroom holding a cellphone. “Put your hands up,” […]
Aliyya Swaby

DOJ Files Frivolous Misconduct Complaint Against Judge For… Doing His Job And Being Right About Government Lawlessness

2 weeks 1 day ago
We’ve seen some pretty ridiculous attempts by government officials to intimidate judges over the years, but the Department of Justice’s new misconduct complaint against D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg might take the cake for sheer absurdity. As Steve Vladeck breaks down in exhaustive detail, the DOJ is essentially arguing that a federal judge committed “misconduct” […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: The Ultimate UX/UI Designer Bundle

2 weeks 1 day ago
The Ultimate UX/UI Designer Bundle has 8 courses that will get you creating sites that look good and are a joy to use. This beginner-friendly bundle is designed to help you to build modern, beautiful, fully functional websites with absolutely zero experience required. Courses cover Bootstrap 4, Adobe XD, HTML5, JavaScript, and more. It’s on […]
Daily Deal

Trump Admin Warns States They’ll Lose Billions In Broadband Grants If They Try To Make Broadband Affordable

2 weeks 1 day ago
The Trump administration is once again warning states that they risk losing billions of dollars in historic infrastructure bill grants — if they attempt to make the taxpayer-subsidized broadband actually affordable. That’s the updated guidance coming out of the Trump National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is tasked with coordinating the looming $42.5 billion […]
Karl Bode

RFK Jr. Ends Federal Contracts To Develop mRNA Vaccines

2 weeks 2 days ago
One of the more frustrating parts of the RFK Jr. experience is nailing down his views. Part of that is because he tends to keep quite vague about those views, especially when it comes to vaccines, depending on who he is talking to. When he’s running an anti-vaxxer organization, his views are specific and clear. […]
Timothy Geigner

No, The UK’s Online Safety Act Doesn’t Make Children Safer Online

2 weeks 2 days ago
Young people should be able to access information, speak to each other and to the world, play games, and express themselves online without the government making decisions about what speech is permissible. But in one of the latest misguided attempts to protect children online, internet users of all ages in the UK are being forced to prove […]
Paige Collings

Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube

2 weeks 2 days ago
Last fall, heavily influenced by Jonathan Haidt’s extremely problematic book, Australia announced that it was banning social media for everyone under the age of 16. This was already a horrifically stupid idea—the kind of policy that sounds reasonable in a tabloid headline but crumbles under any serious scrutiny. Over and over again studies have found […]
Mike Masnick

Area Bigots Annoyed ICE Is Offering $50,000 Signing Bonuses To Area Bigots

2 weeks 2 days ago
The recently passed budget bill throws nearly $200 billion at something that doesn’t actually seem to be that much of a problem: undocumented migrants. Law-abiding, hardworking taxpayers are the targets of choice for ICE, which has a 3,000-per-day arrest quota it will never meet, even though it’s now spending most of its time raiding large […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: The Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud Training Bundle

2 weeks 2 days ago
The Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud Training Bundle has 6 courses to help you learn how to manipulate photos like a pro. This bundle is packed with secrets, tips, and techniques for organizing and editing images with Lightroom. Jump in, and you’ll develop a basic understanding of Lightroom and advance to interface customization for your own […]
Daily Deal

Trump Cuts Kill The Corporation For Public Broadcasting, Harming All Of Us

2 weeks 2 days ago
The U.S. right wing has won a generational war against education and informed consensus with the closure of the Corporation For Public Broadcasting (CPB), which states it will being shuttering its doors after being unable to survive recent brutal funding cuts by Republicans. After the White House falsely deemed NPR and PBS a “grift” last April, Republicans […]
Karl Bode