This week's net.wars, "Catoptromancy", goes to the workshop day of We Robot 2025: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/04/04/catoptromancy/ #NetWars #robots #law #werobot
law
AMERICAN PANOPTICON
The #Trump admin is pooling #data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.
by Ian Bogost & Charlie Warzel
If you were tasked with building a #panopticon, your design might look a lot like the #information stores of the US federal govt—a collection of large, complex agencies, each making use of enormous volumes of data provided by or collected from #citizens.
#law #privacy #InfoSec #AmericanAutocracy #tech #DOGE #Musk #surveillance
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxc3WqSyzCi3gasJ-au_BC9g&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Edited 75d ago
Three #US #citizens, ages 2, 4 & 7, swiftly #deported from Louisiana
The cases have *renewed* concerns that the #Trump admin’s expedited #deportations are violating the rights of both citizens & noncitizens.
3 US citizen #children from 2 different families were deported w/their mothers by #ICE during the early hours of Friday morning. One of them is a 4-yr-old w/Stage 4 #cancer who was deported w/o medication or the ability to contact their doctors….
#law #immigration
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/26/us-citizen-children-deported-ice/
#Trump ofcls deny #UScitizen #children were ‘deported’ to #Honduras
#TomHoman, Trump’s border czar, insisted Sunday that the Trump admin did not “deport” American children to Honduras — arguing that the White House sent the children to the country because their mothers, who were being deported, wished to bring them.
#law #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #Rendition #Constitution #CivilRights #HumanRights #Judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #AbuseOfPower
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/27/trump-deportation-citizens-children/
New Details on #Trump Sprint to Gut #Consumer Bureau Staff
Emails & testimonials from workers at the #CFPB document the admin’s efforts to lay off 90% of the employees.
2 wks ago, a 3-judge panel from the federal appeals court in DC lifted a freeze on firing employees at the CFPB, w/conditions. The judges…said that workers could be fired if agency leaders determined…that they were not needed to carry out the bureau’s legally required responsibilities.
#law #TrumpCoup
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/business/cfpb-layoffs-trump-musk-doge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=12219B24-FE10-4CF9-B8C9-DA7678659E96
🤬🤬🤬🤬
#SCOTUS handed #Trump a victory on Monday by letting him use the #AlienEnemiesAct, a 1798 #law that has been employed only in wartime, to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan *gang members* as part of Trump's extreme #immigration policies.
The court granted the admin's request to lift Washington-based US Judge James #Boasberg's March 15 order that had temporarily blocked the summary #deportations under Trump's invocation of the AEA while litigation continues.
Get ready for #BlackLung
#Trump set to sign #ExecutiveOrders to boost #US #coal
When burned, coal releases more of the main #GreenhouseGas carbon dioxide than any other #FossilFuel. It also emits criteria #pollutants that are blamed for #lung & #heart illnesses. Much of its use has declined on #regulations from #Democrats, including President Joe #Biden.
#Climate #ClimateCrisis #environment #PublicHealth #law
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-sign-executive-orders-boost-coal-industry-sources-say-2025-04-08/
Connecticut’s attorney general has sent a letter warning Avelo Airlines that it has jeopardized tax breaks and other local support by agreeing to conduct deportation flights for ICE.
https://www.propublica.org/article/avelo-airlines-ice-air-connecticut?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Law #Connecticut #Aviation #Flights #ICE #Deportation #Immigration
NYT piece asks 35 #legal scholars about the most #lawless things #Trump has done in his first 100 days.
Spoiler, there are a lot.
#law #ConstitutionalCrisis #POTUS #felon47
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/opinion/trump-constitution-rule-of-law.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DE8.BRGY.Cbz0hJdXsWxX&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p
Urge your Congressmember to stand firm against the assaults on our #democracy, the #judiciary & the rule of #law by rejecting the #JUDGES Act, the #PEPPER Act, the #NORRA Act & The #NIAP Act today.
https://resist.bot/petitions/PDVYDP
#ResistBot #resist #coup #Trump #Musk #StephenMiller #Vought #SupremeCourt #SCOTUS #POTUS #TeslaTakedown #FAFO #NAFO #Putin #MBS #Xi #Modi #SaudiArabia #GCC #UAE #Dubai #Oman #Qatar #Bahrain #Kuwait #PetroState #climate #ClimateChange @resistbot @jesscraven101@bsky.social
Holy crap
The #Trump's admin has fired ALL of the authors of the US govt's signature study that informs federal & local govts on how to prepare for #ClimateChange impacts, acc/to an email sent to them on Monday.
The dismissal of nearly 400 contributors to the 6th National #Climate Assessment, which is #mandated by #Congress, leaves the future of the report in doubt since the multi-year, peer-reviewed analysis is due for publication in 2028.
#law #science #regulations
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/trump-administration-dismisses-all-authors-key-climate-report-email-says-2025-04-28/
#TakeItDown Act has passed the #House 409-2 giving #Trump & the #FTC power to #censor the #internet.
The bill seems good at first glance. It requires online platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery aka“revenge porn.”
However, it will also enable the FTC to demand #content be removed from websites.
🚨In fact, Trump said he will use the bill ON HIS OWN BEHALF, presumably to remove criticism of him from the web.
#law #tech #regulations #FreeSpeech #Constitution
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/28/congress-moving-forward-on-unconstitutional-take-it-down-act/
New #Trump #ExecutiveOrder:
“Protecting American Communities From *Criminal Aliens*”
🙄🤬🖕
§1 Federal #supremacy with respect to #immigration, #NationalSecurity, & #ForeignPolicy is axiomatic…[so much for #CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment]
§2 Designation of “Sanctuary” Jurisdictions [#SanctuaryCities must obey see §1]
§3 Consequences for Sanctuary Jurisdiction Status
#law #immigration #ConstitutionalCrisis #SeparationOfPowers #Federalism #ExecutiveOverreach #AbuseOfPower
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-communities-from-criminal-aliens/
It still seems hard to believe, but in the last #Congress, the #House #Republican majority formally launched an #impeachment inquiry against Joe #Biden. The endeavor never made any sense, but the underlying allegation was that the Democratic president was somehow the beneficiary of a weird #bribery scheme.
#law #Constitution #EmolumentsClause #ForeignAsset #Compromised #NationalSecurity #InfoSec #Trump #crypto #grift
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-controversial-meme-coin-contest-proves-predictably-profitable-p-rcna203293
Mike Masnick compares how the Free Press covered the (misleading-to-false) story of the #Biden admin’s "censorship" of #SocialMedia [actually trying to combat harmful #disinformation like #election & #COVID #lies & #ConspiracyTheories or #HateSpeech like #WhiteSupremacy], to how they handled the very real #censorship attack on #Wikipedia by #Trump’s DC #USAttorney #EdMartin.
Spoiler: there are differences.
#law #tech #moderation #dictatorship #FourthEstate #journalism
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/28/government-actually-threatens-wikipedias-editorial-freedom-self-proclaimed-free-speech-warriors-suddenly-have-other-plans/
Edited 74d ago
“This is amateur hour,” shouted Rep Steven #Horsford, D–NV, at Jamieson Greer, #Trump’s top #trade rep. “It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you.” News of Trump’s plan to #pause most of the reciprocal #tariffs that went into effect this morning was just reaching Capitol Hill. “This is not a game. This is real life,” Horsford yelled as he pressed Greer about whether or not the move amounted to #MarketManipulation by the admin.
I will be cursing now …
Holy fucking hell
#DOJ bars its #attorneys from participating in #AmericanBarAssociation events
US Dpty AG [& fmr #trump #criminal defense atty] #ToddBlanche on Wednesday banned #Justice Dept attys from traveling to or speaking at #ABA events, in a memo seen by Reuters that accused the ABA of engaging in "activist causes" contrary to the government's interest.
#law
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-justice-dept-bars-its-attorneys-participating-american-bar-association-events-2025-04-09/
Since taking office, #Trump has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of #immigrants who were allowed into the country under President #Biden.
Now, the admin is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants & others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the #SocialSecurity numbers they had lawfully obtained….
#law #immigration #labor
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/us/politics/migrants-deport-social-security-doge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=2E999096-F869-486C-80A2-740E7C065EBC
I have further expanded the https://www.maga-collaborators.net website.
It now tracks #colleges and #universities in addition to #law firms and other #corporations that are #collaborating, #capitulating, or #resisting the #Trump #regime.
Please share this link to help spread the word! I'll be adding to and upgrading this website regularly moving forward.
And please send tips to help fill in the gaps in the data to the email address listed on the website.
#Trump crosses the Rubicon on ordering investigations of foes
Trump is now expressly ordering investigations of his foes — even criminal ones. That’s something Trump’s AG, #PamBondi, downplayed as a possibility at her confirmation hearing. (When asked what role the White House would play in investigation & prosecution decisions, Bondi responded: “It is the Department of Justice’s decision.”)
#law #AbuseOfPower #MilesTaylor #ChrisKrebs #RevengePolitics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/10/trump-doj-ivestigations-krebs-taylor/
#Trump is demanding to attach conditions to congressionally approved grants for #RadioFreeEurope / #RadioLiberty before releasing the money, despite a court order blocking it from terminating the funds. Acc/to court filings, Trump wants to be able to unilaterally pause funds for the federally funded broadcaster & shut down parts of its programming, among other moves that lawyers for #RFE say are forbidden by #Congress to ensure journalistic integrity.
#law #FreePress
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.278524/gov.uscourts.dcd.278524.28.1.pdf
#Olympic #boxing champ #ImaneKhelif must undergo genetic #sex screening to fight for new governing body
#WorldBoxing announced mandatory sex testing for all #athletes Friday. The governing body specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy, saying the Algerian gold medal winner must be screened before she will be approved to fight at any upcoming events, including the Eindhoven Box Cup next month in the Netherlands.
#hate #bigotry #transphobia #LGBTQ #law
https://apnews.com/article/imane-khelif-boxing-sex-screening-88f16b5e421fb59e9411a440e279ae3f
Madness
#Memorial to people killed by #GunViolence is removed from #Trump’s #ATF headquarters
An exhibit showing victims of gun violence has been taken down at the headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the #DOJ has confirmed.
The exhibit showed the portraits of 120 people killed in gun violence. A digital kiosk w/biographies of each person was also part of the exhibit. An online version has also been taken down.
#law #guns #USpol
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/04/nx-s1-5386668/atf-trump-administration-gun-violence-memorial
#Trump Sons’ Deals on Three Continents Directly Benefit the President
Donald Trump Jr. & Eric Trump spent the past two weeks traveling the world & announcing new ventures involving billions of dollars.
#law #Constitution #EmolumentsClause #ImpeachTrump #SCOTUS #immunity #Republicans #accomplices
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/us/politics/eric-donald-jr-trump-family-deals.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=D133B4F8-D174-4E43-8382-B1751B1F6A04
Ok now this is absolutely revolting:
A #RealityShow where #immigrants compete for US #citizenship? #DHS is considering it.
DHS is considering taking part in a #RealityTV program that would have immigrants go through a series of challenges to get American citizenship, ofcls said Friday.
#immigration #law #debasement #humiliation #idiocracy #Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/us/politics/homeland-security-immigration-reality-show.html?smid=url-share