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  31. <title>UK Woman Threatens Trademark Legal Action Against Cookbook Over &#8216;Sabzi&#8217;</title>
  32. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/uk-woman-threatens-trademark-legal-action-against-cookbook-over-sabzi/</link>
  33. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/uk-woman-threatens-trademark-legal-action-against-cookbook-over-sabzi/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Geigner]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2025 03:03:00 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[bloomsbury]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[sabzi]]></category>
  40. <category><![CDATA[cookbooks]]></category>
  41. <category><![CDATA[kate attlee]]></category>
  42. <category><![CDATA[trademark]]></category>
  43. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520998&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=520998</guid>
  44.  
  45. <description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s sort of funny in a way to see how ownership culture has specifically invaded the realm of the culinary arts. If ever there was a place for cultural fusion and an openness culture, it surely should be in cooking. And, yet, we have seen many instances of businesses and/or people attempting to trademark generic [&#8230;]]]></description>
  46. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s sort of funny in a way to see how ownership culture has specifically invaded the realm of the culinary arts. If ever there was a place for cultural fusion and an openness culture, it surely should be in cooking. And, yet, we have seen many instances of businesses and/or people attempting to trademark generic names for foods. Believe it or not, we had to have a decades long trademark dispute over &#8220;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/06/10/decades-long-trademark-dispute-over-pretzel-crisps-comes-to-obvious-end/">pretzel crisps</a>&#8220;, for instance. Someone at one point attempted to trademark the term &#8220;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/12/17/beyond-taco-someone-is-now-trying-to-trademark-breakfast-burrito/">breakfast burrito</a>&#8220;. A couple in the UK did likewise with &#8220;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/29/trademark-relinquished-after-backlash-from-trademark-bullying-a-decade-ago-by-pho-restaurant/">Pho</a>&#8221; before eventually surrendering that mark under public pressure.</p>
  47. <p>That last example is perhaps the best to lead into this current discussion, given the ethnic nature of the term and its use in the UK. Once more in the UK, this time it&#8217;s the owner of a deli that is <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/cornwall-deli-owner-takes-legal-121948039.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADyPBJ5EmJxOoGKcUfvZk9_MOHbaxiwe72B92F4CjtMKSPBQ2biIdYk7vryPAQbDAc-Ya4R7NNy1579pnOuQNN9U23BZVtrTxroT22WlRU1A5CyQyrJQ_bSNx14pQAxIfwMphZQ-S9TQg6xmgqBBRgCKqKVHDX0uHIR5jIl5Esqd">threatening legal action on publisher Bloomsbury</a> for releasing a cookbook with a title for which she has a trademark.</p>
  48. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  49. <p><em>Kate Attlee, the founder of Sabzi, says Bloomsbury has “refused requests” to change the name of one of their recently published cookery titles, which she claims has used her deli’s brand that is trademarked. Sabzi has also been publishing its recipes for free to its 5,000 newsletter subscribers and on its website and social media since 2023, and Ms Attlee had been planning to publish an eponymous book collating and building on this collection.</em></p>
  50. <p><em>However, in July Bloomsbury published a book of vegetarian recipe by author Yasmin Khan’s book under the name Sabzi – something that Ms Atlee claims is an “infringement of her intellectual property rights.”</em></p>
  51. </blockquote>
  52. <p>Now, perhaps you&#8217;re like me and wondering, at first blush, why in the world this is even a dispute. The problem is that &#8220;sabzi&#8221; isn&#8217;t some fanciful made-up brand name. The reason Khan&#8217;s book is titled <em>Sabzi</em> is because it&#8217;s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sabzi-Vibrant-Vegetarian-Yasmin-Khan/dp/1324064668">a vegetarian cookbook</a> with heavy Persian influences. Sabzi is a Persian word that translates roughly to &#8220;herbs&#8221; or &#8220;vegetables&#8221; depending on whom you ask. It&#8217;s also a term that is used to name all kinds of Persian dishes. Ghormeh Sabzi <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghormeh_sabzi">is an Iranian stew</a> (and looks freaking amazing). Sabzi Bhaji is a <a href="https://www.foodandspice.com/2011/01/mixed-vegetable-curry-sabzi-bhaji.html">vegetable curry dish</a> (and also looks amazing). And this is a picture of Kuku Sabzi, an herbed fritatta.</p>
  53. <div class="wp-block-image">
  54. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://www.kateattlee.co.uk/about"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="768" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=1024%2C768&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-521004" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=1320%2C990&amp;ssl=1 1320w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?resize=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-11.png?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></a></figure>
  55. </div>
  56. <p>Looks good, right? Want to know where I got that from? It&#8217;s from <a href="https://www.kateattlee.co.uk/about">Kate Attlee&#8217;s own website</a>. She is threatening to sue or perform some other retaliatory action over a trademark she has that is the name of a food. This would be as if a restaurant in America got a trademark on &#8220;herb-encrusted&#8221; and sued other restaurants and/or cookbooks that referenced &#8220;herb-encrusted salmon&#8221; and the like.</p>
  57. <p>It&#8217;s nonsense. The outcome here should be exactly the same as with the &#8220;pho&#8221; example. This trademark should be undone one way or the other. It would be fantastic if Attlee realized this and voluntarily relinquished it herself.</p>
  58. <p>But in lieu of that, hopefully the courts can do it for her, should legal action actually come to be.</p></p>
  59. ]]></content:encoded>
  61. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/uk-woman-threatens-trademark-legal-action-against-cookbook-over-sabzi/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  62. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  65. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520998</post-id> </item>
  66. <item>
  67. <title>In Order To Illegally Deport People To El Salvador, Trump Administration Stripped Informants Of Their Protections</title>
  68. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/in-order-to-illegally-deport-people-to-el-salvador-trump-administration-stripped-informants-of-their-protections/</link>
  69. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/in-order-to-illegally-deport-people-to-el-salvador-trump-administration-stripped-informants-of-their-protections/#comments</comments>
  71. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  72. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 22:33:14 +0000</pubDate>
  73. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  74. <category><![CDATA[cecot]]></category>
  75. <category><![CDATA[due process]]></category>
  76. <category><![CDATA[el salvador]]></category>
  77. <category><![CDATA[marco rubio]]></category>
  78. <category><![CDATA[mass deporation]]></category>
  79. <category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>
  80. <category><![CDATA[trump administration]]></category>
  81. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=519539&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=519539</guid>
  82.  
  83. <description><![CDATA[You&#8217;re just a commodity in Trump&#8217;s marketplace of horrific ideas. Sure, criminal informants are seldom the trustworthiest of people, what with their stay-out-of-jail free cards being reliant on their steady production of evidence against other people. But the government does make promises to criminal informants that it&#8217;s expected to keep, not only to fulfill its [&#8230;]]]></description>
  84. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;re just a commodity in Trump&#8217;s marketplace of horrific ideas. </p>
  85. <p>Sure, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/11/22/surprising-no-one-fbis-watchdog-says-agency-is-handling-informants-improperly/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/11/22/surprising-no-one-fbis-watchdog-says-agency-is-handling-informants-improperly/">criminal informants</a> are seldom the trustworthiest of people, what with their stay-out-of-jail free cards being reliant on their steady production of evidence against other people. But the government does make promises to criminal informants that it&#8217;s expected to <em>keep</em>, not only to fulfill its legal obligations but to prevent informants from being, you know, <em>beaten, tortured, and killed</em> by those they associate with and rat on. </p>
  86. <p>But when it&#8217;s <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/denaturalization-fines-and-denying-reality-heres-how-trump-is-accelerating-mass-deportation/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/denaturalization-fines-and-denying-reality-heres-how-trump-is-accelerating-mass-deportation/">time to eject</a> as many people with brown skin as possible, all bets are off. If you&#8217;re a government informant, maybe it&#8217;s time to renege on your own obligations before the government gets you killed. When the Trump government sought to deport hundreds of [checks notes] Venezuelans to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/05/another-horror-story-leaks-out-from-trumps-favorite-deportation-hellhole/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/05/another-horror-story-leaks-out-from-trumps-favorite-deportation-hellhole/">El Salvador&#8217;s torture prison</a>, &#8220;world&#8217;s coolest dictator&#8221; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/26/naybib-bukele-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/26/naybib-bukele-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator">Nayib Bukele</a> had a favor to ask of his own: the return of nine MS-13 gang members. </p>
  87. <p>Here&#8217;s the latest bit of callous evil perpetrated by some of the most banally malignant people to ever hold office, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/19/rubio-el-salvador-prison-bukele-ms13-informants/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/10/19/rubio-el-salvador-prison-bukele-ms13-informants/">as reported by the Washington Post</a>: </p>
  88. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  89. <p><em>Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a March 13phone call with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, promised the request would be fulfilled, according to officials familiar with the conversation. But there was one obstacle: Some of the MS-13 members Bukele wanted were “informants” under the protection of the U.S. government, Rubio told him.</em></p>
  90. <p><em>To deport them to El Salvador, Attorney General Pam Bondi would need to terminate the Justice Department’s arrangements with those men, Rubio said. He assured Bukele that Bondi would complete that process and Washington would hand over the MS-13 leaders.</em></p>
  91. </blockquote>
  92. <p>Quite the quid pro quo, stripping people of the protection and safety they&#8217;d been guaranteed for the sole purpose of getting the green light for mass deportations of Venezuelan migrants. Well, the sole purpose on the <em>Trump</em> side of the equation. On the other side, there was a benefit beyond a little more burnishing of Bukele&#8217;s &#8220;tough on crime&#8221; reputation. </p>
  93. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  94. <p><em>It was also a key step in hindering an ongoing U.S. investigation into his government’s relationship with MS-13, a gang famous for displays of excessive violence in the United States and elsewhere.</em></p>
  95. </blockquote>
  96. <p>Basically, the State Department and the Trump administration offered up these gang members as literal human sacrifices in order to pursue its mass deportation program. Nothing greases the wheels like blood, I guess, and this administration&#8217;s collective hands have been covered with the substance since Trump&#8217;s inauguration. </p>
  97. <p>And, as is always the case when authoritarians engage in human trafficking to further their bigoted ideals, the government spokespeople are there to remind everyone that the ends justify the means: </p>
  98. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  99. <p><em>“The Trump Administration’s results speak for themselves,” said Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman. “Hardened TdA gang members are back in Venezuela … MS-13 gang members are being prosecuted in the U.S. and El Salvador. And Americans are safer as a result of these incredible efforts.”</em></p>
  100. </blockquote>
  101. <p>Neat. I supposed just summarily executing anyone suspected of drug trafficking would probably put a dent in drug trafficking but that&#8217;s the sort of thing we just don&#8217;t&#8230;. <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/09/trump-administration-now-murdering-people-in-international-waters-just-because/" data-type="page" data-id="371460">hang on a second</a>. I&#8217;m sorry. I&#8217;m now being told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/strikes-seventh-alleged-drug-boat-killing-3-hegseth/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/strikes-seventh-alleged-drug-boat-killing-3-hegseth/">this is <em>exactly</em> the sort of thing we do</a>, for the first time in our government&#8217;s history. My mistake. </p>
  102. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  103. <p><em>At least 32 people have been killed in U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tells-congress-armed-conflict-drug-cartels-venezuela-boat-strikes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has said</a> the U.S. is in a &#8220;non-international armed conflict&#8221; with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, constituting an &#8220;armed attack.&#8221;</em></p>
  104. <p><em>&#8220;When they&#8217;re loaded up with drugs, they&#8217;re fair game, and every one of those ships were,&#8221; President Trump told reporters last week.</em></p>
  105. </blockquote>
  106. <p>Yep. And we&#8217;ll never know whether or not these claims have any basis in fact because all of the evidence has been drone-striked to the bottom of the ocean. Instead, we&#8217;re just expected to accept the new normal that moves extrajudicial drone strikes from areas of international conflict and into any body of water that might contain boats with Latin/South American citizens in them. </p>
  107. <p>Of course, shitting on informants probably doesn&#8217;t even raise red flags in the DEA, ATF, CIA, FBI, or any other agency that used to be primarily concerned with actual criminal cases. <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/16/nearly-half-of-fbi-agents-in-large-field-offices-have-been-put-on-ice/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/16/nearly-half-of-fbi-agents-in-large-field-offices-have-been-put-on-ice/">Most of those resources</a> are now being spent on pursuing people only suspected of <em>civil</em> violations of immigration law. If you&#8217;re from anywhere south of our border, you&#8217;re nothing more than meat puppets for a tyrant and his enablers. </p>
  108. ]]></content:encoded>
  110. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/in-order-to-illegally-deport-people-to-el-salvador-trump-administration-stripped-informants-of-their-protections/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  111. <slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
  114. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">519539</post-id> </item>
  115. <item>
  116. <title>The Kavanaugh Stop&#8217;s Legacy: 50 Days, 170+ Detained Citizens, Zero Answers</title>
  117. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/the-kavanaugh-stops-legacy-50-days-170-detained-citizens-zero-answers/</link>
  118. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/the-kavanaugh-stops-legacy-50-days-170-detained-citizens-zero-answers/#comments</comments>
  120. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  121. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:33:14 +0000</pubDate>
  122. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  123. <category><![CDATA[4th amendment]]></category>
  124. <category><![CDATA[brett kavanaugh]]></category>
  125. <category><![CDATA[civil liberties]]></category>
  126. <category><![CDATA[civil rights]]></category>
  127. <category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category>
  128. <category><![CDATA[kavanaugh stops]]></category>
  129. <category><![CDATA[rights]]></category>
  130. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521009</guid>
  131.  
  132. <description><![CDATA[It was just last month that Brett Kavanaugh gave his explanation for why it was perfectly okay for Homeland Security goons to profile brown people and detain them based on nothing more than the color of their skin. While his cowardly colleagues in the majority on that shadow docket decision refused to explain their thinking, [&#8230;]]]></description>
  133. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It was just last month that Brett Kavanaugh gave his explanation for why it was <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/09/scotus-says-ice-can-use-the-family-guy-skin-color-chart-for-arrests-but-wont-explain-why/">perfectly okay for Homeland Security goons to profile brown people</a> and detain them based on nothing more than the color of their skin. While his cowardly colleagues in the majority on that shadow docket decision refused to explain their thinking, Kavanaugh actually wrote a concurrence that was so out of touch with reality as to be embarrassing. But at least it was an explanation.</p>
  134. <p>The key bit from him that has stood out is this:</p>
  135. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  136. <p><em>Importantly, reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status.</em>&nbsp;<strong><em>If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter</em></strong><em>. Only if the person is illegally in the United States may the stop lead to further immigration proceedings.</em></p>
  137. </blockquote>
  138. <p>It’s this weird, privileged, out-of-touch statement that if ICE or CBP stop you for being brown, they’ll let you go as soon as you show them that you’re an American citizen. Of course, we knew at the time that wasn’t true. Hell, there were details that Kavanaugh ignored in that very lawsuit, which Justice Sotomayor called out in her dissent. But literally in this very lawsuit was the documentation of how it wasn’t so simple:</p>
  139. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  140. <p><em>To give just one example,</em> <strong><em>Plaintiff Jason Brian Gavidia is a U.S. citizen who was born and raised in East Los Angeles</em></strong> <em>and identifies as Latino. On the afternoon of June 12, he stepped onto the sidewalk outside of a tow yard in Montebello, California, where he saw agents carrying handguns and military-style rifles. One agent ordered him to “Stop right there” while another “ran towards [him].”</em> <strong><em>The agents repeatedly asked Gavidia whether he is American—and they repeatedly ignored his answer: “I am an American.”</em></strong> <em>The agents asked Gavidia what hospital he was born in—and he explained that he did not know which hospital. “The agents forcefully pushed [Gavidia] up against the metal gated fence, put [his] hands behind [his] back, and twisted [his] arm.” An agent asked again, “What hospital were you born in?” Gavidia again explained that he did not know which hospital and said “East L.A.”</em> <strong><em>He then told the agents he could show them his Real ID. The agents took Gavidia’s ID and his phone and kept his phone for 20 minutes. They never returned his ID</em></strong>.</p>
  141. </blockquote>
  142. <p>Drexel law professor <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/akalhan.bsky.social/post/3lzt2hikyd22h">Anil Kalhan quickly dubbed</a> these bullshit pretextual stops of US citizens as “Kavanaugh stops” and the name has stuck.</p>
  143. <p>While there is an effort to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/10/supreme-courts-go-ahead-and-round-up-all-the-brown-people-decision-is-being-challenged-in-court/">challenge these further in court</a>, for now the goon squad known as ICE is unleashed even more than usual. We now know that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/22/more-than-170-u-s-citizens-have-been-held-by-immigration-agents-theyve-been-kicked-dragged-and-detained-for-days/">there are at least 170 US citizens</a> who have been held by immigration officials, and there are probably even more not yet accounted for.</p>
  144. <p>It feels like every day we hear about another few:</p>
  145. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  146. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  147. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:bz3idwc6jcvidvyb476l2cqk/app.bsky.feed.post/3m47aacheo22c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreicfd3sfnevtvplegpd37yu6jmxxcyoo4r5rmpi4tyvtdwmh56dvxy">
  148. <p lang="en">ICE violently detain father &amp; son walking to school—teenage boy had to be rushed to hospital.&#34;I was just going to school,&#34; kid cries out. &#34;I&#39;m underage!&#34;The 16-year-old star athlete is a U.S. citizen—agents sent him to the hospital with severe injuries to his back &amp; neck.Houston, Texas.</p>
  149. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bz3idwc6jcvidvyb476l2cqk?ref_src=embed">LongTime<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f913.png" alt="🤓" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />FirstTime<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f468-200d-1f4bb.png" alt="👨‍💻" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> (@longtimehistory.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bz3idwc6jcvidvyb476l2cqk/post/3m47aacheo22c?ref_src=embed">2025-10-27T20:14:38.989Z</a></p>
  150. </blockquote>
  151. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  152. </div>
  153. </figure>
  154. <p>These Kavanaugh stops are a stain on the American concept of civil liberties and due process, and they should be a stain on Brett Kavanaugh’s legacy. Legal journalist Chris Geidner just ran a piece on <a href="https://www.lawdork.com/p/the-kavanaugh-stop-50-days-later">50 days of Kavanaugh stops</a>, and what a shameful moment this is of American bigotry.</p>
  155. <p>Geidner has directly submitted questions to Kavanaugh to see how he feels about all of these Kavanaugh stops that show his claim of &#8220;brief encounters&#8221; with law enforcement were bullshit:</p>
  156. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  157. <p><em>I asked Justice Kavanaugh on October 14, “Do you have any comment on the ICE stop of Maria Greeley, a U.S. citizen, who was reportedly stopped, ziptied, and told she didn’t ‘look like’ a ‘Greeley’ despite being a U.S. citizen?“</em></p>
  158. <p><em>On both occasions, I also asked Kavanaugh whether he still thinks he was correct when he wrote that these stops are “typically brief” and that all of this is fine because “individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U. S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.”</em></p>
  159. <p><em>Finally, I asked Kavanaugh if he was aware of the “Kavanaugh stop” terminology and whether he had any comment on it.</em></p>
  160. <p><em>[….]</em></p>
  161. <p><em>So, I asked Justice Kavanaugh on October 16, “Do you have any comment on the Pro Publica report that found ‘more than 50 Americans who were held after [immigration] agents questioned their citizenship’ during 2025. ‘They were almost all Latino,’ per the report.“</em></p>
  162. <p><em>In addition to the other questions previously raised, I also asked Kavanaugh whether “the possibility of after-the-fact ‘excessive force’ claims” is “a sufficient answer to this ongoing, regularly occurring problem?”</em></p>
  163. </blockquote>
  164. <p>Did you guess what happened? Of course you did!</p>
  165. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  166. <p><em>I have not received a response from him or his chambers.</em></p>
  167. </blockquote>
  168. <p>You can already see the horrific legacy that is forming around the concept of Kavanaugh stops. This is a legacy that doesn’t go away easily. It’s like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford">the Dred Scott decision</a>, the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/323us214">Korematsu decision</a>, or <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/274us200">Buck v. Bell</a>. Supreme Court decisions that nearly everyone now looks back on in horror.</p>
  169. <p>These are all horrible, hateful decisions by out-of-touch bigots, who can’t even fathom a world in which those less fortunate themselves even matter, and thus their rights and dignity are barely given a second thought.</p>
  170. <p>The Supreme Court still has a chance to fix this, since Kavanaugh stops were only defined by Justice Kavanaugh in a shadow docket concurrence. While those other cases all took decades for everyone to realize how fucked up they were, this one we can see in real time what a stain it is for anyone who believes that America respects basic civil liberties like due process and concepts like probable cause.</p>
  171. <p>But, for now at least, that stain should stick to Brett Kavanaugh. He’s justified this. He’s insisted these kinds of stops are no big deal, even as there was evidence then, and even with more mounting evidence now, that immigration officials don’t give a shit if you are an American citizen. If you’re darker skinned, they can treat you like shit, lock you up, beat you up, ignore your protestations and even evidence of American citizenship.</p>
  172. <p>It is a deep, dark stain on America as a supposed land of freedom, and it should be tied up with Brett Kavanaugh’s legacy forever.</p>
  173. ]]></content:encoded>
  175. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/the-kavanaugh-stops-legacy-50-days-170-detained-citizens-zero-answers/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  176. <slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
  179. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521009</post-id> </item>
  180. <item>
  181. <title>Suing To Seat Grijalva, And Why This Long Shot Is Both Plausible And (At Least Currently Still) Necessary</title>
  182. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/suing-to-seat-grijalva-and-why-this-long-shot-is-both-plausible-and-at-least-currently-still-necessary/</link>
  183. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/suing-to-seat-grijalva-and-why-this-long-shot-is-both-plausible-and-at-least-currently-still-necessary/#comments</comments>
  185. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Cathy Gellis]]></dc:creator>
  186. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 19:04:06 +0000</pubDate>
  187. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  188. <category><![CDATA[adelita grijalva]]></category>
  189. <category><![CDATA[arizona]]></category>
  190. <category><![CDATA[congress]]></category>
  191. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521003</guid>
  192.  
  193. <description><![CDATA[There are two big reasons why the lawsuit the State of Arizona and Adelita Grijalva has brought against the House of Representatives to force Grijalva to be sworn in ultimately might not succeed: (A) because even if it seems to succeed initially it&#8217;s likely to end up before this slate of Supreme Court justices, whose [&#8230;]]]></description>
  194. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are two big reasons why the <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71713948/1/arizona-v-house-of-representatives-of-the-congress-of-the-united-states-of/">lawsuit the State of Arizona and Adelita Grijalva has brought against the House of Representatives</a> to force Grijalva to be sworn in ultimately might not succeed: (A) because even if it seems to succeed initially it&#8217;s likely to end up before this slate of Supreme Court justices, whose majority seems <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/15/good-news-scotus-may-sometimes-still-think-the-first-amendment-makes-censoring-the-internet-illegal-but-good-luck-getting-them-to-do-anything-about-it/">deeply unconcerned</a> by constitutional violations when those violations work to protect Republican power, and (B) because even reasonable jurists may still find Arizona&#8217;s claim to be beyond something the court could address for a number of reasonable reasons. After all, courts are not superior to Congress and entitled to micromanage its ordinary operation. And even the best lawsuits still need to clear a variety of justiciability hurdles, any one of which this case could conceivably get stuck on.</p>
  195. <p>Nevertheless, the complaint does seem carefully drafted to navigate as many of those hurdles as possible. And principles of judicial review do allow courts to intercede when Congress has tried to act in a way that&#8217;s unconstitutional. Which is why this lawsuit is not ridiculous, because at its heart it&#8217;s about interceding when Congress has refused to act in a way it was constitutionally obligated, which is little different from interceding when it has acted in a way it is constitutionally forbidden. Passing an unconstitutional statute and refusing to operate the House chamber as constitutionally required are both about Congress exerting its powers in a way that is impermissible, which is what judicial review has long been available to police.</p>
  196. <p>The lawsuit basically boils down to this: Arizona has elected an eligible candidate to a congressional term.</p>
  197. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  198. <p><em>Ms. Grijalva’s constitutional qualifications have likewise never been in dispute. She meets all of the constitutional qualifications to serve in the House of Representatives, save for the fact that she has not yet taken the oath of office. See U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 3 (“The … Representatives … shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”); 5 U.S.C. § 3331 (specifying the language of the oath); 2 U.S.C. § 25 (providing that the Speaker shall administer the oath to Representatives).</em> [paragraph 8]</p>
  199. </blockquote>
  200. <p>Which means that there is no basis to exclude her.</p>
  201. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  202. <p><em> “[T]he Constitution leaves the House without authority to exclude any person, duly elected by his constituents, who meets all the requirements for membership expressly prescribed in the Constitution.” Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, 522 (1966).</em> [paragraph 4]</p>
  203. </blockquote>
  204. <p>But here she is, functionally excluded, unable to do anything she was elected to do.</p>
  205. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  206. <p><em> Defendants’ refusal to promptly seat Ms. Grijalva, and to treat her as a member of the House, injures her by denying her the ability to exercise the authority of a member of the House—e.g., to sign petitions, sponsor bills, obtain and provide information to her constituents about federal programs and matters pending before federal agencies, and advocate with federal agencies, all on behalf of her constituents.</em> [paragraph 16]</p>
  207. </blockquote>
  208. <p>And Arizona is constitutionally entitled to being fully represented for the entirety of the term, but with her absence, it&#8217;s not.</p>
  209. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  210. <p><em> As of today, Arizona remains entitled to nine representatives. But Arizona presently has eight representatives sworn and seated in Congress, one fewer than the number to which it is entitled.</em> (paragraphs 59-60)</p>
  211. </blockquote>
  212. <p>Since she is eligible for office, if there were really some issue with her being in Congress then the Constitution spells out the sole remedy: expulsion, which requires a 2/3 majority vote. But it is only available after she has first been seated.</p>
  213. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  214. <p><em> Therefore, if the House wishes to remove a member for other reasons, it must first seat the member, then expel by a two-thirds vote. Id.; see id. at 508, 512 (“[E]xclusion and expulsion are not fungible proceedings.”)</em> [paragraph 33]</p>
  215. </blockquote>
  216. <p>Yet here she is functionally excluded because she has not first been seated, even though no one has the authority to prevent it, not even the Speaker of the House, even if they are ostensibly acting consistent with statutes and House rules that are otherwise constitutional in endowing anyone with the sole authority to offer the oath.</p>
  217. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  218. <p><em> The Speaker may not use his statutory obligation to administer the oath under 2 U.S.C. § 25 to arbitrarily delay seating a member when there is no dispute as to the election or qualifications and no practical reason why he is unable to administer the oath.</em> [paragraph 12]</p>
  219. </blockquote>
  220. <p>The crux of the argument is that those statutes and rules are constitutional only up to the point where they enable Congress to do something that transcends its Article I power. So while ordinarily the House can pass whatever rules it wants to give the Speaker lots of authority (no matter how ill-advised), and the relevant statutes about oaths ordinarily are facially valid, they cease to be valid in a situation as this where they have granted the power to swear in new members exclusively to one person who then refuses to do it.</p>
  221. <p>There is some support for this notion, in the 1969 Supreme Court case of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12953660998600065147&amp;q=395+us+486&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=2006"><i>Powell v. McCormack</i></a> (note that the citation in the complaint dates it to 1966, which appears to be a scrivener&#8217;s error possibly due to transposing the year of the election at issue in the case with the year the case was decided). In that case, like this one, someone had been elected, but the House refused to seat him. So he sued for, among other things, an injunction ordering the Speaker of the House to swear him in. His lawsuit was initially dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, with the district courts finding that they had no authority to order the House to operate in any particular way. The appeals court disagreed, finding the courts had the jurisdictional ability to intercede, but it nevertheless dismissing the case on other justiciability grounds. But the Supreme Court then stepped in to keep the case alive, finding that Powell was entitled to a declaratory judgment that he had been unlawfully excluded from the 90th Congress. [p. 489]</p>
  222. <p>There are a few different things about that case and this one to keep in mind, but they ultimately don&#8217;t seem dispositive. For one thing, in Powell&#8217;s case, it was very obvious that the House was trying to impose additional eligibility criteria on him in refusing to seat him, and a major holding of the case is that Congress does not get to create new requirements not already in the Constitution. Here it is less obvious that Congress is trying to impose such requirements on Grijalva, except arguably it still is: it&#8217;s functionally created the requirement that a person can not be a Democrat elected in October 2025 and still be seated. But this issue is probably not what the case will turn on; what <i>Powell</i> stands for more generally is that Congress&#8217;s operation is still limited by constitutional text.</p>
  223. <p>Another difference is that by the time Powell&#8217;s case was decided he had actually been re-elected, and this time actually seated. In fact, it led to some concern that his case might be moot by the time it had reached the Supreme Court, but because the injury he was suing for was essentially for retroactive damages, like a loss in salary, for the period in which he had not been seated it was able to continue in order to address the period of his unlawful exclusion. Whereas in this case, so far at least, the injury seeking remediation—the exclusion—remains current, and the remedy sought is the actual seating.</p>
  224. <p>But this lawsuit is following the <i>Powell</i> roadmap in at least one key way.  Because Powell had already been sworn in by the time the case reached the Supreme Court it meant that the quest to enjoin the Speaker, to force him to swear Powell in, was no longer on the table. That detail may have been important to the rest of the case, because dicta in the decision suggests that the Speech and Debate clause protects actual members of Congress from liability for their actions in Congress, and that protection potentially would preclude being bound by an injunctive remedy.</p>
  225. <p>But the decision noted that Speech and Debate clause immunity only extended to actual members of Congress and not the employees effectuating Congress&#8217;s operation.</p>
  226. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  227. <p><em> The Court first articulated in Kilbourn and followed in Dombrowski v. Eastland[23] the doctrine that, although an action against a Congressman may be barred by the Speech or Debate Clause, legislative employees who participated in the unconstitutional activity are responsible for their acts.</em> [p. 504]</p>
  228. </blockquote>
  229. <p>Notably, in Arizona&#8217;s lawsuit, no one has sued Johnson speaker to have a court order him to swear in Grijalva, which would be a much more uphill argument. Instead it has sued the House itself and senior House employees charged with its operation (the Clerk and Sargent-at-arms), as was proper in the <em>Powell</em> case. (&#8220;Although this action should be dismissed against respondent Congressmen, it may be sustained against their agents.&#8221; [p. 550]).</p>
  230. <p>It also has made no specific injunctive demand. Instead it demands declaratory judgment, first that Grijalva be declared the sitting rep once she has taken the oath of office and that, because she is eligible, the Constitution and relevant statutes require that anyone authorized to give the oath give her the oath.</p>
  231. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  232. <p><em> Because there is no dispute as to Ms. Grijalva’s election or qualifications, the Court should: A. Issue a declaratory judgment stating that Ms. Grijalva shall be deemed a Member of the House of Representatives once she has taken the oath prescribed by law, see 5 U.S.C. § 3331; B. Issue a declaratory judgment stating that if Speaker Johnson has not administered the oath, the oath may be administered to Ms. Grijalva by any person authorized by law to administer oaths under the law of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the State of Arizona[.]</em> [last page of complaint]</p>
  233. </blockquote>
  234. <p>In other words, what Arizona appears to be looking for is a declaration by the court that if the oath is not administered, the House, and those employed to effectuate its operation, will be breaking the law. And surely no specific injunction is needed to prevent such an occurrence.</p>
  235. <p>True, functionally such a decision would trump the House&#8217;s current rules manifesting the right to give the oath only to Speaker Johnson. But the operative point is that House rules cannot trump the requirements of the Constitution, which set out the limited circumstances when the oath can be denied, none of which apply here. Since Grijalva is eligible for the office, the Constitution requires that she be admitted to it—the House has no choice in the matter, no matter what sort of statutes and rules it has passed for itself. It is the Constitution that ultimately prescribes and proscribes its power. This lawsuit is about making sure Congress doesn&#8217;t somehow help itself to more power, beyond what the Constitution granted it, to exclude a new member and deny its Arizona full representation in the House of Representatives, as Article I of the Constitution entitles it.</p>
  236. ]]></content:encoded>
  238. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/suing-to-seat-grijalva-and-why-this-long-shot-is-both-plausible-and-at-least-currently-still-necessary/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  239. <slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
  242. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521003</post-id> </item>
  243. <item>
  244. <title>Tiniest Crack In The Wall: Senate Votes To Dump Trump’s Vindictive Brazil Tariffs</title>
  245. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/tiniest-crack-in-the-wall-senate-votes-to-dump-trumps-vindictive-brazil-tariffs/</link>
  246. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/tiniest-crack-in-the-wall-senate-votes-to-dump-trumps-vindictive-brazil-tariffs/#comments</comments>
  248. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  249. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:49:43 +0000</pubDate>
  250. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  251. <category><![CDATA[brazil]]></category>
  252. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  253. <category><![CDATA[ieepa]]></category>
  254. <category><![CDATA[jair bolsonaro]]></category>
  255. <category><![CDATA[lisa murkowski]]></category>
  256. <category><![CDATA[mitch mcconnell]]></category>
  257. <category><![CDATA[rand paul]]></category>
  258. <category><![CDATA[senate]]></category>
  259. <category><![CDATA[susan collins]]></category>
  260. <category><![CDATA[tariffs]]></category>
  261. <category><![CDATA[thom tillis]]></category>
  262. <category><![CDATA[tim kaine]]></category>
  263. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521043</guid>
  264.  
  265. <description><![CDATA[For the first time in ten months of near-total congressional capitulation to Trump, five Republican Senators broke ranks on Tuesday, siding with Democrats to block the nonsense tariffs Trump unilaterally declared on Brazil as punishment for their treatment of Trump buddy Jair Bolsonaro. The US Senate on Tuesday approved a measure that would terminate Donald [&#8230;]]]></description>
  266. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For the first time in ten months of near-total congressional capitulation to Trump, five Republican Senators broke ranks on Tuesday, siding with Democrats <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/28/us-senate-trump-tariffs-brazil">to block the nonsense tariffs</a> Trump unilaterally declared on Brazil as punishment for their treatment of Trump buddy Jair Bolsonaro.</p>
  267. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  268. <p><em>The US Senate on Tuesday approved a measure that would terminate Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Brazilian imports, including coffee, beef and other products, in a rare bipartisan show of opposition to the president’s trade war.</em></p>
  269. <p><em>The legislation passed in a 52-48 vote, with five Republicans – senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and the former Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky – joining all Democrats in favor.</em></p>
  270. </blockquote>
  271. <p>It&#8217;s a very small thing. But given how completely Congress—and particularly the Senate—has rolled over for every Trump demand since January, any defection is notable. And this one is particularly telling about where the cracks might finally start to form.</p>
  272. <p>To understand why this matters, you need to understand just how absurd these particular tariffs were—even by Trump tariff standards.</p>
  273. <p>The President doesn’t have the power to issue tariffs. That’s supposed to be a power reserved for Congress under the Constitution. Trump has been skirting around that by claiming that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) allows him to take certain actions in an emergency regarding trade, but the law does not explicitly allow him to impose tariffs under that authority. The Supreme Court is <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/25-250.html">set to hear the case</a> challenging Trump’s interpretation of IEEPA next week.</p>
  274. <p>But even if SCOTUS somehow blesses this IEEPA theory, the Brazil tariffs are uniquely indefensible. Trump&#8217;s other tariffs at least gesture at the fiction that trade deficits constitute emergencies. <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/">Economically illiterate</a>, sure, but there&#8217;s a pretext.</p>
  275. <p>But we have a trade surplus, rather than a deficit, with Brazil. So, instead, Trump just claimed that the “emergency” was <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/addressing-threats-to-the-us/">stupid actions by Brazil’s Supreme Court</a> to push for censorship on social media. We’re among those who have <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/alexandre-de-moraes/">called out</a> some of those dumb and censorial decisions by Brazil’s Supreme Court. But that doesn’t make any of them an “emergency.” The other reason given: the fact that Brazil actually prosecuted Trump buddy Jair Bolsonaro for… trying to run a coup on the government. That is… not an emergency that lets Trump issue tariffs.</p>
  276. <p>In other words: Trump declared an economic emergency because a foreign country&#8217;s courts made decisions he didn&#8217;t like about speech online and because they prosecuted his friend for attempting a coup. He may try to call that trade policy, but everyone can easily see that it’s a personal vendetta dressed up in legal language to give his most adoring fans a weak excuse to defend him.</p>
  277. <p>Of course, the House (should Mike Johnson ever bring it back from vacation) is unlikely to move on this bill, and Trump will veto the bill anyway.</p>
  278. <p>But… it’s one of the first real cracks in the MAGA cult red wall of giving Donald Trump anything the special boy wants. In this second Trump administration, it seems like one of the only times the Senate has actually voted against him.</p>
  279. <p>So why now? Why this particular abuse of power?</p>
  280. <p>Perhaps it’s that at least some Republicans <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-net-approval-rating-hits-second-term-low-poll-shows-10955247">can read polls too</a>. This is the least popular president in modern history, and his policies (even the ones we were always told had popular support) are <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker">ridiculously unpopular as well</a>. The Economist’s graphic on this is telling. Trump is negative on… basically everything. By a lot.</p>
  281. <div class="wp-block-image">
  282. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/102e1b26-d351-439c-98ad-3c3cd838b481-RackMultipart20251029-206-96a3py.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  283. </div>
  284. <p>And, for stupidly unclear reasons, Congress just keeps letting him do whatever the fuck he wants to do.</p>
  285. <p>The polls are brutal. His policies are historically unpopular. He’s <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/alexandre-de-moraes/">tearing down the White House</a>. He’s made the US into a global laughingstock. He’s sending troops into American cities based on myths his advisors are telling him. There are millions protesting in the streets.</p>
  286. <p>And at some point, the political calculus shifts—even for Republicans in gerrymandered districts who&#8217;ve spent ten months <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/191746/republicans-donald-trump-scared-fans">scared shitless that the MAGA base will turn on them</a>. Eventually, the risk of being primaried by Trump becomes less scary than the risk of being associated with a deeply unpopular president doing deeply unpopular things for transparently personal reasons.</p>
  287. <p>So, no, this isn’t a big shift. But it’s a little one. An important crack in the wall, which hopefully starts to turn into more.</p>
  288. ]]></content:encoded>
  290. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/tiniest-crack-in-the-wall-senate-votes-to-dump-trumps-vindictive-brazil-tariffs/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  291. <slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
  294. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521043</post-id> </item>
  295. <item>
  296. <title>Daily Deal: 1 Year Sam&#8217;s Club Plus Membership with Auto-Renew</title>
  297. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/daily-deal-1-year-sams-club-plus-membership-with-auto-renew/</link>
  298. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/daily-deal-1-year-sams-club-plus-membership-with-auto-renew/#comments</comments>
  300. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daily Deal]]></dc:creator>
  301. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:44:43 +0000</pubDate>
  302. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  303. <category><![CDATA[daily deal]]></category>
  304. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=521090&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=521090</guid>
  305.  
  306. <description><![CDATA[Sam’s Club is a membership warehouse club, a limited-item business model that offers members quality products at an exceptional value unmatched by traditional retail. From groceries and kitchen supplies to electronics and furniture, Sam&#8217;s Club has great deals on the items you want! By redeeming and signing up as a member, you&#8217;ll be paying just [&#8230;]]]></description>
  307. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sam’s Club is a membership warehouse club, a limited-item business model that offers members quality products at an exceptional value unmatched by traditional retail. From groceries and kitchen supplies to electronics and furniture, Sam&#8217;s Club has great deals on the items you want! By redeeming and signing up as a member, you&#8217;ll be paying just $50 for a 1 year <a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/sam-s-club-1-year-plus-membership-with-auto-renew?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown">Sam&#8217;s Club Plus membership</a> (normally $110) that automatically renews annually. You&#8217;ll receive a complimentary household card for more savings from already low-priced items. Sign up now and save money on all your food and decor. You can also get a regular club membership for just $15.</p>
  308. <div class="wp-block-image">
  309. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/sam-s-club-1-year-plus-membership-with-auto-renew?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdnp3.stackassets.com/e3b4b96b8ae58e9d7242f9e7538cdabf91d78157/store/0cb08095173695aee68e4ca72919ece805b975a86697c96e7f30a9eeed7f/sale_327188_primary_image.jpg?ssl=1"/></a></figure>
  310. </div>
  311. <p><em>Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.</em></p>
  312. ]]></content:encoded>
  314. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/daily-deal-1-year-sams-club-plus-membership-with-auto-renew/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  315. <slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
  318. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">521090</post-id> </item>
  319. <item>
  320. <title>Trump Continues To Attack Biden For All The Stuff Trump Officials Did While Trump Was Still President</title>
  321. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/trump-continues-to-attack-biden-for-all-the-stuff-trump-officials-did-while-trump-was-still-president/</link>
  322. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/trump-continues-to-attack-biden-for-all-the-stuff-trump-officials-did-while-trump-was-still-president/#comments</comments>
  324. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  325. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 16:28:49 +0000</pubDate>
  326. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  327. <category><![CDATA[2020 election]]></category>
  328. <category><![CDATA[christopher wray]]></category>
  329. <category><![CDATA[doj]]></category>
  330. <category><![CDATA[fbi]]></category>
  331. <category><![CDATA[insurrection]]></category>
  332. <category><![CDATA[jack smith]]></category>
  333. <category><![CDATA[joe biden]]></category>
  334. <category><![CDATA[lisa monaco]]></category>
  335. <category><![CDATA[merrick garland]]></category>
  336. <category><![CDATA[trump administration]]></category>
  337. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520855&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=520855</guid>
  338.  
  339. <description><![CDATA[If there was anyone with any spine, honesty, or morality in the Trump administration, these astounding gaffes would have been headed off. But there&#8217;s no one left with any of these traits in the White House, so we get the sort of thing we&#8217;re now seeing with increasing frequency: Trump (deliberately or not) forgetting who [&#8230;]]]></description>
  340. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If there was anyone with any spine, honesty, or morality in the Trump administration, these astounding gaffes would have been headed off. But <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/22/trump-demands-230-million-in-taxpayer-money-for-being-prosecuted-and-his-own-lawyers-get-to-approve-it/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/22/trump-demands-230-million-in-taxpayer-money-for-being-prosecuted-and-his-own-lawyers-get-to-approve-it/">there&#8217;s no one left</a> with any of these traits in the White House, so we get the sort of thing we&#8217;re now seeing with increasing frequency: Trump (deliberately or not) forgetting who was sitting in the Oval Office in 2020.</p>
  341. <p>You know the old cartoon representation of the conscience &#8212; the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other? When I imagine Trump occasionally having a second thought before speaking/posting, all I see are a bunch of little Trumps on both shoulders waving &#8220;GO DONNY!&#8221; flags. </p>
  342. <p>There might <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/28/beyond-orwell-the-trump-administrations-assault-on-political-language/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/28/beyond-orwell-the-trump-administrations-assault-on-political-language/">be an argument</a> to be made that things like these are <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-forgets-president-during-capitol-073307749.html" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-forgets-president-during-capitol-073307749.html">Trump deliberately muddying the waters in hopes of generating MAGA froth</a>: </p>
  343. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  344. <p><em>President&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;blamed the Capitol riot on former President&nbsp;Joe Biden, claiming that “THE BIDEN FBI” had placed agents in the crowd that had assembled in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. 2021.</em></p>
  345. <p><em>Trump’s post came in the wee hours of Sunday, at 12:38 a.m.</em></p>
  346. <p><em>“THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115359345947837427" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;on Truth Social. “If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT”</em></p>
  347. </blockquote>
  348. <p>This is obviously <em>not</em> so, which anyone should immediately know, since it was still <em>Trump&#8217;s</em> FBI up until he left office (unwillingly and one insurrection attempt later) two weeks later. Had he just said &#8220;the FBI&#8221; instead of &#8220;the <em>Biden</em> FBI,&#8221; he might have been able to make a point, however implausible that point might be. </p>
  349. <p>Instead, he went the other way and blamed the guy who didn&#8217;t even have an FBI to call his own while Trump supporters <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/01/07/politics-is-not-game/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/01/07/politics-is-not-game/">raided the Capitol building</a> in hopes of overturning an election. </p>
  350. <p>But arguments that these statements are deliberate and evidence of 4-D chess fall apart the more often Trump does the same thing. Instead of looking like a mismanaged disinformation campaign, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115432378654253078" data-type="link" data-id="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115432378654253078">it just looks demented</a>. And I don&#8217;t mean colloquially. I mean in the literal, medical sense of the word. </p>
  351. <div class="wp-block-image">
  352. <figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="589" height="456" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-26-5.02.58-PM.png?resize=589%2C456&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-520857" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-26-5.02.58-PM.png?w=589&amp;ssl=1 589w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-26-5.02.58-PM.png?resize=300%2C232&amp;ssl=1 300w" sizes="(max-width: 589px) 100vw, 589px" /></figure>
  353. </div>
  354. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  355. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  356. <p><em>Just in: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack  Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost. They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!</em></p>
  357. </blockquote>
  358. <p>At best, Trump has a legitimate complaint against Christopher Wray (who was heading the FBI in 2020). And by &#8220;legitimate,&#8221; I only mean he was actually employed by the FBI at the point in time referenced by Donald Trump.</p>
  359. <p>But everyone else was appointed by Joe Biden <em>after</em> he took over as president in <em>2021</em>. To claim they somehow &#8220;rigged&#8221; an election is literally insane. Merrick Garland was a federal judge while Trump was in office. Jack Smith was still at The Hague. Lisa Monaco was a Biden advisor during his presidential campaign. The only person who could have conceivably been part of an inside job was someone who was still working for Trump at the time: Christopher Wray.</p>
  360. <p>Trump has already <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/02/trump-publishes-enemies-list-to-white-house-website-and-its-just-democrats-speaking-the-truth/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/02/trump-publishes-enemies-list-to-white-house-website-and-its-just-democrats-speaking-the-truth/">published an enemies list</a> to the White House website. Stuff like this appears to be the venting of his private list of people he doesn&#8217;t like. He recognizes some names and gets angry, never bothering to consider relevant details like, say, who was actually in charge of the place when he was apparently getting screwed over by the democratic process. </p>
  361. <p>Back in his first term, there were still enough people around him to help curb these impulses a bit. I mean, no one could really control him when he went off-script but he didn&#8217;t spend nearly as much time just blasting disjointed social media buckshot into the void. The people that surround him now perform only two tasks in response to things like these: (1) engaging in massive amounts of spin or (2) just pretending it didn&#8217;t happen.</p>
  362. <p>This isn&#8217;t healthy. The GOP is almost entirely composed of people pretending to be mad about &#8220;woke&#8221; stuff while ensuring the garden hose aimed at the authoritarian kudzu never gets shut off. They&#8217;re doomed to repeat the past because they learned all the wrong lessons from it. Sooner or later, every authoritarian regime begins eating its own. At some point, they&#8217;ll be up against the wall, having sold their souls for the privilege of being executed by their compatriots. And the longer they pretend no one needs to tell Donald Trump &#8220;no,&#8221; the more inevitable this endpoint becomes. </p>
  363. </blockquote>
  364. ]]></content:encoded>
  366. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/trump-continues-to-attack-biden-for-all-the-stuff-trump-officials-did-while-trump-was-still-president/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  367. <slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
  370. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520855</post-id> </item>
  371. <item>
  372. <title>Comcast Happy To Fund Trump&#8217;s Ballroom Despite Years Of Being Shit On</title>
  373. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/comcast-happy-to-fund-trumps-ballroom-despite-years-of-being-shit-on/</link>
  374. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/comcast-happy-to-fund-trumps-ballroom-despite-years-of-being-shit-on/#comments</comments>
  376. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  377. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:24:49 +0000</pubDate>
  378. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  379. <category><![CDATA[comcast]]></category>
  380. <category><![CDATA[nbc universal]]></category>
  381. <category><![CDATA[brian roberts]]></category>
  382. <category><![CDATA[consumer protection]]></category>
  383. <category><![CDATA[corruption]]></category>
  384. <category><![CDATA[influence]]></category>
  385. <category><![CDATA[telecom]]></category>
  386. <category><![CDATA[trump ballroom]]></category>
  387. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520937&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=520937</guid>
  388.  
  389. <description><![CDATA[Thanks to the government shutdown, federal employees are stuck sitting in long food bank lines just to survive. While President Trump is destroying the White House east wing to install a ballroom nobody asked for. Without any of the sort of approvals or security clearances you&#8217;d need to do it properly. Trump falsely claims to [&#8230;]]]></description>
  390. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thanks to the government shutdown, federal employees <a href="https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/news/national/frustrated-federal-employees-line-up-for-food-as-us-shutdown-wears-on/article_a3ea914a-340d-5ee0-942b-2e1cb14d825f.html">are stuck sitting in long food bank lines just to survive</a>. While President Trump is destroying the White House east wing to install a ballroom nobody asked for. Without any of the sort of approvals or <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/east-room-demolition-white-house-ballroom">security clearances you&#8217;d need to do it properly</a>. </p>
  391. <p>Trump falsely claims to be funding the ballroom&#8217;s $300 million price tag <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/07/the-white-house-announces-white-house-ballroom-construction-to-begin/">himself</a> with the help of &#8220;patriotic donors.&#8221; But like any good grift, the price is certain to skyrocket well beyond that by the time the ballroom is completed sometime in the next three years. And he&#8217;s certainly not paying for any of it himself, it&#8217;s mostly <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c891yxgj44ko">being funded by the feckless shitweasels at Meta, Amazon, HP, Micron, Apple, Comcast, and T-Mobile</a>. As well as fascist ass kissers like the Winklevoss twins.</p>
  392. <p>You might recall that T-Mobile was caught up in the (now seemingly quaint) first Trump administration <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/01/22/trump-hotel-fracas-highlights-how-t-mobiles-consumer-friendly-brand-schtick-is-wearing-little-thin/">scandal involving influence patronage to Trump&#8217;s hotels</a>. Comcast&#8217;s fealty is a more interesting choice, given the Trump&#8217;s FCC&#8217;s recent habits of launching fake investigations into whether Comcast is <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/13/trump-fcc-tries-to-bully-comcast-away-from-its-already-flimsy-dedication-to-civil-rights/">being suitably racist and sexist enough for the administration&#8217;s liking</a>. </p>
  393. <p>Trump (and his FCC lackey Brendan Carr) also <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/24/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-whines-about-accurate-comcast-nbc-reporting-that-made-donald-trump-sad/">endlessly criticize Comcast CEO Brian Roberts</a> any time the company&#8217;s NBC news operations have wandered too close to the truth, like during its reporting on Abrego Garcia, a Maryland dad the Trump administration&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/politics/abrego-garcia-el-salvador-democrats.html">“accidentally” kidnapped, sent to a foreign gulag</a>, brought back, concocted new false charges against, and is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abrego-garcia-el-salvador-liberia-deportation-trump-d2ce366c8043b18220676c865fc05987">now trying to deport to Liberia</a>.</p>
  394. <p>From <a href="https://www.status.news/p/funding-trump-ball-room-white-house-comcast?utm_source=www.status.news&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=comcast-s-ballroom-dance&amp;_bhlid=a29f6c5bd3438d58d9932952c711d0be0af0e0ee">Oliver Darcy&#8217;s newsletter</a>:</p>
  395. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  396. <p><em>&#8220;The decision by Comcast and other deep-pocketed donors to finance the project underscores the grotesque dynamic between corporate America and the mercurial, transactional president: companies openly buying favor, or at least hoping to stay off Trump’s enemies list. And for Comcast, the decision is deeply personal. Trump has frequently attacked Roberts and his news outlets, publicly calling him a “lowlife” and mocking the corporation as “Concast.” The insults have continued even after the conglomerate spun off its cable networks, including the Trump-loathed MSNBC and business-focused CNBC.&#8221;</em></p>
  397. </blockquote>
  398. <p>Comcast&#8217;s support for Trump&#8217;s ballroom has put the NBC family of journalists (or what is left of them after a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/2025/10/15/layoffs-at-nbc-news-and-the-painful-math-behind-the-versant-spinoff/">recent spin off and mass layoffs</a>) into a tricky predicament as they <a href="https://www.status.news/p/funding-trump-ball-room-white-house-comcast?utm_source=www.status.news&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=comcast-s-ballroom-dance&amp;_bhlid=a29f6c5bd3438d58d9932952c711d0be0af0e0ee">cover the mess on the air</a> without getting too pointed about Comcast&#8217;s pathetic capitulation:</p>
  399. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  400. <p><em>&#8220;On <strong>NBC News </strong>and <strong>MSNBC</strong> in recent days, anchors have taken pains to note—sometimes with audible discomfort—that their corporate parent, <strong>Comcast</strong>, is among the donors helping bankroll Trump’s ballroom. The move has left the network’s journalists in the awkward position of covering the story of their own company’s complicity. For Comcast and its chairman and chief executive, <strong>Brian Roberts</strong>, it marks a moment of corporate humiliation, being publicly shamed on his own air for deference to Trump, the same vengeful president who has repeatedly targeted Roberts by name.&#8221;</em></p>
  401. </blockquote>
  402. <p>While Comcast may have suffered through a few barbs and fake FCC investigations, most of the news coverage oddly doesn&#8217;t mention the massive benefits from the second Trump administration.</p>
  403. <p>In addition to a surge in taxpayer subsidies and tax breaks, the Trump administration has destroyed the what remained of functional U.S. federal corporate oversight. They&#8217;ve demolished <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/07/federal-consumer-protection-is-dead-the-fate-of-net-neutrality-warned-you-it-was-coming/">not just net neutrality</a> but the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/07/federal-consumer-protection-is-dead-the-fate-of-net-neutrality-warned-you-it-was-coming/">entirety of FCC and FTC autonomy</a>. That means little to no competent regulatory oversight of a company with a multi-decade history of extremely dodgy, anti-competitive, anti-consumer behavior. </p>
  404. <p>The Trump assault on the regulatory state and courts has made it effectively impossible to hold corporations like AT&amp;T and Comcast accountable for literally anything (see: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/23/5th-circuit-obediently-lets-att-off-the-hook-for-major-location-data-privacy-violations/">AT&amp;T&#8217;s spying on wireless subscribers</a>). How much is the complete destruction of the federal regulatory state worth over the next few decades? Probably significantly more than the millions Comcast is throwing at the ballroom. </p>
  405. <p>The question for the pathetic simps at Comcast is: how high will the longer-term costs of capitulating with authoritarians be? These are bizarre, erratic zealots, whose often incoherent demands shift on a dime. And in countries like Russia, where this sort of oligarch autocratic fusion has been allowed to fester, it generally doesn&#8217;t end well for industry leaders <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Russian+businessman+falls+out+of+window&amp;sca_esv=ee794735903e3348&amp;rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1150US1150&amp;sxsrf=AE3TifOrxlntn-8YD7E3mv5xhp3hd10kAg%3A1761585218857&amp;ei=Qqj_aNKRNKGCm9cPhvzBoQU&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjSutip8MSQAxUhweYEHQZ-MFQQ4dUDCBA&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=Russian+businessman+falls+out+of+window&amp;gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJ1J1c3NpYW4gYnVzaW5lc3NtYW4gZmFsbHMgb3V0IG9mIHdpbmRvdzIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yCxAAGIAEGIoFGIYDMgUQABjvBUizB1DlBFi-BXABeAGQAQCYAW6gAcMBqgEDMS4xuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIDoALOAcICChAAGEcY1gQYsAOYAwCIBgGQBgiSBwMyLjGgB-gGsgcDMS4xuAfIAcIHBTAuMi4xyAcH&amp;sclient=gws-wiz-serp">who wander too close to windows</a>. </p>
  406. <p>We may not be quite there yet, but we&#8217;re on the path. The level of corruption and influence peddling we&#8217;re seeing now makes the last three decades of U.S. history look positively quaint by comparison. And the speed with which the abject cowards in the U.S. business community have fecklessly capitulated to the idiotic whims of mad tyrants isn&#8217;t something anybody&#8217;s likely to forget anytime soon.</p>
  407. <p>That said, it&#8217;s not exactly a surprise for me (somebody who has covered Comcast professionally for two decades) that when push came to shove, Comcast corporation wound up being a soulless ass kisser.</p>
  408. ]]></content:encoded>
  410. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/29/comcast-happy-to-fund-trumps-ballroom-despite-years-of-being-shit-on/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  411. <slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
  414. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520937</post-id> </item>
  415. <item>
  416. <title>Mexican Government To Tax Violent Video Games It Says Make Kids Violent</title>
  417. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/mexican-government-to-tax-violent-video-games-it-says-make-kids-violent/</link>
  418. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/mexican-government-to-tax-violent-video-games-it-says-make-kids-violent/#comments</comments>
  420. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Geigner]]></dc:creator>
  421. <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2025 03:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
  422. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  423. <category><![CDATA[blame]]></category>
  424. <category><![CDATA[mexico]]></category>
  425. <category><![CDATA[taxes]]></category>
  426. <category><![CDATA[video games]]></category>
  427. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=520777&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=520777</guid>
  428.  
  429. <description><![CDATA[The whole &#8220;blame video games for everything&#8221; theme seems to be resurfacing more and more these days. It&#8217;s a bit strange, as I honestly thought that this bizarre reflex would be waning as each new generation that increasingly grew up with video games came to be adults. But apparently this needs to be reiterated: law [&#8230;]]]></description>
  430. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The whole &#8220;blame video games for everything&#8221; theme seems to be resurfacing more and more these days. It&#8217;s a bit strange, as I honestly thought that this bizarre reflex would be waning as each new generation that increasingly grew up with video games came to be adults. But apparently this needs to be reiterated: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2013/03/01/video-games-do-not-cause-violence-according-to-former-fbi-profiler/">law enforcement</a> doesn&#8217;t think video games cause violence, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2013/03/01/video-games-do-not-cause-violence-according-to-former-fbi-profiler/">literary legends</a> don&#8217;t think they cause violence, and, most importantly, scores of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2015/08/24/200-plus-scholars-speak-out-against-american-psychological-associations-violencegaming-study/">scholars</a> don&#8217;t think video games cause violence.</p>
  431. <p>And the practical reality doesn&#8217;t show they do either. In the middle of all of this public hand-wringing over video games turning the public into psychopathic killers&#8230; violent crime in America <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/">remains in a declining or flat trend</a>. The same <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/477466/number-of-serious-violent-crimes-by-youth-in-the-us/">is true among American teenagers</a>.</p>
  432. <p>In Mexico, the story <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/mex/mexico/crime-rate-statistics">is, in fact, much different</a>. There the crime rate, and violent crime rate, have risen significantly since 2000. The reported reasons for this are roughly what you&#8217;d expect: cartel-based crime has exploded and political violence is much more common than in the States.</p>
  433. <p>Or, if you ask the Mexican government, it&#8217;s the fault of <a href="https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mexico-is-considering-slapping-an-eight-percent-tax-on-violent-video-games-184101628.html">those damned violent video games</a>.</p>
  434. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  435. <p><em>Earlier this week, Mexico&#8217;s Chamber of Deputies approved a comprehensive&nbsp;<a href="https://www.finanzaspublicas.hacienda.gob.mx/work/models/Finanzas_Publicas/docs/paquete_economico/cgpe/cgpe_2026.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">financial package</a>&nbsp;that includes an eight percent tax on video games with mature content. As first reported by&nbsp;<a href="https://insider-gaming.com/mexico-moves-closer-to-putting-a-tax-on-violent-video-games/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Insider Gaming</a>, the proposed tax covers games that have a C or D rating under Mexico&#8217;s video game age classification system, which is similar to ESRB in the US. The C rating is for players who are at least 18 years old and allows for extreme violence, bloodshed and moderate graphic sexual content, while the D rating is reserved for adults only and allows for prolonged scenes that include similar content.</em></p>
  436. <p><em>The proposed law was first introduced in September, when the country&#8217;s Treasury Department claimed that &#8220;recent studies have found a relationship between the use of violent video games and higher levels of aggression among adolescents, as well as negative social and psychological effects such as isolation and anxiety.&#8221; The report cited a study from 2012 in a footnote, which also observed some positive associations with video games, including motor learning and building resilience.</em></p>
  437. </blockquote>
  438. <p>The studies referenced in the comment were not cited. And I&#8217;d love to see which studies they&#8217;re talking about, because I&#8217;ve read up on this topic for fifteen years now. Sure, some studies out there suggest those kinds of links. And the larger collective researchers genuinely point out all the problems with the methodology of those studies. Plus, for every one of them there are a ton more that show no causal link between video games and violence.</p>
  439. <p>But can I also point out how strange it is to see violent games demonized in this way&#8230; only to have the result be an 8% tax on them? If the government <em>really</em> believed its own citizens are dying as a result of these games, why does that same government want to generate tax revenue off of those deaths? And in what world is turning a $50 game into a $54 game the solution to this &#8220;problem&#8221;?</p>
  440. <p>It isn&#8217;t, obviously, and that was never the aim here. Instead, you take an easy scapegoat to paper over government failure to control the drug trade and properly police the country for violence and you use that scapegoat as a tax grab. On the backs of dead citizens.</p>
  441. <p>That&#8217;s pretty gross.</p>
  442. ]]></content:encoded>
  444. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/mexican-government-to-tax-violent-video-games-it-says-make-kids-violent/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  445. <slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
  448. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">520777</post-id> </item>
  449. <item>
  450. <title>Ring, Flock Safety Join Forces To Expand Law Enforcement Surveillance Networks</title>
  451. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/ring-flock-safety-join-forces-to-expand-law-enforcement-surveillance-networks/</link>
  452. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/28/ring-flock-safety-join-forces-to-expand-law-enforcement-surveillance-networks/#comments</comments>
  454. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  455. <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2025 22:34:53 +0000</pubDate>
  456. <category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
  457. <category><![CDATA[flock safety]]></category>
  458. <category><![CDATA[ring]]></category>
  459. <category><![CDATA[4th amendment]]></category>
  460. <category><![CDATA[always on surveillance]]></category>
  461. <category><![CDATA[law enforcement]]></category>
  462. <category><![CDATA[surveillance]]></category>
  463. <category><![CDATA[surveillance abuse]]></category>
  464. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=519544&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=519544</guid>
  465.  
  466. <description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m not saying this unholy matrimony wouldn&#8217;t have occurred under any other regime, but it&#8217;s definitely the sort of thing that plays well with the Oval Office while it&#8217;s housing Donald Trump. Both Flock Safety and Ring have weathered plenty of negative press, largely because they were doing the sort of thing they&#8217;re going back [&#8230;]]]></description>
  467. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m not saying this unholy matrimony wouldn&#8217;t have occurred under <em>any</em> other regime, but it&#8217;s definitely the sort of thing that plays well with the Oval Office while it&#8217;s housing Donald Trump.</p>
  468. <p>Both <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/company/flock-safety/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/company/flock-safety/">Flock Safety</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/ring-doorbell/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/ring-doorbell/">Ring</a> have weathered plenty of negative press, largely because they were doing the sort of thing they&#8217;re going back to doing <em>now</em>: turning private cameras into extensions of government surveillance networks. </p>
  469. <p>Flock Safety began by pitching its products to some of the most secure people in the nation: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/07/26/newest-growth-market-license-plate-readers-is-those-assholes-running-local-homeowners-association/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/07/26/newest-growth-market-license-plate-readers-is-those-assholes-running-local-homeowners-association/">wealthy white homeowners</a>. Flock Safety became just another way for gated communities and HOAs to keep a tab on residents while also casting a skeptical eye towards anyone (or any vehicles) those running the cameras didn&#8217;t immediately recognize. </p>
  470. <p>Then it invited cops to play with its equipment and install some of their own. It went from keeping black people out of white neighborhoods to becoming a tool to be wielded by cops as they searched for a woman who had <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/02/texas-cop-used-flock-alpr-cameras-to-track-a-woman-who-had-an-abortion/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/02/texas-cop-used-flock-alpr-cameras-to-track-a-woman-who-had-an-abortion/">terminated a pregnancy</a> &#8212; not because cops cared about her well-being, but at the behest of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/17/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/17/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation/">her apparently abusive boyfriend</a>. Law enforcement investigators and officials claimed the nationwide searches for the person seeking an abortion was all about finding her safely. <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/17/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/10/17/flock-safety-texas-sheriff-claimed-license-plate-search-was-for-a-missing-person-it-was-an-abortion-investigation/">Even after internal documents revealed</a> it was <em>actually</em> about finding her in hopes of pressing charges for violating Texas&#8217;s abortion ban, Flock Safety has continued to criticize journalists for reporting on this apparent abuse of its camera network.</p>
  471. <p>Ring democratized front door surveillance, for better or worse. It gave people a cheap option for keeping crime off their literal doorstep. But it also invited cops along for the ride, giving them <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/07/30/amazons-free-doorbell-cameras-only-cost-law-enforcement-agencies-their-dignity-autonomy/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/07/30/amazons-free-doorbell-cameras-only-cost-law-enforcement-agencies-their-dignity-autonomy/">free cameras</a> to hand out to citizens with the implied suggestion a free camera would result in warrantless access to footage any time the cops felt like looking at it. </p>
  472. <p>Ring finally rolled back its carte blanche cop access and demanded a bit more paperwork from law enforcement before allowing it to raid its cloud storage. Flock Safety &#8212; in response to congressional criticism &#8212; made vague statements about limiting abuse of camera access by law enforcement. Of course, those words were meaningless, as Senator Ron Wyden recently <a href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/wyden_letter_to_flock.pdf" data-type="link" data-id="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/wyden_letter_to_flock.pdf">pointed out in a letter</a> to Flock Safety CEO Garret Langley:</p>
  473. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  474. <p><em>In August, 9 News in Denver revealed that Flock granted U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) access to its systems, enabling the agency to search data collected by Flock’s cameras, including using the National Lookup Tool. Officials from Flock subsequently confirmed to my office in September that the company provided access to CBP, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as part of a pilot earlier this year. Flock told my office that during the pilot, which has now ended, CBP and HSI conducted approximately 200 and 175 searches respectively. Flock also confirmed that itmisled its state and local law enforcement customers, telling my office that “due to internal miscommunication, customers were inaccurately informed that Flock did not have any relationship with DHS, while pilot programs with sub-agencies of DHS were briefly active.”</em></p>
  475. </blockquote>
  476. <p>The abortion investigation described above is also mentioned in the letter, which closes with Ron Wyden telling the company that no one should trust what Flock Safety says because when it&#8217;s not misleading people, it&#8217;s both incapable and unwilling to place meaningful restrictions on law enforcement access to its nationwide network of cameras: </p>
  477. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  478. <p><em><strong>The privacy protection that Flock promised</strong> to Oregonians — that Flock software will automatically examine the reason provided by law enforcement officers for terms indicating an abortion- or immigration-related search — <strong>is meaningless when law enforcement officials provide generic reasons like “investigation” or “crime.” Likewise, Flock’s filters are meaningless if no reason for a search is provided in the first place.</strong> While the search reasons collected by Flock, obtained by press and activists through open records requests, have occasionally revealed searches for immigration and abortion enforcement, these are likely just the tip of the iceberg. Presumably, most officers using Flock to hunt down immigrants and women who have received abortions are not going to type that in as the reason for their search. <strong>And, regardless, given that Flock has washed its hands of any obligation to audit its customers, Flock customers have no reason to trust a search reason provided by another agency.</strong></em></p>
  479. <p><em><strong>I now believe that abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable, and that Flock is unable and uninterested in preventing them.</strong></em></p>
  480. </blockquote>
  481. <p>And that is all an extremely lengthy preamble to this unwelcome bit of news, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/ring-cameras-are-about-to-get-increasingly-chummy-with-law-enforcement/" data-type="link" data-id="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/ring-cameras-are-about-to-get-increasingly-chummy-with-law-enforcement/">reported here by Scharon Harding of Ars Technica</a>: </p>
  482. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  483. <p><em>Law enforcement agencies will soon have easier access to footage captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow approximately 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage via surveillance platforms from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flocksafety.com/">Flock Safety</a>. </em></p>
  484. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  485. <p><em>According to Flock’s announcement, its Ring partnership allows local law enforcement members to use Flock software “to send a direct post in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request voluntary assistance.” Requests must include “specific location and timeframe of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,” and users can look at the requests anonymously, Flock said.</em></p>
  486. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  487. <p><em>Flock said its local law enforcement users will gain access to Ring Community Requests in “the coming months.”</em></p>
  488. </blockquote>
  489. <p>We absolutely didn&#8217;t need these two major players in the private surveillance market to team up and offer expanded access to US law enforcement &#8212; especially when so much of US law enforcement is focused on the &#8220;criminal&#8221; acts listed in Wyden&#8217;s letter: abortions and immigration. </p>
  490. <p>According to Ars Technica&#8217;s reporting, Ring is the most active participant in this new surveillance dragnet. First, Ring rolled back its promise to limit law enforcement access to Ring footage by partnering with Axon, a heavy-hitter in the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/03/three-cities-sue-axon-claim-it-has-a-monopoly-on-body-cams-electronic-weapons/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/03/three-cities-sue-axon-claim-it-has-a-monopoly-on-body-cams-electronic-weapons/">US body camera marketplace</a>. Then it decided to court one of the rivals in its own marketplace, which means both companies can still pretend to hold unique ideals while ensuring the bastard child of this coupling will render those ideals irrelevant. </p>
  491. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  492. <p><em>Flock says that its cameras don’t use facial recognition, which has been criticized for&nbsp;<a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/unmasking-bias-facial-recognition-algorithms">racial biases</a>. But local law enforcement agencies using Flock will soon have access to footage from Ring cameras with facial recognition.</em></p>
  493. </blockquote>
  494. <p>Both companies will be able to blame each other the next time abusive access is revealed. And Ring&#8217;s network will presumably gain features it doesn&#8217;t have currently via its meshing with Flock, like license plate recognition and an algorithm that can be applied to Ring footage that allows cops to do things it can&#8217;t with Ring alone, like search for suspects using nothing but vehicle or clothing descriptions.</p>
  495. <p>And this assurance is <em>especially</em> meaningless, given what&#8217;s already known about both of these companies: </p>
  496. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  497. <p><em>Amazon and Flock say their collaboration will only involve voluntary customers and local enforcement agencies.&nbsp;</em></p>
  498. </blockquote>
  499. <p>When both companies store recordings in their own clouds, &#8220;voluntary&#8221; is beside the point. Law enforcement can just approach either company directly with warrants or subpoenas and get what has been denied to them by these companies&#8217; customers. And restraining searches to &#8220;local law enforcement&#8221; agencies is impossible if neither company is interested in limiting searches to local areas and/or taking steps to prevent local agencies from performing searches on behalf of federal officers. </p>
  500. <p>Even if both companies take heat for doing this, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/22/amazon-ring-cashes-in-on-techno-authoritarianism-and-mass-surveillance/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/22/amazon-ring-cashes-in-on-techno-authoritarianism-and-mass-surveillance/">they&#8217;ll still do it</a>. After all, they&#8217;ve got an entire administration standing behind them that&#8217;s willing to call anyone who questions or criticizes this unofficial merger a friend of criminals, if not an actual enemy of the nation. </p>
  501. ]]></content:encoded>
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