How Trump Is Following Hitler's Playbook -- Robert Reich

Trump is Accidentally Exposing Aileen Cannon's Shady Pro-MAGA Game

New Republic
April 6, 2024


When Judge Aileen Cannon handed down her latest ruling in the prosecution of Donald Trump for stealing classified documents, many legal observers immediately understood the shady gamesmanship lurking behind it.
She did, technically, rule against Trump by refusing to dismiss the case -- but actually made it easier for herself to kill the case later, or to steer a jury toward an acquittal

Trump's lawyers had argued that the Presidential Records Act, which was passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, allowed him to reclassify security documents as his personal property.
That is a grotesque misreading of the law's history and intent, and Cannon appeared to agree, declaring that the PRA "does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss" the case.
The media reported this as a partial "win' for special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution team.

Bus as constitutional scholar Lawrence Tribe put it, this was a "pretend" ruling against Trump that ended up "reserving" Cannon's ability to decide the case for Trump in a way that cannot be appealed.
In short, Cannon seems to recognize that as she moves toward that endgame, it's essential to maintain plausible deniability throughout.

"Judge Cannon is being canny in her Trump-protective approach," Lee Kovarsky, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin told me.

More:
https://newrepublic.com/article/180514/trump-judge-aileen-cannon-ruling-shady-maga-game

Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance - While Profiting Off Government Surveillance

The Intercept
March 25, 2024


Ten years ago, the internet platform X, then known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against the government it hoped would force transparency around abuse-prone surveillance of social media users.
X's court battle, though, clashes with an uncomfortable fact: The company is itself in the business of government surveillance of social media.

Under the new ownership of Elon Musk, X had continued the litigation, until it's defeat in January.
The suit was aimed at overturning a governmental ban on disclosing the receipt of requests, known as national security letters, that compel companies to turn over everything from user metadata to private direct messages.
Companies that receive these requests are typically legally bound to keep the request secret and can usually only disclose the number they receive in a given year in vague numerical ranges.

In it's petition to the Supreme Court last September, X's attorneys took up the banner of communications privacy: "History demonstrates that the surveillance of electronic communications is both a fertile ground for government abuse and a lightning-rod political topic of intense concern to the public."

After the court declined to take up the case in January, Musk responded tweeting, "Disappointing that the Supreme Court declined to hear this matter."

More:
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/25/elon-musk-x-dataminr-surveillance-privacy/

Federal Government Denies Petitions to Restore Protections for Gray Wolves

Montana Free Press
February 4, 2024


The federal agency that oversees the Endangered Species Act announced late last week that it will not add Northern Rockies wolves back onto the list of threatened and endangered species.

In an announcement on February 2, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that it's decision was based on it's analysis of "the best available data" from federal, state and tribal sources, academic institutions and the public.
The agency found that the number and distribution of gray wolves, paired with the population's genetic diversity, indicate that wolves are not facing extinction.

"The model assessed various threats, including human-caused mortality, existing regulatory mechanisms, and disease," the agency wrote in the release.
"The analysis indicates that wolves are not at risk of extinction in the Western United States now or in the foreseeable future."

More:
https://montanafreepress.org/2024/02/05/federal-government-denies-petitions-to-restore-protections-for-gray-wolves/

Locked in the dark since one month old, he was scared when the light poured in

Jeff Tiedrich on Twitter - This week in stupid - April 6 edition

Jeff Tiedrich.com
April 6, 2024

Lauren gets smashed, Caitlyn gets trashed, and so much more,

As another stupid week comes to a close here in America, let's look back at some of the highlights.


Sunday: trans day of wingnut dipshittery

Since 2009, March 31st has been the Trans Day of Visibility.
It was Trans Day when Obama was president, and it was Trans Day when Trump was president -- but this year, it just so happened that March 31st was also Easter Sunday, and every conservative crawled out of the woodwork to express their OUTRAGE at Joe Biden for somehow deliberately manipulating the calendar just to stick it to Jesus.

ok, fine, outrage is what these F#cknuts do, if it hadn't been trans visibility, it would have been something else.
But every now and then, the stupidity escalates to another level.

enter Caitlyn Jenner.
"I am absolutely disgusted that Joe Biden has declared the most Holy of Holy days -- a self proclaimed devout Catholic -- as Transgender Day of Visibility.
The only thing you should be declaring on this day is, 'HE is Risen'."


More:
https://Twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich
(Scroll down to 2nd tweet and click on link)

Traumatized lioness Yuna after Kyiv missile attack

Lavender & Where's Daddy: How Israel Used AI to Form Kill Lists & Bomb Palestinians in Their Homes

Democracy Now
April 5, 2024


The Israeli publications + 972 and Local Call have exposed how the Israeli military used an artificial intelligence system known as Lavender to develop a "kill list" in Gaza that includes as many as 37,000 Palestinians who were targeted for assassination with little human oversight.

A second AI system known as "Where's Daddy" tracked Palestinians on the kill list and was purposely designed to help Israel target individuals when they were at home at night with their families.

The targeting systems, combined with an "extremely permissive" bombing policy in the Israeli military, led to "entire Palestinian families being wiped out within their houses, " says Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist who broke the story after speaking with members of the Israeli military who were "shocked by committing atrocities."

Abraham previously exposed Israel for using the AI system known as "The Gospel" to intentionally destroy civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including apartment complexes, universities and banks in an effort to exert "civil pressure" on Hamas.
These artificial intelligence military systems are "a danger to humanity," says Abraham.
"AI based warfare allows people to escape accountability."


More + Video:
https://democracynow.org/2024/4/5/israel_ai

How Whales Change Climate

Post a character from a movie & see if anyone knows the movie without using Google

(Guesses are always welcome)


1) Harry R. Caul (answered)

2) Delilah Fitzgerald

3) Nobody (answered)

4) Karen Flores

5) Outspan Foster

6) Goddart Bolt

7) Some Idiot

8) Bill Baker

9) John Ruth

10) Tommy O'Rourke

11) Sheriff "Chappy" Dent

12) Mikah Wallace

13) Ramona Zeck

14) Greg Marmalard (answered)

15) Roy Walley












More Movie Characters:
https://democraticunderground.com/10181948959