Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Saturday March on Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

There will be a march on the so-called Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children this Saturday afternoon. Here are the details I received in an email from a local organizing group:

When: Saturday June 23 Time: 4pm
Where: CORNER OF 288th Street and 137th Ave Homestead Florida 33030
Bring: Sunscreen, water, comfortable walking shoes
The Trump administration has reopened a 1,000-bed Homestead facility that once housed minors who entered the country illegally and alone, reviving a compound at a time when the White House is under fire for a new policy that separates children from parents detained by immigration authorities.
Today community leaders and elected representatives were turned away for what was a planned tour of the facility.
Join our coalition of community organizers( ACLU, AFSC, FOMDD, United We Dream, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, We Count!, Miami DSA, Women’s March Florida,MUJER, Temple Beth Am, Florida Immigration Coalition, NCJW Miami, Rise Up Florida, Instituto Jesuita Perdo Arrupe) to STOP THE DETENTION CAMPS and KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Also Not the Onion

Posted on June 15, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

Ford’s “Driverless” Food-Delivery Vehicles in Miami Aren’t Actually Driverless (New Times)

“Research vehicles for our business pilots are designed to appear as self-driving, however, they are manually driven by an experienced driver,” Ford wrote this week in a post on Medium. “The focus of our research is on the first and last mile of the delivery experience.”

Actually not odd or surprising — this is how testing of would-be autonomous works nationally, for safety and liability reasons.

Posted in Miami, Robots | Leave a comment

Got Me

Posted on June 5, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

I added The Onion to my RSS feed a bit over a week ago. Since then there have been a couple headlines where I had to check just to make sure they were fakes, but I haven’t actually been caught believing one yet.

Instead, I was caught out by a real headline that I was sure would be a fake: Fugitive wanted for attempted murder found at White House, where he worked for National Security Council. That’s actually a real Boingboing headline — although the underlying story is slightly less sensational than you might think: instead of being in the Cabinet, the fugitive was only a contract worker, and the Secret Service is trying to make it sound like they caught him on his first day of work, although the linked story doesn’t quite say that.

Posted in The Media, The Scandals | Leave a comment

Yes, the CRA is a Way to Restore Net Neutrality

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

National treasure Harold Feld explains why the CRA really would be a means of restoring the net neutrality rule.

Strangely, it appears some folks actually doubted this as a theoretical matter. Of course the House won’t likely vote to overturn the FCC, so this is a bit academic. But then, I am an academic…

Posted in Law: Administrative Law, Law: Internet Law | Leave a comment

Worse than Corruption

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

I know people who think that the worst thing about the Trump administration is the corruption: the Trump family lining its pockets in various grifting ways, be it emoluments via hotel; deals in the shadow of official favor; multiple appointees acting like swamp-dwellers wasting tax money on first class airfares, hotels, weird security apparatus and guards, or office furniture.

I disagree: the worst things about the Trump administration are legal or at least carry a figleaf of legality: our disgraceful treatment of would-be immigrants and refugees; withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change and other anti-environmental decisions; the war on healthcare; and now, the nearly irrational decision to blow up the Iran nuclear deal.

The stated reasons make no sense: if one is afraid the Iranians have nuclear plans that they can pick up at the end of the 10-year deal period, there is no sense in accelerating that window of opportunity to today.

Rather, if one thinks there is any method to the madness, one is left to choose among two lousy hypotheses: perhaps Trump is so consumed with Obama derangement that anything Obama must be blow up; or, worse and yet more likely, the Bolton vision of attacking Iran is in ascendant and the reason for ending the accord is to drive the Iranians into nuclear development that could then be waved as a casus belli. That means war.

As far as I am concerned, the Trump family and its hangers-on could steal all the money they want if they would just stop hurting and poisoning other people.

Posted in Trump | 1 Comment