Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Peak Trump?

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

There are signs that some time this week–maybe over the weekend? –we reached Peak Trump.

That doesn’t mean momentum won’t carry him to a lot more delegates, and maybe even enough to scrape a majority, but I think the bloom is off the rose tinted glasses. Not sure if it’s the Trump misogyny, the arrest of Trump’s campaign manager followed by doubling down on the guy’s defense, the really weird panel of foreign policy advisers, the articles about Trump’s dominance games (more), or the resignation and damning open letter of a pro-Trump “super-PAC” PR person, but something gives me that feeling.

Yes, lots of people have said ‘surely the GOP will come to its senses’ at various times over the past 25 years, and mostly they’ve been wrong. And I’m not exactly saying that myself, just that I’m going to guess his popularity has peaked.

Posted in 2016 Election | Comments Off

Feel Safer Now?

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Dog’s ‘Terrorist-Sounding’ Name Freezes Online Payment.

The guy wrote “Dash” in the memo line of his payment to his dog-walker, “Dash” being the dog’s name. Chase bank decided that (1) this sounded suspiciously like “Daesh”, a terrorist group; (2) there was a meaningful possibility that a terrorist would write in the name of a terror group on a check in case the recipient didn’t know what it was; and (3) there was a meaningful possibility that the terrorists used the “remove every other vowel” code.

To rub salt in it the dog owner is quoted as saying “I think anything we can do to stop the terrorists and the funding of terrorists, let’s do it.” Then again, he did say that his initial reaction was “Great, they’re stopping the world’s stupidest terrorist.”

No word on what the intended recipient of the check thought about having a payment held up for something like this.

Posted in National Security | 1 Comment

Legal Theory Bookworm Recommends “Robot Law”

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Thank you Larry Solum! More here.

Previously: Just Got My Advance Copy of Robot Law.

Posted in Robots | Comments Off

We Robot 2016 News

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Papers for We Robot 2016 are now available from the Program Page — look for the colorful hyperlinks. If you’re coming, or if you are planning to follow along online, you will want to read as many of the papers as you can before the event. We Robot authors do not present their papers; instead we jump straight to the discussant, who summarizes the paper and then offers comments. The author(s) respond briefly, and then we turn it over to our amazing attendees for their questions and reactions. This makes for a much more substantive session, but it works better if you’ve read the paper in advance.

If you would prefer to download the papers all at once, here’s a zip file with all of the papers.

And if you haven’t registered yet, don’t delay: Registration closes on Monday at 5pm, and there will be only a very limited number of seats at the door.

(Links fixed!)

Posted in Robots, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off

Bush PAC Post-Mortem

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Worth a read. Also includes this local-interest gem from operative Mike Murphy:

He cites the old Eric Hoffer maxim: Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.

Take, for instance, he says, the Tea Party — “a racket, though it’s supposed to be a nonracket,” full of faux four-star generals who say, ” ‘You’ve got to pay me because … I represent the Nebraska sub-Army 14 of the Tea Party,’ and there’d be like four or five guys arguing over who’s in charge of it.” It reminds Murphy of when he used to do referendum campaigns in Dade County. “There’d always be these charming old Cubans who’d come in and say, ‘Colonel Escobar is willing to endorse on his radio show, but he requires certain considerations. One million dollars.’ “

“And we’d be like, ‘Thirty-five hundred dollars cash and lunch today.'”

“‘We agree!'”

— Debriefing Mike Murphy | The Weekly Standard.

Posted in 2016 Election | Comments Off