Category Archives: Politics

I Expect We’ll Get Crap Like this Daily

Posted on December 5, 2016 by dsupport

Donald Trump wants to ‘close up’ the Internet:

In a speech at the U.S.S. Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Monday, Trump referenced the use by ISIS of social media as a recruitment tool. He recommended a discussion with Bill Gates to shut off parts of the Internet.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,” Trump said. “We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.”

Well, count me as one of the foolish I guess. Although not quite so foolish as to think Bill Gates runs parts of the Internet.

PS. To those offended by the headline: what else am I supposed to call it? Bullshit?

Posted in Law: Free Speech, Law: Internet Law, Trump | 5 Comments

This is What an Informer Society Looks Like

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Miamians Are Going on Twitter to Ask Donald Trump to Deport Their Exes.

According to the New Times, “dozens of folks,” many in the Miami area, are tweeting addresses and photos, some cc’ing the police, in the hopes of getting their revenge. They have screenshots of examples.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Trump | 1 Comment

Take the George Washington Pledge

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Harold Feld launches it:

“I pledge to give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. I pledge to work toward a world where everyone may sit under their own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid. A world that scatters light and not darkness in our paths, and makes us all in our several vocations useful here, and in due time and way everlastingly happy.”

Also 20 ideas on how to navigate the coming times from Yale History Prof. Timothy Synder. Here are just the first three:

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You’ve already done this, haven’t you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

2. Defend an institution. Follow the courts or the media, or a court or a newspaper. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you are making them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions don’t protect themselves. They go down like dominoes unless each is defended from the beginning.

3. Recall professional ethics. When the leaders of state set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become much more important. It is hard to break a rule-of-law state without lawyers, and it is hard to have show trials without judges.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Trump | 2 Comments

Root for Reince

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

reince_priebus_by_gage_skidmoreUM Law alumnus Reince Priebus profiled in NYT Mag as Reince Priebus, Normalizer in Chief and in Miami Herald puff, Before making his name in politics, Priebus was a force at Miami law school . The Herald article includes this:

Without exception, more than half a dozen people interviewed for this story who knew Priebus during law school described him as affable, thoughtful and kind.

Andrew Moss, who was in the same first-year section as Priebus, recounted to a Miami Herald reporter an anecdote about going to grab a bite at Wendy’s with Priebus when they were working on a project. A homeless man lay outside. Priebus didn’t have much money, Moss said, but he bought two meals and gave one to the man.

Say what you will, he’s Trump’s least crazy appointee so far — by several miles.  Whether he’ll have actual power with alt-right Bannon down the hall remains to be seen.

Posted in Trump, U.Miami | 4 Comments

Medicare at Risk

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

medicare003Is Paul Ryan’s Dream of Gutting Medicare About to Come True?

The Donald Trump transition website states that the administration will “modernize Medicare”—a euphemism, according to Jonathan Cohn and Jeffrey Young at the Huffington Post, that corresponds exactly to what Ryan has in mind.

I wonder how the maker of that sign is going to feel?

Posted in Trump | 1 Comment

Popovich Unleashes on Trump

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

Greg Popovich is famous as the basketball coach who doesn’t give interviews, or gives one-word answers to silly questions.  Although my favorite had three words — his reply during a game in the Finals when he was asked for his second-half plan and he said “Score more points.”

Well, he can sure talk when he wants to, as captured in this article in the – San Antonio Express-News, Gregg Popovich uncensored: Full transcript of thoughts on Donald Trump.

Posted in Basketball, Trump | 1 Comment