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RFK Jr.’s FDA Is Now Also In Turmoil Over Corrupt Drug Regulator

3 weeks 5 days ago
While we’ve talked quite a bit about the horror show that is RFK Jr.’s position as Secretary of HHS, most of the focus of those posts has been around what is happening at the CDC. And for good reason, too. The ongoing measles outbreak, the quick hiring/firing of Susan Monarez, and all the anti-vaxx bullshit […]
Timothy Geigner

Techdirt Podcast Episode 438: Saving Democracy From Fascism

3 weeks 6 days ago
Support us on Patreon » Three years ago, Mike Brock joined us on the podcast to discuss a decentralized web project, and more recently we’ve published several cross-posts from his Substack about the horrifying goings-on in American politics and media. Today, Mike joins the podcast once again for a far-ranging conversation about the state of democracy […]
Leigh Beadon

Cowardice And Capitulation At Cornell

3 weeks 6 days ago
On Friday it was announced that my alma mater, Cornell, had caved to the Trump administration and agreed to a “deal” the federal government had offered them to get back the funding it had illegally cut off from Cornell as part of its authoritarian efforts to bully top universities into submission. This capitulation came just […]
Mike Masnick

Federal Court Issues Injunction Permanently Blocking Deployment Of Military Troops To Portland

3 weeks 6 days ago
We’ll see where this goes from here, but for the moment, this order [PDF], issued by federal judge Karin Immergut still stands: For the above reasons, this Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated that Defendants violated 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and the Tenth Amendment and satisfy the requirements for a permanent injunction. Therefore, this Court […]
Tim Cushing

Conservative Judge Resigns Rather Than Stay Silent On Trump’s Constitutional Assault

3 weeks 6 days ago
Reagan-appointed federal judge Mark Wolf has resigned from the bench in Massachusetts, and his explanation is blunt: he can no longer bear the ethical constraints that prevent judges from speaking out publicly while Trump dismantles the rule of law. This doesn’t happen. Federal judges—especially Reagan appointees—don’t quit to become activists. They stay in their robes […]
Mike Masnick

Chuck Schumer Doesn’t Know What Time It Is

4 weeks 1 day ago
After forty days. Forty days of the longest government shutdown in American history. Forty days of Democrats saying this is the line—healthcare for twenty-two million Americans. Forty days of holding firm while Republicans bet Democrats would break first. Chuck Schumer just taught Donald Trump that hostage-taking works. Not because he had to. Because the framework he operates within cannot […]
Mike Brock

DHS Wants States To Hand Over Driver’s License Data For Citizenship Checks

4 weeks 1 day ago
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. The Department of Homeland Security says it intends to add state driver’s license information to a swiftly expanding federal system envisioned as a one-stop shop for checking citizenship. The plan, outlined in a public notice posted Thursday, is the latest step in an unprecedented Trump administration initiative […]
Jen Fifield and Zach Despart

Trump Falls For Satire From Site Called ‘The Dunning Kruger Times’

4 weeks 1 day ago
Over the weekend, the President of the United States fell for obvious satire from a website literally called “The Dunning Kruger Times.” Donald Trump—a man with access to the best, most accurate information on basically any subject—posted to Truth Social a screenshot claiming that “DOGE halts yearly payments of $2.5 million to Barack Obama for […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: TP1 Multi-Device 4-Touch Recognition Wireless Trackpad

4 weeks 1 day ago
Upgrade your workspace with the Turonic TP1 — a wireless touchpad designed for seamless navigation, precision gestures, and multi-device flexibility. Whether you’re working on a laptop, desktop, or tablet, the TP1 offers smooth, intuitive control across Windows, Android, and Linux devices. With both Bluetooth 5.0 and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, you can switch between devices in […]
Daily Deal

Trump OLC On Boat Strikes: The Less Of A Threat Posed By Boat Occupants, The More Justified We Are In Murdering Them

4 weeks 1 day ago
This administration isn’t content to be normal awful. It insists on being ghastly awful as often as possible. Not content to eject hundreds of migrants into foreign torture prisons, the administration has decided it’s time to start killing foreign people in boats just because. That’s not me using a worn-out turn of phrase. That was […]
Tim Cushing

YouTube TV Customers Lose Access To ABC Channels, DVR Recordings Due To Annoying, Avoidable Disney Contract Dispute

4 weeks 1 day ago
For the last decade or so, U.S. cable TV customers have been plagued by a steady parade of content blackouts as cable providers and broadcasters bicker over new programming contracts. For the end user, so-called “retransmission feuds” usually go something like this: a TV broadcaster demands a cable company pay significantly more money to carry […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 month ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy with a comment on our post about receiving a bogus DMCA takedown from CyberGhost over our previous post about receiving a bogus DMCA takedown from CyberGhost: Sometimes the cover-up’s worse than the crime I’m really struggling to think of a non-damning […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: November 2nd – 8th

1 month ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we featured a guest post about why most complaints about Section 230 are really just complaints about the First Amendment, and another with a deep dive into the implications of the presidential election for various issues in tech. As the votes from said election poured in, we noted […]
Leigh Beadon

‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

1 month ago
Thankfully, the Stop Killing Games movement isn’t stopping this time. YouTuber Ross Scott kicked the movement off in 2024 to generate political action around the disappearance of games that people had bought purely because the company that sold them decided to no longer support them or run backend infrastructure needed play them. While the movement […]
Timothy Geigner

The Department Of Defense Wants Less Proof Its Software Works

1 month ago
When Congress eventually reopens, the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will be moving toward a vote. This gives us a chance to see the priorities of the Secretary of Defense and his Congressional allies when it comes to the military—and one of those priorities is buying technology, especially AI, with less of an obligation to prove it’s effective […]
Matthew Guariglia

Fox News Desperately Tries To Repair The Broken Simulation

1 month ago
Within twenty-four hours of Republicans getting crushed in elections they’d convinced themselves were winnable, Fox News deployed the counter-move. Not denial—the losses were too visible for that. Bret Baier had already explained to Fox & Friends viewers how bad it was. “It’s a big loss,” he said. Not just the results, but “the spreads are surprising.” Not acceptance—that would […]
Mike Brock