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  31. <title>RFK Jr. Vowed To Find The Environmental Causes Of Autism. Then He Shut Down Research Trying To Do Just That.</title>
  32. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/rfk-jr-vowed-to-find-the-environmental-causes-of-autism-then-he-shut-down-research-trying-to-do-just-that/</link>
  33. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/rfk-jr-vowed-to-find-the-environmental-causes-of-autism-then-he-shut-down-research-trying-to-do-just-that/#respond</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Sharon Lerner]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2025 03:04:35 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[autism]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[erin mccanlies]]></category>
  40. <category><![CDATA[health and human services]]></category>
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  46. <description><![CDATA[This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Erin McCanlies was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase [&#8230;]]]></description>
  47. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>This story was <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-jr-autism-environment-research-funding" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">originally published</a> by ProPublica.</em> <em>Republished under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">CC BY-NC-ND 3.0</a></em> <em>license.</em></p>
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  49. <p>Erin McCanlies was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase in the condition and vowed to gather “the most credible scientists from all over the world” to solve the mystery.</p>
  50. <p>Nothing like that has ever been done before, he told an interviewer.</p>
  51. <p>McCanlies was stunned. The work&nbsp;<em>had</em>&nbsp;been done.</p>
  52. <p>“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing!” she said to her husband, Fred.</p>
  53. <p>As an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which Kennedy oversees, McCanlies had spent much of the past two decades studying how parents’ exposure to workplace chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. Just three weeks earlier, she’d been finalizing her fourth major paper on the topic when Kennedy eliminated her entire division. Kennedy has also overseen tens of millions of dollars in cuts to federal funding for research on autism, including its environmental causes.</p>
  54. <p>For 20 years, Kennedy has espoused the debunked theory that autism is caused by vaccines, dismissing evidence to the contrary by arguing that vaccine manufacturers, researchers and regulators all have an interest in obscuring their harms.</p>
  55. <p>He remains skeptical of the scientists who have been funded by his own agency to study the neurodevelopmental condition. “We need to stop trusting the experts,” he told right-wing host&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=w_fzlwxJZAA">Tucker Carlson in a June interview</a>, going on to suggest that previous studies that found no relationship between vaccines and autism were marred by “trickery” and researchers’ self-interest.</p>
  56. <p>In contrast, Kennedy told Carlson that under his leadership, and with a new, federally funded&nbsp;<a href="https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news/2025/05/announcing-the-nih-autism-data-science-initiative-research-opportunity">$50 million autism research initiative</a>, “We’re going to get real studies done for the first time.”</p>
  57. <p>Some autism researchers fear that the effort will manipulate data to blame the condition on vaccines. “Kennedy has never expressed an open mind, an open attitude towards what are the fundamental causes of autism,” said Helen Tager-Flusberg, a Boston University psychologist who founded a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coalitionofautismscientists.org/">coalition of scientists</a>&nbsp;concerned about his approach to autism. In a June statement, the group said the initiative lacks transparency and that Kennedy “casually ignores decades of high quality research that preceded his oversight.”</p>
  58. <p>As Kennedy promotes his new initiative, ProPublica has found that he has also taken aim at the traditional scientific approach to autism, shutting down McCanlies’ lab and stripping funding from more than 50 autism-related studies. Meanwhile, he has stood by as the Trump administration encourages the departure of hundreds of federal employees with experience studying the harm caused by environmental threats and rolls back protections from pollution and chemicals, including some linked to autism.</p>
  59. <p>Kennedy did not respond to requests for an interview, and an HHS spokesperson did not answer specific questions from ProPublica, including those related to the concerns of the coalition of autism scientists. “Under the leadership of Secretary Kennedy, HHS is taking action on autism as the public health emergency it is,” the spokesperson wrote. “NIH is fully committed to leaving no stone unturned in confronting this catastrophic epidemic — employing only gold-standard, evidence-based science. The Department will follow the science, wherever it leads.”</p>
  60. <p>Genetic factors account for a significant portion of autism cases. Research like the kind McCanlies and other government-funded scientists have conducted over the past two decades has established that environmental factors have a role, too, and can combine with genetics. Multiple factors can even converge within the same individual. Some of those environmental risks could be reduced by the very measures the Trump administration is rolling back.</p>
  61. <p>Kennedy would have been well positioned to advocate for researchers looking into the environmental causes of autism while sitting on President Donald Trump’s cabinet.</p>
  62. <p>The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of his former attorney general, Bobby, Kennedy spent decades as an attorney battling some of the world’s most notorious corporate polluters. Once heralded by Time Magazine as one of the “<a href="https://content.time.com/time/covers/asia/0,16641,19990111,00.html">heroes for the planet</a>,” he railed against actions by the first Trump administration, complaining in his 2017 introduction to the book “Climate in Crisis” that 33 years’ worth of his work was “reduced to ruins as the president mounted his assault on science and environmental protection.”</p>
  63. <p>But recently he has remained publicly silent as the Environmental Protection Agency halts research and weakens regulations on air pollution and chemicals, including some McCanlies and her colleagues have identified as possible factors in the development of autism.</p>
  64. <p>“I don’t think he’s aware of my work,” McCanlies said, “or most of the literature that’s been published on what the causes of autism are.”</p>
  65. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  66. <p>McCanlies was studying how a toxic chemical,&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article-abstract/157/5/388/76647?redirectedFrom=fulltext">beryllium</a>, causes chronic lung inflammation in workers when she began to think seriously about autism.</p>
  67. <p>It was 2005, and her college-age stepson had a job shadowing children with autism. As he described helping them navigate playground dynamics, reminding them to return a wave or a greeting, McCanlies wondered whether their behaviors might be tied to chemicals their parents had encountered on the job. Could the exposures have altered genes their parents passed down? Could they have infiltrated the kids’ developing brains through the womb or through breast milk?</p>
  68. <p>The questions remained abstract until McCanlies met another researcher named Irva Hertz-Picciotto, who had a unique data set. She had collected detailed information on the occupations of two large groups of parents: those who had children with autism and those whose kids developed neurotypically. Comparing the groups’ chemical exposures before their children were born could help illuminate causes of the condition, McCanlies realized.</p>
  69. <p>Hertz-Picciotto, an environmental epidemiologist based at the University of California, Davis, was a pioneer in the search for the causes of autism. In 2009, she published a&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.lww.com/epidem/abstract/2009/01000/the_rise_in_autism_and_the_role_of_age_at.16.aspx">much-cited paper</a>&nbsp;highlighting a sevenfold increase in diagnoses in California. While others had asserted the rise was due to increased awareness and broadened diagnostic criteria, Hertz-Picciotto found those factors could only partially explain it. She and others went on to document additional contributors to autism risk, including parental age at the time of birth, a mother’s fever during pregnancy and more traditional environmental considerations, such as chemical exposures.</p>
  70. <p>McCanlies hadn’t studied autism. But she offered Hertz-Picciotto her experience in genetics and epidemiology as well as the considerable resources of her agency. NIOSH was established in 1970 to investigate the dangers of the workplace, and its statisticians and industrial hygienists were among the world’s experts on the health impacts of chemical exposures.</p>
  71. <p>Their first&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22399411/'">collaboration</a>, published in 2012, used Hertz-Picciotto’s data to see if parents of children with autism were more likely to have been exposed to chemicals already thought to be dangerous to the developing brain. The work was technical and time-consuming, but the analysis showed a clear relationship: Mothers and fathers of children with autism were more likely than the parents of unaffected children to have been exposed to solvents such as lacquer, varnish and xylene on the job. These solvents evaporate quickly and can be easily inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chemical plant workers, painters, electricians, plumbers, construction workers, cleaners and medical personnel are among those who may be exposed to these solvents.</p>
  72. <p>The sample size was small — just 174 families. But the results lined up with&nbsp;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1570060/">recent findings</a>&nbsp;showing possible links between autism and exposure to metals and certain solvents during pregnancy or early childhood, including a solvent called&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20562626/">methylene chloride</a>. They also tracked with studies linking the chemicals to miscarriage, reproductive problems, birth defects and developmental problems other than autism.</p>
  73. <p>McCanlies and Hertz-Picciotto followed up with a 2019 study that looked at&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31248991/">more than 950 families</a>. It showed that women exposed to solvents at work during pregnancy and the three months leading up to it were 1.5 times more likely to have a child with autism than women not exposed to the chemicals. (The study did not find a link for chemically exposed men.)</p>
  74. <p>Their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935123005613?via%3Dihub#bib66">third study</a>, published in 2023, took the link between solvent exposure and autism as a starting point. Using blood samples to examine the genetic makeup of the parents of children with autism, McCanlies and Hertz-Picciotto found that when exposed to solvents on the job, people with specific variants of 31 genes had an especially elevated risk of having a child with autism. Their genetic makeup appeared to increase the risk that solvents by themselves posed. Some of those 31 genes help cells connect with one another; others play a role in helping cells migrate to different areas so they can grow into the various parts of the brain; still others ensure that cells clear away toxic substances.</p>
  75. <p>Researchers were also making strides under the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a division of Health and Human Services, which has financed investigations into dozens of environmental contaminants. Several have been linked to autism, including&nbsp;<a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP9509">air pollution</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28934093/">certain</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29478806/">pesticides</a>, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0161813X22001929">plastic additive known as BPA</a>&nbsp;and diesel exhaust, which causes “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29678176/">autism-like behavioral changes” in mice</a>. In 2021, Hertz-Picciotto co-published a study linking&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33387879/">“forever chemicals” called PFOA and PFNA</a>&nbsp;with the condition. (In 2023, a&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.lww.com/epidem/abstract/2023/05000/prenatal_exposure_to_per__and_polyfluoroalkyl.19.aspx">second paper</a>&nbsp;also found an association with PFNA.) Other government-funded research has established a link between autism and another solvent,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/tce-ban-cancer-parkinsons-trump-republicans">trichloroethylene, also known as TCE</a>, which has been used for dry cleaning, manufacturing and degreasing machines.</p>
  76. <p>Together, the results have shown that many exposures can increase the likelihood of autism, and that there can be multiple causes for any one person.</p>
  77. <p>At least one exposure can have the opposite effect:&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22648721/">A study</a>&nbsp;by a researcher named Rebecca Schmidt — and funded by the NIEHS and NIH — found that a B vitamin called folic acid was associated with a significant decrease in the chances of an autism diagnosis. More than a dozen studies have since confirmed the association.</p>
  78. <p>One problem hung over much of autism research. The sweeping diagnosis includes everyone from people who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autistica.org.uk/what-is-autism/autistic-strengths">treasure their neurological differences</a>&nbsp;to those with debilitating symptoms, including repetitive behaviors, excruciating sensitivity to touch and sounds, and difficulty responding to social situations. McCanlies and Hertz–Picciotto wondered whether certain chemicals were linked to the most severe cases or to specific symptoms.</p>
  79. <p>In 2023, they set about finding out.</p>
  80. <p>They were preparing to submit their study for publication when newly inaugurated Trump put Kennedy in charge of America’s health.</p>
  81. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  82. <p>Despite having made chronic health conditions the focus of his agenda, Kennedy has quietly abided environmental policies that will exacerbate these problems, including autism.</p>
  83. <p>The Environmental Protection Agency, under Administrator Lee Zeldin, is rolling back rules and regulations that will result in an increase in air pollution, which&nbsp;<a href="https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/brainmed/1/1/article-p31.xml">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021005237">studies</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30877-5">linked to</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP9509">autism</a>. The agency is in the process of reversing bans on several chemicals, including TCE, one of the solvents associated with the disorder, and has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26054020-20250512-doc-263-epa-letter-regarding-reconsideration/">told a federal court it won’t</a>&nbsp;legally defend certain aspects of a ban on methylene chloride, another of the solvents linked to autism. It also began dismantling its Office of Research and Development, which has funded research into the&nbsp;<a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract_id/8397">environmental conditions</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://assessments.epa.gov/risk/document/&amp;deid%3D351555#:~:text=5%2C%20and%20odds%20of%20ASD,not%20necessarily%20reflect%20EPA%20policy.">contributing to autism</a>. According to an EPA spokesperson, more than 2,300 workers have so far elected to leave the agency through Trump administration programs encouraging early retirement and resignation.</p>
  84. <p>The EPA also began canceling grants, including one it had given to Schmidt, the researcher who studied the protective effect of folic acid. Schmidt had been awarded $1.3 million to determine whether air pollution from wildfires might increase the risk of various neurological conditions. Schmidt and her colleagues had just done preliminary analysis and found that there was a significant association between wildfire pollution exposure and autism when she received a letter saying that the grant was terminated because the project was “no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” After a judge ruled in a class-action lawsuit on behalf of University of California researchers alleging their funding was unlawfully terminated, her grant was reinstated last month. But the EPA has appealed the judge’s ruling, leaving Schmidt unsure about the fate of the project.</p>
  85. <p>Schmidt said there is an urgent need to finish the study and warn people about how to avoid the dangers from wildfire smoke by staying indoors and using air filters and N95 masks. “Millions of pregnant women are getting exposed as we speak,” she said.</p>
  86. <p>Meanwhile, Kennedy has presided over his own gutting of research. Known for sharing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOGNznbJPY0">videos of his bare-chested workouts</a>, he likened his agency’s cuts to getting rid of “<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/ny-post-kennedy-op-ed-slashing-unhealthy-fat-hhs.html">unhealthy fat</a>,” but his plan to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge-fact-sheet.html#:~:text=The%20plan%20combines%20personnel%20cuts,will%20be%20reduced%20to%2062%2C000">reduce the staff of HHS by 20,000</a>&nbsp;amounts to slashing the workforce by roughly a quarter, including veteran scientists. Among the divisions Kennedy eliminated was one that studied air quality and collected data on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/environmental-exposure-report/about/index.html">chemicals found in human blood</a>. Some workers in the division were subsequently reinstated. After a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/05/14/nx-s1-5398092/niosh-reinstates-occupational-health-workers">lawsuit and pressure from Congress</a>, HHS has also rehired some NIOSH workers, though none at the division where McCanlies worked. Those whose jobs have not been reinstated remain on administrative leave.</p>
  87. <p>The reorganization plan for HHS involves consolidating the remnants of these parts of the agency, along with several others, into a new division called the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-restructuring-doge.html">Administration for a Healthy America</a>. Asked about the transition, an HHS spokesperson told ProPublica in an email that the reorganization would save taxpayers $1.8 billion a year and that “critical programs will continue.”</p>
  88. <p>Meanwhile, a ProPublica review of federal data found that more than $40 million in grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health for dozens of autism-related research projects were canceled under Kennedy’s watch. Some had been awarded to universities the administration is now targeting, while others ran afoul of Trump’s “anti-woke” priorities by mentioning gender and other verboten terms. Among them was a grant to Harvard University to use data on nearly half a million Israeli children to evaluate whether men’s exposure to air pollution affects the risk of having a child with autism. (A small number of grants have been recently reinstated.) A survey of researchers conducted by the Autism Science Foundation, which tallied cuts to training grants and the anticipated cuts to future grants over the next few years, estimated that the total loss of funding could be tens of millions more.</p>
  89. <p>“We’re talking about probably decades of delays and setbacks,” said Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation. “To take money away from all these areas of need to focus on a question that the HHS director considers high priority seems not scientific and not the way that science is done.”</p>
  90. <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>
  91. <p>Housed under the National Institutes of Health, Kennedy’s new $50-million Autism Data Science Initiative is looking to fund two- to three-year research projects that plumb large public and private datasets to find “<a href="https://dpcpsi.nih.gov/autism-data-science-initiative">possible contributors to the causes of autism</a>” as well as conduct research on existing treatments.</p>
  92. <p>With the deadline for his promised discovery fast approaching, Kennedy recently acknowledged that his initial six-month timeline was overly optimistic. He told Carlson he should have “some initial indicator answers” about the causes of autism by September, his original deadline, and promised unqualified answers within another six months.</p>
  93. <p>While the NIH typically releases the names of the scientists on the committees that review grant applications and the criteria they use to review them, it has not done so in this case. Nor has the agency clarified what role NIH staff will have in awarding the grants, who will make the final selection, or what terms and conditions researchers must agree to if they receive funds. HHS did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about who will make the final grant selection and why the agency has not yet made this information public, but a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPq_99zXhkk">video NIH created for applicants</a>&nbsp;of the funding acknowledges that reviews of the proposals “do not follow the traditional NIH review process.” According to the video, the process was “designed to ensure integrity, fairness and transparency.”</p>
  94. <p>Hertz-Picciotto, who laments the fact that Kennedy is “shutting down good studies,” is among the researchers in her field who have decided to apply for the funding. “Some of his agenda is really ridiculous and very counterproductive,” she said. “But if something good can be done with this money, I’d like to be part of that.”</p>
  95. <p>If her project is approved, she plans to hire McCanlies to consult on it.</p>
  96. <p>McCanlies said she agreed to work on the project because she has complete confidence in her longtime colleague, if not the health secretary. “I don’t trust him at all,” she said.</p>
  97. <p>McCanlies had never paid much attention to Kennedy — or to politics. Throughout the seven presidential administrations that governed while she had been at NIOSH, her work had been utterly uncontroversial. But weeks after his confirmation, she knew her job was in peril. She had deleted the first email she received from Trump’s Office of Personnel Management. The tone was so strange and disrespectful, hinting that she might be punished if she didn’t respond by confirming her email address, that she assumed it was a phishing attempt. By the time she received a second, suggesting that she find a “higher productivity” job in the private sector, firings and budget cuts were rolling across federal agencies.</p>
  98. <p>The 58-year-old, who has short, greying hair, hazel eyes and three graduate degrees, hadn’t been ready to leave NIOSH’s Health Effects Lab in Morgantown, West Virginia, a place where she had mentored young colleagues, taught a lunchtime meditation class and helped conduct several yearslong research projects. The lab is also where she met Fred, her husband, another Ph.D. scientist who studied workplace chemical hazards. She reluctantly put in for early retirement just days before the entire lab was dissolved.</p>
  99. <p>McCanlies spent her final days at NIOSH finishing her last paper, which explores the association between workplace chemicals and the severity of autism. Normally, she would have her supervisor sign off on her submission to a journal, but he had already lost his job. The rest of her colleagues were gone, too, and the lab’s hallways were empty as she gave the manuscript a final edit.</p>
  100. <p>She felt proud of the study, which answered some of the questions she and Hertz-Picciotto had posed years ago. There were indeed links between exposures and the severity of autism. Parents’ exposure to plastics was “consistently and significantly associated” with lower cognitive scores in their children who had autism, increases in “aberrant behaviors” and deficits in basic life skills, the study found. The exposure was also linked to particular symptoms of autism, including social withdrawal, hyperactivity and repetitive behaviors such as hand flapping and body rocking. Higher autism severity scores and weaker daily living skills were also linked with ethylene oxide. Last year, the EPA imposed stricter limits on the chemical, which is used as a sterilizer. But the agency is now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/trump-epa-announces-reconsideration-air-rules-regulating-american-energy-manufacturing">reconsidering</a>&nbsp;those restrictions, and, in July, Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/regulatory-relief-for-certain-stationary-sources-to-promote-american-chemical-manufacturing-security/">exempted some of the biggest polluters</a>&nbsp;from them.</p>
  101. <p>The paper, which is now&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1438463925000951">available as a preprint</a>, recommended that regulatory agencies “consider increasing awareness of these hazards and make clear recommendations for implementing protective measures at the worksite.”</p>
  102. <p>Having just watched so many occupational health experts forced to leave their jobs, McCanlies suspected their advice was unlikely to be heeded anytime soon.</p>
  103. ]]></content:encoded>
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  109. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514502</post-id> </item>
  110. <item>
  111. <title>Federal Prosecutors: Thrown Sandwiches Are A Felony But Openly Carrying Rifles Isn&#8217;t A Problem</title>
  112. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/federal-prosecutors-thrown-sandwiches-are-a-felony-but-openly-carrying-rifles-isnt-a-problem/</link>
  113. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/federal-prosecutors-thrown-sandwiches-are-a-felony-but-openly-carrying-rifles-isnt-a-problem/#comments</comments>
  115. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  116. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
  117. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
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  127.  
  128. <description><![CDATA[Is throwing a sandwich at someone a felony? Well, that all depends on a few factors. The most important considerations are these: What would normally be rhetorical questions were answered in Washington, D.C. recently. A (now-former) DOJ employee allegedly (well, the video makes it pretty clear there&#8217;s nothing &#8220;alleged&#8221; about it) threw a sandwich at [&#8230;]]]></description>
  129. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Is throwing a sandwich at someone a felony? Well, that all depends on a few factors. The most important considerations are these:</p>
  130. <ol class="wp-block-list">
  131. <li>Who was the sandwich thrown at?</li>
  132. <li>Does the &#8220;victim&#8221; of the sandwich throwing wish to press charges?</li>
  133. </ol>
  134. <p>What would normally be rhetorical questions were answered in Washington, D.C. recently. A (now-former) DOJ employee allegedly (well, the video makes it pretty clear there&#8217;s nothing &#8220;alleged&#8221; about it) threw a sandwich at some federal officers, following a preamble about their presumed fascism. (Again, the video clearly demonstrates there&#8217;s at least some basis for the accusations of fascism.)</p>
  135. <p>Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s <em>currently</em> making the DOJ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODu0y6UVeI" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODu0y6UVeI">all frothed-and-bothered</a>: </p>
  136. <figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">
  137. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  138. <iframe title="Footage shows man throwing sandwich at US border agent in Washington DC" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qODu0y6UVeI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
  139. </div>
  140. </figure>
  141. <p>The pink-shirted alleged assailant is (allegedly) Sean Dunn, who has since been fired by the DOJ. This did not pass without comment because of course it didn&#8217;t. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/dc-sandwich-arrest-trump-00509682" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/14/dc-sandwich-arrest-trump-00509682">Former Qatar lobbyist/current Attorney General Pam Bondi</a> made sure everyone knew just how unacceptable it is to throw sandwiches at federal cops:</p>
  142. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  143. <p><em>A man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal officer patrolling a Washington street as part of President Donald Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital was fired from the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday.</em></p>
  144. <p><em>“This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” Bondi&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1956010229348413694" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote on X</a>. “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”</em></p>
  145. </blockquote>
  146. <p>Man, it ain&#8217;t much of a &#8220;Deep State&#8221; if it&#8217;s reduced to throwing sandwiches at cops on public streets while wearing a polo shirt and khaki shorts. Meanwhile, this <em>entire</em> administration is a daily demonstration that it&#8217;s not only <em>possible</em> to work for this administration while &#8220;disrespecting the government and law enforcement,&#8221; but that those acts are likely <em>essential</em> to remaining employed by Trump. After all, this is the same administration that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7l47xrpko" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7l47xrpko">pardoned a bunch of people</a> who assaulted cops during <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/01/07/politics-is-not-game/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/01/07/politics-is-not-game/">a failed insurrection attempt</a> and has elevated a legal adviser who instructed DOJ lawyers to say <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/28/2nd-whistleblower-confirms-trump-judge-pick-told-doj-to-say-fuck-you-to-federal-courts-opposing-mass-deportation-efforts/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/28/2nd-whistleblower-confirms-trump-judge-pick-told-doj-to-say-fuck-you-to-federal-courts-opposing-mass-deportation-efforts/">&#8220;fuck you&#8221; to federal courts</a> to a lifetime appellate judge position.</p>
  147. <p>Never mind all that, though. The Trump administration has <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/11/trump-pretends-crime-rates-are-up-to-justify-sending-troops-to-dc-streets-too-many-americans-believe-him/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/11/trump-pretends-crime-rates-are-up-to-justify-sending-troops-to-dc-streets-too-many-americans-believe-him/">&#8220;federalized&#8221; D.C. law enforcement</a>, claiming the city is too violent to handle its own policing &#8212; something entirely based on the fact that a young DOGE stooge <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/big-balls-dc-attack-update-police-release-photo-person-interest" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/big-balls-dc-attack-update-police-release-photo-person-interest">got manhandled a bit</a> in the D.C. metro area by a couple of teens who were apparently entirely unimpressed by his &#8220;Big Balls&#8221; nickname.</p>
  148. <p>Crime stats <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/15/trumps-military-campaign-against-american-cities-expands/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/15/trumps-military-campaign-against-american-cities-expands/">don&#8217;t support Trump&#8217;s claims</a> about the city&#8217;s lawlessness. But that&#8217;s entirely besides the point. It&#8217;s all about the show of force and the additional power flowing from that. Trump and his lackeys continue to claim the city has never been safer now that it&#8217;s been invaded by federal officers and military troops. Odds are, it&#8217;s <em>only</em> as safe as it&#8217;s ever been, the occasional sandwich-based assault notwithstanding. </p>
  149. <p>But here&#8217;s the real bullshit, as pushed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/19/pirro-dc-rifle-shotgun-charges/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/19/pirro-dc-rifle-shotgun-charges/">former Fox News b-lister/current D.C. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro</a>:</p>
  150. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  151. <p><em>Federal prosecutors in D.C. have been instructed not to seek felony charges against people who are carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital, regardless of the strength of the evidence, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and an email reviewed by The Washington Post.</em></p>
  152. <p><em>The new policy, which Pirro said was crafted by the Justice Department and its solicitor general, marks a break with past practice.&nbsp;</em></p>
  153. </blockquote>
  154. <p>Huh. This looks like Pirro and/or her enablers just Googled &#8220;what guns do white people use most&#8221; and went from there. It&#8217;s clear this administration has nothing but hate for anything less white and straight than Trump, now that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn#Sexuality" data-type="link" data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn#Sexuality">Roy Cohn</a> has lost his relevance, not to mention his life. </p>
  155. <p>Now, comparing shotguns to sandwiches is the sort of thing that makes for truly absurd Venn diagrams. I&#8217;m not going to insult your intelligence by pretending these are things that are on equal footing when it comes to the (mis)management of local policing by the Trump administration.</p>
  156. <p>However, I will point this out: there is no law &#8212; federal or local &#8212; that <em>explicitly</em> criminalizes the throwing of sandwiches at another person. What looks like &#8220;assault&#8221; to people just <em>dying</em> for a reason to prosecute someone looks like nothing more than an annoyance to everyone else.</p>
  157. <p>On the other hand, D.C. law <em>explicitly</em> forbids the actions that are now being given a free pass by a Trump appointee:</p>
  158. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  159. <p><em>Prosecutors have used the&nbsp;<a href="https://archive.ph/o/HHaaO/https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/22-4504" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">D.C. law</a>&nbsp;at issue — which prohibits carrying shotguns or rifles, with narrow exceptions for permit-holders — to charge defendants in several high-profile incidents, including a 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://archive.ph/o/HHaaO/https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/fifteen-year-sentence-maryland-man-2019-shooting-northeast-dc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shotgun attack</a>&nbsp;in Northeast Washington and the&nbsp;<a href="https://archive.ph/o/HHaaO/https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/north-carolina-man-sentenced-four-year-prison-term-armed-assault-northwest-washington" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“Pizzagate” shooter</a>&nbsp;who targeted a restaurant in the city’s Chevy Chase neighborhood with an AR-15 rifle and a handgun in 2016.</em></p>
  160. </blockquote>
  161. <p>Pirro says the local law no longer matters, pointing to a recent SCOTUS ruling that suggested that pretty much any gun control regulations anywhere were illegal if they didn&#8217;t align with the ever-shifting &#8220;originalism&#8221; deployed by the court&#8217;s &#8220;conservative&#8221; majority.</p>
  162. <p>Now, as an average person too stupid to recognize the nuance of these disparities in law enforcement, I might idiotically assume that a person walking around with a shotgun is more &#8220;threatening&#8221; than a person walking around with a sandwich. </p>
  163. <p>But that is why I have never been invited to hold a position of power within the Trump administration. Beyond the fact that my body would reject the appointment faster than an unmatched kidney is the fact that I might see punishing sandwich throwers as a waste of federal dollars, and literally putting more guns on the streets as counterproductive, especially when I&#8217;m simultaneously claiming Trump is taking guns <em>off</em> the streets and making things safer by&#8230; um&#8230; making everyday life <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJshjMyg6no" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJshjMyg6no">look like a cutscene</a> removed from the opening of Half-Life 2 because it was a bit too on the nose with its police state scene-setting. </p>
  164. <p>Those of you still hoping Trump might yank you out of our comment section and into the annals of history we only <em>wish</em> we could forget will certainly show up here to point out everywhere my wandering argument goes wrong. </p>
  165. <p>I don&#8217;t care. There&#8217;s no truly logical argument to be made here because we are dealing with people who are deeply, truly, professionally uninterested in logic, facts, or anything that might interrupt the endless flow of totalitarian enablement bullshit that flows from their lips at every opportunity. Until you&#8217;re willing to hold the people you adore to the same standards as some random guy on the internet, don&#8217;t bother opening your type-holes here. </p>
  166. ]]></content:encoded>
  168. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/federal-prosecutors-thrown-sandwiches-are-a-felony-but-openly-carrying-rifles-isnt-a-problem/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  169. <slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
  172. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514684</post-id> </item>
  173. <item>
  174. <title>With Intel, Trump Continues His Race To Violate Every Clause In The Constitution By Now Arriving At The Takings Clause</title>
  175. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/with-intel-trump-continues-his-race-to-violate-every-clause-in-the-constitution-by-now-arriving-at-the-takings-clause/</link>
  176. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/with-intel-trump-continues-his-race-to-violate-every-clause-in-the-constitution-by-now-arriving-at-the-takings-clause/#comments</comments>
  178. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Cathy Gellis]]></dc:creator>
  179. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:25:41 +0000</pubDate>
  180. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  181. <category><![CDATA[intel]]></category>
  182. <category><![CDATA[5th amendment]]></category>
  183. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  184. <category><![CDATA[industrial policy]]></category>
  185. <category><![CDATA[nationalization]]></category>
  186. <category><![CDATA[ownership]]></category>
  187. <category><![CDATA[socialism]]></category>
  188. <category><![CDATA[takings]]></category>
  189. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=514634</guid>
  190.  
  191. <description><![CDATA[Trump&#8217;s quest to stress-test every line in the Constitution continues apace, with his declaration that the government now owns 10% of Intel looking like nothing but a great, big, gigantic taking. Of course, it is also terrible policy. While there are sometimes compelling arguments that companies should be in public hands, like for utilities, where [&#8230;]]]></description>
  192. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Trump&#8217;s quest to stress-test every line in the Constitution continues apace, with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/22/nx-s1-5509673/trump-says-us-government-will-take-stake-intel">his declaration that the government now owns 10% of Intel</a> looking like nothing but a great, big, gigantic taking.</p>
  193. <p>Of course, it is also terrible policy. While there are sometimes compelling arguments that companies should be in public hands, like for <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/16/california-proposed-a-law-making-broadband-affordable-for-poor-people-telecom-lobbyists-have-already-destroyed-it/">utilities</a>, where there is inadequate competition otherwise, or perhaps <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Chapter_11_reorganization">companies about to fail</a>, where equity in exchange for a publicly-funded bailout might make sense. But none of those arguments apply to a private company that, wobbly though it may have been recently (as are so many), nevertheless remains capable of participating in a competitive environment. Instead, in this case all the reasons <em>not</em> to have the state control the means of production apply, and none of the reasons why an exception should ever be made come anywhere near to it.</p>
  194. <p>Here it is simply Trump openly helping himself to a share of a going concern.</p>
  195. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote bluesky-embed is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  196. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  197. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  198. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwyzd6jwqq2x" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreibyil6zhhvbfjtfopxhdujflyrxpvw2tytfrmvb27vxngllpbvhke">
  199. <p lang="en">Trump: &#34;I said, &#39;You know what? I think the United States should be given 10% of Intel.&#39;&#34;</p>
  200. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed">Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lwyzd6jwqq2x?ref_src=embed">2025-08-22T17:49:02.744Z</a></p>
  201. </blockquote>
  202. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  203. </div>
  204. </figure>
  205. </blockquote>
  206. <p>Because he thinks he can, for this company and many others.</p>
  207. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote bluesky-embed is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  208. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  209. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  210. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxaecubnrg2y" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreicpr7ultiyx5ij2pgnlc5rsbmenic7xa5fyoise2d3a4bzsdpcjna">
  211. <p lang="en">Q: During the campaign, you called Kamala Harris a communist, but the Biden-Harris admin never called for nationalizing a private company like you&#39;re proposing with Intel. Is this the new way of doing industrial policy?TRUMP: Yeah. Sure it is. I want to try to get as much as I can.</p>
  212. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc?ref_src=embed">Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lxaecubnrg2y?ref_src=embed">2025-08-25T15:54:21.264Z</a></p>
  213. </blockquote>
  214. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  215. </div>
  216. </figure>
  217. </blockquote>
  218. <p>But he can&#8217;t. Because (among potentially lots of other reasons) it&#8217;s a taking.</p>
  219. <p>The <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt5-9-1/ALDE_00013280/">Fifth Amendment of the Constitution</a> closes with the prohibition, &#8220;nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.&#8221; And yet, if Trump were to succeed with this arrangement vis a vis Intel, that foreclosed scenario is exactly what would be happening.</p>
  220. <p>First, there has been no actual compensation. <a href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0000050863/000005086325000129/intc-20250822.htm">Details</a> are <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/annmlipton.bsky.social/post/3lwzk7yokqs2i">slowly</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/annmlipton.bsky.social/post/3lx7vmpnmrc2q">emerging</a> (and note, if this arrangement were truly above board then everyone would have been very clear on what was happening and why from the outset, so this sketchiness just adds to why it&#8217;s unconstitutional, if for no other reason than it obviates any notion of fairness) but it <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-intel-us-equity-stake-b538526b6698f7ebd31e99effd727693">appears</a> that Trump wants to convert $11.1 billion in grants and pledges that Intel was eligible for (and possibly already paid, or at least due), into the &#8220;payment&#8221; for an equity stake in the company.</p>
  221. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  222. <p><em>About $7.8 billion had been been pledged to Intel under the incentives program, but only $2.2 billion had been funded so far. Another $3.2 billion of the government investment is coming through the funds from another program called “Secure Enclave.”</em></p>
  223. </blockquote>
  224. <p>But this purpose is not what Congress authorized the grant payments for, which means that Trump would effectively be impounding that money and using it for a purpose other than what Congress had earmarked it for, even if nominally still involving the same recipient. For example, Congress, with the CHIPS Act (the apparent source for at least some of these grants), wanted to support American companies so they could continue to effectively compete in the world as private enterprises. <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/bjmquinn.bsky.social/post/3lx7vmlntvk2w">Not buy them</a>.</p>
  225. <p>The deal also got the government for the stock at a discount, turning that money to which Intel was entitled to into equity in greater proportion than the closing stock price would have equated to.</p>
  226. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  227. <p><em>The U.S. government is getting the stake through the conversion of $11.1 billion in previously issued funds and pledges. All told, the government is getting 433.3 million shares of non-voting stock priced at $20.47 apiece — a discount from Friday’s closing price at $24.80. That spread means the U.S. government already has a gain of $1.9 billion, on paper.</em></p>
  228. </blockquote>
  229. <p>Even if Trump had the authority to snatch back any money from the government Intel was due by converting it into payment for the equity, he wouldn&#8217;t have the authority to demand the discount. All the equity he obtained above what the share price would have equaled he got for free, or, to put it in Constitutional terms, without compensation.</p>
  230. <p>But even to the extent that some form of compensation could be construed from the arrangement, nothing about it qualifies as &#8220;just compensation&#8221; because there&#8217;s nothing just (or compensating) about forcing someone to do a deal that gives up something they had of value at the point of a gun, either literally or proverbially. Here Trump has been very busy very loudly and publicly loading up the metaphoric gun with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/11/intel-ceo-trump-lip-bu-tan.html">groundless pressure</a> against the CEO and the company if they did not do this deal. And everyone knows how his pressure is far from an idle threats given how he has already come after other people and their businesses when he&#8217;s set his sights on them.</p>
  231. <p>That the CEO or the company board might have somehow &#8220;agreed&#8221; to the deal, or even proposed its terms in the face of that pressure, does not make what is happening here any less wrongful. If making someone an offer they effectively can&#8217;t refuse could count as appropriate compensation then the <i>Sopranos</i> would have been a show about a Fortune 500 CEO, not a wanted criminal. You can&#8217;t do legitimate deals by extorting people. Whatever results is not a deal, and certainly not fair. Which means there cannot be &#8220;just compensation.&#8221; And without &#8220;just compensation&#8221; it means that the equity Trump has helped himself to is just an unconstitutional taking.</p>
  232. <p>Perversely, however, the one reason why it might <em>not</em> be a taking is that the likelihood that this equity position will be for &#8220;public use&#8221; benefiting the public treasury seems small. Trump&#8217;s idol Putin is infamous for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin%27s_Kleptocracy">redirecting shares of previously public industry</a> to cronies, allowing them to become unfathomably rich and powerful oligarchs by co-opting public resources and the benefits of earlier public investments, and there is no reason to believe, based on everything Trump has said and done to date, that Trump won&#8217;t try to emulate those kakistocratic tendencies. Nevertheless, because he is ostensibly using public power to further this scheme, it is likely still a taking, because at least for a brief moment there is at least the pretense that the entire enterprise is for the public benefit. It is that presumption that gives him the ostensible power to even attempt it.</p>
  233. <p>But, as Trump regularly demonstrates, not every exercise of lawful power is itself lawful. And this move to seize a portion of a private company is no exception. It is just as much a taking as any case that has ever been litigated, if not more so, given the sheer brazenness and scale. And arguably not the first even this term. For instance, there was the US Steel deal, where Trump obtained a &#8220;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/us/politics/golden-share-us-steel-nippon-trump.html">golden share</a>&#8221; as a condition for the merger. And there was his <a href="LAWFIRM">extraction of promises by law firms</a> for free legal work they otherwise had no obligation to provide as a means of avoiding his threats. There were, of course, other constitutional infirmities with the latter deals, aside from the potential takings issue, but those infirmities reflect the modus operandi of his takings based on unconstitutional threats against his targets, until they submit to his demands.</p>
  234. <p>With the US Steel &#8220;deal&#8221; the quid pro quo of the &#8220;golden share&#8221; exchange was a little more subtle, where that offer was a means of turning a government &#8220;no&#8221; to a &#8220;yes, but only if&#8230;&#8221; But there is still something irredeemably corrupt about this sort of bargain, where a company has to barter part of itself to the government for a policy result. The takings clause protects not just those that the government might take from but the public that also has an interest in making sure that the government strikes whatever deals it does fairly.</p>
  235. <p>Which is one reason why it shouldn&#8217;t matter for takings purposes if the deal at least appears to produce some value for some, because they may not be all the people who are supposed to be protected from this form of government abuse. But the other reason is because none of these &#8220;deals&#8221; that Trump is doing is fair, and that some may have somewhat benefited cannot make them fair. Such is the nature of duress, because even if a seemingly good deal results it may still not be as good a deal as the taken party should have been able to benefit from had there been no duress. Duress precludes deals from ever truly being fair, which we can see here, with Intel, where a government ownership interest has resulted after an abuse of government power. The result is inherently tainted, because it is a deal done as an attempt to avoid an even greater cost instead of a result that is truly fair for the company. As this deal obviously isn&#8217;t, because it is hard to imagine that anyone could think a deal exchanging money the company was already entitled to for equity would be anywhere near as fair as a deal as being able to keep the promised money without having to surrender anything at all.</p>
  236. ]]></content:encoded>
  238. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/with-intel-trump-continues-his-race-to-violate-every-clause-in-the-constitution-by-now-arriving-at-the-takings-clause/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  239. <slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
  242. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514634</post-id> </item>
  243. <item>
  244. <title>John Bolton And Bitter Irony Of False Equivalence</title>
  245. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/john-bolton-and-bitter-irony-of-false-equivalence/</link>
  246. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/john-bolton-and-bitter-irony-of-false-equivalence/#comments</comments>
  248. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Brock]]></dc:creator>
  249. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
  250. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  251. <category><![CDATA[classified documents]]></category>
  252. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  253. <category><![CDATA[false equivalency]]></category>
  254. <category><![CDATA[fascism]]></category>
  255. <category><![CDATA[john bolton]]></category>
  256. <category><![CDATA[retribution]]></category>
  257. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=515617</guid>
  258.  
  259. <description><![CDATA[Last week, FBI agents raided the home of John Bolton—former National Security Advisor, lifelong Republican, and one of the most establishment figures in American foreign policy. His crime? Writing a book critical of Donald Trump and opposing the president’s surrender summit with Vladimir Putin. The justification? A “national security investigation in search of classified records”—the [&#8230;]]]></description>
  260. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last week, FBI agents raided the home of John Bolton—former National Security Advisor, lifelong Republican, and one of the most establishment figures in American foreign policy. His crime? Writing a book critical of Donald Trump and opposing the president’s surrender summit with Vladimir Putin. The justification? A “national security investigation in search of classified records”—the same bureaucratic language once used to investigate Trump’s actual document theft, now weaponized against Trump’s critics.</p>
  261. <p>We are no longer operating under constitutional government. We are witnessing its systematic dismantlement by the very people sworn to preserve it. This is what constitutional collapse looks like in real time—not dramatic overthrow or military coups, but the patient corruption of every institution designed to constrain power until they serve only to protect it.</p>
  262. <p>Nobody wants to admit this reality because admitting it requires confronting what it means for everything else we’ve assumed about American democracy. But that comfort is a luxury we can no longer afford. The Bolton raid isn’t an aberration—it’s observable evidence that we’ve already crossed the line from constitutional republic to authoritarian protection racket.</p>
  263. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Bitter Irony of False Equivalence</strong></em></h2>
  264. <p>There’s a devastating irony in Bolton becoming one of the first high-profile victims of Trump’s weaponized Justice Department. Throughout the 2024 election, Bolton and many establishment figures operated from the “anti-anti-Trump” position—treating both candidates as equally flawed, seeing no meaningful moral distinction between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, flattening existential differences into ordinary political disagreements.</p>
  265. <p>Bolton couldn’t bring himself to endorse Harris despite understanding perfectly well what Trump represented. Like so many sophisticated voices, he was too committed to maintaining his independent credibility to make the obvious moral choice that democratic survival required. He performed the elaborate intellectual gymnastics necessary to avoid acknowledging the clear distinction between a candidate committed to constitutional governance and one openly promising to dismantle it.</p>
  266. <p>Now Bolton experiences personally the constitutional crisis he refused to prevent politically. The FBI agents who ransacked his home weren’t rogue actors—they were following orders from an administration he couldn’t oppose when it mattered. His decades of public service, his genuine expertise, his legitimate policy concerns—none of it protected him once he crossed the regime he helped normalize through sophisticated neutrality.</p>
  267. <p>This pattern extends far beyond Bolton. Across the political spectrum, intelligent people convinced themselves the stakes weren’t really that high, that institutions would constrain Trump’s worst impulses, that the “adults in the room” would prevent constitutional catastrophe. The anti-anti-Trump stance provided permission structure for millions of Americans to vote for authoritarianism while telling themselves they were making a normal political choice.</p>
  268. <p>By flattening the moral difference between Harris and Trump, these voices enabled the very outcome they claimed to fear. Harris represented continuity with constitutional governance—flawed and frustrating, but operating within democratic frameworks. Trump represented systematic destruction of constitutional governance—openly promising to weaponize federal power and eliminate civil service protections. These weren’t equivalent positions requiring sophisticated analysis to distinguish.</p>
  269. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Propaganda Function of “Objectivity”</strong></em></h2>
  270. <p>The most insidious aspect of this false equivalence is how it masquerades as intellectual sophistication while functioning as authoritarian propaganda. When someone with a platform responds to Trump’s systematic weaponization of federal law enforcement by invoking the “Biden Crime Family,” they’re not demonstrating objectivity—they’re selling surrender.</p>
  271. <p>What exactly is the “Biden Crime Family”? Hunter’s laptop? Business dealings investigated by Republican committees for years that produced no criminal charges? Meanwhile, we have documented evidence of Trump selling pardons, accepting foreign bribes, conducting government business at his properties, and now using the FBI as his personal revenge service. These aren’t comparable phenomena requiring balanced analysis—they’re manufactured distractions designed to normalize actual criminality through false equivalence.</p>
  272. <p>When public figures invoke “both sides” rhetoric during an active constitutional crisis, they’re not rising above partisanship—they’re providing cover for the side that systematically benefits from confusion and paralysis. They’re giving their audience permission to remain passive while democracy dies, to treat the collapse of constitutional government as just another partisan disagreement where reasonable people stay neutral.</p>
  273. <p>This sophisticated-sounding neutrality serves the same function as “just asking questions” or “maintaining balance”—rhetorical devices that sound reasonable but provide cover for unreasonable things. The “Biden Crime Family” talking point in response to the Bolton raid essentially argues: “Well, both sides weaponize law enforcement, so this is just normal political hardball.” But one side investigated actual evidence through proper channels, while the other raids former officials for writing books critical of the president.</p>
  274. <p>Authoritarians don’t need everyone to support them actively—they just need enough people to remain confused and passive while they capture the machinery of state. When people with influence treat constitutional governance and authoritarian rule as equivalent, they’re not maintaining objectivity—they’re actively participating in the normalization of authoritarianism.</p>
  275. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Observable Reality of Systematic Collapse</strong></em></h2>
  276. <p>We need to stop pretending this is normal politics conducted by unusual means. The evidence of constitutional collapse surrounds us daily: the executive branch operates through fake emergency declarations to bypass Congressional authority. Trump conducts trade policy through personal decree, ignoring constitutional requirements for legislative approval. The Supreme Court creates immunity doctrines that place presidents above accountability. Congress suspends its own procedures to avoid constitutional duties.</p>
  277. <p>Federal law enforcement has become a revenge machine targeting political opponents while providing protection services for regime loyalists. ICE operates as domestic surveillance apparatus building algorithmic dossiers on American citizens. The FBI raids critics while ignoring documented crimes by allies. The Justice Department empanels grand juries to investigate Barack Obama while dropping cases against Trump.</p>
  278. <p>This is the systemic destruction of a government constrained by law. Not merely political dysfunction. The people orchestrating this understand exactly what they’re building: a protection racket masquerading as constitutional government, where loyalty determines legal consequences and opposition becomes criminal activity.</p>
  279. <p>The Bolton raid demonstrates this logic perfectly. FBI Director Kash Patel, Trump’s personal enforcer now wearing federal authority, tweeted “NO ONE is above the law” while his agents searched the home of a man whose crime was exercising First Amendment rights. Attorney General Pam Bondi amplified: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.” This is justice as theater, law enforcement as performance art, federal power as instrument of personal revenge.</p>
  280. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Criminal Gang Psychology</strong></em></h2>
  281. <p>Understanding why this is happening requires recognizing the psychological profile of those now controlling federal power. This isn’t ideological conservatism—it’s criminal gang logic applied to democratic institutions. Trump and his inner circle operate from the understanding that losing power means criminal prosecution, financial ruin, and potential imprisonment. They’ve crossed lines that can’t be uncrossed, built a protection racket that can only survive through permanent control.</p>
  282. <p>This creates inexorable authoritarian escalation: every abuse requires greater abuses to protect perpetrators from accountability. They can’t allow fair elections because fair elections might remove them from power. They can’t permit independent institutions because independent institutions might hold them accountable. They can’t tolerate criticism because criticism might expose their criminality.</p>
  283. <p>Bolton’s criticism of Trump’s Putin summit wasn’t just political disagreement—it was evidence of Trump’s collaboration with foreign adversaries. So Bolton becomes a target, his criticism gets reframed as national security threat, his First Amendment rights get treated as potential espionage. This is how authoritarian systems eliminate opposition: not through dramatic suppression but through systematic redefinition of opposition as criminal activity.</p>
  284. <p>Foreign governments have already begun adjusting to American institutional collapse. Our allies no longer assume constitutional consistency between administrations. Our enemies understand that American institutions provide no reliable constraint on presidential power. We’ve become the unstable democracy, the unreliable partner, the country that can’t maintain basic constitutional coherence.</p>
  285. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Failure of Institutional Faith</strong></em></h2>
  286. <p>The tragic failure of American political discourse has been persistent belief that institutions would somehow constrain authoritarian power through their own inherent logic. Sophisticated commentators assured us that courts would enforce constitutional limits, that Congress would exercise oversight, that federal agencies would maintain independence.</p>
  287. <p>This institutional faith ignored the basic reality that institutions are only as strong as the people running them and the culture supporting them. When authoritarian actors capture institutional positions, they don’t become constrained by institutional norms—they use institutional power to eliminate constraining norms.</p>
  288. <p>The Supreme Court didn’t resist authoritarian power—it provided legal justification through immunity doctrines. Congress didn’t maintain oversight—it suspended procedures to avoid accountability votes. Federal agencies didn’t preserve independence—they became instruments of political revenge. Career civil servants didn’t resist illegal orders—they were systematically replaced by loyalists.</p>
  289. <p>Bolton exemplified this institutional faith. Despite understanding Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, despite witnessing his contempt for democratic constraints, Bolton couldn’t recognize that institutional preservation required choosing sides rather than maintaining sophisticated neutrality. The anti-anti-Trump position assumed democratic institutions were self-preserving, that constitutional government would survive even if good people refused to defend it actively.</p>
  290. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Permission Structure for Fascism</strong></em></h2>
  291. <p>Perhaps the most damaging aspect of sophisticated false equivalence was how it provided permission structure for people who wanted to support authoritarianism while maintaining their self-image as reasonable citizens. By treating Trump and Harris as equivalent threats to democracy, these voices made voting for fascism seem like a normal political choice.</p>
  292. <p>This required systematic denial of observable reality. The choice wasn’t between competing policy preferences but between constitutional preservation and constitutional destruction. It was clear to anyone willing to see it clearly—but clarity threatened the comfortable position of those who valued their reputation for independence more than their obligation to defend democracy.</p>
  293. <p>Every “both sides are bad” argument, every “I can’t support either candidate” position, every “Trump might shake things up in a good way” rationalization served the same function: providing psychological cover for an authoritarian choice. The result was a permission structure that allowed millions to vote for authoritarian rule while telling themselves they were making a protest vote against liberal excess.</p>
  294. <p>The sophistication became moral blindness. Deep understanding of policy complexity, appreciation for institutional nuance, commitment to maintaining credibility across partisan divides—all of it prevented recognition that complexity becomes complicity when the fundamental choice isn’t about policy sophistication but basic moral courage.</p>
  295. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>What Emergency Response Looks Like</strong></em></h2>
  296. <p>Recognizing constitutional collapse doesn’t mean accepting it as inevitable. But it requires abandoning the comfort of normal politics for the difficulty of emergency response. It means understanding that procedural niceties become complicity when procedures themselves have been corrupted, that institutional loyalty becomes betrayal when institutions have been captured.</p>
  297. <p>The choice facing every American is no longer between policy preferences but between democratic restoration and authoritarian consolidation. This choice can’t be avoided through sophisticated neutrality or&nbsp;<em>above-the-fray</em>&nbsp;positioning. There is no middle ground between constitutional government and authoritarian rule, no reasonable center between accountability and impunity.</p>
  298. <p>The people who called this prediction alarmist are watching it unfold in real time. The reasonable voices who assured us institutions would hold are witnessing those institutions weaponized against their own principles. The sophisticated commentators who treated both sides as equivalent are learning that equivalence was always a lie designed to make fascism seem reasonable.</p>
  299. <p>When one of these “objective commentators” invokes “Biden Crime Family” rhetoric in response to this constitutional collapse, they’re not maintaining objectivity—they’re selling passivity. They’re telling their audience there’s no meaningful difference between constitutional governance and authoritarian rule, that all political actors are equally corrupt, that resistance is pointless because everyone’s the same.</p>
  300. <p>This sophisticated-sounding propaganda functions to make people complicit in their own subjugation. The tragic irony is that these voices often genuinely believe they’re serving democracy by maintaining their “independence”—but when the stakes are democratic survival itself, neutrality becomes a choice to let democracy die.</p>
  301. <h2 class="wp-block-heading"><em><strong>The Reality We Must Face</strong></em></h2>
  302. <p>Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And what we’re witnessing isn’t normal politics but the systematic transformation of American government from constitutional republic to authoritarian protection racket.</p>
  303. <p>The Bolton raid is declaration that there are no more neutral corners, no more institutional protections, no more assumptions that patriotic service grants immunity from political persecution. It’s proof that opposition becomes treason, criticism becomes espionage, constitutional rights become privileges granted or revoked based on political loyalty.</p>
  304. <p>We are inside constitutional collapse. Nobody wants to admit it because admitting it requires confronting what it means for everything else. But reality doesn’t care about our comfort level with acknowledging it. The circus has become a hunt, and sophisticated neutrality won’t protect anyone from becoming prey.</p>
  305. <p>The question is whether we’ll recognize this reality in time to respond to it, or whether we’ll keep pretending it’s normal politics while sophisticated voices sell us passivity disguised as objectivity. Constitutional government as we’ve known it is already gone. What matters now is whether enough of us will abandon the luxury of false equivalence for the necessity of emergency response.</p>
  306. <p>Remember what’s real. Reject the propaganda of sophistication. Choose resistance over passivity.</p>
  307. <p>The wire has been cut. The dance is over. And the time for comfortable neutrality ended the moment FBI agents knocked on John Bolton’s door.</p>
  308. <p><em>Mike Brock is a former tech exec who was on the leadership team at Block. Originally published at his <a href="https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/constitutional-collapse-in-real-time" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Notes From the Circus</a></em>.</p>
  309. ]]></content:encoded>
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  312. <slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
  315. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">515617</post-id> </item>
  316. <item>
  317. <title>Daily Deal: The 2025 AI Super Skills Bundle</title>
  318. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/daily-deal-the-2025-ai-super-skills-bundle-2/</link>
  319. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/daily-deal-the-2025-ai-super-skills-bundle-2/#respond</comments>
  321. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daily Deal]]></dc:creator>
  322. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
  323. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  324. <category><![CDATA[daily deal]]></category>
  325. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=515659&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=515659</guid>
  326.  
  327. <description><![CDATA[The 2025 AI Super Skills Bundle has 8 courses to help you get familiar with how to use some of the latest and coolest artificial intelligence tools out there. Courses cover ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Leonardo AI, Quillbot, and more. It&#8217;s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. [&#8230;]]]></description>
  328. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The <a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/the-2024-ai-super-skills-bundle?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown">2025 AI Super Skills Bundle</a> has 8 courses to help you get familiar with how to use some of the latest and coolest artificial intelligence tools out there. Courses cover ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Leonardo AI, Quillbot, and more. It&#8217;s on sale for $30.</p>
  329. <div class="wp-block-image">
  330. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/the-2024-ai-super-skills-bundle?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdnp2.stackassets.com/8f55e0abd803d76af091a0cc07452dca1a84656d/store/094c23a20f7eca933800ca2a824a72bdf2ee49f3efd3c6f76e6efef6ec63/product_344244_product_shot_wide.jpg?ssl=1" alt=""/></a></figure>
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  336. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  339. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">515659</post-id> </item>
  340. <item>
  341. <title>Trump Wants To Criminalize Free Speech In The Form Of Flag Burning</title>
  342. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-wants-to-criminalize-free-speech-in-the-form-of-flag-burning/</link>
  343. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-wants-to-criminalize-free-speech-in-the-form-of-flag-burning/#comments</comments>
  345. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  346. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 16:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
  347. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  348. <category><![CDATA[1st amendment]]></category>
  349. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  350. <category><![CDATA[executive orders]]></category>
  351. <category><![CDATA[fascist]]></category>
  352. <category><![CDATA[fighting words]]></category>
  353. <category><![CDATA[flag burning]]></category>
  354. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  355. <category><![CDATA[incitement]]></category>
  356. <category><![CDATA[protest]]></category>
  357. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=514833</guid>
  358.  
  359. <description><![CDATA[You may recall that Donald Trump and his supporters have insisted that he’s the “free speech” President. His first day in office this term, he issued an executive order “restoring free speech&#8221; saying that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of [&#8230;]]]></description>
  360. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You may recall that Donald Trump and his supporters have insisted that he’s the “free speech” President. His first day in office this term, he issued an executive order “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-freedom-of-speech-and-ending-federal-censorship/">restoring free speech</a>&#8221; saying that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”</p>
  361. <p>Well, I’d like to report a federal government officer violating that executive order… in the form of the President of the United States <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/prosecuting-burning-of-the-american-flag/">issuing another executive order</a> which tries (weakly) to figure out a way to criminalize the burning of the American flag, which is not something the President can actually do.</p>
  362. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  363. <p><em>Our great American Flag is the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America, and of American freedom, identity, and strength.&nbsp; Over nearly two-and-a-half centuries, many thousands of American patriots have fought, bled, and died to keep the Stars and Stripes waving proudly.&nbsp; The American Flag is a special symbol in our national life that should unite and represent all Americans of every background and walk of life.&nbsp; Desecrating it is uniquely offensive and provocative. &nbsp;It is a statement of contempt, hostility, and violence against our Nation — the clearest possible expression of opposition to the political union that preserves our rights, liberty, and security.&nbsp; Burning this representation of America may incite violence and riot.&nbsp; American Flag burning is also used by groups of foreign nationals as a calculated act to intimidate and threaten violence against Americans because of their nationality and place of birth.</em></p>
  364. </blockquote>
  365. <p>The executive order is so weak because, as it acknowledges, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the burning of the American flag is almost always protected expression under the First Amendment.</p>
  366. <p>Most notably, in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/491/397/">Texas v. Johnson</a> in 1989, the Supreme Court was pretty clear about all this. As the Court stated explicitly:</p>
  367. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  368. <p><em>If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.</em></p>
  369. </blockquote>
  370. <p>It also highlights the point that flag burning is not just highly expressive, but the fact that America allows for the burning of its flag as a form of speech highlights American ideals:</p>
  371. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  372. <p><em>We are tempted to say, in fact, that the flag&#8217;s deservedly cherished place in our community will be strengthened, not weakened, by our holding today. Our decision is a reaffirmation of the principles of freedom and inclusiveness that the flag best reflects, and of the conviction that our toleration of criticism such as Johnson&#8217;s is a sign and source of our strength. Indeed, one of the proudest images of our flag, the one immortalized in our own national anthem, is of the bombardment it survived at Fort McHenry. It is the Nation&#8217;s resilience, not its rigidity, that Texas sees reflected in the flag &#8212; and it is that resilience that we reassert today.</em></p>
  373. <p><em>The way to preserve the flag&#8217;s special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong.</em></p>
  374. </blockquote>
  375. <p>And, of course, the MAGA crowd knows all of this even if they’re pretending to forget it this week. You may recall that just last year the Heritage Foundation chose to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/06/03/nx-s1-4987590/upside-down-american-flag-protest-symbol-history">fly the American flag upside down</a> over its headquarters after Donald Trump was found guilty by a jury.</p>
  376. <div class="wp-block-image">
  377. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/ce417075-eed8-48f0-89f9-d5df3ca4fbe4-RackMultipart20250826-173-27dvv0.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  378. </div>
  379. <p>Similarly, the very MAGA Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, was found to have flown an American flag upside down (he blamed his even more MAGA wife).</p>
  380. <div class="wp-block-image">
  381. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/1cc6d8a9-466a-42d0-b958-b052ba951ea9-RackMultipart20250826-183-kh1odc.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  382. </div>
  383. <p>So, yes, MAGA folks know that the “desecrating” the flag is a form of expression.</p>
  384. <p>The executive order pretends to get around all of this by pretending that it’s only talking about “unconstitutional” versions of flag burning, which they claim are when it amounts to “fighting words” or likely to incite imminent lawless action:</p>
  385. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  386. <p><em>Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s rulings on First Amendment protections, the Court has never held that American Flag desecration conducted in a manner that is likely to incite imminent lawless action or that is an action amounting to “fighting words” is constitutionally protected.</em>&nbsp;</p>
  387. </blockquote>
  388. <p>This is constitutional nonsense on multiple levels. The &#8220;fighting words&#8221; exception has been <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/fighting-words-free-speech">effectively neutered</a> by decades of Supreme Court decisions, and the Brandenburg &#8220;imminent lawless action&#8221; standard sets an incredibly high bar that peaceful flag burning never meets.</p>
  389. <p>More fundamentally, the EO falsely claims these exceptions haven&#8217;t been tested in flag burning cases. That&#8217;s wrong. Texas v. Johnson directly addressed both, starting with &#8220;fighting words&#8221;:</p>
  390. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  391. <p><em>N</em><strong><em>or does Johnson&#8217;s expressive conduct fall within that small class of &#8220;fighting words&#8221;</em></strong> <em>that are &#8220;likely to provoke the average person to retaliation, and thereby cause a breach of the peace.&#8221; Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire,</em> <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/315/568/"><em>315 U. S. 568</em></a><em>,</em> <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/315/568/#574"><em>315 U. S. 574</em></a> <em>(1942). No reasonable onlooker would have regarded Johnson&#8217;s generalized expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of the Federal Government as a direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs.</em></p>
  392. </blockquote>
  393. <p>As for imminent lawless action, the court similarly rejected that argument from Texas in the same case, first saying that nothing in the ruling prevents Texas from keeping the peace:</p>
  394. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  395. <p><em>We thus conclude that the State&#8217;s interest in maintaining order is not implicated on these facts. The State need not worry that our holding will disable it from preserving the peace. We do not suggest that the First Amendment forbids a State to prevent &#8220;imminent lawless action.&#8221; Brandenburg, supra, at</em> <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/395/444/#447"><em>395 U. S. 447</em></a><em>. And, in fact, Texas already has a statute specifically prohibiting breaches of the peace, Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 42.01 (1989), which tends to confirm that Texas need not punish this flag desecration in order to keep the peace.</em></p>
  396. </blockquote>
  397. <p>But it notes that simply burning the flag does nothing at all that could be considered as such:</p>
  398. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  399. <p><em>Texas claims that its interest in preventing breaches of the peace justifies Johnson&#8217;s conviction for flag desecration.</em></p>
  400. <p><em>However,</em> <strong><em>no disturbance of the peace actually occurred or threatened to occur because of Johnson&#8217;s burning of the flag</em></strong><em>. Although the State stresses the disruptive behavior of the protestors during their march toward City Hall, Brief for Petitioner 34-36, it admits that &#8220;no actual breach of the peace occurred at the time of the flagburning or in response to the flagburning.&#8221; Id. at 34. The State&#8217;s emphasis on the protestors&#8217; disorderly actions prior to arriving at City Hall is not only somewhat surprising, given that no charges were brought on the basis of this conduct, but it also fails to show that a disturbance of the peace was a likely reaction to Johnson&#8217;s conduct. The only evidence offered by the State at trial to show the reaction to Johnson&#8217;s actions was the testimony of several persons who had been seriously offended by the flag burning. Id. at 6-7.</em></p>
  401. <p><em>The State&#8217;s position, therefore, amounts to a claim that an audience that takes serious offense at particular expression is necessarily likely to disturb the peace, and that the expression may be prohibited on this basis.</em> <strong><em>Our precedents do not countenance such a presumption</em></strong><em>. On the contrary, they recognize that a principal &#8220;function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.&#8221;</em></p>
  402. </blockquote>
  403. <p>In other words, the executive order is hot garbage.</p>
  404. <p>It is an attack on the First Amendment while pretending otherwise. It seems little more than a provocation trying to overturn Texas v. Johnson by pretending there could be some form of flag burning protest which could be criminalized.</p>
  405. <p>Trump&#8217;s remarks while signing the order reveal the real game. He attacks Texas v. Johnson as coming &#8220;from a very sad court&#8221; before launching into fabricated claims about flag-burning riots:</p>
  406. <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/e2ai4Ht0axs?si=RfKTTMdcDwzxGkWZ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
  407. <p>The transcript speaks for itself (in part by showing how much word salad this man spews):</p>
  408. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  409. <p><em>This is very important. Flag burning all over the country. They&#8217;re burning flags all over the world. They burn the American flag.</em></p>
  410. <p><em>And as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a five to four decision, they called it freedom of speech.</em></p>
  411. <p><em>But there&#8217;s another reason which is perhaps much more important.</em> <strong><em>It&#8217;s called death.</em></strong> <em>Because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.</em></p>
  412. <p><em>If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You can do other things. You can burn this piece of paper. You can and it&#8217;s but when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we&#8217;ve never seen before.</em></p>
  413. <p><em>People go crazy in a way both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry angry about them doing it.</em></p>
  414. </blockquote>
  415. <p>A good reporter would ask for a single example of someone burning a flag (let alone it “happening all over the country”) where hundreds of people went crazy and started “riots at levels that we’ve never seen before.”</p>
  416. <p>None of this happened.</p>
  417. <p>But it’s clear the intent here is to try to overturn Texas v. Johnson and use it to imprison anyone who is protesting Trump’s fascistic tendencies. Even though the EO pretends that this will only lead to prosecution if the flag burning is done to incite violence, Trump then makes it clear he thinks the flag burning alone deserves a year in prison (something he doesn’t get to decide, he’s not a king).</p>
  418. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  419. <p><em>And what the penalty is going to be if you burn a flag you get one year in jail. No early uh exits. No, nothing. You get one year in jail.</em></p>
  420. </blockquote>
  421. <p>He then claims as soon as he signs it, flag burning will stop immediately.</p>
  422. <p>Except, of course, the opposite happened. Later in the day after signing it, an American veteran went in front of the White House in a clear sign of expressive protest, announced he was burning a flag to protest Donald Trump and his signing of the executive order:</p>
  423. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  424. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  425. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:nb6uhiglzowsdcbgwv2itwa7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxb5svtq322a" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreifn3bwhpzos2tbqaacagpigdxfiqpewmwmmnon6gjwru3dzbht2j4">
  426. <p lang="en">This US veteran burnt an American flag in protest of the EO Trump signed today that contradicted 2 SCOTUS rulings (1989 &amp; 1990).</p>
  427. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nb6uhiglzowsdcbgwv2itwa7?ref_src=embed">Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nb6uhiglzowsdcbgwv2itwa7/post/3lxb5svtq322a?ref_src=embed">2025-08-25T23:30:43.412Z</a></p>
  428. </blockquote>
  429. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  430. </div>
  431. </figure>
  432. <p>And no riot occurred. No violence. No death. But the guy was still arrested for exercising his free speech:</p>
  433. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  434. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  435. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:v63y3emmbz5dlvzkejca2mcc/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxb5njgm7s2u" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreicqtdpuqbewkjdwzwr6vgk3mgnjnab2mxsubvvfkfrwrxqvynsstm">
  436. <p lang="en">A man, near the White House, who describes himself as a &#34;retired disabled combat veteran,&#34; after burning an American flag tells bystanders &#34;I am being detained because I expressed my First Amendment rights.&#34;</p>
  437. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:v63y3emmbz5dlvzkejca2mcc?ref_src=embed">Steve Herman (@newsguy.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:v63y3emmbz5dlvzkejca2mcc/post/3lxb5njgm7s2u?ref_src=embed">2025-08-25T23:27:42.628Z</a></p>
  438. </blockquote>
  439. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  440. </div>
  441. </figure>
  442. <p>This arrest proves the executive order&#8217;s real purpose in real time. There was no &#8220;imminent lawless action.&#8221; No &#8220;fighting words.&#8221; No riots or violence—just peaceful symbolic speech criticizing the government. Yet the speaker was criminalized anyway, demonstrating that this isn&#8217;t about preventing violence or maintaining order. It&#8217;s about using state power to silence dissent and punish symbolic speech that criticizes the government.</p>
  443. <p>This is what authoritarianism looks like in practice: using the power of the state to criminalize symbolic criticism of the government while wrapping it in patriotic rhetoric. Trump&#8217;s executive order isn&#8217;t about protecting the flag—it&#8217;s about weaponizing law enforcement against dissent. And the fact that he&#8217;s doing this while simultaneously claiming to be the champion of &#8220;free speech&#8221; only makes the constitutional violation more brazen.</p>
  444. <p>The Supreme Court got it right in Texas v. Johnson: &#8220;The way to preserve the flag&#8217;s special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters. It is to persuade them that they are wrong.&#8221; Trump&#8217;s approach does the opposite—it reveals a government so insecure that it must silence its critics rather than answer them.</p>
  445. ]]></content:encoded>
  447. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-wants-to-criminalize-free-speech-in-the-form-of-flag-burning/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  448. <slash:comments>16</slash:comments>
  451. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514833</post-id> </item>
  452. <item>
  453. <title>Trump Whines, Again Threatens NBC, ABC Broadcast Licenses For Doing Journalism</title>
  454. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-whines-again-threatens-nbc-abc-broadcast-licenses-for-doing-journalism/</link>
  455. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-whines-again-threatens-nbc-abc-broadcast-licenses-for-doing-journalism/#comments</comments>
  457. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  458. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:30:56 +0000</pubDate>
  459. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  460. <category><![CDATA[abc]]></category>
  461. <category><![CDATA[nbc]]></category>
  462. <category><![CDATA[1st amendment]]></category>
  463. <category><![CDATA[bias]]></category>
  464. <category><![CDATA[broadcast]]></category>
  465. <category><![CDATA[censorship]]></category>
  466. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  467. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  468. <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
  469. <category><![CDATA[licenses]]></category>
  470. <category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
  471. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=514729&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=514729</guid>
  472.  
  473. <description><![CDATA[With Fox being Fox, and CBS having just paid Trump a $16 million bribe and now owned by Trump&#8217;s friends the Ellison family, there&#8217;s little worry that either network will be doing serious journalism anytime soon. So Trump, over the weekend, redirected his ire at the remaining two &#8220;big four&#8221; broadcasters, ABC and NBC, for [&#8230;]]]></description>
  474. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With Fox being Fox, and CBS having just paid Trump <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/23/with-his-bribe-paid-trumps-fcc-will-now-help-cbs-pretend-its-shitty-merger-is-good-for-journalism-and-the-public/">a $16 million bribe and now owned by Trump&#8217;s friends the Ellison family</a>, there&#8217;s little worry that either network will be doing serious journalism anytime soon. So Trump, over the weekend, redirected his ire at the remaining two &#8220;big four&#8221; broadcasters, ABC and NBC, for the sin of doing journalism semi-critical of our idiot king. Of course, with a few months time, if the memory of the bribe fades, whose to say Trump won&#8217;t retarget CBS as well. After all, ABC already <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5230274/abc-settles-with-trump-for-15-million-now-he-wants-to-sue-other-news-outlets">paid a similar tribute</a> to Trump, but that was already nine months ago.</p>
  475. <p>Remember: giving in to the bully doesn&#8217;t make him go away. It just makes him realize you&#8217;re an easy mark.</p>
  476. <p>In a rant at his propaganda social media platform Truth Social, Trump lied, claiming that both ABC and NBC were unfair to Conservatives and should have their broadcast licenses pulled:</p>
  477. <div class="wp-block-image">
  478. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="575" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?resize=1024%2C575&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-514730" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?resize=1024%2C575&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?resize=768%2C431&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?resize=600%2C337&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-060038.png?w=1154&amp;ssl=1 1154w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>
  479. </div>
  480. <p>What upset our oafish mad king? Apparently it was a recent study by the right wing &#8220;watchdog&#8221; group Media Research Center (MRC) that &#8220;studied&#8221; ABC’s &#8220;World News Tonight,&#8221; &#8220;NBC Nightly News&#8221; and &#8220;CBS Evening News&#8221; from Jan. 20 through April 9. The study found that 92 percent of the 899 stories about Trump <a href="https://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/major-networks-92-negative-coverage-of-president-trump">were generally negative</a>. A lot of the coverage were of Trump&#8217;s ridiculous, harmful, and unpopular tariffs. </p>
  481. <p>Trump also appears to have been upset <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-calls-for-crooked-abc-and-nbc-to-be-terminated-in-epic-late-night-rant/">because ABC interviewed Chris Christie</a>, which itself can barely be construed as any sort of useful or interesting journalism. So to be clear: Trump wasn&#8217;t upset by journalism, he was upset by a right wing activist group misrepresenting journalism, and a largely irrelevant former Republican Governor of New Jersey who probably shouldn&#8217;t be on TV in the first place.</p>
  482. <p>Like most things, Trump doesn&#8217;t understand how anything he works. He doesn&#8217;t understand the First Amendment. He doesn&#8217;t really understand that it&#8217;s the local affiliates of these major networks that have local broadcast licenses. Or that randomly revoking them isn&#8217;t something that&#8217;s particularly legal or easy, even with a <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/24/brendan-carr-trumps-free-speech-warrior-wastes-no-time-violating-trumps-new-free-speech-executive-order/">sycophantic stooge and anti-free-speech zealot</a> in charge of his FCC. </p>
  483. <p>That&#8217;s not to say the threats are empty. Former FCC boss Tom Wheeler wrote a piece last year <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/donald-trump-has-threatened-to-shut-down-broadcasters-but-can-he/">exploring what Trump can and can&#8217;t actually do</a>. </p>
  484. <p>As we just saw with CBS, Trump&#8217;s bobble-headed regulators have had success leveraging the merger approval process to bully companies like CBS into feckless compliance if they&#8217;re mean to the president or <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/23/verizon-gets-20-billion-frontier-merger-approved-by-fcc-after-promising-to-be-more-racist-and-sexist/">aren&#8217;t suitably racist and sexist enough for his liking</a>. There are also some untapped possibilities like leveraging emergency war powers <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/donald-trump-has-threatened-to-shut-down-broadcasters-but-can-he/">embedded in the Communications Act</a> to attack journalism and free speech. </p>
  485. <p>Worried that they might give the full-diapered baby king a sad, media companies have been quick to soften their coverage of Trump in exchange for tax breaks and regulatory favors, highlighting, repeatedly, the weakness of the modern fourth estate in the online, ad-based, infotainment news era. Many of these networks <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cbs-news-exec-says-hiring-more-republicans-expect-midterm-win-2022-3">rushed to hire more right wingers to appease Trump</a> before he&#8217;d even won re-election. </p>
  486. <p>U.S. corporate news is a feckless mess that&#8217;s <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">generally been shifting its editorial Overton window rightward</a> for decades to appease an increasingly radical U.S. right wing. It&#8217;s hard to imagine how authoritarians would respond if the U.S. news had been vibrant and fearless in the first place. That said, if U.S. media was healthy, it&#8217;s very possible authoritarians would have never come to power in the first place. </p>
  487. <p>But authoritarian disdain for factual reality and an informed electorate is bottomless all the same, and their endless bullying of U.S. media giants (often for nonexistent &#8220;liberal bias&#8221;) has been very clearly and disastrously successful.</p>
  488. ]]></content:encoded>
  490. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/26/trump-whines-again-threatens-nbc-abc-broadcast-licenses-for-doing-journalism/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  491. <slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
  494. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514729</post-id> </item>
  495. <item>
  496. <title>Too MAGA For MAGA: Ryan Walters Preps For Criminal Defense, Gets Shunned By Linda McMahon</title>
  497. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/too-maga-for-maga-ryan-walters-preps-for-criminal-defense-gets-shunned-by-linda-mcmahon/</link>
  498. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/too-maga-for-maga-ryan-walters-preps-for-criminal-defense-gets-shunned-by-linda-mcmahon/#comments</comments>
  500. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Timothy Geigner]]></dc:creator>
  501. <pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2025 02:59:38 +0000</pubDate>
  502. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  503. <category><![CDATA[embarassment]]></category>
  504. <category><![CDATA[linda mcmahon]]></category>
  505. <category><![CDATA[maga]]></category>
  506. <category><![CDATA[oklahoma]]></category>
  507. <category><![CDATA[ryan walters]]></category>
  508. <category><![CDATA[school choice]]></category>
  509. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=514585&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=514585</guid>
  510.  
  511. <description><![CDATA[The volume of stories about Ryan Walters, State Superintendent of Oklahoma, seems to be increasing. Walters is a Christian Nationalist by name, though the first of those words goes against all of what I learned about Christianity as a Catholic minor and curious adult. While he certainly wants to inject bibles into public schools for [&#8230;]]]></description>
  512. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The volume of stories about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/tag/ryan-walters/">Ryan Walters</a>, State Superintendent of Oklahoma, seems to be increasing. Walters is a Christian Nationalist by name, though the first of those words goes against all of what I learned about Christianity as a Catholic minor and curious adult. While he certainly wants to inject <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/10/oklahoma-opens-bids-for-bibles-in-every-school-with-curiously-specific-requirements/">bibles</a> into public schools for reasons outside of actual teaching scenarios, a clear violation of the First Amendment, he&#8217;s also interested in injecting his <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/19/ok-state-superintendent-ryan-walters-wants-even-more-bibles-prayers-for-the-dear-leader/">own love</a> of Donald Trump, election <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/10/oklahoma-sued-again-for-mandating-students-be-taught-election-conspiracy-theories-bible-stories/">conspiracy fantasies</a>, and allegedly a tad bit of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/29/oklahoma-superintendent-bible-thumper-the-curious-case-of-the-board-meeting-pornography/">pornography</a> into the school system as well. He has also decided to give so-called &#8220;woke tests&#8221; developed by Prager U, a propaganda factory, to transplant teachers from California and New York seeking a teacher&#8217;s license, potentially violating the 14th Amendment as well.</p>
  513. <p>We&#8217;ve become quite used to MAGA assbags operating free of consequence and getting away with their nonsense. But in Walters&#8217; case, we&#8217;re starting to see some signs that consequences might actually be a thing. For starters, on the whole porn showing up on a screen during a board meeting thing, it appears that Walters <a href="https://www.newson6.com/story/68a73d39fe9700312fd8fd30/-a-tremendous-distraction-ryan-walters-addresses-quarrel-with-board-of-education-members">recently behaved defiantly</a> in an interview after accusing the board members of lying, while also having the state <a href="https://www.news9.com/story/68a7f0cbd92696c53f18b5d2/emails-reveal-new-legal-battle-could-be-brewing-in-defense-of-ryan-walters">look into a criminal defense attorney</a> for him.</p>
  514. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  515. <p><em>The Oklahoma State Department of Education may be seeking an attorney to defend State Superintendent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.news9.com/storiesByEntityId/62437f816880e45323b55c54/Ryan%20Walters">Ryan Walters</a>&nbsp;related to further troubles stemming from allegations that a TV in his office depicted nudity during an executive session of the State Board of Education meeting on July 24.</em></p>
  516. <p><em>83 pages of emails, provided by the Oklahoma Attorney General&#8217;s Office, reflect conversations between OSDE employees and the AG&#8217;s office as OSDE sought approval to hire private counsel.</em></p>
  517. </blockquote>
  518. <p>Now, to be very clear, seeking counsel is not an admission of guilt. But it <em>is</em> an admission that defense is likely needed and that seems a far cry from a situation as simple as a couple of board members merely lying whole cloth about seeing porn on a TV screen at a board meeting. The request for a specific outside counsel was later dropped, but it&#8217;s unclear if another lawyer is being sought instead.</p>
  519. <p> Walters had indicated that this is all some coordinated attack against him, because of how awesome he is, I suppose. I think I can guess who he sees himself as in that bible he claims to spend so much time reading. But I would challenge you to go back and read up on the details in the post I wrote on this incident and decide for yourself if the board members sound like they&#8217;re just making stuff up.</p>
  520. <p>Besides, you know it&#8217;s getting a bit real when the federal MAGAs don&#8217;t want anything to do with a state MAGA like Walters. Sec. of Education Linda McMahon was in Oklahoma last week to promote charter schools. Plenty of other state government representatives were in attendance, but Walters was very much absent. And the reporting suggests <a href="https://www.alternet.org/linda-mcmahon-ryan-walters/">that was at McMahon&#8217;s request</a>.</p>
  521. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  522. <p><em>Gorman, in an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.notus.org/oklahoma/ryan-walters-oklahoma-meeting-linda-mcmahon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article published on August 21</a>, explains, &#8220;Walters in particular has been a big advocate for school choice, specifically for giving families more access to religious and conservative schools. But he was nowhere to be found on Tuesday — and that was by design. According to three sources familiar with the matter, McMahon and her team specifically asked Oklahoma officials not to include Walters on the trip, fearing his presence would be a distraction.&#8221;</em></p>
  523. </blockquote>
  524. <p>Two things on this. First, if your state&#8217;s superintendent of schools can&#8217;t attend a visit by the Sec. of Education at a charter school because he&#8217;d be a distraction, well, that&#8217;s at least an indication that we have a problem in Oklahoma.</p>
  525. <p>Second, it appears this had less to do about distractions and more to do with Walters breaking the ninth commandment.</p>
  526. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  527. <p><em>Gorman notes that Walters, in an&nbsp;<a href="https://oklahoma.gov/education/newsroom/2025/august/superintendent-walters-announces-major-overhaul-of-state-testing.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">August 8 statement</a>, &#8220;claimed that the Department of Education had given the state the required waiver to eliminate end-of-year testing in public schools.&#8221; And Walters told the far-right outlet Real America&#8217;s Voice, &#8220;We went to the Trump administration, and they said they were all for it.&#8221;</em></p>
  528. <p><em>&#8220;But the administration hadn&#8217;t approved it,&#8221; Gorman reports, &#8220;and one of the sources cited the incident as a reason McMahon&#8217;s team did not want Walters at the event. McMahon had to publicly dispute Walters&#8217; comments at the Oklahoma event.&#8221;</em></p>
  529. <p><em>Local reporters, on August 19, asked McMahon if she planned to meet with Walters while she was in Oklahoma — to which she responded, &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe that&#8217;s on my schedule today.&#8221;</em></p>
  530. </blockquote>
  531. <p>That shoulder is so cold it&#8217;s causing frost to develop.</p>
  532. <p>Look, Walters sucks. Sucks at his job, given how poorly his state is ranked in education. Sucks at being a human being, given how he&#8217;s handled this whole porn thing and how he&#8217;s treated his board members. Sucks at government, as he can&#8217;t be bothered with such silly things like the Constitution.</p>
  533. <p>I doubt he&#8217;s going anywhere anytime soon. But if these stories keep racking up, it&#8217;ll certainly effect his reported gubernatorial bid, if nothing else.</p>
  534. ]]></content:encoded>
  536. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/too-maga-for-maga-ryan-walters-preps-for-criminal-defense-gets-shunned-by-linda-mcmahon/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  537. <slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
  540. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514585</post-id> </item>
  541. <item>
  542. <title>State Dept. Guts Human Rights Reporting, Removing Anything The Administration Doesn&#8217;t Think Violates Human Rights</title>
  543. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/state-dept-guts-human-rights-reporting-removing-anything-the-administration-doesnt-think-violates-human-rights/</link>
  544. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/state-dept-guts-human-rights-reporting-removing-anything-the-administration-doesnt-think-violates-human-rights/#comments</comments>
  546. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  547. <pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2025 22:29:49 +0000</pubDate>
  548. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  549. <category><![CDATA[erasing history]]></category>
  550. <category><![CDATA[human rights]]></category>
  551. <category><![CDATA[marco rubio]]></category>
  552. <category><![CDATA[rights violations]]></category>
  553. <category><![CDATA[state department]]></category>
  554. <category><![CDATA[trump administration]]></category>
  555. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=514242&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=514242</guid>
  556.  
  557. <description><![CDATA[Not content to rewrite American history to better serve white people, the Trump administration is now rewriting world history on the fly by recasting terminal human rights violators as &#8220;not all that bad, actually&#8221; and adding stuff to other human rights reports just because some MAGA people had some bad experiences in a few select [&#8230;]]]></description>
  558. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Not content to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/national-park-visitors-reject-trump-administrations-bigoted-attempt-to-erase-history/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/national-park-visitors-reject-trump-administrations-bigoted-attempt-to-erase-history/">rewrite American history</a> to better serve white people, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5495621/state-department-human-rights-reports-slashed" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5495621/state-department-human-rights-reports-slashed">is now rewriting world history on the fly</a> by recasting terminal human rights violators as &#8220;not all that bad, actually&#8221; and adding stuff to other human rights reports just because some MAGA people had some bad experiences in a few select foreign countries. </p>
  559. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  560. <p><em>The State Department released its long-awaited reports on international human rights Tuesday, and they drastically reduce the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Trump deems worthy of criticism.</em></p>
  561. <p><em>The agency said the &#8220;streamlined&#8221; human rights reports adhere more closely to what&#8217;s required to be in them by law. But critics say the reduced content lets authoritarians off the hook.</em></p>
  562. </blockquote>
  563. <p>The critics are right. If you have any doubts about the criticism, go ahead and <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/">read a few of the reports generated</a> by Marco Rubio/Donald Trump&#8217;s State Department and compare them to literally any of those published before Trump&#8217;s second term began. </p>
  564. <p>For instance, <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/el-salvador/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/el-salvador/">here&#8217;s the Executive Summary from last year&#8217;s report on El Salvador</a>, home of the president&#8217;s current favorite dictator and obliging host of hundreds of deportees who have been falsely labeled as members of international gangs. </p>
  565. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  566. <p><em>Under the state of exception, reports of gang violence decreased significantly, allowing citizens to exercise their right to life, liberty, and security of person, and to engage in daily activities and commerce without the constant threat of violence and extortion. Arbitrary arrests and mass pretrial hearings, however, undermined due process and exacerbated historically difficult conditions in overcrowded prisons.</em></p>
  567. <p><em>Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic and sexual violence, and femicide; substantial barriers to sexual and reproductive health services access; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; and crimes involving violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons.</em></p>
  568. </blockquote>
  569. <p>The &#8220;state of exception&#8221; is President Bukele&#8217;s blend of martial law and police state that has supposedly resulted in a massive decrease in gang violence, but that&#8217;s only if you <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_El_Salvador#Negotiations_with_gangs" data-type="link" data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_El_Salvador#Negotiations_with_gangs">ignore credible reports</a> about government officials giving gang members money in exchange for votes and Bukele directly negotiating with gangs to lower violence in exchange for better prison conditions. That last part is something the State Department itself accused Bukele of doing before it was undermined completely by this administration.</p>
  570. <p><a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/el-salvador/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/el-salvador/">Here&#8217;s all the current administration</a> has to say about Bukele&#8217;s police state in its Executive Summary:</p>
  571. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  572. <p><em>There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in El Salvador during the year. Reports of gang violence remained at a historic low under the state of exception as mass arrests suppressed gang activity.</em></p>
  573. <p><em>There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses.</em></p>
  574. </blockquote>
  575. <p>While it&#8217;s possible to read the first sentence as being low-key acknowledgement that things remain as terrible as they&#8217;ve been for years in El Salvador, I doubt that&#8217;s what the person composing this actually meant. The last sentence is patently false.</p>
  576. <p>If that&#8217;s not evidence of some bullshit, take a look at what&#8217;s been added to the <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada/">State Department&#8217;s report</a> on alleged human rights violations in (wait for it&#8230;) Canada: </p>
  577. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  578. <p><em>Rather than participate in government-mandated bargaining, some American digital platforms announced that they would no longer make news content available to Canadian users, leading to substantial censorship of news content including local news content. The opposition party described the Online News Act as a government censorship law, because of its effects on the character and quality of the country’s news reporting.</em></p>
  579. <p><em><strong>A trial of two organizers of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” concluded during the year. A verdict was still pending at year’s end. In response to the 2022 convoy (which protested draconian lockdown measures that substantially damaged the communities and economic livelihoods of many Canadians), the government took the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies Act, leading to large-scale social media censorship and debanking.</strong> In January, the Federal Court ruled that the government’s imposition of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable and violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The federal government appealed the decision.</em></p>
  580. <p><em><strong>The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) continued its legal efforts to block an independent news outlet’s Access to Information request for CBC’s communications with American social media platform Twitter (now X) dating to 2018. The news outlet previously published investigative reporting alleging that the CBC exerted pressure on Twitter/X to censor it and other disfavored news outlets over political speech.</strong></em></p>
  581. </blockquote>
  582. <p>Huh. Know what&#8217;s missing? <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada">An equally long section detailing abusive conditions</a> and systemic racism in the nation&#8217;s prisons. </p>
  583. <p>But if you really want to see how this administration is rewriting its world view to serve its own ends, you need to click through and see the depressingly long list of human rights violations and international crimes the Trump administration no longer desires to treat as violations or criminal acts. </p>
  584. <p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5495621/state-department-human-rights-reports-slashed" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5495621/state-department-human-rights-reports-slashed">This is only part of it</a> and it&#8217;s already more than enough: </p>
  585. <div class="wp-block-image">
  586. <figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="454" height="762" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-17-2.06.19-PM.png?resize=454%2C762&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-514245" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-17-2.06.19-PM.png?w=454&amp;ssl=1 454w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-17-2.06.19-PM.png?resize=179%2C300&amp;ssl=1 179w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px" /></figure>
  587. </div>
  588. <p>Everything highlighted and struck-through is something the State Department will not be investigating or reporting on as long as the GOP is still in power. </p>
  589. <p>Starting from the top, here&#8217;s only a partial list of what the Trump administration will be deliberately turning a blind eye to for at least the next three years:</p>
  590. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  591. <li>Prison conditions</li>
  592. <li>Due process rights</li>
  593. <li>Property seizures and/or restitution</li>
  594. <li>Libel and slander laws</li>
  595. <li>&#8220;National security (used as a pretext for punishing critics)&#8221;</li>
  596. <li>Freedom of peaceful assembly</li>
  597. <li>Abuse of refugees and asylum seekers</li>
  598. <li>Access to basic services for asylum seekers</li>
  599. <li>Abuses or irregularities in recent elections</li>
  600. <li>Participation of women or members of marginalized people in elections</li>
  601. <li>&#8220;Section 4: Corruption in government&#8221;</li>
  602. <li>Retribution against human rights defenders</li>
  603. <li>Rape and domestic violence</li>
  604. <li>Gender-based violence</li>
  605. <li>Child abuse or neglect</li>
  606. <li>Sexual exploitation of children</li>
  607. <li>Institutionalization of people with disabilities</li>
  608. <li>Everything under the heading: &#8220;Lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons&#8221;</li>
  609. </ul>
  610. <p>That&#8217;s not even the entire list, but it&#8217;s indicative enough of what this administration thinks should be treated as acceptable behavior by the government, government officials, and anyone in the general population deserving enough of having their crimes against others (and humanity in general) ignored by the people in power.</p>
  611. <p>This sort of thing would be considered breathtakingly horrendous anywhere in the world. That it&#8217;s happening in the nation that many considered to be the &#8220;Leader of the Free World&#8221; is absolutely sickening. </p>
  612. ]]></content:encoded>
  614. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/state-dept-guts-human-rights-reporting-removing-anything-the-administration-doesnt-think-violates-human-rights/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  615. <slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
  618. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">514242</post-id> </item>
  619. <item>
  620. <title>Politico Management Insists &#8220;AI&#8221; Shouldn&#8217;t Be Held To Any Sort Of Human Editorial Standards Because It&#8217;s Built By Coders, Not Journalists</title>
  621. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/politico-management-insists-ai-shouldnt-be-held-to-any-sort-of-human-editorial-standards-because-its-built-by-coders-not-journalists/</link>
  622. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/politico-management-insists-ai-shouldnt-be-held-to-any-sort-of-human-editorial-standards-because-its-built-by-coders-not-journalists/#comments</comments>
  624. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  625. <pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2025 20:44:41 +0000</pubDate>
  626. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  627. <category><![CDATA[axel springer]]></category>
  628. <category><![CDATA[politico]]></category>
  629. <category><![CDATA[ai]]></category>
  630. <category><![CDATA[automation]]></category>
  631. <category><![CDATA[generative ai]]></category>
  632. <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
  633. <category><![CDATA[labor]]></category>
  634. <category><![CDATA[llms]]></category>
  635. <category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
  636. <category><![CDATA[newsrooms]]></category>
  637. <category><![CDATA[unions]]></category>
  638. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=513842&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=513842</guid>
  639.  
  640. <description><![CDATA[The rushed integration of half-cooked automation into the already broken U.S. journalism industry simply isn&#8217;t going very well. There&#8217;s been just countless examples where affluent media owners rushed to embrace automation and LLMs (usually to cut corners and undermine labor) with disastrous impact, resulting in lots of plagiarism, completely false headlines, and a giant, completely [&#8230;]]]></description>
  641. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The rushed integration of half-cooked automation into the already broken U.S. journalism industry simply isn&#8217;t going very well. There&#8217;s been just <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/11/06/microsofts-use-of-ai-in-journalism-has-been-an-irresponsible-mess/">countless examples</a> where affluent media owners <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/05/the-la-times-political-rating-ai-is-a-silly-joke-aimed-at-validating-wealthy-media-ownerships-inherent-bias/">rushed to embrace automation</a> and LLMs (usually to cut corners and undermine labor) with <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/19/g-o-media-execs-full-speed-ahead-on-injecting-half-cooked-ai-into-a-very-broken-us-media/">disastrous impact</a>, resulting in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/06/12/yet-another-company-caught-using-ai-to-quietly-create-fake-journalists-and-fake-journalism/">lots of plagiarism</a>, completely <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/29/apple-has-to-pull-its-ai-news-synopses-because-they-were-routinely-full-of-shit/">false headlines</a>, and a giant, completely avoidable mess. </p>
  642. <p>Earlier this month, we noted how Politico is among the major media companies <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/04/politicos-rushed-adoption-of-half-cooked-ai-continues-to-go-terribly/">rushing to embrace AI without really thinking things through</a> or ensuring the technology <strong>actually works</strong> first. They&#8217;ve implemented &#8220;AI&#8221; systems &#8211;without transparently informing staff &#8212; that generate articles rife with all sorts of gibberish and falsehoods (this <a href="https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/inside-the-escalating-struggle-over">Brian Merchant post</a> is a must read to understand the scope). </p>
  643. <p>Politico management also recently introduced another AI <a href="https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/policy-intelligence-assistant/">“report builder”</a> for premium Politico PRO subscribers that&#8217;s supposed to offer a breakdown of existing Politico reporter analysis of complicated topics. But here too the automation constantly screws up, conflating politicians and generating all sorts of errors that, for some incoherent reason, isn&#8217;t reviewed by Politico editors. </p>
  644. <p>Actual human Politico journalists are understandably not pleased with any of this, especially because the nontransparent introduction of the new automation was in direct violation of the editorial union’s contract struck just last year. So unionized Politico employees <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ai-petition">have since been battling with Politico via arbitration</a>.</p>
  645. <p>On July 11, the PEN Guild (which has about 250 Politico union members) and Politico held an arbitration hearing to determine whether the publication had broken its collective bargaining agreement. <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/politicos-recent-ai-experiments-shouldnt-be-subject-to-newsroom-editorial-standards-its-editors-testify/">Nieman Lab obtained access to the arbitration hearing transcript</a>, at which Politico higher up editors tried to claim that automation shouldn&#8217;t be held to the same editorial standards as humans.</p>
  646. <p>Specifically asked about the problems with Report Builder, deputy editor-in-chief <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-schatz-88236714/">Joe Schatz</a> insisted that because Report Builder was technically built by coders, and its output isn&#8217;t reviewed by professional editors (which is insane) it shouldn&#8217;t have to adhere to the site&#8217;s broader editorial standards:</p>
  647. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  648. <p><em>&#8220;He went on to argue that Report Builder sits “outside the newsroom,” since Politico’s product and engineering teams built the tool and editorial workers don’t review its outputs. As a result, he said, the AI-generated reports should not be held to the newsroom’s editorial standards.&#8221;</em></p>
  649. </blockquote>
  650. <p>That&#8217;s&#8230; incoherent. LLMs are tools, they&#8217;re not inherently exempt from editorial standards and material reality just because management is bullish on AI. The CEO of Politico Owner Axel Springer, Mathias Döpfner, recently introduced a company wide mandate that every single employee in the organization has to not only use AI, but <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/ai-newsroom-mandate-publishing-mathias-dopfner-axel-springer/">consistently file reports justifying why they don’t</a>. It&#8217;s rather&#8230; cultish.</p>
  651. <p>This tap dancing around what constitutes &#8220;newsgathering&#8221; is effectively a way for Politico management to try and tap dance around their contract with union employees, since said contract plainly states:</p>
  652. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  653. <p><em>&#8220;If AI technology is used by Politico or its employees to supplement or assist in their newsgathering, such as the collection, organization, recording or maintenance of information, <strong>it must be done in compliance with Politico’s standards of journalistic ethics and involve human oversight</strong>.&#8221;</em></p>
  654. </blockquote>
  655. <p>Again, most U.S. media is owned by affluent older, white, Conservative men who generally see AI not as a way to make their products or employees&#8217; lives <strong>better</strong> or <strong>more efficient</strong>, but as a way to cut corners and undermine already underpaid labor. Men like Döpfner, who <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/09/politicos-new-owner-signals-hes-doubling-down-on-feckless-he-said-she-said-journalism/">like our authoritarian President</a>, and whose editorial standards and relationship with labor were <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/09/politicos-new-owner-signals-hes-doubling-down-on-feckless-he-said-she-said-journalism/">pretty fucking shaky to begin with</a>. </p>
  656. <p>These men want to create a fully automated ad engagement ouroboros that effectively <strong>shits money</strong> without having to <strong>pay humans</strong> a living wage, and that goal is evident everywhere you look. </p>
  657. <p>In an ideal world this would result in surging demand for intelligent, savvy journalism and analysis by competent, experienced people who actually have something to say. But this isn&#8217;t an ideal world, and increasingly the kind of folks dictating the trajectory of U.S. media (and automation) are routinely demonstrating they lack any sort of ethical competency for the honor.</p>
  658. ]]></content:encoded>
  660. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/25/politico-management-insists-ai-shouldnt-be-held-to-any-sort-of-human-editorial-standards-because-its-built-by-coders-not-journalists/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  661. <slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
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