Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned was probably a myth. But this is, somehow, real.

Hm. I don't think I've seen that before. I'm struck that the title seems to reference Barry Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative". I wonder if that was accidential.

I think a large fraction the phone phreaks were chiefly interested in the technology, but had a sense that they needed a some kind of radical political ideology to make it more legitimate (and any would do). At least I think that's where my young head was at the time.

Ditto. I remember the political shift, but didn't have the language at the time to really understand or process it.

Jacob Bruggeman has a neat new article out, "Phreaking Politics in Modern America," which covers telephone hacking, AT&T's status as an icon of American technology, and the New Left-to-libertarian pipeline in modern American political order

doi.org/10.1017/mah....

We must fight the insidious movement to make our institutions of higher learning into "institutions of dead dogmas."

I suppose it's refreshing that he acknowleges that "ridiculously claiming" that something is a hoax could result in losing one's fortune.

I disagree that this headline legitimizes the claim. It’s utterly dripping with sardonic irony.

The NYT headline writers are often guilty of uncritical neutrality, but this doesn’t seem like an example of it here.

The whole list thing is incompatible with the various dates related to registration timing in states, not to mention things like Address Confidentiality Program voters etc.

Just more bullshit from incompetent fools who have lost everything they have touched since 2020

bsky.app/profile/r5-t...

Thanks for the information.

I did a thread over on a competing social media platform about Trump's recent election-related EO and mail-in voting. federate.social/@mattblaze/1...

Even if this somehow survived the inevitable legal challenges, the chances of this being able to be implemented prior to the the November general election are effectively zero.

The EO would prohibit delivery of returned marked ballots (in "official election mail" envelopes) that lack a barcode IDing the voter (who must be on the DHS list of citizens).

Many legal problems. A practical one: there's no existing list of citizens. (This is why we have voter registration).

Breaking: President Trump Signs New Executive Order on Elections: It is Underwhelming Compared to What Was Threatened. It's Key Part is Likely Unconstitutional: Directing the Post Office to Reject Mai... President Trump has signed a second executive order purporting to regulate federal elections (especially mail ballots). His first executive order from last August has already been enjoined in key part...

Helpful summary / analysis of Trump's latest election-related executive order, this time attempting to restrict postal delivery of ballots to voters on a DHS-compiled list of citizens, by @rickhasen.bsky.social

Tl;dr: don't panic, for reasons both legal and practical.

electionlawblog.org?p=155187

(I didn't take it as a dig!)

But if we didn't charge people for crutches, there'd be no incentive to avoid breaking your leg.

That's also the advice I give people 99% of the time. The use case for a Faraday bag exists, but is very narrow. But people like gadgets, and like the idea that they can solve a problem by buying something.

Are these clowns still at it? Or is it just the naive people they've grifted running on momentum at this point?

I will say only that adding Greek letters to a nonsensical argument does not generally improve it.

Well played.

In either case, the uncritical recitation of the witnesses' conclusions was self-evident. The blame here lies with the magistrate for signing it.

It's clear that the agent either accepted the witnesses' observations and conclusions uncritically, or knowingly withheld the confounding context and explanations. I suspect the former (and that an inexperienced agent with no election training was deliberately chosen and steered to these witnesses)

In either case, the uncritical recitation of the witnesses' conclusions was self-evident. The blame here lies with the magistrate for signing it.

It's clear that the agent either accepted the witnesses' observations and conclusions uncritically, or knowingly withheld the confounding context and explanations. I suspect the former (and that an inexperienced agent with no election training was deliberately chosen and steered to these witnesses)

That’s inspired.

That's an issue, but honestly the agent seems to have played it fairly straight here. He didn't discuss the background of Olsen, but he also didn't seem to rely on his credibility as a witness, other than that he referred the complaint.

It’s extremely weak

The affidavit in the GA elections search warrant was unsealed. I did a short thread over on a competing social media platform yesterday with my thoughts. Tl;dr: I’m surprised the judge issued the warrant.

federate.social/@mattblaze/1...

Digitizing fine art properly for preservation is tricky to do well, but there are places that have the equipment (lighting rigs and cameras) for it that can do a spectacular job. Not cheap, but may be worth it. Look for a someone who specializes in "cultural heritage" work.

Feel better!