klu9

joined 1 week ago
[–] klu9@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

"You want to buy a Chelsea tractor? OK, as long as you know and accept the consequences." Only let them buy 4x4s that come with a wrap like the kind you get on cigarettes, but instead showing injuries and deaths to pedestrians caused by 4x4s.

Example cigarette packets with warnings and pictures

" STUPIDLY LARGE VEHICLES KILL CHILDREN "

[–] klu9@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Playing up one of the talking points Putin uses to scare people away from supporting Ukraine? Gabbard , of all people?!?

This is my shocked face. :-|

[–] klu9@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] klu9@piefed.social 5 points 2 days ago

Both Mr. Vance and Mr. Miller pointed to the post as evidence of what they say is an anti-Trump bias in the mainstream media.

Reality has a well-known anti-Trump bias.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

While studying informatics at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland,

[–] klu9@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Strange, it works for me. So I've pasted it into the OP if you still want to read it.

Basically, use of proprietary software and services was demanded at all levels (doing tasks, submitting assignments, attending online classes, completing forms etc), especially as the pandemic picked up. Lecturers would often refuse or not even respond to his requests to use free alternatives, and some would count his not being in a Zoom or Skype meeting as an absence.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

My bad. Thanks for the pointer.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

Depending on where they were in Minnesota, these women might have been breaking the law!

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/arresting-dress-timeline-anti-cross-dressing-laws-u-s

[–] klu9@piefed.social 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah, I can't swear I would have held firm through all that he went through.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

I believe the correct term is "land dreadnought".

 

The only laws the Trump Administration respects are the laws it gets to inflict on others. The rule of law, however, doesn’t mean the laws don’t apply to those who make the rules. And yet, here we are, seeing another flagrant refusal to comply with oversight laws just because the DHS and ICE feel they can keep getting away with this.

Last month, ICE’s refusal to allow congressional reps to engage in an unannounced inspection of a New Jersey detention facility resulted in the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka — something that occurred even though Baraka followed ICE officers’ orders and returned to the public sidewalk outside of the facility’s gates. That then led to federal prosecutors receiving a tongue-lashing from a federal judge for the arrest and refusal to dismiss the obviously bogus charges the feds used to justify their retaliatory arrest of the mayor.

It’s happening again, albeit without the arrests. But it’s still just as unlawful. Congressional reps on both coasts were denied access to ICE detention facilities — something ICE cannot legally do.

Three Democratic members of Congress from California and two from New York said over the weekend that they were barred from entering federal detention centers in their respective states to check on people who were detained in immigration raids or in protests against the raids.

All five members — Representatives Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez and Norma Torres of California and Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez of New York — said that they should have been allowed to enter the buildings as members of Congress.

The congressional reps are entirely in the right, even if DHS head Kristi Noem and professional liar/DHS PR rep Tricia McLaughlin say otherwise. Inconveniently for both Noem and McLaughlin, ICE’s current acting direction, Todd Lyons, has publicly confirmed congressional members have the right to engage in unannounced inspections of federal facilities.

“We do acknowledge that any member of Congress has the right to show up for an inspection at one of our facilities in their oversight capability,” Lyons said. He also said that while those visits are “unannounced,” members need to show identification and go through screening and can’t bring contraband.

By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE facilities and don’t have to give any notice, although congressional staff members need to give 24 hours’ notice.

That’s what’s being said by ICE, but that’s definitely not how ICE is actually doing things. And ICE’s parent agency, the DHS, is only too happy to oblige ICE’s incorrect claims and unlawful actions by adding more bullshit of its own.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said that the lawmakers had shown up unannounced. ICE officials had told them, she said, that they “would be happy to give them a tour with a little more notice, when it would not disrupt ongoing law enforcement activities and sensitive law enforcement items could be put away.”

Wrong answer, Trish. The law says congressional reps can enter at any time without any prior notice. There’s no provision in the oversight law that gives federal agencies a bit of extra time to tidy up the place and hide anything incriminating. Oversight isn’t really oversight if those being inspected are given advance notice and enough time to sweep stuff under the rugs.

But ICE continues to pretend otherwise and Tricia McLaughlin is always on hand to misrepresent the law and/or claim these completely legal impromptu inspections are nothing more than political stunts. Even if they are “political stunts” (and they are, to a certain extent), the law doesn’t say federal agencies can bar Congress members from entry just because they might they have problems with any perceived motive.

The law is law, but somehow that just never seems to be the case when it comes to this administration. Trump and his cabinet are still picking and choosing which laws they’ll follow and relying on the resulting deluge of lawsuits to continue violating laws while overworked courts try (often in vain) to rein in this administration. Hopefully the tide will turn in the near future, and the system of checks and balances will slowly begin to drain the swamp Trump has created.


From Techdirt via this RSS feed

 

The only laws the Trump Administration respects are the laws it gets to inflict on others. The rule of law, however, doesn’t mean the laws don’t apply to those who make the rules. And yet, here we are, seeing another flagrant refusal to comply with oversight laws just because the DHS and ICE feel they can keep getting away with this.

Last month, ICE’s refusal to allow congressional reps to engage in an unannounced inspection of a New Jersey detention facility resulted in the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka — something that occurred even though Baraka followed ICE officers’ orders and returned to the public sidewalk outside of the facility’s gates. That then led to federal prosecutors receiving a tongue-lashing from a federal judge for the arrest and refusal to dismiss the obviously bogus charges the feds used to justify their retaliatory arrest of the mayor.

It’s happening again, albeit without the arrests. But it’s still just as unlawful. Congressional reps on both coasts were denied access to ICE detention facilities — something ICE cannot legally do.

Three Democratic members of Congress from California and two from New York said over the weekend that they were barred from entering federal detention centers in their respective states to check on people who were detained in immigration raids or in protests against the raids.

All five members — Representatives Maxine Waters, Jimmy Gomez and Norma Torres of California and Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez of New York — said that they should have been allowed to enter the buildings as members of Congress.

The congressional reps are entirely in the right, even if DHS head Kristi Noem and professional liar/DHS PR rep Tricia McLaughlin say otherwise. Inconveniently for both Noem and McLaughlin, ICE’s current acting direction, Todd Lyons, has publicly confirmed congressional members have the right to engage in unannounced inspections of federal facilities.

“We do acknowledge that any member of Congress has the right to show up for an inspection at one of our facilities in their oversight capability,” Lyons said. He also said that while those visits are “unannounced,” members need to show identification and go through screening and can’t bring contraband.

By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE facilities and don’t have to give any notice, although congressional staff members need to give 24 hours’ notice.

That’s what’s being said by ICE, but that’s definitely not how ICE is actually doing things. And ICE’s parent agency, the DHS, is only too happy to oblige ICE’s incorrect claims and unlawful actions by adding more bullshit of its own.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said that the lawmakers had shown up unannounced. ICE officials had told them, she said, that they “would be happy to give them a tour with a little more notice, when it would not disrupt ongoing law enforcement activities and sensitive law enforcement items could be put away.”

Wrong answer, Trish. The law says congressional reps can enter at any time without any prior notice. There’s no provision in the oversight law that gives federal agencies a bit of extra time to tidy up the place and hide anything incriminating. Oversight isn’t really oversight if those being inspected are given advance notice and enough time to sweep stuff under the rugs.

But ICE continues to pretend otherwise and Tricia McLaughlin is always on hand to misrepresent the law and/or claim these completely legal impromptu inspections are nothing more than political stunts. Even if they are “political stunts” (and they are, to a certain extent), the law doesn’t say federal agencies can bar Congress members from entry just because they might they have problems with any perceived motive.

The law is law, but somehow that just never seems to be the case when it comes to this administration. Trump and his cabinet are still picking and choosing which laws they’ll follow and relying on the resulting deluge of lawsuits to continue violating laws while overworked courts try (often in vain) to rein in this administration. Hopefully the tide will turn in the near future, and the system of checks and balances will slowly begin to drain the swamp Trump has created.


From Techdirt via this RSS feed

 

TIL about GifCities, the Internet Archive's collection and search engine for GIFs from Geocities, the host of free personal websites from the turn of the century.

Calvin and Hobbes on wagon downhill

A search for "Calvin" finds almost exclusively GIFs of our favourite six-year-old and very few of a 16th century protestant reformer.

Although our Calvin does have a theological opinion.
Calvin religious principles

Original post:
https://piefed.social/post/896235

 

GIFs!

We are excited to announce a new version of GifCities, Internet Archive’s GeoCities Animated GIF Search Engine!

https://gifcities.org/

The new version of GifCities includes a number of new improvements. We are especially excited at the drastic improvement in “GifSearchies” by implementing semantic search for GifCities, instead of the hacky old “file name” text search of the original version.

This news makes me want to dance!

Calvin and Hobbes dancing

Why not post your favourite Geocities GIFs below?

 
 

Teaser trailer

Rise of the Deceiver is an action co-op game in which players, imbued with powers bestowed upon them by the legendary members of the Wu-Tang Clan, fight against invaders that wish to corrupt their home. It’s been in development for three years, and started as a companion piece to Angel of Dust, a movie produced by Ghostface Killah and directed by The RZA.

While there have been numerous hip-hop-centric video games over the years, very few of them tackle the artistry, history, and culture of the genre beyond using it as set dressing. “We wanted to create something where it was built from the ground up,” Dabby Smith said. “It was by the culture, for the culture, and actually representing what [Wu-Tang Clan] put out there through the years.”

 

Written by George Takei, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger
Art by Harmony Becker
Published by IDW Publishing

It Rhymes with Takei fills in the massive blanks George left in his bestselling autobiography of the 1990s by sharing the story of his being a secretly gay man. It’s a book about love, not sex, a book about the pain of hiding one’s true self. It’s a book about fear, about ambition, about shame, about hollow success, and, most of all, it’s a book about growth.

 

On May 19, 2025, federal prosecutors charged Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, under a little-known federal statute—18 U.S. Code Section 111—for allegedly assaulting and impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a visit to a Newark detention facility. The officers refused her entry to conduct a federally authorized oversight visit. It’s still unclear whether the claimed assault was alleged to be physical or verbal. But what’s clear is that Rep. McIver’s prosecution reveals something much larger: Under the current administration, Section 111 is being reimagined as a blunt political weapon. Not to deter violence—but to silence dissent and criminalize opponents.

Section 111 makes it a crime to “forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with” federal officials engaged in their duties. But here’s the problem: You don’t even need to know they’re federal officials. You can be convicted for shoving someone you think is just someone yelling in your face, even just placing them in “reasonable fear of harm” without physical contact—if they turn out to be a plainclothes agent. That’s not hypothetical.

That’s precedent, courtesy of the Supreme Court over 50 years ago.
Which means this: An undercover agent embedded in a protest, a public meeting, even a constituent town hall could claim to have been “impeded,” and the federal government can treat that moment as a federal crime. Under the current administration’s appetite for authoritarianism, that’s not a loophole, it’s a feature.

Archived at https://archive.is/JvUOO

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