Tom Cross's avatar

Tom Cross

@decius.bsky.social

54 followers 334 following 127 posts

Also ioc.exchange/@decius “I understand you want the answer to be easy, but that’s not the same thing as it being easy.” - Ken White

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Dannagal G. Young's avatar Dannagal G. Young @dannagal.bsky.social
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Thoughts on why Dems can't see straight: In "Wrong," I explain how we humans don't really want to see the world as it really is. Instead, we're motivated by the 3 Cs: we want to feel like we Comprehend the world, like we have some Control over it, and like we are part of a Community. 🧵

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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If you want a correct understanding of the Conservative’s agenda WRT to the Supreme Court and what they really want from Trump II, this post lays it out pretty clearly: reason.com/volokh/2024/...

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David Froomkin's avatar David Froomkin @dfroomkin.bsky.social
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The core problem with the Court's conservative majority is that they insist they are "formalists" but then go ahead and invent rules out of whole cloth that appear nowhere in the Constitution—and often are contradicted by its text.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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If the NY conviction of Trump relied, in any way, on evidence or testimony that is now off limits due to the brand new 5/4 evidentiary rule created yesterday, it will be vacated. This will be a huge PR win for Trump.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Seems that one political consequence of the immunity ruling is that you can stick a fork in the idea of “textualist originalism.” This grant of immunity has no basis in text or tradition, and given its massive consequences, the argument that originalism matters can never be taken seriously again.

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Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
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There are two elements to the immunity decision that are particularly extreme in a way that many will miss: (1) motive is irrelevant and (2) immune acts are not just excluded from prosecution, they’re excluded from evidence. /1

50 replies 905 reposts 2436 likes

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Reposted by Tom Cross

Justin Schuh's avatar Justin Schuh @justinschuh.com
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The experts I follow seem most concerned that SCOTUS went much further than expected in aserting that official acts can't even be used to establish a predicate to a crime (hence ACB's partial concurrence). That seems to leave the door pretty wide open to much broader abuses of executive power.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Thank you, this is exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to understand (without having time to sit down and read the whole decision right now.)

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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I hate these days where supposedly serious professional analysts claim a ruling is more expansive than it actually is because they’re mad and having a “vibe.” The actual facts are important.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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The wrote “presumptively immune” not “absoluty immune” or “can’t be illegal.”

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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It is not at all surprising that the court found the President immune from prosecution for official acts. That was expected. Anyone got a link to an analysis of this decision that gets into the details of the holding and isn’t mere outrage that the court did what everyone expected them to do?

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Jameel Jaffer's avatar Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social
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I was prepared for disaster, but the Netchoice decision is good. It rejects the broadest arguments made by the states and the platforms. It recognizes that platforms are ‘editors’ but dismisses the argument that regulation in this sphere is categorically unconstitutional.

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Pwnallthethings's avatar Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social
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I do think there is some extreme frustration that Biden-2020 was elected in a very large part on the basic top-line policy of "I will get rid of Trump and you won't have to deal with his bullshit anymore" and on that, at least, he (and other institutions, groups, etc) failed at that one big task

3 replies 7 reposts 61 likes

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Gautham FC's avatar Gautham FC @gauthamrao.bsky.social
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on the very day the Supreme Court's conservatives said 'we know best' and put themselves in charge of complicated agency decisions one of the geniuses confused nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxide. So they had to have a do over. Not exactly an auspicious start.

www.forbes.com/sites/alison...

43 replies 566 reposts 1442 likes

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James Fallows Tierney's avatar James Fallows Tierney @jamesftierney.bsky.social
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I guess I don’t need this baby anymore

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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People are talking about the word Gish Gallop. I think its important to give the thing a name. The post 2020 election lawsuits, the Twitter files, Murthy vs Missouri … Gish Gallop.

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Yoel Roth's avatar Yoel Roth @yoyoel.com
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Say it louder for the folks in the back: Jawboning is a real problem that deserves real jurisprudence, but this case was always built on lies, misrepresentation, and conjecture. Glad to see the majority recognize that.

1 replies 28 reposts 135 likes

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Michael C. Dorf's avatar Michael C. Dorf @dorfonlaw.bsky.social
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Where's the line between permissible government jawboning and impermissible coercion to censor third parties? Today's ruling in Murthy v. Missouri dismisses based on standing but also hints at the merits: the Biden administration was on the permissible side of the line.

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Thom 🏳️‍🌈's avatar Thom 🏳️‍🌈 @mongreldog.bsky.social
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fulfil the prophecy......

28 replies 419 reposts 1645 likes

Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Conservatives against Heller: “The majority repeated Heller's statement that "prohibitions … on the possession of firearms by 'felons and the mentally ill'[] are 'presumptively lawful'" / Justice Thomas's dissent noted that this statement in Heller was "dictum."”

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Dorian Quelle's avatar Dorian Quelle @dorianquelle.bsky.social
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It was a pleasure to present our work on Blocking on
@bsky.app
@netsciconf.bsky.social
! In this thread I will make a case for Bluesky as a fantastic opportunity for scientists to answer old questions with new data! (1/7)

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Crazy that there is not one word in this article about the “Muslim Ban,” the first version of which, if it was not immediately enjoined by the courts, would have locked green card holders with certain nationalities out of the country if they happened to be overseas when it was enacted.

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post malone ergo propter malone's avatar post malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social
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that's a great idea, let's vote on it right now

4 replies 12 reposts 81 likes

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Peter's avatar Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social
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if you think this is definitely going to be held unconstitutional, please note that in 2019 the Supreme Court held that a giant cross on public land did not violate the Constitution

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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There are powerful people who’ve argued that if a computer reads your email the fourth amendment isn’t implicated because computers don’t care about your dirty laundry. I think this perspective underestimates its own social consequences in spectacular ways, but its very attractive to some circles.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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On the one hand, any version of reality where the NSA exists involves the collection of a bunch of content that LLMs would be a lot of help with, so the NSA’s interest in them isn’t evidence of anything Constitutionally improper. However….

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Robin Berjon's avatar Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com
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I've tried to take on the question of how to make the internet public interest technology. It took me through transnational infrastructure, standards, governance, industrial policy, and a cast of creative thinkers and next-gen projects.

It's complicated, but I have hope!
berjon.com/public-inter...

3 replies 17 reposts 22 likes

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Philip Bump's avatar Philip Bump @pbump.com
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Donald Trump actually has his own scattershot outline of what he plans to do in office: "Agenda 47." He doesn't talk about it much, so I made a searchable index of what it contains. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

9 replies 51 reposts 162 likes

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Reposted by Tom Cross

TechCrunch's avatar TechCrunch @techcrunch.com
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US sues Adobe for hiding termination fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions

52 replies 584 reposts 1624 likes

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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FWIW, I built a little website that answers this specific question.

You’d think it would show up on web searches but there are too many commercial weather sites with better page rank.

www.lastrain.io

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Adversarial Thinking: The Art of Dangerous Ideas is a class that I'm co-teaching at Defcon Training this year with Greg Conti. The class uses examples from hacker history and military doctrine to improve your ability to see weaknesses in things you are making.

training.defcon.org/products/gre...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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The famous Painted Ladies houses in San Francisco are a study in the arbitrariness and irrationality of California property taxes.

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Zappy legs (she/her)'s avatar Zappy legs (she/her) @jcw1.bsky.social
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"Cortland... is a significant player in this alleged conspiracy. The impact of such practices is starkly evident in Atlanta, where 81% of multifamily rental unit prices are set using software, and rents have skyrocketed by 80% since 2016.... despite increasing vacancy rates"
shorturl.at/zo8mM

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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This kind of talk is a perennial position that leftists take, because they are frustrated with moderates and want the agenda to be all about them. They cannot win elections without moderates, and therefore don’t have the kind of power that they see their right wing counterparts wielding.

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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There are a lot of posts on here this weekend calling for Dems to “fight” and “motivate their base.” You are living in a country with a set of structural Constitutional imbalances that favor Republicans. Dems cannot follow the same strategies that Republicans follow and win elections.

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southpaw's avatar southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
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Aren’t these the same assholes who were pushing a flag burning amendment all through the 80s and 90s?

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Because Trump remains a candidate for President, the judge in the Trump case has been saddled with a profound responsibility in determining sentencing that should have been taken off the table a long time ago by the Senate and/or the Supreme Court - more senior institutions. I expect probation.

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Sarah McLaughlin's avatar Sarah McLaughlin @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social
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Yeah, a terrible outcome but where it seems like this was inevitably heading. We're going to see companies outside China and Hong Kong respond to rulings that only apply to Hong Kong by taking down material on a *global* scale. We are in an era where local laws have global speech ramifications.

4 replies 48 reposts 148 likes

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Mike Masnick's avatar Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social
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Congress still won't stop automakers from selling your driving data to data brokers and insurance companies, but they want to make sure @elonjet.net can't tell you if Elon is flying to Texas.

28 replies 550 reposts 1183 likes

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Reposted by Tom Cross

Melissa Gira Grant's avatar Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com
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“Almost as if everyone involved anticipated this pardon, the Texas prison system managed to release Perry within an hour of Abbott’s signing, a near-miraculous coordination of prison administration that I have never witnessed. (Ask those who are exonerated how long it takes to get released…”

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Tom Cross's avatar Tom Cross @decius.bsky.social
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Part of America’s decay is the fact that the ranks of senior political leadership on the right are filled with people who are emotionally immature.

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