Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the politics-as-unusual dept
This week, after Elizabeth Warren was blocked from reading a letter by Coretta Scott King in the Senate, we noted the extreme Streisand Effect that resulted. Chris ODonnell won most insightful comment of the week by summing it up nicely:
“She Persisted”
And thus turtle faced KY Senator Mitch McConnell did hand Elizabeth Warren the greatest campaign slogan for her 2020 run for President.
In second place on the insightful side, we’ve got an anonymous commenter who offered a very interesting angle on the DHS’ plans to demand social media passwords at the border:
Isn’t the sharing of passwords a violation of every website’s Terms of Service? And isn’t that (at least in the eyes of the DOJ) a violation of CFAA, and a felony? So every non-citizen who visits the USA will be required to commit a felony before they will be admitted?
The CFAA doesn’t seem to grant an exemption for this kind of activity, so any government agent who logs in to another person’s account violates that website’s TOS, and they also commit a felony? Wonderful.
For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from rytyshy highlighting one of the many noteworthy lines in the appeals court’s decision not to overturn the injunction against Trump’s immigration order:
The judges also point out that the President’s comments (and tweets) are relevant to the intent of this ban. This is important in that it underlines that his words now matter in a legal sense. Something he seems to still not understand.
Next, we’ve got a comment from That responding to the notion that Trump is just a natural next step after Obama and Bush:
No.
As I’ve said before, I absolutely agree that each President builds on the powers and policies taken on by his predecessor.
But there is nothing normal or natural about what is happening now. Yes, you can absolutely criticize the bad precedents set by Obama and Bush (and Clinton and Reagan and Nixon and Johnson and on down the line). But stop talking about what’s been happening these past few weeks as if it were just politics as usual.
Over on the funny side, first place goes to Roger Strong for offering a bizarre but amusing comparison in response to the silencing of Elizabeth Warren:
1994 – The first piece of spam appears in USENET newsgroups. After much uproar, it is quickly removed and an apology is issued. “Well, that should be the last of THAT”, say users.
2017 – The GOP use their new Senate majority to silence Elizabeth Warren on civil rights. “Well, that should be the last of THAT”, say Republicans.
In second place, we’ve got a response from PaulT to one of the many ranting comments about the crazy things that straw-men liberals think (it really doesn’t matter which one or on which post):
Yeah, it’s amazing what those people who only exist in your head believe.
For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a response to the ongoing legal fight in Iowa over police abusing warrant exceptions. TechDescartes expertly co-opted a piece of Star Wars culture and gave it a brand new meaning:
Instead of telling friends to “drive safe” when they leave, maybe we should be saying, “May the Fourth be with you.”
Finally, we’ve got a fantastic observation from Oblate regarding Trump’s vague executive order on crime:
Trump’s task force is charged with “Crime Reduction And Public safety”.
Pretty much what we’ve come to expect. At least they’re correctly labeling what they’re giving us now.
That’s all for this week, folks!