Cathay’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: Caught In The Crackdown: As Arrests At Anti-ICE Protests Piled Up, Prosecutions Crumbled

Cathay ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2026 @ 12:58pm

"environmental crimes, public corruption, financial fraud, cyberscams, civil rights violations"

The Trump "administration" wants to keep its own people safe while they engage in those activities.

On the post: AI And Cybersecurity: A Glass Half-Empty/Half-Full Proposition, Where The Glass Is Holding Nitroglycerin

Cathay ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2026 @ 12:03pm

There are other takes on Anthropic's hype...

See Pivot to AI's take on this. Also consider that running other tech companies' proprietary software through Mythos amounts to providing training data for Anthropic, and parts of it will be reproduced in Claude Code output.

On the post: Trump Celebrates Easter By Dropping An F-Bomb, Threatening More War Crimes

Cathay ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2026 @ 06:09am

American Evangelicalism always seems to have been a rationale

... for using very selective Biblical literalism as a justification for being extremely reactionary.

On the post: DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator

Cathay ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2026 @ 12:57pm

"... it’s considered the international gold standard, often influencing safety rules around the world."

It was considered the gold standard, past tense. Nobody with any sense takes anything that came out of the USA on trust now.

On the post: Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “A Pile Of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway.

Cathay ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2026 @ 02:17pm

It's the American Way.

Large companies with effective lobbying in DC don't have to be good, they just have to not fail too obviously and too often. One of the minor benefits of the Trump Administration's blatant corruption is that Europe is starting to wake up to the lower-level corruption that's been going on for decades.

On the post: Hegseth’s War On Anthropic Encounters The First Amendment

Cathay ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2026 @ 04:08am

"Arbitrary and Capricious"

If the Trump Administration actually designated those as administrative principles, it would spend less time quarrelling with itself, and the lawsuits would be faster and cheaper.

On the post: America’s Diminished Place In The World And The Consequences Of Not Impeaching

Cathay ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2026 @ 02:00am

". . . America will simply be welcomed back to the world stage as a respected member of the global order."

Impeachment now or later makes little difference to that. It was clear after George W Bush that the US can go crazy in one presidential election. Trump 2 shows that enough of the US population likes being crazy that it isn't going to stop. Trump's wrecking of the country's international reputation means the USA's importance will steadily decline. That's fortunate for the survival of the human species, but it's probably too late for the survival of high-tech civilisation. Rampant egotism seems to be the Great Filter, at least in our case.

On the post: At The WBC: Mark DeRosa Screwed Up & Then MLB Streisanded The Story

Cathay ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2026 @ 08:13am

Screwups happen, but owning up to them is far better

Cricket has a mildly complicated system for adjusting victory targets when rain shortens play. At least one big international side has lost a match by misunderstanding it. https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-west-indies-2008-09-352657/west-indies-vs-england-1st-odi-352665/match-report

On the post: Anthropic’s Statement To The ‘Department Of War’ Reads Like A Hostage Note Written In Business Casual

Cathay ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2026 @ 12:06pm

". . . a designation designed for foreign adversaries, not San Francisco companies with ethics policies . . ."

Having an ethics policy makes them un-American and an adversary of the Trump Administration.

On the post: Tech Companies Shouldn’t Be Bullied Into Doing Surveillance

Cathay ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2026 @ 03:04pm

"tech cannot be used for specific military purposes"

How is the tech supposed to reliably identify what it's being used for? Remember, there is no concept of meaning in the processing that Large Language Models do. They're simply text generators.

On the post: There’s A Reason Many Police Dept’s Ban Shooting At Moving Vehicles: It Saves Lives Without Putting Officers In Greater Danger

Cathay ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2026 @ 06:50am

Policing should reflect a commitment to valuing human life and prioritizing its protection.

I think that's where the Trump Administration is confused. Like many right-wing politicians, their definition of "human" is both conditional and mutable.

On the post: RFK Jr. Spreads New Bogus Scare Mongering Bullshit About Cell Phone Safety

Cathay ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2026 @ 11:25am

Time to rename CDC

It's now the Center for Disease Conspiracy.

On the post: Senator Endorses Discredited Doctor’s Book On A Chemical He Claims Treats Everything From Autism To Cancer

Cathay ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2025 @ 08:04am

Presumably, Johnson will insist on Chlorine Dioxide treatment when he next gets ill?

... nah, didn't think he would.

On the post: Administration: ASL Interpreters At Briefings Would Prevent Trump From ‘Controlling His Image’

Cathay ( profile ), 24 Dec, 2025 @ 02:38am

Trump's understanding of "public service"

is that the public exists to service him.

On the post: The Measles Outbreak In South Carolina Is Growing

Cathay ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2025 @ 10:51am

"Nothing like a problem being solved for so long that idiots and/or the arrogant dismiss it ..."

Just wait for the campaigns again water chlorination. Not fluoridation, chlorination.

On the post: Judge: Even If Trump’s DOJ Goes After Comey Again, It Won’t Have Access To Evidence It Illegally Obtained

Cathay ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 01:16pm

"It Won’t Have Access To Evidence It Illegally Obtained"

"Of course we will. You, the prosecutor, just have to lie about where it came from. What's the judge gonna do, lock you up or something?"

On the post: Citizenship Ceremonies Are Being Disrupted By Trump’s Latest Wave Of Bigoted Cruelty

Cathay ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 12:00pm

"The people running the government have never experienced joy."

Maybe not, but they think they have. By stamping on other's faces.

On the post: ACIP Decides More Newborns Do Need To Catch Hepatitis B

Cathay ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2025 @ 12:00pm

How in the actual hell do you look at that chart and decide vaccinations have to go?

Easy: you're more concerned about your own status as a "wellness leader" than about other people's kids. Being ignorant of both medicine and statistics makes this far easier. Unfortunately, the American public likes to have its wrong ideas confirmed far more than it likes to be told it is wrong. So it voted for conspiracy theories.

On the post: Congress Is Finally Going To Look Into Trump’s Boat Strike Killing Spree

Cathay ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2025 @ 06:52am

Two things seem pretty clear

The stuff about Trump in the Epstein Files must be really bad to justify a distraction on this scale. The Administration hopes to compromise enough senior military officers to gain military support when it refuses to leave power in 2029. If the officers are facing long prison terms under a successor government, that's a powerful argument for accepting claims about a "state of emergency."

On the post: DOJ Memo Says It Won’t Prosecute US Troops No Matter How Illegal Trump’s Boat Strike Program Is

Cathay ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2025 @ 01:15pm

"... personnel taking part in military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in Latin America would not be exposed to future prosecution, ..."

They're trying to establish the Nuremberg Defence in US law. They want the military to become accustomed this kind of killing, which means there will be far too many participants to be pardoned individually. Pardons will be reserved for the senior people and the political appointees.

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