Ethin Probst 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: ‘This Should Be Shocking’: Conservative Judge Blasts White House As Senator Finally Accesses Abrego Garcia

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 18 Apr, 2025 @ 10:24am

    I absolutely love how the judge referenced Loper Bright here. The very case the conservatives wanted gone is being used against them -- how fitting! Now these judges needs to start jailing people. Every single person who is responsible for this bullshit from the Trump admin should be held personally liable for all of this and should be punished accordingly.

  • On the post: Donald Trump Backs His Co-President; Says Attacks On Tesla Dealerships Will Be Treated As ‘Terrorism’

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2025 @ 10:28am

    I can't wait for them to try to prosecute someone for this. Yeah, what some of the protestors do isn't good, but it's a far cry from terrorism.

  • On the post: Alito “Stunned” By Court Exercising Judicial Power He Championed & Expanded Just Months Ago

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2025 @ 02:04pm

    ... created an interesting legal problem that had been mostly theoretical prior to the current administration. Congress has “the power of the purse” and requires the executive branch to spend money as directed. Not spending appropriated money (known as “impoundment”) is pretty clearly illegal.
    Didn't Nixon do this too? I remember the Impoundment Control Act was (at least in theory) created to address this problem. Though I don't even think Nixon went as far as Presidents Musk and Trump have gone.

  • On the post: Pepperdine Sues Netflix Over Trademark In Show’s Fictional Portrayal Of The Lakers

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2025 @ 01:12am

    The university has also expressed deep concerns about some of the series’ themes, which include explicit content, substance use, nudity, and profanity—elements that are inconsistent with Pepperdine’s Christian values and reputation.
    How about you take your "Christian values" out of the courtroom first? Those values are completely irrelevant in this context. Or is it one of those Christian universities that thinks that it can force it's values onto everyone else?

  • On the post: GOP Is Quietly Freaking Out About Elon; Time For Them To Take A Stand

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2025 @ 10:05am

    I very, very much hope your wrong. The sheep aren't going to use their second-amendment rights to defend the constitution, and I'm afraid even the military is compromised. I mean, I think it is, given who's running the Sec. of Def., but maybe they'll finally get off their asses and do something?

  • On the post: A 25-Year-Old Is Writing Backdoors Into The Treasury’s $6 Trillion Payment System. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2025 @ 09:44pm

    Critical system failure

    Part of me can't wait for this idiot of a developer (no, I'm not calling him an engineer, he has no idea how to engineer anything) breaks something critical and it causes a failure (or worse a cascade failure). Especially given the old hardware he's working with. I mean, it'll be apocalyptic in it's bad-ness, but it will most likely definitely be the end of Musk and DOGE, probably in a permanent manner. And I can't imagine the GOP ever being able to spin that to make it look good. Making the government "efficient" is all well and good until you cause the entire financial system of the country to collapse because your "efficiency" broke it. But who am I kidding, they'll find some way to spin it to make it sound good even if the masses want Musk and his Dogeboys to be terminated, because people in the GOP are just that gullible.

  • On the post: First Cracks Appear: Some Conservatives Admit We’re In A Constitutional Crisis

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2025 @ 11:07am

    Most likely. Anybody but the government having the source code to that is just terrifying. The damage that could be done is... Idk even how to put it into words. (I'm also like 200 percent sure that asking for the source code of anything was way beyond the EO that Elon is using for his power grab, not that he cares.) This guy needs to be tried for treason already. Both treason and sedition.

  • On the post: First Cracks Appear: Some Conservatives Admit We’re In A Constitutional Crisis

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2025 @ 10:20am

    Update on the treasury situation: Elon's treasury access is a lot worse than I think any of is ever imagined. We thought he just wanted access to the systems. But no. He wants access to it's source code. So. Yeah. There are only two reasons I can think of for him to want that, because I can't think of anything else: either he wants to apply the "move fast and break things" approach to the treasury or reroute all payments through his own system, or he wants to sell it to someone. Considering the language it's written in is one you'd be hard-pressed to find an expert on nowadays, well...

  • On the post: SCOTUS: TikTok’s China Connection Is So Scary & Urgent, We Can Ban An Entire App. Biden Admin: Just Kidding, We Won’t Enforce It

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2025 @ 12:19pm

    ... well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.
    Well-supported my ass. Where's the proof? Quite convenient for the government that it just so happens that it doesn't exist, I'd say. TikTok's data collection practices are no different than any other companies but eh, whatever, apparently.

  • On the post: Trump’s DHS Pick, Kristi Noem, Decides To Undermine Public Safety By Cutting Funding For Public Broadcasting

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2025 @ 01:03pm

    Okay, I hope your fine with the WEA and similar services going away. Next time there's a flood warning or flash flood alert in your area, you won't know about it. I hope your alright with that. Just one consequence of getting rid of public broadcasting.

  • On the post: Trump’s DHS Pick, Kristi Noem, Decides To Undermine Public Safety By Cutting Funding For Public Broadcasting

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2025 @ 10:07am

    To a Republican, everything that has ever gone wrong, is ever going wrong, and will ever go wrong is the fault of Democrats. Always. Somehow. Nobody exactly knows how, it "just is". Somehow. Weirdly.

  • On the post: Trump’s DHS Pick, Kristi Noem, Decides To Undermine Public Safety By Cutting Funding For Public Broadcasting

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2025 @ 10:02am

    In other words, they want to increase their (local) deficit by... What... 2.9 million per year? Yeah, so much for fixing the deficit... But hey, nobody ever said Republican's ever were sane about this. You'd think they'd be, after all, they're supposed to be the God capitalists or something... But apparently not

  • On the post: Justice Kagan Acknowledges Bluesky, And Other Notes From The TikTok Oral Argument

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2025 @ 12:04pm

    Not necessarily relevant but a bit confused about this segment:

    ... being forced to divest under duress should itself be something constitutionally intolerable on any time scale
    I agree generally, but how would this work if it were to ever be enshrined in law or constitutionally? For example, I feel like this raises the question of: is forced divestiture under duress arguably one of the necessary and proper remedies that one might impose if an entity is a monopoly or violating antitrust laws in the extreme? Would that not count as being "under duress," since the entity obviously would not want to divest anything because capitalism? At the same time, exceptions, were there to be any, would need to be extremely narrowly tailored as to avoid being exploited or abused, but still.

  • On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: January 5th – 11th

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2025 @ 07:53pm

    An EO cannot rewrite laws, nor can it change existing ones. It can order a department or an individual of a department to send recommendations to congress, but that's it. It is up to congress to actually do something.

  • On the post: Congressional Report Accuses Jordan, Musk Of Weaponizing Gov’t To Silence Critics

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2025 @ 10:39am

    we'll see if your so confident when the leopards start eating your face. You know they will. You are not immune from them. But you will learn this fact, in due time...

  • On the post: Food Tracking App To Delete Users’ Previously Recorded Meals After Being Sued By Food Data Company

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2025 @ 03:53pm

    Can we just outlaw private equity firms already? All they seem to do is cause problems and not benefit anybody. Well, nobody of importance.

  • On the post: The Biggest Challenges Create The Biggest Opportunities

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2025 @ 07:16pm

    You aren't the only one, I was confused when I saw replies and then the replies looked like ordinary new comments... Methinks a bug has been found.

  • On the post: The Biggest Challenges Create The Biggest Opportunities

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2025 @ 07:14pm

    Uh, oops... Apparently the site merges comments when you hit reply on one comment, and then hit reply on another (since there isn't a cancel button)... My bad. The copyright stuff was meant for one of the comments below, should've deleted the original text... :-(

  • On the post: The Biggest Challenges Create The Biggest Opportunities

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2025 @ 07:12pm

    I feel like I'm piling on a bit here, but I'd like to add something: this kind of doomerism/"I'm worried" posts just makes everyone else depressed. Or it can. After a while of constantly seeing it, it causes everyone else to get depressed or outright annoyed/angry because they have to constantly put up with trying to be your therapist instead of constructively discussing the shitty world we live in and ways of solving those problemEh, 20 years is too long for me. I say renew it annually and prove that you actually need it. If you can't prove that (1) your commercially using it and (2) competition will harm you in some way that can't be cured in some other manner, you lose it. Copyright is something I strongly disagree with, hence why I think it should be strictly controlled. It is, after all, a bypass to the anti-monopoly laws that we normally would throw at people, and things like that are prime candidates for the "prove that you genuinely, actually need this or fuck off" protections.

  • On the post: YouTube TV Raises Prices Again, Days After Hinting It Wouldn’t

    Ethin Probst ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2024 @ 09:37pm

    Here is what I don't get. Google is a trillion-dollar company (at least if I remember right it is). Yet they're raising prices because of the "price of content". Isn't Google earning so much revenue from all their other services that they could absorb that cost practically indefinitely? Even if they lowered the price of YouTube TV to $15, I doubt the "price of content" would actually impact their bottom line all that much unless the "price" is like $5 billion per item of "content" (whatever that actually means...)

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