n00bdragon 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: We Found More Than 40 Cases Of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds And Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2026 @ 04:44pm

    Wow. The same group of people willing to literally shoot you in the face is also willing to choke you (possibly to death). I'm shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.

  • On the post: Prosecutors Flee DOJ After Being Told To Investigate The Murdered Woman, Not The Murderer

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2026 @ 01:52pm

    Is losing your life to an accountable LEO better? The dead never really get justice. Sometimes people get revenge on their behalf, but never justice.

  • On the post: Trump Tries To Disappear Impeachment References At Smithsonian

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2026 @ 06:07am

    I'd give it a little more than 5%. The Republican majority in the HOR is razor-thin at the moment. If the Democrats can flip just three seats they'll have a majority. IF they get a majority, I would expect impeachments to be filed, passed, and sent to the Senate within days, not weeks, regardless of what the Senate looks like. The barrage of weekly passing impeachment bills would continue to put pressure on Senators to do something with it. Right now, I think Dem control of the house is virtually guaranteed so this is the outcome I would be shocked not see. The Senate isn't something to be given up on either though. There, the Democratic party only needs to flip two seats to gain a majority. IF that happens, I would expect impeachments to proceed down a party line vote with little resistance or debate. And just look at this list of Senate seats up for election. Sure, most of these are Republican strongholds, but not all of them. Lastly, it's important to remember that the Republican party is not monolithic (even if the Trump minions would very much like it to be). There's a very real possibility that even if all of the above washes out and the balance of power stays exactly as it is, that Trump could face large scale defections in his own party that could make him vulnerable to impeachment even before November. More than that, even assuming that current Republicans hold the line, who is the say that the next batch of Republican representatives and Senators will all be compliant? If Trump doesn't pull an actual Reichstag fire and assume martial law or something I'd give his chances of remaining president through Jan 31st, 2027 much lower than 95%. Personally, I'd love to believe 0%, but who knows. Maybe as high as 10%.

  • On the post: DHS Tells Reporter That Filming ICE Officers ‘Sounds Like Obstruction Of Justice’

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2026 @ 10:37am

    Being in a road is a crime worthy of summary execution? Every command a cop gives is the law, and failure to instantly comply with all orders (no matter how contradictory) is a crime worthy of summary execution? Moving in the direction of a cop from any distance at any speed is a carte blanche for summary execution during and for some nebulous time frame after the motion has ceased or diverted? Do you ever ask yourself if this qualifies as the "freedom" America is so famous for?

  • On the post: Abrego Garcia Asks For Sanctions As Gov’t Officials Continue To Publicly Attack Him Ahead Of His Trial

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2026 @ 10:30am

    Sanctions being called for, finally. That it took this long and this is the only place it's happening is a travesty of justice, but finally.

  • On the post: Trump’s Fake Drug War: Pardons Honduran President Convicted Of 400 Tons, Illegally Invades & Arrests Venezuela’s President Over Weaker Charges

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2026 @ 11:47am

    "Narcoterrorism" isn't a real crime. Call this what it is: Kidnapping The official business of the United States is now kidnapping and ransom. I can scarcely believe that I'm writing that sentence.

  • On the post: Judge Says Trump Can’t Strip Lawyer’s Security Clearance Just Because He Doesn’t Like His Clients

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2025 @ 01:37pm

    Where are the sanctions? How many more cases can get kicked up and down the court system, with decisions that don't take effect for weeks or months down the road before the law has no meaning?

  • On the post: The Wall Street Journal Applauds Republicans’ Corrupt, Illegal Theft Of Billions In Taxpayer Dollars

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2025 @ 07:01am

    I never would have guessed that politicians would funnel money towards donors and rich friends. If there has ever been a fatal argument against collectivization it's that it expands the number of people you can grift from and narrows the number of people you need to bribe to do it.

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

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2025 @ 04:05pm

    I'm just struggling to imagine an ASL interpreter translating whatever passes for language coming out of Donald Trump's lips into sign language. On this one, maybe the deaf can just consider themselves lucky.

  • On the post: SD Governor Gets Shitty After Town Announces It Won’t Be Pitching In With Upcoming ICE Raids

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2025 @ 10:44am

    You serve the state, not Donald Trump and his fleeting whims.
    Wrong. If Trump asked him to get on all fours and bark like a dog on national TV, who would bet that he'd refuse?

  • On the post: Trump Files $10 Billion Defamation Suit Over BBC Doc That Never Aired Here—Using VPN Stats As Evidence

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2025 @ 10:45am

    The proper defense to all of Trump's lawsuits is a remarkably simple "no", but like all of his lawsuits the substance of the lawsuit isn't the point and engaging with the claims in the lawsuit in good faith is giving the lawyers who risk their bar licenses to humor them too much credit. The point (as always) is to tie up a "foe" (and everyone is a foe until the moment they become your stooge and even then, it's kinda touch and go) in legal proceedings that: A) Drain them of cash while you use the (literally) infinite resources of the state that prints the world's reserve currency of choice to attack them. B) Show off to loyal stooges how aggressive you are for attacking your enemies. Inspire them with what an aggressive person you are. C) Cow your enemies who do not have the resources of the BBC to fight back, making them know what you will do them if they cross you. D) Dominate the news cycle for another day with more pointless blather that isn't any of the things you are currently doing to fuck up the entire world. E) "Flood the zone with shit". If you repeat the line "the BBC is untrustworthy" enough times, a certain segment of people will believe it. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. This is very much the "you can fool some of the people all the time" presidency. That core constituency requires maintenance in the form of continuous bald-faced lies.

  • On the post: Mike Pence Calls For RFK Jr.’s Ouster…But Not For The Reasons You Would Think

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2025 @ 06:01am

    Having been personally involved in two uses of mifepristone, no it's not a wonderful thing to be sticking in your body willy nilly, but as with most drugs you must consider it in the context of "compared to what?". Two of my children died in utero but were not automatically aborted by the body. Mifepristone ended those pregnancies safely where there was otherwise a serious risk of sepsis. I shudder to think of a world where the drug would not have been available. I hope someday the pro-life crowd as a whole steps back and realizes the damage they do to real living people on behalf of theoretical ones.

  • On the post: ‘Let It Die: Inferno’ Is A Very Interesting Trial Balloon For AI Use In Video Games

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2025 @ 07:08am

    Ceci n'est pas une slippery slope

  • On the post: Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2025 @ 02:19pm

    No, but the author is clearly upset that hypocrites who have made entire careers about of being hypocritical are still being hypocritical and have no plans to stop being hypocritical. I'm simply reiterating that even if you did think there oughta be a punishment for that, there isn't one because the hypocrites are hypocritical in that regard too. It's hypocrisy all the way down.

  • On the post: Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2025 @ 04:06pm

    Sure, but have you heard of the SCOTUS-affirmed legal precedent where being the President means you can't be prosecuted for crimes? He can actually say, with a straight face, that what is illegal for others is legal for him simply by virtue of being president.

  • On the post: Chattanooga Saw Billions In Economic Benefits After Building A Community-Owned Fiber Broadband Network

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2025 @ 07:21am

    Benefits range from savings on upgraded smart city meters, local consumer savings on broadband access, free marketing due to the network’s popularity, improved health care outcomes, expanded business and remote work opportunities, improved tourism to revitalized parts of the city, and direct profits from the network itself
    Look, I love the idea of public broadband but this kind of number counting is the same sort of math the RIAA uses to determine damages for piracy. You can't count dollars people didn't spend on something as a gain. It implies all of that stuff would have been bought (at full price), but a lot of those benefits probably would have just been forgone if people had to pay AT&T or Verizon prices. Also, "improved tourism to revitalized parts of the city" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Again, the community broadband is great, but I just feel that throwing around the number 5.3 billion is a bit dishonest. The entire GDP of Chattanooga TN is only 42 billion.

  • On the post: Weird King Trump Pretends He’ll Be Objective In Deciding If His Son In Law And Rich Friends Can Buy Warner Brothers

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 07:48am

    Predictions for 2026: Larry Ellison breaks up with Trump and tries to use his media empire to dissent, only to mysteriously decide entirely of his own accord to jump out a 50th story window. We gonna be Russia by Christmas 2026. Straight up.

  • On the post: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Was Ordered To Release Some Of His Emails With Elon Musk. Most Are Blacked Out.

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2025 @ 03:45pm

    Call me old fashioned but the sorts of people that I send "intimate and embarrassing" messages to are pretty much limited to my wife. Is Mr. Abbott meaning to imply that he and Mr. Musk know each other in the biblical fashion?

  • On the post: Radicalized Anti-AI Activist Should Be A Wake Up Call For Doomer Rhetoric

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2025 @ 02:19pm

    Because fear gives you power, and whoever is the most fearsome is the most powerful. Some of them might have stepped back from the ledge of physical violence, but it's hard to miss that groups like this thrive around people who are basically one-upping each other to show how extreme and radical they are.

  • On the post: Kristi Noem Made Final ‘Fuck The Courts’ Decision Refusing To Turn Deportation Flights Around

    n00bdragon ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2025 @ 02:38pm

    I can't wait to find out that it was actually the responsibility of the plane's pilot and that she left the room when the final call was being made.

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