Tanner Andrews 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Rep. Luna Threatens Journalist With Prison For Posting… Public University Bio

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2026 @ 04:59pm

    that is where their friends are

    Why would any non-NAZI pedophile continue to post there?
    Because it is a friendly and welcoming platform for pedophiles who are not nazis. I do not think that their generative AI limits itself, either, but should generate material for all sorts of pedophiles. Disclaimer: I am not on Twitter and have not interacted with their AI, so am basing comment on various reports here in Techdirt.

  • On the post: Chuck Schumer’s Ridiculous Strategy For Trump’s Illegal War: Hope Republicans Come To Their Senses

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2026 @ 04:38pm

    low expectations

    Now, I can already predict some of the replies to this. “What do you expect Schumer to do? [...]"
    I expect very little. Unfortunately, backbone implants are not covered by the congressional health plan. And senate rules do not allow him to accept private donations for this purpose.

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

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 08 Jan, 2026 @ 03:13am

    not so sure about that

    Our courts cannot become so paralyzed by the fear of what Trump and his supporters might do that the courts stop upholding the rights of people like Kilmar Abregio Garcia.
    If not paralyzed, they are at least acting as though they were immersed in well-chilled molasses. If a non-govt atty did even a small part of what the govt has done in violation of court orders, I would expect to see him instructed to bring his toothbrush to court. That would not be unreasonable, either. This chilled molasses syndrome is pretty darn close to paralyzed by fear and unable to act.

  • On the post: Judge Catches DOJ Lying, Tells It To Turn Over More Documents To Kilmar Abrego Garcia

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2026 @ 05:04am

    not exactly a prestigious award

    FIFA should have given this man a peace prize rather than giving it to Trump
    Have you seen the prize? It look sokmewhat scary in the pictures. This may be appropriate given the levels of corruption all around. Also, a bank has been promoting the soccer world cup, and the pictures of the trophy make it look like a used butt plug. Not sure that a prize from FIFA is something to be proud of.

  • On the post: Bari Weiss’ Tiny Fake Austin College Sees Mass Staff, Advisor Exodus

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2026 @ 10:06am

    another example

    Look at all the failed attempts to create conservative counterparts to things like Twitter
    Well, Trump Social has not gone bankrupt yet, despite reportedly not having as much revenue as hoped for. Credit some people's interest in government pronouncements. Also, Trump Social chunks are smaller than those in the Federal Register.

  • On the post: When People Realize How Good The Latest Chinese Open Source Models Are (And Free), The GenAI Bubble Could Finally Pop

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2025 @ 05:30am

    one of the few actual uses

    I think that this is firmly in the “for worse” column. I can use Google Maps and a phone call or browsing a restaurant’s menu on a website to accomplish much the same thing
    If it takes a little bit of AI for the search engine to answer the question of what restaurants have empanadas, that seems like a good use of it. Phoning a bunch of restaurants not only chews up their employee time if anyone answers, but it also chews up more of my time. Yes, if the menus are on line in some sort of usable form, rather than as images, I could probably go through them. That still takes more time than having some sort of robot answer the question. I am not looking for creativity here. I am trying to find lunch. It seems that some sort of primitive AI might actually help in this endeavor. Compare cooking lunch, which I would prefer not to leave to the AI.

  • On the post: Nobody (Including Advertisers) Cared About Bari Weiss’ New CBS ‘Town Hall’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2025 @ 05:15am

    there is an audience

    Larry and David Ellison are very obviously trying to buy up the dying remnants of U.S. corporate media (plus TikTok) in the hopes of creating yet another Fox-esque right wing propaganda mill. But again, there’s no real evidence there’s an actual audience here.
    I th8ink there is an audience there. Not only is Faux News still around, but it has company in the forms of all those entities willing to sign the Pentagon Power Pledge to be allowed in parts of the building. Stock buyers may want to look into Reynolds, because the tinfoil hat industry is sure to benefit from all this ``news'' reporting.

  • On the post: EU’s Top Court Just Made It Literally Impossible To Run A User-Generated Content Platform Legally

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2025 @ 04:21am

    this may present a challenge

    "To that end, the data controller must consider in particular all technical measures available in the current state of technical knowledge that are apt to block the copying and reproduction of online content.”
    Consider, if you will, a web browser. Its job is to obtain a copy of the online content and reproduce it on your screen.

  • On the post: Trump, Brendan Carr Threaten To Censor Some More Comedians For The Crime Of Comedy

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2025 @ 04:41am

    backbones on sale in aisle six

    Democrats need to hammer this home in the coming elections. This is the most important thing to voters
    It would help if they replaced the people in charge. Right now the party is led by gutless wonders and the sort of crazy people who expect that, if do the same thing over again you will have different results. The electorate may be ready for change, but that is not what the Dems are currently selling. Indeed, they fight it. Look at how they came out in NY to oppose a democratic socialist candidate who actually won their primary.

  • On the post: Trump’s Own Judges Easily Reject His Bonkers Lawsuit Against CNN For Calling His Big Lie A ‘Big Lie’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2025 @ 11:50pm

    fun fun fun until daddy takes the t-bird away

    wishes this suit had progressed
    Discovery would have been interesting. If someone who was sued by Trump were to answer instead of moving to dismiss, they could move on to discovery as to Trump business dealings and how they were affected by the claimed defamation. Do it in state court if possible, that way you might get a useful offer-of-judgment rule.

  • On the post: Ken Paxton’s Tylenol Lawsuit Is Off To A Terrible Start

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2025 @ 11:33pm

    a caution to the others

    I don’t see anything in the Constitution of Texas that requires the Attorney General to be an actual licensed attorney
    There may not be anything affecting his office holding. None the less, sanctions for filing bogus claims may be appropirate if only as a warning to other Texas attorneys that they should be more careful in the future.

  • On the post: Kansas County Pays $3 Million Settlement For Illegal Raid Of Local Newspaper’s Office

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2025 @ 11:19pm

    who pays

    So the taxpayers in that county get to pay the damages?
    Right. It seems appropriate that the voters who put those thugs into place get to pay the price for their choice. There is, however, the other side of the question. Between the victims of the thuggery who had their homes and livelihoods invaded or damaged, and the government which did the invasion, I should think the government better able to pay the price. Government may raise taxes and spread the burden. The individual victims do not have that option. Ultimately, then, it is a question of where the burden should fall. Either it falls on the individual victims, or it falls on all the taxpayers who put the thugs in place.

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

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2025 @ 10:59pm

    good question

    there is no statute of limitations on murder.
    Where there is not, there ought to be. Quick, where were you and what were you doing five years and two days ago?

  • On the post: September Arrest, Deportation Of Firefighter Shows The Administration Just Wants Brown People Gone

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2025 @ 10:53pm

    declaration of independence

    founded on the belief that “all men are created equal.”
    The belief was actually that all white land-owning men of a certain age are created equal. The whiteness and landedness were presumed at the time such that there was no need to expressly state it. There were some later amendments to allow some non-whites (obviously not to include Chinamen) to vote. Also, over time, they wound up allowing women, and persons not yet old enough to buy alcohol, to vote.

  • On the post: Formula 1, Others Oppose Arena Football One’s Logo Trademark Application

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 08:41pm

    time for a new keyboard

    can’t use F1 in any iteration
    That is a shame. My keyboard has long had an [F1] key. Indeed, even before I got these keyboards, there were [F1] keys on what I did have. Someone better tell IBM to stop using that mark on the key caps.

  • On the post: Billionaire Covers Trump’s Army Tab While The GOP Continues To Keep The Government Shut Down

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2025 @ 12:11am

    modernizing the executive

    Those aren’t things that happened, except when Trump did and tried to do just that
    True. Prior presidents did make efforts to see that the laws were faithfully executed. Trump's failure to do so has led to some controversy.

  • On the post: UK Woman Threatens Trademark Legal Action Against Cookbook Over ‘Sabzi’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2025 @ 05:17am

    fairly common

    I’ve been speaking English for over 50 years and never heard the ‘well known’ term ‘Pho’ before.
    There are a lot of Vietnamese restaurants out there with names including "Pho". The nearest is almost a block away from my office.

  • On the post: UK Woman Threatens Trademark Legal Action Against Cookbook Over ‘Sabzi’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2025 @ 05:13am

    stll not convinced

    Call your restaurant or food, accurately or not, whatever you want.
    Like I said, I'm not sure she should actually win. But she has at least a colorable argument. She built up the fame of this term where no one else was using it, even publishing some sort of material related to the restaurant, and now someone is using it as a book title. I would be sore, too. A good trademark lawyer might tell her not to waste money suing, but there is a legitimate beef. And it may be that the trademark ought to be canceled, leaving her restaurant with its existing name, and its customers still knowing where to find it. Even combinations of English words can be trademarks. Rapid Gator party rentals might be largely descriptive, they are prompt to deliver for pool parties and to take back on Monday morning, perfect for unwanted kids. The Steak-n-Shake chain uses descriptive terms and gets away with it. I'd expect that they could have used the Albanian terms and also gotten a trade-mark, despite it being descriptive and somewhat generic. Which brings us back to the lady and her "Sabzi". It took on secondary meaning in her area. She developed that meaning. I am not sure she should win, but she does have a fair beef.

  • On the post: Pete Hegseth May Be The Defense Department Boss, But Top Officers Say He’s No Leader

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2025 @ 04:59am

    doing a good job, too

    just who is Trump actually working for
    Trump acts as though he is a Russian asset. It may be time to go back and review the terms left over from the McCarthy era. * useful idiot * fellow traveller * asset

  • On the post: UK Woman Threatens Trademark Legal Action Against Cookbook Over ‘Sabzi’

    Tanner Andrews ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2025 @ 04:43am

    not convinced

    Indeed "Sabzi" may be the name of some foods, in a language which is not English. Nothing wrong with that. They speak a sort of English in the UK, and I imagine that "Sabzi" is not a word in the local vocabulary. A restaurant has used that term as its name, and is publishing recipes under that name. The name looks somewhat arbitrary to a non-Persian speaker. In other words, pretty nearly ideal for a trademark. She has a fair beef that someone is camping on the name. Maybe if the term becomes known for its meaning of spices or food it will suffer genericide. But for now, she has a beef. Not sure she should win, but I cannot dismiss it as being in the same league as "Pho", which is a term well known to English speakers to refer to a particular type of Vietnamese food.

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