Now that Trump supports releasing the Epstein files, which are in the custody of the branch of government he controls, he doesn't need a congressional vote. He can just release them. Perhaps he didn't understand this.
Matt Blaze
mattblaze@federate-social.mostr.pub
npub1d7gg...6qzr
Scientist, safecracker, etc. McDevitt Professor of Computer Science and Law at Georgetown. Formerly UPenn, Bell Labs. So-called expert on election security and stuff. https://twitter.com/mattblaze on the Twitter. Slow photographer. Radio nerd. Blogs occasionally at https://www.mattblaze.org/blog . I probably won't see your DM; use something else. He/Him. Uses this wrong.
- Mass deportations without trials
- Extrajudicial imprisonment in foreign concentration camps.
- National registry of autistic people, who are declared "nonproductive"
- Arrests of judges
History is rhyming pretty hard right now.
My honest advice (on another platform) to someone who was making extravagant claims and being indistinguishable from a crackpot.
Unfortunately, I have to say this again:
US election infrastructure isn't perfect and there's still work to do to make it more secure. But there is simply no credible evidence that the 2020 election outcome was altered through technical attacks, despite exhaustive scrutiny.
Shortly after the 2020 election, when these discredited claims were first raised, 58 of my colleagues and I issued this statement:
https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/election2020.pdf .
Nothing we've learned since then alters my assessment.
If you were wondering how my day is going, I'm still being yelled at by Signal groupies who are mad at me for saying the app lacks special features for protecting classified information.
Protip: if someone posts a technical or legal analysis of something the administration is doing or proposing and your response is that legalities are irrelevant and a waste of time, the problem is YOU.
You know who wants you to think laws don’t matter anymore and that pushback is hopeless? Fascists.
Don’t act like a fascist.
DoGE literally burglarized the headquarters of the US Institute of Peace, a private organization not part of the executive branch, which called the cops on them.
via @npub1aq2w...4nfw
Journa.host
Steve Herman (@w7voa@journa.host)
“DOGE has broken into our building,” says USIP CEO George Moose. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/president-trump-politics/us-institute-of-pe...
Trump's latest proclamation that Biden's pardons are invalid because they were signed by autopen should scare us for many reasons. Aside from the constitutional bogusity and revenge-based politics, it's also reminiscent of the Calvinball-like legal "theories" advanced by those tiresome "sovereign citizen" wackos (e.g. "the court has no jurisdictions because the wrong flag is flying in the courtroom").
Ended up taking about blue boxes in my surveillance class today, and
explaining that “long distance” calls cost extra was met with incredulous stares by many of the students.
I am, as I understand it, very old.
The recent cuts to grant overhead by NIH reminds me that among the many casualties of the slash-and-burn policies of the new administration will be the careers of a generation of junior academic STEM researchers, for whom grants are the lifeblood of establishing their early research trajectories and future tenure cases. Without federal grants, scientists don't have the resources to hire PhD students, build up their labs, and pursue their research agendas.
81 Fulham Road ("Michelin House"), London, 2004
All the pixels, drinking up the hazards, at 
#photography
Flickr
81 Fulham Road ("Michelin House"), London
London, UK 9 December 2024 Rodenstock 40mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/5.6), Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50), Cambo 1200 camera (shifted ...
5 Thurloe Square ("The Thin House"), London, 2024.
All the pixels, bigger on the inside than the outside, at 
#photography
Flickr
5 Thurloe Square ("The Thin House"), London
London, UK 9 December 2024 Rodenstock 40mm/4.0 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/6.3), Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50), Cambo 1200 camera (shifted ...
As a native NYer, it pains me enormously to have to admit this, but the bagel palace next door to the Las Vegas Convention Center is entirely passable.
Today is like Christmas for social engineering scammers posing as IT support.
Should Biden drop out based on his debate performance? I don't know. Answering that sensibly requires two things that are not currently publicly known:
- The actual state of Biden's health, with an informed prognosis.
- If he's fit (see above, I don't know), the political landscape, based on highly granular polling data and informed analysis.
I'm neither an MD nor a political analyst, and I've neither examined Biden nor have access to the kinds of political data that campaigns use.
I was just told that I should "have a more constructive attitude" about Mastodon. Maybe if I smiled more?
Moynihan Train Hall, Pennsylvania Station, NYC, 2021.
A trainload of pixels at 
#photography
Flickr
Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station, NYC
26 May 2021 Recently opened Amtrak waiting area in the former sorting area of the Farley Post Office building west of 8th Avenue. Rodenstock 23mm...
Spent a nice morning not sitting at the defense table listening to opening statements in a criminal trial against me for financial shenanigans involving hush money payments I made to cover up an affair with an adult film star. I have to say that was a good way to not spend the day.
Taft (Connecticut Avenue) Bridge, Washington, DC, 2019.
Portly, presidential pixels at 
#photography
Flickr
Taft Bridge, Washington, DC
19 December 2019 The Taft Bridge, opened in 1907, spans Rock Creek Park via Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington, DC. The bridge comprises s...
Contrary to predictions, almost 18 hours later, Steamboat Willie's entry into the public domain does not appear to have literally caused the sky to fall.