ConstableJelly

“If you don’t figure out how to be excited to live here, you’re just going to be left behind.”

“Actual malice” is the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case.

I was curious what side enjoys the benefit here given, y’know… the First Amendment, and it seems like this is definitely a performative move on the government’s side.

Adam Steinbaugh, a First Amendment lawyer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, shared a different assessment on Monday.

“Patel said proving actual malice is a ‘lay up’ (no), but the allegations in this complaint don’t even hit the backboard,” Steinbaugh wrote on X. “It will, however, accomplish the primary goal: making media outlets weighing a story think about the cost for attorneys to get a meritless lawsuit tossed.”

I’m not sure this holds up logically. WaPo and NYT did gangbusters during Trump’s first term, before their ownership structure and content guidelines pivoted hard toward institutional supplication.

There is value to the credibility that comes from standing up to actual authoritarianism, if you’re not captive to the billionaire mindset. I have to imagine that the cost/benefit for publicity like this is pretty attractive to these publications’ accounting departments.

In the context of the article, this sounds merely like evidence for the appeals case aiming to overturn the order to block information sharing between the two agencies. So…at best they don’t get to continue breaking the law? Which seems appropriate - we can’t just shoot everyone in the back who breaks a privacy law 42,695 separate times. It’s not like they’re teenagers stealing snacks from Walmart.

The ongoing case over IRS and DHS data sharing is now set to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. DHS is actively appealing Kollar-Kotelly’s November order blocking the IRS from sharing data with DHS, which was signed last year by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The then-acting commissioner of the IRS resigned after the deal was signed.

The linked article is from California’s office of the attorney general related to an existing lawsuit. As a non-Californian, I am supremely disappointed that this is happening just at the state level, but credit should still go where its due. And if their legal action sets a precedent that makes it easier for other states (or dare I hope, at the federal level if and when we get strong antitrust regulators like we had under Biden), then all the better.

Search results on Amazon are fully pay-to-play anyway. You don’t get anywhere near the top of the list without paying for the privilege. No big deal for slop producers who sell in volume, but basically useless for small businesses or private sellers.

“I have a chip on my shoulder,” she said, describing her drive to prove she can win over private equity in Silicon Valley based on merit, not inheritance or legacy …[T]he young founder hasn’t taken money from her parents for Phia. Instead, she’s insisted on raising outside capital even as some investors remain fixated on her personal life instead of her business venture.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it would be delusional to think her ability to “win over private equity” was divorced at all from her father’s legacy and last name. And actually, I’m not sure I appreciate the sentiment. In 2026, merit is way down the list, like scrawled sideways in the margins, of things that matter to private equity.

How disappointing…

Not even Amazon - it’s a cheap, travelocity-ass frontend for showing the cheapest existing prices already available. The administration has, admittedly, claimed that they’ve made deals with pharmaceutical companies to make some of their drugs available for as cheaply as they are already available in other countries. But, as the AP notes,

Many of the details of Trump’s deals with manufacturers remain unclear , and drug prices for patients in the U.S. can depend on many factors, including the competition a treatment faces and insurance coverage. Most people have coverage through work, the individual insurance market or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, which shield them from much of the cost. https://apnews.com/article/trumprx-website-trump-drug-prices-pharmaceuticals-eae897ebf87349510a7795035a3043a3

So if you’re looking for a meaningful, long-term solution to one of the U.S.'s greatest healthcare deficiencies, the administration would like to interest you in this service they constructed with all the forethought and durability of a child’s cardboard lemonade stand.

“There’s several examples, you know from teachers handing out ICE cards and showing how NOT to cooperate… somebody has to lead this and say yes we will cooperate because we have a lot of teachers who are saying I won’t let ICE here.”

Leandra also states on the livestream that ICE cards, which provide very basic constitutional rights, are actually getting students in trouble for being “misinformed.”

“Cooperate. It’s like the ICE ICE baby stuff. Stop. Cooperate and listen.”

This person is a fucking cartoon character.

I don’t know California local politics at all, but surely this is a guaranteed way to immediately put your career on the chopping block in LA, right?