Andrew Selbst
@aselbst.bsky.social
UCLA Law Prof. Focused on law, tech, and justice. Posting is mostly rage at fascists, their journalist enablers, and feckless Dems who need to retire. Sometimes I even post about things people call me an expert in. He/him. http://ssrn.com/author=1328346
Feels like almost every technological advancement of the last two decades makes life easier for scammers and sucks more life out of us rubes who are left to try to defend ourselves because we get little to no help from either laws or tech companies who make bank on the grift.
Defector@defector.com · 5d agoAI listings have made apartment hunting even more debasing:
NEW: The Reflecting Pool story is about Trump’s grip on reality, but the press corps won’t go there: presswatchers.org/2026/08/the-...
The Reflecting Pool story is about Trump's grip on reality, but the press corps won’t go there | Press Watch
Journalists are treating his ‘vandalism’ claim as if it were a normal, disputable argument. But it’s completely delusional.
presswatchers.org
A great summary of all the police surveillance tech out there, mostly hidden from view, and how it will inevitably be abused. With a shoutout to @profferguson.bsky.social's book at the end! nyupress.org/978147983828...
Police Surveillance Technology: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
youtube.com
In light of the revelation today of DHS’s massive operation to spy on social media critics of their policies, remember this I posted a few months ago about the tech they bought that can do just this—and how the company markets itself to do political surveillance.
Matthew Guariglia@mguariglia.bsky.social · 5mo agoJust learning that ICE has a $4.2 million contract for social media surveillance/AI analysis with Fivecast. A few years ago I came across a brochure of theirs which used as an example for potential police customers their ability to map left-wing groups. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
Lol, this is basically just “Everyone on Bluesky was right”. If we’re not gonna get Dems to understand reality, can we at least get some of that sweet consulting cash?
Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2d agoNot good timing, but some extremely important points in this now unredacted part of the 2024 Autopsy: -loss more about Dem turnout decline than swing voters -Dem consultants extracting huge $ for bad advice -Biden shouldn'ta run -spam PACs ruining fundraising www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...
one policy debate we deserve but are never going to get to have is what demands to be done to make blue states and cities whole after this presidency
Stephen Judkins@stephenjudkins.bsky.social · 4d agothis absolute scumbag www.oregonlive.com/wildfires/20...
Dream job alert!
Jake Snow@snowjake.bsky.social · 6d agoCOME WORK at the ACLU! @aclu-norcal.bsky.social is hiring attorneys to work on tech and civil rights (my team) and the criminal legal/immigration system. These folks will work at the cutting edge of legal and policy efforts in California and beyond. Apply here: www.aclunorcal.org/jobs/staff-a...
Not the main point here, but I find it infuriating how the balance-of-equities analysis for preliminary injunction now always means the administration wins.
Trump Admin Argues Even Terminally Ill Patients Shouldn't Be Exempt From Medicaid Work Requirements | Common Dreams
Under a new policy the administration is defending in court, low-income people with cancer, HIV, Parkinson's, and other life-threatening illnesses must prove they're too sick to work or risk losing th...
commondreams.org
Parts of the GDPR are cited and interpreted by thousands of pieces of case law and guidance, but there's no easy and free way to find out what. We've made a tool which makes it super easy, for 13,000 citing documents, all in one place. More regulations to come! homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucqnmve/law...
Reiterating that Musk's literal voter bribery last time was an unambiguous go-directly-to-jail felony, for which people have been successfully prosecuted over vastly smaller amounts. It wasn't just pouring money into a PAC, whatever one thinks of that. It was a black-letter plain-as-day crime.
Yes, Elon Musk’s Vote-Buying Is Against the Law
People have gone to prison for comparable schemes.
thebulwark.com
Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 6d agoMusk got away with his $1 million vote-buying scheme in 2024. Why wouldn't he try something similar this November?
The corruption does make them a pretty perfect pairing.
Jorge A. Caballero, MD@datadrivenmd.social · 7d ago"FIFA announced on Tuesday proposals to set up a private company to run its competitions which would have links to the extended family of U.S. President Donald Trump."
Reminder that the Golden Age of Comics began in 1938 when a couple of Jews started making stories about fighting evil. So many of the people in power now seen so much like cartoon villains bc those archetypes were literally created after some of the most horrific human beings of our known history.
For many years, people didn’t randomly film others in public—not because we didn’t have the technology, but because the social contract said you didn’t do that. That’s why Meta is going full court press on their PR and celebrity endorsements. They remember how people ran google glass outta town.
I’m in LA this weekend for the California @workingfamilies.org Convention, where I was thrilled to meet Randy Villegas @villegas4congress.bsky.social. (1/3)
interesting to me that as the administration treats democratic-voting states like conquered or occupied territories, you don’t have pundits demanding the president respect “half the country”
tony romm@tonyromm.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
The Trump administration had a problem; most immigrants show up for their court hearings and fight their cases. That's bad for the Trump admin, which wants to rapidly generate removal orders. Enter "mega masters" — rescheduling hearings for days later with no notice but a letter in the mail.
Lauren FitzPatrick@bylaurenfitz.bsky.social · 2w agoChaotic, crowded Chicago immigration mega court hearings are fueling record deportation orders. Come with @adrianacardmag.bsky.social and me into immigration court. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Feeling more and more like the real political reform needed is abolishing the democratic consultant class
Milan Markovic@profmarkovic.bsky.social · 2w agoMany millions have been paid to leading consultants and pundits to convince Democrats that this is a losing issue.
Yeah, my toddler is totally why this looks exactly like my shopping list too
Mina Kimes@minakimes.bsky.social · 2w agoIn other news my toddler stole my phone and tried to order groceries
It's a scam all the way down. Taylor Farms gave MAGA Inc. $1M USD less than a week after FDA postponed implementation of food traceability rules. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...
Matthew Cortland (they)@matthewcort.land · 3w agoMy pre-write turned out to be 70% a. CDC's comms have been wildly irresponsible; b. If I couldn't prove lettuce is not from Taylor Farms, I wouldn't eat it; c. Taylor Farms gave MAGA Inc. $1M USD less than a week after FDA postponed food traceability rules. www.patreon.com/mattbc/posts...
It’s the total self-sabotage of US interests that really makes Trump different from Republicans of yore.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 3w agoThe US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?
When you can’t decide if you want to hurt universities or immigrants more, you find a policy to say “why not both?”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3w agoUnder the new rules: 1. Foreign students and exchange visitors will be limited to a 4-year period of admission, and must apply for an extension of status if they need more time. 2. International journalists will be limited to 240 days, and can only get one 240-day extension.
As always: if there's any class of people who do not have due process rights, then *nobody* has due process rights, because the government can just claim someone is in that class and there's no process to establish otherwise.
Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof@evanbernick.bsky.social · 3w agoI need people to understand that this administration’s litigating position is (1) federal law currently mandates the detention, without bond, of every noncitizen who is allegedly unlawfully present and (2) constitutionally, they don’t get a day in court. they’re generally losing, but they’re trying.
![Ochoa Ochoa v. Noem: Due Process
Having concluded that Ochoa Ochoa's detention is discretionary and not
mandatory, the court turns to whether it violates due process. "Procedural due
process imposes constraints on governmental decisions which deprive individuals of liberty' or 'property' interests within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment." Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 332 (1976).
"Freedom from imprisonment-from government custody, detention, or other forms
of physical restraint-lies at the heart of the very liberty that [the Due Process
Clause] protects." Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 690 (2001).
To support its argument that Ochoa Ochoa has limited due process rights in
the detention context, Respondents rely on Dep't of Homeland Sec. v. Thuraissigiam, where the Supreme Court held that a petitioner who was still "at the threshold of initial entry," though technically in the country, could still be treated as "an alien
seeking initial entry." 591 U.S. 103, 114 2020) holding that a noncitizen detained "within 25 yards of the border" is treated as if stopped at the border and had not acquired due process protections). Contrary to Respondents' position, Thuraissigiam held only that noncitizens detained close to the border "shortly after unlawful entry"
have not yet "effected an entry." Id. at 140; see also Shaughnessy v. United States, 345 U.S. 206, 212 (1953) (explaining that noncitizens "on the threshold of initial entry
stand[] on a different footing" than those who have "passed through our gates").](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:f4d76fjna5nxqsy2fu6cgmp3/bafkreieofbtos26t3epka4a7c2p3xw477nfbl2guurqcuoslw2h24qolye)
Of all the things that the next administration needs to address as part of deTrumpification, prosecutions for these murders needs to be high on the list.
Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 3w ago"Trump’s Illegal Boat Bombings Are Just ‘Murder for Murder’s Sake,’ U.S. Official Says" Donald Trump’s boat strikes aren’t working – because they’re ‘not actually designed to end the fentanyl crisis,’ a senior administration official tells Zeteo.
Every technology built today is the Torment Nexus.
Sara R. Fagerlie, PhD, CHCP@cancercommunicator.com · 3w ago"the American Astronomical Society said the endeavor cannot be considered to serve the public interest and would waste taxpayer $ by wrecking the work of federally funded astronomical facilities even as it brought untold risks to people and wildlife" Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/c...
It's even worse than bad comms. I think these venerations from Dem Senators are happening because they're feeling genuine grief. They LIKED the guy! (Or at minimum considered him an equal peer.) And that's the bigger problem. They have been dismissing the enormous harm he caused all along.
Celeste Pewter@celestepewter.bsky.social · 3w agoNO. Look, as a comms professional, yes. He had to say something about his colleague. But just say this: “We’re so sorry to hear about the Senator. We thank him for his long years of service, and his family is in our thoughts.” Stop trying to personalize a bad person!
Getting a little annoyed by these “don’t criticize civility” scolds. Dem Senators have a continuing obligation to not normalize fascist collaborators. Shutting up is an option, but if Dems talk, they should be talking about how he was a shit stain for abandoning all principles to support fascism.
