iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 22h

they watered it down a second time and it's still wrong. embarrassing stuff

So here’s the truth about Katie Zacharia, not-quite attorney-at-law: She graduated with a law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011. By some interpretations, that technically makes her a lawyer, though many legal experts said it would not. But is she an attorney, someone who is licensed to practice law and give legal advice? For that, she would have needed to pass the bar. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that she sat for the California bar exam after graduating law school, but didn’t pass. The Times was unable to find a law license for her in California, or anywhere else she has lived in the United States.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

lol. lmao www.businessinsider.com/ai-researche...

"So many AI researchers have started smoking as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI," Sankar said in an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.

The logic, he said, is: "I believe so much in AI that it's going to cure cancer. So I'm showing you my chips are all in."

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

guys it is not Elena Kagan's fault that this merger is happening, please get a grip. if you do not understand this then simply do not lawpost

Reposted by Olúfémi O. Táíwò

neuse river hag @neuseriverhag.bsky.so... 39m

Joined Sep '23

i'm not a "both parties are the same" person, that's obviously not true, but it is true that everyone in the federal government exercises class solidarity with each other to some degree, and for SCOTUS that degree is something in the neighborhood of 99%

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Eli Valley @elivalley.bsky.social

Joined Apr '23 Bluesky Elder

The fascist monopolization of US media, intent on ending what's left of democracy on behalf of billionaire mobsters, was finalized by a Democratic-appointed SCOTUS justice.

[Screenshot of a Deadline post saying Kagan denied a last minute stay request]

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

regret to announce the National Museum of African American History and Culture is a bit late in updating this exhibit

Supreme Court plaque with a history of cases that ends with Fischer v. University of Texas (which has since been overturned)

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

good example of the "legally present" vs. "lawful status" distinction. she's allowed to be here but is also deportable whenever ICE finds a country who will take her. US immigration law is fundamentally cruel

Traore is in the United States legally on a 2011 “withholding of removal” order, which grants recipients legal protection from deportation to a country where they face harm or torture. She has no criminal history.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

key to family separation running under the radar is that it isn't a Big Policy anymore. it's just the deportation machine quietly working as intended

Also different: The separations of the first Trump administration were the result of a distinct policy (“Zero Tolerance”) that, once brought to light, could be challenged in federal court. Today, family separations appear to be incidental—the consequence of a ruthless effort to hit a quota, no matter the cost. And this time, people with firsthand knowledge of separations are keeping quiet. Many temporary caregivers are undocumented themselves or have relatives who are; they worry that drawing attention would put their own families at risk. Government and nonprofit workers are also scared to speak up. The White House has attacked organizations that oppose its goals by cutting funding, launching dubious criminal investigations, and issuing retaliatory executive orders.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I continue to think that most people not steeped in this stuff are missing the important point this attorney made. ICE and CBP do a lot of heinous, unethical shit, and pretty much all of it is legal. The laws governing immigration enforcement are so excessively permissive it's hard to break the law

The ACLU is suing to stop ICE's use of Guantanamo for immigration detainees, but that suit is still pending. Twin Cities immigration attorney Marc Prokosch, who represented Abdullah and three of the other Somali men held at Guantanamo, said in an interview Friday that because the detainees had deportation orders to their nation of origin, ICE's actions do not appear to run afoul of federal law.

"We can all debate the morality and the ethics of it, but legally, it seems like it was solid," Prokosch said.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

they're calling it the least compelling writing of all time

Marielys Padua Soto, Esq. Federal Immigration Attorney

Chimpanzees, Bees, and Borders: Understanding Migration Through Evolution

January 16, 2026

When people talk about migration, borders, and xenophobia, the conversation usually gets heated very fast. It becomes deeply personal. People argue about all sorts of things. But what if part of the reason these debates are so intense has less to do with policy and more to do with human nature? Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, offers an interesting metaphor that

may help explain why we react so strongly to outsiders.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

why is the New York Times uncritically quoting a white nationalist organization spokesman who is also lying to them

Andrew R. Arthur, a former immigration judge and a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that backs tougher immigration policies, acknowledged problems in the FOIA system but defended the Trump administration's policies as legally required efforts to protect privacy of those mentioned in immigrants' files.

He also dismissed concerns that the redactions and denials violated immigrants' rights, noting that people can sue the government if they think their requests were improperly rejected. Pro bono representation is available to immigrants, and if they prevail in courts, the government would compensate legal costs, he said.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I want every Dem telling this guy's story at every rally and every media hit

Some bills can be devastating, as they were for Antonio, a 62-year-old Chicago resident who asked to be identified by his middle name for fear of retaliation. The Venezuelan asylum seeker, who has a history of pancreatic and gallbladder issues, was working at a cardboard box factory when he was detained at his annual ICE check-in.
Over three months in ICE custody at a Kentucky jail, he said, he felt worsening pain in his abdomen. He said he asked three times to see a doctor, but was examined only once by a nurse and given a white pill that dampened the pain.
On April 14, after dinner, the pain returned — but it was much, much worse. “I thought I was going to die,” he said in Spanish a recent interview.
He fainted. When he came to, he was in an ambulance.
At the hospital, the doctor told him his gallbladder had burst due to untreated gallstones, he said. He underwent emergency surgery while handcuffed to a bed. When he was discharged from the hospital on April 16, he was handed bills reviewed by the Chronicle totaling $17,210.
Later released from ICE custody, he was unable to get back his job at the factory. His boss was unsettled by his ankle monitor and feared ICE would show up to arrest other immigrant workers. Now, Antonio said, he has no way to pay the surgery bills.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I thought this is something ICE was going to pay. … I was in their custody.”

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

is the State Department vagueposting about Canada annexation on LinkedIn?

U.S. Department of State

In 1803, four U.S. diplomats turned a French financial crisis into an American opportunity-securing 828,000 square miles and doubling the size of the nation.

A masterstroke of diplomacy that redrew the map, and the course of American history, with a signature

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

none of these words are in the bible

Marketing

The film's marketing campaign was criticized on social media for using generative Al. In particular, a now-deleted video shared by Warner Bros. featured the dog Starbuck from the film interviewed in the Al-generated dog podcast Goldie & Frenchie, owned by DogPack, a social media platform tailored to dog owners

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

an exercise of the 1999 regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture, which allow the AG (now DHS Sec, delegated to ICE Director) and SecState to override an immigration judge's protection order if they pinky promise the person won't be tortured

Termination pursuant to §

1208.18(c). At any time while deferral of removal is in effect, the Attorney General may determine whether deferral should be terminated based on diplomatic assurances forwarded by the Secretary of State pursuant to the procedures in §

1208.18(c).

(c) Diplomatic assurances against

torture obtained by the

(1)

Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may forward to the Attorney General assurances that the Secretary has obtained from the government of a specific country that an alien would not be tortured there if the alien were removed to that

(2) If the Secretary of State

country.

forwards assurances described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section to the Attorney General for consideration by the Attorney General or her delegates under this paragraph, the Attorney General shall determine, in consultation with the Secretary of State, whether the assurances are sufficiently reliable to allow the alien's removal to that country consistent with Article 3 of the Convention

Against Torture.

The Attorney General's authority under this paragraph may be exercised by the Deputy Attorney General or by the Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service, but may not be further delegated.

Once assurances are

provided under paragraph (c)(2) of this section, the alien's claim for protection under the Convention Against Torture shall not be considered further by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or an asylum officer.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

ah, so this is the kind of sharp legal mind mentoring the attorneys at Noted Immigration Firm Burke Law burkegroup.law/lawyer/conno...

Biography

Connor Mighell is a commercial litigator focusing on

environmental and energy sector disputes, enforcement, and regulatory matters. He has handled issues arising under key federal environmental statutes including NEPA, ESA, MMPA, OCSLA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. He has litigated cases involving the False Claims Act, the Controlled Substances Act, and state-court commercial matters. He supports clients through high-stakes briefing, record-based strategy, and notice-and-comment advocacy.

Before joining Burke Law Group, Connor worked at a leading public-interest firm representing clients on administrative litigation, and for the Attorney General of Texas in the Civil Litigation Division. He clerked for Judge Don R. Willett of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Judge Brantley Starr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of

Texas.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

would appear that Marcella Burke's time in the "most senior levels at the regulating agencies in DC" (exclusively during Trump I) has paid off to the tune of $150M/year

$Managing Partner & Founder Burke Law Group Feb 2023 - Present 3 yrs 7 mos Houston, Texas, United States Founder and CEO of Burke Law Group, a full service law firm serving the energy and infrastructure industries. I counsel clients across the energy and infrastructure sector, including oil & gas, energy technology, chemicals, hydraulic fracturing, permitting, citizen suit defense, crisis management, criminal environmental enforcement, and environmental investigations. What distinguishes me from my competitors is that I worked in the most senior levels at the regulating agencies in DC and I live in Houston among industry HQs. I am the only attorney in private practice who served at DOI and EPA.$

Deputy Solicitor and Senior Counselor U.S. Department of the Interior Full-time Aug 2018 - Nov 2020 2 yrs 4 mos Washington D.C. Metro Area

Deputy Solicitor for Energy and Mineral Resources. My division of 130+ attorneys oversaw all... more

Energy Law, Federal & State Regulatory Compliance and +4 skills

Deputy General Counsel US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Full-time

2017-2018

Washington, District Of Columbia

As Deputy General Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency, I served as a key utility player... more

Federal & State Regulatory Compliance, Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) and +1 skill

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

from a connection of a friend on LinkedIn

On Friday, my time at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) comes to an end. This is never how I imagined I'd be leaving an organization I care so deeply about.

The federal government currently owes KIND nearly $25M in reimbursement for services already rendered, some of which dates back as far as December 2025. It's left KIND with little to no margin, leading to significant lay offs. Nearly two thirds of the organization staff will be leaving KIND this month, myself included, and I'm heartbroken for the children who will suffer because of the Trump administration's failures.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

so this is straight up evil. vile shit.

The contract will run through August of next year and will replace the existing plan for representing unaccompanied children. Until Friday, ORR had a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, but the federal government allowed that contract to expire after months of withholding funds to Acacia, and by extension, many of the nonprofits that served as “subcontractors” and represented the majority of the children in ORR care.

Acacia and its subcontractors — which included major nonprofits such as Kids in Need of Defense as well as smaller community-based nonprofits — have represented nearly 20,000 children.

Now that responsibility will fall on a law firm with 26 employees spread across eight offices. The firm bills itself as a “boutique” firm “known for elite counsel in high-stakes litigation, environmental, regulatory, and corporate matters.” None of the lawyers for the firm list immigration law as an area of expertise, per a POLITICO review of the firm’s site.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

www.browndailyherald.com/article/2012...

Moraff '14: "Jill Stein for President"

November 5, 2012

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

guys I know we all want to take every opportunity to shit on ICE, but like, the AC went out. it's awful and should be fixed as quickly as possible. it's not... evil and wicked

Greg Pak:

This is evil. The work of evil people. Genuine wickedness, morally inexcusable.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.b... 4h

Joined Apr '23 Bluesky Elder

Detainees at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in New Jersey are going without air conditioning during an extreme heat wave.

Families say the AC is off in one of the housing units, potentially leaving hundreds of people trapped in sweltering heat over 100 degrees.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

was watching on Telemundo and had to double check I wasn't hallucinating

Algeria in Spanish is Argelia. Why? Why would they do this? They just swapped some letters around for fun!

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

catching up on the end of the Iran/Egypt game

A computer with arrows through it. The top says Butlerian Jihad Now!

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

the lawyer class war can't come soon enough

r/biglaw

It's time for a pay scale increase

I was recently with a family friend who is a retired big law partner. In general, he felt a sense of camaraderie at his firm that he thinks is now missing in biglaw, and he often comments on how the lateral market is a plague on the industry.

Anyway. We got to talking about work and I mentioned how much rates have gone up. He asked for some numbers, and I started throwing out the (even discounted) rates that clients were paying for juniors, me, counsel, etc. You could watch this family friend doing the math in real time.

He grunted and said, "Man, you guys are getting taken for a ride."

This has really stuck with me. We get a great paycheck, but our rates and inflation have increased significantly over the last five years. PPP is on a vertical line up, and our wages have not seen commensurate growth.

And, frankly, I increasingly have friends in other random industries that are making more than me or almost as much as me. The first category tends to be fine; finance and tech startup folks work hard. But the second category has been on my mind-friends in compliance, HR, marketing, sales who seem to be making 75% of what I make but who work half as much.

It's time for a raise

Descriptive alt text

Let's say an 8th year associate bills 2,000 hours in a year at a 1,500/hour effective rate after discounts. Let's assume 75% of that is billed and collected. That's $2,250,000. At Cravath scale, that associate is paid $550,000 including bonus. That's ~24% of what their labor produced.

I think you may have a point.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

anyway this is from Fetterman's campaign site

I believe that health care is a basic, fundamental human right, not a privilege. But health care in America is far too expensive and convoluted. In the richest nation on earth, I believe we have a moral duty to guarantee quality health care coverage for every American, and end the disgusting practice of corporations profiting from people’s health and well-being.

In the Senate, I will support any legislation that gets us closer to the goal of universal health care coverage. I’m less fixated on what you call it, and more focused on the result: ensuring access to health care for every American. I will also support efforts to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60 while expanding its benefits to include vision, hearing, and dental care.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

for my money this is a delightful addition to the Great Hats Pantheon

green workhorse baseball cap with a lovely patch on the front depicting a sunrise (or sunset? who's to say) behind a mountain. the art is kind of minimalist. beneath the patch it says "the mountain goats"

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

btw the 3rd Circuit held that bombing an occupied house and letting it burn for an hour and a half, killing 11 people and destroying 61 houses, was not a "seizure" under the 4th Amendment, and even if it was, it wasn't "objectively unreasonable," so no city employees were individually liable

To summarize, I find that the record does not indicate that there was a Fourth Amendment seizure of the MOVE members, a conclusion which in itself in my view ends the federal aspects of the case. I further would hold that even if there was a Fourth Amendment seizure, the defendants' decisions to destroy the bunker by dropping the explosive and allowing the fire to burn were not objectively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. thus conclude that the city defendants are entitled to summary judgment on the federal claims.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

if you think this then you're either naive or stupid, and either way you're getting blocked

Fine with me. Civilian ICE employees are just as complicit.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

okay she flipped a 2022 seat and held it in 2024, which is good. but at a certain point "better any D than any R" (generally true!) needs to be backed up with votes, and,

In October 2024, when asked repeatedly about present concerns of excessive U.S. military support to Israel in the Gaza war or its misuse, though international rights groups since 2023 had also considered excessive diplomatic support, [44] [45] she stated that "[one] must ground this conversation in the fact that October 7th was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust[,]" concluding that this should contribute towards persuading Hamas to release its hostages, that "Israel has the right to defend itself, [... that, in terms of U.S. national security,] as [far as the kind of] liberal democracy [it is], it's [...] especially [crucial] in a region where women's and LGBTQ rights are under constant threat[,]" and that this support was representative of

supporting Israel at all, thus creating a vacuum to be filled by U.S. foreign adversaries by withdrawing it. Although she had concerns over what she described as the IDF's prioritization in "taking out apartment buildings" over operations involving " [the tunnels] where hostages and terrorists [were] hiding", she would not attempt to affect Israeli military policy by using military support as leverage due to having become aware that

"[it composed] less than 10% of [Israel's] GDP". [46]

Gluesenkamp Perez supports the reinstatement of Title 42 expulsions and the Remain in Mexico policy to curtail illegal immigration. [48) In July 2024, she cast one of five Democratic votes to condemn the Biden administration's handling of the United States border. [49]

In January 2025, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of 48

Democrats to vote for the Laken Riley Act, which requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants charged with theft. 50] She later became one of 46 House Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for a Senate-amended version of the bill. [51]

On January 22, 2026, she was one of seven Democrats who voted to pass HR 7147 funding bill for the United States Department of Homeland Security, including funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 52] The vote came amid Democratic criticism of ICE operations in Minneapolis following the shooting deaths of both Renée Good and Alex Pretti in January 2026. Gluesenkamp Perez defended her vote, citing the bill's importance for the Coast Guard and FEMA in her district, stating that she "could not in good conscience vote to shut it down."[53) She criticized both "overly aggressive tactics" by federal law enforcement and "indiscriminate, overly aggressive slogans like 'Defund ICE"

from her own party. [54]

Gluesenkamp Perez voted against a student debt relief plan

proposed by the White House in 2023. She was one of only two House Democrats to do so, along with Jared Golden of Maine. [66l At the time, she said that "expansions of student debt forgiveness need to be matched dollar-for-dollar with investments in career [and] technical education. I can't support the first without the other. The severe shortage of trades workers needs to be seen [and] treated as a national

priority."[67] [68]

Gluesenkamp Perez believes that vote by mail is safe and has refuted unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud among mail-in ballots. 39 In July 2024, she was one of only five out of 198 Democrats who voted with the Republican majority to pass the SAVE Act (H.R.8281, Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act), which would require those registering to vote to provide documentary proof of United States citizenship. [70] Again on April 10th, 2025, Gluesenkamp Perez was one of only four Democrats who joined all of the Republicans in the House in voting in favor of the SAVE Act on its second time through the House of Representatives. 71]

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

reading The Lathe of Heaven for the first time. Ursula Le Guin was a gem

"What is his purpose, then?"

"I don't know. Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are.

What we do is like wind blowing on the grass."

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

(I'll also admit I'm confused by this attorney's quote. You don't need to know a client's detention location to file a G-28)

Locating someone in the detention system is essential for lawyers bringing on a new client. “Even if I’ve been retained on behalf of a detained refugee,” Ball Cooper explains, “I have no way to tell the U.S. government agency that has physical custody of them that I represent them.” Until her client appears in the detainee locator, she can’t file an electronic Notice of Appearance form.

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I think having the full context does not make saying "it doesn't matter if rapes happened on October 7" any better. why are people putting so much effort into defending this guy

Parker Molloy outraged that CNN ran an anti-Hasan Piker segment

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

this is irresponsible fearmongering that betrays a lack of knowledge about ICE operations and what a federal detail is

Trump could have sent any number of groups to the airports to help TSA. He chose ICE for a reason! Because it’s another opportunity for them to kidnap people! Airports are a great place to find people! You think ICE quotas are gonna disappear at airports??

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

my concern with people fixating on individual cases like this is that they're imputing specific malice when the real situation is far worse. this IJ denies 96% of all asylum claims. he didn't say "fuck Liam Ramos," he said "fuck all immigrants"

Ilhan Omar sharing a story of Liam Ramos' family being denied asylum, shared by Ryan Cooper saying it's "deliberate malice"

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

it should be easier to get disbarred

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much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

sorry but this is deranged. I have been to Fort Bliss and several other ICE facilities. they're not good! they should be abolished! they are not similar to fucking Bergen-Belsen

The approximate cause of death for Anne Frank was the Nazis. The specific cause of death was the outbreak of Typhus at Bergen-Belsen camp, which overtook her (and others) from chronic malnutrition and medical abuse. These conditions are not, in character, unlike our system of immigration camps today

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