Author | Lightnews

Cameron Blazer

@cameronblazer.bsky.social

940 followers 540 following 330 posts

Public defender, home arts dilettante, karaoke try-hard • Dum spiro spero

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Nov 11

As people begin to make plans for what comes next, can we all agree that our focus should be on actions that minimize suffering? In that spirit, allow me to propose that there are still lots of places where you can affect local/state policy to ensure robust public defense.

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 11d

With an honorable mention for Tripp and Chip among those whose parents who hedged their bets between venerated generational patronymics and the devil-may-care nickname culture of the anything goes 70s and late 80s.

Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 11d

Strong contender. Scott, Chris, Chad, and Brian/Bryan also doing heavy work among the coastal Southern Gen X contingent of my youth.

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 11d

Jason is the most Gen X white guy name. Change my mind.

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 18d

Wellpath gonna Wellpath. In my experience of having them as our jail’s med provider, there was clearly expressed minimum standard of decency or medical necessity they would not flout.

Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 25d

When “I know you are, but what am I” grows up to be speaker of the House.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 25d

MADELEINE DEAN: The president is unhinged. He's unwell

JOHNSON: A lot of folks on your side are too

D: Oh my god, please. That performance in front of the generals?

J: I didn't see it

D: It's so dangerous! Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a POTUS who's unwell.

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 26d

Growing up white during the 80s and early 90s, this is, sadly, 0% surprising.

Reposted by Cameron Blazer

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 26d

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 26d

The GOP controls the whole Federal government. They have to fund it. If they don't, it's their fault. [see how easy that is].

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · 29d

Raised hand!

Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 26

Can’t wait for them to find out that the DOE has outsourced accreditation to ABA, and it’s all but impossible to get federally backed student loans without that.

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 26

Sat on a call this afternoon with “experts” at a well known legal publisher trying to sell my org on their agentic AI. When I asked them to distinguish between agentic and generative, they offered AI-style word salad. I didn’t bother w/ the follow up about the stochastic/probabilistic distinction.

Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 26

Nachmanoff was also the well-respected head of the Federal Public Defender’s office for EDVA for many years, who argued a bellwether case in federal criminal law (Kimbrough v US) before the Supreme Court. That case fundamentally shaped my career and outcomes as a FPD. He’s a real one.

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · Sep 26

A federal judge appointed by President Biden has been assigned James Comey’s criminal case.

US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff was confirmed to the bench with three Republican votes including Senator Lindsey Graham.

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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · Sep 25

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · Sep 24

Have you ever found yourself lamenting, "Wow, I wish I could just be wresting away control of a half-eaten fried chicken bone that was just on the sidewalk!"? If so, then dog ownership is for you!

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 24

All the blame lumped onto bond judges. No reflection on whether legislative choices that have given lip service but little purchase to proven mental health interventions may have contributed to the latest cause célèbre’s death. We are already suffering the effects of bond “reform” in SC. No good.

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Linotype Pilgrim @symbo1ics.bsky.social · Sep 20

Centrists need to learn why they /have/ weekends and lazy evenings to indulge their hobby of scolding leftists.

Feral Millennial Communists of Late Stage Capitalism @feralcommie.bsky.social · Sep 20

Yarse

So many centrists and liberals act as though "progress" as they know it has happened thanks to the magical, natural tide of history rather than people far more radical than them disregrding respectability politics and changing things by stepping right through decorum

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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · Sep 20

Good doomerism: "on our current trajectory, we're fucked."
Bad doomerism "we're fucked."

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · Sep 20

One thing that's absolutely f---ing unbearable on this site is that if you dare to point out that Trump is not actually successfully oppressing all of us on every conceivable front, that not *all* is irretrievably lost, a parade of doomers materializes to denounce you. It's counterproductive. Stop.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · Sep 20

As corrupt and appalling as the ouster of this career prosecutor for refusing to prosecute Trump's enemies truly is, I strongly encourage folks to also understand this as evidence that Trump's authoritarian designs are facing serious institutional resistance:

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 18

Also, for people involved in the criminal legal system for everything from traffic offenses to murder, the law is still very much in play and not always in fair ways. The rule of law has always been an ideal we approach asymptotically. The curve is shallower today, but we cannot stop striving.

Total Lowlife Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · Sep 18

Reminder: before you go full-on defeatist about the rule of law, keep in mind it remains often effective on a micro-level. It’s on the macro- that the FedSoc types have killed it. Hard work and good lawyering can make a difference for regular people — though not always, and not all of them.

James Queally @jqwritesstuff.bsky.social · Sep 17

Protester found not guilty of assault against federal officer at L.A. immigration protest despite top Border Patrol official's testimony. Latest w/ @brittnymejia.bsky.social www.latimes.com/california/s...

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Sep 18

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · Sep 15

Some personal news:

I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.

Thread incoming.

substack.com/@karenattiah...

The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.

I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.

substack.com

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · Sep 14

idk if you've seen this south korean editorial that ran a few days ago. google translate version scorched my eyebrows www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion...

Maga is fundamentally a populist white racism.
The slogan "Make America Great Again" is more accurately described as "Make White
America Greater." The fact that the tariff policy insisted on a 50% tariff only on steel and aluminum stems from the concentration of these groups in the Rust Belt.

The massive crackdown on illegal immigrants at the Hyundai-LG Energy Solutions joint venture plant in Georgia must be understood in this context. The scenes of our workers being chained and escorted away were reminiscent of the dragging of African slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
Department of Homeland Security boasted of
"the largest single-site raid in history," and Immigration and Customs Enforcement even brazenly released footage of the raid, which was highly violating human rights, as if to boast of their "achievement."

Far-right whites may have secretly rejoiced.
Even politicians like the Georgia governor and local lawmakers, who had been active in attracting factories, have shifted their stance and sympathized with their grievances. This is likely because it's difficult to ignore the anti-immigrant sentiment of native Americans. Like the McCarthyism that swept through American society in the 1950s, irrational madness dominates American society. The recent visa issue, which could have been resolved diplomatically with advance notice from an ally, is difficult to explain beyond political maneuvering. The fact that they mobilized helicopters and armored vehicles for show, as if they had been caught, is difficult to explain.

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Cameron Blazer @cameronblazer.bsky.social · Sep 12

Tell me again about the right’s principled stance on political violence.

Here’s mine: I abhor violence. Against people I like and people I dislike. By and against the state. I also abhor hypocrites, liars, and bigots. The killing of such persons is wrong. So is their posthumous rehabilitation.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Sep 12

EARHARDT: We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?

TRUMP: I'll tell you something that's gonna get me in trouble but I couldn't care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem.

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Manik @manik.bsky.social · Sep 12

hey the people that stormed the capitol and erected gallows to murder elected leaders want you to know that political violence is not ok

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Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · Sep 12

You're getting a clear X-ray of America right now.

Look at who this country's powerful institutions choose to elevate, venerate, and celebrate.

Look at the double standards.

Look at the people who adore Charlie Kirk - then spend five minutes reviewing his hateful legacy.

This is America.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · Sep 11

“awful people don’t deserve to be killed, but they don’t deserve to be praised, either” is apparently a thought too complex for the pundit mind

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · Sep 11

Which work? Calling for gay people to be stoned to death? Blaming airplane crashes on black pilots? Anti-vax bullshit? Election denialism? Pushing Great Replacement Theory?

Kirk’s murder is awful and ominous for this country. But no, we don’t need to honor him or “continue his work.”

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