Rhett Jones (@rhettjones) — Bluesky Profile

1 day ago

The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit

15,827 3,922 125 128

2 weeks ago

Any Dem clapping at the SOTU should step down.

295 40 18 5

1 month ago

The arts have been wiped off the Post's dropdown "Style" menu. 💔

14 6 2 4

1 month ago

Pop science chart of human foot shapes by ethnicity

I swear to god if I see a single Celtic foot in the new Odyssey movie I’ve gonna fold Chris Nolan in half

204 37 16 20

1 month ago

Everything they learned in Minnesota they’re applying in Maine from day one. They started off doing fast-moving snatch and grabs on the street, recording and using facial id on observers, and threatening observers directly. They’ll do it all where you live too.

3,522 1,987 5 59

1 month ago

close enough

166 12 2 0

1 month ago

A crowd of people in winter coats gather beneath a blue sky; an American flag flies upside down

Unions and community members rallied in the cold in a Home Depot parking lot in Boston today in solidarity with strikers in Minneapolis

1,190 260 6 6

1 month ago

They like cops so much that all we’re getting is cops. No roads, no bridges, no school funding, no culture money, just a bouquet of different types of cops

7,968 2,053 121 69

2 months ago

jumped for a second. thought i was about to be run over by a weaponized vehicle

0 0 0 0

2 months ago

via Minneapolis photographer Chris Juhn on Facebook

7,306 3,163 241 431

2 months ago

hell yeah

0 0 0 0

2 months ago

They’ve got Twitter up on the big screens in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago makeshift “situation room.”

Photos from Trump’s Truth Social account.

1,795 505 235 407

3 months ago

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

56,174 14,903 824 1,965

3 months ago

Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?

Mamdani: I've spoken about --

Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.

2,572 586 114 548

3 months ago

The Epstein Email Cache: 2,300 Messages, Many of Which Mention Trump An analysis of documents released this week by Congress shows President Trump was mentioned in more than half of the messages.

WSJ does the math: the United States President Donald Trump is mentioned in 1670 email threads with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

71 29 4 0

4 months ago

Cover of "Q: Are We Not Men?" album by Devo

I was trying to figure out why David Ellison's face looked so familiar to me, and then I remembered...

686 108 30 15

4 months ago

We found an error from the CMS transition that borked dual byline posts. Lemme know if you run into more!

2 0 0 0

4 months ago

rest assured, this will be the third time Tron has failed to become a franchise, and we've become exceedingly efficient at it

657 132 10 7

5 months ago

Ken Jacobs (1933-2025)

A great artist, a wonderful teacher, & speaking personally, a close friend for over 50 years. Linking to a piece I wrote to mark his 80th birthday.

www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/m...

132 54 3 14

6 months ago

Homeland Security’s Embrace of Art Reopens an Old Debate

ah yes, homeland security's "embrace of art"
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/a...

1 0 0 0

7 months ago

“i need you to do a bit with me”

407 77 8 1

7 months ago

NYT headline:
Elon Musk warns of potentially ‘rough’ times ahead

250 39 8 1

7 months ago

The group also attacked financial aid programs at Hopkins, including one given by alum Michael Bloomberg, making the medical school free to attend for those from families making under $300,000 a year. About two-thirds of Hopkins medical students, according to the university, qualify for the scholarship.
Put the conservative group argued that
"it is well recognized that race and ethnicity are inseparable from socioeconomic status," adding that
"Johns Hopkins masks racial preferences behind income thresholds."

INSEPARABLE???

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

588 118 40 58

8 months ago

1977: why would the bartender in star wars even care if some robots with artificial intelligence came into his bar

2025: ohhh ok

20,111 3,782 191 109

8 months ago

Hurdler Wins 400-Meter Race Despite His Dick And Balls Falling Out Several Times | Defector Eagle-eyed trackheads following the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czechia might have noticed American hurdler Chris Robinson, an NCAA champion at Alabama, winning the 400 meters with some unorthodox form. M...

"While tantalizingly intelligible, there is sadly no way to know what 'en penischock' translates to. I do not speak Swedish. No one does. Similarly, there is no way to know what the story is referring to further down where it says that 'Robinsons penis hängd ute.'"
defector.com/hurdler-wins...

1,215 227 50 88

8 months ago

The absurdity of federal government agency heads using the term doxing seriously is not being discussed enough

1,876 242 85 13

8 months ago

"hey 35 to 50 year old newsreading liberals what was the run-up to the iraq war like" is the most precision crafted bait possible on this website

4,447 427 150 24

9 months ago

Sly & the Family Stone - If You Want Me To Stay (Live) YouTube video by SlyATFamilyStoneVEVO

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpUC...

1 0 0 0

9 months ago

Advisory to Journalists: The Dangerous Expansion of the Federal Wiretap Law

Journalists, podcasters, and digital media professionals beware: the U.S. government is currently advancing a legal theory under 18 U.S.C. § 2511—the federal wiretap statute—that threatens to criminalize the mere act of downloading publicly available videos or listening to podcasts. This interpretation risks not only chilling investigative journalism but undermines the very foundation of freedom of the press.

The federal wiretap law makes it a felony to intentionally “intercept”—that is, acquire the contents of—a “wire communication” unless you are a party to the communication or a party has given prior consent. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2510(1), a "wire communication" includes any transfer containing the human voice that travels at any point by wire or cable. Originally meant to prevent unlawful phone taps in 1968, the statute has not meaningfully evolved to reflect digital media distribution in the 21st century.

As a result, many core journalistic practices today—listening to audio on a video stream, downloading a podcast, reviewing livestreamed footage—can be construed as “intercepting” a wire communication. And unlike “oral communications” (which are only protected if private) or “electronic communications” (which are exempt if publicly accessible), wire communications have no similar public-access defense. This leaves journalists legally vulnerable for accessing material that is otherwise freely available to the public.

This is not just a theoretical risk. In Tampa, Florida, the U.S. Department of Justice is actively prosecuting my client, journalist Timothy Burke for allegedly violating the wiretap statute by downloading publicly accessible livestreamed interviews from a video server. The journalist used only a URL—no password, no hack, no deception.

The government claims that because the streams included the human voice and were transmitted in part by wire or cable, they are “wire communications”. Under this interpretation, even if the stream was intended for public consumption, and even if no reasonable expectation of privacy existed, the act of acquiring and publishing the content becomes a federal felony. The government also asserts that the same communications are also “electronic communications,” where the law makes it clear that it is not a violation if the electronic communication is obtained from a server that is configured so that the communication is “readily accessible to the general public” -- however, the government has argued (and the court has agreed) that whether or not the communication was obtained from a publicly accessible server is a fact question that the journalist must prove at trial - not an element of the offense that the government must prove. This means that a journalist that obtains public information may still be subject to search, seizure, arrest, indictment and prosecution.

The implications for the First Amendment are chilling. Under the government’s interpretation of interception of “wire communications”, the government could prosecute journalists based not on their methods, but on the content they choose to listen to or report on. The wiretap law also criminalizes the disclosure of the contents of a wire communication. Thus, quoting from a podcast or a leaked livestream could subject a reporter to criminal liability regardless of intent, public interest, or harm.

This is a dangerous expansion of government authority. It converts the passive act of receiving a communication—something essential to journalism—into a criminal offense based solely on outdated statutory definitions and prosecutorial discretion.

The broader issue is not just technical—it’s constitutional. A law that is so vague or overbroad that it allows the government to pick and choose whom to prosecute based on their speech, targets the very heart of press freedom. It is unconstitutionally vague under the Fifth Amendment and overbroad under the First.

By failing to modernize the statute—or at least to interpret it in line with modern communication platforms—the government risks turning millions of journalists, researchers, and citizens into potential criminals. The law as it stands today is an anachronism of the analog era being misapplied in a digital one.

If you are a journalist, you should be alarmed. If the DOJ’s current theory prevails, simply clicking “play” could one day lead to prosecution. The press cannot operate in an environment where the law punishes access to speech—particularly where that speech is both public and newsworthy.

The press must not only report on this misuse of power, but challenge it—legally, politically, and publicly. Because the right to receive and report information is not just a constitutional luxury. It’s a democratic necessity.

--
Mark Rasch
MDRasch@gmail.com
(301) 547-6925

The federal government is attempting a radical, massive expansion of what constitutes "wiretapping" that threatens everyone working in media/as a journalist today and I hope you'll read this and share it with everyone you know.

I'm not just fighting this for me. I'm fighting it for everyone.

1,868 937 37 63