@waldoj@mastodon.social
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waldoj

@waldoj@mastodon.social

Thought follower. Male software developer. Works at U.S. Digital Response and the Biden administration. Alumnus of 18F, the Obama White House, Georgetown's Beeck Center, the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Speaks only for self.

Profile photo created by Stable Diffusion.

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waldoj, to random
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The head of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, secretly funneled $100,000 from a non-profit organization to Clarence Thomas' wife, via Kellyanne Conway, in the months before that non-profit filed an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, the landmark civil rights case. (That 5–4 ruling struck down the requirement that southern states get federal permission before changing voting rules, and resulted in the ongoing wave of voter suppression.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

waldoj,
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When a Supreme Court justice secretly takes payments from a group with a case before the court, with the payment source intentionally obfuscated, that's...that's bad, right? It feels bad.

waldoj,
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@nelson Last week I had a conversation with a federal agency's ethics lawyer about my wife's income sources, because as far as they're concerned, it's all the same money!

waldoj, to random
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“One of the previously unreported subpoenas to the Trump Organization sought records pertaining to Mr. Trump’s dealings with a Saudi-backed professional golf venture known as LIV Golf, which is holding tournaments at some of Mr. Trump’s golf resorts.”

Ruh-roh. Did Trump share classified documents with the Saudis at Mar-a-Lago? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/us/politics/trump-documents-subpoenas-justice-department.html?unlocked_article_code=sGTJuzAy1HwEZirJ89B0jmMOZaaPlOAFH_GfkWdXxxcDGPvci552lBm41TbwawTIPUNBojt4vxzJVRfujKT1t0wwnfQH8fe7pRTj8c4aIARYGfFohPp6J0j70bdszcXOESrU5WqRj4snLacXgUlmlmPen4fY0uLQsXb1E4lrAWqpkLQjg0ynjpDTX2KZ_cbfH8nDUOsDLKjXAp3MDFMdHd_SV3ZeTocUpZ_XyM7E5Rpu7WeyvJA0PLGkQPd5qAHxaLeeHt3Z4Fx15jE4Mpw-7BUswMYu4MYTIEZro1FY_POGfKRl9QTnNG0dQoZeJgcGvh0oSTdHpNjyJMX9Xszai9H48c8ZfoWcXalavFsQ4Wyap87I8vy8H88&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

waldoj, to random
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Since 2020, there has been an explosion of private, online identity-verification companies partnering with government agencies. In person, you could show a driver's license or a passport to a government employee to prove who you are. These companies offer the same service, but for online interactions.

That might sound harmless, but it's actually leading both government and the public down a dark path that soon it'll be too late to turn back from. 🧵

waldoj,
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The historical role of identity verification in the U.S. is straightforward. Most people have an identity card issued by their state DMV, although others might have a passport or a green card. You have to prove your identity to that issuing agency, using artifacts like a birth certificate, Social Security card, utility bills, etc.

Once you've got that card, you're in the system. Want to prove your identity anywhere in the U.S.? Show that government-issued credential and you’re in good shape.

waldoj,
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In March 2020, two things happened at once: people couldn't apply for public benefits in person, and the demand for public benefits skyrocketed to a height and with a rapidity that had not even a vaguely close precedent. But how to verify's people identities for unemployment insurance, SNAP benefits, etc. if they can't come into an office?

Enter private identity-verification vendors. Agencies used federal relief funding and emergency procurement rules to award sole-source contracts to them.

waldoj,
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These vendors filled an essential role at a crucial time. It's great that they were available.

But, three years later, government service delivery hasn't shifted back—it lurched online in 2020, and it's not coming back. And this has taken what was a government-to-government process (largely, states issuing IDs, and state/federal agencies checking them to verify identity) and instead plopped a handful of private vendors in the middle, with a transaction fee for each ID check.

waldoj,
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But that's not even the real problem! The problem is that these vendors aren't actually in the ID-verification business. They heavily subsidize those costs, courtesy of VC funding, to make it cheap for agencies. Why? Because they're actually in the data-hoarding business. They want to own government's relationships with the American public. They want our ability to receive services from government to depend on them. They've figured out how to insert themselves into a once-trivial interaction.

waldoj,
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The business model isn't collecting fees to verify people's identities. It's to sit on a hoard of verified identities.

You know how every few years Equifax (or their ilk) has some huge data breach of all of the private information they've collected on us, and it doesn't harm them but it screws all of us over? Guess who is a major identity-verification vendor!

waldoj,
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Ultimately, the solution to this is mobile drivers licenses (mDLs), which will, in a few years, permit people to provide their state-issued credentials over the internet, via an OAuth-like mechanism.

For now, agencies need to understand that the current paradigm has them handing over their ability to achieve their mission, one person at a time, to a private vendor, owned by who knows (though I'd guess Saudi Arabia), which they'll be forced to lease back at a price of the vendor's choosing.

waldoj,
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For more on the dangers of outsourcing our national identity system (including equity concerns and how Login.gov is our best solution), see my 2001 article in the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's journal, “Community Development.” https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/publications/community-development-investment-review/2021/august/americans-need-a-digital-identity-system-stat/

waldoj,
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@falcon 🎯

waldoj,
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@bengo Well, 18F can only do what they're hired to do by government agencies, and agencies can only spend money on what Congress said it could be spent on. But if a relevant agency has suitable funding and wants to hire 18F to do that, that would be great!

waldoj,
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@bengo The United States government is not good at technology. :(

waldoj, to random
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Harlan Crow paid the $73k/year private school tuition for Clarence Thomas’ son to attend a private boarding school. Thomas never disclosed the enormous gift. Crow says he was merely supporting “less fortunate…at-risk youth.” https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus

waldoj, to random
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Last year, a former Virginia State Trooper catfished a California girl, tried to abduct her, and murdered three members of the girl’s family in the process. VA Gov. Youngkin ordered an investigation into how the guy was hired. The investigation’s conclusion implicitly tells us exactly how he was hired. https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/05/03/virginias-probe-into-state-police-hiring-of-catfish-cop-ends-with-no-investigative-report/

waldoj, to random
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Harry Belafonte’s hit single, “Banana Boat (Day-O)” had a B-side: “Star-O.” It’s “Day-O,” but at night. https://youtu.be/_hPL9f9es9Q

waldoj, to random
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In February, the U.S. Marshals' cellphone tracking system was breached and taken over by ransomware. Two and a half months later, they're still dead in the water. https://wapo.st/3LmFPJd

waldoj, to random
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There is no stare decisis. There is only the raw exercise of power. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/us/north-carolina-supreme-court-gerrymander.html?unlocked_article_code=EKZDlSLhlhTekYk-KrK0ZAB-mwrkx1esUpD5JwyYsPcG4V8sHuQ_jVxHw90eIwNrxvPuCF4O9QDUkz508T2k8ANs7-TUaGmfB2QVHpJDfXZf5tCTXWZTCcZCikGauoSXsLF8bz5i0WSFSzQzMCJ2kBK1wv1CErfwM8nLMlWhYkCi38x68NuVNy8rFQAaF_MtDzQfRTBdvslhpUcorxQvLkLYYzSvtWQAvMrYErHbLC1Tzs_ksF0UffGpcgFEm-InMs0sz6DeUonmesZvQbnre-1f7eDTJRH6gneeKbWVLPU3Neqzc8wEmvc7DGlZeON9TQ0e7EAtZyNga5wlvHCGUuwyP4dCE98RLY-muA&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

emilygorcenski, to random

deleted_by_author

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    waldoj,
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    @emilygorcenski I...did not?

    waldoj, to random
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    Today I learned that women who demanded the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland ran a three-year bombing and arson campaign to that end. Five people were killed and 24 wounded in the 1912–14 attacks. This was led by militant suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, a name I’d heard but about whom I could have told you nothing. It wasn’t until 1928 that all adult women got the right to vote there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette_bombing_and_arson_campaign

    waldoj, to random
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    Justice Neil Gorsuch tried to sell his Colorado house and 40 acres of land. Two years went by, nothing. Then he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Nine days later, he sold the property to the CEO of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation's largest law firms that routinely has cases before the Supreme Court. Gorsuch declared the sale on his next financial disclosure report, but left blank the box labeled "Identity of buyer/seller." https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579

    waldoj,
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    Chief Justice Roberts’ wife found a new career two years after he joined the Supreme Court: she gets hire-powered law firms to pay her to recruit top lawyers to work for them. The very firms that argue cases before the court. What are they going to say when the Chief Justice's wife solicits them for business? "No”?

    A whistleblower released records showing that the Roberts made over $10 million in commissions from this work in 2007–14. https://www.businessinsider.com/jane-roberts-chief-justice-wife-10-million-commissions-2023-4

    waldoj, to random
    @waldoj@mastodon.social avatar

    I'm making another table! Number two in a series of four. This is a 7-foot-long outdoor table, to replace our collapsing Ikea table. I'm making it out of thermally modified yellow poplar—basically, wood that's baked until there's nothing for fungus or bacteria to eat, so it'll last decades. I planed and jointed all the lumber, and this morning I assembled the frame. Joinery is with pocket hole screws. Next up: assembling and mounting the top.

    The frame of a table—four legs, aprons connecting them—but with no actual table top. It’s in a grassy yard.
    Planks of dark wood laid out on an impromptu workbench, part of an eventual tabletop.
    A series of four sketches on graph paper, showing plans for a table. There’s a view from the front, a view from the side, a view from the top, and a cutaway view from the top (showing what’s under the tabletop, to support it).

    waldoj,
    @waldoj@mastodon.social avatar

    That screaming you just heard in the distance was me flipping over this assembled tabletop.

    emilygorcenski, to random

    I missed this (very low effort) retrospective on the Counting Crowd and while I disagree with it somewhat, the top three are absolutely correct.

    https://americansongwriter.com/the-top-10-counting-crows-songs/

    waldoj,
    @waldoj@mastodon.social avatar

    @emilygorcenski FWIW,
    I was puzzled by “Mrs. Potters Lullaby” on this list, as a song that I never paid any attention to. But I’ve listened to it a dozen times in the past few days and, actually, it’s pretty great.

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