Can somebody help me remember who actually helped prepare Trump for debates against Joe Biden in 2020? I thought that was Chris Christie but I obviously must have been mistaken, given his current comments.
Question: If China builds 1/2 of Musk's Teslas, are any of them sold in the USA? Second question: If the answer to the first question is "Yes," what are the odds these cars are not communicating with China?
I think this obsession about Tim Tok is a distraction. The problem is much bigger and if we are being honest, it is not just the social media companies, but the governments as well which we citizens have to guard against.
US should be wary about TikTok the same way other countries should be wary about apps from US companies such as Facebook/Google and the same way we consumers/users have to wary about governments (including the US government) looking to monitor us and play big-brother.
The best solution IMO is to make free membership to social media illegal. "Free" membership and free accounts are a ruse used by governments and these companies to get access to our data and behaviors so they can manipulate us, advertise to us and, in general, promote their consumers to exhibit the worst of behaviors, in the name of free speech and capitalism.
If I instead am expected to pay to become a member or pay to post, pay to share a post I like/hate, I am going to be careful about what I say and to whom. Look no further than the Bulwark comments section to see how paid memberships promote civil conversations/discussions, even when expressing disagreements. Also when consumers pay for membership, they have the right to have their data protected, demand it not be shared for advertising, can claim compensation for any harm that was done through data mis-use etc. With such expectations and risks involved (of potentially being sued out of existence), social media companies will be careful about what they deploy, will take steps to secure consumer data and not just rely on unexplainable AI/algorithms for their decisions and logic.
Domestic social media is far more dangerous in most cases to US national security and stability than TikTok.
Funding/investing in China might have been good from the perspective of growing a market and cotting costs--except it puts your corp and the US in a larger sense under the thumb of hostile interests... and it is fundamentally insecure in that the PRC can decide on a whim to not do business with you or let you do business in China (and then keep your stuff and use your ideas/patents anyway).
Better to invest in more secure and less potentially hostile/compromising areas.
Does anyone suspect that we should follow the money with all the noise from Congress about TikTok? Who gains if it actually is banned? People are going to watch short videos somewhere? Meta - Facebook reels seems likely. So is this a way to show your Meta donations are getting a return while still pretending to make noise about objecting to Facebook?
"...they’re going to blow up aircraft carriers, they’re going to try to shoot down, attack our satellites, they’re going to use cyber attacks to bring down our electric grid. But we don’t think that they would weaponize the biggest social media app in the country to create divisions in the country and drive narratives that undermine our will to fight. We’re out of our minds if we think they won’t do that."
See, this is what's so frustrating about Republicans like Rubio. This is an insightful, relevant, and probably accurate observation. There IS actually some intelligence in there, but it is perpetually, completely subsumed in his ego, ambition, hypocrisy, and spineless subservience. He COULD be a valuable contributor to the governance of this country; he just chooses not to be.
I get the reason for the strategic China divestiture.
Just generally speaking, though, the surveillance capitalism and disinformation-spreading that our home-grown tech companies do is a larger problem to me than TikTok, in the same way that white Christian nationalists doing terrorism in this country is more immediately concerning than the idea of the Taliban doing terrorism here.
It’s been fascinating watching some of these people in Congress tying themselves up in knots about de-coupling from China while simultaneously hating on aide to Ukraine. If they stepped back for a second, they’d realize that not only is Ukraine’s winning a potential deterrent to any Chinese plans on Taiwan, but Ukraine has amazing mineral and gas deposits. If they can get rid of the Russians, they can start mining lithium and more.
Before Musk was involved with Twitter, Twitter came down hard on me for a mild but accurate comment critical of the CCP for policies during the GLF that were accurate and mildly expressed. So I left Twitter. We need to think how much more we are willing to pay for manufacturing things outside China and who has the competence for which products. However our Trade imbalance of over 350 billion $ in the last year could certainly be reduced, with some sacrifice by US consumers.
Is the photo of Musk in China doctored to make him look a bit Asian?
Can somebody help me remember who actually helped prepare Trump for debates against Joe Biden in 2020? I thought that was Chris Christie but I obviously must have been mistaken, given his current comments.
I love the addition of Joe and Press Pass to The Bulwark.
Question: If China builds 1/2 of Musk's Teslas, are any of them sold in the USA? Second question: If the answer to the first question is "Yes," what are the odds these cars are not communicating with China?
I think this obsession about Tim Tok is a distraction. The problem is much bigger and if we are being honest, it is not just the social media companies, but the governments as well which we citizens have to guard against.
US should be wary about TikTok the same way other countries should be wary about apps from US companies such as Facebook/Google and the same way we consumers/users have to wary about governments (including the US government) looking to monitor us and play big-brother.
The best solution IMO is to make free membership to social media illegal. "Free" membership and free accounts are a ruse used by governments and these companies to get access to our data and behaviors so they can manipulate us, advertise to us and, in general, promote their consumers to exhibit the worst of behaviors, in the name of free speech and capitalism.
If I instead am expected to pay to become a member or pay to post, pay to share a post I like/hate, I am going to be careful about what I say and to whom. Look no further than the Bulwark comments section to see how paid memberships promote civil conversations/discussions, even when expressing disagreements. Also when consumers pay for membership, they have the right to have their data protected, demand it not be shared for advertising, can claim compensation for any harm that was done through data mis-use etc. With such expectations and risks involved (of potentially being sued out of existence), social media companies will be careful about what they deploy, will take steps to secure consumer data and not just rely on unexplainable AI/algorithms for their decisions and logic.
Domestic social media is far more dangerous in most cases to US national security and stability than TikTok.
Funding/investing in China might have been good from the perspective of growing a market and cotting costs--except it puts your corp and the US in a larger sense under the thumb of hostile interests... and it is fundamentally insecure in that the PRC can decide on a whim to not do business with you or let you do business in China (and then keep your stuff and use your ideas/patents anyway).
Better to invest in more secure and less potentially hostile/compromising areas.
Does anyone suspect that we should follow the money with all the noise from Congress about TikTok? Who gains if it actually is banned? People are going to watch short videos somewhere? Meta - Facebook reels seems likely. So is this a way to show your Meta donations are getting a return while still pretending to make noise about objecting to Facebook?
"...they’re going to blow up aircraft carriers, they’re going to try to shoot down, attack our satellites, they’re going to use cyber attacks to bring down our electric grid. But we don’t think that they would weaponize the biggest social media app in the country to create divisions in the country and drive narratives that undermine our will to fight. We’re out of our minds if we think they won’t do that."
See, this is what's so frustrating about Republicans like Rubio. This is an insightful, relevant, and probably accurate observation. There IS actually some intelligence in there, but it is perpetually, completely subsumed in his ego, ambition, hypocrisy, and spineless subservience. He COULD be a valuable contributor to the governance of this country; he just chooses not to be.
I get the reason for the strategic China divestiture.
Just generally speaking, though, the surveillance capitalism and disinformation-spreading that our home-grown tech companies do is a larger problem to me than TikTok, in the same way that white Christian nationalists doing terrorism in this country is more immediately concerning than the idea of the Taliban doing terrorism here.
It’s been fascinating watching some of these people in Congress tying themselves up in knots about de-coupling from China while simultaneously hating on aide to Ukraine. If they stepped back for a second, they’d realize that not only is Ukraine’s winning a potential deterrent to any Chinese plans on Taiwan, but Ukraine has amazing mineral and gas deposits. If they can get rid of the Russians, they can start mining lithium and more.
https://www.renewablematter.eu/articles/article/ukraine-all-lithium-reserves-and-mineral-resources-in-war-zones
Before Musk was involved with Twitter, Twitter came down hard on me for a mild but accurate comment critical of the CCP for policies during the GLF that were accurate and mildly expressed. So I left Twitter. We need to think how much more we are willing to pay for manufacturing things outside China and who has the competence for which products. However our Trade imbalance of over 350 billion $ in the last year could certainly be reduced, with some sacrifice by US consumers.
I like how Marco believes that China needs TikTok to sow division in the US when Fox News exists.