Trumpland Apparently Just Forgot About Its Manufactured TikTok Hysteria
from the whoops-a-daisy dept
We’ve repeatedly made it pretty clear that President Trump’s effort to ban TikTok is little more than a performative, xenophobic, idiotic mess. For one, the effort appears more focused on trying to get Trump-allied Oracle a new hosting deal than any serious concern about consumer privacy and security. Two, banning a teen dancing and lip syncing app does jack shit in terms of thwarting China or protecting U.S. consumer privacy, since the U.S. telecom, app, and adtech markets are largely an unaccountable privacy mess making it trivial to obtain this kind of data elsewhere.
Further highlighting the performative nature of the proposed ban, TikTok this week effectively stated that Trumpland appears to have forgotten about the proposed ban entirely. TikTok filed a petition this week in a US Court of Appeals calling for a review of actions by the Trump administration?s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), pointing out that the deadline for ByteDance to sell off its US assets over national security concerns came and went this week with no action from Trumpland or word on any extension.
Apparently the whole TikTok thing fell off the radar as the administration focuses on pretending it didn’t lose the election. Whoops:
“For a year, TikTok has actively engaged with CFIUS in good faith to address its national security concerns, even as we disagree with its assessment,? TikTok says in a statement to The Verge. ?In the nearly two months since the President gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalize that agreement ? but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework.”
This is, of course, because the TikTok ban was largely performative bullshit and cronyism, designed to drum up some hysteria over China and provide Trump with leverage in his harmful trade war while driving some additional cash and influence to his U.S. allies.
If the Trump administration and GOP genuinely cared about U.S. consumer privacy and security, there’s a laundry list of more pressing issues it could do something about, including shoring up vulnerable U.S. telecom infrastructure, passing even a baseline U.S. privacy law for the internet era, better policing the widespread abuse of <a href=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190108/11090741358/another-day-another-massive-cellular-location-data-privacy-scandal-well-probably-do-nothing-about.shtml”>user location data (by corporations and the government alike), attempt to shore up security in the internet of broken things sector, secure election integrity, and stop, you know, trying to destroy encryption.
Neither Trump Inc. nor the Trump-allied GOP does any of this because it’s more interested in bad faith posturing and bullshit than serious governance or public welfare. If the folks fanning their face over TikTok truly cared about consumer privacy and security, we’d do something about the broader, unaccountable mess that is adtech, app, government, and telecom data privacy. Instead we get a giant pile of bullshit and a mountain of billable legal man hours over something that was never serious adult policy to begin with.
Filed Under: apps, ban, cfius, china, executive order, social media
Companies: bytedance, tiktok
Comments on “Trumpland Apparently Just Forgot About Its Manufactured TikTok Hysteria”
They did not forget, they have much more important things to deal with. Right now they are working 24/7 on stopping the caravan.
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They’re working 25/8 on building the wall too!
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And don’t forget they are working 26/9 on finding illegal votes!
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They know which votes were illegal, and that is any democratic vote, and especially any democratic postal vote. All those democratic voters are stealing the election.
Re: Re: Re:2 Trumpist beliefs.
Is the entire ballot illegal or just the vote for president?
Because if the entire ballot is illegal, then all the votes for Republicans candidates have to be thrown out also.
Re: Re: Re:3 Trumpist beliefs.
No, any race that a Republican won was clearly valid, but the ones where someone else won must be thrown out.
I wish I was kidding, but on the day of the election Trump was simultaneously calling for counts to be stopped immediately and to carry on counting every last vote, depending on who was in the lead.
Re: Re: Re:4 Trumpist beliefs.
Yeah, Trump and his cultists really tipped their hands there when they were protesting both counting votes and not counting votes depending on who was in the lead in a given state, utterly demolishing the idea that they were only interested in a fair election.
Whether to laugh or cry...
Before the election Trumpy had the whole GOP screaming about a Teen dancing app as if it was carrying chinese nukes into the US heartland…and now he can’t be arsed to give it half a thought because he needs to launch third-rate lawyers at every court in the US in the vague hope that somewhere one of those judges placed courtesy of Moscow Mitch will find it in their hearts to appoint him King.
I don’t know what to say. The whole world is in schock and awe over the US.
Also quite upset, because it’s been made clear that the US is as reliable a partner as anyone who is to 30% a callous, maliciously ignorant and violent asshole who beats people at random occasionally.
I don’t know what Biden’s plan is but it has to include a deprogramming plan he can apply to 70 million people…
Funny how it was only a threat when they needed it to be
You don’t even need to go as far as saying that if protecting privacy and security was their goal there are better targets to go after, you can simply point out that if it was then the company they were screaming about as a Huge Threat to the point that the government needed to step in to deal with it would still be front and center and they would have kept focus on it, rather than dropping the issue the second it served the purpose they wanted it to as cheap PR for gullible fools.
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So… Trump is the most voted sitting US president in history. Still any doubt whose side social media were on?
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It’s amusing that you have to get so specific to find something for which he is #1. Trump lost the popular vote in both of his elections. He only became president thanks to quirks in the electoral college system of election. And now he’s lost his reelection bid and will fade back into meme land.
We ought to ship all 70 million of you to Alaska (there’s a ton of empty space there after all) and then sever Alaska from the union. You guys can worship Trump all you like and vote him in as your dictator for life and the rest of the world can breathe a massive sigh of relief.
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explaining for the slow thinkers – I am making the point that social media were FOR Trump. No other way to explain him getting the most votes for a sitting president unless resorting to social media manipulation. Last time it got him elected – this time he barely made it. Facebook internal memos made it clear, and now the results prove the amount of social media manipulation.
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not "barely" but "almost" of course
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Or maybe just maybe, 72M people actually want a strong economy, less taxes, less regulations, strong border, less troops overseas, someone to stand up to China, strong foreign policy (Much better middle east agreements of late) and better trade deals….. But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way.
I get it. Trump is an asshole, buffoon and horrible communicator. I get it…. but he also delivered pretty much what republicans have been screaming for minus much smaller government spending…. I think you will see that being a key issue if they try to push for expensive programs we really have no money to deliver on regardless how much you increase taxes.
The polls stated 52% of Bidens votes were not for Biden but against Trump. Bottom line is enough republican women voted for Biden because of their dislike for Trump but voted for republican senate and congressman that swung enough votes in key states to Biden..
On the subject at hand, there is no doubt China is using the data from TikTok and TikTok was very much overstepping on data collection on phones. It’s an easy problem to solve with strong protections like EU. It’s a legal problem not an executive problem.
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"72M people actually want a strong economy, less taxes, less regulations, strong border, less troops overseas, someone to stand up to China, strong foreign policy (Much better middle east agreements of late) and better trade deals"
Then why did they vote for Trump?
"The polls stated 52% of Bidens votes were not for Biden but against Trump."
Yeah, it must sting when the vote is not "let’s adjust the country to a better ideal" and is instead "for the love of god get this asshole out of here".
"It’s a legal problem not an executive problem."
Then why are you talking about the executive branch?
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Or maybe just maybe, 72M people actually want a strong economy, less taxes, less regulations, strong border, less troops overseas, someone to stand up to China, strong foreign policy (Much better middle east agreements of late) and better trade deals….. But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way.
Oh I agree about those facts. But tell me, how much longer do we need to wait for the strong economy that he fucked up because he’s an incompetent fucktard with respect to how he’s handled the Covid crisis?
And less taxes? I’m not a corporation, and I’m still waiting for trickle-down 2.0 to work.
Where’s the wall the Mexico was supposed to pay for?
Why hasn’t he withdrawn the troops already? 4 years isn’t enough time?
And for that trade thingy, how is it that we’ve been giving welfare to all the farmers since it started? I thought it was easy to win?
While we’re at it, what about my fucking trumpcare? You fuckheads were repealing it for 6 years when it didn’t matter. Then someone gives you the wheel and you fuck that up too.
Only thing trump is good at is making himself and the 72M idiots who were stupid enough to vote for him look like the imbeciles that they are.
Cry harder, especially on January 20th.
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Oh I agree about those facts. But tell me, how much longer do we need to wait for the strong economy that he fucked up because he’s an incompetent fucktard with respect to how he’s handled the Covid crisis?
I am not saying he couldn’t have done better, but who gets the blame for EU? Does Trump get the blame for economy in NYC with its strong shut down that he didn’t order? Does he get the blame of the 30K retirees the NYC leadership sent back to retirement homes to further spread and die? It is a Pandemic. 90% of Americans are wearing masks…. Is this all those 10%?
And less taxes? I’m not a corporation, and I’m still waiting for trickle-down 2.0 to work.
Evidence shows it did work. Raises did go out. Spending Went up. Bonuses went up. Stock grants went up. I definitely felt it.
CHina was never going to be an easy win, especially when they can wait out a President. Its going to take YEARS to finally get them to cave very much like it did USSR.
Keep insulting 72M Americans who believe in a well funded police force vs defunded. They are not idiots. I dare you instead of being a keyboard warrior, walk up to your CEO, Manager and/or co-worker who most likely 50% voted for Trump and call them an Idiot in person and see how well that works with HR.
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Man, you really can’t wrap your head around the idea that the pandemic wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful if Trump had displayed a modicum of competence and had his administration at least try to put in some effort at controlling the spread of the virus. You can deny the truth, but the truth doesn’t care whether you believe it.
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I am not saying he couldn’t have done better,
Well frankly that’s a bit of an understatement. He just "didn’t do well" – he’s a fuck up of epic proportions to the tune of 240k+ Americans dead.
Keep insulting 72M Americans who believe in a well funded police force vs defunded.
Will do – what are they so worried about with their 2A and all their guns? I thought those "patriots" were supposed to be brave, not shitting themselves every time a black person walks in front of their house.
I dare you instead of being a keyboard warrior, walk up to your CEO, Manager and/or co-worker who most likely 50% voted for Trump and call them an Idiot in person and see how well that works with HR.
Oh please, stop being so melodramatic, Sally. I’m no more worried about offending some trumptard than you fuckheads were worried about offending me. You’re mistaken if you think me telling some moron with a Forrest Gump-esque IQ that he voted like an idiot somehow makes me nervous.
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"I am not saying he couldn’t have done better…"
It’s genuinely difficult to see how he could’ve done worse; almost everything he’s touched has turned to shit. And he’s rounding things out by petulantly trashing things on the way out the door while actively risking national security.
"Evidence shows it did work. Raises did go out. Spending Went up. Bonuses went up. Stock grants went up. I definitely felt it."
What proportion of the population gets stock grants and bonuses? If you’re one of the lucky few to benefit then good for you but only the ignorant would think these benefits were fairly distributed. The very rich did wonderfully out of it and future generations will pay for it. Not exactly sound fiscal policy; more like grifters gonna grift.
"Keep insulting 72M Americans who believe in a well funded police force vs defunded."
I’ll bet most people would prefer a police force with an appropriate level of funding, a respectful attitude to the populace that pay them to uphold laws, a respectful attitude to those laws, a desire to avoid violence where possible, and an acceptance of accountability, but that’s not really where things are so… maybe try something different?
And sorry, but it’s really easy to keep insulting the vast majority of those 72M who, because of ignorance or racism or selfishness or whatever, keep voting against their own best interests, let alone those of the whole country.
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"I’ll bet most people would prefer a police force with an appropriate level of funding"
The argument is mostly not even about funding. It’s about not sending in violent bullies with military hardware they’re itching to use in. to a situation where no violence is required or can even be the worst possible response. Funding is. part of this (it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have the budgets to buy all the shiny new toys), but it’s about where funds are allocated rather than the amount.
What’s depressing is that people living thousands of miles away on another continent have a better grasp on the real arguments that your fellow citizens.
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"I am not saying he couldn’t have done better, but who gets the blame for EU"
EU leaders get the blame for EU, which have mainly been a case of simply opening up too soon in order to try and save economies but made things far worse in the long term.
" It is a Pandemic."
Yes. One that Trump has spent half of this year denying exists, and half stating that it’s a hoax to make him look bad. One that he removed the pandemic team that should have fought it so they weren’t available when needed, and then reportedly withheld action because it only affected blue states at the time. Action that led to the US having 20% of the world’s infections and deaths despite only having 4% of the population.
"90% of Americans are wearing masks"
LOL. I’d REALLY like to see your source for this figure.
"Keep insulting 72M Americans who believe in a well funded police force vs defunded."
As long as you keep lying about the 78 million Americans (as rising) who also believe in such things but have to put up with you assholes misrepresenting their views and need for competent leadership? Yes, they probably will.
"walk up to your CEO, Manager and/or co-worker who most likely 50% voted for Trump and call them an Idiot in person and see how well that works with HR."
No, only an utter asshole would bring their personal politics in to a professional environment where it doesn’t belong. Is that ultimately your problem in life? You keep getting fired from your menial jobs because you’re a dick to management?
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"I am not saying he couldn’t have done better, but who gets the blame for EU?"
The EU did a damn sight better than the US. Third world shitpits all over the globe did better than the US. The statistics are pretty clear – with the US having 4% of the global population but 20% of the global infection and death rate it’s not "He could have done better" – it’s "He actively did everything wrong"
"90% of Americans are wearing masks…. Is this all those 10%?"
Yep. Let me tell you about a little concept called exponential growth and super-spreader events. You could google "Typhoid Mary" and read up on how every person who is infected and takes no precaution can spread the disease to dozens of people -who then infect their friends and relatives, and those in turn infect theirs.
"Evidence shows it did work. Raises did go out. Spending Went up. Bonuses went up. Stock grants went up. I definitely felt it."
Actually it didn’t. All KPI’s, across the board, are pointing down. Sure, the pandemic contributes but all the evidence points to the economic downturn beginning in the latter half of Trump’s term, well before Covid was even heard of.
"CHina was never going to be an easy win, especially when they can wait out a President. Its going to take YEARS to finally get them to cave very much like it did USSR. "
It will take much longer than just "years" as long as there’s a complete idiot at the helm giving China everything they want. Trump withdrew from a China-US treaty, started his trade war, hurt americans by far more than the chinese, then went back and signed himself a far worse deal with Chairman Xi.
Then went on to Twitter and hoisted the pile of shit in his hand as a glorious win. And you idiots all bought it without checking all the concessions he made.
"Keep insulting 72M Americans who believe in a well funded police force vs defunded."
A police force which achieves a thousand times as many wrongful killings per capita than any other police force, including the russian and chinese. While having a case clearance rate far lower than the law enforcement of most other countries and have – in Kentucky at least – been shown to draw their inspiration from "warrior training" peppered with quotes and links to Mein Kampf.
Yeah, you know…calling the 72 million americans voting for Trump "idiots" is an insult to idiots everywhere. Those 72 million americans are either actively malicious or dumbfucks so ignorant there’s no real difference between their stupidity and actual malice.
" I dare you instead of being a keyboard warrior, walk up to your CEO, Manager and/or co-worker who most likely 50% voted for Trump…"
Probably not. According to the statistics I’ve seen so far the ones voting for Trump are mainly ignorant and uneducated no-hope losers, few of which are actually able to hold a white-collar career.
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You forgot Hilary Clinton not being in jail, but somehow Trump managed to throw a few of his closest allies under the bus when it suited him most.
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Said the guy who clais Trump stood up to China rather than dreaming to be Xi Jinping.
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When you put up graphs of GDP, unemployment, etc but remove the labels, then ask where does the Obama admin end and the Trump admin begin, most people can’t find the delination.
IOW, doing nothing allowed the graphs to continue.
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"When you put up graphs of GDP, unemployment, etc but remove the labels, then ask where does the Obama admin end and the Trump admin begin, most people can’t find the delination."
In the first year of a president’s term, it’s common for the budget to have been passed before the incoming president takes office. Anyone who things that the beginning of a first term is reflection of a president’s decisions rather than the final year of the term is really dumb.
What’s scary is that Trump had done a lot of potentially long term damage but if the pandemic hasn’t happened there’s a lot of people who would still have been fooled into thinking he wasn’t coasting on the recovery from the last collapse.
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Yes, he did — he filled the judiciary with appointees approved by conservative think tanks, up to and including all three of his Supreme Court nominations, for the purposes of undoing Obergefell v. Hodges and reversing Roe v. Wade.
Republi—nope, sorry, can’t call them that any more…Trumpians don’t give a fuck about anything but dominance. They don’t care how much they hurt so long as they hurt their chosen Repugnant Cultural Others and “own the libs”. The proof is in the White House — after all, look at how Trump and his administration handled the COVID-19 pandemic…if you can call what they did “handling a pandemic”, anyway.
Donald Trump has done more damage to the United States than the terrorists of 9/11 did. Those terrorists killed 3,000 people, and their actions changed the U.S. and its institutions in numerous ways. (Fuck you, Patriot Act!) But Donald Trump has eroded institutions in ways those terrorists could’ve never hoped to do, and his administration’s callous disregard for the pandemic has killed more people than those terrorists ever could have. For fuck’s sake, do you think those terrorists ever thought they could make the American people distrust the entire electoral process?¹
Trumpians have long abandoned any pretense of being in favor of governance — either out of fear of Trump (and his voting base) or out of a genuine desire for fascism. Whatever good you think Donald Trump has done in the past four years is undone by the fact that he has divided this country in ways no one outside of this country could have ever done on their own. You wanna be a Trumpian? Go right ahead. But at least have the good goddamned decency to admit that Trump isn’t even close to being a good person, let alone a good president.
¹ — Funny thing: If Trump says we can’t trust the electoral process this year, shouldn’t we distrust the process regardless of who won?
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Saying Trump did everything that republicans(now Trumpians as you noted) have been screaming for paints a really nasty picture of the people in that group.
Killed a quarter million people and counting by putting personal power over the public, undermined the electoral process and trust in it, kissed up to dictators, gutted any respect the office of president may have held, attacked the press and first amendment, showed open contempt for the vaunted ‘law and order’ that Trumpians like to crow about on multiple occasions… I’m sure people could come up with any number of other things, but to claim that he did what Trumpians wanted really isn’t a good look.
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"I’m sure people could come up with any number of other things, but to claim that he did what Trumpians wanted really isn’t a good look."
And yet he’s somewhat right. What you describe is exactly what one out of three americans really wanted. That it was self-destructively stupid, harmful, and put 200k americans into graves who statistically shouldn’t have been there if any precautions had been taken properly…that, to 72 million americans, is quite OK.
And even if Trump goes away now those 72 million americans will remain and certainly won’t change for the better.
Biden trying to reconcile with them is just yet one more occasion of moderates and rational people insisting on trying to debate the rabid dog chewing on their leg.
He’ll either have to realize it’s time to find a sharp rock and wait until it’s down before seeing if it can be taught manners, or he’ll go down in history as the second coming of Neville Chamberlain.
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Sadly you seem to be right. As much as I like the idea of ‘not republicans and democrats but americans‘ and the idea that all the ugly stuff that Trump has done and said ‘isn’t us’… as the voting shows for an appalling number of people that isn’t a viable option because all that ugliness absolutely is who and what they are, and you can’t compromise with someone who holds the position of ‘my way or nothing’, nor should you when their positions are so abhorrent.
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"As much as I like the idea of ‘not republicans and democrats but americans’…"
Yeah, that’s been a problem here in europe as well. WW2 showed not just the nazis but also the vast mass of people in all european countries who were OK with what the nazis did, as long as it didn’t hurt them specifically. It’s why most countries in europe did their level best to suppress holdover sympathizers. And until we dropped the ball on that one we had it covered.
It’s sad to say but if Biden gets his way then "being american" means to acknowledge that the US should remain deeply racist, misogynistic and bigoted, with an unhealthy fascination for outright fascism.
Simply because you’ll have to accept that being able to exchange smiles with good old uncle Bob at thanksgiving means you’ll have to put up with his anecdotes about beating up brown people while he was still an active Klansman, while carving the turkey.
You’ll have to smile at your neighbor when you know damn well she’s the one proclaiming your nephew to be an abomination unto god who should be purged and will burn in hell forever over his gender identity.
And that just means that in the interest of domestic peace you’re willing to become a silent sympathizer. The camp guard’s good neighbor.
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Gonna have to go with a hard pass on that, and it’s one of the things I think the democrat party really botches in their attempt to be inclusive. I’m all for productive conversation and compromise when reasonable and needed, but there really needs to be a point where you put your foot down and refuse to ‘compromise’ or ‘just give them the benefit of the doubt’ any more.
If someone is waxing poetic about how the nazis had some really good ideas, those filthy blacks need to stop being such criminals and forcing the police to shoot them or how those disgusting gays should get back in the closet and stop bothering their neighbors with their whining about how they should be treated as people then ‘domestic peace’ can hang, there’s an asshole in need of being called out if not cut from your life if at all possible. As the saying goes ‘All that is needed for evil to win is for good people to do nothing’.
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Yes, but when he wins, it doesn’t matter.
He actually, literally, said that. Put it in words, as one of the most coherent word-sequences I’ve seen him utter, in front of people and cameras. Trump during a campaign rally in 2016:
Another thing he said in 2016: "I will accept the results… <long pause> if I win."
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*"Or maybe just maybe, 72M people actually *don’t find obvious racism, white supremacy rhetoric, misogyny and inhumane treatment of children to be a showstopper…"
Strong economy, less taxes, less regulation, strong border…yeah, but even Hitler had that in his platform for 1933!
"…But hey, let’s not let facts get in the way."
The facts being that 72 million americans are such raging arseholes they’ll accept what their grandfathers fought in a world war to prevent as long as the toxic soup comes with garnish they really like.
Here’s a clue, dipshit – and I’m calling you that for a reason – if a person roots for and supports a racist, rapist, fascist and/or white supremacist the argument ends there. That person is a horrible human being with no moral compass. Full stop.
The US used to know this. It’s enshrined in that piece of paper called the Bill of Rights you people keep using as toilet paper as soon as it’s convenient.
"…but he also delivered pretty much what republicans have been screaming for minus much smaller government spending…"
No, he failed even on that score. What he did for the republican cause can be summarized as seating two judges in SCOTUS, one of which is more than a little shady and the other of which is a religious fanatic who is so shaky on constitutional law she doesn’t even know the protections granted by the primary amendments.
"On the subject at hand, there is no doubt China is using the data from TikTok…"
…and…? Sorry, but after PRISM I’d expect to see something better than "We don’t like when others do what we do".
"…TikTok was very much overstepping on data collection on phones."
Same as every other social media client, yes. There’s a reason no one in the Trump administration actually tried to write a sensible privacy law with teeth.
"It’s a legal problem not an executive problem."
Difficult to swing a rational law stating that data collection should only be allowed by american companies. The real reason for the surge against TikTok is manifestly obvious. TikTok was that platform on which users trolled Trump, and the number 45 man-child is petty to a point most kindergarten attendees have already grown out of.
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Those 72 million people aren’t getting lower taxes, just the megacorps who hardly pay tax to begin with. And they did nothing constructive with their latest windfall.
Less regulations – yeah, that sure helps. Enjoy all the poisoning, jerkwad.
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Facebook internal memos made it clear, and now the results prove the amount of social media manipulation.
It’s not Facebook’s fault he didn’t take his stupid ass over to Parler.
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This is a strong claim. What other explanations have been evaluated and dismissed as not plausible, and why?
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…
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1- Can’t argue that
2 – The blue wave was there, as Biden can attest to. What kept blue from a clean sweep was the lunacy of the radical left
3 – You argue media bias when Trump had Pravda… I meant Fox News. As for the pile on he endured for four years, he could have avoided most of them If he had JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!
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I love how people think there’s an actual “radical left” within either American politics in general or the Democrats in particular because Trumpian politicians say there is. Outside of the handful of people aligned with the Democrats who would even qualify as left-of-center to begin with, none of them are “radicals” who are proposing full-bore socialism or fully automated luxury gay space communism or whatever the hell you think “radical leftists” in America propose if/when they get into office.
For fuck’s sake, Biden is a centrist who leans somewhat right-of-center. The only actual leftists in the Dems right now are “The Squad”, and they’re really not as “radical” as you think they are. Well, not unless you think the Green New Deal — and climate change in general, really — is a “radical leftist” proposal meant to backdoor sociocommunalism into U.S. law.
Besides, the U.S. is filled with socialism. We have it in the form of public roads, public utlities, police and fire departments, public libraries, the military, and the so-called social safety net that includes (among other things) SNAP and Social Security. You wanna get rid of all that because “socialism”? Good luck with that radical crusade, fam.
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"I love how people think there’s an actual “radical left” within either American politics in general or the Democrats in particular…"
Hell, even Bernie Sanders would count as a centrist-right politician on the international scale. A genuine US leftist sighting would be on par with seeing Elvis or Bigfoot.
At the same time, as you note, the US, under the hood, is socialized to an extreme degree. Even discounting roads, utilities law enforcement etc, fuel costs, heating costs, various subsidies on state and federal levels is what’s kept the US middle class from poverty for decades – and ironically, most of those subsidies began under republican governance.
It just looks different than a series of welfare checks because it’s all about tax breaks for keeping utility costs down. That focus on trickle-down is great for the middle class and up but also what makes upwards mobility a damn harsh game for anyone below a certain income level.
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"For fuck’s sake, Biden is a centrist who leans somewhat right-of-center"
If Biden was English, he would undoubtedly be in the Conservative party, where even they don’t dare directly undermine things like public healthcare which as somehow "radical left" things on the American right.
"We have it in the form of public roads, public utlities, police and fire departments, public libraries, the military, and the so-called social safety net that includes (among other things) SNAP and Social Security."
Don’t forget the farm and oil subsidies that basically keep Alaska and half the midwest alive. They love them some socialism when it’s in the form of subsidies to corporations too.
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"I am making the point that social media were FOR Trump. No other way to explain him getting the most votes for a sitting president unless resorting to social media manipulation."
Very little or no manipulation needed, really. If we assume nonpartisan ToS on most platforms – by which I mean rules which toss someone out for being a bigot, racist, or an obvious troll – It’s still the case that 45 has spent four years on being the anthropomorphic personification of clickbait.
"Social media" is, perhaps lamentably, the same as newspapers in the regard that sensational headlines, no matter how tasteless or shady, are better than having factually correct information and selling fewer papers than the gossip rag next door as a result.
And it has to be said that you don’t get much more sensational than a presidential candidate pushing a multiple-times debunked conspiracy theory about Obama being a Kenyan Muslim infiltrator or a president suggesting bleach injections to cure a deadly disease.
There’s a caveat here, of course. Zuckerberg’s made it pretty damn obvious he’s been riding the Trump bandwagon.
Twitter only ended up adding fact-checking to the prez when it became obvious his tweets alone made them the new MAD magazine and no matter how they stretched to accomodate him it was never enough for the Very Fine People who thought "conservative" values included cross-burning and ein volk, ein reich rhetoric.
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Most voted sitting president.
However, not the most voted candidate. Joe Biden takes the position as having received the most votes of any US Presidential Candidate in history.
I suppose Trump can take the honor of having been the instigator of the highest voter turnout of any presidential race in the history of the US of A; it just so happens that 5 million+ more people wanted him out than wanted him in.
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On top of that, "most voted" is a pretty hollow claim when that’s largely the result of population growth. If turnout percentages remain the same, 2024 will see even higher numbers, 2028 even more than that, etc. It’s the same as "most watched" or any other useless stat based on raw numbers instead of percentages. And by the percentages, Trump is a loser. Fact.
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"So… Trump is the most voted sitting US president in history"
…and his opponent also broke a record by getting more than 5 million votes more than he did. Nobody’s doubting that Trump’s disastrous, murderous, incompetent administration inspired many more people to vote this time around. But, claiming records for second place is a little bit pathetic, isn’t it?
Sounds exactly like all of the whining about the election outcome, which only seems to be a problem at one spot on the ballot. You’d think if they went far enough to rig 4 states, they’d have gone for a couple more senate seats too.
Actually, after a second or two of thought, it’s pretty much the last 4 years.
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"You’d think if they went far enough to rig 4 states, they’d have gone for a couple more senate seats too."
Yeah, that’s the dumbest thing.. so Democrats somehow convinced millions of people to fraudulently vote, but did so in such a way that still leaves Mitch McConnell blocking their every move? Please…
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Hey Karl.
You need to read the article posted immediately after yours, to Techdirt.com, and then send yours out for a re-write.
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Hey Karl
Trashing Trump should be about all you did in your life, it’s obvious you are a bias SOB who hates Trump. How about you write about how corrupt Biden is and his War profiteer cabinet he wants to bring in and how he’s going to stop building the wall that is making America safe from rapists, kidnappers, thugs, gangs, and murderers. Oh yea, you’re too busy Bashing Trump and getting your "friends’ to post trash about Trump. Your article is Trash.
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Well aren’t you a racist member of the Trump cult of personality.
Did he tell you 1 and 1 makes 3?
Re: Hey Karl
"Trashing Trump should be about all you did in your life, it’s obvious you are a bias SOB who hates Trump"
Why would someone be biased against the trust fund baby who managed to fail upwards while stiffing contractors and conning people out of millions, raping women and cheating with port stars he needed to pay off, only to end up in hock to the Russians in the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars while killing hundreds of thousands of his own constituency toward the end of his reign of terror? It’s truly a mystery.
"How about you write about how corrupt Biden is"
Whenever one of you guys have some credible evidence that’s not been equalled by Bush or his circle to a far worse degree I’m sure he’ll get on that.
Re: Re: Hey Karl
If by "corrupt" they mean "normal business in the US, especially Delaware", which is oddly what Conservatives are all the hell about, then sure, Biden is corrupt i guess.
Re: Hey Karl
"How about you write about how corrupt Biden is and his War profiteer cabinet he wants to bring in…"
I’m sure that once anyone finds any dirt on Biden anywhere close to what we have on Trump so far it’ll be news soon enough.
Meanwhile I can’t help but notice that Trump landing himself a loan of hundreds of millions in dollars from Deutsche Bank, at a time when he was blacklisted by every bank, and still had that loan given to him guaranteed by the frigging russian state bank went right over your head without registering, because you were busy looking at Biden and Ukraine where no one even knew IF there had been malfeasance.
And Biden getting his son a cushy job was a crime but Trump hiring half his family to incredibly high level government positions they weren’t qualified for went, again, right over your head.
I shouldn’t be surprised, really. It’s pretty clear that there are, today, 72 million americans who are OK with a white supremacist as president as long as his first victims are "liberals" and the brown people.
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Well, Biden didn’t get his son the job, but the one son and brother (at least) are dickbags who have been told repeatedly not to throw the family name around to get favors as if they can produce favors in return through Joe.
Not sure if there is anything real in the last two (insanely suspect) claims about Hunter and whether Joe was actually involved, but there is a long history of Joe exactly avoiding those sorts of conflicts and favor-brokering.
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That was my favourite complaint in the election campaigns, and a good tell that they didn’t have anything of substance to attack him on in the 8 years he spent as the next in line for office.
Sure, Donald, the fact that Biden’s son might have got a job in the private sector influenced by his father’s position is unacceptable nepotism, but the fact that you installed woefully unqualified family and friends into top positions all over the government is a complete lack of corruption.
Which is a good thing, I suppose. Can you imagine if the man was a competent fascist?
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"…but there is a long history of Joe exactly avoiding those sorts of conflicts and favor-brokering."
Yeah, Biden’s shady maneuvers in his career are pretty much known and tallied. He backstabbed his own party in order to carry water for the credit card industry, is deep in Hollywood’s pockets, and has spent his time before election guaranteeing wall street he’s still their friend.
At worst you can call him an american career politician with a few decent points, but, most importantly, no outright horrifying ones. Biden knows damn well if he attempts a grift it had better be a happy side effect of some more major politicking which works out well for the US public. He also not only knows but actually cares about what the history books will say about him.
Which all doesn’t really matter. You could grab any random person off the street, plunk him in the white house, and the odds would be VERY good that person would make a better job of it than Trump.
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Any time someone uses the phrase ‘xenophobic’ as a criticism, you know you’re dealing with an anti-American who hates his own country. Par for the course with Techdirt writers.
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Xenophobia is a good thing?
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To the xenophobe. It’s all they have between them and the painful introspection that leads them to realise they’re responsible for their own failings.
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"Any time someone uses the phrase ‘xenophobic’ as a criticism, you know you’re dealing with an anti-American who hates his own country."
…like the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln and Eisenhower. All anti-american assholes who hate their nation, according to Baghdad Bob.
It’s somehow ironic that most of the stormfront refugees these days so desperately tries to pass off nazi rhetoric as "american".