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From The Verge:
President Trump has signed a new executive order which will block all transactions with Bytedance, TikTok's parent corporation, in an effort to "address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain."
The move comes after months of escalating tensions, which saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others at the White House warn that TikTok presented a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership. Microsoft is currently in talks to acquire portions of the app, aimed to be complete by September 15th.
A parallel order banned transactions with WeChat, a popular texting app in China that maintains a small user base in the US.
[...] The executive branch has the power to levy sanctions against individuals and corporations by placing them on the "entity list," as the US did against Huawei and ZTE last year. But such sanctions are typically put in place by the Commerce Department rather than the White House, and subject to a specific rule-making procedure that seems to have been short-circuited by the surprise executive order.
See also: Tencent stock plummets after Trump announces plan to ban WeChat in the US
Previously:
(2020-08-01) President Trump Threatens TikTok Ban, Microsoft Considers Buying TikTok's U.S. Operations[Updated 2]
(2020-07-07) Reddit and LinkedIn Stop Copying iPhone Clipboard Contents
(2020-06-30) India Bans TikTok, WeChat, and Other Chinese-Owned Apps
(2020-06-28) TikTok and 53 Other iOS Apps Still Snoop Your Sensitive Clipboard Data
(2019-12-27) Investigation Claims United Arab Emirates Uses The ToTok App To Spy
(2019-10-26) Lawmakers Ask US Intelligence to Assess If TikTok is a Security Threat
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday August 07 2020, @02:54PM (21 children)
Trump may be a shithead - or any other adjective you may tack onto his name. But always remember this: he was voted in. By definition, he represents the people. If he's a shithead, then so are the constituents he's representing.
Trump is a symptom, not a problem.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ikanreed on Friday August 07 2020, @03:29PM (8 children)
Yes, I think I'm pretty damn well aware of that.
It's hard to separate trump as a phenomenon from the increasingly widespread distrust of institutions in America. Which itself is an artifact of having two right wing parties that hold no accountability to regular people(among many other problems) except on token issues. It's pretty easy to understand people sitting in that situation looking at a dipshit outsider who says stupid things against the entitled inheritor of a dynasty and them picking the former.
But, be that as it may, it's pretty stupid to think someone who was behind by 3 fucking million votes represents any kind of meaningful democratic outcome. That's outright no-brain level thinking. Come on man. Whatever validity you assign to excuses people hand out for the electoral college, you cannot be so fucking stupid as to think that that represents any kind of democratic mandate. You can't be that goddamn stupid.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @03:42PM (1 child)
Because Clinton. The Democratic party should be disbanded/barred/deported back to Russia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @06:08PM
Ooh yay! More projection from the resident troll brigade.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @04:22PM
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, the MSM will completely ignore it or call it old news. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube will ban discussion of it. Nothing will dissuade them from hatred of all truth.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by PaperNoodle on Friday August 07 2020, @04:55PM (4 children)
>behind by 3 fucking million votes represents any kind of meaningful democratic outcome.
There were 50 independent elections. Trump won a plurality. That is some kind of meaningful democratic outcome. For those concerned about it, consider that it might be better to think of the Electoral College as affirmative action for a minority and smaller States. It's not about equality* but equity. Smaller States should have their interests taken up in the executive to ensure proper representation.
Those structures are designed to protect against the short comings of democracy. Just like a mob, democracy can do bad things.
* a single vote in California has the same impact in California elections as a single vote in Wyoming in Wyoming elections so there is still equality in that regards. I think there is confusion over Presidential elections being a single election. No, it's 50 independent elections. Californians do not vote in Wyoming elections and do not have less weight per vote.
B3
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday August 07 2020, @08:13PM (3 children)
Pointless legalism, the GP was trying to claim that trump had some sort of inherent legitimacy derived from "the people". Whatever fucking reasons you might think the electoral college is a good idea(it isn't, you're wrong, but I'm not really interested in debate on the subject), it definitely doesn't represent "the people". It represents some arcane vision of independent states in a grim, outdated facade of feudal councils.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by PaperNoodle on Friday August 07 2020, @09:08PM (2 children)
> that trump had some sort of inherent legitimacy derived from "the people".
But he does. He won an election. Elections bestow legitimacy from the people to those elected.
>definitely doesn't represent "the people"
But it does. Through elections the people are represented. US elections and Federal government recognize plurality as much as majority.
> Whatever fucking reasons you might
Well whatever fucking your opinion to you buddy. I didn't know I was talking to the Holier-Than-Thou-Art-Never-Wrong. Sheesh.
B3
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday August 07 2020, @09:41PM (1 child)
Honestly, I have no problem treating every person who is an active enemy of democracy like their worse than me and they're wrong about everything. You could stop having god awful stupid opinions much more easily than I could lie to you and pretend I respect you in spite of them.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by PaperNoodle on Friday August 07 2020, @10:07PM
You're just an asshole. Dress it up as self righteous indignation all you want but a pig in lipstick still mucks around in shit.
t('.'t)
B3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @03:30PM
> then so are the constituents he's representing.
then so are the deplorables he's representing.
ftfy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @04:39PM
Actually, he is both.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @05:03PM
Uh, no. He is supposed to represent the entirety of the people of the United States. That includes those who were smart enough to not vote for him. But he explicitly states he is not doing that.
But I'm quite comfortable with simply leaving the focus on the fact that Trump is a shithead, sure.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday August 07 2020, @06:21PM (6 children)
I live near some of those die-hard constituents. They absolutely are terrible people.
They divide the world into basically two groups:
- Straight white conservative Christians, the Chosen of God or the Real Americans.
- Everybody Else.
And then they have basically 2 goals:
1. The Real Americans are to be formed into strict hierarchies of obedience. Only those near the top of the hierarchy (billionaire businessmen, millionaire religious hucksters, top-tier politicians) are allowed to have any free will. Everybody else is supposed to do as they're told by their superiors, and there are no limits at all to what the superiors are allowed to demand, e.g. you're supposed to obey suicidal orders that were given on a whim.
2. Everyone who falls into Everybody Else is to be killed. That's the reason they love this president so much: He's arranging to have all the right people killed, tortured, enslaved, etc. The main concession to practicality is that some portion of Everybody Else can be kept alive as slave labor at the bottom of the hierarchy until it's no longer convenient, but they should be reminded periodically that their remaining alive is at the mercy of the Real Americans.
They're pretty open about all of this if you just let them run their mouth and they think you're one of the Real Americans. And yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that an ideology of slavery and mass murder is, well, bad.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Friday August 07 2020, @08:22PM
Literally.
The Trump Admin went to the trouble of developing a comprehensive COVID testing plan then chose to throw it away because they thought most of the people dying would be confined to blue states. [vanityfair.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @09:29PM (4 children)
Yeah, it is time to stop beating around the bush, so THANK YOU for pointing out the sordid reality in the US. However there are shades of gray, like our resident grandpa Runaway1956 who I wouldn't say is actually that fascist but 100% makes common cause and is easily swayed into supporting fascism.
It is time for conservatives to wake up and realize their "allies" are literally scum Nazis. No Godwin, no joke, fascist fucking Nazis that have been around for a long time along with a good invasion of Literal German Nazis after WWII.
They managed to whinge so much about it, and Nazi was thrown around quite freely against anyone lying in bed with the Literal Nazis that they think the word is meaningless. Nope, stop allying with Nazis!!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday August 07 2020, @11:09PM (3 children)
You're giving them the benefit of the doubt.
People in neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and other assorted fascist groups actively train their people to pretend to sound moderate and not-fascist to make their viewpoints sound like they're something they aren't, namely something other than advocacy for bigotry, slavery, and mass murder. And that's also why they'll regularly rebrand themselves ("We're not Nazis, we're 'alt-right'") and change up the symbols they use to identify themselves ("We don't use the swastika anymore, we use the Othala rune instead"): They want you to be committed to their group before you learn that their agenda is identical to that of Adolf Hitler, and that Hitler and his crew were heavily inspired by US white supremacist groups and basically had the same ideology.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @08:09AM (2 children)
Citations needed. Or, is this just a douche night for you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @06:46PM (1 child)
All the assholes around here who push far-right politics and racism. The users lime Runaway who occasionally break their moderate facade and admit to being homophobes, racists, and for runaway specifically celebrating Civil Wsr 2.0 so he can kill brown people and to "save" his spawn's economic future. Ask Azuma Hazuki for a link to Runaway's specual time. The general bigotry is on display quite frequently so just pay attention.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @07:13PM
You must have been so excited writing this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @12:29AM
He lost the popular vote. He did not have a plurality of votes. It is a broken system that is a relic of protecting slavery that brought him to power, not votes of the people.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Saturday August 08 2020, @01:42AM
So was Hitler. Tells all you need to know about both societies at the time.
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