It’s a current event being compared to another current event. One about a murder, and the other potentially attempted homicide, depending on the pesticide used. Seems to be pretty related to me, regardless of any politics.

Just because they call it a “prank”, and the media uses the same shitty term, that doesn’t make spraying pesticides on food for unsuspecting citizens to grab any less dangerous.

Now, this could qualify as terrorism.

Not a single murder of a psychopathic indirect mass murderer CEO.

They can say whatever they want about him without actually stranding him in Russia to literally be a potential further leak. The info he leaked is different than his knowledge of processes and systems.

Yeah so many people talk about Snowden going to Russia and ignore the fact that he was only in Russia transferring to another plane when his passport was cancelled stranding him there. The choice was basically stay there, or go back to the US, and that wasn’t really an option.

Why the US would want to leave him in Russia as a potential asset for Russian intelligence to break instead of letting him get to a different country that isn’t such a direct threat though is a really good question.

School children across the country are at higher risk than any CEO. And no one in government or law enforcement gives a fuck about them.

Is it terrorism if less than 0.01% of the population is afraid?

The people surprised are those that have special policies like government officials that are given preferential treatment with minimal out of pocket costs for almost everything.

Or those that have never been sick enough to have a claim that was expensive enough to get denied automatically by the insurance company.

Oh that’s easy, article was already written before the name was released and it was just a quick Find and Replace, Editing? What’s that? No time in the modern media era. Gotta be the first to report it 3 seconds before the competition.

1. They’re supposed to be registered for use, but that’s something YOU do, on the website. That’s not done automatically as part of the purchase.
2. Not all stores manage inventory at the serial number level.
3. That requires them to be actively looking for it while you’re flying. Once you turn off your transmitter there’s nothing to track. Don’t fly near restricted airspace and they have no reason to try to fine a random drone pilot.

And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I’m not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example.

And thus we get to the fundamental issue behind all of the bullshit. Where do we draw the line to try and balance individual freedom and national security?

Trump has clearly been a Russian asset since at least the 1980s, yet the American people have elected him President. Twice. You trust the general public to make a determination about social media apps intentionally infusing themselves into the culture and are being leveraged by their government to undermine our country from the inside by managing content and spread?

I’ve worked with the public for 20+ years daily in various customer-facing jobs, and I barely trust the average person to just continue breathing, and that’s an involuntary body function requiring no thought. I definitely don’t trust the average person to be capable of an educated analysis of their content consumption and possible negative influence. Not that I trust the government much either, but at least there’s some people in the machine that actually know what the fuck they’re doing and talking about to try and steer the ship in the right direction.

That assumes the main reason it exists (in the US) is to be the platform it is.

An alternative is that it’s meant to be a way for the Chinese government to control the content and thus any narrative they want US citizens to see and interact with. If that’s their actual goal, then selling it and losing control doesn’t do anything for them.

There are legitimate security concerns in having large numbers of your citizens using a platform that directly controls algorithms to show specific content, run by a foreign company known to have direct government control, force them to do what they want. TikTok may deny it, but Chinese law allows the government to essentially force them to do whatever they want. And yes, that includes the US and other countries as well, this is not a US or China thing, it’s a general foreign narrative control issue.

Nothing prevents the Chinese government from forcing TikTok to adjust their algorithm to promote whatever points of view they want and suppress others. Many other countries do the same with their own companies, whether overtly or not, but a foreign government that is known to do what they want, regardless of any agreements, treaties, etc. having the ability to directly control what your citizens see is a massive security risk.

Is a full ban the right approach? The US doesn’t really have any way to force TikTok to ignore Chinese government demands, it is a Chinese company after all. The only way to force compliance, is not allowing them to operate in the US as the alternative, and the company can choose to either do what the US government wants, or abandon the market. It seems that’s the stage the politicians have decided we’re at, and TikTok hasn’t made changes to accommodate US requirements to operate here anymore.

It was a student. The school looks to be K-12, so could be just about any age. Most kids don’t pay much attention to the news, too focused on their own daily lives and situations to look outwards yet (and some, never).

I have yet to hear about a VW, GM, Toyota, Ford, Mazda, et cetera bursting into flames like a fucking Elefant tank destroyer.

I see Chevy is conspicuously missing from that list. Those were bursting into flame just by sitting there.

Knowing how flammable Teslas already are I feel like a gas powered one would be outright explosive.

You might be interested in looking up ICE vehicle fire statistics in your area every year. It’s going to be more than every electric vehicle fire to date. They are common, so they don’t make headlines, no one would click on the link for the advertising revenue.

I know you’re being cheeky, but we did get an answer to what the Ultimate Question was…

they’re rewarded handsomely for that behavior

It’s more just that they aren’t punished for it. They don’t have the empathy to give a shit, and thus will do things regular people won’t. If society doesn’t punish them for being a piece of shit, then there’s no downside to being a piece of shit for them, only upsides from taking advantage of situations others won’t.

Complete bullshit obviously…

But the fact they’re worried about it says A LOT about how they view themselves compared to a piece of shit responsible for millions of deaths from denied healthcare.

They won’t know they didn’t.

We have concepts for a puppy.