Big Tech are not who create the laws. The Govt does that...
Yes Big Tech and well Big pretty much big everyone bribes the politicians to make laws they like but the politicians do not have to sell out the people they are supposed to representing and accept those bribes.
I have never really understood why the big corporations are more at fault for giving out bribes than the politicians are for accepting them.
This will never pass, too many politicians accepting bribes (sorry campaign contributions I get the two mixed up) from the telecom industry. Just one more useful bill that never comes close to being a law.
I think we are at ~480 starlink satellites and Elon has said he needed ~600 to start limited service so getting closer. I imagine it will take at least another year or so to work out the kinks before SpaceX can start making it more widely available but that is not really all that long considering how long we have been getting screwed.
Even if takes a couple of years it is better late than never.
The real problem with everything that Trump and his minions and cult followers have done is they have made the bar so low that even Presidents that before this would have looked horrible will now look good.
How many times will we hear "Well at least he/she is not as bad as Trump"? Way too many over the next couple of decades.
Elon is going to do everything possible to make Starlink work. He needs the money from a successful roll out to finance his dream of getting to Mars. Everything he has been doing are just stepping stones to his real goal so if it is possible he will get it done.
Could he fail? Yes but lets hope not...
Pai needs to go jump in front of a bus or something.
Just one more things that shows a good share of the Democrats are not all that different than most of the Republicans.
While the Republicans are more outwardly evil when push comes to shove most of the politicians in either party cares about the people they are supposed to be representing. All they care about giving themselves more power and money.
I said a good share not all...
Yes Trump is the worst President I have seen in my lifetime and I remember Nixon. Even though I am not a Biden fan he will be better than Trump without even trying.
So no I am not saying that Trump is not any worse than the Democrats.
There is a huge difference between having kids in separate photos with their name and other personal information provided than some unknown kids in the background of a photo where they are not the subject.
There are more than a few parents that do not want their children's faces spread all over social media and they should be able to do so if they want. I know more than a few families with that rule and yes it has caused many family fights but it should be parents call to make.
While I agree that using the GDPR is a bad way to go about getting your kids photos off Facebook it does sound like the mother tried to use other methods first.
If it had been me I would have told Grandma that unless she took the photos down and promised not post any in the future she would NEVER have any contact with the children or me at all. No phone calls, no Christmas visits, nothing.
If she decided not to remove the photos then you know Granny really does not care about the kids at all and is on some kind of power trip to show the mom she can do whatever she wants.
In fact it already seems that is the case. If it was not then she would have taken the pictures down when asked. Seriously who would push it so far as to make her daughter take her to court? Not someone who actually cares about the family that is for sure.
I can not imagine pushing it that far. It makes no sense at all to destroy family relationships just to prove you can post some photos on Facebook.
The best way to put an end of this idiocy is for companies to just pull out of France. I have no idea how much money Google and Facebook make in France but I find it somewhat hard to believe that it a large percentage of their profits.
If the two companies do not do something drastic this will keep happening in other countries as well.
A good share of the news is coming from AP and Reuters rather than local reporters anyway. Even more since he is getting rid of most of the local employees.
Since he does not want Google "stealing" his content Google go ahead and oblige him and deindex every site he owns and very publicly say why.
Something along the lines of:
Since the "dumbass" who owns the following newspapers has said publicly that he does not want us stealing his content we have removed all his sites from our index and are no longer doing so.
There is a huge difference between creating panic and following the science rather than politics.
Political leaders who hide the truth from its citizens never do it for the good of those citizens. It is always for the good of the political leaders who are lying and hiding the truth.
Every single decision Trump has made during this outbreak has been politically motivated rather than what is good for the country. That is poorly motivated and there really is no honest way to spin this as "Trump has been making decisions based on what is good for the country".
The sad thing is that he has completely miscalculated the political and economic side of things. Nobody (or at least very few) are blaming Trump for the virus coming to America. It is his response that is the problem.
If instead of trying to downplay, ignore, and hide what was happening he had attacked it like South Korea both the political and economic outcome would have been much better. If we had numbers anything like SK or Germany his approval rating would be extremely high right now compared to what he now has which is low and getting lower.
However he responded exactly like he would do when running his companies, hiding the bad information as long as he could hoping he would be able to fix the problem before it became public. This is what he has done his whole life though to be fair he is not the only businessman to work this way, he has a lot of company when it comes to that mindset.
The problem is that this a horrible way to run a country in general and especially one in our current situation. It is the exact opposite of what he should be doing which has killed tens of thousands of people with many more deaths on the way.
I am hearing a lot the he should have done this via his chain of command rather than including others in his letter.
I call bullshit on that one. They only reason he would have sent the letters out was if his superiors were not taking care of the problem.
This is a guy that is charge of a aircraft carrier. That is not a post they give to just anyone, he was a highly regarded carrier officer. There is no way in hell he would just jump out and start sending letters like he did unless the people above him were failing to take care of the situation like they should have.
From what I have read and considering there is probably no evidence one way or the other his superiors were more worried about keeping staffing up than making sure the sailors were safe.
His point about not being at war does seem to be addressing this exact issue. Since we are not currently in a shooting war. Did the navy think having the carrier down for a week or two before they could replace the crew was going to cause some country to attack us? Seriously?
SpaceX might make it where others failed for a few reasons.
SpaceX already has five times the satellites the Oneweb, so much closer to where they need to be.
SpaceX has a cost advantage that no other company is going to be able to even come close to. Being able to get your satellites in space cheaper than everyone else is a huge advantage.
SpaceX is already making a profit from doing launches. While it may take longer than planned it is not such a that big a deal like companies that make zero income until they are up and running.
And last but not least Elon Musk did not build SpaceX and building Starlink to get rich. He has a dream of us being able to go to mars, and building Starlink is the way he plans on financing his dream. This motivation gives him an advantage over people/companies just in it for the money.
Easier said than done for a lot of people. There are people sitting in jail for months before they finally get a trial because they do not have enough money to post bail. They lose their jobs and homes because they are in jail even though they are innocent. In more than a few cases the charges are dropped on their court day because "reasons" so now while they are innocent their life can be destroyed.
If the choice is to go free if you agree to a plea with a fine or maybe probation or sit in jail for months and basically lose your whole life a large percentage of them are going to plead out so they can get on with their life.
Judges rubber stamp warrants all the time with little or no push back to the cops so the only reason we have all these examples of them not bothering is nothing more than them just being plain lazy and not caring about the laws or the Constitution.
The whole "not all cops" thing gets harder every day.
Ten years ago when I read about the cops doing something awful I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Today I read about them doing something awful and I assume that that they did something awful.
I have no idea of where this is all going to end but I doubt it is going to be anywhere good.
The hypocrisy of the US is nothing new. Look at all the "pearl clutching" going on about Russia interfering with our elections while the US has a long history of not only interfering with them but using force to overturn the results it does not like.
Yes of course we do not want other countries interfering with our elections and should do everything we can to keep that from happening.
However we have zero moral high ground to stand on when it comes to interference as the US Govt does it on a regular basis. Securing our elections is a good thing but all the hyperventilating about "How could Russia do such a thing" just makes the US look hypocritical and stupid.
I wish I could get more excited about the good ones but it seems for every good court decision I read about there are multiple bad ones.
It is like a good percentage of the judges and the population for that matter have lost their minds and are doing all they can to destroy the Constitution.
Between the growing anti-democracy and anti-science crowds we are swirling down the drain to someplace bad.
It is not so much that Journalists get more rights than the rest of us as much as the act of journalism gets more protections. Act like a journalist and you are a journalist.
Now that does not stop (mostly on the local level) from trying to define who is and who is not a journalist but as far as I am aware they all end up failing.
An earlier article said that the women's mom called the cops on her for using drugs in the house. Yes a 58 year old women had the cops called on her by her mom.
I am guessing the cops figured it would be an easy bust and ramped it up to dealing to give them an excuse to for the no-knock warrant and go in guns a blazing.
Because where is the fun in just getting a regular possession bust when you can get a chance to legally kill someone.
On the post: The First Amendment Bars Regulating Political Neutrality, Even Via Section 230
You had me until...
On the post: Now That USMCA Is In Effect... Can Congress Even Reform Section 230 Without Violating The Agreement?
Why Big Tech?
Big Tech are not who create the laws. The Govt does that...
Yes Big Tech and well Big pretty much big everyone bribes the politicians to make laws they like but the politicians do not have to sell out the people they are supposed to representing and accept those bribes.
I have never really understood why the big corporations are more at fault for giving out bribes than the politicians are for accepting them.
On the post: New Bill Would Kill State Laws Blocking Broadband Competition
Never going to happen
This will never pass, too many politicians accepting bribes (sorry campaign contributions I get the two mixed up) from the telecom industry. Just one more useful bill that never comes close to being a law.
I think we are at ~480 starlink satellites and Elon has said he needed ~600 to start limited service so getting closer. I imagine it will take at least another year or so to work out the kinks before SpaceX can start making it more widely available but that is not really all that long considering how long we have been getting screwed.
Even if takes a couple of years it is better late than never.
On the post: Federal Court Says ICE Can No Longer Enter New York Courthouses Just To Arrest Alleged Undocumented Immigrants
The real problem...
The real problem with everything that Trump and his minions and cult followers have done is they have made the bar so low that even Presidents that before this would have looked horrible will now look good.
How many times will we hear "Well at least he/she is not as bad as Trump"? Way too many over the next couple of decades.
On the post: FCC Skeptical About Space X Satellite Broadband Claims
Needs to because Mars...
Elon is going to do everything possible to make Starlink work. He needs the money from a successful roll out to finance his dream of getting to Mars. Everything he has been doing are just stepping stones to his real goal so if it is possible he will get it done.
Could he fail? Yes but lets hope not...
Pai needs to go jump in front of a bus or something.
On the post: A Mess In The House: Dirty Pool As Rep. Schiff Inserts Loophole To Help The FBI Spy On You
Not all that different after all
Just one more things that shows a good share of the Democrats are not all that different than most of the Republicans.
While the Republicans are more outwardly evil when push comes to shove most of the politicians in either party cares about the people they are supposed to be representing. All they care about giving themselves more power and money.
I said a good share not all...
Yes Trump is the worst President I have seen in my lifetime and I remember Nixon. Even though I am not a Biden fan he will be better than Trump without even trying.
So no I am not saying that Trump is not any worse than the Democrats.
On the post: Court Tells Grandma To Delete Photos Of Grandkids On Facebook For Violating The GDPR
Re: Re:
There is a huge difference between having kids in separate photos with their name and other personal information provided than some unknown kids in the background of a photo where they are not the subject.
There are more than a few parents that do not want their children's faces spread all over social media and they should be able to do so if they want. I know more than a few families with that rule and yes it has caused many family fights but it should be parents call to make.
While I agree that using the GDPR is a bad way to go about getting your kids photos off Facebook it does sound like the mother tried to use other methods first.
If it had been me I would have told Grandma that unless she took the photos down and promised not post any in the future she would NEVER have any contact with the children or me at all. No phone calls, no Christmas visits, nothing.
If she decided not to remove the photos then you know Granny really does not care about the kids at all and is on some kind of power trip to show the mom she can do whatever she wants.
In fact it already seems that is the case. If it was not then she would have taken the pictures down when asked. Seriously who would push it so far as to make her daughter take her to court? Not someone who actually cares about the family that is for sure.
I can not imagine pushing it that far. It makes no sense at all to destroy family relationships just to prove you can post some photos on Facebook.
On the post: French Government Passes Hate Speech Law, Will Allow Law Enforcement To Run The Internet
Take their toys and go home
The best way to put an end of this idiocy is for companies to just pull out of France. I have no idea how much money Google and Facebook make in France but I find it somewhat hard to believe that it a large percentage of their profits.
If the two companies do not do something drastic this will keep happening in other countries as well.
On the post: Jeffrey Katzenberg's Ego Decides That COVID-19 Must Be Why Quibi Totally Sucks And No One Wants It
Netflix numbers
After a bit of a search I was not able to find the first 30 days numbers. However I was able to find first year numbers which was 239k members.
On the post: Hedge Fund 'Asshole' Destroying Local News & Firing Reporters Wants Google & Facebook To Just Hand Him More Money
Wire Services
A good share of the news is coming from AP and Reuters rather than local reporters anyway. Even more since he is getting rid of most of the local employees.
Since he does not want Google "stealing" his content Google go ahead and oblige him and deindex every site he owns and very publicly say why.
Something along the lines of:
Since the "dumbass" who owns the following newspapers has said publicly that he does not want us stealing his content we have removed all his sites from our index and are no longer doing so.
On the post: Censorship Kills: US Government's Focus On COVID-19 'Messaging' Over Actual Protection Did Real Damage
Re: Panic?
There is a huge difference between creating panic and following the science rather than politics.
Political leaders who hide the truth from its citizens never do it for the good of those citizens. It is always for the good of the political leaders who are lying and hiding the truth.
Every single decision Trump has made during this outbreak has been politically motivated rather than what is good for the country. That is poorly motivated and there really is no honest way to spin this as "Trump has been making decisions based on what is good for the country".
The sad thing is that he has completely miscalculated the political and economic side of things. Nobody (or at least very few) are blaming Trump for the virus coming to America. It is his response that is the problem.
If instead of trying to downplay, ignore, and hide what was happening he had attacked it like South Korea both the political and economic outcome would have been much better. If we had numbers anything like SK or Germany his approval rating would be extremely high right now compared to what he now has which is low and getting lower.
However he responded exactly like he would do when running his companies, hiding the bad information as long as he could hoping he would be able to fix the problem before it became public. This is what he has done his whole life though to be fair he is not the only businessman to work this way, he has a lot of company when it comes to that mindset.
The problem is that this a horrible way to run a country in general and especially one in our current situation. It is the exact opposite of what he should be doing which has killed tens of thousands of people with many more deaths on the way.
On the post: Navy Deploys USS Barbra Streisand After Firing A Captain For Expressing His Coronavirus Concerns
Chain of Command Problem
I am hearing a lot the he should have done this via his chain of command rather than including others in his letter.
I call bullshit on that one. They only reason he would have sent the letters out was if his superiors were not taking care of the problem.
This is a guy that is charge of a aircraft carrier. That is not a post they give to just anyone, he was a highly regarded carrier officer. There is no way in hell he would just jump out and start sending letters like he did unless the people above him were failing to take care of the situation like they should have.
From what I have read and considering there is probably no evidence one way or the other his superiors were more worried about keeping staffing up than making sure the sailors were safe.
His point about not being at war does seem to be addressing this exact issue. Since we are not currently in a shooting war. Did the navy think having the carrier down for a week or two before they could replace the crew was going to cause some country to attack us? Seriously?
On the post: Well Hyped Satellite Broadband Provider OneWeb Files For Bankruptcy
SpaceX looks better
SpaceX might make it where others failed for a few reasons.
SpaceX already has five times the satellites the Oneweb, so much closer to where they need to be.
SpaceX has a cost advantage that no other company is going to be able to even come close to. Being able to get your satellites in space cheaper than everyone else is a huge advantage.
SpaceX is already making a profit from doing launches. While it may take longer than planned it is not such a that big a deal like companies that make zero income until they are up and running.
And last but not least Elon Musk did not build SpaceX and building Starlink to get rich. He has a dream of us being able to go to mars, and building Starlink is the way he plans on financing his dream. This motivation gives him an advantage over people/companies just in it for the money.
On the post: Body Camera Once Again Catches An NYPD Officer Planting Drugs In Someone's Car
Re: If you're innocent, don't plead guilty.
Easier said than done for a lot of people. There are people sitting in jail for months before they finally get a trial because they do not have enough money to post bail. They lose their jobs and homes because they are in jail even though they are innocent. In more than a few cases the charges are dropped on their court day because "reasons" so now while they are innocent their life can be destroyed.
If the choice is to go free if you agree to a plea with a fine or maybe probation or sit in jail for months and basically lose your whole life a large percentage of them are going to plead out so they can get on with their life.
On the post: Georgia Supreme Court Says Cops Need Warrants To Search Vehicle Crash Data Recorders
Because getting warrants is so hard...
Judges rubber stamp warrants all the time with little or no push back to the cops so the only reason we have all these examples of them not bothering is nothing more than them just being plain lazy and not caring about the laws or the Constitution.
The whole "not all cops" thing gets harder every day.
Ten years ago when I read about the cops doing something awful I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Today I read about them doing something awful and I assume that that they did something awful.
I have no idea of where this is all going to end but I doubt it is going to be anywhere good.
On the post: Latest Huawei 'Smoking Gun' Still Doesn't Prove Global Blackball Effort's Primary Justification
Of course the US is hypocritical
The hypocrisy of the US is nothing new. Look at all the "pearl clutching" going on about Russia interfering with our elections while the US has a long history of not only interfering with them but using force to overturn the results it does not like.
Yes of course we do not want other countries interfering with our elections and should do everything we can to keep that from happening.
However we have zero moral high ground to stand on when it comes to interference as the US Govt does it on a regular basis. Securing our elections is a good thing but all the hyperventilating about "How could Russia do such a thing" just makes the US look hypocritical and stupid.
On the post: Federal Court: Eight Months Of Utility Pole Camera Surveillance Is A Fourth Amendment Violation
One step forward two steps back
A good decision...
I wish I could get more excited about the good ones but it seems for every good court decision I read about there are multiple bad ones.
It is like a good percentage of the judges and the population for that matter have lost their minds and are doing all they can to destroy the Constitution.
Between the growing anti-democracy and anti-science crowds we are swirling down the drain to someplace bad.
On the post: SFPD Finally Admits The Search Of A Journalist's Home Over A Leaked Document Was Probably Illegal
Re: And some are more equal than others...
It is not so much that Journalists get more rights than the rest of us as much as the act of journalism gets more protections. Act like a journalist and you are a journalist.
Now that does not stop (mostly on the local level) from trying to define who is and who is not a journalist but as far as I am aware they all end up failing.
On the post: Gaming Platform War Update: Epic Games Store Suspends Accounts... For Buying Too Many Games
No Shopping Cart??
I went to the site and was planning on buying a few games but there is no shopping cart function.
You have to check out separately with each game purchase. Seriously?? Did we loop back to 1995 without me noticing?
On the post: FBI, DA's Office Open Investigation Of Fatal Houston PD Drug Raid
Re: Still waiting for the shoe..
An earlier article said that the women's mom called the cops on her for using drugs in the house. Yes a 58 year old women had the cops called on her by her mom.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190215/13325441605/fatal-houston-pd-drug-raid-apparently-predic ated-drugs-cop-had-stashed-his-car.shtml
I am guessing the cops figured it would be an easy bust and ramped it up to dealing to give them an excuse to for the no-knock warrant and go in guns a blazing.
Because where is the fun in just getting a regular possession bust when you can get a chance to legally kill someone.
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