The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird + Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics

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The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird

Related:

Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics

The NATO to TikTok Pipeline: Why is TikTok Employing So Many National Security Agents?

If TikTok is such a threat, why did the Biden Administration train TikTok influencers to propagandize others about Russia’s special military operation?! Even though TechDirt makes some good points (privacy laws and the xenophobia), it seems like they—and Buzzfeed—are just creating another moral panic!

MoA: This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

This New Import Law Will Hurt U.S. Consumers

For small importers it will be impossible to do the above. Only big companies [Congress’ gift to Big Corporations] can afford to research and provide all that data and to take the risk of importing products that may get confiscated at the border. They will of course ask their customers to pay for all that.

Previously:

US Crackdown on Forced Labor in China Risks Further Supply Chaos

MoA brings up some things that I hadn’t.

Trump swindles the deplorables

As much as I’m enjoying the January 6th committee’s careful assembly of evidence proving former President Trump is a [douchebag]. I wasn’t seeing much in the way of a criminal offense until this week’s underreported story about how Trump used his “STOP THE STEAL” fundraising appeals to grift his supporters out of $250 million, none of which was, in fact, used to fight election fraud.

Ann Coulter: Trump swindles the deplorables

Related:

Trump’s $250 million grift: Calling Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to enforce Deceptive Trade Practices Act:

But there was also this, from the New York Times account, which bears closer scrutiny:

Investigators went further on Monday, detailing how the Trump campaign and its Republican allies used claims of a rigged election that they knew were false to mislead small donors and raise as much as $250 million for an entity they called the Official Election Defense Fund, which top campaign aides testified never existed.

“Not only was there the big lie,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who played a key role in the hearing, “there was the big rip-off.”

Money ostensibly raised to “stop the steal” instead went to Mr. Trump and his allies, including, the investigation found, $1 million for a charitable foundation run by Mark Meadows, his chief of staff; $1 million to a political group run by several of his former staff members, including Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda; more than $200,000 to Trump hotels; and $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., which ran the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot.

Aides said Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., was paid $60,000 to speak at that event, a speech that lasted less than three minutes.

“It is clear that he intentionally misled his donors, asked them to donate to a fund that didn’t exist and used the money raised for something other than what he said,” Ms. Lofgren said of Mr. Trump.

Ukraine – The U.S. Is Moving Towards Escalation

Ukraine – The U.S. Is Moving Towards Escalation

The Pentagon is not ready for a war on China. Iran is too strong and would respond to an attack by launching its huge missile arsenal on Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf. This leaves Syria*. It is unlikely by chance that the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the U.S. is coordinating Israeli airstrikes in that country:

Related:

*Report: Russia warns to strike US-allied militants in Syria’s al-Tanf region

Transcript of Vladimir Putin’s speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum Plenary session