Makes sense. Elon is deeply in bed with China and the goal was always to get it into the hands of a right wing billionaire.

His goal would be to use the data to help build on his AI. That is sure to make people happy.

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It would also be a massive political tool to boost stuff he likes and block stuff he doesn't. He would have immense power.

Variety is reporting Bytedance denies the Bloomberg story as "fiction." Of course the Bloomberg story said it was the Chinese government, not Bytedance that were in discussions, and that wasn't clear Bytedance was even notified.

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Ewwww just ban it then.

It would be another hilarious self-own for the Democrats to force the only left leaning social media app left to sell to Elon Musk and make those people heroes to millions of young people and small businesses.

WaPo wouldn't endorse for President, but now they are endorsing Trump cabinet nominees.

I saw the Bloomberg headline (but behind a paywall) and was wondering if China was conceding that TikTok/Bytedance was really controlled by China after all? The CEO sat in front of Congress saying otherwise so was surprised by the report.

Performers at Trump's inauguration ...

https://www.euronews.com/culture/202...uration-events

Kid Rock - check
Carrie Underwood - check
Lee Greenwood - check
Christopher Macchio - who? (opera singer)

But the cherry on top is ...

No. They do have an ownership stake, and that ownership stake is the crux of the ban. Their decision would be to give up that stake, and selling it to Elon Musk would be the easiest way to get that approved.

Take it FWIW, but according to TikTok's own page below, there is very little China government connection ... and certainly not to the extent that China can propose selling off US TikTok to Elon.

https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-au/th...h-about-tiktok


I have believed, regardless of public denials, there was likely more Chinese government control/influence than disclosed. I do think if not TikTok, there'll be something to turn our brains to mush. But good that China's ability to influence will be less (in the short term)

Your misunderstanding. China owns a portion, not controlling interest, in the company and that portion is what is being discussed. This is the Chinese government discussing selling their portion of Tik Tok US (not global) to Musk, not the whole ownership stake.

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What brave and noble people!

From a Financial Times article about corporate America going MAGA:

It is such a burden not to say offensive things all the time!

God forbid we find a middle ground, where people can acknowledge that even if we didn't know a word was offensive, it did offend someone, and we learn from that, but no one needs to make a huge deal about it, but also people can decide not to use words they completely know to be offensive, just because they feel like it. No, it's either woke doctrine, or retard and pussy.

Not that it matters, but do you think anyone knows whether these dudes are actually the Village People?

1. If there is a real Village People at this point, I bet none of them were in the original group.
2. Whether there is a current real Village People or not, you could probably just grab any set of guys, put these costumes on them, and just call them the Village People.

What's lost in that is the simple right to not give a fuck IF the word conveyed the meaning that was intended.

I'm not talking about looking for a word to intentionally offend, I'm talking about ... well let's go with a real world example.

If I call someone a half-witted mouthbreathing motherfucker, that's generally going to be an intentional choice specifically to convey my contempt for their intellect and general usefulness on the planet. It shouldn't be a federal case, it's a clear expression of an opinion.

The current Village People includes one original member, Victor Willis. He was one of the founding members and won the legal battles to own the name and rights to perform.

OK if you are talking about outside the workplace, but inside the workplace absolutely unacceptable.

Hegseth unwilling to say the USA will abide by the Geneva Convention.

Since we can't get canceled, that banker seems like a retarded pussy for refusing to put his name on that quote.

It sounds like he was too much of a pussy to actually put his name on that quote, unless his name is A. Top Banker.

He's completely unqualified. My current boss is an Army Major and he calls it the most useless rank in the Army. No experience managing anything of note.
Based on what's publicly available, he wouldn't get a security clearance. But he checks the Fox and Friends box and that's what really matters.

If we rename it the US Patriot Convention, he'd do it.

It is really funny that the best path to a high ranking position in government is to appear on Fox and Friends.

There's a small chance RFK Jr. doesn't get confirmed, but my guess is everybody sails through. The GOP Senate is too terrified of Trump and/or supportive of the nonsense.

Within a few years, Donald is going to enable Americans to say the N word freely!

Trump is the best at naming things. No one knows more about naming things than Trump. Today he announced he's creating the EXTERNAL revenue service.

GOP deciding to ignore the CBO score and say their massive bill doesn't add to the deficit so that it can pass through reconciliation.

Looks like Bitcoin users will get their welfare checks on day 1 maybe.


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/t...stockpile.html

The funny thing is, the logic they're using is that since these tax cuts already exist and they're merely extending them that it's a cost already calculated. One GOP congressman compared it to deciding to keep your netflix subscription.

DOLA

Republicans are mad and complaining that Michele Obama is skipping the inauguration.

I'm sure if she was a former president and skipped the inauguration because her failed attempt to overthrow the government failed they'd be ok with her skipping out.

There's RedNote now.

Fair odds that Xi will restrict RedNote to US before US does it.

Sometimes you gotta swallow your pride and do what you gotta do to save your bacon.

Just a moment...

Soooo.... the guy who wrote that weird NYT op-ed a few months ago calling for the dismissal of charges against Trump, in part by stating/rationalizing, "[a] central pillar of American democracy is that no man is above the law. But Mr. Trump isn’t an ordinary man," just got indicted for tax evasion.

This from a noted Supreme Court practitioner, Harvard law school professor, and Al Gore attorney. Seemed odd at the time. Now it seems this "ordinary man" might have seen his indictment coming and decided to get on Trump's good side like so many other people for whom Trump can, and has, pulled some strings once they prove their loyalty.

Interesting, ain't it?

Guess lil Donny won't have to worry about the crowds at his inauguration being historically small... like his hands and dick... again....

Donald Trump moves inauguration indoors due to severely cold weather | Donald Trump inauguration | The Guardian

A frozen chill across DC on inauguration day.

Absolutely no irony here.

Forecast says high of 23 on Monday in DC. That ain't warm but laughable to call that "severely cold.'"

Guess it’s all relative but 23F is pretty darn cold. Article also said 8F with wind chill.

And 9 degrees that night.
And snow the night before is expected apparently

Yeah, my weather app has 8 as the high "feels like" for that day where I am, and that's in the morning, going down from there. I wouldn't be keen on being outside.

We don't want another William Henry Harrison here.

Well....

Let's explore this deeper.

we don't not want it either...

Trump got pneumonia and died because he stayed outside counting the number of people in the crowd and kept having to start over once he hit 9.

Trump selling his own crypto with disbursements over the next three years is probably the single most corrupt thing any President has ever done.

And nothing will come of it.

Perfect timing for Yellen. It's that feeling I always got when I rolled off a project ... it's now someone else's problem.

US to hit debt ceiling Tuesday, starting Congress’ countdown clock | CNN Business

Looks like the deadline is Mar 14 with the "extraordinary measures"


Looking forward to the fight and the compromise. Hope it stops the bleeding ... but doubt it, best is probably slows it down.

Maybe we can learn something from Argentina.

I get US has more levers to pull, time, and we don't want to go as draconian as Milei, but good to see a politician doing this. From what I've read in the reddit, still a lot of pain & suffering happening so not out of the woods yet. Fascinating experiment going on there.

reuters.com