Free speech in AmeriKKKa is looking good! Americans should only rely on true, red-blooded, patriotic, and megacorporations like Microsoft and Google with their data!
Another bill that was added on was an Israel aid bill that sends Israel and the IDF a further 26.3 billion dollars.
Surreal. This while Columbia University students protesting genocide are facing threat of the national guard being brought in, while students at University of Austin Texas are dealing with violent cops just for peacefully demonstrating.
Don’t forget that as a slap to the face to students calling for divestment from Israel, both parties sneakily shoved in another bill alongside this one that sends another 26.3 billion dollars to Israel.
They think that getting rid of TikTok will make all the protests disappear.
They want mainstream media, and news from American mega corporations like Facebook to be all that people see.
Tiktok has let regular people who care nothing about politics see the atrocities.
That’s what they fear. They can’t control the narrative as easily.
Let's not forget this push and this particular bill (though amended since) predates the October 7th rebellion against the zionists and all that has happened since.
It's not about crushing these particular protests (though their existence has lent impetus to crushing all avenues of media they don't control), it's about preventing the next ones. It's about continuing to have control of the narrative. And much more importantly than that is it's about profit for American capitalists. They can't invest in tik-tok, they can't profit off it, they don't own it. And lastly it's about global control. CIA tells their "former" officers in Facebook or Twitter or any other American company to prop up a color revolution in Mongolia or wherever? They do so with glee and give them data on anyone trying to interfere. CIA tries to tell tik-tok's global company to do the same? They'll refuse to honor it, say they'll comply only with US law with regards to activities in the US.
It's so obvious that this was expedited because Israel asked them to. I see people on Reddit and Twitter still acting like this is a good thing and I'm not sure how many of them are just stupid and how many of them are bad actors. Anyone talking about TikTok only being banned because it's "Chinese Spyware" is a fool.
An Israel funding bill was one of the other bills shoved into this one.
Israel is going to get an additional 26.3 billion dollars in aid because of this passing.
Obviously you haven't considered that the ban is a wonderful thing because China Bad. Therefore any other argument is moot.
I have actually seen a few people saying that only American social media companies should be allowed to operate in the US. Yet somehow China is the dystopia.
The House packaged the TikTok bill — which upped the timeline for divestment from the six months allowed in the earlier version — with foreign aid to US allies, which effectively forced the Senate to consider the measures together.
This is so weird
It’s very common to shove several unpopular bills into one that is more popular or has better PR.
Let’s Congress sneakily avoid PR disasters while getting their way.
it's so ridiculous how that's even possible; baffling how anyone can think this country is a democracy
It's super common like ComradeSalad said, but it works and it makes for super easy PR messaging too. Add some unpopular bill into a totally unrelated one. Oh you want to vote against the Ukraine war? Well, we put it in the same bill as a package for supplies for US military troops, so if you vote against it you will be comitting political suicide.
"Senator Pumpanddump voted against the America Loves Our Troops Act. Does this mean he hates our troops, you decide!"
The practice should be illegal, but so should half the things the US government does.
I do not look forward to the precedent this sets as censorship and surveillance will start ramping up. This will likely lead to bans of free and open source tools, encryption, etc., especially if they originate from "enemy" countries or are used to protest against Israel and other Western imperialist projects, in the future.
Hopefully I can start some data hoarding soon.
Democrats aren't trying to win. They're doing what their ruling class constituents want and paving the lane for the Republicans to drive over.
Exactly
I was just poking at libs that still fall for the "this is the most important election yet and our 'democracy' is at stake if we don't vote for Biden" nonsense.
Every liberal voter will justify this by saying the youth doesn't vote, and that it's their fault as a result. Why the youth never votes is lost on them (same with the ban not being up for vote)
The same people that say "if you vote third party, you steal votes from Biden." Not that electoralism will get us anywhere, but it's just hilarious that they believe people are obligated to only vote for blue Hitler in the name of democracksy.
When are you going to say it's enough. When will the atrocities and overspending and outright theft be enough for the workers to stand up and say no more. How many people have to die in the name of profit and imperialism before you get out and do something? How many people have to light themselves on fire, cry out for help, starve to death, before the people of the usa will get out and overthrow the abomination of rulers. The world is dying. When do the people rise up?
When their material conditions deteriorate. Most white americans still have enough generational wealth to keep this system going until gen alpha are adults with children, at least, and enough racism, queerphobia, and hyperindividualism to justify never caring that others don't.
Speaking of tiktok, it seems North Korean pop (North k-pop) is trending which is very interesting to me. So far most people are making jokes about it while also enjoying the music. It’s a bit weird and the comments are annoying but maybe this will become a way to combat misinformation on the DPRK. Who knows.
I would argue film is up there as well. Look at how prevalent Soviet and Russian films are, along with K-Films and K-dramas. They're usually peoples first interactions with another culture.
No this TikTok ban provision was titled under the “21st Century Peace through Strength” Act.
The RESTRICT Act is far more wide reaching, and is currently on the House floor, but it has not passed.
This bill does not ban VPN’s, but it opens the door to target other Chinese and Russian based services such as WeChat, Telegram, and so on.
God a WeChat ban would be absolutely crippling, I can't imagine that has any real traction.
I work in hospitality, and a very large percentage of our guests at all properties globally are Chinese (about 40% of all of the guests at mine). Consequently we support transactions with WeChat, and have always heard from our guests that they appreciate we support the platform and that is a big reason they use us.Now I am not in the US, but my chain originates there. It would absolutely cripple us if WeChat were banned. I wouldn't put it past the government to try, but I have to think that corporations wouldn't let them.
There is already an organized push in Congress to ban WeChat that is backed by Facebook as WeChat is in direct competition with WhatsApp, Messenger, and to a lesser extent Instagram and Facebook.
It’s called the “ANTI-SOCIAL CCP” Act and is set to be decided on later in the summer. Much how the Tiktok ban bill was announced then decided a few months later.
“Aimed to protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions and communications from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern unless they fully divest of dangerous foreign ownership.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2023/02/10/anti-social-ccp-act-would-ban-tiktok-in-the-united-states/?sh=3f5495ea5b6d
Thank you! I just got suckered into NordVPN and didn't wanna go straight to prison for watching Sasuke on bilibili
I believe they are talking about the athletic obstacle course show, Sasuke, whose spinoff is America Ninja Warrior. It's way better than the American one. Definitely recommend it, but it's very hard to find right now.
You’re right, for some reason I thought they said Sasuke at first glance.
That makes a lot more sense lol
Another SASUKE fan?? Let's goooooooo all the new competitors coming through are awesome. It will hopefully be a new golden era for the show.
I haven't seen 41 yet, only the prelims for it, been building hype by rewatching the old ones before they got bought out and dropped my faves. Kunoichi and Unbeatable Banzuke are also <3
If you can understand japanese the sasuke YouTube channel has lots of good content too, but spoilers beware. Which tournament are you up to? Sorry I am a huge (understatement) Sasuke otaku so I don't want to spoil anything for you.
40! Also seen all the kunoichi and english unbeatable banzuke. I hated the English versions (wipeout, American ninja warrior, but did check out some of Levi's bits), but got big into Sasuke a few years ago. It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I love Yamada and his Black Dragons. The trampoline prince, BMG, and Kong (who should have been an all star), are lesser faves, followed by ABCZ cus he's cute af and the drummer that wears face paint whise name I forgot. Now you have to tell me your favorites, or favorite obstacle or something. I need to know what other people that have the Sasuke brain think
Yeah I didn't like Yamada and his squad (black tigers haha) but the whole thing grew on me after watching the Sasuke yt channel, and Yamada has been really important to the growth of the show recently. I want to watch kunoichi but it's even harder to find than Sasuke. Same with unbeatable banzuke, viking, and pro sportsman series. Need to find them.
I think I pretty much like every regular now! The drummer is Darvish Kenji. I do get annoyed when there is too much focus on celebrities/tarento but he worked really hard and does also promote and care a lot about the show so he's my favorite from that sphere. Kong is a classic, loved him too and agree he should've been an all star.
Off the top of my head my favorites are Urushihara (he responded to one of my comments on YouTube 😍), Hioki, Morimoto, Kawaguchi, the remaining all stars...too many great competitors to name...Do you like the shin sedai/new stars and the Morimoto sedai?
Obstacles?? The cliffhanger and all its variations, maybe the salmon ladder. The cliffhanger builds so much tension during runs. How about you?
Is it the Sasuke_not_tbs channel? I can't find anything official >.<
I think I found all of Kunoichi and most of Viking on bilibili and archive. Unbeatable is on youtube and has a prototype of Kunoichi that's hilariously sexist (you also see Yamada, the Monkey, Kane Kosugi, the girl that beat Stage 1 in Sasuke, and a few other pre-Sasuke guys on both UB and Viking).
Yeah, the switch to even more celebrities bothered me too. A lot of them don't even really try and just do pratfalls. Also in return we get no more handglider man or the model maker or the older newsman who almost beat Stage 1. I thought I remembered everyone's names way better than I do oof
The New Stars are dope, especially my boy Asa and Shunsuke <3. Also agreed that the Cliffhanger is great. I enjoy how it combos with Spider Walk and the Warped Wall to get rid of both taller/heavier and shorter/lighter entrants.
The YouTube channel is called Sasuke Ninja Warrior TBS 公式. Last two posts have been about the newest generation, Morimoto sedai and their training so even if you don't understand Japanese a lot of the training stuff is super digestible anyway. Some of the older videos have Nagano and his son training together, but please beware of spoilers!! The newest tournament has a lot of content up already.
