#tiktok senate hearing

[amalgamasreal]

So I don't know how people on this app feel about the shit-house that is TikTok but in the US right now the ban they're trying to implement on it is a complete red herring and it needs to be stopped.

They are quite literally trying to implement Patriot Act 2.0 with the RESTRICT Act and using TikTok and China to scare the American public into buying into it wholesale when this shit will change the face of the internet. Here are some excerpts from what the bill would cover on the Infrastructure side:

SEC. 5. Considerations.

(a) Priority information and communications technology areas.—In carrying out sections 3 and 4, the Secretary shall prioritize evaluation of— (1) information and communications technology products or services used by a party to a covered transaction in a sector designated as critical infrastructure in Policy Directive 21 (February 12, 2013; relating to critical infrastructure security and resilience);

(2) software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to telecommunications products and services, including— (A) wireless local area networks;

(B) mobile networks;

(C) satellite payloads;

(D) satellite operations and control;

(E) cable access points;

(F) wireline access points;

(G) core networking systems;

(H) long-, short-, and back-haul networks; or

(I) edge computer platforms;

(3) any software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to data hosting or computing service that uses, processes, or retains, or is expected to use, process, or retain, sensitive personal data with respect to greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— (A) internet hosting services;

(B) cloud-based or distributed computing and data storage;

(C) machine learning, predictive analytics, and data science products and services, including those involving the provision of services to assist a party utilize, manage, or maintain open-source software;

(D) managed services; and

(E) content delivery services;

(4) internet- or network-enabled sensors, webcams, end-point surveillance or monitoring devices, modems and home networking devices if greater than 1,000,000 units have been sold to persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction;

(5) unmanned vehicles, including drones and other aerials systems, autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, or any other product or service integral to the provision, maintenance, or management of such products or services;

(6) software designed or used primarily for connecting with and communicating via the internet that is in use by greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including— (A) desktop applications;

(B) mobile applications;

(C) gaming applications;

(D) payment applications; or

(E) web-based applications; or

(7) information and communications technology products and services integral to— (A) artificial intelligence and machine learning;

(B) quantum key distribution;

(C) quantum communications;

(D) quantum computing;

(E) post-quantum cryptography;

(F) autonomous systems;

(G) advanced robotics;

(H) biotechnology;

(I) synthetic biology;

(J) computational biology; and

(K) e-commerce technology and services, including any electronic techniques for accomplishing business transactions, online retail, internet-enabled logistics, internet-enabled payment technology, and online marketplaces.

(b) Considerations relating to undue and unacceptable risks.—In determining whether a covered transaction poses an undue or unacceptable risk under section 3(a) or 4(a), the Secretary— (1) shall, as the Secretary determines appropriate and in consultation with appropriate agency heads, consider, where available— (A) any removal or exclusion order issued by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defense, or the Director of National Intelligence pursuant to recommendations of the Federal Acquisition Security Council pursuant to section 1323 of title 41, United States Code;

(B) any order or license revocation issued by the Federal Communications Commission with respect to a transacting party, or any consent decree imposed by the Federal Trade Commission with respect to a transacting party;

(C) any relevant provision of the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation and the Federal Acquisition Regulation, and the respective supplements to those regulations;

(D) any actual or potential threats to the execution of a national critical function identified by the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;

(E) the nature, degree, and likelihood of consequence to the public and private sectors of the United States that would occur if vulnerabilities of the information and communications technologies services supply chain were to be exploited; and

(F) any other source of information that the Secretary determines appropriate; and

(2) may consider, where available, any relevant threat assessment or report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence completed or conducted at the request of the Secretary.

Look at that, does that look like it just covers the one app? NO! This would cover EVERYTHING that so much as LOOKS at the internet from the point this bill goes live.

It gets worse though, you wanna see what the penalties are?

(b) Civil penalties.—The Secretary may impose the following civil penalties on a person for each violation by that person of this Act or any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization issued under this Act: (1) A fine of not more than $250,000 or an amount that is twice the value of the transaction that is the basis of the violation with respect to which the penalty is imposed, whichever is greater. (2) Revocation of any mitigation measure or authorization issued under this Act to the person. (c) Criminal penalties.— (1) IN GENERAL.—A person who willfully commits, willfully attempts to commit, or willfully conspires to commit, or aids or abets in the commission of an unlawful act described in subsection (a) shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $1,000,000, or if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. (2) CIVIL FORFEITURE.— (A) FORFEITURE.— (i) IN GENERAL.—Any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, used or intended to be used, in any manner, to commit or facilitate a violation or attempted violation described in paragraph (1) shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States. (ii) PROCEEDS.—Any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, constituting or traceable to the gross proceeds taken, obtained, or retained, in connection with or as a result of a violation or attempted violation described in paragraph (1) shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States. (B) PROCEDURE.—Seizures and forfeitures under this subsection shall be governed by the provisions of chapter 46 of title 18, United States Code, relating to civil forfeitures, except that such duties as are imposed on the Secretary of Treasury under the customs laws described in section 981(d) of title 18, United States Code, shall be performed by such officers, agents, and other persons as may be designated for that purpose by the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General. (3) CRIMINAL FORFEITURE.— (A) FORFEITURE.—Any person who is convicted under paragraph (1) shall, in addition to any other penalty, forfeit to the United States— (i) any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, used or intended to be used, in any manner, to commit or facilitate the violation or attempted violation of paragraph (1); and (ii) any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, constituting or traceable to the gross proceeds taken, obtained, or retained, in connection with or as a result of the violation. (B) PROCEDURE.—The criminal forfeiture of property under this paragraph, including any seizure and disposition of the property, and any related judicial proceeding, shall be governed by the provisions of section 413 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 853), except subsections (a) and (d) of that section.

You read that right, you could be fined up to A MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS for knowingly violating the restrict act, so all those people telling you to "just use a VPN" to keep using TikTok? Guess what? That falls under the criminal guidelines of this bill and they're giving you some horrible fucking advice.

Also, VPN's as a whole, if this bill passes, will take a goddamn nose dive in this country because they are another thing that will be covered in this bill.

They chose the perfect name for it, RESTRICT, because that's what it's going to do to our freedoms in this so called "land of the free".

Please, if you are a United States citizen of voting age reach out to your legislature and tell them you do not want this to pass and you will vote against them in the next primary if it does. This is a make or break moment for you if you're younger. Do not allow your generation to suffer a second Patriot Act like those of us that unfortunately allowed for the first one to happen.

And if you support this, I can only assume you're delusional or a paid shill, either way I hope you rot in whatever hell you believe in.

[timothy-kang]

News/Chew Shou Zi—1 Feb. 2024

On January 31, Chew Shou Zi, the Singaporean CEO of TikTok, attended a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington. The hearing was centered around two main issues. The first issue was related to the adequacy of child protection measures in th

On January 31, Chew Shou Zi, the Singaporean CEO of TikTok, attended a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington. The hearing was centered around two main issues. The first issue was related to the adequacy of child protection measures in the platform due to the presence of child sexual abuse material. Additionally, it was noted that Hong Kong and Tibet were less mentioned on TikTok…

[avandelay20]

We have plenty of examples of products that unintentionally maim and kill people in other product categories (cars with faulty airbags, toys that pose choking hazards or other bodily harm, electrical appliances that cause fires) -- these products are recalled from the marketplace when they've been proven to cause harm -- and are scrutinized by regulators before being allowed to re-enter the market.

Why is that not on the table here when it comes to these manipulation platforms?

SHUT THEM ALL DOWN until regulators can prove the products have met specific criteria to eliminate societal and bodily harm.

Most of these tech titans have had over 10 years to fiddle with their products - using society as beta testers - and still haven't figured out how to eliminate harm from their products.

Clearly those companies aren't interested in safety or eliminating harm.

Shut. Them. Down.

[nettra]

The rhetoric at times seemed to paint the Chinese people with a broad brush and conflated people of Chinese ancestry with the will of the CCP. That paints a target on the back of Asian Americans, Chinese nationals living in the US, and, by extension, all other Asian populations, advocacy experts said. - Paayal Zaveri (Business Insider)

[pineapplesagainstpizza]

You know if Tiktok gets banned and when Twitter inevitably fails, we'll have a new tumblr resurgence

[herhimthem]

KOSA ISNT BEING VOTED TODAY I REPEAT KOSA ISNT BEING VOTED TODAY!!!!

https://www.senate.gov/committees/hearings_meetings.htm

THERE ISNT ANY SENATE MEETING OR HEARING TODAY. PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. WE HAVE UNTIL AFTER MARCH 13TH.

KEEP CALLING YOUR GOVERNORS AND START ORGANIZING!!! START PROTESTING OUTSIDE BUILDINGS, START MARCHING, START FIGHTING IF YOU CAN!!!!!!! AND IF YOU CANT, START SPREADING THE WORD ABIUT THESE THINGS!!!

OH MY GOD WAIT WHAT

IS THIS TRUE?? SOMEONE PLEASE COMMENT OR REBLOG AND LET ME KNOW

────────────

Update #2 - 2/26/2024

edit in case folks don't see the reblog:

Update on this.

I looked at the website and yes, there *is* no mention of any voting on KOSA happening before or past March 13th, March 13th is where the schedule ends. I'm still not sure, so keep digging for more info.

putting the link again so others can examine

U.S. Senate: Hearings & Meetings

────────────

Update #3 - 2/27/2024

ANOTHER another update, somebody relogged this with extra info

I'm gonna start putting dates on these updates so people know what's happening when

────────────

Update #4 - 3/2/2024

So, today I was on Reddit reading about KOSA, and I found this on r/AO3

Here's the Invest in Child Safety Act, it only has five cosponsors compared to KOSA's sixty-three.. wonder why..

Anyways, I was wondering, could steering reps away from KOSA while leading them towards other and SAFER bills help? :P

If these bills really ARE safer, wouldn't it give us a better chance of KOSA not being passed if we gave our Senators and Reps examples of alternative bills they could support?

Like, instead of just saying "DON'T DO THIS!!!" We could say "DON'T DO THIS, but THIS is a better alternative that will keep everyone safe AND actually be helpful."

I have a feeling most of the Democrats supporting this bill have fallen for the "We're protecting the children!!" farse. So, let's not just tell them the problem, but offer a solution! An alternative that will ACTUALLY protect children.

I posted this as it's own thing, but I wanted to add it to this update thread so people are more likely to see it.

Please post this on other sites, on Twitter, TikTok, other Reddit pages, etc. I only ask that you cover-up my username :]

(link to the actual post)

[onceafanalwaysshallbeafan]

What is the current status of KOSA? As of last night, 2024-04-20, this is what congress.gov had to say about it:

I'm seeing lots of posts fearmongering about how it's passed the Senate and is now in the House.

I've seen coordinated attacks against the democratic process over the past 8+ years. It would not surprise me in the least to learn that this might be part of a coordinated attack to get us to let up pressure on our Senators, letting them think that we're suddenly okay with it.

Please remember that Tumblr can just as easily be used to spread misinformation as Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or TikTok. Check authoritative sources.

What I would do? Call your senators, your representative, and the White House switchboard to leave comments on pending legislation.

The government website says it's still in the Senate. Call your senators to oppose it as a current issue.

Call your representative to oppose it as a heads-up to ensure they are aware of it and your opposition.

Call the White House to ensure that President Biden knows not to sign it if it crosses his desk.

Former President Trump already destroyed 50 years of women's rights, and presided over the initial hysteria of the anti-trans groups. He appointed enough justices to the Supreme Court that we're guaranteed social regression until at least two conservative justices retire and are replaced with new Ruth Bader Ginsbergs. He and the GOP (he is basically synonymous with the GOP, after Laura was elected as co-chair) have done a huge amount of damage to our ways of life and our ability to address climate change and global warming. We need to say that enough is enough, and that they won't deprive us of our abilities to discuss the topics they find uncomfortable and want to prevent any kids from hearing about in any online spaces their kids could possibly stumble into.

OUR LIVES AND EXISTENCE AND CULTURE ARE NOT POLITICAL PAWNS TO BE BARTERED AWAY IN BACKROOM DEALS.

We must stand united, or divided we shall surely perish.

[lost-and-created]

Consider the following:

The treatment of the unhoused/poor, including making being unhoused a crime.

The rising inability to afford housing, groceries, and utilities, even with full-time jobs that pay more than the minimum wage.

The genocide occuring in Palestine and the use of US funded weapons to commit it.

Rising rates of Neo-Nazis, antisemitism, and islamophobia.

The beating of a trans, Native American child at a public school, which resulted in death, being praised by an active senator who called trans people filth, when addressing the issue (Rest in Peace, Nex).

Trans people increasingly having their rights, especially to healthcare, taken.

Women increasingly having their rights to healthcare taken.

The migrants who are fleeing their home countries, leading them to the US-Mexico border, are being met with police violence, razor wire, and detention centers that have been reported to separate and "lose" children, as well as treat those within its walls with cruel amounts of negligence.

The subways of New York becoming flooded with cops and National Guard, making it a police state checkpoint for anyone that enters.

Police being able to justify the murder of a Black, autistic teenager, in front of his family.

However, the US government has deemed TikTok to be the largest threat to the nation and is the issue that they can all, collectively, agree on. Certainly can't be because it's been the main place for younger people to find current news that isn't gripped by corporate media. Can't be because it's a place for people to find information on the continued boycotts, divestments, and protests that are currently occurring and costing corporations millions of dollars, effecting how much those corporations can lobby their representatives. Can't be because it is the place people often go to when mainstream media refuses to cover the big stories that would otherwise be pushed under the rug. Can't be because our representatives, the people that we put in charge of making our voices heard, are sick of hearing what we have to say about their actions within and outside of their offices. Must just be because TikTok has a parent company in China (while the US servers and data are run through US based company, Oracle) and that it's a dangerous threat.

[enigma2meagain]

“Stop Internet Censorship” Master List

The following is a master list for all of the major Internet Censorship and Surveillance Bills between 2022 to 2023, with the most major bills that are currently active posted below. They will each link to the Tumblr posts that I have made in the past related to them, with all of the relevant information associated.

This was made because I feel people need to get a sense for just how interconnected they really are, how much Congress and third parties are trying to desperately gain full control and access to our information and silencing anything they don’t want to see and hear, and having a centralized hub of information for them will make it easier for people to find them.

The Major Bills:

EARN IT Act: 2022 version of EARN IT Act

                      2023 version of EARN IT Act (No text yet, but it’s pretending to be about preventing child abuse online this time)

     Enigma2Me Post on EARN IT Act

     fullhalalalchemist Post on EARN IT

     Condemnation of the EARN IT Act 2020 Coalition Letter

     STOP EARN IT Act LINKTREE

     Engadget: EARN IT Act reintroduced for the Third Time

------

Kids Online Safety Act: Current Draft of 2023 KOSA bill

     Enigma2Me Post on Kids Online Safety Act

     STOP KOSA LinkTree

------

RESTRICT Act: Read Bill Here.

       Enigma2Me Post On RESTRICT Act

      LoganGalbraith’s Post on RESTRICT Act

       Truthout Article 4/02/2023: Restrict Act Critics Call the Far-Reaching “TikTok Ban” Bill a “Patriot Act 2.0”  

------

STOP CSAM Act:

      Electronic Frontier Foundation: Take Action on STOP CSAM/EARN IT

      TechDirt Post Against STOP CSAM Act

------

So if you’ve seen the above, you’re probably asking: What can we do about it?

1) Spread the Word online!

Twitter Hashtags

For Earn It: #EARNITAct, #STOPTheEARNITAct, #NoEarnItAct

For KOSA: #KOSA, #KidsOnlineSafetyAct, STOPKOSA

For RESTRICTAct: #RESTRICTAct, #STOPRESTRICTAct

2) PLEASE call your Senators.

Find your 2 senators numbers here. Fax them, email them. Tell them they MUST oppose this bill. Calmly make it clear to them that if they support this bill, then you will vote for someone else who doesn’t go along with this blatant act of authoritarian intent.

3) CONTACT any major human rights and cybersecurity related organizations and let them know about this bill. Get this out to any local news groups that you can.

The following Google Doc contains a list of every major organization we could think of to contact, and will be updated as we find more allies in the fight against censorship and surveillance.

ANTI-CENSORSHIP MASTER LIST

Also Contact the organizations on these 2020 letters to get them to publicly speak out against the EARN IT Act like they did back then.

But for those who want to have official organizations to work with (and who usually have petitions except TechDirt), the following usually are up to date on info:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Fight For the Future

Techdirt

[youcantdateosmosisjones]

STOP KOSA

For all my U.S citizens: don't let the U.S Senate silently pass the "Kids Online Safety Act" at a time where global access to and freedom to spread information is crucial to the very survival of those who are currently being murdered. How else can we hear them? How else can we act in their names?

Fax your senators, reach out to content creators with legitimate resources on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, and keep the fight going.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ben Blanchet at HuffPost:

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) aired out Republicans’ Ukraine “misinformation” and exposed party members’ hypocrisy at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday. The Texas Democrat ripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for suggesting Hamas may have obtained U.S. weapons through Ukraine and for sharing a Putin-backed claim about Nazism’s presence in Ukraine.

[...] Crockett called it a problem that “people are dying” and lawmakers are unable to get the public support for aid that they need because of the “lies.”

“And I’m tired of it because I didn’t come to this chamber to play games,” said Crockett, who described House Republicans as having “killed” the border bill. “If they wanna do some work, let me tell you somethin’, the Democrats are ready and it seems like the Senate Republicans are ready, too. They just need to get to it and stop peddlin’ Putin’s lies.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) nailed the GOP's anti-Ukraine misinformation campaign waged by the likes of MTG.

TikTok:

[amalgamasreal]

[morganbritton132]

the tiktokverse about Erica made me imagine just like, Eddie posting a tiktok captioned Somethings Never Change with a picture of the scoops troop back in the 80s eating ice cream and bent over a dnd campaign, panning over to where they're all in Eddie and Steve's kitchen, eating ice cream and pouring over a dungeon map. People are like oh that's so cute! Wait, sitting Indiana senator Erica Sinclair?? (Long time followers are like, yea yea the senator we've all seen her)

I love that US Senator Erica Sinclair is basically the time knife in that The Good Place meme. Also, absolute yes to all of this.

You can tell in the picture that Steve is not being helpful at all with whatever they’re trying to figure out because Erica is giving him a look like he needs help. She’s got a big ice cream sundae in front of her and Dustin is inexplicitly wearing Steve’s Scoops Ahoy hat. Robin is holding an ice cream cone that looks like it’s fighting for it’s life against gravity.

When Eddie pans over to them at the kitchen table, it’s almost shot for shot the same. Robin is licking her melting ice cream off her hand. Dustin’s got an embroidered baseball cap that says Scoops Troop (a gift from Erica). Erica is staring down at the map, eating her sundae. Steve is being as purposely unhelpful as he usually is when he participates in these one-shot campaigns.

You can hear Dustin say, “Did you miss the part where they’re heavily armed?”

Steve says back, “That’s why I said I would sneak in. Like a ninja.”

“Steve, your stealth stats suck ass. You’d died.”

Also Side Though: Erica always says that Lucas is the family disappointment and he’s always like ‘I’m a doctor’

Erica says, “And I went to Yale. You’re not even a surgeon.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 22, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 23, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris has continued to rack up endorsements and delegates since President Biden’s surprise announcement yesterday that he would not accept the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. As of tonight, Harris has the support of at least 2,471 delegates, more than the 1,976 she will need to secure the nomination.

Endorsements have also continued to mount, with the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Victory Fund, and the Latino Victory Fund all endorsing her. 

Labor unions have also backed her: the AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers, endorsed Harris. So did the Service Employees International Union, with 2 million workers, as well as the United Steelworkers, which represents 850,000 metal workers and miners, and the Communications Workers of America. Other unions endorsing Harris include the American Federation of Teachers, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. 

Money continues to roll in. Since Biden’s announcement, Harris and the Democrats have raised about $250 million in donations and pledges. More than 888,000 were from small-dollar donors. Volunteers are also joining the Harris campaign, which said that more than 28,000 people have signed up to work on the campaign in the day since Biden passed the torch. Today, Beyoncé gave Harris permission to use her song “Freedom” as a campaign song, and TikTok users have jumped on the Harris trend.

Harris is keeping some of the key infrastructure of Biden’s campaign. She has announced that Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez-Rodriguez and Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon will remain in their positions. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer announced today that she, too, will stay on as co-chair for Harris’s campaign as she was for Biden’s.

Harris spoke today at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, smoothing the transition from Biden’s campaign to her own. “I know it’s been a rollercoaster and we’re all filled with so many mixed emotions about this,” Harris said. “We love Joe and Jill. We really do. They truly are like family.” Biden called in to the meeting from Delaware, where he is isolating as he recovers from Covid, to thank the staff. “I know it’s hard, because you’ve poured your heart and soul into me, to help us win this thing,” Biden told them, but added: “The name changed at the top of the ticket. The mission hasn’t changed at all.” Biden told Harris: “I’m watching you kid, I love you. You’re the best, kid.”

Harris went on to indicate that she will be taking the fight for the presidency aggressively to Trump, highlighting his criminal behavior. “Before I was elected as Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator,” she said today, “I was the elected Attorney General, as I've mentioned, to California, and before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.”

She was clear, though, that the fight is not just about Trump; it is about “two different versions of what we see as the future of our country…. Donald Trump wants to take our country backward. To a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights. But we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans.” She promised to continue the work of building the middle class, protect abortion rights, enact commonsense gun safety legislation, and protect voting rights. She contrasted the Democrats’ vision of “a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law” with the Republicans’: “a country of chaos, fear, and hate.”

Biden’s announcement and Harris’s rapid consolidation of support and money appear to have blindsided the Trump-Vance campaign. MAGA Republicans have responded with scattershot arguments that suggest they had not thought through a scenario in which Biden would step down, an omission so astonishing it perhaps suggests they could not imagine a presumptive nominee voluntarily giving up power. 

Without a coherent strategy, MAGA Republicans today have been all over the map, suggesting among other things that Biden’s voluntarily stepping down from his presumptive nomination is a “coup” and that Harris is a “D[iversity] E[quity and] I[nclusion] hire.” 

For a party that is offering voters a popular set of policies, the opposing party’s nominee shouldn’t matter all that much, but Trump policies and the Trump campaign’s Project 2025 are both so unpopular that operatives intended to run not on policy but by firing up their base against Biden himself. In The Atlantic yesterday, journalist Tim Alberta explained that the entire Trump campaign apparatus was focused on Biden and that putting extremist Ohio senator J.D. Vance on the ticket “was something of a luxury meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter.”

Now the energy appears to have shifted. As Anne Applebaum wrote today in The Atlantic, operatives staged the Republican National Convention of just last week to project strength and power, and Trump’s rambling and incoherent performance there seemed “deranged, sinister, and frightening.” Now, Applebaum wrote, “it just looks deranged,” as Biden’s decision to step away from power contrasts powerfully with Trump’s desperate attempts to cling to power with the Big Lie while he calls up his threadbare descriptions of national carnage.

The change Applebaum identified dovetailed neatly with a new political action committee started by conservative lawyer George Conway to highlight Trump’s “mental unfitness for office.” Frustrated by the apparent unwillingness of the press to cover Trump’s mental health while it focused on President Biden’s, Conway formed the “Anti-Psychopath PAC” to highlight Trump’s mental state. “The failure to treat Trump’s behavior as pathological has led the media and the country, perversely, to treat it as normal,” Conway told The Independent, and said that Project 2025 should be seen as an extension of Trump’s malignant narcissism “because basically he wants to turn the government into a mechanism for retribution.”

A post on Trump’s social media feed tonight suggested that Trump recognizes that being the oldest candidate ever nominated for the presidency is a campaign issue. The post said that “Lyin’ Kamala Harris…has absolutely terrible pole [sic] numbers against a fine and brilliant young man named DONALD J. TRUMP! Be careful what you wish for, Democrats???”

Today, Trump’s vice presidential pick Vance gave his first campaign speech at his former high school in Middletown, Ohio. There, dressed in a blue suit with a red tie that echoed Trump’s signature look, Vance spoke of his history in the town and promised that he and Trump are “ready to save America.” But his lack of experience on the campaign trail showed in his delivery, and the Fox News Channel, which was covering the speech, cut away from it while he was speaking. 

Media outlets gave more attention to the Ohio state senator who preceded Vance, George Lang, who began a chant of “fight, fight, fight” and told the audience: "I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County's JD Vance are the last chance to save our country politically. I'm afraid if we lose this one, it's going to take a civil war to save the country, and it will be saved." He later posted on social media that he regretted his “divisive remarks.” 

Later in the day, Vance spoke in Radford, Virginia, where he said that “[h]istory will remember Joe Biden as not just a quitter, which he is, but as one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States of America.” He continued: “Kamala Harris is a million times worse and everybody knows it. She signed up for every single one of Joe Biden’s failures, and she lied about his mental capacity to serve as president.”

Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer of the Washington Post reported today on a different kind of jockeying in the 2024 presidential race. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recently been in talks with Trump about dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump in exchange for a position in a Trump administration. Kennedy, who opposes vaccines, is interested in a portfolio that covers health and medical issues.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[pinetreesandtea]

Clone Wars characters and their favourite apps

Ahsoka Tano

TikTok

The space version of TikTok ofc, but a redacted version bc she’s in the war

She’s either have no account and free to scroll to her hearts content, or one of those accounts with no profile and a number username

Would constantly harass everyone to watch TikTok’s she finds funny

Would be all over TogrutaTok LMAO

Pinterest

She’s a Pinterest girlie for sure

I like to think she scrolls through Pinterest during travel and longggg hyperspace trips

When everyone is busy and she can’t really bother anyone

Same as TikTok, it allows her to get a peak of normal everyday life

Secretly loves cottagecore

Has boards of aesthetics, combat poses, recipes she plans to make but never gets around to doing, outfits, and memes ofc

Friendship bracelet patterns.

LinkedIn

This one’s a bit interesting think about but I think she likes to look for gossip on there somehow 😭

“Hmmm… this senator is beefing with this engineer?”

Minecraft

If you’ve seen my Clone Wars Minecraft post that iykyk

Animal Crossing Pocket camp

Rip the free app but I feel like she’d LOVE the game

Would immediately get Animal Crossing Rex into her camp

Snapchat

I think she’d purely only have Snapchat only for the clones and the other padawans

Her location tracking would obviously be off but her highest streak would be with Fives

Their streak would only be broken bc of missions

Anakin Skywalker

TikTok

He’d only download the app because he got annoyed with Ahsoka sending him hundreds of TikTok’s and unable to watch them

Instagram

To keep up with Padme’s posts

Made an anonymous fan account for Padme

Also to keep up with his public image lol

Would be one of those people leaving the most diabolical comments on reels under another anonymous account

Has a 4th account pretending to be rich house wife from Naboo or Coruscant

Twitter

Under yet another anonymous account and amassed quite the following due to how diabolical he is

Might’ve doxed some people

Facebook

Just to keep up with his fellow Jedi knights and masters

Comments on every single post on Obi-Wans page and trolls the dude

Block blast

No comment

Roblox

Once again, he’d only have this game to purely troll and bully children 😭

Obi-wan Kenobi

Doesn’t have TikTok despite Ahsoka’s insistence

BUT he will patiently sit with Ahsoka and let her show him all the TikToks she wants❤️

LinkedIn

Gets into beef with people and academics

He claims that it keeps his wit

But mainly uses it to keep track of the academic/professional world

Whatsapp

To keep in touch with all his off world friends

Has a group chat with some clones

Goodreads

I just KNOW this man has hundreds and thousands of book reviews on there

Might get into the occasional witty back and forth with another reviewer

Will giggle and sip tea as he purposely aggravates someone and starts beef with said person

YouTube

Guided yoga and meditation

Follows cooking videos

Space version of Liziqi is his favourite YouTuber

Garden videos and videos about different cultures

Candy Crush

He has it at FULL brightness and full volume

A clone will be walking down a hall passing his quarters and hears “DELICIOUS” “DIVINE”

Facebook

Is in a Jedi master Facebook group

Responds to Anakin’s with the most disrespectful and diabolical comebacks

Reposts the cheesiest memes (gets a lot of hate from Anakin when he posts these)

Posts nature pics and pretty sunsets

Gets into back and forths with Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, and Quinlan Vos, all of them are willingly doing it for fun

Rex

WhatsApp

Is involved in numerous clone group chats

Likes to keep up with his bro’s

Snapchat

Begrudgingly got it because Ahsoka wouldn’t stop annoying him about it

His snaps are essentially pics of hyperspace and redacted paperwork

YouTube

Watches those military vids that details about weapons and combat

Air soft vids!!

Puts those bushcraft vids on the side while doing something else like filing out reports

Also a big fan of space version of Liziqi

Has watched videos about Togruta culture etc when Ahsoka first became Anakin’s padawan

Watches Workout vids occasionally

Discord

Keeps an eye on his bros as a mod

Solitaire

Plays the game whenever he’s bored

Facebook

Only got it to witness the snide remarks and friendly bickering between the Jedi

Also in a Clone Commander facebook group where they may or may not make fun of the Jedi but it’s very light

Gets into some banter with Cody

[i-am-aprl]

Young people on TikTok overwhelmingly stand with Palestine, and now Congress is moving quickly to ban the platform in the US. It’s no coincidence.

Full interview with Amanda Yee is available on the BreakThrough News YouTube channel: ‘Culture Wars & Cold Wars: The Real Agenda Behind the Senate Social Media Hearings’