I've been an Apple user since high school (side note: I graduated in 1985. So, an Apple user since the Apple IIe) I worked for Apple for about seven years in their technical department, as an instructor. Yes, I have a mac and yes I have only used the iPhone since the first one. There, got my bonafides out of the way.
That said, are they evil? Sure the F**k are, no denying it. I knew they were on the wrong side when in 2020 they took the Parler app out of the App Store. So, this is no shocker. Do I think they take the Twitter app out? No, I don't think they will because I am certain they will get sued and probably lose. But, I'm a bike riding duck not a bike riding duck/lawyer so what do I possibly know.
My only thing is this: where else am I gonna go? Android? They're just as bad, and we all know it. Am I gonna get a Dell and start doing things on the PC? What, with Windows? The company founded by Epstien adjacent psuedo-nonce Bill Gates? OK. When a compnay gets big enough, it's just a fact that have to get in the pot with all the other pieces of shit and swim in the shit stew known as "The Elite." it's how it is. I have on illusion in that regard.
Will Elon make a phone and try to compete? Sure, maybe, I don't know. Will I buy I it? I dunno, maybe. Hard to tell.
Here is what I wish we had, and what would really help in times like this: An actual journalism class that wanted the truth to get out, and weren't shills for Their Tribe. Would be nice if we had that. Would. Be. Nice.
"I don’t claim to know as much as Mr. Brinton about nuclear waste and how should be disposed, but I do know you’re not supposed to steal people’s luggage."
Re: Apple and Twitter: The Eric Hoffer quote is a propos again. “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
He had a lot of good quotes about power and those who seek or use it. Lord Acton was right, of course. "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
At the time of the Tiananmen I was finally finishing my BS at the University of Illinois, and was living in a apartment with 2 Chinese grad students. I spent a lot of time digging out quotes from the time of our Revolution (Paine, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and many other lesser-known patriots). I'd give them to my roommates and they'd pass them on to the 400+-strong Chinese Grad Student organization. Those grades would then use a random dialer one of them had written to try to send the copy to fax machines in China. When they hit on one they'd push as many quotes as possible through the fax until the authorities discovered it and shut it down.
They were incredibly disheartened when the movement failed. Xang Li was a member of a "landlord family" and not in good favor in China, anyway. I think he managed to eventually bring his parents to the US
Liu Fong got his PhD in Physics, then went on to make millions on Wall Street in the 90s. I lost track of both of them sometime after 2000. But they were very good people. (Fong grew up in a farming village of some 500 within 50 kilometers of the North Korean border, but was brilliant enough to go to Beijing University. He said our backgrounds gave us something in common that he felt.)
Tim Cook and Apple are literally colluding with the enslaving CCP. Why be surprised? This is the guy who signed more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars to sleep with the CCP.
I guess you acknowledge it. Perhaps throw some money at Twitter as well as Treacher. You can hope for anti-trust, but Klobuchar is in favor of censorship ("content moderation"). The censors are already bragging about chasing off 50 advertisers from Twitter.
Politically, 2024 looms large. As Pi Guy and others noted, the GOP "lost" Gen Z (ages 18-29); they made up an eighth of the electorate. An ignorant vote is worse than not voting.
Does it suck that companies like Apple are so dependent on Chinese labor and rare earth minerals that they dare not challenge the CCP? Yeah, it does. Is it also shameful that Western countries who chastise and complain to each other and their citizens about 'human rights' are so quick to abandon such critiques when it comes to the CCP. Again, yes. However, at some point the Chinese people themselves have to decide how much suffering they can endure... the CCP only has so much power. 10 million police: a significant portion of those have to say to themselves, "this is wrong, I cannot do this"; same with members of the PLA and members of the CCP itself. So long as the people accept tyranny, the police/military enforce tyranny, and the ruling class endorses/establishes/perpetuates tyranny, there is no hope for China. When the Soviet Union fell, it was a little at a time, and then altogether at once. It could happen again, but I have my doubts.
Great wrap up of the last 24 hours in the high(?) lights of... the world today: China, Apple, Musk, Hunter's only 'unacknowledged' child that the White House won't even 'hang a stocking with care' for, Brinton (altho' you DID leave out his fashion tips), Miguel Almaguer's disappearance from NBC (BTW, where is the producer who obviously HAD to clear it to go on air?) & the untimely demise of Clarence Gilyard, Jr. (funnily enough, I just watched 'Die Hard' a couple nights ago - I always loved how he delivered his line of "What have we here, gentlemen? The police have themselves an RV.")
A lot of people remember him as Ranger Jimmy Trivette.
I've been an Apple user since high school (side note: I graduated in 1985. So, an Apple user since the Apple IIe) I worked for Apple for about seven years in their technical department, as an instructor. Yes, I have a mac and yes I have only used the iPhone since the first one. There, got my bonafides out of the way.
That said, are they evil? Sure the F**k are, no denying it. I knew they were on the wrong side when in 2020 they took the Parler app out of the App Store. So, this is no shocker. Do I think they take the Twitter app out? No, I don't think they will because I am certain they will get sued and probably lose. But, I'm a bike riding duck not a bike riding duck/lawyer so what do I possibly know.
My only thing is this: where else am I gonna go? Android? They're just as bad, and we all know it. Am I gonna get a Dell and start doing things on the PC? What, with Windows? The company founded by Epstien adjacent psuedo-nonce Bill Gates? OK. When a compnay gets big enough, it's just a fact that have to get in the pot with all the other pieces of shit and swim in the shit stew known as "The Elite." it's how it is. I have on illusion in that regard.
Will Elon make a phone and try to compete? Sure, maybe, I don't know. Will I buy I it? I dunno, maybe. Hard to tell.
Here is what I wish we had, and what would really help in times like this: An actual journalism class that wanted the truth to get out, and weren't shills for Their Tribe. Would be nice if we had that. Would. Be. Nice.
"I don’t claim to know as much as Mr. Brinton about nuclear waste and how should be disposed, but I do know you’re not supposed to steal people’s luggage."
There's a non-zero chance you do know as much.
Re: Apple and Twitter: The Eric Hoffer quote is a propos again. “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
He had a lot of good quotes about power and those who seek or use it. Lord Acton was right, of course. "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
"nonbinary whatchamacallit"
Pretty well covers all 73 Facebook gender options. I like it.
At the time of the Tiananmen I was finally finishing my BS at the University of Illinois, and was living in a apartment with 2 Chinese grad students. I spent a lot of time digging out quotes from the time of our Revolution (Paine, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and many other lesser-known patriots). I'd give them to my roommates and they'd pass them on to the 400+-strong Chinese Grad Student organization. Those grades would then use a random dialer one of them had written to try to send the copy to fax machines in China. When they hit on one they'd push as many quotes as possible through the fax until the authorities discovered it and shut it down.
They were incredibly disheartened when the movement failed. Xang Li was a member of a "landlord family" and not in good favor in China, anyway. I think he managed to eventually bring his parents to the US
Liu Fong got his PhD in Physics, then went on to make millions on Wall Street in the 90s. I lost track of both of them sometime after 2000. But they were very good people. (Fong grew up in a farming village of some 500 within 50 kilometers of the North Korean border, but was brilliant enough to go to Beijing University. He said our backgrounds gave us something in common that he felt.)
Tim Cook and Apple are literally colluding with the enslaving CCP. Why be surprised? This is the guy who signed more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars to sleep with the CCP.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/584796-apple-chief-signed-275b-deal-to-placate-china-report/
Duck has a great observation about where do you go? I mean really. Apple also turned on the Hong Kong protesters: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/10/apple-approves-then-bans-hong-kong-app-after-chinese-criticism/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_source=twitter&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social
By what right is Bill Gates the largest owner of farmland in the US?: https://nypost.com/2021/01/15/bill-gates-is-the-largest-farmland-owner-in-america-report/
I guess you acknowledge it. Perhaps throw some money at Twitter as well as Treacher. You can hope for anti-trust, but Klobuchar is in favor of censorship ("content moderation"). The censors are already bragging about chasing off 50 advertisers from Twitter.
Politically, 2024 looms large. As Pi Guy and others noted, the GOP "lost" Gen Z (ages 18-29); they made up an eighth of the electorate. An ignorant vote is worse than not voting.
Does it suck that companies like Apple are so dependent on Chinese labor and rare earth minerals that they dare not challenge the CCP? Yeah, it does. Is it also shameful that Western countries who chastise and complain to each other and their citizens about 'human rights' are so quick to abandon such critiques when it comes to the CCP. Again, yes. However, at some point the Chinese people themselves have to decide how much suffering they can endure... the CCP only has so much power. 10 million police: a significant portion of those have to say to themselves, "this is wrong, I cannot do this"; same with members of the PLA and members of the CCP itself. So long as the people accept tyranny, the police/military enforce tyranny, and the ruling class endorses/establishes/perpetuates tyranny, there is no hope for China. When the Soviet Union fell, it was a little at a time, and then altogether at once. It could happen again, but I have my doubts.
Great wrap up of the last 24 hours in the high(?) lights of... the world today: China, Apple, Musk, Hunter's only 'unacknowledged' child that the White House won't even 'hang a stocking with care' for, Brinton (altho' you DID leave out his fashion tips), Miguel Almaguer's disappearance from NBC (BTW, where is the producer who obviously HAD to clear it to go on air?) & the untimely demise of Clarence Gilyard, Jr. (funnily enough, I just watched 'Die Hard' a couple nights ago - I always loved how he delivered his line of "What have we here, gentlemen? The police have themselves an RV.")
Hahahaha - nice pic.