August 1, 2020

"As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States... Soon, immediately. I mean essentially immediately.... I will sign the document tomorrow."

Said Donald Trump last night, Bloomberg reports.
Trump said he had the authority to ban the app, owned by ByteDance Ltd., one of China’s biggest tech companies, a move he could make by executive order or under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
On Twitter, the name Sarah Cooper is trending. She's on the case:


Maybe you heard that Bill Gates was buying TikTok. From the Bloomberg article:
Trump’s move could upend a potential bid from Microsoft Corp., which was exploring an acquisition, according to a people familiar with the matter. The president downplayed that idea Friday. He said it’s “not the deal that you have been hearing about, that they are going to buy and sell, and this and that. And Microsoft and another one. We’re not an M&A company.” Microsoft declined to comment.

24 comments:

The Vault Dweller said...

Well... if this is trending among the lefties then Trump seems pretty safe this week.

The Vault Dweller said...

I do like her incorporation of the the wind noises of the presumably helicopter. Seeing her hair blow in the wind is a nice touch.

daskol said...

App banning. Banning apps. Steve Bannon. There must have been another Q drop.

stlcdr said...

I just feel like trump is in control of a laser dot pointer, keeping the kats busy.

rhhardin said...

We want US-made malware on our computers, not Chinese stuff.

rhhardin said...

It looks like she's lip-syncing, which means that she's got the imitation wrong. I think too broad to be real.

Temujin said...

China is asshole. Screw TikTok. Sarah Cooper will find a new platform. She's a known known now.

Mark said...

So Trump wants to regulate free speech on TikTok ... or does he just want to have the Executive Branch pick winners and losers in the free market?

I know he got pawned in Tulsa by kids on TikTok, but acting like a dictator is not the solution.

jim said...

He's been trying to figure out how to make sure young people hate him, finally found it.

rehajm said...

It looks like she's lip-syncing, which means that she's got the imitation wrong. I think too broad to be real.

She has some good things going but I agree, she needs to dial it down and tighten up...

Wince said...

By sending those invasive species seeds the Chinese handed Trump a perfect metaphor to explain what he's doing with TikTok.

Ken B said...

In last night's cafe I wrote this:
Blogger Ken B said...
Reports say Trump will ban TikTok.

He is also taking action over Uighurs.

So two thumbs up from me.

Anyone want to give odds which will get bigger play here?

7/31/20, 10:44 PM
—————————————

I claim complete vindication! This is the kind of tell that exposes “cruel neutrality”.

Howard said...

Makes more sense to ban zoom

Ken B said...

I confess I feel a certain disgust towards people who find her infantile mockery funny. Maybe because I get the sense they pay attention to her so that they needn’t pay attention toTrump: that is, to his actual words and actions. Trump is doing something about China and about the Uighurs. Sarah Cooper's fans do not want to face that.

Gk1 said...

Good. Fuck china and their malware. Any software, cell phone or communications tool touched by China is suspect. I'm glad Zoom has been dumped by tech companies as the security threat it is. This is low hanging fruit for Trump. Make the democrats openly carry water for the CCP instead of lurking in the shadows.

Browndog said...

Trump has a bad habit of saying he's going to do something, "very soon", and it never happens.

I liked him better when he just did shit, then announced it. Seems to me Jared spends all his time talking Trump out of taking action, and Trump spends half his time listening.

JaimeRoberto said...

How goes TikTok spy that Facebook doesn't?

Coast-bound said...

“ Trump is doing something about China and about the Uighurs.”

Not so much. His “easy to win” trade war, after 3.5 years, has accomplished nothing except to raise the price of many imported goods at the expense of American consumers and the bribe of tens of billions of dollars paid to industrial farm companies that lost sales to China.

China has seen President Trump as a weak adversary, all bluster and no action, using his term in office to expand their suppression of the Uighurs, grow their military, aggressively pursue their efforts to dominate the South China Sea and reassert political and economic control over Hong Kong.

Far from weakening China or bringing back jobs, the Administration has been inept and craven, alternately praising and kvetching, ever talking up hard words while carefully preserving the vested corporate and banking interests that have profited from outsourcing American jobs.

This Emperor has no clothes. The Chinese are laughing at us en route to the bank.

Joe Smith said...

Best comment I've seen on this is comedian Tim Dillon (never heard of him, don't know his politics):

"Trump is reportedly banning TikTok so if you want to watch 16 year olds dance you have to get on a plane with Bill Clinton."

: )

Original Mike said...

"How goes TikTok spy that Facebook doesn't?"

Facebook (probably) doesn't spy for the Chinese government. Not that I'll have anything to do with either of them

Original Mike said...

I believe I read last night that India has banned them and Australia is considering it. It's not just Herr Fehrur Trump.

Joe Smith said...

@Coast-bound

If all of that is indeed true, then China must not want Biden to be president.

But if you look at Biden's history of being on the wrong side of every foreign policy debate in the past forty years, combined with his son's financial interest in China, that should disqualify Biden from being president if China is an American enemy, which I believe they are.

Gk1 said...

Not sure where Coast-bound is getting his info, i know more than a few silicon valley chip designers, at great cost,are moving all production out of China along with hundreds of other manufacturers of all stripes. Japan is subsidizing Japanese manufacturers to move out, China is in a deep recession with much western capital fleeing. Maybe China's idea of "winning" is so inscrutable I have to be in Hong Kong to figure it out.

Drago said...

Dumb Lefty Mark: "So Trump wants to regulate free speech on TikTok ... or does he just want to have the Executive Branch pick winners and losers in the free market?"

Dumb Lefty Mark, Beijing Boy ARM, LLR-lefty Chuck et al, like all US leftists, are going to fight tooth and nail to protect the ChiComs and ChiCom policies.

Recall that just weeks ago ARM was still denying the ChiComs were running concentration camps full of Uyghurs.