Trump was 'loving the fact' that his 'trashy' looking supporters were fighting for him on Jan. 6: Grisham
December 30, 2022
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‘Embarrassingly stupid’: Internet explodes over Republican’s ‘technologically illiterate’ questions at TikTok hearing
March 23, 2023
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee this Thursday, with the hearing focusing on members' concerns that the app has data privacy issues, potential harms for children, and connections to the Chinese government.
Some of the questions posed to Chew from lawmakers were slammed on social media as being technologically ignorant, one of which came from Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC).
"Mr, Chew, does TikTok access the home wifi network?" Hudson asked.
"Only if the user turns on the wifi," Chew replied. "I'm sorry, I may not understand the question."
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"So if I have the TikTok app on my phone and my phone is on my home wifi network, does TikTok access that network?" Hudson clarified.
"It would have to -- to access the network to get connections to the internet, if that's the question," Chew replied, seeming somewhat confused.
Hudson then asked if it's possible that TikTok could "access other devices on that home wifi network," to which Chew replied that the app doesn't do anything "that is beyond industry norms."
The line of questioning sparked a wave of mockery on Twitter, with some marveling at how baffling it is that "someone so technologically illiterate can be on a committee like this."
"We're veering into Satanic Panic levels with this TikTok obsession," tweeted @CahnEmily.
"Elected officials are the worst group of people to be conducting these because they don't have a clue, but every time this is how it works," tweeted @bschaeffer12. "It's such a circus."
"It's probably not great that the people deciding what platforms we do and don't get to use also don't seem to understand the basics of how the internet works," tweeted disinformation researcher Mike Rothschild.
"Meanwhile, our legislative body continues to demonstrate why they are so ineffective at legislating," tweeted YES! Magazine senior editor Chris Winters. "Seriously, does this guy not have any staff under 60 who can explain to him how the internet works? It's 2023."
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"Congress is worried about an app being watched via Wi-Fi. Definitely an important topic to take a deeper look into. WE MUST BAN WI-FI!" tweeted @AustinNull.
"This is a serious topic worthy of serious conversations," tweeted @jlemonsk. "A sitting member of congress asking if a smartphone app uses a home's wifi network to... access the internet while at home... ain't it."
"Anytime we have a congressional hearing on tech this is how it goes, just beat your head against the wall nonsense questions from reps who don't possess the most basic understanding of anything they're talking about. A waste of time," tweeted @yrfrenbren.
Lawmakers and government officials of all stripes have fretted that TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance could pass Americans' data to the government in Beijing and are calling for it to be removed from app stores or sold to a US firm.
Supporters argue that the platform is no more prone to data breaches than any other apps that collect personal information -- and that lawmakers should be working to firm up privacy laws rather than spoiling their fun.
TikTok itself has for years rejected its characterization as a threat, but tension between Washington and Beijing, exacerbated by the recent destruction of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, have spurred politicians to get tough.
The app -- which recently revealed it has 150 million US users -- is already outlawed on all federal government devices, but lawmakers and President Joe Biden are weighing an all-out nationwide ban.
Watch the video below or at this link.
With additional reporting by AFP
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday there were no plans to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a move made by his predecessor days before leaving.
"We are not planning to remove them from the list," Blinken said at the House Foreign Affairs Committee after a question from a lawmaker of the rival Republican Party.
"If there is to be such a review, it will be based on the law and based on the criteria in the law established by Congress," Blinken said. "It's a very high bar."
Blinken's Republican predecessor Mike Pompeo in January 2021 abruptly returned Cuba to the state sponsor of terrorism list, which severely hampers foreign investment as companies risk legal consequences in the United States.
The move capped efforts by then president Donald Trump to reverse a normalization bid with the communist island and longtime adversary launched by his predecessor Barack Obama.
President Joe Biden, who was Obama's vice president, has mostly kept in place Trump's policies on Cuba and took further action after a crackdown on rare protests.
Some pundits have attributed his stance to concerns about the Republicans' inroads among Hispanic voters, especially in the key electoral state of Florida.
Iran, North Korea and Syria are the only other countries on the terror list.
In making his decision, Pompeo did not link Cuba to any recent terrorist actions but pointed to Havana's refusal to extradite leaders of Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) to the then right-wing government in Bogota.
Colombia, now led by its first leftist president, Gustavo Petro, has resumed talks with the ELN and agreed to recognize the group as a political organization.
© 2023 AFP
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'Going to get bad really fast': Longtime Michigan Republicans alarmed by party's MAGA chair
March 23, 2023
Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Kristina Karamo believes it is her job to make Michigan the ground zero of the resistance to what she calls "globalist" plots to take over the United States.
MLive reports that Karamo, who was elected as state party chair despite losing her campaign to become Michigan's secretary of state last year by 14 points, says that the party should make challenging the agenda of the World Economic Forum a top priority for the Michigan GOP.
“I have a deep concern with the encroachment of the World Economic Forum," she declared to the publication.
Karamo's conspiratorial talk has alienated many longtime Michigan Republicans, as the wealthy DeVos family has stopped giving to the state party.
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Longtime Republican delegate Jason Roe tells MLive that he's already seeing signs that Karamo's operation will have a great degree of difficulty in raising resources to run competitive elections in the state.
“I just don’t see how they raise any money because none of the major donors are going to help them and they don’t have the mechanisms for raising small dollars,” he said. “I think this is going to get really bad really fast.”
Former Macomb County GOP leader Eric Castiglia expressed a similar sentiment about Karamo's plans to run the party.
“Your team needs to deliver and I’m not seeing that,” he told MLivfe. “Could they raise the money? possibly. Do they have a plan? I don’t think so.”
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