I hope you and your family are well. I’m sorry that the most interesting thing you have to talk about is my comment on some meme.

Human ingenuity is a powerful force. Hamas has shown propaganda videos they filmed and published showing their production line using water pipes. Take a look and then I’ll happily discuss further

If the infrastructure wasn’t intentionally sabotaged by Hamas there would be less suffering. Water infrastructure in Gaza has been suffering for years due to Hamas’ actions. Bombing provoked by October 7th and the continued holding of hostages has exacerbated the problem but let’s not pretend that municipal water “run” by a genocidal terrorist group was serving all innocent Palestinians with the water they needed prior to the war.

You mean the water system which has been cannibalized for years by Hamas to create mortars used to attack Israeli civilians?

Nothing in the article cites a reason for why the data was sent. In fact the article specifically mentions that this data being sent was to circumvent attempts to limit the transmission of American citizens data to a hostile foreign government.

We should ban the sale and transmission of Americans sensitive data to hostile foreign powers regardless of the company. I support this action because it would help do that, and I would support (and I do advocate for) more broad data privacy legislation. If you support data privacy why would you not support a bill which enhances data privacy, even if it doesn’t go far enough?

You started this discussion with me by saying that tiktok isnt obligated to send data, when I provided sourcing to that effect you brought up corporate structure questions asking if the data was being sent. I provided a source showing that it is transmitted through those avenues regardless. Now your argument is that because we don’t have totally comprehensive data privacy regulation we can just ignore the fact that tiktok is sending American citizens private data to a hostile foreign power? If you think that isn’t a big deal just say so, then we can have an honest conversation.

Attempts have been made. But the data is still sent.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/16/24132315/tiktok-bytedance-project-texas-china-silo

We should have better and more comprehensive data privacy laws across the board but whataboutism doesn’t change the fact that tiktok is obligated to share Americans data with a hostile and repressive foreign power.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/afcl/fact-check-tiktok-03242023144611.html

Technically according to this article tiktok won’t share data with the PRC - but their parent company bytedance is obligated to share data with the PRC when requested. Bytedance has authority to require tiktok to share data. Therefore through this channel tiktok is obligated to share data with the PRC when requested.

Facebook isn’t under an obligation to provide America’s data directly to the government of a hostile foreign power. Tiktok is

Israel should stop settlements in the West Bank because its the right thing to do. However if I were a Palestinian in Gaza and a peace deal was derailed because Hamas was refusing to agree without West Bank settlement concessions I’d be pretty pissed.

That being said given that Hamas broke the last ceasefire agreement, and their stated goal is to conduct other attacks like Oct 7th, I’m not sure how a ceasefire could be reached even on narrow grounds.

Given that Hamas does not operate in the West Bank I’m dubious that what you are describing in a West Bank hypothetical would occur. Illegal settlements in the West Bank are awful and should be stopped by Israel - but they are not directly tied to the current conflict with Hamas.

Yes this is a useful Wikipedia article. Especially the point just a little past the first line which specifically rebuts the point you are making:

“The territorial sea is sovereign territory, although foreign ships (military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it, or transit passage for straits”

And just to jump ahead to preempt your next argument, innocent passage is defined in the UN convention on the law of the sea here:

https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part2.htm

Furthermore the Houthis are not making claims that the vessels attacked are violating innocent passage. Only you are for some reason.

Def reasons for concern, especially considering the CCP is expanding their genocide of Uyghurs in Xinjiang in the face of tepid international response

One has to understand internal CCP politics through very imprecise measures, but one key thing to look at factional power within the CCP. Xi, by all accounts, has managed to suppress and marginalize all other factions within the party. This can be seen in the tangible result of his norm breaking additional term(s?) as leader of the party.

That’s true to an extent. But there is something to be said about having a more expansive and easy to navigate system for supporting windows and osx systems. If you have a computer issue odds are you can go into any staples or other chain office supply store and get tech support for a Windows computer.

I do believe learning tech literacy and putting some effort into being more familiar with the often expensive and critical piece of tech that one uses likely every day - but it doesn’t do Linux any favors to downplay the specific and limited advantages commercial operating systems have.