Tariffs Arenât Enough: Only Automation Can Save American ManufacturingApr 14
tariffs might buy time, but only automation can win the war. the future of american industry â and national power â depends on it.
Trae StephensWelcome back to the Pirate Wires Morning Report.
THIS ISSUE: TikTok super concerned about disinformation in the US (lol), Elon prepares for his cage match with Zuck, White House announces plan to waste a ton of money, Britain on the brink of a mortgage catastrophe, GLAAD publishes open letter demanding platforms censor discussion of youth gender transition, the greatest performance inside a T-mobile store of all time, and a ton more.
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Finally, have a great 4th of July⌠or, as we refer to it around the office, Mike Solanaâs birthday weekend.
Silicon Valley execs pen letter to Pentagon urging contracts for tech startups. If the DoD doesnât start doing more business with the tech industries strongest innovators, tech leaders warn, âour competitors will continue to gain ground on the technological battlefield, and we will squander the advantages that accrue from the freest and most innovative marketplace on earth.â Signers included Anduril, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Palantir. (Financial Times)
House CCP committee urges Blinken to let US-China tech agreement expire. âFor the last 44 years, the CCP has taken advantage of American good faith under the U.S.-China science and tech agreement to advance its own military.â As an example of how the CCP has exploited the agreement, the committee notes that: âin 2018, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration organized a project with Chinaâs Meteorological Administration to launch instrumented balloons to study the atmosphere... a few years later, the PRC used similar balloon technology to surveil US military sites on US territory.â Who could have predicted this? (Twitter) (NY Post)
Top TikTok lawyer warns employees American media waging disinformation war against company. In response, TikTok will focus on âminimizing the harm caused by disinformation, influence operations and other attempts to manipulate the beliefs of people and communitiesâ by creating a fact-checking website that âdisproves frequent false statements and narratives.â (Forbes)
WSJ: Google violates its ad placement promises up to 80 percent of the time. A new report from Adalytics claims that âthe company [places] ads in small, muted, automatically-played videos off to the side of a pageâs main content, on sites that donât meet Googleâs standards for monetization, among other violations.â Google has rejected the claims. (WSJ)
Supreme Court raises cyberstalking conviction standards. It overturned the conviction of a Colorado man who in 2014 sent a flurry of Facebook messages to musicians. The new legal standard, nationwide: âThe State must show that the defendant consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence.â (WSJ)
White House announces $42b to expand high-speed broadband access by 2030. Officially targeting 8.5 million homes, the program will run taxpayers almost $5,000/home, an absolutely great deal for taxpayers, who have shown time and again they love paying 10x the real cost of services when their government is the middleman (Starlinkâs setup costs $599 per home). (Reuters h/t @mualphaxi)
Media darling Stacey Plaskett lied about Epstein ties. New reporting by Lee Fang says that Plaskett â a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives who became a liberal media darling after serving as a House manager during Trumpâs second impeachment â lied about her years-long fundraising from the late, disgraced, probably (definitely) murdered financier Jeffrey Epstein. According to Fangâs reporting, Plaskett continually solicited Epstein for donations to both her campaign, and the Democratic National Campaign Committee. (Lee Fang)
Supreme Court rejects GOP-backed âindependent state legislatureâ theory. The theory, which several of Trumpâs allies invoked in the aftermath of the 2020 election while it was still unclear if Trump would formally accept its outcome, holds that state legislatures may set election rules with little oversight from state courts. (NYT)
CA Democrats move forward with eight percent gas tax rate hike. On Tuesday, Republicans moved to delay the hike â which will bump the tax from roughly 54 to 58 cents per gallon â citing concerns about household finances in the face of ongoing inflation. Democrats shot the motion down, ensuring the hike will take effect at the start of July. Happy 4th, everyone. (San Joaquin Valley Sun)
Britain on the brink of mortgage catastrophe. After the Bank of England raised interest rates by 50 basis points in a bid to curb inflation, experts warn 1.2 million households could run out of savings by yearâs end, which could lead to widespread defaults. Temporary measures are in place to forestall credit score increases and foreclosures. (CNBC)
Apple warns UKâs Online Safety Bill is a threat to end-to-end encryption. It joins WhatsApp and Signal in opposing a section of the bill that would allow communications regulators to force tech companies to identify and take down child sexual abuse content regardless of whether its communicated publicly or privately. A statement signed by the latter two companies reads: âIf implemented as written, [this bill] could empower [communications regulator] Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services â nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users.â đŹ (The Verge)
Amazon takes challenge of Franceâs minimum book delivery fee to top court. France imposed a âŹ3 minimum delivery fee for online book orders in an effort to prop up independent brick-and-mortar bookstores. Amazon is arguing the law is an abuse of state power that hurts consumers by inflating book prices. (Bloomberg)
Japanâs defense ministry tests Starlink. Defense minister Yasukazu Hama confirmed Japan has been testing SpaceXâs satellite communications network since March, telling reporters: âthreats are growing, and itâs becoming even more important to improve the resilience of satellite communications, for example by using multiple satellite networks.â (Bloomberg)
Cocaine production at all-time highs, cocaine consumption continuing to grow, UN report shows. âThe world is currently experiencing a prolonged surge in both supply and demand of cocaine, which is now being felt across the globe and is likely to spur the development of new markets beyond the traditional confines,â the report said. (Reuters)
Shocker: viral racism video not what it seems. OnlyFans model Kadia Iman, the heroine who recently fought racism by âreclaiming her momentâ in a tussle with an old white lady for the mic at a college graduation ceremony, allegedly also yelled homophobic slurs at gay people, and pissed everyone off in general. âIâm like, just you know, âRelax! Relax!â Weâre all telling her to just relax. But she was just very derogatory, very homophobic, nasty â just disrupted everyone in that surrounding area,â one student told the Post. âWhat they asked us to do is just announce our name â so your first and last name and if you want to say your major. Thatâs it, because thereâs almost 2,000 graduates⌠They couldnât say it like she wanted, I guess, to say a whole big spiel like, âIâm this, Iâm that, Iâm graduating.ââ The school says Imanâs behavior was âunacceptable,â and is reviewing the incident. (NY Post)
GLAAD publishes open letter demanding platforms censor âcontent that spreads malicious lies about medically necessary healthcare for trans youth.â The NGOâs letter also demands companies censor anti-trans âhate speech,â including deadnaming. It was signed by over 250 public figures. Of these, GLAAD highlighted Elliot Page, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Alok, and, in what appears to be a clear indication of lean times at the organization, Camila Cabello. It remains unclear what âmedically necessaryâ healthcare treatment trans youth are not presently able to access. (Twitter)
Starbucks to issue âclearer guidelinesâ around Pride decorations as strikes continue. So far seven cafes have closed and others are running with limited service as a result of strikes by workers who claim Starbucks has banned Pride decorations at its stores. Starbucks has already said that workers can put up Pride decorations. (WSJ)
Itâs (not actually?) happening, and itâs good. NBC tweeted that the âWeâre coming for your childrenâ chant heard at a NYC pride event last week âhas been used for years at Pride events, according to longtime march attendees and gay rights activists.â Itâs been Community Noted (âweâre coming for your childrenâ has not, in fact, been used âfor years,â the note said), but Note is intermittently disappearing from tweet as of this writing. (Twitter)
Right-Wing Hell: Normal guy falsely accused of being an agent provocateur six days after college graduation. Right wing nuts are doubling down after falsely accusing a recent UC Riverside graduate of being a federal agent who infiltrated the far-right Patriot Front at a Pride event in Oregon City, OR. The visibly bewildered young man, Ben Brody, released a video clarifying he was not a member of the group, said he had never been to a pride protest in Oregon City, and that he was with friends in Riverside at the time. He added that he and his family have been subjected to non-stop harassment, and offered to clear up any further confusion. (Twitter) (Daily Mail)
UCLA students allegedly block candidate from getting hired because he mildly critiqued DEI on some podcast episodes. Their four-page letter alleges that Dr. Yoel Inbar, who was in the running for a tenured faculty position at the universityâs psych department, expressed skepticism that DEI statements have much value, among other concerns. Signed by 25+ people who included pronouns with their signatures, but failed to include a proper land acknowledgment (outrageous), Inbar suspects he didnât get the job as a result. (@JohnDSailer)
Woman (either insane or the greatest performance artist of all time) goes to T-Mobile for an iPhone with dog, claims to be federal agent, holds up passport as proof, insults every race. Best quote: The Armenians are down. Anyone worried about Putin? Because this is his pussy *taps crotch with passport*. Itâs the whites and the Latins. Anybody got a problem with that? Chuyâs up, Caitlinâs done. Her dog is a Great Dane. Is he allowed to shit all over my house? Who shit in the street of I.M.T.? That snitch Caitlin. I got the water from Mexico. Itâs Calexico. You donât like it? Go where you wanna go. I run with the Russians. (Twitter)
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