Chinese law doesn't require a warrant for such access and it may be done in secrecy (i.e. without informing the user) if necessary to perform duties. The problem with Apple in China isn't that they aren't following the law, it's that they are and the law is openly fascist.

Check his posting history and it's very clear that he is not.

If he is not a trollbot, he is so frothy as to be indistinguishable from one. Every comment is the same.

Mobile Firefox has become nearly unusable. It crashes on me at least once per day now. The memory leaks are worse than ever.

Dice isn't relevant here, it's B1zX

There is more than one study and more than one way to look at it. Especially for streaming, having a catalog matters, especially for the smaller artists who will never have a charts-level hit:

"In 2024, nearly 1,500 artists generated over $1 million in royalties from Spotify aloneâ"likely translating to over $4 million across all recorded revenue sources. What's remarkable is that 80% of these million-dollar earners didn't have a single song reach the Spotify Global Daily Top 50 chart. This reveals a fundamental shift from hit-driven success to sustainable catalog-based income, where consistent engagement from devoted audiences matters more than viral moments or radio dominance."

https://cord-cutters.gadgethac...

Also don't forget that many studies such as DiCola's "Money from Music" focus on the superstars and the big hits. That is true, the charts pop music generates 80% or so of its income within the few weeks it stays in the charts and then drops of sharply.

Honestly, I don't care about the charts and superstars. They wouldn't starve if we cut copyright terms to six weeks. I do care about the indie artists that I enjoy. Who after ten years get the band back together for another tour through clubs with 200 or 500 people capacity. I'm fairly sure they would suffer if the revenue from those albums disappeared. And disappear it would. Maybe fans would still buy the CDs from the merch booth, but Spotify would certainly not pay them if it didn't have to.

Yeah, specific employees.

Anyway, this is a good point, people can only stare at a screen for so long, unless they're playing video games. Obviously they need to gamify trading. I mean, more than they already have

That is exactly the space I am always trying to inhabit. Sometimes I even get there.

Taxing bad behavior is just another variation of the evil bit, or vice versa I suppose.

There are two main problems with Democrats. First problem, they are not actually left enough. They are solidly in the pockets of big business, they always vote to increase funding to the MIC, etc etc. They are mostly just as addicted to money as Republicans. (On average it costs more to bribe them, which is mildly interesting although it doesn't change anything for us - it's been studied and it costs more in "donations" to get them to vote like shitheels, but they still do it.) Second problem, which is related to that problem: they think they can court the right wing. Well, they fucking can not. They shift right to try to get votes and it doesn't work. They keep going conservative and losing, and they do it with such gusto that it's difficult to believe it's not on purpose.

Harris failed to condemn genocide for both of these reasons, and that is a huge reason why younger voters stayed home. I don't disagree with anything you said, but I still believe that's a huge factor here.

Correct, I am not a simp for the world's longest running child rape conspiracy.

I don't need to have one. You actually do get to claim to be one if you're not actually living the faith, and you know who decided that? The church. In between raping children and relocating child molesters to other locations so they can rape more children, the priests and bishops and popes took some time out to say it's OK as long as you keep trying to come in and give them money and children.

Absolutely. For one thing, it will not be tolerated if they wear a tan suit.

I don't care what their race or sex is. I'm concerned about their age, religion, and views on war crimes and slavery.

We know Obama did war crimes because he told us about them. That's how brazen the servants of the MIC have become. (inb4 I get accused of racism this time: We know Trump does more drone strikes without due process than Obama did, because until Trump rescinded Obama's EO on reporting of such strikes, he was doing four times as many of them.)

We The People? Not most of us. TPTB? Yes, they sure do. High unemployment is just the thing when you want people to volunteer to be cannon fodder for your endless war.

LOTR is about freedom vs oppression, had not just strong but powerful female characters from the get-go, and the morals are about ordinary people defeating evil by being true to their fellowship. It's woke AF from start to finish.

They only left him out, they did much worse to Faramir.

Tom Bombadil was important to the books, to give a certain feeling. But not so much to the movies, which felt epic enough without him.

And where are we going in this handbasket?