But wouldn't all the non-sentients vote Republican?

"you'll appreciate just how responsible we were..." Yeah, past tense ... you were once a great country. I'd love to say more, but I think you've already said it all.

If the Chinese product is competitive, consider it. If the American product is better for the same cost, decline the Chinese product. When the comparison changes, re-evaluate which is better. Doesn't sound that difficult to me ... but I'm not American or Chinese.

... not fully removed yet ... but Microsoft is removing the Local Account workarounds with each update https://redmondmag.com/article....

No, they're setting YOU up for a catastrophic failure. When (not if) it fails, it won't hurt Microsoft at all, regardless of what happens to you. Since it's applied equally to all installs of Windows, there's no prejudice against any one group, company, faction so it must be equally fair to all.

If you can't trust Microsoft to protect you, you can at least trust the government oversight to protect you.

Sorry, no. I don't believe he could have figured it out himself, but I certainly would believe that his cronies would do so and (for a small cut of the proceeds) make a wager or two on his behalf. Doing it himself would obviously influence the odds and he wouldn't get as much.

... and also shot them

I can't see why anyone would go to a conference in a police state where you could get arrested for even possessing a meme that might offend the border security blackshirts, much less get arrested, deported, or shot without any rights or recourse whatsoever. Why not have the conference, or a sibling-conference, in a country that accepts foreign tourists with money, ideas, business acumen, and initiative? Even the interested parties from the police state could come to that.

... In which time zone?

" thinking creatures like artists or attorneys" ... I'll grant that those are mammals (probably), but thinking creatures? Artists are at least borderline.

" the expectation that the government cannot legally track you absent reasonable suspicion" You can expect what you like, the government will do as it pleases, especially the current regime. Realistically, you should expect to be tracked and monitored for various reasons by everyone who has the capabilities, regardless of regulation, and act accordingly. That may include trying to change or block the monitoring, but definitely not trusting the other party to follow rules.

Reality doesn't care what you expect.

... they'll tell you. And if they want your opinion, they'll tell you what that is, as well.

The term is "careless" in its true definition. He's really not out to get you or anyone else (that I know of), he simply doesn't care ... about anyone, anything, outside his own interest. There's also a book Careless People (https://z-lib.fm/s/careless%20people) describing Facebook the same way, lots of examples. See also Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence"