that's exactly what will happen, they'll turn it into a partisan issue and have 1/2 of the country rallying in support of spying on them, even if it doesn't serve them and is against the beliefs of just about everyone.

most don't do this though. There is a reporting requirement with the IRS on foreign accounts. If you don't report, the penalties are pretty steep. It's easier to just hold investments offshore that don't have a reporting requirement, like real estate and gold.

you see this in all social media. The end goal is an exit where you become a publicly traded company. That was what facebook did, twitter prior to Elon buying it, and just about any other social media platform.

I didn't vote for either of them, but back when she was running, on the topics that I was concerned about, both Hillary and trump were very similar in their views. For me, I saw a vote for either one of them being mostly equal.
the one thing I recall being the primary difference I saw: trump talks a lot and tends to try to do what he says he's going to do. Hillary, seemed to say what she thought you wanted to hear, then would go and do whatever she felt like doing, even if it was the opposite of what she had said she wanted to do.

so if I understand this right, it's not the use of the less productive farming techniques promoted with organic farming, that use more land and have substantially lower production per acre. In addition to that, shortages of fertilizer for standard farming causing lower yields. These aren't driving prices up??? instead it's a slight increase in global temperature.
while I agree that temperatures can have some effects, I'd lean towards fertilizer shortages and organics as being a larger driver in this.

china also blocks TIKTOK. if you have it, it won't work in mainland or HK.
Throughout my experience on TikTok, it tends to be a lot more like how our US politicians describe the Chinese version, and not anything like how they describe the version available within the US.
There are a good number of other apps that are widely used and developed in other parts of the world as well. The TIKTOK bill made it sound a lot more like the gov could ban anything from vpn's to websites to just an app developed in a country that is disliked by the government. Much of it sounded a lot like they want to move toward a model like what the chinese government uses to control access to outside media and influence.

they tried that with microsoft before, but when microsoft started lobbying and putting millions into DC doing so. All their anti-trust issues just magically cleared up.

That could be a claim of any non US based app. This is really just following the lead of China. If you don't like something that competes with the interests of companies in your country, just ban it or block it.
I've been in China recently, and there is no overt hostility toward the US. It is pretty obvious that they think our president is weak. While I was there Biden gave some speech that got headlines in china of "Biden forgets everything, Again!", but outside of that, nothing stands out as hostile for your average American wandering around in China.

that isn't a bad idea, though the US leads in some areas like AI, probably a few other areas too.
China already has most US based AI sites blocked, along with social media, including TIKTOK.
having a reciprocity agreement, might be good for some things though.

how is this any different from selling all your data to anyone and everyone willing to pay for it?
isn't this what every other one is doing?
I'm not advocating TIKTOK, I'm saying they all have similar issues. Rather than honing in on TIKTOK, the issue of user data where it's stored and how it's handled should be addressed.
if you'd ever been on TIKTOK, you'd reallize that most of the content is identical to what you see on youtube, facebook, X, and I'm sure plenty of other platforms. The exact same videos.
This seems more about what is done with the data, which I do think is a legitimate concern, but I think it should be addressed across all social media, not just one.

Why just single out TIKTOK, when their practices aren't very different from any other social media company? To me, it seems lobbying from facebook, X, google, and the rest are probably a greater factor in this. Using government to snuff out a competitor.

and what are global records?
an agrégation of local records. The US isn't the only one with records that date back far beyond 1940, There where quite a few other countries that had also kept records. To your point, unpopulated areas and areas that had not been developed to the point of many western nations lagged behind in recording this sort of data. Even after 1940 not all areas where monitored and not as much was known. We now monitor the temperatures of the oceans and seas by satellite, which was something that really wasn't possible until much later.
so, yes they do have data that predates 1940, yes there is data that goes back as far as the 1700's, The coverage of where these where measured and number of data points is not as high as if we where to look at data from the 2000's, but it is enough to work with.

weather.gov seems to support this claim.
https://www.weather.gov/arx/heat_jul36

1936 record july temps:
All-Time Records Set in July 1936

Location Temperature Date
Decorah, IA 111F July 14
Fayette, IA 110F July 14
New Hampton, IA 110F July 13
Mondovi, WI 110F July 14
Richland Center, WI 110F July 14
Rochester, MN 108F July 11 & 14
La Crosse, WI 108F July 14
Lancaster, WI 108F July 14
Viroqua, WI 108F July 13
Hatfield, WI 108F July 14
Osage, IA 107F July 14
Friendship, WI 106F July 14
Grand Meadow, MN 106F July 14
Mather, WI 106F July 14
Neillsville, WI 106F July 14
Sparta, WI 106F July 13
Medford, WI 104F July 13

I find it a bit odd that they claim that there are not records before 1940. Though only counting from that point on is a good way to support their claim. If you just took the time to go look at the National weather service web site, they go far earlier than 1940, and even show that there was a heat wave in the 1920's and 1930's that would could cast some doubt on the claims being made by this article.

this is about the way I'd see it going.
for those who just have w2 and nothing much beyond that, it'd be roughly the same as all the free services out there now.. it would just be at the taxpayers expense, and likely more costly than a private company doing it.
for me, nothing would likely change, I'll still probably be paying close to $1000/yr for a cpa to prepare my taxes, and submitting over 100 pages every year.