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January 19: Trump's First Mistake

Allowing Tik Tok to start up again. 

Tik Tok is evil. It is crack cocaine. It is stealing our brains, our children, our data, and our national security. 

Trump is a fool to make this decision.  But no surprise there. 

And these are his words:

"By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars - maybe trillions," Trump wrote. "Therefore, my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose." 

Soooo.  Tik Tok will be owned, in his mind, by the U.S.  Where does freedom of speech go? The US government does not own media (well, there is Voice of America, but that is something else).  Would not the US government have to censor some parts of Tik Tok, then?  Those bewailing that the banning of TikTok is taking away free speech probably wouldn't like the government (under Trump?) owning it.  They don't understand freedom of expression anyway, Tik Tok is a platform that allows people to express, but citizens can still express lots of other ways. Otherwise, a medium that goes out of business would have to be rescued financially by the government. 

The sort of good news:  At least three women hostages were released from Hamas. I suppose we should be happy for that, but it is a drop in the bucket.  All 96 should be out. All 250 plus should have been out a long time ago.  

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