A few hours before the SN8 Starship test in December, while Musk was in Boca Chica securing approval for the FAA license that SpaceX ultimately violated, he was asked in a virtual interview with The Wall Street Journal what role government should play in regulating innovation. Musk replied: “A lot of the time, the best thing the government can do is just get out of the way.”

WhatsApp caused a user stampede to rival encrypted messaging app Signal by sending users new terms and conditions.

Users were panicked by the notification WhatsApp sent out, thinking it meant the app would share more data with Facebook, its parent company.

In fact, WhatsApp was already sharing their data with Facebook — all the notification did was draw attention to it. //

What WhatsApp accidentally did with its notification was to highlight to users exactly how much of their data it was already sending back to the Facebook mothership. //

Woodward also pointed to WhatsApp's collection of metadata. "The perverse thing is that WhatsApp encryption is based upon the same as used by Signal, but whilst [WhatsApp] keep the content if your messages confidential they do harvest some metadata, and knowing who talked to whom, when and for how can be valuable data in targeting advertising by identifying affinity group," he said. //

While the new WhatsApp notification appears to be a PR blunder, Woodward doesn't think WhatsApp is in deep trouble long-term.

"WhatsApp still has a critical mass of users and many are quite relaxed about the unwritten social contract that says you can use our service for free in return for us using your data to make a profit," he said.

The future of the Lincoln Project is really a big question mark. With the Never Trump purpose having largely expired now, there are no longer reasons for Democrat donors to give money to the Project, and there aren’t reasons to produce campaign ads at wildly inflated costs to be paid with suckers’ money.

But the free media exposure over the past 6 months seems to have given the Lincoln Project a new possible form of existence as a “media company,” with various members branching out into podcasting and television production on political-themed shows.

The problem they are likely to encounter, however, is finding a target audience for their continued work. The central focus for their formation is gone, and there is no coherent reason for Democrats to pay attention to them in place of Democrat messaging forces — unless the founders intend to reinvent themselves now as progressives and socialists.

They have no home in the Post-Trump Republican Party. The policy agenda that drove the MAGA constituency is not being put back in the bottle. The post-Reagan agenda pursued by the Bush-Cheney-McCain GOP is dead, and it has no meaningful constituency in the post-Trump GOP.

A new CBS News poll reveals that a majority of Americans believe the biggest threat to the American way of life is other Americans. More than two-thirds of poll respondents said they believe democracy in the U.S. is “threatened,” and 54% said “other people in America” are the “biggest threat to the American way of life,” more so than economic factors, viruses, natural disasters, or foreign actors. //

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/poll_shows_most_americans_believe_other_americans_are_biggest_threat_to_country.html

What does this all add up to? Simple. We have two groups that hate America and Americans. These groups overlap a bit. They are the hardcore Leftists and the self-described, Elites. The Elites are comprised of garden variety Leftists, but also include RINO politicians and pundits. Think Hunger Games.

These two groups have grown so strong, they have made it virtually impossible to compromise with them. Meeting them in the middle has become akin to a situation where a mugger comes up, threatens to kill you, rape your wife, and take all your money. You hope that a compromise might be that he takes your money, kills you, and lets your wife go. Really?

There really are two Americas, three if you count the Elites and the Leftists as two groups. Make no mistake about it. The Elites and the Leftists do indeed pose a huge danger to America. And make no mistake about it. It’s not just President Trump they hate. They hate us. Mr. Utter has written an excellent article. Please take the time to look it over. The only beef I have is that we really don’t need a poll to realize at this point, We have met the enemy and he is us.

It makes for more gridlock, not less. It also opens the door for more corruption, because many “coalition parties” are just fine with settling into a losing position (this is something the GOP is often accused of). //

2.Unanimity in ideology helps keep the Executive Branch in check. In America our system provides for an executive election every four years and a legislative election every two years. That means that Americans are given the unique opportunity to elect a leader from one party, but may opt to keep him in check by electing the opposing party to Congress. In a multi-party system, coalitions fighting amongst each other for “favored loser” status and reenacting a political version of Survivor can prevent the legislative body from focusing on the Executive Branch when necessary. //

3.A two-party system offers just as many choices as a multi-party system, but those choices happen at lower levels. (primary elections) //

4. It simplifies federal governance and allows a President to represent America on an international stage with a people-powered mandate. //

Despite how powerful the President seems to other nations, he is only that powerful if he has a concerted mandate and full-throated support of the majority of his electorate. The people make the President. A two-party system allows voters to consolidate their votes where it counts when it comes to how a President represents us on a national stage.

VAGUAYE, Grand Cape Mount – In 2018, James Mulbah expected a big harvest like previous years. He had planted rice on five lots of land, and that year he really wished for the rain. But when the rain finally came, it did not bring the 36-year-old any good. Just as the first raindrops hit the ground, a herd of elephants raided his farm.

“The elephants destroyed all the rice,” says Mulbah, who has five children. I have nothing on the farm again, so I just decided to leave the farming work and join the mining.”

Mulbah is one of several farmers in Vaguaye and other towns and villages in the Gola Konneh District of Grand Cape Mount have abandoned farming and taken to the mines as the result of continuous raids by the elephants. The giant mammals have wreaked havoc in the area since 2015, and have made people here more dependent on food and other supplies from outside.

LIVING
Woolly rhino defrosted after more than 25,000 years
By Hannah Sparks

January 26, 2021 | 3:53pm

A young, woolly rhino has been thawed whole after as much as 40,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost.

During an unveiling for Russian press on Tuesday, scientists in Yakutsk officially cataloged the 8-foot-long beast, believed to have perished between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago, as a healthy adolescent of 3 or 4 years old. //

Plotnikov, whose excavations throughout Yakutia — one of the coldest regions on Earth — has revealed remarkably well-preserved specimens such as a giant wolf head, noted that the teenage rhino had been “very well-fed at the moment it died.”

But in 2021, it is not only the pandemic and other factors that account for heightened gun sales. The Biden administration’s anti-gun agenda, which his team announced last year, is undoubtedly contributing to the empty gun shelves. //

It appears that Van Cleave sees something that the others don’t. Biden and the gun control lobby wish to see fewer Americans owning firearms, but by taking such a radical stance against the Second Amendment, they are pushing more Americans to own more guns. //

If even a few Democrats decide to break ranks, it will mean that the Biden administration could get very little of what they want. Indeed, it’s possible that they won’t be able to pass any meaningful gun control legislation at all. In the end, this whole plan could easily bring about the scenario they wish to avoid. //

Robert_A_Hahn
5 hours ago
This is how we achieve unity. As we all know, the Democrats don't care what happens so long as everybody is saying the right things and talking purty. Our guys don't care what the Democrats say so long as they don't actually do anything. This could work. //

ericl
4 hours ago
I don't know, guns seem to be a lot safer than they were years ago. This focus on gun safety might be misplaced. For instance, of all the guns at the Capitol Hill demonstration - only one of them (held by a government agent) killed someone. And an unarmed person no less. Maybe we need government safety, not gun safety.

Maybe we can start talking about common-sense government control. Perhaps a waiting period for high powered politicians to enter federal buildings. Mandatory background checks for dark-money contributors. Do politicians really need fully automatic assault-media organizations? How about a tracing program for "Saturday night special" contributions from foreign terrorist organizations? Come to think of it, does anyone really need federal governments? Because I feel threatened by them, and I was told it's my body/my choice.