Shacktastic

Your quote is from the sub-headline, which was probably written by an editor if not AI. I wouldn't put too much trust in it without supporting details. To the contrary, the detail about being able to step into a conference room to take work calls implies that they are expected to stay connected to their normal job and not bill it as vacation/time off.

The way it works in my company (not Amazon) is that office workers will occasionally be given "volunteer" opportunities to help with a temporary workload crunch and these will be paid at your normal salary. Sometimes it's a good deal to get a break from routine, show the boss you're a team player, and pad out weak progress on yearly goals. Other times it may require uncomfortable work and prolonged absence from home (without overtime pay). But they're upfront about it and participation is truly voluntary.

Such capability would be a source of immense geopolitical power, though it makes more sense for leveraging consessions out of small debtor nations like all the African and South American ones that China is investing infrastructure into. Kinda tricky to use though.

Cynicism isn't helpful. The U.S. was a democracy and now that's in jeopardy. To pretend that an imperfect democracy is equivalent to the electoral autocracy we seem to be headed for is disingenuous and betrays the many substantiative freedoms we enjoyed under the former.

Yep. Pretty smart to take the financial hit for a short time and gather free publicity for it while trying to save a declining franchise.

They do until they don't. Hitler came to power with the support of the brownshirts and then turned on them during the night of the long knives while shifting his rhetoric from the working class to the middle class.

But yeah, I take your point. Trump definitely doesn't mind if his followers instigate political violence against his opponents.

Transmission providers don't build much new line for other reasons... It's hard, for example, to get utilities, environmental groups, landowners, and regulators from multiple jurisdictions to agree on things. This idea that providers would build more if there was just a bit more demand on the system (instead of simply pocketing the tariff increase) is fanciful. Moreover, that demand would simply generate more headwinds for renewables, who actually need transmission.

So utilities (presumably transmission providers who have a government-granted territorial monopoly, mind you) are complaining about not getting tariff on those behind the meter megawatts?

It seems like an alternate way to spin this story is that Big Tech is making agreements that avoid putting load on the nation's aging and overloaded transmission infrastructure, which would be a good thing.

Not that I'm endorsing them per se. Electricity pricing and policy is complicated, and increased demand will directly or indirectly increase consumer prices (though long term it could lower them or even help fund nuclear renaissance). But it just seems like another case of big companies being crybabies when they think it might help them get their way.

To the contrary... it's a real concern. That's why we shouldn't falsely equivocate the CCP censorship apparatus to the haphazard moderation impulses of a childish social media CEO.

We've got a lot more to lose, especially with the long-emerging (and currently accelerating) conflux of state and social media.

For insurance, the pending KOSA bill opens a huge opportunity for future government censorship: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/09/new-kosa-same-as-old-kosa-but-now-with-elons-ignorant-endorsement/

Which of my statements do you disagree with? How would you characterize the state of freedom of speech in the PRC?

He wasted a decade plus of his life chasing a lost cause.

Metal detector enthusiast who found a hard drive in the landfill 12 years ago:

"Yeah, I should get around to seeing what's on that."

China censors all literature, film, music, and internet discourse employing advanced technologies and multiple tens of thousands of people while also running the world's largest prison for journalist. VPNs are blocked. Apps like Signal are blocked. Online gaming for minors is limited to 3 hours per day on weekends and holidays only. People get harassed by police for what they post online. Many go to jail for criticizing the government, spreading pornography or health related sexual content (including anything LGBT), supporting Taiwanese independence, or casting doubt on Chinese folk legends. Then, in addition to that (which I have not even begun to do justice to), all media companies run their own internal censorship regimes so as not to get in trouble with the authorities. And this rolls downhill: you the individual self-censor to not get in trouble with your boss or worse.