The difference is that we’ve allowed a private, for profit company to do the surveillance, and they are not beholden to all of the laws that we put in place to keep the Government in check. Capitalism’s latest innovation is outsourcing fascism. The privatization of all of this oppression is accelerating.

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.” -FDR

I just feel like posting this completely unrelated story on every automated traffic camera thread, I can’t understand why I feel this compulsion.

https://cybernews.com/editorial/israel-hacked-iran-traffic-cameras-us-war/

IANAL, but doesn’t settlement mean they don’t admit fault, they have no judgement to actually force changes, and the same case can’t be brought again, aka, they get to keep harming kids, just have to cough up some tiny slice of profit and offer some lip service to doing better? Or, to rephrase, as long as the government gets a cut, they can keep abusing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CIA_controversies

Let’s get crazy then.

To me it seems like all of the corporations and western governments are in a race to the edge of a cliff. All of them see the cliff and all of them know the race is going to end in disaster. But they also refuse to slow down because then they will lose the race.

100% the cheapest, most green choice is keep driving what you already have. But when I did my own math on my projected ownership of 10+ years, going electric was a no brainer on deciding between ICE and electric, and I’m betting that math will only get more in favor for electric on the basis that manufacturing petroleum products is dependent on a limited resource while green electricity is only getting bigger and cheaper. Especially if you’re able to get your own solar power generation.

Zoom out. BYD models are $10k cheaper than comparable models, you’re saving maybe $1k+ annually on gas, and you’re throwing in the towel on $150 tax? They are not available in US because of anti-competition and “national security” concerns, but if they were, the US manufacturers would be getting murked. As it is, we’re just going to massively lose global market share.