If there is credible evidence that Tan did what he is accused of, then yes he should be investigated and prosecuted. And Trump has the power to do that. But that's not what is being proposed. Trump is just stating that he should be removed as CEO, which is something he doesn't have the power to do and it's something that doesn't pursue justice of the accused infractions.

That's true. It's also true that the president doesn't have the power to unilaterally remove the CEO of a company in the private sector. But that won't stop him from trying nor will it stop fuckwits from capitulating.

You're talking about actual justice for the victims - given the amount of power held by the alleged perpetrators, I don't think there's any hope for that. The best we can hope for regarding accountability is for his base to cause enough friction to stall his limited time to consolidate more power. If my fellow libs don't act like complete jerks, we may even be able to welcome some of these people into the resistance. It's not much, but you have to make the most of every bit you get.

You're correct that Windows doesn't require TPM 2.0, but Microsoft is pushing for passkeys, a technology that uses FIDO2 which does require TPM 2.0. While I have some issues with passkeys, they do make man-in-the-middle proxy attacks for fake login pages virtually useless. This is important since MFA is now commonplace and MITM proxy attacks are becoming the favorite choice of attackers to work around MFA.

I get shredded by all of my friends for playing on console but I don't care. I don't want my powerful computer getting pwned by multiple malwares installed by different games just for the hopes of playing some matches on a level playing field. I'm perfectly happy playing games on a big screen TV with my home theater blaring while I'm reclined on my couch using an inferior input device. I rarely encounter cheaters, my PC is free of bullshit, and I couldn't be happier. I'd rather buy a separate locked-down piece of shit for gaming than turn my productivity computer into one.

And the app should respect your privacy

I agree with the principle, but in 2025 in the U.S. this is insanely naive. The ToS of virtually everything claim that they own every last bit of data you provide in perpetuity and God himself can't do a damned thing about how they use it. I'm not saying it's fair but currently our options appear to be:

1. Self-host
2. Use paper (as you mentioned)
3. Do without

1. Trump is the one who insists on getting credit for anything that is perceived to be a positive for the economy. The press simply reports on it every time he photobombs a company's press release for an already-planned investment on U.S. soil.

2. If you don't like Slashdot reporting on this, don't encourage them by commenting on the article. At the time I'm writing this, I count three comments from you so far.

If I understand the situation correctly, most of this investment is regarding the creation of a server farm for AI that is expected to be completed by next year. Given that timeline, this was likely something that was already planned by Apple long ago. Also, of course they're building an AI server farm in the U.S. - every U.S. company builds their AI server farms here. This is just a way for Apple to give Trump credit for something he had nothing to do with so that he won't target them with additional tariffs on Apple's consumer goods, most of which are and will continue to be made overseas.

The FBI does not and should not release investigation files that do not have indictments "just because". Your name could be in that investigation for totally benign reasons, should we potentially frag it through the mud because people just really want to know?

That's entirely true. It's also true that no reasonable person in this country would be demanding the release of the files if the DoJ through the past six presidential terms could be bothered to even pretend to do their fucking jobs and prosecute the rest of the co-conspirators. No one in this country is dumb enough to believe that lots of rich and powerful people were flying to an island with hundreds of trafficked underage girls and only Epstein and Maxwell were abusing them. If the DoJ even attempted to prosecute a few of the least-known co-conspirators, then enough members of the public may have been satisfied just enough to believe that some form of justice was served. But they couldn't even bother to do that and here we are.

The electorate sent the guy who orchestrated an insurrection back to The White House.

This was a result of the Big Lie 1.0: the election was stolen from Trump and he was the rightful occupant of the White House. His base bought into it because their interests were aligned with Trump's - they both wanted Trump to have a second, consecutive term. This situation, which I refer to as the Big Lie 2.0, is different because Trump and his base are not aligned in the desired outcome. His base actually want the files to be released while Trump doesn't - he only said he would release them to get elected.

In my opinion, this is very intentional situation created by Trump. He is known for giving loyalty tests to people in his administration to weed out everyone who isn't a complete sycophant and now he's doing that to his base. He could have easily spent the rest of this term punting the Epstein issue, like he did his first term, and use his talent for creating distractions to divert attention anytime people became too fixated on Epstein. Instead, he chose to not only state that the client list didn't exist but that Epstein committed suicide. He knew neither of those things would sit well with many within his base, and that was kind of the point. Every cult leader knows that they need to push out the people who aren't completely committed to blind faith in their leader because those people pose the biggest threat to the leader's most radical long-term desires. Trump can't legally serve another term, so he doesn't need votes from those people anymore. Right now, he needs the minority he has to be just large and angry enough to dissuade anyone from attempting to get in their way.

Why didn't Biden release the Epstein files during his presidency?

Five different administrations (six if you count Obama's consecutive terms as two separate administrations) have completely failed to release the files. The reason people complain about it with Trump is that he is the one candidate who promised to release them if he was elected in 2024. And after citizens pledged their votes for him, he's done everything he can to bury them deeper than any previous administration. If he didn't want to release the files, he'd be no worse than all of the previous presidents going back to Dubya, but he reneged on a promise that was very important to his base and in a rare move, they're holding their leader accountable for his actions.

Stupid voters are absolutely nothing new. The last I checked, each vote is counted equally and is not proportional to the intelligence of the voter. If you want the most votes, you're going to have to find a way to appeal to "stupid" voters. You don't have to stoop down to their level, you just have to listen to them, understand their concerns, and communicate with them in ways they're familiar. So yeah, we're screwed...

A major part of elected officials' jobs is to win over voters. Insulting and blaming them is a terrible way to win them over and my fellow Dems are gonna keep getting trounced until they figure that out. Stop blaming voters and find a way to appeal to them - otherwise, you know the joke about the definition of insanity.

And people who got their games secondhand got their consoles reactivated once they proved they have the original cartridge.

Oh, well then no damage done. Except for the fact that a company can kill the console you purchased just because they believe you did something wrong and you're considered guilty until you can convince them of your innocence. Nintendo has a history of treating their fans like absolute garbage and yet people are lining up to hand them money. Apple is the only company that probably has a higher revenue-to-abuse ratio. I wonder if marketing majors have a whole course dedicated toward studying this phenomenon.

So they're killing a system that was more convenient for filers, more convenient for the IRS to process over paper filing, received overwhelmingly positive feedback from its users, and was already paid for by our tax dollars. Other than Dicknuts and the tax preparers, who wants this?