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TwiceHorn

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Posts posted by TwiceHorn

  1. 1 hour ago, C-Man said:


    Not sure he was ever sane or normal. I was watching Jon Stewart last night and he recounted a story from back in 2019 or whenever where he and a handful of first responders were going around and meeting US senators and reps to help support potential legislation to get 9/11 first responders treatment for cancer and other toxic cleanup ailments they had.

    Stewart said they met with Lee and the first responders took turns telling their stories. A police officer recounted his emotional experience of being in one of the towers that collapsed. When he was done telling story, Lee had this smile/grin on his face and said, “Man, I bet you’ve got a lot of stories.”

    Stewart said they left the meeting and as soon as they walked out, they all looked at each other and said, “What the fuck was that?” He said it was the only meeting of many they had where they had that experience.

    Needless to say, Stewart is no fan of Lee.

    He's been a Senator for a good long time (since 2011), 2019 is recent history for him.

    I noticed him as a sponsor of a version of the First Step Act quite some time ago, and a more charitable version of what actually got passed.  I'm sure he's always been some kind of reactionary, but he used to not be "based."

  2. 30 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

    But I was told it was made in America

    https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/06/16/trump-mobile-will-take-on-iphone-17-in-september-with-a-made-in-us-gold-smartphone

     

     

     

     

      Hide contents

    The 47 Plan

    The 47 Plan, named after the fact that Trump is the 47th President of the U.S., is the main offering for the network. While it does offer a smartphone for sale, the bread and butter for a carrier is the service. 

    Trump Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It will likely work on three major U.S. carriers, leveraging the 5G networks and coverage of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. 

    What it is not, is a new network. It resells AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile network access.

    The $47.45 per month, clearly another presidential number reference, is a fairly high price for a mobile service. But, there are promises of it going far beyond the typical cellular service. 

    Trump Mobile says it will provide unlimited talk, texts, and data, with the first 20GB offered at "high speed." These are very common features of modern-day phone plans. 

    The free international calling to over 100 countries is framed as a benefit for families who regularly call American military bases.

    Going into the realm of extended services, Trump Mobile also touts "Device Protection," but stops short of saying what it is, save for it not being insurance. It is being handled by a third-party provider, but again Trump Mobile doesn't say what that would be. 

    There is also included roadside assistance provided by Drive America. There's also telehealth and prescription services, again handled by third-party providers. 

    This is a lot for Trump to offer as part of a mobile plan, and at face value it could justify the monthly fee. However, the extra services may cause users to incur fees if they use them beyond a basic level. There is a complete lack of disclosure on the website about additional fees, so it's hard to tell how much, or how often.

    The site does say that you can bring your own phone over to the network, with a SIM card supplied by the company. It is unclear if eSIMs are being supported. 

    Since current-gen iPhones don't have a SIM card slot and rely on eSIM support with networks, this could rule out Apple users until that support is added. 

    At the time of reporting, Trump Mobile is not listed on Apple's eSIM support page. 

    T1 takes on iPhone 17, maybe

    The constant calls and pressure from the administration of President Donald Trump for Apple to make its iPhone in the United States are well documented. It's therefore apt that Trump Mobile will be offering its own smartphone to consumers as well. 

    The T1 is described in the Trump Mobile press release as a device that is "designed and built in the United States." This nationalistic claim is also a shot against Apple, which often uses the phrase "Designed by Apple in California," followed by a statement about the phones being assembled in India or China in most cases. 

    Clad in a gold-colored casing, the T1 is said to have a 6.8-inch Punch-Hole AMOLED display, with an under-screen fingerprint sensor and an "AI Face Unlock." 

    All of these parts will need to be imported for the phone. There are no domestic AMOLED display manufacturers, and the VCSEL used for face unlock technologies is also produced overseas.

    Running on Android 15, it is listed as having 256GB of internal storage, expandable by a memory card slot, and 12GB of memory. 

    On the back are a 50MP main camera but surprisingly low-resolution depth and macro cameras at 2MP, but the front has a 16MP selfie camera. The camera modules will have to be imported too for any kind of US manufacture.

    Battery capacity is said to be a generous 5,000mAh, charged using USB-C with 20W of fast charging. That USB Type-C port is also limited to slow USB 2.0 speeds, and is joined by a 3.5mm headphone jack. These are typical for the price point.

    The T1 is also seemingly going to be an attempt to spoil the September launch of the iPhone 17 range, with Trump Mobile planning to ship it by August. 

    The price of $499 with a $100 down payment for pre orders, makes it a mid-range device price-wise. The Amazon sale price on the device is about $180.

    A reskinned import?

    While there is a lot of bravado that it will be US-made, it took social media about an hour to find out where the phone actually comes from.

    In a post to X by analyst Max Weinbach, it seems that the T1 closely resembles the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G. The specifications of the display and the odd camera resolutions match up with the T-Mobile device, along with other details. 

    image.jpeg.ff6356c1b49b728aaadbd209ea60e023.jpeg

     

    That smartphone is made by Wingtech, owned by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Luxshare. The T-Mobile version is believed to be built in Kiaxing, Wuxi, or Kunming, in China. 

    The T1 appears to be a reskinned version of the REVVL 7 Pro 5G, in a new enclosure and with slightly moved around cameras. This smartphone normally costs $250 at full retail, and even goes down to $169 on sale like it is on Amazon right now. 

    For the Amazon price, you don't get the gold-colored trim, of course.

    The T1 phone may be modded in the USA. It certainly wasn't designed or assembled in the US.

    Made in America?

    The promotion surrounding Trump Mobile and the T1 certainly paint the operation as a US-centric approach, including for manufacturing the T1. The press release specifically mentions the T1 as "proudly designed and built in the United States." 

    image.thumb.jpeg.33f21336ba99ac8fc6793b81090a0dc3.jpeg

     

    In interviews, Eric Trump has also repeatedly mentioned the manufacture of smartphones. "You're gonna have phones that are made right here in the United States of America," he told Fox Business. 

    On stage for the launch, he declared "Making phones in America, it's about time we bring products back to our great country."

    The fact that it is a reskinned smartphone notwithstanding, the repeated claim of the T1 being designed and made in the United States is one that should be further questioned. The information provided about the smartphone is missing quite a few key areas, and goes against the usual expected cost of manufacture, if it is truly a US-made product. 

    For a start, the specifications list is missing the description of the chip that powers the mobile device. Even though Qualcomm, the main U.S. chip company for mobile processors, is based in the United States, it still outsources chip production to foreign third parties, such as TSMC in Taiwan. 

    TSMC does have a factory in the United States, but that is still far from being an adequate source of chips, even for Trump Mobile. 

    The obvious logic here is that the chip is being ignored because it's not a component made in the United States. This can be said of the screen, and the camera modules as well.

    That leads to another issue with the claims of it being made in the United States. As AppleInsider has repeatedly discussed, Apple cannot easily bring manufacturing of the iPhone to the United States without significant expenditure, as well as years of planning with its many supply chain partners. 

    Then there's the issue of somehow building up a skilled workforce in the U.S., to a skill level of what is available from workers in China. Or better robots. 

    All of these problems that apply to Apple also apply to Trump Mobile's T1, except it doesn't have the massive baggage Apple would have to deal with to do the same thing. 

    Assembling smartphones in the United States is possible, but on an extremely small scale. There are producers such as Purism who design and assemble smartphones entirely in the United States. 

    They do not source all of their parts from US manufacturers, though. Cameras, RAM, storage, processors, and screens are all imported.

    So assembling a smartphone in the US is not completely impossible, just difficult. And by definition, it will have to be in low volumes.

    Trump Mobile would still have to source the components before assembling them in the United States. Add in that those components would ideally have to be sourced from within the U.S. as well, and it becomes a very expensive operation. 

    Possibly one that on a per-smartphone basis would leave little to no profit from the sub-$500 selling price. Given that Trump businesses want to make a profit, something has to give to make the T1 for $500.

    We believe that the device will be assembled and designed in the US. We do not think it will make the Trump Organization's deadline. 

    Furthermore, the parts the company will need to assemble the phone will need to be imported. They will be subject to the tariffs that the administration applied, unless some kind of special deal is carved out by the Trump administration, making a $500 price point generating a profit unlikely.

    So, unless there is some real supply chain magic happening, and there does not appear to be any at this moment, it's extremely unlikely that this will be an entirely U.S.-produced smartphone. 

    Trump Mobile is clearly aiming for the Trump fan vote with the T1. What they'll get from their money is a mid-rate Android device that won't live up to the plastic shine of its golden exterior.

     

     

     

    Other than a common-law type false advertising claim, which could be quite viable, the law requires country of origin labeling on the product itself.  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1304 and provides penalties for failure to mark or marking falsely.

    So, conversely, lying your ass off, without mismarking the product itself, doesn't seem to be actionable.

    I also assume this is 100% a Patriot Mobile/Trump deal.

  3. 15 hours ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

    Yeah, I don't understand the basis for federal charges at all. And cynical me, but the stench of "he's being treated very unfairly" from the cunt-in-chief will be wafting in at any time if the feds are allowed in.

    Here's the affidavit for the Complaint, which does not allege charges in quite the same way as an indictment, but the charges are stalking, using a firearm in a crime of violence, and using a firearm to commit/attempt murder, both under 18 USC 924.  https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/read-minnesota-shooting-vance-boelter-charges-full-text-pdf-rcna213316

    For the firearm-to-commit/attempt murder charge, it would seem that the murder/attempt would have to be of the federal variety, which means "Within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States," which this ain't.

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  4. 2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

    Man, surely you know by now that much of federal criminal law arose in response to a refusal by many states to prosecute crimes committed by certain types of people against certain "lesser" types of people. 

    Some of it sure.  A lot of it is just political "tough on crime" shit.  Congress can't do anything useful, so they pass a crime bill.

  5. 2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

    I've learned in my 50 plus years on earth that doctors can be every bit as dumb as lawyers.

    At least in professional academia, the higher you go, the more likely you are to encounter some savants, who are really good at the school part, maybe good at the actual job or work, and pretty incompetent in everything else.

  6. 1 hour ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

    so Cornyn not even going to try the corruption angle on Kenny? Guess he knows that it doesn't move the needle one bit with Maga. Except to move it in Kenny's favor. 

    That would probably mean further exposing Timmy and Farris and they're all more scared of Timmy and Farris than Kenny.

    • Like 1
  7. 11 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    Not to be a complete reactionary here. I think a big part of the problem is that we have as a society done away with male only spaces. And of course, colleges and workplaces and jibs shouldn’t be closed to women. 

    But the pendulum really swung and any male-only club or activity outside of a few sports got smashed along with the patriarchy.  When you made those things and spaces transgressive, then actual transgressives like Tate filled the gap.

    I was reading an article a while back about how some wives in the UK elbowed their way into their husband’s model train club meetings because they didn’t think it was fair for them to keep women out. I think about that a lot. 

    Did they take all the imitation crab meat?

  8. 37 minutes ago, Underdog said:

    Another bankruptcy in the making. 

    Nah, it's a licensing deal.  That's one of the main reasons Trump has avoided bankruptcy since AC, much of his revenue comes from licensing and other deals that don't involve any "management" by Trump or Trumpco.

    I am super-skeptical about a $499 phone with those specs made in USA.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  9. 41 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

    Also claiming that it will be Made in America...

    “Trump Mobile, its products and services are not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or sold by The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals,” the bottom of the website reads.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  10. 4 minutes ago, Bookman said:

    Yes this has been a big difference between Americans for a decade now. To 40% of this country, this weak, feckless, buffoon is a strong leader with a successful background in business. 

    One of the things this underscores to me is that a lot of people buy into this mythology that rich fucks mean anyone can make it here, especially if we undertax them and let them do unto others with impunity.

    But it underscores that the vast majority of people (who believe this) don't understand how privilege works and how easy it is to get much richer if you are already rich.

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 2
  11. I think the most fundamental thing is that en route to age 25, women mature faster than men.

    Now that women are coming closer to equality than ever before, in terms of education and employment opportunities, and our society casts the die mostly before about age 25, women have just flat beat the pants off men, period.

    There's some other stuff dragging men down, too, but I suspect the above is the single biggest thing.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  12. 2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    dude

    the us 3rd regiment is the oldest in the army

    they protect the unknown soldier at arlington and are the color guard for the fallen when they arrive at andrews

    and they literally are chartered with OFFICIAL cosplay - not aggy cosplay - yesterday was not a one-time thing - they've been doing this forever

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)

    image.thumb.jpeg.736b0b65c5e2b1fb04f28287a70bb198.jpeg

     

    Yeah, again, I think this was a US Army thing long before it was Eeyore's Birthday.

    So I am certainly not going to fault soldiers for participating.  Particularly those with a highly ceremonial role, who would be expected to participate in whatever the Army chose to do for its birthday.

    I suppose strictly speaking, once this became a propaganda tool, we could hope for some sort of boycott or insubordination.  But the orders in that case would be a weird mixture of legitimate and illegitimate that it would be hard to ask them to disobey.

     

  13. 24 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

    reposting this for those who missed it and want to contemplate fox stations as protest targets

    the brainwashing of america's stupid and vulnerable is one of the reasons we are here

    The other thing is, why is Fox interviewing an obscure DIA "officer" for any reason other than her shitty alt-right views.

    • Like 1
  14. 11 hours ago, BurntEyes said:

    I agree with your second point, but my instincts, based on history, tell me that one bully makes sure he has the backing of a bigger bully prior to picking a fight. 

    Yeah, I kind of have to guess that this gives Trump some kind of cover for joining the op.  Something like "I didn't start this and didn't want it to start, but once it happened  . . . ."

    • Hook 'Em 1
  15. 6 hours ago, Derka said:

    i literally cannot picture him just sitting down and listening to music. it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t own or stream any music. i don’t see him as someone who takes pleasure in normal things like music or family pets. if it doesn’t make him rich or powerful, it doesn’t move him.

    which also reminds me of penn teller recounting how trump never laughs. they filmed an entire season of celebrity apprentice together, and teller said that trump never laughed, at least not in the way that normal people do. he said he might smirk or chuckle a little at someone else’s misfortune, but that he never told jokes, spoke with any levity, or just straight up laughed along with anyone else.

    i mean how easy is it to picture obama, biden, bush, clinton, etc smiling and laughing? they did it all of the time. you never see trump genuinely smiling or laughing in the name of levity; only when he gains something, is flattered, or is doing something cruel. the guy is barely human. just an orange, gelatinous, shit stained, lizard brained tyrant, and him being a two-time president of the United States makes this the most dystopian timeline. just unreal. 

    I agree, but it's pretty well documented that he's a big fan of show tunes and other schlocky stuff.

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