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The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

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Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#151

Post by loudmax »

ivell wrote: post #109
Kapura wrote: post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

My takeaway is that all previous U.S. administrations had pretense of morality and rules in both international and domestic politics (even when they did dubious stuff). The new administration has realized that there is no need for such pretense to stay in power. Previously Venezuelan attack would have been about "democracy" and "freedom" and "peace". Trump has made it clear that it is for oil. Overall it is probably…

No. That is excessively cynical. Even GW Bush and the neocons really thought toppling Hussein would benefit Iraqis more than just Americans. That invasion turned out to be a complete disaster that probably benefited Islamist radicals more than anybody else. But it's a mistake to think that the neocons didn't believe their own bullshit. The top leadership really believed they could turn Iraq into a liberal democracy at gunpoint.

America has always been at its best when it lives up to its ideals, and at its worst when it discards those ideals. America has often been in the wrong, but on balance, the world has been better off for having a great champion of liberal democracy.

With Trump, it's not a question of believing things that are right or wrong. For the post-truth mindset, right and wrong don't matter. Democracy doesn't matter. There is only power. The second Trump presidency is the first time in modern history that America is no longer a great nation.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#152

Post by [deleted] »

alex43578 wrote: post #136
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely wild to me that two people can watch the same video and come up with completely different conclusions as to what happened. > She sees he is there, puts it in drive, and pulls forward. The fact that her steering was cranked to the right is proof enough that she was not intending on hitting him.

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#153

Post by jjk166 »

inetknght wrote: post #148
jjk166 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Satellite synthetic aperture radar can have a resolution of like 6 inches. I can't imagine consumer grade drones are significantly improving on this, and even if they could do better I would question the utility of higher resolution data for anything military related.

> I can't imagine consumer grade drones are significantly improving on this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43073808 It's not necessarily better than 6 inches. But it's pretty decent, down to 0.3m, roughly 12 inches. > even if they could do better I would question the utility of higher resolution data for anything military related. Oh boy. Suffice to say that it definitely is useful for many things military rela…

> Oh boy. Suffice to say that it definitely is useful for many things military related.

Can you give a single example?

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#154

Post by giantrobot »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #111
jadedanalyst wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They can’t control the narrative if journalists and activists can observe brutal state violence against citizens with their pocket drones. I picked up an older DJI model in December and am super glad I did with recent events.

They'll probably consider you a domestic terrorist if you use it, then shoot you.

Reverse that. You'll be shot and then retroactively declared a terrorist.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#155

Post by reactordev »

Kapura wrote: post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

I wouldn’t call DJI game-changing technology anymore.

We have a very healthy FPV community here in the states perfectly capable of building drones from parts just like Ukraine is doing.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#156

Post by WinstonSmith84 »

Kapura wrote: post #2

Seeing how drone warfare has become the new hot front in 21st century conflicts like Ukraine, it's hard not to speculate on the implications of this as political unrest continues to rise in the U.S. It's no secret that the current U.S. regime views a sizeable portion of its own civilian citizens as enemy combatants. They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at t…

Probably so. Having the software and hardware built in the US facilitate installation of backdoors. This comes handy to control the population just at the moment when the population feels they had an hedge over ICE, the regime, etc.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#157

Post by KolibriFly »

Hard to ignore the parallel with other tech bans: vague data-risk claims, no public evidence, no transparent threat model, and zero nuance between consumer toys and critical infrastructure. If this logic were applied consistently, half of consumer electronics would be in trouble

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#158

Post by mothballed »

542354234235 wrote: post #143
aardvarkr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you can think of them more like unarmed artillery shells. Can you walk down the street to buy some artillery munitions? Even if they were considered arms for the purpose of 2a this isn’t a ban on drones but a specific manufacturer. They government can definitely refuse to grant a manufacturer license to sell on this country.

After Mcviegh, shouldn’t all U-Haul’s be seen as unarmed vehicular large IEDs? A drone isn’t like an artillery shell because an artillery shell is for putting in an artillery gun. A drone is for flying. Just because something can be modified to serve as some sort of weapon, does make it basically a weapon.

It was quite common in the wake of McVeigh and other large vehicle attacks that they should be seen as weapons and licensing strengthened.

The fact you can drive a 26,000 lb GVWR truck without any special license is something special we have in America compared to most of say, Europe. It's actually pretty mind blowing anyone can just rent 26 ft diesel 26,000 lb truck and get in and drive it on the highway.

It is testament to the fact there are a few vestiges of freedom left in America. Not much, but a few vestiges, since such trucks were around before the regulation hysteria of the late 20th century and 21st century.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#159

Post by FpUser »

ericmay wrote: post #133
alex43578 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm inclined to think Ukraine is fighting our war for us. Is there a war we needed to fight with Russia in this decade, the next decade, or the last, and if so, is Ukraine even damaging the parts that matter? Russia nukes hold America at threat, not a bunch of conscripts and some old BMPs. America isn’t safer if Ukraine scores another 100K Russian casualties, and there’s even an argument that a destabilized, volatil…

> America isn’t safer if Ukraine scores another 100K Russian casualties Europe is safer though, so there's that at least. Russia can't invade the United States of course, but it can invade other countries in Europe, and it is actively taking action to do so.

Some 150,000,000 people in Russia vs some 450,000,000 in EU. I think it is unrealistic and I think Russia / Putin knows it.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#160

Post by alex43578 »

sophacles wrote: post #132
alex43578 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By only giving Ukraine $175,000,000,000, instead of $500B? Or $1T and American boots on the ground? When has American done enough to fight Ukraine’s war for them?

Most of the money "given" to Ukraine was older stockpiled weapons that were approaching EOL or at least "refresh cycle" anyway and needed to be replaced. Instead of throwing it away or selling it, they gave it to Ukraine, and most of the actual money spend went to US armaments companies. The price tag you quote is the same as the "an $X value thrown in for free" you see in "deals" from shady companies.

We have neither the money (see national debt) nor production capacity (see 155mm shells, missile production, howitzer barrels, etc) to give billions away for somebody else’s war.

Furthermore, the weapons had a cost when they were new, and replacing them now carries a higher cost.

Saying the price tag is fictional is like saying my dinner is free because the steak was already in my fridge.

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