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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

#161
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…

You don't need a revolution narrative to criticize this ban. It's already bad policy on its own merits: it freezes innovation, hurts hobbyists and small businesses etc

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

#162
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson from Ukraine is the importance of having access to drones. It doesn't take any remarkable mental feats to realize that if your primary source of drones is China, then that access may not be reliable in the event of conflict with China.

Reducing the diversity of your supply chain and instead making your self so incredibly vulnerable that all an adversary has to do is fubar your own domestic supply chain (because imports have long been banned) is way less robust than maintaining imports. If you actually wanted what you claim, you'd allow imports while taxing or subsidizing until they look roughly break even with domestic offerings.

> all an adversary has to do is fubar your own domestic supply chain

"All you need to do to defeat the US is completely destroy its entire industrial base"

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

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The DJI ban is about China, not domestic protests. It can be about both. Two birds, one stone.

It could be, but I think you're just drawing spurious connections between two unrelated current events.

What's lacking authenticity is your assertion a well informed political cult engaged in gaming the system for its own benefit is not working multiple narratives.

If it was just about China they would not be turning TikTok, CBS into right wing platforms. They would not be announcing intent to violate 4th Amendment and go door to door without warrants.

Trump doesn't actually care about China. He prays on idiots fears with xenophobia. Trump is Palpatine. He's afraid of losing power. See also Steve Bannon at CPAC going on about how, if Dems win midterms a lot of them are going to prison.

They need to make moves to also protect their troops: https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-ice-hated-under-donald-tru...

Occam's Razor suggests it's not 12D chess they're playing. Just boring biological self selection. Someone in meeting brought up risk to them from drones.

Was working in EE designing motherboards for telco when manufacturing was offshored. It was plainly described as protectionism. Fear Americans with such skills could threaten Intel or copyright cartels. Educated and capable Americans capable of being manifold people who do not kowtow readily to political memes are greatly feared by the generation in charge. They've been working for years to maintain the historical narrative that serves.

Control the imports of technology to control the economy.

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

#164
post #84

This ban has more to do with how much geodetic data is being transmitted to China and less to do with the actual drone technology. People flying DJI drones are mapping the US on China's behalf, and that too with great fidelity.

Yet DJI drones don't automatically stream raw imagery or mapping data back to China by default

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

#165
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…

Trump will be gone in 3 years. Maybe fewer depending on his health. It's unlikely that this change will have any meaningful effect on US democracy. On the other hand, little drones are effectively munitions now. That means drone manufacturing capacity is effectively munitions manufacturing capacity. We're giving potential adversaries economies of scale building things that may be used to kill us. I'm generally a pret…

>Trump will be gone in 3 years. Maybe fewer depending on his health.

He incited an insurrection last time he had power, in a desperate attempt to stay in power. Congress impeached him for it, but spineless Republicans refused to convict him for it. Then when he got power again, he pardoned everyone who took part in the insurrection. He's talked about having a 3rd term, so if you think he's just going to go away at the end of this term, you are mistaken.

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

#166

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?

> When has American done enough to fight Ukraine’s war for them? I'm inclined to think Ukraine is fighting our war for us. The 1980s Cold Warriors would've been flabbergasted at how cheap taking out the Russian military at the knees would wind up being.

It was 30 years of rot, neglect, theft and corruption that did the majority of the damage to Russia's post-USSR military. The army they have today in Ukraine is only a fraction of what they were capable of in the 1980s.

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

#167

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]

Law enforcement is trained not to shoot at a moving vehicle because you risk public safety if the driver is incapacitated. Also LE is trained not to put themselves in front or back of the vehicle, since you can get run over that way. Agent Jonathan Ross did not follow his training, despite being dragged by a vehicle months earlier.

You also have to ask why Renee Good decided to leave her wife behind who tried to get in the locked passenger door. Another agent was grabbing the driver door and reaching his hand inside. What was Mr. Ross doing with his free hand? He was holding his phone in the other hand to video the encounter for some reason, even though they're supposed to have body cams.

There's no way a judge or jury looks at this and thinks the agents involved followed proper training.

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

#168
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They did murder a woman, but I agree that one murder is far short of a civil war. "violence" covers more than just murder, and there's plenty of ICE violence to go around.

Protestors and cops having tussles in the streets falls short of my bar for "brutal violence"; shooting a woman in the face certainly qualifies, but I am not seeing anything like that so widespread that it could motivate a drone ban like some people in this discussion are asserting. The political violence in America right now doesn't even come close to what was normal in living memory in the 20th century. America tod…

I think you are correct about the political violence being higher in 20th century USA. For anyone doubting it, just look at the black experience in the south during the civil rights movements. Where I am concerned is that the violence we are seeing today from the federal authorities is being endorsed by the federal government. In fact all leadership is doubling down and turning up the rhetoric whereas during the 50's and 60's it was the federal government stepping in if things got out of hand. With what is happening today, who will step in to cool things down?

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

#169
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reducing the diversity of your supply chain and instead making your self so incredibly vulnerable that all an adversary has to do is fubar your own domestic supply chain (because imports have long been banned) is way less robust than maintaining imports. If you actually wanted what you claim, you'd allow imports while taxing or subsidizing until they look roughly break even with domestic offerings.

> all an adversary has to do is fubar your own domestic supply chain "All you need to do to defeat the US is completely destroy its entire industrial base"

Your position is completely untenable here and relies on it being easier to destroy multiple 'industrial bases' plus the US drone industry rather than your straw man of just the "entire" US industrial base.

Even going off your theory that the US drone industry is not easily sabotaged, it can't possibly be easier to sabotage the US drone industry plus all the import pathways (which you would otherwise have to re-establish). That is why you chose this dismissive fake-quote rather than address what I've said.

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

#170
It’s really not quite like that. https://youtu.be/Dyr87--SDuc?si=EPmTEPQfFtaWV2tt

The impact is more for bind and fly drones that are FCC approved so you don’t need a HAM license to operate them.

To me it also looks like there are also loopholes you could drive a truck through in terms of importing partially assembled drones that can be assembled by the end user as well as approving components by making their use not exclusive to UAS.

What actually happens remains to be seen because it really depends on what the enforcement actually looks like and how well work arounds work.

I think the real goal of the regulators is to ensure an onshore supply chain for government use and there won’t be a focus on civilian usage.

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