Trump's TRUTH Social May Violate Terms of Open-Source Code It's Built On (talkingpointsmemo.com) 254
ISayWeOnlyToBePolite writes: The new social network founded by former President Trump may violate the terms of use of the software on which it is based. On Wednesday night, after Trump revealed the TRUTH social app, Twitter users began to note that the network appeared to be based on an open-source social networking software called Mastodon, which allows people to modify the underlying code so long as they abide by its license. But the Trump network appears to have taken the publicly available code for the website while violating the terms that make it free to use.
Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko told TPM in an email that TRUTH appeared to violate the terms of use that the software sets forth: making the source code available, and having a copy of the general product license available to users. "I do intend to seek legal counsel on the situation though," Rochko told TPM, while declining to discuss any specific legal action he may be contemplating. "Compliance with our AGPLv3 license is very important to me as that is the sole basis upon which I and other developers are willing to give away years of work for free," Rochko added.
The AGPL license mandates that software developed for free -- like Mastodon -- remain publicly available after its been modified. Under the license, TRUTH needs to share any modifications to Mastodon's code. The requirement allows developers to remain aware of how the software is being used so long as its run on public servers, continuing the chain by which different open-source developers continue to work on and further modify code that's been created. Former President Trump announced plans to launch the social media platform yesterday, saying his goal is to rival the tech companies that have denied him the megaphone that was paramount to his rise. TRUTH social will be open to "invited users" for a beta launch in November, with plans for it to launch publicly beginning early next year.
With that said, the "invite only" system has already run into some problems, according to Slashdot reader slack_justyb. Some users were able to sign up to create accounts using a publicly available link, allowing them to generate their own handles, like @donaldtrump.
Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko told TPM in an email that TRUTH appeared to violate the terms of use that the software sets forth: making the source code available, and having a copy of the general product license available to users. "I do intend to seek legal counsel on the situation though," Rochko told TPM, while declining to discuss any specific legal action he may be contemplating. "Compliance with our AGPLv3 license is very important to me as that is the sole basis upon which I and other developers are willing to give away years of work for free," Rochko added.
The AGPL license mandates that software developed for free -- like Mastodon -- remain publicly available after its been modified. Under the license, TRUTH needs to share any modifications to Mastodon's code. The requirement allows developers to remain aware of how the software is being used so long as its run on public servers, continuing the chain by which different open-source developers continue to work on and further modify code that's been created. Former President Trump announced plans to launch the social media platform yesterday, saying his goal is to rival the tech companies that have denied him the megaphone that was paramount to his rise. TRUTH social will be open to "invited users" for a beta launch in November, with plans for it to launch publicly beginning early next year.
With that said, the "invite only" system has already run into some problems, according to Slashdot reader slack_justyb. Some users were able to sign up to create accounts using a publicly available link, allowing them to generate their own handles, like @donaldtrump.
This is the reality of open source (Score:5, Informative)
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It's basically true. The conditions can't require breaking the law, but short of that, anything goes. Don't like the conditions? Then don't copy the protected work.
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Who's law? It varies between countries. In china and russia you can pretty much do what you like with someone elses IP so long as they're not chinese or russian.
Re: This is the reality of open source (Score:2)
Also AGPL has loopholes you can drive a truck through.
Slap an API in front of it and the AGPL isn't even at play.
This is why Elastic and Mongo and others use the SSPL.
https://opensource.stackexchan... [stackexchange.com]
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Well, it *might* be at play. SSPL seeks to more definitively make that clear, but the potential loophole is unclear. If it's a simple translation and every interaction with AGPL by the middleware is driven by remote user, then some say that would still count. It hasn't been tested in court if the legal system would decide the translation is a sufficient barrier to declare the user is not interacting with it or if the middleware would just be a component of 'the network'. Better to be clear about it, but a
Licence non-compliance is a universal problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Licence non-compliance is a universal problem (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry, someone will just say it's "Fake News".
Re: Licence non-compliance is a universal problem (Score:2, Insightful)
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Oh please, the only time I have ever met a Rep that wants you to listen to both sides is when he insists in "teaching the controversy" despite knowing that all he has to offer is superstitious bullshit.
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If you have a counter example, present it.
Re: Licence non-compliance is a universal problem (Score:3)
Sorry but I don't have one.
Re: Licence non-compliance is a universal problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think the system is necessarily broken, but the people your government are meant to serve are being divided by your ruling party to serve their purpose, and the common good is not part of that agenda. Corporate lobbying is corrupting your process and ironically undermining the free market that made America exceptional
Painting all Dems and Reps as characatures of their extremes perpetuates the division that distracts your nation from realising that you're kicking own goals for China and Russia, and the game is nearly done.
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No matter what, we all lose here... (Score:2, Troll)
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The former alleged president will have yet one more instance of his business acumen: the University, the airline, the vodka, etc. He just sold his name to another bunch of rubes. They'll be sorry, he'll get a few nickels. The first rule of the former alleged president still applies: he destroys everything he touches.
And his site has already been hacked in its prenatal form. The teenagers are going to have a field day like with that rally in Tulsa.
Flunkie (all excited): Mr. . .errr. . .You, our site has cap
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Because it's all a money making scam.
https://www.reuters.com/techno... [reuters.com]
Of course he's not using his own money to bankroll it.
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Speaking of social media, have you remembered to unfollow Taliban for misgendering people they toss from the tall buildings?
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If Trump loses, then it is another example of unsuccessful challenge to Silicon Valley oligarchy.
...because complying with the AGPL is impossible?
Hyperbole much?
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No, because nothing in the AGPL prevents you from competing with any other company.
The people paying you to spout this shit are not getting their money's worth.
HAH - So what? (Score:2)
This is so very far down on the list of ignored transgressions that even if somebody told them it was wrong - and why it was wrong - that single second post-explanation would be the last second ever spent thinking about it.
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That's why it would be funny to sue him for that. It is unrelated to the other stuff, president or not, he did.
This is why you should never use AGPL (Score:2, Insightful)
Most open-source licenses require that you provide the source code for any changes you make to derivative software you sell and distribute. AfferoGPL adds the stipulation that you have to distribute changes to any software you *USE*.
Anyone who uses AGPL code in production is running a horrible risk in exposing any changes they make particular to their system, needlessly increasing the threat surface.
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Anyone who uses AGPL code in production is running a horrible risk in exposing any changes they make particular to their system, needlessly increasing the threat surface.
Only if their code is shitty and based on an easily cracked months-old fork of the codebase. Oh, right... that's exactly what the "truth social" app and website were.
I mean for fuck's sake, even the guys running gab's Mastodon fork are more competent, and they still get hacked monthly or more.
Re:This is why you should never use AGPL (Score:5, Insightful)
That's only a horrible risk if you consider exposing the source code of your system a bad thing.
Re:This is why you should never use AGPL (Score:5, Insightful)
If I can bring your system to its knees by reading its source, you suck as a programmer and shouldn't be allowed near production code.
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When I take money for a job, I guess my employer is entitled to getting the best I can deliver. Else he could get someone else who delivers a better product.
I honestly hate that attitude, if you are not doing what you're doing because you want to deliver, why do you do it? If you just want to take money without having to work for it, go into politics.
This attitude is what gives us crappy products delivered by crappy people who don't give two fucks about what they deliver as long as they get paid for it. And
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If I can bring your system to its knees by reading its source, you suck as a programmer and shouldn't be allowed near production code.
Exactly. This is why FOSS projects, such as Linux, never ever have any major bugs /s
When I take money for a job, I guess my employer is entitled to getting the best I can deliver.
But it's not perfect, therefore "you suck as a programmer".
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Most open-source licenses require that you provide the source code for any changes you make to derivative software you sell and distribute. AfferoGPL adds the stipulation that you have to distribute changes to any software you *USE*.
Anyone who uses AGPL code in production is running a horrible risk in exposing any changes they make particular to their system, needlessly increasing the threat surface.
And all licenses for music and movies state you are not allowed to redistribute the media in any form yet people brag about stealing said items. If you don't care about what one license says, why care about another?
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Unless your changes are in the security part of the code, and particularly make it worse, I'm not quite sure how the AGPL is worse than the GPL.
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The GPL only requires that you make source code available to people you make the binaries available to.
The AGPL similarly only requires that you make the source code available to people to whom you provide a service running on the code.
Since the service has not launched yet, they are not actually providing the service to anyone and thus don't yet have to comply with that provision.
Also if exposing your code causes a significant increase in threats, your code must be very poorly written to start with.
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If your security relies on nobody seeing what you've done, you don't have security.
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What if they didn't change the software? (Score:2)
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If they are using it as is, and customization are achieved through configuration files that are read by the software, then this whole thing is all fuss and feathers, isn't it?
If anything that isn't happening, wasn't actually happening, then yes everything would be all fuss and feathers in the world.
However they ripped out all copyright notices and mentioning of the software name, while explicitly claiming they wrote the social media software, and claiming it isn't mastodon (except for the numerous bits in the HTML saying it is mastodon because they missed removing it)
This is no different from you taking Picassos famous "weeping woman", signing your own name to it, and announcing
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Typical of DJT. ;) (Score:2)
He claims that it is his works and doesn't share them. ;)
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Did he learn that when he was over in NKor with Li'l Kim? I mean, according to North Korean propaganda, his dad pretty much invented the world.
Filters (Score:2, Insightful)
Even if you filter politics as a topic out on this site, I still have to hear about it. More than that, it's everywhere, in many stories here. I wish there were better filters on /. The entirety of the Internet is filled with garbage gossip about Trump and Biden and their ilk, and it particularly stands out on supposedly technology oriented websites such as this.
Sweet ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Trump's TRUTH Social May Violate Terms of Open-Source Code It's Built On
A platform of neo-fascist populism built on a foundation of software communism. Ahhh ... the sweet, sweet, irony of it.
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That would be clever if you had even the vaguest idea what communism is. Or irony, for that matter.
When you program open source you are progarmming COMMUNISM!!
https://i.redd.it/8o7c87jmt345... [i.redd.it]
Color me shocked! (Score:2)
Trump & consorts not following laws and rules - what a shocking surprise! Because he typically did and does everything by the book*, why would he fail to follow the Open Source license requirements?
(* his book, that is ...)
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I would assume the graphics are under some CC license separate from the code.
DMCA Takedown Notice to hoster? (Score:2)
If Trump really removed the copyright notices, and thus very obviously broke the licensing contract, isn't each transmitted graphic from the source a copyright violation that could be stopped by a DMCA takedown notice?
Attention seeking behaviour (Score:5, Insightful)
After Trump buildings, Trump steaks, Trump TV shows, Trump university, Trump presidency, etc., haven't we learned anything about Trump. i.e. He craves being the centre of everyone's attention? The best way to stop him is to ignore him but calmly & quietly prevent him from harming himself or others until he realises that it isn't working anymore. You know, like you do with a 4 year old.
Then again, he also surrounds himself with enablers, like the GQP. I don't think it's going to end any time soon. Trump's the product of a socially dysfunctional upbringing & environment. I doubt he has much control over his own impulses.
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Then again, he also surrounds himself with enablers, like the GQP. I don't think it's going to end any time soon. Trump's the product of a socially dysfunctional upbringing & environment. I doubt he has much control over his own impulses.
It's not just enablers, he actively looks for people who will break rules on his behalf. And predictably, these people end up breaking rules in general.
How many people in his immediate orbit have ended up in serious legal jeopardy? This lists 8 and it's not even up to date [reuters.com]. It's an inevitable consequence of the qualities he demands in people who work for him.
That the people he hired to build his Twitter knockoff decided to rip off an Open Source project is beyond predictable.
TRUTH Social (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:5, Informative)
Personally, I couldn't care less if Trump wants to run his own social network with blackjack, hookers, with a big ol' side of Covid denialism. This is the way the free market is supposed to work. And if whoever he hired to build the site violated a license agreement, that ensuing legal fallout will help some lawyers put their kids through college. That's also the way the free market is supposed to work.
If I'm gonna froth at the mouth about anything, it's that the media keeps taking the bait with these stupid stories and Trump gets to live rent free in their heads long after he should've been relegated to irrelevance. But they just can't help it, if Trump (or PeTA, for that matter) farts, it always makes the front page.
Re:Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of all the people sending him campaign dollars, right into his pocket... a charlatan (and a successful one) who has more money than ever and can still fleece people into giving him more.
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Fear.
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You dont get to become and stay rich by spending your own money...
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Are you saying that rich people should just work for free because they are rich?
If Trump is so rich then why does he need campaign contributions? He's fleecing poor idiots with fear. Don't let those evil socialist democrats win! Send me money to make sure it doesn't happen.
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Are you saying that rich people should just work for free because they are rich?
How do you possibly get that from someone talking about the way that Trump basically begs people to send him money?
Re: Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched (Score:3)
So go look where the money came from. All their taxes and the non profit income were released.
Now go look at trumps taxes. Oh wait, he's corrupt so you can't. And apologists try to claim because he's not releasing proof of his fraud, he must not be guilty.
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before being elected Obummer was not filthy rich. But somehow, after 8yrs of public service, He is worth 40 million
You need to update your tin-foil talking points. Obama is worth closer to $70 million these days. [businessinsider.com]
But he didn't get wealthy "somehow". It turns out that celebrity, when used by someone who isn't a complete moron, can be very profitable. Book deals, speaking, appearances, Netflix deals, etc, are worth quite a bit. Plus, once you get a foothold into the millions it's pretty easy to grow that money into a lot more.
Sure, plenty of people in politics use it in corrupt ways to enrich themselves, but not at the
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Wow, you are *so* far off the mark! ...given the way Trump has NOT been paying his lawyers ...
"...that ensuing legal fallout will help some lawyers put their kids through college..."
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"the media keeps taking the bait with these stupid stories and Trump gets to live rent free in their heads"
They take the bait because their viewers take the bait. If it increases their ratings, they will run with it.
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"the media keeps taking the bait with these stupid stories and Trump gets to live rent free in their heads"
They take the bait because their viewers take the bait. If it increases their ratings, they will run with it.
It's not bait.
It's always interesting how a certain group who claims that their free speech is being infringed upon don't want to hear these true stories about their man to ever get out.
The living in people's heads rent free is one of the dumbest Crypto conservative concepts I've ever heard. It's not like they aren't infected with THS. (Terminal Hillary syndrome) Your leader himself is still fixated on that.
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not anymore, they all have 1 foot in the grave. Bill nearly died just last week from sepsis. HRC hasnt been able to shake that cough since her 2016 run, so its probably more serious than the politicos want to admit. Trump looked like he might have had a stroke one of the times he went to Walter Reed. I think they are all 1 super-variant of a covid-mutation away from being yesterdays news permanently.
I dunno - there are a lot of "conservatives" still going Reeee! about FDR https://www.theamericanconserv... [theamerica...vative.com] https://www.dailykos.com/stori... [dailykos.com]
Dude's been dead for almost 80 years, and his ghost is living rent free in their noggins. So I expect "Put her in jail" chants for a long time coming.
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Considering how rich he claims to be it's a little odd that everything he does seems to be done on the cheap. Maybe all the competent web developers said no, but it seems like a low budget effort.
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Well you don't stay rich by spending more than you need to.
Plus Trump is not a technology expert, he will have no idea how to judge the competence of a web developer and will have to rely on someone else to do so for him. The only consideration Trump will understand is the quoted price, which again could be highly misleading - jobs frequently go massively over budget.
This is not unique to Trump, the whole industry works like this. It's why you see so many shoddy technologies becoming widely used.
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If I'm gonna froth at the mouth about anything, it's that the media keeps taking the bait with these stupid stories and Trump gets to live rent free in their heads long after he should've been relegated to irrelevance. But they just can't help it, if Trump (or PeTA, for that matter) farts, it always makes the front page.
It's just like how we really let the Gemans and Japanes live rent free in our heads. back in the 1940's.
If we would have just ignored the Nastys and the Japanese Empire, they would have just went away.
One of the things you mistake is the idea that if a person even thinks about Trump, they are some sort lof leftist weirdo.
There is another reason - I know that a lot of people have reached the point of virtual anarchy, but some of us rather like the rule of law.
If Nancy Pelosi engaged in the same act
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Re:Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a stupid question, but this seems like right crowd to address it (old IT nerds familiar with open source licensing).
If you only have a free licensed version of a product (GPL/BSD/whatever) and not a for-profit licensed version of a similar product, how can you show damages? If there are no monetary damages, then what can you sue for other than a cease/desist?
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TDS. Matched only by Hillary & Obama Derangement Syndrome amongst the right.
Obama still living rent free in your heads.
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TDS. Matched only by Hillary & Obama Derangement Syndrome amongst the right.
Obama still living rent free in your heads.
Hell, FDR is still living rent free.
The whole idea of claiming people are obsessed, so just stop thinking about him is at least to me, a tacit admission that he's guilty of most of what he is accused of, so we need to ignore that.
Meanwhile, he simply remains newsworthy, as he and his cadre of useful idiots are still trying to overturn the election results, and install him as a dear leader.
Re: Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:2)
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The point is that he's only still relevant because people keep talking about him. If the media would just shut the fuck up about every little narcissistic thing he does, he would quickly dwindle into complete irrelevancy.
If he were willing to settle into that role if irrelevancy, there is a small chance that that he might be ignored.
But he's still holding rallies, he's still claiming that the election was fraudulent, he's still demanding that Hillary Clinton be locked up - he's now demanding Biden be imprisoned as well. He's claimed post-presidential executive privilege by suing the library of congress to prevent his records being released. He even has Steve Bannon claiming executive privilege to keep from testifying. He'
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But yet the lunatics are in full force frothing at the mouth. Here's a napkin! Oh wait, let me translate what I wrote for the TDS infected illiberal progressive idiots: Baah Baah BAAH! Fucking sheep!
I came to basically say the same thing. Shouldn't the requirement to publish modified code only apply after the site has been launched (and assumably out of beta)?
The former guy NEEDS to be sued some more (Score:2, Insightful)
Trump Derangement Syndrome afflicts his fans, not his opposition. And you've got a terminal case, it appears.
Also some of the TDS victims have mod points, so you need to be requoted. Even though you're feeding a troll.
Regarding the new Subject, it's like a hole in the head. Or maybe TFG already has one? It could explain a lot. But I doubt the OSS people can mount any sort of lawsuit against TFG. Someone with deep pockets would need to bankroll them against the counter-suits and TFG's temper tantrums.
My current definition of insane is a belief in any form of this sentence: "My Rich and Brilliant and Fearless Leader
Re:The former guy NEEDS to be sued some more (Score:5, Informative)
My current definition of insane is a belief in any form of this sentence: "My Rich and Brilliant and Fearless Leader knew the election of 2020 was going to be rigged, but somehow my RBFL wasn't able to capture a SINGLE piece of concrete evidence of YUGE voter fraud by thousands, nay by MILLIONS, of conspirators."
Except there was fraud and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas paid $250,000 to the person who found it [dallasnews.com]. The fraud was from a Republican who deliberately voted twice in the election.
This does not include the cases of voter fraud in Pennsylvania committed, again, by Republicans and which the Lieutenant Governor of PA has been telling Patrick to pay up [thehill.com].
Re:The former guy NEEDS to be sued some more (Score:4, Informative)
25k, not 250
Re:Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:5, Funny)
I love it. The one silver lining to the anonymous empowerment of you fucking morons is reading the pure fucking comedy gold that you produce.
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You realize that nobody cares about your take on things, right OMbad? It's like being attacked by a toddler. We just let you tucker yourself out whilst laughing at your ineffectual rage.
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He had a good run, but 4 years of the same joke is enough.
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But that was way, way easier to ignore.
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That's funny, because the Afghanistan withdrawl was arranged by Trump, who assured us the Taliban were going to abide by the agreement, which they didn't. Just the same way he assured us that North Korea would abide by the agreement to not build nuclear weapons, even though they immediately started rebuilding their program.
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Re: Orange Man Bad! The site hasn't even launched. (Score:2)
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From Mr. Art Of The Deal himself
https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]
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Somehow, no one who posts this crap ever posts specifics. It's literally just "Biden man bad!" without context or reason.
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When Trump won the election, I had a "Back to the Future" moment, when Marty returns back to the present and it's this dystopian reality where Biff is boss; I felt like I was in a wrong, alternate universe.
Now, Trump is definitively an [i]interesting[/i] character, but mostly because of his bad character: his business cheats, his many escapades, his defrauding of everyone from students of his phony university to tenants of his apartments and the construction workers, his lack of loyalties, his constant prol
Re:PRAVDA (Score:5, Insightful)
And it's scary as fuck that I get modded "Troll" about the above comment.
Everything said above is true, there is an abundant number of sources for everything claimed in my post, such as the fraud that was the Trump University:
https://www.nationalreview.com... [nationalreview.com]
And keep in mind the National Review is a conservative web site!
But the Trump minions are so consumed by him, any criticism against Trump is perceived as heresy. It's like they are wearing blinders. The rest of the world is wrong and an anti-Trump conspiracy. Only the word of Trump can be trusted. It's like a freaking cult.
pravdasocial.com (Score:2)
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Is he wrong, though?
I don't give a fuck about who said something, I want to know whether what was said is true.
Re:drop your 0-days (Score:4, Interesting)
Why waste a perfectly good 0day on something that a scriptkiddy with an ancient version of Metasploit can bring to its knees in minutes?
Re:shut the fuck up (Score:4, Informative)
Because the carnage is too entertaining.
https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
Already a literal shit show before the launch with half assed code.
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