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 the act. Historically, it is easier to win elections than revolutions; limiting access to game-changing technology puts the power advantage even more firmly in the corner of the regime.
Merely the documentary function of small drones is a threat to the current US government - their game changing effect on the battlefield in Ukraine is (one hopes) less relevant here. Just the threat of people taking pictures of what's happening is enough for them to restrict flight over an entire large city when ICE moves in.
Interesting that so many here are speculating that this ban is to stop "freedom fighters" in the US and not the obvious case that the US has wanted to reduce dependence on China in areas of critical technology.
Drones are not going away in the US, they will just not be made by their primary political adversary. Let's not be hyperbolic, the US is nowhere close to having a revolution or civil War. People need to stop getting their primary world view from doom scrolling instagram or reddit.
So Apple trying to move iPhone production to places like Vietnam does not count? Apple already makes some of their devices in Vietnam now (not iPhone yet.) These things can't happen over night. This decoupling might take decades. Or just be abandoned by the next administration. Who knows?
"the US is nowhere close to having a revolution or civil War."
“It wasn’t Hitler or Himmler who abducted me, beat me, and shot my family. It was the shoemaker, the milkman, the neighbor, who were given a uniform....”
—Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor
(59 new detention facilities since inaugeration, 77 more reopened, $45 billion planned for 41,000+ beds targeting 100,000+ capacity, dozens of deaths reported.)
The language of the goverment has shifted to "war" such as:
• DHS New Year's Eve launch of the $100M "wartime recruitment" campaign.
• Ads portray joining as a "sacred duty" to "defend the homeland" from "foreign invaders," using war-like imagery such as Uncle Sam posters and action movie-style videos.
A few other factors from a choice of dozens:
• The several lies from the administration about the shooting of Renee Good, such as that the shooter was run over and is recovering in the hospital, besides the actual shooting itself.
• Minneapolis has thousands of volunteers for rapid response teams to show up wherever ICE shows us, militarized on both sides.
• The biggest No Kings protests ranged from 5-7million.
• Congress' check on presidential powers is not happening
• Abducting, beating and dropping off those abducted far from where they were abducted.
Recent lawsuits:
• January 12, 2026, Mark Kelley vs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense, and the Navy.
• Minnesota AG Ellison et al. v. DHS/ICE (Jan 12, 2026): State, Minneapolis, and St. Paul sue over "Operation Metro Surge," alleging unconstitutional raids, excessive force, and viewpoint discrimination; seeks restraining order.
• Illinois AG Raoul & Chicago v. DHS/ICE/CBP (Jan 12, 2026): Challenges violent tactics like tear gas use, warrantless detentions, and targeting sensitive locations; seeks prohibitions on enforcement practices
I wouldn't say the US is "nowhere close", recognizing that "getting close" is not the same as "happening", and recognizing that "revolution" and "civil war" are not the only possible terms, and that it is a matter of degree.
I feel like the normal reaction is to see it in both and maintain a distinction between these two entirely different contexts without ignoring the crimes of the lesser.
Judicial, i.e. the courts. What isn't judicial is law enforcement determining/imposing sentences on their own, at the scene of 'crime'.
One is a system of laws and justice.
The other, which you are arguing in defense of, is a police state with unchecked authority given to police/no system of balance.
What you are defending is an un-American policing system. Something more in line with the Judge Dredd comics (the point of which is that sort of thing is bad, in case you miss it).
They did murder a woman, but I agree that one murder is far short of a civil war. Even understanding that a single murder can be the spark that starts a fire, I don't think we're even close to that kind of scenario (contrary to the hyperbolic rhetoric which has become normalized from both sides over the past 10ish years.)
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 today is very peaceful, not that you'd think it from following the media.
The DJI ban is about China, not domestic protests.
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?
I agree that violence from federal agents, who then get backed up by the federal government, is extremely concerning. Nonetheless, it's not a new development; feds have been involved in innumerable fatalities that never got properly investigated by leadership going all the way back to the inception of the FBI.
One example of many, Lon Horiuchi was charge by the state of Idaho for the murder of Vicki and Sammy Weaver. His case was then moved into the federal system which promptly dismissed it and made him a free man. Even today,trying to discuss this case gets bogged down in irrelevant debate about the validity of Randy's political beliefs, which shouldn't matter a single wit.
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.
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.
I am sharing my genuine opinions and perspectives. I assume you are as well. Let's keep it civil.
As for tiktok/etc, I don't think that has much of anything to do with ICE and has a lot more to do with squelching legitimate anti-zionist speech. That said, it does plausibly have a lot more to do with domestic protests than a DJI drone ban, which is hardly a blanket ban on drones, and really will do next to nothing to stop people from using drones over/with/for protests. By the way, the DJI ban went through the House and Senate with bipartisan support, during Biden's presidency:
I don't agree, but I think there is some reasonable room for disagreement. I think she was merely being reckless, and the shooter didn't earnestly fear for his life but thought he'd be able to argue he was.
First of all it's easy to sit and armchair a situation like that and in hindsight to boot. We weren't there. We shouldn't assume what the federal officer was feeling. Second, same officer _had_ been injured and had his foot in stitches from another "protestor" who had driven into him not long ago.
Driving into someone is what's considered lethal force in law enforcement. The woman got shot after consistently ignoring police commands and then enacted lethal force on a federal officer. There's no ambiguity here.
It's mostly in Minnesota at the moment, but has been present in many other states that didn't vote for President Trump. You can see it in news coverage, or if you're near Minneapolis you can go see it in person.
I wouldn't want illegal aliens in my country. They're criminals. Norway doesn't allow it, we control our borders. We could do a better job, but at least we don't have a backlog the size of the US'
Glad that Norway has the immigration problem solved *eye roll*
Tell me more about how humans are criminals for existing? You hate the idea of someone standing on your piece of dirt without your express say-so that your preference is to live under an umbrella of fear and suspicion of your neighbors?
Forgive me, this is not how I want to live. I wonder how many Norwegians who settled in Minnesota were illegal immigrants?
The US isn't Norway, we're the world's largest economy and 4th largest in land area. Immigration has always been a net positive for the country (setting aside how negative European immigration was for the Native Americans). Migrants perform all sorts of work, and they offset declining birth rates. They also add to the cultural melting pot.
"Suicidal empathy" sounds like a far right talking point, because you don't want too many brown Muslisms in Europe.
Maybe, or maybe it’s just good policy to not import a network of drones from an adversary to democracies across the world, which includes the EU most importantly as China helps Russia with its invasion of Ukraine and is gearing up for some activity in Taiwan.
People can just record all this stuff on their iPhones that they already have. You don’t need a DJI drone to record police malfeasance. Maybe you do in China or Iran though. In Iran they are just mowing people down. In China you get disappeared. Interesting that there are no protests about those things though. I guess they just have better social media marketing.
I think propping up the domestic small drone industry is clearly in America's national strategic interest. Hobbyists may not like it, but their toys have become potent weapons of war, so it's important for America that we don't count on importing all of them from China.
I'm in Calgary too (I assume this is what you're referencing). In the wake of this crisis (again!) and the more general decline in trust - both in politicians and your neighbors - a sociologist on the radio was talking about how communication, and specifically drone footage, helps build trust and connect emotionally with the public. We're trying to get people to use less water, and you can scold them (to no effect) or show them actual overhead pictures of the damage and impact.
Even as recently as this past week the United States Navy has tracked down and seized Russian "shadow fleet" tankers which are operating despite American and European sanctions, and did so with Russian naval vessels nearby and despite strong protests and anger from Moscow. Hopefully Europe can step up its game and do so too.
But do you know who is helping Russia besides China? India. Iran, South America (Brazil, &c.), plenty of other countries. They've given no money, no aid, and are all too happy to buy illicit Russian oil.
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?
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.
30 years from today? The army they had in the 80's was such a shadow of post WWII the country was essentially bankrupt, and why Gorbachev let the USSR satellites leave. They had no problem crushing change until they ran out of money. Russia today is much stronger than when the wall came down.
No they didn't. Militarily is was a clear and easy win. Politically it made no sense after a while and USSR decided to leave. Militarily they could have continued staying there for the eternity. The same situation as with the American/Nato forces, with the difference of Soviets controlling significantly more of the country than Nato (only major urban centers, a small part of the country).
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.
The money that was paid to build those weapons went into the American economy, to all the companies that built them, to the employees that work for those companies, etc. Nobody is saying they were "free", but the military industrial complex has always been a jobs program. It employs plenty of Americans, it pays the bills when weapons get made. So we had a bunch of old stock that needed to be replaced, and giving them to Ukraine is an easy win, for a lot of reasons. If Ukraine fell quickly and then Putin goes after Poland and other countries, it's going to cause a lot worse problems for the US and the world. So, giving these older weapons to Ukraine is saving money in the long run. Some people have no ability to see how actions (or inaction) have consequences, and they never think about the wider perspective, only their own little pocketbooks, so it might appear that giving weapons to Ukraine is somehow stealing money from you personally. And if that steak in the fridge is already freezer burned, do you really want to eat it? We're not talking about a brand new steak here.
A) I absolutely was not. I was refuting that we sent $175B to Ukraine. We sent weapons, and spent money in the USA. Basic reading comprehension would be a useful skill for you to have in this thread... see I literally declared the US spent money in both posts. I was just saying where the money was spent.
To quote Wikipedia on the broken window fallacy: The money spent on the war effort (or peacetime defense spending), for example, is money that cannot be spent on food, clothing, health care, or other sectors of the economy. The stimulus felt in one sector of the economy comes at a direct – but hidden – cost (via foreclosed production possibilities) to other sectors.
A basic understanding of economics would be useful for you to have in this thread.
We are sending Ukraine something of value: cash, weapons, whatever. That value leaves the US and therefore cannot be used for something else, fired in defense of US interests, or used to deter threats to the taxpayer who bought it.
Your initial point that “it’s fine to send this value to Ukraine because now we get to spend more money” to replace it is ridiculous.
You're putting a lot of words in my mouth that I didn't say. And further, you're lying about what I actually said. Please consider having remotely honest discourse if you want to discuss something. I don't want to engage anymore with propagandists who can't even respond the points being made.
Some of the weapons sent have negative monetary value, as in they were to expire and this process of recycling would cost a lot of money. So you should be thanking Ukrainians for taking this burden on themselves without US having to pay for the rendered services. You don't sound thankful enough.
Yea but those weapons are still highly valuable and effective. If you need help you aren't going to be super picky whether the apples and potatoes come from Whole Foods or Kroger.
> The price tag you quote is the same as the "an $X value thrown in for free" you see in "deals" from shady companies.
So I don't think this is very accurate. Unless you want to suggest that funding, equipment, and more given under the Biden Administration, never mind US actions like sanctions, are the product of "shady deals".
> Second, Trump is very much helping Russia, literally taking Russian positions in negotiations and pressuring only on Ukraine - into bad deals.
Again, factually incorrect. No deals between Russia and Ukraine have been made, the US continues to sanction Russia and Russian allies including seizure of tankers that are evading sanctions, and the US continues to provide arms, weapons sales, and intelligence to Ukraine including targeting intelligence for striking targets in Russia.
I understand having a different opinion early last year, but the tide has shifted significantly. You are behind the times.
Meanwhile China supplies Russia, India buys their weapons and oil, Iran supplies them with drones, Venezuela/Cuba and all of those shenanigans, Brazil is pro-Russia/neutral, and other countries throughout Latin America and Africa and elsewhere think that NATO started the war!
So no, America didn’t switch sides. The negotiation rhetoric and tactics did, but the end result has not changed. This is not up for debate.
>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, volatilized Russia would be more dangerous for America.
> 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.
Depends. Is he actually fighting 450,000,000 in the EU? Is Portugal going to send troops to the front lines in Estonia? Will Germans accept being drafted to go fight in Ukraine? These are serious questions. Meanwhile Putin is very much able to draft Russians to fight wars, and god-forbid he takes over Ukraine he'll send Ukrainians too.
And in this case the US participation should come. Wouldn't be better to fight a Putin's Russia that was weakened in Ukraine? Perhaps weakened so much, that Putin's won't attack at all. Perhaps weaken so much, that the US can scale down its European military force deployment (saving money) and concentrate on other things (China).
So yeah, US investments in Ukraine directly benefit America. Ukrainians are fighting for Americans. So much so, that they are destroying Russia's nuclear weapons capabilities (destroying radars, strategic bombers, submarines and ships, weapons arsenal, ballistic rockets, carriers of nuclear weapons like Iskanders).
I’m not following your point, or maybe you missed mine. You said 100,000 Russian soldiers dead doesn’t make the US any safer, and I agree, but it does make Europe safer because there are fewer Russian soldiers. But then you compared the population of Russia and the EU to imply that Russia is no threat to Europe.
But that analysis is flawed, because the population of Europe isn’t one monolithic block that is guaranteed to respond to Russia with military force in such a way that a direct comparison of the numbers makes much sense. For example, what I mentioned already.
I think you putting words in my mouth. Quote me please. This was somebody else's statement
>"But that analysis is flawed, because the population of Europe isn’t one monolithic block that is guaranteed to respond to Russia"
And my answer was that if they do not they were just hiding behind the US all that time. If the EU will not fight for the EU then, well no need for me to continue..
>"And your reply was Ukraine is not in the EU"
This was in response to: "Will Germans accept being drafted to go fight in Ukraine". They (Germans) will most likely not accept and exactly for the reason that the Ukraine is not in the EU.
Good thing NATO has consistently hit the 2% funding target, and Europe more broadly hasn’t neglected to maintain their defense spending in favor of profligate social welfare spending.
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
These things are true, but they don't explain why the u.s. government would make it a priority to ban such technologies. saying "well, republicans are bad so they do bad things" robs us the ability to understand the world.
The problem with your statement is there's no way to know - the reality is it could have been a bribe or lack of a bribe; it could have been an actual foreign policy decision based on facts; or some other reason. It's not hard to come up with reasons why it was done, but with this administration there's no way to know whatsoever unless you actually know someone on the inside.
> They are already shooting people in the face and not even putting up a pretense of acting shocked at the act.
Are you talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Justine_Damond? Yes her killer got off with a slap on the wrist, but even in 2017 when that happened it was nothing new - there have been plenty of unjustified or dubious police killings before and since [1], so I'm confused by that "already" in your sentence - nothing has changed, has it?
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.
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 better for the world society in general that pretense is gone and the realpolitics is laid bare. The risks are no longer ambiguous but real and clearly stated and the world can plan mitigation accordingly.
> My takeaway is that all previous U.S. administrations had pretense of morality and rules in both international and domestic politics
This is a perspective that continues to boggle my mind.
Every record of the United States acting internationally has been either:
Explicitly horrific (Invasion of Grenada, Vietnam, Firebombing then nuking Tokyo, Iraq etc…)
Attempts to Subvert or ignore international law (IPCC, ICC, UN…)
Or benefits some major industrial corporation (NAFTA, WTO etc…)
Please point to any type of transcendent “morality or rules” that isn’t just straight up large scale international realpolitik and propaganda around maintaining global capitalism on behalf of American based owners.
The word pretense to me means “we’re gonna actually try this and let’s see how it goes”
The United States has literally never done that and we know that because internal documentations for pretty much anything always have some kind of American benefit Nexus it is not based on any type of foundational belief that transcends the concept of “we’re gonna do whatever the people who are the loudest owners of the political system of the United States want to do”
Everything else including: Powell going to the UN with a vile full of rice is just straight up unabashed unequivocal propaganda
Like all large organizations and projects they are not absolutely perfect or ethical, as you can see in the Concerns and criticism section towards the bottom of the Wikipedia page. Still, I think they made some contribution to humanity. I have seen articles saying the withdrawal of funding has definitely hurt communities USAID had been helping.
I know the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) do (or did) disease prevention work outside the US. There are other examples like these. I don’t know if the government did more good than bad, but they certainly have done some good that is not just designed to benefit American big capitalists.
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.
I can understand that point of view from a U.S. citizen's (and allied West) point of view that you think US is really ideological. But as a non-US person, even when US pretended to be ideological, there is an underlying reality of maintaining hegemony, access to resources, etc.
When there was a large scale genocide in Bangladesh by Pakistan, US not only implicitly supported Pakistan, but also attempted to block/attack India (not clear the intentions, but Soviets got involved). There are many such cases.
For rest of the world to believe that US has only best intentions, they have to be really naive. In case Saddam, would US have the same enthusiasm for democracy if it was not for oil? US has toppled democratic governments when they were not aligned to its interest.
To put it in personal terms, would anyone trust someone with their money to person who only cheats 70% of times, while is honest 30% of times? The conclusion to be had is that those in incidents of honesty aligned with the interests of the person. Not because he or she was actually a good person.
1. Relationship between USA and Kurds. Kurds have been helping Americans, putting lives on the line, are a rare democratic and free side in the region, but are constantly being violated by Americans despite that.
2. Syria. No problem supporting the literal Alqaeda leader!
3. Just a history of supporting dictators. Chile and Americas, Asia, Europe (Spain, Greece, Portugal).
4. Even currently, no problem supporting e.g. Saudis.
>No. That is excessively cynical. Even GW Bush and the neocons really thought toppling Hussein would benefit Iraqis more than just Americans.
The push into Iraq to remove Hussein was an effort to gain control over the oil and gas production in Iraq. It was favored by the domestic oil and gas industry here in the US and once we had boots on the ground in Afghanistan after Sept 11 and Bush&Co began making noise about Iraq and WoMD, the industry began digging up old geological and geophysical studies of the region to build interest and knowledge base domestically so that once our troops had control of the production areas domestic operators could move in to handle production. Industry publications had adverts for old Iraq datasets and services related to it before any invasion happened. Maybe they were just hedging their bets you say. Yeah, right. It was always about oil and gas in Iraq. They just needed to remove the thorn in their side and install a compliant government.
The US invaded Iraq because Saddam was planning to switch to the Euro for his oil trade. They invaded Libya as Gaddafi was working on a gold backed African dinar/Lira, again for the oil trade.
The only reason why the dollar has had any value since 1971 is due to Nixon's brilliant creation of the petro-dollar.
It's allowed them to export inflation to the rest of the world.
Trump gets it, and the only reason for kidnapping Maduro is again oil.
If a country has oil, and no nukes, in due course the US will invade.
No the irony is that Trump lied
about the oil - heavy sour Venezuelan oil is mostly useless to the US because we are awash in our own. He did it to experiment with “regime change light”
Ah yes I'm sure it has nothing to do with the drones running closed proprietary software via OTA updates, with encrypted data connections back to China, while being outfitted with 8k cameras, gps, lidar, etc.
Much like the TikTok ban this seems like something that could be handled through actually regulating what tech companies are allowed to do, rather than just picking on specific products and saying ‘stop that, it’s making us nervous’.
Federal laws about data collection and retention, export, and algorithmic usage… as well as laws about software update channels for hardware devices, eg requiring that it be possible to replace firmware yourself… all sorts of regulations could be put in place that leave the software and hardware markets open, by making it clear where the boundaries are. If DJI or TikTok are doing something bad, prosecute and fine them and enjoin them from doing it again… but make it clear what specific behavior you have a problem with.
We're too busy taking car companies' lines that it's reasonable they don't want people going to a local mechanic because "The data your car collected on you might get hacked and sent to China!" rather than asking "What are cars doing collecting this data, if it's such a risk?"
Your tinfoil hat narrative doesn't really jive with DJI asking for audit and review more than a year ago, with no one in the federal government actually stepping up before just outright banning things they either don't want or don't understand.
Its obvious that she was resisting arrest and trying to flee. But as for the ICE agent being in front of the car... barely. I don't believe he genuinely feared for his life, he could have simply stepped out of the way. I think he saw the woman fleeing, figured he was close enough to being in harms way to justify himself, and shot the woman because he was mad at her.
I've been in situations like that in Walmart parking lots, where a car jolts forward and I have to jump out of the way, and maybe I say "That crazy bitch just tried to kill me" but while saying that I understand it to be a hyperbolic albeit justified anger at reckless driving, and that nobody was actually trying to kill me, and shooting the driver in the face instead of diving out of the way would be a suboptimal survival strategy even if homicidal intent was there.
I don't understand what jurisdiction ICE has to enforce traffic laws. We see other vehicles drive around her vehicle, so at most it was a minor inconvenience for ICE. Call the local LE on her if you don't like how she's parked in the road and they can issue a ticket.
Federal agents can arrest people for obstructing them, if you block the road they aren't obliged to defer to local cops and laws, because fucking with federal agents like that violates federal laws. Regardless, none of it justifies a murder.
The road wasn't blocked since we see other vehicles drive around her, which ICE could have done instead of escalating the situation as we see them doing in dozens of videos coming out of the Minneapolis area. Keep in mind that the administration is not acting in good faith. Trump has politicized ICE to go after blue cities he doesn't like. Stephen Miller started the escalations when he sent ICE to Home Depot parking lots in LA because his desired quoata wasn't being met.
If the arrest for obstructing wasn't merited, the right way to handle that is to hire a lawyer. Fleeing the scene in a vehicle is never the right approach in America (or frankly anywhere), it endangers the public generally not to mention your own life in particular.
In either case, it shouldn't matter to this case. The man should be put on trial not to decide if ICE's mission is legitimate nor to decide if she was guilty of obstruction or fleeing, but rather for murder. The question of whether he, in that moment, genuinely believed there was a lethal threat to his life is what should decide this case.
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.
Well that's not what I've seen said by law enforcement officers analyzing the video footage, but then again I avoid watching news media that serves the interests of the current administration. It's upsetting so many people repeat propaganda.
I watched the video from Ross's phone. At first, from that angle, it actually looks like he's lunging in front of Good's car, but then I remembered the other angle. He moved his phone from his right hand to his left hand so he could grab his gun. But the car is still traveling in reverse as this happens.
And when Good starts moving, the wheel is cranked to the right -- away from Ross. I notice something important: Ross did not back away when the car starting moving. He stood his ground. If Good was intending to run over him, all she would have needed to do was center the wheel, maybe even keep it slightly to the left. But no, she was cranked to the right, away from him. Ross didn't move at all, and didn't get run over.
From what I can see, Good hit reverse to execute a 2-point turn to leave, and Ross responded by moving his phone to his left hand so he could unholster his gun with his right.
But the fact is, Ross failed to properly act according to training. If you do believe someone is trying to run over you, the proper response is to get the hell out of the way, not stand your ground and shoot the driver. Cars aren't exactly known for stopping just because the driver is dead.
>He pulled his gun out before she moved the car anywhere
So this is a lie, by your own admission. Her car is already moving before he reaches for his gun.
--
The tactic of relocating is not a legal requirement. Failing to retreat doesn't prevent him from defending himself.
While Minnesota absurdly has "duty to retreat" laws, since he is operating as federal law enforcement he is only required to have "reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death... to the officer", and he can reasonably believe that she is trying to run him over, given she puts it in gear and pulls forward towards him, from a stop, as he's right at her bumper.
I think this is a strong case of a story having her side, his side, and the truth.
I think the reasonable position to take is that she was not intending to run him over, but he believed (reasonably) that she was, and so shot.
In this case, it'd be wrong to accuse Ross of murder, but it'd also be wrong to label Good as a domestic terrorist as Trump and his administration have been doing.
The administration, as usual, is making exaggerated and bombastic claims to support a base position that’s actually pretty reasonable (driving towards law enforcement to flee an interaction is dangerous for the driver and LEOs).
> You can't take one tragic mistake or bad-apple cop and draw conclusions about the fate of the country from it.
As per a sibling comment:
> The bad apples metaphor originated as a warning of the corrupting influence of one corrupt or sinful person on a group: that "one bad apple can spoil the barrel". Over time the concept has been used to describe the opposite situation, where "a few bad apples" should not be seen as representative of the rest of their group. This latter version is often used in the context of police misconduct.
> The bad apples metaphor originates from the proverb "A rotten apple quickly infects its neighbor", first recorded as used in English in 1340.[1]
And the real problem is that the highest levels of government is defending the actions of the bad-apple cop.
It is the fact that these crazy high quotas that ICE agents must meet are a high-level government policy that are 'forcing' the agents to do these crazy things (if they want to keep their jobs); of course some ICE thugs enjoy doing this and like the power trip(s).
Regardless of all the rest, what a saying meant 1000 years ago is irrelevant. I find it bizarre anyone is providing historical usage as if proves something.
You could pick endless words and sayings in English from 1000 years ago, which are entirely different now.
idk if you know about bad apples, but the idiom isn't "one bad apple is fine and can be successfully isolated and removed."
If we're speaking about the same incident, there was no mistake. it was intentional. there has been no apology from any official source, as one would expect in the case of a tragic mistake.
We don't even have to go that far to realize how quickly the democratic establishment would roll over in the face of a civil war. I don't think Chuck Schumer is going to be leading an armed resistance movement anytime soon.
Change my mind, but everyone's assumption that the Senate Minority Leader, of all people, is the de facto head of the democrats and would "lead" the opposition in a civil war is asinine – whether it's Chuck Schumer or whoever replaces him.
I guess you haven't read how the government reacted to the incident. Let's put it mildly and say: is wasn't treated as a mistake or bad-apple cop.
Just an example: "Vance said the ICE officer was clearly justified in shooting Good. The officer was clearly acting in self-defense, Vance said. He framed Good as "a victim of left-wing ideology" who was spurred by an alleged network of politically motivated groups to interfere with law enforcement."
And anyone who has seen more than just the one the video the Trump administration wanted everyone to see knows the Trump admin is lying though their teeth.
> You can't take one tragic mistake or bad-apple cop and draw conclusions about the fate of the country from it.
Do you have any citations for that? Jonathon Ross's entire chain of command including Sec of DHS and the President has justified the killing in multiple public statements. There has not been any official admission that it was a mistake, tragic nor description of Jonathan Ross as a "bad" apple or anything.
I have seen multiple high level leader say that the shooting was warranted and ok. They expressed happiness over the killing. That includes Trump, Vance and Kristi Noem. They praised the shooter and threatened others.
> You can't take one tragic mistake or bad-apple cop and draw conclusions about the fate of the country from it.
It was not bad apple. It was logical conclusion of ICE tactic and strategy. They also kidnap people, beat them up, throw them out somewhere else on the street. They throw tear gas into insides of cars or just randomly as bye package to citizens. They intentionally ram cars and cause traffic accidents.
Also, concretely, the lower level ICE members have seen to:
1.) do stuff like pointing a gun at a woman and saying "you did not learned from it".
2.) Destroyed memorial of the killed woman.
3.) Been heard to say she was "fucking bitch".
It was not bad apple. He is their hero and exactly where their tactic will go.
It's not just one bad apple. There have been 16 ICE shootings resulting in four deaths during Trump's 2nd term and 32 people died in ICE detention during 2025. There are multiple videos out of Minneapolis & St. Paul since Renee Good's shooting where ICE have broken down the door of someone's home, beat a man and left him bleeding in another part of town, accosted someone at a gas station, tried to enter the home of a family where the DoorDash lady had fled for safety, threatened the death to drivers whom they accused of following them, posed for a picture with an influencer yelling about how they executed one of the protestors, and caused chaos at a high school leading to public schools temporarily shutting down.
This is officially sanctioned domestic terrorism against the citizens of Minnesota and no American should stand for it.
It's no secret that VC's are profiting massively from this administration. And all comments critical of the current regime are getting downvoted on HN. Something adds up.
this is not really about VCs as much as wealthy tech billionaires who have learned that no one listened to their political thoughts & beliefs, but they can now use their technology & money to circumvent the need to gain a democratic mandate. Peter Thiel has literally stated this strategy, and you've recently watched them all fall in line, even if it meant massive whiplash from their previously stated positions.
Reminder: when you are logged out, HN will show static cached content. Since there's no login session it doesn't have to compute parts of the page unique to the user.
When huge stories hit, and HN is overloaded, browing while logged out is the way to get through.
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 pretty free market guy but the war in Ukraine has changed some things. My main complaint with this law is that it is so US focused; I'd be fine with drones built in Europe or Japan or other allied nations.
I don’t know if we should be so sure that he will be gone in three years. There is no incentive for him to relinquish control peacefully. We’ll have to give him a plea bargain, or a pardon of sorts, to incentivise him stepping down. Without one his back will be against a wall (or iron bars in this case), and he will gladly escalate to stay in power to avoid incarceration.
I'm far more concerned with the younger, smarter and just as evil minnions who are currently learning from the master how naked & deep the corruption can go without consequence. President Vance and VP Rubio may be less shocking but could be even worse for everyone.
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.
>> Can you walk down the street to buy some artillery munitions?
No I need to go to a flea market for that.
It's not a specific manufacturer; it will impact US-made drones too, and based on how it's being rolled out is intended to shut down decent quality, inexpensive and easily-acquired drown sales - exactly what say, a journalist might want.
Not really, not for the air warfare context of drones.
SAM can't be bought for any tax and they come with lifetime in jail if you have them, even just for peaceful purposes.[]
Giving up air military supremacy isn't something the USA is going to yield to its citizens. The tax is reflective of the fact that machineguns and destructive devices can't be banned as they are "arms" that can merely be taxed, but the US doesn't considered air warfare weapons generally to be bearable arms.
As drones become a dominating form of air superiority I would expect they start to become more like SAMs -- not bearable arms but rather arms that merely having in your arms mean you go in a cage forever even if you have an NFA stamp affixed.
>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.
So, the war in Ukraine, provoked by the US financing the biggest army in Europe, after financing a coup, made you even more into the Neocon propaganda?
that's not really comparable with the commercial/hobbyist market that DJI serves. These are not people who are going to research & build their own drones, or seek out small manufacturers; they're the ones who buy of Amazon and want the use of a drone, not drones as a lifestyle.
It's this now, but 3D printers, Meshtastic, and the ESP32 all seem likely to catch the ire of the administration if some deal is not done in the coming years.
I've been saying it for ages, but a decent easily available western equivalent to the ESP32 (meaning easy WiFi) needs to happen, and until it does there will be a giant hole in the middle of the entire maker universe, which increasingly acts as the prototyping stage for commercialized gadgetry.
I agree on the need to create an ESP32 equivalent. But the ESP32 doesn't really correlate to DJI here. DJI collects a massive amount of telemetry data and terrain data, forces the average user to upload this data, and isn't exactly forthcoming about what is collected or how it is used.
An ESP32 can, for the most part, be fully audited in what it is sending. Yes, the wireless drivers are binary blobs, but the developer has extensive control over the device, and it is easy to monitor/filter/firewall the data sent.
3D printers, as a general category, are also more similar to the ESP32 than to DJI.
> DJI collects a massive amount of telemetry data and terrain data
At first I found it hard to believe that this is data they wouldn't get more reliably, more extensively from a satellite. But then I imagine, if you were a bad actor, you wouldn't want all the video, all the exact terrain data, etc, but maybe only that near certain points of interest like energy infrastructure, transportation, etc. So this, paired with satellite data is super powerful.
Then again, for most of the US, Google street view exists so there's that, a lot of the data is already out there.
You are right. Also, it's not just data from the US, it's data from around the world. It also comes in real-time or near real-time, so you gain insight into where drones are actively flying. If you've managed to fingerprint interesting users in some way, you now have stats on where they are, what they are deeming interesting to look at, and so on. You're also getting much better imagery and views of things you are not going to get from a satellite.
This is not about recreating google maps data. The US banning DJI drones is really a necessity at this point. It's not a complete solution to the problems at hand, but there is no point in supporting China in this way.
I feel like blocking DJI is just politics of “we have have to do something, anything” and “hey look, we did things” even though those things are irrelevant.
> I've been saying it for ages, but a decent easily available western equivalent to the ESP32 (meaning easy WiFi) needs to happen
- Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC32xx (CC3220 / CC3235)
- TI CC3235MODA module
- Renesas DA16200
- Microchip PIC32MZ-W1
- Microchip WFI32 module family
- Silicon Labs SiWx917 / SiWG917
- Silicon Labs SiWx917Y module
- Nordic Semiconductor nRF7001/7002 WiFi 6 IC
- Use with nRF52, nRF53 or nRF91 series SoCs
- STMicroelectronics STM32 with ST67W series pre-certified WiFi modules
These solutions are priced well for commercial and industrial solutions at scale.
If necessary one can use any cheap hobby solution for initial development and then port to an industrial-class SoC solution. We've done this a few times during pandemic era shortages; using the RP2040 to get through prototyping and development and then switching the design to an industrial-grade chip.
What's missing from these parts which makes people reach for ESP32 by default instead? (I don't have any experience with ESP32.)
The TI parts seem a bit expensive in small quantities, but the Microchip and SiliLabs parts are like $6-7 in single units from Digi-Key. Is it just that the dev kits are in the >$50 price range which puts people off compared to ESP32?
> The TI parts seem a bit expensive in small quantities, but the Microchip and SiliLabs parts are like $6-7 in single units from Digi-Key. Is it just that the dev kits are in the >$50 price range which puts people off compared to ESP32?
It helps to separate hobbyist use from professional product development.
The hobby market is driven by quick, cheap, and easy: low up-front cost, abundant tutorials, and inexpensive dev boards. In that context, ESP32 shines, and expensive dev kits can be a real psychological barrier.
For commercial, industrial, or professional products, however, small-quantity pricing is often irrelevant. Sample or single-unit prices rarely reflect real production costs. Without getting into specifics, it’s common for the ratio between sample pricing and volume pricing to be 10× or more.
A part that costs $20 in onesies can easily be a $2 part at scale. This doesn’t apply universally, but it does mean that judging a device’s suitability for mass production based on Digi-Key single-unit pricing is usually a mistake.
There are also system-level considerations beyond the MCU’s line item price. For example, the RP2040 could be very inexpensive (around $0.50 in modest volumes when we used it), but that ignores the required external flash, which adds cost, board space, and supply-chain complexity. More importantly for many products, it offers no meaningful code security (the external flash can simply be read out—which can be a non-starter in commercial designs).
Guaranteed long-term availability can be crucially important as well; with design support requirements in commercial/industrial settings often extending past ten year timelines.
Tooling and ecosystem maturity also matter. At the time, the RP2040 toolchain was notably hostile to Windows, and Raspberry Pi support reflected that attitude. In reality, most product development (EE, MCAD, manufacturing, test, PLM/ERP) is Windows-centric. Asking an organization to bolt a Linux-only toolchain onto an otherwise Windows-based workflow just to save a dollar on an MCU is rarely a winning argument.
So while cost absolutely matters, it’s often not the dominant factor in professional design. Security, tooling, vendor support, long-term availability, and integration into existing workflows frequently outweigh a few dollars of MCU price, particularly once production pricing enters the picture.
> What's missing from these parts which makes people reach for ESP32 by default instead?
I didn’t directly answer that question before.
Strictly speaking, nothing essential is missing from many of these other parts. In fact, in professional contexts they often have better documentation, support, longevity guarantees, or security features than ESP32.
One of the biggest differentiators is simply pricing strategy. Espressif has used aggressively low pricing (what many would reasonably call predatory pricing) to capture mindshare and market share. That playbook is hardly new; it’s been used successfully across industries for decades. Ultra-cheap silicon, combined with inexpensive dev boards, dramatically lowers the barrier to entry and makes ESP32 the default choice, especially for hobbyists and startups.
Price pressure also creates a feedback loop: more users means more tutorials, libraries, examples, and community support, which in turn makes the platform feel easier and safer to choose, even when alternatives might be technically superior.
For teams operating in cost-driven markets, this can become unavoidable. If your product lives or dies on BOM cost, reaching for the cheapest viable part may not be optional. I spent several years in that environment myself, and while it’s a valid constraint, it tends to push decisions toward short-term cost optimization rather than long-term engineering value.
So the answer isn’t that these parts lack features, it’s that ESP32 combines good-enough capabilities with exceptionally aggressive pricing and a massive ecosystem, which together make it the default choice in many contexts.
> These solutions are priced well for commercial and industrial solutions at scale.
Translation: they're expensive, and getting them working involves jumping through hoops more complex than simply getting boards off Amazon and launching VS Code. They aren't equivalent, and the sneering isn't helping.
It is failing to understand this that opens the door to DJI and Bambu, who unsurprisingly prioritize user experience and predictability, which is a major factor in why in open competition they keep wiping the floor with everyone.
> Translation: they're expensive, and getting them working involves jumping through hoops more complex than simply getting boards off Amazon and launching VS Code. They aren't equivalent, and the sneering isn't helping.
Who's sneering?
Complexity is a relative assessment. Bringing up 8, 16 and 32 bit MCUs/SoC's has never in history been easier. Decades ago we used to have to bring up our boards from nothing, sometimes even having to write our own RTOS, boot code, firmware update code, etc. Today? A high school kid could do it with most chips. Go check out the STM32 Cube ecosystem for a glimpse.
I do understand that this is still likely daunting for hobbyists. I am not talking about arduino-level hobby users. That is not my world at all. However, understand that the commercial/industrial market is orders of magnitude larger than the hobby markets, and the rules and requirements are different.
> It is failing to understand this that opens the door to DJI and Bambu, who unsurprisingly prioritize user experience and predictability, which is a major factor in why in open competition they keep wiping the floor with everyone.
Are you responding to someone else's comment? This has nothing to do with what I was addressing. I am talking about chips, and, in particular, SoC (System on Chip) solutions for WiFi applications. These are components used by engineers to design products. You are talking about finished products. You might as well add blender and microwave oven manufacturers to that list.
You're missing the point: the line between hobbyist and prototype now doesn't exist - there is a continuum where devices are made in single digits, tens of units, and progressively scaled up. This isn't the 80s/90s where you make none or thousands. Even those Amazon made wall socket relay things are ESP based after all.
In this universe the old way of doing things makes no sense.
> Who's sneering?
Your comment was, and you still are like:
> However, understand that the commercial/industrial market is orders of magnitude larger than the hobby markets, and the rules and requirements are different.
In fact the hobby market now has _tougher_ requirements (particularly for software support, which Wifi necessitates) than the commercial and industrial one, and would not tolerate the level of random hacks/erratum that are spat out by the major chip providers.
> You're missing the point: the line between hobbyist and prototype now doesn't exist - there is a continuum where devices are made in single digits, tens of units, and progressively scaled up. This isn't the 80s/90s where you make none or thousands. Even those Amazon made wall socket relay things are ESP based after all.
Yeah, no. Sorry, you don't know what you are talking about.
I've gone from self-funded garage startup to millions of dollars in annual sales twice in my life (> $40MM annual with my current business, targeting 10x that within five years). And, yes, I've also had several truly memorable failures (including going bankrupt).
What you are saying might only align with reality at a trivial business level. Even today. Making ten or a hundred gizmos for Etsy with no concern given to the requirements of real comercial/industrial products? Sure. Anything else, no, you are wrong.
> In fact the hobby market now has _tougher_ requirements (particularly for software support, which Wifi necessitates) than the commercial and industrial one, and would not tolerate the level of random hacks/erratum that are spat out by the major chip providers.
Once again, sorry, you might want to stop, this statement shows just how little you know. There's nothing in hobby-world that even remotely compares to the requirements of commercial and industrial products.
Simple example: Nobody producing hobby products worries about setting someone's house on fire or making a device that interferes with pacemakers.
Please go ask ChatGPT what it costs to obtain UL, FCC, TUV, CE and other certifications for a non-trivial electronic or electromechanical product. Depending on many factors, the number is going to be between $25K and well over $100K.
So, if you are doing it legally and with all safety and other certifications, your cost basis starts at around $25K JUST FOR THE CERTIFICATIONS. If you manufacture 100 units, that would be $250 per unit in regulatory costs. So, how do you sell a hobby gizmo for $10 or $25? Simple, you ignore all of that and just sell it. And if it burns down someone's home, interferes with pacemakers or had other negative repercussions you ignore it, go out of business or whatever.
The millions of Chinese products on Amazon in this category are "fire and forget" products. The manufacturers could not care less what happens or what harm they may cause. There are plenty of stories of cheap USB charge adapters that have caused fires, etc. Certifications obtained in China for these products are mostly fake and cannot be relied upon at all (I have seen some truly horrific things).
BTW, there's nothing wrong with not knowing. We don't know everything, nobody does. What is ill-advised is to behave as though we did know.
One way to look at it is that the hobby market is the domain of a range of people spanning a range from kids to adult tinkerers and enthusiasts. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I was a kid designing and building computers (from bare IC's) before I went to university. The commercial, industrial, medical and aerospace markets are the domain of professionals. There's a vast knowledge, capability, responsibility and requirements gap between those two worlds. One does not negate the other and it isn't sneering to say that hobby products rarely measure up to products designed for other markets.
> Yeah, no. Sorry, you don't know what you are talking about.
"OK". This is why your snark is so easily detectable, you're the one that doesn't see how things have moved on.
> Once again, sorry, you might want to stop, this statement shows just how little you know. There's nothing in hobby-world that even remotely compares to the requirements of commercial and industrial products.
> Simple example: Nobody producing hobby products worries about setting someone's house on fire or making a device that interferes with pacemakers.
Yeah, they do. What do you think the 3D printer community worries about? It's a rapidly moving heating element shooting hot plastic, an inherent health and fire hazard if it goes wrong. If the likes of Bambu got this wrong you would absolutely know about it.
If drone control software crashes what happens? It falls out of the sky on to people.
And here you are coping that 3D printers or drones are easy products to develop in consumer friendly form.
I've worked on tablets and cellphones prototypes (things shipping in tens of millions per model variant) we had burn people in testing because of bugs caused by the usual supposedly reputable manufacturers. You can tell by some of the devices that actually shipped that big corp enthusiasm for risk taking can easily exceed what smaller scale producers will accept, and that to the right people it presents no obstacle to certification.
The Chinese have overtaken the west at actually being good at consumer electronics development, and the denial about this from people is frightening.
If I argue with my wife about medical matters (she is an MD) her response might look or sound snarky to some. In reality, she would be correct in telling me how and why I would be wrong.
You really need to stop, because you are digging a deeper hole with every word. You just said that 3D printers and drone are easy consumer products to develop. You truly do not understand what it takes to develop these products. The vast majority of them are still incredibly unsafe. There's a minority that have greatly enhanced safety. It should not be surprising that the safe systems (with a couple of exceptions) cost tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars and address commercial/industrial markets, not hobby. The amount of engineering and testing these systems require is nothing less than massive.
Context: I've been designing, building and flying all kinds of RC planes, gliders, helicopters and multicopters for four decades. I have been designing, building and using 3D printers for over two decades. Our latest 3D printer for internal use is equipped with Teknic Clearpath motors with fully machined structure and parts made on our Haas CNC Vertical Machining Centers.
Again, please, chill, nobody is insulting the hobby world (which you seem to be offended by). These are different worlds. That's how it has been from the start of time. And that's OK.
Here, I'll help you stop. Let's agree to disagree. You are absolutely right and I am wrong.
> You really need to stop, because you are digging a deeper hole with every word. You just said that 3D printers and drone are easy consumer products to develop.
Basically you can't actually read then and are just imagining things to argue with while slinging insults.
I said the exact opposite of what you are claiming - you're the one dismissing the entire hobbyist field, while attempting to deflect otherwise.
I simply started this comment thread to say that there's a substantial, massive, actually, difference between hobby and commercial/industrial products and here you are blowing it up into a fucking ridiculous moronic argument trying to say this isn't true.
SiLabs RS9116, Nordic nRF7002, TI CC3235, Dialog DA16200, ...
They exist, they just don't ship to individual nobodies without NDAs and months of talks and supply commitments, therefore we might as well consider them nonexistent. And that's sinking the whole world into oblivion, and no one(sane) is doing anything about it.
Chinese equivalents of Western products ship same day to mail drops at two digits below USD denominated global market manufacturing costs. That's their secret sauce. Or tried and true East Asian miracles strategy, of exploiting material independence to vacuum in foreign currency that are short of cost but are just trustless bundles of paper anyway. Economic competition is not possible when that's possible for them and nobody else - NOBODY else, not like "only for Asian backwater whatever failed state", but China, for now, specifically.
I'm actually from Japan and, with goggles of a maker on, DJI behavior feels reminiscent of Sony until it sank. The tech is top notch, and prices make progressively less sense towards higher ends. That kills competitions by denying sales of high end products(IMO. I'm not a sane person).
Indeed, but they also took the magic part of their product development philosophy of focusing on making the whole end-to-end process for users absolutely solid, which both companies do better than anyone else in those segments.
I'm in favor of tighter regulation on drone imports, both for national security reasons and to try to jumpstart a US drone industry.
Not allowing _any_ foreign made components, however, is insane, as is not even auditing DJI when they didn't put up a fight. They have to know they're just killing the small drone industry completely.
There’s currently nobody in the us small drone market to get complacent. Is there a single company that designs and builds sub $10,000 drones in the US?
Both making and removing regulation boosts my business, as my clients care about changes. That said, I assure you that one regulation getting made out of millions has no effect on my bottom line.
The drone thing is a personal opinion. If the US ends up in a war (whether it’s one I agree with or not, likely not), I don’t want millions of drones to be remote controllable by the folks we’re fighting.
I'm honestly much more worried about the fact that China has access to production lines for zillions of the things than what they'd do with existing ones, but I did make the comment so I'll run with it =).
Let's put on our fun James Bond villain hats for a bit.
The US has around 1.75MM drones that people have bothered to register. DJI has around 75% of that, so call it 1.25MM. This registration program is relatively new so let's say 750K of those are still operable.
How many of those are in the air at any given time? Keep in mind many of these bigger registered drones are used by businesses.
Let's say it's 1%, so 7,500 drones suddenly open some backdoor and get commanded to do a nose dive for the nearest power line. Now add in the smaller ones that are less likely to do damage, but there are 10x as many. Now combine it with a simultaneous cyber attack on infrastructure, and some pre-planned terror attacks.
Is it going to end the country? Of course not. Is there potential for that to cause huge chaos? I think so.
Is that more absurd than the Hezbollah pager bombings? I don't think so.
So yeah, I'd pay more for my drones, my cars, my cell phone towers, etc etc to avoid them being controlled by a country that we might end up in a stupid war with. I'm not saying you can make everything locally in the modern world, that's absurd. But there are valid strategic and natsec concerns about the US/China trade relationship in 2025.
> Is that more absurd than the Hezbollah pager bombings? I don't think so.
OMG, get serious. DJI can't blow up the drones. It is in my closet, not my pocket.
Again, this is just silly. Even for James Bond! ;p
It is more "We have to do something!!" that reminds me of cities in California having moratoriums on building new housing -- who would have thought that people would want to build in order to live in a nice climate. But really was about a new kind of neighbor...
I would love to see the US drone industry thrive, it's a major gap in both the consumer and military market.
At the same time, several businesses have and are trying to compete in this business. The amount of capital required is enormous if anyone is going to compete with DJI and the like. I personally know someone in this situation. They have a great product and some traction, but going from low quantity bespoke solutions to cost competitive large scale manufacturing costs hundreds of millions.
And the problem is, investors don't trust that the ban is going to last forever. The government could reverse the ban at any time, and that puts the US company back in a position where they can't compete with DJI, so the investors lose money. And they know that.
I build hobby scale drones for fun, mostly sub250g micros with no military value.
I’d pay more for domestic parts, because I think the capability is strategically valuable, and the quality of Chinese stuff is super variable.
There’s basically no industry here because the aliexpress parts are so cheap, so I support some protectionism, understanding that it will make the hobby more expensive.
I think you’re probably right, but I think going for million dollar drones from anduril while wiping the rest of the market is a miscalculation.
What makes you think U.S.-manufactured parts would be less "variable" than Chinese stuff? I would guess the opposite to be the case: reliability comes from scale, and there's very little scale in U.S. electronics manufacturing in the first place.
Chinese stuff ranges from cheap to expensive, super reliable and super unreliable, too.
Wow, the title of the article really buries the lead as this is a much bigger deal than banning new versions of fully assembled drones made by a Chinese company.
I can’t even think of another country that makes 4S Lipo batteries or the motors or the ESC’s or the VTX or the GPS module..
Not surprising. Asymmetrically-powerful personal technology is a threat to the State's monopoly of force and power. Same reason for US juristictions banning hardware "hacking" devices, firearms manufacturing, 3D printing - hell, even building and maintaining a PC is becoming untenable. The writing is on the wall for what is next.
Yeah, with parts from China...but that's banned too.
Homegrown factories and supply chains don't just pop up overnight though. So in the near term this just means zero drones and a disorderly transition.
Intentionally triggering that only really makes sense if you think a major confrontation is imminent and chaos is an acceptable price to pay to force speed.
They don't need to be that hard to develop. It's not like you need a return to base feature. Sort of like wanting to learn how to fly a plane, but not take off and land the plane. You don't need to have the full feature set of a DJI drone to make it a weapon. You also don't need to worry about the battery life of coming back, so you've essentially doubled your distance capabilities, so maybe a stronger radio. Do you need the video return signal too? I guess that would be some decent PR footage on the nightly news propaganda stations though, so might be worth the expense??? You also don't need to be burdened with the GeoFencing features of a DJI, but would be funny to see a bunch of attack drones all hover just outside a map boundary because the target has their base listed in the GeoFence library!
So while not duct-taping a GoPro (we'd use Gaff tape anyways), they could use bailing wire with a grenade or c4 bundle to attach it.
I think you're pretty confused about what most of these drones are doing.
DJI drones aren't being used as weapons platforms in the US...
They're being used for industry (agriculture, real estate, land surveillance, fire monitoring)
No one gives a shit that it's not difficult to make a flying grenade. They care that all the features you're in here mouthing off about as "not important" are actually important.
Just looking at the injection molded shell of my Mavic Mini makes me cringe when thinking about the startup cost. It's the plastic shell; not the motors, nor the circuitry, nor the optical parts...and to think you could build that in the USA is laughable. DJI releases 2-3 models every 2-3 years... if you could even find a company in the USA machining the steel molds at that frequency (i don't think it exists) how are you going to afford the bill?
We'll just let Boeing build them. They have the know-how.
Plus, if we're talking military drones vs civilian drones, they wouldn't need plastic shells. That'd just be more weight reducing distance. Then again, military industrial complex would probably try to make them stealth capable, be designed by committee from 22 nation states, be micro-USB mandated to comply with EU standards, blah blah. Yeah, you're right, we'd never be able to build them here.
I'm confused too. The parts are high quality and scream "in-house" and surely not the product of contract engineers or contract machinist work. But I don't think DJI has machinists or factories in-house? I would assume they are just the product designers but I guess it's probably some kind of unique workflow due to Shenzen.
I just anecdotally see that in the USA, the required iterative design process is too cost-prohibitive for injection molding, and likely the same for every other trade. So multiply number of trades (designer, CAD drafter, machinist, electrical engineer, software engineer, injection molder, assembler, etc.) multiplied by the number of experimental iterative processes required to build an institutional knowledgebase... it's cost-prohibited.
It's been on the table since before 2024, the hobbyist community has been bracing for it for a while. Huawei devices were made illegal to sell in the US fairly suddenly as well.
I think the US military itself relies on big, sophisticated and expensive UAVs. Is there any US-only supply-chain to build millions of cheap drones for military applications? I don't agree with the ban, but if it forces a domestic supply chain, even for civilian use, that might be more tenable. But last I looked, I couldn't find any US vendor that makes similar quality drones, even if they manufacture overseas.
That these are banned but Chinese made robot vacuums and other appliances are not points to this not being about protecting individual Americans and more about protecting national interests (drones can map out terrain in a lot more detail and are mobile outside of your bedroom, and can be trivially weaponized)
My Chinese made robot vaccuum can't get from one end of a room to the other without bouncing off the walls multiple times. Makes it kind of hard to deliver ordinance like that. I really don't think these Chinese made robot vacuums you're afraid of are much of a threat.
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.
The lesson learned from Ukraine is that importation of drones is a terrific asset, rather than a liability. Maybe you think that lesson would not apply to the USA, but that wouldn't be a lesson learned from Ukraine, rather the lesson learned would be the opposite.
The lesson learned from Ukraine is that a robust drone supply chain is very important. For some countries it doesn't matter if this supply chain is rooted in China, for others it matters a lot.
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.
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.
I am not arguing it is easier to destroy the world's industrial capacity than just the US industrial capacity. I am saying that in the situation where you have so utterly devastated the US mainland that it is incapable of producing drones, the war is over. If you defeat the US then you defeat the US.
Of course I am rather dismissive of the claim that this is a small feat. I accuse you of not fully thinking through what exactly it would take to fubar domestic drone production.
I see, you think my argument is moot because a successful sabotage or halt of domestic drone production is a victory condition for war.
It's an interesting strategy to sidestep the conversation; rather than acknowledging the superiority of having redundant international supply chain you can just suggest it doesn't really matter anyway if US drone capacity is gone because at that point the war is lost.
I don't see the evidence for why this must be true, whether you think it is a 'small feat' or not.
> I see, you think my argument is moot because a successful sabotage or halt of domestic drone production is a victory condition for war.
No, I claimed that to fubar the domestic supply chain was a victory condition of the war. Sabotage can be repaired or bypassed, halts can be unhalted. But to fuck up beyond all reason the US domestic industrial capacity, i.e. to render it so that it can not assemble basic electronics of the sort that are used in drones at all with no ability to get production back online within a strategically meaningful period of time, yes that means the war is over. At that point drones are the least of our concerns. Everything you are fighting for has already been destroyed, the death toll is already catastrophic, the enemy is clearly superior by a massive factor, continued fighting at that point would be suicide.
Now I am not arguing that a redundant international supply chain is a bad thing, I am opposed to banning all foreign drone firms. But that being said, the claim that it is obviously superior is the extraordinary claim requiring evidence. As we clearly saw in 2020, international supply chains are incredibly vulnerable to disruption. Can you be confident that a foreign nation supplying us drones would be on our side in the event of a major conflict? Would all of their suppliers be on our side? Even if they are all on our side, would they be able to ship materials and products between themselves and to us unimpeded? Would they still be able and willing to do so when we are being beat so bad that our domestic industry has collapsed? A strong international supply chain is a good supplement to domestic production capacity, but the claim it is a superior alternative can not be taken as a given.
Silly me, I thought we were talking about the supply chain of drones. You merely wanted to argue against a straw man that literally the entire US industry was destroyed. Since for some reason that is necessary to destroy the domestic supply chain of the thing we were talking about.
Again, not a straw man. It is necessary to destroy the entirety of US industry to destroy the supply chain of drones. Drones are incredibly easy to manufacture, among the very easiest. It does not require highly specialized machines or exotic skillsets. Components can easily be substituted and designs easily modified to match available resources. There are tens of thousands of manufacturers in the US with the capability to produce such devices. If something happens to a random electronics factory, that production can move to a different electronics factory.
To knock out out the domestic drone supply chain, such that it can not quickly be brought back online, you need to create a situation such that none of these manufacturers are able to make drones. Of course if there is no one who can make a drone, there's no one who can make a missile guidance system, there's no one who can make fighter jets, there's no one who can make radars, there's no one who can make radios, there's no one who can make spare parts for any of these systems and more out in the field. If you still had any of that capability, you would still be able to make drones. Losing the capability to make drones means you have been completely and utterly knocked out of the fight.
Again, I accuse you of not previously thinking through what the supply chain of drones is, and thus your argument is indeed quite silly.
> It is necessary to destroy the entirety of US industry to destroy the supply chain of drones.
I was hoping you'd say that, because it cleanly proves my case. Allowing importation of drones won't destroy the drone supply chain; in your own words that would require destroying the entirety of US industry, which importing drones cannot do even if Chinese drone imports or functionality is suddenly cut off.
You've thus crushed the premise and neatly rested the case in my favor. Because you can't possibly simultaneously argue destroying the entire US industry is required and also argue all it takes is flooding and then poisoning the market with import drones.
> then that access may not be reliable in the event of conflict with China.
Some might call that poor pre-planning. If you're about to go to war with your biggest supplier, you'd be well advised to stock up on supplies before firing the first shot.
Until the FCC wakes up and decides to change any detail of how they certify (which can happen easily), and then everything becomes no longer certified, and you'd basically have a full blanket ban of any transmitter, receiver, esc, motor, completed drone (or anything else that even incidentally emits EMI) that wasn't built in the US. The cards are set up there that it's extremely easy for them to just "incidentally" change a few things and hey no more drones of almost any sort, or RC planes, or hell parts for a whole lot of things.
How does this interact with this[1] recent decision? Maybe I'm stupid but I don't think the article really explains the US Commerce Dept. decision outcome when the FCC ban is still in effect.
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.
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.
It's not like weapons targeting needs to have high precision data. Robotics or drone planning definitely doesn't need high precision data. Nah. You're right. Higher precision data is absolutely useless to everything.
And what will they do with the maximum possible resolution a drone can provide, that they can't already do with publicly available data? I mean, if dropping a bomb is the intent, does it really matter if it's 3 inches off?
I always thought the risk was more that such a drone fleet could be remotely commandeered for real-time updates on target locations. It's something that could only be done once, but wow, it would be a real advantage to the attacker.
Google and others have already mapped practically everything. I don't buy that China is using access to DJI drones to map anything. Seriously, what data set can they provide that isn't already public domain?
News next week : "Donald Trump Jr opens US Drone company with exclusive import license from China."
> DJI responded publicly that month that they had nothing to hide, and subsequently spent a year trying to convince the U.S. government to begin the audit. But no federal agency even began
There's your answer. There was never any concern over Americans data being sent to China.
Also they didn't "Follow through", they simply let the clock run out without even evaluating DJI's reponse to the claims.
It’s hard to say on this one. There is a pretty extensive history of Chinese govt spying via consumer products [0]. Having worked formerly with the intelligence community, they tend not to tip their hand when they are aware of asymmetrical information.
It’s plausible that the determination was made that there were backdoors/spy equipment/whatever in the products, so no audit or smooth talking from corp representatives would make a difference in this case, given the supply chain remains controlled by an adversary. If you don’t trust that an audit can be executed with integrity then there’s not much point in conducting one at all.
The fact that this has been extended to all foreign drones does make that feel like more of a political statement though, or at the very least the original intent is being hijacked for political theater.
Intent is of course tricky to prove, but there is overwhelming evidence that’s Chinese government views the role of Chinese companies in the consumer electronics supply chain as a strategic, exploitable asset.
> Huawei has a history of IP theft and security incidents related to backdoors and malware going back nearly 20 years.
> ZTE has been accused of including unusual backdoors in some products and was caught selling equipment containing U.S. technology
to Iran and North Korea, in violation of trade agreements. … Security researchers, however, noted that the backdoors were “highly unusual” and appeared intentional because they were supporting software updates.
It's doubtful that there is currently a backdoor or anything that would fail an audit.
The problem is the software updates. Whoever controls those keys has an entire domestic fleet a single firmware update away. Probably won't even be DJI, but some either state or non-state hacker that happens to acquire the update keys.
Maybe the US government can make a requirement that DJI divest and spin of a US controlled subsidiary. That seems to have worked great with ByteDance and TikTok.
Reading through the notice from the FCC, it sure feels like they've also banned a lot of the critical components that go into line of sight RC airplanes. It really sucks, I kind of wonder if this won't crush the hobby and cause a lot vendors like Horizon or Hobby King to go under if they can't bring in planes or parts. Maybe they think someone is going to do a terrorism with their foamie Crack Yak or Turbo Timber..
"And with no American-made drones comparable to the category leaders, it’ll be a while before any company steps up to offer one."
The problem is that it would be extremely risky for a US company to spin up a comparable US built drone. Even if they can match the price/quality point, at any given time the government could remove the ban, killing the entire business model.
A society in which ubiquitous, diversely-owned and operated, unlicensed drones watch the every move of police and criminals - even though that means they watch the every move of the rest of us as well - is a society in which I want to live.
The outcome of who can lawfully create and deploy eyes in the sky is the ultimate decider of the matter of who watches the watchers.
We could start health insurance companies that monitor everyone's gait and how often they exercise vs eat fast food to adjust prices. Or credit monitoring companies that watch how often you attend the casino vs. work. Or boyfriend monitoring to check for cheaters.
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
I haven't kept up to date but does the US have that much more leverage over Canada anymore? Last I checked we have tariffs on most exports, including crude, wood, steel and aluminium (probably missing a bunch). General goods are tariff'ed at 35% while China is tariff'ed at 47.5%.
They could get us to ban DJI for sure but I'd assume it'd be more through carrot than stick, because at this point we've been pretty consistently beaten for the last year.
> General goods are tariff'ed at 35% while China is tariff'ed at 47.5%.
Incorrect. General tariffs are only on goods not already covered by CUSMA, which, other than the specific items already called out (aluminum, steel, etc.), is a very small set.
> In October, Popular Information reported that the Pentagon awarded a contract to Unusual Machines, an obscure drone company that President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., joined as an advisor in November 2024, despite having no notable experience with drones or military contracting.
[…]
> Now, another small startup funded by 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm where Trump Jr. is a partner, will receive a $620 million loan from the Defense Department, the Financial Times reported. Vulcan Elements, which currently has around 30 employees, produces rare-earth magnets, which can be used in “drones, radar systems and other military applications.” The contract was awarded just three months after 1789 invested in Vulcan.
... the import of any foreign made drone parts is also blocked. This includes things like ESCs and flight controllers. Not just items that actually transmit radio signals like camera modules and so are traditionally regulated by the FCC re: import.
The best coverage of the FCCs over-reach attempting to regulate all parts, and then their subsequent very tiny walking of it back is Joshua Bardwell's video: https://youtu.be/Dyr87--SDuc (9m47s)
Almost all the new exceptions are for government users. The only thing relevant to human persons is the back-stepping change that as long as the components of a drone are 60% made in the USA the entire thing can be considered domestic and imported. Or US retail importers can take the risk of saying that a tx'ing camera module has alternate uses, like as a security camera, and try importing it regardless of the ban.
You're correct. The ban targets the supply chain and future imports/sales, not retroactive possession. New foreign drones cannot be certified for sale in the US market going forward. Existing drones you already own aren't being confiscated or made illegal to fly
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 the act. Historically, it is easier to win elections than revolutions; limiting access to game-changing technology puts the power advantage even more firmly in the corner of the regime.
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