Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

Sponsored by AT&T, I'm Dan Fromack. On today's show, the new wave of techies running for public office.

And Trump's former national economic advisor makes a very questionable claim about Facebook.

But first, the trouble with drones.

Now, okay, there are lots of potential troubles with drones.

But most of the ones we commonly think of are pretty pedestrian.

For example, we don't want them buzzing over our homes, particularly if they have cameras

on them.

And the idea of thousands of

these things flying through a city street delivering packages is aesthetically miserable.

But as we learn this past weekend, drones can be used for much more than annoying people,

or even for productive things like remotely analyzing crops.

No, more specifically, they can be used in relatively unsophisticated assassination attempts.

Or at least that's what seemed to happen on Saturday night,

when controversial Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro was addressing the country's National Guard.

It was believed to be the first time that a drone has ever been weaponized outside of a war zone, where, yeah, they have become commonplace.

And even though Maduro survived, the incident could inspire others to be, let's say, more effective next time.

In other words, terrorists have a dangerous new tool that can be bought almost anywhere.

You can get drones online.

You can even get them at my local convenience store.

So the attack itself in Venezuela is unlikely to stop the spread of drones, but it hopefully will get

governments to move faster on possible safety solutions, such as something called remote

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