SC saves trump from himself. Stimulus as money gets out back, prices lower, he declares victory

It’ll be interesting to see if he’s dumb enough to apply different tariffs out of petulance

Some clouds don’t have silver linings after all. What an asshole. It’s always such a challenge to identify the worst cabinet member, but Jr is a top contender

You’re right, of course - I just meant in the context of why it’s competing with video games for user attention. Gambling, porn, crypto, video games : one of these things is not like the other (he says with several 1000+ hour games in his steam library)

Gambling/crypto is all risk, porn is risk-free reward

If people have more alluring alternatives for cheap dopamine, maybe video games can prioritize satisfying gameplay and narratives. Play has value, that’d be ok

The wheel was “low-hanging fruit”, The next branch with fruit is higher and requires more effort to get to. It sounds like you are positing that at a certain point, we should be happy with the fruit that we have and not build the next rung in the ladder since that ring is much more expensive than the last.

The argument supporting this is that if you want a sustainable civilization, your yearly energy budget is fundamentally equal to the energy coming into the system (read solar insolation of the Earth) per year, everything else is reducing internal gradients or depleting finite resources. As science gets more expensive per tier, supporting it could squeeze out necessary expenditures on the populace.

The counterargument is that science is still valuable a) because it can improve efficiency (output per input) allowing better QoL within a sustainable energy budget, and b) because what are we humans here for if not to explore and live full lives?

While justifying it by identifying that science can just slow down to be sustainable. We don’t have to give up on the next highest fruit branch, we can just get there more slowly. On a basic level, it’s ok if the rate of progress slows down in the name of sustainability.

That’s all macro though. Short term, society has cancerous assholes hoarding wealth and resources, stealing from the public purse. US has always had an anti-intellectual streak but some people in charge believed in progress and saw it as a worthwhile investment. Current admin, and a lot of the populace on the other hand, are happy to see the brain drain to other countries that value science, R&D. Not all of us though mRNA flu vaccine backtrack shows that. Next few years will be interesting

Companies have dramatically cut back their once-healthy R&D budgets in favor of buying out startups (often supported by SBIR and NSF grants) incubated from universities (with public funds). This directs public money into private profits and society at large is letting that happen. I think it’s because everyday folks don’t think of science as the process of understanding; the image of progress has been co-opted by tech-bros and big pharma.

I talked to my wife about emigrating after the 2024 elections happened. She wants to stay for family ties and I think I’m too old anyways. As much as science investment (and respect) are being kneecapped in the US right now, I want to stay and advocate for/at my country even if it doesn’t value my vocation

Diminishing returns are largely unavoidable, and not a sufficient argument against anything, really. The Wheel was pretty impactful and had higher ROI than satellites, and I’m still glad we didn’t stop there. Science and R&D are getting more expensive and that’s fine - especially if you don’t worship quarterly profit margins.

Also, I’m afraid you’re wrong that scientists aren’t aware of the costs of their work and that those resources could go to more urgent needs. A virology buddy told me about a meeting he had with bill gates at a grant symposium and how it came up “I could buy millions of mosquito nets and save X lives with this grant money, why is it better spent on you?” Society should value both longer term understanding and capability as well as taking care of people today; let’s not pretend that those are only balanced against each other.

You’re not wrong, but that generation has some wild variance in politics and leopards eat everyone’s faces if you let them

I don’t imagine microwaves chasing me down an alley tho

I guess worry depends too on how good an empire is at coming into being. You can argue that the Russian special operation is pretty damn ineffective (relative to expectation) And less dangerous than if Putin was marching toward the Atlantic

I get the argument, but a lot of it relies on the law being applied universally. The SAVE act’s most stringent requirements are for registration, which won’t affect existing voters, unless … the administration finds some way to purge voter rolls of legitimate voters who then have to re-register. This is partially why they’re suing states for voter rolls - even trying to extort MN’s with ICE.

In a blue wave year, Dems could make serious inroads into or even flip red states. The SAVE act would let red state politicians tip the scales with near impunity. Don’t rely on the chance that it’ll hurt their own too (or more) - assholes will use the Act to hurt you or your neighbor and it needs to be stopped

It’s got me wondering what tear gas smells like

Tell them to DM me

I’d love big tech to lose

I’m married and I don’t care. Good thing spouse doesn’t either

Maybe that’s their plan for what to do with the $75B budget. They cant find enough chuds to hire that have the combination of sufficiently dumb/evil and “able to tie their shoes”, so they’re going to use all that money paying settlements when inevitably sued. It should come out of Miller’s bank account

I once saw two people get out of a cyber truck. They looked unhappy and mean and weren’t talking to each other

I wonder if DOJ tried to Honeypot the Congress folks that went to see the files with false documents. We know their searches were monitored. I hate that I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I don’t know what I’d put past these assholes

And because it’s sort of close, an easy target, and he’s obsessed with a legacy. Also because he sucks

They could be if we make them