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Ayn Rand had many insightful ideas, however she took them to an extreme.

What you see as “corrupt government” others see as a “virtuous cycle”…

The main problem with your thought process is that your conflating “wealth accumulation” with “wealth creation”!


One reason foreign enrollment is declining is concern about (mainly) Chinese espionage. That’s entirely reasonable, given the vast amount of stolen engineering and research…


Buy a Tesla with FSD. No, it’s not L5 autonomy, but it’s already safer than the average human driver…and autonomous cars will only get better.


I see just the opposite. This current administration is trying to prevent the kinds of authoritarian excesses and illegal acts that occurred under BHO and JRB from ever happening again.

Perhaps America will once again be a place with "freedom and justice for all"!


> This current administration is trying to prevent the kinds of authoritarian excesses and illegal acts that occurred under BHO and JRB from ever happening again.

It’s telling that you didn’t mention these alleged excesses or explain your argument that concentrating power in the executive while removing safeguards somehow prevents future abuse. Without a coherent argument and supporting evidence, it’s hard to see how this will lead to a useful conversation.


Free countries are not ruled by decree.


America has a strong executive, as mandated by the Constitution.

We'll have a much better idea of how things are going by the 2026 midterms. Then our democratic republic can vote accordingly. :-)


All levers of the government, as I understand it, are controlled by the President's party. This would seem to suggest that the normal mechanism of passing laws and budgets would be straightforward, eliminating the need to rule by decree. As this does not seem to be happening, it suggests the US government is inoperative with all control ceded legally or otherwise to the executive.

Hence my decree comment.


I'm not sure of your understanding of America's government.

Conservatives control all three branches of government to an extent. The Senate GOP doesn't have 60 members, so the Dems can block legislation (the GOP hasn't invoked the "nuclear option" that would prevent that). That's why there's a government shutdown, 100% of that is on the Dems.

The Supreme Court exists only to interpret law in terms of constitutionality. Even with a conservative majority, it shouldn't, and almost certainly won't, violate the Constitution.

As I said above, events leading up to the midterms, and the midterms themselves, will determine the way forward...quite democratically. :-)


> That's why there's a government shutdown, 100% of that is on the Dems.

Back in my day, the filibuster existed to encourage compromise. The idea that this is "100%" on the Dems is absolutely ridiculous.

There's not much I agree with Trump on, but I do agree with what he said back in 2013: "A shutdown means the president is weak."

Mr. "Art of the Deal" really makes the best deals.


> 100% of that is on the Dems

How do you figure? Or is the presumption that the GOP compromising by not (further) gutting healthcare subsidies just accepted as wishful thinking at this point?

> almost certainly won't, violate the Constitution

They arguably already have [0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States


If you think we're having elections in 2026 you're wildly out of tough with reality.


I'd gladly wager some real money were such a thing feasible. We'll see who's "wildly out of tough [sic] with reality"!


America will be autocracy. Current administration is dismantling last protections of democracy. There are people who dont want it to happen and those who want it to happen.


The fact that these opinions exist in earnest and without a hint of sarcasm is why we shake our heads in disgust and disbelief over the pond here. Good lord.


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You are woefully misinformed. There are protests initiated by fringe right wingers, but even those fringe right wingers would be approximately centrists in the US. Virtually nobody wants a DJT-like figure in the UK, for many reasons.

I'd be more critical of the news sources I consumed, if I were you.


I still can't fully tell if this is satire or delusion.


If it's satire they've been running the joke for a long time



Seeing the downvotes, I'm fascinated with the effectiveness of propaganda in 2025. Truly amazing!

The midterms should be fun!


I can think of three worthwhile goals at a minimum:

1) Access the vast resources available elsewhere in the Solar System.

2) Move most polluting and destructive heavy industry off of Earth (this will take big advances in propulsion technology).

3) Provide good habitats for humans and ideally much of Earth's ecosphere elsewhere in the Solar System. Certainly the human population alone could rise to the hundreds of billions if desired/needed.

Surely it'll take a lot of progress to achieve those goals, but they're within reach of our current scientific knowledge. Interstellar travel, on the other hand, is much more of a stretch goal! ;-)


Actually one of the fast food restaurants here takes automated spoken orders at the drive through. I've only used it once, but I was surprised that it worked flawlessly for me...


The thing about automated systems is that they typically cover the happy paths, and leave people who fall outside of those happy paths extremely frustrated.

Take automated phone menu systems, for example.

"If you are calling about X, press 1

If you are calling about Y, press 2

If you are calling about Z, press 3"

customers presses 0 because they are calling about none-of-the-above and wants to talk to a human

"I'm sorry. I don't recognize that menu option. To hear the options again, please press 9."

Oh just today, to give another example of how automation can seriously frustrate end users, I'm trying to get a Square POS account approved for my new business. Their automated verification system sent me a form requesting more information about my business because certain information "could not be verified." One of the questions on the form was asking me to explain a discrepancy between the legal business name I typed in when setting up the account and the business name as it appears on the articles of incorporation that I submitted. The discrepancy in question: white-space and capitalization. No human being would read the two strings as distinct or recognize any discrepancy. Only software does that.


The F-35 isn't inferior to many other aircraft as far as raw capability goes. Really only the F-22. Nor is it expensive, at least the F-35A (I'm speaking of the initial cost, not sustainment which may or may not be a bargain).

The F-35 is the only genuinely stealthy aircraft any country outside the USA has access to (other than China, and the efficacy of its stealth technology isn't known). F-35 stealth is a game changer, as seen in every exercise in which they're involved.


At full capability, yes, it is. However if you don’t have the updated targeting data then my understanding is that it loses a lot of those advantages. And even if it didn’t, it may still be a case that it’s more cost effective to buy higher quantities of slightly inferior aircraft.

It’s hard to know for sure, though. The only true information we’ll get is when it’s used in a hot war and hints if or when countries reduce orders.


I guess you didn't read the article.

TSMC is building factories in America, and Apple is the biggest customer so far. It's a similar situation for rare earth magnets. So, not just "assembly".

As to tariffs in general, you should learn about something called the "trade deficit". The other countries, such as China, already had tariffs on American products, America is simply reciprocating. If tariffs are so stupid, why do so many countries use them I wonder?

One beneficial side effect of tariffs is bringing strategic manufacturing onshore, such as...semiconductor manufacturing.

Like it or not, the US economy will grow explosively as a result of the current economic policies, after an adjustment period.


Sure, it's too bad that almost all of that hatred is due to propaganda instead of anything real.

If anyone has benefited humanity over the last couple of decades, it's Elon Musk! I'd argue he's done more than anyone!


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