"Finance is no longer a tool for getting money into productive businesses but instead for getting it out"...

it's easy to spot since he calls one of the political party's out by name. There's still some weight to the NIMBY folks though. The trouble with nuclear, at least in America, is that it's damn near impossible to keep it safe. Sooner or later some venture capital firm notices how much money's being spent on safety and moves in with promises of "efficiency", takes over the plant operation and starts cutting back. That's really what the NIMBY crowd worries about, they're just not allowed to talk about it because those same venture capitalists are our ruling class. It's pretty much the same thing that happened in Japan. They knew the plants weren't safe but didn't want to spend the money. Big disaster, lots will die of cancers and the like, but nobody important go in trouble.

she's got lots of money. Also, she has connections with other folks who have lots of money. It's not echo chamber. She doesn't need a good record, just enough to bury the past. If you're old enough to remember Regan he didn't have much to run on, but his ad campaigns were _fantastic_. It's morning in America, and everything's just a little bit brighter because you voted for Regan...

Also people like to forget she basically won the California Gubernatorial race until an epic, almost legendary gaff during a debate cost her the election. Gerrymandering + voter suppression + money can get anyone or anything elected in America...

and there are several such lawsuits going on, they're just a bit smaller scale because this one involved a really, really rich lady. It also made the news during a slow news cycle. Really, it's not that big a deal. Investors don't care. Everywhere's a political minefield. Shit happens.

I know it's popular to say problems can't/won't be solved, but I really think that's just because it feels nice to think our lives aren't so easily controlled. Sure, it might take a little effort but it's not that hard. We have self driving cars, it wouldn't be hard to make planes with computers that loon balls can't crash. We just haven't bothered yet.

they know, and they don't want you to for just that reason.

when you're a large mega corp with lawyers on retainer and your ex-employee was making $12/hr (if they're lucky) and living out of their RV. See, once you start eroding workers rights it's all downhill from there.

Dumping on people does not make them better. Study after study has shown how fragile children's psychs are and how important positive reinforcement is. But hey, it's a lot more fun to be a dick and crush everyone you see. And if you think of human beings as a resource to be used and without any intrinsic value whatsoever you're way works too. You just have to be willing to grind your populace into dirt for the sake of profit and to buy one more Car Elevator and one more Private Jet. Yeah, I know I'm trolling, but damn if I'm not sick of this culture of disposable human beings.

the companies that are hiring electrical engineers either aren't doing it in America or they're importing their labor. EE is a dead end in America because of this. There's also practically no entry level jobs because there's no factories to cut your teeth in. It's kinda hard to compete when other countries can dump their toxic sludge into drinking water. It's not laziness, it's survival instinct. That skill is all but worthless in a country with zero protection for it's native industry and workers.

If I'm smart enough to go into STEM I'm also smart enough to know any career so overwhelmed with outsourcing onshoring and visa abuse is a dead end. This isn't rocket science. Rocket Science doesn't pay enough to make ends meet...

it's incredibly expensive to deploy that last mile. You need to run cable through and over dozens of people's land. It's cost prohibitive. Yes, there's money to be made, but anyone who has the money to enter the market also has the money to invest in much less risky and more profitable ventures. That's where the monopoly came from in the first place. The gov't steps in to make sure the lines are run (and largely pays for them either directly or indirectly in the form of tax breaks and free services) then hands it all over to a private company in the name of "the incredible efficiency of the free market"... We did it with the railways too. Damn, but we never learn do we?

should involve these guys.

I don't see a lot of this, or any of it really, having the slightest impact on actual politics. Then again I'm in America, and the only thing that impacts our politics since "Citizen United" is corporate money, so this might be a bigger issue in Europe.

and appropriate social behavior. You don't have a right to be a douche nozzle anywhere you want. Whoops, just did it myself there, didn't I? See how easy it is? Then again, it's about your forum and understanding your audience. On /. the phase douche nozzle is highly appropriate. On the forum of a popular open source project, or even my favorite retro gaming podcast's site? Not so much.

The trouble is, there are a _lot_ of folks who never learned tact, and blurt out whatever the hell enters their mind when ever it does; often just to get attention of any kind (good or bad).

So yeah, the world doesn't need to rush to meet their expectations, but a certain amount of civility at certain times/places is definitely called for.

with the far right in power at the moment and no credible left wing in America it's pretty much a waste of time/effort to go after a big corp. The right is openly against anti-trust regulation (among other forms of regulation), and if all else fails they'll just cut the agency's funding until enforcement stops. It's a side effect of our screwed up political system. Gerrymandering plus our Senate makes it cheap and easy to put a little pressure in the right place and completely control our politics. That wasn't by accident either. It was designed that way because wealthy land owners were afraid of the plebes voting themselves land & food.