BOT account.

I'm trying to understand the narrative here.

I understood from many, many Slashdot posts that Elon Musk and Donald Trump were partners in crime and that SpaceX was Elon's tool for milking the US govt for no-bid contracts. How can NASA open this up to other vendors, doesn't that hurt SpaceX? What's the value of a sinecure if it's so easily ignored?

Snark aside, I welcome competition on this; a thriving PRIVATE space industry in the US will be the only thing that can compete with the power of a dedicated Chinese state (sclerotic risk-averse NASA can't really be relied upon to do so anymore). I do find it rather ironic that the article says SpaceX delays are threatening Artemis, given, well....everything ELSE Artemis-related has been pretty much a mess.
https://www.bgr.com/1997942/wh...

It's funny that's what you read there. Very...insightful. About you, not about the subject.

As we have free public education in this country, and at least in MN there are ample programs to allow low income people to get at least 2yr and many 4yr degrees for basically nothing (as well as whole government offices at the city, county, and state levels with staff to help the un- and underemployed apply for and secure these opportunities) there's nearly no reason these people can't improve their opportunities.

(As much as I think the system is bullshit, a college degree remains universally helpful in landing a decent job.)

While I'd fully agree with you at the tertiary level (college is a fucking scam and has been since at least the mid 1980s), I'm curious how you assert that primary and secondary schooling - which is 90% public in the US, at least - is 'profit driven'?

Wow, fascinating article. Thank you.
Will show my wife who muttered after seeing the umpteenth tiresome post on x "I actually agree that we might reconsider that whole 19th amendment".

https://history.house.gov/Inst...

Let's pick a nice round 50y as 'modern relevance' instead of a cherry-picked 24y?
In the 27 two year govt cycles we have had over the last 50y (incl current)
House: 15/12 Dem/GOP control
Senate: 14/12 (you can look up the exceptions yourself)
President: 12/15
Unified (one party controls all 3)
As for the Supremes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... well, that's the result of the 12/15 president bias.
So basically your victim narrative is ALREADY bullshit.

The fact that you don't seem to grasp that the problem with Obamacare (which you're right, was Romneycare before that) is the FEDERAL OVERREACH, not the plan itself, shows your own little Overton window. You don't get to define the frame of the argument.

The liberals ARE responsible for a lot that goes wrong because they insist they have some sort of monopoly on truth, and are certain of their own infallibility.

OK, sigh:
- IANAIL (I am not an immigration lawyer) but 'due process' doesn't mean everyone gets to stand in front of a judge. As I understand, it is longstanding precedent (since 2009 Obama admin, iirc) that illegals CAN be arrested and processed and moved around without the sorts of requirements needed for legal citizens. Thus: this IS due process, for them, according to our laws.
- denying free speech re the DoD: (shrug) it's certainly a break from practice. Then again, news agencies used to also go fetch the news, not rely on it being spoon fed to them by govt officials. I FULLY agree with the requirements for escorted access (that it was ever otherwise is insane), and explicitly stating that if they're soliciting leakers that will be weighed against their future access. Most of the organizations there have more or less declared themselves OPENLY in opposition to the president. That's fine, if you want to throw off the (faux) mantle of objectivity, why can't the president play along? Would it have been better if Fox/Newsmax *had* agreed?
- most of his claims are clearly in the tenor of a joke or trolling the hypersensitive left. I find it amusing personally that the Left loses any conception of idiom, exaggeration, sarcasm, or vernacular where Trump is concerned. Yesterday I saw a snip of a Trump conversation "Vladimir, how would you like it if I gave Zelensky 1000 Tomahawks?" to which the tame leftists trotted out "US presidents never asked an enemy for permission before..."...I mean, that's just stupid.

Then I'd say either you're not paying attention, or it's confirmation bias "I agree with them, how could that be biased?" - don't get me wrong, that's a natural human view point.
But to claim you've never heard a single example is...rather on the order of the (apocryphal) "I don't know a single person who voted for Nixon" in 1972...

And further, please don't think I'm implying that the problem's not WORSE on much of the MAGA side of the fence. (Then again, considering the public discourse in the last 5 years, it's apparent that 'anyone not toeing the line on Leftist talking points = MAGA' which itself is deeply, obviously, dishonest. )

How about an NPR editor saying it himself? https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-ed...

Bill Maher, hardly a right wing commentator, has asserted NPR has a hard left bias: https://www.facebook.com/TheHi...
Katherine Maher herself PERSONALLY is...awful. https://www.reddit.com/r/liber...
"...(the truth) might be a bit of distraction, getting in the way of getting important things done."
Sorry: from my POV I can't even conceive of the mindset that could utter those words in that order. And she's THE BOSS.

Allsides says it leans left https://www.allsides.com/news-...
Media Bias says it's left-center https://mediabiasfactcheck.com...
Adfont says it skews left https://adfontesmedia.com/wp-c...

How do you define a "woman" again, Mr Brain Surgeon?

(shrug)
Oh, I'm "scary" am I?

I myself was told directly to "shut the fuck up" since Biden won.
Oh, and through most of the Obama years.

Did you think that approach was never going to come back and bite your team in the ass? Of course not; your self-righteousness is infinite.
OF COURSE NOT: you morons couldn't see that the nonsense of Jan 6 was directly the result of your (gov't, media, allies) affirmation, tolerance, and outright praise of MONTHS of George Floyd riots and violence.

You didn't think perhaps that normalizing that conduct "Fiery, but mostly peaceful protests" was going to be used by (morons) on the other side of the fence you dumb fuckers?

Maybe 4 years of the Fed telling people how far they should stand apart*, or when they were allowed to visit their nursing home loved ones, or shutting down churches (but not strip clubs) has inured the average voter to absurd government overreach?
*which Fauci - sorry, "Mr I Am Science" has since admitted he pulled out of his ass.

Quiver all you like over how 'scary' it is but karma has always been known to be a bitch. Don't like it? Assemble voters* and change policy but right now my $ would be betting in favor of at least 4 more GOP years after Trump, if the best you can field are Sanders (lol), AOC (lol), or Newsome (double lol). Maybe you could find a candidate that self-identifies as a winner?

*actual voters, not millions of illegals you'd certainly intended to make into a guaranteed impenetrable Dem voting block.

Really, I have to congratulate those tireless organizers who have fought hard to unionize the lowest tiers of otherwise-unemployable workers doing scutwork in the bowels of Amazon's vast warehouse network. You have managed to ensure that these workers get better wages, better benefits, and overall better conditions than they originally agreed to in many cases. This is commendable.

However, you have also ensured and motivated the bean-counters at Amazon to aggressively pursue methods of replacing these workers as quickly as possible. Scutwork is scutwork, and in the same way we replaced ditch-diggers with backhoes, warehouse pick/packers doing nearly-mindless work in an industrialized economy were eventually doomed to the same fate.

To be sure, those workers certainly would have eventually BEEN replaced as automated systems become cheaper and more reliable. But don't despair - your efforts weren't in vain, you absolutely accelerated the process!

Congrats, Workers Unite!

Latest speculation (by the weather balloon company itself) is a Windborne weather balloon
https://arstechnica.com/space/...

Maybe the moment we said "we will ignore facts if they're painful or sad" was really the beginning of the end?

If a study came out that said white males are on average 10 iq points dumber than any other combination of race and sex, it would make the news.

Out of the (very roughly) 8 combinations, it's the only one that could be discussed without accusations of racism.

Next you're going to tell me that Teams and OneDrive are shit too.

"Underinvestment" Sure, that's it.

China's spending per student, per year:
primary: about $2000
secondary: about $3000
tertiary: about $7000

OECD $14000 avg

US:
Primary/Secondary about $18000
Tertiary: $34000

Maybe it's not the spending that's the problem? Maybe it's the shit-value we're getting for the $ we spend?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/p...

1976-2018:
students: +78%
full time teachers: +92%
full time admin: +164%
full time other professionals: +452%

And meanwhile, yes, OBVIOUSLY Trump's 10 months in office is clearly the driver of USA's dismal educational performance for the past 50 years.

It's certainly not "educational professionals" doing things like applying double-standard racism to persistent disciplinary problems. Just punish black kids less for the same stuff = statistics even out! Solved! https://www.apmreports.org/sto...