The US empire was fading but it died with the election. It's just breathing it's last breaths as the world rearranges itself. Russia couldn't have done better if they had a spy elected. The advantageous position the USA held is gone permanently and the more it coasts on that power foolishly bullying the planet the faster it weakens while cementing resentments.

Internally, it's gone from cancer to terminal stage 4 cancer and is spreading into the bones. Like Rome, it will be dead for a couple generations with some people still in denial it's dead... some tribalists can't even realize as they confuse their tribe with the state.

Trump is a spot on clear Fascist. If experts are not enough (some who left already) then just read any books before recent times and cope with the fact nobody time traveled to write biased books on Fascism to smear Trump in the future.

Generic socialism, is the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. It's the rationale behind almost everything; The NAZI used it and their greatest enemy, the Communists also used it (and "Socialists" as a political group are different and are also not Communists. ) Adam Smith the father of Capitalism (a Marx invention) he argued socialism was best served by capitalistic competition (and strongly apposed crony rent-seeking capitalism; which is anti-competitive.)

Bernie is far more like the greatest president, FDR who is a populist socialist. China ignored the idiotic advice/propaganda of the US Chicago school of economics etc. which ruined everything, everywhere. China took the best of FDR and world history and made more progress than anybody in the history of the world. Their authoritarian system facilitated rapid change; as that is it greatest advantage, but as Franklin said, any form of government is fine if it is well administered. The implication being, the real problem is achieving and maintaining good administration. Also good luck is greatly under considered, especially with our "hero worship" of successful people.

yup. All that accessibility support in the OS and apps is accelerating AI integration; I suppose all the API access AppleScript to work with objects inside apps also can become useful besides driving people nuts with the torture that is AppleScript.

you sound like you've lost touch with reality. i've given up on lost causes like you. The US empire is dead and it has cancer which is terminal with almost no chance for recovery. As predicted decades ago, 2025 will be marked as the final threshold to it's demise. All I can say to a few people who don't even remember the prediction is "I told you so."

When I was in school, a long time ago... we had classrooms where you had to sit on the floor! no desks. We did get desks by the NEXT school year.

The whole 4 years I was there we had science books from the moon landing; which were repaired from wear. Was my district poor? NO! We were one of the top ones in the state. So where did the money go? A new football field (turf) with a sculpture and two new gyms, weight room, all new uniforms and gear and a new parking lot. Oh, and a state of the art security system that placed cameras everywhere but the bathroom. Some said we had the record at the time.

Not yet... However, the Taliban did. It won't be on simple basic math or numbers; but on higher learning such as understanding statistics; or say Trump messes up on a fraction or how percentages works-- and in defense of him they attack reality-- as they've done before. Sometimes they ignore an issue such as magnets stopping when they get wet; if that became an issue, they'd have argued Trump was correct in saying magnets do not work when wet.

This.
I was following the DSM back in the day and many thought; as did I, lumping them together created funding for Aspies that otherwise didn't exist. When science screws up, it gets back on track eventually as long as it's still science - if it does not, then it is no longer science. I've been tracking the topic for 20 years; before the fads or most psychologists even knew about Aspergers (or forgot about in school; back when rates were estimated to be 1 in 100k in the late 90s.)

With more information from this move I must say I am surprised it's only about a decade before the push back has begun. That said, I have spent more than 10 years arguing against all this stuff; as parents fished around for excuses for their brats to get special treatment; often instead of therapy (or the easier therapy: drugs.)

Before the DSM, there was a huge study showing genetic correlation with Aspergers and this tracks with my family. It's not causal; however, when you show zero correlation that IS proof, or causal disproof. That is what happened with Autism. Therefore, the two do not share a common cause and do not belong together. This did come up at the time, but didn't convince the politics of the committee. Besides it also being far too broad and everything that broad after a decade of study should be split into more detail...or what was all that work discovering?

Furthermore, mercury exposure is a real problem and the symptoms in children are nearly the same as classic Autism and today's broad Autism would fit even more. This has been proven out in my family, as a high functioning classic autistic who would bash his head against the wall etc. had a rapid growth spurt and afterwards lost nearly all symptoms. Some think it was therapy; which is ridiculous, for starters, because there was none going on for at least a year before the growth spurt. You don't just "get over" real autism; but this kid did...because his textbook autism disappeared it wasn't really autism. Not that treatment wasn't useful when the symptoms were present; and the diagnosis is still good because having developed under those conditions, he is still not normal but also not an aspie; we lack proper therapy to train his brain to be fully recovered from his childhood experience and once proper diagnosis exists that can be done...in a generation or two...

Also, I have a relative labeled as an Aspie Autistic who had a head injury as an infant - the behavior is more aligned with that (or mild BPD) but it doesn't get special treatment so the mother shopped around for an autistic diagnosis and found one.

Then you are a sucker. Trump isn't good on any of those issues and he will prove it further.

As far as immigrants, they are not the top job killers; that is I.T. (for over a decade) and then probably outsourcing; AI will make the list soon. Trump isn't helping except on outsourcing. Also not top for crime either. Also not eating cats (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/video-headlines-immigrants-eating-cats/.)

If conservatives weren't so racist and sexist we'd not have to force quotas on you sneaky fucks. As far as pronouns, everybody hates those woke freaks and the cowards who give into them. If conservatives weren't selfish Luddites, we'd not be fighting them for herd immunity. If conservatives didn't want to indoctrinate people on their religious beliefs... or be total hypocrites...or hate science... or hate facts, logic, and maybe soon start attacking math once the Christian Taliban gets entrenched... Although the real god is mammon so enough math to handle money will always be allowed.

full quote
"Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness."
The Origins of Totalitarianism 1951 p382

I remember as a teenager, when my peers learned about projecting guilt for misdirection. It manifested as farting and blaming others as farting. Variations on the expression "whomever smelt it dealt it" caught on fast (and before I ever heard it in pop culture.)

What is amazing is how many morons there are; who are adults but can't think beyond the teenage mind (the definition of moron,) like Trump... Trump being a teenager who learned the tactic and the followers being teens who have not yet still learned the tactic. Those who do, see it as a clever smart trick:

"totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; ... they had known all along that the statement was a lie"
The Origins of Totalitarianism 1951

It should have been a scandal that Trump took the oath of office WITHOUT using the bibles his wife was holding. It was a scandal when a Muslim used the Koran to take his oath... and when Obama used two bibles... Many would say he didn't actually take the oath. Not that he couldn't break his oath. again.

Ignorant people just make us all have to repeat history's mistakes forever. Humanity is so doomed... once a people get ignorant and lazy enough they undo progress and that cycle keeps humanity's potential limited. Just look at the USA for a live ongoing example.

You can't stop imaginary drug cartels when you believe everything you're told about them. As far as actual real problems, you can't stop sex or drugs completely and the pursuit of perfection is a road to hell.
I could solve the problems, but "It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."

How? legalization and smart regulation... People say government entering markets ruins them... well, you do that on purpose to ruin the black market (the only truly free market.) Free, safe, almost unlimited drug clinics where you can die if you wish and without harming anybody else. Actually kill the profit motive of the black market. Yes some people die; but only because of their choices - they'd die and harm many others along their determined path to destruction (not to mention fueling a black market.) So, yes, the solution is not one where nobody dies because such an answer does not exist. Impossible problems can only be solved it you fix the flawed description of the problem. This is why people can't ever find solutions to foolishly defined problems.

"If God wanted us to have unlimited free energy, he'd have put a giant fusion reactor in the sky."

What purge? Too many Nazi escaped and began the movements that became today's Fascists in the USA (Italian style,) Russia (Putin with his franchise of it,) and light on the extreme racism in the next gen implementations. Also, faked democracy is the modern form of most despotism; that way you keep the lower IQ portion placated and even supportive.

Rounding errors should be rounded off. It's nuts when people make a huge deal out of a few people with complaints while ignoring 10k who die of something viewed as harmless. Hydrogen Dioxide kills a ton of people each year and do we even bother giving any time to those who bitch about the dangers of having it around?

How many of us know people who leave a bad review for something because they were too stupid to realize the product needed batteries or to be plugged in? Just because somebody has a problem does not mean it is not totally 100% their fault and they are blaming something else. Ignore the cranks; it's reasonable and mature to do.

"Dog Bites Man" is worthy news that could be useful but instead we get "Man Bites Dog" as news "infotainment" which wastes our time.

You can't doom people too much; they don't listen enough as it is.

Most people like 3/4 have an optimistic bias, it's likely a genetic "feature" as well. Whatever it's cause, it is a BIAS while us so-called pessimists are actually the realists who lack this reality distortion gene; that is not to say that some people don't have a psychological pessimistic problem, but we don't have that gene influencing us.

I've been thinking perhaps one needs to throw them a bone so they don't grasp at the wrong headed escapes to maintain their optimism. Not exactly sure what but perhaps providing a positive counter measure somebody is doing they could at least think about if not help out. Some seem to hint at this in their whining about being given only problems and they need some escapes; rather than most simply avoiding problems completely with distractions or dismissals or wishful thinking.