"And then there's that committee that meets in the printer room when me and the other member happen to be printing at the same time."

What's the per diem for something like that? Asking for a friend.

Last I checked the local government said so. They have indemnified waymo in every market they have launched their taxi service. I don't think that would hold up if they killed a human being, at least not one that isn't homeless, but so far it's held up for the more minor stuff that's happened.

Basically waymo cannot be cited for traffic violations and killing a pet is just a traffic violation. The most they could be held responsible for would be the value of the pet which is usually under $100.

Isn't it a fake race with fake metrics? We have companies sinking many billions of dollars into some vague development of AI, but without concrete goals or definitive plans to turn that investment into revenue.

I guess if someone wants to declare themselves the winner, they'll simply have to be the one that burned the most capital on this boondoggle.

It's that we all know this is a grift and we're all trying to figure out how the grift works.

I can think of a few possible things but I don't have enough of a finance background to really say for sure of what they are up to, but I know damn well that billionaires don't just hand out billions of dollars for the hell of it. There is a reason that Bill Gates is still one of the wealthiest people on the planet despite telling us 20 years ago he was going to give away his fortune.

Billionaires have been lying to us for as long as we've had billionaires, some of us just figured that out

But given this administration's history of corrupting everything they touch it's not something we should get behind from this administration because it's almost guaranteed to turn into some kind of scam that puts money in their pockets.

There is nothing wrong with a sovereign wealth fund per se if your government is relatively uncorrupted. Ours is not, the Trump administration is without a doubt the most corrupt and criminal administration in American history and that is saying a lot.

Simply put you cannot expect good things to come out of this administration even if the underlining ideas are fine. And I don't think that's any kind of exaggeration or partisan bickering. The Trump administration is openly murdering Venezuelan fishermen in the lead up to another war for oil without even the slightest pretexts. That alone should tell you we are in for a bad time. You don't have to be a genius to extrapolate from that data point and the dozens of other data points like the illegal tariffs or the huge bribes like the cryptocurrency or the jet Qatar gave the Trump or the fact that the taxpayer is going to be retro fitting that jet for his use...

If I had to guess, and it's just a guess, I would say that they are positioning themselves to profit from the money put aside for the kids. Probably sitting themselves up to redirect the money being invested in the companies that they own.

The one thing we can be sure of though is that this is a scam and the only question is what are the details of the scam.

You don't become a billionaire by being altruistic. People who genuinely care about society at Large stop accumulating wealth long before they become billionaires. To become a billionaire requires a certain level of sociopathy. There's a reason why the old phrase, never ask a Man how he made his first million, exists. That phrase has been around so long that a million dollars isn't a lot of money anymore but you get the idea.

The supreme Court has overruled 94% of the lower court rulings Trump has lost. It's painfully obvious they will just rubber stamp anything Trump wants. More importantly anything the heritage foundation and Peter thiel wants. Trump can't stay awake through an entire cabinet meeting so it's not so much that he wants anything but he would like to stay in power because he is making billions of corruption and bribes.

Meanwhile the Republican party does not have a viable candidate for 2028. Vance is a joke and a couch fucker and the rest of them are so mired and scandal they are completely unelectable. None of them have Trump's Teflon because they aren't perceived as outsiders.

So the Republican party is going to run Trump unless Trump is physically incapable of running. Meanwhile the news media will protect Trump and will convince the public that it is perfectly normal for Trump to run for a third term. We saw this in 2024 with sane washing. Which is the practice of crazy shit Republicans do, especially anything crazy Trump does being reported as normal and good in the news media.

This probably isn't enough for Trump to actually win a third term but the Republican party will use common voter suppression tactics to stop enough casual voters from making it to the polls in order for Trump to win.

It is possible the voters won't buy into this but at the same time they did elect a felon with 28 credible rape accusations for a second term because he promised cheap eggs and because trans people gross them out...

And of course if anyone can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory it's the Democratic party. They are on track to nominate Gavin newsom and he's fine but I could easily see them coming up with some scandal to take him out so they can put yet another unpopular woman forward. There is a contingency of the Democrat party that is obsessed with the first female president and will do anything to get it. And unfortunately they have a lot of pull in the party...

So yeah Trump cares because Trump is going to run for a third term. This is why he's backing off on some of his tariffs

Look, if someone makes a mistake abd owns it. We learn from it and move on. If your business is destroyed by a single person's slip up, then perhaps you are not that serious of a business.

The absolutely toxic corporate culture that firing someone is a reasonable first step is why millions of office workers are paralyzed with fear over losing their job. You are not trash to throw away, you're a person that society has invested thousands of dollars and hours into childhood and education.

In reality, people should be let go if there is a pattern of behavior that other measures have failed to correct. Like if they aren't completing tasks, behaving in an unprofessional way, making costly mistakes frequently, etc.

We're still in the dark ages when it comes to social development. Humanity has a long way to go before we can competently wield the power that we now possess.

Simply ask the chatbot which results to ignore.

Can't take one either. Ten minutes ago, after Siri bungled a request, I just chuckled and said "Siri you're funny". It responded with "If you think it could be serious, ask me to call Emergency Services or someone you trust."

Because you are a Russian disruption agent and the idea of an independent judiciary and trial by jury who would never convict someone because the president wanted them to is completely alien to you. There's plenty wrong all over American politics and nobody should deny it, but going after the innocent is one of the best ways of stopping people going after the guilty.

Trump is little more than a puppet for the Heritage Foundation. Trump hands out pardons to exactly who they tell him to. Case in point. https://www.bbc.com/news/artic...

This is about buying future power.

There would be congressional hearings at 9am tomorrow morning if this was Soros.

Forgive me if I'm skeptical of a man who unleashed grift after grift on simpletons. Like the latest example of his golden cell phone. He accepted orders and has delivered nothing. https://www.businessinsider.co...

Bibles, booze, watches, clothes, all manner of tacky shit https://www.rollingstone.com/p...

Pretty soon he's going to surpass Gene Simmons on marketing made in China garbage.