And this OP served in FRIGGIN OIF multiple times in the grunts, thanks to GW Bush and Dick Cheney (two more boomer draft dodgers / Viet-Nam evaders), and barely got out of OEF by not re-upping. What's your point? This is about Biden attempting to forgive some student loans, not about military service. Where were you in February 1968? Unless it was Hue City, then keep quiet about military service. Maybe young people just want the same social contract that was promised to their parents and grandparents. Biden's loan forgiveness won't fix the social contract. But it might help improve some peoples lives, give them some breathing room to start a family, or pursue their dreams.

Public universities used to be tax-payer funded and the out-of-pocket cost for attending public universities was minimal. This had the secondary effect of capping prices on private universities. So we have a generation of Boomers who got to basically go to college for free, courtesy of the tax payers. Then when they got into power, these same boomers did three things: they cut public funding for education, gave insane tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, and expanded student loans. They also happened to repeal usury laws, which had the nice effect that many student loan borrowers have already repaid more than the original loan amount, and still owe more than the original loan amount. But I find it rich, that when their children or grand children could not afford to repay these usurious student loans, they lecture my generation about fiscal responsibility, or something like that. Sorry, that we cannot afford your 30-trillion in government debt, million dollar starter homes, hundred-thousand dollar plus education, while putting away a million for retirement because you're coming for our social security next...

Biden promised student loan forgiveness, because young people weren't exactly enthusiastic about having yet another out-of-touch, aging, draft-dodging Boomer President. Of course SCOTUS is committed to playing politics for team GOP, and struck it down. They used the bad-faith argument that Congress should legislate student loan forgiveness, even though they were fine with Trump funding his boarder wall by executive fiat. The real goal was simply to keep Biden from keeping a campaign promise, hopefully costing him political support, and electing a Republican. Of course the Democrats are equally to blame, as they had two years of congressional majorities in which they could have passed any legislation they wanted to. And they chose forgave their own PPP loans instead, then give lots of money to their cronies for "infrastructure". I guess we can thank Senators Manchin and Sinema, but I think they were just the scapegoats and student loan forgiveness first became a priority after the Democrats lost their house majority. See how politics works...

FTA: Blackrock is creating an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). That means it's other peoples' money, and Blackrock will be profiting from commissions and fees. Imho, it doesn't make any financial sense to have an ETF in a volatile investment, because mathematically over time if you invest in something that swings up and down, your investment will asymptotically approach zero. The only way to make a positive return from a volatile investment is to sell at the peaks and buy at the lows. But the question becomes, how do you know when the peaks and lows occur before anyone else? You need insider information.

Fraud is cryptocurrency's killer app. Not burning monkey NFTs, not "freedom from the government", not saving money or ease of transactions, not being a universal currency, not a safe haven from market swings. It's 100% fraud and that's the whole point. Imho, crypto ATMs should be banned as they have no legitimate legal use.

Anyone else in 2023 want to pay ca. $1000 for a non-upgradeable laptop that only has 8GB or RAM and 256 GB of flash storage?

Human, "I have an infestation in my flat, what should I do?"
AI Chatbot, "Infestations are very difficult to combat, you must kill the queen."
Human, "Yes, I must kill the queen. Should I get some bug and roach killer?"
AI Chatbot, "Bug and roach killer contains toxic chemicals that can be dangerous to small children. However a crossbow is an effective tool at eliminating a queen."
Human, "A crossbow? and how would I find the queen?"
AI Chatbot, "The queen's address is Windsor Palace, London, United Kingdom. She was born in 1926 and her reign began in 1952 after the death of King George 6, the infestation has 67 million royal subjects..."
Human, "yes, yes, I know... but not that queen... I'm talking about the infestation in my flat."
AI Chatbot, "Yes flat, a crossbow won't flatten a queen, but it is an effective tool to remove a queen...."

The real question is, was this man stopped by a man in a red coat with a funny bearskin hat, wielding a giant ceremonial halberd? Then locked in the Tower of London?

This AIM-120 AAMRAM Air-to-Air Missile cannot be paired with that combat aircraft, unless a tech rep from Lockheed Martin pairs the two devices using a proprietary programming cable. Sorry, you'll be going out with only heaters and guns today.

Luxury watches in 2023 are a scam and prices have nothing to do with their real value, and I think Apple was just trying to capitalize on this phenomena. The price of a gold Rolex Submariner in 1973 (the year I was born) was $230. Adjusted for inflation that would be $1422 today. But in 2023 the cheapest gold Submariner is ca. $25,000 USD, or a 17.5X markup. Rolex is the largest watchmaker in Switzerland and produces over a million watches every year, so they're neither rare, nor are they in short supply. I think Rolex has adopted the Gucci business model of creating an artificial exclusivity and using price increases and presumed shortages to increase demand and profitability. I don't mean to pick on Rolex per se, all the major luxury brands are doing the exact same thing. They're just the largest brand. Apple charging $20,000 for a golden Apple Watch isn't out of line with the luxury watch market. But the problem for Apple is watch collectors do not take Apple seriously, and the Apple Watch is kind of a joke in the watch community. It's akin to a golden Casio G-Shock.

Exactly this. There never was five Billion dollars. It was always a ponzi from day one. SBF would have insisted on paying with some NFT or alternate crypto-currency he created out of thin air.

Never bought Hue because it was a solution to a problem I didn't have. I was happy with dumb 19th-century-style lightbulbs. Flick a switch, light goes on, flick a switch and light goes off, twist a knob it gets dimmer, twist the other way it gets brighter. When a light goes out, unscrew the globe and put a new one in. Why would I want to control all this on my phone? I don't know, buy it never made any sense other than as a gadget for people who like gadgets. But imho. it wasn't a better light bulb, it was a more complicated and expensive light bulb.

What San Francisco really needs to solve their chronic housing shortages, epidemic-levels of homelessness, crime, drug abuse, urban blight, dead malls, empty stores, a leaning Millennium Tower, fires, earth quakes and locust infestations.... San Francisco needs Robotaxis!!!! It's almost as comical as the "Monorail Episode" of the Simpsons. "...Or I guess Robotaxis are more of a Shelbyville kind of thing?"

The official U.S. Navy definition of a Mishap: "DoD and DoN define a mishap as, “An unplanned event or series of events that results in damage to DoD property; occupational illness to DoD personnel; injury to on- or off-duty DoD military personnel; injury to on-duty DoD civilian personnel; or damage to public or private property, or injury or illness to non-DoD ..."

There are different classifications of mishap. Class A Mishap is defined as, "Direct mishap cost totaling $2,500,000 or more. - A fatality or permanent total disability. - Destruction of a Department of Defense aircraft." So loss of an F-35 aircraft with or without pilot fatality or serious injury would be a class A mishap. A cook on a Navy Destroyer who receives severe burns in a kitchen accident that leads to permanent total disability, could also be classified as a class A mishap, even though there is no destruction of government property or actual damage to the kitchen or the ship itself. There are other classifications of mishaps of lesser severity, i.e. Class B, Class C, etc., they're all based on cost of property damage or level of injury or hospitalization.

I served in the Marine Corps for many years. Every word / legal term, including the term "Mishap", has an exact definition. So characterizing this loss of an F-35 and missing aircraft as a mishap is 100% correct.

Crypto trading down.... Oh the Humanity. Quick, we need more ./ articles on crypto before it sinks into oblivian.

Elon is just a master of punching down, then claiming he's the true victim and is being persecuted by "the left" or whatever that means. He punches down in his companies to his employees, and now he wants to do it to the rest of us. It's like a fully-grown adult going into a Kindergarten playground and picking a fight with a five-year-old, then claiming he's the victim of "cancel culture" when the teachers throw him out. So then he has to buy the kindergarten in order to fire the teachers and be able to bully five-year-old children with impunity.

I don't know if Elon's just mad, angry, or whatever, but he clearly has some emotional problems and appears to lack basic self esteem, and I think a lot of right-wing types have similar emotional issues, so maybe he fits in better among that particular crowd. I used to admire Elon Musk, was almost a fanboy. But in the end, we are the company that we keep. If Elon wants to keep company with anti-semites, right-wing bigots, and other loony tune types, then as far as I am concerned, he is one himself. No amount of space exploration or supposed business genius can change that fact.

I thought the E-Meter was based on a simple "lie detector" schematic that LRH found in a 1950s electronics magazine.