Musk's companies definitely get shit done, but the end result ends up not being all that affordable. I pay less than half of what Starlink costs for broadband through Spectrum at my home.

As for EV charging, I'll certainly admit the Supercharger network is convenient, but it costs more per mile than just buying gas for an economy ICE car (at least here in Florida, where gas is presently $3.13/gal). If I didn't have charging at home, owning an EV would've been a huge waste of money.

Pretty much. I was wondering how Musk was gonna be okay with the EV tax credit going *poof*. Seems like he's planning to make it up with his fingers in plenty of other pies.

Usually they at least make an attempt to hide the corruption. This is like Trump getting on stage and handing Leon one of those oversized Publisher's Clearinghouse checks, and the rest of the Republican Party just nods approvingly.

So when you get that "Offtopic" mod, you've at least owned it this time.

Uh, nope, my partner and I did the whole early voting thing and it was a literal walk-in.

Oh. Yeah, Florida's not really that anymore.

Word on the street is people are really not happy about the continuing egg shortage and retailers jacking up prices as a reactionary move towards the tariffs. This is the most often I've ever had people just randomly approach me while I'm out shopping just to express their dissatisfaction with things (gee, thanks social media for giving the average American the impression that nearby strangers want to hear your comments on things in real life).

Also, if you've been keeping up with the news, some Republican state representatives have decided to cease doing town halls because the public is getting mad at them over veterans losing government jobs. Also, again, the eggs and high grocery prices thing, too. I'm sure the Republicans are going to take a major beating during the mid-terms. Probably not in Florida though. Our leadership could announce that they're going to require every Floridian to own an emotional support gator and the MAGA folks (and oh boy, are there a bunch of those here) would be like: "Finally, a leader who understands Florida’s true spirit! Gators are a symbol of strength and resilience, just like the people of this great state. Emotional support gators will teach responsibility, promote local wildlife appreciation, and deter porch pirates. DeSantis is truly making Florida freer and greater than ever - God bless him!"

My father has it at his place up in the mountains of NC. It's fine for most online tasks that the average person would be using broadband for. The issue is mostly that the price sucks unless Starlink really is your only option (of course, even then the price still sucks, but what choice do you have?). Never thought I'd be saying that the evil ol' cable companies actually have the best deal, but there it is.

If ISPs can charge whatever the hell they want for the service, then why are we giving them government money in the first place? If they want to play the free market game, it's time to get off the government teat.

YouTube also does the same if you opt-out of the recommendations algorithm. Which means that either it's a narrative Google is actively trying to push, or that those types of videos actually are statistically on top of the popularity heap with the unwashed masses (now there's a scary thought).

Trump probably figured it worked in Jurassic Park, and he'd probably gotten up to use the bathroom and refill his popcorn when it got to the "life finds a way" part.

I used to have this seafood place nearby called Joe's Crab Shack. Painted on the back of the restaurant, there was a sign that said "FREE CRAB TOMORROW". The joke of course is, just as Bill Murray said in the movie Groundhog Day, "Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!", that it never is tomorrow - it's always today.

Fusion power (as in the kind of plant that'd be producing juice for the grid in an economically viable way) is like that free crab you could have "tomorrow". It sounds wonderful, but it will always be perpetually out-of-reach. Of course, running "fusion is coming soon" stories is an old Slashdot staple and gives me the nostalgic warm fuzzies, so I can't complain too much.

White, blue, and red. Mind the order or you're likely to fall from a window, comrade.

I'm not sure he even knows how to use ChatGPT. In previous political discussions he'd still been repeating the same old song and dance about how we're in this mess because the voters are afraid of trans folks (although thankfully, he seemed to refrain from it finally in this discussion).

Most voters are relatively low information. They see high grocery and gas prices and take it out on the administration in power at the time. If most people truly followed along with the issues, we wouldn't have a president who is running crypto scams and kissing Putin's ass.

Hell, few years back when I went to go vote some elderly lady was downright baffled that the ballot scanner was spitting her ballot back out. Poll worker approached her and calmly explained it was because she'd voted for two candidates running for the same position. It still didn't seem to be clicking with the elderly lady why this was a problem, and she was certain that the machine was just "broken". From that point on, I ceased being surprised by any of Florida's election results.

Someone needs to remake this cartoon with just a big fat Elon looming over the Senate. Or perhaps a big bottle of "Musk" as a thinly-veiled metaphor, with stench fumes choking everyone.

It's weird because I'd thought we'd made a lot of progress in the area of tolerance towards LGBTQ+ folks, but then the MAGA movement started and suddenly all the legislative attacks were dialed up to 11. Then you look at how homophobic Russia is and how they used the exact same fucking playbook and you can't help but think Russia had a hand in influencing all this.

Funny thing is, no amount of punching down at minorities has made Russia any less of a shithole. Republicans going along with this should take note of that.

The reality is that some people just like playing with guns. Those folks have a grab bag list of reasons they call upon which sound more mature and legitimate than "I like to pretend play soldier." Potheads do exactly the same thing, listing all the wonderful reasons why marijuana is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the truth is they really don't care about weaving hemp baskets, they just want to get high.

Most of us who own guns but aren't obsessed with them have absolutely no delusions that they're truly a safeguard against the security of anything more significant than that crappy Kwikset lock on the front door.

The most critical infrastructure Russia likely has connected to the internet are a few Tuya smart bulbs in Putin's bedroom. I'm sure he's pleased to know that we'll finally stop hacking them to flash red white and blue. It was really starting to get on his nerves.