Remains to be seen: "On May 20th, the Port of Brownsville Navigation District Board of Commissioners unanimously approved authority to negotiate an easement and right-of-way for a SpaceX planned 16-inch natural gas pipeline ... This does not grant final construction approval; additional engineering, environmental, and regulatory steps remain pending."

SpaceX hasn't yet even acquired the land to start construction: "Starpipe would begin on an 83-acre (34-hectare) piece of land at the Port of Brownsville that SpaceX is in talks to lease from the city for 50 years, a port official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private."

Reuters may be paywalled, so here's another link.

The plan is for this pipeline to carry natural gas to be liquified on site: Reuters: "SpaceX wants to build a liquefaction facility at Starbase to process the piped-in natural gas into liquid methane."

At least it isn't the Nancy Grace Space Telescope, which would see nothing but victims everywhere.

I actually don't understand how the name is "woke". Wikipedia says it's also known as the "Roman Space Telescope". Is that better?

Good catch! That does make more sense, and Wikipedia confirms that the telescope has a coronagraph, formally called the Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), which presumably will not be creating computer-generated imagery. (Computer-enhanced, very likely.)

It probably does also have one or more chronographs for precise timing.

During the Reagan Administration, the national debt did triple: "the public debt rose from 26% GDP in 1980 to 41% GDP by 1988. In dollar terms, the public debt rose from $712 billion in 1980 to $2.052 trillion in 1988, a roughly three-fold increase."

A momentary diversion to correct a common confusion: the US government has various ways to fund its operations, including taxes and tariffs. It can also issue debt instruments such as Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds. Typically these pay interest once every six months and can be redeemed for full face value at the ends of their terms (from less than a year up to 30 years). The total amount of money represented by these debt instruments comprises the national debt (because it's money the government has obligated itself to pay investors in the future).

This is entirely different from "printing money" (which of course isn't printed; it's all electronic). When the US left the gold standard, the US dollar became a "fiat currency": "created by a central bank, authorized by government regulation to be legal tender but not backed by a precious metal, such as gold or silver, nor by any other tangible asset or commodity." Because of this, like any other national central bank, the US Federal Reserve can just create money. This was done during the Great Recession beginning in 2008 under the name "Quantitative Easing". The Federal Reserve bought back some of its debt. In effect, it just told banks: "You had X amount of government bonds. You now have cash in place of those bonds."

This doesn't add to the national debt, but it can cause inflation.

Modern Monetary Theory (which is contentious) recommends financing government mainly through money creation rather than debt or taxes. This kind of works as long as the money supply doesn't increase faster than productivity. If the money supply is expanded too quickly, inflation results, because there's more money for the same amount of goods.

This is actually explained in the summary: "A grassroots movement is forming among everyday tech workers ... Hoping to leverage that discontent is a new super PAC ...." So Claim 1 is that "a grassroots movement is forming" (but doesn't exist yet?). Claim 2 is that political operatives are "hoping to leverage" the grassroots movement.

I question the premise. What exactly are the safety benefits in this case? What's the evidence? What are the numbers? What are the criteria for deciding whether someone is allowed on buses or not? Are they notified that they're on the list? How does anyone get off the list? How long does the ban last? What if someone is added to the list by mistake?

Seems similar to the secret TSA list of people who aren't allowed on airplanes -- for reasons which are secret and which the people subject to the ban aren't allowed to know or challenge.

I'm curious how someone gets banned from riding buses. And for how long? Is there a system to challenge the bans?

So the idea that people with infectious diseases should wear masks to protect others is ... dead? Which is the greater threat to safety -- a person wearing a mask or a person with, say, drug-resistant tuberculosis?

Pity the poor bus driver who has to tell someone they're not allowed on the bus. Someone who may have been banned as a result of some past violence.

I can buy a bus pass for cash from a vending machine -- but the machine has a camera.

It's actually eight years for US Army ROTC: "active duty and/or the Army Reserve or Army National Guard depending on the scholarship". West Point requires "a minimum of five years on active duty (full-time) and an additional three years in the reserve component (part-time) or Individual Ready Reserve."

Did anyone place a bet on Polymarket predicting that Polymarket would commit fraud?

"Brazilian authorities said that the National Civil Defense's warning platform was taken offline after being targeted by a likely hacker attack ...."

Not to be all negative and such, but if they did that, they might be leaving themselves open to another type of attack based on their lack of a warning system. I'm not sure exactly what the warning system is meant to accomplish anyway; if it's something like warning of severe weather, that's one thing; if it's meant to warn the populace to take cover against incoming missiles or to be on the look-out for some threat, like I don't know, terrorists in clown masks or something, that would be different.

In other words, this silly message potentially could be a diversion.

And if it's only one letter, does it really count as 1337-speak?

I pay taxes, but I don't get limited liability protection.

Have you ever done track and field? I think you could probably set a record for leaping to conclusions. You also got yourself a big ol' false dichotomy there.

And Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos),George W Bush (Afghanistan and Iraq), and Barack Obama (Libya)?

A valid point: the money loaned to bank to prevent collapse was eventually repaid, though there was no way to know in advance that that would happen. It's also irrelevant: I was replying to the comment that "If a company goes bust, it's its debtors that foot the bill, not the government", which may be generally true but is not exactly what happened in that case.

Text of the proposed bill (an update to the Internal Revenue code).

AI companies would include any companies "Researching, producing, or manufacturing advanced robotics." Would that include the daVinci surgical robots? What about robots for military purposes?

"There are authorized to be appropriated from the Fund for each fiscal year amounts equal to 5 percent of the average market value of the Fund for the fiscal year, reduced by the reasonable costs of administering the Fund .... to provide for direct payments to the American people and to ensure that every man, woman and child in the United States has a decent and dignified standard of living, including health care, education, housing, and a healthy and habitable environment."

I think it might take a lot more than 5% to do that.

And where does that 5% come from? Not from sale of stock: "No distribution or amount appropriated from the Fund under this subsection shall require the sale or other disposition of, the equity interests held in the Fund."