To be fair, when Clinton and Yeltsin were running things, we thought the Cold War was finally over. We could focus on a new decade of globalization (a more palatable name for imperialism).

We had 20-30 to readdress the errors of the past adminstations but recall two things:
1. The media did not bring it up to the American people again
2. The legislature and political parties in the US did not make an issue of it.

Perhaps we pulled the wool over our own eyes. But it is useless to blame on leader or another for doing something we could have undone or improved over these decades.

Someone has to be on board to get shit done. It is how America has worked long before we were even our own country.

Until we can 3d print metal, glass, and silicon in situ. Then you just print it instead of assembling it, and possible within reach of an ambitious middle schooler when the printer technology is off-the-shelf. (So maybe when I'm 80)

The incredibly frustrating thing is we have had technical solutions to this for decades (Zero Knowledge Proofs, which allow a third party to verify something - such as your age - without actually sharing your PII with them) but no one actually implements the damn stuff properly.

Unless it has the Sheridan seal of approval, I am not investing.

Authoritarianism is available in many flavors throughout the world.

The best flavor is whichever one is most compatible with a nation's culture. And by compatible, I mean keeps them pacified. Here in the good old USA, we tend to go for an approach where the majority of people are certain they live in a free country and that nobody is trying to take everything away from them. (except for those rotten immigrants)

I think we can agree that Anthropic intentionally hides things, even if an LLM may not have been trained to hide things.

I understand the broad strokes even if I couldn't build a car or AI myself.

My understanding of how toilet paper is made is even less clear, so I avoid it entirely.

The Privacy Act of 1974 technically restricts what personally identifable information (PII) a federal agency can collect and retain. I would be OK extending this to state and local agencies. That would potentially give us a way to go after state laws that require age verfication in devices and operating systems. But it seems that there is no political will to pump the brakes on the surveillance state.

SS Officer #2: Er, Hans?
        SS Officer #1: Have courage, my friend.
        SS Officer #2: Yeah. Er, Hans, I've just noticed something...
        SS Officer #1: [Looking through binoculars] These communists are all cowards.
        SS Officer #2: Have you looked at our caps recently?
        SS Officer #1: Our caps?
        SS Officer #2: The badges on our caps, have you looked at them?
        SS Officer #1: What? No. A bit.
        SS Officer #2: They've got skulls on them. Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them?
        SS Officer #1: Uh, I don't...
        SS Officer #2: Hans... are we the baddies?

Either you lose $200 billion now, or you lose your lives in a few years.
The IR has been actively building missiles, developing better ones and funding various terrorist groups around the world while making money selling oil.
They are stronger now than they were 20 years ago. They openly call for the complete destruction of Israel, and they call the US "The great satan". If they had the capability to destroy Israel and the US right now then they absolutely would, if they ever got that capability in the future they wouldn't hesitate to use it.

The majority of the Iranian population HATE this regime. They also know that this regime is ruthless and will not hesitate to kill, and yet thousands of them stood up against it in january and lost their lives.

The sooner the IR is taken out the better for everyone, $200 billion this year, $400 billion next year, $1 trillion in 2 years time, or in 3 years it's too late and they take you out instead. And unlike western governments, the IR will not hesitate if they have the capability.

Well I only do busy work now, so Outlook Web is good enough for scheduling meetings.

President Jimmy Carter under estimated the support the Ayatollah could muster, burned his own political capital in supporting the Shah, miscalculated the importance of the clerics to Iranian culture (especially in rural and the lower class), and ultimately unprepared for the Iranian Revolution, Absolutely bungled it, and the result was he lost backing of his own party, and haunted the remainder of his presidency.

It's like 2026 is 1978 all over again. And we have people in charge that are incapable of learning from their own mistakes, let alone the mistakes of their predecessors. The end results that I believe are likely is that we're going to botch this one, either through President Trump's direct orders or m ore likely one of the crony appointees is going to make a bad call that is going to cost us dearly. At the extreme end of what is possible is well-funded supporters of Iran could back Yemeni Houthis to carry out attacks on American civilians in order to create discord in the US and weaken political support for Trump and the GOP. And it's not like it would even take much, as support has long been waning Trump and the GOP controlled Congress.

Tariffs, high gas prices, and substantial threat to public safety. This is what voting with a cult costs you. Economic recovery is going to take a decade or more starting in 2029. The 30's are going to be the DIRTY THIRTIES. Zoomers are going to be pissed at all of us when they figured out just how badly we let the Boomers and GenX fuck them over.

Hmm....over the years, I've had several girlfriends report loss of appetite after trying to watch a lot of Monty Python with me......

It is something to do with 2 X chromosomes...?

I'm too old for the draft. But I'm scared what it might do to the younger generation. It certainly had a negative impact on the generation that raised me. I had many public school teachers and coaches in the 80's and 90's that were unhinged Vietnam vets.