Wait until people find out that if you launch rockets from two different locations you can launch them SIMULTANEOUSLY!!!

Apostate South Dakotan here. Came here to say exactly this. No-one with half a brain wants to live there. Very homogenous society where almost no-one has ever even met a black person, but racist as hell. A place that benefits greatly from social programs of all kinds that thinks socialism is a dirty word. Religious nut jobs putting up road signs everywhere about abortion and Jesus. Ignorance and bigotry everywhere, and they just can't figure out why their kids all run the f'k away as soon as they are able.

The Supreme court recently ruled that if a property owner does not explicitly prohibit firearms on premises, that it is legal. Whatever you think of that, it is the law. But not here?

Who cares what the power source is, as long as it is clean? No matter how you do it, you need increased transmission capacity. There is no debate about how to do that. It is wires. That should be phase one of any plan. Do that first. Then whatever makes sense - whether solar, wind, nuclear - can plug into that.

No one needs this company. Anyone using Oracle products at this point, when there are so many better alternatives, is a fool.

I prefer to move my money without informing the government. Government funding should not rely on taxing every goddamn financial transaction. This effort should lead directly back to a barter economy, until the idiots who think this is a good idea are put out on the street to beg for pennies.

Simply taxing the rich does not solve the problem of wealth inequality. Instead of a few oligarchs running the show, you simply end up with a few oligarchs plus a few corrupt politicians running the show. The most important votes anyone makes are the votes they make with their money. They only way humanity at large has any meaningful role in the social order is if everyone shares in the wealth.

I hear private enterprise is hoping to catch up with what publicly funded science achieved decades ago.

Sounds like evolution at work to me. Also Google stores your password in plain text. Maybe there are bigger fish to fry than techno ignorant illiterati.

You know nothing about what is wrong with Elon's spaceship boondoggle. Starship will never land on the moon. Never.

What encryption protocols does Signal use? Who is auditing their source code? I am serious; I would like to know. Don't just say "encrypted end-to-end" and expect me to gleefully embrace this service. I have written low level code to implement encryption protocols. I am not stupid.

The Directors of National Intelligence and the CIA obviously are though.

This. Exactly. Some people really need to get out of the house more.

Why is that scarier to you than half of the population using something else? Almost everyone in the US used AT&T until they were broken up, for example.

When in the history of mass communication have a bunch of competing players agreed on a common messaging protocol? Never. They never will. It has been winner take all for forever. I think there are better ways, and that is one reason I am a socialist. But CAPITALISM CAPITALISM!!!

AT&T and Verizon, on the other hand, epitomize upstanding protection of consumer data. Give me a break.

Many people in countries outside of the US use WhatsApp as their primary means of communication. I live in Costa Rica for example, and I do not have a single friend or acquaintance here who has a traditional phone number. US phone companies have brainwashed Americans into thinking they must have an expensive monthly phone bill just to receive a phone call. The question you should be asking instead is - "why does anyone have a monthly bill for a stupid phone number anymore"? You don't have to like Mark Zuckerberg any more than you have to like AT&T or Verizon to appreciate the benefit of not paying a monthly fee for sending voice data over the internet. I still pay (Mint) for one reason only - 2FA for one or two services that I depend on still requires text messaging. Which is stupid.