Reasons:
1. Stupid tariffs
2. Reduction of healthcare benefits in insurance plans (Employer, ACA, Medicare) to pay for the war.
3. Higher fuel costs will drive up transportation costs.
4. Food will get more expensive due to transportation and fertilizer costs.
5. Social security benefits will be cut to 70% of the current benefit due to the government not being able to pay out full benefits.
6. Medicare advantage plans will be significantly cut back for seniors.
7. There will be a crisis in private lending which will affect the stock market.
8. Punitive taxation on electric vehicles, solar and wind due to the oil crisis.

compliance collars for the masses, along the lines of the Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".

That is a quick way to get in trouble in California:

In California, it is illegal for employers to ask for an applicant's salary history, including compensation and benefits, under Labor Code 432.3. This law, effective since January 1, 2018, prohibits employers from using past salary to determine employment or salary for new hires

What most employers have to do instead is state that the position offers up to $X in salary, so they are forced to break the golden rule of negotiation by being first to state the salary.

This might be why that want a big data solution.

Not in some states:

In California, it is illegal for employers to ask for an applicant's salary history, including compensation and benefits, under Labor Code 432.3. This law, effective since January 1, 2018, prohibits employers from using past salary to determine employment or salary for new hires

At least a few states have it right:

California law (Labor Code Section 1024.5 and AB 22) generally prohibits employers from using consumer credit reports for employment screening, effective January 1, 2012. Exceptions exist for specific positions, such as managerial roles, law enforcement, or jobs with access to confidential information, cash ($>$$10,000), or legal financial authority.

In California, it is illegal for employers to ask for an applicant's salary history, including compensation and benefits, under Labor Code 432.3. This law, effective since January 1, 2018, prohibits employers from using past salary to determine employment or salary for new hires.

And Reagan ripped them out.

Republicans hate things which allow end users to become energy independent. They want you coming back to the pumps, or paying for natural gas.

and then some for overhead.

Maybe brick and mortar stores will become less expensive then Amazon, but maybe not if the profits are pocketed there.

Spacex is pushing to be included in the Nasdaq 100 in short order to spread their financial risks and to access the into people holding QQQ and SPY (Among others). The lobbying going on by SpaceX is intense to make this happen.

For the first few months, as long as SpaceX doesn't crater due to problems with Starship, or its Money-Losing Xai, things may be OK. However, around 6 months out, people in SpaceX and Xai are going to want to cash in on their gains. This could force the price of SpaceX down.

Estimates given are that SpaceX could take up 3.5% of the value of the Nasdaq 100 stocks in QQQ. Nvidia is also a significant portion of QQQ value (6%?).

Not giving any financial advice here, but it might be prudent to look at how much exposure you have and maybe look at rediversifying out of QQQ.

The lone Radiologist they kept on staff will be sued. This is an "Accountability Sink", and the lone radiologist will be what's known as a "Reverse Centaur". They'll just use up and wear out all of the fired Radiologists. They'll be plenty of them.

Cory Doctorow wrote an article exactly about Radiologists going obsolete here:

https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-12-05-pop-that-bubble-u-washington-8b6b75abc28e

An accountability sink is a system or structure within an organization that obscures or deflects responsibility for decisions, making it difficult to identify who is accountable when things go wrong. This often occurs when decision-making is delegated to complex rules or automated processes, preventing effective feedback and learning from mistakes

Quoting thoughts from Cory Doctorow:

So there will be one Radioligist on staff whose job will be to vet and certify all AI determinations. This person will be the "Throat to Choke" and this position may pay well, but the work will be exhausting due to the sheer volume. They'll just use up and wear out fired radiologists.

This folks, is a Reverse Centaur.

There's a finite amount of information that the human brain can process. AI coupled with a "Reverse Centaur" business model is the root cause.

Don't know what a Reverse Centaur is?

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3584-the-reverse-centaur-s-guide-to-life-after-ai

First the will build the infrastructure to control minors from gaining access to certain products, services, information, and entertainment.

Then with the infrastructure in place, they will extend it to certain demographic groups causing the regime some trouble.

Finally, it will be extended to all so they can control what you see, hear, and do.

I was turned off when I read that the astrophages are immune to electromagnetic radiation. Also, storing large amounts of energy in an astrophage is dubious at best.

User access to the system?....No. The embedded Linux system in the appliance would be locked down so the user never gets access to make this change. I know how this goes, since I worked for a company which did this. They blow one-time fuses in the microprocessor which prevent the bootloader from being changed without a signing key. They disable all serial ports and run SSH with the requirement that a logins be done via certificate. All the external SSD memory fetches are encrypted so removing the SSD and analyzing that gets you nothing.

Recurring costs can be very inexpensive if you have low data rates ( e.g. no graphical ads).

Here is one example:

https://tealcom.io/cellular-iot-connectivity-unlimited-5g/

Here is another:

https://www.hologram.io/pricing/

And another:

https://www.volersystems.com/blog/wearable-devices/inexpensive-low-data-rate-links-for-the-internet-of-things