shads

Had a big thing written out, didn't like it when I read it back. So keeping it simple, I equivocated to try to deflect some of the potential rough replies from the cultists who have already drunk the Koolaid.

Hmm, not meaning to get my conspiracy hat on here but do we think this could relate to the fact that Microsoft now has a quantum computing chip that they can hype to their investors to show they have the next big thing in the bag?

AI has served its purpose and is no longer strategically necessary?

Since they are only spending investors money it doesn't matter if they burn billions on leading the industry down the wrong path and now they can let it rot on the vine and rake in the next round of funding while the competition scrambles to catch up.

Seems to me that Romania should just let everyone know that they are receptive to the idea but will need some funding towards the cost of improving the speed and efficiency of their court system.

Start the bidding at an even billion USD. Let Trump try to Art of the Deal™ that one past the american populace. Should be some interesting mental gymnastics to try to explain why he is valuing Tate at 500 million times higher than any rational person would.

I honestly feel like every country that has anything that Trump wants needs to start figuring out the most unreasonable price tags they can.

And of course Donald Trump is as immovable as granite and unwaveringly loyal to his friends & allies.

There is no chance of him having a spat with the Aberdeenshire council about rubbish collection for his golf club and responding with a 50% tariff...

Or for that matter of being directed to do it by his owners with even less justification....

Crustaceans attached to your eyes... That's... Well that's going to be a no for me. But you do you.

I imagine that a society that votes in a wannabe fascist dictator will continue to be a bastion of safety for people of different racial backgrounds. I know if I was fleeing violence and gangs I look for somewhere with a nice welcoming camp just waiting for me.

For clarification I am Australian so I have a bit of experience with a national bias of racism leading to poor outcomes for asylum seekers.

I am taking a more positive view than I was about what's happening over there though. I think that the Trump presidency may well serve as an unambiguous demonstration of the end results of allowing democracy to become necrotic. I really hope Australians heed this lesson before our next election, although I won't be at all surprised if they don't.

So I was thinking about the way he worded this, 25% tariff until the border crossings stop. I think he might be onto a 4D chess move here.

If he tanks the US economy so badly that it's financially detrimental to cross the border then the flow of people across the border will definitely come down. If he tanks the economy hard enough we may even see the flow reverse, at which point he can lift the tariffs and declare the job done.

He is already happy to make Americans ignorant, illiterate, and spiteful to outsiders; is he really going to baulk at making them dirt poor as well?

This may come across as naïve, but I also wonder if the excision of all those "essential" layers of needless bureaucracy, might not free up some resources at a societal level to allow a more complete or holistic physical and mental health care system to emerge. After all we need to figure out something for the eye watering numbers of people who are employed directly or indirectly by the Insurance industries to do with their new found free time.

Hell, couple UHS with large scale tax reform and we might find that there are advantages at all levels of society to providing for people whatever their needs might be.

But then maybe I am a pathetic utopist who just needs to realise that Capitalism is simply the perfect structure for us all to live under.