rational_lib @ rational_lib @lemmy.world

https://rationallib.substack.com/

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8 mo. ago

He's been missing for two weeks but someone created a github for an academic homepage for him a few days ago and updated a branch on it 20 hours ago?'

Unless there's something I'm missing and multiple XiaoFeng Wangs work for the Luddy School at IU?

I suppose it could also just be a fake account, the whole thing is just weird.

There's no doubt the 22nd Amendment would disqualify him, the only question is what happens when he's disqualified? If the Supreme Court goes the same direction the majority went on the Colorado ballot case, they'd say it's up to Congress to enforce it. Now there's good reason for assuming they won't say the same exact thing here, but the same cop-out instinct that the 6 Republicans have had with Trump will still be there. Maybe they'll just say it's up to the voters to not elect him again and leave it at that.

I don't look at it as thanking them for these things, but rather the fact that we're all doing those things with our tax dollars and they're the ones getting shot at because of it in my place. To a large extent if you live in the US and reap the benefits of American dominance you're just as guilty. Obviously the problem is - where else do you go? It makes infinitely more sense to stay and vote for a better world. Not blame the working class people the bad voters have abused.

Now I'm wondering why we don't attach giant balloons to ships to reduce water resistance by cutting down how much of the ship needs to be underwater. Perhaps it's because you would need more size for the balloon, and maybe the air resistance and water resistance needs to even out due to physical laws that I'm too lazy to think about?

If he actually orders an invasion of Greenland I'd put the odds at around 12%. My guess is around 60% the military will refuse to carry out the order (it would be after all in violation of the War Powers Resolution unless congress approves), then 80% chance Trump will back down. Of course that's if he gives the order, my guess of that is around 30%, reducing the odds of a greenland-related coup to around 4%. In reality the most likely path is that once the military explains to Trump that they want congressional approval, he'll lose interest and go on to scaring us some other way.

Let's not forget "We need this right away!" then it takes weeks to deploy because the people who requested it weren't actually ready for it yet (if they don't change their mind and decide they don't actually want it at all).

It's not all him, several other people invested in both. According to some article Elon owns 79% of X, and only 54% of xAI (barely enough to control it). Since the valuation of X in the deal is about $20 billion more what others have estimated ($12.3 billion), it definitely seems like it's a corrupt bailout 46% funded with other xAI investors' money, basically netting Elon $8 billion overnight.

That being said, the other investors in xAI are easy marks like Marc Andressen (famous for funding Adam Neumann's project that came after WeWork) and various Saudi Royals who possibly were convinced that this is ok.

More likely: Russia loses, America loses, everyone loses

Except Canada. I'm betting they come out ahead cause they've been nice to everyone.

Meanwhile Rubio is proudly bragging about revoking student visas entirely for pro-Palestinian speech. Marco Rubio is not the voice of reason in the white house, he's an enemy of the Constitution.

You need four Republicans to impeach. A lot more to convict.

Miss Cleo was big in the 90s. And she wasn't even the dumbest one. Americans have always believed in stupid bullshit. The CIA used to hire psychics too. Go back to the 1920s, and Americans pretty much took it for granted that fairies are real.

What's changed recently is that the news media went from being a mostly curated place where completely lunacy was hard to find, to a right wing clown show led by con artists. When I was a kid news was for nerds only, now it's more like the national sport where everyone has their team. And don't underestimate the degree to which this was done deliberately - Elon buying Twitter was a pretty clear example of the billionaire mafia taking a platform that was sort of trying to be more attached to reality and making it a lot dumber and more right wing.

All these people "owning" Elon while paying him for blue checks. This is what fake opposition looks like.

I'm shocked that the administration of "Put the big boxes of top secret docs under the bathroom chandelier" would mishandle secret war plans.

I admit using somewhat ambiguous adjective placement, but I mean "top news" to also modify "social media" - specifically referring to X which despite being a shithole remains a common place for news reporters and influential political figures and entities to post and read news-related information.

Some guy improving Teslas with cool free penis art

Obama doesn't have a yacht, he visited David Geffen's yacht and the Maga media had a field day claiming Obama's got a yacht. And don't get me wrong, the ideal president would stay far away from all oligarchs and their yachts. But let's not pretend Obama's lack of enthusiasm for upending the status quo and Trump/Musk/Thiel's wholehearted attempt to replace democracy with corporate feudalism are at all comparable.

This is the first part of that. The top news media in cable tv, podcasting, and social media are all run as maga propaganda and I think that's a massively underrated reason for Trump's winning. The easiest of these to take down is social media, but it requires all the other news-related celebrities to go somewhere else.

"We're the party of anti-elites!" "Also we use maid-cleaned bathrooms for document storage, keeping them right under the chandelier."

I don't like cops, I'm just opposed to going around separating people into strict good and bad buckets based on snap judgments.