Necessary, yes. Furthering our knowledge of the cosmos is a worthwhile pursuit for its own sake. That being said, the sudden focus on NASA is pure political distraction, a clumsy attempt to foment nationalism that isn’t going to be as effective as its architects were hoping.

I too hate this trend. A robotic voice answering the phone didn’t bother me, but now some companies have replaced those with AI systems and I find myself becoming frustrated and angry much more quickly with the latter.

It drives me up the walls when people tell me they’re using AI to write their emails now. If you thought USians were stupid already, give it a few more years of AI usage! You can just see people’s eyes glassing over when you try to discuss anything of import. We’ve seen AI-induced psychosis, but I predict we’ll see a rise in dementia rates if we don’t put an end to this.

Edited to add: after some reflection, I think what makes me so angry is the apparent assumption by whatever megacorp implements these that I, their customer, am stupid enough to be fooled or influenced positively by this. It’s condescending.

He should ask the last group of countries that strove to be neutral between the USA and a second large power how well that worked for them.

To describe the American justice system as “imperfect” is something of a massive understatement. Who is actually bound by the law? Any allowance of set monetary penalties shows that the laws exist to bind workers, not owners. If a $500 fine is enough to bankrupt a worker, but is pocket change for the owner, then can that really be called ‘justice’?

And who is the law enforced against? People of color, and workers, predominantly. In some parts of the USA, a poor black man can wind up serving a life sentence for selling some marijuana, a crime most people would agree does not merit that punishment, while a rich white man can defraud millions of their life’s savings and not serve a day in prison. That injustice is structural; it’s not an accident.

And if a man commits no crime, that is no guarantee he will not be convicted of one, as we have seen time and time again. For-profit prisons have need of their enslaved workforce, and the system will provide them. As we’re constantly saying on here, the purpose of a system is what it does, not what it claims to do.

Exactly this. This idea that any country could just will itself into communism is deeply anti-materialist. If that were possible, it would have been done already. The fact that these vibes-based “socialists” always reject actually existing socialist states makes me suspect that they’re actually just racist.

You know it’s coming when they call it “US Aid” instead of “USA ID”.

They’ve already stopped exports of rare earths to US arms manufacturers. They’re the largest producer of gallium by several orders of magnitude, if I remember correctly, so it won’t be easy to find an alternative.

This is just FUD to herd people into areas where they’re easier to track. Do they really think we’ve forgotten about Snowden? I also highly doubt any of these elected officials give a damn about privacy.

Anyone in upper management or in an executive role, cops, and HR personnel.

They’re gearing up to shove President Newsom down our throats.

Even while I was still a clueless lib, when I saw insurance companies sponsoring the DNC, I knew we’d never get publicly-funded healthcare.

The same private industry that off-shored as much manufacturing as possible and pocketed the rest. If people can’t see the contradictions of capitalism after the war with Iran, they’re just not paying attention.

If the reduced usage isn’t offset by the burning oilfields, at least.

The US isn’t capable of anything approaching peer conflict, and these chucklefucks thought they were going to fight China. These are the true believers in American exceptionalism - America is so great it doesn’t need things like supply lines or an industrial base!

Prosperity for me, austerity for thee.

NSPM-7 in action.

You can be the first one on your block to bring your boy home in a box.

Every time I turn around, they’ve doubled the number again.

Politics isn’t a sport, and the political compass shit is just the sorting hat for (Western) Poli Sci majors.

I am a Marxist-Leninist with a lot left to learn (and read). I was a sort of ultra-left “Marxist” (firmly in compatible left territory) until I started lurking on here and reading comments by Cowbee and other comrades.

What is to be done? Same as it ever was, build the party of the working class. For a global revolution to even be possible, the empire must sufficiently collapse. A year ago, I would’ve said it might’ve taken another few decades to really get going, but it seems we’ve left the decades where weeks happen and entered the weeks where decades happen. Let’s just say I’ll be really curious to see what happens when gas tops $10/gallon on average in the USA.