UAP business aside, I’m glad congress is asking questions. We shouldn’t be paying taxes and then have our money just disappear into a black hole with zero accountability and oversight.

If it’s replacing coal and gas, it’s a big benefit.

Some good advice here. I’d add that you should figure out what your range is, don’t torture yourself trying to hit notes outside of it.

Thanks! I looked it up:

"Prince Alwaleed bin Talal agreed to roll over $1.9 billion worth of Twitter shares through his Kingdom Holding Company to Musk’s new private company, making him the second largest investor in Twitter. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, owns nearly 17% of Kingdom Holding, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Qatar contributed $375 million for the financing of Musk’s Twitter purchase."

https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/democratic-senator-concerned-over-saudi-financing-in-musks-twitter-deal

I wonder if they’re happy with how their investment is going?

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Saudis finance the deal to buy Twitter? Given the platform was used extensively by protesters during the Arab Spring, would it be worth it to them to pay for Musk to destroy it?

Bunkers have air vents, right?

It just sounds like a bunch of basement dwellers lucked out and got rich but nothing else changed.

R.I.P. Mimi :(

One thing about sealioning that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that it’s a tactic designed to utterly exhaust the other person by asking question after question with no willingness to listen to the answers. It’s there to waste time and grind down your opponent until they have had enough of your bullshit and tell you to fuck off. At that point you can feign offense and declare victory.

I wouldn’t say they’re authoritarian, as there is no strongman they want to appoint to govern.

A cynic or a realist? All political systems have to have some checks against human greed and avarice or things quickly turn to shit for the average person. If you can’t vote someone out, that’s an important check you’re giving up.

I’ve seen plenty of people start off with good intentions and then they change when they get a taste of power.

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” - Lord Acton.

Political leanings and ideological preferences aside, anyone believing in a benevolent dictator needs to crack a book and read some history :)

Sure, I guess I equate a desire to be subject to an authoritarian, strongman type leader as something that appeals more to people on the right. We’re a diverse and messy species though so there’s likely someone, somewhere who will be the exception that proves the rule.

Can there be such a thing as a progressive/leftist who is pro-authoritarianism? I guess they must exist somewhere but I haven’t met any.

Religion evolves, even if some creationists don’t believe in evolution. It wasn’t too long ago the the pope conceded that the church was wrong and Galileo was right. If extra terrestrial life is discovered there will be a period where all religions attempt to incorporate the news into their doctrine one way or another to keep the money rolling in.

We need HIPAA but for financial information, I don’t think one is necessarily more sensitive than the other. The penalties for leaking, or failing to ensure the integrity of medical records can be severe.