They may not be exactly the same, but if you squint while looking it's hard to see the differences. One side rushes headlong toward corporate controlled kleptocracy, while the other says lots of really polite things, while slowly sliding ever so gently toward corporate controlled kleptocracy. The choice for the common voter is, "Do you want your shit sandwich shoved down your throat, or politely slid into your mouth, whether you open it or not?" It's easy to understand why some see that as "both are exactly the same." They aren't, not really, but the end result is always movement in the same direction.

You've got more faith in the current political landscape than I do if you think you can somehow shoehorn in "rational grounds" when it comes to any form of discussion around labels. Especially labels like "social" in the "Social Democrat" meaning. This country is filled with irrationality and the politicians have all learned to play to that irrationality for votes. Or at least for "engagement."

I wouldn't say nothing. What he is is a very lucky gambler. Whether that luck is guided by anything more than Daddy's money and a weird fetish for tech companies is up for debate. There may be a bit of the salesman built into his Messiah complex. The Messiah complex has been pointed out repeatedly by folks that have had personal relationships with him.

He's luck wrapped in salesmanship, and that salesmanship has slipped as the addictions have taken hold and he's let his public persona become more personal aggrandization than polish.

Once you drop main headcount, there will be a small moment where there appears to be excess payroll funding. If they time it just right, they can hire a bunch of friends into the upper management level to soak up that extra payroll without anyone questioning why they need additional management roles while lowering overall employee headcount. Just imagine the world they're imagining and it all makes perfect sense. I big daycare for the elite, where they can sit and chit-chat about decimating the employment potential of the world's population while raking in tons of cash themselves.

That's the problem with us employee level rubes. We don't even stop to think about how this AI boom will be such a drastic improvement for the C-Suite elite.

I call bullshit. The Democrats traditionally pull their own hand when it comes to setting an example. They don't want to see "the other side" use the precedent of prosecuting outgoing administrations if they set it by prosecuting outgoing administrations. I look for Donald to see a lot of written histories released about his time in office condemning him, but I highly doubt we'll see any actual legal moves against him or his people. Perhaps a sternly worded letter of intent, stating that he'd best keep away from the wheels of government in the future, but I don't believe any Democrat, even those ramped up and steeped in rhetoric today, will actually go after Trump if he can be removed from office when his time is up.

The Democrats excel at two things:
1. Saying the right things.
2. Preventing themselves from doing those right things once given the opportunity. Perhaps, with the added point of making up incredible excuses why it was infeasible to even try to do the right things to begin with, and that anyone believing them must be some level of insane to have done so.

I'm not saying they're as corrupt and shitty as the Republicans have become, but it's not like they're paragons of virtue themselves. And believing any of them will actually prosecute the current regime is ignoring the entire modern history of the party and its movements once in power.

But you repeat yourself.

DAMMIT! All I needed was blockchain!

Best summary of the AI craze I've seen so far.

I guess the line starts here. I'm looking for guitar and amp sponsors. Coincidentally, they should have a fairly significant supply of hookers and blow available just for their usual endorsers, and I'd be happy with just the scraps. I'm old, and my tolerance isn't real high for either.

But...

Yeah, right. Human nature alone says you got new shiny for free, you'll be enamored with new shiny, regardless of how often new shiny arrives in your cave.

Not gone, but the herd will thin, and probably more along the lines of a century or so. I think in the end there will be small pockets of humans left, those who are now considered extremely wealthy, though that wealth won't mean much when we get the right set of circumstances to wipe out the electronics we've woven so tightly into society that even a small-scale Carrington event in galactic terms would mean disaster. We rush headlong toward the dumbest possible outcomes because it makes profit for those wealthy folks, at the expense of everyone and every thing else. Eventually, that mentality will lead to a population decimation. Nature can be fucked with only so long before it comes crashing back in on those who believe themselves superior to her. The universe doesn't much care how many game tokens you've accumulated in this life. It'll smack you just the same.

That said, there are bound to be a few bunkers around that will keep small populations of the wealthy and their families alive for a few more generations. Whether they're smart enough to trade mating partners in time to prevent genetic stagnation from ending the species will be an experiment we won't know the results of until the time comes. And most of us will be long gone by then.

There is *ZERO* chance a company buying WB today would make something as fun and entertaining as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

While there have been shortages in the past, we've never seen an entire industry segment become priority one to the point where consumer facing brands simply disappear in the hopes of filling that need. This seems some new phenomenon, and one that seems unsustainably over-the-top at the moment, but still one that appears set to drive the entirety of the computer market.

If Megacity existed, I guarantee you they'd have at least one of the judges in statue form looming over it.

The problem for the west with this sort of philosophy is that there is great profit potential is selling weapons to both sides in combat zones, and nothing creates a combat zone like insanity run amok. This is reason #2 that the entire middle east is one of the western world's obsessions. Reason #1 of course is oil. And while Israel may not be a provider of #1, they're damned good to the military industrial complex when it comes to #2. And let's face it, we long ago decided that profit comes before any other concern. In fact, we play a part in keeping the insanity stoked high and wide, because it's far more profitable that way.

CHA-CHING, baby. CHA-CHING.