…but, did it work?

Well…the Saudis do pay more. /s

There is an implied contract between the States and the Federal government regarding taxation. The Federal government cannot cut funding to a State and still expect them to keep their end of that agreement.

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For all the alarmists acting like this is going to pass…it won’t. This is part of the normal process that all new legislation goes through. Politicians propse a bill, which contains everything they can think to include…throwing it all at the wall, just to see what will stick. Then it gets torn to shreds during the debate session, by legal advocacy groups and human rights organizations, who know exactly what kinds of legal challenges they can see coming a mile away. Anything that’s garaunteed to get tossed out in court is discarded from the legislation.

Why? Because there’s no point in passing legislation that can’t actually be legally enforced. Law enforcement has been trying to get these kinds of “tools” implemented for decades. And the courts have all said, all the way along…no. You need a warrant for that kind of intrusion. They need probable cause to look at these things. They need a reasonable justification beyond, “I want to look, just in case”. None of the shit in this bill is going to pass the legal smell test. Period.

Cheese.

“Any rebuttal is shut down by these drones.” Proceeds to complain that their whataboutism isn’t respected as a valid “rebuttal”.

I was referring more to the fact that Elon Musk has already been allegedly funneling DOGE data directly to the Russian government…but yeah, all the rest of that is pretty bad too. Lol!

…and it’s all going to “accidentally” find its way onto Russian servers.

If Trump cuts off Federal funding, he may not have a choice. That money has to come from somewhere.

Fuck these traitors.

Except that it is still America, and the government seizing private property…especially from a billionaire…is straight up “socialism” as far as most Americans are concerned. I have a feeling that might not go over as easily as people think.

Wut?

And just like they did in Maine, California will sue him and win.

Except that NASA is a nationally owned branch of the government. They answer directly to the executive branch and are funded by Congress. They are not a “company”. They are a government agency.

That’s because…technically…the government mostly provides contracts to SpaceX to take their stuff to and from orbit. They’re basically paying for a service…not investing in SpaceX’s product development. Even though that is an indirect result of giving them those contracts.

It’s like hiring a landscaper to do your lawn. They come with their own equipment, so even though they bought it using the money you pay them…you don’t own any of it. They do.

SpaceX operates a fleet of privately owned ICBMs under license from the US government.

That’s not true. All nuclear weapons in the US’s arsenal are under the control of the US military. You are correct to say that it would be illegal for any private contractor to operate its own fleet of ICBMs…and that includes SpeceX.

The intellectual property they are using is subject to ITAR regulation. Any American trying to transfer that IP outside of the US would be quickly indicted. Any foreign government using or authorizing the use of that IP would be heavily sanctioned.

ITAR doesn’t prevent SpaceX from moving its base of operations to another country. As I said, they are a privately owned company. Moving their operations to another country is not the same thing as “giving” that technology to that country.

Unfortunately voting for Democrats isn’t harm reduction. It’s just a vote against harm acceleration.

Ummm…that’s literally what “harm reduction” is, though. You are minimizing the damage fascists can do, and giving yourself more time to get alternatives in place.

The only way we’ll ever see harm reduction. Is if we primary every candidate from every party.

You can’t do that if you don’t vote against fascism in every election…even the ones where you don’t have a favorite candidate. If you choose to sit out the elections that don’t have an ideal candidate…then how do you expect one to run, once the fascists use their power to cancel future elections? You have to keep them out of office, if you want to have any hope of pursuing better alternatives.

But you can vote to prevent them from taking power in the first place.

Keeping fascists out of office, by any means necessary…means voting for their strongest opponent, every time there’s an opportunity…in addition to every other means at our disposal. Not voting against them, gives them power in a vacuum.