Big Tech Twits Get Dumber and Corrupter!

[Raja]

4 hours ago, Spockydog said:

 

what a shit show

[Zorral]

Moar roaring Big Guy Triumph of the Will monumental fantasy -- ten monumental freedom cities built from nothing in nowhere for no purpose other than some guy thinks so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/

Quote

 

.... ‘Freedom Cities’

The new cities proposal consists of a national contest to charter up to 10 D.C.-sized metropolises on undeveloped federal land. Administration officials discussed the concept toward the end of Trump’s term, but he did not campaign on it in 2020. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pushed the idea in White House meetings after it was initially brought up by Haley and another speechwriter on Miller’s team, Ross Worthington, who is also now on the 2024 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Trump has discussed the new “Freedom Cities” in utopian terms, with flying cars, manufacturing hubs and opportunities for homeownership, promising a “quantum leap in the American standard of living.” The campaign has provided few details on how the plan would work in practice.

Trump acknowledged that the idea needed more work over a Sunday dinner in mid-March, according to economic adviser Stephen Moore. “He said, ‘I’m still trying to figure out how it’s going to work,’ something like that,’” Moore recalled in an interview. “He said, ‘How do you think we should make that work?’ And I’m going to help him with the idea.”

Moore said the cities could be designed in part by offering tax incentives and creating a “super police force that keeps the place safe,” reflecting GOP allegations that Democratic-run cities are awash with crime. It’s not clear how that will prove more attractive than similar measures already enacted by GOP governors. Even some of Trump’s allies have been skeptical of the plan.

“I hate this thing,” one outside economic adviser to Trump said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations with campaign officials. “The economic problems facing the nations are so severe, and we’re going to talk make-believe about ‘building new cities’?”

Experts stress that cities have historically grown around natural centers of economic activity rather than state edict. “You can’t just wave a wand and have cities come into being,” said Rick McGahey, an economist at the New School who specializes in urban growth. “This is not where cities come from. The concept does not work.”

Some observers say the idea more closely resembles is libertarian fantasiesy, such as that produced by a think tank funded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, of new private communities run on cryptocurrency. Others found it reminiscent of projects to build centrally controlled cities from scratch in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump has routinely praised and defended authoritarian foreign leaders such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Some Trump allies give him credit for what they see as a bold new idea. One campaign adviser compared the proposal’s ambition to the “Opportunity Zones” economic incentives in Trump’s 2017 tax legislation, scaled up to emulate historic Republican achievements such as Abraham Lincoln’s Homestead Act and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.

“There is this broad recognition that we don’t build enough things in America and that, you know, obviously, we have great American cities, but we haven’t really built a new model city,” said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who has endorsed Trump’s presidential bid. “There are a lot of other countries that are trying different approaches out, and I think it’s fine for us to think about doing that here, too.”

Trump has specified that he wants to define architectural standards in existing cities as well, insisting on classical-style buildings, monuments to “true American heroes,” and schools and streets named “not after communists but patriots.” He has also proposed forcibly removing homeless people to outlying tent cities, wading into an area usually left to local governments and relying on unclear federal authority.

“Violators of these bans will be arrested, but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they are willing to be rehabilitated,” Trump said in a recent campaign video. ....

 

As observed above: read some sf as a kid, played video games and think this shyte is real.

In the meantime, the Dems are working out how to encourage and support the building of chip and semi conductor manufacture, so the US isn't dependent on China.

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Zorral

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Great job Elon.

[Rorshach]

In days of yore, there was this saying going something like "it's better to not say anything and be perceived as dumb than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

Might now be rewritten to "it's better to stay silent and be perceived as dumb than to burn 44 billion dollars for the privelige of everyone knowing you're a dumbass. Oh, and also promoting evil".

[Zorral]

I have read in various spots that the big fish lost 13 billion in valuation in just this week.

'Course this can always go back up depending on stock prices.

Yet, you know he can make cars and space rockets that blow up but never write a tweet that blows up, as somebody (not me) somewhere else observed.

 

[maarsen]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Moar roaring Big Guy Triumph of the Will monumental fantasy -- ten monumental freedom cities built from nothing in nowhere for no purpose other than some guy thinks so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/

As observed above: read some sf as a kid, played video games and think this shyte is real.

In the meantime, the Dems are working out how to encourage and support the building of chip and semi conductor manufacture, so the US isn't dependent on China.

 

 

If one could get the idiots to invest in creating those cities, one can both keep them busy and bankrupt them. Win win for the rest of us.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

Moar roaring Big Guy Triumph of the Will monumental fantasy -- ten monumental freedom cities built from nothing in nowhere for no purpose other than some guy thinks so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/

As observed above: read some sf as a kid, played video games and think this shyte is real.

In the meantime, the Dems are working out how to encourage and support the building of chip and semi conductor manufacture, so the US isn't dependent on China.

 

 

That’ll go as well as his “wall” did if it ever starts…

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, maarsen said:

If one could get the idiots to invest in creating those cities, one can both keep them busy and bankrupt them. Win win for the rest of us.

Nope.  As Scott says, this is going to be an even vaster grift than the beautiful wall.  Taken out of each of our pockets and put into his and his kids'.  And Putin's too,  more than likely.

[Kalbear]

One great thing about the rapid unscheduled dipshittery of twitter is that Mastodon is becoming significantly more usable and awesome. A whole lot of the folks I used to follow on Twitter are there. The biggest one I miss is OSINT, but I'm hoping they'll jump ship soon. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Great job Elon.

Wanna see something that’ll make you blood boil.

 

[ThinkerX]

6 hours ago, Zorral said:

Moar roaring Big Guy Triumph of the Will monumental fantasy -- ten monumental freedom cities built from nothing in nowhere for no purpose other than some guy thinks so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2023/04/21/trump-agenda-policies-2024/

As observed above: read some sf as a kid, played video games and think this shyte is real.

In the meantime, the Dems are working out how to encourage and support the building of chip and semi conductor manufacture, so the US isn't dependent on China.

 

 

As I said in the other thread, not so much 'cities' as 'internment camps' for the enemies of an authoritarian regime.

 

[Raja]

He's been terrible for the site. It's a shit show at the moment

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

And it was 100% predictable. Always remember, just because someone is next level amazing at something doesn't mean they are at everything or anything else. If anything they may be rather deficient it a lot of ways. Musk fits that bill perfectly while being super arrogant, hence why he's an excellent Bond villain, but not the main one. He's the one that gets played midway through by the real Big Baddy. 

[Week]

He continues to have the absolute dumbest supporters as well.

 

ETA

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Week

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, ThinkerX said:

As I said in the other thread, not so much 'cities' as 'internment camps' for the enemies of an authoritarian regime.

 

I was thinking of them as generators of grift, money laundering and fraud.

[ThinkerX]

3 hours ago, LongRider said:

I was thinking of them as generators of grift, money laundering and fraud.

Well, that too, of course. 

The 'elite' are desperate for cheap labor - witness the recent revoking of child labor laws and how all too often undocumented aliens seem to wind up working for rich assholes. Now, think about it: there is no requirement to pay inmates the federal minimum wage. And these 'cities' will be chock full of inmates - cheap labor for all sorts of projects.

 

[felice]

11 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

One great thing about the rapid unscheduled dipshittery of twitter is that Mastodon is becoming significantly more usable and awesome.

Absolutely. It's best if you find a smaller server that fits you well, but you can start off anywhere and move once you've gotten used to how it works.

[LongRider]

11 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

The 'elite' are desperate for cheap labor - witness the recent revoking of child labor laws and how all too often undocumented aliens seem to wind up working for rich assholes.

The revoking of child labor laws makes me wanna puke, they are horrible!  Now that you mentioned it, I could see convict labor, especially from red states.  Trump claims that these cites would be regulation free.  So, no building codes enforced, no EPA or other antipollution laws applied or enforced.  No safety regulations for industry or workers.  So, great, cheap workers in unsafe factories living in substandard housing and exposed to toxins, pollutants and disease.   Would you want to live downwind or down river from one of these places?  Oh hell no!

edt; if there are no regulations, then there would be no minimum wage, for anyone. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by LongRider

[mormont]

Reprehensible as these plans might be, except for a vague mental association that they're sort of a tech-bro idea (though the proposal doesn't come from an actual tech-bro) they have nothing to do with the topic of this thread, which I take to be a continuation of the Twitter threads. They're absolutely a US Politics topic and are being discussed in that thread.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 minutes ago, mormont said:

Reprehensible as these plans might be, except for a vague mental association that they're sort of a tech-bro idea (though the proposal doesn't come from an actual tech-bro) they have nothing to do with the topic of this thread, which I take to be a continuation of the Twitter threads. They're absolutely a US Politics topic and are being discussed in that thread.

We're the creature from The Thing. You'll have to forgive us if from time to time we do what we do.