I think you could say the U.S. govt got an incredible return on spacex subsidies. Cost/lb/orbit has absolutely cratered as a result of those subsidies and the u.s. govt has hundreds more comm, def, and int satellites in orbit than they could have off NASA/Boeing/ULA. Which brings us back around to the entire point of many government subsidies doge whines about - the government feels they're getting ROI in some form. A few tens of millions in health aid to a country to stabilize a situation and avoid a government collapsing and humanitarian crisis that results in more refugees and a power vacuum that provides cover for bad actors or terrorists to gain power is a good investment. Because it offsets billions in spending, billions in u.s. companies DFI there, and american lives if a situation goes hot. Doge might trim a few tens of billions. A few billion of which might be wasteful. But a lot of it had real returns.

Lol. Some of his weird shit you can at least find some bizarre rationalization for. Canada and Greenland I can't even. "After we ensure the world misses climate goals Canada gains a lot of arable land" and "Greenlands glaciars are a ton of the worlds stored easily accessible fresh water" are the best (worst?) Ones I've seen.

@RoKhanna Why would you build a ship here when it's cheaper to pay someone in China to build one for you? China is still a developing economy, they have a deep pool of labor that's cheaper than ours and the shipyard is already built there.

@LaytonGiordani @expertsonly I wonder who the mystery headliner could possibly be.

If you took the time and effort to clear large flammables from the perimeter of your house and install an ember dousing sprinkler system sufficient to protect your house for the surprisingly short period until a fire blows past? Too bad get fucked, you're paying to rebuild millionaires houses who were too cheap to do that and liked having shade trees directly next to their house more than they liked having a house. The average value of houses destroyed in Palisades was $4m. In Eaton it was $1.4m. What a goddamn joke California government is.

Spent the money to properly clear the area surrounding your house of large flammables and installed a dousing system capable of keeping embers from igniting your house for the few minutes until a fire blows past? Too bad get fucked, you get to rebuild rich people's $20m houses who were too cheap to spend $200k on an ember sprinkler system and liked the tree shading their house more than they liked having a house.

I have seen *plenty* of "If you can't afford to tip 20% don't eat out" posts on social media and comments IRL The suggested percentages have gone up across the board everywhere, and the proliferation of industries and service types that are expecting tips has gone up across the board everywhere.

@VDAREJamesK Reminder that your grandparents probably went to segregated schools, and your parents probably lived in a redlined neighborhood at some point. How to handle economic injustice isn't something I have the answer to. But I do know that structural racism is far from long-settled.

@WillemDaFr0 News Headlines where trump promised to lower the price of eggs count as coupons on the price of eggs right?

Here's another fun one. Tips are only owed to the employees providing the service if they are optional. If a restaurant tells you that parties over a certain size have a required auto-grat of whatever % then...hate to break it to you...the restaurant can and often does keep some of that money, because no matter what it is called on the piece of paper, it is a mandatory fee and is not in any way actually owed to the employee. To ensure that the actual workers are required to get your tips, refuse any auto-gratuity and insist on a clean receipt on which you will tip that amount or greater.

Who provided the carryout service? If I'm asking the question, I'm asking because the manager is handing me the food. The Tip has to be directed at an employee for it to be owed to an employee. If the "Server" on the tab is listed as "takeout/house" and a manager is handing you your food, then I hate to break it to you, but you are tipping the owner of the restaurant, not the staff that prepared the food.

It's actually amazing how quickly owning a Tesla in the south changed from "wow you're really ridin with biden, think you're gonna save the planet with that do ya?"

Guess what - a restaurant on a house tab receiving a tip legally owes that tip to nobody other than the owner. If they can not answer were takeout tips on a house check go without hesitation then I am not just voluntarily paying the owner more and will not order takeout from that restaurant again. But also, generally the service side is tipping out the busers, kitchen, runners, dishwashers, at a competent restaurant. If the tip goes to them I will tip.

If the surcharge is not disclosed, in writing, in advance, you are not responsible for paying it. Side note - surcharges are not even obligated actually go to the staff either. At every single surcharge restaurant I refuse to pay it and add it to the tip. Scamming ass restaurant owners whining about food prices going up 20% while charging 50% more and stealing from their employees can get fucked.

Percentile tips inflate at the exact same rate the food does. Which mind you was faster than general inflation. Mediocre restaurant meal prices have doubled in the past 5 years, ergo a 15-18% tip on that meal has doubled in the past 5 years. I am not mad at workers and tip well to be clear. But shaming other also workers who just want a family meal out every now and then for not tipping *even more* relative to inflation is gross.

For the all-in price of the big mainstream U.S. edm festivals these days you can fly to spain and spend a week in Barcelona hearing some of the best techno DJs in the world on rotation in a city full of amazing food, architecture, and culture. I strongly recommend doing this.

@Hip_Design_Chic @charliekirk11 @Hunter_Eagleman If you don't think GE would much rather sell you 20x more incandescent bulbs for 15x more total money over the life of an LED bulb...

I mean, I'm as against this dumb shit as anyone but SpaceX has done orders of magnitude more with an order of magnitude less than boeing or NASA could ever hope to. NASA has very literally spent 20x more on canceled programs that never flew in the past 30 years than they've given SpaceX. SpaceX is responsible for the vast majority of the entire worlds mass to space every year. It is unfortunate the brilliant engineers there are handcuffed to Musk.

@Hip_Design_Chic @charliekirk11 @Hunter_Eagleman If you want to go that route light during unnatural hours at all is unhealthy. Side note - you can very much have LEDs with a color temperature and/or filter to match natural light.

@KammlerHan24031 @TrojanSalaesmen @ItIsHoeMath I thought restrictions on gun ownership are unconstitutional? Weird how the 2nd amendment folks get scared when non-white people pick up guns.