Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Wesleyan?

It’s hard to tell how much each school gets but Alabama, for all that GOP pushing, doesn’t seem near 1 Billion.

And all the press? How do we think the poor voters who were reliably D votes, but bailed in 2024, or worse voted for Trump, how do you think they feel when hearing the Government gives Harvard $2,000,000,000? Harvard gets 2 B?

What are we doing here, Hank? Do you have a concern with Harvard getting research grants, or are just worried that some voters won’t like it? There are a lot of voters, and some of them think all sorts of things. Are you saying that Harvard should surrender its First Amendment rights and let Trumpy MAGA wingnuts decide what they teach because fighting the feds might hurt Dems in elections late next year?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

So to cut gov spending, set up a department to evaluate research to determine what to cut?

How about we do what the Constitution says, which is for Congress decide how to appropriate money for stuff? What do you have against the Constitution? It works pretty well, and is much more popular than letting a ketamine-addled South African billionaire and a bunch 4chan teenagers go wild.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

What are we doing here, Hank? Do you have a concern with Harvard getting research grants, or are just worried that some voters won’t like it? There are a lot of voters, and some of them think all sorts of things. Are you saying that Harvard should surrender its First Amendment rights and let Trumpy MAGA wingnuts decide what they teach because fighting the feds might hurt Dems in elections late next year?

1) I was asking if it isn’t problematic that a few elite schools get a shit ton more money than other schools. In my post before I’d asked if such a distribution wasn’t the opposite of encouraging DEI.

Then;

2) My second thought was that a ton of voters have got to be seeing how much money is going to universities that wouldn’t let their families take a shit on campus, and thinking “thank you President Trump!”


The second was just an observation that in Trump’s seemingly crazed attacks he may actually be building his block.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

1) I was asking if it isn’t problematic that a few elite schools get a shit ton more money than other schools. In my post before I’d asked if such a distribution wasn’t the opposite of encouraging DEI.

I guess it’s problematic if you think that the point of grants for scientific research, is to spread money around the country like butter on warm toast, as opposed to supporting scientific research. I suspect that there has been plenty of data available about those grants for a long time, and no one has been troubled.

2) My second thought was that a ton of voters have got to be seeing how much money is going to universities that wouldn’t let their families take a shit on campus, and thinking “thank you President Trump!”

Harvard Yard is open to the public every day of the year except one, commencement day. I bet there are a ton more people who know someone who has had cancer and don’t understand why Republicans are cutting funds for medical research.

The second was just an observation that in Trump’s seemingly crazed attacks he may actually be building his block.

His approval scores are below any other President’s at this point, but sure, he’s a sneaky political genius. Do you believe that, or are you just trying to play Devil’s Advocate to the prevailing view that he’s nuts?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

How about we do what the Constitution says, which is for Congress decide how to appropriate money for stuff? What do you have against the Constitution? It works pretty well, and is much more popular than letting a ketamine-addled South African billionaire and a bunch 4chan teenagers go wild.

Congress studies and approves research grants?

EDIT

And now the admin is saying the Harvard letter was a mistake? It takes several days to get that?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

Congress studies and approves research grants?

You said, "So to cut gov spending, set up a department to evaluate research to determine what to cut?"

If the problem is that Congress spends too much, or on the wrong stuff, then let's fix that the way the Constitution says, which is for Congress to spend less, or on the right stuff. What the Trump Administration is doing is -- blatantly -- unconstitutional. It's a matter of time before Congress decides that it likes to spend money, and takes its power back, but in the meantime the MAGA crowd is doing a lot of damage because Republicans in Congress are too scared of Trump and Musk to stand up to them. They are gutless cowards.

And now the admin is saying the Harvard letter was a mistake? It takes several days to get that?

It's a clown show, and it would be funny if they weren't hurting so many people.

[Hank Chinaski]

I know none of you have stayed in a Trump hotel in the last 10 but have any of you ever? Are they nice?

Where I stay in Chicago is across the street from the Trump hotel and watching people walk in I’m sort of sickened by them. I get poor people thinking he’ll help them financially, or at least get the trans off their daughter’s b-ball team. But wealthy people staying there are making a pretty clear greedy statement. Or is there a reason to hold one’s nose and check in?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I know none of you have stayed in a Trump hotel in the last 10 but have any of you ever? Are they nice?

Where I stay in Chicago is across the street from the Trump hotel and watching people walk in I’m sort of sickened by them. I get poor people thinking he’ll help them financially, or at least get the trans off their daughter’s b-ball team. But wealthy people staying there are making a pretty clear greedy statement. Or is there a reason to hold one’s nose and check in?

He's just licensing the name, isn't he?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

He's just licensing the name, isn't he?

I had never heard that, but it seems lots are owned by others who license the name. What is the value of the name, at least 10 years ago when he hadn't been President.

At least some he does at least co-own.

Whatever way they are owned, staying there now is making a statement. There was a time when I asked myself if I'd walk in Jean Georges. If that raises a question, staying in the hotel is right out.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I had never heard that, but it seems lots are owned by others who license the name. What is the value of the name, at least 10 years ago when he hadn't been President.

At least some he does at least co-own.

Whatever way they are owned, staying there now is making a statement. There was a time when I asked myself if I'd walk in Jean Georges. If that raises a question, staying in the hotel is right out.

I was under the impression that the Trump Organization is not actually operating any hotels, and that various others are, so that one's experience at one such property would not necessarily correlate to that at another.

Which is separate from the question of whether one wants make that statement. I was in Chicago and when I saw the large Trump name on the property over the river, I felt a little ill. Though that could have been the norovirus at work.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I was under the impression that the Trump Organization is not actually operating any hotels, and that various others are, so that one's experience at one such property would not necessarily correlate to that at another.

Which is separate from the question of whether one wants make that statement. I was in Chicago and when I saw the large Trump name on the property over the river, I felt a little ill. Though that could have been the norovirus at work.

I was staying in Chicago last week across State from that hotel. I could see events outside and knowing anyone who books that has a belief I um, disagree with.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I was staying in Chicago last week across State from that hotel. I could see events outside and knowing anyone who books that has a belief I um, disagree with.

I think it's the cheapest of the 5 star hotels in Chicago. I'm guessing that's due to the name on then building.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

So to cut gov spending, set up a department to evaluate research to determine what to cut?

We already have it, and they're volunteers - DOGE.

It's not a difficult task to look at a list of grants and sift the necessary from the frivolous. Simply strip out everything with a political bent or trafficking in pseudoscience (like most anthropological and gender studies) and leave the hard science and medical research.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I know none of you have stayed in a Trump hotel in the last 10 but have any of you ever? Are they nice?

Where I stay in Chicago is across the street from the Trump hotel and watching people walk in I’m sort of sickened by them. I get poor people thinking he’ll help them financially, or at least get the trans off their daughter’s b-ball team. But wealthy people staying there are making a pretty clear greedy statement. Or is there a reason to hold one’s nose and check in?

The one in DC that the Trump Org sold, and which I believe it operated, was supposed to be really nice. Rooftop bar, particularly.

Picking your hotel or car by politics is IMO silly. I think JB Pritzker is a buffoon presiding over a state which is the poster child for mismanagement. Should that factor in my selection of a Hyatt? I think Musk is an unhinged child-man. Should that stop me from buying a Tesla?

If people like to engage in performative behaviors, okay. Have at it. In regard to Tesla, the boycotts actually appear to be having some effect. But usually, it's mindless "feels" for one's own sense of self-righteousness. Or something a whiffle intellect can post on IG.

A better response is perhaps donating money or time to Fire.org, or the ACLU, which appear to be the only people waging an organized campaign against Trump's war on free speech.

Or maybe also ask your asshole right wing friends who railed about cancel culture while Biden was in office but aren't saying anything now what's got their tongues? Whole lotta Trumpers seem to understand free speech as free for me, not for thee. Cancelation by deportation is no different in effect from cancelation by social and legacy media manipulation. You're just driving Orwell's car to the nadir instead of Huxley's.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

1) I was asking if it isn’t problematic that a few elite schools get a shit ton more money than other schools. In my post before I’d asked if such a distribution wasn’t the opposite of encouraging DEI.

This highlights one of the biggest problems with social equity mindsets. Research grants are an investment. If you're trying to cure cancer, you don't send a hundred million to Ball State to pretend there's a semblance of parity with Harvard. Harvard is superior for variety of reasons, so instead of DEI, focus on ROI. Anything else is just malinvestment.

2) My second thought was that a ton of voters have got to be seeing how much money is going to universities that wouldn’t let their families take a shit on campus, and thinking “thank you President Trump!”

Crab Theory seems pervasive these days.

The second was just an observation that in Trump’s seemingly crazed attacks he may actually be building his block.

Again, it comes down to precision, which is missing in this admin. You can't punish the cancer research scientist at Harvard for the sins of the wingnuts in the Gender Studies, Anthropology, and Political Science departments who think Hamas had an argument but just went a little too far on October 7, or we're a culture of closeted Bull Connors operating a Handmaid's tale patriarchy out of one of Andrea Dworkin's fever dreams. We can walk and chew gum. We can cut off funds to the frivolous while continuing them to the important.

But it takes work, and nimble thinking. None of which a performance artist like Trump, or his misfit band of merry players, has any interest in undertaking. They're all about the clickbait, owning the libs. It's so beyond stupid and childish I'm totally out of denigrating superlatives.