[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Macros, on 28 May 2026 - 05:41 PM, said:

even the people he endorses are pure scum, and documentedly so.

But they've embraced the grace of Jesus Trump

[Cause]

Macros, on 28 May 2026 - 04:48 PM, said:

If Trumps ratings are the lowest ever for a sitting president how is his endorsement not fucking toxic for anyone runnning in the primaries?

I believe in many states only registered republicans can vote in republican primaries. Even if it’s open I suspect mainly only the die hard party members participate regardless.

Democratic voters hate Trump. Independents now hate Trump. Amongst republicans he has lost a ton of voters but the die hard republicans who Trump has somehow convinced he is the second coming of Jesus are exactly the part of the base who vote in primaries.

The reason America is in the mess it’s in is that republicans representatives and senators essentially conditioned a rabid voter base to hate immigrants, fear the other, hate abortions and to love guns and now they can’t keep their seats without that core of their base. That however has led them to fear their own voters turning against them at the slightest sign of concialation with democrats and common sense and so republicans won’t push back against them.

Honestly if Trump paying Jan 6 brown shirts from his illegal billion dollar slush fund won’t get the senate and house to rein him in we might as well just call it day.

[Abyss]

Cause, on 28 May 2026 - 10:01 PM, said:

...
The reason America is in the mess it's in is that republicans representatives and senators essentially conditioned a rabid voter base to hate immigrants, fear the other, hate abortions and to love guns and now they can't keep their seats without that core of their base. That however has led them to fear their own voters turning against them at the slightest sign of concialation with democrats and common sense and so republicans won't push back against them.

Honestly if Trump paying Jan 6 brown shirts from his illegal billion dollar slush fund won't get the senate and house to rein him in we might as well just call it day.

the scary possibility is that the 'rabid voter base' exceeds any/all other groups in sheer numbers, because at that point, yeah, the battle is lost, the country has likely gone too far to the dark side to ever crawl back short of a (real) war, full blast crisis, or revolution.

the slush fund... ffs.

[Cause]

Abyss, on 29 May 2026 - 01:40 PM, said:

Cause, on 28 May 2026 - 10:01 PM, said:

...
The reason America is in the mess it's in is that republicans representatives and senators essentially conditioned a rabid voter base to hate immigrants, fear the other, hate abortions and to love guns and now they can't keep their seats without that core of their base. That however has led them to fear their own voters turning against them at the slightest sign of concialation with democrats and common sense and so republicans won't push back against them.

Honestly if Trump paying Jan 6 brown shirts from his illegal billion dollar slush fund won't get the senate and house to rein him in we might as well just call it day.

the scary possibility is that the 'rabid voter base' exceeds any/all other groups in sheer numbers, because at that point, yeah, the battle is lost, the country has likely gone too far to the dark side to ever crawl back short of a (real) war, full blast crisis, or revolution.

the slush fund... ffs.

I think the Mage faithful/core is large enough that republicans cant build a successful republican coalition without appeasing it. Losing them costs more votes than the independent votes it might win. They can still make and break primaries and so any senator or rep facing re-election needs them. Currently republicans facing that problem have chosen two paths, either quitting at the end of their term or appeasement (or at least no overt actions to anger it) rather than pushing back at them and trying to explain what the original republican values are/were (if they indeed ever had any) and convincing them.

My hope is that if the mid-terms prove as big a rebuke of Trump and Maga as they seem lined up to be then we may finally see republicans rethink their math and realize they cant win general elections relying on such a divisive group and they must rebuild the party again. Im not too sure but I think this happened before with the teaparty to a lesser degree but that was before I followed US politics so closely.

In the meantime Trumps second term has focused on vanity projects and with the 250th July 4th celebrations a month out his focus on doing things the wrong way have left him with a foundation of sand:
The arch is too late to contemplate
The Kennedy center must drop his name
the 250th party is at risk of cancelations with most artists dropping out
His slush fund is blocked and the previously presiding judge has re-opened the dropped case to discuss if the DOJ and IRS colluded and defrauded the court
He has no support among the american people or even really in the senate or House for his war in Iran. They may so far fear rebuking him outright but they also haven't provided much by way of endorsement
The deeply unpopular 'big beautiful bill' is the only major legislation thats passed
Trump, Vance, and Hegseth are the least popular people in their positions in since polling began

And amongst all this they are trying to get the laws passed so that he can have his face on a 250 dollar bill. The Midterms are headed to be a bloodbath. Also now with the republican primaries over and several incumbent Gop seneators headed for the door we will see if they find their courage or perhaps more aptly their vindictiveness

[QuickTidal]

I think a big recent indicator of the winds of change are in chickenshit billionaire Wormtongue Peter Thiel buying property in Argentina and skipping town claiming "fearing for the future of America"...If the head dickhead Billionaire is heading to the former Nazi decampment country...you know they are fearing the inevitable pendulum swing will not look upon them fondly.

[Cause]

Agreed I don’t put too much weight into his. Argentina isn’t exactly famous for its stability or long term output afterall. Argentina is trying to buy investment in exchange for citizenhsil and make a relatively cheap option for a billionaire looking for an option to maybe escape prosecution or unfavorable taxes in the future.

Saying America has a fearful future sounds better than I am keeping the door open to run away or evade taxes though.

I’m sure billionaires play this game in ever country that has these investment to citizenship pipelines.

[QuickTidal]

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I feel that THIS:

The Stratos Data Centre in Utah has been approved. It's 2.7x larger than Manhattan, and it will use 16 billon gallons of freshwater every year, which is more water than the state uses each year.


This is the thing that will finally shift the American people into fight mode. Literally vanishing that much freshwater (and already the temperamental resource) into something no one wants, that will also produce noise that will drive locals mental (seriously the sound of these things should be studied as torture), and filthy up the existing water supply? Yeah, this is the makings of a revolution. These billionaires are walking to themselves into an untenable situation.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 03 June 2026 - 12:57 PM, said:

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I feel that THIS:

The Stratos Data Centre in Utah has been approved. It's 2.7x larger than Manhattan, and it will use 16 billon gallons of freshwater every year, which is more water than the state uses each year.


This is the thing that will finally shift the American people into fight mode. Literally vanishing that much freshwater (and already the temperamental resource) into something no one wants, that will also produce noise that will drive locals mental (seriously the sound of these things should be studied as torture), and filthy up the existing water supply? Yeah, this is the makings of a revolution. These billionaires are walking to themselves into an untenable situation.

ah, Kevin O'Leary.... who knew the the jovial cynic from Dragon's Den was secretly Emperor Palpatine now building his own personal AI Death Stars (the other one is in Alberta, go figure).

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 03 June 2026 - 01:47 PM, said:

ah, Kevin O'Leary.... who knew the the jovial cynic from Dragon's Den was secretly Emperor Palpatine now building his own personal AI Death Stars (the other one is in Alberta, go figure).

I saw someone say "Man, I know billionaires are blindly stumbling towards the eat the rich guillotine, but Kevin O'Leary seems to want to be at the front of the line so badly" and I laughed, because this guy has become CARTOONISHLY evil, he may as well have a long moustache he twirls and tying people to train tracks...like...

I also don't get it. If I was a billionaire, I would fuck off into the sunset and live my life somewhere nice forever. No one but my family and friends would likely ever hear from me again. I'd be Albert Finney at the end of OCEAN'S TWELVE, sat by a villa on the sunny mediterranean sipping wine, or on my own sailboat sipping coffee and enjoying the waves...like I haven't a clue why these chuds INSIST on these stupid power moves and involvement in politics...like go away and enjoy retirement....holy shit their constant involvement in our lives is insufferable.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 03 June 2026 - 02:00 PM

[Cause]

I hesitate to attack this project because money has a way of corrupting decisions but it also has a way for finding optimal solutions. I imagine Utah was chosen for a combination of access to energy (ruby gas pipeline) and a colder climate. Id have though the benefits of building such a massive data center in a particular colder environment like underground, Alaska etc would be a prime consideration but I dont know what other considerations may be at play. The world isnt running out of water, we are running out of access to fresh water in places but that is frankly a governance, logistics and infrastructure failure rather than a true lack of fresh water. Fresh water is also naturally part of a cycle so we don't lose it and cooling systems can also be made into closed loops.

Id think the bigger concerns would be what such a massive heat island in Utah would cause to the climate in the area? I however lack the expertise to comment with any expertise but I think sometimes activist groups find scary soundbites and get us hyped up about things that are not as scary as they sound.

Over 60 billion gallons of water goes over Niagra falls a day. The human mind just cant meaningfully process information at this size.

As for Kevin O'learly I used to think maybe he was playing a character on shark tank and maybe he was but if so he now doesnt know how to take the mask off. I laughed once when he congratulated a mother who had her kids help her free on her garage bussiness "you found a way around child labor laws, but how do we scale". However more and more he just seems to think accumulation of wealth is the be all and all metric of his life and should be for goverments and the world too.

I dont know what happens to billionaires minds and truthfully we all need a reason to wake up in the morning beyond just sitting on the beach but the start seeing the balance as like a high score in a video game and they want to die with the heighest possible one. Even Warren Buffet who seems like a decent guy talks about drinking coke and mcdonalds because they are cheap and because he owns shares in both. You are a billionaire mate, the only thing you eat should be whatever brings you the most happiness in that moment.

[Tiste Simeon]

Or they could, you know, not build the thing at all.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Cause, on 03 June 2026 - 04:47 PM, said:

I hesitate to attack this project because money has a way of corrupting decisions but it also has a way for finding optimal solutions. I imagine Utah was chosen for a combination of access to energy (ruby gas pipeline) and a colder climate. Id have though the benefits of building such a massive data center in a particular colder environment like underground, Alaska etc would be a prime consideration but I dont know what other considerations may be at play. The world isnt running out of water, we are running out of access to fresh water in places but that is frankly a governance, logistics and infrastructure failure rather than a true lack of fresh water. Fresh water is also naturally part of a cycle so we don't lose it and cooling systems can also be made into closed loops.

From the Box Elder County Commission (local government where the data center is being built):

Quote

Stratos WON'T Divert Water From Homes, Agricultural Use Or The Great Salt Lake

It would exclusively use on-site water, which is too salty for human consumption or agricultural use.

The cooling system will have a closed-loop configuration that re-uses water rather than need constant refilling.

https://www.boxelder...ject-Fact-Sheet

Utah is also appealing because large parts of it are very sparsely populated, allowing them to build the data center far away from residential developments:

Quote

The land is also extremely remote — 15 to 20 miles from the nearest town, with no homes, no active farms, and no neighbors to disturb. This makes it very different from most data center projects, which often face fierce opposition from nearby residents.

https://thestratosproject.com/

That said, obviously all this hasn't stopped people from getting upset about it.

Quote

Artificial intelligence (AI) policy will be the most important issue in the 2028 U.S. presidential election.

https://www.cfr.org/...ing-ai-backlash

... I really hope I don't end up having to vote for Trump in 2028...

[Tiste Simeon]

You would vote for Trump because of AI? That's the single dumbest thing I've heard in a very long time and trust me, Meta is ensuring I see an awful lot of very VERY stupid takes...

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tiste Simeon, on 03 June 2026 - 05:08 PM, said:

You would vote for Trump because of AI? That's the single dumbest thing I've heard in a very long time and trust me, Meta is ensuring I see an awful lot of very VERY stupid takes...

Artificial intelligence is more important than the United States.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 June 2026 - 05:12 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

So the few billionaires who are currently screwing up your country and are all involved in AI and you want to give them more power for their ai that's going to make life worse and make them richer? Sound logic.

[QuickTidal]

Cause, on 03 June 2026 - 04:47 PM, said:

I imagine Utah was chosen for a combination of access to energy (ruby gas pipeline) and a colder climate.

Actually, the data centre's are all being built in areas of constant drought. Ask yourself why.

Cause, on 03 June 2026 - 04:47 PM, said:

but I think sometimes activist groups find scary soundbites and get us hyped up about things that are not as scary as they sound.

Over 60 billion gallons of water goes over Niagra falls a day..

Fresh water is a finite resource. While the total amount of water on Earth remains constant and circulates through the water cycle, less than 3% of it is fresh water. Even then, only a fraction of that is easily accessible to humans for drinking and agriculture. These data centers can't run on Salt Water, if they could you'd have less of a problem.

Cause, on 03 June 2026 - 04:47 PM, said:

I dont know what happens to billionaires minds and truthfully we all need a reason to wake up in the morning beyond just sitting on the beach but the start seeing the balance as like a high score in a video game and they want to die with the heighest possible one. Even Warren Buffet who seems like a decent guy talks about drinking coke and mcdonalds because they are cheap and because he owns shares in both. You are a billionaire mate, the only thing you eat should be whatever brings you the most happiness in that moment.

Sadly I think for people like O'Leary the suffering and punishment of others (anyone poorer than him) IS what brings him happiness. His role on Shark Tank seemingly indicated the same.

Azath Vitr (D, on 03 June 2026 - 05:05 PM, said:

... I really hope I don't end up having to vote for Trump in 2028...

Insane statement. Not the least of which is YOUR GODDAMN CONSTITUTION SAYS HE CAN'T....but even suggesting you would vote for this lifelong criminal, conman, and pedi JUST so you can have your little AI wet dream come true...is an unhinged POV. My gods.

Azath Vitr (D, on 03 June 2026 - 05:12 PM, said:

Artificial intelligence is more important than the United States.

I assure you, it's not.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 03 June 2026 - 05:20 PM, said:

So the few billionaires who are currently screwing up your country and are all involved in AI and you want to give them more power for their ai that's going to make life worse and make them richer? Sound logic.

He really said "I may have to vote for a rich criminalistic racist bigoted conman pedo if he gives me what I want"...good gods what is wrong with Americans?

[Abyss]

Azath Vitr (D, on 03 June 2026 - 05:12 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 03 June 2026 - 05:08 PM, said:

You would vote for Trump because of AI? That's the single dumbest thing I've heard in a very long time and trust me, Meta is ensuring I see an awful lot of very VERY stupid takes...

Artificial intelligence is more important than the United States.

Don't be deliberately obtuse... the Trumpzies will do nothing good with any of it and no one will benefit except the usual Legion of Doom.

[Cause]

Tiste Simeon, on 03 June 2026 - 04:56 PM, said:

Or they could, you know, not build the thing at all.

Tiste Simeon, on 03 June 2026 - 05:20 PM, said:

So the few billionaires who are currently screwing up your country and are all involved in AI and you want to give them more power for their ai that's going to make life worse and make them richer? Sound logic.

I think some of the latter quote is for Azath as much as me but anyways....

We could also just go back to the stone age. We build Data centers because we want/need data centers. Although yes AI is probably a bit in a bubble / overhyped right now.

Still my job uses data centers every day for off-site data storage. I use data centers personally every day for AI to help me with my job and personal matters both. My customers use data centers every day for computational power. Mass computational power has lead to some of the greatest breakthroughs in biological research. Billionaires often suck. I stand by there is nothing you can do with 100 billion that you cant do with 10. Hell minus some ridiculous mega yacht nonsense that's probably also true of 1 billion dollars. However companies don't build things for free or for charity. They are building a giant data center because people want to buy access to a giant data center.

The us goverment should stop gutting the epa. We must protect our planet because its the only planet we have and we all fucking live on it. But progress should not be stymied from a knee-jerk reaction either.

[Tiste Simeon]

The fact that anyone thinks that the billionaires are building any of this for the benefit of society as a whole rather than for their own power, wealth and control just shows how well the propaganda is working.