Eventually the genie left the bottle and people realized these medications make most (not all) people feel very good. Scott's written about this before, but they basically bump up your personal "productivity" metric. This effect is observed for those who suffer ADHD symptoms and those who don't.

Basically, these meds can allow a clinically unmotivated and lethargic person to clean their room and buy groceries and call the bank.

They can also allow a 'normal' person to work for 12h without a break then come home and continue writing their novel.

There are now online ADHD "clinics" which let you take an online assessment (!) before a 30min meeting with a doctor who'll then prescribe you amphetamines. If you're someone who knows to say, the process has been incredibly streamlined.

It's not antisemitic or even remotely conspiratorial to acknowledge that Israel and Israeli-Americans have been very successful in exerting influence on the federal government. I think it's bad-faith well-poisoning for you to bring up nonsense like the Protocols.

Were there an analogous "ARPAC" which lobbied for Russian interests I imagine it would be under an immense amount of scrutiny.

The book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is a great read which fairly and methodically outlines how this influence works and what effects it's had on American policy, spanning decades.

Color me not remotely surprised.

Trump absolutely lies a lot. He doesn't lie _all the time_. I don't think that's an inappropriate level of nuance for someone to acknowledge.

You'll have a new president in 2028, be it Vance, Shapiro, or Oprah Winfrey. Either way, it won't be DJT.

That said, I also remember when Trump said he'd build a wall and that Mexico would pay for it. A remarkable amount of what Trump says isn't true, I think everyone's in agreement on that.

If the country is happy with the state of affairs in 2028 then I expect you'll have JD Vance as your president. If not, maybe Newsom, Buttigieg (my hope), or Shapiro. Either way, if you truly think that 2024 was the last election Americans will vote in, respectfully, I think you're a little bit deluded.

> According to a DOGE post on X, that number was a typo that was corrected in the contract database to $8 million on Jan. 22 of this year before being terminated a week later, and DOGE "has always used the correct $8M in its calculations."

Jeez, that's pretty damning.

https://carsey.unh.edu/publication/conspiracy-vs-science-sur...

You'd disagree, I trust?

Love him or hate him, I would argue that there are indeed words Trump has spoken which are not lies made through his teeth. I would put that level of hyperbole within the realm of "dubious basis in truth".

Would you be open to a $10,000 bet that the 2028 election is, as decided by unbiased international publications (BBC, Reuters, etc.), fair?

I don't have that dog in me anymore, but there are plenty of engineers who do and will happily work those hours for 500k USD.