Topic: Federal Research

John C. Dvorak discusses his preference for No Agenda Social, a federated Mastodon server, over Twitter. He cites a Pew Research study showing that a small, highly active group of Democrats produces the bulk of U.S. tweets. The hosts encourage listeners to move to decentralized platforms to escape the algorithmic bias and censorship prevalent on mainstream social media.

Politicians frequently criticize Amazon for paying zero federal income tax despite billions in profit. This financial outcome is attributed to the company plowing profits back into research and development, which is a deductible cost under U.S. tax law. These investments funded the creation of Alexa, Ring doorbells, and Amazon Web Services, which now powers a significant portion of the internet.

Nancy Pelosi claims that federal government research, rather than private innovation, is responsible for the invention of the smartphone. The hosts dispute this "you didn't build that" narrative. They also discuss reports of children becoming rude and demanding due to their interactions with voice-activated devices like the Amazon Echo.

The trailer for the Showtime series "Years of Living Dangerously" is reviewed, featuring dramatic footage of wildfires and melting glaciers. The hosts argue that the series is a high-budget propaganda effort. They pivot to a 2014 Federal Climate Change Expenditures Report, which details billions of dollars in government spending on research and "clean energy" technology.

A re-examination of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech highlights his warnings about the "military-industrial-academic complex." The speech is noted for predicting the current state of science, where government contracts and big pharmaceutical funding have replaced independent intellectual curiosity. The hosts argue that the "scientific-technological elite" now dictates public policy as Eisenhower feared.