The Endless Frontier Act - Watching America die is actually kind of fascinating

[Rusty Crab]

So here's something I was actually quite surprised to stumble upon. Even more surprising is that nobody seems to be talking about it in the media. Apparently there's a bipartisan bill making it's way through congress called the Endless Frontier Act. The summary is short and sweet. Congress seems to have finally realized that China is rapidly outpacing us in the technology sector and it's causing real world problems for everybody. What follows is a remarkably sane bill from a democrat.

Spoiler: Original proposal summary

Some key takeaways here and from what I read from skimming the original bill text (included below):

• Investment in the top rather than the bottom -- not much emphasis on scholarships but a lot on high level research. We need to raise the skill ceiling and we need it right now.
• Substantial funding that could attract a lot of talent from private industry. Much of the private industry research ends up in companies that are in bed with China. As a result, much of the technology lands in their hands.
• Geographic diversity -- the idea seems to be to try to get more technology campuses into more parts of the country by establishing "hubs" outside of the largest cities. There's lots of very smart people that do not want to live in big cities, and they are by default disadvantaged from working on high level research.
• Moving manufacturing back to the US -- we gotta start unclamping those balls somehow.

The bill is 70 something pages, which is not unreasonable for a piece of legislation and the focus seems to remain pretty consistent throughout. It's currently set to pass the house and senate.

So what is likely going through your head is "Wow, a sensible, America-centric bill that wants to start repairing the country with an actual reasonable plan? Everyone voted yes on it? That sounds too good to be true!"

You would be correct!

The bill has now made it's way through the house. Because the vote to pass it was almost unanimous, it got multiple kitchen sinks attached to it and is now 1,420 pages in an almost unrecognizable form. Gems include "Chief Diversity officer", significant redirection of funds to black universities and "marginalized communities" (yes, I'm sure they're going to help a lot), racial diversity crackdowns at the aforementioned technology hubs, "Combatting sexual harassment in science".

There's a massive pile of riders now. Some seem more legitimate than others, but regardless, should not be in this bill.

The combined effect is cutting the original R&D funding proposal to 1/10th. The rest is now gibsmedat.

Also this

Quote from an article below:

But at least the NSF is getting a big boost, right? Wrong. The $54.9 billion to the NSF replaces their existing funding rather than being a supplement. That leaves only $12.9 billion in new NSF funding, of which $8.23 billion is tied to promoting STEM education. In short, what was sold as a ~$100 billion boost in federal support for R&D is now less than $40 billion in new spending, of which less than $10 billion is reserved for anything resembling research or development.

This website seems to be left leaning, so they skip over all of the racial diversity stuff. Otherwise, the summary seems fairly accurate.

https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-congress-ruined-the-endless-frontier-act/

(archive)

I can't even be mad. This is fun to watch.

 

[Rusty Crab]

The other day I was walking outside and I came across a wasp trap. One of those cylindrical ones with the cone inside. A single wasp trapped within. Every time it reached the exit of the trap and had almost escaped, it suddenly and inexplicably flew upwards away from it and smacked it's head on the ceiling, then falling back down and having to find it's way to the exit again.

It did this over and over as I sat and watched for 15 minutes, mesmerized. I think a lot about that wasp now.

 

[Full Race Replay]

and we wonder why USA is no longer the world leader in scientific and technological innovation.

 

[John Furrman]

I was hopeful until they were dashed almost immediately by the pork barrel loading in it. Yet, as much as I hate to admit it, one person's pork barrel is another person's constituent service but fuck all this noise

 

[LurkNoMore]

TLDR: Sane dem (I'm surprised as your are they still exist) puts forward bill to make America great again...(wait a minute). Only for a bunch of typical dems to load it down with bunch of leftie shit.

 

[Full Race Replay]

Sec. 4432. Prohibition on the use of TikTok.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

These people enjoy ruining America, I can only hope Hell makes them eat their own shit for this.

 

[Rusty Crab]

Sec. 4432. Prohibition on the use of TikTok.

That's actually justified in general imo, though it doesn't address the core problem that every app on your phone collects more stuff than it should.

Still shouldn't be in this bill though.

Maybe the true purpose is to keep politicians from making embarrassing lipsync videos.

 

[Buttigieg2020]

It’s the reconciliation committee’s job now to replace this with a more reasonable set of gibs.

Sec. 4432. Prohibition on the use of TikTok.

Probably one of the most meaningful things this bill could possibly do. Watching US military members film their training on a Chinese spy app is painful.

Edit: Niskansen is saying the senate committee butchered it, apparently the house version was more sane. The republican senate co-sponsor is also pissed.

 

[Full Race Replay]

SEC. 2106. PROVIDING SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND OTHER STUDENT SUPPORT. shockingly is also referring to "under-represented communities"

 

[Toolbox]

Does this not happen to every single seemingly reasonable at the outset bill?

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

Endless Frontier Act

More like the Endless Pages Act gottem

 

[Rusty Crab]

Does this not happen to every single seemingly reasonable at the outset bill?

It does, but this one seems to address an existential threat to the country. Further, all of them seem to agree on that. You would think that would make them take it more seriously, but clearly not.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

It’s the senate’s job now to replace this with a more reasonable set of gibs.

You mean even more pork and maybe a few bones for the copyright mafia? I'm sure someone is jumping at the chance to finally ban those infernal mini tables in pizza boxes.

 

[Beautiful Border]

The bill is 70 something pages, which is not unreasonable for a piece of legislation and the focus seems to remain pretty consistent throughout. It's currently set to pass the house and senate.

So what is likely going through your head is "Wow, a sensible, America-centric bill that wants to start repairing the country with an actual reasonable plan? Everyone voted yes on it? That sounds too good to be true!"

You would be correct!

The bill has now made it's way through the house. Because the vote to pass it was almost unanimous, it got multiple kitchen sinks attached to it and is now 1,420 pages in an almost unrecognizable form. Gems include "Chief Diversity officer", significant redirection of funds to black universities and "marginalized communities" (yes, I'm sure they're going to help a lot), racial diversity crackdowns at the aforementioned technology hubs, "Combatting sexual harassment in science".

That makes total sense when you realise China is the perfect enemy for the US/the West in the era of wokeness. One one hand China is ideologically, culturally and racially ‘different’ enough that right-wing nativists can be mobilized against them on the basis of xenophobia and anti-communism. On the other hand, a visibly prosperous layer of non-whites are a living refutation of Critical Race Theory's dogma of America as a ‘white supremacist’ society and so the resentment of the black underclass can also be mobilized against them.

China is also the only major non-Western country since the fall of the USSR that was able to become a great power through the framework of a non-liberal political system, it represents an alternative vision of globalization centred on the Eurasian landmass instead of the Western Atlantic metropoles which threatens to render the Western liberal elite irrelevant. Once their economic power is gone, their cultural hegemony will begin to wither too. China thus can arouse enmity and hatred across the political spectrum in the West and therefore serves as a perfect bogeyman to drum up support for whatever agenda the ruling class finds convenient at the moment.

 

[Yog-Sothoth]

Nuke the chinks.

 

[Toolbox]

Nuke the chinks.

You fools should have listened to me.

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

You mean even more pork and maybe a few bones for the copyright mafia? I'm sure someone is jumping at the chance to finally ban those infernal mini tables in pizza boxes.

YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON PIZZA BOX MINI TABLE FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!

 

[Dom Cruise]

The only way we're going to compete with China is if we drop the obsession with "diversity and inclusion" like a bad habit.

 

[R00T]

SEC. 2106. PROVIDING SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND OTHER STUDENT SUPPORT. shockingly is also referring to "under-represented communities"

This always makes me so sad. There are kids in poor rural areas that will never be able to check a diversity box and will never be given anything and they also represent a minority community.