feedforward

When I want to look at my localhost and do "host ::1" or "dig -x ::1", my machine spits back something about ARPA. What is ARPA?

It's how the US government paid for decades for the R&D to create the Internet. Just like how the Air Force paid Fairchild to make semiconductors. Or the CIA paid Oracle to create relational databases.

Technology was created in the US via the funding of the YS taxpayer, sent to the Pentagon and then sloshing around. Years or decades later it is ready to be a product and given over to private profit.

The discourse from establishment Washington over the past month vis-a-vis the Ukraine has been the same as Chomsky's was then. No one is talking about pushing Russia out of Crimea and Donetsk any more.

This letter is addressed to Chomsky back then, but he has the same position as most of Washington DC now.

> They need a theory to explain why their radicalism isnt popular

Actually what Chomsky notes is how the idea of "radical" laws such as that a person can't be kicked off their health plan if they develop cancer are not unpopular, but wildly popular with the public in polls. Nonetheless in the decades prior to Obamacare, despite its popularity, due to institutional reasons it did not become law.

> the existence of Trump in the first place: his base chose him

Chomsky said early on Trump support came mostly from the base, and the power structure did not want him.

You're knocking down a straw man - inventing things Chomsky did not say, attributing them to him, then condemning him for words you put in his mouth, when he often said the opposite.

> There's a large number of laws that exist to prevent monopolies from companies

From the accounting oligopolies, to the online ads oligopolies, to the b2b software oligopolies, to the publishing oligopolies, to the oil oligopolies, to the breakfast cereal oligopolies, to the music oligopolies, to the advertising oligopolies to...can you tell me what industry there are laws that prevent monopolies and oligopolies? Local restaurants and lawn care?

China was plagued by famine for centuries, including one in 1906 larger than the one a decade after the PRC was established. China's victory over malnutrition was won over the past 60 years, but none of this is convenient to his narrative.