MOTHERFUCKERS
If Hannibal is right, US leaders want to destroy the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review; the short-term effect being political and/or financial gain for the fuckers currently in office, and probable long-term effect being the demolition of the system of checks and balances, and of the edifice of US democracy that is built on them. Perhaps the most important effect will be the diminishing importance of precedents. Judicial review rules largely based on case law and precedent; considerations which are notably absent from the halls of Congress. With no Court to moderate them, one would expect US lawmaking to enter the chaotic domain, making a longterm survival of true democracy unlikely.
And on a related note: export controls on access to supercomputers. Which is moronic for a whole number of reasons. First, because a cluster of 16 $1500 boxes (which is not uncommon for midsize labs) meets the Federal definition of a supercomputer. Second, countries under form of export controls include China, Russia, and Israel — namely, nations whose citizens are currently building and maintaining America’s computing infrastructure. Third, because AMD makes its Athlons and Opterons in Germany, and Intel makes its (very capable) PM line in Israel, meaning that the CPU’s destined for export-controlled machines are themselves imported into America. Fourth, because an Evil Terrorist, even if he works flipping burgers, can still build a very, very decent Beowulf cluster by looking through end-of-lease auctions, Ebay listings, and dumpsters.
Destroying democracy, forcing Americans to “show ze papers”, harassing scientists… What will they think of next? Kicking babies? Strangling kittens?