Didn’t some internationally-respected high speed rail firm already walk away from California projects because they believed the political dysfunction was insurmountable?

Lol yes they went to North Africa instead: https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed-rail-north-africa-biden-trump-2022-10?amp

Thanks MCU marketing department for this totally not paid for article encouraging us to watch a show.

My dad was a plasma physicist working on ITER. My general sense of NIF among fusion researchers was that NIF was doing valuable experimental research and its work was important to continuing the advancement of understanding fusion reactions, but basically no one thought /thinks it would ever be a solid approach from a commercial/power production perspective.