Over $110 billion has been spent on the ISS through 2020, excluding international partners. (It makes me want to vomit when I read that. That's 5 new CERN super-colliders, where you know, real science is done.)

Unless we made a trillion dollars on that bungled program alone, still not seeing ROI:

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-ig-iss-cost-u-s-75-b...

Again, you're cherry picking things. Just google nasa roi please.

1) I found the reference from 1976 you're referring to, which is so misleading as to be false (note the cumulative arithmetic in Table 5. Trees don't grow to the sky.)

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/197600...

In addition, that was pre-bungled Space Shuttle and ISS programs. Even the GAO is reticent to talk about how much money was wasted in those programs in case future space programs would be immediately cancelled due to gross mismanagement.

2) If you're a scifi fanboi, just admit that you support whatever wasteful spending NASA does. But don't hide behind obfuscated numbers that you haven't read and don't understand.

Let me make sure I have this straight. Trees don’t grow to the sky but we should have built five more colliders instead of a unique zero gravity research laboratory?

I was not referring to this source. It's a well known general observation with support from multiple researchers.

Your second point goes beyond the bounds of civility here.