Twosday ketch’em-up

Cyberwar breakin’ out ‘tween China and US,,,, China releases an open source AI app that is powered by NVidia chips,,, NVidia is a US Patented chip, that I beleive is made in Taiwan, though I have heard it is made here as well,  Not sure and not willing to dive too deep at this stage.   The point I bring up is that this is par for the course at this point.   China doesn’t want a kinetic war, never has, never will.  They are prepare(d)(ing) for one, but as was seen on their Northern border, where their soldiers got their collective asses whomped and ran home,,, They ain’t ready.   Besides that, kinetic is the last option for them, they much prefer the long game and strategy over blunt force trauma.

Fact is, WE aren’t ready either,,,,    WE have a serious problem in the logistics department since we haven’t brought production up to usage levels, let alone surplus levels, which is what you need if you even wanna think about ‘Going Hot’.   We are dependent on 40+ year old tech to keep the wheels turning as the newer stuff (not including small arms stuff, but the big expensive toys) is purt much CRAP (coff, F35, coff coff,,,)

Then you bring up the personel side of things,,, Recruitment is down by the tens of percentage points, and falling.    Force reduction has been the name of the game since 2020, even if they call it by other names.   Maybe with Hegseth at the helm of defense, things will start to ‘return to normal’.   Lord knows, we could lose the cadre of O-6 and up and probably do better than we have the last four years.  

Why did the Chinese bust out an AI app right now???  

Try a 25% tariff for starters.   Now, I have  had qualms about that whole scenario from first mention.  Tariffs never truly effect the tariffed: the damage is downstream of that.   The purchasers of such items end up paying the tariff, much like Big Corps don’t actually pay taxes, they adjust the costs to pay that and the buyers are the ones that pay the taxes.    The only upside to tariffs, and this only applies if you have REAL competition: it prices the tariffed items out of competition.  To compensate, they have to lower the quality (lower the prices) and then they are still pricier than the competition.    That would work, except most of the items we might see tariffed are sole source these days.  Most everything we purchase, no matter what the namebrand says, is made in China.   Dewalt tools-CHINA, Milwaukee tools-CHINA,  Snap-on Tools-CHINA,,,    All our manufacturing (most all, that is) OUTSOURCED and kept only the admin side of things here at home.   Even the service side of things, in most cases, is outsourced to places like India!!!  (that is starting to shift back though with ‘work from home’ being a killer advantage to many people.   I’d happily do desktop support if I could work at my house, and not chained to some terminal in a cubefarm, like I was when I did that stuff before/during the crash of 2008)(downside to that for me,, We have such shitty internet providers here local,,, I would need to move to a better location to make that work for me.  Not far, not even out of state, just not HERE.)  And its not just US.   I saw a broadcast while at Da’s about Mercedes,,,,, and how they had a factory IN CHINA, that was producing ALL of their crankshafts.  In a small factory that had only a handful of employees to run the CNC 5 axis mills that were turning out thousands of crankshafts a day, to include the heat treatment of them.       This is across the spectrum, and if you start slapping tariffs on countries of origin, you may as well be slapping a VAT tax on things as well ( DON’T!!! just DON’T,,, That way lies dragons and destruction,,,,)

So, with the above thinking, I have to wonder, how much of this Tariff thing is bluff and bluster from OMB?   I know that Hillsdale College has had tentacles into the admin; mostly as advisors, and they lean very much toward Mises Institute teachings when it comes to economics.   Someone must have had OMB’s ear on this and should have told him ‘this ain’t gonna work like you think,,,’     Dunno for certain, but after seeing his Golf Cart diplomacy sunday (Columbian Prez caving on taking their criminals back.   All between the third hole and the 9th hole while Trump was playing golf; hence the ‘Golf Cart Diplomacy’ kick.)  I would say there is far more ‘Bluff and bluster’ involved.   Its when the ones that won’t bluff come into play that things get sticky.

We ain’t ready for kinetics, and financially, we are teetering on the razor’s edge of total collapse.   China is one of the BRICS group and they were making serious inroads to being ready for the DOLLAR to collapse before all of this: does anyone think for an instant, that that has changed just because Trumped took office?    Maybe we are ‘recovering’, but that is NOT PAST TENSE,,, Recovering patients die all the time, before they become ‘recovered’ patients.   

NO, we ain’t ready, and the opening salvo of this war was not the current AI app from China.   The first shots fired were threats of tariffs, and shuttering/throttling a different set of apps. 

Honestly, you want things to change, DEREGULATE, Offer tax breaks to ON SHORE production, Free up energy resources to lessen the cost of production and shipping (helping to lower costs) (about the only thing he is nailing down correctly, IMO, at least in the economic regions)    In other words, GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE FRELLIN WAY AND LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE.   There are other ways for the government to make money, other than taxing thier people to blood and bone existence (seems they did quite fine prior to 1913,,, may wanna look into that DJT.)  BUT, we are going to need a sound money supply, not fiat bux,   THAT needs to become a priority.

Oh, and since we are going all “MERIT” based stuff, lets talk about De-UNIONizing.    Bust the unions to shreds!   That will help bring down production costs, incenitivize merit based hiring practices, and put competition back into the workforces.   The Unions had a good reason to exist at one point, but have become another arm of government and a financial one at that, and the original intent has become diseased beyond recognition.  (note, I have NEVER been a Union member and never will be.  Every union shop I ever saw was a flat mess of dead wieght overshadowing the real workers.   And god forbid the days I did shows in FNYC,,, Teamsters unloaded us on the street, and IATSE from the stage doors in: DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING or the hands go to lunch, on the shows dime.   The only upside to the IATSE-NYC, there was enough turn over that talent was able to rise in ranks, not get buried under seniority.)

What can I say, there are so many aspects of the mess we are in, that focusing on one will only allow others to grow larger.   First things first, fix the Government, reduce its size and scope and SPENDING.   Get that done, then the focus needs to be on getting THE PEOPLE back on thier feet and on the ground RUNNING, not suckin’ at the teat of Gov.    Far too many on the dole, either directly or through ‘workfare’; far too many make work jobs that only prolong the pain.    (and that is the purpose of DOGE, right?  find the waste? eliminate it?  Sadly, a large portion of the make work jobs are State jobs, like the redundant number of DMV workers, who don’t actually do much of anything except find ways of saying ‘no’,,, Just as an example. but I digress)   There needs to be serious attention given to those that are SSD, that have never worked a day in their life, but get benefits that rival those of SSI that DID work their entire lives for a promise of support.   (and personally, I think we need to start phasing it out.  since its inception I feel that the American people gave it too much creedance to ‘retirement’ and not enough planning of their own: again, Just My Opinon,,,,)

So much more I can go into; things I feel need addressed in more ways to correct DECADES of failure.  

Biggest things.   GET EDUCATION STRAIGHTENED OUT.

DOWNSIZE THE FED GOV AND ENCOURAGE THE STATES TO RECIPROCATE.

IF IT CAN BE DONE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, LET IT BE DONE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR; Get government out of the way.  Let competition determine winners and losers, not best grifter and politics.

I do feel we are at the cusp of seeing TOP DOWN GOVS dying.  And amazingly, we aren’t the worst or the biggest dying dinosaur: that one would be China.   BUT, we are seeing worldwide, conservative values rising, revolution against government overreach, and downsizing the production means.  Independent producers, across the board, from music to books, to geegaws: even complicated aftermarket parts for current production cars.   I see that trend growing in leaps and bounds, and more and more seizures and fits from the old world TOPDOWN heirarchy

and thats my Twosday post,,,

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