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Comment Re:The funny thing is (Score 1) 52

there's no benefit to workers from having consumer goods manufactured in your country anymore. Stuff like coffee pots and TVs and whatnot are almost entirely built by machines except where slave labor exists.

That is just late 20th century thinking. That worked in mono-polar world where we were the only nation really capable of sustain force projection (security), the reserve currency, and at least some technological superiority.

Advanced Medical equipment - If China wanted to take that market they could inside a decade. Same thing with chips at this point, they have all the precursors. There is nothing left we can produce that is a 'you can't get there from here' for them any longer, it is just a pick an item from the list make it priority and fill the gap. It is rapidly approaching the point where if we just cut them off completely all at once they could 'make do'. All your type of think at this point does is allow them to make progress - entirely at our expense on their own terms. It is DUMB

On the other hand be if coffee makers, or COIVD masks, those end up being things you need. You can't make do without them. Robots or people, however they get built in the re-emergence of a multi-polar world the nations that can make THINGS, especially basic necessity will again be the ones with power, both economic in terms of trade, and military in terms of being able to keep supplied. Look at Ukraine, Russia would have rolled over them long ago without a sustained supply of American arms - why because we can produce them. The rest of NATO - LOSERS every one! All together they can't meet basic logistical needs for any sustained conflict. China see that!

They see why Russia even a solid 20 years behind in most tech, remains at least someone combat effective.

Power is about control of production, money is just a tool to facilitate it. The nation that can put engines on chassis, tires on wheels, coffee makers on counter tops, counter tops on cabinet bases, and grain in those cupboards is a nation with a future. The nation that buys all those things, is just waiting to be how far to bend over by the seller and when.

Comment Re: Astounding incompetence (Score 1) 30

China wants a new world order where they are masters. They also see the lessons of the 20th century clearly. That is it is far better to be the worlds hegemonic master than to try to conquer and rule it in the traditional sense. Exactly non of this is possible though unless their sphere of influence appears irresistible. To that end they can't have a island they claim to rule sitting there doing its own thing, and worse being nominally oriented to the existing global power structure.

They also rightly see the rather 19th century western model of national borders being determined by a few world powers who make agreements about lines on map without regard to the reality on the ground or blood sacrifices the plebs for the political theater of the occasional proxy-'fight' over those borders, as limiting.

China wants to be able to use both soft power and hard power whichever seems least costly / most expeditious and have the results stick. To that end they have seen the muted response to Russia's actions in Ukraine as useful.

However the reality is Ukraine is not part of NATO, Europe is weal and broke, the USA is strong but broke, and nobody wants to see the mass destruction that would result from a atomic contest with Russia. So a truly muscular defense of Ukraine was never going to happen, is never going to happen. The mistake politically was not ignoring the situation. In making a fuss over it we have turned it into the precedent setting event China wants if Russia succeeds.

Ironically as far as US political influence is concerned, thwarting Russia is becoming important in a way it never needed be and wasn't four years ago. We made to big deal about it, so now we have to show we have influence and the ability to impose our vision. What we should of done is handled it like Crimea, looked the other way and it would have been no big deal in geo-politics or US power. Now we have to both avoid a hot contest with Putin AND win proxy-war. We are not that good at proxy-wars... Biden and Blinken really FUCKED UP.

Comment Re:Refuel in orbit [Re: I'm rooting for it!!] (Score 1) 166

I want to remind you that I never said 400 tons of fuel, I just used your numbers. I said 8 launches, calling Musk's 4 bull. Even with only 100 tons/fuel per launch, that's 800 tons without changing stuff up should be allow them to stuff more fuel into starship, saving weight via not needing other cargo stuff, just bigger tanks.

Also, I said "reach the moon", not "land on it".

And changing development timelines is pretty normal.

Comment Langendorf bread (Score 1) 161

When I was a kid, we too had stupid things. Besides elephant jokes (how many elephants can you fit in a VW Beetle? Five -- two in the front, two in the back, and one in the glove box), the dumbest joke I remember was to run up to a friend fast and breathless and demand "Guess what!" as if you'd seen a UFO or fire engine run by, then shout "Langendorf bread, that's what!" and run away cackling like Kamala Harris.

Comment Re:get over yourself its called android no google (Score 1) 66

They're talking about LineageOS. Think Graphene but it doesn't just run on Google hardware. Over a hundred devices and they just added mainline kernel and qemu support so it potentially runs on thousands of devices.

Sadly with less hardening. I wish Lineage would take some Graphene patches. The crazy thing is Lineage descended from Cyanogenmod which had many of these patches!

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