Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
The US is increasing its weapon manufacturing capacity. Currently, it would quickly run out of key ammunitions in a major war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Skv9is7Ec
“Trump’s tariffs, framed as industrial policy to reindustrialize the country, protect workers, and lower prices. Instead, tariffs have quietly consumed much of the manufacturing sector’s profits. This is unsurprising. Most U.S. imports are inputs used to make American goods. Tariffs, therefore, are taxes on American manufacturing.
Empirical work by the Kiel Institute shows that foreign exporters absorb only a trivial share of the cost. Roughly 96 percent of the burden is passed to American buyers. U.S. households and businesses—not foreign firms—overwhelmingly covered the roughly $200 billion in customs revenue collected in 2025. Companies we import from responded not by cutting prices but by shipping fewer goods to the U.S. As Kiel economist Julian Hinz put it, the tariffs amounted to an “own goal” that raised costs, compressed profits, and weakened the very industries they were meant to protect.
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Tariffs did not restore competitiveness or pricing power. They jacked up costs and made American production less attractive at the margin.”
https://reason.com/2026/01/29/from-georgias-film-subsidies-to-intels-collapse-industrial-policy-keeps-failing/
The US is having trouble building its navy partially because it doesn’t have enough skilled people. It takes 8 years to get people fully up to speed, and it is having trouble keeping its aging workforce on the job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2W99bL_TEQ
“In theory, the CHIPS Act provided a mechanism for the federal government to retract the grant and get all or part of its money back should Intel fail to meet its obligations. It’s not clear whether the federal government would have exercised its option to take the money back, but it was an option—until Trump stepped in.
As the company flailed, Trump met with its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan. Trump first called for him to resign. Then in August, the Trump administration announced that the federal government would just take partial ownership of Intel. Essentially, the U.S. government would purchase a roughly 10 percent stake in the chipmaker, partially nationalizing the company. And funds from CHIPS would be used to do it.
Trump bragged about the deal, saying he planned to “do more of them.” The company’s stock price rose on the news, suggesting that investors liked it. But that’s probably because it was a good deal for the company, at taxpayer expense.
According to public financial filings, the federal government would disburse the remaining funds, about $6 billion, while clearing any obligations for the company to actually complete work on new domestic semiconductor fabs.
In exchange, the federal government would gain partial ownership—as well as all the financial risks stockholders usually have when they invest in companies. Those risks will now be borne by taxpayers.
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Trump gave Intel a federal bailout, removing the company’s public obligations and accountability while loading more financial risk onto the public.”
https://reason.com/2025/11/29/chipping-away-at-chips/
China is dominant in rare earth mining and refining. Catching up on how to refine efficiently may be the hardest part. The U.S. could do this not long ago, we let it slip and are now regretting it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMgmR3dl8P8
The guy who killed Kirk was less a hardened leftist and more a young guy with psychological problems who was radicalized by memes wafting in his direction. The guys who tried to kill Trump were nutcases. People with psychological problems are motivated by stupid shit to do something crazy. Toning down the rhetoric may help, but that’s hard when the president is abusing his power and breaking the Constitution left and right. Accurately describing what the president is doing sounds like heated rhetoric when it is not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOv2EqojRkw
Mobilising For Failure – The Economic Transition to War and how Nations get it Wrong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqyDWT0pUsU
Trump has pressured South Korea to invest more in the U.S.. South Korea was setting up a factory in Georgia and brought some of their own people to set it up because they have the experience in building that exact type of factory. The U.S. then does a military style raid to remove these people. The administration is either so incompetent that it can’t stop itself from working at cross purposes, or/and U.S. immigration law is so bad that we can’t even get the needed workers legally in to do a job that is a part of a priority set by the president of the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVxpPf1ahw
The U.S. can’t produce its advanced weaponry fast enough. In a large war, they will quickly run out of ammunition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5DuxMnlYu4
Trade and new efficient technology work in similar ways. They both directly and noticeably eliminate certain jobs, but, produce more economic growth and jobs total.
https://youtu.be/TWs-B6soIYg?si=wCMkmSawRqBcqund