Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
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.
…
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
The U.S. needs to massively rebuild its military industrial capacities in order to deter and win wars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7d5RJm52ks
“Mostly, the economy spins ever onward because individuals show up for work and produce something that other people—their employers, customers, clients, donors, etc.—value and are willing to pay for, and then they do it again the next day.”
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“If nothing changed, Springfield would simply experience an ongoing slide into oblivion. The city has been losing population since the 1960s and more than a fifth of those who remain are below the poverty line. Translation: Anyone who had better economic prospects somewhere else was already gone, or on their way out.
“The real story is that for 80 years we were a shrinking city, and now we’re growing,” a local pastor told NBC News.
In other words, immigration isn’t the cause of Springfield’s problems. Stagnation is.
Is the influx of thousands of foreign-born workers going to be smooth? Of course not. Some culture clash is inevitable. More workers willing to pay market rates for housing and a more competitive local economy might make life marginally more difficult for, as Williamson writes, “a reliable Trump-voting constituency: marginally employed white people on the dole.”
Vance and former President Donald Trump have rushed to amplify those culture clashes—and knowingly exaggerate them too, as Reason’s Jacob Sullum explained yesterday. In doing so, they’ve demonstrated how little they understand about what make an economy work and what makes a place successful. Thriving cities, even small ones, are home to a constant churn of cooperation and competition between newcomers and natives. Places that don’t grow are doomed to die.”
https://reason.com/2024/09/19/immigration-is-better-than-industrial-policy/