An inordinate amount of issues in the U.S and world as a broader whole. Ultimately stem from the fact that no politically party has been able to decisively gain an upper hand politically in the U.S for a prolonged period for well over a century. They trade off power every few years. And spend the entirety of their time undoing what the previous incumbents managed. Thusly we make no forward progress at all.
That’s not competition. That’s stagnation with a couple extra steps.
Goldman Sachs, Citi, Blackstone, Black Rock, Master Card, Visa: Financial
Apple, Meta, Tesla, Qualcomm: Computing/Tech
Space X, Boeing, GE Aerospace: Defense/Space/Aerospace
Micron, Coherent: Electronic Industr
Illumina: Medical Industry
Cargill: Food Industry
Only one on that list that is exceptional odd/strange to have at high level talks is Illumina. From what I’ve been able to find. The Company while medical in nature specializes in Genetics and Genetic Sequencing. So why would the expertise of the CEO of a genetics company be needed for talks that are likely going to trend towards broader economic/political subjects? Unless there’s an additional issue on the docket outside the obvious political/economic tensions.
One of the prevailing theories surrounding one of the real reasons behind the Iran War. Was it was to put a check on the Chinese and trip up their technology development without a direct Military Confrontation. As China got almost a quarter of their oil from Iran at a massive discount.
Blocking that flow. And then reenabling it not at Sweetheart prices sets back both their tech sector and broader economy. The AI arms race is ultimately real. The first people to develop the AI terminators get a major advantage Militarily. We’ve both been taking shots at each others tech sector and seeking to undermine each other without directly contending confrontation.
While the news has largely been focused on Iran. It went largely unnoticed we signed a new Defense Agreement with Indonesia. Aside from all the normal stuff such as training, modernization, and basing rights. We also got unrestricted access to Indonesian Airspace.
The Strait of Malacca also passes through Indonesian territory. Which carries a lot of trade both to and from China. Meaning they have yet another major artery under threat.
Japan has also steadily been rearming and loosening Constitutional restrictions on its Military and Defense Industry. Likely at the explicit behest of the United States. They’re also standing up a new Intelligence Service. Whose purpose is almost explicitly to counter Chinese influence.
There’s likely going to be a lot of things discussed at this meeting.
Depending on the State. Law Enforcement in some U.S States are likely rocking more Armored vehicles than some European Military’s have in active service.
That’s not even considering the privately owned and operated ones. As both normal people and Private Security Firms are likely also rocking their own Armored Vehicles.
Unrelated. But they should really modernize and bring some of the Classic Models of American Police Cars. Crown Vic’s, Chevy Caprice etc. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia talking. But there was just some classic Americana with them.
Everything needing sleek and angular lines is just getting old.
From a strictly oversimplified Geopolitical sense. The people who have Nukes don’t get fucked with. It’s not rocket science. You don’t a degree to understand that.
Though with the modern tangled web of international relations. NGOs, Secret Societies, and competing interests. Things are never as straightforward as they appear and everyone is lying through their teeth to someone.
Likely the reason why we are having this current conversation and not dealing with an actively nuclear armed Iran. Is because someone benefited more from the perceived threat. Rather than the actual threat.
Something many classically trained and amateur analysts and ‘experts’ rarely ever mention. Either because they’re paid not to. Or because they themselves don’t actually know.
TBH. We’d be better off with Greenland, Alberta or other parts of Canada. If we do add stars to the flag. He’s probably just annoying people/trying to trigger a social media snit fit for one reason or another.
Though I wouldn’t be shocked if he does intend on adding Stars to the Flag and or clearing the way for additional Territories. And he’s deliberately confusing people as to the what places he legitimately has his eye on. Versus what he wants people to think he’s considering. So time and resources are wasted opposing a theoretical move that was never actually going to happen.
Wonder if they’ve done an evaluation by economic class.
Logical assumption at least in the Developed World is the bulk of missing cases. Would largely be focused in the poor. Or otherwise dysfunctional segments of the community.
Given people from the middle and upper classes are liable to already dislike them. Or at the very least find them tiresome to deal with. So they’d likely be more willing to assume at first that kids ran away to escape dysfunctional families and communities. Rather than immediately assume kidnapping by strangers.
Assuming the absolutely best case scenario. The most likely outcome in a World of AI driven abundance. A certain basic level of existence becomes more or less guaranteed. Whether through Government intervention or by simple virtue of the fact everything becomes so cheap as to be achievable by anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
To the Authors point. An Economy and therefore money, whatever form it may take, would likely still exist. By simple virtue of the fact we’d start assigning a value. However arbitrary it may be to various items. Such as he so succinctly notes. Verified and certified Human created Collectibles. Possessing human created goods could also become a status symbol. In a world of mass produced IKEA bookshelves. Bookshelves made by an actual Human Carpenter could become a status symbol. General Luxury Goods or goods perceived as being luxurious would also be a major draw.
The only mistake I can see the Author making is the mistake of assuming there might be some measure of rationality or logic towards people deciding what’s valuable in this theoretical future. That isn’t necessarily a guarantee. Especially in the era of memes and general internet stupidity.
But aside from that. I don’t see a flaw in his logic that an economy and money of some sort will likely continue existing. Regardless of what AI and technology does or does not do.
The people who sell us Tin cans chocked full of spyware and faulty parts. Are upset that purveyors of cheaper tin cans full of spyware and even faultier parts might possibly maybe be allowed to muscle in on their territory.
While the conclusion is possible. I think people have become predisposed to looking for something when something isn’t necessarily there. There’s a lot of fairly obvious sources that could be skyrocketing demand. Or serving as potential catalysts for demand. That aren’t a One world digital currency/beast system.
There is a multitude of other factors to ultimately consider. We’re dealing with manpower shortages across several industries. Manpower shortages that’ll take decades to make up the old fashioned way. IE people having children. AI is the fastest way to address that in the near term. As immigration, even skilled immigration, is quickly becoming a lose-lose political scenario. China on the other hand has a surplus of people at the moment. They don’t need AI in the same way we do for industry.
AI and AI use is increasingly becoming more prominent. Though private companies are keeping it on the DL given public perception. Again increasing demand. Hollywood and the entertainment industry is certainly going in on it. Despite claiming otherwise.
We’ve got several companies looking to roll out AI powered Robots. Like Tesla and Optimus. As a prominent example. Again increasing demand for data centers and processing.
There’s also Trumps stated goal of turning the U.S into a research and technology development mecha. One of the necessary parts of that would be the expansion and existence of excess data processing capacity. To support the development and research. Again increasing the need for data centers.
The War Department is going all in on AI as well. We have a lot of fancy gadgets they plan on integrating AI into. Again increasing demand for Data Centers and Data processing.
Sslf-Driving vehicles are also becoming increasingly common. Managing vehicle fleets like that generates a lot of data. Data that’ll need to be processed.
There’s also the stated goals for Space Force and the fact they’re dead set on setting up a Moon Base and space infrastructure. Even setting aside that can of worms/theories regarding the Moon missions/Space. They certainly could still be building the infrastructure to make people believe that’s the case. It’ll take years to actually bring a center online. In the meantime they could just as easily change tact. It’s not like it’ll be terribly difficult to retrofit the buildings to different uses and sell off computer parts.
Trump has also been harping on acquiring more territory. Supposing it’s not the bombastic style he’s known for. In order to secure lesser concessions he actually wanted. Imperial ambitions necessitate the creation of infrastructure to support the provinces.
Code has also just become far more generally bloated. It’s most readily obvious in gaming but far from exclusive. Developers aren’t spending as much time on optimization. So it could just be poorly optimized code bloating systems necessitating the demand for more processing power from data centers.
Trumps also trying to get more companies to open branches and reindustrialize the United States. Corporate Headquarters and Factories need compute and data processing capacity. They aren’t the factories of the 90s and 2000s anymore. Automation is increasingly common. All of that also necessitates data infrastructure. IE Data Centers.
There’s also the possibility that it’s just an economic bubble. A shitload of people are investing big to get rich. They’ll loose their shirt when the Bubble pops. A repeat of the .com bubble. Or any of the other numerous get rich quick things that have popped up over the years.
It’s cheaper to source them elsewhere. The facilities and expertise isn’t cheap. The labor is precise and time consuming. It’ll be years of investment before they make back the investment. Which is part of why they outsourced in the first place. The Billionaire investors wanted the profits without the overhead.
Trump can make all the calls he wants. But it is going to be an exceptionally expensive proposition for any investor. That’ll be years of rebuilding, retraining and building up support industries again. Until they can expect to start making back their investment. Let alone turning a profit.
Privatize the gains. Socialize the losses has been the SOP for major American Businesses for decades.
We live in a society that seeks to monetize everything. Everything is becoming some sort of service or subscription based content. Yet quality consistently declines and we somehow still get screwed and pay out the ass.
Information in this day and age is the most valuable thing you have. It should be considered a general expectation that every company will eventually seek to monetize their consumers information. Regardless of the rhetoric they feed us publicly about privacy.
Since they’re based out of foreign countries. The cruise lines staff are subject to even loser regulations and standards than the staff of U.S based ships. Granted the 3rd party contractors in use by many U.S based companies for background checks leave a lot to be desired as well. As the numerous dramas that have cropped up over the years can attest to. Specifically those concerning Disney. Though they’re far from alone. Just the most prominent
A secret room left off official blueprints? That’s an interesting though not entirely unexpected development
They busted Amazon for doing the same thing the other week.
How much you wanna bet other major companies are also doing it.
And the U.S will for all practicality with that move secure defacto control over the Alberta Tar Sands. Even if Alberta does remain independent and doesn’t seek U.S annexation/territorial status. Meaning either way the U.S will hold even more of the cards when it comes to global energy.
Alberta leaving will also likely indicate other provinces will follow suit. Saskatchewan and Manitoba potentially. Being effectively cut off territory wise would also likely mean British Colombia will follow out of necessity if nothing else.
Ironic that Mark Hamill has ended up just the same as the character he’s most well known for playing. Washed up Old and Bitter.
Most everyone else on the Star Wars movies went on to other big films and franchises. Marks greatest claim to fame since the films was voice acting in cartoons.
Much of the confusion surrounding Aliens at this point. Is essentially misinformation on top of conspiracy. On top of more misinformation. Further muddled by the fact that due to compartmentalization. The Left Hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. So you’ve got some guys putting spins and misinformation on information that was already misinformation being spread by total separate programs. That don’t know each other exist. So there’s not even one unified Government misinformation narrative.
Willing to bet the records prior to 2004 still exist somewhere in someone’s blackmail file
A brief explanation for the curious. It’s a breakdown of how value an immigrant from a given region can be expected to generate. Taxes paid, hours worked etc. Versus how many taxpayer funded services they can be expected to use subtracted off that
The end result being as a broad overview. Essentially Western/Northern Europeans, Asians (China, S. Korea, Japan) , Americans and heavily European dominated regions etc. Are generally either net benefits or just about break even. The exact degree can vary depending on country
A broad overview. It’s how much economic value an immigrant from that region can be expected to generate. Taxes paid etc. With whatever Taxpayer funded services they can be expected to consume subtracted off the total.
The end result being immigrants from much of the rest of the world are a net drain on average.
With only really Europe, Parts of Asia (IE Japan, Korea, and parts of China), and or European dominated states. USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. Being net benefits. In that they can be reliably expected to generate more than they consume.
It can be broken down somewhat further. By nationality as one example. Much of the net benefit in Europe for instance is primarily focused around Western European nations. With Eastern Europe either breaking even or coming out behind depending on the exact country.
It’s broaching topics the post WW2 Zeitgeist deemed verboten and offensive to discuss. Topics that frankly are probably long overdue to talk about.
Only a couple countries have actually done the research and calculations. In part given the difficulty questions and prevailing Western Cultural Zeitgeist. This particular batch of data is I believe sourced from the Netherlands.
The Stuarts got the last laugh and the opportunity to give the finger to Cromwell and Parliament from beyond the grave.
Fun fact. Part of the enduring tensions between the North and South that ultimately contributed to the American Civil War. Ultimately was leftover tensions from the English Civil War.
After the English Civil War was ended. Huge influxes of Englishmen came to the Colonies. Cavaliers IE the supporters of the Stuart’s largely settled in the Southern Colonies. Parliamentarians IE supporters of Cromwell and parliament largely settled in the Northern Colonies. Which heavily influenced regional cultural development.
What we’re finding now is many of these landmark experiments and examples from the Cold War. Used to justify popular psychology and peoples pet political ideologies for decades. Either can’t be reliably reproduced today.
Or were cooked from the word go to produce results that confirmed the Hypothesis of the experimenters. The Stanford Prison experiment is a famous example from the era. That according to participants and documentation from the experiment was cooked to suit the professors hypothesis.
There are also doubts and critiques of the results of the Milgram experiment and later replications of it. Including poor variable control.
Part of broader replicability problems in psychology as a broader whole. In short you shouldn’t take the results of any of it as unvarnished truth of human behavior. Especially experiments from the ‘Golden age’ of psychology. Sensationalist results got funding, awards, and job offers. Inconsistent or inconsequential results didn’t. Thusly the incentive for them was to create sensationalist results.
The stuff imported by ship primarily came from the Gulf States. As well as Iran. The Iran batches in particular are important as Iran sold to them at discounted rates.
So even if it is restored. If it’s restored at non-discounted rates. It’s still an economic blow to them. They previously also had operations going in Venezuela. Though the Yoinking put an end to that.