sherpa

I do OK, but thanks.

I only comment as an individual who has been involved in investment markets for decades and has been to China many times, so my views are empirical, and anecdotal. Others may have differing views. China is a country run on a targeted economic competition. They pay no attention to any environmental issues. No child labor issues. No slave type working conditions. They impose heavy tariffs on imported goods, thus denying US products fair exposure in their markets. They routinely allow and support violation of patents and intellectual property rights. Go to the Silk Market in Beijing. You will see vendor after vendor on many floors selling products with US company logos on them at prices far below what is reasonable. Totally unenforced. I was talking to a guy who was the Chief Operating Officer; the actual production guy, on a flight there. Silicon Valley company. He relayed to me his experience. His company had come up with leading edge solar panel technology and wanted to have these produced in China. The Chinese gov made them submit the technology to them in some convoluted effort to determine if the production would be "safe." They complied. Within months, a Chinese production facility was built and up and running using their exact technology and producing an identical product. Completely stolen. That's what happens when the gov is behind the fraud. I won't even get into the abuses of the industry I was involved in. Massive bribery is required to get various things done there. No reasonable, objective and accurate financial reports. I could go on and on, but failing to see that gov as a gross violator on international trade issues is an incredibly foolish posture, and ultimately a serious threat to US and western, law abiding trade and labor.

You have no idea. Absolutely none, but I don't have an interest responding to you. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

Have you ever been to China or have any familiarity with what goes on? I could give many examples, just based on my limited experiences. Are you familiar with environmental, labor, or any other production regulations differences that ultimately impact cost of production? Are you familiar with the gross disregard for patent laws or intellectual property that is simply stolen from US manufacturing with no payment? Are you familiar with governmental requirements for US product production in China? It is ridiculous to state that any economist would agree, not that it should matter. China is a government entity designed to succeed, not to be fair. A good deal of that strategy involves putting US industry and labor at a massive disadvantage. This extends to service industries that serve China as well. The only way to compete fairly is to insist on fair competition. China doesn't, and many other countries don't in various industries, These protections grossly disadvantage US labor, and it is reasonable and necessary to acknowledge that and respond.

Anybody who doesn't understand the need to enforce tariffs on countries that deliberately put US products and services at a distinct disadvantage in their domestic markets has no idea of what goes on. Trade is best when on a level field. To deny that is job market suicide.

The reality is that the question posed relates to a total selfish issue. Of course some people are better off, especially anyone who had investment income. The issue is taking care of the country, and we are not better off at all, and those bills will come due. We are in far greater debt, with no proposal to stop that. We are as divided, but the division is deeper and more serious. We are very close to a war with Iran, who is already at war and killing us, and quite close to a war with China. We are in the process of screwing up our relationship with Israel, our only true democratic ally in the Middle East, which limits our ability to prevent the aforementioned Iranian conflict. We are weaker militarily. We are weaker industrially to handle military needs. Out energy complex is uncertain. We have the capacity, but not the support. In my humble view, this has been a horrible four years under this man, who can no longer think at a reasonable level, , handle the executive branch, give confidence to our citizens, deal with the other side in order to solve serious problems, or reasonably function at a high level. We need help, and claiming the other side would ever unite us is not possible.

Good video. Netanyahu is always a clear headed, impassioned yet reasonable speaker. He is on his way out, but his explanation of the Israeli "sense" of this clear, correct and unmistakable. Like him or not, we have no such leadership here. Our current office holder is totally incapable of such an interview.

I base how I am doing on an inverse relationship between my felicity and exposure to audio of Kamala Harris. If I see/hear her and Chuck Schumer on the same day, there is a 72 hour recovery period.

The urgency is not "now." The Congressional Committee on China was formed in Feb, 2023, and this has been a discussion since they first convened. Things take time, especially when Congress is involved in huge internal struggles, like getting a House Speaker, to move things along. The claim that this is based on Gaza is preposterous. I've seen things about banning this for military personnel a long time ago. China is involved in a cold war type strategy against the US on many levels. Expansion in the Pacific. The continued threat to take over Taiwan. Gross trade violations. Gross intellectual property and industrial thievery and espionage. We can look the other way, but the continued, failed strategy of "just pretend that nothing's going on," is blind negligence.

This has been an issue way, way way prior to the Gaza conflict. The Chinese have been mining data on Tic Toc for years, and stats suggest there is serious, organized attempts to influence coming from there. Ever been to China? When I was going there a few times/month, the Google/Gmail think was a pain, but I didn't use any of the others so it wasn't a big deal to me. You could kind of get around it by using a VPN, but they figured that out a few years ago and ended that strategy. Here's a very abbreviated list of application blocked by the Chinese: All Google apps, Gmail, Google search Google chat, Google maps, Google news. Facebook Messenger. Tik Toc-they have their own highly edited version. X-formerly Twitter Snapchat Amazon Prime Netflix HBO and Hulu There are many more. Anyway, the case of their using it as an intel gatherer has been discusssed for a long time.

James Webb Telescope keeps discovering: It seems our universe is not expanding at a uniform speed. The speed of expansion depends on where you look. Previously, the Hubble telescope suggested this, but the difference was thought to be measurement errors. No longer. "James Webb telescope confirms there is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe" Previous Expansion Theory Upended "February 6 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests that there may be something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe."

Couldn't have said it better, so I won't try.

Fatal idiocy.

I'm quite glad you think I'm an idiot. Makes it a lot easier to spend no time here. The point is that the Arab invasion of Israel was done on Yom Kippur. Specifically becasue they knew the reserve dependent IDF would be at the beach. The Arabs called that the Ramadan War., not the Israelis. It was their choice, and they got their asses kicked. During this current skirmish, I hold the Israelis completely blameless regarding whatever day they decide to go after the remaining Hamas murderers.

Perhaps you have missed the point, and are unfamiliar with the history. But you have managed to condemn the Arab side of this. First, the premise you stated that "only terrorists attack people on their holy days" is a false premise. There is no calendar consideration for terrorist actions. Next, you get the attacker/attackee thing completely wrong. It was a coalition of Arab states that attacked Israel on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day. After that you seem to no be aware that the phrase "Ramadan War," is an Arab phrase for the conflict as they launched the attack during Ramadan. How this makes Jews terrorists, as they didn't launch it on their celebration day, and didn't name it after an Arab holy month is an impossible logical conclusion. But....That's what passes here.

There is no such admission, nor claim, ex you.

You miss the point. They could call it whatever they wanted at the time, but there was no bombing in WWII that could ever be called "precision" by today's standards. In those days it was slide rule ballistics and airplane deliver physics to arrive at a guess. That is not the way it is done now, nor since the late 70's. Eliminate a discussion of "pgm", (gps, ins.laser guided and other precision guided weapons). A simple dumb bomb from an F-15/16/18/35 or countless European attack aircraft, delivered in a not threat scenario can, and should be very accurate. Not "pick the window/exhaust stack" accurate, but certainly within 20'. And "in this window", or with active sensors "on this helmet," is certainly doable.

Perhaps you don't understand. There was no "precision bombing" then. Certainly nothing close to what sophisticated, well trained attack forces with advanced weapons systems are capable of doing now.

This Ramadan thing is idiotic. The 73 war, Yom Kippur, was launched against Israel on the occasion of the religious holiday Yom Kippur, knowing that the IDF, largely reservists, would be celebrating the religious holiday. Additionally, it was known in the Arab world as the Ramadan War, taking place on the tenth day of the Ramadan month. Total nonsense.

There was no such thing as "precision bombing" in WWII. Beyond that, no surprise, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

Twenty five years of spending half the week in Europe/Asia or South American. It is manageable.

What is "Espanol"? Did you mean Hispaniola? The Dominicans would never allow that. No chance.

We should care because we are humans. Beyond that, on a strategic level, insane, out of control regimes tend to spill over borders. Haiti shares a border with the Dominican Republic, which we have strong and strategic ties to. Haiti is not currently fixable, but the disease must be controlled, like cancer.

The more you post, the stupider you get. It was nowhere near "carte blanche." There were conditions that allowed to US to refuse anybody it wanted to.

This claim is either ignorance or a deliberate attempt at obfuscation. I vote for ignorance.