Politics

[gbflyer]

As we are a nation of consumers, everyone wants our business. Others are gonna make noise for a bit but when the stockholders/owners start raising Hell because the tariffs are hitting their pocket books, in a month or two Trump will get his way. He was meeting with US corp executives, CEO and the like months before he took office. They are not blind sided. He is many things but a poor business man he is not.

 

[Brent in Az]

The Secret Service shot an armed suicidal man a block from the Whitehouse when he brandished his weapon. Secret Service was tipped off that the man was traveling from Indiana to D.C, and they located his car in the vicinity.

 

[mdwest]

As we are a nation of consumers, everyone wants our business. Others are gonna make noise for a bit but when the stockholders/owners start raising Hell because the tariffs are hitting their pocket books, in a month or two Trump will get his way. He was meeting with US corp executives, CEO and the like months before he took office. They are not blind sided. He is many things but a poor business man he is not.

In many ways his strategy is already working.. the positive results just arent getting the same level of attention as the negative responses (conflict always makes better TV I suppose)..

More than $1T in investment has already been pledged by multiple tech giants..

Apple is investing $500B alone in facilities and labor costs in Houston and Detroit and committed to 20,000 new jobs being associated with that investment, that they are promising to have completed within 4 years..

Stargate is also investing $500B in data center builds, also in Texas (there's a theme here where the Tech firms are expanding in Texas rather than their historical epicenter of Northern California).. they also plan to have all of that money spent within 4 years..

SoftBank is investing $100B in data centers, robot manufacturing, and chip manufacturing in the US.. That $100B is also coming mostly to Texas...

Meta is investing $65B in Texas' neighbor, Louisiana..

Microsoft is investing $40B in data centers in Texas and Arizona..

Damac is investing $20B across several states in the US..

Etc..etc..

All of these centers and the associated jobs could have easily been offshored.. many of the companies making these commitments are foreign owned.. yet they are choosing to invest on US soil (largely in business friendly markets like TX)..

 

[Brent in Az]

Fully agree with your analysis.

But now the MAGA crowd should understand that now the EU has lost any trust with the USA, (a sad situation for many of us), and that we will reconsider buying US military equipment, as we cannot rely on a supply of spare parts, software updates...

That will hurt the US balance of payments and also mean job losses.

Not good for either side

Do you realize that this trust you are speaking of is reciprocal, and that the USA may have lost its trust of the EU and other nations as well?

 

[LivingTheDream]

People trust science, you included. You enjoy using rifle propellants with various burning rates. You appreciate the consistency from batch to batch. You appreciate the shelf-life and the how safe it is to use, while still being incredibly effective when ignited in just the right way. All of this comes to you from science. Hodgdon H4350, one of the best and most useful propellants around, is Australian AR2209. I worked on the project that made this happen, early in my career.

People trust science. Think of all the other examples of how you trust science. The metallurgy in your barrels and actions, the coatings on your riflescope lenses, the laser rangefinders and thermal sensors you might be using. The GPS that guides the drone you use to find game. The fact that you never got polio and can walk when you go hunting. The masks you insist your surgeons use when operating on you. The mask you wear to avoid breathing in asbestos fibres. Go on, take it off if you don't trust science.

People trust science. They just don't realise all the ways. Then they get silly and decide not to trust science when they don't like what it reports, to their own detriment.

Not entirely true, part of any science is the questioning of said hypothesis. Questioning is good for science and it is how we learn and improve.

When you say China, one of the biggest, if not the biggest polluter in the world (and not just talking about in country, but read about their mining operations in Africa) is taking the right steps, is laughable, and not scientific at all, but an opinion formed based on something you have read and seen.

So there is climate change, how much is directly impacted by man, is the question.

 

[MauserM03Blog]

Not even apples and oranges... no, it's not that simple, and if you think that you're damned naive.

So I am obese and choose to clean up my act... or not. Me, an individual.

Speaking of me and my little corner of the world, there isn't any sort of unified front with regards to climate change or fixing it in my community of 2500 in Alaska. If anything I'd say we're probably moving the needle in the wrong direction, overall. There is less than zero chance for even minimal buy-in from most countries globally, IMHO. As others have pointed out, if a country can't provide for the very basics to simply live day to day, how do you expect the people in such places to give so much as a rat's fart of thought or concern to something as esoteric as global warming or climate change? The future of the planet? They're just worried about seeing next month.

A solution that applies to a single individual is pretty freaking meaningless when you attempt to apply it to the global population, IMHO. No sir, as much as an optimist as I am, you folks are pissing into a hurricane level wind on this. If this is Thermopylae, you don't have even 300 and they ain't Spartans either. You can be butt hurt about it but it doesn't change reality. Feel free to cling to your own opinion. This happens to be mine.

People change when they can use something that is better, cheaper and more convenient. Ask Kodak about this.

My wife and I went sailing after retiring. It used to be that cruising sailboats always had a generator to charge lead-acid batteries. Instead of this we had solar panels and lithium batteries. The performance was brilliant, it was cheaper than a generator and was more convenient. This approach is becoming standard. People change when a better, cheaper and more convenient solution is offered.

Who's been in Africa and seen solar panels being used by villagers for water pumps, lighting, etc? Brilliant. Alaska is different, I know. Different solutions are needed. 100+ years ago, a better solution than using horses for transport was devised. It'll happen again.

In Australia right now, we're dealing with problems arising from having too much solar generated electricity. We have to adjust the grid to share it around. Electricity prices are coming down. Please, don't lose hope. Look around and you'll see how bright the future can be.

Lastly, thank you for acknowledging that climate change is human induced. Not all in this place can see it.

 

[mdwest]

This seems to fly in the face of Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau telling both the US and Canadians that Fentenyl coming out of Canada isn't a real problem..

Dane Lloyd, a Canadian MP was recently questioning the RCMP about Fentanyl in Canada (a couple of months ago).. the RCMP estimates that there are more than 4000 different organized crime groups in Canada participating in the Fentanyl problem..

He also speaks to other issues with Canadian security that create opportunities for terrorism to get funded, etc..

https://www.instagram.com/arnoldviersen/reel/DG593pFtkTc/

I don't know anything about Lloyd.. I am assuming he is a conservative.. regardless of his political positions, he seems level headed and reasonable (at least based on those 2 links).. its well worth the 10 minutes to listen to the youtube and a couple of minutes more to listen to the SM post..

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Corn uses a tremendous amount of nitrogen. Beans fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere, and are a net nitrogen contributor to the soil. One of the reasons a corn bean rotation makes so much sense.

Most of the nitrogen a soybean puts into the ground is later used to make the seed, meaning most of the nitrogen is harvested with the grain.
While true crop rotation helps, it does little to reduce the need of nitrogen application in conventional tillage farming.
It’s possible, with the addition of cover crops, no till practice, and sometimes inter-seeding, to really reduce or eliminate the need to apply fertilizer.
We are trying to do this but I’m not sold on it yet. It does go against the way the land was farmed for the last century.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

People change when they can use something that is better, cheaper and more convenient. Ask Kodak about this.

My wife and I went sailing after retiring. It used to be that cruising sailboats always had a generator to charge lead-acid batteries. Instead of this we had solar panels and lithium batteries. The performance was brilliant, it was cheaper than a generator and was more convenient. This approach is becoming standard. People change when a better, cheaper and more convenient solution is offered.

Who's been in Africa and seen solar panels being used by villagers for water pumps, lighting, etc? Brilliant. Alaska is different, I know. Different solutions are needed. 100+ years ago, a better solution than using horses for transport was devised. It'll happen again.

In Australia right now, we're dealing with problems arising from having too much solar generated electricity. We have to adjust the grid to share it around. Electricity prices are coming down. Please, don't lose hope. Look around and you'll see how bright the future can be.

Lastly, thank you for acknowledging that climate change is human induced. Not all in this place can see it.

I don't think I said I believe it's human induced. Perhaps I worded something poorly because I frankly I don't think that's true. What I said was it's a losing proposition, IMO, to believe you will ever get enough buy-in to have even a microscopic impact on what you see as true.

Lose hope? To lose it I'd have to have hope and on this I have none. Look around? When I look around my corner of the world I see people doing whatever is easiest for them, irrespective of whatever potential long term consequences. I particularly see that with regards to natural resources, and those are important to people here, and even then it's largely lip service.

 

[gbflyer]

In many ways his strategy is already working.. the positive results just arent getting the same level of attention as the negative responses (conflict always makes better TV I suppose)..

More than $1T in investment has already been pledged by multiple tech giants..

Apple is investing $500B alone in facilities and labor costs in Houston and Detroit and committed to 20,000 new jobs being associated with that investment, that they are promising to have completed within 4 years..

Stargate is also investing $500B in data center builds, also in Texas (there's a theme here where the Tech firms are expanding in Texas rather than their historical epicenter of Northern California).. they also plan to have all of that money spent within 4 years..

SoftBank is investing $100B in data centers, robot manufacturing, and chip manufacturing in the US.. That $100B is also coming mostly to Texas...

Meta is investing $65B in Texas' neighbor, Louisiana..

Microsoft is investing $40B in data centers in Texas and Arizona..

Damac is investing $20B across several states in the US..

Etc..etc..

All of these centers and the associated jobs could have easily been offshored.. many of the companies making these commitments are foreign owned.. yet they are choosing to invest on US soil (largely in business friendly markets like TX)..

That chip thing is ‘uge if it can be pulled off. I have a friend based in Austin that gets paid a lot of money to travel around the world and give talks/consult in semiconductors. She is skeptical due to the lack of very skilled labor that’s required. Maybe the folks can get a visa to move here from Taiwan. In any case it is a great idea and would really be a game changer.

 

[mdwest]

That chip thing is ‘uge if it can be pulled off. I have a friend based in Austin that gets paid a lot of money to travel around the world and give talks/consult in semiconductors. She is skeptical due to the lack of very skilled labor that’s required. Maybe the folks can get a visa to move here from Taiwan. In any case it is a great idea and would really be a game changer.

Im not in that industry... so I don't pretend to understand it... but, a guy I go to church with is a senior executive at Texas Instruments and works in some way with super-conductors..

He tells a very similar story.. the quantity and quality of skilled labor required for super conductors is very limited in the US.. which is one of the reasons he gets paid exceptionally well.. but he seems to think there is capacity for everything to be built here and be staffed in the time period those companies are talking about (how they would staff them I have no idea)..

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

In Canadian news today

The two candidates for the liberal leadership who’s names I didn’t bother to learn combined for 7% of the vote. Freeland took second place with 8% of the vote. Carney won with 85% of the vote to be the new leader of the liberal party and prime minister of Canada for however long the government stands.

Mark carney while currently prime minister of Canada is not a sitting member of parliament and as such will not be able to cast his own votes in parliamentary proceedings.

 

[Brent in Az]

I grew up in the farmland of southern Minnesota. I was too young to know much about farming, beside driving around on the tractors and combine with grandpa.
He did rotate crops between Corn and Soybeans.

 

[mdwest]

I think thats a good thing for Canada?

I get the impression of the liberals, he is the least extreme, has a good head on his shoulder for business, has a good bit of experience in international business negotiations, etc..etc..?

Trump might actually respect Carney a bit if the liberals remain in power.. certainly more than he respected Trudeau..

 

[sgt_zim]

Meta is investing $65B in Texas' neighbor, Louisiana..

Part of that is about 3 or 4 miles from my property, and I'm not very happy about it. My days of hunting a property that has been in my family since the 19th century are coming to an end.

My grandparents were on a party line there until the 1980s.

A lot of my neighbors are already parceling up their properties into 5- or 8-acre lots. The city folks who're going to move in there have no idea what they're in for.

 

[Brent in Az]

Looks like Canada slapped China with extra Tariffs 4 months ago.
But we certainly don't want Trump to do these things

https://www.reuters.com/markets/china-announces-retaliatory-tariffs-some-canada-farm-food-products-2025-03-08/

 

[steve white]

Im not in that industry... so I don't pretend to understand it... but, a guy I go to church with is a senior executive at Texas Instruments and works in some way with super-conductors..

He tells a very similar story.. the quantity and quality of skilled labor required for super conductors is very limited in the US.. which is one of the reasons he gets paid exceptionally well.. but he seems to think there is capacity for everything to be built here and be staffed in the time period those companies are talking about (how they would staff them I have no idea)..

That's why we need to open the door to skilled immigrants and not just people with leaf blowers or experience picking almonds. But taking in educated europeans has been seen by the Democrats as making us too white, Christian and conservative in voting preferences...

 

[Fastrig]

There have been Worldwide sanctions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. What is left for Trump to sanction?
For example: We have not been replenishing parts for their planes. No computer chips. American businesses are out of Russia, we have been taking possession of oligarchs' yachts etc., etc..

This is a good read on the subject....

How Trump could use sanctions in negotiations with Russia

In the run-up to his departure from the White House, President Joe Biden has slapped a number of major new sanctions on Russia’s financial systems and energy sector. The U.S. originally threatened Russia with “the mother of all sanctions” as Moscow prepared to invade Ukraine in February 2022.

kyivindependent.com

 

[Red Leg]

That chip thing is ‘uge if it can be pulled off. I have a friend based in Austin that gets paid a lot of money to travel around the world and give talks/consult in semiconductors. She is skeptical due to the lack of very skilled labor that’s required. Maybe the folks can get a visa to move here from Taiwan. In any case it is a great idea and would really be a game changer.

There is already a huge $17 billion Samsung facility nearing completion in Taylor, TX (greater Austin area). My understanding is that labor is not an issue.

 

[lwaters]

I have 50 acres. I bought a 8ft novtill drill and a John Deere 65 horse tractor. Last year I planted beans and milo. The local grain elevator applied the fertilizer and chemicals. I had more time in mowing the yard than farming