I had worked at a nuclear power station for 28 years as a nuclear chemist and chemistry supervisor. I decided to step down from management and take a computer analysist position for our IT department. I had earned a masters degree in computer science and felt I needed some more hands on experience with computers if I wanted to work part time in retirement.

The person whose job I was taking over, told me that he routinely backed up the hard drives on critical computers in the plant. One such computer was an ancient DELL PC that had proprietary hardware and software running on it. The purpose of the computer was to automatically extract and convert plant equipment analog signals to digital which was used by control room personnel to monitoring critical plant equipment during operation.

While he was showing me how to do this, I asked him, “Do you defrag the hard drive before backing it up?” He said he never thought about that and it sounded like a good idea. When we went to try and defrag it it looked similar to this:

Only it was solid red. It was over 85% fragmented. Even after several attempts, we couldn’t defrag it. I suggested we get another hard drive and image it with an older, clean backup, just in case the one on the computer failed. Unfortunately, it didn’t exist and the company who developed the software no longer supported it. To make matters worse when I opened up the computer case to get hardware information it looked similar to this:

I pretty much considered it a miracle that it had survived as long as it did. About the only thing we could do blow it out with air and pray that it would keep running long enough to find and build a replacement, which took nearly a year. I only stayed at this job for a little over a year simple because of the nightmares.

I like Logic

So let’s see the facts here

First is Chinas enormous growth

This is undeniable. From a Agrarian Economy of zero consequence in the 1960s to one of the most powerful industrialized nations on Earth in the 2020s

It happened under the CPC

The Average Chinese has become more educated, has more access to healthcare, has money, has a job and has prospects

So that’s a big big thanks to the CPC

How do i know?

Just look at my Country INDIA

I hate putting down my Country in a public forum but I like facts

In the 1960s we were ahead of the Chinese both Industrially and Development wise

Yet in 2023 ,

our Economy is a Sixth of the size of the Chinese ,

our trade is still in deficit,

we have four times more poor rural households than the Chinese,

We have near zero core technology while even Russia has its Telegram,

We have near zero high manufacture while even Iran makes war grade Drones near indigenously

Since both Nations started at the same time, , were both Socialist for decades and since both Nations began equally poor and since I won’t assume Racial Superiority

The ONLY THING DIFFERENT IS ONE PARTY MERITOCRACY VS CESSPIT DEMOCRACY

Nothing else is different between the Two Nations

And I don’t buy this excuse of religious and cultural diversity being Indias enemy. That’s nonsense

From Bhabha to Tata to Ambani to Premji to Narayana murthy we had Parsi to Hindu to Muslim creating our Industries

Therefore the CPC must have done something that Democracy simply cannot.

And look at India today?

Everything is Politics

An Expressway is not complete and yet is inaugurated at abysmally high costs because of an election

Discipline and Masking were ignored due to elections resulting literally in Covid II and Delta decimating over 150–200K Indians, many rolling about on the roads and dying

Look at China today?

After three years of Lockdowns, they still grew more than India over a three year aggregate timeframe and lost virtually a sixth of the lives that India lost

Again the only difference – CPC versus Democracy

I see nothing else different

On one hand I see a Party without any opposition, doing the best for their people realizing that a Prosperous China is what everyone wants

I see a Populace that agrees and gives mandate to the party in exchange for Growth and Respect of China

Meanwhile i see how Democracy (God I loathe that word so much) has pushed the world into four conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and seven sizeable regime changes

I see how Democracy has created an Evil Hegemony

I see how Democracy no longer does what the people want, acting every day like brutal dictatorships but pretending to be free Nations

My Advise is thus simple

You heard of a Berlin Wall right?

You know of any such Wall preventing Chinese from leaving China and never coming back?

Nopes

You see the same Western Leaders and their Business Execs meeting Chinese Leaders every day right?

You see Zelensky desperately hanging on to that “Phone call” from Xi

You see Peace between neighbors who were enemies for almost a decade or longer being supervised by the Chinese

So now you tell me – WHOM WOULD YOU BE ROOTING FOR?

And in case you choose the Western Media

Trust me the CPC doesnt give a damn. They simply go on with their jobs

France deliberately refuses to buy American military equipment in a bid to maintain autonomy in terms of their foreign policy. While everyone else in NATO heavily buys American, France has made the deliberate decision to go it alone on as much as possible. As a result, France buys local for virtually all major combat systems: fighter jets, tanks, artillery, ships, submarines, etc.

Make no mistake, it would be far cheaper for France in monetary terms to buy into massive American defense programs that take advantage of economies of scale rather than to go it alone. However in doing so, it would surrender control of its foreign policy to its Anglo-American rivals. As a result, France makes the conscious decision to pay for more expensive equipment, so long as it is locally produced.

Because of cheap employers.

Plus some other stuff I’ll get to in the end.

As I write this, the US unemployment rate is holding at 3.6%. That’s around a 50-year low. And it suggests there aren’t a lot of jobless people left.

But remember that figure is a percentage of the people looking for work. If only there was some way to coax some of those people back into the labor force…

Oh. Right. The minimum wage has been $7.25/hour since 2009. Just to keep up with inflation, employers should be paying $10.33. Throw in the risks of spending your day inches away from unmasked customers in the age of COVID, and minimum-wage fast food, retail and hospitality jobs are looking like a really bad deal.

So make the deal better.

As many McDonald’s have done. But you can see the problem there at the bottom of the sign: full time.

Full time gets you 2x the minimum wage, and, presumably, healthcare. So tight-fisted employers like Walmart have lots of jobs that require 30 or so hours a week that offer no consistency of hours, no benefits, crap pay, and few prospects for promotion.

And they’re surprised they’ve got jobs they can’t fill.

For the last few decades, the rich have been getting richer and everyone else has been getting… the same as always. COVID changed that. It gave workers, even those not in a union, more bargaining power than they’ve had since I was in short pants. Employers either sweeten the offer, or man the burger grills themselves.

The smartest thing Congress could do — but won’t — is raise the minimum wage. That would lift the playing field for EVERYONE, and give working class people the financial breathing room needed to start spending again.

The usual counterargument is that it would put some mom-and-pop businesses out of business. Which is possibly true. But if the ONLY way you can break even is by paying your employees 2009 wages, you arguably shouldn’t be in business in the first place.

Moreover, if you put more money into the pockets of the wealthy, they send it to Switzerland or Panama. Give more to working class Americans and they’ll spend it, often in the community, thus helping to build the economy.

All we lack is the political will.

And immigrants. (Told you I’d come back to this.)

The GOP is still singing the ancient ditty about foreigners coming over here and taking our jobs. What they refuse to recognize is that right now, we’ve got a lot of jobs that need taking. That’s particularly true in agriculture, fast-food, and other service industries.

Even I am not silly enough or drunk enough that we can sort out a sensible immigration policy in the next month or so. But guest worker programs, for targeted industries, with both an expiration date AND a path to an extended stay for people who meet certain conditions could relieve most of the pressure in a matter of weeks.

Unfortunately the culture wars tend to prevent us from making a sensible and rewarding peace.

He is not delusional, you are? To the world 41 of the worlds richest nation collective throw their kitchen sink at Russia for 14 months straight.

The result is these 41 nations has the highest inflation for 40 years, their banks are going bankrupt, their fuel cost went up 3–4 times before the war, their economy imploded and minus GDP! And their population is dumping them and 60% of Ukrainians are squatters in their country and Ukraine has lost almost all Black Sea Coast. And 4 regions has become part of Russia.

Meanwhile Russia U.S. doing very well, it’s Ruble appreciate, it’s economy is just as good. And cleverly it move from spending on the stagnations west to a dynamic east. To the world the only delusional people are the leaders of these 41 nations! And you are part ofthe delusional brigade.

No.

Older, experienced programmers are much cheaper than new graduates.

I’m quite serious about this.

New college graduates get themselves excited arguing about which IDE they think is best. They advocate for whichever language they were shown at university and how they think that’s the only game in town. They will have strong opinions about how you should write your own stuff and not use libraries.

Older programmers show up, write code that works and solves the business problem they’ve been asked to work on, then they go home.

Per unit of useful work produced, older developers are much, much cheaper than new college graduates. Even if their salaries are a lot higher.

It’s simple

Xi won’t talk to Biden because he knows the talks are fruitless

Biden and over three fourth of US are still living in the 1990s -Early 2000s

Their foreign policy is still that under Bush Senior or Clinton or Bush Junior

They believe they can intimidate and threaten and convince people by using a combination of vague promises and using the word “Freedom” fifty times in a sentence

Nobody believes it anymore

This is a Nation which in the last two years had a mob of people storm their Government Headquarters and threaten to hang their Vice President

This is a Nation that has seen 26 Regional and State based Riots and 2 National Riots over the last 3 years

This is a Nation which has seen 102 Young Students being killed by Shooters in a mere 3 years period across 11 States

This is a Nation that literally destroyed any chance of their allies and citizens having a peaceful prosperous life by ensuring their energy costs rose by 312% in the last 14 months

A Nation sinking to decadence fast and a Nation chock full of EVIL and DESTRUCTIVE IDEOLOGY

Xi knows Biden is a Senile Puppet of the Neocons who believe in that destructive Ideology

He knows talks are pointless with US Politicians now

INSTEAD

He keeps the talks with Businessmen all the time like Tim Cook of Apple or the CEO of Qualcomm or the Big Bosses of Intel

He ensures that US Consumers and Businessness remain economically friendly to China and they HATE THE US even more than some Middle Easterners

Trump was a businessman

Xi and China liked him

He always was ready to deal.

Biden is a puppet of some very evil people ready to kill their citizens for world dominance

Xi has no time or inclination to listen to these people except when they are on their death beds

A Couch made of Wood with Cushions in Akron Ohio costs $ 495 after Discount

The Same Couch made in China with Cushions from China costs $ 215 without Tariffs and $ 278 with Tariffs and gives a profit of between 20–38% to the Retailer.

So the Customer gets his couch at a price at half the cost and the Retailer makes more profits.

This is the Story of the United States since 1985. Labor is too expensive, Transportation is too expensive, Work Force is too demanding – hence all these costs mean that Products are also terribly expensive.

Tyres, Refurbished Materials, Furniture, Paper, Reamwoods, Saunas, Vehicle Components, Shoes, Jeans, Clothes, Underwear, Caps and over 17000 other products and their owners relocated their factories to China and ensured that they could survive happily and even become richer.

China welcomed this relocation from 1998 to 2013 for 15 years – and then stopped. Instead their own Chinese Companies competed with these relocated american businesses and delivered even cheaper imports – They could offer this couch at $ 225 with Tariffs and $ 187 without Tariffs and suddenly the public and consumers got even cheaper goods.

From 2013 onwards – those businesses that Relocated to China sold their businesses off and got a lot of money and settled down happily but businesses that did not have since gone bankrupt because they simply cannot match the price of the imports.

And this has extended to Steel, Cement, Small Tech, Medium Tech,Laptops, Smart Phones, Smart Phone Components – where US Companies which relocated to China dominated the market from 2004–2017 but since then Huawei and other Chinese entities began to compete and push their products into the US.

The Fear is – What started with Furniture and Caps and went on to Smart Phones could one day reach to High Technology like Chips, Robots, Space components and Defense Related Products and that could be catastrophic to the US.

Everytime US Companies first relocated – had a good run – then Chinese entities began to compete and slowly the US companies that had relocated merged or sold to the Chinese Entities.

So the Imbalance widened and widened and widened – Lower Costs dominating the day and WTO rules followed by Obama and Bush

Trump like our Modiji had the right idea but ridiculous implementation

He chose to bully chinese to import US Products and chose to raise Tariffs.

This was Stupid.

IN the long run – the make america products would have cost 2.5 times more than any Chinese import and many families that could afford decent products and Flat Screens would have to give them up.

Simple example – A US Made Nike would have to cost $ 559 and would make barely 4% Profit compared to $ 219 for a China imported Nike even with Tariff and a 41% Margin of Profit.

The only way was to Keep increasing the Technological Divide and ensure High Tech companies manufacture only in the US

Instead he began insane bullying – and creating Farm related problems when China refused to import the required quantities and Chinese Farm Equipment and other equipment became more restricted.

How should Biden deal with it?

Like Obama or Bush did. Keep Defense Local. Keep Advanced R & D Local. Keep High Tech Development, streets ahead of China and ensure that these Industries hired Americans only and they generated sufficient income to establish service industries to employ the others.