Comments by "Lepi Doptera" (@lepidoptera9337) on "Zeihan on Geopolitics" channel.

  1. I never had any friction with the Hispanic gardener who takes care of the lawn in front of my rental apartment. He was never competing for my jobs at US national labs and high tech companies and I was never competing for his.
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  2. But did it? Israel has simply changed the target of its negotiations. I think I just said to the Lebanese "Either you are establishing a security zone in the South of Lebanon or we will take the South of Lebanon away from you."
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  3. Yes, it's about half as expensive as Uranium and the cost of Uranium is completely irrelevant for any of the current reactors.
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  4. Yes, because it was on the internet it must be true. Wait... how old are you? :-)
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  5. They may have to go back to it. ;-)
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  6. I would buy horseshit. Way more valuable than either. ;-)
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  7.  @lsethhill  I am merely here to feed trolls. ;-)
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  8. Ukraine is winning. Why else would Russia be mobilizing every 60 year old alcoholic man they can find? ;-)
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  9. I agree but I didn't sense any animus by him against the political party itself. Instead he emphasized that the pacifist position of the German government is a necessity for a peaceful Europe, which is basically the core position of the German left. I think it is pretty obvious that absolutely nobody in Europe disagrees with the Germans on that point, either. A strong Germany is a serious threat. OTOH, Germany and Japan are both being dragged back into reality by their irresponsibly acting neighbors. They can not afford to be fundamentally pacifist any longer. They have to start carrying a big stick, potentially even a nuclear tipped one.
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  10. When did we do that? Oh, I remember... that was roughly around the time when you were talking about contrails a lot. ;-)
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  11. Yes, China had 5000 awful years and it's setting itself up to add at least 50 more to that already very high tab. ;-)
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  12. I love the facts you countered him with... all zero of them. ;-)
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  13. You are correct. The difference between Western countries and Asia is that Western countries can grow through immigration. The Japanese, Koreans and to lesser extent also the Chinese are cultural isolationists. The US in particular, already has a Mexican manufacturing belt on its Southern border. In my opinion both the US and Mexico would greatly profit from making parts of that manufacturing belt a free trade zone. We could move the border fence into Mexico and create a safe zone for working class families from Mexico and Central and South American families who are trying to escape the criminal and political violence in their countries. It would solve the US immigration problem and stabilize Mexico and Central and South America.
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  14.  @TheMightyAbs  The unfortunate side effect of it is that the US and other well developed countries have been depleting economically less developed countries of educated people. This has been happening for a long time, of course. One can see the devastating effects even in some smaller European countries that are struggling and that have been moving to the political right of the spectrum. What else can be expected if we are removing young, left leaning middle class voters? Poland, Hungary and the former Eastern part of Germany are good examples of the political consequences of this migration. Of course this doesn't spell impending doom for China, but it means that the country is changing very quickly. China did try to mitigate the consequences of their one-child policies, but there is only so much it can do. I went to visit some time ago and I saw plenty of young people from rural areas in the big cities. The problem is that most of these young people were working low end jobs in hotels and restaurants. They weren't building a future for themselves by moving up the socioeconomic ladder. China's last young generations are now depleting the villages without actually adding all that much to the country's GDP. At the upper end the country has created millions of young employees with four year higher education or better, many of whom are now unemployed, so the growth in technological, service and administrative positions has not even kept up with the successful part of China's educational efforts.
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  15. The Russians just got routed from positions near Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka by tiny Ukrainian teams. Ukraine is simply maximizing the Russian losses at the front.
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  16. China's population implosion has been predictable since the 1990s and it has been predicted, even by Chinese experts. Dude, why are you telling us that you haven't been paying attention to the world for the last 30 years? ;-)
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  17. Nuclear weapons are not as hard to make and maintain as you think. Once you have the base technologies it's rather easy. So, yes, they do work. Maybe not all of them, but you still don't want to see a war with even 1000 working Russian nukes.
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  18.  @Yoda42481  What's wrong with your hearing? ;-)
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  19. Testing was never important. What is important is the number of people that have to be hospitalized. What testing can do, at most, is to produce a one to two week prediction for the number of hospitalizations, but it won't reduce it, nor will it change the idiotic minds of most politicians. Once a government decides that it doesn't care about the breakdown of the healthcare system, testing is all but irrelevant. China has given up on rational measures, hence it does not have to test people.
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  20. The Chinese Empire fell in 1911, the Russian Empire followed in 1917. Kid, you are way behind the times.
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  21.  @user-qu3tg1cr4l  Dude, just how much have you been drinking before posting this bullshit? :-)
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  22.  @user-qu3tg1cr4l  Too much, obviously. ;-)
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  23. When was that? In 1978? ;-)
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  24. I will give you $400 per ounce. That's roughly what used gold is worth. ;-)
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  25. China has fairly little interest in collapsing their own mineral markets by helping the Russians. Their goals are to maximize profits, not to destroy value in total.
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  26. Once you go black, you never go back. The most beautiful male body I have ever seen was in a changing room... it was an African American guy. I couldn't stop staring, even though I am as straight as a steel ruler. I kid you not. The man was made by god himself. Seriously. ;-)
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  27.  @theswede5402  That got you triggered. ;-)
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  28.  @theswede5402  The existence of gorgeous men is clearly upsetting to you. ;-)
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  29.  @theswede5402  I don't know what you are seeing in your mirror, but it can't be anything good. ;-)
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  30. You need to get help with that. ;-)
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  31.  @sammencia7945  Awh... look at you... you are feeling sorry for yourself. ;-)
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  32.  @sammencia7945  Why are you feeling sorry for yourself, kid? Am I not giving you more attention than you ever got from your Mom? ;-)
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  33.  @sammencia7945  OMG! You are such a sensitive flower. ;-)
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  34. Since Russia is disintegrating, the cost of being in that "group" is rising by the day. China has, more or less covertly, already left. India has no good options. Brazil and SA are irrelevant.
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  35. Nobody ever asked how many bird were being killed by habitat loss due to farming.
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  36. Many countries are pegging their currencies. That's not special to the Yuan. But why would anybody trade with the Yuan who is in business in the US? An American taxpayer can only pay the government in dollars. It wouldn't matter how much Yuan, gold, Moon dust or Mars tulips they had on their bank accounts. The tax bill is always due in dollars. So if a corporation wants to avoid nasty surprises with their tax bill, they have to trade in dollars. There is no way around that. As long as US corporations are dominating world trade, which will be for a long time to come, dollars it is. No, Yuan, not gold, not Moon dust and not Mars tulips.
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  37. His analysis of China is more or less the conventional wisdom. 4-2-1-0. :-)
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  38. Nobody ever reads what is written on it. It's actually an IOU. :-)
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  39. I did not notice that Russia itself is trying their hardest to be liked. Quite the contrary, they want to be feared. That is simply not going to happen. We don't fear bullies. We beat them.
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  40. There is no indication that China wasn't truthful in the beginning. That's because their policies were working. Asian cultures (not just China) turn to lies for the same reason every time: to save face. What you are really seeing is childish people being childish. Wait... that's no different from the Trump government... so what do you expect? I expect the same results as under the Trump government in the US.
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  41. Last time I checked farmers were literally begging the solar plant folks to buy or at least lease their worthless farmland. ;-)
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  42. I kind of doubt the US is making any kinds of decisions right now. It looks more like there are random moves that change directions daily with no follow up. ;-)
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  43. There is no big deal here as the economics doesn't work out. There are a trillion tons of gold in Earth's core. Nobody will ever try to get it out of there.
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  44.  @btan3495  Mineral deposits that are too expensive to exploit don't get exploited. Nobody wants to dig a giant hole in the ground that never returns the digging cost.
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  45.  @btan3495  The point is that I doubt that either of us know enough about the details of this deposit and the market prices to make any reasonable estimate if this will ever be a viable mining project. The difference between us is simply that I know that I don't know enough, whereas you seem to be an armchair coach. No offense, coach, but how many mining projects did you actually participate in at the C-level, where the decisions about the economics are being made?
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  46.  @btan3495  The "reports" for "investors" like you are advertising material. Dude, seriously? :-)
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  47.  @btan3495  No, you didn't mention anything in your comments that gives me the impression that you know what you are talking about. And that is OK. This is the internet, after all. Absolutely nothing depends on either of us being right about anything, anytime, ever. ;-)
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  48.  @btan3495  Perhaps I can read bullshit more slowly? Will it smell better if I do? ;-) There is much coverage? Dude, there was tons of coverage of cold fusion, too. Remember that one? Or how about the manganese on the ocean floor? Are you old enough for that? How about asteroid mining? It's the next big thing. Don't you know about that one? We will all be trillionaires by mining just one asteroid. And then I can find ten articles a day about a cure for cancer. They even have a miracle drug for weight loss now and a cure for baldness. There is a lot of coverage???? OK, just how old are you? ;-)
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  49.  @btan3495  Dude, you can't even tell when someone is simply making fun of you. So how do you imagine that you can tell if someone is trying to con you for good with a salty story about infinite riches from mining? ;-)
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  50.  @btan3495  How is my claim that neither you nor I have the actual geological data about the site and, more importantly, any kind of insight into cost structure of mining operations and future mineral market pricing indefensible? Dude, you need to stop drinking your own cool aid. ;-)
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  51.  @btan3495  You have good estimates for cost and profitability? Dude, you are making me laugh, right now. :-)
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  52.  @stennordenmalm1735  I agree. Now all I need to see is you investing all of your money in this venture. What could go wrong, right? ;-)
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  53.  @stennordenmalm1735  That all of you need to put your money where your mouth is. ;-)
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  54. China doesn't have supply woes and the main export items in Taiwan are semiconductors, the exploitation of mainland Chinese workers and bubble tea. A war for Taiwan will destroy the Taiwanese semiconductor plants, it will reduce Chinese GDP because China will lose the trade with the West, including the bubble tea exports. ;-)
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  55.  @Boomhauer11x  China's food imports are mainly meat and dairy, which are luxury items that are being consumed by the urban middle class. In terms of domestic production China produces enough grains to feed its entire population. Taiwan plays no role in any of that. The meat and dairy comes from places like Australia and New Zealand. Dude, why are you telling us that you are not informed about reality? Do I need to tell you to go back to school before posting such bullshit? ;-)
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  56.  @pardone8932  Then I would not have been competing against your job, either. I am happy to hear that you are doing well and that your parents could give you a good life. Why in the world would I not be? I am an immigrant myself. Twice, actually. I was a kid when my parents got out from behind the Iron Curtain. That allowed me to study physics in Western Europe. When I was done with my PhD I came to the US. This entire "Immigrants are taking our jobs" argument is total bullshit. When I came to the US 40% of the PhDs in those national labs were foreigners. The US simply doesn't make enough PhDs. It also doesn't make enough strawberry pickers. We need millions of people who will come here to make a better life for their children. Those children will go to school, then college. They will become doctors, lawyers and executives. THAT is how you make a country successful. With education, not with hate.
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  57. He wasn't talking about China going away. He was talking about the one-party system going away. The most likely replacement will be a military dictatorship and eventually potential dissolution.
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  58. The president isn't spending a dime. Only Congress is. Dude, you just failed civics 101. ;-)
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  59. Yeah, but absolutely nobody needs steel anymore now that China is finished building. So you are basically looking at a useless and unprofitable iron ore mine that has phosphorus and some rare earths mixed in with the useless stuff. The weird way in which they are writing their press releases tells me that they are simply trying to shore up shore price by appealing to total idiots. ;-)
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  60. Russia doesn't have any nuclear targets. That was always just bullshit talk by a really poor poker player. Russia also doesn't have a diplomatic strategy. It's cut off from diplomacy. There is nobody to talk to. Russia was betting on a three day war that would have taken Kiev, eliminated the government of Ukraine and replaced it with their own henchmen. After that didn't work they didn't have plan B. They still don't have a plan B. The curious thing is that the US was basically telling Russia and the entire world "Stop this bullshit. We can see you.". That was the only viable off-ramp Russia ever had. After that they had to go all in and they are discovering that they never had a winning hand.
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  61.  @agriskaminskis9352  No, I don't think Russian leadership is rational even within Russia's geopolitical situation. Technically there is not even leadership there, only a dictatorship. Putin doesn't lead. He commands. What about the Russian population? Absolutely nothing. Putin doesn't give a shit what the average Russian thinks. Why would he? He doesn't even care what his "advisors" think.
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  62.  @agriskaminskis9352  I don't see Russians flocking to anything. I see really badly organized fascist propaganda playing out in the worst possible way on Russian tv. Yes, you are not an expert, other than at spewing bullshit. So what? So absolutely nothing, kid. ;-)
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  63.  @agriskaminskis9352  I didn't notice any improvement in your understanding. ;-)
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  64. Yes, by far. :-)
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  65. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. ;-)
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  66. The Russian ruble is doing well, as well. Oh, wait... ;-)
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  67. China isn't dying. It's simply contracting, like every other developed nation.
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  68. Pretty much all of solar is PV at this point. Thermal plants are not profitable. You just don't have to believe his bullshit. He is good at geopolitics, but here he is talking total nonsense.
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  69. That's because you never go to the bank to ask for new bills. ;-)
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  70.  @joshmontgomery4040  Are you feeling sorry for yourself, already? That was quick. ;-)
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  71. The Germans don't feel a need for a strong military presence. At the end of the day they are living under a nuclear shield. The first and last thing the good people of Moscow would see of Berlin (other than as peaceful tourists) are the flashes of 500kton nuclear bombs over Moscow.
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  72. That is what we are being told. So it must be true. ;-)
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  73. China isn't adapting well. You can clearly see this in the absolute dictatorship strategies of Xi. The Chinese are rudderless and are trying strategies that have never worked in the entire history of mankind.
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  74. OK... Oklahoma and pretty are two words that I do not expect to see next to each other. ;-)
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  75. Nothing stops you from processing any fuel on site. All you need is a larger lot and a higher fence. :-)
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  76. The Millennials seem to be the largest. Gen X and you are already a tad smaller. You will have one child per family, i.e. your replacements will be half as many as you. Not only are you going to pay for the boomers and the millennials and GenX but you will also not have anybody to pay for you. :-)
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  77. Triggered. ;-)
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  78. The rent in Tier 1 cities is not low (Shanghai rents are easily $2000-3000 for good flats, which is basically above GDP per capita for China on average) and income for most people in lesser desirable areas of China is extremely low. So, no, living in China is not cheap for most.
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  79. None of those are high quality circuits. Yes, if you want an electronic door bell, then China can make the circuits for you. If you need a laptop chipset or a graphics card, no chance. Maybe the most successful venture for China, so far, are cheap cell phones for the developing world, but that's as far as they got.
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  80.  @chenchen5810  Of course, but those chips are literally selling for pennies, while a state of the art CPU/GPU etc. goes for hundreds of dollars.
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  81.  @JonySmith-bb4gx  The chip retailers. Where is your Mom, anyway? Why did she leave you alone? ;-)
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  82. No, because the average age of the population will keep increasing unless we let more immigrants in. Approx. one million immigrants per year would solve the social security problem forever. The only people who are preventing the solution are the racist baby boomers.
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  83.  @rudysmith1552  That's why they told you to pay attention in school. You didn't listen.
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  84. What does character change about facts, kid? How old are you? :-)
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  85. Russia will have to pay a lot more than $300 billion to Ukraine. What they are doing there will cost the Russian population many trillions of dollars over the course of the 21st century.
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  86.  @johndoe-vc1we  An extension of the EU all the way to Crimea is, of course, worth a pretty penny. :-)
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  87.  @cocosocialistrat8979  You are correct, even Hitler was a better man than Putin. He had the better army, navy and airforce, too. :-)
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  88.  @johndoe-vc1we  That is not what the Russian leadership is thinking, otherwise they wouldn't be mobilizing 60 year old alcoholics. ;-)
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  89. Europe isn't doomed, it's just not playing a smart game. China, OTOH, has doomed itself a generation ago when it pre-empted nature. Population growth would have stopped either way, but they basically drove themselves into a hard wall. Now China is aging by half a year per year. That's a horrible outlook, quite literally. You will soon see nothing but old people on the streets.
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  90.  @walter_the_danger  The US can invite as many young people from all around the world to immigrate as it wants. Assuming that it can get rid of its fascist a-oles, of course. If not, then it will end up like Europe... playing it dumb. :-)
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  91. The problem with an iron ore mine that also has phosphorus and 0.2% rare earths mixed in is that 99.8% of that shit is worthless iron ore that has to be separated out, which is most likely cost prohibitive. OTOH, if anybody wants to waste their money, I have some 150 year old Ye Old Nevada Silver Mining Company stock certificates that are not even worth the brownish paper they were printed on by those old-timey scammers in 1873. ;-)
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  92. I have a feeling that a new Russian government will call NATO to ask for protection of the Russian nuclear arsenal, eventually. Russia is a failed state.
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  93. What is toxic to produce? How toxic a production process is depends entirely on environmental regulations.
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  94. They didn't tell you in high school that tv is entertainment? You clearly need to ask for your money back. You got a crappy education. ;-)
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  95. It has been even ten years ago. The Chinese government has been tightening money flow out of Chine continuously to prevent the worst.
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  96. It's not a rigged system. All money is debt and always was. In the past it was the kings who created it and now it is the fed. Same difference.
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  97.  @se7ensnakes  The fed creates all the money, it just doesn't do it explicitly. What difference does it make to you whether a guy at the fed types a big number into a computer or a thousand guys at other banks do it in pieces and the fed signs off on it? The result is the same: the world has enough money to do business. Do you know what causes economic crises? When there is not enough money going around. That is catastrophic because then people can't pay their bills and then the folks who don't get paid can't pay theirs, either and so on and within a few months the entire world economy freezes. And then a few years later you have war. ;-)
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  98. What money would that be? ;-)
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  99. Look, Ma! The Russian troll is here. ;-)
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  100.  @knightsnight5929  Abusers are all the same. Whether it's a spouse abusing husband or a dictator... it's always the victim who is at fault.
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  101.  @NineInchTyrone  It clearly hit the mark. Even the man in your mirror agrees with me. ;-)
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  102. Replacing reasonably well educated Chinese people with very poorly educated Nigerian people who have one sixth the GDP per person is not exactly an offset. You need to start thinking before you write bullshit like that. There will never be much more than ten billion people on the planet and we can manage that number just fine.
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  103. The world economy is growing, which means that it needs more dollars. Nobody else can supply a reliable global currency.
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  104. Working in a factory was never anybody's dream, kid. Chinese youth doesn't want to work in factories anymore, either. ;-)
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  105. I am pretty sure you wrote that on a computer with a CPU made in the US. ;-)
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  106. It was on tv, so it must have been true. Wait... how old were you back then? ;-)
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  107. What US holdings are you talking about, exactly? Are we ever going to sell federal land to pay off the debt? No.
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  108. The curious thing about these claims is that I have seen a lot of solar panels in my life. I have never seen any environmental damage done by them. ;-)
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  109. Yes, China is undoubtedly the world's largest manufacturer of toasters. ;-)
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  110. Awh, you are so cute when you are crying. :-)
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  111. Zhao Lijian can be one of two things: a disgrace to China or the proof that China is a disgrace. Pick your poison. ;-)
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  112. Cry some more little Russian troll bot. ;-)
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  113. And there is the man who doesn't understand economics. Not a rare site on the internet. ;-)
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  114.  @SacredCowSlaughterhouse  History is largely driven by economics... and there is your problem. ;-)
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  115.  @SacredCowSlaughterhouse  Are you trying to impersonate Marx, right now? The original was stupid enough, but honestly, none of his impersonators can beat the original. ;-)
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  116. It's the 48th most abundant element. We are never going to run out of uranium.
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  117. Says the person who never went to college. Sound of one hand clapping. ;-)
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  118. Nobody will miss the Russians and the Serbs. Sorry to say... ;-)
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  119. That's cool, but drones are toys for manchildren and Chinese EVs are not on sale in the US. Not a single one. :-)
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  120. ​ @JonySmith-bb4gx Adults can import cars everywhere, but you are a just a child... so that's that. ;-)
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  121. Dude, the world economy is growing. As long as that is the case you absolutely have to print money, otherwise there will be rampant deflation and that is a deadly toxin. And what's a digital currency? :-)
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  122.  @swk327  Inflation doesn't come from money printing. It comes from an imbalance of supply and demand. If you haven't noticed... there is a huge labor shortage and things that used to be plentiful are suddenly missing in the stores. THAT causes inflation. It doesn't matter how little money you print, if something is short in the store, it will be expensive because there is always a buyer who will buy whatever quantity is available at a price that he can afford. If beef was suddenly $10,000 a lbs, the rich would be throwing $1million BBQ parties, even if the Fed would be burning a billion dollars a day. You need to study economics 101. There is no unemployment in the US. The current rate is at 3.5% (which is in the historic lows) and the number of non-farm employees grew by some 233,000. Are you even checking macroeconomic indicators before you write your bullshit? The tech sector is down because it has wasted an enormous amount of money on bullshit like VR and fintech and is now having an investor hangover. Kid, you don't even know the tech sector. China is a late-comer to the COVID game and it is being hit the worst at a time when its population is going into decline. The later has been known for over thirty years (4-2-1-0 families are not good for the labor force) and can't be changed with monetary police, neither by China or any other country. That's dialed in for at least another 30 years. Seriously. Try to learn before you speak. OK? ;-)
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  123.  @swk327  Why are you telling me that you don't know how the stock market works, either? And what's with the crayons, anyway? ;-)
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  124.  @swk327  Why are you telling me that you have not read a single modern book? I really don't care that you can't pull your head out of the intellectual sewer of the 18th century. ;-)
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  125. Yeah, Montana is a shithole. What does that have to do with solar power? ;-)
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  126. The go and invest your money in a Chinese apartment. What could possibly go wrong? ;-)
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  127. You don't like the message? You were here to be told that your crypto is worth more than horse shit? Awhhhh... how disappointing for you, kid. ;-)
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  128.  @whateverrandomnumber  You don't have either dollars or horse shit? OK, that really sucks. ;-)
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  129. Absolutely nobody needs uranium.
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  130.  @abaddon1371  Yes, absolutely nobody needs Uranium. We can easily make those 14% electricity (not total energy!) with renewables. That is what I said: absolutely nobody needs Uranium. ;-)
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  131.  @abaddon1371  It took you five seconds to write that bullshit? That explains why it's bullshit. ;-)
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  132. Why would we stop immigration? The best and brightest from all countries, including China, want to come to the US. ;-)
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  133. Dude, you need to get help with that. :-)
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  134. It is entirely feasible. I has been the technology of tomorrow tomorrow for at least 70 years. That's a solid track record for a future technology. ;-)
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  135. Great analysis.
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  136. The Chinese have more large cities than they have nuclear warheads. China is extremely vulnerable to nuclear attacks. They have ZERO interest in a nuclear war that would destroy 80% of their country's infrastructure value in a matter of minutes.
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  137. Did you notice one consistent thing about Trump? His "friends" always bite the dust. If Russia is Trump's "friend", then time's up. ;-)
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  138. A lot of US systems are more or less useless outside of their intended use by American Forces, which are the most integrated forces in the world.
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  139. China managed to prevent the outbreak for three years. They just never managed to vaccinate their population. That is their only mistake.
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  140.  @huntermoon6220  Of course the vaccine prevents transmission. A person who isn't getting sick does not transmit the virus. Dude, we teach this in kindergarten. What were you doing back then? Drilling for oil in your nose? And what's with the childish crayons, anyway? ;-)
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  141. What is prohibitive about the cost of a Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt? Dude, that you can't afford a Tesla is your problem. :-)
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  142. I think we can rename it now to BICS. Russia stopped being a leading emerging country. So that makes four, again. China is flaming out because demographics is destiny and India can't even educate its own population. The same is true for South Africa... and Brazil is self-destructing politically at the moment. So we might as well call them the four economic stooges and the total idiot that went postal. ;-)
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  143.  @johndoe-vc1we  Dude, absolutely nobody wants to be protected by Russia. All Russia does to the countries that it claims to protect is to send their male population to be slaughtered in Ukraine. :-)
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  144.  @johndoe-vc1we  I doubt that Brazilian minds have much in common with either Russian minds or Chinese minds. In any case... the GDP of Brazil is less than that of the State of New York. Let me clarify. The GDP of Brazil is roughly equal to the GDP of the metropolitan area of the City of New York. :-)
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  145. So you basically saw an experiment 40 years ago that has absolutely nothing to do with the reality today. Sound of one hand clapping. ;-)
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  146. If you are still living in a coal fired neighborhood, then you are not that smart, kid. Which is kind of obvious from your post, anyway. ;-)
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  147. And there is the gold troll who doesn't know that there is not nearly enough gold in the world to make any of that happen. :-)
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  148. Why would your grandkid be doing better by working in a factory than in an office? Have you ever done industrial work? It's demeaning and bad for your health, even under the best of circumstances. You are like the coal miners 40 years ago who were chanting "My grandfather worked in a coal mine! My father worked in a coal mine! I am working in a coal mine and my sons will be working in a coal mine!" a few days before they shut the coal mines down. The sons went on to live much better lives in other professions. ;-)
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  149. Wait... he wants to destroy NATO with an army that can't even take on a single weak county? You know what they call that, right? Mental disease. ;-)
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  150.  @kopkaljdsao  My calendar shows it's 2023. Somebody should have replaced Putin's a long time ago. ;-)
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  151.  @tyroneshoelace9832  Ukraine doesn't need that much money. I think we gave them something like 5% of the annual defense budget of the US, so far. ;-)
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  152.  @tyroneshoelace9832  To the US? No, kid. That's chump change. We have real money. We have the only money in the world that is actually worth something. ;-)
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  153. China has already overbuilt it infrastructure for the people it has and it depends on construction. That was the major driver of its economy. They are building one empty city after another because they are addicted to it like to a drug. Soon much of the country will look like a ghost town. I have been there and I have seen it. It's ridiculous.
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  154.  @cyagen9782  I haven't been following German politics for a few decades, so I can't comment on individuals. Competent politicians are generally rare. The best ones are usually trying not to get in the way of competent administrators. Maybe you are not old enough, but I can assure you that the Bundeswehr was already underfunded under Kohl. It's not a recent development. NATO, including the US, always saw the German army as canon fodder in the conflict with Russia. Having a half million strong army with limited resources opposing the Russians during the cold war had only one purpose: to buy the Americans and the Russians enough time to determine if WW III was going nuclear or not. That was well understood within the Bundeswehr 30 and probably even 50 years ago. There is absolutely nothing new about the situation and it is not specific to any political party. Germany is not an equal partner within the EU, not even on the level of economics. It is still the 19th century juggernaut of Europe and given its size, geographic location, population size and industrial strength it will continue to stay that. The other European countries have absolutely no desire to see it armed in addition, Russia or not.
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  155. And then another 16 years under other democratic presidents. That's the least amount of time the GOP will need to recover from Trump. :-)
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  156. That's a magical technology, indeed. But then.. if you have magic, don't you just wave your magic wand and endless power comes out of the wall socket? ;-)
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  157. Dude, you need to get help with that. Seriously. ;-)
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  158. Can you show me those "giant graveyards"? :-)
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  159. If you ask the Chinese, that's exactly how they feel. That's why so many want to leave. ;-)
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  160. He didn't say that low end production is returning to the US or that it should. We don't have anywhere nearly enough people to support that kind of business to begin with. Even if we wanted to, we could simply not get enough employees to compete with Asian countries. I think your assertion that Africa is the next place to be for manufacturing didn't get lost on the Chinese. They are desperately trying to get economic and political control over the continent.
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  161. Russia is very large and it has lots of resources. That makes the fall very deep and long.
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  162. I am being told about all those super-duper Chinese chips... but when I go to any of the standard electronics distributers, there ain't any on sale. I can't get as much as a decent precision opamp from China... a product category that is approx. 50 years old now and requires little more than a simple bipolar process. ;-)
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  163. Why would there be a crash? Can you explain in detail?
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  164. NATO is giving up hope that Russia will become peaceful without being destroyed completely. ;-)
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  165. I recently visited Europe. The prices there have increased by just as much. It's a global world. The global supply crunch has caused price adjustments everywhere.
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  166. China did have a special sauce: their own genocide under Mao, which made their political leadership rational for a generation and a half or so. Now those rational politicians have been replaced with Xi and company.
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  167. How much vodka have you been drinking, friend? ;-)
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  168.  @michelbisson6645  So it's more of a medical problem, then? :-)
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  169. Germany had a nuclear program going during the war. They simply didn't have enough money. Kid, what is the name of your school again? Responsible parents want to know where not to send their kids. ;-)
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  170. What was he wrong about? The Chinese population collapse? It's happening even according to recent Chinese government data. The collapse of Chinese economic growth? It's happening even according to Chinese government data.
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  171. The US population is growing by 0.4% per year. China's population is in terminal decline. :-)
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  172. China did everything right with COVID... until they did everything wrong. They will pay the same price as all the other countries that did it wrong (like the US): millions of deaths. That's not all that hard to understand.
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  173. Dude, Ukrainian soldiers are training on them, already. It's just a matter of these soldiers finishing their training. :-)
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  174.  @dukebeach1  Poland has already declared that Ukraine will get the tanks, with or without German approval. Easy. ;-)
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  175. Beating Russia is priceless, kid. ;-)
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  176. Ah, the EV fire troll is here. ;-)
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  177. The question is not whether China will survive or not. The question is whether it will find a way to join the civilized world without self-destructing one more time. Before Xi that looked like a possibility. After Xi... not so much.
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  178. I wouldn't bet on either because solar energy is not only ten times cheaper but it will also be sorely required as a shade for many crops in a warming world. We will literally have solar coming out of every orifice before these reactors will be ready for primetime.
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  179. Nobody knows the CCP anymore. Xi destroyed it single handedly. Look, the man only knew one thing in his entire life: how to move Xi up the ladder. He doesn't care about anything else. And that is not what China needs. China needs leadership that cares about China.
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  180. Who wrote that script for you, kid? It sounds like it came from somebody who had way too much Baijiu. :-)
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  181.  @patriot-h3f And now you are just feeling sorry for yourself. ;-)
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  182. That's what Chinese propaganda wants us to believe anyway. But then... who gives a shit about Chinese propaganda? ;-)
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  183. I am sure you have data to prove that. Oh... wait... you are not a data driven person. :-)
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  184.  @kelvinlamarjones  Dude, you can't threaten an old man with the future. He doesn't have one. Just how childish are you, kid? ;-)
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  185. The problem is that it's not the 14th century any longer. Xi is misplaced in the modern world. What wins is cooperation, not confrontation.
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  186. None. Good trolling, though. :-)
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  187. Name one piece of high tech that I can buy from China. ;-)
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  188. Everybody will stop laughing as soon as Walmart accepts it as payment for underwear and cheap children's bikes. ;-)
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  189. Because there ain't as many usable mountains as you think and there are very few locations where there are mountains and water at the same time. Hydroelectric resources have been mostly used up by now.
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  190. China could import all the workers it needs from countries like Nigeria. The problem is that just like our hard working white people the Han Chinese are racist, even towards the minorities within China. Just like in Japan using immigration as a solution to the problem is not an option for cultural reasons.
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  191. You have clearly not been listening, then. ;-)
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  192. All variants show "white lungs in scans". That was the first clinical sign of COVID before the genetic tests were available. Dudedess, you need to pay attention to reality. :-)
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  193. GDP in China is approx. $13,000 per capita. In the US it's 86,000. China will not overtake the US in the relevant metric in the 21st century and it's unlikely that it will last to the 22nd in its current form.
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  194. Wow, you are really triggered. ;-)
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  195. There are no two sides of reality. There is only one side: the one that agrees with the facts. What bullshit are they teaching you kids these days? :-)
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  196.  @raptorsan85  Well, in this case he is spot on. You simply don't know enough about Germany. Did you notice that there are a lot of Germanisms in my sentences? Where, do you think, do they come from? Might I be from that part of the world? Think, half century old man! Think! :-)
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  197. And we did, except for those who died on a respirator. They didn't go on. ;-)
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  198. That there are still lots of unvaccinated people in red states. ;-)
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  199. Russia is mostly atheist or orthodox Christian, none of which matches with American values.
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  200. That China has a population crisis is simply a fact. Why do you think they are recruiting in Africa now?
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  201. China is not even Xi. Xi is a projectionist. He is projecting his own ambitions onto a canvas that is not able to reflect them. The Chinese are incredibly private people. They don't want to be out there. They want well-being for themselves and their families but not military adventures that China was never capable of.
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  202. And it has. GDP growth was an anemic 5% according to official numbers, which we know are fake. ;-)
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  203. Triggered. ;-)
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  204. @ I love to see the triggered and beat the CCP trolls that populate the comment section of his content. ;-)
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  205. It would be a major economic boost for Germany. They would not mind that, at all, to become a large scale supplier. What they need, I believe, is to "have their arm twisted by their friends" to escape from their historical position. Japan is kind of there, already, because if the provocations by North Korea and China. Germany will, eventually, get there because of Russia. 20-30 years from now both powers will be armed to the teeth, possibly even with nuclear weapons.
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  206. That was a great counter-argument. See what I did here? ;-)
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  207. Dude, you need to stop drinking the reactor cool aide. :-)
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  208. Putin is simply hanging on for dear life on a ride that he chose to board himself.
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  209. Zeihan is (late) GenX.
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  210. That's the point. Soon China won't be able to make that $300 ebike anymore and you will buy it from Vietnam or Africa.
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  211. That is not the future. That has been the past since WW II.
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  212. The Chinese don't need more labor. Obsolete sectors like construction are being kept alive artificially exactly because they have too much labor and don't know what to do with it.
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  213. Cry some more, little Chinese troll. The biggest electronics assembly business in China is owned by Taiwan. :-)
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  214. The Russians could prove to you in a few hours that that's bullshit. You don't want that proof. Trust me.
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  215. It's pretty obvious that all capable English speakers have left Russia by now. ;-)
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  216.  @JonySmith-bb4gx  Awh, you are so cute when you are feeling sorry for yourself. ;-)
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  217. Then why aren't we seeing all these great cars over here? :-)
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  218.  @JonySmith-bb4gx  Did you notice how Tesla is building cars in China? If China is so great, then why can't it make cars in the US? :-)
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  219.  @JonySmith-bb4gx  That's just bullshit. There are no laws in the US that can stop BYD from building a factory in the US. You are just feeling sorry for yourself. How pathetic. :-)
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  220. Iran has been extremely rational in its efforts not to be annihilated by Israel lately. ;-)
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  221. I have been to China. I saw lots and lots of empty buildings. ;-)
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  222. Mostly the smaller Asian tigers. Corporations are also willing to pay a premium for geopolitical safety. If China decides to pull a Russia it will simply become untenable as a business location.
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  223. Where, exactly, are you seeing American decline, right now?
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  224. At least so they are telling you on the internet. So it must be true. ;-)
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  225. Yeah, it almost always blows offshore.
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  226. Iranians are not Arabs, kid. They are mostly Persians. They are ethnically a completely different people.
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  227. The US dollar has been around since 1792. Dude, why are you showing us that you are clueless about history? :-)
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  228.  @maximilianschwab9668  You didn't tell me why you don't know anything about history. Was your school so bad or you just didn't listen? ;-)
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  229.  @maximilianschwab9668  I did? Not according to the laws and regulations of the United States of America. I simply don't listen to internet trolls like you. ;-)
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  230.  @maximilianschwab9668  And now you are feeling sorry for yourself. ;-)
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  231.  @maximilianschwab9668  You are talking to a physics PhD, kid. And now you are felling REALLY sorry for yourself. ;-)
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  232.  @maximilianschwab9668  Dude, scientists have to be able to THINK freely. Your problem is simply that you are mistaking bullshitting for thinking. :-)
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  233.  @maximilianschwab9668  Dude, I am simply telling you that I don't do crazy. I am a physicist, not a psychiatrist. I can't treat people's delusions. ;-)
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  234.  @maximilianschwab9668  I already told you that I went to grad school. And now you are simply feeling sorry for yourself. :-)
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  235. Only crazy people think that gold has any intrinsic value.
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  236. Everybody will be rolling on the floor laughing about the Saudis. ;-)
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  237. Hopefully as many years as this nonsense has been going on. He should have said that this was going on for 20-30 years. I have seen ghost cities with my own eyes ten years ago. They are not a myth.
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  238. That sounds good... but it isn't true. The Belt and Road initiative is a desperate attempt of aged out Chinese leadership to prop up the aged out heavy industries of the country. ;-)
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  239. The FDA will visit your production facility on any country, if you want to produce pharmaceuticals for the US market. If they are not happy with what they see, then you simply won't get approval for your product in the US. You clearly have no clue how this works.
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  240. Russia died with the October Revolution. ;-)
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  241.  @johndoe-vc1we  The Bolivian Boliviano is more or less exclusive to Bolivia, too. That must make Bolivians very happy. ;-)
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  242.  @johndoe-vc1we  We are talking about small countries here. India has the GDP of California. Russia has a smaller GDP than Texas and Brazil has less GDP than the state of New York. South Africa has a smaller GDP than Minnesota. Leaves China, which has a rapidly collapsing and aging population and a new Emperor for life. :-)
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  243. Are you getting help with that anxiety of yours? ;-)
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  244.  @sparkyfromel  Of course financially literate people will laugh about your bullshit. They are also not licensed to treat anxiety disorders. For that you need a psychologist or psychiatrist. ;-)
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  245. It doesn't. That's the point.
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  246. He is showing you that he's a cool dude who is enjoying life. He is hiking in New Zealand while you are hanging out to dry in front of a screen made in China. ;-)
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  247. Approx. $100,000 per person. How much real estate can you buy these days for $100k? Approx. a parking lot's worth?
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  248. This debt isn't guaranteed by anything. Just because you own a government bond doesn't mean that you can go and ask the government for a piece of federal land. Well, of course you can, but then the guys in the white coats will show up to take you to the closed ward. The US can simply devalue the US dollar and then it will pay back less (to almost nothing). No big deal.
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  249. Criticism has to be well founded in facts. Patriotism is just a word that is being used to make cannon fodder out of idiots. ;-)
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  250. It won't work out too well for Africa, but then... absolutely nobody cares about Africa at the moment.
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  251. Supporting young families doesn't help. Plenty of countries are trying that and they are all failing. Single kids don't have a strong psychological desire to have children and certainly not to have multiple children. Quantity also doesn't help. China needs a smaller population but much higher GDP per person. Achieving the latter is the hard part.
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  252.  @andersemanuel  The facts in industrial nations contradict you. The birth rate is usually significantly below 2. Rearing children is a pain and expensive. It's not fun and it's not necessary. Rich people don't give a rat's tail about what poor people do. You are clearly not a rich person. You do have your brain stuck in the past, though. :-)
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  253.  @andersemanuel  I am sure they will all make lots and lots of grandchildren for you. And this is where I turn around and walk away slowly... ;-)
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