I've now done so, thank you for the feedback.
Biden first has to answer the Parliamentarian's riddles three. sadly he got those riddles wrong the first time when asking for literally any social benefits whatsoever, but then he hustlegrinded for a couple years so he could answer them correctly to send weaponry to Israel
#Tradle #730 5/6
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https://oec.world/en/tradle
spoiler
In the middle there I mixed up Mauritania and Mauritius which made me very confused before I realized where it was pointing and put together that it was a coastal western-central African petrostate with an economy that isn't very large, so I just went for the only one I knew of
I do about half the time. I'm getting a lot better at geography and where nations are in general. I used to be god fucking awful anywhere that wasn't western Europe and very select parts of the globe, but now I actually stand a reasonable chance of knowing where many if not most developing countries are. The issue is when I'm taking a test of knowledge, even as basic as a Tradle question, then suddenly my brain throws out all conception of distance and angle. So for the less obvious ones, after staring at it for a minute trying to figure out how long 1000 kilometers actually is, I eventually just give up and look at a map and eyeball it
The number of deaths per day in China has increased markedly from the early 20th century, and the only variable that could possibly be causing it is totalitarian government oppression
In the UK, you get studies and recommendations about it (and I've seen a fair share of videos online over the years about how great it is) but I don't think the people who want this without being socialists quite understand that the suffering is a feature, not a bug. Let's say the total labour done by the population does actually increase if a 4-day work week was mandated - the thing is that you're meant to feel permanently exhausted from work, that's one of the negative forces keeping workers from putting effort into things like creating organizations and parties.
The only way I could see it taking off is if a socialist government took power electorally and wasn't immediately couped (impossible) or if businesses decided by themselves to do this. And again, outside of pilot studies, it's simply not going to happen. You're not going to convince them, you'd have to use force, and that is hecking anti-free market and therefore the worst possible blasphemy against our holy god, The Economy. But liberals and socdems think that those businesses can be convinced, hence all the studies, so at this point I almost feel a kind of disdain for the idea despite it being theoretically good just because it's wasting time and energy.
It annoys me in the same way that the way the rest of India connects to that little area with Manipur in it between Bangladesh and Bhutan, regardless of the politics going on there. And that's not even getting started on the India-Bangladesh border itself, which is a total mess.
The award has to go to Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands, though. I don't even know how to express what a clusterfuck that place is.
Pakistan's democracy hanging by a thread
More on the Pakistani elections.
Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan's new prime minister Sunday amid a swirl of accusations that his party, in concert with the Pakistani military, rigged the elections.
Earlier this month, voters in Pakistan woke up to what initially appeared to be an overwhelming victory to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and a strong rebuke to the powerful military-backed government in the country’s parliamentary elections. Instead, the election was ultimately called for the military's preferred candidate, Sharif, of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Early results, broadcast widely by the Pakistani media, had shown a landslide victory for PTI. After the election was called for Sharif's party, nonpartisan observers like the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) found that there were election law violations at over two-thirds of polling sites, which almost certainly helped change the outcomes.
This was in addition to unprecedented efforts by the Pakistani military to discourage voter turnout and intimidate candidates running with the populist PTI, including forcing PTI-aligned candidates to run as independents, banning the PTI’s iconic cricket bat symbol from the ballot in a country where a significant number of illiterate voters rely on those symbols to identify candidates, and widespread mobile outages.
Late in the evening of the election, after an unusual gap in media coverage, constituencies where televised results and hard documentation (known as “Form 45s”) had shown PTI-backed candidates with commanding leads were suddenly showing “official” results in which PML-N candidates had surged to improbable leads, in some cases with PTI-backed candidates losing votes.
A high-ranking elections official in Rawalpindi, a city housing the military headquarters abutting the capital Islamabad, later confessed to flipping 13 constituencies against PTI-aligned candidates and accused the Election Commission of Pakistan and military leadership of orchestrating electoral theft.
In spite of these efforts to ostensibly skew the results in the PMLN’s favor, official results still showed the PTI with 93-seat plurality, eclipsing the PMLN’s 75 seats. But reducing the potentially-enormous PTI mandate into a bare plurality left the party incapable of overcoming a coalition of the PMLN and the PPP — Pakistan’s other dynastic political party — and forming a government.
I honestly find it pretty funny that US elected officials are trying to be like "Oh no, we should encourage democracy in Pakistan and oppose this tampering!" as if the US weren't the ones who created this situation and locked up Imran Khan in the first place. I assume these people are gonna get a knock on their door by the deep state and they'll fall silent pretty quickly.
U.S. Seeks Semiconductor Supremacy with New Funding Initiatives
Or: If CHIPS was so good, why isn't there a CHIPS 2-- oh.
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The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act provides around $280 billion in funding for research and development into semiconductor technology and manufacturing operations. The funding includes $39 billion in subsidies for U.S.-based chip manufacturing, further supported by tax credits for operational equipment. It also contributes significant funds to the science and technology sector. The Act aims to revitalise domestic manufacturing, create well-paid jobs, strengthen domestic supply chains, and accelerate the industries of the future.
Currently, China is the biggest semiconductor market, purchasing more than 50 percent of the global supply every year. China continues to be highly dependent on semiconductor imports, sourcing many of its chips from the Dutch giant Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography (ASML) and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC produces around 80 to 90 percent of the world’s advanced semiconductors. China also hopes to develop its manufacturing capabilities. In 2023, Chinese companies bought U.S. chipmaking equipment to make advanced semiconductors, despite U.S. policies aimed at restricting China’s import of semiconductor-related technology, to slow its progress in chip production.
The U.S. is attempting to counter China’s dominance in the global semiconductor market by rapidly developing its production capabilities and striving for technological advancements. While the CHIPS Act has gone a long way in establishing the U.S. role in the global semiconductor market, some industry experts believe more is still needed. The United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo recently emphasised the need for federal subsidies in the industry to enhance the position of the U.S. in the international microchips market. She believes this can best be done through the launch of a second CHIPS Act to spur more funding.
Raimondo said, “I suspect there will have to be – whether you call it CHIPS Two or something else – continued investment if we want to lead the world.” She added, “We fell pretty far. We took our eye off the ball.” The development of a second CHIPS Act could support the construction of new chip foundries and the financing of semiconductor startups. It could also help the U.S. develop its technological capabilities in the field of specialised and advanced chip manufacturing.
However, billions in funding have still yet to be allocated from the first CHIPS Act, with the White House only recently announcing a $5 billion investment in a new chip research initiative (NSTC). In February, the U.S. government awarded $1.5 billion to New York-based chipmaker GlobalFoundries, which was its third and largest grant in the field of semiconductors under the CHIPS Act.
Nevertheless, some industry experts believe that federal funding, alongside private investments in the sector, will help the U.S. achieve chip manufacturing independence within the next two decades. The ambitious policy has also encouraged other world powers to develop similar investment schemes. In 2023, the EU introduced the $46.53-billion European Chips Act to boost competitiveness in the international semiconductor market.
Raimondo was quick to say that she doesn’t expect all semiconductor manufacturing to be situated in the U.S., but she believes the country’s role in the chip industry can expand substantially. “To be clear, we can’t and do not want to make everything in America. We don’t want to make every chip in America. That isn’t a reasonable goal,” Raimondo added. “But we do need to diversify our semiconductor supply chains and have much more manufacturing in the United States, particularly leading-edge chips, which will be essential for AI,” she explained.
Raimondo is not the only one who thinks the government’s investment in the semiconductor industry is too low to ensure meaningful change. The cost of developing chip manufacturing facilities in the U.S. is far higher than in many other parts of the world, such as Taiwan. Meanwhile, TSMC, the world’s largest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturer, spends almost $40 on equipment and research and development every year to advance its capabilities. Therefore, for the U.S. to catch up with TSMC and other major producers, it will likely need to invest significantly more in the sector in the form of grants and financial incentives to encourage higher levels of private investment.
But analysts have said the diplomatic mission is unlikely to yield any solid breakthroughs in the crisis due to Beijing’s continuing reluctance to intervene further – and threaten its neutral position in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Last month, Wang Di, director general of the foreign ministry’s West Asian and North African affairs department, became the first Chinese diplomat since the crisis began to visit both Saudi Arabia and Oman as he met with Saudi, Omani and Yemeni officials. In all his meetings, he had a similar message.
In Saudi capital Riyadh, Wang told Yemeni deputy foreign minister Mansour Ali Saeed Bajash that China attached great importance to “maintaining security and stability in the Red Sea region”, adding that Beijing supported Yemen’s “legitimate government”, but it would only pursue a “political settlement” on the anti-government Houthi militants. While there, he made the same point to Saudi Arabian officials – that Beijing was willing to work with the country to “restore safety and stability” in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Wang also highlighted China’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza during his tour, telling Omani officials that Beijing believed the Red Sea crisis was a “prominent manifestation of the spillover from Gaza”.
“Actually, Wang’s diplomatic visit is about furthering Beijing’s goal of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli issue, which is to achieve a ceasefire [in Gaza] through diplomatic mediation and political approaches,” he said. But Yin Gang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that since Wang was not considered a senior official of the foreign ministry, his visit was more of a “routine” one, underscoring Beijing’s reluctance to get more involved in the crisis. He noted that as the Houthi militants gave the green light to Chinese and Russian vessels in the trade corridor, Beijing needed to maintain a balanced approach so it would not be blamed for “conspiring with the Houthis and Iran”.
Looks like China is basically saying to the West: "Yep, this is your problem, not ours. Good luck with sorting it out. Maybe if you weren't supporting genocide in Palestine, things might not have gotten to this point. Fuck around and find out, what more is there to say?"
Apparently there aren't actually any defensive lines beyond Avdiivka? Whoops.
West of Avdiivka, no significant defense line has been built for Ukrainian troops, and the Russian army continues to advance. This was announced by the editor-in-chief of Censor, Yuri Butusov, following his trip to this area.
"There are no words. Gap: here in Kiev, the supreme commander-in-chief says one thing, but at the front something completely different is happening. I want to say that no field lines of fortifications have been built beyond Avdiivka so far. I saw Russian drones attacking our soldiers in their burrows in the middle of a field, " Butusov said.
According to him, no conclusions are drawn from previous failures. "If the government can't find builders to build at least basic rear lines of defense, if they can't find engineers to maintain modern equipment, drones, sensors, communications, if they can't find workers and technologists to produce ammunition, then there will never be enough attack aircraft," the journalist added.
Even the NYT is admitting it:
Sparse, rudimentary trench lines populate the area west of Avdiivka that Ukraine is trying to defend, according to a Times review of imagery by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company. These trench lines lack many of the additional fortifications that could help slow Russian tanks and help defend major roads and important terrain.
one of the most noticeable impacts of inflation is what it's doing to communism death tolls over the years. experts say that we'll be at 150 million deaths from communism by the end of 2025 if historical interest rates are not increased