The Democratic Party in Trump's Fascist 2nd Term. Commentary, Ideas & Strategy (+ non Woketicism)

Yeah.. And it isn't even just one. Bridge collapses are front page news in the US, but you never hear about them in China because they actively suppress any news.

Another example to the above.. Hundreds of motorists drowned when a major tunnel flooded in Zhengzhou, but did that crack US news? Of course not.

 

Between you, me, and my wife, at least one of the three of us has spent time in Chinese EV factories recently, and also has a lot of experience in Japanese and American manufacturing facilities for the purposes of comparison. It's not me. Maybe you have experience in this area. My wife definitely does, and she came back from her trip to China a few months ago saying that (a) China is generations ahead of the US in manufacturing, and (b) there's no point trying to make EVs in the US any more, because the market will be dominated by Chinese EVs. Elon Musk thinks so too, which is why he's always trying to get Tesla to pivot to AI or robots or spaceships or whatever, because he knows that Tesla as a car company has a limited future.

As far as the quality of the EVs she saw and rode in when she was there, she says that the features and quality on the high end cars compare will with the very best US and European cars, for significantly less money, and even the cheapest cars were comfortable and had more features than a low end Western car. Maybe they all fall apart after two years - she wasn't there long enough to test that. But also, Tesla was initially a Consumer Reports darling and Motor Trend Car of the Year until people who owned them started seeing reliability problems - these things can happen - and I'd put money on China fixing their quality issues for export cars, since they want to dominate the EV market.

For pollution, she was there (Shanghai) in the summer - maybe it was October, but it was like 90 degrees with 90% humidity every day she was there. Maybe they're still burning coal in the winter. Her previous experiences with pollution in China (trips to Shenzhen and Fuzhou, some years ago, before Covid) were not the case any more.

 

As with most things, it only seems OK until something goes wrong. Compared to European and Korean EVs, the quality of Chinese EVs are quite a bit lower. They have more safety recalls, perform worse in crash tests, etc, etc.

 

Covid as well at the start. I remember reading how some US officials were wary of the Chinese government because of past experiences.

 

I caught this in the grauniad the other day...

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds
World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

Of course, that's different from particulates.

I also read they're constructing twice as much wind and solar capacity as the rest of the world combined. Not sure how reliable that is, though.

 

Again, the advantage that Chinese EV manufacturers have is because of government subsidies. Chinese vehicles are absolutely less expensive than Western EVs, but that is largely because government subsidies have allowed them to sell the EVs below the cost of manufacturing and the Chinese government is paying for their R&D.

With air quality, is it better, as I said, removing ICE vehicles has absolutely improved air quality in the summer (or maybe warm weather months would be a better descriptor?), but it is not solved yet. The air quality in China on its best days is still worse than the worst days in Western cities.

 

Let's see how they fare on that UK report, based on braking down of the cars reported by their owners.

 

And nuclear and hydro power plants. China has a massive energy deficit and, as of now, the green energy that they are building is just filling that deficit and has not reduced the number of coal power plants. In fact, China is also building coal power plants at a high rate of speed.

 

You mean a pork roll?

 

And from my understanding, they steal a lot of stuff as well.

Personal anecdote, I know someone who used to design and manufacture rock climbing holds. He once told me he knew he was getting successful because somehow his designs were showing up in China. Funny thing is, he'd have been happy to share them.

 

Yeah, I think there's a difference between state-controlled capitalism and having an industrial strategy. One is the state controlling industries directly, the other is the state providing help and support for industry.

But it also depends what the industry is, of course.

Some things, (like healthcare), can function reasonably well with the state being heavily involved and/or regulating but that's because the 'desired outcome' ISN'T making a profit... it's keeping people healthy. It's the same with things like defence. You can't contract out the defence of the state to a private company.

With things like car and other manufacturing, private companies with state support is exactly what you need.

The problem with the chinese model isn't the overall effectiveness of the manufacturing companies... it's the poor sods that work for them who have little to no power against the company OR the state.

 

One of the biggest risks of manufacturing in China is the IP theft. As an example, Louis Rossman (who used to be one of the biggest youtube channels for Apple repairs, but is now mostly a huge proponent for right to repair) flat out admitted that most of the Apple parts he got were "off-brand" parts that he "somehow" got from Apple's Chinese manufacturers.

 

I don’t like where this is going

 

I should be clear here. I'm not discounting your wife's experience while she visited China. I even acknowledge that the air quality in China's major cities is improved because they have banned most ICE vehicles. I was just saying that it isn't solved.

 

The short answer is that Trump isn't the only person named in the Epstein Files and that, in addition to Trump and other Republican politicians and donors, there will also be Democratic politicians and donors listed.

As an example, Bill Clinton was a close Epstein associate and, allegedly, one of the reasons that Bill Gates's wife, Melinda, divorced him is because he is mentioned in the files.

 

You all did pick a good time to talk about bridges collapsing in China. One fell today.

I don’t think China will nor should they feel bad about IP theft from countries that literally fought Wars so they could get Chinese citizens addicted to opium.

I’m loving all the feedback, plenty of areas for me to do more research. With this being said, I’m still failing to see anyone make a good argument that Capitalism has been beneficial for people under the age of 40 in this country. The wealth concentration in big in percentages as well as by age is frankly just an unnatural state of affairs. If we lived tribally, with the way wealth had been distributed the way and the way elites have carried themselves someone would have eaten Peter Thiel’s gall bladder decades ago.

Why is this economic system built on exploitation and violence that seems to place the most antisocial personalities in charge of everyone else’s well being the best possible system moving forward? How does it continue to provide for American society when the ability to extract resources from other countries begins to wane?

Shouldn’t the elevation of men like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Larry Ellison et
cetera ad nauseum be a condemning statement against the system entirely? Obviously, China doesn’t have everything right, but the progress they have made since I have been alive corresponds to the decline I’ve witnessed in this country. So in short, if not socialism what then? Because neoliberalism to me only works if you ignore the massive violence and exploitation done in our country’s name abroad. And more specifically domestically Capitalism has never worked for minority groups. There have always been groups put down in this country because of differences. How can you not say that vice is inherent to Capitalism when it has persisted in some form for well over 500 years now?

I have yet to hear a Capitalist make valid arguments addressing those concerns, as well as some of the internal contradictions I listed earlier. Apple putting ads on their maps app or car companies starting to charge a subscription to active features that are built into the car are hardly innovations that deliver a better product at a lower price to people. in short, I find a lot of the arguments based on absolute horseshit.

 

Gates with a healthy amount of confidence is in the Files. Melinda made clear moves in response to information coming out. Some of it was buried, but his philanthropic efforts in retrospect seem to have been made with some foresight in mind.

 

I'm not saying that Capitalism is good. The point I'm making is that China's history is worse and the gains that they've made in the last 20 years has been at the expense of the Chinese people and not in their benefit.

 

Shout to @Kazuma and the Great Lakes Midwest Dems. Minnesota and Michigan with only a few seats in both houses have been going hard at it. We need to get a few more of them on the national stage.

 

It's obviously unfortunate, but...

Exactly.

The point at issue is that when the question is asked, 'If this stuff is damaging ONLY to Trump and those around him, why didn't the democrats release the information when they had power?', there needs to be a better answer than 'They wanted to retain decorum in public life', or, 'They didn't realise the explosiveness of the material because they're stupid' or 'The maga faithful wouldn't have believed it'.

All of those sound implausible to a quite spectacular degree.

The most likely scenario is that there are various people connected to BOTH parties that are in these files in one way or another.

This also ties into Epstein's MO of using his connections to gain control, (or at least, influence), over people in positions of power. IMO that's what is indicated in some of the emails that have just been released today and it confirms other information we already know about how the guy operated.