How and why China is doing much better than USA

[Important to read the following. It is a comment on an article in the Unz Review. It provides a brief overview of something deeply lacking in our society and in most in the world—a way to place the brightest, most talented and capable people at or near the top of society where, in the main, they will make better decisions than less talented and less intelligent people. Everything below this is a quote. ABN]

People go where they can exercise their talents to the fullest.

I emigrated to the US because grad schools here offered me opportunities that did not exist in my native Australia.

Now China’s crushing immature technologies like quantum communications, AI, supercomputing and utterly dominates every aspect of clean energy.

And they outspend us on R&D, big time. Biden’s promising $1.5 billion for quantum computing. Xi committed $10 billion.

We’ll never keep their best and brightest, the IQ 140+ crowd. China offers them unique opportunities.

Officials in China are held in much higher regard than dukes in the UK, and similarly descendents’ marriage prospects for generations.

These days, the smart kids choose administration or research, but the smartest choose both, because the selection committee (the opaquely named Organization Department) is looking for leaders who are empathic and intellectual geniuses.

Xi, for example grew up in a desperately poor village whose people cast their eyes down in his presence because he could read, and ate bark most winters. He visited and fretted about them until they started giving guided tours of where he lived with them, telling tales of his youth, and showing cracked, faded photos of him as a teenager.

Self-educated, he eventually got a (grudging) BSc in chemical engineering, from Peking University, and later, a PhD in rural marketization.

The #1 priority of the current 5 Year Plan is raising rural incomes through rural marketization.

In 2021, 28% of farmers’ profits came from direct sales to consumers. Billions of smartphones, millions of drones and thousands of miles of high speed rail let Beijingers choose oranges from the bough and receive them next morning.

China’s next president could be one of two current provincial governors. Both have physics PhDs. They previously ran the rocket and space programs, and now they’re ‘father and mother officials,’ to a hundred million people, and responsible for doubling everyone’s real wages of by 2031.

Where else can you exercise such talents?

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“Why do breakthrough infections with Omicron have a deleterious impact on both, individual and public health? Why will re-vaccination of C-19 vaccinees with an updated S(Omicron)-based C-19 vaccine during a pandemic make breakthrough infections even more likely and further increase population-level immune pressure on viral virulence?”: Geert Vanden Bossche

…In conclusion, poor neutralizing capacity of anti-S Abs in vaccinees not only enhances their susceptibility to breakthrough infection with Omicron but is also suspicious of delaying viral clearance, thereby promoting prolonged viral shedding and potentially predisposing vaccinees to long-haul Covid while causing them to exert sustained immune pressure on viral virulence [1]. The likelihood of breakthrough infections in C-19 vaccinees will even further increase upon their re-vaccination with an updated S(Omicron)-based C-19 vaccine during the pandemic. This is because re-vaccination will boost the infection-enhancing anti-S Abs and thereby further increase the susceptibility of vaccinees to breakthrough infection. This will result in an even higher capacity of the ACE2 receptor to outcompete broadly neutralizing anti-S(Omicron) Abs for binding to the S-RBM.  

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“An enduring myth about the Soviet Union is that its economy collapsed under the burden of its military spending. This story allows America to congratulate itself on ‘winning’ the Cold War by driving it to collapse under the fiscal weight of the arms race. This is not true”

An enduring myth about the Soviet Union is that its economy collapsed under the burden of its military spending. This story allows America to congratulate itself on "winning" the Cold War by driving it to collapse under the fiscal weight of the arms race.

This is not true. (1/8)

In fact, the Soviet military industrial complex was by far the most cost effective and technologically sophisticated sector of the Soviet economy. The general academic consensus is that the Soviet Union had a comparative advantage in both military R&D and production. (2/8)

Mark Harrison, a economic historian who specializes in the Soviet Economy, wrote that nobody "saw the Soviet Union being crushed under an unbearable military burden." He furthermore deduced a counterintuitive motivation for Soviet secrecy about such matters. (3/8)

The Soviets were secretive about defense expenditures – not to hide a crushing fiscal burden, but actually to hide how cheaply they were able to make weapons! The Soviet state made a huge profit exporting weaponry, and did not wish to make known the size of the markup. (4/8)

Continue reading ““An enduring myth about the Soviet Union is that its economy collapsed under the burden of its military spending. This story allows America to congratulate itself on ‘winning’ the Cold War by driving it to collapse under the fiscal weight of the arms race. This is not true””

“Stop the Asian lies. We don’t give a flying f**k when you ask us where we’re from”

Stop the Asian lies. We don't give a flying f**k when you ask us where we're from. 😂 Liberals getting mad for us. First and foremost Im a MF American.

Originally tweeted by Steve Inman (@SteveInmanUIC) on May 1, 2022.

I 100% agree and will add that asking where someone is from is the most American of all questions. We all ask it all the time. Everybody wants to know the answer. ABN

Gonzalo Lira speculative analysis of Ukraine outcome

Consider this map of a possible future Ukraine, and let's take on the point of view of Putin, the Kremlin and Russia.

What would be Russia’s preferred outcome? What would they like to see three years from now?

Obviously, Russia wants to annex east and southern Ukraine, as per the map—and they will.

When they announced that residents of Kherson would be obliged to use rubles for their commerce, that’s as clear a signal as any as to their true long-term intentions: Full annexation.

The Russians will want a compliant, pacified rump-Ukraine.

Continue reading “Gonzalo Lira speculative analysis of Ukraine outcome”

“This is a nightmare unfolding in slow motion. And this is the point where we are going to have to draw the line: No, Joe Biden you CAN’T have the federally funded Ministry of Truth. And no, Nina Jankowicz can’t run it. PERIOD… It’s not your country. You’re not even compos mentis and you don’t get to do this to a free people. PERIOD.” Tucker Carlson

“What you’re seeing is a full scale attack on free speech in a country that has been free for nearly 250 years. And it’s happening at the direction of the US government through a law enforcement agency.” ~TC

Compos mentis means “of sound mind.” Another great essay by Carlson. ABN

“Under this stipulation, withholding info is then misinfo as well”

On the subject of covid alone, the US government is patently guilty of promulgating misinformation that caused and is still causing enormous loss of American lives. The American system is based on free speech, transparency, and open debate, all of which are also the bedrock of science. During the pandemic and still today not one single government official agreed to debate even highly respected doctors and scientists on covid issues. As a nation, we are clearly best served by robust and open debate and discussion. As a totalitarian state ruled by bureaucrats and bribery, they are best served by stifling debate, opacity, and restricting speech. On covid alone, our government’s policies have been far, far more propagandistic than scientific. ABN

Gonzalo Lira, with admirable brevity, on Ukraine war: “It’s over”

With Anthony Blinken suggesting that Ukraine and Russia should resume negotiations, the US is signaling that they know the war is lost.

NATO will NEVER get into this war, even if there’s a Ukraine provocation in Transnistria—because NATO knows it will lose to Russia.

1/3

So expect a lot of other international news—Iran, China, Solomon Islands, etc.—to start taking up the attention bandwidth.

The only play for the Biden administration at this point is to distract and divert, and make people forget about Ukraine.

2/3

You have to understand what Blinken and Lloyd Austin’s visit with Zelensky in “Kiev” (probably Poland) really was—

It was a kiss-off. It was the signal to the Zelensky regime that US/NATO will not supply heavy weapons or planes, and will not get into this war.

It’s over.

3/3

Originally tweeted by Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) on April 27, 2022.