TIRM
21hr ago
The Chinese leadership has ramped up efforts to ensure there is enough food for its population amid the falling food self-sufficiency rate. As a matter of facts, national food output in China slumped from 93.6 percent in 2000 to 65.8 percent in 2020, and it is expected to reduce to 58.8 percent by 2030.
Oct 7, 2023
Some other sites claim something comparable. But I didn't look very hard.
TIRM
1d ago
kesslering every useful orbit as the first move, which would likely destroy any long-range precision weaponry
Long range missiles have inertial guidance and compare the ground beneath them to topographical maps. And they've had these features for decades. I'm sure destroying all satellites wouldn't improve their circular error probable, but they'd still mostly work.
TIRM
1d ago
China is 90-95% secure on grains with huge stockpiles
I thought China was extremely food insecure. The CCP has recently been pushing to make them less extremely food insecure, but with their relatively tiny amounts of arable land and fresh water, there's only so much they can accomplish. They are very reliant on imported food from the US and in recent years are increasingly reliant.
That's actually one of the successes of international trade and comparative advantage. The US has an excess of arable land, China has no where close to enough. So we sell them food. Chinese people really like pork. When a Chinese person eats a bite of pork, that pig was fed on American animal feed. When a Chinese person eats a local soy-based dish, those are probably American soy beans. They can't grow anywhere near enough soy to feed their people. That's okay, we'll sell them 100 million tons of soy beans per year.
If China attacked Taiwan and the US stopped shipping them food, how soon until mass starvation? Which I get won't be very comforting to Taiwanese people with no electricity and also no food.
TIRM
7d ago
That quote is more than a little silly. I doubt its factual accuracy. Dismissing it as fiction is just the right call here.
TIRM
8d ago
Google tells me that Indian farmers make around $225 per month. You can't squeeze blood from a stone. And my vague understanding of Indian norms is that they casually disregard American-style patent laws in order to shamelessly steal the drugs we make at enormous cost. So I really doubt there's any ability or will to target Indian farmers.
TIRM
8d ago
Is anyone actually trying to enforce bio patents against Indian farmers? Is this a real thing that's really happening, or is it just fantastical speculation?
And isn't golden rice exempted from patent enforcement anyways? The relevant patent holders have agreed to not try to enforce their patents against asset-free 3rd world farmers.
TIRM
9d ago
Premium Android phones in the iPhone price range are almost unheard of in the US
I don't think so. The nicer Samsung phones (S and Note) are fairly popular. At least among the people I know.
As of February 2024 iPhones had a 60.77% share.
TIRM
9d ago
In other words there is no rules based international order
Yes of course. So strange that this is such a bitter pill for some people.
TIRM
9d ago
Imprisonment in the US costs 10s of thousands of dollars per prisoner per year ($133k/year in California). Making them stamp license plates cannot be enough to make economic sense. I'm pretty sure it is a large net loss. But then it would be a bit larger of a net loss without the forced labor.
TIRM
9d ago
Yes. And the real life version of that cartoon is Barry Deutsch telling his doctor about health problems caused by his enormous fatness and then not liking his doctor correctly blaming his weight.
TIRM
9d ago
"Your understanding" is, respectfully, "just trust me, bro". But yes, some significant portion of 19th century women immigrating to America were prostitutes. Chinese included.
There's an obvious point that young men are most willing and able to immigrate or take other massive risks. Are you claiming a particular point about 19th century Chinese immigrants supportable by historical evidence? Or did they bring the standard crew of mid-19th-century immigrant women with them?
I admire your incredible ideological consistency. Modern society is so massively skewed in the other direction.
And as obscure historical note Van Buren is the outlier president in that he is not a descendant of Irish or anglos. He is the only president not descended from or closely related to King John of England. Including Obama through his mother. Van Buren is the only German outlier bucking the trend.
On the other hand my grandparents are almost caricatures of "all American" people. They happen to be the descendants of Irish immigrants, like many almost-caricature examples of Americanness. But being an American transcends the national origin of your ancestors according to common understanding.
TIRM
10d ago
Are my grandparents (born and raised in the US) not Americans but instead Irish because they are the descendants of Irish immigrants and not any anglos from the original colonies?
Was President van Buren not an American?
TIRM
10d ago
Chinese men and women immigrated to America starting in the 1850s. I don't have stats on the proportions, but some amount of women also came over similarly seeking economic opportunities and fleeing the economic mess that was China circa 1850.
TIRM
10d ago
No one likes illegal immigration, so that's a moot point.
Excuse me what? Have you not been following the news recently? Or do you not count the tsunami of illegal crossings as illegal immigration?
TIRM
10d ago
"Your diabetes is so advanced your limbs are falling off." "Stop fat shaming me."
TIRM
10d ago
My doctor is an African immigrant. Which as HBD enjoyers have informed me means he is probably an unusually high IQ individual.
Subjectively he seems competent enough to me. And by importing an African some American medical program got to juice their diversity stats. Win, win.
TIRM
10d ago
Yes. Medical mistakes kill around 440k Americans per year. It is a leading cause of death. A moderate increase in medical screw ups could be deadly on a societal level.
TIRM
11d ago
I saw something about black surgeons having poorer performance by some metrics. Trying to find it now Google is disregarding my search terms and instead showing irrelevant articles about how we need more black surgeons and how black patients may be receiving worse medical care. Thanks for nothing, Google.
TIRM
16d ago
There's this thing where a few European countries sign a treaty, let's say agreeing not to use cluster bombs (not that they have any or were going to start using them), and then declare that the US and Israel are violating international law. High minded talk about rules based international order, etc, which seems to me to be a few countries making up rules America never agreed to and then trying to impose them onto us. A strange backwards situation in which the feeble try to tell the mighty what is allowed. At this point I roll my eyes when I see claims that America or Israel is violating international law.
So yes: I don't much believe in a rules based international order and I especially don't believe in one imposed onto us by some European countries.
I know I'm coming in hot on this one, but it is such bullshit. The Hague Invasion Act is the correct expression of our contempt.
TIRM
16d ago
You could block them. I haven't blocked SS, but I also don't read their screeds about the Jews.
TIRM
16d ago
I discuss and plan with my colleagues.
A cabal of Jews conspires.
I don't have a great point here, but headlines using hostile language that is technically valid. They aren't strictly wrong, but they didn't choose to frame this as a conspiracy by accident.
Not even a month's salary post-tax. That's truly nothing. I'm wondering where these rumors come from.
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