Trump Again Raises Tariffs On Chinese Goods & Services

Posted: 5/11/2019  revised: 5/12/2019

For lack of time, I cannot go into more details or topics of this trade dispute between the U.S. and China.

First of all, I am a staunch free trade supporter, but I am not blind to how free trade has been distorted in many ways over history …

My Two Cents On The Issue

Here are my two cents on this issue:

1. Free trade as it has been developed since World War II through e.g. institutions like GATT or its successor WTO, has been a far cry from real free trade. Managed or distorted trade would be a more accurate description
2. China still is a kind of Stalinist communist country (a totalitarian dictatorship)
3. Since joining the WTO, China has violated principles of free trade as has been reported many times. China does impose high tariffs on e.g. manufactured goods (e.g. cars); China has required/forced sharing of intellectual property with Chinese partner companies for access to its market and so on
4. State run and subsidized companies still dominate the Chinese economy. This is certainly not free market competition by any stretch of imagination
5. How leveraged is the Chinese economy? There are many reports about huge debt amounts in housing, banks, households etc.
6. Official Chinese statistics are very unreliable as is very typical for communist regimes
7. The Chinese regime has greatly promoted export over domestic consumption. No wonder that Chinese consumers either pay way too much for consumer goods and services or cannot find them. Just to give you one drastic example: Visit public restrooms in China. There are now a lot of them in major cities, however they are still mostly squat toilets (whole in the floor)  
8. The hope that China would transform to become a more Western type of democracy with more individual freedom and rights since it opened up at the end of 1970s has turned out to be wishful thinking
9. The current Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has installed himself as a dictator for life in 2018. Thus, destroying one of the most important safeguards of the Deng Xiaoping reforms, the term limited presidency

On The Impact Of High Tariffs

The Western media, economists, and so called libertarians are mostly preoccupied to wail about the higher costs to U.S. consumers, the detrimental effects on the the cross country supply chains, individual business that might be adversely impacted and so on.

On the other hand:

1. The ratcheting and drastic increases of tariffs is a very strong signal to China that President Trump means business and that he expects China to negotiate fast and without delaying tactics etc.
2. Higher import prices on Chinese goods & services incentivize new and existing U.S. businesses to replace those Chinese goods and services. Thereby, creating more business opportunities and jobs or robots in the U.S. etc. To my knowledge, this aspect of Trumps strategy has rarely been mentioned
3. Higher import prices on Chinese goods & services will also make other Asian and non-Asian countries more competitive relative to Chinese companies. This could e.g. very well realign international supply chains (I have to  thank U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham for this insight who in an Fox TV News interview pointed this out on 5/12/2019)

Too Many Hit Pieces By MIT Technology Review

Posted: 5/10/2019  Updated: 5/26/2019

Update Of 5/26/2019

Here is another ridiculous headline pushed by MIT Technology Review today (5/26/2018) on their Facebook page:

The underlying article with same headline, again is quite old: China Publishes More Scientific Articles Than the U.S. (published 1/18/2018). Why the MIT Technology Review pushes old articles on their Facebook page and most of the times without indicating the age of the underlying article is another major annoyance!

My comment: Quantity is not quality! Communists like to produce quantity no matter what the quality!

Original Post

Just saw this latest, mostly meritless hit piece by MIT Technology Review: People are calling for Zuckerberg’s resignation. Here are just five of the reasons why. Facebook has been beset by scandals over the last year and many believe that nothing will change until its founder and CEO is gone. I received this hit piece courtesy of MIT TR daily newsletter (the articles promoted in this newsletter are not always current).

It is very appalling that a once prestigious media outlet publishes/engages in such crap! I certainly do not sympathize with everything that Facebook does!

I do not have the time to refute or dispute all the claims made in the above hit piece, but I am very confident that they do not hold up to scrutiny or a more balanced evaluation!

These “reasons” were carefully selected with bias, are extremely exaggerated and overblown. Yes, there were hacks, privacy issues, unprecedented access to user data etc. However, social media is very new form of business that did not even exist before the turn of the century! Of course, mistakes are made etc.

Low and behold, there was another hit piece in same newsletter:

The economic argument behind the Green New Deal Economist Mariana Mazzucato explains how rethinking industrial policy could be key to tackling climate change.

In short, the argument is in favor of socialist central planning! The indoctrination with climate religion and Global Warming hoax continues!

Racism Is Not A One Way Street

Posted: 5/8/2019

We, citizens of Western countries, are fooled on a near daily basis to believe that racism is and has been perpetrated almost exclusively
by whites on blacks (or other, darker skin colors)!

Unfortunately, the truth, as often and as usual, is much more complicated! So is the history of racism! There are significant numbers of blacks who hate whites (slavery is no excuse). Many other pairs of skin colors or backgrounds can be combined who hate each other or vice versa based on racism (e.g. how about Hispanics/Arabs/Indians/Asians/Indigenous who don’t like blacks and vice versa; you get the idea)!

Regrettably, many of those of our contemporaries who wag their fingers
at and accuse others, living and dead, of racism are often the worst
offenders and most ignorant! Their incivility and self righteousness is very contemptible!

Who is behind spreading and promoting this divisiveness and demagoguery in Western countries?

Global Warming Hoax Reloaded

Posted: 5/8/2019

A new, the umpteenth apocalypse is upon humanity according to the apostles of the Global Warming/Climate Change religion.

These days we learn in articles like this Human activity is threatening one million species with extinction (published by MIT Technology Review on 5/7/2019)

As so many times before this is overwhelmingly scaremongering, alarmism, and demagoguery!

The report, on which this media storm of alarmism is based, was released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Like the Global Warming hoax was perpetrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), another U.N. body is involved here.

Again, the citizens of the world are to believe the anointed several hundred scientists and experts that contributed to this latest Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report.

Overall, the report largely states keenly quite the obvious that about 8 billion humans have an impact on planet earth and that hominids like homo sapiens are not any longer live in caves or on trees. Nothing wrong with that!

Here are some panic causing quotes from the official media release of the IPBES (emphasis added):

1. “The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened.”
   (These numbers are dubious at best)
2. ““Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity’s most important life-supporting ‘safety net’. But our safety net is stretched almost to breaking point,” said Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentina), who co-chaired the Assessment …”
   (This is not science, but a religious statement)
3. ““Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Prof. Settele. “This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.””
   (This is not science, but a religious statement)
4. “The Report notes that, since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, raising average global temperatures by at least 0.7 degrees Celsius – with climate change already impacting nature from the level of ecosystems to that of genetics – impacts expected to increase over the coming decades, in some cases surpassing the impact of land and sea use change and other drivers.”
   (Of course the IPBES repeats the IPCC Global Warming hoax like a mantra)
5. “In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% were maximally sustainably fished, with just 7% harvested at levels lower than what can be sustainably fished.”
   (Have we not heard this warning ad nauseam for decades? Do we not use already marin fish farming as an alternative to fishing?)
6. “8 million: total estimated number of animal and plant species on Earth (including 5.5 million insect species) … Up to 1 million: species threatened with extinction, many within decades”
   (So we have here dubious extrapolations over several decades stretching to perhaps a 100 years out or longer? I bet that the underlying world population forecast is already wrong)
7. ““IPBES presents the authoritative science, knowledge and the policy options to decision makers for their consideration,” said IPBES Executive Secretary, Dr. Anne Larigauderie”
   (What an arrogant, despicable hubris!)

Uber & Lyft Drivers Plan To Strike At IPO

Posted: 5/7/2019

Just read Drivers Plan Global Strike In Honor Of Uber's IPO

Caveat: I do not know much about the background or details of this situation, but I speculate anyway.

Offering here my speculations about this news:

1. The Forbes news article is more hot air than anything
2. What a joke if indeed some drivers strike! These drivers are only accelerating the introduction of autonomous driving vehicles
3. Looks like a publicity stunt by labor unions to organize drivers
4. Are these drivers really so badly paid as the media and some non profit organisations will have us believe? Or is it possible that e.g. a lot of people want these jobs (e.g. to supplement their income etc.) therefore driving down pay. Or if it was paid so badly, why do so many people become drivers in a booming economy where so many other jobs are available

P.S.

Sites like LinkedIn (now Microsoft owned) also celebrate the strike by Uber & Lyft drivers. It was today’s (5/7/2019) LinkedIn Daily Rundown (US) how I became aware of this strike.

On The Massive Deputization Of Businesses For Tax Collection Purposes

Posted: 5/5/2019

Most citizens are probably not even aware that it is myriad of businesses who collect and remit the large majority of tax revenues to the government in most Western (OECD) countries.

Just read U.S. Businesses Pay or Remit 93 Percent of All Taxes Collected in America (published by the Tax Foundation on 5/2/2019)

To quote (emphasis added): “American businesses are critical to the tax collection system at every level of government - federal, state, and local. Businesses either pay or remit more than 93 percent of all the taxes collected by governments in the U.S. Without businesses as their taxpayers and tax collectors, American governments would not have the resources to provide even the most basic services.”

The standard arguments for this kind of arrangement are expediency of tax revenue collection, simplified processing, and a regular, very predictable, continuous flow of tax revenues in short evenly spaced, intervals throughout the year.

However, this process also represents a heavy case of very government power abuse over private businesses. It is way too convenient for government to subject businesses to this form of tax collection. This is another strong reason why politicians prefer to deal with large businesses.

Were individual taxpayers instead of their employers required to pay and remit taxes on a more frequent schedule, then many more citizens would be keenly aware how much of their incomes are actually taken away by government. We would probably see more tax revolts etc.

If a business were to refuse cooperation with the government on tax collection it would probably  be quickly forced to shut down, if a few individual citizens were to do the same, they might find the sympathy of follow citizens …

Just remember the famous quote from Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683):

“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”

Our elected representatives have become experts in plucking our money.

Machine Learning Applied To Nuclear Fusion

Posted: 5/5/2019

Nuclear fusion is still one of humanities best bets to provide limitless, renewable, reliable, and fairly environmentally friendly energy supply for the next millennia.

Just read Artificial intelligence speeds efforts to develop clean, virtually limitless fusion energy

It appears that nuclear fusion is an almost ideal domain to apply machine learning, because there are petabytes of high quality data available from many U.S. and European nuclear fusion experiments.

One of the reasons, why humanity has not succeeded yet are frequent disruptions (“the sudden loss of confinement of plasma particles and energy”) when running experiments in the Tokamak designed reactors. For decades, these disruptions have stymied success. Applying, machine learning, we may finally be much better able to predict and prevent the occurrence of such disruptions. If there are not other, perhaps more serious obstacles to successful nuclear fusion power generation, then we ought to be optimistic ...

However, we may also finally realize that the Tokamak design was wrong from the beginning and other designs may work better.

Emerging Synergy Between AI And Neuroscience

Posted: 5/5/2019

For lack of time, I will have to keep it short!

Just read Machine Learning Optimizes Images for Stimulating Monkey Neurons Neural networks generate abstract images designed to activate particular cells, lending insight into their function.

Here is another, closely related article: An AI used art to control monkeys’ brain cells Such tailored regulation of neural activity could lead to new types of neuroscience experiments

From what I understand, these latest experiments have overcome a 50 year long block in progress on how a primate brains perceives images and what neurons are triggered or which neurons at what location react and how they react. Thus, the combination of better sensors implanted in brains and AI is driving progress here. The potential for new diagnostics and therapies could be enormous!

This is very exciting stuff! Stay tuned!

P.S.

Please remember and pray for the many animals used in experimentation! (I posted about that here)

These shall not have died in vain (to borrow from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address)!

Beware Of Misanthropes And Nihilists In Our Midst

Posted: 5/5/2019

I wish, I had more time to flesh out this post.

Now, that I (homo sapiens) have roamed this planet for over 50 years, I come to realize more sharply that many of our controversial debates of our times can be reduced to that a significant number of opponents or advocates of one side of the debate are either misanthropes and/or nihilists.

Combined with the incomprehensible prevalence of superstition and ignorance you can understand and participate in current and past debates much better.

With the waning influence of most world religions (at least in Western countries) and the search for new faith/purpose/meaning or the widespread adoption of pseudo religions (e.g. climate and environmental protection), human discourse can only get worse, before it gets better again.

Perhaps, we ought to learn more from the Jewish people: Despite their tragic history and internal strife over many issues, they seem to be overall optimistic, life affirming people. Just take as an example the famous book by Victor Frankl “Man's Search for Meaning”. And he is by far not the only Jew who tried to convert the Holocaust into a love of life and God is stronger than any evil.

Medicare For None

Posted: 5/4/2019

These days, influential politicians of the U.S. Dimocratic (no misspelling) Party are demanding socialist Medicare for All!

First and foremost, like Social Security, Medicare is a totally unconstitutional, socialist program that should have never been passed as law by the U.S. Congress (1965) or should have long been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. As so often, SCOTUS failed totally to protect the spirit and content U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence! This is one reason why Lyndon B Johnson was such a horrible, socialist president in the footsteps of Franklin D. Roosevelt!

Health insurance for the elderly should have been left foremost with the 50 states as federalism would strongly suggest. State governments would have been free to subsidize health insurance for the elderly as they see fit. Federal government ought to be limited to a supporting role, e.g. block grants to individual states etc.

The one size fits all solution of Medicare for all over 65 was a terrible decision like Social Security! In general, only elderly who can truly not afford health insurance should be helped by government or private organisations.

Unfortunately, socialist programs like Social Security and Medicare have become the gateway for more socialist programs. Welcome Hayek’s Road to Serfdom!

Dreaming Of A Drone Journey

Posted: 5/3/2019

Would it not be very exciting if you could launch a drone anywhere in the world to visit and audio plus video record your favorite vacation or sightseeing destination from any angle you like?

Just imagine doing this from the couch of your home with a 75 inches screen with super high resolution! It’s gorgeous, it’s fast, it’s cheap, you stay/hover/pan as long as you like and you will not contract any diseases as might happen when visited in person. You can invite as many friends etc. as you like to come with you on your journey ...

On the lighter side of the life!