General Tsao's Cold War

[Jim Cowan]

Pretty impressive.

[1984Echoes]

We are not in Checkmate yet...

But China IS trying to put us in Check:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-expanding-energy-footprint-middle-230000847.html

[gehringer_2]

11 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

We are not in Checkmate yet...

But China IS trying to put us in Check:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-expanding-energy-footprint-middle-230000847.html

Screw a Sheik, buy an EV.

bottom line though, since China does not produce oil, they have even less interest in higher prices than the US, and with oil, in the end the only important thing geopolitically is the price.

Edited October 7, 2022 by gehringer_2

[1984Echoes]

14 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Screw a Sheik, buy an EV.

But the EU and all other democratic nations need to move very, very fast on that. Heck, in the EU, do electric mass-transit as an even faster changeover than just EV cars.

I'm also open to the newer, smaller nuclear power plants filling in some energy gaps. Don't the French reactors minimize or eliminate nuclear waste?

Do it. All over the place. North America, EU, Japan is starting up theirs again... etc.

All of this stuff in total will not hurt China at all... but the Middle East and all other oil & gas driven economies will suffer...

No tears. At all.

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by 1984Echoes

[Jim Cowan]

I won't live to see it but I get a feeling of comfort that some day most of those places will not have anything to sell except sand.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said:

French reactors minimize or eliminate nuclear waste?

The French 'reprocess' fuel, which recovers most of the mass back into new fuel and reduces the volume of high level waste. (The reactor only 'burns' a fraction of the U235 present in the original fuel before the fuel is effectively 'spent', but if you re-enrich the U235 i.e. remove more of the U238, you're back in business) The US won't go for reprocessing because of the increase in proliferation risk - don't quote me because it's been years since I learned any NukeChem, but IIRC reprocessing concentrates  the plutonium which is generated in the reaction cycle. So reprocessing fuel becomes a target for diversion to weapons manufacture. At one time the working theory was that you could then burn up the plutonium in 'breader' type reactors, but breeders turned  out to be a bit too hairy (and costly) to operate safely (a la DTE's Fermi I). Bottom line is that Uraniam is not expensive enough for secondary fuel cycles to be needed, and the problem with high level waste disposal is not the total volume, it's just agreeing on a place to do it.

But absolutely human kind is being stupid about the use of nuclear power. The risk of nuclear technology is idiots like Putin that already have enough bombs to make a mess of things. Nuclear generation for 24 hr constant baseload with solar/wind to take the larger daytime peak demands is a natural engineering fit.

Edited October 7, 2022 by gehringer_2

[1984Echoes]

Point!!!

[romad1]

thread 

 

[gehringer_2]

16 minutes ago, romad1 said:

thread 

 

I take this as sort of a good news/bad news outcome. It's mostly bad news for the Chinese people for sure, it's bad news in that we are going to have another unstable and possible aggressive international actor a la Putin, but it's good news in terms of international economics competition because what Xi is doing in China is going to destroy economic growth and vitality there as fast or faster than it has died under Putin in Russia. Xi thinks he's built a model that incorporates state control with economic growth, but he's delusional. What's left of Chinese economic vitality is purely momentum from what Deng put into motion decades ago, and that Xi's reconstitution of the state run economy and repression of personal freedom is going to inevitably strangle.

Edited October 22, 2022 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I take this as sort of a good news/bad news outcome. It's mostly bad news for the Chinese people for sure, it's bad news in that we are going to have another unstable and possible aggressive international actor a la Putin, but it's good news in terms of international economics competition because what Xi is doing in China is going to destroy economic growth and vitality there as fast or faster than it has died under Putin in Russia. Xi thinks he's built a model that incorporates state control with economic growth, but he's delusional. What's left of Chinese economic vitality is purely momentum from what Deng put into motion decades ago, and that Xi's reconstitution of the state run economy and repression of personal freedom is going to inevitably strangle.

He's definitely bending the arc of history to create a closed economy and closed society.  The power of accumulated wealth to create influence is a thing though.  They gave out a lot of Sinovac and their debt traps are laid all over the place.   I was amused when they tried to lay a debt trap on the former Afghan government.  It was one risible outcome of the disaster.  You can try to bind the elected government of Afghanistan but what do you do when they get on a plane with suitcases of cash.

[romad1]

Hu Jintao: The mysterious exit of China's former leader from party congress https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63358627

[romad1]

 

 

[romad1]

7 minutes ago, romad1 said:

 

 

Xi's face there is very Godfather

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, romad1 said:

He's definitely bending the arc of history to create a closed economy and closed society.  The power of accumulated wealth to create influence is a thing though.  They gave out a lot of Sinovac and their debt traps are laid all over the place.   I was amused when they tried to lay a debt trap on the former Afghan government.  It was one risible outcome of the disaster.  You can try to bind the elected government of Afghanistan but what do you do when they get on a plane with suitcases of cash.

Not even counting the debt trap that China has unwittingly put on itself... it'll be interesting to see how that plays out...

[romad1]

this is weird 

 

[romad1]

interesting thread

 

[romad1]

 

[gehringer_2]

Well, Zero Covid is over in China. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/world/asia/china-zero-covid-xi-jinping.html

One can hope that Xi, having actually backed off one irrational course, may be rethinking other approaches he has recently been wed to.

[romad1]

7 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Well, Zero Covid is over in China. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/world/asia/china-zero-covid-xi-jinping.html

One can hope that Xi, having actually backed off one irrational course, may be rethinking other approaches he has recently been wed to.

Been hearing from colleagues who follow China's society closely that it was pushing the regime close to the breaking point.   Yeah, would hope that Xi has rethought all manner of things.   if Zero Covid has slowed their plan to launch an invasion of Taiwan and a general war with the democracies, so much the better. 

[romad1]

i think we may want to give some of these things to Taiwan as well.  

 

[romad1]

In case anyone wonders whatabout China's financial influence on the Trumpies

 

[romad1]

This has kicked off a mini-firestorm

I'm actually ok with the guy saying all this.   "empty a clip" is basic dumbness about how firearms work and will result in howls of derision from the RW gun culture.   Don't give Fox News a talking point.  Do give China something to worry about. 

[CMRivdogs]

And low flying helicopters near Camp Peary...Can't they give us coordinates so we can go out and moon them

 

[gehringer_2]

19 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

And low flying helicopters near Camp Peary...Can't they give us coordinates so we can go out and moon them

 

Two words: Microwave cannon.

[romad1]

Was comparing the balloon mania to some things.  I sent to one of my colleagues 'The Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Balloons!' to which he responded the 'William Hung of Balloons'

Worth a comp