Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Wednesday, September 11. 2024

Wednesday morning links

A history of tractors, plus AI


 James Earl Jones: 10 Iconic Performances


Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?


 Oh, the Ingratitude! ISIS Plots to Murder Pope Francis


 Where Virtue Meets Terror: A Brief History of Proto-Communism - In a new book on the history of communism, Sean McMeekin traces the movement’s roots to egalitarian creeds embraced throughout history by prophets, philosophers, utopians, and serfs.


 What’s At Stake in the Censorship War. The fight for a free Internet is raging globally.


Stuart's Wednesday Potpourri


The Front Page: Fight Night - Eli Lake on the presidential showdown. A report from The Free Press debate in Washington, D.C. Plus. . . The truth about price gouging.


Kamala Harris did just enough in the debate — with help from ABC


A Disaster For Trump?


Chaos in Aurora - How the federal government subsidized the migrant madness in suburban Colorado.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:00 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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"the Censorship War"

The internet has everything. The good, the bad, the truth and lies. For that reason it is a threat to dictators and even moderate governments. For our entire life and throughout history governments, kings, popes and Charleton's, but I digress, have depended on getting their version of the truth out and suppressing any truth that might hurt them. We see it everywhere. But with the internet we also see the unvarnished truth and facts and when the Charleton's try to deny or "fact check" these truths they are tripped up by the Streisand effect and it only serves to spread these truths even more.

Remember when Wikipedia started up and it was a good source of information? Now it is a blatant propaganda outlet and hider (fact checker) of truth. Wiki leaks looks like a beacon of truth compared to Wikipedia. Remember during the Vietnam war every night Walter Cronkite would open the news with breathless reports of the war? But something odd happened about 1968 and Walter suddenly began only reporting the negative news about the war. Walter Cronkite!! That pillar of truth in reporting had been a mouth piece for the Democrats all along. And there was no one to really refute him. We believed it. You remember the TET offensive, it was a terrible loss for the U.S. Right? Right! In fact is was a terrible loss for North Vietnam, a disaster, if that was a win for them they certainly couldn't afford another win like that. But it was almost as though our own news media was working hand in hand with Hanoi. But there was no internet to publish an opposing view. I HEARD AN OPPOSING VIEW! Because I was in the military during the entire Vietnam war. I talked first hand with 100's of guys who had been there and fought in every fight and I heard different views and different facts. And I heard them from soldiers who were not exactly pro war or favored our political choices.

What this all boils down to is the Internet is a threat to those who would control the news and distort the facts. Because of that it is a threat to government, the elite, big business and activists. That is why they want the ability to censor and control it.
#1 OneGuy on 2024-09-11 10:27 (Reply)
It’s always telling when those individuals in government decide that something cannot be said, seen, or heard. There was so much wisdom from this country’s founding fathers, but they owned slaves, so all their opinions, on everything, must be dismissed. They knew that government was a necessary evil and tried to tie its hands, and its power.
#1.1 B. Hammer on 2024-09-11 11:15 (Reply)
re Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?

Why can't the US produce steel?
#2 feeblemind on 2024-09-11 11:21 (Reply)
The Unions and government.
#2.1 B. Hammer on 2024-09-11 11:43 (Reply)
China and S. Korea both subsidize shipbuilding significantly. China de facto has no environmental or labor laws and has much lower labor costs than the USA. It would be stupid and wasteful not to avail ourselves of their discounted prices just for the vanity of having American built ships.

The USA is a major steel producer.

That said, Chinese products in both industries are qualitatively substandard, their labor costs have been rising, and they are our enemy. We ought to, and actually are decoupling ourselves from them economically. Which is one of the primary causes of China's current deflation crisis.
#2.1.1 James4HJ on 2024-09-11 17:38 (Reply)
It’s not all the unions and government fault. I’m biased against both.

According to Wikipedia (I know, I know) we sit at number 4, world wide steel production (80 million metric tonnes) behind Japan, India and China (1,019 million metric tonnes).

World wide we are the number 2 importer of steel (19 Mt). We import most of our steel from Canada and Mexico. Our steel production peaked in 1973 at 1.43 million tons (1 metric tonne is 1.1 ton). Partially due to continued labor strife (unions going on strike, unions protecting the slothful workers, management and ownership being stubborn, greedy fools) the US was slow to switch from open-hearth furnaces to basic-oxygen process. We lost our competitive edge. Japan, rebuilding from WWII, had an advantage in the switch, and was soon outperforming and producing the US.

Building ships is an important national security issue. I suppose there is some vanity in projecting force and keeping shipping lanes open. A major component of defeating the Soviets in the Cold War, was a 600 ship Navy. We are seeing the results of a weak US Navy today. Look no further than what the Houthi’s are doing in the Red Sea.

The labor required to build ships is not something that can just be turned off and back on. These are skilled positions. It takes years to become proficient at welding, machining and electrical work - to name a few trades that are required to build a ship. A key component is the older worker that has years of experience passing on the craft to a new generation.

Engineering modern ships takes even more skill. Without a large ship building industry, where will an engineer get trained? You don’t have even a quarter of the skills necessary to be a competent engineer right out of school. Blue collar, Industrial manufacturing work is something that has been sneered at by our elites for a few generations: It’s so harmful to the environment. These older workers are retiring, leaving a void of experience. Talk about stupid and wasteful.

According to Statista.com, China, S. Korea and Japan built 86% of all the new ships in 2020.
#2.1.1.1 B. Hammer on 2024-09-11 21:18 (Reply)
QUOTE:
re Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships? Why can't the US produce steel?

Ships and steel can be made by most any country, so markets will tend to move older technology products towards lower cost producers. However, the United States excels in advanced alloy technology, which is increasingly important for use in energy, automotive, and aerospace production.

See Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London 1776. France could produce wine (well) and textiles (poorly), while Britain could produce wine (poorly) and textiles (well). It was more economically efficient for the French and British to trade French wine and British textiles. Both countries are wealthier thereby.
#2.2 Zachriel on 2024-09-11 12:13 (Reply)
"Ships...can be made by most any country" In a "theoretical" sense I suppose. Like a naked super model might be waiting for me in my bedroom when I come home from work tomorrow.

Ship building requires costal access to the global sea-lanes, adequate port facilities, sufficient skilled and semi-skilled labor forces. Further, it requires adequate energy infrastructure and a reasonably stable social, legal, and political environment. IOW a large majority of the world's countries cannot build ships. Steel manufacturing doesn't have to have the costal access or ports within the country, but pretty much requires everything else, and likewise, a large majority of countries cannot produce steel.
#2.2.1 James4HJ on 2024-09-11 17:23 (Reply)
James4HJ: Ship building requires costal access to the global sea-lanes, adequate port facilities, sufficient skilled and semi-skilled labor forces.

Now that you mention it, Mongolia isn’t really known for its building of ocean-going ships. We grant your points with regards to shipbuilding. There’s also scaling factors and historical practice.

On the other hand, steel production is much more distributed, with countries as diverse as Vietnam, India, and Algeria producing steel.
#2.2.2 Zachriel on 2024-09-11 20:15 (Reply)
Atlas Shrugged
#2.3 eeyore on 2024-09-11 20:53 (Reply)
Secret Service Boss Pressuring Key Official To Retire ahead Of DHS-OIG Probe

But if Plati indeed retires, the DHS-IG won’t be able to legally compel him for an interview.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/secret-service-boss-pressuring-key-official-retire-ahead-dhs-oig-probe-report
#3 feeblemind on 2024-09-11 12:32 (Reply)
The limitless corruption in the admin state. The gutter is not deep enough to hold all the trash.
#3.1 indyjonesouthere on 2024-09-11 14:13 (Reply)
Equalitarian creeds and a brief history of communism... Not a single mention of merit among the practitioners

And a fine comment from Gentile...

Wealth equality only makes sense if wealth is viewed as a finite asset. Wealth is produced, and by the rate of production is what makes someone rich. While you can give a bunch of gold coins to the poor, you can't give the rate of production of wealth to them.
#4 indyjonesouthere on 2024-09-11 14:08 (Reply)
I can absolutely make (almost) anyone rich. Let's define rich as a million dollars. I can make almost any man or woman worth a million dollars in 10-20 years. And I can almost guarantee you that 50-80% of those who are willing to listen to how they can do it will reject my plan to make them a millionaire out of hand because it requires work and postponement of gratification. And I can guarantee you that of those who are willing to follow my plan 90% of them will quit in the first year or so and then go spend what little they have earned and saved up to that point. The simple truth is everyone wants to be a millionaire but nobody want to do what it takes to be a millionaire. They want it given to them. THIS is the attraction of socialism. NOT that you can become a millionaire BUT that no one can become a millionaire AND that everything you get or have will be given to you.
#4.1 LA Dave on 2024-09-11 14:23 (Reply)
Someone noticed Kamala Harris's earrings she wore during the debate. It seems that they are Nova H1 audio earrings that are blue tooth enabled.
#5 OneGuy on 2024-09-11 14:12 (Reply)
Europe's Economic Suicide... at Voxday.net on 9/11/2024

The cost of energy for industry with electricity at 158% more than US and natural gas 345%
Who did the sanctions hurt?
#6 indyjonesouthere on 2024-09-11 16:23 (Reply)

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