Category Archives: China

02/2/22

Governors and Jobs — The Big Tell

Lousy jobs report coming out on Friday showing the United States lost more than 300,000 jobs in January 2022. Hello, America! Not good.

The White House is working overtime trying to come up with some explanation as to why the “fastest economic growth in nearly four decades” misses the mark by more than 500,000 jobs in a single month [expected 200,000+ new jobs and will show a loss of 300,000+ jobs resulting in a 500,000 + jobs miss, ouch!]. This is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge miss.

In a storm of record inflation the Biden jobs record — primarily a dead cat bounce by all indications — was the only actual bright spot on the big picture.

A dead cat bounce has nothing to do with Catwoman, who is very much alive and contemplating a remake of her iconic movie. It is a technical term of financial art meaning that even a cat dropped from a great height bounces upward when it hits rock bottom. [It is presumed the cat dies from the fall.]

But, that is not the story I want to tell you today. Continue reading →

01/11/22

Austin By God Texas — Chips, Dips, Tesla, and Tech

One of the things we learned during the Pandemic’s early days before we became obsessed by lockdowns and mandates was that the United States had a great number of strategic industries in which our supply lines started in China, thereby making us vulnerable to the whims of an enemy.

Yes, I said an ENEMY.

Chief amongst these issues was CHIPS — meaning advanced logic semiconductors.

Couple of semiconductor chips waiting for the guacamole.

The issue was simple — in the event of an emergency, China could control the flow of chips to the United States and a chip shortage could have a devastating impact on the nation. Continue reading →

12/7/21

Rediscovering The Lessons Of Pearl Harbor

Eighty years ago today, the Empire of Japan unleashed an unprovoked attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on a clear Sunday morning whilst soldiers and sailors innocently ate breakfast, prepared for church, raised the flag, and went about their business.

Two waves of Japanese bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters — 353 in all — sent America’s Pacific fleet to the bottom of the mud, killing 2,403 Americans and dragging America into a world war.

The battleship Arizona — sunk, total loss, 1,177 KIA, remains sunk at Pearl Harbor;

The battleship California — sunk, refloated, returned to service February 1944;

The battleship Maryland — damaged by direct hits, returned to service February 1942;

The battleship Nevada — managed to get underway, beached itself to avoid clogging up the main entrance to Pearl, sunk, decommissioned in 1946, shipped to Bikini Atoll as a target ship for nuclear weapons tests, sunk by Naval gunfire in 1948;

The battleship Oklahoma — sunk, total loss, never repaired;

The battleship Pennsylvania — damaged by bombs while in drydock, returned to service March 1942;

The battleship Tennessee — minor damage, repaired and returned to the fleet in February 1942;

The battleship Utah — capsized, never repaired, remains at Pearl Harbor (the Utah is often overlooked as it was not moored on Battleship Row, but was at anchor off Ford Island after returning to Pearl following gunnery exercises); and,

The battleship West Virginia — sunk, refloated, returned to service July 1944. Continue reading →

12/6/21

Jamie Dimon, Ray Dalio And The STRICT PARENT Defense Of Evil

In the recent annals of Chinese apologia stand two giants: Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio. Allow me to elaborate.

Jamie Dimon – Chairman/CEO of America’s largest bank and billionaire

“This is my big bad wolf look. I am the Jamie Dimon, Chairman/CEO of America’s largest bank. I am a freakin’ billionaire. I take shit from nobody. Well, except the Chinese to whom I will give a belly rub at the drop of a hat, but I’m still a powerful badass, except when the Chinese tell me to jump and I ask, ‘How high?’ on the way up. Grrrr!”

Continue reading →

11/16/21

Xi Jinping: “Let’s Go, Brandon!”

Last night POTUS Joe Biden and President-for-Life Xi Jinping had a pre-holiday call to chat about their Thanksgiving and Christmas plans and China’s strategy to take over the world and to dominate the United States.

In the lead up to the Zoom chat, President Joe Biden was asked if he was looking forward to visiting with his old pal, Xi.

Joe bristled saying he and Xi Jinping, President-for-Life, were purely business. They were not “old friends.” Huh?

During the campaign then Candidate Joe Biden had bragged that he and Xi were great amigos who had traveled 17,000 miles together, but now Joe says they’re not “old friends?”

A Chinese government financial entity did invest $1,500,000,000 with No 1 Son, Hunter Biden, when Joe came calling last time on Air Force Two, so Joe is understandably a little sensitive about being in the pocket of the Chinese. Understandable, very understandable. Sensitive.

“Ten percent for the Big Guy, Xi?”

Continue reading →

11/14/21

Leadership Tone

Leadership is a difficult, broad subject — a constantly evolving, context-dependent, nuanced, and complex issue while being supremely personal and driven by individual style.

Leadership tone

We have spoken before about leadership style, authentic leadership voice, but today I want to speak about leadership tone.

Leadership Style

By “tone” I mean the emphasis or coloration of how the leader’s voice resonates, its intonation, timbre, or temperament, of how the leader speaks and approaches the solving of problems or meeting challenges. Continue reading →

10/9/21

Cut The Crap — Fentanyl And The Southern Border

I have been totally mystified as to what the end game is on the Southern Border — why? What is going on on the border? I live in Texas and it is a disaster.

It is not, however, solely about a broken, nonsensical, sophomoric immigration policy — we are on track to admit more ILLEGAL immigrants than LEGAL immigrants which seems sort of dumb — it is also about drugs, in particular FENTANYL.

Fentanyl (developed in 1960 as a legitimate drug as a painkiller and as a surgery anesthetic because it did not make patients nauseous) is a hyper-dangerous synthetic opioid that is 100 X more powerful than morphine and 50X more powerful than heroin which is damn strong.    Continue reading →

08/22/21

America Is Baaaaaack!?

Once upon a time the world, our enemies in particular, feared American power whilst our friends and allies revered it.

It was bad to be an enemy of America.

It was good to be a friend of America.

After the Normandy landing in World War II, it took America and her allies ten months to bring the German war machine of Adolf Hitler to an end and to accept their unconditional surrender. Ten months from the landing until victory.

 

Continue reading →