Understanding the US - Again

[vijayk]

Is this a trump effect...............

$oros network is now being moved to Europe?

[chetak]

[A_Gupta]

The missing part is that neither Netanyahu nor the Gulf potentates can say no to Trump.

[Vayutuvan]

https://x.com/ImMeme0/status/1978226969620664588

A Jewish socialist, a Muslim socialist, and a Latina socialist walk into a bar.
So… who’s paying the bill?

[Vayutuvan]

A follow on for the above is this video which is superb.

¡AOC, Wepa! Salsa Meme Music Video | Puppetgate Ep. 89

[wig]

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/career- ... 3335/amp/1

ashley tellis case
extracts

Career CIA Officer To NDTV On Why He's Convinced Indian-Origin Expert Ashley Tellis Is Chinese SpyAshley J Tellis case: "I'm pretty certain that he is [a Chinese spy]. There are two possible explanations. One, that he is a naive fool. Or two, that he is a spy for, it appears, China. It's pretty clear," former CIA officer Glen Carle told NDTV
Former CIA officer Glen Carle believes Indian-origin defence expert Ashley J Tellis was spying for China Tellis allegedly kept sensitive US defence information at his Virginia home since 2022Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted
Glen Carle, a career Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who has served in the US National Intelligence Council, in an interview to NDTV explained why he is convinced that Indian-American strategic affairs expert Ashley J Tellis was spying for China.

Tellis has been arrested in the US on charges of unlawfully retaining national defence information.

Once known as the key architect of the landmark US-India civil nuclear deal in 2008, US prosecutors alleged Tellis printed sensitive material on US military aircraft capabilities and air force tactics, and then stashed them at his Virginia home.

Court filings allegedly showed he had been meeting Chinese officials in secret since 2022, including dinners where they discussed Iran-China ties and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

"I'm pretty certain that he is [a Chinese spy]. There are two possible explanations. One, that he is a naive fool. Or two, that he is a spy for, it appears, China. It's pretty clear. The rules are explicit. Everybody knows them. One is briefed and has to live with them consciously in one's mind every second of one's, not just work day, but one's life in the intelligence world or dealing with classified information. And at the very least, he has broken rules that are illegal, and make his actions illegal," Carle told NDTV on Wednesday.

He said the Tellis case seems straightforward, and the penalties are quite explicit.

What Could Be The Motivation

On what could have motivated Tellis to spy for China despite the relatively high-profile and successful career he had, the former CIA officer said the reason could be anything because in the world of espionage, explaining and manipulating the motivations of someone so that the person commits espionage is the heart of the job.


"The answers are almost infinite... It could be that he wants to, the excitement, many people are motivated only by that, of breaking the rules and doing something others don't know about. It could be that he wanted money. It could be that he needed a woman or he needed a man or he simply wanted praise, or he wanted to do in his superiors or the institution where he was working for. Often, this is the following, one is the case," Carle said.

"[Or] He's working for a higher ideal. 'America is not getting it right. And if I only could make people understand among their adversaries, then the world would be a better place'. He probably has rationalised that multiple of these motivations can be acting at the same time. The job of the intelligence officer is to identify and then exploit those. And someone seems to have done it well with regard to Tellis," the former CIA officer said.

[A_Gupta]

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/the ... e-problem/
The $2,000,000,000,000 F-35 Stealth Fighter Has An Engine Problem

Key Points and Summary – The F-35’s current, trouble-prone F135 engine, now requiring a multi-billion-dollar fix, is a direct result of “penny-wise, pound-foolish” decisions made decades ago.

-A historical analysis traces the problem back to the 1990s “Engine War,” when the USAF chose a lower-cost but less-capable Pratt & Whitney engine for the F-22 over a superior GE design.

-This was compounded in 2011 when the competing GE alternate engine for the F-35 was canceled, giving the F135 a monopoly.

-This history has left the F-35 with an engine that is being taxed beyond its original design limits.

-This compounds other F-35 problems, considering the now $2 trillion lifetime cost of the fighter program

[Manish_P]

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/the ... e-problem/
The $2,000,000,000,000 F-35 Stealth Fighter Has An Engine Problem
...

Would have got the some real nitty gritty details if poster Brar_w was around.

[uddu]

Trump’s Tariffs Backfire: Americans Are Paying the Price | Vantage with Palki Sharma
Donald Trump’s “Make America Manufacture Again” dream promised booming jobs and stronger domestic industries. But his tariffs on imports didn’t just hit foreign countries—they’ve hit American consumers hard. From inflated prices on imported and domestic goods to rising inflation and higher costs at the checkout, the trade war has become a boomerang. The U.S. economy is slowing, growth is weaker than expected, and Americans are losing soft power abroad. Palki Sharma tells you.

[A_Gupta]

“ According to the commerce ministry data, goods exports to the US fell by more than 20% to $5.43 billion in September from $6.87 billion in August, with tariffs impacting the shipments of items like carpets, textiles, shrimp, and gems and jewellery.”

[A_Gupta]

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/the ... e-problem/
The $2,000,000,000,000 F-35 Stealth Fighter Has An Engine Problem
...

Would have got the some real nitty gritty details if poster Brar_w was around.

All I have been able to find is “Block 4 upgrade: The engine's Block 4 modernization program is facing significant challenges due to increased power and cooling demands that the current engine design cannot handle without upgrades.” “Block 4 capabilities require more power and cooling than anticipated, which has prompted the DoD to modernise the overworked F135 engine.”

“According to concerns repeatedly voiced by the US Government Accountability Office in two reports published in 2023, the engine was originally due to be completed in 2026 and determined to cost $10.6bn. However, this ‘Block 4’ upgrade has risen to $16.5bn and now estimated to conclude in 2029.” “Fundamentally, the problem with the modernisation programme is that the DoD has not been able to distinguish its higher-than-expected costs, leaving the US Congress with “no clear picture of why demands and costs have spiked.””

Also:
https://www.spsnavalforces.com/experts- ... -Conundrum

[Tanaji]

https://www.wired.com/story/cdc-termina ... down-rifs/

A quarter of the CDC workforce has been terminated. Whatever side you are on, this is objectively bad. I don’t see the Chinese stepping up or the Euros and even if the former did, no one would trust them.

[Cyrano]

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/the ... e-problem/
The $2,000,000,000,000 F-35 Stealth Fighter Has An Engine Problem
...

Would have got the some real nitty gritty details if poster Brar_w was around.

Yes. He got challenged here when Ukraine war started on mil for and he left.

[g.sarkar]

“ According to the commerce ministry data, goods exports to the US fell by more than 20% to $5.43 billion in September from $6.87 billion in August, with tariffs impacting the shipments of items like carpets, textiles, shrimp, and gems and jewellery.”

Guptaji,
These items do not bother me. The problem is that the price of most items sold in large stores in the US, including food items have gone up. And this is going on for more than a year. This includes Amazon and Walmart where one could buy cheap. As I spend about 5 months in a year in Kolkata, I can see how stable prices are in India in comparison.
Gautam

[A_Gupta]

“ US President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Sergio Gor, Ambassador-designate of the United States to India, and joked that he "better represent us, not them".”

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... 06066.html

[A_Gupta]

“ Trump told the United Nations General Assembly late last month: “Grocery prices are down, mortgage rates are down, and inflation has been defeated.””

The news is yet to reach Walmart and Amazon.

[Vayutuvan]

Justice Kavanaugh on Race-based Remedies

This court's cases, in a variety of contexts, have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for a long period of time, decades, in some cases, but that they should not be indefinite and should have an end point.

What do people who support Dems doing race-based redistricting but also support ending reservations in India think?

There are some here for sure. Would SCI rule to have a sunset clause in reservations for SC/ST/OBC?

[A_Gupta]

Trump, a few hours ago, up to $20 trillion:

(YouTube transcript):

"Maria, can you imagine? Four years less than one. We're going to break 20 trillion dollars of investment and we're already over 17 trillion and that's in eight months. Can you believe that?"

[A_Gupta]

Someone lives in a fantasy world, and we are assured by some here that it is not Trump. Therefore, interpretation wanted, who has dropped out of BRICS?

The statement came while attending a bilateral lunch with Argentine President Javier Milei at the White House.
....

Speaking at the White House, Trump claimed that the member countries of BRICS were "dropping out" of the bloc soon after he threatened to impose tariffs for attempting to replace the American currency. "I told anybody who wants to be in BRICS, That's fine, but we're going to put tariffs on your nation. Everybody dropped out. They're all dropping out of BRICS," Trump said.

"I'm very strong on the dollar, and anybody who wants to deal in dollars, they have an advantage over people that aren't. I told anybody that wants to be in Brics, that's fine, but we're going to put tariffs on your nation... Everybody dropped out. They're all dropping out of BRICS," Trump said, news agency ANI reported.

"Brics was an attack on the dollar and I said, you want to play that game, I'm going to put tariffs on all of your products coming into the US. They said, like I said, we're dropping out of Brics...They don't even talk about it anymore," he added.

Added: the documented non-truths uttered by Trump go beyond 30,000 - since very few of them concern India, there is no need to list them here. Some few relevant to the topics here have been mentioned above.

Yet the default position seems to be, if Trump says something about India, the onus is on India to prove that it is wrong. Trump is plain-spoken and honest, and India is devious and deceptive, and all official statements are to viewed with suspicion and to be deconstructed in twenty different ways. There can’t be India setting its own narrative co-existing with this unwarranted deference and double-standard with Trump.

[A_Gupta]

Found on the web:
"According to a report by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 16th, Huang revealed at a recent event in New York that due to U.S. semiconductor export restrictions, NVIDIA could no longer sell advanced products to Chinese companies, causing its market share in the advanced chip sector in China to drop from 95% to 0%."

[Cyrano]

Trump and his clique, kala patthar etc have made hundreds of millions by shorting stocks and bitcoin in the past weeks and likely several times in the past months by insider trading, every time he makes such insane statements and falsehoods. It's a limitless greedy bunch of thugs.

[chanakyaa]

“ According to the commerce ministry data, goods exports to the US fell by more than 20% to $5.43 billion in September from $6.87 billion in August, with tariffs impacting the shipments of items like carpets, textiles, shrimp, and gems and jewellery.”

... The problem is that the price of most items sold in large stores in the US, including food items have gone up. And this is going on for more than a year.....

Thought I add a slightly different perspective, because this is Understanding...thread, for FWIW. The supreme leader is keeping people and news wires busy so people don't ask questions. Inflation is very high and affordability is a problem. But the the supreme leader wants the country to grow. Higher inflation and higher growth means, interest rates must stay high, which the supreme leader, as a hard core real estate person, does not like. So, how does the supreme leader fix the problem? Under the garb of political differences (which both parties are conveniently fine with), shutdown the government (on paper) so, you can't report inflation. If you can't report inflation, I guess, there is no inflation , and tariffs can stay on longer, how genius (sarcasm)?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/shu ... ion-report

But there is one problem, the financial markets are not stupid

Since the supreme leader's appointment GOLD has increased from $2,600 to $4,350,a historic 67% rise in 9 months (or another way of looking is fall of value of fiat currency). One unintended consequence of tariffs is that countries lower their currencies to minimize the effect of tariff, which is the real objective.

[Manish_P]

...

“According to concerns repeatedly voiced by the US Government Accountability Office in two reports published in 2023, the engine was originally due to be completed in 2026 and determined to cost $10.6bn. However, this ‘Block 4’ upgrade has risen to $16.5bn and now estimated to conclude in 2029.”
...
Also:
https://www.spsnavalforces.com/experts- ... -Conundrum

Thank you. I will try to dig some more info

Yes. He got challenged here when Ukraine war started on mil for and he left.

He was very through & disciplined in showing pertinent data from authoritative sources - especially for the F-35. He would of course present his perspective on the basis of that data & it might lead to some strong belief or bias (though i didn't find it in is posts - since he was focused more on the technical aspects and not the political one - except perhaps Ukraine). But data being data, one could think over it oneself and see what possible and probable conclusions it would indicate for self.

Anyway maybe he will visit these forums again. The F-35 has certainly visited India since he left and it has stayed here for a quite a while even if it unlikely to find a more permanent home here...

[uddu]

https://x.com/ankitatIIMA/status/1979064519914586505

@ankitatIIMA
Worse than Dot com crash because all the numbers of the top 7 Tech companies driving the US stock market are totally FAKE.

https://x.com/ameyapathak2/status/1979064122999480395
@ameyapathak2
@ankitatIIMA

Kuch laug 3 saal ke neend ke baat jaag Gaye..unhe abhi apke shabd yaar aa rahe hai

[Tanaji]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vnl0yxg53o

Landmark global shipping deal in tatters after US pressure

Whatever ones position is on global warming, anything that serves to reduce emissions (in this case , shipping ones that are polluting as they burn any rubbish bunker oil) is always good.

But then orange man thinks its a scam so its a scam.

[chetak]

https://x.com/ankitatIIMA/status/1979064519914586505

@ankitatIIMA
Worse than Dot com crash because all the numbers of the top 7 Tech companies driving the US stock market are totally FAKE.

https://x.com/ameyapathak2/status/1979064122999480395
@ameyapathak2
@ankitatIIMA

Kuch laug 3 saal ke neend ke baat jaag Gaye..unhe abhi apke shabd yaar aa rahe hai

uddu ji,

auntie would make regular rounds of the PMO, FinMin, and other offices on a regular basis when she was pitching herself for the RBI governor's post on the retirement of shathikanta das.

But Modiji has burnt his fingers with that idiot rrr, and so it was very unlikely that he would import another gora led and fed lackey from the WB/IMF pigsty

That post being filled, auntie has stopped making her rounds, and peddling her financial wares and wizardry

like rrr, she is soreass backed and hence would have come in with an agenda just like rrr had done

[Vayutuvan]

@chetak gaaru, you might already know this but GG's hubby Iqbal Dhaliwal works at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Lab at MIT which was founded by Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. Here is a photo of the entire group.



Iqbal Dhaliwal, RRR, GG, Duflo, and Banerjee.

[Vayutuvan]

“ According to the commerce ministry data, goods exports to the US fell by more than 20% to $5.43 billion in September from $6.87 billion in August, with tariffs impacting the shipments of items like carpets, textiles, shrimp, and gems and jewellery.”

Guptaji,
These items do not bother me. The problem is that the price of most items sold in large stores in the US, including food items have gone up. And this is going on for more than a year. This includes Amazon and Walmart where one could buy cheap. As I spend about 5 months in a year in Kolkata, I can see how stable prices are in India in comparison.
Gautam

@Guatam ji, here is a link. HI and AL are the highest (no surprise there) but look at CA. Quite high.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state ... s-by-state

Code: Select all

State, Weekly Groc cost, COLI Grocery Cost Index

Hawaii,	$333.88,	130.4
Alaska,	$328.71,	127.1
California,	$297.72,	111.7
Nevada,	$294.76,	103.2
Mississippi,	$290.64,	96.3
Washington,	$287.67,	105.6
Florida,	$287.27,	105.2
New Mexico,	$286.39,	96.4
Texas,	$286.19,	96.1
...

It does make sense that both FL and TX are there on the list. NYC folks moved to FL in droves. Same with CA folks moving to TX. They started pushing the prices up.

[chetak]

@chetak gaaru, you might already know this but GG's hubby Iqbal Dhaliwal works at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Lab at MIT which was founded by Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee. Here is a photo of the entire group.

[img]https://img-cdn.publive.online/filters: ... 0.jpeg[img]

Iqbal Dhaliwal, RRR, GG, Duflo, and Banerjee.

Indeed, Vayutuvan ji.

Saw this group photo a long time ago.

Probably the only thing that will work to keep these vampires at bay would be a necklace of garlic bulbs and a stake through their evil hearts

what a bunch of insufferable ghouls..........