Video: US building more factories but no raw material, China owns the supply chain and China cuts off graphite sales to US 美國建更多工廠但沒有原料，中國擁有供應鏈，中國切斷對美國的石墨銷售
The United States has seen an epic factory boom, from early 2021 through 2022, which tripled construction spending for manufacturing facilities. Most of these factories are devoted to the electrification of our transportation networks, and to semiconductors. Further, the objective is to build these technologies domestically and thereby wrest control of these supply and production chains from China.
But all that manufacturing will require huge production of batteries, which in turn require graphite. China has monopolies on most of the refined and synthetic graphite that is used for such batteries, and in late 2023 announced strict export curbs on the metal. Graphite exports immediately collapsed over 90%, leaving North America and Europe scrambling for new sources.
The earliest domestic (US) production of new graphite will be in 2027, and in a best-case scenario will be about a fourth of anticipated US demand.
These realities leave China in a most advantageous position: they can either continue the graphite bans and produce all the batteries for the global market themselves, or use their monopolistic position in graphite to negotiate sharp reductions in tariff rates for other Chinese exports.
AIPAC’s political mastery, what AsAms must learn (You could also learn from the Japanese Americans in Hawai’i when 80% votes as a block for democrats and politicians with Japanese last name) 猶太人AIPAC的政治掌握，亞裔美國人必須學習什麼（你也可以向夏威夷的日裔美國人學習，80％的選票祇投給民主黨人和日本姓氏的政治家)
AIPAC (America Israel Public Affairs Committee), a Jewish pro-Israel NGO, doesn’t like the 7 members of a Progress wing of the Democratic members of the House, known as the Squad. The Squad advocated an immediate ceasefire in Gaza since the early stages of that war. So AIPAC publicly declared its intent to defeat some members of the Squad to punish them and to proactively stop other American officials from daring to do the same. As usual, AIPAC succeeded.
On 6/26/2024, AIPAC defeated a Squad member, Cong. Jamaal Bowman of NY-16 in his re-election primary bid. Bowman is a Dem., who lives in a deep blue district. He won his last re-election by 84.2% to 15.8%. Wow!
On 8/8/2024, just 4 days ago, AIPAC defeated another Squad member, Cong. Cori Bush of MO-1 in her re-election primary bid. Bush also lives in a deep blue district, winning her last re-election by 72.8% to 24.3%. How does AIPAC achieve such fantastic political feats?
AIPAC has the political know-how and the Jewish-Am. community provides the $$$
If a community is willing to donate generously to its own NGO (e.g., 80-20 in the AsAm community), then it is very simple to achieve political clout. For AsAms, political clout will mean winning equal citizenship, which we owe it to our children to accomplish on our watch.
Using AIPAC’s political know-how, it’ll shop for a capable politician to oppose the politician that it wants to defeat. If that target is a Republican, who lives in a deep red election district, then AIPAC will shop for another R; give this R a huge amount of campaign funds to challenge AIPAC’s target in a primary. For example AIPAC provided $15 million to defeat Jamaal, and $6.5 million to defeat Cori – all thru. a primary.
If the target lives in a toss-up election district, then AIPAC will shop for a capable D; and give the D a lot of campaign funding to defeat the target in the general election.
If the target is beloved by his/her constituents, then AIPAC may shop for opponents for the target, one each in a primary and in a general election – getting 2 whacks at that target
Spending so much money to defeat a couple of politicians seems a WASTE of money
Wrong! Pointing to a specific politician and defeating that politician puts FEAR in the hearts of other politicians, most of whom value re-election above all. Henceforth, most of our politicians will tend to exercise SELF-RESTRAINT on any issue advocated or opposed by AIPAC.
Is there an ethical problem to blatantly defeat an elected official?
None, unless you go by Asian culture! In some Asian nations, officials are considered to be the parents while citizens are their children. However, in the U.S., officials are public servants. If a servant is not serving you right, then get rid of that servant.
What if a politician were defeated for the wrong reason?
A great question. Issues in the real world are complicated. However, the AsAm community, especially the Chinese Am. community, doesn’t need to struggle with the above ethical question. Our community faces many politicians who consider us as foreigners, who discriminate against us, who go out of their way to insult and trample on us. Here are two examples. (A) U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of TN. Since 4 yrs. ago, she has posted on Twitter: “China has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change ….” Such an insult!
The history of China is made by the Chinese people. Blackburn’s statement insults all OUR ancestors. In addition, when she said, “Some things will never change,” she was calling YOU and me and our offspring, indeed every Chinese who will come into this world in the future, liars and stealers. 80-20 asked her to take her post down and apologize. She didn’t even take down her post. She is an extremely poor public servant who should be fired!
(B) Rep. Michelle Steel of CA-45 Her campaign tactics against her 2022 opponent Jay Chen, a Chinese American, is so racist and xenophobic, that if adopted by politicians nationwide, not a single political candidate of Chinese origin will ever be electable again. For details, click here. She is another public servant that should be fired by us.
They are both running for re-election this year! But we don’t have an AIPAC to get rid of them.
Why aren’t we trying to fire them? Shame, Shame, Shame! We don’t have enough people who know this kind of politics, who are as generous, who are as courageous as the Jewish Americans. 80-20’s annual budget is $ 0.15 to $ 0.25 million. AIPAC’s is $78 million or more.
80-20 has tried again & again & failed. Click on 1, 2, & 3 to see how much 80-20 has tried. However, 80-20 has NOT given up. We aim to have our own AIPAC* in a few years with your support. Keep the donations coming. Thank you. *Unlike AIPAC, 80-20’ll focus on domestic politics & win our equal citizenship.
Help 80-20 by DONATING or inserting this link (https://conta.cc/4cjheAz) into your WeChat circle. Click here to POST.
S. B. Woo President and a volunteer for the past 25 years
In June, US President Joe Biden and Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky signed a bilateral security agreement which “reaffirms that Ukraine’s future is in NATO.” The agreement detailed comprehensive measures to build Ukraine’s military into a force interoperable with NATO units, to share intelligence capabilities, and calls upon the United States to develop Ukraine’s military industrial capabilities.
State Department and Pentagon officials got immediately to work, and are pushing hard for US weapons manufacturers to establish production facilities in Ukraine. These efforts are being rebuffed by most arms makers, who cite the obvious dangers of setting up expensive production lines that would certainly be targets of Russian missile and air strikes. They also have deep concerns about the duration of the war, and the notoriously corrupt Ukrainian political system. Northrop Grumman, however, has confirmed their plans to co-produce medium-caliber munitions in Ukraine.
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