RE: "Discovered in 1986, it is the only member of the Trigonognathus genus"
Until now. Meet the Viper DOGE Fish, discovered on January 20, 2025, the primary function of which is to chew through government institutions like a hot chainsaw through butter and eliminate thousands of Federal Small Fry in the process...
Not to be confused with a Dodge Fish, AKA the Plymouth Barracuda, first discovered in 1964 and which could eat the lunch of any offering from the DOGE boss's car company all day every day and three times on Sunday...
I spent the day up in a remote valley/ravine/gorge/chasm in the Wuling Mountains at a tea garden. Some young man left the village for the big city 30 years ago, made a bunch of money, came back to his home village, and is turning it into a sort of Napa Valley winery tasting resort only instead of grapes and wine, he's growing special teas. He dismantled a historic Qing Dynasty era house in Jianxi, transported it to Hubei, rebuilt it, and is now the benefactor of an entirely invigorated economy in this part of Hubei. I could write a long essay on how cool this place is, but I'll keep it short....it's heart melting nice.
Several of his clan now have new gigantic houses, 4 story monstrosities with about 1000 sf per floor. Why so big? Each floor is for one generation of the family. Grandparents, parents, kids, and toddlers. 4 generations all under one roof with a floor for each, instead of 4 generations in a 2 room hovel like they used to have. The houses would not impress Americans, but I was impressed that there's 4 generations all under one roof.
The whole village is a bunch of houses all mashed together kinda like Whoville in Horton Hears A Who with little winding stone stairs and paths and passageways with any open space planted with food, no lawns. Then there's the big gardens in the large open areas interspersed with tea hedges and fruit trees. It's a like a 70's hippy heaven, all tucked into this valley with mountains going straight up all around. The road in and out of the village follows the small river that winds through the valley.
I wish I could put up pics. Marque...you sound like kind of a back to the lander...you'd dig it.
I took Katie to dinner last night to celebrate her stepping out of the PIC "Pharmacist-In-Charge" role. Oh, she'll be back in again within 2-3 years, but she dislikes managing people. But she is great at getting a struggling store back to operating efficiently. Of course, her working off the clock each week helps. 🤦♂️
Anyway, we ate at the local wings restaurant. Watching the tv, I thought of Kurt. Apparently the MLTT exists: the "Major League Table Tennis". Yeah, professional ping pong. It's a team sport; 5 singles matches (first to 11). FWIW there's not a lot of action; most points are 2-4 hits at most. Sometimes you see a 7-10 shot rally, but not often. I remember thinking I play kinda like they do, which I know is "not very good" among serious players. Two teams in the league are the Texas Smash and the Chicago Wind. Also the Carolina Gold-Rush. A majority of the players look like college students (including many Asian).
I gotta drive into campus to pick up my UD issued credit card so I can buy my airline ticket. We set up an office of 8 to save money on credit card purchases (the department chair reviewed charges every month in the department).
When I go into the table tennis emporium...50 tables...there's often several folks just volleying back and forth at speeds that make your eyes blurry. It's like a meditation...boppety boppety boppety boppety...so fast it seems impossible. The point is to maintain the volley, not to score points.
When it's a game of points, you're right. Volleys last about 4-5 hits, with the occasional long volley, but it's mostly lightning fast back forth back forth...score!
That snake! I mean: canid! I mean: fish! The jaws resemble Alien, but I’m told its discovery antedates the movie by seven years.
I’m old enough to remember when grandparents had jaws they could eject to capture food, albeit accidentally. The oldster TV ads featured a lot of gums and goos meant to keep that type of incident from happening.
ETA: The pomfret has a name suspiciously close to the French word for French fries in pronunciation, such that Fish & Chips could be an all-in-one treat…
In Gaudy Night, a mystery by Dorothy Sayers, set at an Oxford women's college, there's a Reggie Pomfret, an undergraduate from a men's college who has a crush on the (much older) heroine.
Then there's Mrs. Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small.
I understand many old British names tend to have multiple spelling variations. This came up a while back when people were discussing how to spell Dan Aykroyd's name.
> Whenever I write about religion and politics, my inbox is flooded with poignant, emotional messages from people who once were both proudly evangelical and Republican, yet now find themselves unwelcome in their churches and sometimes even in their Christian families — all because they broke with the party. <
Notable parallel with how former Republicans feel—the ones who broke with the party over the enforced Trump-adherence. It also supports the thesis that the destruction of political parties merely moved their social roles elsewhere, such as organized religion.
It happened on the left as well. I joke that too many of our members don't know the difference between open worship and watching the Sunday morning news shows". We have an elderly woman who hates MAGA, and talks about how dangerous they are, in open worship.
Although during joys and concerns, instead of saying "please pray for X friend who has Y issue", they launch into a biopic of X, and how Y issue occurred, and why it matters to the speaker. And they wonder why the morning service runs long? 🤔
I put a letter and story in the mail Tuesday to Christy's parents; her birthday would be Sunday. The story is one of trying to get her to laugh. I shared a story of when I rotated through the union for 3 months as part of my management training. I succeeded in making her laugh. She also flicked ice at me from her coke, which supports the idea she was happy with me.
Good morning. 62 degrees here and rainy. Rain and thunderstorms predicted for later today.
The mothership is covering the Trump administration’s change of heart toward supporting Ukraine, motivated by Putin’s attacks on civilian targets like Kyiv (which prompted Trump to plead online “Vladimir, STOP!”) and signing that Ukraine minerals deal. Turning onetime admirer Donald Trump against him is an epic Putin “own goal”. Way to go, Vlad.
The FP is covering a European power blackout blamed in part on “green energy” policies in Spain and elsewhere. Also, Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank’s ”Mr Wonderful,” makes the case for 400% tariffs on goods from Kurt’s nation of residence.
I forgot to add....O'Leary is a dork. Saying something that stupid only indicates he doesn't have a clue about any of the situation he's providing "advice" on.
If folks are thinking Chinese are going to be hurt by all this, they're right. They'll be hurt. The difference between here and the States is that Chinese live in a world of hurt all the time anyway. Hurt is the normal daily experience.
So, all the news about the Chinese beginning to "feel the pain"...is idiotic. They're already in pain. They're used to it.
One final thought... When Chinese feel they're getting the short stick, it gets really interesting. This is going to be interesting.
If folks think it will make a difference, go for it. My take on the relationship is not particularly complicated. Our MBA business geniuses solidified the current situation by being short sighted morons. Tariffs aren't going to do much, imho. China didn't even outmaneuver the US; we helped them in every way we could.
For example...or take for instance.....(lots of cutting and pasting from various sources...)
"In 2020, GM executives in China found themselves under enormous pressure. Sales of the Chevy brand in China were in a free fall, down 63% from their peak. GM and its joint venture partner SAIC were suddenly saddled with massive excess capacity - and red ink.
Chinese executives at SAIC quickly came up with a solution. “Why don’t we export Chevys to Mexico!” The SAIC-GM 50-50 joint venture – since its inception in 1997 – was always designed to produce in China for the China market only.
To allay concerns, Chinese executives painted a pretty picture. SAIC would handle the hard work of manufacturing. All GM needed to do was tack on the Chevy brand, put the cars on boats and have Chevy dealers in Mexico deliver the cars.
Made-in-China Chevy sales started fast and rocketed higher each year, reaching 146,000 in 2024. That was a massive 71% of all Chevys delivered in Mexico last year.
The money guys at GM saw the deal as an elegant solution - almost genius. “We are making incredible profits exporting from our China JV to Mexico,” an exuberant GM executive said."
China-built Aveo: Chevy’s best-seller in Mexico.
Come on, GM people! By now, you must understand that the Chinese business person never does something for nothing. The deal instantly handed half the revenues and half the profits of every Chevy export to SAIC.
More importantly, the arrangement gifted SAIC direct access to a key new overseas market. SAIC understood that as Mexican customers discovered that they were buying a Chinese product with a Chevy badge, they would become more open to trying other Chinese cars.
So, can you guess what was the best-selling Chinese car brand in Mexico for the past three years? That’s right: MG. And who owns the MG brand? It’s SAIC, GM’s China partner.
MG, which offers 11 different models, sold 61,000 vehicles in Mexico last year. Number two BYD delivered 42,000 and expects to sell 80,000 this year.
An executive from a tech supplier in Mexico predicts doom around the corner. “That China Chevy deal,” he told me, “put GM in Mexico on a rapid path to becoming totally irrelevant.”
There are now 21 Chinese brands with more than 300 different models on offer in Mexico. Will they ever go back?
“It’s too late. The Chinese are already here with good products and incredible prices,” said every Chinese brand dealer when asked whether U.S. pressure could force Mexico to turn the Chinese away.
End of cutting and pasting....
So, sure. Go for it. Why not 1000% tariffs? Or, 10,000% tariffs?
Our morons paved the way for the Chinese to take over. My personal take is that the American executives have never been in businesss....like real business....like the kind I was in where if I made a single misstep there were dozens of similar businesses ready to take everything I own.
Are the Chinese evil for being really smart and taking advantage of a bunch of retards? I'm open to any opinions on the matter....which is, near as I can tell...a done deal. GM is toast. My best advice is sell any American auto mfg. stock while you can.
I worked for GM form'72 until the '99 Delphi spinoff, so I was a longtime 1st hand observer and later 2nd hand of their overconfidence and arrogance that bordered on downright hubris.
I can't recall the origin of the quote, but I recall when a GM exec was asked about the emergence of the threat to its market share that the early days of competition from Toyota and Honda were posing, he was widely quoted in the typical puffed up, chest-out arrogance of large American industrial enterprises of the day as having responded that GM would "drive the Japanese back into the sea".
We all see how that worked out for them. And while they've indeed learned a few things since then, how to be savvy about the car business and to think of more than the next quarter's bottom line in that part of the world doesn't seem to be among them.
Nope, it doesn’t. As the guy said…”Past performance does not guarantee future….”…I forget the rest, but you get the idea.
Many years ago, when I was forming an interest in China, I recall some highly placed acquaintances in academia and industry telling me “Chinese can’t innovate”…and similar insulting stupidities. When I finally got to China, I remembered those guys and thought “Huh? It seems like these folks are figuring out cool stuff and building it all the time”….or something like that. IOW, what I’d been told did not match what I was seeing, and I’d not even spent any appreciable amount of time there…er, here.
S’funny how momentum shifts around. Or, not funny, depending on one’s vantage point.
Obama once related that American CEOs would demand he "do something" about China (stealing intellectual property, manipulating their currency, etc) -- "but not too hard." He said they didn't want to upset China and lose their markets there.
US Quarterly earnings thinkers up against the Extended Long Term Chinese Planners -- who would've imagined it would end poorly for the US? /S
Yup. And, as if Obama would've known "what to do" anyway... and even if he did, he'd have to convince a bunch of criminally inept lawmakers in Congress and the Senate to go along with it.
Everyone is going to hate me and think I'm a pinko commie sympathizer. I'm just an olde guy that's finally seeing how big picture international tomfoolery politicking works and am arrogant enough to think all the pedigreed mopes writing about it every day don't know what they're talking about.
The beauty of the American system is anyone can run for office. The problem of the American system is anyone does.
We got anyone making all the important decisions. No...wait... We got anyone thinking they know what's important.
If I wasn't wide awake at 4am staring into the darkness, afraid I'd wake up wife if I really go to town on this path, I could really depress myself.
I think I'm going to go into the kitchen and drink a glass of warm milk...
Many, many years ago we used the example of Schwinn outsourcing bikes to China, only to have Chinese firms going to their biggest customer 2 years later, offering to sell them at cheaper prices. Schwinn went bankrupt.
When you outsource to China, you have to assume they'll compete against you in the future. It might still be the right deal, but go in knowing that....
Yup. It's called business, American style...except it's also Chinese style. Per Schwinn...
I'm Chicago, home of the original Schwinn. The 3rd or 4th generation was informed about something new called a mountain bike, which they all arrogantly said will never catch on. So, the guy went out and started Trek, and we all know what happened next. Or, something close to that. The part about them scoffing at the idea of a mountain bike is true, though.
The real test of a change of heart over Ukraine for me would be whether or not the administration starts putting real biting sanctions back on Moscow, and returns to helping to arm Ukraine as if it were an allied nation…
Ukraine needs a military more than arms (they need arms, but will run out of soldiers before Russia will).
My hope is that the US establishes a military base in the midst of the "rare earth area", to "protect its interests". That will give RatPutin major pause on proceeding.
RatPutin fears the US military, and is gambling we don't have the will to use it against him.
Good morning. Nice weathers here today. I'm having breakfast. Then I'll call the Youth from their deathbeds. Then I'll take a shower. Then I'll go to the podiatrist. Then I'll go the library, which is near the podiatrist . Then I'll come home and probably find the Youth in bed again.
Update: The podiatrist's frowny staff said they did not have my appointment, or even my existence, "in the system," in spite of their website's having told me they were looking forward to seeing me today.
"Okay," I said, with my big Southern lady smile. "I'll take that as a sign from God that this isn't the right practice for me. I hope you have a great day!"
While I've been sitting in the library parking lot waiting for 9:00, I phoned a different practice and made an appointment for next Thursday. The lady on the phone was very cheerful. Their system had me (from 2021) as well as two other Cynthia W*****s, and an 8:00 a.m. appointment.
It must be toddler storytime this morning. Women are flocking into the library with toddlers.
I can do a walk in at my "zhitou laoban" (toe boss) for about $5. No referral necessary, she fixes your feet, laughs, smiles, and jokes about how crazy life is while doing it. The thing with my toes being a mess and the nails growing all which way...which my podiatrist in the USofA never seemed able to figure out...she fixed it with a 50¢ little silicon bumper that keeps my toes separated, and didn't charge me. She felt guilty asking for money. China health care has all sorts of problems and otoh all sorts of nice stuff.
I'm sorry that your feet hurt. I have foot problems myself. When one's feet are messed up, it messes up everything.
I confess that I wanted to cry, because, having finally decided the pain in my feet was worth my attention, I thought I had the appointment where someone was going to say, "We're sorry your feet hurt. We can do something to help you."
But now, just because I feel selfish for feeling this way, imagine if I were 80, or if I didn't speak English well, or if I'd taken off work or gotten a babysitter, only to arrive and find frowny people telling me, "You're not in the system," and then just sitting there, stone-faced, as if their website has nothing to do with them.
It used to be that one made an appointment, wrote it on one's calendar, and kept it. There may have been a postcard reminder sent. But no phone calls, automated or otherwise, requiring one to confirm or reconfirm or do anything else about their appointment except show up. And they would have me written down in the book, because I saw them do it when I made the appointment in person months before--at the same time they wrote it down on a little card and handed it to me. That's supposed to be how appointments work.
Ah. In such cases, I make a note during the phone call of the date and time of the call and the name of the person I spoke with, and the date and time of the appointment. Then before hanging up I repeat to them the date and time of my appointment and ask them to confirm that's correct. (Being extra careful not to mix up February and March by mistake.) I could bring the note with me to the appointment as evidence.
You're not selfish. They were foolish. Their system failed them, and they lost a customer.
The thing most business fail to understand is that you're not going to mount a boycott against them, you'll just go elsewhere. The best way to keep customers is to have them forget about you. 🤔 By that I mean shopping with them is a habit, you don't put much thought into shopping there, "taken for granted". Violate that and they go away.
There's an old navy joke "unless you rescued 2 children and 3 puppies from a burning building, you do not want the captain to know your name". Basically you want the captain to assume all is going well, and to have no reason to assume otherwise. Your customers are your captains.
My car mechanic (since retired) understood this. He dealt with me for years, and if there was ever an issue he took care of it, apologizing, even if it wasn't a mistake.
RE: "Discovered in 1986, it is the only member of the Trigonognathus genus"
Until now. Meet the Viper DOGE Fish, discovered on January 20, 2025, the primary function of which is to chew through government institutions like a hot chainsaw through butter and eliminate thousands of Federal Small Fry in the process...
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pzJnjJROszc
Not to be confused with a Dodge Fish, AKA the Plymouth Barracuda, first discovered in 1964 and which could eat the lunch of any offering from the DOGE boss's car company all day every day and three times on Sunday...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY2nwdzqoTY
Heck yeah!!!
I agree, pronouncing the taxonomy names should be a drinking game.
My son and I once watched a snake that can extend its mouth to swallow a mouse whole, and were both fascinated and totally grossed out.
TSAF...that is one gnarly looking fish thing. Nightmarish. It's like the Alien with that goofy extendo-jaw arrangement.
I spent the day up in a remote valley/ravine/gorge/chasm in the Wuling Mountains at a tea garden. Some young man left the village for the big city 30 years ago, made a bunch of money, came back to his home village, and is turning it into a sort of Napa Valley winery tasting resort only instead of grapes and wine, he's growing special teas. He dismantled a historic Qing Dynasty era house in Jianxi, transported it to Hubei, rebuilt it, and is now the benefactor of an entirely invigorated economy in this part of Hubei. I could write a long essay on how cool this place is, but I'll keep it short....it's heart melting nice.
Several of his clan now have new gigantic houses, 4 story monstrosities with about 1000 sf per floor. Why so big? Each floor is for one generation of the family. Grandparents, parents, kids, and toddlers. 4 generations all under one roof with a floor for each, instead of 4 generations in a 2 room hovel like they used to have. The houses would not impress Americans, but I was impressed that there's 4 generations all under one roof.
The whole village is a bunch of houses all mashed together kinda like Whoville in Horton Hears A Who with little winding stone stairs and paths and passageways with any open space planted with food, no lawns. Then there's the big gardens in the large open areas interspersed with tea hedges and fruit trees. It's a like a 70's hippy heaven, all tucked into this valley with mountains going straight up all around. The road in and out of the village follows the small river that winds through the valley.
I wish I could put up pics. Marque...you sound like kind of a back to the lander...you'd dig it.
I took Katie to dinner last night to celebrate her stepping out of the PIC "Pharmacist-In-Charge" role. Oh, she'll be back in again within 2-3 years, but she dislikes managing people. But she is great at getting a struggling store back to operating efficiently. Of course, her working off the clock each week helps. 🤦♂️
Anyway, we ate at the local wings restaurant. Watching the tv, I thought of Kurt. Apparently the MLTT exists: the "Major League Table Tennis". Yeah, professional ping pong. It's a team sport; 5 singles matches (first to 11). FWIW there's not a lot of action; most points are 2-4 hits at most. Sometimes you see a 7-10 shot rally, but not often. I remember thinking I play kinda like they do, which I know is "not very good" among serious players. Two teams in the league are the Texas Smash and the Chicago Wind. Also the Carolina Gold-Rush. A majority of the players look like college students (including many Asian).
I gotta drive into campus to pick up my UD issued credit card so I can buy my airline ticket. We set up an office of 8 to save money on credit card purchases (the department chair reviewed charges every month in the department).
When I go into the table tennis emporium...50 tables...there's often several folks just volleying back and forth at speeds that make your eyes blurry. It's like a meditation...boppety boppety boppety boppety...so fast it seems impossible. The point is to maintain the volley, not to score points.
When it's a game of points, you're right. Volleys last about 4-5 hits, with the occasional long volley, but it's mostly lightning fast back forth back forth...score!
"A majority of the players look like college students (including many Asian)."
Kind of like cricket, only with people from a different part of Asia.
That snake! I mean: canid! I mean: fish! The jaws resemble Alien, but I’m told its discovery antedates the movie by seven years.
I’m old enough to remember when grandparents had jaws they could eject to capture food, albeit accidentally. The oldster TV ads featured a lot of gums and goos meant to keep that type of incident from happening.
ETA: The pomfret has a name suspiciously close to the French word for French fries in pronunciation, such that Fish & Chips could be an all-in-one treat…
"Sickle Pomfret" is a delightfully silly name. Makes me think of Dickens for some reason.
You could make sickle pommes frites by taking curly fries and cutting them in half along the axis of rotation.
In Gaudy Night, a mystery by Dorothy Sayers, set at an Oxford women's college, there's a Reggie Pomfret, an undergraduate from a men's college who has a crush on the (much older) heroine.
I've listened to a couple of her Lord Peter Whimsy mysteries.
Madam Poppy Pomfrey is the nurse in the Harry Potter series.
Then there's Mrs. Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small.
I understand many old British names tend to have multiple spelling variations. This came up a while back when people were discussing how to spell Dan Aykroyd's name.
"Regrowing bones is a nasty business."
I'm not letting anyone from that "hospital wing" near my feet.
From CSLF member JohnM: Worth Your Time II: 'The Christian Right Is Dead. The Religious Right Killed It.' --David French
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/opinion/trump-evangelicals-republicans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.D08.8YEp.JQ59ogqfCGlF&smid=url-share
> Whenever I write about religion and politics, my inbox is flooded with poignant, emotional messages from people who once were both proudly evangelical and Republican, yet now find themselves unwelcome in their churches and sometimes even in their Christian families — all because they broke with the party. <
Notable parallel with how former Republicans feel—the ones who broke with the party over the enforced Trump-adherence. It also supports the thesis that the destruction of political parties merely moved their social roles elsewhere, such as organized religion.
It happened on the left as well. I joke that too many of our members don't know the difference between open worship and watching the Sunday morning news shows". We have an elderly woman who hates MAGA, and talks about how dangerous they are, in open worship.
Although during joys and concerns, instead of saying "please pray for X friend who has Y issue", they launch into a biopic of X, and how Y issue occurred, and why it matters to the speaker. And they wonder why the morning service runs long? 🤔
I put a letter and story in the mail Tuesday to Christy's parents; her birthday would be Sunday. The story is one of trying to get her to laugh. I shared a story of when I rotated through the union for 3 months as part of my management training. I succeeded in making her laugh. She also flicked ice at me from her coke, which supports the idea she was happy with me.
Good morning. 62 degrees here and rainy. Rain and thunderstorms predicted for later today.
The mothership is covering the Trump administration’s change of heart toward supporting Ukraine, motivated by Putin’s attacks on civilian targets like Kyiv (which prompted Trump to plead online “Vladimir, STOP!”) and signing that Ukraine minerals deal. Turning onetime admirer Donald Trump against him is an epic Putin “own goal”. Way to go, Vlad.
The FP is covering a European power blackout blamed in part on “green energy” policies in Spain and elsewhere. Also, Kevin O’Leary, Shark Tank’s ”Mr Wonderful,” makes the case for 400% tariffs on goods from Kurt’s nation of residence.
I forgot to add....O'Leary is a dork. Saying something that stupid only indicates he doesn't have a clue about any of the situation he's providing "advice" on.
If folks are thinking Chinese are going to be hurt by all this, they're right. They'll be hurt. The difference between here and the States is that Chinese live in a world of hurt all the time anyway. Hurt is the normal daily experience.
So, all the news about the Chinese beginning to "feel the pain"...is idiotic. They're already in pain. They're used to it.
One final thought... When Chinese feel they're getting the short stick, it gets really interesting. This is going to be interesting.
If folks think it will make a difference, go for it. My take on the relationship is not particularly complicated. Our MBA business geniuses solidified the current situation by being short sighted morons. Tariffs aren't going to do much, imho. China didn't even outmaneuver the US; we helped them in every way we could.
For example...or take for instance.....(lots of cutting and pasting from various sources...)
"In 2020, GM executives in China found themselves under enormous pressure. Sales of the Chevy brand in China were in a free fall, down 63% from their peak. GM and its joint venture partner SAIC were suddenly saddled with massive excess capacity - and red ink.
Chinese executives at SAIC quickly came up with a solution. “Why don’t we export Chevys to Mexico!” The SAIC-GM 50-50 joint venture – since its inception in 1997 – was always designed to produce in China for the China market only.
To allay concerns, Chinese executives painted a pretty picture. SAIC would handle the hard work of manufacturing. All GM needed to do was tack on the Chevy brand, put the cars on boats and have Chevy dealers in Mexico deliver the cars.
Made-in-China Chevy sales started fast and rocketed higher each year, reaching 146,000 in 2024. That was a massive 71% of all Chevys delivered in Mexico last year.
The money guys at GM saw the deal as an elegant solution - almost genius. “We are making incredible profits exporting from our China JV to Mexico,” an exuberant GM executive said."
China-built Aveo: Chevy’s best-seller in Mexico.
Come on, GM people! By now, you must understand that the Chinese business person never does something for nothing. The deal instantly handed half the revenues and half the profits of every Chevy export to SAIC.
More importantly, the arrangement gifted SAIC direct access to a key new overseas market. SAIC understood that as Mexican customers discovered that they were buying a Chinese product with a Chevy badge, they would become more open to trying other Chinese cars.
So, can you guess what was the best-selling Chinese car brand in Mexico for the past three years? That’s right: MG. And who owns the MG brand? It’s SAIC, GM’s China partner.
MG, which offers 11 different models, sold 61,000 vehicles in Mexico last year. Number two BYD delivered 42,000 and expects to sell 80,000 this year.
An executive from a tech supplier in Mexico predicts doom around the corner. “That China Chevy deal,” he told me, “put GM in Mexico on a rapid path to becoming totally irrelevant.”
There are now 21 Chinese brands with more than 300 different models on offer in Mexico. Will they ever go back?
“It’s too late. The Chinese are already here with good products and incredible prices,” said every Chinese brand dealer when asked whether U.S. pressure could force Mexico to turn the Chinese away.
End of cutting and pasting....
So, sure. Go for it. Why not 1000% tariffs? Or, 10,000% tariffs?
Our morons paved the way for the Chinese to take over. My personal take is that the American executives have never been in businesss....like real business....like the kind I was in where if I made a single misstep there were dozens of similar businesses ready to take everything I own.
Are the Chinese evil for being really smart and taking advantage of a bunch of retards? I'm open to any opinions on the matter....which is, near as I can tell...a done deal. GM is toast. My best advice is sell any American auto mfg. stock while you can.
I worked for GM form'72 until the '99 Delphi spinoff, so I was a longtime 1st hand observer and later 2nd hand of their overconfidence and arrogance that bordered on downright hubris.
I can't recall the origin of the quote, but I recall when a GM exec was asked about the emergence of the threat to its market share that the early days of competition from Toyota and Honda were posing, he was widely quoted in the typical puffed up, chest-out arrogance of large American industrial enterprises of the day as having responded that GM would "drive the Japanese back into the sea".
We all see how that worked out for them. And while they've indeed learned a few things since then, how to be savvy about the car business and to think of more than the next quarter's bottom line in that part of the world doesn't seem to be among them.
Nope, it doesn’t. As the guy said…”Past performance does not guarantee future….”…I forget the rest, but you get the idea.
Many years ago, when I was forming an interest in China, I recall some highly placed acquaintances in academia and industry telling me “Chinese can’t innovate”…and similar insulting stupidities. When I finally got to China, I remembered those guys and thought “Huh? It seems like these folks are figuring out cool stuff and building it all the time”….or something like that. IOW, what I’d been told did not match what I was seeing, and I’d not even spent any appreciable amount of time there…er, here.
S’funny how momentum shifts around. Or, not funny, depending on one’s vantage point.
Obama once related that American CEOs would demand he "do something" about China (stealing intellectual property, manipulating their currency, etc) -- "but not too hard." He said they didn't want to upset China and lose their markets there.
US Quarterly earnings thinkers up against the Extended Long Term Chinese Planners -- who would've imagined it would end poorly for the US? /S
Yup. And, as if Obama would've known "what to do" anyway... and even if he did, he'd have to convince a bunch of criminally inept lawmakers in Congress and the Senate to go along with it.
Everyone is going to hate me and think I'm a pinko commie sympathizer. I'm just an olde guy that's finally seeing how big picture international tomfoolery politicking works and am arrogant enough to think all the pedigreed mopes writing about it every day don't know what they're talking about.
The beauty of the American system is anyone can run for office. The problem of the American system is anyone does.
We got anyone making all the important decisions. No...wait... We got anyone thinking they know what's important.
If I wasn't wide awake at 4am staring into the darkness, afraid I'd wake up wife if I really go to town on this path, I could really depress myself.
I think I'm going to go into the kitchen and drink a glass of warm milk...
Many, many years ago we used the example of Schwinn outsourcing bikes to China, only to have Chinese firms going to their biggest customer 2 years later, offering to sell them at cheaper prices. Schwinn went bankrupt.
When you outsource to China, you have to assume they'll compete against you in the future. It might still be the right deal, but go in knowing that....
Yup. It's called business, American style...except it's also Chinese style. Per Schwinn...
I'm Chicago, home of the original Schwinn. The 3rd or 4th generation was informed about something new called a mountain bike, which they all arrogantly said will never catch on. So, the guy went out and started Trek, and we all know what happened next. Or, something close to that. The part about them scoffing at the idea of a mountain bike is true, though.
The real test of a change of heart over Ukraine for me would be whether or not the administration starts putting real biting sanctions back on Moscow, and returns to helping to arm Ukraine as if it were an allied nation…
Ukraine needs a military more than arms (they need arms, but will run out of soldiers before Russia will).
My hope is that the US establishes a military base in the midst of the "rare earth area", to "protect its interests". That will give RatPutin major pause on proceeding.
RatPutin fears the US military, and is gambling we don't have the will to use it against him.
Good morning. Nice weathers here today. I'm having breakfast. Then I'll call the Youth from their deathbeds. Then I'll take a shower. Then I'll go to the podiatrist. Then I'll go the library, which is near the podiatrist . Then I'll come home and probably find the Youth in bed again.
Update: The podiatrist's frowny staff said they did not have my appointment, or even my existence, "in the system," in spite of their website's having told me they were looking forward to seeing me today.
"Okay," I said, with my big Southern lady smile. "I'll take that as a sign from God that this isn't the right practice for me. I hope you have a great day!"
While I've been sitting in the library parking lot waiting for 9:00, I phoned a different practice and made an appointment for next Thursday. The lady on the phone was very cheerful. Their system had me (from 2021) as well as two other Cynthia W*****s, and an 8:00 a.m. appointment.
It must be toddler storytime this morning. Women are flocking into the library with toddlers.
I can do a walk in at my "zhitou laoban" (toe boss) for about $5. No referral necessary, she fixes your feet, laughs, smiles, and jokes about how crazy life is while doing it. The thing with my toes being a mess and the nails growing all which way...which my podiatrist in the USofA never seemed able to figure out...she fixed it with a 50¢ little silicon bumper that keeps my toes separated, and didn't charge me. She felt guilty asking for money. China health care has all sorts of problems and otoh all sorts of nice stuff.
I'm sorry that your feet hurt. I have foot problems myself. When one's feet are messed up, it messes up everything.
I first went to my podiatrist years ago. I told him I had a foot problem.
He told me if I'd just keep the darned thing out of my mouth I'd have a lot fewer problems.
Ba dump bump.
I confess that I wanted to cry, because, having finally decided the pain in my feet was worth my attention, I thought I had the appointment where someone was going to say, "We're sorry your feet hurt. We can do something to help you."
But now, just because I feel selfish for feeling this way, imagine if I were 80, or if I didn't speak English well, or if I'd taken off work or gotten a babysitter, only to arrive and find frowny people telling me, "You're not in the system," and then just sitting there, stone-faced, as if their website has nothing to do with them.
"Pain makes cowards of us all" A derivation of a line from Hamlet.
Yes, it's relative -- but it's every step we take that hurts.
Signed, veteran of 2 foot surgeries.
It used to be that one made an appointment, wrote it on one's calendar, and kept it. There may have been a postcard reminder sent. But no phone calls, automated or otherwise, requiring one to confirm or reconfirm or do anything else about their appointment except show up. And they would have me written down in the book, because I saw them do it when I made the appointment in person months before--at the same time they wrote it down on a little card and handed it to me. That's supposed to be how appointments work.
I normally make a phone call.
Ah. In such cases, I make a note during the phone call of the date and time of the call and the name of the person I spoke with, and the date and time of the appointment. Then before hanging up I repeat to them the date and time of my appointment and ask them to confirm that's correct. (Being extra careful not to mix up February and March by mistake.) I could bring the note with me to the appointment as evidence.
In this case, when I went to their website to look up the phone number, it suggested I make the appointment on the site, and I thought I had.
Oh, well. I'm sure it will prove to be providential in some fashion.
You're not selfish. They were foolish. Their system failed them, and they lost a customer.
The thing most business fail to understand is that you're not going to mount a boycott against them, you'll just go elsewhere. The best way to keep customers is to have them forget about you. 🤔 By that I mean shopping with them is a habit, you don't put much thought into shopping there, "taken for granted". Violate that and they go away.
There's an old navy joke "unless you rescued 2 children and 3 puppies from a burning building, you do not want the captain to know your name". Basically you want the captain to assume all is going well, and to have no reason to assume otherwise. Your customers are your captains.
My car mechanic (since retired) understood this. He dealt with me for years, and if there was ever an issue he took care of it, apologizing, even if it wasn't a mistake.
I can hardly wait until AI takes over so then they can blame AI.
Podiatrists remind me of a George Carlin line: "When stepping on the brake, you're putting your life in your foot's hands".
:-)
Morning. We’re supposed to have a dry respite today and tomorrow. We could put energetic Youth to work.
The energy has to come with motivation and focus.
I would settle for signs of life.