This might be the first time I've ever vehemently agreed with a very modest guy who calls himself Mr. Wonderful.
Of course the sentiment that we actually live in a capitalist society that allows big businesses (and otherwise zombie corporations) to fail is patently absurd, but whatever. It's not like I expected him to say two smart things in a row in any case.
It would be entertaining if not alarming
It's always somewhat comical to watch both the republicans and democrats completely sellout their voter-base as they toe the line while serving the corporate overlords. Obviously it is not appropriate for the "conservative" party to throw money they don't have into a floundering business. What could possibly be the justification for such an action? If only we could ask them and get a truthful answer; not gonna happen.
Trump's brand of US capitalism faces 'socialist' backlash from conservatives
He announced on Friday that the federal government is acquiring a 10% stake in Intel, the Fortune 500 company that is one of the largest American manufacturers of semiconductors. And he hinted that the US might not be done adding to its stock portfolio.
So not only will we be propping up Intel but also a slew of other companies when it suits the administration? Okay then!
While Trump says the US paid "zero" for the roughly $9bn in non-voting Intel shares, the transaction was far from a gift. The US converted unpaid construction grants designated in the 2023 Chips Act – legislation intended to promote domestic semiconductor manufacturing - into Intel stock.
So, Trump promised time and time again that we would "Make America Great Again" by bringing manufacturing jobs to the USA. They even setup grants that would promote said manufacturing, and now he cannibalizes the grants into socialism and claims we are "paying zero" for it. Perhaps he is a much better politician that the left gives credit. What an absolute bullshitter.
While the Trump administration explains the Intel move as one taken to protect an industry that is vital to national security
I can only assume that this move is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the dark foreshadowing I see on the horizon. When we peer at the macro geopolitical landscape and our conflicts with China... a move like this bodes most ominous. This is potentially a precursor to a play on Taiwan, a country which creates the best semiconductors in the world, at scale. Taiwan's relationship with China is a quagmire of complex history that the USA should stay out of, but we just can't help ourselves. Money money money. Power power power.
What even happened to Intel?
To be honest I had no idea Intel was even struggling and just assumed they were doing great along with all the other big tech companies. Turns out everyone seems to have been eating their lunch in recent years. That's honestly something I'm happy to hear, as the last time I checked in on the competition AMD was struggling against Intel. I'll almost certainly be buying an AMD chip for my next computer, which can't come soon enough at this point, as the toaster I'm on right now was pieced together by yours truly in 2016.
Intel's rise and fall: A timeline of what went wrong
In recent years, Intel has faced increasing competition, leading the company to fall from grace. Rival x86 chipmaker AMD has been aggressively challenging Intel's share with its performance gains. Alternative chip architectures, including Arm, have become increasingly popular leading to further erosion of Intel's dominance. GPU maker Nvidia has outpaced Intel in the AI space leading to even further losses.
It would appear that Intel is getting the squeeze from all sides.
- Nvidia controls the graphics cards.
- They've been outpaced by multiple AI companies.
- AMD employs a more efficient business model.
- Multiple class-action lawsuits due to faulty hardware / quality-control.
- Bought brands like McAfee and did nothing productive with them.
- Too many employees and not enough profits.
Ah... I have a meme for this.
SCREW UP
Intel has potentially reached the end of its lifecycle, but rather than let it die, the Trump Administration seeks to do what so many administrations before it have done: transform it into a socialized zombie corporation that can't die because it's being subsidized by taxpayers. Very cool. Such capitalism.
maga maga maga
And let's not mix words, this is not a republican problem. If anything it's the democrats that are famous for pulling this nonsense, but really history shows that both sides do it whenever it suits them, be it the banks or the airlines or the housing market or anything else deemed "too big to fail". Don't worry about it. Business as usual. Those closest to the money printer benefit the most, with the general public is sheared for harvest to foot the bill.
Zero discipline
We live in a world where everyone wants instant gratification and nobody wants to experience pain in the short term in order to reap a long term reward. Moves like this are easy to spin because people are lazy and soft. At the risk of sounding like an Avocado Toast Boomer we have to be willing to accept some discomfort today or risk complete systemic collapse later, and this advice extends into many walks of life, from getting exercise to running a global economy.
Conclusion
The Trump Admin is rolling back their promises in the most comical of ways. It's a dark comedy but it's still pretty funny. I guarantee we would not be in a better position with Harris on this front. In fact I imagine it would somehow be even worse in terms of socializing zombie corps. The left and the right are two sides of the same coin, and are much more similar and aligned than they would ever admit to the voter base. That's why I don't vote. I'm done with those chuckleheads. The system is rigged.
We do, though. Lehman Brothers was sacrificed in 2008, IIRC. Enron was taken down a few years before that. Occasionally the owners throw one of their sacrificial lambs to the wolves.
Remember that Mussolini defined Fascism as the partnership of corporations and government, what we call today public/private partnerships. What the USG taking a 10% stake in Intel is can be properly defined as Fascism. That's what this is. Fascism.
Also, don't forget the IME, the Intel Management Engine that is a separate computer on your computer that has it's own power source, so you can't turn it off, and turning off your system doesn't turn it off, has access to all your devices, all your keystrokes, all your data before you encrypt it, and so forth. This factory installed backdoor into your devices (all commercially available chipsets AMD, and etc, have similar mechanisms) will now be government property. "...vital to national security..." indeed!
It hurts to laugh.
Thanks!
So you believe that a single nation-state: the USA... already has unfettered access to every machine globally? And every other nation-state has been too stupid to figure this out and block the backdoor? To me that sounds highly unlikely, and if other nation-states were doing the same it wouldn't even be legal to buy electronics from China. Perhaps you can elaborate on this more.
Huawei.
The geopolitical realities involving such surveillance and access to modern computers are beyond my competence to cogently comment on, but the IME and branded alternatives are real, and have access to all hardware at all times, and to all keystrokes and data before it's encrypted. Obviously before AI there was limited human capacity to access all data. AI has changed that. We're seeing the net locked down globally now, and I expect these to be the last months we can communicate at all - unless we can adopt Reticulum ubiquitously AND have some means of linking local mesh networks.
I see no practical way for that to happen at present, so I am preparing to lose access to the internet.
IME Does not have a separate power source.
Obviously backdoors like this are bullshit but you have a tendency to exaggerate the situation to the fringe.
The only cure to such fuckery is an open-source decentralized modular solution to hardware, but unfortunately that is a wildly complex and tall order. Maybe one day.
OSH is the solution to the KYC internet that is coming, too. Without OSH we will only be allowed such information and ability to communicate as them we depend on for our devices and network infrastructure want us to have. Also, it's not only Intel, but all commercially available chipsets. Moving to AMD won't end the hardware backdoor.
Potato Potahto. You can't turn it off, and turning off the machine doesn't turn off the IME.
Expecting either of them to honor their promises is like being Charlie Brown expecting to kick that fuckin football.
Didnt they bail out the car industry some time ago and of course the banks.. large corps are part of the government furniture at this stage.
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