[ExI] it won't work, but i have a better idea

[John Clark]

On Sat, Oct 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:



> * > If China really does have a chokehold on materials other countries
> need for weapons, chips, motors and such,*
>

*It does.  *


> *> then other countries need to develop that technology themselves.  I
> refuse to believe we cannot develop the chemistry technology to extract
> these materials,*
>

*It's not a question of discovering a technological secret. It takes time
and a lot of money to build the complicated factories required, which are
expensive and extremely polluting, or at least the Chinese ones are. And it
takes thousands of experienced and highly skilled people to operate those
factories, currently the US has zero such people. And we can't import them
from outside the country because He Who Must Not Be Named has just imposed
a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions that highly skilled workers need
for them to enter the country.  And to complete his crusade to stop smart
people from entering the country he recently put new restrictions on the
F-1 Visas that allowed foreign students who were studying for their PhD to
enter the country. *

*By the way, both the American companies Google and Nvidia (which is the
most valuable company in the world) were founded by foreign immigrants, and
so were many of the founders of the American company OpenAI. And Elon Musk
was born in South Africa.  *

* > if we get there first... *
>

*When it comes to rare earths it's much too late for that, a distant second
is the best we can hope for.  *

*> We all have eyes and ears.  We hear and see China is casting a lustful
> eye toward Taiwan. *
>

*Yeah, that's a big worry because Taiwan is where 92% of the world's most
advanced AI chips are manufactured, almost all of them from just one
company, TSMC. Warren Buffett, who has a brilliant history of picking
winning companies, one said that TSMC is the leader in the fastest growing
industry in the world and is also one of the best run companies in the
world, but I don't own any of its stock because I don't like its geography.
Nevertheless I took a chance and bought some. *

*John K Clark*
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