back to article Let’s check in with that 30,000-job $10bn Trump-Foxconn Wisconsin plant. Wow, way worse than we'd imagined

It’s been three years since Wisconsin approved more than $3bn in incentives to bring Foxconn to the US state. The Taiwanese monster manufacturer promised to build a $10bn plant making LCDs, requiring 30,000 workers, which was quickly reduced to 13,000, and turn Wisconsin into a Silicon Valley of the Midwest. It was a vision …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The perfect title

    Everything Trump Touches Dies

    Was Nostradamus as accurate?

    1. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: The perfect title

      "Everything Trump Touches Dies"

      ... sigh ... If only we could weaponize Trump and tame his guidance/reliability problems, the US probably wouldn't need a standing army.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The perfect title

        "... sigh ... If only we could weaponize Trump and tame his guidance/reliability problems, the US probably wouldn't need a standing army."

        Sorry, Putin beat you to it.

  2. chrisw67

    Not a total failure...

    Seems that the Oompa-Loompa-in-Chief, Foxconn and Wisconsin Republicans got the "con" bit right.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trump is a con man

      Just look at 'Trump University'. A scam from start to finish and he had to settlle in court.

      If you can vote him out of office then please do for be benefit of the whole world.

      Then instead of jailing Hillary, Obama, Biden and the rest, jail Trump and then sieze all his assets.

      1. iron

        Re: Trump is a con man

        He'd need to have assets to sieze. I don't think $1 billion in debts counts.

      2. Kevin Johnston

        Re: Trump is a con man

        He has assets? I thought they were all securities for loans etc

        Who knew?

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Trump is a con man

          And Foxconn is sure that there won't be any issues of its manufacturing stuff in Jina

          Huawei should have booked more executives into Trump hotels\

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Trump is a con man

          Well his election campaign hasn't been spending as much as Biden's, despite having a larger sum available...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Trump is a con man

            Well actually they don't, 45s 'conpaign' has raised a lot more cash since it's inception (the day after the inauguration) but most has been siphoned off into the pockets of people like Parscale and the family.

      3. Rich 11 Silver badge

        Re: Trump is a con man

        Seize all his assets, yes, but leave him with his $421m debts. "I gotta asset-debt ratio you wouldn't believe, like no-one in the world's ever seen before. Everyone says so."

      4. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Trump is a con man

        "If you can vote him out of office then please do for be benefit of the whole world."

        When advocating for one thing, you have to look at what the alternative will be. This is the second Presidential election where the lesser of two evils is the debate. Not which candidate is best.

    2. Rol

      Re: Not a total failure...

      Now there's a thought. Here in little Britain we have a traditional hand puppet theatre called Punch & Judy. It features a puppet called Punch who is married to Judy, and they have a baby. Punch spends most of his time beating his wife with a stick, and abusing his baby, and quite disturbingly, it's intended audience is young children.

      Warning spoiler alert!

      It's credibility goes south when Punch gets eaten by a crocodile, as even the pre-schoolers know there are no crocodiles in Britain, however, give Punch a quiff of ginger hair, or whatever colour that thing is sitting on Trumps head, have him sexually abusing everyone except Judy, who now has a stick to defend herself and call the crocodile an alligator, and this easily franchised industry could be just the thing to revitalise America and teach modern history in a manner that even children might understand - it could be an election changer.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Not a total failure...

        There is a fatal flaw in your theory ... Us Yanks are already quite conversant with Punch & Judy. Nice idea, though, if only to see both Trump and the holier-than-thou set both have a coronary over the same thing! :-)

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. IceC0ld

    from the article :-

    It gets worse. Wisconsin’s current governor, Tony Evers – who beat Scott Walker in some part because of his promise to find out what was really going on with the Foxconn contract – is being stymied by the state’s Republican-held legislature which refuses to allow access to information about what is going on behind the scenes. It just so happens that one of the biggest defenders of the deal is the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, Robin Vos, who also happens to represent the district where the factory is located.

    HOW can the legislature STOP the access to information about this ?

    simple question.

    and WHY isn't something happening to sort this clusterfuck out ?

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      WHY isn't something happening to sort this clusterfuck out ?

      At a guess: Money.

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        "WHY isn't something happening to sort this clusterfuck out ?

        At a guess: Money."

        If you have a cynical bent, the usual answer to "why" is money. It's always a good first approximation with power in a close second (control over money) and sex rounding out the trinity.

    2. anonanonanonanonanon
    3. DS999 Silver badge

      Political games is why

      HOW can the legislature STOP the access to information about this ?

      When republican candidate Scott Walker lost his bid for re-election to governor, the republican legislature put forth some a bill in a lame duck session to greatly limit the power of the governor, which Walker signed. That meant the incoming democratic governor had much less power than his predecessors, so the only way he'll be able to truly govern is if democrats take back control of the state legislature (which looks unlikely this election from what I gather)

      The republicans have been playing a scorched earth policy of late, this isn't the only state they've done this or tried to do it in. If a state's constitution isn't explicit about the powers of the governor and the legislature, it is within their power to play these sorts of games.

      Mitch McConnell's obstructionist tactics have infected the whole republican party, and now with Trump making things ten times worse, the whole party needs to burn to the ground at this point and return to its roots.

      1. Snake Silver badge

        Re: Burn it down to the roots

        The GOP is enamored with power, that's all they care about. Anyone, or anything, damaged or destroyed for them to gain or keep that power is irrelevant. Burn to the ground? Yes, but they are too power-hungry to allow that, gerrymandering the world if needed if only to assure that they, exclusively, are on top.

        Moscow Mitch is morally corruprt but Kentuckians will keep him in office, believing that any power he wields will always benefit their beliefs.

        Suckers. They only care about themselves.

        1. jelabarre59

          Re: Burn it down to the roots

          The GOP Democratic Party is enamored with power, that's all they care about. Anyone, or anything, damaged or destroyed for them to gain or keep that power is irrelevant

          There, FTFY, just had to correct your factual error.

          1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
            Holmes

            Re: Burn it down to the roots

            The GOP Democratic Party is Both parties are enamored with power, that's all they care about. Anyone, or anything, damaged or destroyed for them to gain or keep that power is irrelevant

            There, fixed your FTFY... (umm... TFY-FTFY...?)

            Universal political truths are not bound by such piffling concepts as party allegiance.

          2. martinusher Silver badge

            Re: Burn it down to the roots

            Oh come on. The GoP got into this 'scorched Earth power at any price' business a long time ago, it started back in the 70s and early 80s but really got under way with Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" and his tenure as House Speaker. The snowball has been getting bigger ever since.

            This isn't so say that the Democrats haven't taken notice but in general they've been blindsided by this, playing the traditional gentleman's game. The danger we now face as a country is that is both power blocs start playing by these 'no holds barred' rules then our political system is effectively dead.

            So, just saying "Both sides are as bad as each other" is really ducking the problem and making it worse. If you follow the money -- and there's lots to be had if you espouse the right ideology -- then its pretty easy to see what's going on. See, for example....

            https://news.google.com/s/CBIwvv7wzVQ?sceid=US:en&r=12&oc=em

            1. Jaybus

              Re: Burn it down to the roots

              You're saying that the Democrats have been blind-sided for more than 40 years now?

      2. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: Political games is why

        Looks like the USA's Founding Fathers who claimed to have written their constitution to have checks and balances did not conceive of the shenanigans to which people may go to keep power for themselves and avoid allowing other publicly elected people from another party to do what they were elected to do.

        The example of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrat to the SCOTUS by a person who in the last year of the Obama presidency said that it was not proper to nominate a new Supreme Court justice in an election year, and that he would not do it in four years time, has now done just that. Trump has nominated vast numbers of senior judges during his presidency, all of them political appointments. I cannot help feeling that this embeds corruption at the heart of US 'Justice'. You simply cannot get a court hearing presided over by a non-political judge in the USA.

        1. First Light

          Re: Political games is why

          I disagree as to non-political. Federal judges have been mostly apolitical, however state-level judges traditionally can be more goofy and politically-influenced.

          What Trump has done in putting extremists/loyalists on the federal bench is a disaster. People are upset about it because it DOES represent a departure from the norm.

          1. DS999 Silver badge

            Re: Political games is why

            Unfortunately I don't see a way we can go back to the old way. Even if the senate replaced the rules allowing filibusters requiring 60 votes to end for nominations, we'd risk ending up with the same fate if McConnell is still around or someone who decided to follow in his footsteps.

            As it is, if Biden wins and the republicans hold the senate McConnell won't let him get a single judge seated, even if he picks moderates. He'd rather see if he can wait until 2024 and hope another republican wins the white house. If Trump wins and democrats take the senate, I'm sure they'll do a tit for tat and not let Trump get any more judges for the next four years. That's probably one reason they are racing to get Coney Barrett seated before the election.

            So we're going to be stuck with hard left or hard right judges now, all of them young so they can stick around for decades, from now on. The best fix I can come up with is a constitutional amendment that gives them a 10 year term rather than a lifetime appointment, to stop with the insanity of nominating ever younger judges, experience be damned!

          2. Jaybus

            Re: Political games is why

            Do we have any evidence, as in actual rulings, that these judges are extremists and terrible human beings? Or should we rely on the false argument that Trump appointed them, so it must be true?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Political games is why

              "Do we have any evidence, as in actual rulings, that these judges are extremists and terrible human beings?"

              None of them have actual rulings, so no.

              But they aren't nominated not only by Trump, but by GOP. That means they are, by definition, outright evil and ultra-extreme right.

              By definition Trump doesn't appoint moderates, so your claim about 'false argument' is false.

    4. Someone Else Silver badge

      @IceC0ld --

      HOW can the legislature STOP the access to information about this ?

      Welcome to your 21st-century (Banana) Republican Party!

      Legality? Yeah, we've heard of it....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too funny.

    Seems a lot of anti-Trumpers are out in force.

    I wonder how many live in WI or IL (Chicago area).

    Anyone could have told you that the deal was DOA from the get go.

    Free clue... where would they get water?

    And that's where the problem starts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Too funny.

      The morbidly obese orange clown make up guy proves Socrate's point regarding democracy.

    2. Lars
      Thumb Down

      Re: Too funny.

      And a AC Trumpist even more funny.

      In a democracy you do not have to like the President.

      How Trump must envy Putin who has seriously managed to loot the state coffers, who can remain in power as long as he likes, can probably choose who "replaces" him and can indeed jail any opposition the way Trump would like too.

      Russia is not a democracy nor would the USA remain one if Trump could have his way.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: Too funny.

        " nor would the USA remain one if Trump could have his way."

        There's a book about that.

        It's called "It can't happen here" - and it's worth noting how much it got changed for TV in the 1970s because the plot was considered so outlandish (the villains becoming flesh-eating alien lizards), but it's proving to be even more chillingly accurate than was thought possible in 1935

        Events in the first televised debate with Biden looked eerily like Buzz Windrup calling the Minutemen to attention

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here

        1. Robert Grant

          Re: Too funny.

          You have to still vote for the lizards though. Otherwise the wrong lizard could get in.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Too funny.

          Philip K. Dick and Radio Free Albemuth.

          It starts to look like a documentary instead of fiction. And it was writen in 1985.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth

      2. DS999 Silver badge

        Re: Too funny.

        Heck, Putin has gone beyond jailing his opponents, he has them poisoned. I think Trump would prefer to jail them, so he can keep campaigning against them the way he still thinks Hillary is in the race from how much he talks about her at his rallies.

        1. Jaybus

          Re: Too funny.

          Hmmm. Hillary keeps having media interviews and such raving against Trump. Maybe it is she who thinks she is still in the race?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Flame

        Re: Too funny.

        Wow.

        Seems you clearly didn't catch Hunter Biden's corruption story being blocked on FB and Twitter.

        Seems that everything you and others accuse Trump of doing... The Dems are doing.

        And no, I'm not a Trumper. I'm an independent. BTW many Dems are now claiming to be independents because they are too embarrassed to call themselves Democrats.

        From the middle, I am a bit more objective and what is happening is pathetic and sick.

        1. jelabarre59

          Re: Too funny.

          Seems you clearly didn't catch Hunter Biden's corruption story being blocked on FB and Twitter.

          Seems that everything you and others accuse Trump of doing... The Dems are doing.

          ElReg probably blocked it too,.

          1. Holtsmark Silver badge

            Re: Too funny.

            The reason why the story is only being pushed by FOX news opinionists and their likes is that the story reeks so badly that even the NYP journalists that had to write the story refused to put their names behind it.

            This is not a matter of censorship, it is a matter of lack of believability, and a matter of stopping more damage being done to an already weakened democracy.

            1. First Light

              Re: Too funny.

              The story should not have been blocked - see Streisand effect.

              As usual, those with a critical thinking capacity will figure out it's crap and those who are blind believers will continue to believe.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Hunter Biden

          was blocked because there was no real substence to the story. A lack of hard facts is a killer in the run up to the election. The same goes for the 'guilt by association' of Hunter Biden and Child Pron because a FBI warrant for his laptop was signed by an agent who had been working on Child Pron.

          If at some point in time in the future some real hard evidence emergese that Hunter Biden has been involved with such nasties then I'll willingly villify him. Until then, guilt by association? Pah.

          I fully expect more of this sort of thing to emerge between now and election day although if the numbers of those voting early are continued, the resuly might be a foregone conclusion in many states before polling day.

        3. Silverburn

          Re: Too funny.

          Did you idiots not learn anything from Benghazi? Pizzagate? Obamagate?

          You guys will believe literally anything, as long as it's anti-democrat or anti-centrist. You're getting played like suckers. Again.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Too funny.

          "seems that everything you and others accuse Trump of doing... The Dems are doing."

          Projecting much?

          Like nominating SC judges in election year?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: Too funny.

      > Anyone could have told you that the deal was DOA from the get go.

      Oooh, Yeah. Everyone Knew That.

      Cool story, brah. Does this shit still work in Trumpland?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @ST ... Re: Too funny.

        Clearly you're not from either WI or IL.

        Being in Tech and Chicago at the time... we talked about it.

        We saw the big problem. Water supply.

        So too did the Chicago Tribune.

        But unless you were there... you would never known it.

        So while you folks pick on Trump... believe me ... If Biden wins, he's out of office in less than 1 qtr. EIther Pelosi and Kamala use the 25th. Or... he's impeached.

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Too funny.

      I blame Foxconn for not following through.

  6. aregross

    I live in Wisconsin, I knew it was a bust before it even began. Foxconn had done the same thing before in a couple other states.... EXACTLY the same thing. People lost their homes, there was a huge investment in roads, sewers, etc. And nothing. The WisGOP gets to hang their hat on this one, in it's entirety!

    1. sanmigueelbeer

      I am friggin' fuming as f*ck!

      FOXCONN promised to pay me for the Golden Gate Bridge I sold them!

    2. Blank Reg

      They won't take the blame, somehow it will be the democrats fault, or maybe Hillary, or Obama.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Projection 101

        You can pretty much see what's coming up from Republican rhetoric. e.g. Fox News is pushing Q Anon, pizzagate mk 2 lies. Shortly after a judge ruled Ghizelle Maxwell's deposition cannot be kept secret, so you can see what Republicans are trying to pre-emptively deflect there.

        Just apply the projection rule and see what's in the news that somehow got submarined, and you can see easily what they're up to.

        I don't see anything on this though, its chump change. Not worth deflecting. Giant boondongle that was a US tax dodge was giant boondongle, supprising exactly nobody, fooling exactly nobody.

    3. rnturn

      We used to live just south of the IL/WI border and watched/heard/read about this fiasco as it unfolded. Everyone knew it was all smoke and mirrors and that the jobs were never going to materialize.

  7. jake Silver badge

    IT'S FAKE NEWS!

    Totally made up by teh Evul Librul Mejia! Don't listen to them. Foxconn in Wisconson is an awesome project! The BEST EVER!

  8. whoseyourdaddy

    Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

    When I worked in the Chicago suburbs or western NY state, I'll never forget getting up at 6AM to scrape my car off so I can play bumper-cars on patches of black ice and other traffic headaches.

    I hope to never face this at temps that frequently dropped to 20F deg below zero.

    Dumb...

    1. 9Rune5

      Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

      Could you elaborate?

      Hardware enjoys lower temperatures. And close to the arctic circle we have plenty of cooling to offer.

      As for driving a car, nothing is more fun than wrestling a corner with the ass of the car going wide.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

        Engine blocks don't survive long in Wisconsin winters without block heaters. Most hardware hates the concept of 40 below (C or F, I'm not picky ...). Most wetware hates it even more.

        If you have to wrestle anything while driving your car you're doing it wrong.

        1. Lars
          Happy

          Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

          Living in a country with a winter I agree. When a kid my father had a MB, every evening when coming home he would emty the water onto the street, and every morning we would carry out hot water to fill it up.

          But also I don't think we had syntetic 5-40 oil then either.

        2. GBE

          Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

          Engine blocks don't survive long in Wisconsin winters without block heaters.

          Nonsense. I've lived in Minnesota for 40 years. Neither I nor anybody I know has a block heater, and nobody I know has ever had an engine block fail.

          1. Boo Radley

            Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

            When I first moved to Minnesota, I noticed that parking lots at work all had electrical plugs by them. They were for plugging in an engine block heater. It frequently hit 30 below F in the winter.

            1. Lars
              Happy

              Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

              @Boo Radley

              Here up in northern Europe parking heaters like Webasto and similar have become very popular. No fuss with electrical plugs and cables, they have a timer and will heat the car inside too if you want, they run on the gas in the car itself.

              https://www.webasto-comfort.com/int/heating/car-parking-heater/

          2. Someone Else Silver badge

            Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

            Now, North Dakota, on the other hand....

          3. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

            "Nonsense. I've lived in Minnesota for 40 years. "

            It's common on diesel engines in cold climates. Starting a diesel engine in sub-freezing temperatures can be a project. Petrol engines with winter oil viscosity don't need them. Maybe in Siberia, but not in the US.

      2. My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

        Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

        Electronic hardware enjoys lower temperatures, sure.

        But engines involve combustion (chemical ignition) and moving parts like bearings. Although they create heat during operation and that heat must be removed (yay, cold!), too cold -- especially at startup trying to achieve rotation and ignition -- can be a problem.

        And then there's the unavoidable thermal stress of "hot on the inside, cold on the outside". The further apart the two temperatures are, the more strain on the materials.

        (Regarding the other point: my old Buick LeSabre was fun on neighborhood corners. Left unplowed to thaw-and-freeze, it all ended up as ice. Smaller/lighter cars like Chevy Cruze and SUVs like Traverse with beefier suspensions can't duplicate it -- instead of slippage I feel I'm going to break something.)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      SNOW! Nice place to visit...

      wouldn't want to live there.

      The rent checks suck but the look on my east coast relatives faces when I'm wearing shorts on new years day is almost worth it.

      The north east's penchant for road salt is also pretty tough on cars. The areas that switched to cinders seem to see much less body rot, bridge collapses, and other horrors. Is there a reason it's still so popular in the cold hard north?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tech where you need an engine block heater? Are you kidding me?

      No, if I was kidding you I would say something like "Lacking access to a block heater, reg readers should consider an old Pentium 4, as generating waste heat is a feature and it can also run Crysis."

  9. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Trump caught telling the truth!

    “one of the most incredible plants I’ve ever seen,”

    Incredible means "not worthy of belief". It is one of his favourite words. The only questionable part of the statement are what the other most incredible plants were. My guess: Audrey II and the spaghetti trees.

    1. the Jim bloke
      Megaphone

      Re: Trump caught telling the truth!

      Bullshit

      No plant so he couldnt have seen it.

      Please provide subject, dates and times of when ever Trump has told the truth.

      It will be a short list, and probably all accidental.

      First thing to do when you hear a statement from Trump, is ask, "is he lying?", and the answer almost always turns out to be "yes".

      This is the man that gave us "Fake Media" - and never stopped.

  10. T. F. M. Reader

    Golf carts???

    How ironic...

  11. Sanguma

    foot in mouth

    meet Mr Bullet ...

    “The eighth wonder of the world,” the hyperbolic reality TV star promised while claiming the deal was a reflection of him keeping his word to bring manufacturing back to America and make the country great again.

    Sticking your foot in your mouth while brandishing a loaded gun then shooting yourself in the foot ... may appeal to some people, in particular those who can contort themselves and their friends as much as the Federal Secretary of Silly Tweets frequently does ... in the eighties I read about a trick some US military suppliers had, for ensuring their hands were stuck deeply into the taxpayer's pocket for the foreseeable future - overpromise and underdeliver, so the poor taxpayer gets "bought into" the project. The more it changes, the more it stays the same.

    1. Danny 2

      Re: foot in mouth

      "Sticking your foot in your mouth while brandishing a loaded gun then shooting yourself in the foot"

      It's not a great boast but as far as I know I invented that bon mot in '94. I searched for other references but no. I was less wordy - "You put your foot in your mouth and then shot yourself in your foot".

      Didn't copyright it, relax.

  12. Danny 2

    Potemkin factory

    In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is any construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country which is faring poorly, making people believe that the country is faring better.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Potemkin factory

      He got tips from the norks on that one

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Potemkin factory

      Except they forgot the façade in this case which... kind of defeats the point(!)

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Potemkin factory

        Couldn't they have put up a bunch of large LCD screens and generated an image of the factory ?

    3. hayzoos

      Re: Potemkin factory

      Aaahhh! You mean like Atlantic City, NJ. Once home to a Trump casino property. I believe it closed due to losing money.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Potemkin factory

        The only man who ever lost money running a casino!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Such wisdom

    Guy who voted for Trump: Wow, things are way worse than we'd imagined.

    Guy 2: Let's vote for him again.

    1. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Re: Such wisdom

      Guy 3: He'll definitely build the wall in his second term. And get Mexico to pay for it.

      Guy 4: Lock her up! Lock her up!

      Guy 5: The coronavirus will just vanish next April.

      Guy 6: If Biden gets elected he'll cancel Christmas the very first day he takes office, er, 20th January.

      (This is too easy.)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Such wisdom

        "he'll cancel Christmas"

        Thank you. 11.9 years ago someone in my neighborhood was blaming Obama for the dreadful state of the economy, before his inauguration.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Such wisdom

          Now they are blaming Obama for 9/11 and Biden for corona

          1. Rich 11 Silver badge

            Re: Such wisdom

            Yes, but the clincher is which of them murdered the baby SEALs?

  14. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Using yesterday's technology to solve today's problems tomorrow *

    Hopefully this was for LCD backlighting technology where there's still a few years left of profitable innovation. You can shrink the inorganic LEDs down farther and farther to reduce halos in HDR mode. Getting from UV-A to television RGB isn't perfect yet either.

    If this was for making the LCD sheet itself... that would be a very Trump thing to do. Maybe the factory can run off coal furnaces.

    * Quote stolen from awesome co-worker

  15. Khaptain Silver badge

    El Reg becoming political now ?

    I understand that Californians have a strong preference for lefty politics but do we honestly need to hear that on El Reg, this article just stinks of pre-election bias.

    What's next, Critical Race Theory in between articles on how to prepare GPOs via Powershell.

    1. anonanonanonanonanon

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Lol, tech news like this is register bread and butter.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Where's the bias? There is comment but the reporting is of the facts: this was promised but this is what happened.

    3. Danny 2

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Um, I think the founding fathers here self-described as anarchist from the start. As do I. I have no problem with you, El Khaptain, or your political opinions. We are a broad, mainly atheist church. Me, I am honestly a reverend, in the same way Joey from Friends was. ULC.

      I'm on the bottom left square of the Political Compass, (take the test yourself!) but that doesn't mean we can't chat rationally.

      It's a journal. It focusses on IT but it covers science and current affairs too. I like that. I also liked 1980s California, especially the Dunkin' Donuts.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        "Dunkin' Donuts."

        If that's the best you got out of California, you must not have set foot outside the LA basin.

        Dunkin' is to donuts as Trump is to Presidential.

        1. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          To be fair, 80's Dunkin Donuts were identifiable as donuts, they were made in the stores.

          Today's Dunkin has abandoned the Donuts, both literally and figuratively. There are far better places to get your morning ration of oh-so-tasty grease and sugar

        2. Danny 2

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          "If that's the best you got out of California, you must not have set foot outside the LA basin."

          We were mostly in SF but stuck for a night with no cash overnight in one of the Sans (San Jose?) waiting for a Greyhound.

          I just checked my forum history here, I was warning about the dangers of the Covid19 pandemic on Feb 4th. I hate to say everyone I know are all idiots for not listening to me when I am always right, but.

          (Danny, 11/9/2001: I told you something world changingly bad would happen in September!

          Derek: Danny, you say a lot of things)

          Fourth of effing February. I am the Jucinda Arden Scotland never earned.

          I'm sorry for my lack of communication

          But as I'm staring out this fifth floor window

          It seems like the least amount of communication the better

          Oh, well what am I supposed to say

          "there's a bloody effigy on my wall

          And the complimentary carnation is falling apart"

          And I ain't got time for the niceties

          Or rather I was never, never fond of the niceties

          I will see you around

          I will see you around

          See you around

          See you around

          Well I must admit I'm flattered by your consecration

          It's a mind-numbing spine-chilling

          But never-the-less heartwarming gesture

          But as you make your advances so clumsily

          I'll save us both the both the hassle and leave

          And hang out all night

          In the familiar fluorescent light of Dunkin' Donuts

          'cause I ain't got time for the niceties

          Or rather I was never, never fond of the niceties

          I will see you around

        3. Munchausen's proxy
          Flame

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          "Dunkin' is to donuts as Trump is to Presidential."

          Just what I'd expect to hear from somebody who probably uses emacs.

          1. jake Silver badge
            Pint

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm a vi aficionado, TYVM.

            Here's a post of mine from 11 years ago on the subject.

            Watching the bubbles in your beer is probably more productive. This round's on me.

      2. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        @Danny2 "I'm on the bottom left square of the Political Compass, (take the test yourself!) but that doesn't mean we can't chat rationally.2"

        I ended between Angela Markel and Nicola Sturgeon, almost bang in the middle... Left Libertarian as per the certificate ( I would prefer to choose the word "independant"), This doesn't' shock me at all , as mentioned above I like neither candidate nor the games that they or the media are playing....

        1. disgruntled yank

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          Angela Markel? Didn't she marry into the royal family?

        2. Danny 2

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          @Khaptain

          "I ended between Angela Markel and Nicola Sturgeon, almost bang in the middle"

          Lucky you, that's one of my sexual fantasies too.

          It's spelt 'independent', we've got good at spelling that in Scotland. Did you know that the song I just sneakily linked to is Scottish?

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            Kindly keep your perverse filth to yourselves. Children read here.

            1. Lars
              Happy

              Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

              @Jake

              Dr. Michio Kaku has a good point here, education for profit not quality is not the way to go.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM

              1. jake Silver badge

                Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

                What, if anything, does that have to do with this thread, Lars?

                1. Lars
                  Happy

                  Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

                  Jake, it was nothing against what you wrote.

                  But probably because I was reading this thread "newest first" I came to read comments dealing with the supposed lack of enginers and knowledge in the USA and about China.

                  And the reason for that and many other American problems starts from the very beginning.

                  Americans used to understand the importance of education, and that has to start with kids, all kids, but that has all moved towards education for profit.

                  American kids do not do well in any comparison to other countries today.

                  A democracy, what we still call "one man, one vote", doesn't work well if a large part of the population is uneducated. Uneducated people tend to fall for any snake oil salesman. I would claim this was the case both in the USA and in England regarding Brexit.

                  I don't agree with Michio Kaku's use of the word "genius", but on the whole he is spot on also regarding the fact that China is no longer just about cheep labour.

                  For the USA to become great again you have to take education more seriously starting with all kids.

                  I hate to believe anything as ridiculous as Trump could happen in a educated country.

                  Regards

                  1. Khaptain Silver badge

                    Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

                    "I hate to believe anything as ridiculous as Trump could happen in a educated country."

                    You do realise that the education system has been "systemically" indoctrinating the children and college students for the past 20 or so years..

                    So the problem is not Trump but the American System that has ignored what it going on in their own schools... Obama, Bush and Clinton are far more to blame than anyone else, there were presiding when this crap started....

                    At least Trump had the balls to call out that ludicrous "Critical Race Theory" agenda.

            2. Danny 2

              Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

              Children read here for the perverse filth, along with the free beers.

    4. jake Silver badge

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      You'd be crowing about it if it weren't pure graft, and you know it.

      ElReg would be the first to report on it if it were real instead of a boondogle, and you know that too.

      Instead of whining about ElReg's so-called politics, how about trying to find holes in the story to gripe about instead?

    5. Roo
      Windows

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Just because an article points out stuff that you don't like doesn't mean the substance is untrue or biased.

      Murdoch has a lot to answer for - he can't pop his clogs soon enough.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        I'd prefer Murdoch was in an orange jumpsuit than an oak box - and left on display in that orange jumpsuit once he expires

        1. MrDamage

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          After we have driven a stake through his heart, filled his veins with holy water, and shoved a bulb of garlic in his mouth.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            You forgot the crossroads bit.

      2. Rich 11 Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        Murdoch is doing everything he can to stave off the day when the second clause in that contract he signed in blood takes effect.

      3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        "Just because an article points out stuff that you don't like doesn't mean the substance is untrue or biased."

        Of course it is! That's the fundamental tenet of the cult of Trump. If you don't like it or disagree with it then it's fake news.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          The dangerous thing is that they seem to believe that merely uttering or hearing the words "fake news" automatically makes it true. The brainwashing involved is almost biblical in its proportions, making your use of the word cult quite apropos.

    6. Chris G

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      I think it rates as very newsworthy for a tech publication to report on the failed promises from a world class tech company and the POTUS, to construct a huge bigly factory, gain billions in potential subsidies and then not only fail to deliver but keep making promises that are clearly never going to happen.

      You may be unhappy about the reporting, think hiw unhappy those in Wisconsin are.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        It's a three year old story that involves nothing but politics. This is just another Orange Man Bad jibe which is really boring on an IT site.

        I don't like Donald Trump , nor do I like Joe Biden and I believe that neither will do any good for the US.

        But what I dislike more than both of them though is the left swinging media which has completely lost it's objectivity.. The MSM has simply become a propaganda machine for whoever pulls the strings. I was kinda hoping that El Reg would remain independent....

        The Hunter Biden macbook story would have been far more interesting, there was at least a modicum of IT involved.

        1. juice

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          > The Hunter Biden macbook story would have been far more interesting, there was at least a modicum of IT involved

          Yeah, if only this story had some sort of tech angle...

          "The Taiwanese monster manufacturer [Foxconn] promised to build a $10bn plant making LCDs, requiring 30,000 workers, which was quickly reduced to 13,000, and turn Wisconsin into a Silicon Valley of the Midwest".

          Nope, not a single tech element there.

          > The MSM has simply become a propaganda machine for whoever pulls the strings. I was kinda hoping that El Reg would remain independent....

          No, you were hoping that it'd align with your personal biases.

        2. OldSoCalCoder

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          Yes - just like the left wing commie rag filled with lies called the New England Journal of Medicine that unjustly said trump 'took a crisis and turned it into a tragedy'. So what if NEJM hasn't had a political editorial in 208 years.

          1. DS999 Silver badge

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            I'm sure Trumpies think they've always been democrats, they were just waiting since the War of 1812 for Trump to come along so they could pounce on him!

        3. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          The macbook story is not here because it lacks a modicum of reality. If you do not like reality being reported on The Register try Breibart instead where reality it not permitted. Your macbook fantasy was written ex-Breitbart employee.

        4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          The MSM has simply become a propaganda machine for whoever pulls the strings.

          Hasn't that always been the case? Beaverbrook, Hearst, Berluscon,…

          The plant was proposed to be a symbol of foreign investment demonstrating that high tech could be made in America: the I-Phones of tomorrow would still be "designed in California" but "made in Wisconsin" instead of China.

          We all knew when the project was announced that it was just a PR wheeze that would lead to any new jobs but would be another subsidy bucket. But I will admit to being depressed by the details with people still being paid to do nothing so that the subsidy still flows. And the details do matter. The US trade deficit is at record levels as its borrowing and the money that has been wasted on this will be missing for other important things such as, I don't know, providing IT equipment and training for schools in Wisconsin.

        5. JDPower Bronze badge

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          I agree, the Hunter Biden story could be reported here - picking it apart for the nonsense it is would be quite interesting. Failing that, Vice did it for anyone interested: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/qj4gqv/the-ny-posts-hunter-biden-laptop-story-is-a-right-to-repair-nightmare

        6. mad_dr

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          "It's a three year old story"

          Just because something has been happening for 3 years SO FAR, doesn't make it a three year old story. Otherwise you could say that we shouldn't discuss sexism anymore because, after all, it's a 500+ year old story, so who cares?

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            And where would we be without Oracle? Or HP/Autonomy? Some stories just go on forever!

            1. jake Silver badge

              Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

              Some stories just keep on giving. Isn't it about time for the shade of SCO to raise its weary head and make another useless attempt at bending reality?

        7. cray74

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          The Hunter Biden macbook story would have been far more interesting, there was at least a modicum of IT involved.

          Yes, Foxconn only went to Wisconsin to expand its widely known cheese division, not for anything IT related.

          Regarding the Hunter Biden MacBook (probably with some Foxconn chips), there were some interesting aspects:

          1. Hunter Biden lives in California.

          2. The computer repair shop was in Delaware - admittedly, where members of the Biden family are.

          3. The computer repair shop owner couldn't positively ID Hunter Biden as the MacBook's owner.

          4. The leaked emails contain names and dates that don't match up with Hunter's itineraries

        8. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          "The MSM has simply become a propaganda machine for whoever pulls the strings."

          Phrases like that tend to point you out as a Trump supporter. Or is Trumps constant badgering having an effect on you? Does this prove "advertising" works? Or is all just a Big Lie?

    7. Jonjonz

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      If you don't like factual reporting, what are you doing here?

      Go back to Faux News.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        "what are you doing here?

        Looking for IT news...

        And you why are you here, is it just for the factual propaganda.

        1. anonanonanonanonanon

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          I just can't, i want to rant, but, oh

          Factual Propaganda...

          Genius

          News! It's just factual propaganda, why do facts make the orange one look so bad?

      2. Cederic Silver badge

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        Perhaps he was hoping for political neutral factual tech reporting.

        For instance, this story is being covered but not others. That's an editorial choice which applies a political skew to the site.

        Hopefully The Register's Powers That Be will remember that half of the US supports Trump and over half of the UK supports Brexit and that their customer base does not all work on the Californian coastline.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          Half the US supports Trump? Not even half of the subset of people that voted in the last election supported him.

        2. Santa from Exeter
          FAIL

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          @Cederic "over half the UK supports Brexit" Citation please.

          Only 52% of the people who actually initially voted in the (non binding) referendum 'supported' Brexit.

          The total turnout was 72.2% and there were around 25,000 rejected ballots <1%

          These figures have altered several times according to different polls, but you cannot draw the conclusion that 'over half of the UK supports Brexit' from them, nor can you draw the conclusion that around three quarters of the UK (totalling thoose that voted against with those that did not vote) wished to remain.

          This is leaving aside the fact that the Electoral Commision found that the very question asked was skewed.

          1. Alan Brown Silver badge

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            "This is leaving aside the fact that the Electoral Commision found that the very question asked was skewed."

            Not to mention that the only reason they couldn't prosecute anyone for the blatently illegal behaviour was that the referendum was laid down as non-binding

            (Something that Theresa May's goverment's own lawyers successfully argued to defeat a case brought to stop Brexit - they argued it was non-binding and Brexit was merely the policy of the Conservative party)

            1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

              Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

              Is this the Electoral Commission that wrote the very question?

        3. juice

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          > Perhaps he was hoping for political neutral factual tech reporting.

          On a website whose tagline is "biting the hand that feeds IT"? Or which explicitly describes itself as "The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community."...

          > Hopefully The Register's Powers That Be will remember that half of the US supports Trump and over half of the UK supports Brexit and that their customer base does not all work on the Californian coastline

          Really?

          Hillary Clinton got *3 million* more votes than Trump in the last election (65.84m vs 62.98m); it's the electoral college system which won Trump the election, not the popular vote. And while the polls weren't particularly accurate last time, there's a sizable gap between Biden and Trump in the run up to the current election.

          Equally in the UK, 52% of the vote was for Brexit, in a (non-binding, don't forget) poll which reached 72% of the 46 million elegible voters, from a total population of over 66 million people.

          Or to put it another way, just 17.4 million people out of 66 million voted for Brexit. Or around 25% of the total population.

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results

          There's certainly ways to counter the above hard facts (above and beyond the fact that Trump won, and Brexit went ahead), but "Half of country X supported Y" is clearly untrue.

          1. J.G.Harston Silver badge

            Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

            And only 16.3 million people voted to Remain - or about 23% of the population.

            1. juice

              Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

              > And only 16.3 million people voted to Remain - or about 23% of the population.

              True, but that wasn't the claim. Instead, the claim was that "50% of the UK voted for Brexit", when only 25% of the population did [*].

              I'd be happy to debate things past there but fundamentally, the claim being made was provably false.

              1. juice

                Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

                Whoops, I forgot about the footnote. Which was around the *current* support for Brexit, and involved two key points:

                1) At a glance, there's around 700,000 births per year, and 500,000 deaths. And sadly, the majority of deaths (70%+) affect the 65+ demographic, which also happened to mostly vote Brexit.

                So we now have up to 2.8 million "young" people who are now eligible to vote (73% remain in 2016) and around 1.2 million fewer "old" people (60% exit in 2016).

                So at this point, if the 2016 voting demographics held true, that would currently give us somewhere around 1.7m extra "remain" votes and 700k fewer "exit" votes.

                But that leads us to...

                2) Bregrexit (or whatever portmanteau is in vogue at the minute) is rising, thanks in no small part to the double-whammy fact that with just two months to go, we are looking ever more likely to end up with no-deal at a point when Coronavirus's effects on the NHS and the economy will be peaking...

                Admittedly, there's been a lot of mess around Brexit, and I suspect a lot of people are thoroughly fatigued and just want and end to it all, regardless of what happens.

                But whatever can be said about Brexit back in 2016, I don't think can be said now.

                1. juice

                  Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

                  > So at this point, if the 2016 voting demographics held true, that would currently give us somewhere around 1.7m extra "remain" votes and 700k fewer "exit" votes.

                  ... and to correct myself[*], the above stats forgot to take into account that only around 70% of people eligible to do so actually did. Which suggests that there'd be actually be around 1.2m extra "remain" votes and around 500k fewer "exit" votes.

                  Though equally, it's surprisingly difficult to get a breakdown of deaths by age - there's a lot of C19 noise in the results, and it's generally presented as "deaths per 1000" which I CBA reworking into a single simple number.

                  For the above, I found a government statistic stating that 68.5% of deaths occurred in people aged over 75 and ran with that.

                  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/death-in-people-aged-75-years-and-older-in-england-in-2017/death-in-people-aged-75-years-and-older-in-england-in-2017

                  However, I suspect that if you extended the age-range back to "people aged 60 or older", you'd probably end up with the percentage creeping up into the 80s (and thereby widen the remain/exit voting delta), but I'll leave that for people with more time and/or better google-foo.

                  tl;dr: the above numbers were scribbled on a beer mat, and any resemblance to any actual real numbers current or historical are entirely coincidental...

                  [*] STOP THE PRESS! SOMEONE'S ADMITTED THAT THEY WERE WRONG ON THE INTERNET!!1!

        4. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

          "political neutral factual tech reporting"

          You're suggesting here that you don't like facts that go against your world view, which I can't do anything about except comment on it. It's something for you to wrangle with yourself.

          "The Register's Powers That Be will remember that..."

          This isn't how it works. We have in our mind, based on feedback, meeting people, reader surveys, etc, who our audience is and who we want to reach, and we write for all of them the best way we can with facts and reality. You can take it or leave it. We cannot please all the people all of the time.

          We also can't get into a situation where we think "oh, better say something nice about X because 50% of readers like X and we don't want to lose them even though X screwed up."

          If you're asking us to lie or bend the truth or say nice things about crap ideas to make people feel better, and others feel worse, then, yeah, we're not gonna do that, and have never done that TTBOMK.

          And I'm talking news, BTW: if one of our columnists has a particular viewpoint, that's their headache.

          C.

          1. Cederic Silver badge

            Re: "political neutral factual tech reporting"

            You're suggesting here

            I disagree with your interpretation of my comment and feel you are misrepresenting me.

            I'm also removing the more lengthy reply I just posted because.. forget it. Your site, your choice. I understand that, and I won't waste your time with unwanted feedback.

          2. Roo
            Windows

            Re: "political neutral factual tech reporting"

            "say nice things about crap ideas to make people feel better, and others feel worse, then, yeah, we're not gonna do that, and have never done that TTBOMK."

            That's is precisely why I read the Reg. Thank you for sticking to your guns all these years !

        5. This post has been deleted by its author

        6. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

          "half of the US supports Trump "

          That's BS, literally. Not even half of the *voters* support Trump, but about 40%.

          40% of *those people who did vote*. That's about half of the people who *could vote*.

          And then there's almost a third of the population who can't vote.

          I'll do the math for you: 0.4*0.5*0.7 = 14% of the US supports Trump.

          No more, no less.

    8. Lars
      Happy

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      @Khaptain

      Here out in the big world there is very little love for Trump, European facists, there are some arround, have of cours understood too what he is and what he stands for. No surprise, as you know papa Fred was a KKK member.

      As I wrote here.

      There is no way to hide incompetence, dishonesty and sheer idiocy in the long run.

      In the USA it's about Republicans and Democrats too, but in the big world it's only about a repulsive character who should not be in power in a great country like the USA.

      When the head is rotten the body will suffer as they say.".

    9. James 47

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Things went to shit when Andrew Orlowski left.

      1. codejunky Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        @James 47

        I do miss Andrews articles. Tim Worstall and Lewis Page.

    10. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      "this article just stinks of pre-election bias"

      You mean, this article doesn't align with your, i dunno, your personal view of the world.

      And you can't point at any and every article published before an election and say it's pre-election bias.

      "I understand that Californians have a strong preference for lefty politics"

      I think you're jumping to conclusions on the political leanings of individual staff members, not that it really matters. If someone does something stupid, we call it stupid -- doesn't matter where on the political map they are.

      C.

    11. Filippo Silver badge

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      Mega-LCD factory being promised to be built in an unlikely place and then failing to be built is both IT and politics. Being an IT newssite means that you report IT. It doesn't mean that you don't report politics. So this gets reported.

      You would have a legitimate complaint if you could honestly claim that The Register wouldn't have reported this if the factory had actually been built - but you can't. Every reader here knows that it would definitely have been reported at least as prominently (owing to how unlikely it was).

    12. jelabarre59

      Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

      I understand that Californians have a strong preference for lefty politics but do we honestly need to hear that on El Reg, this article just stinks of pre-election bias.

      Yeah, I'd never have expected that Faceborg and TWITter would have subverted El Reg...

      But I guess they have to pick on Donald Trump so they can forget about BoJo, if just for a little bit...

      1. Roo
        Windows

        Re: El Reg becoming political now ?

        Speaking for myself, I don't pay much attention to BloJohnson because he is utterly irrelevant. He takes his marching orders from Lord Ashcroft, Rupert Murdoch, Russian Oligarchs and US Billionaire backed think-tanks. If he were to get shot tomorrow another stooge would step up with exactly the same policies.

        Trump is awful, but I think folks need to be more worried about the fact the Republican Party are hellbent on creating a one-party state - and simply refuse to deal with anyone who isn't a fully paid up member or has enough wedge to buy them. The Tory party are going the same way, all bile and finger pointing, no actual policies, interest or ability to run a country.

        1. John H Woods

          Re: one party state

          Yes - this is increasingly happening in the countries without PR. It's not "we don't think they'll manage the country as well as we do" it's "they are *unfit* to run the country"

          As the new "spooks=gods" bill now includes authorizing crimes up to and including murder in the interest of not just "national security" but of "economic well-being" it may not be long before there is 'legitimate' state-sponsored crime against political opponents.

  16. Colonel Mad

    Typo

    Hi, Wiconsin in file name. great piece though.

    1. My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

      Re: Typo

      I prefer WisconSIN.

      (Caveat: Born and bred in Minnesota -- Go Gophers; better dead than red! Anti-caveat: I did enjoy 4 years of college in Milwaukee, so I can say not all of it is bad. Caveat 2: I always referred to my location using the city name -- righty so since the university was adjacent to downtown -- without using the "W" word. Anti-caveat 2: Despite the other UMinn rivalry with Michigan, I've lived near Detroit over 15 years now, and my in-laws are UMich Wolverines fans, so I can tolerate some things. Caveat 3: Better Dead than Red still applies against Ohio State. Old habits die hard, and Badgers (still) Bite.)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wisconsin project may go down as one of the biggest political and economic con-jobs

    or again, it will be pedalled mercilessly as SUCCESS!!!! and 87% of respondents will claim they believe it is so, cause their President says so. Regardless, because, if facts contradict theory, so much the worse for the facts.

    Here's another quote that pinpoints TWO factors to make it happen: "... it required, if it was to be made plausible, some distortion of facts and considerable ignorance".

  18. ibmalone

    Human cost

    What changes this from farce to tragedy is that people were forced out of their homes for it. Reply All has a good episode on how this played out for the residents in Mount Pleasant https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/wbhjwd

    1. cawfee

      Re: Human cost

      I came to the comments to mention this! It's a great episode that shows the resident perspective, and reveals how cloak and dagger the whole thing was.

  19. Jonathon Green
    Trollface

    I like Americans. They’re funny!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      But suppose they escape into the world ?

  20. wjake
    FAIL

    On the Plus side...

    The billions in state tax credits have been revoked.

    https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/state-says-foxconn-cannot-receive-billions-in-tax-credits-until-new-contract-is-drafted/article_c1ec98d2-f076-5d22-a72e-c46d3f7621e6.html

  21. codejunky Silver badge

    Will people learn?

    "There is no LCD plant. In large part because the economics of it just don’t make sense: even when hiring people at $30,000 a year when Wisconsin’s median household income is about $60,000, it’s not possible to make a profit thanks to razor-thin margins."

    People crying about low value manufacturing jobs being outsourced to other countries dont realise it happened for a reason. If we want mountains of regulation, cleaner air/water/land and the products we want then we need to produce it at a price people will pay.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will people learn?

      don't forgot The Donald made Dishwashers great again!

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Will people learn?

      >In large part because the economics of it just don’t make sense:

      Unless you can get $1M/job in subsidies. Or you can import 'components' from your plants in China and install a "made in USA" sticker and avoid tariffs.

      1. H in The Hague

        Re: Will people learn?

        "Unless you can get $1M/job in subsidies. Or you can import 'components' from your plants in China ..."

        If you're good at building kit you don't need subsidies. I've got two customers who build serious equipment (mostly in NL & UK, elsewhere in Europe, one new plant in the US) and source quality components in Europe. Their kit is more expensive than that of their competitors but sells worldwide because it works well, is reliable and easy to maintain, and because the operators like it (i.e. lower TCO). But they are privately owned and can take a long-term view, and everyone from CEO to shopfloor operative is v focused on making ever better products. That's entrepreneurship.

      2. H in The Hague

        Re: Will people learn?

        "Unless you can get $1M/job in subsidies. Or you can import 'components' from your plants in China ..."

        I think these folk produce all their products in the US, in Durango, CO:

        https://stoneagetools.com/

        And these guys mostly manufacture in the US, I think (except for some of their cheap consumer products):

        https://thetorocompany.gcs-web.com/company-history

        I don't work for these companies or use their products but some of my customers have links with them. Both companies export successfully worldwide.

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Will people learn?

      The interesting thing is that CHINESE workers tend to cost more than American ones

      Which is one of the reasons that Chinese manufacturers are heavily investing into production line automation (especially for the boring/error-prone pick'n'place and QC work)

      Bernie et al bang on about "bringing jobs back" but they miss the point that the 12,000 worker car plant in Detroit became a 1500 worker car plant in Sonora(Mexico) and would become a 400-worker car plant in Tennessee (including the groundskeeping staff) if actually forced to return inside the USA

      The jobs are gone. It's much cheaper to make things using machines and have a very few high skilled workers maintaining those machines (Technocrats in "Future Shock" parlance all the way back in 1970)

      We should be concentrating on letting humans be good at what humans are good at (no, not killing each other) - regarding arts and culture as important, instead of superfluous. "Full employment" is a myth that hasn't existed in reality since the late 19th century because it hasn't NEEDED to exist

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Will people learn?

        >"Full employment" is a myth that hasn't existed in reality since the late 19th century

        I believe the southern half of the country has a plan to return to "C19 full employment" and simultaneously solve the "expense of paying workers".

      2. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: Will people learn?

        This is the reality I work in

        The company was founded about 30 odd yrs ago, using old manual machines, at its highest number of employees , it had 55 , 10 people doing setting and about 40 spinning handles/loading parts of some sort

        All those old machines are long gone, apart from the toolmakers lathe, replaced by robotic machining cells, when they're all up and running* we do little more than swap raw part trays in and out and unload the finished stuff

        The company employs 18 shop floor ppl over 2 shifts and we pump out about 100% more than when it was 55

        Those jobs are NOT coming back, whatever some politician blathers on about.

        *thats a fat chance given the reliabilty of one of the robots and the speed the cells chew through the work orders

        1. MachDiamond Silver badge

          Re: Will people learn?

          "The company employs 18 shop floor ppl over 2 shifts and we pump out about 100% more than when it was 55

          Those jobs are NOT coming back, whatever some politician blathers on about."

          And then the politicians go on about people having fewer kids and what can be done to encourage more breeding and population growth. In the next breath they are whinging about climate change caused by human activity.

          The disappointing thing I see is automation isn't used very often to ensure consistent, high-quality products, but as a way to crank out cheap junk faster with less labor.

      3. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Will people learn?

        "Bernie et al bang on about "bringing jobs back" but they miss the point that the 12,000 worker car plant in Detroit became a 1500 worker car plant in Sonora(Mexico) and would become a 400-worker car plant in Tennessee (including the groundskeeping staff) if actually forced to return inside the USA"

        That's part of it. Another factor is regulations. In the First World, there is often several regulatory agencies overseeing some aspect of the manufacturing process and they all have incompatible requirements. They also have the right to inspect which often means shutting down the process to take measurements. These aren't scheduled visits and if your paint or plating line is being closed at random times to satisfy the permit, it takes a big bite out of profits. It can get to the point where moving overseas saves so much money that import tariffs are a round error. Another factor is raw materials and component parts. The closer you are to your supplier, the better. If your product has an LCD screen and customs has decided to hold up a container load for a deep inspection, your whole production could be down if you don't have enough of those items to last until that container gets released. BTW, the freight company charges penalty storage for the container even though there is nothing you can do.

  22. Potemkine! Silver badge

    Insanity is becoming mainstream in the US

    You have to be American and Republican not to see the orange clown is a con artist. What else should we expect from people believing their idol is targeted by satanist paedophiles?

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Insanity is becoming mainstream in the US

      > the orange clown is a con artist

      Hardly, a con "artist" would have got away with it.

  23. HellDeskJockey
    FAIL

    It is ever thus with corporations

    Motorola did the same thing to Illinois about 20 years back with the cellphone plant at Harvard IL. Today it's an empty building. If a company has to have tax incentives to come it's not worth it. Sadly our elected officials of all stripes line up to hand out money to corporations. See the recent Amazon HQ2 mess. If a corporation is holding a bidding war then it means that the economics don't make sense.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: It is ever thus with corporations

      "If a company has to have tax incentives to come it's not worth it"

      It becomes a way of hiding welfare instead of directly paying unemployment

  24. jason_derp

    Really?

    “one of the most incredible plants I’ve ever seen"

    Really? In comparison to, like, a tree? I looked at a picture of that plant. I live in a town of less than 20k and I've worked in facilities that dwarf thing. They're also built in the middle of nowhere, get no infrastructure money put into them, and still manage to look far healthier. I guess maybe I'm just harder to impress with all the experience I've gotten from what I'd call "going outside once".

  25. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Boffin

    Todays politics is irrelevant

    The issue is that the US exported all its tech talent to China starting about 20 years ago, I have friends who were sent to China to train their Chinese "colleagues" to design and build the technology in China, all of them were "retired" after a year or two and returned to the US, none work in the technology world these days. So Foxconn are going to have issues hiring high level technical talent in the US these days ... want to design a power supply? It's easy we'll use these connectors, they are only one ohm resistance, that's good.

    But we're running twenty amps through the connector... (see icon, it's a joke).

    This is a result of the corporate politics, moving everything to China made companies a lot of money, it's going to cost money to get US talent back to the levels of 30-40 years ago.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Todays politics is irrelevant

      >The issue is that the US exported all its tech talent to China starting about 20 years ago

      The US stopped creating any tech talent 20 years ago.

      Looking around 20 employees, the CFO and Office Manager (and our lawyer) are the only non-immigrants or 1st generation children of immigrants.

      All the PhDs and engineers are furriners or furring-looking enough to get stopped at the airport.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Todays politics is irrelevant

        "The US stopped creating any tech talent 20 years ago."

        As a guy who does some hiring and firing for several of the Fortune 500s, I have to disagree with your assessment. Yes, they are a smaller percentage of the world-wide pool than they were 20 years ago, but the raw numbers as a percentage of the US population are still there. If you think you can't find any, you are looking in the wrong places.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Todays politics is irrelevant

          >. If you think you can't find any, you are looking in the wrong places.

          I'm hiring lots of them - because I don't need the to all be accepted in the country club

  26. nautica Silver badge
    Holmes

    The headline, explained.

    "...Wow, way worse than we'd imagined." [HEADLINE]

    "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it's stranger than we can imagine."---JBS Haldane

    "Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."---Mark Twain

  27. StuntMisanthrope

    An athlete & media centre!

    Lets leave no stone unturned. Running, jumping, kicking, throwing and reporting in all its glory from the start, with t-shirts. Forget school, start with numbers. #balls

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Will someone rid me of this meddlesome POTUS?

    - The World

  29. martinusher Silver badge

    Not really news for the British

    The US is merely undergoing the changes that the UK did 40 years ago, what with the 'rust belt', chronic unemployment in 'sunset industries' and the occasional loudly trumpeted local government initiative that's going to cost the taxpayer a bundle but is going to deliver so many jobs. Its been such a reglular part of UK life that it ceased to be news decades ago (and it gets really sad to hear of once thriving industries now generating the odd dozen jobs or so servicing the imports). The whole Foxconn saga had the same ring to it and as a British ex-pat I just smiled to myself because I knew what was going to happen -- empty promises and screwed taxpayer. To a certain extent Foxconn is relatively innocent; we're still at the old school industrial mindset that says "drop factory in greenfield site in the middle of nowhere, preferably in a non-union state, people it with willing locals (who need the jobs so we can keep wages low) and we'll be successful. Unfortunately in today's manufacturing environment just being a warm body doesn't cut it any more; even the most menial sounding of jobs is now quite skilled because of the level of automation (which also restricts the number to be hired). Its not automation 'taking our jobs' as automation 'being better at it and often the only way we can assemble products these days'.

    The only way forward is a comprehensive industrial and educational policy, a policy that's not going to bear immediate fruit. We also need to tweak the tax system so that offshoring either production or jobs isn't quite as lucrative. (I've watched the bottom being knocked out of the engineering job market in two countries now; it paradoxically causes a serious skills shortage initially but then you find that even if you wanted to build something like a ship or a computer you just lack the skills base to do this, especially if you want to be competitive globally.)

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Everything Trump does...

    Just when you think the Trump lies and bullshit can't get any worse he reveals another, even deeper swamp to sink into, now we know the only reason he wanted the swamp drained was so he could fill it with his own leeches

  31. MachDiamond Silver badge

    How about the Obama Solyndra plant?

    I get it, some towns that have lost a major employer incentivize new companies coming in to replace those jobs so the town doesn't die.

    Most cities and smaller counties have elected leaders that aren't versed in big business and may be hooked on the "growth" drug. In the first case, they get steamrollered by a large corporation's solicitors when these incentive contracts are drawn up. In the second case, they don't look at what it will cost to add another several thousand people to their city all at once. More police, a new fire station, a new or expanded sewage plant, more city services employees, etc. Things that will require the issuance of bonds and have payment terms measured in decades when the company might be out from under the obligations in half the time.

    Since the article is written by somebody in San Fransisco, I can see the reason that it bashes the President since he's not a LBQGTXR with strong socialist ties. I'm sure it was used by the President to make him look good, it doesn't seem like he had much to do with it. Take a look at the 68 million dollar tax abatement Tesla received for promising to build a new factory in Austin, Tx to build the world's ugliest pickup truck. Given the number of jobs talked about (I haven't seen the contract which should be public), the plant will need to be there for 50 years or more for Austin to break even. With a market cap of nearly $400 billion, why should they get the credits? Given the lack of profits from selling cars, Tesla seems like a big risk for such a massive investment. For a quarter of the $68mn, the city could have incubated quite a number of growing companies with an equal number of employees. The upside is that a few going out of business wouldn't be as big of a hit as when Tesla needs to idle the plant and make a few thousand redundant at some point in the future. Every car maker does this when the economy has a down turn.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How about the Obama Solyndra plant?

      "...that it bashes the President since he's not a LBQGTXR with strong socialist ties"

      You don't see a thing. Not even that he's a genuine con man. Not even a good one.

      That alone is a valid reason for any bashing he'll get.

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