Tea at Trianon: Breaking US Dependence On China For Rare Minerals

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Breaking US Dependence On China For Rare Minerals

From The Daily Caller:

The United States is wholly dependent on foreign countries, mainly China, for 20 minerals key to national defense and economic security, despite large pockets of some of the minerals existing on U.S. soil, according to a report released Monday. Other countries supplying the U.S. with critical minerals include Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

“The findings are shocking,” Zinke said in a statement. “The fact that previous administrations allowed the United States to become reliant on foreign nations, including our competitors and adversaries, for minerals that are so strategically important to our security and economy is deeply troubling.”

In response to the report, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order Wednesday identifying issues that contributed to U.S. mineral dependency. A lack of topographical data, slow permitting processes and environmental litigation inhibit private-sector investment in “exploration, production, recycling, and reprocessing of critical minerals,” according to the order.

Trump directed Zinke to publish a list of critical minerals in the Federal Register within 60 days of the order. Alongside other departments, the Department of the Interior must develop strategies and reform regulations to incentivize domestic mineral production, as well as work out critical mineral trading options with allies. (Read more.)