I have been in the aerospace manufacturing business for over 30 years. Mostly machining and finishing metallic components for structural applications like landing gear. Two years ago we were approached by a British company to machine engrave part numbers and serial numbers on several high strength steel bolts post heat treat. These are about 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. They are made from 4340 Modified steel heat treated to a strength level of 220/240 KSI, shot peened, chrome plated, precision ground and finally titanium/cadmium plated, primed and top coated. They are considered a critical component and the processing is tightly regulated by the OEM. As these are life limited parts that will be replaced after a certain number of flight cycles. Why was a company in the United States doing any of this work? For starters the Brits could not source the steel locally. They had to buy several hundred pounds of steel from a distributor in the United States and air freight it their factory, where they did the turning and milling then shipped them back to the United States for processing. The other problem was that they had no one qualified to heat treat and chrome plate them. To put this in perspective I could name half a dozen local shops that could have taken this product from start to finish and yet no one in Europe was certified to do this work. There is no way they could have competed against a US shop. I’m sure they lost money on the project but it didn’t matter to them. The way these things work is an agreement called an offset , wherein the country who purchased some airplanes gets “a piece of the action” meaning a certain percentage of the manufacturing is awarded to the purchasers country. This is pretty standard and has been going on for years but my point is that no one in Europe could do the work, hell they couldn’t even get the steel.
So Thierry Breton is the jerk who mandated USB-C connectors and why I had to buy new cords and plugs. I wondered why the change after IPhones since 2007 did fine without these. This affects automobiles too. Such a needless change. Why or how does the EU command such mandate. No wonder their economy is in the tank. These countries abiding by the EU rules are slowly dying all while migrants are pouring in and sucking up all the benefits.
Yesterday I thought Thierry Breton was a place like New South Whales. Today I find out it’s some micro managing European bureaucrat with a Napoleon complex that I have to be grateful to.
"Locking in the past" absolutely nailed it. Pity any normal people in Europe who have to live with supercilious assholes like Breton setting the rules.
Our new National Security Strategy correctly identifies the economic, social, and demographic decline that seems to have Europe in a terminal tails pin. Thank God we elected Trump, Biden had us on the same path.
The EU, and Breton as their poster child, are solely about power and control. They don’t jabs a clue -and are repelled by - free markets, competition and innovation because they aren’t in control.
Change of almost any nature is a threat to them, in one instance because they can’t control it, and also because change means they too can be rendered obsolete. Hence the battle over free speech. No dissent allowed.
They’ve turned Europe into a veritable graveyard when it comes to anything new or innovative. They’ve literally crushed the entrepreneurial and inquisitive attributes in the human spirit of their own peoples through suffocating laws and regulations and policies.
They’ve succeeded in zombifying an entire continent.
I have been in the aerospace manufacturing business for over 30 years. Mostly machining and finishing metallic components for structural applications like landing gear. Two years ago we were approached by a British company to machine engrave part numbers and serial numbers on several high strength steel bolts post heat treat. These are about 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. They are made from 4340 Modified steel heat treated to a strength level of 220/240 KSI, shot peened, chrome plated, precision ground and finally titanium/cadmium plated, primed and top coated. They are considered a critical component and the processing is tightly regulated by the OEM. As these are life limited parts that will be replaced after a certain number of flight cycles. Why was a company in the United States doing any of this work? For starters the Brits could not source the steel locally. They had to buy several hundred pounds of steel from a distributor in the United States and air freight it their factory, where they did the turning and milling then shipped them back to the United States for processing. The other problem was that they had no one qualified to heat treat and chrome plate them. To put this in perspective I could name half a dozen local shops that could have taken this product from start to finish and yet no one in Europe was certified to do this work. There is no way they could have competed against a US shop. I’m sure they lost money on the project but it didn’t matter to them. The way these things work is an agreement called an offset , wherein the country who purchased some airplanes gets “a piece of the action” meaning a certain percentage of the manufacturing is awarded to the purchasers country. This is pretty standard and has been going on for years but my point is that no one in Europe could do the work, hell they couldn’t even get the steel.
So Thierry Breton is the jerk who mandated USB-C connectors and why I had to buy new cords and plugs. I wondered why the change after IPhones since 2007 did fine without these. This affects automobiles too. Such a needless change. Why or how does the EU command such mandate. No wonder their economy is in the tank. These countries abiding by the EU rules are slowly dying all while migrants are pouring in and sucking up all the benefits.
Yesterday I thought Thierry Breton was a place like New South Whales. Today I find out it’s some micro managing European bureaucrat with a Napoleon complex that I have to be grateful to.
"Locking in the past" absolutely nailed it. Pity any normal people in Europe who have to live with supercilious assholes like Breton setting the rules.
Our new National Security Strategy correctly identifies the economic, social, and demographic decline that seems to have Europe in a terminal tails pin. Thank God we elected Trump, Biden had us on the same path.
I used AI to outline different scenarios for the future of the EU.
Spoiler: they're all not good.
https://directorblue.substack.com/p/top-5-scenarios-for-the-future-of?utm_source=publication-search
The EU, and Breton as their poster child, are solely about power and control. They don’t jabs a clue -and are repelled by - free markets, competition and innovation because they aren’t in control.
Change of almost any nature is a threat to them, in one instance because they can’t control it, and also because change means they too can be rendered obsolete. Hence the battle over free speech. No dissent allowed.
They’ve turned Europe into a veritable graveyard when it comes to anything new or innovative. They’ve literally crushed the entrepreneurial and inquisitive attributes in the human spirit of their own peoples through suffocating laws and regulations and policies.
They’ve succeeded in zombifying an entire continent.
Excellent piece