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Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by infogulch on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:16AM (#47364796)
The sale was completed in 2024.
Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by actionfromafar on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:24AM (#47364909)
I feel that as soon as the existential threat easened with the splintering of the Soviet Union, the US started doing some self-harming libertarian flavored shit to itself.

In the 1980s, I assume getting rid of the "strategic reserve" of anything would have met more pushback, because of primal fear overriding greed.

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by noah_buddy on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:47PM (#47368860)
Yes, Reagan was noted for his desire to avoid privatization of anything. /s

Kidding aside, the US has had libertarian pipe dreams for the better part of its history. The aberration was the New Deal period up until the mid 60s.

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by scythe on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:53PM (#47368964)
> We are going to do a terrible thing to you — we are going to deprive you of an enemy.

– Georgi Arbatov, Soviet political scientist, 1988

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by trollbridge on Friday March 13, 2026 @04:03PM (#47369104)
Wasn’t the original purpose of the strategic helium reserve to build fleets of zeppelins?
Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by phr4ts on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:25AM (#47364917)
For those who don't understand, Biden sold the Helium not Trump - he took office on Jan 20, 2025.
Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by baldeagle on Friday March 13, 2026 @10:41AM (#47365140)
"Current law (cira 2013) requires BLM to sell off the crude helium remaining in the Federal Helium Reserve in order to repay the U.S. Treasury the $1.3 billion debt incurred creating it. This debt will be repaid this fiscal year and that, as a consequence, the helium program will terminate at the end of the current fiscal year (October 1, 2013), absent Congressional action. Currently, the Federal Helium Reserve supplies roughly 40% of domestic and 30% of global helium demand. Loss of access to the Federal Helium Reserve would result in significant disruptions to a large number of critical U.S. industries." https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/494b2f9e-c8f5-4...

Sounds like Obama kept the gas taps flowing, instead of locking it up because authorization to sell it had expired. Here is the whole record: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/527/...

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by 4ggr0 on Friday March 13, 2026 @11:18AM (#47365652)
> too far left wing

> biden

uhm...

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by edgyquant on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:27PM (#47368608)
His admin was by far the most left wing in history, only the actual far left think otherwise
Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by cyberax on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:58PM (#47369048)
How does he compare with Nixon, who created the EPA?
Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by ImPostingOnHN on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:35PM (#47368700)
Please don't call everyone who doesn't disagree with you, names.

There are billions of people in the world, and you are one, and you have your one set of opinions out of billions.

Nobody endowed you or your opinions with any sort of infallibility or superiority over others.

Re:Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-wee... by sillystuff on Friday March 13, 2026 @05:46PM (#47370396)
Biden is an anti-abortion Catholic Zionist who wouldn't even do anything (but empty talk) to raise the minimum wage during high inflation. He enabled a genocide so his gods would reward him. I guess he would be a radical commie to the extreme far right. Nixon, JFK, LBJ and Lincoln, for example, signed into law actual left policies (whether they agreed with them or not-- none were lefties).

Words have meaning. Someone a bit left of a Nazi is not on the Left even if they are to the left of the person speaking.

The Democrats are a right-wing party. They spend more energy attacking the left than they do, the Republicans. Look at what they did to the center-left Sanders and their constant lawfare to keep left parties, like the Greens and Peace and Freedom, off the ballot and out of the debates (last election, the Greens spent half their campaign funds fighting these frivolous lawsuits from the Democratic party who seek to subvert democracy [Republicans attack anyone more left/darker than them, through voter suppression and other techniques to also subvert democracy]). There is very little daylight between the two. They serve the same masters, Oligarchs and Israel.

The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them. - Julius Nyerere