RAM prices skyrocket as producers switch to supplying AI datacenters.

 

A computer shop in China. Reuters.

AI is causing a crisis in consumer RAM prices as AI demand is sucking up a huge amount of production. Reuters. The price spike is affecting all kinds of memory, but DRAM is the most effected. The shortage could cause major problems, not only for consumer electronics, but for AI data centers themselves. Inventory of chips has been greatly reduced and there are fears that the higher prices could cause the AI bubble to pop. The prices of many consumer electronics will jump as well, with lower end smartphones, PC's and video game consoles bearing the brunt of the costs. 

The crisis has caused one of the big three memory producers, Micron, to abandon their consumer division to focus on AI sales. 

My Comment:

Outside of the tech world this story has been largely ignored. But folks who are going to try and buy a new PC or video game console are likely to see a major sticker shock in a month or two. This is a major crisis and it has echoes of the GPU crisis when crypto mining became a huge thing. That bubble eventually burst but it was a very bad time to be a PC gamer. It looks like we are going to see something similar here, but the fallout could be far beyond just gaming this time around. In short, if you are on the fence about buying/building a new PC, video game console, or lower spec smartphone, you should absolutely have done it a month ago, and failing that, you should do it now. 

AI is, of course, causing the bulk of this issue. Chip companies know that they can make more profit off of the data centers that are going up than they can from PC gamers and other consumers so they are logically making the choice to do so. These data centers are used for the various LLM's like ChatGPT and Grok and they require advanced chips. So it's no surprise that these companies are focusing on that. 

It's very bad news especially for video games and the people that buy and produce them. It sounds like Xbox is going to increase prices for their consoles and if you were thinking about building a PC, expect to pay $200 or $300 for RAM alone. GPU prices are stable but the costs of SSD hard drives are getting more expensive as well. In short, it's a terrible time to try and build a PC or buy a console. 

It's also a bad time for companies to release new consoles as well. I know the Steam Machine is supposedly coming out next year and there is a good chance that might not be in the cards anymore depending on how Valve planned things. If they got a large stockpile of DRAM sitting around awaiting the launch they could be able to put it out at a fair price. But if they didn't they are going to have to price the thing as much as a full PC costs pre-spike, which means it's almost certain to fail. And that's just one example, a lot of tech companies are going to face difficult decisions as this crisis continues. 

For me personally, I should not be affected too greatly. My gaming PC is future proof for at least a couple of years, I already have 32 gigs of RAM, which should last through the crisis as production is supposed to increase in 2027. I also just bought a new laptop to replace my dying gaming laptop. It's not high end or anything but it's crazy to think that the 16 gigs of ram it has is now worth more than half of what I paid for it. My phone is new this year as well, so at the very least, I should be able to weather this storm, assuming none of my components burn out or some other disaster befalls me. 

I do wonder how long this AI craze is going to last. I use LLM's myself, as Grok came free with my blue check subscription. It's certainly a useful tool. It's great at collecting information and bouncing ideas off of it, but I still don't really understand how anyone is supposed to make money off of it. I do think that sooner or later the AI bubble is going to burst, all bubbles do, when the hype doesn't quite match the results. But until that happens anything involving tech is probably going to be very expensive. 

Treasury Department, Congressional Oversite Committee, open up investigation of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz due to Somali welfare fraud scandal.

 

Governor Tim Walz. New York Post/Reuters. 

The Treasury Department and the Congressional Oversite Committee have opened up investigations of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz due to the Somali welfare fraud scandal that cost taxpayers of the state up to $1 billion. New York Post. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that Tim Walz was informed about the fraud but went after whistleblowers instead. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that his investigators would be looking at how money was sent to the al-Shabaab terror group in Somali via the Minnesota welfare fraud. The scandal had been bubbling under the surface for months, but new accusations have propelled the story nationally. A whistleblower account on X said that Walz was directly responsible for the fraud and did nothing to prevent the scandal despite being informed of it by his employees. 

Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression,… https://t.co/cEtbnuKmgn

— Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary (@Minnesota_DHS) November 30, 2025

My Comment:

I wrote an in depth post about this scandal last week.  Read that if you are unfamiliar with the details of the case. The summary is that Somali immigrants in Minnesota were syphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars in welfare and social program frauds. Much of that money ended up in Somalia, feeding both sides of the civil war there, but more importantly, it was fed to the Somali terror group al-Shabaab. It's an absolutely massive scandal. 

Tim Walz is also deeply involved in the case. There are allegations against Walz that he knew about the fraud but did nothing to prevent it. Indeed, it's possible that he retaliated against people that warned about the massive red flags they were seeing in the welfare business. He could even face criminal charges if evidence is found that he covered up the fraud. That seems very unlikely but 

To be fair, I don't think Tim Walz was involved in the fraud itself. And it's for the same reason I never even considered the words of Vance Bolter, the assassin that shot two Minnesota State Senators. Tim Walz just simply not smart enough to run a fraud scheme or hire an assassin. He is not a smart guy and seems like a very good example of someone unqualified making it far in politics. 

The real question is if there was a coverup. There are allegations that Tim Walz did indeed know about the fraud and could have prevented it. This isn't proven yet, but it does seem likely. The fraud was not that well hidden and there are people online that work in Minnesota that have made the accusation that Walz was informed and even took retaliation against whistleblowers. If those accusations are proven, then I don't see how Walz has a political career. 

His greatest defense here is, again, his incompetence. I really don't have a high opinion of Walz and his management, his addition to the Kamala Harris campaign was an absolute joke, and only Walz would say in a debate "I'm friends with School Shooters!". Of course, incompetence at this scale might save him from criminal charges (if he isn't guilty of the whistleblower retaliation) but I don't think it will save his career at this point. 

Indeed, this represents a rare opportunity for Republicans in the state. Walz is somehow still running for Governor and if he does run, he faces a very good chance of losing if this scandal has legs. Absolutely nobody is happy with Walz and his performance right now, though many of his Democrat voters will still "vote blue no matter who". Minnesota is a blue state, but it is moving in the purple direction and a huge motivating scandal like this could move independents into the Republican column and keep some Democratic voters home. 

Given this, I am guessing that the National Democratic Party and the State Democratic Farmer Labor party will drop Tim Walz like a hot potato. The Democrats in general are many things, most of them bad, but I can't imagine them making such a mistake as keeping Walz in the race. He's absolutely toxic now and was an embarrassment during the 2024 Presidential race. I don't know if they will be willing to force him to resign in disgrace, but I also can't imagine that they won't force him out of the race. If they do I am fully predicting that the GOP picks up the Minnesota Governor. I doubt they would keep it for more than a term, just like Virginia, without a motivating issue like the Somali scandal, they will probably lose it after one term. 

Regardless of what happens in Minnesota, I can't imagine that Walz will ever have a career after this on the national stage. There was some chatter that he was going to run as a Minnesota Senator, and position that seemed likely that he would win. He could have even run as a long shot Presidential candidate. But there is zero chance of any of that happening. Indeed, I can't even see him on the new talking head path at this point, Democrats are going to want to wash their hands of Walz completely... 

The saber rattling against Venezuela continues as Trump closes air space and demands President Maduro resigns.

 

President Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela. New York Post/AFP/Getty.

The saber rattling against Venezuela continues as Trump closes air space and demands President Maduro resigns. New York Post. President Trump and Nicholas Maduro held a high stakes call. At issue is Maduro's alleged support of drug smuggling and narco-terror groups that are smuggling drugs into the United States. Maduro had demanded that he would be allowed to remain in control of the military before free elections and that he be pardoned for any potential crimes. Trump refused and said that Maduro would be given safe passage out of Venezuela. Talks broke down at that point with Trump closing Venezuelan air space in response. Trump has also threatened strikes against the drug gangs in Venezuela. 

My Comment:

Venezuela kind of popped up out of nowhere. I know Venezuela got a lot of blame for the drug smuggling issue and the Tren De Aragua issues we have had in the United States, but given the multiple other foreign policy issues that have cropped up, they were low priority. 

First of all, I have to say that a full scale Iraq War style invasion is pretty much impossible at this point. We don't have anywhere near the troops in the region to even attempt it, and there is zero desire for anyone in the United States, outside of the crustiest of neocons, for that to happen. There has been a troop buildup but it's mostly naval assets. 

There is a small chance of some kind of military conflict, but it would come in the form of airstrikes, not an invasion. I am guessing that drug smuggler bases or ports could be attacked, given that would be the casus belli of the conflict. A direct attack against Maduro itself could be in the cards too, but that would be more difficult. 

However, I don't think military action, beyond the naval stuff we have seen already, is really in the cards. President Maduro seemed rather open to leaving power and the fact that he was asking for amnesty and agreeing to elections, probably indicates he is fairly desperate for a deal. And, from what I understand, members of his regime are attempting to save their own necks as well as their Presidents. I would not be surprised if this does have a diplomatic resolution. Neither side seems so steadfast in their positions here that a deal can't be made, and given that Trump was downplaying the air space closure today, I am guessing more talks are going to be held. 

Indeed, this seems like a classic Trump maneuver. Though Trump has been called many things, the one thing you can't deny is that he's a diplomat at heart. He wants to be the guy to end conflicts, not start them, so even if things do degrade into military action, expect them to always leave an out for Maduro. It reminds me of the conflict with Iran, where Trump was working for a peace deal even as he bombed Iranian nuclear strikes. The last thing he wants is a real conflict. 

The timing for this is not great though. Trump was widely praised by his base for, finally, refocusing on domestic issues after the Washington DC attack on National Guardsmen. In response Trump finally took some real action on immigration, something that his base was demanding for a long time. 

What I can tell you is that nobody in his base is very excited by the fact that the focus seemed to last less than a holiday weekend, and he's right back onto foreign policy. Indeed, I'm rather annoyed myself. The Washington attack was something Trump should have hammered down on given how preventable the attack was and how much of a winner the issue is for Republicans. Venezuela though? Nobody really cares about that. It's not even an urgent situation, compared to something like the Russia Ukraine war. Sure drugs are a problem, but domestically, things need to be handled. 

Regardless, like I said, I fully expect a diplomatic solution. Maduro seems to get that the gig is up and is looking for an exit and the only question is the how and when. I am guessing that airstrikes will be avoided and that Maduro will step down and leave the country for a place like Russia. 

Two National Guard soldiers ambushed in Washington DC by Afghan illegal alien.

 

Soldiers stand guard near the scene of the shooting. Reuters. 

Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were ambushed in Washington DC by an Afghanistan national in the country illegally. Reuters. The suspect was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29 year old who was admitted into the United States under Joe Biden's visa program put into place after the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban. The National Guard were patrolling as part of President Trump's crime crackdown. The motivations of the attacker have not been revealed publicly, but terrorism is suspected and the FBI is investigating if he had any links to outside groups, though none are suspected at this time. In response, President Trump has deployed 500 more troops to the city. 

My Comment:

The status of the wounded soldiers is unclear at this point. There were reports that both of them were dead, but that wasn't confirmed, so I am assuming that as of this writing they are indeed alive. Hopefully they stay that way. 

This attack was entirely predictable. Indeed, I believe I said that bringing in thousands of Afghan immigrants without vetting in the chaos that was the Afghanistan withdrawal would absolutely lead to something like this. We had no vetting to see if these people coming into the United States were friendly and it's very likely that this man fell through the cracks. I guess it's possible that he got radicalized after he got here, but that seems very unlikely. 

I also have very little doubt that this was Islamic terrorism. Supposedly the attacker said "Allah Akbar", "god is great" before he got into the gunfight, which is an obvious tell. The real question is if he was a "lone wolf" attacker, if he had links to terrorists or if he was an out and out member of a terror group like ISIS. I am guessing he will be the first one, there aren't that many active terror groups that can fund and promote attacks anymore. 

I am going to say that this was a policy failure on the part of the Trump administration. Obviously, Biden never should have let him in to begin with, but Trump should have deported this guy. His visa had expired and you would have thought folks let in under Biden's program would have been the first to go. Supposedly, this guy was an interpreter, so maybe he wouldn't have been deported anyways, but I don't really understand why these guys weren't the first on the list to be deported. Hopefully they will be now. 

I do think that Trump's focus on foreign policy is worth criticizing at this point. Trump has been focused on ending foreign wars, which is obviously commendable, and he has had a lot of success. But this attack is going to cause some serious demands for him to refocus back on the issue that got him elected.  Twice. I know that the Russia Ukraine war might be getting close to some kind of resolution and that is drawing a lot of attention from his administration, but at some point enough is enough and the focus has to be at home. 

The Democrats reactions to this has been predictable. Before anyone knew who was responsible, they were very loud saying that this had nothing to do with the video they released that encouraged soldiers to disobey "unlawful" orders, without specifying what those orders were. And some of them were either downplaying the attack, saying that they soldiers shouldn't have been there in the first place if they didn't want to get shot, or even celebrating it! They got a lot more quiet when it was revealed the suspect was a Afghan national, but it still happened. 

Was this attack a failure? I am not sure. So far at least, nobody has died, and the suspect was wounded and captured himself. But the image of soldiers being shot only a block or two from the White House? That's going to stick with people. The attack was mostly a failure, but I can't deny the fact that this was impactful... 

Chaos and hilarity on X/Twitter as the location feature shows many users were falsely posing as Americans.

 

Screenshot of a fake Ivanka Trump page.

X, formerly known as Twitter, released a new location feature that exposed many accounts as falsely posing as Americans. BBC. Thousands of accounts were exposed as not being American in the update, which caused a large amount of criticism. The accounts were both pro-and anti-Trump. Many of these accounts were based in India and Nigeria and were verified and monetized by the platform. Motivation for these accounts is varied, some are attempting to exploit America's culture war for money while others may be trying to influence policy. America was not the only country to have fake users, with the BBC finding many pro-independence accounts in Scotland were actually based in Iran. 

My Comment:

A lighter news story for once, this entire situation was endlessly entertaining for me this weekend. So many accounts got exposed for not being what they claimed to be and everyone else was laughing at them while proving that they actually are Americans. 

Most news outlets are trying to make this political but it really isn't. There were impersonators on both sides, fake Republicans and Democrats. And many of these accounts weren't political in any way, they were just scamming people or trying to scam money from the monetization system. And it's not like it was just America that was affected by this, the report mentioned Scotland, but there are other examples too. 

Indeed, it's been a meme for awhile that a lot of these accounts were pretty obviously fake. From what it sounds like the fake pro-Trump accounts were mostly Nigerian, anti-Trump accounts were European or Canadian, "groyper" accounts were European and Indian accounts were faking anything and everything. None of this is new. Indeed, the constant stream of fake Elon Musk accounts was beyond annoying for a long time on X. 

This does raise some questions about the monetization system on X. For the sake of disclosure, I am verified on X but not monetized and it is a goal of mine. But it's a lot harder to do legitimately than simply doing what these accounts are doing, impersonating an American and then using bot farms to boost their accounts. That means folks are getting money for fake content that should be going to actual real accounts, and that sucks. 

What is a concern is the idea these accounts could have been influencing elections or other major issues. The Israel-Gaza conflict is a good example of this. Many pro-Israel accounts were actually Indians, either because they wanted to exploit the issue for monetization, or because they genuinely like Israel. And the anti-Israel people were often Europeans or from Muslim countries. Both of these kinds of accounts may have falsely increased the relevance of the issue. And the same thing could have happened in the 2025 midterm elections as well, on both sides of the ball. 

I should note that I don't have a problem with foreigners commenting on American politics. After all, American politics are fairly global and sometimes those folks bring up good points. Indeed, I follow folks from all of the world. It's the impersonation and exploitation of monetization that is a problem, not to mention the out and out scammers. 

I do think that this was an extremely good idea by Elon Musk and X and it's something that I really wish was universal over all social media. I'm generally opposed to digital ID's and such, but transparency for social media is a little different. I should have a good idea of where posters are posting from, but right now I can only do that on X. It should be universal.