The president is literally a blithering idiot wreaking massive havoc around the world and supercharging US decline.

But Trump will still betray Ukraine. Because Trump.

Xi so happy

So perhaps the Trump regime's macho vanity war will be the final straw - on top of tariff costs and employment decline and negative economic effects of immigration repression and impending national debt debacle - that crashes the US economy.

Trump regime will inspire expansion of al-qaeda-like networks that will violently attack American targets in US and abroad. Protracted asymmetric war.

Xi looking to project image of stability and reasonableness v. Trumpist chaos. Probably plays very well to most of the world.

The depths of inhumanity of the US government in all its facets, international and domestic, is horrific. Trump and his sycophants have mobilized the very worst of the country. The sooner they are turned out the better.

With all that is going on, Xi might have greater leverage over Trump on economic issues (as inflation and unemployment both rise in US) as well as Middle East politics (China could be necessary in aftermath of Iran war). Many ways Trump might sell out Taiwan.

That’s not true. But Mao Zedong swam across the Yangtze River to avoid an interview with Chotiner.

He just stumbled on the term "unconditional surrender" and had to blurt it out. No strategy. No plan. No reality. All just personalist impulse. Horribly destructive and inhumane.

Thanks to @billbishop.bsky.social I just found Because China and it has answered a burning question I have:

It's not just about missiles. It's about long-term asymmetric warfare, focusing on soft civilian targets of Americans wherever they are.

Obviously, the only reasonable option is to vote against (and that means voting affirmatively for any Democratic alternative) any Republican candidate anywhere any time. They are hopelessly incompetent and corrupt and must be swept away totally without exception.

Not just a King but a Shahanshah

This was absolutely my experience, forty years ago. We lived in fear of her.

Great, thought-provoking piece by @kaiserkuo.bsky.social Too much to cover here but doesn’t national identity/nationalism do most of this political/historical work? “Civilization” adds a splash of faux universalism but “nation” is the emotional ground. www.sinicapodcast.com/p/the-civili...

However many layers of ignorance there are in Rubio’s utterance, the Cold War Chiang Kai-shek allusion is deeply ironic in the current circumstances.

1. China vs the Chinese military Xi is taking out Chinese military leaders at a rate that makes Trump/Israel's war on Iran look half-hearted. www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02...

The fact that this is even being considered demonstrates the deep strategic ignorance of the Trumpists.

Great thread. Moral of the story: FIRC highly likely to cause lasting instability.

Seems that Xi is going to have to grab a gun and lead the invasion of Taiwan by himself.

"A local Manc" versus an "out of town chancer"!

How many times has this been said over the past couple of decades?

So glad to be an ocean away and insulated from the media mayhem swirling around a demented tyrant’s malicious screed.

I think a phased walk out, someone getting up and leaving every minute or two, would truly send him over a cliff.

It was a close race but Kim pulled it out in the end 😂

The Supreme Court:

Don’t go to the US.

"The Board of Peace" a troupe of dancing Trumpist monkeys

Koreans setting the standard for defence of democracy

This. We might say: The Invention of Civilization (h/t Hobsbawm and Ranger)

So, if US attacks Iran in the next few days or weeks, will Xi cancel the planned April summit? I'm thinking if Trump goes very hard on Iran, Xi will cancel. Or will Trump announce reductions in arms sales to Taiwan to keep Xi relatively quiet on Iran?

Conservative “knowledge:” 50% less than what is known.

Alito will concur

Wow.

Saw him give a speech in Madison, WI during the 1984 Presidential primary race. Rocked the house. Had a humane vision for the US.

Looks like the 4th Assurance will be violated in short order: 4. The United States would not mediate between Taiwan and China.

Trump transactionalism sees no value in Taiwanese democracy. Bad times ahead.

Further update: Spoke with a United rep and she confirmed that, indeed, the United app sucks.

Travel update: TSA up and running at Albany, NY airport. United app still sucks.

So it seems pretty clear that Trumpist flunkies cannot indict a ham sandwich before a grand jury 🤪

Yes. Because the Trump regime is fundamentally inhumane (不 仁).

Europe should comprehensively boycott the US economically. Demand the World Cup be moved. Only by accelerating and deepening the economic pain of Trumpist idiocy will things change.

The Party determined this outcome years ago. The "legal" charade was drawn out to make it seem judicious. It was not. Just standard CCP repression. One country, one deeply inhumane system.

Made it to my flight but just barely. After the immigration debacle my United app failed and I could not call up a boarding pass. Had to run to get a paper one. TIL: never trust the United app.

Over an hour in, still some way to go. Trump sent all the border agents to Minneapolis to shoot people and arrest kids.

Flying into Dulles today, massive line for immigration. Trump has made it a shithole country.

Trump is full of shit and will do nothing to make this happen.

Trump’s base racism is longstanding and central to his personality and psychology. It predates his obvious mental illness. He should be removed from office as soon as possible.

Glaringly clear that Gelernter, in defending this, is a moral failure.