Postliberal national conservatism at work.

Or because media assume white people do not engage in “identity politics,” when in fact whites have always done so.

So, I guess Eugene O’Neill is out.

cui bono?

The thing is: after Hegseth’s drivel and Trump’s rant, some of those generals at some point in the near future are going to have to stand up and say they will not obey an illegal order.

Here’s what affirmative action for conservatives gets you. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

OMG

Maybe he’s going to pull a Kim Jung Un move and call out a bunch of them to be taken out and shot. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/t...

There's a fair chance Xi will get this from US. Trump and his cronies are diplomatically incompetent and likely do not appreciate how shifting this language bolsters the PRC. If this does happen, it wouldn't signal an imminent PRC attack, just slow and steady erosion of US position v. Taiwan.

What's your sign

Age yourself with a film you saw in a cinema as a kid.

The continuing PRC-ization of the US.

NEWS: US Secretary of War Hegseth summons top military leaders for Party study session on Donald Trump Thought.

Great piece. And Mencius agrees that shame is good: "Mencius said, 'The sense of shame is of great importance to a person. One who is adept at clever schemes has no use for shame. If he is not ashamed that he is not like other people, how can he become their equal?'" Mencius 7A7 - Bloom, trans.

A giant has passed. May his memory be a blessing. usali.org/institute-ne...

From my colleague Brian Michael Murphy. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how...

Oh.

Trumpist transactionalism trounces Taiwan.

Respectfully disagree: 1) in fact it is unusual for a democracy w/ this level of GDP to turn authoritarian & so quickly; 2) the weakness of both institutions (congress & courts) and individuals (Schumer etc) is shocking. Would take less than 10 people in congress or 2 SC justices to stop all this.

If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky

"The work of suppressing counter-revolutionaries must be placed entirely under the unified leadership of the Party committees at all levels, and the responsible comrades of all public security and other organs associated with this work must....unreservedly accept this leadership." - Mao Zedong

"The question of suppressing counterrevolutionaries is one of a struggle between us and the enemy, a contradiction between us and the enemy." - Mao Zedong

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

British Museum has this covered.

Faster please

Postliberalism strikes again.

A troubled young man with a gun. The gun is what makes murder more possible.

No. Absolutely not. I will retreat into the mountains of Vermont to defend civilization as we know it.

Hope is not a strategy.

Likely to give pause to investors from other places as well. The US is going down fast.

Look what Trump has wrought.

Age verification? I watched Donovan play live on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

Anti-democrats gonna anti-democrat

China moved rapidly away from Maoism, in practice at least, once Mao was dead. Perhaps, then, there is some hope for the US: after Trump is gone his legacy could crumble quickly - and without a giant portrait and mausoleum in the center of the capital.

Good piece. Sadly: "...race has been a fundamental criterion in shaping the boundaries of the Chinese nation, the margins of which are further complicated by the classification and inclusion—sometimes by force—of non-Han ethnicities."

I guess we’re not sending Christmas cards home from the UK this year.

The apotheosis of postliberal national conservatism.

RMB internationalisation was always going to be significantly limited due to PRC aversion to that level of economic openness and its attendant vulnerability. But these sorts of moves with Russia could raise the profile of the RMB as a global currency.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Mitter wisely recognises the rifts between China and India. When we add China v Japan animosity perhaps we are still a ways off from an “Asian Century,” even if US decline seems irreversible now. observer.co.uk/news/interna...

Faster please. Only economic collapse will sufficiently erode Trumpist power.

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead

over the last week, several political scientists i trust have declared trump a dictator and that america is not a full functioning democracy anymore. see here: goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/where-we-a... donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author... i think making a list clarifies this:

Indeed. And US politics will not change until a sufficient number of Trumpists realize they are in error. Still some way off.

Dark days. "If even Chicago is not willing to support and protect American arts and letters, who will?" www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

End of an era. Actually, the era has been over for a while but it still feels like an end: Typepad, the old blogging platform, just announced that they are closing down. That means the real end of the Useless Tree. uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/ /1

Wait. My Word grammar bot just told me to split an infinitive. What is the world coming to?

At this rate, Trump is soon going to hold cabinet meetings like Turkmenistan's Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

"Therefore only the humane should be in high positions. When one lacking in humaneness occupies a high position, his wickedness spreads to everyone." Muencius (Bloom translation) - 是以惟仁者宜在高位。不仁而在高位，是播其惡於眾也