China’s Military Power

Less Butter and Fewer Friends, But More Guns

As China’s economy slows down ahead of expectations and it loses its luster abroad, it’s hard power seems set to acquire a bigger profile.

Gaza War 2023: Enjoy Your Two Minute Hate

Taking sides in vicious tribal conflicts is dumb as fuck and is going to boomerang back on you.

Genies, Golems, Demiurge

Some modest suggestions for AI terminology of a fantastical nature

UBI Is Programmed. (Like It or Not)

The coming of AI has made Universal Basic Income a political and technological inevitability in the long-term, regardless of whether there are extensive attempts at AI control.

Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?

> Как Россия может еще выиграть…

Military-Technical Decommunization

The Ukraine War will begin imminently, and Russian TOTAL VICTORY is programmed.

Narrator…

Moscow’s Pacification

Moscow’s homicide rate now lower than London’s.

Open Takes 1

Open Discussion thread.

Open Thread 167

In his latest newsletter, Adam Tooze points out that the Chinese government is asserting greater state control over the economy, including the power of Chinese business magnates to “cash out” of their holdings. In retrospect, this is perhaps the most logical explanation for the crypto crackdown. Diana Fleischman has a good article in Quillette on how […]

Russia’s Nationalist Turn

How Putin Created the Russian National State

In the capstone to my Russia watching career, I argue that late Putinism has adopted the Russian nationalist program near wholesale. Or so it seemed at the time…

China Isn’t Going to Make It

I have been a long-term China bull since I began blogging. Proof (2008). A lot of what the Western media was writing about China were based on Sinophobic fantasies that had no correlation with reality. Just to be clear, I am still a China bull, at least in the sense that I’m sure its GDP […]

Open Thread 166

🇷🇺💪🇮🇳 As usual, “real result” of United Russia would have been around 35% instead of 50% (and a simple majority instead of a Constitutional majority). But Western criticisms much less effective in the wake of analogous – if statistically implausible – claims about the 2020 US elections. EVERGRANDE. I was a China bull since I started […]