so, i mean celebrate the mess america has created in ukraine, if you insist. if you'd like.

but, china's about to clean up the pieces, and it won't be in america's interests.

it would really be a lot more helpful to the americans if they had the russians on their side, which is the position the russians would prefer, and which is the most important lesson in the history of history, and something the neocons including biden have somehow refused to understand or learn.

because they're dumb.

you don't want to fight the russians. nothing good comes from fighting the russians. you want an alliance with russia.

and i want to correct something.

the chinese don't see russian weakness as a liability. the chinese see russian weakness as an opportunity. if russia is weak and america is weak, that means it's time for china to strike.

there's no alliance there. china doesn't believe in alliances; it's china versus the world.

this was something that obama got right and hillary clinton understood but couldn't execute: you have to project strength as a president of the united states in this world.

biden, harris and trump all project weakness, and their voters are concerned about domestic policy.

it's going to be a hard five years for the american empire, one way or another.

i believe the last time the chinese did this was right after bush got elected.

they're pushing buttons, to see how far they can go in the presence of a clearly incompetent commander in chief.

when it rains it pours.

this was predictable (and was predicted, by me), given the weak state of leadership in the united states, which is a situation that mirrors the george w. bush presidency. 

this is the problem with kamala - her domestic policy might be marginally better than trump's, but the world doesn't respect her. and we're really in no better a position than we were before biden stepped down, whatever the feeling is amongst democratic partisans.

the presidency is supposed to be a foreign policy position first and foremost and the united states is facing a major crisis in that position right now. biden is a foreign policy incompetent and always has been. harris looks like more of the same to the rest of the world. trump proved in his first term that he was a paper tiger, all bluster and no bite. his bluff is blown. this is broadcasting an easy target to the rest of the world.

the pentagon probably needs to get harris in charge now and have her convince the rest of the world that she's strong enough, tough enough and, goddamnit, people fear her, in order to prevent a global catastrophe. six more months of biden is just an invitation to encroach in the united states' sphere, while it's too weak to react.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/world/asia/china-surveillance-japan-airspace.html

the united states should stop acting as a mediator and end it's efforts to produce a cease fire and instead help israel get the job done and get this over with. what the united states is doing is just prolonging the process and extending and maximizing the punishment. a couple of quick naval strikes would get this over with in a week.

biden and blinken will not be interpreted well by history. this is a horrible and incompetent policy, but that's the expectation from biden.

ok.

so long as the idf is demonstrating some kind of progress in dismantling hamas, i want to avoid criticizing them. it's not pleasant to see and understand what is happening in gaza, but i understand that these people voted for a terrorist group to govern them, and this is kind of what they deserve as a consequence of that.

let it be a lesson to the whole world: stop supporting terrorism. this is what happens when you support terrorism; this is what will keep happening, if you continue to.

however, in recent weeks, and notwithstanding the assassination of the group's leader in faraway iran, after having ventured away from his cozy retreat in qatar, i have not seen much progress. the idf is chasing civilians around from place to place while it blows this or that up, which must be a very hellish existence. these people are not innocent and i do not want this misconstrued as a plea to protect the innocent, because they can't and shouldn't be analyzed or interpreted that way. but, i never did and never would support a merely punitive operation designed to torture and harass, no matter how guilty the population may be. collective punishment is indeed a war crime, and while these definitions are difficult to apply to the context, israel is getting to the point where it's pushing it too far.

i'm not calling for a cease fire.

i'm calling for israel to eliminate the remaining hamas leadership and hurry up and get 'er done. israelis may be developing resolve, and they should, but the international audience needs to see more progress. it's not going to tolerate a prolonged campaign of collective punishment for the sake of raining hellfire on the wretched. this can't be aimless torture. they need to finish the job and liquidate what is left of hamas.

however, israel should not pull away from the border with egypt, and probably not for decades. a long term consequence of what the palestinians did on october 7th needs to be a near permanent loss of sovereignty over the border with egypt, and everybody is going to have to deal with that. this issue should be revisited a generation or two from now.