This viral thread on Twitter is a classic case of confirmation bias - one starts with a narrative,  finds confirmation evidence, and then presents it as the whole picture. I can provide more evidence to support this dysfunctional US narrative, but the country overall is not remotely as shitty as pictured in this thread. I have no doubt Japan is a very nice country even though I have been there only via flight layovers, but I have had so many Japanese friends and used so many Japanese products (including 3 Japanese cars) that I know their culture of detail-oriented perfectionism. The US is diverse in every sense. There are 3rd-world areas in the US, but the country is in the 1st world overall. I say this with unshakable confidence based on my visits to numerous places. These are the places I have visited since Google Maps started to track me in 2020: The only escalator turned off I can recall in the past few years was one at South Station at midnight when I was the only person besid...

  Trump Cabinet Nominees ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Marco Rubio , Secretary of State. Long track record of clear understanding of the new Axis of Evil. Robert Lighthizer , TBD. Brilliant trade representative with a solid track record. Mike Waltz , NSA.  Good track record of clear understanding of the new Axis of Evil. Strong pragmatic supporter of slaughtered Ukraine. Scott Bessent , Treasury Secretary. Widely praised for his tough stance on global cheaters. Doug Burgum , Interior Secretary. Principled and pragmatic governor. John Ratcliffe , CIA Director. Widely praised from different segments of the political spectrum. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tom Homan , Border Czar.  Exceptionally tough on illegals. Probably the right person to reverse the massive southern border invasion. Mike Huckabee , Ambassador to Israel. Articulate with conviction. Elise Stefanik , UN ambassador. Probably the right person to deal with the corrupt, largely useless UN. Peter Navarro , trade counselor. A bit crazy, but with an i...

I hope Bluesky will finally be on par with and rivaling Twitter. It should have 18M users by now (2011-11-17). We have had Gettr, Truth Social, Threads, Mastodon all of which have limited relevance. Threads reached 100M users quickly but Zuckerburg failed to ride the momentum.  Bluesky needs superb TRANSPARENT algorithms to succeed. If Bluesky can create a community mirroring the physical free world, it will likely succeed. In the physical world, there are no massive trolls harassing people and spewing out trash, and no constant promotion of grifters, haters, or jerks.  The imminent risk for Bluesky is becoming another echo chamber like Truth Social and Gettr, but for the left. Twitter has a lot of good things. Ideally, Bluesky should have all the good stuff of Twitter and avoid its bad stuff.  The best thing of Twitter is its community notes. It also has many other good technical features. The bad things brought to Twitter by Musk: 1. Removing the gov label for accounts ...

Within 48 hours, probably 30M to 50M Americans will experience post-election stress disorder, many will attempt suicide and some will start to plan emigration. I will not. I actually look forward to it regardless of the winner.  Here is my glass-half-full thought:  To me, either T or H will be an upgrade to B. Here is why: If T wins, the southern border invasion concerning 96% of Americans will finally be stopped to allow us to focus on other important issues.  Deportation will accelerate to deter illegals but mass deportation costing over $100B/yr will not happen.  The main downside of T is primarily long-term. The US is such a mature democracy that T would need to rule for two or three decades to turn the US into Sinophile Orban's Hungary to control the media, and education institutions and merge the state with family business.  T's admiration of the dictators of the new axis of evil is nothing new. It has been the case since 2016 and he is very candid about i...

My view of the Trump administration being the most effective one that I have witnessed since Regan has never changed. If anything, the current administration affirms it. Now, I seriously doubt we will have the same luck with Trump 2.0. I gave a lot of thought about the counterintuitive effectiveness of the Trump administration considering he is mainly a salesperson (to put it mildly). The most intuitive explanation is that he had a star team: Pompeo: the most effective State Secretary. Lighthizer: the best TR. Healy: the best articulate UN ambassador. McMaster, O'Brien, Pottinger: outstanding security advisors. Mattis, Esper, outstanding and principled defense secretary. Pence: a wonderful person with true convictions. Birx: outstanding passionate public servant dealing with a very complicated pandemic in a very difficult environment.  Sanders: incredible lady and spokesperson handling bigotry and vitriol with unbelievable grace and calm. Gen. Kelly: a solid rock in turbulent water...

President Pavel's comment on possible post-ceasefire temporary Russian control of some Ukrainian territories caused a stir. His support for Ukraine has been strong and consistent. I think he could express his thoughts better or perhaps he has been misunderstood. Even if the free world were only partially mobilized to support Ukraine in defeating fascists, Russia would be crushed in months. Unfortunately, the reality is different: The US does not want Ukraine to fully utilize its weapons to defeat the enemy and Mr. Jake De-escalation Guru Sullivan has set clear limits to protect Russia to achieve de-escalation. Neither do some European countries such as Germany. The biggest manufacturing powerhouse the PRC strongly backs its Russia province and helps its economy grow. The US offers nothing but begging and toothless sanctions to deal with the PRC. Many European countries continue to fund Russia by purchasing large amounts of its fossil fuels and exporting to it through third countrie...

I have not changed my belief that Ukraine will take back all its territories eventually since President Zelenskyy said "I need ammunition, not a ride" and Ukrainian warriors stopped the Rashist advance.  It is just a question of cost and time. The basis of my point is that the Moscow KGB thug regime will end. It may take longer than many like, similar to the CCP mafia regime in the PRC which has survived much longer than I originally expected. I maintained my PRC citizenship and delayed my naturalization for a long time in the hope that I would cast my vote in the first democratic election that we fought for in 1989. I did not expect the West to give such overwhelming support to the CCP to help extend its life. However, I have never doubted the totalitarian regime will be finished, and the Chinese people will be free, and so will the Russian people.  When the CCP regime is finished, China will disintegrate inevitably, and so will Russia after the KGB thugs are done.  The ...

I was surprised and amused when I found out last week that THE most influential foreign role model for 2 generations of indoctrinated Chinese youths (including yours) was a Ukrainian - Nikolai Ostrovsky. My ignorance. Let me tell you how popular he was in the PRC.  His novel How the Steel Was Tempered, claimed as an autobiography, was ranked #1 among the 50 most influential books selected by the public in 1999, beating books by Mao, Shakespeare,  Lu Xun, Hemingway, Sholokhov, Hugo... If I remember it correctly, we were required to recite his quote: “Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world──the fight for the Liberation of Mankind” Another surprise: the propaganda department of the CCP's Shenzhen committee sponsored the ...

Just in case some have the illusion of an extremely close and equal partnership between Russia and the PRC, allow me to go over some history quickly to show "close and equal" has never happened and will never with the PRC. Russians founded the CCP and the relationship between the CCP and Russia couldn't have been closer before Stalin died. When Mao wanted to be the boss of the communist movement, the relationship soured quickly. The CCP suffered over 1M casualties in the Korean War to save the DPRK. The true relationship between the PRC and the DPRK was very poor and rocky for a long time because Kim was too independent for the CCP. Nehru was hailed by the CCP as one of the great world leaders. The Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence initiated with India were treated as the gold standard guiding international relationships.  The honeymoon ended with the Sino-Indian war. The CCP provided massive support for Viet Cong with military personnel, weapons, apparel, and food...