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 wors

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 2

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

The KGB thug is in Beijing to report to his masters 10 days after his inauguration.  He is appropriated by the state councilor Shen Yiqin in charge of women, children, pension, sports, and veterans affairs at the airport . Here is my ultra-brief summary of the history of the Sino-Ruso relationship in light of gross misunderstandings by some people such as Vivek Ramaswamy. Russia annexed 910k km^2 from China (i.e., the Qing dynasty) through two treaties signed under the gun (Aigun and Beijing) from 1858 to 1860 . That is 25x the area of Taiwan, but the CCP does not want it back while being obsessed with Taiwan. The CCP was started and then funded for a long period by Russians as their puppet through their controlled Comintern . The CCP established t he short-lived Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931 with the intention to turn China into a Soviet republic to help complete Russia's annexation of China. Mao was the state head. The party was still under complete Russian control then. Russi

I have wanted to share my thoughts on Ukraine's manpower issue for a long time mainly because I keep hearing the lie of Ukraine running out of men. Since I am not a genius like Musk or Sacks who get indisputable truth from pro-Kremlin sources, I can only share my observations and speculation. Let's first acknowledge that manpower has been an issue from the very beginning of the Rashist invasion. No one disputes it. Otherwise, Ukraine would not have issued the order to ban men 8 to 60 from leaving the country as soon as the Rashist invasion started. It is true that some Ukrainians do not want to serve for various reasons. Ukraine's current population is 35M-40M with about 10M military-age men. If 10% fo them do not want to serve, and your narrative is Ukrainians do not want to fight, you could theoretically find 1M cases to support your argument. You could compile a book of Ukrainians evading or resisting conscription. I remember at least 2 of my 3 exits from Ukraine saw a l

These are my long-held thoughts or speculations about post-CCP China. Generally speaking, the longer the rule of the CCP, the more disintegration of China. My preferred analogy is a pressure cooker that China resembles and the CCP is its lid.  The cooker would remain intact if the steam were released constantly. The CCP wants a tight seal (e.g., riding free speech completely), so eventually the cooker will explode.  The longer the seal, the higher the pressure, hence the more fragmented the post-explosion cooker. It was possible for China to maintain its current territory or even expand (by recovering Outer Manchuria from Russia) until 1989.  Yes, the CCP committed a lot of crimes against minorities such as Tibetans and Uyghurs, but it did against Hans too. It harmed Hans even more than minorities in some cases. For example, the great famine that killed 40 million Chinese had less impact in minority regions. In the 1980s, people felt the CCP made a lot of mistakes and it started to ack

I was excited by  the video How Aurora Got Self-Driving Trucks On The Road  a few months ago. I thought the concept of highway-only autonomous driving might have a significant positive impact on many people in not very far future. The consensus is that true autonomous driving under all conditions will not happen until at least 2035.   Aurora has started this hub-to-hub autonomous driving . This eliminates the most unpleasant part of a trucker's job - long hours on highways.  I can see this technology ported to passenger cars relatively easily. When it happens, it will enhance the quality of life for tens of millions in the US alone by allowing them to be productive and stress-free during daily commutes on highways. Even for those without daily highway commutes, it can be highly beneficial. Two examples: Many in MA enjoy hiking and skiing in the NH mountains. For me, the 3-hour driving (one-way) kills the interest most of the time. If the 2.5 hours on highways are done autonomously,