u/cyd

More specifically, the Hong Kong protests were about the *possiblity* of HKers being sent to the mainland. Here and now we have multiple *actual* renditions of US residents to El Salvador and elsewhere (including one of the protesters!)...

I gotta say, Hong Kongers put up way more of a fight than Americans seem to be. Hong Kong Polytechnic University went through a full blown siege in 2019. Six years later, in the land of the free, student leaders get picked off and any protests that manage to get going are easily crushed by the police.

The "cheap Chinese labor and lax laws" thing is not exactly the issue, at least not these days. The thing is that Chinese industry has spent decades working out how to refine these minerals, and they're the only ones who are now able to do it at scale. So other countries that extract and process rare earths (which as noted aren't actually that rare) often ship semi-processed ore to China for final processing.

Sure, other countries can replicate these capabilities if they're willing to put in the effort. It's like China's challenge with EUV lithography, but in reverse. It will take significant time. Also, building up a rare earths processing industry probably involves not just spending capital, but also major environmental risks while you're doing your trials.

The Afghans and Vietnamese had nothing to lose. Americans, no matter how much they complain online, have everything to lose.

Unfortunately, this is not going to receive much condemnation from the West given current conditions. The US doesn't give a crap about this kind of this anymore. The EU needs Turkiye onside geopolitically... not to mention any objections from them are too easily brushed off as hypocrisy given the Romanian situation + efforts to disqualify Le Pen. It's probably why Erdogan chose to act now after tolerating Imamoglu's presence for the past few years.

Canada needs to redirect most of its defence spending to asymmetric warfare. You know, the same advice US consultants give to Taiwan to make a PRC occupation more expensive to contemplate. Forget about big ticket items meant to support the US in its overseas wars; start investing in mines, guerilla equipment, etc.

They have to put on a brave face, of course, but I'm not sure US intelligence is so easy to replace. The Europeans have let their systems atrophy by simply using the US offerings, especially in realtime targeting data and signals intelligence. The US has in the past encouraged this dependence, e.g. by strong-arming Europe not to develop a military grade GPS alternative.

Pokemon battle, 3v3

Alternative take: Li Ka Shing took advantage of the Trump bullshit to sell off two port operations at the top of the market, right before a global recession. CK Hutchinson's share price went up by a fifth when this deal got announced; Blackrock is down.

It was like an episode of Veep except more obnoxious.