never drink your own kool-aid folks propaganda for the rubes, stats for elites NOT the other way around or the whole gig ends

Much of US strength comes from the perception that it is a relatively safe and open place for study, travel, investment, trade, & business. These advantages are being systematically eroded, often in the name of competing with China. This will not play out well.

Grok says 98% of socks sold in 🇺🇸 are imported, & 🇨🇳 is by far the largest sock exporter. Calling it now - this will be the item that consumers notice first if (when) the shortages/extreme price hikes start. Frequently bought, essential, made in China. x.com/i/grok/share/U…

Chile is among the largest, high-income countries with no auto manufacturing plants. The country relies exclusively on imports and is relatively agnostic to source. In the past 10 years, China's market share in Chile has gone from 10% to >40%.

Go watch my super talented cousin ChefLeen in 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing on Food Network tonight! Geopolitical hot-takes will resume from tomorrow.

Six key predictions from Everyone is Wrong About China: China Overtakes the US in Nominal GDP by 2030 China and the US Never Purposefully Go to War US Alliance Systems Continue; China Does not Form NATO-Style Partnerships US Allies Support Geopolitical Countering of China,

The US accounts for 14% of global service exports. China accounts for 13% of global goods exports. Yet, no one talks about the US unfairly flooding foreign markets with its services or US "overcapacity" in service provision.

Some more potential evidence that Pakistan may have successfully targeted S-400 in India. This news item from local Hindi news identifies an Indian S-400 operator who was killed during the latest India-Pakistan round. The only discrepancy here is that Pakistan claimed it

🤔 What if the existential threat of "AGI" and the prediction that "whoever get's AGI first is the winner forever" has been hyped by 🇺🇸 AI companies to get more money/support from the government, especially by framing the issue in terms of rivalry with China? 🤔

These themes are also relevant with the U.S. vs. China question. I think one reason why China is making many U.S. tech and Internet companies (not to mention policymakers) nervous is that they are seeing China now taking advantage of the same critical mass and scale advantages

Random morning prediction: A solitary individual working with an advanced AI model will create a decent feature-length film no later than 2027. Radical transformation is coming to the entertainment, gaming, and software industries. #Veo3 #AIVideo

“Special thanks to our sponsor, Coinbase.” 🤣🤣🤣

Critics who compare the #USARMY parade in DC to military parades in countries like Russia, China, or North Korea are making a really unfair comparison. The parade in DC had.... official corporate sponsors. That's far more cringe than anything they'd do in Pyongyang or Moscow.

Again, people who compared this to parades North Korea, Russia, and China were completely unfair... the North Koreans, Russians and Chinese would never do something so cringe at their parades.

Predictions for posterity: If 🇺🇸 joins 🇮🇱's war against 🇮🇷, it will result in significant 🇺🇸 casualties and damage to 🇺🇸military assets. If 🇮🇱 and/or 🇺🇸 destroy the IR, violent instability will still be impacting 🇮🇷 & its neighbors in 2030. Disagree? Give me your forecast!

A thread from yesterday on 4chan's /pol accurately predicted an increase in global nuclear tensions: archive.4plebs.org/pol/thread/511… 💀