That miring look…

I stand corrected

Unless, of course it would turn out that the justice system is corrupt.

We might also be the only part of it that knew it was.

I was hoping this would include caspian sea ports just to see how they’d get on with that, but alas.

On some level I agree with the sentiment that China’s military power aspirations seem to be primarily regional with soft power as we zoom out I would argue for “Don’t listen what leaders say, watch what they do”.

You don’t build giant landing craft unless you consider a marine landing warfare scenario as credible. You don’t build aircraft carriers unless you care about power projection. You don’t need ballistic missiles unless your enemies are far away. All of these things cost money you could otherwise spend on keeping your citizens happy.

There are a lot of verifiable and expensive signals about China’s power posture transitioning towards a more expeditionary one. Now, they might end up carrying the big stick and speaking softly, which is better for everyone – even if the PRC ends up getting their way – but that just means the hard power lever was used in a different way.

Of course they are, in capitalism, capital likes capital.

Or fools.

I fully support your right to get tax funded healthcare.

I think we should be able to get both. Space exploration has given us water purification tech, cat scanners, aural thermometers solar panels and miniature digital cameras.

Few things have contributed as universally positively to humanity.

But I get tax paid healthcare and so should you.

Thought it was the kind with workers and not bombs.

Russia would probably agree to them on paper, but then fight any notion of bringing European or US troops in, because they might actually end up making the guarantees viable.

The Culture is the absolute best case scenario for humanity. It is my comfort reading for this reason.

Rutte is an artist at that, but to be fair that is his job. “The Germans down and Americans in” I believe was the expression.

Public costs and private profits eh?

I think even a general strike would fall short as an action.

Oh. I don’t doubt that, I was taking the shadow fleet as a commercial fleet like the Russian one is. I have zero doubt about all non landlocked countries using civilian registered vessels for at least signal intelligence and special operations forces.

I don’t think calling the western fleets shadow fleets is really accurate, but you are right about the issue: in lawlessness everyone is an outlaw.

There is a reason why western countries care about maintaining maritime law and it is to maintain freedom of navigation for themselves.

The big question on security guarantees is how to enforce them. Ukraine already has security guarantees from US, UK and Russia, but look what happened. Nobody cares.

The promising part about this proposal is, that it proposes a tripwire force, but is that sufficient?

Less than 200k to have a presidential aide spy for you sounds cheap.

Although mostly a symbolic act…

I am embarrassed to be Finnish.