Author: John Todd Roberts

China Warns Japan

Source: Vox Popoli.

Vox Day highlights a warning delivered in the U.S. by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a couple of days ago: “East Asia is the Ukraine of tomorrow.”

U.S. foreign policy has become belligerent and destructive. At the same time we have accrued a shameful track record of ineffective military operations. Other countries around the world — including our allies — have begun to notice, and to react.

Day thinks that Japan will break with the U.S. if necessary to avoid war with China. I think he’s correct.

More Classified Documents Found At Biden’s Delaware Home

Source: ZeroHedge.

A third stash. Is there a pattern here?

David Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Joe Biden — it is beginning to look like private possession of classified documents is a standard practice in Washington, DC. The big secret is that government secrets are no secret at all, except to the American people who pay for them.

I’m not keen on impeaching the current miscreant, but these revelations do inspire questions. For example, why not simply publish all (or most) classified material?

Biden Says Classified Documents Were in Locked Garage With His Corvette

Source: Yahoo! News.

Some people say Stumble Joe’s classified documents scandal is completely different from Orange Man’s classified documents scandal, but I’m not convinced. Just considering physical features, I doubt that a locked garage meets any of the minimal standards set forth in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) for storage of classified materials. Orange Man’s basement closet at Mar-A-Lago arguably did meet NISPOM standards, if only because it is underground.

Also, Stumble Joe’s arrangement offered a fast getaway car to any would-be classified document thief. Orange Man never did that!

Personally, I think poor old Stumble Joe is being set up; someone is engineering his exit from power. Don’t be surprised if the U.S. economy tanks or the war in Ukraine goes south for NATO or the civil war in Mexico crosses our border. Stumble Joe will be the scapegoat.

Why We Shouldn’t Underestimate China’s Petro-Yuan Ambitions

While slow moving, this is the biggest, most important story on Earth at present, in my view.

The U.S. will gradually lose influence and power as the global oil industry de-dollarizes. We are in no position to prevent the transformation that is already underway, so the question is: How will we respond?

Will we seek to harm those nations that choose to conduct international trade in currencies other than ours? Will we learn to operate in markets where dollars don’t count? Will we isolate ourselves from the global system, or double-down on regime change operations, even war?

The only thing I am certain of is that American arrogance is due for a reset. We will need to stop thinking of the rest of the world in simplistic ways — as, for example, a collection of friends and enemies.

‘Disruptive’ science has declined — and no one knows why

Source: Nature.

Recommended by Tyler Cowen, this story is a follow-on to a couple of recent posts, one on human progress and one on scientific groupthink.

We tend to think that human progress is defined by innovation and discovery, but the instant report clearly shows that it is possible for progress of that kind to simply end. Groupthink may be a cause, but the cause might otherwise be that Nature herself offers only a finite number of basic problems to solve. Or perhaps Nature is infinite, but the human mind is only capable of conceiving a finite problem set.

Another possibility is that scientific disruptions ebb and flow according to some rhythm we have yet to detect or understand.

A final possibility is that the disruptive science of the past has been erroneous to the point that new innovations will be impossible until we correct our mistakes.