They do have a tourism industry, composed of ideological “true believers” (not that big of a group), tourists wanting to experience the unique culture out of curiosity (or - in the more recent years - also to produce social media content), and tourists interested in the unique architecture.

In the overwhelming amount of cases, it also goes well enough, because it is a welcome avenue to get foreign currency for them, and despite what some may believe, the state is still fully within the dynamics of capital accumulation. (Other examples are: contractors in construction, where they have unique know-how in monumental constructions, which is also one of the places where the exploitation of their populace as wage labourers can become visible to the outside world - and selling stamps and other collectibles in demand for being “exotic” as they are from NK.)

But then, every now and again, you have cases like Otto Warmbier.

“To my friends, everything; to my enemies, the law.”

Not just him, but others in different ways. The German car manufacturing lobby, for example, has also slept on their market control and oligopoly, missed important developments, and is now complaining that the “Chinese are not playing fair”, after they lobbied politics and manipulated data to stifle the move to EVs (e.g. the big VW diesel emissions fraud scandal as probably the biggest story there).

Are the Chinese “playing fair”? Well, they are not playing more crooked than what we already had, at least. And they provide something necessary (affordable EVs) for the current transition, and that transition was already direly needed yesterday. (Although of course, more broadly, favouring transit and reducing car-centered infrastructure is even more important, EVs are still a part of the equation.)

As per the article: Oleksandr Merezhko. Without knowing more about him, he does seem genuinely far from being on Russia’s payroll or part of the proto-fascist elements (beyond potentially the usual accidentally being a useful idiot like many centrist liberals end up being, sadly). Seems more like an old school centrist out of his depth, but with genuine convictions for liberalism, for what it’s worth.

My guess is that he either completely misestimated what Trump really is about - or maybe put forth the nomination to bait his narcissist side into doing more, with the prize serving as a carrot on a stick. Either way, he was quite wrong in hoping for Trump doing much to end the war.

I believe self hosting saves me money in the short term
i believe self hosting saves me money in the long run

I can add to the voices here that have this as one big consideration. With some second-hand hardware, it’s very cheap to set up almost unlimited cloud space for personal use.

For an adversarial relationship, as the one between EU and China, it was still one overall based on understanding and a degree of predictability. That just ends up being more attractive than an ally turning into a rabid dog and stabbing you in the back.

I think no one should be surprised by this.

Yeah, but here is the tragedy to all that: It is still also deciding, which things get the capital investments necessary to exist, and the livelihood of people has been entangled with that shitshow to an absurd degree.

Sometimes I almost love that I am already at subsistence level disability payments (in a European Welfare state, so thankfully, not in danger of starvation or anything) without any real wealth beyond day-to-day living expenses, there’s not that much for me to lose every time this shit happens.

At this point, I am convinced it’s a pump and dump scheme, still ongoing, too. It only takes a few people in the know of when and where the news break about the tariff supsension, to seriously make a killing on the market, on the backs of others. Trumpists can now also (for a while) feel like their God has saved them again and never steered them wrong, or curse their momemts of doubt, when they did not buy yesterday, as their prophet called for.

It is a mixture of incompetence, impulsivity, but I am certain at this point, a huge chunk of it is outright corruption and cult tactics.

Which is why, generally, taxing wealth and having the state invest it in supportive infrastructure and subsidising is the preferred option for developed economies that want manufacturing (back).

Sweeping, protectionist tariffs are usually a painful measure of necessity, if you have an economy without any developed industrial or service sectors, where initial investments are basically impossible due there being no taxable wealth and no market incentives, because of global players always being more profitable and cheaper, than any beginning industry that has to go through growth processes and learning experiences. (More selective tariffs or outright import/export bans of course also have their place for a multitude of political reasons, e.g. the EU not wanting a lot of artificially cheap and lower-health-standards US meat)

I’m gonna be real here, just Realpolitik-wise from the perspective of “the West” sans the USA - China is currently proving that they are simply more reliable in geopolitics and even economically, and that is just damn important, even in an adversarial relationship. It isn’t even because they are a de-facto dictatorship, Russia is one too, and Russia is a mad dog. They just managed to keep their shit mostly together so far, still riding out their massive growth spurt. Even human rights abuses outside of Realpolitik don’t seem as the argument they were: internationally, the US has always had a more greyish record anyhow. But now, considering the US is quickly doing its best to catch up in domestic tyranny, that argument seems to be going fast, too.

Sadly, I don’t have huge hopes for China to be a proper “better” hegemon globally, if that should be what ultimately happens - they are facing crises of their own, and have been dabbling in their own brands of economic imperialism, and at least the way their military is gearing up contains a lot of stuff usually used for military imperialism as well.

It’s a repost of a meme, but damn, there’s so many great opportunities for this one:

Being a clever bastard with a gangster mindset, of course Putin would have been paranoid one way or the other, so that won’t change much I think. But things like that happening - no matter if it will end up being explainable as a proper accident or a failed assassination attempt or whatever - tend to undermine the mythos of being invulnerable and always 3 steps ahead of the game, that people like Putin want to disseminate about themselves. That’s my current hope in the political climate.

Musk having a persecution complex and paranoid delusions of the world being out to get him for his inherited identity alone and not for his actions and role in politics and the economy? That’s just unpossible!

archive.ph - link without registration wall

The investments are being placed through opaque structures known as special-purpose vehicles, which have the benefit of concealing the investors’ identities, to avoid the ire of US authorities and companies wary of Chinese capital during a nadir in relations between the two countries.

Asset managers behind the deals have told investors that the entities are specifically designed to avoid disclosure. The use of special-purpose vehicles in financing is commonplace and there is nothing illegal about the arrangements.

Still, it raises concerns about the potential for undue influence and conflicts of interest at a time when Musk has unprecedented involvement in US policy, politics and business.

Funnily enough, to me personally, there are more questions about what this means concerning Chinese politics and conflicts of interests in the future. The country is not without its own tensions, after all.

The inflow of Chinese capital into Musk’s business empire is primarily profit-driven and has little to do with technology transfer or influencing public policy, according to people involved in the transactions.

With a sluggish domestic economy, wealthy Chinese are looking abroad for investment opportunities.

To me, personally, it serves as a reminder that no amount of red flags waved or social-democratic laws saying “wealth is going to serve the interests of the working class” makes a country communist, only material realities can.

Literally viewing the world like a EU4 map painting player would

I think it is a mix of narcissism and related impulsivity, grifters in his circle influencing him so they and he himself can speculate on a recession and market manipulation from his policies, ideologically indoctrinated people that drank their own cool-aid about libertarianism and finally, indeed, him also declining after he was never all that bright to begin with.