a huge problem, a fair few tourists seem to have been abducted to work in these scam factories, as well as Chinese job seekers answering ads. There's been a round up of some of these scam families, I believe PRC actually executed 11 members of one of these mafias recently.

One of the unanticipated - and probably unintended - outcomes of the kind of hyper nationalism exemplified by Trump's America is that it invariably excludes everyone else. The 'free Internet' turns out to be the 'American Internet', which can be turned against you at any time, for any reason. Cultivating alternatives will be challenging though - can't see anyone doing it to be honest, Europe had a chance in 2000's but complacently thought they would always be in the garden, and are now shocked to find themselves in the jungle. You have to say, China got it right with the Great Firewall, though they too were assisted by early US hostility which underlined the need to de-risk

The time for Great Firewall of Europe was 2005, when Friendster, Skype, Xing were still a thing. Probably too late now but effort still needs to be made. One upside of a sovereign European Internet is an ecosystem which may sustain thousands of well paying jobs

Great Firewall? Is that where you think we - Europeans, Americans, anyone living in what used to be called the 'free world' - should go, just follow the Chinese and North Korean and similar regimes in restricting access to whatever those in control deem to be appropriate? Do you even realise what you're proposing here?

We in what used to be called the 'free world' used to revel in our freedom of movement, our freedom of thought, freedom on conscience, religion and more. We used to look at places where such freedoms were not a given like they were and to a large extent still are here. The Chinese 'Great Firewall' was seen in the same light as the Berlin Wall: a means to keep an oppressive regime in power, to keep the citizenry of China unaware of anything the regime did not want them to know about so they could mow them down at Tienanmen Square without people outside of the area learning about it. Now there's some HN user claiming that Europe should also build one - why exactly? What is it that we Europeans should not be allowed to access? Why should the European Commission - maybe I should start calling them the European Commissars - have such power over Europeans?

I say no to any such proposal and will, just like the Chinese, find a way around any such tool of oppression.

It is 2026 and you still speak of the 'free world'. I give you credit for at least using doubt quotes.

How otherwise would you refer to 'The West' which used to be called 'the free world' other than by stating this? Why, then, do you claim I 'speak of the free world'?

History does not change by choosing to ignore it. We in 'The West' used to think of ourselves as 'the free world' and to a large extent there was truth to this claim when comparing 'us' with people behind the Iron Curtain and communist China. Once the wall was broken, the borders opened and the Soviet Union dissolved this ceased to be true. By and large we're still better off than e.g. people in Russia but in many ways it seems like the bad ideas from places like the Soviet Union and China are being implemented at large scale in many countries on the west side of the former Iron Curtain.

So yes, I will keep on referring to these countries in this way, 'used to be called the free world' because this is how those countries did refer to themselves. History matters, it is there to be learned from.

de-risking from the United States is the only choice for anybody who cares about national interests. The question is how to do it on the quiet, and not trigger Trump into another rage tweeted escalation.

Just not talking about it and doing it slowly seems to work? E.g. one of the Dutch pension funds has pulled 1/3rd of their investment of US bonds (10/30 billion) since early 2025. They won't talk about, you'll only see it in their public records/reports. They re-invested the money in Dutch and German bonds.

yeah this is probably the way. One of the features of fascism is general incompetence, springing from destruction of state capacity in favour patronage networks.

The question on what to do about Trump is now a global concern. I can't help think that he behaves like Cartman from South Park. How did Stan and the rest of the boys deal with him?

I analogize him to a wildfire: a statistical inevitability, tragic, causing broad and profound destruction and suffering, difficult to control after blazing up, will eventually run out of fuel, will eventually be a source of renewal.

What we need to be talking about are the additional amendments to the Constitution that are clearly necessary to ameliorate the current mess (e.g., fixing current Congress, fixing current Judiciary, electoral college, two-party system, Executive's ability to act without first getting permission, self-dealing, cancerous growth of federal over state power, etc.), and how to get them passed. I have a feeling that either we amend or the country fails and/or we end up in a second civil war.

Also, "Goddam, Cartman, that is one fat a$$!"

good deal for both sides. Canada only placed EV tariffs on China to please the United States, and could not have expected the US to then lay claim to the country, before aggressively attacking it with tariffs. We're waiting for the US response, which will likely to be another over-the-top escalation against Canada

So these soldiers are there to undermine the US narrative that Greenland is 'undefended', thus eroding the rationale for a US takeover. However, we have seen that the US national security can be made to fit any future imagined scenario, so we can expect US troops also to fly in. Then what? Can't see how Europe is going to do anything here, bluffing with no hand to play, which has become standard pro forma

These troops have been invited, which makes a legal difference (at least for all those who still believe in the rule of law); see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630190

As far as I am aware, although Operation Arctic Endurance is pitched as being in the interests of NATO, it is technically not being run via NATO.

yes, under NATO command means under US command, so this is significant. Still, it reminds me of the Dutch deployment of UN peacekeepers in Sarajevo - if and when it comes down to it, they will leave without firing a shot

Whether defenders fire shots is immaterial; what matters is if or when they become targets of an armed attack.

Recall that art 3(c) means invaders would also not have to fire any shots to commit an act of aggression: establishing a blockade suffices.

The Netherlands bought the military hardware they needed to run their own CAS after that episode.

TBH if the elites infight that might not be a bad thing. Although I doubt the intensity of this infight...

yes indeed, no criticism for Trump - or indeed Putin or Xi in this case. Capitalists have no loyalty to the state, so must be brought under state control or at least significant influence. Heretical thing to say not so long ago, but self evidently true today

draconian, authoritarian regime