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Reposted by Robert Rust

Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 1d

The Uncanny Valet

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 1d

our economy is currently being propped up by the promise of billions of fully autonomous robot butlers coming in a year or so

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 10d

China's larger arsenal and confirmed nuclear triad are concerning, but as Chinese arms control expert Wu Riqiang recently argued in International Security, they may also increase the possibility of Beijing engaging in nuclear risk reduction. My blog: blog.ucs.org/robert-rust/...

Could China’s New Nuclear Weapons Signal a New Era of Arms Control?

China's expansion of its nuclear arsenal may actually create an opportunity for the United States to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

blog.ucs.org

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Reposted by Robert Rust

Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 10d

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Reposted by Robert Rust

Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 11d

hi, just piling on to say that the premise of a single icbm causing a "we have to act now or risk annihilation" crisis is, and I know I have complained about this a lot lately, murdering my few remaining brain cells www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wpw...

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE | Official Trailer | Netflix

YouTube video by Netflix

www.youtube.com

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 11d

I was at an early screening this week and couldn't stop thinking this the whole time. The "use it or lose it" scenario is completely irrelevant when facing one single missile.

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 16d

(From 2012): "U.S. officials feel no embarrassment when they think and speak about the history of the China-Japan relationship in this way. “Never again,” in this context, is a lesson they either never learned or have long forgotten." blog.ucs.org/gregory-kula...

China in Focus #9: China's Holocaust

"But the rape of Nanking had, for the Japanese, its own devastating revenge. It 1) solidified China into an indomitable will to resist the invader ; 2) so demoralized Japanese military discipline that...

blog.ucs.org

Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 16d

Reposted by Robert Rust

Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 16d

Morning walk

Wheat paste poster that says the all the world is dying and the new world struggles to be born now is the time of monsters. There's a picture of Elmo

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 17d

Found this super weird from the start, especially once that super over-produced DHS video about it dropped

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Reposted by Robert Rust

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 17d

The much-hyped SIM farm the Secret Service seized uses readily available off the shelf tech that, very interestingly, has also become critical to ticket scalping. I, like others, am extremely not buying the idea that this was intended to take down the cell network

www.404media.co/the-sim-farm...

The SIM Farm Hardware Seized by the Secret Service Is Also Popular With Ticket Scalpers

The tech the Secret Service claims can be used to "disable cell phone towers" is very commonly used by ticket scalpers to game Ticketmaster.

www.404media.co

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 17d

Great discussion.

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 19d

Biden admin banned Russian LEU imports in May 2024, but there were waivers for several categories. The fact numbers have actually gone up is still very interesting. Also looks like there's no circumvention via China, which was a potential concern in late 2024.

Alejandro Soberano @alejandrosoberano.bsky.social · 19d

Trump increases enriched Uranium importations from Russia. Meanwhile, he asks to petrol blockages and future sanctions to Putin. Facts vs words.

Trump is not going to stop Russian invasion.

Graph from @nachomontesdeoca.bsky.social

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 19d

My colleague @gkucs.bsky.social on what the US needs to do to successfully talk to North Korea: blog.ucs.org/gregory-kula...

How to Make the Next Trump-Kim Meeting a Success

Kim Jong Un could be willing to agree to a nuclear weapons-free zone in Northeast Asia because it would threat North Korea the same as China, Russia, and the United States.

blog.ucs.org

Reposted by Robert Rust

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 20d

David Petraeus greeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the Concordia Summit in NYC. When Petraeus was a 3-star in Iraq in 2004-6, Sharaa was fighting the US as a member of the al-Qaida branch there; when Petraeus was a 4-star, Sharaa was teaching fellow Camp Bucca detainees classical Arabic

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

I know exactly who you are talking about, but you should probably clarify for everyone else

Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

With regard to modern Taiwan policy and pushing for reunification, there is a clear political motivation behind this. After all, to Beijing there is only one China, and it includes the RoC. Building a victory narrative excluding them would run contrary to the narrative of one Chinese nation.

Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

That accords much more with their general messaging, celebration of foreigners who worked closely with Chiang/the KMT etc. I don't particularly buy that Beijing is doing big time historical revisionism. They celebrate their guys, but they also celebrate the United Fronts and other joint efforts.

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

This is just one example, but it comes from the lead article in the People's Daily a few days before the big military parade, and should thus be seen as authoritative. To me, the general approach of the CCP is: "we played an important role, but it was a victory for the Chinese people as a whole."

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

I saw this translated as "the CCP was THE mainstay of the fight against Japan," but I read it more as “the CCP was A mainstay." I've also run this through several different machine translations, and they tend (with context) to translate the sentence as "the CCP played a pivotal role..."

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

The key part is 发挥中流砥柱作用. 发挥...作用 basically means "play a role" or exert a certain effect. 中流砥柱 literally means "a firm rock in midstream," i.e. an important factor/contributor or what would sometimes be translated as being "a rock" in English.

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

Here's a key sentence from the article above: 中国人民抗日战争胜利是中国共产党发挥中流砥柱作用的伟大胜利，是全民族众志成城奋勇抗战的伟大胜利. My translation: "The Chinese people's victorious War of Resistance against Japan was a great victory in which the CCP played a key role, a great victory in which the entire nation bravely fought as one."

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

There's been a lot of talk accusing Beijing of taking undue credit for leading the resistance to Japan in WWII. My feeling has been that the CCP celebrates its own important role while emphasizing that it was a whole-of-China fight. One example from PD on 8.28: paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/pc/cont...

弘扬伟大抗战精神奋进民族复兴伟业

paper.people.com.cn

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

Yeah that all tracks. I think Ankit could also be right that it's a nugget from a briefing that has stuck with Trump, so he mentions it whenever Bagram pops into his head.

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

Solved, sort of. bsky.app/profile/wesl...

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · Feb 27

Good question. It’s a claim he’s been making since at least the spring of 2022: www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...

Trump slams Biden's Afghan withdrawal, says he would have kept Bagram Air Base to monitor China's nuke testing

Biden's withdrawal left America 'humiliated' and allies emboldened, former president warns

www.foxnews.com

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Robert Rust @rrucs.bsky.social · 23d

Ah ok, so he's been doing this for a while.

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