Austin Wu
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austwu.bsky.social
Austin Wu
@austwu.bsky.social
590 followers 720 following 1.7K posts
(vague lyrics about history or economics) 🚰
https://linktr.ee/austwu
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austwu.bsky.social
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A monument of a soldier calling out and holding high a flagpole, with a submachine gun slung over his chest. He is waving a MS paint rendition of a Canadian flag.
February 10, 2026 at 4:47 AM
austwu.bsky.social
The New Life Movement and its consequences, etc. etc.
Top (curved): Examined and Approved by the New Life Movement General Promotion Council Top: New Life Movement Wall Poster Arts Slogan (1) Center: Eating should be clean Bottom (large font): Published by The Commercial Press Bottom (small font): Copyrighted, no part of this publication may be reproduced Top (bent): Examined and Approved by the New Life Movement General Promotion Council Top: New Life Movement Wall Poster Militarization Slogan (12) Center: Possessions should be simple Bottom (large font): Published by The Commercial Press Bottom (small font): Copyrighted, no part of this publication may be reproduced op (bent): Examined and Approved by the New Life Movement General Promotion Council Top: New Life Movement Wall Poster Militarization Slogan (11) Center: Ride less, walk more Bottom (large font): Published by The Commercial Press Bottom (small font): Copyrighted, no part of this publication may be reproduced
February 10, 2026 at 4:40 AM
austwu.bsky.social
This is a really terrible reductio ad Hitlerum, but fwiw, something striking in Nazi terminology was its reduction of everything down to ethnic/racial terms -- the UK as "England", the USSR as "Russia", and the US as "America" -- tied with the implication of Americans not as diverse, but as mongrels
Table showing letter codes for captured weapons Nazi Germany used during the Second World War. For example, a captured Czech tank would have a supplemental designation (t) for "tschech", a captured US rifle (a) for "amerikan", and soviet submachine gun (r) for "russisch".
February 10, 2026 at 4:06 AM
austwu.bsky.social
ross from friends says "get a load of this correct opinion"
February 10, 2026 at 4:00 AM
austwu.bsky.social
it's arguably scraping the barrel, but what comes to mind for me is this youtube channel of a pianist who's quite technically proficient, but who nevertheless devotes most of his faculties to minstrel songs and other gutter-racist productions
February 9, 2026 at 5:07 AM
austwu.bsky.social
just about mcfreaking had it realfood.gov
Use Grok to get real answers about real food From the guidelines to your kitchen. Ask Grok to help you plan meals, shop smarter, cook simply, and replace processed food with real food. Not sure where to start? Use one of our example prompts.
February 9, 2026 at 3:46 AM
austwu.bsky.social
the AI slop! Herky weeps 😔
AI slop ads “Drawings”. Dick Spencer Herky Drawings General Set, 1949-1952. Accessed February 5, 2026. https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/node/28756.
February 6, 2026 at 4:42 AM
austwu.bsky.social
old.reddit.com/r/WarCollege...
The Americans were well-equipped, yet their fighting capacity was weak, unlike us Chinese soldiers, who were unafraid to bear hardships and who were brave and tenacious, daring to risk our lives against the Japanese. Thus, during combat operations at the front, our New 38th Division and New 22nd Division took charge of the major aspects of the fighting and the important sectors, while the Americans took charge of the secondary aspects and the unimportant sectors. When the battle for Kamaing entered an intense phase, enemy aircraft delivered an imperial edict from the Japanese Emperor, which commanded Japanese forces to hold their positions to the last and do or die together at their positions. In order to seize the enemy’s positions, our Chinese soldiers had to endure hand-to-hand combat with the enemy and completely wipe out the defenders before we could capture Kamaing.5 As a result, some infantry companies were left with only a few men, all of them having paid an enormous price in blood for every step forward (you can imagine the level of intensity of that battle).6 In the battle for Walawbum, the Americans broke and pulled back as soon as they came into minor contact with the Japanese, after which our Chinese soldiers went on ahead; only then was the enemy’s assault stopped.7 When I passed by Walawbum, I felt extremely embarrassed when I saw the bedding, clothes, equipment, ammunition, and supplies that the Americans had abandoned all over the place.8 The Americans were highly conceited, however, and I often saw Americans trade cigarettes and rupees in exchange for “long-lasting good fortune in war” sun flags, “thousand-person stitches,” and other such things that Chinese troops had picked off the battlefield, which they then held in front of their chests as they took photos, passing them off as spoils that they themselves had collected from the battlefield. 9
February 5, 2026 at 2:49 PM
austwu.bsky.social
but the notion probably goes back even further, at least to experiences during the war of resistance, predominantly among nationalist forces, where the survival of chinese troops in terrible conditions looks less like copium and more like brave determination www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege...
The Chinese soldier, unparalleled in the world in his ability to fight on poor food and poor clothing and to bear fatigue and hardships, had completely lost the courage he possessed when he fought the Japanese and collapsed miserably in the face of the Chinese Communists. This was impossible for the Japanese to understand and a grave disappointment in the United States. The reason for this surprise and disappointment lay in the mistake of thinking the civil war between Chinese Communists and Chinese Nationalists as the same war as a war against a foreign army. Both the Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists are Chinese. Defections from the Kuomintang to the Chinese Communists are regarded in the same light as the election picture of every Tom, Dick, and Harry [sic] running for a Japanese Diet seat under the liberal Party banner, when the reputation of the Libreal Party is on the rise. It is the same as splitting and joining, the establishment and dissolution of political parties in Japan. These defections differ essentially from surrendering to the Japanese Army. The Chinese had expected life to become easier after the defeat of Japan and had suffered and borne patiently eight long years of war. War had ended but their hopes were dashed to the ground.
February 5, 2026 at 2:48 PM
austwu.bsky.social
imo the chinese propaganda motif of plucky (maybe even destitute) chinese vs. all-powerful americans is constantly misunderstood by western audiences, to the latter's detriment
February 5, 2026 at 2:44 PM
austwu.bsky.social
Interestingly, Governor Walz described political power in similar terms during the gangbusters 2023 legislative session (newrepublic.com/article/1846...) -- I'll leave it open as to what implications that might suggest for the present day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Right now, Minnesota is showing the country you don’t win elections to bank political capital—you win elections to burn political capital and improve lives,” Walz said in early 2023. Indeed, after unexpectedly winning full control of the state legislature in 2022, Minnesota Democrats went on an absolute policymaking spree, passing a major voting rights package, a major labor law reform, paid family and medical leave, universal school meals, a mandate that electricity be carbon-free by 2040, and a reproductive rights guarantee. That record was reportedly one of the things that drew Harris to Walz over some of the other, higher-profile candidates.
February 4, 2026 at 5:17 AM
austwu.bsky.social
good yarn
Same Bed, Different Dreams, by Ed Park
February 4, 2026 at 12:45 AM
austwu.bsky.social
well, the portraits leave out other details - a cherubic 'marshal' presiding over a mostly-destroyed army upstaged by foreign 'volunteers' in both scale and arguably, ability; and in due course, a sclerotic old man whose orientation in public imagery is resultant from a massive goiter on his neck
Kim Il-sung in his marshal's uniform signing the 1953 armistice agreement Kim Il-sung was less mobile in the summer of 1989 and this photo is unique because the "Great Leader" and his entourage were closely guarded by security. Pyongyang, North Korea, 1989. Note that his neck goiter is obscured here. Kim Il-sung in a meeting with the Hungarian communist leader János Kádár, 1984
February 3, 2026 at 6:59 PM
austwu.bsky.social
Thinking abt. how OBAA was prescient not only in skewering Col. Lockjaw, but also in poking at excessive 'opsec' in leftist activist groups - contrasting Comrade Josh's obtuseness with "what time is it?" and the "rebellion text", w/ Sensi Sergio's less formal, but more effective community organizing
Comrade Josh on the phone Sensei Sergio
February 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
austwu.bsky.social
A curious tendency of North Korean state media has been the gradual yassification of Kim Il-sung portraits, especially since the ~early 2020s
Official portrait, 1966 Posthumous portrait, 1994 Korean War-era portrait in use since the early 2020s. Note the big smile and curls/volume in his hair
February 3, 2026 at 4:54 PM
austwu.bsky.social
No new pictures, where are you mentally
Mara Whitefish spacing out on a couch in Perfect Tides: Station to Station
February 2, 2026 at 4:19 AM
austwu.bsky.social
January 31, 2026 at 10:00 PM
austwu.bsky.social
"Let us become iron shields and red warriors who defend the Party, system and people to the death!"
January 30, 2026 at 11:58 PM
austwu.bsky.social
I'm curious about this as well -- I'm not immune to reliance on quick eating and slacking off on cooking (my dinner for the past three nights has been a bag of cheez-its from a vending machine and a granola bar), but do people find skits like these to be a relatable reflection of day-to-day life??
SNL "Uber Eats Wrapped". Shows $24,000 spent on Uber Eats; 1.5 million views and 29,000+ likes.
January 30, 2026 at 6:35 PM
austwu.bsky.social
this is discussed to some extent in the soviet novel 'volokolamsk highway' (mostly about the battle of moscow, but also about other things, including skills a soldier ought to have besides fighting)
Both men and commanders were taken aback. The food was all raw—what could they do with it?! Many of them had never cooked anything in their lives before and hadn’t the faintest idea of how to make a stew, even. I heard complaints raised: “We have kitchens! They have to cook dinner in the kitchens!” “Silence!” I shouted. “Do as you’re ordered! Every man will prepare his own dinner!” And there, along the bank of the river in the wide Kazakh steppe, many fires began to blaze. Some of the men were so tired and dispirited that they did not bother to make anything, but went to sleep hungry. Some burned their porridge, others let their soup boil over, most of them spoiled more than they ate. This was their first lesson in cookery. “Second. You are dissatisfied because, although we have our own field kitchens and you were tired out, you were handed out raw meat and had to cook your own dinner in your mess tins. There was a purpose in this, too. Do you think that at the front you will always have a field kitchen within reach? Of course not! During an action, the field kitchens may get cut off or lag behind. There will be days when you will go hungry! Do you all hear? You will go hungry, you will have nothing to smoke! I can promise you that! Such is war, such is the life of the soldier. One day—a full belly; next day, an empty one. But you’ll have to grin and bear it—and do not forget your honor as soldiers! Keep your chins up! Every one of you must learn to cook. You’re no soldier if you can’t cook a meal for yourself. I know that some of you have never done any cooking. I know that many of you used to go to a restaurant every evening and shout: ‘Hey, there, waiter! A hamburger and a pint of beer, please!’ And now, suddenly, instead of a steak and beer, there’s a thirty-mile route march with a seventy-pound pack on your back, and on top of it all you have to cook your own suppers. And while you were cooking them, you hated me, didn’t you?” Voices came from the ranks: “That’s true, Comrade Battalion Commander! That’s true!”
January 30, 2026 at 6:27 PM
austwu.bsky.social
or this program in british columbia, canada www.acceleratedhousing.ca
BC DASH Inherent Homes street view, Chicago Inherent Homes floor plan Our source of inspiration for DASH is Vienna House, a 6 storey non-market project in East Vancouver. It is a National Housing Demonstration project and a flagship for prefabrication, mass timber, and the use of BIM from design to construction and asset management.
January 30, 2026 at 1:43 AM
austwu.bsky.social
some more takes -- the concept is interesting, intriguing even, but I can't hep but think that the advertising is a little unsettling. just how "beautiful" rows of metal cladding are is subjective, and the ideal customers appear to be a (white) heteronormative nuclear family
Advertising for "Kids' bathroom" and "Kids' bedroom". Sure -- but why can't grandma use these spaces as well?
January 30, 2026 at 1:36 AM
austwu.bsky.social
critical support to former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura: "How about since Trump dislikes Minnesota so bad, let's join Canada. Instead of Canada becoming the 51st state and lose their healthcare, l'd like to see Minnesota become Canadians because it's obvious Donald Trump don't want us"
January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM
austwu.bsky.social
I for one, would welcome our trash panda overlords
Porter Q400 Porter E-195 Porter Airlines raccoon mascot
January 30, 2026 at 12:49 AM
austwu.bsky.social
ross from friends "get a load of this correct opinion"
January 29, 2026 at 3:11 AM