Xerxes

Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon are to Trump what Putin’s master philosopher is well to Putin The gentleman below had recently an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN. Well worth a listen. https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/30/world/video/gps0330-putin-russia-ukraine-dugin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Dugin

Bessent is to Trump 2.0 what Gary Cohen was in Trump 1.0 and will go probably the same way. Nice guy. Wall Street guy. But not full MAGA. Howard W. Lutnick reminds me of Iranian "bazaree", ... i.e. the merchant class, unshaved, brash, talkative etc.

my deliveries are always couple of weeks late. So I still don’t know that April 2nd has happened. I wonder how the market will react on April 3rd and 4th

I want to meet the intern that did this for the White House

My Q1 return was +0.67% … so flat portfolio reached all time high yesterday in dollar terms before we were liberated today is different beast

@Parsad The specific comment about Afghans was based on how wars are won. It might be distasteful (war is distasteful), but it was certainly not advocating genocide. That was my view from what I recall. That said, I find all of these political threads emotionally draining. And admitingly, I did my fair bit of fuelling the flame.

I am watching Daredevil on Disney. It is amazing.

I have no problem believing that F-35 is a superior beast on a one on one basis. But that is not the only variable when it comes for decades long commitment for the Indian Air Force. Its superiority can easily become a liability for IAF. In fact it is not even close I would think. On Ukraine: There are few books that are already out on the air war in Ukraine; i have not purchase them yet. But I think Putin treated his Air Force, the same way Kaiser treated his High Seas Fleet. Holding it and refusing to risk it in a massive engagement (Jutland was an exception). There is also a certain arrogance in the Russian High Command, not willing to destroy what they thought would be their just in a few weeks. Once the table turned it was way too late. The Russian achieved strategic surprise by hauling their army through Belorussia and coming from the North, but totally failed to shock and awe, simply because they thought they would just walk in, and Kiev would roll over.

I am not expert on the specifics of the hardware, but I have no problem believing that American hardware is probably superior to Russians. That said, that was not my point. Said differently, if you take the 2022-23 situation and for the Russian side, you swap American training and military doctrine instead of rigid top down Soviet doctrine while using the same Russian hardware, you would have seen Gerasimov achieving air superiority. Thus, India can buy all the F-35s it wants, with all its logistics, but without spousing the Western military doctrine, the only winners will be Lockheed shareholders.

How did other U.S. territories during good old imperial expansion era fared ? Was Philippine better or worse off, swapping its Spanish masters for Americans. How about Puerto Rico and others. In Greenland case, it is being “marketed” as buying. What does that mean exactly for the locals. Will it be a territory or a state. Or a defacto territory with upgraded privileges of a state ? Is it concerning or re-assuring (if you are Russian) that Americans much like Russians (and others) have their own “imperial dreams”. I think I need to read up:

Now define what was “win” when the Crimean War started, and what was considered “win” when the war ended. Crimean War was yet another war where Great Britain got itself involved for the sake of needling Russia, an historical urge, and upset the balance of power by helping the failing Turks, ….. and anyways most restrictions that were imposed on Russia (in terms of bottling up the Black Sea) were reversed shortly after so pointless in most ways

Are we sure we are not mixing up military doctrine with military equipment, when it comes to the Ukraine War. I think India looks to keep its non-aligned position and not to be "locked-in" in any specific advance platform and be at the mercy of the supplier. My guess, neither F-35 nor Su-57 will do it for them. Though, they trust Moscow for more than Washington for historical reasons. If I were them I would keep pushing for those French Rafale fighters. They have already have inked a deal, it can expand. I think the need is over +100 aircrafts. India-France strategic ties to get major boost with Rafale & Scorpene deals | India News - The Times of India

Aero-India aerospace show 2025 last month F-35 vs. Su-57 vying for market share

When Frank Herbert wrote the fictional novel Dune, he based it on an oil-rich Arabia. In the novel, you have also a fictional corporation called CHOAM as described by Frank Herbert: "Few products escape the CHOAM touch ... Logs, donkeys, horses, cows, lumber, dung, sharks, whale fur — the most prosaic and the most exotic ... even our poor pundi rice from Caladan. Anything the Guild will transport, the art forms of Ecaz, the machines of Richese and Ix. But all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on Tupile. It cannot be manufactured, it must be mined on Arrakis. It is unique and it has true geriatric properties ... But the important thing is to consider all the Houses that depend on CHOAM profits. And think of the enormous proportion of those profits dependent upon a single product — the spice. Imagine what would happen if something should reduce spice production. — Duke Leto Atreides, Dune Rereading this passage years later from Wiki, makes one think CHOAM was based on East India Company. And Spice (capital S) is in fact spice(s) (small s and plural). The passage from the book as Robert Clive consolidate company’ power in Bengal.

Great interview with Howard. Sounds like a great guy. Still have 20 min ago. That said, I wasn’t too amused by his Dark Age comment and how people in the world forgetting to read for couple hundred the years. I seem to remember from high school that Dark Ages was an European phenomenon. And there was a world outside then “puny” Europe.

My Master of Coin thread got nuked. Cannot find it anymore. Or maybe I am blind. in any case the All-In interview was good. I like Scott B. Just wished the two joker/hosts would let him talk before interrupting him to throw the next soft ball question.

the proposal for the third term that is floating somewhere explicitly says “third term eligibility for a non-consecutive second term president” thus implying that Clinton and Bush cannot run for a third term. not that the proposal will get through anyways.

Even Gondor is reeling from tariffs

Don’t be nasty Canada. What’s wrong with you Canada why so nasty, you were suppose to be the 51st. Why so nasty

It seems to me that prior to Ronald Regan’ flavour of the reformed Republican Party, almost all conflicts that U.S. got involved in; had the Democratic Party as its main proponent. It was Woodrow Wilson and FDR with the world wars (both Democrats). I could say (in selfishness) that was the right call. It was Harry Truman that got US involved in the Korean War. It was LBJ and Kennedy before him that got involved in the Vietnam. All Democrats. Now it was Eisenhower who ended the Korean War. It was the corrupt Richard Nixon that ended Vietnam. Both republicans. So what we have in the last 40 years, under the Bush, and Regan was perhaps an exception and not the rule. And perhaps, we are back to pre-1980 era, where Republican end wars. The question would be if the cost is justified. I.e what you are giving up to close the dossier and turn the page.

I think @dealraker doesn’t know that someone else (Snapchat) already came up with the idea of “disappearing message/pictures” I missing half of his posts i think

So the Kremlin agreed to not target energy infrastructure…. Knowing that summer is coming

why would you want someone who feeds on being divisive and creating divisions. Pierre is not Stephan Harper. Harper was at least Canadian through and through, to the core.