The beacon is lit…

📕YCAPS is pleased to announce the Alliance Handbook Series with the usstudiescentre.bsky.social

1) US-Japan
@marsecbradford.bsky.social @mikebosack.bsky.social

2) Australia-Japan
@mikebosack.bsky.social

3) US- Australia
@bdherzinger.bsky.social

Access below👇
www.ycaps.org/alliance-han...

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When we find that village I think we might need to destroy it, y'know, in order to save it.

Yeah, really got me. I thought I'd gotten away with it until those meddling kids and their stupid dog got involved.

this is the simple answer to people who keep saying NATO expansion matters. Sure, it matters because it presented an obstacle to Russian imperial ambitions. Putin didn't invade because he hated NATO expansion, he hated NATO expansion because he wanted to invade

It's an unusual form of isolationism...

We love a cooking present

a man is smiling with the words tis the season to be merry above him ALT: a man is smiling with the words tis the season to be merry above him

Merry Christmas my friend!

Merry Christmas, shitter was full!

The State and the Soldier How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?

New post out:

@ldfreedman.bsky.social talks to @kschake.bsky.social - who's worked at senior levels in the US defense and state departments - on how the military should deal with Trump, Hegseth and illegal orders.

(Free to read)

samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...

The left’s biggest problem in Trump is that he is genuinely funny. Sometimes even intentionally.

I highly recommend looking into him

BING BING

This dude is maybe in my top 5 least favorite people in government.

Information Office of the PRC State Council furiously scribbling down notes on how you roll out the public announcement of a blockade

...Happy Hanukkah?

What’s It Like to Be a Chinese Soldier? Behind the parades, recruits face long deployments, strict rules, and limited opportunities.

wrote this week about a topic there's surprisingly little coverage of in the United States even in think tanks focused on the Chinese military: the everyday lives of Chinese soldiers.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/16/c...

Any declaration of national policy issued in all caps via truth social likely has a bit of legal fuzziness...

a man wearing a yellow shirt with the letter a on the front ALT: a man wearing a yellow shirt with the letter a on the front

*looking for the land Venezuela stole from the United States*

I think it's more of a naval quarantine, having named "sanctioned vessels" as the target, rather than a full naval blockade of Venezuela.

China’s 2025 White Paper on Latin America Sets the Stage for Renewed Competition With the US The new document declared China’s intention to expand its influence on all fronts, even as the U.S. is turning its focus to the Western Hemisphere.

“The white paper outlined this plan without deference to or even acknowledgement of U.S. sensitivities, likely putting China on a collision course with the United States in the region in the months and years ahead.”

thediplomat.com/2025/12/chin...

#OTD 1907: The Great White Fleet departs Hampton Roads, Va. to circumnavigate the world in 14 months, a journey of 43,000 miles that included 20 port calls across six continents.

In this house we recognize the blockade as an act of war.

It is the year of our lord 2025, the Marine Corps is here. We made that choice a long time ago, and it is an institution of incredible value. Don't write stupid stuff.

What possibly could have led that young man to believe he was in possession of the necessary understanding or insight to write something like this?

At least there's a solid rebuttal to that gawdawful Harrison Kass piece about getting rid of the Marine Corps thehill.com/opinion/nati...

China to fall out of Germany's top five export destinations for first time since 2010 China will fall out of Germany's top five export destinations for the first time since 2010, dropping to seventh place as shipments decline 10% to 81 billion euros ($95.04 billion) this year, a govern...

China to fall out of Germany’s top five export destinations for first time since 2010 – Reuters: ‘dropping to seventh place as shipments decline 10% to 81 billion euros ($95.04 billion) this year’
‘as imports from [China] rise more than 7% to around 168 billion euros, accounting for 12% of all’

That is free

Opinion | Putin Isn’t in It for the Money That’s why he hasn’t accepted the Trump peace plan. He’s a czar, not a businessman, and he wants to swallow Ukraine.

Great piece by Chris Miller: “The Trump administration’s offer of economic inducements misses the point. Russia doesn’t want a business deal, it wants Ukraine: a building block of Mr. Putin’s new sphere of control and a victory that could humiliate the West and demonstrate his great-power status."