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"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
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- Curtis Yarvin: A Life Against Democracy
- Mark Helprin: Against the Current
- Mark Brandt: The Man Who Asked Who Else Is Prejudiced
- John T. Jost: The Psychologist of Acquiescence
- Strange Bedfellows in the Academy: Alliance Theory and the Straussian Schism
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- A Place For You
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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
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Category Archives: China
The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for China’s Master Institutions
China’s high-status actors do not compete for power by openly saying they want it. They compete by deploying moral languages that frame their authority as essential to national survival, technological supremacy, social stability, and civilizational rejuvenation. This is the central … Continue reading
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China Hasn’t Been In A Hot War Since 1979
The U.S. has a deep reservoir of officers who understand how to manage the friction of war, which Clausewitz identifies as the force that makes the simple difficult. This means managing the psychological toll of casualties and the breakdown of … Continue reading
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The New Cold War With China
ChatGPT says: Alliance Theory says a large share of “new Cold War with China” talk is not neutral analysis. It is status production by an alliance that needs a big enemy to justify its own importance. Not all of it. … Continue reading
Decoding the Moves of China’s Dictator Xi Jinping
ChatGPT says: Xi Jinping is not mainly a tyrant or an ideologue. He is a coalition manager who concluded that the ruling alliance was rotting from the inside. China is governed by a single ruling coalition. Chinese Communist Party. Inside … Continue reading
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Will Iran’s Regime Survive?
Gemini: Based on the geopolitical and economic landscape as of early 2026, the survival of the Iranian clerical establishment (often referred to as the “mullah regime”) appears increasingly precarious. While the regime retains a monopoly on violence that likely ensures … Continue reading
Elites Are Sobering Up About Free Trade
Robin Harding’s argument is blunt and mostly right. China is not behaving like a normal trading partner that expects reciprocity over time. It is behaving like a civilization state executing a long plan for autonomy and dominance. Trade, in Beijing’s … Continue reading
Defending the Pacific: George Friedman on Australia, Japan, and the Coalition Against China
George Friedman: One of the things that Trump has done—he hasn’t broken relations with Australia, Japan, or South Korea—but he’s looking at their economic development and saying, “Okay, you’re no longer solely dependent on the United States. Will we come … Continue reading
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The News Wants Us To Believe China Won The Trade War With America
I don’t have an opinion on that. I do think Trump is heading us in the right direction. Media narrative: “China won the trade war with Trump” What the evidence shows The 2018 trade war delivered limited headline gains for … Continue reading
Why So Many Members of “The Blob” Want a New Cold War with China
David Feith at the Hudson Institute writes this Op/Ed in the Washington Post: To outcompete China, America must believe in itself again America’s new era of great-power rivalry demands strength and clarity — not exhaustion and doubt. …President Donald Trump … Continue reading
Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (2006)
International Relations professor John Mueller wrote in this important book (and here is his 2025 paper, Military Policy Toward China: The Case Against Overreaction): * The number of people worldwide who die as a result of international terrorism is generally … Continue reading
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