#TPP Critical
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littlebunnysander · 9 months ago
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Screenshotting my original post so my addition shows up in the tags.
Two-siding a genocide in your ongoing podcast while an actual real world genocide is going on is WILD.
The humans have been confirmed to be colonizers of land originally inhabited by monsters. They have carried out multiple genocides and forced the monsters out of their homes and into cities on the fringes of the world. Then more human invaders show up to destroy those cities (also the monster cultural centers).
We have confirmation that the city they hit first has been leveled entirely now. The city that Olala was seeking because it contained so much information and history about monster kind.
We've also got political leaders refusing to get involved unless the bombing comes to them, and the monsters being treated as primitive and ineffective against the advanced tech of the off-world humans. This is a really uncomfortable if unintentionally a parallel and actually awful if it is intentional. Best case scenario, it's trying to make a connection between fictional monsters and real life people in a way that's both othering and pretty racist. Worst case, the writers actually believe this is a two side issue and that any attempt to stop Israel is "just as bad" as an ongoing genocide.
Does anyone know if anyone has made any statements? I'm not expecting every creative to do so, but when your work is hitting this close to real world situations, it might be necessary.
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freezingfogsblog · 1 year ago
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Behold: a monster
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bamfwizard · 1 year ago
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vanilla scent comes from orchids.
juno describes nureyev's cologne as smelling of spices from a far off planet, and something he couldn't place, which was later revealed to be the orchids.
vanilla and spices.
conclusion: nureyev smells like Christmas cookie Yankee candles.
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valerianinc · 9 months ago
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While the production unfolds we have an important question for all of you narrative podcast weirdos.
We really need the statistics on this, thank you🙏💓
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dreamingdewdrops · 2 years ago
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Yes, I know the last two are TECHNICALLY ttrpg, but I don't care 😁
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carbootsoul · 3 months ago
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some initial notes on the marching ants + hobbit for sizing
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absoluteocellibehavior · 6 months ago
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what is your opinion on pathetic podcast men in general? (Also what are your favorite characters from all the pods you've watched)
Hello!!
Generally the more wet cat a podcast man is, the more likely I’m going to love him. Jon and Arthur, my absolute beloveds. They may not be my top favs but damn they’re up there.
As for my favorites in each podcast!
WtNV: Kevin :]
TMA: Elias (yeah yeah sue me (also secretly Barnabas Bennett))
TMAGP: I’m convinced that Augustus is Jonah but for the sake of the new characters, I do vibe with Sam and Colin
TPP: Jet or Damien depending on which story
Malevolent: Oh this is tough… Probably The Butcher. (Yes, I did sob aggressively during Part 40. Devastated.)
Dungeons and Daddies: Henry Oak
Critical Role: Percy and Fresh Cut Grass (haven’t listened to Campaign 2 ;^;)
[Keep editing because I forget the amount of podcasts I listen to]
[[Does The Bible in a Year count???]]
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chaos-burst · 2 years ago
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some characters are simply fat in my heart and no official art can convince me otherwise. jester from critical role, rita from the penumbra and moonshine from naddpod are some of them <33
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kjzx · 10 months ago
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Benzaiten Steel
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lucifer-kane · 4 months ago
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same vibes
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loadsofcats · 1 year ago
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Every once in a while, my thought process while listening to Penumbra goes roughly like this:
Concierge: “And welcome, Traveller, to the Pen-”
Me: “Traveller?? Oh, oh! Artagan! We are the Traveler here, yes, yes! We are Artagan!
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ananxiousgenz · 11 months ago
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there are two school of thought for the junoverse ending of tpp:
1.) peter is, after obtaining some critical thinking skills and realizing that he's gotta let his ex go, going to apologize to juno and beg forgiveness (juno will forgive him ofc), they take down the pharma corps together with help from the aurinkos, and settle down back in hyperion city with rita living in their spare room and get a kind of happy ending with each other <3
2.) reverse final resting place except peter actually dies and juno is left right back where he started at the beginning of season 1.
there is no in-between.
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nessatwene-art · 4 months ago
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TPP Prime team BIOS
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Emilia Ocasio - Prime age: 25-38. Current age: 42. Poten type: Manipulate- Uses raw energy manifestations to fight. Core color - Blue
TPP squad's charismatic and talented leader. She's lively and pretty darn spunky, Emilia takes what she does with a lot of heart and cares about her family, friends and the city she grew up in. Though it puts the weight of the world on her shoulder. She can be a hot-headed sometimes she figuring out what it means to be a good leader among many aspects of her adult life. Currently she's playing the worlds hardest game of Carmen sandiago
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Jaylen (Jay) D. Franklin - Prime age: 28-41. Current age: 45. Poten type: Manipulate- produces powerful energy shock waves. Core color - Green
Jay was the second in command and the easiest dude to get along with. He's a close family friend and close friend to Emilia since she was young (He dated her sister but it didn't work out lol) So she's like a little sister to him. After the team disbanded he opened a record store that the go-to place for many people. He's happy to tell the stories from his past to the kids but does his best to stay out of hunting business to protect him and and his family.
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Gadiel Marques - Prime age: 26-39. Current age: 43. Poten type: Elemental- Fire. Core color - yellow
Team pretty boy who use to have gorgeous long hair (sorry not picture ;.;) , now is a humble family convince store owner in of Center city who has a confusing but cozy sense of fashion. He can be a little eccentric at times but is pretty laid-back, sarcastic, and pragmatic when it warrants it.
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Charlotte (Lottie) Rockwall - Prime age: 22-35. Current age: 39. Poten type: Materialize- gun blaster. Core Color - "Chartreuse"
Lottie is a real cutie with a Atlanta accent. team's weapon specialist and sharpshooter. will not hesitant to sprint after you in high heels. Currently she's a well traveled and fashion critic writing blogs and making videos. You might see her riding down the street on her green moped.
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Eira Drake - Prime age: 25-38. Current age: 42. Poten type: Ice. Core color - blue (like an icy blue)
Hot, brooding one with a cool sports motorcycle. Eira tends to keep to herself and needed a chance to warm up to Emilia because she didn't quite trust her as leader yet. But Eira is Emilia worth rival as they have many similar skills. since the over saturation Eira's hair began to turn icy white as a strange side effect. Currently Eira works as a hired gun and is working a very weird job at the moment of watching over this rich guys son named Blake who likes to call her Elsa. Pays a lot of money. Eira also has a crazy romance going on with a chemistry teacher named Ellie who is much more than she seems.
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Damien Lee - Prime age: 23-36. Current age: 40. Poten type: Materialize- Bow staff. Core color- Red
An asshole who has a huge crush on Emilia lol. wears those glasses because he thinks it makes him look cool. despite that he is very good at getting his hands on information. The stress from the over saturation gave him a white streak in his hair. not as cool as Eira tho lol. Since the team disbanded he's been difficult to contact. Apparently his been doing some black market unnatural trade, commiting heist etc etc with his own band of cronies. He gets caught sneaking into the Union Institute by Nick but makes a deal with him to get classified Info about the original tpp from UHA in exchange for not getting arrested.
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gaybd1 · 7 months ago
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Taiwan FAQ [Updated 2024/5/26]
[See the 5/28 updated here]
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[Photo credit CNA/Taiwan News]
[Image ID: A large crowd of Taiwanese protestors, many holding signs in Chinese displaying their criticism of current legislative goings on. Rather than focusing on individuals, the photo focuses on the size of the crowd. The crowd fills a wide avenue and disappears into the horizon. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people pictured. /. End ID]
As Taiwan continues to strive to protect its autonomy and democracy, it is my goal to spread accurate, firsthand information about its current events worldwide with the aid of reblogs from people who also support democracy.
Here is a list I’ve compiled of basic questions and answers, and more importantly, further reading to help worldwide English speakers to understand Taiwan’s history and current situation.
One of the biggest weapons the PRC (China) is currently using right now is misinformation meant to confuse international audiences and deter support of Taiwan (ROC). I find it INCREDIBLY important that we start doing all we can to fight that.
FAQs
Acronyms/political parties explained (PRC/ROC/KMT/TPP/DPP)
How new is democracy in Taiwan?
Is Taiwan a part of China?/Does China control Taiwan?
Is Taiwan recognized internationally?
What was the Wild Lily Movement?
What was the Sunflower Movement?
What is the Bluebird Movement? / What is going on right now? / What are the details of the legislative reforms the KMT/TPP are trying to pass?
Why does the Bluebird Movement matter so much?
What is the Legislative Yuan?
Important names to know in the LY
Can the president veto these reforms?
Is the Bluebird Movement focused on China’s recent military actions?
What has China been doing militarily in recent years?
What did President Lai recently say to provoke China?
Is it illegal for foreigners to protest in Taiwan?
Should foreigners protest in Taiwan?
How to use Chinese-language resources as an English-speaker/Keywords to search in order to do so
What can I do to support Taiwan from abroad?
Further Resources
Talk from 5/25 on the current situation
Politics of Taiwan on Wikipedia (Government of the Republic of China on Wikipedia)
Post-WWII History of Taiwan on Wikipedia
Cross-Strait Relations on Wikipedia
Brian Hioe, journalist on Twitter (New Bloom Magazine)
Aurora Chang, activist on Twitter
Erin Hale on Twitter
James Hsieh on Twitter (Chinese-language)
Autum Huang on Twitter (Chinese-language)
It’s important to note that a lot of recent mobilization has been happening on Threads but I am not active there
Taiwan Plus (English news)
Taiwan News (English news)
CNA Focus Taiwan (English news)
TVBS World Taiwan (English news)
When reading global news media about current events in Taiwan, I urge you to look into an article/tweet’s author, their country of origin, and where they are based
Here’s the Taiwan tag on my blog
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iwriteasfotini · 16 days ago
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A shout out to @thistuesdaynight for the sweetest tags on their re-blog. Seriously, made my morning. :)
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OMG the pressure is on! I desperately hope to do these characters justice. I love them all. Severus, bless his heart, is clever and creative but he just can't let himself love. Regulus, who Sirius always saw as weak and in need of protection is actually a BAMF. And Lily, the muggle-born who is drawn to these two Slytherins... She is also a BAMF. The three of them mirror the Golden Trio, but are also SOOOOO different.
Ahh!!! Severus' story kicks off their friendship but it continues, through every installment which features one of their POV. I really haven't read much fanfiction (in the grand scheme of how much exists), but I have not seen these three in a close friendship dynamic before. I'm sure it exists. And there is a finesse to writing it accurately (IMO). All three of them are unique. Severus and Regulus have some social quirks. They may mirror the Golden Trio in gender, but their dynamic is so different. Blame it on the Slytherins. Blame it on Lily's personality (which is reminiscent of Hermione but certainly not a clone). I hope people find themselves seeing each of these characters in a new light. And it is all done in the canonesque setting of the magical world. Creative liberties have been taken to capitalize on the awesomeness of Lily and Regulus' magical abilities. But I think it works.
So The Prince's Pact, Severus' POV and installment two in my series, will start posting chapters DAILY on December 21 on AO3. I am super excited!
Installment one is up now. The Heir and The Spare, Sirius' POV. And if you aren't into Sirius' POV, you can read the summary of that work before diving into installment number two. The most plot critical things from THATS are the Prologue, the Interlude, and the Epilogue (and none of them are Sirius' POV)! The rest of the story is first year Marauders shenanigans, with subtextual Wolfstar and Black brother angst. Though Lily plays a neat role and I love her feisty attitude towards the arrogant pureblood boys (looking at you James and Sirius).
I'm excited and also nervous to post TPP. Mostly because (as you saw in the tag image) apparently it takes bravery to write these three... TOGETHER. What have I gotten myself into? I appreciate all the support from people who (like me) can get on board with this concept. I think it works beautifully. And it is absolutely a plot critical dynamic which carries through my whole series.
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mariacallous · 4 months ago
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When Donald Trump first ran for the U.S. presidency in 2016, a wave of writing suggested that he was a realist. In this framing, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton was presented as a neoconservative hawk who would start wars. Trump, by contrast, would balance U.S. commitments with its resources. He would avoid foreign conflicts and quagmires. He would be less ideological in his approach to nondemocratic states.
In 2024, this thinking has returned. Some realist voices are again suggesting that Trump is one of them. Trump’s desire to end the war in Ukraine—even though he simply intends to let Russia win—is taken as evidence of this. So is the selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential candidate. Vance has famously said that he does not care what happens to Ukraine. Conversely, he is a China hawk who seems to believe the United States cannot support both Taiwan and Ukraine simultaneously.
The notion that U.S. support for Taiwan and Ukraine is a trade-off is the most controversial component of the Trump realist position. Former Defense Department official Elbridge Colby, for example, has argued prominently that U.S. support for Ukraine undercuts its ability to help Taiwan, and that Europe should be almost exclusively responsible for helping Ukraine (or not).
But these hopes are badly misplaced. A second Trump term may well take an entirely different tack on China from the hawks—and even if he wants to move against Beijing, he lacks the discipline and ability to do so.
There is far more in Trump’s first term to suggest indiscipline, showboating, and influence-peddling than the clear-eyed, bloodless calculation of national interest that realists aspire to.
On China, Trump was undisciplined and sloppy. Yes, he turned against China in 2020, during the final year of his term, but that was more to deflect blame for COVID-19 than out of any realist or strategic reappraisal of U.S.-China relations. COVID-19 suddenly became the “kung flu” in Trump’s vernacular in an openly racist bid to change the subject.
Trump also undercut any ostensible focus on China by picking unnecessary fights with the United States’ regional partners. U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Australia relations, for example, sank to their lowest point in years as Trump picked fights with their leaders because he wanted a payoff for the U.S. alliance guarantees.
Realism values allies for their ability to share burdens, project power, and generate global coalitions. Trump does not seem to grasp that at all. When Trump backed off his criticism of Japan, the turning point was apparently then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s relentless flattery, including giving Trump a gold-plated golf club, rather than any strategic reevaluation by Trump or his team. Such frippery is exactly the opposite of the cold calculation that we associate with realism.
Trump also sank the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and all but dropped earlier U.S. rhetoric about a pivot or rebalance to Asia. Were China a threat that Trump took seriously, then building a tighter trade area among the United States’ Asian partners would be a smart move to pool local allied economic power and build patterns of administrative coordination among those partners. Indeed, that was the rationale behind TPP and the “pivot” to increased engagement in the Indo-Pacific when it was proposed by the Barack Obama administration. Trump did not see that, either; he is obsessed with imposing tariffs, even against allies, which violates the realist tenets that concern allied power accumulation and coordination against shared threats.
Finally, Trump’s admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s autocracy was blatant, and Trump has once again recently praised Xi as his “good friend.” The former U.S. president has spoken approvingly of China’s crackdowns in Tiananmen Square, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. He solicited Chinese help in the 2020 election, and China happily channeled money to Trump’s family and his properties during his presidency.
Trump clearly craves authoritarian powers at home and is happy to take China’s money. He was happy to pardon Republican lobbyist Elliott Broidy, who was convicted for illicitly acting on Beijing’s behalf. It stretches credulity to suggest that Trump will lead the United States, much less an Indo-Pacific coalition, in a major shift against a power that he admires. China will probably just throw money at him if he is reelected—especially after seeing his U-turn on a TikTok ban, a policy that he backed in his first term but failed to deliver on, after facing pressure from billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass.
Little else in Trump’s first term suggests s a thoughtful, realist weighing of priorities: Trump’s most important first-term foreign-policy venture was the attempted denuclearization of North Korea. Unsurprisingly, that effort was amateurish, sloppy, and unplanned—and it failed.
There is a realist argument for reaching out to Pyongyang. The United States’ long-standing policy of containment and deterrence has not changed North Korea, nor did it prevent its nuclearization. North Korea is now a direct nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland. A realistic foreign policy would accept that as an unchangeable fact and react to it. Perhaps a bold move by a risk-taking statesman could break the logjam.
Trump might have had the chance to pull this off, but he failed due to his own lack of discipline. Trump did not prepare for his meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un; instead, he simply walked off the plane and thought his New York tough guy shtick would somehow bowl over a man raised in the crucible of North Korea’s lethal family politics. There was no interagency process to build proposals ahead of time, nor any kind of realistic, measured deal that could have won over Pyongyang.
According to John Bolton, then Trump’s national security advisor, the president did not even read in preparation for the summits. Instead, Trump demanded the complete, verifiable, and irreversible nuclear disarmament of North Korea in exchange for sanctions removal, then walked out of the Hanoi summit when Pyongyang predictably rejected this wildly unbalanced so-called deal. Talks collapsed because Trump had not prepared and had no idea how to bargain on the issues when his first offer was rejected.
But Trump did get what he really wanted—lots and lots of publicity. His hugely hyped—and criminally underprepared—first summit with Kim in Singapore brought a week of nonstop news coverage. His later trip to the Demilitarized Zone, which included briefly walking inside North Korea, brought another wave of coverage. Trump even demanded that he receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This is showboating, not strategy.
The big issue in the realist case for Trump and Vance is that they will put Taiwan explicitly ahead of Ukraine in a ruthless prioritization of U.S. interests. As Andrew Byers and Randall Schweller write, Trump “understands the limits of American power.” From this perspective, the United States cannot reasonably hope to fight Russia and China simultaneously, much less a coordinated “axis” of those countries working with rogues such as Iran and North Korea. This notion is particularly connected with Vance, who has explicitly advocated abandoning Ukraine.
Yet Trump himself does not think this way. Trump’s supposed policy positions emerge on the fly as he speaks. He is lazy. He is not capable of the strategic thinking that realists want to attribute to him; one must only listen to his campaign speeches this year to see this. He routinely lies, makes up stories, and speaks in indecipherable word-salads. When Trump has spoken on Taiwan, he makes it clear that he sees it as just another free-riding ally that owes the U.S. protection money. In an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said the United States was “no different than an insurance company” and that Taiwan “doesn’t give us anything.”
It stretches psychological credulity to suggest that the United States under Trump will ruthlessly abandon a struggling, nascent democracy under threat by a fascist imperialist, but then abruptly fight for another new democracy under threat by an ever more powerful fascist imperialist. The prioritization of Taiwan over Ukraine misses the obvious precursor that the Middle East, in turn, is less valuable than Ukraine. But instead of reevaluating the United States’ position in the Middle East, Trump will almost certainly deepen U.S. involvement in the region because of the ideological fixations of his Christianist base.
The strategic case for elevating Taiwan over Ukraine is also far more mixed than Vance and Trumpian realists suggest.
First, China is much more powerful than Russia. So, a conflict with it would be far more destructive. The Russia-Ukraine war has been locally contained and, despite Russian bluster, not escalated to nuclear confrontation. That seems less likely in an open, U.S.-China war. It is an odd “realist” recommendation to suggest that the United States should take a provocative line against a stronger power, which increases the risk of great-power war, but not push its preferences on a weaker opponent where U.S. involvement is limited to a lower-risk proxy war.
Second, the U.S. commitment to Ukraine is much less costly than a parallel commitment to Taiwan. The United States is not fighting directly to defend Ukraine. It would have to do so to defend Taiwan. Taiwan defense would require the United States to project enormous force over a huge distance of open water at great expense—plus, there would be combat losses of major U.S. platforms, such as ships and aircraft.
By contrast, U.S. aid to Ukraine has mostly come in the form of money and midsized, ground-based platforms, totaling around $175 billion over two-and-a-half years. This is small and easily manageable because of NATO’s propinquity. U.S. national security spending is approximately $1 trillion annually; the country’s annual economic production is approximately $25 trillion. Notions that U.S. aid to Ukraine is an unsustainable overstretch, or that it is bolstering another “forever war,” are simply not correct.
In Ukraine, the United States is also using intelligence assets and coordination relationships with NATO allies that have long been in place—and resources that have little relevance to a Taiwan conflict. Washington is not going to engage the Chinese army in ground conflict, just as it does not need U.S. aircraft carriers to help Ukraine. As a specific example of a possible trade-off, Vance has suggested the United States lacks the artillery shell production capacity to meet both national defense needs and those of Ukraine. But that argument implies abandoning Ukraine today for an unidentifiable but apparently imminent U.S. ground war tomorrow.
Realist hopes for Trump and Vance assume an intellectual discipline that both men lack and elevate geopolitical trade-offs that are less acute than realists admit., Trump is lazy, unread, venal, easily bought, susceptible to autocrats’ flattery, captive to the ideological fixations of his domestic coalition, ignorant of U.S. strategic interests, and dismissive of alliances that amplify U.S. power. Vance is ostensibly more clear-eyed, but he is a foreign-policy neophyte in the pocket of Silicon Valley donors, including his mentor Peter Thiel. He has been a senator for less than two years, before which he was a financier and author whose interests were local.
The fiscal space to reorient U.S. defense spending is there. If Vance and Trump were truly serious about confronting China, they would not be proposing yet another massive Republican tax cut, for example. The traditional liberal internationalism Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden represent is far more likely to build a durable global coalition against Chinese and Russian revisionism than the venal caprice masquerading as strategy that Trump would bring back to the White House.
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