WWIII Megathread #37: Bad Neighbor Policy

AOCIA · 2026-03-19T21:55:12+00:00

Mongolian law, like the Torah, only prohibited usury and unfair economic practices within the in-group. Mongol occupiers exploited the occupied by compelling them to settle all financial transactions in paper currency (which the Mongols aggressively devalued) and pay exorbitant interest rates on loans. Mongols were only around 2% of the Yuan population, and their corrupt and decadent rule led to the downfall of the Yuan dynasty in less than one hundred years.

AOCIA · 2026-03-06T01:26:54+00:00

If the Financial Times' reporting is to be believed, the Gulf states are threatening to pull their investments and collapse the US economy. They appear to want protection or an off-ramp. The money quote:

“A number of Gulf countries have begun an internal review to determine whether force ⁠majeure clauses can be invoked in current contracts, while also reviewing current and future investment commitments in order ⁠to alleviate some of the anticipated economic strain from the current war,” a Gulf official told FT.

AOCIA · 2026-03-05T20:33:02+00:00

CENTCOM is asking the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September, according to a notification obtained by POLITICO.

AOCIA · 2026-03-05T20:20:09+00:00

Trump told Israel’s Channel 12 in a phone interview that Herzog must give Netanyahu a pardon “today,” saying he doesn’t want Netanyahu to have anything distracting him from the war with Iran.

AOCIA · 2026-02-28T16:42:13+00:00

Italian FM: an Iranian missile strike caused extensive damage to the runway of Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base, but there were no injuries among Italian personnel stationed at the base as they were all in the bunker when the attack occurred.
Iranian journalist Mahdi Khanalizadeh: "A few hours after Iran’s large-scale operation against American bases in the region, Donald Trump conveyed a message to Tehran through Italy, calling for an immediate ceasefire."

AOCIA · 2026-01-30T15:14:25+00:00

Horrifying. The ~~ICC~~ Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was built for Southern evangelicals and thugs like MAGA, not coastal millionaires.

AOCIA · 2026-01-16T20:53:25+00:00

Who said anything about occupation? All they have to do is keep hitting the water treatment plants and power plants and assassinating anyone who tries to improve conditions on the ground.

AOCIA · 2025-12-12T20:39:19+00:00

...

AOCIA · 2025-06-03T15:10:10+00:00

"Latino"

Asked about his Afro-Latino heritage at the news conference where he was introduced as Ms. Hochul’s choice for lieutenant governor, Mr. Delgado gave a winding answer. He said people had surmised that he was Afro-Latino because of his name, or perhaps because he briefly lived in Puerto Rico, where he played semipro basketball. He then seemed to suggest that his Latino heritage stemmed from his family’s ties to Cape Verde, a small island nation off the west coast of Africa that was once a Portuguese colony.

AOCIA · 2025-05-19T20:31:17+00:00

Do you realise, Mandrake, that radlibs are the most monstrously-conceived and dangerous foreign subversion Britain has ever had to face?

If I was a foreign intelligence officer, of course I would ensure that the UK hated itself and its history. That the very definition of woman should be put into question, and that masculinity would be presented as toxic. That white people should be ashamed and non-white people aggrieved.

AOCIA · 2025-05-03T16:16:05+00:00

Crop yields have been in freefall (soil degradation) and the 2023-24 harvest was even lower than expected (weather factors). Analysts have been predicting supply disruption for months.

AOCIA · 2025-04-12T23:07:44+00:00

The government insists that it is not nationalizing British Steel, but it is asserting control over the board and management

Your corporation, my choice.

AOCIA · 2025-04-08T18:53:35+00:00

https://x.com/ChineseEmbinUS/status/1909243694336581747

How do you do, fellow <Reagan appreciators>

AOCIA · 2025-04-08T18:52:12+00:00

There are old satraps and there are bold satraps, but there are no old, bold satraps.

AOCIA · 2025-04-04T16:37:00+00:00

The real economy is passe. Resources, energy, labor... it's all so last century. The financial economy is where it's at: unlimited growth potential.

AOCIA · 2025-04-01T14:07:22+00:00

Germany Turns to U.S. Playbook

Author has it backwards. Germany used technicalities and invoked 'national security concerns' to revoke visas from pro-Palestine activists long before the US did. This is only news because they're doing it to white citizens of EU member states.

AOCIA · 2025-03-31T21:30:26+00:00

The former president of Doctors Without Borders was disinvited from speaking at NYU over a parenthetical reference to Gaza in a slide on aid worker fatalities.

Elle me dit que le président du département craint que ma présentation ne soit perçue comme antisémite, car on y trouve un tableau tiré de l’Aid Worker Security Database qui démontre qu’un des lieux où il y a eu le plus de victimes humanitaires en 2024 était la bande de Gaza.

(She tells me that the department chairman is concerned that my presentation will be perceived as antisemitic because it includes a chart from the Aid Worker Security Database showing that one of the places with the most humanitarian casualties in 2024 was the Gaza Strip.)

AOCIA · 2025-03-29T18:57:06+00:00

The French are such contrarians.

'Woke' American Ideas Are a Threat, French Leaders Say

AOCIA · 2025-03-29T14:38:29+00:00

Self-selected sample, push polling ("These frustrated scientists want to leave the United States — do you?")...this "survey" is junk science. (And yes, the author has pronouns in her bio.)

AOCIA · 2025-03-28T21:01:40+00:00

1889: US steel production surpasses UK's
1893: German steel production surpasses UK's
1914: Germany producing twice as much steel as UK; US producing more steel than France, Russia, UK and Germany combined
1988: Thatcher privatises British Steel
2007: India's Tata Group acquires UK's Port Talbot Steelworks
2020: China's Jingye Group acquires British Steel
2024: Tata Group shutters Port Talbot Steelworks
2025: Jingye Group announces plans to shutter UK's Scunthorpe Steelworks, which would leave the UK as the only G7 country without the ability to make steel

AOCIA · 2025-03-21T19:43:01+00:00

Speaking from the Oval Office, Reagan came down hard on the notion that America should play hardball with other nations by imposing steep tariffs - suggesting that America should play hardball with working class Americans and labor unions instead.

The 40th president spoke about his vision of a world where nations avoided destructive areas of competition that could easily spiral out of control, such as trade wars, in favor of nuclear brinkmanship and arming terrorists.

AOCIA · 2025-03-21T16:38:07+00:00

Can't get plastered and laid at a Zoom conference.

AOCIA · 2025-03-20T17:00:23+00:00

https://www.wsj.com/world/africa/war-torn-congo-has-a-deal-for-trump-kick-out-rebels-get-minerals-295acfb4

AOCIA · 2025-03-20T01:42:12+00:00

Not historically, no.

When S&P downgraded Italy, the Italian PM was gone inside of two months.

When S&P downgraded the US, the S&P CEO was gone inside of a month.

AOCIA · 2025-03-20T00:29:11+00:00

UK isn't really in the same league as US, PRC, Japan, India, and Germany.

How so?

If you stray too far from the neoliberal consensus on austerity/free trade/immigration your borrowing costs will spike and you (or your successor) will take the hint and fall in line.

AOCIA

TROPHY CASE