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Apple Valley

@valleyapple.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.5K following 2 posts

Cognitive scientist & translation researcher • social cognition • directionality • research methodology • stats • open science

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Reposted by Apple Valley
Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 28/09/2026
Germany has cancelled funding for the German Cochrane Foundation. Bad news all around. Cochrane’s benefit to cost ratio is huge. @cochrane.org www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/wark...
sueddeutsche.de
Bund streicht renommierter Cochrane-Stiftung die Förderung
Die Cochrane-Stiftung, die seit Jahren die Nutzen medizinischer Therapien untersucht, soll künftig nicht mehr staatlich gefördert werden.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The word of the day: Zombified www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hi all, free weekend update is out. I start with the Army of Robots concept, which the Ukrainians are using as part of Vivaldi. They want machines to fight, not men. Also, Russia is having one significant strategic success (abetted by the USA). phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...
phillipspobrien.substack.com
Weekend Update #204: An Army Of Robots
Russia’s Most Effective Campaign; The Trump Rehabilitation Campaign Continues
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Finally, the Trump rehabilitation of Putin campaign hit a new milestone. Sometimes Trump's heart is so full of love for the Russian dictator, he cannot control himself.
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Jimmy Rushton @jimmyrushton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Our exclusive for the Kyiv Independent reveals that Atlant Aero LLC, a major supplier of UAVs to the Russian military, is not currently sanctioned by the British government. This is something my many British politician friends and followers could easily do something about…
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Mary Nasca @mnasca.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Reminder: The landslide in Hungary was achieved in part by highlighting Orbán's corruption.
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Jochen Greiving @jochengreiving.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"Democrats everywhere need to compete with today’s Pied Pipers on the emotional plane, too." Garton Ash mentions Hungary's Péter Magyar and UK’s Andy Burnham as examples and says: "So much will now depend on German democrats, and especially Christian Democrats, proving they can do the same." Read 👇
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Malte Elson @malte.the100.ci · 21/09/2026
"Science is self-correcting"
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Seb @swerten.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Lovely stuff. Still, the International Society of Philology remains my favourite: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
theguardian.com
French professor accused of ‘gigantic hoax’ after inventing Nobel-style prize
Authorities investigate Florent Montaclair over award given to himself and others including Noam Chomsky
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Petra Ramsauer @petraramsauer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
One person who had seen the whole report described it to the Guardian as “apocalyptic”. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Why is the UK’s suppressed climate national security report significant?
Warnings about the catastrophic effects of vital ecosystems collapsing were not published under previous prime minister
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Oh look, it is brainlike! Must be intelligent 🤔
walnut
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Dermot Lynott @dermotlynott.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of my favourite typos was from the cover page of a student's coursework a few years back
Word cunt: 2050
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Chuliang Song @clsong.com · 10/09/2026
A wonderful review by Stefano on 100 years of Lotka–Volterra models. Don’t miss the incredibly detailed Supplement, truly the “War and Peace” of LV models. I really wish it had existed when I was a grad student! doi.org/10.1146/annu...
doi.org
One Hundred Years of Lotka–Volterra Models
Over the past century, the generalized Lotka–Volterra (GLV) model has grown from a mathematical curiosity to a cornerstone of theoretical ecology. Here we celebrate the enduring legacy of Lotka and Vo...
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The latest academic scam is appointing scholars to fake societies then charging people money to join them. I get scams about fake conferences, predatory journals, phony consulting gigs, fictitious book clubs, vanity magazines, illusory media requests, etc www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Exclusive: Sham scientific societies are misleading star researchers
A Nature investigation reveals a network of organizations that have been building their ranks through deceptive practices.
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WarTranslated (Dmitri) @wartranslated.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Analyst @clementmolin.bsky.social says Russia’s official front maps overshoot reality by about 5,000 sq km. In 2026, he says, Russia barely moved in Ukraine but still enlarged its claims, and many Russian Telegram channels updated their maps too.
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Jill Lawrence @jilldlawrence.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Unnerving @washingtonpost.com exclusive: US and Russia worked in secret to remove "a range of provisions designed to safeguard the use of artificial intelligence in weapons." For instance, leave targeting to AI, no human review required. Gift link 🎁 wapo.st/4yWadkR
wapo.st
U.S., Russia stripped human oversight from global AI weapons pact
The two nations weakened a range of safeguards in a landmark U.N. effort to try to regulate the use of lethal autonomous weaponry. The global negotiations earlier this month marked the furthest progre...
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Mike Levin @mikelevin.org · 25/09/2026
This week the Trump administration ran a 30-second campaign spot on Fox News and Newsmax, labeled "Paid for by the U.S. Government." This kind of propaganda using taxpayer dollars is unacceptable and very likely illegal.
abcnews.com
Administration's pro-Trump TV ad is taxpayer-funded
The Trump administration is running a pro-Trump ad on cable news featuring Trump boasting about his record and vowing the US "will never be a communist country."
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The Wolfpack @wolfpack11720.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing." ~ George Orwell @mluckovich.bsky.social
Mike Luckovich
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Charles Gaba ✡️ @charlesgaba.com · 26/09/2026
A reminder that I've made it absurdly easy to donate to up to ~3,000 Democratic candidates at the federal, statewide & state legislative levels without a dime going to anyone other than the candidates (aside from the cc processing fee) here: Blue26.org #JustSaying
blue26.org
Blue26.org
Not a PAC. Just helping raise money for Democratic candidates to help save democracy.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 27/09/2026
House Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda, with investigations of President Donald Trump, his family and his administration if the party sweeps control of the chamber from Republicans in the November elections. to.pbs.org/4hjKHyI
to.pbs.org
House Democrats plan vast oversight of Trump administration. Impeachment is an option
“There is a cost to the American people of the out-of-control corruption,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win control at the Ca...
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🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 @specialkhersoncat.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
One of the Russian Shaheds downed over Ukraine has ended up as decoration in a local supermarket.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Just as a reminder Trump apologists, in the last 9 months Trump has: Threatened to invade Greenland Seized the leader Venezuela Launched a war against Iran without Congressional approval. Any state in the world needs to worry about him. Except Russia of course. Putin is safe.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The inability of Trump supporters to acknowledge the immense damage he is doing to the USA’s position in the world is the real scandal.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I see Trump apologists getting apoplectic at this, which is pure childishness. The President of the USA openly and repeatedly threatened Canadian sovereignty and belittled Canadian independence. It would have been dereliction of duty if Carney did not consider this.
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 26/09/2026
Incredible: another Ukrainian famine is unfolding, this time in Russian-occupied Oleshky. The remaining inhabitants of what used to be a thriving small city, now down to about 6000 people, are blockaded by Russian forces and cut off from food and water. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Oleshky: Eating garden weeds to survive in Russian-occupied city cut off from food and water
The BBC has spoken to residents in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky who say they are being "constantly shelled".
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
That's not possible. In 2025, the smartest person in history took complete control of federal government IT and his "DOGE" modernized and secured everything. Right? Surely that wasn't just a data heist by a billionaire white nationalist and a bunch of 20-year-old freaks from neo-Nazi chatrooms?
nytimes.com
Hackers Say They Stole Thousands of Sensitive F.B.I. Personnel Records
The compromise, if confirmed, would be the latest in a string of cybersecurity failures at the F.B.I., which said it was investigating the matter.
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Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Explicitly ignoring court orders is something you'd do only if you think the people who actually enforce the orders are on your side. This makes me very worried.
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Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Again: When you bring fascists on your show, you don't do journalism. You do fascism.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Once again, they don’t follow laws or court orders, so the solution cannot be more laws or court orders, & we need to stop kidding ourselves about that, especially if we’re United States Senators. bsky.app/profile/mcop...
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Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The thing about ICE is that eventually it WILL be abolished. I don't know if it will be in 5 years or 50 years but it will happen. With certainty. And when it does, it will be remembered along the securitate, Stasi, etc, and so will the people who served there.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
So campus speech. Much viewpoint diversity. Very marketplace of ideas.
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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Wild stuff. Sheri Mecklenberg, career prosecutor accused of misconduct in Broadview 6 case, resigns from DOJ. The NYT obtained her scathing resignation letter, in which she says the U.S. attorney directed her to bring felony charges over her objection. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Read the document (Gift Article)
Sheri H. Mecklenburg resignation letter
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Ed Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.” If you don't know his story, please take 3 minutes now to learn it. @gchalliance.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social
sammatey.substack.com
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day
Take five minutes to not destroy civilization
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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Successive tweets in my Twitter feed; no lies detected.
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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
1/ Russian electricity consumers are likely to be charged an extra fee for protecting and repairing power facilities from Ukrainian drone strikes. Not surprisingly, Russian commentators feel that they're being ripped off with an "air defence tax". ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/noel...
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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
1/ Now that the Russian elections are out of the way, the government and oligarchs don't have to pretend to need public favour any more. In the first of what's expected to be a deluge of bad news, food prices have gone up immediately. ⬇️
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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
1/ This Monday was the fourth anniversary of Russia's mobilisation of around 300,000 men. Russian warbloggers have been marking the event with gloomy retrospectives and complaints about the plight of the men still trapped in involuntary military service. ⬇️
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Kaja Kallas @kajakallas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ukraine wants peace. We want peace. Russia must stop its aggression, accept a ceasefire, and engage meaningfully in negotiations towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in accordance with international law. (2/2)
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Kaja Kallas @kajakallas.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
51 countries are united today in our support for Ukraine at the UN General Assembly. Since March 2025, Ukraine has agreed to a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. We call on Russia to finally do the same. (1/2)
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the first of ten video meditations I recorded at night in Kharkiv, a frontline city in northeastern Ukraine. They concern matters that came to mind in the general setting of a long and terrible war. snyder.substack.com/p/cowardice
snyder.substack.com
On Cowardice (Kharkiv Meditations 1/10)
Kharkiv Meditations 1/10
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Useful reporting but would be worth more firmly stressing Hegseth’s achievement in overseeing a calamitous decline in US power and prestige, which was absolutely predictable and was presumably always the point. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
nytimes.com
In Hegseth’s Pentagon, Top Leaders Battle Turmoil
Persistent distractions are feeding a climate of mistrust as the U.S. military faces a series of wartime issues, including shortfalls of missile interceptors.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23/09/2026
Zelenskyy at the UN: "Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response we will have no choice but to make it harsh for Russia too"
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026
Trump's foreign policy is not isolationist. On the contrary, his ideologues want to build an international empire run by far-right political movements who serve American crypto, mineral and tech companies, many with links to the president. Read more here: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
Empire of Grift
Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯
Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to financethemselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria
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Ian Bond @cerianbond.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Absolutely right. The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine have been raising this with the administration for ages; they have got nowhere.
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Anders Åslund @andersaslund.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Is there any US republican who is so dumb that he or she has not understood two things: 1. Trump owns the GOP. 2. Trump supports Putin. To vote for the GOP anywhere means to support Putin.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It’s amazing that the US has become so pathetic, that the most vocal backers of Trump are trying to make the case that the US successfully bullied Denmark (when it really didn’t). And all the while they avoid the reality of US bowing to China and doing Russia’s dirty work.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
When historians look back on Trump's foreign policy in a century, I bet these are their verdict on his most famous policies: The support of Russia--the most evil. The pillaging of Venezuela--the most corrupt. The decision to go to war with Iran--the most incompetent.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The abandonment of Taiwan--the most geopolitically catastrophic. The China policy--the most craven. The destruction of US relations with its allies--the most stupid.
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