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BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

Deputy editor at Foreign Policy, China nerd, gaming nerd, reads a lot

45,728 Followers  |  833 Following  |  28,956 Posts  |  Joined: 22.04.2023
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Posts by BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social)

I mean after they booted us out the USAID HQ was just kind of left open with doors to SCIFs and other secured rooms propped open. If you could get into the building (relatively low bar of entry with human engineering) you could get access to TS/SCI level systems.

05.03.2026 20:38 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Democrats may not be able to prevent Mullin's confirmation, but they can certainly turn his track record of offense and stupidity into two days of televised humiliation so spectacular that he is wounded in Trump's eyes from day 1. That is the job.

05.03.2026 20:14 β€” πŸ‘ 3992    πŸ” 1125    πŸ’¬ 97    πŸ“Œ 52
Preview
β€˜Price to pay for Berkeley’: Jeffrey Epstein paid law student’s tuition in exchange for β€˜assistants’ Records show that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein funded a student’s UC Berkeley School of Law degree in return for referring female β€œassistants.”

INBOX: First reported by the Daily Californian, records show that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein funded a student’s UC Berkeley School of Law degree in return for referring female β€œassistants.”

www.dailycal.org/news/nationa...

05.03.2026 21:17 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

There is a remarkable process of elite radicalisation - based on a cartoonish caricature of the Great British Public

bsky.app/profile/sund...

05.03.2026 21:13 β€” πŸ‘ 36    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

you're right, I thought the Oman ports were closer to conflict than they are.

05.03.2026 21:14 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

congratulations to Ms Noem on her new job as Deputy Director of the World Affairs Press.

05.03.2026 21:12 β€” πŸ‘ 44    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

If it's a licensed profession, then the AI Chatbot should not be able to do it because there's no accountability.

05.03.2026 18:13 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 1

damnit I hoped they were going to make the chief concubine position permanent

05.03.2026 21:05 β€” πŸ‘ 242    πŸ” 30    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0

not a lot of eating on him though

05.03.2026 21:02 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

well I mean any excuse on their part i'm sure

05.03.2026 21:01 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Saudi cold storage capacity has been growing very fast, but yes, is likely to get overwhelmed by demand.

05.03.2026 20:58 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

also a good question, and I don't know. they are putting a lot of work into paying off influencers to do 'everything is fine' stuff, and, hilariously, people are having to fly back to avoid getting hit with domestic taxes in the UK already.

05.03.2026 20:57 β€” πŸ‘ 52    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

if there's some option to invest in Saudi trucking firms, though, good buy right now.

05.03.2026 20:55 β€” πŸ‘ 38    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The blockade on Qatar helped strengthen its economy, paving the way to stronger regional integration | Brookings In key ways, the blockade bolstered Qatar’s economy. This can be a positive development for regional integration. Stronger individual states will strengthen the region as a whole.

I think the UAE ends up dipping into state funds to keep the cost of imported food down, costing a shit ton of money, and probably certain fancier stuff is allowed to rise sharply. But consider, for instance, how quick adaptation to the Qatar blockade was - www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

05.03.2026 20:53 β€” πŸ‘ 46    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

this is a good question. the UAE is highly dependent on maritime freight - biggest port in the region. But I think one recurring lesson of catastrophe is that places are surprisingly resilient and rerouting happens - in this case, presumably Jeddah->land routes->UAE. Expensive and crowded.

05.03.2026 20:50 β€” πŸ‘ 194    πŸ” 22    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 1

from the point of view that the best we can hope for is deep incompetence mixed with malice, this is good. Mullin has even more of the first than Noem did.

05.03.2026 20:43 β€” πŸ‘ 143    πŸ” 26    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 1

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

05.03.2026 13:07 β€” πŸ‘ 6650    πŸ” 1826    πŸ’¬ 316    πŸ“Œ 72

Ben Franklin’s posts would alternate between a savvy comment about a diplomatic dispute between Algeria and Tunisia, well also replying to onlyfans girls like β€œbeautiful πŸ˜β€

05.03.2026 05:04 β€” πŸ‘ 525    πŸ” 58    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 8
Mar 4 2026 BlueSky post claiming that it explained why we bombed a school in Iran "INFORMATION THAT IS A DECADE OLD" and had A Claude chat answer as its source

Mar 4 2026 BlueSky post claiming that it explained why we bombed a school in Iran "INFORMATION THAT IS A DECADE OLD" and had A Claude chat answer as its source

Hey guys this is not a viable source. Besides the fact that any AI system being used by the government presumably has access to more updated date (I sure hope). Claude is not a person, it can't answer questions about why it did something, it confidently lies, it doesn't have access to other's state.

05.03.2026 15:22 β€” πŸ‘ 843    πŸ” 185    πŸ’¬ 16    πŸ“Œ 27

'spiritual warfare' is a joining point between the type of woo shit RFK represents and the evangelicals

05.03.2026 17:13 β€” πŸ‘ 105    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 1

why can I find no montage of this set to banger music

05.03.2026 17:11 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The key question for markets is whether that means the Straits of Hormuz and energy infrastructure in the Gulf will continue to be under threat through September. Because that is NOT priced in right now.

05.03.2026 17:08 β€” πŸ‘ 316    πŸ” 77    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 3

This is one of the most important pieces we have published in a while.

I believe that some are worried that sharing it somehow means supporting the US and Israel's war against Iran. Or at least "justifying" it.

This is not the case. One murder does not cancel another. It remains murder.

05.03.2026 16:51 β€” πŸ‘ 67    πŸ” 18    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Here’s an actual news article on the topic. It supports the idea that the issue was outdated data, but not that the target was selected by gen AI. www.npr.org/2026/03/04/n...

05.03.2026 15:23 β€” πŸ‘ 60    πŸ” 31    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 3

I didn't like the original Naziverse, or the reboot, and I really dislike the crossover episodes.

05.03.2026 17:03 β€” πŸ‘ 87    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

One more time: Brimelow, a white nationalist, is not alleging Platner and his wife are Jewish *as a favour* to Platner, no matter how stupidly people like Grim are using these "facts"

Maybe look up the Brimelow substack yourselves to get it - finally a legit use for a Nazi site for Nazi views

05.03.2026 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

actually this was an add-on you got if you backed the Twelve Lines Kickstarter at the 200 denarii level.

05.03.2026 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 102    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

this cuts both ways: we waste less in relative terms on war than you probably think, but also there are many programs painted as costly by conservatives that are easily affordable!

05.03.2026 16:53 β€” πŸ‘ 111    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

I think people imagine a billion dollars as way more than it is in scale terms for U.S. govt. for comparison purposes, the *federal* government spends about $5 billion on healthcare a day.

05.03.2026 16:52 β€” πŸ‘ 101    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0
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a billion here, a billion there, sooner or later you're talking about real money

05.03.2026 16:47 β€” πŸ‘ 248    πŸ” 24    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 4