Author Archives: Richard Fernandez

I will be writing both inside and outside the VIP at PJ Media. The Belmont Club will remain publicly accessible as I promised.

New at the Belmont Club. If you give up freedom for safety, you may wind up with neither.

New at PJ Media. China joins the fray.

The key thing to keep in mind in any conflict in the Indo-Pacific is that sea denial/access depends as much on ground expeditionary forces covering naval movements as it does on forces afloat. This applies to China as much to the USA. “The RAND corporation has run simulations which suggest that it would take a …

Continue reading “Hitting the Taiwan Beach”

Japanese defense forces can now deploy to the Philippines. “The new defense agreement allows Japan to deploy its forces for humanitarian missions and disaster response in the Philippines, an arrangement Japan hopes to eventually upgrade to include joint military training, cooperation and mutual visits, Japanese officials said.”

Looks like the US is sending advisory teams to the Philippine Army.

My article at Pipeline. If man is a machine, as some think, then nothing changes. Things just go faster and machines take sides against machines.

New at the Belmont Club. All along the entire First Island Chain in the Pacific, only Taiwan can fight like Ukraine. What does this mean for limited war?

US positions in Isabela and Cagayan imply a planned denial of the Luzon Strait to China in the event of an invasion of Taiwan. The position in Palawan suggests a defense of the Sulu Sea and the Central Visayas Inland Sea against the PLAN. Strongly implied: the Philippine Sea ports will be main supply route …

Continue reading “Defense of the Philippines”

The Road of Bones

You are hereby reassigned to the Department of Deadwood. Some think AI can be used to abolish government. China thinks AI can abolish both democracy and capitalism.

College graduates are AI replaceable, Woke activists are irreplaceable.

The spring offensives in Ukraine are about to begin, with Putin thought to go for broke to take Kyiv.

Gerard Vanderleun: December 26, 1945 – January 27, 2023

New at the Belmont Club. Are we facing a destructive period of renewal? Or can we finesse our way forward in history?

You would have thought the bureaucrats would be among those most easily replaced by automation, but since it is the law of nature that govt never shrinks, it turns out that you can displace radiologists with AI but never a clerk. The lawyers may eventually lose this one. Automata charges by the microsecond, not by …

Continue reading “The Deprecation of Routine”

After the McGonigal story broke, the first question that came to mind was whether he was misdirecting everything. To use a Le Carre analogy: is there a Hans-Dieter Mundt? Some background.

The silent victims of the British serial rapist cop have a lot in common with the impoverished victims of 3rd world extrajudicial executions. It is paralyzing fear of police and state power, not misogyny per se that terrifies them. Expanding the Woke state will not solve the problem.

It’s time for the important things. They will mostly be done for you. God will be with you; your loved ones attend you; your friends pray for you. There are a few preparations you must make alone, but I will follow when the time comes. Your friend Richard.

When you have billions in common, you have a lot in common. My latest on the Pipeline.