I was like what the hell is the European Space Agency doing with Minecraft in California…

More like 3% and another 2% is for infrastructure. You only need to pretend that that infrastructure is really badly needed for defense, which is rather easy for a lot of it. Like say those are not metro stations, they are bunkers…

Canada has a land border with Denmark on Hans Island

Get rid of your car. They are insanely expensive. Not just to buy, but also taxes, insurance and other operating costs. At the same time bicycles are nearly free.

The old American playbook was to ally with some local elites and then use media, secret service and economic support to bring them into power. Military force and hardcore sanctions were a tool used, if that did not work.

Russia prefers to use military force to force other countries into doing what they want.

China seems to work mainly with economic pressure, corruption and secret servcie work to set up favroable local elites. Their media game is not as good as the US, but TikTok is a clear sign that they are working on it. So far hard force is pretty rarer.

To me China looks a lot more like the old US playbook. They know the Russian one is not as good, as they saw European Empires collapse by using it.