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Links 4/20/2026

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How Lonely Walks in Nature Can Make You Feel Less Alone Nautilus

Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial NBC News

Climate/Environment

A weakened diurnal weather constraint leads to longer burning hours in North America Science

AI is about to make the global e-waste crisis much worse Rest of World

Pandemics

Long COVID is significantly underreported across the globe The Sick Times

Water

Water tales: Too much in Michigan and Wisconsin, not enough most everywhere else Balanced Weather

China?

U.S. Begins “Biggest-Ever” Military Drills — Balikatan 2026 — Near China; Beijing Says All Three “Playing With Fire” EurAsian Times

China Deploys Warship For Combat Drills In Western Pacific Bloomberg

China’s Role in the Iran War: Quiet Influence, Clear Limits, and a Higher Global Profile George Chen

Pill and pipeline: US drug supply needs a China reality check Asia Times

Southeast Asia

Fire razes 1,000 ‘stilt’ homes in Malaysia’s Sabah, thousands displaced Channel News Asia

Syraqistan

Satellite images reveal Israel expanding Gaza military sites Al Jazeera

‘I Felt I Was a Monster’: IDF Soldiers Talk About the ‘Moral Injury’ – and the Silence Haaretz (archived)

***

Trump’s Erratic Behavior May Tank Negotiations, Iran Says, Warning of “Significantly Greater Costs” to the U.S. if War Resumes Drop Site

No Negotiations, Iran Will Retaliate, the War Will Escalate Larry Johnson

Iran to attend 2nd round of talks with US despite Strait of Hormuz hostilities: Pakistani sources ANadolu Agency

U.A.E. Asks U.S. About a Wartime Financial Lifeline WSJ. ‘Give US dollars or we use yuan.’

The Consequences of Incompetence Scott Ritter

The Iran Files V: The Power Without the Bomb – Iran and the Strategy of Nuclear Latency Kautilya The Contemplator

***

Iranian architecture is impressive:

European Disunion

Brussels wants companies to establish one mandatory remote work day due to the energy crisis Europe Says

Russia-aligned Rumen Radev wins landslide in Bulgaria Politico. “Russia-aligned”=inhabits reality on Project Ukraine.

Slovakia’s Fico denied Baltic airspace for Moscow Victory Day trip DPA

USA urges allies to speed shift to ‘NATO 3.0’ at Ukraine Defense Contact Group Interfax

Germany is reinventing itself as a weapons factory WSJ

How to fuel a war: EU eyes new front for green agenda RT

Africa

US Launches 56th Airstrike of the Year in Somalia Antiwar

The Glossary of Empire Nnamdi Obi

Old Blighty

MoD has lost track of veterans on recall list, says defence adviser The Guardian

New Not-So-Cold War

Drones: myths and reality Events in Ukraine

Did Zelensky Threaten Lukashenko At Trump’s Behest? Andrew Korybko

Imperial Collapse Watch

CAN MICHIGAN BECOME THE U.S. DRONE CAPITAL? How Americans Can Buy American

“Multipolarity Isn’t a Hypothesis” Un-Diplomatic

Onwards to the Final War for the Annihilation of Western and Eastern Civilizations! Oliver Boyd-Barrett

L’affaire Epstein

Ex-model, arrested by Aventura police and deported, causes White House stir Miami Herald

Inside Epstein’s web: The 137 men and women who reveal how his international network of power and influence operated El Pais

Trump 2.0

Behind the ‘disappearing scientists’ hysteria UnHerd

The destruction of USAID was just as dumb as it seemed Together But Apart

Trump approval hits second-term low following war on Iran, inflation Al Mayadeen

Patel says he’ll sue Atlantic for defamation over report on heavy drinking The Hill

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Exposing a Global Surveillance Empire Mother Jones

The Accelerationists

AI

Zoom will now check if you are a human or an AI imposter during video meetings Digital Trends. By partnering with Sam Altman’s iris-scanning identity company.

The World’s Largest Planned Data Center Is Running Into Trouble Distilled

Want to Resist a Data Center? These Organizers Share How They Did It. Truthout

Economy

Oil prices surge amid mixed signals on US-Iran peace talks Al Jazeera

The World Needs an Oil Buyers’ Club Project Syndicate

The 420

Meet The Cannabis Industry’s Trump Whisperer Forbes

Cannabis legalization spurs innovation, but not always in ways that benefit patients or public health Medical Xpress. “…legalization of recreational cannabis use appears to spur innovation, but primarily in ways that expand commercial opportunities rather than scientific understanding or health benefits for patients.”

Big Finance Found A New Way To Go After Cannabis: By Policing Speech High Times

Antitrust

Distribution Giant Sysco Wants to Take Over a Lifeline for Small Restaurants Food and Power

Monopoly Round-Up: Some Surprising Setbacks for Trump-Aligned Corporate America Matt Stoller

Zeitgeist Watch

A small but growing movement wants you to put down your phone. But first read this AP

Class Warfare

Bangladesh’s gig workers are stuck in gas lines as Iran-U.S. war strains fuel supply Rest of World

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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80 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    ‘MoundLore
    @MoundLore
    Archaeology suggests the most famous “Last Stand” in American history might actually have been a retreat. For generations Americans were told Custer and his men died in a heroic circle on one hill. But when archaeologists mapped the Little Bighorn battlefield, the ground told a very different story.’

    A strange tweet thread this. Everything that was talked about I read in an article many decades ago and I sure that it was in “National Geographic.” It is so familiar what was written here that it was like somebody found a copy of that “National Geographic” article and rewrote it as a tweet thread. The 1983 wildfire, following the ballistics trail – all of it – just as I remember it.

    1. Chas

      Mari Sandoz’s biography of Crazy Horse contains a description of “Custer’s Last Stand” written from the Cheyenne and Sioux point of view. She tells how a Cheyenne husband and wife team were first on the scene and put up such an intense wall of fire that by themselves they forced the 7th Cavalry to dismount. Then the Indians swarmed to the battle “like bees out of a hive.”

      Sandoz says at the end of the battle, Crazy Horse and hundreds of warriors returned from their defeat of General Crook at the Battle of the Greasy Grass and prevented Custer from retreating.

      1. ambrit

        Sorry to go all Pedant on you but the earlier engagement was the Battle of the Rosebud.
        See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Rosebud
        The defeat of Custer and the 7th Cavalry was the actual Battle of the Greasy Grass.
        See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn
        Also see: https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2020/06/the-battle-of-greasy-grass/
        By all accounts, Custer was stupid enough to ignore the advice of his scouts and soldiers with more experience of the Plains Indians and blithely led his men into a trap expecting to overcome all opposition. As for being “prevented form retreating,” well, they were surrounded by a much larger force.
        Stay safe and “Hoka Hey!”

          1. Sufferin' Succotash

            Seems they considered taking Gatling guns but decided against because the guns would slow them down (Gatling guns were as big as artillery pieces).
            Not exactly a stroke of genius on George Armstrong’s part to divide his command into three columns. But then he also grossly underestimated the size of the opposition.
            According to Evan S. Connell’s account, some of Custer’s men weren’t fighting to the bitter end but instead were on their knees begging for mercy.

        2. none

          Now I know where the famous quote is from. Custer: “There’s Indians to our north, Indians to our east, Indians to our south, and Indians to our west! We’re surrounded! Do you know what this means?”

          Lt.: “IDK, what?”

          Custer: “They won’t get away from us this time!!!”.

    2. ambrit

      I also remember reading this years ago.
      Could this be an example of AI scraping past articles to “reformulate” previous knowledge? There is a lot of that happening on the YouTube now. Stuff I have already read, often copied verbatim, but “repackaged” as “new” content. In other words, plagiarism.
      Stay safe.

      1. jefemt

        Clicks. A penny here, a penny there.. pretty soon….

        Thank goodness there is no negative environmental impact from all the e demand.

        Says I, reading and clickity clacking away here and everywhere …

      2. Carla

        ‘Stuff I have already read, often copied verbatim, but “repackaged” as “new” content.’

        … In other words, theft.

        The currency of AI.

    3. Jonathan King

      What struck me in reading this account is how two of America’s most cherished “last stands” have been shown by archaeologists to have been somewhat less heroic than advertised. A large group of Alamo defenders skedaddled from the mission that March morning but were cut down by Mexican lancers as they hid in nearby gullies — a fact alluded to by Mexican sources after the fall but discounted by gringo historians for decades. Now comes G.A. Custer with another skedaddle … imposed by his hubris as much as by a lack of reinforcements. Arguments still rage over whether the Alamo stand was hubristic — Travis is regularly portrayed in films as guilty of that sin. But it’s plausible that several hundred reinforcements from a garrison 90 miles away would have sustained the siege … had they not been captured en masse out in the open and imprisoned until being shot. Those unknown knowns, I tellya.

    4. Oregon Lawhobbit

      “Read?” ;-)

      There was even a recentish video on the topic from … Discovery? History? Channel. Cluster of bodies on the hill where the “stand” took place, then a “retreat” which was more of a rout in a runaway direction leaving a trail of bodies along the way.

      As someone who’s professionally been to a machinegun range, I’m pretty sure that the Gatling guns would not have added anything to the result, other than giving the tribes some more unusual trophies….

      Speaking of historical “oopses,” let us not forget – in fact let us remember – the Maine…. :-)

  2. Henry Moon Pie

    Little Big Horn and Epstein–

    Little Big Man had a Little Big Horn scene. Aurthur Penn portrayed Custer being led into a trap. Custer himself was cast as a Trump-esque lunatic with Presidential ambitions.

    I listened to Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” recently and was struck how the lyric reflected an Epstein Class way back in the 70s.

    You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive.
    Well ,you said that we made such a pretty pair and that you would never leave.
    But you gave away the things you loved,
    And one of them was me.
    I had some dreams. They were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee, and

    You’re so vain.
    You probably think this song is about you.
    You’re so vain, you’re so vain.
    I bet you think this song is about you.
    Don’t you, don’t you, don’t you?
    I had some dreams. They were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee, and

    You’re so vain.
    You probably think this song is about you.
    You’re so vain (you’re so vain).
    I bet you think this song is about you.
    Don’t you, don’t you?

    Well I hear you went up to Saratoga,
    And your horse naturally won.
    Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
    To see the total eclipse of the sun.
    Well, you’re where you should be all the time,
    And when you’re not, you’re with some underworld spy
    Or the wife of a close friend, wife of a close friend

    Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain“

    2. The Rev Kev

      I always found this song kinda ironic. Check out this part of the lyrics-

      ‘You’re so vain.
      You probably think this song is about you.’

      Thing is, this song was actually about them so was true after all.

    3. Adam Eran

      JFYI, in the Little Big Man book (well worth a read), the Cheyenne (the “human beings”) of the film attack Jack Crabbe’s wagons after the whites give them liquor. When they sober up, they take Crabbe back to their village to raise him. In the film, the dastardly Crow Indians assault the wagons, and the Cheyenne are far more unambiguously sympathetic.

      History is messy, even fictional history, and Hollywood tends to clean it up.

    1. The Rev Kev

      A word of advice from the British –

      ‘Never let the bastards get you down.’

      That’s good advice that.

      1. jefemt

        My dad used to parlez fractured latin — a couple I recall

        Non illegitimus carborundum…

        Semper ubi sub ubi

      2. B24S

        For the mechanics and fabricators among us-

        Nolite id cogere, cape malleum majorem…

        (Don’t force it, use a bigger hammer…)

        Dick O’Kane, How to Fix Your Foreign Car–

  4. doug

    “legalization of recreational cannabis use appears to spur innovation, but primarily in ways that expand commercial opportunities rather than scientific understanding or health benefits for patients.”
    Well the status of schedule 4 prevents much research…not mentioned…

  5. The Rev Kev

    ‘Reid Wiseman
    @astro_reid
    Only one chance in this lifetime…
    Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset. You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @Astro_Christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens. @AstroVicGlover was in window 3 watching with @Astro_Jeremy next to him. I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.’

    Went from an out of this world experience to an ad for Apple. The capture of the first Earthrise was more profound-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK3gUvyKyOg (2:36 mins)

    1. Lone Plateau

      Rev
      Give it a bit of a rest. From 55 years ago when I was heavily into photography to today, photogs often listed the camera, lens and film of the pictures they took. Even today, my photog pro friends still list the camera and lens at least on their photos. This is not an ad any more than all those National Geographic photos listing the camera and film where. It is still an awesome shot.

  6. Huey

    Wow, can’t even join a Zoom call now without giving Altman real-time biometric updates. Thank God that gas prices should be trending down soon so I can just meet in person, /s.

    1. artemis

      Back in the day we had so many productive biz meetings on Freeconfrencecall, better than Zoom IMO.

    2. TimH

      At the start of CV lockdown, the tech co I worked for went heavy on Zoom and then Teams, and it became clear that a fair proportion of people wouldn’t use the video, just the voice. So it was mandated that video had to be used at the introductory part of the call. That lasted a few months.

      To me, the nice feaure of conf calls vs physical meetings is that with video off and the mic mute button, multitasking during a low data rate call becomes easy.

  7. Wukchumni

    How Lonely Walks in Nature Can Make You Feel Less Alone Nautilus
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The wilderness is the world next door that doesn’t abide by us-eschews money and steadfastly refuses to reduce itself to being valued by virtue of price… and seeing as there are 8 billion of us on this here orb, its refreshing to be alone in Mother Natures realm.

    Once in awhile i’ll have a ‘perfect game’ in that during my hike with friends, we’ll run into nobody. Had one a few years ago in Mineral King walking to Mosquito Lakes and back which is hard to pull off as the trail also includes those going to Eagle Lake and White Chief Canyon. That’s 8 miles of trail where everybody else got raptured, if only temporarily.

    If we’re off-trail the likelihood is pretty high you’re on your own recognizance~

    Was walking in Death Valley NP on the weekend, and lived to tell the tale that the desert is so different from the mountains.

    Walked up to a mile long and 400 foot high ridge of lava that cooled a million years ago according to a geologist friend, hardly anything grows on it until you get close up and see itty bittys eking out a living thanks to wind borne dirt accumulations over time immemorial.

    1. Carolinian

      I have to confess my introversion by saying that I love walking alone and almost resent having to interact with other people while doing so. I’ll also pose my pet theory that nature is comforting because we are so very much part of it. Of course we don’t need a click baity article to tell us this. It was a major theme of the 19th century Romantics and their poets.

      1. jefemt

        Quite a difference between solitude and loneliness. I have seen “go hug a tree” quite a bit lately as a form of solace and peace.

        May everyone seek and gain a little peace and grace these a days…

  8. DJG, Reality Czar

    I suggest that you read what Mehdi has to say in the twiXt. But then please do click through to the famous Palantir Twenty-Two Theses.

    The choice of language is inept and baroque, cloudy, but unfortunately without a chance of meatballs in compensation. It’s the kind of degraded English now much in use in the world of business.

    What can this mean? Point 9.

    We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret.

    I’d translate it as “I’m a snivelly bourgeois who wants deference so I can trade in pseudo-religious platitudes.”

    For delightful new forms of daftness, consult points 12, 14, 16, and 17. Ahhh, violent crime. Note that point 17 doesn’t want to take on white-collar crime, impunity, and sharp dealing.

    Points 18, 20, and 21 are just nicer ways of saying that the Klavern should be in charge, or, from Wikipedia’s potted history, “The provincial convention was the Klonverse (from “converse”). The chief officer of a province was a great titan, and the other officers were known as the Seven Furies.”

    The problem is that Palantir has scads of moolah. As to brainpower, it seems to be bumping along on vapors of vanity.

    1. caucus99percenter

      “Moolah regime” versus “mullah regime” — what a time to be alive. 🤪

      1. tegnost

        One lift…
        Anyhow, today, Palantir has gone mildly viral by posting on Twitter, “Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief.” Followed by 22 bullet points that sum up the book’s arguments. At last, a version of the book that tech people can read!

    3. hereweare

      I think “The eradication of any space for forgiveness … may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret” means your leaders may be a corrupt bunch of sadistic crooks, but they could be worse.

    4. Bugs

      Maybe I’m more cynical, dear friend, but I took Thesis 9 as telling us that we should stop paying attention to things like l’Affaire Joffrey Epstein.

      I don’t know if anyone’s followed this particularly French tempest in a teacup, but a few weeks back, Jean-Luc Mélanchon of LFI was poking fun at French media and celebrity chat shows pronouncing “Epstein” with an anglo accent, e.g., “Epsteen” instead of the usual French pronunciation of the name, which would be more like “Epschtine” with a long i, which would pretty much automatically create the assumption he was Jewish, whereas the anglo pronunciation makes the name sound Russian. The usual accusations of antisemitism flew about, with threats of legal action, &c.

      Anyhew, I’ve noticed the radio media here have now quietly switched to the more common French pronunciation of Epstein’s name. Funny how that worked.

    5. Craig H.

      As to brainpower, it seems to be bumping along on vapors of vanity.

      Thiel and Karp’s sponsors maybe might want to get them drug tested. They come across to me as peak coke Guns ‘N’ Roses.

      Draft? They aren’t even doing a draft in Russia. A draft would fly about as well as the turkeys in that sitcom sketch.

  9. The Rev Kev

    “Germany is reinventing itself as a weapons factory”

    That’s a very impressive trick that. The country is self de-industrializing, energy costs are through the roof, unemployment is climbing so Merz stops long enough from criticizing the German people to work out a solution to Germany’s problems – building Germany’s very own Military Industrial Complex because it has worked out so well for the US.

      1. Carolinian

        Krupp depended upon all those Ruhr coal mines for making energy sucking steel. Maybe Germany can be a drone boutique.

          1. The Rev Kev

            If you do it as a historical documadrama, you could call it “How Green Was My Valley – the German version.”

  10. ISL

    The article : CAN MICHIGAN BECOME THE U.S. DRONE CAPITAL? How Americans Can Buy American

    Talks about developing a drone ecosystem, but then describes the way funds (very modest) have been spent and its on delivery – sure its the low altitude economy and the US is way behind (afterall we have page boys!!), but it has nothing to do with establishing a drone ecosystem (Not possible without Chinese rare earth magnets and motors) or technological leadership – just a way to better discipline the precariat.

  11. NN Cassandra

    Re: Palantir memo

    I how like half of the points is them whining that peasants are insufficiently deferential to the masters of Universe. Geopolitical Rambos who are confident they can take on Russia & China in one swing, are brought to tears be randos on twitter making fun of them, so distraught that they hastily retreat to their castles, afraid to open up their great minds again in public. I wonder what innovative solution they will come up with to this age old problem of unwashed masses speaking badly about kings.

    1. Carolinian

      HBO’s Silicon Valley was a satire. Time for a reboot. The tech moguls are nuttier than ever.

  12. Revenant

    The Kautilya the Contemplator link (The Iran Files V: The Power Without the Bomb – Iran and the Strategy of Nuclear Latency) was interesting in parts but definitely written by or with an LLM.

    You can smell it in the sentence structures – it’s not X, it’s Y etc – and in the way the argument repetitiously circles around, each time with a slightly different emphasis, and in the lack of a winding up to a solid knockout punch of a conclusion. Performative argumentation.:-)

    A good editor would have red-penned it savagely!

  13. vao

    Regarding MoD has lost track of veterans on recall list, says defence adviser, the revised British law exhibits some interesting traits:

    “Under existing law, all former officers, regular and reserve, retain recall liability for life.”

    So this means that officers actually never leave the British armed forces?

    “The government announced in January that as part of the armed forces bill they would increase the maximum age for military recall from 55 to 65.”

    Echoes of the forced recruitment of grandpas in Ukraine there…

    “The legal threshold for recall was also broadened to include ‘warlike operations’ rather than solely an ‘actual attack’ on the UK.”

    Oh, does this mean deployment to, say, the Baltics, or Eastern Europe, or even the Near East for “peace strengthening operations”?

    It seems that British veterans have very good reasons to wish to remain unreachable by the MoD…

    1. TimH

      Seems easy to recall the older vets first as cannon fodder before they reach retirement age. Also, UK like USA is pretty much always involved in ‘warlike operations’ somewhere.

    2. scott s.

      In the USN it was a practice that officers after completing any obligated service retained commissions in the USNR. Same problem, with lots of officers nominally still in the service. In the 70s they did away with that and administratively separated all those officers.

      Those of us transferred to the “retired list” are subject to recall to age 62. Of course if you are receiving retainer/retired pay, you have an incentive to keep DoD informed of your whereabouts.

      There wasn’t any concept of retirement until the US Civil War. Since promotion at that time was based on seniority in branch, super-annuated officers clogged up the promotion ladder. Though by creating a parallel list of officers in the “United States Volunteers” they were able to get around some of the limits in the regular army. This was a particular problem in the artillery branch, as regular officers were pretty much maxed out as captains / battery commanders. Thus an incentive to seek out volunteer commissions leaving the regulars short of experienced leaders. For example John Gibbon started the war as an artillery captain but rose to Major General in the volunteers. After the war he was able to get into a new infantry regiment (36th) as its colonel.

      Custer as discussed separately entered the war from West Point as a Second Lieutenant in the 2d Cavalry (after consolidation of mounted regiments early in the war the 2d was redesignated the 5th Cav).. He also rose to Major General of Volunteers, and like Gibbon in the post-war expansion of the regulars got a commission as Lt Col of the new 7th Cav.

  15. The Rev Kev

    “The World Needs an Oil Buyers’ Club”

    They tried this idea a coupla years ago but it quickly fizzled out. Their idea was to set a really low price for oil and make OPEC sell their oil to them for that price. You can guess how that worked out.

    1. Wukchumni

      When a barrel of oil was worth a negative forty bucks on the futures market briefly about 5 years ago, go-juice was $1.57 locally and why isn’t there a futures market for mere plebian motorists such as yours truly and you and yours?

      Hell yeah, I would have locked in many thousands of gallons @ $1.57, if there was a mechanism to do it.

      1. Carolinian

        Sadly building codes probably don’t allow one of those giant fuel storage tanks in your backyard. I live near the Colonial Pipeline and see these things all the time.

        I don’t think if i wheel my jalopy over there they would provide a fill up of wholesale price petrol (if there is such a thing). The large tanker trucks are hogging the action.

        1. Wukchumni

          Oh, heavens no, I don’t want physical petrol, just want to lock in the price on future fill-ups @ Big Gas.

  16. pjay

    – ‘Inside Epstein’s web: The 137 men and women who reveal how his international network of power and influence operated’ – El Pais

    This article is noteworthy both for what it tells us and what it leaves out. It provides us with many names in Epstein’s “network” of elite acquaintances, even using scientific-looking “network analysis” type graphs. The names revealed, and even the number of appearances, can serve as useful starting points for further inquiry. But the article itself really tells us nothing about *how* “his international network of power and influence operated.” Indeed it mystifies this.

    Just a few of the many hints that this is a very limited hangout (whether intentional or not). First, it is based solely on an analysis of the released files. It basically echoes the type of celebrity-focused gossip that has dominated coverage so far. It provides almost no information on his financial dealings and none on possible intelligence links. Some relevant names are mentioned, but others are omitted or submerged so as to be barely noticeable. For example, Les Wexner is simply mentioned once in passing in a list of other names, I believe. Anyone who knows anything about Epstein would find that curious. Ehud Barak is mentioned, but barely; reading this one would think Woody Allen is more important. There is very little about Epstein’s life or acquaintances prior to his “prostitution” conviction. This in part reflects the years covered by the released Epstein files. But that means there is really no useful information on how he got to be such a prominent “node” in such elite networks in the first place. No information about his Bear Stearns days (Ace Greenberg, James Cayne, the Bronfman account, etc.); Towers Financial and Steven Hoffenberg; links to Robert Maxwell, Douglas Leese, Adnan Khashoggi, Stanley Pottinger, the many suspicious activities of Wexner in Ohio with which Epstein was intimately involved, etc., etc. And again, even when we get to the list of all those elite connections in the 2000s, there is really no discussion about what he *did* with them.

    In short, there is some useful information on the extent of Epstein’s “elite” connections, but very little that would help answer the most important questions about how he obtained this level of prominence and what he did with it.

  17. lyman alpha blob

    RE: Drones: myths and reality

    In the article we find this claim from the Little Green Man –

    “For the first time in this war’s history, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned GRS platforms and drones. The occupiers surrendered, and this operation was completed without infantry involvement and without losses on our side.”

    Not mentioned is what the position was, how many were occupying it, and whether the occupiers were human beings.

    In related news, my cat got out the other day, chased the voles out of the neighbors’ yards, and now occupies approximately 1.68 acres of territory in the neighborhood without having suffered any losses.

    Later on Zelensky makes a claim that his clankers “…completed over 22 000 missions at the front in just 3 months. In other words, over 22 000 lives were saved.”

    This 1:1 ratio seems to imply that every single Ukrainian human at the front would have met their deaths. Not really a confidence builder about the capabilities of the Ukrainian army and definitely not going to help with the military recruiting efforts.

    1. ambrit

      I wonder if the Ukies are using drones on “the homefront” to track and “apprehend” reluctant cannon fodder?
      I can see such happening here in the Festung Amerika.

  19. In Cold Chud

    It’s a good thing social media exists, otherwise Palantir might have threatened autonomous drone strikes–or at least the revelation of various elites’ respective kinks–in order to get its manifesto published by the failing New York Times.

    But the document (or rather, the combination of queasiness and rage it induces) really is a prime illustration of the incentive to say nonsense that maps onto reality at as few points as possible–preferably, none–rather than a straightforward lie. “We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act.” YOU ARE THE MARKET, DUDE. Anything you do, no matter how dumb it is, will have the blessing of Wall Street, because everyone has implicitly agreed that the tech sector is an inexhaustible Ponzi scheme, or at least one they themselves will be able to get out of first. And what is Elon’s grand narrative? White nationalism? Non-consensual AI porn?

    Almost every other point similarly begs the question. “The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray.” Really? Because it seems like at least some people are starting to remember the relationship between politics and material interests, which is something you don’t want, either. Absent a world where self-styled neofeudal lords can publicly flop around on ketamine and critics are immediately imprisoned for ableist hate speech, these people would love to go back to the politics of, “He has good hair.”

    1. t

      most people came away thinking «wow what a thoughtful essay about patriotism and technology

      Where are these people? Who are these people?

      Because it seems like at least some people are starting to remember the relationship between politics and material interests, which is something you don’t want, either.

      This was the most evil aspect, to me, as well.

  20. chuck roast

    It’s Not Just a Trend, It’s a Phenomenon
    Uses of the “not just a___, it’s a ___ sentence structure…

    My current fave is, “no way, shape or form…”

  21. Kouros

    NATO 3.0

    “The idea is that NATO should return to focusing on defending itself instead of overextending itself in the Indo-Pacific, West Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.”

    “I underline the criticality of [NATO stepping up to help secure the Strait of Hormuz per Trump’s expectation] for our relationship going forward.”

    Anyone spots the contradiction here in Mr. Colby’s speech?!

    Me thinks that EU’s role is to support the US anywhere it needs supporting and by all means, and not be a burden when it comes with its own defenses. Why have a treaty then, when there is absolutely nothing to gain? Plus, the treaty would need to be changed, because there is no provisions in the Washington Treaty on Wars of Agression. Neither in the NATO countries’ legislations, which all harck back in spirit and letter to the UN Charter. US would be bound to legally, but look at the US Congress, a captive audience to the lobby and to the imperial presidency and the imperial and hegemonic idea of US. Will the US experience a sort of Sicilian expedition experience with Iran? Time will tell.

  22. barefoot charley

    The WSJ tattle about Trump’s lackeys removing him from the war room etc is starting to look like cope to me. One one hand it acknowledges T’s vanished impulse control. On the other he claims he’s really only a Kissingerian madman, a la Nixon’s equally vicious and stupid defeat in Vietnam after threatening and bombing like a cunning madman, also without results. The Journal suggests there’s some multi-dimensional chess involved in Trump’s obvious cognitive decline. Sure thing, Rupert.

  26. Paradox of Unrealized Power

    I seem to have difficulties posting this, but being the sucker that I am, I will try one last time:

    Trump in Talks with the DoJ about the Mother of all Grifts
    Forget the giant room for Donald Trump’s balls, the $TRUMP coin, other crypto ventures, shaking down media outlets, and the other grifts so far. They are small potatoes compared to the one on deck now. Trump has sued the IRS for $10 billion for allegedly leaking his tax returns and he is mad as hell.

    If this one ends up as a contested fight in court (hint: it won’t), the judge will throw it out in a heartbeat. The IRS didn’t intentionally leak anything—although a rogue government contractor probably did, very much against IRS regulations and policy. In any event, how can Trump prove that the leak cost him $10 billion? Is there some deal that would have netted him $10 billion absent the leak that didn’t happen due to the leak? Of course not.

    Trump doesn’t expect to win in court. In fact, he doesn’t even want to go to court. What he is now doing is “negotiating” with the DoJ for a “settlement.” These negotiations happen all the time. What is very special now is that Trump is sitting on both sides of the table. His current personal lawyers are facing off against his former personal lawyer, Acting AG Todd Blanche, who is still acting like his personal lawyer. There is nothing to prevent Blanche from saying: “Look, $10 billion is absurd. How about $2 billion?” and then Trump offering to split the difference and “grudgingly” accepting $6 billion as the settlement.

    In a normal lawsuit of this kind, the DoJ fights hard to pay as little as possible. In this case, if Blanche knows what is good for him (for example, if he wants a nomination to be the AG), he will offer a deal that will make Trump salivate. Getting the government to pay Trump billions without putting up a real fight would be the greatest payday ever. And it might even hold up in court. It is not even clear who would have standing to challenge a settlement. If it got to court, Blanche could admit that the IRS was at fault, say the government has to compensate Trump for it, and this is the deal they reached. If both parties agree on the amount, would the judge even have the authority to overrule the deal? The political fallout might be enormous, but Trump cares a lot more about money than he does about that, especially since there’s never going to be another ballot with HIS name on it. (V)

  28. AG

    re: Taibbi Tracey on Epstein in UK

    Perhaps someone can weigh in on their live show: The argument being that with Epstein there are no actual cases concerning the UK that would fit UK criminal law re: pedophilia.

    https://open.substack.com/live-stream/171306

    Also they argue the US criminal code essentially does not know “pedophilia” as a category. If it does address crimes behind what now is reffered to as “pedophilia” those are incidents of abuse and rape of children. But the argument is that Epstein was not convicted of any of those.

    I hope I didn´t misquote too much now typing this live…

    p.s. Since Tracey briefly addresse the coup of Starmer against Corbyn – can someone inform Tracey about the actual history of that coup and Al Jazeera´s LABOUR FILES. I am not sure he actually knows that one…
    https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/the-labour-files/

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