https://x.com/unbiasednewsuk/status/2114792837795508310

https://x.com/jacobin/status/2114797963499262106

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Let’s be real.

Obama dropped more than 26,000 bombs in a single year, 2016 alone, across seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

He expanded the drone war to roughly ten times what Bush ran.

He did more for military industrial complex profits than almost anyone who campaigned on peace.

And Iran was the last name on the Wesley Clark memo: seven countries in five years, Iraq first, Iran last, with the Clean Break doctrine written for Netanyahu setting the table years before.

But here’s the reality underneath it.

War in Iran and Ukraine transfers wealth to bondholders, oil producers and refiners, from everyone who consumes energy and everyone who pays interest on debt.

That’s the financial industrial complex.

The FIC.

The technical industrial complex, the TIC, gets to justify a police and surveillance state at home off the back of the unrest, while field-testing new killing technology abroad.

The US, UK, EU and Israeli stock markets get a stimulus.

Governments become more subordinate to their lobbies through debt.

And the resulting inflation gets socialised onto you.

War is a wealth transfer.

It also drives liquidity into the bond market, which props up the backing of the world’s reserve currency.

In my view, that’s why Obama and Trump both end up at war.

Not left versus right, but the same complexes behind both of them.

Israel is a military industrial complex node, an MIC with a state of its own.

And right now, it’s privatising it: floating its state defence giants, IAI and Rafael, on the stock market at valuations inflated by two years of war.

The MIC is being absorbed into the FIC, cashing in the war premium, live on the Tel Aviv exchange.

War is a racket.

And when the Middle East runs out of road, the MIC needs a new revenue stream.

Which is why the war narratives are now escalating towards Europe, Latin America and a security state across the collective West.

Left and right are tools for real power.

As the power map shifts across BRICS, SCO, ASEAN and GCC, war becomes the tool for negotiating a new world order in a struggle between multiple nodes of power.

In my opinion, it’s not WW3.

It’s a renegotiation.

And burning your attention on culture war and identity politics is exactly how you’re kept from noticing who’s transferring your wealth and raising your prices.

It’s how the system was designed.

You’re just seeing it more clearly now because the MIC is bringing its covert warfare apparatus home and manufacturing the unrest here.

Don’t be a useful idiot in another election cycle of lies that changes none of it.

The very public execution of my professorship and reputation continues in Norway. Today’s media article about me makes three claims that are misleading and/or false.

1) The article dismisses my claim that my research is being criminalized as the journalists merely cite the dismissive comments from the university - no arguments are apparently required.

It is not possible for an academic anymore to analyse the policies of rival powers by assessing their security concerns, as it will be smeared by the government, the government’s NGOs and the media as “legitimizing” the enemy and supporting their narratives. The current Defence Minister singled me out with the accusation of spreading propaganda and criticised two podcasters for even speaking with me (as I have already been cancelled by the media in Norway). How was this accusation by the Defence Minister substantiated? I had argued that NATO expansion triggered the war in Ukraine, which the Defence Minister denounce as dangerous “Russian propaganda”, with no need to substantiate his vile accusation. I can cite a sea of evidence and also refer to statements by American and European political leaders, ambassadors, intelligence chiefs, and others to make my case. However, the purpose is not to engage in debate, but to smear, censor, and cancel. By going after an individual academic for challenging official truths, the government has already claimed a monopoly on the truth. Academics should have their arguments scrutinised and criticised, but these are severe personal attacks from the government without the possibility of even defending myself. How is this not criminalising the research of an academic?

I cannot even speak at any events in Norway without the event being cancelled. The last event I agreed to speak at was because I shared the stage with the former CIA officer John Kiriakou. A newspaper had the event at a church cancelled, and when the backup location did not also cancel, the journalist simply printed in the paper that it had been cancelled so people would not show up. Is this normal? I must use my allotted holiday days to attend conferences because any event I attend can be presented as “controversial,” and then the NGOs and journalists will go after the reputation of the university. Is this normal? Every newspaper article about me merely refers to me as “controversial” or “pro-Russian” without ever assigning meaning to these labels or presenting my argument.

I have argued, much like former CIA director Burns, that if the West attempts to pull Ukraine into the NATO orbit, then there would be war and Ukraine would be destroyed. This is considered a “pro-Russian” argument. Arguing that we should respect the will of most Ukrainians who want negotiations to end the war is also considered a “pro-Russian” argument, while in contrast, boycotting diplomacy, deporting Ukrainian refugees, and calling for the conscription of Ukrainian women is “pro-Ukrainian”.

2) To avoid addressing any of my arguments, the journalists go on to uncritically cite personal attacks against me, pointing out that I have been called a propagandist by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. This is a “non-governmental organisation” financed by the government and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which was set up by Reagan and the CIA director in 1983 to manipulate the civil society of other states. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has been relentless in its smears on social media to have me fired, writing hit pieces in the media, pushing to cancel my speaking events, writing a letter to my university, and even posting a picture of my house on social media. This is a governmental "human rights organisation" that cites human rights concerns to build the case for war.

3) Lastly, to further avoid addressing my actual arguments, they simply cite the fact that arguments I made at a debate last year have been “wholly or partially debunked” by a fact-check. The state-run media (NRK) invited the state-run military defence institute (FFI) to fact-check three of my claims. What claims did they "debunk"?

My first claim was that only 20% of Ukrainians wanted NATO membership between 1991 and the regime change in February 2014. The fact-checker argued that the number went up by the middle of 2014 (after Russia responded by seizing Crimea), which is a completely meaningless comment intended to muddy the waters, as my argument was about the previous era.

My second claim was that Zelensky had argued in an interview with The Economist in March 2022 that there were some Western countries that would like a long war with Russia to weaken a strategic rival, even if it would result in the destruction of Ukraine. The fact-checker argued that not all Western countries wanted a long war and that it was not an official policy. I never claimed it was an official policy, as it was primarily the US and UK pushing for a long war.

My third claim was that the US and UK sabotaged the Istanbul peace agreement in April 2022. The fact-checker claimed this was incorrect and suggested that it could only be based on one statement by David Arakhamia. The fact-checker did not want to mention that both mediators also confirmed it: Turkey’s foreign minister and the former Israeli prime minister both said that Russia and Ukraine were close to a deal, but the US and UK saw an opportunity to weaken Russia by fighting with Ukrainians. Zelensky’s former adviser Arestovych confirmed it, and the Ukrainian ambassador Chaly, who participated in the negotiations, confirmed that Putin was willing to do almost anything to end the war. The former head of the German armed forces confirmed that Boris Johnson sabotaged it, and Boris Johnson himself wrote articles warning about a “bad peace” and arguing for “strategic patience.” I am being fact-checked by war propagandists.

Unfortunately, none of my arguments matter because in Norway there is no debate and no interest in any arguments. Reality means nothing anymore as war narratives must be defended against inconvenient truths. I used to be naïve and think that the endless smears were caused by misunderstanding, as I had simply not been able to convey my arguments properly. However, the endless articles with smears and labels are deliberate lies and deceptions.

This is an incredible video. Deep down, we’ve always known this.

Qatari officials ADMITTED that America forces the Arab nations to spend their money on useless projects and lavish sports tournaments.

Arab money is held in US banks, and the Arabs have to ask permission from the Americans whenever they wish to withdraw and spend their own money. They’re like a 16-year-old kid asking their Dad for permission to use his credit card.

If an Arab ruler wanted to spend his billions on new factories, shipyards, and new strategic industrial projects, America would refuse to give him permission.

But if the Arab ruler wanted to spend his billions on new music concerts, tennis tournaments, and luxurious hotels, then America would give him permission to spend the money.

America doesn’t want you to be strategically independent of them, because they would lose their leverage and control over you. They want these small, divided, and weak Arab states to be dependent on the US forever.

America uses modern industry and comfort to hold you hostage. These golden handcuffs ensure that you will never defy the Americans. Your electrical grid, antibiotics, refrigerators, and machinery are all dependent on US supply chains. If you dare defy America, they will shut off your imports and your people will starve.

It’s not like the people in Riyadh and Doha know how to farm. They live in skyscrapers and they buy their food from local grocery stores which rely on modern equipment and global imports.

Breaking this cycle of dependence relies on breaking the very supply chains which keep millions of people fed and housed.

In a perverse way, being developed makes you more dependent. That’s why nations like Afghanistan and Yemen are more able to defy America, simply because they’re less developed and less reliant on imports.

@anasaltikriti was being interviewed by @DillyHussain88 on this issue.

https://youtube.com/shorts/uv906fHRQ_Y

https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/p/our-vaunted-technology-is-rubbish

This is my report of recent experiences with everyday technology, which is ceaselessly presented as awe-inspiring Progress. The unfiltered reality is it’s rubbish.

Out of the blue, I start getting promotional emails from X.com addressed to an imposter, who seems to have used my email to open an imposter X.com account.

I dutifully filled out X.com’s form reporting the imposter, URLs of their posts, etc. ... Eventually I received an email addressed to the imposter that “your account has been deleted.” This is not intelligence, this is a parody of intelligence. It’s rubbish. A truly intelligent system would have flagged the imposter immediately.

Next up, Xfinity. My Xfinity email was hijacked. This is not the first time; Xfinity’s security is Swiss Cheese. So I dutifully call the “customer service” number which activates an AI Agent. No matter what voice prompts I gave the AI agent, all I got was this endless loop. This is a parody of customer service and AI. It’s rubbish. Eventually I recalled that Xfinity has a security-service-only phone number, and I spoke with a human being who walked me through the recovery process, which was complicated by the extremely poor design of Xfinity’s website.

Google Maps (GM) now integrates Google’s AI software Gemini.

Eventually I figured out that GM’s default settings are--cue the laugh track--to “choose routes that save fuel and time,” an absurdist parody given that GM’s nonsensically convoluted instructions caused us to waste fuel and time. How hard would it be to program GM’s voice to ask, “would you like a convoluted detour that might take four minutes off your six-hour drive?” This isn’t intelligence, it’s a parody of intelligence.

I’ve owned Honda vehicles for 45 years. When we needed to rent a car, we chose a 2026 Accord with less than 8,000 miles on the odometer--essentially a brand-new car. The engine and other basics were fine, but the software was rubbish. Anecdotally, this doesn’t appear to be unique to Honda--all vehicle software is rubbish, an accretion of legacy software larded up with layers of so-called “smart software.”... seeing “would you like to activate Apple Car-Play?” for the 127th time made me think, how hard would it be to add a few lines of code...

In a sad parody of droid devotion, the software kept scanning for previous rental customer’s iPhones.

Then it notified us there was a problem with one of the tire’s pressure, via the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). I had a digital tire pressure gauge, which revealed the tire pressure hadn’t changed at all, much less 25%. But to get rid of the nag message, I had to go through a stupidly complicated set of menus controlled by the 27 buttons and scroll knobs on the steering wheel. (OK, slight exaggeration on the number.)

The sensors pick up the speed limit signs, but comically get it wrong when the highway is paralleled by a local lane with a posted speed limit of 15 MPH. So the digital display showed I was driving 65 MPH in a 15 MPH zone. Woah. I’m sure whatever entity gets the vehicle’s data will have fun with that bit.

Our 1998 Civic still works just fine. Sure, it’s needed routine maintenance and repairs, but it’s still a fully functional vehicle 28 years after it rolled off the assembly line. What are the odds that today’s software-dependent vehicles will still be functioning with only routine maintenance in 28 years?

All these technologies are rubbish. They don’t work, they hallucinate, they’re unreliable and untrustworthy, they are parodies of customer service and value. All the examples above occurred over two weeks. I doubt I’m the only one who’s experienced rubbish software / technology being the new default.

https://x.com/clashreport/status/2114734182769275345

https://x.com/apocalypseos/status/2114619864866562204

Mali’s Goïta is in Moscow ahead of the third Russia-Africa summit. Burkina Faso is pursuing a Russian university branch to teach engineering. Ethiopia is expanding its fertilizer trade with Russia. Namibia is seeking mineral processing, not raw extraction.

An Algerian MP put the colonial record plainly: colonial powers built roads to extract Africa’s wealth, not to industrialize the continent.

The colonial system moved raw materials out. Africa needs universities, fertilizer plants, nuclear energy, ports and transport infrastructure that build productive capacity at home.

The Anglo-American establishment spent decades presenting Russia as Africa’s threat. Now African governments are pursuing partnerships with Moscow in education, energy, agriculture and industry.

The empire built the routes of extraction. Africa needs the infrastructure of development.

Researchers mathematically proved that AI will cause something worse than mass unemployment.

They call it “The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons.”

Every industry relies on a shared pool of deep professional expertise. This expertise doesn't just magically appear. It regenerates generation after generation.

How? Through struggle.

Junior employees do the hard, repetitive, frustrating work. In exchange, they slowly build what researchers call "Internalized Mastery."

But right now, AI is completely annihilating junior-level work.

Companies are celebrating massive productivity boosts by automating the entry-level grind. (Anthropic’s own data shows their technical junior hiring has plunged 33% as AI agents take over the pipeline).

It looks like efficiency. But it is actually a time bomb.

The researchers highlight a concept called the "Validation Tether."

Effective human oversight of AI depends entirely on deep domain expertise. When an AI hallucinates or makes a critical error, a human expert catches it.

The experts validating AI outputs today look competent because they spent a decade doing the grunt work before AI existed.

The terrifying question the paper asks is this:

Who comes after them?

When the current generation of experts retires, there will be no one left with the Internalized Mastery required to spot when the machine is wrong. We are completely severing the pipeline that creates human competence.

We are trading our long-term intellectual independence for short-term productivity boosts.

Every time you let AI bypass the struggle, you are borrowing expertise from the future.

And the interest rate is our ability to think for ourselves.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.29380

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2114514850629972005