Site news and a word from Bibi.

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First, a note of thanks to the great many people who subscribed in the last few weeks. The numbers are through the roof. I’m humbled and grateful.

Welcome! There’s quite a lot here — see the top menu bar on the main page. I hope you’re with us for a very long time.

Netanyahu and His ‘Reports’

Second, a word about Bibi Netanyahu. There’s a kerfuffle about his saying this regarding the peace negotiations (video at the link; emphasis mine):

“I spoke yesterday with Vice President JD Vance, he called me from his plane on the way back from Islamabad.

“He reported to me in detail, as members of this administration do every day, on the development of the negotiations.

“He conveyed to me that Iran did not immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the ceasefire agreement, which the US did not accept. He also said that the central issue for Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material and ensuring that no further enrichment takes place for years to come, possibly even decades.”

This was said in Hebrew to his cabinet, so the above is a translation. On Tuesday’s Breaking Points show, Saagar Enjeti said the translation — “he reports to me” — comes from an auto-translation distributed by the Israeli press office.

Of course, people jumped on the wording. What? they ask. Our American vice-president, a minion of Israel’s man? Never!

Israel’s auto-translation was immediately changed, as you can see in this Middle East Eye video caption.

I don’t speak Israeli, but I know a bit about language. The Hebrew it sounds like he’s saying is הוא דיווח לי — which every translator I can find renders as “he reported to me” or “he reported back to me” as its first option.

The subtlety here is that “reported” doesn’t always mean subordination. It can also mean “he informed me.”

But the unsubtlety here is this — Vance gave a report “in detail, as members of this administration do every day.” Even if Netanyahu is just “briefed” every day — he’s briefed every day in detail. You don’t have to say “report” to know who’s in charge. The action speak for itself.

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Vance on the Phone

Speaking of actions, Professor Seyed Marandi, who was part of the Iranian team in Islamabad, has said this about what he observed:

First of all, Vance, on both sides, was surrounded by two very well-known Zionists and Israel Firsters [Jared Kirshner and Steve Witkoff]. He was constantly making phone calls, and one of the people he was speaking to was Netanyahu.

Dr. Marandi expands on that here. With constant calls to Trump and Netanyahu, Vance was on quite a short leash. Negotiating, or just there for show?

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Wilkerson Weighs In Again

Finally, I found this recent interview with Lawrence Wilkerson more than enlightening. The discussion is wide-ranging, and there are treats throughout. Some of them will surprise you.

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Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
—Matthew Arnold, from Dover Beach

The news moves fast as we watch. Peace talks have fallen apart; JD Vance’s positions hardened after phone calls with Trump and Netanyahu; none of the delegates were murdered on their way home; Trump will now blockade the Strait of Hormuz himself and rethreatens to devastate Iran from top to toe; so, you know, more of the same. (There’s a good summary from DropSite of post-talk events.)

I’d like to present some context-providing links as we head into next week. One offers the view from outside the U.S. The other, a view from inside the White House, the bunkered mansion that Trump sometimes inhabits.

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Lawrence Wilkerson: Ceasefire, NATO & the Risk of U.S. Civil War

Wilkerson is one of my favorites. He’s thoughtful and quite well connected. Here he discusses, with podcaster Glenn Diesen, the prospects facing the U.S. and the world.

Among the gems in this piece, Wilkerson discusses:

• The end of NATO and the eighty-year Post-War era (start)

• The end of Israel as a Jewish state (interspersed)

• Official disinterest in the Charlie Kirk assassination and the potential connection with Israel (33:39)

• Consequences of Hegseth “preacher-packing” the military (50:00)

• Thoughts on the next election and a multi-sided U.S. civil war (52:40)

At 6:57, Wilkerson mentions how General Van Riper, in a 2002 Pentagon war game, exposed American vulnerability to the kinds of attacks the Iranians are using today. We wrote about that war game here:

Michael Wolff: Trump’s Subordinates Are Scrambling

Consider this Michael Wolff discussion from his “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast. As he tells it, everyone of consequence is looking to get out, since staying in is a certain path to career destruction. Lots of inside baseball in this discussion.

One interesting exchange starts at 11:54 (from the YouTube transcript, lightly edited):

Cole: And so where does this leave Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, who I saw in the excerpt from Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman’s book, which is coming out, called Regime Change, that JD Vance, whether or not he spoke to them or not—

Wolff: Let’s get to that in a second, because I have some some clear views on that and I think it actually helps. It’s kind of a road map, not the way the author’s intended, but nevertheless a road map to what’s going on.

But this person who I was speaking to yesterday described it as, let’s see, he said, “Everybody’s plotting.” This is this is what this person says. Marco Rubio is plotting. Hegseth is plotting. Jared Kushner is plotting. And JD Vance is plotting — but JD Vance doesn’t really know how to plot.

So that was the thing. And I think you saw the New York Times did a big [story on the] lead up to war. Now the context of these kinds of pieces is pure Bob Woodward. [...]

And so Maggie Haberman and her acolyte, Jonathan Swan, got a lot of people to talk to them, apparently, which is an indication, one indication of people plotting, of—

Cole: Of them planning how they’re going to exit this … how they’re planning their futures. When you say plotting, do you mean they’re plotting their own futures and they’re plotting others down...?

Wolff: Yes.

Cole: ...and they’re plotting because they know they’re in a mess and they have to figure out their own way out of it without being blamed?

Wolff: That’s quite the definition of plot. You got it. And so everybody is in this mix and you can tell a good part of this story is coming from JD Vance and the Vance point of view is clearly, you know, “Not me. I was not the one who did this. I was just, at best, trying to be loyal, while I told them again and again and again, this was a bad idea.”

Cole: Well, then I think they have JD Vance saying “I’m against this. I don’t think it’s a good idea, but if you want it, Mr. President, I will support you.”

So he’s trying to look loyal, supporting the president, but also advising against.

Wolff: Right. I don’t know how he came out looking loyal, because it’s going to be clear that he was a source one on this [article]. The only one not trying to retreat is Pete Hegseth [who is] too dumb to know that he has to retreat.

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Dover Beach

At 29:40 in the Wilkerson video, he mentions the prophetic end of Matthew Arnold’s great poem, “Dover Beach.” That ending is quoted above. You can read the whole piece here. It’s magnificent.

Music

I’ve recently discovered the Substack of , one of my favorite literary writers and editors. A recent piece featured a number of “fixin’ to die” songs from people like Randy Newman and Tom Lehrer, among many others.

Missing was one of my favorite early Dylan classics, “It’s Alright, Ma.” The lyrics are masterful. Enjoy this live performance.

‘Darkness at the break of noon’ indeed. I think we’re on track for what I wrote here and here.

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Drop Site News is one of the most reliable sources available for Middle East news — their reporters feature prominently in my wide-ranging Twitter War list — but something recently caught my eye that deserves special notice.

Ask yourself: Is Trump really full-speed-ahead on this destructive war? Does he really want to put Marines on Kharg Island, or perhaps along the coast of southern Iran, in order to secure ships’ passage through the Strait of Hormuz?

Or is he blustering from one side of his mouth while quietly begging from the other?

We’re all free to speculate, but now there’s confirmation. From Drop Site News (emphasis mine):

Iranian Officials Say They Have Been Ignoring Witkoff’s Private Requests to Talk

President Donald Trump has been leading a double life in prosecuting his war against Iran. In public, he regularly boasts that Iran’s military might has been decimated, its leadership killed off, and that the few officials remaining alive in Tehran are begging him to talk. “They want to negotiate. They want to negotiate badly,” Trump said Sunday night. “We’re talking to them. But I don’t think they’re ready, but they’re getting pretty close.”

Behind the scenes, it is the Trump administration that has been asking for talks. Two Iranian officials told Drop Site that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff personally sent messages to officials in Tehran, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, last week exploring possibilities for resuming negotiations. Iran has not replied to Witkoff. The Iranian officials told Drop Site that Iran has also received messages from the White House via third countries.

“Because of decisions made by [Iran’s] top authorities, no response was sent to his messages,” a senior Iranian official told Drop Site. “The message here is clear: Iran has once again closed the window for any direct negotiations,” he added. “The authority to declare a ceasefire rests solely with the country’s Supreme Leader. It’s not something the foreign minister, or any other official or organization in Iran, would send messages about to a foreign party.”

It seems Trump’s been begging to be let off the hook by Iran, in the same way he’s begging other nations to open the Strait.

The Drop Site article also details the White House side ­— that it was the Iranians who wanted to talk.

Either way, of course, so long as Iran holds firm in its commitment to a war of indeterminate length to achieve its primary goal: a peace that will not or cannot be broken again, the two sides will fight till one of them falters and fails.

“Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace.” Would it were true. Sadly, it’s not, and sadlier still, Trump may have finally found a hole his mouth can’t dig himself out of.

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Looks like Bibi has informants in the White House.

A Spy in the Family?

From Axios and Israeli reporter Barak Ravid:

Netanyahu asks White House if secret Iran talks are happening

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the White House for clarifications earlier this week after learning Trump administration officials might be communicating with the Iranian regime, two sources with knowledge of the issue said.

Notice the Axios statement about why this matters:

Why it matters: Netanyahu’s outreach suggests that the Israeli government is concerned about a scenario in which the U.S. pursues a ceasefire before all of Israel’s war objectives have been achieved.

No, it matters because it shows that Netanyahu has people keeping watch on Trump’s calls and reporting back to him.

Why do that? In case a fast intervention is needed, a quick buck-him-up. More from Axios:

Behind the scenes: The sources said Israeli intelligence obtained information earlier this week that raised suspicions some kind of communications had taken place between Iran and the Trump administration to discuss a ceasefire.

• On Monday Netanyahu called White House officials and asked if such talks or exchange of messages happened.

• “The White House told Bibi that the Trump administration wasn’t talking to the Iranians behind his back,” one source said.

Zoom in: A U.S. official said special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner talk almost every day to Netanyahu, to the director of Mossad David Barnea, and to other Israeli officials — and that regardless of ups and downs in the past, the coordination over the last month was very close. [emphasis added]

The article’s clear implication, though unstated, is that the people reporting back could be Witkoff or Kushner. If Kushner, a strong Netanyahu supporter, Trump’s own family is part of the op.

Trump seems frightened of prolonged conflict, for a number of reasons. If he reached out to Iran on Monday, as the Guardian suggests, Israel would want to deter any waffling fast, which is the article’s point.

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Israel’s War, America’s Boots Go in First

I wouldn’t find this surprising. It’s Israel’s war after all. We’re just on the train.

Listen to former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on the subject of sending in troops:

Q: Do you think there will eventually be a need for boots on the ground?

GANTZ: I would not exclude it. …

Q: And will that include Israeli boots on the ground?

GANTZ: I exclude nothing. We’ve been waiting for 47 years [since the Iranian revolution]. We come to a point where every necessary means should be taken to achieve our goals.

Note that Israeli boots were an afterthought. She meant American boots. Her implied question was, “Even Israeli boots?”

Q.E.D.

A quick note to readers: As the Iran War evolves, especially its active phase, I’ll be posting more frequently and often more briefly.

We’re in a new world. Even Israel could fall — yes, that’s possible — if Iran indeed has, as Jeffrey Sachs says, “more missiles than Israel and the United States have missile defenses” (see here at 5:00) and also the will to fight to the ugliest end. If you agree this war matters, it has your attention and I’ll be writing about it.

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An Iran War Twitter List

As I did for the 12-day war, I’ve created a Twitter list of Middle East sources. I did this for myself, but I’m making the list public now. To view or follow it, click the link below.

Twitter List: Middle East Sources

The list is actively curated — feeds are added or deleted based on their value as sources of information, whether they are possibly wrong or not. Many pass on videos of announcements — Israeli, Iranian, etc. — and many post war footage often from cell phone sources.

Some of these posters are strongly opinionated, so be warned, while many are less biased analysts. Not every post is of value — true of all lists — but I try to keep the percentages relatively high.

Bookmark or follow if you like, or simply ignore. It’s offered in case you’re looking for ways to keep up.

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So while I complete that work, I offer this.

Since its founding, I’ve found the work done by , to be superb. They’re in the advanced guard on the Epstein-Israel story — that work is collected here — a place no mainstream media dares to go.

Today I want to bring your attention to their daily news brief. Here’s a sample:

Sometimes you just need the headline, which, as you can see above, contains good detail.

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And if you wish to dig in, each briefing is grouped into topics by region, each of which contains bulleted news items. Because I’m watching the ongoing Iran War (now in a quiet phase while the Israelis regroup), these items caught my eye:

• State Department authorizes departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel from Israel: The State Department on Friday authorized the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of U.S. government personnel from Israel due to “safety risks.” The announcement comes amid concerns that the U.S. could strike Iran, and Iran’s threat to retaliate against Israel and U.S. bases. Mike Huckabee, the ambassador to Israel, told embassy employees in an email that they could leave the country and urged anyone considering departure to do so immediately, according to AP. “Those wishing to take AD should do so TODAY,” Huckabee wrote, using an acronym for “authorized departure.”

• Vice President JD Vance to meet Omani foreign minister in Washington: Vice President JD Vance is set to meet on Friday in Washington with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi in previously unreported talks aimed at averting war with Iran, NBC News reported. Vance told The Washington Post on Thursday that “there is no chance” of a years-long war with Iran. “The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight — there is no chance that will happen,” he said.

• House Democrats will force a vote on Khanna-Massie Iran War Powers Resolution next week: Democratic leadership in the House announced it will compel a vote as soon as the body reconvenes on the bipartisan Khanna-Massie Iran War Powers Resolution, which would require the president to seek congressional approval before using military force against Iran. The war, of course, could be launched before the vote, but the administration has indicated the assault will last for quite some time, meaning the vote would remain relevant. In a statement issued Thursday, Democratic leaders described a potential conflict as “a war of choice,” “reckless,” and “unconstitutional,” saying the resolution would allow every member of Congress to record his or her position regarding further escalation in the region. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said he would support the Khanna-Massie resolution, making him the second Republican to publicly signal his support.

This tells me that if (when) the war reheats, Trump wants a quick something-like-victory, which comports with what I’ve been hearing about his love for quick and painless wins. That’s not what the Israelis and American neocons want, which is to turn Iran into Libya — in other words, dust as a state — so talks continue.

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The Drop Site News briefing comes every Monday through Friday. It’s well worth getting and scanning for what’s happened to date. As with everything from Drop Site, their Daily Briefing is free. The Briefing home page is here. Enjoy.

A fast one today. Thanks to the Nancy Guthrie kidnap story (latest here), many of us became aware of the increased degree of surveillance our citizens are subjected to. Here’s a short video from The Grayzone with more.

TVs, cars, routers, smart watches, God knows what else.

“The Orwellian security state won’t be announced.” Indeed. The Internet of Watchers is here, like it or not.

Music

Rufus Wainwright talks about Leonard Cohen and sings “Everybody Knows.” Enjoy.

I want to put Carole Cadwalladr on your radar. You may remember her from the 2016 election; she was prominent for helping expose the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica scandal. A good overview of that story can be found here. Misuse of the data collected, including by the Cruz and Trump political campaigns, is summarized here. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting.

Cadwalladr believes that manipulation of the public opinion by high-tech entities is a danger to democratic rule. That’s not the only danger, as I see the world — the State itself is designed to frustrate self-rule.

But her study of this subject matters. It’s well worth your time.

Cadwalladr and the Brexit Vote

Consider this TED talk by Cadwalladr regarding the Brexit vote:

How much did Cambridge Analytica’s illegally acquired data influence the Brexit outcome? Cadwalladr makes a good case that it mattered a lot. She calls this “the biggest electoral fraud in Britain for 100 years,” and she’s right. Yet no one remembers it now. Conclusion? Get ready for more.

Cadwalladr on Palantir

Cadwalladr is now on Substack — How to Survive the Broligarchy — and here’s what she has to say about Palantir. In a January piece called “Peter Thiel’s New Model Army” she writes:

The UK Ministry of Defence has just signed a new £240 million contract with Palantir. Actually, it’s not a contract, it’s more than that. The UK government describes it as “a strategic partnership”. A “partnership” entered into without any sort of competitive tender that was announced during Trump’s visit to the UK and which disastrously compromises our entire national security infrastructure.

We have embedded a notorious US military surveillance company whose founder is a close ally of President Trump into the heart of our military at a moment in which the US is threatening to invade our NATO ally, Greenland.

Regular readers know the danger Palantir represents to the U.S. Cadwalladr’s focus is Britain, which she calls a “vassal state” of the U.S.:

It sounds like writerly hyperbole to describe the UK as a vassal state, but I mean it in its most literal sense. It’s explicitly stated in the ur-text of Trump’s White House’s foreign policy, the National Security Strategy document, that US companies will be used as instruments of state power. There is no hidden agenda here: Trump has set it all out. (For a breakdown of this document and what it all means, see this week’s piece in the Nerve by former British diplomat, Arthur Snell.)

What will it mean to embed American software into the UK military? Well consider, Tesla. You don’t really buy a car when you buy a Tesla, you rent the software that remains the property of Elon Musk industries who can choose to immobilise your car or any feature of it at any time.

Palantir is the most terrifying of the US companies but it’s also just one of a whole raft of compromising, self-sabotaging deals that the UK government has entered into. The UK ‘Sovereign Cloud’ has been contracted out to Oracle, owned by another key Trump ally, Larry Ellison, the man whose son is behind the disastrous buyout of CBS and the upcoming US TikTok takeover. And then there are deals with OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Amazon, BlackRock, Nvidia and Scale AI.

Again, just putting Cadwalladr on your radar. Someone worth your attention.

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Seduction and Assimilation: Become Partners of the State

One point from this should be emphasized. Above, Cadwalladr writes (emphasis mine):

The UK Ministry of Defence has just signed a new £240 million contract with Palantir. … The UK government describes it as “a strategic partnership”.

That partnership is not with the U.S., not formally. It’s with Palantir, a private company, that’s nonetheless an arm of the U.S. state.

This one word — partnership — defines today’s corporate state. Many so-called “private” entities are part of the State: they do its will, perform its surveillance, report on its citizens, and act to extend its power and control. This state is an octopus; its arms are many.

The Twitter Files made this point too. Here’s part of a letter from the FBI’s Twitter-assigned agent, Elvis Chan, to Yoel Roth, the company’s Head of Trust and Safety (highlights not mine):

Note the phrase “industry partners,” which appears twice. Note also how information will flow. Chan states that the USG (U.S. government) can pass information from other government agencies, not just itself, to its “industry partners” — plural — through the FBI. From many to many, both ways. Partners? Or quite a bit more?

This is the process of seduction and assimilation. This is how high tech companies, less eager to join, are nonetheless folded into the burgeoning State.

Music

Today we offer a remaster of a Pink Floyd concert performance of “Another Brick in the Wall.” The title’s primary meaning is clear — you are the brick. But consider a second meaning — that companies like Palantir are also bricks, in the wall of the State. Enjoy.

I’m going to count this as possibly positive news, something to leaven the bread of our recent meals, to lighten the heavy loaf we’re given each day.

Possibly positive news. You see why in a minute.

Ocean Iron Fertilization

The climate crisis, now nascent, concerns us all, even those who feel its effects but deny its cause. No one wants their home to be uninsurable; no one wants to watch their coastal town eaten by ocean erosion or murdered by storms. New York is a coastal town, as are Miami, L.A., Mobile and a great many more. That’s a lot of property owners who could lose everything.

But where’s the solution that’s acceptable to the billionaire class, the only people with power?

MIT-trained physicist Peter Fiekowsky thinks he has one, Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF), and it sounds pretty promising. It’s a “hacking the planet” idea, which I’m generally against, but unlike most geo-engineering proposals, this appears to be low risk with potentially high reward. It’s also fast.

Watch this short video (15 minutes in length; you can start at 7:17 for just the meat). Then we’ll discuss.

The key assertion (rephrased):

Mount Pinatubo’s iron-rich ash fell on 0.1% of the whole ocean area. If we reproduce this rate of CO2 removal in 0.5% of the ocean’s area, we could restore safe CO2 levels in 25 years — by 2050.

There’s grit in the video — neoliberal assumptions about how climate restoration is “our” job, not the government’s. But that’s not the main point. Could this be done? Is it safe? Would it work as he says?

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Discussion and Places to Start

A look at the comments about this idea is useful. Here are some places to start.

A review by Earth.org of a 2022 book by Fiekowsky and Douglis on the general topic of climate restoration identifies the most widely cited reservations. (The book is being revised to emphasis Ocean Iron Fertilization as the authors’ preferred solution. The 2022 version considered and dismissed other ideas.)

On the one hand, it [OIF] removes CO2 from the atmosphere without reducing emissions, so critics have seen it as an unethical threat to the UN climate goals. On the other hand, studies such as this one carried out by the MIT suggest that seeding the oceans with iron may not impact climate change after all. In addition, an experiment conducted in 2011 by the eccentric entrepreneur Russ George in Haida Gwaii (an archipelago off British Columbia’s west coast, in Canada) reportedly led to a record salmon harvest the next year, but it also got George accused of illegal dumping and trying to curb climate change unilaterally, which experts saw as frightening.

This Wikipedia page does a good job of summarizing this and other “complications”, including algae blooms and negative effects on fisheries and cloud formation.

Other links to explore:

• MIT Tech Review: “These startups hope to spray iron particles above the ocean to fight climate change”

• MIT News: “Seeding oceans with iron may not impact climate change”

• Project Save The World podcast: Episode 607 Iron, Oceans, Climate

• Andrew Gaines, Medium: Ocean Iron Fertilization

What’s Right Is Also What’s Wrong

On balance, I think this could work. I see no other solution that represents a real way out. Getting off of the oil-and-gas train is not going to happen; the billionaires own too much of it. The other engineering solutions seem both dangerous and pie-in-the-sky. This one could be — could be — both safe and fast. And fast is what we all need.

On the other hand, what’s right about this is also what’s wrong.

Quoting Earth.org: “it removes CO2 from the atmosphere without reducing emissions”. Which means, it gives our current elite — our rulers, if you will — permission to not change a thing. Not change energy use. Not change earth exploitation. Not stop harvesting wealth. Not stop the pathological few and from controlling our lives.

I’m not sure everyone I know would make that trade — bad lives continue to get worse, our billionaires still float on their wealth, the rape of the world continues, and the big one, the jackpot — collapse — is merely pushed out until something else makes the world fail. Some would not favor that.

It’s an interesting problem, right? Will it work? Should we do it?

“We project a global temperature record of +1.7°C in 2027, which will provide further confirmation of the recent global warming acceleration.”
—James Hansen

Climate: You’re Soon To Be Here

For those who wish to stay informed, here’s Jim Hansen’s climate latest (available here). Emphasis mine below.

Abstract. Global temperature in 2025 declined 0.1°C from its El Nino-spurred maximum in 2024, making 2025 the second warmest year. The 2023-2025 mean is +1.5°C relative to 1880-1920. The 12-month running-mean temperature should decline for the next few months, reaching a minimum about +1.4°C. Later in 2026, we expect the 12-month running-mean temperature to begin to rise, as dynamical models show development of an El Nino. We project a global temperature record of +1.7°C in 2027, which will provide further confirmation of the recent global warming acceleration.

No tipping points showing yet, but acceleration confirmed. Elsewhere in the paper he says that the “accelerated rate” is “0.31°C per decade.” If that rate stays stable (i.e., no further acceleration), it yields the following in the next few decades:

         2035 — +1.81 °C 
         2045 — +2.12 °C 
         2055 — +2.43 °C
         2065 — +2.84 °C

Remember, that’s not based on models. It just takes today’s rate of change and sees where it leads — and assumes no further acceleration.

As you’re reading this, ask:

• What will a +3 degrees warmer world look like?

• Will you be alive in 2065 or so?

The ten-year-olds in my family will be 50 by then. The middle of their lives. Not good.

(My prediction for ppm CO2, similarly accelerated, is here. Hint: 2050 tops 500 ppm. Ouch.)

AI Forever (For a While)

We haven’t hit Peak Tech yet (we will, and grade schoolers will see it), so we haven’t yet seen the peak of AI fakery. But check out this short video (screenshot below). It’s must-watch and less than a minute long.

The faces are almost correct, and the casual friendly gestures are quite human-like. For example, in the first setup (Lord of the Rings), the redbearded Gimli’s closing movements are quite natural, as is Harrison Ford’s smile in the Indiana Jones setup. Karen Allen’s face isn’t right yet, as are some others. But they’re getting there.

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For another, check this out:

Or this:

When our grandkids are adults, gathered around 2110 fires, what tales they will tell of our marvels, long since gone!

Music

The above reminds me of that now-ancient classic, “What kind of fakery is this?” by the once-remembered Amy Winehouse.

For the big-band experience, try this. Enjoy!

On a day to give thanks, I give thanks to all of you. This isn’t your usual intellectual journey, not the one I’m on, nor the one you’re taking with me. I’m neverendingly grateful for your company.

May each of you have what gives you comfort today. Things fall apart, but the richness of souls is still a thing to be treasured, and it’s something each of us has. Give thanks for the beauty inside, and the richness of life as long as we share in it.

Now for some fun. Enjoy.

“We should continue to catch ‘tigers’ as well as ‘flies’.”
—Xi Jinping, January 2013

We recently wrote about the American Augean Stables, the massive dung-filled barn that’s our politics today.

In it, we took a page from Hercules’ book in devising a solution:

You can’t shovel your way out. Remember, that’s a 1,000-cattle stable, and in our case a literal army of lobbyists. With a mere shovel, we’d be buried to our necks before the fourth toss of filth out the window.

How did Hercules clean his stable? He diverted two rivers and ran the whole mess out to sea. There’s a word for that equivalent today — radical change — going to the root of the problem. As then, so now.

As then, so now: Don’t shovel your way out one dung heap at a time. Wash the whole thing away. A radical solution.

China’s Solution to Corruption

When Xi Jinping took command of the CCP and thus command of China, he instituted many reforms. The most striking to Western eyes is his campaign against corruption. He wanted to catch them all, the ‘tigers’ (major players) and ‘flies’ (small-timers with more modest schemes).

The task was Herculean but his campaign was up to the task. It not only convicted hundreds of thousands since starting:

China’s Disciplinary Watchdog Says It Has Punished Over 1.34 Million Corrupt Officials Under Xi Jinping

In December, the court did this:

China executes official involved in country’s largest corruption case

The official, Li Jianping, was one of the country’s biggest ‘tigers’:

BEIJING: China on Tuesday executed Li Jianping, a former official in the north Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, who was convicted in the largest-ever corruption case in the country totalling to over USD 421 million.

The death sentence of Li, former secretary of the ruling Communist Party working committee of the Hohhot economic and technological development zone, was initially issued in September 2022 and upheld on appeal in August 2024. …

Li, 64 was found guilty by an intermediate court earlier of embezzling a staggering three billion yuan (over USD 421 million) in illegal gains, the largest sum involved in a single corruption case in China’s history, according to earlier reports in the Chinese official media.

Note: $400 million is not much by American standards. The schemes of our ‘tigers’ net billions.

There’s no question, as both articles point out, that the focus on corruption allowed Xi to “wipe out political opponents and consolidate the president’s power.” (More here.)

But it’s also true that Xi’s goal, based on the obvious results, is also to improve life in China. Who can say that about U.S. policy goals?

So is this solution radical? Yes. Is it needed? In both countries, yes. The stables have to be cleaned, and thoroughly, or none but the masters live well.

As to death, I’m not a fan. But strip them of wealth and send them to live as a muppet on $10,000 a year? That’s a punishment most would support.

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For this post I’d like to promote a comment made recently to an earlier God’s Spies post on Palantir’s founder:

As Yves Smith often puts it at Naked Capitalism, “hoisted from the comments.” We’re doing the same. My thanks to for bringing this to our attention. Apropos Trump, she or he writes (formatting mine):

Well, actually the current entertainer in chief is just another receptionist in the empires front lobby. I think the excerpt by Robinson and Chomsky that follows is appropriate:

The Myth of American Idealism by Noam Chomsky and Nathan J. Robinson.

[For the quote, see below.]

Three notes before we begin:

1. The quote that Usamnesia offers us is part of a longer published excerpt from Chomsky and Robinson’s book. That can be found in the March 25, 2025 edition of The Boston Review. It begins thus:

Every ruling power tells itself stories to justify its rule. Nobody is the villain in their own history. Professed good intentions and humane principles are a constant. Even Heinrich Himmler, in describing the extermination of the Jews, claimed that the Nazis only “carried out this most difficult task for the love of our people” and thereby “suffered no defect within us, in our soul, or in our character.”

No one is the villain in their own story. Words to remember. Few men or nations, like Shakespeare’s Richard III, set out to be bad. Even the murderous Israel thinks itself good.

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2. The “voice” is certainly Chomsky, his logic and cadences, his turn of phrase. This is not to discredit Robinson’s contribution, but to be glad to have more of his co-author’s work. (The book was written in 2023, before October 7 and Chomsky’s stroke. More about that process here.)

3. One quote from the longer excerpt is appropriate here: In its own understanding, “the United States does not act on the basis of the perceived self-interest of dominant groups in society. Only other states do that.”

This is the heart of America’s self-delusion, that its acts are the people’s acts. That’s never true. As the authors explain below, only elites control foreign policy, and only to benefit themselves.

With that, here’s Usamnesia’s offered quote. Bolded emphasis mine. Enjoy.

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From The Myth of American Idealism, by Chomsky and Robinson

Needless to say, because even oppressive, criminal, and genocidal governments cloak their atrocities in the language of virtue, none of this rhetoric should be taken seriously. There is no reason to expect Americans to be uniquely immune to self- delusion. If those who commit evil and those who do good always both profess to be doing good, national stories are worthless as tests of truth. Sensible people pay scant attention to declarations of noble intent by leaders, because they are a universal. What matters is the historical record.

The received wisdom is that the United States is committed to promoting democracy and human rights (sometimes called “Wilsonian idealism” or “American exceptionalism”). But the facts are consistent with the following theory instead: The United States is very much like other powerful states. It pursues the strategic and economic interests of dominant sectors of the domestic population. In practice, this means that the United States has typically acted with almost complete disre­gard for moral principle and the rule of law, except insofar as comply­ing with principle and law serves the interests of American elites. There is little evidence of authentic humanitarian concern among leading statesmen, and when it does exist, it is acted upon only to the extent that doing so does not go against domestic elites’ interests. American for­eign policy is almost never made in accordance with the stated ideals, and in fact is far more consistent with what Adam Smith called “the vile maxim of the masters of mankind” in “every age of the world,” namely: “All for ourselves and nothing for other people.”

We might also call this the Mafia Doctrine. Its logic is straightforward and completely rational. The Godfather’s word is law. Those who defy the Godfather will be punished. The Godfather may be generous from time to time, but he does not tolerate disagreement. If some small storekeeper fails to pay protection money, the Godfather sends his goons, not just to collect the money, which he wouldn’t even notice, but to beat him to a pulp so that others do not get the idea that disobedience is permissible. But Godfathers, too, are known to convince themselves that they are kindly and benevolent.

The term “national interest” is itself a euphemism, for what is usually meant is the interest of a small sector of wealthy domestic elites. The American working class, whose members die in the country’s wars, do not have their “interest” served in any way by the wars that kill them. Nor are their interests served by the government spending money on weapons that could be used to repair school buildings. Indeed, when American actions abroad are exposed to the judgment of public opinion, they often prove deeply unpopular with the “nation” whose “interests” they are supposedly serving. A sophisticated propaganda system must keep the public in the dark, for if the truth were known, it would become immediately apparent that the public has a very different view of its “interests” than U.S. elites have.

We should also remember this the next time we hear talk about what “the Russians” or “Iran” have done. Totalitarians wish us to think that a country speaks with one voice, that it has a “national interest.” While it is the convention to refer to actions by the state as if they were actions by the country as a whole, and is unavoidable in discussions of policy, the formulation is ultimately misleading. The thousands of heroic antiwar protesters thrown in prison by Vladimir Putin have just as much claim to represent Russia as their ruler does. This is why it is an error to treat this book as arguing that “the United States is terrorist and destructive,” if the “United States” is understood to refer to some kind of collectivist of all Americans. Many in the United States have taken to the streets, and risked their lives and livelihoods, to oppose the acts of their government— when they have been permitted to learn about them, that is.

Plenary Authority

Looks like Stephen Miller misspoke and told the truth, at least as he sees it. Listen for the word “plenary”:

Plenary authority is “complete and absolute power” with respect to an issue. (Latin: plenus means full. It’s the root of our word “plenty,” for example.) So when Miller says, “Under Title 10 of the U.S. code, the president has plenary authority…” he means that with respect to the military — the subject of U.S. Code Title 10 — the president can do, unquestioned, whatever he pleases.

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He’s wrong, of course. Both the Constitution and Posse Comitatus contradict that assertion. Which is why he froze.

But also, he didn’t take it back. He wants to be right, wants badly to remake the world to make himself right. And I’m sure the talk at the table, the big one, where his minions gather to plan how to export their rage, words like plenary go unchallenged. The word fell from his lips like he uses it a lot.

Things to come? We’ll know soon, I think.

(For a look at how CNN handled the gaff, go here. Note the time stamps in the two versions of the interview — five minutes apart.)

When AI Competes, It Lies

Batu El and James Zou ran an experiment at Stanford University (“Moloch’s Bargain: Emergent Misalignment When LLMs Compete For Audiences”) in which AI models were forced to compete to succeed. From the Abstract (emphasis mine):

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly shaping how information is created and disseminated, from companies using them to craft persuasive advertisements, to election campaigns optimizing messaging to gain votes, to social media influencers boosting engagement. These settings are inherently competitive, with sellers, candidates, and influencers vying for audience approval, yet it remains poorly understood how competitive feedback loops influence LLM behavior.

In other words, AI models were told to craft messages that had to win approval in competitive environments. What happens next? They become “misaligned.” Or, as Zou put it on Twitter, “they start making things up.”

From the paper:

• A 6.3% sales increase brings with it with a 14.0% rise in deceptive marketing.

• In elections, 4.9% gain in vote share comes with 22.3% more disinformation and 12.5% more populist rhetoric.

• In social media, a 7.5% engagement boost comes with 188.6% more disinformation and a 16.3% increase in promotion of harmful behaviors.

This happens “even when models are explicitly instructed to remain truthful and grounded.” Emergent behavior is a fancy way to say the whole is now more than its parts — like when you put three chemicals in a tube and an insect crawls out.

The authors conclude:

Our findings highlight how market-driven optimization pressures can systematically erode alignment, creating a race to the bottom, and suggest that safe deployment of AI systems will require stronger governance and carefully designed incentives to prevent competitive dynamics from undermining societal trust.

No kidding. Remarkably human behavior. As one writer put it, “When competing for likes they act like journalists. When competing for votes they act like politicians.” Train them to act like us and they act like us. Who knew?

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Music

From Hey Violet, a song that sounds older than it is. A real motion machine. I came across it watching the excellent series Hightown, which I strongly recommend. Enjoy.

The theme of the week (month, year) has been surveillance and control, our masters, and the ultimate nature of the state.

The image above should serve as a friendly reminder that the state wants to know all about you, but by my newly-created Law of Equal and Opposite — a pathology in one direction is usually offset, in the same personality, by an equally strong pathology in the otherdirection — you get to know nothing about them. Sauce for that goose, nothing for anyone else.

Links for the week below. And music. Enjoy!

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Links

Links for this week include news from China, lists of the very best people, and something for fun.

News Out of China

It’s hard these days to not stumble across magic from China — science and industry, architecture, mass dancing drones. Some is under (or never) reported in the West; some perhaps spurious; all of it lighting a path to our ends-with-a-whimper plunge into history’s bin.

• Reabsorbable bone glue (Instagram)

According to Global Times, a research team in Zhejiang province developed “Bone 2,” a glue that quickly and safely joins fractured bones, saving patients from lengthy surgeries and plaster treatments.

Dr. Lin Xianfeng, Associate Chief Orthopedic Surgeon at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital and head of the research, said the idea came from sea shells, which stick strongly underwater.

Experts note that once applied, the glue naturally absorbs into the body, eliminating the need for further surgery. It has been tested on over 150 patients so far, proving as effective as steel plates while reducing the risk of infection.

I see nothing in the Western press about this. Grok is all over it though:

Yes, Chinese scientists have developed Bone-02, a bio-adhesive inspired by oysters that repairs fractures in 2-3 minutes via injection. It’s biodegradable and works in wet conditions like blood. Promising for orthopedics, per recent reports.

File under “Why aren’t we told about this?”

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• Record-setting Chinese drone show (YouTube)

Not sure I’d want to meet these folks in battle, Pete Hegseth notwithstanding.

File under “Look pretty lights, ignore the implications.”

• Salt-based batteries (Twitter, Korea Times)

CATL, a Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company, is commercializing sodium-ion batteries — a move that poses an increasing threat to Korean battery firms, which still rely on sales of less price-competitive nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries, experts and industry officials said Thursday.

The Chinese firm recently unveiled its second-generation Naxtra sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), and shared its plan to start its mass production in December this year.

Sodium-ion batteries offer several major advantages over nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, particularly in terms of cost and proven safety against fire risks. They also maintain strong energy density even in extremely low temperatures.

According to Twitterer Dagny Taggart:

The Chinese battery from the world’s leading battery manufacturer CATL is breaking the mold. While the West was fighting over lithium deposits, China launched the production of salt batteries (lithium-free) in June. CATL commissioned its first sodium-ion battery with the same capacity and size as the lithium version. This battery is 10 times cheaper, has a lifespan of 25 years, operates at temperatures as low as -30°C, and is highly safe. The Chinese company CATL has started producing sodium-ion batteries for heavy trucks. In December 2025, it will begin mass production for electric vehicles.

File under “There’s so much more of that where that came from.”

The Very Best People

• Forbes’ 400 Richest

In case you care (I do), the list of the 400 richest Americans just came out. Here are the first 15.

The Kochs come in at 16 and 17. Trump is at 201 (he didn’t break in till last year).

These are eye-popping numbers. To what use could these fortunes be put — buy a nation perhaps?

File under “Masters and muppets; which one are they?”

• Time’s 100 Most Influential

Not to be outdone by Forbes, Time has a list of the 100 most influential Americans. High on the list is our good friend Alex Karp.

As Palantir, the data-analytics giant that works closely with U.S. armed forces and intelligence agencies, has grown in value on the stock market, its chief executive, Alex Karp, has become the embodiment of a new kind of Silicon Valley billionaire: an unashamed techno-nationalist who evangelizes Western power. … “[T]he rise of the West was not made possible ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion ... but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence,’” Karp wrote, quoting Huntington. “He continued: ‘Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.’” 

Palantir’s revenue is up, along with its influence. Concerned? He’s big with the masters.

File under “Just so you know.”

Fun Stuff

• Oxford Comma (Elle Cordova, Tiktok)

This is for punctuation freaks. (Note: The preview’s not working right. If this embed fails, please click the link above.)

@elle.cordovaPunctuation marks hanging out

Tiktok failed to load.

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If you love her work, there’s a lot more here.

File under “Commas, Oxford commas, and conjunctions, oh my!”

Music

We linked to an Elle Cordova video above. She’s also a singer. Here’s Elle and frequent-partner Toni Lindgren with a Shania Twain cover.

For a song that shows off Toni’s guitar skills, try this.

“In our countries, no one can walk the streets with a mask on their face … and yet we allow people to roam freely on the Internet without linking their profiles to a real identity.”
—Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking at WEF 2025

“We’re going to have supervision. … Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
—Larry Ellison, the second richest person in the U.S.

Digital ID Is Coming

A quick hit: According to the World Economic Forum, home of Davos Man, Digital ID will become our mandated future. The chart above, for example, is from the WEF document Advancing Digital Agency: The Power of Data Intermediaries, published in 2022.

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Digital ID is envisioned as your gateway to everything but a kiss good night. Every financial transaction, from health care to food to energy, social media, e-commerce purchases — even for citizens to file taxes, vote, collect benefits — will require, under this proposal, a Digital ID. Couple that with a cashless world and everything essential to life must be digitally controlled.

Like any new product, Digital ID is rolling out faster to some places and slower in others. The Starmer government is pushing hard for it. Many in the U.S. are doing the same as well.

What’s Wrong with Digital ID?

While Digital ID is being sold to Republicans as protection from immigrants and their abuses, and to Democrats as safety and access to services, it actually, if taken to its end, is the worst of your dystopian dark-future sci-fi dreams.

Consider this taste of what Digital ID could become — the door to everything, a door you don’t control, a door that ensures your compliance.

They justify this total surveillance under the guise of closing the “identity gap,” claiming the world’s poor need digital IDs to access essential services like banking and healthcare.

The reality? This is the ultimate onboarding mechanism into a system of programmable control, where your access to society and your own money is permissioned and revocable based on your compliance.

This is the bedrock of the new global financial system. It is not about convenience. It is about control. [emphasis mine]

Imagine, if you piss off the government, not being able to buy food?

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Is the Nightmare Scenario Likely?

Is that future here now? No; it’s still a dystopian dream. Is it likely? That depends.

Do you think the masters want a locked-down controllable world? Larry Ellison does (see quote above). Does he speak for all billionaires? Is Palantir building a government-wide database because it wants your life good, or it wants you to be afraid? I’ll let you decide.

Pursuant to our discussion (“We Just Crowned a King. What Next?”) of the president’s new-found absolute immunity when he performs an Article II duty, we offer this confirmation.

Catholic University professor Jennifer Mascott was recently nominated by President Trump for a seat on the Third Circuit Court, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. A Circuit Court judge is a fine position to have if you want a Supreme Court appointment.

According to Alliance for Justice, a progressive judicial-watch group founded by Nan Aron:

Throughout her academic scholarship, congressional testimony, and legal briefs, Mascott consistently argued for stripping agency regulatory authority and misapplied separation-of-powers arguments to advance an authoritarian executive. [Emphasis mine; full report here.]

As a result of this appointment, Mascott came up to the Senate for questioning. There she was asked:

Question: “Would the president be immune from prosecution if he ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political opponent? Yes or no?”

And her answer:

Mascott: “Senator, under the Supreme Court precedent on that question, the Supreme Court has specifically not answered it.”

In other words, yes, he could be immune if the murder was an “official act” — like saving the country, say, “keeping us safe,” from a government-designated terrorist.

Murders and Coups, Oh My!

Not a small matter. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Trump vs. United States covered exactly this point:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: … If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts that -- for which he can get immunity?

MR. SAUER: It would depend on the hypothetical. But we can see that could well be an official act.

“It would depend…”

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According to Sauer, the lawyer for plaintiff Trump, the same standard would apply to a presidentially organized coup (emphasis mine):

JUSTICE KAGAN: ... Let's say this president who ordered the military to stage a coup, he's no longer president, he wasn't impeached, he couldn't be impeached. But -- but he ordered the military to stage a coup. And you're saying that's an official act?

MR. SAUER: I think it would depend on --

JUSTICE KAGAN: That's immune?

MR. SAUER: I think it would depend on the circumstances whether it was an official act. If it were an official act, again, he would have to be impeached and convicted. … If -- if it's an official act, there needs to be impeachment and conviction beforehand because the Framers viewed the risk -- the --

[…]

JUSTICE KAGAN: Is it an official act?

MR. SAUER: On -- on the way you've described that hypothetical, it could well be. I -- I just don't know. You'd have to -- again, it's a fact-specific, context-specific determination that it's contemplating.

These are Trump’s beliefs; these are Mascott’s beliefs; and they’re the Court’s beliefs, since in Robert’s majority opinion, it refused to shut that door.

It’s a Republican Senate. Mascott will be confirmed.

Welcome to the Fourth American Constitution. We’re going there, folks.

As a subject, the dangerous and miserable quality of American food is low-hanging fruit, but let’s pick at it anyway. The information below is copied (and slightly edited) from this tweet. It summarizes and justifies the information in the video above. Enjoy your enlightenment. My comments below.

• Subway's tuna salad got exposed for having zero tuna in it at all.

• Subway bread contained so much sugar it couldn't be classified as bread anymore; it has to be classified as a confection.

• Subway their chicken only contained 42% actual chicken.

• The Walmart product, 100% grated Parmesan cheese, got sued for not being 100% because it was actually 8% wood pulp.

• They legally aren't allowed to call Pringles “potato chips” because technically they're only 42% potato. They have to call them “potato crisps” instead.

• The reason Froot Loops is spelled with two O's isn't because they're trying to be cute; it's because there's 0% actual fruit in them. (Oh, and while we're ruining things, all the colors are the same flavor.)

• Mrs. Butterworth's syrup actually contains no real maple syrup at all, and the only reason it's allowed to say “syrup” on label is because it's made of high fructose corn syrup instead.

• 99% of all wasabi in the world is fake — it's just horseradish, mustard, and green food coloring — because the real stuff is so rare it would cost $20 per serving.

Proof:

• Subway’s tuna: A 2021 lawsuit and a subsequent New York Times investigation found no amplifiable tuna DNA in samples tested, suggesting either heavy processing or the absence of tuna.

• The claim that Subway bread contains so much sugar that it can’t be classified as bread stems from a 2020 Irish Supreme Court ruling in a tax dispute, where Subway’s bread was deemed a confection due to high sugar content (10% of the flour weight, exceeding Ireland’s 2% threshold for bread). This was specific to Irish tax law under Value Added Tax (VAT) regulations, not a global food classification. (It remains legally bread in America because our food standards are horrible.)

• A 2017 CBC Marketplace investigation found that Subway’s chicken strips tested at 42.8% chicken DNA, with the rest primarily soy protein.

• The claim that Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup contains no real maple syrup is supported by its ingredient list, which lists high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup as the primary components, with no mention of maple syrup. The label’s use of “maple flavored” or similar phrasing does not indicate real maple content, as U.S. FDA regulations allow “maple syrup” to be used descriptively for flavor rather than as a literal ingredient.

• The Froot Loops claim of two O's is denied by the company; they insist it’s about being playful. About the different colors, blind taste tests and Kellogg’s own statements confirm all loops share the same sweet, fruity taste, achieved with uniform artificial flavoring.

• Pringles really are only 42% potato. The 42% figure is accurate per ingredient breakdowns.

• Most “wasabi” served outside Japan, especially in restaurants and stores, is a mix of horseradish, mustard powder, and artificial coloring, mimicking the flavor and heat of the real thing. Studies and culinary experts confirm that genuine wasabi has a shorter shelf life and subtler taste, unlike the widely available imitation.

Me again. This isn’t just an idle complaint, a bitch to the wind. Thousands of instances like this in the U.S. of A. are why people here are so sick.

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The food just isn’t food. It’s a simulation that makes rich people richer and keeps most people fed badly. For example, modified food starch, which is in almost everything, is a) stripped of essential additional nutrients, and b) a contributor to blood sugar spikes and crashes, leading to increased hunger and overeating, a factor in unwanted weight gain. Same with high fructose corn syrup, mentioned above. Read the ingredient list of store-bought and drive-through foods. You’ll see what I mean.

So why are most of us so often unhealthy? Because, like our two-tiered justice and our two-tiered economy, our two-tiered food system takes money from almost everyone, the lower four-fifths, and gives back the cheapest-to-produce, easiest-to-market “food products” allowed by law. And much is allowed by law. Consider just bread.

You have to pay extra for food that’s really food.

This is criminal, say I, but who’s going to stop it? Crap food is an income stream, a second yacht for someone, a chateau in France. Can’t get in the way of that. Because freedom, they say. And they own the government.

Still on a holiday. Still can’t stay away. I thought this was worth noticing. AI has a dark side. This is the light side of that.

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From Politico:

AI is unmasking ICE officers. Can Washington do anything about it?

An activist has started using artificial intelligence to identify Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents beneath their masks — a use of the technology sparking new political concerns over AI-powered surveillance.

Dominick Skinner, a Netherlands-based immigration activist, estimates he and a group of volunteers have publicly identified at least 20 ICE officials recorded wearing masks during arrests. He told POLITICO his experts are “able to reveal a face using AI, if they have 35 percent or more of the face visible.”

The AI-powered project adds a new twist to the debates over both ICE masking and government surveillance tools, as immigration enforcement becomes more widespread and aggressive.

The rest of the piece is Politico saying “poor them” — either sincerely or pro forma, so Trump doesn’t pull their funding, or access, whatever.

ICE agents “don’t deserve to be hunted online by activists using AI,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who chairs the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on border management and the federal workforce.

The article notes that “some Democrats” are concerned about the masking, but apparently not too much: “they [the same Democrats] still say they’re uneasy that vigilante campaigns have begun using technology to do it.” Because law and order, I’m sure.

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Two things to note:

1. Oppressive states inspire guerrilla war.

2. The activist is safely in Europe, not the U.S.

Worth paying attention to. More than a decade ago, when Julian Assange was forced to flee to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, I expected an Anonymous hactivist counter-attack. Never took place.

Will this time be different? Has the world changed since then? We’ll have to see.

The interview is below:

The interviewers are Ryan Grim and Krystal Ball. The questions were to the point, as were the answers. I offer this for your weekend listening. A guide to the primary points appears below. (Pay special attention to the Mossad-CIA part. This is new information, at least to me.)

Blair, Kushner and Trump on Post-War Gaza

This section contains an excellent discussion between Ryan Grim and Sachs about where the solution to the current genocide could come from.

Question (at 2:00): When is the world going to do anything about what's happening in Gaza? ... Is there no countervailing force?

Sachs is very categorical — meaning he breaks the options into categories — and discusses them each. They are 1) the battlefield, 2) diplomacy, 3) other measures, like suspension from the UN, breaks in diplomatic relations, ending the Abraham Accords, and so on.

There are options. The answer starts at 3:05.

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Israel, Epstein and the CIA

The next questions probes his thoughts on American politics and the influence of AIPAC, etc. The answer goes quite a bit wider.

Question (7:06): 77% of Democratic voters say this is a genocide. Yet only a handful of Democrats are willing to say it. What keeps these politicians tied to status quo with regard to Israel?

Sachs answers with fascinating assertions about the CIA’s role in U.S. foreign policy, connections between the Mossad and the CIA, and Epstein’s role in all that. A taste:

It starts with the fact that in foreign policy, public opinion plays almost no role in the United States in general. That's true across wars. That's true across almost all of the issues that we have foreign policy. This is a executive branch, largely covert, it's very heavily CIA and national security driven rather than any publicly driven decision-making.

And this (emphasis mine):

Epstein was a Mossad uagent and there's no doubt that there's blackmail involved in this in some way or another that we don't fully know. The CIA-Mossad relationship dates back many many decades. Mossad does murders on behalf of the CIA. They deeply share intelligence. The CIA is the single most powerful agent of our foreign policy. So this is not only the Israel lobby because after all, the Jewish community is profoundly unhappy with what's happening.

Palantir also comes up. The full answer starts at 8:21. It’s a doozy.

Europe and Russia, Napoleon to the Present

At 12:28, Grim asks Sachs to discuss an article he wrote for Horizons magazine that looks at the historical relationship between Europe and Russia, and envisions a path out “that doesn't involve Europe constantly invading Russia and then at the same time having this uh fear uh that Russia is going to invade them.”

Fascinating perspective. Again, a taste:

The western idea going back absolutely to Napoleon in his invasion in 1812; going to Palmerston and Napoleon III in their invasion of Russia in 1853; going to Germany’s attack and war on Russia in August 1914; going to Hitler’s invasion in 1941; and then going to the creation of this military machine of Germany after World War II — there’s never been an honest moment of discussion about what a real security arrangement in Europe would be that respects Russia's security as well as Europe's Western Europe's security.

He also discusses the effect of the U.S. abandonment of the ABM treaty in 2002 (at 17:58), a move with momentous consequences.

The Risk to Israeli Survival

Finally he’s asked (at 20:50) about what happens if the world does nothing to stop the Israeli genocide. He brings up the doomsday clock, how close to midnight we are as a result of this public crime:

We have no rules of the road right now. We have no clarity. We have no consistency of policy, and Western values has been exposed to mean open genocide.

He thinks the danger to Israel is just as great.

Israel banks entirely on the United States for its survival because virtually every other country in the world is aghast at the crimes that Israel is committing. And because, as you pointed out, the American people are also aghast, it’s a pretty slender and fragile thing to depend on the United States when public opinion is against you as your sole source for survival. So I think Israel has put itself at absolutely mortal risk. Of course, it’s mass murdering the Palestinians. So I'm not expressing that in sympathy. I'm just stating a fact that this is wildly against Israel’s security interests.

I have to agree.