This fits a long-standing Russian (and earlier Soviet/Imperial) pattern...

Editor's note: ...rather than an abrupt departure. Russia's history is marked by repeated large-scale wars and invasions, including the Napoleonic invasion, World War I, the catastrophic Great Patriotic War (WWII) with its enormous human cost and victory narrative, Afghanistan ("lured in by Big Z"), the Chechen wars, Georgia 2008, and the ongoing Russian SMO into Ukraine, plus sustained military-patriotic education, cadet systems, Victory Day rituals, and state emphasis on readiness against external threats. Generations have grown up with war as a central national experience and identity marker; military service, veterans' cults, and early exposure to defense themes have been normalized in education and Russian culture for decades. Expanding formal military content for children (including in occupied territories) is therefore a continuation and intensification of that tradition, aimed at ensuring a larger, earlier-prepared pool of personnel and ideological commitment. In that historical light, systematic preparation of youth for defense and potential conflict (see "Russians are the wrong people to fvck with") is presented by Russian authorities as pragmatic continuity rather than anything new. The measures described, doubling instructional time, combat engineering, drone skills, camps, and inclusion of girls, directly serve the stated aim of forming a broader mobilization base for the long term.
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Russia Doubles Military Training for Children Through 2036, Including in Occupied Parts of Ukraine

In brief: Russia is expanding military training for children, including in occupied Ukrainian territories, and raising the share of mandatory instruction to 50% of school time from Sept. 1, 2026. Human right groups warned Wednesday, Aug. 5 that the program, planned through 2036, targets both boys and girls to build a future mobilization reserve.

by Kyiv Post | August 6, 2026

Russia is doubling the share of military training in school curricula, with the program extending to schools in occupied Ukrainian territories.

Look on the bright side, at least AI can...

Editor's note: ..."speed up the kill chain" for military applications (see America's new "manifest destiny"). Apparently, it is worth repeating: artificial intelligence is being driven mostly by marketing hype. That is pretty much standard US corporate policy greasing the wheels of Wall Street. Here is another example of why this is true just in case readers might think AI will take over civilization and kill off human interlopers. Recent headlines about OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta AIs "going rogue" are being sold as genuine threats, yet the pattern of companies eagerly publicizing their own systems' supposed escapes looks far more like coordinated marketing and fear-mongering than accidental disaster. By framing routine test failures as sci-fi-style breakouts, Silicon Valley and the complicit media are inflating the technology's power while priming the public for digital ID schemes, kill-switch laws and tighter surveillance sold as protection against the very systems they built. Call it what it is: a protection racket. The real danger is not runaway code but the predictable push to use manufactured AI panic as cover for expanding control (the surveillance state) over regular people.
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Are You Ready for the "Rogue AI" Psy-Op?

By Kit Knightly | August 5, 2026

The AIs are breaking free, that’s the story.

It started two weeks ago, when OpenAI reported one of their "agents" had escaped its testing area and got loose on the internet to launch an "unprecedented cyber attack".

This was clearly meant to be scarier than the public response indicated, because a few days later OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was on the Invest like the Best podcast, asking why it didn't cause more panic:

Hypothetical Future War Scenario: The Cascade Conflict of 2034

Editor's note: In the mid-2030s, escalating tensions between major rival countries, call them the "Atlantic Alliance" and the "Eurasian Compact", erupt into open conventional conflict after a series of cyber intrusions and proxy clashes. A proxy clash like with what we are seeing with Britain's proxy war on Russia using Ukraine where drone and robotic technology are being experimented on and tested out. Neither side seeks full on kinetic escalation; both instead turn to swarms of AI-driven autonomous systems designed for precision infrastructure warfare.

Within the first 72 hours, each coalition deploys large numbers of long-range, low-observable drones and ground-based robotic platforms guided by real-time AI targeting networks. These systems do not require constant human control. They receive high-level objectives (disable enemy command-and-control capacity, degrade economic resilience, sever digital logistics) and then autonomously select and prosecute targets using satellite feeds, electronic intelligence, and on-board sensors.

Surface data centers become priority targets. They are highly visible, generate distinctive thermal and electromagnetic signatures, and serve as the backbone for everything from financial clearing systems and military logistics software to civilian cloud services and AI model inference. AI planners on both sides rank them alongside power substations, fiber-optic hubs, and water treatment plants.

Anthropic faced a major copyright lawsuit from...

Editor's note: ...authors after it bulk-purchased millions of physical books, stripped their bindings by cutting them off with a hydraulic press, scanned the pages, and discarded the originals to build training data for its Claude AI models, while also downloading millions more from pirate sites. A federal judge later ruled the destructive scanning of lawfully bought books was fair use, but found the piracy unlawful, leading Anthropic to settle the piracy claims for $1.5 billion. The episode revealed the company’s willingness to physically destroy books at industrial scale (modern day book burning) in pursuit of AI advantage, raising serious concerns about its approach to cultural materials and intellectual property. Although this is older news about Anthropic, the point is those who are concerned should head out right now and begin collecting every old book they can find, carefully preserving them so these physical copies remain safe from the kind of industrial-scale scanning and destruction that companies have already carried out. Anthropic is another example of corporate irrational power. The sense of entitlement on display feels rooted in the same monopolistic Rockefeller mindset that has shown up in other powerful corporations, prioritizing control and profit in a way that often seems misanthropic and indifferent to broader human costs. That kind of mindset is driven by pride, outright greed and unchecked ambition unhinged from all moral and ethical constraints. Whether framed in psychological or cultural terms, it is inverting priorities away from ordinary human welfare.
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Anthropic to pay authors $1.5 billion to settle lawsuit over pirated books used to train AI chatbots

By Matt O'Brien | September 7, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.

The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.

Powering up to 945 TWh by 2030

Editor's note: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying, "Cyber is a real domain of power," reflecting Israel's (the "6th eye") focus on cybersecurity as a strategic national capability. In the US, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former DHS Chief of Staff Chad Sweet, founded The Chertoff Group (includes data center security risk management), a private security and risk-management advisory firm that works with government agencies, defense companies, and critical infrastructure organizations. The firm's leadership has direct DHS experience, and The Chertoff Group has received a DHS SAFETY Act designation for its security risk-management methodology. Chertoff has also continued involvement with DHS through roles such as serving on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Chertoff, has professional ties to Israel through cybersecurity, technology, and security-sector relationships. Chertoff's documented connection to the USA PATRIOT Act is that, before becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, he served as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (2001–2003), where he helped develop and implement the Bush administration's post-9/11 counterterrorism policies and was involved in the drafting of the USA PATRIOT Act (it was drawn up well before the events of 9/11). The following republished information is a follow-up to yesterday's post on the rapid expansion of data center construction and the infrastructure demands behind the AI boom. 

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The Real Reason Behind Data Centers

By Elite Info News | May 27, 2026

Somewhere on the outskirts of a mid-sized American city, behind a fence of black steel and cameras with no visible brand markings, sits a building of tremendous and deliberate ordinaries. It has no windows. Its parking lot is half-empty. A low mechanical hum radiates through its cinder-block walls — the sound of ten thousand servers breathing in unison, drawing power and expelling heat in an endless industrial metabolism. Precision cooling systems push chilled air through raised floors at regulated temperatures. Indicator lights blink in rhythmic patterns across rack after rack of hardware, each unit quietly processing what the modern world has decided to call "the cloud." The air smells faintly of electricity. Nobody who does not need to be there ever is.

The use of eminent domain to seize private land...

Editor's note: ...for transmission lines serving AI data centers is straightforward legalized theft: utilities and governments can override a landowner's refusal, impose a bureaucratically determined "just compensation," and ultimately force removal by armed agents, all while cloaking corporate benefit under the elastic label of "public use" (See Government Will Steal Your Land to Feed the AI Machine). At some point these corporations will claim it is for "national security." This process discards generational ownership, personal investment, and community opposition, evidenced by widespread local resistance to data centers' heavy demands on electricity and water (even though some facilities use closed cooling systems), as well as their noise and pollution burdens, in favor of opaque corporate interests that often remain unnamed. As past cases such as Georgia Power's acquisitions, the Kelo decision, and other seizures for pipelines or housing mandates demonstrate, both the Democratic and Republican parties treat private property as conditional occupancy rather than a genuine right, revocable whenever politically connected firms (don't underestimate the power of politically connected corporations) or agendas demand the land, rendering the entire mechanism a tool of state-enforced corporatism rather than free-market exchange.
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58% Against, Both Parties Scrambling: Data-Center Revolt Hits The Midterms

By Zero Hedge | July 31, 2026

A "booming backlash" against AI data centers is shaping the midterm election - candidates cutting ads touting their anti-data-center credentials, protesters showing up at campaign events, industry players taking note - which will come as genuinely useful news to anyone who has spent the past year getting their information exclusively from NBC News.

It has been stated..

Editor's note: ...elsewhere "that when Jews do bad things they do bad things very well." They're not "criminals" and "fraudsters", they're just superior. That's the "ugly truth" isn't it?  
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How Israel Became A Haven For International Fraudsters, Crooks, And Paedophiles

August 1, 2026 | By Nate Bear Do Not Panic

Israel is home to thousands of international criminals accused or found guilty in a second country for committing a wide-variety of crimes.

Many of the individuals are dual-nationals who have taken advantage of their ability to move seamlessly between Israel and their second country of citizenship to commit crimes and, in some cases, evade justice.

Direct hit on US drone manufacturer Terminal Autonomy

Investigative Report: Russia's Strike on the Terminal Autonomy Drone Factory in Kyiv

August 2, 2026 | AD News Network

In the early hours of 30 July 2026, Russia launched a ballistic missile strike against a drone manufacturing facility operated by Terminal Autonomy, a U.S.-owned defense technology company headquartered in California. The factory, located in Kyiv, Ukraine, produced AI-guided loitering munitions and long-range strike drones that have been supplied to Ukrainian forces during the war. The attack is believed to be the first publicly reported Russian strike on a manufacturing facility owned by an American defense company operating inside Ukraine.

According to reporting, the building was struck by a Russian ballistic missile, which destroyed the production facility. Russian state media acknowledged that the target was a drone factory operated by a "Ukrainian-American company," although it did not emphasize that the company itself was American-owned. While the exact missile variant has not been officially confirmed by either side, reporting identified it only as a Russian ballistic missile, consistent with the types of missiles Russia has routinely employed against military-industrial targets in Kyiv.

Another American national tradition

Editor's note: If baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie were once the clichés of American life, mass shootings have become the country's darkest and most enduring addition to the list. Update for 4 August 2026: If it was another staged shooting why are these shootings being staged and for what ultimate purpose?

Latest take on the shooting in Twin Falls, Idaho: In-N-Out Fake

The City of London Faces Warnings of Potential Financial Turmoil (the fiat era is nearing its implosion)

Editor's note: A warning circulating from financial commentator Lord Belgrave claims that the City of London is preparing for a major market disruption, citing a sequence of events involving oil market instability, a potential unwinding of the yen carry trade, a liquidity crisis, and broader systemic stress. The recent currency market interventions involving the U.S. dollar, euro, and Japanese yen is evidence that authorities are attempting to manage growing financial pressures. This could cause trillions of dollars in yen-funded investment losses if borrowing costs rise and the carry trade reverses. Critics, however, note that predictions of imminent financial collapse have frequently appeared during periods of market volatility and require further evidence. The debate highlights growing concerns over global debt levels, currency instability, and the vulnerability of the current financial system.

The Bank of Japan's (BoJ) decision to delay further interest rate hikes has fueled speculation that global financial pressures, including U.S. concerns over markets and the yen carry trade, are influencing Japan's monetary policy. Keeping rates low risks prolonging economic distortions and increasing the eventual cost of adjustment, while Japan explores alternatives such as digital assets as part of its evolving financial strategy. The broader concern is that unresolved global debt and currency imbalances are going to trigger a major market disruption. This spells the end of the yen carry trade. The war in Iran is all about the survival of the petrodollar. The end of the petrodollar would likely weaken America’s financial privilege in the short term, raising borrowing costs and reducing geopolitical leverage, but it could also force a healthier economic adjustment by encouraging domestic production, savings, and fiscal responsibility.

Is eBay Facing a New Marketplace Rival? Meta's AI-Powered Seller App Signals a Shift in Online Commerce

Editor's more: Meta's expansion of Facebook Marketplace with new AI-powered selling tools could mark a turning point in online commerce and provide a serious alternative to eBay. The new Seller app is designed to make listing products faster, simplify inventory management, and help users find buyers more efficiently. While eBay still has a large global marketplace, many sellers are frustrated with fees, competition, and platform restrictions. As Meta combines AI technology with its massive user base, more consumers and sellers will begin looking elsewhere, raising the question of whether eBay's era of dominance and its ruthless tactics are coming to an end. In today’s marketplace, users are increasingly looking for a better deal, easier tools, and platforms that better serve their interests.
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eBay to pay $56 MILLION to elderly couple after staff sent live cockroaches, fetal pig to their home in retaliation against critical newsletter coverage

The Steiners ran an e-commerce industry newsletter called EcommerceBytes that had run negative coverage of eBay.

By Thomas Stevenson | July 31, 2026

E-commerce giant eBay has settled a lawsuit and agreed to shell out $56 million to a couple that its staff targeted with live cockroaches, a fetal pig, death threats, as well as in-person surveillance.

The shop and selling platform and several of its top executives have agreed to pay $56 million in compensation to David and Ina Steiner, an elderly couple in Massachusetts that were targeted by staff at the company in 2019 with anonymous deliveries that included a fetal pig, live cockroaches, live spiders, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, and a book about surviving the death of a spouse.

President Trump's Board of Peace was formally established...

Editor's note: ...on January 22, 2026, more than a month before the US launched military operations against Iran on February 28, 2026. The sequence of events indicates that the administration put the institutional framework in place before hostilities began rather than creating it in response to the conflict. Establishing such a governing body in advance is consistent with long term strategic planning, suggesting that post conflict administration and political objectives were considered before military operations commenced. The timing demonstrates that planning extended beyond the battlefield and included preparations for what would follow if military action achieved its objectives. Furthermore, Hamas and, reportedly, Hezbollah have agreed to lay down their weapons (this is a linked ZeroHedge article) under the proposed peace framework, a development that would be unprecedented if fully implemented. For organizations that have long defined themselves through Iran and armed resistance, voluntarily disarming would represent a historic shift with significant implications for regional security and the prospects for a lasting political settlement. Does this mean that funding for Hamas and Hezbollah is being squeezed? Independent verification of any disarmament and the long term durability of such agreements will ultimately determine their significance. Why would Israel's Netanyahu "kill Trump's Board of Peace" (see The Shadow Government Steering America's Iran War).

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Israel's Ghoulish Settlers Eye Up Gaza, As Netanyahu Kills Trump's Board of Peace

by Andy Worthington | July 29, 2026 

Reprinted from Andy Worthington's website.

On Sunday evening (July 19), a group of some of the most repulsive, ghoulish people on the face of the earth marched towards the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world to declare their intention to re-colonize Gaza, to re-establish three Israeli settlements that were dismantled in 2005 when, under Ariel Sharon, 21 settlements in total were abandoned, occupied, at the time, by 8,000 Israeli settlers.

A deeper and far more European crisis...

Editor's note: ...is marked by continued social fragmentation, political paralysis, and the erosion of traditional Western institutions in Spain. Spain will likely be the first European country to fall with Spain, like much of Europe, facing a civilizational decline driven by uncontrolled social pressures, weakened incompetent leadership, and the inability of governments to confront growing instability. Spain is now a symbol of a broader Western crisis in which national identity, security, and political authority are increasingly under strain and are being emasculated. At the NATO summit in Ankara, President Trump instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off trade with Spain over defense spending, calling Madrid a "wasted cause" over its NATO contributions. It's not about "defense spending." It's political related to Israel. The Spaniards who know that their country is overwhelmed with Muslim migrants, advocated for the destruction of Israel and now Spain is going to pay.

Un'operazione organizzata da 🇺🇸Washington e 🇮🇱Tel Aviv e coordinata con le 🇲🇦autorità marocchine per destabilizzare la 🇪🇸#Spagna, fare un regalo all'estrema destra europea, e punire il Paese che ha osato sfidare l'Impero americano e i suoi sgherri armati israeliani. #Ceuta pic.twitter.com/5vyeudXYgi

— Michele Gamba 🇮🇹🇪🇺🇵🇸🇨🇺✯PD✯ (@MicGamba) July 31, 2026

Are today's Silicon Valley elites following...

Editor's note: ...Karl Marx's political playbook while calling it technological progress? It appears powerful tech billionaires are concentrating wealth, data, and political influence in ways that resemble Marxist collectivism, even as they talk out of the sides of their mouths about "innovation and free enterprise." It also likens these technology oligarchs to pirates who seize digital territory and private assets, raising concerns about the future of individual liberty, private property, and economic freedom in the age of AI. Call them what they are: hyperscaler pirates. If you think about it, these digital Bolsheviks are nothing more than petty thieves. AI is a powerful technology alright, but much of the current AI revolution is driven by marketing bullshit, unapologetic hype and inflated promises, with some tech companies acting less like visionary innovators and more like petty thieves stealing wealth, data, art, music and control while selling a future that will never match their exaggerated claims. And the dark irony is that these digital Bolsheviks are bitching and moaning that China is "stealing LLMs from US frontier AI models" through a process known as distillation, which involves leveraging existing US AI models to develop competing systems.

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Tech Bros Run the Marxist Playbook

By James Rickards | July 29, 2026

Can Marxism offer a framework for understanding artificial intelligence (AI) and the tech bros behind it?

This is not to suggest that Marxism is a viable economic system or a practical alternative to capitalism. It’s not. But Karl Marx was a heterodox economist before he became an ideologue, and some of his ideas are powerful tools for understanding economics, even if his overall program was a failure.

Fauci pleaded the 5th Amendment 111 times...

Editor's note: ...under the US Constitution. Why now is the US Constitution upheld with such reverence when it has literally been trashed in all other aspects of American life? If you were pulled over for some traffic infraction in the US and pleaded the 4th Amendment, law enforcement would smash through your car window, likely taser you and drag you out of your vehicle. If anyone else "pleaded the 5th" in any hearing or court you would be thrown in jail for contempt. Welcome to the "Fauci Show." If "the virus wasn't found in nature" neither was Fauci. Fauci is some sort of freakish corporate construct not found in nature.

Dr. Fauci Senate Hearing Postmortem: Accused Rand Paul Of "UNHINGED OBSESSION WITH ME," Lawyer Ejected For Unruly Conduct & Unlawfully Pleaded The Fifth 111 Times
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GOP senators see path for Fauci prosecution through IRS official's similar Fifth Amendment flub

Lois Lerner gave opening statement, then clammed up in 2013 hearing on IRS discrimination against conservative applications for tax-exempt status, and it didn't work, Sen. Lankford notes at Fauci's inquisition.

By Greg Piper | July 29, 2026

The San Francisco 49ers trounced the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV, the biggest blowout in the game's history. The Seattle Seahawks snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Super Bowl XLIX through the most notorious goal-line decision in history, delaying the Emerald City's second Vince Lombardi Trophy for 11 years.