"It goes without saying that you shouldn’t trust Hegseth to walk your dog, let alone set the limits of warfare." My Swamp Notes newsletter with Richard Waters on the Pentagon's ominous take-down of Anthropic. Free to read. as.ft.com/r/e8dc25c9-1...
These statistics literally mean fuck all because they are measuring efficiency, not effectiveness
Correction. Orwell never said this. He did however, warn that: "political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” (That's Politics and the English Language, one of my favorite essays)
From maintenance backlogs to drone swarms, the Navy’s latest strategy confronts hard truths about readiness and risk. Writing the plan was the easy part.
For anyone outside of the UK, unfamiliar with UK satirical/news magazine Private Eye, this is how most (?) Europeans see the Trump administration.
Meta has a history of torturing their moderators and providing NOTHING in the way of mental health care. How do I know? Because I used to be a moderator for Meta and I got a $3,500 settlement for the PTSD they gave me.
When we tried to unionize, they moved their moderation to the Philippines.
My thing with Hegseth is that he wants you to think he was a scary, war-criming, door-kicker when he was actually a Minnesota National Guardsman assigned to the 101st Airborne Division as a replacement in Iraq, then quickly pulled from the line and shuffled off to a Civil Affairs unit mid-tour.
So, there’s this thing called the Total Munitions Requirement and it doesn’t give a fuck if you can bench press 315.
Only a single Arrow-3 interceptor launch recorded last night, coming from Sdot Micha.
Really remarkable shot of cluster munitions, likely from a Ghadr, starting at 00:32
An undamaged radar of the same model
Its unclear how extensive the damage is. The other two faces may still be operational depending on how messed up the interior is. Maybe a future image will capture the damaged face!
Damage to this EW site has likely complicated missile defense efforts for other areas in the Gulf
“People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're in to few wars. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to so little war in our country until you came along, we're just always peaceful. And I say, no, no, no, we’re going to war again"
Fascinating branding decision to rename it the DoW and then start insisting people don't call them wars
Smart play from Colby would be to lay out the multiverse theory
You cannot do blanket coverage by fiat. DFC can underwrite risk insurance but will need to be on a carrier by carrier basis and will come with a risk subsidy calculation.
No serious shipper will take “trust me bro, this is legal” when they’ve got crews and hundreds of millions in cargo endangered.
Glad to see my days of not taking anyone remotely associated with Liberty University seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
good. children should not be exposed to linux, their brains aren’t fully formed and capable of handling it
yes, nothing says "innovation reinvention" like a nepobaby trust fund brat with no meaningful experience being gifted a massive hollywood empire by his technofascist dad, who leveraged his corrupt influence over the country's pudding-headed autocrats to box out competitors (?)
As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.
Wait — IRGC control of the country was the plan?!?
Photo taken from a passenger car window showing a man wearing full camo biking along side the road. the bike is towing a dead deer, indicating the man is a hunter. in the background there is a burger king parking lot wherein a man is throwing up next to a car.
once and a while i like to share my favorite photo of all time
Raytheon Executive: I know you’re skeptical about buying American again. But hear me out. The MIM-104 Patriot is the only surface to air missile system with a proven track record of success against the US Air Force.
Danish Defense Minister: Continue.
Constitutionally, the Congress gets to decide. Practically, if they decline to exercise their Article 1 authorities, they are complicit. The U.S. system is designed for civilian-on-civilian dispute over war powers, we ought not leave it to military lawyers.
tech stuff that is very bad that isn't generative AI
- Betting markets
- Camera glasses (Meta)
- Fascist doorbell cameras
- Driverless cars clogging up cities
- EVs are still getting bigger -> makes them deadlier, more polluting (through more power consumption)
- Streaming death spiral
I hate that I understand all of this now. 🤣
A fun watch.
Fun fact, US passports did not have a gender marker until 1977, when a rising trend in unisex fashion started freaking the government out.
Starmer's ability to find the exact sweetspot which pisses off everyone is extraordinary. He's a savant.
Every month the United States provides even more reason to boycott its products and companies — the strikes on Iran being just the latest.
In light of that, it’s a great time to ditch the products and services of US tech companies. I made a comprehensive guide to help you.
Coming from a generation of Marines that grew up fighting in inland deserts despite having an anchor on our pocket, it took MCWL's operational wargame system to teach me to properly fear and respect national magazine depth and to understand the nudity of surface combatants once they're down to CIWS.
Anthropics team was relieved to hear that the government would be willing to remove those words, but one big problem remained: On Friday afternoon, Anthropic learned that the Pentagon still wanted to use the company's AI to analyze bulk data collected from Americans. That could include information such as the questions you ask your favorite chatbot, your Google search history, your GPS-tracked movements, and your credit-card transactions, all of which could be cross-referenced with other details about your life. Anthropics leadership told Hegseth's team that was a bridge too far, and the deal fell apart. Soon after, Hegseth
And I was told this was propaganda.
