Jeff Meiser

Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.

So US companies are exporting techno-authoritarianism?

apnews.com/article/chin...

DoD renaming to DoW is the apogee of GWOT lethality cult thinking

Greenland: Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged influence operation The aim was reportedly to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark.

Today’s WTF moment

“the aim was to infiltrate Greenland's society and promote its secession from Denmark to the US”
www.bbc.com/news/article...

The Unparalleled Devastation of Gaza Why punishing civilians has not yielded strategic success.

“It has been clear from Israeli actions as well as the rhetoric of numerous Israeli officials that Israel’s war is not simply against Hamas but aimed at all the residents of Gaza,” writes Robert Pape.

New article documenting attacks on academic freedom in the DoD

www.advancejournal.org/article/1431...

The Importance of the Battle of Leuthen - War on the Rocks In the snowy evening of Dec. 5, 1757, a Prussian grenadier sang out the chorus of the hymn Nun danket alle Gott (“Now Thank We All Our God”), and was

I’m surprised by the WOTR battle studies series because I thought batttles didn’t matter?
Or maybe not everyone drank the koolaid?

warontherocks.com/2025/08/the-...

💀💀💀

The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics President Trump is imitating the Chinese Communist Party by extending political control ever deeper into the economy.

The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics

www.wsj.com/economy/the-...

It’s a great book

100% co-sign this thread

McKenzie thinks all the nation-building shit was a bad idea but also was against leaving in 2021

I’ve heard good things about The Grand Design: Strategy and the US Civil War by Stoker, but haven’t read it yet

Not specifically I don’t think

Chapter 14

His book

I enjoyed Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, though I have to admit it’s the only book I read on the topic so I can’t say if it’s the best

“In our planning process, assumptions are assertions about a future condition, upon which the plan is based”
Hmm, “assertions about a future condition”?
Does he mean if-then statements, if we do x then y will happen?

Gen. McKenzie: “The Doha agreement signed in February 2020 was, to use a phrase from our operational jargon, the proximate ‘defeat mechanism’ that brought down the Afghan government”

Gen. McKenzie says we lost in AFG because of the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan.
He also says it’s Tommy Frank’s fault we didn’t get bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.

That’s what’s up

US bureau of statistics next year:

Love this thread

Radioactive wasp nest discovered at old US nuclear weapons site The nest with 10 times more radiation than permitted was found at a facility that once produced parts for US nuclear weapons.

😳

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Senate confirms Jan. 6 denier Joseph Kent to head counterterrorism center Kent’s nomination was approved despite objections from Democrats, who said his embrace of conspiracy theories and past associations with extremists were disqualifying.

It is what it is

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

No self-respecting Americanist would assign this book except to demolish it

Trump lawsuit against Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward dismissed The judge in the case said Trump failed to “plausibly” show that he and Woodward intended to be co-authors of an audiobook, or that Trump had any copyright interest in his responses.

Trump lawsuit against Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward dismissed

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

So gross.

Through Trial and Error, Iran Found Gaps in Israel’s Storied Air Defenses The proportion of missiles that slipped through doubled during the 12-day war, data show, as Tehran found vulnerabilities through trial and error.

“In the first half of the conflict, 8% of Iran’s missiles slipped through Israel’s defenses. By the second half of the war, 16% got past Israel’s interceptors”

“on June 22, two days before the end of the war… 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel”

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Two Ships Desperately Tried to Fight Off Houthi Attacks. Help Never Arrived. The commercial ships tried to fight off the attacks, the group’s most complex and violent yet, for more than 48 hours.

Curious.
“No U.S. or allied warship was around to help.”

www.wsj.com/world/middle...

😕