AIs and “stealing” knowledge — the collective is destroying the motivation for generating new knowledge

AIs and “stealing” knowledge — the collective is destroying the motivation for generating new knowledge. By Peter Girnus., who works for for Google’s Threat Intelligence Group.

Don’t steal from Google:

I published a report this month about “distillation attacks” — when outside actors query our models thousands of times to extract the underlying logic and replicate it.

We identified over 100,000 prompts from a single campaign. We called it “intellectual property theft.” We called it a “violation of our Terms of Service.” We said it “represents a form of IP theft” that we would disrupt, mitigate, and potentially pursue legal action against.

What Google stole from the world:

I need to tell you how we built the model they are trying to steal.

We scraped the internet. The entire internet. We crawled every website, every forum, every blog, every book we could digitize, every academic paper, every Reddit comment, every news article, every piece of creative writing that anyone ever posted anywhere.

We did not ask. We did not compensate. We did not attribute. We ingested the collective output of human civilization and called it a training dataset. …

We built Gemini on the commons. Every blog post, every open-source project, every Stack Overflow answer, every personal essay someone wrote at 2 AM — we ingested it, we processed it, we monetized it. The people who wrote those things did not receive an email. They did not receive a check. They received a subscription offer. …

Researchers found over 200 million copyright symbols in our training data. Publishers discovered that Gemini can reproduce entire chapters of their books verbatim. There are active lawsuits. Disney sent cease-and-desist letters. The European Publishers Council filed an antitrust complaint. A class action is expanding. A hearing is scheduled for May.

Double standard:

We called what we did “research.”

We called what they are doing to us “theft.”

I want to explain the difference.

  • When we scrape the entirety of human knowledge without permission and use it to build a commercial product we sell for $20 a month, that is innovation.
  • When someone queries our model 100,000 times through the API we provide to extract the reasoning we built from their data, that is a distillation attack.

The distinction is that we did it first. And we wrote the Terms of Service.

I should explain what “distillation” means. It is when someone takes the output of a mature model and uses it to train a smaller, cheaper model. The knowledge flows from the teacher to the student. We call this theft when it happens to us. We call it “knowledge distillation” when we do it to the open web. We even have a product page for it. You can distill Gemini, with our permission, using our tools, for a fee. You cannot distill Gemini without our permission. The underlying technique is identical. The difference is the invoice.

Legal both ways??

In December 2025, we sued a company called SerpApi for scraping our search results. In the same quarter, publishers sued us for scraping their books. We are simultaneously the plaintiff and the defendant in the same crime. The crime is copying. We have filed it under two different categories depending on the direction.

Still, AIs are great tools. But if compensating the generators of knowledge is not done fairly, generation of knowledge will wither. If someone can’t benefit from the effort and risk of research or origination, why bother?

I am reminded of pop music. Up until the Internet, rock stars made megabucks from record sales. But now that everyone copies music, the originators don’t make nearly as much. And hasn’t music become poorer for it, with few new or original tunes anymore. Where as in the five decades prior to 2000, there was a veritable torrent of new and interesting music, and there were rock/pop stars. Now: no reward, no motivation. Welcome to the collective, welcome to the longhouse.

‘Death to America’ chants echo across US campuses

‘Death to America’ chants echo across US campuses. By Emily Sturge at Campus Reform.

For nearly five decades, Iran has chanted “Death to America.”

Now that same message is echoing across American college campuses.

Students are marching in support of Iran, chanting anti-American slogans, and celebrating violence against the United States. This disturbing trend is fueled by radical campus activism and the ideological environment inside America’s universities.

After the United States and Israel carried out targeted strikes against Iranian leadership on Feb. 28, an anti-Israel student group linked to Columbia University posted the phrase “Marg bar Amrika,” which is Farsi for “Death to America.” Photos circulating on social media show protesters at Yale University marching on campus with signs displaying the same slogan. The violent phrase calling for the death and destruction of the U.S. has been chanted by Iran’s regime for decades.. …

Students across the country at schools like San Jose State University in California, Louisiana State University, and the University of Illinois Chicago marched in support of Iran and cheered for retaliation against America.

Meanwhile, at British universities (and prisons):

NY bombers yelling “Allahu akbar” narrowly avoid mass casualties; media looks the other way

NY bombers yelling “Allahu akbar” narrowly avoid mass casualties; media looks the other way. By National Review.

On Saturday, an internet troll named Jake Lang staged an anti-Muslim protest in front of Gracie Mansion — currently the residence of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Both its title (“Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City”) and scheduled main event (a “pig roast”) made its nature as an attention-getting provocation clear enough. Lang expected angry counterprotesters and received them in due course.

What neither he nor any of the peaceful counterprotesters in attendance expected was for two young men — identified in reports as Emir Balat (age 18) and Ibrahim Kayumi (age 19) — to rush forward, shout “Allahu akbar,” and hurl improvised explosive devices into the crowd. The bombs, filled with bolts and screws, thankfully failed to detonate, and the two men were immediately apprehended by a fast-moving NYPD.

There is no doubt as to their motivations: Both men spoke freely and unrepentantly to police at the scene, proudly claiming inspiration from ISIS and stating they had intended their terrorist atrocity to be “bigger than Boston” — a reference to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that took the lives of three and injured scores more. Only the incompetence of the bombers prevented Saturday from turning into one of the darkest days in recent New York history.

 

 

Media lies to protect Islam:

Yet one would know none of this were one to go only by the headlines and framing devices the mainstream media have consistently used to explain this story to American readers …

It is impossible not to notice that all of these headlines — or countless others from similarly situated media outlets — are carefully crafted to avoid stating a politically inconvenient truth: Islamic terrorists came horrifyingly close to detonating bombs in a crowd of protesters.

Instead, our attention is directed toward the “hateful” nature of the rally, and readers are asked to fill in the missing narrative gaps with their own imaginations instead.

By Tuesday, the sugarcoating of the obvious — that homegrown, self-radicalized jihadis had targeted a protest and nearly murdered who-knows-how-many people outside Gracie Mansion — had moved well into parody. CNN led the morning with a widely mocked (and subsequently deleted) tweet framing the acts of Balat and Kayumi as a soft-focus human interest story: “Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather . . .” the piece begins. (You’ll never believe what happened next!)

Jenny Holland at Spiked:

The first reaction from the media was about as confused as a dementia patient lost in a busy garden centre. Screen grabs widely shared on X showed the New York Times headline: ‘Smoking jars of metal and fuses thrown at protest near mayor’s house’ – which it seems was later changed. The New York Times also ran a story with a subheading referring to the bomb as a ‘device that emitted smoke’. Local broadcaster NBC New York wrote: ‘Two people in custody after “suspicious devices” ignited outside NYC mayor’s official residence.’

A device that generates smoke… a container with metal and fuses? Was it a toaster? A lamp? The media left it open to interpretation. To paraphrase JK Rowling, I’m sure there used to be a word for these objects: Lombs? Jombs? Pombs?

TMZ called them ‘smoke bombs’. At least it used the B-word. These weren’t harmless pyrotechnics, however – they were homemade explosives filled with shrapnel and TATP, ‘a dangerous and highly volatile homemade explosive that has been used in IED attacks around the world’ (according to Time magazine). …

The mayor’s immediate reaction was to condemn the ‘vile protest rooted in white supremacy’.

New York governor Kathy Hochul blamed ‘both’ sides. Never mind that one side came armed only with a goat and a bad attitude, the other with multiple bombs and gave a statement to police that read in part: ‘I pledge allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage you kufar.’ (sic) …

The lesson the media are teaching you:

Coming to New York to chuck bombs at non-Muslims is just part of life in an open, tolerant city. If anything, it should be celebrated!

However, coming to New York to loudly complain about Muslims wanting to bomb non-Muslims is an outrage of the highest order and will not be tolerated.

Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media: It’s Not a Phobia If They Keep Showing up With Bombs.

a phobia is an irrational fear. Given that Islam’s most ardent practitioners have tended towards murderous rampage for well over a thousand years, I would posit that any fear of them is quite rational indeed. In fact, not being a little leery of the “Allahu Akbar!” crowd is an affirmation of insanity.

The Religion of Peace has a real affinity for things that explode and make a lot of noise.

That juxtaposition isn’t going unnoticed by those of us who are constantly accused of being Islamophobes. Those who insist that the bad seeds in Islam are a mere fraction of the whole have a case that gets weaker every year. They’re also getting quieter.

Because they know that none of this is a phobia.

China is still the coal furnace of the world

China is still the coal furnace of the world. By Joanne Nova.

This is the latest graph of coal plants in operation in the world today.

Luckily there is one place on Earth where carbon emissions are irrelevant.

While most CO2 emissions cause wars, droughts, and kill eagles, there are some CO2 emissions that just create refrigerators, so nobody minds. …

The UN has met every year for twenty-eight years to badger everyone to stop using coal to appease the Goddess of Trace Gases and Weird Weather — all while China became the coal furnace of the world.

Or perhaps The UN met every year, so China could do exactly that? Lord above, imagine if the bureaucratic diplomats of the West could be bought off so easily by trophies, trinkets and photo-opportunities? Or perhaps they were naively trapped in cheap honeypot schemes? As a trade strategy, it would be a bargain. And it surely was.

Somehow life on Earth depends on Extinction Rebellion protestors, but they can’t seem to find the Chinese Embassy.

Michael Arouet:

While the US understands that energy independence means prosperity and geopolitical security, Europe continues to sacrifice its economy, security and relevance on the altar of the green Net Zero religion.

 

 

But Germany was tricked into going backwards:

 

Meanwhile, evidence of actual global warming beyond a continuation of the warming trend since 1650 remains mighty scarce.

Average of 125 years of mostly rural USA weather stations
(with unadjusted data, as measured )

Harvey Weinstein Says #MeToo Was Just Greedy Women Chasing Payouts: ‘March to the Money Pile’

Harvey Weinstein Says #MeToo Was Greedy Women Chasing Payouts: ‘March to the Money Pile’. By Maer Roshan at The Hollywood Reporter.

From an interview with Harvey Weinstein in jail at Rikers.

At the apex of his career, Harvey mostly got a pass for appalling behavior. He was an A-list Hollywood producer with his mitts on magazines, theater, publishing and politics. He palled around with prime ministers and presidents. Then, in 2017, a set of blockbuster stories — in The New York Times and The New Yorker — revealed his history of sexual harassment and abuse, precipitating his dizzying fall from grace. …

His six years of incarceration had failed to inspire any genuine contrition. The world may have branded him a monster, but Harvey still considers himself a victim — crucified for a bygone era of Hollywood sins. When pressed, he concedes that his behavior may have been loutish, pathetic and even abusive. But he insists he’s no rapist — just an oversexed schmuck who made some stupid moves and accidentally launched a global social movement.

Unfortunately for him, three successive juries have disagreed. Since the first news stories appeared, close to 100 women have come forward to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct …

Q: There are dozens and dozens of women who tell a variation of the same basic story. You followed them to their hotel rooms or trapped them in yours. You forced them to have sex with you. You got furious or retaliated when they turned you down. You claim that none of this is true. But what accounts for the uniformity of all these reports? Why do you think all these people are so willing to lie about you?

Weinstein: For a lot of reasons. But mainly because there’s money involved. You know, one woman got half a million dollars. Another got paid $500,000. A third got $3 million. All anyone had to do to walk off with a check was fill out a form that said I sexually assaulted them. So they filled it out, and the insurance company eventually paid out tens of millions of dollars. And Disney, too — Disney didn’t want a public fight, so they just paid people to go away. It becomes a bandwagon effect. People can say anything they want about me, and it’s in the public record. But very few of these stories have been litigated in court. …

Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully? Did I overplay my hand? Yes. Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that. Look, I should never have gone out with the people I went out with. I was married to a fantastic woman who had no idea what I was doing. I lied all the time. I improperly used my staff to hide these things. But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.

The thing I was doing wrong was not sexual assault. It was cheating on my wife. I was desperate to keep that secret from her. I did not want Disney to find out. I did everything to protect myself from that kind of scandal. …

I didn’t push anybody. I didn’t physically move anybody.

I’m just going to say Rosanna Arquette, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie — they just exaggerated. They wanted to be part of the club. And they destroyed me. …

When Alyssa Milano said “Me too,” she didn’t mean #MeToo about Harvey. She said “Me too,” and then everybody said #MeToo about me. Every woman I was with, every friend that I had. It was a march to the money pile.

So twentieth century. Now that society is largely feminized, looking funny at a woman can be a crime if she doesn’t like it, and regret rape is rape. Objectivity and proof? No, so last century.

Imagine the same me-too standard was applied to certain immigrants, in say Rotherham. But no, those women don’t get that level of protection.

Why the media now loves Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly — anti-MAGA

Why the media now loves Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly — anti-MAGA! By Scott Pinsker at PJ Media.

The most overrepresented, overhyped, and overexposed political bloc in today’s mainstream media is… any guesses?

I’ll give you a hint: They’re in the Republican Party (more or less). And the amount of media attention they’re receiving is nothing short of extraordinary. In all their years, they’ve never received better press!

And in a weird, inexplicable coincidence, their business model directly depends on being noticed.

Not liked or loved. Not supported, trusted, or believed. And certainly not “winning hearts and minds” — because so far, they’ve failed to influence almost anyone. …

But it’s a simple financial formula:

  1. Notice them.
  2. Click on them.
  3. Ca-ching!

I’m speaking of those MAGA-adjacent podcasters, “influencers,” and politicos — Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Megyn Kelly, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, and Thomas Massie — who’ve sided with the Democrats to oppose the Iran War, along with the MAGA members they represent. …

Would the media lie?

And in another weird, inexplicable coincidence, the mainstream media is trumpeting their Iran objections with gusto …

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Given this vast degree of media attention, you’d get the impression that the Republican Party has fractured — and the MAGA movement was embroiled in a bitter civil war. After all, virtually every major media outlet in our country has aired the grievances of Carlson, Fuentes, Owens, and Kelly — many more than once. Why, anti-war sentiment must be rising!

But the trouble is, it’s just not true.

Only 11% of Republicans oppose the Iran War. An overwhelming majority — 85% — support President Trump.

And Republicans who self-identify as MAGA support the Iran War by an even WIDER margin: 90% support it; just 5% oppose.

Which means, most of the Republicans who oppose the Iran War were “Never Trumpers” in the first place — and NOT part of the Make America Great Again movement.

Self-appointed grifters:

So how the heck did self-appointed MAGA spokesmen like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Marjorie Taylor Greene get this much media attention when they only represent 5% of the MAGA movement? (Not 5% of the American people or 5% of the Republican Party, mind you — just 5% of the MAGA movement!)

How does that make any sense?

It’s because they’re telling you a story that the media wants you to believe.

The mainstream media hates Donald Trump with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. …

Carlson and Company are simply a means to an end; a blunt weapon to hurt the president and shatter our movement. It’s why they’re receiving press so ridiculously disproportionate to the small size of their bloc. …

Anti-war “influencers” (and their 5% of MAGA) are the most overhyped, overrepresented, and overexposed bloc in America today. They’re everywhere. Which makes them seem far bigger and more influential than they actually are.

And that was the media’s goal all along.

Pam Bondi, US Attorney General, Moves to Military Housing Because of Threats.

Pam Bondi, US Attorney General, Moves to Military Housing Because of Threats. By Glenn Thrush at the NYT.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has quietly relocated to one of several military bases in the Washington area where other Trump administration officials also live, after facing threats from drug cartels and critics of her actions in handling the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to people familiar with the situation.

Ms. Bondi moved from an apartment in the city within the past month in response to an array of threats flagged to her staff by federal law enforcement, these people said, including an uptick in criticism of Ms. Bondi, and threats relayed by investigators. …

Several  Trump officials have had to move due to threats:

Ms. Bondi is the latest administration official to move into heavily guarded quarters at military facilities in or near the nation’s capital after citing danger from criminals, adversaries overseas and protesters.

Other officials who have relocated include Stephen Miller, the president’s top domestic policy adviser and the architect of his hard-line immigration policy; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Kristi Noem, the exiting homeland security secretary; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Lefties using jury nullification to subvert US immigration law

Lefties using jury nullification to subvert US immigration law. By Thomas Catenacci at The Washington Free Beacon.

A left-wing activist group is teaching liberals in Washington, D.C., and “across the United States” how to increase their chances of serving as jurors on cases brought by the Trump Department of Justice so they can undermine its chances of securing convictions, training materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

Freedom Trainers, whose fiscal sponsor is the George Soros-funded group Community Change, is working to make “jury nullification” — the practice of voting against a conviction even if the defendant broke the law — a go-to legal weapon for the Left. Its sessions and training materials, reviewed by the Free Beacon, show how the group teaches “committed people” to gum up federal prosecutions.

The group tells attendees to keep their addresses current to ensure they receive summons. Then, during the jury selection process, it advises them to “Never mention jury nullification,” “Don’t signal an agenda,” and “say you’ll listen to the evidence before forming conclusions.” Once selected, the group tells its trainees to vote “not guilty” for any reason. …

The trainings walk activists through how they can increase their odds of both receiving a jury summons and being selected for the jury.

The group emphasizes, for example, that activists should dress neutrally, give brief answers, and say they will listen to the evidence before forming conclusions during jury selection. They should also never mention jury nullification before or during selection.

Wow! Think of all the virtue points a leftie on the jury would score by getting a guilty immigrant off. Their friends would be so envious!

These trends always show up in Australia before long.

Iran Boasts It Has Destroyed Hundreds Of US Missiles With Its Buildings

Iran Boasts It Has Destroyed Hundreds Of US Missiles With Its Buildings. By The Babylon Bee.

Despite losing dozens of members of its leadership, the embattled Ayatollah’s regime remained defiant while taunting the world that it had successfully wiped out hundreds — if not thousands — of U.S. missiles, drones, and bombs by blocking them with buildings and military bases throughout the country.

“The wreckage of their bombs can be seen strewn throughout the rubble of our cities,” new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a recorded address. “They thought that their missiles were formidable, but they completely disintegrate when they engulf our buildings in great explosions. When the smoke clears, you can see that the bombs are no more. When you look out across our leveled cities, unobstructed by any buildings, you can clearly see that there are no missiles in sight. Checkmate, America.” …

At publishing time, the Iranian government had also released a statement boasting that its navy had gone to the bottom of the sea to avoid detection.

 

This however is real, propaganda being served up in Iran:

 

The West will turn into South Africa

The West will turn into South Africa. By Geiger Capital.

Curtis Yarvin [aka Moldbug] says the West has “no balls” now and will simply turn into South Africa…

Americans and Europeans will not resist the mass immigration and population replacement. You know, the thought that they will grab their muskets or whatever. It won’t happen. Won’t happen at all. What will happen is exactly what happened in South Africa.

They will just acknowledge that they’ve lost their power and their country forever. And then they will sit quietly in their houses and build more and more barbed wire and electric fences until finally they are exterminated in one big pogrom. That’s the future. That’s what will happen to your children.”

 

 

Speaking of thoughtful philosophers with a good track record:

 

Michel Houellebecq:

“That’s how a #civilization dies; without worries, without danger or drama and with very little carnage; a civilization just dies of weariness, of self-disgust.”

Erick:

Americans or Europeans didn’t suddenly “lose their balls.”

For at least the last 60 years people in these countries have been slowly trained to think a certain way. Movies, television, universities, and media constantly communicate what is normal, moral, and acceptable. Culture shapes the framework people use to interpret the world.

When the culture itself teaches people that certain reactions are wrong, immoral, or even unthinkable, most people won’t resist. Not because they’re weak, but because the framework in their heads tells them not to.

Some people can step outside that framework if they think about it deeply. But it’s obvious that cultural groupthink is real.

Capitalism arose in Britain first because there was no standing army to enforce the will of the parasitic overlords

Capitalism arose in Britain first because there was no standing army to enforce the will of the parasitic overlords. By Martin Durkin at Gorilla Science.

Capitalism didn’t arise on the European continent for another 400 years, after Britain had already become a rich superpower. This explains why the Anglo tradition is for liberty and democracy, whereas everywhere else tends to a greater degree to autocracy and socialism.

 

 

 

This history is vital to understanding the world, but is never taught today. Naturally, the left hates it.

The U.S. went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon

The U.S. went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon. By Haviv Rettig Gur, in The Free Press.

Across the world, from Brazil to Beijing, London to Karachi, the argument is the same: America is fighting Israel’s war. But this isn’t true. And the confusion matters …

This is not a war about Israel. This is not a war for Israel’s sake. Israel is a beneficiary, a capable and willing local partner, but it is not the reason America is in this fight. America is playing a much bigger game, about more than what happens in the Middle East.

This isn’t one war, but two.

The small war — the Middle East:

There is a regional chessboard, on which Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Gulf states all play. Iran’s proxies, its drones and ballistic missiles, its nuclear ambitions, its funding of Hezbollah and the Houthis: All of that belongs primarily to this smaller game. Israel has always understood this board. So have the Saudis. So has everyone in the neighborhood.

The big war — USA vs China:

But there is a second chessboard, vastly larger, on which the United States and China are the primary players. On this board, the central question of the next 30 years is being worked out: whether the American-led global order survives, or whether China displaces it. Every significant American foreign policy decision, from the pivot to Asia to the tariff wars to the posture in the Pacific, is ultimately a move on this board. …

America is in this fight because of China. Specifically, it is about dismantling the most significant Chinese forward base outside of East Asia.

Iran stepped up from the small war to the big war when it allied with China:

Iran, for most of its history as an adversary of the United States, existed only on the smaller board. It was a headache. It was a regional destabilizer. It funded terrorism, harassed shipping, threatened America’s allies, and kept the Middle East expensive and unpredictable. But it was not, in any direct sense, a threat to American primacy on the global stage. It was Israel’s problem, the Gulf states’ problem, and only tangentially Washington’s.

That changed when Iran made one of the most consequential strategic miscalculations of the century. …

Squeezed by decades of American sanctions and increasingly isolated, Iran turned to China as its economic lifeline. The relationship deepened rapidly. Today, roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports go to China, processed through a network of Chinese refineries that operate beyond the reach of American sanctions enforcement. That oil revenue supplies around a quarter of Iran’s budget, a huge portion of which is spent on Iran’s military forces. The Iranian military is thus funded, in significant part, by Chinese purchases.

Without Beijing, the regime cannot pay its security forces, cannot subsidize basic goods, and would soon face the kind of internal collapse that its own ideology has spent 40 years trying to prevent. In other words, Iran has become — has made itself — utterly dependent on China.

China, for its part, was not being charitable. It was being strategic. Iranian oil, sold cheaply because Tehran has no other buyers, has helped Beijing build a strategic petroleum reserve exceeding a billion barrels, enough to sustain the Chinese economy for roughly a hundred days in the event of a naval blockade. China’s single greatest vulnerability is the American Navy’s ability to interdict its energy imports, especially at vulnerable choke points like the Malacca Straits. Iranian oil, flowing outside American oversight, was a direct hedge against that vulnerability. (So, by the way, was Venezuela’s, another U.S. operation that was ultimately about containing China.) …

China was also arming Iran with systems specifically designed to threaten commercial and American military assets. Reports emerged in late February of a near-finalized deal to supply Iran with supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles capable of speeds exceeding Mach 3 and engineered to evade the Aegis defense systems deployed on American carrier strike groups. China was replacing Iranian government and military software with closed Chinese systems, hardening Iran against CIA and Mossad cyber operations. Joint naval exercises between China, Russia, and Iran in the Straits of Hormuz were becoming regular events, building real-time operational familiarity between the three navies. Iran had switched from the GPS system to the Chinese BeiDou system. And Iran was providing China with the port at Jask, as part of China’s “string of pearls” base system in the Indian Ocean.

The picture that emerges from all of this is of a Chinese forward base, a linchpin of the country’s naval architecture; cyber efforts; an economic Belt and Road influence program — every element of Chinese power projection and empire-building — positioned at the throat of the global oil supply, armed with weapons designed to penetrate advanced American defenses and kill American sailors, and embedded in a strategic architecture whose explicit purpose is to constrain American military freedom in any future conflict over Taiwan.

When Iran began to look like that, it stopped being Israel’s problem and became America’s.

Pretty obvious when it’s pointed out. I wonder why the legacy media haven’t mentioned it?

Iran Strikes: Day 9

Iran Strikes: Day 9. By Lawrence Person, who does a great job explaining why he presents the military news from Iran:

One reason I do these updates is that the vast majority of MSM reporting is of such poor quality. It’s all government talking heads said this or critics of Trump said that. In other words, lazy reporting crap no one cares about.

Back before American journalists became self-licking ice cream cones, war reporting used to include maps, unit movements, logistics, combat reports from journalists embedded with U.S. units, etc. The BBC still seems to do a little of that, but I’m not seeing that from American outlets, maybe because it’s hard work. They don’t even seem to be bothering to tell ChatGPT to do it for them.

Hence these roundups to fill the gap.

Some excepts from today:

 

To many, it seems like an end-of-days scenario: Qatar and Israel on the same team.

Who would have thought? In September, Israel attacked in Qatar, targeting terrorist leaders the Gulf state was housing. But here we are. After five days of war with Iran, the Iranians have succeeded in putting Israel and Qatar on the same team — to say nothing of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and even Saudi Arabia — all countries targeted over the past five days by Iranian missiles and drones.

By some estimates, Iran has fired more missiles and drones at Gulf states combined than at Israel.

What Iran may have done is something Israel has long struggled to achieve diplomatically: place Israel and several Sunni Arab states on the same side of a regional conflict. By striking the Gulf states directly, Tehran has widened the war in a way that forces governments across the region to reconsider where their interests truly lie.

Aircraft carriers:

Having two aircraft carriers launching strikes at Iran evidently wasn’t enough, as the USS George H. W. Bush is now poised to join the party, joining the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R. Ford. Obviously you need ships named after Republican presidents to win wars. If you had the USS Barack Obama, it could only drop pallets of cash, and the USS Bill Clinton could only hit on underage Iranian girls

You did it first:

Since Iran has hit the oil facilities on Persian gulf nations, Israel hits oil storage facilities near Tehran….

Kurds:

For all the talk of Kurdish forces entering Iran, Trump has said he’s told them not to. But we have numerous reports of Israeli jets hitting targets like IRCG posts along the border and police stations in Iranian Kurdistan.

Etc. etc. See the link.