2/

Russia & Putin
Putin deluded himself that AI-enabled warfare will solve his manpower problems & population bottlenecks. 1.3 million dead soldiers so far in Ukraine.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/putin-links-nuclear-buildout-to-russias-ai-ambitions/

wsj.com

(www.wsj.com)

How technophobe Putin led Russia to surrender in the AI arms race

The Kremlin made Yuri Gagarin the first man in space but now lags Luxembourg in AI — which the president seems to regard as a challenge to his authority

(www.thetimes.com)

@SnoopJ @aud it isn’t *quite* a milkshake duck in degree, but maybe in spirit

3/

Koch Network
Building a White Supremacist Constitution one brick at a time over 60 years.

The hate is now automated, corrupt, & well funded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

forbes.com

(www.forbes.com)

The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show

Right-wing political group Americans for Prosperity, backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, sees data centers as part of a larger pro-fossil fuel agenda.

DeSmog (www.desmog.com)

Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher (New Documents)

Many have noted that the Koch Brothers' dad was a Bircher, but new documents show Charles was, too.

Progressive.org (progressive.org)

With AI, the wealthy skip paying for hate-for-hire campaigns like Facebook, Tenet Media, or the Russian Internet Research Agency

Top Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg just apologized for racist ad targeting

She was “disgusted and disappointed.”

Mother Jones (www.motherjones.com)

The Kochs’ Anti-Civil Rights Roots: New Docs Expose Charles Koch’s Ties to John Birch Society

The Progressive magazine and Center for Media and Democracy have released new documents that show billionaire oil industrialist Charles Koch was an active member of the controversial right-wing John Birch Society during its campaigns against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Charles Koch was following in the footsteps of his father, Fred Koch, a leader of the John Birch Society from its founding. We speak with The Progressive’s Lisa Graves about her new article, “The Koch Cartel: Their

Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org)

Who Sponsored the Hate?

Jane Mayer on the Koch brothers’ surprising disapproval of Donald Trump, and their own history of toxic rhetoric.

The New Yorker (www.newyorker.com)

Access to this page has been denied

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(thehill.com)

Did the John Birch Society Win in the End?

Modern conservatism was built by purging the right’s reckless conspiracy theorists—but now they’ve taken over.

(www.thebulwark.com)

@mttaggart @catsalad wait, was there *any* truth in there whatsoever? Like, it sounds like it was 100% made up?

Just like the Daily Mail is known for?

@mttaggart ALAS, THE MOONSHARK HAS EATEN YOUR LINK.

4/

Just a moment...

(arlenegoldbard-1818.medium.com)

Steve Bannon’s Stay-Out-of-Jail Strategy: ‘Flood the Zone With Shit’

Steve Bannon’s lawyers invited the jury in his contempt of Congress trial down a rabbit hole to a land where they must doubt everything.

VICE (www.vice.com)

This infamous Steve Bannon quote is key to understanding America's crazy politics

A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

WRAL.com (www.wral.com)

Trump's Firehose of Falsehood

His refusal to concede is more than sour grapes. It's an information-warfare tactic to leave the public bewildered and cynical.

(www.persuasion.community)

Pam Bondi's performance in congressional hearings was an excellent example of Russian-style media manipulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood

Firehosing & automation
https://mediamanipulation.org/definitions/distributed-amplification/

Access Denied

(www.mdpi.com)

@mttaggart this seems so unlike Benji Edwards, I'm really surprised

@Npars01

Bondi's rendition looked more like the classic (and abhorent) cartoon version of hysterical female pms. Not how to impress the board in the western world. These women Trump goes for are all broken and the men stupid.

@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart
and while this was a faster response than the trans hit piece of a couple years ago, it's the same playbook: lock comments, promise an investigation, and hope it dies down over the weekend.
A pity really. A place I used to value. For me, the anti-trans piece was the end.

@http_error_418 @mttaggart @catsalad No, I saw the original Git page yesterday and there was a blog post from him after.

It's a mess, but it's real.

Edit: now with receipts!

@bnys @mttaggart Berger is an embarassment

@mttaggart

They surely pulled it and it now has their moonshark 404 page, the moonshark ate the AI slop.

Edit: since the story itself was about an AI agent, we can dub this a clusterfuck.

@mttaggart

More like ArseTechnica, am I right?

@arstechnica

@inpc Keep reading the thread friendo

@mttaggart did you archive that?

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange dead internet theory is true again

@mttaggart ah:

We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.

OK, we’ll wait and see…

@mttaggart@infosec.exchange

Hey remember in 2022 when @arstechnica@mastodon.social published a story about a hoax which the source they used admitted was a hoax but they wrote the article as if it was real? That article is still up.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250921080857/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/11/oculus-co-founder-makes-a-vr-headset-that-can-literally-kill-you/

RE: https://transfem.social/notes/ae7rksgrr9t400e0

@mttaggart Fuck! I thought that was real

@staringatclouds The event is real. The quotes in the story were hallucinated.