SimonFromFlorida
186.4K posts
EXCLUSIVE: Lord Mandelson was given approval for the highest level of security clearance during his tenure as British ambassador to the US despite failing vetting, The Times has been told Mandelson was given access to ‘strap 3’ material, the highest level of security clearance and is reserved for information which, if leaked, would present a security risk in itself or could put intelligence sources at risk Mandelson’s appointment was announced in December 2024, despite warnings from officials about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier and paedophile, and his business links to China and Russia On January 28, UK Vetting Security advised against appointing Mandelson. While the precise reason is not clear, it is said to relate to his foreign links rather than his relationship with Epstein Robbins was informed of the assessment, determined that the risk was manageable and gave him approval for security clearance known as “developed vetting” Shortly before his appointment, Mandelson was told to formally apply for strap clearance, but was warned it could take “at least three months”. The Times has been told that it was done quickly because of the significance of his role. A government source said this was not unusual for senior positions Strap three information is shared on a “need to know” basis and as British ambassador to the US, this was likely to have included intelligence on China, Russia and other foreign powers thetimes.com/article/4e05b5…
🆘 Former competition regulator boss drops bombshell: Labour is “holding the economy back” by favouring US tech giants over British competitors. Marcus Bokkerink says the government has “stood down” the CMA, creating dangerous dependency on a handful of American 🇺🇸 firms and killing innovation. This is the domestic side of the Mandelson scandal: Atlanticist elite deal-making that puts US 🇺🇸 capital first.
Exclusive: The United Arab Emirates has opened talks with the U.S. about obtaining a financial backstop in case the Iran war plunges the oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a deeper crisis, U.S. officials said. wsj.com/world/middle-e…
AIPAC says I’m not Team America. Why? Because I want to spend the $400b to make college & trade schools free and childcare $10 day. Not on the Trump/Netanyahu alliance for an illegal, immoral war in Iran.
#عاجل ينشر جيش الدفاع نطاق خط الدفاع الأمامي الذي تعمل فيه قواته في جنوب لبنان لمنع تهديد مباشر على بلدات الشمال 🔸في هذه الأيام تعمل خمس فرق عسكرية إلى جانب قوات سلاح البحرية بشكل متزامن جنوب خط الدفاع الأمامي في جنوب لبنان لتدمير البنى التحتية التابعة لحزب الله في المنطقة ومنع تهديد مباشر على بلدات الشمال.
Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software. 5. The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Our adversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed. 6. National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost. 7. If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software. We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm’s way. 8. Public servants need not be our priests. Any business that compensated its employees in the way that the federal government compensates public servants would struggle to survive. 9. We should show far more grace towards those who have subjected themselves to public life. The eradication of any space for forgiveness—a jettisoning of any tolerance for the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche—may leave us with a cast of characters at the helm we will grow to regret. 10. The psychologization of modern politics is leading us astray. Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed. 11. Our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice. 12. The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on A.I. is set to begin. 13. No other country in the history of the world has advanced progressive values more than this one. The United States is far from perfect. But it is easy to forget how much more opportunity exists in this country for those who are not hereditary elites than in any other nation on the planet. 14. American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace. Too many have forgotten or perhaps take for granted that nearly a century of some version of peace has prevailed in the world without a great power military conflict. At least three generations — billions of people and their children and now grandchildren — have never known a world war. 15. The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia. 16. We should applaud those who attempt to build where the market has failed to act. The culture almost snickers at Musk’s interest in grand narrative, as if billionaires ought to simply stay in their lane of enriching themselves . . . . Any curiosity or genuine interest in the value of what he has created is essentially dismissed, or perhaps lurks from beneath a thinly veiled scorn. 17. Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime. Many politicians across the United States have essentially shrugged when it comes to violent crime, abandoning any serious efforts to address the problem or take on any risk with their constituencies or donors in coming up with solutions and experiments in what should be a desperate bid to save lives. 18. The ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures drives far too much talent away from government service. The public arena—and the shallow and petty assaults against those who dare to do something other than enrich themselves—has become so unforgiving that the republic is left with a significant roster of ineffectual, empty vessels whose ambition one would forgive if there were any genuine belief structure lurking within. 19. The caution in public life that we unwittingly encourage is corrosive. Those who say nothing wrong often say nothing much at all. 20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim. 21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful. 22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what? Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska techrepublicbook.com
