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Gandalv
47.6K posts
Gandalv
@Microinteracti1
I write and make AI videos — geopolitics, science, culture — between the cracks of real life. If something landed, please buy me a coffee. It means a lot. ☕
London Entrou em Ağustos 2018
4.8K Seguindo78.4K Seguidores
For most of 2024, America was cruising along at +20 global favorability. Top Gear car, best in show, everyone wanted to be seen in it.
China was parked firmly below zero. Nobody liked it. Nobody admitted to liking it. It was the automotive equivalent of a Romanian people carrier.
Then, sometime around early 2025, America’s driver appeared to have an enormous brainfart at the wheel.
The line doesn’t drift downward. It doesn’t gently decline. It falls off a cliff with the elegance of a grand piano being pushed out of a window.
By April, the US had gone negative. For the first time in the survey’s history, more people around the world viewed America unfavorably than favorably.
China, meanwhile, did absolutely nothing impressive. It just stood there while America collapsed around it, and somehow ended up at +8.8.
The US is now at -1.5. China is at +8.8. A gap of over ten points, in the wrong direction, achieved in roughly four months.
You genuinely couldn’t do this on purpose. You would have to try extremely hard to throw away 20 years of soft power this quickly and this comprehensively.
And yet. Here we are.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
Gandalv@Microinteracti1
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Iran is throwing Shahed drones at American air defenses the way a toddler throws spaghetti at a wall. Cheap, relentless, and absolutely everywhere.
Ukraine has been dealing with exactly this for four and a half years. They’ve shot them down over Kyiv, over Odesa, over fields in the middle of nowhere. They’ve learned, painfully and expensively, how to track them, intercept them, and live with the constant sound of them at night.
The US military, with its $900 billion annual budget, its carrier groups, its fifth-generation fighters, apparently looked at all of that accumulated knowledge and decided: not relevant.
Now they’re in the Gulf, facing the same drone, from the same supplier, and apparently just as surprised as if the thing had been invented last Tuesday.
This is the future of warfare. It costs almost nothing. It doesn’t need a pilot. You don’t mourn it when it gets shot down. And if you send enough of them, some will get through. Every time.
Ukraine figured that out before most Western militaries were willing to admit drones were anything more than a novelty. Four and a half years of brutal, real-world testing. Mountains of data. Hard lessons written in blood.
The US had a front-row seat to all of it.
They just weren’t watching.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
Financial Times@FT
Iran, as it fights the US and Israel, has flooded the skies with its cheap Shahed drones to overwhelm air defences and strike high-value targets. John Reed explains why this unassuming weapon may just be the future of warfare. ft.trib.al/ARp0BXU?
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Trump says the US had no idea about the strike on Iran’s gas facility. Two American news outlets say that is complete nonsense.
According to sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal and Axios, Trump personally pre-approved the attack that has since thrown global energy markets into even greater chaos.
So to summarize: the man who approved it, didn’t know about it.
Right.
axios.com/2026/03/18/isr…
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
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3,200 ships. 20,000 civilian crew members. Trapped in a war zone the US created and never planned to manage.
The IMO has formally declared a humanitarian emergency in the Persian Gulf. Seafarers are running out of fuel and water. Repatriation is nearly impossible — regional airspace is disrupted, and no one will enter the conflict zone to replace crews who want to leave.
This is what happens when you launch a war without a maritime plan.
Did anyone in Washington wargame that scenario? Did anyone ask: what happens to the 3,200 commercial vessels already inside the Gulf when the shooting starts?
Apparently not.
You don’t need a war college degree to see it coming. You just needed to look at a map. Iran has explicitly threatened to close Hormuz for decades. It was the single most predictable consequence of military action against them.
Instead, the US launched Operation Epic Fury with no coalition maritime plan, no escort protocol, no supply corridor for civilian vessels, and apparently no answer to the question every shipping company, port authority, and maritime union would have asked on day one: how do we get our people out?
Now Trump is asking allies to send warships to unblock the strait. Most of them said no. The ones who said yes did so carefully, with conditions.
That’s not a coalition.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
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U.S. allies haven’t forgotten about Trump’s tariffs, his threats against NATO.
The Atlantic@TheAtlantic
U.S. allies haven’t forgotten about Trump’s tariffs, his threats against NATO, and his curtailing of aid to Ukraine—so he shouldn’t be surprised that they’re unwilling to help him in Iran, @anneapplebaum argues. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/…
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U.S. allies haven’t forgotten about Trump’s tariffs, his threats against NATO, and his curtailing of aid to Ukraine—so he shouldn’t be surprised that they’re unwilling to help him in Iran, @anneapplebaum argues. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/…
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@Microinteracti1 No source for your puppet chart. Just being devils advocate here, but appears the numbers are made up. Really should refer to a credible source for support.
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The Most Obvious Thing Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud
Months of watching the news, and it comes down to this: either everyone in Washington has suffered a simultaneous catastrophic brain injury, or something far more deliberate is going on.
Let’s start with the sanctions. Trump has lifted them on Russia. Iran. Belarus. Three regimes that between them have shot down passenger aircraft, poisoned people in English cathedral cities, and run prison systems that make Alcatraz look like a Marriott. Those sanctions. Gone. Just like that.
But Canada? Canada gets tariffs. Germany gets lectures. France gets ignored. NATO gets treated like an embarrassing uncle at Christmas.
Are you seeing this?
Marco Rubio flew to Budapest. To visit Viktor Orban – a man who has spent fifteen years methodically dismantling every court, every newspaper, and every independent institution his country ever had. And now JD Vance is making the same pilgrimage. These are not coincidences. You don’t fly to Budapest unless you really, really admire what Viktor Orban has built there.
And what has he built? A state with no functioning opposition. A press that agrees with the government. A judiciary that does what it’s told.
Sound familiar?
Trump has never – not once – said a critical word about Putin. Not one. He has praised him. Repeatedly. Enthusiastically. Like a schoolboy who’s just discovered his favourite footballer. Meanwhile Zelensky – the man whose country is being shelled daily – got dragged into the Oval Office and humiliated on live television.
This is not a foreign policy. This is a preference.
Now here’s the bit that should make you put down your coffee.
A united Europe – with NATO overhead, shared defence, shared intelligence, shared values – is the one thing the Trump regime cannot control. You can’t squeeze France and Germany and Poland simultaneously if they’re all holding hands. But break the chain? Isolate each country? Make them feel exposed and dependent and alone?
Then you can deal with them one at a time.
That is what is happening. Not tariffs. Not trade disputes. Not some philosophical disagreement about multilateralism. The goal – the actual goal – is to dismantle the umbrella so that every European country gets rained on individually.
And here’s how you know the public has worked it out, even if the commentators haven’t. A recent poll asked people across Western democracies a straightforward question. Would you rather depend on China, or on the United States under Donald Trump? In Canada – America’s nearest neighbour, closest ally, sharer of the world’s longest undefended border – 57% chose China. Twenty-three percent chose the Trump regime. In Britain, 42% preferred Beijing. Germany, 40%. France, 34%.
Citizens of countries that sent their sons to die on American-adjacent beaches in 1944 now trust the Chinese Communist Party more than they trust Washington.
Read that sentence again. Slowly.
And then there’s Iran. Three weeks ago the Trump regime lifted sanctions on Tehran. This week – with Israel bombing the city – American aircraft are joining in. The same regime that decided Iran was fine, actually, no problem, here are your sanctions back, is now at war with Iran. Because Netanyahu asked nicely.
This is not strength. This is a regime so desperate for the approval of whoever is in the room that it will contradict itself within a fortnight and call it strategy. Maybe Trump didn’t lead America into this. He was pulled. By a smaller country with a very clear agenda and a very good read on exactly how malleable this particular president is.
That is not a superpower. That is a sock puppet.
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Source: Politico / Public First poll, February 2026 — via Yahoo News
yahoo.com/news/articles/…
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@Siquiatro That’s true and that’s a very important difference. The clowns were JD and DJT.
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@Microinteracti1 Totally agree.
Almost totally agree.
Only one precision must be made: Zelensky wasn’t humiliated at the Oval Office. The Trump administration humiliated itself. And it continues to drag the once-admired United States into the abyss of shame and indignity.
Please, wake up!
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Qatar says Trump is working for Russia. Oh yes
Mario@PawlowskiMario
Qatar says Trump is working for Russia, well, we knew that for at least a decade🇷🇺🪆🇺🇸
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So when European leaders refuse to fall in behind the Trump regime’s position on Iran, understand what’s actually happening. They are not being difficult. They are not being anti-American. They have simply noticed that the regime demanding their loyalty has spent the past years praising Moscow, rewarding Tehran, and then bombing Tehran, while trying to saw off the branch they’re all sitting on.
You don’t take orders from a general who’s already shooting at you.
The Trump regime is not a confused ally. It is not a bull in a china shop. It knows exactly what it’s doing. And what it’s doing is not good for democracy, not good for Europe, and not good for anyone who believes that the last eighty years of relative peace were worth preserving.
Europe needs to grow up. Fast. And look after itself.
Because that lot in Washington aren’t going to.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
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$200 billion. No briefing. No strategy. No end game. No respect for Congress.
I sit on the Appropriations Committee. Zero justification received. Hegseth’s entire case to the American people: “it takes money to kill bad guys.” That’s an insult to Congress, the Constitution, and every soldier putting their life on the line right now.
A nuclear-armed Iran is a threat. But the path matters. The cost in lives and dollars matters. Who gets to weigh in matters. That’s not weakness. That’s the Constitution.
First $50 billion. Then $100 billion. Now $200 billion. No breakdown. No timeline. No accountability.
Where are my Republican House colleagues? Collins and Murkowski are asking questions in the Senate. The House is silent. That silence is a dereliction of duty.
The power of the purse belongs to Congress. This is the last line of defense against blank-check governance. Our troops deserve better. The American people deserve better.
Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1
Rep. Mike Levin@RepMikeLevin
$200 billion. No briefing, strategy, or end game. No respect for Congress. I sit on the Appropriations Committee. I have received zero justification. Hegseth’s entire case to the American people is “it takes money to kill bad guys.” That’s an insult. To Congress and the Constitution. And most of all, to the men and women putting their lives on the line right now. Our service members are the best this country has. They are brave, skilled, and they deserve leadership worthy of their sacrifice. They deserve a clear mission. A defined objective. A strategy that someone in this administration has actually thought through. They are not props for a policy that nobody can consistently explain. Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran is a threat. I believe that. But how we confront that threat matters. The path we take matters. The cost in lives and dollars matters. And who gets to weigh in on all of that matters. That’s not weakness. That’s the Constitution. First the reports were $50 billion. Then $100 billion. Now $200 billion. With no breakdown, no timeline, no accountability. Where the hell are my Republican House colleagues? Collins and Murkowski are asking questions in the Senate. The House is silent. That silence is a dereliction of duty. We are a co-equal branch of government. The power of the purse is ours. This is not a technicality. It is the last line of defense against exactly this kind of reckless blank-check governance. Our troops deserve better. The American people deserve better. nytimes.com/2026/03/19/wor…
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@RepDonBacon @NafoEst Thanks man. You will be taken good care of if you one day visit Europe 👍🙂
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I’ve been very supportive of POTUS on Iran & believe getting rid of Maduro was good. But I’ve been appalled by this Admin's tone, rhetoric, tactics & strategy toward Europe. Denigrating our allies has been terrible. Weakness communicated to Putin has caused grave damage. Passive-aggressive communication toward President Zelenskyy is embarrassing. I hear from our allies about the damage this has done & it’s going to take time to repair.
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@CardilloSamuel Yes. They are for sure putting thing out there.
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@Microinteracti1 it is ai or edited video game footage. for the emergency landing itself, we odn't know yet what was the cause of it. the irgc just spinned the propaganda out of the news. they specialize in that.
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The F-35 was supposed to be unkillable. That was the whole point.
Lockheed Martin spent thirty years and four hundred billion dollars, the most expensive weapons programme in human history, building an aircraft that the enemy simply could not see. Not on radar. Not on infrared. Not on anything. The F-35 was not just a fighter jet. It was a theological statement. America’s way of saying: we have moved beyond the reach of your missiles, your sensors, and your prayers.
Iran apparently didn’t get the memo.
Somewhere over Iranian airspace on March 19, 2026, an IRST system, infrared search and track, the kind of sensor your grandmother could probably explain, looked up, found the F-35, and locked on. Not because Iranian engineers are geniuses. Because the F-35, it turns out, is extremely hot. All that engine. All that thrust. All that carefully sculpted stealth geometry, and the bloody thing glows like a kettle.
The heat signature data Iran now holds is not just embarrassing. It is a gift that keeps giving. To Moscow. To Beijing. To every procurement ministry on the planet that has been quietly wondering whether to spend the money on systems designed to kill this aircraft. The answer, as of this week, is yes.
And here is the bit that should really worry the Pentagon. You can patch software. You can redesign coatings. You cannot reprogramme a pilot’s brain. Every F-35 driver who takes off from here on knows, actually knows, that someone down there might be able to see them. That changes everything about how they fly. Caution replaces aggression. Hesitation replaces instinct.
Four hundred billion dollars. And in the end, it was done in by a heat sensor.
Tremendous.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
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@CardilloSamuel Ok. I can’t verify the video. It’s all over the place. Might be ai.
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@Microinteracti1 the incident is real, the video ain't. for someone who specialize in ai video, you're not really good.
keep the military stuff to the military people.
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@Microinteracti1 your brain was supposed to work. that was the whole point.
your parents spent many years trying to educate you. somewhere in the interweb, you failed understanding what ai slop is and you believed BS propaganda.
in other words: this aint real.
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The Bird That Quit Smoking – But Kept the Butts
There are 4.5 trillion cigarette butts scattered across the planet every year. They end up in gutters, on beaches, wedged into park benches, ground into pavement. We regard them as perhaps the most dispiriting form of litter imaginable: tiny, ubiquitous, and completely without purpose. Certain birds, it turns out, have reached an entirely different conclusion.
In the early 2010s, a group of Mexican ornithologists began poking around the nests of house finches and house sparrows in Mexico City. What they found, woven with apparent deliberateness into the fibrous architecture of those nests, were cigarette filters. Hundreds of them. The obvious reading was insulation – filters are soft, fibrous, and plentiful in any city that has ever hosted a human being with a habit. Fair enough, you might think. Resourceful birds, making do.
But then came the detail that changed everything. The birds were specifically choosing smoked butts over unsmoked ones.
This is the kind of finding that should stop a person in their tracks. If warmth were the only objective, the chemical history of the filter is entirely irrelevant. A pristine filter from an unopened pack would do the job just as well. The birds were not selecting for softness. They were selecting for something that only combustion produces.
Smoked cigarette filters retain substantial quantities of nicotine – the compound the tobacco plant evolved, over millions of years, as a highly effective insecticide. What gives a person a brief and slightly guilty lift makes a parasitic mite feel nothing ever again. More fibres meant fewer mites. When researchers introduced live ticks into cleaned-out nests, the birds responded by bringing in up to 40 percent more cigarette material than when presented with dead ticks, or nothing at all. They were not behaving randomly. They identified a threat and applied a specific remedy.
The house finch had, in effect, reinvented pest control.
There is a cost, and nature declines to hide it. Higher nicotine concentrations in the nest correlated with elevated chromosomal abnormalities in chicks. The anti-parasite strategy works, but it extracts a genetic toll from the very offspring it is meant to protect. Evolution is a long-run calculation, not a guarantee, and it is entirely indifferent to the irony of the arrangement.
Researchers in Poland have since confirmed the same behaviour in European house sparrows. This is not entirely surprising. House sparrows are among the most successful urban colonists on earth – adaptable, observant, and completely unimpressed by the distinction between the Old World and the New. If the trick works in Mexico City, it works in Warsaw. It probably works in a great many places nobody has yet thought to look.
None of this is without precedent, exactly. Birds have been incorporating chemically active plants into their nests for thousands of years – wormwood, lavender, wild carrot – exploiting the same insecticidal and antimicrobial properties that humans would later spend considerable effort cataloguing in pharmacopoeias and herbals. The urban sparrow has simply updated the formula. A smoked Marlboro is, from a mite’s perspective, functionally equivalent to a sprig of yarrow. The active ingredient differs in origin, not in effect.
We spent centuries working out that nicotine kills insects. The house finch appears to have reached the same conclusion on its own, somewhere between one generation and the next, without the benefit of a research grant.
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
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