DD—The video transcript details a tense confrontation between the Pentagon and Anthropic, a leading AI company, over the military’s demand for unrestricted access to AI models for defense purposes. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, nicknamed “Old Drunkie,” is aggressively pushing to embed AI into all military operations faster than adversaries like China. The Pentagon demands AI companies remove safety restrictions, allowing the military to use AI models for any lawful purpose, including weapons development and mass surveillance. Anthropic resists these demands, especially restrictions lifted around using their AI, Claude, for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance, resulting in the Pentagon threatening to blacklist the company as a supply chain risk—an action that would force many major contractors to sever ties with Anthropic overnight.
February 2026
GLENN DIESEN—In this in-depth conversation, Professor Michael Hudson explores the intricate relationship between economic systems and the rise and fall of civilizations, focusing on the role of rentier classes and economic rent in shaping society and economic outcomes. He contrasts industrial capitalism, rooted in classical economic theory, with today’s finance capitalism, highlighting how the shift toward rent-seeking behavior by landlords, monopolists, and financial interests threatens economic productivity and civilizational stability. Hudson traces this dynamic historically, from classical Britain’s fight against the Corn Laws to prevent landlord rents from undermining industrial growth, to the modern U.S. economy where financial and real estate rents dominate, stifling productive investment.
At the AI Race’s Finishing Line: A World of Abundance or Automated Dominance?
Approx 1 Hr. • Watch / readBRIAN BERLETIC—Regarding Russia’s long shared border with China and the immense and growing amount of energy exports crossing over into China, the US has admittedly been conducting long-range drone strikes on Russian energy production deep inside Russian territory as well as maritime drone strikes on Russian energy exports — all as part of crippling Russia’s ability to sustain its own economic stability and that of importers dependent on its energy production and exports — especially China.
Spanning multiple US presidential administrations regardless of political party affiliation, concerted efforts have been made to constrain Chinese technological development, including through import bans on Chinese technology to cripple companies like Huawei and through export bans on semiconductors and equipment used to manufacture them, both as a means of hobbling Chinese technological development overall but specifically to hinder China amid the current US-China AI race.
An Alliance of Socialists and Conservatives Against Liberal Centrism: Not Such Strange Fellows After All
by Bruce Lerro37 minutes readBRUCE LERRO—Is it possible to oppose the centrist drift to the middle of the political spectrum by uniting socialists and conservatives? In the United States socialists howl at the prospect of uniting with conservatives. “How stupid” they might say. “Conservatives are pro-capitalists, pro-war and anti-communist. Besides, conservatives want to bring back the power of the church, the aristocrats and the king. What a dumb idea! How could any socialist find common ground with conservatives?” In the first place, our socialist leftist has mixed together two kinds of conservatives, neoconservatives on one hand and reactionaries on the other. There is a very different type of conservative I will be advocating for that comes out the work of Alain De Benoist and the New Right in Europe in his book The Populist Moment which I will discuss later in this article. But first, let’s be explicit about what reactionaries and neocons really stand for.
JULIAN MACFARLANE—A senior Russian official has said Moscow could deploy its navy to protect Russian-linked vessels from potential European seizures, raising the prospect of retaliatory action against European shipping as pressure on the Kremlin’s so-called shadow fleet intensifies.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former FSB director who heads Russia’s maritime board, said on Tuesday that the country’s navy should be ready to counter what he described as “western piracy”.
“If this situation cannot be resolved peacefully, the navy will break any blockade and move to eliminate it. And let’s not forget that many vessels sail the seas under European flags – we, too, may take an interest in what they are carrying and where they are headed”
