Friday, June 26, 2026

East Med Update - Pivot to Israel

Version 1: Fri, Jun 26, 2026


Must read article:

Greece’s pivot to Israel: Spyware, war corridors, and a risky alliance - From Predator spyware to arms deals and military corridors, Athens has tied its future to Tel Aviv at the very moment the US-Israeli order is losing ground across West Asia https://thecradle.co/articles/greeces-pivot-to-israel-spyware-war-corridors-and-a-risky-alliance by Iason Athanasiadis The Cradle - Apr 15, 2026

“Greek ports and airports are being used for resupply and the transfer of materiel and fuel,” says Dimitris Plionis, member of the Greek chapter of the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement.

BDS Greece https://bdsgreece.net/

Additional info soon.


Started: Fri, Jun 26, 2026

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Europe Update 3 - Propaganda

Version 1: Fri, Jun 26, 2026


NATO and Putin

Source: Atlantic Council


EU Propaganda

Thomas Fazi is an Italian author and journalist who has been critical of EU policies for some time. Earlier this month he wrote the following for Unherd:

Von der Leyen is coming for Europe’s wallet Beware the Commission’s power grab https://unherd.com/2026/06/von-der-leyen-is-coming-for-europes-wallet/ by Thomas Fazi - Unherd - Jun 10, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/NIAfm

Friday, June 19, 2026

Book reading list

Version 2: Fri, Jun 19, 2026


New books in my future reading list, and possibly yours too!

New in the second version books by Frank, Hudson, Schuilenburg and Christiansen.


Bad Energy

Bad Energy book cover

Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who Are Selling Off Our Future https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2772-bad-energy by Joshua Frank - Haymarket Books - Sep 1, 2026

Friday, May 29, 2026

Iran War Update: Energy Dominance?

Version 1: Fri, May 29, 2026


Energy independence

Energy independence - Illustration by Linas Garsys, The Washington Times


Everybody is looking at the war against Iran but there may be something bigger going. What exactly is in Trump’s mind? A few links that may help, somewhat.


Friday, May 22, 2026

Iran War Update: Trump Sinking

Version 1: Fri, May 22, 2026


Kenya protests over fuel prices - 1

Kenya protests over fuel prices - 1 - Source: Al Jazeera


A collection of recent articles about the mess Trump and company are in.


Friday, May 8, 2026

NSS, Drugs and Technocracy in Latin America

Version 2: Fri, May 8, 2026


The first version of this post came out on Feb 13 with title “NSS, Drugs and Marco Rubio”. In this version I have added links to the expanding role of technocracy Latin America.

In the context of the “Trump Corollary” to the the Monroe Doctrine, technocracy is a new way (attack vector if you like) to dominate the hemisphere, and that explains the title change.

There is also a section with most of the books mentioned in the articles.


Official portrait of Secretary Marco Rubio (cropped)(2).jpg
By U.S. Department of State - https://www.state.gov/biographies/marco-rubio/, Public Domain, Link

Official portrait of U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio - Wikimedia


NSS on Drugs and

The National Security Strategy 2025 was published on December 5, and mentions drugs on page 11 (NSS 2025):

We must protect our country from invasion, not just from unchecked migration but from cross-border threats such as terrorism, drugs, espionage, and human trafficking. A border controlled by the will of the American people as implemented by their government is fundamental to the survival of the United States as a sovereign republic.

NSS on the ‘Western Hemisphere’ (essentially Latin America) on page 5:

We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine;


Maureen Tkacik on Rubio’s family, CIA and drugs

On December 23, The America Prospect Magazine published Maureen Tkacik’s article (Tkacik 2025).

A few weeks later, on January 11, 2026, Tkacik talked with Chris Hedges and the transcript of the interview was published by the Brave New Europe magazine (Hedges 2026).

The fact that Marco Rubio’s brother in law Orlando Cicilia wwent to prison for 12 years for drug trafficking has been reported before (Roig-Franzia 2015).

Tkacik goes beyond Cicila to the head of the gang Guillermo Tabraue and to the Cuban anti-communist Bay of Pigs veteran and drug-trafficking with CIA milieu. She writes (Tkacik 2025):

On the tenth week of Guillermo Tabraue’s 1989 criminal trial, a man named Gary Mattocks showed up at the courthouse and testified that he’d been Guillermo Tabraue’s handler for four years at the CIA’s DEACON project inside the DEA. Mattocks had previously been the liaison of Sandinista defector Edén Pastora, a prolific Contra trafficker based in Costa Rica; both had been present during Barry Seal’s sting operation. It was rumored George Bush himself had personally ordered Mattocks to disrupt the proceeding.

This is the environment that Marco Rubio grew up into and it seems it has influenced his politics and his views about foreign policy.


Rubio’s entanglements in Latin America

From (Tkacik 2025):

Ecuador

In September, Rubio hailed Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, who leads a country whose homicide rate has risen eightfold since 2016, as an “incredibly willing partner” who “has done more just in the last couple years to take the fight to these narco-terrorists and these threats to the security and stability of Ecuador than any previous administration.” Just five months earlier, a damning investigation revealed that Noboa’s family fruit business had trafficked 700 kilos of cocaine to Europe in banana crates between 2020 and 2022.

Daniel Noboa’s family business, President of Ecuador, is involved in cocaine trafficking to Europe https://revistaraya.com/daniel-noboas-family-business-president-of-ecuador-is-involved-in-cocaine-trafficking-to-europe - 29 Mar 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/ZYYe1

Comment: Given the extensive presence of the Albanian mafia in Ecuador, additional ‘exciting’ linkages should be explored. CIA did not have any qualms bringing drugs into their country, so why would they have any problems doing the same using for example the Albanian Mafia to bring cocaie into Europe?

Chile

Rubio has been one of the Beltway’s biggest backers of newly elected Chilean president José Antonio Kast, the son of a literal Nazi war criminal who has spent his entire political career lionizing, whitewashing, and promising a restoration of the brutal reign of Augusto Pinochet, who personally ordered the Chilean army to build a cocaine laboratory, consolidated the narcotics trade inside his terrifying secret police, and then allegedly “disappeared” key conspirators like his secret police chemist Eugenio Berríos.

(Blanch 2026) has additional information on Honduras and Venezuela. In the photo below Marco Rubio with Juan Guaido - 2022 - Wikimedia


File:Marco Rubio and Mario DB meets with Juan Guaido (2).png
By Office of Senator Marco Rubio - https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=B638230C-5967-4366-AD95-90D80807C398, Public Domain, Link


Technocracy Rising: What’s the end game in Latin America?

(Tkacik 2025) says:

Today, Marco Rubio is the Trump administration’s most formidable liar. … But Rubio’s approval ratings are the highest in the Republican Party, even as he is the architect of what is arguably Trump’s single most cynical policy: the scheme to appoint drug cartel bosses and their cronies atop the governments of every Latin American country, in the name of fighting drug cartels.

Tkacik is right, drugs will continue to play a major role, but there is something new. Commenting myself from the previous post:

Comment: If that pans out we should expect uncertainty to increase in Latin America and even more weak governments. That would open the field for people like Peter Thiel to push for projects like Prospera and Alex Karp to be there to provide security services.

The comment was in the right direction but things are moving fast:

(Moreno 2026) A Neocolonial Billionaire Fantasy in Honduras https://consortiumnews.com/2026/02/23/a-neocolonial-billionaire-fantasy-in-honduras/ by Edith Romero - Consortium News - Feb 23, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/Iuh6J

Among other corrupt dealings and land grabs, the government approved a law that enabled the creation of Peter Thiel’s Zones for Employment and Economic Development (ZEDEs). ZEDEs derive from the idea of “charter cities.”

Proposed by former World Bank executive and economist Paul Romer, these proposed cities are enclaves within lower-income nations that “promote economic growth” through privatization and the disposal of national regulations, while gifting major tax incentives for foreign nations to invest in businesses.

Special economic zones in Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia have faced criticism due to low wages, harsh working conditions, and threats to rights to free association and collective bargaining. Romer, one of the initial proponents of ZEDEs in Honduras, expressed criticism in 2015 regarding the Honduran ZEDEs and their lack of accountability to local laws, and anti-democratic governance.

These ZEDEs are a project of Praxis, a tech billionaire-funded start-up that aims to create libertarian city-states to “restore Western Civilization.”

And she continues later on:

A sought-after spot for foreign luxury tourism and investment, Roatan saw the foundation of Próspera in 2017 with funding from the likes of Peter Thiel and Pronomos Capital led by Patri Friedman, a grandson of Milton Friedman, seen by many as the father of neoliberalism, deregulation and privatization.


Nasry Asfura with Trump

Nasry Asfura with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, Feb. 7, 2026. (White House /Joyce N. Boghosian) - Source: Consortium News


(Nino 2025) The Real Story Behind Trump’s Pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández: The story of a man who turned a lifetime of pro-Israel service into the ultimate form of political protection https://www.josealnino.org/p/the-real-story-behind-trumps-pardon by José Alberto Niño - José Niño Unfiltered - Dec 06, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/ulUg0


(Red Diary 2025) EXCLUSIVE: Audios reveal that Israel paid for the release of Juan Orlando Hernández and that Trump is helping him return to the presidency of Honduras https://www.diario-red.com/articulo/america-latina/exclusiva-audios-revelan-que-israel-pago-liberacion-juan-orlando-hernandez-que-trump-ayudando-regresar-presidencia-honduras/20260429021833068541.html by Valeria Duarte Galleguillos - Red Diary - 30/04/26 - Archive <> #Hondurasgate


(Corbishley 2026) Leaked Audio Files Point to Israeli Involvement in Trump’s Pardon of Honduran “Narco-President” Juan Orlando Hernández https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/05/leaked-audios-point-to-israeli-role-in-trumps-presidential-pardon-of-honduran-narco-president.html by Nick Corbishley - Naked Capitalism - May 1, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/TRE5q

The Trump and Netanyahu governments allegedly have big plans for the newly freed Hernández, including putting him back in power in Honduras.

Leaked WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal audio messages published this week by the Spanish news website Canal RED suggest that pro-Israel groups helped secure President Trump’s pardon of Honduran president and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernandez, popularly known by his initials JOH, from US federal prison late last year.

According to the recordings, the arrangement consisted of trading Trump’s pardon for a package of concessions in Honduras. However, as Drop Site News notes, “they do not clearly delineate which concessions are assigned to which actor, but frame them as part of a joint U.S.- and Israel-aligned agenda in the country”.

According to Corbishley “The audio files, if authentic, imply that the US and Israel are pursuing four main objectives in their support of JOH:”

  • The expansion of special employment and economic zones, or ZEDEs as they are known in Honduras.
  • New US military base, or bases
  • A free trade agreement, with all the usual strings attached, including presumably provisions for International State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)
  • Legislation to encourage investment by AI companies from the US and Israel, with contracts awarded directly to companies such as General Electric

(Jimenez 2026) Palantir in Argentina and the Future of U.S. Dominance https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/04/palantir-in-argentina-and-the-future-of-u-s-dominance.html by Curro Jimenez - Naked Capitalism - April 28, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/3QIMw

Peter Thiel has bought a $12 million house in the most exclusive area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has also held meetings with government officials and the president, who described the encounter as a “wonderful conversation among anarcho-capitalists.” But that’s not quite all.

The content of those conversations has not been made public; however, local media reports that Thiel held meetings with presidential advisor Santiago Caputo and the head of the Ministry of Deregulation and State Transformation, Federico Sturzenegger. According to those reports, these meetings addressed, among other topics, the country’s technological and energy potential.

When Thiel meets with government officials, we must assume that it is not simply out of a feeling of friendship. He is the co-founder of Palantir, a technology company specialized in selling surveillance software applied to civil and military scenarios so states. We should probably assume, as local media does, that those discussions were on the table, since Milei had expressed an interest beforehand and in 2024 founded the Artificial Intelligence Unit Applied to Security.


Sources

(NSS2025) National Security Strategy 2025 https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf PDF 33 pages - November, 2025

(Tkacik 2025) The Narco-Terrorist Elite: Why is Marco Rubio so hell-bent on making Iran-Contra again? https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/ By Maureen Tkacik - The American Prospect - December 23, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/TMw63

(Hedges 2026) Maureen Tkacik, Chris Hedges: The Narco-Trafficking Elite Set to Run Venezuela https://braveneweurope.com/maureen-tkacik-chris-hedges-the-narco-trafficking-elite-set-to-run-venezuela Chris Hedges talks with Maureen Tkacik - BNE - January 11, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/uBHKY

(Roig-Franzia 2015) The drug-smuggling case that brought anguish to Marco Rubio’s family https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-drug-smuggling-ring-that-brought-anguish-tomarco-rubios-family/2015/12/12/473f3a2c-9db6-11e5-a3c5-c77f2cc5a43c_story.html By Manuel Roig-Franzia and Scott Higham - Washington Post - December 12, 2015 - Archive https://archive.ph/XP7PL

(Blanch 2026) The mythomaniac Marco Rubio: The U.S. Secretary of State epitomizes the moral crisis of the empire’s elites https://en.granma.cu/mundo/2026-01-08/the-mythomaniac-marco-rubio by Hedelberto López Blanch - Granma - January 8, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/4ukZ3


Books

(Anderson 2018) Che: A Revolutionary Life https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548044/che-by-jon-lee-anderson-and-jose-hernandez/ By Jon Lee Anderson, Penguin Press, 2018.

(Castillo 1994) Powderburns: Cocaine, Contras & the Drug War By Celerino Castillo III and Dave Harmon Mosaic Press 1994

(Harp 2025) The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730414/the-fort-bragg-cartel-by-seth-harp/ By Seth Harp, Viking, 2025

A groundbreaking investigation into a string of unsolved murders at America’s premier special operations base, and what the crimes reveal about drug trafficking and impunity among elite soldiers in today’s military

(Kolb 2008) America at Night: The True Story of Two Rogue CIA Operatives, Homeland Security Failures, Dirty Money, and a Plot to Steal the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297016/america-at-night-by-larry-j-kolb/ By Larry J. Kolb - Penguin, 2008

(Marshall 1987) The Iran-Contra connection : secret teams and covert operations in the Reagan era https://archive.org/details/irancontraconnec0000mars/page/n5/mode/2up by Marshall, Jonathan, Peter Dale Scott and Jane Haapiseva-Hunter, South End Press, 1987

(McCoy 2003) The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred W. McCoy and Cathleen B. Read - The third and expanded edition was published in 2003 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Heroin_in_Southeast_Asia (ISBN 1-55652-483-8).

(Roig-Franzia 2015) The Rise of Marco Rubio https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Rise-of-Marco-Rubio/Manuel-Roig-Franzia/9781451675467 By Manuel Roig-Franzia, Simon & Schuster, 2015

(Rubio 2012) An American Son: A Memoir https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311989/an-american-son-by-marco-rubio/ISBN9781101592373 By Marco Rubio, Penguin, 2012

(Scott 1998) Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America https://www.peterdalescott.net/bib3a/ by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, University of California Press, 1998

Discusses the Kerry Report and the body of evidence that the CIA dealt with and protected drug traffickers in Central America, finally admitted by the CIA in 1998 in an Inspector General’s Report.


For inspiration:

Emiliano Zapata4.jpg
By Agustín Casasola - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56420085e4b0a6ed01ccece1/58ec1c7cd482e9e6fdab471e/58ec1cb16a49630e8a3f5e5e/1491868856228/Emiliano+Zapata.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Emiliano Zapata in 1914 - Wikimedia


Started: Fri, Feb 13, 2026

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Thursday, April 30, 2026

China Sci Tech Update


File:TsinghuaUniversitypic2.jpg
By denn - Tsinghua, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

The Tsinghua University campus in Beijing, China. - Source: Wikimedia


A recent article:

(Wagner 2026) China surpasses US in research spending – the consequences extend far beyond scientific ranking and clout https://theconversation.com/china-surpasses-us-in-research-spending-the-consequences-extend-far-beyond-scientific-ranking-and-clout-280543 by Caroline Wagner - The Conversation - April 24, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/5NSCR

Caroline Wagner is Professor of Public Affairs, at the Ohio State University.

From the article (emphasis added):

  • 2019: China “surpassed the U.S. in its share of the top 1% most-highly cited papers – what some call the Nobel class of research”.

  • 2022: China has taken the “first place globally in most-cited papers overall”.

  • 2024: China has overtaken “the United States in total scientific publications – the first time any nation has displaced American dominance since the U.S. itself surpassed the United Kingdom in 1948. Researchers found that China overtook the United States in scientific output even earlier. That same year, China pulled ahead in the Nature Index, which tracks publications in the world’s most selective scientific journals, posting a 17% advantage over the U.S. in outlets long considered the gold standard of scientific excellence”.

    In 2024, Chinese entities also filed roughly 1.8 million patent applications, compared to the U.S.’s 603,191 applications.

  • 2026: “China’s rapid rise in science has hit a milestone. The country’s investment in research and development has reached parity with – and by purchasing power measures has surpassed – that of the United States, according to a March 2026 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Both nations have crossed the US$1 trillion threshold on research spending.”

And she continues:

China’s ascent is, in one sense, good news. More knowledge, generated by more researchers across more institutions, expands the global pool of discovery from which everyone can draw. The world benefits when science thrives.

The problem is not that China is investing, but that the U.S. is not.

Definitely an article to read. In addition the OECD report mentioned:

(OECD 2026) OECD overall R&D growth stable; government R&D budgets decline and reorient towards defence https://www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/statistical-releases/2026/03/oecd-overall-rd-growth-stable-government-rd-budgets-decline-and-reorient-towards-defence.html 31 March 2026 - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Additional Information on Research Competition

(Economist 2024)China has become a scientific superpower: From plant biology to superconductor physics the country is at the cutting edge https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/12/china-has-become-a-scientific-superpower Jun 12, 2024 - Archive https://archive.ph/D3S4u

(ASPI 2024) ASPI’s two-decade Critical Technology Tracker: The rewards of long-term research investment https://www.aspi.org.au/report/aspis-two-decade-critical-technology-tracker/ Australian Strategic Policy Institute - 28 August 2024 - PDF 72 pages.

If you are on X/Twitter try also the following search for my posts in the past few years:

(from:@metacode) #ChinaSciTech

Nuclear Energy and Thorium

Thorium and nuclear energy goes back to the 1940s in the Barkeley Lab, and although the US operated a ship using it, for many reasons it did not lead to a solution. However China’s determination made the US idea work.

Full transcript of a conversation between Prof. Glenn Diesen and Henry Tillman, the CEO of Aiyana Advisory and Research:

(Pangambam 2025) Transcript of Henry Tillman: China’s Thorium Revolution – 60.000 Years of Cheap Energy https://singjupost.com/transcript-of-henry-tillman-chinas-thorium-revolution-60-000-years-of-cheap-energy/ by S. Pangambam - April 23, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/6gHAO

But the story is thorium goes back to the 1830s in Norway as a rare earth, basically. And it was by 1941 in the US at Berkeley, where I went to school later on, of course, both plutonium and thorium were in the mix for the Manhattan Project. But thorium is not explosive on its own. So the choice was made for plutonium.

By 1959, Edmund Teller, as part of the Eisenhower for Safe Nuclear, had developed thorium as a nuclear reactor and presented it to the first US oil company in 1959, saying we have a problem with CO2 and here’s the solution for it because it’s clean burn and it’s non-explosive.

From 1962 to 1972 the US ran the first cargo ship on thorium for 10 straight years, no incidents. And then it also was run at Oak Ridge onshore from 1965 to 1969 for about 13,000 hours. It was sporadic, but in 1972 led by US Admiral Rickover, who was quite a character with Nixon, the ultimate plan was not to use thorium going forward, but they’d use plutonium in the nuclear program.

So from 1972 to 2011, the US backed by the UK had locked down the formula for the use of thorium. Then Fukushima happened. By the time Fukushima happened, the US had decided, we have to go back in time. At some point around 2011, the US opened up that technology to many universities and many governments. It was also led by the research I’ve done by two US senators, one from Utah and one from Nevada, Harry Reid, to say, let’s open this up. If you use this, you have to give the IP back. So they gave this to Jiang Jimen’s son, literally from China in 2011, but it also went to Russia and a number of other countries.

(Lague 2013) SPECIAL REPORT-The U.S. government lab behind China’s nuclear power push by David Lague and Charlie Zhu - Dec 20, 2013 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20181123125037/https://in.reuters.com/article/breakout-thorium-idINL4N0FE21U20131220

Jiang Mianheng, son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, visited Oak Ridge in 2010 and brokered a cooperation agreement with the lab. The deal gave the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has a staff of 50,000, the plans for a thorium reactor. In January 2011, Jiang signed a protocol with the Department of Energy outlining the terms of joint energy research with the academy.

An electrical engineer trained at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Jiang told a conference on thorium in Shanghai last year China’s thorium project “is 100 percent financed by the central government.”

The protocol stipulates that intellectual property arising from the joint research will be shared with the global scientific community. It excludes sharing commercially confidential information and any other material that the parties agree to withhold. The pact also specifically rules out any military or weapons-related research. “All activities conducted under this protocol shall be exclusively for peaceful purposes,” it says.

Jess Gehin, a nuclear-reactor physicist at Oak Ridge, says the pact allows the two sides to share information about their research.

As project chief scientist Xu Hongjie put it:

Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance.

Comment: If China manages to scale it, 10-15 years from now Trump-like shenanigans will not matter at all. All the Chinese have to do is keep focused and that is what they do.


Started: Thu, Apr 30, 2026

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