Latest Blog Entries

• Blog Tags Reorganised

  As you might have noticed, I am still adding older content to the site that got plowed under with the migration to website version 4. That process is still ongoing and will be for a while. In the meantime, I’ve radically slimmed down the amount of tags I’m using for posts to make the site easier to navigate. I hope this works well for everyone. If you have comments, please use the email address provided in the footer of the page.

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• USAID and the CIA’s Covert Wars

  After Trump dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025, there was a huge outcry by many people who focused on the agency’s stated mission to provide international aid. The fact that USAID was well known as having a dual purpose as a dark budget for CIA covert action programs was (and still is) being ignored or, at best, branded a “conspiracy theory” by its defenders.

  It is, in fact, anything but. The dark side of USAID has been known publicly for decades. On 8 June 1970, The New York Times published the following in a thin column on page 2:

  Dr. John A. Hannah, director of the Agency for International Development, acknowledged today that the United States aid program was being used as a cover for operations of the Central Intelligence Agency in Laos. He said President Nixon might propose divorcing such intelligence work from over seas economic assistance in the future in proposals on foreign aid reform to be sent to Congress.

  “Well, I just have to admit that that is true,” Dr. Hannah said when asked if his agency's economic aid “is being used as a cover for C.I.A. operations in Laos.” He was questioned on the Metromedia radio news program “Profile.” Dr. Hannah made it clear that he disapproved of the Central Intelligence Agency's use of his agency. He said Laos was the only country in which this was being done and that it stemmed from a 1962 decision that such activity was in the national interest.

  It is unusual for an executive‐branch official to acknowledge publicly that his organi zation is being used for under cover work abroad.

  Unusual as the statement might have been, it is also doubtful that it was entirely truthful. By many accounts published in books by ex-CIA people since, USAID was used for these things worldwide, probably until 2025. What exactly did the CIA due with such funds under the cover of international aid, you ask? Well, in the case of Laos, they waged all-out war. On 3 August 1971, The New York Times published this, buried below the fold on page 1:

  The Nixon Administration acknowledged today, through a Senate subcommittee staff report, that the Central Intelligence Agency was maintaining a 30,000‐man “irregular” force now fighting throughout most of Laos. Many news articles in recent years have described C.I.A. sponsorship of an irregular army in Laos. However, the subcommittee report represented the first time that the agency publicly and officially confirmed its military activities in Laos. The report indicated that the use of the irregular units in Laos was more widespread than had been indicated in the news accounts.

  You might think this news from the 1970s isn’t relevant. You would be mistaken. The funding might be routed diffently today, but beyond that, nothing much has changed. The CIA is doing the exact same stuff right now. They are waging war in Ukraine and until USAID was demolished by Trump, the CIA was using it to pay journalists in Ukraine to spread pro-Western propaganda. That much was obvious.

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• → “Imperium” from Petroff Games, Steam

  This popped up in my Steam recommendations and I got really excited. It looked great at first glance. I want a classic, fun-to-play space 4X game like that so much. Then I maximised the trailer and noticed all the assets, SFX and music are pure AI slop. Especially the ChatGPT art style really turned me off this. To the point of making it unplayable for me, I think. What a shame. I want a game like that, but I am adamant about supporting human creation, not that kind of ugly slop.

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• Amelia Earhart Overshadowed Better Female Pilots than Herself

  Lost in the glare of Earhart’s posthumous elevation to aviation sainthood are the other women pilots of aviation’s golden age who, as much as Earhart, defied the era’s systemic misogyny to prove a woman’s place was in the cockpit. Forgotten is how Earhart substituted courage for competence to achieve fame, and missing is an appreciation of the unique socioeconomic environment that made it possible.

  — Ric Gillespie, One More Good Flight: The Amelia Earhart Tragedy

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• The Futility of Arguing with a Female in a Dark-Brown Mood

  Married life had taught Toran the futility of arguing with a female in a dark-brown mood. He shrugged, and left her.

  — Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire

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