Disgruntled Ant

Just another ant being crushed by the system

[Disgruntled Ant @AntDisgruntled]

Had to rush this one out before the possible TACO.

[Warscape Geopolitics @warscapegeo]

New article is up.

https://t.co/B97nAultQ2

[DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics]

"They killed two million Koreans in three years."

— Bassem Youssef

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

Trump: I'm close to unlocking it

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Hasbara is so gross because it's just Zionists throwing walls of language at you to convince you you're not seeing what you're seeing.

You see raw video footage of the most horrifying thing imaginable in Gaza, and then you see them in the replies going "This is actually fine and normal because words words words words words words words."

You see a news report about Israel doing something astonishingly evil in Lebanon, and there they are underneath it going "There's actually a lot more to the story because words words words words words words words."

You see some far right Israeli minister spouting nakedly genocidal rhetoric, and they're swarming all over it saying "Well this isn't actually what it looks like because words words words words words words words."

You see every major human rights group on earth saying Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid, and they're running around frantically telling you it's a giant conspiracy to frame Israel and the truth is that words words words words words words words.

You see more and more mainstream news institutions reporting on the mountains of evidence of widespread rape and torture in Israeli prisons, and they saturate the airwaves claiming it's an antisemitic blood libel because words words words words words words words.

The idea is to just pound your intellect with a firehose of verbiage until your inner sensemaker has been shredded and you're too confused to form a coherent picture of what's actually going on. It's a disgusting, abusive, and profoundly unethical thing to do to people.

But the good news is it's not working anymore. Language is immensely powerful, but its power has its limits. Israel's behavior has become so transparently unacceptable that no amount of word magic can manipulate people into seeing anything other than what's happening in front of their face.

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

It is erroneous to say about some countries that they host American bases. The right way to describe it is: American bases host some fake leaders and elites to make them look like countries

[Disgruntled Ant @AntDisgruntled]

@CENTCOM Why don't you send some of your vessels through it to prove how open it is?

[Kathleen Tyson @Kathleen_Tyson_]

I keep thinking how Ghislaine Maxwell used Facebook as a catalogue for selecting children to buy or abduct for Epstein’s Island, Ranch, and parties.

Given the vast number of pedophiles, enablers, protectors, and defenders in Westminster, especially the cabinet, the police, and the House of Lords, would parents really be safer with their children’s photos scraped up to a national surveillance database for unknown, unaccountable uses?

[Will Schryver @imetatronink]

‼️ My interpretation: Iran delivered multiple severely damaging strikes last night against US bases in the region.

Trump's initial impulse was to escalate even further ... but the Pentagon refused because they are afraid.

And therefore Trump had to concoct a new TACO lie.

[Brian’s Breaking News and Intel @intelFromBrian]

Iran threatened to escalate

Trump gets scared, and realized that Iran is not backing down.

Trump creates fake deal.

Deal will never happen.

[₦₳V𝚜𝚝é𝚟𝚊 🇷🇺 ᴢ @Navsteva]

This is the reason Trump called off his attack: Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central HQ also warns the response to the US attack tonight will be different than usual, threatening to strike Gulf energy infrastructure with "either oil and gas exports are for everyone or they will be available for no one," and warning the war will go "beyond the Middle East."

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Israel is the world’s greatest killer and I can’t find a single Western headline about it.

[Disgruntled Ant @AntDisgruntled]

@SecRubio And the US blockading Cuba isn't a tool of control or coercion.
You are a complete piece of shit

[barry with the NED @bonzerbarry]

Based on the fact that discussions have been approved

[Disgruntled Ant @AntDisgruntled]

I thought this war was about freeing the Iranian people and getting rid of Iran's nukes.

[Kathleen Tyson @Kathleen_Tyson_]

Kharg Island = Bay of Orange Greedy Oil-coveting Pigs.

[JustDario @DarioCpx]

Hard not to wonder whether Trump was warned about this. The reason why he is now raising the pressure on Iran to sign a peace deal on his terms. However Iran isn’t going to sign any peace deal on Trump’s terms in the current circumstances. Prepare accordingly.

[MenchOsint @MenchOsint]

Arab states condemn Iranian attacks on U.S. bases located inside their country, calling them "unjustified", even though those same bases are being used by the US-Israel axis to wage war on Iran.

Sadly ... It further confirms they're just US/Israeli puppets states with no sovereignty.

If they had any honor, they'd at least admit to have greenlight the use of their airbases/airspace for the war on Iran, but they still deny it after 3 months.

[Mel @Villgecrazylady]

God bless these men. Their kindness and patience and love is so touching.

The complete dehumanization of Palestinian men is one of the more abhorrent parts of the Western propaganda machine.

Gaza is filled with good men who have endured the unimaginable and still they stop to comfort a scared child with smiles and hugs. God bless them.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

By the way, public service announcement: if you're one of the numerous people posting about Anthropic's dystopian ways and you're thinking about getting Claude to help you write that post... don't!

Another one of their terms is that you may not use Claude to do anything that "exposes [Anthropic to] reputational harms" 👇

And, if you do, under the - extremely unusual - clause 13 of their terms (https://t.co/z43rJNkvZu), you have PRE-AGREED, by using Anthropic (and accepted their terms), that the harm you've done is irreparable, that you won't oppose Anthropic injunction, and they don't need to prove actual damage.

They can simply go to a judge in a friendly jurisdiction (and of course, their terms precise that any dispute "will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco, California") and:
a) file an injunction that shuts you down
b) make you pay for everything since under section 11 of their terms you agree to indemnify Anthropic for "any and all liabilities, claims, damages, expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs), and other losses arising out of or related to your breach or alleged breach of these Terms."

In other words, if you use Claude to help you talk shit about Anthropic publicly, their terms say you pay their lawyers to go after you and you've already pre-agreed you've lost the case.

Oh, and cherry on the cake: in the odd case the judge were like "are you crazy, this is insanely abusive, you Anthropic are the ones at fault here," according to their terms Anthropic's maximum liability is... $100.

[Brian McDonald @BrianMcDonaldIE]

When Russia hosted the World Cup in 2018, it had to suspend normal visa rules for the tournament. Foreigners with tickets could enter visa-free, using a scheme called ‘Fan ID.’

Russia also had to do weird stuff to keep FIFA’s sponsors happy. For example, small shops near Fan Zones and stadiums could only sell Budweiser beer on match days.

So yes, FIFA absolutely does dictate conditions to host governments when it suits FIFA. Infantino pretending otherwise is nonsense.

[DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics]

🚨 BREAKING PRESS RELEASE!

American journalist @ChrisHelali was on assignment heading to Mexico to cover the World Cup and meet the Iranian national team, Team Melli, based in Tijuana for the duration of the World Cup. Traveling from Moscow to Mexico City with a stop in Beijing on 10 June 2026, Christopher was informed by Chinese authorities upon landing in Beijing that he had to wait to get his new boarding pass. After 8 hours, Christopher was informed by Hainan Airlines staff that he was barred from traveling and was listed as a “no fly passenger.” Requesting follow up information, it became clear that Christopher was added by the United States government to the No Fly List which is maintained by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center. Christopher was formerly on the Selectee List, enduring nearly a decade of intensive secondary screening with the notorious 4 S’s (SSSS) on his boarding passes both to and from the United States and between countries that crossed US airspace.

This is an attack not only on journalistic freedom but on those who stand with Iran against the Epstein Coalition.

In a statement, Christopher reiterated his solidarity with Iran, Team Melli, and all those who stand for justice. “What was done to me is but a small part of the injustice people face all over the world everyday at the hands of US-EU-NATO imperialism, fascism, and Zionism,” he said. “Our struggle is for all those students at Minab, all the children of Lebanon, Gaza, Donbass, and beyond who were denied a future by these monsters. It is a crime that the USA is hosting the World Cup which celebrates the friendship and unity of sport. The USA has blood on its hands! The struggle continues!”

[Armchair Warlord @ArmchairW]

A town in Siberia unveiled a war memorial late last year. Beyond commemorating the fallen, It gives us a rare insight into the Ukrainian War.⬇️

This memorial is located in Birsk, a small city in Bashkortostan located on the Belaya River more or less between the cities of Ufa and Izhevsk, and was opened on September 10th, 2025. It commemorates post-WWII Soviet and Russian war dead from the city and surrounding district of Birsk, which has a collective population of approximately 63,000.

As of opening day the memorial featured three names from the Soviet-Afghan War, four names from Chechnya, and 188 names from the Ukrainian War, all listed with dates of birth and death. Bashkortostan has contributed a huge number of volunteers to the war effort and has, at least per publicly available data, suffered more casualties than any other Russian oblast - in fact more than the entire Moscow region despite having a fifth the population. Birsk has certainly contributed its share and suffered proportional losses. Critically, this is hard data on Russian casualties in Ukraine - curated by local citizens and geographically and temporally bounded. It's as good as it is possible to get.

First of all, a sanity check. The Soviet Army was staffed by conscription whose burden was spread fairly evenly among the Soviet population, and it suffered approximately 15,000 fatal casualties in Afghanistan. Per the 1989 Soviet census, Birsk and the surrounding district had a population of approximately 54,000 in a country of some 286 million, which should have produced 2.83 fatalities from the district in Afghanistan. The wall features 3 names from that conflict. All good.

The Russian Army of the 1990s was similarly staffed by conscription whose burden was spread somewhat less evenly among the Russian population, and it suffered approximately 10,000 fatal casualties in Chechnya. Per the 2002 Russian census the Russian Federation had a population of 145 million and Birsk and the surrounding district had a population of some 61,500 people. This should have produced 4.24 fatalities from the district in Chechnya. The wall features 4 names from that conflict. Checks out.

The Russian Army of the 2020s is staffed on a volunteer basis with a highly uneven recruitment base. This is not unique to Russian society, it's simply a factor of who joins a volunteer army and why - San Francisco suffered forty times fewer casualties per capita in the GWOT than some rural districts of California, for instance. Similar dynamics are in play in Russia - rural districts like Birsk see significantly higher recruitment than urban centers like Ufa, let alone metropolitan centers like Moscow and Saint Petersburg. As such to draw conclusions about overall Russian losses we need to properly account for this.

Mediazona runs a rather infamous casualty-tracking website that attempts to document Russian losses in Ukraine by name. I don't trust their data - otherwise I wouldn't be writing this lol - but I do think there's enough signal in their noise that their proportions can be relied upon for the purposes of this analysis. And of the approximately 9050 names Mediazona collected for Bashkortostan as of 10 September 2025, only 1900 are present from the major cities of the oblast - Ufa, Sterlitamak, Salavat, Beloretsk, and Neftekamsk, which collectively account for half the total population of the region, some two million people in total. The rest of the two million residents of Bashkortostan hail from rural or semi-rural districts like Birsk. Ergo, Mediazona is claiming that there are some 7150 personnel KIA from rural districts in that period.

(Mediazona had approximately 9700 names for Bashkortostan as of present and about 9050 as of 10 September 2025; I checked their regional database yesterday which showed about 2050 casualties from those cities and scaled it to their overall count as of 10 September 2025 at 94%)

Scaling off the 188 names in Birsk (pop. 63,000) to the entire rural oblast population of 2 million gives us an estimated rural KIA total of approximately 5,970 - 83% of Mediazona's claim of 7150 for that period. And bear in mind that this figure is both supportable by hard data collected by organizers and completely independent of the veracity or lack thereof of Mediazona's name list. Crudely scaled this would suggest the Russian Army has suffered approximately 190,000 KIA in Ukraine to date from Mediazona's claim of 225,000 KIA, although I suspect the actual number is quite a bit less than that because of "memorialization bias" - districts with heavy recruitment and thus heavy losses are logically going to be similarly quick to put up war memorials, in this case well before the end of combat.