Messages at Shangri-La

by Brian Berletic

During this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth laid out an alarming vision for the future of the Asia-Pacific region, a vision that includes the same type of U.S. military encroachment and confrontation that has turned Europe, North Africa and the Middle East into devastated battlegrounds over the past two decades.

Messages at Shangri-La (archived)

“I’m sorry we don’t have office supplies. We have to bring in our own pens and paper and marking pens, because the VA doesn’t have it.”

‘These cuts will hurt veterans.’ Concerns voiced about Trump administration VA budget reductions.

He said that through the years they were able to modernize and now he relies on the VA Hospital in Madison for his primary health care.

He said he was there recently and became alarmed to hear about cuts now under the Trump administration.

“When I was up there six weeks ago for an incident, I asked one of the nurses, ‘Can I get a pad of paper and a pen to just write some stuff down in the interim between the examinations,’” the veteran recounted. “And she said, ‘I’m sorry we don’t have office supplies. We have to bring in our own pens and paper and marking pens, because the VA doesn’t have it.’”

“Don’t just thank me for my service. Tell me what you’re doing to make this country better,” he said.

Navy set to rename ship honoring Harvey Milk amid DEI purge

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to rename a naval vessel named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk, with several other ships honoring civil rights activists and women also potentially being rechristened.

Navy set to rename ship honoring Harvey Milk amid DEI purge

Even naval vessels aren’t safe from anti-DEI purges—funny how the same crowd that raged over base renamings under Biden is now fully committed to historical revisionism.

Network States: The New Frontier of Soft Power and Corporate Feudalism

They sell the dream of autonomy—self-governing, tech-powered havens untethered from old institutions. But look closer, and you’ll see that Network States aren’t a rebellion against centralized power. They’re a rebrand, a more sophisticated, digitally optimized iteration of company towns, where the people inside serve the system without ever realizing they were locked in from the start.

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The plan behind Washington’s violations of the One-China Principle

By Brian Berletic

While much of the world’s attention is currently focused on the economic fallout of the tariffs imposed by the United States on allies and designated adversaries alike, they are only one part of a much wider strategy aimed at what U.S. policymakers themselves claim is a bid to maintain the U.S. as “the world’s dominant superpower.”

The plan behind Washington’s violations of the One-China Principle

Tyranny & Tantrums: A Rant on America’s Collapse

America is to going to hell in a hand basket, and the cracks in its foundation are glaring. As Linkin Park’s Burn It Down echoes, “We’re building it up to break it back down,” the cycle of destruction and collapse feels all too familiar. Institutions meant to uphold democracy are being dismantled, only to be rebuilt on even shakier ground. Power is concentrated in the hands of a few, while the vulnerable are left to fend for themselves. Like the song’s imagery of betrayal and downfall, the current political landscape mirrors a system that prioritizes control and greed over people. The flames of collapse are fanned, and the question remains—what will rise from the ashes?

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