40 pointsby rbanffy4 hours ago8 comments
  • YesThatTom23 hours ago
    I suspect the Cold War of cyber warfare that is happening is orders of magnitude bigger than the public knows.

    Imagine knowing this and not being able to get emotional support from your friends and family.

    • YesThatTom23 hours ago
      (Replying to my own post). Also, it’s gotta be mentally draining to be told by the president they have to win but also always let Russian attacks though.

      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/defens...

      • rbanffy3 hours ago
        Presidents come and go and, hopefully, this one will be held accountable.
        • aeortizan hour ago
          I'm an agnostic, but when I read about what he does, it makes me devoutly wish that hell exists. He has made countless people's lives hell on earth, and he doesn't care at all. No one is holding him accountable in this life: it's inconvenient for those in power.
          • Loquebantur24 minutes ago
            It's a systemic issue, not due to one man.

            What gets overlooked here is the US IC itself being a probable cause: the habit of "housecleaning" by killing individuals suspected to be possible (even only prospective) leaks of inconvenient information is very real.

            The recent cluster of weird deaths and disappearances of scientists linked to secret military research has a similar pattern to it: a statistically highly unlikely density of "suicides, accidents & mishaps".

            The assumption, those actions were "justified" somehow is entirely baseless: there is no transparency and no effective oversight. What is supposedly being kept secret there might simply be illegal corruption or embarrassing and inconvenient to those in power.

        • squidbeak3 hours ago
          Just as important, the US will need to figure out exactly what strings Putin's managed to attach to Trump - kompromat? threats? bribes? elaborate man management? something else? - or this vulnerability could be exploited again.
          • inigyou2 hours ago
            None. No vulnerability. The population and the RNC just voted for a known Russian asset for some reason.
          • TheOtherHobbes2 hours ago
            All of the above, plus death threats.

            Trump isn't the weakness. The weakness is the almost complete collapse of the checks and balances around the president. If those were in place Trump would have been in prison by the end of 2021 at the very latest.

            The DOJ, the military, both houses, the AIPAC wing of the Democrats, and corporate media are all fully captured. So are "independent" organisations like the NRA.

            The Supreme Court is mostly captured. The lower levels of the judiciary are still holding out, but have limited enforcement ability without the DOJ.

            • noir_lord2 hours ago
              It's why I don't see the US making the course correction it actually needs - realistically the "best" feasible outcome is that a presidential election is held and a business as usual democrat is elected who will immediately not address any of the problems for whatever reason (part of the system/paid by the same people pick one).

              Candidates come and go but the system endures and it is the system that is rotten at every level all the way down to the core.

              Then 4-8 years later the GOP candidate wins subservient to the same interests as Trump and the US Gov is back there again.

              Not really sure what the outcome is for the US at this point, things will have to get a great deal worse before enough Americans decide this is unacceptable but that state can last years/decades before the dam breaks.

          • lesuorac3 hours ago
            Idk maybe there is something nefarious but afaik Putin's always been cordial with Trump as well as let him do various investments in Russia. I'm not sure there's much reason for Trump to alienate his friend; if you've ever see Trump's staff meetings you'll know how much cordiality is important to him.
          • estearum3 hours ago
            It's almost certainly just that Trump is a fundamentally fragile, insecure man. He has proven over and over that he will happily fellate (proverbially speaking) any man who says nice things about him, and at least refrain from assaulting most women who say nice things too.

            Putin (and everyone else) knows this.

          • oneshtein2 hours ago
            Epstein files?
      • manoDev2 hours ago
        The new US policy under Trump is giving up trying to win the world and instead focusing on internal market and dominance over the American continent. Causing and sustaining friction everywhere is aligned with this policy.

        This is the result of a shift of power in the US politics, from the global financial capital of the last decades back to the military and industrial sector.

        • atmavatar26 minutes ago
          The new US policy under Trump is to burn everything down while extracting as much wealth for himself and his cronies as possible.
        • Forgeties792 hours ago
          > The new US policy under Trump is giving up trying to win the world and instead focusing on internal market and dominance over the American continent.

          Is that why he bombed Iran and single-handedly caused a global energy crisis? A shift of focus to “dominance of the American continent”?

          • serfan hour ago
            Well yeah, probably -- during this self made crisis oil prices in the US are some of the most well controlled.

            Destabilizing everywhere else is a potential step taken toward achieving continental superiority in certain regards.

            ( not a GOOD step, mind you)

    • cookiengineeran hour ago
      There's lots of people working for NATO and federal agencies in Europe that have been assassinated by the luckystrike branch of the FSB. The name comes from the Telegram account with underscores in between, and they're essentially recruiting kids or former inmates for GTA style missions.

      Starts with simple stuff like package rerouting, then goes on to gathering intel about places, people, putting in USB flash drives to their laptops, theft, death threats, arsony, and actual murder. Each step of the way the kids get deeper into trouble because they have to prove that they have done it for the payout, making photos of themselves... which gives the other end increasingly more doxxing material on them.

      It's a real problem, and they use the luckystrike branch also to go after witnesses in big lawsuit cases, which then fall off due to all witnesses accidentally dying under seemingly random causes.

      • Loquebantur35 minutes ago
        What gets overlooked here is the US IC itself being a probable cause: the habit of "housecleaning" by killing individuals suspected to be possible (even only prospective) leaks of information is very real.

        The recent cluster of weird deaths and disappearances of scientists linked to secret military research has a similar pattern to it: a statistically highly unlikely density of "suicides, accidents & mishaps".

    • salemh17 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • aga98mtl2 hours ago
    There is a tv show about in-the-know government employees dying by suicide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormwood_%28miniseries%29
  • someothherguyy4 hours ago
    "Between early June and early July, as many as five individuals who worked in or closely with US Cyber Command died by suicide, based on internal communications, public records and sources. The deaths have raised concern among lawmakers and military leaders within the highly secretive command, which is responsible for defending US networks and conducting offensive cyber operations."

    According to https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-107121.pdf there are ~17,000 authorized positions

    • paulmist3 hours ago
      Assuming a predominantly male population, the suicide rate should be around 20 per 100000 per year. 5 people in a month gives 18x higher rate. Too short period to draw any statistical conclusions but it’s a large blip.
      • jandrewrogers16 minutes ago
        This particular population is highly selected because of the work they do and the types of clearances they hold. I would expect the suicide rate to differ significantly from the general population.
      • dcanelhas2 hours ago
        The suicide rate isn't uniformly distributed given gender. There are likely screenings (previous mental health history) and rejection of the most affected age group (70+) that should lead the baseline to be even lower. Meaning 18x is probably on the low end.
        • paulmist15 minutes ago
          Definitely a rough estimate! I recon base rate is also higher amongst military personnel & it’s not uniformly distributed there either.
      • acdhaan hour ago
        I think you’d have some statistical complications around stress: beyond the inherent pressure of the job itself, it’s highly likely that they were understaffed even before losing a lot of support when the DOGE chainsaws were in “cut first, measure later” mode — I know multiple people in the military who are still running at like half productivity because telework was cancelled so everyone’s day is a couple hours longer commuting into an office where they’re sitting on the floor because there aren’t enough desks — and if they were married to another federal employee they might be dealing with loss of income or childcare (DOGE closed the GSA office which handled that, apparently to pressure parents into resigning) at the same time.
      • 3 hours ago
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  • glimshe4 hours ago
    Wasn't there something similar with scientists recently? I wonder how much of that is just statistical noise.
    • YesThatTom23 hours ago
      That turned out to be false. Normal attrition / vacation time.
      • Loquebantur22 minutes ago
        That's gross disinformation and patently untrue.
    • 3 hours ago
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    • dijksterhuis3 hours ago
      yep, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyw9rpdl4po

      > "The US Top Secret-cleared aerospace and nuclear workforce is ~700,000 people," science writer, investigator and pseudoscience debunker Mick West wrote on 16 April on his Substack.

      > "Ordinary mortality over 22 months predicts ~4,000 deaths, ~70 homicides, and ~180 suicides. The list has 10 … The deaths are real. The families' grief is real. The pattern is not."

      > Louise Grillmair, similarly, says that - while her husband "would laugh" at speculation that the deaths might be connected - he would also "probably talk statistically" to squelch conspiracies.

      • inigyou2 hours ago
        AI wrote the second quote
        • Loquebantur21 minutes ago
          Probably, more importantly: it's a lie.
    • cyanydeez3 hours ago
      Yes, there was a lot of statistical noised amplified by the conspiracy theorist media.
  • ck232 minutes ago
    go read about what they are doing to people in the Navy over in Iran

    * https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/16/iran...

    their families had to throw a huge protest

    now imagine they aren't even allowed to talk about it and/or being given illegal orders

    but the thing about military bases around Iran, all their defense missiles are being taken away and given to Saudis etc. which is why deaths are happening and massive number of wounded not reported

  • firefax2 hours ago
    Anyone have a non-paywalled source?
  • 4gotunameagain3 hours ago
    It wouldn't surprise me if they found out something they shouldn't about Israel's infiltration in US military and politics, and were dealt with.

    But most probably they couldn't bear the atrocities they had a first row view at.

    • grommz2 hours ago
      Once you know about the NSA backdoors you become a walking security risk. Forget about that vacation in beautiful China, you will be held on a short leash for life.
      • cedwsan hour ago
        Russia’s ok though. As Tucker Carlson pointed out they have bread and shopping carts.
    • wartywhoa233 hours ago
      If they downvote merely speculating about that, imagine their methods regarding those in the know.
  • babafoo2 hours ago
    [flagged]
    • ddxv2 hours ago
      What does not alone in our minds mean? Also, you mention America, do you think this is bounded to the physical US?
      • babafooan hour ago
        Our consciousness may be entangled and there have been cultures among us who can navigate and manipulate our minds (yes, at any distance.)

        No, it is not confined to America, however American Thought Control is presently the most powerful faction throughout the world.

        Everyone is quick to dismiss stories of “the voices in our heads” as crazy crackpot, blaming those who must be broken. Yet the greatest secret of our humanity is that our minds may be traversed and manipulated by those so developed, and it takes decades to so develop.

        And these are those perceived as “demons” or “entities” or “energy weapons” or whatever. Through entangled consciousness there are more than just voices. They can manipulate any perception or experience, even appearing to the unsuspecting as God or Jesus in their own minds. They are men, and they are American Thought Control running (deadly and destructive) Power games against us all.

        • eth0up38 minutes ago
          Are these references to things such as:

          0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_un...

          1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_viewing

          2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McMoneagle

          3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology_research_at_SRI

          I was researching related subject areas ~1.5 decade ago and had the chance to present some of the resulting thoughts to Dr Lawrence LeShan. He was already in his 80s by that time and didn't seem to agree with my angle. I didn't have the chance to follow up, and unfortunately he died not too long after.

          From everything I have seen on the general subject of PSI, his work seemed the best of all, specifically the appendix work in The Medium, The Mystic, And The Physicist from the unabridged edition.

          But your description reminds me more of the Arhcons[*] from gnosticism, which is astonishingly wild for ancient historical text.

          Edit: If you consider some of the soldiers who've documented their struggles with suicidal tendencies, eg Shawn Ryan, their descriptions seem a bit otherwise, but that does not discount your considerations. However, Ryan (and others) do attribute their recovery to DMT experiences, which seems more in the direction of what you seem to be describing vs away.

          *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon_(Gnosticism)

          • babafoo17 minutes ago
            Those things you mention are cargo cult games to the true Truth of this. Every experience of the human mind may be curated by those far far fewer (from old lines, uplifts every one of them) who carry this ultimate secret of secrets through time.

            Many are families, many are incarcerated condemned men serving decades to life. Many are spook remnants of those elder programs you describe.

            Everything you describe is cargo cult handled by “thought controls”, and they are as much a slave army as a lascivious mob. The very few now safe and secure from us in national security insulated containments are their puppet masters. And no one knows who their “handlers” are, not even tools of controls. Everyone has their own dirty inner reasons for doing whatever they are doing, yet they have all “realized” and “pay for” and go along with their “controls”, no matter what it is.

            They rape you, they break you, they remake you, they are White American Thought Control. The mastermind of the voices in our heads driving us insane from within.

        • 29 minutes ago
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