@dougvalentine.bsky.social "This book asks what happens when Phoenix comes home to roost." Currently re-reading. It's like an archeology of violence and current at the same time. @kimatiwagner.bsky.social highly recommend.

Another case of an IDF infantry veteran confirming that during the opening phase of the Gaza war, formal Rules of Engagement were not issued at all, creating a vacuum where some tactical commanders told their units to kill all “military-aged males” on sight. www.economist.com/interactive/...

Interesting stuff in here about military bureaucracy in Argentina’s Dirty War, where low-performing officers volunteered for the units the regime was tasking with the most abusive missions forces to salvage their careers and leapfrog ahead of higher-performing peers www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/w...

Based on my interviews with Nguyen Mau, director of the Police Special Branch, and others, plus years of deep research. The case casts the espionage intrigues of the Vietnam War in a new light. covertactionmagazine.com/2026/05/19/t...

IDF demolitions of Shiite villages in southern Lebanon are called Operation Silver Plow, Haaretz reports. “It isn’t terrorist infrastructure; we’re destroying everyone,” one commander says. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

The Shamrock Café “Late in my last life.” This is how it often begins Concentrating on my words A conversation across the bar. “My life here is a mystery It’s like coming full circle.” If someone were to check my ID They’d find I was too young To be playing this game Making it up as I go along.

From Pisces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire. One shouldn’t “believe” in astrology but simply recognize and understand its figurative and symbolic meanings and importance. 🙏

It always baffled me how these right-wing Catholics and Jews thought they could play footsie with fascism. As Chris Rock said, "that trains never late." Dumbasses.

Right-wing Translation Guide: "western civilization" = white people "meritocracy" = white people get everything "common sense" = stuff white people think "farmers" = white landowners "working class" = white people who pay taxes "job creators" = white people who don't pay taxes

The Zeros were to Afghanistan what the PRU’s were to Vietnam’s Phoenix Program. @dougvalentine.bsky.social lays it out in his book on Phoenix. The CIA has been doing this shit for 60 years now.

Since 2022, Matthieu Aikins and I have been investigating the CIA’s Afghan surrogate commandos, known in Afg as the Zero Units but officially called the CTPTs by the CIA. These units’ existence has been publicly known since 2010, but their relationship with the CIA is still an official secret...

“The Secret Agent” Review: Wagner Moura delivers a burdened, career-best performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s resplendent excavation of time, place, and political memory. Out now in U.K. cinemas and on VOD in the U.S. www.empireonline.com/movies/revie...

Wtf

The tv show host that wants us to work until we are 90 to help pay down the US national debt is a degenerate? Why, I never...

I'm trying hard not to go tin foil on this but let me ask, what is the regular tax paying voting American citizen *supposed* to make of the Epstein files if not that there was a child sex trafficking network w/ intel agency connections catering to elites that operated with tacit government approval?

I feel like we are in the middle of the biggest scandal in American history and the only reason why people aren't setting cars on fire in the streets is because this is so big it is hard to digest.

Imagine if the Army had a systems crash that "accidently" deleted the Abu Ghraib photos?

The actions of the U.S. federal government are going to stir up an insurgency in American cities. Part of me thinks that was their game plan all along.

The White House, ICE, DHS etc are just straight up lying to our faces. If we accept those lies, they become legitimate.

Not interested in another movie but I want them to hire me to write a ten book series about Indiana Jones as a OSS agent in WW2. share.google/MIRUACyHvbBg...

"“They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived on my street & in the neighborhood.” Lugert-Thom responded, “I don’t know anything about that” & she said they then asked, “Well, what about the Asian families?”" "“I was a bit shaken & a bit shocked of what I was asked to do.”"

We were told we were fighting them over there so we didn't have to fight them here, but then we just became the them.

They were created in the wake of 9/11 and we knew then they’d become repression tools for an authoritarian regime

Hire a bunch of morons with room temperature IQs, give them guns, and send them into cities to antagonize people.

Y’all!

Just assume all the redacted pages mention the President

Speaking of war crimes, this new story by Matt Aikins about a 3rd SF Group A-team, its Afghan proxies, and the “Nerkh Nine” prisoners they murdered is extremely thoroughly reported. Matt first covered this case in 2013 and has spent the last 4 years digging back in. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/m...

A year today since Evan Wright took his own life. Please go out and read something he wrote this week—GENERATION KILL, or his expose about a senior CIA counterterrorism official HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER IN AMERICA, or HELLA NATION, a collection of his eclectic pre-2003 reporting.

“I have documented serious cases of torture, including mock executions, all types of beatings, electricity being applied to ears and genitals and other parts of the body…Look, I’m calling this part of Russian war policy. It’s clear that it’s organized.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

“After reports of two major strikes against targets inside Yemen, officials at U.S. Central Command are refusing to discuss whether either action resulted in multiple civilian casualties or if either strike was militarily justified” www.military.com/daily-news/2...

"they view"

The title of my novel + opening epigraphs!

SACRAMENTO NOIR IS OUT NOW! www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/sacr...

A banner day for American letters! Arcade Publishing will be releasing William T. Vollmann’s Cold War-GWOT-Lonely Man masterwork A TABLE FOR FORTUNE in four volumes in 2026!

William T. Vollmann's A Table for Fortune is getting published by Arcade Publishing

Starting off the year with a double-header; I’ve never read more than one book at a time, so I’m curious to see how this experiment unfolds. More importantly, I’m just super excited to read Denis Johnson again AND jump into my 1st Jim Harrison work

Trump’s cabinet shall from here on be known as the Jackass Brigade. They are the stupidest bunch to come along in all of American history.

‘He has come out an old man’: joy and grief as loved ones released from Assad prisons

Munro was an utter failure as a mother and as a human being. I have not read anything by her since these revelations. And I never will.

These came in the mail 😍

This. Again, the US wants to blame others for the crises we cause.

“So many of them had been unwilling to share the world with one another—they had rather die—but after all, they had not left the world; they were still here, unseen among the living, the Invisible Ones, les Morts et les Mystères, and now, if for this moment only, they seemed disposed to harmony.”

Get to know your mutuals: In no particular order, post 10 things you like Books Movies David Zaslav hate posts William T. Vollmann Anything with the word “cocksucker in it” Martin Scorsese James Ellroy History Animals CCR

Get to know your mutuals: In no particular order, post 10 things you like Books Movies Dogs Cats Motown Coffee Trail running Driving without a destination Ancient political theory The Food Network

I’ll contribute: One of my 2nd great-grandfathers taught Burl Ives how to play the banjo

I’ll also do this. One like=one piece of lore from my background.

I love @meganabbott.bsky.social 's books, excited for her new book next year. And I'm a huge, HUGE fan of Denis Johnson's books. He's an all-time favorite of mine. Here's Megan in Crime Reads talking about Denis Johnson's masterclass novel, ANGELS, with the cool as hell Polly Stewart.

www.instagram.com/p/DCos-l_xKO... COVER REVEAL FOR KING OF ASHES!!!!!!