𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
I’m not done with you Elon.
The grand champion of government efficiency. The billionaire savant who was supposed to blast into Washington, expose all the waste, eliminate the rampant fraud, and show the rest of us incompetent peasants how it’s done.
Well, I’ve been looking into how that little DOGE experiment turned out.
And holy fucking shit.
The Government Accountability Office, an independent federal watchdog, examined DOGE’s ridiculously massive savings claims.
You know what they found?
DOGE claimed $1.7 BILLION in savings from a Defense Department contract that hadn’t even been terminated.
The contract was still there.
The supposed savings?
Zero. Zilch. A big egg.
Of 264 federal leases DOGE listed for termination, 108 were already being phased out before DOGE even existed and Elon maneuvered his pineapple shaped upper half into the Capitol.
And nearly TWO THOUSAND contracts they claimed to have terminated? Still weren’t terminated.
Two fucking thousand.
Auditors couldn’t adequately verify enormous portions of DOGE’s advertised savings either.
In other words, straight lies.
Possibly crimes.
Imagine an ordinary federal employee claiming billions in savings that didn’t exist, then failing to explain the numbers when auditors came asking.
Elon Musk and his little taint licking army of efficiency enthusiasts would be crying fraud from every corner of America.
But when it’s their demiurge Elon?
Silence.
For a man who demands receipts from the entire federal government, Musky sure has an awfully difficult time producing his own, doesn’t he?
And spare me the mythology of the self made megagenius personally fireman’s carrying humanity into the future while hopping between K holes and playing his boosted Diablo account.
Thousands of workers do the work, but the billionaire becomes a god. That tracks.
And while we’re discussing this “self made megagenius,” remember his companies have benefited from tens of billions in government contracts, loans, subsidies, tax incentives, and other public support.
Some contracts paid for valuable services. Cool shit. But it wasn’t just him.
Public institutions helped.
Taxpayers helped. We the people helped. Scientists, engineers, factory workers helped.
Then the richest man in the room gets treated like he personally invented our future.
You know what really bothers me?
The staggering double standard.
A government employee makes an accounting error? Incompetent trash. An ordinary worker needs public assistance? Lazy parasite.
We can hardly blow off an unpaid traffic ticket without a bench warrant.
But a billionaire benefits from government support and oversees an initiative whose savings claims don’t withstand scrutiny?
He’s a genius. A goddamn visionary. Saving civilization and cradling humanity itself.
Are you people fucking serious?
I don’t hate Elon Musk because he’s wealthy. I don’t hate anyone. And I don’t deny his companies have accomplished extraordinary things. They have.
I object to the grotesque transformation of financial success into unquestionable moral and intellectual authority, to the erasure of the people whose labor makes those accomplishments possible, and to watching this asshole demand accountability from ordinary Americans and immigrants while his cult refuses to demand the same from him.
You wanna celebrate technological progress? Wonderful.
Celebrate the engineers. The scientists. The factory workers. The guys who sweep the floor at night.
And if you celebrate the billionaire who helped finance and organize it, at least acknowledge the difference.
The Earth doesn’t revolve around Elon Musk. Humanity’s future shouldn’t depend on whether he gets his ego stroked off.
For fuck’s sake, stop worshipping billionaires. Stop kneeling. It’s pathetic.
They’re people. Albeit shitty people. And even if they’re lizards they should be held to the same standards as the rest of us.
No throne is beyond judgment.
And where’s my fucking DOGE check.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Can we stop talking about "former" intelligence agents and the podcast drama between them and maybe focus on real issues that matter?
How about "independent" media covers the many disturbing developments courtesy of the government (and the broader global governance structure) is currently doing, which in many areas is drastically under-reported, and try and hold actual power to account instead of reality TV-style mudslinging. Isn't it supposed to be different than mainstream media?
In the event these people don't still work for intelligence, they are doing their work of divide and conquer and distract for them. I for one am tired of having this dramaslop algorithmically thrown at me.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Watch this.
Lubna Speitan, author of the Greens4Palestine motion “Zionism is racism”, spells out the central obscenity of our age – the grotesque inversion whereby the victims of ethnic cleansing, Apartheid and genocide must constantly fend off accusations from their tormentors that it is they who are the racists.
“We as Palestinians are being silenced and gaslit and vilified [as we] witness the annihilation, the cold-blooded murder of our families, of our people… our children burnt with phosphorus, having to endure amputations with no anaesthetic, having their limbs torn and shredded, their bodies burnt by phosphorus, being starved to death … And to have to sit here … and try to bury my feelings so I can eloquently and diplomatically shield my anger, my rage, my anguish that every Palestinian is feeling, is an insult.” /1
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
The Jacques Baud Interviews: Condemned for Speaking the Objective Truth
On Saturday, October 24, I travelled to Brussels, Belgium. My mission: to interview Jacques Baud, the retired Swiss Colonel and veteran intelligence officer sanctioned by the European Union for telling the truth about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Jacques and I met in the home of one of his friends and close supporters, and over the course of several hours engaged in a wide ranging conversation about his life and work, and the consequences of being sanctioned by the European Union, accused of being a Russian propagandist.
The interview, recorded by my daughter, Victoria and edited by Alexandra Madornaya, will be released in two parts.
Part One will explore the life and times of Jacques Baud, tracing his work as a Swiss Strategic Intelligence Officer, United Nations Peacekeeper, and NATO Humanitarian specialist. This interview underpins the reality that Jacques Baud is the furthest thing from a Russian propagandist. Trained in the US and UK, Jacques is an intelligence professional whose objectivity and adherence to fact-based analysis is backed by a track record of proven performance at the highest levels of international policy making.
Part Two will dive into Jacques writing and podcasts done after retirement. It is work that had him targeted by the European Union for sanctions which, when taken at face value, were tantamount to a death sentence. In a recent review of his case by the European Union, Jacques’ sanctions were extended. The reason why? He was too neutral and too objective in his assessments, and as such his work would help Russia and hinder the European Union.
Condemned to die because he was too objective, and too neutral.
It is my honor and privilege to publish these interviews, and to further the work of Jacques Baud, a heroic man on the frontlines of the fight for free speech.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Lula vs. Bolsonaro: I was held in solitary confinement for 1,901 days for revealing the truth about the U.S. government's killings and espionage, including against Brazil and its industries. Out of power, Lula fought for my freedom. In power, Lula discussed my persecution with Pope Francis, who decided to meet with my family and offer help. After my release, Lula and I met in Rome to mourn the Holy Father's passing. Lula was kind to my children and asked for nothing in return. In contrast, Jair and Flávio Bolsonaro did nothing and said nothing. Yet without the ability to say no to Washington and Tel Aviv, there can be no domestic policy, only foreign instructions. Those orders are always the same: "Expand our theft of resources and wages, and keep your mouths shut about us murdering children." Sellouts will surrender everything in exchange for a cut, even their own tongues.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
I'm not going to name the school, but the @BBC's coverage of the antisemitism in schools report featured interviews with children from a Jewish school.
Here's the rub, though.
The school's own published curriculum explicitly teaches Zionism, celebrates the establishment of Israel and describes preparing pupils to become "positive advocates for Israel" at university.
It even references bringing in organisations such as StandWithUs to prepare pupils for that advocacy.
Now, let me be absolutely clear. There is nothing wrong with teaching Jewish history, culture or identity. And antisemitism must be challenged wherever it exists.
But when children are actively encouraged to advocate for a particular state, rather than critically examine its history, policies and actions, surely we have to question whether this is education or ideological conditioning?
And here's the staggering hypocrisy.
We're being told that schools must exercise political impartiality when discussing Palestine, while a school can openly describe preparing children to advocate for Israel.
Political impartiality cannot be a principle applied selectively, depending on which side of a conflict children are encouraged to support.
And the BBC has a responsibility to scrutinise that distinction, not simply present children's views without examining the educational environment in which those views have developed.
Children deserve an education that teaches them how to think, not what to think.
@NEUnion @educationgovuk
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
I am a Palestinian journalist from Gaza. Lived my whole life there.
Lana is of Palestinian origin. She is a traitor to Gaza and Palestine, elevated and exalted by the Gaza Holocaust perpetrators and its vehement supporters.
Don’t vote for her no matter what.
I am standing to be Secretary-General because I believe this is a moment to act with greater urgency: to act earlier, bring people together across difference, and drive the work forward until it produces concrete results. That is how we rebuild trust in the United Nations and ensure it delivers meaningful change for the people it exists to serve.
My vision: lananusseibeh.org
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
UK Green Ashok is getting alot of much deserved love today for his defense of the Zionism is racism resolution. You can check out my interview with him on Bad Faith from a couple of months ago here. It's well worth listening to in full: youtube.com/watch?v=XDsyLGhY…
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
CIA document from 1952 outlines how they embarked on programme to promote right-wing Christian currents to clamp down on what was later called "liberation theology" in Latin America.
"The present rather weak and uncoordinated efforts of religious groups to combat Communism should be vigorously reinforced," the CIA noted. "Tremendous advantages to the Western program would ensue if it were possible to persuade all religious groups to unite in a campaign attacking Communism because of the Godlessness inherent in the Marxist doctrine."
It continued: "It is therefore vital, if covert activities are to be effective, that they are carefully concentrated where they can accomplish the most". At the time the CIA complained that "its assets as to personnel and covert mechanisms are not capable of covertly supporting many different and wide-spread activities" in Latin America.
This soon changed - and support for ultra conservative Christian currents in Latin America continues to this day.
One big victim of this operation has been Brazil, where conservative Evangelical and Pentecostal churches have been promoted relentlessly. They were, later, a key element of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro's base - and now his son.
The CIA (and MI6) did exact same in West Asia using, in this case, ultra conservative Wahhabis and Salafis as a bulwark against secular nationalism, socialism and anti-imperialism. Nasser in Egypt was the biggest target of all after he nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956 and the resulting UK/France/Israel invasion failed.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Why does the Greens' "Zionism is racism" policy provoke such fear from the UK's political and media class?
Because it collapses their key script – by emphasising that the struggle to end Palestinian oppression is against a racist political movement, Zionism, not against Jews.
The political and media class are so desperate to keep advancing this script that they're now forced to defame the UK's only Jewish party leader as an antisemite to make it make sense.
It doesn't make sense – can never make sense – because it's a lie.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Malignant and ignorant actors are trying to turn what is happening in France into an immigration or Islam issue. But these are demonstrations over the cost of living and lack of future prospects of a generation that has been abandoned by the government. And there is nothing more French than rioting and demonstrating. It is as French as croissants. Stop using this to advance your racist agenda.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Plein de monde partout, calme et joyeux partout quand les policiers ne sont pas là. Des images que vous ne verrez pas dans l'officialité médiatique.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
On the motion amendments:
The "Zionist synagogue" amendment was a media operation by liberal Zionists in Greens designed to generate headlines before the vote. Zionism is Racism was an E motion, which has no bearing on disciplinary processes. There was never a prospect of anyone being disciplined for attending a Zionist synagogue. (They got the desired headlines though)
On 'one state' amendment:
How can you support a motion declaring Zionism to be racism, then back an amendment that seeks to preserve the Jewish supremacist state through which that racism is institutionalised?
Zionism is racism, but becomes acceptable within the 67 borders?
When apartheid ended in South Africa, the white supremacist regime was dismantled. That is what needs to happen in Palestine
The two-state proposal is the equivalent of proposing to "end" South African apartheid by preserving white rule in Pretoria while turning the Black Bantustans into a nominally independent state. Would you have supported that?
The Zionist state is a racist endeavour. Its "Law of Return" allows Jews from anywhere in the world to immigrate and obtain citizenship, while Palestinians expelled from their homeland and their descendants are denied the right to return - warehoused in concentration camps and forced to live under military rule
Meanwhile, the Palestinian population within 67 borders—20% of the entity's citizens—must remain a permanent minority if the state is to retain its Jewish supremacist character. Zionists call these Palestinians a "demographic threat" because they might outbreed Jews
You cannot dismantle a system of racial supremacy while preserving the structures that sustain it. One democratic state throughout historic Palestine, with equal rights for all. And accountability for every single person who participated in the genocide, dispossession and countless other violations of international law committed against Palestinians since the Zionist entity was established (and before)
That is what decolonisation means. Not partitioning apartheid, but ending it
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
🟥 A Palestinian journalist who has survived genocide is pleading with people who have millions of followers to help protect families in Gaza from winter flooding. And she’s being ignored
@Hind_Gaza isn’t asking for publicity, payment or personal favours. She’s asking people to use their platforms to help save lives.
🔳How many followers do you need before you find your humanity?
🟥SHARE HER APPEAL. AMPLIFY HER VOICE. HELP SAVE LIVES.
gaza-city.org/campaign/6
اسمعوا، بعتت لناس عندهم ملايين المتابعين يشاركوا حملة بلدية غزة «ما قبل الشتاء»، حملة تمويل عشان البلدية تقدر تفتح المجاري وتسلّكها، ونحاول نمنع ميّة المطر من إنها تغرق خيام الناس.. طنشوني 😬
يمكن عشان الحملة تطوعية، وما في مصاري مقابل نشر ستوري، مع إنه كل دولار فيها حق للناس اللي بدنا نحميهم من الغرق والشتا.
بتعرفوا حد ممكن يساعد في النشر بدون مقابل؟
رابط الحملة:
gaza-city.org/campaign/6
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
Dear Secretary Bessent @SecScottBessent,
My name is Everett Stern. In 2010 I was a compliance officer at @HSBC. From a back office in New Castle, Delaware, I watched billions of dollars move to drug cartels, sanctioned regimes, and terrorist organizations. The enemies of the United States. I documented it, I escalated it, and when the bank would not act, I took it to the @FBI, the @CIA, and eventually the @SECGov.
The result was a $1.92 billion settlement. At the time, it was one of the largest in American history. It was also about five weeks of the bank’s profit. Not one banker was charged. Not one went to prison.
I paid a different price. I lost my career, my savings, and my place in the industry I had trained for. I was blacklisted. Every door in American finance closed at once. I slept on a camping cot in a 300 square foot apartment because I could not afford a bed, and I waited tables at @PFChangs to eat. I tell you this not for sympathy, but so you understand that I know exactly what it costs to do the right thing in American finance, and exactly how little the system does in return.
I made that sacrifice because I believed it would change something.
Yesterday, your department fined @BankofAmerica $1.2 billion for failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, some of it tied by your own findings to Chinese laundering networks, narcotics, and the southwest border, alongside 475 apparent sanctions violations touching Russia, Iran, and global terrorism. The bank admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act.
Fourteen years after HSBC. A bank with “America” in its name. And once again, not one individual charged.
Secretary Bessent, I want to say plainly what I believe you already know. The fines are not working.
A fine is paid by shareholders, absorbed by the balance sheet, and forgotten by the next earnings call. Bank of America reported earnings this morning. Nobody who set the alert thresholds, nobody who decided the 2024 cease and desist could wait, nobody who chose the backlog over the law will lose a single thing they value. Their lives are untouched. That is the entire reason the behavior repeats.
This is money laundering. This is blood money. Money that reaches a cartel buys fentanyl that kills Americans. Money that reaches a terrorist organization buys the next attack. This country has fought a war on drugs and a war on terror for decades, at enormous cost in lives and treasure, and all the while we have allowed the financing to flow through institutions we charter and regulate. Cut off the money and we win. We have never seriously tried.
There is also a question of equal justice that I cannot let go.
Before I walked into the FBI building to report HSBC, I stopped in front of the Great Seal on the wall and read the words engraved beneath it: “Justice is the defense of our liberty.” I believed that. I still want to. But every day in this country, people go to prison for crimes that are nothing next to moving money for the people who want Americans dead. A suit, a title, and a corporate badge should not be a shield from the consequences that apply to everyone else. If a street dealer goes to prison for what he sells, the banker who moved the cartel’s money should be standing next to him.
I also want to raise something that is rarely said in these conversations. Why has no one inside Bank of America come forward the way I did? The answer is that everyone in American banking knows what happened to me, and to the whistleblowers who came after. The last person who spoke up is the only policy anyone believes. That is a culture problem, and it starts with leadership, in the banks and in the agencies that regulate them.
This is not a political issue. It has spanned administrations of both parties. It is a national security issue, and I am asking you to treat it as one.
Three things would change the math overnight.
Refer individuals for criminal prosecution. Not the analyst in the queue. The executives who set the thresholds and chose the risk. One banker in handcuffs would do more than every fine in Treasury’s history combined.
End “too big to jail.” An institution cannot be too big to fail and too big to jail at the same time. If it is the first, it must be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.
And if Bank of America will not act as America’s bank, review its charter. A national charter is a privilege granted on behalf of the American people. It should be conditioned on not moving money for the people trying to kill them.
Secretary Bessent, you said yesterday that these actions send a clear message that even the biggest institutions are not above the law. With respect, the institution was never the problem. The people inside it are above the law, and they know it. Until that changes, I will keep writing letters like this one, and the next bank will keep paying the next fine.
I gave up everything I had to stop this. I am asking you to use the power you have to finish it.
Respectfully,
Everett A. Stern
HSBC Whistleblower
Founder and Intelligence Director, Tactical Rabbit
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
As British Jews, we are extremely supportive of ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion.
When ‘self-determination’ means exterminating another ethnic group, it’s racism.
Anti-zionism is not antisemitic.
It is antisemitic if you say that ‘Jewish safety’ is dependent on not supporting 🇵🇸
As a British Jew, I am deeply concerned by the Green Party's vote to declare Zionism racism.
Whatever our political differences, Jewish people must never face prejudice or discrimination.
Yesterday, I raised these concerns in Parliament and asked how Jewish communities can be reassured.
I welcome the Home Secretary's clear response: every council, regardless of political control, must uphold equality law and protect its residents from discrimination.
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
When The Gates Of Tech Dystopia Snap Shut
There’s a viral video clip showing a group of wild boars getting caught in a corral trap. When the gate snaps shut the poor animals run around in a panic, searching in vain for an exit.
According to the caption that’s been going around, the trapper waited patiently for five days for the entire sounder to get comfortable enough to take the bait and enter the trap all at once. The gate didn’t close until the final pig walked into the enclosure.
And, yeah. That’s pretty much where we’re at right now.
We’ve been standing around munching on our bait, enjoying our bread and our circuses, blissfully unaware of the trapper who is patiently waiting for the perfect moment to slam the gate shut on us all.
“Man, AI sure is great.”
“Check it out, we’re all Miyazaki characters!”
“I let ChatGPT choose my outfit for today!”
“I wrote a song just by typing in a prompt! Can you believe it? I’m making music!”
“We’re ALL artists now!”
“Oh shit, the gate just closed!”
“They’re listening to everything we say!”
“Fuck, there are police drones everywhere!”
“They’re putting guns on those robot dogs!”
“The state AI canceled my digital money because I tried to start a union!”
“I said Free Palestine and now I can’t access the internet!”
They’ve been quietly constructing a cage around us this entire time in order to lock us into this capitalist dystopia forever. The oligarchs and empire managers have been rapidly developing technologies that will facilitate mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems — already being field-tested in places like Gaza — which just so happen to be exactly what the ruling class would require in order to undermine and quash any revolutionary movements which might emerge in response to the ever-increasing abuses and inequalities of capitalism.
The trapper is patiently pacing us into accepting mass surveillance, unfettered artificial intelligence advancement, militarized robots, police drones, digital currencies, propaganda, censorship, and the AI-assisted manipulation of the flow of information.
And then, when the time is right, the gate will come crashing down.
It’s essentially a race between revolution and high-tech totalitarianism. A race between the awakening of public consciousness to the urgent need for revolutionary change, and the ability of our rulers to prevent revolutionary change from ever occurring. A race between our ability to start using the power of our numbers to force an end to the abusive systems under which we live, and the ability of rich and powerful dominators to use surveillance, robotics and AI-assisted control mechanisms to nullify all the advantages we hold over them.
And right now our biggest disadvantage is that most of us don’t even know we’re in this race. Our rulers know it, but the average member of the public does not. Most of us are still chewing on the bait in the trap.
There is still time. The trap isn’t shut yet. But we need to awaken the other piggies in the pen to the reality of what the bastards have planned for us, and help them understand that the race is underway.
Reading by Tim Foley:
𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗰 retweeted
I don’t wanna share much about Mamdani, but just a question to the liberals and his vociferous supporters:
How many Palestinians must be killed and maimed until Palestinians can call him a traitor and complicit?
Or do you want another genocide to happen in Gaza before we hurt Mr Mamdani’s precious feelings?