The Epstein Files are an interesting resource. They're especially good value for those still trapped in the whole kabuki of liberal democracy, rule of law, just society, meritocracy, party politics, constitutional checks and balances, accountability for crimes, government legitimacy, finance capitalism, etc etc. "Everything you were brought up to believe and trust in turns out to have been a clever lie." Beyond question, the Epstein Files have revealed an extensive multinational cast of incestuous often psychopathic predators — many already known to be prominent players in (mostly criminal or above the law) networks of deeply entrenched insider privilege. Epstein is the tip of the iceberg. Public opinion and prurient social media notwithstanding, however, there's only so far these current archives of redacted (plus over half unreleased) files can go in a legal, criminal accountability sense. Real investigations, questioning, physical arrests, criminal charges, court trials, and eventual convictions need the police and justice officials to take up the task, backed by both executive and legislature, and in full possession of all unedited, uncovered, unredacted materials. At present, the U.S. DOJ and various intelligence agencies are obstructing justice in full public view; and many corrupt politicians and disingenuous journalists are helping them evade responsibility. Will public pressure force the so-called public servants to honestly do their jobs? #EpsteinFiles #HappyValentinesDay

This is a pretty solid episode on the Student List win in Serbia, in which Adam Tooze explores the political economy of Serbia and the elimination of the opposition from Parliament -- something few media commentators have done

Explosive admission! The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, admits that Israel used ordinary Iranians as tools to protect Mossad operatives in the country. Rarely will you find a more crude admission of how Israel deliberately and carelessly put thousands of people it claimed it sought to liberate in harm’s way: In June 2025, the Israeli spy agency deliberately published multiple videos in real time of its agents acting against in Iran to compel the Iranian government to arrest as many people as possible. “We wanted to make sure they arrested so many people in Iran that they wouldn’t be able to distinguish the wheat [the actual Mossad agents] from the chaff and would eventually release everyone,” he said. “You have to imagine that when you arrest 21,000 people, even if you’ve caught an agent or two, eventually you have to release them... the IRGC would have no way of knowing who was a real agent with such a vast number of detainees." Barnea added that many of those arrested or executed by the IRGC as “Mossad agents” had nothing to do with the agency. jpost.com/middle-east/iran-n…

Perfectly reasonable

Pro-Palestine activists are refusing to cooperate with a secretive DOJ investigation seemingly aimed at Fergie Chambers — and they’re urging others targeted by the FBI to do the same. My latest on the young organizers at the center of the Trump admin's ongoing witch hunt for anti-genocide activity:

Public discourse must stay trapped in party-centric division and game playing 'analysis' – speculating, arguing, 'crunching numbers', etc – so these meaningless elections consume all available time and energy without anyone challenging anything that matters to the Power Elite.

How do governments survive next to the imperial core? In this segment of my conversation with Jeff Rich on The Burning Archive, we look at what Lula’s re-election in Brazil means for the wider Latin American political landscape, and why analysts in Mexico were saying, "If Lula loses, we will be alone." Across South and Central America, a wave of right-wing and ultra-right presidents, many holding dual US citizenship, has accelerated the region’s integration into the US-led security-military establishment. While Lula still faces obstruction from a right-wing Senate and ongoing US pressure, holding the Brazilian presidency slows down the full integration of the hemisphere and keeps Mexico (its people and government) from standing isolated against economic and financial coercion. We also unpack how Mexico weathers constant hybrid destabilization from its northern neighbor: from opposition state governors attempting to invite the CIA, DEA, or US military across the border, to sudden visa cancellations for Morena officials, media warfare, and a former Green Beret veteran of El Salvador and Yugoslavia stationed at the US embassy. What has kept those tactics from breaking Mexico’s political project? Not just institutional maneuvering at the top, but an organized social base built through mass political education: free ongoing courses in political theory, history, and governance, massive public book fairs as well as other educational mass events, and town-to-town, street-to-street dialogue on new legislations, a process that speaks with people rather than at them. When a population is politically conscious and organized from below, standard imperial destabilization playbooks cannot easily break that wall. Watch the full segment with Jeff Rich here: piped.video/2fJfG2MQQ_w

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.

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.

Auto translating foreign language tweets is very convenient. Sadly, it's also part of a novel strategy to insinuate up to a half billion native English speakers, conditioned by decades of intensive elite propaganda, into the rest of the world's national public discourses.

The #IsraelElection system is an elaborate parlor game. It's always the same fundamental story. If Bibi forms the next govt it'll be bc the supposed opposition Jews chose to support him over working with Arabs as a matter of principle. If the opposition Jews were to work with Arabs, Bibi would be out. In other words, despite all the boring smoke and mirrors, the result will be defined by simple Jewish-Israeli racism. While coalition horse trading continues without resolution, Netanyahu retains all executive power. Opposition Jewish parties won't want to end this dynamic prematurely by taking over responsibility. In any case, genocide and hostilities with Iran et al can continue under Bibi with or without a renewed mandate from all the elected Jewish politicians. And Netanyahu gets to keep his immunity from prosecution.

So bored with having to UNFOLLOW the latest pseudo-accounts polluting everyone's feed with the day's 'authorized news angles' from the bullshit spigot.

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

Lula pulls ahead. I wonder what changed.

Golly, at this point in round one Bolsonaro was 5% higher. Is Lula winning again? If he receives the same voteshare as last round, Lula will be heading for a fourth term.

Got to love these wankers who ask questions but restrict replies

RT @RealScottRitter: The Jacques Baud Interviews: Condemned for Speaking the Objective Truth On Saturday, October 24, I travelled to Bruss…

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.

Freude, schöne Götterfunken, tochte aus Elysium

Simple