📄NEW: "RFK Jr Ballot Access Operation Has Far-Right Ties" My latest investigation for The Washington Spectator details the far-right anarcho-libertarian anti-government groups behind the Kennedy campaign's ballot access operation. He is not what he appears to be. https://washingtonspectator.org/kennedy-ballot-access-operation-has-far-right-ties/
20% of Americans identify as Catholic, and 60% believe abortion should be legal. And a majority are also disgusted by the apostate faction running a coup on the US government in the name of religion, in some cases violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Enough. Time to show our numbers. See you Tuesday! https://bit.ly/catholicsforharris
📄 NEW: “Peter Thiel and the American Apocalypse” The election is top of mind, but the debt ceiling remains an existential threat to the global economy — and Thiel’s network is signaling US debt default in Q1 2025. The dollar and your savings are at risk. https://washingtonspectator.org/peter-thiel-and-the-american-apocalypse/
The shockwaves from this week's events, culminating with the relatively less-consequential immunity decision on Monday, will be felt for the rest of our lives and likely into our childrens' dotage. Plan accordingly.
Project 2025 is, for the most part, a backup plan, Plan B; Plan A is the stuff that's already happened this week, and will have massive consequences no matter who becomes president.
Yes, it is possible that if an institutionalist president is elected, they can reshape the court in ways that eventually reverse these cases, but that realistically will take many years, if not decades.
Some real talk: even if Biden had performed at 2012 levels last night, the SEC and Chevron SCOTUS decisions are sufficient to send American government into the stone age.
Project 2025's proscriptions are largely superfluous in the wake of those decisions. Decimating the civil service through executive order is of little consequence if the agencies themselves are unconstitutional.
While it’s reasonable to celebrate one institution doing the right thing this one time, the threat is nowhere near neutralized. Expect the forces threatened by this to push even harder for destabilization and chaos. We should be prepared for that, and keep working.
Curious about Buckminster Fuller and his wide-ranging influence? My friend Alec Nevala-Lee wrote the definitive biography of Fuller, and is hosting a two-part online history course on him via the 92nd Street Y in NYC. May 13 and 20. Open to everyone — sign up here! https://roundtable.org/live-courses/history/the-visionary-life-of-buckminster-fuller
📄NEW: If Donald Trump is elected, what will it mean for US and global security? The history behind his motivations runs deep and is tightly connected to Putin's nuclear ambitions and his KGB past. My latest, and maybe most important, piece in Washington Spectator. https://washingtonspectator.org/wide-angle-nuclear-blackmail/
"A little-remembered magazine interview from 1987 may hold clues about what Trump and Putin are ultimately up to. What was on Trump’s mind back then — besides dispensing unsolicited foreign policy advice in full page newspaper ads? Nothing less than making a deal with the Soviets to jointly seize the world’s nuclear weapons and thus bring about world peace."
From @CatherineBelton — "Russia is increasingly confident that deepening economic and diplomatic ties with China and the Global South will allow it to challenge the international financial system dominated by the United States and undermine the West" https://archive.is/bccDX
I’m hosting an “X” Space on today at 12:00pm EST to discuss the geopolitical outlook for 2024, addressing Russia, Ukraine, China, the Middle East, the US election, and ongoing information warfare. Please join, and share with your networks.
If you (understandably) have left X entirely and prefer to listen later, I'm planning to make an edit for my podcast.
Having followed him since first encountering him around 2007, I have long felt Sam Altman is something of a con man. And evidently that’s the ultimate consensus of the OpenAI board. He is a parlay-preneur: a fast-talker who takes the work of others and whips it to stiff peaks to make exquisite meringues and confections, which hold great appeal and earn him praise until they ultimately crumble.
📃 NEW: "Reality in Taiwan Differs from Perception in DC," my latest for Washington Spectator. While US media hints at an imminent war over Taiwan, the facts on the ground tell a different story altogether. Politics and economics, not war, are the focus in Taipei. https://washingtonspectator.org/reality-in-taiwan-differs-from-perception-in-dc/
• Math: Can't really do math, doesn't have any model for it • Research: Makes stuff up, can't be trusted, is extremely confident • Coding: Unless it hits the correct example somewhere else, will usually get it wrong • Data Analysis: fakes it until it makes it, but breaks down at any kind of scale • Writing: as likely as not to plagiarize in ways that are hard to predict
If this was an employee or intern, I'd fire it. ;)
1/Please note this slide from a Mike Flynn event this past weekend, calling for "US dollar crash, gold & silver multiply" as part of unlocking the "third seal of Revelation."
Flynn and Bannon have been nurturing this strategy for at least the last two years, and they see debt default as the path to fulfill this prophecy.
1/Suppose for a moment Karl Marx had not been born.
It is very likely that the 20th century would not have played out as it did. I don't mean to pick on Marx specifically; but individuals induce ideologies, which induce social ties that produce history.
There is nothing particular about Marx's articulation of his ideas that were inevitable; they reflected his observations in the context of his time.
Suppose instead there had been a Dutch writer named Van Halen who published a theory...
Investigative journalist addressing threats to democracy. Cook. Pilot. Cryptocurrency Opponent. Internet pioneer. Speaker. Fellow @ New America, Future Frontlines. Johns Hopkins alumni. More at https://davetroy.com.Host of Mastodon sites https://toad.social and https://social.snorklr.com — a trusted source of news, analysis, and thoughtful discussion, and a part of the federated social universe.📍Baltimore/Washington