Don't underestimate how insane they will get to protect the kleptocracy.
I underestimated the perfidy of the financial elite.
Ghislaine Maxwell Facing Up to 65 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking The “sex trafficking” thing sort of implies that she was trafficking TO multiple people (I’d guess mostly men) - unless the prosecution’s claim is that Jeffrey was the sole customer, which he wasn’t. Ghislaine and Jeff were very close for many years to a number famous, wealthy men (and women), right Cindy McCain?
(My Twitter feed, now conveniently and apparently permanently lost, was full of evidence. I could write a book, but Whitney Webb is already working on one, and she’s the best.)
So where’s our brave financial press on stories like this one, since conveniently memory-holed?
Leon Black Reveals Other Jeffrey Epstein Finance Clients—Including A U.S. Treasury Secretary
Private equity billionaire Leon Black revealed other past financial clients of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein (without naming names) during a Thursday earnings call for his firm, Apollo Global Management, long after Epstein’s only other known client was former L Brands CEO and chairman Les Wexner, and shedding some light on who likely paid Epstein for his financial advice.
According to Black, Epstein’s other clients included: a U.S. Treasury secretary, heads of state, Nobel laureates and prominent philanthropists, but he did not reveal anyone by name.
Epstein shares a special connection with one of the most prominent figures at Harvard—University President Lawrence H. Summers.
Hmmm.
Meet Ghislaine: Daddy’s Girl
Unsurprisingly, the broader implications of the Epstein/Maxwell scandal have been largely, if not entirely absent, from mainstream media (and some independent media) coverage of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial as well as absent from the case itself. For example, despite physical evidence of sexual blackmail stored at Epstein’s residences being shown by the prosecution (with the names of those incriminated being notably redacted), the prosecution chose not to mention even the potential role of blackmail in Ghislaine Maxwell’s activities and motives as it related to her involvement in sex trafficking activities alongside Jeffrey Epstein. Not only that, but the names of Ghislaine’s close contacts and even some of her defense witnesses, along with considerable information about her role in Epstein’s network that is very much in the public interest, is due to be filed under seal and forever hidden from the public, either due to “deals” made between the prosecution and the defense in this case or due to rulings from the judge overseeing the case.
I think maybe 14% of the people in the world are capable of thinking for themselves, and 2-5% of standing up against petty tyranny. - @pdxsag
Supreme Court’s Roe Decision Forces Social Media Sites to Confront Misinformation Yet Again
(This isn’t about abortion.)
So there’s an entire cottage industry now of annoying little media misinformation hall monitors like the latest from Bloomberg’s “Davey Alba”:
Misinformation peddlers, ever the opportunists, will advance a hodgepodge of false narratives…
You mean ‘false narratives’ like Saddam has WMD and smallpox, Davey?
Davey even cites the ridiculous outfit Newsguard in support of his fears!
…according to analysis by NewsGuard, a startup that rates the credibility of news sites.
I did a whole thread back in 2020 on the ridiculousness of Newsguard. Check it out here (Give it a chance to load. Paraga and his woke fascist posse have made accessing my old archive very tedious.)
As I wrote back in February 2018, I'd much rather on occasion view "offensive" or "fake" content than have someone else (like Davey from Bloomberg) decide what is "offensive" or "fake."
Take it away, Matt Taibbi!
Fake news has a long history in America. Its most pernicious incarnation is never the work of small-time scam artists. The worst “fake news” almost always involves broad-scale deceptions foisted on the public by official (and often unnamed) sources, in conjunction with oligopolistic media companies, usually in service of rallying the public behind a dubious policy objective like a war or authoritarian crackdown. - Taibbi
Just to continue to pound on shitty “journalists,” WTF is this by “Jana Randow”?: Lagarde’s Moment of ECB Crisis Reckoning, in a London Basement: 2 1/2-hour meeting with a pot of coffee stemmed Italy turmoil
It was while sitting apparently alone in a London hotel basement that Christine Lagarde engineered a fix to the euro zone’s most alarming debt turmoil since the pandemic struck.
With a mini heatwave mounting outside, and seemingly armed only with a coffee pot and her customary iPads, the European Central Bank president took 2 1/2 hours to galvanize Governing Council colleagues into action during an emergency June 15 video call.
Lagarde is f**ing Superwoman!
This is an account of the events that brought her to that crunch moment, in a random room in a foreign capital, informed by multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because their discussions are confidential.
Oh, so it’s fan fiction. (And how many times this century have we been lied to by “anonymous sources”? A lot.)
Lagarde was at ease. She shared jokes with the king and queen of the Netherlands, took time to admire Jan Vermeer’s masterpiece “the Milkmaid” at the city’s Rijksmuseum, and dined convivially with policy makers.
Lagarde shares jokes with Kings and Queens! She admires art! Christine dines convivially!!
Hang on a second…
Is this an op-ed?
Seriously, our financial media writes about “Central Bankers” as if they are some group of Superhero high priests descended from heaven, altruistically roaming the world and solving crises (that they are never, ever responsible for creating.) It’s nauseating.
Like I wrote in 2016, I never see reporters more obsequious and deferential than when they're questioning FOMC (or ECB) members.
Whenever somebody on the news says, “…and Putin has brought up the spectre of nuclear war,” I’m reminded of this…
Russia Defaults on Foreign Debt for First Time in a Century
Hey, you owe me a hundred bucks.
OK, here’s $100.
Sorry, I won’t accept it. You’ve defaulted.
Very interesting site: Inside Airbnb. See how many Airbnb rentals are in certain cities. For example, in Los Angeles they list over 42,000, of which over 70% are entire homes. That’s a lot of units not going to long-term renters, or homeowners.
This was a fascinating interview: Damn, the Torpedoes: The Story of Celsius (w/ Mike Burgersburg/Dirty Bubble Media)
Meanwhile…Goldman Sachs Leading Investor Group to Buy Celsius Assets: Sources
Seeing the above, I’m reminded of Matt Taibbi’s epic 2010 Rolling Stone manifesto:
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Trigger Warning.
“Up to 40,000 Army National Guard troops - around 13% of the force - could be fired for not getting the mandated COVID-19 vaccine (which has limited efficacy against Omicron, doesn't stop transmission, has been linked to elevated heart problems, and has been mandated for a healthy demographic that rarely dies of the disease).” - ZH
I suppose it’s encouraging that 13% of the National Guard has so far stood up against petty tyranny.
I got double-Pfizer-jabbed (for personal reasons - I was always very anti-mandate), and still caught Covid from another double-vaxxed person. I had some (not young) friends who weren’t vaxxed, and either didn’t ever seem to catch Covid, or, if they did, they took Ivermectin or bourbon or whatever and were fine. I also knew a few young vaxxed people who were hit pretty hard, and knew socially one who died. Covid was weird, but I’ve had worse colds, and in fact I felt worse after the second Pfizer shot than I did from the Covid.
I certainly understand that - for the very elderly and vulnerable and seemingly random people - Covid can be deadly, like a lot of things, but for the vast majority it’s just another coronavirus, albeit a new one. If you’re super worried, get vaxxed, get boosted (although from watching my vaxxed & boosted friends, that doesn’t mean you won’t catch it, or won’t feel really lousy), wear an N95 mask (not one of the paper jokes) - and do whatever makes you feel better - but FFS let the other 99% of people get on with their normal lives. And quit firing people for not submitting to what is clearly mostly virtue-signaling at this point.
“Drenched in opiates and regret, I heard this song once and became besotted by it. It sounds like lost love, past lives, unforgiven mistakes and transgressions.”
I ain’t gonna lie. I thought I was ready for anything at the end of 2019. I never thought they’d pull something like this Covid pandemic. Hearing Joe Biden say that we have to fund the coffers to prepare for another pandemic says these psychos have insane plans. The next crazier than the last. 100 year old pandemics becoming once every five years?!! Makes People with 100 year flood insurance look like they’re getting a great deal.
I'm not sure it's possible to NOT underestimate the perfidy of the financial elite if you're a close to normal person.
Thanks for weighing in on what used to be, about 30 months ago, a normal idea: that people could make their own decisions about taking certain medications or "vaccines" based on their own health situation. Pretty much everyone I know who's at least double jabbed has gotten and recovered from Covid now. So, not sure about that whole narrative about getting the jab to protect the community...