Whitney joined Bad Faith podcast to discuss the recent Trump cabinet picks, the dominant role tech CEOs & the deep state are playing in American “democracy,” Jeffery Epstein and Israel’s grip on American politics and more.

Links discussed:

• The Man Behind Trump’s VP Pick: It’s Worse Than You Think
• Palantir’s Tiberius, Race, and the Public Health Panopticon
• Silencing the Whistle: The Intercept Shutters Snowden Archive, Citing Cost
• The Intercept’s Bad Track Record Gets Worse as New Whistleblower Outed
• AG William Barr Formally Announces Orwellian Pre-Crime Program
• This Biden Proposal Could Make the US a “Digital Dictatorship”
• Mega Group, Maxwells and Mossad: The Spy Story at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal

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One Nation Under Blackmail by Whitney Webb

Bad Faith Podcast.

Liberals who are upset at Elon Musk for not censoring X and endorsing Donald Trump have flocked to Bluesky. The social network’s CEO Jay Graber says that the site now has 20 million users and has gained over one million users per day since the election.

Blusky feels like X but it is far simpler. Do they do what liberals want Elon Musk to do and censor content? They do. Bluesky uses AI for automated moderation alongside human moderation. They are also working on a tattletale system called “community labeling” so users can help moderators “inform” their decisions.

It is a great place to find liberal jabber, that’s for sure. The media is calling this the “national digital divorce.”

Will liberals get tired of talking to themselves or will conservatives join the conversation and make it interesting? Who knows. The Babylon Bee poked fun of this “digital divorce” with this satire: “Experts Predict Every Liberal Will Soon Be On Own Individual Social Media Platform To Prevent Encountering Wrong Opinions.”

The post Liberals Declare Digital Divorce appeared first on Redacted.

President-Elect Trump named new cabinet members this week. They include:

Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education. She was formerly the Administrator of the Small Business Administration and an executive at WWE. She is the wife of Vince McMahon. She is a proponent of school choice and parents’ rights, meaning that education decisions will be sent back to the states if she has anything to do with it.

Dr. Mehmet Oz as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator. Yes, the TV Dr. Oz. He has been outspoken about America’s dependence on processed food and the biopharmaceutical industry. Will that be his platform for the only national healthcare system we’ve got?

Howard Lutnick as Secretary of Commerce. He is currently the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company. The President-Elect says that he will lead his tariff and trade agenda, which President Trump said on the campaign trail will help reduce the federal government’s dependence on income taxes.

Matthew Whitaker, former acting Attorney General, as the Ambassador to NATO. The President-Elect says that he will “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability – He will put AMERICA FIRST.” Is this an indication that NATO will no longer be setting U.S. foreign policy? I hope…

The post Trump’s Cabinet of Curiosities appeared first on Redacted.

New York Prosecutor Alvin Bragg has agreed to delay the sentencing for President-Elect Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.

This doesn’t mean that the case was dismissed. The Trump team had asked to delay the sentencing which was supposed to be next week. Alvin Bragg’s team, the prosecution, say that they don’t oppose this.

The Trump team has argued for dismissal based on presidential immunity and Bragg’s filing says that he will oppose that. So he will keep fighting for a win in this case, but maybe with less wind at his back.

Unless Judge Marchan dismisses the case entirely, which he could do.

The President Elect’s team is arguing for dismissal based on presidential immunity but his 6th amendment rights were clearly violated during this trial and there is strong evidence of selective prosecution given that Hillary Clinton was not prosecuted for the same journal entry for the Steele Dossier. I would much rather those things be the grounds for dismissal. Does this mean that the rest of us have to run for president if we are politically prosecuted against our civil rights?

The post The Prosecution of Donald Trump appeared first on Redacted.

Ukraine followed up its long-range weapon attack on Russia on Wednesday, this time reportedly with weapons from the U.K. This follows attacks on Tuesday with U.S.-made ATACMS missiles.

On Tuesday, Ukraine attacked Russia’s Bryansk region. On Wednesday, they reportedly attacked the Kursk region. Neither of those places are near the contested region where the battle has been in Ukraine.

This means that Ukraine is not defending itself to regain territory. They are only instigating a global war because Russia has said that it considers an attack from Ukraine an attack from the West and will retaliate accordingly.

Who wants this war? No sane person living in a NATO country wants to fight Russia but guess what? Neither do Ukrainians. Gallup somehow surveyed Ukrainians and found that more of them want the war to end than want to keep fighting.

I thought the West “stood with Ukraine.” If they stand with Ukraine, they should honor their wishes for peace.

The post Ukraine Launches New Long-Range Attacks appeared first on Redacted.

Here is another way that liberals are planning not to cooperate with the next Trump administration: a shopping strike.

One liberal user on X explained it this way: “Trump will not have a good economy because we don’t have to let him. I myself plan on paying my bills and saving every penny beyond that. I will not contribute to this economy in any other way.”

This person has pledged to stock up on clothes and food and not spend a single penny during the four years that Trump is in office. No buying clothes, no eating out, no paying for cable news, no movies, no sporting events, no new furniture or household appliances, no Christmas gifts for loved ones.

So now liberals are on sex strikes, hair strikes, and shopping strikes. The Party of Joy is sure showing how it’s done!

The post Liberals Go on Shopping Strike appeared first on Redacted.

The U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he is willing to agree to that on paper but will still “systematically carry out operations against Hezbollah’s attacks.”

That’s not really a ceasefire then, is it? 

The Prime Minister said this: “We will not allow Hezbollah to return to the state it was in on October 6, 2023.”

Israel has been targeting civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, killing at least five today and injuring 24.

The attacks in Gaza have also stepped up with over 100 people killed over the weekend and another 76 on Monday, according to reports.

Over the weekend, the Pope published excerpts from his book calling for an investigation into Israel for its actions in Gaza, writing this: “We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition (of genocide) formulated by international jurists and organisations.”

The post U.S. Pushes Israel For Ceasefire appeared first on Redacted.

A woman claims that she saw Florida Representative Matt Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old minor at a drug-filled party in 2017. The woman’s lawyer says that she testified to the House Ethics Committee.

This is relevant as Gaetz will face opposition to his nomination as Attorney General under President Trump.

Gaetz has repeatedly said that he was set up by the Feds and denied the allegations. In fact, a man is in prison now for trying to extort Gaetz’ father for $25 million in exchange for a “guaranteed pardon” in relationship to the ongoing lawfare against Gaetz. He was investigated and never charged.

The House investigation began in June. A report was scheduled to be released this week but now that Gaetz has resigned from Congress after his AG nomination, that report may not be released. The committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss its release and possibly ask Congress to vote on releasing it to the public.

House Speaker Mike Johnson last week said that the panel should not release the report. I would like to see it, sure. It’s not a healthy cloud to have over the country’s top lawyer and if there is evidence that he was extorted, I want to see that too.

I also want to see the ethics reports on other congressional representatives. Marjorie Taylor Greene said this: “If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see. Yes.. all the ethics reports and claims including the one I filed all your sexual harassment and assault claims that were secretly settled paying off victims with tax payer money the entire Jeffrey Epstein files, tapes, recordings, witness interviews but not just those, there’s more, Epstein wasn’t/isn’t the only asset If we’re going to dance, let’s all dance in the sunlight.”

Agreed. Do it.

The post The Battle over Matt Gaetz appeared first on Redacted.

Ukraine fired long-range US-made ATACMS missiles at Russia’s Bryansk Region. That is nowhere near the contested region where the battle has been in Ukraine.

This comes after the Biden administration reportedly authorized Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range weapons, a move that President Biden repeatedly promised the American people he would NOT do.

Russia responded to that news by saying that they would enact an “appropriate” response. Russian President Putin said that the Biden administration was “continuing to stoke tension around this conflict.”

Russia claims that it intercepted all six ATACMS missiles.

Russia also updated its nuclear doctrine, as they have been promising to do in order to “adapt to new realities.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explained it thus:

“What is the most striking example of the realities of the modern day? Authority in the White House, in the United States takes a decision to use their weapons, American-produced weapons, against the Russian Federation. We needed that update, we ensured this.”

The doctrine clarifies that nuclear weapons are a last resort but it clarifies that it “will view a non-nuclear country (Ukraine) supported by a nuclear power (the U.S.) as a joint attack” and will “consider a nuclear response to a conventional weapons attack threatening its sovereignty, a large-scale launch of enemy aircraft, missiles, and drones targeting Russian territory, their crossing of the Russian border, and an attack on its ally Belarus.”

Does the U.S. and NATO really want to test to see if they’re serious?

While Western leaders dance around the idea of war with Russia, they are also in the company of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 Summit in Brazil. Lavrov is participating in the international conference and “will address sessions on combating inequality, hunger, and poverty, as well as on the reform of global institutions.” He is also planning to “hold a series of bilateral talks on the sidelines of the event,” according to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

The post NATO Starts Direct War with Russia appeared first on Redacted.