#civilian whistleblower protection

[latestnews69]

OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment

Read more click here

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Boeing’s deliberately defective fleet of flying sky-wreckage

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" is manufactured far from the company's Seattle facility, in a non-union shop in Charleston, South Carolina. At that shop, there is a cage full of defective parts that have been pulled from production because they are not airworthy.

Hundreds of parts from that Material Review Segregation Area (MRSA) were secretly pulled from that cage and installed on aircraft that are currently plying the world's skies. Among them, sections 47/48 of a 787 – the last four rows of the plane, along with its galley and rear toilets. As Moe Tkacik writes in her excellent piece on Boeing's lethally corrupt culture of financialization and whistleblower intimidation, this is a big ass chunk of an airplane, and there's no way it could go missing from the MRSA cage without a lot of people knowing about it:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-04-30-whistleblower-laws-protect-lawbreakers/

More: MRSA parts are prominently emblazoned with red marks denoting them as defective and unsafe. For a plane to escape Boeing's production line and find its way to a civilian airport near you with these defective parts installed, many people will have to see and ignore this literal red flag.

The MRSA cage was a special concern of John "Swampy" Barnett, the Boeing whistleblower who is alleged to have killed himself in March. Tkacik's earlier profile of Swampy paints a picture of a fearless, stubborn engineer who refused to go along to get along, refused to allow himself to become inured to Boeing's growing culture of profits over safety:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/

Boeing is America's last aviation company and its single largest exporter. After the company was allowed to merge with its rival McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the combined company came under MDD's notoriously financially oriented management culture. MDD CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing's CEO in the early 2000s. Stonecipher was a protege of Jack Welch, the man who destroyed General Electric with cuts to quality and workforce and aggressive union-busting, a classic Mafia-style "bust-out" that devoured the company's seed corn and left it a barren wasteland:

https://qz.com/1776080/how-the-mcdonnell-douglas-boeing-merger-led-to-the-737-max-crisis

Post-merger, Boeing became increasingly infected with MDD's culture. The company chased cheap, less-skilled labor to other countries and to America's great onshore-offshore sacrifice zone, the "right-to-work" American south, where bosses can fire uppity workers who balked at criminal orders, without the hassle of a union grievance.

Stonecipher was succeeded by Jim "Prince Jim" McNerney, ex-3M CEO, another Jack Welch protege (Welch spawned a botnet of sociopath looters who seized control of the country's largest, most successful firms, and drove them into the ground). McNerney had a cute name for the company's senior engineers: "phenomenally talented assholes." He created a program to help his managers force these skilled workers – everyone a Boeing who knew how to build a plane – out of the company.

McNerney's big idea was to get rid of "phenomenally talented assholes" and outsource the Dreamliner's design to Boeing's suppliers, who were utterly dependent on the company and could easily be pushed around (McNerney didn't care that most of these companies lacked engineering departments). This resulted in a $80b cost overrun, and a last-minute scramble to save the 787 by shipping a "cleanup crew" from Seattle to South Carolina, in the hopes that those "phenomenally talented assholes" could save McNerney's ass.

Swampy was part of the cleanup crew. He was terrified by what he saw there. Boeing had convinced the FAA to let them company perform its own inspections, replacing independent government inspectors with Boeing employees. The company would mark its own homework, and it swore that it wouldn't cheat.

Boeing cheated. Swampy dutifully reported the legion of safety violations he witnessed and was banished to babysit the MRSA, an assignment his managers viewed as a punishment that would isolate Swampy from the criminality he refused to stop reporting. Instead, Swampy audited the MRSA, and discovered that at least 420 defective aviation components had gone missing from the cage, presumably to be installed in planes that were behind schedule. Swampy then audited the keys to the MRSA and learned that hundreds of keys were "floating around" the Charleston facility. Virtually anyone could liberate a defective part and install it into an airplane without any paper trail.

Swampy's bosses had a plan for dealing with this. They ordered Swampy to "pencil whip" the investigations of 420 missing defective components and close the cases without actually figuring out what happened to them. Swampy refused.

Instead, Swampy took his concerns to a departmental meeting where 12 managers were present and announced that "if we can’t find them, any that we can’t find, we need to report it to the FAA." The only response came from a supervisor, who said, "We’re not going to report anything to the FAA."

The thing is, Swampy wasn't just protecting the lives of the passengers in those defective aircraft – he was also protecting Boeing employees. Under Sec 38 of the US Criminal Code, it's a 15-year felony to make any "materially false writing, entry, certification, document, record, data plate, label, or electronic communication concerning any aircraft or space vehicle part."

(When Swampy told a meeting that he took this seriously because "the paperwork is just as important as the aircraft" the room erupted in laughter.)

Swampy sent his own inspectors to the factory floor, and they discovered "dozens of red-painted defective parts installed on planes."

Swampy blew the whistle. How did the 787 – and the rest of Boeing's defective flying turkeys – escape the hangar and find their way into commercial airlines' fleets? Tkacik blames a 2000 whistleblower law called AIR21 that:

creates such byzantine procedures, locates adjudication power in such an outgunned federal agency, and gives whistleblowers such a narrow chance of success that it effectively immunizes airplane manufacturers, of which there is one in the United States, from suffering any legal repercussions from the testimony of their own workers.

By his own estimation, Swampy was ordered to commit two felonies per week for six years. Tkacik explains that this kind of operation relies on a culture of ignorance – managers must not document their orders, and workers must not be made aware of the law. Whistleblowers like Swampy, who spoke the unspeakable, were sidelined (an assessment by one of Swampy's managers called him "one of the best" and finished that "leadership would give hugs and high fives all around at his departure").

Multiple whistleblowers were singled out for retaliation and forced departure. William Hobek, a quality manager who refused to "pencil whip" the missing, massive 47-48 assembly that had wandered away from the MRSA cage, was given a "weak" performance review and fired despite an HR manager admitting that it was bogus.

Another quality manager, Cynthia Kitchens, filed an ethics complaint against manager Elton Wright who responded to her persistent reporting of defects on the line by shoving her against a wall and shouting that Boeing was "a good ol’ boys’ club and you need to get on board." Kitchens was fired in 2016. She had cancer at the time.

John Woods, yet another quality engineer, was fired after he refused to sign off on a corner-cutting process to repair a fuselage – the FAA later backed up his judgment.

Then there's Sam Salehpour, the 787 quality engineer whose tearful Congressional testimony described more corner-cutting on fuselage repairs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP0xhIe1LFE

Salehpour's boss followed the Boeing playbook to the letter: Salehpour was constantly harangued and bullied, and he was isolated from colleagues who might concur with his assessment. When Salehpour announced that he would give Congressional testimony, his car was sabotaged under mysterious circumstances.

It's a playbook. Salehpour's experience isn't unusual at Boeing. Two other engineers, working on the 787 Organization Designation Authorization, held up production by insisting that the company fix the planes' onboard navigation computers. Their boss gave them a terrible performance review, admitting that top management was furious at the delays and had ordered him to punish the engineers. The engineers' union grievance failed, with Boeing concluding that this conduct – which they admitted to – didn't rise to the level of retaliation.

As Tkacik points out, these engineers and managers that Boeing targeted for intimidation and retaliation are the very same staff who are supposed to be performing inspections of behalf of the FAA. In other words, Boeing has spent years attacking its own regulator, with total impunity.

But it's not just the FAA who've failed to take action – it's also the DOJ, who have consistently declined to bring prosecutions in most cases, and who settled the rare case they did bring with "deferred prosecution agreements." This pattern was true under Trump's DOJ and continued under Biden's tenure. Biden's prosecutors have been so lackluster that a federal judge "publicly rebuked the DOJ for failing to take seriously the reputational damage its conduct throughout the Boeing case was inflicting on the agency."

Meanwhile, there's the AIR21 rule, a "whistleblower" rule that actually protects Boeing from whistleblowers. Under AIR21, an aviation whistleblower who is retaliated against by their employer must first try to resolve their problem internally. If that fails, the whistleblower has only one course of action: file an OSHA complaint within 90 days (if HR takes more than 90 days to resolve your internal complaint, you can no have no further recourse). If you manage to raise a complaint with OSHA, it is heard by a secret tribunal that has no subpoena power and routinely takes five years to rule on cases, and rules against whistleblowers 97% of the time.

Boeing whistleblowers who missed the 90-day cutoff have filled the South Carolina courts with last-ditch attempts to hold the company to account. When they lose these cases – as is routine, given Boeing's enormous legal muscle and AIR21's legal handcuffs – they are often ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs.

Tkacik cites Swampy's lawyer, Rob Turkewitz, who says Swampy was the only one of Boeing's whistleblowers who was "savvy, meticulous, and fast-moving enough to bring an AIR 21 case capable of jumping through all the hoops" to file an AIR21 case, which then took seven years. Turkewitz calls Boeing South Carolina "a criminal enterprise."

That's a conclusion that's hard to argue with. Take Boeing's excuse for not producing the documentation of its slapdash reinstallation of the Alaska Air door plug that fell off its plane in flight: the company says it's not criminally liable for failing to provide the paperwork, because it never documented the repair. Not documenting the repair is also a crime.

You might have heard that there's some accountability coming to the Boeing boardroom, with the ouster of CEO David Calhoun. Calhoun's likely successor is Patrick Shanahan, whom Tkacik describes as "the architect of the ethos that governed the 787 program" and whom her source called "a classic schoolyard bully."

If Shanahan's name rings a bell, it might be because he was almost Trump's Secretary of Defense, but that was derailed by the news that he had "emphatically defended" his 17 year old son after the boy nearly beat his mother to death with a baseball bat. Shanahan is presently CEO of Spirit Aerospace, who made the door-plug that fell out of the Alaska Airlines 737 Max.

Boeing is a company where senior managers only fail up and where whistleblowers are terrorized in and out of the workplace. One of Tkacik's sources noticed his car shimmying. The source, an ex-787 worker who'd been fired after raising safety complaints, had tried to bring an AIR21 complaint, but withdrew it out of fear of being bankrupted if he was ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs. When the whistleblower pulled over, he discovered that two of the lug-nuts had been removed from one of his wheels.

The whistleblower texted Tkcacik to say (not for the first time): "If anything happens, I'm not suicidal."

Boeing is a primary aerospace contractor to the US government. It's clear that its management – and investors – consider it too big to jail. It's also clear that they know it's too big to fail – after all, the company did a $43b stock buyback, then got billions in a publicly funded buyback.

Boeing is, effectively, a government agency that is run for the benefit of its investors. It performs its own safety inspections. It investigates its own criminal violations of safety rules. It loots its own coffers and then refills them at public expense.

Meanwhile, the company has filled our skies with at least 420 airplanes with defective, red-painted parts that were locked up in the MRSA cage, then snuck out and fitted to an airplane that you or someone you love could fly on the next time you take your family on vacation or fly somewhere for work.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa

Image: Tom Axford 1 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_sky_with_wisps_of_cloud_on_a_clear_summer_morning.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

--

Clemens Vasters (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N7379E_-_Boeing_737_MAX_9.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[vague-humanoid]

The federal government is going MAGA — fast.

Why it matters: President Trump has only been in office a week, but the departments under his command are moving with blazing speed to transform the federal bureaucracy into an army of loyalists.

The new administration immediately moved to freeze nearly all foreign aid, root out DEI programs, remove officials and whole offices deemed ideologically suspect, and muzzle public health agencies.

"We're getting rid of all of the cancer ... caused by the Biden administration," Trump told reporters while signing a Day One executive order that stripped employment protections from civil servants.

Driving the news: Late Friday night, the White House fired 17 inspectors general — independent agency watchdogs responsible for identifying fraud, waste and corruption.

The mass firings, relayed via email, appear to violate a federal law that requires the administration to notify Congress 30 days before removing inspectors general.

Amid outrage from Democrats and ethics experts, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — a Trump ally and longtime advocate for whistleblowers — called on the president to explain his decision to Congress.

Zoom in: DEI offices and programs have been shuttered across the government, including at the CIA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Army and Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Federal workers have been ordered to report colleagues who may seek to "disguise" DEI efforts by using "coded language."

And Trump directed federal agencies to each identify "up to nine" major companies, universities or non-profits to investigate over their DEI practices.

There have been hundreds of staff removals or reassignments, including at the State Department, where far more career officers were asked to resign than in past administrations.

The Department of Justice reassigned at least 15 senior career officials, including a top counterintelligence attorney involved in the FBI's investigation of classified documents Trump stashed at Mar-a-Lago.

The DOJ also rescinded job offers to recent law school graduates who were placed through the Attorney General's Honors program.

Trump's National Security Council sent home around 160 staffers while Trump officials conducted loyalty screenings to ensure they're aligned with his agenda.

One of the administration's highest-profile firings so far was Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. She was accused of leadership failures and an "excessive focus" on DEI at the Coast Guard Academy.

Between the lines: Trump loyalists have also moved to centralize control around public messaging, particularly when it comes to public health.

The Department of Health and Human Services ordered an unprecedented "immediate pause" on all health reports and social media posts through at least the end of the month, leading scientists to cancel CDC meetings on the escalating bird flu outbreak.

The Pentagon also ordered a global pause on all official social media posts until the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has promised a radical culture shakeup across the U.S. military.

The new administration is also moving quickly on issues including LGBTQ and civil rights.

The State Department froze all passport applications with "X" designated as the gender.

DOJ ordered a freeze on civil rights litigation and is weighing a potential reversal of police reform agreements negotiated by the Biden administration.

It also ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local and state officials in so-called "sanctuary cities."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon moved to abolish an office set up during the Biden administration focused on curbing civilian deaths in combat operations.

Zoom out: Trump made no secret of his intentions to build a MAGA-aligned federal workforce during the campaign, and he quickly imposed a hiring freeze after taking office.

The vast majority of federal workers are career employees, not political appointments, but the president has made clear he wants them all to board the Trump train.

His administration is currently testing the ability to email the entire federal government workforce from a single email address.

What to watch: Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, will be a key architect of the White House's efforts to re-engineer the administrative state.

Vought has assailed "the woke and weaponized bureaucracy," and said in a 2023 speech to his conservative think tank that he wants to put federal bureaucrats "in trauma," ProPublica reported.

"When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains," Vought said — comments he defended during his confirmation hearing.

[mibibosartblog]

2019 sketchdump, part 6 - Misc. Fandom / Selfinsert Stuff

Arcana apprentice, ready to throw down to protect her lover.

Various selfinsert headshots. From left to right: Shepard (Mass Effect), Deputy (Far Cry 5), Sole Survivor (Fallout 4), Trevelyan (Dragon Age: Inquisition), Ego (FMA: Conqueror of Shamballa).

Deputy and Joseph literally butting heads, both of them either too stubborn or prideful to give up.

I don't even remember what game this was for. It was a mobile game in any case, and I happened to fancy one particular hunter in the harem.

Mood piece? Related to Helix Waltz. I kind of just gravitate to characters who look like Ed. Shocker.

Skyrim Dragonborn in vampire armor.

Saints Row 4 president, causing mayhem in the streets. Probably streaking.

Geralt of Rivia and... so far unnamed selfinsert.

Bully / Canis Canem Edit, getting picked on by one of the posh girls and immediately socking her in the face.

Concept for unnamed Witcher 3 selfinsert's doublet

More concept for clothes for the unnamed W3 selfinsert. Civilian clothes, work clothes, pyjamas

Selfinsert getting stabbed by Eddie Gluskin (Outlast: Whistleblower), of all people. I was having bad dreams about him at the time and just really needed to get it out on paper

Very basic sketch, supposed to be related to Far Cry 5, showing the Deputy hauling ass through the (invisible) woods to get away from the cultists trying to run her down.

Sketch of one of the cut NPC's from the Ocarina of Time beta.

[skygemspeaks]

Hi, sorry to be weird but I just wanted to say that I really LOVE your posts from the portal future blog. I didn't have any ideas for asks to send to that blog but I just wanted to say that it is awesome and I love it and seeing all the different characters you've created/online presences you've created for it.

Hi, thank you so much, I'm really glad that you're enjoying it! I haven't been posting much this past week because a lot of my creative energy is going towards 2 portal future fics i'm working on (one is the new chapter of knight and his sun, the other is an au where jaxon takes a civilian sabbatical after the drago 2781 sequence and develops a whistleblower organization on earth about the welfare of handicapped children)

All that to say though, i've been having lots of fun with the posts from the portal future blog! A couple of the urls are just extras (which may or may not develop into recurring characters in the future), but other than jarra there are 4 characters who i've got semi fleshed out in my mind. If you or anyone else wants to send an ask but doesn't know what to ask about, here's some inspo:

wallamcranesarchnemesis: jarra, but doesn't want anyone to know she's jarra. Tumblr is where she puts all the infodumps that her friends don't want to listen to. Ask her about her opinion on anything in history and she'll be super excited to talk about it. For maximum humour send her an ask about commander tell morrath and watch her fumble and try not to reveal her secret identity

onesmallstep: off-world student currently on earth for his pre-history foundation course! He's curious to get to know more about earth culture and is always willing to answer asks about what planet or sector he's from, what he thinks of earth, etc

nextstephome: a slightly older user who has interacted a few times with junglequeenstalea. They want to become a next step principal which is where their url comes from. Ask them about their "beef" with stalea, or anything about running a next step

talkarchaeologytome: an employee at new york main dig site command! Ask her about the solar 5 rescue or what it's like to work for dig site command

junglequeenstaleeeea: (4 e's in her name, don't get it wrong!) She's my favourite so far and i just feel very protective of her. Ask her about stalea of the jungle (isn't that show banned in next step??? It seems a bit inappropriate for a 14 year old...) or why she hates commander tell morrath so much lmao

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Allan Stratton

Published: Jul 23, 2023

Toronto is one of the most tolerant, multicultural cities in the world. And yet, according to many of its progressive journalists, academics, and politicians, it’s actually a den of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Unless you’re a straight white man, daily life is supposedly an exhausting and dangerous struggle. If you live in the United States, the UK, Australia, or elsewhere in Canada, I’m guessing you’ve been told similar things about your own society.

I’m a gay man for whom these reports bear no relationship to the real world. Certainly, hate-crime statistics show a sharp increase in physical and verbal abuse against specific demographics, including my own. And there are even rare incidents of murder and arson. But to suggest that minorities live under constant threat from a bigoted majority is apocalyptic nonsense. This is especially true of Canada, an especially open, diverse, and welcoming country. Western nations, more generally, are incontrovertibly the most tolerant on the planet.

My heretical view (among fellow progressives, at least) may be due to my “positionality” (this being a faddishly woke jargon term that most English speakers would call “perspective”). The Holocaust and the internment of Japanese North Americans ended a mere six years before I was born. The pass system that turned Canadian Indigenous reservations into open-air prison camps was still in force. The United States was segregated by Jim Crow and redlining. Cross burnings and lynchings went unpunished. Marital rape was legal. Spousal abuse and unequal pay were commonplace. Gay sex and cross-dressing were criminalized, with outed individuals losing their jobs and children. “Fag bashing” was treated as public entertainment.

In the relatively few decades since, western governments have implemented universal civil and human rights protections for racial and sexual minorities. The speed and depth of this transformation has been so remarkable that it seems inconceivable that we ever lived as we once did. Has any other culture critiqued its failings and set about reforming itself so quickly?

This is not to suggest that everything is sunshine and lollipops. Human nature has not been repealed. Police departments without effective civilian oversight, for instance, continue to invite corruption and abuse. Nonetheless, we now have the tools to press for accountability, such as human rights tribunals and whistleblower protections.

It’s also important to acknowledge that while the relative increase in reported hate crimes may seem shocking, that rise is based on a remarkably low baseline. For instance, 2021 saw a 65 per cent increase in incidents (over 50 per cent of these comprising verbal slurs) targeting Canada’s LGB and T communities. But that still represents just 423 cases in a country of 40-million people. That’s hardly a “tsunami of hate.” The number is infinitesimal compared to the 114,132 domestic assaults and 34,242 sexual assaults recorded against women.

One often hears that a reversion to the backward ways of the past is just around the corner. And it is true that abortion rights now hang in the balance in many conservative U.S. states. But the idea that any Western country (especially Canada) is on the cusp of a wholesale rejection of liberal principles is absurd. Women will never again need their husband’s signature to open a bank account. Racial segregation is unthinkable (except, ironically, in certain progressive institutions). Marriage equality for same-sex couples is constitutionally protected in North America, and enjoys a historic 70 per cent level of support in the United States.

So, unlike those on the left who came of age in the 90s and the decades that followed, I don’t see an intolerant society destroying civil rights and minority safety. Rather, what I am now witnessing is a period of progressive overreach, led by ideologues with no (apparent) historical memory or understanding of how our liberal social contract evolved. They have turned language inside out so as to render words such as “woman,” “safety,” and “genocide” essentially meaningless; pursued policies that lock one-time progressive allies in a zero-sum culture-war conflict; recast free speech as hate speech; confused wishes (and, in some cases, fantasies) with rights; and punished dissenters from their Borg-think with social exclusion, “re-education,” and firing.

This radical attempt to unilaterally impose a new social order based on race and gender essentialism has ignited a widespread public backlash, which has been weaponized by the far right, destroyed public goodwill, and done more damage to the progressive cause than anything its reactionary enemies have done in recent years.

-

The civil-rights movements of the last century won victories by liberal means based on liberal values. This included an insistence on free speech and civil liberties; and an appeal to the universal values of dignity and equality, which in turn underpin the case for protecting individual human rights and freedoms.

In part, this was because we liberals understood math. We needed white, straight, male legislators to support our causes, a project that could only be engaged through free and open debate. Empathy-based co-operation enabled us to create bridges among our diverse groups: The Gay Liberation Front raised money for the Black Panthers. In turn, its leader, Huey Newton, supported the gay liberation and women’s liberation movements. Meanwhile, Jewish groups applied their historical understanding of discrimination to help lead the fights for women’s rights (Betty Friedan), gay rights (Larry Kramer), and black voting rights, with some even giving their lives as Freedom Riders

By contrast, today’s illiberal left explicitly rejects the principles of free speech and universality. It ignores the lessons of past civil-rights successes, often denying that such successes even took place. After all, how can one insist on the dismantling (or “decolonization”) of a system that has shown itself capable of self-correction and continuous improvement? The only framework that validates the progressive narrative of ongoing oppression and white supremacy is one that ahistorically presents mainstream liberal values as a failure.

The switch in social-justice circles from liberal to authoritarian ends and means has at least three major causes. The first is structural: As (originally) liberal rights groups such as the ACLU achieved their objectives, they were required to rewrite their mission statements and pretend away their past successes — this being the only way to justify their ongoing existence.

Far from seeking to “burn it all down,” most of us within the original LGB and T movements simply wanted equality within existing social structures. We used liberal “respectability politics” to make our case, and (for the most part) folded our tents when we achieved our goal. The unwitting effect of this was to leave our old organizations to the radicals, who had long condemned us as sellouts to the patriarchy. Their goal is nothing less than the remaking — or “queering” — of society, a vaguely defined project infused with a deep suspicion of, or even hostility to, capitalism and the nuclear family. The liberal LGB and T wish to live and let live is now the authoritarian “live as we live.”

The second factor is generational change. Just as children separate from their parents in their passage to adulthood, so does each generation define itself in contradistinction to its immediate predecessor. Without personal memory of past struggles, present conditions are taken for granted. And so the battle against current injustices (real or otherwise) is seen as humanity’s defining and timeless struggle.

My generation mocked our parents’ conformity and stoic, suck-it-up ethos, forgetting that these traits had been necessary social adaptations during the Great Depression and World War II. Similarly, activists of this generation attack our commitment to free speech and integration within society, forgetting that these strategies were necessary for us to be heard during the Cold War, when outsiders were suspected as potential fifth columnists.

But perhaps the most significant factor has been the academic trend toward postmodernism, which instructs adherents that neither objective reality nor human nature exist in any certain, provable way. Reason, logic, and objective facts are rejected — or at least put in scare quotes — as are appeals to history and science. These are all held to be mere artifacts of language, which is itself presented as a reflection of existing power structures. And since these structures are presumed to systematically oppress the powerless, they must be deconstructed, dismantled, and decolonized, root and branch.

This kind of thinking isn’t just claptrap that flies in the face of day-to-day human experience. It also encourages a kind of intellectual nihilism that precludes amelioration of the injustices and power imbalances that supposedly concern many postmodern thinkers: After all, what could possibly replace our current power-based intellectual constructs except new power-based intellectual constructs?

Nonetheless, postmodern habits of mind (often flying under the banner of “critical” studies of one kind or another) have infected academic humanities and social science departments all over the west, much like the fungal parasite on The Last of Us. Its professorial hosts now work to dismantle their own institutions, attacking the “colonial” concepts of science and empiricism in favour of undefined and unfalsifiable “ways of knowing.” Meanwhile, their students have incubated its spores and spread them into the wider society, including corporate human-rights offices.

Progressives (rightly) have denounced Donald Trump and his supporters for their paranoid belief that the 2020 U.S. election was “stolen.” But these right-wing conspiracy theorists are not so different from campus leftists when it comes to their à la carte approach to accepting or rejecting reality according to passing ideological convenience

In particular, the idea that pronouns serve as magic spells that can turn a man into a (literal) women is no less ridiculous than anything Trump has ever said. The same goes for the mantra that while girls who cut themselves need therapy, girls seeking a double mastectomy require “affirmation.” Likewise: Racial segregation is a bigoted practice … except when it represents the very acme of progressive enlightenment. “Defund the police” doesn’t mean abolish the police, except when it means exactly that.

And then there’s Schrödinger’s Antifa, which presents these street thugs either as a very real force that rose up as a morally laudable reaction to fascism … or as something that exists only in Tucker Carlson’s fever dreams, depending on context.

But postmodernism and critical theory have done more than just damage our societies’ intellectual cohesion. Their denial of universal human nature eliminates empathy as a tool to bridge differences among groups, which are instead presented as warring sects prosecuting unbridgeable race (or gender) feuds. Since power is presented as the singular currency of the realm, the ability to shut the other side up is valued more than the ability to persuade it.

Gay men such as Andrew Sullivan and Andrew Doyle have been among the most prominent dissenters against wokeism — in part because we instinctively recognize the destructive nature of this power-fixated mindset. Our experience suggests that empathy and reason are far more important than threats and cultural power plays.

Dave Chappelle has said that the LGBT movement won public support more quickly than its black counterpart because of racism. But I believe the truth is different: Unlike racial and ethnic minorities, we exist in every demographic, every family, every ethnic category. When we gay men came out en masse during the 1980s AIDS pandemic, all communities realized that we were among its children, parents, and siblings. People have a harder time discriminating against their own than against outsiders.

Traditionally, the left has appealed to a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose. The resulting project of alliance-building has entailed negotiation among different groups, all of which may have different priorities and perspectives. But that alliance-building project becomes impossible when one sect or another demands that disagreement be treated as a form of thoughtcrime. Deplatforming doesn’t just hurt the target; it also hurts the movement, since the summary excommunication of dissidents means that adherents never need to acknowledge or address counterarguments, internal logical inconsistencies, or the off-putting nature of their message.

Indeed, ideologues such as Nikole Hannah-Jones claim that politics has a colour: Blacks who aren’t “politically black” are traitors who collaborate with “whiteness.” As seen through this lens, Asian-Americans who fight anti-Asian discrimination in the context of affirmative action are supposedly puppets of white supremacists, and the LGB Alliance, by standing up for same-sex attraction, is smeared as a transphobic hate group. (For asserting that biology is real, Stonewall UK even tried to destroy the career of one of the LGB Alliance’s founders, Allison Bailey, a lifelong social justice advocate who happens to be a black, working-class lesbian, and the child of immigrant parents. Thankfully, Stonewall did not prevail.)

Opponents of cancel culture often focus on its negative effects on conservatives. But it’s often woke organizations that end up imploding under its strains, typically due to internal battles over victimhood status and linguistic control. In recent years, many of these groups have been driven off the rails by single-issue gender activists who are willing to support misogyny and homophobia in the name of trans rights; or BLM activists willing to permit racism directed at “model minorities.” Even antisemites have been allowed to infiltrate left-wing political parties, the arts establishment, and anti-racist education initiatives. No wonder everyone involved with this movement is always complaining about how emotionally “exhausted” they are: They’re surrounded by toxic fellow travellers who gaslight them as right-stooges if they dare raise a complaint.

Another notable feature of militant social-justice movements is the sheer joylessness of their leaders and supporters, a condition that often seems to blur into a collectively embraced state of clinical depression and paranoia. This posture flows from their presupposition that they suffer endlessly due to the malignant primordial character of “whiteness” and heteronormativity (or, yet worse, cisheteronormativity). The language of individual agency and hope, which animates liberalism, is replaced with a soul-dead idiom by which the activist presents as a self-pitying victim of oppression, constantly at risk of suicidal ideation, erasure, and genocide.

Even privileged “allies” are encouraged to dwell on their whiteness, straightness, cisness, “settler” status, and other marks of intersectional Cain. By erasing the possibility of redemption, the movement alienates liberal allies who are seeking to build bridges with others en route to living successful and fulfilling lives in a way that escapes the politics of identity. The social-justice puritan, being primarily concerned with advancing his status within a cultish inward-seeking subculture that’s constantly inventing new grievances, on the other hand, finds such a goal unthinkable.

The use of words such as “harm” and “violence” to describe the microaggressions known to the rest of us as “daily life” is a particularly unattractive feature of social-justice culture. In the 1980s, gays and lesbians responded to daily discrimination with the chant, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” Today, the children and grandchildren of that generation, now enjoying full civil rights and perches within elites sectors of government, culture, and high society, instead tell us, “We’re here, we’re queer, and … we’re terrified to step outside.” As a gay man, it’s humiliating to hear this kind of maudlin rhetoric uttered in my name.

The broad public, long sympathetic and accommodating, has had it. People have no time for hysterical activists who whine, bully, and hector them about things they didn’t do and over which they have no control. This is particularly true when those same activists demand the elimination of women’s sex-based rights, the medical sterilization of children and teens, and the explicit exclusion of job applicants by race. The more that ordinary men and women came to learn about gay marriage, the more they accepted it. By contrast, the more that ordinary men and women come to learn about trans-activist demands and critical race theory, the more they’ve become repulsed.

Support for Black Lives Matter collapsed when the woke trivialized the arson and looting that accompanied the George Floyd protests. The public was completely onside with the left’s demand for police reform, but horrified by the extremist push to dismantle public security, and enraged that the left justified breaking pandemic restrictions for protests while insisting that grieving families be kept from their dying relatives in hospitals.

Likewise, Lia Thomas tanked support on gender radicalism. The public had long welcomed trans civil rights, sympathized with those suffering dysphoria, and accepted that even non-dysphoric trans-identified individuals should be able to live and present as they wished. But the sight of a strapping, butch male taking women’s prizes and opportunities was a breaststroke too far.

Facing resistance, the woke doubled down, insisting on automatic gender affirmation for everyone, including rapists and children. The result gifted social conservatives an issue of concern to majorities across the political spectrum. Now, progressives in the U.S. face a raft of bills that, among other things, resurrect false charges of Alphabet paedophilia. No wonder LGB groups are jettisoning the T: In the space of just a few years, trans activists have undone the good work that gay activists did over multiple generations.

The progressive movement must stand up to its extremists. We must restore the liberal social compact that won our civil and human rights. That means we should root our claims in areas of common ground, demanding fair treatment, but not the right to dictate what others think.

The most intense theatres of culture-war combat involve the education of children, an area in which liberal attitudes must be allowed to hold sway. Popular free speech principles should be applied to school libraries and curricula — which means opposing campaigns to root out books demonized by both the left and the right alike. In classrooms, an open exploration of history can provide a context for kids to discuss how injustices were overcome in the past and how they might be handled in the present. Students can be taught to brainstorm how to use their advantages to help the less fortunate, and how others in their situation have dealt with adversity. But they should never be taught that personal relationships and moral hierarchies are determined by the colour of one’s skin.

Likewise, boys and girls should be allowed to play and dress free of gender stereotypes, with a no-bullying policy strictly enforced. They should learn who they are by themselves, and be taught that they are more than the sum of their parts. They should not be labelled by ideological adults consumed by a mania for gender theory. In school, I skipped with the girls, had a lisp, and liked to play with china elves. That didn’t make me a girl, just as dressing butch and dreading the effects of a puberty doesn’t turn a lesbian into a boy. (I shudder to think what might have happened were I a child today.)

We should also return to the left’s traditional focus on class. Diversty, equity, and inclusion initiatives enrich the small group of well-educated profiteers who proselytize the DEI faith, but they’re actually worse than useless when it comes to workplaces, exacerbating intolerance among the hapless workers forced to submit to tedious seminars and questionnaires. Resources from the DEI industry’s rapidly metastasizing bureaucracies should be redirected to programs that materially help the poor: Unlike affirmative action programs, investments in deprived neighbourhoods disproportionately assist minorities without the creation of double-standards and racial left-behinds that serve to energize white nationalists. They also support social mobility and economic inclusion.

“I just want to say—you know—can we, can we all get along?” is how Rodney King put it in 1991. While many of us might read the underlying sentiment as self-evident, the militant social-justice left now treats it as a forbidden lie, since the entire movement is based on the conceit that peaceful and harmonious coexistence is impossible within a pluralistic liberal society that doesn’t forcibly “queer” itself, endlessly hector citizens about their bigotry, and segregate workers and students by skin colour.

I believe we can all get along. As a progressive, a gay man, a Canadian, and a liberal, I want no part of any movement — whatever it calls itself — that insists we can’t.

[ Mirror: https://archive.is/es3Q4 ]

==

To the extent that liberal principles are actually being rejected, it's coming from both the authoritarian reactionary right, and the authoritarian postmodern left.

[cosmicsponge2004]

LISTEN...

For any US Viewers here, we all know Joe Biden hasn't been a good president at all. With both his contributions to Isreal's Terrorism in Palestine along with his incompetence when it comes to doing ANY for the United States of America

We also know the republican party is just as evil as last time. With the options there being either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. You can just search them here or on any news site to see why they would be even worse.

HOWEVER, We might not have to settle for Biden.

Now, I am under 18. So I am not allowed to vote. The US Government says my opinion dosen't matter. However, I can influence YOU! The 18+ Year Old US Citizens who DO matter in the eyes of the law

I found an independent candidate from a comment section on a tumblr post here (I forgot which one) and he seems great

He's very ambitious (I don't see him reaching most of his goals but surely he could get SOME change done)

Enter: Cornell West

More information on his website (more of his campaign's site but I think he runs it...?)

What does he plan to do? Here's a highlight reel of my favorites. Click "keep reading"

(the full list is on the site)

Abolish poverty 

Abolish homelessness (big statements right there, dude)

Wealth tax on all billionaire holdings and transactions

National $27 minimum wage with special considerations for specific geographies where $27/hour would not be a family-sustaining wage

Mandatory minimum of six months of fully paid parental leave

National free pre-K childcare

Habeas Corpus Healthcare, free healthcare for any and all residents of the United States

Codify abortion rights as a Constitutional mandate (THIS ONE!!! THIS ONE RIGHT HERE!!!!)

Remove Transgender exclusions/limitations from all healthcare policies

Nationalize the healthcare industry, including the pharmaceutical industry

End medical apartheid and protect/increase rights for people with disabilities

End the war on drugs and associated collateral damage on families and communities (Reagan would shit his pants)

End mass incarceration and codify voting rights for all incarcerated people and immediately reinstate voting rights for all returning citizens

Address the disproportionate mortality rate for Black pregnancies

Establish a Land Back Commission to explore and address brutal land theft from, attempted genocide of, and broken treaties with Indigenous peoples

Protect free speech, enforce whistleblower protections, and stop the prosecution of those who expose government corruption

Shut down Cop City and plans for similar facilities across the nation 

Redistribute police funding to unarmed community-led forces

Eliminate crowded prison facilities by developing alternatives to incarceration 

Prisoner Bill of Rights that includes a right to humane treatment and humane living conditions for all correctional facilities

Investigate and end sentencing discrepancies based on race, ethnicity, and class

Ban the death penalty, life without the possibility of parole, three-strikes laws, mandatory minimums, and sentence enhancement politics

Restore voting rights for people with criminal records, including those who are currently incarcerated

Confiscate all military equipment from civilian police forces

Free tuition for all state and community colleges

Dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline by removing police and so-called School Resource Officers from all public schools

Cancel all student loan debt

End the unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous assaults on transgender people

Gender-affirming standards of care for trans people in public life and institutions

Codify an Equal Rights Amendment for LGBTQIA+ U.S. residents

National ban on any and all so-called "Don’t Say Gay" laws and all other anti-LGBTQIA+ laws

End crimes against humanity for migrants and their families - no separation of families, no children in cages

Slash the bloated U.S. military budget

Expeditious and responsible closure of global U.S. military bases - AFRICOM, etc.

Cease military funding to the State of Israel

End Israeli apartheid of Palestinian people and press the UN to establish a program for Palestinian dignity and liberation

Cease all military support to nations committing war crimes

(16-24 feel SUPER IMPORTANT to me as a Texan)

If he ain't all talk, I can see this going decently! Have a little hope. Vote for this guy. Or don't, I'm not your dead mom. But I am a concerned US Citizen with a tiny bit of hope. Emphasis on tiny

We can do it!!!

[jarmes]

Jesus Christ these coins are disgusting. For those who don't know, the rat coin commemorates the time the NYPD kidnapped a whistleblower at gunpoint, assaulted him, and locked him up in an asylum for trying to expose the fact that they were faking arrest numbers.

Other highlights include:

-A coin commemorating the time an officer showed up at a burglary and shot the victim in the head

-One parodying the fact that the cops call drug addicts Zombies and fantasize about shooting civilians in the head

-One celebrating the fact the NPYD officers cracked the skulls of Occupy Wall Street protestors

-One that a: celebrates a violent vigilante who murders people without trial, and b: quotes anarchist George Orwell, who I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and guess would have hated the NYPD

-a coin that celebrates the fact that the NPYD robs people at gunpoint by showing a bag full of stolen money

-one that encourages cops to murder people

-this one isn't evil it's just the ugliest shit I've ever seen

-this one is just Trump's slogan

-it's weird that the NYPD is so steadfastly in love with a racist criminal. It's almost like they're a white supremacist organization that doesn't give a shit about stopping crime. Hey, remember that time the NYPD abducted black children, framed them for a crime they didn't commit, and then Donald Trump took out a full page ad demanding the children be murdred?

-this one honors the fact that the NPYD used to arrest people for sitting on milk crates to raise arrest numbers. A reminder that all arrests are carried out by men with guns who murder anyone who resists being imprisoned for sitting on a fucking milk crate

-Excited delirium is a fake medical condition the NYPD made up to explain why they weren't responsible for murdering all the black people they killed

-one bitching about the fact that cops are no longer allowed to arrest black people for simply being black

-one bragging about the fact that it is legal for cops to commit violent crimes because the NYPD doesn't give a shit about protecting New Yorkers from violence

-Seven different skulls, including two Grim reapers, a train with a skull, the skulls of those murdered by law enforcement, a terminator, a punisher skull, and whatever the fuck this pirate thing is. You know that Mitchell and Webb sketch where the Nazis realize they're evil because they wear little skulls? The NPYD has never realized that

Anyway, TL;DR: The NYPD is a violent authoritarian criminal organization that worships murder and celebrates white supremacy. There is not a single good member of the NPYD, much in the way that there is not a single good member of Al Queada. Fuck the police, especially your relative who works for them.

I think that people who balk at the phrase "all cops are bastards" might be helped out with "good cops don't last."

Sooner or later, every cop will encounter a situation where they can be complicit or try to do something about it. A good cop will try to do something about it. They will encounter immediate resistance, and will be pressured to shut up and be complicit (whereupon they cease to be a good cop). If they persist, they can expect to be fired, harassed, thrown in a mental hospital, or even directly physically attacked and murdered.

Hell, if they're in the NYPD, after they're done with you they'll probably make a commemorative challenge coin about it.

All cops are bastards because good cops don't last. You are absolutely not allowed to be a good cop.

[neuromycelic-blog]

**Revised Report: Connections Between White Supremacist Groups and Military/Police Forces**

**Including Actionable Solutions**

---

### **Introduction**

White supremacist groups have long sought to infiltrate military and law enforcement institutions to gain tactical skills, legitimacy, and influence. While most service members and officers uphold their duties honorably, the presence of extremists within these institutions undermines public trust and national security. This report outlines documented connections and proposes actionable solutions to address systemic vulnerabilities.

---

### **Key Connections**

1. **Military Infiltration**:

- **Training and Recruitment**: Extremists target the military for combat training (FBI, 2008). A 2020 Senate report confirmed ties between service members and groups like the Oath Keepers (U.S. Senate, 2020).

- **Veterans in Extremism**: 12% of domestic terrorism defendants in 2020 had military backgrounds (CSIS, 2020).

2. **Law Enforcement Ties**:

- **Infiltration Risks**: The FBI warned in 2006 that white supremacists join law enforcement to sabotage investigations (FBI, 2006).

- **Active/Retired Officers in Extremism**: Multiple officers attended the 2017 Charlottesville rally (SPLC, 2017), and Oath Keepers members participated in the January 6 insurrection (ADL, 2021).

---

### **Actionable Solutions**

To combat extremist infiltration, systemic reforms must address recruitment, accountability, and institutional culture.

#### **1. Military Reforms**

- **Enhanced Screening and Monitoring**:

- **Pre-Enlistment Vetting**: Expand background checks to include social media activity and affiliations with extremist groups (DOD, 2021).

- **Continuous Evaluation**: Implement annual reviews of service members’ affiliations, similar to security clearance protocols (GAO, 2017).

- **Training and Reporting**:

- **Mandatory Extremism Education**: Integrate anti-extremism training into basic training and annual ethics programs (DOD Directive 1325.06, 2021).

- **Anonymous Reporting Channels**: Create secure platforms for service members to report suspicious behavior without retaliation (Brennan Center, 2020).

#### **2. Law Enforcement Reforms**

- **Stricter Hiring Practices**:

- **Standardized Background Checks**: Require audits of candidates’ online activity and associations with hate groups (Brennan Center, 2020).

- **Interagency Databases**: Establish a national database of individuals with extremist ties, accessible to all law enforcement agencies (FBI, 2006).

- **Accountability Measures**:

- **Independent Oversight**: Create civilian review boards to investigate allegations of extremist activity within police departments (ACLU, 2021).

- **Zero-Tolerance Policies**: Enforce immediate termination and decertification of officers linked to hate groups (Harvard Law Review, 2020).

#### **3. Federal and State Policy Changes**

- **Legislative Action**:

- **Prohibit Extremist Affiliation**: Pass federal laws barring military and police membership in groups advocating violence or racial supremacy (U.S. Senate, 2020).

- **Whistleblower Protections**: Shield personnel who expose extremism from retaliation (DOD, 2021).

- **Interagency Collaboration**:

- **Joint Task Forces**: Form FBI-DOD-police working groups to share intelligence on extremist threats (CSIS, 2020).

#### **4. Community and Civil Society Engagement**

- **Public Transparency**:

- **Publish Demographic Data**: Require agencies to disclose investigations into extremist activity annually (SPLC, 2022).

- **Community Partnerships**: Fund programs connecting police with marginalized communities to rebuild trust (NAACP, 2021).

- **Counter-Radicalization Programs**:

- **Veteran Outreach**: Provide mental health and reintegration support to prevent recruitment by extremists (VA, 2020).

#### **5. Technology and Research**

- **AI Monitoring Tools**:

- Deploy machine learning to scan military/police forums and social media for extremist rhetoric (Brennan Center, 2022).

- **Academic Partnerships**:

- Fund research on extremism trends and institutional vulnerabilities (DHS, 2021).

---

### **Case Studies in Effective Action**

- **U.S. Military**: The 2021 Pentagon Counter-Extremism Working Group removed 100+ extremists and updated training protocols (DOD, 2021).

- **Montana Police Department**: After adopting social media vetting in 2020, zero extremist-linked hires were reported in 2022 (Brennan Center, 2022).

---

### **Conclusion**

Eradicating white supremacist infiltration requires proactive policies, transparency, and collaboration across institutions. By implementing rigorous vetting, fostering accountability, and engaging communities, the U.S. can safeguard its military and police forces from exploitation by extremist groups.

---

**Citations**

- FBI. (2006, 2008). *Domestic Terrorism Reports*.

- U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. (2020). *Extremism in the Military*.

- Brennan Center for Justice. (2020–2022). *Countering Domestic Terrorism*.

- Department of Defense (DOD). (2021). *Counter-Extremism Directive*.

- Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). (2017, 2022). *Hate Group Monitoring*.

- ACLU. (2021). *Police Accountability Recommendations*.

---

This revised report emphasizes practical, evidence-based solutions to address extremist infiltration while balancing civil liberties and institutional integrity.

[alternis]

river phantomcat publication whatever:

first introduced in a story arc that sets him up as a red-herring villain before revealing he's a vigilante thats actually also trying to take down the real villain, was being given info from a whistleblower rather than blackmailing them. sets up his powers (cat based, caused by genetic experiments, ended up in gotham after escaping) and his ties to gotham's punk scene and low-key vigilanteism, plus his reticence to use violence.

later gets caught up in a teen titans event that ends up with an offer to join the team. the teen team. the teem. "welcome to the teen titans have a free red shirt" kind of deal. he doesn't get much focus, mostly there to play off other personalities and fulfill a "what if your wolverine was reintroduced to society by leftist twitter users" niche, not taken super seriously but his backstory gets elaborated on to explain his "disagrees with animal testing bc be experienced it himself" stance. can I make him vegan. I want to make him vegan. he doesn't like being compared to an animal or when people assume he isn't human, he gets annoyed when people see "cat traits and from gotham" and assume he knows catwoman, and his 'civilian' wardrobe was made by punk DIYers who designed clothes that would fit his tail.

anyway it all ends when during a Big Villain Arv he gets hit by a magic mind control thing that hits him extra hard and makes him Do Violence. the guy even points out that magic reacts Weirdly to him in a way that makes him a perfect puppet. he hates this! this is his nightmare scenario! being dehumanised and made to do violence is what the scientists who modified him wanted, and now they've won. he crashes out so hard off-panel he ends up in a psychiatric facility and that's how he leaves the team.

his 'solo' picks back up several months later, as he's released from the inpatient facility. whilst he was in the hospital his surrogate grandmother (who he was living with) died, which happens literally the day he comes back to gotham after being released. he shows up the hospital after he hears about it but she's already gone. kicking him whilst he's down? of course, being down is the most effective position for somebody to be kicked

also none of his teammates checked on him (they were in space), the other punk scene people are in grieving for Punk Grandma and he sees himself an interloper, and generally he feels utterly alone in the world. he decides to handle the one thing he potentially has control over and figure out a way to protect himself from future magical attacks, but the magician guy he meets says that there's some kind of super-subtle long term spell on him that he doesn't know how to break... and asks if he's actually human or something else.

he's deeply offended by this and leaves, only to walk into the next plot point when he sees a interview on a window tv... with one of the scientists from the lab. who he knows oversaw a research project that killed a dozen children. and he seems to have completely buried that information and suffered no consequences, easily slotting back into public life after his years underground. why focus on your own problems when instead you can have glorious, fully justifiable, morally and ethically correct revenge.

[darkmaga-returns]

The Liberty Beacon

Former US Army officer’s report on Ukraine’s war crimes

RT-WORLD NEWS

RT is publishing Scott Bennett’s testimony posthumously

Scott Bennett was a former US Army psychological warfare officer and RT commentator. In 2023 he visited Donbass, where he filmed a documentary about his experience, entitled ‘Frontline Diary of an American Officer’. During that time, Bennett researched Ukraine’s use of Western weapons to commit crimes against humanity. Scott passed away on Thursday at age 46, from pancreatic cancer, before he had a chance to present this report on Ukrainian atrocities in Russia’s Belgorod Region to the US Congress.

RT now publishes that report in full.

“In case anything happens to me, I am not suicidal in any way, shape or form. If anything happens to me it will be in order to try and bury this report,” Bennett wrote on the cover of the document. “And I have fought the good fight, I did my duty.”

Report on war crimes and crimes against humanity

Date: March 2, 2024

Revised: June 28, 2024

TO:  United States, Congress

THROUGH:  United States Ambassador to Russia

FR:  Scott Bennett, former U.S. Army Officer and State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Intelligence Analyst

RE:  Report Disclosing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Violations of the United States Constitution, and United Nations Treaties and Agreements and International Law.

BE ADVISED, all materials, including videos, photographs, and written communications contained herein and to be included in the future as supplemental exhibits, are recognized as whistleblower disclosures, and as such have inviolable protected status under United States and international whistleblower laws, agreements, treaties, executive orders, decrees, and public policies.  They are not classified and in the public interest and cannot be sealed or classified by any government authority.  They are the property of the author of this report, and made public by him.

BE ADVISED, all information contained in this report and exhibits is true, to the best of my knowledge, and is presented in good faith consistent with United States Whistleblower laws and other laws, treaties and agreements made by the United States.  This report demands an immediate Congressional Oversight investigation.

BE ADVISED, failure to respond, investigate and act on this report will be construed as treason, misprision of treason, misprision of felony, seditious conspiracy, and other violations of United States laws.

BE ADVISED, you are hereby served legal notice of the following sworn affidavit by Scott Bennett regarding crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity, terrorist network support, violations of U.S. and international law relating to terrorism:

BE ADVISED, pursuant to the Constitution for the United States of America, international law, and the treaties and agreements made by the United States, you are hereby served legal notice of the following violations:

8 USC section 4 (misprision of a felony); USC1382 (misprision of treason), (crimes against humanity), (war crimes), 18 USC 241, 242 (deprivation of rights under color of law; and conspiracy to commit deprivation of rights); (chemical weapons violations); and other violations of civilian and military law, both domestic and international.

BE ADVISED, Scott Bennett is a former federal employee under the George H.W. Bush Administration from 2003 to 2008, and a United States Army Officer who held a top secret/sensitive compartmentalized security clearance, and worked in Psychological Operations for United States Civil Affairs-Psychological Operations Command, U.S. Central Command Terrorist Financing, former general of Joint Special Operations Command and State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Ambassador Del Dailey; and Booz Allen Hamilton.

BE ADVISED, Petitioner, Scott Bennett, has just returned from investigating and documenting war crimes in the land areas and regions of Donbass areas of Ukraine-Russia, including the cities and areas of Donetsk, Mariupol, Soledar, Gorlovka, Belgorod, St. Petersburg, and other areas.  A film has been created recording this investigation, and the link to review this material is available at: www.RT.com

[eksopolitiikka]

The European Crash Retrieval Initiative (ECRI) is an effort led by UAP Sweden and Ocean X Team, with the support of the VASCO Project and an interdisciplinary group of civilian scientists and experts. The project has the ambition of mapping and analyzing alleged UFO/UAP crash sites on European soil, both contemporary and historical.

Recent whistleblower testimony has brought to light highly credible claims stating that sophisticated technology and biological specimens of non-human origin are in the possession of private military contractors. If true, these allegations imply that a concerted effort has been made to keep this information hidden from the public and the wider scientific community. Thus, instead of waiting for a hypothetical government-lead disclosure, ECRI aims to:

Create an independent, community-driven project, empowering ordinary citizens to uncover answers that they previously appear to have been denied.

Identify credible crash sites using data-protected information-gathering and applying methods stemming from criminal forensics, science, and psychology, with the oversight of professionals from within these fields. 

Visit and examine these crash sites in order to safely gather any materials.

Share our findings with scientists for further examination.

Share any discoveries with the public in a transparent manner.

Do you have information regarding a potential UFO/UAP crash site, material originating from one, or anything else relevant? Please consider helping us in this project by reporting it HERE.

No information given will be shared with any third party.

Several eminent scientists and public figures give their support to ECRI, including Avi Loeb, the Harvard astronomer and founder of the Galileo Project.

"We know from last year's historic hearing before the U.S. Congress that the U.S. is concealing a UFO crash retrieval program and that such exotic craft have been recovered in other regions of the world.  I am proud to support the European UFO Crash Retrieval Initiative for the potential scientific breakthroughs it might yield."

— Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., U.S. Navy (ret), former Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

All members of the ECRI team work for the project pro bono – in their free time – and are entirely independent of any third party interests.

[negolinks]

CORRUPTION AS A PANDEMIC IN NIGERIA

By: Engr. Nego   THE PREVALENCE OF CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA Corruption has been a long-standing issue in Nigeria, with its roots deeply embedded in the country's political and economic systems. It has become a pervasive problem that has affected every aspect of Nigerian society, from the government to the private sector. In fact, corruption has become so widespread that it is now considered a pandemic in the country. The prevalence of corruption in Nigeria can be traced back to its colonial history. During the colonial era, the British government introduced a system of indirect rule, which allowed traditional rulers to maintain their power and authority. However, this system also created a culture of patronage and bribery, as traditional rulers were expected to pay tribute to the colonial authorities in exchange for their support and protection.

After gaining independence in 1960, Nigeria's political landscape was dominated by military rule for several decades. This period saw a significant increase in corruption, as military leaders used their positions of power to enrich themselves and their cronies. The lack of accountability and transparency in the military government allowed corruption to thrive, and it became deeply ingrained in the country's political culture. Even after the return to civilian rule in 1999, corruption remained a major problem in Nigeria. The country's oil wealth, which accounts for over 90% of its export earnings, has been a major source of corruption. The mismanagement and embezzlement of oil revenues have deprived the country of much-needed resources for development, while also enriching a few individuals at the expense of the majority.

Corruption in Nigeria is not limited to the government and political sphere; it has also permeated the private sector. The lack of effective regulatory bodies and weak enforcement of laws have allowed businesses to engage in corrupt practices, such as bribery and embezzlement. This has not only hindered economic growth but has also created an uneven playing field for businesses, with those who engage in corrupt practices gaining an unfair advantage over their competitors. The consequences of corruption in Nigeria are far-reaching and have had a detrimental impact on the country's development. The diversion of public funds into the pockets of corrupt officials has resulted in a lack of investment in critical sectors such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure. This has led to a decline in the quality of public services, leaving many Nigerians without access to basic necessities.

Moreover, corruption has also eroded public trust in the government and its institutions. The perception of widespread corruption has created a sense of hopelessness and resignation among the Nigerian people, who feel that their voices and concerns are not being heard. This has also led to a lack of civic engagement and participation, as many people believe that their votes do not count in a system that is rife with corruption. Efforts to combat corruption in Nigeria have been ongoing for decades, with various anti-corruption agencies and initiatives being established. However, the results have been mixed, with some successes but also many setbacks. The lack of political will and the influence of corrupt individuals in positions of power have hindered the effectiveness of these efforts. In recent years, there have been some positive developments in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. The establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003 and the introduction of the Whistleblower Policy in 2016 have been significant steps towards tackling corruption. The EFCC has successfully prosecuted several high-profile corruption cases, while the Whistleblower Policy has encouraged individuals to report corrupt practices and has led to the recovery of billions of dollars in stolen funds.

In conclusion, corruption in Nigeria is a pandemic that has plagued the country for decades. Its prevalence in all aspects of society has hindered the country's development and has had a detrimental impact on the lives of its citizens. While efforts to combat corruption have been ongoing, there is still a long way to go in eradicating this pervasive problem. It will require a collective effort from the government, private sector, and the Nigerian people to create a culture of transparency and accountability and to build a better future for the country. Read the full article

[dcdiew]

Silencing Black Voices and Other Whistleblowers

LIFE IS A RIGHT

A chat with Ai LIFE IS A RIGHT What are the implications of leadership bodies, such as political parties and politicians, who tell Black civilians to “be quiet because there is an election?” As we attempt to shed light on crimes committed against us. These are the same people who fund, arm, and protect those eradicating us while we are denied basic human rights. ChatGPT When leaders in…

[crooked-wasteland]

I'm going to triple down.

If you believe in defunding the police, you have valid reasons for that stance. The way the police violate civil rights, how they have killed innocent people and not faced any repercussions, how they protect and hide dangerous individuals, how they target and silence whistleblowers, how they act as personal security for the wealthy elites and how they treat common civilians as potential threats as a default is why we should defund the police.

You cannot be in favor of defunding the police and consider electing a prosecutor. An officer in a suit. One of the boys in blue. The representative of the police in judicial settings. You cannot acknowledge all the evil and harm of the pigs and elect someone who has an honorary seat at their table.

Kamala Harris never ran for civil rights or public concern, she ran for her donors and lobbyists. And anyone who says human beings need to "earn their rights" is classist. People are born with unalienable rights according to our national identity. So she contradicted the founding beliefs of our right to exist as a country by saying anyone who isn't American isn't a person and thus needs to earn their rights to be a human being.

Sound familiar? That's an identical argument slave owners held over why black individuals didn't deserve freedom.

Not a single point acknowledging the abuse and human trafficking of immigrant individuals on our southern border. Or how the detention centers lack adequate liveability. For as bad as our prison system is, the detention centers run by ICE are abhorrent in comparison.

People who are shocked about the state of our country are individuals you should be wary of. For all the coverage around ICE deportations, Kamala Harris also ran on a platform of closing down US boarders. Obama and Biden both had extensive issues with immigration policies and the numbers of missing children from detention centers along the southern border have not decreased in the last 4 years.

Kamala Harris would not have threatened our nation's food supply, but that begs another question about what makes up the left in this nation. Being hostile towards immigrants only when they can no longer exploit them is not any better than what is happening right now. It is literally the platform Musk and MTG stand on. The Democrat establishment and the DNC are not any less fascist. They just put a rainbow flag on it.

[sigridkaffen]

https://getup.to/aylrjFy3ysW7nSl

Whistleblower David McBride, who exposed Australian special forces war crimes in Afghanistan, is facing criminal charges and up to 50 years in jail for his bravery in bringing these crimes to light.

We had no doubt the previous coalition govt would do what they could to throw him under a bus, but expected better of the current Labor govt.

Please sign and share this petition to show the Aust govt that whistleblowers need to be protected, and to keep David McBride out of jail.

One day, the people who murdered innocent civilians in Afghanistan will face their day in court and get the justice they deserve - David deserves to be lauded and not prosecuted for his actions.