1. You may be wondering WTF is happening at the New York Times.
Let me explain in plain English.
2. Google and Facebook are destroying the journalism industry. The legacy publications that have survived are under pressure to appeal to the widest possible audience.
When the NYT plays "both sides," it's not about journalism. It's about the business model.
3. The NYT does some amazing journalism but, in a lot of cases, it's poorly positioned to challenge people in power. It needs ACCESS to powerful people for its reporting. And it needs to be a comfortable place for powerful corporations to advertise.
4. The NYT times is happy to suck up your anti-Trump dollars with these "truth" t-shirts. But, as any Times reporter will tell you, they do not oppose Trump. It's a scam perpetrated by their marketing department.
5. Unfortunately, journalism that is aligned with power, rather than opposed to it, is becoming the norm. Local independent outlets are being bought up by huge corporations. Coverage is being neutered and homogenized.
6. If you are looking for an alternative model that is focused on taking on power, check out my newsletter, Popular Information. Our scoops come from primary source documents and ordinary people.
1. In 2022, Jeff Bezos promised to give away the majority of his wealth during his lifetime.
It is not going well.
Since making the pledge, his net worth has almost doubled to $240 billion.
Meanwhile, he has given less than $5 billion to charity.
2. Most of Bezos' charitable giving has gone to the Bezos Earth Fund. But the org has a reputation less as a vehicle for the corporate infiltration of the climate groups.
3. The Bezos Earth Fund reportedly pressured a leading environmental standards group, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to relax its rules around letting corporations use offsets to meet carbon goals.
1. CBS, once one of America's most trusted sources for news, has hired anti-woke crusader Bari Weiss as its Editor-in-Chief
With Weiss, CBS is embracing someone who talks a lot about honesty but has a history of distorting the truth to conform to her right-wing ideological agenda.
Let's review.
2. The Free Press, Weiss' publication, published an article accusing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of "complicity" in a "cover-up of a serial rape scandal." They credit Elon Musk for exposing the scandal. But the story is BS.
3. Far from participating in a cover-up, Starmer successfully prosecuted crimes related to the "grooming gang" scandal. His work on this issue was praised in a 2013 parliamentary report produced by the conservative government.
1. Federal agents from ICE and other agencies are wrongly detaining U.S. citizens, sometimes detaining them for days, on suspicion that they are undocumented immigrants.
The raids are done without search warrants or other procedures designed to protect civil liberties.
2. Last week in Chicago, hundreds of federal agents descended on an apartment complex.
67-year-old Roderick Johnson, a citizen, “said agents broke through his door and dragged him out in zip ties.”
3. On July 10, George Retes, a 25-year-old Army veteran, was detained by federal agents “while on his way to work as a security guard at a Southern California cannabis farm.”
Retes was violently arrested and then “[h]eld in a jail cell for three days and nights.”
1. UPDATE: Billionaire Rob Citrone, whose hedge fund bet heavily on Argentina, pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, his longtime friend and former colleague, to rescue the country, according to Argentine media.
Shortly thereafter, Bessent announced a $20 billion taxpayer-funded bailout.
2. CE Noticias Financieras, a wire service in Latin America, reported that after the bailout faced resistance w/lower-level Trump officials, “Citrone managed to connect with Bessent to get him to intervene directly.”
3. Ariel Maciel, Political Economy Editor at Perfil, a large Argentine media outlet, said on an Argentine broadcast, “Citrone is really the one who intervenes. He basically tells Bessent, ‘Hey, we need to help in Argentina,.”
1. Yesterday Jared Kushner partnered with the Saudis on the $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts AND attended the White House meeting between Bibi and Trump as a foreign policy advisor
It's an insane conflict of interest
2. Why did the Saudis bring in Kushner to the EA deal? Most of the money he has to invest comes from the Saudis!
ANSWER: Since the deal will result in foreign ownership of EA, it needs Trump admin approval. Kushner locks it in
3. Kushner's private equity firm is functioning as a way for Kushner to monetize his influence with the Trump administration. You have someone in the Oval Office discussing Middle East policies who is getting tens of millions in fees annually from the Saudis.