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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jul 17

🚨Paul Manafort, who a bipartisan Senate committee labeled a “grave counter-intelligence threat” is seen on the 2024 convention floor. @VaughnHillyard

politico.com/news/2020/08/1…

cnn.com/2020/08/18/pol…

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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jul 15

1. In a 2022 interview with @NicolleDWallace, former CIA Officer @tracy_walder expressed concern that the documents unlawfully retained by former President Donald Trump could be linked to the deaths of CIA informants overseas. What caused her concern? The known timeline. 1/10

2. On May 6, 2021, the @USNatArchives contacted the representatives of the former president demanding he return the documents that he had unlawfully retained. 2/10
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

3. October 7, 2021: Months later, the @nytimes
reported that the @CIA, "said in a top secret cable [sent] to stations and bases around the world that too many of the people it recruits from other countries are being lost."
nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/…

Read 11 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jul 3

1/12: 🚨 The Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. United States poses an existential threat to American liberty. This ruling extends presidential powers beyond what the Founders intended, turning the presidency into an elected kingship. theintellectualist.com/trump-v-us-pre…

2/12: With unchecked power, a president could act without legal consequences. This creates a dangerous path toward totalitarianism, where state powers could be used to monitor and judge Americans. theintellectualist.com/trump-v-us-pre…

3/12: Trump’s history and his associates' actions show these concerns are not exaggerated. If he becomes president under these rules, the dangers are severe. Let's explore how this could unfold. theintellectualist.com/trump-v-us-pre…

Read 14 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jul 2

🚨Vanity Fair’s recent article about RFK Jr. paints a picture of a man who lacks compassion, empathy, and a moral compass.

1. RFK took a photo with the barbecued remains of a dog and shared it with a friend. Kennedy reportedly implored a friend traveling to South Korea to try dog. (1/6)
vanityfair.com/news/story/rob…

2. A former family babysitter accuses RFK Jr. of sexual assault. (2/6)
vanityfair.com/news/story/rob…

3. While still married to his second wife, RFK Jr., Kennedy reportedly sent friends images of women’s genitalia, and his friends weren’t sure if the photos were taken consensually. (3/6)
vanityfair.com/news/story/rob…

Read 8 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jun 18

3. October 7, 2021: Months later, the @nytimes reported that the @CIA , "said in a top secret cable [sent] to stations and bases around the world that too many of the people it recruits from other countries are being lost."
nytimes.com/2021/10/05/us/…

Read 11 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

May 25

IN MEMORIAM: Tomas Young, An Iraq War Veteran Who Sacrificed It All

As we near Memorial Day, the Intellectualist is posting the last letter of Tomas Young (November 30, 1979 – November 10, 2014), an Iraq War veteran.

Tomas addressed his last letter to former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Tomas was close to death, and wanted to speak out forcefully before he passed on: (@RollingStone)

"TOMAS YOUNG JOINED the Army two days after September 11, 2001 and was shot and paralyzed after serving only five days in Iraq in 2004. He was the subject of the powerful 2007 documentary Body of War – with a soundtrack that included Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Bruce Springsteen – and since then, his health has worsened and he is currently under hospice care."

The Last Letter

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans.

I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded.

I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care. I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries.

I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day.

I write this letter on behalf of the some one million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all – the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power.

I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans – my fellow veterans – whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character.

You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit.

Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character.

You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago.

You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked.

I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States.

I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East.

I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war.

Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes.

The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East.

It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level – moral, strategic, military and economic – Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war.

It is you who should pay the consequences

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