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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Feb 8

🚨 Trump’s FBI Pick Reportedly Took Money from China & Russia—And Vows to Gut Bureau

A Nomination Clouded by Foreign Financial Interests

1/10: In 2018, Kash Patel played a key role in challenging the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference.

Now, he is poised to lead the agency while reportedly holding millions in Chinese stock and having accepted payment from a filmmaker linked to Kremlin-backed projects. His nomination raises a serious question: could America’s top law enforcement officer face conflicts of interest tied to foreign entities?

A February 7 exposé from WIRED and The Washington Post, authored by Louise Matsakis, Greg Miller, Jon Swaine, and others, details Patel’s financial connections to both China and Russia, raising concerns among national security and ethics experts about potential conflicts of interest if he is confirmed.

Financial Ties to China: Millions in Shein’s Parent Company

2/10: According to WIRED, Patel’s financial disclosure reveals that he holds between $1 million and $5 million in restricted stock units (RSUs) from Elite Depot Ltd., a Cayman Islands-based company that fully owns Shein, the controversial Chinese e-commerce giant. These shares, granted in exchange for consulting services, began vesting on February 1, with payouts expected quarterly.

While legal experts note that Patel is not required to divest, watchdog groups such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) warn that his continued financial stake in Shein could create perceived conflicts of interest, particularly given the FBI’s role in investigating allegations of forced labor, data privacy concerns, and national security threats tied to Chinese firms.

Patel has stated he would recuse himself from cases involving Shein, but without an independent enforcement mechanism, experts question how such recusals would be ensured.

Ties to Russia: $25,000 Payment from Kremlin-Linked Filmmaker

3/10: A separate Washington Post investigation revealed that Patel accepted a $25,000 honorarium from Global Tree Pictures, a Los Angeles-based production company run by Russian national Igor Lopatonok.

Lopatonok has produced multiple films promoting pro-Kremlin narratives, some of which received funding from a cultural foundation created by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His work has been criticized for pushing anti-Western messaging and efforts to weaken U.S. support for Ukraine.

The payment to Patel was linked to his participation in a six-part documentary aired on Tucker Carlson’s network, in which he was quoted calling for the closure of the FBI’s headquarters and its conversion into a “museum for the deep state.”

While Patel has not been accused of wrongdoing, national security analysts have raised concerns about the optics of accepting money from a filmmaker tied to Kremlin-funded projects while being considered to lead the FBI—a position with direct oversight of counterintelligence operations against Russian influence efforts.

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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Feb 7

C.D.C. Deletes Evidence of Bird Flu Spreading Between Humans and Cats After Brief Release

1/11: 🧵For a fleeting moment, a buried chapter in the evolving bird flu crisis surfaced—only to be erased just as swiftly. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), briefly posted and then mysteriously deleted, suggested that bird flu (H5N1) may have spread between humans and household cats.

The article, originally published in The New York Times by Apoorva Mandavilli and Emily Anthes on February 6, 2025, exposes a troubling pattern of potential cross-species transmission—raising urgent questions about the government's commitment to public health transparency.

2/11: The vanished data, retrieved before its deletion, documented two U.S. households where infected cats may have passed the virus to humans and vice versa. In one case, a cat allegedly infected an adolescent before dying just four days after showing symptoms. In another, a dairy farmworker fell ill first, followed by a cat that developed symptoms and died within three days.

This critical information had been buried within a C.D.C. report ostensibly focused on Los Angeles wildfires and air quality—data on bird flu that was not present in embargoed copies provided to journalists but inexplicably appeared when the report went live.

Then, without explanation, it vanished.

3/11: The lack of clarity surrounding whether this was a bureaucratic error or a deliberate suppression of information has alarmed scientists and public health experts.

H5N1, a virus long considered an avian disease, has been spreading through dairy cattle since early 2024, infecting at least 67 Americans so far.

While the virus is not yet capable of sustained human-to-human transmission, its presence in mammals raises profound concerns about mutation risks. Dead cats on infected farms have become the first warning signs of an outbreak—sentinels of a virus creeping into new hosts.

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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Feb 6

Trump’s Buyout Offer: A Trap That Could Leave Federal Workers With Nothing

🧵1/7: Imagine this—you resign today, expecting months of guaranteed pay, only to find out later that the money was never actually approved. That’s the terrifying reality facing thousands of federal employees as the Trump administration pushes its so-called “Fork in the Road” buyout offer.

According to an exclusive report from NBC News (Tyler Kingkade & David Ingram, Feb. 6, 2025), top Education Department officials are warning employees that the deal can be revoked at any time—leaving them with nothing.

While the administration promises extended pay and benefits through September, the fine print reveals a shocking truth: agency heads can unilaterally cancel the deal, and workers who sign waive their right to sue, appeal, or even challenge the decision in any legal forum.

2/7: Officials inside the department, including Chief of Staff Rachel Oglesby and Chief Human Capital Officer Jacqueline Clay, raised serious concerns in a recent all-staff Zoom meeting.

One anonymous attendee compared the pitch to a “used car dealership scheme—‘Act now, one day only!’” The urgency is no accident: the administration has been aggressively pressuring workers to accept the deal, flooding them with follow-up emails stating, “This offer expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on February 6th. There will be no extensions.”

3/7: So what happens if you sign the deal, expecting to be paid until September, and then the administration pulls the plug? The answer: nothing—because the government never actually approved the funds in the first place. Over 40,000 federal employees have already accepted the buyout, but with no legal recourse, they could soon find themselves unemployed, unpaid, and completely abandoned.

This isn’t just about downsizing the bureaucracy—it’s about power. Similar tactics have been used by Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Vladimir Putin in Russia, where mass purges of career bureaucrats paved the way for political loyalists to replace them.

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The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Feb 2

The Rise of Hitler: A History of How Democracy Fell in Germany and Its Parallels to Today

🧵1/11: His past was steeped in scandal—a felon, accused of treason and sedition, his actions and rhetoric frequently straddling the line of legality. He was convicted for attempting to overthrow the government, yet this criminal history didn’t disqualify him.

It only made him more appealing to those who viewed the establishment as corrupt and broken. Instead of disqualifying him, his criminal record and charges became part of his defiant charm, painting him as an outsider willing to fight the system.

Every accusation, every charge of treason, only fueled his rise, showing his supporters that he could not be tamed and was the only one willing to challenge the powers that had held the nation in their grip.

2/11: At first, they dismissed him. The elites, the media, the political class—they thought they could control him. They mocked him as a sideshow, a foolish provocateur, destined to be forgotten.

But in the wake of high inflation, economic instability, and a country that had lost its bearings, his words struck a chord with those who had been cast aside.

In an age of rising populism, economic dislocation, and a shrinking middle class, his rhetoric didn’t promise solutions—it promised retribution. It wasn’t just blame he offered; it was a convenient, scapegoated enemy to rally against.

His was a message soaked in anger, dripping with resentment for anyone deemed an outsider. Minorities, immigrants, political rivals—all of them were the root of the nation’s collapse. And in this narrative of vengeance, he found his power.

3/11: It wasn’t just the forgotten and the downtrodden who rallied to him. His support was a web of disenfranchised voters, alienated workers, and desperate communities—a rage that turned inward, then outward.

People who had once believed in the promise of democracy now saw him as their only hope, their only defender. He was the hammer to crush a system they believed had betrayed them.

They didn’t care what he stood for, as long as he was willing to destroy the things they hated. And with every provocation, every scandal, his following grew—spurred on by his audacity and his defiance.

The more they despised him, the more they were drawn to him, their loyalty strengthening with every wave of mockery that he deflected effortlessly.

Read 11 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jan 30

Trump’s January 6 Pardons: The Chilling Criminal Histories of Those He Freed

🧵1/14: On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump exercised his executive clemency powers to pardon or commute the sentences of nearly 1,600 individuals convicted for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

This unprecedented move has ignited significant controversy, particularly due to the serious criminal histories of some recipients.

The following series delves into the backgrounds of eleven of the most contentious figures granted clemency, highlighting any additional details that underscore the severity of their actions.

* Photos are illustrative of January 6. They are not meant to be of those who received clemency.

2/14: Theodore Middendorf: Trump Grants Clemency to Registered Sex Offender

Theodore Middendorf, 36, of McLeansboro, Illinois, was among those pardoned.

He had previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction of government property related to the Capitol riot.

Notably, Middendorf is also a registered sex offender, convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. According to the Illinois State Police, the victim was a 7-year-old child, and Middendorf was 31 at the time of the offense.

He is currently serving a 19-year sentence for this crime.

David Daniel: Clemency for Individual Facing Child Exploitation Charges

3/14: David Daniel of Mint Hill, North Carolina, was charged with producing and possessing child pornography involving a prepubescent minor under 12 years old.

Prosecutors presented compelling evidence suggesting Daniel engaged in sexually violative acts with two young girls within his family and took explicit photos of the victims.

He pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers during the Capitol riot but had not yet been sentenced when his case was dismissed following Trump's clemency order.

His child exploitation case remains pending.

Read 14 tweets

The Intellectualist

@highbrow_nobrow

Jan 13

The Rise of Hitler: A History of How Democracy Fell in Germany and Its Parallels to Today

🧵1/9: His past was steeped in scandal—a felon, accused of treason and sedition, his actions and rhetoric frequently straddling the line of legality. He was convicted for attempting to overthrow the government, yet this criminal history didn’t disqualify him.

It only made him more appealing to those who viewed the establishment as corrupt and broken. Instead of disqualifying him, his criminal record and charges became part of his defiant charm, painting him as an outsider willing to fight the system.

Every accusation, every charge of treason, only fueled his rise, showing his supporters that he could not be tamed and was the only one willing to challenge the powers that had held the nation in their grip.
youtube.com/watch?v=ShqC31…

2/9: At first, they dismissed him. The elites, the media, the political class—they thought they could control him. They mocked him as a sideshow, a foolish provocateur, destined to be forgotten.

But in the wake of high inflation, economic instability, and a country that had lost its bearings, his words struck a chord with those who had been cast aside. In an age of rising populism, economic dislocation, and a shrinking middle class, his rhetoric didn’t promise solutions—it promised retribution.

It wasn’t just blame he offered; it was a convenient, scapegoated enemy to rally against.

His was a message soaked in anger, dripping with resentment for anyone deemed an outsider. Minorities, immigrants, political rivals—all of them were the root of the nation’s collapse. And in this narrative of vengeance, he found his power.

youtube.com/watch?v=ShqC31…

3/9: It wasn’t just the forgotten and the downtrodden who rallied to him. His support was a web of disenfranchised voters, alienated workers, and desperate communities—a rage that turned inward, then outward.

People who had once believed in the promise of democracy now saw him as their only hope, their only defender. He was the hammer to crush a system they believed had betrayed them.

They didn’t care what he stood for, as long as he was willing to destroy the things they hated. And with every provocation, every scandal, his following grew—spurred on by his audacity and his defiance.

The more they despised him, the more they were drawn to him, their loyalty strengthening with every wave of mockery that he deflected effortlessly.

youtube.com/watch?v=ShqC31…

Read 11 tweets

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