The Heritage Foundation (who are running Project 2025) and Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban's team are meeting tomorrow to strategize ending aid to Ukraine. This was always the end-game. Remember Speaker Johnson's Paris conference last month? Orban's policy advisor was there. 1/
European and American neo-fascist "libertarians" have been in bed together for years. Now US Evangelicals have joined. Here's part of the speaker list for 2022's NatCon III: Peter Thiel and his proteges + Orban's advisor Balazs Orban (red), people tied to J6 in blue/green... 2/
J6-ties: Kevin Lynn, a faux-left anti-immigrant activist, brought the now-convicted Rachel Powell to the Capitol. Amanda Milius directed "The Plot Against the President", then was hired by SecDef Miller. Wilfred McClay reps Hillsdale College, which tried to overturn the vote. 3/
Those trying to grasp how US lawmakers can be partnering with Hungarian fascists to do Putin's bidding should read Ben Lorber's series on NatCon III, which lays out the unholy alliance. Kevin Roberts of Heritage pledged his commitment that week, too. 4/ religiondispatches.org/inside-natcon-…
Peter Thiel has been working this for years. At the 2016 RNC, Thiel gave a keynote, his avatar Jeff Giesea birthed the MAGA movement, Thiel met with Viktor Orban's folks, and Trump said he'd recognize Russia's seizing Crimea. Trump is a puppet with many masters. 5/
Peter Thiel has been frantically planting news stories claiming he's "done with politics". He's not. JD Vance & Vivek Ramaswamy are his guys. He funds NatCon. His Teneo, now run by Leonard Leo, is part of Project 2025. And his avatars push cutting off Ukraine. Don't let them. 6/
In the last months, the normally reclusive Thiel has given "exclusive" interviews to Fortune, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, and dropped stories to Reuters, WaPo, and more, all repeating: he's done with politics. For God's sake, ASK: why all those interviews? He's not done. 7/
In case it hasn't sunk in: Republican members of Congress are going to have private, closed-door meetings with reps of Putin's closed ally in Europe, to plan how to end aid to our ally Ukraine, all hosted by a foundation working to end US democracy. 8/ theguardian.com/us-news/2023/d…
The Biden team, moving at light speed, played a sharp counter-move: they've invited Ukraine president Zelensky to come to DC the same day US Republican lawmakers will be holed up in secret meetings strategizing how to back-stab his country. Old guys know how the game works. 9/
Right on cue, another Peter Thiel avatar, Sen. JD Vance, pushes Putin's goal to the media: "Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians." Odd how all Peter's guys -- David Sacks, JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy -- recite the same script. 10/ thehill.com/homenews/senat…
JD Vance, who is pushing for the US to cave to Putin, seems to have not held a full-time job not financed by Peter Thiel since his first after law school (8 months at Sidley Austin in 2014-2015). Vance won his Senate seat with the help of $15M from Thiel. 11/
Predictably, another Peter Thiel associate tells Ukraine to cede territory to Putin: David Sacks, a made man in Thiel's PayPal Mafia. He's been hocking Russian propaganda all year, and Sacks & Thiel pushed Elon Musk to buy Twitter. When will we admit what is happening here? 12/
David Sacks is one of Peter Thiel's cutouts for pushing Russian talking points; Vivek Ramaswamy is another; JD Vance is a third. The Thiel avatars all speak in unison, and the voice they are channeling is Peter's. And Peter is serving Putin. 13/
Chaos: two rival factions - one tied the president and one to the VP - are trying to set US policy on Ukraine, cutting out the State Dept. Each pushes Ukraine to surrender, then leaks to press to claim they are official. FT now reports Vance's faction is holding its own talks. 1/
In Oct. the Trump faction - son-in-law Jared Kushner & business pal Steve Witkoff - met secretly with a Russian rep in Miami. Now the Vance faction - his Yale friend Dan Driscoll - is meeting in Abu Dhabi with Russians and a Ukrainian. Rival efforts. 2/ ft.com/content/55a9f8…
FT's source is clearly part of the Vance camp and tries to portray SecArmy Dan Driscoll, a 39-year-old former 1st lieutenant whose only qualification his friendship with Vance, as a new important conduit to Russia. FT had to ask if Ukrainians were involved at all. 3/
Tony Perkins frets about "political disaster" from Trump's involvement with Epstein. Back in 2016, when Ted Cruz floundered at the polls, Perkins pushed religious-right leaders to switch to Trump, calling it a "calculated risk". How does that calculation look now, Tony? 1/
Tony Perkins was the mentor of a young Mike Johnson, an unmarried law student who had oddly taken in a young boy. Perkins knew what Johnson was, but pushed him into politics anyway. @tperkins: all this will be in the history books, as your legacy. 2/
@tperkins Before Mike Johnson ran for office, he was Dean of a new law school named for notorious pedophile Judge Paul Pressler, who preyed on young boys. Tony Perkins sat on its board. And also on the board was a relatively unknown Ted Cruz - who'd known Pressler since he was a teen. 3/
Each Epstein email has so many layers of slime people miss some. This is Ken Starr, fired for covering up sexual assault, offering to help former client Jeffrey Epstein's friend's sexual harassment case by introducing him to Jed Rubenfeld, put on leave for sexual misconduct. 1/
Epstein's elite world was VERY elite: Yale Law prof Jed Rubenfeld's wife Amy Chua, also a Yale Law prof, was the mentor of Yale Law student JD Vance. Ken Starr was the mentor of Yale Law grad Brett Kavanaugh, also accused of sexual assault but now seated on the Supreme Court. 2/
Ken Starr, despite his long trail of sexual grossness, cosplayed as a warrior for an also-gross sexual prudishness. He and Brett Kavanaugh went after Bill Clinton (a visitor to Epstein's island) for oral sex with an intern. Kavanaugh came up with the graphic sexual questions. 3/
One fascinating thing in the Epstein email drop is an exchange around Trump's election in 2016. It suggests a tense, ongoing relationship, and Epstein's power.
Part 1, Sept 23: Linda Stone jokes that Epstein will get a cabinet position if Trump wins. Like Trump owes him. 1/
Backing up: the exchange is with Linda Stone, a tech exec who'd known Epstein since the 1990s: she brokered his entrance into academia, linked him with scientists. In 2016 they were close enough to be chatty, far enough to go months between emails. 2/ politico.com/news/magazine/…
Part 2, Sept. 26: three days after Stone asked Epstein if Trump could win, he answers: "too soon to tell, we will know more come oct 15". He doesn't explain: what would he learn then? Meanwhile Stone isn't even sure if Epstein supports Trump: "Which team you pulling for?" 3/
This week in Trump-Epstein: first @JSweetLI IDs the 14-year-old girl Epstein brought to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump in 1994. Then the House Dems release an email where Epstein says Trump hung out at his house with underaged girls: "[VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him" 1/
in short: Trump spent so much time with Epstein and underaged girls that even Epstein couldn't figure out how it wasn't news!
"Jane", who testified she'd been abused by Epstein, was entered in Trump's pageants in the 1990s, long before Kirk and Halligan in 2009. Still, it's odd how so many women in Trump's circle had walked the stage in front of him as barely-clad teenagers. 3/
Realize: when Ed Martin drafted the pardon for the fake electors he was pardoning himself: he made it pre-emptive and general, covering "all United States citizens for conduct relating to ... efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 presidential election" 1/
Ed Martin was one of the first people who Ali Alexander drafted into Stop the Steal, on Nov. 4, the day after the election. He was a major player, and was deferential to Ali ("Orders, General Ali?"). Ali in turn said he leaned on Ed for advice and for contacts to lawmakers. 2/
The Jan 6 Capitol attack was astroturfed. It could not have happened without efforts from the top - filing bs election-fraud suits, whipping up crowds and getting media attention with Stop the Steal rallies, then pressuring lawmakers to comply. Ed Martin was deep in it. 3/