Today’s email is going to be a mix of what you would be getting from the paid-for tier as well as the free one. Since there have been a lot of new subscribers here lately, I wanted to give you all an opportunity to check out what happens behind this paywall that keeps the lights on here. For you paying subscribers, I am wrapping up the second installment of the utopian thought series as well as a new episode of the book club, keep an eye out for those.
I am going to highlight and touch upon a few more in-depth articles that have caught my attention these last few days. Naomi Klein, a hugely respecter author and thinker over at this end wrote a larger piece that sheds light on a lot of the conspiracy theories dominating our shared realities of late, specifically focusing on the “Great Reset” conspiracy, the role of the 1%, Davos and so on. Truthfully, my knowledge in that world was superficial at best but this article, her incredible insight and clarity really helps connect the more than shady dots in what we can only term another cultural war fought by the 1% and our new social media based realities. Furthermore, it identifies several key players that we need to be aware off.
Whilst our for-profit driven news cycles have long forgotten the Cambridge Analytica story, several very determined journalists have not let go and we should all be extremely thankful for that. As a refresher, at its core the CA scandal was an incident where millions of Facebook users' personal data was acquired without the individuals' consent by Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising. It was claimed to be the "largest known leak in Facebook history" at the time and we all know some of the ramifications in both regards to Brexit and Trump’s election. On the back of the revelations around CA a-then secret meeting took place between Mark Zuckerberg and British politician Matt Hancock, at the time Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and now Secretary of State for Health. Over the last two years various journalists and publishers have been fighting a legal battle to get access to the information shared in said meeting as well what was said. In context, post revelations of said scandal, both political and public pressure was mounting to not only investigate but regulate Facebook, both options Zuckerberg publicly agreed to, but we all know bullshit when we smell it. Long story short, Zuckerberg strong-armed the UK government and now we have proof of his and his companies un-democratic bullshit. This is incredibly worth your time.
Judd Legum’s Popular Information is one of the substacks that I subscribe to and genuinely look forward to receiving. It predominately deals with US politics and corruption and this piece is worth your time. In it he goes into detail about what corporations publicly participate in greenwashing whilst behind not so closed doors financially support politicians that are very much on the opposite side of the spectrum in regards to a Green New Deal. Specifically, in this essay he examines the financial donations of Microsoft, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and General Motors to the increasingly important re-election bids of Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA)—races which will determine control of the Senate.
Lastly, and this just came into my mailbox is Glen Greenwald’s piece on Biden’s nomination of Gen. Lloyd Austin for the position of Pentagon Chief. Now, Greenwald is not without fault and there are plenty of instances where I disagree with a lot he has to say but it is worthwhile reading nonetheless, if only for a different perspective and quite frankly the depth that he as a journalist goes into. His analysis of another very problematic choice by Biden for his team is on point and considering the global implications I can highly suggest this article.
Not wanting to leave you without your dose of the global fuckening as witnessed by yours truly, here are a few examples of what keeps me up at night with raging fury.