"The existence of a substantial factional conflict has been obvious for a while. The moment you can see The Script in its fullness, it’s more obvious “they” didn’t allow anything. They are fractured, and one side has the helm. In the election Script post, [things continuing to just inexplicably roll] was identified as future confirmation. Things are continuing to just inexplicably roll. As of now, Gabbard and Kennedy are moving forward. Opposition is fragmented and muted. Ineffectual. We are seeing the Clown posse without House of Lies control. Until major derailment, Script dominance is now a given. The future confirmation is the same. Opposition amounting to nothing as the Script plays out.

"Note also that the vaguely Biblical beats continue. The presence of an archetypal narrative structure was an early tell that events were being plotted somehow. The first time he came gently. This time with the sword. It’s also important to remember narrative alignment != moral alignment. Christians are vulnerable to investing emotionally in this archetype. Dispassion is especially important in times of flux."

https://unclejohnsband.substack.com/p/full-spectrum-assault

As attorney Tom Renz explained in a lengthy Twitter/X thread, Trump took an agency launched by Barack Obama in 2014 called the US Digital Service and renamed it the US DOGE Service, and made Musk a special adviser to it. Trump then installed Musk's team as US DOGE Service staff and retasked the agency to find and expose all government spending in the executive branch.

"How was Trump able to do this? The Daily Wire's Luke Rosiak did a deep dive of his own and discovered that Trump has Joe Biden to thank. Trump largely ignored the previous iteration of USDS, assuming its work revolved around its ostensible mission of improving exec-branch information technology. Instead, it became a beehive for left-wing activists, and Biden reversed Trump's action to protect it from political interference once in office.

"Oh, and even better -- it has an ObamaCare angle, too!"

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/02/07/the-dirty-secret-of-doge-dems-built-it-n3799582

The Case of the Gold Buddhas

This is the first I’ve ever heard about any of this. Don’t ask me if it’s legitimate or the plot of Chuck Dixon’s next action movie. Now that we’re finally allowed to talk about conspiracies and USAID—can we talk about the CIA moving gold on ships? Can we talk about how, before WWII, nearly every […]

https://voxday.net/2025/02/07/the-case-of-the-gold-buddhas/

"Trump reportedly told Imran Khan in 2019 he was “doing it wrong” by playing straight with the media.

“Every day, I wake up and I tweet the craziest thing I can think of.

“The press run after that, and then I can get on and do what I actually want somewhere else”.

"Would you look at that."
https://substack.com/home/post/p-156563145#:~:text=Trump%20reportedly%20told,look%20at%20that.

Kazakh history is mysterious and complicated. In Soviet times, the capital of Kazakhstan was Almaty, the largest and most developed city in the southeast of the country. Almaty used to be majority Russian. Another power center was developing in the north and was called Akmolinsk. During the Virgin Lands campaign, Khrushchev was interested in this region and asked what Akmolinsk meant in Kazakh. It meant "white grave". He didn't like it at all and renamed it Tselinograd to emphasize the agrarian theme, as Tselina = virgin land.

In 1997, the capital moved to Akmola, the new name of Tselinograd. The name still meant "white grave", just like Akmolinsk, but without the Russian ending. In 1998, Akmola was renamed Astana, a loanword from Farsi that could mean "royal castle" or "mausoleum". In 2019, Astana was renamed Nur-Sultan ("Sultan of Sunlight"), but in 2022, it was reverted to Astana again.

It was a long journey from "white grave" to "mausoleum". Astana is a spooky place. Pictured here is the "Palace of Peace and Reconciliation". Almaty is still way more organic and Russian-speaking - despite being further away from the border.

USAID funds the BBC.

How a book is made

Did you know? 🎓

This delicious row keeps getting better

The leader of the Left Party in Germany has suggested that the country could grant asylum to a million migrants a year in order to protect them from “the consequences of climate change.”

https://modernity.news/2025/02/04/leftist-leader-in-germany-suggests-asylum-for-millions-of-climate-refugees/

"Another week, another record high for the gold price. Cue wild celebration among goldbugs — and frantic speculation from everyone else about the reason for the explosion in demand for the precious metal.

"Geopolitical turmoil is one obvious explanation. Inflation concerns amid insane tariff dramas is another. However, there is a third, less noticed, issue bubbling away too: some hedge fund contemporaries of Scott Bessent, the hedgie-turned-US Treasury secretary, are speculating about a revaluation of America’s gold stocks.

"Currently these are valued at just $42 an ounce in national accounts. But knowledgeable observers reckon that if these were marked at current values — $2,800 an ounce — this could inject $800bn into the Treasury General Account, via a repurchase agreement. That might reduce the need to issue quite so many Treasury bonds this year."

https://archive.is/oXVD4#selection-2389.0-2411.332