Researcher in the U.S. trying to stay informed and help others stay informed. I write a blog that focuses on public information, public health, and policy: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/

I only recently began using ghost, and am slowly figuring things out. Apologies for any formatting issues.

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Joined 1 month ago
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Cake day: March 13th, 2025

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  • Yeah it’s definitely not “just one guy,” this is a collective effort by a group of very wealthy people who are creating policy at the federal level and state level.

    This is decades in the making. It is a sort of “civil war” but the thing is, it’s a small group of wealthy people who are hoping to manipulate enough Americans into believing they have some kind of common in-group interest that will motivate them to fight against any Americans resistant to their takeover. Which, after actually typing that out, and reading it, I’m realizing that is also exactly what the American civil war was, there was just no way for people to be informed about who was actually pulling the country’s strings at the time.

    That’s why they exploit political, racial, and religious divisions. They don’t actually care about any ideology. It’s a tool to manipulate and control in order to further exploit groups to do their fighting for them.

    The Heritage Foundation first infiltrated the government by providing Reagan with a copy of their Mandate for leadership, and getting him on board back in the early 80s.

    Over 40 years later, they are back in the White House ready to implement Project 2025.

    Since Reagan opened the door for them, America has gradually accepted that social benefits are handouts, but corporate welfare actually benefits all of America, because somehow corporations ARE people.

    Citizens United was a huge victory for this wealthy group of individuals, because they now have to jump through fewer hoops/hide the source of money used to buy elections.

    The Heritage Foundation has also created a network of nonprofit think tanks in all 50 states that pays to promote state level policy benefitting wealthy individuals and corporate donors while disguising it as “small government” representative of state residents.

    The creator of this network was Thomas Roe, an early member of the Heritage Foundation. As Roe himself explained to another Heritage Foundation trustee, Robert Krieble, “You capture the Soviet Union – I’m going to capture the states.”

    T.l.d.r., it’s a bit more complex than one guy.




  • I was trying to explain to someone that even if Trump doesn’t actually drag the U.S. into WWIII fighting alongside the Taliban and Russia, at best, he gets the U.S. to remain neutral and leave NATO, that means we lose our allies and any expectation of defense if we are attacked.

    So even if Putin loses Ukraine and or never succeeds gaining ground in Europe, what’s to stop the democracy hating tag team of Russia and the Taliban from just attacking the U.S. and taking it for themselves? Or more likely, Russia getting the Taliban to attack and then taking advantage of the situation while making it look like an act of good will towards an ally, and offering the U.S. safety as a part of the Russian federation.

    There’s actually a “fictional” novel that was written by a Putin loyalist and predicted details of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine way before the fact.

    Putin has called it one of his favorite books, and in the novel, once Ukraine is conquered, he takes all of Europe and then eventually drops a bomb on the U.S., forcing them to surrender willingly bc they no longer have allies/NATO to defend them after the attack.

    So, however we lose our allies, even if it’s just by leaving NATO, we end up in a very similar situation in the present reality. Trump and his administration have also done several things to willingly weaken our cybersecurity against Russia and leave our infrastructure incredibly vulnerable.

    Say Putin for whatever reason decides to carry out the playbook against the U.S. from his favorite novel. We are heading towards a situation where we have no allies who will come to our aid, and we’ve willingly given Russia the ability to potentially attack our infrastructure like water and electricity grids for some reason. Imagine how easily they could take over after an attack on the U.S. or even a large natural disaster.







  • Here is a screenshot without paywall.

    I’ve posted this additional information previously but I feel like it never hurts to keep as many people informed about corruption as possible:

    Just throwing this out here to remind people that the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ, and DOD have all made some very alarming threats to employees they believe are speaking to the press. They also seem very eager to remove or weaken civil rights protections for everyone, including American citizens.

    DHS Secretary Noem has complained that offices of civil rights within DHS interfere with the DHS mission on immigration. However, only two of the three offices Noem has attacked, deal with immigration

    The third office is the office of civil rights and liberties within the DHS, and applies to all civil rights issues regardless of immigration or citizenship status.

    Noem’s attacks against Civil Rights Offices within DHS were made following statements that she plans to use polygraphs on ICE employees

    You should be aware that many current ICE employees are federal employees who were removed from previous positions and have been diverted to ICE.

    Diversion of federal employees is seen by many as a highly politicized move that first began in early February and seemed to be a blatant act of retaliation for January 6th investigations. Like a punishment for federal employees that they couldn’t force to quit or legally fire.

    Despite the fact that polygraphs are known to have high false positives rates, Noem said she plans to use polygraphs to root out individuals leaking information to the press. Noem’s threat was followed by similar threats made against employees of the Dept. of Justice and Dept. of Defense.

    Basically they are trying to crack down on dissent. Federal employees are witnessing them violate the law from the inside, and trying to warn the country what they are doing.




  • Just throwing this out here to remind people that the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ, and DOD have all made some very alarming threats to employees they believe are speaking to the press. They also seem very eager to remove or weaken civil rights protections for everyone, including American citizens.

    DHS Secretary Noem has complained that offices of civil rights within DHS interfere with the DHS mission on immigration. However, only two of the three offices Noem has attacked, deal with immigration

    The third office is the office of civil rights and liberties within the DHS, and applies to all civil rights issues regardless of immigration or citizenship status.

    Noem’s attacks against Civil Rights Offices within DHS were made following statements that she plans to use polygraphs on ICE employees

    You should be aware that many current ICE employees are federal employees who were removed from previous positions and have been diverted to ICE.

    Diversion of federal employees is seen by many as a highly politicized move that first began in early February and seemed to be a blatant act of retaliation for January 6th investigations. Like a punishment for federal employees that they couldn’t force to quit or legally fire.

    Despite the fact that polygraphs are known to have high false positives rates, Noem said she plans to use polygraphs to root out individuals leaking information to the press. Noem’s threat was followed by similar threats made against employees of the Dept. of Justice and Dept. of Defense.

    Basically they are trying to crack down on dissent. Federal employees are witnessing them violate the law from the inside, and trying to warn the country what they are doing. If anyone should be charged with treason it should be the people actively dismantling democracy. Unfortunately, those are also the people who run the same country they are trying to destroy.


  • Don’t take it personally, China. He feels the same way about the majority of Americans including his own family. He’s got a chip on his shoulder bc he grew up among the peasant class, made it to the Ivy Leagues and has desperately been trying to claw his way into a social level he’ll never be accepted to bc he wasn’t born into it.

    From his POV you’re either a peasant, or you’re an elitist. Unless you’re part of the 1% of billionaires and generational wealth. Somehow that makes you an average Joe, and that’s why you benefit the most from Vance’s policies and “beliefs” (whatever he may need them to be in the moment).

    Vance is not dumb, but he certainly acts like a useful idiot.



  • I think it’s a bit more complex than that, because it still depends on the conviction.

    Clearly he is not getting off from some kind of murder charge. I don’t know much about the trial, but I would assume his lawyers are arguing a state of physical and emotional distress which would have kept him from being in his right mind when he allegedly shot the guy.

    It would be a pretty bold move for a “free country” to execute someone like that. Not saying it wouldn’t happen, but I know we’re already being monitored for human rights violations by other countries. It would seem to be a weak hand to play, but then again strongmen usually play pretty weak hands when they want to prove how powerful they are. We have entire histories worth of atrocities to prove it.






  • True, there was not a whole lot of mainstream media coverage of assange but there were journalists from places like the intercept and I believe rolling stone or vice also covering it.

    In this case, and many cases all over the country lately, I’m finding that tiny local news outlets are doing a better job keeping us informed than mainstream media or even larger less mainstream news outlets.

    Also realized that if this was a case of spying it would seem very unlikely he would have a lawyer at his residence while it was being raided but who tf knows. Not us.