Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Blocked on Facebook by Daniel Roebuck over Evolution "Theory"
Yesterday (6/17/25) I was “blocked” on Facebook by Daniel Roebuck, who went to my high school (Bethlehem Catholic) and became a Hollywood actor (he claims over 250 TV and movie credits including “Matlock”, “Lost”, “River’s Edge” and “U.S. Marshalls”). He posted on Facebook about a trip he and his third wife took to the Creation Museum in Kentucky (there’s also the Noah’s Arc Encounter nearby - you can do both of them for only $79). I asked him if he didn’t believe in Evolution. He said he believes in Entertainment. The Creation “Museum” claims the Earth is only 6000 years old, that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time (legends and myths called these modern dinosaurs “dragons”), and that the theory of evolution is full of holes. I told him that I thought it was inappropriate for him to use his platform to promote pseudoscience that experts say is actually harmful to children, and to promote a group of bigots that includes racists, homophobes, and fascists who want to outlaw abortion and gay marriage and want to change textbooks to promote their religion and their disdain for science. He blocked me. By all indications, Daniel has had enormous success. So it is puzzling he would leave our Catholic faith for a bonkers fanatical right-wing Evangelical version of Christianity. And it is amazing to see the leaps of logic employed by the “Young Earth” Creationists to deny scientific facts about evolution because they think it debunks their literal interpretation of The Bible. Fun fact: During the 1978-9 school year, Father Louie Solcia picked some students to perform for a local PBS taping about creatives at local high schools. Daniel did a magic act in what I believe was his first televised appearance. I performed an original song about small town small-minded religious intolerance. Some things never change.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Rod Stewart Disappoints Fans Ahead of Glastonbury Triumph By Backing Grifting Fascist: "We've Got To Give Farage A Chance"
Rod Stewart in The Times, photo by DREW GURIAN/INVISION/AP
Farage visiting Julian Assange at London's Ecuadorian Embassy
Some people thought Farage was a conduit to Team Trump during the 2016 election, when Wikileaks leaked damaging data from Hillary Clinton's campaign that they got from the Russians.
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Nigel Farage is a British politician who was one of the architects of the disastrous and racist (but winning) Brexit campaign. He's a fascist and grifter who admires Trump and Putin. It is very disappointing that Rod Stewart would ask British voters in The Times (ahead of his triumphant Glastonbury performance on June 29) to "give Farage a chance", presumably to be PM, in order to screw up the country more effectively, perhaps. Rod Stewart is not an expert on geopolitics, but he is an artist that people have listened to since the 1960s.
A rich man coming out for a far-right politician is hardly shocking, but we were led to believe Rod was a little bit different. We can all laugh at the excesses of "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" but I've long been a fan Rod's bluesy work in the late 60s and early 70s with The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces (who are said to have a new album coming out in 2026 feat Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and drummer Kenney Jones) as well as Rod's early solo records.
The other surprising aspect here is Rod's strong support for Ukraine and calling out those (like Farage) who blame Ukraine and The West for "provoking" Putin into invading Ukraine. He sounded very different in an interview just last year with "The Sun" (see below).
How do you go from "Shame on you, Nigel!" to "We’ve got to give Farage a chance" in a year's time?
“I’m obviously not a politician but I am entitled to my opinion.
“I’ve supported Ukraine since the war began by sending supplies, renting a house for a whole family, giving jobs to Ukrainians at my home.
“I dedicate a song every night to the struggle and show the blue and yellow flag on massive video screens during my concerts.”
He added: “The blue and yellow flag on my massive video screens during my concerts .
“I’m outraged and dumbfounded that Farage blames the West for the war - is he suggesting that NATO is the aggressor here?
“NATO’s purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means, not to start a war on paranoid Putin’s Russia. Shame on you Nigel."
Where does Stewart see Britain’s political future going? “It’s hard for me because I’m extremely wealthy, and I deserve to be, so a lot of it doesn’t really touch me. But that doesn’t mean I’m out of touch. For instance, I’ve read about Starmer cutting off the fishing in Scotland and giving it back to the EU. That hasn’t made him popular. We’re fed up with the Tories. We’ve got to give Farage a chance. He’s coming across well.” Nigel? “What options have we got? I know some of his family, I know his brother, and I quite like him.”
What, I ask, does Nigel Farage stand for, apart from Brexit, tightened immigration policies and unrealistic economic promises?
“Yeah, yeah,” Stewart says. “But Starmer’s all about getting us out of Brexit and I don’t know how he’s going to do that. Still, the country will survive. It could be worse. We could be in the Gaza Strip."
Friday, June 27, 2025
ThisSmallPlanet.com Cool New Music Summer Playlist July & August 2025
BEST NEW SINGLE: Bright Eyes - "1st World Blues".
Conor Oberst & Alex Orange Drink collaboration
Dropkick Murphys new single "Who'll Stand With Us" from their new album For The People.
BEST NEW ALBUM: FOR THE PEOPLE. DROPKICK MURPHYS (STREAMING NOW).
It's always satisfying to find out someone Irish, whether from home or in the diaspora, is anti-racist and radical, rather than the racist and reactionary some would have you believe we are. I believe the natural position of The Irish is to support the underdog because of our history as victims of British imperialism, survivors of a great famine, and immigrants in search of. It pains me to see when it is otherwise. But it is wonderful to see people like Dropkick Murphys embrace the Irish tradition of sticking up for the less fortunate. They've mined Woody Guthrie lyrics for several songs, carrying on those traditions as well. They support Ukraine. They have a song on the new album with Billy Bragg (a cover of an Ewan MacColl's song "School Days Over"):
Cries for justice and unity are never far from the hearts and minds of this band and their fans. At the same time, Kneecap, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, have ignited fierce debate regarding their support of Palestinian rights. For many, it is perfectly logical for the Irish to support Palestinian self-determination. Kneecap makes a point of saying they are from "Ireland", not "Northern Ireland" and certainly not "British subjects of The United Kingdom". It reminds us that Ireland is still divided, with the six north-eastern counties "belonging" to the Untied Kingdom. It reminds us that people still dream of a re-united Ireland and that Ireland has a history of oppression and colonialism and that there are STILL British troops in Ulster. In that light, support for Palestine makes perfect sense, especially recalling old links from the 1970s between the IRA and the PLO. The situation in Gaza today is an emergency and needs to be addressed immediately. Mo Chara from Kneecap made a mistake at a show in London in November 2024 when he took a yellow Hezbollah flag someone from the crowd handed him, wore it around his neck and then displayed it on stage, while saying, "Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!" Voicing support for banned terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah is illegal in the UK and he is now facing prosecution (next court hearing on August 20). Furthermore, Hamas and Hezbollah have attacked civilians and have many reactionary, medievalist followers. Hezbollah is not even Palestinian. It is an Iranian-funded Shia militia based in Lebanon which intervened in Syria's civil war on behalf of the brutal Assad dictatorship and has also killed civilians in Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. We can support a Free Palestine without supporting backward groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Kneecap has said they don't support Hamas, Hezbollah, or attacks on civilians but have also said Mo Chara's prosecution on terrorism charges is retaliation for their political stance, is highly ironic considering British history in Ireland, and that on stage Mo Chara is "playing a character" and not necessarily delivering a peer-reviewed presentation on history and politics (with footnotes). Mo Chara (or his handlers) should have known (or found out) what the British law is regarding these issues and acted accordingly, unless they wished to challenge the British law banning support for Hamas and Hezbollah, which they have given no indication they intended to do. In that case, Mo Chara is "guilty as charged" of the offenses. Kneecap, and the Free Palestine movement in general, need to clarify that their support for Palestine does not mean support for Hamas or Hezbollah, and that their condemnation of Israel is based on the facts of Palestinian suffering, not the blindness of anti-semitic bigotry.
Michael Donnelly arrested at anti-apartheid ship action, San Francisco, CA., 1986UPDATED: July 25, 2025
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Alex G on Colbert
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Cool New Singles (with links to YouTube videos)
The Beths. "No Joy".
Bob Dylan & Barbra Streisand. "The Very Thought Of You"
Bright Eyes. "1st World Blues". BEST NEW SINGLE. Conor Oberst/Alex Orange Drink
David Byrne. "Everybody Laughs". & "She Explains Things To Me"
Jay Som. "Float".
Jeff Tweedy. "One Time Flower". & "Out In The Dark"
Johnny Marr. "Rebel Rebel" (live)(feat Neil Tennant)(David Bowie cover)
Juan Wauters. "Manejando por Pando"
Kim Gordon. "Bye Bye 25". Updated political version.
Kneecap. "The Recap".
Kurt Vile. "Classic Love" (feat Luke Roberts)
Manu Chao & Santa Fe Klan. "Solamente".
MJ Lenderman. "Just Be Simple" (Jason Molina/Songs: Ohia cover).
Neko Case. "Wreck".
The Molotovs. "Today's Gonna Be Our Day". & "Suffragette City".
Robert Plant. "Everybody's Song" (Low cover)
Shame. "Quiet Life".
Tom Morello. "Pretend To Remember Me".
Wednesday. "Wound Up Here (By Holding On)"
Wet Leg. "Davina McCall"
Woody Guthrie. "Deportees (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)".
Cool New Albums
Alex G. Headlights.
Chaka Chawasarira. Useza. Zimbabwean master of the matepe. Interesting.
Dropkick Murphys. For The People. BEST NEW ALBUM. Digital out July 4, 2025. CD/LP out October 10, 2025.
Eric Andersen. Dance of Love and Death. 82-year-old folkie's new material is quite striking.
Haims. I Quit. I had the lowest of expectations but it's pretty good, actually.
James McMurtry. The Black Dog And The Wandering Boy. Great stories, great songs.
Jason Isabel. Something More Than Free.
Jonathan Richman. Only Frozen Sky Anyway. Quirky smart funny songs? Yep. In spades.
Juan Wauters. Mvd Luv. Nice, gentle songs in Spanish and English.
Kurt Vile. Classic Love EP.
Laura Jane Grace. Adventure Club.
Lord Huron. The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. Dreamy little epics.
Mike Polizze. After the Deluge. Cool songs.
Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts. Talkin to the Trees. Surprisingly strong album from this vet.
North Mississippi Allstars. Still Shakin'. Worth listening to. Fresh takes on classic blues.
Open Mike Eagle. Neighborhood Gods Unlimited. Smooth hip hop.
Queens Of The Stone Age. Alive In The Catacombs. Intriguing.
Patti Griffin. Crown Of Roses.
Paul Weller. Find El Dorado. Super Famous in England, Little Known in America.
Peter Rohan. Tales of the Free Mexican Airforce. Tribute to the sound of The Texas Tornados, featuring Flaco Jimenez on a couple of songs.
Slick Rick. Victory. The Return Of The Master Storyteller.
The Swell Season. Forward. Solid offering from folk duo Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
Tyler, The Creator. Don't Tap The Glass. He's a creative little bastard, innit he?
Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Curse. Pretty good.
Wavves. Spun. They're back and gooder than ever.
Wet Leg. Moisturizer. Sophomore slump? Not here....
Willie Nile. The Great Yellow Light. Good rockin'
Pulp Doing "Common People" at Glastonbury 2025
Archival: Reissues and Randoms
Billie Holiday. Songs For Distingue Lovers.
Bruce Springsteen. Lost And Found (Selections From The Lost Albums). Some of this is really good but doesn't sound at all like the Springsteen we're used to.
Husker Du. Jan. 30, First Ave Pt.1. The first in a batch of "new" archival releases. Past releases have suffered from poor audio quality, but that's not a problem here. Nice to hear a band at its peak (1985) who would still totally slay today easily.
The Kinks. The Journey, Pt. 3. Great Kinks collection of their later period, songs from the late 70s and 80s and some classic hits from a live show in 1993. I already had The Journey, Pt 1 & Pt 2 (both highly recommended). Actually any excuse at all to listen to old friends like The Kinks, The Who, The Yardbirds, Small Faces, Faces, Jeff Beck Group, et al is welcome.
Sly And The Family Stone. The First Family: Live at the Winchester Cathedral 1967. Early appearance by the ensemble.
Highly Anticipated Cool New Releases
There aren't a whole lot of huge releases coming this summer or fall, so far, but there is plenty that came out between January 2025 and June 2025, which you can see here and here, including a few of which I feel I haven't even given a proper listen to yet, and some of which are still on heavy rotation, including: Ty Segall Possession, The Lumineers Automatic, Pulp More, Peter Doherty Felt Better Alive, Pavement Pavements (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Aesop Rock Black Hole Superette, The Minus 5 Oar On, Penelope!, and Fontaines D.C. "It's Amazing To Be Young".
Woody Guthrie. Woody At Home - Vol. 1 + 2. [Shamus]. August 12, 2025. 22 unreleased tracks by an American master.
Suede. Antidepressants. September 5, 2025. Britpop kings return.
Shame. Cutthroat [Dead Oceans] September 5, 2025. Sounds good.
David Byrne. Who Is The Sky? [Matador].September 5, 2025. Always interesting.
Jeff Tweedy. Twilight Override. September 26, 2025. Probably sounds like Tweedy.
Robert Plant. Saving Grace. [Nonesuch]. September 26, 2025.
Jay Som. Belong. [Polyvinyl/Lucky Number]. October 10, 2025. Cool stuff.
Lana Del Rey. Classic (other previously rumored titles: The Right Person Will Stay and Lasso) [Interscope]. Release date: Delayed (To Be Announced). Summer 2025? Autumn 2025?
You may also be interested in:
+ ThisSmallPlanet.com Cool New Music Playlist Spring 2025 (April, May, June)
+ Kneecap Court Controversy With Their Pro-Palestine Stance
+ Northern California Protest Photos: Anti-Trump, Anti-Musk, Tesla Takedown, Stand With Ukraine, Hands Off! (February, March, April 2025)
+ The Danger Of The American Left Working With Code Pink And Other Groups Compromised by Russian/Chinese/Iranian Funding
+ Why did Elon's father Errol Musk Appear at a Moscow Conference This Month With Putin's Top Advisors & Supporters? And why did Alex Jones, Jeffrey Sachs, Max Blumenthal, Jackson Hinkle, and George Galloway accompany him there?
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Why did Elon's father Errol Musk Appear at a Moscow Conference This Month With Putin's Top Advisors & Supporters? And why did Alex Jones, Jeffrey Sachs, Max Blumenthal, Jackson Hinkle, and George Galloway accompany him there?
Errol Musk (Elon's Dad) in Moscow For "Forum of The Future 2050" Conference
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The "Forum of The Future 2050" Conference was sponsored June 9 -10, 2025 in Moscow by sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev's Tsargrad Institute and its director, Russian fascist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin (known as "Putin's Rasputin" and "Putin's Brain") to promote a pro-Putin worldview. It featured speeches by Errol Musk (Elon's father), Sergei Lavrov (Putin's Minister of Foreign Affairs), Alex Jones, Jeffrey Sachs, George Galloway, Max Blumenthal (son of Clinton advisor and Guardian columnist Sidney Blumenthal), Jackson Hinkle, and many others. Among them were the leading Putin apologists, including sanctioned insiders and war criminals; those accused of conspiring to kidnap Ukrainian children for "adoption' in Russia, the very architects of some of the most brutal war atrocities in Ukraine, which rate among the worst episodes of violence against civilians in Europe since the Nazi era.
Here's an article from The Guardian on the forum:
Here's the website of the conference:
We should find it very alarming that the father of the world's richest man (who, until their recent break, spent nearly every waking moment with Donald Trump since the campaign and especially since Trump re-assumed office on January 20, 2025) should be attending a pro-Putin forum in Moscow. Could Errol Musk and the others adopt pro-Putin talking points and come to influence Trump, Elon Musk, the media, and the American public in general?
The isolation of international sanctions has forced Russia to seek friends where they can find them. Russia likes to promote these international meetings to promote "multi-polarity" and oppose "globalism", which in practice mean a world where the U.S. does not dominate but that each "superpower" - The West (The U.S. and Europe), Russia, China, and according to Dugin, India, has their own "sphere of influence", acknowledged as their de facto colonies, to be untouched by the others. Russia could take over Ukraine, China could take over Taiwan, and the West could continue to dominate Latin America and The Caribbean in general while dream of militarily invading Canada, Panama, and Greenland. Africa and Asia would be up for grabs. May the best autocratic grifter win!
In their wildest dreams, these Russian autocrats dream of forming a coalition with far-right groups around the world, along with elements of the confused "horseshoe" authoritarian left (to form a Red/Brown alliance) to fight the "woke" globalists (which always sounds like code for "Jews"), LGBTQ, feminists, immigrants, minorities, and activists.
The basic premise of the Red/Brown (Left/Right) Coalition is that neo-liberalism is worse than fascism. It first originated in Moscow just after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Dissatisfied former Communists (Red) united with nationalist far-right (Brown) groups to oppose the emerging centrist neo-liberal free trade consensus.
Western media mostly ignored Forum Of The Future 2050 , but Errol Musk's comments when he arrived in Moscow a few days early on June 7 that Elon made a "mistake" going up against Trump and starting their "feud" got some coverage.
In that interview and others in recent weeks, Errol Musk echoed many Putin talking points about Ukraine including the false conspiracy theory stating that Ukraine has a series of 27 experimental "biolabs" near the Russian border, used to justify Russian intervention in the region.
I was able to watch some of the forum live-streamed online.
Dugin, one of the organizers of the forum, spoke at length, calling AI an "Anti-Christ abyss", and the role of The State is to keeps the time of Satan from coming, fighting chaos and disorder, and preventing the coming of The Anti-Christ. He spoke of "the end of the world, and that is near...", of "states crumble into lawlessness... then the second coming (of Christ)..."
He spoke of the emergence of the bourgeois, an elite who inserts themselves into the role of "Third Estate", in place of the common people, the will of the people. Are described them as "secular, cowardly, not warriors, lazy... they didn't want to plant seeds or build a huge peasant world, a stratum of in-betweens. According o Dugin, Liberalism, the bourgeois, urban bankers, and traders, morphed into Communism, proletariat peasants were taken off land and "inserted" into cities. The French Revolutionary slogan of liberte, equalite, fraternity - split the world, Dugin argued, into "brothers and non-brothers" and created xenophobia.
Errol Musk began by evoking forum spnosor Konstantin Malofeyev of the need to "increase the numbers of people, and increase the 'living space' for people", sounding like Hitler. Errol Musk, like his son Elon, believes that wealthy intelligent white men aren't having enough babies and should have more. Errol bragged of being 80 (and hoping he didn't look 80) and having two small children, 6 and 8 years old, whose mother is Errol Musk's step-daughter (the daughter of his second ex-wife). Errol Musk, we were told, was a Liberal who was opposed to apartheid, but made several casually racist and eugenicist statements. He maintained that he was not a racist but that the family was his ex-wife, Maye Musk (Elon's mother) was explicitly racist, especially Maye's father, Joshua Haldeman, who moved from Canada to South Africa specifically because of South Africa's racist policies.
In his Forum speech, Errol Musk spoke of the challenges of defeating gravity and talked at length about rockets and space travel, repeatedly mentioning SpaceX, notably using "us" and "we" (and even stating "I was with Elon..." at a recent rocket launch) despite Elon Musk's disparagement of his father in the press:
In 2017, Elon was the subject of a Rolling Stone cover story by the writer Neil Strauss. This time, his rage toward Errol was made clear.
“He was such a terrible human being,” Mr. Musk told Mr. Strauss. “My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil.”
He added: “Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.”
Mr. Strauss described tears streaming down Elon’s face as he said this...
Speaking from Dubai on Friday, Errol said the real reason Elon had called him evil in 2017 was because of political differences between them.
“At that time, he supported the Democrats,” Errol said. “At the time, he was mixing with the wrong people.”
"Do Elon Musk and His Father Get Along?" by Jacob Bernstein, New York Times (February 21, 2025).
There were speakers from several countries, including India, all of whom repeated the theme of a "return to tradition" meaning faith-based society and a rejection of modern notions of feminism and LGBTQ visibility and acceptance.
Jackson Hinkle greeted the crowd in Russian, stating he was trying to improve his Russian, bringing to mind that he has visited Russia several times over the past 3 years and made a number of videos on the ground supporting Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. He spoke of Unelected Mafia Globalist Finance Capital, comparing them to the titular Mafia family on HBO's "The Sopranos". It was a "War against the Globalist Creditor Class", he claimed, then added, "Elon's life is in danger.", presumably for taking on the Globalists. Hinkle said the U.S. needed to reclaim its sovereignty by, for example, leaving NATO (another Putin dream). Unless Trump can change the Constitution and run a third time, Hinkle speculated that the next candidate could be Trump's kids, Elon Musk, or "The Dark Side", Peter Thiel, Palantir, Silicon Valley... where "most are homosexuals", that "adopt young boys", and who desire an oppressive surveillance state.Hinkle claimed that Peter Thiel was pressuring Musk to surveill L.A. protesters. Hinkle stated he was no fan of the protesters but didn't want to see another Patriot Act emerge. Just a few years ago, Hinkle was a liberal environmentalist. Now he's a Trump supporter and a "MAGA Communist", who supports Russian domination of Ukraine, while condemning Israel and supporting the Palestinians.
Several speakers took great pains to keep their commentary current.
Dugin claimed the recent L.A. riots were a "staged color revolution" to make Trump look bad. Before Trump, he said, the U.S. was "Satanic" and "evil". (It is quite telling that "color revolutions", which most modern people would view as positive, have become, in the eyes of the far-right and their confused authoritarian left allies, very negative - false flags; astroturfed movements nefariously planted by The Deep State.
Dugin, who they referred to as "professor" certainly wants to give the impression he is an intellectual who has carefully studied history and literature and analyzed them to come to the conclusions he is presenting us. They say Dugin, Malofeyev and their ilk are "far-right" and they hit several of the fascist check boxes, but in addition to fascist, they appear to be actually monarchists, and traditionalists tried to the Russian Orthodox Church. I suppose whether people like Trump or Putin are called "President", "Prime Minister", "CEO", "Czar", "King", or "Emperor" is irrelevant if they are all-powerful and in complete control.
But it's one thing to say your political enemies are "bad people" or even say they are metaphorically "Satanic", but it's quite another thing to actually believe your enemies are actually evil and in league with supernatural beings against the rest of us. This is not the serious thought of an adult intellectual. But it does appear that Dugin and Malofeyev do believe their battle is an epic one between 'Good" and "Evil" and they are on the "Good" side. Igor Lopatonok is similar. He is the pro-Putin Ukrainian producing partner of Oliver Stone.
Lopatonok and Stone have worked on three pro-Putin/anti-Ukraine films which maintain that the 2014 Maidan uprising was a "CIA coup" as opposed to what it actually was - a people's revolution against a corrupt pro-Putin stooge. They encourage sympathy for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine's Donbas and justify Russian imperialism in Ukraine by claiming all Ukrainians are "Nazis", for example, in every way echoing Moscow's talking points on Ukraine.
You would expect people like this to be secular and agnostic. It is a little surprising they believe so strongly in their Christian Orthodox faith, and it seems incongruous in the modern context to insist your political enemies are actually evil and Satanic rather than simply wrong, and that these "Satanic" claims are not metaphorical but are in fact literal. I would imagine that this type of magical thinking disqualifies them in many eyes from being taken seriously. Talk of the devil and Satan at this point should be limited to children and the mentally feeble, not people wanting to taken seriously by adults a fellow adults with something legitimate to convey.
We should be concerned when Errol Musk, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump echo Putin talking points, disinformation, and propaganda.
Max Blumenthal is said to be "on the left". Tucker Carlson is said to be "on the right". Yet they are friends. They socialize together. They promote each other. They are on the same team.
It is amazing how the same people tend to show up, some of them alleged "opposites", but still promoting each other on their platforms: Dugin, David Duke, Max Blumenthal, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Jackson Hinkle, Jimmy Dore, Aaron Mate, Glenn Greenwald, Cynthia McKinney, Jill Stein, Dennis Kucinich, Scott Ritter...
They told us that Julian Assange and Edward Snowden were "leftist heroes" exposing Western crimes. So why do Putin, Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and every right-winger under the sun support and defend Assange and Snowden?
Some horrible right-wingers like Candace Owens and Jackson Hinkle are fooling leftists into listening to them by bashing Israel and supporting Palestinian rights, sometimes uncritically.
They are indeed "Trojan horses", anxious to form a Red/Brown horseshoe alliance of left/right extremists against the moderates in the center.
Gaza is becoming the gateway drug for leftists to enter an unholy alliance with the far-right. Anti-semites on the far-left and far-right can unite in their anti-Israeli extremism.
Western people who oppose The West are often accused of being paid agents of foreign rival powers, or of at least advancing the foreign rival's agenda through ignorance or malice. This year, Elon Musk alleged that Tesla Takedown protesters were "paid", and Trump claimed the L.A. rioters in June 2025 were "professional agitators". Mostly, these accusations are nonsense. But the fact remains that the governments of the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, Iran, Israel, and others have very active spy programs in various countries, and sometimes they do give money and advice to opposition groups of their rivals. Sometimes the opposition groups are aware of the origin of their funding and other times less so.
Alexander Ionov
In 2016, Alexander Ionov of the "Anti-Globalist Movement of Russia" organized a "Dialog of Nations" in Moscow, inviting Catalan, California, and Texas separatists. Ionov, believed to work with Russia's spy agency, the FSB, has attempted to influence activists in Germany and the U.S., including The African People's Socialist Party (APSP - popularly known as "Uhuru House" - four of whom were indicted for not registering as foreign agents - they got off with a wrist slap).
Uhuru House accepted funds several times from Ionov, as well as direction in local campaigns in St. Petersburg, Florida and a petition to the UN for African-American reparations. Uhuru House also declared that they supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine and opposed Western aid to Ukraine. A position which Russia shared.
Internal communications between Uhuru House activists revealed they assumed that Ionov was working with the Russian government. When they asked him directly, he gave a vague, dismissive answer. Uhuru House had previously requested that if Yeshitela were to go to Russia, that he would meet a Russian government official, and they acknowledged that Uhuru House shared many stargetic interests with the government of Russia including support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, opposition to Western goals, and Russia's legacy of support for liberation movements in the developing world.
Engaging online with Uhuru House supporters was interesting. Some admitted that the Uhuru House accepted money from Ionov, others denied it. Some admitted they knew or suspected the money was from the FSB, others denied their knew or should have known the origin of the money. Several thought it was ok that Uhuru House agreed with the Russian government and accepted funding and advice from them. A few argued Russian talking points that Russia was never involved in the Atlantic slave trade and had never been colonialist. Russia is of course not an Atlantic country, but the system of fiefs and serfdom that dominated Russia for centuries was in many ways akin to the slavery. And Russia has had colonies and acted imperialistically since the 1600s.
Omali Yeshitela of Uhuru House (The African People's Socialist Party)
Other such conferences have been attended by such luminaries as Scott Ritter and Cynthia McKinney.
Scott Ritter was forced to pull out of this event due to his sex crime conviction.
David Duke and Dugin
Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian operation, US says (AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — They have millions of followers online. They have been major players in right-wing political discourse since Donald Trump was president. And they worked unknowingly for a company that was a front for a Russian influence operation, U.S. prosecutors say.
An indictment filed Wednesday alleges a media company linked to six conservative influencers — including well-known personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — was secretly funded by Russian state media employees to churn out English-language videos that were “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition” to Russian interests, like its war in Ukraine.
In addition to marking the third straight presidential election in which U.S. authorities have unveiled politically charged details about Russia’s attempted interference in U.S. politics, an indictment indicates how Moscow may be attempting to capitalize on the skyrocketing popularity of right-wing podcasters, livestreamers and other content creators who have found successful careers on social media in the years since Trump was in office.
The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of the company’s funding. Instead, it accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company for Russia-friendly content.
After the indictments were announced, both Pool and Johnson issued statements on social media, which Rubin retweeted, saying they were victims of the alleged crimes and had done nothing wrong.
“We still do not know what is true as these are only allegations,” Pool said. “Putin is a scumbag.”
In his post, Johnson wrote that he had been asked a year ago to provide content to a “media startup.” He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated.”
Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They are at large, and it was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.
U.S. officials have previously warned of Russia’s use of unwitting Americans to further influence operations in the 2024 election, but Wednesday’s indictment is the most detailed description of those efforts to date.
At a forum on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to suggest jokinglythat he would support Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. election. Intelligence officials have said Moscow has a preference for Trump.
Putin authorized influence operations to help Trump in the 2020 election, while his 2016 campaign benefited from hacking by Russian intelligence officers and a covert social media effort, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials.
With the decline of traditional media like newspapers and limits on direct advertising on social media platforms, influencers are increasingly playing a key role in politics and shaping public opinion. Both the Republican and Democratic parties invited scores of influencers to their respective national conventions this summer. But with little to no disclosure requirements about who is funding influencers’ work, the public is largely in the dark about who is powering the messaging online.
Though the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based company, the details match up exactly with Tenet Media, an online media company that boasts of hosting “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Tenet’s website lists six influencers who provide content, including Pool, Johnson, Rubin, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen and Matt Christiansen.
Tenet Media’s six main influencers have more than 7 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 7 million followers on X.
Fueled by public outrage and online fandom, the influencers who make up the bench of talent at Tenet Media have amassed millions of loyal followers who agree with their staunch conservatism and brazen willingness to voice controversial opinions. Their channels also have created communities for conservative Americans who have lost trust in mainstream media sources through Trump’s 2020 loss and the COVID-19 pandemic. Several of them have faced criticism for spreading political misinformation.
The indictment shows that some of the influencers were paid handsomely for their work. One unidentified influencer’s contract included a $400,000 monthly fee, a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus.
Tenet Media’s shows in recent months have featured high-profile conservative guests, including Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake. The nearly 2,000 videos posted by the company have gotten more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said.
Pool, a journalist-turned-YouTuber who first gained public attention for livestreaming the Occupy Wall Street protests, hosted Trump on his podcast earlier this year.
Johnson is an outspoken Trump supporter and internet personality who was fired from BuzzFeed after the company found evidence he’d plagiarized other works.
Rubin was previously part of the liberal news commentary show “The Young Turks” but has since identified as a libertarian. He boasts the largest YouTube following of Tenet’s influencer roster and hosts a show called “The Rubin Report.”
Tenet Media President Liam Donovan is the husband of Lauren Chen, a Canadian influencer who has appeared as a guest in several Tenet Media videos. Chen is affiliated with the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA and has hosted shows for the right-wing network Blaze Media. RT’s website also lists her as a contributor of several opinion articles from 2021 and 2022.
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