I mean he’s not the first to claim this:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book

It’s unlikely tho that the Kreml ever foresaw him becoming president. No-one did really.

Hmm this section sounds familiar:

The persecution drove hundreds of directors, managers and workers – including the author – into exile and/or imprisonment. In their place, the government appointed political operators, lacking knowledge and experience in the oil sector, who provided unconditional support to Maduro’s policies but damaged the company’s operational capacities, bypassing all control or accountability mechanisms.

That’s essentially what Trump admin wants to do. Fire civil servants en masse, replace with loyalists (proficiency for the job is optional).Then if something is goes wrong, and it will, just blame it on DEI, Biden, wokeness or something.

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with career bureaucrats // civil servants per se. ¿Do you want to swap out every geologist, accountant, teacher, interpreter, ranger, manager, safety inspector, lawyer, technician, secretary every 4 years? These people literally run the country and by extension allow society to continue. And they are part of the idea that power and expertise are spread amongst many people.

Is it fair to criticize individuals, agencies, institutions. Yes. Is there corruption, mismanagement, incompetence? All the time, happens for any sufficiently large enough organization.

But no need to spin this into some bonkers conspiracy theory.

I’ve updated my initial comment.

This guy literally wrote a book about what he dubs “the executive branch deep state” including a list of high profile names he wants to target.

It’s all out in the open. Confirmation hearings are supposed to weed out people like him.

Edit: the way I previously worded my comment it might have been construed as me stating Patel was rightfully going after these people. Instead I meant to indicate that they rightfully resisted/investigated Trump.

p 698 of project 2025 document:

The federal income tax system heavily taxes capital and corporate income and discourages work, savings, and investment. The public finance literature is clear that a consumption tax would minimize government’s distortion of private economic decisions and thus be the least economically harmful way to raise federal tax revenues.

more riches to capital and corporations, consumers will pay for it. it’s all in there

One of her arguments against the allegation of her spewing Russian talking points was that she doesn’t follow Russian Propaganda.

Truthfulness aside, that argument is not the elegant dodge that she probably thinks it is. Because that speaks against her informedness. As someone applying for this job she should be interested or better yet well versed in what current Russian propaganda is, how it is disseminated, who the target audience is, how well it is working, and how it relates to the wider goals of the Russian regime.

Strangely enough Robert Kenney also made use of a similar defensive veil a couple of times. Well I’m not a medical expert, so I really couldn’t tell you. 🙄 Bro, why are you applying for this position then?

I think in that scenario it’s more likely that they would “buy the dip” then that they would up and leave. Some of the billionaires also want to found their own techno-fashist fiefdoms. This could be a good catalyst for that.

Saw a policy expert say it’s a mixture of 3 things really:

1. Trump likes to blame outsiders for problems and this is well received by his loyal base and gives off strongman vibes
2. long term plan to switch from income tax (scales the more you earn) to consumption taxes (the poorer you are the more you pay for for consumption, relatively speaking) which benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. this wealth transfer is easier to sell when the populace is focused on outsiders
3. Trump doesn’t understand basic economics

source: https://youtu.be/2I1L1fXaYDs

There’s so many parts and pieces that all failed to get to where we are today. Each time you reflect a moment and realize that we shouldn’t be be here in the first place:

• The FBI // justice department shouldn’t be a tool of personal revenge.
• But wait Trump/Musk shouldn’t have become presidents to begin with.
• Voters should be educated and well informed enough to simply not vote for an autocrat.
• Merrick Garland should never have become attorney general and even so Biden should have pressured him hard to do his job.
• Trump should have been impeached multiple times already.
• But the democrats too should have had a better alternative candidate.
• The democrats should have had a real primary contest.
• Biden should have never announced to run for another term out of the blue.
• And his handlers shouldn’t have tried to hide his frailty for so long.
• If only Donald Trump should have been sentenced for his many crimes.
• And he shouldn’t have had the backing of the Republican party for this long.
• Arguably voters should have realized he’s inept the first time around.
• The media shouldn’t have sensationalized him as much when he first ran as a publicity stunt

The list is not exhaustive and goes on and on…

And in the background there’s all the systemic failures and problems that enabled this: terrible public education, ignoring a large chunk of the electorate for too long, citizens united, social media and outrage culture, rampant disinformation and propaganda disguised as news, the electoral college and de facto 2 party system, too few checks and balances being hard codified, obvious loop holes like presidential pardons, …

Petty sure historians will analyze this for generations. If we will still live in a world where historians are allowed to about their work freely.

¿Remember how much Trump administration bungled the COVID response? Imagine again, but this time with his guy in charge. I see dead people.

Fun fact: the monikers used for these children in the book are used in coloquial speech to describe children that misbehave or exhibit behavioral discrepencies:

• shock headed Peter: an unkempt, filthy child
• fidgety Philip: ADHS or hyperactive child
• Johnny-Head-in-the-Air: daydreaming, absent mindedness
• wicked Frederick: cruelty to animals (sociopathy, lack of empathy often reveal themselves this way early on)
• Soup Caspar: eating disorder, perhaps
• etc

The original book was written by a medical doctor dealing with children, go figure!

This feels quite politically motivated. Trump appointment aside, the CIA specifically uses the words “low confidence”, so even if they deem it the most likely, it’s still only the most likely from several low confidence options.

But look at how lawmakers exploit it:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said he was “pleased” the CIA concluded in the Biden administration’s final days that the lab-leak theory was the most plausible explanation of Covid-19’s origins, and commended Mr Ratcliffe for releasing the conclusion.

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Mr Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said in a statement. BLOOMBERG

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/cia-now-favours-lab-leak-theory-to-explain-covid-19-origins