“By the time Chow and Davis launched $MELANIA in January, they had refined a “repeatable six-step ‘playbook’ for pump-and-dump fraud,” the investors claim.”
#crypto #kleptocracy
www.wired.com/story/melani...
@jodi1994.bsky.social
Professor/scholar of nexus of corruption, illicit finance, conflict, and national security. Military Veteran. Views are my own; likes are not endorsements.
“By the time Chow and Davis launched $MELANIA in January, they had refined a “repeatable six-step ‘playbook’ for pump-and-dump fraud,” the investors claim.”
#crypto #kleptocracy
www.wired.com/story/melani...
"As of Monday, roughly 8 per cent of American warships deployed globally were in the Caribbean, according to a fleet tracker from the US Naval Institute." ft.com/content/dc10...
22.10.2025 10:51 — 👍 84 🔁 21 💬 3 📌 6#Trump found a loophole so any POTUS can take extraordinary amounts of our tax payments and put it right in his pocket: just have his DOJ approve bogus lawsuits. 💰#kleptocracy #corruption
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Thanks! I hadn’t seen this. I wonder how Trump even thought to bring this up during one of his “weaves”? 🤔
19.10.2025 03:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Explain? I haven’t heard this.
19.10.2025 02:31 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0The wildest thing about every Trump pardon and commutation?
“Mr. Santos will also no longer be required to pay more than $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to his victims…”
More info on this
www.military.com/daily-news/2...
This Russian sovereign wealth fund is the RDIF and is considered Putin’s slush fund; it has a history of making deals with tons of red flags for corruption.
18.10.2025 02:17 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Update: A big thank you to everyone who contacted the USAFA AOG. I just received word that the proposal has now been withdrawn.
17.10.2025 21:31 — 👍 15 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0My alumni association is considering giving Charlie Kirk an honorary membership/degree despite his well-documented history of racist and misogynist comments. (His only ties to USAFA were a few months on the Board of Visitors as a political appointee.)
www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...
"The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division...to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.... The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes..."
16.10.2025 10:46 — 👍 10 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 2The former lobbying registrar, Harry Rich, appeared before the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee this week to give his reflections on the measures the govt should be taking to improve lobbying transparency.
💭 Here’s a few thoughts from us... 🧵
Because so many companies pay bribes, citizens of kleptocracy find it is hard to be an ethical consumer.
For example, if you have a Carrier a/c system, it’s not like you can stop using it. Or your Apple phone. Or using Amazon.
Living ethically becomes impossible under state capture
Trump is already hitting up these same companies for an arch near Arlington Cemetery. When companies start paying bribes, it doesn’t stop; the bribee simply demands more. 💸 #Lockheed #Carrier #Amazon
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
How is October 2025 looking an awful lot like October 1929? An analysis from the historian who literally wrote the book on 1929.
(P.S. A lot of these schemes are also used for money laundering.)
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/m...
Reminds me of description of how agricultural labor conditions decline in dystopian novel “The Parable of the Sower,” but the book was supposed to be a warning rather than a how-to guide. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable...
12.10.2025 12:43 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0[Workers on] “H-2A visas…allowing farmers to pay migrant laborers less. It also shifts the burden for paying for worker housing from employer sponsors to migrant workers, with some exceptions.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
What Thiel is saying about tax havens = what Altman is saying about copyright:
"I can't be rich unless you let me steal from you."
This is how Broligarchs differ from oligarchs of yore: the latter tried to hide their thievery; the Broligarchs trumpet their entitlement to steal as a natural right.
Note what is being considered so un-essential that Vought/Trump decided they can be permanently fired: those protecting us from cybersecurity attacks, fighting wildfires, elementary education, our financial system.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights.
A sports marketing firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow an anti-fraud law after it was found guilty of its role in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials for broadcasting rights.
www.mlex.com/mlex/article...
Wired - Documents show that ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms to target people for deportation. www.wired.com/story/ice-socia...
04.10.2025 13:42 — 👍 50 🔁 47 💬 3 📌 7🇲🇦 VIDEO: 'Clear demands': young Moroccans sustain week of protests
Youth-led protests demanding reforms to public healthcare and education take place in Morocco's capital Rabat for a seventh day in a row.
Why would a Saudi sovereign wealth fund purchase a video game company for vastly more than what it’s worth? And why bring the president’s son-in-law onto the deal? Perhaps for reputation laundering, access to AI, cuddle up to Trump, etc.👇🏻
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
$67m looks like a pretty big bribe by Florida lawmakers to Trump 💰
“The land is being used as a parking lot. It is in a prime location in downtown Miami, not far from Biscayne Bay, and is now valued at an estimated $67 million.”
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
Sudan's civil war has seen a proliferation of anti-aircraft weapons: deadly drones, MANPADS, and truck-borne surface-to-air missile systems. Even Turkey's advanced Akinci drones, which the military used to help retake the capital, are getting shot down. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
29.09.2025 10:31 — 👍 24 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 1Delighted to share this #BriberyMatters blog post on TRACE International, in which our Executive Director @thomtownsend.bsky.social is interviewed by Marc Schleifer. Delve into this exploration of the #BeneficialOwnership, #transparency #AntiCorruption nexus👇
www.briberymatters.com/post/advanci...
“Is it that the Chief Justice doesn’t accept that the Court is losing credibility on a daily basis; that he thinks the Court doesn’t need that credibility in order to fulfill its intended role in our constitutional system; or that he doesn’t care?”
Me on John Roberts as his Court turns 20 today:
🔥 EVENT: "Who Pays, Who Decides? Big Money in British Politics"
Our executive director @suehawley.bsky.social joins Baroness Hodge, @liambyrnemp.bsky.social, @duncanhames.bsky.social, &
@edhodgsoned.bsky.social on the panel for this crucial discussion at 4.30pm today.
Check out the details below 👇
1. The $20 billion taxpayer-funded rescue package for Argentina, announced last week by the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, delivers an enormous windfall to hedge fund billionaire Rob Citrone.
Citrone has a longstanding personal and professional relationship with Bessent.
“The infrastructure owners—SpaceX, Amazon, Meta, Google—will accumulate what amounts to sovereign power without sovereign responsibility…Algorithm changes that influence elections, network policies that enable or restrict speech… are already here.”
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...