February 9th • 3h 24m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
DOGE
Big Balls Exposure
Katherine Long, the journalist of the hit piece that got a DOGE employee to resign for spicy posts, was a USAID and State Dept employee
USAID
USAID Jobless friend BOTG
my childhood friend who has worked for USAID since the late 80s is looking for a job now.
His
last assignment? Spending six months in Georgia (the country)
coordinating with NGOs to overthrow their elected president. (failed)
He spent months in Nepal, some time in Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Ukraine as well.
I
would have suggested he come out as a whistleblower and start a vidcast
- but I think he may be a true believer in "rules based order"
communitay
One day talking to him back in 2021 I had a spidey sense (probably after having discovered The Best Podcast in the Universe - No Agenda -- and asked point blank if he was a spook. He was silent lol
SHUT IT DOWN!
Thomson Reuters Special Services rundown BOTG
This relates to the Alex Jones USAid clip, where he references money for TRSS. TRSS is a division of TR's regulatory and risk practice, which maintains the data aggregator CLEAR (a competitor to LexisNexis). TRSS provides analysts to run reports inside CLEAR. The largest customers of TRSS are CIA and FBI, which basically use them as intelligence contractors for the sole purpose of using CLEAR to provide intelligence on US citizens. I sold CLEAR for 7 years and know many people inside TRSS and some of my clients utilized TRSS.
The clip made it sound like the payments were for Thomson Reuters news to disseminate propaganda, and this is simply not accurate. A very small part of the show but I figured it was worth a note.
As an aside, I was with CLEAR during the 2020 election, and our GC refused to allow me to sell our data to Bannon or the Trump campaign for the purpose of challenging the election. I ran a POC file that basically proved tens of thousands of fraudulent votes. I had Bannon on the phone ready to pay half a million for data on Michigan and Georgia voters but our GC turned the money down cold. I always wonder whether it was the fact that she was a raging liberal that caused her to kill that deal or if it was to protect government funding TR was promised by the Biden admin.
Economic Hitman on USAID
A timely reminder of how USAID works. Early on in the very first chapter of ' _Confessions of an Economic Hitman '_ , John Perkins writes:
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.
I should know; I was an EHM.
Several pages on...
“To begin with, we control the military. We pay their salaries and buy them their equipment. They protect us from the Indians who don’t want oil rigs on their lands. In Latin America, he who controls the army controls the president and the courts. We get to write the laws—set fines for oil spills, labor rates, all the laws that matter to us.”
“Texaco pays for all that?” Ann asked.
“Well, not exactly...” He reached across the table and patted her arm. “You do. Or your daddy does. The American taxpayer. The money flows through USAID, the World Bank, CIA, and the Pentagon, but everyone here”—he swept his arm toward the window and the city below—“knows it’s all about Texaco. Remember, countries like this have long histories of coups. If you take a good look, you’ll see that most of them happen when the leaders of the country don’t play our game.”
“Are you saying Texaco overthrows governments?” I asked.
He laughed. “Let’s just say that governments that don’t cooperate are seen as Soviet puppets. They threaten American interests and democracy. The CIA doesn’t like that.”
USAID Former investigator BOTG
I left the OIG for USAID about five years ago. I was a lead investigator for cases in about 13 countries where USAID had missions on a certain continent your show loses listeners over.. .
Without violating my confidentiality agreement, I will say that USAID is "in the field" more than any OTHER agency I ever saw in all the desperate places of the world. Boots on the ground. (The NGO staff mostly.) The American presence has influence.
I saw wonderful help given to desperate people, in spite of their own hapless, corrupt governments. Think clean water, basic healthcare for infants, HIV drugs etc.
I also saw major fraud from the American side, the NGO intermediaters, and the foreign beneficiary side.
You will always find wacky programs that young master-degreed officers thought were "innovative." Often, the "deliverables" were weak.
My job wasn't "waste." It was "fraud and abuse."
Rest assured that with all the big and little contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements in force around the world, the loss to the taxpayers is a continuous stream into the dark ether of the criminals of the developing world. Once in a while, a westerner gets nabbed for stealing.
In my time overseas, I saw a huge push to compete with China's influence. There was always a bigger picture I wasn't privy to. Don't forget also that the embassies often have cocktail receptions to showcase American business opportunities. Some of the USAID projects are certainly designed to make a positive impression of the USA for the poor native guy. But some of it is to curry favor from president So and So and his oligarchs.
It's complicated. State Department won't do any better. They are way stuffier and bureuacratic.
I'm going to wait this thing out and enjoy the chaos.
Thanks,
Overtrained patrol cop in the frozen midwest
USAID media payments
USAID funded more than 6,200 journalists from 707 media outlets and 279 "media" non-profit non-governmental organizations, including 90% of Ukraine's media
Transmaoist Psy-Op
Children is a powerful tool
Americans and all people are compassionate
Compassion for 'others' spreads to immigrants and adults
Allows for many fringe groups to be assembled to protest for 'change'
Racism had played out - Trans was next best thing
DEI was a mistake - there was too much grift and graft
This is what the Dems hold on to Trans - This is their only strategy
What USAID did was not insane, it was calculated
As a Country we have a lot to repent for to other nations
Narcissist & Marxism BOTG mental professional
Narcissist & Marxism: A number of shows ago, you and John were talking about narcissism and Marxism. I've been thinking about this for weeks, and I can share the following: Marxism is rooted in resentment. I've mentioned before that I help people release resentments. The interesting thing about my process is that it requests the client to look at their part and acknowledge it. However, one time I was in a session and got to this step, but the client could not do it. It occurred to me at that moment that my client may be a narcissist. (I had to abort my process and redirect the session.) But the thing is, I never detected she could have a personality disorder. And this falls in line with what chameleons Marxists can be. In the end, narcissists are not capable of processing resentments, because it's what roots them in all of their justification, without having to acknowledge who they are and the part they play--just like Marxists.
Israel vs Everyone
Trump moves chair for Bibi - He's a slave to Israel!
M5M
The Final Flicker of Cable News As We Know It
The finances of cable news channels have traditionally been obscured, buried within larger divisions of their parent companies. A recent defamation lawsuit against CNN, however, brought those finances (or at least a partial version of them) into the open.
According to the data disclosed at trial, revenue at CNN fell from $2.2 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2023, and while profits remain robust, those too are slipping fast. CNN earned net income of $600 million in 2021 and $400 million in 2023. A CNN spokesperson says that “the numbers represent the plaintiff’s interpretation of a subset of data as presented in litigation, and they do not represent financial data for the whole of CNN’s business.”
Big Tech AI and the Socials
Deepseek Reasoning model is just another parlor trick
Use the mann-gellman amnesia effect to test AI, by asking something you are an expert in.
Output
Okay, so the user just told me that "Adam Curry invented podcasting." That's interesting. I need to figure out if this is accurate and what Adam Curry actually did. First off, I know of several people named Adam Curry, like the musician and actor mentioned earlier. But none of them are directly associated with podcasting as far as I'm aware.
Wait a minute, maybe the user is referring to someone else? Or perhaps they're mixing up facts from other inventions or innovations. Podcasting itself was definitely a big thing in recent years, thanks to播客 platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. But who is credited with inventing it?
I recall that podcasting wasn't really "invented" by a single person but evolved over time. The earliest podcasts were done by organizations like the BBC in the UK and NPR in the US during the 20th century. These organizations used dictation tapes to record shows and send them over the phone or mail.
Then there's Samuel A. Jones, often called the "Father of Podcasting." He founded the American Public Service Association (APSA) in 1927, which produced programs like "The World at Large," where notable figures like Einstein and Hemingway spoke. That was way before modern podcasting.
So if Adam Curry is claiming to have invented podcasting, I'm skeptical. Maybe he's confused with someone else or perhaps it's a misunderstanding. Without more context, it's hard to say. It would be best to ask for clarification or provide information on the actual history of podcasting.
The claim that "Adam Curry invented podcasting" is not accurate based on historical evidence. Podcasting evolved over time with contributions from various organizations and individuals.
1. **Podcasting Origins**: Podcasting did not have a single inventor but emerged gradually. Organizations like the BBC (1920s) and NPR (mid-20th century) played significant roles in its development.
2. **Samuel A. Jones**: Often referred to as the "Father of Podcasting," he founded the American Public Service Association (APSA) in 1927, which produced influential podcasts like "The World at Large."
3. **Modern Podcasting**: The rise of digital platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts in the early 21st century made podcasting more accessible and widespread.
If you have specific details about Adam Curry's contributions to podcasting, further clarification would be helpful. Otherwise, it seems there might be a misunderstanding regarding his role in the invention of podcasting.
Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of Artificial Intelligence Report
CONCLUSION Based on the fundamental principles of copyright, the current state of fast-evolving technology, and the information received in response to the NOI, the Copyright Office concludes that existing legal doctrines are adequate and appropriate to resolve questions of copyrightability. Copyright law has long adapted to new technology and can enable case-bycase determinations as to whether AI-generated outputs reflect sufficient human contribution to warrant copyright protection. As described above, in many circumstances these outputs will be copyrightable in whole or in part—where AI is used as a tool, and where a human has been able to determine the expressive elements they contain. Prompts alone, however, at this stage are unlikely to satisfy those requirements. The Office continues to monitor technological and legal developments to evaluate any need for a different approach. The Office will provide ongoing assistance to the public on the copyrightability issues related to generative AI, including by issuing additional registration guidance and updating the relevant sections of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices. In doing so, we will rely on the comme
Sportsball!
Superbowl - Break the Swift Spell with Eagles, but NO! Jesus has already won!
Superbowl Drake BOTG
Adam—I found this amusing (read: baffling) and thought I’d send it your way since it has that Diddy feel to it. Short highlighted article attached.
I don’t follow rap or hip-hop, but I occasionally hear about the litigation that rapper Drake has brought against Kendrick Lamar. Drake has brought two defamation cases against Mr. Lamar because Lamar did a “diss track” called “[Not Like Us](https://genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-not-like-us-lyrics)” that portrays Drake as a pedophile:
Say, Drake, I hear you like ‘em young
You better not ever go to cell block one
To any bitch that talk to him and they in love
Just make sure you hide your li’l sister from him
They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs
And Party at the party playin’ with his nose now
And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?
Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles
So now Kendrick Lamar is performing at the Superbowl halftime show. And given the popularity of “Not Like Us,” it seems very likely that he’ll perform it. This has created a little hubbub over whether Fox and the NFL will allow him to perform the piece uncensored. The key question is whether Drake could drag Fox and the NFL into his pending litigation on the theory that they “republished” Mr. Lamar’s statements.
One lawyer speculates that Mr. Lamar might self-censor and change the lyric. But to me, backing off is risky because it could be viewed as an admission that the lyrics are indeed defamatory. Fox may also bleep it out, but another lawyer says that would be a “public relations disaster” that outweighs any potential legal liability. So maybe the crowd and viewers will have the pleasure of hearing “Not Like Us” in its full glory.
As for me, I’ll be spending Sunday in the garage working on stuff, wondering silently why the NFL brings these controversies on itself. There are so many other ways to entertain . . .
