February 13th • 3h 18m
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
Insights from a Career Civil Servant BOTG
TL;DR – Just because Congress appropriates funding doesn’t mean the executive has to execute that funding. The executive is within their powers to stop that payment. Also, the treasury should not be verifying whether work was done before issuing payments. That is the job of the departments and agencies who then tell the treasury to issue the payments. M5M is dumb.
I am a career civil servant in defense acquisitions. I have noticed a very concerning theme in the coverage of the various doge activities – no one knows how the appropriation and funding process works! There is a theme in all the reporting that seems to equate to “if Congress provided the funding, then the executive can’t stop it.” That’s not true! Congress only provided the funding because the executive requested it. In the DoD we work on a very long funding timeline. The money we expend now was requested 5 years ago. We cannot just request money willy nilly, there is a long requirements verification process that must occur to validate that the funding is needed. All the complaining and moaning that the president is stopping the power of the legislative branch is absurd. The executive branch requests the money, congress approves it and issue the appropriation, then the executive executes the funding. That can include stopping the funding. I’ve seen it happen before where we stop work on a contract due to contractor non-compliance, and if it happens for long enough, we return our appropriation to the Treasury. The execution of the funding can also involve moving funds around for something else. If I have a program that is not able to obligate and execute their funds, a higher up on the organization may pull those funds for use on another program within their purview. This is all an oversimplification of the process, there is a lot of red tape involved. Even though it shouldn’t be, it is shocking to hear the reporting on these activities as though once Congress issues funding for something it has to happen and nothing can stop it. That is not true.
I also think it is a bit disingenuous to say that the Treasury is issuing funds without any process of reconciliation. Again, maybe this is different for other departments but for the DoD, there is an entire program of people running things and managing the funding. We are the ones who reconcile the work and tell the Treasury to issue the funds. Just because a contractor submits a PO, does not mean it gets paid. I know I have personally stopped millions of dollars from being paid because we did not believe the contractor did the work they claimed to have done. I do believe there could be a breakdown in the process of the various agencies telling the Treasury to issue payments without doing their own due diligence. I do not know what those internal processes are for those other agencies but maybe that is what doge is trying to stop. They halt the payments to give time to figure out what the heck the agencies are paying for, and then find out no one can tell them. But to say that the Treasury does not verify the work was done, makes sense. That would be a duplication of effort. I believe they are operating under the assumption that when the department of whatever tells them to issue a payment, that department has done their due diligence to insure the work was done. That could be where the breakdown in this whole process is happening.
ITM
-J.R.
MAGAZA
Who Owns Gaza?
The Gaza Strip is currently de facto administered by Hamas, which has governed the region since June 14, 2007, following its takeover from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. This governance has been characterized by ongoing military and political conflict with Israel and internal divisions within Palestinian factions12.
Historically, the Gaza Strip was controlled by Egypt from 1948 until the Six-Day War in 1967, when it was captured by Israel. Since then, it has been a focal point of conflict, with Israel maintaining a blockade and military presence in the area34. The situation remains complex, with various international and local political dynamics influencing control and governance in the region15.
Big Tech AI & The Socials
Transmaoism
BioLeninism
Regular Leninism was what Lenin did in the 1800s. He
rallied all of the lower classes as his support base. In 1800s Russia,
the lower classes had no prospects for a happy future, until Lenin
promised them a happy future.
So
once Lenin gained power, these people became his staunchest supporters.
Why? Because they had the most to lose. Lenin elevated them. If Lenin
failed, or lost power, their only hopes for prosperity would be gone
forever.
Bioleninism is
the same idea, except with identity instead of class. Imagine a
stereotypical trans freak. (Not implying that all trans people are
freaks; I mean, imagine the most unpleasant, sociopathic, bad-faith
trans person). In any healthy society, these people would be suppressed
before they could bring our kids to drag queen story hour.
Bioleninism
is where a leader intentionally pursues these people as a support base,
and elevates them to positions of status, power, and prestige. Why?
Because this is such an affront to the natural order of a health
society, that it permanently links those peoples' prosperity with your
own. The only reason they have status, wealth, prestige, etc, is because
the leader gave it to them and made sure it stuck. As soon as that
leader loses power, society goes back to normal and the freaks lose
their positions. So the freaks will be absolutely and unquestionably
loyal; their lives depend on it (possibly literally)
Tariffs
Oil pricing from the oil baron BOTG
Global oil inventories. We
expect OPEC+ production cuts will reduce global oil inventories and
keep
crude oil prices near current levels through the first quarter of 2025.
Gradual increases in production combined with relatively weak global
oil demand growth will increase global oil inventories in the second
half of 2025 through 2026,
placing downward pressure on prices through the remainder of our forecast. As a result, we forecast that the Brent crude
oil price will average $74 per barrel (b) in 2025 before falling to $66/b in 2026.
Ukraine vs Russia
Zelensky making moves against political opponents
Sources within the Presidential Office indicated that the sanctions against Poroshenko are part of an effort to reshape the political landscape ahead of this year’s elections, which the Bankova (the Presidential Office) is expected to organize. According to these sources, law enforcement agencies are already taking steps to investigate Poroshenko, Klitschko, and Tymoshenko in an attempt to weaken the influence of key parliamentary parties that pose a challenge to Zelensky.
In other words: Zelensky is trying to take out his opponents so someone close to him can become president
MEGA
ECB Inflation numbers are being questioned
