February 20th • 3h 28m
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
US military, CIA coups and clandestine operations in foreign countries since WWII:
🇮🇷 Iran: 1946
🇨🇳 China: 1946-1949
🇬🇷 Greece: 1947-1949
🇮🇹 Italy: 1948
🇵🇭 Philippines: 1948-1954
🇰🇵 Korea: 1950-1953
🇮🇷 Iran: 1953
🇻🇳 Vietnam: 1954
🇬🇹 Guatemala: 1954
🇱🇧 Lebanon: 1958
🇵🇦 Panama: 1958
🇭🇹 Haiti: 1959
🇨🇩 Congo: 1960
🇻🇳 Vietnam: 1960-1964
🇨🇺 Cuba: 1961-1962
🇱🇦 Laos: 1962
🇪🇨 Ecuador: 1963
🇵🇦 Panama: 1964
🇧🇷 Brazil: 1964
🇻🇳 Vietnam: 1965-1975
🇮🇩 Indonesia: 1965
🇨🇩 Congo: 1965
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic: 1965
🇱🇦 Laos: 1965-1973
🇬🇭 Ghana: 1966
🇬🇹 Guatemala: 1966-1967
🇰🇭 Cambodia: 1969-1975
🇴🇲 Oman: 1970
🇱🇦 Laos: 1971-1973
🇨🇱 Chile: 1973
🇰🇭 Cambodia: 1975
🇦🇴 Angola: 1976-1992
🇮🇷 Iran: 1980
🇱🇾 Libya: 1981
🇸🇻 El Salvador: 1981-1992
🇳🇮 Nicaragua: 1981-1990
🇱🇧 Lebanon: 1982-1984
🇬🇩 Grenada: 1983
🇭🇳 Honduras: 1983-1989
🇮🇷 Iran: 1984
🇱🇾 Libya: 1986
🇧🇴 Bolivia: 1986
🇮🇷 Iran: 1987-1988
🇱🇾 Libya: 1989
🇵🇭 Philippines: 1989
🇵🇦 Panama: 1989-1990
🇱🇷 Liberia: 1990
🇮🇶 Iraq: 1990-1991
🇮🇶 Iraq: 1991-2003
🇭🇹 Haiti: 1991
🇸🇴 Somalia: 1992-1994
Yugoslavia: 1992-1994
🇧🇦 Bosnia: 1993-1995
🇭🇹 Haiti: 1994-1996
🇭🇷 Croatia: 1995
🇨🇩 Zaire (Congo): 1996-1997
🇱🇷 Liberia: 1997
🇸🇩 Sudan: 1998
🇦🇫 Afghanistan: 1998
Yugoslavia: 1999
🇲🇰 Macedonia: 2001
🇦🇫 Afghanistan: 2001-2021
🇻🇪 Venezuela: 2002
🇮🇶 Iraq: 2003-present
🇭🇹 Haiti: 2004
🇺🇦 Ukraine: 2004, 2013-present
🇵🇸 Palestine: 2006-2007
🇾🇪 Yemen: 2009-present
🇸🇾 Syria: 2005-2009, 2011-present
🇱🇾 Libya: 2011
DEI
Anonymous Controller BOTG
As far as DOGE getting into the FAA, GOOD! THANK GOODNESS! this is only a bad thing for (dun dun dun!!) THE UNION!! The union boondogglers and union leadership officials in local and national positions are terrified of being forced back into their facility to actually work as controllers. Time on position reports for FY2024 came out recently and showed that my building’s local NATCA union president and VP time on position was between 200 hours, compared to someone like me, non union, just a guy that knows how to keep the dots away from each other working 6 day week I had over 1,600 hours of time on position actually working airplanes and/or training. There are union boondoggles that remove controllers from their areas and they are on a paid details to do some non sense task, a extreme example of this is someone I work with that has shmoozed his way into a cush TEN YEAR OFF SIGHT essentially work from home boondoggle reviewing and “teaching” other facilities how to use the ERIDS (basically a air traffic control iPad) which has been implemented into facilities for over 15 years now. This is merely a couple examples of dozens I could tell you about. The union national leadership being terrified to lose such privileged positions is putting pressure on democratic politicians (go on X, search NATCA, and view the national president shake hands with top democrat leadership). Also, if you wanna cut fat in the agency, GET RID OF MIDDLE MANAGEMENT. Majority of middle management positions are former controllers that either suck at the job, or are too scared to work traffic, shocker I know. They sit around and take phone call here and there, do some paperwork for trainees, but that’s it, they’re worthless wasted positions to micromanage the people that actually make the world fly. All the work of 40 some managers in my facility could be cut to 5-6 easily, although it would definitely cut severely into their Zillow home search time or sports ball game watching.
-What would improve the air traffic system in my opinion are two things, weather radar and communication lines. These two systems are from the 1960’s and are outdated. Weather radar being so delayed that what air traffic depicts is sometimes not even relatively close to what pilots depict on their iPad in flight nexrad. Our job as controllers is when weather is around to complete the picture for pilots in assisting them to stay away from stuff they wouldn’t want to go through. Our radar can be so delayed it merely becomes useless most times, which makes controlling airplanes super fun during thunderstorm season with deviations. Communications systems are essentially touch pad shout lines to adjacent facilities, however when these systems (VSCS) go down, we revert back to rotary lines, where we literally have to punch in a 8-10 digit number to get ahold of those facilities, which takes your attention and controlling voice away from the traffic, it is the least efficient way to call someone in our line of work, I’m better off using my cell phone.
All this bullcrap in the news is typical BS, but the truth is we are short staffed, we are over worked. If the union would pull their heads out of their collective asses they might be able to work with this administration to get more funding, maybe some tech upgrades to benefit controllers. Instead they fear monger worse then the media that DJT is going to fire everyone when the truth is they are terrified of going back to actually working traffic. Return the boondoggles to their control facilities and you’ll see an instant relief in workload and staffing improvements for controllers.
TYFYC, God bless.
-anonymous controller
Props to flight attendants
Duplex aviation comms
Not great
Multiple airports on same frequency
Digital may break up, whereas analog just requires sharper listening
Half duplex requires discipline of all participants, quick keying and situational awareness\
I was caught flatfooted by JCD's question, but after some thought I must also add that the current system requires better listening, a strict protocol of 'waiting your turn' and overall better situational awareness. Imagine if it was party line, what a mess that would be!
Also, the local fields like T82 here in Gillespie that share a freq with other local fields would make it even more confusing than it already is everyone can pipe up whenever they want.
China
Big Tech AI and the Socials
AI & QC is BS BOTG
As requested, synopsis based on my 20 years of experience (15 years of Big Data/ML which is now called AI):
I'm bullish on the use of AI outside LLM:
In
2015, my team and I built software that predicts what a visitor of a
fast food website is going to buy (e.g., what pizza toppings). It saved
2-3 minutes, so they could send an order sooner to the closest branch.
In December, two engineers from my team built something similar in 2
weeks. We would never have been able to do that without all the
open-source that so many companies invested in the last 2 years.
I'm bullish on the use of LLM:
Why?
Again because of all the investments. My team and I build a virtual
attorney that is used by a legal firm as a trainer for other attorneys
before they go to court. The feedback from the firm is fantastic - the
software often finds problems they didn't think about so they can
prepare. We built this in 5 weeks - 4 engineers and I. 5 years ago we
would need a team of 80 people and 12 months and it wouldn't work so
well.
I'm bullish on simplifying complicated software like CAD or video editors:
Professionals
will still have an option of software with all the knobs but people
outside of the tech bubble will get an easy option that will work well
enough. For example, you've probably heard about https://streamlabs.com/ - even my mum can now edit a video podcast ;-).
I'm bearish on Artificial General Intelligence:
Or I should rather say AGI is a joke.
Current
research around LLM doesn't bring us any closer to how to build AGI.
PhDs write tens of papers on how to get to AGI, but none of them are
practical in any sense (I know, I read them all). We still don't know
how our brains work. And even if we did know, the result wouldn't be
SkyNet that would hack all computers. The simple reason is that the
physical world is hard and completely managed by humans and we can
always pull a plug. We will always keep this option since we need it
when "normal" (non-AI) automation breaks, which often does (for example
power distribution).
That said,
OpenAI will achieve AGI soon since they will change the definition of
AGI and they will call their new LLM model AGI. Have you thought about
the similarity of General AI / Generative AI terms? Coincidence? I think
not! Just good marketing.
I'd
love to speak to JRE listeners and tell them that AGI is not coming and
even if it did, it'd be something unthreatening and possibly autistic
like Data from Star Trek.
With Christian love,
Sir Rudolf Vesely
The Knight of Open-Source
NYC
NY prison Strikes BOTG
In the mornin Adam.
Just wanted to drop you a line about the Prison Strikes ongoing in NY for your show, if you covered any of it.
I retired with 25 years from the NYS Dept of Corrections last
month, talked with a few people over the past 2 days about whats going
on and so forth.
Here is the rundown.
So what i have gathered is they hit the state with the
Protests/strike just prior to the Muslim holy day of Ramadan, which
starts on the 28th, figuring it would put Hochul over a barrel. Ramadan
is like a giveaway to the inmates, the state will let them do anything
they want during that week, meaning they wont lock the jail down, shut
programming down for Ramadan, regardless of what happens within the
jail. Anything for the inmates. So it was pretty good timing if it drags
on.
A lot of the Officers had zero clue about the upcoming strike, some
went into work, and bham, next thing they know the strike happened an
hour or so later. Others got to work in the afternoon and were like,
what the hell is going on? So this wasn't done with everyone being
aware. At my old jail, EASTERN, they still had enough people to staff
the jail on monday, after that it got worse.
They have cancelled all swapping (Switching shifts with another
officer), vacation bids, vacation days, personal days, cancelled the use
of FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), are hitting people with AWOL's
(Away WithOut Leave) for banging in, regardless if they are actually
sick.
The national guard has been called in for a few prisons. Attica was one i saw videos of them coming in, i cant confirm others.
I did hear an interesting story however, the National Guard has
allegedly been sent to Groveland and Otisville correctional facilities,
and said Nope, it is to dangerous, and refused to enter the facilities.
That was via two people in the guard, one an ex co and one a relative of
a friend in the guard, according to my friend. So if true, that could
be the nail in Hochuls coffin politically. I think more will be in the
news tomorrow if that is true.
The entire community is behind them. They are dropping off donuts,
pizza, coffee, wood and fuel for the burn barrel fires they are using.
So the basic idea for the strike is as follows:
For the past 2-3 years, they had a massive staffing crisis. People
were retiring en masse at 25 years, when a lot of people used to stay
for 30+ as there weren't to many problems, atleast in our particular
jail. However, with the implementation of the HALT act, which is listed
here:
This bill will be known as the "Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Soli-
tary Confinement" Act (the HALT Solitary Confinement Act.) This bill
would limit the time an inmate can spend in segregated confinement, end
the segregated confinement of vulnerable people, restrict the criteria
that can result in such confinement, improve conditions of confinement,
and create more humane and effective alternatives to such confinement.
Basically, if you do something bad, fight, stabbing, drugs, have
possession of contraband like cell phones, weapons, etc... You were put
into solitary confinement to protect other inmates and officers. But the
HALT act only allowed them to do so for up to 10 days, and most times
less than that, so that you were let back out, and usually did it again.
The penalties that used to scare the shit out of the inmates to prevent
bad behavior, was gone. If you were under 20 or above 55 i believe, you
couldnt even be put into solitary confinement. You can look it up to
understand the entire bill. Suffice to say, it allowed inmates to do
anything they wanted, with impunity.
So the jails have gotten horrendously bad. I used to work in a
wallpost that dealt with transportation into and out of the facility.
Just in 2024, we went from around 450 trips in all of 2023, to over 1200
in 2024. Slashings, stabbings, fights, overdoses almost everyday...one
inmate had 2 or 3 other inmates who held him down in the yard last year
and were basically trying to saw his head off at the neck and the
officers saved his life. Our jail actually fired Gas into the yard for
the first time since the 70's i believe, over an incident with inmates
fighting.
The gangs were literally extorting inmates for rent in the prison,
or they would physically assault them. It just got crazy. The cell phone
issue was horrible. Couple officers got caught bringing them in, at
$5000 a pop i heard they were paid, others brought in drugs and actual
weapons, it just got really really bad as a lot of officers had their
jails closed, and were obviously pissed they had to commute longer, but
they put all of us in danger by bringing stuff in, or they were
blackmailed, who knows.
So that was the HALT acts actual issue.
Secondly, the amount of staff shortages, not only in our jail, but
throughout the state, was horrendous. We weren't even that bad compared
to some others, but people were being forced to work 16 hour days. Some
worked 24 hours. At first it was about once a week, once every 10 days,
it was so bad my last 7 months it was about 3-5 days a week, depending
on their needs. So you forced to work 16, 8 16, 16, then stuck on your
day off perhaps. No one saw family, people were burned out within a few
months, some just quit, retirements spiked, a few retired before the 25
years, and others just took other jobs, making it even worse.
Third, the union, NYSCOPBA, just plain sucks. They are mostly
crooked, uneducated in their duties, or just plain Rats for the state in
some instances. So in NY you know its all liberal judges, nothing they
did amounted to much of anything, no one listened, they suppressed stuff
and kept it quiet instead of suing the state for obvious violations of
federal or state labor laws, policy violations, etc. They became
useless, and completely ineffective, so the officers were forced to
strike.
Fourth, the drug problem is ridiculous. The inmates are now using
legal mail to bring drugs in. From what i understand, they spray legal
documents with some type of drug to get it into the jail, so the
officers want everything to be digital. They put suboxone on the back of
stamps, within envelope slits, paperwork, etc.. along with Heroine and
other drugs. K2 is rampant. We have guys freaking out, fighting after
they overdose, taking their clothes off in the yard and just bugging
out. It has been a crazy few years of one upping the stuff that happened
the day or week before.
EU NATO Ukraine
Love the show but you are freaking me out
ITM Adam
Your show saved me back in 2015 during
the first big European migration crisis. At the time the media were
showing awful images of dead kids being washed up on beaches. On the
other they were describing the arrivals as an invasion.
I
wasn't sure if I was meant to feel sad or scared. Then my No Agenda
training kicked in and I realised I was being manipulated into a mental
state deliberately.
There are many
opinions on the NA show I don't agree with, but I always appreciate that
when the media is spinning people up and telling us that we're all
going to die, you inject a note of calm and reveal it's really about
money.
On the last show and some
others though I have felt a bit depressed. You were talking about Europe
going to hell and John was casual about the Hundred Years War being the
norm. Looming war is a mainstream media talking point. I was hoping for
something a bit more reassuring from NA ;-)
Cheers
Rich
German Podcasts
n'mornig Adam,
listening to the latest episode as we speak :-)
Regarding German podcasts, yes there are some.
The biggest is "Kontrafunk". It is pretty much like a full blown pirate radio station, casting 7/24 (though it is not really broadcast, just internet).
The staff consists mostly of former public radio journalists, that had enough or got fired for not playing ball. They sitting in Switzerland though - since such an operation would not be possible in Germany. Just 2 weeks ago they got her German bank account de-banked. So yeah, there still after them.
Than there is "Nacktes Niveau" a weekly media deconstruction show, that is the closest thing to No Agenda.
The guy who runs it (Paul Brandenburg), had also move to Switzerland, since his home got raided with a full blown anti terror police special forces team for his opinions. Kicking in his door and all.
Also Tichys Einblick, Punkt Preadowic, B&B and a few more.
Tichys Einblick uncovered the massive voting fraud in Berlin, which caused new elections.
So yeah, there is some good stuff over here.
best, Frank
Climate Change
M5M
60 mins bogus interviewees
Kristina Drye and Adam Dubard, who appeared to be former USAID
employees on CBS's "60 Minutes," did not actually work directly for
USAID. Drye, in particular, was a speechwriter for USAID Administrator
Samantha Power during the Biden administration and billed USAID through a
third party as a support person
Transmaoism
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - Wikipedia
The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, formally known as the Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, maintains and administers the center and its site. President [Donald Trump](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump "Donald Trump") became chairman of the board[[89]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-trustees-89) on February 12, 2025, by majority vote of the newly constituted board, following his addition of several new appointees and after removal of those appointed by Democratic presidents, among other personnel terminated or resigning.[[90]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-90)
The honorary chair members of the board are the [First Lady](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Lady_of_the_United_States "First Lady of the United States") and her living predecessors. Members of the board are specified by [U.S. Code Title 20 Chapter 3 subchapter V §76h](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code "United States Code") and include _[ex officio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_officio "Ex officio")_ members such as the [Secretary of Health and Human Services](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Health_and_Human_Services "United States Secretary of Health and Human Services"), the [Librarian of Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian_of_Congress "Librarian of Congress"), the [Secretary of State](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_State "United States Secretary of State") (substituting for the director of the [United States Information Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Information_Agency "United States Information Agency") after that agency was abolished), the chairman of the [Commission of Fine Arts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_of_Fine_Arts "Commission of Fine Arts"), the [Mayor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Washington,_D.C. "List of mayors of Washington, D.C.") of the [District of Columbia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia "District of Columbia"), the Superintendent of [schools of the District of Columbia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Public_Schools "District of Columbia Public Schools"), the Director of the [National Park Service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Park_Service "National Park Service"), the [Secretary of Education](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Education "United States Secretary of Education") and the Secretary of the [Smithsonian Institution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Institution "Smithsonian Institution"), as well as 36 general trustees appointed by the president of the United States for six-year terms.[[89]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-trustees-89)
In February 2025, President Donald Trump announced his intention to dismiss the Center's board members and appoint himself as chairman.[[91]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-91) The Center responded by stating that while a president has the authority to replace the entire board, such a move would be an unprecedented action. They also noted that the chairman is elected by the board members themselves, and that this precedent of bipartisan governance had been maintained since the Center's opening in 1971.[[92]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-92)[[93]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-93)[[94]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-94) On February 10, 2025, Trump named [Richard Grenell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Grenell "Richard Grenell") to serve as interim executive director.[[95]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-95)[[96]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-96) Trump expressed concern about and criticized the Center's [drag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_\(entertainment\) "Drag (entertainment)") and [LGBTQ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBTQ "LGBTQ") programming, vowing to be the one who decides what is allowed to be performed in the venue.[[97]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-97) Trump followed through on this threat, dismissing Board members and naming his own. On February 12, 2025, Trump's newly selected Board of Trustees elected Trump as chair.[[98]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-cbs-12feb2025-98)[[99]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts#cite_note-guard-12feb2025-99)
lib friends are dropping like flies BOTG
Not sure if you are getting any reports of people losing liberal friends. I've been broken up with by 3 pretty good friends in the last week. I lost 2 in all of Trump's first term.
The lefties are taking the following stand.. If you do not agree with them, they call you unintelligent, stupid, expect better from you, Then they call you sexist/racist, then they call you a Nazi, then they say that they can not talk to you anymore.
I have to say that I am shocked. I watch PBS, I watch the young turks, I understand the left, I might have to watch Swisher and Gottlieb to get into the mind of the modern leftist.
Erik
Sassoon resignation
Hey Adam was listening to your recent podcast about the NY mayor. The Sassoon family is one of the banker families. They are particularly notorious for making their fortune off of opium addicts in China in the 1900s. So yes…. I’m sure Ms Sassoon will be kept in funding for how ever long she needs to carry out this psyop.
