michael dobbie

Life as Art. Prototyping for the next personal-social creativity renaissance. Health is Wealth: the new economic gold standard. Citizen NFTs. Neighborhood DAOs.

[borkedsys @borkedsys]

A person can be legally free and structurally trapped. This is the contradiction modern society struggles to name, because the system measures freedom by available choices while ignoring the dependency architecture producing them.

[borkedsys @borkedsys]

Modern slavery is not always the right phrase, but the discomfort around it reveals something important. We have no adequate public language for coercion that operates through markets, bills, debt and engineered dependency.

[borkedsys @borkedsys]

Most people do not consciously defend the existing system because they studied it deeply and concluded it is optimal. They defend it because their survival, identity, routines and cultural assumptions were formed inside it. Dependency eventually starts feeling natural.

[borkedsys @borkedsys]

Culture becomes religion when people stop examining inherited values and start defending them on reflex. Competition becomes “human nature.” Consumption becomes “the economy.” Scarcity becomes “reality.” The system needs less force when its assumptions are reproduced socially.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

How many ordinary Americans even know this is happening, let alone support sending their tax dollars to fund it? If only Americans knew…

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

Failure to vote for Israel at Eurovision is a sign of grave alarm and apparently warrants a Senate investigation in Australia.

Beyond parody at this point. They already eroded their free speech laws to protect Israel. Next: mandatory voting for Israel in song competitions.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

🚨 Every Republican present in the House Appropriations Committee last night voted to make THEMSELVES eligible to collect from Trump's $1.8 billion January 6th slush fund. I am not making this up.

I introduced an amendment to stop Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President from collecting a single dollar from Trump’s slush fund unless a court actually orders it.

Every single Republican who cast a vote was AGAINST my amendment, making themselves eligible for settlement funds.

Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President, have no business lining their own pockets by claiming they were victims of government weaponization. Trump set up this fund, now MAGA Republicans in Congress are ensuring they all can collect from it.

That is exactly the kind of self-dealing corruption the American people are sick of.

[Unearthed 🏺 @UnearthedHQ]

America’s first coin didn't have “In God We Trust.

It told citizens to 'Mind Your Business.'

In 1787, before the U.S. Mint even existed, the newly formed United States issued its first official copper coin: the Fugio cent. Eschewing the portraits of leaders common in European monarchies, the coin featured a sundial beneath a radiant sun with the Latin word 'Fugio,' meaning 'I fly.' This served as a poignant reminder that time—and by extension, money—is fleeting.

Perhaps most striking to modern ears was the inclusion of the blunt motto 'Mind Your Business.' While today it sounds like a rebuke to the nosy, it was originally intended as a literal instruction to focus on one's commercial affairs and industry, reflecting the practical and unsentimental spirit of the Founding era.

The reverse side of the coin featured thirteen interlocking rings and the slogan 'We Are One,' a visual precursor to the national motto 'E pluribus unum.' However, the coin’s production was as chaotic as the young nation’s finances. The Treasury Board awarded the minting contract to James Jarvis, who secured the deal through a bribe but quickly found himself unable to procure enough copper or repay his debts to the government. This logistical failure resulted in only a few hundred thousand Fugio cents being produced before the contract was terminated. Today, these rare pieces of copper stand as a fascinating testament to a time when American currency prioritized sundials over statesmen and commerce over ceremony.

source: Yeoman, R. S. (2023). A Guide Book of United States Coins. Whitman Publishing.

[Elizabeth @alluringmedia]

Pete Buttigieg addresses Citizens United, gerrymandering, and term limits ❤️

📍Butte, Montana

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

Hawai’i just passed a bill that undermine Citizens United.

The bill establishes corporations as “artificial persons” without the right to spend money on elections.

The bill could limit the influence of super PACs and be a model to challenge the influence of money in politics.

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

Trump just got exposed for running the biggest insider trading operation in American history.

Nancy Pelosi traded $5 million in stocks and Congress lost its mind.

Trump literally executed $750 MILLION worth of stock trades in ONE quarter while being President.

His ethics filing just dropped and the numbers are genuinely unprecedented in history:

Between January and March 2026, Donald Trump personally executed 3,700 individual stock transactions worth between $220 million and $750 million.

That's roughly 60 trades PER DAY.

While signing executive orders, meeting foreign leaders, and making policy decisions that directly impact the companies he's buying and selling.

Now here's where it gets really insane:

On February 10, Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million worth of Dell stock.

Three months later, on May 8, he stood at a Mother's Day event at the White House, thanked Michael Dell by name, and told Americans to "go out and buy a Dell."

Dell stock surged 14.6% that day to an all-time high of $263.99.

Since Trump's February purchase, Dell is up 96%.

And 5 months BEFORE Trump bought Dell stock, Michael and Susan Dell donated $6.25 billion to Trump Accounts, one of the largest philanthropic commitments to a sitting president's signature program in modern history.

So the timeline goes: Dell donates $6.25 billion to Trump's program -> Trump buys Dell stock ->Trump tells America to buy Dell from the White House podium -> Stock hits all-time high

And that's just ONE stock...

The same filing shows Trump bought Nvidia stock on February 10. One week later, Nvidia announced a massive chip deal with Meta.

He bought more Nvidia stock one week BEFORE his own Commerce Department approved the sale of Nvidia chips to Saudi Arabia.

He bought Intel stock starting in March 2026. The US government already owned a 9.9% stake in Intel worth over $41 billion. On April 30, Trump posted on Truth Social praising Intel, writing that "Intel Stock continues to rise."

Intel jumped 3% in after-hours and is now up 140% year-to-date.

He bought Palantir stock while his administration was actively handing them billion-dollar government contracts for immigration enforcement and defense.

He bought Robinhood stock while his own Trump Accounts program uses Robinhood as the broker.

He's currently sitting on over 100% profit on AMD, Intel, Bloom Energy, Marvell Technology, and at least 10 other positions.

Every single president since Lyndon B. Johnson has used a blind trust to avoid exactly this situation. But Trump didn't.

His assets sit in a trust controlled by his own children, and the filings show a broker acted as agent on several trades.

The White House says the portfolio is "independently managed."

But here's what independently managed looks like:

Buy Dell stock. Three months later, publicly endorse Dell from the White House. Stock hits all-time high.

Buy Nvidia stock. One week later, your own government approves their chip sales. Stock rips.

Buy Intel stock. Post about Intel on Truth Social. Stock jumps. The government you run already owns a 10% stake.

Buy Palantir. Hand them contracts. Buy Robinhood. Route a federal program through their platform.

Nancy Pelosi got absolutely destroyed for her husband's stock trades.

Her husband's total disclosed trades in his most controversial year were worth roughly $5 million.

Trump just disclosed up to $750 MILLION in a single quarter.

While making the actual policy decisions that move these stocks.

This isn't a left or right issue.

We're talking about the President of the United States averaging 60 stock trades per day in companies his own administration regulates, contracts with, and publicly endorses.

What do you think?

[Howard Beckett @BeckettUnite]

Jeremy Corbyn’s balanced reflection on Andy Burnham gives us two undeniable truths:

‘Private money in health leads to less care & more profit’
‘Private money in defence will lead to more wars & more profit’

Why are these truths so hard for politicians to see?

[Furkan Gözükara @FurkanGozukara]

Absolute bombshell. Tiffany Cianci exposes how three billionaires are desperately trying to buy a US election by outspending Rep. Thomas Massie 5-to-1.

She reveals the elite establishment is terrified because Massie is actively holding pedophiles accountable.

[Really American 🇺🇸 @ReallyAmerican1]

Chip Franklin: “I ask people where is the enemy? Where are these killer immigrants? You’re sending US citizens and undocumented people to prisons in third world nations. You’re ten times more likely to be assaulted by a guy named John than a guy named Juan”

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

I really hate the “no person who works a full-time job should live in poverty” discourse. It should simply be that nobody deserves to live in poverty. We have to let go of the idea that we work in exchange for our worth. People are innately worthy and deserving of the basics.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Graham Platner: “We’re not asking for handouts. We’re asking for hard work to be enough. It used to be and it needs to be again. The reason these people got to consolidate as much money and power as they did wasn’t because they worked hard, it’s because they cheated”

[Kevin Dahlgren 🥾 🥾 @kevinvdahlgren]

This is the aftermath after harm reduction workers do their rounds, handing out pipes, straw and foil.

[Justin Amash @justinamash]

More money is being spent to defeat @RepThomasMassie than any other U.S. House member in history.

Not because he can single-handedly change legislative outcomes—he has just one vote.

But because he exposes the lies and corruption of those who hold political and financial power.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Tucker Carlson: "Miriam Adelson - an Israeli casino lady - is spending whatever it takes to crush Thomas Massie. His crime? Describing how things actually work in Congress. Telling the truth."

One "Israeli casino lady" owns more influence than 340 million Americans. That is the single most important fact about American politics today. Everything else is entertainment.

[Lazzyyyyyy @em_Lazzy]

“WE NEED TO LET THEM DO INSIDER TRADING TO FEED THEIR FAMILIES.”

Congress makes $174k.
Median income is about $63k.
Minimum wage is $7.25.

If your “public servant” needs Wall Street crime to survive, that’s not a government, that’s a cartel.

Welcome to neo-feudalism. You’re the peasant, they’re the aristocracy.