Brian

[Brian Goldstone @brian_goldstone]

There is something so unbelievably bleak about an article that calmly walks readers through how to navigate being laid off after 50, losing your health insurance, and somehow surviving the years until Medicare. What a broken country.

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

Today is the 21st of September.

[John Bourscheid 🇺🇸 🚀 @bourscheid]

Congress has not worked enough days in 2026 to qualify for SNAP, just in case you were curious who was actually sponging off our tax dollars.

[Dylan Ratigan @DylanRatigan]

In late 2008, I worked at NBC between the New York Stock Exchange. a studio in Times Square and 30 Rockefeller Center.

Bruce Wasserstein worked upstairs at Rockefeller Center.

He was the CEO of Lazard at the time and one of the kings of Wall Street.

One day in November or December, I took the elevator up for lunch with him in his private dining room to discuss the ongoing financial crisis.

Inside, branzino, asparagus, sparkling water, profiteroles

Outside, the financial system was collapsing.

We were talking about the government’s response when Bruce leaned back in his chair.

“Dylan, this is the largest theft and cover-up in American history,” he said.

I asked him how.

He explained it simply.

Wall Street had created enormous financial risks basically using unregulated credit insurance to create the appearance of default “coverage,” Those risks blew defaulted, the insurance couldn’t pay. The government stepped in.

AIG was rescued. Its counterparties were paid 100 cents on the dollar by us.. Trillions in guarantees and liquidity flooded the financial system and years of bonus pools had been paid out based on the false claim of “managed risk.”

The people who created the risk escaped consequence - and in fact made more money all while being covered by the government of Bush and the Obama.

I asked him who was responsible.

“The CEO and the board of every bank.”

Bruce was a bank CEO himself, not exactly an Occupy Wall Street park protestor.

He told me a bank CEO only has three jobs.

Manage Risk.

Make Sales.

Guide Vision.

The CEO’s job is to decide how much total risk the institution is willing to take.

That decision belongs to the bank CEO. So do the consequences.

Bruce explained to me that the CEOs of America’s largest banks had catastrophically failed at the most important job they had — and then taken the American pension and retirement funds hostage if they weren’t bailed out.

Risk management.

Their decisions created a financial crisis that destroyed jobs, homes, savings and lives.

Then they were protected from the consequences of those decisions.

That was Bruce’s point.

The bonuses paid out on the years of previous credit issuance and the government payout to all of them at the end was the theft.

Then distraction of the so-called health care reform (also a massive giveaway to the insurance companies) was used to to burn off the political energy of the moment and then pass financial reform years later certifying the same basic system, only bigger and with a direct connection to the central bank for future bailouts in order to bypass Congress and reduce attention on their actions.

I finished my profiteroles and went back downstairs.

But I never looked at the financial crisis the same way again.

I became more aggressive in my reporting.

Eventually it changed my career.

I turned down a larger opportunity at ABC and took a lower-paying job at MSNBC because I wanted to talk about the relationship between money and political power.

Bruce died in 2009.

If I could take that elevator upstairs and have lunch with him again, I wouldn’t ask him about AIG.

I’d ask him if he understood what came next.

Because the government succeeded in stabilizing the financial system.

But there was another cost.

TRUST.

Today, Gallup reports that 89 percent of Americans believe corruption is widespread in their government.

I don’t think those things are unrelated.

Bruce called what happened a theft and a cover-up.

Eighteen years later, I think the most expensive thing we lost wasn’t money.

Money can be replaced.

Trust can’t.

I publish every day, subscribe here: https://t.co/J9vB6ETYKV

[Nicholas Burns @RNicholasBurns]

As US Ambassador to NATO on 9/11, the first to call me to suggest we invoke Article 5 was Canadian Ambassador David Wright. Our allies came to our rescue that terrible day. I’ll call David this morning 25 years later to thank him and our great neighbor Canada once again!

[Josh Elman @joshelman]

Worth the read every year. #neverforget

Todd: Hello… Operator…listen to me…I can’t speak very loud. – This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco.. We have a situation here….Our plane has been hijacked…..can you understand me?

Lisa: (exhaling a deep breath to herself) I understand… Can the hijackers see you talking on the phone?

Todd: No

Lisa: Can you tell me how many hijackers are on the plane?

Todd: There are three that we know of.

Lisa: Can you see any weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?

Todd: Yes…. they don’t have guns….they have knives – they took over the plane with knives.

Lisa: Do you mean…like steak knives?

Todd: No, these are razor knives…like box cutters.

Lisa: Can you tell what country these people are from?

Todd: No…..I don’t know. They sound like they’re from the mid-east.

Lisa: Have they said what they want?

Todd: Someone announced from the cockpit that there was a bomb on board. He said he was the captain and to stay in our seats and stay quiet.
He said that they were meeting these men’s demands and returning to the airport… It was very broken English, and… I’m telling you…it sounded fake!

Lisa: Ok sir, please give me your name.

Todd: My name is Todd Beamer.

Lisa: Ok Todd….my name is Lisa…Do you know your flight number? If you can’t remember, it’s on your ticket.

Todd: It’s United Flight 93.

Lisa: Now Todd, can you try to tell me exactly what happened?

Todd: Two of the hijackers were sitting in first class near the cockpit. A third one was sitting near the back of the coach section. The two up. front got into the cockpit somehow; there was shouting. The third hijacker said he had a bomb. It looks like a bomb. He’s got it tied to his waist with a red belt of some kind.

Lisa: So is the door to the cockpit open?

Todd: No, the hijackers shut it behind them.

Lisa: Has anyone been injured?

Todd: Yes, ..they…they killed one passenger sitting in first class. There’s been lots of shouting. We don’t know if the pilots are dead or alive. A flight attendant told me that the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.

Lisa: Where is the 3rd hijacker now Todd?

Todd: He’s near the back of the plane. They forced most of the passengers into first class. There are fourteen of us here in the back. Five are flight attendants. He hasn’t noticed that I slipped into this pantry to get the phone. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor in the rear of the plane……….oh Jesus.. Help!

Lisa: Todd….are you ok? Tell me what’s happening!

Todd: Hello…..We’re going down….I think we’re going to crash……Wait – wait a minute. No, we’re leveling off….we’re ok. I think we may be turning around…..That’s it – we changed directions. Do you hear me….we’re flying east again.

Lisa: Ok Todd…. What’s going on with the other passengers?

Todd: Everyone is… really scared. A few passengers with cell phones have made calls to relatives. A guy, Jeremy, was talking to his wife just before the hijacking started. She told him that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center……Lisa is that true??

Lisa: Todd…..I have to tell you the truth…..it’s very bad. The World Trade Center is gone. Both of the towers have been destroyed.

Todd: Oh God —help us!

Lisa: A third plane was taken over by terrorists. It crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Our country is under attack….and I’m afraid that your plane may be part of their plan.

Todd: Oh dear God. Dear God…….Lisa, will you do something for me?

Lisa: I’ll try….if I can….Yes.

Todd: I want you to call my wife and my kids for me and tell them what’s happened. Promise me you’ll call..

Lisa: I promise – I’ll call.

[Growing Up Retro @GrowingUpRetro]

Forty years ago, nobody carried water everywhere. You left the house at 8 AM with absolutely no hydration strategy whatsoever.

Somehow you survived until dinner without a 40-ounce emotional-support tumbler.

[Luke Gromen @LukeGromen]

@BennSteil As a dear friend of mine that emigrated from the USSR as a young man recently said to me, "They are lying about just about everything. This reminds me of the USSR in the 1970s and 80s."

[max seddon @maxseddon]

NEW: Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles in one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran.

with @MilesMJohnson @charles_clover

https://t.co/01SxsOypLq

[Faytuks News @Faytuks]

BREAKING: Power plant in eastern Germany hit by several "homemade rockets" packed with explosives, according to Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung

https://t.co/JEE4PMbYk5

[Angry Staffer @Angry_Staffer]

Given all of Trump’s public statements trashing NATO, is it any surprise that Russia thinks their best shot at fracturing the alliance is while Trump is in power?

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

FSB forced ex-Pussy Riot member to spy on Russian activists for 3 years.

Agents threatened to jail Rita Flores over posts about Russian killings in Bucha and hurt her family.

In 2025, they told her to lure a fellow member to Serbia so they could abduct and kill him, Insider. 1/

[Velina Tchakarova @vtchakarova]

This

[God @TheTweetOfGod]

Russell, you needed more Marshawn and less Malcolm Butler.

[Robert A. Pape @ProfessorPape]

Last time US reduced its military commitment to South Korea was in 1970s in aftermath of Vietnam

Seoul began Project 890, a covert nuclear weapons program - ended only when US reversed course

The Iran war is touching off a proliferation chain reaction (Saudi). SK may be next

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

Something very strange is happening across Europe.

In the span of a single week, NATO countries have seen a remarkable series of incidents involving ammunition production, energy infrastructure, military facilities, and russian intelligence operations.

Let me start with what we know.

🇵🇱 POLAND

On 7 August, Polish security services detained a russian citizen, recruited by russian intelligence, whose task was to execute a man holding both American and Ukrainian citizenship – in Warsaw.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it yesterday. According to him, this is the first time someone acting on russian orders has tried to kill an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country.

🇩🇪 GERMANY

On 6 August, a drone carrying explosives was found near a runway at Leipzig/Halle airport – next to a Ukrainian Antonov Airlines cargo aircraft. Two days later, two drones were spotted over the Bundeswehr base at Mechernich.
Also not a rumor.

🇮🇹 ITALY

A fire in the powder compression department at the KNDS Ammo Italy plant in Colleferro, southeast of Rome, was followed by a massive explosion. No one was killed. The plant produces 155 mm artillery ammunition supplied to Ukraine through European partners.

🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS

Within a few hours at Europe’s largest port: a transformer fire, a major power failure, an emergency shutdown at the ExxonMobil refinery in Botlek, and then an explosion at the Gunvor Energy refinery and terminal that killed one worker and injured six.

I wouldn’t be surprised if russia is responsible for all these “accidents”.

I wrote about this problem two years ago. Back then, Europe was already experiencing an extraordinary wave of suspicious incidents:
🇱🇹 IKEA set on fire in Vilnius.
🇬🇧 An arson attack on a Ukraine-linked warehouse in London.
🇩🇪 Sabotage plots against military and industrial targets in Germany.
🇨🇿 Attempts to attack infrastructure in the Czech Republic.
🇪🇪 An attack on the car of Estonia’s interior minister.
🚆 Attempts to disrupt European railway systems.
📦 And later, incendiary devices sent through European logistics networks – including devices that detonated or ignited in Germany, Poland and Britain.

At the time, people could argue these were isolated incidents.

Today, we know much more. European investigators and courts have connected multiple sabotage operations directly to networks organized or coordinated by russian intelligence.
The pattern was real. It was simply diagnosed late.

That is the design. Hybrid war works by staying below the threshold at which any single incident forces a response. Every event, taken alone, is deniable. Only the sequence gives it away.
So when another extraordinary cluster of explosions, fires, drones, power failures, and intelligence operations appears across Europe in one week, perhaps we should stop treating every incident as if it exists in a vacuum.

Europe no longer has the luxury of automatically assuming accidents and coincidence.

Russia is waging a hybrid war against Europe. Sabotage. Arson. Cyberattacks. Assassination plots. GPS interference. Attacks on logistics and critical infrastructure.

These are not theoretical threats. They have already happened.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

The Russian authorities were made to understand who the real authority there is now, China. Organized resistance by Tajik or Kazakh workers would have been crushed and no reports made. But Putin offending Xi could end his reign very quickly.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Ex-CIA officer, Wiswesser: The greatest danger to the West from Russian intelligence, by far, is active measures, information warfare.

They're very good at it. First major awareness of this in the West came with 2016 election in United States.

So, what was their goal in 2016 election in United States? It wasn't fundamentally for or against any individual candidate.

Russians themselves didn't know who was going to win election. At one point, they thought Trump was going to lose.

They had no idea. What they fundamentally wanted to do was undermine democracy itself.

This is what they did with Brexit in UK at the exact same time. They were attacking Brexit.

They were attacking the legitimacy of the entire Brexit vote. That's what Russians are after.

That's much bigger target in their hierarchy of goals, what they're trying to accomplish as predators targeting West.

They're not after the small game. They're not trying to just influence this or that issue or candidate.

Let me give evidence of what I'm talking about, and a lot of lessons we should have learned have been lost from it.

Facebook itself found in their investigation that Russian social media trolling was arguing both sides of critical issues.

Emotional issues for American people in 2016 and again in 2020, they were doing the same thing.

They target abortion, they target LGBTQ issues, they target Black Lives Matter. It doesn't matter for them.

Russian intelligence agencies aren't concerned about where Russia will benefit on those issues.

They just want Americans to fight one another politically. They're doing it in UK, Europe, Hungary, trying to influence elections.

There's entire directorate of SVR, their foreign intelligence, thousands of people devoted towards information warfare.

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Every person living in a western nation needs to listen to every word of this

Katherine Berbalsingh went to the University of Oxford and is Headmaster at Michaela Community School in London, UK

She PERFECTLY explains the mass indoctrination into the narrative of oppressor and oppressed, and of hating White People

I will write only some of this out because it’s very important, however you should listen to it so you can hear the passion:

“The culture shift comes from what children learn at school and online. Ask any young person what history they learned at school, and they’ll tell you, Hitler. Ask them what else? Slavery. Ask them what else? American civil rights.

In fact, what little they know of history will be all about Black and brown people fighting for equality against the white man, women fighting men for the vote, gay and trans people fighting for various rights. Our young people have been taught that history is simply one long story about various groups struggling under the oppressive dead white man.

— History is taught through an oppressor lens. The triangular slave trade, white men held the power. What about Britain ending the slave trade? More than a quick mention, if at all? Mm, no.

What of the Arab slave trade that lasted 3 times as long as the triangular slave trade? Mm, no.

Okay, so GCSE history in Britain is often taught as migration through time, so the idea that Britain has always been a land of immigrants is embedded in our children’s heads. Most schools would prefer to concentrate learning about the tiny number of Black people who existed in Tudor England over a thorough analysis of England’s break from Rome.

— Not to mention weeks on King Mansa Musa of Mali because he was a Black Muslim. His bearing on British institutions, laws, and faith is nonexistent. And the fact that he is said to have been the richest man in history, thanks in part to his massive slave-owning society, is a detail somehow that teachers rarely ever teach.

But it isn’t just our schools. It’s our general culture too. Take your kids to a museum or an art gallery in any Western country, and you’ll find the same narrative.

As an example, when learning about aviation in London’s Science Museum and the extraordinary feat that is man making massive machines move in the sky, a write-up on the wall explains that women and Black people were historically barred from aviation schools and the military. Similarly, James Watt, the man who invented the steam engine and is considered the founder of the Industrial Revolution, has a write-up on the wall explaining that his early career involved slave trafficking, with a bonus analysis of the whole of Britain’s complicity in the slave trade.

They flatten the entire human story and all of its complexities into the narrative of oppressor and oppressed, leaving young people unable to see the world in any other terms.”

We have to end the mass indoctrination

[nxthompson @nxthompson]

This is an amazing quote from Lindsey Graham about when he realized how politics works. https://t.co/sh04ahQOFq