Pete Celano

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson

My mind belongs to Jesus.

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

The Bland Lie

I was raised in a religious tradition that was anything but exciting. “Worship” was dull repetitious ritual, “learning” was rote memorization, and “success” was determined by unquestioning submission. To a bright child filled with curiosity and energy, that was hell. I went into my teen years rejecting all of it, along with the God it claimed to represent.

Our wildly merciful and creative Creator began revealing Himself to me quite outside of the trappings of religion. His chosen initial revelator to me was a tree. The truth of function and beauty, combined with the mystery of life, hit me like a swift uppercut. And then I began to realize how insanely cool it is that I am able to appreciate this glory. Almost 50 years later, that awakening continues, and my awe of our Creator deepens.

That awe is worship. That awakening and deepening is learning. Success is the privilege of being in a personal relationship with this Creator, who revealed Himself in Jesus the Messiah. Through Jesus, we all may come to know Him.

Psalm 19, among others, describes how all of creation proclaims the glory of God. Raising children to believe that He is only to be approached through bland, sterile, unquestioning ritual is a lie that serves the enemy well. We were created to be awed by HIs glory, and if we fail in this then the very rocks will praise Him. (Luke 19:40)

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🚨🚨 THE ILLEGITIMACY PLAYBOOK / THE DEMOCRACY FILES: A PRIMER 🚨

I will be using this thread to track all drops, so bookmark it.

I spent most of yesterday backing everything (now 312 gigabytes) up in various sources and getting the materials out to others. I also produced an AI video (below) to explain the whole thing to others are not on 𝕏 - feel free to distribute.

Here's the primer:

USAID, the foreign aid agency, had a democracy office. Inside the agency, it was called DRG.

Officially, DRG administered "democracy assistance." They'd go inside countries they thought were sliding into authoritarianism and help the opposition there. That assistance included election monitoring, judicary support, independent media, and civil society building.

You may have heard the term "color revolution." The model comes from Serbia in 2000, where trained student activists brought down Milosevic with the help of Western governments, after sustained protests. With the help of USAID's democracy office, this model was implemented in many other countries to topple governments: Georgia's "Rose Revolution" in 2003, Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" in 2004, and many more.

Then last year, DOGE shut down USAID. But the USAID democracy office didn't stop. They formed a group called the Democracy Renewal Group, the same initials as their office (USAID Democracy, Human Rights, Governance). Their goal: apply their own playbook to the United States itself.

This goal became a plan, called Renew American Democracy (RAD). It invoked the "4 B's" framework. Block - use lawfare and protests to make life harder for the Trump administration. Bridge & Belong - control dialogue and win people over. The final and most important B is Build. Build means redesigning the American government itself, and the crisis is the opening.

In their own words:
"We can take that breakdown moment and leverage it for a big structural reform, you know, refounding moment." - Danielle Reiff, DRG lead.

Calls show DRG working alongside DSA on ideas of creating a different government, one that does away with the Constitution itself.

DRG does not run the Block operations. They hand it to UDA, the United Democracy Alliance. One organizer calls it a "huge galaxy": lawsuits, street protests, non-cooperation. They list No Kings, Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501, and many other mega-activist NGOs among their members.

Another organizer calls UDA Erica Chenoweth's project. Chenoweth is the Harvard professor behind the three-and-half-percent rule of regime change: get that share of a country's populace onto the streets, and historically, the movement wins.

The UDA is very "hush-hush." They have no website, no roster, no filings.

Then come the red lines: things the Trump administration could do, such as calling the Insurrection Act on protesters, that would mean that the federal government, in their words, "crosses the threshold into illegitimacy." Nobody voted on those lines. There was no public debate. These red lines were developed within secretive working groups, and in a paper addressed to governors and staff.

In the words of Reiff/DRG:
"So that if there is a red line crossed in terms of a Constitutional crisis, like everyone's already pre-organized. And so Mike Smith actually said, he goes, oh, you guys have the day after tomorrow plan."

Cross a line, and the paper's options include states refusing to lend their resources to federal officials, and governors convening what it calls a "Third Continential Congress."

Running the UDA's Insurrection Act working group: Rear Admiral Mike Smith (RET) of National Security Leaders of America (NSL4A). NSL4A is also credited with operationalizing UDA, the blocking operations. NSL4A consists of about 1,600 ex-officers, spies, diplomats. They're turning red lines into indicators and running a situation room to monitor them throughout the midterms and beyond.

The NSL4A's lawyers told them to stop recording meetings in case of subpoenas. But the rest of the network continued to record. DRG works in conjunction with Renew to Thrive (R2T), which ended up accidentally publishing 400+ calls and thousands of documents. These calls and documents were never meant for our eyes, but it's them, on tape.

Thousands of NGOs and billions of dollars are involved in this endeavor. Most of them believe they're saving democracy. The problem is that people who spent their careers deciding when other countries' governments had lost their legitimacy wrote that test for ours, in private, and planned for what comes after.

Who decides when your government is legitimate?

[Take America Back (TAB) @JoinTAB_USA]

Former United States officials, veterans,  ambassadors and NGO’s caught on a recording planning to declare the United States government illegitimate after the midterms…

then hand power to Democrat governors.

https://t.co/Fo0zFxd5U0

21 October 2026

#vote #midterms #tab

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

🚨🚨THE DEMOCRACY FILES, PART 2: WHEN AND HOW TO DECLARE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ILLEGITIMATE 🚨

Some questioned whether a group of 200 ex-USAID officials could actually pull off their ambitions to rewrite the Constitution.

Here, they describe exactly how it works. They aren't working alone.

The videos all come from Renew to Thrive (R2T) group and associates. Danielle Reiff and Paul Zeitz play key roles within R2T.

R2T sits inside a much, much larger umbrella called United Democracy Alliance (UDA), which is an extremely hush-hush control plane of leaders from major "blocking" NGOs such as 50501 and Indivisible fulfilling various functions. UDA decides when protests get deployed, timelines, how to respond, all that.

R2T's role within UDA is concerned with "the day after tomorrow" - in other words, their function is to conceive what a rewritten American government will look like after the rest of UDA fulfills its purpose. As will be shown, Erica Chenoworth is credited with conceiving UDA in the first place under the Horizons "Big Tent" initiative.

Note here that National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A) is credited for operationalizing UDA. NSL4A is a group of 1,600 ex-military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials. They are led by Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith (Ret). NSL4A also played a key role in the "illegal orders" messaging which targeted Pete Hegseth. Zeitz is also a member of NSL4A.

It must be emphasized that the choice of a military-oriented organization to coordinate NGOs across domestic protests is an interesting one all in itself - especially in an umbrella conceived by a regime change expert like Chenoworth.

You will have a hard time finding any mentions of UDA in the public. They are extremely hush-hush and selective who they talk to.

Mike Smith himself makes a personal appearance in other calls, coordinating Insurrection Act exercises and roleplaying with R2G as one of the participants.

As the audio transcript shows, they have outlined a sequence of "redlines" in which case the federal government should be declared illegitimate. Invoking the Insurrection Act against "peaceful" protesters is one of the most discussed redlines. I will post the illegitimate criteria below, but basically, almost any effective pushback against NGOs is a measure of illegitimacy according to them.

Important to understand:
The audio shows they shopped this idea around governors, but the reality is that governors do not have to explicitly sign on to the pact to play their role in the coup. All they have to do is refuse troops in their state and let UDA / R2G do the work of dissolving the federal government.

[Frank Pavone @frfrankpavone]

Sometimes hope arrives carrying a casserole.

[Brownstone Institute @brownstoneinst]

Dr. Meryl Nass just secured a massive legal victory for Covid dissidents.

She pierced the immunity of the medical board that suspended her license over Covid “disinformation.”

A judge ruled she can now sue the board members personally.

“Their broad immunity that they thought would protect them has been pierced.”

“The judge said, ‘You can go after them for damages, even potentially including punitive damages.’”

This sets a groundbreaking precedent.

“There were a whole lot of doctors out there that had similar attacks.”

“Somebody had to do it.”

@nass_meryl @Polyface_Farms

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Dans la vie, je pense qu’il faut donner le pouvoir à ceux qui ne veulent pas.
Généralement, ceux qui ne veulent pas, ce sont les builders.
La majorité des gens que j’ai croisés dans ma vie qui aiment construire des choses n’aiment pas spécialement manager, n’aiment pas être le chef du groupe, n’aiment pas contrôler les autres.
Généralement, paradoxalement, ça fait des très, très bons managers parce qu’ils sont orientés vers la création de valeur plutôt que vers le contrôle.

En ce sens, quelqu’un qui, dans ma boîte, cherche à être le chef, généralement, il n’aura jamais la responsabilité.
Parce que je sais que c’est quelqu’un qui va plutôt maximiser son potentiel politique dans la boîte que l’intérêt de la création de valeur.

Il y a une figure historique qui incarne parfaitement ça : George Washington.
Après avoir gagné la guerre, il aurait pu devenir roi. Beaucoup le lui demandaient. Il a rendu son épée et est rentré planter des choux.
Quand on lui a collé la présidence des États-Unis sur les épaules, il a accepté avec la même joie qu’un homme qu’on mène à l’échafaud.
Il n’avait pas le « presidential fever ». Il avait juste le sens du devoir.

C’est exactement ce type de profil que je cherche.

Les gens qui brûlent d’être le chef passent leur temps à lire les rapports de force, à construire des alliances, à se positionner, à neutraliser les rivaux.
Leur énergie est orientée vers le contrôle du territoire.
Les builders, eux, ont les yeux rivés sur le produit, sur le client, sur le problème à résoudre.
Le pouvoir, pour eux, n’est qu’un outil gênant qu’on leur force dans les mains parce que personne d’autre ne peut le porter correctement.

Et c’est pour ça qu’ils sont si dangereux… pour les politiciens de bureau.
Ils ne jouent pas le jeu. Ils n’ont pas les codes. Ils n’ont même pas envie de les avoir.
Ils construisent, et le reste suit.

La vraie sélection, dans une organisation saine, ce n’est pas « qui a le plus d’ambition politique ».
C’est « qui a le plus de répugnance naturelle à perdre son temps en politique interne ».

Donne le pouvoir à ceux qui le fuient.
Ils le porteront comme un fardeau nécessaire, pas comme un trophée.
Et c’est exactement pour ça qu’ils le porteront mieux.

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@i_danieall Taylor T5.

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@W6MOQ @HamRadioBasics @HamradioNote Cool, but that is a bug not a straight key. Equally impressive skill set!

DE WJ8I

[Shahriq Khan @RealShahriqKhan]

I don't say this lightly, but there was one truth that shook me as a Muslim, and once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

The Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, did not begin as a center of monotheism.

Before Islam, it was a shrine filled with idols and pagan worship. Historical sources record hundreds of idols associated with the Kaaba and the religious life of pre-Islamic Arabia.

Growing up, I was taught that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba exactly as Islam presents it today.

But when I started comparing Islamic claims with history and the Torah, the questions became impossible to ignore.

If the Kaaba was established by Abraham as the center of pure worship, why does the historical record begin with pagan practices?

Why retain the site, the stone, and many of the surrounding traditions after clearing out the idols?

Why would God's final revelation be anchored to a location with such a different history?

These questions led me down a path I never expected to take.

What ultimately changed my life was realizing that Jesus never pointed people toward a sacred direction or a sacred building.

He pointed people to Himself.
"Worship in spirit and truth."

Truth is not found in a city, a stone, or a shrine. Truth is a Person.

And once I found Him, I couldn't go back.

Follow me for more Christian apologetics, Maranatha content, Muslim evangelism, and bold Gospel truth!

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

We tax cigarettes to reduce smoking.
We tax alcohol to reduce drinking.
We tax fuel to reduce driving.

What do you think happens when you tax employing people and running a business?

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

J'en peux plus des mecs de plus de 20 ans qui croient encore au Père Noël.

Alors je vais t'expliquer, comme à un gosse, à quel point c'est attardé de croire au socialisme.

T'es dans une classe de 30 élèves. Un élève bosse comme un fou et a 18 de moyenne. Un autre fait rien et a 4. Le prof décide que c'est injuste et donne à tout le monde la moyenne de la classe : 11.

Celui qui avait 18 arrête de bosser. Pourquoi se fatiguer si ça change rien ? Celui qui avait 4 continue de rien faire. Pourquoi bosser si on te donne 11 gratuitement ?

L'année suivante la moyenne de la classe est à 7. Puis 5. Puis 3.

Le prof ne comprend pas. Il pense que le problème c'est que les élèves ne sont pas assez solidaires. Alors il met en place des punitions pour ceux qui ne font pas assez d'efforts. Il surveille tout le monde. Il décide qui étudie quoi. Il interdit de changer de classe.

C'est exactement ce qui s'est passé. À chaque fois. Dans chaque pays. Sans exception.

URSS, Chine, Cuba, Venezuela, Corée du Nord, Cambodge, Éthiopie, Allemagne de l'Est. 40 tentatives. Même résultat. À chaque fois.

Le socialisme punit ceux qui produisent et récompense ceux qui ne produisent pas. Tout le monde finit par ne plus produire. Et quand plus personne ne produit, le gouvernement utilise la force pour obliger les gens à travailler.

C'est pas un accident. C'est le design.

Le Père Noël, au moins, t'arrêtes d'y croire vers 8 ans.

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Sanders et AOC veulent geler la construction de tous les data centers IA aux États-Unis.

Il faut comprendre ce qui se passe vraiment. Ce n'est pas une bataille politique parmi d'autres. C'est la dernière convulsion d'une vision du monde qui a compris, inconsciemment, qu'elle est condamnée.

Le socialisme n'est pas une théorie économique. C'est une structure morale qui a besoin de trois choses pour exister :

1. De la rareté à redistribuer
2. Des victimes à défendre
3. Une classe d'intermédiaires pour orchestrer le tout

Retirez un seul de ces trois piliers et l'édifice s'effondre. L'IA est en train de retirer les trois en même temps.

La rareté d'abord. Pendant 200 ans, l'économie politique a tourné autour d'une question : comment répartir une production limitée ? Marx, Keynes, Piketty — tous bâtissent sur ce postulat. Mais l'IA inverse l'équation. Le coût marginal de l'intelligence tend vers zéro. La production de logiciel, de design, d'analyse, de code, bientôt de matière manufacturée par robotique avancée — tout cela devient quasi-gratuit. Dans un monde d'abondance, la question "qui mérite quoi" perd son sens. Il n'y a plus rien à arbitrer.

Les victimes ensuite. L'IA est le plus grand égalisateur d'accès au savoir et aux compétences de l'histoire humaine. Un gamin au fin fond du Bangladesh a aujourd'hui accès au même tuteur que l'héritier d'une famille new-yorkaise. Un développeur solo produit ce qu'une équipe de 20 produisait il y a trois ans. Les barrières s'effondrent. Or sans victimes structurelles, plus de cause à défendre, plus de mandat moral à exercer.

Les intermédiaires enfin. C'est le point le plus douloureux pour eux. Le socialisme a toujours eu besoin d'une caste : journalistes-militants, fonctionnaires-experts, ONG-prescriptrices, politiques-redistributeurs. Cette caste vit du fait qu'elle prétend traduire la réalité aux masses. L'IA rend cette traduction obsolète. Tout le monde peut interroger directement la source, vérifier un chiffre, comparer des modèles, simuler une politique publique. Le monopole de l'interprétation est mort.

Voilà pourquoi je dis que l'IA est un catalyseur de vérité. Elle ne crée pas la vérité — elle la rend ininterprétable. Les systèmes qui produisent de la valeur deviennent visibles. Ceux qui en captent sans en produire deviennent visibles aussi. Le voile tombe.

Et c'est ça qui est insupportable. Pas la perte de pouvoir — la perte de sens. Réaliser que ta vision du monde, ton militantisme, ta carrière entière reposaient sur un édifice qui ne tenait que par la rareté et l'opacité. C'est une blessure narcissique d'une profondeur abyssale.

La réaction est mécanique : il faut bloquer le catalyseur. Pas pour des raisons rationnelles (l'argument "énergie" est risible quand on voit leurs positions sur le nucléaire). Pour des raisons existentielles. Il faut empêcher l'avenir d'advenir, parce que l'avenir les efface.

300 lois locales. Un moratoire fédéral. Des moratoires européens (AI Act). Tout le pattern est le même partout : freiner, ralentir, encadrer, taxer. Pas réguler intelligemment — paralyser.

Mais ils ont déjà perdu. Et au fond d'eux, ils le savent. La Chine ne s'arrêtera pas. Les Émirats ne s'arrêteront pas. L'Inde, Singapour, l'Argentine de Milei, certains États américains — personne ne s'arrêtera. Bloquer la construction de data centers à San Francisco ne fait que déplacer le centre de gravité. Le seul effet net est d'appauvrir ceux qu'ils prétendent défendre.

C'est le rebond du chat mort. Un dernier sursaut avant l'immobilité définitive.

PS : tout n'est pas perdu pour eux. La porte est ouverte. Il suffit de comprendre que créer de la valeur est plus gratifiant que la redistribuer, que construire est plus puissant que dénoncer, et que l'entrepreneuriat est la seule forme contemporaine d'action politique qui change réellement le monde. La reconversion est possible. Elle commence par accepter une chose simple : personne n'a besoin de toi pour être sauvé. Mais beaucoup de gens ont besoin de toi pour construire.

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@mamboitaliano__

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@dreamsNscience There are still wooden penstocks in use in Michigan's western upper peninsula.

[Rabbi Brian Samuel @rabbriansamuel]

My beloved Suzi created her own Passover Haggadah, written in a playful, rhyming style reminiscent of Dr. Seuss. It’s fun, lighthearted, and keeps the Seder engaging for all ages. Here’s one of my favorite excerpts:

And so, let's eat matzah
With a chorus of crunches
Get used to this taste
It will be your week’s lunches!

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

Her message:

Yesterday my Olympic dream did not finish the way I dreamt it would.

It wasn't a story book ending or a fairy tail, it was just life. I dared to dream and had worked so hard to achieve it.

Because in Downhill ski racing the difference between a strategic line and a catastrophic injury can be as small as 5 inches.

I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash.

My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.

Unfortunately, I sustained a complex tibia fracture that is currently stable but will require multiple surgeries to fix properly.

While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets.

Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget.

Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself.

I also knew that racing was a risk.
It always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport.
And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life.

We dream. We love. We jump.

And sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don't achieve the dreams we know we could have. But that is the also the beauty of life; we can try.

I tried. I dreamt. I jumped.

I hope if you take away anything from my journey it's that you all have the courage to dare greatly.

Life is too short not to take chances on yourself.

Because the only failure in life is not trying.
I believe in you, just as you believed in me.

LV

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@mamboitaliano__ Ma dai!

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@JensLJazz Yes!

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@learnitalianpod This time of year we are making our family's cuccidati.

[Pete Celano @pjcela]

@OrderISDA @IAMofLA Made our first batch over this past weekend! A Christmas tradition my grandparents brought with them from Sicilia.