TheAbjectLesson

'The Truth is One, though the sages know it by many names.' ~RigVeda

[Everett Stern @EverettStern1]

Dear Secretary Bessent @SecScottBessent,

My name is Everett Stern. In 2010 I was a compliance officer at @HSBC. From a back office in New Castle, Delaware, I watched billions of dollars move to drug cartels, sanctioned regimes, and terrorist organizations. The enemies of the United States. I documented it, I escalated it, and when the bank would not act, I took it to the @FBI, the @CIA, and eventually the @SECGov.

The result was a $1.92 billion settlement. At the time, it was one of the largest in American history. It was also about five weeks of the bank’s profit. Not one banker was charged. Not one went to prison.

I paid a different price. I lost my career, my savings, and my place in the industry I had trained for. I was blacklisted. Every door in American finance closed at once. I slept on a camping cot in a 300 square foot apartment because I could not afford a bed, and I waited tables at @PFChangs to eat. I tell you this not for sympathy, but so you understand that I know exactly what it costs to do the right thing in American finance, and exactly how little the system does in return.

I made that sacrifice because I believed it would change something.

Yesterday, your department fined @BankofAmerica $1.2 billion for failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, some of it tied by your own findings to Chinese laundering networks, narcotics, and the southwest border, alongside 475 apparent sanctions violations touching Russia, Iran, and global terrorism. The bank admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act.

Fourteen years after HSBC. A bank with “America” in its name. And once again, not one individual charged.

Secretary Bessent, I want to say plainly what I believe you already know. The fines are not working.

A fine is paid by shareholders, absorbed by the balance sheet, and forgotten by the next earnings call. Bank of America reported earnings this morning. Nobody who set the alert thresholds, nobody who decided the 2024 cease and desist could wait, nobody who chose the backlog over the law will lose a single thing they value. Their lives are untouched. That is the entire reason the behavior repeats.

This is money laundering. This is blood money. Money that reaches a cartel buys fentanyl that kills Americans. Money that reaches a terrorist organization buys the next attack. This country has fought a war on drugs and a war on terror for decades, at enormous cost in lives and treasure, and all the while we have allowed the financing to flow through institutions we charter and regulate. Cut off the money and we win. We have never seriously tried.

There is also a question of equal justice that I cannot let go.

Before I walked into the FBI building to report HSBC, I stopped in front of the Great Seal on the wall and read the words engraved beneath it: “Justice is the defense of our liberty.” I believed that. I still want to. But every day in this country, people go to prison for crimes that are nothing next to moving money for the people who want Americans dead. A suit, a title, and a corporate badge should not be a shield from the consequences that apply to everyone else. If a street dealer goes to prison for what he sells, the banker who moved the cartel’s money should be standing next to him.

I also want to raise something that is rarely said in these conversations. Why has no one inside Bank of America come forward the way I did? The answer is that everyone in American banking knows what happened to me, and to the whistleblowers who came after. The last person who spoke up is the only policy anyone believes. That is a culture problem, and it starts with leadership, in the banks and in the agencies that regulate them.

This is not a political issue. It has spanned administrations of both parties. It is a national security issue, and I am asking you to treat it as one.

Three things would change the math overnight.

Refer individuals for criminal prosecution. Not the analyst in the queue. The executives who set the thresholds and chose the risk. One banker in handcuffs would do more than every fine in Treasury’s history combined.

End “too big to jail.” An institution cannot be too big to fail and too big to jail at the same time. If it is the first, it must be held to a higher standard, not a lower one.

And if Bank of America will not act as America’s bank, review its charter. A national charter is a privilege granted on behalf of the American people. It should be conditioned on not moving money for the people trying to kill them.

Secretary Bessent, you said yesterday that these actions send a clear message that even the biggest institutions are not above the law. With respect, the institution was never the problem. The people inside it are above the law, and they know it. Until that changes, I will keep writing letters like this one, and the next bank will keep paying the next fine.

I gave up everything I had to stop this. I am asking you to use the power you have to finish it.

Respectfully,

Everett A. Stern
HSBC Whistleblower
Founder and Intelligence Director, Tactical Rabbit

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

Need a LOT more than "firing"... unless that is an adjective describing the "squad" that will be convened for the task.

[Nicolas Hulscher, MPH @NicHulscher]

It's now confirmed that the FDA covered up large numbers of COVID shot deaths and injuries while simultaneously telling the ENTIRE population to take them.

Many of the individuals involved in the deadly cover-up STILL work at HHS, CDC, and FDA.

They need to be FIRED.

[Dr Shawn Baker 🥩 @SBakerMD]

When the editor of the world’s most prestigious medical journal concluded that much of the clinical research it published could no longer be trusted, the problem was no longer abstract.
Marcia Angell, a pathologist who joined the New England Journal of Medicine staff in 1979, rose to executive editor and then served as interim editor-in-chief from 1999 to June 2000. She stepped down after more than two decades at the journal, formally to write a book. The deeper context was her growing conviction, formed from years of editing manuscripts, that pharmaceutical industry influence had compromised the independence of clinical research. She and previous editors had enforced strict conflict-of-interest rules, yet industry-sponsored studies continued to arrive with designs, analyses, and selective reporting that favored the sponsor’s product. Negative results were often suppressed, side effects minimized, and “academic” authors frequently carried undisclosed financial ties.
In a widely cited 2009 New York Review of Books essay, Angell wrote the line that crystallized her position: “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” She described an industry that had shifted from discovering useful drugs toward marketing, co-opting academic medical centers, researchers, and even the journals that were supposed to serve as independent arbiters. Her 2000 editorial “Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” and later book The Truth About the Drug Companies expanded the critique, arguing that commercial priorities systematically distorted what research was done, how it was conducted, and what reached publication.
Angell’s departure marked the end of an era of tighter editorial resistance to industry influence at the NEJM. Her public statements afterward made clear that she viewed the problem as systemic rather than isolated: once the bulk of clinical research depended on commercial funding, journals could no longer function as reliable filters of medical evidence.

[InfantryDort @infantrydort]

THE INVOICE OF FEAR

This Hasan execution debate has exposed something ugly in us. We keep talking about what the islamist enemy might think.

"What if they make him a martyr! What if they use the footage! What if they get angry! What if they hate us more!"

Take this from a GWOT veteran sick of hearing this shit: They already hate us.

That is the part nobody wants to say out loud because it makes the whole ritual look ridiculous. You don't negotiate a wolf out of hunger by lowering your fucking voice.

If fear of terrorist reaction changes how you carry out a lawful sentence, then they are no longer merely your enemy. They are governing you. They own you.

That is real power, isn't it? Not theirs on paper. Theirs over YOU, average American.

And this is the same weakness we carried into the Global War on Terror on your behalf. We went across the world to fight men who understood violence perfectly while we spent twenty years trying to prove to those same men that we were "nice".

Restrictive rules, endless hesitation, leaders promoted for avoiding headlines. Troops asked to close with an enemy while an entire civilization stood behind them whispering, “Be careful how this looks.”

Then we wondered why the war dragged on, and on and on. Where has this weak approach gotten us?

The military gets its people, its authority, its limits, and eventually its courage from the country that sends it. From YOU!

So here is the invoice, America:

>You wanted the sheepdog, but you were embarrassed by his teeth.
>You wanted victory, but recoiled from what victory looks like.
>You wanted the enemy defeated, but remained terrified of offending him.
>You wanted warriors strong enough to kill for you and gentle enough to never disturb your conscience.

That bill eventually came due. It was paid in deployments, amputations, and flag draped coffins. In men and women coming home older than the years they'd lived.

And now, after all of that, I still hear Americans worrying about whether a terrorist might feel inspired by watching another terrorist receive a lawful sentence.

You either think western civilization is superior to theirs or you don't.

A nation that lets its enemies decide which consequences are too frightening to show has already surrendered a piece of sovereignty to them. A big piece.

Power is the rent civilization pays to remain unmolested in a violent world. And fear is what you pay when you refuse the bill.

America, GWOT veterans are pleading with you: wake the hell up. Stop acting like men who already want you dead can be appeased by your fear. You’re not preserving peace. You’re just advertising weakness.

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

Along the Old Tiburon Trail, where I often atone for my sins with a vigorous 8-mile ruck and film dirt-cheap commercials for Pure Talk on my iPhone, there’s a charming old gazebo where I sometimes pause to rest in the shade, gaze across the bay toward The Golden Gate Bridge, and contemplate the meaning of life. It’s called The Little Lori Gazebo, and it was built by a woman named Barbara Meislin, known to the locals as The Lady in Purple, since that’s the only color she ever wears. Barbara even lived in a purple house, until it burned down in 2009.

Anyway, the gazebo was built as a memorial to her daughter, Lori, who died very young, and I’m not the only one to enjoy its shady charm over the years. I’ve noticed however, that’s it’s been in need of repair, and last week, as I was filming one of those dirt-cheap commercials for affordable wireless while rucking along the Old Tiburon Trail, I noticed that the long overdue refurbishments had finally begun. I also met the contractor who was hired to do the work.

“Holy crap! It’s you!”

Since there was no one else around, and because the man was looking directly at me, I quickly deduced that I was the object of his query.

“You are correct,” I said. “It’s definitely me.”

The man struck me as delighted. Perhaps, a bit too delighted.

“This might sound a little creepy,” he said, “but I took this job because of you."

“You’re painting a gazebo because of me? Why?”

“I’m not just painting it,” he said. “I’m rebuilding everything below the roof.”
“Because of me?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t normally bid on projects this small, but I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. And I’ve seen those ads you do while hiking along this trail. I figured I might run into you during the work, so I bid on the gig. And now, here you are!

“You’re right,” I said. “That does sound a little creepy.”

The man laughed and walked toward me, hand out-stretched, as I unclipped the hip-strap on my ruck, just in case I had to drop the 60lbs on my back and run away. I’ve had some unusual encounters over the years and learned that running away is often the best option.

“Name’s Mike Sanguinetti,” he said. “My daughter and I have seen every episode of Dirty Jobs, and we love everything you do. I run a Painting and Construction Company here in town.”

The logo on his tee-shirt confirmed the claim. And the presence of a daughter was comforting. I relaxed.
“Mike Rowe,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”

We shook hands and Mike Sanguinetti said, “You know, I saw you in Vegas last year at SEMA, when you were auctioning off that truck for your foundation. I stood in line to meet you, but you had to go before I got a chance to hello. I waited around for hours.”

“You’re making it creepy again,” I said.
Mike laughed. “I just wanted a chance to tell you, in person, what Dirty Jobs meant to my daughter and me. Best father/daughter bonding time ever. And I really love what you’re doing for the trades. Means the world to us independent contractors.”

Like a lot of guys in the trades today, Mike Sanguinetti has a front row seat to the skills gap. He runs a small operation, and deals with all the challenges I talk about at mikeroweWORKS everyday. We talked about those challenges for a few minutes, along with the importance of a decent work ethic, and the extraordinary opportunities for those who would simply master a skill that’s in demand.

“Maxine won’t believe this,” he said. “She thinks I’m crazy for believing we’d run into each other.”
“Maxine is your daughter?” I asked.

“Yeah. She’s in high school now, plays varsity volleyball. But we still watch Dirty Jobs whenever it’s on. It’s kind of our thing, you know?”

“That’s nice,” I said. “Can I send her a video?”

“Oh my God,” said Mike. “She won’t believe it.”

Mike handed me his phone, I recorded a personal message to Maxine, and that was that. Mike thanked me for being the same guy he knew from the TV, (or at least, for appearing to be,) and I thanked him for going so far out of his way to say thanks.

“Seriously,” I said. “On a percentage basis, how much did the possibility of meeting me factor into your decision to bid on this gazebo job?”

“At least 95%. Maybe more.”

“Well, congratulations,” I said. “You’ve made it creepy again!”

Mike laughed and went back to work, as I walked off to film another commercial for affordable wireless, thinking all the while about the good fortune that allowed for two Mike’s with wildly different skill sets, to work on the same trail.

I had to travel the next couple days, but when I threw on the ruck three days later for another 8 miles of penance, I walked by the gazebo and was blown away by its transformation, and the speed with which the work had been completed. One guy, armed with the necessary skills and a work truck filled with the necessary tools was all it had taken to restore Little Lori’s Gazebo to its former glory.

I’ve attached a photo, along with a shameless plug for Sanguinetti’s Painting and Construction. He does good work. https://t.co/o9q8RXer6O

Happy Trails, Mike!

(You too, Maxine.)
PS. The Lady in Purple, Barbara Meislin, is now 91, and by all accounts, delighted by Sanguinetti's work.

Like young Maxine, Barbara has excellent taste.

[Time Capsule Tales @timecaptales]

In 1996, English TV presenter Alain de Cadenet asked legendary New Zealand born fighter pilot Ray Hana, who was 70-years-old, to do a low pass in this Spitfire fighter plane as de Cadenet spoke to the camera

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@mtaibbi Anybody posting a meme using Joe “Lying Plagiarist Non Compos Mentis Chinese Front” Biden to support its point can safely be ignored as a moron or bot, or both.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

*Chinese* leadership. That’s where it came from. The Canadian government isn’t “leadership”; it’s just carrying out orders.

[🇨🇦 Antonio Tweets @AntonioTweets2]

Victor Davis Hanson lays out that no one in America told Canada to import the equivalent of 45% of its population from non-assimilating sources, abandon its fossil fuels and pipelines, chase solar power in a frigid climate, accept the lowest GDP growth among industrial Western nations, or accept being $30–40k poorer per person/family than Americans. Nor did anyone force Canada to lead the world in assisted suicide as a cost-saving measure. Those choices—and the resulting inability to fund open borders, defense, or fair trade—came from Canadian leadership, not from Washington.

[The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial]

At Christmastime, 1913, Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act, handing the power to create money to a private central banking cartel. A foreign Banker named Paul Warburg drafted the plan in secret on Jekyll Island in 1910 before he even became an American citizen.
Under the Federal Reserve Act, Americans would now borrow their own currency at interest. Inflation then quietly ate away at wages, and over a century later, the dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power.
End the Fed.

[Handre @Handre]

Power selects for a specific personality type, and it is not yours.

F.A. Hayek spelled this out in 1944. In a centrally planned system, the people who rise are not the most competent or the most honest. They are the most willing to exercise force against strangers, the most comfortable with contradiction, and the most skilled at coalition-building through favors rather than merit. Government filters for the bad ones from the start.

The mechanism is straightforward. Political power means controlling resources you did not earn. Capturing that control requires outcompeting rivals who have no ethical constraints. A principled candidate refuses to promise contradictory things to different voter blocs. An unprincipled one does it without blinking. The unprincipled one wins. Repeat this selection pressure across hundreds of electoral cycles and you get the U.S. Congress in 2026: a body where the average member has held office for over a decade, raised millions from interested parties, and delivered almost nothing measurable to the people who voted for them.

Bureaucracy compounds the problem. Once entrenched, state agencies attract people who want authority without accountability. You cannot fire most of them. The FDA, the TSA, the Federal Reserve all function this way, staffed by individuals whose career advancement depends on expanding the agency's reach, never on serving you efficiently.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@walterkirn From your lips to God's ears, Walter. We could always do w/ more members of Team Reality. ("Willfully Obtuse" would be a great band name, esp. if they used it as a musical theme on an album.) There is NOTHING so infuriating as trying to be earnest w/ the WO.

[Brandon Lansdown @BrandonLansdown]

My dear Wormwood,

You still think in terms of churches and arguments. That is why you fail. The churches can be left standing. What must be spoiled is the literature that taught the young to love the Enemy before they could define Him.

Narnia is one of the more irritating of those books. Children meet Aslan first as adventure and only later discover they have been handling Christ. That is dangerous. Direct attack only makes the stories more precious. So we do not ban them. We adapt them.

Give the Voice to a so-called celebrated actress. Leave the mane. Leave the pronouns. Then the thing that was a male Christ-supposition becomes a prestige performance. The story remains famous; the meaning becomes negotiable. In a generation the story will still be beloved, but the beloved thing will no longer be Lewis’s Lion. It will be the version that flatters the age.

That is how the Enemies literature is destroyed without the vulgarity of a bonfire. Keep the title. Change the sound. When the children hear Aslan, let them hear the present century speaking through Him. Once that habit is formed, the Enemies stories survive as brands. Their doctrine does not.

Do not call it persecution. Call it interpretation. The patients prefer that word, and it does our work admirably.

Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@denalijeff @AliciaAmarilyn Sorry for your loss.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@JustineBateman It’s really 3/2 + 2/2 but swings like King Louie. Great hook.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@jeffreytucker I wonder if they'll have pharma-size balls and ask for a law to give them 100% immunity from lawsuits over the harms their product causes forever?

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@_wsage @DudespostingWs With the other hand in full knife-edge point at the screen.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@TheJaredian F*ckheads. We've had it since the 70s.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@JustineBateman The funk in that bass line with Burt Reynolds mustache could get you pregnant in 1979. Facts.

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

Abra-ca-pohohoh-kus🎶
Pokus-ca-daaabra🎶

[shrille 🎃 @flurryfrenzy]

This joke went triple platinum in my family when I was growing up

[TheAbjectLesson @the_abject]

@kvo2021 21 of ♦️ in blackjack still the all timer for me.