EF retweeted
Joe Rogan just hosted his most important episode ever after Republicans lost the midterms as White House insider Calley Means just exposed the real people who are running Trump’s presidency and lists key inner circle names like Susie Wiles, Jame Blair, Richard Walters, and the most powerful lobbying firm known as Ballard Partners:
MEANS: “Susie Wiles is the most powerful chief of staff in modern American history. She has taken a stranglehold on any policy decision. No policy decision gets done without her office giving it the okay. She was one of the top lobbyists in the country. It is impossible to describe to you how demonic this culture is.”
CONTEXT: Means, who resigned from the administration in OCTOBER, says he witnessed an extraordinary concentration of power inside the White House.
He alleges that cabinet secretaries and senior officials spent enormous amounts of time attempting to win favor with Wiles' office because of its influence over which policies could advance.
He then identifies several people he believes were central to that power structure:
SUSIE WILES: White House chief of staff.
JAMES BLAIR: A longtime Trump political strategist and former deputy White House chief of staff.
RICHARD WALTERS: Deputy White House chief of staff and longtime Republican political operative.
WALKER BARRETT: Senior White House adviser with extensive congressional experience.
But the most consequential part of his accusation concerns the CORPORATE LOBBYING INDUSTRY.
Before entering Trump's White House, Wiles had a career representing corporate clients, including working at the influential Washington lobbying firm BALLARD PARTNERS.
And the money involved in that industry is staggering.
According to federal lobbying disclosures, Ballard Partners collected approximately $88 MILLION in lobbying revenue during 2025, more than QUADRUPLING its reported revenue from 2024.
That made Ballard one of the highest-earning lobbying operations in Washington.
And in MAY 2025, the watchdog organization Public Citizen identified SIX FORMER WILES CLIENTS that had reported lobbying White House offices during the administration's first three months.
Those clients included companies involved in tobacco, automobiles, fertilizer, and other major industries.
The White House disputed suggestions of improper influence and said Wiles generally did not participate in meetings or decisions involving former clients.
Those disclosures establish real corporate lobbying relationships.
They do NOT, by themselves, prove that Wiles improperly favored those companies or directed policies for their benefit.
But Means argues that the broader culture of Washington is precisely what Trump promised to confront.
Now consider the extraordinary political timing.
IMPORTANT NOTES: On NOVEMBER 3, Democrats won control of BOTH CHAMBERS OF CONGRESS in a sweeping midterm defeat for Republicans.
And TODAY, NOVEMBER 6, Trump announced that Susie Wiles will leave the chief-of-staff position, with Stephen Miller taking over on November 9.
Trump PRAISED Wiles for her service and said she would continue working for his political operation.
EF retweeted
Russia would apparently get a stake in Alaska gas venture through this deal which @FT reports was discussed during recent meeting to discuss Ukraine at the Kremlin.
Ex-CEO of $25 billion US gas export venture, launched with involvement of investor tied to the Trump family, has accused Russia's Novatek of secretly controlling the project, prompting mass exodus over fears of violating sanctions. @JamieSmythF @maxseddon ft.com/content/e9cfbfbb-e65a…
EF retweeted
Elizabeth Holmes is an outlier but she’s part of a whole spectrum through which our society has become way too indulgent — in business, politics, policy, media, and beyond — of people who lie to or mislead others.
slowboring.com/p/our-culture…
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Latest: Zelenskyy tells reporters over WhatsApp that restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink systems remain. Interceptor drones can't function, logistics and operations hobbled. The maximum speed is 161 kph; "exceeding this limit causes the Starlink connection to cut out completely, resulting in the loss of the drone."
He says Ukraine has done tests to determine whether SpaceX is truly facing technical issues, as has been told Kyiv by the US side, or if this is a "deliberate operation... to restrict us, cut us off, and prevent us from defending ourselves and protecting our people, both at the front and among the civilian population."
He says Ukraine "sent a couple of vehicles equipped with Starlink terminals into European Union territory."
"They moved at speeds exceeding 180kph, and the Starlink systems worked perfectly. We have the relevant logs and evidence to prove this."
He adds: "The conclusion is clear: the restrictions are in effect within Ukraine but do not apply within the European Union. In other words, this is a planned operation."
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EXCLUSIVE: Elon Musk came to Donald Trump with the plan to throttle Ukraine’s use of SpaceX’s Starshield satellite internet network, sources have told the Telegraph.
The tech billionaire made the proposal during the US President’s row with Volodymyr Zelensky over strikes on Russian oil refineries.
‘The reality is that they were both in it,’ a senior source said of Musk’s and Trump’s involvement.
But after a night of carnage in Kyiv caused by the slowdown, Musk was alarmed about the possibility of adverse consumer reaction in Europe.
The SpaceX boss then proceeded to tweet, blaming the US administration, and ultimately, President Trump for authorising the slowdown.
‘He tweeted out that he was innocent and that it was the US administration that did it,’ the source said.
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BREAKING: Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells @piersmorgan he has been betrayed by Trump, that Elon Musk and the US deliberately cut off Starlink and people are being killed as a result
“This is not the right side of history,” he says. “It is a pity that we are losing a strong partner”
On Musk and Starlink he says: “This decision will bring a lot of human losses. Of course, people will die”
“I am sure they knew what they
did, absolutely. Because it was 1am at night, Starlink was blocked by SpaceX and the United States”
“It’s not just about attack. It’s also about defending life. So people were killed because, not enough destroying, not enough
interceptors, including interceptors with Starlink, which didn't work. Of
course.”
Asked if he’s angry with Musk, Zelenskyy says: “Yes, I think he is not right. It's a big mistake.”
EF retweeted
The Senate committee responsible for commerce and technology policy has zero hearings on AI scheduled for the next 4 months.
The committee's top priority is, instead, the Protect College Sports Act.
EF retweeted
I don't think it's sunk in how insane it is that an American vice president was promoting a man who banned his opponent from appearing on TV.
This quoted post is unavailable.
EF retweeted
We have a landed gentry in California, despite America basically being defined by rebellion to that idea
I recently found out California lets people keep the original tax rate on inherited property so long as they use it as their primary residence. my terrible next door neighbor who berates children for ringing her doorbell on halloween pays property tax on a $100k value because she had the good fortune to inherit her $1.7mm house.
sometimes I feel like California is the place where they said "what if we just tried every bad housing policy JUST TO SEE."
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Ron Johnson opposed the expanded child tax credit that dramatically cut child poverty, but he did just vote for a $6000 senior deduction.
We’re all trying to find the guy that did this.
As @MayaMacGuineas explains, right now we spend $6 on seniors for every $1 on kids under 18. When Social Security began, seniors were the poorest — today children are.
To add insult to injury, we have mortgaged their future with $39 trillion in debt and growing. It is immoral what we are doing to our children and grandchildren.
EF retweeted
These are very tense and serious times. We shouldn’t have a shitposter with no experience live tweeting assassination investigations from atop the FBI.
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I just left a visit to the ICE detention facility in Eloy. There’s a lot to absorb, but I want to tell you about a woman I met named Maria because her story really shows how messed up all this is.
She’s been in the U.S. for twenty years. Has no criminal history. She was detained at the Marine Base in Yuma. Her son is a U.S. Marine stationed there. He’s married to another Marine. And they have a two-year-old kid, Maria's grandson.
Maria was in Yuma because her son was leaving for training, her daughter-in-law had a hip surgery, and so they needed help watching her grandson. When she came back to the base after a grocery run, she was detained and reported to CBP. Now, she’s being held in an ICE facility.
I remember how proud my parents were watching my brother and I get sworn into the Navy, so I asked her if she had been there when her son graduated from boot camp. She broke down in tears. All she could say was how proud of her son she was.
That stuck with me. And it should stick with you. And if I have anything to do about it, it will stick with this administration. This woman loves America. Her son is risking her life for America – for us. She is the exact type of person we should want in this country. My team and I will keep fighting for her and her family.
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In a fitting metaphor for the Trump administration's attitude toward the Constitution generally, the government's official Constitution website has deleted Section 9, which includes the provision limiting the govt's power to suspend habeas corpus, and the emoluments clause.
EF retweeted
This Congressman literally dumped stock in a Medicaid provider company right before this bill came to the Floor. Don’t be fooled—these guys know exactly what they’re doing.
EF retweeted
This is half the subtext of all the heat around manufacturing. Manuf *used to* be able to anchor the economy of a small town, and that's what the politics are trying to re-create. But to compete in manuf now you need to operate at Chinese scale, and small towns can't
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6/ Here's another one. Trump snuck $40 million in this bill for a "statue garden". Likely will be filled with MAGA "heroes", reportedly maybe somewhere in South Dakota.
Plenty of money for Trump statue gardens, but not enough money to keep feeding hungry kids.
