volleyball

I wrote the following comment 4 months ago when Larry Ellison bought Tiktok (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45267643 ). Reposting it here, verbatim since it is part of the same story (imo) and everything in it has been confirmed in the last 4 months except for the last paragraph. I guess we will find out eventually :

So Larry Ellison just took over Paramount group which is now looking to bid for Warner Brothers and CNN. And now Ellison is going to take over TikTok.

Paramount(being run by Larry Ellison's son) is looking to install the pro-israel-propagandist who has variously masqueraded as a liberal, a conservative and anti-woke free-speech champion, Bari Weiss[1] as CBS's editor-in-chief or co-president[2]. It also bears mentioning that Ellison is a life-long zionist, friend of the IDF and close personal friend of Netanyahu to whom he even offered a post at Oracle.[3]

This very much looks like a hostile take-over of the American mind by a tech billionaire who just overtook Elon Musk to become the world's richest man. People should be talking about whether they want to go through this all over again.

[1] https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-fals...

[2] https://archive.is/20250916040811/https://www.nytimes.com/20...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Ellison&old...

It is just basic logic really. Hypothetically, If the Nobel committee was to right now announce that this year's Nobel Peace Prize was to be awarded to a Greenlandic independence/opposition activist - Some one who applauds and supports all of Trump's current rhetoric and actions wrt Greenland, someone calling for armed intervention/invasion. What would that say about the committee's opinion on the matter. What would the timing of such an announcement signal to the Trump regime and the wider world? What conclusion could one draw reasonably?

To be fair in this case, they gave it to him for making peace and ending a long-running conflict. A peace which didn't last evidently and was overshadowed by his later actions. Not unlike Aung San Suu Kyi.

They didn't give it to Machado hoping she would bring peace. In fact, they did it for the opposite reason. They awarded it at the height of tension and build-up of US forces outside Venezuela, while they were blowing up boats in the Carribean, to encourage Trump to go even further. Something btw which Machado wholeheartedly supported and encouraged.

They embarrassed themselves by giving the prize to such an obvious neocon toady. It was a weak attempt at appeasing Trump and the neocons by using the prize to burnish another foreign intervention, while using the compliant press to spin it as a snub against him.

Got to hand it to Trump. He hit 3 birds with this one - He de-legitimized yet another European/International institution, while simultaneously using the same to bless his war of aggression. And he got half a nobel out of it too.

This is Trump who is the most transactional leader ever. It is obviously meant as a bribe from Machado and her backers. Venezuelan interests or people don't factor in this at all except that they are in the way. Trump couldn't make this any clearer. Nor Maria Machado, for that matter : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7pHmYUCMk

Might as well because it was always meant as a tacit prize to Trump and the neocons/neoliberals anyway.

From October, 2025 : https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/10/16/how-trump-got-...

Machado was planning to do the same as what Trump did anyway. i.e. privatize and sell all the oil to American corporations, as she explained to Trump Junior in February, 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7pHmYUCMk

The Nobel committee were probably hoping for a more finessed approach where the cia would instigate a popular uprising in which the armed peaceful protestors would storm the government and overthrow Maduro. The Nobel-Peace-Prize winner would then liberate Venuezala's oil and head the transitional government with democratic elections planned for 2045. Instead, Trump went for a more direct approach of straight up kidnapping the president, and stealing the oil.

This is quite rich coming from the FreePress which has devoted the last 2 years denying genocide in Gaza , denying famine in Gaza, or any crimes or fault on part of Israel.

TheFreePress is an Israeli-propaganda operation that was founded in 2021 by the ultra-zionist Bari Weiss and acquired by CBS and Paramount Skydance for 150 million dollars in 2025. Paramount Digital is owned David Ellison son of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. He also is a ultra-zionist and the largest private donor to Friends of the IDF. Bari Weiss herself has devoted her entire adult life as a hardline Israel-first advocate starting in Columbia in 2004 - When she was involved in 'Columbia Unbecoming' and 'Columbians for Academic Freedom' . Which was basically a campaign to get Palestinian and Pro-Palestinian professors fired claiming their lectures were 'intimidating' to Jewish students including herself while simultaneously preaching academic freedom and anti-wokeness. She was made the editor-in-chief of the newly-acquired CBS.

No doubt the FreePress is seeking to manufacture consent to embroil the US in another middle-eastern war.

This being Trump and all, Is there any confirmation from someone other than Trump? Or is he pulling a prank again and going to announce how the economy is doing great like he did at last week's press conference?

On a related note: Looks like Trump reeaaallly doesn't want those Epstein Files out.

I will admit i was slow to catch on. But watching the whole abominable horror show laid out - Gaza, Ukraine, Epstein, Trump coins, resorts, and ballrooms. Seeing the Nobel prize being given to the woman literally calling for Trump to invade her country and take their oil and cheering as her countrymen get bombed. And then seeing the media and liberal elites spin it as a snub against Trump as she dedicates the prize to him. I am ashamed that i was taken in for so long.

"Rules-based order" just means Washington makes up the rules and gives out the orders. The very phrase hints at its conceit. Why "Rules-based order" instead of "International law" ? Its because International law is something concrete, something you can point to and hold up as a standard. International law means UN, ICC, Geneva conventions, votes and parlimentary procedure. It means accountability and uniform application of said law. "Rules-based order" just gives a slightest hint of legitimacy while Washington and its cronies do whatever they want. "Rules-based order" means that the United States can invoke the Monroe Doctrine in Venezuela, Cuba and all over its "backyard" i.e. South America, but Russia doing the same in Ukraine or China doing it in Taiwan is an affront to civillization.

What changed more recently is the mask has slipped off. They don't even pretend to give a plausible reason anymore because noone will ever buy it so why bother. "All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force." That is what we are witnessing now.

A quick glance at his twitter - you would think he is a minister of some middle-eastern country rather than Belgium. I didn't know about this man before but your comment about "A European minister shilling for Palantir and Oracle" was enough. I am sorry to say your defence minister has a foreign paymaster and it isn't Russia or even the United States.

What a cruel joke. Trump's role in negotiations was to threaten to fully back Israel's genocide of Palestinians if Hamas were to refuse the deal. The actual 'peace plan' also doesn't have any credible roadmap to a Palestinian state or anything that ensures a life of dignity,security and self-determination for the Palestinian people. In fact, it is framed to ensure the opposite. Trump deserves a trial in the Hague, not a Nobel.

Knowing the Israelis and their history (both recent and otherwise), There is a good chance that this will be a repeat of the charade that was Trump's first ceasefire in January. Like then, Israel will probably wait to get all the hostages it can during phase one and then promptly resume their war on Palestine while blaming khamas for scuttling the deal. Their finance minister Smotrich has already spoken to that effect :

  “Immediately after the hostages return home, the state of Israel will continue to strive with all its might for the true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza, so that it no longer poses a threat to Israel,”

[1] https://aje.io/kfptet?update=4020328 [2] - https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1972844833094983790 https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews/status/1972844833094983790

The lawnmower in question is a big-time donor to the Israel state and the IDF. Regarding the IDF the lawnmover seems to have caught some feelings:

  Through all of the perilous times since Israel’s founding, we have called on the brave men and women of the IDF to defend our home. In my mind, there is no greater honor than supporting some of the bravest people in the world, and I thank Friends of the IDF for allowing us to celebrate and support these soldiers year after year. We should do all we can to show these heroic soldiers that they are not alone.

  ...when you connect with Oracle you understand that we are committed to the U.S. and Israel. We are not flexible regarding our mission, and our commitment to Israel is second to none. This is a free world and I love my employees, and if they don't agree with our mission to support the State of Israel then maybe we aren't the right company for them. Larry (Ellison, co-founder of Oracle) and I are publicly committed to Israel and devote personal time to the country and no one should be surprised by that.

TikTok is as free to boost a pro-Israel narrative as you are to boost an anti-Israel narrative.

I boost an anti-israel narrative by exercising my right to free speech. In this case, The zionists are boosting a pro-israel narrative by excising free speech like mine - by banning Tiktok, then coercing Bytedance into selling their US subsidiary, and installing a IDF spokesperson to censor and moderate it.

Stating that there’s some sort of “mind control” at work is both false and insults people’s intelligence. For one, there is literally no way to “control” someone’s mind. Influence is not control. It’s not the same as shaping a narrative. I think you ought to choose your words more responsibly and accurately.

I didn't mean to imply "mind-control". More like narrative-control and thought-policing. It may have came off differently than i intended.

What’s needed is to protect the marketplace of ideas from which people can choose for themselves. Some people will carry larger megaphones and have bigger venues than others. But being louder and bigger doesn’t assure the outcome you want. History has illustrated time and time again that minority opinions can, in the fullness of time, become majority ones

What we are witnessing is a hostile-takeover in the marketplace of ideas. See above.

History has illustrated time and time again that minority opinions can, in the fullness of time, become majority ones.

This might be a desperate measure that is unlikely to work in the long-term. Even Israelis, and their supporters in the conservative movement think that they have lost the support of the next generation or two. Which is probably why Netanyahu is going all out in this brief window of opportunity. It might be enough to buy them some breathing space in the near-term while they complete their genocide / ethnic-cleansing and re-occupation of the Gaza strip (with possible involvement of US ground-forces or contractors), complete their formal annexation of the West bank, and continue their invasion and annexation of Southern Syria. It (coupled with Trump's clampdown on college campuses) may also be aimed to preempt any vietnam-style protests against a second war with Iran (which will certainly US troops and seems all but certain to happen in the near future).

History has illustrated time and time again that minority opinions can, in the fullness of time, become majority one

“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” The time to speak out and act is now.

I would argue that on this matter and all matters relating to the middle-east, American minds are still being swayed by a foreign country and have been for the last 50 to 80 years. At least, with Chinese Tiktok, Elon's twitter and competition between the various social media platforms, Americans for the first time were exposed to voices from the other side. And between the two sides, were able to make up a more informed decision. This is a desperate attempt to reverse that. I doubt it will work in the long-term and i don't think it is expected to. But I think in near-term this is a measure to control the narrative to prepare for American misadventures in the region over the next couple of years. Which almost certainly includes a second war with Iran, Israeli annexation of the West Bank and even possibly a partial American occupation of Gaza.

I replied to your original comment.

Also, I wasn't invoking some dog-whistle. I was using the same phraseology of the Zionists. From the CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, addressing the Israeli Knesset[1] :

  "Pushing extremists off Wikipedia might not seem equal to the challenge of pushing Hezbollah to north of the Litani River; capturing TikTok might seem less meaningful than holding on to Mount Hermon ; libelous tweets certainly might seem less deadly than missiles from Yemen but this is urgent because the next war will be decided based on how Israel and its allies perform online as much as offline. Make no mistake it's real we saw that in the propaganda that anti-israel groups pushed out in America on October 7th accusing Israel of committing genocide."

[1] https://x.com/DelGroyp/status/1856577467596845279 https://xcancel.com/DelGroyp/status/1856577467596845279

In large part, yes. There is also Trump, Republicans and their drive to carve out a bigger conservative-space in a liberal-dominated media landscape. There is Silicon valley, the rising digital-military-industrial complex, the china hawks, the intelligence apparatus and the security state, and the usual self-interests of the billionaire class. All of these forces are currently colluding to control the narrative (i.e. minds) in their favor. But I will argue the Israel angle is a big part of it which is being under-reported on ( by design).

Trump went after TikTok in his first presidency but was ultimately unsuccessful. It was the Biden government that successully banned TikTok last year in a bipartisan bill. What was the impetus then and why did it succeed? Listen to Charlie Kirk's personal take[1] on why Tiktok got banned (and how the right capitalized on it) :

  [..] the buried lede of the October 7th was that it it got TikTok banned and remember the Tiktok ban stalled based on just China concerns, but TikTok was the the hub of a lot of the anti-israel sentiment that was brewing with Gen Z and all of a sudden the TikTok ban got resurfaced. Mitt Romney said at a security conference "we are Banning Tik Tok because it is sowing anti-israel sentiment in the United States."   

Tiktok recently hired Erica Mindel - an instructor in the Armoured Corps in the Israeli army’s spokesperson’s unit - to lead the company’s hate speech policy. The potential hiring of Bari Weiss to head the CBS news division reveals a similar underlying motive. One which is laid out by the CEO of the ADL, in his address to the Israeli Knesset[3] :

  "Pushing extremists off Wikipedia might not seem equal to the challenge of pushing Hezbollah to north of the Litani River; capturing TikTok might seem less meaningful than holding on to Mount Hermon (A mountain peak in Syria which Israel conquered in their undeclared invasion of Syria late last year); libelous tweets certainly might seem less deadly than missiles from Yemen but this is urgent because the next war will be decided based on how Israel and its allies perform online as much as offline. Make no mistake it's real we saw that in the propaganda that anti-israel groups pushed out in America on October 7th accusing Israel of committing genocide."

[2] https://theintercept.com/2025/01/09/tiktok-ban-israel-palest... https://archive.is/20250918033631/https://theintercept.com/2...

[3] https://x.com/infolibnews/status/1968177947724198243 https://xcancel.com/infolibnews/status/1968177947724198243

[4] https://jewishinsider.com/2025/07/tiktok-hate-speech-manager... , https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/tiktok-hires-ex-israe...

So Larry Ellison just took over Paramount group which is now looking to bid for Warner Brothers and CNN. And now Ellison is going to take over TikTok.

Paramount(being run by Larry Ellison's son) is looking to install the pro-israel-propagandist who has variously masqueraded as a liberal, a conservative and anti-woke free-speech champion, Bari Weiss[1] as CBS's editor-in-chief or co-president[2]. It also bears mentioning that Ellison is a life-long zionist, friend of the IDF and close personal friend of Netanyahu to whom he even offered a post at Oracle.[3]

This very much looks like a hostile take-over of the American mind by a tech billionaire who just overtook Elon Musk to become the world's richest man. People should be talking about whether they want to go through this all over again.

[1] https://theintercept.com/2018/03/08/the-nyts-bari-weiss-fals...

[2] https://archive.is/20250916040811/https://www.nytimes.com/20...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Ellison&old...

As i mentioned in another post, if you measure success as creating a strong, prosperous, independent, viable democracy - then Iraq was an utter failure and so was Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan, Egypt and Iran. Which begs the question why does the US pursue the same failed policies over and over again. It turns out we were asking the wrong questions in 2005. If you measure success from the purview of the Yinon plan to establish Israeli hegemony over the entire middle-east then everything aforementioned - including all the death, terrorism, suffering, sectarian and religious strife, massacres and genocides, refugees crises, the rise of ISIS, the recent Al Qaeeda takeover of Syria - everything, was a resounding success.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan

edit : I forgot to mention that as of 2024, the US still controlled all oil revenue transactions in Iraq. - thecradle.co/articles-id/27007

George W. Bush's heart was bigger than his brain: he thought the U.S. could create a functioning democracy from the Iraqi population.

George Bush probably knew what he was doing in Iraq because his VP, Dick Cheney could have told him way back in 1994[1] what would happen if we overthrew Saddam :

  > "Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it — eastern Iraq — the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

  > It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.

  > The other thing was casualties [...] was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNt7s_Wed_4

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel#Proposed_inclus...

(Shimon Peres too in list of questionable peace laureates)

In 1920 (the year when British took over Palestine from the Ottomans) the jewish population was less than 10% Jewish and represented less than 1% of global Jewry. By 1948, after the British flooded in Jewish migrants mainly from Europe and the Americas, the population became about ~65% + arab and 35+% Jewish. Zionism was always predicated on Ethnic cleansing from the start and the founders of zionists were always aware of that fact.

“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country.” - Theodore Herzl , Father of Zionism in 1895.

"With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement]. I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it." - David Ben Gurion, Father of Israel.

"the world has become accustomed to the idea of mass migrations and has become fond of them. … Hitler – as odious as he is to us – has given this idea a good name in the world." - Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Founder of Revisionist Zionism, 1940.

Zionism is textbook settler-colonialism. I dont see it worth even arguing the point.

I guess the Israeli government's original plan to arm and support drug gangs and literally ISIS (euphemistically called 'clans') as "aid security" wasn't working out? Especially after it was revealed said "security" was stealing and reselling the food aid under the protection of IDF while the Israeli govt. and media blamed the looting on Hamas.

And after the Israeli opposition leader exposed the whole charade and Netanyahu defended it saying “On the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What’s wrong with that? It only saves the lives of Israeli solders, and publicising this only benefits Hamas.”

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/06/netanyahu-defe...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Abu_Shabab

[3] https://archive.is/20250606144357/https://www.ynetnews.com/a...

Major, minor or imagined differences between populations being exacerbated causing them to turn against each other wasn't a byproduct of some poorly conceived policy. It was the whole point and was (and continues to be) a keystone to colonial power over faraway lands.

Afghanistan , Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, Somalia.

15000 children (at least) killed in gaza alone since October 7. Thats like an Ariana Grande concert everyday for the last 2 years.

Middle eastern media is a fart in the wind compared to western media. Except in the latter case it is phrasing is along the lines of "spreading freedom and democracy" or similar.

Is that the type of shredder they used though? It seems too slow especially when considering live squirrels. I imagine it would be more like the one used to kill male hatchlings in the poultry industry[1]. Quicker and bit more humane.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udSiluTAOaQ (warning : potentially disturbing footage)

Someone explain to me how this works?

Big Tech acquires companies founded and run by literal foreign spies and recruits said agents into critical positions with their departments. Meanwhile their alumni buddies down the street over at proscribed companies like NSO and Candiru hack into the products and services of these very same companies and use it to target citizens (including journalists, activists, politicians, diplomats) of America and its allies? And no one thinks there is a conflict of interest or threat to national security here?