Manufacture Dissent

On Election Day at the Central Library in downtown Syracuse, New York, poll worker PaigeLynne Gonyea says she experienced something that should not happen inside any polling place. According to her, ICE agents walked into the polling site, approached her while she was working as a Poll Site Manager, and demanded she delete a social media post she had written on her own time.

She says the agents told her she could face federal and state prosecution for an anti‑ICE comment. The post they were angry about was simple and already based on public reporting. It said:

“I think today is a great day for Jonathan Ross to be indicted.”

Jonathan Ross is the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His name was already public. News outlets had already reported it. Gonyea did not publish his address, phone number, or any private information. She quoted what was already in the news.

ICE still accused her of “doxxing.”

Gonyea says she told the agents she had already contacted an attorney. According to her, the attorney made it clear that law enforcement is not allowed to conduct business inside a polling place. Yet ICE agents entered the site, questioned her, and pressured her to remove a post that had nothing to do with her job duties.

“While I was working as a Poll Site Manager—I had pretty unsettling run‑in with federal agents—over something posted on social media.”

“It’s the kind of situation that makes you stop and think about free speech—and how far government authority can go.”

“Honestly, it shook me, and I don’t think it’s something that should just be brushed off.”

This incident is not happening in a vacuum. It fits into a documented pattern of ICE and other federal agents showing up at or near polling places, intimidating voters or workers, and crossing legal boundaries.

This is not the first time ICE has been near polling sites. Civil rights groups have tracked multiple cases over the past decade:

* North Carolina (2018): ICE agents were reported near early voting sites in Robeson County. Latino voters said they felt targeted.

* Kansas (2018): ICE vehicles were seen near the only polling site in Dodge City, which had already been moved outside city limits.

* Texas (2020): ICE vehicles were spotted near polling locations in Houston and El Paso. Local officials called it intimidation.

* Florida (2020): ICE confirmed it had “officers in the field” on Election Day, which voting rights groups said chilled turnout in immigrant communities.

These incidents were widely reported and criticized. They created fear, confusion, and distrust around the voting process.

The law is not vague — federal agents cannot do what ICE did in Syracuse. Multiple laws restrict law enforcement presence at polling places:

* 18 U.S.C. § 592 — Federal officers cannot be stationed at polling places unless they are there to vote.

* 18 U.S.C. § 594 — Intimidation or coercion of voters or election workers is illegal.

* DOJ Election Day Guidance (2024) — Federal agents may not enter polling places to conduct investigations or question workers.

* New York Election Law § 8‑104(1) — Law enforcement must stay at least 100 feet away unless called for an emergency.

Gonyea’s account — ICE agents entering a polling place to confront her about a personal social media post — conflicts with these rules.

ICE has a history of retaliating against critics. This is not speculation. Courts have ruled on it.

* Ravi Ragbir (2017): A federal court found ICE retaliated against him for speaking out.

* Maru Mora‑Villalpando (2018): ICE targeted her after she criticized the agency; internal documents confirmed it.

* Journalists and activists (2020): Reports showed ICE monitored and tracked people who reported on detention abuses.

The Syracuse incident fits this pattern: ICE treating criticism as a threat and responding with intimidation.

The “doxxing” claim does not hold up. Doxxing requires publishing non‑public personal information with intent to harm. Gonyea did not do that. She quoted a name already published by news outlets.

Calling that “doxxing” is inaccurate and misleading.

This is a warning sign for anyone working at or voting in a polling place. Election workers across the country are already facing threats and harassment. Adding federal intimidation into the mix is dangerous. When ICE agents walk into a polling place and confront a worker over a personal post quoting public information, that is not a small issue. It raises questions about:

* misuse of federal authority

* interference with election processes

* intimidation of election workers

* retaliation against critics

* disregard for legal boundaries

This is a PSA because the public needs to understand what is happening. This is not an isolated event. It is part of a broader pattern that deserves attention and scrutiny.

If you want to help Paigelynne Gonyea:

🔗 https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-defend-my-civil-liberties

Manufacturing Dissent exists because of you. We’re independent—powered only by readers and listeners. For less than a coffee, you can join us. Annual memberships are 30% off. Stand with us. Fuel citizen journalism. Keep dissent alive.

For the first time in decades, the Middle East is reorganizing itself without waiting for Washington’s permission. The United States spent years trying to shape the region, bankroll its allies, and contain its enemies. But the ground has shifted. Iran didn’t just survive the pressure campaign. It outlasted it. It built alliances that actually function. It positioned itself as the backbone of a regional network that stretches from Yemen to Lebanon.

That’s the part American officials don’t want to admit. The U.S. didn’t lose a battle. It lost the map.

And Israel is the one left standing in the cold.

Before the Gaza war, Israel was being woven into a new regional order. The Abraham Accords were supposed to be the start of a long-term realignment. Gulf monarchies were warming up to the idea of Israel as a partner. Israel was being sold as the tech hub, the security anchor, the Western foothold in a volatile region.

That entire project collapsed in a matter of months. Not because of one event, but because the region realized something: the United States isn’t the center of gravity anymore. And if the U.S. isn’t the center, Israel isn’t either.

A new power structure is taking shape. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan are the ones with the population, the military weight, the industrial base, or the nuclear umbrella to matter in the long run. These are the countries other nations now have to negotiate with. These are the countries shaping the next decade.

Israel isn’t on that list. That’s the nightmare scenario.

Israel’s leadership has spent years acting like American support is a bottomless well. Every crisis, every escalation, every bombing campaign was carried out with the assumption that Washington would clean up the diplomatic mess afterward. But the U.S. is tired. The political climate has changed. The public mood has changed. And the idea that America will keep underwriting Israel’s decisions forever is fading.

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That’s why the warnings coming from inside the U.S. political system matter. When a sitting vice president says you can’t bomb your way out of a political crisis, that’s not a moral lecture. It’s a strategic one. It’s a reminder that Israel is running out of room, out of allies, and out of time.

Iran, meanwhile, isn’t isolated. It’s connected. It has partners who don’t crumble under pressure. It has a regional narrative that resonates far more than Israel’s. It has the patience to play the long game. And it has the confidence of a country that knows the balance of power is shifting in its favor.

Israel is now facing a Middle East where it is no longer the indispensable partner. It’s the outlier. The country that once relied on American dominance is now staring at a region that doesn’t need American dominance at all.

The structure of the region itself has changed. And Israel is discovering that it built its entire strategy on a foundation that no longer exists.

📽️ Tucker Carlson with The Weichert Brief

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“Cuba After Castro” isn’t just another political documentary. It’s BreakThrough News putting a camera where U.S. media never does, and letting Miguel Díaz‑Canel speak without the usual censoring. The film, directed by Abby Martin and Matt Belen, is built around the first and only interview Díaz‑Canel has ever given to a U.S. outlet, and that alone tells you how tightly controlled the narrative around Cuba usually is. The documentary shows a version of the island that Western coverage rarely touches: a country shaped by collective values, still trying to survive under a pressure campaign that never really stopped.

The film digs into Díaz‑Canel’s life in a way that’s almost never shown. He’s not portrayed as some hand‑picked heir groomed for power since birth. He comes off as a quiet organizer who grew up inside the revolutionary system, someone who biked to work during the Special Period after the Soviet collapse, someone who didn’t expect to end up running a country that’s been in Washington’s crosshairs for more than sixty years. His background is laid out in the interview: his childhood, his early meetings with Fidel, his work in Nicaragua, and the long stretch of Cuban history that shaped him.

Cuba’s current crisis didn’t appear in a vacuum. With the tightening of sanctions under Trump and Marco Rubio, hundreds of new restrictions piled on top of the already‑suffocating blockade. It shows how the island was hit with a “perfect storm” — a U.S. economic chokehold, a global pandemic, a media war, and the July 11, 2021 protests that Washington immediately tried to spin as the beginning of regime collapse. The film doesn’t pretend Cuba is paradise. It shows the shortages, the blackouts, the frustration. But it also shows the context that’s always left out purposely in Western reporting: the U.S. has spent decades trying to break Cuba economically, and the current crisis is the result of that pressure, not some isolated failure of the Cuban system.

What stands out is how openly Díaz‑Canel talks about the existential threats facing the country. He describes the sanctions as a deliberate attempt to push Cuba to the brink — the Obama thaw, the Trump reversal, and the new threats of “liberating” Cuba militarily, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Havana with exactly that message. That context is important because it shows how the island keeps getting shoved into the line of fire, not because of anything it’s doing now, but because of what it represents: a government that refuses to bend to U.S. demands.

The documentary also highlights something that rarely gets airtime: Cuba’s public‑sector vaccine development during COVID‑19. While the U.S. was hoarding doses, Cuba was building its own vaccines through BioCubaFarma, a state‑run consortium. That’s the kind of detail that breaks the usual narrative of a failed state on the verge of collapse. It shows a country that, even under sanctions, still manages to produce things most wealthy nations can’t.

BreakThrough News positions the film as a counterweight to decades of propaganda. The documentary is clearly aimed at an audience that has only ever heard one version of Cuba — the version where socialism is always failing, where the government is always oppressive, where the U.S. is always the savior waiting in the wings. The film pushes back by letting Díaz‑Canel speak plainly about the Revolution, the social programs that still exist because of it, and the constant attempts to crush the island into submission. This documentary is a correction to a narrative that’s been distorted for generations.

Watching it in the context of today — with new threats of invasion, with the U.S. openly discussing “taking” Cuba again, with sanctions still tightening — the documentary is a warning. Cuba is being pushed toward collapse, and the people paying the price are the ones who’ve already endured decades of economic warfare. BreakThrough News doesn’t pretend the Cuban government is flawless. It strips away the context, doesn't pretend the crisis is self‑contained, and refuse to let the U.S. off the hook for the role it plays in every Cuban hardship. This is not about defending a government. It’s about telling the truth about the pressure being applied to a small country that’s been punished for surviving.

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The Media Built Him. The Collapse Exposed Him.

Keir Starmer didn’t rise because he was impressive. He rose because the BBC, Sky, the Guardian, and the rest needed someone who wouldn’t challenge anything that mattered to them. Someone who wouldn’t disrupt their access, their cosy relationships, their worldview. They packaged him as “competent” and “serious” because that’s all they ever want in a leader — someone who won’t make them uncomfortable.

And when Gaza happened, the whole thing split open and the soullessness was impossible to hide.

The Gaza Complicity the Media Pretended Not to See

While Israel was levelling Gaza, killing thousands, the legacy press kept the language clean and the conscience cleaner. They platformed Israeli officials without pushback. They treated Palestinian deaths like background noise. They framed mass killing as a “complex situation,” because calling it what it was would have forced them to confront their own role in normalising it.

Declassified UK exposed that Britain was running surveillance flights over Gaza from Cyprus — flights that lined up with Israeli strikes, including the one that killed British aid workers. The BBC didn’t want to touch that. Sky didn’t want to touch it either. The Guardian buried it under euphemisms.

Starmer’s Media Shield: How the Lobby Protected Him

The Westminster lobby protected Starmer because he was safe for them. He wasn’t going to challenge the donors, the think‑tank crowd, the senior bureaucrats who actually pull the strings. He wasn’t going to disrupt the revolving door between politics and journalism. He was the perfect product for a media class that wants politics to stay in its lane.

Even when Gaza protests exploded across the country, the BBC framed it as a “messaging issue.” As if the problem was tone, not the fact that Britain was backing a military campaign that wiped out entire neighbourhoods.

They always find a way to make Palestinian suffering sound like a PR problem…dehumanizing Palestinians at every turn.

The Election That Exposed the Lie

Starmer didn’t win because people were inspired. He won because the Conservatives collapsed and Reform split the right. Labour got a landslide in seats with barely a third of the vote. Fewer votes than Corbyn in 2019. Millions fewer than Corbyn in 2017. A “mandate” built on a broken electoral system and a media desperate to pretend it meant something.

The BBC treated it like some sort of coronation anyway, because that’s the story they needed to sell.

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The Gaza Backlash They Pretended Didn’t Exist

Millions walked away from Labour over Gaza. Young people, Muslim communities, left‑leaning voters — all gone. The Greens surged. Independents took seats that were supposed to be untouchable. But legacy media refused to say the word genocide. They refused to say complicity. They refused to say Britain helped.

They talked about “community tensions,” like the issue was angry voters instead of dead families.

Burnham Isn’t the Answer — But He’s a Pressure Point

Andy Burnham has shifted with every political wind of the last decade. Blairite when it suited him, Corbyn‑friendly when that was useful, mayoral populist when that became the move. He once praised Israel as a democracy that “protects minorities,” which tells you where he was politically back then.

And now he’s out there saying the first place he’ll visit as Prime Minister is Israel, to go stand at the Western Wall and do the whole ritualised photo‑op routine — the same wall every British politician suddenly discovers a deep spiritual connection to the moment they need to signal loyalty. It’s the same script, just a different suit. The same choreography every leader performs to show they understand the unspoken rules of British politics: you go to Israel, you touch the wall, you nod solemnly, and you make sure everyone watching knows you’re not going to rock the boat.

But he did call for a ceasefire earlier than Starmer. And he does at least understand where public anger is coming from. He’s not going to dismantle Britain’s military and intelligence ties with Israel. He’s not going to confront the donors or the security establishment. But he can feel pressure, and right now the pressure is coming from people who are done being ignored.

The Media’s Israel Obsession

Sanders is right about the grip Israel has on Britain’s ruling class. You can see it in the way the BBC interrogates Palestinians but nods along to Israeli officials. You can see it in the way Sky News treats peaceful protesters like a threat. You can see it in the way Palestine Action was labelled a terrorist organisation for throwing paint at weapons factories, while Israel was flattening entire districts.

Burnham could reverse some of this. He won’t, but the fact that it’s even imaginable shows how far public opinion has moved.

Independent Media Is Doing the Job the BBC Won’t

Double Down News, Declassified UK, and a handful of others are the only ones willing to say any of this. They don’t have billionaire owners or corporate handlers. They don’t have to protect the same networks that built Starmer. That’s why they can call things what they are.

And that’s why they need support, because legacy media isn’t going to hold anyone accountable.

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Christian Zionism is the one topic American churches treat like a live grenade. You can question doctrine, pastors, politics, even the Bible itself — but the moment you question Israel, the room freezes. People stop breathing. Eyes narrow. You’re suddenly the enemy.

That reaction isn’t organic. It’s engineered.

Christian Zionism didn’t grow out of scripture. It grew out of fear, propaganda, and a century of political manipulation that rewired American Christianity into a foreign policy weapon. And now, even as Israel livestreams its brutality, millions of Christians defend it with a loyalty they don’t even give to Christ.

Theologian JD Hall:

“Christian Zionism is a lie that corrupts the Gospel.”

And it’s time to say it without flinching.

THE ROOT OF THE SPELL: FEAR, NOT FAITH

Evangelicals love to pretend their support for Israel is “biblical.” It’s not. It’s psychological.

For decades, churches have been conditioned to believe:

* questioning Israel is rebellion against God

* supporting Israel guarantees blessing

* criticizing Israel invites divine punishment

* and the end of the world depends on Israel’s military dominance

This isn’t theology. It’s fear‑programming.

Pastors use the same vocabulary every cult uses:

“obedience,” “chosen,” “blessing,” “God’s will,” “don’t question,” “don’t doubt.”

Once fear becomes the operating system, people stop thinking. They stop seeing. They stop asking why a faith built on compassion is cheering for bombs.

DISPENSATIONALISM: THE THEOLOGY THAT NEVER EXISTED UNTIL SOMEONE NEEDED IT

Dispensationalism — the backbone of Christian Zionism — didn’t come from Jesus, the apostles, or early Christianity. It came from the 1800s, from a handful of men who needed a theology that justified empire.

Then came the Scofield Reference Bible, funded and promoted by political actors who understood exactly what they were doing. Scofield’s notes turned the Bible into a geopolitical manual:

* Israel must be restored

* Israel must dominate

* Israel’s wars are prophecy

* Palestinians don’t matter

* and Christians must support Israel no matter what

This is how you turn a religion into a foreign policy tool.

THE JESUS THEY DON’T PREACH

Christian Zionists preach a Jesus who:

* never confronted power

* never challenged injustice

* never flipped tables

* never condemned oppression

A Jesus who would bless drones and tanks.

A Jesus who would applaud occupation.

A Jesus who would tell Palestinians to “submit.”

It’s a counterfeit Christ — one designed to keep Christians obedient to political agendas.

THE SECULAR STATE OF ISRAEL: THE GOLDEN CALF OF AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM

Let’s say it without tiptoeing:

The modern State of Israel is not biblical Israel.

It is a secular, militarized state with intelligence agencies, political parties, and a long record of human rights abuses. Yet American Christians treat it like a sacred object.

They ignore:

* Israel’s persecution of Palestinian Christians

* Israel’s destruction of churches

* Israel’s harassment of clergy

* Israel’s killing of Christian aid workers

* Israel’s open contempt for Jesus

* Israel’s systematic attacks on Christians in Lebanon — bombed monasteries, shelled churches, assassinated clergy, and decades of cross‑border aggression that wiped out entire Christian villages

They ignore all of it because their theology requires blindness.

Christian Zionism demands that Christians pretend Israel only harms “terrorists,” even when the victims are priests, nuns, monks, and entire Christian communities in Lebanon who have been targeted for generations.

THE PROPAGANDA PIPELINE: HOW ISRAEL CAPTURED THE AMERICAN CHURCH

Theologian JD Hall lays out the machinery:

* pastors flown to Israel for indoctrination tours

* Christian media funded by pro‑Israel donors

* conferences that blend worship with political messaging

* politicians using churches as campaign stops

* fear‑based sermons linking Israel to salvation

It’s a coordinated pipeline and it works.

Evangelicals became the most loyal pro‑Israel voting bloc in the world — not because of scripture, but because of decades of psychological conditioning. It's a cult mentality.

MIKE HUCKABEE: THE POSTER CHILD OF THEOLOGICAL SURRENDER

Huckabee stood on stage at a Jewish conference and declared:

* America wouldn’t exist without Israel

* Christianity wouldn’t exist without Judaism

* Christians owe Israel unconditional loyalty

It was pathetic and historically false.

And it was exactly what the machine wanted.

Huckabee isn’t preaching Christianity.

He’s preaching total obedience.

This is what Christian Zionism produces: pastors who sound like lobbyists, not spiritual leaders.

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ISRAEL’S AI KILL LISTS: THE MOMENT THE MASK FELL

Israel’s AI targeting systems — Lavender, Gospel, and others — automate death. They reduce human beings to data points. They allow mass killing with almost no human oversight.

And Christian Zionists defend it.

They defend algorithms that decide which child dies.

They defend bombings of churches and refugee camps.

They defend a state that mocks the very Christ they claim to worship.

They defend the same military that has bombed Christian communities in Lebanon for decades.

This is the moral rot at the heart of Christian Zionism.

THE AWAKENING: PEOPLE ARE FINALLY SEEING THE SCAM

Christians are starting to ask the questions they were trained to fear:

* Why does my faith require me to support war?

* Why is Israel above criticism?

* Why does my pastor sound like a political operative?

* Why is Palestinian suffering invisible in my church?

* Why are Lebanese Christians erased from the narrative?

* Why does my theology demand someone else’s annihilation?

These questions terrify the machine because once people start thinking, the spell breaks.

THE TRUTH: CHRISTIAN ZIONISM IS NOT CHRISTIANITY

It is:

* a political ideology

* a propaganda network

* a fear‑based control system

* a tool of empire

It has nothing to do with Jesus.

Christian Zionism survives on fear.

It dies the moment people choose truth.

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The attention on Melania Trump’s early years is back again. It’s because the same people who were around her before she became “Melania Trump™” keep coming forward with more s**t that never got answered.

This time it's coming from Paolo Zampolli — the modeling agent who brought her into Trump’s circle in the late 90s. His former partner, Amanda Ungaro, says he kept a stash of recordings and compromising material. She calls it a “black box.” She says it involved models, diplomats, and powerful men. She says she saw it. She says it was real. Zampolli denies it. Of course he does.

Ungaro also says she and Melania were close back then. She says Melania knew the environment she was in. She says Melania cut her off when things went bad. And she says the public version of Melania’s past leaves out a lot.

None of this is coming from political operatives. It’s coming from someone who lived with the guy who controlled the pipeline of young women that surrounded Trump’s social life. Someone who saw how that world worked from the inside.

Melania has always handled this stuff the same way: she ignores it and waits for it to die. She never explains anything. She never clears anything up. She just lets the silence do the work. But silence only works when the people around you stay quiet. Well, they sure as hell are not.

Ungaro is talking again. Zampolli’s name is back in the mix. And the questions about how Melania got here — visas, work, connections, the whole thing — are back again. 😂

📽️ MeidasTouch

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Keir Starmer did not suddenly become a failure today. Today is just the moment when the political system and the media can no longer pretend he is anything else.

For years, the British press sold Starmer as “forensic”, “grown‑up”, “decent”, “capable”. They needed a respectable front man to bury the Corbyn project and reassure the establishment that nothing truly transformative would be allowed near power again. Starmer fit the role: lawyer, knighted, polished, apparently serious. On paper, he looked like stability.

Peter Oborne spent years saying: look past the polish, look at the record, look at the methods. When you do that, the image collapses. What you see instead is a liar, an authoritarian operator, and a party machine that treats democracy and dissent as problems to be crushed, not principles to be defended.

Start at the beginning of his political rise. Starmer came into Labour politics as the respectable “professional” who could be sold to the public as a safe pair of hands. He ran for leader on a platform that deliberately echoed the left‑wing policies of the Corbyn era: public ownership, strong workers’ rights, serious climate action, a break with austerity. He signed up to ten pledges that were clearly designed to reassure members that he would not drag the party back to Blairism.

Once he had the leadership, he systematically broke those promises.

He ditched public ownership of key utilities.

He softened or abandoned radical economic commitments.

He moved the party back towards the corporate‑friendly centre.

He wrapped it all in vague language about “security”, “patriotism”, and “responsibility”.

Oborne’s point was not just that Starmer changed his mind. Politicians change their minds. The charge was that Starmer lied to get the job, then treated his own pledges as disposable once power was secured. That is not “forensic” or “principled”. It is straightforward dishonesty.

Inside the party, the picture was even uglier. Starmer’s leadership became defined by purges, suspensions, and rule‑rigging. The left was treated as an infection to be removed. Members were expelled or suspended on flimsy or opaque grounds. Local parties were overruled. Candidates were imposed from above. The disciplinary system was weaponised as a political tool.

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Oborne and others worked on investigations like Al Jazeera’s “The Labour Files”, which exposed internal documents and practices showing how factional and ruthless the machine had become. The British media largely ignored it. They did not want to touch the story because it cut straight across the narrative they were invested in: Starmer as the clean, competent, anti‑chaos leader.

Oborne described Starmer’s methods as authoritarian, anti‑democratic, illiberal. That was not exaggeration. It was a description of how he actually ran the party: centralised control, intolerance of dissent, punishment for critics, and a culture of fear. This is what you get when you put a career prosecutor in charge of a political movement and tell him his job is to “clean up” rather than to listen.

Then there is his record on major moral questions.

On war and foreign policy, Starmer consistently chose the establishment line. He backed arms sales to Israel even as the scale of destruction in Gaza became undeniable. He attacked those in his own party who stood with Palestinians. He treated solidarity with victims of state violence as a disciplinary issue, not a moral obligation. Oborne put it best: Starmer’s drift from “honourable left” to racist, punitive right was not an accident. It was a choice driven by calculation and cowardice.

On civil liberties and protest, Starmer’s Labour either backed or failed to oppose authoritarian legislation. Anti‑protest laws, expanded state powers, attacks on journalists and activists: instead of drawing a clear line, Starmer’s party blurred it, abstained, or quietly accepted it. The result was a political environment where the space for dissent shrank while the rhetoric of “order” and “security” grew louder.

All the while, the media kept polishing the myth. Profiles painted him as serious, boring in a good way, a man of quiet integrity. They framed his authoritarian streak as “discipline”. They framed his broken promises as “pragmatism”. They framed his purges as “professionalising” the party. Oborne’s work stood almost alone in mainstream commentary in saying: no, this is not normal, and it is not benign.

He called Starmer “the most dishonest mainstream politician of my lifetime” and warned that you would be “very unwise to believe a word Keir Starmer ever says.” It line up with the record: leadership pledges abandoned, internal democracy trashed, moral positions flipped whenever the polls demanded it.

As prime minister, the hollowness became impossible to hide. The government was sold as a reset after years of Tory chaos. Instead, it delivered more of the same structural cruelty with a smoother press operation. Economic policy stayed trapped inside the same narrow, failing model. Migrants were scapegoated. Protesters were criminalised. Foreign policy stayed locked into the same alliances and the same hypocrisies.

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Oborne’s later pieces described Starmer’s language on migration as dishonest, cynical, inflammatory, and racist. He pointed out that Starmer would say one thing when courting liberal opinion, then pivot to hard‑line rhetoric when chasing right‑wing votes, all while insisting that both positions were what he “believed in”. That is not conviction politics. It is opportunism dressed up as principle.

Starmer built his career on a carefully managed public image.

He used lies and broken pledges to secure the Labour leadership.

He ran the party through authoritarian, anti‑democratic methods.

He aligned himself with establishment interests on war, protest, and civil liberties.

He relied on a compliant media to protect him from serious scrutiny.

He treated truth as a flexible tool, not a binding constraint.

The resignation is not a tragic fall of a decent man. It was the writing on the wall. The media can no longer sell the illusion because the gap between the myth and the reality has become too wide to hide. The public has lived the consequences: economic stagnation, moral cowardice, authoritarian drift, and a political class that lies as a reflex.

Today’s resignation is the system finally admitting, under pressure, that the “forensic, decent, capable” story was a fraud. The moralless corrupt at the centre of it has not changed. What has changed is that the mask no longer works.

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People talk about the women and the babies — and of course they should — but Palestinian men are always pushed to the side. Either demonized, labeled, or treated like they don’t count because they’re “men.” As if being a man somehow makes your death less tragic or your suffering less real.

These are the same men digging their families out of rubble with their bare hands. The same men watching their kids starve and feeling the kind of helplessness most people will never understand. The same men carrying trauma that nobody even asks about because the world has already decided who they are.

They’re painted as threats, as suspects, as “maybe Hamas,” instead of human beings who love their kids, who protect their families, who break down when no one is looking. They’re the pillars of their homes, and yet they’re the ones the world refuses to mourn.

So this is for them.

For the men who are still standing in Gaza, and for the men who should still be here but aren’t.

Happy Father’s Day to the Palestinian men — the ones the world overlooks, but we don’t.

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📽️ Lara thegazangirl/Twitter

In this interview, Professor Andreas Krieg of King’s College’s School of Security Studies, lays out a direct argument about how U.S. influence in the Middle East has eroded, how Israel misread the moment, and how the Gulf states stepped into the gap with a strategy that fits the way Washington works now. They’re tied to money, access, and the way American foreign policy is shaped by whoever can pay for it or align with the interests of the people in power.

“American policy has been up for sale and the Israelis understood this.” He’s talking about the way lobbying networks, political donations, think‑tank funding, and media influence shape decisions in Washington. This isn’t new, but he argues the scale of Israeli penetration into U.S. political and media structures is deeper than most people admit. The Congressional Research Service has documented decades of military aid and political alignment between the U.S. and Israel, and multiple investigations have shown how lobbying groups shape legislation and public messaging. Krieg’s point is that this influence has reached a level where it distorts U.S. interests rather than serving them.

He contrasts this with the Gulf states. He says people misunderstand how Gulf lobbying works. “It is not simply Saudi, Qatari or Emirati money pumping billions into Washington and buying people. It is not like that.” His argument is that the Gulf states present themselves as partners who bring stability, investment, and economic opportunities. This lines up with public data: Gulf sovereign wealth funds have poured billions into U.S. tech, real estate, and defense contracts. The U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed that American bases in the Gulf are largely funded by the host countries, not U.S. taxpayers. Krieg’s point is that this makes the Gulf states net contributors to American power.

“Israel is a net consumer of US power. It drains US power. It sucks money out of the US economy and from US taxpayers.” This is backed by the scale of U.S. military aid to Israel, which is locked in at $3.8 billion per year under the 10‑year MOU, plus supplemental packages. Israel does not fund U.S. bases. It does not underwrite U.S. deployments. It does not carry the financial burden of American military presence in the region. Krieg’s argument is that Israel takes and the Gulf states pay.

He also says the U.S. is no longer the dominant force it once was. “We’re seeing the fall and collapse of the US empire. The idea they’re a superpower that can act at will is clearly wrong.” This lines up with analysis from institutions like Chatham House and the Quincy Institute, which have documented the limits of U.S. power projection, especially after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. can still act, but not without consequences, and not without resistance from regional actors who no longer fear American retaliation the way they once did.

Krieg points to a major shift in public opinion across the Arab world. “The Arab street now see Iran as the protector of the Palestinian cause and the only capable obstacle in Israel’s way.” Polling from Arab Barometer and other regional surveys shows a clear trend: support for U.S. policy has collapsed, trust in Israel is nonexistent, and Iran’s position has strengthened because it is seen as confronting Israel directly. Whether people like Iran or not, they see it as the only actor willing to push back.

Then he turns to Trump. Krieg argues that Trump’s worldview is transactional, not ideological. “Ultimately, you have to look at this from a transactional point of view.” Trump has said repeatedly that allies should pay for U.S. protection, that foreign policy should benefit the U.S. economically, and that he evaluates relationships based on what they deliver. Krieg’s point is that the Gulf states understand this and have structured their approach around it: investment, stability, and opportunities for American companies.

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“I would not be surprised if the Trump Organization, or firms affiliated with it, turned up in Iran if sanctions are lifted.” This isn’t speculation about Trump personally. It’s an observation about how he operates. If sanctions lift and Iran opens its economy, there will be opportunities. The Gulf states have already signaled they would support a regional de‑escalation if it brings economic benefits. Krieg’s argument is that Trump will look at the numbers: Israel costs money, the Gulf states bring money, and Iran could bring even more if the political environment shifts.

Israel’s aggression costs the U.S. financially and politically. The Gulf states offer stability and profit. Iran offers leverage and regional influence. In his view, Israel miscalculated by assuming its influence in Washington was permanent. The Gulf states adapted. Iran gained legitimacy on the street. And the U.S. is no longer strong enough to force the region into the old framework.

The balance of influence in Washington is shifting, and Israel is losing ground because it no longer aligns with the interests of the people who actually shape U.S. policy. The Gulf states do. Iran benefits from the fallout. And the U.S. is no longer strong enough to force the region into the old framework.

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The Recruitment Pipeline — How Girls Were Targeted, Scouted, and Funneled

Jean-Luc Brunel didn’t “find” victims. He hunted them.

French investigative files and survivor testimony describe the same pattern:

* He targeted girls who were extremely young — 12, 13, 14, 15.

* He went after girls who were isolated, often from small towns or unstable families.

* He used scouts in Eastern Europe, France, Belgium, Brazil, and the Caribbean.

* He promised modeling careers, visas, apartments, and “international opportunities.”

* He used older models to recruit younger ones, telling them it was “how the industry works.”

* He used photographers who knew exactly what he wanted: girls who were inexperienced, insecure, and easy to manipulate.

French police reports describe girls being approached:

* at train stations

* outside schools

* at shopping centers

* at castings where they were the only minor in the room

* at "open calls" that were never recorded in agency logs

Brunel's agencies– Karin Models in Paris and later MC2 acted as filters. Girls who were "too confident" or "too supported by family" were dropped. Girls who were alone, poor, naive, or desperate were fast-tracked. This is how the pipeline began.

The Coercion System -Drugs, Isolation, Threats, and Control

Survivors in France described the same mechanisms:

* They were isolated in apartments owned or rented by the agency. They were given pills without explanation "vitamins," "sleep aids," "anti-anxiety!" They woke up disoriented, unable to remember hours.

* They were told they had "embarrassed themselves" when they tried to ask what happened.

* They were threatened with deportation if they resisted.

* They were told they would be blacklisted from every agency in Europe.

* They were told Epstein was "a friend of the industry" and they should be grateful.

One French survivor told investigators she woke up in a hotel bathroom with bruises on her thighs and no memory of the previous night.

Another said she was told she had "drunk too much," even though she had been given a single glass of champagne.

Another said she was told she had "agreed" to everything, even though she had been unconscious.

The Modeling-Industry Cover Agencies, Scouts, Fake Castings

Brunel used the modeling world as a shield. French sources describe:

* fake castings held in apartments, not studios

* fake contracts that were never filed fake "test shoots" where girls were photographed alone with men they didn't know

* fake "portfolio updates" that required them to undress

* fake "international placements" that were actually one-way tickets to Miami

MC2 Model Management funded by Epstein was the bridge.

Girls were flown from Paris to Miami with:

* no chaperone

* no guardian

* no legal protection no understanding of what they were walking into

Some were minors. Some had never left their home country. Some didn't speak English. Some didn't even know who Epstein was until they were already inside his house. Everything was by design.

The French Police Files — What Investigators Actually Documented

French investigators found:

* flight logs showing Brunel traveling with girls half his age

* hotel records showing multiple rooms booked under his name

* agency documents listing minors as “adult models”

* photos taken during “test shoots” that were never used professionally

* complaints filed by girls who were ignored for decades

* internal memos from French intelligence warning about Brunel in the 1990s

* witness statements from models who said they were drugged

* statements from agency staff who said they were told to “not ask questions”

One French investigator said the pattern was “identical to trafficking cases,” another said Brunel operated with “total impunity,” and a third estimated the number of potential victims was “in the hundreds.”

They all knew, they just chose to look the other way.

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The Protection Network- The Men Who Enabled It

Brunel was protected by:

* wealthy businessmen

* politicians

* photographers

* agency owners

* club owners

* men who attended "private dinners"

* men who used the same apartments

* men who appeared in the same flight logs

* men who were never charged

French intelligence flagged him. French police had complaints. French agencies knew. The fashion world knew. The nightlife world knew. The men around him knew. They ALL knew.

And nothing happened. FOR FORTY YEARS.

The Collapse Arrest, Charges, and Convenient Death

Brunel was arrested in 2020 at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. He was charged with:

* rape of minors

* sexual assault

* human trafficking

Survivors finally believed they would see justice.

In 2022, he was found dead in his cell. French authorities called it suicide (hmmm, sounds familiar right?). The investigation into the French network remains open, but the men who benefited from it remain unnamed.

Survivors still aren’t receiving justice, and now it feels like history is repeating itself with the Epstein files. The same patterns of delay, silence, and protection of powerful men are playing out again, while the people who lived through the abuse are left waiting, unheard, and pushed aside.

Manufacturing Dissent exists because of you. We’re independent—powered only by readers and listeners. For less than a coffee, you can join us. Annual memberships are 30% off. Stand with us. Fuel citizen journalism. Keep dissent alive.