The donors who gave $330 million to the president’s party attended events in the White House ballroom… and many of them directly benefited from the president’s policies. Democracy Now reported the story in its Friday headlines.

Three hundred and thirty million dollars. The donors gave it. The president hosted them. And the policies that followed served the same people who were in the room. The same room where a fundraiser offered access for a hundred thousand dollars. The same administration that took SpaceX bonds before signing the order that benefits the company.

The revolving door now runs directly through the East Wing. The money goes in at the ballroom. The policy comes out at the signing desk. And the donors who paid for the dinner sit at both tables.

One person gave $366 million to midterm campaigns. Another paid $100,000 for access to the inner circle. And $330 million flowed through the White House ballroom from people whose businesses benefited from the policies written inside the same building.

The machine does not hide the transaction. It hosts it. The ballroom is the receipt.

BREAKING

A Firm Linked to an American Ally Used Invisible Spyware to Infect a News Network’s Devices Through Targeted Ads

An Israeli surveillance firm used targeted online advertisements to deliver zero-click spyware to devices belonging to Al Jazeera journalists. Democracy Now reported the findings in its Friday headlines. The spyware infected the devices without the journalists clicking anything. The ads were the weapon.

This is not the first time Israeli spyware firms have been caught targeting journalists. The Pegasus scandal showed the technology was used against reporters, human rights workers, and political figures around the world. What is new is the delivery method: invisible ads that install the spyware automatically.

The same ally whose leader spoke to a half-empty room at the United Nations while dozens of delegations walked out… the same ally the government is shielding from the international court… is using private surveillance companies to infect the devices of the journalists who cover the conflict.

The machine bans the networks it does not like. The ally hacks the ones it cannot ban. Between the two of them, the press is surrounded.

EXPOSED

Tech Workers Are Organizing Against the Billionaires Who Run Their Companies — and They Are Calling It a Fight Against an Oligarchy

Democracy Now devoted a full Friday segment to the growing worker resistance inside the world’s most powerful technology companies. The workers are calling it a fight against a “tech oligarchy.”

Workers at OpenAI protested government contracts. A researcher who was fired from Google for raising safety concerns won the Nobel equivalent. A state representative is fighting data centers that run 59 illegal gas turbines in his district. And across the industry, employees are pushing back against the billionaires who receive government contracts, fund campaigns, and build the AI systems that now choose military targets.

One person gave $366 million to midterm campaigns. Another received a $150 million payday when a media merger closed. The spy chief now runs AI policy. And the workers inside the companies are the only people saying: this is not how it should work.

The machine is built by workers. The workers are now organizing against it. The fight they are naming — a tech oligarchy — is the thread that connects every story this newsletter has told for months.

DEVELOPING

The Government Secretly Used a New Jersey Warehouse to Hold People — a Lawmaker Called It a “Shadow Facility”

Representative Analilia Mejía of New Jersey revealed that immigration agents had been secretly using a warehouse in her district to hold people. Democracy Now devoted a full Friday segment to her account. She called it a “shadow facility” and said she had to push past resistance from officials to find out what was happening inside.

The warehouse was not a registered detention center. It was not publicly listed. It had no formal oversight from the legislature. People were held there without the public or their representatives knowing about it.

The same government that detained 506 American citizens, held a man in solitary with a round in his neck, ran over a man and broke both his legs, and ordered 3,000 enforcement actions a day before the midterms… was holding people in a warehouse that no one was supposed to know about.

The machine does not just detain. It hides where it detains. A warehouse. No oversight. No listing. The lawmaker had to push her way in to find out.

They rely on the shadows.
It’s time to turn on the lights.