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The Intellectualist

@theintellectualist.bsky.social
46K followers 447 following 9.6K posts

The Intellectualist delivers fact-based analysis and thoughtful commentary focused on defending democracy and fostering informed public discourse. At a time when truth and civic engagement are under threat, it serves as a vital platform.

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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 5m
Book bans aren’t just rising. They are being engineered. The same titles and tactics are spreading across states. What’s changing is not the number. It is the system behind it. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/book-bans-...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 1h
President Donald J. Trump has privately raised the possibility of issuing sweeping pardons for people around him before leaving office, according to people familiar with remarks described by The Wall Street Journal. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/president-...
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Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 1h
🚨While negotiating peace in Ukraine, Trump’s envoys agreed to work on a $20 billion Russian oil deal involving investors tied to their business networks and requiring U.S. approval. (free article) theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/putin-rais...
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Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 1h
Truth doesn’t survive on its own. Independent journalism depends on people who step in. Your support keeps accurate, independent reporting alive, and makes you part of it. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/subscribe?co...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Subscribe to The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist Substack delivers fact-based analysis and thoughtful commentary focused on defending democracy and fostering informed public discourse. At a time when truth and civic engagement ar...
011
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 1h
🚨While negotiating peace in Ukraine, Trump’s envoys agreed to work on a $20 billion Russian oil deal involving investors tied to their business networks and requiring U.S. approval. (free article) theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/putin-rais...
21017
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 2h
Amanda Ungaro says her former partner Paolo Zampolli, a Trump-linked envoy, contacted ICE, leading to her detention before bail and deportation, affecting custody. She alleges abuse, which he denies. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/an-ice-cal...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 3h
Robert Morris, a megachurch pastor and former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, was released after serving six months in jail after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/former-tru...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 4h
Alexander Smirnov, a former F.B.I. informant tied by prosecutors to Russian intelligence, fed false Biden claims into Congress. Now President Trump’s Justice Department is backing his effort to reduce his sentence. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/justice-de...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 5h
The January 6 President January 6 was not the end of a crisis—it was the moment America chose to postpone accountability. Five years later, the cost of that delay is no longer theoretical. It is political reality, and it is still unfolding. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-januar...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 6h
Craig Scott Valdez, chief of staff to Alaska State Sen. George Rauscher, faces federal child sex trafficking and exploitation charges in a case prosecutors say involved one minor and may have included at least 11 additional suspected victims. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/chief-of-s...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 7h
New research shows Covid vaccines may boost cancer treatment, helping the immune system fight tumors and nearly doubling patient survival compared with those unvaccinated. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/mrna-covid...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 8h
Vulcan, a rare-earth magnetics firm backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital, lands a record $620M conditional loan from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital in a $1.4B bid to curb China’s magnet grip. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/pentagons-...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 9h
From Simplicity to Complexity—and Back Again How the same forces that allow complexity, intelligence, and abundance to arise may also make advanced civilizations fragile—and why survival depends on coordination as much as discovery. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/history-of...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 10h
Europe is now saying the quiet part out loud. A French senator mocked Washington as “the court of Nero.” Portugal, a founding member of NATO, saw its president claim Trump is “objectively… a Soviet or Russian asset.” theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/europes-fe...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 11h
CIVICUS, a monitor, says it has downgraded the U.S. civic space rating to “obstructed” and warns of a “rapid authoritarian shift” as the freedoms to protest, organize on campuses, and report independently face pressure at once. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/civil-soci...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 12h
President Trump is placing simultaneous pressure on the five pillars that stabilize modern democracies: the Federal Reserve, the courts, U.S. alliances, law enforcement legitimacy, and public trust, creating systemic risk. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-presid...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 22h
When the Deputy Attorney General says it’s not a crime to party with Epstein, he is technically correct—and exposing how low the standard for American presidents has sunk. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/trump-depu...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 23h
Howard Lutnick said he cut off Jeffrey Epstein in 2005. But Justice Department records show that years later—after Epstein’s sex crime conviction—Lutnick entered a business deal with him and maintained contact into the 2010s. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/records-sh...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
At a public forum, Donald Trump Jr. accused Ukraine’s elites of fleeing the war and leaving what he called a “peasant class” to fight, as U.S. negotiators press Kyiv for concessions while Russian forces continue their attacks on Ukrainians. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/trump-jr-s...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
President Donald Trump’s personal travel routine has generated an estimated $70.8M in taxpayer costs this year, and projections based on federal audit data show the total could exceed $300M if the pattern continues. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/trumps-gol...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Europeans are asking whether Americans are immoral. The more disturbing answer is that the system they live under no longer works—and may never have worked for most people at all. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/what-is-wr...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Taxation without representation is no longer a metaphor. Structural minority rule, voter engineering, and weaponized governance are driving states to act as sovereign protectors—testing whether the American national bargain can still hold. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-coming...?
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Former Trump adviser Stephen Moore says Americans “eat too much,” framing rising food costs as a matter of personal consumption as inflation tightens household budgets—drawing sharp backlash. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/former-tru...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hundreds of millions of dollars generated by the sale of Venezuelan oil are now sitting outside the U.S. Treasury, held in offshore custodial accounts that include at least one in Qatar. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/hundreds-o...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Former Trump adviser Stephen Moore says Americans “eat too much,” framing rising food costs as a matter of personal consumption as inflation tightens household budgets—drawing sharp backlash. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/former-tru...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hundreds of millions of dollars generated by the sale of Venezuelan oil are now sitting outside the U.S. Treasury, held in offshore custodial accounts that include at least one in Qatar. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/hundreds-o...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A convicted child predator moved freely among presidents and billionaires. The Epstein files don’t resolve a scandal—they expose a system where victims were delayed, evidence redacted, and power endured without accountability. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-convicte...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Measles is back. Children are dying not because medicine failed, but because ideology did. Under “Make America Healthy Again,” anti-vaccine politics recast preventable death as freedom—accepting mass mortality as a moral choice, not a failure. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/make-ameri...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In 2025, President Donald Trump imposed the largest U.S. tax increase since 1993. It came through tariffs — raising effective rates to their highest level since 1946 and costing households about $1,000 last year. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/last-year-...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
President Donald Trump has questioned alliance guarantees as China encircles Taiwan and Russia signals future conflict, forcing allies to confront a return to great-power spheres of influence as danger mounts for the world's democracies. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/a-return-t...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
President Donald Trump repeatedly says he passes cognitive exams but refuses to release records. The public is left with observable behavior, a documented history of deception, and expert warnings about risk without diagnosis. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/when-a-pre...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Justice Dept. says it released millions of Epstein files. But NPR reports FBI logs reference interviews tied to allegations against President Donald Trump that were not visible in the public archive. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/fbi-interv...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
President Trump is referenced in FBI interview summaries tied to a woman who accused him of sexual assault decades ago, yet three of those summaries are absent from the Justice Department’s public release of its Epstein files. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/missing-ep...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Constitution Has Failed—And Repair Is No Longer Optional The American Constitution still exists on paper, but as a governing system it has collapsed under conditions it was never designed to manage. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-consti...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Investigation: Florida routed $35M+ through agencies to election-season ads opposing abortion and marijuana measures, tapping child-protection, public-health and opioid funds as records left totals unclear. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/florida-ag...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
President Donald J. Trump commuted the prison term of David Gentile, who led GPB Capital, less than two weeks after he began serving a seven-year sentence in a $1.6 billion fraud that prosecutors said harmed more than 10,000 investors. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/trump-free...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Forbes: Eric Trump Is 10× Richer on Crypto Since Trump's WH Return As President Trump’s administration rolled out crypto policy in 2025, Forbes estimates that Eric Trump’s crypto-driven fortune climbed about tenfold to roughly $400 million.
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
President Trump’s foreign policy has unsettled allies and emboldened adversaries, leaving the U.S. not as the guarantor of order but as its starkest absence — a void reminiscent of the democracies that failed to confront fascism in the 1930s. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/the-end-of...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Justice Dept. says it released millions of Epstein files. But NPR reports FBI logs reference interviews tied to allegations against President Donald Trump that were not visible in the public archive. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/fbi-interv...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
President Trump is referenced in FBI interview summaries tied to a woman who accused him of sexual assault decades ago, yet three of those summaries are absent from the Justice Department’s public release of its Epstein files. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/missing-ep...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For the first time in decades, more people left the United States than arrived. As enforcement tightens and visa flows slow, foreign records show a parallel shift: growing numbers of Americans are establishing lives abroad. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/americans-...
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The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
On January 6, 2026, Republican Austin Smith, a former Arizona lawmaker who questioned the 2020 election, admitted in a Maricopa County courtroom that he forged petition signatures, including a deceased woman’s, to secure a place on the ballot. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/arizona-la...
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Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nearly 2 Million Overseas Visitors Are Staying Away From the U.S. Overseas visitors are on pace to fall by nearly two million from last year, widening the gap between the tourism recovery the United States expected and the one it is getting. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/nearly-2-m...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Nearly 2 Million Overseas Visitors Are Staying Away From the U.S.
Overseas visitors are on pace to fall by nearly two million from last year, widening the gap between the tourism recovery the United States expected and the one it is getting.
3175
Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Truth doesn’t survive on its own. Independent journalism depends on people who step in. Your support keeps accurate, independent reporting alive, and makes you part of it. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/subscribe?co...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Subscribe to The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist Substack delivers fact-based analysis and thoughtful commentary focused on defending democracy and fostering informed public discourse. At a time when truth and civic engagement ar...
021
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nearly 2 Million Overseas Visitors Are Staying Away From the U.S. Overseas visitors are on pace to fall by nearly two million from last year, widening the gap between the tourism recovery the United States expected and the one it is getting. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/nearly-2-m...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Nearly 2 Million Overseas Visitors Are Staying Away From the U.S.
Overseas visitors are on pace to fall by nearly two million from last year, widening the gap between the tourism recovery the United States expected and the one it is getting.
3175
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In the first eleven months of 2025, 10,109 doctoral-trained scientists left the federal government. The losses were concentrated in agencies that fund medical research, regulate environmental standards and model climate. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/more-than-...
32119
Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Jack Posobiec promoted the movement that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and repeatedly amplified material from a website the Treasury Department says received taskings from Russia’s FSB. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/vance-welc...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Vance Welcomes Stop the Steal Promoter Tied to Jan. 6 Aboard Air Force Two
Posobiec promoted the movement that preceded Jan. 6 and repeatedly amplified material from a website the Treasury Department says received taskings from Russia’s FSB.
32318
Reposted by The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Truth doesn’t survive on its own. Independent journalism depends on people who step in. Your support keeps accurate, independent reporting alive, and makes you part of it. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/subscribe?co...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Subscribe to The Intellectualist
The Intellectualist Substack delivers fact-based analysis and thoughtful commentary focused on defending democracy and fostering informed public discourse. At a time when truth and civic engagement ar...
021
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Jack Posobiec promoted the movement that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and repeatedly amplified material from a website the Treasury Department says received taskings from Russia’s FSB. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/vance-welc...
theintellectualistofficial.substack.com
Vance Welcomes Stop the Steal Promoter Tied to Jan. 6 Aboard Air Force Two
Posobiec promoted the movement that preceded Jan. 6 and repeatedly amplified material from a website the Treasury Department says received taskings from Russia’s FSB.
32318
The Intellectualist @theintellectualist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For decades, deterrence governed the U.S.–Russia rivalry: rival powers did not help identify American military targets. Reports Russia aided Iran may test that boundary—while Trump officials dismiss the risk as U.S. forces face attacks. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/russia-hel...
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