Bette’s Weekly Roundup - An Uncommon Humanity
Your weekly hack to all the news that matters xo
I spend Saturday mornings with my fellowship family.
One of my friends was reflecting on Fred Rogers, how he had an ‘uncommon humanity’. Indeed. We need to make humanity great again.
We need to make empathy great again. We need to make kindness and compassion great again. All the things.
As I wrote this week, we are going to see the traitors crank up their lies to 11. The reason is obvious - the noose of justice is tightening on those in Trump’s orbit who tried to overthrow our government. They’re still trying.
I have post-traumatic news syndrome so I don’t watch the traitors spew their reputation-washing junk and endless propaganda - which is never just words (RBG) - but I see the clips, they are unavoidable. I catch the low-lights.
Seeing Manspreading Barr the Fixer try to downplay Trump’s destruction and the Insurrection was rich.
I’ve been thinking about all the platforms hosting and normalizing American traitors. The Hague just indicted Putin, and successfully prosecuted Nazis. We used to prosecute propagandists, right…
‘We were just doing our job’ doesn’t fly in the global court of justice.
Speaking of doing our job, RadPod has a very exciting episode dropping this coming week. You won’t want to miss it.
The kollaborator journos can return to their wodka and despair, while my team crushes it.
We are the Ungaslightables, and we will keep bringing truth despite the lawfare of Kremlin suckups.
Thank you to all who have our back. The empathy deficit is being filled daily by you good people.
Alright, for all our new members, be sure to register for tomorrow’s ‘Speakeasy’ zoom here. If you are not yet a paid member, I keep offering weekly specials to grow our community, and I could sure use the support.
Now, on to the business of news. I put together this weekly roundup as a news hack, a way to make it easy for everyone to keep track of the Best of Bette. If you’re new, go ahead and scan the weekly roundups - it’ll help you get your sea legs.
As I reviewed the stories I put out this week, I do believe it’s some of the finest to have graced these pages. But I will leave that for you to decide. xo
‘The Executed Renaissance’ - Lessons from Timothy Snyder
This is the most important story I wrote this week. I have written many times on these pages that it will be the writers, artists, historians, poets, and filmmakers that will see us through these dark days, and it is our civic duty to stay loud in our various mediums. This report drives that point home because, currently, we are still allowed to write, think, investigate, teach, and create art. In Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s, as writers, poets, and playwrights flourished, their independent thought and spirit was deemed a threat to Stalin’s rule, and they were eliminated. It is our duty to not obey in advance.-lessons from Timothy Snyder
You can listen to the podcast version of this report here:
The Ungaslightables - And You Will Know the Traitors By Their Trail of Lies
This just in: Mike Flynn is suing Jim Stewartson, making our podcast famous. Already in the last 24 hours, we just surpassed 150,000 views. Now everyone will see for themselves just how valuable Jim’s work is to our understanding of radicalization and cognitive warfare. Join us in being ungaslightable, as ops come out of the woodwork to do their digital soldiering for the disgraced general - a convicted felon - who four-star general Paul D. Eaton called a renegade general and said needs to be called back to active duty to be put on trial. And you will know the traitors by their trail of lies.
Please read this letter from Brent Allpress for additional backstory:
Today Is a Good Day for the Rule of Law
We celebrate the wins where we get them, and this past week, we saw the FBI arrest of a former FBI officer, a Project Veritas trained democratic ‘hit’ man, who called the police officers who defended our country on January 6 ‘Nazis’ and ‘the Gestapo’. Spoken like a true radicalized American. People like Jared Wise - who also worked in counterintelligence in the New York FBI, which also employed recently arrested Russian asset, Charles McGonigal - are why I produce RadPod with Jim and HiFi. Thirty million Americans have been radicalized away from democratic values, and we have to bring them back one at a time. Some are coming back in handcuffs.
Speaking of seditious conspiracy, this last week we also celebrated the convictions of violent supremacists who are closely allied with Roger Stone and Mike Flynn. That’s a BFD, and why we are seeing the escalation of desperation. Stay focused.
Also noted in this report is the fact that Special Counsel Jack Smith was present when Mike Pence testified to the federal grand jury for five and a half hours.
Not included in the report but important to note are the immunity deals taken by eight of the 16 fraudulent electors in Georgia. These electors likely have something to offer by way of testimony for that immunity. I smell indictments for Trump’s criminal cabal - allegedly and by their own admission.
Little Green Men Have Already Invaded America - They Just Happen to Be Orange
An excerpt from this post:
Thanks to the brilliant people I interview each week I am starting to see clearly that America has already been invaded by little green men, they just happen to be in the form of too-tan media creatures - hybrid warfare is always mutating in order to stay ahead of those exposing the tactics. I knew seven years ago the malignant impact Trump would have on our understanding of truth. To quote Dr. Michael MacKay, Trump to Putin is just another Yanukovych. Trump and Yanukovych even had the same handler, Paul Manafort, but at least the Ukrainian people had the sense to revolt against their Putin puppet, who fled to Moscow with 40 of his closest goons, after stealing the country blind and leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. The Ukrainian people also convicted Yanukovych of treason. In America, you can lead a violent insurrection, and be rewarded with a town hall on CNN. At least members of the authoritarian right are lurching around like disconnected zombies in Alphaville when a journalist breaks the fascist mainframe controlling them.
Paid members can listen to the podcast version of this report here.
An Underground Railroad of Empathy - RadPod’s Interview with ‘Undercover Mother’
Thanks to the underground railroad of RadPod supporters and shadow producers, we had the opportunity to interview a Florida mother - a former Republican - who went undercover to expose the hatred in her local chapter of Moms for Liberty. She also exposed public officials who she said were part of this hate cabal of bigoted, transphobic, homophobic, and racist women. Two things she said really stood out:
On why she abandoned the Republican party, she didn’t want to be part of something that ‘leads by hate’.
‘Be careful who you hate, because it might actually be someone you love.’
‘Speakeasy’ Registration + Flash Sale
Don’t miss our event with disinformation experts from the Czech Republic, and if you are not yet a paid member, there are still a few more hours to join us at 25% off for the first year.
Okay, that’s plenty of news for now. I have a sunset to see and some earth to walk upon.
Thanks to Bette member Audrey Peterman, the first words I say every morning before my feet touch ground are:
“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.
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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. A private link to an annual membership discount for activists and members of the media is available upon request.
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
Save the date! The next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, May 7, 3:55 pm PT, featuring ‘Canaries in the Net’ podcast team Alex Alvarova and Josef Holy, who can offer insights into disinformation campaigns targeting the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe, the overlap in America and the West, and how we inoculate ourselves against disinformation. Please register for the ‘Speakeasy’ in advance here.
Paid members will also receive invites to our new weekly Bette’s Happy Hour, a wellness checkin on Tuesdays alternating between noon and 5 pm PT. This Tuesday we will be meeting at noon. Our most recent happy hour this past week we were treated to a surprise guest - as infosec pro Jackie Singh joined us. The lead threat analyst on the Biden campaign shared her expertise in protecting yourself from online harms.
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“When there is a far right threat, the left should not be divided.”-Timothy Synder
“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member