The Shitshow Macro Weekly Prep Podcast for Monday February 17, 2025 is out:

-Both the post and podcast for Cutting the Deep State’s Tentacles are out from behind the paywall and free for all to read, listen to, and share now:
open.substack.com/pub/robertplew…

-If you have not read or listened to its predecessor, Defining the Deep State (and its component parts), I highly suggest you start there (also free for all to read, listen, and share):
open.substack.com/pub/robertplew…

Domestic Politics:
-Many are familiar by this point with the rash of lawfare attacks being waged against Trump v2.0 and DOGE specifically (which is an Obama-created department that was merely renamed).
--For those who don’t quite understand lawfare, they are understood by most as legal suits that aren’t expected to win. Many times they are purely for the headlines they generate (which one perhaps could call propaganda, given the recent USAID funding revelations and allegations).
--Lawfare is the most effective when those who wield it can draw the legal process out as long as possible.
--Unfortunately for them, one of the suits that was filed against DOGE has already hit a major snag that may affect the others - in a dissent that stipulates district judges cannot interfere with the clear constitutional duty/authority of the Executive.
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/1…

-An NGO-based conflict of interest may have been uncovered with the RI judge who ordered a halt to Trump’s temporary spending freeze, according to @America1stLegal :
x.com/America1stLega…

thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/racist…

-CBS anchor Margaret Brennan - the impetus for the “I don’t really care, Margaret” JD Vance meme - has made another face plant on national television that is being deservedly mocked.
--In a Sunday interview with Marco Rubio, she seemed to indicate that she believes (incorrectly) that Hitler and the Nazis were able to conduct the holocaust due to, or at least aided by, free speech.
--That is both historically incorrect and ludicrous. In fact, the Nazis had hate speech laws, much like many Western leaders and media orgs would like to see in our current era.
x.com/BuckSexton/sta…

-If new buzzwords suddenly emerge and then begin being disseminated widely and forcefully across the media, academia, et al, it’s a pretty good indicator that it did not happen organically.
--@MikeBenzCyber has been trying to tell people that the “misinformation” buzzword and “professional class” emerged as a direct result to attack & get rid of Trump post-2016.
--A chart that I’ll include in the show notes shows the meteoric rise of the word’s emergence and usage in the news media and academic papers - look for yourself; does that seem organic, or planned/launched?
--Addendum: It certainly bears reminding people that it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that coined the phrase “fake news” that Trump took over and made better; this seems like another attempt that was more successful - what will be the next “fake news/misinfo” that they launch?

-The chart that we’ve brought out before when people wail about the “nonpartisan bureaucrats” of the USGOV is the 92.5% vote total for Kamala in DC in November. A new one taken from the FEC and shared by @jlippincott_ may be even better.
--The campaign contributions chart broken down by federal agencies that will be in the show notes shows that at least in the Harris/Trump campaign, nonpartisan is certainly not an accurate term.
x.com/jlippincott_/s…

-We have another potentially major post from @America1stLegal stating that they’ve uncovered proof that the “classified documents case” against Trump was a sham prosecution coordinated with the Biden White House from the start.
--Apparently the “classified docs” that Jack Smith refused to show anyone were a letter to Trump from “Little Rocket Man,” a picture, and the hurricane map.

--Reminder that despite all of the hoax and prepped pictures “leaked” to media by the FBI about “national security interests,” the things above are alleged to be what they used as the predicate for the FBI to raid Mar-A-Lago. And it seems to have been a total scam.
x.com/America1stLega…

-As you continue to see DC Swamp critters crying about cutting the fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer money, and that it’s a “Constitutional crisis™” for Trump to cut spending rather than Congress…let’s check in on what Democrat lovechild Obama had to say about whether Congressional approval was needed to cut spending.
--Spoiler: he said no, and there was no wailing or gnashing of teeth:
x.com/tpfinitiative/…

-Speaking of fraud, waste, and abuse, @DOGE has a new list out of where US taxpayer dollars were being sent/spent.
--The list is a humdinger and too long for me to cite here, but holy crapoli everyone should take a gander at what these people were throwing our money at, and just how much of it was going into the flaming trash can:
x.com/DOGE/status/18…

-We mentioned the rapid surge of DC-area home listings on Friday.
--Thanks to @Amuse and @VladtheInflator we have the screenshot in the show notes.

War/Military:
-Wars are not often actually fought over the reasons given to the masses (exoteric).
--I knew some of these broad numbers, but have never seen a chart like this: a post today (Sunday) from Armstrong Economics offered a chart of global nations, ranked by the value of their natural resources.
--It’s certainly worth a look to understand various geopolitical, military, capital flows, and other moves that don’t otherwise make sense:
armstrongeconomics.com/international-…
--The infographic/chart will also be in the show notes.

-Marco Rubio (US Sec State) and Sergei Lavrov (RUS Foreign Minister) held preliminary discussions, agreed to maintain regular communications, and are working to set up Trump and Putin peace talks.
--Of all of the diplomats in the employ of the USGOV, during a period when the media and nearly all of DC told you that RUS was the world’s greatest threat, none were involved in diplomacy with that which they called the greatest threat.
--What then, was their point of being?

-Staying on the UKR/RUS war topic, there was a stark contrast between Vance’s speech last week, Trump’s calls to end the war, and the CODEL of US reps meeting with Zelensky and others at the Munich Security Conference.
--How many people at the table in the video below receive some sort of kickback or other funding scheme as a result of the war being prolonged? It’s worth looking into:
theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/02/1…

-The head of NORTHCOM (USMIL responsible for North America) told Senators at a hearing last week that hundreds of drones flew over USMIL bases, with some probably (likely) involved in surveillance:
sofx.com/hundreds-of-dr…

-The M23 rebels have seized the town of Kavumu and its airport that was used by coalition forces to attack M23’s positions.
--Along with the airport they seem to have seized military hardware including IFVs, tanks, howitzers, and more:
sofx.com/m23-captures-k…

Science/Health:
-A new lawsuit was shared by @TheChiefNerd against Merck for its Gardasil vax.
--This is an HPV vax that was being pushed on young girls and women that the lawsuit alleges the FDA knew that the vax itself was contaminated with the DNA of…you guessed it, HPV.
--You had to be a “questioner of things” to know this, but many have questioned the safety and necessity of this particular shot for quite some time - there are quite a few young women who ended up being harmed in incredibly tragic ways, like full paralysis.
--But, again, saying anything about this publicly or on social media previously was a sure fire way to get censored, banned, and/or shunned from “polite society:”
x.com/TheChiefNerd/s…

Markets/economics:
-There are several important data releases coming up this week:
--Minutes from the January Fed meeting.
--Manufacturing and services sector reports.
--Consumer sentiment reports.