Informational force-feeding via digital news deluge, deliberate disinformation, and divisiveness is turning our brains to pâté.
UPDATE: Monday Dec 8, 3:41 p.m.: Added some extra details about the Saudis & Jared Kushner’s role in the Paramount bid for WBD
Before I start, let me thank Yves for the phrase “informational force-feeding” from “>her post this morning.
I can’t really say who benefits exactly, but I can identify at least one major player who is attempting to use informational overload for their own benefit.
Hasbara Budget Go Up
pic.twitter.com/LPaoRe6DhO
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) December 8, 2025
From the Jerusalem Post article:
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar agreed on a budget of NIS 2.35 billion (approx. $730 million) for Israel advocacy campaigns, as part of the 2026 budget presented on Friday.
The budget will be used for campaigns to raise awareness for Israel worldwide. The government has already authorized NIS 1 billion.…The budget will also be used, among other things, to fund social media campaigns, collaborate with civil society organizations, and bring delegations of leaders, elected officials, influencers, and others to Israel, the government said in a statement.
“Our enemies are investing huge sums against us in this. Israel has acted with very modest means and must now both increase resources and adopt new and up-to-date methods. The amounts approved are still modest in relation to the challenges that Israel faces in the world, but this is a significant breakthrough,” Sa’ar added.
And why are they upping the hasbara budget so dramatically?
Perhaps Rahm Emmanuel can tell us.
Even Ex-Mayor Rahm Can Tell Which Way the Wind Blows
The disgraced former mayor of Chicago, Biden’s Ambassador to Japan, and Obama Chief of Staff spoke at the Jewish Federations conference in October. Per Mondoweiss:
“Look where Israel stands in America with people under 30,” he said. “Forget party. It is a political risk today to take a [pro-Israel] position. Israel is extremely unpopular—I want to drive this point home for all of us who support a Jewish state– today, Israel for a generation under 30, the last two years will be as seminal a definition as what the Six Day War was for [an earlier] generation. But we have to be honest about the task we have here.”
The head of the federation, former U.S. Rep. Eric Fingerhut (D-OH) chimed in:
“We have experienced a planned and coordinated attack on Israel’s standing in North America and on the Jewish community that supports Israel. Fueled by billions of dollars in dark money…. [from ] Iran and Qatar and China and Russia and more. Spread by the most advanced communications tools ever invented…”
It’s impossible to tell if Fingerhut actually believes Israel is the victim of a vast dark money conspiracy or not. Like most zionists he probably can’t comprehend the revulsion the Gaza genocide has inspired around the world.
But zionists do understand how to put huge amounts of dark money to work.
Some of Israel’s 2026 hasbara budget will go toward informational force-feeding of Christian zionists in the U.S.
Can’t Let Those Pulpits Go Quiet
And of course, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel is leading the informational force-feeding like a French peasant choking noodles down a goose’s neck. From The Christian Broadcasting Network:
More than one thousand pastors and Christian influencers are in the Holy Land this week. Organizers call it the largest gathering of its kind since Israel’s founding.
A partnership between Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Friends of Zion Museum led to the unprecedented visit.
Friends of Zion founder Mike Evans told CBN News, “It’s the first time in history the State of Israel has officially partnered with 1,000 strategic pastors to commission them as ambassadors to combat antisemitism and reach the youth of their generation.”
Evans believes Israel’s fight is not just on the battlefield.
“Right now, there’s an ideological war that Israel is losing,” he stated. “So, they need the Evangelicals, they need the Zionists, to fight an ideological war. Demons don’t clear customs, and this ideological war’s massive. And it’s being funded by countries like Qatar and others through an antichrist-type AI, and to pound away with bots and to marginalize people and silence them.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told us, “So it’s just, I think an extraordinary time for pastors to go to their pulpits and to speak with clarity and with boldness and to push back on the antisemitism, the bigotry that is being pushed toward Jewish people and toward the people of Israel.”
Pastor Jesse Bailey of Southern California and Tennessee’s Legacy Family Church observed, “Unfortunately, the pulpit has become quiet about those things. We’ve allowed cultural voices to speak louder to the congregation than the pastors have on these topics. So it’s been motivating to make sure that we go back and bring the message of who Israel is to the Lord. And, our role as Christians is to continue to support and pray for Israel.”
Ambassador Huckabee, a former pastor, sees a rising danger in the Church.
“There is a growing cancer within the evangelical movement in America where people are thinking, Israel doesn’t matter,” he said, “And there’s nothing biblical about our relationship to Israel. This is very dangerous.“
He added, “Because this idea that God will break his covenant or he has broken his covenant with the Jewish people – it borders on blasphemy, because if God will break his covenant with the Jewish people, what on earth makes me think as a Christian, that he will keep his covenant with me?”
And while we’re on the topic of blasphemy…
Silencing Ms Rachel
Self-styled free speech hero Elon Musk has suspended the account of Ms Rachel, the popular children’s entertainer who has been outspoken in her sympathies for Palestinian children.
Ms Rachel’s X account has been suspended. pic.twitter.com/1MvpSOTQ0e
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) December 8, 2025
🚨 Ms. Rachel (@msrachellittles) SUSPENDED from 𝕏 just days after being labeled “Antisemite of the Year” for humanizing a Palestinian child killed in Gazapic.twitter.com/CJJHS5Rliv pic.twitter.com/St1oGZNTKC
— Le Bark News (@LeBarkNews) December 7, 2025
And who is Ms Rachel’s nemesis?
🧵MEET LIORA REZ OF STOPANTISEMITISM:
Failed fashion blogger in the business of “creating consequences” – while desperate to avoid them herself
Last year she used fake addresses in empty buildings to try and avoid a DEFAMATION lawsuit LOL pic.twitter.com/010AX3BU38
— ZMT (@ZMTabloid) February 8, 2025
Vlogger James Li has more on Rez and her financial backers. I should add that if Rez is getting money directly from the Israeli government, it hasn’t been reported anywhere that I’ve seen.
Another agent of hasbara and informational force-feeding that can self-finance is the Ellison family of Oracle and now Paramount fame.
David Ellison Pitches a Fit Over Netflix Buying WBD
While I certainly agree with Matt Stoller that Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is a disaster for America, I can’t help but enjoy the spectacle of David Ellison reacting to it.
Puck zinged the Nepo Baby:
Desperation is the only possible explanation for yesterday’s public tantrum thrown by the Ellisons via a three-page lawyer letter to Zaslav and his advisors. Ellison assumedly saw this deal slipping away, and claimed that WBD “appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process,” thereby confirming all the rumors ricocheting around town that Netflix had presented the highest offer—or, rather, the highest offer by the metrics that Zaslav and his board were using—and that Ellison believed the fix was in. You don’t send that letter if you’re winning.
But first, let’s connect the dots between Israel’s propaganda budget and the Ellison family with help from 972 Mag’s piece “The billionaire family poised to rewire U.S. media in Israel’s favor” subtitled: “Having acquired Paramount and CBS and eyeing TikTok and CNN, the Ellisons are constructing a pro-Israel information empire with unprecedented reach.”
Key quotes:
A major Republican donor and political ally of President Trump, the Oracle co-founder is also a major supporter of Israeli causes, having given $16.6 million to Friends of the IDF in 2017, then the largest gift in the organization’s history. In 2021, Oracle’s then-CEO Safra Catz told the Israeli outlet Calcalist that the company’s “commitment to Israel is second to none.” If Oracle employees “don’t agree with our mission to support the State of Israel,” she said, “then maybe we aren’t the right company for them.” That same year, Netanyahu, Israel’s opposition leader at the time, vacationed on Ellison’s privately owned Hawaiian island.
The billionaire also enjoys a close relationship with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, having poured at least $130 million into the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change — which, in turn, has promoted Oracle’s services across the Global South. Blair was named as a leader of the Gaza transitional authority in the Trump ceasefire plan that was approved by the UN Security Council in November.
See also our previous pieces on the Ellison family’s incredibly ambitious media acquisitions and ambitions from earlier this year:
Let’s catch up with the latest developments.
Bloomberg reported on Netflix’ conversations with POTUS Trump before they made their offer:
Netflix Inc. co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos ventured to the White House in mid-November for a meeting with President Donald Trump. Over more than an hour, the two discussed a range of topics, including the auction of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., according to people familiar with the interaction.
Warner Bros. should sell to the highest bidder, Trump said, according to the people, who asked not to be identified divulging the details of a private conversation.…Sarandos left with the impression that Netflix wouldn’t face immediate opposition from the White House, contrary to the claims of his rival bidder, Paramount Skydance Corp. The Ellison family that controlled Paramount was overestimating its political advantage and would likely underbid, Sarandos decided. That created an opening.
On Friday, Netflix agreed to pay $82.7 billion, including debt, for Warner Bros. in one of the largest media deals ever. If successful, Netflix, a Silicon Valley-based streaming service once described as the Albanian army by former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes will take over one of Hollywood’s oldest and storied studios, as well as HBO, its one-time inspiration.
The Ellisons have been very open about their eagerness to please POTUS Trump, with Larry and the Donald having discussed some Trump-pleasing plans for CNN, via The LA Times:
Ellison often speaks to connections at the White House and in at least one phone call engaged in a dialogue about possibly axing some of the CNN hosts whom Donald Trump is said to loathe, including Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar, the people said.
The conversation also touched on floating names to replace Burnett and the possibility of running CBS assets like its flagship 60 minutes program on CNN air – proposals that have animated the White House, the people said.
That call, described by people on the condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive, was characterized as informal since Ellison does not have a formal role at Paramount. Still, he holds a major ownership stake in the company, which is run by his son, David Ellison.
Given those efforts, David and Larry can’t be happy about Trump’s response to the Netflix deal:
“Should Netflix be allowed to buy Warner Bros.?” Trump said, “I don’t know, that’s going to be for some economists to tell. I’ll be involved in that decision, too.” He added, of Sarandos: “He was in the Oval Office last week.… He’s a great person. He’s done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things.”
David Ellison went on CNBC this morning and announced he’ll be launching a hostile takeover of WBD in response:
Paramount will go straight to WBD shareholders with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer. That’s the same bid WBD rejected last week, which Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said Monday never got a response from Warner Bros. Discovery. The offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital and $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management.
“We’re really here to finish what we started,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Monday. “We put the company in play.”
Puck had more on the likely financing of the Ellisons’ offer:
the PSKY bid is fully financed by David Ellison’s father, Larry, with help from RedBird Capital and the Saudis, and both Citigroup and Bank of America were prepared to refinance some $54 billion of the combined debt of the two companies. (RedBird is also a minority investor in Puck.)…Larry Ellison has deep pockets—he’s worth $275 billion at last count—and the Paramount Skydance crew has enlisted equity support from the Saudis, but we’re entering serious squid-eating-the-whale territory. The market value of Paramount Skydance is $15 billion—down nearly 10 percent on Friday after the Netflix news—making the stretch to something like $115 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery seem rather large. It could still happen, though, if the Ellisons are really determined to win. What’s another $10 billion or so among friends at this point?
CNBC’s Alex Sherman later tweeted about the role of the Gulf States in financing the deal. Ironic, no?
One thing we learned today is the Ellison family really totally behind the Paramount bid — while the Ellisons are committing $12b in financing, $24b(!) comes from Middle East SWFs — literally double the amount of the Ellison family.
Paramount definitely didn’t lead with that.
— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) December 8, 2025
The biggest difference between the Netflix vision for Warner Bros. and the Ellisons’ is that Netflix does not want CNN or any of the other cable stations (including TNT, Discovery, HGTV and the Food Network) owned by WBD.
According to the NY Times, Netflix wins those channels “will be spun off into a separate publicly traded company that, by next year, will be called Discovery Global. Gunnar Wiedenfels, the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, will lead the new company.”
The Hollywood Reporter breaks down who is on which side in Hollywood:
Hollywood labor, too, has come out against the Netflix deal, although that’s not to say that the guilds would be for a Paramount offer either. The Writers Guild of America went scorched earth on the deal (“must be blocked“) and the chief of the Teamsters’ motion picture division called for it to be blocked. Theater owners group Cinema United called it “an unprecedented threat” and its European equivalent UNIC says it “fails in every regard.”
But SAG-AFTRA, which also has a Netflix deal to air the Actor Awards, appeared to withhold judgment, saying the buy “must result in more creation and more production, not less.” And the Christopher Nolan-led Directors Guild just said the deal raises “significant concerns.”
Movie theaters are deeply suspicious of Netflix as well, per CNBC:
“It’s no secret that this was probably the least desired outcome for many theater owners,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “There are no two ways around that. This may be one of the most meaningful days in the history of the business, but it could yet be a constructive one for cinema if Netflix honors early indications that it will maintain the theatrical business model of Warner Bros. properties and lean into those unique strengths which are not replicable on the streaming platform.”
Cinema United, the world’s largest exhibition trade association, came out strong Friday morning against the sale of WBD assets to Netflix.
I should also note that the bidding war for WBD has massively enriched WBD CEO David Zaslav whose tenure has been a disaster for the company since he led the Discovery Inc takeover of Warner Media in 2022.
UPDATE: I initially missed this report about Jared Kushner coming in on the Paramount side, one would have to assume he’ll have Trump’s support. Per Axios:
Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, is part of Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery, according to a regulatory filing.…Affinity Partners was not mentioned in Paramount’s press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Per the tender offer, each of those parties “have agreed to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments.”Each of them also was part of Paramount’s original WBD bid on Dec. 1, although fellow partner Tencent subsequently left the group.
We’ll continue to cover the battle over WBD as it develops but I want to close with some updates about another American corporation closely aligned with Israel’s informational force-feeding efforts: Palantir.
The Palantir Bros Want More Dystopia
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale came out strong in support of embattled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with this charming and pithy post on X:
If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law.
We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others.
Our society needs balance. It’s time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.
— Joe Lonsdale (@JTLonsdale) December 5, 2025
Perhaps Lonsdale wanted to up the ante on his rhetoric to keep up with Palantir CEO and co-founder Alex Karp whose epic interview with the NYT’s Dealbook had Fort Bragg Cartel author Seth Harp tweeting, “Hey Alex Karp stop taking so much drugs. Everyone is laughing at how inappropriately amped and giddy you are. Your wild gesticulations and inability to sit still are obvious signs of stimulant abuse. Seriously bro you look like a fool. Get help.”
The entire interview is worth serious study by scholars of informational force-feeding and dystopian nightmares, but I’ll just highlight a couple of Karp’s comments on Israel:
Alex Karp: When you support allies in in Israel, which I guess typically is the most controversial in public, interestingly, often the least controversial in private, um is uh it’s like it doesn’t actually, and I do support all those things, it doesn’t actually mean that you support every decision. It means you support them having a superior position to their adversaries.…All these countries and people I defend in public like Israel is a perfect example. I think most of the critiques of Israel, not all, not all, but a lot of people just have like Israel derangement or Jewish derangement syndrome. It’s like they’re like hobbyists. It’s like they think about Jews all day. It’s like I don’t know. I grew up in the Jewish community. How often do you think about Jews? I don’t think about Jews very often.
So, it’s like, hey, I of course I’m going to defend in a way publicly that I can assure you privately people have less present conversations than the one we’re having. Like I told I told the Israeli government from the beginning, maximum violence to the people organizing violence, minimal violence to the people on the front end, and I told every single person.
As for what Palantir is actually doing in Gaza…
By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Palantir
New York Magazine has a terrifying piece by Mohammed R. Mhawish titled “Watched, Tracked, and Targeted Life in Gaza under Israel’s all-encompassing surveillance regime” on the reality of life in Gaza as the genocide groans into its third year.
Israel’s military assault that began in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, has left Gaza unrecognizable. The campaign of mass killing, of severing communities, of making homes unlivable, was pursued with bombs and bullets and tanks. It operated, too, through a system of watching, knowing, and collecting us: drones that hovered endlessly overhead, quadcopters that dipped near windows and entered houses, facial-recognition scans at checkpoints, movements followed through phone tracking, calls that broke with static before an air strike. The Israeli army was using artificial intelligence to generate kill lists, monitoring our social-media accounts, and storing in bulk the audio of our phone calls. Journalists, human-rights researchers, and legal scholars have mapped pieces of the surveillance apparatus in Gaza. What has largely been missing is how this technology landed on bodies, homes, and neighborhoods; how it reshaped daily life for people forced to live inside the matrix; how it reordered our minds.…I heard from more than a dozen people living under this regime of ceaseless watching. One of these people, Marwan, a 60-year-old hospital administrator in Gaza City, at first objected to my line of questioning. (I’m using only first names. Giving their full names in a report about surveillance feels like an offering to the occupation.) “In the face of mass slaughter,” Marwan said, “what difference does it make that they can see my Facebook posts or hack my calls or monitor my home?”
But soon Marwan could not stop talking about how the constant awareness of being watched had twisted and narrowed his world. He said he now avoids calling his brother “lest he ask whether any rockets were fired from the area or whether the Israelis had arrived in the area,” and those words be misread or distorted by unseen listeners. He described the collapse of connection itself: the way fear moves into a family, one phone call at a time, until even expressions of love begin to feel dangerous.
Khaled, who worked for nearly three decades as an ambulance driver for Al-Awda Hospital, said that during an interrogation, an officer showed him a private text message he’d sent his family. “Everything we say, they can see,” Khaled said. The text was mundane; the point, he felt, was to show this 61-year-old father of seven how deeply they could peer into his private life. People told me they have even extinguished their own thoughts, as if the interrogators and listeners could see inside their heads. “Nobody doesn’t have political leanings,” one man named Mohammed told me. “But I’ve killed it. I’ve prohibited myself from speaking on this. I’ve locked it with a key.”
Gaza is the end state desired by our imperial informational force-feeders and I fear it’s a preview of coming attractions for the rest of the world.
Rule by billionaire idiots with no moral compass, an ethnosupremacist ideology, and no shame is indeed disgusting, despair-inspiring, and dystopian, but for my part I cling to the words of one whose name was writ in water: Truth is beauty, beauty, truth.
