A newly leaked membership list from Dialog, an invitation-only organization co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, has reignited one of America’s oldest fears: that the country isn’t really governed by elected officials, but by a small, interconnected network of elites operating behind closed doors. The leak itself appears to be genuine and has been independently reported by multiple outlets, including WIRED, which says internal records and membership directories were left exposed online and later verified. According to those reports, Dialog was founded in 2006 and hosts private, off-the-record retreats attended by leaders from politics, technology, finance, media, and academia. The organization has kept its membership secret for years, leading some to compare it to the Bilderberg Group—a long-rumored gathering of global elites that has fueled speculation and conspiracy theories for decades.
The names reportedly appearing on the leaked list span the political spectrum and include some of the most influential figures in the United States today. Among the politicians and public officials said to be involved are Ted Cruz, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Jared Polis, Wes Moore, Julian Castro, Jim Himes, and Jared Kushner. The list also reportedly includes major figures from technology and media, such as Elon Musk, Ezra Klein, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, along with executives tied to artificial intelligence, venture capital, and Silicon Valley. The sheer breadth of the roster is what has captured the public imagination. Conservatives, liberals, celebrities, journalists, entrepreneurs, and government officials all appearing under the umbrella of the same secretive organization naturally raises eyebrows and invites questions about what exactly is happening behind closed doors.
For many Americans, this leak will seem to confirm their worst suspicions. How is it that politicians who publicly disagree on almost everything can belong to the same exclusive organization? Why are billionaires, intelligence officials, senators, governors, journalists, and tech executives all meeting in private? What exactly is discussed when cameras are off and the public isn’t invited? Those questions naturally fuel concerns about a so-called “deep state”—the belief that an invisible, bipartisan establishment exercises power regardless of who wins elections. To many skeptics, this is not merely a social club or networking group. It looks like evidence that the real centers of power exist outside democratic institutions and that elections merely determine who speaks for the public while a permanent elite class quietly shapes the country’s future.
And to be fair, the perception problem is real. When powerful people gather secretly, public trust suffers. When organizations refuse to disclose their members, people assume there is something to hide. And when ordinary citizens feel increasingly powerless while wealth and influence become concentrated among a tiny elite, stories like this do not emerge in a vacuum—they fit into an already existing narrative that the rules are different for those at the top. The Dialog leak is especially striking because it reportedly includes individuals from both left and right, establishment Democrats and conservatives alike. To skeptics, this looks less like democracy and more like an elite class protecting its own interests while political battles play out on television for everyone else.
But there is another side to this story, and it is important not to ignore it. Secretive does not necessarily mean sinister. History is full of private forums where influential people meet: business conferences, academic retreats, policy think tanks, and informal gatherings designed to encourage candid discussion. The annual Bilderberg meetings, for example, have long attracted conspiracy theories, yet no concrete evidence has ever emerged showing that they secretly govern the world. Likewise, being listed as a member of Dialog does not prove wrongdoing, corruption, or collusion. Some attendees may have joined only once. Others may disagree vehemently with Peter Thiel’s views. Still others may attend precisely because they want to engage with people outside their ideological bubble.
In fact, the leaked roster reportedly includes people who are political rivals or who have publicly criticized one another. That reality cuts against the notion that everyone involved shares a single agenda. It is entirely possible that the meetings are exactly what their organizers claim: a place where influential people exchange ideas and debate important issues away from the pressures of social media and public grandstanding. Even some of the conference topics that sound provocative—subjects reportedly involving artificial intelligence, geopolitics, “Build-a-Cult,” and the future of society—do not necessarily imply malicious intent. Conferences often use provocative titles to spark debate rather than endorse the ideas being discussed.
Still, there is a legitimate debate to be had. Should elected officials participate in secret organizations? Should journalists attend private gatherings alongside the very people they cover? Should intelligence officials, CEOs, and lawmakers be expected to disclose these affiliations to the public? Those are fair questions, and citizens have every right to ask them. Transparency has long been viewed as a cornerstone of democracy, and when influential figures operate in private, skepticism is inevitable.
The Dialog leak may not prove the existence of a shadow government or a hidden cabal directing America’s future. But it does reveal something undeniably true: a relatively small group of influential people has access to one another in ways ordinary citizens do not. Whether that represents healthy networking among leaders or an unhealthy concentration of power is a question Americans will continue debating long after the headlines fade. And perhaps that is the real significance of this leak—not that it proves the deep state exists, but that it exposes just how fragile public trust has become when powerful people operate behind closed doors, leaving millions to wonder who is really running the country.
House MKULTRA Hearing Set For 051326
When Anna Paulina Luna publicly signals a hearing tied to something as controversial and historically unsettling as Project MKUltra, it’s bound to turn heads—and not just because of the subject matter, but because of the willingness it takes to even go there. For decades, MKUltra has occupied a strange space in American consciousness: partially declassified fact, partially dismissed suspicion, and fully uncomfortable. Many elected officials would rather steer clear of it altogether, treating it as politically radioactive. That’s precisely why Luna’s move stands out. It suggests a readiness to engage with topics that others avoid, not because they lack relevance, but because they carry reputational risk.
There’s a broader context here that makes this moment particularly notable. Across the country, there’s a growing appetite for transparency—whether it’s about government surveillance, intelligence practices, or long-buried programs that were once waved away as conspiracy. From renewed scrutiny of agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency to bipartisan calls for declassification in other areas, the public mood has shifted. People are less willing to accept “trust us” as a sufficient answer, especially when it comes to historical abuses of power. In that sense, this hearing isn’t just about MKUltra itself; it fits into a larger pattern of reevaluating what has been hidden and why.
What makes Luna’s approach noteworthy is not necessarily that she’s promising explosive revelations—there’s no indication that May 13 will suddenly rewrite the historical record—but that she’s legitimizing the conversation within a formal government setting. That alone matters. When something moves from the fringes into a congressional hearing room, it changes how it’s perceived. It becomes something that can be questioned, documented, and entered into the public record, rather than dismissed outright.
For a subset of Americans often referred to as “targeted individuals,” this development will likely carry particular significance. Many in that community have long argued that programs resembling MKUltra never truly ended, but instead evolved under different classifications and technologies. Their claims are controversial and widely disputed, but they persist in part because of the historical reality that MKUltra itself was once denied before being partially confirmed. A hearing like this, even if it doesn’t validate those beliefs, signals that the door to inquiry is not completely shut—and that alone can feel like a shift.
At the same time, expectations should remain grounded. It’s unlikely that May 13 will produce a major bombshell or definitive answers to decades-old questions. Government hearings, especially on sensitive intelligence matters, tend to move incrementally rather than dramatically. But that doesn’t make them meaningless. In many cases, the first hearing is less about revelation and more about establishing that the topic deserves attention at all.
If anything, this could serve as a starting point—a signal that even the most uncomfortable chapters of government history are not off-limits forever. And if that leads to more hearings, more documents, and more scrutiny over time, then it will have achieved something meaningful. Because in a climate increasingly defined by demands for openness, even small steps toward transparency matter. As the saying goes, sunshine is the best disinfectant.
Jeffrey Epstein & The Deep State
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently came out and declared the Jeffrey Epstein case officially closed. Epstein is the billionaire who was charged with child sex trafficking in 2019, but later died in prison while awaiting trial. The government declared his death a suicide, but there have been serious questions raised by some very credible voices, as to whether he really took his own life.
Part of the firestorm that has predictably erupted following DOJ’s abrupt closure of the Epstein case, stems from this theory that he was an intelligence asset tasked with a honey pot scheme aimed at compromising powerful U.S. figures. The argument in a nutshell, is that Epstein would befriend powerful figures and lure them into his illicit activities with minors, while secretly recording them for “kompromat”. These powerful figures, usually politicians, would then feel compelled to go with whatever the Deep State wanted–afraid to be exposed.
Among the loudest voices advancing this Deep State theory is longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who is now calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate everything about Epstein. Bannon argues that it is only through a special prosecutor probe of Epstein, that we will finally break the stranglehold the Deep State has on America.
It will be interesting to see how Bannon’s request for a special counsel probe plays out, or whether Congress decides to look into the matter via its various available investigative tools.
As someone who has consistently called for a new Church-type probe, I think this push for an Epstein special counsel probe dramatically increases the odds that a Church-type committee investigating our intelligence agencies, is where we will finally end—especially if it turns out that Epstein was indeed an intelligence asset.
President-Elect Trump Promises Massive Crackdown On The Deep State
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In one of his post election posts on X, President-Elect Donald Trump promised to “dismantle the Deep State.” This as you know, was a central theme of his presidential campaign so it should come as no surprise to anyone. The question now is whether he will actually deliver on this seemingly tall order that may play well on the campaign trail, but prove very difficult in terms of actually pulling it off.
Different people have different notions as to what the Deep State actually means, or whether it even exists, but the general consensus is that they are powerful but unelected bureaucrats, who control the levers of power behind the scenes, and span different administrations (both Democrat and Republican)–essentially a permanent unelected ruling class, who ruthlessly protect their power from “outsiders”–ambitious people they don’t approve of/like. They use the instruments of government(the ABC agencies we shall not name) to crush their perceived enemies.
Trump has cast himself as one of those outsiders, and he points to his endless criminal prosecutions as proof of the Deep State coming after him. He has repeatedly singled out the FBI as one of the key instruments of the Deep State that he wants hollowed out.
Whether or not the FBI has become an instrument of the Deep State as Trump alleges, is a question Yours Truly chooses to sidestep for now–way above my pay grade. What Yours Truly finds very encouraging about Trump’s proclamation however, is that during his 4 years, maybe, just maybe, we may achieve something I have begged and prayed for for quite a long time now, and that is, a Church-type Committee to look into the abuses of our intelligence agencies.
The last time we did an audit of our intelligence agencies was way back in the 1960s so reasonable people will agree that a fresh audit is way past due. A lot of “dirt” was uncovered in the previous audit (cointelpro being the main one) so smart money is that 70 years after that, there are bound to be some let’s just say, “interesting” new programs to be “unearthed”. I for one, would keep my eyes open for the notorious Targeted Individual program, which our intelligence agencies have categorically dismissed as a conspiracy theory. A Church-type committee would be the perfect venue to get to the bottom of this supposed “conspiracy theory”.
Yours Truly has long advocated for the enactment of a new Church-type commission to investigate the abuses of power by our intelligence agencies. Though President-Elect Trump doesn’t outrightly call for the creation of such a commission, reasonable people will agree that his recent post on X is the most serious attempt yet by a modern American president to rein in our out of control intel agencies, and for that, he deserves a lot of praise. Whether he will keep his promise is a different matter altogether.
President-Elect Trump is known to desire things/issues that cast him aside from other American presidents in terms of greatness. Well, 70 years later, historians are still talking about the historic Church Committee hearings, and the administration that was in charge then. If Trump pushes for a new Church-type committee during his four years, historians will also be talking favorably about his administration 100 years from now, especially if a lot of illegal government activity is uncovered.
President-Elect Trump should also know that a much overdue audit of our intelligence agencies is an issue that enjoys tremendous bipartisan support despite the media’s depiction of it as a partisan MAGA issue.