How to Think For Yourself in 2026 (12/30/25)

2025 has shown us the evolution of alternative media into the very thing it was sold not be to be; regurgitated talking points rooted in advertisements, special interests, and personal bias. On this end-year episode of TST radio, we will look to investigate the underlying mechanism behind the claims and narratives that become talking points every day. These are stories that are not new nor unique, yet are presented in a way to essentially obscure the past in the name of truth and exposing corruption. We begin with Nick Shirley:

Nick Shirley’s 42 minute “I Investigated Minnesota’s Billion Dollar Fraud Scandal” video went viral on X after being posted on December 6, 2025. Within hours Elon Musk was posting about the lack of coverage from news outlets like ABC and Fox News, while other well-known names like Alex Jones were calling it the “fraud of the century.” Random accounts with enormous amounts of followers were calling for Nick to be given the Pulitzer Prize, every top-post was pushing memes of Nick with an X logo that said, “100 million views,” and other memes were circulating about how Nick did what mainstream news could not. These posts were pushing the idea that X is completely independent and the definition of free speech and journalistic integrity.

Some minor digging, however, shows all of this to be nothing but a theatrical production. Several mainstream and local news outlets covered the Minnesota fraud. In fact, ABC 5 KSTP did an investigation on the fraud in October 2025, posting a video similar to Nick’s. In 2018, Fox 9 KMSP did an investigation. In 2015, Hennepin County raided multiple day-care centers as part of a fraud investigation; they arrested four people. The biggest report of all came in 2019 when the Office of the Legislative Auditor State of Minnesota did a full investigation on the Child Care Assistance Program. The investigation found hundreds of millions in fraud. Nick’s report was therefore not unique, groundbreaking, or new. It also appears that the attempt to paint X as a source of truth and real journalism follows Musk’s signing of an agreement with CHEQ, an Israeli company, to regulate content on the platform. As with TikTok’s forced selling to Larry Ellison over content deemed dangerous to Israel, X obliterated not only stories about Israel following Nick’s viral video, but drove down another Israeli story happening the same week. On December 29, 2025, Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United States to meet with Donald Trump. The meeting involved an announcement of pre-war in Venezuela alongside multiple discussions about an upcoming conflict with Iran. Trump also announced that he has been working with the Israel government to get Netanyahu a full pardon for his crimes. 

Furthermore, Nick also teamed up with Jake Lang, an Israeli behind provocations in Michigan an Texas, who arrived in Minnesota to openly called for a crusade against Islam. Just prior to Nick’s video going viral, he spent some of the spring in Israel/Gaza interviewing IDF Colonel Grishna Yakubovich, former administrator of occupied Palestine. The interview featured atrocity propaganda and commentary on how evil Arabs, Muslims, and the Palestinians are. 

In preparation for the upcoming crusade, the Pentagon, which just failed its eighth straight budget, received a 1 trillion dollar budget from Congress. 

https://www.military.com/feature/2025/12/24/pentagon-fails-eighth-audit-eyes-2028-turnaround.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/02/trump-defense-budget-hits-1-trillion-despite-doge/84419890007/

https://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/sreview/ccap.pdf

https://kstp.com/tracking-your-tax-dollars/whistleblower-minnesotas-child-care-assistance-program-has-fraud-cases-dating-back-12-years/

https://www.fox9.com/news/millions-of-dollars-in-suitcases-fly-out-of-msp-but-why.amp

https://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-raids-day-care-centers-as-part-of-fraud-investigation-4-arrested/329988761

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-co-cheq-to-help-musk-battle-bots-on-x-1001464912

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