MUSK 7 625
ESTB 6 25 POST BRKUP
aha doh ESCALATOR AMPLIFY ALGORITHM RADICALIZE POLAR
KID KILLER} 14 MILLION BY 2030:SEE VILLAINS // MILLER 3
GATES: WORLD'S RICHEST KILLING POOREST KIDS
SEE TWIT 6 X 925
see PAXTON BLOCK INVESTIGATIONS ABBOTT $ EMAILS
see SOCIAL SECUR SAFETY NET
SEE ADL
SEE GROKIPEDIA FAIL 10 25
wingnut moon satellites ~ agc 9 26
see revenge troll:
aha cerno blame fem for divorce, // musk dtr
// men’s rts movement proto-incel?
~ EU REG, DISINFO
BBC DENIED ANY KID DIED USAID
PODSAVE
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big $ midterm paxton
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RWW --> 11 26
- Alex Marshall @ The New York Times: Megyn Kelly, Elon Musk and Others Defend Russell Brand After Rape Conviction
The former star, whom a British judge sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison on Monday, became an anti-establishment flag-bearer through conspiracy-minded commentary.
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guk gfx
The staggering $446m Elon Musk has spent on the US midterms – visualized
The tech mogul’s midterm donations backing Republicans have made him the largest single-cycle political donor in modern US history
Nick Robins-Early, Andrew Witherspoon, Will Craft, Alvaro Dominguez, and Daniel Wolfe
Sat 31 Oct 2026
Elon Musk has poured so much money into US politics this midterms election cycle that his donations could fund half a dozen SpaceX rocket launches or buy thousands of Tesla Cybertrucks. At the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, Musk could order more than 31.9m cheeseburgers with the money he has spent on the midterms.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has funnelled at least $445.77m into Republican-aligned political action committees (Pacs) and groups since last year, according to US Federal Election Commission data s of 29 October. The contributions have made him the Republicans’ most prominent financial backer and the largest single-cycle political donor in modern US history.
Musk’s spending is a staggering example of the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s political influence, as he seeks to help Donald Trump’s administration retain control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, though current polls predict Democrats achieving a majority. The contributions are at a scale that is difficult to fathom and dwarf efforts from big name mega-donors like George Soros or Michael Bloomberg, setting a new precedent for how the rich and powerful attempt to shape politics.
https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2026/10/archive-zip/giv-32554OSJshvcFWwwg/?dark=false
Only last year, Musk claimed he would step away from making large-scale political donations after putting nearly $300m towards Trump’s 2024 presidential election campaign. FEC data since then shows he has not only leaned back into financing campaigns, but that his spending has dramatically ramped up as election day approaches, increasing by about $200m in the final two months of campaigning.
Musk’s money has primarily flowed into several Republican-aligned Super Pacs, with his largest contribution of $216m going into his own America Pac. The Pac has targeted 43 House and Senate races across the US, blanketing voters with television commercials, digital ads, text messages and mailers.
America Pac made 839 independent expenditures in House races and 623 in Senate races in 17 states across the country. The spending varies greatly depending on the state, however, with campaigns in battlegrounds such as Michigan and Arizona receiving more of the Pac’s support.
Musk’s Pac has spent the most in his home state of Texas, where a closely fought Senate contest between the Democratic candidate James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton has turned into the most expensive race of the midterms. America Pac has overall poured more than $33m into efforts to elect Paxton, while Musk also made a $168m contribution to the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports the Paxton campaign.
A large portion of America Pac’s output focuses on attack ads against Democratic candidates such as Talarico, often accusing them of being radical socialists or targeting them over supporting transgender rights. The Pac has spent $28m on anti-Talarico content, including between $300,000 and 350,000 in October on a single Google ad targeting the Texas Senate candidate.
“James Talarico supports parents being charged with child abuse if they do not support transitioning their children,” stated the ad, which was shown more than 10m times over an eight-day period.
Musk has also reposted America Pac’s content to his more than 200 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns. One of Musk’s posts in October amplified an America Pac attack ad and claimed: “Talarico wants to trans your kids and destroy the border.”
The nearly $446m that Musk has donated this election cycle far exceeds his contributions in the 2024 presidential race, when the tech mogul also held rallies and appeared on stage next to Trump during the campaign. While Musk has been a less visible presence in the midterms, potentially reflecting the US public’s dislike of him, behind the scenes he has greatly upped his financial support for Republicans.
Musk’s spending far outpaces all other donors in the elections, including fellow tech and finance moguls like Marc Andreessen, who also started his own Super Pac. Musk has put more money into this election cycle than what every top Silicon Valley donor, including himself, spent on the 2024 presidential election combined.
https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2026/10/archive-zip/giv-32554ltk5DqpEQqJe/?dark=false
The stakes of the midterm elections are potentially high for Musk, who has closely aligned himself with the Trump administration and benefited from its lax policies toward regulating tech and artificial intelligence. SpaceX has also intertwined itself into the government more extensively, landing lucrative contracts this year for Trump’s missile defense program and the use of Musk’s Grok AI chatbot in the Pentagon.
Despite the immense and unprecedented scale of Musk’s political spending, his contributions this election are still only a tiny fraction of the centibillionaire’s overall assets.
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AN 11 26 RR
Rather than regurgitate the particular wins and losses that occurred Tuesday, I thought it more useful, at this point, to look at the big picture and identify the largest overall winners and losers for the nation as a whole.
Biggest winner: A diverse, equitable, and inclusive America. It’s Trump’s DEI nightmare. Georgia voters elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, the first Black female governor in the nation. Texas chose Gina Hinojosa, the state’s first Latina governor and first Democratic governor in more than 30 years. California elected Xavier Becerra, the state’s first Latino governor. New Mexico chose Deb Haaland, the nation’s first female Native American governor. Florida elected Byron Donalds, the first Black governor in Florida’s history (a Republican).
For the U.S. Senate, New Hampshire chose Chris Pappas, that chamber’s first openly gay member. Minnesotans picked Peggy Flanagan, the first Native American woman elected to the Senate. Michiganders chose Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the Senate.
These are remarkable wins. Some are attributable to a surge in voting by Black people, many of whom were understandably incensed at efforts to push Black representatives out of Congress through overt racial gerrymandering. And by Latinos, enraged at ICE’s wanton arrests and detentions. Women upset by Republican efforts to outlaw abortion in their states. And LGBTQ+ people, angry about the blatant bigotry of Trump and his Republican enablers.
But many straight white men and women also disagree with Trump’s narrow definition of America. It turns out that the nation is far more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than Trump or his Republican enablers want (or believe) it to be. Trump and his enablers tried to make us fear and hate one another over our many differences. They indubitably failed.
Another winner: The new South. For as long as anyone can remember, the states that comprised the Old Confederacy have been regressive, conservative, intolerant, and, at least since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Republican.
No longer. On Tuesday, three of the four most populous Southern states (Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia) voted for Democrats up and down their tickets. Texas Democrats carried every statewide office from governor through lieutenant governor, attorney general, and even railroad commissioner. North Carolina and Georgia Democrats also scored stunning victories.
The biggest surprise was Annie Andrews’s win over Darline Graham in South Carolina’s Senate contest. As I write this, another possible gobsmacker: Black Democrat Scott Colom may actually win the Mississippi Senate seat held by Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Even Democratic losers in the South came remarkably close to winning: Democratic Senate candidate Jamie Davis was within a hair’s breadth of victory in Louisiana. Florida’s Angie Nixon almost snatched the Senate seat there.
What accounts for this new South? Partly a large and growing professional class (in metro Atlanta, North Carolina’s “research triangle,” and Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin) combined with an increasing flow of young workers and their families from other states, seeking more affordable housing. Add to this, an abundance of Latino and Asian immigrants. All told, the new South is more tolerant than the old. Much of it is also more sophisticated and more educated.
A third winner: Decency. During the run-up to the 2026 midterms, American voters were inundated with Republican attack ads, inflamed rhetoric, and personal smears against Democratic rivals. Those efforts backfired. Americans soundly rejected the politics of hate and fear, and embraced common decency.
Trump, JD Vance, and RFK Jr. did their worst to fuel Islamophobia against Michigan’s Dr. El-Sayed. Trump claimed if El-Sayed won, he’d “invite hordes of jihadis to our shores.” RFK Jr. baselessly linked El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their fear-mongering obviously didn’t work.
Vance suggested that Texas Democratic Senatorial candidate James Talarico is gay. Another backfire.
Ohioans were so turned off by Trump-endorsed billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad against his Democratic opponent Dr. Amy Acton — using Acton’s mother whom Acton hadn’t seen since she was 12, when her father was accused of raping her — that the ad may have helped fuel Acton’s win, the first Democrat to win Ohio’s governorship since 2006. (Trump thought the ad just fine, and Vance even blasted fellow Republicans who spoke out against the ad, calling their criticism “disgusting” and telling them to “stop whining” because “politics is a tough business.”)
Since Trump came on the scene, many Republicans have eagerly imitated Trump’s scurrilous character assaults. Such smears have become so common that we tend to forget that most Americans don’t particularly like this form of politics. They prefer Barack Obama’s tempered rhetoric and the late John McCain’s dignified and respectful way of disagreeing. Now, after the 2026 midterms, perhaps decency is back.
So who were the biggest losers? Besides Trump and his Republican sycophants, the biggest losers are the mega donors and super PACs that poured record amounts of money into failed Republican candidacies.
Top awards for strategic stupidity go to the crypto industry (which tried unsuccessfully to derail Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio); AIPAC (which did everything it could to block El-Sayed and prevent any mention of Israel’s genocide in Gaza); the AI industry, which spent loads of cash trying but failing to allay voter’s concerns about data centers; and Elon Musk, who sought, single-handedly, to save Ken Paxton’s doomed Senate campaign in Texas.
Musk deserves his own special place in the loser’s circle. The richest person in the world became the poster child in the 2026 midterms for billionaire greed, legalized bribery, and corporate welfare. He sunk almost a half billion dollars into failed Republican campaigns, the most that any single human being has ever spent on elections — and for naught. After Tuesday’s blowout, shares in Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla dropped off a cliff.
Once they’re in control of Congress, Democrats will want to know what personal data and information Musk ran off with when he ran his ill-fated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under whose authority he throttled Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellites, and why the U.S. government should continue to grant him an effective monopoly on satellites anyway rather than nationalize Starlink. To say Musk will be on the hot seat understates the temperature where he’ll be sitting.
In sum, considering the overall winners and losers from the 2026 midterms, I’d say America came out way ahead.
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/us/politics/elon-musk-midterms.html
270m$? DATA CTR WATER BUY PARK?
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1b$ invested in skydance left hook 10 26
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threat dems who investigate 10 26
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1/2b$ 2024 and 26
talarico ad paxton
The 'shadow president' just issued a chilling threat to Congress
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- Tess Owen @ Wired: Elon Musk’s Ties to Texas Republicans Go Much Deeper Than the Midterms
As Election Day approaches, the billionaire’s longstanding relationships with GOP leaders in Texas are under scrutiny.
Elon Musk has enjoyed a cozy relationship with top Texas brass for years. And in recent weeks, as the midterm elections approach and Musk’s financial support of the Texas GOP has become virtually limitless, that relationship has gone under the microscope.
While polls suggest that a number of races in deep-red Texas are looking dizzyingly close, Federal Election Commission filings show that Musk has given at least $158 million to super PACs supporting Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s bid for Senate, and last week Musk explicitly endorsed him in a post on X. “The fate of Texas and America is at stake,” Musk wrote. “Vote for @KenPaxtonTX today.”
Newly released state campaign filings also show that Musk also donated $5,000,000 to Governor Greg Abbott’s bid for reelection, making him his single largest donor.
Abbott’s relationship with Musk has been the subject of public interest for years. State representative Gina Hinojosa, who is running against Abbott, recently sued to view, in full, 1,400 pages of the governor’s correspondences with Musk. Abbott has been trying to block their release for some time; his office has described the communications as too “intimate and embarrassing” to be made public. This week, a judge ruled that Abbott had illegally “obstructed and continues to obstruct” Hinojosa’s right to inspect the documents in her capacity as a state lawmaker and ordered their release to her.
Abbott has since appealed; a hearing is scheduled for November 2, one day before the election.
State representative James Talarico, who is running against Paxton for Senate, has campaigned on his opponents’ checkered past. As attorney general, Paxton has been indicted on felony securities fraud charges (which he settled without a plea), was accused by whistleblowers of using his office to benefit the financial interests of a political donor, and was impeached (though later acquitted).
And at a campaign event on Monday in El Paso, Talarico raised questions about Paxton and Musk’s relationship. “Ken Paxton has the ultimate megadonor,” Talarico said. “Elon Musk is trying to buy this Senate seat.”
But Musk’s business dealings in Texas politics didn’t start with the midterms. For years, he has enjoyed lucrative state contacts, tax breaks, and allyship from Texas leaders. In 2021, Musk moved Tesla’s corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, and SpaceX’s headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas, in 2024.
Musk’s initial relocation to Texas coincided with a shift in operations inside the Texas Attorney General’s office. In the past, lawyers would prepare notices of investigation (administrative subpoenas known as CIDs) based on public complaints or evidence collected, then send them up the chain for approval.
Sources tell WIRED that from about 2021 onward, lawyers were increasingly instructed by Texas’ executive branch—which included Paxton and Abbott—who and what they were going to investigate, despite internal efforts to steer resources toward more “legitimate” issues. For example, in 2022, eyebrows were raised internally when, the same day Musk sent a letter to Twitter threatening to abandon a $44 billion acquisition agreement over Twitter’s alleged misrepresentation of the number of bots on the platform, Paxton’s office issued a statement asserting that his office would be launching its own investigation against Twitter.
A year later, Paxton once again appeared to use his office to benefit Musk. Musk sued the progressive watchdog Media Matters for defamation after it published an investigation showing that X, under Musk’s ownership, had been placing ads from major brands next to white-nationalist content. Moments after he filed his suit, Paxton’s office announced its own investigation into Media Matters. (Media Matters sued Paxton, asserting that his investigation was brought out of retaliation for its coverage of Musk and X.)
In 2024, after Musk filed an antitrust lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and major brands, accusing them of a conspiracy to pull revenue from X, Paxton announced his own investigation into the organization, accusing them of a “potential anticompetitive scheme to withhold advertising dollars from certain social media platforms.” (He did not mention X by name.)
And when the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section wrote a letter to Musk warning that his America PAC million-dollar sweepstakes program ahead of the presidential election could violate federal election law, Paxton intervened by filing a FOIA request, accusing the government of “intimidation of businessman Elon Musk.”
This summer, Musk’s activities in Texas didn’t slow down: Texas legislators called for an audit after the Texas Broadband Development Office allocated $110 million in grants to Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink; Texas’ Office of the Comptroller recently announced that “Terafab,” Musk’s proposed 100-million-square-foot chip manufacturing facility in Grimes County, was the recipient of a $1.66 billion tax break; and SpaceX has also received around $30 million in state grants.
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Oct 25, 2026 #lastweektonight
Ahead of the midterms, John Oliver devotes an entire episode to discussing the rising prominence of extremist beliefs within the Republican Party – from white nationalism to antisemitism – and what it all has to do with Vandy potato chips.
10 26
The Republican Party & The Far Right: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
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an 10 26 10 26 26 starlink full speed ukr
On Thursday, the Trump administration’s attempt to dodge blame for the disruption of Ukraine’s Starlink capabilities appeared to blow up. What’s more, the call came from inside the house, as it was Vice President JD Vance who accidentally exposed the whole thing. While President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials have attempted to direct responsibility for the throttling of Ukraine’s Starshield speeds at the company rather than the government, Starlink CEO Elon Musk has pushed back, asserting that the military branch of the system is operated by the Pentagon. When asked about this by Fox News, Vance appeared to back up Musk’s account.
“Fundamentally, Elon Musk runs a private corporation, and I think it's completely understandable that he doesn't want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do,” said Vance. “So I don't think this is about Elon. I think it's fundamentally, what is America's policy in Ukraine to Russia going to be?" And as Reuters National Security Correspondent Erin Banco emphasizes, “As Vance notes here, Starshield is a contract held between DOD and SpaceX. Contractually, SpaceX can't do anything without decision from USG.”
In other words, if Vance is right, then the Trump administration has actively degraded a U.S. ally’s military capacity while aiding one of the United States’ greatest adversaries. As many commentators have suggested, Trump has increasingly aligned with Russia through both word and action. Critics have argued that Trump's order dropping sanctions to buy Russian diesel not only breaks U.S. law, but hands President Vladimir Putin a financial lifeline while doing little to ease skyrocketing diesel prices.
Trump has blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the ongoing war — which was launched by Russia — while his special envoy has drawn bipartisan outrage for calling Putin a “humanitarian.” Meanwhile, Putin has floated the idea that Russia, the U.S., and China hold a summit to discuss the war — without Ukraine’s participation — a move Fox News says would be a “serious mistake.” According to Fox national security analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs, “The Russians view the United States as its number one adversary, and they're trying to get the United States to back down and not support Zelensky.”
A growing number of lawmakers are calling for investigations into the Starlink matter, while seven Republican senators have signed a letter telling Musk to remove Ukraine’s restrictions. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has declared the sabotage of Ukraine an act of “treason,” suggesting it warrants the seizure of Starlink.
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CALLED TRUMP BEFORE AND AFTER THROTTLE?
over the weekend, Ukraine struck back by bombing three Russian data centers. Immediately, bot activity on Twitter plummeted. Musk, who supports far-right movements and governments, wasn’t too pleased. After all, he needs Trump and Republicans to win so he can continue the grift. He’s already spent nearly $275 million in this election alone.
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Overnight, Starlink was blocked in Ukraine, which led to people being killed. Ukraine’s President Zelensky appeared on Piers Morgan and said he felt betrayed by President Trump, who announced an energy ceasefire and diesel deal with Putin, and Musk, whose company manages Starlink. Coincidentally, Kash Patel becomes the first FBI Director to set foot in Russia in nearly 13 years.
These evil billionaires are giving millions to both sides of the aisle. They’re building AI data centers that create zero jobs but contribute to a surveillance state used and abused by authoritarian leaders around the world. They have increased their profits as the rest of us struggle to pay our bills. They must be figuratively crushed before they crush us.
The question is which political candidate will emerge to take them head-on?
yt 1026 ukraine drone
Ukraine says SpaceX hampered drones as US ties fray
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- Tim Murphy @ Mother Jones: How a Defunct White Supremacist State Became a Cult Favorite on the Right
From battleground candidates to Elon Musk, Republicans can’t stop posting wistfully about Rhodesia.
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9 26 hegs talk at musk rocket? spacex?
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MPU 10 26 MUSK STARLINK
GRABBED BEAD $ REWRITE RULES 700M$? 98% #2 $ SPACEX
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AFP
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen on Wednesday played down the regulatory gulf between Brussels and Washington, arguing that US courts end up policing the same companies for the same behavior that European law targets in advance.
"The differences are not so big when we look at it in practice," the European Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty told AFP on the sidelines of a G20 meeting of technology ministers in North Carolina.
"In Europe, we have regulation in advance, and in the USA they are often coming with the court cases," she said. "The same companies, the same practices, are under investigation and under discussion."
Her remarks came after two days of sessions in which the ministers were addressed by industry figures including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, who used the platform to repeat the familiar charge that Europe over-regulates technology.
Virkkunen said she did not accept the premise.
"We don't see -- and I don't see -- that innovation and regulation are opposite things," the Finnish official said.
She pointed to a recent Eurobarometer survey published in which 80 percent of European respondents said careful regulation of AI was important for safety reasons.
"For Europeans, it's important that we can trust these technologies," she said, while acknowledging that Brussels would bring forward proposals to streamline some EU rules.
She noted that the absence of national tech laws in the United States has not left the industry free of government rules there.
"At (the) state level, there are hundreds of rules now on AI (in the US)," she said. "That is the situation we wanted to avoid with our AI Act -- that we have one rule for the whole market."
Virkkunen said the convergence between Europe and the United States could be seen most clearly in attitudes toward protecting minors on social media.
Meta last month reached a landmark settlement with nearly every US state, promising curfews and time limits for teens on Instagram and Facebook.
Asked about the settlement, she said some of its provisions were already law in Europe under the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to let users flag illegal content and choose the recommender system that serves them.
But she said Brussels was pursuing the same underlying concerns about how addictive the platforms can be -- an issue that has seen Meta, YouTube and TikTok face thousands of lawsuits in the United States.
The Commission published preliminary findings in July on the addictive design of Meta's services, and earlier in the summer on how the company checks whether a user is at least 13 years old.
It has also issued preliminary findings against TikTok on addictive design and opened an investigation into Snapchat in the spring.
"We are ready to come up with stronger rules also in Europe on this matter, but I think social media platforms could also do much more now already," Virkkunen said.
- 'Comply on AI' -
On AI safety, she said the enforcement powers attached to the EU's AI Act took effect in August, and that most leading AI developers had been cooperating with the Commission voluntarily before then.
"They understand that if they want to operate in the European markets, we have our rules and they have to comply with our rules," she said.
Asked whether Europe was seeing the kind of local opposition to data centers now spreading in the United States, Virkkunen said the debate was already lively in some EU member states -- an outcome she said careful planning was meant to avoid.
She described an imbalance within the bloc, with data center builders gravitating toward countries with abundant cheap clean power.
"It's not a good solution if they are just located in some countries in Europe," she said. "We need them in all countries because they are a very important part of our digital infrastructure."
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DK 9 26
X hit by complaints to EU over user data and targeted advertising
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see heated for twts
heated gmail 9 26
some blame where it’s due.
Fossil fuel companies, obviously. (Truly, no clue how those executives sleep at night.) And I gave you my two cents on big ag.
Also:
Big banks: Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, 60 banks have provided $7.9 trillion in financing to fossil fuel companies, with the top four banks alone—JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America—providing more than $1.64 trillion.
Big tech: AI data centers are just guzzling energy, and the frothing building frenzy refuses to wait for them to be powered by clean energy. In his newsletter, Bill McKibben pointed to analysis by Bloomberg that:
“The planned data center buildout will increase greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by at least twenty percent, and perhaps as much as a third.”
And as Emily Atkin reported in HEATED, “AI’s climate problem is worse than we thought” because:
“The emissions enabled by the fossil fuel industry’s use of AI are likely far greater than the emissions of powering AI as a whole. Specifically, they found that Big Oil’s use of AI to produce more oil and gas could create 3.3 to 13.3 times more climate pollution than powering AI’s data centers.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is suddenly concerned about climate change again, but also absurdly says we don’t have to worry about it for 50 years, and (you will be shocked) says he will solve it with satellites... catapulted off the moon. Another disingenuous money grab.
These tweets were written in the same week that our heating planet melted the permafrost that held a glacier in place in Nepal and Tibet. The collapse has led to so much death and devastation. A climate injustice if ever there was one. (Speaking of the UN, UNICEF is a good place to donate.)
Which brings me to.. .
Big Billionaires: There is enough money in the world to address this crisis. It requires government investment, of course. It requires electing politicians who are committed to climate solutions, and not afraid to hold corporations accountable. (Also, end Citizens United!) It requires an end to the wild speculative investments in AI. (Your data center resistance is working, don’t stop!). It requires the mega rich to stop hoarding and buying mega yachts. Right now, globally, only 2% of philanthropic funding goes to climate — in the U.S, only 0.5%. (Tax the rich!) We can fund the revolution and the transformation. no lnx
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RWW
08/14/2026
by
Opinion
Right-wing pundits and some mainstream reporters have grilled progressive candidates over controversial views expressed by leftist streamer Hasan Piker, but there’s been relatively little effort to hold Republicans accountable for their continuing embrace of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, despite his record of promoting racist and inflammatory anti-immigrant views.
“Why do we tolerate Elon Musk’s racist commentary?” asked New York Times writer Jamelle Bouie a few weeks ago:
Musk spends a large part of his free time fomenting violence and spreading the same hateful ideology that motivated some of the deadliest shootings and attacks ever to happen on American soil. It is that fact, and not the cars he builds or the rockets he launches, that ought to define his place in public life.
One answer to the question, at least when it comes to the Republican Party, is money. Musk’s Super PAC is preparing to spend more than $100 million to help Republicans try to hold onto their congressional majority. That’s on top of more than $250 million it spent to put Trump back in office. Some of Musk’s money comes from U.S. taxpayers in the form of huge government contracts.
Speaking of money, on Monday, the Republican National Committee made Musk the subject line of a fundraising email: “Elon crunched the numbers…” The body of the email featured a photo of Musk as part of a graphic that read, “Elon’s Election Fraud Alert.”
The RNC was using Musk’s name to promote bogus Trump claims about election fraud that the GOP cites as justification for trying to make it harder for some people to vote:
Elon crunched the numbers…
Millions of illegal immigrants.
Zero Voter ID laws.
Infinite mail-in ballots.
Dozens of rigged electoral maps.
And there’s only ONE answer that made sense:
The Democrats are FLAT-OUT RIGGING our elections, and the SAVE America Act is the ONLY way to stop it!
“IT MUST BE DONE OR DEMOCRACY IS DEAD” – Elon Musk
Where are all the calls for RNC officials and Republican members of Congress to disavow Musk and his extremism?
While Musk called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to put down protests against ICE brutality in Minnesota, researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate say he used his X account to amplify anti-immigrant sentiment that led to mob violence in Belfast in June.
Earlier this year, the Guardian noted Musk’s “fixation” on race and reported that he had “made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January.” In April, the Washington Post noted that Musk was posting “near daily” about race and the supposed threat of a genocide against white people, leading one commentator to tell the paper that Musk’s recent statements had left “no doubt he’s a white nationalist.”
Musk has also promoted far-right parties in other countries, which The Nation characterized last year as Musk “pushing for global neo-Nazi regime change.”
In his NYT column, Bouie noted that Musk has repeatedly used his massive social media platform to promote the idea of dealing with “traitors first, then invaders”—which Bouie connected to the concept of “race traitors” demonized in the Turner Diaries, a book that fantasizes about white nationalist political violence.
Bouie also noted that Musk has promoted the movie “Citizen Vigilante.” In a recent interview, Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, called it “irresponsible” for Musk to promote the movie, which she said “glorifies the murdering of a Muslim immigrant family.” Musk responded, “It’s worth watching.” He reposted someone who wrote that people “complaining that [the lead character] spends the first half of the movie murdering white people not migrants” are missing the point: “Always hang a traitor before you shoot an enemy.”
Musk posted “Deal with traitors before invaders” a few days before he asserted that anyone who opposes remigration—a far-right term for forcing nonwhite people to leave western countries—a traitor.
Is there anything Musk could say or do that would lead Republican leaders to denounce him?
Yes, it might be uncomfortable for Republicans to disavow Musk’s extremism when it is so aligned with the White House: when immigrant sentiment is a primary driver of policymaking, when the only refugees the Trump administration is willing to admit to the U.S. are white South Africans, and when the MAGA movement is waging a war on anything deemed to be “woke.”
But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be asked.
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AN 7 26
Lawyers trying to mount a class action lawsuit against Elon Musk and America PAC, a super PAC he funded to support President Donald Trump and other conservatives, say the defendants aren’t cooperating in turning over key documents.
“We’re getting the run-around,” said attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is based in Massachusetts. “We’ve been delayed in getting discovery.”
The cases against Musk and America PAC stem from a promise to pay $47 for every successful referral of a registered swing state voter to sign a petition in favor of “free speech and the right to bear arms.” The amount was later raised to $100 per signature.
“Easy money,” Musk posted on the social media site X, which he owns, in October 2024.
One proposed class action case was brought by an anonymous plaintiff who says, while working as an hourly canvasser for America PAC, he was encouraged to refer people to sign the petition for additional pay. The plaintiff, listed as John Doe, says he’s owed more than $20,000 and is aware of others in similar situations.
Another case was brought by Lancaster man Anthony Maglietta and two other swing state voters who say they were never paid for signing the petition or referring others.
Liss-Riordan, the attorney for both cases, is trying to get them approved as a class action. They’re moving forward together in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
She says she’s heard from dozens of people who could qualify if the court allows it.
“These are generally people who are followers of Elon Musk, and believed in what he was doing and are aligned politically with a goal here,” she told the Capital-Star. “The fact that they weren’t even paid what they were told they would be paid — I don’t know if it’s surprising or not, but it’s very disappointing.”
The Capital-Star reached out to lawyers for Musk and America PAC, an email associated with Musk’s family office, and a public relations firm that employs a spokesperson for America PAC. None responded.
America PAC’s website says, “America PAC has already mailed the overwhelming majority of checks owed to eligible referrers and petition signers. If you haven’t received payment yet, that does not necessarily mean you won’t … We continue to review and process outstanding payments that have been flagged for mismatched information or require additional action.”
Musk is reported to have spent around $290 million helping Trump and Republicans get elected in 2024, making him the largest single political donor of the election cycle. Following the election, he was made a special government employee by the Trump administration, serving as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Going in circles”
In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone, Liss-Riordan explained that her clients requested documents from the defendants in December 2025, part of the discovery process.
She said her team was told by America PAC that they did not have the documents, and should seek them from third-party vendors they’d contracted. But when they went to those vendors, they were told that America PAC had them.
“Plaintiffs are frustrated that they have been going in circles to obtain the discovery that is essential to their case – with Defendants claiming the vendors have the documents and the vendors claiming Defendants have the documents – and neither agreeing to produce them,” Liss-Riordan wrote.
Moreover, she alleges that some of the vendors may not be as independent as they seem. She says, for example, United States of America Inc. and Group America, LLC were established by Musk. And other vendors she sought documents from had principal members who were also high-ups at America PAC.
A conference has been set up between Eastern District Judge Wendy Beetlestone and lawyers for both parties on Tuesday, but it will not be streamed to the public.
Both parties have requested an extension of the deadline to certify a class action case from July 31 to November 30. It would mark the third such extension.
According to Liss-Riordan, class certification can’t be done until more documents are turned over in discovery.
Musk and America PAC are also being sued in a Texas U.S. District Court over an alleged $1 million giveaway to swing state voters who signed a petition to support the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiffs allege that Musk and America PAC misled voters into thinking winners would be chosen randomly, but were actually predetermined.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission also agreed in a 5-1 vote in July to refer two complaints against Musk to the Brown County district attorney’s office, finding probable cause that he violated the state’s election bribery statute with another million dollar giveaway during the state’s 2025 state supreme court election.
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zeteo 7 26 gmail
no lnx
Americans Live in the 'United States of Oligarchy' With Elon Musk at the Top
Read an exclusive excerpt from journalist Casey Michel's new book exploring how the country's wealthiest are monopolizing U.S. democracy and propping up dictators and autocrats in the process.
Casey Michel
Aug 4
Editor’s note: This piece is adapted from journalist Casey Michel’s new book, United States of Oligarchy, out now from Macmillan.
Elon Musk speaks during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
In June, Elon Musk achieved something that no other human has ever seen: he became a trillionaire. It didn’t last long, as SpaceX shares plunged in the weeks after he took the company public. But for many watching Elon’s net worth reach an astonishing 13 figures – even briefly – his transformation into a trillionaire was an indictment of everything from American wealth inequality to a confirmation of America’s descent into oligarchy. The fact that one man could amass so much wealth and use it to not only effectively appoint a sitting president, as we saw with Donald Trump in 2024, but also to help sic far-right forces from Britain to Germany and beyond was damning, and further evidence for why rampaging wealth inequality is a threat to us all.
Others, however, saw things differently. Analyst Novi Zhukovsky claimed that Musk’s ascent to trillionaire status is a “sign of our economic system’s strength.” For Musk’s backers, his meteoric rise – and the fact that he now controls more wealth than anyone ever before – is a testament to his know-how, his work ethic, and his ability to spy opportunities others simply couldn’t see.
Such an ascent, of course, erases all manner of things out of Musk’s history. As I detail in my new book United States of Oligarchy, Musk also owes much of his wealth to something else: a willingness to succor autocrats and dictatorships around the world, even if it’s against American interests. This is true most especially out of China, where Musk recently served as one of Beijing’s biggest boosters, publicly praising the country’s decades-long dictatorship, linking Tesla’s fortunes to Beijing’s, and helping the regime whitewash its ongoing genocide of Uyghurs.
Such pro-Musk boosterism also erases something else: how Musk has himself used his governmental connections, funding, and roles to benefit his own bottom line. In a certain sense, he is no different than many other wealthy Americans, who manipulate federal rules and regulations to enrich themselves. The only difference: given Musk’s personal net worth, he’s perhaps seen more success in turning the government into his own personal plaything – and in watching his own fortunes skyrocket as a result, especially after Donald Trump’s 2024 election.
An Oligarch Unelected, a Billionaire Unleashed
Musk began enjoying the fruits of Trump’s victory almost immediately. Even before Trump himself returned to the White House, Musk started outlining the contours of his new, so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). A mix of both reactionary and revolutionary elements, DOGE resembled less a traditional federal department and more the kind of political operation – with handlers, with ideological requirements, with unfettered access – seen in dictatorial regimes elsewhere. Sicced across the federal government, DOGE employees tracked political fealty, infiltrated federal functions, and gained access to the kinds of financial systems that few outside the highest realms of American politics had ever known.
Mostly, though, DOGE slashed and burned, simply for the sake of slashing and burning. In program after program, department after department, DOGE took a flamethrower to services across the government. Foreign aid programs? Decimated. Park rangers? Canned. Nuclear security personnel? Axed. There was no rhyme, no reason, no rationale. The only thing that mattered was disemboweling as much of the federal government as possible. If a program had the term “diversity” or “equity” in it, it was specifically targeted – even if that meant funding for things like financial equity was eliminated.
All this was overseen by Musk – an oligarch unelected, a billionaire unleashed. Distracted by the trappings of office, as well as all the opportunities for self-enrichment suddenly spilling open, Trump appeared largely apathetic about DOGE’s destruction.
Musk speaks at the first Cabinet meeting of Trump’s second term at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025, in Washington, DC. Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Musk, though, couldn’t have been happier. And why wouldn’t he be? While he was publicly deferential, in reality the center of political gravity had shifted. Musk’s presence, and DOGE’s successes, meant for the first time since Woodrow Wilson – who suffered a series of strokes in office, and ceded much of his presidential powers to his wife – the US had someone who could properly be considered a co-president.
In Wilson’s case, the redelegation had been under wraps, kept out of the public eye. Not so with Musk, who exerted his power openly. It was as if Musk had chartered a fourth branch of the government – one above the legislative, out of reach of the judicial, and on par with the executive. An oligarchic branch of government: unaccountable, unassailable, in existence only because of the hundreds of billions of dollars that Musk and his co-oligarchs controlled.
No one benefited more from this arrangement than Musk – especially when it came to the oligarch’s personal finances. DOGE “gutted multiple regulatory agencies, including those that oversee [Musk’s] businesses,” wrote the Financial Times. “Among these, the [Food and Drug Administration], which monitors Neuralink, Musk’s brain chip company; the Federal Administration Authority, which regulates SpaceX; and USAID, which investigated Starlink.” All those concerns about oversight, all those questions about compliance, all those worries about potential investigations – all that disappeared, almost overnight. Musk now regulated the regulators.
He also watched all his other projects and investments boom. Thanks to his role by Trump’s side, Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) rose to far greater heights than ever before. Companies that once boycotted the platform – a site that had transformed into a sieve for frothing conspiracies since Musk’s takeover – were strongarmed into returning. The company’s financial freefall, in place since Musk first bought the platform, finally ended.
Additionally, with his access to Trump, and to as much federal data as he could digest, Musk had a leg up on any competitor in any area his companies operated. Already embedded in America’s space and defense contracting industries, Musk now had a wide-open field in front of him.
Take, for instance, one of the most preposterous – and potentially lucrative – projects under Trump’s new administration: the so-called “Golden Dome” missile shield. As envisioned by Trump, this kind of missile defense program would not only protect the American homeland from any inbound enemy launches, but could directly reward the man who had helped return him to the White House. In early 2025, SpaceX and its partners “emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part” of the new program, estimating preliminary costs at upward of $10 billion—a tidy turnaround for a single program. Yet that wasn’t all. As sources disclosed to Reuters, SpaceX “proposed setting up its role in Golden Dome as a ‘subscription service’ in which the government would pay for access to the technology, rather than own the system outright.” In other words, the proposed missile system shielding the United States would not actually be owned by the US itself, but would instead remain in the hands of the country’s wealthiest man.
From Musk’s end, it was an obvious pitch. (Why wouldn’t he push for as much as he could get, including personally controlling the missile umbrella protecting the US?) And it was a testament to just how much one man, and one oligarch, could get from the federal government. As one of the sources familiar with the proposal told Reuters, “There’s an attitude that the national security and defense community has to be sensitive and deferential to Elon Musk because of his role in the government.” When it came to American national security, there were no longer any checks or balances. There was only what this oligarch wanted – even if that meant having his fingers, and not the president’s, on the button that could protect the U.S. from a hellfire of incoming missiles.
At the time, it was difficult to see any through line to Musk’s and DOGE’s arson. It all seemed so haphazard, so ham-fisted – especially when DOGE had to undo some of its cuts, as it did with the nuclear weapons personnel it tried to fire.
But pulling back, certain trendlines emerge. In addition to targeting anything deemed sufficiently “woke,” there was a series of curious decisions made whose outcomes seemed to align, clearly and consistently, with the interests of certain American adversaries. In an administration supposedly dedicated to staring down America’s enemies – especially those in China, Iran, Venezuela, and more – Musk’s and DOGE’s malfeasance just so happened to aid many of those same adversaries, time and again.
Of course, it also aided Musk’s bottom line in the process. It was, in many ways, the ultimate endpoint for America’s descent into oligarchy: an unelected billionaire, benefiting from bending the federal government to his own ends, even if it meant that America’s adversaries benefited in the process. After all, who needs pesky things like democracy when there are billions, or even trillions, to be made?
Adapted from United States of Oligarchy: How America’s Wealthiest Ally with Dictators, Weaken the U.S., and Destroy Democracy by Casey Michel, available now from Macmillan Publishers.
United States of Oligarchy
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Zeteo.
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left hook 7 26 gmail
gil
While America celebrated its birthday and the World Cup, Musk spent the past week promoting*Citizen Vigilante*, a neo-Nazi’s wet dream of a movie that is so grotesque in its anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate that Germany banned it due to fear of inciting riots. Musk remains Trump’s most lucrative donor and, in return, was able to steal our data, punish regulators, and kill hundreds of thousands of people by defunding USAID.
Journalist Gil Duran has been following these racist, Silicon Valley sociopaths for years and has tried his best to warn America of their nihilistic end goal.In his forthcoming book,*Nerd Reich*, he connects the dots and lays out their master plan. He joins The Left Hook to discuss their latest plot against humanity.
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50k Jul 2, 2026
Tommy talks to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about Elon Musk’s lies about DOGE and USAID. Want Pod Save the World ad-free? Subscribe to Friends of the Pod: https://www.crooked.com/friendsFor a transcript of an episode of Pod Save the World, please email transcripts@crooked.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-znjjUWXb9Y&t=36s)
ro khanna crit doge 6 26 lever shd be in prison; subpoena him oversight epstein files
Elon Musk Wants Rep. Ro Khanna In Prison - YouTube
lancet ucla
ON THe MEDIA NO TRUCKLOADS BUT 1 GUY W/ AR AND HANDGUN
HURRIC HELENE?
Jaclyn Rothenberg:I remember Elon Musk tweeting that he was trying to send Starlinks down to North Carolina and that FEMA was hampering the efforts to set up Starlink internet devices.
Laura Ingraham on FOX:Musk says he received a note from a SpaceX engineer that said that the big issue is that FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally.
Jaclyn Rothenberg:Which was fundamentally false. I was putting out tweets constantly that we were in fact not blocking the shipments of Starlinks.
Several state and local officials also tried to dispel rumors that FEMA was blocking or confiscating third-party donations, but there was simply too much noise online.
Will Oremus:The reality is that our information environment isn't well designed for debunkings.
I spoke with Will Oremus, a technology reporter at the Washington Post, as these rumors were spreading in 2024.
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Jun 11, 2026 #usda #screwworm #farmers
Chris Hayes: Trump and Musk took a chainsaw to the obscure government programs that kept flesh-eating screwworms away from American farms. And now that failure could hit farmers, ranchers, and your grocery bill.
DOGEBAGS CUT WHEN SEE WORD TRANS
NEWSMAX IDIOCY
Musk’s ‘chainsaw’ meets the flesh-eating bug crisis - YouTube
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Lance Wallnau Prays Over Cardboard Donald Trump And Elon Musk | People For
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And let’s not forget Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and, according to peer-reviewed research published in Nature and the Queensland University of Technology study, tilted the X algorithm in mid-July 2024 to dramatically boost his own posts and Republican-leaning accounts. After that change, views on Musk’s posts surged 138 percent, and right-wing accounts saw engagement leaps that progressive accounts simply never get any more on billionaire-run social media.
BAD TESTIMONY IN OPENAI CASE? 5 26
RWW
- Virginia Heffernan @ The New Republic: The Ex-MAGA Influencer Who Now Hates All Things MAGA—and Herself Too
Ashley St. Clair used to hang with Erika Kirk. And she bore Romulus, the zillionth child of Elon Musk. She’s now turned her back on MAGA—and wants to tell you all about it.
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Have you lost track of what Elon Musk is doing? Pay attention. - YouTube
Have you lost track of what Elon Musk is doing? Pay attention.
thank you @jamelle-bouie for continuing to elevate this conversation in the public consciousness. We MUST keep talking about it. https://www.wired.com/story/usaid-whi...https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the...https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...
AN 4 26
In 2025, four major companies — Paramount, ABC, Meta (which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads), and the Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter — agreed to donate millions of dollars to fund Donald Trump's presidential library in Miami. Altogether, the donations totaled at least $63 million for the library, which according to President Trump, could double as a Trump-branded hotel.
Senate Democrats have been probing that $63 million, but according to The New Republic's Greg Sargent, a lot of questions remain unanswered.
"After the companies agreed to these shakedowns — sorry, settlements — the fund created to receive donations was dissolved last September," Sargent explains in an article published on April 20. "Since then, Senate Democrats have been asking: What happened to the money? Now, there's been an important new turn in this saga. The four companies have provided fresh information to Senate Democrats in written responses to their questions. For these Democrats, those responses — obtained by The New Republic — raise more questions than they answer."
Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, adds, "In these formal replies, all four companies confirmed that they did pledge that money to Trump's library — itself a notable development. More importantly, however, the Democrats say the responses reveal that the money is still largely unaccounted for."
According to Sargent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) has "taken the lead in tracking this money."
"The companies all settled lawsuits with Trump after his 2024 victory — Paramount for $16 million over a claim of fraudulent editing by CBS; Meta for $25 million, and X for around $10 million over supposed censorship of Trump; and ABC for $15 million over alleged defamation," Sargent reports. "Experts criticized the lawsuits as weak and denounced the settlements as akin to extortion payments. Under those settlements, the companies donated virtually all that money to the library project, totaling at least $63 million. But then the fund where most of that money appeared to be directed — the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund — was dissolved by Florida officials amid the failure to file a required annual report."
Warren is demanding answers about the $63 million.
The liberal senator told Sargent, "Not one of these companies can say with any clarity where their multi-million-dollar donations to Donald Trump's library slush fund are, or where they will go…. Tens of millions of dollars are unaccounted for, and the American people are left completely in the dark."
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NEW BOOK 4 26
Muskism w Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff
A GUIDE FOR PERPLEXED
ONLY HIS TECH PROTECTS STATE SOVEREIGNTY?! pod save uk
doge successful model to knock down solos ans grab data? all ssn on thumb drive to pvt corp?
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=MUSKISM
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SEND COFFIN PIX EVERY DAY
953,672 views Mar 8, 2026 #lastweektonight
John Oliver discusses the United States Agency for International Development, why the Trump Administration has gutted it, who is being impacted, and how the Cha Cha Slide can help us get to the bottom of this.
...0:21
the United States Agency for International Development or USAD. It was once described as the world's single
0:26
largest humanitarian donor, providing aid in the form of disaster relief, global health, food assistance, climate
0:31
resilience, education, and much more. And when Trump returned to the White House last year, he made it clear that
0:38
the agency was in his sights. USID run by radical lunatics.
0:44
It sounds so nice. US aid. Isn't that beautiful? But it's a whole big scam.
0:50
When you look at USA ID, that's a uh that's a fraud. The whole thing is a
0:56
fraud. Very little uh very little being put to good use. Okay, so set aside the irony of Donald
1:03
Trump of Trump University accusing anything of being a fraud. You can't
1:08
just call something a scam because you don't like it. I want to call low-rise jeans a scam. I feel like Peppa Pigs a
1:16
fraud. I believe radical lunatics run Jamba Juice. liquid fruit isn't a treat. It's cough syrup at best. But even I,
1:22
agonize, my feelings don't make any of those thoughts true. But Trump was fixated on USA ID and its spending,
1:29
which is a little surprising given it amounted to less than 1% of the federal budget. Yet Trump and Elon Musk quickly
1:36
dismantled the agency with Elon at one point proudly tweeting he'd spent the weekend feeding USA ID into the wood
1:43
chipper. And a lot of MAGA Republicans were ecstatic about that. Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson even made a
1:49
trip to DC to celebrate. I just got into Washington DC. I had to see it for myself to believe it. USID
2:01
is no more. Check it out. There we go. Got the duct
2:06
tape. Got the doors all closed off.
2:13
Got the Got everything all blacked out up there.
2:18
had to see it to believe it. The uh the consequences of Doge....num 1 selfie spot
...
:47
have issues. And even then, half of that was reclaimed. But even without knowing that, it's tough to take waste
9:53
allegations from Elon seriously, given his Doge team seem to have no idea what the programs they were cutting even did.
10:00
ProPublica recently revealed that people at the agency watch as their brand new chief of staff scrolled down a
10:06
spreadsheet of programs, turning rows red, yellow, or green every few seconds, never asking a single question. Then
10:13
realizing that the bread programs were slated to be cut, they frantically started editing descriptions so he'd at
10:18
least know what those programs did. And while the administration at one point insisted the programs would be spared if
10:25
they were considered lifesaving, just listen to this former USAD employee tell a Senate roundt how those decisions got
10:32
made. When we kept flagged a long list of awards that were needed for life- saving activities, we were told that the
10:38
problem was the names of those awards didn't make clear that they were life-saving. Um, it didn't have the word
10:45
life-saving in the name. And therefore, it was very hard for the secretary's team to to understand which awards
10:51
should or should not be terminated. And so, the implication was that if we had been more clear in the names that these
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were life-saving awards, maybe then they would have been saved. Now, obviously that is stupid for a thousand reasons. first because
11:03
everybody knows that names aren't usually literal descriptions of what you are getting. It's the reason that
11:08
ketchup isn't called salty tomato inspired glo. Conjunctivitis isn't called on your finger then touched
11:14
your eye disease. And this show isn't called facts you read in a New Yorker 18 months ago with what seems to be a
11:20
middle-aged man. It's called poetic license. And it is notable that for all
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the talk of fraud, even Jeremy Leuen, a Doge guy who eventually served as deputy administrator and COO of the agency and
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who often personally decided which program should be axed, later admitted
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his team didn't find much. You know, we talk about people talk
11:44
about fraud, right? Doge didn't find that much fraud at USAD. It's sort of a definitional question. What is fraud? In...
13:03
seemed like a whole lot of words for racist. And I don't think that's a definitional issue. Now, before Leuen
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got that job at USAD, his position was held by a different member of the Trump administration called Pete Morocco. He
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actually worked there during Trump's first term, too, and attempted to delay or halt dozens of programs, but
13:22
ultimately wasn't successful. Which is why when he came back last year, one former official said, "What we're seeing
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right now is Pete's Revenge Tour." And for the record, Pete's Revenge Tour sounds like a band composed entirely of
13:35
former middle school football coaches who got fired because kids kept getting heat stroke and all of whom were at the
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capital on January 6th. And I only say that because Morocco did apparently storm the capital on January 6th with
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with his wife, by the way. Couple goals. But the thing is, as eager as this
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administration has been to eradicate any funding it claimed was going to woke causes and singling out small individual
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expenditures for ridicule, it still doesn't explain wholly dismantling this
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agency. Because traditionally, administrations have been free to make sure foreign aid reflects their values,
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whatever those values are. Just listen to the man who ran USD under George W.
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Bush explain that to Congress. When the Democrats took over, they moved the
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agency to the left. I moved it to the right. The Obama people actually said I was very right-wing. I was the most
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right-wing administrator in the history of the agency. And yet, the career people followed what I wanted to do in
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the agency. We put heavy emphasis on economic growth. I believe in economic growth. I believe in the private sector.
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I believe in free markets. That's what aid does. The notion that aid is some kind of a Marxist
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institution is absolutely ridiculous. Okay. Exactly. Think of USID like the
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chaa slide. You can slide it to the left. You can slide it to the right and
15:01
the next administration can then take it back. Now y
15:06
even during Trump's first term, he didn't take USAID apart. He just shifted
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its focus by deprioritizing areas like maternal health and family planning. while increasing funding for emergency
15:18
responses and digital infrastructure. All of which raises the question, what changed this time to make them want to
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put the agency through a wood chipper? Well, I'm afraid the answer to that is incredibly dumb. Because many observers
15:31
think it has something to do with this guy, Mike Benz, a far-right conservative activist. Elon's fixation on USA ID
15:38
appears to date to late 2024 when Benz appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and all over the agency. Elon then
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retweeted, replied to, or mentioned Benz over 160 times in the next year, sharing
15:50
things like, "USID was a viper nest of radical left Marxists who hate America and USAD is a criminal organization."
15:57
Even that wood chipper tweet was in reply to Mike Benz. And and it's worth
16:02
taking a minute to explain who Mike Benz is. He worked a few jobs during Trump's
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first term, including a brief stint at the State Department. and he is, to put it mildly, a chronically online lunatic.
16:14
Among the things he's posted are this portrait of Trump made out of shakuterie
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and this AI slot video where he farts in former FBI director Chris Ray's mouth.
16:24
He also once posted about the jeans he got for his birthday. And you're thinking, well, hold on, that doesn't seem so bad to me. I'll point out these
16:31
were the jeans. That's right. He got 911 jeans for his birthday. You can
16:38
apparently buy those jeans online for $180. And the reason I know that is, oh,
16:43
you. How little do you think of me, but it gets worse because Ben apparently
16:52
used to be a content creator who went by frame game and pushed a variety of far-right narratives, including the
16:57
great replacement theory, and made montages urging white viewers to unite under the banner of race. and he is
17:03
fixated on the notion that USID is basically a front. Here is how he put it
17:08
to Rogan in that interview that got Elon's attention. There's no aid in in US A by the way. That's your brain is
17:15
being tricked when you see the phrase US A. It's not an aid organization. The aid in US A stands for agent US agency for
17:22
international development. Yeah, it's an acronym, Mike.
17:28
It's it's an acronym. We all know how those work. You haven't exactly blown
17:34
Roswell open there. But that's just the beginning. Ben has also said when it's too dirty for the CIA, you give it to
17:41
USAD, which for the record is obviously not the case. We all know when a job is too dirty for the CIA, you arm Afghan
17:47
mojaheden and train them in cell warfare with a stated goal of beating back Soviet influence in the region. And then coincidentally, they team up with Osama
17:53
bin Laden, who will later carry out the very attack Mike Ben is so obsessed with, he got birthday denim merch. And
17:59
look, that is not to say there aren't small grains of truth underneath all of Benz's Look, USAD was not
18:07
perfect. As one of its former heads of global health wrote, it sometimes fostered dependency. It could be
18:12
inefficient. Too much of its funding went to international institutions rather than local ones. And yes, its history does include episodes in which
18:18
aid was bent to American military and political aims, including an incident in 2010 when it created a social networking
18:24
service in Cuba designed to kindle opposition to the government. And I do not like the fact that the agency did
18:30
that. In general, I like my regime changes the way I like my produce locally sourced. But let's not pretend
18:38
instances like that were anything other than a tiny portion of what USID did. Also, as the people of Venezuela and
18:45
Iran can attest, when the US wants regime change nowadays, it tends to do so pretty directly. So, it's not
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like any of those criticisms justify getting rid of the agency entirely. But
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to hear Benz tell it, USAD is basically the root of all this world's problems.
19:02
USAD is one of the most disturbing organizations in the entire federal government. It it may rank number one.
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In fact, many people think they live in the world they think they live in, but in some respects, it's a carefully
constructed Truman show made up of movie characters around them produced by US A.
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And what I mean by that is US A has infected the institutional architecture of every aspect of American society and
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and world society. Wow. The whole world has been Truman showed
19:35
by USA ID is not something you expect to hear someone say on TV. At best, it's
19:41
something you expect to hear them muttering on a city bus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've infected the institutional architecture. You know
19:46
what? I think I'm going to get off here. I I know we're halfway across a bridge, but I'm pretty sure that this is my stop. It's frankly no wonder Ben took a
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victory lap when USAD was gutted, posting this image of himself celebrating at its grave. And at this
20:00
point, you should probably see some of the damage that's been done because it is vast. As one expert put it, I think
20:08
the best evidence that USAiD works is how quickly people started dying when it went away. Now, it is hard to get exact
20:15
counts on deaths, partly because these cuts have, among other things, halted data monitoring. But researchers have
20:21
estimated over 262,000 adults and over half a million children
20:27
died last year as a result of these cuts. Though, I do have to tell you, Marco Rubio strongly denies claims like
20:34
those. Anybody who tells you that somehow it's the United States. If we cut a dollar, somehow we're responsible
20:40
for some horrific thing that's going on in the world is is just not true. Are you standing by your contention that
20:45
no one no one has died because the United States has cut aid? No. Okay. So, is he
20:50
telling the truth there? Well, I would argue that the answer to that is the same as the answer to the question, are Marco Rubio's ears proportional to the
20:57
size of his head? Which is to say, absolutely, demonstrabably not. And
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maybe the best way to rebut that is to show you some of the specific places and programs that have been impacted by
21:09
these cuts. And let's start with food and nutrition assistance which have been devastated. For instance, in Nigeria,
21:14
clinics which provided malnutrition treatment for more than 300,000 children below the age of two were shut down at
21:20
the end of July. And in Afghanistan, NGO warehouses were bare despite 900,000 children being in desperate need of
21:26
treatment for severe acute malnutrition. And it is not just cuts to the food itself. The administration also
21:32
disrupted the global supply chain that moves food for desperate people all over the world. And that means even when the
21:39
food's actually there, the ability to get it to people who need it can be gone. For instance, last summer,
21:45
disruptions led to some food spoiling in a warehouse. The Trump administration is planning to
21:52
destroy a massive amount of emergency food. Some 500 metric tons or just over
21:58
a million pounds of high energy biscuits meant to feed hungry kids in Afghanistan
22:03
and Pakistan will now be incinerated. That first reported by the Atlantic.
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We have a kind of a standard procedure that if food uh is expired, we it will
22:14
be destroyed. Federal workers had requested approval from USID leadership
22:20
to move the emergency food before it spoiled, but their memos went unanswered. That is just maddening,
NEWSMAX! TAMMY BRUCE SPOX VS
22:28
especially not even answering the memos. Leaving someone on red is always unforgivable, but especially when the
22:35
text is, "Hey shorty, 1 million pounds of high energy biscuits about to expire you up." And scenes like that are
22:42
playing out all over the world. At one refugee camp in Kenya that had relied on USA ID funding, reporters found mothers
22:48
who'd had to choose which of their kids to feed and pregnant women who were so desperate for calories that they ate
22:54
mud. But it's not just food assistance that's been cut. It's estimated more than 2,000 health clinics have closed in
23:00
crisis zones around the world. Here is what happened at just one. Before the NGO Action Against Hunger ran this
23:07
center here, providing life-saving medical assistance, but it closed down in February along with seven others in
23:13
the area when USAD stopped funding the organization. Within just over a month, 29 children in
23:20
the district died of malnutrition and illness. We've never had such a high death rate.
23:27
It was catastrophic. These are deaths that we could have avoided if funding had been maintained and we continued our
23:33
activities. Yeah, it's appalling. And it makes it even worse when you remember House
23:38
Republicans literally celebrated these cuts with this
23:47
Yeah, it's true. You are killing a lot of people in Africa. You jibjabbed The point is these cuts have cost..
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activities. Yeah, it's appalling. And it makes it even worse when you remember House
23:38
Republicans literally celebrated these cuts with this
23:47
Yeah, it's true. You are killing a lot of people in Africa. You jibjabbed The point is these cuts have cost
23:55
lives. And perhaps one of the clearest examples of this concerns PEPAR or the
24:00
president's emergency plan for AIDS relief. It was created during the George W. Bush administration and is often described as one of the most successful
24:07
global health programs in history. It's credited with saving 26 million lives
24:12
and enabling 7.8 million babies to be born without HIV since it was created. It is as close to a miracle as this
24:20
government has ever accomplished. If I had to say one nice thing about George W. Bush, this program would be it. And
24:26
if I had to say two, I would go quiet. And while the administration will stress
24:32
that PEPAR still exists, its crucial aid delivery mechanism has been severely disrupted. As soon as the cut started
24:39
last January, critics were clinics were forced to shut their doors, essential frontline health workers were furoughed,
24:45
and community programs reaching the most vulnerable people stopped. And while PEPFAR was granted a limited waiver to
24:51
implement urgent life-saving HIV treatment services, a lot got left out
24:57
of that waiver because well, for instance, it it allowed uh the prevention medication prep for pregnant
25:02
and breastfeeding women, it didn't include it for anyone else, including those who were already on it. It also
25:08
left out funding for HIV prevention more generally and most programming for orphans and vulnerable children. And a
25:14
major casualty of cuts to PEPFAR were locally rooted programs tailored to the needs of specific groups of people like
25:21
specialized clinics for sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs. And infuriatingly to some
25:27
Republicans, that seemed to be sort of the point. This stuff about PEP 4, oh my
25:33
god, you're going to destroy the world. Now, there's a part of PEP for that deals with money for life-saving care,
25:41
isn't it? Absolutely. And there's a part of PEP 4 that won't you look at it and you you
25:47
want to say pass me the sick bucket, isn't there? Yes, sir. And you're pass you're getting rid of
25:53
the sick bucket stuff. Yes, sir. You you're getting rid of $5.5 million
25:59
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and interex advocacy in Uganda.
26:07
Aren't you? Yes, sir. I can't believe we're arguing about this.
26:12
I can't believe we're arguing about this. Wow, that is some pretty homophobic stuff coming from a man wearing the
26:19
single cuntiest pair of glasses I think I've ever seen. Also, for what it's
26:24
worth, if anything is going to make me say pass the sick bucket, it isn't the critical work of PEP 4. It is the memory
26:31
rattling eternally around my head of Senator John Kennedy saying this.
26:37
I can't wait to have your in my mouth. Well, that certainly makes one of us.
26:45
But despite what Kennedy said there, cuts to PEPFAR are absolutely affecting
26:51
life-saving care. And for a huge amount of people, and not just those whose lives seem to make him want to reach for
26:57
the sick bucket. Even short disruptions to HIV care can be deadly and have
27:02
already resulted in stories like this. The cut off of the medication of the HIV
27:08
ARVs has really, you know, affected us so much.
27:14
The eight HIV positive orphans he cared for used to get their medicine from the
27:19
local hospital for free. After the cuts, he was told he'd have to pay. And because he couldn't afford to do so, the
27:26
orphanage ran out. Without this medication, 14-year-old
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AN 2 26 TCONV
A new study published today in Nature has found that X’s algorithm – the hidden system or “recipe” that governs which posts appear in your feed and in which order – shifts users’ political opinions in a more conservative direction.
Led by Germain Gauthier from Bocconi University in Italy, it is a rare, real-world randomised experimental study on a major social media platform. And it builds on a growing body of research that shows how these platforms can shape people’s political attitudes.
Two different algorithms
The researchers randomly assigned 4,965 active US-based X users to one of two groups.
The first group used X’s default “For You” feed. This features an algorithm that selects and ranks posts it thinks users will be more likely to engage with, including posts from accounts that they don’t necessarily follow.
The second group used a chronological feed. This only shows posts from accounts users follow, displayed in the order they were posted. The experiment ran for seven weeks during 2023.
Users who switched from the chronological feed to the “For You” feed were 4.7 percentage points more likely to prioritise policy issues favoured by US Republicans (for example, crime, inflation and immigration). They were also more likely to view the criminal investigation into US President Donald Trump as unacceptable.
They also shifted in a more pro-Russia direction in regards to the war in Ukraine. For example, these users became 7.4 percentage points less likely to view Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy positively, and scored slightly higher on a pro-Russian attitude index overall.
The researchers also examined how the algorithm produced these effects.
They found evidence that the algorithm increased the share of right-leaning content by 2.9 percentage points overall (and 2.5 points among political posts), compared with the chronological feed.
It also significantly demoted the share of posts from traditional news organisations’ accounts while promoting or boosting posts from political activists.
One of the most concerning findings of the study is the longer-term effects of X’s algorithmic feed. The study showed the algorithm nudged users towards following more right-leaning accounts, and that the new following patterns endured even after switching back to the chronological feed.
In other words, turning the algorithm off didn’t simply “reset” what people see. It had a longer-lasting impact beyond its day-to-day effects.
One piece of a much bigger picture
This new study supports findings of similar studies.
For example, a study in 2022, before Elon Musk had bought Twitter and rebranded it as X, found the platform’s algorithmic systems amplified content from the mainstream political right more than the left in six out of the seven countries.
An experimental study from 2025 re-ranked X feeds to reduce exposure to content that expresses antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity. They found this shifted feelings towards their political opponents by more than two points on a 0–100 “feeling thermometer”. This is a shift the authors argued would have normally taken about three years to occur organically in the general population.
My own research offers another piece of evidence to this picture of algorithmic bias on X. Along with my colleague Mark Andrejevic, I analysed engagement data (such as likes and reposts) from prominent political accounts during the final stages of the 2024 US election.
Our findings unearthed a sudden and unusual spike in engagement with Musk’s account after his endorsement of Trump on July 13 – the day of the assassination attempt on Trump. Views on Musk’s posts surged by 138%, retweets by 238%, and likes by 186%. This far outstripped increases on other accounts.
After July 13, right-leaning accounts on X gained significantly greater visibility than progressive ones. The “playing field” for attention and engagement on the platform was tilted thereafter towards right-leaning accounts – a trend that continued for the remainder of the time period we analysed in that study.
Not a niche product
This matters because we are not talking about a niche product.
X has more than 400 million users globally. It has become embedded as infrastructure – a key source of political and social communication. And once technical systems become infrastructure, they can become invisible – like background objects that we barely think about, but which shape society at its foundations and can be exploited under our noses.
Think of the overpass bridges Robert Moses designed in New York in the 1930s. These seemed like inert objects. But they were designed to be very low, to exclude people of colour from taking buses to recreation areas in Long Island.
Similar to this, the design and governance of social media platforms also has real consequences.
The point is that X’s algorithms are not neutral tools. They are an editorial force, shaping what people know, whom they pay attention to, who the outgroup is and what “we” should do about or to them – and, as this new study shows, what people come to believe.
The age of taking platform companies at their word about the design and effects of their own algorithms must come to an end. Governments around the world – including in Australia where the eSafety Commissioner has powers to drive “algorithmic transparency and accountability” and require that platforms report on how their algorithms contribute to or reduce harms – need to mandate genuine transparency over how these systems work.
When infrastructure become harmful or unsafe, nobody bats an eye when governments do something to protect us. The same needs to happen urgently for social media infrastructures.
Timothy Graham, Associate Professor in Digital Media, *Queensland University of Technology
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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an 2 26
Democrats are poised to take back at least one chamber of Congress after this November's midterm elections according to the latest polls. But Republicans are hoping their significant fundraising advantage can give them a critical edge this fall.
That's according to a Tuesday article by the New York Times' Shane Goldmacher and Theodore Schleifer, who reported that the GOP is going into the midterm race with a cash haul significantly larger than the opposition. According to the Times, President Donald Trump's main super PAC is sitting in more than $304 million, and other well-funded super PACs affiliated with the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence are expected to write big checks to Republicans this cycle.
Goldmacher and Schleifer also found that between Republicans' three main campaign arms, along with the the two GOP super PACs aligned with House and Senate Republicans, the majority party is heading into the midterms "with more than double the cash of the equivalent Democratic groups." GOP groups have a combined $320 million to spend, while Democratic-affiliated super PACs have just $137.2 million between them.
"Any Democrat who isn’t concerned isn’t serious," American Bridge super PAC co-founder Bradley Beychok told the Times. "Yes, Democrats have momentum on our side and a wide opportunity map, but we have a glaring disadvantage in overall money."
The Times additionally reported that despite his previous falling out with Trump and brief flirtations with starting a third party, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has donated "tens of millions of dollars" to Republicans in recent months. Musk also made an appearance at Mar-a-Lago to attend the wedding of a Trump staffer. All told, Republicans have more than $550 million to enter the 2026 cycle when counting Trump's super PAC and a smattering of other federal campaign accounts.
"Donald Trump has 99 problems going into the midterms," Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said. "But money ain't one."
A money advantage doesn't necessary guarantee electoral success. In 2024, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris raised a whopping $2 billion while Trump and the Republican National Committee brought in just $1.2 billion. Harris still ended up losing all seven swing states, in addition to the national popular vote.
And despite the disparity in party fundraising, individual Democratic candidates have been vastly out-raising their Republican opponents in a few marquee races. The Times reported that in the Alaska, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio Senate races, Democrats Mary Peltola, Jon Ossoff, Roy Cooper and Sherrod Brown, respectively, are "running fund-raising laps around Republicans, driven mostly by liberal enthusiasm and small online donations," per the *Times.
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Scott Galloway on TikTok, Musk, and the Radicalization Pipeline | Best of Lincoln Square
959 views Premiered 3 hours ago #politics #lincolnsquare #democracy
:{:{Scott Galloway lays out the real fix for social media: end legal cover for algorithmic amplification, force competition, and age-gate the platforms that harm kids. Then he explains why TikTok (and Elon’s Twitter) supercharge polarization and radicalization. Published Sept 25, 2023. Watch the original video: [
• Society's Negative Impact On Young People ...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYMBB_WaQeI}:
Remove Section 230 for algorithmic amplificatioN
:{:{Break up big tech (competition as “oxygen”
Age-gate social media for minor
Why TikTok is uniquely dangerouS
Influence at scale: “CCP owning everything” analog
The attention economy (and why it’s overpowering
TikTok’s growth + why numbers may be understate
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Radicalization pipeline + Musk’s Twitter}:}:
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an 1 26?
undress over a million? women and kids?
French authorities raid Paris offices of Elon Musk's X
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an 12 25
an in-depth report published by the Washington Post on Tuesday offers new details about the damage being done to the Social Security Administration during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The Post, citing both internal documents and interviews with insiders, reported that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is “in turmoil” one year into Trump’s second term, resulting in a customer service system that has “deteriorated.”
The chaos at the SSA started in February when the Trump administration announced plans to lay off 7,000 SSA employees, or roughly 12% of the total workforce.
This set off a cascade of events that the Post writes has left the agency with “record backlogs that have delayed basic services to millions of customers,” as the remaining SSA workforce has “struggled to respond to up to 6 million pending cases in its processing centers and 12 million transactions in its field offices.”
The most immediate consequence of the staffing cuts was that call wait times for Social Security beneficiaries surged to an average of roughly two-and-a-half hours, which forced the agency to pull workers employed in other divisions in the department off their jobs.
However, the Post‘s sources said these employees “were thrown in with minimal training... and found themselves unable to answer much beyond basic questions.”
One longtime SSA employee told the Post that management at the agency “offered minimal training and basically threw [transferred employees] in to sink or swim.”
Although the administration has succeeded in getting call hold times down from their peaks, shuffling so many employees out of their original positions has damaged the SSA in other areas, the Post revealed.
Jordan Harwell, a Montana field office employee who is president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 4012, said that workers in his office no longer have the same time they used to have to process pay stubs, disability claims, and appointment requests because they are constantly manning the phones.
An anonymous employee in an Indiana field office told the Post that she has similarly had to let other work pile up as the administration has emphasized answering phones over everything else.
Among other things, reported the Post, she now has less time to handle “calls from people asking about decisions in their cases, claims filed online, and anyone who tries to submit forms to Social Security—like proof of marriage—through snail mail.”
Also hampering the SSA’s work have been new regulations put in place by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that bar beneficiaries from making changes to their direct deposit information over the phone, instead requiring them to either appear in person at a field office or go online.
The Indiana SSA worker told the Post of a recent case involving a 75-year-old man who recently suffered a major stroke that left him unable to drive to the local field office to verify information needed to change his banking information. The man also said he did not have access to a computer to help him change the information online.
“I had to sit there on the phone and tell this guy, ‘You have to find someone to come in... or, do you have a relative with a computer who can help you or something like that?’” the employee said. “He was just like, ‘No, no, no.’”
Social Security was a regular target for Musk during his tenure working for the Trump administration, and he repeatedly made baseless claims that the entire program was riddled with fraud, even referring to it as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
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AN 12 25
On Tuesday, December 30, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) got a reprieve when a federal judge rejected the Trump administration's argument that it is legally barred from securing funding for the independent federal agency.
The judge, Reuters reports, noted an existing court order that bars the Trump Administration from shutting the CFPB down.
Reuters' Douglas Gillison notes, "The ruling came 24 hours before the last day on which officials said there would be sufficient funding to meet the operating expenses at the CFPB."
The CFPB was established in 2011 during then-President Barack Obama's first term with the aggressive encouragement of liberal now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) — who argued that such an agency was badly needed in light of the hardship caused by the Great Recession and the Wall Street meltdown of September 2008.
During Donald Trump's second presidency, however, the CFPB became a major target of his administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
SpaceX/Tesla/X.com leader Elon Musk headed DOGE earlier in the year, and his critics at CFPB argued that he had a conflict of interest with DOGE — as CFPB was investigating some of his businesses.
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NYT
NO LNX
They Seek to Curb Online Hate. The U.S. Accuses Them of Censorship.
The Trump administration said five regulators and researchers who work to tackle disinformation and abuse on the internet had been barred from entering the United States.
By Adam Satariano
Reporting from London
Published Dec. 24, 2025
Updated Dec. 25, 2025
Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg lead a German legal aid organization that assists individuals facing online abuse and violent threats.
Clare Melford runs a British group that helps identify disinformation.
Imran Ahmed is a British activist who runs an organization that has chronicled anti-vaccination content on social media.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration accused all of them of a campaign of censorship against Americans.
The four individuals, along with a former senior European Commission official, Thierry Breton of France, were barred from entering the United States after Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled them “radical activists” who undercut free speech.
On Wednesday, European officials including President Emmanuel Macron of France criticized the Trump administration’s decision.
“These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,” Mr. Macron said on social media. “The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe.”
Thomas Régnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, said, “Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair and level playing field for all companies, applied fairly and without discrimination.”
The travel ban is a major escalation in a dispute between the Trump administration and Europe over the regulation of online content and social media.
In the United States, free speech protections allow social media companies to set their own content policies. And Mr. Trump and others on the right have successfully pushed social media firms to roll back moderation rules that they viewed as silencing conservative voices.
In Britain and the European Union, there are certain restrictions on hate speech and open bigotry. In 2022, the European Union passed a law called the Digital Services Act that requires social media companies to meet transparency standards and to remove certain racist, antisemitic and violent content if it violates national laws.
The Trump administration sees the Digital Services Act as an attempt to force American platforms to censor speech globally — an allegation European officials deny.
The issue came to a head this month when the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X $140 million. The commission said that the site had violated the Digital Services Act by selling verification check marks that allow users to mislead others about their identities, by maintaining opaque advertising practices and by refusing to provide researchers with data access. In response, Mr. Musk said the European Union should be abolished.
Mr. Breton helped draft the digital services law when he was a European commissioner overseeing digital policy.
The other individuals facing a travel ban were involved in nonprofit organizations that the Trump administration accused of targeting American social media companies and users.
Ms. Ballon, co-chief executive of HateAid, a German group that assists victims of online attacks, said she received an email on Tuesday notifying her that her visa had been revoked. She did not understand why until a few hours later, when she saw a news article about Mr. Rubio’s announcement.
HateAid, founded in 2018, provides counseling, safety advice and litigation financing to help victims of online attacks take legal action against perpetrators. The group, which Ms. Ballon runs with Ms. von Hodenberg, also lobbies for stronger regulation of social media companies in Germany and the rest of the European Union.
German officials came to the organization’s defense on Wednesday after the Trump administration accused it of countering conservative groups.
“The entry bans imposed by the USA, including those against the chairpersons of HateAid, are not acceptable,” Johann Wadephul, the German foreign minister, said on social media.
Ms. Ballon and Ms. von Hodenberg said in a statement, “We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression.”
Ms. Melford runs the Global Disinformation Index, a group that provides risk ratings to advertising firms to help them avoid placing ads on websites seen as spreading disinformation and harmful content. In a statement, the group called the travel ban “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship.”
Mr. Ahmed is the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has teams in Britain and the United States. Mr. Musk sued the group in 2023 after the organization documented a rise in hate speech on Twitter following his acquisition of the platform, which is now called X. An American court dismissed the lawsuit last year as a violation of the right to free speech.
Mr. Ahmed could not be reached for comment.
Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent for The Times, based in London.
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 25, 2025, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: 5 Fighters of Online Hate Are Barred From the U.S..
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ELEKTRA
Elon Musk drops ‘sustainable’ from Tesla’s mission as he completes his villain arc
Fred LambertDec 26 2025
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bernie red state tour flippable seats
anti- olig tour
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email 12 25
ive been struggling to imagine Elon Musk might do if he gets his trillion-dollar payday. He could spend a million dollars a day for 3,000 years. Or, more realistically, $100 million a day for 30 years. He could spend the $290 million he invested in Trump’s election and do it 3,400 times, wherever and whenever he pleases. Or buy more media properties, spending up to twenty times the $44 billion it took for him to buy Twitter and make it into a misinformation swamp key to Trump’s reelection.
But the money the Tesla board just handed Musk isn’t guaranteed. He has to meet goals like delivering 20 million Tesla vehicles and dramatically increasing Tesla’s stock price. Ordinary citizens can prevent that, but we need to take our efforts to another level.
The global Tesla Takedown campaign has spearheaded the challenges to Musk with protests at showrooms and charging stations. So signs, chants, music, inflatable animals, and a clear message that driving a Tesla means supporting all that Trump and Musk have done. They brought people out who’d never participated before and, as people have followed their lead globally, helped:
- Drop European Tesla sales nearly 40% in a year.
- Drop US sales 19% from two years ago, despite lowering prices and margins.
- Despite EV sales increasing overall, drive Tesla’s US share to an eight-year low,.
- Led Cybertrucks to sell just 16,000 trucks in the US through September, despite Musk saying they’d sell 250,000 and having his other companies buy them.
- Drop Tesla’s stock price to 71% from its January high, before rebounding in part due to third quarter sales, when people grabbed EV’s of all kinds to buy them before Trump’s tax bill ended the $7,500 tax credits.
The campaign did lose some momentum after DOGE and Musk left the White House and feuded with Trump. Musk became less visible and maybe seemed less toxic. But he just joined fellow tech lords at a lavish White House dinner for Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman, though I’m not sure if they were offered bone saws. And he’s continued promoting ultra-right wing parties globally, like the German Alternative für Deutschland, while his Grokipedia praises White Supremacists and French Grok promotes Holocaust denial. That doesn’t count the estimated 400,000 children and 200,000 adults who’ve already died from DOGE’s US AID cuts. Whether Musk gains or loses power remains hugely consequential.
The Tesla showroom protests remain a powerful way for citizens everywhere to push back against Musk and Trump. But they need to put more energy engaging America’s 2 million existing Tesla drivers as allies, by asking them to display anti-Musk stickers, magnets, or vinyl decals. Without them, Teslas on the street function as de facto brand advertisements. People see the cars. It’s the EV brand people have heard of most and if their owners seem content driving them. It makes their presence uncontroversial, so why not consider them if you’re thinking about an EV.
But when Teslas display anti-Elon statements, this changes the message. “I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY,” they say. “HERE FOR THE CLIMATE, NOT ELON.” “ANTI-ELON TESLA CLUB.” “FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS BUY NEW TESLAS.”
The stickers proclaim clearly that their drivers bought the cars to help address climate change, not to promote would-be dictators. When most bought their cars, Musk really was an environmental hero, particularly after Tesla also bought the leading rooftop solar installer Solar City. (I couldn’t afford a Tesla, but I bought a Tesla bond for a retirement account). The bumper stickers, magnets and decals make clear that the drivers won’t buy a Tesla again, and neither should others. They become rolling advertisements against purchasing the car.
Tesla Takedown has sometimes linked to particularly clever stickers. But their prime push for existing Tesla owners is to pressure them to sell their cars to undercut new sales. That’s fine when it happens. But especially with Trump killing EV credits, switching to a new equivalent EV, like replacing any car, is costly. Like $5,000-10,000 costly, despite all the great new EVs on the market Most Tesla owners won’t switch just to make the political point, and that cuts them off as potential participants in the campaign. The bumper sticker approach invites them in.
If the anti-Tesla campaign and its volunteers want to enlist more existing Tesla owners, they could:
- Highlight links to inexpensive stickers, magnets, and decals that anti-Tesla activists could send to or give to friends with Teslas. They can even ask vendors to add Tesla Takedown QR codes.
- Post template letters and emails that people can send friends and neighbors who own Teslas. Or, where legal, put them under Tesla windshields.
- Publicize alternatives. We bought a Chevy Bolt for $20,000 after the $7,500 tax credits that Musk has now helped kill, and it’s been great.
- Press companies and municipalities not cancel Tesla fleet orders, boycott Starlink, support alternatives to Tesla high speed charging stations, and to have their pension funds divest from the company. The latter might also ell pay off financially—even Peter Thiel just sold three quarters of his holdings.
The campaign is pushing on those more institutional demands, but the more existing Tesla owners they can bring in, the more impact they’ll have. If we want to limit Elon’s destructive power, the Tesla owners can play a key role
Paul Rogat Loeb is the author ofSoul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in Challenging Times: andThe Impossible Will Take a Little While Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times:, with nearly 300,000 in print between them. From Raw Story.
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The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are typically known for philanthropic acts. However, one New York Times contributor is arguing that President Donald Trump has instead made "reverse philanthropy" one of the defining traits of his administration.
In a Thursday op-ed for the*Times*, writer Molly Jong-Fast defined "reverse philanthropy" as an act in which Trump expects the wealthiest to "give to him — or else." She then named multiple examples of Trump soliciting donations for both his second inauguration and now his $300 million ballroom, which will be replacing what used to be the East Wing of the White House.
"Instead of the richest helping the neediest, they pay tribute to the greediest. Remember the dozens of people and corporations who gave over a million dollars each to his inauguration? Mr. Trump then went to five crypto firms and eight tech companies, including some that helped fund the inauguration, for help building his ballroom. Which will itself be a place to gather fellow oligarchs and others who seek Mr. Trump’s favor," she wrote. "Think endless lavish fund-raising galas in honor of one recipient who will never truly be satisfied."
Jong-Fast — the daughter of author Erica Jong — lamented that Trump has made "rich people worse" by fostering a culture of "selfishness" among the richest members of American society. She contrasted arts patron Agnes Gund (noting that the Times called her "the last good rich person") with billionaires like Sam Bankman-Fried — who is in prison for fraud — and Elon Musk, who scored a one out of five on Forbes' 2023 philanthropy scale.
The Times contributor referenced a biennial survey conducted by Bank of America and the Indiana University school of philanthropy, which asks wealthy respondents about their altruism habits. In the 2024 poll, 45 percent of those surveyed said that they weren't giving as much to charity in order to "take care of family needs." That's a significant increase from the 2015 survey, when only 27 percent of affluent respondents listing that as their primary reason for not donating to charity.
"Trump sets the tone. His cabinet is very rich, and unlikely to be that concerned, or at least affected, by the true cost of Thanksgiving this year," Jong-Fast wrote. "Perhaps it fits with the broader picture: The rich are the richest they have ever been, and they seem mostly to be focused on … keeping their money."
"Philanthropy was always, on some level, a way for people with too much to feel better about that fact, or maybe about how they came to have all that loot in the first place," she added. "They need to be reminded of that. And of what they should be grateful for: this country, and its hardworking nonbillionaires trying to survive."
---
---
AN 11 25
Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) alluded to a secret tape of a call between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in his comments on the House floor following a Tuesday Oval Office meeting between the two leaders. Vindman, in his remarks called for the release of the transcripts of the call.
" Trump has the responsibility to release the transcripts of his call with MBS. You will be shocked by what you hear," Vindman posted on X Wednesday.
This comes, reports The Daily Beast, "one day after the president insisted Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s killing, despite U.S. intelligence officials concluding he ordered the hit, a former Trump national security insider has claimed there is explosive evidence to the contrary."
Vindman was a National Security Council staffer under the first Trump administration, whose work included reviewing certain calls between the president and foreign leaders, The Daily Beast explains.
"Vindman claims that one phone call he reviewed undercut Trump’s astonishing defense of the Crown Prince in the Oval Office on Tuesday, when he said of Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents: 'Things happen,'" they report.
“During my tenure on Trump’s White House National Security Council staff, I reviewed many of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders. Of all the calls I reviewed, two stood out as the most problematic,” Vindman says.
"The first, we all know, was between President Trump and President [Volodymyr] Zelensky, which resulted in President Trump’s first impeachment. The second was between President Trump and Mohammed bin Salman," he adds.
“After the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, I reviewed a call between the president and the Saudi crown prince. The American people and the Khashoggi family deserve to know what was said on that call. If history is any guide, the receipts will be shocking," Vindman says.
Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist, was murdered on October 2, 2018, by a team of Saudi government agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
His remains have never been found. U.S. intelligence and a UN investigation concluded that bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, an assessment Saudi Arabia denies.
When taking questions from journalists following his meeting with bin Salman Tuesday, Trump berated ABC reporter Mary Bruce after she asked the Crown Prince about his involvement in the murder.
"You’re mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen,” Trump said, adding that bin Salman "knew nothing about it and we can leave it at that."
"You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that," Trump snapped.
Trump hosted bin Salman at a state dinner Tuesday night with guests including Elon Musk, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and billionaire investor Bill Ackerman.
Trump has long-standing financial ties to Saudi Arabia, including past business dealings and recent deals involving his family and the Trump Organization.
These connections have recently drawn scrutiny due to potential conflicts of interest, especially as the Trump family continues to pursue new business opportunities in the kingdom.
Simultaneously, Trump's administration has deepened the US's strategic defense partnership with Saudi Arabia, recently designating it a major non-NATO ally.
Vindman isn't backing down on his calls for the transcript of the call in what some say may be yet another Trump cover-up.
"Speaking on CNN on Wednesday morning ahead of Trump and the crown prince attending a Saudi investment forum, Vindman said the call he reviewed was equally disturbing and shocking 'in light of the enrichment that the Trump family has received in the ensuing years,'" The Daily Beast reports.
---
Why Elon Musk Needs Dungeons & Dragons to Be Racist
Adam Serwer
The fantastical roots of “scientific racism.” (The Atlantic)
CLI OBSTR ROBERTS
This chapter synthesizes research that explains how climate dis-
information circulates through media and contributes to climate obstruction
that benefits carbon-based industries and status-quo actors at the cost of soci-
ety and the environment (see Chapters 5 and 7). It focuses on the discourses
and structures that shape the terrain of these practices and then points to areas
where this disinformation and obstruction can effectively be countered.
Contrarians in the Mediated Public Sphere
A growing—at times cacophonous—chorus of climate-contrarian voices has
gained prominence through multiple media platforms and modes of com-
munication. Contrarian views are promoted by a network of obstructionist
organizations and actors with aligned ideological and cultural inclinations
:{:{(see Chapter 1).9}:
These movements often gain attention to their outlier}:
:{:{:{views through media channels.10}:
At least four arguments for climate delay}:}:
can be observed in media communications: (1) shifting the responsibility
for climate action; (2) arguing that mitigating climate change is impossi-
ble; (3) advancing nontransformative solutions; and (4) emphasizing thedownsides of any climate solution.11 }:}:
Captured in media portrayals, advertising}:
and PR campaigns, these discourse types demonstrate the growing tendency
among disinformation actors to move from overt denial of climate change
and its anthropogenic causes to more subtle tactics of delegitimation of cli-
mate solutions. Choices about how to frame communications through media,
advertising, and PR—shaping perceptions of responsibility and solutions, for
example—can channel public attention and action in important ways. In many
cases, this agenda setting can foster preferences for system preservation over
structural transformation.12 Mass media enable the formation of political
structures and norms that condition public responses to climate change. Ulti-
mately, such obstruction efforts seek to advance special-interest goals and
objectives to maintain the status quo or to distract from, delay, and/or deny
science—effectively obstructing climate engagement and action.
How Disinformation Spreads in the Mediated Public Sphere
The deliberate circulation of climate disinformation is partly enabled by
the unprecedented economic and social power of the global media system.
Power structures were further consolidated during the COVID-19 pandemic
when many independent and local newsrooms were shuttered as digital
media expanded and consolidated.13 Boosted by new digital technologies and
legacy/social media, disinformation campaigns can now operate at greater
scale and expanded scope, influencing human experience with increasing con-
trol and precision.14 Technology companies and their platforms allow pow-
erful actors to shape cognition and actions in ways that lack accountability.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and communications technologies in
political campaigns has had profoundly negative consequences for global cli-
mate mitigation, even when climate policy obstruction was not an explicit or
direct aim.15
New media technologies can boost longstanding patterns of control and
socioeconomic inequality that are harmful for the environment. Social dispar-
ities, a lack of democratic practices, and environmental destruction tend to
reinforce one another.16 To address the problem of disinformation and how it
shapes climate and environmental outcomes, it is vital to broaden the scope
:{:{of what we commonly think of as climate and environmental policy.}:
Collective goals in the name of the public interest, such as democracy, environmental
protection, and socioeconomic equity, are threatened by the concentration of
ownership and corporate control of communications and digital technologies
and how information then becomes subject to financial and political incen-
tives. This concentration is enabled by current policies in the United States and
many other countries that are determined by the wealthiest and most power-
ful players.17 The concentration of media control in relatively few news outlets
and internet companies is a global phenomenon—though concentration can
strategic management, where PR agents engage in intelligence-gathering in
the environmental community, at government agencies and in other organiza-
tions that influence public policy on environment, climate, and energy issues;
and (2) industry-friendly research, public-opinion polling, and data collection
to promote clients’ viewpoints in the media, in addition to producing scien-
tific, legal, or technical expert material for media circulation. One way various
agencies, think tanks, boards and associations are tightly bound with PR firms
is through a revolving door strategy (e.g., former government agency admin-
istrators are hired by PR firms, former PR firm employees are hired as trade
association administrators, and so on).
Media communications aiming to advance climate denial and opposition
often amplify existing patterns of polarization.36 A study of polarizing tweets
on X (Twitter) during United Nations climate (COP) summits identified five
styles of climate contrarianism, from outright denial (“@COP26 You have been
lying to the public and mocking them for decades with your climate scam”)
to (untrue) rejection of climate solutions (“China is not going to COP26.
So what’s the point?”).37
In 2022, the Third Working Group of the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report
pointed to “public discourses of media and organized countermovements” as
fuel for polarization, with damaging potential for climate action.38 The tech-
nical summary noted that “accurate transference of the climate sciences has
been undermined significantly by climate change countermovements, in both
legacy and new/social media environments through misinformation.”39 It also
noted that “on occasion, the propagation of scientifically misleading informa-
tion by organised countermovements has fuelled polarisation, with negative
:{:{implications for climate policy.”40}:
Further linking obstruction activities and polarisation, the report mentions “political polarisation leading to erosion of
environmental governance” (see Chapter 10).41
Digital platforms have also been identified as sources of climate disinformation. Meta (Facebook), for instance, has overridden the determinations of its independent fact-checkers for climate science, allowed fossil fuel companies to purchase misleading ads, and limited the transparency and usefulness of its data sharing tool, Crowdtangle, relied upon by journalists and academics to analyze engagement with content on the platform.42 There are claims that Meta’s own Climate Science Center is underequipped to serve its purpose.
{One report estimated that Google alone received $23.7 million between 2020and 2022 from the five largest oil companies in the world (ExxonMobil,British Petroleum [BP], Chevron, Shell, and Aramco) to promote their advertising.43 }:}:}:
The nonprofit coalition Climate Action against Disinformation (CAAD) has found that the major tech platforms (TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and X)
:{:{have become “complicit” actors in the spread of climate denial, since “dis-information is now a guaranteed byproduct, if not a central part, of socialmedia companies’ business models.}:”44
Among several findings in the study,}:
X ranked last among platforms for its absence of policies on climate disin-
formation, lack of public transparency mechanisms, and failures of effective
policy enforcement.45...
AN 10 25
SFGate columnist Drew Magary tested out Elon Musk's new "Wikipedia clone" known as Grokipedia and says he found it's full of racism, antisemitism and lies.
"There is nothing this man cannot make cheaper, wonkier and 20% more Hitler-y," Magary writes about Musk's latest foray into "his own optimized version of Wikipedia."
Groikpedia's entry on Adolf Hitler, for example, includes a “Debates and Intent on Functionality” section, "which is absent in Wiki’s entry on the man," Magary notes.
“The historiographical debate on the intent and functionality of Nazi racial policies, particularly the Holocaust, centers on whether the systematic extermination of Jews was the fulfillment of Adolf Hitler’s premeditated master plan or the unintended outcome of bureaucratic radicalization and wartime improvisation,"Magary quotes Grokipedia, boldfacing the most egregious part.
"You already know about people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened, so kudos to Grokipedia for introducing, 'The Holocaust was real, but also it was just a happy accident!' as a new means of discrediting Jewish history," Magary writes.
While Magary says no one knows who wrote that passage, the entry links to the Associated Press, but sourcing still remains vague.
"Musk’s site uses an ambiguous mix of crowdsourcing and its owner’s proprietary AI software — which he already appended to Twitter/X to predictably virulent results — to compose its more than 850,000 entries. I never would have sorted this without Wikipedia, so thanks, Wiki!" Magary says.
While Wikipedia remains non-profit and written entirely by humans, Musk's version is the antithesis, Magary explains.
"Elon Musk is perhaps, second to Donald Trump, our greatest disseminator of bad faith," he writes, with his priorities remaining clear.
"So it makes sense that he would cobble together a half-assed competitor to Wikipedia that is motivated by profit, and by his own demented worldview. Grokipedia exists strictly as a reactionary product, and that was plainly evident when I took the site for a test drive," Magary says.
The site, he says, is a mess, and an "attempt to rewrite the bulk of history" to suit Musk's "own ends."
"That’s why, when I tried to search for a “Grokipedia” entry on Grokipedia, I found no entry at all," Magary notes, adding that it's "More like WOKE-ipedia. Am I right, fellow plantation owners?! Huh? Anyway, if you think these suggested results make sense, then you’re on more ketamine than Musk himself."
In response to Slavery, Musk's "slurbot is free to denigrate Black and mixed race folks any way it pleases. Or it ignores denigration of those people entirely; there is no Grokipedia entry for the N-word," Magary says.
Musk, he writes, catered the site directly to his audience. "I got the feeling that his pet project tweaked the hot button entries to tilt MAGA, and then just stole content for all of the normal s——," he writes.
"This is the whitewashing machine at work," Magary explains, whose intention is to spread racist lies.
"It has no real purpose other than to strategically plant lies into a reference manual. This renders it not only a malevolent product, but a lousy one. But hey, maybe Elon didn’t mean for his baby to be such a piece of s——. Maybe it was just the unintended outcome of bureaucratic radicalization and wartime improvisation," Magary concludes.
---
an 10 25
no lnx
Transportation secretary and acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy is on thin ice with Trump and the White House after reigniting a feud with on-again, off-again Trump confidant Elon Musk, according to NOTUS.
According to the report, Duffy is desperate to hang onto his NASA role, folding it into the Department of Transportation, but Musk ally Jared Isaacman, whose initial nomination to head the space agency was withdrawn, has returned to seek the position.
Following Isaacman's initial nomination to lead NASA by Trump in December 2024, Trump withdrew the nomination in May 2025 over concerns about Isaacman's past political donations to Democrats.
As Isaacman has been said to be making "inroads" with Trump and others in his administration, Duffy was "beginning to feel the pressure that his plan to fold NASA under his purview as secretary of transportation was slipping," according to NOTUS sources.
Those sources also said Duffy appears to be putting his own interests ahead of the administration’s, and in doing so, "rubbed people the wrong way."
“There are people in the White House who believe Duffy has made unnecessary chaos rather than just accept that his time is in the sunset,” one administration official told NOTUS.
Duffy went on a media tour of sorts this week, touting the work NASA was doing and digging at Musk, saying, "SpaceX was behind in getting humans back on the moon, and NASA is 'not going to wait for one company.'"
Musk retaliated on his X app, calling Duffy “Sean Dummy” and saying he is “trying to kill NASA.”
While NASA defended Duffy, insiders at the White House say that fighting with Musk was a step too far.
“Everyone, and I mean everyone in the West Wing, is furious at him,” one source with knowledge of the dynamic told NOTUS.
---
---
REF 2
Axios
Oct 4, 2025 -
Politics & Policy
MAGA wages campaign to redefine "hate" after Kirk killing
al Axelrod,}:
Zachary Basu}:
Charlie Kirk speaking at a Turning Point USA Believers Summit conference in July 2024.
MAGA activists have launched a crusade against two of the nation's most storied civil rights watchdogs, accusing them of smearing conservatives as extremists.
Why it matters: For decades, the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have shaped America's understanding of hate. MAGA leaders — backed by the Trump administration and Elon Musk — are now trying to strip them of that influence.
Zoom in: FBI Director Kash Patel severed ties this week between the bureau and both the ADL and SPLC, the government's decades-long partners in tracking extremist networks, training FBI agents and consulting on hate-crime enforcement.
The rupture followed MAGA outrage that both organizations had listed Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA in their online resources about hate groups.}:
The ADL accused Kirk's group of drawing "support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right," while the SPLC included the group on its "hate map," saying it has ties to "hard-right extremists."}:
Both pages predated Kirk's assassination, which MAGA activists argue was incited by the left's use of charged labels such as "fascist" and "Nazi." The ADL and SPLC both condemned the assassination.
Amid the backlash, the ADL removed its "Glossary of Extremism," saying some of the entries were outdated and were being "intentionally misrepresented and misused."}:
The SPLC kept its page posted, telling Axios: "We remain committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people."}:
What they're saying: MAGA influencers have accused the groups of embodying the type of hate they were founded to combat.
"They are both part of an ecosystem leveraged by radical left vigilantes to dehumanize conservatives and stoke political violence. They provide the sheen of legitimacy for the left's violent foot soldiers," posted Kirk spokesman Andrew Kolvet.}:
Musk, who previously blamed the ADL for advertisers fleeing X over anti-semitic content, called both organizations "evil" and guilty of inciting Kirk's slaying.}:
"ADL has deep respect for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and law enforcement officers at all levels across the country who work tirelessly every single day to protect all Americans regardless of their ancestry, religion, ethnicity, faith, political affiliation or any other point of difference," the ADL said in a statement.
"In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people."}:
Between the lines: Kirk drew scrutiny for comments about Islam being "incompatible with the West" and warnings about the "great replacement" of whites — rhetoric the watchdogs saw as echoing extremist talking points.
To many conservatives, that rhetoric doesn't merit a "hate" label: Its rejection by the mainstream is evidence that liberal elites are steering America away from what they see as its white Christian foundations.}:
MAGA sees the clash with the ADL and SPLC as less about Kirk than the freedom to debate politics and demographics without being branded hateful.}:
In other words, a movement consumed with fighting "cancel culture" is seeking to redraw the boundaries of permissible speech by targeting the referees.
"Charlie never believed in speech codes, and neither do we," said Jack Posobiec, a MAGA podcaster and longtime Kirk friend who has helped lead the campaigns against the ADL and SPLC.}:
Context: MAGA's backlash to the civil rights groups comes as the number of hate crimes in the past few years hit record levels. Analysts say antisemitic crimes rose again last year.
More than half of hate crimes recorded last year involved attacks motivated by race or ethnicity, the FBI Crime Data Explorer database showed.}:
Black Americans were the most targeted group, followed by Jewish Americans, then gay men, according to the data.}:
What to watch: MAGA's efforts to take down the ADL and SPLC go beyond just government partnerships.
Activists are now pressuring PayPal over its use of ADL and SPLC research to bar "extremists" from its platforms, and Google for prioritizing the groups' resource pages on search.}:
"America will be greater when these hate factories are discredited and disbanded," Posobiec said.}:
Axios' Russell Contreras contributed to this article.
Add Axios on Google
Go deeper
Jason Lalljee
Oct 4, 2025 -
Politics & Policy
ADL split marks FBI shift away from targeting right-wing violence, scholars say
FBI director Kash Patel ended the bureau's long-standing partnership with the Anti-Defamation League this week. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The FBI's split with the Anti-Defamation League this week is the latest evidence that the Trump administration is moving away from targeting hate groups in favor of investigating what it deems left-wing violence, scholars told Axios.
Why it matters: The ADL had, since at least 1940, worked with law enforcement to combat extremism and antisemitism, which the Trump administration has maintained is still a priority.
Go deeper (3 min. read)
Avery Lotz}:
Oct 2, 2025 -
Politics & Policy
Kash Patel cuts FBI ties with Anti-Defamation League
FBI Director Kash Patel ended the bureau's long-standing partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the prominent civil rights group that has worked with law enforcement to combat antisemitism and extremism.
Why it matters: His announcement came after the ADL faced right-wing backlash for its web pages on the Christian Identity movement and Turning Point USA, the group founded by slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk.
Go deeper (1 min. read)
Zachary Basu
Updated Sep 16, 2025 -
Politics & Policy
Republicans embrace speech limits
President Trump and MAGA spent years lampooning censorship, discrimination against conservatives, and progressive "cancel culture."
Now in power — and riding an outpouring of grief and fury over Charlie Kirk's tragic killing — they're enforcing speech codes to punish ideological opponents.
Why it matters: Backed by the Trump administration, digital vigilantes are demanding arrests, firings and deportations for anti-Kirk posts and remarks.
Go deeper (3 min. read)
---
---
AN 9 25
The New York Times reports tech billionaire Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has been accused of sexually abusing his children.
“The allegations against Errol Musk involve five of his children and stepchildren, whom he was accused of abusing in South Africa and California, according to police and court records, personal correspondence, social workers and interviews with family members,” says the Times, with the earliest accusation was in 1993 when Errol Musk’s stepdaughter, then 4 years old, told relatives he had touched her at the family house.
Errol Musk, who has at least nine children and stepchildren and has been married to three women, maintains a powerful grip over much of the family.
Errol Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa, has long been a controversial figure in the Musk family history. He worked as an electromechanical engineer and property developer in South Africa during the apartheid era. His relationship with his children, particularly his most famous son Elon Musk, has been notably strained and publicly complex
The family dynamics have been marked by significant tension and public discord. Elon Musk has previously spoken about a difficult relationship with his father, describing him as emotionally abusive and challenging to deal with. In various interviews, Elon has characterized his father as a problematic presence in the family's life.
Errol Musk's personal life has been characterized by multiple marriages and a large number of children. He has been open about his complicated family relationships in various media interviews, often making controversial statements that have drawn public scrutiny.
---
AN 9 25
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920 — 105 years ago — and generations that came along after that, from the Silent Generation to Millennials, grew up assuming that women's suffrage was settled law. Even many critics of feminism agreed that the 19th Amendment was a good idea.
But The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi, in her September 13 column, describes a growing trend: more and more MAGA Republicans and white fundamentalist Christian nationalists openly questioning the 19th Amendment.
"Should women in the U.S. have the right to vote?," Mahdawi writes. "You'd be forgiven for assuming this particular issue was sorted out quite a long time ago. But, because we live in hell, it seems the question is once again up for debate…. First up is Braeden Sorbo, a 24-year-old conservative influencer."
READ MORE: 'This is a dark day': Missouri Republican slams GOP leaders
Sorbo told YouTuber Richard Harris (who hosts the "Truth & Liberty" show), "I know more young women today who say they wish they didn't ever get the right to vote than I’ve ever talked to in my life."
"In a normal world," Mahdawi warns, "Sorbo would be a fringe figure shouting into the ether who we could all happily ignore. But thanks in part to digital media, we don't have that luxury any more. Sorbo has 1.9 million followers on TikTok…. More importantly, however, Sorbo's views can no longer be dismissed as 'fringe'…. Last month, for example, the U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared a video on X in which several pastors say women should no longer be allowed to vote as individuals…. Predictably, Elon Musk also has some views on this matter."
Mahdawi adds, "While the tech billionaire — soon to be trillionaire? — has never explicitly argued women shouldn't vote, he has amplified tweets that undermine the idea of universal suffrage."
According to Mahdawi, "The idea that women shouldn’t vote is increasingly being co-signed and amplified by some of the most powerful people in America."
READ MORE: 'Pray to God': How Republican rhetoric changed after Tyler Robinson was identified
An anti-feminist YouTuber who openly says that women should not have the right to vote is Hannah Pearl Davis, whose YouTube channel has over 2 million subscribers.
Mahdawi's column and Sorbo's recent comments are drawing a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.
Writer John Ashton posted, "The Handmaid’s Tale is the bible of MAGA."
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson wrote, "This is so disgusting [and] especially horrifying because it’s the younger generation promoting this crap. I said we were moving towards the [Handmaid's Tale] last November. I hope I’m wrong."
X user Peter A. Patriot commented, "Republican women are admitting they don't think they should have the right to vote. It's sad."
READ MORE:MAGA enraged at UT governor for claiming Charlie Kirk 'said some very inflammatory things'
---
// CONTEXT REICHSTAG BIGG BALLS DC
9 25 an
After it was confirmed that far-right activist Charlie Kirk died after being shot during a Wednesday event on a college campus, and while the shooter remains at large as of Wednesday evening, MAGA activists are still blaming the political left for Kirk's death on social media — and vowing revenge.
Initial responses to the news of Kirk's death, including from President Donald Trump, were encouraging conservatives to pray for the conservative commentator and his family. However, several MAGA influencers and other public figures influential on the far right insisted that Kirk's death should be seen as a mass mobilization event.
"Left-wing violence is out of control, and it’s not random," former Arizona Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters tweeted. "Either we destroy the NGO/donor patronage network that enables and foments it, or it will destroy us."
READ MORE:'Put two and two together': Conservative argues CNN told hosts to be soft on Trump-Epstein
:{:{MAGA influencer Sam Hyde called on his hundreds of thousands of X followers to watch the video of Kirk being struck by a bullet, writing "It could have been any one of us exercising the first amendment" while adding: "You all need to know what our enemies want." Conservative social media personality FischerKing tweeted: "If this isn't a wake-up call then we're never going to wake up."}:
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reposted a separate tweet from FischerKing, who said the "left-wing mainstream media" had created a "climate of hysteria against right-wing figures that could radicalize any number of unstable people to engage in political violence." Musk commented: "Exactly."}:
"We're in a war," conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said in a video. "The left has been saying put a bullseye on Trump, put a bullseye on his supporters, they've been calling for violence ... they're going to attack."
"The Rubicon has been crossed. Not by Trump or MAGA, but by the far left," wrote far-right activist Mike Cernovich, who spawned the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory. "Randy Paul can shove his book reports up his a--. F--- everyone who played footsie with these dark demonic forces. We will not be scolded any longer."
"The attack on Charlie Kirk and free speech is evil, pure and simple. The hate, violence and evil being peddled by radical extremists has no place in this country! Schools and social media have become breeding grounds for liberal hate," the Utah Republican Party's official X account posted. "Enough!"
READ MORE:House hearing derailed after Dem calls GOP rep 'lapdog to the president' in shouting match
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7 25 HEARD US AID BODY CT WILL BE 14 MILLION BY 2023?
AI GGL 7 25
Based on a study published in the medical journal The Lancet in July 2025, cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was eliminated in early 2025, could lead to over 14 million additional deaths by 2030. This includes an estimated 4.5 million deaths among children younger than five.
The study, conducted by an international research team, estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91.8 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021. The researchers attributed these averted deaths to USAID-supported programs in various sectors, including healthcare, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, and humanitarian relief.
The elimination of USAID was initiated under the Trump administration with the support of Elon Musk, who served as a close advisor. Musk had previously stated his intention to drastically reduce government spending and headcount, targeting USAID as one of the first departments to be dismantled. This action has been criticized by medical experts and lawmakers who argue that it will have devastating consequences for global health.
MSNBC
Medical experts and lawmakers are denouncing Elon Musk as cruel after a new study predicted that the billionaire’s efforts to help the Trump administration dismantle theU.S. Agency for International Developmentcould lead to more than 14 million deaths over the next five years.
According to the analysis, published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, programs funded by USAID prevented nearly 92 million deaths worldwide from 2001 through 2021. Researchers found that across 133 countries, the agency helped stop more than 25 million deaths from HIV/AIDS, about 11 million from diarrheal diseases, 8 million from malaria and nearly 5 million from tuberculosis.
Using that data, experts calculated that 14 million people around the globe could die over the next five years because of the USAID cuts, including about 4.5 million children younger than 5.
USAID became an agency of particular interest to Musk, as his so-called Department of Government Efficiency carried out President Donald Trump’s mission to slash the federal budget. In February, Musk bragged on Xthat he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
A month later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the cancellationof 83% of USAID’s programs, saying they did not serve “the core national interests of the United States.” Rubio’s move had an immediate effect, as NBC News reported:
The action brought many overseas humanitarian efforts to a grinding halt, leading to the closings of food kitchens and health clinics in underserved countries and in some cases delaying or stopping the distribution of lifesaving medications, bed nets to ward off malaria, nutritional packets for starving children and chlorine tablets to disinfect dirty water.
Samantha Power, who led USAID during the Biden administration, told CNN that the effects that Musk’s cuts will have on global health are “not something that any American should tolerate.”
“Efficiency, we’re all for efficiency, but actually taking away programming that is saving lives … that’s just devastating,” Power said.
Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science policy at the University of Alberta in Canada, called the prediction “Sickening. Heartbreaking. Evil.” Rachel Clarke, an English physician specializing in severe illness, seemingly singled out Musk, attributing the estimated death toll to “one man’s cruelty & venality.”
Congressional Democrats also shared their reactions to the study.
“Donald Trump’s legacy: As many as 14 MILLION more deaths over the next five years thanks to USAID cuts made by him, Elon Musk, and his DOGE bros,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote on X.“Absolutely shameful.”
“This administration’s cruelty knows no bounds,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington wrote in her own post.
---
HAS TAKEN DOWN SOME MEAN TWT, BOOSTED TRUMP ON la ICE BS
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BANNON:
DEPORT MUSK, SIEZE SPACEX
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POLITICO
10/25/2024
The House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat called for an investigation Friday into a report that Elon Musk, the billionaire space tycoon who backs former President Donald Trump, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We should investigate what Elon Musk is up to to make sure that it is not to the detriment of the national security of the United States,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), said in an interview, joining a chorus of Democrats including the administrator of NASA who called for checking the report.
Elon Musk — the world’s richest person and one of Trump’s most high-profile and wealthy backers — has had previously unreported discussions with the Russian president since 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal report published late Thursday.
Smith stopped short of saying Musk should immediately lose the security clearance he holds through his role at SpaceX, arguing a probe is needed to determine if his alleged actions jeopardize U.S. interests. Smith said the Defense Department should look into the matter.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), a senior member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee, also called for the Pentagon to investigate.
“Elon Musk—who has billions in contracts that support some of our most sensitive military operations—reportedly has an open line to Putin,” Shaheen said in a post. “In the interest of our national security, [the Defense Department] must investigate this and evaluate how it relies on commercial services like Musk’s.”
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said the allegations of Musk’s contacts with Putin “raise many serious questions,” but he didn’t explicitly call for an investigation.
Earlier Friday, NASA chief Bill Nelson said the report, if it’s true, “would be concerning” for a host of U.S. agencies and that it should be verified.
“I don’t know that that story is true. I think it should be investigated,” said Nelson, who previously served as a Democratic Florida senator, at Semafor’s World Economy Summit. “If the story is true, that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.”
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, denied the report, saying Musk and the Kremlin had only had one phone call. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Musk as a “once-in-a-generation industry leader” and emphasized that Trump “will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to questions.
Musk’s company, SpaceX, has multiple contracts with the Defense Department and NASA. On Friday morning, a crew of NASA astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station using one of the company’s Dragon capsules.
The mogul has poured nearly $120 million into his super PAC supporting Trump, and has quickly become one of the former president’s biggest backers. He has also courted controversy by spreading conspiracies on his social media platform X, including the false claim that Democrats are trying to steal the election through non-citizen voting. The DOJ warned Musk’s America PAC this week that his offer of million-dollar prizes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law.
Trump has previously said that, if reelected, he would appoint Musk to lead an efficiency commission that could dramatically alter the federal government.
At the same time, Musk’s companies have deep ties to national security.
Musk offered his Starlink satellites to Ukraine at the onset of the war, but has since stopped funding them and restricted their use by the Ukrainian military. Earlier this year, Ukrainian military intelligence reports found that Starlink was being used by the Russian army.
Smith voiced concerns that Musk’s companies, including SpaceX and its subsidiary Starlink, play crucial roles in the nation’s defense and intelligence capabilities and called for greater diversity in the space launch industry to ensure national security.
Even without a “smoking gun” in any investigation into Musk’s alleged contacts with Putin, Smith said it “may be absolutely crucial to the national security interests of the United States” to have alternatives to Musk’s companies.
Trump himself has had a handful of phone calls with Putin since leaving office, according to a book released earlier this month by journalist Bob Woodward, and has called the Russian president “genius” and “savvy” for his invasion of Ukraine while suggesting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to blame for the war. Trump’s campaign has denied Woodward’s reporting.
Trump has pushed back on critics who say he “is in the pocket” of Russia, citing sanctions he approved on a Russian pipeline into Germany while he was president.
Smith called the apparent web of relationships and alleged communications between Musk, former President Donald Trump and Putin “troubling” and argued they pose a dire threat to U.S. interests and democratic values, especially if Trump were to regain the White House.
“There is a growing fascist movement across the world that Putin is the biggest exporter of, but China is right there with them,” Smith said. “There are a number of folks here domestically who are sympathetic to that worldview, that supposedly strong white men with a lot of money ought to rule the world and the rest of us should simply be forced to do whatever they dictate.”
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STARLINK UKRAINE 09/12/23
4200236-putin-calls-musk-an-outstanding-person-after-starlink-revelations
THE HILL
- GOP rep urges Trump administration to get Ukraine weapons pipeline ‘back up and running’
- Zelensky: Trump conversation ‘very important and fruitful’
- Russia targets Kyiv with largest missile, drone attack of war after Trump, Putin speak
:{[More
(Vladimir Putin)](https://thehill.com/people/vladimir-putin/)}:
called SpaceX founder Elon Muskan “outstanding person,” days after Musk acknowledged he blocked off internet access from his Starlink satellites during a Ukrainian raid last year.
“As far as private business and Elon Musk is concerned … he is undoubtedly an outstanding person. This must be recognized, and I think it is recognized all over the world,” Putin said Tuesday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia, according to a Reuters translation.
“He is an active and talented businessman and he is succeeding a lot, including with the support of the American state,” Putin added.
Putin did not specifically refer to the Starlink incident while at the economic forum, according to Reuters.
Musk said last week he turned off internet access from his Starlink satellites during a Ukrainian raid last year on a Russian naval fleet, claiming he did so to prevent being “complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”
Musk was responding to details from an upcoming book that indicated he ordered engineers to shut off the communications network before the attack.
An excerpt about the raid from American author and journalist Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography on Musk, titled “Elon Musk,” was published by CNN. According to CNN, the tech billionaire said he was concerned Russia would respond to the naval attack with a nuclear weapon.
Starlink has been a service for Ukrainian troops in the country’s fight against Russia and was provided to Kyiv in early 2022 after Russia disrupted Ukraine’s communications systems.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedevsimilarly praised the tech billionaire last week, writing in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, “If what Isaacson has written in his book is true, then it looks like Musk is the last adequate mind in North America.”
Tags Dmitry MedvedevElon MuskrussiaRussia-Ukraine warStarlinkukraineVladimir Putin
---
an 7 25
Billionaire Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk was one of the most generous donors to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, and "War Room" host Steve Bannon argued that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would have won were it not for Musk's support of Trump.
Trump and Musk became so close that the president put him in charge of a new advisory committee called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but their alliance turned into a bitter, ugly feud when Musk expressed his vehement disdain for Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
Trump and Musk spent weeks exchanging insults, and Trump allies promoted allegations of drug use on Musk's part.
READ MORE: 'A low move in a free country': WSJ editorial board rips Trump for targeting press
Author Michael Wolff, during an early July appearance on The Daily Beast's podcast, alleged that Trump is claiming he planted a story about Musk allegedly using drugs in the New York Times. In late May, the Times reported that Musk, according to sources, was using ketamine, Adderall, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms during the 2024 presidential race — an allegation Musk vehemently denies.
Wolff told Daily Beast podcast host Joanna Coles, "I was tracking some Trump phone calls on Monday night, (June 30). And it's sort of worth explaining here that over a long period of time, I've gotten to know and cultivated a lot of people who Trump regularly speaks to. Trump speaks to them, and then, they speak to other people…. Whoever he calls, he says the same thing to everybody. So you know exactly what is on his mind."
The journalist/author also told Coles, "In one of these phone calls — many of them — he was on about, you know, how many drugs he takes. 'He takes drugs all the time. You know that, don't you? You know, The New York Times wrote about it. They said, he takes drugs.'"
Trump, according to Wolff's sources, claimed, "Actually, we dropped a dime to The New York Times.... on Elon's drug taking."
READ MORE:Trump’s tax bill could be a major win for one group. Everyone else? Not so much.
*Watch the full video below or at this link. The video is also available on the Daily Beast's website (subscription required).
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an 7 25 calls for 3rd party am
Political suicide': Musk promises to stop Trump's big bill 'if it's the last thing I do'
---
an
During a three-hour interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan some months ago, Elon Musk revealed the core of the ideology animating the richest person in the world.
“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is
,” Musk said, adding that liberals and progressives are “exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response.”
Musk pointed to California’s move to provide medical insurance even to undocumented people who qualify for its low-income Medi-Cal program.
“We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on,” Musk continued. Empathy has been “weaponized.”
Musk is now officially out of Trump world but his DOGE lives on. It has already destroyed almost every empathic part of the U.S. government.
Musk disdains social insurance such as Social Security, which he calls a “Ponzi scheme.”
Musk’s former buddy Donald Trump presumably agrees with him. As do many Republicans, including Joni (“Well, we all are going to die”) Ernst and Mitch (“They’ll get over it”) McConnell.
Trump’s Republicans are now raiding Medicaid and food stamps to make way for a giant tax cut mostly for the rich. No empathy bug there.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is grabbing people off the streets and from courthouses without warrants and putting them in detention centers.
The number of immigrants detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities across the country has reached a record high of more than 56,000. The result is overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and enormous pain for affected families and communities.
It’s the opposite of empathy — treating people as if they aren’t human, as if they’re the “other.”
Both Musk and Trump are experts in taking selfish advantage of everything, anything, and anybody. Both have altered government programs and regulations to reap personal financial gain. Both have been quick to fire people. Both demand loyalty to themselves but have no loyalty to anything or anyone besides themselves.
They’ve got it all wrong. Empathy is a necessary precondition for a society.
Without empathy, we’d be living in a social Darwinist jungle animated only by selfish individuals pursuing selfish needs, like Musk and Trump.
If everyone behaved like Musk and Trump, we’d have to assume everyone else was out to exploit us if they could. Much of our time and attention would be devoted to outwitting or protecting ourselves from other Musks and Trumps.
Without a shared sense of empathy and responsibility, we would have to assume that everyone — including legislators, judges, regulators, and police — was acting selfishly, making and enforcing laws for their own benefit.
In a world populated by people like Musk and Trump, we couldn’t trust anyone to be truthful if they could do better for themselves by lying. We couldn’t count on any claim by sellers of any product or service. Internet-based “reputational ratings” would be of little value because raters would be easily bribed.
Journalists would shade their reports for their own selfish advantage, taking bribes from advertisers or currying favor with politicians. Teachers would offer lessons to satisfy wealthy or powerful patrons. Historians would alter history if by doing so they gained wealth or power. Scientists would doctor evidence for similar selfish motives. The truth would degenerate into a cacophony of competing factual claims, as, in part, it has.
We couldn’t trust doctors or pharmacists to give us the right medications. We couldn’t trust bankers and accountants not to fleece us, restaurants not to feed us tainted food, lawyers not to hoodwink us.
A society depends on people trusting that most others in society will have a modicum of empathy for others rather than take advantage of them. In this way, civic trust is self-enforcing and self-perpetuating, while civic distrust can corrode the very foundations of a society.
Polls tell us that many of today’s Americans worry that the nation is losing its national identity. Yet the core of that identity has never been the whiteness of our skin, the uniformity of our ethnicity, or the commonality of our birthplace.
Our core identity as Americans — the most precious legacy we have been given by the generations who came before us — consists of the ideals we share and the obligations we hold in common. We are tied together by these empathic meanings and duties. Our loyalties and attachments, guided by empathy, define who we are.
If we are losing our national identity, it is not because we are becoming blacker or browner or speak in more languages than we once did. It is because we are losing the ties that bind us together, our collective empathy.
Musk and Trump typify what has gone wrong. Their most damaging legacies may be the erosion of the trust and empathy on which our society — any society — depends.
===
ai gl 6 25
Elon Musk's approach to content moderation on X (formerly Twitter) has been marked by a shift towards less restrictive policies and a reliance on in-house content moderation, alongside a move away from reliance on external contractors. He has also emphasized "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach". This has led to both praise for increased free speech and criticism for potential harms, particularly regarding the spread of misinformation and hate speech.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Key Changes and Policies:
This policy, introduced in April 2023, involves limiting the visibility of some tweets that violate policies, rather than outright removing them.
X is building a smaller, in-house team of content moderators to handle the most egregious content.
Musk has laid off significant numbers of outsourced content moderators, raising concerns about the platform's ability to handle harmful content.
Musk initially announced the formation of a council with diverse viewpoints to inform content policy, but its status is unclear.
X no longer enforces its policy prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation.
Controversies and Concerns:
- Increased Hate Speech and Misinformation:
Critics argue that Musk's changes have led to a rise in hate speech and misinformation on the platform.
- "Cis" and "Cisgender" Restrictions:
Musk has personally intervened to restrict the use of these terms, despite them not being considered slurs by many.
- Loss of Trust and Safety Staff:
Many experienced content moderation staff have left or been laid off, potentially impacting the platform's ability to address harmful content.
- EU Investigation:
The EU is investigating X's content moderation practices, particularly regarding its recommender systems.
- Legal Challenges:
X has faced legal challenges regarding its content moderation practices, including a failed bid to block a California state law requiring disclosure of content moderation practices.
Overall, Musk's approach to content moderation on X is characterized by:
- A move towards a less restrictive environment, prioritizing free speech even if it allows for harmful content.
- A reduction in the scale and reliance on external content moderation resources.
- Increased reliance on in-house teams and community-based initiatives like Community Notes.
- A focus on individual users' ability to shape their own experience by choosing what content they see.
These changes have sparked debate about the balance between free speech and safety on social media, and the impact of Musk's leadership on the platform's culture and content moderation practices.
:{---
Twitter under Elon Musk - Wikipedia
AN 6 25 STATES N
Just hours after Minnesotans learned that Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman had been assassinated, right-wing influencer Collin Rugg, who has 1.8 million followers on X, posted a “report” that hinted that she’d been killed because of a recent vote on ending undocumented adults’ ability to enroll in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance for the working poor.
Mike Cernovich, another right-wing influencer who has 1.4 million followers on X, took Rugg’s post and amped it up, but in the “just asking questions” style of many conspiracy theories:
*“Did Tim Walz have her executed to send a message?”
They were deeply ignorant about the MinnesotaCare issue.
Walz and Hortman — who was instrumental in passing legislation allowing undocumented people to sign up for MinnesotaCare as speaker of the House in 2023 — negotiated a compromise with Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature to end eligibility for adults, but keep it for children. They did so to win necessary Republican support in the 67-67 House to pass a state budget. Without it, state government would have shut down on July 1.
Both Hortman and Walz signed the compromise agreement in mid-May. This week, Hortman spoke tearfully about how difficult the vote was for her, but she was bound to vote yes on the issue because of the prior agreement.
The “theory” of Hortman’s killing was further undercut by the vote of Democratic Sen. John Hoffman — who was also targeted by the suspect — against rolling back MinnesotaCare for undocumented Minnesotans.
Rugg and Cernovich’s posts were shared widely and just the start of the disinformation.
Once law enforcement sources began revealing a suspect, right-wing influencers ran with an insignificant detail: That Vance Luther Boelter was a “Walz appointee.”
Like many states, but even more so here, Minnesota is home to hundreds of nonpartisan and bipartisan boards and commissions, which are composed of thousands of people who typically win the appointment by simply volunteering. There are currently 342 open positions on Minnesota boards and commissions. Boelter was appointed to the Workforce Development Council by Walz’s predecessor Gov. Mark Dayton and reappointed by Walz.
It was the equivalent of calling a Sunday school volunteer an “appointee of the bishop.”
No matter, the Murdoch media machine, specifically the New York Post, had their headline: “Former appointee of Tim Walz sought….”
Cernovich had his greasy foil hot dog wrapper and began constructing a hat:
“The Vice President candidate for the Democrat party is directly connected to a domestic terrorist, that is confirmed, the only question is whether Tim Walz himself ordered the political hit against a rival who voted against Walz’s plan to give free healthcare to illegals.”
Walz had no such plan. He had signed an agreement to end eligibility for undocumented adults.
Joey Mannarino, who has more than 600,000 followers on X, was more crass:
*“Rumor has it she was preparing to switch parties. The Democrats are VIOLENT SCUM.”
It was a ridiculous “rumor.” One of the last photos of Hortman alive was an image of her at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor’s big annual fundraising event, the Humphrey-Mondale dinner, which took place just hours before her assassination.
No matter, Cernovich wanted his new friends in federal law enforcement to act:
*“The FBI must take Tim Walz into custody immediately.”
Finally, fresh off his humiliating defeat at the hands of President Donald Trump, world’s richest man Elon Musk quote-tweeted someone again falsely alleging Hortman was killed by “the left” and added:
*“The far left is murderously violent.”
The suspect’s “hit list,” according to an official who has seen the list, comprised Minnesotans who have been outspoken in favor of abortion rights. CNN reported that it also included several abortion clinics, which doesn’t sound like the work of “the left.”
Right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Walz on a pile of lies.
In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.
---
rww
06/09/2025
by
- Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Trump Says His Border Czar Should Arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom
President Donald Trump weighed in Monday on the war of words between his Border Czar Tom Homan and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D).
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Pointing to protesters, but not ICE agents, Trump demands arrests of those in masks
The president wants protesters in masks to be taken into custody, but immigration enforcement agents in masks are apparently fine.
- Freddy Gray @ The Spectator: Bannon on LA riots: ‘We’re in World War Three’
It’s all war all the time inside Steve Bannon’s War Room in Capitol Hill. “We’re in the Third World War,” he tells me. “And it’s a battlefield that’s everywhere, including in downtown Los Angeles.” The weekend’s riots in LA, he insists, are part of an orchestrated push by nefarious forces in America to stoke civil unrest in America.
- Jason Campbell @ Media Matters: While calling for the military to be deployed to Los Angeles, Charlie Kirk uses a chart sourced to a white nationalist website
During his June 9 broadcast, Charlie Kirk used a chart sourced to the white nationalist organization American Renaissance.
- Ewan Palmer @ The Daily Beast: Musk Is Back to Boosting Trump After the President’s Bombshell Threat
The tech billionaire is backing Trump’s response to the clashes between protesters and immigration officials in Los Angeles.
---
---
WALL ST ON PARADE HMN?
Pam Martens andRuss Martens: February 13, 2025
Yesterday, the newly formed House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) held its first hearing titled: “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.” The Subcommittee appears to be part of an echo chamber attempting to bring legitimacy to President Donald Trump tapping his largest campaign donor, billionaire Elon Musk, to lead an effort to gut federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies and create enough savings to give tax breaks and other perks to the ultra-rich.
Musk should be immediately disqualified from any such watchdog role for the following reasons: he effectively put Trump over the election finish line, giving $288 million to PACs or Super PACs supporting Trump; the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that Musk has been communicating with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022, notwithstanding the fact that Musk’s company SpaceX is a U.S. military defense contractor and Putin is on a U.S. sanctions list for launching a war on Ukraine.
In addition, Musk’s companies have received $19.8 billion in U.S. government contracts since 2009. (See chart above.)
And finally, and most importantly, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (with the same acronym as the Subcommittee, i.e. DOGE, and the same name as a crypto coin Musk has boosted) is now investigating the same federal agencies whose Inspectors General were investigating Musk’s companies until they were sacked by the Trump administration last month.
Yesterday, during the DOGE Subcommittee’s first hearing, Congressman Greg Casar (D-TX) revealed that the Inspectors General of five federal agencies that were investigating Musk’s companies had been fired by the Trump administration last month. Casar said that the Inspector General of the Department of Labor had 17 open investigations into Tesla and SpaceX, where Musk is the CEO of both and a major shareholder. Casar also called out that the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation was investigating Tesla when he was fired by the Trump administration.
According to Casar, the Department of Defense’s Inspector General was looking into SpaceX when he was fired. The investigation was potentially a result of the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Musk’s use of illegal drugs and secret conversations with Putin, both of which would be highly problematic for a defense contractor with security clearance.
Also, according to Casar, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture was investigating Neuralink, another Musk company (experimenting with computer brain implants) when he was fired; and the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was repeatedly “taking on” Tesla, when he was fired.
Musk’s companies currently have over $3 billion in existing contracts with the U.S. government. In that regard, Casar told the witnesses at the hearing that Musk will receive an average of $8 million a day from his companies’ contracts while the Social Security recipients that he’s investigating receive an average of $65 a day.
You can watch
.
---
GGL 6 25
[### Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Reviews After ...
_The New York Times_
https://www.nytimes.com › 2024/12/17 › technology](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/technology/elon-musk-spacex-national-security-reporting.html)
Dec 17, 2024 — Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets.
People also ask
What is Elon Musk's 5 minute rule?
Did Elon Musk actually find SpaceX?
What companies did Elon actually found?
How much security does Elon Musk have?
Feedback
[### Elon Musk's Companies Were Under Investigation by Five ... Wall Street On Parade
https://wallstreetonparade.com › 2025/02 › elon-musks-c...](https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/02/elon-musks-companies-were-under-investigation-by-five-inspectors-general-when-the-trump-administration-fired-them-and-made-musk-the-investigator/)
Feb 13, 2025 — Casar said that the Inspector General of the Department of Labor had 17 open investigations into Tesla and SpaceX, where Musk is the CEO of both ...
[### Corruption in plain sight: How Elon Musk has benefited ...
Economic Policy Institute
https://www.epi.org › blog › corruption-in-plain-sight-...](https://www.epi.org/blog/corruption-in-plain-sight-how-elon-musk-has-benefited-from-the-first-100-days-of-the-trump-administration/)
May 8, 2025 — In May 2024, the USAID inspector general announced it was investigating USAID's relationship with Starlink (a subsidiary of SpaceX), which it ...
[### Is Musk Using the FAA to Benefit Himself and His SpaceX ...
Campaign Legal Center
https://campaignlegal.org › update › musk-using-faa-ben...](https://campaignlegal.org/update/musk-using-faa-benefit-himself-and-his-spacex-subsidiary-starlink)
Mar 13, 2025 — CLC is calling for an inspector general investigation to confirm these facts and determine whether Elon Musk has violated the law. Conflicts ...
[### Elon Musk and SpaceX Face Federal Review for Security ...
Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com › elon-musk-spacex-federal...](https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-spacex-federal-review-2002630)
Dec 18, 2024 — Three investigations will look into whether Musk and SpaceX complied with rules regarding the protection of state secrets and national security.
[### Elon Musk, SpaceX face federal reviews over security, NYT ...
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com › technology › space › elon-m...](https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/elon-musk-spacex-face-federal-reviews-after-security-reporting-failures-nyt-2024-12-17/)
Dec 17, 2024 — Elon Musk and SpaceX face at least three federal reviews over whether they have complied with federal reporting rules aimed at protecting ...
[### These departments investigating Elon Musk have been cut ...
Los Angeles Times
https://www.latimes.com › business › story › elon-musk...](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-27/elon-musk-trump-doge-conflicts-of-interest)
Mar 27, 2025 — The NLRB has filed multiple cases against Musk's companies, including one that accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight employees over an open ...
[### Press Releases | Congressman Stephen Lynch
Congressman Stephen Lynch (.gov)
https://lynch.house.gov › press-releases](https://lynch.house.gov/press-releases?id=A1CA7580-22E2-40B6-939E-97CF150E3CAE)
Apr 9, 2025 — Musk and his company SpaceX repeatedly failed to comply with requirements for reporting the details of meetings with foreign leaders. The DOD ...
[### Did Trump Quietly Kill a Sensitive Pentagon Probe Into ...
The New Republic
https://newrepublic.com › article › trump-quietly-kill-se...](https://newrepublic.com/article/191330/trump-quietly-kill-sensitive-pentagon-probe-elon-musk)
Feb 8, 2025 — The New York Times revealed last year that Musk and SpaceX failed to meet federal reporting requirements for Pentagon contractors.
[### WATCH: Rep. Casar says fired inspectors general were ...
YouTube · PBS NewsHour
1.4M+ views · 3 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRJjQCXXdlY&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD)
5:28
WATCH: Rep. Casar says fired inspectors general were investigating Elon Musk's companies. 1.4M views · 3 months ago ...more ...