Musk's Starbase is Fracturing a Small Texas Town

The arrival of SpaceX has brought good business to Eddie Reyes and his family. Since the establishment of Starbase, Elon Musk's company town in south Texas, his charter boat business has picked up ‌as space fans flock to the area for a glimpse of launches. Reyes' nephew works at SpaceX as a welder, driving a Tesla Cybertruck.  But the same rockets Reyes sees lifting his family's fortunes are also shaking his mother's home. Shockwaves from launches are cracking the ceiling, ‌loosening window seals and sinking the foundation. She's among dozens of residents now suing Musk's company for damage.

While SpaceX's rapid expansion is bringing jobs, visitors and global attention, it is also fueling lawsuits, environmental concerns and a growing divide among the 1.4 million residents of the Rio Grande Valley. "This company is literally shaking the earth," said Tino Villarreal, city commissioner of Brownsville, a city of 185,000 people that borders Starbase. "By the amount of workforce it wants to produce, by the actual wavelengths that are shaking our soil."

Some local Rio Grande Valley residents initially welcomed SpaceX. Maria Pointer lived in the region for ​almost two decades when she sold her home to SpaceX in 2020 after meeting ​with Musk. "We were excited," she said. "I really felt, at the time, that we deserved the moon as the gas station to wherever all the Elons of the world wanted to go in interstellar space."  Over time, Pointer has become less optimistic, saying the town has become less friendly. In April, she went to Starfactory to film an interview with an Italian news crew, beneath a huge "X" near the entrance to the building, where her kitchen once stood. A security guard approached and instructed them to leave. "It was very military," she said.

Other residents of neighboring towns – Laguna ​Vista, Port Isabel and South Padre Island – claim the Starship launches are damaging their homes, according to a class-action ‌lawsuit filed in April against SpaceX.  One plaintiff, who declined to speak on the record at her attorney's direction, showed Reuters her Port Isabel home. Cabinets sit unevenly, doors no longer close, and chipboard covers warped flooring she said was damaged by mold after a ​shower pipe burst following a rocket launch. She estimates foundation repairs at about $100,000, more than half the home's value.  "They're wanting to get to Mars," she said. "But what about us that are here? I'm here now. And nobody is thinking about us."

 

More of Trump's Corrupt Stock Trading

Last week, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a filing showing thousands of individual stock purchases by convicted felon Donald Trump during the first quarter of 2026, prompting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to sound the alarm on social media, especially about Nvidia.

“Trump brought the NVIDIA CEO on his trip to China to lobby [President] Xi Jinping to buy advanced AI chips, even though it would create a U.S. national security threat,” Warren wrote Friday on social media. “It turns out Trump also bought millions in NVIDIA’s stock.”

In reaction, Eric Trump quoted Warren’s post and claimed that every single asset of his father’s is wrapped up in a blind trust, and called the suggestion that “any member of the Trump family” buys or sells individual stocks “a lie and blatantly false” before asking Warren, “Please be better than this...”

Eric Trump could do better himself by not lying, however.   “Trump’s assets aren’t in a blind trust, and he bought and sold individual Nvidia stock in 15 separate transactions totaling millions of dollars. That’s what Trump’s financial disclosure - which has his signature - says. See for yourself,” said Virginia congressman Don Beyer on social media.  Beyer then linked to a disclosure form that confirms Donald Trump purchased up to $1 million in Nvidia stock this year — mere days before the company was granted permission to sell advanced computer chips to China.

The 113-page document shows Donald Trump engaged in 2,345 purchases of mostly individual stocks this year and in 1,296 sales of the same. He signed the document on May 8, 2026, one week before he arrived in China, accompanied by Huang.

“The president purchasing Nvidia shares a week before his own Commerce Department allows them to sell one of our most valuable assets to our main geopolitical opponent is unfathomably more corrupt than anything on Hilary Clinton’s email server,” wrote one X user.

Trump claimed during his first term that there were no conflicts of interest regarding his finances because his assets were kept in a blind trust, only for then-head of the ethics agency, Walter Shaub, to state it was “not even halfway blind” — and resign in July 2017.

Trump has made a fortune since entering politics, with Forbes reporting in March that the president has a $6.5 billion net worth, is “leveraging his presidency for profit” and has added $1.4 billion to his coffers since his 2024 reelection.

 

The Trump Phone is Looking Like a Big Scam

The T1 Phone (a gold cell phone bearing President Donald Trump’s name) feels about as real as Bigfoot these days. It’s been close to a year since the flashy announcement that the Trump family was going to manufacture the very best, most American, most gold-plated phone ever. But there’s no phone in sight, and it’s increasingly looking like there never will be.

But if it never arrives, what happens to the $59 million that Trump Mobile raked in thanks to 590,000 suckers plopping down $100 each as a deposit?  By now, you should know how this works. Those folks are likely out of luck. Why would you ever give money to the Trump family on spec? They are just going to run away with it. 

After kicking the can down the road for months, Trump Mobile appears to have stealth-added some terms and conditions in April, intended to address the whole pre-order deposit problem. And if the Wayback Machine is accurate, these seem not to be updated terms but rather terms that may have never existed before April 6.

If you’re one of the people who gave away your $100, these terms will not engender confidence that you will ever get your gilded monstrosity of a phone. First, a pre-order deposit “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.” You should also know that the “deposit does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms.” However, that statement is just a few lines down from a banner urging people to “LOCK IN YOUR T1 PHONE PROMOTIONAL PRICING NOW,” with a link to the order page. 

The deposit also isn’t for a specific phone but for whatever phone Trump Mobile finally releases, if any: “Device specifications, features, software, hardware components, storage capacities, bundled accessories, colors, and configurations are subject to change prior to final sale. Images, prototypes, beta demonstrations, and marketing renderings are illustrative only and may not reflect final production units.”

They had to get that in there, given that the illustrations of the nonexistent phone keep changing. At first, the phone was going to be “All-American,” all the time. However, the mock-up image appeared to be Samsung’s Galaxy 25 Ultra in a case. Notably, Samsung’s phones are not made in America. But the company has walked back that whole part anyway.   If Trump Mobile cancels the phone, they say they will issue a full refund. Of course, if Trump Mobile never cancels the phone and instead pretends that it is a going concern, that route to a refund is seemingly closed off.

Oh, and here’s another fun little thing. Other terms of service on Trump Mobile explain that disputes are subject to arbitration and courts in Palm Beach County, Florida,  which have exclusive jurisdiction over enforcing arbitration decisions.  But the terms and conditions no longer have an arbitration provision, so your only relief would be to file a lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida.   An entire lawsuit to get your $100 back, and it can be filed only in the county where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate lives?  Good luck on that.

 

As If You Needed Another Reason to Avoid Tesla

When Tom LoSavio bought hisTesla Model S in 2017, he thought he was buying a car that would one day drive itself.  LoSavio paid more than $100,000 for the luxury sedan, including $8,000 for lifetime access to its most advanced driver-assistance features. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said that the hardware in the company’s cars would eventually allow all of its cars to drive themselves.  “My wife and I talked about what a great thing it would be if we could just get in a car and have it drive us places,” LoSavio told The Wall Street Journal.

In the nine years since, LoSavio said it has become clear that Tesla took him for a ride. He is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that alleges that Tesla charged customers thousands of dollars in pricey upgrades for a product that didn’t, and still doesn’t, exist.  LoSavio alleges that Musk and Tesla have made repeated claims that were false about the self-driving capabilities of these vehicles and misled consumers who paid extra because they believed the company’s marketing. His lawsuit is one of several ongoing efforts by Tesla owners looking to hold the company accountable for overpromising and under-delivering on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) product.

Tesla is facing mounting legal issues in Netherland and Australia, over charges that the company misled customers about the cars’ capabilities. The matter calls into question Musk’s decade-long marketing pitch that Tesla’s autonomous vehicles were just around the corner. That promise kept Tesla’s stock near all-time highs—and with a market cap that exceeds most other automakers combined—even as its share of the electric-vehicle market has eroded.

The lawsuits and European campaign represent just thousands of Tesla customers. Wall Street analysts, however, estimate that there are millions of Teslas on the road with the outdated hardware no longer capable of running the most sophisticated version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software.  LoSavio won class-action status for his lawsuit in September. The class represents approximately 3,000 people in California, a figure that excludes the many Tesla owners who have signed arbitration agreements with the company that prevent them from suing. 

Tesla started including early versions of its self-driving tech in its vehicles in 2014. By 2015, Musk was publicly claiming that Tesla vehicles could drive themselves entirely within two years. Then in 2016, Tesla announced that all new cars built from then on had the hardware required for full self-driving. Musk told the press that a Tesla would drive itself from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017.

But it was all bullshit.  Eventually Tesla’s plans required a more sophisticated computer and cameras than were installed in LoSavio’s car. In 2020 and 2021, it started offering customers upgrades to the third edition of its computer and camera set. Some customers like LoSavio, who paid upfront for lifetime access, got complimentary upgrades from Tesla. Others who wanted to use the FSD/self-driving technology but paid monthly could pay $1,000 for the upgrade.

Then in 2023, Tesla upgraded its hardware for the fourth time and started selling new cars with its latest chip. That meant that customers like LoSavio, who got updated to the third-edition computer a few years prior, once again had outdated equipment. The company hasn’t made any moves since January 2025, when Musk told investors that the company would have to do yet another computer upgrade for customers who bought the lifetime FSD (Full Self-Driving) package.

 

Dozens of Sloths Die at Shady Roadside Zoo Operation

On a busy tourist strip in Orlando, behind noisy bars and souvenir shops, 21 sloths in crates arrived at a warehouse at the end of a grueling international trip.  Soon, they would all be dead.

The new home of the tree-dwelling mammals was the off-site facility of a new roadside attraction called “Sloth World,” a $49 animal encounter marketed as a conservation-focused center scheduled to open soon.   Nothing could have prepared the sloths for this. Until recently, they lived wild in the forest canopies of Guyana.  The animals' new home wasn't ready to receive them.  There was no running water. No electricity. The space heaters meant to keep them warm were plugged in with extension cords running from another building, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission incident report that Inside Climate News obtained through an open-records request. But the heaters repeatedly tripped the fuse and shut off. At least one night in December 2024, the agency said, the sloths were left alone in the cold warehouse without heat.   One by one, they died. 

Trump Unwittingly Reveals Plans for Secret Military Bunker

Convicted felon Donald Trump has complained that a “stupid” lawsuit forced him to reveal plans to build a top-secret military base underneath his White House ballroom.  The 79-year-old president was defending his $400 million vanity project while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, after a New York Times article over the weekend exposed the shoddy nature of its construction and design.

While holding comically large placards detailing how the completed ballroom might look, Trump also gave updates on what is being built beneath the area where the White House East Wing once stood.

“The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” he said.

“The ballroom essentially becomes a shed [shield] for what’s being built under the military, including from drones, and including from any other thing,” Trump added. “The glass, or the windows, you see the big windows, the glass is extremely thick. It’s high-grade bulletproof glass, so all of the windows are bulletproof.”

The lawsuit Trump referenced was filed in December 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is asking a federal judge to halt construction of the ballroom until it undergoes multiple independent reviews, passes environmental assessments, and receives approval from Congress.

The vanity project is being built as tens of millions of Americans suffer through a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Trump’s war on Iran.

On Sunday, the Times reported that multiple experts also condemned the proposed design of the mammoth building, noting that it includes a staircase that doesn’t lead anywhere, columns that will block the view of its windows, and the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that is “unnecessarily” large.

 

Taxpayers Pay for Keystone Kash Boondoggle in Milan

FBI Spokesman Ben Williamson spent days trying to discredit reports by MS NOW’s Ken Dilanian and others who reported Patel would be attending the Winter Olympics in Milan.  “Your rag outlet wrote that [Patel] went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime – even when provided information that your theory was false. When you’re ready to correct that let me know. Won’t hold my breath,” Williamson posted on social media in response to a reporter.

But social media junkie Keystone Kash himself made a liar out of the FBI spokesman, when he posted pictures of himself in Milan, pathetically celebrating with the USA men's hockey team.  Even Steve Baker, reporter for the pro-Trump outlet The Blaze called out Patel’s spokesman, writing, “Ummm…what was that you said, @_WilliamsonBen?”

Reporters and social media users immediately began calling out Patel's "meetings with law enforcement" as the lamest of cover stories, and immediately began asking how much taxpayer money was spent on the boondoggle. Patel is not related to anyone on the team, and is not a donor or supporter of USA Hockey organization.  It is believed that he used his political position to force his way into the locker room.

Plenty of critics piled on to accuse the FBI director of wasting taxpayer money when they felt Patel should have been solving crimes in the U.S. The FBI’s highest profile case currently is weeks-old disappearance of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy.  During Patel's shenanigans, a would-be assailant was shot dead on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.  At the same time, global tensions are increasing because Trump has been threatening military action against Iran. Such an attack could lead to violence against U.S. citizens via retaliation in the form of terrorism or other means.  On top of all that, Americans living in Mexico were being warned by the federal government to shelter in place in response to increased drug gang violence after the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was killed by the Mexican army. 

But Keystone Kash has to get in his party time!  Patel has previously come under fire for using the FBI’s private jet to attend a wrestling event, and to see his country singer girlfriend perform at State College, PA. Patel also provided her with government security.  To make things worse for "KK" Patel, critics dug up a 2023 quote from the pint-sized showboat, who (at the time) criticized the FBI Director's use of jets: “I’m just saying [FBI Director] Chris Wray doesn’t need a government funded G5 jet to go to vacations. Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 every time it takes off. Just a thought.”

Observers point out that the office of the FBI Director carries symbolic weight and that perception shapes how power is received. The FBI director does not operate as a personality. And yet Patel seems more committed to acting like a wannabe Instagram influencer than the nation’s top cop. 

 

Feed the Beast and He Will Come Back for More

Whether one is for or against billion-dollar giveaways to wealthy sports team owners, one thing is for sure-- the lopsided deals in Washington, DC and Kansas will likely boost efforts by other team owners looking to update their facilities, according to Neil deMause, a journalist who has written extensively about stadium subsidies.

“For whatever reason, we’re in a moment where team owners feel entitled to demand a lot more billions of dollars than anybody else has,” he said. “And the more they get away with that, the more their fellow owners are going to be emboldened to ask for the same thing.”

In Illinois, lawmakers have discussed for years an effort to relocate the NFL’s Chicago Bears from Soldier Field to a new site along Lake Michigan in Chicago or in the suburb of Arlington Heights. For decades, the team has been primarily owned by the McCaskey family. Recently, Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren cited a lack of “legislative partnership” in announcing the team would explore a potential stadium in neighboring Indiana.  That news received an icy reception from Illinois lawmakers, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“I don’t believe it’s a real threat,” said Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Chicago’s South Side. Buckner said lawmakers have been pushing the team to provide a more detailed proposal before approving a package of taxpayer-funded site and infrastructure improvements.

Buckner said lawmakers in Springfield watched the Kansas stadium deal closely, but are determined not to follow a similar route.  “What happened in Kansas is exactly what Illinois should not do,” he said. “Kansas is preparing to hand billions of public dollars to one of the wealthiest ownership families in professional sports history — not for schools, not for transit, not for housing, but to subsidize a stadium for a team that’s already printing money.”

Buckner said his constituents have a long list of legislative priorities — ranging from health care to affordability issues — ahead of professional sports.  A devout Bears fan, Buckner said he won’t be drawn into a “hostage negotiation” with the team.  “It’s about panic. It’s about fear,” he said. “It’s about this system that we’ve created, where, if you don’t overpay, a billionaire might just take his toys and leave town, and folks are scared of that.”

 

Commanders' Josh Harris is Also the Recipient of a Billionaire Giveaway

Geoffrey Propheter, who studies stadium deals as an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver, thought that last year's deal between Washington DC and the Commanders would stand out for years to come “for how ludicrous it was.”  The team is primarily owned by Josh Harris, an investor with a net worth above $11 billion who also owns majority stakes in the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.

The D.C. Council  finalized a plan to dedicate more than $1 billion in public funds to move the Commanders some 7 miles from a suburb in Maryland to a new facility planned for the old RFK Stadium site.  The city will retain ownership of the stadium, with the Commanders leasing it for $1 per year-- shifting a significant amount of risk from the team to the city.

While D.C. would pay for a large chunk of the costs, it would get 0% of stadium revenues: The team would receive all “stadium operating revenues, including from naming rights, sponsorship, advertising (both interior and exterior), premium seating, ticket proceeds, merchandise, food and beverage, and parking for both NFL and non-NFL events.” 

The deal exempts the Commanders from all property taxes on the stadium and the surrounding development. The deals also exempts the Commanders from sales taxes on personal seat licenses and parking. The city gave the Commanders the exclusive right to develop housing and retail around the stadium (at the low price of $1 per year) and it gave the Commanders rent-free use of 24 acres of city-controlled land for a period of 26 years. 

The Commanders would be responsible for keeping both the stadium and the garages in state-of-the-art shape, so at least D.C. wouldn’t be on the hook for those upgrades.  But team owner Josh Harris has his ass covered on that one-- sales taxes on anything  sold at the stadium would get poured into an “RFK Campus Reinvestment Fund” which would be available to pay for “maintenance and repairs and capital expenses.”

In addition to the $2-3 billion in public subsidies, the deal requires the city to give the team free riverfront land and exclusive development rights-- which means the district could forgo between $6 billion and $25 billion in revenue over time, Propheter said.  Josh Harris gets to pay only $1 a year in rent for a huge tax-free swath of public land, while keeping all revenues from the stadium and other development he builds there, even as the district pays to build everything from parking garages to the stadium’s foundation.

By Propheter's calculations, that makes the planned Commanders stadium project the most valuable package ever awarded to a sports team. 

 

NFL's Hunt Family Takes Kansas to the Cleaners

The Kansas City Chiefs deal announced in December (which would move the Chiefs from Missouri to the state of Kansas) is poised to surpass the $1.48 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars awarded to Montreal’s Olympic Stadium (opened in 1976) marking it as the costliest outlay ever in the U.S. and Canada, said J.C. Bradbury, a Kennesaw State University economics professor who researches stadium subsidies.

Kansas officials pushed aggressively to lure the Chiefs some 20 miles from their longtime home at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Officials maintained the new stadium would spur billions of dollars in economic activity despite serious questions from experts and local officials about taxpayers’ ability to cover the massive new debt. “Quite frankly, I believe [it is] the biggest economic win we’ll ever have in the state of Kansas,” Republican state House Speaker Dan Hawkins said last month.

But officials also acknowledged the pursuit was about more than economics: Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said landing the NFL team would make Kansas a tourist destination, help retain young people and defy stereotypes of Kansas as a flyover state. “And what could be cooler than being home to the Kansas City Chiefs?” she said.

The Chiefs are owned by the Hunt family of Texas, one of the nation’s wealthiest families, estimated by Forbes to be worth nearly $25 billion.  

As both the Chiefs and MLB’s Kansas City Royals — also in Missouri — openly weighed new stadiums in 2024, lawmakers in Topeka passed legislation amplifying an already lucrative tax incentive program to lure a pro sports team across State Line Road.

To fund Kansas’ expected $1.8 billion share of the new Chiefs stadium, state officials will divert sales taxes from a wide swath of the metropolitan area to pay back stadium debt. Officials say that won’t cause tax increases, but those tax diversions could cut deep into other city and state spending priorities.

Neil deMause, a journalist who has written extensively about stadium subsidies, said Kansas was effectively “negotiating against itself,” since Missouri was not prepared to offer such a lucrative deal. The same situation was true in Washington, he said, as it became clear that Maryland and Virginia, which were also vying for the new stadium, would not offer billions in free land and other benefits.

The new Chiefs stadium will be owned by the state, meaning the team won’t be subject to property taxes, a lucrative perk. The Chiefs will pay rent, but those funds will go into an account that can be used for ongoing facility maintenance and security. The state will also contribute millions to that fund every year.

The Chiefs will keep all revenue from ticket sales, parking and concessions, including for nonfootball events such as concerts and Final Four basketball games.

In Missouri, the Chiefs had previously committed $126 million in funding for education, transportation, health care and other community benefits over a 40-year period. But no such arrangement has been announced in Kansas.

In a nonbinding 33-page term sheet released by the state, the team agreed to set aside $3 million per year for a community impact fund. That fund, though, is controlled by the Chiefs, who can spend it on charitable endeavors or on profit-generating, team-branded ventures like fitness clubs. Kansas will receive some access to its stadium for events including graduation ceremonies and free concerts, but those are subject to team-determined availability, and the state must cover all costs. State officials are guaranteed one stadium suite for most events. But the term sheet notes that state officials must pay for their own food, except for free soda and water.

“They could have at least held out for free jerseys or something,” deMause said.

 

NFL Stadium Deals in the News

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, I thought it might be a good time to look at some recent mega-stadium deals within the NFL.  These kind of deals always stir up controversy over whether the public investment is actually beneficial to taxpayers.

When Washington, D.C., agreed to hand over billions in land and tax breaks for a new Commanders football stadium, experts thought it would long remain an outlier in sweetheart deals for sports teams.

But just months later, attention turned to Kansas, where officials in December announced plans to fund 60% of a new stadium for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. The state committed to spending up to $1.8 billion — the largest-ever professional sports subsidy.

The stadium deals in Washington and Kansas — both involving relocations within the same metropolitan area — have set separate records for taxpayer subsidies to sports teams. They serve as further evidence that public officials are uninterested in curbing giveaways to billionaire team owners, despite decades of research suggesting stadiums are a wasteful use of limited tax dollars. 

Adjusted to 2024 dollars, the median stadium subsidy for projects that opened in the 2010s was about $400 million. That increased to $605 million for projects slated to open in the 2020s. Already, 2030s-era projects have reached a median of $825 million, he said.

“There are many different ways we can measure these deals,” he said, “but by any metric, the recent Chiefs and Commanders deals are historically high.”

The True Legacy of January 6

Nearly a year into his second term, Trump has cleaned house at the Department of Justice and FBI, expelling many of those who investigated and prosecuted insurrectionists—and even those who accurately described the insurrection as a “mob of rioters.”

But with few, if any, deep-state Democrats left to blame, some of the most conspiracy-minded types aimed their anger at Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for not proving that a vast conspiracy kept Trump from victory in 2020. The fact that not even Bondi and Patel, devout believers in the Big Lie, can get this done highlights that, in the words of Gertrude Stein, “There’s no there there.”

So, if the insurrectionists can’t have their alternate reality, what do they want instead? Money, of course.  They’d like reparations from the government, paid for by your tax dollars, all because they were duly investigated and prosecuted with the full panoply of due process. Helming this effort are Mark McCloskey—one half of the St. Louis couple who pulled guns on Black Lives Matter protesters—and Ed Martin, the current pardons attorney who formerly represented Jan. 6 defendants.

Trump has made noises about giving the rioters money in the past, but he has gone a bit quiet in favor of demanding the DOJ give him $230 million because he was briefly prosecuted before the Supreme Court granted him sweeping immunity.

Still, the family of Ashli Babbitt—the rioter killed by Capitol police when she charged in the direction of evacuating lawmakers—got a cool $5 million from the DOJ with no real effort, so when do the rest of these folks get theirs, huh?

Nevertheless, maybe escaping consequences for their criminal actions might inspire these folks to straighten up and fly right? Yeah, no. At least 33 of those pardoned have been arrested, charged, or sentenced for other crimes, including child sex crimes. One pardoned rioter, Christopher Moynihan, was recently charged with threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. 

Several rioters seem to think a presidential pardon covers everything they have ever done and will do, a thought no doubt bolstered by Trump re-pardoning an insurrectionist for an unrelated gun charge. And while Trump hasn’t re-pardoned the guy who plotted to assassinate multiple federal agents, give it time. 

The rioters also continue to promote the contradictory ideas that the Capitol siege was both a proud and patriotic stand against tyranny, and also nefariously manufactured by federal agents in the crowd. Logic is not a strong suit with this group.

A normal DOJ would not entertain any of this, but this is no normal DOJ, so we have the head of the Civil Rights Division screeching online about how the DOJ is “working to bring to justice those who weaponized” Jan. 6, and tenderly assuring the violent insurrectionists that “[n]o statute of limitations” will hinder her efforts. Great to have a high-level DOJ official saying they will disregard the law in order to best reward people who engaged in a treasonous assault on the seat of American democracy.

In the end, nothing that the Jan. 6 rioters are given will ever be enough—because nothing will ever be enough for Trump. They all want more money, more revenge, and more unfettered freedom to commit whatever crimes they want.

 

Mark Zuckerberg Shown to Be a Hypocrite, Once Again

Tech nerd Mark Zuckerberg has found himself at the center of an embarrassing climate change flip-flop, thanks to his $300 million mega yacht. The 41-year-old Meta boss, worth roughly $230 billion, has reportedly been burning hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel since launching his personal, 387-foot vessel last year.

The yacht, dubbed Launchpad, runs on four diesel engines that use about 291 gallons of fuel every hour, which allegedly emits 40 tons of CO₂ over that same period of time.

Zuckerberg, an outspoken advocate for climate change policies such as the Paris Agreement and scaling carbon dioxide removal technologies to limit global warming, has been roasted on social media over the yacht's massive carbon footprint.

 "Another reminder that Net Zero is only for the peasants," one person wrote on X next to a video of the massive luxury vessel sailing near Florida.  "Meanwhile ordinary people drive electric cars and recycle, because the planet matters. But for him, apparently, the planet doesn't matter," another social media user added.  Others called the multi-million-dollar yacht the ultimate "symbol of hypocrisy," as Zuckerberg has spent more than $100 million funding climate advocacy and related initiatives through his philanthropic organization.

Some critics of Zuckerberg's lavish mode of transportation noted that Launchpad was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to climate hypocrisy.  The mega yacht has been accompanied on its journeys by a 220-foot, $30 million support ship called Wingman, which can carry smaller boats, a miniature submarine for exploration and even a helicopter.  "Rich people when they say "we’re all in this together" then fire up four diesel engines," an X user commented.

In just nine months between 2024 and this year, the $300 million super-yacht burned more than 528,000 gallons of diesel fuel, before docking in France’s La Ciotat shipyard in August, according to the Greek Reporter.  That usage amounted to more than 5,300 tons of carbon emissions being released by the one ship alone, the same as nearly 400 US households over one year.

The revelations about Zuckerberg's boat sharply contradict the Meta CEO's past comments about the dire situation Earth faces because of climate change, which has been largely blamed on human activities such as burning fossil fuels.  "Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it’s too late," Zuckerberg said in 2017 while condemning President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

 

Trump Trough

A Trump Christmas

Qatar and Saudi Arabia Use Their Pocketbooks to Cheat Their Way into the World Cup

The unparalleled spending of Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the soccer world over the past decade has brought them influence, attention, and access that few other nations can rival.  But for the first time, it appears to have had an effect on events on the field as well.  

To many, Qatar and Saudi Arabia appear to have cheated their way into the World Cup, buying influence in FIFA's Asian Football Confederation (AFC).  The Qatari and Saudi national teams have secured places in next summer’s World Cup after AFC (a recipient of “lavish funding” from the two Gulf states) “changed qualification rules to give them home-field advantage, extra rest days and access to more tickets for fans,” according to the New York Times. 

The moves enraged opponents and brought new scrutiny to how power works atop global soccer.  "I simply can't understand it," said Carlos Queiroz, the coach Oman's national team, "I am absolutely convinced that this playoff format was the worst possible [thing] that football leadership could have done to its own credibility."   

The AFC had eight guaranteed spots for its members in next year's World Cup.  The Federation established the qualification process for its 47 member member countries a year before the qualification matches began in 2023.  After the early qualifiers, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates would have locked up hosting rights and top seeding for the final round of matches, based on their performances in those earlier qualifiers.  But the federation suddenly changed course in March.  Rather than giving hosting rights to the Iraqi and Emirati teams (as per the previously announced qualification process), it instituted a bidding process.  Guess who won the bids to host the final round of qualification matches?  The Asian federation awarded hosting rights not to Iraq and the Emirates, but to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, without explanation.  

Even worse, AFC went against their own qualification process, awarding Saudi Arabia top seeding (despite being outranked by Iraq in the early rounds). The higher seed comes with double the number of days off between games, compared with its opponents.  Host teams also have the privilege of selecting the venues for its games.  As a top seed, Qatar hosted its final qualifying match against UAE in one of its smallest stadiums (despite having a number or larger ones it built for the 2022 World Cup).  The small stadium limited the attendance by UAE fans, whose access to tickets was further restricted by the Qatar's ticketing policy.  UAE ended up losing the match in the face of highly aggressive Qatari fans, who disrupted the final stages of the game by throwing debris on the field.  Qatar's captain, Akram Afif, acknowledged later that he had goaded fans into the misbehavior, underlining the benefit of Qatar's home-field advantage.

National federations, competing teams and fans were furious with AFC's unprecedented last-minute changes to the qualifying process.  Miguel Maduro, FIFA’s former Head of Governance under current President Gianni Infantino, said that the “sudden change of regulations is the latest example of how soccer’s leaders have backpedaled from promises to be more transparent following a global corruption scandal in 2015."

Qatar and Saudi Arabia's lavish spending has repeatedly called into question soccer's credibility, particularly after FIFA (its global governing body) awarded the tiny Qatar the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup in a bidding process widely seen as corrupt.  More outrage ensued when FIFA short-circuited its own rules and delivered the 2034 tournament to Saudi Arabia without competition.

 

This is the "Golden Age" of America

The difference between convicted felon Donald Trump's warped sense of the country and the reality that he has created has never been starker.  For the 42 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the country’s largest anti-hunger program), it has been a chaotic, nerve-racking week.  During an address at the America Business Forum in Miami this week, Trump said: 

 "Our opponents are offering an economic nightmare-- we are delivering an economic miracle."

Middletown, OH:  The uncertainty over SNAP benefits consume 49-year-old Mary Schiely her at home and follows her to the grocery store, where she has worked for almost 15 years. Most of the store’s customers depend on SNAP, she said, and so does she.   Her SNAP benefits (almost $500 a month) augment her $12-an-hour job. Her pay vanishes quickly on rent, electricity, cellphone and Wi-Fi.  SNAP, she said, “is what puts food on the table.”

Milwaukee, MN:  26-year-old Latrica Williams has not received SNAP funds since early October.  Her baby, 4 months old, was born with a heart defect and needs a special formula that does not trigger his allergies. Williams had paid for it with a combination of federal programs, including SNAP.  “Formula is really expensive,” Williams said. “It’s like $75 a can, and I don’t have $75 to get him a can of milk.”

Granada, CO:  25-year-old Arianna Payton quietly stepped across a Walmart parking lot and climbed into a dumpster.  “I grabbed as much as I could,” she told a reporter. “I wasn’t even looking to make sure that it was safe.”  When she got home, she inspected everything. She retrieved a few bags of frozen vegetables, meal replacement shakes, cheese and fruit. She also found some loaves of moldy bread that she thought she could salvage some usable pieces from. Last week, Payton (who has had health issues for years and lives on disability insurance) tried the only nearby food bank.  “Everything was gone,” she said.

 "America is back and is back stronger than ever before. We're doing numbers that nobody's ever seen before. We're the hottest country in the world, actually." Donald Trump (at the APEC CEO lunch in South Korea) 

Lewisville, TX:  55-year-old Jennifer Lunn went to a food pantry for the first time last week. She’s a customer service agent with four children. For the past two years, she has been able to feed her children because of SNAP.  After her SNAP benefits were cut off, she found herself at the Heart of the City Lewisville, a pantry near her house, north of Dallas-Fort Worth. Lunn received a box with chicken, canned goods and salad ingredients.  “This is something I never thought I’d have to do,” she said.  With SNAP, she usually buys noodles, potatoes, vegetables, chicken and ground beef, anything to keep her teenagers fuller for longer.  But, she said, they plow through the food. “Two and a half weeks, we’re done,” she said.

Annoka, MN:  At the grocery store, 44-year-old Jeanne Nihart, a single mother, picked up some deli meat, cheese and french bread for her 12-year-old daughter, who loves turkey sandwiches.  Then she remembered that her next SNAP payment was at risk.  “I can’t justify buying meat right now,” she recalled thinking at the time.  Nihart stopped working in 2010 because of health issues, including fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder that comes with pain and fatigue.  She receives a monthly $1,060 disability payment and relies on subsidized housing, Medicaid and a SNAP benefit of $436 a month.  She expects her next SNAP payment will be half the full amount. “It’s better than nothing,” she said. “But half doesn’t keep us fed for the whole month.” 

"We have the greatest economy.  We are the hottest country anywhere in the world, by far." Donald Trump at the American Business Forum. 

Jeffersonville, GA:  39-year-old Julia Asherman runs a farm, selling fruits and vegetables to small grocers and green markets. Her customers are often SNAP recipients.  She’s bracing for slower sales and a financial hit.  This time of year, Asherman said, is the worst time to take SNAP benefits away from farmers’ customers. That’s when little money is coming in, but farmers must spend money to prepare for spring planting. In her town, half the people who buy her produce are on SNAP.  And she needs it, too, for her and her 3-year-old son.  “My take-home at the end of the year already hovers around zero, like many farmers around this country,” she said.

Tuscon, AZ:  51-year-old Wesley Peake Jr. sat on his wheeled walker outside a grocery store. For breakfast, he ate crackers and cheese, and now, with his hunger slowly building, his mind conjured images of his favorite foods. Chicken, yogurt, bananas. But Peake, who is homeless, had no money. And his monthly SNAP benefit, $57, may not come as usual this month.  The food that SNAP provides usually lasts him about four days. That is a big help because it means fewer trips to a soup kitchen. His osteoporosis has weakened his bones. “I can’t walk that well,” he said, “because my hip sockets are deteriorating.” He sits outside the grocery store, hoping that passers-by will drop some change in his hands. These days he is reluctant to ask people outright for help. They, too, may be losing SNAP.

 "This is the golden age of America-- this is the golden age."

Chouteau, OK:   The grocery store is 12 miles from 61-year-old Deana Pearson’s trailer. The closest food bank is 10 miles away; the closest gas station is nine.  Which trip is worth the gas money?  Pearson, whose jewelry business closed during the coronavirus pandemic, is running low on food. Without her usual SNAP payment (around $287) she must rely on what she has left. On Tuesday, that was $1.18.  A gallon of gas is $2.50.  “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she said. “I’m hoping that maybe someone will give me a ride to the food bank.”  

Denver, CO:  39-year-old Jessica Mayne began receiving SNAP in 2019, after tumbling misfortunes.  Just before the pandemic, she and her husband lost their jobs. Then there was an accident that totaled her car. After she and her family moved in with her mother, her husband was diagnosed with kidney failure, which requires dialysis and a special diet.  “We were just trying to make it, and every single time something happened,” she said. They have made some progress: Mayne now works full time as a behavioral health technician, while her husband works part time in construction management.  They had hoped to get their own place. But Mayne must now handle the loss of her SNAP benefits ($650) for their family of eight. “We’re stretching all of our meals,” she said. “Everyone hates me for it, but it’s necessary.”  For dinner recently, she used one pound of ground beef (instead of three) mixing in rice and beans for added protein. She also took on more credit card debt to pay for groceries.  “It’s just shameful. I feel bad about it,” she said of her situation. “I feel like I’m failing as an adult.” 

"I think it's the best nine months, they say, of any president, and I really believe that." 

Alexandria, VA:  A year ago, 55-year-old federal worker Andrea Grimaldi was the one donating to those in need.  This year, she is the one receiving donations.  In February, Grimaldi was fired from a new job as a Head Start specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services. She received her last paycheck in May.  Although Virginia will now subsidize SNAP benefits through November, she has started to ration just in case. She still has $176 of her $292 monthly SNAP benefits left from October. Family and friends have also organized food and gift card deliveries.  She has cut her expenses, including streaming services and ride shares. But she has been forced to dip into her savings.  Grimaldi has been applying for jobs for months without success. She never expected to rely on government benefits, including SNAP.  “It could happen to anyone in the blink of an eye,” she said.

Passaic, NJ: When 32-year-old Rosy Hernandez, a single mother, called SNAP for assistance, an automated message said that her November payment, usually $748, was not yet available and might be late or not issued at all.  Her current balance: $50.  “It’s going to look a little bit different for me, restocking my fridge this month,” she said.  Hernandez, who has relied on SNAP for two years, cares for her sons, Xavier, 7, and Adrian, 4. She does not work because Xavier, who has autism, needs constant supervision. His needs make keeping a job difficult, although she is looking for part-time work.  She is nervous about relying on a food pantry. Xavier has sensory issues and demands specific food.  “His diet might have to be forcefully changed,” she said. “And there’s just no telling how he will react.”

"The golden age of American has begun.  A golden age like you've never seen before." 

 

Cheney is Finally Dead

Dick Cheney, one of the major architects of the Iraq War that killed thousands of people (based on his lies about weapons of mass destruction) is now dead.  Cheney most infamously served as vice president to former President George W. Bush for eight years, in which the two presided over the war, the collapse of the American economy, and numerous scandals (like the administration’s disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans).

Cheney became vice president after the Supreme Court chose Bush in the fall of 2000, legitimizing the Republican Party’s tactics in the state of Florida that invalidated thousands of Democratic votes.  Cheney was regarded by many as the “brains” behind the Bush White House.

It was on their watch that America suffered the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history on Sept. 11, 2001. While the Bush-Cheney administration received a classified memo indicating that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network intended to launch attacks against America, the administration chose not to take any overt action to thwart the terrorist threat.

Almost immediately, the Bush-Cheney administration began pushing for a war in Iraq, based on the lie that Saddam Hussein was sympathetic to bin Laden and was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Cheney was the front man for the WMD campaign, famously touting the purported use of “aluminum tubes” by Saddam as evidence that he was building a weapons program.  But that was all a lie-- there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 ultimately killed at least 200,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,492 American soldiers, with an additional 32,292 service members wounded. The war cost the American people at least $728 billion and further destabilized the Middle East in ways that still reverberate today.  This debacle was the pinnacle of Cheney’s pathetic career as a leader, and he never expressed regret for his lies and the mistakes that led to the years-long disaster.

In March 2008, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz asked him about the disastrous war.  “Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting,” Raddatz said, “and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.”

“So?” Cheney shockingly replied.  Raddatz followed up: “So—you don't care what the American people think?”

“No,” Cheney said, “I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”  To the bitter end, Cheney didn’t care what people thought of his war-- or the death and destruction it needlessly caused.

Along with pushing the fake case for war, Cheney also advocated for the use of reprehensible and counterproductive military tactics like torture.   Cheney defended the use of waterboarding in a 2014 interview, even though the tactic and other so-called enhanced interrogation tactics had long been internationally condemned and shown to be useless in gathering intelligence.  “I’d do it again in a minute,” he said of his role in creating the country’s torture program. 

In fact, despite its promises, its wars, and its ineffective interrogation techniques, the Bush-Cheney administration failed to capture bin Laden and bring him to justice.  That task fell to President Barack Obama.

The Bush-Cheney team was also in charge when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, killing thousands as many more residents suffered from a slow and disorganized response orchestrated by former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who had more experience with Arabian horses than natural disasters.

In 2008, as the nation faced an economic crisis triggered by subprime mortgage loans, Cheney made a statement symptomatic of the administration’s uncaring attitude.  “We don't want to interfere with the basic, fundamental working of the markets,” Cheney said.  As a result of that inept indifference, the country and the world were thrown into chaos, and while the Bush-Cheney administration bailed out banks, millions of regular Americans lost their homes and jobs, and the global economy entered what came to be known as the Bush Recession.

When he wasn’t pushing lies about WMD's, promoting torture, and ignoring natural disasters and looming economic crises, Cheney was pursuing leisure activities like “accidentally” shooting his friend.  During a 2006 hunting trip, Cheney shot lawyer Harry Whittington, whose body was embedded with birdshot pellets and who suffered a minor heart attack as a result. Amazingly, when he left the hospital, Whittington apologized to Cheney, his shooter.

In 2011 Cheney released his memoirs, which were poorly received.  Former Bush administration officials and prominent Republicans (such as Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and John McCain) said at the time that Cheney "did not accurately recount their private conversations"  (i.e., Cheney lied).  When all is said and done, Cheney was a poor leader and a stain on this country's history-- his achievements were primarily based on conniving, cheating and corruption.  If I could attend his funeral, it would only be so that I could tamp down the dirt.  Good riddance!

 

Trump Does His Best Marie Antoinette Impression for Halloween

Hours before he was set to shut off food stamp benefits to more than 40 million low-income Americans, convicted felon Donald Trump hosted a lavish Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in posh Palm Beach, Florida, producing some of the most tone-deaf images ever captured of an American president. Video and photos show a smiling Trump sitting at a table while scantily clad women in glittery 1920s flapper outfits dance around his table.

Trump chats with a guest  dressed in a prison costume at the Mar-a-Lago Gatsby-themed party

Meanwhile, despite two federal judges clearly ordering Trump to continue to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—better known as food stamps—Trump said it was still unclear to him whether he had the authority to fund the program, and thus he was not yet releasing the funds.  It’s just the latest time Trump has defied court orders to do cruel things.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the SNAP program, also sent a letter to grocery stores that accept SNAP over the weekend saying those stores cannot provide discounts to food stamp recipients to help them pay for their groceries during the lapse in funding.  It shows the Trump administration is okay with following the law—so long as it hurts people they don’t care about.

Just hours before food stamp funding was set to expire, Trump also posted a series of images of a bathroom renovation at the White House, which was refitted with lavish marble and gold fixtures.  Trump also decided that the middle of a government shutdown (when millions of federal workers are being furloughed and worry they won’t be able to feed their families) was a great time to begin construction on a $300 million ballroom at the White House where he can host more of his rich pals for lavish affairs funded by taxpayer dollars. 

Ultimately, the images of Trump at a lavish party while he purposefully cut off food stamps is an absolute gift for Democrats, whose whole message during the month-long government shutdown has been that Trump is more concerned with taking care of himself and his rich pals than the millions of hardworking Americans who are struggling with the cost of living.