There are many reasons to not use airbnb either as a guest or to sublet your place. But, here is a doozy:
nytimes.com/2025/02/13/us/poli…
There are alternative services, or use a hotel or something. Cut 'em off.
(The company account has made some vague noise on X that they are trying to sell as "distancing" but don't buy it.)
I apologize for the NYTimes link, I just wanted to cross-verify this bit of news that I heard by word of mouth.
Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk’s Government Initiative
Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company’s C.E.O.Theodore Schleifer (The New York Times)
Alternative link from the Wayback Macine:
web.archive.org/web/2025031320…
Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk’s Government Initiative
Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company’s C.E.O.Theodore Schleifer (The New York Times)
I think that's at the Met Gala — everybody dresses like they're in the Hunger Games.
“He declined to comment as he was escorted inside by an O.P.M. official and one of his bodyguards.”
Totally normal behavior for a hard-working government bureaucrat.
I started boycotting the NYT when they started pushing for the Iraq War. I never stopped. I came close when they apologized and appointed a Public Editor, but a couple of years later they closed that job down.
But all is not lost. You can still link to their reporting without giving them a dime, by using archive.is or other fine services:
The "cleaning fee" scam is another - rooms listed as $59 for one night but cleaning costs $120 more.
Even Booking.com is more honest but I'd love a better website. Anyone have suggestions?
If ghosts are not willing or able to go in Heaven's light, then they can always be forced to go in the Devil's name.
#Germany #folktale #folklore #ghost #ghoststory @germany @folklore
patreon.com/posts/out-of-sight…
17 March 1939 | A French Jewish boy, Gerard Levy, was born in Paris.
In December 1943 he was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber.
"Where do Elon Musk’s #business interests end & Donald Trump’s #political interests begin? Trick question—they’re one & the same.
How else do you explain the jarring sight of the #POTUS hawking #Teslas on the #WhiteHouse South Lawn?"
wired.com/story/elon-musk-dona…
Here begins the 11th Elon Musk thread.
List of links to previous threads:
newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/11398694…
Cartoon source: contrarian.substack.com/p/fire…
#ElonMusk #Musk #Trump #Coup #Corruption #GOP #Politics #USPol #USPolitics #News #Threads #USA
Elon Musk Might Not Be Able to Salvage Tesla’s Value After All
Tesla’s value is crashing, despite #ElonMusk & #DonaldTrump ’s best efforts.
newrepublic.com/post/192701/el…
"Elon Musk’s rightward turn has led to a downward spiral for #Tesla...
“Tesla is becoming a #political symbol of #Trump & #DOGE, & that is a bad thing for the brand”...
Trump said... acts of #violence against Teslas would be considered #DomesticTerrorism, cementing the automaker’s status as a state symbol"
US judge orders DOGE, Musk to produce cost-cutting records
archive.is/lykiV#selection-109…
"The states argued that #Musk violated the #Constitution by wielding power that only officials confirmed by the #US Senate can exercise under the #AppointmentsClause, & sought materials from him through a process known as discovery...
"Defendants argue that the 'inner workings of government' are immaterial to an Appointments Clause claim," [Chutkan] wrote. "The court is not convinced""
UPDATE: Musk attacks Musk Watch
muskwatch.com/p/update-musk-at…
"the Musk Watch #DOGE Tracker... authoritatively demonstrated that #ElonMusk had been grossly overstating the cuts implemented by DOGE...
#Musk offered no actual critique of the Musk Watch DOGE Tracker's methodology...
Musk Watch is a four-person team, but we can rock the boat of the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world."
#Resist #Resistance #Protest #Journalism #Press #Media #News #USPol #USPolitics #Politics #USA #US
Elon Musk's social insecurity
The billionaire's reckless claims seem intended to manufacture outrage to justify an end to what he refers to as an “entitlement program.”
contrarian.substack.com/p/elon…
"Ronald Reagan called #SocialSecurity “a secure & stable base so that older #Americans may live in dignity.”
#ElonMusk calls it a “Ponzi scheme.”
...
differences of opinion between #Musk & #Trump, the White House... pledging not to cut Social Security, #Medicare or #Medicaid benefits"
Trump Suffers Huge Loss as Judge Overturns “Unlawful” Mass Firings
At Donald Trump’s behest, #DOGE had sought to gut the federal workforce.
newrepublic.com/post/192719/do…
"the mass firing of federal employees was an “unlawful” directive...
ordered several agencies to “immediately” reinstate... employees... the #VA... Depts of #Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, & #Agriculture... the IRS, which falls under the helm of the Treasury Dept"
#ElonMusk #Musk #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Law #News #USA
Making DOGE Cuts Permanent Is Easier Said Than Done
Plus: #GOP town halls are scarce these days.
thebulwark.com/p/making-doge-c…
"The prospect of ending these far-reaching programs—like #PEPFAR and, on a much larger scale, the foreign aid administered by the #USAID—remains distant. Beyond that, #DOGE ’s haphazard cuts are difficult to codify because they have a weak legal foundation & are hard to explain, let alone justify (hence the repeat un-firings)."
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #USPol #News #USA #US
TSA Says Its Credit Cards for Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Are Cut Off
404media.co/tsa-k9-bomb-sniffi…
"The #TSA spokesperson didn’t clarify whether these were #Doge cuts... but Elon Musk’s dept has been busy making poorly-coded & insecure websites, dodging #FOIA, gutting national parks resources... demanding federal workers list their weeks out in bullet points, and generally sowing #chaos all over the federal #government with layoffs & budget cuts."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Trump #GOP #USPol #Dogs #News #USA
See How Elon Musk’s Team Inflated, Deleted and Rewrote Its Savings Claims
#GiftLink
nytimes.com/2025/03/13/upshot/…
Helpful animated graphics showing Doge's mistakes and lies.
"debuted a website last month... the list has undergone dizzying changes. New contracts have been added, others deleted. Values have been altered, and altered again...
more than 2,200 contracts listed — or 40% of the total — show a savings value of $0"
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #USA
Who’s Running the DOGE Wrecking Machine: The World’s Richest Man or a Little-Known Bureaucrat?
...Amy Gleason is only in charge on paper, while Musk’s top lieutenants really run #DOGE. One person who has been in meetings with Gleason described her as having “little to no actual decision making” responsibilities.
propublica.org/article/doge-le…
" #Musk himself issues commands from inside the Sect of War Suite in the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg, next to the #WhiteHouse"
Fiasco for Musk as He Craters in New Polls and DOGE Cuts Lose in Court
As a judge blocks the Trump-Musk effort to fire thousands of federal workers, a close chronicler of Musk’s follies explains why the public backlash against him & #Tesla matters so much—and what’s coming next.
newrepublic.com/article/192747…
"two new polls show approval of #Musk cratering—and importantly, that large majorities are turning against Musk’s mission of gutting the #government"
#ElonMusk #Doge #Coup #USPol #News #USA
Trump Claims Boycotting Tesla Is Illegal, Which It Very Much Is Not
techdirt.com/2025/03/14/trump-…
"Meanwhile, the anger at #Musk & #DOGE is absolutely fueling the #protests, property damage, and public outcry at #Tesla owners & dealerships...
while #Trump can’t currently punish the free public for #protesting, it’s obvious he wants to. Which means he, at least, is no longer operating under the illusion that it’s a #democracy he wants. Nor a #republic."
#Resist #Resistance #Protest #USPol #News #US
Trump Claims Boycotting Tesla Is Illegal, Which It Very Much Is Not
Elon Musk’s companies aren’t having the best couple of weeks, it seems. ExTwitter suffered from several outages this week, some lengthy, while Musk claimed that it was the result of a D…Techdirt
The Week in Musk: The White House is now a Tesla dealership
muskwatch.com/p/the-week-in-mu…
"predicted a certain amount of graft. But even the most skeptical observers may not have pictured #DonaldTrump selling Teslas on the #WhiteHouse lawn...
A makeshift South Portico showroom — featuring five #Tesla models — was organized for the explicit purpose of rallying the company’s #stock after it suffered its worst selloff in five years"
#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #USPol #StockMarket #News #US #USA
The Week in Musk: The White House is now a Tesla dealership
At the outset of Elon Musk’s work for the White House, a reasonable person would have predicted a certain amount of graft.Caleb Ecarma (Musk Watch)
DOGE plans to double its staff, target safety net programs
muskwatch.com/i/159032671/doge…
" #Musk also telegraphed DOGE’s designs on dramatically reducing social #safety net programs...
Earlier this month, he described #SocialSecurity as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” So far, DOGE’s work has served as a form of austerity theater, which — while destructive — has done very little to reduce federal spending."
#ElonMusk #Doge #Trump #GOP #Coup #Corruption #USPol #News #US #USA
The Week in Musk: The White House is now a Tesla dealership
At the outset of Elon Musk’s work for the White House, a reasonable person would have predicted a certain amount of graft.Caleb Ecarma (Musk Watch)
USPS Makes Alarming Deal With Elon Musk’s DOGE
US Postmaster General #LouisDeJoy is welcoming DOGE with open arms.
newrepublic.com/post/192777/us…
"DeJoy said... #DOGE was “an effort aligned” with... shrinking the USPS,
#Musk also believes that the #USPS should be privatized...
#Privatization... would raise prices, hurt postal workers, and negatively impact #rural communities, who are served by USPS thanks to the #Constitution and federal #law."
#ElonMusk #Coup #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #US #USA
Two lawsuits could provide further insight into DOGE
muskwatch.com/i/159032671/two-…
"US District Judge Tanya #Chutkan ordered #Musk and his #DOGE collaborators to provide records and testimony about its plans...seeks to establish the “parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority.”
...US District Judge Christopher Cooper requiring DOGE to expeditiously process Freedom of Information Act requests"
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #USPol #USPolitics #Lawsuit #Law #FOIA #News #US #USA
![Sub-heading and text(edited for length):
Two lawsuits could provide further insight into DOGE
On Wednesday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Musk and his DOGE collaborators to provide records and testimony about its plans to slash federal agencies. The order seeks to establish the “parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority.” From Politico:
"[Chutkan’s order] is a win for a group of 14 Democratic state attorneys general who are suing President Donald Trump, Musk and DOGE, arguing that Musk has unconstitutionally wielded immense power in ways that are damaging their states. Any information the states glean as a result of Chutkan’s decision will help her determine whether to block Musk and DOGE’s government activities altogether. It’s the first time a judge has ordered Musk to produce documents in a court challenge to his aggressive campaign to slash and reshape the federal bureaucracy."
Musk and DOGE have three weeks to fulfill the discovery requests.
...a Monday night ruling from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper requiring DOGE to expeditiously process Freedom of Information Act requests...
Remarking on the initiative’s “unusual secrecy,” Cooper wrote in a 37-page opinion that DOGE has exercised “unprecedented” authority without congressional input. “The rapid pace of [DOGE’s] actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities,” the judge wrote. “That is especially so given the secrecy with which DOGE has operated.”](https://friendica.rogueproject.org/photo/preview/640/251031 "Sub-heading and text(edited for length):
Two lawsuits could provide further insight into DOGE
On Wednesday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Musk and his DOGE collaborators to provide records and testimony about its plans to slash federal agencies. The order seeks to establish the “parameters of DOGE’s and Musk’s authority.” From Politico:
\"[Chutkan’s order] is a win for a group of 14 Democratic state attorneys general who are suing President Donald Trump, Musk and DOGE, arguing that Musk has unconstitutionally wielded immense power in ways that are damaging their states. Any information the states glean as a result of Chutkan’s decision will help her determine whether to block Musk and DOGE’s government activities altogether. It’s the first time a judge has ordered Musk to produce documents in a court challenge to his aggressive campaign to slash and reshape the federal bureaucracy.\"
Musk and DOGE have three weeks to fulfill the discovery requests.
...a Monday night ruling from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper requiring DOGE to expeditiously process Freedom of Information Act requests...
Remarking on the initiative’s “unusual secrecy,” Cooper wrote in a 37-page opinion that DOGE has exercised “unprecedented” authority without congressional input. “The rapid pace of [DOGE’s] actions, in turn, requires the quick release of information about its structure and activities,” the judge wrote. “That is especially so given the secrecy with which DOGE has operated.”")
The Week in Musk: The White House is now a Tesla dealership
At the outset of Elon Musk’s work for the White House, a reasonable person would have predicted a certain amount of graft.Caleb Ecarma (Musk Watch)
Trump and Musk Are Getting Their Butts Royally Spanked in the Courts
Some 25,000 federal employees will be back at work Monday. Look beyond Capitol Hill: The resistance, in fact, is strong.
newrepublic.com/post/192759/tr…
"Granted, these are temporary injunctions... But if the way the arguments unfolded Thursday is any indication... the administration has a long way to go in making arguments the #court will find credible."
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #USPol #Lawsuits #Law #News #US #USA
The People Trump and DOGE Hurt
joycevance.substack.com/p/the-…
"when fair #housing groups lose... funding, a lot of people suffer as a result...
This isn’t about making #government more effective. It’s about #cruelty. That’s the point... leaving families without a #safety net and putting countless lives and futures at risk. The freeze would have devastating consequences for millions of #Americans, regardless of political affiliation."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #US #USA
The People Trump and DOGE Hurt
Four members of the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after HUD, with no warning, terminated Fair Housing Initiatives…Joyce Vance (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)
Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Hit Team Saving Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
newsweek.com/musk-doge-ukraine…
"The #Ukrainian government has said that nearly 20,000 #children have been abducted by #Russia from the occupied territories of #Ukraine since the start of the war as part of a program to eradicate Ukrainian identity...
The decision to cut funding for the #US program could harm Ukraine's ability to reunite children with their #families."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Corruption #Trump #USPol #News #US #USA
Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Hit Team Saving Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The work of a Yale University team that helped rescue Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been defunded, according to reports.Brendan Cole (Newsweek)
Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut.
That Isn’t True.
nytimes.com/interactive/2025/0…
“No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,” #ElonMusk said. “No one.”
That is not true... the efforts by #Musk & #Trump are already leading children to die...
Peter Donde was a 10-year-old..
Achol Deng, an 8-year-old girl...
Inyaa, a 35-year-old single mom, and her 5-year-old son, Evan Anzoo...
[and more]"
#Doge #Death #USAID #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
" #USAID was established to advance our national interests as well as our values, & its demolition means that the #UnitedStates loses soft power & #China gains...
#America spends just 0.24% of gross national income on humanitarian aid. We properly honor a firefighter who saves a single child, but three cheers for us as taxpayers for rescuing millions of #children around the world from AIDS, starvation & disease.
That is, until January."
nytimes.com/interactive/2025/0…
#Musk #Doge #Trump #USPol #News
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
"I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about #America shoving programs for needy children “into the wood chipper.”
When you meet those dying #children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame."
#GiftArticle #GiftLink
nytimes.com/interactive/2025/0…
#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #Coup #Cruelty #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #USAID #News #US #USA
Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.Nicholas Kristof (The New York Times)
Team finding kidnapped Ukrainian children scrapped by Doge
Humanitarian Research Lab based at #Yale University is latest organisation to fall victim to federal budget cuts
telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/0…
"more than 20,000 #Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by the Russians since the 2022 invasion...
The Yale team located hundreds of #children who were unlawfully brought to #Russia...
In all, around 1,240 have been repatriated."
#ElonMusk #Doge #Russia #Musk #Corruption #Politics #News #US #USA
Who DOGE Hurts: Gutting NOAA
joycevance.substack.com/p/who-…
"the #NOAA was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers...
People who live in #hurricane & #tornado country keep their “NOAA #weather radios” handy...
In theory, it sounds like one more bad thing to worry about. In practice, it’s much worse. We’ve just had a demonstration of precisely how effective NOAA is & what we stand to lose without it."
#Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Disasters #Climate #News #US #USA
Who DOGE Hurts: Gutting NOAA
On March 12, there was reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration's "reductions in force" directive to federal agencies.Joyce Vance (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)
"Mother Nature doesn’t care who you voted for. If there’s a #tornado headed your direction, you need access to early #warning systems. Gutting #NOAA means you won’t have that...
"NOAA is [already] down about 2,000 employees since January “as a result of the first round of the #Trump administration's cuts”..."This is not about efficiency & it's certainly not about waste, fraud & abuse. This is taking programs that people depend on to save lives & emasculating them"
"Necessary": Musk calls for judge who blocked Trump deportations to be impeached
The billionaire shared a post from a #Republican congressman seeking to impeach the Obama appointee
salon.com/2025/03/16/necessary…
" #Musk shared Gill's post... announcing the planned #impeachment move, calling the action "necessary."
Musk's response comes shortly after a judge ordered the #Trump administration to reinstate scores of probationary workers fired using #DOGE 's blunt methods."
"Necessary": Elon Musk calls for judge who blocked Trump deportations to be impeached
The billionaire shared a post from a Republican congressman seeking to impeach the Obama appointee.Salon.com
Elon Musk Shared, Then Removed a Post Absolving Dictators for Genocide
The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were.
nytimes.com/2025/03/14/technol…
"Musk shared the post without any other comment. He removed it soon after users on X criticized the post, saying it was #antisemitic and dismissive of #genocide."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #US #USA
DOGE Is Making It Harder to Track Extreme Weather. What Could Go Wrong?
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion…
"These cuts threaten your budget, too. #Insurance companies rely heavily on #data gathered by #NOAA and the #US Geological Survey to assess wildfire, flood, wind and other risks. Some firms are warning that any interruption in data availability could drive insurance premiums for customers even higher."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Weather #Climate #News #US #USA
Opinion | DOGE Could Jeopardize the Ability to Track Extreme Weather
We’re unplugging the monitors of the Earth’s vital signs.Jonathan Mingle (The New York Times)
Top broadband official exits Commerce Dept with sharp #Musk warning
“Stranding all or part of rural #America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.
politico.com/news/2025/03/16/o…
" #Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich #ElonMusk ’s satellite #internet company w/money for #rural broadband.
The #technology offered by #Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior"
Some Federal Office Leases Restored After Pushback to Musk Team’s Cuts
The chaotic effort to reduce the govt’s real estate portfolio is another example of the setbacks the admn has faced as officials try to carry out Trump’s agenda.
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/poli…
"turnabout comes after [ #Doge]... released a list of... 440 fed properties that could be sold off, incl several HQs for cabinet-level depts, before removing the entire inventory the next day w/little explanation."
DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers & Safety Experts
Firings & buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Safety Admn amid a major effort to upgrade America’s #nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/poli…
"Officials had initially expected that the nuclear agency’s #NationalSecurity mission would protect it from layoffs."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Security #News #USA
DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers and Safety Experts
Firings and buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Security Administration amid a major effort to upgrade America’s nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.Sharon LaFraniere (The New York Times)
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 16, 2025
gocomics.com/doonesbury/2025/0…
#ElonMusk, #Doge & the #Trump administration are skewered in #Doonesbury #Comic strip.
"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules...
And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed.
It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #USPol #Humor #Comics
DOGE’s Cuts at the #USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to Rise & Invasive Species to Spread
Thousands of #US Dept of #Agriculture employees, including food inspectors & disease-sniffing #dog trainers, remain out of work, leaving food to rot in ports & pests to proliferate.
wired.com/story/usda-food-supp…
"the losses could cause #food to go rotten... even higher grocery #prices... potentially devastating invasive species getting into the country."
#Musk #Doge #Trump #USPol #News #USA #Dogs #Science
Social Security Employees Warn of Damage From #DOGE
Current & former employees, both #Republican & #Democratic, are raising alarms about the damage cost-cutting efforts could do to the agency’s ability to serve the public.
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/busines…
"Many current & former Social Security officials fear the cuts could create gaping holes in the agency’s #infrastructure, destabilizing the program, which keeps millions of people out of #poverty"
#Musk #Trump #GOP #USPol #SocialSecurity #News #USA
These Are the 10 DOGE Operatives Inside the Social Security Administration
The team working at the Social Security Admn appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any #government agency.
wired.com/story/doge-operative…
"While it’s been unclear even to well-placed insiders what specifically #DOGE is doing inside the #SocialSecurity Admn, #Musk has repeatedly voiced his desire to “eliminate” large parts of the system"
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
The dystopian "freedom cities" dream fueling Elon Musk's destruction
Tech's plans for billionaire-rule expose why #Musk wants to end #government by the people
salon.com/2025/03/17/the-dysto…
"what the #SiliconValley billionaire class considers "freedom cities" is simply neo-feudalism, a plan to end the concept of #citizenship & make every working person a serf whose entire life is controlled by the whims of their boss. "
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #Technology #News #USA
Tech's dystopian plans for "freedom cities" expose why Musk wants to end government by the people
"These are going to be cities without democracy" — and Trump has already promised to give them to billionairesSalon.com
"In the #tech bro world #ElonMusk comes from, the definition of "freedom" is that rich people get to treat everyone else however they like, without that pesky #government coming in to protect people's #safety, autonomy or civil #rights. As Duran explained in his newsletter, "These cities will be controlled entirely by tech #billionaires and #corporations, operating outside of #US laws.""
salon.com/2025/03/17/the-dysto…
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Trump #GOP #Politics #News #USA
Tech's dystopian plans for "freedom cities" expose why Musk wants to end government by the people
"These are going to be cities without democracy" — and Trump has already promised to give them to billionairesSalon.com
"It sounds too preposterous to believe, but ... #DonaldTrump loves the idea of creating cities that exist outside of federal authority, putting out a video in 2023 promising to give over federal lands to #oligarchs to begin their mini-dictatorships. #Tech executives, fueled by their ill-gotten #crypto gains, are heavily lobbying congressional #Republicans right now to make this #dystopian dream happen."
salon.com/2025/03/17/the-dysto…
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Tech's dystopian plans for "freedom cities" expose why Musk wants to end government by the people
"These are going to be cities without democracy" — and Trump has already promised to give them to billionairesSalon.com
The schools trying to teach America's kids to think like #ElonMusk
muskwatch.com/p/the-schools-tr…
“We want to make something for the kids that we think are most likely to have a high impact, because we think those kids are underserved by the system, because there is this ideology of #equality or equity that's everywhere in #Education he said. “We're going to be totally fine if this thing helps the top 10% of kids more than it helps the bottom 10%.
We don't really care.”
#Musk #Corruption #News #US
The Framers Had a Plan to Protect Us From Elon Musk
“If Trump gets away with doing this, we’re going back to the 18th century.”
motherjones.com/politics/2025/…
"Multiple challenges to #Musk & the actions of his #DOGE allege his vast authority violates the #AppointmentsClause, one of the #Constitutions key anti-corruption measures... which the framers crafted to prevent the kingly practice of handing #jobs & #authority to unaccountable allies"
#ElonMusk #Corruption #Coup #Trump #USPol #News #USA #US
![Text from article:
While this drama is spilling out in the press, it’s legally relevant. Multiple challenges to Musk and the actions of his Department of Government Efficiency allege his vast authority violates the Appointments Clause, one of the Constitutions key anti-corruption measures. Under this clause, which the framers crafted to prevent the kingly practice of handing jobs and authority to unaccountable allies, any officer of the United States must be formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Moreover, such appointees must fill a role created by Congress. Musk’s exercise of vast authority, at least four lawsuits allege, is unconstitutional, as he was neither confirmed by the Senate nor is he serving in any role Congress created. “You don’t have to stretch the text very far to see that there is a problem under [the Appointments Clause in] Article Two,” says Jed Shugerman, a law professor and historian at Boston University School of Law.](https://friendica.rogueproject.org/photo/preview/640/278858 "Text from article:
While this drama is spilling out in the press, it’s legally relevant. Multiple challenges to Musk and the actions of his Department of Government Efficiency allege his vast authority violates the Appointments Clause, one of the Constitutions key anti-corruption measures. Under this clause, which the framers crafted to prevent the kingly practice of handing jobs and authority to unaccountable allies, any officer of the United States must be formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Moreover, such appointees must fill a role created by Congress. Musk’s exercise of vast authority, at least four lawsuits allege, is unconstitutional, as he was neither confirmed by the Senate nor is he serving in any role Congress created. “You don’t have to stretch the text very far to see that there is a problem under [the Appointments Clause in] Article Two,” says Jed Shugerman, a law professor and historian at Boston University School of Law.")
The framers had a plan to protect us from Elon Musk
“If Trump gets away with doing this, we're going back to the 18th century.”Mother Jones
Why will it take DOGE three years to respond to a simple FOIA?
freedom.press/the-classifieds/…
"DOGE is “likely covered” by the Freedom of Information Act, and... cannot hide its records...
[DOGE] tried to argue it would take 3 years to respond to the #FOIA request, even if they fast-tracked their response...
Even if the recent ruling stands, we will have to keep a close eye on the myriad of ways #DOGE could continue to evade #public scrutiny"
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #USA
Why will it take DOGE three years to respond to a simple FOIA?
Five important questions to ask about DOGE’s FOIA futureFreedom of the Press
Outgoing Commerce Official Shreds Elon Musk’s Starlink in Final Email
An official working on broadband expansion brutally condemned #Musk.
newrepublic.com/post/192819/co…
" #ElonMusk intends to get rich at the expense of rural #Americans...
“Stranding all or part of rural #America with worse #internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Feinman wrote"
#Starlink #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE
WIRED talked to actual federal auditors about how #government auditing works—and how DOGE is doing the opposite.
wired.com/story/federal-audito…
"federal #auditors with years of #experience... say that DOGE’s actions are the furthest thing from what an actual #audit looks like...
“Honestly, comparing real #auditing to what #DOGE is doing, there’s no comparison... None of them are auditors”
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Corruption #USPol #News #US
" #DOGE appears to have completely eschewed the existing processes for actually rooting out waste, #fraud, and abuse.
“An #audit that follows Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS)... That is the gold standard for how you audit the #government.”
There are generally five phases of a GAGAS audit, the auditors tell WIRED: planning, evidence gathering, evaluation, reporting, & follow up."
wired.com/story/federal-audito…
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #News #US
Musk’s Role in Dismantling Aid Agency Likely Violated Constitution, Judge Finds
It appears to be the first time a federal #judge has acted to constrain Elon Musk, a top adviser to #Trump...
nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/poli…
"Efforts by #ElonMusk & his team to permanently shutter #USAID likely violated the #Constitution “in multiple ways” & robbed #Congress of its authority to oversee the dissolution of an agency it created"
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Elon Musk’s DOGE Guts U.S. Nuclear Agency
DOGE cuts have hit some of the country’s top nuclear scientists.
newrepublic.com/post/192825/el…
"Several #nuclear scientists, bomb engineers, & #safety experts critical to #NationalSecurity were among the cuts...
the wanton, haphazard budget cuts championed by #Musk & the #GOP... Many people who left the agency held top-secret #security clearances, and it will be tough to train replacements."
#ElonMusk #Doge #Trump #Politics #USPol #Science #News #US #USA
The Brave New World of Oligarch Lordships—Apparently They’re AWESOME!
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/t…
"Will #Elon soon be the sovereign over a chunk of #Texas? Are we about to start handing out #digital lordships to the top #oligarchs? I have no idea. What interests me about this, however, is that we’re actually in the midst of one such #experiment. A digital lordship is really what #DOGE is. It’s not geographical. Or rather, it’s the entire country."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Trump #Politics #USPol #US
The Brave New World of Oligarch Lordships—Apparently They’re AWESOME!
A couple weeks ago, the clarion of digital wrongdoing in the second Trump administration, Wired, published an article entitled ‘Startup Nation’ Groups Say They’…Josh Marshall (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
Tesla Execs Want Trade War Relief, Just Don’t Tell Elon Which Execs
techdirt.com/2025/03/17/tesla-…
"someone at #Tesla sent a detailed letter to the #US Trade Representative essentially begging for relief from the very policies their #CEO has been championing as he destroys the traditional institutions of #government
...they’re apparently too afraid of their own boss to put their names on that learning experience."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Fascism #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #FAFO #News #US #USA
Tesla Execs Want Trade War Relief, Just Don’t Tell Elon Which Execs
There’s a certain poetry to Tesla executives discovering that trade wars are, in fact, not good and easy to win. Last week, someone at Tesla sent a detailed letter to the US Trade Representat…Techdirt
Veterans Group Wants to Make Elon the Supervillain of the Midterms
A new ad campaign from VoteVets goes after vulnerable House Republicans by turning the spotlight on DOGE.
thebulwark.com/p/veterans-grou…
"The #ads all feature the same roundtable of #veterans sharing their struggles after losing #employment because of #DOGE cuts...
it features #Musk throughout, incl the now infamous scene of him wielding a chainsaw on stage at #CPAC."
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #Politics #USPol #News #USA
DOGE Reverses Move That Made Its Claims Nearly Impossible to Check
After getting called out, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting group reinstated details about the grants that it canceled.
nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/poli…
"The new details provided by the group made clear that its claims about these canceled grants also contained the same kind of errors that had marred its previous work."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #DonaldTrump #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #Government #News #US #USA
Musk Ally, DOGE Member Stanley Tapped For Fannie Mae Board Amid Shakeup
archive.is/TUlq7#selection-137…
"Mortgage giant #FannieMae has added Christopher Stanley, a #cybersecurity engineer at #SpaceX and #SocialMedia platform X — who is also involved with the Dept of Govt Efficiency — to its board of directors, the latest sign of how Elon Musk’s allies are embedding into the federal #government."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Elon Musk’s Starlink Expands Across White House Complex
#Trump admn officials said the company donated the #internet service, saying the gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the #WhiteHouse Counsel’s Office.
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/poli…
" #Musk... controls Starlink...
the White House “was aware of DOGE’s intentions...” and that it “did not consider this matter a security incident or #security breach.”
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Elon Musk’s Starlink Takes Over the White House
The world’s richest man now has control over the internet at the White House.
newrepublic.com/post/192855/el…
"numerous #conflicts of interest & #ethics issues. #Musk already collects billions of dollars through his #government contracts, & controls #Starlink. If #WhiteHouse employees are using the #internet service, he could have access to their #data... questions as to how secure Starlink’s #network is."
#ElonMusk #Coup #Tech #Security #News #US #USA
Elon Musk’s DOGE Uses Police to Seize Independent Nonprofit
The US Institute of #Peace is not a federal agency nor located in a federal building. That didn’t stop DOGE from taking over.
newrepublic.com/post/192854/el…
"The #USIP, an independent #nonprofit founded by #Congress...
“What has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit,” Moose told reporters."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Independent Agency CEO: 'DOGE has broken into our building.'
msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/…
"The #US Institute for #Peace announced Monday that despite being independent of the executive branch & controlling its own building & the land it sits on, their objections to members of Elon Musk's #DOGE team trespassing in their building were overridden by DC #police...
unprecedented nature of DOGE leveraging the threat of armed law enforcement against another part of the #government"
Independent Agency CEO: 'DOGE has broken into our building.'
The U.S. Institute for Peace announced Monday that despite being independent of the executive branch and controlling its own building and the land it sits on, their objections to members of Elon Musk's DOGE team trespassing in their building were ove…MSNBC
Musk’s Team Evicts Officials at the US Institute of Peace
A bubbling dispute broke into a dramatic standoff that ended with #police involvement and the Dept of #Government Efficiency taking up residence at the independent agency.
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/poli…
"Institute officials had called the police to report that #DOGE members were trespassing, she said, but 👀 the police instead cleared institute leaders from the building."👀‼️ [WTAF?]
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #USA #US
DOGE Seizes Control of Independent Org Dedicated to Peace
Following a #police standoff, Elon Musk’s lackeys took over the nonprofit’s HQ in what its former leader referred to as an “illegal takeover.”
vanityfair.com/news/story/doge…
"More than 40 years ago, #Congress established the #US Institute of #Peace (USIP) as an “independent, nonprofit, national institute” to “promote #international peace & the resolution of conflicts.”
#Doge just took it over."
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #GOP #USPol #News #USA
Elon Musk Whines That Everyone Is Being Mean to Him
Elon Musk truly doesn’t understand why people hate his guts.
newrepublic.com/post/192856/el…
" #Tesla comprises the majority of Musk’s net worth—but the carmaker’s ongoing 8-week slump is largely due to a #global brand #boycott.
Company #stock is down by 50% so far this year, and analysts have faulted Musk’s reputational shift for the automaker’s financial woes."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Corruption #Doge #Trump #USPol #Politics #Cars #News #US #USA
"sales in [Germany] fall by more than 70%... Sales in China... falling by 49%...
Last week, the automaker’s stock had its worst day since 2020, as its Musk-induced problems coincided with historic #market volatility under Donald Trump’s new #tariff plans.
Board members, executives, & major investors in #Tesla are jumping ship. Four top officers at the company have unloaded more than $100 million in #stock"
newrepublic.com/post/192856/el…
#Resist #Musk #TeslaTakedown #USPol #Politics #News #US #USA
Elon Musk Whines That Everyone Is Being Mean to Him
Elon Musk truly doesn’t understand why people hate his guts.The New Republic
DOGE Rampage May Have ‘Immediate,’ ‘Long-term’ Effects For Courts, Judicial Branch Warns
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dog…
"The memo demonstrates how far DOGE’s campaign to maim the federal #government has gone. In this case, the federal #courts, part of the #judicial branch, are saying that their daily operations may be impacted #DOGE — a shocking admission from... a group not known for hyperbole or flippancy."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #Law #USPol #News #US #USA
DOGE Rampage May Have ‘Immediate,’ ‘Long-term’ Effects For Courts, Judicial Branch Warns
The federal court system warned its employees that DOGE’s cuts to building services and to executive branch staff could cause “immediate and long-term effects…Josh Kovensky (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
Elon Musk Dealt Huge Blow as Judge Rules USAID Cuts Unconstitutional
A judge has ruled that Elon Musk and DOGE officials must restore USAID’s functionality.
newrepublic.com/post/192889/el…
"Chuang’s order constrains #DOGE & #Musk personally—the first order to do so for the shadowy head of the amorphous organization.
Chuang wrote that he agreed with the plaintiffs & said that DOGE had violated the separation of powers clause"
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #USAID #News #USA
Ethics Complaint in WI Targets Elon-backed Organization
contrarian.substack.com/p/ethi…
"Yesterday, an #ethics complaint was filed with the #Wisconsin Ethics Commission against Building America’s Future, a #political organization backed by #ElonMusk. The complaint alleges that the organization failed to disclose its express advocacy spending, which is in violation of Wisconsin #law."
#Musk #Coup #Corruption #PAC #Politics #USPol #USPolitics #News #US #USA
Ethics Complaint in WI Targets Elon-backed Organization
A recording from Jen and Norm's 3/17 liveJennifer Rubin (The Contrarian)
Elon Musk Joins Trump at Secret $1 Million per Plate Dinner
Why wasn’t this on Trump’s official schedule?
newrepublic.com/post/192864/tr…
"Saturday, #DonaldTrump held a candlelight dinner at his #MaraLago estate in #Florida, with #tech #oligarch #ElonMusk... guests were asked to spend $1 million per seat.
...this dinner did not appear on the president’s official schedule, unlike a similar candlelight dinner two weeks earlier where guests were also asked to donate $1 million each"
Smears, Sadism & Social Security
Why #ElonMusk wants to make seniors suffer
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/sme…
"Under [Musk's] plan, beneficiaries would still be able to call the #SSA. But they would have to verify their identity either over the #internet or through in-person visits to field offices.
Bear in mind that we’re talking about older and/or disabled #Americans, many of whom are unable to access the internet & physically unable to visit SSA offices"
#SocialSecurity #Musk #Trump #USPol #News
"Why do this? The alleged justification is to combat fraud. But... fraudulent benefit claims are not, in fact, a serious problem.
So what the #Musk is going on here? This plan would save some money, not by eliminating #fraud, but by effectively cutting off aid to #Americans who are legally entitled to that aid, & specifically those who need it most. But I don’t think the savings are the point."
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/sme…
#Cruelty #ElonMusk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #SocialSecurity #News #US #USA
"does the plan have to be this #cruel to the most vulnerable #Americans? As I see it, the cruelty is a feature, not a bug.
After all, gratuitous, seemingly gleeful #cruelty has been a hallmark of DOGE’s operations...
We’re mostly talking about poorly socialized young #men suddenly given the power to ruin other people’s lives, taking their cues from a leader who has declared that “the fundamental weakness of Western society is #empathy.”
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/sme…
#ElonMusk #Doge #News #US #USA
Casual White House Starlink Use Is A #Cybersecurity Nightmare, A Transparency Problem, And A Weird Marketing Stunt
techdirt.com/2025/03/19/casual…
" #Musk is casually integrating #Starlink systems into the #WhiteHouse telecom network...
to have a #communications backchannel for stuff you don’t want tracked by any sort of White House network logging technologies... there are suggestions the Starlink traffic isn’t encrypted, creating a huge security risk"
#ElonMusk #Doge #Coup #USPol #Tech #News #USA
Casual White House Starlink Use Is A Cybersecurity Nightmare, A Transparency Problem, And A Weird Marketing Stunt
It’s best to view Elon Musk’s DOGE as an attack. While right wing propaganda (and gullible media outlets and politicians) frame DOGE as a “cost saving” effort at “impr…Techdirt
"Hi, I'm the guy who used to oversee the federal government's agency IT telecommunications contracts. This is extremely bad. There is absolutely no need for this. Not only is it a huge security exposure, but the simplest explanation for this is that it is meant to be a security exposure."
bsky.app/profile/waldo.net/pos…
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Starlink #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #US #USA
Analysis: A Strike at the Heart of DOGE and Musk...
...With a Surprising Star Witness
davidpepper.substack.com/p/ana…
"the surprising star witness...
Musk himself! With assists from #Trump & his press secretary.
It turns out, with their non-stop tweeting & trash-talking about what they’ve been doing... quotes from them turn out to be the best #evidence negating the DOJ’s desperate defense of DOGE’s #unconstitutional actions."
#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #USPol #Politics #News #US #USA
Does the Foreign Emoluments Clause Apply to Elon Musk?
Musk has wide-ranging #business entanglements that could produce emoluments from foreign states.
lawfaremedia.org/article/does-…
" #Musk should be bound by an important anti-corruption guardrail... Foreign Emoluments Clause...
Musk’s #Tesla is heavily reliant on #China ...
#SpaceX is actively negotiating... with the #Italian govt, & Musk’s #AI company... received investments from the #UAE & #Qatar ..."
#ElonMusk #Corruption #USPol #Law #News
![Text from article(edited for length):
The Foreign Emoluments Clause creates a broad prohibition on accepting emoluments, which—according to the first judge to interpret the term in a 2018 case against Trump (District of Columbia v. Trump)—include “any profit, gain, or advantage, of more than de minimis value, received by [the President], directly or indirectly” from foreign governments...
Like Trump, Musk has wide-ranging business entanglements that could produce emoluments from foreign states. For example, Musk’s Tesla is heavily reliant on China—in recent years, Tesla received a $521 million loan from Chinese-state owned banks and a lower-than-standard corporate tax rate from the Shanghai government. Musk has met with prominent Chinese officials in various business dealings, and analysts have speculated that Musk’s lobbying in Congress was behind the decision to remove hostile provisions to China from a December 2024 bipartisan spending bill.
Beyond China, Musk’s company SpaceX is actively negotiating a $1.5 billion deal with the Italian government, and Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has received investments from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the latter of which also helped finance his buyout of X, along with Saudi Arabia.
Given this laundry list of foreign dealings, there is clearly the potential for Musk to receive further payments directly or indirectly from foreign governments.](https://friendica.rogueproject.org/photo/preview/640/293534 "Text from article(edited for length):
The Foreign Emoluments Clause creates a broad prohibition on accepting emoluments, which—according to the first judge to interpret the term in a 2018 case against Trump (District of Columbia v. Trump)—include “any profit, gain, or advantage, of more than de minimis value, received by [the President], directly or indirectly” from foreign governments...
Like Trump, Musk has wide-ranging business entanglements that could produce emoluments from foreign states. For example, Musk’s Tesla is heavily reliant on China—in recent years, Tesla received a $521 million loan from Chinese-state owned banks and a lower-than-standard corporate tax rate from the Shanghai government. Musk has met with prominent Chinese officials in various business dealings, and analysts have speculated that Musk’s lobbying in Congress was behind the decision to remove hostile provisions to China from a December 2024 bipartisan spending bill.
Beyond China, Musk’s company SpaceX is actively negotiating a $1.5 billion deal with the Italian government, and Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has received investments from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the latter of which also helped finance his buyout of X, along with Saudi Arabia.
Given this laundry list of foreign dealings, there is clearly the potential for Musk to receive further payments directly or indirectly from foreign governments.")
Donald Trump Held Another Million-Dollar ‘Candlelight’ Dinner—With Elon Musk in Tow
Unlike the previous fundraiser, this event did not appear on Donald Trump’s official schedule.
wired.com/story/trump-million-…
"business leaders could secure a one-on-one meeting with #Trump for $5 million at #MarALago. The $5 million meetings have become a “hot ticket” in the business community"
#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #Coup #Crime #Business #DonaldTrump #GOP #Republicans #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA
Amtrak CEO steps down as Musk insists ‘sad’ rail service needs to be privatized
independent.co.uk/news/world/a…
"Amtrak, also known as the National #Railroad Passenger Corporation, is the national passenger #rail service for the #US It is nationally chartered, meaning the federal #government is the majority stockholder...
#Musk called for Amtrak to be privatized, alongside the US Postal Service, earlier this month."
#ElonMusk #Corruption #Coup #Trump #GOP #Business #USPS #Politics #USPol #News #USA
DOGE's 'AI-first' strategist is now the head of technology at the Dept of Labor
The ex-Tesla engineer #ThomasShedd has quietly become the CIO of the #labor dept as mass #layoffs & federal workforce automation continue.
bloodinthemachine.com/p/doges-…
"Shedd... made waves for announcing that #DOGE would be implementing an “AI-first strategy” across the #government as it orchestrated the firing of... federal workers. Now he’s in charge of the #US #labor department’s #technology."
Elon Musk Freaks Out That People Are Bullying Him
Musk continues to insist he’s only doing “productive things.”
newrepublic.com/post/192904/el…
"Unfortunately for #Musk, #Tesla is not just a “peaceful” company but the customer-facing branch of his #corporate takeover of the US #government, which has seen essential lifesaving programs slashed & thousands of people out of #work.
And customer #feedback can be harsh."
#ElonMusk #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #News #US #USA #Resist
DOGE’s Dodgy Numbers Employ a Tesla Technique
#Safety researchers claim Elon Musk’s auto company has a long #history of potentially misleading #stats. Now it looks like his #government dept is following suit.
wired.com/story/doges-dodgy-nu…
#DOGE “put out some numbers, they didn’t smell good, they switched things around,” alleges Noah Goodall, an independent transportation researcher. “That screamed #Tesla. You get the feeling they’re not really interested in the #truth.”
#Musk #Corruption #News #US
Writing Mon 17 Mar Nahvalur Key West and Diamine Solar Storm
Todays pen and ink
Nahvalur Key West <Broad> + Diamine Solar Storm
#edc #fountainpen #fountainpens #penoftheday #dailypen #NahvalurKeyWest #Nahvalur #Diamine #DiamineSolarStorm
FunHouse Radio
Novelty Records, Parodies, Weird Covers, Outsider Music, Oddities, Mashups, Comedy, Nonsense & Cringe.FunHouse Radio
The March Madness men's bracket is out, and the SEC dominates with a record 14 teams
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/g-s1-54180/march-madness-selection-sunday-ncaa-tournament-brackets?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Sports @sports-npr
Never give up - one Gaza boy's story trying to survive in Gaza : Consider This from NPR
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/1238987355/consider-this-from-npr-draft-03-16-2025?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into World News @world-news-npr
"With data center construction on the rise and utility costs top-of-mind for many Americans, the Harvard Electricity Law Initiative reviewed 40 special contracts that state regulators have approved between utilities and data centers. If these contracts offer discounted electricity rates to data centers, and new power grid infrastructure is needed to serve them, other customers may end up paying for the shortfall through higher utility bills."
web.archive.org/web/2025031411…
Big Tech's secret energy deals may raise costs for families: Harvard
Data centers are spiking electricity demand, and some worry states are striking deals that mean households will pay the cost.Catherine Boudreau (Business Insider)
"We’re in the midst of an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. It’s been coming and coming, and not everybody is prepared to read it that way."
~ Lee Bollinger
#Musk #Trump #Republicans #authoritarianism #fascism #democracy
/1
"The characters regarded as people to emulate, like Orban and Putin and so on, all indicate that the strategy is to create an illiberal democracy or an authoritarian democracy or a strongman democracy. That’s what we’re experiencing. Our problem in part is a failure of imagination."
#Musk #Trump #Republicans #authoritarianism #fascism #democracy
/2
"For many years, the radicalization of the Right has consistently outpaced what even critical observers expected. Now the speed and scope of the authoritarian transformation and destruction of the system over the past two months have gone beyond what some of the most insightful observers thought likely."
~ Thomas Zimmer
#Musk #Trump #Republicans #authoritarianism #fascism #democracy
/4
thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/wh…
What Authoritarianism Means
Even critical observers underestimated the speed and scope of the Trumpist assault, they overestimated democratic resilience. What is America now, and what comes next?Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana)
"That means we must recalibrate what we expect going forward. 'They are not going to go *that* far' has been proven wrong over and over again. The idea that 'they won’t be able to do this' seems similarly unfounded."
#Musk #Trump #Republicans #authoritarianism #fascism #democracy
/5
The offpunk-users mailing-list has suddenly seen a dramatic increase in volume. People are really starting to use #offpunk and asking questions, trying to understand how it works.
lists.sr.ht/~lioploum/offpunk-…
I’m doing my best to answer and helping people getting started. There’s now a "tutorial" command (which is simply redirecting you to offpunk.net/ )
People are also asking me about #gemini
Welcome to the #smolnet #SmallWeb #smallinternet #unix , welcome to the #resistance …
your #resistance hashtag made me conceive this... TBH "PermacompuTing" was my first choice for the final T, but this one has more of a bathos effect 😇
(EDIT: updated the last sentence in the image from "Burn a Tesla" to "Burn your Tesla". As this is a path of *self* improvement, I don't think ppl should burn somebody else's 🙂)
@mala : replace "burn a tesla" by "terminal" and you described offpunk 😉
Thanks for the nice picture!
shelf shorts p28: one laptop per child XO laptop #olpc #laptop #onelaptopperchild #planetclue #fyp
website: https://planetclue.comdiscord: https://discord.gg/cluepatreon: https://patreon.com/cluebsky: https://bsky.app/profile/planetclue.comYouTube
Just finished up this potting bench for my daughter. The frame is poplar painted with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of an exterior acrylic latex. The bench top is white oak finished with tung oil. Both the top and the bottom shelf are removable with 1/4-20" stainless steel hex bolts to make maintenance easier.
@kbob My daughter picked the paint color (though I did suggest she go with a shade of green).
There are small blocks of wood attached to the inside of side rails and stretchers with dowels. I drilled 5/16" clearance holes into them, then drilled and tapped the underside of the bench top and the bottom shelf for the bolts. I was concerned that the threads in the poplar might wear out over time, so I applied CA glue to the threads to reinforce them.
@sarahatlee Thanks!
Just in case my other reply doesn't make it to your server:
It is a standard hotel pan to hold soil mixes. I designed it so you can have multiple pans with different mixes depending on what you're planting up. The cover helps to keep pests and weed seeds out.
reshared this
Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™, CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) and Magic Wand™ coder reshared this.
Now make a video of it and tag it #ASMR and #P4A (Plane for All), please.
Or wait, is this more #PBB4P content?
/cc: @SwiftOnSecurity
#DigitalBookBurning
newyorker.com/news/the-lede/th…
On Feb 7th, #Trump sacked the
head of #NARA, the agency that maintains the ofcl texts of the nation’s laws, & whose motto is “the written word endures.”
>110k govt pages have gone dark in a #purge that one scientist likened to a “#DigitalBookBurning,” & which has proved as frightening in its imprecision as in its malice.
Racing to comply w/ #Trump’s executive orders banning “DEI” & “gender ideology extremism,” agencies have cut materials on everything from supporting transgender youth in school to teaching children about sickle-cell disease, which disproportionately affects people of African descent. But they have also axed records having little to do w/the Admin’s ideological priorities, seemingly assisted by AI tools that flag forbidden words w/o regard to context.
A recently leaked list of pages marked for deletion on military websites includes…the #EnolaGay, …the B-29 bomber that nuked Hiroshima.
Oblivion menaces every scrap of #information that doesn’t spark joy in the Oval Office. “It’s gone,” #Trump said of “wokeness,” during his address to Congress, in almost motherly tones. “And we feel so much better for it, don’t we? Don’t we feel better?” But on this front, at least, Trump is facing well-organized resistance.
Prof. Sam Lawler (@sundogplanets@mastodon.social)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00781-1Mastodon
Hackaday Links: March 16, 2025
hackaday.com/2025/03/16/hackad…
Hackaday Links: March 16, 2025
“The brickings will continue until the printer sales improve!” This whole printer-bricking thing seems to be getting out of hand with the news this week that a firmware update caused ce…Hackaday
theindex.media/this-is-the-dum…
This Is the Dumbest Time to Buy Into MAGA
Centrist Democrats are scrambling to appease a right wing movement that will never accept them and has nowhere to go but down.Joan Westenberg (The Index.)
Nesting with Taskmaster, knitting, and Callisto, my squishy axolotl 😍
#AutisticNesting #ComfortTV #KnitSky #Autistic #SpoonManagement
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Pope Francis seen praying in first photo since his hospitalization a month ago
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/nx-s1-5329813/pope-francis-first-photo-since-hospitalization?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into World News @world-news-npr
Elon Musk never went to university, so he violated his student visa.
He did not leave the country for 10 years before asking to come back.
Therefore, by the definitions used by ICE, Musk is "an illegal" and must be shipped off to a concentration camp.
usatoday.com/story/news/nation…
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a US citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.Lauren Villagran (USA TODAY)
Pennsylvania Democrats want to make their state the latest to provide school kids with free lunch and eliminate existing school meal debt. That’s pro-life.
I knocked on doors in several elections for Emily Kinkead, one of the state Democrats reintroducing this bill. Local elections matter and so does your involvement.
Pennsylvania lawmakers introduce bill to eliminate school meal debt, provide free lunch | ABC27
abc27.com/pennsylvania/pennsyl…
➡️ Download 3D print model: cults3d.com/:2818769
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geez NPR. what a bloody strange article. npr.org/2025/03/15/nx-s1-53052…
Jokes create in-groups and out-groups of those who are laughing and those who are not. Butler described jokes as a kind of sonar that detects like-mindedness.
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that's exactly what a nazi salute is used for - to detect and attract like-minded people.
you're giving cover to nazis by even suggesting that sieg heil salutes are 'jokes.'
A fundamental understanding. - GIFs - Imgur
imgur.com/gallery/fundamental-…
A fundamental understanding.
Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like countervail247365.Imgur
People should read this just to find out a little bit more about what governing in a divided state is.
If you don’t want to work with other people in a divided state, you won’t get anything done.
This also carries over to a divided federal government, unless you have a plan for undoing gerrymandering and turning Senate seats blue in Florida, Iowa, Ohio. You get the drift.
DFLer David Gottfried wins special election securing a 67-67 party tie in Minnesota House:
startribune.com/minnesota-hous…
DFL wins special election, locking Minnesota House in 67-67 tie with Republicans
As expected, DFL candidate David Gottfried ran away with a victory in Tuesday’s special election.Elliot Hughes
Eugen Rochko
in reply to Tomasz Śniedziewski • • •