This April — while deportations flourished and DOGE took its chainsaw to Federal agencies — Musk’s Neuralink misrepresented itself as a 'small disadvantaged business' in a federal filing — to receive preferential treatment. Soon after, the company closed a $650 million funding round — placing a $9 billion valuation on it. Among the investors: fellow billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/17/elon-musks-neuralink-says-owned-by-disadvantaged-persons-in-filing.html
h/t @dangillmor @ZhiZhu
https://mastodon.social/@dangillmor/114872799873959006
#grift #musk #thiel
“…everything Trump does is about enriching himself. Enriching himself at the expense of the American people.
“Everything is more expensive. It’s harder to buy food, to afford a home, to start a family, or to retire with dignity than it was when Trump took office.
“Meanwhile, Trump has made billions—off merchandise, meme coins, even a private jet he allegedly took as a bribe. Sixty to seventy percent of his net worth has been generated since January of his first term. He’s getting exactly what he wants: money, power, and the ability to go after political opponents—whether they’re at Harvard or in the U.S. Senate.” —Mike Nellis, political analyst and former sr. advisor to VP Kamala Harris #USPol #USPolitics #TrumpAdministration #Grift #inflation
"...removing the staff in charge of advising her and other officials on how to navigate conflicts of interest."
Betting two things are operative here:
1) #PamBondi doesn't want to hear about #EthicsViolations, and
2) #Bondi wants to be sure that no one else directly knows about --> her <-- ethics violations
Sunday set
So interesting that the MAGAcrews are finding descent on the matter of #Epstein but not on all the other terrorism attacking this country.
#DonaldTrump #Fascism #whitenationalism #Treason #Grift #Project2025
@KimPerales
And they want to spend it fast — within first two years. That won't result in any #grift, I'm sure.
Knowing a casino owner in Las Vegas for over 50 years he told me more than once having casinos is like a license to print money. Three out of four of Trump’s bankruptcies were tied to casinos. This is the stable genius running America. Running the country like his businesses. Gee ya think he is doing a good job? People are losing their jobs. People are dying. People are suffering.
Just saying. #trump #casino #bankrupt #vegas #potus #president #money #tariffs #grift #greed #criminal #impeach
Protest Voters do not care their man is corrupt and just like all the rest, they've invested too much emotionally in Reform to back down now...
Why not add #InsiderTrading to #Grift and #Corruption for #Trump and members of his #Administration? https://www.propublica.org/article/us-officials-stock-sales-trump-tariffs
The No Tax on Tips or Overtime, which turned out to be a limited tax deduction, apparently expires after three-years. It's all just a voter grift with the GOP.
The grift that is trump's "big beautiful bill" — live updates as Senate Republicans force a vote:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/trump-the-next-100-days/5374611-live-updates-senate-gop-big-beautiful-bill/
#grift #ElectionConsequences #ElectionsHaveConsequences #GOP #Republicans
"charter schools are a difficult business proposition ... 'It’s a sector where investors can of course find great opportunities but they have to be careful, and carefully manage expectations.'"
Why TF does a publicly funded charter school serving low-income children with our local taxpayer dollars have "investors" and a "business proposition"?
Yes there is an affordable housing crisis in the Bay Area, and declining enrollments for many school districts - but parasitic arrangements like this one, which suck tax dollars out of local public schools, are part of the problem.
(disclosure, I know teachers who used to work at DCP.)
#CharterSchools #privatization #education #grift
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/06/25/californias-sky-high-housing-prices-spur-charter-school-default/
“She Won” election conspiracy theories defy belief and do not help
Over the past two weeks, I’ve seen a few friends share a post alleging a sweeping conspiracy to steal the presidential election–not the 2020 election, as Donald Trump and his cult followers have been alleging without proof ever since, but the 2024 contest. These friends have not vouched for the theory put forth in that post and a series of others posted at a newsletter site; at most, they’ve said things along the lines of “these raise interesting questions.”
So I read those “This Will Hold” posts and a separate report posted by a group called the Common Coalition. To summarize thousands of words of copy: They allege that surprising results in swing states and even individual counties–notably, voters choosing Democrats downballot and then picking Trump or not voting for any presidential candidate–are too statistically unlikely to be the result of voters making their own choices and instead are the result of an elaborate plot involving compromised Tripp Lite uninterruptible power supplies that were remotely reprogrammed on Elon Musk’s orders via SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to change vote totals on Dominion and ES&S voting systems.
No, really. Speaking as a tech journalist who has written a fair amount about SpaceX and as a poll worker who has put in 15-plus hour days helping people to vote in nine elections: I’m sorry, but I can only regard them as engagingly-written claptrap.
Here’s why I think that:
The unfortunate and ugly reality is that American voters showed awful judgment last November, and we are now all paying the price for that. There’s just a meanness in this world, as Springsteen sings, and our country is not and has never been exempt from it. Conspiracy theories might help people think otherwise, but this kind of self-delusional behavior will not help write a different script for 2026 and 2028.