Musk Watch: Musk-owned company says it qualifies for federal contracts reserved for small businesses

Posted on April 25, 2025 by M

Trump’s crony & billionaire F’Elon Musk isn’t above looting the treasury by pretending to be a “small” business:

Musk founded Boring in 2017 as a subsidiary of SpaceX. Its raison d’être was rectifying Southern California gridlock via a subterranean transportation network, though it has failed in that regard. In 2018, Musk spun off Boring, making it a privately held company that has largely served to promote his car manufacturer, Tesla. Through the gravity of its founder, carefully staged photo ops, and alleged environmental and labor violations, Boring has maintained media interest throughout its eight years of existence. But it remains the least distinguished of Musk’s companies. It has struggled to generate revenue despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising.

The company, which is based near Austin, Texas, has built just a few miles of commercial tunnels, all of which are located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its failure to generate substantive business could explain why it would seek federal funding from a White House that has proven to be partial to Musk’s business interests. A senior Trump adviser, Musk also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the White House’s austerity and parapolitical initiative. Steve Davis, the president of the Boring Company, is reportedly in charge of DOGE’s day-to-day operations.

Musk-owned company says it qualifies for federal contracts reserved for small businesses

Not long after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Elon Musk’s $7 billion tunneling company registered as a small business on a government portal for federal contractors.

https://www.muskwatch.com/p/musk-owned-company-says-it-qualifies

Financial Times: Vance’s trolling audition to be Trump’s heir

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

The many contradictions of the vice-president should not distract from his ambition

It was inevitable that memes about JD Vance would surface the moment Pope Francis passed away. “It’s good to see you in better health,” the US vice-president told the pope on Sunday. The pontiff died on Monday.

As Donald Trump’s chief attack dog — though not yet his heir apparent — Vance is a prime target of ridicule on liberal social media. But he is also a master troller himself. Vance knows that the surest path to Maga hearts and Trump’s approval is to enrage liberals. The question is whether he means anything by it.

And this:

The answer is unclear. Vance has gone from being a never-Trumper who saw Trump as “America’s Hitler” to an arch-Trumper who sees his boss as part of God’s plan. That is as dramatic a political conversion as can happen. Rather than search for an intellectual key, Vance’s shift can be put down to ambition. The better question is whether there are any limits to his ambition. Judging by his performance so far, the answer is not really.

What this last paragraph indicates is that we can’t trust J.D. Dunce to be the person that he pretends to be. He’s an opportunist, a weasel, pure and simple!

https://archive.is/fyhWg

Guardian: Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies

As more develops about the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats, there are growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage target.

Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. There are fears that the mounting firings and leak inquiries in Hegseth’s orbit, along with his inability to manage these internal crises, exposes the entire global US war footing – especially, if a geopolitical and external crisis comes across his desk.

Fears grow that Signal leaks make Pete Hegseth top espionage target

Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/23/pete-hegseth-pentagon-espionage

Politico: The vicious rivalries tearing apart Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

A feud between the secretary’s advisers and his chief of staff created backbiting and distrust that has erupted into the open.

When President Donald Trump chose Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, incoming officials knew they’d need to surround the inexperienced Fox News host with accomplished staff who could handle the nation’s largest bureaucracy. Hegseth would be the show horse, they figured, and others at the top would keep the Pentagon on track.

What happened was the opposite. Hegseth surrounded himself with advisers who quickly turned into vicious rivals for power — whose bitter brawl has now unraveled into revenge power plays, surprise firings, accusations of leaking and embarrassing headlines that are blowing up the Pentagon, distracting from Trump’s agenda and possibly jeopardizing Hegseth’s job.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Just consider that they’re not starting with the finest of people.

The vicious rivalries tearing apart Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon

A feud between the secretary’s advisers and his chief of staff created backbiting and distrust that has erupted into the open.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/22/pentagon-infighting-hegseth-fired-officials-00302709

NBC News: Trump takes executive action targeting ActBlue, the main Democratic fundraising platform

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

ActBlue is widely considered one of the pillars of the Democratic Party’s digital ecosystem.

Trump is now trying to sic his politicized Department of Justice on the Democrats’ fund raisers:

President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum Thursday aimed at investigating ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform.

The memorandum directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take appropriate action to enforce the law.”

It specifically names ActBlue as an online fundraising platform being used “to improperly influence American elections.”

Trump takes executive action targeting ActBlue, the main Democratic fundraising platform

ActBlue is widely considered one of the pillars of the Democratic Party’s digital ecosystem.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-expected-sign-memo-targeting-act-blue-rcna202673

Axios: Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers say

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Immigration authorities did not have an arrest warrant when agents detained Mahmoud Khalil, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said in a court filing this week.

The big picture: Khalil, a leader of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests, is a legal U.S. resident who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since last month. His arrest sparked outcry across the U.S.

Zoom in: Government lawyers argue in the filing that DHS was not required to obtain a judicial arrest warrant before taking Khalil, a U.S. green card holder from Syria, into custody on March 8.

The “officers had exigent circumstances to conduct the warrantless arrest, it is the pattern and practice of DHS to fully process a respondent once in custody,” wrote the lawyers in the document that was originally filed in immigration court Wednesday and submitted to federal court Thursday

They argued agents had reasons to believe Khalil “would escape before they could obtain a warrant” when they approached him inside the foyer of his apartment building.

Khalil was eventually served an arrest warrant after being taken into custody and transported to an ICE office in New York.

The other side: The revelation contradicts what agents told Khalil at the time of his arrest and what agents wrote in the arrest report, Khalil’s lawyer said.

“The government’s admission is astounding, and it is completely outrageous that they tried to assert to the immigration judge – and the world – in their initial filing of the arrest report that there was an arrest warrant when there was none,” said Khalil’s attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, in an emailed statement.

Van Der Hout called it “egregious conduct by DHS that should require under the law termination of these proceedings.”

Never forget: Cops lie. All. The. Time.

Mahmoud Khalil was arrested without a warrant, DHS lawyers Trump admin lawyers say

The revelation contradicts what agents told Mahmoud Khalil at the time of his arrest, his lawyer said.

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/24/mahmoud-khalil-detained-ice-arrest-warrant

Fear and Loathing: Ranjani Srinivasan, Fulbright scholar, doctoral candidate

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Ranjani Srinivasan didn’t think the knock would come so soon.

A Fulbright scholar. A doctoral candidate. She spent her days studying how cities displace the poor — and nights convincing herself it wouldn’t happen to her.

Then came March 5, 2025.

An email. Cold. Clinical. The U.S. Consulate in Chennai revoked her visa from halfway across the planet, citing alleged “support for Hamas.” No evidence. No hearing. No appeal. Her real offense?

She shared a protest flyer on Instagram.

ICE showed up soon after. Agents visited her New York apartment multiple times — initially without a warrant. On a later visit, they returned with a judicial one. No charges. No formal deportation order. Just pressure.

So she did what people with no choices do.

She left.

On March 11, Ranjani boarded a one-way flight to Montreal. DHS later claimed she “self-deported” using the CBP One app — but her attorney disputes that, saying she simply complied with the law after her visa was revoked.

Her friends smuggled her laptop across the border days later. Her cat, Cricket, she left behind — safe with a friend, but missed in every moment.

Now she’s in Canada. Stateless. Stunned.

Her belongings? Confiscated or inaccessible.

Her research? Interrupted.

Her future? Dangling by the thread of a refugee claim.

She’s no radical. No operative. She liked and reposted human rights content. That’s it. And for that, the country that once welcomed her turned cold and suspicious — as if brilliance were a threat and dissent a crime.

This wasn’t deportation.

It was coerced exile.

Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

Ranjani Srinivasan didn’t think the knock would come so soon. A Fulbright scholar. A doctoral candidate. She spent her days studying how cities displace the poor — and nights convincing herself it…

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665318476137458

Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Yunseo Chung, Columbia University student, green card

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Yunseo Chung was seven when she came to America. By twenty, she had a Columbia University ID, a green card, and a head full of ideas about democracy, civil rights, and peaceful protest.

Big mistake.

In March 2025, Yunseo joined a sit-in at Barnard College. No broken windows. No masks. No Molotovs. Just students in chairs, arms linked, holding signs about Palestine and Columbia’s complicity.

Four days later, ICE showed up.

They knocked on her parents’ door first. Then her dorm. They carried a “harboring” warrant — a flimsy legal fig leaf once used for smugglers, now rebranded for students who sit too still and speak too clearly. DHS called her a “foreign policy threat.”

Translation: she embarrassed them.

No hearing. No charges. Just a green card marked for deletion. She went underground. Lawyers stepped in. A federal judge issued a restraining order, temporarily blocking her arrest and demanding answers.

The government offered none. Just silence and red tape.

Yunseo wasn’t undocumented. She wasn’t violent. She was a straight-A student who took the First Amendment seriously — until it kicked her in the teeth.

She’s still in hiding. Still waiting.

Because when you protest injustice in Trump’s America, they don’t just ignore you.

They hunt you.

Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

Yunseo Chung was seven when she came to America. By twenty, she had a Columbia University ID, a green card, and a head full of ideas about democracy, civil rights, and peaceful protest. Big mistake.…

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665114292824543

Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Badar Khan Suri, post-doctoral fellow, Georgetown University

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Badar Khan Suri didn’t carry a weapon. He carried a syllabus.

A postdoc at Georgetown, he taught courses on peacebuilding, minority rights, and international diplomacy. His lectures challenged power with principle. His research gave voice to the stateless. That was his crime.

DHS never accused him of violence. Never accused him of lying. Just thinking too loudly. Being too brown, too bold, too unwilling to shut up.

And so, in March 2025, they grabbed him.

Masked agents. No warning. Broad daylight. His children watched from the window. His wife — a U.S. citizen — screamed as the SUV pulled away. Georgetown stayed silent for three days. Then the protests began. Students. Professors. Even Jewish alumni. All demanding his release.

The government didn’t care.

What evidence did they offer? His father-in-law was once a Hamas spokesperson. That’s it. No charges. No trial. No defense. Just guilt by association, passed down like a curse.

They revoked his visa. Hauled him to Texas. Locked him away without a single charge.

As of April 2025, he remains detained at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. He has not been deported. He has not been charged. A federal judge has temporarily blocked his removal while his legal team fights back. His next immigration court hearing is scheduled for May 6.

They call him a national security threat.

We call him a scholar silenced.

Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

Badar Khan Suri didn’t carry a weapon. He carried a syllabus. A postdoc at Georgetown, he taught courses on peacebuilding, minority rights, and international diplomacy. His lectures challenged power…

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665107126158593

Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Artemis Ghasemzadeh, Christian convert from Iran

Posted on April 24, 2025 by M

Artemis Ghasemzadeh didn’t come here to start a fight. She came here to survive one. A Christian convert from Iran — a crime that courts execution back home — she crossed into the United States seeking asylum. She brought a battered suitcase, a birth certificate, and a whisper of hope.

She didn’t get a hearing. She didn’t get a lawyer. She didn’t even get a question.

She got dumped.

Panama. A third country. A place she’d never seen, never requested, never even flown over. ICE called it “expedited removal.” We call it what it is: geopolitical laundering of a human soul.

In February 2025, they shackled her and shipped her to a hotel in Panama City — no sunlight, no due process, no warning. She scrawled “HELP US” on the window in lipstick — because that’s all she had. The photo made the front page. The administration didn’t blink.

Then came the jungle. The Darién Gap. They moved her to a remote camp near the edge of the most dangerous migrant trail in the hemisphere — a place where people disappear.

Snakes. Rot. Disease. The constant threat of violence. Women vanish here. Men too.

She was told it was temporary. And this time, it actually was.

In March, after weeks of pressure and media attention, Panamanian authorities released her with a temporary visa. One month. No clear future. No asylum. Just limbo.

She sleeps in borrowed rooms now. Eats what she can afford. Prays to a God she once trusted with her life.

This country didn’t just turn her away.

It exported her crisis.

And if it can vanish Artemis — a teacher who ran from death — what chance do the rest of us have?

Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

Artemis Ghasemzadeh didn’t come here to start a fight. She came here to survive one. A Christian convert from Iran — a crime that courts execution back home — she crossed into the United States…

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665100702825902

Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.