Art of the Steal: The Biggest Trump-Musk Scandal That No One’s Talking About

Source: The New Republic
by Jacob Silverman

“In the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election, political ethics watchers, an endangered breed, worried about the increasing number of ways in which Donald Trump seemed to be for sale. ‘Trump keeps creating avenues for people to quietly give him money’, ran a Washington Post opinion headline, referring to the glitzy, $100,000 watches that Trump had recently presented for sale: purchasable with bitcoin. Steve Benen, an MSNBC columnist, suggested a dark scenario: ‘A hypothetical wealthy donor wants to give the former president a $100,000 donation (far in excess of the legal limit) so he or she buys an expensive watch. At that point, the nominee could take his cut and write a comparable check in support of his candidacy, since there is no legal limit on what candidates can spend on their own campaigns.’ In the era of unlimited super PAC giving … these concerns seemed practically quaint.” (02/27/25)

https://newrepublic.com/article/192008/trump-musk-scandal-corruption-crypto

Steve Trinward

Israel: Many Injured After Vehicle Rams People In Suspected Terror Attack

Source: NDTV [India]

“A vehicle rammed into pedestrians in northern Israel on Thursday in what police described as a ‘suspected terror attack,’ leaving at least 10 people wounded, according to medics. ‘There is suspicion that this is a terror attack. Police forces successfully intercepted a suspicious vehicle, apprehending a suspect suspected to be responsible for the ramming’ at the Karkur junction south of the city of Haifa, police said in a statement. Israel’s first responders, Magen David Adom, said its team treated 10 injured people at the site of the incident, including a 17-year old girl who was in critical condition. The suspect was a ’53-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area, (who) was in Israel unlawfully and married to an Israeli citizen,’ police said in a statement.” (02/27/25)

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/many-injured-after-vehicle-rams-people-in-suspected-terror-attack-in-israel-7809345

Thomas L. Knapp

How Audits Work in Real Life

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Corrupt politicians and bureaucrats are panicking. O, the prospect of any significant shrinking of the federal behemoth! Any significant rooting out of the corruption that benefits them. … Many combat this horror by flinging every fallacy in the book. Like the notion that Elon Musk and his team are unqualified. They ask, is Musk a certified public accountant? He’s only a mega-successful serial entrepreneur, not an accountant.” [editor’s note: “Serial entrepreneur?” More like “corporate welfare queen.” Direct beneficiaries of spending are not normally put in charge of auditing said spending – TLK] (02/27/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/02/27/how-audits-work-in-real-life

Thomas L. Knapp

US weekly jobless claims rise more than expected

Source: Reuters

“The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased more than expected last week, but that likely does not signal a material shift in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 242,000 for the week ended February 22, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 221,000 claims for the latest week. Seasonal adjustment factors, the model that the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data, tend to bias the claims data higher around this time of the year.” (02/27/25)

https://archive.is/Y1Prt

Thomas L. Knapp

Not Quite Yet Gone With the Wind

Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson

“It’s a weird time for the oil and gas business. It’s always kind of weird, of course — it’s a weird business, the unlikely offspring of swaggering Texas miscreants in big hats and nerds with doctorates in geophysics, gamblers and engineers, wildcatters and roboticists—but right now, if you talk to a Texas landman or a Washington oil lobbyist, you can’t help but see that the industry is being pushed and pulled in at least two ways at once: With Trump in the White House and a high tide for the kind of atavistic populism that loves cheap gasoline almost as much as it hates foreigners and college professors, oil and gas should be riding high, but that isn’t the case. Not exactly, anyway.” (02/27/25)

https://thedispatch.com/article/oil-gas-industry-landman-texas-trump/

Thomas L. Knapp

The Empire At Its Most Honest

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“President Donald Trump has shared a shockingly awful AI-generated music video envisioning a future Gaza that has been turned into an ostentatious resort town where everyone parties amid showers of cash while Trump and Netanyahu sip drinks by the pool. The video is intended to reflect Trump’s plans for a Gaza Strip that has been permanently ethnically cleansed of Palestinians. If you haven’t watched it yet you definitely should, because words can’t do justice to just how terrible it is. This video is simultaneously the most American thing that has ever happened and the most Israeli thing that has ever happened. Fake. Gaudy. Sociopathic. Genocidal. Emblematic of all the ugliest values that both dystopian civilizations have come to embody. They used the most artless art medium in existence to digitally dance on the graves of mountains of dead civilians.” (02/27/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/02/27/the-empire-at-its-most-honest/

Steve Trinward