Lesson Learned, Maybe

Well, as the cool kids would say circa 2022, "that didn't age well."  It turns out that the Anti-Defamation League (nee B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League) was wrong- and taught us an important lesson. Al-Jazeera reported on January 22 of this year

After Elon Musk made an apparent Nazi salute at an inauguration rally for United States President Donald Trump, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) rushed to defend the SpaceX founder.

The self-described anti-Semitism watchdog and “leading anti-hate organization in the world” dismissed Musk’s raised arm as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm” in a social media post on Monday.

Months earlier, however, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the staunchly pro-Israel ADL, compared the Palestinian keffiyeh to the Nazi swastika....

While speaking at the Capital One Arena following Trump’s inauguration, Musk put his hand to his chest, then swiftly raised his arm as he thanked the crowd for electing the Republican president.

The 53-year-old billionaire then turned around and did it again.

His motion resembled the Nazi gesture — known as the “Sieg Heil”, German for “hail victory” — which has roots in an ancient Roman salute.

“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” Musk said.

While it is not uncommon for politicians to extend their arms to greet an audience, the combination of Musk’s rhetoric about “civilization” and the repeated gesture raised many eyebrows.

However, on January 23, Musk went punny:

Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!

Some people will Goebbels anything down!

Stop Gőring your enemies!

His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!

Bet you did nazi that coming 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025

Later that day on the same format, the ADL, evidently not amused, responded

Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah,

There was little or no reaction to the statement from the ADL as it seemed to roll off Musk's back. However, as explained by the Guardian, on October 1, FBI director Kash Patel

denounced the group and said the agency would cut ties with the non-profit.

Patel's announcement followed days of attacks by rightwing influencers and Elon Musk on the ADL over its online database on extremism, which included a page on slain far-right pundit Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and the organization's link to far-right extremists. On Tuesday, the ADL deleted its entire Glossary of Extremism, a flagship project which contained more than 1,000 entries on groups and movements with connections to hateful ideologies. the move failed to quell the backlash....

Over the weekend, several influential rightwing accounts began posting screenshots of the ADL’s page on Turning Point USA (TPUSA), attacking the organization for including Kirk’s group in its Glossary of Extremism. One of the first posts, from a self-described “Twitter troll”, accused the ADL of having “blood on their hands”.

The ADL did not actually list TPUSA as an extremist organization, but instead documented incidents where its leadership and affiliated activists had either aligned with extremists or made “racist or bigoted comments”. Other rightwing activists soon followed the troll with more posts about the ADL. Some spread a screenshot of the ADL’s page on the Christian Identity movement – an extremist ideology that espouses a racial holy war against Jews and other minorities – to allege that the ADL was biased against Christians as a whole.

The attacks by rightwing influencers had  included

The ADL considers Christianity a hateful terrorist extremist belief.

You don’t hate the ADL enough. pic.twitter.com/6iThCkObcZ

— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) September 28, 2025

Musk responded on X "The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is a hate group." But the organization's criticism was not of Christians but of Christian Identity, a movement said to date to 1989 and which is

characterized by a belief in white supremacy and anti-Semitism. Followers of Christian Identity believe that the covenant recounted in the Bible was actually made between God and the Anglo-Saxons and other European peoples, who are the real Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Christian Identity characterizes Jews as the offspring of Eve and Satan and views people of African descent as subhuman. Though it has been largely unsuccessful in persuading “white Israelites” of their purported identity, small churches are active, mainly in the northwestern United States. The movement proselytizes through publications, recordings, and the Internet. Aryan Nations, a prominent Christian Identity-based hate group founded in the United States in the 1970s, developed a strong network of white supremacist groups, many of which congregated at a compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

The Anti-Defamation League threw Elon Musk a lifeline in late January. A prestigious and very reputable opponent of anti-Semitism, it could have called Musk out for what did appear to be a Nazi salute.

Instead, it defended his gesture, thereby tamping down criticism in establishment circles. Yet now, it has been pummeled by the world's wealthiest billionaire and his MAGA supporters.

Compare that to the controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel's remark(s) about Charlie Kirk's disciples.  Disney's decision. The BBC noted that the decision 

to suspend Kimmel was met with protests in California and lambasted by the writers and actors guilds, lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who argued that the suspension violated free speech rights and spurs a chilling effect.

Hundreds of celebrities and Hollywood creatives also signed a letter backing Kimmel.

Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro are among those who called Kimmel's suspension a "dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation".

Critics of Disney also called for people to boycott Disney+, Hulu and other services in order to cut into the entertainment conglomerate's bottom line.

As fellow comedic talk show hosts Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Myers ridiculed and condemned the suspension...

Dylan Byers from US media website Puck told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there has been "a lot of hand-wringing" at Disney since last week "about how to right this ship".

The "blowback was intense" and came from figures ranging from former presidents and Hollywood stars to ex-Disney executives, he said.

"And at a certain point, I think that became too much." 

The "too much" included also denunciation from legislators, legal experts, and a social media postings from viewers who announced cancellation of subscriptions to Disney's online streaming platform and ABC's platform. And from September 17, when the suspension was announced to September 23 when it was revoked, the value of the stock of The Walt Disney company plunged 2.39%, $4.49 billion of its market value.

                 

So the furious response to the initial Kimmel decision resulted in the company changing its mind and reinstating the talk-show host. That is a different situation than what prevailed with Elon Musk following his salute to the Third Reich. Nonetheless, there is a moral to the story: the right-wing which now runs this country is not interested in the left or the center reaching out and giving it the benefit of the doubt. Fighting the onslaught will not always work but a conciliatory approach will nearly always fail. Take the advice of the late Tom Petty, and never back down.

 

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It's a MAD, MAD Country

Kayleigh McEnany, who served a brief stint as press secretary in the first Trump Administration, claims

.... No amount of money bought that. What bought that was a movement. And Elon Musk had to decide "I'm either going to fold into this or go away from this. And he chose to go away from this. and its a sad thing to see.

Kayleigh:

For Elon Musk to say I won Trump this election, President Trump won all of the swing states. No amount of money bought that

(?????)
pic.twitter.com/QvoN50sjce

— Lucas Sanders 💙🗳️🌊💪🌈🚺🟧 (@LucasSa56947288) June 5, 2025

Musk has chosen (temporarily) "to go away from this" now, months after the election, after he has done untold damage (which the media will ensure will remain untold) and President Trump's Big Debt Bill is being considered by the United States Congress. However, as CNN reported on March 1

Elon Musk spent a total of more than $290 million on the 2024 election, new federal filings show, boosting President Donald Trump and Republicans in a staggering effort that has helped to secure unprecedented access for the world’s richest person in the new administration...

The majority of that went to the presidential election and Trump was by far- by approximately $120 million- the biggest Republican donor of the election cycle.  Trump may have won the election without Musk's money, just as the Philadelphia Eagles may have won the NFL championship last season without Saquon Barkley.  Possible, not likely.

Musk knows how valuable he was, and still may be, to Donald Trump, tweeting

Such ingratitude

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

Gratitude cannot be expected by someone who has called himself the "Chosen One" and approvingly quoted someone telling him that he's "the greatest President, overall, that we've ever had." And that was before he declared himself "the king." 

Musk may not have understood that the President would show him no gratitude. However, and although he's an immigrant, he likely understands the concept of mutually assured destruction, which

refers to the concept that two superpowers are capable of annihilating each other with nuclear weapons, regardless of whether they are attacked first.

In theory, under mutual assured destruction, a nuclear attack by one superpower will be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack by their target — using early warning systems, automated missiles, airborne nuclear bombs, and missile-armed hidden submarines. This will lead to the complete destruction of both. As such, mutual assured destruction — often abbreviated as MAD — is part of the military strategy of deterrence, in which one adversary threatens another with a reprisal if they attack first.

After the 1960s, mutual assured destruction was the main nuclear doctrine — the stated military principle — of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 20th century. It is still in operation today between the nuclear forces of the U.S. and Russia...

                                              
        

The politicians, pundits, and others tell us (in different words) that Donald Trump, the undisputed leader of the G.O.P. and subject of undying devotion of the Republican masses, holds all the cards.  (Being known as an authoritarian and fascist does not hurt.) And truth be told, he holds most of them. However, one does not become the wealthiest individuals in the world without having extraordinary influence and the ability to wield it. 

Agreed: if President Trump were to decide to destroy Elon Musk- or at least wipe out most of his wealth- he could do so. But the betting here is that Trump is too smart to set out to do that. he could win Musk over with a small concession on the controversial pending bill. Or he could be steadfast and wait till Musk's fervor dies down. Moreover, Donald Trump is smart enough to know that when he's dealing with such a flammable subject, acting out of spite will do him no good. 

Probably sooner rather than later, these two white supremacists will make peace with each other.  Trump's Big Debt Bill will pass in a form, slightly modified from the one approved by the House of Representatives. Republicans already have made their point with the gullible media and major donors that they care about the deficit and debt, which most don't. 

They conveniently will remember that-as Dick Cheney once noted- deficits don't matter, politically. And they are not done. After all, there is a big country out here, "from the New York island to the California sand" (and beyond), they can work together to continue to destroy.

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Right Way and a Wrong Way

At her briefing on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi remarked

We certainly think it’s despicable the violence that is taking place against Tesla, the company, its employees, and also just Americans who have chosen to drive an electric vehicle. Many of them are Democrats, by the way. Democrats were big supporters of Tesla and of electric vehicles until Elon Musk decided to vote for Donald Trump. So, we would like Democrats to also come out and condemn this heinous violence that we have seen.

Tweeters have indiscriminately blamed "liberals" or "leftists" or "Democrats," and this is not surprising:

An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.

ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman,…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2025 

That is ridiculous. However, as a late-night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel is associated with the Democratic brand and it's not helpful when

During Tuesday night's monologue, Kimmel had fun at the expense of Tesla CEO and DOGE chief Elon Musk over his company's stock tanking "almost disastrously so," sparking massive cheers from his audience.

"People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles, new Tesla vehicles. Please don't vandalize— don't ever vandalize Tesla vehicles," Kimmel said to the camera before smiling with a comedic pause.

Democrats should denounce the vandalism and crime being committed- but not by spanking fellow Democrats. The congressman from Silicon Valley, Ro Khanna, on Thursday stated "until yesterday, I think I was one of the only Democratic elected officials to vigorously condemn the violence and destruction against Tesla."

This statement is accurate and denouncing the violent behavior was commendable. However, proclaiming ".... I was one of the only Democratic elected officials..." is not commendable. Nor is it helpful to his Party because the comment self-righteously placed himself in opposition to other Democrats, suggesting that he did it despite being a Democrat.

 

Democrats should unequivocally rebuke what is happening but not by suggesting that the stance is bold because they are Democrats. "As a Democrat," should be the starting point.  If they then go on to condemn Musk for being knee-deep in the unparalleled corruption and extremism of the Trump Administration, all the better. 

However, clearly and skillfully separating the two remarks is essential lest the Democrat be legitimately accused of applying a "yes, but" or bothsiderism standard. Flouting the U.S. Constitution, as Donald Trump is doing, is undermining the rule of law and laying bare the falsehood that the law applies equally to everyone. "No one is above the law" has become a cruel joke.

We do not know who is committing the Tesla attacks, with the possibility that anarchists or even supporters of Musk (in a false flag operation) are responsible. Yet, right-wingers on social media, Musk,  Bill Maher, and others are laying the blame for the Tesla attacks upon Democrats and/or liberals with no rebuttal from Democrats. If Democrats remain relatively silent, the assumption that it must be the left grows. 

"Heinous violence" and "Democrats" should not be, must not be, synonymous in the mind of the voter. The prevailing narrative must be squashed at a least, and reversed if possible. 

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Disabusing People of Ignorance

Preach it, brother! 

NEW: Author Michael Lewis makes the bold claim you’re far more likely to find fraud in the private sector than in the federal government.

“You can’t take a federal worker to lunch and buy them a turkey sandwich. They just won’t take the money.”

“If you said to me, Michael, you… pic.twitter.com/pbrfqHoT2C

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 20, 2025

Prominent author Michael Lewis says what must not be uttered:

When people throw around insults about the federal bureaucrats, they're really revealing they don't know what goes on in the federal government. It's just- it's just a mind-bending complicated place that's doing a lot of different things- some of them very well and some of them less well. When you go in, one of the things you notice is how hard fraud would be to perpetrate. 

Waste is different; waste is a little complicated and there are all sorts of inefficiencies that are not the fault of the workers. It's more the fault of the structure of the system. But- but you can't take a federal worker to lunch and buy him a turkey sandwich. They just won't take the money. They're watched every which way. And they're just conditioned to be very, very careful about what they do financially. And if you said to me "Michael, you gotta write a story about fraud, I would much rather go look for it in a private company- much more likely to find it.

This is so contrary to conventional  wisdom that Cooper knew he had to clarify with "it's easier to find it in a private company than in the civil service," and Lewis answered "oh, yea."

NEW: Author Michael Lewis makes the bold claim you’re far more likely to find fraud in the private sector than in the federal government.

“You can’t take a federal worker to lunch and buy them a turkey sandwich. They just won’t take the money.”

“If you said to me, Michael, you… pic.twitter.com/pbrfqHoT2C

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 20, 2025

Lewis is author of the recently published "Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service." In a review, The Guardian notes "contrary to the conservative stereotype of a ballooning bureaucracy, the size of the federal workforce has not changed greatly since the 1960s." It currently numbers around 2.m people, more than 70% of whom work for agencies related to defence and national security."

Given the power of the conservative stereotype, Republicans won't correct the myth they've been propagating since the days of  Ronald(6) Wilson(6) Reagan(6).  It's a self-reinforcing loop: Democrats don't challenge the myth in part because it has become conventional wisdom of the mainstream media. Republicans push it and Democrats (liberals especially, but even "progressives") won't challenge it, so the mainstream media accepts it as fact. 

It has become similar to the support many Democrats give to abortion rights, when they hedge their support with "I personally oppose abortion"- whatever that means.  And quite a few individuals preface their criticism of D.O.G.E. in a manner similar to Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin (who has condemned Elon Musk and properly voted recently against the continuing resolution), who states "I worked at the C.I.A. I know there's fat on the bone. If you would have given me the task of cutting it, I can tell you exactly where I'd start."

Voters associate Democrats with government; they believe the Democratic Party is the pro-government party and the Republican Party is the anti-government party. It's important that they believe in that government for strategic reasons, for enhancing the success of government programs, and for civic unity.

As Lewis understands, the fraud is extremely uncommon among federal workers, even among middle managers). When it takes place, it's far more likely to be perpetrated by federal contractors with or without the awareness of individuals at the top levels of government. It's not the rank-and-file.. Civil service and other career employees are typically honest, as well as not often in the position of being able to participate in fraud even if they wanted to do so.

In a different interview, Lewis explained

Elon Musk, you know, he had no idea what was going on inside the government in any particular way. he had a general attitude. He had sort of the bigotry that the population has that it is all waste, fraud, and abuse.  But that has enabled him to do what he has done.

President Trump's endgame is to remain in power for as long as he wants to, according to author, Michael Lewis.
And the bestselling writer of The Big Short says Elon Musk is working to 'attack' any parts of government that could 'interfere' with Trump's power. pic.twitter.com/Jg1ojczzDU

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 17, 2025

That has enabled him to do what he has done. Someone has to disabuse Americans of the notion that federal government workers are corrupt or even lazy or self-entitled. It's not going to be Republicans, and it must not be only best-selling authors.

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Fascist -Adjacent, At a Minimum

Scott Adams, a Trump supporter and creator of Dilbert, evidently believes Donald Trump is a moron.

You need to be a complete moron to believe Musk gave a Hitler salute. https://t.co/SAb8e6qmy1

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) March 14, 2025

If you have to be a complete moron to believe that Elon Musk knew he was giving a Nazi salute, those (and there are many) who have labeled Musk a "genius" apparently are morons.

"You have to give [@ElonMusk] credit," President Trump tells @JoeSquawk. "He's one of our great geniuses, and we have to protect our genius."

"He's going to be building a very big plant in the United States. He has to, because we help him, so he has to help us." pic.twitter.com/WIlBJS0saE

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) January 22, 2020

However, it isn't only Donald Trump who has pegged Musk as a "genius."  There are many others, including a Jeannine Mancini, who interviewed Elon's mother, Maye Musk. in 2021 and on the day after the last presidential election gushed

 "At 3, I knew he was a genius," she said, quickly adding that it didn't automatically mean he'd succeed. "You still don't know if he's going to do great things because many geniuses end up in a basement being a genius but not applying it."

Picture it: a young Elon, just a few years old, with a mind that was already racing. But Maye, like any mother, had a practical side. Sure, she knew her son was special, but the thought crossed her mind – what if he ended up as a recluse, tinkering away in some basement? It's a funny image now, considering that potential "basement genius" has morphed into a multibillionaire who, quite literally, aims for the stars.

Maye watched Elon's mind start taking on big problems at an early age. "I was so excited when he started Zip2 because it just made life easier with door-to-door directions and then newspapers could have a link that took you to a restaurant," she explained. That sounds routine now, but back then, Maye noted, "People didn't believe that that's possible and so that's why I invested in that at the very beginning." She saw what others couldn't yet see – a digital world that Elon would help shape.

But Elon wasn't the type to stop at one venture. According to Maye, it was almost like he couldn't help himself. "And then, of course, he thought the banking system needed some help, so then he did PayPal," she said.

It's classic Elon – spotting inefficiencies and jumping in to solve them. She even tried to rein him in a little when he started eyeing even bigger ambitions: "I said just choose one and of course, he didn't listen to me." And thank goodness he didn't. Where would we be if Elon Musk had picked just one? No electric cars, no private rockets, no flamethrowers, for that matter.

Fast-forward to now and Elon's relentless ambition hasn't just made him successful; it's made him the richest person on the planet. With a net worth of $263 billion, he's crossed financial milestones in almost incomprehensible ways. In October alone, his wealth reportedly surged by $34 billion in a single day due to a spike in Tesla's stock – a figure most people can't imagine.

Maye's early fears of a basement-bound genius were more than unfounded; they now feel almost comical. Instead of hiding away, Elon Musk transformed his genius into groundbreaking companies that have changed entire industries.

Sure, Mancini is the journalistic equivalent of a groupie but that's how Musk was viewed until he recently emerged as a co-president, a formidable foe of democracy and the national interest. He is smart enough to have become the richest person ever and was a "genius" until.....

                

 

Musk was criticized by many, yet had his supporters, including influential right-wing podcasters such as Charlie Kirk, who tweeted "Elon Musk says his heart goes out to the patriots in Capital One Arena, so he pounds his chest and waves at the crowd."  In a slight twist, Dave Rubin X'ed  argued "humor is the fascist way to defeat these people!" with Musk tweeting in response "they can't stand being mocked."   

Meaning well unlike Musk's other defenders, the Anti-Defamation League characterized it as "an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm."  

Having escaped backlash over the Nazi salute with only minimal damage, on March 14 Musk

shared a post written by an X user about the actions of three 20th century dictators — then quickly deleted it after it sparked a backlash.

The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, the communist leader of the Soviet Union until 1953; Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party in Germany; and Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, didn’t cause the deaths of millions of people under their watch. Instead, the post said, their public sector workers did.

Mr. 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. Historians have widely chronicled that millions of people died under Stalin, that millions of Jews were massacred under Hitler during the Holocaust, and that millions of Chinese were displaced or killed during Mao’s cultural revolution.

It was the latest post by Mr. Musk to devolve into controversy. In 2023, Mr. Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth” of what Jewish people were doing, prompting advertisers to flee.

So maybe mother knows best, and her son is a genius. Smart enough to know that the shout out to Hitler was only a minor speed bump, which did not block him from assuming even more power in the Trump Administration. Smart enough to remind his influential far-right tech bros that he's still out there pushing a fascist line, then sufficiently wise to back off by deleting the extremist tweet.

There being a First Amendment, Elon Musk is entitled to his sentiments and to expression of them. However, those sentiments are especially dangerous in context of Putin's war against  Ukraine ,supported by the Trump-Musk regime, which Putin envisions as a prelude to expansion against Poland or Lithuania.   in which the Trump-Musk regime obviously supports Russia  After meeting with Adolf Hitler in March of 1941, General Governor Hans Frank wrote

"The Führer is determined to make this country a purely German country within 15-20 years. From now on, the term "seat of the Polish people" will no longer be used to refer to the GG and adjacent areas [...] The General Government is to become the German zone in the future. In the place inhabited today by over 12 million Poles, 4-5 million will live in the future. The General Government is to be a country as German as the Rhineland."

From the beginning of the occupation, various places of imprisonment, police jails, judicial prisons, transit camps, labor camps, reeducation camps, penal camps and, above all, concentration camps played an important role in the process of the systematic extermination of the Poles, the weakening of their intellectual potential, and the imposition of unquestioning obedience.

Maya Angelou is believed to have been the person who first stated "when someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time." Elon Musk has told us, and no excuses should be made for him.

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The Evil One

President Musk held his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and Donald Trump was asked 

a question about widely reported cuts to the federal workforce. An unidentified reporter said “You mentioned you’re interested in doing another round of this email. When would you like to see that? What would be the deadline? And this time would it be mandatory?”

“I think Elon wants to and I think it’s a good idea because, you know, those people, as I said before, they’re on the bubble,” Trump replied.”You got a lot of people that have not responded. So we’re trying to figure out  — Do they exist? Who are they? And it’s possible that a lot of those people will be actually fired. And if that happened, that’s okay, because that’s what we’re trying to do.”

“This country has gotten bloated, fat, disgusting, and incompetently run,” Trump added, before insulting Biden. “I think we had the worst president in the history of our country. He just left office. I think he’s a disgrace what he’s done to our country by allowing millions of people to come into our country like that and all of the other things he inflation, which he caused because of energy and stupid spending to spend hundreds of millions, trillions and trillions of dollars on the green new scam, a total scam.” 

"Bloated, fat, (and) disgusting?" One is tempted to suggest that Trump has reached a new low, but he's always reaching a new low, and we've been down this road before. As outlined in The Guardian during the President's first term, Trump's contempt for the USA has been on display for years.

It seems to have begun early in the last decade but became more evident when in his inaugural address in 2016, he referred to "American carnage."  Asked by Bill O'Reilly in 2017 whether Vladimir Putin is "a killer," the President replied "There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?" (On a positive note, Trump likes Putin's ruthlessness, so there is that.)

                 

This reporter, having been written in 2019, omits Donald Trump's Truth Social post on October 30, 2022, when he characterized "Our Country" as "Rigged, Crooked, and Evil." (Five weeks later, he would call for the "termination" of the Constitution- but absolutely not a fascist.)

In January, 2023, after being arraigned for what is euphemistically referred to as "mishandling" classified documents, he complained "we have a rigged country, we have a country that is corrupt." Not a corrupt President or a rigged Justice Department or justice system- a rigged country, the USA.

President Trump claims to love his country. So someone needs to ask President Trump why, in light of his frequently negative depictions of the United States of America, he hates this country- or at least, why he believes we are "evil."  Failing that, he could at least be asked whether he believes that "evil" or "corrupt" or "rigged" is actually a bad thing.

This blog will be on hiatus for a few days. (Or maybe it's that I will be.) Anyway, please return next week.

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Much, Much More Than Sports

He once told us that he's "the Chosen One." More recently, he emulated Napoleon Bonaparte by tweeting (all capitalization his, obviously)  "he who saves his Country does not violate any Law." A few days afterward, he tweeted "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan,and all of New York,is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!" So it was only a matter of time that a confrontation would take place:

Maine’s Democratic governor and President Donald Trump got into a tense exchange at the White House Friday morning after Trump threatened to withhold federal funding unless Maine complies with his recent executive order barring transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

“You better do it because you’re not going to get federal funding,” Trump told Gov. Janet Mills during an event with the National Governors Association captured by a press pool recording.

“We’re going to follow the law sir. We’ll see you in court,” replied Mills, who is attending the organization’s winter summit.

“Enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterwards,” Trump responded.

Before the exchange, Mills and other Maine officials said the state would not be intimidated by Trump after the president singled out Maine during a Thursday speech at the Republican Governors Association meeting.

“Anyone here from Maine?” the president asked the crowd. “They are still saying they want men to play in women’s sports and I cannot believe that they are doing that…so we’re not gonna give them any federal funding until they clean that up.”

The executive order, which the president signed on Feb. 5 as part of the administration’s broader anti-trans agenda, rescinds federal funds from “educational programs” if schools fail to adhere to the ban.

The administration is asking federal agencies to interpret Title IX — a federal civil rights law barring schools that receive federal funding from practicing sex-based discrimination — in a way that complies with the order.

In a statement shared early Friday, Mills said “the State of Maine will not be intimidated by the president’s threats.”

“If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” Mills said.

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said any attempt by the president to cut federal funding to Maine over the issue “would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders.”

“Fortunately,” Frey wrote in a statement, “the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”

He added, “It is disturbing that President Trump would use children as pawns in advancing his political agenda"...

The Maine Principals Association’s transgender participation policy was in effect from 2013 to 2021, when the Maine Human Rights Act was amended to include gender identity as a protected class. As the Bangor Daily News pointed out, in 2023, the organization testified that during the time their policy was in place, they heard from “56 transgender students wishing to participate in high school athletics with four being transgender girls.”

Later on Friday, the USA Department of Education (still in existence) notified its counterpart in Maine that it had been directed to investigate the state because of its policy. Then in response to the controversy, Governor Mills identified the both the immediate issue in play when she noted

No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold.

Though as a Democratic politician she cannot directly acknowledge it, Mills understands that the immediate issue is a narrow one: "this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field." Recognizing the larger issue, she continued 

Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end?

This harkens back to a voice from history, Reverend Martin Niemoller, a German theologian and Lutheran minister and early critic of Adolf Hitler, who retrospectively- and probably, presciently- wrote in 1946: 

First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.

First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.. Then they came 

Then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak for me.

Less prophetic, but similarly eloquently, the sanguine Sammy Johns in 1984 (1984? Really?) wrote America, about America, for Waylon Jennings, who sang 

Some have said down through history

If you last, it's a mystery

But I guess they don't know what they're talking about.

That was in 1984. Extended forty-one years, it has been a good run. However, it turns out they did know what they were talking about because in the age of Trump-Musk, it's going to take many more people like Janet Mills for Martin Niemoller not to be proven prophetic.

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"President Musk"

No doubt you heard the ridiculous and effective GOP talking point about $50 million sent to Hamas for condoms.  Nearly every lie has an expiration date, however, and this one transitioned nicely from one terrorist group to another. Thus, while questioned on Thursday by CNN's Rick Sanchez about the Agency for International Development, Republican US Representative Buddy Sanchez of Georgia stated

.... I mean, $15 million for condoms for the Taliban,” Carter declared.“Sir! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! $15 million for condoms for the Taliban?” Sanchez fired back.

“That’s what we’re hearing! That’s what they discovered,” the congressman maintained.

“Are you conflating things? Are you talking about the $50 million that was supposedly meant for condoms in Gaza? Are you conflating those two things, sir?” Sanchez retorted, offering Carter an opportunity to back away from his claim.

Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted in her debut press briefing that DOGE had “found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza.”

Trump would later repeat this claim during the Laken Riley Act signing ceremony, saying his administration had “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.” Later on, he would double this total to $100 million.

Confronted by seemingly unhinged but actually willful and calculated disinformation, Democrats have largely responded as Democrats do. Institutionalists to the end, legislators have introduced several bills.  As noted in Salon, they include the Nobody Elected Elon Musk Act;  the Taxpayer Data Protection Act; and the Eliminate Looting of Our National Security Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK} Act. 

All three target Elon Musk, and none will be passed in a GOP-controlled Congress in thrall with Donald Trump and with President Musk. Obviously, the primary sponsors (respectively, New Mexico's Melanie Stansbury and Maryland's Jamie Raskin; California's Nancy Pelosi; Wisconsin's Mark Pocan), all U.S. Representatives, understand that.

As the cliche goes, it's all good- but inadequate to the task of alerting the public of the danger of an unelected chief executive. The nearly incomparable blogger Steve M. believes individuals should place the TIME magazine cover (below) into an envelope and mail it either to "President Donald J. Trump, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500" or to "President Elon Musk, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500."

Even better: "I'd give a sizable contribution to anyone willing to erect billboards in all fifty states that say ELON MUSK IS PRESIDENT. That would piss Trump off."

Oh, it would. Donald Trump hates sharing the spotlight with anyone. And it would undermine his image of being the strongman, the guy in charge, the macho, macho man, another hit by Trump's new fave.

It also would undercut the very basis of Donald Trump's popularity. In a post in which he cites a poll indicating that the President is more popular than are his policies, S.M. notes

.... there's a lesson here for Democrats who think they can watch all the madness and just shout, "What about egg prices?" Trump isn't addressing voters' #1 issue in the 2024 election, and the respondents in this poll know that -- and yet his job approval is positive. That tells me that voters are pleased to have a president who's taking some kind of decisive action and making sure we know he's taking decisive action -- unlike Joe Biden.

President Bill Clinton once said that in appealing to the public which feels insecure, "strong and wrong beats weak and right." Democrats may not be able to convince the public that they're wrong. But they must begin the task of convincing Americans that the actor playing the tough guy in Washington is the weakling who has turned much of his presidency over to an unelected multi-billionaire.

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Owned

This is so funny- and so apt- Senator Amy Klobuchar must have heard this somewhere before.

 

Technically, Donald Trump is not for sale, though only because he is owned by President Musk. Yet to be fair, before Musk, another plutocrat owned a little piece of Mr. Trump. You may have heard of  Jeff Yass

Cofounder of investment company and trading firm Susquehanna International Group, Yass has an estimated net worth just shy of $50 billion. Much of the Pennsylvania-based billionaire’s wealth is tied up in no other than TikTok, as Forbes reports that Susquehanna’s most valuable holding is ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. Susquehanna holds a 15% stake in ByteDance, a source “familiar with the investment,” told the New York Times. And Yass himself owns 7%....

Yass started funneling money into the 2024 election early; at one point in March he was the biggest donor to outside spending groups. He, alongside wife Janine Yass, were No. 6 in top contributors to the election, contributing in total more than $96 million to Republican causes, per nonprofit tracker of campaign lobbying Open Secrets.

The mega-donor might be somewhat connected to Trump's invitation to conservative PAC Club for Growth’s retreat in Breakers this past year, Bloomberg suggests in a recent article. In 2023, Trump wasn’t invited to said event. Yass, who has donated more than $60 million to Club for Growth since 2016, found an ally in Trump.

Not long after the event in Breakers, Trump publicly changed his stance on TikTok, Bloomberg notes. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”

Under terms of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Act passed by Congress (and later upheld by the Supreme Court), TikTok was to have been banned in the USA as of January 19 unless sold to a US buyer(s). No deal was made and on January 21, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Attorney General not to enforce the law for 75 days while an American buyer might be found. 

So as of now, American youth and juveniles at heart still are enjoying the application owned by a Chinese company, which exists at the pleasure of the Chinese government and turns over to it any and all information "requested." That pleases President Trump, and not only because he's aware of the tens of millions of Americans, a few of whom even vote, who regularly use the app. It's also because of Jeff Yass, the Club for Greed, and Elon Musk, prompting the sober observation of Amy Klobuchar and others that this President is always up for sale to the highest bidder.

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Not Your Usual Gesture

"To be or not to be, that is the question" stated Hamlet in Hamlet. So was it or wasn't it?  The Economic Times explains

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, found himself at the centre of a storm of controversy after a gesture he made during a speech at a Donald Trump rally in Washington, DC. The tech mogul raised his right arm in a way that many onlookers quickly likened to the infamous Nazi salute, leading to widespread outrage online. This incident has ignited a debate over whether Musk intentionally mimicked a symbol linked to Adolf Hitler’s regime.

The controversy unfolded during celebrations for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. Musk, a vocal supporter of Trump and one of his notable donors, addressed the crowd. "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured," Musk said, expressing his gratitude to the supporters.

In the midst of his speech, Musk struck a hand gesture, raising his right arm at a diagonal angle with his fingers extended and palm facing down. The gesture was repeated twice, once with his arm raised high and later at a slightly lower angle, after he thumped his chest. The gesture quickly gained attention, with social media users comparing it to the Nazi salute, a symbol infamous for its association with fascism and Adolf Hitler.

The reaction to Musk’s gesture has been sharply divided. Some historians and commentators have directly linked the gesture to the Nazi salute. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian of fascism at New York University, stated on social media, “It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.” Similarly, historian Claire Aubin described it as a "Sieg Heil" salute, referring to the notorious Nazi greeting.

Ben Samuels, a journalist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, also wrote that Musk’s gesture "appeared to conclude his remarks with a Roman salute, fascist salute most commonly associated with Nazi Germany," further strengthening the claim that it mirrored Nazi imagery.

However, not all experts agreed. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a New York-based organisation combating antisemitism, suggested that Musk’s actions were unintentional, calling it an “awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute”. The ADL encouraged people to offer one another grace and avoid jumping to conclusions.

This is a delicate moment. It’s a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed, and social media only adds to the anxiety.

It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on…

— ADL (@ADL) January 20, 2025

The Anti Defamation League is confused  It argues that Musk merely "made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute." However, it then states that everyone "should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps the benefit of the doubt." Grace, as any credible theologian understands, is "unmerited favor," which is unnecessary if someone has not done wrong. However, the ADL contends Musk's alute was merely an "awkward gesture," which would make the gift of grace unnecessary.

Not so confused was this witty guy (or gal):

If only Elon had some sort of platform available to him where he could reach us to clarify his intentions

— Protest Radio (@ProtestRadio) January 21, 2025

It turns out that Musk did have something to say about the controversy, at 9:57 p.m. on Monday evening, when he tweeted "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired." That clarified..... exactly nothing.

Musk did not deny the charge, arguing only that the criticism is "tired." Thus, we can go to the record, and not only in the USA- in which Musk spent $250 milion to get Trump elected-  but in western Europe. There

In Britain, Mr. Musk revived a decade-old “grooming gangs” scandal that unfolded while Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose center-left Labour Party is in power, was head of public prosecutions.

Fanning the flames that were kindled by right-wing media outlets, Mr. Musk has called Mr. Starmer “utterly despicable” and says he should be “in prison.” Last week he asked his 212 million followers to vote on whether “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”

According to British media reports, Mr. Musk is also considering a $100 million donation to Britain’s far-right Reform Party, which would be the country’s largest political donation ever. The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, one of the chief campaigners for Brexit, has met Trump several times, most recently at Mar-a-Lago last month….

In Germany, which is holding snap federal elections next month, Mr. Musk is encouraging voters to vote for the far-right AfD, offering it the legitimacy that has long been denied to a party under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence service for its links to neo-Nazis.

In an opinion piece for a major German newspaper published Dec. 28, he called the AfD the last “spark of hope” for Germany. The country, he said, is “teetering on the brink of economic and cultural collapse.”…

Since Mr. Musk first endorsed the AfD in December, Ms. Weidel’s posts on X have routinely gone viral, in part because he reposts them, along with numerous neo-Nazi accounts that have been reinstated and amplified. Researchers watching the online scene say far-right German influencers now post on X in English to get Mr. Musk’s attention.

If Musk were nearly anyone else, he'd deny that the salute- uh, er, "gesture"- was not a Nazi salute. But he has not. He has not done so because, whatever was intended, he wants the public to view it as a signal of approval for the new Administration and its anti-democratic policies and procedures. Elon Musk may not be a Nazi or even a fascist but he wants us to know that we better be very, very careful about what we say, write, or do.

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Row Over Imported Labor

                         

Vivek Ramaswamy went and did it. Boy, did he ever:

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

Reading from the same hymnal

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), vowed to go to "war" to defend the H-1B visa program for foreign tech workers late on Friday amid a dispute between President-elect Donald Trump's longtime supporters and his most recently acquired backers from the tech industry.

In a post on social media platform X, Musk said "The reason I'm in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B."

"I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend," he added.

Of course Musk will. He didn't get to become the President-in-waiting by being accomodating and

Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

For Musk, this is personal- personal power and finances. He has no particular affection for foreign-born individuals nor a heartfelt belief in a melting pot or the American mosaic. Thirteen months ago, Musk "tweeted his fervent agreement with an antisemitic tweet" when a tweet posted on X 

read: “Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”

The billionaire owner and CTO of X, formerly Twitter, responded the same evening: “You have said the actual truth.” In another reply, he wrote: “I am deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind.” Musk has feuded with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) before, threatening to sue over its accounting of hate speech on his social media network....

Musk’s racial politics have been trending in this direction for months. In October, he wrote in response to a tweet mourning the melting down of a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee: “They absolutely want your extinction.” Replying to a tweet from @libsoftiktok, who he restored to X, which read: “Racism against white people is the only kind of discrimination that’s allowed,” Musk wrote last week: “It’s messed up and needs to stop.”

Defending himself from being criticized for his antagonism toward American workers, Musk tweeted in part (emphasis his)

OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process.

HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.

Shorter Musk: "Immigrants are superior to American workers and we should make it easier to hire them, especially when I do."

But Ramaswamy, reading from the same hmymnal but singing a different hymn, took this in a somewhat different direction, decrying a culture he believes promotes mediocrity over excellence, the "prom queen over the math olympiad champ or the jock over the valedictorian."

He's wrong for attacking "normalcy," especially in a culture beset by increasing rates of suicide.However, he's right about the prom queen/math olympiad champ and the jock/valedictorian 

Ramaswamy is a little skeezy himself, obviously, and his tweet was all over the place, not unlike this post. Musk, though, is focused: focused on his own financial interests and has earned the condemnation of individuals who have learned, less than a month before he- uh, er, Donald Trump- is inaugurated.

And in news from West Palm Beach, Florida, Donald Trump now has sided with Elon Musk over the ex-President's base, which had thought that Trump was with them on immigration. Siding with Musk is not surprising, however; Donald Trump has no incentive to offend the incoming President.

   

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He Didn't Build It Alone

Dude, that is the game. Podcaster and former actor Joe Rogan remarks

It's much more that he's a guy that is not going to play the game. Yeah. And that when he gets in there, he's going to, like one of the things he's talked about is having Elon come in and do some sort of a government efficiency agency. They're terrified of that because it's not efficient, you know, and he's going to come in with that Tesla mind set. It's like "you're working sixteen hours a day and you're sleeping on the fucking couch. We're here to get some shit done."

NEW: @joerogan says the establishment is "terrified" of @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk's plan for a government efficiency agency.

"That's why I think they're really terrified about Trump. He's not going to play the game."

"He's talked about having Elon come in to do a… pic.twitter.com/LXOHfGWCDJ

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 27, 2024

As long ago as 2015, we learned that great, Musk-driven, government-averse, private company Tesla Motors Inc. and

SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The (Los Angeles) Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups.

“He definitely goes where there is government money,” said Dan Dolev, an analyst at Jefferies Equity Research. “That’s a great strategy, but the government will cut you off one day.”

The figure compiled by The Times comprises a variety of government incentives, including grants, tax breaks, factory construction, discounted loans and environmental credits that Tesla can sell. It also includes tax credits and rebates to buyers of solar panels and electric cars.

Moreover

Tesla, since its founding over two decades ago, has benefitted from government assistance, largely because of its role in moving the U.S. toward cleaner cars. Tesla’s first major manufacturing facility, in Fremont, California, was developed with the help of a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, repaid three years later.

More recently, Tesla has reaped almost $9 billion since 2018 by selling what are known as “regulatory credits, opens new tab,” securities filings show. The credits, awarded in the U.S. by the federal and state governments to manufacturers who surpass increasingly strict emissions rules, can be sold to other carmakers who are unable to comply.

There was no Tesla without California’s regulatory bodies,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said at a 2022 conference, citing the importance of the state’s credits to the carmaker’s finances.

That "role in moving the U.S. toward cleaner cars" are tax subsidies to purchasers of electric vehicles. Good- barely- neoliberal strategy for reducing fossil fuel use but excellent for Musk's motor vehicle company.

Donald Trump is proposing

 a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government (and) claimed that in 2022 "fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars.” He said the commission would recommend “drastic reforms” and develop a plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months, which he said would save trillions of dollars.

It would be led by Elon Musk despite- no, because- he is one of America's biggest welfare queens and avatar of crony capitalism. 

Nonetheless, as a "populist" such as Joe Rogan will explain, the problem with American business and government is that workers don't toil 16 hours a day as he argues they do at Tesla. So much for the Fair Labor Standards Act and that dreaded eight-hour workday. That is not Trump "not going to play the game". It is the game- a government of, by, and for Elon Musk and his fellow oligarchs.

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