Musk Conducts a Poll on Whether to Rehire Staffer Who Made Racist Tweets

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2025 //
39

You may recall that the Wall Street Journal published an article about Marlo Elez, the 25-year-old whiz kid who made racist tweets, deleted them, then resigned after they went public. Elez is or was the senior member of the DOGE team that has been scooping up government records.

Musk conducted a poll on Twitter, asking whether the mildest member of his DOGE team should be rehired.

The original article is updated in the link.

The WSJ reported:

On Friday morning, Musk posted a poll to X, asking his followers if DOGE should rehire the “staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym.” Within hours, it had amassed more than 200,000 votes, almost 80% in favor of bringing Elez back.

Musk is likely to rehire Marko.

Some of Marlo’s tweets were extremely prejudicial towards Indians, because they get great jobs in Silicon Valley.

I wonder what JD Vance’s wife thinks of Elez. She is of Indian heritage. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, like Vance. I wonder if she likes the racist crowd he runs with.

Categories Bigotry, Character, Musk, Elon, Racism, Vance, J.D.

California: Trump’s Water Release Didn’t Help Los Angeles or Farmers: A Stunt

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2025 //
19

The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump used the devastating Los Angeles fires to stage a pointless stunt: He sent the Army Corps of Engineers to release water from two Northern California reservoirs. He claimed that he released the water to help put the fires out, but by the time he did it, the fires were almost completely extinguished, and it would not have flowed to Los Angeles anyway.

Now the farmers who rely on the water in the reservoirs are worried if they will have enough water this summer.

Days after President Trump startled some of his most ardent supporters in California’s San Joaquin Valley by having the Army Corps of Engineers suddenly release water from two dams, many in the region and beyond were still perplexed.

Acting on an order from Washington, the corps allowed irrigation water to flow down river channels for three days, into the network of engineered waterways that fan out among farm fields in the San Joaquin Valley. Coursing from rivers to canals to irrigation ditches, much of the water eventually made its way to retention basins, where it soaked into the ground, replenishing groundwater.

“It’s been recharged to the ground,” said Tom Barcellos, president of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District and a dairyman and farmer. That sounds good, except farmers in parts of the San Joaquin Valley typically depend on water from the two dams to irrigate crops in the summer. In other words, the release of water this time of year, when agriculture usually doesn’t require it, means that growers are likely to have less water stored in the reservoirs this summer, during a year that so far is among the area’s driest on record….

The sudden, unplanned release of water from the dams has led to criticism from some residents, water managers and members of Congress, who say the unusual discharge of water seems to have been intended to make a political statement — to demonstrate that Trump has the authority to order federal dams or pumps to send more water flowing as he directs.

“These kinds of shenanigans, they hurt smaller farmers,” said Dezaraye Bagalayos, a local water activist. Small growers have already been struggling, and the release of water from the dams means they will have less when they need it, Bagalayos said.

“The last thing in the world California water management needs is somebody like Trump calling shots when he doesn’t know how anything works,” Bagalayos said. “It’s making an already hard situation very, very difficult. We don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the state of California to be messing around with our water supply like this….”

The action occurred after Trump’s visit to fire-devastated Los Angeles, when he pledged to “open up the valves” to bring the region more water — even though reservoirs that supply Southern California’s cities were at record levels (and remain so).

As the water poured from the dams, Trumpposted a photo of one of them, saying it was “beautiful water flow that I just opened in California.” The Army Corps of Engineers said the action was “consistent with the direction” in Trump’s recent executive order, which calls for maximizing water deliveries.

Neither Trump nor the Army Corps of Engineers provided details about where the water was intended to go. But water released from the two dams serves agriculture in the eastern San Joaquin Valley. It typically does not reach the Los Angeles area, which depends instead on supplies delivered from the aqueducts of the State Water Project on the other side of the valley.

The water releases lowered the levels of the two reservoirs: Lake Success, near Porterville, had been about 20% full. It fell to 18%. Lake Kaweah, near Visalia, was roughly 21% full and similarly dropped to 19% of capacity over the weekend.

Federal records show that more than 2 billion gallons were released from the reservoirs over three days.

If anyone knows of a cure for “stupid,” please contact the White House.

Categories Accountability, California, Disruption, Environment, Ignorance, Los Angeles, Stupid, Trump

Alaska: Ignore the Lies and Boasts: Charter Schools Are No Better Than Public Schools

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2025 //
5

The Walton Family Foundation, which is the second largest funder of privately-run charter schools (first is the U.S. Department of Education, which dispenses $400 million a year to charters), wanted to create positive press about charter schools in Alaska. So they commissioned a study by two charter advocates, who produced the positive results Walton wanted.

Beth Zirbes teaches math and statistics in a high school in Fairbanks, Alaska. With her friend Mike Bronson, she reviewed the data in the state records and reached a different conclusion: charter schools are no better than neighborhood public schools, even though the charter students are more advantaged. Their article, with a link to their study, was published by the Anchorage Daily News.

What’s impressive about this study is that a high school math teacher bested a Harvard professor of political science. It just goes to show: Don’t be overly impressed by the author’s academic credentials. And, never believe any charter or voucher research funded by foundations that fund charters and vouchers.

Would you believe a study claiming that cigarettes do not cause cancer if the study was funded by Philip Morris or some other tobacco vendor?

Zirbes and Bronson wrote:

The governor has claimed in several newspaper pieces that Alaska charter schools are more effective than neighborhood schools, and that the charters should be modeled more widely. He’d seen reports by Paul E. Peterson and M. Danish Shakeel, sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation, showing that Alaska charter schools held top rank academically among other states on a federal test.

We value the good performance of many charter school students, but we were skeptical that charter schools were necessarily more effective at lifting students up. So we looked at state data to find out how much of the charter schools’ better scores might be attributed to the schools themselves versus what the students bring to the schools. Read our full report here.

The state’s data showed the governor’s takeaway was incorrect. He was wrong that Peterson’s study showed the superior effectiveness of Alaskan charter schools over neighborhood schools. First, Peterson’s study did not even look at neighborhood schools. Second, after we accounted for numbers of students poor enough to be eligible for reduced-price or free lunches, we found that charter schools and neighborhood schools did not statistically differ in their English language proficiency scores. Instead, the percentage of proficient students in both charter and neighborhood schools was closely related to family income.

Alaska charter schools, on average, are distinguished by high proportions of white students, higher family income and fewer English language learners. Alaska charter school student bodies, in general, don’t even resemble Lower 48 charter schools, let alone Alaskan neighborhood schools. Unfortunately, Alaskan charter students do resemble other Alaskan public schools in that a majority of them score below the state standards in reading and math.

The graph shows a decline in percentages of third to ninth-grade participating students who scored proficient or better on the state’s 2019 PEAKS assessment of English language arts with increasing school percentages of students poor enough to be eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch, in other words economically disadvantaged. Each point shows a public school in Alaska school districts having charter schools. Neighborhood schools are considered non-charter, brick-and-mortar schools including alternative and lottery schools managed by a school district. Data are from the Department of Education and Early Development.

Categories Alaska, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Disruption, Education Industry, Propaganda, Research, Walton Foundation

Texas: Public Schools Are Imposing Austerity Measures While State Holds Huge Surplus

By dianeravitch
February 7, 2025 //
14

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is holding hostage the more than five million students in public schools while he demands vouchers for kids who are already enrolled in private and religious schools. Abbott has refused to increase funding for the state’s public schools unless the legislature approves vouchers, most of which will subsidize the affluent.

Last year, the legislature refused to approve vouchers. Since then, Abbott engineered the defeat of several anti-voucher Republicans. He’s hoping to win approval in the current session. Vouchers will pass easily in the state senate. We will see what happens in the House, where rural Republicans stood against vouchers in the past, before Abbott’s purge.

Abbott is playing Reverse Robin Hood. He is stealing from the poor to pay for the rich. Billionaires like Jeff Yass, the richest man jnnOennstlvsnia, and Betsy DeVos of Michigan, are funding his intransigence with millions in campaign contributions.

The Texas Monthly reports that school superintendents are increasing class sizes, laying off teachers, eliminating electives, and doing whatever they can to keep their doors open.

The article says:

Two years ago, during the 2023 legislative session, superintendents of Texas schools were optimistic that state lawmakers would boost public-education funding. After all, soaring inflation was straining the already meager finances of districts across the state, and lawmakers had at their disposal a $32.7 billion budget surplus. Spending some of that money on the urgent educational needs of the state’s children might have seemed like an uncontroversial proposal. 

Instead, the unthinkable happened: Legislators left Austin without putting any significant new money into schools or giving teachers a raise. The consequences have been dire.

Texas’s public schools were already among the most poorly resourced in the country: Our per-student funding is about 27 percent less than the national average. The basic allotment—the minimum amount of funding per student that school districts receive from the state—has been stuck at $6,160 since 2019. That would need to be upped by about $1,400 just to keep pace with rising costs. Public education advocates worry that lawmakers will provide only face-saving increases to the basic allotment in 2025 while diverting billions to private schools.

Many school leaders have had to undertake draconian austerity measures. Nearly 80 percent of districts have reported challenges with budget deficits. Given the stakes, 2025 could be a pivotal year for Texas’s public-education system….

Texas Monthly spoke to a group of superintendents to ask about how they were coping. They all spoke about the budget cuts and unfunded mandates (like requiring the hiring of police officers without providing funding). One superintendent, Jennifer Blaine of Spring Branch, said:

JB, Spring Branch: We don’t have anywhere else to cut. We are cut to the bone. I consolidated everything I could, and I cut everything that I could. If we have to cut further, you’re talking about severely impacting academics in the classroom and, quite frankly, safety and security. Five and a half million kids are in Texas public schools, and I don’t understand how our legislators and our governor don’t see this as a crisis. If we don’t educate these kids to the highest levels and prepare them for postsecondary success, we’re going to crumble as a state. I don’t know where the disconnect is. Education is the great equalizer. But nobody is talking about that, and I think it’s a missed opportunity because this is not going to end well. 

The title of the article in the print edition was  “A Legislature That Will Spend at Least as Much Per Pupil as Louisiana.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Budget Cuts, Corruption, Cruelty, Education Industry, Ethics, Evil, Funding, Religion, Separation of church and state, Texas, Vouchers

WSJ: Member of Elon Musk’s Elite Team Resigns After Racist Tweets Discovered

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2025 //
22

Katherine Long reported in the Wall Street Journal today that a member of Elon Musk’s elite tech squad resigned after some of his deleted tweets surfaced. The tweets portrayed their author as an enthusiast for racism and eugenics.

The 25-year-old employee, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.

The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated.  

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.

Elez is a graduate of Rutgers, where he majored in computer science. After college, he worked for Musk at Space X, Starlink, and X.

Musk personally urged people to apply to DOGE on X in December, promising long hours and little pay in exchange for the chance to fundamentally remake the federal government. Some of those who answered the call appear to be young Musk loyalists, steeped in internet culture, who share his worldview.

The account, @nullllptr—a misspelling of a keyword in the C++ programming language—was deleted in December, but hundreds of brash, sometimes-sophomoric posts have been archived.  

The user appeared to have a special dislike for Indian software engineers. “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys,” the user posted in December. 

“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” @nullllptr posted in July. 

In June, the user weighed in on the conflict in the Middle East, offering some sympathy for Israel but also posting, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”

We keep hearing how brilliant Musk’s team is, but this guy doesn’t sound brilliant. He sounds like a jerk.

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Ethics, Extremism, Musk, Elon, Racism

Oliver Darcy: The Media Are Failing to Describe the Danger of the Moment

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2025 //
36

Oliver Darcy writes a blog about the media called “Status.News.” Previously he was the senior media reporter for CNN. In this post, he criticizes the major media for its shallow coverage of the crisis in DC. It is what he calls the Trumpocalypse, and it’s happening now. Trump’s shredding of the Constitution, his attempts to nullify laws, is not just one story among many. It’s a direct assault on the rule of law. This is not a “both-sides” moment.

Darcy writes:

It’s happening. 

After years of warnings about what Donald Trump would do if he returned to power, the president is dismantling institutions, warping law enforcement agencies, seeking retribution on his critics, treating undocumented immigrants with cruelty, imposing and threatening seismic tariffs, and openly musing about seizing foreign territories. The American experiment is convulsing before our eyes. 

And yet, you wouldn’t quite realize it from the tone of the news coverage. 

To be clear, reporters on the battlefield are doing what they can as they are besieged with the chaos that is defining Trump’s second term, all while grappling with layoffs and cuts rippling through the media industry. You can find well-reported articles across the news landscape, in addition to pieces fact-checking Trump and his administration. All of that is just a Google search away. 

The news generals back in the command center, however, are largely abdicating their duties. It’s not that their outlets are not covering Trump’s second term — it’s that leadership is failing to give the orders that would present the reporting about the extreme actions emanating out of Washington as an outright emergency that will have far-reaching consequences on American life and democracy. 

Most news bosses aren’t demanding screaming headlines in monster-sized font. They aren’t expanding the evening news beyond the allotted 30 minutes. And they are allowing television shows to remain married to irresponsible “both sides” oriented panels, as if one of those sides isn’t upending the rule of law, shattering longstanding norms, and threatening the country’s bedrock principles. 

Abnormal news is being plugged into a system aimed at delivering normal headlines. Take CNN, for example. The red tab on its chyrons has merely stated “FIRST 100 DAYS,” framing the onslaught of drastic action gushing out of the White House as part of the early period of a normal presidency. Wouldn’t “AMERICA IN CRISIS” be more apt, given the very stories the network itself is reporting on? 

Consider just some of those stories: 

■ Trump said that the U.S. will take control of and “level” the Gaza Strip, a move that would displace millions of Palestinians so that their place of home can be transformed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

■ Trump has openly pressured Canada to surrender its territory to the U.S. and become the 51st state. Meanwhile, he has signaled his desire for land grabs in Greenland and at the Panama Canal.

■ Trump has granted Elon Musk far-reaching powers to reshape the federal government, including allowing his “DOGE” team unprecedented access into the U.S. Treasury system. Musk’s team has gleefully shut down USAID, smearing the agency in the process. It seems the Department of Eduction is next on the list.

■ Trump pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists, including those who assaulted police officers. Then his Department of Justice fired prosecutorswho worked on the cases. Now his administration is probing the thousands of FBI agents who participated in the investigations.

■ Trump’s CIA offered buyouts to the entire agency as his hand-picked director reshapes the intelligence gathering agency in his image.

■ Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr reinstated complaints against CBS, NBC, and ABC over absurd claims of biased coverage. Carr has also launched alarming probes into NPR, PBS, and the Soros-backed Audacy. Meanwhile, he has let right-wing mogul Rupert Murdoch skate.

■ Trump implemented sweeping tariffs on China. After a war of words with border countries that have long been considered allies, Trump paused his threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days.

■ Trump started sending undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay as he uses military planes to repatriate others, with reports that migrants have been mistreated in the process. He additionally sought to do away with birthright citizenship.

■ Trump stripped former government servants of their security details as apparent retribution for them criticizing him. Meanwhile, his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, removed all portraits of retired Gen. Mark Milley from the Pentagon and started a process aimed at stripping him of a star.

Each of those stories would typically warrant special coverage. Yet, despite the sheer volume of action Trump is taking, news leaders are largely refusing to adapt. Instead of recognizing this as a moment that demands a different approach, they are sticking to the usual framework of delivering the news. There are some exceptions, of course. But, broadly speaking, the response has been underwhelming. 

Imagine if mainstream news organizations covered a looming natural disaster in the way it has covered Trump. A category five hurricane barrels toward the Florida coast, but instead of wall-to-wall coverage warning people to seek shelter and evacuate, the local news stuck to its regular newscasts as if it were just going to rain a little more than usual. Instead of shocking the citizenry into paying attention, news executives simply printed headlines that read, “Strong winds and rain expected.” Meanwhile, during the television coverage, the same outlets allowed known disinformation artists to hijack panels with absurd claims, misleading the public into believing everything was being overblown by an overzealous press corps. 

That would obviously be deeply irresponsible, but that is precisely what most of the news media is doing now. Trump, along with allies such as Musk, are openly dismantling the U.S. government and threatening the global order. And yet, the major media outlets are largely suck in the same journalistic rhythms as before. Political journalists write up stories and news anchors read alarming words from teleprompters, but the institutions as a whole are failing to sound an audible alarm that arrests the public’s attention. 

None of what is transpiring out of Washington is business as usual, a fact that has rendered the normal formats as simply insufficient. News organizations need to rethink how they are approaching this story — not necessarily in the reporting, but in the presentation, the urgency, and the broader storytelling. It’s time to break out those six-column front page headlines and interrupt regular programming with special broadcast news reports! Throw out the regular schedule and deploy Anderson Cooper to anchor special dayside coverage! This doesn’t require that much creativity. But the stakes should be made unmistakably clear. The American public should feel that something profoundly different and unsettling is unfolding. This is no ordinary first 100 days. 

The news media has shown it is fully capable of delivering this type of coverage during other events. Think about how it covers natural disasters and terror attacks. Think about how it covered the Covid-19 pandemic, with unflinching ‘round the clock special coverage. There are some moments so immense, the press takes extra steps to signal the gravity of it all to the public. We are living through such a moment. 

Media executives need not fret about being the boy who cried wolf. The wolf is now in the barn and mauling the livestock. The task at hand is no longer about warning the public about what could happen. It is about telling them what is happening. Trump is ruling exactly how he promised. It’s time for the media bosses to respond accordingly. 

Categories Corruption, Democracy, Disruption, Extremism, Trump

Today is the Last Day for Federal Employees to Accept Musk’s “Buyout” Offer

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2025 //
7

As part of the radical overhaul of the federal government, some 2 million employees were asked to resign and accept a leave with pay if they did. But there is no money appropriated to pay for the offer, and there are multiple lawsuits opposing it. Nor was there any consideration of the value of the employee’s work.

When Elon Musk took charge of Twitter, he made a similar offer and fired 80% of the workforce. He got rid of content moderation teams and opened the platform to Nazis and misinformation. The downside was that he lost every major advertiser, and he’s now suing them for conspiring to hurt Twitter.

The New York Times reported on the final day of the offer:

Some federal employees have a new symbol for their resistance to President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s radical overhaul of the U.S. government: a spoon.

Last week, in an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the administration urged federal workers to consider resigning from their posts and said they would be paid through September — a bid to rapidly shrink the size of the work force.

Union leaders have urged employees not to accept the offer, questioning its legality and legitimacy. And on Wednesday, workers at the Technology Transformation Services, the tech-focused arm of the General Services Administration, made their displeasure with the offer known during an organization-wide meeting with their new leader, a former employee at Mr. Musk’s automaker Tesla, by sharing spoon emojis in an online chat, according to people familiar with the response.

In the meeting, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who was appointed to lead technology efforts at the G.S.A., attempted to assuage worries about the deferred resignation plan and told workers to “read as much as you can” about the offer, according to an audio recording provided to The New York Times. He also urged federal workers to review information posted on the website of the Office of Personnel Management.

“Have that context in mind as you think through the decision you have to make in the next 24 to 30 hours,” Mr. Shedd added. “The deferred resignation is the first step in streamlining the federal work force. In-person work will be the next step.”

His assurances did not appear to work. Employees in the tech division rained down spoon emojis in the chat that accompanied the video meeting, which was watched by more than 600 people, according to photos of the chat screen provided to The Times and three people familiar with the reaction. Some employees also added spoon emojis to their statuses on Slack, a workplace communication app.

“Thomas: Whether you mean to or not, you’re playing a role in destroying TTS,” one worker wrote in the chat.

“The culture is the people,” another employee wrote. “Without the people, TTS is NOTHING.”

After Mr. Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022, he sent an email with the same subject line — “Fork in the Road” — to the company’s employees, offering them a buyout to leave the company if they didn’t want to participate in his “extremely hardcore” vision.

During the Twitter takeover, employees used the salute emoji as a sign of solidarity with their co-workers and as a goodbye during mass layoffs.

After renaming the social media service as X, Mr. Musk has pushed for severe cuts to the federal government. He shared a post that estimated 5 to 10 percent of the federal work force would take the deferred resignation offer, potentially saving the government $100 billion.

The last date to accept the offer is Feb. 6, according to the email to government workers.

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Disruption, Ethics, Extremism, Funding, Ignorance, Musk, Elon, Propaganda, Trump

Trump’s Plan to Redevelop Gaza Reflects His History in Real Estate

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2025 //
9

Trump shocked almost everyone when he said in a press conference, alongside Israeli Prime minister Netanyahu, that he wanted to take control of Gaza, move out the Gazan population, clear the rubble, and turn the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

In response to worldwide condemnation, his aides tried to “walk back” what he said, but he said out loud what he believes. He is dangerous at all times, because no one knows for sure what he will say or do. His press secretary said that the U.S. would not pay for what Trump wants to do, nor would it send troops. In that case, Trump’s bold statement was a nothing burger. But anyone who saw the news conference heard what he said. Since he lies the way other people breathe, everyone is left to believe whatever they want.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had been thinking about this idea for a while and discussing it with aides. Some analysts thought his proposal was a negotiating ploy, meant for shock value. Others think he’s serious.

WASHINGTON—President Trump campaigned on shrinking America’s role abroad. But since taking office, he has articulated a worldview that is at times closer to expansionism than isolationism.

Trump generated global shock waves Tuesday when he said the U.S. should take long-term control of Gaza, suggesting that Palestinians should be relocated while the enclave is rebuilt into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media that Trump would “Make Gaza Beautiful Again.”

Taking control of the hotly contested territory would put the U.S. at the center of the world’s most complicated diplomatic and national-security conflicts, raising the prospect that Trump is signing the country up for exactly the kind of foreign entanglement he told voters he would avoid. Trump didn’t rule out sending American troops to Gaza to accomplish his goals.

“The old Republican Party of RINOs, neocons and globalists is gone. And it is never coming back,” Trump said at a 2023 GOP dinner in Florida. As he prepared to take office, Trump made clear that he wouldn’t hire national security officials that he deemed to be too closely associated with traditional neoconservative values. 

Tuesday’s announcement marked a striking shift for Trump, who described the Middle East as “blood and sand” in his first term, according to a longtime adviser. Trump is now proposing to rebuild Gaza, which his own aides say could take 10 to 15 years.

Two Trump administration officials said the idea of the Gaza takeover was formed recently, with the president running it by aides and allies in recent days. The proposal was closely held, other administration officials who work on Middle East issues said. Officials outside of Trump’s inner circle weren’t aware the idea was on the table during days of planning for the meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump’s proposal stunned even some of his most ardent and influential supporters in the Jewish community. A longtime pro-Israel Trump fundraiser who has raised money for the president for years called the idea “insane” and questioned how it could be executed, noting this type of policy would likely take well over a year to complete with too many unknown variables for it to be done smoothly.

Netanyahu said during the press conference that one of his key goals was to ensure Gaza wouldn’t host terrorists again. Trump, he continued, took that concept “to a much higher level.”

“It is something that could change history, and it is worthwhile really pursuing this avenue….”

Trump’s Gaza proposal also shows that the president is leaning on his long history as a businessman and real-estate developer, viewing the world as a canvas in which to expand America’s influence—and cement his legacy…

Glimmers of Trump’s thinking on Gaza have surfaced in public and in private.

“You know, Gaza’s interesting, it’s a phenomenal location, on the sea, the best weather. Everything’s good. Some beautiful things could be done with it,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 20, after being sworn in. A reporter asked if he would help with rebuilding. “I might,” Trump said….

In late summer, Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call that the Gaza Strip was a prime piece of real estate and asked him to think about what kinds of hotels could be built there, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation. But he didn’t mention the U.S. taking it over. He also told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this fall that Ukraine would be a good spot for real-estate development, particularly mentioning the city of Odesa, a person present during the discussion said….

Trump made a similar case to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term, hoping the allure of hotels and development along the country’s coastlines would encourage Kim to dismantle his nuclear arsenal.

Categories Disruption, Ethics, Extremism, International, Stupid, Trump

Musk Team Was Not Honest About Their Goal, Wanted to Cut Off Foreign Aid

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2025 //
23

The New York Times reported that the Musk team was not transparent about its intrusion into the Treasury payment system. It said that it was just “reviewing,” but its real goal was to close down payments for foreign aid. You know, the money that sends American grain to starving people and that supplies medicine and care to desperate people in places like Africa and India.

Forgive the circumlocutions, but I keep looking for polite ways to say they lied. They weren’t there to do a quick Look-see. There were there to stop payments to USAID. They believed that Trump’s executive order overrode the laws. If that were the case, then the U.S. would truly be a dictstorship, where Trump held total power.

For some reason, Trump and Musk hate helping impoverished people, especially if they are not white.

In the days after President Trump took office, as Elon Musk’s team began pressing for access to the Treasury Department’s payments system, officials repeatedly said that their goal was to undertake a general review of the system. They said they would observe, but not stop money from going out the door.

But emails reviewed by The New York Times show that the Treasury’s chief of staff originally pushed for Tom Krause, a software executive affiliated with Mr. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, to receive access to the closely held payment system so that the Treasury could freeze U.S. Agency for International Development payments.

In a Jan. 24 email to a small group of Treasury officials, the chief of staff, Dan Katz, wrote that Mr. Krause and his team needed access to the system so they could pause U.S.A.I.D. payments and comply with Mr. Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order to halt foreign aid.

“To the extent permitted by law, we would like to implement the pause as soon as possible in order to ensure that we are doing our role to comply with the EO,” Mr. Katz wrote.

The emails viewed by The Times undercut the Treasury’s explanation for why Mr. Krause and his team were given access to the payment system last week. That system disburses more than $5 trillion in funding on behalf of much of the federal government.

The department, now led by Secretary Scott Bessent, has said that Mr. Krause, a Treasury staff member, and his team are conducting an “operational efficiency assessment” that does not involve blocking agency payments.

The possibility of systems at the Treasury’s little-known Bureau of the Fiscal Service being used to stop congressionally authorized spending has stoked alarm among Democrats, who have called for investigations and led protests at the Treasury building.

David Lebryk, formerly the top career official at the Treasury, rebuffed the request to grant access and pause the aid payments.

“I don’t believe we have the legal authority to stop an authorized payment certified by an agency,” he wrote to the group on Jan. 24. Mr. Lebryk, who had been a federal employee for more than 35 years, was pushed out of his job days later for refusing to give Mr. Krause access to the system. Late on Jan. 31, a Friday, Mr. Bessent authorized entry for a team led by Mr. Krause after Mr. Lebryk’s departure.

All of this is illegal. Congress is responsible for funding.

Categories International, Lies, Musk, Elon, Trump

Ann Telnaes: Unelected, Egomaniac Elon Musk

By dianeravitch
February 5, 2025 //
14

Ann Telnaes resigned as editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post after her editor spiked a cartoon she had drawn that showed surrounded by fawning billionaires offering him wads of cash. One of them was Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post. Her cartoon appeared on her Substack blog, Open Windows.

While Trump continues his revenge tour, Musk thinks he’s in charge

Categories Education Reform, Humor, Musk, Elon
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