The Dictatorship

Elon Musk unleashes shutdown chaos as he flexes his power

Published

2 years ago

December 21, 2024

Elon Musk unleashes shutdown chaos as he flexes his power

The power of Musk

Despite what Donald Trump and JD Vance may say, the chaos on Capitol Hill this week can be traced back to one man: Elon Musk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had negotiated a deal with Democrats that was by all accounts a typically larded-up 1,500-page behemoth of a funding bill.

But despite the bill’s imperfections, there was an agreement that seemed to have wrapped up all the loose ends for the year. Members of Congress and their staffs were packing their bags and getting their last-minute Christmas shopping done in Washington.

Then Musk stepped in.

With over 100 posts on his own platform X — including the 1:32 p.m. declaration“THIS CRIMINAL BILL MUST NOT PASS” and another threatening“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” — Musk managed to blow up months of negotiation, leaving Johnson scrambling.

Given that he doesn’t seem to know that only 19 Republican senators are up for re-election in 2026, I am a bit skeptical that Musk knows exactly how a bill becomes a law. This summary from Johnson made it sound a lot like he had to explain how the process of getting approval for spending typically works. And there is a real question whether Musk would follow through with his threat to fund primary opponents against anyone who opposes Trump’s agenda.

But what this week made clear is that Musk has more power than the speaker of the House, who is second in line to the presidency. And maybe even the vice president-elect. I mean, where is Vance these days anyway?

Further confirmation of Johnson’s weakness came when Trump was asked about his confidence in him, Trump responded: “We’ll see. What they had yesterday was unacceptable … It’s a Democrat trap.” If this week made one thing clear, Musk’s X account is going to make for a heck of a ride in Washington come January.

A story you should be following: Democrats pass over AOC for oversight role

This week, House Democrats voted 131-84 to name Rep. Gerry Connolly74, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. While Connolly, an eight-term Democrat, brings a wealth of experience to the role, this vote feels like a major missed opportunity to place a highly influential communicator as ranking member of one of the few House committees that garner national attention.

According to The New York TimesConnolly benefited from strong behind-the-scenes support from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. The result wasn’t particularly close, even as Democrats embraced generational change in other key leadership roles this week.

The good news is that Ocasio-Cortez will undoubtedly remain at the forefront of the Democratic Party’s messaging. But Democrats will need to fire on all cylinders if they hope to garner national attention for important Oversight Committee debates following Rep. Jamie Raskin’s departure from the role.

Another story you should be following: Trailing Supreme Court candidate asks same court to throw out 60,000 ballots

Atop the growing list of shockingly anti-democratic moves from North Carolina Republicans, this week, Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin asked North Carolina’s Supreme Court to throw out 60,000 ballots from last month’s election.

Griffin, who trails Democratic Justice Allison Riggs by just 734 votes, claims these ballots are invalid because some voters lacked a driver’s license or Social Security number on file, and others living abroad did not include photo ID with their ballots.

All three of these challenges were rejected last week by North Carolina’s Democrat-controlled state elections board. However, with North Carolina’s Supreme Court holding a 5-2 Republican majority, Griffin is banking on a more favorable ruling.

This isn’t the GOP’s first attempt to undermine voters in North Carolina. In October, Republicans tried — and failed — to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls just weeks before Election Day. That effort was dismissed by a federal judgebut the state Supreme Court could still take a different approach.

Some good news: Biden appoints 233 federal judges

As his term nears its end, President Joe Biden is cementing a historic judicial legacy, appointing a total of 233 judges as of this week, including more judges of color than any president before him. On Monday, Tiffany Johnson became the 40th Black woman confirmed to a lifetime federal judgeship under Biden — more than any president in a single term. Overall, 60% of his appointees are people of color, part of his goal of reshaping the judiciary to better reflect America.

Biden’s appointments include Justice Ketanji Brown Jacksonthe first Black woman on the Supreme Court, and record numbers of former public defenders and civil rights lawyers. With Senate Democrats racing to confirm more nominees before Republicans gain Senate control, these nominees will no doubt shape the judiciary for decades to come.

Just Psaki

Jen Psaki is the host of “Inside with Jen Psaki”airing Sundays at 12 p.m. ET and Mondays at 8 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.

The Dictatorship

FIFA faces global anger over plan to give Kushner brother a financial stake

Published

4 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

FIFA faces global anger over plan to give Kushner brother a financial stake

Christmas. 29, 2026, 7:54 PM EDT

International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.

The president and his family have all but turned the White House into their personal piggy bank. And FIFA — which has its own sordid history of corruption — seems to have made itself a party to Trump’s self-enrichment under Gianni Infantino’s leadership, such as by paying for space inside Trump Tower in New York. (The organization has defended the office rental as a World Cup outpost.)

Soccer is seen by many as a unifying game. But Trump’s incorporation of FIFA into his political dynasty is threatening that idea.

As The Athletic reported:

FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.

Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.

A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.

But Trump basically has already given son-in-law Jared Kushner carte blanche to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while simultaneously hatching business plans in the region. (Jared Kushner has denied any conflicts of interest.)

Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.

“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”

FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!

Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea

— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.

But what it does seem likely to do is fuel global anger toward the U.S. — the kind that has been growing since Trump retook office.

And when you consider that, it’s truly remarkable how the same MAGA movement whose members whined for years about politics mixing with sports is now in lockstep with a president who seems dead-set on casting his shadow over every sports event he can.

This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.

Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.

The Dictatorship

Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 7.29.26

Published

4 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* In the Middle East: “Jordan’s air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, the country’s military said, hours after the U.S. military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting.”

* At the Fed: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted to hold its key interest rate steady but not without opposition from three officials who have expressed concern over inflation and wanted to hike. Despite increasing support among some officials for a rate increase, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-3 to leave the federal funds rate in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%.”

* All eyes on Cornyn: “Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has yet to decide whether he will vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently head the Department of Justice after saying Wednesday he was ‘not prepared’ to lend his support to President Donald Trump’s nominee.”

* This request is intended to repay the National Park Service, whose funds Team Trump unjustly raided: “The Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional $10 million to cover costs related to Freedom 250 events recently held on the National Mall, including a prayer event, a fair and a fireworks show.”

* Will the Carroll case ever end? “The Supreme Court already denied the first of Donald Trump’s two petitions against E. Jean Carroll. But the second petition, filed Tuesday, stands a better chance of gaining the high court’s interest because it raises presidential immunity and is backed by the Justice Department.”

* I’m eager to hear why a private citizen can’t delete the contents of his own phone: “It sounds like something James Bond would use: a gadget that self-destructs if it falls into the wrong hands. But it’s actually an open-source operating system that can be downloaded onto Android phones. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are bringing an obstruction charge against a U.S. citizen who gave customs officers what is known as a duress passcode, which activated software that erased the contents of his phone.”

* My advice: Read real books written entirely by real people: “A few years into the A.I. era, there is sobering evidence that a significant and growing portion of the novels being sold are written with or by chatbots, and that readers are buying them. A new study conducted by computer scientists using A.I. detection software to analyze thousands of self-published novels on Amazon, found that a substantial number of those novels contained chatbot-generated prose.”

See you tomorrow.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Epstein survivors say meeting with Todd Blanche was ‘very condescending’

Published

4 hours ago

July 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Epstein survivors say meeting with Todd Blanche was ‘very condescending’

Christmas. 29, 2026, 5:29 PM EDT

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse said Wednesday that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was “very condescending” toward them in their meeting with him this month and told them to “get to the point.”

Ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee vote on whether to move President Donald Trump’s nomination as attorney general to the full Senate for a vote, the survivors were on Capitol Hill urging Republican lawmakers to deny Blanche the position.

Survivor Dani Bensky told reporters that the meeting a couple of weeks ago with Blanche, who had declined to meet with them for months, was “very condescending” and that he would not answer their questions on why investigative leads and referrals in the case have not been followed.

“He actually said the words ‘Get to the point’ to us,” Benskey said. “We’re survivors who have been waiting to meet with him for nine months, eight months.”

Another survivor said Blanche told them he had not read the files.

Bensky, who was standing with other survivors outside the office of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, voiced appreciation for the senator for his support of survivors. The said they had not met with Cornyn Wednesday but had spoken to Judiciary Committee staff members, and that the meeting was “productive” and the staff members “were very pleasant and very open.”

Cornyn said Wednesday that he is “not prepared to vote yes” on Blanche’s nomination. He also called off a meeting with Blanche, saying the nominee had failed to provide proof that President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund is officially dead.

Survivors have been campaigning for GOP holdouts to vote against Blanche’s confirmation. Bensky said her group had run into Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., in the elevator earlier and that he said he would like to meet with them. Tillis has also suggested that he might oppose Blanche’s confirmation.

Bensky said it would have “a massive chilling effect to all survivors across the U.S.” if Blanche’s nomination is moved out of committee and to the full Senate.

Asked for the survivors’ final message to the lawmakers, Bensky said: “It’s not political. Just do the right thing. Just be on the right side of history.”

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.