altairaster.bsky.social

The remote rendezvous in August highlights the remarkable relationship between a son of the US president and a businessman with ties to the Kremlin. ft.trib.al/9g7wnme

A 2025 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Omar Yaghi is the son of Palestinian refugees who grew up in Jordan. He just left the US to move to China after raising concerns about rising anti-immigrant sentiment, like the kind shown here. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/china-than...

The recent Starlink / Starshield incident in Ukraine has created a dangerous precedence for the US export industry, many haven't yet grasped. The sudden deactivation respectively curtailing of those systems without warning not only cost precious lives, but also equipment worth millions.

TikTok investor Jeff Yass avoided paying $1 billion in taxes while largely escaping public scrutiny. He then poured that money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election deniers. From the ProPublica archives:

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

Ukraine was winning the war, so Trump kneecapped Ukraine to help Russia. I wish it weren’t that simple, but it is. Our president is in bed with our enemies.

It's time to defund Elon. robertreich.substack.com/p/defund-musk

To be clear, evil billionaire scumbag Zuckerberg shutting down the official No Kings account in the middle of nationwide protests isn’t a mistake, it’s an assault on a free speech and expression, it’s pure fascism.

Meta shut out Indivisible from Instagram on the No Kings Day meant to rally people to vote.

It’s taking a long time for people to wake up to the fact that these platforms are not public forums but privately owned companies with terrible agendas and total control. If you lay down with these dogs…

Meta took down the No Kings instagram; TikTok banned the Musk documentary account for supposedly violating its political posting policies. A reminder that platforms are owned by the wealthiest of people, control the means of media distribution, & put their thumbs on the democracy scale as they wish

14/ As a result, Trump and Musk between them have effectively wrecked trust in US defence exports. They've shown how US military equipment can be weaponised in the most dramatic way possible, with complete disregard for the consequent loss of life.

Putin has incomparably more influence in the West Wing than he has in eastern Ukraine. Indeed, his only hope in eastern Ukraine sits in the West Wing.

“Using an advanced surveillance capability such as a cell-site simulator against members of the free press for reporting stories that are unfavorable to the president is an appalling attack on the First Amendment...” www.wired.com/story/feds-g...

People need to understand that the only reason Trump backed down on SpaceX and Starshield so quickly is that he got push back right away, politically and from Ukraine. He is a bully and a coward. Stop criticising Zelensky for standing up to him.

TRUMP UPENDED PEACE TALKS, UKRAINIANS FURIOUS, RUSSIANS GET WHAT THEY WANT It’s been a whirlwind of a mess in Miami. The Ukrainians arrived expecting to work in good faith towards an energy ceasefire. Instead they were presented with American demands to stop hitting Russian refineries or face an

allies in an effort to shore up support against the American moves. Trump’s behaviour just makes him seem even more like a Russian agent than he already does. Everything he does seems to be against American interests and causes more damage, truly shocking how manipulated he is by Putin. It’s almost

I spent a year watching school administrators do their jobs—and interviewing the students most impacted. I spoke to @thecut.com in a long-form Q&A about what I saw. Mainly, a system designed to protect perpetrators and punish victims in each and every case.

The richest man owns X. The second richest man owns The Washington Post. The third and fifth richest men control Google. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And the eighth richest man now owns both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

The government *still* isn’t tracking how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. We are. 500+ Americans have been handcuffed, held at gunpoint or held against their will in Trump’s second term. Our tally is almost certainly an undercount. THREAD (content warning: violence) ⬇️

LSU found a man responsible for r*ping a woman and decided suspension was too harsh. Kendall was a freshman when a football player assaulted her in his on-campus dorm in October 2025. She went to the hospital for a r*pe kit. She filed a Title IX complaint in January.

Hegseth: "A free press is of course important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they are undertaking is fundamentally anti-American. It's sick. It's a national betrayal. It's treason."

Warren: "This has been their argument every time -- they cut taxes and say, 'Ultimately it's really going to pay off for you.' What's happened every time? The academics study it very carefully and say, 'What really happened is the richest people got richer and everybody else got left behind.'"

Jack Smith: "History teaches that the rule of law is rarely destroyed all at once. It's often weakened by attacks on the institutions and the public servants sworn to uphold it. Since January 2025, we have witnessed precisely such an effort."

On Dolly Parton Day, I'm remember how she... -Gifted millions of free books to kids -Ensured musicians she worked with got union benefits -Helped fund medical research and the COVID vaccine -Donated millions to communities hit by natural disasters -Funded high school band programs She is missed!

Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵

Five corporations control 90% of the US media. Airlines have merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today. A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry. Four giants control 80% of meat processing. The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.

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Cartoon by Nick Anderson

Boykin: The Republicans control the entire government. They control the white house. They control the house. They control the senate. They control six of the nine seats on the supreme court. If you're not happy with the way the country is running America, blame the Republicans.

Massie exposes the hypocrisy: Some members get to vote against bills they know will pass, giving them a convenient campaign talking point without changing the outcome.

Mike DODGERS is too cowardly to show up to debate me.

BROWDER: None of Trump’s actions support his claim that he wants to end the war in Ukraine. He’s been talking about it forever without doing anything to end it. Trump wants to do whatever he’s agreed to do with Putin in order to get whatever benefit he thinks he’ll get from him.

Mike Johnson really has them working hard for you, America.

The water that data centers use for electricity generation in just the top 7 states with the most data centers is the equivalent of 12-times the annual water use of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, combined. /1 news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

The five biggest defense contractors spent more than $100B on buybacks and dividends since 2020. I have a simple question for defense contractors: If taxpayers are giving you billions to build military equipment, why are you buying back your own stock? This needs to stop.

Apple: ~$2.2 billion Nike: $986 million FedEx: ~$800 million Amazon: $640 million General Motors: $500 million Giant corporations are raking in millions in tariff refunds and getting even richer. But remember: corporations passed tariff costs on to you. Where's YOUR refund?

The GOP is that syndicate.

Between 2016 and today, the US has spent almost $9 trillion on defense. It then ran dangerously low in many advanced munitions fighting a country with no air force and navy--after about two months of combat operations. This is an extraordinary scandal.

When the banks needed help, they called it “stabilizing the economy.” When airlines needed help, they called it “protecting jobs.” When corporations got tax breaks, they called it “pro-growth.” When working people need health care? “SOCIALISM.”

🌊 Record heat has shallowed Europe’s rivers, exposing mammoth bones, sunken ships In Bulgaria, a mammoth jawbone and tusks have been found on the bare bottom of the Danube, in Croatia, the cargo ship Fulton, which sank in 1937, and in Serbia, a German warship from World War II.

The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.

The Fauci hearing was a disgrace. Here are some reminders of how it really went down in 2020. Never forget.

ProPublica obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing. From the archives:

Trump family project in Albania caused 'irreparable' damage A road cleared, an entire zone deforested and a bridge built to span the channel connecting Narta lagoon to the sea Bulldozers destroyed nesting sites of loggerhead turtles, threatened with extinction, www.thejournal.ie/albania-trum...

17 Mexican citizens have been killed during ICE operations. The Mexican government has filed criminal complaints w/several state prosecutors, served evidence preservation letters on detention centers, & called for a formal review by the UN Human Rights Council. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...