Adam Kinzinger Brutally Sums Up The ‘Entire’ Republican Party With Just 1 Acronym
Ben Blanchet January 5, 2025
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — a frequent Donald Trump critic after his 2020 election loss — revealed why it’s “interesting” that critics tag him with the “RINO” acronym, which stands for “Republican in name only.”
“The reality is the entire Republican Party today is the RINO. They’re Republicans in name only,” said Kinzinger in an interview with Salon shared Saturday.
“They hold the title to the Republican Party, a lot of them still think they’re holding a legacy, but that’s exactly right, it’s gone,” he continued.
Kinzinger, the focus of a new documentary, “The Last Republican,” from “Hot Tub Time Machine” director Steve Pink, added that “what it means now to be a Republican” is that you’re “driven by anger” and division.
“I think what they stand for is supporting culture war, rage, and one person, one personality, and that’s Donald Trump. Now, they’ll never admit it, but that’s the reality of it,” he said.
Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over his role in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, served on the House committee that investigated the insurrection.
He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in last year’s election and, in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, declared that he was “putting our country first.”
In a separate interview with Forbes published Friday, Kinzinger said he’s built “new alliances” in recent years and has realized he’s “probably closer to a Democrat now because of how the Republican Party has changed.”
“The Democrats are now the party that’s defending America’s role in the world, defending Ukraine, which I’m really passionate about,” said Kinzinger, who predicted that the GOP is “toast for a while” as “Trumpism” won’t “survive past these four years.”
The former congressman, in his interview with Salon, said he thinks Trump is “already a lame duck,” before noting that his control over his base could pose a “concern” for Republicans when the president-elect’s second term ends.
“If you think about George W. Bush toward the end of his second term, Republicans were falling away. That won’t happen with Trump,” Kinzinger said.
“All those Republicans who should be falling away will still have to face reelection even though Donald Trump doesn’t,” he continued.
Kinzinger added that he doesn’t think the GOP can be “saved in the near term,” but he hopes people don’t “give up on it.”
“Because the reality is that there’s probably forever only going to be two major parties in this country, and the Republican Party will be one of them,” he said. “We can either write it off and lose elections, with such consequences as we’ve just had, or we can continue to fight inside.”
Washington Post Cartoonist Ann Telnaes Quits After Bezos-Owned Paper Kills Trump Satire Piece
Tess Patton – January 3, 2025
Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit after a satirical cartoon, which poked fun at the paper’s owner Jeff Bezos and other media and tech giants bending the knee to President-elect Donald Trump, was killed.
The Pulitzer Prize winner shared her decision in a Substack post Friday.
“I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now,” she said.
Telnaes had worked at the Washington Post since 2008. She described the political cartoon that did not get published, saying it “criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.”
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The cartoon included Facebook and Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, the “Walt Disney Company/ABC News” depicted as Mickey Mouse and Washington Post owner Bezos. A rough draft of the scrapped cartoon can be seen below.
A rough draft of Ann Telnaes’ scrapped cartoon (Credit: Ann Telnaes/Substack)
Telnaes criticized Bezos for his handling of the Washington Post in the months leading up to Trump’s election and those to follow. The paper did not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024 for the first time in decades, leading to three editorial board member resignations and widespread canceled subscriptions.
“Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press,” the cartoonist said of her former boss.
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post,” she said. “I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”
Biden to visit Coachella Valley Tuesday, expected to create Chuckwalla National Monument
Janet Wilson and Tom Coulter – January 3, 2025
(This story was updated to add new information.)
President Joe Biden will designate vast, ecologically rich swaths of southern California desert and of northern California woodlands as a pair of new national monuments in a visit to the state early next week, sources tell The Desert Sun.
One will be the Chuckwalla National Monument, encompassing more than 620,000 acres of desert woodlands and washes that provide critical habitat for millions of migrating birds, endangered desert tortoise, iconic chuckwalla lizards and other wildlife. It will stretch from south of Joshua Tree National Park and north of Interstate 10 across a confluence of two ecosystems, where the Mojave Desert meets the Colorado and the Sonoran Desert, a veteran conservationist with direct knowledge of the decision said.
A view of the sunset from the Painted Canyon/Ladder Canyon Trail in Mecca, a popular outdoor recreational area that’s part of more than 620,000 acres of desert land President Joe Biden is expected to protect by designating it all as the new Chuckwalla National Monument.
The designation, which will also protect sacred tribal sites used for thousands of years and broaden recreation opportunities for Latino farmworkers and other area residents, was achieved after a deal was struck with major solar industry groups last spring. Biden will visit the eastern Coachella Valley at the doorstep of the monument on Tuesday, a person familiar with planning for the visit who was not authorized to speak on the record confirmed to The Desert Sun.
The White House said Friday that Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit Los Angeles on Monday and the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, but would not confirm the reason.
“We are guardedly optimistic that it will happen,” said Donald Madart, Jr., a councilmember with the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe in eastern Riverside County, which would see portions of its ancestral homelands near the Colorado River protected, including active worship sites and thousands of sacred relics.
He said several new monuments either created or being considered by Biden “all provide us an opportunity to continue religious freedoms of the native people of this land … It’s a lot bigger than just the protection of a landscape for beauty purposes, it is for being able to continue … to practice that religious freedom by going out into the desert and still partaking in ceremonies that have been with us since time immemorial.”
The second new monument will be the 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument in northern California near the Oregon border, the person familiar with Biden’s visit confirmed. The designations were first reported by The Washington Post. A spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Tribes, the Sattlitla monument footprint also encompasses mountain woodlands, rare meadows and serpentine seeps that are home to rare flowers and wildlife.
Biden has been pushing to cement his environmental legacy before he leaves office, including by protecting public lands and designating hefty federal funds for conservation and maintenance of open space.
By preserving sites of extreme importance to California tribes, Biden will be fulfilling the original intent of the 1906 Antiquities Act. New mining, drilling, renewables and other industrial activity all would be banned.
Passed by Congress and signed into law by then President Teddy Roosevelt in June 1906, the Antiquities Act was the first U.S. law to provide broad legal protection of archeological, cultural and natural resources in an era when looting of tribal lands had become common.
Since then, it has also been used nearly 300 times by U.S. presidents to set aside public lands and protect their archeological resources. Many iconic national parks first were designated as monuments, including Grand Canyon National Park in 1908 and Joshua Tree National Park in 1936. In recent decades many presidents have created new monuments in the closing days of their presidencies, often over loud objections from state leaders and industry officials.
Trump’s first administration sharply reduced the footprint of Bears Ears National Monument, among others, and sought unsuccessfully to sharply modify or eliminate the Antiquities Act. Biden in turn restored Bears Ears and other monuments that shrunk under Trump. With Republican majorities in both houses, he could have more luck in his second term, though scores of national monuments enjoy wide popularity.
“We know for sure that the designation is just the very tip of the iceberg,” said Madart, when asked about what Trump might try to do. “We know that the real work begins after the designation happens, and we’re very, very well prepared to engage with all the other tribes, as well as the coalition involved with getting this Chuckwalla initiative over the finish line.”
Biden’s latest actions will cap a lengthy and broad-based battle to protect the lands. In April, a petition with more than 800,000 signatures supporting the proposed two monuments and others was presented to the White House and unveiled in front of the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress, led by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, also a Democrat, and former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler of California pushed hard but unsuccessfully to pass bipartisan legislation to create the Chuckwalla monument.
Ruiz had no comment on the designations, simply saying in an email, “I’m thrilled to welcome President Biden to (the) Coachella Valley next week. His visit is a testament to the great people of California’s 25th district.”
But in an interview last year with The Desert Sun, Ruiz spoke about his ties to the Chuckwalla area, particularly Painted Canyon in the east Coachella Valley, where he proposed to his wife. He also led Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and others on tours through areas proposed for the designation.
He, like many residents at the edges of the monument, grew up hiking in area slot canyons on the Mecca Hills northeast of the Salton Sea.
Having those lands and far more designated as uninterrupted wilderness in a monument will protect and widen recreational opportunities for working-class and-low-income farmworkers and others in the Coachella Valley and eastern Riverside County, according to environmental justice groups and others.
Some of this land south of Eagle Mountain, near Desert Center, could be incorporated into the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument.
Scores of area tribal leaders, agencies, environmental justice and conservation groups and area elected officials strongly supported the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla efforts.
Responding to the news reports of Biden’s expected action, Joseph Mirelez, brand-new tribal chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, said in an email, “For thousands of years, the Torres Martinez Desert Indians have called the lands in the Chuckwalla National Monument home. We are happy to see the designation to protect this area that contains thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to (our) history and identity.”
Mirelez, who took office on New Year’s Day, said he had not received official confirmation from federal officials. The tribe is one of the nine nations of Cahuilla Indians, which include the first known inhabitants of the Coachella Valley as well as Riverside and San Diego counties and the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountain areas.
Two exceptions to the broad support were the city of Blythe, whose officials said it could interfere with economic development, and the Coachella Valley Water District, which said in a Nov. 15, 2023, letter to Padilla and Butler that the boundaries as drawn could interfere with the agency’s ability to maintain the large Coachella Canal and to construct new facilities to serve future developments. After buffers were included, the agency chose to remain neutral.
Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Bird Singers sing as women dance following a 2023 press conference in Coachella to announce the collaborative efforts of tribal community leaders and local elected officials to push for the designation of Chuckwalla National Monument.
In an email in April, Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, gave his blessing to the revised plan, saying “Achieving California’s decarbonization goals by 2045 requires rapidly expanding the energy grid to connect solar, wind and other renewables. The Chuckwalla National Monument will protect environmental resources and tribal lands while creating an energy corridor for the electric power lines essential for the state’s clean energy future.”
It is unclear if Biden will approve a related request to expand Joshua Tree National Park, which continues to surge in popularity.
Trip will be Biden’s first reported visit to desert as president
While Biden has visited many regions of the Golden State during his time in office, the visit on Tuesday will mark his first reported trip to the California desert since he was sworn into office in January 2021.
The president’s trip to the valley comes just a few months after Trump held an October campaign rally near Coachella, where he bashed California’s policies and its leading elected officials.
Biden’s visit to the desert also comes nearly a year after his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was the headlining speaker for a private Democratic fundraiser in Rancho Mirage. At the time, in March 2024, Biden was still several months away from announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election in the presidential election.
Biden’s upcoming visit will be yet another moment in a long history of visits to the valley from commanders-in-chief. Several presidents — both Democrats and Republicans — have vacationed in the valley, dating back to the late former President Dwight Eisenhower, while former President Gerald Ford lived in Rancho Mirage for decades after his presidency until his death in 2006.
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stayed at a private Thunderbird home in Rancho Mirage several times, both during and after Obama’s presidency.
Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today Climate Point, a weekly newsletter on climate, energy and the environment.
Biden to create two new California national monuments protecting tribal lands
Clara Harter – January 3, 2025
In one of his final acts as head of state, President Biden is set to declare two new national monuments in California honoring tribal lands. The sites are in the rocky, mountainous desert near Joshua Tree and amid dense forests and pristine lakes near the Oregon border.
In the coming days, Biden will sign proclamations creating the 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California, a source who requested anonymity confirmed to The Times. The news was earlier reported by the Washington Post.
In taking this action, the president will be fulfilling the wishes of tribal members and environmentalists who have fought for generations to protect these sacred Indigenous lands and their rich natural resources from industrialization, development and degradation.
“It gives you new faith that the process is working and that people are listening to Indigenous voices,” said Brandy McDaniels, a member of the Pit River Tribe who helped lead the effort to establish the Sáttítla National Monument. “We’ve spent a lifetime fighting to protect this area, and it’s hard to put into words how important this is to us.”
The efforts have not been without criticism, however. Biden’s upcoming actions could upset groups who want to use the Chuckwalla monument area for mining and off-roading and those who want to use the Sáttítla area for geothermal energy, mining and timber. He will also be frustrating conservatives who believe that presidents have abused their authority in creating monuments.
The Blythe City Council, which represents a community of 18,000 people near Joshua Tree, stated its position over the summer that it opposed restrictions that the monument would place on the development of solar farms, which provides economic opportunity to the city and bolsters their sustainability goals.
However, the main solar energy industry groups working in the region — Solar Energy Industries Assn. and Large-scale Solar Assn. — decided to support the designation after the conservation groups worked with them to craft the monument boundaries to suit their needs.
Those in support of the monuments, can now breathe a sigh of relief after winning what may have seemed like a race against the clock to protect these lands.
Although Biden has already used his executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create six national monuments and expanded several others — including two expansions in California — Trump has shown far less enthusiasm for the program. During his first term, Trump created no new national monuments and slashed almost 2 million acres in total from two national monuments in Utah.
Three California Democrats, Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler and Rep. Raul Ruiz, introduced legislation to Congress in April to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument. Then in September, Padilla and Butler introduced legislation to establish the Sáttítla National Monument. Neither bill advanced in a a divided Congress, prompting Biden’s executive action.
The Chuckwalla National Monument will be located southeast of Joshua Tree National Park. The push to protect the site was led by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, who have lived in the desert regions of Southern California, including the Coachella Valley near Joshua Tree, for thousands of years.
Thomas Tortez, chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Tribal Council, stands near the entrance to the Painted Canyon, a sacred cultural site for Indigenous Californians. (Tyrone Beason / Los Angeles Times)
The monument’s name comes from the stocky Chuckwalla lizards that frequent the area, which is also home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, kangaroo rats, burrowing owls and jackrabbits.
“For thousands of years, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians have called the lands in the Chuckwalla National Monument home,” said Joseph DL Mirelez, chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. “We are happy to see the designation protect this area that contains thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to the history and identity of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.”
The monument will begin at Painted Canyon near the eastern edge of the Coachella Valley, where rocky hills and canyon walls are washed in light pink, red, gray, brown and green hues. To the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the red color of the hills represents the bleeding heart of their creator god Mukat, who was exiled in this land and whose remains became the native vegetation that nourished his people.
Some 750 miles to the north, the newly created Sáttítla National Monument will also protect a land linked to an Indigenous creation story. The 11 bands of the Pit River Tribe consider the Medicine Lake Highlands area near Mount Shasta as their ancestral homeland.
“For the Pit River people, it’s the actual place of our creation and is a very sacred place for us in the narrative of our peoples,” said McDaniels. “In addition to that, it is a very unique and spectacular biodiverse area that supports habitats, ecosystems and fisheries.”
The monument extends over a landscape of jaw-dropping natural beauty in parts of the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc national forests. There are rich, green forests, abundant wildflowers, intricate cave systems and drinking water that can be sipped on site.
It is often referred to as the headwaters of California because its lakes and aquifers help provide clean drinking water to the rest of the state.
The Pit River Tribe has long been involved in litigation to prevent the development of geothermal energy systems in the area. The new landmark designation will help prevent similar efforts from moving forward in the future, McDaniels said.
“We’ve spent a lifetime fighting to protect this area being a tribe and a socially, economically suppressed community that doesn’t have a lot of resources,” said McDaniels. “It’s really important to protect this area for future generations so that they can heal without constantly having to defend our natural resources from the ongoing threats.”
Some renewable-energy advocates say the monument will result in the loss of an important clean-energy source that would advance the Biden administration’s agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
One third of workers say they are considering a job change in 2025
Amanda Kavanagh – January 3, 2025
Twenty-twenty-five is set to see seismic change in the workforce, if the findings of a new report are anything to go by.
According to the Global Talent Barometer from Manpower Group, 35 percent of workers are considering a job switch this year.
The report, which surveyed more than 12,000 workers across 16 countries, found that for younger workers (aged 18-27) that number is even higher at 47 percent.
And perhaps surprisingly, 41 percent of remote workers report themselves likely to change jobs, despite reporting higher wellbeing and work-life balance.
So whatever age bracket or working model you fall into, know that if you’re feeling stuck, you’re not alone.
Ups and downs
The inaugural talent barometer measures worker wellbeing, job satisfaction and confidence around the world, and it recorded many highs and lows.
Though globally, 80 percent believe their work has meaning and purpose, and this rises to 82 percent for U.S. respondents, the report also found that nearly half of workers (49 percent) experience daily stress.
A further third (34 percent) say they lack opportunities to achieve their career goals with their current employer.
At an almost direct match to the job seeking figure, it becomes clearer why so many are reevaluating their professional paths. If this is you, look for job specs that emphasize training, mentorship, and clear advancement paths.
Lack of career development is a sizable issue. Some 59 percent of workers say they have not received any skills training in the past six months, and only 39 percent have a mentor or coach for their current roles.
However, in the U.S. specifically, there is a more optimistic mood. Some 76 percent of respondents say they had values alignment with their organization, 70 percent have work-life balance, and at 68 percent the American wellbeing index is above the global average of 64 percent.
Also, some 42 percent of Americans said they experienced minimal daily stress, close to the global average of 41 percent.
Sector spotlight and working models
Contradictions continue as the report drills down into industry-specific wellbeing.
Unsurprisingly, healthcare and life sciences employees find the most meaning in their work (87 percent). And though IT workers report the highest daily stress levels, they also report the highest work-life balance (74 percent). Other high scoring work-life balance industries are financials and real estate (73 percent).
The barometer also looked at the connections between job roles, working models, and overall wellbeing.
Fully or mostly remote and hybrid workers (both 72 percent) report the highest levels of work-life balance, compared to mostly onsite (68 percent), onsite by choice (62 percent), and onsite without choice trailing in at 57 percent.
Workers who report feeling the highest levels of daily stress are middle managers (61 percent), but this was followed closely by essential front-line workers (60 percent), then “white collar” workers and executives or senior employees, which are all 59 percent. Of those dubbed “blue collar” workers, 47 percent reported minimal daily stress.
Executive and senior workers reported the highest satisfaction with values alignment and work-life balance
Taking control
If you’re intent on meaningful change this year, start by evaluating your priorities. Is career growth the most important thing to you? Or at this life stage, is it work-life balance? Perhaps you’re looking for more meaning so a mission-driven organization or healthcare setting might be where you land next?
Whatever direction you go in, most employers value candidates who are proactive about their development, so if you’re part of the 59 percent of workers who have not received training in the last six months, take matters into your own hands. Seek out training opportunities or certifications that will strengthen your offering.
And if you’re ready to start looking, The Hill’s Job Board is the perfect place to start. Here you’ll find new roles updated daily across all industries and levels.
Tesla’s Deadly Trump Tower Cybertruck Explosion in Vegas Mocked as ‘Perfect Metaphor’ for 2025
Benjamin Lindsay – January 1, 2025
Chaos erupted outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday after a Cybertruck, Tesla’s popular-but-maligned electric pickup truck model, exploded into flames. The New Year’s Day event killed one and injured an additional seven, according to authorities.
CEO Elon Musk responded Wednesday on X, writing that after the “whole Tesla senior team” investigated the matter, they’d “confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.”
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” he said.
And while there’s apparent reason for concern over the event, the tragedy also garnered a fair amount of ridicule and mockery on X, the social media platform Musk owns.
Many users expressed that it’s a “perfect metaphor” for what’s in store for 2025 under President-elect Donald Trump and Musk leading his DOGE advisory board.
“A real photo and perfect metaphor heading into 2025,” MeidasTouch News editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote.
“Have you seen the footage? Looks like it deliberately blown up,” responded another. “If it was, you’re probably spot on, just not in the way you thought.”
In a Wednesday morning press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shared that the police were informed of an apparent explosion at 8:40 a.m. local time, detailing that at the time of the event, a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck “pulled up to the last entrance doors of the hotel” before exploding, killing one person inside.
“We saw that smoke started showing from the vehicle, and then a large explosion from the truck occurs,” McMahill said.
McMahill additionally drew comparison’s to Wednesday morning’s vehicular terrorist attack in New Orleans, saying that investigators are “very well aware of what has happened” there.
“As you can imagine, with an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe,” he said. Police had also determined at that time that there did not appear to be any additional public safety threats.
“Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” Eric Trump, a Trump Organization leader and the President-elect’s son, wrote on X, a message later echoed by the hotel’s official account. “The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority.”
And while the news circulated into Wednesday afternoon as more detail emerged of the cause and nature of the explosion — along with surveillance video that appears to the vehicle exploding (watch that below) — many took to social media to confess that no matter the cause, the optics of Trump- and Musk-world literally burning didn’t bode well for the upcoming presidency.
A Tesla Cybertruck in flames in front of Trump Tower Vegas?
Melanie D’Arrigo: If you were going to choose a metaphor for our current state of politics, a Tesla Cybertruck exploding and burning in front of a Trump Tower in a city where millions of Americans go each year to lose their money, is pretty spot on.
You couldn’t script a better metaphor.
A fire-prone status symbol of excess parked outside the shrine to grift and failed promises—it’s almost poetic.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Vermont independent and two-time Democratic presidential candidate said Musk is wrong about the H-1B visa, which is designed to bring high-skilled workers from abroad to work in the United States.
Musk, Ramaswamy, and others on the “tech right” have argued that the system is necessary to compensate for a shortage of high-skilled workers in America, pitting them against more nationalist Republican voices who see the system as bringing unfair competition upon American workers.
Sanders argued on Thursday that the system is used to exploit foreign workers while enriching corporations.
“The main function of the H-1B visa program and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad,” Sanders said, pointing to the fact that corporations have laid off American workers even as they’ve hired foreign workers through the H-1B system. “The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make.”
The Vermont senator called for a series of reforms to the system, including increasing guest worker fees for large corporations, raising the minimum wage for guest workers, and allowing them to easily switch jobs.
“The widespread corporate abuse of the H-1B program must be ended,” Sanders said. “It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker.”
Trump has sided with Musk, saying that he supports the H-1B visa system. That’s despite him signing an executive order halting the program in 2020.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sanders has previously signaled a willingness to work with the billionaire businessman on cutting defense spending via the “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative, though he told BI that it remains to be seen how serious Musk is about the issue.
FBI finds 150 homemade bombs at Virginia home in one of the largest such seizures, prosecutors say
Sean C. Davis – January 1, 2025
FBI finds 150 homemade bombs at Virginia home in one of the largest such seizures, prosecutors say
SMITHFIELD, Virginia (WAVY) — Residents worried about the large FBI presence and numerous explosions heard in Virginia’s Isle of Wight County in mid-December finally have answers.
According to federal court documents, agents had just uncovered a massive trove of pipe bombs, and deemed them too unstable to transport — so they blew them up. The FBI said it believes it’s the largest amount of homemade explosives it has encountered in its history.
“FBI bomb technicians, who X-rayed the devices on scene, assessed them as pipe bombs,” the newly-filed document reads. “The majority were found in a detached garage, organized by color. … Some were hand-labeled “lethal.”
“Some were preloaded into an apparent wearable vest,” it continued. “In the garage were also found numerous tools and materials for manufacturing explosives, a home-made mortar, and riot gear.”
The filing also describes how the the pipe bombs were made — with two layers of plastic tubes.
“[I]n between the tubes were metal spheres which ‘would enhance the fragmentation effect of the device upon its explosion.’ it quotes an FBI analysis of one bomb. “The lab concluded that the device was ‘capable of causing property damage, personal injury and/or death.’”
Spafford was released on $25,000 bond earlier this week. The new details in this case come from new filings from the defense, arguing to block his release.
Defense attorneys argued in a motion Tuesday that authorities haven’t produced evidence that he was planning violence, also noting that he has no criminal record. Further, they question whether the explosive devices were usable because “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.”
“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical,” the defense lawyers wrote.
Spafford’s original, and so far only charge, is for violating the National Firearms Act — for possessing a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches. His Dec. 30 preliminary hearing found enough evidence to allow the case to move forward.
Most of the evidence prosecutors relied on for the firearms charge came from a person Spafford apparently believed he was friends with. Spafford showed the man his illegal rifle and the two went shooting together.
“[The source] also noted that the defendant was using pictures of the president for target practice at shooting at a local range, stated that he believed political assassinations should be brought back, and that missing children in the news had been taken by the federal government to be trained as school shooter,” the prosecution’s filing reads.
Prosecutors reiterated why they believe Spafford is dangerous, writing that “while he is not known to have engaged in any apparent violence, he has certainly expressed interest in the same, through his manufacture of pope bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest loaded with pipe bombs, his support for political assassinations and use of the pictures of the President for target practice.”
Spafford also allegedly joked about someone assassinating then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The document describes a casual meeting at his newly-purchased farm.
“He also discussed fortifying the property with a 360-degree turret for a 50-caliber firearm on the roof, and noted how he could block the driveway with a vehicle so no other vehicles could access,” the filing reads.
My Mom’s Support For Trump Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor.
Tim Durnin – December 30, 2024
Busà Photography via Getty Images
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The Trump presidency divided my family. The “Trump Effect,” as I called it, infected us shortly after he descended into the lobby of Trump Tower to announce his presidential candidacy. It ended seven years later, around my kitchen table, with three generations of my mother’s progeny mowing their way through Italian takeout. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My mother was a Reagan Republican and had voted along party lines since 1980. While none of her four children were fully aligned with her politically, the Trump Effect created the greatest distance between my mother and me.
We fought every time we talked. Before Trump secured the nomination, I argued that his morals were in direct conflict with those she and my father had been driving into my head for decades. Furthermore, I argued, he did not even embody conservative values. He twisted them into grotesque manipulations of what had been reasonably sound policy.
I pleaded with her not to vote for him. She wouldn’t budge. In the wake of his election, her choice took on the weight of a betrayal. Her blindness to Trump’s white nationalist tendencies was an affront to my wife, who is a proud Latina, and angered my biracial, high-school-aged children.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The more egregious Trump’s violation of social norms, the harder she dug her heels in. In Northern Idaho, her political views went largely unchallenged. It was her excursions into Eastern Washington that afforded her the opportunity to proselytize and be heard. Any poker table became her pulpit as she would expound on the virtues of the new savior of the GOP. Having earned respect with her poker skills, she changed peoples’ minds.
At some point, after the Mueller investigation, she was so self-assured that she stopped fielding challenges or questions from folks on the left. We stopped talking about everything except cursory questions about my life and detailed reports about her current ailments. I longed for a return to our political discourse. It never came.
She voted for Trump again in 2020 but did not embrace the “big lie” that he’d won the election with anything close to enthusiasm. She did defend the honor of her chosen candidate afterward, but her Ultra MAGA armor started to crack when Trump’s attacks were directed at Republican icons like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and the Bush dynasty. Then Jan. 6, 2021, shook the foundation of her political fortress. The damage was considerable and lasting.
I wasn’t with my mother for the insurrection’s explosive violence that day. But our family has always been patriotic. My father served in Gen. MacArthur’s honor guard during the Korean War. We flew the flag, sang the anthem and respected servicemen and women. My mother and I shed patriotic tears on Jan. 6, 2021, and while admittedly from very different places, the tears ran into the same river. We both knew the America we loved was significantly diminished by the relentless attacks of a small percentage of Americans hell-bent on defining the world by their petty grievances and perceived injustices.
I didn’t reengage in political discourse with my mother, in spite of an obvious opening for a kill shot. The sadness that surrounded her settled in like a dense fog. Surprisingly, her depressed mood was less about Trump’s defeat and more about her own foolishness in the certainty that Trump was a hero and savior. As for me, I couldn’t even muster an “I told you so.”
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Sixteen months later, I was having dinner with my mother and some Trump news flashed on the screen. She shook her head in mild disgust. I hadn’t planned what happened next, although I had fantasized about this “intervention” countless times.
Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and started talking. “Mom, I am going to ask you a huge favor, something that may be jolting at first, but please, sit with it.” She started to speak, but I raised a finger, pleading with her to hear me out.
My voice was shaky and weak as I began, but grew confident as the memory of each Trump atrocity was replayed in my mind ― his near-constant appeal to our worst instincts, his undisguised racism and Islamophobia, and his blaming of anyone and anything besides himself. I was hot when I reached the point of my diatribe, asking what I believe to be the single most important question I will ever ask my mom: “Will you please apologize to my children for voting for Trump?”
I continued: “My fear is that, when Trump is seen through a clear and objective lens, the support you gave him will define you.”
A few days later, my mother, aka G-Ma and Grams, sat at the head of a round table. At 92, she was still larger than life and a commanding presence. She did not need to call for the attention of those gathered. At her first syllable, heads turned and phones were silenced. She would hold the room until she decided not to.
Before saying our traditional grace, she stood up, and the room came to attention. She took a moment to compose herself, and with her signature confidence, said, “I want to apologize.” Looking around the table, she did not falter. “I made a horrible mistake voting for Trump. Had I known then what I know now, I never would have voted for him. I hope you will forgive me.” And it was done.
There was a collective sigh of relief as she released our attention and laughed as she said, “That wasn’t so hard.” We hugged and I whispered my thank you as we embraced. “Let’s eat,” she said. And we began, “Bless us our Lord and these Thy gifts …
In the months that have followed, I have elected to continue the moratorium on political discourse and opted instead to explore our common ground — which, I have discovered, is fertile and vast and refreshingly friendly. Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts affirmed that her divorce from MAGA and Trump was the right choice.
My children’s wounds have started to heal. They have forgiven her, and through them, my grandchildren will as well. In the end, the “intervention” we staged was a gift, a blueprint of sorts for a divided time. She showed us how to admit you were wrong in a world where it seems everyone has to be right. That’s the real takeaway, the kernel of truth I hope will grow and thrive.
CORRECTION: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that the author’s father served in Gen. Patton’s honor guard.
Musk has been staying at $2,000-a-night Mar-a-Lago cottage – just hundreds of feet from Trump’s main house
Mike Bedigan – December 31, 2024
Elon Musk is getting closer and closer to Donald Trump, quite literally, with a new report that the tech billionire is currently renting a cottage on the grounds of the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to The New York Times, Musk is staying at Banyan – a cottage located just several hundred feet from the main house of the estate– which costs at least $2,000 to stay in per night, per sources with knowledge of the costs.
The news comes as concerns continue to grow in Washington about the extent of the SpaceX boss’s influence over Trump, having sat in on personnel meetings, conducted talks with foreign leaders and helped to tank a bipartisan spending bill in congress.
Musk is reportedly staying at Banyan – a cottage located just several hundred feet from Trump’s main house – which costs at least $2,000 to stay in per night (AFP/Getty)
The property contains multiple cottages that have reportedly been used by others in Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, during the transition period.
The Times reports that Musk moved into the cottage around Election Day and watched the results at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and other MAGA cheerleaders including Marjorie Taylor Greene.
He left the property around Christmas and has been expected to return some time in the New Year.
It is unclear how much the tech boss is paying for the cottage, though guests at the Mar-a-Lago club are typically not billed until the end of the stay.
A US Coast Guard boat manned by armed officers patrols the Lake Worth Lagoon off Mar-a-Lago (AFP/Getty)
The ultimate cost of Musk’s stay may come down to the president-elect.
The “best buddy” relationship between the pair appears to be going strong.
Last week Trump posted what appeared to be a personal message to Musk on Truth Social, claiming that fellow billionaire Bill Gates asked to come to Mar-a-Lago.
“Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!!” Trump wrote.
He signed it “DJT.”
The story comes as concerns continue to grow in Washington about the extent of the SpaceX boss’s influence over Trump (AFP/Getty)
“X” appears to have been a reference to Musk’s son, X Æ A-Xii, who he calls X for short,
While staying at Mar-a-Lago, Musk has been accompanied by at least two of his children — though he is reported to have at least 11 — and their nannies.
The Times also reported that the Tesla boss is known to make inconvenient requests like meals outside the normal kitchen hours.
