Frank Crocker

CFD captain/medic - Local2363 and sometimes I take photographs. 📸

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: The Justice Dept. is seeking to throw out a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s company, xAI, over the data center's air pollution, saying it has the right to run polluting gas-burning turbines in Mississippi despite not having permits for them. https://t.co/CxztBM0baD

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

They are already doing damage control because they likely destroyed the lawn

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Let’s talk about the Kennedy Center.

We just had a huge win: Trump’s name was finally removed.

You’d think that would be the end of it. But now they’re hiding the sign that says “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” behind a tarp, with no plans to take it down.

Rather than simply let the Kennedy Center be the Kennedy Center, they’re literally covering up its name.

How vain can one man be? It’s petty. It’s absurd. And frankly, it’s embarrassing.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

THE INSANELY RIGGED ECONOMY

Yesterday, while tens of millions of families were struggling to pay for rent, food, healthcare, childcare and gas, seven of Trump's oligarchic friends became $210 billion richer. Not last week. Not over the past decade. In less than 24 hours, these 7 men, the wealthiest people on earth, became $210 billion richer.

Incredibly, since Trump was elected on November 5, 2024, these 7 men, all Big Tech Oligarchs, have become more than $1.5 trillion richer and are now collectively worth over $2.8 trillion. Meanwhile, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any other wealthy nation, young adults have a lower standard of living than their parents and over 20% of our seniors are trying to survive on an annual income of $15,000 a year or less.

Yes. We are living in an oligarchy.

A Good Day for Trump’s Friends:

Yesterday, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, got $164.8 billion richer and is now worth $1.4 trillion. He’s worth $1.1 trillion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Larry Page, the second wealthiest man in the world, gained $7.61 billion in wealth and is now worth $314 billion. He’s worth $161 billion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Sergey Brin, the third richest man in the world, got $7.01 billion richer and is now worth $292 billion. He’s worth $148 billion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Jeff Bezos, the fourth richest man in the world, gained $6.96 billion in wealth and is now worth $267 billion. He’s worth $46 billion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Larry Ellison, the fifth wealthiest man in the world, gained $8.92 billion in wealth and is now worth $247 billion. He’s worth $63 billion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Michael Dell, the sixth richest man in the world, got $5.86 billion richer and is now worth $218 billion. He’s worth $101 billion more than on Election Day.

Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, the seventh richest man in the world, gained $9.16 billion in wealth and is now worth $211 billion. He’s worth $8 billion more than on Election Day.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best: “Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God’s children.”

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

It's only Tuesday and Trump has fucked up a pool for $14 Million, lost a war agreeing to pay Iran $300 Billion, and ballooned his already expensive ballroom budget by another $200 Million.

Where are the Republicans screaming about "waste, fraud and abuse"?

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

The reported details of this Iran deal are so insulting to the 13 U.S. servicemen and women who died. We’ve accomplished nothing. Iran is reopening the Strait of Hormuz, not giving up its uranium, and Trump is going to give them $25 billion. That’s way worse than the deal Obama negotiated.

[Reuters @Reuters]

The $TRUMP meme coin generated about $616 million for the Trump family, while buyers lost more than $700 million, according to Reuters' estimates. The coin has tumbled 97% from its January 2025 peak https://t.co/D6RjrGkMnV @specialreports

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Taxpayers paid for over $38 billion in subsidies and government contracts for Space X, and Elon Musk gets to be a trillionaire off of our tax dollars.
https://t.co/uI5Yy5ervR

[Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews]

GOP Senators dunked on the Trump slush fund all week

But they didn’t vote to support the overnight amendments that would’ve killed the fund

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Fourteen of the 27 known corporate donors to President Trump’s White House ballroom project have won new or expanded federal contracts worth more than $50 billion during the past six months, according to a report.

Read more here: https://t.co/wEAqxMA7AG

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

There is no world in which this is okay.  

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not recuse himself from cases involving Trump’s Treasury Department while his own son was secretly working there as a political appointee and attorney. 

His son's employment was hidden so thoroughly that his name appears nowhere on the Treasury Department website, he has no public resume, and his bar listings are outdated. 

If Alito had recused himself, the secret would have come out. He didn’t recuse himself. 

This is a clear conflict of interest, and the American people deserved to know about it. 

The federal recusal standard is clear: a justice must step aside in any case where there is a reasonable basis to question whether he or she can be impartial. A justice ruling on cases involving the department where his son works fails that test. The Treasury Department sits at the center of some of the biggest legal fights of this administration, and challenges to Trump’s $1.776 billion January 6 slush fund could be headed to the Court next. 

The Supreme Court is the only court in America with no binding code of conduct. That is completely unacceptable, and it has to change NOW. 

Congress controls the Power of the Purse, and therefore the Court’s funding. If the Court will not adopt a binding code of conduct with real recusal review on their own, I support withholding their funding until they do. 
 https://t.co/FV2Tkpz7Dk

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

An ad that argues private equity has too much power is taken down off the air by a private equity funded company that owns the team, the TV station that airs the team’s games, and the newspaper that covers the team.

Platner couldn’t have written the script better himself.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

In the middle of the lunch, Trump called RFK Jr and Dr. Oz and told them he wanted the regulation lifted. Trump’s FDA Commissioner then resigned in protest. Things like this are happening every day. RFK Jr is a total fraud.

[Rep. Jim McGovern @RepMcGovern]

Remember: it was like pulling teeth to get Republicans to fund the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

But it took them no time at all to create a $1.8 billion Insurrection Slush Fund to pay off the legal fees of the January 6th rioters who beat cops.

These are sick, corrupt people.

[Ed Whelan @EdWhelanEPPC]

The plan evidently is to keep confidential the recipients of cash awards and the amounts of the awards. See IV.E.
(Just keeping the recipients' addresses confidential wouldn't be controversial.)

[Jessiah @thepondering_]

CNN also reports that this settlement also forces the IRS to end any active audits into Trump, his family, and his businesses

Not only does it further protect POTUS from accountability, but he's expanding this shield to Don Jr. and Eric and Ivanka and Jared and their interests

[Tim @trouble_man90]

There aren’t adequate words to properly express the depth and scale of trump’s corruption, it’s completely on a scale of its own with no historical equivalent to point to.

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🇺🇸NEWS: FBI Director Kash Patel used a government Gulfstream V to fly his country singer girlfriend to a George Strait concert.
He watched the show from a luxury suite reported at $35,000 to $50,000.

Then he flew her home on the same FBI jet.
Same week: a “VIP snorkel” at the underwater tomb of 900 sailors and Marines at Pearl Harbor.

The pattern from the same NYT investigation is now public.

Four SWAT agents and two SUVs guarding his girlfriend in Nashville. The detail estimated at $1 million a year. SWAT escorts to a hair appointment.

An FBI official suggested a threat assessment to determine if any of it was justified. Patel berated him.

A New York Times reporter wrote about the SWAT detail. The FBI opened an investigation into the reporter. The DOJ shut it down and called it retaliation.

What is the FBI for when the FBI Director uses it as a personal concierge service and turns it on the people who notice?

[Joel Montfort @jmontforttx]

Alligator Alcatraz is closing after one year and wasting $1B to house 1400 immigrants. That's an eye-popping $714,285 per occupant. Everything this administration does is filled with fraud and waste. https://t.co/3DoG1YTjTh

[Richard Stengel @stengel]

George H.W. Bush kept his assets in a blind trust, as did Bill Clinton. Neither Obama nor Biden traded stocks or bonds while in office. 3,700 trades is probably more than all the trades of all the presidents until now. And he is trading stocks that are affected by his decisions. A walking conflict of interest, at the least, and perhaps insider trading. Just as members of Congress should not be able to trade stocks, so too the president. https://t.co/yDqVXWfDgc