The U.S. government just made a land deal with the world's first trillionaire. Not a sale. A trade.
Because apparently that's how we do things now.
715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge - built by Congress in 1979 to protect one of the most biodiverse wildlife corridors left in North America - handed to SpaceX.
Endangered ocelots. Aplomado falcons. Piping plovers. Land the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas has called sacred since long before there was a United States.
SpaceX built a rocket launch site next door. Then came the explosions. Concrete and metal hurled six miles across refuge land. A 2024 study found that after one launch, every single monitored shorebird nest near the site suffered egg damage or loss. The Fish and Wildlife Service's response was not enforcement. It was a land swap.
FOIA documents show internal planning for this transfer started as early as April 2025 - while Musk was running DOGE and threatening to fire federal workers who didn't justify their jobs to him. The agency developed what they called "the most expedited schedule possible" to get it done.
Part of what's being handed over includes the Palmito Ranch Battlefield - the site of the last battle of the Civil War. A National Historic Landmark. Once transferred, SpaceX can restrict public access whenever they want.
25,000+ people submitted public comments. Most opposed the deal. The government moved forward anyway.
A coalition of tribal and conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit this week to stop it. Because someone has to.
Why are we cutting real estate deals with a trillionaire when we could have just made him pay for it?
#DemsUnited
@jasonllevin Sure do. Let's not forget about how their streak ended the night he decided to be a wet blanket and attend the game screwing thousands of fans of the watch party and cheap seats. They don't owe him anything except a cold shoulder.
Sheryl Crow speaks out after Trump’s UFC 250 event: “To stay quiet means to turn a blind eye. And so I am saying this. What happened last night on the lawn of the White House was disgraceful and void of decency. Powerful, rich people filled the lawn to watch a violent sport that ended with a vile and racist comment. All while the average American cannot afford healthcare, gas, and cost of living. Do not be fooled. This administration is corrupt and does not give a damn about the American people. It only cares about making money hand over fist at the expense and in spite of our democracy. If we continue to support this kind of distraction from reality, we are no better than them. Let's be better, America.”
"The UFC event captures something about this moment in our history.
After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump."
https://t.co/4JB8V0GX4L
De Niro: I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser.
I can’t love a country that starts stupid and inhumane wars, killing thousands of innocents and indirectly causing the deaths and suffering of millions more.
I can’t love a country that takes healthcare away from millions of people and uses that money to enrich their pals in the Trump-Epstein class.
I can’t love a country that sends out masked militias to shoot citizens in the streets, torture our neighbors, and separate families.
I can’t love a country that’s led by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic tyrant.
And let me just say it: I can’t love a country that’s led by Donald Trump and his sycophant Congress.
I can’t tell you how ashamed of our country I’m today. We don’t just have a clown as president, but our people’s house is turned into a carnival circus of freak clowns. MAGA fuck you for bringing our country down to your low class life. Hogs and sheep.
WOW! Senior Iranian official reportedly say that under their agreement with Trump, the U.S. will release $25 billion of Iran’s frozen assets including direct cash transfers.
Remember when Trump attacked Obama for giving Iran $1.7 billion of their own money?
This is crazy!
DON'T FORGET ABOUT JOYCE
Rep. Joyce Beatty was the only Kennedy Center board member who tried to stop Trump's rebranding of the arts center. She then challenged the move in court, and won her case.
She is the reason Trump's name came down!
Thank you Joyce !!!
A critically endangered Diademed sifaka hanging on for dear life—but losing grip on existence in this world.
Madagascar is stricken with extreme poverty, so hunting these large sifakas for bushmeat has soared, even in protected areas. Slash-and-burn for timber and sugar cane plantations for illegal rum is destroying their food trees.
Touchingly, they diligently patrol their territory every morning, carefully scent marking their trees to protect it—but they are defenseless against the ravages we inflict on them.
Long-lived and slow-to-reproduce, now also with high infant mortality (50%), wasting in adults and stunting in immatures as we systematically remove their means to exist.
The tiny, isolated groups in the fragmented reserves may already be genetically non-viable long-term.
It will take a miracle—or someone with enormous wealth— to save this spectacular species from extinction within my lifetime.