When you have to keep denying it...
Musk: 'I didn't do it.'
I don’t know if Elon Musk was actually doing the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration or not. It sure seemed like it. But that’s not the point. The point is, when you have to keep denying you’re a Nazi, it means people have good reasons for asking.
After all, Musk has allied himself with far-right movements in Europe, including the extremist German party AfD. After purchasing Twitter, which he renamed X, he welcomed long-banned white nationalists back to the platform in the name of free speech. And his X account is sometimes hard to distinguish from far-right extremists. In late 2023, he went on a so-called “apology tour” to Israel after responding to a post about an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X with the words “the actual truth.” He often posts Pepe frogs and other images and memes associated with the alt-right, including recently temporarily adopting the handle “Kekius Maximus.”
American Nazis sure picked up on the imagery. A chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter posted a note of appreciation on Telegram, along with a picture of a banner drop the group had previously executed at a freeway overpass reading: “Elon Musk Stop White Genocide.” The Telegram caption read, “Thanks for (sometimes) hearing us, Elon. The White Flame will rise again.” (Rolling Stone)
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Maybe name it the Gulf of BP Oil
Trump wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” I could see that happening only under the premise of “you broke it, you own it.” Remember the US broke the Gulf with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010? It still hasn’t fully recovered.
Yesterday, Trump revoked all offshore oil and gas leasing bans and once again withdrew from the Paris Climate Pact. On Monday, he ordered a broad assault on US offshore wind development, including a freeze in permitting the massive renewable power projects despite developers' warnings that it imperiled jobs from coast to coast.
Trump also ruled out the sale of new wind leases across all of the nation’s coastal waters, invoking the same legal authority predecessors have used to thwart offshore oil drilling.
“These actions are an unprecedented handout to billionaires,” said Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement activist group. “They will make a small handful of rich men unimaginably richer while killing good-paying jobs and threatening our health and homes.” (Bloomberg)
Trump claimed that his actions “will end the Green New Deal.” That’s a joke. Green New Deal legislation offered up by progressives like AOC and Bernie Sanders over the past five years, was dead on arrival, opposed or mainly opposed by Biden, Pelosi, and the Democratic leadership.
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Bracing for Trump’s invasion of Chicago
Migrant communities in New York, Chicago, Denver, San Diego, and elsewhere are bracing for immigration raids to begin as early as today. It won’t be easy to implement the plans, though. Immigration advocates sued Trump over his bid to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US. The question is — does the Trump regime give a whit about court rulings when they have the Supremes in their pocket?
Join us Friday on Hitting Left when we discuss Trump’s planned mass immigration raids on Chicago and other cities and the resistance movement with our guest, immigration activist Rev. Sandra Castillo. The show airs live in Chicago from 11 a.m. to noon at WLPN 105.5 FM and streams everywhere at lumpenradio.com.
It matters little if Elon Musk’s Sieg Heil was intended as a Nazi salute or not. His behavior is totally unacceptable. It would be wonderful if Musk and the other members of the Billionaires’ Club would channel their resources into humanitarian ventures of feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and healing the sick.