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I am sure grateful that these 100% fools, "TrackAIPAC," had absolutely ZERO effect in Georgia ...

.
click images above for larger view (opens in a new window)
'Twas a GREAT night November 3rd ...

... in spite of the "TrackAIPAC" fools.

@#1 ... his companies have direct government involvement ...

Yeah, there's that aspect.

Inside Elon Musk's Government Contracts
builtin.com

... In many ways, Elon Musk's tech empire is built on government money.

An analysis by The Washington Post estimates Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in state and federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits since 2003 " not including classified deals. And The Post estimates another $11.8 billion is coming in the next few years thanks to 52 active contracts.

SpaceX alone holds $22 billion in government contracts as of 2024, according to CEO Gwynne Shotwell. Federal agencies like NASA, the Department of Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office rely on the aerospace giant to launch satellites, travel to the International Space Station and deliver broadband connectivity, among other critical services.

At the same time, Musk -- who donated $288 million to President Donald Trump and other Republicans in the 2024 election -- recently stepped down from a short-lived role leading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, which was tasked with cutting government spending. After Musk's departure, his seemingly chummy relationship with the president devolved into an all-out beef after Musk criticized Trump's Big Beautiful Bill for increasing the national deficit. In the days that followed, Trump threatened to terminate Musk's subsidies and contracts.

The exchange highlighted just how reliant SpaceX, Tesla and other Musk companies are on government funding. ...


I am sure grateful that these 100% fools, "TrackAIPAC," had absolutely ZERO effect in Texas ...

.
click images above for larger view (opens in a new window)
'Twas a GREAT night November 3rd ...

... in spite of the "TrackAIPAC" fools.

Here's a list of Trump-endorsed Republicans who lost on Tuesday:

Greg Abbott (R-TX)
Ken Paxton (R-TX)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH)
Jon Husted (R-OH)
Roger Marshall (R-KS)
Mike Rogers (R-MI)
Michael Whatley (R-NC)
Darline Graham (R-SC)
Ashley Hinson (R-IA)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Mike Collins (R-GA)
Michele Tafoya (R-MN)
Joe Lombardo (R-NV)
Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Steve Hilton (R-CA)
Bruce Blakeman (R-NY)
Darren Bailey (R-IL)
Stacy Garrity (R-PA)
Rick Jackson (R-GA)
Zach Lahn (R-IA)
Scott Perry (R-PA)
Mike Lawler (R-NY)
Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ)
Jen Kiggans (R-VA)
Derrick Van Orden (R-WI)
Ann Wagner (R-MO)
Victoria Spartz (R-IN)
Max Miller (R-OH)
Zach Nunn (R-IA)
Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA)
Gabe Evans (R-CO)
Monica De La Cruz (R-TX)
Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA)
Rob Bresnahan (R-PA)
Tom Barrett (R-MI)
Mike Carey (R-OH)
Derek Merrin (R-OH)
Joe Mitchell (R-IA)
Brandon Herrera (R-TX)
Ralph Alvarado (R-KY)
Brinker Harding (R-NE)
Peter Oberacker (R-NY)
Rhett Marques (R-AL)
James Gallagher (R-CA)
Anthony DiLorenzo (R-NH)
Jennifer Balkcom (R-NC)
Eric Flores (R-TX)
Carlos De La Cruz (R-TX)
Mike Beltran (R-FL)
Casey Askar (R-FL)
Scott Singer (R-FL)
Kevin Lincoln (R-CA)
Barb Regnitz (R-IN)
Rick Brattin (R-MO)
Carrie Buck (R-NV)
Marty O'Donnell (R-NV)
Greg Cunningham (R-NM)
Mike LiPetri (R-NY)
Jeanine Driscoll (R-NY)
Eric Conroy (R-OH)
Tano Tijerina (R-TX)
Alex Mealer (R-TX)
For two years, Republicans lined up at Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. On Tuesday, they found out what that ring was worth.

This list isn't even finished. They're still counting votes in Alaska and Mississippi.

Watch how quickly the remaining Republicans stop returning Trump's phone calls.

Then there is this reporting ...

AIPAC's dwindling allies in Congress
www.politico.com

... Pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is set to enter the 120th Congress with fewer allies in Washington after a bruising election night for Republicans.

More than 30 of the bipartisan group's preferred candidates fell this week -- marking defeat for AIPAC in over three-fourths of the competitive races that have been called so far where it backed an incumbent. That includes ousted GOP Reps. Mike Lawler in New York, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania and Max Miller in Ohio.

The pro-Israel group also lost one of its most influential allies in the Senate when Maine Democrat Troy Jackson trounced incumbent Republican Susan Collins, the powerful appropriations chair. AIPAC bundled over $3.3 million in contributions for Collins this cycle, more than it gathered for any other candidate. And it suffered a major setback in Michigan when progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers after a contentious primary battle earlier this year.

"To the super PACs and special interests who tried to beat us, we are coming for your system of politics," El-Sayed told a jubilant crowd at his election night party in Detroit on Tuesday night. "To AIPAC who spent $42 million against us, thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice." ...


@#12 ... Congress has sole control over tariffs, correct? ...

Not necessarily so, in my understanding.

There's that 301 provision that seems to grant the President the ability to impose temporary tariffs for a period of time due to [I don't remember the reasons].

Found this ...

Section 301 Tariffs Explained: Impact on Import Costs and U.S. Businesses
uslawexplained.com

... Summary

Imagine you're the coach of a basketball team, and your opponent keeps breaking the rules"subtly pushing your players, using illegal screens, and distracting the referees. You can complain to the league, but that takes months. Instead, you have a special rulebook that lets you, as the coach, impose an immediate penalty on the other team to make them play fair.

That's essentially what Section 301 tariffs are. They are a powerful tool the United States government, specifically the United States Trade Representative (USTR), uses to penalize foreign countries for "unfair" trade practices that harm American businesses. Instead of a 15-yard penalty, the U.S. imposes a tax"a tariff"on goods imported from that country.

For a small business owner, this means the components you import to build your product could suddenly become 25% more expensive overnight.

For a consumer, it means the price of electronics, furniture, or clothing on the store shelf might go up. It's the U.S. government's way of leveling the playing field of international trade, but its effects ripple all the way down to the price you pay at the checkout counter. ...



YMMV, and all that...


Sympathy for the Devil
en.wikipedia.org

... Of the change in public perception the band experienced after the song's release, Richards said in a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, "Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they're saying, 'They're evil, they're evil.' Oh, I'm evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil ... What is evil? Half of it, I don't know how many people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody's Lucifer."[16]

Hunter S. Thompson and his attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta kept replaying the song hundreds of times during their drug-induced road trip to Las Vegas in 1971 to maintain focus whilst high. In Thompson's novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the film of the same name, the song is referenced several times.[17]

Contrary to a widespread misconception, it was "Under My Thumb" and not "Sympathy for the Devil" that the Stones were performing when Meredith Hunter was killed at the Altamont Free Concert.[10] Rolling Stone magazine's early articles on the incident typically misreported that the killing took place during "Sympathy for the Devil",[18] but the Stones in fact played "Sympathy for the Devil" earlier in the concert; it was interrupted by a fight and restarted, Jagger commenting, "We're always having -- something very funny happens when we start that number." Several other songs were performed before Hunter was killed.[13] ...


The Republican Party of late? ...

Missing Persons - Destination Unknown (1982)
www.youtube.com

Lyrics excerpt ...

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/missingpersons/destinationunknown.html

...
Life is so strange when you don't know
How can you tell where you're going to
You can't be sure of any situation
Something could change and then you won't know

You ask yourself
Where do we go from here
It seems so all too near
Just as far beyond as I can see
I still don't know what this all means to me

So you tell yourself
I have nowhere to go
I don't know what to do
And I don't even know the time of day
I guess it doesn't matter any way

Life is so strange
Destination unknown
When you don't know
Your destination
Something could change

It's unknown
And then you won't know
Destination unknown

You ask yourself
When will my time come
Has it all been said and done
I know I'll leave when it's my time to go
Till then I'll carry on with what I know
...



Also ...

Numerous firsts: The candidates that made history in the 2026 midterm elections
www.nbcwashington.com

... There were cheers and happy tears at election parties from New Mexico to Georgia late Tuesday once it became clear voters had elected the country's first Black female governor, the first Native American female governor, the first Native female senator and the first openly gay male U.S. senator.

By early Wednesday, the first Muslim U.S. senator was also added to the list of barrier-breaking milestones.

The astonishing blue wave also means the United States will likely have its first-ever Black speaker of the House.

Most of these firsts are Democrats, but the GOP has also broken some new ground. ...


Related ...

'Killing children': Bill Gates rips Elon Musk over aid cuts to poor nations (May 2025)
www.business-standard.com

...

Bill Gates slams Elon Musk over USAID shutdown

Gates, who recently announced that the Gates Foundation will wind down operations by 2045, told The Financial Times that Musk's actions could have deadly consequences.

"The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," Gates said, blaming Musk for acting "through ignorance".

...


More from the article ...

... After slashing funding for programs that documented atrocities and protected human rights abroad, President Donald Trump's State Department is now granting one of its first new human rights awards to a controversial South African organization that promotes the disputed notion that white farmers are a violently targeted, persecuted group, according to multiple sources knowledgeable about the funding.

The group expected to receive the nearly $1 million award, AfriForum, is a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of Afrikaners, a subset of South Africa's white population. The organization says its members, who have a "God-given calling," fight for Afrikaner interests and self-governance. The money will be used to "document hateful rhetoric and violent acts" against Afrikaners and other minority populations in the country.

The new award comes from a State Department bureau tasked with promoting democracy and human rights internationally. Until last year, those funds were mainly spent in poor and authoritarian nations -- to fight corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, or combat child exploitation and sexual abuse in Afghanistan. Since Trump returned to office, his appointees have transformed the bureau, gutting its staff, canceling programs and reorienting some of its funding toward conservative causes in Europe.

Samuel Samson, who was appointed as a deputy assistant secretary to the State Department bureau by Trump, has claimed the U.S. has a "civilizational" connection to Afrikaners, who descend primarily from Dutch migrants and predominantly speak Afrikaans. Samson, who has met with far-right leaders in Europe since joining the administration last year, has framed the U.S. government's financial support for Afrikaners as grounded in "a common heritage, a common culture, a common way of life, shared history and ultimately a common anthropology." ...


Related ...

Fox News suffers ratings drop on bleak election night for Republicans
www.theguardian.com

... On a midterm election night that was a huge disappointment for Republicans, with Democrats taking control of the US House and Senate, the country's most prominent conservative television network seemingly felt the brunt of viewer disillusionment with Donald Trump and his party, according to final audience numbers released on Thursday.

The Fox News channel, which often leads among all news networks in viewership on election nights, fell behind two top broadcasters on Tuesday.

According to ratings dating from the Nielsen firm, the network averaged 4.3 million total viewers between 8 and 11pm, behind broadcast networks NBC (6.7 million viewers) and ABC (5.2 million viewers), though it edged out fellow cable networks CNN (4.1 million viewers) and MS Now (3.7 million viewers).

Fox News handedly defeat CBS News, which attracted just 2.8 million viewers. CNN performed better in the 25-to-54 age demographic prized by advertisers, besting Fox News, MS Now and CBS. ...


An apt metaphor of Trump's new reality

Cracks emerge in Trump's Reflecting Pool - hours after he stood in front and told Americans about his great renovation

President Donald Trump's newly-renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was showing signs of cracking and peeling again - just hours after he declared the troubled project a success.

On Monday, Trump stood in front of the historic Washington, D.C., landmark to deliver a closing midterm election message and used the opportunity to celebrate the completion of a second round of renovations. He called the work "a complete job and we're very proud of it."

Shortly after his speech wrapped up, Washington Post reporters walking the perimeter of the reopened Reflecting Pool spotted several areas where the new coating appeared to be cracking or peeling.

THE LINCOLN PROJECT: POST-ELECTION TOWN HALL (2026)

www.youtube.com

Too bad so many Republicans became Trump Cultists, these actual Conservatives never did.

Here's another actual Conservative, and confessed former Elitist, with one of the better short talks on the politics of Elitism I've ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSa52TR9tCA

"Still, most MAGA influencers proved not quite ready to criticize Trump directly, which led them to spin bizarre theories about what could have really resonated with independent voters.

As an example, podcaster Liz Wheeler said Republicans would have won if only the Justice Department had arrested more deep-state operatives from the Biden administration.

Surely that would've saved Kansas!

AMONG ALL THE HORRIBLE developments for Republicans that took place Tuesday night, perhaps the most alarming for online MAGA was the collapse of Texas Republican candidates.

The state has been a bastion of the modern conservative movement, not just reliably red and with leadership willing to gerrymander the ---- out of congressional lines, but also the right's favorite contrast to hedonistic California.

So when it became clear that Democrats were romping there, it led to an onslaught of white identity politics that could make the movement even more radioactive to voters. Like Johnson, personalities at the Blaze blamed nonwhite voters for sabotaging the Texas GOP."

;;

After seeing some racist graffiti, LBJ remarked to Bill Moyers that:

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

... in condemnation of politicians who did just that.

"Late that night in a hotel room, Johnson explained to his young staffer (and future press secretary) Bill Moyers exactly how he believed Southern elites weaponized racial bigotry to divide the working class and maintain political and economic dominance. Moyers later recounted the conversation in a 1988 article..."

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