Saturday, August 15, 2026

The last one deserves quoting -

On Wednesday, ESPN reported that the Los Angeles Lakers are set to change hands, for the second time in 10 months, for $12.5bn, a sum that would be a record for any North American sports team. (The deal must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors before it can go through.) The buyers aren’t diehards who saved up every penny like the good Dr Jerry Buss in the 1970s. Those days are gone. If and when the deal is approved, the new owners will be venture capitalist Josh Kushner and his business partner, Bob Iger. Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the titleless Wormtongue to Donald Trump’s Saruman. Iger used to run Disney. These men have connections across the political world and influence in every corner of the American empire. [...]
Mark Walter took control of the team from the Buss family last October at a valuation of roughly $10bn. Now he is set to cash out around $2bn richer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. The old guard, like Buss, used to guard their NBA teams like heirlooms and pass them down. Walter is set to flip the team after less than a year.
He has other issues to deal with. Bloomberg reported in July that Manhattan prosecutors want to know whether two insurers that Walter controls, Delaware Life Insurance Co and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co, concealed that their private-credit books were secretly propping up his other businesses. The SEC opened its own line of inquery, and the loans at issue reportedly run near $16bn. [...]
The Lakers’ buyers also know that sports can generate huge returns to add to their already vast wealth. Starting in 2009 at the age of 24, Kushner built Thrive Capital into a firm now worth more than $60bn. He shoved his way into Instagram’s 2012 round at a $500m valuation days before Facebook paid $1bn for it, then rode early bets on OpenAI, Stripe, Spotify, GitHub and Skims. He owns a piece of the Miami Heat that league conflict rules will force him to shed before he can run the Lakers. And he founded Thrive Eternal to buy long-term positions in sports, media and entertainment. (Its first big move was a stake in MLB’s San Francisco Giants.)
Iger, the former Disney CEO, took control of the NWSL’s Angel City FC in 2024 alongside his wife, Willow Bay, and he’s also a Thrive partner. Now, Kushner and Iger are set to add one of America’s most important cultural touchstones to their portfolio.
The timing of Kushner’s deal may not be random either. Fifa said in late July it would hive off its commercial arm into a new company, Fifa Forward Enterprises, and sell 20% to a Thrive Eternal-led group for $4.2bn. But Europe torched the plan. Uefa convened an emergency summit and threatened to have all 55 members boycott every Fifa competition until the deal died. Negotiations ended within a week. Then Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, proposed an inquiry into whether Fifa handing prized assets to a fund run by the president’s relative crossed an ethical line. [...]
So Kushner pivoted to the NBA, where venture capital is more welcome. In fact, the other 29 owners have a direct financial stake in blessing the sale. The paper value of every team just surged with news that Kushner and Iger are willing to pay $12.5bn for an NBA franchise. [...]
But the proposed Lakers deal isn’t just about how wealth has changed sports. It’s also about how one family has moved into every part of American life. The Kushners keep ending up on the title of the most coveted assets on the planet, and the connective tissue is proximity to power. Trump campaigned on burning down exactly this kind of arrangement. Josh is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, and a senior adviser during Donald Trump’s first term. Jared is now a Special Envoy for Peace and helped negotiate the recent ceasefire with Iran. Their father, Charles Kushner, pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 counts – among them illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering – and was sentenced to two years in prison. Trump pardoned him in 2020, and today he represents the United States as ambassador to France, a job he holds despite not speaking French.

Good people do good things.

In the district. Meeting people. With these upcoming events many will have the chance to meet the candidate in person

screen capture from https://www.facebook.com/DougChapinMN/

Nort behind a desk in DC, doing little, waiting for Trump or his people to call.. Not feeling big and important behind a desk in DC indifferent to any duty to reduce food prices, fix a war quagmire, or find out what people in MN HD6 back home think and want to discuss. In effect, not Emmer.

And, stories of recent Emmer foot surgery. Many, at a guess, would like healchcare access comparable with that Emmer enjoys, but denies others. Go figure.

Access matters. Chapin is working overtime to meet people and learn what is important to them in their lives. Meet with him if you can, or keep aware of later events in other places. Nothing beats face to face interaction with a person to feel how they feel, and to learn what they value that you also value.

It is how decisions are made, informed decisions, or else things are handled as higher up officials may dictate. Top down, obedience being its own measure. Error going unquestioned.

[With editing for style and content since originally published]

Sad old man with delusions.

Trump says he will declare Strait of Hormuz a US ‘territory’ amid Iran war

Control over the waterway has been a sticking point in negotiations between the US and Iran, with Trump’s comments likely to inflame tensions.

Ebola in Africa, presently containe and not a pandemic, is nonetheless a concern. This outbreak has new aspects, and new challenges.

Self-explanatory Links:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/13/ebola-outbreak-caused-by-new-animal-transmission-what-that-means

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/21/ebola-outbreak-when-will-a-vaccine-be-developed-for-the-new-strain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RVSV-ZEBOV_vaccine [an earlier strain has countermeasures]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04628-8

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-026-03191-4

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-07-13-worlds-first-phase-i-bundibugyo-ebolavirus-vaccine-trial-launched-by

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/what-to-know-about-ebola-and-the-latest-major-outbreak/

Luigi pleads.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/14/luigi-mangione-hearing-federal-case

Friday, August 14, 2026

Why Jerry McGuire? We all know "Show me the money." Nonetheless, it has to be the starting point of sane analysis.

So, see it to the end. THEN -- That is my one simple request of Michele Tafoya. Show me the money.

It's like on the sideline, she can make up anything she wants about what's happening in the medical tent, and they never let cameras or Sideline Susies into the med tent. So, that's not Showing a thing. It's saying, not showing.

Here, at 1:00 of 1:30 mins, she says, "of up to twenty billion dollars." Nice number. How about thirty? Forty? Now prove it. Prove something in that ballpark range. Or admit it's untrue, or just some guess.

SHOW ME THE MONEY.

She's talking about a fraud amount of multiple billions of dollars. Lady, show the money. Your spread sheet, here, there, wherever, your evidence? Not that some jackass in the Trump DOJ spins off an amount. Real money. Show me the accounting or shut-the-fuck-up.

That is where the Toyfoya campaign hits the wall. She has no evidencc. No $9 billion she can display. It's not there. She spins. So, call bullshit on that.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

This is no proof of anything except others are spinning the same falsehoods. Make that dog and pony even into even a single billion. It's not there. Not hard evidence of cases in court totalling that. Not there. It is only a dweeb telling a story. Story telling is far short of evidence.

Showing a parade of numbers. Here:

Michele Tafoya, 61, is running to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., in a crowded race where Republicans have heavily targeted Walz and Ellison over a nearly $10 billion daycare, food aid and health clinic fraud scheme that unfolded under their noses.

That just links over to guys in suits, spinning numbers.:

Thompson explained that 14 programs have been identified as containing fraud and those programs have cost taxpayers $18 billion overall since 2018.

[...]
When asked specifically by a reporter how much of that $18 billion is suspected to be fraudulent, which reports have previously suggested could be around $1 billion, Thompson suggested that number will be higher when the investigations are concluded.
"I think a significant portion," Thompson responded.
Thompson later said, "When I say significant, I'm talking in the order of half or more. But we'll see."

And until "we see," we don't see a thing. No Show me the money. None. Saying a number is all that's there. Speculate up a story, wear a nice suit, what is that? And, headline:

Tafoya: Walz & Ellison ‘ignored’ $7-10B MN fraud

. [...] Seven to ten billion dollars. Let that sink in, Minnesota taxpayers. That’s the staggering sum Michele Tafoya, the former Governor hopeful, claims vanished under Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison’s watch.

This isn’t just another political spat. It’s a direct, searing indictment of our state’s leadership and a colossal fraud Tafoya insists they ignored.

It is nothing of the sort. It is fiction - an attempt to fob it off as truth, by saying so. More:

The Billions That Vanished

Tafoya isn’t just making noise; she’s hammering home the claim that Walz and Ellison deliberately looked away, allowing this massive, pandemic-era fraud, specifically tied to child care and food aid programs, to run rampant. This isn’t speculation from a campaign stump; it’s a stark reality validated by actual audits revealing losses between $7 billion and $10 billion. Let’s be clear: that money didn’t just ‘vanish’; it was stolen from the people of Minnesota.

Attorney General Ellison’s office proudly touts over 340 fraud convictions. Three hundred and forty. While commendable on paper, against a backdrop of $7 to $10 billion in missing funds, that number is an insult.

It’s a feeble attempt to distract from the gaping hole in our state’s coffers. To dismiss this as mere “pandemic chaos” isn’t an explanation; it’s a blatant attempt to dodge responsibility. Minnesota taxpayers deserve far better than such a flimsy excuse.

As to saying and showing, you can call a horse chestnut a chestnut horse, but then you've no animal to actually show.

This:

Republican Senate candidates looking to fill Minnesota’s vacant seat have accused Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of neglecting a significant fraud issue in the state. Michele Tafoya, who seeks to succeed retiring Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.), has been vocal in her criticism, targeting the nearly $10 billion fraud scheme related to daycare, food assistance, and clinics that occurred under their watch.

Tafoya suggested that this scandal might shift Minnesota’s Senate seat to a Republican stronghold for the first time since 2008. In a discussion with Fox News Digital, she noted that residents are profoundly “angry,” emphasizing that “fraud is certainly at the forefront” of current political discourse.

Fine you say that. Now SHOW ME THE FUCKING MONEY!

Show me one spread sheet, links to hard proof, and I will be receptive. But, hey * * *

Kudkow, a moron, makes Tafoya look good by comparison, getting into "fraud" assertions at 1:30 - and at 5:50 the woman with emphasis says, "we're talking 9 billion," but it never goes beyond talk. No actual content you could take to a bank. Listen to it all. Nothing there but an asserted ghost number.

She has a campaign site, where she says "fraud" but declines to name an amount there. What's that tell you? Search it. Only vague allegations. Bottom line, she's full of shit on her numbers, and cannot blame others if she accepts their numbers without proof. Showing a lack of sensible caution is no shout-out of fitness for any job, much less one where trust must be earned.

Until she has a number she can prove, she should ~~quit~~ temper her spin. There was $250 million in Feeding Our Future. Millions, not billions. But the perps were all investigated and pursued during Biden times. That proves what? Biden people and State Dems did the job.

Yes. They did.

I cannot believe mainstream media are giving the little sideline reporter a free ride. They are lazy, too lazy to call her out and ask for real, actual, reliable numbers totaling anywhere near to what she's claiming.

It is a sad state of politics she gets away with it.

And if actual numbers in the $9 billion range are ever shown, even nationwide, it then and only then is no longer a fiction sold by stuffed shirts and empty suits, ------- and Michele.

=============================================

You want fraud? Try this from Oct. 2025:

Crypto exchange company Binance helped the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency venture make billions just before Donald Trump pardoned its co-founder, and the rejuvenated company now stands to reap its own windfall, a new report reveals.
Changpeng Zhao, who also goes by “CZ,” was pardoned by Trump last week after the administration said the businessman was “prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering and agreed to step down as the CEO of Binance as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Justice Department in 2023. He served four months in prison.
Once Trump, who has touted himself as a crypto-friendly president, won the 2024 election, Zhao’s company reportedly saw an opening.
Binance created a “high-level task force to strike a deal” with the Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, and launched a months-long bid for clemency, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

Crypto exchange company Binance helped the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency venture make billions before Donald Trump pardoned its co-founder Changpeng Zhao, according to a report (REUTERS)
Members of the Trump family, through an umbrella company, own more than half of World Liberty.
World Liberty’s new stablecoin product — a cryptocurrency whose value is designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the U.S. dollar — saw the value of its shares jump from $127 million to over $2.1 billion this spring after Binance stepped in, according to the WSJ.
The technology that supports World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, was built by Binance and weeks after USD1 launched in March, an Emirati state-backed fund — MGX — used it to invest $2 billion in Zhao’s company, according to Bloomberg. The move by MGX reportedly provided World Liberty with the opportunity to net potentially tens of millions of dollars in interest.
World Liberty told the WSJ that Binance was not involved in the deal with MGX, while a lawyer for Binance said that Zhao “did not act as the relationship facilitator or financier” between MGX and the Trump family’s crypto venture.
Now that Trump has pardoned Zhao, the world’s largest trading crypto platform is likely to make a comeback in the U.S. following the 2023 ban.

Animals on Animal Farm are not equal. Pigs walk on two legs.

Guardian - "US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal DHS sent undercover agents to meetings and infiltrated chats of groups opposing Trump’s immigration crackdown"

Link for the headlined item: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters -- stating in part:

Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.
Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York City, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning non-profit groups.
Nearly 30 internal law enforcement reports were released on Thursday as part of a criminal case the Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed against 15 Minneapolis protesters. The defendants are accused of a “conspiracy” to “impede” US immigration officers during the Trump administration’s surge in the region.

The DHS investigative reports were disclosed by the government and submitted to the court by an attorney for one of the defendants. The records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry called “Operation Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators” organizing against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The operation came as community organizing against ICE was swelling in the region in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
A DHS report from February said the agency was looking into people who were “providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators”. The records suggest agents launched elaborate spying efforts targeting activists, protesters and mainstream progressive organizations opposing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I was shocked at the scope and the apparent lack of investigative discipline involved, but not totally surprised,” said Kevin Riach, an attorney for one of the indicted protesters, who filed the tranche of records in federal court.
DHS spokespeople did not respond to inquiries and the DoJ declined to comment.

EmptyWheel has an excellent post linking to NYT coverage where it appears a courtesy paywall bypass enables reading the full NYT item. IN EFFECT - spying on people doing nothing illegal. Forming dossiers. Using facial recognition software on protest photos,. Just pure crap. Because we can do it we are the federal U.S. of A., and under Trump we are limitless in how we try to stiffle exerxcise of peoples' rights.

The remainder of the Guardian coverage, and the full NYT item linked to by EmptyWheel provide great detail. AP also reports. The more you read the more awful it gets. "Grotesque" is an understatement. Our fucking government being in super-fascist spying-on-the-people mode, with a chilling story within that story, that being how fascistic things have gotten under the current federal people now driving the car, in light of how fascism played out into the mass death and suffering of the Second World War.

Germany then. Us now.

It is worse, far worse, than Flock camera license plate tracking. A part of the same story, but worse.

_______________UPDATE_____________

Facists are as they say and do. Praise of fascism is fascism. That said, from Tom Emmer's House site:

Metro Surge announcement

Thursday, February 12, 2026

WASHINGTON – House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) released the following statement in response to Border Czar Tom Homan announcing the conclusion of the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities.
Whip Emmer: “Job well done, Tom Homan. Local law enforcement is now cooperating with federal law enforcement in Tim Walz's Minnesota, thanks to President Trump's leadership. We are hopeful that this partnership will continue—without local or state interference—to ensure the worst of the worst are being removed from our communities.”

Jesus Christ Tom, as the one man said, "The boots you lick will also stomp you too . . ."

Stupid. Get a brain, Emmer. It would help you vastly.

==========================

I from time to time have noted how Doug Chapin is wise and a gentleman with widespread experience.

An email from him to a supporter, forwarded to me, noted:

Tom Emmer went on Fox and claimed Minnesotans are calling to thank Donald Trump for what ICE did here. His words: "please thank Donald Trump for trying to keep us safe and trying to get these illegals out."

I need to respond to that directly.

==========================================

Chapin's campaigning will bring him to Ramsey today, and he may have comments. Surely there will be a press release from him soon. Or a televised interview. Not strident. But lethal.

[Readers may view the Emmer spiel via an embedded video Breitbart (speaking of fascist) posted here.]

That slimeball has not dared to show up in person in Minnesota holding a current Townhall saying that stuff, and facing crowd reaction.

Do you blame him? When what you say digs the hole deeper, keep quiet seems to be the wisdom Emmer is missing. That and touting that Trump likes his subservience. So?

The man is simply going off the deep-end of Trumpist disrespect of truth. (Ask him who won the 2020 election.)

THE TOTALITY -- Emmer, Breitbart, Trump, a lost super expensive war, and Hegseth questioining troop testesterone levels. Not only all that, but rampant inflation clearly happening in every town and city food market, while pump price shock staggers everyone but Musk, who must love it because he's selling electric autos and trucks -- the entire smelling quagmier of households trying to make ends meet, then a medical debt event and its all down the tubes. It rots and rots, into worse and worse..

And Emmer likes it. Really. Read his lips. Great, couldn't be stronger.

He lies like Trump does. The Socerer's Apprentice has his mop gone amok.

Get him out! Give us rescue.

November cannot come soon enough!

But we know -- November is coming, and Emmer will be leaving. Trust me. He's going desperate, into lies and untruths. And spouting fascist mythology, like his mentor.

_________________FURTHER UPDATE________________

Tom, put away love of Brietbart for a moment, and read your online local daily: