[UPDATED] Charlie Kirk got shot dead. The internet is full of podcasts about possible conspiracy. Yet --- where are the financial audits of who had what financial stake in Kirk, insurance dimensions, who were insiders and what money trail is there?

 2013, updated 2014, an AP item: https://tucson.com/news/nation-world/government-politics/article_e5d8d8c0-ed8c-5f22-a906-3dfaea00dabb.html

Mid-item :

“Any donor who thinks an organization needs $108 million for a three-state grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign is being taken advantage of,” said Erick Erickson, a nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host and frequent Trump critic. “It sounds like a grift.”

In a statement, Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet said none of the group’s leaders have inappropriately benefited from their financial arrangements. If anything, he said, many were underpaid for their talents.

“If the so-called ‘experts’ know what it takes to build successful ballot chasing teams, why are conservatives apparently so bad at it?” Kolvet said.

Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government.

Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son.

That's interesting. News then, now, not mentioned. Continuing mid item near the end-

Compensation also soared, with Kirk’s climbing from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, tax records show. He bought three high-end properties, all worth over a million dollars. Millions more were paid out to a cluster of companies linked to a handful of group leaders and their allies, according to tax filings and business records.

Kolvet said that much of Kirk’s wealth was derived from his successful podcast and radio show, as well as public speaking fees, though he declined to provide earnings figures.

Yet specifics about how exactly Turning Point spends its money — and who benefits — are often difficult to discern because the IRS does not require nonprofit groups to publicly disclose detailed accounts of their expenditures. Meanwhile, many of Turning Point’s biggest vendors are limited liability companies that are registered in states that do not require public disclosure of ownership.

One branch, the Turning Point Endowment, held more than $55 million in reserve in 2022, while donors were courted to give more.

Kolvet said the money was part of Turning Point’s “50-100 year plan to continue reaching generation after generation of young Americans.” He added that the organization’s leaders were “good stewards of donor money.”

While building for the future, however, Turning Point has shown a willingness to spend lavishly.

In 2019, the group stated that its leaders would travel first-class or by charter plane, explaining later that it was sometimes needed to “ensure the uninterrupted success of the organization’s mission.”

In 2021, Turning Point sponsored a wedding reception for Kirk and his wife, Erika Frantzve, at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess luxury hotel, which was also billed as a ninth anniversary celebration and fundraiser for the organization.

Kolvet said the event was separate from the couple’s small wedding ceremony, describing it as an “elegant and gracious way for Erika and Charlie to mark a landmark in the life of TPUSA (the 9th anniversary) while also inviting a much larger group of friends and family to celebrate a landmark in their own lives.”

Other expenditures defy easy explanation.

A $999,000 payment was made to a limited liability company in Nevada for a “research project on educational outputs,” according to 2020 tax documents. The company, called Clocktower LLC, was dissolved in 2022 and the only corporate officer listed in its business filings is the president of a firm that advises on tax avoidance strategies.

That's not chump change. It's a cashflow feeding many. The entire article should interest readers. Yet, now, with a dead Charlie nobody's talking money trail. Kash and Pam seem to have a perp and have shut things down without any forensic audits of anything or anybody. Nothing to see there, move on? Huh?

Ending paragraph of that years-earlier item:

“Any insinuation that anyone” at Turning Point “benefited from this is defamatory,” Kolvet said. 

That was a statement in a context, but it sure as hell fits today. WTF happened to follow the money?

Here is a YouTube of Charlie's chief-of-staff, (that likely having been a well compensated post), and was there a preacher McCoy's other son, a brother to Michael in TPUSA, well compensated leadership? With a role, of some kind, in the organization, before and after the shooting,  with what functions, responsibilities, powers, benefits and persona? Or not? These are basic questions of organizational structure and beneficial interests, which change however, after the publicity and fact of Charlie Kirk being shot dead on YouTube. 

Presuming there's money, now greater or not than 2013-14, FOLLOW IT, ALREADY!

That is basic Investigation 101 so who's doing it? 

------------------

BASIC QUESTIONS: Who takes over this cash cow, what person, persons, or group with money sloshing around, and what's the potential cash flow in the future, with all this current publicity? I don't know, but I know there's no harm in asking. What are the interrelationships of key people? Who gains, who doesn't?

All for now on this topic and related coverage. But it might show motive to remove Charlie, depending upon what inquiry yields.

________________UPDATE______________

Got it! Found on a web video, Ian Carroll, where about 2-1/2 min into the item, there is a Justin mentioned by Pastor McCoy. The pastor on a video clip loaded by Carroll, from some other resource unknown to Crabgrass.

Of interest? Crabgrass judges it so. All I know is what I find on the web.

FURTHER: One site, two items, here and here, one of which embedded the Carroll video. 

More in future posting, maybe. 

FURTHER: We'll see whether Charlie had left a will which will surface, or not. There was a ton of money sloshing around, so, we'll have to wait, but the answer exists and will surface. Was there a trust for the children set up, as you'd expect in big buck estate planning?

FURTHER: The widow says the show goes on. View the full statement she made. It should be profitable. There seems ambition to the voice, yet different persons will see her speech differently. I saw it as less rather than more. She is now the CEO of the show.

 FURTHER: Grief - https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1764917/erika-kirk-jd-vance.webp

FURTHER: The show must go on. A quick new event, Charlie gone, Erika feathred. The operation has new momentum. Bigger? Better? A business plan, JD with a place in things, for now, for later?

"Charlie's gone, so what do we go next," one of the interviewees says, "Fight, fight, fight." "Someone else caputured the energy . .  ." "Membership is balloning . . .".

FURTHER: To Crabgrass, Charlie Kirk and TPUSA - before the shooting, some guy in Arizona, a Christian Nationalist Trump supporter, so what? Now, a martyr. 

It is admitted, Crabgrass was not attuned to Right wing media, being interested instead in the Bernie AOC Oligarchy tour facts.etc., instead. But now, one thing has to be said, emphatically, Kirk zeroed in on how the young are being screwed by greed and politics as usual leading them into debt slavery. 

Refinding the story - This is not an after shooting whodunit. It is where, after the shooting made me pay attention enough to ask, what made Charlie Kirk effective? With Gen Z as they are called, in college, costing a lot and so what's the payout, where does it lead? With no college, AI looming as a job killer, where does that lead? Important things needed to be understood by readers and those with power.

This will end the post. Because there is no way of knowing where the money machine TPUSA is set to become under Erika Kirk ownership and management, new directions being in a future where nobody has a crystal ball to say. Start with the quick intro article, then the beginning part of the full video. 

And say it now, the full session video has a part where Tucker goes vile on "boomers" as selfish. Tucker grew up in relative affluence and the boomers he criticizes are those he's seen and been with, i.e., those of equal affluence, those not drafted int Vietnam, those (like the Clintons)  not left by others of their generation to hang, but rather those Tucker might be more familiar with who did okay without a thought to the future they were leaving, nor to the others of their generation they were leaving out of any comfort or doing well. There are two parts to the boomer generation, some hanging on, some who got coopted from '60s moods and some who didn't. Too many were abandoned by the cooptees and their mentors.

That anti-boomer rant is near the end of the full video, and also missing from the video is the part immediately follow the linked segment, which is where Kirk warned conservatives should care because the situation is untenable and if it continues to be dismissed as "they should manage a budget better," then things will come to an unstable crunch, far harder on the country than if the situation is faced now and fixed as much as possible while facing billionaire and millionaire greed for lower taxes and deficit spending. Kirk warned that the situation was a disequilibrium with possible grave consequences.

I could not relocate the full video. Only this part, which is enough of the nub of things showing Kirk was not a lightweight right wing Chritian proselytizer only, as I'd preemptively dismissed him before the shooting and before delving deeper. 

That said, as a caveat about the missing stuff from the later part of the full session's video - Here's the stuff. An MSN carried descritive report. The video. Don't take all of the MSN item too seriously, and do watch the video part.

Respectively titled -

Charlie Kirk Slams Buy Now Pay Later As 'Predatory' — Podcaster Warns Gen Z Is 'Financing Their Coachella Tickets' Without Guardrails 

 and

Charlie Kirk Exposes the Debt Trap Enslaving 60% of Gen Z 

When/if I rediscover the link for the full Tucker/Charlie item the post will have that update added, otherwise, this ends it. That caveat is not to minimize the two linked items. Read and watch!!

 Another online Kirk on campus pre-shooting video worth the time to watch it:

Prove me Wrong: College is a Scam 

 Crabgrass undergraduate years remain treasured, before entering "the real world," but not as a career path necessity or boost, but for having leavened the mind. Kirk never sought/earned a degree, but had capabilities that served him well financially, and he enjoyed living. Some of his politics and God/Jesus/afterlife notions are not compatible with the Crabgrass view of things, but he was not a lightweight. That part I'd earlier misunderstood. Christian societal cohesion can be good and helpful to living a happy life among others, apart from doctrine. Some churches do good. Some don't.

There might be further posting about post-shooting stuff as news happens. IF SO =- It will be via separate new posts. not by any further updating here, (beyond possibly adding a link to the full Tucker/Charlie item - as already noted). 

6:12 PM CST (UTC-6) --Sunday, November 2, 2025 -- 

 Here is the link to the full Tucker/Charlie segment, and here is an index of topics, by title and time into the video. Not all segments agree with Crabgrass thinking, but this threesome is spot on:

(23:04) What Issues Do Gen Z Really Care About?

(28:51) The New Financial Scam Secretly Enslaving Gen Z

(43:10) The Oncoming Radical Movement That Will Change the US Forever

As the full index notes, topics varied, but many readers may want to view it all. 

please pay attention to Gen-Z - they inherit and face what our current system lays upon them

-- THE END -- 

 

 

 

 

 

How's this for headlining?

https://www.startribune.com/former-minneapolis-city-council-member-arrested-suspected-of-driving-under-the-influence/601511831 

 Screen capture =

Right, first paragraph of the report does say "driving while . . ."

From the adroit headlining, she could have been standing on the sidewalk hammering on somebody's car with a hard object or her fist. DUI, and boy, that mug shot does show bleary eyes, a standard eigen description of police reports everywhere, car smelled of alcohol, slurred speech, etc. She really looks as if she's had a real snoot full of something, but not a stimulant. 

And either the nose ring was removed for the mugshot or she ditched it between pics.

Yes, the headline does imply an arrest, and therefore DUI implied, but say it. Don't headline like the way it was done if you pretend to be a statewide major newspaper in print and in the online world. That headline is below grade; subpar.

Bonus. Yes, creepy-geeky, but it was 1963 and proof Baez and Dylan had not much competition back then. This is better.

__________________UPDATE___________________

Here is a bonus MSM report about Trump. And about law and order, but not what you might expect. Related. These judges do have a hammer. Gavel, hammer, similar at least.

And all this other stuff is happening when the Trump Shutdown is the big story, the big hurt to the people.

____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________

Left.mn keeps at it, most recently Dan Burns posted.

 

 

The Trump wife is showing an intent toward SLAPP suing Hunter Biden too. For a billion bucks.

 USA Today ---

Why is Melania Trump threatening to sue Hunter Biden? Here's her story on meeting Donald

Kinsey Crowley Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

USA TODAY NETWORK

• Hunter Biden claims Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump, a claim Melania Trump denies.
• Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden if he doesn't retract his claim.
• Trump maintains she met her husband at a New York City nightclub in 1998.

First lady Melania Trump and former President Joe Biden's son are feuding over different accounts of how she met Donald Trump.

[...] The first lady on Aug. 6 threatened to sue for more than $1 billion if he didn't retract the claim, and Biden said in a follow up video, “F--- that. That’s not going to happen."  

[...] On Aug. 6, the first lady threatened to sue Biden for more than $1 billion if he doesn’t retract the claim.

The legal notice by Alejandro Brito, the first lady’s lawyer, demands that Biden "immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump."

Donald Trump said he encouraged his wife's legal action against Biden.

"Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania," Trump said August. 14, during an interview with Fox Radio's Brian Kilmeade. "But they do that to demean. I told her to go ahead and do it. She was very upset about it."

Other outlets have also received notices from Melania Trump's lawyer over similar claims and issued apologies and retractions. But Biden doesn't seem poised to back down.

Same lawyer as sent the SLAPP letter to Michael Wolff. Brito. Reminds me of a brillo pad.

It's not worth the time to track down online copies of the Wolff letter and the Biden letter, but the Crabgrass guess is only names were changed, otherwise same SLAPP letter, same Donald behind it, same bullshit aimed to distance from the Epstein file. You, Donald, own the Epstein files, and allegedly Bondi told you you're in them, and there's no SLAPP claim that will change that. And using the wife as a weapon is shabby. Weaponize the wife - it rings pretty bad, and not well thought out, but we'll see. The New York state courts have the litigation started, Crabgrass opinion is Wolff is right, it's a SLAPP, and time will tell.

As to what's a SLAPP, or a threatned one, under New York law, readers can research that all they want.

With a layman's understanding, after reading a book about SLAPP lawsuits, Crabgrass' guess is it's one. Or the threat to push one, costing a defendant what it will. A billion? Is the Trump wife's reputation worth that? Opinions can range between yes and no, without guessing what the reputation is worth. Melania seems several cuts better than her spouse, but I'd not want to try to do dollar valuations. Melania is likeable.

The claim Melania challenges, mainly, is that she/Donald are unhappy with anyone saying Epstein introduced one to the other. A chance meeting at Kit Kat Club, they say, not Jeffrey. The USAToday item spells it all out, Melania/Donald version.

More coverage, here and here. It seems the Trump Shutdown is a bigger story. More people suffering real and actual injury.

 

 

All news is local. Strib publishes, "Roper: How the ‘slate for change’ could upend the Minneapolis mayoral election An alliance between Jacob Frey’s challengers may prove significant in the ranked-choice election." - By Eric Roper - The Minnesota Star Tribune - October 29, 2025

Keeping it tight - There are four candidates for  mayor of Minneapolis. One is the incumbent, not respected by Crabgrass, but somebody liked him since he's now in the seat, challenged by three others.

Frey, the incumbent has name recognition, being generally favored  by ranked-choice voting, as a second or third choice because people know the name. To overcome that, the other three have formed a slate, a bloc saying "Rank Us." One, Omar Fateh, got the city convention's endorsement, but by politics the State Dems pulled it - probably because they like Frey, as a middle road waffle.

So, for any reader who votes in that election, Crabgrass not being there -

 

image from within strib report: https://www.startribune.com/omar-fateh-dewayne-davis-jazz-hampton-slate-for-change-minneapolis/601508381

Let Frey retire to raising Black Orchids, or some such. Put in progress, sweep out detritus. Crabgrass goes with the endorsement, if ranked-choice voting; Fateh first. the others 2 and 3, and Frey not anywhere at all on the ballot.

  Because of incumbency, with its name recognition, putting Frey anywhere on the ballot enhances the chance he'd again get the seat while progressive options exist. Frey is a dweeb. Full of himself, over-prone to use the veto to override will of the Council. Swell-headed that way.

Worth noting, Crabgrass, in the Strib headline quoted in the Crabgrass headline would replace the word "upend" at least with a neutral "change" or more favorably, "reform" with its two meanings of forming anew, and improving. Did I say, Frey is a dweeb? He is. 

Also worth noting - all four candidates are running as Democrats, if the local GOP dredges up some candidate it would be irrelevant. Only Dems win within that particular urban setting - citywide. Some council seats fall into bad hands, but the Republicans are always a  backwater few. With Dems holding the majority, and the mayoral seat. 

Get Frey out of there, and see the difference improvement. Opinions will vary. 

.

MTG is on the warpath. Not that it is an unusual thing. But it is newsworthy. MSN carries the story.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/greene-says-johnson-refused-to-share-health-care-plans-on-gop-conference-call/ar-AA1PmuPg 

The item includes a video, and text about the Georgia Congresscritter, and a real mean copyright statement so the excerpt is short and readers are exhorted to go to the original MSM linked item. Briefly -

 [video omitted]

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday called out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for not providing any plans on a Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and tax subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

“You left out that I said I have no respect for the House not being in session passing our bills and the President’s executive orders,” Greene wrote on social platform X, in response to a post from Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman following a recent GOP conference call.

“And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for healthcare is to build the off-ramp off Obamacare and the ACA tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans,” she added.

“Johnson said he’s got ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call,” the Georgia Republican continued.  

[,,,] The comments come after Johnson said Monday that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was working with the heads of three committees to develop a Republican health care plan.

Greene and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have been among Republicans who see health care premiums as being a serious risk to their campaigns in the 2026 midterms.

[...] 

According to a recent poll sponsored by Undue Medical Debt and led by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem, 69 percent of respondents believe health care is too expensive.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Well, leaving the video and analysis out but only excerpting their direct quoting, the poll included, and acknowledging the copyright statement by presenting it; fair use. Read it all at MSM. So, big copyright chestbeating while it's mostly quoting from Greene's X post, get real, live with fair use by Crabgrass.

UPDATE: While the noted/quoted item above omitted linking about Josh Hawley's backfilling, there is NBC:

After voting for Trump's megabill, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley wants to prevent a key Medicaid cut from taking effect

As Republicans face criticism for slashing Medicaid, Hawley tried to shift the focus to a less-noticed part of the law that will benefit victims of nuclear waste.

Hawley, on his congressional site, https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-op-ed-dont-cut-medicaid/ - spends much disingenuous text repudiating one of the major provisions of the bill he voted for, to cover his ass, apparently, as he mixes in dissing the dems and touting Trump. (NOT worth reader time).

HAZELWOOD, Mo. — Four days after President Donald Trump signed his “big, beautiful bill” into law, one of the Republicans who voted for it wasn’t interested in touting the measure’s high-profile tax, immigration or health care provisions.

Instead, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., held an event here Tuesday centered on a less-noticed part of the nearly 1,000-page bill: an expanded fund for victims of nuclear waste, a bipartisan issue he worked for years to get across the finish line.

And when asked about the steep Medicaid cuts in the bill, Hawley continued to criticize them. Hawley said his “goal” is to ensure the provider tax changes, which will limit state reimbursement for Medicaid, don't go into effect in Missouri in 2030 — even as he helped to pass a piece of legislation that will do just that.

It illustrates the challenges Republicans face as they turn their attention to selling to the public the massive bill they’ve been working on for months, ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

“I think that if Republicans don’t come out strong and say we’re going to protect rural hospitals, then, yeah, I think voters aren’t going to like that,” Hawley told NBC News in an interview at St. Cin Park. “The truth of the matter is, we shouldn’t be cutting rural hospitals. I’m completely opposed to cutting rural hospitals period. I haven’t changed my view on that one iota.”

Hawley suggested he would work with Democrats to cut prescription drug pricing, a priority Trump has said he wants Congress to focus on, to pay for the tax cuts made permanent by the new law.

[UPDATE] Hawley, on record, "Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs. More than that, our voters depend on those programs. And there’s a reason for this that Republicans would do well to ponder. Our economy is increasingly unfriendly to working people and their families." [end UPDATE - highlighting added] 

On the topic of health care, MSM has reported: Many voters say health care unaffordable, are open to new insurance system: Poll - the item stating in part -

New polling has found that the majority of voters say health care in the U.S. is unaffordable and are open to a health insurance system that doesn’t tie coverage to employment.

Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that works to eliminate medical debt and supports policies to prevent new debt, sponsored the poll, which was led by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem. Along with a national survey, focus groups were also asked for their opinions on health care.

The poll was provided first to The Hill.

So, while the first quoted item negligently declined to link to the poll, we now have it:  https://unduemedicaldebt.org/bipartisan-support-for-policies-that-protect-people-from-medical-debt/ - stating in part:

Voters Show Strong Bipartisan Support for Policies that Protect People from Medical Debt - New Study —

October 2025A new study sponsored by Undue Medical Debt finds that 2024 voters across party ID (Republicans, Independents and Democrats) agree that healthcare is unaffordable and health insurance coverage is failing people.  

Many respondents are under intense economic stress, and the high cost of healthcare is adding to the pressure. An overwhelming majority of voters recognize medical debt as a real and persistent threat — even those not experiencing a financial burden. For this reason, there is broad bipartisan support for states to pass commonsense laws that protect people from medical debt and associated burdens when they access healthcare. 

The goal of this study is to identify common ground among people of all political affiliations and backgrounds when it comes to protecting patients from medical debt. PerryUndem, a non-partisan research firm, conducted a series of focus groups and a survey. The following are insights from this research. 

About the Study

The study involved a 12-minute national survey of 1,319 2024 general election voters. The survey was fielded online from August 21 to September 2, 2025, using NORC’s nationally representative AmeriSpeak panel. The margin of sampling error for total survey results is ± 3.63 percentage points. 

Download Study

The remainder of that item is quality content, so read it there. At this point, the study is well presented in this item and in the "Download Study" linked item, so Crabgrass readers are strongly urged to follow the link after reading the balance of this item, as linked to earlier. As worthy of copyright protection, deference is given the study; no excerpt, read it all on the copyright holder's site.  They deserve the full hit-count readers will provide, if readers do rotor over. 

FURTHER: Title of Study - Healthcare Affordability and Medical Debt - Findings from a National Study of 2024 Voters 

[Copyright is a thicket since it seems "fair use" is in the eye of the beholder. And copyright can be a fertile field for SLAPP litigation, big guy deep-pocketing little guy, via  Stretegic Litigation Against Public Participation. 

Leave it at that.]

 

Big in Hong Kong. Why? I have no fucking idea. There is no understanding here, none. But this info is from Google Analytics - access in last 24 hrs -- other meager numbers make sense - more than expected - Thank You, Readers.

 

If any reader can explain the Hong Kong numbers with any reliability beyond mere guessing, then:

email = 4crabgrass@gmail.com

please do not spam the gmail account - please

 

It's been a while since Crabgrass featured the EFF. So - . . .

 As a "member" on the mailing list, there is this, from a most recent email -

Featured Story: Our Speech-Defending Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration

If "free speech" only applies to opinions the government approves of, it's not really that free, is it? This basic concept seems to be lost on the Trump administration, which is using the threat of immigration enforcement to suppress dissent online. This year, the government launched a sprawling surveillance program to spy on the social media activity of millions of noncitizens and punish those who express views it doesn't like. This unconstitutional surveillance program is wrong and we're suing to stop it.

Since taking power, the Trump administration has created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program (sometimes called "Catch and Revoke") surveils the social media accounts and other online speech of visa holders with the goal of identifying and punishing those who express viewpoints the government doesn't like. This has been paired with a public intimidation campaign, silencing not just noncitizens with immigration status, but also the families, coworkers, and friends with whom their lives are integrated.

As EFF Staff Attorney Sophia Cope told The Verge, “If we’re a country that values free speech, then we should value it for everyone who’s here. Otherwise, it doesn’t really mean very much.”

Three labor unions, represented by EFF and co-counsel, sued the Departments of State and Homeland Security this month because this viewpoint-based surveillance program violates the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. We're asking the court to stop this unconstitutional surveillance program which has silenced and frightened both citizens and noncitizens, and hampered the ability of the unions to associate with their members and potential members.

That sounds alright with me. Good luck to EFF and its lawyers, the cause seems just.

That said, there is more:

https://www.eff.org/ 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/its-time-take-back-ctrl 

After bookmarking (favorites) those sites, consider this about paywalled scholarly journal access ++ 

Creating and sharing knowledge are defining traits of humankind, yet copyright law has grown so restrictive that it can require acts of civil disobedience to ensure that students and scholars have the books they need and to preserve swaths of culture from being lost forever.

Reputable research generally follows a familiar pattern: Scientific articles are written by scholars based on their research—often with public funding. Those articles are then peer-reviewed by other scholars in their fields and revisions are made according to those comments. Afterwards, most large publishers expect to be given the copyright on the article as a condition of packaging it up and selling it back to the institutions that employ the academics who did the research and to the public at large. Because research is valuable and because copyright is a monopoly on disseminating the articles in question, these publishers can charge exorbitant fees that place a strain even on wealthy universities and are simply out of reach for the general public or universities with limited budgets, such as those in the global south. The result is a global human rights problem.

This model is broken, yet science goes on thanks to widespread civil disobedience of the copyright regime that locks up the knowledge created by researchers. Some turn to social media to ask that a colleague with access share articles they need (despite copyright’s prohibitions on sharing). Certainly, at least some such sharing is protected fair use, but scholars should not have to seek a legal opinion or risk legal threats from publishers to share the collective knowledge they generate.

Even more useful, though on shakier legal ground, are so-called “shadow archives” and aggregators such as SciHub, Library Genesis (LibGen), Z-Library, or Anna’s Archive. These are the culmination of efforts from volunteers dedicated to defending science.

SciHub alone handles tens of millions of requests for scientific articles each year and remains operational despite adverse court rulings thanks both to being based in Russia, and to the community of academics who see it as an ethical response to the high access barriers that publishers impose and provide it their log-on credentials so it can retrieve requested articles. SciHub and LibGen are continuations of samizdat, the Soviet-era practice of disobeying state censorship in the interests of learning and free speech.

Unless publishing gatekeepers adopt drastically more equitable practices and become partners in disseminating knowledge, they will continue to lose ground to open access alternatives, legal or otherwise.

EFF is proud to celebrate Open Access Week.

Related Updates

Deeplinks Blog by Rory Mir | October 24, 2025

Science Must Decentralize

Knowledge production doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every great scientific breakthrough is built on prior work, and an ongoing exchange with peers in the field. That’s why we need to address the threat of major publishers and platforms having an improper influence on how scientific knowledge is accessed—or outright suppressed...

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/civil-disobedience-copyright-keeps-science-going 

EFF does much other good stuff. They take donations.

https://www.eff.org/about 

https://supporters.eff.org/donate

 

No it isn't "BACK." The Republican House members, or at least their Whip, Tom Emmer, have made their congressional web CONTACT pages harder to get the message to them. To me, knowing they're responsible for the shutdown, but hiding from accountability, is crude. Face the music. Don't go hiding from the people telling you to STOP AND BE REASONABLE.

NO. NOT SO! --- source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/  --- Republicans sent AMERICA into SHUTDOWN!!

That "AMERICA IS BACK" is untrue - America is still half in hiding over causing the shutdown. 

Specifically, Republican House members, discernibly, are MIA and in hiding over their shutdown of out government - for example, compare contact pages at official gov sites, Amy Klobuchar vs. Tom Emmer. 

The formerly easy Emmer "contact page" thing is changed. Even using a capcha. They know responsibility for the shutdown is theirs, and want to avoid a landslide of public contact telling them so, and saying STOP! 

Repubs - Take responsibility, and accept accountability. Don't hide.

 Clearly it's speculative to base a conclusion of wanting to avoid a landslide of criticism, but the fact remains. It is easier for Citizen Crabgrass to navigate an opinion to Amy, rather than to Tom. 

That is an objective fact, and a Senator, one would expect, would be harder to reach than a local District Rep. Perhaps, Emmer being GOP Whip expects more grief over the shutdown, being in Repub leadership, and hence more responsible than rank and file GOP folks. But it's petty to hide. It shows. People notice.

It's cowardly.

_________________________UPDATE____________________

Still on whitehouse.gov, looking for truth. (Sad task)

From the site: 

 

Well. Compare a screen capture from today's online Strib homepage -

 The food crisis caused by the lengthy Trump Shutdown is the featured news. It has been featured by Strib earlier in the week - and before then. Since its beginning - People  - the more vulnerable among us needing food assistance - suffer most from the Trump Shutdown. They cannot afford supermarket prices, need assistance, and the Republican Party is denying them relief unless Democrats cave in on wanting healthcare kept affordable for most Americans. It is sick.

It is the Republican Party at its worse, and it hurts every one of us, some more than others. Except, Elon and Bezos and Larry Ellison's family, buying up media while milking cash cow ORACLE. They are above suffering, they and other billionaires such as Trump or Bloomberg, the Clintons, you can name more but there are some - many actually - with great enough wealth to weather Trump Shutdown suffering. In fact, they don't suffer at all. They want the bulk of the people to be dinged if they can gin up a few dollars more. They are The Trump Constituency. That's the truth. Not the horde of MAGA voters. The latter, expendable. The former, the essence of Trump 45 and Trump 47 beneficiaries. 

 CNN online, reporting its insight into the full reach of the food crisis -

The US Department of Agriculture has said it does not have the money to pay $8 billion in food stamp benefits for November amid the funding impasse on Capitol Hill that led the government to shut down on October 1. The agency argues it cannot tap into its roughly $6 billion contingency fund to cover next month’s benefits, though Democratic lawmakers and advocates claim the USDA should — or is even obligated to — use the money.

Without help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps, many recipients are going to have to decide whether to use their limited budgets to buy groceries, pay rent, fill prescriptions or turn on the heat, said Ed Bolen, director of state SNAP strategies for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Tell me again, which branch of the government runs the Ag Departimet? Who mandates its policies? Crabgrass was unable to find the word "Agriculture" anywhere on the whitehouse.gov homepage. If that word appears on the site's "Executive Actions" https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ sub-site, it must be on pages 2-41, buried there somewheere. Possibly. Not page 1 content.

Love Trump? If you can afford to Crabgrass cannot stop you. If you suffer because of it, love can hurt.

 FURTHER: Interested readers should try: search = Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The 501(C) operation has a wikipedia page. Homepage = https://www.cbpp.org/

Such search may help readers understand aspects of the Trump Shutdown; decencies and indecencies. The site does appear partisan, but with that in mind, consider its facts, suggestion and argument.

The Trump Shutdown continues. Politico reports.

‘They will pay a huge price for this’: Shutdown-ready Trump expects Democrats to blink

Many Democrats believe the White House is bluffing and insist Republicans will bear responsibility for a shutdown in the public eye because the GOP controls the government.

Controlling all three branches, Republicans thought they could roll over the opposition and impose a very Draconian plan of government attrition and loss of healthcare assists the people were enjoying.

In effect, playing chicken with all the power held in their hands. The Republicans have not explained why they believe the people should suffer lower health benefits while billionaires get tax breaks and all the funding comes from squeezing the people on taxes, in effect high taxation of the regular folks, while cutting their safety net with no plan whatsoever, other than to inflict suffering to make opposition more distressed and pliant.

That is a shameful way to govern. A petty tariff program where even Reagan understood the weakness a tariff war imposes on world economic reality. We suffer, all suffer, and the tariff business is changed daily to where businesses cannot do future planing if any part of their supply chain depends upon foreign products as a part of their needs. To produce and generate income they need to put product into commerce, and without an assured future product flow or cash flow, the employees are at far greater risk of loss of jobs and economic depression happening exactly when the Repubican bill would cut health safety.

It is a battle of one party against the other. Yes both suffer. But the suffering of the people will be worse longer if the Democrats give in, and say, "It is okay to harm the people your way, we need to end the shutdown." The Dems, in turn, are correct to hold the line against harming the people. 

POLITICO reported Wednesday that the Office of Management and Budget is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings during a government shutdown, specifically targeting employees who work for programs that are not legally required to continue.

“Historically, it’s the aggressor that always loses,” the senior White House official said. “And quite simply, their constituencies and their priorities are all going to get chewed up, and ours, not so much.”

The official said the second Trump administration is far better equipped to battle Democrats during a shutdown than it was when this happened during his first term.

Many Democrats believe the White House is bluffing about its sweeping layoff plans, and insist Republicans will bear responsibility for a shutdown in the public eye because the GOP controls the government.

Democrats are demanding Republicans negotiate a bipartisan stopgap spending measure. Among their asks is for the GOP to extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies, which were expanded by Congress in 2021 and are due to sunset at the end of the year.

President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Democrats for making “unserious and ridiculous” demands, foreshadowing what is likely to be the go-to talking point should neither side blink ahead of the Tuesday night deadline.

“He read all the shit they’re asking for, and he said, ‘on second thought, go fuck yourself,’” the White House official said.

If that strikes you as a seriously flawed way to approach governing a nation where future relialabiliy of the ability for businesses to plan, you are then now understanding why Democrats are so frustrated. The Democrats cannot end the standoff. The Republicans hold all power to end things easily, but will not.

Meanwhile Trump is tearing down a third of the White House itself, for a ballroom. A place to play and party while the entire nation is being run through the ringer. It is irresponsible, and unnecessarily hard upon the people for Trump running his party to harm things to hurt so badly that he reckons the Dems will show up surrender flag in hand, and allow all he'd do. But HE HAS NO REAL PLAN, AND JUGGLES TARIFFS DAILY, TO FIT THE WHIM OF THE DAY. TO FIT THE IMAGINED HARM OR DISRESPECT HE BELIEVES OTHER NATIONS ARE AIMING AT HIM, HIM, THE AGGRESSOR.

We suffer. We wait for some sensible Republicans to break ranks and be reasonable. The wait could be long.

 

Medicare Advantage - Explained in terms you can understand.

 John Oliver. UnitedHealthcare, a Minnesota Company, gets its due mention. (Luigi knows)

 

TURNING THE TABLE: Suing against a SLAPP from the Trump family, Melania, ostensibly the perp, but The Donald is the man behind the woman fronting the thing. A preemptive suit, against a threatened suit, no more, no less. Quite a nice story. Filed in a New York State trial court, not otherwise, other places.

The short written item explaining things.

The complaint Michael Wolff filed, in pdf format. 

The better source, the video in which Wolff explains it all. If you don't watch, you'll wish you had.

Pop the popcorn. This might be the Trump SLAPP tactic, tried one time too many, and the one that blows up in his face.

 

Talking dildo.

 Mike Johnson Slams Hakeem Jeffries For Endorsing Mamdani

The speaker has shut down the house over constraint and denial of health care relief to those in need among the nation's people, and now he's dumping a load on Mamdani, who has a more Christian attitude toward those in need than the speaker. 

James 2:14-26
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. …

It is noted that Crabgrass is not posing as a Christian, but has some understanding of things like the golden rule, without a tattoo of a Jerusalam Cross for show, in whatever sense such a body mark is taken.

The wealth of the nation is great enough to not weaponize healthcare as a control device against any of us.

UPDATE: Not an endorsement, but taking notice of what's there to notice.

Whitney Webb will talk to different people, and seems to get away with saying precautionary things without being squashed.

 Here and here.

 UPDATE: Here.

Consider, as a hypothetical, Ghislaine Maxwell was running the operation, after dad was snuffed off his yacht, ("Lady Ghislaine" being the yacht's name); with Epstein a part, in the honey pot dimension, but with broader goals and operations. Robert Maxwell had several offspring, none others getting the yacht name.

FURTHER: With Glenn Beck. Eugenics mentioned, which brings to mind, who installed the Georgia Guidestones, and who blew up a part at night, escaping into the night, with the remainder quickly torn down and scrapped too, similar to scrapping after 9/11 being a behind-scenes thing. Or not? What we're given to see, War Department, and Wikipedia here and here. The Guidestones debris seems to have been all scrapped with no fanfare or relics.

FURTHER: If there is an ongoing Epstein operation, with Epstein absent via death, or faked death and having moved to something like witness protection program while death was faked, and if Maxwell was running Epstein as the senior operator, where would be a safe site for Maxwell to continue, once having been checked out as on record per Todd Blanch, not a boat rocker but a diligent ongoing team member. 

A country club prison is safer than a pizza parlor, given the pizza parlor story involving Ms. Clinton, subsequently had a gunman show up. You want a safe operation, put it inside a prison, and Todd Blanch comes to you, you are not chained up and brought to Todd Blanch. It's all a hypothetical so allow the goal posts to be moved somewhat, in speculative mode.

[UPDATED] Conspiracy speculation. It means the same as "conspiracy theory" but has not become a right wing whipping child terminology honed to discredit things without thought at play.

 This is Charlie Kirk's last Sept 9 America First broadcast, guest Ben Shapiro. This is a nutshell summary of the thing filmed and broadcast, which could have been written by an AI summarization LLM tool thing. If you do not watch (recommended), at least read the nutshell.

The date on this short YouTube item is unclear, but it is thought by Crabgrass to have been shortly after the Oct 6 events with Israeli deaths and hostage taking. Edite[Ud from a larger item, and posted to YouTube much more recently. That could be wrong and it might have been recorded more recently. 

Days after that last show linked to above, Kirk was gunned down on the Utah campus.

There is a lot of stuff on the web about his persona, and his death. This is a quite short item to read and think over. This is a fairly presented non-conclusory post-death item published by a Jewish outlet. It mentions ideas - speculation - that Israel may have turned on Kirk, at sensitive times, and too big to be an independent loose cannon kind of influencer.

This YouTube ietm now is the clincher - what grabbed my attention. It is by a sensationalist presenter, one I trust generally however, to raise interesting things to dwell over. Ambiguous and painfully repetitious, but chilling and posing something not normal as a reaction, where others showed the normal situation. Put aside the tone of the thing, and just consider the video of the Kirk senior staffer's actions. It is hard to explain. 

Make sense of it if you can, and otherwise keep it well in mind over time as the FBI's perp gets processed by the Trump DOJ/FBI and things could pinch a bit as being contrived, too nailed down/put together, or  strange. Tucker Carlson has speculative items online, but, no link posted here, so find what you will by your own search as much as you care to. Track down Carlson's wierd short speech at the post-shooting love-in thing that JD hosted. It is separately online, so the whole insipid thing can be avoided.

We live in interesting times.

_______________________UPDATE______________________ 

The Charlie Kirk/Israel Oct 7 speculation clip showing up on the web in several undated clips, is fleshed out a bit in this Facebook clip, and - most importantly - is part of the complete Oct 12, 2023, podcast in which Kirk questioned Israel's October 7 narrative (during an appearance on the Patrick Bet-Davide (PDB) podcast). The Kirk/Oct. 7 deliberative part starts at the 25 min or 25-1/2 min point in that podcast, with a preliminary topic intro by another speaker, so it's not new content.

(Readers might enjoy the full podcast, for what it is and how it moves between topics and shows thought different from those of Crabgrass. It is there in full, for what it is.)

For provocative online content closer to before Kirk was shot dead in Utah, try search = bill ackman giving charlie kirk an offer he couldn't refuse but did --- one of several interesting returned links:

https://thegrayzone.com/2025/09/12/charlie-kirk-netanyahu-israel-assassination/ 

 

Oposition to Fascism. Fascists are not good people, having no real respect for due process and rule of law. They want those against them and their powers to suffer and be silenced.

 Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! segment, that way.

 

Steve Timmer has awarded another trademarked fatuous bastard award, and this one earned special attention.

 left.mn specific link having this opening paragraph quoted from a posted full item that earned the award -

 As a lifelong Second Amendment advocate residing in the great state of Minnesota [really, deep in the febrile crescent], I feel compelled to write in defense of a right that forms the bedrock of our freedoms, a right that too often is diluted in public discourse to mere hobbies or traditions. In Minnesota, where our vast landscapes and rural communities rely on self-reliance, the Second Amendment stands as an unyielding guardian against overreach, ensuring that citizens remain sovereign in the face of potential tyranny.

The second amendment, not the first, is "the bedrock of our freedoms"?

Chairman Mao has said, "Political power comes from the muzzle of a gun." This fatuous bastard is then a Maoist? Wisdom has it, "If you go carrying a picture of Chairman Mao. You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow."

Who would I be to go against established creed? Who is this fatuous bastard to go against Beattle wisdom? Give Timmer a "Got One" award for the insight and display. Exposing a possible Maoist 'mongst us.

Or do I connect two disparate authority sources wrongly, presuming too much? 

 

Hakeem Jeffries endorses Mandami. From Jeffries, with his history toward progressives and democratic socialists in particular, this is a softening, for show or for real is a question, but attribute best motives and say Jeffries is showing awareness of real events, and is not inflexible about other outlooks besides his own.

 An Oct 24 story, Newsweek:

Why It Matters

Jeffries’ endorsement of Mamdani signals a significant shift in New York’s Democratic power structure, bridging a months-long divide between establishment leaders and the party’s progressive wing. As the House minority leader and a national figure, Jeffries’ support lends institutional legitimacy to Mamdani’s candidacy and may influence undecided voters ahead of early voting.

The move also highlights the Democratic Party’s internal reckoning over its ideological future, especially in urban strongholds like New York City. With key figures like Governor Kathy Hochul and Speaker of the New York State Assembly Carl Heastie already on board, Jeffries’ endorsement isolates remaining holdouts and underscores the growing influence of Democratic socialists in mainstream politics. It sets the stage for contentious debates over policy, party unity, and electoral strategy heading into the 2026 midterms.

Mamdani has shaken the political field in New York City, winning the Democratic nomination over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's now running as an independent. He has consistently been leading in the polls. The state assemblymember has been celebrated by many young progressives as well as endorsed by top Democrats, while criticized by conservatives and some moderates concerned about what the city would look like under his leadership.

What To Know

Jeffries' endorsement of Mamdani for New York City mayor comes months of internal party pressure and strategic hesitation. Jeffries acknowledged the two Democrats differences, telling the Times, they have "areas of principled disagreement," but also noted that Mamdani won "a free and fair election" in the primary, and the importance of a united party against the "existential" threat of President Donald Trump.

The House minority leader also said in his statement, "Assemblyman Mamdani has promised to focus on keeping every New Yorker safe, including the Jewish community that has confronted a startling rise in antisemitic incidents as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods that have battled deadly gun violence for years."

Jeffries’ backing aligns him with top Democrats who have recently rallied behind Mamdani, with Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, set to rally alongside Mamdani in Queens on Sunday. Other prominent local Democrats, including Heastie and Representatives Jerry Nadler and Yvette Clarke have already endorsed Mamdani.

The move leaves Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as the last major holdout among state Democratic leadership. Jeffries, who previously deflected questions about Mamdani, has expressed admiration for the candidate’s affordability agenda and concern over his rhetoric and policy execution. On Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who ended his reelection campaign last month, endorsed Cuomo in the race.

Schumer's position is awaited. Will he balk, or join? 

UPDATE: To say Jeffries is now bending to pressures from others is to deny that one can grow in scope and outlook, and reach new and possibly altered conclusions. Earlier Business Insider reporting noted and quoted in concluding paragraphs:  

In 2021, Jeffries started Team Blue, a PAC formed specifically to protect Democratic incumbents from primary challengers. His co-founder was Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a conservative Democrat who also staunchly opposed the Build Back Better Act.

The congressman has also made statements declaring pro-Israel beliefs and has supported legislation that would penalize companies and Americans that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

"There's a difference between progressive Democrats and hard-left democratic socialists," Jeffries told the Atlantic in 2021. "I'm a Black progressive Democrat concerned with addressing racial and social and economic injustice with the fierce urgency of now. That's been my career, that's been my journey, and it will continue to be as I move forward for however long I have an opportunity to serve. There will never be a moment where I bend the knee to hard-left democratic socialism."

The man has grown. Not that a House leader better equipped and attuned cannot be proposed or found, just that he's grown. He needs to grow more, but there is time and opportunity aplenty for him, as he may choose or not. Junking Gottheimer cleanly and with finality would certainly be a show of good faith.

Don't bet on it, but is there a better litmus test? 

 

 

The miserable schmuck and his trade war tariffs killing the welfare of millions of Americans: "On Thursday Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.” Trump doubled down on his criticism of the Ontario ads again on Friday and accused Canada of trying to influence an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his global tariff regime. Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations has further inflamed trade tensions between the neighbors and longtime allies."

Yes you see the headline, from paragraphs within an AP item carred in PiPress. 

Also, from within that AP item there is a link to YouTube, embedded there also, here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/4eB_36uVfM0 

Yes, the Gipper himself, a radio address from 1987, proving Trump the lying schmuck he sometimes is. How FAKE does it look to you?

 

Trump and crypto filth - reporting from before Zhao of Binance fame got his fortuitous pardon. Out of the blue? Not entirely.

 

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/a5e7/live/363d1870-8820-11f0-9c95-4f9ad5a1a24f.jpg.webp

First, the Crabgrass evaluation is that crypto is nothing but selling a piece of the big blue sky. No nation's promise is backing the "currency," only the market price mechanism, which kept Bankman Fried afloat until it didn't, and he's still in the slammer for years while Zhao only got months, already served, since Binance stayed solvent and operative while paying out a fine of $4 billion - solvent for reasons Crabgrass cannot really comprehend other than market trust still holds, and presumably Binancet tighened its just-say-no to money laundering sloth - with solvency vs investor pain and loss mattering. That's the preamble, so now the story -

MJ from mid-March of this year, for context behind yesterdays' Zhou pardon:

Report: Trump Family May Invest in Crypto Giant Binance as Founder Seeks Pardon

If Trump becomes a Binance investor, he could also be business partners with UAE’s royal family.

Pool via AP

The Trump family has allegedly been discussing a possible investment in the crypto exchange Binance—a deal that, especially in light of Binance’s multi-billion-dollar valuation, would raise a host of conflict-of-interest questions. The discussions were first revealed by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which also reported that Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, is simultaneously seeking a presidential pardon after pleading guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering laws.

Zhao disputed the Journal’s reporting, posting on X Thursday that the paper “got the facts wrong” and that he’d “had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone.”

On top of the ethical issues raised by the possible entanglement of executive clemency powers with a lucrative financial transaction, such an investment deal could also turn the Trump family into business partners with a Middle Eastern royal family.

News of the alleged Binance talks comes one day after an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX Fund Management, announced it is making a $2 billion investment in Binance, securing a minority stake in the exchange. MGX’s chairman is Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan—who is the national security adviser for the United Arab Emirates and brother of the UAE’s current ruler, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Tahnoun bin Zayed is also the chairman of a separate investment firm called G42 Just last year, the Republican-led House Select Committee on China raised concerns over that firm’s close connections with the Chinese government and its possible involvement in the transfer of sensitive American technology to China through a deal it proposed with Microsoft. (Microsoft later added safeguards to the deal in response to congressional concerns.)

Zhao founded Binance in 2017, and it quickly grew to be one of the most important crypto exchanges in the business, alongside Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. In fact, it was a failed merger and personal acrimony between the two companies and their founders that seemed to trigger the collapse of FTX. But Binance ran into its own troubles when, following years of criticism over its security and privacy practices, the company in 2023 was charged with money laundering and sanctions evasion. Among other accusations, the US government charged that the company had helped users evade sanctions against Russia, Iran, and Cuba. A Reuters report found that Korean hacking groups, investment frauds, and drug networks all had used the exchange to move money.

Eventually, the company agreed to a $4 billion fine, and Zhao agreed to resign and personally pay a $50 million fine. He also served four months in prison.

MJ references a WSJ (paywalled) thread -

According to the Journal’s report Thursday, the possibility of bringing on the Trump family as investors was first raised by Binance, and Steve Witkoff, a Trump family friend who was recently named as the US special envoy to the Middle East, has been involved in the discussions. Witkoff has known Trump for decades, and last year his son, Zach Witkoff, founded the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial crypto company. The Journal reported that an administration official denied involvement by Steve Witkoff in any Binance talks.

The Journal reported that one source indicated that Binance may be seeking to follow the path blazed by crypto investor Justin Sun, who was facing a civil fraud investigation by the SEC under the Biden administration. Last fall, Sun invested $75 million into the World Liberty Financial platform—triggering an $18 million payday for Trump. Last month, the SEC announced it was halting its investigation into Sun. 

After the Zhao pardon, it seems Trump favors Chinese folks with money routing to him and family, given that the "$18 million payday" link at the end of the last paragraph above fleshes out as - 

A Chinese national, charged with fraud by the SEC, just sent Donald Trump $18 million

Judd Legum - Dec 02, 2024

Chinese Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $6.2 million for a banana — sold by Sotheby's as conceptual art — and then ate it last Friday.

The banana is not Sun's most notable recent purchase.

On November 25, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, a new crypto venture backed by President-elect Donald Trump. Sun said his company, TRON, was committed to "making America great again."

World Liberty Financial planned to sell $300 million worth of crypto tokens, known as WLF, which would value the new company at $1.5 billion. But, before Sun's $30 million purchase, it appeared to be a bust, with only $22 million in tokens sold. Sun now owns more than 55% of purchased tokens.

Sun's decision to buy $30 million in WLF tokens has direct and immediate financial benefits for Trump. [...]

Feed the trough, get the pardon seems a repeat story, one drolling slime all over the place. The item continues:

A filing by the company in October revealed that "$30 million of initial net protocol revenues" will be "held in a reserve… to cover operating expenses, indemnities, and obligations." After the reserve is met, a company owned by Donald Trump, DT Marks DEFI LLC, will receive "75% of the net protocol revenues."

So before Sun's purchase, Trump was entitled to nothing because the reserve had not been met. But Sun's purchase covered the entire reserve, so now Trump is entitled to 75% of the revenues from all other tokens purchased. As of December 1, there have been $24 million WLF tokens sold, netting Trump $18 million.

Sun is also joining World Liberty Financial as an advisor, making Sun and the incoming president business partners.

While Trump has the cash, Sun's tokens are effectively worthless. To comply with U.S. securities law, WLF tokens are "non-transferable and locked indefinitely in a wallet or smart contract until such time, if ever, [WLF tokens] are unlocked through protocol governance procedures in a fashion that does not contravene applicable law." The only thing that Sun can do with his tokens is participate in the "governance" of World Liberty Financial. Right now, the only thing World Liberty Financial does is sell tokens.

Any foreign national paying an incoming president $18 million weeks before entering the White House should raise red flags. Sun's purchase is even more alarming because the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently prosecuting him for fraud.

[...] Major media outlets obsessed with banana, ignore Sun's payment to Trump

A foreign national under federal fraud prosecution making a purchase that results in $18 million cash payment to the president-elect has all the makings of a major scandal. But it has been virtually ignored by several major media outlets.

The New York Times, for example, has published five articles about Sun's purchase of the banana but none about Sun's $30 million purchase of WLF tokens and his business partnership with Trump. The Washington Post has published three articles about the banana, but its coverage of Sun's purchase of WLF tokens was limited to one short paragraph in a larger editorial about the crypto industry.

So, Trump gets a benefit, while MSM goes bananas. 

You decide, what's the more telling story, especially after Zhou got his, Trump-family adventures got theirs, and people voted for the creep, that being the most unfortunate part of any Trump saga. He'd gone casino bust, but propagandized those little red caps.

While having noted US MSM was more enthralled by Mr. Sun and his expensive banana meal we move on to better reporting coverage choosing. The opening image is from BBC coverage =

Trump and sons' stake in crypto firm worth $5bn

2 September 2025 - Natalie Sherman - BBC News

The crypto token backed by the Trump family has started publicly trading, giving the holdings owned by the US president and his sons a value of roughly $5bn (£3.7bn).

The Trumps launched crypto firm World Liberty Financial in the middle of the presidential campaign last year, drawing questions about potential conflicts of interest as he became entangled in an industry he would be poised to regulate.

The company raised money by selling its eponymous digital tokens to investors, who were initially barred from selling.

But investors voted in July to allow early purchasers, not including founders like Trump family, to sell up to 20% of their holdings of the coin, which trades as WLFI.

As of Tuesday, WLFI was trading at around $0.22 on exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, after sinking roughly 50% since the start of trading on Monday.

While the fall indicates tepid demand, the coin is still trading at a higher price than what many early buyers would have paid initially, putting them in line for profit.

"We're setting a new standard for financial freedom; built on trust, speed, and U.S. values," Eric Trump wrote on social media. "This is a huge moment for the future of money!", 

Those fuckers have no shame. First, "trust" may have a lesser role than Eric Trump says, other factors just might be at play, ahd "huge moment for the future of money" is ambiguous whose future money is being sung to the world by the Trump son. 

A month ago MSM carried an item beginning -

Digital tokens tied to World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency launched by former President Donald Trump alongside his family during his 2024 campaign, began open trading Monday, quickly generating more than $1 billion in transactions in the first hour, according to CoinMarketCap.

The project has ballooned in value over the past year, buoyed by Trump’s own deregulatory push from the White House and his public championing of the industry’s potential to bolster the U.S. economy. While the token fell rather quickly in the first day of trading, the Wall Street Journal reported the family’s holdings could now be worth as much as $5 billion, rivaling the value of their real estate portfolio. The growth of the cryptocurrency raises questions about whether the Trump family’s growing crypto fortune creates conflicts of interest.

Les Borsai, a government consultant and co-founder of Wave Digital Assets, told Scripps News the dynamic isn’t entirely without precedent. He pointed to previous presidents who carried private business ties into the Oval Office: Jimmy Carter’s peanut farm, and the Kennedy family’s real estate and finance holdings – though blind trusts were ultimately enacted in both cases.

“When you're a business person, or you have business interests coming into the White House, you're always going to have controversy around it,” Borsai told Scripps News. “I would rather have an administration that understands the underlying technologies than someone that doesn't. It could change what the future of finance looks like.”

I don't know wtf Les Borsai is, other than a Trump syncophant, of which Trump seems to find an unending supply, while, ostensibly, draining some swamp or other that he'd preelection he'd drain, and it seems one swamp-tromper after another gets an admin thing or other, or says something about Trump greatness.

The above is a sampling of returned items from a web search = trump family crypto money making conflict interest

Readers can try such a search, or feed it into somebody's LLM hot item, and see what turns up.

The above sampling is in support and explanation of the Zhou pardon, see following post.