Closing the tabs ...
Elon Musk’s X has reportedly regained a $44 billion valuation – the same price the world’s richest person paid to buy the social media site in 2022.
The company formerly known as Twitter was valued at $44 billion in a recent secondary financing round in which investors exchanged existing shares in X, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
A separate report by Bloomberg said X raised nearly $1 billion in new equity from investors – with Musk himself participating in the financing round.
Ed: Domestic terrorists hardest hit.
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Ed: My earlier thoughts can be found here. I also raised the point about the cameras on Tesla's cars, but there are also cameras practically everywhere now, especially in public spaces. I suspect that the FBI will quickly find about 80% of the perps, which will likely lead to the money behind these efforts, and that will lead to the other 20% soon enough.
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So even if the “Tesla Takedown” movement succeeds beyond the wildest imaginations of its organizers and deals a significant blow to Tesla, Elon Musk will in no way be strapped for cash anytime soon. The man has effectively hacked capitalism, and he will never in his lifetime find himself with limited access to his own or outsiders’ capital.
The more imaginative “Tesla Takedown” organizers know they will never deprive Elon Musk of wealth. So, what’s the real goal here?
The goal of “Tesla Takedown” is to employ domestic terrorism through the use of violence, fear, and intimidation to achieve its political objectives. The movement aims to coerce the Trump Administration into conceding to its demands by amplifying the psychological impact of their actions beyond the immediate victims to create widespread disruption.
Ed: That is by definition "domestic terrorism." That was Bondi's point today, and likely will be her prosecutors' point in court, too.
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🚨KEVIN O’LEARY: TIM WALZ IS A TOTAL “BOZO” FOR CHEERING TESLA STOCK DROP!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 20, 2025
“That poor guy didn't check HIS portfolio and HIS OWN PENSION PLAN for his state…! What’s the matter with that guy!? He doesn't check the well-being of his own constituents?” pic.twitter.com/dvkPhouqKH
Ed: Well put, and notice that the CNN host climbed down rather quickly.
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Republicans argued that this prohibits all noncitizens from casting ballots. Democrats on the City Council who defended the law said this language should be viewed as a floor rather than a ceiling, and that local governments have the power to expand the franchise further if they wish.
In a decision handed down by the Court of Appeals on Thursday, the judges brushed off the Democratic argument by a 6-1 margin.
“Under that interpretation, municipalities are free to enact legislation that would enable anyone to vote – including … thirteen-year-old children,” Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote for the majority.
“It is plain from the language and restrictions contained in [the state constitution] that ‘citizen’ is not meant as a floor, but as a condition of voter eligibility: the franchise extends only to citizens whose right to vote is established by proper proofs,” Wilson wrote.
Ed: Good for the NY Court of Appeals, which is its highest court. (They use "supreme court" for what we would normally call district courts.) Perhaps this bodes well for some of the reviews already under way in the cases involving Donald Trump.
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NEW: Man flips off a 3 year old child because he was offended by a pink Cybertruck in Las Vegas, Nevada.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 20, 2025
Flipping off a 3 year old to teach Elon Musk a lesson is insane.
“All this over a cybertruck is insane! And I had to roll up my son’s window because at first he pulled up to… pic.twitter.com/bG4jZIQW8q
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We have identified one Columbia professor, neuropsychologist Jennifer J. Manly, who participated in the pro-Hamas protests and stood in a human blockade intending to prevent administrators from dismantling the unauthorized encampments last April. In photos taken of the event, Manly is visible wearing an orange vest and standing with fellow Columbia professors as they marched for Gaza, in front of banners reading “Demilitarize education” and “Palestine is Everywhere”; others called for financial boycott and divestment from Israel.
Our research has revealed that Manly is not only employed by the university but also subsidized by the American taxpayer. According to the National Institutes of Health and other publicly accessible databases, she has been named in connection with over $100 million in grants over the past 20 years. Much of her research is based on the so-called social determinants of health thesis, which posits that racism, sexism, and homophobia can cause brain disease in “Black and Latinx communities”—a thesis that critics have described as pseudo-science. (Manly, Columbia, and NIH did not return requests for comment.)
Ed: No one will be deporting Manly; we don't deport Americans. But we can defund Columbia and keep her from receiving taxpayer money for her political activism. And perhaps we can just defund Academia entirely so that the Manlys of the world have to deal with real marketplace consequences for radical insanity.
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Tom Homan from his throne: "No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heard. They hire them to...pay them less." pic.twitter.com/lQb9OnhTuZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 20, 2025
Ed: Exactly. That's why business interests have pushed back against e-Verify for years.
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A senior official at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is taking a leadership role at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press, giving DOGE a top job at an agency that it has helped to dismantle.
Jeremy Lewin, who has played a central role in DOGE's government-cutting efforts at USAID and other federal agencies, becomes at least the second DOGE lieutenant to be appointed to a top job at an agency during the Trump administration, further formalizing the work of Musk's associates in the federal government.
Ed: It further indemnified the work of DOGE at USAID and makes it more difficult for judges to unwind it. There has been a significant legal impediment for the administration in having outsiders make these changes. If Lewin orders the changes, it will be more difficult to challenge on procedural grounds. It's not yet clear whether Lewib will require Senate confirmation, but that probably won't be a significant hurdle ... thanks to Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.
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Catching up on this hearing from last week and almost died laughing.
— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@kristina_wong) March 20, 2025
After @maziehirono slams the deployment of the military to the border, @SenDanSullivan notes he deployed to the border as a Marine…under Clinton.
She completely loses it, accuses him of insulting her. pic.twitter.com/LvLa4L9sZO
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A total of 98 reviews are in, meaning every reviewer received exclusive access from Disney’s public relations department to an early screening for critics. The earliest Normal people can see it is this afternoon.
This means that all of those 98 are “on Disney’s approved reviewer list,” and you know most of them wanted to love Snow White, wanted to redeem the movie just to stick a finger in the eye of MAGA, and kiss Disney’s sweet ass.
But.
The movie sucks so hard, they couldn’t even do that.
Ed: Christian Toto gave it a better rating than ... Rolling Stone. Now that's an eye-opener. It dipped down to 46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 123 reviews today, even with the field mainly populated by Disney's invited critics. Let's see what audiences think, though.
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AOC: "Biden should ignore judges." (2023) pic.twitter.com/7vMbkPdrJo
— Crazy Vibes (@CrazyVibes_1) March 20, 2025
Ed: Always worth reminding everyone about the hypocrisy of the Left's hysteria.
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