Epstein Class Billionaires Rig The System: Follow the money behind Lutnick tariff profiteering

                 

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Follow and Share on Social Media Epstein Class Billionaires Rig The System: Follow the money behind Lutnick tariff profiteering Lutnick was one of Trump’s most significant financial backers in the 2024 election cycle. He was the 31st biggest donor to outside spending groups in the entire 2024 election cycle, contributing over $14 million exclusively to conservative groups. — Open Secrets Lutnick’s sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick are building a crypto business with Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump. The same Trump sons who are part of the administration their father runs. The same administration where Howard Lutnick controls sanctions and export policy. — Narativ It’s corrupt as hell. Any way you look at this it’s corrupt as hell. It typifies the heads-I-win-tails-you-lose rules that the billionaire class and their sub-billionaire toadies live by. — TPM Did the Lutnick sons bet against their father’s tariffs? Explore how Cantor Fitzgerald positioned to profit from the 2026 SCOTUS ruling by buying refund rights at a 70% discount. Follow the money with this interactive map and decide for yourself. Follow the money Epstein class billionaires plunder America Insider trading or smart business? Follow the Senate investigation into Howard Lutnick’s family firm and the 2026 “IEEPA Rights” loophole that unmasked the #DigitalGrift. “20 to 30 cents on the dollar” is the specific rate at which Cantor was reportedly buying refund claims before the February 20 ruling. The Penn Wharton Budget Model figure of $175 billion, which is the official baseline for total possible refunds following the “Liberation Day” tariff defeat. Brandon (27) and Kyle (29) reportedly own an 80% share of the firm, making the “divestment” claim a primary focus of the House Oversight “Extraction Culture” report. “IEEPA Rights” is the the financial product at the center of the scandal. TakeAway: Hold Republicans accountable for letting their billionaire donors get away with plundering America. Deepak DemLabs DISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH THE DATA FOUND IN THIS BLOG AND INFOGRAPHIC HAS BEEN PRODUCED AND PROCESSED FROM SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE, NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED CAN BE MADE REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, LEGALITY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SUCH INFORMATION. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ANY USES OF THE INFORMATION WHETHER ISOLATED OR AGGREGATE USES THEREOF. Read in browser »                    Recent Articles: Trump cabinet preaching Christian values rocked by sex scandals: How do you spell hypocrite? When TikTok censored mentions of “Epstein”: How we used AI to collect and directly broadcast updates on Trump — Epstein files Feb 20 Trump — Epstein files update: Shady gynecologist and hidden Epstein bank records Cartoons For Democracy: Volunteers saving the 2026 Polls with Sharpies & Satire Feb 19 Trump — Epstein relationship map update: Former British prince arrested, rape allegations by child victim against Trump and a grifting duchess.

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Breaking: 2.5 million acres of Oregon forests on the chopping block

                

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Breaking news: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) just announced plans to dramatically increase logging on up to 2.5 million acres of public lands in Oregon, including some of the last remaining old-growth forests in the state.1 This plan would be devastating for endangered species including coho salmon, spotted owls and marbled murrelets. Environment America is sounding the alarm and mobilizing grassroots action to protect Oregon's mature and old-growth forests. Will you make a donation to help us defend Oregon's old-growth and mature forests? America's old-growth forests provide essential habitat for thousands of wildlife species, clean drinking water sources for tens of millions of Americans and endless opportunities for recreation.2 We visit our public forests every year to hike, fish and reconnect with nature. But the BLM's western Oregon forest plan could eliminate old-growth and wildlife protections in order to facilitate "maximum" logging capacity across nearly 2.5 million acres of public lands.3 The plan would slash protections for remaining ancient trees or old-growth forest areas, and it could expand clear-cutting. It would also shrink logging buffer zones around waterways for endangered fish. It simply makes no sense. That's why we're ramping up our emergency effort to defend the forests of western Oregon from logging. Donate now to help save our forests. Thank you, Lisa Frank Executive Director 1. "BLM launches public comment on western Oregon timber plan to advance Trump administration priorities," Bureau of Land Management, February 18, 2026. 2. Rylee Shear and Ellen Montgomery, "America's Oldest Forests and Clean Drinking Water," Environment America, February 22, 2025. 3. Scott Streater, "BLM proposes dramatic logging expansion in western Oregon," E&E Daily, February 18, 2026. Your donation will be used to support all of our campaigns to protect the environment, from saving the bees and protecting public lands, to standing up for clean water and fighting climate change. None of our work would be possible without supporters like you.

Environment America, Inc. 1543 Wazee Street, Suite 410, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 801-0581 Member Questions or Requests: 1-800-401-6511 Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

AI, Crypto, and AIPAC ads in Illinois

               

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Dark money groups are spending MILLIONS of dollars to handpick your representatives in Congress. We defeated them in New Jersey when Analilia Mejia — who doesn’t take a cent of corporate PAC money — won the primary in New Jersey’s 11th District earlier this month, but now the dark money groups are back. Now look at what’s happening in these House races in Illinois. The primary election is on March 17 — and voters are getting bombarded with political ads from groups like “FairShake”, “Elect Chicago Women”, and “Affordable Chicago Now”. The ads are in support of the opponents of Robert Peters in Illinois' 2nd district, Junaid Ahmed in Illinois’ 8th district, and Daniel Biss in Illinois’ 9th district. But who’s funding these ads? AIPAC, crypto billionaires, and the AI industry. Organizations looking to handpick representatives who will pay to play. And they are hiding their motives from voters. Their ads don’t even mention the special interests they really represent. These groups are pushing for politicians in Congress who will go to work every day for THEIR interests — not for the interests of the voters who actually live in the districts they’re blanketing with ads. Voters have a choice that these special interests are trying to distort: We can either elect fighters who will unrig this broken system or pick more of the same failed status quo. It’s time to fight back and show that working people are more powerful than special interests. So please, if you can, split a donation of $15 or anything you can between Robert Peters, Junaid Ahmed, Daniel Biss, and our movement to fight back against these special interests and send real, progressive champions to Congress. I’ve endorsed these three candidates because they don’t take a dime of corporate PAC money, and they’ll actually fight to lower costs for your family instead of fighting for AIPAC, crypto billionaires, and the AI industry’s bottom lines. Thanks for being a part of this, Elizabeth

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Donald Trump Scores Two Holes-in-None

With The Contrarian Caddying--Publisher's Roundup 55

The Contrarian and Norman Eisen Feb 21

In good news for Contrarians and all Americans, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the tariffs Donald Trump imposed on a variety of nations grossly exceed his constitutional power. Though Trump immediately threatened to reimpose tariffs in some other way and accused the justices of being “under foreign influence,” this is the latest of hundreds of decisions by courts at every level against him.

For all our vehement disagreements with the Roberts Court’s, this also represents a triple bogey at SCOTUS with respect to Trump’s abuse of emergency powers. First, the court denied him authorization to use the Alien Enemies Act to target migrants based on bogus claims of alien invasion. Then, the court shut down his abuse of the National Guard because there was no emergency regular forces could not deal with. And now his attempt to deploy tariffs because of a supposed trade emergency has been blocked.

The Contrarian not only covered all of those wins for democracy and rule of law – but you Contrarians also played a key role in them. That is because your paid subscriptions power my and my colleagues’s pro-democracy litigation in these and literally hundreds of other cases and matters.

For example, in the tariffs case, you helped support brief after brief from some of our nation’s most distinguished conservatives, representing every presidential administration from Nixon to Trump I. Those conservative titans explained that these tariffs are contrary to conservative principles. Given the administration’s abdication of those values, it is powerful for Republican-appointed judges to hear from known and respected voices on what an atrocity these tariffs were.

Now the fight moves to the most important issue that was left open by the 6-3 opinion: refunds. The illegally collected $200 billion in tariffs will need to be repaid. That is important for businesses of any kind, but particularly so for small businesses. They are the backbone of the American economy but run on extremely tight margins that the tariffs hit hard. I explained why when I went live with my friends Katie Phang and Jim Acosta as soon as the decision dropped.

Through your paid subscriptions you’ve made so many landmark cases possible since we started The Contrarian. That includes one that that is quite literally about a landmark: our new lawsuit to stop Trump’s takeover of East Potomac Golf Links here in Washington, D.C. Democracy Defenders Fund is working on the case with amazing co-counsel Democracy Forward and Lowell & Associates.

In its own way, stopping Trump’s aspiration to turn a historic and affordable public course in D.C. into a “beautiful, world-class, U.S. Open-caliber course” is important, too. In fact, just like our litigation over other scandals, such as the Epstein files, border “czar” Tom Homan’s CAVA bag of cash, the Gold Card giveaway, and the Kennedy Center renaming, the takeover of this golf course is corrupt.

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power to benefit yourself. Trump’s comments about what he wants to build make clear that this would be a monument to his ego – to the detriment of ordinary citizens who use, love, and rely on this course. As Rebecca Miller, executive director of DC Preservation League, aptly put it in an interview with the New York Times, “The East Potomac Golf Links is a unique cultural landscape that reflects the history of recreation in the nation’s capital…. Losing this golf course would significantly impact our shared history and limit public access to one of the District’s vital recreation and green spaces.”

Moreover, there are very serious rule of law issues here. As we allege in the complaint, the Trump administration violated the National Historic Preservation Act, including the duty to evaluate and consider potential effects on this historically recognized site – in many respects among the first of its kind in the country. Those effects are devastating.

This is also an environmental case because the administration is dumping 30,000 cubic yards of debris in East Potomac Park, about 2,000 truck loads. And where did he get this rubble? From the demolition of the East Wing of the White House–another outrageous offense against history. Those materials may include toxic substances that the public is now being exposed to.

This is about much more than golf. To that point, I also heard from people who golf on the course, use the adjacent park, or are just outraged. “Way to go,” they told me. I’m passing those congratulations to all of you, because your paid Contrarian subscriptions make our work possible.

Of course, you also make possible our great journalism – compiled as usual in our weekly roundup by my wonderful Contrarian colleagues. Trump may have attempted to slice rule of law into the rough, but our Contrarian coverage was, as usual, on par.

ICE Terror

Inside Trump’s ICE Concentration Camps

If you read only one of our pieces this week, make it Tim Dickinson’s essential reporting on a system “designed to punish, not protect”: the network of crowded, disease-ridden, altogether inhumane detention centers the Trump administration is using — and expanding — to warehouse the thousands of Americans taken by ICE.

Texas Lawmakers Say They’re Demanding Major ICE Reforms Because ‘Families and Children Are Terrified’

Hannah Langenfeld at The Barbed Wire wrote on the 21 Texas legislators who have signed a new letter to Congress calling ICE “an unaccountable paramilitary force that threatens the constitutional rights and safety of the communities we serve.”

“Peace” and “Security”

Chairman of “Peace” Board Starting a War with Iran?

Steven Cook joined Jennifer Rubin to discuss the gathering of Trump’s “Board of Peace,” his new attempt to dominate the narrative of diplomacy in the Middle East — and of which he has appointed himself chairman for life — even as he warns Iran of “bad things” to come.

Last week’s Munich Security Conference Confirmed Uncertainty, Not Unity

Brian O’Neill wrote on the annual conference of allies at which, for the second year in a row, Washington’s reassurances sounded all too hollow to skeptical European leaders. “A United States that alienates its closest partners is not asserting strength. It is dismantling its own margin for error.”

Election Interference & A War with Iran?

Tom Malinowski joined Jen to speak out after his congressional run and game out the possible scenarios of war with Iran. “I would be shocked if there were a credible, coherent plan in place in this administration.”

Remembering Jesse Jackson

The Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Legacy

April Ryan gave us an essential tribute to the late civil rights icon and political visionary. “The best way to mourn the Rev. Jesse Jackson is to continue to put in the hard work — because the fight for our rights, for civil rights, for human rights is unyielding, just as Jackson was.”

Jesse Jackson’s Passing Should Stir the Democracy Movement

Jen wrote on a way we all can carry on tJackson’s legacy right now: opposing the SAVE Act and other MAGA policies that seek to destroy voting rights for millions of Americans. “The Trump regime presents the greatest attack on [Jackson’s] vision of pluralistic democracy and racial justice in the modern era.”

Jesse Jackson’s Death Highlights the Absurdity of Stephen A. Smith’s Political Aspirations

Carron J. Phillips wrote on how Jackson’s presidential campaigns paved the way for Obama — and how a Stephen A. Smith campaign would, by stark contrast, encourage more incompetence. “It’s akin to watching a toddler trying to walk in Shaquille O’Neal’s shoes.”

Trump’s Media Agenda: Censorship & Hate

They’re Echoing Nazis. It’s Not an Accident. It’s a Strategy

Ciera Stone put to rest any doubts about Trump and his government loyalists imitating extremist visuals, symbols, and slogans on purpose. “It is easier to carry out fascist policies when the public is manipulated.”

Trump’s Government Mainstreams White Supremacy

Bill Braniff of PERIL joined Jen to connect new dots between the Trump administration’s racist rhetoric, culture, & behavior — and how it’s going global. “The United States [is] an exporter of culture … and in this instance, also as an exporter of violent political culture. We are known as an exporter of white supremacy specifically.”

CBS Tries to Kill Stephen Colbert’s Interview With James Talarico; Makes it Go Viral Instead

Meredith Blake wrote on the delicious irony of CBS’ latest attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration: demanding that The Colbert Show kill its interview with James Talarico, which backfired to the tune of millions of views and a new stream of candidate donations. “Someone at the network needs to Google ‘The Streisand Effect.’”

Fighting Back

Older Women — Not Young Men — Might Save Democracy

Jennifer Weiss-Wolff shone a spotlight on some of our most tireless defenders of democracy, who she also sees as an overlooked source of electoral clout. “Midlife and older women’s fury — and therefore our collective power — may have solidified even more in the early weeks of 2026.”

Undaunted in Denouncing Religious Hypocrites

In this week’s Undaunted column, Jen celebrated Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and others who are fearlessly calling out white Christian nationalists. “Reclaiming the language of faith…helps rebut MAGA’s offensive accusation that Democrats are not part of ‘real America.’”

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests against ICE, fascism, and the worst president in history as widespread as ever, with Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and more getting in on the action. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff

Our cartoonists took on revisionist history (Special Collector Series: U.S. Presidents*, RJ Matson; Just Doing Research, Nick Anderson), future irony (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling), truth in advertising (ICE Barbie, Michael de Adder), bad leadership (Give Peace a Whack, Michael de Adder), real heroism (Leading the People, RJ Matson), and presidential power (Steamrolled, Michael de Adder).

Olympians are Human Too

In this week’s “Offsides,” Pablo Torre joined Jen for a thoughtful discussion of Ilia Malinin, integrity in sports, and insurmountable pressure. “We want sports to be better than we are.”