Clara Bates, a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican, through a persistent series of IPRA (state Inspection of Public Records Act) requests, discovered the new owners of Zorro Ranch are the Huffines family of TX. They bought the ranch through an LLC that did not indicate its ownership. Don Huffines, a MAGA billionaire, just won the Republican primary for state Comptroller with a "DOGE TEXAS" slogan.
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, an independent local journalist whose Substack is titled "Alisa Writes" has done a lot of work on Zorro and the Huffines family.
Somewhere in a recent New Mexican article I read that AG Balderas, who the feds told to drop the Zorro investigation, also turned over everything he had on it.
Thank you for this reporting. The more people looking at this the harder it will be to make it disappear again.
Your clarity and attention to what is and isn't factually known at this point are a godsend. There are days I can barely make myself look at the newest headlines, but your work I always seek out.
Thanks. Glad you noticed Meg. I’ve been obsessed with increasing the quantity i.e spending 1.5 hours on a breaking news piece instead of 3-4 hours while also increasing QUALITY so I can cover multiple events on a daily basis.
"In psychological terms, this is how institutions build a shadow. Not by one dramatic cover-up, but by a chain of small, plausible decisions that add up to collective avoidance. And what the public feels as “they’re hiding something” is sometimes just the psychic recognition of that avoidance pattern playing out in real time."
This is exactly the kind of informed, objective, non-judgmental but comprehensive analysis I signed on for, not because I can do anything about it, but Americans can if, and only if, they understand. That understanding is no longer widely facilitated by the American mainstream, or legacy, media, or much of it...with exceptions, like Clara Bates mentioned in Celia's letter, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and all too few like them, having to take up the slack. What I find discouraging is not only MSM's blind eye, but the plethora of articles I am seeing that (a) castigate what is constantly called "socialism", invariably, it seems to me, conflated with communism, and always lacking the qualifying "democratic", meaning it does not usurp or preclude the political right, and, (b) worse, again in my subjective view, the treatment of the Trump regime as somehow "normal". I am not opposed to straight up factual reporting and analysis...that is what your essay is, and what should occur in MSM for sure, but I am opposed to lack of the "analysis" part. Trump is losing his grip and he and his ilk have constructed an edifice the durability of which depends on voter ignorance, trust, or as needed, voter suppression and intimidation or a sense of helplessness, all built on the wobbly foundation of lies. But it can last, will last, if commentaries such as this are not widely shared, and protests don't continue and accelerate.
Yesterday on his show on MSNOW, Ari Melber did an updated version of his timeline on Epstein’s “suicide” based on some new evidence including video snippets not before seen by the public.
I’ve thought since the beginning of this horrid situation that no matter what trump and others want or hope, this mess is going to open up and explode at some point. Too many people know what the truth of this massive and reprehensible crime and sooner or later someone’s going to talk or leak. This level of corruption almost never stays closed forever. My only concern is what psychotic trump will do as it all starts to unravel. He’s started trying to divert already, but what we’re seeing may be tame compared to the possibilities, and that is truly frightening.
Clara Bates, a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican, through a persistent series of IPRA (state Inspection of Public Records Act) requests, discovered the new owners of Zorro Ranch are the Huffines family of TX. They bought the ranch through an LLC that did not indicate its ownership. Don Huffines, a MAGA billionaire, just won the Republican primary for state Comptroller with a "DOGE TEXAS" slogan.
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, an independent local journalist whose Substack is titled "Alisa Writes" has done a lot of work on Zorro and the Huffines family.
Somewhere in a recent New Mexican article I read that AG Balderas, who the feds told to drop the Zorro investigation, also turned over everything he had on it.
Thank you for this reporting. The more people looking at this the harder it will be to make it disappear again.
Strong second to the Alisa Writes reference. She's the real deal.
Also: Sarah Kendzior and Ellie Leonard are two others I've come to gain insight from.
Your clarity and attention to what is and isn't factually known at this point are a godsend. There are days I can barely make myself look at the newest headlines, but your work I always seek out.
Thanks. Glad you noticed Meg. I’ve been obsessed with increasing the quantity i.e spending 1.5 hours on a breaking news piece instead of 3-4 hours while also increasing QUALITY so I can cover multiple events on a daily basis.
Oooh, love this sentence:
"In psychological terms, this is how institutions build a shadow. Not by one dramatic cover-up, but by a chain of small, plausible decisions that add up to collective avoidance. And what the public feels as “they’re hiding something” is sometimes just the psychic recognition of that avoidance pattern playing out in real time."
Restacking. Thank you. Great work and with sources.
This is exactly the kind of informed, objective, non-judgmental but comprehensive analysis I signed on for, not because I can do anything about it, but Americans can if, and only if, they understand. That understanding is no longer widely facilitated by the American mainstream, or legacy, media, or much of it...with exceptions, like Clara Bates mentioned in Celia's letter, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and all too few like them, having to take up the slack. What I find discouraging is not only MSM's blind eye, but the plethora of articles I am seeing that (a) castigate what is constantly called "socialism", invariably, it seems to me, conflated with communism, and always lacking the qualifying "democratic", meaning it does not usurp or preclude the political right, and, (b) worse, again in my subjective view, the treatment of the Trump regime as somehow "normal". I am not opposed to straight up factual reporting and analysis...that is what your essay is, and what should occur in MSM for sure, but I am opposed to lack of the "analysis" part. Trump is losing his grip and he and his ilk have constructed an edifice the durability of which depends on voter ignorance, trust, or as needed, voter suppression and intimidation or a sense of helplessness, all built on the wobbly foundation of lies. But it can last, will last, if commentaries such as this are not widely shared, and protests don't continue and accelerate.
Yesterday on his show on MSNOW, Ari Melber did an updated version of his timeline on Epstein’s “suicide” based on some new evidence including video snippets not before seen by the public.
I’ve thought since the beginning of this horrid situation that no matter what trump and others want or hope, this mess is going to open up and explode at some point. Too many people know what the truth of this massive and reprehensible crime and sooner or later someone’s going to talk or leak. This level of corruption almost never stays closed forever. My only concern is what psychotic trump will do as it all starts to unravel. He’s started trying to divert already, but what we’re seeing may be tame compared to the possibilities, and that is truly frightening.
Thanks for clarifying -- I heard about this last night, but it didn't make sense. Now it fits together.