…The case began in 2020 when the #CFPB accused Townstone of #redlining & breaking fair-lending laws by discouraging residents living in majority-#Black neighborhoods from applying for its #housing #loans. It homed in on comments made during the company’s radio show & podcast, “The Townstone Financial Show,” saying they were intended to rebuff Black borrowers or those seeking to buy homes in certain neighborhoods.

In an especially strange twist, the case — against #TownstoneFinancial, a small Chicago-based lender — was brought during #Trump’s first term by Kathleen Kraninger, the director he appointed to run the #CFPB.

#RussVought, who became the agency’s acting director last month, said it had “used radical ‘#equity’ arguments to tag Townstone as #racist with zero evidence, & spent years persecuting & extorting them.”

@franebleu @photoncollector

It depends how you mean it. There were lots of groups populated by members of the elite to advocate for particular reactionary causes that might overlap, to a greater or lesser extent, with the Heritage Foundation's goals.

Maybe most notable was the America First Committee (actually only founded in Sept. 1940, but close enough). It was different from the Heritage Foundation in that it brought together a really disparate coalition, but it did represent a pretty fashy outlook (which is why their primary goal was to keep the US out of WWII) and basically sought to convince people that what happens in Germany stays in Germany.

The second wave of the KKK was already fading by 1939, but still fairly potent in some areas. It was different from HF in that it was kind of a social club with a right-wing, racist "activist" element. But it was also a political machine that was successful in locking down public office in a lot of places, particularly throughout Indiana and in pockets in other states.

The American Eugenics Society was going full steam ahead throughout the 1930s. I think a lot of HF people would push back at being associated with eugenics, but it's worth keeping in mind that the ideology of the AES and its members tended to be extremely elitist, anti-immigrant, and white supremacist; the whole point of eugenics was to "preserve" and "improve" a kind of idealized northern European racial "type". And given the HF's combination of elitism and xenophobia with a desire to control other people's reproduction, there's at least a whiff of a similarity. Also, see the next paragraph...

It's also worth noting that Heritage isn't the only think tank in the elite right-wing orbit. Probably the most notorious right now is the Claremont Institute, which does, in fact, advocate for eugenics (they claim they don't because they don't use that term, but in practice, they're all for it); last year, the HF gave Claremont its "Heritage Innovation Prize", which comes with $100k.

The Center for Renewing America is another. It is run by its founder and president Russ Vought, who is now the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, and he was a driving force behind HF's Project 2025 document.

Anyways, there are lots of echoes from the 1930s today. Not exactly the same, but clearly there are historical and ideological linkages that are worth exploring.

In an opinion handed down on Thurs morning, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the Federal Dist Court for RI said the suit came down to a case of executive #overreach, in which top admin ofcls had required agencies to withhold funds authorized by #Congress.

A memo from the WH #OMB [#RussVought of #Project2025] had demanded a pause on billions in grants until the admin could determine that the funding complied w/ #Trump’s priorities….

"Allies of Musk also began arriving at tech hubs in the federal government before Inauguration Day — the first hint of the scope of his incursion."

#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U4.t9r3.sBTAws_GSyV3&smid=url-share

I recommend reading the whole article. You can do so even without a subscription by using the above link.

"Musk & his advisers... did not want to create a #commission, as past #budget hawks had done. They wanted direct, insider access to #government systems. They realized they could use the #digital office, whose staff had been focused on helping agencies fix #technology problems, to quickly penetrate the federal govt — and then decipher how to break it apart."
#GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U4.t9r3.sBTAws_GSyV3&smid=url-share

due to the sociopathic kleptocratic authoritarian in the WH, I abandoned my earlier thread on Jonathan Swan’s revelatory #ElonMusk / #DOGE reporting.

Spoiler, “new” DOGE dir #AmyGleason has been IN ON IT from the beginning along w/ (pure concentrated evil [h/t Time Bandits]) #StephenMiller, #RussVought (#Project2025), & #HowardLutnick (billionaire #Trump #Commerce Sec), & a #JaredKushner bro Brad Smith.

I’m outta gift articles for the month, but it’s important:

https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/114082367309398751

The Millers had worked w/ #Musk in between #Trump’s terms, helping to guide his political spending behind the scenes. After the election, they became even more essential in helping him decode & navigate Trump’s world.

Musk also absorbed as much as he could about the budget process & the bureaucracy that he intended to dismantle from #RussVought, who served as dir of the powerful #OMB in Trump’s first term.

The operation would take over the #USDS, which had been housed within the #OMB [#RussVought], & would become a stand-alone entity in the executive office of the president. #Musk would NOT be named the #DOGE administrator, but rather an *adviser* to #Trump….

An advantage of this complicated structure was #secrecy. For all his talk about “#transparency,” Musk was obsessed w/confidentiality & fearful of #leaks.

…The NYT has learned new details about how the operation came together after the election, mapped out in a series of closely held meetings in Palm Beach, FL, & through early intelligence-gathering efforts in Washington.
Seasoned *conservative* operatives like #StephenMiller & #RussVought helped educate #Musk about the workings of the bureaucracy. Soon, he stumbled on an opening. It was a little-known unit with reach across the government: the US Digital Service [#USDS]…

On the 1st day of his 2nd term, #Trump signed an #ExecutiveOrder that tasked the #EPA w/reviewing the “legality & continuing applicability of” the #endangerment finding. The order gave #LeeZeldin 30 days to submit recommendations to #RussVought, the head of #OMB [& #Project2025 architect].

…Mandy Gunasekara, who served as EPA chief of staff at the end of Trump’s 1st term & wrote the EPA chpt in the conservative #Project2025, has been advising the admin on repealing the finding….

2/ update: the acting #CFPB director #RussVought got brutally community noted on his tweet about P2P payday lender #SoLoFunds

Specifically, it said, #RussVought will have the power to “adjust such agencies’ apportionments by activity, function, project, or object, as necessary & appropriate, to advance the president’s policies & priorities,” including by prohibiting them from expending funds on matters #Trump does not like.