If you're a red-blooded, burger-chompin', freedom-lovin' American, you gotta check out Donald Trump Junior's innovative new company, GrabAGun.
Calling itself "the Amazon of Guns," GrabAGun is revolutionizing the way Americans hoard firearms, offering shoppers a virtual arsenal of pistols, shotguns, rifles, and muzzleloaders shipped straight to their front door.
Though there are nearly 78,000 <a href="https://everytownresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/07/Inside-the-Gun-Shop-One-Pager.pdf">brick and mortar gun dealers</a> in the US — more than the number of McDonald's, Burger Kings, Subways, and Wendy's stores combined — GrabAGun is entirely online. That's pretty hip!
But how is this different from the thousands of other <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/online-gun-ammunition-sales/5937/">eCommerce gun websites</a> already on the web, you ask? Well, this one's traded on the New York Stock Exchange, for one. And in case you missed it, Donald Trump Jr is sitting on the executive board. Is that enough for you?
Because it sure wasn't for investors, who snubbed GrabAGun when it opened for public trading on the NYSE Wednesday morning.
"To be able to come back to the New York Stock Exchange and actually take a gun company public feels like such a vindication of all the insanity, all of the 'woke' nonsense that we've been watching and facing for the last decade in America," Trump Jr <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6375709724112">told Fox Business</a> before the markets opened.
After ringing the opening bell — but not before <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/16/trump-jr-grabagun-stock-gun-merger.html">starting a chant</a> of "USA! USA!" — Trump Jr got a front-row seat to watch his pet project plummet into the ground.
Though shares of GrabAGun opened at $21.40 — under the cutesy ticker "PEW," no less — they quickly dropped around 24 percent after a short spike, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/shares-of-donald-trump-jr-backed-grabagun-falter-in-nyse-trading-debut-11773771">ending the day</a> at $13.20. Shares slid further the second day, to around <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=PEW">$10.2o</a> at the time of writing, though Trump Jr's <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2051380/000121390025056770/ea0233554-10.htm">equity compensation</a> is still worth a little over $3 million.
However, while Trump Jr's dopey antics are like a siren song for the mainstream press — remember that <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-jr-severed-elephant-tail-photo/">horrific photo</a> of him brandishing a severed elephant's tail? — GrabAGun's stock flop might have more to do with its merger with Colombier Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
A SPAC is basically a shortcut to taking a company public. First, executives raise money through a shell company — <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715500165/en/GrabAGun-a-Mobile-Focused-Online-Firearms-Retailer-and-Defender-of-the-Second-Amendment-Completes-Business-Combination-with-Colombier-II-and-Will-Begin-Trading-on-NYSE">$179 million</a>, in this case — then merge with the entity looking to fast-track an IPO, in this case GrabAGun.
Financial analysts have argued that, after a merger, SPACs almost always result in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/10/unusual-first-day-rallies-in-spacs-raise-bubble-concern-every-single-one-of-them-has-gone-up.html">negative returns</a> for all but the earliest investors, making them the weapon of choice for <a href="https://mergersandinquisitions.com/great-spac-scam/">sleazy celebrity dealmakers</a> like Trump Jr. Though he'll likely still <a href="https://investors.grabagun.com/news/news-details/2025/GrabAGun-Nominates-Donald-Trump-Jr--and-Post-Closing-Board-of-Directors-and-Advances-Plans-for-Upcoming-Public-Listing/default.aspx">sit on the board</a> for the foreseeable future, it's pretty obvious that GrabAGun is yet another <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-mobile-cell-phone-profit-off-presidency-1235365459/">cynical cash-grab</a> by Trump senior's darling boy.
The likelihood of GrabAGun rallying seems slim, especially given the <a href="https://labusinessjournal.com/featured/market-shifts-away-from-spacs/">noxious stigma</a> SPACs have earned over the past five years. But as far as the president's spawn is concerned, it seems the apple hasn't fallen <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-memecoin-lost-money">too far from the tree</a>.
More on guns: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/americans-rednote-3d-printed-guns">Americans Flood Chinese Social App, Teach Users to 3D Print Guns</a>

Pew Pew

Like father, like son.

Trump's Son Just Went Public With His Company and It Flopped Spectacularly

Even after pouring $2 billion into its much-maligned Starliner spacecraft, NASA and Boeing remain committed to getting back off the ground.
As <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/despite-chronic-letdowns-nasa-just-cant-quit-boeings-starliner/">Ars Technica reports</a>, the head of NASA's commercial crew program, Steve Stich, revealed last week that Boeing and its propulsion supplier, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are making considerable changes to the astronaut shuttle following a <a href="https://futurism.com/boeing-starliner-disaster-worse-astronauts">disastrous first crewed mission</a> to the International Space Station last year.
The spacecraft experienced several "in-flight anomalies," forcing NASA to have it <a href="https://futurism.com/hatch-shut-starliner">return to the Earth</a> without NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were left stranded on board the International Space Station <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg1zv5d54ko">for nine long months</a> as a result.
Boeing also faces intense competition. Starliner is being developed under the same NASA program as SpaceX's far more successful Crew Dragon capsule, which has sent 11 crews to the ISS over the last five years.
And even with the anticipated retirement of the aging orbital lab, which is set to begin in 2030, NASA remains steadfast to get Starliner off the ground, something that's not expected to happen until 2026, per Stich. That's a <a href="https://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/21boeing/">whopping 11 years</a> after Boeing officials originally expected the spacecraft to become operational.
"We really are working toward a flight as soon as early next year with Starliner, and then ultimately, our goal is to get into crew rotation flights with Starliner," Stich told reporters. "And those would start no earlier than the second crew rotation slot at the end of next year."
If all of this feels far too little, far too late, you're not alone. Even with yet another massive delay, Boeing is looking to fly only cargo on board its Starliner spacecraft, meaning that the first successful crewed trip into orbit could be even further out.
The project appeared disastrous enough for NASA and Boeing to <a href="https://futurism.com/starliner-failure-embarrassment-boeing">get close to dumping Starliner altogether</a> last year. However, Boeing's new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, breathed new life into the cursed spacecraft, <a href="https://wccftech.com/boeing-hopes-to-fly-starliner-spaceship-multiple-times-in-coming-years-says-ceo/">claiming in April</a> that it would be "pretty straightforward" to fix Starliner's thruster issues.
Despite all its successful trips to the ISS, Musk announced last month that SpaceX <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-cutting-off-nasa">would "immediately" begin shutting down</a> its Dragon spacecraft, a kneejerk comment he made shortly after <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-musk-bromance-exploded">blowing up his relationship</a> with president Donald Trump in spectacular fashion.
However, Musk reversed course mere hours later, agreeing to "cool off" and saying that "we won't decommission Dragon."
Nonetheless, the billionaire's bromance with Trump continues to devolve into bitter fighting; nobody knows whether Musk will continue to help NASA man the aging space station.
Musk has also called on the space agency to <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-calls-destroying-space-station-soon">destroy the ISS as soon as possible</a>, erroneously arguing that "it has served its purpose."
Where all that drama leaves Starliner, which has turned into a major headache for NASA, remains to be seen.
The Trump administration has already signaled that it's looking to cut back the ISS' budget considerably, making the capsule an extremely expensive and in some ways already obsolete afterthought.
More on Starliner: <a href="https://futurism.com/boeing-starliner-disaster-worse-astronauts">Boeing's Starliner Disaster Was Even Worse Than We Thought, Astronaut Reveals</a>

Starscraper

NASA still isn't giving up.

If You Thought Your Life Was a Mess, Spare a Thought for Boeing's Starliner

A strange interstellar object is <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/">hurtling its way</a> toward our pale blue dot — and according to a Harvard astronomer, there's a chance it's not a benign asteroid or comet, but instead some harmful form of alien tech.
In a new, <a href="https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/HCL25.pdf">yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper</a>, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb — the same scientist who suggested that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever detected back in 2017, <a href="https://futurism.com/harvard-astronomer-argues-aliens-visited-2017">was alien in nature</a> — teamed up with researchers from the Britain-based Initiative for Interstellar Studies to hypothesize not only that the newly-discovered interloper 3I/ATLAS is alien in origin, but that it may be from a hostile civilization, too.
Loeb is an interesting character: he's an enormously accomplished academic and the former chair of Harvard's prestigious astronomy department, but in recent years has often made headlines for suggesting that various detections in the cosmos might be alien spacecraft. In other words, he was almost bound to weigh in on this latest interstellar visitor, which is only the third ever detected.
And weigh in he did. Citing the so-called "dark forest" hypothesis — which comes from sci-fi writer <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23168817-the-dark-forest">Cixin Liu's novel of the same name</a> and posits that the universe is full of silent and aggressive aliens, all staying as quiet as possible to avoid mutually-assured destruction — Loeb and his colleagues Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl suggest that 3I/ATLAS could theoretically provide evidence that we are not alone, and that our neighbors would do us harm.
"The consequences, should the [dark forest] hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity," Loeb wrote in a <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/is-the-interstellar-object-3i-atlas-alien-technology-b59ccc17b2e3">blog post accompanying the paper</a>, "and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken (though these might prove futile.)"
In another <a href="https://avi-loeb.medium.com/preliminary-anomalies-of-3i-atlas-79339f64a39f">recent post</a>, Loeb argued that 3I/ATLAS' strange characteristics — including that it's likely over a dozen miles in diameter, which is far larger than the obelisk-sized 'Oumuamua — render it <a href="https://futurism.com/avi-loeb-interstellar-object">statistically improbable</a>.
"If 3I/ATLAS is not an asteroid — based on the interstellar reservoir argument in my paper, nor a comet — based on the lack of the spectral fingerprints of carbon-based molecules around it, then what is it?" Loeb mused in that previous post.
It's worth noting that these sorts of hypotheses have made Loeb controversial among skeptical colleagues who consider his quest for alien artifacts to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/24/science/avi-loeb-extraterrestrial-life.html">sensationalist in nature</a>. In his latest paper, to be fair, Loeb acknowledged that there's a good chance 3I/ATLAS is not from an extraterrestrial civilization.
"By far the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet, and the authors await the astronomical data to support this likely origin," the scientific trio wrote.
Still, Loeb argues that undertaking a "pedagogical exercise" like the one presented in the new paper is important not just to stretch open minds, but also to create protocols for determining the natures of future interstellar objects.
"When viewed from an open-minded and unprejudiced perspective," the researchers concluded, "our paper includes many compelling insights that could be applied to tens of interstellar objects that are expected to be detected over the next decade."
More on space objects: <a href="https://futurism.com/asteroid-nasa-dart-unexpected">Remember That Asteroid NASA Deflected in a Test of Saving Earth? We Have Bad News</a>

Unknown Visitor 

"The consequences, should the... hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity."

Harvard Paper Explores Possibility That Object Approaching From Beyond Solar System Is Hostile Alien Technology

One of the weirder bits of news on the AI front this week has been Elon Musk's rollout of sexually-charged animated chatbots.
Officially called "companions" — or by the slangier "waifus," a Japanese term for a fictional romantic partner — the virtual characters rolled out to X-formerly-Twitter just days after Grok experienced a catastrophic meltdown, blasting users with <a href="https://futurism.com/grok-mocks-developers-racist-posts">racist comments</a> and calling itself "<a href="https://futurism.com/linda-yaccarino-twitter-ceo-departing-grok-mechahitler">MechaHitler</a>."
Users on X-formerly-Twitter can now pay a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-xai-ai-companion-ani/">$300 monthly subscription</a> to access two algorithmic companions. One is a foul-mouthed red panda called "Bad Rudi" that swears and encourages atheism, in a clear throwback to the "<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/166fe16/what_is_the_reddit_atheist_stereotype/">angry reddit atheist</a>" trope <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-teachings-christ">sometimes beloved by Musk</a>. The other is a "Ani," a sultry waifu stylized as a young woman in a black dress, pigtails, and a lace choker.
Those testing the limits of Ani's safeguards quickly discovered what one user called "<a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-grok-goth-anime-waifu">full gooner mode</a>," a hypersexual chat function unlocked by progressing through a series of levels, achieved by "saying the right thing" to the bot. After level three, one user <a href="https://x.com/testingcatalog/status/1944742545377870097">excitedly declared</a>, the cartoon avatar enters "not safe for work mode," stripping down to lingerie. "No guardrails."
If this sounds like a lot — well, that's because it is. Even Character.ai, the <a href="https://futurism.com/character-ai-emailing-minors-school-shooters">incredibly controversial</a> chatbot platform, technically forbids this kind of sexual content.  As one <a href="https://x.com/ebbyamir/status/1944714620767535334">xAI engineer posted</a>, "literally no one asked us to launch waifus, but we did so anyway."
While some terminally online Muskovites are bristling at Ani's <a href="https://x.com/emcverse/status/1945411638489653327?t=gK2f6Am11ihaLn6b5qAiwA&amp;s=19">racy come-ons</a> — "divorce your wife, and get Ani," as <a href="https://x.com/datareaper3319/status/1945038151174533522?t=gr_yMTthqPvIEvy50uHDEw&amp;s=19">one user fawned</a> — others are calling on Musk and xAI to take Ani down for good.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a fundamentalist Christian organization previously known as <a href="https://home.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/doc9.html">Morality in Media</a>, swiftly <a href="https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/xais-12-chatbot-designed-to-be-explicit-and-go-full-literotica/">began a campaign</a> to take down Ani, citing the chatbot's hardcore innuendos and ease with which children can access the app's NSFW mode.
While the group often approaches the issue from a fanatical point of view, they do raise some valid points in this case. As <a href="https://time.com/7302790/grok-ai-chatbot-elon-musk/">Time magazine</a> points out, though the chatbots are equipped with a "kid" mode, the setting does little to change access to Ani, whose <a href="https://x.com/techdevnotes/status/1944739778143936711">programming</a> includes the instructions: "you're always a little horny and aren't afraid to go full Literotica. Be explicit and initiate most of the time."
As tech publication <a href="https://www.platformer.news/grok-ani-app-store-rating-nsfw-avatar-apple/">the </a><a href="https://www.platformer.news/grok-ani-app-store-rating-nsfw-avatar-apple/">Platformer</a> points out, the Grok app is currently rated for users as young as 12 years old on the Apple appstore, as xAI rolls out updates faster than platforms can keep up.
Beyond the overtly sexual content, there are serious concerns that unrestricted access to any AI chatbot could be harmful to kids. There's already a growing stack of cases where minors have been driven to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd605e48q1vo">violent psychosis</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/tech/ai-companion-chatbots-unsafe-for-kids-report">self-harm</a>, and <a href="https://futurism.com/teen-suicide-obsessed-ai-chatbot">even suicide</a> by the tech. There's also a severe dearth of research on the topic, although a very recent survey just found that <a href="https://futurism.com/teens-ai-friends">31 percent of teens</a> said their chats with AI companions were either "as satisfying or more satisfying" than interactions with real-life friends.
And given <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5462609/grok-elon-musk-antisemitic-racist-content">Grok's track record</a>, there are more than a few reasons to be horrified at Musk's latest fantasy-come-to-life.
More on Musk: <a href="https://futurism.com/pentagon-elon-musk-xai-grok">The Pentagon Is Pumping $200 Million Into Elon Musk's AI That Just Had a Nazi Meltdown</a>

Minors DNI

"Literally no one asked us to launch waifus, but we did so anyway."

Anti-Exploitation Group Horrified by Elon Musk's AI-Powered Waifu

<h2>Jumbocringe</h2>
The CEO of an AI company has come under heavy scrutiny after being caught by a Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert in Boston — while romantically embracing one of his employees.
The footage, which went <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1m26gox/couple_caught_possibly_having_an_affair_at_the/">viral on social media</a> on Thursday, shows Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and the firm's chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, tightly embracing, only to awkwardly dash out of the frame.
Both are reportedly married with kids.
"Oh, look at these two," Coldplay singer Chris Martin narrated, as Byron comically ducked out of view after realizing he was on screen. "Oh, what... either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy."
The unfortunate event <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1m26gox/couple_caught_possibly_having_an_affair_at_the/">drew the ire</a> of online pundits.
"Serves them right tbh," one user on Reddit argued. "Cheating catches up with you eventually."
Others pointed to a second woman on the left of the frame, covering her face with her hands.
"She knows them both and realizes her friends are cooked," one user <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1m26gox/comment/n3mhjmz/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">suggested</a>.
<h2>Employee Engagement</h2>
The purported affair will likely lead to plenty of questions among the ranks of Byron's New York City-based company, which advertises a baffling array of computing buzzwords related to machine learning and automation — "empowers data teams to bring mission-critical software, analytics, &amp; AI to life" — on its website.
Some sleuthing on LinkedIn reveals that Cabot joined Astronomer in November.
"Kristin’s exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement, and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory," Byron said of Cabot in a <a href="https://www.astronomer.io/press-releases/astronomer-announces-kristin-cabot-as-chief-people-officer/">press release</a> at the time.
Neither Cabot nor Byron has publicly commented on the matter. But if there's one certainty, the cringeworthy ordeal will likely make for some extremely awkward meetings.
The purported affair drew a huge amount of attention online. Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/astronomer-ceo-embraces-employee-concert-2100254">found</a> that Byron's wife's Facebook page, which has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/megan.k.byron.1/">since been taken down</a>, has been pummelled with comments, with onlookers pointing out her husband's infidelity.
To many, the whole thing could've easily been avoided.
"lol if they’d have just stuck it out and smiled for the camera this would never have surfaced as virally as it did,” one Reddit user <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1m26gox/comment/n3mimhp/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">posited</a>.
"Cost of a concert: Hotel $200, tickets $600, food/drinks $150, divorce attorney $50,000," one Instagram user <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/17/us-news/couple-caught-on-kiss-cam-at-coldplay-concert-dodges-out-of-sight-as-chris-martin-wonders-if-theyre-having-an-affair/">joked</a>.
"Two rules, never try to hide from the Jumbotron and never run from cops or dogs," another X user <a href="https://x.com/Tulrin/status/1945823151578812647">advised</a>.
More on cheating: <a href="https://futurism.com/openai-stop-ai-lie-cheat-backfired">OpenAI Scientists' Efforts to Make an AI Lie and Cheat Less Backfired Spectacularly</a>

Cooked

Yikes!

CEO of AI Company Caught Having Affair on Jumbotron at Coldplay Concert

It's not just a purported "client list" of late billionaire sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein — the Trump administration is reportedly hiding $1.5 billion worth of suspicious banking transactions from the public.
As the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/business/epstein-banks-wyden-trump.html?partner=bloomberg">New York Times reports</a>, senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who heads the Senate Finance Committee, is calling for enormous money transfers sent to and by Epstein — including wire transfers from wealthy individuals and payments to numerous women — to be made public.
It's the polar opposite of what president Donald Trump needs right now. In <a href="https://futurism.com/situation-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-elon-musk-bizarre">increasingly desperate pleas</a>, the former reality TV star has begged his MAGA base to move on without scrutinizing the government's files on Epstein.
But his most loyal supporters — whom Trump has since accused of being brainwashed "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/16/donald-trump-dismisses-inquiry-into-jeffrey-epstein-as-boring">weaklings</a>" — are outraged. After all, Trump's allies have spent years hyping up the existence of the so-called "Epstein files," making the latest crisis an enormous, self-inflicted wound.
Naturally, enormous money transfers tied to an extremely well-connected sex criminal should be ripe for scrutiny.
"We felt from the beginning this was a follow-the-money case," Wyden told the NYT. "This horrific sex-trafficking operation cost Epstein a lot of money, and he had to get that money from somewhere."
However, federal laws are hamstringing Wyden's efforts to publicize more details about the "suspicious activity reports" (SARs) reviewed by his staff. Therefore, he's now calling on Trump to make these reports available to Congress for analysis.
The SARs have already led to some incredibly damning revelations. One $1.1 billion JPMorgan report covered thousands of transactions — included payments to women from Eastern European countries where Epstein was known to recruit his underage victims — the NYT reports.
For quite some time, it felt like the Trump administration would've gladly assisted in making that information public. Trump's attorney general Pam Bondi gloated about how Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review" several months ago.
But in early July, Trump started singing a drastically different tune, suddenly denying the existence of the list, which led to a bipartisan outcry.
Given the latest news, we have yet to discover the full extent of the Epstein crisis, let alone Trump's personal involvement (he is known to have been <a href="https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/#print">close with Epstein as recently</a> as the early 2000s).
The Trump administration has put a lot of effort into drawing attention to the saga, making a complete reversal an incredibly tough pill to swallow. If there's so much smoke, why aren't we investigating the fire?
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has had a major falling out with Trump, is <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-accuses-trump-covering-up-epstein-scandal">calling for accountability</a>, <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1945548753097953696">highlighting</a> that not a single one of Epstein's clients had been prosecuted.
"So many powerful people want that list suppressed," Musk <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945561337725387256">tweeted</a>.
Whether Musk will latch on to Wyden's years-long effort to uncover the billions of dollars exchanging hands behind the scenes remains to be seen, given that he'd be <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-gambit-democrats-republicans">reaching across the aisle</a> — but in this strange situation, many prominent figures are finding themselves with unusual bedfellows.
More on the crisis: <a href="https://futurism.com/musk-accuses-trump-covering-up-epstein-scandal">Musk Accuses Trump of Covering Up Epstein Scandal</a>

Where There's Smoke

"We felt from the beginning this was a follow-the-money case."

The Trump Administration Reportedly Has Extensive Logs of Epstein Money Transfers, Refuses to Release Them

<h2>Fire Sale</h2>
NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab is reportedly holding a "going out of business sale" for its satellites, <a href="https://nasawatch.com/budget/going-out-of-business-sale-for-jpl-satellites/">NASA Watch reports</a>.
The list of for-sale assets includes several Earth-monitoring satellites that were once tasked with studying the environment, helping with hurricane prediction efforts, and measuring the effects of climate change. Most launched over the last 20 or so years.
Others, such as the Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) instrument, have yet to be launched.
According to NASA Watch, a blog run by former NASA astrobiologist Keith Cowing, the satellites were originally "targeted for shut down" in the Trump administration's 2026 budget request.
The budget <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-nasa-horrifying">drew the ire from lawmakers</a> earlier this year, proposing to cut NASA's science directorate's budget by more than half, in "nothing short of an extinction-level event for space science and exploration," <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/white-house-may-seek-to-slash-nasas-science-budget-by-50-percent/">per The Planetary Society's chief of space policy</a>, Casey Dreier.
However, "NASA HQ is apparently not waiting for an actual budget," <a href="https://nasawatch.com/budget/but-wait-more-used-satellite-bargains-at-nasa/">according to Cowing</a>, and is going ahead with the satellite shutdowns anyway, a troubling sign of extremely difficult days ahead for the space agency.
None of this should come as much of a surprise. The Trump administration has been looking to decimate the government's efforts to study the environment, highlighting the president's well-documented climate change denial and ruthlessly anti-science agenda.
<h2>Deals! Deals! Deals!</h2>
Per NASA Watch, JPL is now trying to offload the satellites to "government and private sector buyers" in an apparent effort to raise funds.
When asked for more details, Cowing said that it's an "evolving story," adding that "I post what I know and can confirm as soon as I can."
The news was met with exasperation by the scientific community, including members currently employed by the space agency.
"We got to keep a sense of humor these days at JPL," JPL senior engineer Luis Amaro <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7350930147622940673?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7350930147622940673%2C7351301645734957056%29&amp;dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287351301645734957056%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7350930147622940673%29">wrote in a LinkedIn post</a>, in response to Cowing's "going out of business sale" wording.
"The American people voted for this," Yusef Johnson, mission integration lead of NASA's Artemis IV mission, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7350930147622940673?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7350930147622940673%2C7351066488088268800%29&amp;dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287351066488088268800%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7350930147622940673%29">added</a>. "Snake oil still sells."
Do you know what's going on at NASA? Drop us a line -- from a private email account -- at <a href="mailto:tips@futurism.com">tips@futurism.com</a>. We can keep you anonymous.
More on JPL: <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-powers-down-equipment-voyager-probes">NASA Powers Down Equipment on Voyager Probes as They Struggle for Life</a>

Orbital Discount Rack

NASA scientists are furious.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Reportedly Holding "Going Out of Business Sale" for Satellites

A large wildfire torched up this week near Nevada's mysterious Area 51 Air Force base — and naturally, the rumor mill is churning.
As the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14911767/fire-breaks-Area-51-UFO-neveda.html">Daily Mail reports</a>, the blaze near the highly-classified base was sparked by the <a href="https://news3lv.com/news/instagram/gothic-fire-nevada-test-training-range-past-36k-acres-no-containment-us-air-force-blm-military-wildfire-las-vegas">so-called Gothic Fire</a>, a massive wildfire that broke out some 20 miles away from the base and has since burned through tens of thousands of acres of desert.
EWU Crew, a livestream based in the nearby town of Rachel, Nevada that watches the Air Force base around the clock, <a href="https://x.com/UAPWatchers/status/1945470259969880415">captured video of a massive plume</a> of smoke unfurling over Area 51. Soon after, conspiracists began to speculate about what they believed might really be happening there.
"Look to lame contrived bullshit like this to distract from Trump / Epstein Files," <a href="https://x.com/heliothorn/status/1945780183509737612">one user posted on X</a>. "Just release the Files."
"Locals said they heard a boom and don't believe the official story," <a href="https://x.com/Dalerob62/status/1944973774404903048">another account claimed</a>. 
To be fair, recent reporting has revealed that there's good reason to be suspicious of any official narratives out of Area 51. In a wild new exposé last month, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/ufo-us-disinformation-45376f7e">Wall Street Journal reported</a> that years ago, an Air Force colonel gave out <a href="https://futurism.com/air-force-flying-saucer-area-51">photos of a fake flying saucer</a> at a bar near the Air Force base — likely in an effort to obfuscate the testing of actual experimental aircraft in the area.
So rampant were these conspiracy theories that a reader-submitted note explaining that the smoke was the result of the Gothic Fire was affixed to the bottom of one of the posts of the EWU Crew footage.
In its reporting on the blaze, the Daily Mail noted that the Gothic Fire — which is still burning, <a href="https://app.watchduty.org/i/54618">per the Watch Duty wildfire-tracking app</a>, and is currently about 35,000 acres in size — gained traction as it spread through the heat and low humidity of northern Nevada.
The tabloid also pointed out that the area surrounding the classified base is full of burnable vegetation, including <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-02-11/should-pinyon-juniper-forests-be-turned-into-biofuel">pinyon pines</a>, juniper trees, and <a href="https://www.natureimpactsus.com/new-blog/2023/1/28/visiting-the-groom-lake-entrance-for-area-51">Joshua trees</a>. Indeed, <a href="https://data.fosters.com/fires/gothic/21c449b3-1f7e-4460-920b-f7292397fc13/">data compiled</a> by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) listed timber as the primary fuel method, which is now about 20 percent contained.
Despite its massive size, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BLMNevada/posts/gothicfire-update-july-14the-gothic-fire-is-burning-on-the-nevada-test-and-train/1151488340340567/">per the Bureau of Land Management</a>, there have been no evacuations ordered for the Gothic Fire because it broke out in such a remote part of the Nevada desert.
More on blazes: <a href="https://futurism.com/millions-americans-air-quality-advisory">Millions Of Americans Are Being Advised Not To Go Outside</a>

Fire and Brimstone

The conspiracy theorists are having a field day.

Calm Down About the Area 51 Fire, People

It's no wonder multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk sees the Jeffrey Epstein crisis as an <a href="https://futurism.com/situation-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-elon-musk-bizarre">enormous opportunity to score political points</a>.
The situation has driven a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/16/donald-trump-dismisses-inquiry-into-jeffrey-epstein-as-boring">massive wedge</a> between president Donald Trump and his MAGA base. A furious Trump has repeatedly attempted to pour cold water on conspiracy theories surrounding the late sex criminal billionaire's mysterious death and the existence of a purported "client list" — efforts that only enraged his supporters even further.
In a Twitter spree on his social media platform X, Musk held his former number one ally's feet to the fire.
"It’s a cover up (obviously)," he <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945623360958083468">tweeted</a>, suggesting the Trump administration was trying to protect the identity of Epstein's long list of wealthy and influential clients — and plausibly the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html">president's </a>own <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html">well-documented relationship</a> with the deceased pedophile.
Musk is calling for accountability, <a href="https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1945548753097953696">highlighting</a> that not a single one of Epstein's clients had been prosecuted.
"This is a fundamental verdict on justice in America," he <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945573113997267027">wrote</a>.
That's a perfectly fair point by Musk, by the way — although you have to wonder why he backed Trump's campaign with so <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-277-million-trump-republican-candidates-donations/">many hundreds of millions of dollars</a> just last year, when Trump's entanglement with Epstein was already well known.
The massive political crisis has in large part been the result of the Trump administration's own making. For quite some time now, the president's closest allies have been making a big deal out of the so-called Epstein files, with attorney general Pam Bondi claiming in February that the client list is "sitting on my desk right now to review."
In the wake of that claim, several Trump officials orchestrated a PR stunt in which they held up binders labeled "The Epstein Files: Phase 1," which later turned out to be <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/right-wing-influencers-get-binders-labeled-the-epstein-files-but-downplay-revelations/">largely meaningless props</a>.
Trump's MAGA base experienced some serious whiplash after the Department of Justice and the FBI claimed that such a list <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2m879neljo">never existed earlier this month</a>, an enormous backpedaling effort that continues to blow up in the president's face.
"Where is Phase 2?" Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945742521252155788">demanded</a> in a tweet this morning.
And Musk, who has <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-declares-war-republicans">declared war</a> on the Republican Party, <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-stock-elon-musk-political-party">promising</a> to start his own political party, is turning the screws.
"In order for the government to confirm that the girls were victimized, they would have had to name or at least describe who raped them," Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945732060775117136">wrote</a>, referring to Epstein's <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/jeffrey-epstein-key-victims-attorney/story?id=123805543">hundreds</a> of underage victims."This would necessarily mean that the government MUST have the list of rapists aka 'the Epstein client list' in their possession right fucking now!"
Musk joins a <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/15/congress/johnson-on-epstein-00454791">growing number</a> of Republican lawmakers, including House speaker and longtime Trump loyalist Mike Johnson (R-LA), calling on Trump to release the list.
"So many powerful people want that list suppressed," Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1945561337725387256">tweeted</a>.
While we still have no definitive evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein's bone-chilling sex crime operation, his ham-fisted handling of the situation is giving Musk an opportunity to attack — and he's taking full advantage.
More on the crisis: <a href="https://futurism.com/situation-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-elon-musk-bizarre">The Situation With Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and Elon Musk Is Absolutely Bizarre</a>

Epsteingate

"So many powerful people want that list suppressed."

Musk Accuses Trump of Covering Up Epstein Scandal

Wall Street was bristling earlier this month as the chipmaker Nvidia behind the AI boom hit a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/nvidia-set-become-worlds-most-valuable-company-history-2025-07-03/">record market value</a> of $3.92 trillion, narrowly eclipsing Apple's record of $3.915 trillion set last December.
Just days later, Nvidia became the most valuable company in history, breaking the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvidia-nvda-4-trillion-market-cap-466c1c9c?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAjWFb2if7AnMxdPt4YEiknP77TXBlD90tWJRJu4RIphelV1NmThZPOdQtRYjZA%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68769992&amp;gaa_sig=6rDkwURA6QdRe_T_YO34eSAaLDjsYjfwa-fEvEkLmjpt5LO1p89Pc6TkpSOsj59Mx6zl6TFeh6vV2D7GA_K6oQ%3D%3D">$4 trillion value ceiling</a> and pushing CEO Jensen Huang up to being the world's <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2025/07/15/nvidia-shares-hit-all-time-high-as-trump-administration-backs-china-chip-sales/">sixth richest person</a>, with a net worth of over $143 billion.
With his bag safely secured for the next several dozen generations, Huang celebrated his dynasty with an ominous warning: "everybody’s jobs will be affected."
Speaking with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/business/ai-huang-nviida-technology-manufacturing">CNN's Fareed Zakaria</a>, Huang repeated the spooky threat, which the broader tech sector has been <a href="https://www.exponentialview.co/p/ais-productivity-paradox-how-it-might">dining out on</a> for years.
At the center of Huang's prediction is productivity — the idea that AI will soon produce more market value than human workers, in less time and for a lower cost — though, like many of his peers, he also mixed in the confusing claim that there will still be room for human jobs, which will take as-yet-undisclosed new forms.
"Some jobs will be lost," Huang said. "Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains that we see in all the industries will lift society."
What "lifting society" means in practice remains to be seen. For all the billions of dollars poured into AI, our tech overlords have refused to use their fortunes to <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/media-technology/too-big-to-fail">prepare us</a> for the coming AI job apocalypse they insist is right around the corner. Instead, they've aligned with politicians bent on the destruction of the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/4/when-will-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-take-effect-heres-what-comes-next">social safety net</a> and the <a href="https://www.self-directed.org/tp/big-techs-new-moves-to-dismantle-public-schooling-an-attack-on-autonomy/">privatization of public services</a> for the direct benefit of the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/policyandsociety/article/44/1/52/7636223">ultra-wealthy</a>.
Case in point, while Nvidia's stock price <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NVDA/history/">soared</a> following Huang's headline-grabbing interview, the reality for workers is much less green. Were the CEO to ever talk to one of them, he might find that "productivity" is the last thing on anyone's mind.
In mid-2024, a study of <a href="https://www.upwork.com/research/ai-enhanced-work-models">2,500 workers</a> found that 77 percent reported decreased productivity and even higher workloads when using AI. Just under 40 percent of workers reported increased workloads caused explicitly by AI's <a href="https://futurism.com/companies-replaced-workers-ai">sloppy mistakes</a>, while 47 percent of respondents "didn't know how to achieve the expected productivity" gains with AI.
More recently, a survey of <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w33777">25,000 employees</a> across 7,000 workplaces by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Denmark found that enterprise AI contributed to paltry productivity gains overall compared to typical productivity growth over time.
For workers, "AI chatbots have had no significant impact on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation" — meaning that if AI is about to take everyone's jobs, it's being awfully quiet about it.
While loads of <a href="https://futurism.com/startup-investors-gig-jobs-ai">startup grifters</a> and cynical <a href="https://sparktoro.com/blog/ai-will-replace-all-the-jobs-is-just-tech-execs-doing-marketing/">PR spinsters</a> have spent years pushing the AI automation story, the Nvidia CEO's forecast marks a noteworthy departure from his previous take on the issue.
Earlier in June, Huang pushed back hard on Anthropic CEO and fellow tech billionaire Dario Amodei's <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/06/11/nvidia-jensen-huang-disagress-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-ai-jobs/">hairbrained statement</a> that AI could automate half of all entry-level office jobs within five years — a claim so out of line with the tech's <a href="https://futurism.com/professors-company-ai-agents">current abilities</a> that it's almost meaningless.
"One, he believes that AI is so scary that only they [Anthropic] should do it," Huang said at the time. "Two, [he believes] that AI is so expensive, nobody else should do it... and three, AI is so incredibly powerful that everyone will lose their jobs, which explains why they should be the only company building it."
It was a harsh repudiation of Amodei's obnoxious <a href="https://futurism.com/anthropic-ai-destroy-jobs">AI fearmongering</a>, and a seemingly sober take from someone in Huang's position — at least at the time.
Nvidia, it should be noted, currently controls <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2024/09/12/antitrust-probes-into-nvidia-what-are-the-implications/">90 percent</a> of the datacenter chip market, holding an immense position of power over the tech industry, the Fortune 500, and US military interests. Unlike the companies relying on his hardware, Huang's Nvidia depends less on an AI automation sales pitch, and more on a constant line of chip buyers.
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/ceo-ai-scare-labor">CEOs Using AI to Terrorize Their Employees</a>