Star Tribune
In frugal, freewheeling Buy Nothing groups, even dryer lint and used deodorant find new homes
Free scallops and salmon were on offer recently, via one of Minneapolis’ many Buy Nothing Facebook groups.
Sounded good. A little too good, the further you read. A neighbor had purchased scallops and salmon and then accidentally left them out on the counter overnight.
But in the weird world of digital gifting networks, no good is too meager or worn out, too busted or, frankly, disgusting for somebody, potentially, to find it desirable.
Buy Nothing’s free-spirited approach has summoned a few doozies. (The spoiled seafood post was quickly removed.) But it has also enabled a vast gifting economy. Fueled by the pandemic and high inflation, the organization’s Facebook groups and app now have 7.5 million members worldwide, sharing a bounty of time, talent and stuff.
In the wake of peak shopping season, Buy Nothing provides a reality check to soulless holiday consumerism. Its forums are full of household effluvia both mundane (end tables, drink koozies) and strange (dryer lint, used deodorant, those boogery blobs for making your own kombucha). Each item — be it chicken poop or a dishwasher — is rendered equal, with zero monetary value. It’s as if economists’ “invisible hand” ceased balancing supply and demand and instead gave capitalism the finger.
While Goodwill drops are expedient and Craigslist posts reach more people, Buy Nothing differentiates itself by connecting givers directly to recipients in their neighborhood. The groups become more than a bunch of individuals exchanging their stuff, but a crucible for tighter-knit communities.
Mary Kidd, a self-described aesthetic “maximalist” and curb-and-alley scavenger, became a top contributor to her Minneapolis Buy Nothing group after moving to Minnesota three years ago. She initially joined to help set up house, but soon found that engaging in mutual aid made her feel more connected to, and grateful for, her neighbors.
“At first it was just like, ‘This is amazing, I can get so much stuff for free,’ ” she said. “And then it became a lot more personal.”
From twigs to dog costumes
Buy Nothing was started a decade ago by two eco-conscious, frugal-minded women who met through their Bainbridge Island, Wash., Freecycle group, another digital gifting platform. (One had offered a bunch of twigs and was shamed by the group’s moderator. The other wanted the twigs.) The two envisioned a new forum for freely giving, receiving, lending and borrowing that would also strengthen community bonds.
They set up Buy Nothing’s Facebook groups to be geographically limited, so members could potentially reach several thousand members, without opening themselves up to the broader public. The neighborhood scale helps foster trust and curb uncivil behavior, said Kidd. “It’s adding that bit of familiarity and almost accountability.”
When a “potentially absurd” request recently went up on Kidd’s Minneapolis Buy Nothing (“does anyone have the zinus green tea cool gel foam hybrid mattress, and if so, would you let my partner and me see how it feels in person??!”), the group was large enough that another member had the same mattress. And small enough that she invited them over to try it.
Buy Nothing feeds are universally eclectic: There are crop tops, crystals and crutches alongside green tomatoes, shower curtains, an environmental hydrology textbook and VHS tapes.
Some items are highly specific (concrete mortar dissolver) and rare (an Indonesian bamboo instrument). Others hold clear cash value (an assortment of unopened aperitifs; a chic couch in mint condition). A few are delightful, including a hot dog costume for pups (“mustard lights up. my dog got too chunky to wear it this year and was always a little scared of it anyway “). A local celebrity — Minneapolis author Heid E. Erdrich — gave away plants.
And for those rare you-couldn’t-pay-me-to-take-it items — used underwear, ¾ a bottle of Smurfs multivitamins, or a roller chair so decrepit it could have belonged to the basement-dwelling stapler guy from “Office Space” — there’s a Worst of Buy Nothing page.
But just when you think no one could possibly have need for the bottom half of a toilet, an engineering professor snaps it up for a student project.
Saving money, the environment
Buy Nothing is for people who can be bothered, including the phalanx of members who rushed to supply someone with a protein-powder scoop.
Recently, Vi Tran needed a pen — literally, one pen – and made an ISO (“in search of”) post in her Minneapolis Buy Nothing group. Yes, she could afford to buy one. And, no, it wasn’t performance art.
The 25-year-old was simply trying to be a conscious consumer and didn’t want to buy a 10-pack of pens when she only needed one. Why add to the world’s tsunami of plastic, when someone nearby probably had a surplus?
Sure enough, a neighbor had several extra pens on hand. Another member filled Tran’s request for a calculator in similar fashion. (“Believe it or not, I was vacuuming my house yesterday and found a calculator behind a radiator!”)
Participating in Buy Nothing requires an openness to secondhand goods and a dose of patience that defies American “buy, buy, buy” culture, Tran said. But along with a bookshelf, cookware and a cactus, the group has given her a sense of camaraderie. “We’re not necessarily friends, but we see each other on Buy Nothing and it’s like an agreement that we all kind of care,” she explained.
That feeling has motivated Tran to give away items she could potentially sell, including several pairs of pricey shoes. “I’d rather give back to the people around me, because I’ve been able to get things that I need through their generosity,” she said.
Most of Tran’s Buy Nothing exchanges don’t go further than a quick hello, reflecting the local brand of niceness (generous, but detached). “It’s very Minnesotan,” Tran said. “Like, ‘We will help you, but we’re not going to welcome you into our home and invite you to dinner.’ “
Convenient and connecting
But some Buy Nothing exchanges do go deeper.
Kidd spent a fun evening having her makeup done by a cosmetologist who wanted to practice her craft. She cat-sits for a member who once loaned her a dinosaur costume. And her 6-foot-8 boyfriend regularly swaps clothing with a similarly super-tall member.
Gifting winter clothing to the daughter of a single mom was especially meaningful for Kidd, who grew up unable to afford clothing worn by her peers and relished receiving hand-me-downs. “It was like Christmas Day for me, so being able to pass that along was so gratifying,” she said.
Another time, Kidd was moving apartments and gave a Buy Nothing member a few pantry items. The woman mentioned she and her husband had just moved to Minneapolis from the Philippines and didn’t really have anything. So Kidd immediately invited them into her kitchen and loaded them up with more — shifting the interaction from transactional to connecting.
“It changed from convenience, ‘I’m moving out and you’re taking this stuff off my hands,’ into ‘I really want to help you,’ because now that I have a face and a story behind who these items are going to, it means so much more.”
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
