Nel tornare in Italia...quanti veri Amici lasciamo in America

E’ bello ritornare in Italia….. Gli amici verranno a visitarci. 

 

Io ci starei volentieri perché mi manca. Ho lasciato Cefalu’ nel 59. E’ un’altro modo di vivere. Purtroppo i figli e nipotini sono qui e quindi e’ difficile lasciarli. Ritorniamo 2 volte l’anno ed e’ bello vedere le amiche di scuola ed i nostri parenti.

Tantissimi auguri!!!!! 

Cordiali saluti, 

Pina Culotta 

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Carissimo Oscar,

Immagino una scelta non facile. 

Io perdo due amici a Washington D.C., ma li guadagno in Europa ed in italia. 

Spero quindi rivedervi presto. Dimmi dove, e dammi maggiori notizie. 

Un abbraccio a Te e Franca e auguri per tutto

Alessandro Buttice'

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Simonetta Baldassari

Un grande abbraccio Oscar…

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Carissimi Franca e Oscar,

faremo anche noi di tutto col nostro affetto per farvi sentire di nuovo a casa!

A presto

Sandro e Rosaria

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66 MILLION Americans want a 'national divorce'

New poll shows growing number back Marjorie Taylor Greene's call for a split between blue and red statesRepublican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene says the US needs a 'national divorce' between red and blue states
A shocking new poll shows that one-fifth of Americans agree with this idea
Secessionist movements are alive and well in Texas and eastern Oregon

By James Reinl, Social Affairs Correspondent, For Dailymail.Com

A shocking number of Americans agree with Georgia firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that the US needs a 'national divorce' where red and blue states split into two separate nations.

Twenty percent of US adults — which amounts to some 66 million people — want to call it quits on the 247-year-old union, a poll of some 1,018 US adults carried out by Ipsos last week found.

Republicans are more keen on splitting up the superpower than Democrats — a quarter of GOP voters want to break away and form a right-leaning nation, compared to only 16 percent of Democrats.

The fifth of Americans who want to split is far less than is needed to make it politically viable, but nonetheless shows how ever-more conservatives and liberals are fed up with sharing a country with each other.



Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene says the US needs a 'national divorce' between red and blue states



Twenty percent of US adults — which amounts to some 66 million people — want to call it quits on the 247-year-old union



On President's Day, the Trump acolyte was decidedly unimpressed with President Joe Biden's surprise visit to Ukraine, saying in a tweet that it was time for the US to be divided.

'We need a national divorce,' the Georgia Republican posted on social media.

'We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,' she insisted. 'Everyone I talk to says this.'

'From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat's traitorous America Last policies, we are done,' Taylor Greene insisted of Republican sentiment toward the opposing party.

Ipsos found that support for splitting was higher among men, people who make $50,000 or less each year, and those living in the South and West of the country.

There are no serious proposals in Washington to carve up the country, but secessionist moves in some states have gathered momentum in recent years.

A campaign to have rural eastern Oregon effectively secede from the blue state and join more conservative Idaho has gained traction, with politicians in both states express support for shifting the border.

A Texas state lawmaker this month filed a bill to set a referendum for voters to decide whether the state should explore the possibility of seceding from the US — a move known as Texit.



Americans increasingly flaunt their differences of opinion over everything from gun rights to trans surgery for kids. Pictured: A pro-choice activist argues with a pro-life counter-protester at a rally in Washington

Recent polling shows deep polarization between red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) wants a 'national divorce' between the two parties

The last time the states separated based on ideology was the American Civil War which started on April 12, 1861, and ravaged the nation for more than four bloody years with an average of 500 deaths a day.

But the sheer fact that one-fifth of the country is open to the potential, shows the growing sentiment of resentment voters feel toward the opposing party.

A lot goes into deciding whether a state is red or blue — like recent elections, current leaders and historical voting records of those living in the jurisdiction.

Currently, 29 of the 50 states are led by Republican governors, and 24 states have voted for Republicans in at least three or four of the last four presidential elections. When just taking into account the 2022 Senate elections, 27 states voted red.

All in all, the country would be pretty evenly split, with a slight lean toward Republican states outnumbering Democratic states.

The population disparity would be huge, however, with the denser populated states leaning Democrat and ones with more land mass but fewer people leaning Republican.

E anche questa e' America: una notte al pronto soccorso del Sibley Hospital

Da più di 3 ore siamo bloccati al pronto soccorso del Sibley Hospital.

Attendiamo che chiamino Max per un sonogramma (ecografia) visto che è arrivato dal Messico con vomito e diarrea.

L'emergency room  di questo ospedale non è certo una bolgia dantesca, anche se si sta riempiendo di malati e parenti.

Molti gli afro-american. 

Una signora spagnola e noi siamo una minoranza.

Il silenzio quasi obbligato dell'ambiente tenuto a bada da un poliziotto di grandi dimensioni anche lui nero, viene interrotto dalle esclamazioni (quasi urla)  della signora spagnola che si è avvicinata alla porta vetrata automatica e sta indicando qualcosa fuori che necessita un intervento.

È arrivata una macchina che ha frenato di fronte all'ingresso, al volante una donna di mezza età, che sta chiamando aiuto perché il marito ha le convulsioni e sta sbattendo la testa contro il vetro della portiera.

La spagnola invoca l'attenzione del grande e grasso poliziotto e della super obesa donna al ricevimento perché qualcuno vada ad aiutare quella signora facendo sedere il marito in preda alle convulsioni su una sedia a rotelle e introducendolo dentro l'emergency room.

Il poliziotto grassone e una dottoressa affermano ad alta voce che nessuno di quel dipartimento è autorizzato a uscire dalla porta principale per aiutare qualcuno ad entrare.

Suggeriscono senza alcun senso di umorismo di chiamare il 911 per un'ambulanza e far entrare in barella il malato. 

Un'ambulanza per un metro di distanza.

La spagnola comincia a urlare, afferra una delle sedie a rotelle vicine all'ingresso e si avventa verso l'uscita, costringendo il poliziotto a seguirla infrangendo le regole dell'ospedale.

Durante questo psicodramma nessuno degli altri ospiti presenti nel salone ha mosso ne' alzato un occhio su quanto stava succedendo all'ingresso all'insegna di un perfetto "It is not my business" che e' una delle fondamenta della cultura americana.

Si palesa da una porta secondaria un secondo poliziotto gigantesco che ammonisce la spiritata moglie dell'uomo in convulsioni che nel frattempo è stato introdotto all'interno del pronto soccorso.

Chiaramente sta convincendo la signora a stare tranquilla per non passare dalla parte del torto mentre al coniuge stanno prestando le prime cure.

Sono passate 4 ore dal nostro ingresso e finalmente chiamano il nome del signor Bartoli per gli accertamenti del caso che risulta essere un avvelenamento da cibo.

Per quanto ci riguarda tutto si risolve con l'assunzione di un antibiotico da prolungare nei prossimi giorni.

Sicuramente vi state chiedendo perché anche noi non ci siamo alzati per cercare di risolvere questo problema.  Ok ci siamo limitati a seguire quanto stava succedendo per non aggravare la situazione. Forse per vigliaccheria, forse  il nostro americanismo ha prevalso, forse la preoccupazione per le condizioni di Max, forse...

Ed anche questa è America. 

Buona Notte!

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Allucinante. Ciao, sandra Z.

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.l’aspetto negativo della standardizzazione!  Franco Ber.

The DIVEs and a goodbye that takes your breath away

The DIVE (Italian Women living abroad) is an important social-cultural organization, born in Washington a few years ago and then distributed in the United States to create contacts between compatriots living in various American cities.

The DIVEs of Washington met on March 8th not only to celebrate Women's Day but also and above all to greet one of the members who worked hardest for the success of the programs of this important initiative.

At the pizzeria il Canale about a hundred Dive met with their respective husbands and companions.

This is the open letter to Franca Bartoli that Cris Misul tried in vain to read overwhelmed by the incredible noise of this pizzeria.

We propose it again to our readers because it is an interesting testimony of what Italian women have been doing for some time to keep the image of our homeland high abroad.

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 Dear Franca,

I am reading and expressing the thought, not only mine, but of all the people present and not present to celebrate you on this special day dedicated to women.

I don't want to end up in rhetoric, so I avoid repeating how good and helpful and generous and versatile and multitasking you are, and so on.

I will concentrate everything in one word, actually two: practically irreplaceable!

Over the years you have dedicated yourself with enthusiasm and promptness to the association of the Dive you have always generously offered your home for many and many initiatives, after dinner, cineclub, fashion shows, various entertainments.

Your laid tables were impeccable, your lunches in the garden that you personally looked after as soon as the weather allowed and you, a space woman, always ready, active, diligent, without forgetting to thank dear Oscar, who has always supported you and actively and morally assisted in the thousand activities that marked your stay here in Washington.

What more to say? Washington will never be the same without the Bartolis and the Dive will have a great nostalgia for Franca and we may already feel the lack of her from this moment in which we say goodbye.

Dear Franca, thank you for everything! With great affection from all the Dive.

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Bellissimo ...cara Franca..xi mancherete tantissimo....

Un abbraccio 

Anna

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Dear Oscar Bartoli, I am so sorry that we are losing you. Although I have not participated in many events, I have great memories of those I attended, and I so enjoy reading your emails. I hope you will still write and communicate with us about your thoughts on whatever is happening in Italy! Grazie for all you have done to make us smile and be informed. Deborah

Mike Pence: history will hold Donald Trump accountable over Capitol attack

US Capitol attack

Former vice-president, speaking at Gridiron dinner, says it ‘mocks decency’ to portray January 6 as anything other than a ‘disgrace’

Martin Pengelly

Mike Pence has offered a rebuke of his one-time boss Donald Trump, saying history will hold the former president accountable for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.


Judge who told Pence not to overturn election predicts ‘beginning of end of Trump’

Pence, then vice-president, was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

As Senate president, Pence presided over the ceremonial task of approving the votes of the electoral college.

Throughout the siege, Trump sent several tweets, one calling on Republicans to “fight” and others making false claims of voter fraud. He also criticised Pence for certifying the results.

Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence”. A makeshift gallows was erected outside. Pence was spirited to safety by Secret Service agents.

On Saturday at the Gridiron dinner in Washington, Pence told journalists and their guests: “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Pence is now considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 – against Trump, the clear leader in polling.

Pence rarely addressed January 6 in the months after the riot but he has now upped his criticism of the rioters and Trump. In a memoir released in November he accused Trump of endangering his family.

“What happened that day was a disgrace,” Pence told the Gridiron audience. “And it mocks decency to portray it any other way. For as long as I live, I will never, ever diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day.”

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pence’s remarks came a few days after the Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired highly selective, misleading security footage of the Capitol attack, in an attempt to claim many rioters were “orderly”.

Carlson’s depiction was sharply criticised by Democrats and Senate Republicans. Many other Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, shrugged off the episode.

On Sunday, a relatively moderate House Republican was asked if Pence was right to say history would hold Trump accountable for January 6. Nancy Mace, from South Carolina, sidestepped the question.

“I see this in two parts,” she told CNN’s State of the Union. “I think both sides are really struggling, looking at the nomination process. You’ve got some on the left that don’t want Biden to run, you’ve got those on the right that don’t want [Trump] to run.

“You know, a lot of folks on both sides keep bringing up January 6, and it’s keeping us from moving our country forward.”

Mace was not among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol attack, making Trump’s second impeachment the most bipartisan in US history.

Nonetheless, she also saluted her own success in defeating a challenger endorsed by Trump last year, and said Republicans should unite behind a candidate “who can win the White House”.

Asked again if Trump would be held accountable, Mace said: “He is one of the only candidates in right now … we have a long way to go for additional candidates to jump in and see how the field lays out.”

Asked if the Republican House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was right to have released more than 40,000 hours of Capitol security footage to Carlson – a decision for which McCarthy has faced fierce criticism – Mace said: “I said early on … it was important that it should be released to every outlet including CNN, every media outlet, every defense attorney so that the public can see for itself.

“There was violence on that day. You cannot deny that and you know, it was a dark day in our history. But so was the summer of 2020.”

Mace proceeded to compare the deadly attack on Congress – now linked to nine deaths, more than a thousand arrests and hundreds of convictions including some for seditious conspiracy – to protests for racial justice after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.

“We saw very few arrests when there were attacks by … members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter. I had my house spray painted two summers ago and no one’s been held to account for that.”

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider taking the step of supporting the Guardian’s journalism.

From Elon Musk to Rupert Murdoch, a small number of billionaire owners have a powerful hold on so much of the information that reaches the public about what’s happening in the world. The Guardian is different. We have no billionaire owner or shareholders to consider. Our journalism is produced to serve the public interest – not profit motives.

And we avoid the trap that befalls much US media – the tendency, born of a desire to please all sides, to engage in false equivalence in the name of neutrality. While fairness guides everything we do, we know there is a right and a wrong position in the fight against racism and for reproductive justice. When we report on issues like the climate crisis, we’re not afraid to name who is responsible. And as a global news organization, we’re able to provide a fresh, outsider perspective on US politics – one so often missing from the insular American media bubble.

Around the world, readers can access the Guardian’s paywall-free journalism because of our unique reader-supported model. That’s because of people like you. Our readers keep us independent, beholden to no outside influence and accessible to everyone – whether they can afford to pay for news, or not.

Le nostre vite e lo strapotere dei Signori della Rete

Monopoli pericolosi – Le nostre vite e lo strapotere dei Signori della Rete

Articolo di Romano Prodi su Il Messaggero 

Si è molto parlato, come è giusto e doveroso, dell’eccessiva concentrazione della ricchezza e del parallelo aumento delle disparità sociali, ma poco si è detto di come questo nuovo secolo abbia portato un generale indebolimento della politica di fronte ai giganti economici.

Questo è accaduto in tutti i settori: dal commercio dei prodotti alimentari alla finanza, dalla chimica alla farmaceutica, fino all’energia. Nulla è tuttavia paragonabile a quanto è avvenuto nel campo delle imprese nate intorno alla rete che, per dimensione e per potere di mercato, superano ogni esempio precedente e, nello stesso tempo, godono di una libertà di azione che non ha alcun precedente nella storia.

Anche se sono passati parecchi decenni, non posso dimenticare come, quando compivo i primi studi sulla concorrenza, fosse dottrina condivisa che, tramite le leggi antitrust, il governo dovesse non solo impedire il così detto “abuso di posizione dominante” di una grande impresa, ma dovesse anche intervenire quando l’eccessiva grandezza rendeva l’azienda troppo potente.

Questo anche senza il compimento di alcuna azione illecita. Negli anni ottanta il governo americano ha imposto la frammentazione dei due giganti tecnologi del tempo (IBM e ATT) proprio fondandosi sull’affermazione che il loro eccessivo potere di mercato poteva indebolire i diritti dei cittadini e che una “dittatura economica” avrebbe fatto camminare l’America verso la dittatura politica.

Tutto questo è stato dimenticato con le dottrine ultraliberiste di Reagan e Thatcher che, proprio a partire dagli anni ottanta, hanno dominato non solo la politica degli Stati Uniti, ma quella di tutti i paesi democratici.

L’Antitrust non è più stato lo strumento per fare prevalere il potere democratico sul potere economico, e si è progressivamente indebolito proprio quando nascevano i nuovi protagonisti della vita economica mondiale che, attraverso la rete, hanno costruito un potere incomparabilmente maggiore rispetto al passato.

Un potere che ha permesso a questi giganti di mettere fuori gioco o di comprare qualsiasi potenziale concorrente. Non è certo di scarso rilievo constatare che Facebook ha acquistato 90 imprese, Google un numero tre volte superiore e Apple (come sottolinea il recente libro “Internet fatta a pezzi” di Bertola e Quintarelli) ha raggiunto un valore di borsa pari all’intero Prodotto Interno Lordo della Francia. Si tratta di una realtà senza confronti e senza precedenti.

Tutte le più grandi imprese operanti oggi nel mondo occidentale (e simmetricamente in Cina) sono nate da Internet e, a differenza del passato, agiscono a livello globale e dominano l’intero mercato pubblicitario proprio perché sono in grado di controllare le abitudini di vita di tutti noi e venderle a chi ne ha interesse. Quasi tutti i prodotti delle grandi imprese a rete, a partire dalle indispensabili mail fino ai tanti altri servizi ai quali non possiamo rinunciare, vengono offerti “gratuitamente” al consumatore finale proprio perché altri li pagano.

Questa diffusa “gratuità” costituisce l’enorme patrimonio politico di queste grandi imprese. Quando infatti, in tempi ormai lontani, sollevavamo la necessità di rinforzare l’antitrust, eravamo sostenuti dalla gran parte dell’opinione pubblica, irritata dal fatto che i padroni del mercato (chiamati con dispregio “baroni rapinatori”) aumentavano “visibilmente” il prezzo dei beni che arrivavano all’acquirente finale.

Oggi tutto questo è pagato dalla pubblicità o dalla vendita delle informazioni e nulla pesa quindi “direttamente” sulle spalle del consumatore. Anche per questo motivo Bill Gates e gli altri costruttori della rete sono oggi il simbolo eroico della modernità per i cittadini e, di conseguenza, per i loro rappresentanti politici. Si è creato quindi un tale cambiamento di scenario per cui un leader di una impresa a rete (il direttore di PayPal) ha potuto dichiarare, senza causare sostanziali rivolte, che la concorrenza è uno strumento destinato solo a favorire i perdenti.

Tra quelli che con disprezzo sono definiti perdenti vi è certo l’Europa che, opportunamente, ha tuttavia iniziato a costruire una protezione dei propri cittadini con due provvedimenti (chiamati Digital Markets Act e Digital Services Act) volti a ridurre, anche se in modo ancora molto limitato, la posizione dominante dei grandi operatori e i contenuti illegali o distorsivi dei loro prodotti.

Resta il fatto che le nostre imprese, la nostra pubblica amministrazione e le vite di tutti dipendono sempre più dallo straordinario potere di mercato e dalla capacità di influenza dei grandi signori della rete.

Non è perciò assurdo convenire con chi sostiene che essi stanno diventando così potenti da interferire profondamente nella vita democratica di ogni paese, sostituendo in molti ambiti i nostri governanti. Con la differenza che noi non siamo chiamati a votare per i presidenti di Google, di Apple o di Amazon.

Elon Musk Is Planning a Texas Utopia—His Own Town

The entrepreneur is laying plans for a new community outside Austin next to Boring and SpaceX facilities, dubbed Snailbrook

By Kirsten Grind

Photographs by Sergio Flores for The Wall Street JournalUpdated 

AUSTIN, Texas—Elon Musk is planning to build his own town on part of thousands of acres of newly purchased pasture and farmland outside the Texas capital, according to deeds and other land records and people familiar with the project.

In meetings with landowners and real-estate agents, Mr. Musk and employees of his companies have described his vision as a sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River, where his employees could live and work.

Executives at the Boring Co., Mr. Musk’s tunnel operation, have discussed and researched incorporating the town in Bastrop County, about 35 miles from Austin, which would allow Mr. Musk to set some regulations in his own municipality and expedite his plans, according to people familiar with Mr. Musk’s projects.

They say Mr. Musk and his top executives want his Austin-area employees, including workers at Boring, electric-car maker Tesla Inc. TSLA -4.99%decrease; red down pointing triangle and space and exploration company SpaceX, to be able to live in new homes with below-market rents.

Warehouses for the Boring Co. and SpaceX

Note: Property boundaries are approximate. Satellite imagery for Travis County as of January 2022. Bastrop County is a composite of imagery from January 2022 and November 2022.

Source: Maxar and Google Earth (satellite imagery); Travis and Bastrop Central Appraisal Districts (property boundaries)
Andrew Mollica / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The planned town is adjacent to Boring and SpaceX facilities now under construction. The site already includes a group of modular homes, a pool, an outdoor sports area and a gym, according to Facebook photos and people familiar with the town. Signs hanging from poles read “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021.”

Snailbrook is a reference to Boring’s mascot. When Mr. Musk started the tunneling venture, he challenged employees to build boring machines that move “faster than a snail.”

Some Boring employees, including Steve Davis, the company’s president and a top lieutenant to Mr. Musk, have at times described even bigger plans, including creating an entire city, according to some of those people and text messages viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

During an all-hands meeting of Boring employees last year, Mr. Davis said they would have to hold an election for mayor, according to text messages and people familiar with the meeting.

Mr. Musk, his former girlfriend, who is the singer Grimes, Kanye West and Mr. West’s architectural designer discussed several times last year what a Musk town might look like, according to people familiar with the discussions. Those talks included broad ideas and some visual mock-ups, according to one of the people, but haven’t resulted in concrete plans.

The Snailbrook neighborhood, top, near a Boring Co. construction site. Documents filed in the Bastrop County Commissioners Court in January, above, show plans for 110 more homes near the land where Snailbrook is located.

Representatives for Mr. West, who goes by Ye, and Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Under Texas law, a town needs at least 201 residents before it can apply to incorporate, then approval from a county judge. Bastrop County hasn’t received an application from Mr. Musk or any of his entities, a spokeswoman said.

Chap Ambrose, a computer programmer who lives on a hilltop overlooking the new Boring and SpaceX facilities, said he believes “they want it to be secret. They want to do things before anyone knows really what’s happening.”

Mr. Ambrose has been seeking information from Boring and the county about the company’s research and testing of its tunneling machines and how that might affect groundwater and wells in the area.

He has sent drones over the area seeking clues to other structures Boring and SpaceX are building and what they plan to produce in their factories. Drone footage and YouTube videos he posted show the construction of tunnels between the Boring and SpaceX parcels that run beneath a public road.

Messrs. Musk and Davis didn’t respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Musk, Alex Spiro, and a top adviser who heads his family office, Jared Birchall, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Over the past three years, entities tied to Mr. Musk’s companies or executives have purchased at least 3,500 acres in the Austin area, collectively about four times the size of New York’s Central Park, according to county deeds and other land records. The Journal also obtained city and county emails through public-records requests, reviewed internal company communications and state licensing records, and interviewed land owners and city and county officials.

Elon Musk addressed guests at the grand opening of Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas in April 2022.PHOTO: BOB DAEMMRICH/ZUMA PRESS

Some local real-estate and land officials said they have been told by people close to Mr. Musk that the billionaire owns even more land in the area—as much as 6,000 acres.

When Mr. Musk left his longtime home of California more than two years ago, he said he had lost patience with rules and regulations in that state, where Tesla and Boring were then headquartered before moving to Texas. California is the land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation,” he said in December 2021.

Texas has fewer zoning laws and environmental and labor requirements, and has vast swaths of loosely regulated land. Unlike California, it has no corporate income tax or income or capital-gains taxes on individuals.

Last month, Tesla said it was continuing to expand in California, too, and named an office in Palo Alto as its engineering headquarters. Tesla’s corporate headquarters remains in Texas.

The Texas land purchases have taken place through at least four limited liability companies. Those companies are tied to Mr. Musk’s businesses or their officers in county deed and land records and state business filings that list their names.

The plans include a project to build a private residential compound for Mr. Musk that potentially would be some distance from the planned town, according to people familiar with the plans.

Mr. Musk has been a chief driver of the plans, and the land purchases all have to be approved by him, said people familiar with the operation.

In many of the purchases tracked by the Journal, sellers have been required to sign nondisclosure agreements, according to people who have signed them. Local economic-development officials said they were asked to sign such agreements when they were told Boring was coming to town.

Construction at a SpaceX site in Bastrop County in February.

During a spring 2020 visit to the condo of Steve Adler, then mayor of Austin, Mr. Musk sought assurances from him and an official in Travis County, where Austin is located, that government bureaucracy wouldn’t stand in the way of his many projects, Mr. Adler said. “What he wanted from the city was speed,” said Mr. Adler, a Democrat who left office when his second term ended this January.

Soon after, Mr. Musk began building the Tesla manufacturing facility known as Giga Texas—more than 10 million square feet on roughly 2,500 acres in Travis County, outside Austin, according to land records and Tesla’s website.

In neighboring Bastrop County, about an hour southeast of Austin, SpaceX is building a 500,000-square-foot facility, and, across state road 1209, Boring is building a new warehouse.

Last June, Robert Pugh, then Bastrop County’s director of engineering, complained in an email to Clara Beckett, the county commissioner in charge of planning, that staffers had been “regularly hounded” by employees and contractors of Boring and Starlink, a SpaceX unit. They want the county to “expedite and approve permit applications that are incomplete and not in compliance” with the county’s regulations, Mr. Pugh wrote.

Mr. Pugh left his job that same month and didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ms. Beckett didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The planned town would sit in Bastrop County. An entity called Gapped Bass LLC, of which state records show Boring’s Mr. Davis serving as president, now owns more than 200 acres there, all purchased within the past two years. SpaceX has purchased about 60 more acres. The land was previously owned by longtime ranchers and other Texas families.

As of last year, Boring employees could apply for a home with rents starting at about $800 a month for a two- or three-bedroom, according to an advertisement for employees viewed by the Journal and people familiar with the plans. If an employee leaves or is fired, he or she would have to vacate the house within 30 days, those people said.

The median rent in Bastrop, Texas, is about $2,200 a month, according to real-estate listing company Zillow Group Inc.

Executives have discussed opening the houses to all employees of Mr. Musk’s companies.

Gapped Bass has filed paperwork with Bastrop County to build 110 more homes in the planned town, which it calls “Project Amazing.”

Bastrop County officials approved street names such as “Boring Boulevard,” “Waterjet Way” and “Cutterhead Crossing,” according to county meeting documents.

Boring plans to convert a home on the property into a Montessori school for as many as 15 students, according to correspondence between a Boring company official and a county government employee.

Adena Lewis, the county’s director of tourism and economic development, said she isn’t sure of Boring’s time frame for the development, but the region sorely needs new housing. “They’re very respectful of us,” she said. “But they’re in a hurry.”

Ms. Lewis said the county’s small size made it attractive to Mr. Musk’s companies. “I think it’s the ability to work with folks on a direct level, and not having tons of red tape,” she said.

Mr. Musk has long envisioned building a town, and a couple of years ago helped his brother, Kimbal Musk, refine an idea to build an off-the-grid community, according to people familiar with the plans. It couldn’t be determined where that idea stands. When the Journal reached out to a spokeswoman for Kimbal Musk, describing the project, including a purported name, she said he wasn’t aware of the project as described and didn’t respond to further requests for clarification.

Mr. Musk has been a proponent of affordable housing for employees. In 2018, during a public panel discussion with then-Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, Mr. Musk talked about building housing for Tesla workers alongside the company’s huge complex outside Reno.

In 2021, Mr. Musk tweeted about creating “the city of Starbase, Texas,” in Boca Chica Village, where SpaceX has operations along the Gulf of Mexico. It isn’t clear whether the city has been incorporated. A spokeswoman for Cameron County, where Boca Chica Village is located, didn’t respond to requests for comment.


June 2021


Site of Musk company developments in Bastrop County.
MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES (2)

Mr. Musk has explored building a private compound on some of the newly acquired land in Bastrop County, according to people familiar with his plans. For some of the past two years, he has stayed at a friend’s mansion in Austin, the Journal has reported.

The status and location of the potential house couldn’t be determined. The people familiar with the plan say the town is a separate project.

Some locals have sold land to Mr. Musk’s companies. Others who own land in Bastrop and Travis counties said they have gotten few answers from Mr. Musk’s companies about their plans, and have said they won’t sell.

Some said they feel steamrolled by eager public officials who aren’t asking enough questions. “They’re just going as fast as they can,” said Mr. Ambrose, whose home overlooks the Boring site.

In 2013, when Mr. Ambrose bought his 10 acres of hilltop land, there were only about a dozen residences within a mile. Since the spring of 2021, Boring has erected several warehouses and dug at least two test tunnels, and SpaceX is constructing the largest building in the county.

“There’s no transparency,” said David Barrow, who runs Eden East Farm on Bastrop’s North Main Street, which supports his family’s two restaurants and a farmstand.

David Barrow, who runs a farm in Bastrop, is worried the new projects could threaten water quality.

Boring employees are among his regular customers, Mr. Barrow said, but he is worried the new projects could threaten the water quality of the Colorado River and the aquifers that supply the region’s wells.

Recently, Boring applied to state environmental authorities to discharge up to 140,000 gallons of industrial wastewater a day into the river.

“I would like to know what is actually being sprayed, what they’re actually building, and who is going to hold them accountable,” Mr. Barrow said, referring to plans to disperse some wastewater onto Boring land.

Ms. Lewis, the director of tourism and economic development, said she had no concerns that the company’s development would harm the river and surrounding farmland.

After being approached by some landowners, including Mr. Ambrose, Texas State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt requested a public environmental hearing set for this month.

“We’re going to need to have more of a conversation and be able to verify the assertions that these companies are making with regard to the discharge permit into the Colorado River,” Ms. Eckhardt said.

Instead of trying to force one of the world’s richest men out of town, Mr. Ambrose said, “we can make him be a good member of the community and be a good neighbor and follow the law. And that, to me, is worth the effort.”

New Boring Co. buildings have risen near pasture land in Bastrop County.

Jim Oberman, Elisa Cho and Micah Maidenberg contributed to this article.

Header Photo Illustration Credit: DAVE COLE/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; SOURCE PHOTOS: AFP/GETTY IMAGES, PICTOMETRY, SERGIO FLORES FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, ISTOCK

Write to Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com, Rebecca Elliott at rebecca.elliott@wsj.com, Ted Mann at Ted.Mann@wsj.com and Julie Bykowicz at julie.bykowicz@wsj.com