Signal Fire

Tesla, Pepsi and 86 Other Companies Paid Zero Taxes Last Year and Got Refunds

Why do corporations pay no taxes? 88 of the biggest companies in America paid zero in federal taxes last year. Some got money back from the government. Tesla made $5 billion in profit and paid nothing. Pepsi and Yum Brands did the same thing. This is completely legal. Jon and Lisa break down how companies avoid taxes by moving billions through Ireland, Malta and the Cayman Islands. They cover the SpaceX IPO and why everyday people are going to lose money on a $1.75 trillion company that has never turned a profit. They get into the housing crisis and why working people keep getting blamed for problems created by the ultra wealthy.

She Spent 17 Years Documenting How Christian Nationalism Is Being Used to Destroy Democracy

Katherine Stewart has spent 17 years going inside the rooms where the movement to dismantle American democracy operates. Her newest book Money Lies and God documents the machinery, the money, and the people behind it. And she says it is further along than most people realize. Christian nationalism is not a religion. It is an anti-democratic political ideology that exploits faith for power. It has a billionaire funded legal machine, voter turnout operations, dark money networks, and a disinformation infrastructure that has been building for decades. And it is now operating at the highest levels of the American government. Katherine breaks down who is funding it, why rank and file believers are being used to advance an agenda that works against their own economic interests, why the Supreme Court is not a firewall against authoritarianism, and how public schools became a deliberate target for the movement. This is not a conversation about religion. It is a conversation about power, money, and the deliberate dismantling of American democracy.

Inflation Is Up, Wages Are Down, Debt Is at a Record High. So Tell Me Again How America Is First.

In this episode of Signal Fire, Lisa Senecal and Jon Zieger examine the real-world outcomes of the modern “America First” agenda and ask who is actually benefiting from it. The conversation explores rising debt, inflation, Social Security, immigration, healthcare, and the growing influence of political patronage in American policymaking. They also discuss the long-term consequences of governing through short-term grievance politics rather than serious economic planning. Throughout the episode, they return to a larger question facing the country: what do citizens owe each other in a functioning democracy?

Elon Musk Is Not Avoiding Taxes. He Is Taxing You.

Jon Zieger and Lisa Senecal break down artificial intelligence and wealth inequality — and the alarming ways they are accelerating each other. Elon Musk is about to become the world's first trillionaire. He just called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Jon argues the real story is not that billionaires avoid taxes. It is that they have engineered a system that taxes you instead. Data centers are driving electricity bills up 30% in the poorest communities. CEOs make 350 times what their median worker makes. Billionaire fortunes pass to heirs completely tax free. The system was not broken. It was designed this way.

The FBI Just Seized Local Election Records for the First Time in American History

Justin Glawe is the only journalist in the country who filed to unseal the FBI affidavit that authorized the raid on a Fulton County elections warehouse. He read every document. He filed every motion. And he has two alarming conclusions. The first is that this is the first time in American history that the federal government has seized records from a local elections office. Not during Reconstruction. Not during Jim Crow. Not during the civil rights movement. Never. Until now. The second is that this was never about 2020. It is about creating the predicate to contest the results of 2026 and 2028. And the pieces are already in place. Justin also breaks down 38 deaths in ICE detention in the last year — the highest rate since we started counting — and why the government is controlling what you are allowed to know about how they died.