‘Cards Against Humanity’ Sues SpaceX, After ‘More Racist Billionaire’ Snuck Up On CAH’s Ant-Border Wall Property ‘From Behind’

Legal Issues

from the go-fuck-yourself,-elon-musk dept

Agree with them or not, the folks behind Cards Against Humanity certainly do have a penchant for flair. As you may recall, back during the Trump presidency, when we were still hearing about how a border wall would be built and then billed back to a sovereign nation that was absolutely never going to pay for it, the CAH folks decided to have some fun. As part of a campaign it dubbed “Cards Against Humanity Saves America,” CAH took proceeds from a portion of game sales to buy a plot of land in Texas along the Rio Grande, pledging to do every last thing in its power to keep a border wall from being built on that land. Again, whatever your politics, these folks certainly have some pluck to them.

And that’s where things have stood since 2017. Trump didn’t actually build all that much wall, certainly nothing remotely like a completed wall along the entire border. Mexico, to the surprise of precisely nobody, didn’t pay for any wall that was built. The land remained empty, untamed by man and still owned by CAH.

Until Elon Musk and SpaceX took it upon themselves to make use of the land as what looks to be part staging ground and part dumping zone. Reuters has a fascinating article about how SpaceX’s fabrication facility nearby in southern Texas has been expanding, finding itself in dire need of more land. It reads much as you would expect: public officials that own land nearby somehow are seeing their property values rise significantly, some of which received lobbying money from SpaceX, while your average citizen is getting lowball offers from SpaceX and being hung out to dry by those same public officials. One of those “average citizens” are the CAH folks.

Well, CAH isn’t simply letting their land be trespassed upon by Musk and SpaceX. Instead, they are suing SpaceX for $15 million, alleging that the parcel of land has been disrupted, used without right to store and stage equipment, and has otherwise had its value diminished. They even setup a website explaining that they’re doing and why, with a promise that it will send $100 to CAH’s original 15,000 backers if it wins the lawsuit.

We have terrible news. Seven years ago, 150,000 people paid us $15 to protect a pristine parcel of land on the US-Mexico border from racist billionaire Donald Trump’s very stupid wall.

Unfortunately, an even richer, more racist billionaire⸺Elon Musk⸺snuck up on us from behind and completely fucked that land with gravel, tractors, and space garbage.

How did this happen? Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building some space thing nearby, and he figured he could just dump his shit all over our gorgeous plot of land without asking. After we caught him, SpaceX gave us a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our land’s value. We said, “Go fuck yourself, Elon Musk. We’ll see you in court.”

You can read the entire filing below, but this one seems fairly cut and dried. SpaceX had no right to use CAH’s land, did so anyway, and then tried to strongarm the CAH into a lowball offer for the property. On their site, you can see pictures of what has been done to the land by SpaceX, and there are more in the lawsuit, but here’s one of the “before” pictures:

And here are some of the “after” pictures, showing what SpaceX has done to land that is not SpaceX’s land:

The $15 million is to cover the cost of repairing the property, to cover the devaluation of the property, and for the damage to CAH’s reputation and other losses.

SpaceX and/or its contractors entered the Property and, after erecting posts to mark the property line, proceeded to ignore any distinction based upon property ownership. The site was cleared of vegetation, and the soil was compacted with gravel or other substance to allow SpaceX and its contractors to run and park its vehicles all over the Property. Generators were brought in to run equipment and lights while work was being performed before and after daylight. An enormous mound of gravel was unloaded onto the Property; the gravel is being stored and used for the construction of buildings by SpaceX’s contractors along the road.

Large pieces of construction equipment and numerous construction-related vehicles are utilized and stored on the Property continuously. And, of course, workers are present performing construction work and staging materials and vehicles for work to be performed on other tracts. In short, SpaceX has treated the Property as its own for at least six (6) months without regard for CAH’s property rights nor the safety of anyone entering what has become a worksite that is presumably governed by OSHA safety requirements.

Ironically enough, it seems that the plot of land CAH bought to prevent Trump from building a wall to protect against a “Mexican invasion” was instead “invaded” by Trump’s new backer. That’s ironic enough that the CAH folks should be making cards around the whole situation.

Filed Under: border wall, donald trump, elon musk, property rights, texas
Companies: cards against humanity, spacex