All Things Trump: The Return Of The King

[pErvinalia]

[Tero]

Trump has not said a word about FAA since sharing his expertise on helicopter altitude. Musk goon revising FAA and stealing contract from Verizon

Malaska has not wiped his social media and gone into hiding like others in DOGE. Instead, he has posted enthusiastically to X about his work and addressed criticisms of his mission.

“I love how none (sic) technical media is questioning my work at the @FAANews,” he wrote on Feb. 26. “I challenge anyone to question the honesty and my technical integrity on this matter. I am working without biases for the safety of people that fly.”

Malaska was dispatched to the FAA to implement Starlink’s technology there—a mission Bloomberg reported was a “directive” that came from Musk himself.

The engineer told FAA staffers last month he was launching a program that will “deploy thousands of the company’s Starlink satellite terminals to support the national airspace system,” sources told Bloomberg.

Malaska reportedly told FAA staffers his Starlink project needs to be nationwide by the summer of 2026—a timeline that was apparently “unsettling” for federal aviation safety employees who said such large scale changes are too delicate to be rushed.

Ethics experts are also concerned about a partnership between the FAA and Starlink, saying it is a conflict of interest as SpaceX’s mishaps are probed by the very administration Musk now has vast influence over.

Not controversial, however, is the FAA’s need to upgrade its telecommunications network, which has been plagued by outages in recent years. This is why the administration, after a lengthy bidding process, awarded a $2.4 billion contract to Verizon in 2023 that would see its aging systems modernized over the coming years.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/musks-dog ... for-staff/

[Tero]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... on/681794/

"Last year, two professors published a book that deserves wide attention. In The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers Our Future, Stephen E. Hanson, a government professor at the College of William & Mary, and Jeffrey S. Kopstein, a political scientist at UC Irvine, resurface a mostly forgotten term whose lineage dates back to Max Weber, the German sociologist best known for his seminal book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

"Weber wondered how the leaders of states derive legitimacy, the claim to rule rightfully. He thought it boiled down to two choices. One is rational legal bureaucracy (or “bureaucratic proceduralism”), a system in which legitimacy is bestowed by institutions following certain rules and norms. That is the American system we all took for granted until January 20. Presidents, federal officials, and military inductees swear an oath to the Constitution, not to a person."

"The other source of legitimacy is more ancient, more common, and more intuitive—“the default form of rule in the premodern world,” Hanson and Kopstein write. “The state was little more than the extended ‘household’ of the ruler; it did not exist as a separate entity.” Weber called this system “patrimonialism” because rulers claimed to be the symbolic father of the people—the state’s personification and protector. Exactly that idea was implied in Trump’s own chilling declaration: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

"Patrimonialism is less a form of government than a style of governing. It is not defined by institutions or rules; rather, it can infect all forms of government by replacing impersonal, formal lines of authority with personalized, informal ones. Based on individual loyalty and connections, and on rewarding friends and punishing enemies (real or perceived), it can be found not just in states but also among tribes, street gangs, and criminal organizations."

Rauch cites as a current example of ruling by patrimonialism Vladimir Putin in Russia. So it is no surprise that Trump has a strange attraction for the Russian ruler

"Patrimonialism’s antithesis is not democracy; it is bureaucracy, or, more precisely, bureaucratic proceduralism." What are Trump and Elon Musk attacking?

"By contrast, patrimonialism is suspicious of bureaucracies; after all, to exactly whom are they loyal? They might acquire powers of their own, and their rules and processes might prove obstructive. People with expertise, experience, and distinguished résumés are likewise suspect because they bring independent standing and authority. So patrimonialism stocks the government with nonentities and hacks, or, when possible, it bypasses bureaucratic procedures altogether."

"Even if authoritarianism is averted, the damage that patrimonialism does to state capacity is severe. Governments’ best people leave or are driven out. Agencies’ missions are distorted and their practices corrupted. Procedures and norms are abandoned and forgotten. Civil servants, contractors, grantees, corporations, and the public are corrupted by the habit of currying favor."

But patrimonialism has it's vulnerabilities.

Patrimonialism suffers from two inherent and in many cases fatal shortcomings.

"The first is incompetence. “The arbitrary whims of the ruler and his personal coterie continually interfere with the regular functioning of state agencies,” write Hanson and Kopstein. Patrimonial regimes are “simply awful at managing any complex problem of modern governance,” they write."

"Eventually, incompetence makes itself evident to the voting public without needing too much help from the opposition. But helping the public understand patrimonialism’s other, even greater vulnerability—corruption—requires relentless messaging."

"Patrimonialism is corrupt by definition, because its reason for being is to exploit the state for gain—political, personal, and financial."

[Brian Peacock]

We can stop the conversation right there.

[Tero]

For the remainder of the term? We are mostly now tracking: how long will Musk act? He may be camping at the White House four years. The poor toddler will need to be flown in for events.

[Brian Peacock]

For the remainder of the term? We are mostly now tracking: how long will Musk act? He may be camping at the White House four years. The poor toddler will need to be flown in for events.

I just mean that we can stop casting around for reasons and pathologising Trump to explain what's going on. Patrimonialism is the model of governance the US has accidentally adopted, and now you (and the rest of us) have to deal with that reality and the consequences. If you think this will simply melt away at the next election you're mistaken.

[Tero]

The next election is going to be difficult. All those Musk fans and toxic males voting. We have thrown out diversity and everything else. It's not even in the character of Democrats to be bossy bullies. Somwhow make it clear that corporations have stolen your life and we have the only way out of it: governmnent benefits like health care.

We will be moving towards old age by 2028 and...my older child is old enough to run for president.

[Tero]

We do have economics on our side. The MAGA dream of "jobs back from overseas" will not happen.
Globalism will be back and tariffs will disappear. Big price for Heritage Foundation to pay. The current disruption. They are globalists. I guess stripping the feds of power and regulation is the main goal.

HF are mostly a fossil fuel lobby, the one Koch brother.

[Tero]

America is now a Trump Casino

i believe there's a developing story here about the trump admin and their efforts to set up a massive crypto scheme that will defraud the taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars, to their and their associates direct benefit, and to the benefit of people with large crypto holdings. although, due to it's deregulated and decentralized nature that is part of it's appeal, it's anyone's guess how much cash is actually available to steal on the crypto market.

how i believe it will work is, one, trump and co already have significant holdings in the crypto space. the trump family directly has been involved in it for years, with his kids constantly tweeting about crypto projects, meme coins, apps, nft projects, other projects, his own meme coin, world liberty financial, and you could even look at the melania coin and scammer hayden davis and the links to the argentinian rug pull as some examples of their history in the space and likely them just getting their feet wet before going all in. and i think they're all in on crypto, it's easy money to scam.

some of the major players are the trump family themselves, obviously elon musk who has had his own crypto shenanigans well documented, but others like howard lutnick as secretary of commerce, with ties to crypto and specifically tether, and johnathon gould as comptroller of currency, and chairman of commodity futures brian quintez.

next, they deregulate. get rid of capital gains on crypto. ease regulations and drop existing lawsuits and investigations. change enforcement policy and directives.

at the same time, they're opening stakes in exchanges and crypto finance, through purchasing crypto exchanges and opening their own crypto based financial services, where they take deposits and lend money but aren't a bank.

while they're working on that, state legislatures and federal start pushing bills to entwine the taxpayer into this through strategic reserves, while trying to convince you this is somehow going to benefit the tax payer or somehow appreciate in value to pay off the debt.

https://internationalskeptics.com

[Tero]

OR, less words

‪Aaron Rupar‬ ‪@atrupar.com‬
New in PN: Trump’s "Crypto Reserve" is a world historical grift

"It’s a kind of farm subsidy, but for billionaires making digital magic beans instead of food."

[Tero]

It will all be better after we get over terrible Bidenomics and terrible Medicaid and terrible Social Security.
https://bsky.app/profile/carlquintanill ... soe4y3rc2p

[Brian Peacock]

America is now a Trump Casino

i believe there's a developing story here about the trump admin and their efforts to set up a massive crypto scheme that will defraud the taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars, to their and their associates direct benefit, and to the benefit of people with large crypto holdings. although, due to it's deregulated and decentralized nature that is part of it's appeal, it's anyone's guess how much cash is actually available to steal on the crypto market.

how i believe it will work is, one, trump and co already have significant holdings in the crypto space. the trump family directly has been involved in it for years, with his kids constantly tweeting about crypto projects, meme coins, apps, nft projects, other projects, his own meme coin, world liberty financial, and you could even look at the melania coin and scammer hayden davis and the links to the argentinian rug pull as some examples of their history in the space and likely them just getting their feet wet before going all in. and i think they're all in on crypto, it's easy money to scam.

some of the major players are the trump family themselves, obviously elon musk who has had his own crypto shenanigans well documented, but others like howard lutnick as secretary of commerce, with ties to crypto and specifically tether, and johnathon gould as comptroller of currency, and chairman of commodity futures brian quintez.

next, they deregulate. get rid of capital gains on crypto. ease regulations and drop existing lawsuits and investigations. change enforcement policy and directives.

at the same time, they're opening stakes in exchanges and crypto finance, through purchasing crypto exchanges and opening their own crypto based financial services, where they take deposits and lend money but aren't a bank.

while they're working on that, state legislatures and federal start pushing bills to entwine the taxpayer into this through strategic reserves, while trying to convince you this is somehow going to benefit the tax payer or somehow appreciate in value to pay off the debt.

https://internationalskeptics.com

That makes sense. Get the state to underwrite $Crypto and it becomes a truly tradeable asset with an absolute value, no different than any other currency.

We need Nineberry to run us up 5 trillion $Ratzcoin by Wednesday!

[JimC]

Can I buy gin with Ratzcoins?

[macdoc]

The Mafia state and no not Putins version
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... afia-state
Thank goodness for the Guardian...

[Tero]

Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump- ... 025-03-06/