Kleptocracy, and the vanishing road back: The Trump family is funding its private businesses with your tax dollars, and they have no intention of stopping.
I'm aware of the theft, but I finance is not my strong point. I certainly can look at facts and know who is the crook. Sorry Drumpf family. Too many excuses; no honesty.
There is a second kind of rupture-the Jacobins showed us how that plays out and Napoleon showed how someone in the old system patiently waits for the dervishes to whirl themselves into a frenzy-and collapse. My concern is not as much with Trump-or his sons, as infuriating as they are. My concern is more with a low level functionary who is biding his time, waiting for the Big Dogs to fall, for the revolutionaries to overplay their hand and even turn on one another (looking at you, James Carville, Tom Suozzi,, Rahm Emmanuel). Then you will see a quiet, determined Fascist step up to the plate.
So instead of that blowhard Long Island asshole Suozzi attacking Ds billion dollar Kazakhstan tungsten mining grift, he's wasting his breath on teammates who he claims are 'socialists'. Ya mean Like Norway, Sweden & Netherlands that offer health care to their peeps??? Tom needs to shut his effing mouth
Suozzi is committing a crime every day. He lives in a home run by the Family with apartment rent less than half the going rate in Washington DC. Others know more detail than I but, for what ever reason, accepting the reduced rental rate is the crime. It was also reported the other day that Speaker Mike Johnson has been living with a friend - a sitting Congressman (someone who knows more than I , will expand on this 'm sure. that two is like receiving a gift on which he should have paid taxes. These guys play all the angles, But , have a good bullshit story for when they get caught.
I think the Acemoglu citation is the most important thing in this piece and the one most likely to be skipped - my opinion here.
The central puzzle of corrupt rule is not how kleptocracies fall. It is how they persist. Mobutu, the Duvaliers, Marcos did not endure because they were competent or popular. They endured because the institutions built to end the theft were captured before the theft reached its full scale. The sequence matters. You do not build the kleptocracy and then capture the institutions. You capture the institutions first, then the kleptocracy runs itself.
This sequence is fluently articulated here in this piece. The waived competitive bidding, the eliminated feasibility studies, the gutted inspector general offices, the Supreme Court that just told the president he can fire any regulator he wants — all of that happened before the $8.9 billion. The architecture of impunity was constructed first. The transactions followed because they could.
The six-day gap between the sons' stake and Lutnick's signature is not the most damning thing in this piece. The most damning thing is that it required no concealment; none. The timeline is public. The filings are available. The conflict is visible to anyone who looks. The confidence that visibility carries no consequence is itself the evidence that the capture is already complete.
The road back indeed narrows with each transaction. This is the record of the narrowing.
it's called autocratic capture and unpacking the many psychological / societal variables that determine the willingness to surrender individual and institutional agency to an autocrat is needed as is a constitutional convention to address these weaknesses in individuals and institutions. our culture places excessive emphasis on the individuals, many who deny both individual and ecological limits to our detriment. i look forward to reading, https://americanindigenousdemocracy.com/. note: Interdependence in the subtitle.
Corporate democrats will never hold this regime accountable, any more than republicans will. They will waffle, play to the middle and bothsides the corruption until Trump dies of old age and his kids amass more money than god. Under such a system, the billionaires and Musk continue to remain above the law. We must vote for democrats, but we also need to replace every grifting dem with people who will fight for We the People.
If we are to recover from this episode of shameful indecency everyone who robbed our coffers and participated in ANY crimes committed in our name needs to be held accountable! At the same time, a massive restructuring/rebuilding/fortifying/restructuring of our government needs to take place. Otherwise, we just kick the can down the road.
I'm aware of the theft, but I finance is not my strong point. I certainly can look at facts and know who is the crook. Sorry Drumpf family. Too many excuses; no honesty.
Why steal and live under derision? Where are all the terrible hiding places for these people?
I am soon to be 78 yo and my only hope is that I may live long enough to see justice done. It’s not looking good.
There is a second kind of rupture-the Jacobins showed us how that plays out and Napoleon showed how someone in the old system patiently waits for the dervishes to whirl themselves into a frenzy-and collapse. My concern is not as much with Trump-or his sons, as infuriating as they are. My concern is more with a low level functionary who is biding his time, waiting for the Big Dogs to fall, for the revolutionaries to overplay their hand and even turn on one another (looking at you, James Carville, Tom Suozzi,, Rahm Emmanuel). Then you will see a quiet, determined Fascist step up to the plate.
So instead of that blowhard Long Island asshole Suozzi attacking Ds billion dollar Kazakhstan tungsten mining grift, he's wasting his breath on teammates who he claims are 'socialists'. Ya mean Like Norway, Sweden & Netherlands that offer health care to their peeps??? Tom needs to shut his effing mouth
Suozzi is committing a crime every day. He lives in a home run by the Family with apartment rent less than half the going rate in Washington DC. Others know more detail than I but, for what ever reason, accepting the reduced rental rate is the crime. It was also reported the other day that Speaker Mike Johnson has been living with a friend - a sitting Congressman (someone who knows more than I , will expand on this 'm sure. that two is like receiving a gift on which he should have paid taxes. These guys play all the angles, But , have a good bullshit story for when they get caught.
Greatest heist in history.
Us v Them =
Law v Loot ;
Do As I Do v Do As I Do
Right v Wrong
National Holiday when Trump leaves
One way or the other!!🤡
I think the Acemoglu citation is the most important thing in this piece and the one most likely to be skipped - my opinion here.
The central puzzle of corrupt rule is not how kleptocracies fall. It is how they persist. Mobutu, the Duvaliers, Marcos did not endure because they were competent or popular. They endured because the institutions built to end the theft were captured before the theft reached its full scale. The sequence matters. You do not build the kleptocracy and then capture the institutions. You capture the institutions first, then the kleptocracy runs itself.
This sequence is fluently articulated here in this piece. The waived competitive bidding, the eliminated feasibility studies, the gutted inspector general offices, the Supreme Court that just told the president he can fire any regulator he wants — all of that happened before the $8.9 billion. The architecture of impunity was constructed first. The transactions followed because they could.
The six-day gap between the sons' stake and Lutnick's signature is not the most damning thing in this piece. The most damning thing is that it required no concealment; none. The timeline is public. The filings are available. The conflict is visible to anyone who looks. The confidence that visibility carries no consequence is itself the evidence that the capture is already complete.
The road back indeed narrows with each transaction. This is the record of the narrowing.
it's called autocratic capture and unpacking the many psychological / societal variables that determine the willingness to surrender individual and institutional agency to an autocrat is needed as is a constitutional convention to address these weaknesses in individuals and institutions. our culture places excessive emphasis on the individuals, many who deny both individual and ecological limits to our detriment. i look forward to reading, https://americanindigenousdemocracy.com/. note: Interdependence in the subtitle.
Very well said.
I don’t even want to tell you what I really wanted to say - makes me furious.
Corporate democrats will never hold this regime accountable, any more than republicans will. They will waffle, play to the middle and bothsides the corruption until Trump dies of old age and his kids amass more money than god. Under such a system, the billionaires and Musk continue to remain above the law. We must vote for democrats, but we also need to replace every grifting dem with people who will fight for We the People.
If we are to recover from this episode of shameful indecency everyone who robbed our coffers and participated in ANY crimes committed in our name needs to be held accountable! At the same time, a massive restructuring/rebuilding/fortifying/restructuring of our government needs to take place. Otherwise, we just kick the can down the road.
Ugh...
The level of self-dealing in a captured system is unlimited. Glad to have a record of it here. --Thanks, Wendy