Andrew Egger asks what we're to make of "Trump’s gobsmacking about-face on banning TikTok, which he himself tried to ban via executive order just three years ago?"
His conclusion: Trump can be bought. He's very hard up for cash right now. And "the distinction between Trump’s personal and political finances has essentially collapsed." Anybody donating to his PACs is putting money directly into Trump's pocket.
"Trump is almost certain to lose millions, if not billions, unwinding his real estate portfolio to cover the cost of judgments, mounting legal bills, and a presidential campaign….
It's difficult to imagine anyone under such a high level of financial distress gaining access to the levers of power."
#Tech 👀👉🏼 “Technology is not something that’s introduced by some god in heaven who has our best interests at heart. Technological development is shaped by #money, it’s shaped by #power, and it’s generally targeted towards the interests of those in power as opposed to the interests of those without it”
The #transaction is the first known instance of #money flowing from Crow to the #SupremeCourt justice. The sale netted the #GOP#megadonor two vacant lots & the house where Thomas’ #mother was living (& still is).
You are not looking at it from the libertarian Koch network standpoint.
SCOTUS justices sell the service of ruling in your favour, in a kind of freemium model.
Want a ruling based on the constitution bla bla bla, go with the free service model. Want the premium service model, with guaranteed outcomes, well, then you have to pay for it.
Calling it a bribe is so very last century, it's a premium service fee.
While I'm on "origin stories", I previously found a video on where gold comes from (see previous post). Now, how about money as a concept? Where did that start? Here is an article on that: https://mastodon.social/@theconversationau/112552257174870177
This is infuriating and shameful: The deputy of Kermanshah Cultural Heritage announced: The nationally registered Masih Kermanshah Hospital, the country's second historical hospital, was demolished on Wednesday, June 2, by the order of the owner of this building.
Kyomarth Khani Lalabadi, pointing out that the municipality has issued permission to demolish this historic hospital, continued: "For the past two or three years, the owner of the building was seeking to remove this building from the list of #registered national monuments of Iran with a complaint in the Court of Administrative Justice. He failed to do so, and it seems that with this complaint in hand, he was able to get permission from the municipality to destroy it." #Hamava
معاون #میراث فرهنگی #کرمانشاه اعلام کرد: بیمارستان ثبت ملی شده مسیح کرمانشاه، دومین بیمارستان #تاریخی کشور چهارشنبه دوم خردادماه، به دستور مالک این بنا تخریب شد.
•کیومرث خانی لعل آبادی با اشاره به اینکه شهرداری مجوز تخریب این بیمارستان تاریخی را صادر کرده است، ادامه داد: "مالک بنا طی دو سه سال گذشته با شکایت در دیوان عدالت اداری بدنبال خروج مجدد این بنا از فهرست آثار #ثبت ملی شده ایران بود که موفق به این کار نشد و به نظر می رسد با در دست داشتن همین شکایت توانسته از شهرداری مجوز تخریب آن را بگیرد." #همآوا
F. A. Hayek, Libertarianism, and the Denationalization of Money
“Hayek found support within the American libertarian movement. Libertarians realized that Hayek’s radical proposal would limit state control over the monetary system and allow for the free exchange of gold.”
McIntosh, W. (2024) ‘F. A. Hayek, Libertarianism, and the Denationalization of Money’, Modern American History, pp. 1–20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/mah.2024.19.
#US#economy grew at 1.6% annual rate in first quarter 2024, a sharp slowdown
“Growth is slowing, but clearly the economy is still on a solid path,” said Ben Ayers, snr economist at Nationwide, which recently scrapped its recession forecast for the year. “We’ve had very strong #job growth that’s fueling higher incomes, giving people the #money to go out & spend. But that’s also kept #inflation high, so honestly a little bit of cooling is good news.”