Living under Trump 2 aka Musk!!!

[China]

Trump to auction off citizenship via his ‘gold cards’ for $5m to foreigners who create jobs

President Donald Trump announced a new path to U.S. citizenship: a pricey gold card.

The U.S. is going to “sell” gold cards for $5 million, Trump announced in the Oval Office Tuesday.

“We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you [permanent resident] Green Card privileges, plus it's going to be a route to citizenship,” the president said. He branded it as “somewhat like a Green Card, but at a higher level of sophistication.”

“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” he continued. “They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it's going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick clarified the Trump administration plans to terminate a somewhat similar EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and “replace it with the Trump gold card.”

Click on the link for the full article

So he thinks trickle down economics works. Got it.

[The Evil Genius]

[China]

Complete batshit lunacy on the president's Truth Social account. Yes, he really posted this.

[The Evil Genius]

Hey remember a few weeks ago when it was revealed that Elonald was getting $400 million from the US for armored Teslas, and then the GOP said it was a deal done with Biden so blame him?

About that..

[China]

Step 1: Say the country is in terrible shape (when it's not) and that you're the one that can fix it.

Step 2: Destroy the country so you can say "See, look how bad it is. You need me."

Step 3: Install your oligarchical cronies.

Step 4: Profit.

FAA Awards Contract To Starlink, Promises It Was Under Consideration Before Election

It would be disingenuous to say that no one has ever voluntarily served their country to make a lot of money, but this has become a core pillar of Elon Musk's turbulent tenure as a special advisor to President Trump. The Federal Aviation Administration awards a contract to Starlink to improve the IT systems used to communicate weather conditions for commercial flights. The agency reassured that SpaceX's satellite constellation was under consideration when Joe Biden was still in the White House.

The FAA has been testing Starlink's reliability to transmit weather data in Alaska, Simple Flying reports. To no one's surprise, the agency already had a contract with Verizon, but Musk took to social media to state that the wireless giant's system "is not working." There are mobile coverage gaps in remote regions that lead to inaccurate weather reports. A satellite-based system seems like the perfect method of ensuring no gaps. In a press release, the FAA said:

"Alaska has long had issues with reliable weather information for the aviation community. The 2024 FAA Reauthorization required the FAA to fix telecommunications connections to address those needs. That is why the FAA has been considering the use of Starlink since the prior administration to increase reliability at remote sites, including in Alaska."

"This week, the FAA is testing one terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at non-safety critical sites in Alaska."

[China]

[Brave]

[Chew]

This is all so fucking depressing.

[88Commanders00]

You know it would sure be nice if Air Force One had some of those mishaps or disasters that has happened to others.

[Spaceman Spiff]

First, I know everyone's kneejerk reaction is "Bezos = bad."

Second, it's the opinion section, not the entire newspaper. I can't remember the last time I picked up any newspaper, but I also doubt I ever read the op-eds.

Third, I don't have a problem with personal liberties and free markets. I hope no one here does, either.

If the real issue here is Bezos promising that he would be some sort of hands off newspaper owner and him going back on that...well, I'd agree that's a problem. And no one should have believed him in the first place. If the outrage here also hearkens back to him blocking an endorsement of Harris and cozying up to Trump, I won't disagree with that either. It was pretty gross, as was his blocking of the cartoon last month.

But Shipley said it himself, "Not every editorial judgement is a reflection of a malign force," which is true. I'm not a huge Bezos fan but I also don't oppose personal liberties and free markets.

That said, I've got no interest in a WaPo subscription and if I did, I'd do what I always did back in high school...flip straight to the sports page and toss the rest.