> The Judgment Fund is used by the government to pay for court judgments and settlements when it is the subject of a lawsuit, for example.
This payment seems like a clear misuse of the fund, since no lawsuit or settlement existed afaik in this context.
petesergeant 2 days ago [-]
It would be tempting to label this as regular grift, but, one of the few areas the guy’s been consistent is his Quixotic quest against windmills
baggachipz 2 days ago [-]
His MO is always one (or both) of two things: grift, or revenge. He's still butthurt that he couldn't kill the offshore windmills near his Scottish golf club, and so now he wants to kill all wind farms. It just so happens that he can pay a buddy from taxpayer dollars to do this job, and it would of course have to include a kickback so that they both win. Pretty standard behavior for him.
spiderfarmer 2 days ago [-]
And Americans continue to limit themselves to angry posts online. The streets are empty so the grifting continues.
baggachipz 2 days ago [-]
Short of an actual peasant revolt, it wouldn't matter. All three branches are owned by him, as is the military and the police.
GJim 1 days ago [-]
That fatalistic attitude is why your democracy is fucked.
Take some lessons on protesting from the French.
JeremyNT 17 hours ago [-]
The pessimism is justified. This is the way most Americans want our country to be run. It's unambiguous.
Most Americans either actively supported this administration, or didn't mind it enough to even do the minimum (which is to vote against it).
How you'd possibly convince such people to reconsider is beyond me, and an uprising without popular support would go essentially nowhere.
spiderfarmer 15 hours ago [-]
That’s not pessimism, it’s defeatism. And it’s part of the reason why the world thinks Americans are stupid. Trump’s supporters are in the minority now and the majority thinks they are powerless.
You only need a million people in Washington to make a change. It starts with one.
spiderfarmer 1 days ago [-]
Protests have worked in societies with 10x more government control.
You already sound defeated.
Patriotism is more than just waving a flag and shouting “U-S-A”.
baggachipz 1 days ago [-]
I sound defeated because I feel defeated. I think it's too far gone at this point. I'm tired, boss.
spiderfarmer 17 hours ago [-]
It’s not. Get organized. A single person is powerless. A group of people is a powerful force. Start today.
bpt3 2 days ago [-]
Americans have the most disposable income on earth and a very high quality of life.
Trump's obvious graft, corruption, and general behavior disgust me, but why exactly would a meaningful number of people risk throwing their lives away to protest a man-baby who will be out of office in a little over 2 years if a cheeseburger doesn't get him first, and will probably be politically neutered in under 6 months?
prmoustache 2 days ago [-]
No because he is setting an example other will follow now that they know that american citizens have no guts, pride nor morality and surrender faster than the french.
GJim 1 days ago [-]
I think you will find the French are rather good at protesting and holding their government to account....
.....whereas Americans stereotypically mumble something about the Second Amendment keeping a government in check, then go back to being screwed over and launching a gofundme to pay for their chemotherapy.
cranky908canuck 2 days ago [-]
I saw what you did there...
GJim 1 days ago [-]
It most certainly justifies the use of 'windmill' instead of 'wind turbine' :-)
Poetic even.
enaaem 1 days ago [-]
Again, third word levels of blatant corruption lol.
insane_dreamer 1 days ago [-]
self-dealing corruption is so rampant in this administration that $900M going to some Trump buddy is just another day in America
NuclearPM 2 days ago [-]
This is just disgusting. If republicans weren’t immune to hypocrisy, the world would be a better place.
hightrix 2 days ago [-]
>This is just disgusting.
And this instance is just one of the daily occurances of corruption under the trump regime. They are robbing us blind, destroying the rule of law, and using the constitution as toilet paper.
This will take decades to fix, if it even can be fixed. I'm less worried about 2028 and much more about 2032 or 2036, when the next GOP POTUS takes over. Every GOP president is an order of magnitude worse than the previous.
2 days ago [-]
mandeepj 2 days ago [-]
> destroying the rule of law
While shouting we are going to follow the law. When called out on corruption he’s the most transparent president LMAO.
TheOtherHobbes 1 days ago [-]
Narcissists don't lie so much as self-soothe. One of the keys to understanding narcissism is that everything they do - all statements, transactions, relationships, all of it - is an attempt to make themselves feel as good as they can, all of of the time.
It's such a weird syndrome. You're looking at someone who isn't psychotic - no CIA-controlled spiders coming out of their TV - but is still trapped in a subjective state where the outside world is a constant, terrifying threat, and the only way to deal with it is constant self-reassuring pretence and delusion.
alexashka 18 hours ago [-]
> but is still trapped in a subjective state where the outside world is a constant, terrifying threat, and the only way to deal with it is constant self-reassuring pretence and delusion
Isn't that just most women, most of the time?
jauntywundrkind 2 days ago [-]
Low information base, easily baited every time, hooked on terrormongering media telling them the cities are all being burned by antifa. Having their hearts drilled holes into them time and time again by those vicious vicious "leaders" and media, broadcasting nonsense Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, nonstop. There is such a deliberate attempt to weaken the souls and spirit of the people, to hollow out patriotism to such malleable pliant forms, to be manipulated and directed by fearmongering.
frollogaston 2 days ago [-]
You know what, Democratic party should've stood hard against Antifa if they wanted the votes. Stop giving grifters easy wins. The riots weren't made up, Biden did condemn them a few times.
hightrix 23 hours ago [-]
> Democratic party should've stood hard against Antifa
Democrats should stand against antifacism? What is your reasoning for this statement?
TheOtherHobbes 1 days ago [-]
'Antifa' is a wholly imaginary organisation, and always has been. And the biggest riot was Jan 6.
The Antifa nonsense is classic DARVO.
frollobobblehea 1 days ago [-]
[dead]
josefritzishere 2 days ago [-]
The constant grift is appalling.
dgellow 2 days ago [-]
Every single day a new story that would have been a scandal in itself. There is absolutely no end to that administration level of greed and corruption.
TheOtherHobbes 1 days ago [-]
The media are responsible.
The media are responsible. If the media barons wanted to end Trump they could take him down tomorrow. Never mind full-throated investigative journalism - a tiny shift towards accurate reporting would be enough.
Trump is just the distracting figurehead on the horse and cart that's stealing all the money. The rot goes far deeper, and will still be there after Trump has gone.
alexashka 18 hours ago [-]
They don't because they know it'd only make it worse.
They are being responsible, by not doing anything - it's not the job of 'the media' to ride in like a knight in shining armor and save the princess (citizens) from the dragon (bad politician).
The real world is not a children's fairytale.
If you think at the level of a child - you can only spot a problem, you are not equipped to talk about solutions.
tstrimple 18 hours ago [-]
Conservatives are the problem. Always have been. From the time they started a civil war to maintain slavery to the time they fought against women's suffrage to their fights against LGBT rights. When public sentiment turns on them too much, they retreat to "states rights" and other dog whistles. When they feel like they can get away with it they say "Haitians are eating your pets!" and "Mexico is sending us their rapists and murderers!" But fundamentally they have always wanted these things and believed these things. Political Correctness just kept them behaving more civilized for a short time.
baggachipz 2 days ago [-]
And yet so normalized at this point. It's going to be an article in the news for a day or two, then it's gone because a new one comes along.
spiderfarmer 2 days ago [-]
The USA is a joke. The constant grifting and the staggering incompetence is stinking mad.
jauntywundrkind 2 days ago [-]
What's happening now is unprecedented in extreme.
Us textbooks everywhere tell of the Teapot Dome Scandal, where some of the presidents buddies in 1920 did a little bit of self dealing. This was it! This and Nixon were the stories of corruption! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal
On Bluesky we talk a Watergate a week, a Watergate a day. A massive incredibly corrupt totally fallen beastly abuse of power, week after week, day after day. This hasn't been constant. Even during Trump 1 there was nothing like this. This is the Project 2025, this is the Freedom Caucus, this is the insurrectionist Business Plot scum who have for well over a century wished to seek the downfall and hollowing out of the US. They've never had the chance to do this before, there's been nothing like this. They've tried to overthrow the US order before, but this time, they have their man. It's working. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
frollogaston 2 days ago [-]
This is what I say every time my Republican friends ask why I didn't vote for Trump, knowing I'm generally right-wing. He's obviously corrupt, that's a dealbreaker. They've taken for granted all these decades of not having the country run like Mexico or Russia, where left vs right doesn't matter at that point. I get if they voted for him the first time, but after that?
Annoyingly, the news seems to focus more on some politically incorrect thing he said or "wahh he Obama'd more foreign drug boats."
spiderfarmer 17 hours ago [-]
Don’t expect the news to do the protesting for you. It’s up to you to do that.
porkpieshoe 2 days ago [-]
[flagged]
frollogaston 2 days ago [-]
Glad you've studied my profile and we understand each other.
This payment seems like a clear misuse of the fund, since no lawsuit or settlement existed afaik in this context.
Take some lessons on protesting from the French.
Most Americans either actively supported this administration, or didn't mind it enough to even do the minimum (which is to vote against it).
How you'd possibly convince such people to reconsider is beyond me, and an uprising without popular support would go essentially nowhere.
You only need a million people in Washington to make a change. It starts with one.
You already sound defeated.
Patriotism is more than just waving a flag and shouting “U-S-A”.
Trump's obvious graft, corruption, and general behavior disgust me, but why exactly would a meaningful number of people risk throwing their lives away to protest a man-baby who will be out of office in a little over 2 years if a cheeseburger doesn't get him first, and will probably be politically neutered in under 6 months?
.....whereas Americans stereotypically mumble something about the Second Amendment keeping a government in check, then go back to being screwed over and launching a gofundme to pay for their chemotherapy.
Poetic even.
And this instance is just one of the daily occurances of corruption under the trump regime. They are robbing us blind, destroying the rule of law, and using the constitution as toilet paper.
This will take decades to fix, if it even can be fixed. I'm less worried about 2028 and much more about 2032 or 2036, when the next GOP POTUS takes over. Every GOP president is an order of magnitude worse than the previous.
While shouting we are going to follow the law. When called out on corruption he’s the most transparent president LMAO.
It's such a weird syndrome. You're looking at someone who isn't psychotic - no CIA-controlled spiders coming out of their TV - but is still trapped in a subjective state where the outside world is a constant, terrifying threat, and the only way to deal with it is constant self-reassuring pretence and delusion.
Isn't that just most women, most of the time?
Democrats should stand against antifacism? What is your reasoning for this statement?
The Antifa nonsense is classic DARVO.
The media are responsible. If the media barons wanted to end Trump they could take him down tomorrow. Never mind full-throated investigative journalism - a tiny shift towards accurate reporting would be enough.
Trump is just the distracting figurehead on the horse and cart that's stealing all the money. The rot goes far deeper, and will still be there after Trump has gone.
They are being responsible, by not doing anything - it's not the job of 'the media' to ride in like a knight in shining armor and save the princess (citizens) from the dragon (bad politician).
The real world is not a children's fairytale.
If you think at the level of a child - you can only spot a problem, you are not equipped to talk about solutions.
Us textbooks everywhere tell of the Teapot Dome Scandal, where some of the presidents buddies in 1920 did a little bit of self dealing. This was it! This and Nixon were the stories of corruption! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal
On Bluesky we talk a Watergate a week, a Watergate a day. A massive incredibly corrupt totally fallen beastly abuse of power, week after week, day after day. This hasn't been constant. Even during Trump 1 there was nothing like this. This is the Project 2025, this is the Freedom Caucus, this is the insurrectionist Business Plot scum who have for well over a century wished to seek the downfall and hollowing out of the US. They've never had the chance to do this before, there's been nothing like this. They've tried to overthrow the US order before, but this time, they have their man. It's working. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
Annoyingly, the news seems to focus more on some politically incorrect thing he said or "wahh he Obama'd more foreign drug boats."