p.enthalabs

$900M paid out to end wind farm project going to firm run by Mar-a-Lago neighbor

independent.co.uk · Read Story HN original

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Nothing to see here...
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
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.
And Americans continue to limit themselves to angry posts online. The streets are empty so the grifting continues.
Short of an actual peasant revolt, it wouldn't matter. All three branches are owned by him, as is the military and the police.
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”.

I sound defeated because I feel defeated. I think it's too far gone at this point. I'm tired, boss.
That fatalistic attitude is why your democracy is fucked.

Take some lessons on protesting from the French.

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?

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.
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.

I saw what you did there...
It most certainly justifies the use of 'windmill' instead of 'wind turbine' :-)

Poetic even.

The constant grift is appalling.
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.
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.
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.

The USA is a joke. The constant grifting and the staggering incompetence is stinking mad.
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

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."

This is just disgusting. If republicans weren’t immune to hypocrisy, the world would be a better place.
>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.

> 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.

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.

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.
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.
'Antifa' is a wholly imaginary organisation, and always has been. And the biggest riot was Jan 6.

The Antifa nonsense is classic DARVO.

> Democratic party should've stood hard against Antifa

Democrats should stand against antifacism? What is your reasoning for this statement?

How does he get to spend $900M without the approval of Congress?
> 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.

self-dealing corruption is so rampant in this administration that $900M going to some Trump buddy is just another day in America
Again, third word levels of blatant corruption lol.