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#statecapture

1 post1 participant0 posts today

abc.net.au/news/2025-07-21/act

It’s nothing short of criminal to have upended the traditional governing models of Universities in a quest to subsume every enterprise to the buffoonery of corporatism and debunked neoliberal economic fantasy.

Tertiary sector bean counters ought to have remained adjunct to academic leadership as facilitators of educational excellence.

Household budget imperatives have no place in the education system nor in govt charged with nurturing all of their charges. Anything deviating from this responsibility is a failure of their ‘duty of care’.

ABC News · Former Australian National University chancellor slams 'gobsmacking' proposed university cutsBy Peter Lusted

Climate litigation isn’t ‘activist lawfare’, it’s democracy at work. The oil, coal and gas industries have strategically ducked and weaved litigation for decades, but the law is catching up with them.

Forget climate denial, Labor’s tactical fatalism will burn us all. The climate movement is ill-equipped to deal with a threat that looks like this. Any fantasy we had of a global moral pact of good intentions is dead.

This is a weird headline...

We can stop Labor wrecking Murujuga, climate

...considering that afaict the actual article itself provides no reason for optimism at all. IMO, given we have state & federal Labor governments so completely in thrall to the fossil fools, & who have repeatedly proven they happily ignore science & First Nations, i see no reason to hope here.

greenleft.org.au/content/we-ca

Green Left · We can stop Labor wrecking Murujuga, climateLabor’s decision to extend Woodside’s North West Shelf sends a clear signal to the gas industry that it will not let the concerns of scientists, Traditional Owners and ordinary working people stand in the way of corporate profits, argues Maz Misiewicz.  

I happen to be of that particular genre of Stupid that thinks if one is claiming to be serious about climate, environment, & biodiversity protection & enhancement, such that one claims to be forming policy for it, then precisely none of the entities historically & currently doing all the fucking over of those things, gets to sit at the decision table. Instead, they simply get told afterwards that the rules of the game have changed, & all their fucking over shall immediately cease, otherwise it's the Big House for them. I'd prolly also include some appendix formally noting all these entities are fuckheads who can just fuck off.

Replied in thread

@ajsadauskas @jaystephens Ta, interesting. I vaguely recall some of that, but your helpful toot defo provided more info than i knew.

I think something like this is why i feel, & tbh remain, so archly cynical... If Straya, & frankly the rest of the world, was genuinely honestly doing all the serious shit needed NOW to decarbonise & ameliorate, then seeking engineering solutions in flood zones like this would be ok. Knowing though that we & most others are totes NOT seriously addressing the crisis, fuels [boom tish] my severe pessimism, coz eg, engineering designs need engineering assumptions [in this case including expected heights & frequency of floods]. Such assumptions necessarily must be predicated on a certain "steady state" belief [plus safety margins thrown in]. That's all fine, IF we had reason to trust such assumptions. I do NOT trust them, simply coz there IS no steady state; humans are continuing to add more & more CO2 & CH4 to Gaia's atmosphere, thus more & more raising the enthalpy, ergo the heating energy, ergo... yada yada.

Continued thread

The Dictatorship of the Engineer:
The right claims to loathe technocracy—but it has empowered Elon Musk to remake the government.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

"Elon Musk is dismantling the civil service and fulfilling an old dream... a yearning for a savior... This is a fantasy of submission...

even as the right purports to loathe #technocracy, it has empowered an engineer to radically remake the #American state"

#ElonMusk#Coup#Musk

#StateCapture
"If we thought state capture was bad in the Zuma era, look at what the Trump-Musk regime is doing — fast."

The Trump-Musk regime: State capture on steroids – The Mail & Guardian

"We have started out on a rocky road as the US president and his henchmen make Jacob Zuma look like an amateur."
mg.co.za/thought-leader/opinio

The Mail & Guardian · The Trump-Musk regime: State capture on steroidsWe have started out on a rocky road as the US president and his henchmen make Jacob Zuma look like an amateur

#StateCapture
"What Is ‘State Capture’? A Warning for Americans.

Americans should know who is in charge of their national government. If they can’t answer that simple question, government officials and civil society must recognize warning signs of state capture and take back what is ours."

Opinion | Musk? Trump? Who Exactly Is Running the Federal Government?

"What should be an uncomplicated question yields a complicated answer."
nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion

The New York Times · Opinion | Musk? Trump? Who Exactly Is Running the Federal Government?By Tyler McBrien

#GiftArticle

“…details vary by context, but poli scientist Elizabeth David-Barrett lays out 3 general mechanisms of #StateCapture. They now sound familiar:shaping the rules of the game thru #law & #policy; #influencing admin decisions by capturing the #budget, appts, govt #contracts & #regulatory decisions;& #disabling checks on #power by #dismantling #accountability structures like the #judiciary, law enforcement & prosecution, & audit institutions like #IGs & #media.”

nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion

The New York Times · Opinion | Musk? Trump? Who Exactly Is Running the Federal Government?By Tyler McBrien
Continued thread

DOGE Employees Ordered to Stop Using Slack While Agency Transitions to a Records System Not Subject to FOIA
404media.co/doge-employees-ord

"The messages indicate that, under Elon Musk’s leadership, #DOGE is actively taking steps to make sure its communications & records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a records transparency #law commonly used by #journalists & lawyers to hold #government accountable."

#ElonMusk#Coup#Musk

Here is the continuation of the thread about Elon Musk's takeover of the US government.

The beginning of the thread is at:
newsie.social/@ZhiZhu/11393428

"Who exactly is running the federal government?
...
the actual answer is #Musk
...
#StateCapture occurs when wealthy private interests influence a #government to such a degree that they can freely direct #policy decisions & public funds for their own benefit"
nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion