#cronyism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cronyism, aggregated by home.social.
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A FOIA Update, Of Sorts
Last week, a Government Information Specialist at the State Department emailed to ask if I would still be interested in records I requested in 2021 under the Freedom of Information Act. “The Department is undertaking a comprehensive review of its backlog of FOIA requests,” she wrote, and if (after failing to respond to my request for five years) she did not hear from me within thirty days, “the Department will conclude you are no longer interested in pursuing this request, and your request will be administratively closed.”
The request itself concerned the Kalorama mansion purchased by Chilean billionaire Andronico Luksic Craig right after the 2016 election, where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump lived during Trump’s first term. (I’ve written several posts about the situation over the years. This one is a pretty good primer.) When Jared and Ivanka decamped to Florida in 2021, the Kuwaiti foreign mission leased Luksic’s Washington, DC property; federal law required State Department approval. So I asked to see the Kuwaiti foreign mission’s written request and the State Department’s Notice of Approval.
I was casting a wide net in order to learn what I could about Luksic, his influence operations, and his international network of business relationships, which now extends to the very edge of the Boundary Waters, where Luksic-controlled Antofagasta plc plans to build the Twin Metals copper and nickel mine.
It was a longshot request to begin with. Is there anything to learn from these Foreign Mission Office records, five years later? Not likely, but who knows? So I replied that I am still interested. I feel obliged to see the thing through, or to see that the Department of State meets its obligation to the public.
While I had the attention, or at least the email address, of someone involved in the comprehensive review, I thought I should ask about two other requests I’d filed with the Department of State back in October of 2018, and which I’ve been trying to chase down ever since. These requests concern the use of the US embassy in Santiago, Chile as a business backchannel for Antofagasta: one asks for records of a 2017 meeting between Antofagasta CEO Ivan Arriagada and Carol Perez, then US ambassador to Chile; the other asks for embassy communications regarding Trump’s nomination of Andrew Gellert to replace Perez. Over the years, the Department has set and missed several estimated dates of completion for these requests. I detailed some of the back and forth in a 2023 post. Since then, or at least for the past couple of years, the FOIA Office has failed to respond to my requests for more information about the status of these requests.
On Monday, this reply came:
These requests remain in process and has [sic] a new estimated date of completion (EDC) of January 31, 2028. EDCs are estimates and subject to change. You will be notified of the results of the Department’s search and review efforts in response to these requests as soon as that information becomes available.
This is just boilerplate, of course; the subject-verb disagreement in the first sentence looks like a copy-paste accident. Still, a few observations.
The requests are said to be “in process,” but in eight years no “search and review efforts” have been undertaken. The new estimated date of completion falls in the last year of Trump’s second term – a year and a half from now – and the FOIA office is not even committing to a response when the 2018 request hits the ten-year mark. I am sufficiently annoyed by this delay that I have to wonder aloud (but without evidence) if there is some directive at State to push FOIA matters, or certain FOIA matters, to the end of this administration.
The FOIA office blames a backlog of requests, and that backlog is real. “The State Department’s FOIA backlog spiked by 6,000 cases to a total of 27,619” this fiscal year, reports Justin Doubleday. Back in June, Minho Kim did some great data analysis for the New York Times showing that federal agencies “accumulated the highest-ever backlog of cases in fiscal year 2025, raising questions about compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.” Not surprisingly, “the problem appears to have worsened under President Trump.” And the backlog problem has been compounded by cuts to FOIA staff, leaving “several key FOIA leadership and staff positions vacant” at State. One administration official quoted by the Times says the Trump administration chose to “hire ICE officers instead of FOIA processors.” That snide remark alone speaks volumes about this administration’s misplaced priorities, its refusal of all accountability, and its contemptuous disregard for the public interest.
To put it another way: the FOIA backlog is itself a symptom of bad government and corruption, a condition that is only exacerbated by the Trumpist dismantling and hijacking of public institutions and federal agencies.
In 2019, William J. Burns warned against Trump’s “diplomacy of narcissism, bent on advancing private interests at the expense of our national interests.” The events that prompted my FOIA requests in 2018 – the meeting of an Antofagasta executive with Ambassador Perez and the nomination of Gellert, a Kushner friend – fit the pattern. The cronyism and self-dealing of the first term have gotten much worse and much more blatant this go-round. Charles Kushner is ambassador to France! Jared and Steve Witkoff are the faces of US diplomacy. The ambassador to Chile is Brandon Judd, a longtime Trump campaign stalwart and former head of the Border Patrol union. Judd’s main qualification seems to be that he spent some time in Chile in the 1990s, proselytizing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. José Miguel Insulza put it bluntly: “de diplomacia no sabe nada.”
AmbassadorJudd has not exactly covered himself in glory. He caused an uproar just a couple of weeks ago when he criticized Chilean cabinet ministers for expressing serious and legitimate concerns about the new 12.5 percent tariffs on Chilean exports, petulantly adding that there would be no agreement if they continued their criticisms. Judd went on to suggest that Chile’s business leaders should “complain to your authorities to prevent them from making declarations about the relationship with the United States.”
“The ambassador,” said Juan Gabriel Valdés, “does not seem to understand that he is not part of the Chilean political system…. he does not have a role to play in internal Chilean political debate.” And this was not an isolated incident, Valdés noted. It was “the third or fourth time” that Judd had acted more like a colonial viceroy than a diplomat.
For the moment, at least, Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Pérez Mackenna and his team are handling Judd. Pérez Mackenna is a seasoned negotiator. Before joining the right-wing Kast government this past spring, he spent nearly three decades as CEO of Quiñenco, managing the global operations of the Luksic business empire. Make of that what you will.
#corruption #cronyism #diplomacy #FOIA #FreedomOfInformationAct #oligarchy #power #selfDealing #softPower -
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bb-5Kw30yaQ?is=8lTsmc-ucwPdBfnv
#LizOyer #OyerLawyer #ToddBlanche #DOJ #ConsumerProtection #Law #Justice #Politics #USA #tRump #Republicans #GOP #Congress #Activism #Protest #Election #Vote #Corruption #Grift #Lobbyists #Corporatocracy #Oligarchy #EatTheRich #Senate #Cronyism #Mergers #Maga #Affordability #AntiTrust #Monopolies #Enforcement #MikeDavis #RealEstate #Investigations #Tax #Corporate #Prices
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@RonSupportsYou/116946669644034707
"The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs was scheduled to launch about 2,000 inquiries in 2025, all of which were derailed by Mr. Trump’s order. Among the companies spared additional scrutiny was Tesla, whose chief executive, Elon Musk, oversaw Mr. Trump’s initiative to shrink the federal government."
#DOGE #racism #sexism #favoritism #cronyism #politics -
No chance of a democratic second chamber for the foreseeable future in the feudal backwater known as the Untied Kingdom.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-peerages-honours-khan-b3016327.html
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Link-tree inside:
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/a-collection-of-blanche-checks
#blanche #toddblanche #crooked #shyster #illegal #unlawful #fascism #cronyism #gop #maga #fuckmaga #trump #fucktrump #epstein #jeffreyepstein #pedophile #trumpstein #trumpsteinclass #epsteinclass #trumpcrimefamily #donold #donnydipshit #donaldvonshitsinpants #treason #crime #news #usnews #globalnews #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #globalpolitics #criminal #corrupt #traitor #corruption #history -
#blanche #toddblanche #crooked #shyster #illegal #unlawful #fascism #cronyism #gop #maga #fuckmaga #trump #fucktrump #epstein #jeffreyepstein #pedophile #trumpstein #trumpsteinclass #epsteinclass #trumpcrimefamily #donold #donnydipshit #donaldvonshitsinpants #treason #crime #news #usnews #globalnews #policy #politics #uspol #uspolitics #globalpolitics #criminal #crime #corrupt #traitor #corruption #treason #history #ushistory #worldshitory
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Good grief, what a clusterf*^%
“The ICAC inquiry has heard former UOW governance chief Alyssa White celebrated recruiting former colleagues because the university was "broke" before later agreeing recruitment processes were compromised.
Ms White accepted multiple candidates received advantages and agreed she had repeatedly breached university policies and conflicts of interest requirements.”Read more
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-09/white-admits-recruitment-breaches-uow-icac/106897586#UoW #UniversityCouncilWoes #TertiaryEducation #Cronyism #Managerialism #UniversityMarkets #NeoLiberalism
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Translation: The con artist and his cronies don't make money from offshore generics, but boy, would they ever, if they could control the entire market, and jack up the cost to patients. These people are crooks, but media treats them as truthful.
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This is gross in multiple ways. Patronage nepo appointments, indeed.
Carney's chief strategist. Ties to the AI strategy. A plum reward for 2 generations of service and friendship apparently.
It's this type of thing erodes public trust in government.
#GiftLink 🎁 #CdnPoli #Nepotism #Cronyism
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o3wys2sczetxtmyv7fn7xzva/post/3mq2ffgmsac2g -
"Where do we go from here?"
"Well, we've already fallen straight into the toilet like a slippery cellphone from one's hand, and the lever has clearly been engaged."
"Centrists might debate you on this."
"Glub."
"Glub."
#USpol #Republicans #Democrats #fascism #corruption #cronyism #economics #war
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Jessica Riedl wrote about the end of #DOGE, the child of Donald Trump and Elon Musk:
"DOGE created chaos, spread misinformation & incompetence, violated numerous laws, targeted minorities, killed lifesaving aid funding, likely leaked confidential information, and fed the myth that waste alone drives deficits - all to produce rounding-error savings."
#WastedEffort #RuinedCareers #mismanagement #cronyism #politics -
#Trump family wants to massively spoliate #European #resources in #Albany .
IF YOU #DON'T #LOVE #EUROPE :
#GET THE #F_CK #OUT OF #EUROPE !#EUROPEAN #RESISTANCE
#EUROPEAN #SOLIDARITY : -
#Trump family wants to massively spoliate #European #resources in #Albany .
IF YOU #DON'T #LOVE #EUROPE :
#GET THE #F_CK #OUT OF #EUROPE !
#EUROPEAN #RESISTANCE
#EUROPEAN #SOLIDARITY :
#FIGHT THE #TRUMP #KLEPTOCRACY #CRONYISM #OLIGARCHY
#CROOKS #RUFFIANS #SCUM -
#Tr_mp family wants to massively spoliate #European #resources in #Albany .
IF YOU #DON'T #LOVE #EUROPE :
#GET THE #F_CK #OUT OF #EUROPE !
#EUROPEAN #RESISTANCE
#EUROPEAN #SOLIDARITY :
#FIGHT THE #TRUMP #KLEPTOCRACY #CRONYISM #OLIGARCHY
#CROOKS #RUFFIANS #SCUM -
#Tr_mp family wants to massively spoliate #European #resources in #Albany .
IF YOU #DON'T #LOVE #EUROPE :
#GET THE #F_CK #OUT OF #EUROPE !
#EUROPEAN #RESISTANCE
#EUROPEAN #SOLIDARITY :
#FIGHT THE #TRUMP #KLEPTOCRACY #CRONYISM #OLIGARCHY
#CROOKS #RUFFIANS #SCUM -
Every government leadership worldwide has a SET of people looking after their kickbacks. These businesses get all the CONTRACT, TENDERS... its a PERFECT legal process. This is how POLITICIANS appear clean. People NEED to look into this because no COMPETITORS are allowed into many businesses. #Cronyism #politics #busineses
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Governing a nation today needs ONE MAJOR Guideline: Get RID of Corruption and Cronyism. I am of the view that there is a need to look at priorities and to strike a balance between Income and Expenditure.Everyone wants a wage increase, then there are unions, but honestly raising funds through taxes and how this money is spent is the key to a nation's survival... definitely NOT wars. #corruption #Cronyism #politics
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The SpaceX IPO Sends Elon Musk And Trump’s Starlink Cronyism Into The Thermosphere
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"Fiscal restraint, as it turns out, is location specific. It affects you if you’re in a state house. It doesn’t if you’re in the house of representatives."
#NZPol #FiscalRestraint #Austerity #Cronyism
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/08-06-2026/austerity-is-for-poor-people-not-politicians
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Today we find an anti- #MAGA #protest in...
#JaredKushner and #IvankaTrump, with assist from Donald #Trump and Albanian Prime Minister #EdiRama, want to build a resort on a nature preserve
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“The idea that extreme #wealth is a reward for extreme talent is pervasive and strongly reinforced in our media and popular culture. But this perception is not rooted in reality.
60% of billionaire wealth is from #inheritance, #cronyism or #monopoly.”
#Inequality #capitalism #colonialism
The unjust poverty and unearned wealth of colonialism
https://www.oxfam.org/en/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism -
Labour Cronyism is OUT OF CONTROL with Zarah Sultana MP | NovaraLive
https://youtube.com/live/FJlPNZWKMLw?si=1qQKRkcTRqPn4PDM
#ZarahSultana #cronyism #labourParty #UKpol #PeterMandelson #KeirStarmer
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A Reminder that Antofagasta’s Copper and Nickel Mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters is a Coordinated Political Project
In my most recent post about the Senate vote to overturn the Rainy River Watershed Mineral Withdrawal, I made the simple point (for what seems the umpteenth time, forgive me) that this latest bid to hand over the Boundary Waters to a foreign mining company is part of a coordinated political project, one that stretches back to Trump’s first term and with connections to Project 2025.
The coordinating is being done behind closed doors, much of it by Antofagasta’s lobbyists, and nowadays that means The Bernhardt Group, the lobbying firm that Trump’s former Secretary of Interior, David Bernhardt, set up last year. The Group has edged out all other firms and now exclusively runs the Antofagasta lobbying game in DC.
Now we have The Bernhardt Group’s lobbying disclosures for the first quarter of 2026. The form shows a slight increase in revenue — from $110,000 in the final quarters of 2025 to $120,000 this quarter. Three Bernhardt lobbyists worked every room necessary: the House, the Senate, Interior, Executive Office of the President, and USDA.
It’s notable that the Group did not lobby DOJ this quarter, as they did in 2025. As I remarked last week, passing HJR 140 likely rendered moot the case before the DC District Court of Appeals. A favorable judgment in that case seemed highly unlikely.
Having worked with the federal government to put that case on hold, the Bernhardt Group could focus instead on the political front. The House and Senate passed House Joint Resolution 140 to overturn the mineral withdrawal. The Executive Office of the President could be involved in all sorts of ways, and it’s worth remembering that one of the most powerful figures in that Office these days is Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025; the agencies (Interior and USDA) had to be captured and controlled — easy enough with people like Doug Burgum and Brooke Rollins in charge.
Under their direction, the agencies will now start taking steps to approve Antofagasta’s lease applications (the stated object on these federal disclosures) and move the Twin Metals project toward the permitting phase.
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#Antofagasta #corruption #cronyism #ethics #power #resourceHoarding #revolvingDoorCorruption #Water -
Trump: Buy American, Unless It’s for My Ballroom
President Trump, who has long married “protecting American steel” with his “Make America Great Again” slogan, reportedly accepted tens of millions of dollars in donated steel from a foreign firm for his ballroom just days before he slashed tariffs in half that could help one of its plants.
According to a report by the New York Times from earlier this week, two people familiar with the White House ballroom plans said the steel was made in Europe by ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based steel manufacturer.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-steel-white-house-ballroom-tarriffs/
#uspol #uspolitics #architecture #corruption #cronyism #DarkMoney #fascism
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If Baron* is guilty of insider trading, Baron goes to prison. Them's the brakes. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
*Same goes for both/either.
#uspolitics #fascism #cronyism #nepotism #InsiderTrading #corruption #consequences #AndJusticeForAll
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Former modeling agent Paolo Zampolli, a Trump confidant who introduced the president to his wife, Melania Trump, allegedly contacted a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official to help deport his Brazilian ex-girlfriend Amanda Ungaro during a custody battle over their teenage son, according to The New York Times.
Zampolli reportedly approached ICE official David Venturella after Ungaro was arrested on fraud charges at a Miami jail, requesting she be placed in ICE detention, citing her immigration status. Records acquired by The Times indicate Ungaro was picked up by ICE agents before making bail and subsequently deported
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-ally-used-ice-to-deport-mother/
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Everything is fine.
"Most Americans say that they can afford basic necessities like their current housing costs, groceries, utilities and gasoline. But large numbers across income levels also say larger expenses and the cost of things associated with an enjoyable life — including taking a weeklong vacation — are out of reach"
#economics #housing #costofliving #rental #capitalism #cronyism #rigged #plutocracy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/27/affordability-homeownership-poll/ -
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-tariffs-exemptions-pet-lobbyists-asbestos-confusion-secrecy
Politically Connected Firms Benefit From Trump Tariff Exemptions Amid Secrecy, Confusion
#cronyism #political #trump #cronies #tariff #exemptions #taxes #lobbyists #tariffs #tax #transparency #corruption #incompetence #paytoplay #economy #economics #layoffs #business #TariffExemptions #trade #USChinaTrade #TrumpTariffs #PoliticalConnections #china #us #corruption #SpoilsSystem #SpecialFavors #BigBusiness #TechLobby #EconomicInequality #Accountability #TradeWar #exports #imports #goods #agriculture #farming
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OMG #Biden has pardoned his own son.... if that sounds bad it gets worse.... Tell me if u spot the weird trick.
>In June, the younger Biden was convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. According to the prosecutors, he lied on his gun-purchase paperwork that he was not addicted to or using illegal drugs.
> In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the president said the “full and unconditional pardon” covers offenses which his son “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.”
https://www.rt.com/news/608532-biden-pardons-son-hunter/
The whole #presidentialPardon window thing is FU$KING NUTS....but that aside, does anyone find it unusual that #biden would pardon his son from 2014(?!) to today? *COUGH* #burisma *COUGH* #ukraine *SPLUTTER* #nepotism #cronyism
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CW: Understanding crony-capitalism
"Did we say a maximum 3 storeys?"
"We meant 9"
*tries to quietly amend laws without involving wider #community*
#speculation #cronyism #cronyCap #landBanking #landlords #gentrification #privateEquity #corruption #overdevelopment #overpopulation #overshoot #humanFilingCabinets #stayInHome #metaverse #meta #fakeBook #TheMatrix #matrixWorld #takingTheWorldPrivate #neoFeudalism #housing #publicPrivatePartnership #PPP
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@DaveyDelimbo
Sadly, these terrible collapses like the #MiamiTower are just a tip of the iceberg.We wrote something recently on another device and will get it out in the days ahead.
In #Australia we've been struggling with our own #propertyDeveloper and #privateEquity craze since #Sydney2000, and yes, a lot of dodgy #construction.
The #realEstate and #propertyCouncil have been aggressively #lobbying #selfRegulation for as long as we can remember too.
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(2/2)… cleaner, healthier food and #beverage to #Australians and the world.
Now #organicFarms risk losing their certification from nearby use of #toxicSprays. A step in the *wrong* direction.
Another blow for #publicHealth.
Blame the #cronyist govt, #greedDriven #BigPharma, particular #grainGrowers and prospective #GMSoy and #GMCanola #growers, and the #corporateMedia.
#stevenMarshall #cronyism #unintelligencia #canola #canolaOil #soy #Monsanto #Bayer #extremeGreed #farming #agriculture
