From Democracy to Patrimonialism: Big daddy politics in the time of Trump

[Winehole23]

what would this be useful for exactly, please explain which enemies you plan to gun down in the heart of tourist DC, please be specific

[Winehole23]

lol Trump's murder arch

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:76z64rg7fc2u6klhhzpmfpax/bafkreiatcfhx75ivnda3utqap57bzg4e5vqrmosbxyd2awr3s wmtdoyj6i

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wk7sybhegd37i7ljsltxbef6/bafkreihov2i2a2u7nps2z7zi2jcbvg2e47zmgielfwbr2htis 3zr24mmom

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mf6x4tcxia23iqiflhqtv2dg/bafkreidstm4khvhqmxwlcufv554mkkbrw27irwadjx2aytglk wnllf6owu

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:autn3ts7j4souimn33gdmhcc/bafkreicarzzrt5mpfgrbwqdqrzyvchrkgignm2hlrhea2wdqf 6u7c3mmxm

[Winehole23]

firetrap attached to the White House, too few restrooms


In the weeks leading up to his resignation last year, the first architect on the White House ballroom clashed with President Donald Trump over design features that the architect believed violated building safety codes, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions and corroborating documents reviewed by The Washington Post.



James McCrery II withdrew from the project last October after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.


Trump brushed off McCrery’s concerns, they said, and the president countered that no building codes apply to White House construction.



“I am the code,” Trump said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/09/23/i-am-code-trump-clashed-with-ballroom-architect-over-safety-issues/

[Winehole23]

White House renovations and construction are typically handled by federal agencies required by law (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&num=0&req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title40-section3312&utm) to comply with nationally recognized building safety standards to the “maximum extent feasible,” unless doing so would present a national security risk.



But Trump’s White House construction projects are being routed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/06/30/trump-ballroom-built-under-secret-500m-no-bid-contract/) through the Executive Residence, a tiny office that is not a federal agency and is therefore exempt from rules governing agencies.

[Winehole23]

Discussions about the life-safety deficiencies in the ballroom’s design continued for months after McCrery resigned, according to White House records. It is not clear from the records reviewed by The Post whether the safety issues he identified have been resolved in more recent designs by Shalom Baranes Associates, the architecture firm that replaced McCrery’s firm late last year.



Shalom Baranes Associates declined to comment.

[Winehole23]

“Life safety — needs POTUS buy in,” read one White House official’s notes from a Nov. 6 meeting on the project.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:n74wy26n6klbv7xgrndeog7s/bafkreiagxm2jnk4b7kfugsx2ze52rac7ts5dk7t3hbq2hcfwq kn42zg5pm

[Winehole23]

Trump spent $14M to fuck it up and left it unfixed

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cqwedaaql4c3zo7ylz7rf6qc/bafkreidyazyul2ehavopaufr7vlndwwwnhvy5vbbnizzvbbj3 ix3wyngsm

[Winehole23]

demolition alert



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mnq3zflqpylic7ci5aswomtw/bafkreihuyxkdmtdztsyund6vzuckjakbqzvmyw3rueyzqe3wd r44meccgu

[Winehole23]

NPS takes down hundreds of trees in a DC park/golf course in defiance of a court order

judge is hopping mad



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:svawqo4jxobyyuqmixplvcux/bafkreif7djsqlf7nykvrgouadk73diiamzqqgyt2fiuxvjpcp titsxrqzahttps://bsky.app/profile/innercitypress.bsky.social/post/3mxooowi5ik2c

[Winehole23]

:lmao


JR: Who else meeting?

FL: Solicitor. Noah Hoggatt. Rachel Daniels assisting me, taking notes.

JR: Do you still have the notes?

Floyd Lands, NPS: I do not.

Judge Reyes R: Did you ever have?

FL: Negative.




JR: Email comms about what NEPA was required?

FL: Correct.

JR: Gov counsel on all comms?

FL: I do not recall

JR: Ordering maintain any comms you've had relating to golf course and renovation, CLR, East Potomac GC, drop all auto-deletes etc.


Judge Reyes: Please ensure Ms. Daniels does not destroy Oct. 5 meeting noteshttps://bsky.app/profile/mollyroberts.bsky.social/post/3mxoy7iolts2k

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qp44wbdtbrgyzzgugn5ekx2b/bafkreiarpwvldpb6zzwwe7ehoex4kevb7iop735nm6igpfd7x ahwjxpywm

[Winehole23]

A report commissioned by the contractor that did the work, obtained by The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2026/10/14/reflecting-pool-liner-failed-more-places-than-previously-reported-inspection-found/), does not make any mention of vandalism

The 75-page "failure analysis" by Atlantic Coating Inspection reveals that Trump's "American flag blue" coating buckled along eight of the 10 expansion joints on the pool's basin.


The liner also blistered in nearly 40 places due to moisture or chemical fumes trapped beneath it, and the paint peeled in nearly two dozen spots before detaching from the pool floor and flapping to the surface, the report found.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-reflecting-pool-liner-failed-145350027.html

[Winehole23]

In July, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Trump administration would not seek any new contracts after costs for the project exploded to more than $17 million.


But spending records (https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/30473f0f-4013-9857-9194-8babc16429ca-P/latest)show that the National Park Service awarded a nearly $2.7 million contract to American Ag Energy Inc. the following month for the maintenance, repair and rebuilding of water purification and sewage treatment equipment.






Another firm, Ohio-based Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, was also awarded $1.8 million (https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/0ef341d9-45e5-a898-3a19-8421954250f0-C/latest)to install a water-purification system.



The Department of Interior skipped a typical competitive bidding process to hand out millions of taxpayer dollars to a handful of companies for the work, claiming that "only a limited pool of contractors possess the qualification and equipment" for the work,


Officials claimed that the need for renovations was so urgent that any delays would cause "serious injury" to the government, though it remains unclear what that "injury" entailed.

[Winehole23]

Hearn's attorneys have asked the Department of Justice and Department of Interior to launch an independent investigation into alleged "widespread misconduct" surrounding the case.


The administration "subjected an innocent man to a nightmare of wrongful arrest, felony indictment, and public defamation to cover up their own botched, rushed renovation of the Reflecting Pool," attorneys Michael Bromwich, Steve Levin, Norm Eisen and Mary Dohrmann said in a statement last week,

[Winehole23]

open corruption and law-breaking


A list obtained by The Washington Post reveals all the major donors to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, including previously undisclosed contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts and, in one case, a pardon for a family member.


Tech giants Nvidia and Apple each committed $25 million, the top contribution amount, the list shows. The Adelson family, one of the GOP’s largest donor dynasties, committed that sum as well, as did billionaire Charles Ergen, co-founder and chairman of telecommunications company Dish Network.


Absent from the list is Trump himself, who has said that he is helping to pay for the project. “It’s being paid for a hundred percent by me and some friends of mine,” he said (https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-prior-meeting-with-secretary-general-mark-rutte-the-north-atlantic-treaty-2?utm_source=chatgpt.com) last year, days after demolition (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/07/the-white-house-announces-white-house-ballroom-construction-to-begin/) began on the old East Wing.

The White House publicly identified 37 people, companies and foundations as donors last October, without revealing the amount of their individual gifts.

The list obtained by The Post, an internal spreadsheet used to track contributions for the fundraising effort, contains the source, date and amount of all 67 donations above $10,000 recorded as of late last month. It shows a total of $333 million from private donors, aligning with the administration’s public statements. Additional records, also internal to the fundraising effort, provide more detail about the donations and indicate that at least $77 million came from donors who requested anonymity.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/10/15/secret-documents-reveal-donors-behind-330-million-trumps-ballroom/

[Winehole23]

The list and other documents offer a panoramic view of a fundraising campaign that is extraordinary both for its size and opacity. Ordinary political giving requires public disclosure and is subject to campaign finance rules. The ballroom donations are collected by a nonprofit and then channeled to the government and into a White House account the president directly controls.

Independent experts and scholars have expressed alarm at the potential the arrangement has for influence buying and coerced giving.

[Winehole23]

The blue coating applied to the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool this summer failed in at least 85 places because of errors in the renovation, including the premature refilling of the basin before the liner had fully dried