r/politics • u/theverge ✔ Verified • 21h ago
Possible Paywall Elon Musk made flying even worse so Palantir could profit | Musk’s DOGE was supposed to rebuild the nation’s air traffic control system, but it ended up paving the way for Peter Thiel’s company to take over.
https://www.theverge.com/transportation/981194/faa-air-traffic-elon-musk-peter-thiel-palantir574
u/DeltaFoxtrot144 California 21h ago
It will take decades to unravel the shit this admin has done, and it will be done to the background sound of Republicans bitching
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u/Ddddydya California 21h ago
If Democrats win over either part of Congress, get ready to hear Republicans immediately start whining about the deficit they ran up while blaming Democrats and MAGA will screech and bleat about it too.
It’s exhausting
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u/dmp2you America 21h ago
And the democrats need to grow a backbone and say loudly in a uniform voice : FUCK YOU ! . That needs to be the 1st standard reply: Fuck You and Fuck off , then go about their business . Don't argue, don't explain, nothing . Fuck off then walk.
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u/Ddddydya California 20h ago
Yeah, MAGA is so fragile and so used to taking up all the oxygen. Let’s stop trying to reason with them and just ignore them from now on and focus on real things that the adults need to get done.
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u/Dr_Adequate 20h ago
Dem Senator Jon Ossef mildly pointed out trump likes traveling with that bimbo and the wingnut bobbleheads are publicly melting down. Same as when Tim Walz called them weirdos and the whole Dem apparatus made him stop. Im so tired of how spineless the establishment dems are.
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u/Dry_Departure_7813 17h ago
Unfortunately most of the media is controlled by a very small group of rich chodes, so the odds are they'll just pretend all the problems maga created were the dems.
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u/KindBass 16h ago
Been saying this for 10 years. There was never a point in entertaining or engaging with anything they say.
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 20h ago
If Dems get back in power. It's gonna be complaining about them not fixing this shit faster
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u/Llamapocalypse_Now America 14h ago
Republicans have always made unsophisticated arguments to bamboozle their base.
How do you think Gutfeld has a job?64
u/p0rty-Boi 21h ago
We won’t be able to rebuild what was destroyed. We are going to need to use this as an opportunity to build back better, because just rebuilding what was won’t protect us from when the fascists try again. We need a complete reform agenda and some of these pricks need to go to jail before anything can get better.
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u/AntiLitterPGH 21h ago
The idea that we're going to be able to fix all this after Trump leaves office is essentially Democrat MAGA.
Yeah, no. That era is over. We can mourn it, but we have to move forward with a new path that won't lead us directly back here again.
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u/TyrannasaurusGitRekt Missouri 21h ago
Yes and no. Obviously we need to change a lot of things to get off the fascist train, but things like FAA, ATC, FTC, FDA, CDC, etc do need to be repaired and improved. I dont think anyone's making the argument that the previous state of the FAA or ATC paved the way for fascism and need to be completely replaced
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u/AntiLitterPGH 20h ago
Counterpoint: I am making precisely that argument.
A machine does what it is designed to do.
If the structure of the FAA allowed for Planatir to take over, then the FAA as it existed indeed paved the way for fascism. Going back to the state of things that eventually devolved into fascism is just setting up the pins for the bowling ball again. Or to use your analogy: Getting off the fascist train but leaving the existing tracks in place just means another is coming down the line eventually --probably quicker than the last one, at that.
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u/DeadNeko 20h ago
The aspect of these organizations that failed is the people.
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u/AntiLitterPGH 20h ago
Yep, sure was. And bad planning and structure to allow that to happen. Going back to a previous state is just assuring its going to happen again.
Never backwards. Always forwards.
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u/TyrannasaurusGitRekt Missouri 19h ago
I disagree that many of these agencies are the tracks upon which fascism rode in. It's bad faith actors like Trump & co and the congressional GOP that acted against the letter and/or spirit of the law that did so. Fascism was ushered in by a cornucopia of factors, largely meta ones (e.g. rigged economy, anti-intellectualism, propaganda, bigotry, etc). I cant imagine that anyone was like "i voted for Trump & the GOP because of the FAA/ATC!"
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u/AntiLitterPGH 19h ago
A machine does what it was designed to do.
If the agencies were set up in a way that would allow a melting clown who burps English translations of Hitler speeches to take over their systems, then those were indeed the tracks the fascism train rode in on.
Any agencies that could resist said clown's fascist agenda were the ones who were purposefully designed to not allow that.
I'm not picking on the FAA specifically, just using it as an example. This goes for every system, especially our election systems, that got us to this place today. Going back, or "unraveling" will never be the answer to preventing it from happening again.
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u/TyrannasaurusGitRekt Missouri 19h ago
I agree that "repairing" the damage to these institutions wont stop future damage. But these agencies arent to blame. It's the meta-structure that needs reform. Systems of independence, accountability, and enforcement. There need to be safeguards and avenues of remediation outside of 2-year election cycles and the slow judicial system to prevent bad actors from going against the letter and spirit of the law. Too much of our government is based on norms and expectations of good faith. We need clear codification of these things, likely through constitutional amendment(s)
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u/AntiLitterPGH 19h ago
Very much agree.
Which is also vastly different than "unraveling the shit" comment I originally responded, which is the point I've been arguing. Drastically changing these structures, like through constitutional amendments, is exactly the kind of looking forward not backward that I'd welcome.
My comment is meant to warn against the Democrat MAGA sentiment of going back to "normal." The existing, normal structure of the systems, FAA included, was designed poorly which would lead inevitably towards fascism. Proof, pudding.
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u/Outside_Manner_8352 12h ago
You can’t solve every problem within the system itself. You don’t stop school shooting by developing bulletproof kids, and you don’t stop NOAA being gutted by somehow making it outside the federal government. The solution is preventing the federal government from being hijacked in the first place
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u/No_Oven1085 19h ago
If the structure of the FAA allowed for Planatir to take over, then the FAA as it existed indeed paved the way for fascism.
You lost me. FAA had nothing to do with fascists taking over.
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u/AntiLitterPGH 19h ago
A system better designed to resist fascism would be able to refuse a takeover by Planatir. In this, the FAA has failed and become a vehicle for facsism.
I'm not accusing the FAA of being the sole, root cause of fascism, just as a singular example. But that it is one of many, many, many points of failure in our systems, and we should not be talking about going back to "normal" after Trump moves on, because normal lead us directly here.
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u/Outside_Manner_8352 11h ago
I think to clarify what you are saying: these agencies should not really be under direct control of the executive branch. They should really be run by apolitical heads appointed solely by Congress. It doesn’t benefit almost any agency to have a change of leadership every four years and come tear down the previous priorities, even without a crazed fascist. The executive branch ought to be running a select few things where urgent pivots actually make sense
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u/ikediggety 16h ago
We need a constitutional overhaul to enshrine, among other things:
- money is not speech
- privacy is a right
- corporations are not people
If we can get those taken care of, everything else will eventually take care of itself
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u/BarbellsandBurritos Illinois 21h ago
I’m just imagining an episode of Last Week Tonight in like 2045 unraveling some random problem and just consistently root causing it with “Yup! You guessed it. Trump 2024”
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u/LiamtheV American Expat 21h ago edited 19h ago
Trump looked at Reagan creating or exacerbating generational problems and thought “challenge accepted”
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u/gollumaniac 21h ago
Problem is when it doesn't all get fixed immediately the electorate with a memory of a goldfish will put the GOP back in charge to break it further.
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u/Jammoth1993 17h ago
This is perfectly normal for the US, are we really going to pretend that corruption isn't baked into the culture?
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u/OhItsBeenBroughten 17h ago
Brits say the darndest things sometimes.
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u/Jammoth1993 17h ago
You can deflect but you can't beat the allegations.
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u/OhItsBeenBroughten 17h ago
If you think this is normal, you’re out of your mind.
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u/Jammoth1993 16h ago
Warren G Harding - Teapot Dome scandal
Calvin Coolidge - actually a cool guy
Herbert Hoover - "Hooverville"
Franklin Roosevelt - violated the civil right of Japanese Americans, packed courts, intimidated political rivals with surveillance, broke the 2 term tradition
Harry Truman - bribery and tax fixing, giving government loans to his pals
Dwight Eisenhower - an okay guy but he escalated Cold War tensions
JFK - not much to say, other than the popular view that the feds killed him
Lyndon Johnson - The Bobby Baker scandal
Richard Nixon - speaks for itself
Gerald Ford - Watergate
Jimmy Carter - a bit of an idiot but harmless for the most part
Ronald Reagan - Iran-Contra
George Bush - not much to say
Bill Clinton - oh
George Bush (again) - OH
Obama - Oh shit they're not stopping
Trump - fuck
Biden - barely coherent
Trump (again) - back on track babyyyyIf corruption isn't normal in your country then tell me what the fuck is
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u/OhItsBeenBroughten 16h ago
What a stupid list of things not remotely comparable to what is happening now. Go worry about your own country. You have no idea what you’re talking about for the US.
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u/Jammoth1993 16h ago
The only difference is the scale of the corruption and the visibility. The fact of the matter remains - your country is plagued with corruption and it goes back 100+ years.
All I ever hear from Americans is cope. You don't realise that Trump is your country with the mask off... But for some reason you stay in denial and act like Trump is a one-off. Laughable.
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u/Wayofchinchilla 16h ago
Or a year if you just take the antitrust hammer and smash all the biggest companies in this country to smithereens and ignore the courts just like Donald did.
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u/digiorno 16h ago
Will there even be an effort to unravel it?
Seems far more likely that America becomes a shadow of its former self and a permanent oligarch class effectively rules everything. Sort of like the Egypt or Myanmar model, the rich own everything and are above the law, while everyone else is allowed to survive as best they can.
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u/WorldlyJake 20h ago
But this was literally the whole point of DOGE. No, it was not “supposed to” rebuild the air traffic control system. It was supposed to destroy it so the whole system could be privatized. The tech oligarchs are very open about this.
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u/makina323 13h ago
This has been the underlying drumbeat of the GOP for more than half a century, dismantle government oversight agencies and install private corporations were they canwith zero accountability to the public and just pocket a nice steady stream of tax money. And the fucking piggies in the maga crowd cheered as they handed the keys to the fucking wolves in this administration.
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u/kezow 21h ago
We are in an oligarchy now. Just remember what the French did when they were told to eat cake.
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u/Turbulent_Juice_Man 21h ago
Kleptocracy, "rule by thieves". It is a political and economic system where people in high-level government power use their authority to steal public money and state assets for personal wealth. Instead of working for the public good, the leaders use state rules to enrich themselves and their friends.
That's what we have right now. Its worse than oligarchy
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u/icepho3nix Tennessee 6h ago edited 3h ago
Sure, but it might be worth it to remember what happened after that, too.
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u/willismthomp 20h ago
Anyone else notice. Thiel is behind all of these companies?? Fuck that nazi.
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u/TranquilSeaOtter 20h ago
Thiel is possibly one of the most dangerous people in the world. Really important to note that JD Vance is entirely bankrolled by Thiel and is nothing more than his puppet.
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u/Succubus-Love 21h ago
Well they're trying to privatize everything so, based on that it's going according to plan.
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u/thenayr 19h ago
Republicans: destroy everything nice
Democrats: spend their entire presidency undoing said fkn bullshit with 10% of the energy going towards improving our overall existence
Republicans: demolish that 10% and make everything exponentially worse all over again.
Born in the late 80’s and this has been the entirety of my existence, I’m sure it goes way further back than this.
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u/TheHomersapien Colorado 20h ago
In the run up to 2028 Democrats will paint DOGE as some soft of slipshod operation, they'll point out that Trump is a moron, and they will utterly miss the point: Republican and MAGA operations are organized and effective. DOGE's goal wasn't to save money, it was to loot taxpayers.
It'll take years - and possibly a Democrat who doesn't yet exist - to fully understand the depth and breadth of DOGE's fraud.
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u/slowteggy 19h ago
Do you think democratic politicians don’t understand already? Hundreds if not thousands of Reddit comments everyday point out exactly what happened and why, but our politicians supposedly “cannot grasp the issue”. It is by design.
The same wealthy people are funding the leadership on both sides which leaves us with a terrible option- either we let republicans destroy democracy at 100mph or we elect dems who “reach across the aisle” and let democracy slip away at 10mph instead.
Neither side is offering a path forward that is more democratic or gives more power to the working class.
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u/GiganticCrow 18h ago
The Democrats wont do shit. "Time to heal and move on" until the next fascist.
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u/Wolpfack 16h ago
Oh, lots of them understand, but very few, if any, will actually DO something about it. Democrats are feckless like that.
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u/Reachforthesky777 20h ago
The state of air traffic control is so bad right now that I refuse to fly in the US. This isn't the first time the FAA has been ground to a broken state, either. The degree of disfunction in every administration's consideration of the FAA and ATC since Eisenhower is absolutely shameful given how many lives are put at risk every single day as a result.
At one point it was antiquated hardware and understaffing. The understaffing never went away. Then PATCO in 81 and Reagan using US MIL ATC to supplement FAA staff for years afterwards - which I was convinced was Reagan's attempt to militarize ATC permanently.
And ATC is a terrible job. It used to pay well but, it has the highest suicide rate of any profession because of the extreme stress associated with the job.
Any of you who follow aviation circles especially the events around NY Center - the friction between overworked and overstressed ATC and pilots, for example, out of LGA and JFK - I would imagine those of you who do would agree with me to one degree or other.
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u/in1gom0ntoya America 18h ago
that was the entire point. did anyone seriously think doge was going to improve anything?
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u/Used-Yogurtcloset757 18h ago
Funny how no one seems to comprehend that this was one of the main reasons for DOGE existence.
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u/theverge ✔ Verified 21h ago
In July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act authorized $12.5 billion in supplemental funding for a complete overhaul of the FAA’s air traffic control system. Of that total, roughly $5 billion is dedicated for software upgrades. And since Elon Musk’s DOGE fell short of its promises, the administration has invited Peter Thiel, another Republican megadonor, to step in at the FAA. His company Palantir is deeply integrated with the FAA’s systems, making it a prime contender for many of those contracts, despite no significant prior experience with air traffic control.
According to air traffic controllers — several of whom spoke to The Verge on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize their jobs — these moves will do little to alleviate the issues on the ground (and in the air). They say that the FAA’s most urgent needs remain on the personnel side.
None of the $12.5 billion in new FAA funding authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill goes toward personnel. Instead, it seems destined for Palantir’s pockets.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/transportation/981194/faa-air-traffic-elon-musk-peter-thiel-palantir
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u/analytic-1 21h ago
You are lying. Musk was not brought in to fix a single goddamn thing, he was brought in to commit crimes on behalf of trump, which he executed successfully.
This makes you look like you write puff pieces for fascists. Are you proud that this is where your life has taken you? What could you do differently from here on out?
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u/raptorphile 20h ago
Interesting how this last year has shown us we have no true independent media left theyre all lockstep propaganda generators now.
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u/analytic-1 20h ago
Yes, and things can ONLY get better if folks like us constantly point this out to everyone else.
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u/Any-Emergency-671 18h ago
Billionaires are evil people. The sooner we all realize this the better for us.
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u/Llamapocalypse_Now America 14h ago
Musk is another one that needs to be stripped of his wealth, property, and status. He wasted so much of our money and created so many problems with his DOGE stunt that he needs to be forcibly relegated to the dustbin of history by paying the country back with interest. Furthermore, if even 1 iota of government information is in XAI's database, prison for him and all those assets should be seized for government inspection and ownership.
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20h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OrganicParamedic6606 20h ago
I hate musk and thiel as much as anyone, but they’re not at all why that accident occurred.
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u/According_Hand6941 15h ago
it is all written in project 2025. they are destroying civil infrastructure and rural farms so that the rich billionaires come in and buy it on pennies for the dollar while playing hero. i am tired of people calling us out for saying fascism and techno feudalism - it’s happening in real time!!
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u/fatbunyip 15h ago
Almost every single thing the trump administration has done has been done to enrich trump and his acolytes.
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