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Nice bit in this WAPO ballroom donor story where FCC boss Brendan Carr launches a bogus investigation into Dish Network then leverages it to force Charlie Ergen to shell out more for Trump's ballroom (the pressure on Ergen was also beneficial to AT&T and Elon Musk)

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Carr genuinely never does anything that's truly in the public interest. Everything is either to fuel the authoritarian mission or to coddle the interests of Republican allied corporate giants like Securus, Musk, or AT&T.

This con goes back even further. to justify their rubber-stamping of the competition and job killing T-Mobile/Sprint Merger, the first Trump admin helped Dish pretend they'd create a new 5G wireless network the second Trump admin then undermined that effort to transfer spectrum to Musk and AT&T

techdirt.comThe Trump Admin’s Dish Network Con Reaches Its Ultimate Conclusion: Failure, Bankruptcy, And Rich New Spectrum Holdings For Elon MuskBack in 2019, the Trump DOJ and FCC cobbled together a dumb plan to try and hide the problems created by their rubber stamping of the competition-eroding T-Mobile and Sprint merger: they’d pretend …

Years from now people will say “they had no idea Trump was such a crook“ and ”how were we to know?”, and I will have to do everything in my power not to punch them.

we're going to be engaging in corruption archeology of these fucks for literally 20 years and that's assuming we can untether the country from their control, which still isn't entirely clear

The FCC chairman is running a protection racket. Bogus investigation into Dish, squeeze Ergen until he pays up for the ballroom. Government by shakedown, and AT&T and Musk get the leftovers.

If only there was a word for that sort of behavior. Oh wait, there is: EXTORTION. 18 U.S.C. § 872 indicates that for amounts over $1,000 said official, if found guilty, "shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both".

Corruption and extortion in plain view. We don't really have an "economy" any more. What we have is an extortionate kleptocracy that rewards the rich who funnel cash to the top and seeks to punish anyone who opposes the fascist regime. The USA is simply turning into Russia under Putin's stooge.

Carr needs to really be made an example of when this administration gets booted. He has no morals, ethics, or sense of duty to this country. His corruption knows no bounds.

will you settle for him quickly getting a high six-figure job at a telecom think tank where he spends the rest of his days ensuring U.S. government telecom policy coddles monopoly power?

I think we'll see marginal accountability on some things (indiscriminate international boating murders maybe), but I strongly suspect Carr won't even get to the point where he needs a pardon, despite doing multiple, overlapping illegal things

And that's why we can't have nice things! Corrupt twerps like Carr get rewarded after selling our country out for scraps.