Stephen Miller soon joined a growing list of senior Trump-administration political appointees—at least six by our count—living in Washington-area military housing, where they are shielded not just from potential violence but also from protest. It is an ominous marker of the nation’s polarization, to which the Trump administration has itself contributed, that some of those top public servants have felt a need to separate themselves from the public. These civilian officials can now depend on the U.S. military to augment their personal security. But so many have made the move that they are now straining the availability of housing for the nation’s top uniformed officers.
Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, moved out of her D.C. apartment building and into the home designated for the Coast Guard commandant on Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, across the river from the capital, after the Daily Mail described where she lived. Both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live on “Generals’ Row” at Fort McNair, an Army enclave along the Anacostia River, according to officials from the State and Defense Departments. (Rubio spent one recent evening assembling furniture that had been delivered to the house that day.)
The reported noted that the moves aren’t entirely unprecedented, as national security officials have previously rented homes on bases “for security or convenience.”
Ah, but rented vs rent-free…
With little proof of actual risk.
I’m still making my way through the audiobook version of The Sovereign Individual, and while I keep recommending others should read this thing just because it’s so very cynical and this is apparently something very much looked up to by Thiel and Musk…
Anyway, given how these assholes have fled to where they think cannot even be protested, this section really jumped out at me…
Protection will become increasingly technological rather than juridical. The
lower classes will be walled out. The move to gated communities is all but
inevitable. Walling out troublemakers is an effective as well as traditional way
of minimizing criminal violence in times of weak central authority.
[emphasis mine]
This was written in the nineties, and the authors look forward to this with obvious glee. They also have a total disdain for the “unworthy” in their minds. They think people that were/are basically unskilled in the West were/are WAY overpaid and that’s due to the evil government extracting wealth from the brave job creators, who, before the information age, were subject to building massive infrastructure in physical locations, the poor dears. The authors look forward to a bright future where the worthy will be able to escape taxes w/o having to sacrifice by living in some third world shithole with a terrible quality of life.
Ah, but rented vs rent-free… With little proof of actual risk.
I’m still making my way through the audiobook version of The Sovereign Individual, and while I keep recommending others should read this thing just because it’s so very cynical and this is apparently something very much looked up to by Thiel and Musk…
Anyway, given how these assholes have fled to where they think cannot even be protested, this section really jumped out at me…
[emphasis mine]
This was written in the nineties, and the authors look forward to this with obvious glee. They also have a total disdain for the “unworthy” in their minds. They think people that were/are basically unskilled in the West were/are WAY overpaid and that’s due to the evil government extracting wealth from the brave job creators, who, before the information age, were subject to building massive infrastructure in physical locations, the poor dears. The authors look forward to a bright future where the worthy will be able to escape taxes w/o having to sacrifice by living in some third world shithole with a terrible quality of life.