[Apologies for the tardiness, Jereme is moving house, that shit takes a lot of time and work, so it delayed production.] We first chat about how Trump’s Transportation Department will be “unleashing American drone dominance,” then we get into the thick morass of the Trump family’s ongoing entanglements with the crypto industry—and how both sides of this partnership are deeply, financially dependent on each other.
••• US proposes new drone rules that could lead to Starbucks, Amazon deliveries https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-proposes-new-drone-rules-that-could-lead-starbucks-amazon-deliveries-2025-08-05/
••• Southwest Airlines jet dives as a fighter jet crosses its path near Los Angeles https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/us/southwest-fighter-jet-close-call
••• Trump’s Finances Were Shaky. Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/us/trump-finances-crypto.html
••• The ‘Trump Pump’: How Crypto Lobbying Won Over a President https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/trump-crypto-lobbying.html
••• Does Trump’s Biggest Crypto Backer Really Exist? https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial-aqua-1-foundation/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
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[Apologies for the tardiness, Jereme is moving house, that shit takes a lot of time and work, so it delayed production.] We first chat about how Trump’s Transportation Department will be “unleashing American drone dominance,” then we get into the thick morass of the Trump family’s ongoing entanglements with the crypto industry—and how both sides of this partnership are deeply, financially dependent on each other.
••• US proposes new drone rules that could lead to Starbucks, Amazon deliveries https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-proposes-new-drone-rules-that-could-lead-starbucks-amazon-deliveries-2025-08-05/
••• Southwest Airlines jet dives as a fighter jet crosses its path near Los Angeles https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/us/southwest-fighter-jet-close-call
••• Trump’s Finances Were Shaky. Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/us/trump-finances-crypto.html
••• The ‘Trump Pump’: How Crypto Lobbying Won Over a President https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/trump-crypto-lobbying.html
••• Does Trump’s Biggest Crypto Backer Really Exist? https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial-aqua-1-foundation/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
It’s a real friends and enemies episode of TMK. We get into the messy breakup between Trump and Musk, then talk about the rekindling relationship between Palmer Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg, before ending with OpenAI trying to forge a new tier lists of countries who support “democratic AI” (aka friends of America), countries who aren’t yet doing enough to support “democratic AI” but could upgrade to friend status, and countries who are “CCP-led China” (aka enemies of America), plus we learn more about a man who Sam Altman describes as a “dear personal friend.”
••• Live Updates: Trump Threatens to Cut Musk’s Government Contracts as Online Feud Escalates https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/05/us/trump-elon-musk
••• Builder.ai Faked Business With Indian Firm VerSe to Inflate Sales, Sources Say https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-30/builder-ai-faked-business-with-indian-firm-verse-to-inflate-sales-sources-say
••• Builder.ai collapses after revelation that its "AI" was hundreds of engineers techspot.com/news/108173-builderai-collapses-after-revelation-ai-hundreds-engineers.html
••• Meta Fired Palmer Luckey. Now, They’re Teaming Up on a Defense Contract. https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-army-vr-headsets-anduril-palmer-luckey-142ab72a
••• Whose National Security? OpenAI’s Vision for American Techno-Dominance https://theintercept.com/2025/06/03/openai-sam-altman-trump-china/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
This Machine Kills
[Apologies for the tardiness, Jereme is moving house, that shit takes a lot of time and work, so it delayed production.] We first chat about how Trump’s Transportation Department will be “unleashing American drone dominance,” then we get into the thick morass of the Trump family’s ongoing entanglements with the crypto industry—and how both sides of this partnership are deeply, financially dependent on each other.
••• US proposes new drone rules that could lead to Starbucks, Amazon deliveries https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-proposes-new-drone-rules-that-could-lead-starbucks-amazon-deliveries-2025-08-05/
••• Southwest Airlines jet dives as a fighter jet crosses its path near Los Angeles https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/us/southwest-fighter-jet-close-call
••• Trump’s Finances Were Shaky. Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/us/trump-finances-crypto.html
••• The ‘Trump Pump’: How Crypto Lobbying Won Over a President https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/politics/trump-crypto-lobbying.html
••• Does Trump’s Biggest Crypto Backer Really Exist? https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trump-crypto-world-liberty-financial-aqua-1-foundation/
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520398078/the-mechanic-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: https://substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
