LCI: Trump and Musk, "the New Revolutionaries" Who Have the Gall to Criticize Europe as the "Cathedral to Bureaucracy"

Russia and the future of the Ukraine war were the initial subjects of Darius Rochebin's Sunday 6 pm show on LCI with part of the focus on Donald Trump's telephone call to Vladimir Putin. And as the subject changed (at about 29:30) to President Trump's domestic fight against the swamp — and to cries of outrage about Elon Musk calling Europe a "cathedral to bureaucracy" — Vanessa Biard-Schaeffer, a member of Republicans Overseas France (ROF), was brought into the debate (from about 30:50 to 50:50, video at the link), where she proceeded to be… regularly interrupted, although she persisted and held her own.

18H Darius Rochebin du dimanche 9 février 2025

Publié hier à 19h54

Au sommaire : Toretsk tombée aux mains de l'armée russe ? Trump/Poutine : un nouveau coup de fil ? Trump/Musk : les nouveaux révolutionnaires ? Musk s'en prend à l'administration européenne.

Source : 18h Darius Rochebin

The pundits on LCI thunder against Trump and Musk (who the hell does Musk think he is?!) before one of them puffs his chest with pride, stating that he is proud of being European — presumably in no need whatsoever of administrative simplification. It might do them good to read Nicolas Conquer's Figaro article ("While America seeks to restore its ability to be one step ahead, Europe persists in a systematic distrust of risk, success, and initiative"). A word, writes The Smallest Minority, that  we should all know (Americans, French, other foreigners, and not least pundits on… French TV shows) is Statolatry (thanks to Instapundit's Sarah).

Economist Ludwig Von Mises coined the word to describe the literal worship of government. He said: “People frequently call socialism a religion, It is indeed the religion of self-deification.”

Statolatry is about worship for the state to replace a God they have rejected, a relationship with some entity more powerful than themselves to which they swear their love and fealty, the goal of which is to receive blessings (which are drawn the public till).

The people on the statolatrist left have landed on a toxic mixture of statism, politics, mysticism, and atheism rolled up into a loose ball called “progressivism” as a substitute for Judeo-Christian theology. Progressivism is as much a religion as Catholicism, it just replaces a Pope with government, counting on the senior leadership of [leftist parties] to be their High Priests.

LCI :

Présenté par Darius Rochebin tous les dimanches. Chaque dimanche, à 18h, Darius Rochebin reçoit une personnalité française ou internationale marquant l’actualité. Les interviews sont menées dans un esprit d’ouverture à tous les domaines et de diversité des opinions. De Marine Le Pen à Jean-Luc Mélenchon, en passant par François Hollande ou Edouard Philippe, les acteurs politiques de tous bords et leurs interventions exclusives ont jalonné l’émission durant l’année écoulée. Il s’ensuit le duel des idées, qui oppose Luc Ferry à Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

Statolatry: the literal worship of government; “People frequently call socialism a religion; it is indeed the religion of self-deification”

Over at The Smallest Minority, Kevin treats us to the definition of Statolatry (thanks to Instapundit's Sarah), replete with examples.

If you are shocked by the [Democrats'] panicked response to the probing of President Trump’s Emissary of Justice, Elon Musk, there is a way to frame it that makes it understandable.

First, we need to come to terms with the fact that contemporary Democrats, no matter what they choose to call themselves, are socialists at best and full-blown Marxists at worst.

In the same way a drug addict denies their addiction until they come to terms with what they are, Democrats have progressively increased their intake of various degrees of collectivist dogma until they are fully addicted. The gateway to collectivism is the idea of the “greater good,” from that they move on to socialism, then to Marxism, then finally in the end stages, communism – just as Marx prescribed and predicted.

Not only does this addiction have physical ramifications, but it also changes their mental state.

There is a word we all should know. That word is statolatry.

Economist Ludwig Von Mises coined the word to describe the literal worship of government. He said: “People frequently call socialism a religion, It is indeed the religion of self-deification.”

Statolatry is about worship for the state to replace a God they have rejected, a relationship with some entity more powerful than themselves to which they swear their love and fealty, the goal of which is to receive blessings (which are drawn the public till).

The people on the statolatrist left have landed on a toxic mixture of statism, politics, mysticism, and atheism rolled up into a loose ball called “progressivism” as a substitute for Judeo-Christian theology. Progressivism is as much a religion as Catholicism, it just replaces a Pope with government, counting on the senior leadership of the Democrat party to be their High Priests.

And in the process, this new religion became a very curious mix of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and the Flagellants, the 13th century group of Roman Catholics who practiced mortification of the flesh by various means. Statolatrists find pleasure in their self-inflicted pain but really enjoy dosing it out to non-believers as well. It is also the harshest of mistresses – if a believer questions any tenet, there is no force on the planet that can protect them from the fury of the scorned. If they show less than total subservience and compliance, they are declared apostates and excommunicated immediately.

The problem is that no one really knows the rules of this new religion – they change to meet the needs of the moment. Often You can be right and wrong at the same time. What you can say or think and who you can say or think certain things about changes every minute – what was acceptable yesterday is not acceptable today and that random asymmetry makes it very difficult to fight on an individual level, so one must attack where the asymmetry is less and where their power resides, where it is concentrated.

With that framing, it becomes clear why Democrats have lost their minds about Elon and the DOGE Boys.

It is not just that their religion is being attacked, their god is under assault, and it is being attacked inside one of its temples no less – the House of USAID.

These temples are the repository of Democrat power, money and influence.

They also know this is only the first wave. President Trump intends to send his Muskian warriors raging and rampaging through the rest of the temples – Department of Education, the DOJ, the IRS, the Federal Reserve, and others – stripping them naked and laying them bare in public for all to see. Once and for all, the intent is to raze the temples to the ground and scatter the priests, acolytes, and minions to the four winds thereby ending this religion forever.

They also know the boldness, aggression, and Blitzkrieg-like fury of President Trump’s offensive has drawn even former enemies to his cause, he has massed a cadre of leaders from across the spectrum, some former priests themselves, all with a shared goal – to do what is right for the people, not the priests.

This is an existential event for statolatry, and perhaps even the Democrat Party.

And it is beautiful.

RFK Jr: an MSM outlet "perpetuated common myths while neglecting the real story"

For the record — as Robert F Kennedy Jr prepares for his confirmation vote in the Senate — here is an RFK text that I gather few people have seen. In response to an Economist article (Why Texas Republicans are souring on crypto) from September concerning a subject about which I know little (so I am bringing it to you without any caveats or remarks), Robert F Kennedy Jr writes that the British MSM outlet "perpetuated common myths … while neglecting the real story":

Bitcoin mining and energy

You perpetuated common myths about bitcoin mining while neglecting the real story: bitcoin mining is a powerful new tool for supporting renewable-intensive grids (“Power hungry”, August 31st). It is true that electricity grids are under increasing strain from manufacturing plants, electric vehicles and data centres, and it would be easy to think of bitcoin mining as just one more source of electrical demand.

But whereas data centres and the like will buy electricity regardless of the price, bitcoin mining is different. It operates only when power is cheap and abundant. Whenever power is scarce, and therefore expensive, it curtails its electricity usage in a matter of seconds.

In practice, this means that during severe weather events in Texas say, such as a heatwave, electricity prices spike, and bitcoin miners naturally turn their machines off. But when power is cheap, their machines remain on, providing a steady stream of revenue to energy producers. Having a reliable buyer of energy that does not add to peak demand is ideal for incentivising the building of renewable generation while still reliably delivering power to homeowners and hospitals.

Bitcoin miners also participate in demand-response programmes, allowing grid operators to control their power consumption to stabilise the grid. You characterised demand response as some kind of public gift to the bitcoin-mining industry. In fact, these programmes have been praised as a crucial part of managing a highly renewable system. The International Energy Agency, for example, says we must increase demand-response tenfold, or by 500 gigawatts, within this decade if we are to meet net-zero targets. Far from a giveaway, bitcoin miners participate in these demand-response programmes like any other company, bidding in an open market and driving prices down for consumers.

Moreover, the grid-stabilising behaviour of bitcoin miners puts them in direct competition with natural-gas “peaker” plants, which run only during peak demand. Both technologies help grid operators match fluctuating supply and demand in real-time.

The difference is that a system with more renewable generation and bitcoin miners is far less carbon-intensive than a system with less renewable generation and peaker plants. It is no surprise, then, that the industry lobbying Texas for more peaker-plant construction has also lobbied against its grid-balancing competition.

robert f. kennedy junior
Washington, dc