Pretty clear message: Lies and corruption are now so powerful that if you defend the Constitution and do your job ethically, you will be branded a traitor.

I actually don’t know if I can take another year of this, much less 3.5, or whatever worse number it ends up being.

Edit: So anyway, did you hear Trump is in the Epstein files?

That star has been destroyed so many times. Whenever I see it happen, it’s kind of a heartwarming treat.

It’s a basic post-Soviet, Russian Propaganda tactic. And it’s a shame we (the American people) never learned to spot it.

Why would we waste time learning about Russian propaganda when It Can’t Happen Here™.

I think those doomsayers will be partially vindicated in the coming months. You can go to Best Buy’s website and order a Switch 2 with no waiting line, no delay. The supply is outpacing demand. Because I think a huge part of the 6 million sold was pent up demand for a new console and the inevitable cumulative brand effect and population increase leading to a larger early-adopter pool.

Unless Nintendo somehow had the ability to increase supply in a way unheard of for launch consoles in the past, I think that they met that early demand, and now it’s going to slow down abruptly. Now they have to convince regular people in a bad economy to spend way more than normal for a Nintendo console, with no Mario or Zelda killer app.

Eventually it’ll be a great selling machine, but these early numbers are misleading.

Nazi Germany, Russia, Hungary, Hong Kong…

We are in step one in a long-storied process of what Russia has termed “political technology.” Seizing control of the information space is the number one priority for a new authoritarian regime, and that is because it works. And why does it work even though we think we can spot propaganda?

People won’t necessarily believe overt propaganda, but their perception of possibilities is also shaped more than they think by what they don’t hear. For example, Trump fired the person responsible for job numbers reporting yesterday. When Trump’s fake replacement job numbers come out, people won’t believe them, but they also will lack exposure to the real, negative data, overall reducing the legitimate, verifiable grounds for pessimism.

And that is the point of these moves. Eventually, the vibe voters and even moderate-information voters will reflect the effect of not hearing real negative news, even if they think they are savvy and can spot affirmative propaganda. Like in modern Russia, Trump’s (and his eventual successor’s - by choice or by death) support will actually organically grow, in addition to other plans they may have in the works to stay in power (like continued vote suppression, or inevitable and eventually, outright fraud).

I wish there was a way to easily break out of this.

Funnily enough I tried that too, still needed a code. Probably will be fine, I’ll try tomorrow,

Just FYI, they may be getting hammered. Tried this and to authenticate it sent a 15-minute-expiration 2FA code, which took 3 hours to arrive.

Just count if we’re stressed about Trump enough hours of the day to hit full-time weekly hours. We’ll achieve 100% employment in no time.

Josh: B-b-but I made sure to lick the boot clean this time!

He’ll probably also be able to keep the oval office Coke button, with updates.

These articles are purely to make the left feel a little better, which makes Democratic politicians think they can just wait a little bit longer, thinking “maybe this whole Trump thing will work itself out without me risking my position.” (I’m looking at you, Schumer.)

But it’s always going to be 40%, because as Trump does worse and worse things, the public gets more and more used to it, and his fascist corruption feels normal and comfortable. So it’s precisely because Democratic politicians don’t put up a real fight to maintain the standards and institutions Trump and the GOP are obliterating that approval never drops much below 40%. Because without Democrats enforcing standards, they will just keep falling.

MAGA: What’s this? A reason I can stop caring about my god-emperor being probably almost certainly definitely a pedophile? Yes please!

Ah, interesting. I didn’t realize that U.S. Attorneys also are under the “advice and consent” Senate aegis. Well, good on Booker for doing something.

This is great news since she is unqualified even by Trump-staff-fingerpainting-on-the-Constitution standards, but:

Anyone know how/why Booker can limit her term, unless extended by the district courts? The OP article doesn’t explain, and links to a paywalled NYT article.

President Trump celebrated the news. “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired,” he posted on Truth Social. “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.”

Whether overtly coordinated or not, this was the signal for Brendan Carr to approve the Skydance merger.

Right, those things are true, but they still don’t explain this decision. It was the #1 talk show for what, 8 years? No sane network would just cancel it. They would revamp, cut costs. Every business would extract the value from the brand before tossing its lifeless corpse off the boat.

The most plausible explanation for this show being canceled at this moment is to appease Trump.

It was honestly just loose wording to refer to Trump’s administration - I agree it’s Stephen Miller and Bannon who are consciously acting “systematically.”

That said, Trump is a once-in-a-generation exemplar of sociopathic narcissism, and the techniques used track nicely to limit-pushing narcissistic manipulation, constantly gaslighting to control reality of his victims (I.e. everyone?). So I’d argue Trump is unconsciously systematic in his approach.

This is part of how Trump’s flood the zone strategy causes people to give up and tune out. It’s not just that he called his own legitimate criminal investigations political corruption, it’s that he’s calling real political corruption legitimate.

Under Trump: Right is wrong (prosecuting insurrection), being good is bad (“woke”), friends are foes (Europe, Canada, Mexico), foes are friends (Putin), spending more is saving money (tariffs), anti-fascism is fascism (Antifa), and so on.

What Trump is doing is systematically disconnecting us from reality, because with no objective reference, he can dictate reality.

The very fact that this story isn’t surprising and will neither get significant or persistent coverage is proof we’re deep into this hypernormalization.

I don’t think I agree with this premise at all, unfortunately.

The article describes extraction or manufacturing as the sole ways to increase “actual wealth” (apart from government works) but it’s just sophistry to embed the author’s biases against the value of information and services. That’s because services and white collar jobs both (a) can represent intrinsic value, and (b) can both directly and indirectly be subject to international trade.

To explain, the author would define manufacturing a refrigerator as “actual wealth,” but the knowledge of how to do so as not “actual wealth,” even though the knowledge is equally a prerequisite for the refrigerator, and is a more valuable unit for trade with other nations or economic growth.

The conclusion about focusing on long term “wealth” creation is fine, but that premise isn’t necessary to get there and detracts from the credibility of the argument.

I think you’ve just coined 2025’s tagline.