Just a very normal race realist having an informed conversation about how White People are superior because we didn’t see Noah naked.

What’s the over/under on this guy being Cuban?

Steve Bannon travels to Israel, unzips his pants, tributes the Wailing Wall, hands Netanyahu a fist full of US nuclear codes, takes another hard pull from his flask, and stumbles back to his airplane.

NYT: “Trump advisor, in controversial trip to Jerusalem, provides aid to a trusted American ally as they celebrate their heritage.”

Lots of conservatives living in the sprawling public sector bureaucracy see all sorts of dysfunction and waste, then conclude “this is because government” rather than “this is because efficient management is delicate and difficult”.

Lots of leftists living in the sprawling private sector feel the same way (myself among them) and - self-confessed naively - will insist profit motive is the reason bad policy exists, rather than simple human fallibility at industrial scale.

Also, public bureaucracy is something of a patronage system, with people getting their jobs relative to their social networks. In a big red state like Texas or Florida or Ohio, you can guarantee the local IRS office is going to be full of failsons and faildaughters of the Republican elected bureaucracy.

It’s hardly willful. The media machine that got Trump through the door has been a hundred billion dollar multi-generational campaign dating back to the Nixon Administration.

Roger Ailes, Paul Weyrich, and James Dobson dedicated their collective careers to guaranteeing a large section of the US population would be deluged with fascist propaganda. And Sheldon Adelson, Robert Mercer, the Koch Family, the Ford Family, the hiers to the Hoover Institute, and a few dozen other riechwing billionaires financed their efforts.

This isn’t just dumb people all stupidly flipping the Trump switch by coincidence. It’s the product of sustained industrial tier media manipulation by people whose personal fortunes are predicated on misinformation.

“You can’t take American taxpayers who paid for roads and block them out and say you can’t access this unless you pay additional money,” Duffy said in the administration’s defense.

Guy who has literally never heard of a Toll Road

I miss Norm

First sitting president to ever waste his time going to the fucking super bowl.

I mean, Presidents have been going to sporting events practically since they were invented. The Seventh Inning Stretch came out of Calvin Coolidge showing up incredibly late to a baseball game. It’s crazy for someone who needs the security detail of a President to get into and out of a location as insecure as stadium box seats. But that’s more a logistical hurdle than a cultural one.

Its the genocide I object to. Its the concentration camps on the border and the bombs dropped across the Middle East. Its the gutting of health care and mass transit and financial regulations I find disconcerting. Going to the Super Bowl is the least bad thing Trump’s done since taking office.

He’s happy enough to create a whole hill of martyrs. Just ask any Gaza Refugee. Republicans love killing people.

Christ, remember when Leftists like AOC suggested COVID be an opportunity to advocate for universal healthcare and got screamed out of the room for being too divisive?

Imagine if Joe Biden had said this in 2021.

Unitary Executive Theory is a throwback to the Bush Jr Era (and if you dig deep enough you’ll find it back to Truman/Eisenhower/Nixon). Its a relic of the Cold War, when Americans were poisoned to the idea of popular government by the horrifying threat of Soviet infiltration.

You consolidate power in the executive branch - under guys like Hoover and Dulles and McNamara - so they can do the grisly work of squashing the Tankies at home and abroad without squeamish liberals in Congress or the courts getting in the way. Then we can have our liberty back, right after we have guaranteed our domestic security and our international sovereignty. Right after we’re confident our people will make the Right Choices at the ballot box.

This isn’t something that will end in 4 years because its something that has been ongoing for the last 80.

What is the legal argument against this?

None. We stacked the court with Unitary Executive friendly judges a long time ago.

So do the challenges have a leg to stand on?

John Marshall Roberts has made his decision; now let him enforce it!

How far will the media let this go?

However long they keep getting the next paycheck. The American propaganda mill needs billionaire sponsors to grind onwards. Once the Mercers and Adelsons and Kochs stop shoving money into the Wingnut Wurlitzer, it’ll shut down. But not a minute beforehand.

Capitalism is a disease.

Sure. But this is tangential to capitalism. Rainbow Capitalism worked just fine for US businesses for decades. DEI/Tokenism/Identity Politics as a deflection from class conflict worked just fine. Homogenization of culture under a neutral Brad Paisley-and-LL Cooljay-singing-Accidental-Racist motif worked just fine.

It worked because advertisers recognized a profit motive in pandering to a broad international audience and saw a ROI predicated on maximizing distribution.

What we have now is a shrinking demographic of buyers and a SaaS B2B corporate aristocracy deciding what generates revenue. We’re not trying to sell Captain America movies in China and iPads to Brazil anymore. We’re trying to sell Groypers to Elon Musk so he can make Groyper Swag a requirement for joining his constellation of companies.

One Trillionaire’s politics is worth a million millionaire’s. If Musk was a fruity girl boss lib instead of an Apartheidist Refugee, things would be different.

Me: “Haha. Fash on Fash violence! I love it.”

Also me: “Fuuuuuuck, why does every political fight have to be a Who Can Be The Biggest Racist contest?”

NPR News Hour used to be my morning listen. Now it’s so stacked with native ads and AEI talking heads that it’s unlistenable.

The GOP has enjoyed lock on the House majority for 11 of the last 15 electoral terms. And there’s no end in sight.

Feels like Johnson just doesn’t give a shit. DOGE is their problem, not his.

There’s a certain irony in Bush/Clinton Era NAFTA dismantling the labor movement by opening the borders (to foreign goods, but not foreign people) while Trump seems ready to obliterate the professional labor force by slamming the door shut (on foreign goods, but then importing a bunch of H1-B Visa holders).

Seems like a Heads Capitalism Wins, Tails Labor Loses situation.

Tom Hanks’s whole brand is around getting you to emphasize with the cast.

If Tom Hanks is playing your character, it’s an implicit compliment. An insult would be if they’d gone with Steve Bushemy.