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Preface (and adequate summary) to a New Yorker article about Trump-era journalism. (preplapsarian - literally, before Adam and Eve)
Every tribe has its myths, and journalists are no exception. In America, one common story goes like this: once, in the prelapsarian era before social media—or before smartphones, or the Internet—there was a time when journalists were trusted. Back then, everybody read muscular daily newspapers and watched straight-down-the-line TV reporting. When citizens had to make political decisions, a robust social contract with the media insured that they were well informed; even if they couldn’t always agree on what to do or whom to vote for, they could rely on a shared set of facts. But then something changed: people stopped paying attention to the news, or decided that they didn’t believe it anymore. They got distracted by podcasts, Facebook, and Twitch. They became ill-informed, and started to act against their best interests. The media decayed and fragmented, along with the nation. Opinion and news became indistinguishable, misinformation ran amok, and that is how we came to live in the post-truth world.
'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' Voltaire
'A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.' Edward Abbey
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/01/12/special-counsel-who-led-two-trump-criminal-cases-resigns/
Jack Smith has resigned π jumping before he was pushed maybe? I guess at least the orange buffoon can't fire him "within 2 seconds" now, so at least he's denied him the satisfaction of doing that.
neb: I don't know why people are taking this seriously, or indeed just treating it as anything more than Trump's latest brain fart. In a week he'll have forgotten about it and moved on to the next bit of crazy. Acting as if it was real is just further enabling him.
Yes and no. π
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The NY Times - Seth Meyers Slams Trump for Changing the Subject on Inflation
Trump isn’t talking about bringing down costs because he can’t, and he knows he can’t, and he doesn’t care that he can’t.
Immediately after a campaign in which he repeatedly said he would bring down prices quickly and that it would be easy, he told Time magazine, ‘It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.’
Trump will be a terrible president - he’d be an even worse airline pilot.
Sideface
Enjoy this last week! π
- NET: FTTH, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs, ipPBX
- SRV: 12 RU HA server cluster, 0.1 PB storage on premise
- IoT: thread, zigbee, tasmota, BidCoS, LoRa, WX suite, IR
- 3D: two 3D printers, 3D scanner, CNC router, laser cutter
Steve Bannon calls Elon Musk ‘truly evil’ and says Musk is a racist South African who should go home:
AlJazeera: Former Trump adviser tells Italian newspaper that Tesla CEO intends to implement ‘techno-feudalism on a global scale’. United States President-elect Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has promised to have Elon Musk “run out” of the White House, in the latest escalation of tensions within the MAGA (Make America Great Again) populist movement. “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it – I’m not prepared to tolerate it any more,”
Imo Bannon can only lose this one and badly. Trump's number one friend is always going to be the guy with the most money.
Steve Bannon is sounding like a jilted lover. Even more energised as the %$^*@#$ traded up !
There might be a lesson that Igor Strelkov could teach him.
Once you have outlived your usefulness.
Russian hard-line nationalist ordered to stay in prison after accusing Putin of weakness
https://apnews.com/article/russia-igor-strelkov-arrest-f3321a0ebb2b55d19184345085c4ec0c
Its best to fade out gracefully.
ezbee:
Its best to fade out gracefully.
He's not going to do that, even though he looks washed-up all the time.
Eventually the orange buffoon is going to either have to choose between him or Musk - it's pretty obvious (even at this early stage) that they aren't going to "play together nicely", along with the various other fragments of the MAGA crowd; I predict a massive implosion amongst the factions sooner or later.
quickymart:
ezbee:
Its best to fade out gracefully.
He's not going to do that, even though he looks washed-up all the time.
Eventually the orange buffoon is going to either have to choose between him or Musk - it's pretty obvious (even at this early stage) that they aren't going to "play together nicely", along with the various other fragments of the MAGA crowd; I predict a massive implosion amongst the factions sooner or later.
this is what happens with children in the playground especially when those children are the playground bullies and the bullies have a fallout and then we get collateral damage. Trump won’t do anything except smile the evil smile of the instigator and supposed winner. In the end he won’t care.
Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.
Washington Post Quiz: Do you know which promises Trump kept his first time in office?
6 questions - answer Yes or No:
Q1. Trump pledged to deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants during his first presidency. Did he achieve that goal?
Q2. Ahead of his first term, Trump promised a “shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States. Did he deliver this?
Q3. During his last stint in office Trump promised to slap trade tariffs on countries and companies “to stop the cheating.” Did he follow through?
Q4. In 2016, Trump vowed to cut federal bureaucracy “so much your head will spin.” Did he manage to shrink the size of government?
Q5. Trump was frequently critical of the NATO alliance in his first term, and he pressured allies to increase their financial contributions. Did it work?
Q6. Trump pledged to reshape the judiciary during his first term by appointing justices that “have a conservative bent.” Did he succeed?
Answers: A1. No, A2. Yes, A3. Yes, A4. No, A5. Yes, A6. Yes
Sideface
FineWine:
this is what happens with children in the playground especially when those children are the playground bullies and the bullies have a fallout and then we get collateral damage. Trump won’t do anything except smile the evil smile of the instigator and supposed winner. In the end he won’t care.
The Bulwark had an excellent piece on exactly this today: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/begun-the-maga-wars-have-133
This isn’t a one-off. Bannon has hated Musk for a long time. And the fight between OG MAGA and Elon MAGA started with Laura Loomer, who launched her own jihad against Musk over the holidays...after calling Musk a “welfare queen,” she went on to indict the entire MAGA oligarch class:
“If you have a bunch of tech bros with billions of dollars and direct unfettered access to the vice president and the president of the United States, and then they are also very cordial with our adversaries as in China and Iran—we see that Elon Musk is having these meetings off the books with Iranian officials, with Chinese officials—what does that mean for us?”
quickymart: ... The Bulwark had an excellent piece on exactly this today: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/begun-the-maga-wars-have-133
My favorite quote from this Bulwark article: "Musk is just a neurodivergent Bond villain." βΊοΈ
Sideface
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