Exactly as Project 2025 envisioned.

Good job. Keep up the folo. It’s the only way to have repercussions, to keep this story alive through Trump’s attempts to supersede it with media-bait nonsense.

My first thought too. The timing is just too perfect.

My second thought? This means that Trump’s team probably has executive orders just waiting in the wings, since they know how this all works. The only thing needed to supplant even awful news cycles are even worse news cycles.

My third thought? This means every time Team Trump royally messes up something, our only reward will be Team Trump doing something even worse, because it’s the only move they have, ever.

Until we’re all dead by their or our own hands, presumably.

Slamming Trump? That’s a paddling.

Trump brain: I clearly didn’t use enough gasoline.

People post things as therapy, I know I do.

Posting insane things and hearing it recognized as such is a way to remind ourselves that we’re still sane.

Hardship does two things relevant here: It creates discontent, and can help build empathy. Both would eventually create a groundswell of support for bettering conditions across demographics.

The right has effectively neutered both, by being fast with their blame game. Even though they cause the hardship, they point the finger faster and louder at the immigrants, democrats, and minorities, both redirecting blame and severing empathetic ties.

There is a reason why this is the core part of the fascist playbook - it works.

Yes, there’s little chance they aren’t completely aware of what they are doing. They’re doing it intentionally.

Well, that certainly would be the typical Democratic strategy: concede the game hoping that they get a good sportsmanship award.

Ok ok, but hear me out - what if we didn’t have elections. No problem!

Words are failing me. Maybe if I could time travel 200 years into the future, and draw on the entirety of human linguistic progress, I might be able to express how repulsive Donald Trump is.

I don’t know if we deserve better, but Ukraine certainly does.

Again, ignore the distraction headlines during the week and focus on the Friday night actions, which are meant to get buried.

This one again makes no sense, unless viewed under the theory that Trump is working to further Russian interests. This is an organization that has acted as a counterbalance to Russian global propaganda networks like RT. Cutting them off has no effect except reducing America’s influence around the world and primarily benefits Russia.

Google Assistant: Let’s build a product around functionality.

Gemini: Let’s build functionality around a product.

Any guess which method works better?

I think it’s worrisome to see the graphic, but the graphic also is strangely limited and the numbers aren’t clear whether they are combined totals across platforms.

Presumably traditional media that has an online presence is excluded on purpose, but it’s not clear why having a traditional media presence should negate the total online-only viewership. E.g., Daily Show with 35m+ across different social platforms? Colbert with 15m+? John Oliver with 10m+? It makes it feel like this is ragebait.

Sounds like another Friday night special is coming today.

Point it out if you are seeing something else, but all I see the article saying is he’s doing town halls.

If you agree that the right has captured rural voters by lying to them, and left policies would actually benefit them, then at some point someone needs to communicate that to them in an effective way. Yes, there’s a lot of brainwashing to get through, but Walz seems like a good bet to talk to rural voters in a way they’d accept.

I think it’s clear that democrats need to hack those engagement systems. I think they can do that without lying or abandoning policy. The means (propaganda and mass communication) may be part of the message, but the message can still be truthful “we want to actually help you and the other guys don’t.”

My “this is the way” comment above was about setting a narrative and the only way to do that is a direct line of communication with these rural red areas. Because they will never hear anything positive about a left candidate through their Fox News, curated Facebook, and other algorithmic feeds. So it’s actually necessary to break the stranglehold GOP messaging has on these areas.

This is the way.

I am on the email distro for Tom Emmer from Minnesota just to keep an eye on what narratives are being pushed, and Republicans are already starting to target Walz with a slow drip of propaganda in these districts. This is what he sent out a few days ago:

Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future scandal, the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country, stole more than $250 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Instead of serving hungry children, this money was used to purchase real estate overseas, luxury vehicles, planes and boats. Tim Walz blamed this on a “culture of generosity” in our state. An independent audit compiled by the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that “inadequate” oversight and lack of action by the Walz Administration “created opportunities for fraud.”

As Tim Walz flails and feigns outrage over the more than $600 million in fraud that has occurred on his watch, Republicans in Washington, D.C., are doing what Walz has failed to do: ensure these criminals and fraudsters face justic.

…

Minnesotans deserve answers as to how their tax dollars were allowed to be stolen and squandered due to the incompetent policies of Tim Walz, and these criminals deserve to face justice. Rest assured, Republicans in Washington, D.C., will continue to demand accountability until each of these alleged fraudsters is convicted for their crimes.

There will be weekly emails like this now that Biden is no longer a target. Walz needs to set a narrative with these people because Republicans are great at seizing the narrative.

Narcissists can’t accept anything they don’t create as legitimate. When you factor in dementia, that’s a very dissatisfied narcissist. When you make him leader of the free world, that’s a very unhappy world.

The amount of low-information voters who uncritically just accepted he is a great businessman is truly depressing.

They’ve grown up with The Apprentice and Trump himself repeating how great a businessman he is so it will take a lot to deprogram that.