Based on prior work experience I also agree with that take. Frankly I do hope they reap the whirlwind squarely during Trump's term given the propensity for people to assign blame to the then-current administration. Maybe right before the midterm elections... ha
Ha. Ha. Trump accepting responsibility for anything that turns out wrong? Ha. Ha. Not a chance.
Lots of doom and gloom, and for good reason. This has been a concerning last few weeks.
For what it’s worth, friends of mine in the US that have connections in DC are of the view that Trump will not have time before the midterms to fully undermine US democracy. Not that he isn’t going to try as hard as possible, clearly he is, just that the runway isn’t long enough for him before a rebuke at the midterms.
I’m hopeful that is true, and that some checks and balances will still remain by then.
I wish I shared that optimism. Even if US democracy remains intact until November 2026 and the Dems get a massive win in the midterm elections, what difference will that make in practice? Trump and Musk are currently purging the federal government of every employee who isn't a Trump cultist. He'll just ignore anything from Congress that doesn't support his agenda (and even the stacked 6-3 Supreme Court), and Congress has no way to force him to comply short of impeachment, which will never happen due to the undemocratic US senate. So Congress might still exist in theory, but their ability to actually do anything hinges on the executive branch respecting the US Constitution which Trump very clearly does not.
I honestly don't think we're that far away from Trump pulling a Caesar (or Palpatine) and declaring some kind of fabricated emergency so he can abolish the legislative branch entirely or severely curtail its power and make himself king/emperor.
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Trust me, if you saw the amount of spats I get in with those clowns on there, you'd know I'm not supporting it. Someone has to push back on the MAGA echo chamber on that app! I try to avoid it, but sometimes I just can't help myself..
I'm more still there out of stubbornness: I've been a member since 2009 and have been heavily using it the whole time, it's my only social media addiction (I never really cared about Facebook/Instagram, etc). Feels like I'm running away if I leave; "don't let bad people change you", etc etc.
That's the type of engagement they want to keep boosting their garbage though.
I was a 2009/2010 joiner as well and kicked it to the curb about 2 months ago. You can do it, and slowly build up your feed on one of the other sites. I pivoted over to Bluesky.
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I wish I shared that optimism. Even if US democracy remains intact until November 2026 and the Dems get a massive win in the midterm elections, what difference will that make in practice? Trump and Musk are currently purging the federal government of every employee who isn't a Trump cultist. He'll just ignore anything from Congress that doesn't support his agenda (and even the stacked 6-3 Supreme Court), and Congress has no way to force him to comply short of impeachment, which will never happen due to the undemocratic US senate. So Congress might still exist in theory, but their ability to actually do anything hinges on the executive branch respecting the US Constitution which Trump very clearly does not.
I honestly don't think we're that far away from Trump pulling a Caesar (or Palpatine) and declaring some kind of fabricated emergency so he can abolish the legislative branch entirely or severely curtail its power and make himself king/emperor.
I'm guessing most of the people with that level of optimism are ones that voted for Trump and are now just trying to cope with that choice.
Trump is well on schedule to consolidate power into just a few people that midterms won't matter. Not to mention his cozying up with Putin. Russia has a pretty successful gig of election interference. I would bet anything that part of the discussions they have been having lately, have to do with using Russian assets and intelligence to support Trump's undoing of American democracy. Add that to Trumps growing control over the media, social and otherwise, he is going to be able to sway most of the same people again with propaganda and lies.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Amen, if this was a corporation I would be shorting the stock hard because it seems like they're kicking out the legs.
Short Tbills? lol.
I have a greatest hits list from my career watching this.
1. Photocopies are now off limits (not as impactful then and almost zero now)
2 . Take the trash out from you office to dumpster (no janitorial)
3. Buy your own mice and keyboards (which just went on P cards but was harder to track)
4. No new software upgrades (why can’t we stay on Win 95?)
But one of my favorites was the exec flying to site where only they and the site leader had catered lunch. Everyone else was told to bring their own.
Toxic toxic behavior. Done get me wrong managing assets is very important, but this castle took a near century to build. You can’t set fire to it and hope whatever survives overnight will be livable. Its been proven over and over yet here we are
Anti-Trump podcast knocks Joe out of the top spot for February.
Quote:
Per The Daily Beast, citing data from Podscribe, the MediasTouch Podcast has managed to rack up 56 million downloads and views across all platforms through February, jettisoning it ahead of the Joe Rogan Experience and its combined 48.6 million downloads and views during the same time period. The audience for MediasTouch has grown 101% in the past month, while Rogan’s viewership has shrunk by nearly one-third.
That's pretty shocking to me. I've listened to MediasTouch a few times and while they're pretty entertaining I always thought they were pretty niche, I wouldn't have guessed they'd grow like that. They they are very targeted at their audience so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
I certainly hope there isn't a civil war in the US.
That #### will spread.....
I wondered what would happen if there was a civil war in the U.S. and one or both sides tried to invoke Article 5. According to the article, it can be invoked in a civil war if one of the sides is deemed to be "an attacker". Granted, it is pretty far fetched, but the scenarios that could play out in such a situation are numerous, super interesting, but also pretty scary. I mean, if someone wanted to destroy NATO, this would be the way to do it.
Honestly though, I don't see a U.S. civil war as being one with clear sides or battlegrounds. It would be more like The Troubles or the types of movement you see in places like South America. Basically just super high murder rates and terrorist attacks with no boundaries.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
The MAGAts would be easy to spot with their stupid giant flags and hats. They’re not bright enough to go into stealth mode. At least, not at the start.
Anti-Trump podcast knocks Joe out of the top spot for February.
That's pretty shocking to me. I've listened to MediasTouch a few times and while they're pretty entertaining I always thought they were pretty niche, I wouldn't have guessed they'd grow like that. They they are very targeted at their audience so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.
I don't know peoples tastes are strange, I listened to Rogan once and cant really understand how people find that entertaining, the credulity of it all is just infuriating to me. And that people can see the unknowing acceptance of every random statement just leaves me at a loss.
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I could see how the MediasTouch podcast would be cathartic to people who are frustrated with everything that is going on. They definitely have a slant but also sound authoritative on legal matters so you can at least pretend that the legal stuff matters for half an hour...
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
I don't know peoples tastes are strange, I listened to Rogan once and cant really understand how people find that entertaining, the credulity of it all is just infuriating to me. And that people can see the unknowing acceptance of every random statement just leaves me at a loss.
You're probably too well educated for it.
I'm not even joking. I tried to think of one.
There's just a lot of stupid people who lap up the words of other stupid people. I guess it makes them feel better.
I don't know peoples tastes are strange, I listened to Rogan once and cant really understand how people find that entertaining, the credulity of it all is just infuriating to me. And that people can see the unknowing acceptance of every random statement just leaves me at a loss.
I think most of Rogan's audience was built earlier (like 10 years ago) when it was a less polarizing thing and more here's this dumb monkey man asking pothead questions to actual guests. It was sort of like Hot Ones in that way. I don't think even he thought much about the influence it might end up having. Now he's sort of been feeding the monster for the last few years and it's become pretty lame and uninteresting as most things do when theyre based on pointing a camera at 2-3 dumb people for 3+ hours every day.
I think most of Rogan's audience was built earlier (like 10 years ago) when it was a less polarizing thing and more here's this dumb monkey man asking pothead questions to actual guests. It was sort of like Hot Ones in that way. I don't think even he thought much about the influence it might end up having. Now he's sort of been feeding the monster for the last few years and it's become pretty lame and uninteresting as most things do when theyre based on pointing a camera at 2-3 dumb people for 3+ hours every day.
I think I tried Rogan 8 or 9 years ago, and it was completely transparent back then. This is an uninteresting guy asking uninteresting questions to often truly interesting people, and being wowed by the shallowest depths of common knowledge or bad speculation that they scrape.
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I could see how the MediasTouch podcast would be cathartic to people who are frustrated with everything that is going on. They definitely have a slant but also sound authoritative on legal matters so you can at least pretend that the legal stuff matters for half an hour...
The three brothers that run it are also, unlike Rogan, well educated. Ben is a lawyer. They are very pro Canada as well, which is refreshing.
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I think I tried Rogan 8 or 9 years ago, and it was completely transparent back then. This is an uninteresting guy asking uninteresting questions to often truly interesting people, and being wowed by the shallowest depths of common knowledge or bad speculation that they scrape.
Its true. I listened to him a decent amount when he was in the sweet spot of being a half-decent production and still seemed to have genuine curiosity about his guests.
I think it was his interview with Dr. Gupta that stopped me from listening. It was the first time I remember him actually interrupting and trying to outsmart a guest who clearly knew more than him. He hadn't really done a lot of that beforehand. He would speculate random BS, for sure, but was never conclusive about even his own opinions, it was sort of the charm of the whole thing. Now here he was arguing with a doctor about medicine. He really got dug in on the anti-science train with covid.
This Reagan speech from '88 oughta be played to the MAGA gang:
At that time, Republicans were for free trade and the Democrats were protectionists (unions). Bill Clinton turned the Democrats into a 2nd corporate party and Trump has now taken the protectionist lane.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
