After 100 days of jackhammering America's norms, values, laws, finances, allies, and what's left of the psyche of the average news curator, it's hard to narrow things down to Trump's worst affront so far. But there is one transgression that seems to best encapsulate where we've been dragged: The sending of potentially innocent Venezuelans to a gulag-like prison in El Salvador. The story includes the simultaneous disappearing of people and due process. The glad-handing, jubilant Oval Office meeting with a leader who has referred to himself as "the coolest dictator" by an American president who said he'd love to send American "homegrown criminals" to a similar prison abroad. The ignoring of a series of court orders and the wanton flouting of a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling. The presidential displaying of a clearly doctored photo that makes it seem like Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a man sent to the CECOT terrorism confinement center by mistake, was a member of a dangerous gang. The firing of the Justice Department lawyer who made it clear that Garcia's fate was due to a clerical error. The sadistic photo ops from the US head of Homeland Security posing in front of CECOT prisoners. The ceding of America's high ground when it comes to due process and the rule of law. The refusal to apologize for any mistakes. The refusal to rectify any of those mistakes. The celebration of cruelty. And, like any terrible scandal, the more we learn about the story, the worse it gets. "New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang." The NYT (Gift Article): Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison.
2Honey, I Shrunk the Economy"Figures released by the Commerce Department Wednesday show that the United States' gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, after growing at a solid pace of 2.4% in the final months of 2024." The U.S. economy shrinks as Trump's tariffs spark recession fears. 3Flourishful Thinking"For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes looked like a U-shaped curve. Happiness tended to be high when they were young, then dipped in midlife, only to rise again as they grew old. But recent surveys suggest that young adults aren’t as happy as they used to be, and that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten." NYT (Gift Article): A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t. 4Message in a Bottleneck"The public is not simply asking for louder performances. They are asking for something harder: a real reckoning with the failures of the old order. Yet much of the mainstream political class — campaign consultants, television pundits, party strategists — continues to mistake the appearance of fighting for real action. A fiery speech on MSNBC, a viral fundraising email declaring a once-in-a-lifetime 'fight for democracy,' a triumphant Twitter clip of a senator 'owning' the opposition: these are treated as victories in themselves. They confuse performance with renewal, noise with transformation. But the public knows the difference. And they are running out of patience." Interesting take from Evelyn Quartz: The Public Wants a Reckoning, Not Another Performance. "Consultants, pollsters, media strategists — many of them earnest — operate within a system that treats public trust not as something to be earned through outcomes, but as something to be engineered through messaging. The internal logic is simple: if the right message is delivered in the right tone, to the right demographic, legitimacy will follow ... This kind of technocratic language is, frankly, B.S. It’s the same 'game plan' that has so thoroughly divorced politics from real meaning that it now operates more like a spectator sport. " 5Extra, ExtraMAGArthyism: "Ruling that Mr. Mahdawi should be released on bail, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of Federal District Court in Vermont said he did not pose a danger to the public and he was not a flight risk. The judge drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism, saying it was 'not our proudest moment.'" Columbia Student Who Was Arrested at Citizenship Interview Is Freed. 6Bottom of the News"In Magill’s view, 100 men in their twenties and excellent physical condition could ultimately defeat a gorilla if they 'are committed and go in united.' That doesn’t mean it would be pretty. The human assault force 'would have to expect severe collateral damage that could easily include death from broken necks, severe arterial bite wounds, massive concussions leading to fatal brain bleeds, and asphyxiation from other men piling on top of them,' Magill says. 'It could be a kamikaze mission for the men closest to the gorilla.' Even some who survive might be left paralyzed or disfigured. 'If they are willing to accept this,' he says, 'the group should be able to overtake the gorilla and inflict enough blunt force trauma combined with severe twisting of the head and neck while simultaneously inflicting severe abdominal punches, that the gorilla would eventually succumb to either a broken neck, internal organ damage, or asphyxiation.'" The latest question consuming the internet (and sports talk radio). Could 100 men beat a gorilla in a fight? Here’s what primatologists say. (This all buries the lede a bit. The real story is that the only way this fight could possibly take place is if the humans started it.)
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Wednesday, April 30, 2025
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