Sort of like how RFK Jr could just dismiss sexual assault allegations from when he was in his mid 40s as being part of being a "very rambunctious youth."
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The press only had a presence in the pentagon because it was advantageous to have them there. The media isn't disappearing just because they are no longer given easy access. They will just have less of a relationship with the department of defense. Yes, it's bad for the journalists, but it's worse for the administration. Those reporters had been there so that they could spread the official talking points. Letting reporters become dependent on their easy access and maintaining a reasonable working relationship makes it a lot easier to seed stories, to ask for small favors and to give off the record comments that shape narratives. Ol' Whiskeyleaks is failing at coercion and in the process is sacrificing influence. That he doesn't understand this is amazing considering he was (theoretically) a journalist until less than a year ago.
As with so many things, they are destroying what their predecessors spent the last century building by being both malicious and incompetent.
People can rationalize anything.
The ones actually doing this shit can tell themselves that this is just how the game is played, that they are doing it for the right reasons, that it's not wrong to seek a political advantage, that they earned the right to do this when they won an election, and so on. It's bullshit, but they aren't starting this particular conversation as idealistic believers in democracy and the rule of law. You only get to this point by either not giving a shit about democratic principles to begin with, or by accepting smaller lies along the way until you are living in a fantasy world of your own making.
For their supporters, it's a lot easier. They're all soaking in propaganda and have an entire media ecosystem that's designed to make them feel justified in anything they support and outraged by anything they oppose. Escaping that trap means questioning things they have already accepted, seriously reconsidering ideas that they know to be abhorrent, actively seeking out sources they have long since dismissed as untrustworthy, and potentially facing the stark realization that the worldview they have cultivated is dishonest and destructive. It's possible for people to see the disconnect between what they claim to stand for and what they actually support, but for that to work they have to actually be principled enough to put those ideals ahead of loyalty to their side and what they perceive to be their own interests. And they need to have the perspective to see the contradiction in the first place, which is tricky when all your info is coming from sources that only tell you how right you are.
It takes a lot of work to get out of that intellectual rut and ask yourself "are we the baddies?" Much easier to stay where you are and be angry at all those assholes that constantly lie and cheat because they hate everything you believe in.
Unless I'm mistaken, they would need to win every senate race, even the safest seats in the deepest of red states. Anything less than a clean sweep would mean that some number of Republicans in the senate would have to join them to get to the 2/3 majority needed to convict.
That said, if they were to get such a huge landslide in the midterms that they came anywhere near a 2/3 majority, I wouldn't be surprised to see a few Republicans decide that maybe the Trump administration isn't something they want to be handcuffed to. Still highly unlikely, but less implausible than a clean sweep.
Throughout the speech Tuberville mentioned that “radical Islamic extremists” were a threat to America and even stated that these extremists “want every single freedom loving American dead, bottom line
So, clearly not a threat to him then?
The headline is underselling it. The settlements were part of the deal. They were literally bought off.
Not to mention that the bullshit in AI videos made by the left would absolutely get called out in every propaganda outfit on the right. It would just give them more ammo (without the usual lies).
But even more important, it will grant legitimacy to everyone who responds to damning video evidence by claiming it was AI. We don't need to make shit up, the reality is already horrifying. All AI will do is make it harder for people to believe their own eyes.
Given that it doesn't meet the legal requirements for currency but they would be passing it off as real money, it sounds more like counterfeiting to me. One more charge to add to the list.
I'd be curious to know how many of those 33% are actually aware of each thing RFK Jr has done, how many approve each of those things, and how many are just stating their answers here as a way of expressing their support for Trump.
The propaganda bubble most of these people live in insulates them from reality, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure you could invent a fictional Trump appointee and a majority of Republicans would claim they approve of the job they are doing. And you could probably get them to say they support all kinds of crazy shit they don't actually agree with as long as they view the question as a partisan referendum.
The federal courts are filled with people appointed through the political process, and a lot of the bullshit that's made it through the courts is a result of venue shopping to find sympathetic judges. But more importantly, the Trump administration has been losing a lot in court... until the Supreme Court steps in and reverses those rulings on the shadow docket. It's not the whole judicial branch that's the problem, just the ones that matter the most.
The legislature isn't doing its job because it's controlled by Republicans, and as a party they've gone through multiple purges to root out anyone who would put the country or the constitution ahead of Trump's slightest whim.
The executive branch has been under siege all year, a lot of people were fired without cause, and a lot of other people are resigning or getting fired rather than doing shit that's illegal and unconstitutional. While in some instances there are lawsuits making their way through the courts, there's only so much they can do after they get escorted out of the building.
To the best of my knowledge, the leadership of the military has had much more continuity and isn't so easily stacked with loyalists. You can't just grab some 20 something techbro douchebag from Elon's little band of hitler youth, or the last lawyer that was dumb enough to represent Trump and make them a general.
And there is also a big difference between what might be demanded of some congressman or civil servant compared to the military. While I doubt we'll see anyone directly disobeying an order from the white house that has troops standing around outside federal buildings, I do think it's pretty likely that an order to nuke an American city would be disobeyed. The question for each of them is where they draw the line. Openly defying orders is not something to be done lightly in the military.
Impeachment is pointless if you can't get enough votes to convict. To do that without republican votes would require the democrats to win literally every senate race. Not going to happen, no matter how much the republicans deserve to lose.
Slightly less unlikely would be for a huge wave election to give a large majority to democrats and for a handful of republicans to be willing to vote with the dems because they start seeing the trump administration as a political liability. Still insanely unlikely, just not as unlikely as a clean sweep in the midterms.
“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” said Trump, who also suggested that officers were free to ignore his comments. “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room, of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future,” he jested.
Showing token opposition now accomplishes nothing. They could slightly diminish the fascist photo op, but at the price of losing their opportunity to do something later when it actually matters.
That they all seem to be less than thrilled about the situation is a good sign. That said, I'm not going to hold my breath for any of them to disobey orders or arrest the president. At most, I would expect them to only do the bare minimum to be able to say they followed orders, with perhaps a little bit of malicious compliance where possible. Unfortunately, most of them will probably just pass the illegal orders down the chain of command with a brief reminder to the troops that they also need to obey the law while carrying out those orders.
But if there are people in that room who want to resist, it probably wasn't a great idea to drag them back from all over the world and put them in one place where they can potentially meet up and discuss things offline. Given the situation, I wouldn't be shocked if some of them wanted to make sure that others were on the same page and maybe discuss some hypotheticals.
While I would be in favor of reforming the Court in a variety of ways, if this is meant to be a practical suggestion then any discussion would have to be limited to actions that wouldn't require a constitutional amendment. There is simply no way you will get 2/3 majorities in both houses and 3/4 of the states to all agree on something which is going to shift the balance of power. It would actually be easier to impeach the bad actors on the court, and even that's basically impossible without an unbelievably massive shift in the political landscape.
We can potentially change the number of justices, and we can probably make some meaningful changes to the laws and procedures surrounding the court, but getting rid of lifetime appointments isn't going to happen.
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Also, the book makes it clear that Nedry isn't just some greedy asshole, he's someone getting screwed over and financially ruined. Hammond hired him as the lowest bid for the job of setting up the systems, with a contract that explicitly stated that support was not included, only for Hammond to threaten to sue him until he goes broke and ruin his reputation so no one else will hire him unless he provides free support. He's being dragged to the island and working around the clock and he's not even getting paid for it. Of course he's going to take the opportunity to get paid for screwing over Hammond.
Even more fun, if they rush the federal case forward instead of letting the state go first, he would be shielded prosecution at the state level the second jeopardy attaches (New York state law disallows prosecution of crimes which have already been tried in another jurisdiction). If the feds then botch the case, they would have ruined both chances to prosecute.
Given the level of competence we've seen so far, this seems like a very plausible scenario.
This is the definition of "when all you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail."
This is actually the opposite. The only problem they give a shit about is nails, so they are breaking all their other tools by bashing them into the wall.
That's not always the case. If a house has a well and later gets water from a utility, they will often keep exterior taps running well water because it's a lot cheaper than abandoning the well. So, technically, you could have water that's safe to drink inside the house but still have unsafe water outside.
Also, if the house has filters or other water treatment that generally isn't used for the exterior (though that's typically more about taste and mineral content, rather than anything hazardous).
And it's even more complicated by the fact that Talia was already the replacement for Lyta. And that the revelation about her being a sleeper was never meant to happen unless she left. Oddly enough, that exit was actually recycling the plan for Takashima had she made it past the pilot, only she got replaced... by Susan.
Plus there's Garibaldi. His interest in Talia mirrors Zach's interest in Lyta. Garibaldi's interest is never resolved because of Talia's exit. That they tried to reestablish that idea with Zach and Lyta implies there was a plan. Given where things go with Garibaldi and telepaths (including Lyta) that might have been very interesting.
Instead, Zach's interest gets folded into the Byron plot. But Byron is also a late addition caused by the whole cancelation and uncancelation around season 5. If they hadn't lost multiple cast members and rushed key plotlines to fit them into season 4, things would have probably been very different.
Babylon 5 has two women start a relationship... sort of.
They set up a frienship that was supposed to turn into a romantic relationship, but one of them left the show, cutting that subplot short. They still try to work it in, as the last couple episodes before the character exit heavily imply they are romantically/sexually involved, but nothing is explicitly confirmed until the next season when the remaining character briefly opens up about having loved the now absent character.
It's not much, but it's still pretty big for the early to mid 90s.
Mike Johnson is so afraid of sinning that he has his son policing his masturbation habits. And yet he seems to have no problem bearing false witness.
I mean, he's also ignoring all the parts about seeking justice, and how to treat the poor, the alien, the least of these etc. But that's all policy and I'm sure he thinks that doesn't count because it's not him doing it personally. But when he lies about his opponents he is personally, intentionally breaking one of the commandments. Not that I expect any better from that humanoid shit stain, but it's worth pointing out. One more hypocrisy for the pile.
And of course, it's even more telling that he feels the need to lie. He can't acknowledge what the protests are about or why the shut down is happening because he knows that most people would support those positions.
Sort of like how most people would prefer he not dismiss congress early in order to shield pedophiles from justice.