The chance that this Supreme Court is going to rule against Trump is not coincidentally exactly equal to the amount of integrity its conservarive members possess - zero.

This weak diversion isn’t out there to try to sway their decision - their decision is a foregone conclusion. The point is just to provide a readymade rationale for some number of people, so they can excuse the Supreme Court’s inevitable betrayal of law, precedent and the Constitution with “Well, they had to do that - imagine how much money blah blah blah…”

And besides, if money really was an issue, the administration could easily make up the shortfall simply by making billionaires pay something approaching their fair share of taxes.

Mostly escapism.

I prefer stoicism, but it’s tough and I’m weak and lazy. So to the degree that I have to deal with the real world, I mostly rely on some combination of cynicism and fatalism.

But as much as possible, I escape.

Of course he did - that’s the sort of service they’ve paid him for.

I don’t think it’s so much “believed” as “hoped.”

Specifically, people hoped that the staggeringly dangerous and destructive deranged megalomaniac currently destroying the US had died, since at this point, in a world in which virtually none of the politicians, government officials or journalists who are actually in a position to do anything to at least slow the US’s Trump-led sprint to neo-feudalism can be bothered to lift a finger, him dying is about the only hope we billions of ordinary prople have.

But of course, the NYT is at the forefront of the journalists who can’t be bothered to actually demonstrate any principles or integrity, so all we get from them is this bit of sycophantic pabulum.

Kennedy’s an interesting case.

With the rest of Trump’s appointees, it’s tough to suss out exactly what they’re about. They’re generally some combination of corrupt, ideologically blinded, power-hungry, narcissistic and emotionally unstable, but it’s hard to be sure just how much of which they are.

But with Kennedy, it’s simple - he’s a raving lunatic.

This is why there’s such a determined focus on crushing criticism entirely - because Israel’s actions are literally indefensible.

Broadly, this is just the sort of thing that can be expected when we allow positions of power to be held by people who are mentally ill.

I don’t have the foggiest idea.

And really, if I did have a good idea, I wouldn’t post it publicly anyway. That’d just be tipping my hand to the astroturfers.

“The fediverse” really can’t. That’s just the reality of a decentralized system. It’s going to be up to individual instances to sort it out.

But that’s a good thing, because what it means is that different instances can and will try different approaches, and between them, they’ll sooner or later hit on the one(s) that will be most effective.