On your first point, ok, fine, perhaps some ‘save image as’ were in the files and people had no idea what it was… maybe… I think that’s a long shot, an odd image to retain without context of a related article or document clearly indicating what it is… It really strains credibility, but maybe possibly a misunderstood inclusion…

Ostensibly, they were supposed to be prepared to release the files ‘day 1’ of the administration, so they have had pretty much all year knowing this should be coming and preparing. Even if for some reason the deadline was unreasonable, it seems odd to just say nothing about that, not negotiate a different timeline with congress or something. It seems clear they were hoping that passing and have Trump sign that bill compelling the release was good enough optics and follow-up with token gesture was expected to be good enough. Which was absurd because Trump could have just done this anytime he wished, and for all the things he shouldn’t do unilaterally but does anything, this is where suddenly congress has to be all aboard…

Yeah, I remember working in the early 2000s with Russian institutes and things were really good.

2008 was when I recall the first “wtf”, in the war with Georgia.

I know that’s the deadline, but are they actually doing it? I’ve been assuming they’ll declare some bs on why it’s not viable to do so, hoping that somehow everyone has gotten over it after the bill passed.

It’s funny how many super common phrases and words are “invented” just now according to him… like the word affordability…

He claimed that all these tariffs will cause just a ton of companies to build big factories all of a sudden next year.

He claimed that getting all those Hispanics out will mean more jobs and houses for the rest.

Basically that everything they’ve done is right, and depending on which minute he is speaking the economy is already great and everyone is lying about it or it’s bad but only because of Biden but in 2026 everything he did will finally work.

They’ve evidently already made the call that millions of people losing healthcare is a small enough percentage to not worry about. I’ve been presuming that they would pull off a seemingly better circumstance by temporarily unwinding their worst policies, but they may be actually true believers…

One things was clearly rooted in evidence, the reduced participation on voting.

I feel like the rest might have been a bit more Shakey ground.

In 2020, the working poor were largely not going into jobs and also had easiest access to voting. They were both easiest to vote and everyone was pissed that the pandemic sucked, so they were able to and motivated to vote.

Nah, this is about the people lacking the opportunity and/or motivation to bother to vote, more like apathetic rather than the much more active tankie. They may be loud here, but they are relatively rare.

Well keep in mind those “losers” might have a job that conflicts with their polling hours and have restrictive absentee ballots. It’s much easier for, say, retirees to vote than working poor.

Problem is they know millions of votes are happening, and so how much does their vote really matter? Taking the time out of their life to stand in a long line to cast a single vote among millions… Doesn’t seem like it matters and other people will take care of it for them.

When they have something to bite for, they want to be a part of something. If it’s just about making sure the worst stays out, it’s a poorly motivated chore.

I think the PJ25b people are pragmatic enough to get those good optics in the short term.

If Trump actually gets adamant they can just make him a trophy and he’ll be happy.

To find the cloud in the silver lining, I can easily see how this doesn’t happen.

Currently we are outraged at ICE and military in our streets inflicting harm on innocents, nervous about getting in a war no one would have even thought of, suffering from tariffs increasing prices and ACA premiums going way up.

The thing about every single one of those is that Republicans caused them and Republicans can mostly fix them. Simply by undoing the things they caused in the first place makes folks feel like things are getting fixed, and many will forget why they were broken and just be focused on how they got better during the election year.

So I expect immigration enforcement to tone down (already saw a story to that effect), for them to manage a last minute ACA subsidy extension with much drama, pulling back a lot of tariffs, and chilling out on Venezuela for 2026. Going extra by cutting some “tariff fund” checks and some HSA deposits, to make sure the people get some money, even if it is smaller than the money lost, people fall for “windfalls”. Maybe throw some folks under the bus like RFK Jr and Hegseth, to drain the swamp so to speak.

Indeed, it’s less about actually ousting these people. It is about being seen as trying to do so.

Their goal was not to destroy the US per se, it was to just get them out of the region. Destroying might have been nice, but only in a way that destroyed their power.

So an unleashed unhinged US was not something they wanted. Sure we might not have the freedom, but they never cared one way or another about that.

And also 100% why we won’t ever have that

“but at least they aren’t Democrats”

A refrain I’ve heard so often from them after bemoaning some inhumanly bad thing they think a Republican has done.

If the code actually works and is vaguely important, I think you are right.

If anyone ever has to fix it because it’s also broken on top of being a mess, well they aren’t quite so safe. Maybe if you are always available to fix it same day, but if you ever go on vacation and it hits the fan while you are unreachable…

I can’t speak to this situation, but broadly speaking I am familiar with general messed up stuff like this as well as perhaps adjusting some fine details to make the scenario relatable to an audience unfamiliar with the specifics of the real situation and/or obfuscating the details so that the person doesn’t out themselves to someone else familiar with the specifics enough to recognize.

The broad strokes seem plausible and any oddities in details I consider to be less important and/or understandable if it was tweaked for an internet audience.

It existed before that use case was prominent. Basically it was for whatever trivial for people but hard for machines task you could have people do over the Internet.

Of course I won’t leave the platform because no one else will is a self fulfilling prophecy.

I don’t agree with that strategy either, but she didn’t carry enough votes to have made the difference anyway…