“Technology keeps getting more powerful, but our experience of it gets worse—because the business and cultural layer is about extraction, not improvement.”
Tag: donald-trump
Ask A Genius 1612: From a 1920s Report Card to Authoritarian Alarm: Found History, Memory, and Power in America
“People tuck things into books—and sometimes they tuck entire histories inside them.”
Ask A Genius 1606: Symbolism, Strategy, and Second-Term Failures
“Trump’s psychology is its own weather system—symbolic victories ‘count’ to him, even when they mean nothing in reality.”
Ask A Genius 1605: Dog Death, Greenland Threats, and Meaning at Scale
“We might beat biology and then be crushed by technology. From the largest scale, we do not matter much; locally, we matter for a while. The trick is holding grief, politics, and cosmic time in the same frame without losing moral clarity.”
Ask A Genius 1601: Rosie, ICE Controversies, Iran Crackdown, and America’s Political Stress Test
“We’re trying to keep her going as long as she allows. Then you look outward and everything feels more extreme—enforcement surges, outrage, and a culture that records everything. The American system has levers, but soft power is eroding. Some movements do not vanish; they age out.”
Ask A Genius 1597: ICE Use of Force, Video Evidence, and Minneapolis Protests
“In use-of-force analysis, each shot must be justified independently. The only shot that might plausibly be argued as justified would be the first one, when the officer was closer to the front of the vehicle and could claim he felt in danger. The later shots followed after the vehicle passed.”
Ask A Genius 1596: X’s Toxic Spiral, Greenland Talk, and NATO Article 5 Alarm Bells
Greenland is not a fantasy chess piece. It is a self-governing territory within Denmark, and Denmark is in NATO. Article 5 has only been invoked once—after 9/11. Even imagining a scenario where alliance geography and obligations collide with U.S. ambitions should jolt people awake. A loud alarm bell worth hearing.
Ask A Genius 1590: Tron, Sports Money, Epstein Files, X, and Measles
“It is called papering the opposition.”
Ask A Genius 1555: Trump’s Sliding Polls and Shutdown Fallout
Scott Douglas Jacobsen presses Rick Rosner on why Donald Trump’s approval is deflating amid cost of living strain, tariffs, and a long federal shutdown. Rosner, who places tiny prediction bets, expects support to hover in the low forties. He argues Trump’s chaos distracts from policy failures, with inflation near three percent and looming insurance hikes hurting households. He criticizes ICE’s accountability and leadership, citing broader abuses of power. On Wole Soyinka’s visa, he decries political vindictiveness. Addressing elevated stillbirths, he points to COVID’s long tail, deferred care from affordability barriers, and persistent racial inequities in maternal and infant health outcomes.
Ask A Genius 1467: Trump–Epstein: A Scandal Damaging Trump’s Credibility
Rick Rosner addresses the Trump–Epstein scandal, highlighting Trump’s hypocrisy in promising to expose Epstein’s associates while allegedly being implicated himself. Rosner criticizes Trump’s character, suggesting his involvement might significantly harm his political support. Epstein’s alleged blackmail tactics and Trump’s potential predatory behavior underline the gravity of this controversy.
Rick Rosner 