“Technology keeps getting more powerful, but our experience of it gets worse—because the business and cultural layer is about extraction, not improvement.”
Tag: 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 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 1588: Zelensky’s Mar-a-Lago Optics, Trump’s Putin Signals, and the Donbas Deadlock
“Putin is unlikely to agree to that outcome. Trump is seventy-eight and was never known for sustained intellectual discipline. He is not unintelligent, but he is mentally undisciplined. He will likely keep acting in increasingly blatant ways until the midterms or remaining institutions restrain him. Through courts, lawsuits, or polling.”
Ask A Genius 1570: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Exit, Trump’s Instability, and U.S. Power Shifts
In this interview, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner examine Marjorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation and the political fallout surrounding her break with Trump. Rosner argues that Trump’s friendliness toward New York mayor-elect Mamdani reflects impulse, not strategy, and explores whether New Orleans may face the next immigration dragnet. They discuss congressional warnings about unlawful military orders, Trump’s explosive reaction, and the administration’s attempt to impose nondisclosure agreements at the Department of Education amid efforts to dismantle it. The conversation concludes with U.S.–China chip tensions and whether NVIDIA’s advanced AI hardware could be approved for export under Trump’s erratic decision-making style.
Ask A Genius 1567: Epstein Files, Ukraine Sanctions, and the Fraying Power of Trump
In this interview, Scott Douglas Jacobsen speaks with Rick Rosner about newly surfaced Epstein emails in which Jeffrey Epstein derides Donald Trump and alleges he “knew about the girls,” alongside Trump’s sliding approval ratings amid a 43-day shutdown. They connect this weakening support to razor-thin Republican margins in Congress and Trump’s ongoing use of executive power, from rebranding the Pentagon as the “Department of War” to a private White House ballroom project. The discussion then shifts to the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Canada’s sanctions on Russia, the “shadow fleet” moving sanctioned oil, and the realities of independent war reporting.
Rick Rosner 