So CBS is likely going to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump because they need approval for a merger and that approval comes from an agency overseen by Trump.
By any reasonable standard, that's extortion, and a crime.
We live in such a foul and loathsome timeline.
Not necessarily.
Trump doing his thing 2016-2020 met with a lot of obstacles and pushback.
Then he was out of office for four years, and while he was crashing around spewing nonsense and vitriol, some very intelligent and very evil people were working behind the scenes to secure some significant Supreme Court rulings and to draw up a step-by-step plan for instituting fascism in the US.
And now Trump doing his thing is met with almost no obstacles or pushback - virtually the entire government is bending over backwards to enable him.
And it must be noted that he's not particularly smart or sane, but he is a childishly greedy and selfish narcissist. That means he's incredibly easy to manipulate. All anyone has to do is frame something in a way that appeals to his crippled emotions and drop a few hints to get him going in the right direction, then just stand back and let him do his thing.
Not saying that that's certainly what is happening, but...
It's really sort of amazing.
While most corrupt politicians would be content to work for the benefit of whoever pays them a fat enough bribe, Trump appears to actually go out of his way to only work for the most foul, loathsome and destructive corporations and industries. It's as if he has a rigid set of negative standards - "you must be this evil to gain my advocacy" - and any industry or corporation that isn't sufficiently evil is turned away.
Or more precisely, judge blocks administration from human trafficking.
I obviously can't know this is him, but it tracks.
More broadly, I've been certain for years that he spends a lot of time on 4chan. Anyone who's at all familiar with /pol/ should be able to see that.
Since Trump appears to have no personal stake in this (as opposed to his attacks on the Justice Department, the FBI, the federal court system and so on), I have to assume that this is something he's doing entirely for Putin's benefit.
I don't, actually.
That was a common basis for it in the west, but it's demonstrably not the only basis, as illustrated by similar toxically masculine bullshit in places like Japan and India.
And beyond that, I don't think it's even as commonly the basis as it used to be in the west - that at this point, much (most?) of it traces back to secular misogynist culture warriors like Andrew Tate.
And beyond that, I just reject the whole concept of blaming ideologies for the fact that some people are assholes. Clearly the problem is simply that they are assholes, and I think they deserve all of the blame for that themselves.
Now all that said, more power to ya. Any fight against toxic bullshit is worthwhile.
Gotta love the unintentional irony of a bill that addresses the supposed mental illness of Trump opponents in such a way that it vividly illustrates the very real mental illness of Trump supporters.
People who can and do actually think have been telling you that they're a dumbass idea that's ultimately only going to hurt consumers since the very first moment Trump started talking about them.
All you had to do was fucking listen.
No he doesn't.
Does he?
No - he can't possibly. He's not that stupid. He knows just as well as anyone and better than most that Trump can never be trusted, and especially when it comes to his idol Putin.
So he has to know that Russia could methodically reject or violate every single aspect of this deal, and Trump will just smile and nod and say, "Whatever you want Vladdy!"
So this has to be just a bit of careful rhetoric - an attempt by Zelenskyy to make the responsibility the US necessarily has for this deal manifest, so that he'll have something to point to later on, when Trump inevitably betrays him.
I hate to be the one to piss in the punch bowl here, but the only reason that they did this is because it in fact didn't require any spine at all.
Whether or not trans women play women's sports is an issue that has no effect at all on the fortunes of corporations and billionaires, so none of the soft money the Democrats receive has been contingent on them ensuring that trans women were banned, so they were free to oppose it, and did. And that's it.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but could you explain your interest in the sex life of a 14 year old?"