I’ve got to go with a classic in Tony Soprano. He’s a real piece of shit, and yet I can’t look away.

A unicorn is just a rhinoceros through a long game of telephone.

You know, you could have said worse but you didn’t. You just noted we need some self improvement.

Yeah. Trump can buy off police departments by giving them carte blanche over their personal conduct.

Yeah. I was going to go with my time myself.

They had to follow orders, but they did it in the minimal way possible.

They made sure the military looked like crap on parade. A lot of units weren’t in dress uniform and the marching was noted as sloppy where it looked on purpose.

Very little modern military equipment was used. That the US Army pulled out a Sherman tank shows what the military wanted to show off.

Also, over loudspeaker, they played Fortunate Son, which is an anti war song about how the rich don’t have to go to war but the poor do. That is not a song I would expect to hear at a military parade.

This was not a parade where the US military was showing off.

I think the big issue for Trump right now is the military. If you read between the lines of January 6, the military purposefully skipped the chain of command in allowing for the deployment of national guard troops. I wouldn’t be surprised if the military cut the President out of the chain of command at that time, especially as they got every former Secretary of Defense to defend their actions post instruction.

Trump and Hegseth have been trying a lot of carrot and stick incentives to get the military on board, but the recent Trump Birthday parade shows that there is still a deep disdain on serving Trump. You also have a lot of military strategists who likely see the writing on the wall regarding supporting Trump; Trump can’t give the military anything close to what the military already has.

Trump can clear out the civilian government, but the military is a lot harder to crack.

They knew.

It is more that I’d be assessing if I can drive my car around with its plates.

Account for all my assets. I’ll need to figure out how much money I can rebuild my life with.

The problem with that is that you generally have to fly with an ID and a name; a name you need to provide when buying plane tickets.

I don’t see how the face scan let’s them do anything beyond what they already can.

Yeah, but the real lynchpin is Acela. Two other venues for the game are Boston and Philadelphia. It is feasible to make NYC/NJ the base for the games while seeing games in three different cities.

The audience wins out over time.

But what does she want?

NJ got the finals for the World Cup in '26 in part because people could take a train to other venues.

After MAGA became a thing, probably better that they are angry about that.

What work does she want?

Three things.

1. Trump is doing a lot of things that are technically within his powers as long as there is an emergency. Trump is declaring everything an emergency.

2. A lot of what Trump is doing is trying to tear down parts if the executive branch. The only real recourse to that is an active Congress, but the House and Senate are governed by his party and can choose not to act while the President tears down everything.

3. A lot of what Trump is trying to do is unconstitutional, but he’s got a neutered Supreme Court and would probably quote President Jackson if the Court consistently ruled against Trump.

The way that you’ve been presenting it toggles how money is distributed behind “everyone has what they need”, especially when I bring up issues like classism or access to the market.

We’ve seen it with social security, which acts as as a pseudo UBI for retired people in the USA. People dependent on UBI are generally pushed to lower cost of living areas of the USA due to cost. I expect that to skyrocket when rent control and government housing is pulled for a base salary. As I’ve mentioned before, this is going to exacerbate rich bubbles where wealth is generated or areas with natural amenities.

Some states have already started experimenting with a cash payment on the condition that they waive any rights to welfare. I can see UBI becoming a part of this; you’ve been paid to live, you just can’t afford to live here.

It becomes very hard to form a company of any reasonable size without government intervention. At that point, corporations that form need tight relations with the government.