Tag: news

  • Angry Old Extremely Religious Christian White Man Yelling from His Porch Syndrome

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    Why You Can’t Debate Someone Who Just Wants to Watch You Lose Let me tell you what finally broke my brain. The Epstein files dropped. Years of QAnon. Years of “protect the children.” Years of Democrats running secret pedophile rings in pizza restaurant basements. The entire moral foundation of a movement — the thing they…

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  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 13: How We Got Here

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    50 Years of Deliberate Policy The system we’ve documented in Parts 1-12 didn’t happen by accident. It wasn’t natural market forces. It wasn’t inevitable. It was built. Deliberately. Over 50 years. By people with names. Who passed specific laws. Made specific court decisions. Implemented specific policies. Let’s trace exactly how it happened. 1971: The Corporate…

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  • Is the Iran War America’s Biggest Self-Own of Self -Owns?

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    How to Punch Yourself in the Face. Three and a half weeks in. That’s where we are. Twenty-four days of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, oil at $112 a barrel, 13 American soldiers dead, the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, and the administration scrambling to lift sanctions on the very country we’re bombing just…

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  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 11: Who Profits?

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    Following the Money We’ve shown you the costs. We’ve shown you they don’t add up. Now let’s follow the money. Emma from Part 10 pays out $71,564 per year in shifted costs—92.9% of her gross income. That money doesn’t disappear. It goes somewhere. Let’s trace every dollar Emma spends and see who collects it. Emma’s…

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  • WTF Is Up With MTG?

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    From QAnon True Believer to Stateswoman Cosplay — A Complete Profile Something strange happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene. The most reliably unhinged member of Congress — a woman who stalked a teenage shooting survivor through the Capitol, endorsed satanic murder conspiracy theories online, and appeared to call for the execution of Democratic politicians — suddenly…

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  • What’s Wrong With the Democrats. What’s Wrong With the Republicans. It Doesn’t Matter.

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    Neither One Will Deliver for You.Here it is — the full body copy exactly as it was saved to the draft: Let me start with something that should be obvious but somehow never gets said out loud. Neither party won the last election. The other party just lost it more. That distinction sounds like splitting…

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  • How an Angry Old MacDonald Became a Protest Song

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    It started with a question: What is actually wrong with this country, and why do we seem so far apart? The division felt real. The anger felt real. But when you actually looked at the polling data, something didn’t add up. Americans agree on almost everything that matters. Healthcare. Wages. Campaign finance reform. Taxing the…

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  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make Less Part 7: Phone and Internet

    The Monopoly You Can’t Escape Rachel lives in suburban Atlanta. She works from home as a customer service rep for a health insurance company. Her job requires reliable high-speed internet—it’s not optional. She’s on video calls, accessing patient records, processing claims in real-time. When she moved into her apartment, she called to set up internet…

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  • Passing the Buck: Why We Pay More But Make LessPart 5: The Auto Trap

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    Forced to Buy What You Can’t Afford Jennifer lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She’s a single mom with two kids, works as a pharmacy technician, makes $42,000 a year. Her shift starts at 7 AM at a CVS 8.5 miles from her apartment. She doesn’t own a car by choice. She owns a car because there…

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  • How MTV Killed the Video Star (And Cable/Network Greed Finished the Job)

    I’m not a media analyst. Smarter people than me — like Evan Shapiro, who you should follow on LinkedIn immediately — dissect this industry for a living. But I spent years working inside broadcast television, and I’ve been chewing on this particular problem for over a decade. So here’s my humble, slightly obsessive take on…

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  • Americans Agree on Almost Everything—We Just Don’t Realize It

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    I Fact-Checked a Viral Infographic About What Americans Actually Agree On. Here’s What I Found. This infographic popped up on social media (which I know is evil but I use it to promote my ecom site) claiming Americans have overwhelming consensus on most major issues — Majority agreement across the board. Gun control, healthcare, abortion,…

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  • Do Unto Others Part 4: Flooding the Zone

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    When Lies Work Better Than Truth After documenting transactional empathy (Part 1), Stage 2 moral reasoning (Part 2), and asymmetric hypocrisy (Part 3), one question remains: How does this actually work in practice? The answer is documented. It’s called the “firehose of falsehood,” and it’s a propaganda technique pioneered by authoritarian regimes. Specifically, Vladimir Putin’s…

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  • Do Unto Others Part 3: Both Sides Are Hypocrites

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    But the Hypocrisy Differs in Depth and Kind After two parts documenting transactional empathy and Stage 2 moral reasoning, a predictable objection arises: “Both sides do it.” This is true. Both parties exhibit hypocrisy. Both say one thing and do another. Both claim to represent working people while serving corporate donors. But the question isn’t…

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  • Term Limits: Why This Popular Idea Could Make Things Worse (And Who’s Really Pushing It)

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    I Used to Think This Was a Great Idea I’ll be honest: I was sympathetic to term limits. Like most Americans, I’m exhausted by career politicians who seem completely out of touch. The frustration is real: So term limits sound great, right? Fresh blood, new ideas, less corruption! But then I thought: With how things…

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  • VOTING REFORM: Analyzing Every Voting System We Could Find. Here’s What Might Actually Work to Break the Two-Party Stranglehold.

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    We’re All Trapped Voting AGAINST Candidates Instead of FOR Anyone When’s the last time you actually wanted to vote for someone? For most of us, voting has become damage control. We’re not voting FOR our candidate—we’re voting AGAINST the one that scares us more. About 70% of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction.…

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  • Do Unto Others Part 1: When Empathy Becomes Transactional

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    Who Deserves Sympathy? The Politics of Victimhood A Note Before We Begin If this feels like an attack on Trump, I need to address that upfront. I tried to write this like an outside observer would—documenting what happened without partisan spin. I looked for examples across the political spectrum. I stuck to things that actually…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 10: The Freedom Fraud: Crime, Corporations, and Schools

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    When “Freedom” Means Government Control American conservatives claim to champion freedom. Small government. Individual liberty. Free markets. Get government out of our lives. Don’t tread on me. But look at what’s actually happening in Republican-controlled states: Governments telling businesses who they can hire and how they can operate. Governments dictating what teachers can teach and…

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  • The Argument over ICE and Alex Pretti is bait. Don’t take it.

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    Before you react to this, before you decide whether you agree or disagree with me, I want you to understand what’s happening to you right now, psychologically. Research shows that the conformist instinct in your brain happens automatically. You’re literally unaware of it. You think your political beliefs accurately reflect reality, but they’re actually being…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 8: Voter Fraud: Solving a Problem?

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    What the Data Actually Shows About Fraud and Election Integrity After the 2020 election, allegations of widespread voter fraud dominated conservative media and Republican politics. Dozens of lawsuits were filed. Investigations were launched. Audits were conducted. Millions of dollars were spent searching for evidence of fraud that would explain Donald Trump’s loss. What did they…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 6: Immigration: The Wedge That Doesn’t Have to Be

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    Facts, Myths, and Solutions Beyond the Culture War For eventhatsodd.com – What Is Wrong With Us? No issue in American politics generates more heat and less light than immigration. Every election cycle, we’re told it’s a crisis. Caravans are invading. Criminals are pouring across the border. Or alternatively, we’re told that opposing illegal immigration is…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 5: Public Media: What’s Actually at Stake

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    Beyond the Bias Debate, Here’s What NPR and PBS Actually Do In April 2023, a coordinated campaign to defund NPR and PBS reached fever pitch. Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting. Conservative media outlets ran wall-to-wall coverage of supposed liberal bias. Social media influencers urged followers to stop donating. Corporate…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 4: CRT, DEI, and Trans Rights: Manufactured Crises or Real Concerns?

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    How Three Issues Became Culture War Flashpoints—And What’s Actually Happening In 2021, Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist, publicly explained his strategy on Twitter: “We have successfully frozen their brand—’critical race theory’—into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 3: Guns: What the Data Shows About Violence and Solutions

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    Regardless of Where You Stand on the 2nd Amendment, Here’s What Actually Reduces Gun Deaths Gun ownership is deeply woven into American culture. For millions of Americans, guns represent self-reliance, personal protection, and a constitutional right they hold dear. Many families have hunting traditions going back generations. In rural areas where police response times can…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 2: Abortion: What Happens After the Laws Change

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    Regardless of Where You Stand, Here’s What the Data Actually Shows For eventhatsodd.com – What Is Wrong With Us? The abortion debate is deeply personal. People hold strong moral and philosophical beliefs about when life begins and what rights should take precedence. Those beliefs are legitimate and deserve respect, even when we disagree. But regardless…

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  • Divided We Fall Part 1: The Culture War

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    The Manufactured Outrage Economy Every morning, millions of Americans wake up angry. Not about their own lives necessarily, but about something they saw online, something Tucker Carlson said, something AOC tweeted, or some university policy they read about in a viral post. The outrage is real. The threat feels immediate. But the machinery creating and…

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  • Let’s Stop Screaming at Each Other: How the Division Machine Keeps Us Fighting While Our Pockets Get Picked

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    The Name-Calling Trap Libtard. Right-wing nut. Snowflake. MAGA moron. Commie. Fascist. We’ve all heard it. Many of us have said it. And every time we do, someone wins – but it’s not you, and it’s not the person you’re yelling at. Americans have become increasingly polarized by design. When you’re pissed off, it’s hard to see…

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  • Broken By Design Part 25: The Bottom 90% Agenda – How We Fix This

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    We started this series with a simple question: What is wrong with us? Why does the richest country in human history rank 44th in life expectancy? Why do we spend twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries but get worse outcomes? Why can’t people afford housing even though we have more vacant homes…

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  • Broken By Design Part 24B: Rebuilding Worker Power – Why Unions Are the Key to Everything

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    We’ve spent 24 parts documenting how the bottom 90% are systematically extracted from: Healthcare, housing, education, prisons, military spending, taxes, monopolies, public service sabotage, media manipulation, environmental destruction, gig economy exploitation, financial system predation, and trade deals that ship jobs overseas. Every system is rigged against workers. Now here’s the question: How do workers fight…

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  • Broken By Design Part 22: Media Consolidation and Capitulation – Why You Don’t Know Any Of This

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    We’ve spent 21 parts documenting how the bottom 90% are systematically extracted from: • Healthcare monopolies charging you double what other countries pay (Parts 1-6) • Housing financialization pricing you out of homeownership (Part 7) • Student debt trapping you in economic servitude (Part 8) • Employer-based insurance making you afraid to leave your job…

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  • Broken By Design Part 21: Coordinated Sabotage—How They Break Public Services Then Blame Government

    Let me start with the USPS example as the opening, since it’s the clearest case of deliberate sabotage. In 2006, a Republican Congress and a Republican President did something remarkable. They passed a law requiring the United States Postal Service to do something no other government agency, and no private company in America, has ever…

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  • Broken By Design Part 19: The Corporate Tax Dodge

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    How Corporations Profit from Our Tax Investment While Avoiding Theirs You’ve heard the story a thousand times: we need to cut corporate taxes to incentivize job creation. Lower the rates, reduce regulations, and watch the jobs flow. The “job creators” need their freedom and their profits, and if we just get out of their way,…

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  • Broken By Design Part 14: Rooting For The Wrong Team – How Culture Wars Keep Us Fighting While They Rob Us Blind

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    How Media Ecosystems and Broken Norms Divide Us A number of years ago, watching news coverage of conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, and various African nations, I remember having a thought that now fills me with embarrassment: No wonder there are always conflicts in those parts of the world—they’re still organized around tribal…

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  • Broken By Design Part 13: U.S. Politics: Not Functioning As Founders Intended—And How We Can Fix It

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    Part 13 of the series: How Systems Are Rigged Against the Bottom 90% We’ve established that the political system maintains wealth extraction through bipartisan consensus. Both parties take corporate money. Both parties vote to protect extraction. The system works exactly as designed—just not for us. But here’s the good news: this isn’t how the system…

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  • Broken By Design Part 12: The US Political System: The Republican and Democrat Consensus You’re Not Supposed to Notice

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    Part 12 of the series: How Systems Are Rigged Against the Bottom 90% We’ve covered healthcare, housing, education, prisons, and military spending. Billions—trillions—extracted from the bottom 90% and funneled to the top 10%. Different industries. Different mechanisms. Same result: wealth flows up. And here’s what should be obvious by now: both parties perpetuate every single…

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  • Broken By Design Part 11: The Military-Industrial Complex: $968 Billion in Wealth Extraction

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    Part 11 of the series: How Systems Are Rigged Against the Bottom 90% The U.S. military budget for 2024 is $968 billion. That’s more than the next 10 countries combined. More than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined. And here’s what makes this the perfect example of…

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  • Broken By Design Part 10: The Incarceration Industry: How We Built a System That Profits From Failure

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    Part 10 of the series: How Systems Are Rigged Against the Bottom 90% Before we start, let’s address the elephant in the room: when we talk about criminal justice reform, we are NOT talking about “defunding the police” or “cashless bail.” These are real proposals that some activists made, and they’re bad ideas. But opponents…

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  • “Make America Great Again” sounds obvious. So why is it so hard to define?

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    “Make America Great Again” is one of those phrases that feels like a statement of common sense. Who doesn’t want the country to be “great”? But MAGA isn’t just a campaign line. It’s a whole movement. People get labeled “MAGA” (or “MAGA enough”). There are hats, shirts, flags, slogans, and a strong sense of in-group…

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  • Broken By Design Part 3: Follow the Money: How the System is Rigged Against 90% of Us.

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    This is Part 3 in a series. Part 1 showed where America ranks among developed nations (spoiler: badly). Part 2 explained how language is weaponized to keep you from noticing. Now let’s follow the money and see exactly who’s picking your pocket while you argue about Dr. Seuss. Now That You Can See Through The Language Game… Remember in…

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  • Broken By Design Part 1: USA! USA! USA!

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    We’re #1!Are we though?Where Does America Actually Rank? The Complete Scoreboard America is the greatest country in the world. We hear it constantly. Politicians say it. We chant it at sporting events. We believe it. But what if we actually kept score? What if we ranked ourselves against other developed nations on the things that…

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