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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
November 17, 2025
Don’t blame women for men’s loneliness. Blame capitalism
There’s a lot of money to be made off angry, isolated men
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published November 17, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Is Sam Altman trying to get men addicted to erotic chatbots in order to make money off them? That’s the strong implication of a recent New York Times op-ed by artificial intelligence researcher Steven Adler. In it, Adler accused the OpenAI CEO of ignoring “clear warning signs of users’ intense emotional attachment” to chatbots that claim to offer romantic intimacy. Instead, Altman’s main product, ChatGPT, is forging ahead with a plan to let the software pretend to be a user’s romantic interest, despite strong evidence that doing so will send “users down mental health spirals.”
....(snip)....
That may sound paranoid, but the grim truth is that this scenario reflects an alarming trend online: An increasing number of influencers, crypto grifters, “pick-up artists” and gambling websites have come to realize that male isolation creates incredible profit opportunities. It’s not just that they are making money off male loneliness. In many cases, capitalist predators are incentivizing young men to abandon the flesh-and-blood world in favor of staying online.
....(snip)....
As Jessica Winter pointed out in a recent New Yorker article about the masculinity crisis, even centrist and liberal men seem to believe the only solution is to accede to the belief “that men should still rank above women in the social hierarchy, just not as much as before.” She’s right that these arguments dehumanize women, who are full human beings and not emotional support animals for men. But it’s also doing men no favors to pin the blame for their problems on women. The fantasy that men can be restored to “provider” status over women isn’t just immoral. It could actually make things worse, as modern women want men to be partners, not a boss with whom they live and have sex.
Instead, it’s time to look at how male loneliness has been monetized by all manner of seedy actors who have every incentive to discourage men from making changes to improve their lives. Men’s ability to adapt to modernity is being stymied by propagandists and grifters, who persuade men to adopt anti-social behavior, because doing so is incredibly profitable. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/17/dont-blame-women-for-mens-loneliness-blame-capitalism/
Don't blame women for men's loneliness. Blame capitalism
Don’t blame women for men’s loneliness. Blame capitalism
There’s a lot of money to be made off angry, isolated men
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published November 17, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Is Sam Altman trying to get men addicted to erotic chatbots in order to make money off them? That’s the strong implication of a recent New York Times op-ed by artificial intelligence researcher Steven Adler. In it, Adler accused the OpenAI CEO of ignoring “clear warning signs of users’ intense emotional attachment” to chatbots that claim to offer romantic intimacy. Instead, Altman’s main product, ChatGPT, is forging ahead with a plan to let the software pretend to be a user’s romantic interest, despite strong evidence that doing so will send “users down mental health spirals.”
....(snip)....
That may sound paranoid, but the grim truth is that this scenario reflects an alarming trend online: An increasing number of influencers, crypto grifters, “pick-up artists” and gambling websites have come to realize that male isolation creates incredible profit opportunities. It’s not just that they are making money off male loneliness. In many cases, capitalist predators are incentivizing young men to abandon the flesh-and-blood world in favor of staying online.
....(snip)....
As Jessica Winter pointed out in a recent New Yorker article about the masculinity crisis, even centrist and liberal men seem to believe the only solution is to accede to the belief “that men should still rank above women in the social hierarchy, just not as much as before.” She’s right that these arguments dehumanize women, who are full human beings and not emotional support animals for men. But it’s also doing men no favors to pin the blame for their problems on women. The fantasy that men can be restored to “provider” status over women isn’t just immoral. It could actually make things worse, as modern women want men to be partners, not a boss with whom they live and have sex.
Instead, it’s time to look at how male loneliness has been monetized by all manner of seedy actors who have every incentive to discourage men from making changes to improve their lives. Men’s ability to adapt to modernity is being stymied by propagandists and grifters, who persuade men to adopt anti-social behavior, because doing so is incredibly profitable. ................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/17/dont-blame-women-for-mens-loneliness-blame-capitalism/
November 17, 2025
(Slate) Since Donald Trump began his second term as president this year, we’ve been collectively watching in horror as major institutions either fall over themselves to conform to his agenda or simply give up fighting against it. It’s spreading the aura of authoritarianism all across the country. There was one major bright spot in the battle against authoritarian creep this week, however, in Marion, Kansas. The city is home to the Marion County Record, a tiny local newspaper that two years ago was subject to an unlawful raid for its coverage, an assault that seems to have left one elderly woman dead and, on a national level, coalesced media companies to publicly support the paper’s First Amendment right. On Wednesday, the Record received a $3 million payout, topped with a written apology admitting local officials’ wrongdoing.
“These days, there’s an awful lot of people who get abused, get treated by the bully of government officials, and they just kind of roll over and go off into a corner somewhere,” Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher of the Record, told WBUR this week. “But the press is supposed to be a watchdog, and if you attack the watchdog and the watchdog rolls over, it isn’t much of a watchdog anymore.”
Meyer owns and operates the Record, managing a staff of only seven that reports on the comings and goings of the city of Marion’s 1,900 or so residents. Two years ago, the small-town paper found itself at the center of a bizarre local political drama that led to Meyer’s home, along with his newspaper’s office, being raided by law enforcement. It all started when the Record received an anonymous tip through social media about a local restaurateur, Kari Newell. According to the tipster, Newell had multiple charges of drunk driving on her record and had been using an expired license for the past 20 years, a fact law enforcement had willfully been ignoring. The information was shared right as Newell was in the process of securing a liquor license for her restaurant.
As the article detailed at the time, the source seemed suspect, as he also “bragged about retaining ‘connections’ despite no longer working in law enforcement.” But, doing due diligence, the journalist who wrote the piece consulted public records and confirmed that Newell indeed had a drunk-driving conviction. The paper declined to publish any of this information after learning that the anonymous source was likely Newell’s estranged husband and that the couple were in the midst of divorce proceedings. ........................(more)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/11/trump-authoritarian-creep-marion-county-kansas-free-speech.html
The Fight Against Authoritarian Creep Gets Great News From an Unlikely State
(Slate) Since Donald Trump began his second term as president this year, we’ve been collectively watching in horror as major institutions either fall over themselves to conform to his agenda or simply give up fighting against it. It’s spreading the aura of authoritarianism all across the country. There was one major bright spot in the battle against authoritarian creep this week, however, in Marion, Kansas. The city is home to the Marion County Record, a tiny local newspaper that two years ago was subject to an unlawful raid for its coverage, an assault that seems to have left one elderly woman dead and, on a national level, coalesced media companies to publicly support the paper’s First Amendment right. On Wednesday, the Record received a $3 million payout, topped with a written apology admitting local officials’ wrongdoing.
“These days, there’s an awful lot of people who get abused, get treated by the bully of government officials, and they just kind of roll over and go off into a corner somewhere,” Eric Meyer, the editor and publisher of the Record, told WBUR this week. “But the press is supposed to be a watchdog, and if you attack the watchdog and the watchdog rolls over, it isn’t much of a watchdog anymore.”
Meyer owns and operates the Record, managing a staff of only seven that reports on the comings and goings of the city of Marion’s 1,900 or so residents. Two years ago, the small-town paper found itself at the center of a bizarre local political drama that led to Meyer’s home, along with his newspaper’s office, being raided by law enforcement. It all started when the Record received an anonymous tip through social media about a local restaurateur, Kari Newell. According to the tipster, Newell had multiple charges of drunk driving on her record and had been using an expired license for the past 20 years, a fact law enforcement had willfully been ignoring. The information was shared right as Newell was in the process of securing a liquor license for her restaurant.
As the article detailed at the time, the source seemed suspect, as he also “bragged about retaining ‘connections’ despite no longer working in law enforcement.” But, doing due diligence, the journalist who wrote the piece consulted public records and confirmed that Newell indeed had a drunk-driving conviction. The paper declined to publish any of this information after learning that the anonymous source was likely Newell’s estranged husband and that the couple were in the midst of divorce proceedings. ........................(more)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/11/trump-authoritarian-creep-marion-county-kansas-free-speech.html
November 16, 2025
By Robbie Sequeira
November 16, 2025
When six Southern public university systems this summer formed a new accreditation agency, the move shook the national evaluation model that higher education has relied on for decades.
The news wasn’t unexpected: It arrived a few months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April overhauling the nation’s accreditation system by, among other things, barring accreditors from using college diversity mandates. It also came after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in May made it easier for universities to switch accreditors.
The accreditation process, often bureaucratic, cumbersome and time consuming, is critical to the survival of institutions of higher education. Colleges and their individual departments must undergo outside reviews — usually every few years — to prove that they meet certain educational and financial standards. If a school is not accredited, its students cannot receive federal aid such as Pell grants and student loans.
Some accreditation agencies acknowledge the process needs to evolve. But critics say the Trump administration is reshaping accreditation for political reasons, and risks undermining the legitimacy of the degrees colleges and universities award to students. ...................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/11/16/repub/accreditation-of-colleges-once-low-key-has-gotten-political/
Accreditation of colleges, once low key, has gotten political
Accreditation of colleges, once low key, has gotten politicalBy Robbie Sequeira
November 16, 2025
When six Southern public university systems this summer formed a new accreditation agency, the move shook the national evaluation model that higher education has relied on for decades.
The news wasn’t unexpected: It arrived a few months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April overhauling the nation’s accreditation system by, among other things, barring accreditors from using college diversity mandates. It also came after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in May made it easier for universities to switch accreditors.
The accreditation process, often bureaucratic, cumbersome and time consuming, is critical to the survival of institutions of higher education. Colleges and their individual departments must undergo outside reviews — usually every few years — to prove that they meet certain educational and financial standards. If a school is not accredited, its students cannot receive federal aid such as Pell grants and student loans.
Some accreditation agencies acknowledge the process needs to evolve. But critics say the Trump administration is reshaping accreditation for political reasons, and risks undermining the legitimacy of the degrees colleges and universities award to students. ...................(more)
https://michiganadvance.com/2025/11/16/repub/accreditation-of-colleges-once-low-key-has-gotten-political/
November 16, 2025
(Bloomberg CityLab) Ten years after Brussels’ groundbreaking pedestrian zone was first introduced, the city is shifting its policies to prevent becoming a victim of its own success.
When the 50-hectare (124-acre) Pietonnier zone opened in 2015, it was envisioned as a clean, green, walkable heart for the city. Some businesses nearby feared that removing 400 parking spaces and blocking car traffic on what is effectively Brussels’ main drag would harm their trade. Instead, the Pietonnier has boomed. Foot traffic has increased, while the car-free area has become a kind of unofficial main square.
Despite the breadth of four lanes plus wide sidewalks, cyclists and pedestrians have clashed, with bikers weaving through the crowds. Pedestrians have regularly complained to the police about bikers not adhering to the zone’s 6 kilometers-per-hour (3.7 miles-per-hour) speed limit.
Now, tensions between bikers and pedestrians have caused the city to announce a ban on bikes most of the day.
“We had hoped that coexistence would work,” Brussels Transit Commissioner Anais Maes told the Brussels Times. “But in practice, very few cyclists or e-scooter riders respect the 6 kph limit. At some point, when there are too many conflicts, you must make decisions, and we put pedestrians first.” .....................(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-13/brussels-is-restricting-cyclists-in-its-pedestrian-zone?srnd=phx-citylab
Brussels' Pedestrian Zone Is So Crowded It's Restricting Bikes
(Bloomberg CityLab) Ten years after Brussels’ groundbreaking pedestrian zone was first introduced, the city is shifting its policies to prevent becoming a victim of its own success.
When the 50-hectare (124-acre) Pietonnier zone opened in 2015, it was envisioned as a clean, green, walkable heart for the city. Some businesses nearby feared that removing 400 parking spaces and blocking car traffic on what is effectively Brussels’ main drag would harm their trade. Instead, the Pietonnier has boomed. Foot traffic has increased, while the car-free area has become a kind of unofficial main square.
Despite the breadth of four lanes plus wide sidewalks, cyclists and pedestrians have clashed, with bikers weaving through the crowds. Pedestrians have regularly complained to the police about bikers not adhering to the zone’s 6 kilometers-per-hour (3.7 miles-per-hour) speed limit.
Now, tensions between bikers and pedestrians have caused the city to announce a ban on bikes most of the day.
“We had hoped that coexistence would work,” Brussels Transit Commissioner Anais Maes told the Brussels Times. “But in practice, very few cyclists or e-scooter riders respect the 6 kph limit. At some point, when there are too many conflicts, you must make decisions, and we put pedestrians first.” .....................(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-13/brussels-is-restricting-cyclists-in-its-pedestrian-zone?srnd=phx-citylab
November 16, 2025
(Guardian) Since Ghislaine Maxwell’s controversial transfer to a low-security prison camp this summer, her time at Texas’s FPC Bryan has prompted uproar over alleged favorable treatment – including claims this week that she was provided custom-made meals, access to a puppy and as much toilet paper as she wants.
Some of the recent accusations were in a 9 November letter thatJamie Raskin sent to Donald Trump. The Democratic representative’s letter, which cited whistleblower information, demanded answers about Maxwell’s conditions – including whether Trump directed anyone in his administration to give her special treatment.
Whistleblower disclosures, Raskin said, also revealed that Maxwell was working on a “commutation application” with Trump’s administration. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of teen girls, a scandal that has dogged Trump for years and has recently hit a feverish pitch during his second term.
The special treatment and the alleged request for a commutation of her sentence has prompted feverish speculation as to why Maxwell is getting such treatment and whether or not Trump could pardon her. The disgraced socialite’s team on Friday denied that she was seeking clemency. .................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/16/ghislaine-maxwell-low-security-prison-treatment
A puppy and unlimited toilet paper? Legal experts say Ghislaine Maxwell's alleged prison life is uncommon
(Guardian) Since Ghislaine Maxwell’s controversial transfer to a low-security prison camp this summer, her time at Texas’s FPC Bryan has prompted uproar over alleged favorable treatment – including claims this week that she was provided custom-made meals, access to a puppy and as much toilet paper as she wants.
Some of the recent accusations were in a 9 November letter thatJamie Raskin sent to Donald Trump. The Democratic representative’s letter, which cited whistleblower information, demanded answers about Maxwell’s conditions – including whether Trump directed anyone in his administration to give her special treatment.
Whistleblower disclosures, Raskin said, also revealed that Maxwell was working on a “commutation application” with Trump’s administration. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of teen girls, a scandal that has dogged Trump for years and has recently hit a feverish pitch during his second term.
The special treatment and the alleged request for a commutation of her sentence has prompted feverish speculation as to why Maxwell is getting such treatment and whether or not Trump could pardon her. The disgraced socialite’s team on Friday denied that she was seeking clemency. .................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/16/ghislaine-maxwell-low-security-prison-treatment
November 16, 2025
Quit “sane-washing” Donald Trump
Trump's speeches and apparent Oval Office naps are reaching a critical point
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published November 14, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump lost it again Wednesday. Perhaps he never had it. He certainly can’t find it. But MAGA supporters shouldn’t worry. Trump losing his mind may be his best defense yet for the gathering political storm that is Hurricane Jeff.
....(snip)....
On Wednesday, Trump responded on Truth Social that Democrats were bringing up the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” again because — wait for it — they caved on the government shutdown. According to the president, it had nothing to do with his relationship to an alleged sex trafficker or any underage female victims. It was just another precision political hit conducted by the evil Democrats.
“He promised to release the files. Now he’s upset someone is starting to leak the information,” a source close to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., explained to me. Others said it’s what you’d expect from a man “no longer able to read the room.” Another indicated the president is mentally unaware of his surroundings.
It’s funny watching people come to the conclusion that Trump appears mentally unstable. At the end of his first administration, I noticed him slipping and I thought I was late to the game. In July 2020 I wrote, “Evidence points to major concerns about Trump’s cognitive abilities, in addition to ongoing concerns about his ability to tell the truth, leading to the inevitable question: How screwed is this country if Trump is reelected?”
....(snip)....
We have seen the president’s physical and mental decline with our own eyes, and it seems to be going from bad to worse at an increasing pace. Trump’s speeches often don’t make sense. He sleeps in public meetings, and afterward, his staff denies it happened. At a recent Oval Office event, he seemed to nod off for almost 20 minutes until a guest passed out and hit the floor. Sometimes it’s noon before we see the Marine guard outside the Oval Office indicating he’s at work. In his remarks, he hangs on the word “uh” far too long and often. The American public deserves to know the state of the president’s health before we see Jake Tapper pushing his new book, “I Knew It Before Anyone Else!” — a tome outlining how everybody but Tapper missed the warning signs. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/quit-sane-washing-donald-trump/
Quit "sane-washing" Donald Trump
Quit “sane-washing” Donald Trump
Trump's speeches and apparent Oval Office naps are reaching a critical point
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published November 14, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump lost it again Wednesday. Perhaps he never had it. He certainly can’t find it. But MAGA supporters shouldn’t worry. Trump losing his mind may be his best defense yet for the gathering political storm that is Hurricane Jeff.
....(snip)....
On Wednesday, Trump responded on Truth Social that Democrats were bringing up the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” again because — wait for it — they caved on the government shutdown. According to the president, it had nothing to do with his relationship to an alleged sex trafficker or any underage female victims. It was just another precision political hit conducted by the evil Democrats.
“He promised to release the files. Now he’s upset someone is starting to leak the information,” a source close to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., explained to me. Others said it’s what you’d expect from a man “no longer able to read the room.” Another indicated the president is mentally unaware of his surroundings.
It’s funny watching people come to the conclusion that Trump appears mentally unstable. At the end of his first administration, I noticed him slipping and I thought I was late to the game. In July 2020 I wrote, “Evidence points to major concerns about Trump’s cognitive abilities, in addition to ongoing concerns about his ability to tell the truth, leading to the inevitable question: How screwed is this country if Trump is reelected?”
....(snip)....
We have seen the president’s physical and mental decline with our own eyes, and it seems to be going from bad to worse at an increasing pace. Trump’s speeches often don’t make sense. He sleeps in public meetings, and afterward, his staff denies it happened. At a recent Oval Office event, he seemed to nod off for almost 20 minutes until a guest passed out and hit the floor. Sometimes it’s noon before we see the Marine guard outside the Oval Office indicating he’s at work. In his remarks, he hangs on the word “uh” far too long and often. The American public deserves to know the state of the president’s health before we see Jake Tapper pushing his new book, “I Knew It Before Anyone Else!” — a tome outlining how everybody but Tapper missed the warning signs. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/quit-sane-washing-donald-trump/
November 16, 2025
MAGA right’s new fascist man-crush: He’s been dead for 50 years
In the early years of SNL, Francisco Franco was "still dead." But to his 21st-century fanboys, he's immortal
By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published November 16, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) There’s a strange circular relationship between the authoritarian movement in America symbolized or spearheaded by Donald Trump — whether or not he is truly its leader — and the European far right. It’s like a malevolent Ouroboros, where we can’t tell which is the head and which the tail, or which end is swallowing the other.
....(snip)....
As I wrote recently, Elon Musk’s fixation with Britain’s current social and political crisis seems to be rooted in misbegotten anglophile nostalgia and a grotesque misreading of “The Lord of the Rings.” His theatrical embrace of the racist hustler known as Tommy Robinson — viewed as a pariah even by Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party — has only made Musk look like a hapless clown to the British public, if an obscenely rich one. Clumsy efforts by JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Musk and other Trump surrogates to meddle in Germany’s national elections on behalf of the almost-fascist AfD party seemed to backfire, as anyone with the remotest understanding of contemporary European politics could have predicted.
....(snip)....
But there’s another European fascist leader of the last century who’s been hovering in the background all this time as a noteworthy exemplar. Although he bears little resemblance to Donald Trump in affect or personality (or competence, for that matter), he may offer a highly instructive model for those behind the Trumpian throne, who hope to seize the MAGA reins whenever and however Trump leaves the stage.
As Dan Kaufman observes in a fascinating essay for the New York Review of Books, Francisco Franco — the pompous, cunning self-appointed “generalissimo” who crushed the democratic-socialist Republic in the Spanish Civil War and ruled unchallenged over a Western European nation for 35 years — has recently become the focus of “renewed admiration” on the American far right. .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/16/maga-rights-new-fascist-man-crush-hes-been-dead-for-50-years/
MAGA right's new fascist man-crush: He's been dead for 50 years
MAGA right’s new fascist man-crush: He’s been dead for 50 years
In the early years of SNL, Francisco Franco was "still dead." But to his 21st-century fanboys, he's immortal
By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published November 16, 2025 9:00AM (EST)
(Salon) There’s a strange circular relationship between the authoritarian movement in America symbolized or spearheaded by Donald Trump — whether or not he is truly its leader — and the European far right. It’s like a malevolent Ouroboros, where we can’t tell which is the head and which the tail, or which end is swallowing the other.
....(snip)....
As I wrote recently, Elon Musk’s fixation with Britain’s current social and political crisis seems to be rooted in misbegotten anglophile nostalgia and a grotesque misreading of “The Lord of the Rings.” His theatrical embrace of the racist hustler known as Tommy Robinson — viewed as a pariah even by Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party — has only made Musk look like a hapless clown to the British public, if an obscenely rich one. Clumsy efforts by JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Musk and other Trump surrogates to meddle in Germany’s national elections on behalf of the almost-fascist AfD party seemed to backfire, as anyone with the remotest understanding of contemporary European politics could have predicted.
....(snip)....
But there’s another European fascist leader of the last century who’s been hovering in the background all this time as a noteworthy exemplar. Although he bears little resemblance to Donald Trump in affect or personality (or competence, for that matter), he may offer a highly instructive model for those behind the Trumpian throne, who hope to seize the MAGA reins whenever and however Trump leaves the stage.
As Dan Kaufman observes in a fascinating essay for the New York Review of Books, Francisco Franco — the pompous, cunning self-appointed “generalissimo” who crushed the democratic-socialist Republic in the Spanish Civil War and ruled unchallenged over a Western European nation for 35 years — has recently become the focus of “renewed admiration” on the American far right. .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/16/maga-rights-new-fascist-man-crush-hes-been-dead-for-50-years/
November 15, 2025
Donald Trump’s America First movement is fracturing
Conservative criticism of the president is escalating — in potentially damaging ways
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published November 15, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Only one year after his reelection as president, Donald Trump’s populist America First movement is fracturing. Conservative criticism of the president is becoming widespread following a Democratic sweep of off-year elections across the country. From Capitol Hill to MAGA media, the pushback signals a major rupture in the ideological pact between Trump and his base, suggesting he may finally be losing credibility where it counts.
Trump built his political brand as a so-called disruptor. But as transparency demands mount on multiple fronts, he is increasingly closing ranks and often defending the very systems he once railed against and unsettling his previously steadfast base of supporters. With his legacy as outsider-in-chief rapidly unraveling, the right-wing influencers who built his MAGA coalition are no longer able to enforce populist standards that Trump himself can’t meet. Now his ability to control the narrative — which has been his greatest gift — appears compromised, especially without the united MAGA media shield that once protected him.
....(snip)....
Trump’s economic rhetoric is not matching the reality of many of his supporters — and his MAGA mouthpieces in the media are willing to admit as much.
“The price of everything feel[s] very expensive to people right now,” the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro recently noted on his podcast. “When President Trump says things are becoming more affordable, people don’t believe that they are becoming more affordable because they aren’t really more affordable.”
....(snip)....
“(Trump) has distanced himself from the MAGA base,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters this week. Massie is one of four House Republicans, along with Greene, who signed a discharge petition to force a vote next week on releasing the Epstein files, a move the president had gone to great lengths to block after campaigning on their release. On Wednesday, shortly after the federal government shutdown was ended after an historic 43 days, House Democrats released more than 23,000 documents from the Epstein estate that were recently obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Many of the files included references to Trump.
“Trump knew of it. and came to my house many times during that period,” Epstein wrote in an email on Feb. 1, 2019, several months before he was arrested on federal charges. “He never got a massage.” .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/15/donald-trumps-america-first-movement-seems-to-be-fracturing/
Donald Trump's America First movement is fracturing
Donald Trump’s America First movement is fracturing
Conservative criticism of the president is escalating — in potentially damaging ways
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published November 15, 2025 6:45AM (EST)
(Salon) Only one year after his reelection as president, Donald Trump’s populist America First movement is fracturing. Conservative criticism of the president is becoming widespread following a Democratic sweep of off-year elections across the country. From Capitol Hill to MAGA media, the pushback signals a major rupture in the ideological pact between Trump and his base, suggesting he may finally be losing credibility where it counts.
Trump built his political brand as a so-called disruptor. But as transparency demands mount on multiple fronts, he is increasingly closing ranks and often defending the very systems he once railed against and unsettling his previously steadfast base of supporters. With his legacy as outsider-in-chief rapidly unraveling, the right-wing influencers who built his MAGA coalition are no longer able to enforce populist standards that Trump himself can’t meet. Now his ability to control the narrative — which has been his greatest gift — appears compromised, especially without the united MAGA media shield that once protected him.
....(snip)....
Trump’s economic rhetoric is not matching the reality of many of his supporters — and his MAGA mouthpieces in the media are willing to admit as much.
“The price of everything feel[s] very expensive to people right now,” the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro recently noted on his podcast. “When President Trump says things are becoming more affordable, people don’t believe that they are becoming more affordable because they aren’t really more affordable.”
....(snip)....
“(Trump) has distanced himself from the MAGA base,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters this week. Massie is one of four House Republicans, along with Greene, who signed a discharge petition to force a vote next week on releasing the Epstein files, a move the president had gone to great lengths to block after campaigning on their release. On Wednesday, shortly after the federal government shutdown was ended after an historic 43 days, House Democrats released more than 23,000 documents from the Epstein estate that were recently obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Many of the files included references to Trump.
“Trump knew of it. and came to my house many times during that period,” Epstein wrote in an email on Feb. 1, 2019, several months before he was arrested on federal charges. “He never got a massage.” .....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/15/donald-trumps-america-first-movement-seems-to-be-fracturing/
November 14, 2025
Quit “sane-washing” Donald Trump
Trump's speeches and apparent Oval Office naps are reaching a critical point
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published November 14, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump lost it again Wednesday. Perhaps he never had it. He certainly can’t find it. But MAGA supporters shouldn’t worry. Trump losing his mind may be his best defense yet for the gathering political storm that is Hurricane Jeff.
....(snip)....
On Wednesday, Trump responded on Truth Social that Democrats were bringing up the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” again because — wait for it — they caved on the government shutdown. According to the president, it had nothing to do with his relationship to an alleged sex trafficker or any underage female victims. It was just another precision political hit conducted by the evil Democrats.
“He promised to release the files. Now he’s upset someone is starting to leak the information,” a source close to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., explained to me. Others said it’s what you’d expect from a man “no longer able to read the room.” Another indicated the president is mentally unaware of his surroundings.
It’s funny watching people come to the conclusion that Trump appears mentally unstable. At the end of his first administration, I noticed him slipping and I thought I was late to the game. In July 2020 I wrote, “Evidence points to major concerns about Trump’s cognitive abilities, in addition to ongoing concerns about his ability to tell the truth, leading to the inevitable question: How screwed is this country if Trump is reelected?”
....(snip)....
We have seen the president’s physical and mental decline with our own eyes, and it seems to be going from bad to worse at an increasing pace. Trump’s speeches often don’t make sense. He sleeps in public meetings, and afterward, his staff denies it happened. At a recent Oval Office event, he seemed to nod off for almost 20 minutes until a guest passed out and hit the floor. Sometimes it’s noon before we see the Marine guard outside the Oval Office indicating he’s at work. In his remarks, he hangs on the word “uh” far too long and often. The American public deserves to know the state of the president’s health before we see Jake Tapper pushing his new book, “I Knew It Before Anyone Else!” — a tome outlining how everybody but Tapper missed the warning signs. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/quit-sane-washing-donald-trump/
Quit "sane-washing" Donald Trump
Quit “sane-washing” Donald Trump
Trump's speeches and apparent Oval Office naps are reaching a critical point
By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published November 14, 2025 9:05AM (EST)
(Salon) Donald Trump lost it again Wednesday. Perhaps he never had it. He certainly can’t find it. But MAGA supporters shouldn’t worry. Trump losing his mind may be his best defense yet for the gathering political storm that is Hurricane Jeff.
....(snip)....
On Wednesday, Trump responded on Truth Social that Democrats were bringing up the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” again because — wait for it — they caved on the government shutdown. According to the president, it had nothing to do with his relationship to an alleged sex trafficker or any underage female victims. It was just another precision political hit conducted by the evil Democrats.
“He promised to release the files. Now he’s upset someone is starting to leak the information,” a source close to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., explained to me. Others said it’s what you’d expect from a man “no longer able to read the room.” Another indicated the president is mentally unaware of his surroundings.
It’s funny watching people come to the conclusion that Trump appears mentally unstable. At the end of his first administration, I noticed him slipping and I thought I was late to the game. In July 2020 I wrote, “Evidence points to major concerns about Trump’s cognitive abilities, in addition to ongoing concerns about his ability to tell the truth, leading to the inevitable question: How screwed is this country if Trump is reelected?”
....(snip)....
We have seen the president’s physical and mental decline with our own eyes, and it seems to be going from bad to worse at an increasing pace. Trump’s speeches often don’t make sense. He sleeps in public meetings, and afterward, his staff denies it happened. At a recent Oval Office event, he seemed to nod off for almost 20 minutes until a guest passed out and hit the floor. Sometimes it’s noon before we see the Marine guard outside the Oval Office indicating he’s at work. In his remarks, he hangs on the word “uh” far too long and often. The American public deserves to know the state of the president’s health before we see Jake Tapper pushing his new book, “I Knew It Before Anyone Else!” — a tome outlining how everybody but Tapper missed the warning signs. ....................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/quit-sane-washing-donald-trump/
November 14, 2025
Sorry, Nancy Mace. Donald Trump hasn’t “protected women”
The congresswoman’s Epstein dilemma is a problem for all Republican women
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published November 14, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) Republican congresswomen are a rare breed, making up only 14% of their caucus. But they are overrepresented when it comes to the Epstein files. GOP congresswomen comprise a whopping 75% of the House Republicans who have signed a discharge petition for the release of extensive document collected by the FBI during its investigation into the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Granted, that large percentage is deceptive; only four GOP representatives have signed on to the measure. But that fact makes it all the more remarkable that they are willing to defy Donald Trump, as he rants on Truth Social that only “very bad, or stupid” Republicans would want to expose even more details of a child sex trafficking investigation with which he has been associated.
GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina all seem to have different motives for joining the entire Democratic caucus — along with Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie — in demanding the release of the Epstein files. Greene’s years of loud support for Trump have curdled into seeming animosity in recent months, after Trump reportedly blocked her from running for the Senate. Boebert has been relatively quiet about her calculus, but many have pointed out that her recent acrimonious divorce from a man who started dating her when she was 16 and he was 22 might be a factor. Mace’s motivations are frankly baffling, and seem to owe more to a long public history of troubling behavior and questionable mental health than anything else.
But Mace’s relationship to the Epstein files is a microcosm of a larger dilemma facing Republican women — both politicians and voters — as a whole. For years, Trump has pitched himself to GOP women as their “protector” who is eager to chivalrously shield womankind from a whole host of imaginary threats ranging from predatory immigrants to trans women in bathrooms. That billing has always been hard to square with the objective reality of Trump’s admitted and accused behavior, which includes bragging about grabbing women’s genitals without permission and being found liable for sexual assault by a civil jury in 2023.
....(snip)....
Mace is no doubt reflecting the approach taken by most female voters and politicians who are trying to remain loyal to Trump: Self-delusion and/or outright lying. On she told reporters, “My heart and my pain is with the Epstein victims.” But then she insisted Trump has “been so good” to sexual assault victims and that “he’s protected women.” ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/sorry-nancy-mace-donald-trump-hasnt-protected-women/
Sorry, Nancy Mace. Donald Trump hasn't "protected women"
Sorry, Nancy Mace. Donald Trump hasn’t “protected women”
The congresswoman’s Epstein dilemma is a problem for all Republican women
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published November 14, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
(Salon) Republican congresswomen are a rare breed, making up only 14% of their caucus. But they are overrepresented when it comes to the Epstein files. GOP congresswomen comprise a whopping 75% of the House Republicans who have signed a discharge petition for the release of extensive document collected by the FBI during its investigation into the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Granted, that large percentage is deceptive; only four GOP representatives have signed on to the measure. But that fact makes it all the more remarkable that they are willing to defy Donald Trump, as he rants on Truth Social that only “very bad, or stupid” Republicans would want to expose even more details of a child sex trafficking investigation with which he has been associated.
GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina all seem to have different motives for joining the entire Democratic caucus — along with Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie — in demanding the release of the Epstein files. Greene’s years of loud support for Trump have curdled into seeming animosity in recent months, after Trump reportedly blocked her from running for the Senate. Boebert has been relatively quiet about her calculus, but many have pointed out that her recent acrimonious divorce from a man who started dating her when she was 16 and he was 22 might be a factor. Mace’s motivations are frankly baffling, and seem to owe more to a long public history of troubling behavior and questionable mental health than anything else.
But Mace’s relationship to the Epstein files is a microcosm of a larger dilemma facing Republican women — both politicians and voters — as a whole. For years, Trump has pitched himself to GOP women as their “protector” who is eager to chivalrously shield womankind from a whole host of imaginary threats ranging from predatory immigrants to trans women in bathrooms. That billing has always been hard to square with the objective reality of Trump’s admitted and accused behavior, which includes bragging about grabbing women’s genitals without permission and being found liable for sexual assault by a civil jury in 2023.
....(snip)....
Mace is no doubt reflecting the approach taken by most female voters and politicians who are trying to remain loyal to Trump: Self-delusion and/or outright lying. On she told reporters, “My heart and my pain is with the Epstein victims.” But then she insisted Trump has “been so good” to sexual assault victims and that “he’s protected women.” ..................(more)
https://www.salon.com/2025/11/14/sorry-nancy-mace-donald-trump-hasnt-protected-women/
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