The Narrative Double-Dealers have not stopped lying and they will not stop. It's the way they reshape the world, and that's how they stay alive. If only they could get a little help.
Bring on the Shills!
First some good news! We've been lucky (so far) that, at least on the abduction of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mainstream media have been generally clear-eyed. Here I should insert that I'm not talking about Fox or any of the rest of Rush Limbaugh's evil offspring. I don't know what they do.
Back to the good news. Corporate mainstream media continue to refer to Trump's actions as lawless and to focus on the fundamental need for due process, aka rule of law. They haven't buckled under the gazillion tons of accumulated lies and, for what it's worth, I think that has been central to polls showing majority support for said "due process" / "rule of law."
Some refer to this journalistic technique as "reporting the facts" and consider it central to the job. Those people haven't been paying attention. It's rare, and the media's reluctance to shield Trump, Miller & Co and their lawlessness has been notable and mildly encouraging. Corporate mainstream media are in the business of making money. They can be expected to pursue their own financial interests above any theoretical public interest, which they do ferociously. And they can be expected to hire reporters and writers and news talkers who support that mission or can be convinced to. And they do.
That means mainstream reporters as a species live every day in fear. They are chronically afraid for the future of the industry. They are acutely afraid of losing their access and then their jobs and then their homes and then their kid's private school slot. They are terrified of losing their status as clever Very Important People and getting bounced out of the club. That's a lot to be scared of, and as a result we can almost always expect news talkers to toe the company line, default to conservatism, and make no waves.
Not a perfect environment for truth to flourish.
The information ecosphere is full of three-card monte cons, and the media's fear and greed turn them into shills for the narrative Double-Dealers. (There is no better example than this travesty from The Atlantic.) You can read it and witness the debasement first-hand, but take my advice and read this instead, from Steve M. @stevemnomoremister.bsky.social.
That's why during bumpy periods for the regime when things get a little off-script, life gets awkward for the news folks tasked with keeping the money train on the rails and making sure the narcissistic sociopath-in-chief keeps his clothes on. From tariff whiplash and market slides to Hands Off! to Canada telling Trump No Means No, Trump has been wobbled, and he has especially struggled on immigration as he bellowed and stomped until he turned one of his "strengths" into a real liability. These days, Trump's vincibility is showing.
Lately, Trump has been reduced to "letting the lawyers handle that" and watching hate-troll Stephen Miller write mean tweets and do mean interviews for him. He'll be back. A wounded Trump is a dangerous lunatic. It's also a challenge to the dominant narrative of Trump as colossus, and a perilous and unfamiliar challenge for media as they navigate contradictory narratives. So far, the press has largely defaulted to the truth, with the most notable exception being the Gaza Rule. More on that another time--when I know more and have more courage.
Trump's always been a narcissistic sociopath, but I think his real decline began in March. Yes, the DOGE smash and grab was bubbling and Elon Musk was toxic (whatever happened to that guy?), but for my money, the serious political and cognitive deterioration started with the night flights to San Salvador. Maybe even he can't believe how badly he fucked up and it's driving him crazy. (I know I know... The Supreme Court)
Anyway, this particular rough stretch of road begins with the legal cage match that started as Kilmar Abrego Garcia and more than 200 other prisoners were being disappeared to El Salvador.
March 15: Judge James Emanuel Boasberg was holding hearings on whether the government could invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport the prisoners. He issued a Temporary Restraining Order but they did it anyway. He was pissed.
On March 24, Judge Paula Xinis entered the Octagon in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. Then...
March 31 - April 1: There was Senator Cory Booker's filibuster as he quite literally stood against tyranny.
April 10: Even the Supreme Court took the time to weigh in and wag a finger in the Abrego Garcia case, then firing off a kind of midnight lightning bolt with an Alien Enemies Act order barring our mafia government from--at least for now--doing quite as much depravity as they had on the schedule. Steve Vladeck has a good synopsis here.
April 12 a few law firms didn't cave and April 14: Harvard pushed back.
And... Even though both cases have already made a trip to the Supreme Court, litigation continues right up to today in Judge Xinis's court, where they are still wrestling over discovery, and in Judge Boasburg's court where, I think, the judge is still trying to get to the bottom of who sent the prisoners to El Salvador in defiance of his order. In any event, it's been a rough stretch of road, and there's more.
Throw in Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen's courageous, potentially game-changing trip to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia and press for his release, and add in the subsequent trip U.S. Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxine Dexter of Oregon and Robert Garcia of California are taking to maintain pressure and attention on the issue, and lately it's been a little rougher for the Bad Guys and a little-less-terrible for the Good Guys.
Because the regime hasn't got its own way every single minute of every day, news folks have been scrambling for a way to report the blunders and outrages without making the monster mad, and to their credit they have generally reported fairly. But pressure has been building for a market correction.
And you know what that means! That's right! You loved it in the 2000s and you love it now! In fact, your great-grandparents loved it in the thirties!
It's time once again to play "Dems in Disarray!" the periodic cavalcade of attention junkies and access whores hooking up to savvy each other to orgasm and restore the Natural Order.
Please come back next week to find out who our champion will be!
Thanks for reading. See you soon.
