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  31. <title>Why The ‘No Kings’ March Won’t Change Anything — Until It Does</title>
  32. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/podcast/why-the-no-kings-march-wont-change-anything-until-it-does/</link>
  34. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Schechtman]]></dc:creator>
  35. <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
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  37. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102516</guid>
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  39. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Earth_Day_1970_20_Million_People_3X2.JPG.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Earth Day 1970, 20 million people participated" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" data-smartcrop-focus="[50,50]" /><p>Millions may march this weekend. Some will go home thinking it didn’t matter. Here’s why they’re wrong — and right.</p>
  40. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/podcast/why-the-no-kings-march-wont-change-anything-until-it-does/">Why The ‘No Kings’ March Won’t Change Anything — Until It Does</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  41. ]]></description>
  42. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Earth_Day_1970_20_Million_People_3X2.JPG.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Earth Day 1970, 20 million people participated" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[50,50]" /><p>Protests are supposed to feel decisive — a heady moment when the people rise up and power has no choice but to listen. But what if the actual effects of those protests are not seen until later, sometimes much later? </p>
  43. <p>What if the real work happens in the <i>invisible spaces</i> after everyone goes home — in decisions made by politicians weeks later, in shifts so gradual nobody connects them back to the march?</p>
  44. <p>David Meyer has spent his career studying that gap between the street and the outcome. </p>
  45. <p>A professor at UC Irvine and author of <i>How Social Movements (Sometimes) Matter</i>, Meyer isn’t interested in the romance of resistance; he’s examining its machinery. And what he’s found might surprise cynics (including your host): Protests work, but not the way we think they do, and almost never on the timeline we expect.</p>
  46. <p>Meyer explains why the 1960s anti-war movement didn’t end Vietnam. But it reshaped American foreign policy for 30 years. The 2017 Women’s March on Washington didn’t impactTrump’s first term. But it built political oppositional infrastructure still operating today. </p>
  47. <p>Meyer argues we’re in unprecedented territory — protests caught between democratic reform and revolutionary overthrow, facing an elected leader who commands 40 percent approval from Americans while threatening the democratic institutions themselves.</p>
  48. <p>So do this weekend’s “No Kings” marches matter? Meyer says yes — but the protesters are <i>starting</i> something, not finishing it. </p>
  49. <p>Join us as we explore why change often operates in shadows, why cracks in coalitions matter more than crowd size, and why protest’s most important effects are the ones nobody sees coming.</p>
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  51. <h3><a href="http://apple.co/1MEe9s7" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-19599" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Apple_Podcast_Icon_30x30.png" alt="iTunes" width="30" height="30" /> Apple Podcasts</a><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93aG93aGF0d2h5Lm9yZy9hdXRob3IvamVmZi1zY2hlY2h0bWFuL2ZlZWQv" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Google_Podcast_Icon_30x30.png" alt="Google Podcasts" width="30" height="30" />Google Podcasts</a><a href="http://whowhatwhy.libsyn.com/rss" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-19600" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/RSS_Podcast_30x30.png" alt="RSS" width="30" height="30" /> RSS</a></h3>
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  53. <p><strong>Full Text Transcript:</strong></p>
  54. <p><em>(As a service to our readers, we provide transcripts with our podcasts. We try to ensure that these transcripts do not include errors. However, due to a constraint of resources, we are not always able to proofread them as closely as we would like and hope that you will excuse any errors that slipped through.)</em></p>
  55. <p><strong>[00:00:00] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Welcome to the <em>WhoWhatWhy</em> podcast. I&#8217;m your host, Jeff Schechtman. There&#8217;s almost something religious about the moment before a march begins, that collective breath, that sense of purpose, the belief that if enough people show up, if enough voices join together, the world will notice, that it has to bend, that it will have to change. This weekend, thousands will gather under banners reading, No Kings, certain that their presence is an answer, that democracy can be saved one march at a time. But what if we&#8217;re asking the wrong question? What if the real story isn&#8217;t whether people show up, but what happens when they go home? And what if there&#8217;s something even more fundamental we&#8217;re missing? Something about what these protests can even accomplish, trapped as they are in a kind of political no-man&#8217;s land. David Meyer has spent a career watching Americans take to the streets against wars, for civil rights, demanding change, resisting power. He&#8217;s a professor at UC Irvine, but more importantly, he&#8217;s the person who wrote a book called How Social Movements Sometimes Matter. That word sometimes is the whole ballgame, because Meyer isn&#8217;t interested in the romance of resistance. He&#8217;s interested in the machinery of change, and what he&#8217;s found is uncomfortable. Most protests accomplish almost nothing, or rather they accomplish things, but not the things protesters think they&#8217;re accomplishing, and not on the time frame that anyone expects. Meyer co-wrote The Resistance, studying what happened after Trump&#8217;s first election triggered the largest protest in American history, and his conclusion is bracing. Trump isn&#8217;t some aberration that passionate opposition can simply overwhelm. He&#8217;s the end product of 50 years of disciplined, strategic movement building on the right, which means that the resistance isn&#8217;t fighting a man, it&#8217;s fighting a movement that&#8217;s been winning for half a century. But here&#8217;s what makes this movement so strange, so unprecedented. These protests exist in a space not easily mapped. They&#8217;re not the protests of the 1960s. Those had leaders, had clear policy demands, were trying to change what a democracy did, and they&#8217;re not the revolutions that topple dictators. Those are trying to overthrow autocrats, to change who holds power entirely. What we&#8217;re seeing now is caught somewhere in between, and maybe that&#8217;s why it feels so uncertain, so hard to sustain. Because what do these protests actually want? Trump was elected, he commands on a good day, still 35-40% of the country&#8217;s support. He works through democratic institutions, even as he strains them. You can&#8217;t treat him like a dictator, there&#8217;s no government to topple, no palace to storm. But you also can&#8217;t treat him like just another president you disagree with. Traditional opposition through institutions feels too slow, too weak, for what feels like an existential threat. So the resistance exists in this uncomfortable middle space. No charismatic leadership to follow, no clear demands beyond stop this, no theory of whether they&#8217;re trying to change the government or change what it does. Movements that don&#8217;t know whether they&#8217;re working within the system or trying to overthrow it, end up doing neither. So this weekend as people gather to say no kings, what are you building? Not what are you against, but what are you for? Not how do you feel, but what&#8217;s your plan? Because being anti-Trump isn&#8217;t a strategy. Having your body in the street isn&#8217;t a theory of change. And feeling good about showing up isn&#8217;t the same as witting. And if we&#8217;re serious about defending democracy against a threat that&#8217;s both democratic and authoritarian, both elected and dangerous, we might want to listen about the difference between protests that matter and protests that just makes us feel good. It is my pleasure to welcome Professor David Meyer here to the program. David, thanks so much for joining us.</p>
  56. <p><strong>[00:04:05] David Meyer: </strong>Hi, Jeff. You did a lot of work on that introduction. I think you&#8217;re a little more cynical than I am.</p>
  57. <p><strong>[00:04:12] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Really? Sure. Probably true. But there is this tendency, and that&#8217;s a good place to start, because there is this tendency to romanticize protests, to romanticize these demonstrations into thinking that somehow they&#8217;re going to make a difference. Talk about that first.</p>
  58. <p><strong>[00:04:30] David Meyer: </strong>Protest makes a difference often, but it doesn&#8217;t deliver automatically without all kinds of other cooperation from other tactics and branches of government and institutional politics. Protest works, but not by itself. And it takes a very, very, very long time. And as you know, mainstream media and most school teachers like to tell shorter stories. It&#8217;s hard to tell long stories and keep people engaged. So there&#8217;s a great story that you can tell about the March on Washington in 1963, and 250,000 people show up. And six months later, Congress passes the Civil Rights Act. Wow, that&#8217;s a great story. But the March on Washington was first proposed in 1941, 22 years before the big demonstration took place. And the big demonstration in Washington, D.C., where Martin Luther King gave that great speech followed years and years of community campaigns, fundraising, organization building, lobbying, electoral participation, and many, many, many other tactics. So protest doesn&#8217;t work by itself, and it doesn&#8217;t come out of nowhere. That&#8217;s the starting point. And if we want to switch forward to No Kings, No Kings builds on top of some organizations that have been active for a very long time. It&#8217;s not just 5501 that is turning out people. Indivisible, which started eight years earlier when Trump was first elected, is mobilized intensively with strong community connections, and lots of other organizations concerned with particular aspects of the Trump administration are also turning out people. So there&#8217;s an infrastructure that&#8217;s invisible when you just look at the dramatic event.</p>
  59. <p><strong>[00:06:38] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>What about the idea, though, that there doesn&#8217;t seem to be, at least on the surface, a specific set of goals for these protests, and that it also seems to be lacking charismatic leadership, which I would argue is essential to these kind of situations?</p>
  60. <p><strong>[00:06:56] David Meyer: </strong>Let&#8217;s talk about those things separately. First of all, when you talk about specific demands, it is very hard for a decentralized campaign like the No Kings campaign to come up with a clear message that all 2,000 sites are going to articulate. But I&#8217;m pretty sure they&#8217;re going to be recurrent themes in all of the campaigns, and they&#8217;re relatively moderate. They respect the Constitution. They don&#8217;t cut taxes for the rich. But any campaign that turns out lots of people has people coming to the campaign, coming to the streets, with a set of different expectations and different demands. So if we go back to use the template of the March on Washington in 1963, there were a lot of demands that get filtered out of history. So they were looking for a guaranteed job for every American. Organized labor was a big participant. That&#8217;s invisible in the history. In terms of the charismatic leadership, there are local leaders who are great speakers. There are well-institutionalized politicians who are using a platform like a seat in Congress to articulate views. And I think it&#8217;s always a mistake to overstate the importance of the dramatic leader. I mean, certainly someone like Martin Luther King was a great speaker and an extraordinarily brave man. But the civil rights movement and what it accomplished was built on the efforts of thousands of other people who may have been less charismatic. They were certainly less visible. They were doing the day-to-day work of building a community and articulating demands. The last thing about specific demands, sometimes the most powerful thing a movement can do is say no. And you listed the anti-war movement. The anti-war movement was opposed to the war. And it took a long time for the war to end. That didn&#8217;t mean the anti-war movement didn&#8217;t matter. It ended the draft, which was not the central articulated demand. And most of the activists in the street were not talking about a radical remaking of US foreign policy. So people come with different expectations. And those demands are processed and compromised and re-articulated by institutional politics. That means that whatever you go out there to protest for or against, it&#8217;s not going to be a yes, no, I got it, I didn&#8217;t get it. You&#8217;re going to get something or some political process that&#8217;s part of the story. But it&#8217;s not like, oh, we&#8217;re going to go out in the streets and, you know, on Monday, Trump won&#8217;t be president anymore. I think things are more complicated than that.</p>
  61. <p><strong>[00:10:26] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>They are more complicated. And also, when we compare them to protest movements, let&#8217;s just say in the 60s, we&#8217;re also dealing with a very different media landscape and social and cultural environment. We&#8217;re dealing with shorter attention spans. We&#8217;re dealing with information sources that people have that are not as unified as they were 50 years ago. We&#8217;re dealing with so many things that are inherent in the way information moves today that arguably that creates a whole different framework for something like, for a protest movement like this.</p>
  62. <p><strong>[00:11:01] David Meyer: </strong>I think that&#8217;s exactly right. I think the political landscape is dramatically different. I think the tactics of organizing are dramatically different. So, I mean, I keep coming back to the 1963 demonstration, but as a good example, it took eight months to build up to bring 250,000 people to the National Mall for a big protest. Now, getting out the message doesn&#8217;t require telephone trees. It doesn&#8217;t require leafleting on the streets. You can get out the message on social media very, very quickly and turn out large numbers much more quickly. Next point of it, you talked about the media landscape. I think that&#8217;s very, very important. Back in the old days, there was widespread trust in what we now call the legacy media. That&#8217;s those big national newspapers and broadcast news on television. It&#8217;s not like they were always right or you always agreed with the picture they took, but they operated with journalistic conventions where they tried to get an accurate story out and they tried to correct mistakes. And because most people were watching and reading the same things, the images they chose and the stories they told tended to predominate and spread. Now even the biggest television networks get much lower ratings than they ever got before. The New York Times has fewer readers and there are fewer local papers. When I ask my undergraduate students where they get the news, they say, the internet. And I say, where on the internet? And they say, everywhere. Well, it&#8217;s a fragmented, segmented media landscape where it&#8217;s very easy to only get stories that you agree with. That&#8217;s a problem. And that is a challenge for activists in framing No Kings or any other large organizing effort.</p>
  63. <p><strong>[00:13:18] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Doesn&#8217;t that work both ways? And that&#8217;s an inherent part of the problem, that people also show up at these events and come to these protests all for arguably different reasons because they get their news from so many different sources, whether it&#8217;s hundreds of YouTube channels or TikTok channels or whatever it might be. Everybody shows up with a different purpose and a different mindset. And then to your point, the way it&#8217;s covered is equally diffused. So doesn&#8217;t that take the energy out of it in so many respects?</p>
  64. <p><strong>[00:13:49] David Meyer: </strong>It means that you have to do more than just protest, but it doesn&#8217;t mean that protest doesn&#8217;t matter. And when we talk about people coming with different objectives to a campaign, that happens all the time. That used to happen all the time. Local groups who support large demonstrations go in with ideas about remaking foreign policy or just stopping one war or stopping the draft or, I mean, and on and on. The idea that people are in a demonstration with different objectives and different theories of change, I think that&#8217;s endemic to protest politics. I think the idea that everyone who was on the mall in Washington, D.C. thought the Civil Rights Act was the be-and-end-all to what they were asking for is fanciful. In terms of the interpretation of war, I think you&#8217;re right. That&#8217;s a big challenge for us as American citizens to understand what&#8217;s really going on and for members of the media to portray as accurate a story as they can. And that&#8217;s hard now.</p>
  65. <p><strong>[00:15:04] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Talk about this hybrid idea that on the one hand, the goal is an electoral goal, a democratic goal in terms of what I think most people going to these marches would like to see, some kind of preservation of democracy and some kind of resolution of all of this through democracy. And yet there is also this sense of wanting to have no kings, to overthrow some kind of monarch. And these two things are not necessarily in sync with each other.</p>
  66. <p><strong>[00:15:34] David Meyer: </strong>I think saying that you want a president bound by the Constitution and by laws, no kings is a very American slogan. It&#8217;s the kind of thing people might have said during the American Revolution, no kings, no absolute power. Checks and balances, although they probably wouldn&#8217;t have used that term, but a separation of powers and diffusion of power to localities. I think saying stop to the persistent overreach of the Trump administration is a really good start to lots of other conversations. And the things that are most salient, that is most meaningful, important, urgent to people who are showing up at those demonstrations are for sure all over the place. There are people who don&#8217;t want federal workers fired. There are people who don&#8217;t want to abandon standards on climate change. There are people who don&#8217;t want to cede public health to Bobby Kennedy Jr. and forego vaccinations. And in the university where I live, people are concerned with funding for financial aid and funding for scientific research. So there&#8217;s a whole batch of grievances that fit under the broad umbrella of restoring institutional balances in American politics. And the responses are likely to be partial and fragmented as well, but again, that doesn&#8217;t mean they don&#8217;t matter. So as you know, the very conservative Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, just made an announcement that it was inappropriate and dangerous for the president to federalize the National Guard and send them to states where the governors don&#8217;t want them. That&#8217;s a little bit of Republican opposition, a crack in a coalition. If the big demonstration on No King&#8217;s Day is successful, we should watch for more cracks. That doesn&#8217;t mean the whole edifice falls at once, but it does mean that you can observe a weakening. A couple of days ago, the president of MIT wrote a spectacular statement explaining that MIT was not going to accept a compact with the Trump administration in which they promised if MIT did what they wanted on admissions and curriculum, the university would have expedited access to federal funds. The president of MIT said, we&#8217;ve always thought that federal funds for research should be dispensed according to merit, not political connections. She rejected the offer. After today, across my computer, I learned that Brown University rejected the officer, and a coalition of Iowa universities have rejected the compact. Okay. Piece by piece, resistance builds and cracks the infrastructure of what it&#8217;s challenging. In real life, we wish this happened faster. We wish we could always see the effect of what we&#8217;re doing, but the process of social change is long and difficult. Because you can&#8217;t see everything moving doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s not happening. Because you can&#8217;t notice your child growing on a day-to-day basis, and you have to take measurements over a longer period of time, it doesn&#8217;t mean he&#8217;s not getting nutrition, doesn&#8217;t mean he&#8217;s not growing. So the demonstrations on Saturday are intended to feed the resistance and chasten their opponents. And I expect that&#8217;s quite likely to happen.</p>
  67. <p><strong>[00:20:06] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Talk about past protests against Trump 1, and some of the lesser protests against Trump 2, how they have played out, and what, in your view, they might have accomplished.</p>
  68. <p><strong>[00:20:18] David Meyer: </strong>Well, the Women&#8217;s March was probably the largest demonstration ever in American history. There were close to a million people in Washington, D.C., another 750,000 in Los Angeles. And what they did in Trump 1 was set off a parade of protests that took place every week in Washington, D.C. Big national demonstrations for science, against restrictions on abortion, for equal rights, for education. And the wins they scored were mostly defensive wins, stopping the initiatives of the Trump administration. And they encouraged institutional challenge from ambitious politicians. So the attorney general of Washington state saw the protests at the airports during Trump 1 and made a decision to challenge the so-called Muslim ban. What he discovered was that his own electoral incentives were lined up with his political beliefs. That&#8217;s a good position to be in. And he&#8217;s now the governor of Washington state. Now, I would like to tell you that they completely chastened the Trump administration, and it became a normal presidency. That didn&#8217;t quite happen. But Trump was stymied and stalled by institutional players because he couldn&#8217;t appoint the same set of officials that he has gone with in this administration. This time, there have been many more people involved in the opposition, but not so many big protests. Protests this time have been organized in a decentralized fashion. A lot of stuff is happening at the localities. You probably remember the protests at Tesla dealerships. There are protests at universities. There are protests outside courthouses and against ICE, immigration control. And thus far, they&#8217;ve made it a little more visible what ICE is doing on immigration, what the government is doing on other programs, and a little more difficult for the administration. But the challenges absolutely lie ahead. I don&#8217;t expect anything to end on Saturday afternoon, except the one-day demonstration.</p>
  69. <p><strong>[00:23:19] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>One of the things you talk about is the timing of these things, the political opportunity that&#8217;s inherent in them. How does this line up in that scale as you see it?</p>
  70. <p><strong>[00:23:29] David Meyer: </strong>Well, right now, protests in American politics is almost always tied to what&#8217;s going on electorally. And right now, across the United States, there are disputes about redistricting in the middle of a census period, in the middle of the 10-year block where we don&#8217;t normally redistrict. And believe me, state legislatures who have to vote on those new districts are paying attention to what the opposition is and how it affects their political prospects in the future. In California, as you know, we&#8217;re going to vote on a proposal to gerrymander severely, to pick up five congressional seats that Texas is giving to Republicans. And Governor Gary Mnuchin wants to give a countervailing five seats to Democrats. Both of these efforts, well, I mean, the Texas effort is certainly inimical to good democracy and good governance. But the California approach is, well, if you&#8217;re going to do it, we&#8217;re not going to bring a lawsuit to a gunfight. We&#8217;re going to try to correspond and use the resources at our disposal. Believe me, people in state legislatures across the United States are paying attention to these disputes right now. And the size and scope of these demonstrations on the 18th are going to affect how they deal with those pressures. Texas legislature passed them already. In California, it&#8217;s going to the citizens through a ballot. But in lots of other states where it&#8217;s only one congressional district at stake, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, state legislatures are very conscious of what their constituents think and what&#8217;s important to them. That&#8217;s one part of the electoral structure. Next, we are in the middle, it&#8217;s almost easy to forget that we&#8217;re in the middle of a government shutdown as we speak. The Democrats are trying to hold the Trump administration hostage in looking to restore subsidies for health insurance. Now, is that going to happen? I don&#8217;t know the answer to that. I do know that those Democrats are going to be paying attention to the turnout and the politics of these demonstrations in deciding whether to hold fast or whether to cave. And correspondingly, Republican legislators are also watching these demonstrations. They&#8217;re going to look to see if it&#8217;s people in their districts who are showing up. And that&#8217;s going to affect whether they decide to what kinds of compromises and deals they agree to accept. Okay, so there&#8217;s a policy dilemma on the horizon because of the government shutdown. There is a there are elections on the horizon associated with gerrymandering. And then always in the first year of a presidential administration, everybody, politicians and pundits is paying attention to these off your elections. That is the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia and New Jersey. And believe me, people will be making large claims about how those turn out and how it vindicates whatever they&#8217;ve been doing.</p>
  71. <p><strong>[00:27:18] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Doesn&#8217;t all of this imply, not to put too cynical a point on it, but it implies business as usual, politics as usual. And it seems that it&#8217;s so much of what has happened, awful as it is, is really antithetical to business as usual, that politics has changed as a result of the corruption and the way in which this administration has operated and continues to operate.</p>
  72. <p><strong>[00:27:45] David Meyer: </strong>I wish I could tell you that corruption is something new in American politics. It&#8217;s not. I wish I could tell you that the extraordinary moves the Trump administration has made to seize power and expand its power is something that has provoked a new kind of politics. But a new kind of politics doesn&#8217;t come out of nowhere and it doesn&#8217;t come out instantly. It&#8217;s the result of a long haul, slow boring of boards. Max Weber, the famous German sociologist, said you have to pound and pound and pound away. And regular politics, which includes elections and fundraising and canvassing, all that stuff is going on at the same time. And when more people get involved with greater passions, there&#8217;s a possibility of constructing something new.</p>
  73. <p><strong>[00:28:44] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Somebody mentioned to me earlier today, talking about this, that there is this possibility, this fear of violence that hangs over this weekend. Talk about that.</p>
  74. <p><strong>[00:28:54] David Meyer: </strong>The prime organizations that are underneath the No King&#8217;s Rally are determinately, vociferously committed to nonviolent action. And they&#8217;re offering training sessions in all of their written materials. They&#8217;re emphasizing we are nonviolent. Right. And they believe, and there&#8217;s good reason to believe this, that any instances of violence will be used to tar and discredit them. So the organizations are trying to impose a kind of discipline. The last time I looked, there were more than 2,000 events scheduled for the 18th. Some of them will be very responsive to national organizers who are articulating this appeal. Others are likely to be less disciplined. And how do you get to go to a demonstration? Well, you walk or take the bus or drive your car to where the demonstration is going to be. It&#8217;s not like there&#8217;s a bouncer at the entrance to a demonstration who would stand in front of a bar and keep troublemakers out. In political demonstrations, there&#8217;s nobody working the doors. Anybody who goes there who shows up can participate. The notion that some people may attend these demonstrations somewhere and do something provocative or stupid, I think that&#8217;s quite possible. And if that happens, there is going to be a battle over defining whatever that act is as lone wolf or the inevitable product of a protest. You can bet if one person is cursing and holding a racist sign, that&#8217;s going to be up on all the conservative media networks. So it&#8217;s a challenge for mainstream media to cover these demonstrations proportionately. And if there are crazy, stupid, provocative people who do things that are disruptive, to put those efforts in perspective.</p>
  75. <p><strong>[00:31:21] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>There&#8217;s no way of knowing what&#8217;s coming from the other side. We still have agents and troops on the ground in places like Los Angeles and Portland and Chicago.</p>
  76. <p><strong>[00:31:32] David Meyer: </strong>Are you bothered by this? Yes. Right. And why are we bothered? One reason is protest, whether you agree with it or not, is constitutionally protected. It&#8217;s in the First Amendment. That&#8217;s to peaceably assemble and present grievances and petition the government. Second reason is some police are very well-trained and very experienced. If ICE agents are showing up who have been recently hired, if National Guard who have been trained in combat are showing up in American cities, the possibility that someone who is not particularly well-trained, not necessarily very familiar with protocols and their people around them gets scared or overreacts, people could get hurt. In fact, people have already gotten hurt by ICE agents and guardsmen. So that&#8217;s a scary moment. And the idea that it&#8217;s worth protesting against in a disciplined fashion, well, that kind of makes sense, doesn&#8217;t it?</p>
  77. <p><strong>[00:32:47] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>I guess ultimately, we&#8217;ll see how the narrative of this plays out. And that&#8217;s a big part of it in this age of social media and instant communication and all the things that we talked about earlier.</p>
  78. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-4203238294"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-3646169223" data-whowh-trackid="97785" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97785" data-cfpw="97785"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=free" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="free the truth promo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/frame_7__1_-1.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97785 );</script></div><p><strong>[00:32:59] David Meyer: </strong>Yeah. I would urge you and your listeners to listen to the people who show up at these protests and take them seriously. And I would say the same thing regardless of their cause. Protest is a piece of politics in America. And to treat it as something other than that is a mistake.</p>
  79. <p><strong>[00:33:25] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Professor David Meyer, I thank you so much for spending time with us today here on the <em>WhoWhatWhy</em> podcast.</p>
  80. <p><strong>[00:33:30] David Meyer: </strong>Thank you, Jeff. It was a pleasure.</p>
  81. <p><strong>[00:33:32] Jeff Schechtman: </strong>Thank you. And thank you for listening and joining us here on the <em>WhoWhatWhy</em> podcast. I hope you join us next week for another <em>WhoWhatWhy</em> podcast. I&#8217;m Jeff Sheckman. If you like this podcast, please feel free to share and help others find it by rating and reviewing it on iTunes. You can also support this podcast and all the work we do by going to whowhatwhy.org/donate.</p>
  82. <hr />
  83. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/podcast/why-the-no-kings-march-wont-change-anything-until-it-does/">Why The ‘No Kings’ March Won’t Change Anything — Until It Does</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  84. ]]></content:encoded>
  88. </item>
  89. <item>
  90. <title>The Bolton Indictment: More of the Same, but Also Something New</title>
  91. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/the-bolton-indictment-more-of-the-same-but-also-something-new/</link>
  93. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Klaus Marre]]></dc:creator>
  94. <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2025 02:27:47 +0000</pubDate>
  95. <category><![CDATA[Government Integrity]]></category>
  96. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102514</guid>
  97.  
  98. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/image3-5.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="John Bolton" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" /><p>Donald Trump's weaponized Department of Justice is at it again. This time, however, one of the president's perceived enemies may have actually done something wrong. </p>
  99. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/the-bolton-indictment-more-of-the-same-but-also-something-new/">The Bolton Indictment: More of the Same, but Also Something New</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  100. ]]></description>
  101. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/image3-5.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="John Bolton" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" /><div>
  102. <p>By indicting John Bolton, a frequent critic of Donald Trump, the Department of Justice crossed another name off the list of the president’s perceived enemies. However, as opposed to the indictments of former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, the charges against the former national security adviser actually appear to have some substance.</p>
  103. <p>Specifically, Bolton, whose home was searched earlier this year, is accused of having routinely shared highly classified information with two relatives while he served as national security adviser under Trump.</p>
  104. <p>According to the <a href="https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/roPlLz7HNn8w/v0" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/roPlLz7HNn8w/v0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760754092503000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2q5MODH2GoeotWx1fug40u">26-page indictment</a>, which is much more detailed than the flimsy charging documents used to indict Comey and James, Bolton sent “diary-like entries” containing classified information to these relatives, who lacked security clearances.</p>
  105. <p>Another difference in this case is that actual career prosecutors signed the document, and not just Lindsey Halligan, who was quite evidently installed as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for the specific purpose of prosecuting people Trump considers to be his enemies.</p>
  106. <p>All of that being said, it seems unlikely that Bolton would have been charged in this case if he had remained one of the president’s loyal sycophants.</p>
  107. <p>What is happening at DOJ is gross, and even a “real” indictment brought for political purposes can’t change that.</p>
  108. <p>Of course, Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to put a different spin on things.</p>
  109. <p>“There is one tier of justice for all Americans,” she said on Thursday. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”</p>
  110. <p>If only that were true.</p>
  111. <p>Let’s not forget that the president himself was also charged with retention of national defense information for keeping classified materials at his home and <a href="http://whowhatwhy.org/justice/the-path-to-true-accountability-for-trump-is-long-and-treacherous/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://whowhatwhy.org/justice/the-path-to-true-accountability-for-trump-is-long-and-treacherous/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760754092503000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0wymQzgfYT5fbTgXr8vpYr">only got off the hook</a> because he was able to slow-walk the case that was being heard by a Trump-friendly judge angling for a Supreme Court appointment.</p>
  112. <p>It’s certainly worth re-reading the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/US-v-Trump-Nauta-De-Oliveira-23-80101.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.justice.gov/storage/US-v-Trump-Nauta-De-Oliveira-23-80101.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760754092503000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0svextuBPlY7QH7XoklxOw">indictment</a> that also charged Trump with obstructing justice and a smattering of other crimes (but not with transmitting the information to others).</p>
  113. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-171231818"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-873503724" data-whowh-trackid="97784" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97784" data-cfpw="97784"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=champion" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="Champion-truth"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Champion-truth.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97784 );</script></div><p>In light of that case, the words of William DelBagno, the special agent in charge, ring hollow.</p>
  114. <p>“The FBI is committed to protecting classified information to keep Americans safe,” he said. “Anyone entrusted with this knowledge takes an oath and has a duty to safeguard it. The charges alleged in this indictment demonstrate there will be consequences for those who violate this responsibility.”</p>
  115. <p>Sadly, none of that applied to Trump, who has been able to skirt accountability in almost all cases.</p>
  116. <p>And we are seeing now what happens when one man is placed above the law and then gets to weaponize the Department of Justice against anybody who has crossed him.</p>
  117. </div>
  118. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/the-bolton-indictment-more-of-the-same-but-also-something-new/">The Bolton Indictment: More of the Same, but Also Something New</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  119. ]]></content:encoded>
  123. </item>
  124. <item>
  125. <title>Our Craven Country: Why Corporations Keep Bowing to Trump</title>
  126. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/economy/business/our-craven-country-why-corporations-keep-bowing-to-trump/</link>
  128. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neal Gabler]]></dc:creator>
  129. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
  130. <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
  131. <category><![CDATA[US Politics]]></category>
  132. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102511</guid>
  133.  
  134. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Trump_Melania_Zuckerberg_Gates_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Bill Gates" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,42]" /><p>Permission to dispense entirely with morality is worth, to these moguls, more than its weight in gold.</p>
  135. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/economy/business/our-craven-country-why-corporations-keep-bowing-to-trump/">Our Craven Country: Why Corporations Keep Bowing to Trump</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  136. ]]></description>
  137. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Trump_Melania_Zuckerberg_Gates_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Bill Gates" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,42]" /><p>One of the most wrong-headed and destructive myths in American life is that businessmen know what they are doing. It’s a myth that has led to another long-held notion among a good many Americans, especially Republicans, that the government itself is in better hands when businessmen rule than when politicians or bureaucrats do. </p>
  138. <p>As one young woman, a Trump supporter, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/25/opinion/focus-group-disapproving-trump-voters.html?searchResultPosition=4">recently told <i>The New York Ti</i><i>mes</i></a> regarding the president, “He’s a businessman at his core. So I knew he was going to bring those aggressive negotiation skills and those power plays into the presidential thing.”</p>
  139. <p>And that, of course, was a good thing to her. Donald Trump would know how to wheel and deal, he would know how to streamline government because, after all, businesses are all about efficiency, he would know how to command because that is what CEO’s do. And he would know how to manage an economy — never mind that he inherited most of his money and declared six bankruptcies. We know because he himself kept telling us how stupendous his business acumen was, and since when does Trump lie?</p>
  140. <p>And let’s not forget another destructive myth that abetted Trump in his electoral success: that Republicans, as the so-called “business party,” actually do a better job with the economy than Democrats — when all the data <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2024/10/the-u-s-economy-performs-better-under-democratic-presidents">shows exactly the opposite</a>, and it isn’t even close. Republicans often wreck the economy. </p>
  141. <p>Like Trump, what businessmen do know is how to brainwash us into believing in the supremacy of their business skills. Basically salesmen, they know how to sell themselves to willing dupes.</p>
  142. <p>In fact, Trump, that business genius who doesn’t seem to understand the basics of Economics 101, has been taking down our economy since the day he took office — a day, by the way, when he was supposed to end inflation. </p>
  143. <h2>The Government = Business Myth</h2>
  144. <p>Of course, the idea that a businessman would be a better steward of the government than politicians and bureaucrats was always a self-serving absurdity. The skills that businessmen possess not only have very little to do with governing, they are also, in many respects, antithetical to governing — since the basic mission of government isn’t accruing, it is dispensing; it isn’t obfuscation, it is transparency; it isn’t protecting business from government, it is protecting the people from business; and it isn’t serving stockholders, it is serving the American public. </p>
  145. <p>A businessman president is probably the last thing this country ever needed — at least a democratic country, as this one used to be. In fact, keeping business moguls as far away from government as possible in any capacity may be a necessary safeguard to preserve what little is left of democracy.</p>
  146. <p>And if anyone should have realized this, it should have been the captains of corporate America themselves. They should have known that a vainglorious ignoramus like Trump might very well destroy the economy. </p>
  147. <p>They should have known that tariffs were a stupid idea, much less one that would, as Trump boasted, obviate the need for an income tax; that the president taking control of the Fed, as Trump wishes, would wreak havoc on the economy by politicizing every decision; that firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because Trump wanted those statistics tilted in his favor would make the data worthless to business; that defunding science research would tank one of the nation’s major advantages vis a vis other countries; that deporting immigrants who pick our crops and build our homes would blow a hole in the economy that Americans couldn’t or didn’t want to fill. </p>
  148. <p>They should have known, and they should have fought Trump tooth and nail, not only for their own interests but, if they cared at all, for the national interest. Instead, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/why-wont-americas-business-leaders-stand-up-to-donald-trump">as the <i>Ne</i><i>w Yorker’</i>s John Cassidy put it</a>, “The titans of American capitalism can’t be relied on to push back against him [Trump].” On the contrary, they can be relied on to encourage him, even as he is taking down the economy.</p>
  149. <h2>The Mystery of the Grovel</h2>
  150. <p>The question is <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-corporations-universities-executives-caving-fascism-1235409987/">why they have become slavish devotees</a> to a man steering the nation toward recession — why one of the very few potential bulwarks against Trump seems eager to indulge him and his economic fantasies. </p>
  151. <p>Indeed, Trump has had many enablers in his relentless campaign to destroy American democracy and install himself as monarch (he is now building his own Versailles in the White House). But among the most empowering of them are the heads of America’s business community, and the most empowering among those titans are the very richest members of that community: the elite — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, the Silicon Valley bros, and the venture capitalists like Peter Thiel — all of whom have democracy in their gunsights and Trump on their throne. </p>
  152. <blockquote><p>It is a rather remarkable display of sycophancy and a sickening one precisely because these are, after all, the richest men in the world — men much richer than Trump — men who terrorize everyone else.</p></blockquote>
  153. <p>They compete to see which of them can grovel before Trump best. They make pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago. They bestow gifts upon Trump — Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook handed him a gold-plated trophy — and sing his praises. They turn obsequiousness into a fine art. </p>
  154. <p>These men aren’t all idiots. They know — they <i>must </i>know — that Trump is a fool. Everyone does. But, or so we are told, Donald Trump scares the hell out of them, so grovel they must.</p>
  155. <p>But must they, really? It is a rather remarkable display of sycophancy and a sickening one precisely because these are, after all, the richest men in the world — men much richer than Trump — men who terrorize everyone else. They are cold, bloodless, ruthless, fully self-interested — the Trumps of their own spheres, and the very models of the Ayn Rand hero whom the right wing worships. They don’t need to bow and scrape. </p>
  156. <p>Once upon a time, corporate chieftains had what <i>New York Times </i>business reporter Noam Schreiber called a “patrician civic-mindedness,” and Schreiber said that “many at least thought of themselves as working in the national interest.” Those days are long gone. You don’t need me to tell you that the current titans are, to put it bluntly, jerks. Just look at what Musk did to the country. Just look at how rapidly they fell into line when Trump dismantled initiatives to help women and minorities.</p>
  157. <h2>Trump’s Intuitive Grasp of Cowardice, Cruelty, and Chaos</h2>
  158. <p>The obvious answer to why these jerks genuflect before Trump and the one adduced most often, is that they are operating out of self-protection. It may be a cliché but a truthful one nonetheless, that corporate moguls nowadays care about one thing and one thing only: money, their own first and their shareholders second. </p>
  159. <p>I have said in past posts that Trump had a keen intuition for the conditions that would raze the edifice of American democracy. He understood the deep attraction in this country to chaos, for destroying the prevailing social order. And he played upon it, especially among white Christian males who felt the order was arrayed against them. </p>
  160. <p>And he understood the deep attraction for cruelty in this nation, for subjugating anyone who wasn’t a white Christian male and then playing upon those men’s sense of grievance and overwhelming self-pity in joining his so-called retribution. (Immigrants are now paying that heavy price.) </p>
  161. <p>But he understood this too: Capitalism, for all the praise showered upon it by conservatives as the very engine of America, is essentially driven by craven men, and this craven capitalism would eventually lead to <i>him, </i>to Trump, because the most powerful men in America would have no compunction about selling out democracy, as he did, if they could gain from doing so — the country be damned.</p>
  162. <p>Trump knew all about money lust from his own lust, and he knew that for a rich man to lose a nickel would be regarded as a personal catastrophe — an unconscionable catastrophe. </p>
  163. <p>So the billionaires, these alleged giants, were ripe for the taking, even letting Trump in some cases seize a chunk of their own businesses without their pushing back because they apparently thought the pushback would be more costly to them given Trump’s penchant for retribution. </p>
  164. <p>In a recent podcast with the <i>Atlantic’</i>s David Frum, the philosopher Sam Harris, looking at business cravenness, asked, “How many billions of dollars do you need to have a spine?” We know the answer: There is <i>no</i> fortune large enough for a business mogul to grow a spine. Spineless they are. Spineless they shall always be. And Trump knew.</p>
  165. <p>He knew cravenness when he saw it. He knew that he could treat these billionaires like targets in a protection racket he was running. (Trump has been compared to a Mafioso so many times that I suspect the Mafia is insulted.) </p>
  166. <p>And Trump wasn’t surreptitious about it. He did it right out in the open. Pay me and get more or risk my wrath and lose more. If Paramount wanted to sell out to Skydance, it had to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/business/trump-disney-paramount-shareholder-capitalism.html">pay him tribute</a> in the form of a $16 million settlement of a frivolous suit he had filed over the editing of a <i>60 Minutes</i> interview of Kamala Harris; and, though Paramount came up with a flimsy pretext, it had to pull Stephen Colbert from the air as well. </p>
  167. <p>Zuckerberg’s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shelled out $25 million to settle a lawsuit Trump had filed claiming that Facebook had censored him after January 6 when he led a coup; X ponied up $10 million for a similar suspension; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/technology/youtube-trump-lawsuit-settlement.html">YouTube paid $24.5 million</a>, also for suspending him after January 6. </p>
  168. <p>“The law was on their side,” Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, told <i>The New York Times. </i>But, he said, they were “buying influence” and “currying favor.” </p>
  169. <p>Still, you might think they would have been irate or at least indignant at this shakedown. But they weren’t, not publicly at any rate. They accepted their own cravenness too. Indeed, they flaunted it. They actually went to great lengths they needn’t had to have gone to. Skydance is selling out CBS News by handing it over to right-wing extremists. Meta and X took down their monitoring systems so that right-wing content wouldn’t be censored. Giant law firms lined up to do hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono work for <i>Trump’s </i>causes.</p>
  170. <p>And then there was the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco where FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC for allegedly being insufficiently abject after Charlie Kirk’s murder. (This on top of the $16 million it extorted from ABC for George Stephanopoulos having said that Trump had molested E. Jean Carroll.) </p>
  171. <p>ABC put up no resistance, caving immediately like the rest of them, though in this case ABC later recanted, as we all know, because the <i>public</i> rose up and issued its own threat to ABC’s parent, the Disney Company. </p>
  172. <p>It is worth noting that in the dictionary definition of craven, it isn’t only cowardice; it is “contemptible” cowardice. Nearly every business, every <i>institution</i>, Trump has confronted qualifies. Either lick Trump’s jackboots or defend democracy and lose a few bucks. It was never much of a contest which they would do. As I said, Trump knew cravenness when he saw it.</p>
  173. <h2>Big Bullies Admire Bigger Bullies</h2>
  174. <p>But I believe the willingness to do anything to pacify Trump if it meant making a few extra bucks was not the only or perhaps even the primary affinity these big shots had with Trump. I rather think they <i>liked </i>Trump’s bullying, or, at the very least, respected it. </p>
  175. <p>They were bullies themselves (again, look at Musk and DOGE). And just as Trump reviled government, so did the titans who resented the audacity of government attempting to regulate them, as if trying to protect the public from their malfeasance was itself a crime against humanity. </p>
  176. <p>And just as Trump hated women and minorities, I suspect the titans hated the women and minorities with whom they had to share their boardrooms with the advent of DEI, and there are no titans more misogynistic than the Silicon Valley bros who also happened to be Trump’s biggest fans. So Trump not only ran a protection racket against his own depredations; he ran a protection racket against the protests of women and minorities.</p>
  177. <p>But there was one more affinity between these titans and Trump, and among the titans, Trump, and authoritarianism itself — an affinity that throws a bright beam on one of the nation’s primary afflictions under Trump. </p>
  178. <p>It is this: Trump and the titans, and authoritarians generally, shared the same antipathy toward morality. Morality was the titans’ enemy, not Trump.</p>
  179. <blockquote><p>What Trump gave them, then, was not just some financial crumbs, though he did. He gave them a much greater gift. He gave them a lack of accountability for their sins — the very gift <i>his </i>admirers had given <i>him</i>. Or you could put it this way: He freed them from having to apologize for being jerks.</p></blockquote>
  180. <p>It was a natural fit. As Ida Tarbell, the muckraker who bedeviled the monopolies at the turn of the last century, put it, “Business is war,” and “morals have nothing to do with its practice.” </p>
  181. <p><i>This, </i>I believe, was what enslaved the titans to Trump, as much as if not more than their fear that he would sic the government on them if they didn’t worship him: They were partners with Trump in amorality, and they realized that no matter what Trump did to them, no matter how he squeezed them for his own profit and power, tolerating that was much safer than facing the moral howls of folks like Tarbell or, now, Elizabeth Warren, or the leaders of the Me Too movement or civil rights activists or any person or group fighting for social justice. </p>
  182. <p>The money part counted because morality could endanger their making more of it. Morality was what separated the civilized from the barbarians, the Democrats from the Republicans, and the titans from most of the rest of us. What Trump gave them, then, was not just some financial crumbs, though he did. He gave them a much greater gift. He gave them a lack of accountability for their sins — the very gift <i>his </i>admirers had given <i>him</i>.</p>
  183. <p>Or you could put it this way: He freed them from having to apologize for being jerks.</p>
  184. <p><b>Related: </b><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/capitalism-fascism-trump-and-americas-not-so-free-free-market-economy/"><b>Capit</b><b>alism, Fascism, Trump, and America’s Not-So-Free “Free Marke</b><b>t Economy”</b></a></p>
  185. <h2>Every Mogul Adores a Fascist?</h2>
  186. <p>To say that business has no scruples, no ethics, no moral bearing might sound like leftwing cant if it weren’t all too true. </p>
  187. <p>Businesses exist to generate money; they do not exist to generate morality. And they will toss aside the latter whenever they can, as quickly as they can. The list of examples is endless, but here are just a random few: Brown &amp; Williamson and other cigarette manufacturers who knew that their product caused cancer; the hundreds if not thousands of corporate polluters who knew they were poisoning our drinking water and despoiling our environment; the biggest banks and investment firms in America, like Lehman Brothers, who knew that they were overextended on unsustainable mortgages in 2008 and yet let the economy blow up; the coal companies that disregarded safety regulations; Boeing that knew its 737 Max had issues that resulted in crashes but went on selling that plane nonetheless; Purdue Pharma that knowingly addicted millions of Americans to its opioids; World Com that defrauded investors out of $100 billion by inflating assets: Volkswagen that rigged emission tests as its cars belched gas into the air; FTX cryptocurrency that secretly transferred funds to a sister corporation at the expense of its investors; Enron that inflated its profits; and even Boar’s Head meats whose sanitation problems at a factory led to a listeria outbreak and 10 deaths. </p>
  188. <p>In effect, they would kill you rather than sacrifice profits. </p>
  189. <p>And let’s not forget our president, who stiffed his vendors, defrauded “students” paying for courses at his “university,” and inflated the value of his assets when applying for bank loans. To put a final and even finer point on it, there are the purveyors of AI, who, as David Frum remarked, are telling us, “Just warning: Side effect of the thing I’m working on may be the extinction of human life on Earth. So that’s a possibility. In fact, not a negligible one, but I’m doing it anyway.”</p>
  190. <p>This is the America they want to inhabit — Trump’s America — which is to say, all of these corporate kingpins are not amoral because they are in business; they are in business because they are amoral.</p>
  191. <p>Which takes us to that compact with Trump and authoritarianism. Virtually, everywhere that authoritarianism has reared its head, the business titans have readily caved to it, just as they did here. As Robert Paxton, the great historian of fascism, described it, “In time, most German and Italian businessmen adapted well to working with fascist regimes,” which may be something of an understatement. In Italy, they even ran Mussolini’s corporatist organization. </p>
  192. <p>But it is important to note that businesses aren’t just cooperative with authoritarians. They are practitioners of authoritarianism themselves. In Nazi Germany in the waning days of World War II, Volkswagen set up a <i>Kinderheim </i>or “children’s house” outside one of its factories for the infants of conscripted female workers — only it wasn’t a house; it was a death camp. With the full knowledge, approval, and <i>order </i>of the Volkswagen executives, the infants were left to starve to death — something that appalled even the local Nazi gauleiter who called for a more humane way to kill them. Again, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/volkswagens-nazi-era-blood-crimes/">that was Volkswagen</a>, not the Nazis. </p>
  193. <p>Closer in time, this very week in a federal courtroom in New York, BNP, France’s largest bank and one with a branch in New York, is being tried for financing the genocide that had been conducted by the authoritarian Bashir government in South Sudan — again, fully aware of how its money was being used to pay soldiers and mercenaries to kill, maim, and rape the victims. You might call it genocide for profit.</p>
  194. <p>We are talking about huge corporations and astonishing moral lacunae. And we are talking about cowards who cower before Trump because he threatens their billions as their opposite numbers in Germany and Italy were threatened eighty years ago. </p>
  195. <p>But it is important to realize that the cowardice functions only because morality no longer does. If you want to understand why the richest and most powerful men in America enable Trump, why they disdain democracy and encourage autocracy, why they refuse to defend their own rights and interests other than the right to make money, it isn’t really because they are afraid of Trump, even if they are. </p>
  196. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-3425157724"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-369667701" data-whowh-trackid="97784" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97784" data-cfpw="97784"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=champion" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="Champion-truth"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Champion-truth.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97784 );</script></div><p>It is because they lack the moral conviction that could steel them to resist him, and choose to further enrich themselves instead. </p>
  197. <p>Saying that they have caved to Trump makes them sound as if they are victims. Craven they are. But these men are not his victims; they are his accomplices: brothers in amorality. They will do anything to make that extra nickel.</p>
  198. <p>And only our own moral pushback can beat them in this craven country of ours.</p>
  199. <p><i>As a service to our readers, we curate noteworthy stories through partnerships with outside writers and thinkers. This column has been adapted, with the author’s permission, from Neal Gabler’s substack,</i><a href="https://nealgabler.substack.com/"> Farewell, America</a>.</p>
  200. <hr />
  201. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/economy/business/our-craven-country-why-corporations-keep-bowing-to-trump/">Our Craven Country: Why Corporations Keep Bowing to Trump</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  202. ]]></content:encoded>
  206. </item>
  207. <item>
  208. <title>Windows 10 Support Has Ended, But Here’s How to Get an Extra Year for Free</title>
  209. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/windows-10-support-has-ended-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free/</link>
  211. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Whowhatwhy Editors]]></dc:creator>
  212. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
  213. <category><![CDATA[Editors' Picks]]></category>
  214. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102509</guid>
  215.  
  216. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-17.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="tech, Microsoft, Windows 10, security, end of life, free updates for a year" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[47,67]" /><p>PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.</p>
  217. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/windows-10-support-has-ended-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free/">Windows 10 Support Has Ended, But Here’s How to Get an Extra Year for Free</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  218. ]]></description>
  219. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-17.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="tech, Microsoft, Windows 10, security, end of life, free updates for a year" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[47,67]" /><h3><b>Windows 10 Support Has Ended, But Here’s How to Get an Extra Year for Free (Maria)</b></h3>
  220. <p>The author <a href="https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-10-support-has-ended-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free-125118875.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “Still running Windows 10 on your PC? Did you know that as of October 14, Microsoft moved the software to its ‘end of life’ phase? So while Windows 10 PCs will continue to work, they’ll stop getting important security updates by default. The good news is you still have three options to make sure your computer remains secure.”</p>
  221. <h3><b>Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism ‘Indicators’ (DonkeyHotey)</b></h3>
  222. <p>The author <a href="https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “Trump has signed a little-noticed national security directive identifying ‘anti-Christian’ and ‘anti-American’ views as indicators of radical left violence. Called National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, it’s being referred to as ‘NSPM-7’ by administration insiders. … It’s hard to overstate how much different NSPM-7 is from the over 200 executive orders Trump has frantically signed since coming back into office. An executive order publicly lays out the course of day-to-day federal government operations; whereas a national security directive is a sweeping policy decree for the defense, foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatus. National security directives are often secret, but in this case the Trump administration chose to publish NSPM-7.”</p>
  223. <h3><b>Pro-Russian Hackers Caught Bragging About Attack on Fake Water Utility (Sean)</b></h3>
  224. <p>From <a href="https://therecord.media/fake-water-utility-honeypot-hacked-pro-russian-group" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>The Record</i></a>: “A pro-Russian hacker group has been caught boasting about a cyberattack that unfolded entirely inside a decoy system set up by researchers. The relatively new group, known as TwoNet, claimed in September that it had disrupted a Dutch water facility by hacking into its control systems. In reality, the hackers had infiltrated a honeypot — a decoy network designed by cybersecurity firm Forescout to lure attackers and study their behavior. … Forescout said the incident illustrates how inexperienced hacktivists are increasingly trying to breach operational technology and industrial control systems — the computer systems that manage equipment in critical infrastructure such as power plants and water utilities — often without fully understanding what they are attacking.”</p>
  225. <h3><b>2025’s Big Ad Spender: The US Taxpayer (Dana)</b></h3>
  226. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-946393930"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-75046873" data-whowh-trackid="97785" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97785" data-cfpw="97785"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=free" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="free the truth promo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/frame_7__1_-1.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97785 );</script></div><p>The author <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/10/15/trump-self-deportation-ads-noem" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “The most expensive political ad campaign of the year is being run by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS disputes that its ads are political. But it has spent at least $51 million this year on ads thanking President Trump for securing the border, according to AdImpact.”</p>
  227. <h3><b>Corals Are Disappearing, Pushing Earth to Its First Major ‘Tipping Point’ (Laura)</b></h3>
  228. <p>From <a href="https://grist.org/oceans/coral-reefs-climate-tipping-point/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Grist</i></a>: “Global temperature rise may feel like it’s gradual, but the changes it brings can turn out to be sudden, massive, and self-reinforcing. These changes are what scientists call tipping points. When a tipping point is reached, an Earth system abruptly and dramatically changes, often irreversibly, like the Amazon rainforest turning into a savanna — a point of no return that is already perilously close. But today, a group of 160 scientists from 23 countries announced that the planet has already reached its first major tipping point: the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs.”</p>
  229. <h3><b>A Conservative Influencer Was Arrested in Portland. Trump Was Watching (Russ)</b></h3>
  230. <p>The authors <a href="https://wapo.st/48x6TTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">write</a>, “During the four hours Nick Sortor sat in jail on the morning of Oct. 3, the conservative influencer wondered if anyone even knew he’d been arrested. He had no cellphone. He could make local calls, but he didn’t know anyone’s number in Portland. Outside, though, his online allies were blaring the news: A right-wing journalist — and not the leftists who assaulted him at an ICE protest — had been arrested by Portland police. Within hours of his release, Sortor had a message from Donald Trump. … Over the next few days, conservative media spotlighted Sortor’s arrest to amplify Trump’s claims that leftists were engaging in destructive mayhem in Portland. By Wednesday, Sortor himself was at the White House, addressing a roundtable where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem compared antifa — a catchall concept used to describe loosely affiliated far-left groups — to the Islamist Hezbollah.”</p>
  231. <h3><b>North Carolina Effort Wipes Out $6.5B in Medical Debt (Reader Jim)</b></h3>
  232. <p>From <a href="https://www.newser.com/story/376846/nc-effort-wipes-out-65b-in-medical-debt.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Newser</i></a>: “More than 2.5 million North Carolina residents are getting over $6.5 billion in medical eliminated through a state government effort that offered hospitals extra Medicaid funds from Washington if they gave low- and middle-income patients the financial relief and implemented policies to discourage future liabilities. … While helping almost one-quarter of North Carolina residents, [Governor] Stein said the effort has exceeded expectations in giving individuals and families a second chance to succeed financially after medical crises. Officials previously estimated it could help about 2 million people get rid of $4 billion in debt. The debt that had been held by hospitals, and are usually difficult to recover, will be pulled from credit reports.”</p>
  233. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/windows-10-support-has-ended-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free/">Windows 10 Support Has Ended, But Here’s How to Get an Extra Year for Free</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  234. ]]></content:encoded>
  238. </item>
  239. <item>
  240. <title>Dissecting JD Vance’s Curious Defense of Appalling Young Republican Group Chat</title>
  241. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/dissecting-jd-vances-curious-defense-of-appalling-young-republican-group-chat/</link>
  243. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Klaus Marre]]></dc:creator>
  244. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:17:53 +0000</pubDate>
  245. <category><![CDATA[US Politics]]></category>
  246. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102505</guid>
  247.  
  248. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/JD_Vance_CK_Show_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="JD Vance, blaming the left, Charlie Kirk assisination" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,34]" /><p>In failing to condemn a group of young Republicans for their racist and antisemitic comments, Vice President JD Vance demonstrates once more that he is a world-class hypocrite.</p>
  249. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/dissecting-jd-vances-curious-defense-of-appalling-young-republican-group-chat/">Dissecting JD Vance’s Curious Defense of Appalling Young Republican Group Chat</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  250. ]]></description>
  251. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/JD_Vance_CK_Show_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="JD Vance, blaming the left, Charlie Kirk assisination" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,34]" /><p>In a party of hypocrites, Vice President JD Vance is in a league of his own. And that is quite an accomplishment in light of his competition, which includes House Speaker <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/opinion/johnson-and-mcconnell-release-statement-on-being-gigantic-hypocrites/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whowhatwhy.org/opinion/johnson-and-mcconnell-release-statement-on-being-gigantic-hypocrites/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045818000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K5DAM2kz5__vAmEJ6Oa0X">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA), White House press secretary <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/as-trump-deploys-national-guard-to-la-leavitt-smashes-hypocrisy-world-record/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/government-integrity/as-trump-deploys-national-guard-to-la-leavitt-smashes-hypocrisy-world-record/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045818000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sF0mNaSTBcVGjLNca0Cd1">Karoline Leavitt</a>, and <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/republicans-serve-up-piety-and-hypocrisy-for-easter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/republicans-serve-up-piety-and-hypocrisy-for-easter/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045818000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DDYJKMmj9GrUAW9Vt-zCP">every “Christian”</a> supporting Donald Trump’s agenda.</p>
  252. <p>Vance, however, is taking hypocrisy to another level. Perhaps that’s because of his lofty perch as vice president, or the ease with which he lies. Most likely, however, it is because of the smug indignation he displays when saying things that are either completely wrong or patently ridiculous, and his refusal to ever back down.</p>
  253. <p>He is like the guy who preaches about the importance of personal responsibility, then gets behind the wheel of his car completely wasted, and ends up blaming the kid he hits for not paying attention before using a crosswalk.</p>
  254. <p>Vance proved this again impressively on Wednesday, when he commented on a massive scandal currently embroiling the leaders of some Young Republicans groups.</p>
  255. <p>Earlier this week, <i><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwY2xjawNdG5tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHipvCfNDOtxBUmLI1zh_fhg1lHE0du3CZlFMsOcVrZIe-ligmF1xj3IEij69_aem_EbmygA757wWl-b2uZkJCNg" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid%3DIwY2xjawNdG5tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHipvCfNDOtxBUmLI1zh_fhg1lHE0du3CZlFMsOcVrZIe-ligmF1xj3IEij69_aem_EbmygA757wWl-b2uZkJCNg&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Q8F1NpyiEIwsZ3TjfQqld">Politico</a></i><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwY2xjawNdG5tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHipvCfNDOtxBUmLI1zh_fhg1lHE0du3CZlFMsOcVrZIe-ligmF1xj3IEij69_aem_EbmygA757wWl-b2uZkJCNg" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid%3DIwY2xjawNdG5tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHipvCfNDOtxBUmLI1zh_fhg1lHE0du3CZlFMsOcVrZIe-ligmF1xj3IEij69_aem_EbmygA757wWl-b2uZkJCNg&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2Q8F1NpyiEIwsZ3TjfQqld"> unveiled</a> details of a group chat in which some of these Young Republicans had voiced some racist, antisemitic, and otherwise abhorrent views.</p>
  256. <p>Now, there are some things in politics that should be really easy.</p>
  257. <p>For example, when you are asked to comment on a group chat in which one of the participants says, “I love Hitler,” or in which people discuss sending others to the gas chamber, then, at the very least, you should condemn that language.</p>
  258. <p>And, to their credit, that is what several Republican groups and officials did.</p>
  259. <p>Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) issued a <a href="https://x.com/RepMikeLawler/status/1978194539278938228" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/RepMikeLawler/status/1978194539278938228&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3gRUhm1sht14u-nH-ujo39">strongly worded statement</a>, and Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) stated that the “vile, racist, bigoted, and antisemitic dialogue that has been reported is deeply disturbing” and that “those involved should resign from their roles immediately and leave the Republican party – including Vermont State Senator Sam Douglass.”</p>
  260. <p>Not Vance, who had a different take on things.</p>
  261. <p>“The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said while appearing on <em>The Charlie Kirk Show</em>. “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives.”</p>
  262. <p>Let’s break that down.</p>
  263. <p>First of all, these were not “kids” or “young boys.” While the group is open to Republicans from the ages of 18 to 40, the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-young-republicans-involved-in-offensive-chats-10881250" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-young-republicans-involved-in-offensive-chats-10881250&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2e_7bRXKa0EpRnGimBsHRs">eleven chat participants</a> were all a bit older, which makes sense because they were already in leadership positions.</p>
  264. <p>The eight of them for which ages are available were <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/republican-hitler-group-chat-nazi-politico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/republican-hitler-group-chat-nazi-politico/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3WTFZ1Ji5G-h4fr3A9e7JQ">between 24 and 35 years old</a>.</p>
  265. <p>In other words, his mischaracterization of the chat participants is an example of the effortless and smug lying we referenced above.</p>
  266. <p>Then comes the blatant hypocrisy.</p>
  267. <p>Because Vance has made it quite clear that he <i>does</i> want to live in a country where “a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives” — at least if that kid said something the vice president didn’t like.</p>
  268. <p>For example, after Kirk was assassinated, Vance urged his supporters to engage in online vigilantism.</p>
  269. <p>“When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out,” he said last month during an appearance on the same podcast. “And hell, call their employer.”</p>
  270. <p>That certainly sounds as though he wants to ruin people’s lives for saying something that is very offensive and stupid.</p>
  271. <p>It is also worth noting that many of the social media users who were outed for “celebrating” Kirk’s death were simply pointing out that the right-wing activist held some views they found abhorrent.</p>
  272. <p>And then there is Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Virginia.</p>
  273. <p>Jones sent his own repugnant messages to a Republican (!) colleague.</p>
  274. <p>Because <i>we</i> aren’t hypocrites, we said those comments <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/jay-jones-is-unfit-to-be-vas-attorney-general-and-should-drop-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/jay-jones-is-unfit-to-be-vas-attorney-general-and-should-drop-out/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0ucUlqe3eb1SPiqwi530Zh">disqualify him from serving as attorney general</a> and chastised Democrats for not calling on Jones to drop out.</p>
  275. <p>Vance, however, <i>is</i> a hypocrite, which is why he felt we are dealing with two completely different situations here.</p>
  276. <p>“<span lang="EN">This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia,” he <a href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1978235740833153196" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/JDVance/status/1978235740833153196&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760706045819000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0bcn2Nx2yIp65nBAI-i-ZN">stated</a> on Tuesday. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.”</p>
  277. <p><span lang="EN">Vance might view himself as an arbiter of what is a “call for political violence” and what is a “joke,” but the fact that he mischaracterizes both cases (one by calling it a college chat, and the other by attributing something to Jones that he didn’t say) shows that he is acting in extremely bad faith. </p>
  278. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-3745733355"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-3970855512" data-whowh-trackid="97785" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97785" data-cfpw="97785"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=free" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="free the truth promo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/frame_7__1_-1.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97785 );</script></div><p><span lang="EN">These aren’t Republican &#8220;college kids.&#8221; Several of them worked in politics and were holding leadership positions already. </p>
  279. <p><span lang="EN">It should also be noted that Jones, when he made his comments, wasn’t older than some of the participants in the GOP chat. </p>
  280. <p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">That’s no excuse for his vile text messages, but Vance’s mischaracterization of the circumstances does highlight his own hypocrisy.</p>
  281. <p><span lang="EN">It shouldn’t be difficult to condemn the kind of language that Jones and the Young Republicans used. The fact that the vice president of the United States can’t get himself to do that, and instead resorts to mischaracterizations and attacks, shows that he is a lot more intent on scoring points and further dividing the country than anything else. </p>
  282. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/dissecting-jd-vances-curious-defense-of-appalling-young-republican-group-chat/">Dissecting JD Vance’s Curious Defense of Appalling Young Republican Group Chat</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  283. ]]></content:encoded>
  287. </item>
  288. <item>
  289. <title>On No Kings Day, Why Protest Matters</title>
  290. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/on-no-kings-day-why-protest-matters/</link>
  292. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Malmer]]></dc:creator>
  293. <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:01:02 +0000</pubDate>
  294. <category><![CDATA[Rights & Liberties]]></category>
  295. <category><![CDATA[US Politics]]></category>
  296. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102501</guid>
  297.  
  298. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Chicago_No_Kings_March_June_14_2025_3x2.jpg.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Chicago, No Kings, march, June 14, 2025" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,57]" /><p>When millions gather and demonstrate, it becomes part of the narrative, helps build a movement, and is a great antidote for those feelings of futility.</p>
  299. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/on-no-kings-day-why-protest-matters/">On No Kings Day, Why Protest Matters</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  300. ]]></description>
  301. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Chicago_No_Kings_March_June_14_2025_3x2.jpg.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="Chicago, No Kings, march, June 14, 2025" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,57]" /><p>When I was younger, I imagined the “moral arc of history” getting a little closer to justice every day. Indeed, the overall story of the last several hundred years has been one of increasing freedom and civil rights. </p>
  302. <p>Rather than a straight line, however, it’s been a series of progressive leaps forward followed by a clawing back by reactionary forces. Emancipation and Reconstruction were followed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redeemers">Redeemers</a>, Jim Crow, and the rise of the second Klan. The Civil Rights Act was met by gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and other forms of disenfranchisement. The election of Barack Obama, one of the greatest leaps forward in my lifetime, faced swift backlash, first with the rise of the Tea Party and then the inevitable arrival of Trumpism.</p>
  303. <p>One reason for this back-and-forth is that it’s difficult to sustain a social movement once it’s achieved its goal. It’s more common for them to declare victory and move on. </p>
  304. <p>The week before his inauguration, Obama <a href="https://archive.ph/20120721093913/http:/voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2009/01/obama_announces_organizing_for.html#selection-2251.0-2254.0">announced the creation of Organizing for America</a>, saying, “As president, I will need the help of all Americans to meet the challenges that lie ahead. That’s why I’m asking people like you who fought for change during the campaign to continue fighting for change in your communities.” Would that we had listened.</p>
  305. <p>This cycle of expansion and contraction of rights resembles a yo-yo diet: We feel frustrated when we don’t see immediate results from our trip to the gym, or return to our bad habits once we’ve reached our target weight. </p>
  306. <p>Because social change can sometimes take years or decades, it’s understandable that we question whether protest works or is worth the effort. As a political communication scholar, though, I can assure you that protest is a vital tool to effect social change, and I’d like to discuss some of the mechanisms: framing, agenda setting, and identity construction.</p>
  307. <p>The first way that protests work is by influencing the media’s framing of issues. </p>
  308. <p>Framing a story means choosing which features to focus on, or the language that we use. People may show support for “social programs” while opposing “welfare.” Likewise, people will respond differently to legislation when it is framed as “gun control” versus “gun safety.” The choice of frame can make the difference between the success and failure of a social movement. </p>
  309. <p>In 2018, communication scholars Rachel Mourão, Danielle K. Brown, and George Sylvie published a paper called “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325549367_Framing_Ferguson_The_interplay_of_advocacy_and_journalistic_frames_in_local_and_national_newspaper_coverage_of_Michael_Brown">Framing Ferguson</a>.” They looked at newspapers’ framing of the 2014 Ferguson, MO, protests. Initially, newspapers chose what the authors referred to as “episodic” and “conflict” frames, covering only specific events and clashes between police and protesters. But, as protests continued, papers started using “thematic frames,” covering the issues motivating the protests. </p>
  310. <p>They also found “legitimizing” frames: indications that the protesters were not a violent mob, but people with legitimate concerns. This is particularly important today, when Cabinet member Sean Duffy, <a href="https://newsletter.theweek.com/optiext/optiextension.dll?ID=bfeh97xatdMZqh4oEyGuvF4F3-WHdYDg7znvRriNfO2O2Gj5kcEl71SSjDgQJyxc_X72QAhaaP9UsZjoPvw91iNAlK5F2Bl5W-uYa6Uk">joining his fellow calumniators</a> high in the ranks of GOP leadership, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/201718/trump-cabinet-secretary-thinks-peaceful-protesters-terrorists">is misrepresenting</a> peaceful No Kings protesters as “paid protesters” and “part of antifa.” </p>
  311. <p>The important point here is that one protest isn’t enough: Protests must be sustained long enough to shift the conversation from dates and crowd sizes to the underlying issues.</p>
  312. <p>A second mechanism for change is influencing politicians through “agenda setting.” </p>
  313. <p>According to agenda-setting theory, attention is one of our scarcest resources. Like any person, politicians depend on numerous signals to determine what’s important. As required effort increases, so does pressure on a politician. A phone call takes more effort than sharing a post on Facebook and, therefore, means more to a representative. Leaving your house and joining others in protest is orders of magnitude beyond that and sends a strong signal. </p>
  314. <p>While it’s true that most members of Congress will be reelected no matter what they do, the <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings">Cook Political Report rates</a> 39 House races in 2026 as either “lean” or “toss-up.” Candidates in those competitive districts are particularly sensitive to protests.</p>
  315. <blockquote><p>I attended my first political demonstration in 2015. Before that, I didn’t consider myself an “activist” or a “protester.” Since then, I’ve attended dozens of events, ranging from a handful of people to over a hundred thousand.</p></blockquote>
  316. <p>The third way that protests work is through “identity construction.” </p>
  317. <p>Throughout their lives, people adopt numerous identities: son, mother, student, spouse. One barrier to attending protests is that people often don’t see themselves as “someone who attends protests.”</p>
  318. <p>I attended my first political demonstration in 2015. Before that, I didn’t consider myself an “activist” or a “protester.” Since then, I’ve attended dozens of events, ranging from a handful of people to over a hundred thousand. The first was scary, but since then, I’ve approached each event with the same attitude: I’m continuing my habit of standing up for democracy just like I go to the gym every week. </p>
  319. <figure id="attachment_102503" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-102503" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-featured-single@2x wp-image-102503" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image2-900x600.jpg" alt="Chicago, No Kings, march, June 14, 2025" width="900" height="600" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-102503" class="wp-caption-text">Chicago’s No Kings march on June 14, 2025. Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pgoyette/54588839862/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">aul Goyette / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</a></figcaption></figure>
  320. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-1856827325"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-3269470478" data-whowh-trackid="97785" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97785" data-cfpw="97785"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=free" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="free the truth promo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/frame_7__1_-1.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97785 );</script></div><p>It’s never too late to start. In 2017, I met a woman at a protest in San Francisco. She was in her 60s and told me it was her first protest. She’d tried to recruit her husband and friends but wound up coming on her own. Can you imagine how important the protest was to her that she drove over an hour to join a crowd of people she’d never met? This is the kind of fellowship that people find when protesting for a cause they care about.</p>
  321. <p>I’ll leave you with this. Someone recently said to me, “Want to be a bad person? Do bad things. Want to be a good person? Do good things.” Building on that, I would add: “Want to support democracy? Do things that support democracy.” </p>
  322. <p>Peaceful protest is one of those things. I’ll be attending the second No Kings protest on Saturday. Whether it’s your five-hundredth or first event, I hope you do, too.</p>
  323. <p><i>Daniel Malmer, a co-founder of several tech startups, is currently a PhD student researching media, political communication, and extremism.</i></p>
  324. <hr />
  325. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/on-no-kings-day-why-protest-matters/">On No Kings Day, Why Protest Matters</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  326. ]]></content:encoded>
  330. </item>
  331. <item>
  332. <title>Republicans Are Terrified of the ‘No Kings’ Mass Protest</title>
  333. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/republicans-are-terrified-of-the-no-kings-mass-protest/</link>
  335. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Klaus Marre]]></dc:creator>
  336. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 22:25:42 +0000</pubDate>
  337. <category><![CDATA[Rights & Liberties]]></category>
  338. <category><![CDATA[US Politics]]></category>
  339. <category><![CDATA[exclude from latest]]></category>
  340. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102495</guid>
  341.  
  342. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Kings_Dont_Belong_No_Kings_Day_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="No Kings Day, sign, Kings don't belong in America." style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,24]" /><p>Republicans are desperate to characterize Saturday's "No Kings" rallies as anything other than what they really are: The actions of millions  of patriots to defend democracy.</p>
  343. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/republicans-are-terrified-of-the-no-kings-mass-protest/">Republicans Are Terrified of the ‘No Kings’ Mass Protest</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  344. ]]></description>
  345. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Kings_Dont_Belong_No_Kings_Day_3x2.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="No Kings Day, sign, Kings don&#039;t belong in America." style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[49,24]" /><p>When we talk about the United States’ rapid descent toward authoritarianism, we primarily do so with regard to Donald Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. However, it is important to note that he could not do so alone. For example, the GOP majority in Congress plays a major role by allowing the president to usurp authorities not granted to him by the Constitution. Therefore, while they may not originally have been committed authoritarians themselves, these Republicans are now accessories to upending US democracy.</p>
  346. <div>
  347. <p>And the one thing authoritarians fear more than anything else is that the people rise up against them because, while they may control all of the levers of power, there is a strength in numbers that they can only match with excessive violence.</p>
  348. <p>This explains why Republicans are so worried about the “No Kings” demonstrations that are scheduled across the country for Saturday and are expected to draw millions of participants in more than 2,000 separate events.</p>
  349. <p>To counteract what may turn out to be a record-breaking protest, they have settled on the talking point that this will be a “hate America” rally.</p>
  350. <p>Call us crazy, but we believe that people coming together to exercise their First Amendment rights and to peacefully protest a monarch is just about the most American thing imaginable.</p>
  351. <p>That’s certainly how historians feel when describing the Boston Tea Party (and that even included destruction of property).</p>
  352. <p>The plan that congressional Republicans and members of the administration are pursuing is simple: Pretend that the people attending the protests will be a bunch of radicals hellbent on destroying the country.</p>
  353. <p>“We call it the Hate America Rally that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday. “Let&#8217;s see who shows up for that. I bet you&#8217;ll see Hamas supporters, I bet you&#8217;ll see antifa types, I bet you&#8217;ll see the Marxists on full display, the people who don&#8217;t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”</p>
  354. <p>That’s more than ironic, because it seems as though, at this moment in time, Johnson is doing absolutely nothing to defend the foundational truths of this republic.</p>
  355. <p>In a world in which Americans shared a common reality, the GOP’s attempts would be doomed to fail.</p>
  356. <p>After all, we have already had a couple of “No Kings” protests, and they drew millions of almost exclusively peaceful protesters.</p>
  357. <p>However, in the world we live in, i.e., one in which half the people believe in an alternate reality that Trump, Fox News, and Republicans like Johnson are creating for them, it is possible that select footage of isolated incidents of property damage or pro-Hamas messages could be used by the right-wing propaganda machine to create the GOP’s desired counter-narrative.</p>
  358. <p>Which is why it is really important that Saturday’s protests be as non-violent and non-destructive as possible, that American flags and clever slogans predominate. They are, after all, an expression of patriotism.</p>
  359. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-2301473862"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-1982633455" data-whowh-trackid="97784" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97784" data-cfpw="97784"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=champion" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="Champion-truth"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Champion-truth.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97784 );</script></div><p>Republicans, on the other hand, hope for chaos and violence, which is why some of them have gone even further in their incendiary rhetoric.</p>
  360. <p>House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), for example, <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/the-tone-it-down-guys-think-peaceful-protesters-are-terrorists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/the-tone-it-down-guys-think-peaceful-protesters-are-terrorists/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1760652427532000&amp;usg=AOvVaw389cUdwG4bjsXqzJR7zBpC">said</a> the demonstrations would feature the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party, which practically invites MAGA supporters to show up for counter-protests.</p>
  361. <p>Finally, we would be remiss if we did not remind our readers that we already know what a “Hate America” protest looks like.</p>
  362. <p>One took place on January 6, 2001, and Johnson and Emmer should remember it, since they were there.</p>
  363. </div>
  364. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/republicans-are-terrified-of-the-no-kings-mass-protest/">Republicans Are Terrified of the ‘No Kings’ Mass Protest</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  365. ]]></content:encoded>
  369. </item>
  370. <item>
  371. <title>After Gaza Hostage Release, What’s Next for Donald Trump and the Middle East?</title>
  372. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/international/after-gaza-hostage-release-whats-next-for-donald-trump-and-the-middle-east/</link>
  374. <dc:creator><![CDATA[William T. Dowell]]></dc:creator>
  375. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:03:46 +0000</pubDate>
  376. <category><![CDATA[International]]></category>
  377. <category><![CDATA[US Politics]]></category>
  378. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102491</guid>
  379.  
  380. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Cyrus_The_Great_Is_Alive_3x2.jpg.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="sign, Tel Aviv, Cyrus The Great Is Alive" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[50,38]" /><p>Does Trump get that there’s more to peace than a deal?</p>
  381. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/international/after-gaza-hostage-release-whats-next-for-donald-trump-and-the-middle-east/">After Gaza Hostage Release, What’s Next for Donald Trump and the Middle East?</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  382. ]]></description>
  383. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Cyrus_The_Great_Is_Alive_3x2.jpg.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="sign, Tel Aviv, Cyrus The Great Is Alive" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[50,38]" /><p>Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-trumps-knesset-speech-youve-won-you-cant-beat-the-world-its-time-for-peace/">victory speech</a> following the release of the last surviving Israeli hostages won a standing ovation from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The euphoria was understandable. </p>
  384. <p>There is no question that Trump played a major role in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire. It’s even more impressive because peace in Gaza could very well spell the end of Netanyahu’s political career. Given that reality and Netanyahu’s record as a Machiavellian political infighter, getting him to go along with the ceasefire was no small feat. </p>
  385. <p>It was increasingly obvious that the ongoing war in Gaza was serving as a political lifeline for Netanyahu. No one was going to remove him as prime minister while the fighting was still going on. But wars can’t last forever and, before the rampage against Gaza had even started, Netanyahu was already defending himself against a criminal indictment on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. </p>
  386. <p>At least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/world/middleeast/israel-oct-7-inquiry.html">some Israelis</a> blamed what they saw as Netanyahu’s misguided priorities for creating the conditions that led to the October 7 massacre. Others <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/">hold Netanyahu responsible</a> for aiding Hamas’s rise to power by systematically sabotaging the Palestinian Authority’s presence in Gaza.</p>
  387. <h2>Mission Accomplished?</h2>
  388. <p>Understandably, no one wanted to talk about any of that in the jubilant atmosphere brought on by the hostage release, although Trump did manage to call attention to Netanyahu’s precarious situation when <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5552710-trump-address-israel-knesset/">he suggested</a> to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, that he might make the mess go away by issuing Netanyahu a blanket pardon.</p>
  389. <blockquote><p>In the wake of Trump’s self-congratulatory euphoria, most Arab leaders fretted over how long Trump was likely to remain focused on the region. If he lets the ball drop, the conflict is likely to resume with even greater brutality than before.   </p></blockquote>
  390. <p>The major point in Trump’s speech to the Knesset was captured in his declaration that the ceasefire marks a “historic dawn of a new era in the Middle East.” The hyperbole can be excused as triumphalist rhetoric, but the contention that a momentary ceasefire marks the beginning of a stable peace brings back memories of George W. Bush’s infamous speech announcing the end of the Iraq war in 2003. </p>
  391. <p>Standing in front of a banner declaring “<a href="https://millercenter.org/americas-war-in-iraq/mission-accomplished-moment">Mission Accomplished</a>” on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush also thought the war was over. But far from over, it was just beginning. The Iraq war dragged on through 2011 and, by the time it had finished, resulted in the deaths of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/iraq-war-numbers-rcna75762">more than 4,000 US servicemen</a>. Another 32,000 were wounded, and more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. The cost to US taxpayers has been estimated at a trillion dollars.  </p>
  392. <figure id="attachment_102493" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-102493" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-featured-single@2x wp-image-102493" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Donald_Trump_Remarks_Knesset_3x2.jpg-900x600.jpg" alt="Donald Trump, remarks, Knesset, ceasefire" width="900" height="600" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-102493" class="wp-caption-text">Trump delivers remarks to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, on October 13, 2025, celebrating the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas. Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/54855603895/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">THe WHite House / Flickr (PD)</a></figcaption></figure>
  393. <p>In the wake of Trump’s self-congratulatory euphoria, most Arab leaders fretted over how long Trump was likely to remain focused on the region. If he lets the ball drop, the conflict is likely to resume with even greater brutality than before. </p>
  394. <h2>Learning the Wrong Lessons?  </h2>
  395. <p>An even more serious concern is that Trump’s enthusiasm over his momentary success may lead him to make wrong decisions in future conflicts. The US Army maintains a <a href="https://www.army.mil/CALL#org-contact-us">program</a> dubbed “Lessons Learned.” In the case of Gaza, Trump may have learned the wrong lessons.</p>
  396. <p>To begin with, Trump made it clear to the Knesset that he is extremely impressed by the success of his special envoy and good friend, real estate tycoon Steve Witkoff. The obvious conclusion appeared to be that a savvy deal-making businessman can prove more effective at complex negotiations than the professional diplomats at the US State Department, who have been inhibited by decades of experience. </p>
  397. <p>There is no question that Witkoff did a competent job at communicating with the major players in securing a ceasefire, but it also seems very likely that the truce was due more to the total destruction of Gaza brought on by Israel’s massive bombing campaign than to anything that Witkoff had to say. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-10-07/"> </a></p>
  398. <p>According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-has-israels-gaza-offensive-killed-2025-10-07/">Reuters</a>, the campaign of revenge against Gaza has resulted in the death of more than 67,000 Palestinian civilians in just a little more than two years. A third of the civilians killed were under the age of 18. More than 20,000 were children. None of them had any demonstrable connection to the October 7 massacre. At that rate, each living Israeli hostage who was returned was matched by 1,000 Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombs. It didn’t need Steve Witkoff to convince the world that a ceasefire was necessary. The mathematics of the situation did the trick.  </p>
  399. <p>The advantage that experienced State Department diplomats have over canny businessmen like Witkoff and Trump is that they are more likely to know what to expect next. Trump may see a future Gaza as a rosy, peaceful Eden in which everyone can make money from newly available Mediterranean real estate. The experienced diplomat knows that reality is certain to be more complicated than that. </p>
  400. <p>At the same time that the 20 hostages were released, Israel was forced to release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The deal, which Trump boasted about, required that this latter release be carried out without fanfare, and barely noticed by the public. But each released prisoner constitutes a potential time bomb that may go off sometime in the future. Many appeared to be in bad physical shape; some claim to have been tortured. At least 250 were prisoners whom Israel had specifically considered to be a serious threat. </p>
  401. <p>A convincing example of the threat a badly mistreated prisoner poses is Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas commander who organized the October 7 massacre. Sinwar spent 20 years in an Israeli prison. The experience taught him what he needed to know in order to create the current crisis. </p>
  402. <h2>A Fraught Future</h2>
  403. <p>Regardless of the ceasefire and any peace settlement in the future, Israel has severely damaged itself by engaging in behavior that has isolated it from much of the Western world. The Israel Defense Forces, which once had earned enormous respect, has been coarsened and its image to a large extent has been altered from a protector of the homeland to that of a harbinger of violent death. </p>
  404. <blockquote><p>Trump’s speech to the Knesset made it clear that Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the rest of Trump’s team were thinking primarily in terms of dealmaking. If they thought about the future at all, it was in terms of future profits and million-dollar building schemes. Anything else was not their concern. It is of enormous concern, however, to the rest of the region.  </p></blockquote>
  405. <p>Netanyahu’s campaign has also led Israel to cut itself off from what has been happening in the world by sealing itself in what amounts to an information bubble. Israeli bombers wreaked havoc on Gaza, but the Israeli public rarely got to see the full extent of the damage. Foreign reporters and international news agencies have been forbidden entry into Gaza, and Israeli soldiers have even shot at reporters who tried to cover what was happening. </p>
  406. <p>All of that has had a corrosive effect on Israeli society, and that is exactly what Sinwar intended to accomplish when he planned and launched the October 7 massacre. Because Israel’s public has been largely kept in the dark about what the IDF has actually been doing, most Israelis cannot understand why the rest of the world is upset.</p>
  407. <p>Trump’s speech to the Knesset made it clear that Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the rest of Trump’s team were thinking primarily in terms of dealmaking. If they thought about the future at all, it was in terms of future profits and million-dollar building schemes. Anything else was not their concern. It is of enormous concern, however, to the rest of the region.  </p>
  408. <p>The fact is that, regardless of the current euphoria, the future still looks pretty bleak. The fate of more than 2 million Palestinians is still undetermined. Ceasefire or no ceasefire, Israel cannot simply make them vanish. Refugee camps are incubators for terrorists of the future. Sinwar was a product of a refugee camp, and the injustice of it filled his heart with hatred and turned him into a killing machine. Many more are waiting in the production line. </p>
  409. <p>Even without the concentrated populations in refugee camps, Israel’s destruction of schools, hospitals, and basic infrastructure will set in motion counterforces that Israel will need to contend with in the future.  </p>
  410. <p>A child who grows up without education has few options for the future except to turn to crime or join a warlord putting together an armed gang. The Middle East is full of them. Pulling the trigger on a gun requires no education, at least not the kind that is learned in school. Israel has no answer to that looming storm, except to prepare itself for continuous warfare. </p>
  411. <h2>The ‘Peace President’ Talks War</h2>
  412. <p>Trump’s apparent conviction that dealmaking is all you need is one thing. His ideas concerning the US military are something else. In his speech, Trump boasted that he had asked US generals in Washington how long it would take to rout out ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Trump said he asked the same question of Air Force Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, who said he could do the job in four weeks. </p>
  413. <p>Caine’s primary experience was as an F-16 pilot. He never had the command management training that is legally required for promotion to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That didn’t bother Trump, who had met Caine at a conservative political rally and was smitten by his nickname. When Trump picked Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/22/g-s1-50348/dan-caine-new-chairman-joint-chiefs">Caine allegedly said</a>, “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’d kill for you, sir.” That cemented the relationship. </p>
  414. <p>In his speech to the Knesset, Trump compared Caine’s go-getter attitude to what he referred to as the “TV generals” at the Pentagon, who, Trump is convinced, obviously have trouble getting the job done. All of that sounds fine, except that the threats the military faces today require more than simply shooting at people or imposing a lightning victory. To be effective, military commanders need to understand the complex issues that made a shooting war inevitable to begin with. </p>
  415. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-1970908164"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-2009518140" data-whowh-trackid="97784" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97784" data-cfpw="97784"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=champion" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="Champion-truth"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Champion-truth.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97784 );</script></div><p>The Pentagon has made considerable progress in that direction. Hamas may be finished as an organization, but some of the people who made it work are still there, and the forces that motivated them have not disappeared. Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name smells as sweet. Unless its grievances are dealt with, Hamas will reconstitute itself. The name may change, but the threat is likely to be just as deadly. </p>
  416. <p>The ancient Greeks understood that. Their metaphor for the phenomenon was the many-headed Hydra. You cut off a head, and two more appeared in its place. Hercules wrestled the Libyan giant Antaeus, whose mother was the Earth goddess Gaia. Every time Hercules threw Antaeus to the ground, he drew more strength from his mother. Finally, Hercules defeated Antaeus by holding him aloft in the air. Victory is rarely simple. </p>
  417. <p>Trump doesn’t see that, and his momentary victory and the corresponding adulation that followed the ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza may further fuel his personal conviction that the experts don’t really know what they are talking about. </p>
  418. <p>It’s a dangerous world out there, and a president who fails to understand its complexity makes it even more dangerous. Gaza is not over yet. </p>
  419. <hr />
  420. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/international/after-gaza-hostage-release-whats-next-for-donald-trump-and-the-middle-east/">After Gaza Hostage Release, What’s Next for Donald Trump and the Middle East?</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  421. ]]></content:encoded>
  425. </item>
  426. <item>
  427. <title>Drought Mutes Fall Foliage Season, But Pockets of Brilliant Color Remain</title>
  428. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/drought-mutes-fall-foliage-season-but-pockets-of-brilliant-color-remain/</link>
  430. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Whowhatwhy Editors]]></dc:creator>
  431. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:18:25 +0000</pubDate>
  432. <category><![CDATA[Editors' Picks]]></category>
  433. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102484</guid>
  434.  
  435. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="683" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-16.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="science, nature, flora, U.S. Northeast, fall foliage, drought effects" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[33,65]" /><p>PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.</p>
  436. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/drought-mutes-fall-foliage-season-but-pockets-of-brilliant-color-remain/">Drought Mutes Fall Foliage Season, But Pockets of Brilliant Color Remain</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  437. ]]></description>
  438. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="683" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-16.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image wpsmartcrop-image" alt="science, nature, flora, U.S. Northeast, fall foliage, drought effects" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" data-smartcrop-focus="[33,65]" /><h3><b>Drought Mutes Fall Foliage Season, But Pockets of Brilliant Color Remain (Maria)</b></h3>
  439. <p>The authors <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-england-fall-foliage-drought-9fffb49188f0de4281a61f82bf0afc7e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">write</a>, “Leaf-peeping season has arrived in the Northeast and beyond, but weeks of drought have muted autumn colors, and sent leaves fluttering to the ground earlier than usual. Soaking in the fall foliage is an annual tradition in the New England states as well as areas such as the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. &#8230; But dry weather in summer and fall can change all that because it causes leaves to turn brown and fall more quickly. That’s what’s happening this year as more than 40% of the country was considered to be in a drought in early October, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.”</p>
  440. <h3><b>‘I Love Hitler’: Leaked Messages Expose Young Republicans’ Racist Chat (Laura)</b></h3>
  441. <p>From <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR6-Vbnpb_Sn-5qe8T8-eO33WeCCDp8v3SERuQuD2LnuC8t7xt7TGcPrpwv25w_aem_ypqmXpHrYQZoxbVQ1Bc-KA" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Politico</i></a>: “Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. … The exchange is part of a trove of Telegram chats — obtained by <i>Politico</i> and spanning more than seven months of messages among Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont. The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening.”</p>
  442. <h3><b>The State Department Isn’t Telling Congress When US Weapons Fall Into the Wrong Hands (Sean)</b></h3>
  443. <div class="whowh-story-middle" id="whowh-981999836"><div style="margin-bottom: 16px;" id="whowh-3783706237" data-whowh-trackid="97785" data-whowh-trackbid="1" class="whowh-target" data-cfpa="97785" data-cfpw="97785"><a data-no-instant="1" href="https://whowhatwhy.org/donate/?utm_source=story&#038;utm_medium=donate-banner&#038;utm_campaign=free" rel="noopener" class="a2t-link" aria-label="free the truth promo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/frame_7__1_-1.png" alt="" width="970" height="250" /></a></div><script type="text/javascript">;new advadsCfpAd( 97785 );</script></div><p>The author <a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/10/10/state-department-track-missing-us-weapons/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “On paper, the guardrails are clear. When the U.S. ships weapons overseas, partner governments promise three things: That they’ll use them only for authorized purposes, keep them secure, and not hand them off to third parties. If those conditions are violated or serious suspicions arise that they are, the State Department is obligated to investigate and, in many cases, alert Congress. In practice, however, a new Government Accountability Office report shows the system is ad hoc, with little guidance or follow through. The State Department largely relies on overseas Defense Department officials for tips about potential end-use violations. Since 2019, the Pentagon has flagged more than 150 incidents that could be violations. But the State Department has reported just three end-use violations to Capitol Hill.”</p>
  444. <h3><b>Investigators Found Evidence of Potential Crimes by NH Prison Staff. They Decided Not To Prosecute (Dana)</b></h3>
  445. <p>From <a href="https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-10-09/operation-night-cat-hunting-poaching-ring-investigation-new-hampshire-prison-corrections-fish-game" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Hampshire Public Radio</a>: “New Hampshire corrections officer Sgt. Christopher Masse was in a jam. He’d somehow learned that one of the inmates in his care at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men was planning to file a complaint about him. On Feb. 15, 2021, while working third shift, Masse texted his colleague Sgt. Thomas Kelley. ‘Holy f*** dude this legal mail and rat notes are out of f***ing hand,’ Masse wrote. But apparently, Kelley had already heard this person was filing a complaint, and Kelley had decided to take matters into his own hands. ‘Dude it’s bad,’ Kelley texted back. ‘I took a ton home with me that probably contain your name.’ Kelley stole six pieces of mail in an apparent bid to intercept inmates’ complaints from reaching their intended destination. He sent a photo to Masse to prove it.”</p>
  446. <h3><b>Tesla’s Cybertruck Is Flopping (Reader Jim)</b></h3>
  447. <p>The author <a href="https://www.newser.com/story/376816/teslas-cybertruck-is-flopping.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “Tesla’s Cybertruck, once hailed as the company’s bold leap into the future of electric vehicles, is seeing its shine fade fast. According to Cox Automotive, Tesla managed to sell just 5,385 Cybertrucks in the third quarter — a drop of nearly 63% from a year ago, reports <i>Quartz</i>. The decline comes at a time when the overall US EV market is booming, with sales up almost 30% to more than 438,000 vehicles.” </p>
  448. <h3><b>Portland Cyclists Strip Down in Pouring Rain To Protest Ice Facility and Trump Troop Deployment (Reader Steve)</b></h3>
  449. <p>From <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/10/naked-bike-riders-cycle-through-the-rain-in-a-day-of-portland-protests.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>The Oregonian</i></a>: “More than a thousand cyclists in various states of undress braved the rainy streets of Portland on Sunday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump’s attempts to send National Guard troops to the city. Meanwhile, a few hundred more marched from Elizabeth Caruthers Park in the South Waterfront to the nearby US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’ protestors chanted as they walked toward the facility with a huge banner that read ‘Abolish ICE,’ accompanied by a marching band dressed in banana costumes.”</p>
  450. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/editors-picks/drought-mutes-fall-foliage-season-but-pockets-of-brilliant-color-remain/">Drought Mutes Fall Foliage Season, But Pockets of Brilliant Color Remain</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  451. ]]></content:encoded>
  455. </item>
  456. <item>
  457. <title>Tweeted From the Heavens</title>
  458. <link>https://whowhatwhy.org/cartoon/tweeted-from-the-heavens/</link>
  460. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Richards]]></dc:creator>
  461. <pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:08:21 +0000</pubDate>
  462. <category><![CDATA[Cartoon]]></category>
  463. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://whowhatwhy.org/?p=102480</guid>
  464.  
  465. <description><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-15.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Donald Trump, message, Pam Bondi" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" /><p>Trump and the art of aerial subtlety.</p>
  466. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/cartoon/tweeted-from-the-heavens/">Tweeted From the Heavens</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  467. ]]></description>
  468. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img width="1024" height="682" src="https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image1-15.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Donald Trump, message, Pam Bondi" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;max-width: 100%;" link_thumbnail="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" /><p><b>While you’re here enjoying Jon Richards’s latest cartoon, please take a moment to read these articles on related topics: </b></p>
  469. <ul>
  470. <li  aria-level="1"><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/our-nominee-for-the-2026-nobel-peace-prize-the-anti-trump-resistance/">Our Nominee for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize: The Anti-Trump Resistance</a></li>
  471. <li  aria-level="1"><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/us-politics/the-church-of-silicon-peter-thiels-gospel-of-unfettered-power/">The Church of Silicon: Peter Thiel’s Gospel of Unfettered Power</a></li>
  472. </ul>
  473. <ul>
  474. <li  aria-level="1"><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/author/jon-richards/">More Cartoons by Jon Richards</a></li>
  475. </ul>
  476. <p><a href="https://whowhatwhy.org/cartoon/tweeted-from-the-heavens/">Tweeted From the Heavens</a> originally appeared on <a href="https://whowhatwhy.org">WhoWhatWhy</a></p>
  477. ]]></content:encoded>
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