Jonathan V. Last

No, no. You know, I'm in the same boat a lot of people are. I'm astonished, bewildered, disoriented, dismayed, distressed, distracted, sometimes depressed. You know, everything that begins with a D. In the dumps. Is what I am. We're seeing everyday things that were unimaginable in the America that I grew up in, or at least thought I grew up in. So there's that. And you know, this is on purpose.

This is a campaign of cognitive warfare to essentially create sensory overload. And a sense of futility. Demoralization is the goal because demoralization is demobilization. And then we stay home and don't resist. So that's what we're fighting.

This is a campaign of cognitive warfare to essentially create sensory overload. And a sense of futility. Demoralization is the goal because demoralization is demobilization. And then we stay home and don't resist. So that's what we're fighting.

This is a campaign of cognitive warfare to essentially create sensory overload. And a sense of futility. Demoralization is the goal because demoralization is demobilization. And then we stay home and don't resist. So that's what we're fighting.

Well, I have... always been someone who thought it might be useful to shake things up in a rational way. And I guess we're all in that camp. I have also been someone who has always thought, I wrote a book about this actually 30 plus years ago. It was called Demosclerosis, the silent killer of American government.

Well, I have... always been someone who thought it might be useful to shake things up in a rational way. And I guess we're all in that camp. I have also been someone who has always thought, I wrote a book about this actually 30 plus years ago. It was called Demosclerosis, the silent killer of American government.

Well, I have... always been someone who thought it might be useful to shake things up in a rational way. And I guess we're all in that camp. I have also been someone who has always thought, I wrote a book about this actually 30 plus years ago. It was called Demosclerosis, the silent killer of American government.

It's about how interest groups and subsidies and regulations and programs build up over time to serve vested interests and make government profitable. calcified and maladaptive and unable to solve problems. And that's where we are. And that's created a lot of grief. The public's very unhappy about it.

It's about how interest groups and subsidies and regulations and programs build up over time to serve vested interests and make government profitable. calcified and maladaptive and unable to solve problems. And that's where we are. And that's created a lot of grief. The public's very unhappy about it.

It's about how interest groups and subsidies and regulations and programs build up over time to serve vested interests and make government profitable. calcified and maladaptive and unable to solve problems. And that's where we are. And that's created a lot of grief. The public's very unhappy about it.

The problem is that if you send in, I don't know what one political scientist I know called Mussolini meets geek squad, and you just start unplugging stuff and firing people and taking over databases, what you're doing is reducing government's capacity without reducing government's commitments. Because, you know, the commitments are still there in law.

The problem is that if you send in, I don't know what one political scientist I know called Mussolini meets geek squad, and you just start unplugging stuff and firing people and taking over databases, what you're doing is reducing government's capacity without reducing government's commitments. Because, you know, the commitments are still there in law.

The problem is that if you send in, I don't know what one political scientist I know called Mussolini meets geek squad, and you just start unplugging stuff and firing people and taking over databases, what you're doing is reducing government's capacity without reducing government's commitments. Because, you know, the commitments are still there in law.

These are all things the government's supposed to do. And that Trump will be unpopular if he doesn't get done. And reducing capacity without commitments is a recipe for, boy, I'm alliterative this morning. I'm on a streak. Chaos. And that's what we got.

These are all things the government's supposed to do. And that Trump will be unpopular if he doesn't get done. And reducing capacity without commitments is a recipe for, boy, I'm alliterative this morning. I'm on a streak. Chaos. And that's what we got.

These are all things the government's supposed to do. And that Trump will be unpopular if he doesn't get done. And reducing capacity without commitments is a recipe for, boy, I'm alliterative this morning. I'm on a streak. Chaos. And that's what we got.

No, Tim, I don't think you're overboard. Okay.

No, Tim, I don't think you're overboard. Okay.

No, Tim, I don't think you're overboard. Okay.

Way back August of 2022 for The Atlantic, I wrote an article on the six things that Trump would do if he got a second term to turn the United States into Hungary. And I'm terrible at remembering lists, so I won't remember them all. But they were things like purge the military, turn the civil service into a patronage machine, weaponize the Justice Department, use the pardon to immunize his friends.