The Decline of Reality-Based Politics (with Anne Applebaum)
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A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER
is an editorial producer at Stay Tuned with Preet.
Would you continue to support a president who was responsible for you losing your health insurance?
You may roll your eyes at this question. “Of course not,” you might say. But in today’s political environment, that’s not a guarantee.
As Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum discussed with Preet on this week’s episode of the Stay Tuned podcast, our politics today suffers from a reality drought.
“I don't know whether real events affect people as much as their perception of events,” Applebaum said. “Trump has passed this bill, millions of people are going to lose their health care. That's a real thing that's happening in real life. Is that real-life experience more or less powerful than your online experience? Because in your online world, there's nothing wrong with your health care. The bill was the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’ Trump is a genius, and the Republican Party is moving forward and fixing America...And the question is: does reality matter?”
Applebaum continued: “Politics isn't even really about policies anymore.”
Though this is a profound shift in American politics, it’s not exactly unprecedented. Applebaum has spent much of her career as a journalist and historian studying the autocratic regime of the Soviet Union.
Applebaum: “One of the problems that the Soviet Union had was fake statistics. There was an ideology and people needed to suck up to the party and say, ‘My factory produces 100,000 widgets a year,’ even though they'd only produced 30,000.”
As Applebaum explained, this strategy of misleading the public ultimately backfired: Soviet leadership didn’t know how or if the economy was working, and couldn’t understand when it was malfunctioning, or how to fix it.
Applebaum: “The problems that this fake world created down the road…and the effect that that has on ordinary people and voters and civil servants and others could be catastrophic. This is how the Soviet Union failed.”
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How Trump is Undermining Ukraine (with Anne Applebaum)
In this bonus from Stay Tuned, Preet is joined by Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum to discuss Trump’s “not very strategic” policy toward Russia and Ukraine, and how Trump has undermined the Ukrainian cause.
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As a Canadian, I believe Ms. Applebaum was spot on regarding the world view of america. Obviously I cannot speak for the Canadian or provincial governments, I can speak for myself and those who agree that it’s time for the rest of the world, Canada included, to continue moving forward. We have made great strides in building new supply chains and sourcing goods from other countries that used to come from our former neighbour. America is NOT our neighbour and probably hasn’t been for some time. America will soon be redundant except as the “mean girl” who commands the stage at for at least the next three years banging a drum screeching look at me, I’m the best, you’ll all be sorry soon. After that? Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. Sorry not sorry. 🇨🇦
Democracy cannot exist when people elect a criminal felon who is an insurrectionist to be president and the news media ignore the crime of insurrection. Democracy requires “we the people” educate themselves on the federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2383) that makes insurrection a felon crime and demand Democrats in control of 15 states enforce the law against the ongoing insurrection by Trump, Republicans in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court.
“We the people” must demand Democrats in control of 15 states should enact and then enforce a new state law to be modeled after the federal law against insurrection (18 U.S. Code § 2383). Democrats in 15 state governments have Democrats as governor, attorney general and a Democratic majority in the state House and state Senate.
If California acts in 90 days, Democrats can swing the House majority to Democratic in 2025, block some implementation of the Big Ugly Bill, and educate the public about the Big Ugly Bill with Medicaid cuts, SNAP cuts, tax cuts for billionaires, and a hundred other destructive parts of the Bill. If Colorado, Maryland and New Jersey act, they can remove 4 of Trump’s justices from the Supreme Court – Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch which disables the Court and empowers federal district courts and state courts.
Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2383) defines the criminal actions of insurrection in language that is clear and easy to understand:
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Clear factual evidence of the insurrection exists in the multiple actions and statements in 2025 that the Trump administration, Republican in Congress, and six justices on the Supreme Court are engaging in or assisting rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States and the laws thereof. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed in 2025 against actions by Trump and his administration. Federal courts have ruled against Trump’s Executive Orders as illegal and issued stop and reversal orders. Federal court orders have not been obeyed by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court have not acted to force compliance and defend the Constitution.
Biden failed to stop Trump after the insurrection on Jan 6 which continued in the 2024 election. All votes for Trump were illegal. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was an insurrectionist. But the US Supreme Court violated federal law (18 U.S. Code § 2383) by (1) supporting Trump, who was a committed insurrectionist, to get elected in 2024 and become dictator on Day One, as he had said he would. And (2) ruling that states cannot enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment which banned Trump as an insurrectionist from holding office. The SCOTUS decision incorrectly said that a law from Congress was needed to define the criteria for enforcing the law against an insurrectionist when a law did exist (18 U.S. Code § 2383) which was passed by Congress. The SCOTUS decision was an act by criminal felons (6 justices on SCOTUS appointed by Republican presidents) which supported Trump’s insurrection. As mentioned, the insurrection continued during the 2024 election, but Biden failed to invoke the Insurrection Act and reject all votes for Trump which were illegal.
Now that Trump is in office and the insurrection has continued, Democrats must begin to enforce the law against insurrection to save democracy.
Read my post to see WHAT ACTION must come from Democrats.
https://williamlmiller.substack.com/p/how-to-stop-trump-republicans-and