After reading Bruce Ackerman's book "The Decline and Fall of the American Republic" one understands that the new unprecedented precedents are just a culmination of decades of the Executive diminishing the other branches which limit its power.
Add to this that today to change the opinion of voters you just have to flood TV and social media with political attack ads and voters turn away from their representatives, because they are not connected with reality anymore, leaving the political power with the one with the largest money to spend and you have a system where all power comes from one person. As Ackerman shows this was already ongoing for a while. The only difference now is that this system is utilized and exploited to the fullest extent.

#Politics #distortedreality #Democracy #polarization

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/28/trump-precedents-executive-power
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674725843

Behind the Curtain: Unprecedented new precedents

New precedents are exhilarating when you're in power — and excruciating when you're not.

Axios

Our local U3A photography group meeting next week has the theme "‘Arty’ Photos by Enhancement". My first thought was to try some Intentional Camera Movement photos again, perhaps this time with redscaled film (again... it helps lower the EI, increasing exposure times). However, neither produced anything I was pleased with. Then I remembered Affinity Photo has a "Liquify" mode. So I had a play, with a bluebell photo...

#FilmPhotography #BelieveInFilm #DistortedReality

Belief is Uncertainty - How Holding onto Belief Distorts Reality and Fuels Cognitive Bias

YouTube

@tedherman

Yeah, all those active shooters... I can't even go shopping without bumping into a dozen or so.

#sarcasm #distortedReality #oldMedia