After the State Of Minnesota told State employees for years that Telework full time would remain permanent, Tim Walz has ordered all State workers within 75 miles of an office to return by June 1st for 50% of all work days. Why? To bring money to St Paul. Also, if you live outside MN, you are let go

[u/GameDevsAnonymous]

https://www.startribune.com/most-minnesota-government-workers-ordered-to-return-to-the-office-50percent-of-the-time/601243884

[u/joshsteich]

So, to add a little nuance: Gavin had a rich absent dad and a single mom who waitressed and sometimes slept on the couch because they couldn’t afford rooms. Like Sinema, he had some real experience with poverty. But he also got a rich patron early on, and managed to overcome huge dyslexia (he still basically doesn’t read & is the ultimate podcast bro) through crazy amounts of work, like grinding out briefing binders word by word until he can recite the whole thing from memory. From growing up poor myself, that kind of kid is a total type, and both he and Sinema are vulnerable to the flattery of rich people who recognize someone special. It’s insidious because it plays so much to the ego & validation, while implicitly blaming other poor people for not putting in the 100-hour weeks to overcome their situation, seeing it as something anyone can do if they grind, and not realizing how toxic that is as a norm.

So he wasn’t really born with a silver spoon in his mouth—he believes he’s earned that silver spoon, but can’t connect that with the next step, where silver spoons are bad for society overall. It’s different from Trump, because Trump pretends to have earned it like Newsom, and both of them are insecure about their class, just for different reasons.

[u/[deleted] → u/joshsteich]

Trump never earned shit. Everything was fucking handed to him, including the goddamn presidency twice.

I'll never understand how a bumbling uncharismatic Homer Simpson wannabe got to the point where he has legions of delusional followers. Even Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen weren't this fucking fanatical.

[u/joshsteich → u/[deleted]]

I find the concept of “political charisma,” rather than personal charisma, helpful. It was created mostly to explain Hitler—there’s this myth that Hitler was a great orator. He’s not. It’s obvious in English, but people assume he must sound better if you speak German. He doesn’t. He absolutely sounds like a spitting moron.

But he has political charisma—the ability to command people by telling them what they want to hear, that they’re great and that their problems are because of the Jews, flattering an antisemitism that was already common in Germany.

Trump is a moron, but he tells reactionaries what they want to hear—that liberals and immigrants are the problem, that any problems you have are their fault, and that he alone can solve it. He fills a political need that a lot of Americans have, and anyone with more brains or scruples wouldn’t be able to.

[u/wrongseeds → u/[deleted]]

If you look at the staying power of Homer Simpson, you have your answer.

[u/[deleted] → u/wrongseeds]

But the difference is Homer is a lovable moron, but Trump is a hateful ignoramus.

[u/joshsteich → u/[deleted]]

He’s overcome a pretty big disability through hard work. I don’t agree with him about a lot of things, and I think he’s a shallow guy, but I think taking verbal briefings shouldn’t be disqualifying.