Gerrymandering has existed for a long time. It is an act of disenfranchisement where politicians choose their voters rather than voters choosing their representatives. A few states created independent commissions to have neutrally drawn maps, but many draw them to maximize one party’s success, biasing elections against what people actually voted for.
Trump escalated gerrymandering by pushing Republicans in states they control to gerrymander shortly before an election, rather than after a census brings new data. This is Trump trying to win the midterm elections by way of changing lines on maps rather than by convincing people to vote for his party. Democrats retaliated by also gerrymandering before the mid-terms. For the midterms, Republicans are predicted to net 7 to 10 extra seats due to changing the maps, rather than convincing voters to vote for them.
Proportional representation may be a better way to elect representatives.
Jeff Bezos pays himself an 82k salary even though he is the head of a massive company, Amazon, but he is fabulously wealthy through his stock, which he can use to take out loans tax free. So, he lives a tremendously wealthy lifestyle while paying very little taxes. This is legal. The estate tax is supposed to make up for this, but it is riddled with loopholes.
In Trump’s second term, his administration sees their job as pleasing Trump, not making sure he has the best true information. Trump doesn’t really care about the truth. People in the administration try to get in Trump’s good graces by publicly lying for him. Sticking their necks out and lying and yelling on his behalf, is a display of loyalty.
The centrality of the United States in the world financial system allows it to use that power to cut countries and people off from basic financial services. The United States has long used this power to cut off rogue states, but Trump is abusing this power and the power of the US domestic market, which could lead to a rebellion and weaken America’s power to use these tools when it more needs it.
Trump ran on China being a major threat, but his aggressive actions toward non-China countries, has strengthened China’s relationships with these countries and made China stronger compared to the US.
Trump throws around power to try to get short term gains, not realizing that long term no one trusts him or the US and this ultimately weakens US power.
The online ecosystem of the right includes a heavy dose of straight up anti-semitism. Trump helped break the mold from the beginning of his first political campaign when it comes to rhetoric that used to be unacceptable. Edgy jokes justified by fighting the woke censors pushed the barrier further until today where the far right ecosystem includes actual open Nazis like Nick Fuentes.
For the moment, Hamas and Israel have a cease fire. The most likely outcome is things returning to the pre-war status quo: a terrorist theocratic dictatorship in Gaza who is determined to destroy Israel and kill Israelis, and Israel waiting for the next opportunity to “mow the lawn” while continuing West Bank settlements and maintaining control over that territory.