Point is that foreign media loves to take a story—any story—and run with it. The nuanced and hedged analyses get sidelined as pundits, as you indicated, speak with confidence as if they have crystal balls.

I would add that sometimes reliable information can come from everyday people who visit North Korea. Some years ago, some outlets about the supposed mandate to have a Kim Jong Il haircut—with violent enforcement. Then visitors said that many men did not have that cut, and the histrionics subsided.

My take is that the love of Trump is a cult of personality. Like any cult, people who deprogram just have to do it themselves—slowly.

Look at ex-members of [that very litigious cult]. It takes years from their seeing problems to leaving and even more time until they formally denounce the cult.

I wish I knew the psychology of humans. I do not mention face-eating leopards etc. I know taunting people makes them more intransigent. Without any of those—with only listening—I hear them say that they deeply disagree with X, Y, and Z but swear they still support the person who does X, Y, and Z.

Feminist scholarship mocks the idea of any country’s democracy in 1912. The UK was democratic—except that women couldn’t vote. “Would a physician say, ‘You are healthy—except for the cancer’ ”? No.

Likewise, how about we ask the people of Korea how “democratic” this period was.

These commenters whom you quoted may as well say, “Until we have kimchi at the soup kitchens, we need to stop these racist food programs for the hungry in California. Free broccoli is *not* the way to help an ethnically diverse population.”

. . . and sidewalks and trees. Plus, they don’t all enjoy driving all the time. No one does. You would rather roll down the street just a hundred meters and cross a street—not do the rigamarole of getting into and out of a specialized van for the sake of a forty-second drive.

Crocodile tears & concern trolling at their finest. In relation to people who have wheelchair-accessible vans and can drive, more people have vision impairments, sleeping disorders (narcolepsy), are too old or young or too poor to drive. Also, people who use wheelchairs enjoy safe streets . . .

“They don’t give [those acres of land] the water it’s entitled to.”

Now replace “those acres of land” with “public broadcasting” and “water” with “money.”

Agreed on the fascism part. Mussolini himself said this:

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

Paging Jeff Bezos . . .

Put another way:

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.

We aren’t in Mussolini territory yet, but we’re certainly like Hungary and nearing Turkey. We still have to backslide to Russia before US gets fascist. Note: It’s not for lack of trying. We have people (govt & civilians) who want it.

Conclusion: all motor vehicles in North America have weight problems—and it’s not only the compensation machines.

We all made fun of a childhood friend’s family in early 90s for a Chevy Blazer, an ol’ monster. Later, *The Simpsons* had its “Canyon-ero” parody ad.

Both are positively tiny by comparison to the average motor vehicle now—let alone the typical large-class SUV. They’d kill 6′2″ me at even 10 mph.