Originally published at: The Undocumented Underground Is Fighting Back Inside New York’s Notorious Immigration Court - TPM – Talking Points Memo
One day last month, a Peruvian mother and her daughter went into Manhattan. They were both dressed in their best. The girl, who could not have been more than 10 years old, had a pink backpack shaped like a cat and matching bows in her hair. It was an important day: they were due at…
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With the US, and JD Vance specifically, trying actively to topple governments in Europe, it is no wonder that Europe’s leaders are starting to poke holes in Trump’s Machiavellian Illusion of Power.
Machiavelli’s concept of the illusion of power revolves around controlling perception, appearance, and narrative, making a ruler seem strong, necessary, and even divine, rather than revealing the actual, often ruthless, mechanics of control, which makes power vulnerable
Key ideas include presenting actions as just or necessary (even when cruel), appearing powerful without revealing sources (like luck or alliances), and understanding that people prefer comforting narratives over complex truths, making fear a more reliable tool than love. A ruler must be a lion (strong) and a fox (cunning) to master this art of seeming, not just being.
However, making money off Russia at the expense of everybody else is not a great foreign policy. Europe now understands that the US is no longer a reliable partner as it has been gutted by a Machiavellian tech-extractionist host within the US government. Oddly, the US, which invented Madison Avenue, broadcast tv, and advertising algorithms. is not adjusting to the crumbling of the power illusion. The Kremlin certainly gets this, especially with Trump’s “I’m walking away, hey, I’m walking away, hey look, I’m serious. I’m walking away, really” schtick failing. Europe is spending more on defense and preparing to use $280 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets to collateralize loans to Ukraine, Because the illusion of power is a mere illusion, its evaporation or dispersal will be crushing for Trump and a loss for Putin. Anyway I expect we’ll be hearing a lot about “walking away” this weekend. It just means Ukraine has got Putin on the back foot.
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Thank you for all your hard work reporting this story! Sometimes I feel like I’m powerless to affect the way the world is going, but supporting actual journalism is one thing I can do.
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