Systemic Error Podcast

The seal of the U.S. Department of Justice, on the day the DOJ announces criminal charges against former Cuban President Raul Castro, at a ceremony to honor the victims of the 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue aircraft incident, at Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, U.S., May 20, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Bello The Hitler Allegation Is Alarming. The White House’s Press Ban Is the Abuse of Power. Th...

By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link A Poll Disguised as a Theory of Power Four Scenarios, One Missing Institution Robert Reich presents four possible midterm outcomes: presidential defiance, congressional exposure, Senate conviction, or resignation. Yet only the first seriously confronts the central question—whether a change in congressiona...

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 5, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder The Sanctions Exception With a Donor’s Name on It A Narrow Door for a Well-Connected Buyer The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports that Konstantin Sokolov—a Russian-American business...

US President Donald Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Power to Escalate, the Luxury to Call It a Hoax The Threat Is the Authority Behind the Words In the reported UN address, Donald Trump asked whether he should “annihilate” Iran or “drive them into hell.” The precise date is not suppli...

Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Trump TV Is Weak Propaganda Backed by Real Power The Rebrand The White House took an existing YouTube livestream, renamed it “Trump TV,” promoted it through official social-media channels, and filled it largely with recycled presidential speeches and other administration material, according to CNN analyst Brian Stelter. When he check...

U.S. President Donald Trump looks out of the window of the limousine known as “The Beast” departing the White House for Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz The White House Is Turning Press Access Into Political Patronage A Security Lapse Inside a Larger Power Grab Real America’s Voice shared footage Tuesday showing the pre...

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) speaks with reporters outside the Senate chamber after a vote on the 20th day of the federal government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 20, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper The Appropriations Machine Protects Its Own A System Built to Blur the Bargain ProPublica reports that Martin Kao, the former CEO of defense contractor Navatek, told f...

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office, with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio standing behind him, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 23, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo The Succession Fight Is Really a Battle Over Who Inherits Trump’s Machine A Lead Is Not a Transfer of Power A Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll g...

U..S. President Donald Trump gestures at the site of ongoing construction of the planned White House ballroom in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque “I Am the Code” Is a Theory of Government The Ballroom Is Not the Point The Washington Post’s reporting describes Donald Trump personally enlarging early plans for a White House ballroom in 2025: expanding seating beyond archi...

Donald Trump Jr. talks with his partner Bettina Anderson, after U.S. President Donald Trump’s arrival to meet Irish President Catherine Connolly at Aras an Uachtarain, in Dublin, Ireland, September 12, 2026. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton Accountability Is Apparently Partisan When the President’s Son Is Involved The Gift and the Access ProPublica reported that Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to...

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead Republicans Found Their Antiwar Conscience at the Diesel Pump The Price of Loyalty The reporting describes diesel prices rising from a national average of $5.57 a gallon one month earlier to $6.52, while Republican candidates began putting distance between themselves and President Donald Trump’s war in Iran. That timing is politically suggestive, but...

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping while leaving after a visit to the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, China, May 15, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci/Pool The White House Is Turning Access Into Obedience The Institution With the Power Raw Story reports that Justice Department lawyers argued that allowing CNN, MS NOW, and Politico to cover President Donald Trump’s White Hou...

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump, during a campaign rally in support of Whatley, at Gastonia Municipal Airport in Gastonia, North Carolina, U.S., September 16, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The Alleged Plan to Hold the Senate Hostage An Extraordinary Claim on Anonymous Authority Seymour Hersh reports that Republicans have a contingency plan...

(REUTERS) The White House Chose Exclusion. The Networks Finally Chose Leverage. A Fight Over Access, Not Etiquette D. Earl Stephens reports that major television networks suspended pooled White House coverage on a Monday after the administration refused to let CNN serve as a pool representative. He also says CNN, MS NOW, and Politico had been barred the preceding Friday. The account supplies no ca...

President Donald Trump on August 27, 2026, at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Texas (Photo Credit: NASA/John Kraus) Ottawa Takes Trump’s Name Down While Washington Tries to Make Canada Bend The Sign Is Symbolic. The Coercion Is Not. Ottawa’s city council voted unanimously to begin renaming Trump Avenue after residents repeatedly asked the city to remove the U.S. president’s name. Th...

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 10, 2026. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak Trump Asked for a Referendum. The Poll Shows the Cost. The Ballot He Claimed Donald Trump told Republicans at a Dallas midterm convention in September to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.” An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll conducted September 14–15 sugge...

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with permanent members of the Security Council via a video link in Moscow, Russia, September 4, 2026. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS A Theory of Total Control With Almost No Evidence The Claim Outruns the Record The article’s thesis is sweeping: Vladimir Putin has “owned” Donald Trump since the late 1980s, Russian leverage explains Republ...

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he arrives to attend the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, US, September 22, 2026. REUTERS/DAVID DEE DELGADO MAGA’s Mamdani Panic Exposes the Limits of Its Own Politics A Cordial Meeting, a Manufactured Crisis On September 22, 2026, Fox News host Will Cain portrayed Donald Trump’s cordial meeting with New York...

REUTERS/Evan Vucci The White House Has Already Declared Victory. The Meeting Is Apparently Optional. A Summit Built Backward Politico’s Playbook described a planned Wednesday visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington as rich in ceremony and poor in expected substance. Former and current Trump officials quoted in the report saw little prospect of a meaningful artificial-intelligence agree...

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he speaks to the media on the day of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026. REUTERSUmit Bektas The Polling Panic Is About Power, Not Principle One Operative’s Warning Steve Deace says Republican pollsters warned Iowa House members that even districts Trump carried by 15 points could be competitive, while Republicans in Trump-plus-10 districts...

US President Donald Trump, riding in “The Beast”, departs Gracie Mansion after a meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York, US, September, 21, 2026. REUTERS/Bing Guan The GOP Calls It a Contagion. It Is a Record. Panic in the Safe Seats Republicans are spending heavily to defend territory they once treated as secure. According to Politico’s reporting, more than $110 million in GOP adv...

President Donald Trump reacts as he speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One en route from Scotland, Britain, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, July 29, 2025. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein Trump Wants Ukraine to Absorb the Cost of His Diesel Crisis The Price of Presidential Power The Financial Times reports that Donald Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt attacks on...

Mariah Medina / Instagram The Dress Code Wasn’t the Point. Judicial Power Was. A Public Rebuke From the Bench Texas attorney Mariah Medina said an unnamed judge summoned her around the bench, inspected her sleeveless gray dress, laughed, questioned whether she considered it appropriate for a jury trial, and asked whether she had a blazer. According to Medina, her case was not going to trial, and t...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to reporters as he walks in the Capitol this week. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura The Economy Is Not a Messaging Problem The Price of Decisions The Washington Sun reports that congressional Republicans entered the November campaign burdened by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, fuel-price increases tied to the Iran war, and a Federal Reserve rate hike. Gas averaged nearly $4....

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) arrives to attend a briefing for senators on the situation in Venezuela, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 7, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Tommy Tuberville’s Furry Panic Is a Political Choice A Senator Manufactures a Threat On Capitol Hill, Sen. Tommy Tuberville claimed that airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers may b...