What does power owe us — respect, accountability, or just the performance of both? This week, we start with a listener’s challenge to “say one nice thing about Trump” and use it to examine the difference between respecting an office and excusing a pattern of behavior. From there, we trace how power reveals itself through policy: a proposed five‑year social media review for visa‑waiver travelers, arriving just as North America invites the world to the World Cup and the Olympics. Celebration on the surface, suspicion at the border.
We follow the political shifts at home — Miami’s new Democratic mayor, a Texas primary shaped by gerrymandering and court rulings — before widening the lens to Honduras, where voters face a choice between entrenched corruption and hardline order. What happens when fear becomes the organizing principle of governance?
Threaded through all of it is a growing empathy fatigue. A San Diego freeway closure for a suicidal man sparked more anger about traffic than concern for a life in crisis. We connect that brittleness to unprocessed pandemic grief and the way social media rewards outrage over care.
And because joy is part of resilience, we end with a Hallmark‑style curveball that reminds us comfort isn’t escapism; it’s fuel.
Till next time,
Carmen
https://aatjoy.com/
