Shane Gillis went on Joe Rogan’s podcast Thursday and called white nationalist Nick Fuentes “funny as fuck”—a sentence that should end careers but instead barely registers in 2025’s fascism-laundering media landscape.

WHAT’S GOING ON: The exchange started when Rogan was musing about the lack of Catholic presidents in U.S. history.

When he asked Gillis if he had anyone in mind for the next one, Gillis jokingly suggested Fuentes—the neo-Nazi-adjacent commentator who has called for “total Aryan victory” and has documented connections to white supremacist movements.

“He could probably win in a few years,” Rogan responded, not entirely in jest.

THE DETAILS: Rogan went on to provide what amounted to a sympathetic profile of Fuentes, describing him as a “young guy with a very high verbal IQ” who appeals to young men who “feel very unrepresented.”

He acknowledged that Fuentes “says women shouldn’t be allowed to vote” and “says wild shit,” but framed it all as effective trolling rather than, you know, actual fascist ideology. When Rogan brought up Fuentes’ recent appearance on Piers Morgan’s show—where Fuentes cracked Holocaust jokes—Gillis laughed along, calling the exchange evidence that Fuentes “got hit with a missile” rhetorically. “He’s wild,” Gillis said approvingly.

OF COURSE: This is the same Shane Gillis who got fired from SNL in 2019 for racist jokes before being rehabilitated by the exact same comedy-to-right-wing-pipeline that now treats Rogan as a serious political kingmaker.

And Rogan, of course, continues to launder extremist figures by treating their genocidal ideology as just another edgy perspective worthy of airtime.

WHY IT MATTERS: Here’s the playbook: Call a fascist “funny” enough times and suddenly his calls for white nationalism become “shitposting.” Frame Holocaust denial as a sick burn on Piers Morgan. Describe a young man’s advocacy for stripping women of voting rights as appealing to the “unrepresented.”

This isn’t comedy—it’s normalization. Every time a mainstream figure like Gillis or Rogan chuckles along with Fuentes’ schtick, they’re telling millions of listeners that this ideology is acceptable dinner table conversation.

BOTTOM LINE: There’s nothing funny about white nationalism. But the people with the biggest platforms keep insisting otherwise, and their audiences are listening.

Donald Trump’s approval rating has cratered to 36%—matching the kind of numbers that helped sink Joe Biden—and Republicans are staring down what one analyst calls a potential “massive tsunami” in the 2026 midterms. Full story from NOTICE News.

Four people are dead after an atmospheric river slammed California with catastrophic flooding—burying cars in mud, trapping residents in 5 feet of water, and turning mountain communities into disaster zones—while the Northeast braces for nearly a foot of snow that's already scrubbed thousands of flights. This is what climate change looks like now: not some distant future threat, but holiday after holiday of "unprecedented" weather events that our infrastructure was never built to handle and our leaders refuse to adequately address. Full story from NBC News.

Putin's message couldn't be clearer: Russia unleashed nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing civilians and cutting heat to 2,600 buildings in freezing temperatures—right as Zelensky heads to Florida to discuss a peace deal that's "90% ready." Meanwhile, Trump reminds everyone who's really in charge, telling Politico that Zelensky "doesn't have anything until I approve it" and that he expects to chat with Putin "soon"—because nothing says "peace negotiations" like bombing civilians while your American buddy holds all the cards. Full story from CNN.

Yesterday we asked, do you consider yourself "radical" for wanting affordable healthcare? The majority (95.10%) said NO.

Carol voted no and said, “I consider myself rational!!!”

Penney wrote, “Healthcare is right. Every other advanced nation on Earth has health care for its citizens. I believe this administration wants the poor and disadvantaged to die. ”

Vacogi said, “In a world, where most get Universal Healthcare I find it disturbing the United States of America does not offer any such plan. As a Senior, I pay monthly $230+ to BC/BS and $208 to Medicare with a yearly deductible of $283. I'm on Social Security only. Prescriptions now have a $615 deductible. This is a terrible burden for seniors in a country where oil, gas, food, rents, electricity and car part prices and electronics are soaring. I can't replace my dilapidated refrigerator as a new one is well out of my price range. Never, ever thought my senior days would be this stressful.”

Here are some stories the algorithms may be keeping out of your feed.

Masked federal agents jumping out of unmarked vans. Parents snatched from school drop-off lines while their children watch. Entire neighborhoods tear-gassed. Journalists tackled and arrested. People extradited to foreign torture prisons after the government lied to a judge. If you're wondering when America became a police state…

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