Devolution Power Hour Ep. 495: Xi in Town, Overton's Goalpost Theory

Jon Herold and Burning Bright compare notes on being under the weather before getting into the week's main event: Xi Jinping's upcoming visit and what it means in the context of Herold's older theory called Overton's Goalpost, the idea that Trump, Putin, and Xi are converging in ways the mainstream media can't quite make sense of. They break down the split media coverage, half framing it as Trump getting outplayed, half framing it as Trump dominating the negotiations, and argue neither narrative captures what's actually happening. There's also midterm talk and what Herold calls the ongoing struggle sessions around it, plus a tie in to the AI race and how Trump and Xi both seem to be racing ahead together rather than against each other. A slightly more subdued episode given both hosts feeling under the weather, but still packed with the usual geopolitical connect the dots.