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Last week, on the first day of the still-ongoing federal-government shutdown, a curious meme appeared on New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s press-office X account. It’s a stylized picture of droopy-mouthed Donald Trump, his face Mao-red, saturation cranked way up, details obliterated in an onslaught of digital filters—an effect the kids call “deep fried.” Trump is flanked by oversize emojis—the laughing-crying face and the somber-and-downcast face with prayer hands—and spanning the top and bottom of the frame are the words BRO SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT.

Let me attempt to describe what Governor Ho

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